Some people say "yeah, that's pretty rough, but things are better here in Australia aren't they? We don't really need to worry about stuff like that here".
Firstly, let me point out that I'm not writing this just for people in Australia. I'm writing this for people everywhere, so issues anywhere are fair game in that respect. But I'm not interested in just picking out the worst abuses and trying to make out it happens that way everywhere, because we all know it does not. Keep in mind that in a world of global trade, even if your own country is pretty good, that's no guarantee that products on your supermarket shelves haven't still come from somewhere that has major problems. More on this issue later.
The US in particular is almost a poster-child for worst-practice when it comes to animal abuse issues on farms, as well as environmental destruction/mismanagement. But that doesn't mean they're on their own. Australian feedlots may well be required to operate to a higher environmental standard than in the US, and may have tighter restrictions on feeding animal waste to other animals, but we're still just as bad in terms of problems such giving our livestock toxic food in the form of grains, which is a core practice here as well. Australian feedlots supply 40-50% of the meat you'll find in your supermarket, so don't kid yourself by thinking that we aren't setting ourselves up for problems too, and that we don't have a wide range of abuses that are accepted standard industry practice.
One thing in particular that I'll have more to say about later is mulesing, and that's something that Australia almost seems to be proud of. But will you still feel that way when you know what mulesing really is and how it's really done here? Firstly, sheep are very much unsuited to the Australian climate and environment to be begin with, so we've got environmental issues already on that score. But there are significant health and welfare problems too. Our merino sheep have been selectively bred to have more folds of flesh, so they will produce more wool - but this includes folds all over their bodies, including around their buttocks. Flies are attracted to the faeces and urine that sticks to the wool, and flystrike can result - a frequently fatal, and always excrutiating, affliction. And here's the problem: flystrike can be treated and avoided quite simply by proper management techniques, and the industry doesn't deny this. However, it costs money to do so, and they decided that a better option was (without using ANY anaesthetic at all) to cut off half the sheep's arse (and occasionally part of the vagina also by accident) and then just leave them to heal and get over it on their own. That's mulesing. They don't do it for animal welfare, they do it for economics, because they make more money if production costs are lower. Can you honestly say that such practices are acceptable when they aren't even necessary in the first place? I certainly can't.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Farmers doing it tough
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22486693-2,00.html
It seems the drought is really making life tough for farmers at the moment. In the above article "Egg, milk, pork and meat producers have complained that higher grain prices were hitting them particularly hard as they were forced to pay more for livestock feed." Sounds pretty bad at first, but lets take a look at one point they don't mention.
Everyone has heard about the antibiotics that are fed to cattle, and some of the concerns about the impact this has on their efficacy in humans. But it's all for the good of the cows, right? If only. It is only because cattle are kept in such unsanitary conditions on feedlots, and that they are fed grains, that they get as sick and diseased as they do. Rather than helping keep the cattle well, in many instances the antibiotics are simply keeping the cattle alive long enough to reach slaughter weight.
But why is grain such a problem for cattle? Surely they can eat it no worries, after all, grains are good for you, right? Well yes, provided you're a human or other animal with a digestive system designed to handle it. But cattle are not. They are ruminant animals, with a vastly different digestive system altogether, intended for grass and not a whole lot more. What happens to them then, if they eat grain? Well, one of the worst problems is a condition called "feedlot bloat", which can actually suffocate them if not treated properly - but they wouldn't get it at all if not for being fed an unnatural grain-based diet. And that's only one of many health problems directly caused by this diet.
In countries like the US (and this applied to Australia also until mad cow scare), cattle are also fed meat remnants, restaurant leftovers (including assorted animal parts), fecal matter, dead chickens, chicken feathers, and spilled feed (which can include beef and bone meal). In other words, farmers are taking a 100% herbivorous animal that should only be eating grass, and forcing it to eat grains supplemented by other animals - including cattle. Does this really sound like the sort of thing we should be doing, or allowing to happen anywhere? Mad cow disease is essentially a disease that we, the people who farm them, have wilfully inflicted upon cattle for no good reason at all, to the suffering of all - mad cow disease has killed people too, and it is unfortunate that it took the deaths of people before any action was ever taken to address a problem that would never have arisen had cattle been treated humanely and fed properly in the first place.
And that's really only a very small aspect of the problems and cruelty inherent in feedlot operations. Environmentally, it is as bad if not worse, when you consider such facts as the need for 60,000-100,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilo of beef, or the 17 kilo of grain to produce that same kilo. In a world with so many people going hungry, and so many places devastated by severe water shortage and drought - including many parts of Australia - does this again seem like a very wise use of scarce natural resources? More on this later.
