7/24/05 Special JVNA Newsletter - DR-CAFTA

Shalom everyone,

This special Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter is devoted to efforts to oppose the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), based on a vote of the JVNA Advisory Committee to support a letter (below) being sent by many animal rights and vegetarian groups (list below) to Congress members. Congress may vote on CAFTA as early as Tuesday, so quick action is essential.

This newsletter contains the following items:

1. What You Can Do

2. Script for a Call to Your Congressperson

3. Sample letter

4. In Their Own Words: What Animal Exploiters Are Saying About DR-CAFTA

5. Talking Points for DR-CAFTA Lobbying

6. Script For Calling Members and Supporters

7. Sign on Letter for Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, and Vegetarian Organizations Opposed to DR-CAFTA

8. List of Groups That Signed the Letter:

9. Congresspeople to Contact

10. INTERNATIONAL ISSUES AND GLOBALIZATION
[Part of a Chapter from "Judaism and Global Survival" by Richard H. Schwartz]

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.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,
Richard

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1. What You Can Do

[At a time when animal-based diets and agriculture are already contributing to an epidemic of chronic, degenerative diseases, massive abuses of animals, global warming, deforestation, rapid species losses, and many more environmental threats, water shortages, and widespread hunger, CAFTA would increase the production and consumption of animal products.]

STOP DR-CAFTA:
UNLESS WE STOP IT, COUNTLESS ANIMALS WILL SUFFER IN THE NAME
OF “FREE TRADE”!! [And there are many additional negative factors, as indicated below.]

DR-CAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central America free trade agreement is a major threat to wildlife, marine animals, and farmed animals. The US Senate PASSED DR-CAFTA by a vote of 54-45. The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on the bill by the end of July. The House will be a much tougher battle for DR-CAFTA supporters, so we may still be able to kill this thing!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?
1)Call your Congressperson in the US House of Representatives and tell him or her to vote NO on DR-CAFTA! To contact your rep's Capitol office call the Capitol switchboard at 866-340-9281 (toll free, thanks to the United Steelworkers).Also call your rep's district office (you can find your Rep's contact info at community.hsus.org/humane/leg-lookup/search.html)

While the DC offices are prepared to take calls on legislative issues, the district offices often don't expect these calls, so they can draw more attention. Please call BOTH offices to maximize your impact. When you call, ask to speak to the trade staffer, chief of staff or legislative director. Give your name and address and tell her you are a constituent and want your Rep to vote against DR-CAFTA. (you can base your call on the script below)

2) Send a fax. Again, fax both the district and DC offices. A sample letter to fax can be found below. You can get your Representative's fax number at community.hsus.org/humane/leg-lookup/search.html In addition to letters, articles on DR-CAFTA from newspapers, magazines and the internet are great to fax. Keep sending stuff so the legislators' fax machine is always abuzz with anti-DR-CAFTA information. You can also fax your rep from the internet using www.unionvoice.org/campaign/No_CAFTA. While this form is designed to focus on the labor impacts of DR-CAFTA, it is customizable, so you can change the focus to address animal issues (a sample letter to fax is at the end of this message) . Letters from both individuals and organizations (on letterhead) are critical.

3) Link up with local groups in your area to put pressure on House members—time still remains to stop DR-CAFTA in the House of Representatives! You can find local anti-CAFTA groups at http://stopcafta.org/groups.php, and you can learn more about DR-CAFTA in general at http://stopcafta.org.

4) Join the animal rights working group on DR-CAFTA, which is researching the effects of DR-CAFTA on animal issues and mobilizing animal activists against the agreement. To become involved, email Adam Weissman at adam@wetlands-preserve.org or call (201) 968-0595.

5) Hold a rally, press conference, picket or other action (office sit-ins are expected in some cities) at a swing legislators' district office on Tuesday, the day before the scheduled vote on DR-CAFTA.

6) Set up a lobby meeting with a swing legislator (see attached Talking Points for CAFTA.doc) in his or her DC office.

7) Collaborate with environmental and human rights activists on anti-CAFTA actions. You can find potential collaborators at http://stopcafta.org/groups.php

If you have any questions, call Adam at (201) 968-0595 or email adam@wetlands-preserve.org

Thanks for taking action against DR-CAFTA!!

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2. Script for a Call to Your Congressperson

"Hello, my name is _______ and I am a constituent living in _______. I'm calling to ask Representative _______ to vote against the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA); I am deeply concerned about DR-CAFTA and believe that the agreement will have terrible consequences for animal welfare [the environment and human health] in Central America, the Dominican Republic and our own country.

Does Rep.___________________have a position on DR-CAFTA?" (If you already know you don't need to ask.

