The depths of industrialized animal agriculture

For those of us who have studied sustainability extensively, or sometimes even briefly if we are lucky to have found the proper resources.  We learn of the atrocities in the industrial animal agricultural world.  Which unfortunately happens to be our world, but the devastations of which, are often hidden from view for the ordinary citizen.

A new documentary seeks to expose some of these details, and it would be interesting to find out exactly what they have learned.  So far I've come across one really in depth article about agriculture and the environment (http://treeoflifecenterus.com/blog-posts-by-gabriel-cousens-m-d-perspectives-on-global-warming-2/),  actually and this one (http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es702969f)

The second one is quite a good source of information as it really puts it into clear perspective that eating only plant based foods (even foods from abroad) treads much lighter on the environment than eating animal products locally -- which I know at least one person who left veganism for this reason alone,  hecause he thought it was better for the environment to eat milk, eggs and meat locally than to eat fruits from abroad! Which is completely not the case, and it's so important for that message to get out.


 I mean other sources are rather touch and go, but it is quite a huge dilemma in our world.

To support the documentary check out their indiegogo site:
http://cowspiracy.com/ a link will show up above the trailor.

I definitely feel like they could have come up with a better name, maybe it's fine.. but it just makes it a little harder to recommend with a serious face or tone.. which actually the content of the film is very serious and very important! So not sure the name totally matches but oh well.. at least people can't forget the name!

Having guests over as a vegan: 101

Whether it's a party or just a few people over for dinner, whether you feel like going all out to show how amazing vegan food can be, or if you aren't much into going all out but need a few ideas as to what to make, here are a few ideas on how to plan for your meal.

1. Make sure there is a variety of options and a good amount of protein sources
in the form of mushrooms, seitan, tempeh, beans (or nuts, seeds, avocados if you want to make raw food).  And if you want to be on the extra safe side for a large gathering prepare 2 dishes containing one or more of these ingredients -- fill 'em up! 

2. Next most filling item would be carbohydrates. Do you want the main dish to be served in a wrap, on rice, pasta or potatoes? The good news is you get to decide, it can be fun and exciting to mix and match main dishes with different kinds of carbs.  curried lentil burrito or cilantro black beans over pasta. (If you are going for a raw vegan meal, you can always sneak fruit into the meal through a side smoothie, appetizers, salad or in the dessert.

3. Vegetables: having at least one side of plain or specially prepared vegetables is always a good idea.  Especially featuring the color green.  Green vegetables are an awesome source of calcium and many other vitamins and minerals, they are even a good source of omega 3. And make sure there will be enough.  One head of kale steamed shrinks down to serve only 2 people, so plan accordingly.

4. Is it a party?  To keep things fun and interesting, keep finger foods available prior to serving the meal.  Lay out cut veggies and fruits along with vegan sauces. Maybe also some seasoned nuts and seeds.  If you are up to a little more work, other appetizers can be made.  Such as baked stuffed mushrooms on toothpicks, bruschetta, or really anything made with phylo dough is always an exciting treat!

5. Salad:  Depending on the amount of time and effort that you would like to put into preparing a meal, will definitely have the most to do with what you actually serve to your guests, but at bare minimum a main dish and a salad in most cases will be enough to keep guests happy. 

          Possible one dish choices: Lasagna -- this is probably one of the most filling one dish ideas that most people enjoy.  Any recipe can be used, but to make it a little more exciting add: seasoned tofu -- make a tofu ricotta, marinated eggplant and or mushrooms (for a meaty texture), spinach (can add a stringy consistency--in a good way-- to make up for no cheese).  Also other vegetables such as zucchini, carrots and broccoli can also be added.

Other one dish possibilities that can perfectly accompany salad:

pasta, enchiladas, chili, pizza...

Finally

6. The Dessert!  Perhaps one of the best ways to show the wonders of vegan food.  Especially if you are serving a raw vegan meal, it's imperative that you do not skip dessert.  Raw vegans can often feel satisfied after a salad, but they can't expect the same from their guests, a well planned raw vegan meal will satisfy guests and a dessert will definitely provide extra assurance that they have had enough to eat.

