So at wednesday, a nearly two hours long reportage on the meat industry and the activism done by…
Today, at 22.15 pm, an full length chapter of national program “En la mira (In sight)” will be about the treatment animals get in slaughterhouses and factory farms, and the work of EligeVeganismo. It’ll be 90 minutes long. It’ll be in primetime. National TV. Every TV in Chile will be able to see it. Right after the news.
I’m incredibly amazed and happy. It’s amazing to see where out work has gotten to. Hundreds or thousands of persons will see it tonight and finally question what they do to animals. Some of the journalists who participated into this went vegetarian, which is at least a little step in the right direction (I met them once but haven’t seen them since, so I’m not sure if they went vegan or vegetarian).
I’m profoundly proud of my fellow activists, particularly the ones who are working investigating places like slaughterhouses, dairy farms, factory farms, etc. I know how depressing and stressing it is, and I know I wouldn’t be able to go to such places every week, month after month. They are so fucking brave and deserving of my admiration.
I just hope that tomorrow will be a much better day than today, and that we’ll wake up to a much better world.
Tom Regan, professor emeritus of philosophy at North Carolina State University, is a rights theorist who argues that animals possess inherent value as “subjects-of-a-life” – because they have beliefs and desires, an emotional life, memory, and the ability to initiate action in pursuit of goals – and must therefore be viewed as ends in themselves, not as a means to an end. He argues that the right of subjects-of-a-life not to be harmed can be overridden only when outweighed by other valid moral principles, but that the reasons cited for eating animal products – pleasure, convenience and the economic interests of farmers – are not weighty enough to override the animals’ moral rights.
Gary L. Francione, professor of law at Rutgers School of Law-Newark, is also a rights theorist. He argues that “all sentient beings should have at least one right – the right not to be treated as property,” and that adopting veganism must be the unequivocal baseline for anyone who sees nonhuman animals as having intrinsic moral value. To fail to do so is like arguing for human rights while continuing to own human slaves, he writes. Francione sees no coherent difference between eating meat and eating dairy or eggs: animals used in the dairy and egg industries live longer, are treated worse and end up in the same slaughterhouses.
(Quelle: soycrates, via fuckyeahveg)
people apologize to me for eating animal products in front of me.
“Omg I’m so sorry that I’m eating this steak/chicken/cheese/eggs in front of you!!! :( :( :(“
DO NOT APOLOGIZE TO ME.
I am not the individual being harmed.
Go to those factory farms, go right up to those animals and say to their faces that you are sorry.
But I doubt you can, because you have so much guilt about it if you feel you have to apologize to me. You’ll just get all pissy and make up some bullshit excuse as to why you have to eat that “food”.
I usually follow their statement with “What difference would it make if you weren’t eating it in front of me, but still eating it?”
I previously did not give this idea credit, but it’s really true: people become conscious of their actions the moment they’re aware a vegan is with them. But we’ve got to get them past that - I want people to be aware of their actions when I’m not there to make them feel conscious.
It’s a weird experience though. Someone could ask you, “Are you vegan?” and you just say “Yes” and suddenly it’s like the air has changed.
They look down at their plate of chicken parmigiana and think, “Does this upset them?” or “Are they judging me because I’m eating this in front of them?”
Being vegan in the presence of other people then isn’t just enough. It’s not enough to make people aware that someone else might have a problem with animal exploitation, environmental decay, and various human rights violations involved in animal agriculture. The goal is to make people aware that this animal product might be a problem in and of itself.
When people apologize to you specifically, I feel like we’ve got to let them know it isn’t about you/me/us, it’s about the broader implications. Broad horizons make for well-rounded, ethical people =]
I shall take this as my new motto :D
I once came across a website where you could google the name of big transnational enterprises and see how ethical they were. This contemplated the treatment they gave to their workers/if they used slave labour (or sweatshops), their environmental impact, and I think the way they behaved towards the communities that lived around them.
I forgot the name of that page and I’d like to know if any of you know about it or any other similar pages. I’ve tried finding it again, but it hasn’t appeared on my google searches :( It’s important for me that it’s a page dedicated to big multi national, because the little ethical shop options that other developed countries have do not exist here. … You can’t even find fair trade shit around.
*Chile UR doing it wrong >:( *
La organización chilena por los derechos animales, EligeVeganismo, presentó hoy su nueva investigación llamada “Más allá de la hamburguesa”, sobre el real origen de las hamburguesas de la cadena de comida rápida más importante del mundo: McDonalds.
