PHILLY ZOO BATTLE HEATS UP

Advocates for elephants are gearing up for a major campaign against the proposed expansion of the Philadelphia Zoo's pachyderm exhibit, and have already started leafletting and protesting at the zoo. This Inquirer story is typical mainstream coverage, essentially ignoring the basic issues the activists are raising and diverting the discussion to how much the zoo loves and cares for the elephants. And classically, it ends with the as-ever-unproven trope that such displays "educate the public and create empathy for wildlife" - sorry, Pete, what was your peer-reviewed source on that again?

WHAT KIND OF WORKPLACE...

... would tolerate this kind of inhuman abuse in the 21st century?

African Americans were routinely abused and a "whites only" sign was pinned to the lavatory door. Tyson Foods is accused by 13 workers of maintaining a segregated system in a break area at one of its plants in Ashland, Alabama, that was "reminiscent of the Jim Crow era". In addition to the posting of the "whites only" sign, the workers allege that the lavatory was padlocked and only white workers were given a key, that workers hung a noose in one of the recreation rooms and annotated a picture of monkeys with the names of black staff. When the workers complained, they say the plant manager told them the facilities had been locked because they were "nasty, dirty [and] behaved like children".

Yes, that's right, the kind of workplace where the work itself is inhuman. Just a coincidence, I guess...

UNLUCKY SEVEN

I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to do anything on this purported Idaho CJD cluster until there were seven people in the area who had died. Well... "State health officials say a northern Idaho woman may be the seventh person to die in 2005 of Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease, a fatal brain-wasting illness that robs people of their ability to control body movements or even speak before it swiftly kills them. Kathy Isenberg, 53, died Sept. 5 at the Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d'Alene. In May, she became unsteady on her feet, said Jonathan Isenberg, her husband. By mid-August, she was in wheelchair and needed 24-hour care. She spoke her last words -- 'I love you' -- to her husband on Aug. 31, he said."

VEGCAST #3

It's here! The third Vegcast features our first book review - expanded from the version below - of the book Vegan Freak, plus a soundseeing tour of Chinatown in Philadelphia where there are four vegan restaurants within a very short walk. Also included is a Science Fact dealing with antioxidants and mainstream journalism, and music from Heidi Howe and Green Beings.

VEGAN FREAK REVIEW

Vegcast will be out later today. But as promised, here's a trimmed version of what will run on the podcast:

VEGAN FREAK
By Bob Torres and Jenna Torres
Tofu Houd Press

When your biggest complaint about a book is that it should have been longer, it's what you might call praising with faint damnation. And indeed there's plenty to praise about Vegan Freak, as well as plenty of damn-ing (along with more colorful verbiage). Bob Torres and Jenna Torres hit on all the major issues of "Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World," maintaining a youthful vernacular and straight-talking style that makes Vegan Freak a standout among vegan how-to books.

Those of you familiar with the Vegan Freaks weblog will not be very surprised by the tone or content here, but for the world at large this is a refreshingly frank, new take on the intro-to-veganism genre. The book ranges widely through a diversity of topics including the best way to go vegan, arguments that do and don't work, the hell of family food celebrations, vegan travel, and even vegan sex toys. They list which brands of beer are vegan and caution that some "non-dairy creamers" actually contain milk ingredients. They urge vegans to stand up for our choices and be resolute: "Meek vegans suffer!" becomes a mantra by book's end. In all, the authors keep the tone lively and fun, moving through the vegan landscape at cruising speed or faster.

And this is where that complaint I mentioned comes in: While this keeps the book from getting boring, I often felt myself wishing they had provided just a few sentences more information or perspective on a given topic before jumping exuberantly on to the next. At 150 pages, there was certainly room for the main text of the bok to be longer (there are 20 more pages of helpful appendices - in which this blog is listed as one of the resources). And although there aren't any glaring omissions overall, the result is sometimes a more superficial treatment of something that would have benefited from a more in-depth, fully researched approach. The best example of this is in the section on B12, where the advice "take a supplement every now and then" was criticized by Dr. Michael Greger (as the authors explained on their podcast) for not being rigorous enough and for downplaying the seriousness of adequate B12 intake among vegans.

In sum, one might wish Vegan Freak had been a little more thoroughly researched, a little more in-depth about some issues, but hey: As Donald Rumsfeld would say, you go to war against mainstream consumerist culture with the book you have, not the book you wish you had. And depsite any of these quibbles, I can honestly say that Vegan Freak is worth a read whether you're considering veganism or are already there. It's an ambitious task to try to write for both of those constituencies, and although it sometimes results in a bit of a scattershot tone, the authors ultimately pull it off with verve, attitude and conviction, and wind up with a book that may well serve as a bridge to veganism for an entire segment of the population who have so far been all but ignored by our moevement.

