11/1/2009 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:

1. Where Do We Stand Today?

2. Getting Vegetarianism Onto the Agenda of the Copenhagen Climate Conference

3. World Watch Magazine Article Argues That Animal-Agriculture Is Responsible For Over Half of Human-Induced Greenhouse Gases!

4. Leading UK Climate Expert Urges Eating Less Meat as Response to Climate Change

5. Conference of World Religions Considers Climate Change

6. New Book “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer Has Great Potential to Make a Difference

7. “Eating Animals is making Us Sick” – Article by Jonathan Safran Foer

8. Sweden Connects Dietary Changes to Global Warming

9. Israeli Vegan Chef Authors Meatless Cookbook

10. Are There Animal Products in Your Vitamin Pills?

11. JVNA Advisor/Activist Campaigns to Save Deer

12. Green Zionist Alliance Schedules Activities

13. Actions Needed Soon to Avoid Global Climate Crisis

14. Two Major Jewish Environmental Groups Seek Support

15. Israeli Knesset Votes Down Effort to Change “Animal Welfare Law” to “Animal Rights Law”

16. Canadian Jewish Veg Activist Has Letter Published in NY Jewish Week

17. My Recent Letters Sent to Editors and My Response to an Article, Both Re Climate Change and Dietary Connections

18. Connections Between Factory Farming and Swine Flu

19. Major NY Times Op-Ed Downplays Environmental Impact of Animal-Based Agriculture

20. Action Alert: Help Stop World’s Largest Animal Sacrifice

21. Some Valuable Material From the EVANA (European Vegetarian and Animals News Alliance) Newsletter

Some material has been deferred to a later update/newsletter to keep this one from being even longer.

[Materials in brackets like this [ ] within an article or forwarded message are my editorial notes/comments.]

Opinions expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the JVNA, unless otherwise indicated, but may be presented to increase awareness and/or to encourage respectful dialogue. Also, material re conferences, retreats, forums, trips, and other events does not necessarily imply endorsement by JVNA or endorsement of the kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observances, but may be presented for informational purposes. Please use e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and web sites to get further information about any event that you are interested in. Also, JVNA does not necessarily agree with all positions of groups whose views are included or whose events are announced in this newsletter.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,

Richard

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1. Where Do We Stand Today?

As many of the items below indicate, the world is rapidly approaching an unprecedented climate-catastrophe and a major societal shift to plant-based diets is essential to help shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path.

Unfortunately, the Jewish community, like most communities, is generally in denial re the threats and the urgency of shifts to vegetarian diets.

It is therefore essential that we continue and expand our efforts. Some suggestions are in the items below.

If you would like to help JVNA with this newsletter or in other ways, please let me know. Thanks.

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2. Getting Vegetarianism Onto the Agenda of the Copenhagen Climate Conference

There is a major conference on global warming scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark, at which delegates from the nations of the world will try to agree on a plan to sharply reduce greenhouse emissions.

I am working with a wonderful group of people who are trying to get vegetarianism onto the conference agenda. We are planning a major daylong event with many important speakers and the showing of videos that relate animal-based diets to global warming. (Information about such connections are in some of the items below.) We hope to also stress dietary connections to global warming at demonstrations and other planned events during the Copenhagen conference.

The issues are so urgent that, while I am currently trying to limit my traveling, there is a good chance that I will be going to Copenhagen for about 4 days during the climate conference. I would have a role in the day long educational event, as director of Veg Climate Alliance. I think it would also be valuable to have a Jewish presence in Copenhagen, and I hope I can help re that.

Suggestions very welcome re potential speakers, videos, ideas for banners and posters, and other issues related to our efforts. Thanks.

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3. World Watch Magazine Article Argues That Animal-Agriculture Is Responsible For Over Half of Human-Induced Greenhouse Gases!

A cover article “Livestock and Climate Change: What if the key actors in climate change are...cows, pigs, and chickens?” in the November/December issue of World Watch magazine has the potential of changing the outlook for effectively responding to the impending global climate catastrophe. The authors, environmentalists Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, discuss all phases of livestock agriculture and conclude that this sector causes the emission of at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases. They argue that food producers should mount a major campaign to promote the consumption of plant-based foods, including meat analogs.

Further information can be found at the World Watch magazine web site (http://www.worldwatch.org). The complete article can be read at http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf.

Since this article has great potential to effect the dialog on climate change and help shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path, please spread this message as widely as possible.

A press release from World watch magazine is below.

Many thanks,

Richard (Schwartz)

Director, Veg Climate Alliance

---------------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Contact: Julia Tier

(+1 202) 452.1999 x594

jtier@worldwatch.org

Livestock Emissions: Still Grossly Underestimated?

