Cultivate Empathy For All

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Cultivate Empathy for All mobilizes individuals to leverage their democratic rights to educate legislators and community members to demand institutional change. At Cultivate Empathy for All, we don’t ask for donations but instead, we ask for your voice to transform our world!

More info: Empathy connect with and understand the perspective of others.

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Recognizing Social and Racial Equity in Berkeley's Food Purchasing

The murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests brought the spotlight once again to systemic racism and an intensified sense of urgency to reform our criminal justice system. But the roots of systemic racism are not limited to the criminal justice system. In our food system, systemic racism is rooted in both production and consumption of animal derived products. For obvious reasons, factory farms are increasingly coming under scrutiny for environmental damage and animal cruelty. But we rarely recognize the relationship between racial oppression and industrial animal agriculture.

Concentrated Feeding Operations (CAFOs), commonly known as factory farms, are large facilities intended to raise animals at high density for production of animal products like meat, dairy and poultry. These facilities collect animal waste in large open lagoons and spray this waste into open fields [1]. These practices contaminate local air and waterways with serious consequences for nearby communities [2][4]. Factory farms are predominantly located in low-income communities of color and it's these communities that live with the health consequences [5].

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against the dangers of CAFOs and their subsequent impacts on communities of color [2]. The United States Environment Protection Agency has also reported a linear relationship between race/ethnicity and environmental degradation due to intensive animal agriculture [3]. A new study published in the National Academy of Sciences now links 12,700 annual deaths just from air-pollution caused by industrial animal agriculture [4]. Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the iceberg and there is more to be discussed about water pollution, antibiotic resistance, and the psychological impacts on these communities [2][3].

CAFOs require killing hundreds of animals at such a rapid pace that meatpacking jobs are the most dangerous occupation in the U.S., averaging two amputations per week [6][7]. In order to bypass these safety concerns, the meatpacking industry often exploits prison labor, undocumented individuals, and “at will” employees [8]. Hispanics (44%) and African Americans (25%) account for the majority of slaughterhouse workers [9]. Beyond physical harm, these workers are at risk of psychological disorders like PTSD and perpetration-induced traumatic stress [11]. The combination of oppressive conditions and sanctioned occupational violence has led to research from Dr. Amy Fitzgerald and others who have shown that the presence of a slaughterhouse in a community increases the arrest rate of violent crimes, rape, and sex offenses in that area [10].

Source Link : Recognizing Social and Racial Equity in Berkeley's Food Purchasing

[cultivateempathyforall]

To empower people for advocating to transition towards sustainable food system by leveraging empathy rooted in systems thinking.

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Advocacy for Institutional Change an Incredibly Easy Method That Works for All

How can we quickly move towards a plant-based food system? This is the inevitable question for those who care about our environment, animals, public health, as well as social and racial equity. We only have 6-11 years' of global carbon budget left for 1.5C temperature target. Meanwhile, billions of land animals continue to be brutally killed for human consumption, while marginalized communities fall victim to the injustices and environmental harms from industrial agriculture. Rather than feeling helpless, each one of us has a responsibility and the potential to change our institutions to be more responsible stewards of our global resources and collective health.

Institutions Over Individuals

The Vegan community understands the on-going animal cruelty in addition to the myriad consequences of industrial animal agriculture on our environment, public health and social and racial equity. Observed injustice can flood our hearts with anger, frustration and sadness. However, channeled positively, this emotional energy can fuel a movement until justice is achieved, but it has to be funneled into non-violent, strategic activism in order to achieve permanent changes on a large scale. The majority of the vegan community is currently engaged in raising individual consciousness, mainly through social media activism. While raising individual awareness can be effective, targeting institutions can bring change on a large scale.

Advocacy for institutional change recognizes that each one of us has the capacity to shape our workplaces, schools and government. As stakeholders, we have an opportunity to educate our institutions’ decision makers about the association between their food procurement and the consequences on our global resources and wellbeing. At first, it may sound time consuming or intimidating to be advocating for an issue of this scale. However, your engagement level can be flexible depending on your availability, resources and comfort level.

Significance of Cities

Government is one of the biggest influences in our democratic society. It defines social norms, establishes policies and regulations, and protects human, animal and environmental rights. Today, our government sanctions industrial animal agriculture, failing to realize that the health of humanity, animals and our shared environment are interdependent. Big money from corporations can often force government to turn a blind eye to the negative impacts of the livestock industry. But mostly, corporate influence stays limited to federal and state legislature. It is not feasible for corporate lobbyists to stretch out their resources across nearly 20,000 U.S. cities. This allows cities to function with the core principles of democracy, for the people by the people, and opens the opportunity for residents to bring around plant-based shifts through local advocacy. Today, 80% of the U.S. population lives in urban areas and their consumption trend has the potential to transform the social and environmental footprint of our food system. Moreover, local public institutions spend billions of taxpayers' dollars each year to purchase food for senior centers, jail facilities, hospitals and schools. Generally, government agencies use competitive processes to contract with the lowest priced supplier. As a result, tax dollars are spent on highly subsidized meat and dairy from suppliers that cut corners to produce cheap foods at the cost of environment, meatpacking workers and animal wellbeing. It is, therefore, the right and responsibility of city residents to educate their city councilmembers on the social and environmental impact from animal-derived products and demand plant-based policies.

Source Link: Advocacy for Institutional Change

[cultivateempathyforall]

Volunteer and donate your time to shape the world where we understand our interconnerctedness and weave every moment with empathetic approch in our personal, social and professional life. More info : http://www.cultivateempathyforall.org/

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Cultivate Empathy for All (CEA) - Because We Are Interconnected. More info : National Environment Agency