Este nuevo registro generó una consternación general por los métodos de explotación y tortura a los cuales son sometidos vacas y terneros enfermos, además de que logró destapar el gran fraude de la publicidad de la multinacional. McDonalds había lanzado a principios de año un video especial para Chile donde mostraba que la carne de sus productos provenía de fundos donde las vacas estaban felices, bien cuidadas y pastando en extensos territorios, sin embargo, la organización presentó contundente evidencia de que todo era un engaño para que las personas no se sintieran culpables de consumir carne.
En la investigación se descubrió que la realidad es que los animales destinados a convertirse en hamburguesas provienen de ferias de remate, cuyos motivos para llegar allí son, entre otros: cáncer, vejez, terneros y vacas con diversas patologías desechados en lecherías o “ganado” que no alcanza el peso adecuado.
La organización deja muy en claro que esto no es un ataque en específico a esta empresa, sino que insisten en recalcar que lo que se ve en megaempresas es “tan crudo, reprochable y esclavizador para los víctimas como lo que observamos en medianos o pequeños productores”. La reflexión final es: “La explotación es transversal cuando hablamos de la pérdida de libertad y sometimiento de animales. Una manera efectiva de trabajar en la erradicación de este sufrimiento es adoptando el veganismo como forma de vida”.
EligeVeganismo agradece que su investigación sea lo más difundida posible a través de las redes sociales. En Twitter usando el hashtag #McDonaldsChile.
(Quelle: vegetarianoschile.cl, via despiertaa)
[Note: Deals with body shaming, fat shaming, eating disorders, body dysmorphic disorder.]
While this is not a health food blog, you may have noticed that I post images relating to optimizing ones’ health and wellness. And many people who follow me here might be great health gurus, while others may just be looking for that perfect easy vegan brunch or a decadent dessert. Not every recipe I post will be made of greens and quinoa and whatever food is hot in the health food scene. At the same time, my food choices have changed a lot in the years accompanying my switch to an animal rights and environmental outlook. Food is of course a big part of being vegan but certainly not the only part. Veganism is not a diet, it is a movement - the diet itself, without the movement, is called a “plant-based diet”.
But to my earlier point: it felt like all of a sudden in my life, I actually enjoyed healthy foods. Not just in a “I know I should be eating this” way but a “I want to eat this!” way. Sometimes I’ll want a broccoli bowl over vegan corn dogs; sometimes I’ll want fruit more than I want cupcakes. Healthy food in my eyes is no more moral than unhealthy food (though the healthier choices can often make me feel better physically afterwards, like having more energy or feeling less bloated, but that is about my body and not about the bodies of others) and a health food vegan is no more or less a vegan than the “unhealth” food vegan. A thin vegan is no better than a fat vegan and vice versa.
The core of eating vegan food, I believe, should never be that you’re in it for health, because again, that’s called a “plant-based diet”. Sure, a health benefit from a normally healthy lifestyle such as vegan eating is a bonus, but that’s not what I came to do. I came to be a part of a movement that focused not on my well-being, but the well-being of animals, the planet, and other human beings who suffer from the massive resources usurped by the animal industries. That is what is known of the word and movement.
As a young teen vegetarian, I did have a number of harsh ways of looking at my body, restricting what I ate, moralising foods and maybe even obsessing (but for me, it wasn’t about how my or other bodies looked - it was about control). However, ss a child, I was fed crap foods like kraft dinner and unfrozen chicken nuggets, burned charcoaly meat and potatoes, every night with the common trip to McDonalds. Even then you could say I was moralising or relating affection to food, saying things like “my chicken nuggets” much like you hear someone say “I could never give up my cheese!” I feel like I’ve been at both extremes to some extent. Which is why I confidently say that veganism is like neither of those. I do not feel restricted. I do not feel that my veganism places an importance on my weight, or links my weight to how important my actions are. Food itself is merely sustenance. So why do some believe that veganism is just as bad as fat shaming?
Perhaps it’s because they still see animals as food. “If food is merely sustenance, than there’s no right or wrong to chicken or beef or dairy, right?” But that beef is not just a slab on your plate, it did not just appear or grow from the ground. The animals sentience and intelligence, companionship, love, and fear is more than mere food. We are not moralising food - we are making the distinction between what is food and what is an autonomous, sentient being who deserves respect.