Washington, D.C.—The environmental impact of the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food has been vastly underestimated, and in fact accounts for at least half of all human-caused greenhouse gases (GHGs), according to Robert Goodland and Jeff Anhang, co-authors of “Livestock and Climate Change” in the latest issue of World Watch magazine.

A widely cited 2006 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Livestock’s Long Shadow, estimates that 18 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions are attributable to cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats, camels, pigs, and poultry. But recent analysis by Goodland and Anhang finds that livestock and their byproducts actually account for at least 32.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year, or 51 percent of annual worldwide GHG emissions.

Reviewing both direct and indirect sources of GHG emissions from livestock, the study finds that previous calculations have both underestimated and overlooked certain emissions sources as well as assigned emissions they deem to be livestock-related to the wrong sectors. The authors locate these discrepancies in previous analyses of livestock respiration, land use, and methane.

Based on their research, Goodland and Anhang conclude that replacing livestock products with soy-based and other alternatives would be the best strategy for reversing climate change. “This approach would have far more rapid effects on GHG emissions and their atmospheric concentrations—and thus on the rate the climate is warming—than actions to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy.”

—END—

For more information please contact:

Julia Tier, tel: (+1) 202 452-1999 x594, e-mail: jtier@worldwatch.

NOTES TO EDITORS:

About World Watch magazine: This bimonthly magazine is published by the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. Launched in 1988, the magazine has won the Alternative Press Award for investigative journalism, the Project Censored Award, and a number of Utne Reader awards. Please visit: http://www.worldwatch.org/epublish/1

Subscription Information: One-year subscriptions (6 issues) within the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are $33 for individuals, $50 for institutions, and $25 for students. International subscriptions are $51 for individuals, $63 for institutions, and $40 for students. Purchase subscriptions through the Worldwatch website: www.worldwatch.org or call (+1) 888 544-2303 (in U.S.) or 1.570.320.2076 (from overseas).

About the Worldwatch Institute: The Worldwatch Institute is an independent research organization recognized by opinion leaders around the world for its accessible, fact-based analysis of critical global issues. Its mission is to generate and promote insights and ideas that empower decision makers to build an ecologically sustainable society that meets human needs

Here are the important links again:

Article:

http://www.worldwatch.org/files/pdf/Livestock%20and%20Climate%20Change.pdf.

Press Release from World Watch magazine:

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6297

[If you do an internet search for {“WorldWatch” Anhang Goodland}, you will find that there has been tremendous media attention already to this very important article. Let us do what we can to keep the momentum going. Thanks.]

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4. Leading UK Climate Expert Urges Eating Less Meat as Response to Climate Change

[This is a fitting follow-up to item #3 above.]

Forwarded message:

"Lord [Nicholas} Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece

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From: "AnimalConcerns.org" <animalconcerns@gmail.com>

Date: October 26, 2009

[Times Online]

People will need to consider turning vegetarian if the world is to conquer climate change, according to a leading authority on global warming.

In an interview with The Times, Lord [Nicholas] Stern of Brentford said: “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.”

Direct emissions of methane from cows and pigs is a significant source of greenhouse gases. Methane is 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.

Lord Stern, the author of the influential 2006 Stern Review on the cost of tackling global warming, said that a successful deal at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December would lead to soaring costs for meat and other foods that generate large quantities of greenhouse gases.

--

full story:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article6891362.ece

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5. Conference of World Religions Considers Climate Change

Forwarded message:

Global Religions Launch Green Planetary Initiative

http://www.greenrightnow.com/kabc/2009/10/29/world-religions-launch-a-global-green-initiative

World religions launch a global green initiative

[This is a very important initiative, and it is important that we try to get vegetarian connections to global climate change on the agenda.]

October 29th, 2009

By Ashley Phillips Green Right Now

For centuries, different religions have argued about many issues and even gone to war over some of them. Next week however, they will put it all aside and come together for a common cause — sustainability.

On Monday, Nov. 2, a group of 200 religious leaders from all around the world will meet for three days at Windsor Castle for an interfaith climate celebration. “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet” will be hosted by Prince Philip and is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Prince Philip in 1995 to link conservation and ecology with faith. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General of the United Nations will also be in attendance.

Event organizers hope are gathering the religious leaders in order to present and discuss 30 long-term climate plans for their communities. The group believes that climate change is not only a pressing environmental problem, but also a moral one.

The religions represented at the celebration include Baha’ism, Buddhism, Christianity, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism and Sikhism.