If the Representative is opposed to the agreement and will vote against it, thank him/her. Ask him/her to make that opposition public, and for a letter stating his/her position. If the Representative is undecided, say that you oppose CAFTA and tell her why (see below) and urge him or her to vote "no". If the Representative is for DR-CAFTA urge her to reconsider. Inform the office that you intend to spread the word that the Rep is voting against the public interest. If you represent an organization, let your Representative know that your group opposes DR-CAFTA and let them know how many members and supporters you have in their district.

You can tell your Rep. the following to convince him or her to vote against DR-CAFTA: "If passed, DR-CAFTA will lead to the expansion of cruel, environmentally destructive, labor exploitative "factory farm" agriculture methods as US industrial agribusiness producers attempt to increase market share and overall meat consumption in Central America and the DR-CAFTA will also open areas previously off-limits areas to industrial commercial fishing, endangering fish and sea turtles, and will endanger critical wildlife habitat in Central America. CAFTA's strong protections for corporate investors and weak environmental protections will allow corporations to use the threat of multi-billion dollar lawsuits at international tribunals to strong-arm countries into ignoring their own environmental laws protecting sensitive wildlife habitat areas.CAFTA will pave the way for more trade agreements such as the Andean Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas which would extend this flawed model to the whole Western Hemisphere."

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3. Sample letter

Dear Representative _____________:

As a constituent concerned about the welfare and rights of animals, I am writing to express my strong opposition the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

If passed, DR-CAFTA will lead to the expansion of cruel, environmentally destructive, labor exploitative "factory farm" agriculture methods as US industrial agribusiness producers attempt to increase market share and overall meat consumption in Central America, replacing small farmers using more traditional methods.

DR-CAFTA will also open areas previously off-limits coastal areas to industrial commercial fishing, endangering fish and sea turtles, areas previously only open to small, local fishermen who catch more selectively.

Oxfam International believes that DR-CAFTA will threaten the livelihood of thousands of small rice producing farmers, most of who already live in poverty. The rice sector provides for approximately 1.5 million jobs in the Central American countries, yet the small farmers of Central America might find themselves in a similar situation as small Mexican farmers found themselves 10 years ago under NAFTA. Peasant farmers who were driven off their lands were forced to clear trees for farming and for fuel. Since the implementation of NAFTA, the annual rate of deforestation in Mexico rose to 1.1 million hectares. The previous rate of 600 thousand hectares per year was practically doubled, and Mexico has one of the highest deforestation rates in the Western Hemisphere

CAFTA's strong protections for corporate investors and weak environmental protections will allow corporations to use the threat of multi-billion dollar lawsuits at international tribunals to strong-arm countries into ignoring their own environmental laws protecting sensitive wildlife habitat areas. DR-CAFTA will also pave the way for more trade agreements such as the Andean Free Trade Agreement and the Free Trade Area of the Americas which would extend this flawed model to the whole Western Hemisphere.

DR-CAFTA is a bad deal for animals and I urge you to vote against it. Please respond to this fax with a letter clarifying your position on this issue. If you do intend to vote against DR-CAFTA, please speak out and encourage other members of Congress to do the same.

Respectfully,
(Your Name)
(Your Organization, if applicable)

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4. In Their Own Words:
What Animal Exploiters Are Saying About DR-CAFTA

"The Free Trade Agreement negotiated between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, if implemented, will create important new opportunities for U.S. pork producers" –
Source: National Pork Producers' Council, http://www.nppc.org/hot_topics/drcafta.html

"Pork producers nationwide have been writing letters, calling, and visiting their Members of Congress for months now to emphasize the fact that the CAFTA-DR is a big win for U.S. pork producers and ask for their support,"
Source: National Pork Producer's Council President Don Buhl, as quoted in Thepigsite.com Newsletter, Tuesday 31st May 2005

"The National Chicken Council, the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council, and the National Turkey Federation have expressed support publicly for the CAFTA-DR FTA."
Source: United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, State Fact Sheets, February 2005

" The National Milk Producers Federation, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the Grocery Manufacturers of America, and the National Food Processors Association have expressed support publicly for the CAFTA-DR FTA. "
Source: United States-Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, State Fact Sheets, February 2005

"For cattle producers, losing CAFTA-DR would mean losing money-making opportunities, says Jim McAdams, an Adkins, Texas, cattleman and [National Cattleman's Beef Association]president. This agreement would open new export markets for our high-quality U.S. beef. We simply have nothing to lose. The only way I can figure cattlemen could oppose CAFTA would be if they didn’t read the agreement.
Source: National Cattleman's Beef Association Press Release: Calling All Cattlemen: Rally for CAFTA Over Memorial Day Recess, NCBA joins U.S. business and agriculture groups in nationwide fight for trade, May 25, 2005

"DR-CAFTA will increase U.S. textile, apparel and leather exports by 15% or $803 million. "
Source

"Other industry-supported farm groups like the National Cattlemen's Beef Assoc. and the National Pork Producers Council hailed the trade pact as "commercially-viable" whatever that means because it opens the central American markets to US meat exports."
Source