Read "The Ethics of What We Eat", by Peter Singer and Jim Mason, for a more detailed review of feedlot operations among other aspects of food production. It's not about being vegan, just about how our food is produced, and makes an interesting read no matter your perspective or dietary preference.
It seems the drought is really making life tough for farmers at the moment. In the above article "Egg, milk, pork and meat producers have complained that higher grain prices were hitting them particularly hard as they were forced to pay more for livestock feed." Sounds pretty bad at first, but lets take a look at one point they don't mention.
Everyone has heard about the antibiotics that are fed to cattle, and some of the concerns about the impact this has on their efficacy in humans. But it's all for the good of the cows, right? If only. It is only because cattle are kept in such unsanitary conditions on feedlots, and that they are fed grains, that they get as sick and diseased as they do. Rather than helping keep the cattle well, in many instances the antibiotics are simply keeping the cattle alive long enough to reach slaughter weight.
But why is grain such a problem for cattle? Surely they can eat it no worries, after all, grains are good for you, right? Well yes, provided you're a human or other animal with a digestive system designed to handle it. But cattle are not. They are ruminant animals, with a vastly different digestive system altogether, intended for grass and not a whole lot more. What happens to them then, if they eat grain? Well, one of the worst problems is a condition called "feedlot bloat", which can actually suffocate them if not treated properly - but they wouldn't get it at all if not for being fed an unnatural grain-based diet. And that's only one of many health problems directly caused by this diet.
In countries like the US (and this applied to Australia also until mad cow scare), cattle are also fed meat remnants, restaurant leftovers (including assorted animal parts), fecal matter, dead chickens, chicken feathers, and spilled feed (which can include beef and bone meal). In other words, farmers are taking a 100% herbivorous animal that should only be eating grass, and forcing it to eat grains supplemented by other animals - including cattle. Does this really sound like the sort of thing we should be doing, or allowing to happen anywhere? Mad cow disease is essentially a disease that we, the people who farm them, have wilfully inflicted upon cattle for no good reason at all, to the suffering of all - mad cow disease has killed people too, and it is unfortunate that it took the deaths of people before any action was ever taken to address a problem that would never have arisen had cattle been treated humanely and fed properly in the first place.
And that's really only a very small aspect of the problems and cruelty inherent in feedlot operations. Environmentally, it is as bad if not worse, when you consider such facts as the need for 60,000-100,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilo of beef, or the 17 kilo of grain to produce that same kilo. In a world with so many people going hungry, and so many places devastated by severe water shortage and drought - including many parts of Australia - does this again seem like a very wise use of scarce natural resources? More on this later.
Read "The Ethics of What We Eat", by Peter Singer and Jim Mason, for a more detailed review of feedlot operations among other aspects of food production. It's not about being vegan, just about how our food is produced, and makes an interesting read no matter your perspective or dietary preference.
What reasons do people have for being vegan?
I wont go into a lot detail today, but I'll try to outline briefly what I see as being the four main reasons. And contrary to the stereotype, it's not all about the animals either! In fact, there are some compelling reasons for going vegan that have motivated people for whom concerns of animal welfare aren't even that important. Hopefully that will become clear how this can be as we progress.
Basically, there are four main reasons: animal welfare; environment; health. You will find that there can be a degree of cross-over between these areas, depending on your precise personal reasons, but in broad terms that's pretty much got it covered.
Animal welfare: this is the one that everyone knows about. Or at least thinks they do. People who choose to be vegan because of animal welfare do so because they've heard about the appalling cruelty that is standard and accepted practice in modern farming. Chickens suffocating and having their legs break under their own body weight due to breeding and feeding practices; chickens being mutilated by automated blades whilst still fully conscious; dairy cows forcibly impregnanted for their entire productive life, then dragged crippled along the ground by tractors and thrown in a truck to be slaughtered; male calves made anaemic so their flesh will be the right colour to please consumers; and all livestock that is penned and forced to stand in their own excrement while awaiting their trip to your dinner plate. And that's just the really nice brief overview of what animals endure in order to reserve a place in the human food chain.
Environment: modern factory farming is widely recognised as one of the most environmentally destructive of all human practices. Unlike human excrement, the waste produced by livestock on farms just goes straight into our river systems completely untreated. And you wondered why the water tasted so funny? When you concentrate hundreds of cattle in a pen, and have dozens of pens on a single feedlot, that waste has to go somewhere - unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere near a proper treatment facility. In some countries, the manure from chicken farms ends up being mixed in with cattle feed - the US is one country that does this. Many fragile ecosystems - and even some pretty tough ones - have been irrevocably devastated as a result of farming activity upstream. There is also the matter of greenhouse gas emissions, with intensive farming being the major contributor of methane to the atmosphere, a gas far more harmful than CO2.