So to "Vegenaise" and "Pleather:" Rock on, dudes!

FALL ON YOUR SWORDFISH?

This sounds like a broken record, but as long as they keep reporting these, I'll keep pointing them out, because "fish" is so often smuggled into other stories about healthy plant-based diets: "Store-bought swordfish contained mercury levels above the legal limit in a study released yesterday by environmental groups. A University of North Carolina lab found elevated mercury concentrations in 24 swordfish samples from supermarket chains including Safeway, Shaws, Albertsons and Whole Foods." Note that this isn't just about finding elevated mercury levels out in the ocean. This is the actual fish people are buying and eating. And of course, mercury is only one of the health problems with eating fish, but that's enough for now.

REASON #523 WHY ANIMAL TESTING IS A BAD IDEA

Mice Infected With Bubonic Plague Missing. Yep. You heard right. "Three mice infected with the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague apparently disappeared from a laboratory about two weeks ago, and authorities launched a search though health experts said there was scant public risk." Oh, that's good to hear. Wait, what's this? "Federal official said the mice may never be accounted for. Among other things, the rodents may have been stolen, eaten by other lab animals or just misplaced in a paperwork error." Oh great, that fills me with confidence. Nope, no risk from those animal-testing bozos.

MORE BSE MADNESS

Having just taken steps backward from protecting the American public against Mad Cow, the cattle/regulatory industry - known jointly as the FDA and USDA - may be in for another dope-slap: UPI reports that the federal meat inspector who was charged with misconduct by the USDA after claiming mad cow disease safeguards were being violated at slaughterhouses said he plans to file charges against the agency.
"Stan Painter, a USDA inspector and chair of the National Joint Council of Food Inspection Locals, the inspectors union, notified the agency's management in a letter last December he was aware of instances where the riskiest parts of older cows were not being marked or removed from processing." And here comes the kicker... "On Dec. 28, 2004, the agency charged Painter with personal misconduct for not revealing the names of the inspectors who told him of the SRM violations. Officials also told him he was under a formal investigation, which was dropped last month after the release of internal documents revealing more than 1,000 violations of the USDA's SRM regulations." Hmmmmm.

And how about those assurances, just before the 2004 election, that Japan was thisclose to dropping their ban? "Japan's food safety panel said Monday that U.S. cows were exposed to a higher risk of mad cow disease infection than their Japanese counterparts due to insufficient feed control in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, Kyodo News agency reported. Panel head Yasuhiro Yoshikawa said in the report that the extent of feed contamination in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s was up to 10 times as high as that of Japan." Hmmmmm... and Japan has had how many mad cows?

LOW-FAT VEGAN DIET: NO GAIN, NO PAIN

"Women who stick to a low-fat vegan diet are more likely to lose weight than those whose diets include meat," the Daily Mail reports, citing a PCRM study published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Medicine. "Dr Barnard, working with Georgetown University Hospital and George Washington University, found those on the vegan diet were able to lose weight without feeling hungry." The journal article also refers to a study of 55,000 women in Sweden which reinforces Dr Barnard's findings. Researchers at Tufts University in Sweden found that of the group, 40% of meat-eaters were overweight or obese compared to 25% to 29% of vegetarians and vegans.

ZOOS & ELEPHANTS: IMPERFECT TOGETHER

Are elephants just a memory for some zoos? asks the Sun-Times of Chicago, where the American Zoo and Aquarium Association is holding its annual conference. We're familiar with the recent deaths and exhibit closures in a handful of zoos, but this is rather notable: "The dropoff in elephant exhibits likely will continue," officials of the AZA admitted to the paper.

Of course the AZA immediately tried to re-spin the prediction as a small, temporary dip. But I suspect there are more stories around the country of zoo's such as Philadelphia's, which wasn't mentioned in the Sun-Times' list of troubled exhibits:
"Zoo elephants may have to leave town," says the Inquirer, "[u]nless the zoo can secure a hefty state funding commitment this fall or dramatically lower the price of its proposed $22 million elephant savanna." The fact is that zoos can no longer get away with housing elephants on a super-cruel few hundred square yards of concrete and rock - over the past couple of years the public's consciousness has been raised just enough that that's obviously wrong. The only way to keep elephants is to invest massive amounts of money, which may prove more of a stumbling block for zoo officials than any ethical argument.

FOIE GRAS FUTURE BAN ACTING NOW?