"If DR-CAFTA is passed, trade with those countries at the Port of Tampa is calculated to double over the next 10 years, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce study. Exports are dominated by fertilizers. Companies in the Tampa Bay area also conduct trade through other ports in a wide variety of goods, from automobiles to frozen poultry and fishing nets."
Source

"More than half of U.S. agricultural products will become eligible for duty-free treatment in these countries immediately upon implementation of the agreements, with most remaining duties on U.S. products phased out over 15 years. Examples of U.S. exports to the Central American region that can be expected to gain significantly from CAFTA include ... poultry ($47 million), dairy products ($25 million), pork ($18 million), and beef ($7 million). Some key export commodities to the Dominican Republic include ...dairy products ($9 million)...and poultry ($5 million)."
Source: 38 Agricultural Groups Urge U.S. Congress to Support DR-CAFTA Friday, September 03, 2004, Business Coalition for US-Central America Trade

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5. Talking Points for DR-CAFTA Lobbying

Urge Congressmember in the US House of Representatives to vote AGAINST DR-CAFTA, the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement. (H.R.3045).
DR-CAFTA: a bad deal for animals, human health, and the environment!

Here’s why:

* Expanded cruelty to farmed animals: - DR-CAFTA will over time eliminate import tariffs that keep prices high on US meat, dairy, and egg products in Central America and the Dominican Republic. This will allow industrial style, factory farmed animal products, which can produced more cheaply, to flood the market in these countries, driving local producers using traditional agriculture methods our of business—or forcing them to switch to factory farming in order to stay competitive. Factory farms, which intensively confine animals in filth and squalor, are widely viewed as inhumane.

* Public health in Latin America at risk US agribusiness interests view DR-CAFTA as an opportunity to dramatically increase consumption of animal products in Latin America by making cheap meat products more available. While this may be profitable, it will be a public health disaster for Latin America. Increased consumption of meat and dairy products in the Caribbean and Latin America have led to dramatic increases in diabetes and heart disease rates, with experts predicting that 62% of global diabetes will be in these regions by 2025. DR-CAFTA will hasten this trend.

* More factory farms mean degraded water quality in US and DR-CAFTA countries. Environmentalists consider hog and poultry factory farms to be one of the most significant sources of water contamination. As the US seeks to supply more of the market for animal products in DR-CAFTA countries, factory farming will expand domestically, putting more communities at risk of being sites for polluting factory farms. As producers in DR-CAFTA countries shift towards factory farming to stay competitive, the impact will be more dire, as many regions in these countries lack adequate facilities for water filtration.

* Expanded damage to rangelands Increased beef production will lead to the further degradation of rangelands, including taxpayer subsidized public lands.

* Marine life threatened by expanded fishing As commercial zones are increased and regulatory controls are undermined under DR-CAFTA, allowing for larger enterprises to move into areas previously zoned solely for small fisherman and their use of larger nets,. This destructive practice not only catches more of the fish, it also sweeps up other species that have been left alone by small fisherman, like sea turtles.

* Weak environmental protections endanger wildlife DR-CAFTA countries are critical habitat for 1000 bird species, over 600 species of reptiles and several hundred types of mammals. Three out of four migratory bird routes in the Western Hemisphere pass through the CAFTA countries. Of the 836 migratory bird species that are listed in the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act, some 350 neo-tropical migratory species (mainly songbirds) migrate through or are winter residents of the CAFTA countries. Loss of habitat means starvation and death for their resident animals, making environmental preservation an animal rights issue as well as a conservation issue.

* Corporate investors protected over environment DR-CAFTA’s weak environmental protections, contrasted with its strong protections for corporate investors, provisions for corporations to sue countries over natural resource agreements, and ability for corporations to sue nations for unlimited sums in international tribunals severely imperils protection of critical wildlife habitat areas. The Costa Rican courts recently threw out a suit from Harken Energy where the company sued the country for $58 billion (Costa Rica’s entire annual GDP is only $38 billion). If they had threatened to bring this suit to an international tribunal under CAFTA, the threat alone would have forced Costa Rica to concede and settle, regardless of whether Harken would have been able to substantiate their case in the end. If the project had proceeded as intended, sea turtle nesting beaches, rare manatees, and over 100 species of fish would have suffered.

* Deforestation danger Forest ecosystems in Central America represent critical and irreplaceable wildlife habitat. Already experiencing an unprecedented rate of destruction, DR-CAFTA will hasten the logging of these forests. Oxfam International has warned that DR-CAFTA may replicate the increased deforestation that came as a result of US corn dumping on Mexico. 1.5 million small farmers were driven off their land. This led to an upsurge in tree clearing for farming and fuel. Subsequent to NAFTA’ implementation, the annual rate of deforestation in Mexico rose to 1.1 million hectares, practically doubling the pre-NAFTA rate of 600 thousand hectares per year was practically doubled. Under DR-CAFTA this phenomenon is likely to be repeated with Central America’s rice farmers. This will also hasten a trend already seen in El Salvador—as farmers are forced out of business by cheap agriculture imports, they move to the cities for work. Forested rural areas are cleared to open to roads and logged for development. Even the U.S. trade negotiators admit that DR-CAFTA could contribute to the ‘loss of migratory bird habitat’ through investments in the agricultural sector.”

