Crushed by the Rolling Stone

I have been debating on writing this blog because, if you are like me, some things are just too horrible to bear. It has taken me about two weeks to write this because this blog might have a two-fold effect: one positive and one negative. The positive effect is that you will read the article in question, and the negative effect is that you will read the article in question.

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article in Rolling Stone magazine about a number of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan who went on a killing spree. Earlier this year when the shootings took place in Arizona and Australia was hit with major floods, I went on a hiatus from reading the news as sometimes it is so incredibly disturbing that I can’t sleep.

But when I saw this article in Rolling Stone, I thought, as I often do, that I need to have a good understanding about the horrors that the U.S. military (among our other entities) perpetuates against innocent people – aside from the war we ravage against them.

Admittedly I was not completely prepared for the physical and emotional reaction I would have. The images of the bloody body of the fifteen-year-old child who was murdered were chilling. Though when I got to the pictures of the soldiers (despicable, murderous psychopaths) posing with the young boy’s body as if he were a deer killed in a hunt, I had to stop, as my stomach was sick and I was short of breath.

I had viewed these images while at work, and I had to step outside the office to get some air. All I wanted to do was go home and cry. At the same time, I had to question why I looked at those images. And why did some bother me so much more than others?

I knew why I looked at the images. For the same reasons that I investigated factory farms, slaughterhouses and auction houses: the need to bear witness. The need to speak with some authority and, of course, the need to understand…or at least try to.

It took me a while to really analyze myself – my stronger reaction of the humans involved who perpetuated the savage act– the undeniable, unbearable acceptance of our utter cruelty. For some reason having the killers there made it unavoidable to accept how despicable we as a species can be. Filming pigs, chickens, ducks and cows in factory farms was difficult, but watching the majestic and beautiful black Angus slip at the auction house was painfully intense. It was hard to see a huge, strong animal fall and have some idiot poke and prod at him to get him to stand. The human participates in this act. Or to watch the ducks at the slaughterhouse struggle to upright themselves as they have been shackled upside down. The people there were hanging them, watching them.

These soldiers, murderers in Afghanistan, took delight in their killing spree. Like some serial killers, they took pieces of the bodies of their victims.

Sigh…. I write this knowing I have no solutions, and the only thought that I can cling to is relishing the fact that I can’t understand this--that I can’t relate to it-- and I am proud of that. That this type of wickedness is beyond my comprehension.

Thankfully, many of you reading this are on the other side of the wretched coin I saw exhibited in Rolling Stone – you, like me, are doing what you can to turn the tide. To expose these types of horrific acts and do what we can to end them.

Reading the article left me feeling a bit powerless and in anguish. I guess that is why so much of my energy is spent working on issues that I know I, and we together, can have a positive impact on. After spinning in my mind on how to fix the military – I decided it was a bigger task than I was capable of.

Kind of like when I was younger and overwhelmed with apartheid in South Africa, animal suffering, war and the death penalty. I realized that with certain issues – not eating animals and at the time honoring the boycott of grapes (on behalf of the farm workers)— I could do my part.

It’s not too difficult a task to not contribute to the slaughtering of animals for food, to encourage others to not buy “meat,” eggs and dairy, to work for justice for farm workers and an end to slavery in the chocolate industry – these are relatively simple ways we can all help to make the world a better place.

Speak out Reach out for Meatout

The “Great American Meatout” (as it was called when I first got involved in the late ‘80s, when it always fell on March 20th) is one of my favorite events. Organized by FARM, a group in our movement, Meatout is an incredibly positive event that can be done in a big or small way.

This year, Food Empowerment Project is a proud co-sponsor of the event!

When I was introduced to the concept of Meatout, it was equated with the “Great American Smokeout.” I hope I am not showing my age by mentioning that… I remember being in elementary school wearing a sticker of a frog with big red lips and “The Great American Smokeout.” The point was to encourage kids to not smoke and we wore our stickers with pride.

Seems like it should not be our job to teach children to eat healthier (and obviously more compassionately), but it seems to be now. You don’t see the schools doing it – but wouldn’t it be great to hear them talk about Meatout over the loudspeakers and have a week of animal-free meals in the cafeterias? I would like to think this will eventually happen, sooner rather than later.