There are cases in history which have surpassed their distinction between object and subject and some that still continue today. Woman is now (though still struggling for full rights everyday) a subject and not valued as mere property - that is the motion of giving rights. Male genital mutilation still happens today in countries which we perceive as “advanced”, an example of a situation where a male infant is being treated no more worthy than a piece of property.
Removing animal from the category of “property” is a huge goal in the animal rights movement. Along with this shift comes to most (hopefully) the understanding that the bodies of others, the shape, size, appearance of another autonomous body, is not a basis of critical judgement and never will be. Weight is not synonymous with health, and weighing less is not a necessary precursor to happiness. It may sound like a “No True Scotsman” fallacy, but I believe it to be real: no fatshaming “vegan” is a vegan at all. No body should be excluded from compassion, no body should live in fear of derision of their size. I for one will never tolerate that mockery of veganism.
I wish a long and happy life for those who advocate a better future. Whether you do that sipping on a green smoothie or munching on a daiya cheese pizza is up to you.
[An older but still important post from my cheap n’ easy vegan food blog]
(via soycrates)
This night - 05/03/13 in Israel, a highly publicized action was carried out in the name of the 269life movement.
Three fountains in Tel-Aviv were dyed, blood red, severed cows, sheep and goat heads were placed on them and graffiti was sprayed in the vicinity.
The writings were:
“The slaughterhouses walls are already transparent” and “Free 269”
We received the following anonymous email from the group:
“Every given moment, here and abroad billions of animals are tortured and murdered, which are all individuals that wished to live in peace and well being.
The problem lays in the human species it self, which excluding in some rare exceptions are violent, destructive and imperialistic.
This is a war in which we will not lose, because a forfeit here would mean the continuation of the most horrific oppression ever devised.
This action was carried out in the name of all those who’s screams you refuse to hear, who’s anguish you remove from your hearts, ears and conscience.
The walls of the slaughterhouses have long been transparent, the egg farms, dairy farms, vivisection labs, “animal shows” and clothing industries atrocities are open for all to see and yet you remain silent.
Our grandchildren will ask us one day: Where were you during the Holocaust of the animals? What did you do against these horrifying crimes? We won’t be able to offer the same excuse for the second time, that we didn’t know.
—Dr. Helmut Kaplan
We are animal liberation activists, we are ready to wage war in their names for their sake.
End to the silence and apathy.
Free them all. free 269!”
(via empatheticvegan)
I don’t make it a habit to dictate to other vegans how they should express their passion for veganism. There is a lot of discussion about what is the “right way” to be a vegan. And I vehemently oppose the notion that being nice and sweet is the best way to be vegan and that if you don’t follow that path, then you are hurting the cause.
Many people message me, saying they enjoy my approach to veganism. I appreciate the love, and trust me, I take a lot of time crafting the way I present myself as a vegan. I tend to live a vegan lifestyle, and educate others by first educating myself and living a life in accordance to my values. I let my lifestyle speak for itself and enjoy responding to questions but never really go on the offensive about veganism.
However
I became vegan because of what most people would consider to be “Angry Militant Vegans”. I ate a plant based diet because I wanted to be healthy. But what made me aware of the impact that my lifestyle has on others, human and animal alike, came from those gruesome images that some people would say vegans “shove” down other people’s throats. The shocking images, the passionate, often angry language of vegans, the imagery and the protests…those things triggered a change in me. They shocked the way that I viewed society and shook me so much that I went vegan over night.
While I do not agree with some of the tactics that vegans use (i.e. some of the often sexist and racist language some vegans use), I will never bash another vegan for being angry and in your face. First, because that kind of in your face veganism is what made me change. But second, veganism exposes the dirty, nasty truth about society. And yea it makes people uncomfortable, but that’s the point; information about the production of animal byproducts is supposed to shake you to the core, frustrate you and even make you sick or angry.
For many vegans, veganism is the difference between life and death, and so often times vegans are passionate and angry. But I will never criticize a vegan for feeling that way. The cruelty of the process of creating animal based products makes me angry and ignites my passion as well. I just express my veganism in a different way.
Since people keep coming here and asking why we hate them (I wouldn’t say I hate most people, but whatever.) I compiled a list.