* Mangrove habitat threatened DR-CAFTA will allow large-scale dumping of imported shrimp on the US, resulting in increased logging of Central American mangrove forests to create shrimp farms, destroying refuge and nursery grounds for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimps, and mollusks, and shelter for birds.

Additional Info:
The Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve, PO Box 344, NY, NY 10108
(201) 968-0595 Email: activism@wetlands-preserve.org
Web: http://wetlands-preserve.org

New York City People's Referedum on Free Trade, 130 West 29th Street #9F, New York, NY 10001 Phone: (646) 245-9931 Email: newyorkcispes@mindspring.com
Web: http://ftaareferendum.org

Websites on DR-CAFTA:
http://stopcafta.org/
http://citizen.org/trade/cafta/
http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/cafta/
http://www.sierraclub.org/trade/cafta/

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6. Script For Calling Members and Supporters

Here is a script for calling members and supporters to ask them to call their legislators against DR-CAFTA

Outreach Call Script

Hi, my name is ______________ and I’m calling from _____________________ to ask you to call and fax Rep. __________ in opposition to the Dominican Republic-Central America free trade agreement, DR-CAFTA. DR-CAFTA will mean increased factory farming, more meat consumption in Central America and the Dominican Republic and destruction of habitat for wildlife. You can call Rep. ____________ at _____________ and fax (him/her) at ____________. Urge her to vote NO! on DR-CAFTA, an inhumane trade deal. Be sure to give your name and address when you call. Do you have any questions? Thanks for speaking out for animals!

(Note: When finding out which people in your database are in a swing voters’ district, you will find some zip codes split over 2 or more districts. To find out which district one of the people in these zip codes resides in, you can run their address here.)

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7. Sign on Letter for Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, and Vegetarian Organizations Opposed to DR-CAFTA
[JVNA is now on the list of signers.]

Dear Member of Congress:

We, the undersigned animal rights, animal welfare, and vegetarian
organizations, are writing to express our opposition to the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

This agreement poses a serious threat to the welfare of billions of nonhuman animals, including farmed animals, marine animals, and terrestrial wildlife, as well as to human health and the environment.

Expansion of Factory Farming

Under DR-CAFTA, animal agribusiness interests view the elimination of import tariffs as an opportunity to dramatically increase exports of beef, pork, dairy, and poultry products and to undercut small farmers in Latin America using traditional agriculture methods. US agribusiness will flood Latin American markets with cheaply produced meat and dairy products created with cruel, industrial scale methods, including “factory farm” agriculture.

Latin American producers using traditional methods fear that these cheap imports will force them to shift to a US-style intensive confinement factory farm systems to remain competitive. The high volumes of water used to clean these factory farms will be a serious concern for the environment and public health in areas lacking adequate water treatment facilities.Beyond absorbing market share from Dominican and Central American producers, agribusiness interests also view DR-CAFTA as an opportunity to dramatically increase consumption of animal products in Latin America by making cheap meat products more available. While this may be profitable, it will be a public health disaster for Latin America.

Already, increased consumption of meat and dairy products in the Caribbean and Latin America have led to dramatic increases in diabetes and heart disease rates, with experts predicting that 62% of global diabetes will be in these regions by 2025.

This increase in consumption will also mean increased production. This will guarantee more animal suffering and environmental degradation. Factory farm poultry and pork production are two of the most severe causes of water pollution in the US. Increased beef production will
lead to the further degradation of rangelands, including taxpayer subsidized public lands.

Marine Life Threatened by Expanded Fishing

As commercial zones are increasing and regulatory controls are undermined, larger enterprises will move into areas previously zoned solely for small fisherman and their use of larger nets. This destructive practice not only catches more of the fish, it also sweeps up other species that have been left alone by small fisherman, like sea turtles. This is just one example of the ways in which plant and marine biodiversity is gravely threatened by CAFTA-DR.