There have been some, and you know who you are, who have argued that the foie gras ban in California, which doesn't take effect until 2012, was worse than useless. And in terms of the most literal, legal effect, that may be true. But this story might make you wonder: Foie gras leaving restaurants early in face of state ban,
it's called, and it asserts that in one Califronia country, "the delicacy has all but disappeared from county restaurants after pressure from people who see its production as cruel to animals." It goes on to note that "Pamplemousse Grille in Solana Beach last February was the first area restaurant to voluntarily remove foie gras from its menu, and 13 others in the county have followed this year, according to Kath Rogers of the Animal Protection and Rescue League in San Diego." Are other counties picking up the slack, or is this a real trend?

AFTER THE FLOOD

I wish I could blame my week-long absence on Hurrican Katrina, but actually I was just really busy with other stuff. Speaking of the hurrricane, it's probably no news to anyone reading this that there are still animals trapped and starving in New Orleans and elsewhere. The Humane Society of the United States is doing heroic work finding, feeding and rescuing these animals. If you haven't donated something yet to help the hurricane's victims, or even if you have, please remember these victims as well.

NOW PLAYING: VEGCAST

Give your poor overworked eyes a break and treat your ears to the second episode of VEGCAST, the Veggie Podcast. A podcast is like a radio show you can listen to on your MP3 player (or your computer) whenever you want, and VegCast is a mix of news, interviews, commentary, and music from veggie musicians.

This is the Sounds of Summerfest edition, looking back at Vegetarian Summerfest 2005, where VegCast was first announced. In addition to sound clips from the conference, we have music from two artists who played there, namely Will Tuttle and Kyle Vincent, and an in-depth interview with Dr. Michael Greger, who is now Director of Public Health and Animal Agriculture for the Humane Society of the United States. And in Science Fact this week, a look at how a vegan diet can help stop or reverse prostate cancer.

Vegcast: Bringing you the sound of vegetarianism since July of this year.

USDA: "A BUNCH OF STOOGES"

This is a delightful phrasing, packing in both meanings of "Stooge" - a) the audience "volunteer" who's secretly working for you, and b) one of the trio of comically incompetent buffoons - and both with perfect accuracy.

The quote comes from Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer, who has fought the importation of young Canadian cattle over BSE concerns. His full quote was: "A few years ago, the four big meat companies, they expanded their role in this country. They bought a U.S. company called the United States Department of Agriculture. They are a bunch of stooges. The USDA crawled right into bed with them (the meat companies) and they run our internal policy and our international (beef) policy." Not often you hear a high-ranking official put it so bluntly.

Schweitzer may have been thinking of the specific stoogery of the August 19th (you'll never guess what day of the week that was) recall of 1,856 pounds of potential high-risk bone-in beef that had entered our country improperly from Canada. Even R-CALF was livid, expressing disappointment in the USDA's "failures," and in the fact that "although the processing facility, Green Bay Dressed Beef, voluntarily recalled the bone-in beef at issue, the recall was not initiated until Aug. 19, more than two weeks after this cow was processed." Yeah, that is kinda odd, ain't it?

Earlier that same week, it was revealed that "inspectors cited meatpackers more than 1,000 times over a 17-month period for violating rules concerning the removal of tissue associated with mad cow disease." While apologists try to downplay the "non-compliance" citations as trivial, the reports do indeed document "instances of meatpackers failing to properly remove 'specified risk materials' or SRMs-- brains, spinal cord tissue and other tissues that scientists say harbor the disease." Which means these entered the US food supply. 

And a couple days later, the Stooges admitted - only after a specific inquiry on this from the Associated Press -- that they had done no test other than IHC on at least 9,000 cows. You may remember IHC as the test that falsely cleared a Mad Cow back in November, an error we didn't find out about -- and wouldn't have, if the USDA chief had his way - until June of this year. Now, how exactly did that happen, again?

Funny you should ask. And even funnier that you expect the Stooges to provide an answer. After their lengthy taxpayer-funded investigation into that embarrassing and suspicious snafu, the final answer is... "Gosh, we just dunno!" Duh... Klonk!!! Whoop-whoop-whoop... Why I oughta...

It's hilarious, except that these knuckleheads are in charge of an industry that has literal life-and-death consequences for all of us.

THE ENDS JUSTIFY THE GRAVE-ROBBING?

OK, first of all, as in any such case there may be allegations flying that are not 100% confirmed, so I will preface this whole thing with a big "IF TRUE..."

