Newsworthy 4/18

I apologize for not having written in so long. I really want to update this blog more frequently (daily if I can), but it hasn’t been working out that way.

But! This does not mean I haven’t come across lots of interesting newsworthy stuff…

• The first story I’d like to mention is this one I stumbled upon. It’s full of tips on how to live more cheaply. Well, saying it like that makes it seem like you should only follow the suggestions to save money, which isn’t the case. While many of them do result in money saved, the point as I see it is to live more simply and less wasteful. For instance, one of the suggestions is, “54. Rediscover the radical notion of the library. Imagine Internet access and thousands of books, CDs and DVDs for free!”. Just think about how much money and paper/trees you’ll save by not buying every book you want to read. It’s just practical stuff, really, but it all adds up!
• This is actually just plain weird… I don’t know what to make of it, and I am having trouble figuring out where I stand on this one. Anyone have an opinion? Envirovore also covers this story, and brings up arguments/concerns similar to my own (but they’re not exactly vegan about it :/ ). There are a lot of problems I can think of off hand:
  • This seems to be something that would occur in shiny labs in big corporations. Where does the small-scale farmer fit back into all of this? (Not that I am trying to support modern livestock farming at all)
  • However, one could argue that since eating this Frankenmeat would solve a number of problems: environmental stress caused by large-scale factory farms (and small scale to an extent), the issue of exploiting and killing an animal for its flesh (this would take the animal out of the equation), and possible health benefits (perhaps this Frankenmeat could be engineered to avoid the health consequences associated with eating actual animals.
  • It gives omni/carnivores a good excuse to continue eating meat. But like many welfarist arguments, it still does not address the (most important) issue that animal use=animal abuse. If we keep giving meat to people, even if it is Frankenmeat, then this reinforces the idea that eating meat in general is ok. This is the part that I do not agree with.

  All that aside, this still gives me the heebie-jeebies. *shudder*

• Another meat story came across my radar, too. This one is concerned with the trend of hunters who bring their recent kills to butchers/processors only to leave them there (i.e., not pick them up or pay for the services the butchers provide). What disturbs me about this story is the fact that these “hunters” are obviously not “hunting” to provide sustenance for themselves–which is what all hunters purport to do. No, these “hunters” are “hunting” to kill animals, plain and simple. Good Job!
• Yet another meat-related story, I suppose: “Silence Replaces Bids and Moos at Stockyards in Suburbs”. I came across this article on Monday via Animal Person. I think she really gets to the heart of the matter in her analysis of John Barber’s narration of the slideshow, in which he waxes romantic of the end of the era of animal auctions as we know them. Her final statements are particularly compelling: “As John Barber said: “Change is hard but we’ll make it through. Nobody’s died from change.”That’s not true. When people change their minds and decide to eat animals that do not come from factory farms, somebody dies for that change. For each meal made with animals, somebody dies.”Indeed, this reminds me of Compassion Over Killing’s Livestock Auction Investigations. I encourage you to read all of the links and to look at the picture gallery–but especially I encourage you all to watch the video in the video gallery.

  After reading through the entire New York Times article (including listening/watching the slideshow), then watching the footage from COK’s investigation, I can’t see how anyone would be reluctant to change. I can’t really see how anyone can get so romantic about treating animals in such horrible ways. Maybe it seems romantic when you can glaze over and distance yourself from the truth by constantly reminding yourself that livestock is a product, a commodity, and not a living, breathing, feeling animal.

  Oh, and then they mention that the whole operation is going online. Talk about making it even more impersonal…

• And as this writer so eloquently put it, “If you care about hunger, eat less meat”. While I don’t agree with everything that he says (he suggests people should eat tilapia if they have to eat meat so bad), the meaning behind the message is clear: livestock is not environmentally sustainable, and is actually a significant contributing factor to a slew of environmental problems, not the least of which a global hunger problem.
• Speaking of a global food crisis/shortage, this story popped up from Canada. So with all of these people starving out there, I guess it’s a good idea to “dispose of” 150,000 (or 112,500 (25%) if you want to give them the benefit of the doubt) pigs just to bring pork prices back up. Just “get rid of” a few thousand “units”. Urgh! (Those are all my words in quotations there–I’m a big fan of scare quotes)
• Here is a nice article written about defeating all of those common stereotypes that vegans have to face. I mean, I’m no pasty, pale-faced, emaciated, anemic, extreme, radical, etc etc, so I can definitely jive to what she’s saying
• And I don’t even know what to say to this. I mean, was she for real? Now her school is trying to say that she was never really pregnant during her “project”, which she claims is not true. I’m just a little weirded out.

And with that, I must away! Enjoy those tidbits and maybe I’ll come up with something to post for monday! (one can only hope!)