SNIP

With more than 6.5 billion people worldwide, the majority of them belong to one faith or another. There are 2.1 billion Christians, 1.34 billion Muslims, more than 950 million Hindus, 50-70 million Daoists, 24 million Sikhs and 13 million Jews, according to the Atlas of Religion.

“The world’s faiths joined together in this cause – if viewed in terms of sheer numbers of people – could become the planet’s largest civil society movement for change. With their unparalleled presence throughout the world, the world’s religions could be the decisive force that helps top the scales in favor of a world of climate safety and justice for future generations… this event will be one for the history books,” said UNDP Assistant Secretary-General Olav Kjorven in a press release.

The celebration precedes the climate-change discussions that will take place in Copenhagen in December. Like many other climate events prior to December, the celebration hopes to make an impact on key leaders who will be attending Copenhagen.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

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Article in the Forward re this important event:

http://forward.com/articles/117809/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Email%20marketing%20software&utm_content=150790613&utm_campaign=November+6%2c+2009+_+hiikit&utm_term=Readmore

Nine Faiths, One Vegan Lunch at Windsor Castle

On the Agenda — The Largest-Ever Commitment To Take Environmental Action

By Leah Koenig

Published October 27, 2009, issue of November 06, 2009.

On Tuesday November 3, His Royal Highness Prince Philip will host over 200 guests for lunch at Windsor Castle, the 900-year-old palace that serves as an official residence of his and Queen Elizabeth’s. But this lunch will be noticeably different from the roasted quail and crème fraîche typical of castle meals. Instead, the menu is entirely vegan and centered on seasonal, regionally sourced ingredients.

The reason: an interfaith conference called “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet,” to be attended by leaders from Jewish, Bahai, Buddhist, Christian, Daoist, Hindu, Muslim, Shinto and Sikh backgrounds. Co-sponsored by the Unite d Nations Development Program and Alliance of Religions and Conservation (or ARC, a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Prince Philip in 1995), the conference has the goal of presenting unique seven-year commitments that outline each religion’s plan to foster action around climate change within the participants’ communities.

The seven-year framework resonates deeply within Jewish tradition, which mandates a weekly day of rest on Shabbat and a septennial resting of agricultural land in Israel during the shmita year. At the conference, eight Jewish delegates — a collection of educators, entrepreneurs, rabbis, activists and politicians from the United States and Israel — will present a commitment that calls upon Jewish individuals and organizations to “play a distinct and determined role in responding to climate change” between now and the next shmita year, which starts September 2015.

“Jewish people have moved through history by marrying small steps with big vision,” said attendee Nigel Savage, whose organization, Hazon, played a lead role in crafting the Jewish commitment. Now is the time, he said, to connect small actions — like switching to energy-efficient light bulbs or planting a synagogue vegetable garden — with education and advocacy.

While not the first gathering to marry faith and sustainability, this conference marks the largest-ever commitment by faiths to take environmental action. “Religions have the unique capacity to think beyond the next business cycle to long-term generational change,” said delegate Rabbi Yedidya Sinclair, who founded the Jewish Climate Change Campaign in Israel.

Not coincidentally, the conference has been scheduled to precede the international climate-change talks that will be held in Copenhagen in December. “The U.N. and World Bank (which will attend both gatherings) are among the world’s biggest, multilateral organizations,” said Rabbi Sinclair. “These organizations are beginning to realize that religions have a crucial role in addressing climate change.”

SNIP

For Hazon, the seven-year plan is part of a larger campaign that has already begun to galvanize action around climate change in the Jewish community. Delegate Naomi Tsur, a seasoned environmental activist who recently became deputy mayor of Jerusalem, intends to use the plan as a springboard toward a more thoughtful approach to the shmita year in 2015. “Shmita is big business in our city, but the way it is currently observed is a tragedy,” she said. Tsur hopes to involve Jerusalem’s city gardens in raising awareness around sustainable agriculture’s connection to climate change. “This is our opportunity to think globally and act locally,” she said.

Leah Koenig writes a monthly column on food and culinary trends. She lives in New York City. She can be contacted at ingredients@forward.com

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6. New Book “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer Has Great Potential to Make a Difference

Review #1, by Kathy Freston: Eating Animals: Why Eating Matters by Jonathan Safran Foer

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/ieating-animalsi-why-eati_b_339071.html

If ever there was a book that could profoundly affect our lives at the most fundamental level, this one is it. I loved Jonathan Safran Foer's novels (Everything is Illuminated, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close); they were glorious to read and get lost in. But his new non-fiction kindles something more: it is somewhat of an awakening, and it just might tip us farther into what is being called the next great social movement of our time: eating consciously.