It seems to me that kids would understand this issue more easily than smoking. Most children have a strong love for animals; wouldn’t this be the perfect time to take advantage of children’s innate sense of compassion while at the same time helping them understand the importance of eating healthy?

Okay, back from my dream and back to why I love Meatout.

I have been participating in Meatout for more than 20 years. I remember organizing an “Adopt A Carnivore” week for Meatout with my university group. We set up a table for a week and had people pledge to give up eating “meat” for the week and people who were vegetarian pledged to go vegan. Everyone got a bag filled with cookies, a tiny statue of a farmed animal, literature, etc ., and then at the end of the week we all went to eat at a vegetarian restaurant (no vegan restaurants in Austin back then). Years later I heard from people who had actually stopped eating animals due to their one-week pledge.

Over the years, I have served veggie burgers at various State Capitols, restaurants and universities. Not long ago, I started a new job and moved to a new area so I knew I couldn’t do a big event. Instead, I bought everyone at my office a veggie burger. None of them were vegetarian, so it was a good test. One of my colleagues now only eats veggie burgers and has been taste testing some vegan cheeses!

So big or small, it doesn’t matter what you do. We should treat every day like Meatout and always use it as an opportunity to speak out for the animals around the world. But hey, this day is the time for special emphasis, when more people will notice it!

I just got back from handing out 200 vegan burgers at the great San Jose State University with my local group, Santa Clara County Activists for Animals. Students were eager to give the meatless burgers a try and learn more. Such a positive feel good event – for everyone involved. Our St. Patrick’s Day slogan: Happy St. Patrick’s Day – Be Green – Go Vegan!

So please, Speak out and Reach out this Meatout!

For more details: http://www.meatout.org/

Don’t Cry Me a River—Coke Might Buy It

In 2006, I had the honor of speaking at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. I spoke on corporate animal factories and the devastation they were having on animals, workers and the environment and how many of these factories were coming from the U.S. In attendance were activists from Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, the U.S., Venezuela and a number of other countries. Afterwards, we all ate at a vegetarian restaurant nearby.

As some of you know, this experience is what inspired me to create the Food Empowerment Project. So many the issues close to my heart were discussed—environment, labor, water, immigration—and I was there to help bring up the animals. Another incredible part of the conference was that we were able to take tours to see some of the progress that was being made in Caracas.

One of the speakers I was privileged to hear when I was there was Oscar Olivera, the coordinator of the Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (“The Coalition in Defense of Water and Life”). I had already seen him in the movie The Corporation and was familiar with the famous story of how he and others in his community of Cochabamba, Bolivia, eventually stopped the billion-dollar U.S. corporation Bechtel from privatizing their water.

This was the first I had heard of a corporation literally buying the rights to water. You can read more about this issue on a new section of our website: Water Usage & Privatization.

Even after I started to pay attention to the issue, I truly thought that this injustice was only taking place overseas, that somehow corporations were exploiting developing countries – and charging them for water. I knew Coke was privatizing water in India (and mostly recently I learned they are also doing this in Chiapas, Mexico). Luckily, in both Bolivia and India, activists have been successful in stopping it.

But did you know it was happening in the U.S. as well? Yes, even our water supply is being bought up. How short-sighted is this?

This is when I wish Alan Shore were real! (Okay, I just started watching Boston Legal and wish he could take on some of these corporations that I vent about.)

A corporation owning water? I don’t mean they have water on their property and they own it; I mean they want to own rivers, and they want the water in our aquifers. We already lose so much of our water to animal agriculture, but now we are losing it to the likes of corporations like Nestlé and Coca Cola? How dare they. And how dare any government allow this to happen.

How did it come to this? How can we get out of it?

We have all been hearing for the past decade that water is going to be the precious fluid that wars are fought over in the future – not oil. And I guess these companies are getting a head start?

One might think that nothing can be done living in a community not currently affected by water privatization. But everyone should be on the lookout for these corporations seeking to privatize our water, and remember that we can all boycott companies such as Nestlé and Coca-Cola for their participation in depriving people of water. Water is a natural resource that we all need to live, and yet they've turned it into a commodity from which they make a huge profit.