If time is an issue, pick up some vegan ice-creams, banana and chocolate syrup from the supermarket.  Banana split can be an easy whip up recipe that everyone can enjoy.

Last, have fun with it, prepare your favorites-- and make sure it isn't just a salad, guests may not be used to having such light meals.  With a little bit of thought and care, your guests will be raving about their experience for the next years to come!

Namaste!

For a sample menu see here:

http://definitelynotmartha.blogspot.com/2007/01/feeding-vegan-food-to-non-vegans_25.html

So you want to become a farmer?

How do you change professions? How do you do it in a way that you can support yourself?

You don't necessarily have to quit your current occupation right now.

So in what ways can you get involved?

1.  Assess your current skills
-- Where are you currently working? What are you good at?

• Business?  That is awesome, maybe you could use your skills to help farmers in some way.  Advertising their product, or redesigning daily operations to be more financially viable- only you know your skillset, and you can definitely use it to enter the 'field' through a slightly different way, but it will work.  
• Construction?  Farmers, especially on small operations and especially permaculturists are usually always building something.  Learn about common buildings that are needed, it's a great avenue to become more involved.
• Media?  Obviously these kind of degrees are quite far away from what I've been specializing in.  But this is just meant to give general ideas or direction.  Perhaps it's possible to make green commercials or ones for specific farms.  Create a series of interviews with farmers and post them online.  Use your skill to enhance local farms.  
• Photography, Music, Art?  The creative eyes, how can we bring more culture to our farms?  campfires, music, potlucks?  Creative photography of farms or other sustainable operations, same with art.  You can use your skills in designing visually pleasing farm plans.  Ecotourism is becoming more of thing, research it, they will surely be interested in adding culture to their establishment.  
• Philosophy?  In what ways can you gain inspiration from the natural areas?  Perhaps writing a paper or a book on what it means to live close to nature.  What are your ideas? How can the ecology and social perspectives of farms be looked at in new ways? 
• Writer?  Specialize on natural systems.  Tell the stories of our farmers, what are their struggles, their doubts, their worries?  How does mainstream life support or not support farmers?
• Doctor, healthcare worker?  How does the treatment of our soils affect our food?  How does food affect our health?  In what way can treat the soil differently in order to get a different result in our bodies?  How do wild foods compare to processed or storebought foods or even fresh foods?  Do the types of proteins we consume make a difference?  Are vitamins enough, is there a better way to think about this whole system?  
• Anthropology? How do different countries view food and food systems? What are the differences between cultures and foods eaten and grown?  How does GMOs affect society at large?  
• Language? How do local languages affect the treatment of the land? What words do they use to describe features of the land, and what deeper meanings are also prescribed to these words?  Translation is be a valuable tool, and as languages dwindle, so does the ancient knowledge on natural systems that was intertwined in that language.  In what ways can farmers obtain greater access to the rest of the world, or to what way can the knowledge of that farmer get to the rest of the world.  Explore the relationship.  Travel, interview, find out.  
• Finance?  This skill can be used anywhere, most farms do most of their own financial work, but maybe you could bulk the work of several farms in a way that is affordable to them, yet is beneficial for you too.  Basically creating some kind of an easy system for for you to easily keep track of their finances.. while maybe for them gives them one less thing to worry about.  
• Teacher?  Permaculture teacher training, there are so many people out there who are interested in sustainable systems.  Also perhaps a training series in master gardening, it's really a growing field and people are gaining a lot of interest in growing their own food these days.
• Technician/Engineer?  There are so many people interested in green energy and ways to set up their farms using different ways.  How do you create oil from Hemp or Algae?  Are biodigesters the best way to go always and how?  What's the best way to use solar energy?  So many questions.  Get out there and talk to farmers about some of the technological issues, most likely they will be so happy to work with you! 