Eating Animals takes a bold and fresh approach to our most important relationship with the world around us -- our food. The originality of the thinking and depth of research establishes Foer as a major player in the national discussion of the ethics of eating. He is the Michael Pollan of a younger generation: grittier and more daring, more insightful and decisive. And as we would expect from Foer, the stories he tells explode off the page and into our hearts.

Foer takes us alongside him as he bungles through undercover investigations and into the hidden world of today's industrial farming. We find out that turkeys have been so genetically modified they are not capable of sexual reproduction. We learn that the chickens on American's plates have been bred to grow so large so fast that their mere genetics destines them to suffering. We learn that "free range" means next to nothing and why it's fish and chicken you want to most avoid.

The book is a case against factory farming, but we don't hear only the bad news about animal agriculture. Foer also takes us to the most humane and sustainable animal farms in the nation. We get to hear a dizzying variety of voices: factory farmers, slaughterhouse workers, animal activists, a turkey farmer who apologizes to his animals, a vegetarian cattle rancher, and a vegan helping to build a slaughterhouse.

Part of the appeal of the book is the real-life characters we meet and the new landscape of animal protection and food advocacy that Foer plugs us into. He has us meet the head of the nation's largest cooperative of family-owned pig farms, gives us a fresh perspective on the ever-controversial PETA as it approaches its 30th year and introduces us to exciting new groups like Farm Forward that are building unique coalitions with animal activists, small farmers, and sustainability advocates.

While Foer makes a strong case for vegetarianism, he gives dissenting voices a place and never forgets that the stories we tell about food are always about more than what we eat. "Stories about food are stories about us -- our history and our values."

Foer is quite fair to the "humane" animal farmers who he writes about appreciatively. In the end, he leaves us opposed to factory farming as something beneath human dignity, but stops short of an explicit case against all meat. His opposition to factory farming appears to be his central message, but I think he accomplishes something much less modest: For careful readers, the book offers an indictment of all meat. Virtually all of the "humane" producers he discusses mutilate animals without pain relief and treat them more as commodities than living beings. And as Foer himself says, "Every farm, like everything, has flaws, is subject to accidents, sometimes doesn't work as it should. Life overflows with imperfections, but some imperfections matter more than others. How imperfect must animal farming and slaughter be before they are too imperfect? Different people will draw the line in different places... But for me, for now - for my family now - my concerns about the reality of what meat is and has become are enough to make me give it up altogether."

Eating Animals is filled with powerful statistics, like the fact that 99% of all animals eaten for food in America come from factory farms or that animal agriculture is the largest contributor to global warming in the world (and one of the top two or three contributors to virtually all serious environmental problems). But it's not the facts that make this book so special, but its heart, humor, emotion, and spirit.

Foer was inspired to write the book after the birth of his first son, Sasha. "Feeding my child is not like feeding myself: it matters more. It matters because food matters (his physical health matters, the pleasure of eating matters), and because the stories that are served with food matter. These stories bind our family together, and bind our family to others." From the book's intimate start with childhood memories to its visionary ending of the deeper meaning of Thanksgiving, Eating Animals is a personal journal that not only feeds us facts, but helps us digest them.

In the end, the book is about much more than food. It is not only a book about eating animals, but about how we shape our world by what we eat. It is a book about who we are and who we could become. As one of Foer's friends wrote to him upon his son Sasha's birth, "Everything is possible again." The world is never fixed and neither are we. When we think seriously about the food we eat, we all have another chance at being more true to ourselves. We have another chance to be better.

If you can't wait to get your hands on the book, check out Foer's New York Times Magazine piece based on it.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/ieating-animalsi-why-eati_b_339071.html

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Review #2, by Rabbi David Wolpe:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-david-wolpe/ieating-animalsi-jonathan_b_337578.html

Once in my life I worked on a political campaign and once in my life met someone who called himself a "goop scooper." My candidate and I were touring a chicken processing factory. As chicken carcasses acrobatically clung to the rotating belt that dropped them in a vat, the man who removed their insides told me he was the "goop scooper."

The vividness of the picture has not faded. Not since the high school assignment of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle had I been forced to confront the prelude to the cellophane wrap. Shortly after visiting the factory I wrote a humor column about it for my college newspaper. After all, if you want to dash a feeling, nothing works better than a joke. "Wit" as Nietzsche observed, "closes the coffin on an emotion."

But can one investigate the whole question of eating other animals unflinchingly, movingly but with wit? Can it be made interesting, readable, compelling -- powerful without self-righteousness? In other words is there a book to be written that might change the way we eat that vegetarians and devoted carnivores alike would want to read?