1. Vegans have more blood on their hands because their lifestyle kills more creatures when plants are harvested.
I don’t know, I am sure the intent of killing 58 billion animals annually way outnumbers the creatures accidentally killed for harvest. And lets not forget, meat eaters eat meat and vegetables. For every one pound of meat they eat, they are also eating sixteen pounds of vegetables, because 70% of grains grown goes to their meat. They are also drinking 2,500 gallons of water with their 1 pound of meat. So think about that. All that water going to one pound of meat, yet we could be easily giving that water to children who are suffering in third world countries. Likewise with the grains, and that is why it is often said that veganism could cure world hunger. We are so willing to make sure over-bred “livestock” is fed but we care nothing for people.
2. Some animals are BRED to be eaten, how is that wrong?
So do you think that the animals are somehow emotionless and thoughtless because someone bred them? Do you think all because they were born into the hellish conditions of the factory farming business they deserve to die? How about when slaves were born, they were automatically belonging to their masters, how is that okay? Because essentially you are using the same argument, regardless if you think these two are comparable. Science says that these animals are sentient, they have a capacity of thought, emotion, empathy, and affection. Saying that they are born specifically with that intent doesn’t give us any right to judge someone elses purpose. I can have a child, but I cant force her to be a doctor.
3. It is natural to eat meat.
Regardless if it is natural or not (and so far it doesn’t seem like we need to have it) why would you knowingly let billions of billions of animals die so that you may have meat several times a day? Do you realize how far from the natural diet that is? Do you think our ancestors displayed such greed? They ate mainly vegetarian, and meat when they could, they didn’t fucking shove it down with like EVERYTHING. Carnivores and omnivores all eat meat raw, yet you don’t. Funny that. Look at this chart:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/recent/Gimbulate/herbivore.jpg
4. Cruelty doesn’t happen on that scale.
You are delusional. The USDA has such pisspoor regulations, even organic and free-range farms are despicable.
5. Meat is a personal choice.
I don’t know how personal means involving 58 billion animals annually in your life is personal. Seems very opposite especially since you are inflicting your lifestyle on billions of sentient animals.
6. Eating meat doesn’t make me a bad person.
I am not going to remark on your person, but I will say your ethics are a little screwed up. If you think animals deserve to be treated well, but eaten, I can not understand for the life of me why you don’t at least advocate for the humane treatment you believe in. I personally don’t believe slaughter is humane, but most of you believe animals can be treated humanely before they end up on your plates. Then DO something. Make emails to companies you know are treating the animals you eat like dirt. Call companies and demand they change, do something so when you eat your bacon you can feel “at least this pig had a semblance of a life.” But the problem is, no one does anything. You become complacent with the torture and do nothing.
7. Not enough nutrients in plants.
Every necessary nutrient and vitamin can be found in not only a vegetarian diet, but a vegan diet.
(Quelle: littleprincessvegan, via theveganabolitionist)
Let me tell you about the number of times I have been asked this question as a woman-identified vegan. Let me tell you about how each person who has asked me this question is male-identified. Let me tell you about why this is utterly infuriating:
- It is heteronormative. Never assume heterosexuality. It is erasing and rude.
- It is sexist and misogynistic. Here I am trying to better the world in some small way, and all these people are worried about is the pleasure of the male-identified persons in my life. Because that’s what my worth amounts to in this patriarchal society of ours right? To what I can do for men.
- It is sex-negative. There is nothing wrong with not swallowing. There is nothing wrong with not giving head. To act like this would be the end of the world is shaming and contributes to rape culture, and sexual assault.
To summarize, this aggravating, seemingly “innocent” question is actually quite harmful and even dangerous.
It is not cute or clever.
So cut it the fuck out.
yes
Perf.
“You don’t eat meat? So you do not suck dick, I see”.
(Quelle: chronicallyvegan)
There’s this thing that happens particularly with two causes that I support, namely women’s equality and animal rights, where people, even if they accept the principles of the ideas, will say “How dare American women complain about the lack of contraceptive insurance coverage when women in the middle east get acid thrown in their faces?” or “How dare you worry about mistreatment of animals and the environment when there are people starving?”, and it’s really kind of strange; as if there’s only one issue at a time that you can address, and there has already been codified a sequential list of THE IMPORTANT CAUSES, and everyone but you has studied it and knows that mistreatment of farm workers is #8 and deforestation is #27 and animal cruelty is #238, stupid. I guess it’s part of the endless deferment to authority and apathy that conformity entails, but it’s really kind of weird; do you stop brushing your teeth if you get bone cancer? Are you going to not pay your parking meter because you have a mortgage?
(via soycrates)
