“If our holiday meals are supposed to serve as a reflection of our gratefulness, can a turkey that spends its life crammed by the tens of thousands into giant warehouses, on antibiotics, that has been bred to suffer — as is true for more than 99% of turkeys sold in America — be the choice we feel best about?”

Then the reader is offered some links, one of which isn’t shown here:

• What is a turkey?
• What is factory farming?
• Meat-free holiday meal recipes
• http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/TalkTurkey

A new website explains farm animal feed:

They’ve got a petition you can sign, but until or unless things change, you know what the safest response to this information is:
GO VEGAN!

A meat industry website called SafeFoodInc.org purports to enlighten readers about the film Food, Inc. The website offers a section called “Myths & Facts” where it contrasts their meat industry spin with the documentary scenes. Some of their claims I agree with wholeheartedly, yet I come to a different conclusion than they do. Let’s look at the “facts” and think about them:

“The fact is that the broiler chicken industry has 1.5 billion chickens on the ground at any one time. To house them the Polyface ["humane"] way would require the use of 20 million shelters, towed by thousands of tractors, over millions of acres of land. The cost would be enormous, and so would the ‘carbon footprint’ of diesel-powered tractors and the additional land needed to support the movable shelter system.”

The conclusion: so-called “ethical meat” cannot be produced at the high rate and low cost that factory farming produces meat. The costs of “humane meat” are not just financial, either, they’re environmental too. Factory farmed meat is not acceptable because it’s so cruel, so terrible for the environment, and it spreads disease (like the Swine Flu). If you want to “eat meat responsibly” then you cannot eat meat regularly. It’s just that simple. Cut back or cut it out!

You cannot eat meat at every meal or even every day and do it ethically. You must reduce or eliminate your consumption.

More from the website:

“Americans purchase 35 billion pounds of chicken per year. To suggest that this tremendous demand could be met by small-scale farming with labor- and energy-intensive methods is simply a fantasy.”

This is true. The only way to satisfy current demands for animal products is to continue using factory farms. Regardless of where you stand on animal rights issues, meat consumption must be reduced if we’re going to move away from the highly destructive system of factory farming.

Factory farms are destroying the environment, they pose human health risks, and they are terribly cruel to animals. If you care about animals you need to reduce or eliminate your meat consumption. If you care about the environment you need to reduce or eliminate your meat consumption. If you care about human health you need to reduce or eliminate your meat consumption.

The show, a murder mystery series, was about the murder of a chicken farmer. But a side story involved the artist Angela’s desire to sponsor a rescued piglet. She wanted to raise enough money to care for this one piglet… and she found supporters in unusual places: bacon-lovers and health-motivated vegetarians.

Now, FOX is asking viewers to help name the piglet.

The Bones website asks people to email their piglet name suggestions to angelaspiglet@gmail.com.

What would you name a pink, big-eared, rescued piglet?

The nearly 300 million turkeys killed each year in the U.S. spend their entire lives crammed in large sheds with little room to move. Artificially inseminated and bred to gain enormous amounts of weight, they suffer heart attacks, broken limbs, lameness, and death from their genetically-induced accelerated growth rate.

After 16 weeks of misery, they are hung on a conveyer belt, their throats are cut, and they are dumped — sometimes still fully conscious — into scalding water to strip their feathers.

Please urge the President to pardon all the turkeys bound for the dinner plates at the White House this year. Go here to sign the petition >>

From the article:

meat-free and meat-substitute meals make up more and more of what we eat. The marketers and the activists are dealing with new groups of people, known as meat-avoiders and meat-reducers. Outside those who have a clear philosophical platform for eschewing meat, there are increasing numbers of these people, either cutting down on meat or trying not to eat it where possible, but without necessarily ever calling themselves “vegetarian”.

Mintel categorises 23% of the population as meat-reducers, people attempting to eat less meat, probably mainly for health reasons. Another factor is climate change – livestock rearing produces methane, which is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in global warming terms, according to Lord Stern. It identifies 10% as meat-avoiders, people who plan to eat little or no meat but sometimes lapse, and who might well accept the ethical basis of vegetarianism.

There are millions and millions of people seeking new vegan options at restaurants, schools, hospitals, and all over the place. MILLIONS.

Cows crammed in together in a feedlot.

These feedlots are where the cattle are often sent to before slaughter, even if they lived on a “humane” farm prior. The feedlots are densely populated and produce massive amounts of waste. The cows are generally fed corn and/or soy, which is not a natural food source for them. The result is environmental damage, human health risks, and animal abuse. Read more here, here, and here.

The website link says:

“Fed cattle” are raised on pasture land for 12-18 months and transported to a feedlot for finishing, where they spend four to six months. (source)

Then they’re slaughtered.

Another image, this one is from the banner on the front page:

Pigs in confinement.

Oh, and the website, “Sustainable Meat Industry,” also offers some helpful links… to McDonald’s and Wal-Mart. Gee… I wonder who paid for the website.

Here’s a screenshot:

Hat tip: vegan.com

Plus, an old post from the archives.

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Enjoy!

For the Nonvegans:

Vegan Recipes (from the HSUS):

• Grilled Polenta
• Magnificent Mixed Beans and Bulgur
• Moroccan Chickpea Patties
• Portabella Mushrooms Stuffed with Tofu
• Seitan “Jerk” Style
• Soy-Mirin Tofu over Rice with Broccoli and Peanut Sauce
• Get more recipes at the Vegan Soapbox recipe search >>

Why & How Vegan – World Vegan Day:

News & More:

Clothing and Medicine:

Dairy & Veal:

Environment:

Health:

Animal Companions:

Blast from the past:

• Impacting Their Bottom Line – practical animal advocacy includes some “welfarism.”