Here it is. Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals is a triple marvel: the research is serious and far reaching, the writing clear, clever, accessible and in a few instances graphically ingenious, and the cause is genuinely important.

Foer does not indict all animal-eating on simplistic grounds. This is not, paradoxically, a bleeding heart book, except in the most sanguinary sense. It is a tough-minded look at what the gradual triumph of factory farming has done to the quality of the food we eat. Quality here is a ramified term, including its effect on the natural world and the animals who endure unspeakable conditions, ailments and anguish so that we can have more and more fish, poultry, pork and beef.

SNIP

The cost in human suffering may have escaped us. "The UN special envoy on food called it a 'crime against humanity' to funnel 100 million tons of grain and corn to ethanol when almost a billion people are starving. So what kind of crime is animal agriculture, which uses 756 million tons of grain and corn per year, much more than enough to adequately feed the 1.4 billion human who are living in dire poverty?"

Remember that 99% of all land animals used for food are factory farmed. We have created a colossal churning machine to spit out pork chops and chicken nuggets.

There is much more of interest, and some striking and even beautiful images along the way. But ultimately the message of the book is summed up in Foer's simple observation: "It's always possible to wake someone from sleep, but no amount of noise will wake someone who is pretending to be asleep." I hope he is wrong. I hope this book falls with an explosive charge on the somnolent consciences of meat-eating Americans. We know something of the agony, waste, disease and unhealthiness behind the gleaming counters. Perhaps Eating Animals will persuade us to stop pretending to be asleep.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-david-wolpe/ieating-animalsi-jonathan_b_337578.html

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7. “Eating Animals is making Us Sick” – Article by Jonathan Safran Foer

http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/10/28/opinion.jonathan.foer/index.htm

Eating animals is making us sick

By Jonathan Safran Foer, Special to CNN

October 28, 2009 7:08 a.m. EDT

SNIP [for space considerations – the article is highly recommended.]

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8. Sweden Connects Dietary Changes to Global Warming

NYTIMES NEWS ALERTS

October 23, 2009

Sweden Looks to Diet to Cut Global Warming

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL (NYT)

New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/world/europe/23degrees.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

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9. Israeli Vegan Chef Authors Meatless Cookbook

Forwarded message from Batya Bauman:

Tal Ronnen, vegan chef and author of: "Conscious Cook: Delicious Meatless Recipes to Change the Way You Eat" was on Oprah yesterday. His book was given to the entire audience. Great promotion for vegan lifestyle!

Let's ask our libraries to order it.

Batya

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10. Are There Animal Products in Your Vitamin Pills?

Forwarded message:

Hi Richard...

I was horrified yesterday when I found out that the vitamins my daughter & I take have a pork derivative in it. I have been taking CENTRUM vitamins, and my daughter has been taking GUMMY VITS from Costco. It never occurred to me to check before, and it is NOT listed on the label.

It might be good to mention this in your next newsletter. I suspect that many families use vitamins that have animal products. Even the kosher hectured vitamins have fish gelatin, or an animal form of calcium.

I have found a vegan vitamin (DEVA) at veganessentials.com, and just ordered it for our family. Sadly, it is not hectured. If they get a demand for a hecture, they will seriously consider it.

Thanks for all your great work!

Shabbat Shalom,

Michelle

Miriam's Well
www.miriams-well.com

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11. JVNA Advisor/Activist Campaigns to Save Deer

Thanks to JVNA advisor Arthur Poletti for sending the following messages and for his dedicated efforts to save deer from slaughter.

Dear. Dr. Schwartz:

The following petition and video clearly reveals why the docile, tame deer living in Shawnee Mission Park need our help to set them free.

I hope that you and everyone you know will sign the Care 2 petition which is gaining notice throughout the world as we try to persuade the Governor of Kansas and city officials to stop killing tame deer in a 1200 acre public park every year, but rather make Swanee Mission Park the first no kill deer sancturary of it's kind in the U.S.

Thank you Dr. Schwartz for forwarding this important message to everyone you know.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/11/please-dont-massacre-the-deer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl-iZs3MwPw&feature=PlayList&p=C0ED6102171C5C82&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21

I thought you might be interested in my presentation that was filmed by a KC TV Network and was broadcast that evening throughout the State of Kansas on a popular news Channel.

Please read the comments.

If you go to YouTube either type in just my name Arthur Poletti or the web site below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wl-iZs3MwPw&feature=PlayList&p=C0ED6102171C5C82&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=21

Pray for the deer.

Arthur Poletti

Author of the short story about a deer hunter.