But that said, the reported SHAC-like tactics of activists who have successfully shut down a guinea-pig farm in the UK must be condemned, loudly and publicly, by anyone who takes veganism seriously. When Pat Robertson calls for a foreign leader's assassination, it's damning that the Republican leadership with whom he fraternizes and works is silent. And it's the same thing with our movement. This stuff is beyond the pale, and if we don't disclaim it our ideology seems to collapse into it by default.

So you'll hear no applause from this quarter on this "victory" in the war over lab animals. "The Hall family at Darley Oaks Farm in Staffordshire said in a statement they would return to traditional farming in the hope that the remains of a relative would be returned to her grave. The family have also endured a paedophile smear campaign, the cutting of electricity and phone lines and regular protests. Farm workers and their families have also been targeted." This is shameful, and the perpetrators behind such stuff (other than "regular protests" of course) should understand that they are helping to destroy the credibility of all vegetarians with their violent zealotry. Grave-robbing extremists force family to close guinea pig farm goes one headline, and while it's sensationalist, it's unfortunately accurate. Great job tarring our peace movement as one of mindless violence, you cretins.

CATCH-UP SMORGASBORD

Here are a bunch of quick unrelated items that occurred during the past couple weeks, which I just wanna get off the plate sooner rather than later, so let's rip through 'em...

Tuna sales are off an estimated $150 million, or 10 percent, in the last year after a joint FDA/EPA advisory that children and pregnant women should not eat more than a can of tuna a week due to the risks of mercury in tuna. So that industry is explicitly following in the footsteps of the dairy industry, creating a bogus campaign to bamboozle consumers into paying for more of their toxic product.

More animals join the learning circle - Once again animals turn out to be smarter and more like us that previously thought, as it's found that killer whales and chimpanzees both pass on "traditions" to other members of their group. The findings add to evidence that cultural learning is widespread among animals.

Zoo elephants have no educational value, expert says in Chicago, while here in Philadelphia it turns out that our Zoo elephants may have to leave town unless PA taxpayers are willing to cough up millions of dollars for major expansion of the animals' prison cells.

OK, it looks like these others are gonna need posts of their own. Thanks for coming back for more Meat Facts, folks.

BACK FROM VACATION

Pressing national events have forced me to end my blogging vacation one day early as I rushed back to MeatFactville to get this word out to you. Geez, what a disaster down south, but I'm not going to go on about it because there are plenty of blogs where that's relevant, and right now, it isn't here.

ON VACATION

There won't be any more posts till the end of August, as I'm away from a computer, and only able to enter this now through the graces of the Panama City Beach Library.

Till then, go hang out at Vegan Freaks. I'm reading their book, and will have a full report when I get back. Take it easy!

MORE QUESTIONS ON SUPPOSED 'SWINE FLU'

The mysterious virus in China has now killed 38 people and infected 206, and answers on how to stop it, or even what it is, seem to be more elusive than ever. The World Health Organization has recommended that further testing be conducted to nail down the identity of the pathogen, and Steve Mitchell reports that some experts are suggesting it could actually involve Ebola or Bird Flu. Whatever it is, two things are clear: 1) It's not good, and 2) The Chinese government is acting recklessly in actively blocking critical information and knowledge about exactly what's going on in Sichuan province.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS FOR KILLERS

"Faster, faster, get that product out the door!" is the industry byword. The results are cuts, amputations, skin disease, permanent arm and shoulder damage, and even death from the force of repeated hard cutting motions. When injured employees seek workers' compensation claims for their juries, they are told, "You got hurt at home, not on the job."

Sound familiar? Yes, of course, it's meatpacking, the most dangerous factory job in America, which once again has caused hand-wringing among the pundit class because workers are treated so terribly. Never mind how animals are treated - for some reason that's an unexamined given, but the abuse of people is a separate, newsworthy phenomenon. "The meatpacking industry has shown little inclination to respect its workers' rights on its own. Congress and the Bush administration should take decisive steps to protect the lives and well-being of these men and women. But they are unlikely to act until consumers demand meat that is not tainted by workers' blood, sweat and fear."

Uh, yeah. And how soon are consumers gonna demand that? Probably right around when they demand food that's not tainted by animals' blood, sweat and fear - which is to say, never, unless a great many people in this country suddenly wake up. Does this writer for Human Rights Watch really not get the fact that Americans refuse to think about how "meat" got from being an animal to being on their fork? Does this writer really not grasp that it's exactly that strained, desperate apathy among the public that enables meat companies to get away with the worst human-rights abuses of any top-tier industry? Cruelty begets cruelty, folks. Secrecy begets ignorance. An honest, transparent, fair system for those whose job is to needlessly kill sentient beings is as likely as a war without death. Ain't gonna happen.