SNIP

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8. List of Groups That Signed the Letter:

National Organizations:
Animal Protection Institute
Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
EarthSave International
Friends of Animals
Humane Farming Association
In Defense of Animals
League of Humane Voters USA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
United Poultry Concerns
Vegan Research Institute
VIVA! USA
Voice for A Viable Future
Wildlife Watch

Publications
No Compromise
Veg News Magazine
Satya
Vegan.com

Local Organizations
Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve
AESOP-Project [Allied Effort to Save Other Primates]
Alliance for Animals
Animal Acres
Animal Defense League-Los Angeles
Animal Protection and Rescue League
Animal Protection of New Mexico
Animal Rights and Rescue Coalition
Cape Cod Coalition for Animal Rights
Delaware Action for Animals
Division of Animal Welfare
Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center
Feral Cat Caretakers Coalition
League for Earth and Animal Protection
League of Humane Voters of Ohio
LIBERATION COLLECTIVE
Mercy for Animals
Michigan Animal Rights Society
Orlando Animal Rights Alliance
petstorecruelty.com
Rattle the Cage Productions www.RattletheCage.org
ROAR-USA
S.P.E.A.K.
Showing Animal Respect And Kindness
Sonoma People for Animal Rights
Southern California Vegetarians
The Coalition for New York City Animals, Inc.
The Empathy Project
Uconn Animal Rights Club
Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - Los Angeles
Voices for Animals

Woodstock Animal Rights Movement

Animal-Friendly Businesses
Oh Sweet Mamas

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9. Members of Congress to Contact

Alabama
* Bonner (AL1)
* Everett (AL2)
* Aderholt (AL4)
* Cramer (AL5)

California
* Pombo (CA11)
* Eshoo (CA14)
* Lofgren (CA16)
* Gallegly (CA24)
* Davis (CA53)

Florida
* Brown-Waite (FL5)
* Stearns (FL6)
* Davis (FL11)
* Meek (FL17)
* Foley (FL16)
* Wasserman-Schultz (FL20)

Georgia
* Bishop (GA2)
* Deal (GA10)
* Gingrey (GA11)
* Scott (GA13)

Indiana
* Souder (IN3)
* Hostettler (IN8)
* Sodrel (IN9)

Missouri
* Clay (MO1)
* Skelton (MO4)
* Emerson (MO8)

New York
* McCarthy (NY4)
* Meeks (NY6)
* Towns (NY10)
* McHugh (NY23)
* Boehlert (NY24)
* Walsh (NY25)
* Kuhl (NY29)

North Carolina
* Etheridge (NC2)
* Price (NC4)
* Coble (NC6)
* Fox[x] (NC5)
* McHenry (NC10)
* Hayes (NC8)
* Miller (NC13)
* Watt (NC12)

Ohio
* Turner (OH3)
* Regula (OH16)
* Ney (OH18)
* LaTourette (OH14)

Pennsylvania
* Weldon (PA7)
* Gerlach (PA6)
* Fitzpatrick (PA8)
* Murphy (PA18)
* Platt[s] (PA19)

Tennessee
* Jenkins (TN1)
* Duncan (TN2)
* Cooper (TN5)
* Blackburn (TN7)
* Ford (TN9)

Texas
* Hinojosa (TX15)
* Reyes (TX16)
* Edwards (TX17)
* Gonzalez (TX20)
* Ortiz (TX27)
* Johnson (TX30)

Other Republicans
* Bishop (UT1)
* Capito (WV2)
* Davis (VA1)
* Ehlers (MI3)
* Gibbons (Ct) ?not listed
* Gutknecht (MN1)
* Hefley (CO5)
* Moran (KS1)
* Petri (WI5)
* Walden (OR2)

Other Democrats
* Bean (Il8)
* Boren (Ok2)
* Matheson (UT2)
* Moore (KS3)
* Snyder (AR2)
* Ross (AR4)

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10. INTERNATIONAL ISSUES AND GLOBALIZATION
[Part of a Chapter from “Judaism and Global Survival” by Richard H. Schwartz]

I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Behold, the tears of the oppressed, they had no one to comfort them! On the side of the oppressors there was power.
Ecclesiastes 4:1

To survey conditions for most of the world's people today is to see the extent to which Jewish teachings about justice, compassion and sharing have been neglected. The tremendous injustice and inequality that prevail in the world today are well described by Lester Brown, former Director of the WorldWatch Institute:

In effect, our world today is in reality two worlds, one rich, one poor; one literate, one largely illiterate; one industrial and urban, and one agrarian and rural, one overfed and overweight, one hungry and malnourished; one affluent and consumption-oriented, one poverty stricken and survival-oriented. North of this line [separating the wealthy from the poor], life expectancy closely approaches the Biblical ‘threescore and ten;’ south of it, many do not survive infancy. In the North, economic opportunities are plentiful and social mobility is high. In the South, economic opportunities are scarce and societies are rigidly stratified.

The vast social and economic gaps between countries can be demonstrated through many significant statistics comparing the developed countries (U.S., Canada, Japan, England, France, etc.) and the "developing" countries (Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, Nicaragua, Pakistan, etc.). The per capita GNP of the United States is over 70 times that of Sierra Leone, even with an adjustment for “purchasing power parity.” A child born in Sweden can expect to live an average of forty-three years longer than a child born in Zambia. Almost 20 percent of the babies born in Angola don't live until their first birthday, compared to less than one percent for France, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark and many other European countries. Only three percent of the population in all sixteen countries of Western Africa can expect to live to 65, compared to eighteen percent of the population in Italy. A person’s place of birth certainly makes a difference!