GOD DOES NOT EAT MEAT

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12. Green Zionist Alliance Schedules Activities

From: Green Zionist Alliance <info@greenzionism.org>

Date: October 25, 2009

Subject: Green Zionist Alliance: Moving Forward in the New Year

Reply-To: Green Zionist Alliance <info@greenzionism.org>

This year, the GZA has numerous new ways for you to get involved and help protect Israel's environment. Please read on below and find the avenue that is right for you!

Newly improved www.GreenZionism.org

Web site!

Check out the newly improved Green Zionist Alliance Web site with numerous resources regarding Israel's environment, including:

* Educational materials

* Videos

* Book recommendations

* Volunteer & employment opportunities

* Articles, research papers and much more

www.GreenZionism.org

Build the Alliance: Become an individual GZA member or an organizational GZA Community Partner

The Green Zionist Alliance is comprised of hundreds of individuals and organizations who are dedicated to the preservation of Israel's environment.

As an alliance, membership and partnership are essential to our mission. It allows us to show the Jewish community how many people truly care about Israel's environment, it provides us with a means of communication within our movement, and it raises much needed funds to allow the organization to operate.

All donations over $18 qualify you for individual membership. Please donate now and become a member!

For information on Community Partnerships and to get your school, synagogue or community organization involved, click here.

GZA gearing up for next World Zionist Congress election.

[I am hoping to be on the GZAelectoral slate, as I was for the last election.]

Join the campaign now!

Thanks to the work, financial support and votes of hundreds of dedicated individuals such as yourself, the Green Zionist Alliance played an important role in the 35th World Zionist Congress in 2006. Through our representation, we accomplished real policy and vision change that is now making a difference in the activities of organizations such as the Karen Kayemet L`Yisrael (KKL-JNF). Believe it or not, it is time to begin organizing again, as the next Congress election is just 2 months away.

Our previous campaign is proof that a small group of dedicated volunteers and supporters can accomplish real change. In this election more than any other, where every 500 votes wins a seat at the table, a small group like ours can make a huge difference! Join us now as we mobilize and grow, amplifying our voice for Israel`s environment at the next Congress.

Contact us to join the campaign.

GZA news

• Help the Green Zionist Alliance compete in the Jewish Choice Awards by reviewing it at GreatNonProfits.org -- please review the GZA today!

• The Green Zionist Alliance is now officially a member of the American Zionist Movement.

• The Green Zionist Alliance is a founding partner of the Jewish Climate Change Campaign -- sign the climate-change pledge today!

. . .

Intern with the Green Zionist Alliance!

SNIP

For more information on the work of the Green Zionist Alliance, please visit the newly expanded www.GreenZionism.org

www.GreenZionism.org

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13. Actions Needed Soon to Avoid Global Climate Crisis

Forwarded message:

We Are Facing Utter Worldwide Climate Disaster Unless We Act

Imagine a gigantic pot of water on a stove, and then imagine that you turn up the heat. Does the water boil instantly? Of course not, it takes time for the heat to build up. But unless the heat is turned down, it inevitably will.

And that is what we are doing to our planet right now ... for real. Just because it does not make headlines every day, does not mean that the global warming crisis has gone away. Climate change deniers may grasp at the smoke of a possible short term cooling trend. But carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere CONTINUE to increase exponentially, with certain irreversible planetary climate disaster unavoidable within decades, UNLESS we take strong and decisive action immediately.

Today, October 24, 2009, has been christened "International Day of Climate Action" by thousands of advocacy groups around the world working to raise awareness of the urgency for profound and rational policy change before it is too late. But the weak emissions trading schemes previously considered would just LICENSE existing atmospheric polluters without achieving real carbon dioxide level reductions. The United States must show the leadership to be ready to make a serious agreement at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December to save us all.

Reduce CO2 Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1015.php

Please note we did not just say we need to reduce emissions, we need to reduce the LEVEL of CO2 in our atmosphere back down to 350 parts per million, where it was about 20 years ago. It's at 387 right now, and if you look at a graph of the last hundred years it looks like an exponential curve. On any longer time scale it looks like a hockey stick.

The best and most knowledgeable scientific minds warn us that unless we REVERSE the current overshoot back down to 350 ppm, the climate of the planet earth will change beyond recognition with the most dire PERMANENT consequences And that is why we have created a new cap, the "350 ppm ... or catastrophe" cap, in practical light khaki for casual everyday wear, that we can use to raise awareness, and to stimulate discussion of the critical 350 ppm threshold number. And you can get one for a contribution of any amount from this page.

