Be the Change
Vegetables help prevent cancer and other diseases. Most Americans don't eat enough of them. Children's food habits and preferences are influenced by their parents.
"Each of us must be the change agent we want to see in the world."
– Mahatma Gandhi
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."
– Leo Tolstoy
"They always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
– Andy Warhol
Girl enjoying a cupcake at the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale (photo by Debora Durant)
Buying this:
helps prevent this:
helps prevent this:
Before being slaughtered, pigs raised for food are crammed as tightly as possible into trucks, where they may ride for more than 24 hours, sometimes in sweltering heat, with no food or water. Then they are dumped into holding pens, again with no food or water, or even a comfortable place to lie down, for up to another 12 hours. Some pigs cannot withstand this prolonged punishment, and as Vegan Outreach says, "they suffer to death" before reaching the slaughterhouse line. That's what happened to the pig in the photo. These deaths are built into the business model. (Photo: Viva! USA)
Many people are giving up "red meat." This is a good start, but the animals who most need our help are the chickens, because so many of them are killed, and they are not even afforded the rudimentary protections of U.S. animal welfare laws.
About 9 out of 10 animals killed for food are chickens. They're only seven weeks old; some are still peeping as they're grabbed by the feet and hung in slaughterhouse shackles.
More to come...
About 9 out of 10 animals killed for food are chickens. They're only seven weeks old; some are still peeping as they're grabbed by the feet and hung in slaughterhouse shackles.
More to come...
Author Carol Adams notes that every time you make a purchase, you make a statement. You are telling producers, “I approve. Do it again.”
Wouldn't it be better to live in a world where we didn't create animals just to kill them?
And where we didn't run factories in which people kill all day?
You can help make this happen—mostly through your individual purchasing decisions. One of the beauties of this kind of "activism" is that it does not interfere with any of your other activities. You don't need to attend meetings, or knock on people's doors, or write letters to the editor, or elect a candidate. You simply buy one thing instead of the other thing.
But what to buy? What about the effect on the environment of processed veggie meats wrapped in plastic? What about "free range" meat? How can one know which cosmetic products really are really "cruelty-free"?
More to come...
Thumbnail photo credits –
(where applicable)
(where applicable)
Coyote: Jim Robertson;
Turkey: Debora Durant;
Rabbit: Friends of Rabbits;
Chimpanzees: Save the Chimps;
Dog: Dogs Deserve Better
Logo: Red Robin Design