It is difficult for people in wealthy countries to realize the extent of the
abject, chronic poverty experienced by so many of our brothers and sisters
in the world.

* Poverty means malnutrition. A third to a half of the world's people are undernourished (not enough calories) or malnourished (not enough of certain nutrients). Over 450 million people are severely and chronically malnourished.

* Poverty means illiteracy and lack of proper education. Over 46 percent of women in Africa were literate in 1995. In the less developed countries, only about half the children of secondary school age are in secondary schools, compared to almost 100 percent enrollment in such schools in the more developed countries.

* Poverty means sickness and inadequate health care. One-third to one-half of the world's people have no access to health care. Few people infected with AIDS in poorer countries can afford the life-extending drugs used in wealthier countries.

* Poverty means high infant and child mortality. Almost nine percent of the children born in Africa in 2000 died before their first birthday. Hunger and related preventable diseases kill about 34,000 children under the age of five daily -- over 12 million per year.

* Poverty means doing without basic necessities. Economist Robert Heilbroner has outlined what the life-style of a typical family living in an underdeveloped country is like: a minimum of furniture, a minimum of clothes, very crowded conditions, a paucity of food, no running water, no electricity, no newspapers, magazines, or books, perhaps a radio, very few government services, no postal service or firefighters, perhaps a school three miles away consisting of two classrooms, perhaps a clinic ten miles away, tended by a midwife, and barely any money.

* Poverty means stunted brain development in children. Because of hunger and malnutrition, infant in developing countries will never be able to properly concentrate, learn, or achieve the intellectual levels of which they are inherently capable. Thus the legacy of impoverishment and unemployment continues through the generations.

* Poverty means the anguish of impossible choices, the grief of watching the people you love die, the humiliation of not being able to provide for your family, the painful challenge of surviving day by day, and the powerlessness to change one’s fortunes.

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION

Poverty and other global issues cannot be fully discussed without considering economic globalization, a process that is causing a fundamental redesign of the planet's economic, social, and political systems. It is producing a gigantic power shift, moving real economic and political power away from local, state, and national, governments and communities toward global banks, corporations, and the global bureaucracies these have created.

Some of the aspects of globalization are:

* The expansion of trade with much easier movement of goods and services across the world; between 1950 and 1998, export of goods between countries surged seventeen-fold – from $311 billion to $5.4 trillion – while the world economy only expanded six-fold.

* the opening up of capital markets, which increases the movement of money across the world; capital flows to developing countries soared from $21 billion in 1970 to $227 billion in 1998, an eleven-fold increase.

* increased foreign investment, with companies investing more overseas by building plants, buying stock in foreign countries, and contracting subsidiaries; global foreign direct investment increased from $44 billion to $644 billion from 1970 to 1998.

* improved access to communication, including the development of new technology like the Internet and greater availability of wireless and other telephones; the internet grew by about fifty percent per year from 1995 to 1998, after more than doubling in size annually, on average, during the previous fifteen years ; the number of lines linking non-cellular phones to the global network jumped eight-fold between 1960 and 1998, from 89 million to 839 million.

* a very rapid growth in transnational corporations; The number of TNCs worldwide soared from 7,000 in 1970 to 53,600 in 1998.

To achieve such rapid growth, globalization requires unrestricted free trade, privatization of enterprise, and deregulation of corporate activity, which together remove the impediments that might stand in the way of expanded corporate activity. These impediments include environmental, public health, and food safety laws, laws that guarantee workers’ rights and opportunities, laws that permit nations to control investment in their countries, and laws that seek to retain national controls over local culture. These laws are viewed as obstacles to corporate free trade and are quickly being eliminated or scaled back by major new trade agreements. And while corporations are being deregulated and freed from constraints, nation-states and states and local governments are being harshly regulated and constrained, thus making it increasingly difficult to protect local tradition, identity, and jobs, as well as the environment and national sovereignty.

Economic globalization could be providing many more benefits than have so far been shown. However, it has resulted in many negative effects because of its values and objectives. These include:

* giving primacy to economic—primarily corporate—values above all others. Through such institutions as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), and the World Trade Organization (WTO), and treaties such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), corporations have gained extraordinary new powers. Corporate interests and profits are furthered by these unaccountable, undemocratic global bureaucracies, often at the expense of human needs and the web of life on earth. They are the true governing bodies in the global economy, usurping the powers that nations formerly had.