350 ppm Awareness Cap: http://www.peaceteam.net/all_gifts.php

Or just request one from the form after you submit the action page calling for strong action to reduce global carbon dioxide levels.

In the past decade we have seen collapse of massive ice shelves that had been there since the dawn of recorded history. The polar ice cap melting has reached such crisis proportions that we are told the Arctic Ocean will be ice free within another decade or so. Yet still there are those who will not admit that which is no longer even debatable, until a category 6 hurricane rolls up on their own front porch. But of course by then it will be too late forever.

Global climate catastrophe means trillions of dollars of coastal city infrastructure underwater, tens of millions of people starving and displaced, forces leading to world war on a scale previously unimaginable. This is the ultimate test of human wisdom and political courage. Will we take the action that must be taken, or will civilization itself perish?

Reduce CO2 Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1015.php

SNIP

If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at http://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm

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14. Two Major Jewish Environmental Groups Seek Support

Forwarded message:

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15. Israeli Knesset Votes Down Effort to Change “Animal Welfare Law” to “Animal Rights Law”

Forwarded message from:

"AnimalConcerns.org" <animalconcerns@gmail.com>

Date: October 28, 2009

[Ha'aretz]

The Knesset rejected a bill to change the name of the Animal Welfare Law to the Animal Rights Law, since Israeli law does not recognize animals as legal entities with rights, according to coalition members.

"The proposed law is based on the unacceptable premise that animals have rights," Religious Services Minister Yaakov Margi (Shas) told the Knesset.

Margi said the government believes animals have the same legal status as inanimate entities such as corporations, ships, universities and cities.

--

full story:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1124430.html

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16. Canadian Jewish Veg Activist Has Letter Published in NY Jewish Week

Kosher And Vegan

by Shloime Perel

Published on: Oct 20, 2009

Regarding “Beefing Up Eco-Kosher” (Oct. 2), “The Chain-ing of Kosher Food” (Sept. 25) and “A Market For Ethical Kosher” (Sept. 18): For me, to be

kosher is to be vegan. I don’t want to be involved in destroying the life of any animal, regardless of how that killing might be rationalized. True, we must eat

organic matter, but we can at least avoid killing living, feeling creatures and restrict ourselves to a plant-based diet.

I agree with Isaac Bashevis Singer in his short story, “The Slaughterer” (in the collection “The Seance”), that it is unfortunate we have the role of the

shochet in Jewish life, whose killing is defined in religious terms as a positive act in relation to God. I also hold with Singer in “The Letter Writer,” in the same

collection, that our species is the worst exploiter of other animal species, who are generally seen to exist solely for our use.

It is ironic that for Shabbat and the holidays, which are meant to celebrate creation, we kill an even larger number of birds, mammals and fish. Yet it would

be good if we stopped destroying other animals to celebrate Shabbat. And if Pesach is to be truly celebrated as a holiday of liberation, we should keep it

vegan and our rejection of killing would itself be a symbol of liberation.

Why not hold with the prophet Micah (6:6-8) when he speaks out against animal sacrifice: “With what shall I approach the Lord,/ .... Shall I approach Him

with burnt offerings,/ With calves a year old?/ Would the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,/ ...

He has told you. ... what the Lord requires of you:/ Only to do justice / And to love goodness,/ And to walk modestly with your God.”

Is not killing animals for our own eating pleasure also a highly unjust sacrifice?

Montreal

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17. My Recent Letters Sent to Editors and My Response to an Article, Both Re Climate Change and Dietary Connections

October 29, 2009

Dear Editor:

At the 2009 SUMMERFEST I wrote a resolution urging NAVS and other groups to make it a priority to increase awareness that a major societal shift to plant-based diets is essential to avoid the climate catastrophe that the world is rapidly approaching. The resolution was supported by all the NAVS Hall of Famers who were at the SUMMERFEST and read at the final plenum by Jenny, who urged attendees to submit indications of support. Recent reports of storms, droughts, floods and wildfires, of the extremely rapid melting of glaciers and polar ice caps , and other of global warming make this resolution even more important.

There are increasing reports about the significant contributions of animal-based agriculture ti global warming. In 2006, a UN report indicated that 'livestock' agriculture emits more greenhouse gases in CO2 equivalents than all the cars, planes, ships and other means of transportation worldwide combined. In a November/December, 2009 cover article in World Watch magazine, "Livestock and climate Change," two environmentalists argue that the 'livestock' sector is responsible for more than half of the human-induced greenhouse gases. Many climate experts, including James Hansen of NASA, Rajendra Pachauri, director of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Sir Nicholas Stern, head of the UK Government Economic Service and Adviser to the Government on the economics of climate change and development, have urged people to eat less meat in order to reduce climate threats.