Health: animals just aren't as good for our health as those who say we should eat them are claiming. That's okay for them, they still get to make money out of it - but what do we, the consumer, get? Well, the consumption of meat has been linked very firmly with a growing number of cancers, and strongly linked to many more. Some of the more well-known cancers include stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, lymphoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and on it goes. Animal products are also very high in saturated fats and cholesterol, neither of which we actually need in our diet. Even lean meat still contains around 10% fat. And while they say milk only has 3% fat, when you take out the water this percentage increases to over 30% - still call that low fat? Our liver produces all the cholesterol that our body actually needs, we don't need ANY in our food at all. Dairy can actually promote calcium loss, due to the sulphur content in one of the proteins it contains (which binds with calcium taken from your bones) - this is an issue with animal proteins in general, not just dairy. We'll talk about dairy products specifically later on, but suffice to say that the idea that it is good for us is far from something you should be relying on if at all concerned with your health. The most important point to remember here is that there is absolutely nothing in animals that we cannot still get quite easily from other sources - but there are a lot of things we just don't need at all, and which underpin pretty much all of the diseases which plague modern western society. Does that sound like a good deal to you?
So there you have it: a very simplistic overview of the three main reasons why some people think being vegan is perhaps a better option. It's better for the animals that no longer need to be slaughtered and abused to feed you; it's better for the planet, which doesn't need to be poisoned quite so much if less people eat animals; and it's better for your health, with your body no longer subjected to the toxic effects of animal products. You could choose to act because of only one of them, or varying combinations of all three. Or you could just say "I really don't care", and just keep living as you are. It's your choice, after all.
That'll do for today, but I'll be coming back to these and other issues as I get time, and provide more information to support the claims made, and details about where you can verify it for yourself. And of course, some comments about simply what living a vegan life is like: far from being an insurmountable challenge, it's actually pretty damn easy - and very rewarding in every way. :-)
Basically, there are four main reasons: animal welfare; environment; health. You will find that there can be a degree of cross-over between these areas, depending on your precise personal reasons, but in broad terms that's pretty much got it covered.
Animal welfare: this is the one that everyone knows about. Or at least thinks they do. People who choose to be vegan because of animal welfare do so because they've heard about the appalling cruelty that is standard and accepted practice in modern farming. Chickens suffocating and having their legs break under their own body weight due to breeding and feeding practices; chickens being mutilated by automated blades whilst still fully conscious; dairy cows forcibly impregnanted for their entire productive life, then dragged crippled along the ground by tractors and thrown in a truck to be slaughtered; male calves made anaemic so their flesh will be the right colour to please consumers; and all livestock that is penned and forced to stand in their own excrement while awaiting their trip to your dinner plate. And that's just the really nice brief overview of what animals endure in order to reserve a place in the human food chain.
Environment: modern factory farming is widely recognised as one of the most environmentally destructive of all human practices. Unlike human excrement, the waste produced by livestock on farms just goes straight into our river systems completely untreated. And you wondered why the water tasted so funny? When you concentrate hundreds of cattle in a pen, and have dozens of pens on a single feedlot, that waste has to go somewhere - unfortunately, it doesn't go anywhere near a proper treatment facility. In some countries, the manure from chicken farms ends up being mixed in with cattle feed - the US is one country that does this. Many fragile ecosystems - and even some pretty tough ones - have been irrevocably devastated as a result of farming activity upstream. There is also the matter of greenhouse gas emissions, with intensive farming being the major contributor of methane to the atmosphere, a gas far more harmful than CO2.
Health: animals just aren't as good for our health as those who say we should eat them are claiming. That's okay for them, they still get to make money out of it - but what do we, the consumer, get? Well, the consumption of meat has been linked very firmly with a growing number of cancers, and strongly linked to many more. Some of the more well-known cancers include stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, esophageal cancer, lymphoma, breast cancer, prostate cancer and on it goes. Animal products are also very high in saturated fats and cholesterol, neither of which we actually need in our diet. Even lean meat still contains around 10% fat. And while they say milk only has 3% fat, when you take out the water this percentage increases to over 30% - still call that low fat? Our liver produces all the cholesterol that our body actually needs, we don't need ANY in our food at all. Dairy can actually promote calcium loss, due to the sulphur content in one of the proteins it contains (which binds with calcium taken from your bones) - this is an issue with animal proteins in general, not just dairy. We'll talk about dairy products specifically later on, but suffice to say that the idea that it is good for us is far from something you should be relying on if at all concerned with your health. The most important point to remember here is that there is absolutely nothing in animals that we cannot still get quite easily from other sources - but there are a lot of things we just don't need at all, and which underpin pretty much all of the diseases which plague modern western society. Does that sound like a good deal to you?