* unifying and integrating all economic activity within a centralized “supersystem.” Countries with very different cultures and economic traditions must all merge their economic activities within a single conceptual framework. The net result is what some economists call "global monoculture" — the global homogenization of culture, lifestyle, economic practice, and ideology with the corresponding sacrifice of local traditions, arts, values, and traditional small-scale economic practices. The result is that every place is starting to look very much like every other place, with the same malls and superstores, restaurant franchises, and chain hotels, the same clothes, the same cars, the same high-rise buildings, and increasingly the same music, art, and television programs.

* undermining all considerations except economic ones. Economic globalization glorifies the free market and its principle actors — global corporations — as the engines and benefactors of the process. It places supreme importance on achieving increasingly rapid economic growth and thus constantly seeks new markets, new resources, and new and cheaper labor sources.

The power of the largest corporations and of the wealthiest people is increasing. The collective worth of the world's 475 billionaires equals the combined incomes of the bottom fifty percent of humanity. Fifty of the largest one hundred economies in the world are corporations. Mitsubishi is the twenty-second largest economy in the world, General Motors the twenty-sixth, and Ford the thirty-first. Each is larger than those of many countries, including Norway, Chile, Turkey, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, and New Zealand.

It is questionable whether globalization can work even on its own terms. Can the limits of a finite planet be ignored? Are there sufficient resources — water, minerals, wood, fuel — to continue the desired rapid economic growth? Where will the effluents from this ambitious undertaking—the solids, the toxic wastes—be dumped? Can the ever-increasing consumption of commodities be ecologically sustained?

There is certainly great potential value to a closer, better-connected world. Today we can know much more quickly and fully about problems in every part of the globe, and therefore potentially respond faster and more effectively. Trade and communication can bring information and jobs to previously isolated groups of poor people. Activists and movements across the earth can more easily connect and work together. Oppressive governments and terrorist organizations can be more closely scrutinized and exposed. Universal values such as human rights, the equality of women, vigilant protection of the environment; freedom of speech and religion, the rights of children, fighting disease and hunger, reducing or eliminating land mines, nuclear missiles, and chemical and biological weapons, and stopping torture and oppression can be widely advocated, publicized, and organized around. Everyone gains the opportunity to learn about, and can come to appreciate, cultures and sites and natural phenomena which are worlds away. When limited by stringent guarantees of fair conditions, hours, and compensation for workers and care for ecosystems, international trade can reach and empower impoverished and suppressed individuals and groups.

But many negative effects of globalization are already apparent:

* Working people in developed countries are losing jobs to corporate flight and to high-tech machines and have been placed in a downward wage competition with workers in poorer countries. Many people believe that big employ more of the world’s labor force than do smaller businesses. However, according to the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies, while the two hundred largest corporations in the world account for approximately thirty per cent of global economic activity, they employ less than 1/2 of one per cent of the global work force. The reason is economies of scale: as companies get larger, it becomes more efficient for them to replace thousands of workers with robots and other machines. And as large companies begin to dominate their industries, they drive out smaller competitors and reduce the workforce. Such economies of scale are intrinsic to globalization. Hence, consolidations and mergers result in fewer jobs, not more in developed countries.

* In spite of the tremendous growth and spread of technology, with increasing numbers of people using computers, cellular phones, and other instruments of modern technology, poverty is still very widespread and is growing. In 2000, 1.3 billion of the world’s six billion people lived on less than one dollar per day, and three billion people lived on less than two dollars a day. From 1960 to 2000, the world’s richest twenty percent increased their fraction of the world’s wealth from seventy percent to 86 percent, while the poorest twenty percent of the world’s population experienced a decrease from 2.3 percent to about one percent. While some corporate profits were at record levels, with many top executives’ annual salaries in the millions of dollars, the real wages of most ordinary workers in developed countries were decreasing in real terms and good jobs were being replaced by temporary or part-time jobs.

* Diverse local farm production and local trades in poorer nations that encourage self-reliance are being replaced by huge corporate farms – monocultures -- that no longer grow food for local people, but instead grow flowers, beef, or coffee for export to the global economy. The result of this process is that millions of the world's formerly self-sufficient small farmers are becoming homeless, landless refugees.

* In India, Africa, and Latin America, millions of indigenous people and small farmers are displaced to make way for gigantic dams and other development projects. The result is that more people join the landless, jobless urban masses. Cities are now attempting to absorb millions of the newly landless refugees roaming the globe searching for a home and the rare, poorly paid job.

* The gap between the wealthy and the poor within countries and among countries is rapidly increasing, and globalization accelerates the problem by separating people from their traditional livelihoods and by creating a terrible downward pressure on wages everywhere—including Third World countries, where low wages represemt the only so-called comparative advantage, meaning that if wages are not kept down, there might be no jobs at all.

A report from the Institute for Policy Studies in 1999 showed that American CEOs were paid, on average, 419 times more than assembly-line workers, the highest ratio in the world. The report showed worker’s median hourly wages (adjusted for inflation) down by 10 per cent in the past twenty-five years. The U.S. Federal Reserve reports that the top 20 per cent of the U.S. population owns 84.6 per cent of the country’s wealth. That makes local self-reliance very difficult to achieve.