Furthermore, we can avoid buying bottled water. Yes, I know, this is not the solution, but it is a small step that each of us can take to not support this form of exploitation. You can buy stainless steel reusable bottles—like those from our friends at Food Fight! or Herbivore (please do not buy Nalgene as they make equipment used in animal experiments).

Thanks to Mat Thomas for his research and work on the following sections: Water Usage & Privatization and Pollution.

And if you haven’t yet had a chance to check our other new section on our website about Farmers’ Markets, please do! Thanks goes out to Katie Cantrell for volunteering her time to write this section!

Been down this road before…

Food Empowerment Project has recently thrown our support behind AB 376, which would ban the possession of shark fins in California.

But unfortunately, this blog isn’t about why sharks are one of my favorite animals (oh, but let me know if you want me to elaborate on that), it is about a situation nearly as grim as the one that sharks are facing now.

The bill has stirred up controversy – it is co-authored by a wonderful Assemblymember in my county, Assemblymember Fong, but it is being blasted by a State Senator Yee from San Francisco, who is running for mayor. And unfortunately, he is attempting to make this an issue about Chinese culture.

As a person of color, I find two things incredibly distressing about these situations:

1. When ethnicity, race, or whatever you want to call it, is used to condone any form of animal exploitation or cruelty.
2. When people who defend the animals expose themselves to be racists.

Food Empowerment project was started to show the interconnections of both human animal and non-human animal injustices. One of my main mottos is “Oppression is oppression no matter what form it takes.”

Now, as someone who attended the charreada when I was young, I often speak out in opposition to the cruelties involved in these traditional rodeos (not the beauty of other parts of these events, just those involving animals). My memories of attending are of complete sadness. I am appalled when people call that our “culture.” To me, every cruelty and injustice, even under the guise of cultural tradition, needs to be stopped (including many of those in the U.S.).

Regardless of how strongly I feel about the animal cruelty at these events, I am just as disgusted by the vitriolic comments against my people (for example Mexicans are lazy and are just cruel to animals). In order to comment along with the people who are opposed to the animal cruelty I have to speak against their hateful comments otherwise I would feel as if I am siding with absolute racists.

Those of us who do not tolerate animal abuse can still be proud of our culture.

When I worked on the law in California to ban the production and sale of foie gras, the race card was brought out again. The producer (of El Salvadorian descent) claimed it was a race issue. I quickly reminded the legislators that the cruelty involved in the production of foie gras had nothing to do with culture.

And here it is again with the shark finning bill. The race card is dropped and people who are working on the bill are at a loss since it is such a simple and clear issue of preventing a form of cruelty as well as protecting species who are currently threatened with extinction. And yet, I read comments on blogs that absolutely sicken me with their xenophobic, racist remarks about the Chinese people.

My initial reaction of course is to worry about how incredibly prevalent racism is – even in California’s Bay Area. How can people who care about non-human animals be so filled with hatred? And what do they think they accomplish by expressing this?

This is the road I would never like to go down again. But I know it is inevitable in a society where the we are often pitted against one another.

I just hope that those reading this will stand strong and speak out against both. Please do not allow any comment in favor of the animals with even a tinge of racism go without speaking up for the animals and speaking against racism.

We, as advocates for justice, for compassion and for the animals, cannot allow it to continue.

For information on sharks, please see our webpage: http://www.foodispower.org/shark_finning.htm.

It's Thumper's Year!

Happy Chinese New Year! As it is the Year of the Rabbit, it seemed only fitting to draw attention to the section of our website that explores the issue of rabbits killed for food.

And, well, since a bunny has recently come into my life, I thought I would write a bit about that too. Since I was young, my favorite animals have always been sharks (thanks to Jaws) and cats (thanks to the strays in my apartment complex when I was little) – yes, I know, not exactly vegan critters. One of my favorite websites is http://icanhascheezburger.com/.

One rainy day when I was in college, I moved out of my dorm and into an apartment where I discovered a mama cat and her two kittens. I immediately became the proud parent of the mother and one of her babies, who had not even opened his eyes. I named him Malcolm (after Malcolm X), and he was a constant in my life one month shy of 17 years – I lost him in April of 2009. You can read more about Malcolm here: http://www.kerulos.org/projects/t-s-foodempowerment.html

The pain of losing my baby has been so intense for me that I have chosen not to have any more animals (in addition, my traveling schedule isn’t the best for a critter).

