MONEY! YEAH, THAT'S THE TICKET

Here's what Newsday says: Rx for avian flu: money - Its spread can be contained by paying farmers whose sick birds are killed. Yeah, that's a good long-term strategy. Keep on raising birds not just to be needlessly killed for food, but to be needlessly killed for nothing. I'm sure that'll stop the flu, as well as whatever the next zoonotic disease is on the horizon...

MOCKING MEAT

The Washington Post has a cute piece about mock meats, which contains this tasty morsel: "There is wizardry afoot in a large number of Washington area restaurants, where the skill for counterfeiting meat has become rather sophisticated. ... Mutton isn't dressing up as lamb, soy is."

Except that other than seafood, almost all mock meats are derived from seitan, not soy. It's not a big deal, it just brought home to me that "soy" is becoming a false generic like "kleenex," in this case meaning "that non-meat, healthy-type food."

But who am I to complain? The book from which this blog takes its address has almost nothing whatsoever to do with soy. No, really.

COMPASSION OVER KILLING WINS ON EGG LABEL

This happened last week, but I missed it: Egg producers across the United States can no longer stamp the "Animal Care Certified" logo on egg cartons, after the deceptive nature of the logo was brought to the attention of the FTC and BBB by Compassion Over Killing. Congrats to them - they worked hard on this. And note that this change, while not a huge step in reducing animal suffering, is one that was brought about by convincing authorities to enforce existing laws, not by targeting the neighbors and relatives of the egg producers themselves.

UPDATE 10/11: ... or by hitting them in the face with a pie. Come on, people.