Did I miss anything? These are pretty shortlisted, but it's meant to just give ideas.  How can you get involved with your skillset?

If it's still not enough, if you really want to dive in and get your hands dirty, there are options.

Check out your farms which are local.  Sometimes they can be decent paying, just because sometimes not a lot of people are interested in doing that kind of work-- namely farming.

Don't just visit one, explore your options, visit them all!  Where do you feel most comfortable?

Look at volunteer opportunities as well as paid positions.

 Many volunteer opportunities have much more learning opportunities than paid positions.  And sometimes much cooler.

They are volunteer for a reason, because it has value apart from the money.

Skillsets, room and board often, community, fun...

Some allow families even to come and stay.

Explore the internet find organic farms, permaculture sites, revegetation/reforestation projects.


My favorite community remains Sadhana Forest -- with sites located in Haiti, Kenya and India.
For long term volunteers you don't pay, it's a gift economy.

So many ways to get involved

Follow your heart.

Don't give up.

Meet challenges with a smile


:):):)

Cache Valley Vegans

Hello,

The other day my friend mentioned that USU had a vegan group.  I was interested to see if I could find  more information online but it turned out that all of the information was outdated and the group
was no longer.  I only know a few other vegans in town, but I am aware that there are more than that!  So in attempts to connect vegans in my town I decided to make a facebook page.  It's pretty amazing because it got 45 likes in 2 days!  I couldn't really believe it, it seems like there are more vegans out there, and since facebook and twitter doesn't do the best job of linking it google search, I decided that a blog may be the best way to go.


To access the Cache Valley Vegan facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/cachevalleyvegans?ref=hl

To access the twitter page:
https://twitter.com/LoganVegans

So there it is for all of the USU vegans, Logan vegans, Cache Valley vegans, or those who just may be interested in learning more about it, and meeting with others, these sites are for you!

Our first potluck will be May 31st, 12:30pm at Lundstrom Park

A foraging hiking trip will be May 17th, 9am and will be meeting at First Dam to go up the canyon together with a local foraging expert! 

So far it looks like some things that members will be doing:

--meeting with store/restaurant managers in obtaining more vegan options
--hikes to learn about local edible plants
--local vegan cooking classes
--potlucks
--play dates among families with kids -- connecting families with other
   vegans, and addressing social elements of food choices-- (if anyone is interested in this please email me and I can get you connected to other families)
--perhaps other types of events -- whatever we feel like :)
   maybe movie nights or lake trips... or maybe trips to slc
 

Owning animals

This is a fantastic article:

http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/pets-the-inherent-problems-of-domestication/#.U0F6Vl6nTt4

I adore animals.  I love being around them, but I cannot justify breeding them and keeping them dependent on us just so we can love them.

There are so many animals in this world, and so many need a home.

Let's create animal sanctuaries.

Let's end animal mortuaries, and the excess of beings that we can not possibly take care of.

Balance can be restored.

And maybe with that balance, our love of the natural world can expand, and our love for animals
can be shared with wildlife.

Today, we end up killing wildlife so we can maintain caged life -- that was once wildlife but is no longer due to our manipulation of their evolution.

It doesn't seem right to me.

Can we love animals, as they are, as they were born to be?

Most amazing eco-commercial you will ever see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iIkOi3srLo&feature=youtu.be

Please share :):)

This commercial actually makes me want to do all the things it says to 'not' do!

Brilliant.

Could you imagine if we all decided to do those things?? What a different world we'd live in :) 

Greening your Company

How can a company become Greener?