Recently, my boyfriend and I have moved in together, and with him has come his bunny (he only rescues special-needs rabbits).

I am close to many bunny lovers, but while I have appreciated their love and passion, I had previously only adored bunnies from afar. And now I am living with one. And, yes, she has won me over.

One of the most amazing things I have learned (and I know all of you bunny people are probably bored by now) is how incredible it is that their natural behaviors are still very much a part of their lives. My favorite example: bunnies use their powerful hind legs to thump the ground when they sense something – a predator, a strange noise, whatever – that they need to warn other rabbits about. And our bunny, in this case, thumps when our neighbors are too loud! I encourage her of course, hoping they will get the hint and quiet down – but truly, I am in awe of this instinct.

And not to get too sad here, but really the extent of my learning about rabbits has been in my work against cosmetic testing and animal experimentation. Most of what I know about rabbits – no tear glands, how silent they are, etc. – I’ve discovered in the context of them being experimented on for products from perfumes to detergents. It has always filled with me sadness and anger, and now I feel the only adequate word is anguish. Getting to know the true nature of these creatures as they clean their ears and hop with joy, my heart breaks at the thought of a laboratory and all of the thumping that might take place … or, perhaps worse yet, for those rabbits whose instinct has been bred out of them.

For information on buying cruelty-free, please see:
http://www.leapingbunny.org/

Anyhow, let’s make this Year of the Rabbit an opportunity to inform people about animals used in experiments and those animals raised for food – including rabbits!

Is your vegan chocolate really cruelty-free?

Thanks to all of you who have supported our work in this area and provided us with the names of companies to look into.

On our website we have posted the first list of companies that we can, with good conscience, recommend since they have no ties to the cacao (cocoa) beans in Africa where child slavery is not only a reality on conventional farms, but unfortunately can even be found on some of those that are fair trade. And you can also see where other companies stand on the issue.

To learn more about the issue, see our last blog "The chocolate we can all do without" and our website.

We are excited to see efforts to remove child labor from cocoa farms by the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Union (KKFU) in the country of Ghana, where they understand that there are people consuming chocolate who might boycott all chocolate sourced from Ghana until the issue of child labor is resolved in that country: “...chocolate consumers are very much alive to issues of human rights, issues of child rights and are asking questions of the chocolate companies where they’re getting their cocoa from and if the source of the cocoa is child-labour free. So the risk is that the whole of Ghana’s cocoa could be rejected on the world market because of child labour.”

We are encouraged by such efforts, and we hope our work will inspire other organizations to make similar strides toward cruelty-free chocolate.

Unfortunately, our list is not as long as we had originally hoped for, and what is disappointing is that many companies we thought would respond did not. We contacted each company via email over 3 months and a call was also made to all of the vegan specific companies.

You will notice that we have broken our list down into three parts: the companies that responded, those that did not, and those that would not reveal where they get their cocoa from.

The companies that responded that their chocolate is derived from West Africa do deserve some credit for being transparent.

I find most shameful not only the companies that would not be transparent with their supply chains, but also the vegan companies that didn’t even bother to respond.

So here is what we are asking you to do–for now:

Please only buy from companies that are on our recommended list.

See one of your favorites on our list as not responding or not being transparent? Contact the company and ask them to respond.

See one or more of your favorites on the list of companies we recommend you buy from? Don’t hesitate to thank them for doing their part and send them the link so they know this issue is important to you!

In the meantime, we are going to send a formal letter to a few of the companies that didn't respond or wouldn't be transparent with their supply chains, and based on their responses– or lack thereof– we might see fit to start a campaign to inform them how important this issue really is – and we hope you will join us!

Thanks go out to the following volunteers for their hard work and determination to get information from the companies: Sarah Galer, Chris Van Breen, Dana Portnoy and Mark Hawthorne.

And don't forget—this Valentine’s Day, buy your sweetie (or yourself!) chocolate that is free from animal suffering and human slavery.