So, in order to move our imperiled planet to a sustainable path, it is essential that we and other vegetarian groups and activists use this information stress the urgency of a shift to plant-based diets. To reinforce our case , we can also point out the very significant contributions of meat consumption to disease, mistreatment of farmed animals, hunger, water scarcities, species extinction, deforestation, desertification, rapid species extinction, soil erosion and many more societal problems.

Very truly yours,

Richard H. Schwartz

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Response to a vegetarian-related article on the Web:

Very important article. Thanks.

Even without this new information, a UN FAO 2006 report indicated that animal-based agriculture emits more greenhouse gases (in CO2 equivalents) than all the cars, planes and other means of transportation worldwide combined. And a recent cover article by two environmentalists in World watch magazine argues that the livestock' sector is responsible for over half of the human-caused greenhouse gases. Hence to avoid the impending climate catastrophe and shift our imperiled world to a sustainable path, a major societal shift to plant-based diets is essential. Such a shift would reduce the many other negative effects of animal-based diets: disease, increased hunger, water pollution, deforestation, soil erosion, rapid species extinction, desertification and many others.

Naysayers like Graham Richard should please explain why the glaciers and polar ice caps are melting faster than climate scientists' worst scenarios, why so many areas are experiencing such severe droughts, why there are more and larger wild fires, why this century is the warmest on record and much more.

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18. Connections Between Factory Farming and Swine Flu

Forwarded message from author and JVNA advisor Dan Brook:

This is yet another topical and timely issue that we need to inform and remind people about.

Peace, Dan

Six months after the outbreak, who’s investigating the CAFO-swine flu link?

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-10-29-swine-flu-cafo-wapo-article/

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19. Major NY Times Op-Ed Downplays Environmental Impact of Animal-Based Agriculture

Forwarded message from animal rights/veg activist Jean B.

Hi Richard,

An article titled "The Carnivore's Dilemma' is in today's [October 31, 2009] NY Times. It's written by a lawyer and livestock rancher. The pull-quote on the paper says "Why meat isn't necessarily to blame for climate change."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/opinion/31niman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=The%20Carnivore's%20Dilemma&st=cse

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My letter in response:

November 1, 2009

To the Editor:

Re: "The Carnivore's Dilemma," by Nicolette Hahn Niman, October 31, 2009 edition:

Ms. Niman raises some valuable points re the relative value of small farms, but by far the majority of farmed animals are raised on huge factory farms.

it is time to call animal-based diets using food from such farms what they are: madness and sheer insanity.

While raising a product that is contributing to an epidemic of diseases and soaring medical costs, modern, intensive animal agriculture is contributing substantially to global warming, rapid species extinction, wasteful use of water, energy and land, deforestation, water pollution, desertification, soil erosion, and many additional societal problems.

Hence, to help avoid an unprecedented climate catastrophe and to help shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path, it is essential that there be a major shift toward plant-based diets.

Very truly yours,

Richard H. Schwartz

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20. Action Alert: Help Stop World’s Largest Animal Sacrifice

Forwarded message:

Please sign the Petition to Stop the world's largest Animal Sacrifice? (in Nepal)

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/stop-gadimai.html

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21. Some Valuable Material From the EVANA (European Vegetarian and Animals News Alliance) Newsletter

a. Meat and the Environment

Peter Singer suggests: Make meat-eaters pay! … the reasons for a tax on beef and other meats are stronger than those for discouraging consumption of cigarettes, transfats or sugary drinks...

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49989&lang=en

Fight global warming, animal cruelty and world hunger with meat tax

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49898&lang=en

Eco Etiquette: Can You Be An Environmentalist Without Being Vegetarian?

....Adopting a vegetarian diet is indeed one of the most effective ways to slash your ecological footprint

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49391&lang=en

Important Study on Climate Change and Livestock Emissions …greenhouse gases (GHGs) from the lifecycle and supply chain of animals raised for food account for 51% of annual emissions caused by humans and should be given higher priority in global efforts to fight climate change…

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49948&lang=en

Deforestation and The True Cost of Europe's Cheap Meat

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49866&lang=en

Lord Stern: 'People should give up eating meat to halt climate change'

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49865&lang=en

Livestock generate more than half of the world's greenhouse gases!

http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=49830&lang=en

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b. Great success of the Vegetarian Week 2009

The Vegetarian Week 2009 was definitely a great success, to continue and repeat in the coming years. Activities were promoted by tens of organisations in 12 different countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain and USA…

More information: http://www.evana.org/index.php?id=50037&lang=en

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