1. Donate your profits.  Yes, this is huge.

Not only is it amazing for the world, but it is also great for marketing.
Donating 10% is a good start, but the more the better.
Who to donate to:  There are so many places to give money, but if you want to go green you have to
focus on donating money to NGOs who are working on saving endangered animals (like African Wildlife Foundation), indigenous people and their lands (like Amazon Watch), protecting wild lands (like Nature Conservancy), preventing bad political policies (like Food and Water Watch).
Please do avoid: cancer research studies (blackhole), there are many agencies that typically tend to be the go-to agencies for many people who feel like giving back.  The point of going green is donating to what actually promotes the oxygen we breathe, what promotes physically our sustenance on planet earth, which are all of the ecosystems.  It's not a bad thing to give to agencies that have humans as their focus on their agenda, but unfortunately we have this really unbalanced view of the planet where humans are center to everything -- kind of like how we used to think that the sun circled around the earth, because the earth was the 'center' of the universe.  Currently our perception is that 'humans' are the center of life.  But actually that thinking is exactly what will cause the end of our civilization if we don't adjust it accordingly.  Life is the center of life, and humans are a mere strand in this beautiful web of connections on planet earth.

2. Track down where all of your inputs come from:

Sustainable systems create happy people on all levels of that system, they don't pollute, they work with nature not against, they promote animal welfare, and wildlife.  Of course since our economic system has drived us pretty far away from models that are totally interconnected with these values -- our goal is to get them back as much as we can.  Or if we truly dedicated, we start from scratch and recreate success in a sustainable way.

Ask yourself these questions while contemplating on them deeply:

1-People-- where do your employees live, what are their work conditions-- this may go pretty far down the chain, what are they paid, are they happy? why are they interested in your company?
2-Money -- who are your consumers? Why do they buy your product? Does it serve their integrity?
3-Resources
    a-- Paper-- Where does it come from?  Who works where and for how long in order for that product                         to end up at your company?  Is it logged unsustainably?
    c-- Computers
   d --- Furniture
   e--- Machinery/Equipment
where does all of it come from, what are the working conditions of the people who work in the mines for the computers made, or the truck drivers who haul it, or the engineers who put them together, are they local, how many continents did those items have to travel to come to your business?
How can you give back? In what way can the lives of those at the 'bottom' of the chain be benefited the most.  Mine tailings cause huge environmental damage and can destroy the health of soils and bodies of water in the vicinity.  Tailings create acid run off that kill off wildlife and cause other types of destruction.  Is it possible to fund engineers to re-create equipment or materials using more plant based materials?  Is it possible to fund locals in the community to come together with the help of an expert to clean up their waters and restore their lands -- perhaps they could even plant bamboo for a new source of sustainable paper for your company!  Think big, clear your mind, let ideas flow into you. The greener you become, the more honored people will be to work for you and the more honored your customer base will be to support your work.

4. What are your outputs?
   a. Is the product healthy? Do they have animal products, or harmful ingredients--pesticides,                        preservatives?
       Supporting animal products is very taxing on the environment.  Cattle ranches in S America is          perhaps the biggest threat to the Amazon.  It takes far more calories to support animal operations            than it would to just support people with those same calories.  Also the way we raise animals today        'economically' is very taxing on the environment.  The amount of waste and excrement that comes          from these operations is hardly manageable. Even if it were to be shipped to be treated or recycled,        it's very expensive (to ship because of the weight), and often the main way to recycle the nutrients          is on agricultural land, while this may be a better option than synthetic nutrients, it doesn't address          the fact that large amounts of excrement isn't really that beneficial to the soil, it contains a lot of              salts, and phosphorus which can bind up other important elements in the soil.  A lot of the nitrogen        will eventually find it's way back into the land through water ways, which causes algal blooms and        kills fish by depleting the oxygen.  Animal products also are linked with many health problems in          people especially in industrialized countries where 'nutrients' are in excess and overload.  But I              won't get into that further.  Basically animal products are not green.
   b. Does the product support families and communities?
   c.  Is the product resource efficient? Is it used with minimal resources?  Once it the product is bought,         does it use a lot of energy?  Does it produce it's own energy (perhaps solar or human powered) ?
   d. Is the product affordable?
   e. Does the price account for environmental costs?
   F.  Is it beautiful?  Will it be useful for years to come?  Is it practical?  Does it have a variety of uses?

That's all for now
Enjoy

:)