Why promote veganism? Why ask individuals to consider making changes in their food choices, rather than work for change in institutions and government? And how to respond if people take offense at being asked to consider the ethical issues behind their daily choices? This thought-provoking guest post by Sarina Farb addresses these questions. Ms Farb […]
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Food Justice: The Real Victims
Veganic Farming Initiative
In March 2017 VAVA launched a veganic farming initiative, encouraging farmers and gardeners to transition to a totally plant-based agricultural system, and encouraging buyers and eaters of food to look for veganically grown food. The word veganic merges “vegan” with “organic.” Like organic growing, veganic growing does not use any of the chemical fertilizers, pesticides, genetically […]
Veganic Gardening continued
A second guest post by Kelle Kersten on veganic gardening. VEGANIC VEGETABLE GARDENING BASICS Part 1 – What Plants Need to Grow The ideal garden plot would be in the open, and would have loam soil (intermediate in texture between clay and sand) with a small amount of organic matter (plant and animal residues at […]
“Humane” meat
We know that factory farms are terrible places. Animals are crammed by the thousands into sheds, bred and manipulated in unnatural ways, and usually killed before they are fully-grown adults. These huge farms also produce immense amounts of pollution, all for the sake of meat and dairy products which are often contaminated –- so we […]
Growing Ahimsa Veganically
A guest post by Kelle Kersten, a friend and a compassionate person who is very knowledgeable about growing good food and causing the least harm to others in the process. In 2005 my husband and I set out to create Ahimsa Village, a vegan community and sustainable living education center, in the mountains of central […]
Dairy Industry Finally Feels the Pressure
An Associated Press article by Candice Choi describes the dairy industry’s response to growing disillusionment with dairy products (“Milk industry fights ‘anti-dairy folks,’” The Elmira (NY) Star-Gazette, 1/27/15). Julia Kadison of the Milk Processor Education Program is quoted as saying that the breaking point came in 2014 “when the British Medical Journal published a study suggesting drinking […]
Beef industry supporters call the environment an extraneous factor
In an Associated Press article by Mary Clare Jalonick (published in The Corning (NY) Leader on 1/3/15 ) “Beef gets downplayed in new dietary guidelines,” we are warned that we will “be told not only what foods are better for your own health, but also for the environment”…. and that means a push “for people […]
Veganism is an essential first step towards social justice
Veganism is much more than a dietary choice: it’s a philosophy. In fact, it’s more than a philosophy: it’s an ethical stance, and it’s just the basic first step we need to take before we can see justice among both human and non-human animals. A fascinating new book that makes this clear is Circles of Compassion: Essays […]
“Towards Ending Violence” — by Rich Kellman
Our society is permeated by violence. So many of the forms of violence that we see every day – injustice, poverty, crime, pollution of the environment, racism, even consumerism – are beyond our control as individuals. However, what is within our control is our own daily eating and buying habits. When we make nonviolent choices […]
Nonviolence: Food as an Act of Compassion for Animals
What about compassion for animals? The central idea of nonviolent living is to cause as little suffering as possible in one’s lifetime. This practice, called Ahimsa in India, was made widely popular in western countries in the early 1980s, especially as the film Gandhi won an Academy Award in 1982. The animal rights movement in […]
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