So there you have it: a very simplistic overview of the three main reasons why some people think being vegan is perhaps a better option. It's better for the animals that no longer need to be slaughtered and abused to feed you; it's better for the planet, which doesn't need to be poisoned quite so much if less people eat animals; and it's better for your health, with your body no longer subjected to the toxic effects of animal products. You could choose to act because of only one of them, or varying combinations of all three. Or you could just say "I really don't care", and just keep living as you are. It's your choice, after all.
That'll do for today, but I'll be coming back to these and other issues as I get time, and provide more information to support the claims made, and details about where you can verify it for yourself. And of course, some comments about simply what living a vegan life is like: far from being an insurmountable challenge, it's actually pretty damn easy - and very rewarding in every way. :-)
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Why are you doing this?
It's easier for people to accept that you've given up God, then to accept that you've given up animals. They will applaud your logic and commonsense for doing the former, and abuse you in ways you never dreamed of for even thinking about the latter. I find that very strange, actually, since the reasons for being vegan - or even just considering it, whatever you actually DO - are on much firmer ground than any decision relating to God.
It took me the first 22 years of my life to finally build the courage to give up God and stand on my own two feet in the real world, rather than the fantasy world I'd been pushed to accept in its place up to that point. But it took me another 10 years beyond that to finally realise a much better case existed for giving up eating animals. Funny how the more obvious something is, the longer it can to see it, isn't it?
This blog is not about converting anyone, or even about trying to. Rather, it is about providing a circuit-breaker, a place where those who would otherwise abuse my decision in blinkered ignorance can instead take a breather while they actually get informed on what being vegan really means, and how it really impacts on you and the world in which you live - and how positive that impact can actually be. It's also a place for those who aren't so filled with anger and hatred to simply find out more, and perhaps surprise themselves at what they can do in their own lives - even if they decide that being vegan still isn't their thing.
I lead a pretty busy and hectic life, so I may not always have time to keep this as up-to-date as I might like. But I'll certainly do what I can! I intend to outline MY reasons for being vegan, from the days when I never even thought it an option (vegans are all just wacko loonies, right?) through to the point where I realised that the world is bigger than just me, and there are other needs to consider also when we make the choices that govern our lives. It's about my own personal views and thoughts, but wherever possible I'll provide fully referenced links to independent studies etc, so you don't just have to take my word for it if I make a claim about something (just please be nice and remember that I don't always have the time to find solid references for EVERYTHING, and this is as much about what I think/feel as it is about the science, okay?).
So, that should do for an introduction. Remember, this is not about trying to convert you or anyone else, but simply to allow you to perhaps have a better chance to understand just why some of us do think its a worthwhile change to make. Comments are always welcomed, and honest/legitimate questions will be answered as best I can as soon as I am able to find the time to do so. I'm not a world expert though, so if I do make the odd mistake, go easy on me, hey? :-)
It took me the first 22 years of my life to finally build the courage to give up God and stand on my own two feet in the real world, rather than the fantasy world I'd been pushed to accept in its place up to that point. But it took me another 10 years beyond that to finally realise a much better case existed for giving up eating animals. Funny how the more obvious something is, the longer it can to see it, isn't it?
This blog is not about converting anyone, or even about trying to. Rather, it is about providing a circuit-breaker, a place where those who would otherwise abuse my decision in blinkered ignorance can instead take a breather while they actually get informed on what being vegan really means, and how it really impacts on you and the world in which you live - and how positive that impact can actually be. It's also a place for those who aren't so filled with anger and hatred to simply find out more, and perhaps surprise themselves at what they can do in their own lives - even if they decide that being vegan still isn't their thing.
I lead a pretty busy and hectic life, so I may not always have time to keep this as up-to-date as I might like. But I'll certainly do what I can! I intend to outline MY reasons for being vegan, from the days when I never even thought it an option (vegans are all just wacko loonies, right?) through to the point where I realised that the world is bigger than just me, and there are other needs to consider also when we make the choices that govern our lives. It's about my own personal views and thoughts, but wherever possible I'll provide fully referenced links to independent studies etc, so you don't just have to take my word for it if I make a claim about something (just please be nice and remember that I don't always have the time to find solid references for EVERYTHING, and this is as much about what I think/feel as it is about the science, okay?).
So, that should do for an introduction. Remember, this is not about trying to convert you or anyone else, but simply to allow you to perhaps have a better chance to understand just why some of us do think its a worthwhile change to make. Comments are always welcomed, and honest/legitimate questions will be answered as best I can as soon as I am able to find the time to do so. I'm not a world expert though, so if I do make the odd mistake, go easy on me, hey? :-)
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