* For most Third World countries, free trade has had negative effects. For example, in 1986, Haiti grew most of its rice, the main staple food of the country, and imported only 7,000 tons of rice. In the late 1980s, as Haiti lifted tariffs on rice imports in compliance with free trade policies insisted upon by international lending agencies, cheaper rice flowed in from the U.S., where the rice industry receives government subsidies. Haiti’s peasant farmers could not compete, By 1996 Haiti’s rice production became negligible and the country was importing 196,000 tons of foreign rice at a cost of $100 million per year. After the dependence on foreign rice was complete, and the Haitian people were dependent on grain imports, prices increased substantially, and a hungry nation became even hungrier.

Because of such conditions, poor countries are on a treadmill and have to work harder and harder just to maintain their (inadequate) standard of living. These unfavorable trade relations produce what is known as the "spiral of debt." It happens because the developing countries are locked in by the economic, political, and military power of wealthy countries. They must export cheap items and import more expensive ones.

* The imperatives of global economic expansion, accelerated by free trade, the overuse of resources, and the consumer lifestyle being promoted worldwide by advertising, are a major factor behind environmental problems such as global climate change, habitat destruction, ozone depletion, ocean pollution, and shortages of water and other resources. As environmental leader Paul Hawken says:

Given current corporate practices, not one wildlife reserve, wilderness, or indigenous culture will survive the global economy. We know that every natural system on the planet is disintegrating. The land, water, air, and sea have been functionally transformed from life-supporting systems into repositories for waste. There is no polite way to say that business is destroying the world.

* Using the technologies of global computer networks, currency speculators can move vast amounts of money, invisibly and instantaneously, from one part of the world to another, destabilizing currencies and countries, and forcing nations to seek the harsh solutions of an International Monetary Fund bailout. This has already destabilized many countries’ economies and was a significant factor in the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

* The central control of much of the world food supply and seed supply by giant corporations which effectively determine where food will be grown, by whom, and what price consumers will ultimately pay, contributes to widespread hunger. Food formerly eaten by the people who grew it is now exported—transported thousands of miles at major environmental cost—to be eaten by affluent people who are already well-fed, or fed in large amounts to farmed animals who are destined for slaughter. As indicated in Chapter six, global agribusiness and international monetary organizations are trying to double the number of farmed animals by 2020, through encouraging the consumption of animal products in developing countries, despite the many negative effects of animal-based diets and agriculture.

* There have been recent outbreaks of deadly new diseases such as Ebola, mad cow disease, e-coli, and the West Nile virus. While generally not reported in the press, there is a connection between those outbreaks and the new mobility provided to disease vectors global transport. Microbes and species that were once contained within geographic boundaries are now let loose by travel and trade. The industrialization of agriculture for mass export production to serve global economies plays a role in the outbreaks of e-coli, mad cow, and foot and mouth diseases.

* There have been assaults on the last indigenous tribes in the Amazon, Borneo, and the Philippines because of the need of the globalization process for more water, forests, or genetic resources in areas where the Indians have lived for millennia, and because of the desire to convert self-sufficient people into consumers. This is rapidly leading to the monoculturalization of peoples and lands, and the homogenization of cultural frameworks.

* The growing emphasis on export and import as part of the new global system requires vast new road-building and road-widening schemes and an expanded transport infrastructure with more high-speed traffic. As a result, the quality of rural life is rapidly worsening.

* Ed Ayres, editor of WorldWatch, summarizes the effects of globalization on local communities “where growing numbers of people find their sense of security being eroded by a phalanx of larger forces”:

There is the “Wal-Mart” phenomenon, for example, in which a large chain store uses its marketing muscle to drive local stores out of business, while taking what used to be the local owners’ revenues and sending them off to distant corporate coffers. There is the related “empty storefront” phenomenon, in which the increasing concentration of an industry into larger, more “efficient” outlets means fewer outlets remain in small communities (the numbers of independent car dealers, food stores. drug stores, book stores, and farms in the wealthy countries have all declined sharply in the past several decades). In the developing countries, there is the “structural adjustment” phenomenon, wherein international lending agencies have pushed governments to adopt policies favoring production for export at the expense of local self-sufficiency. And wherever urban areas are expanding around the world, whether into exploding suburbs or imploding shantytowns, there is the “don’t know my neighbors” problem. Even as we humans become more numerous, we become more socially isolated and uneasy.

In summary, many problems — overcrowded cities, unusual new weather patterns, the growth of global poverty, the spread of new diseases, the lowering of wages, the elimination of social services, the reduction of national soverignty and local democracy, the destruction of the environment, decaying communities, and the loss of indigenous culture — are all strongly linked to the same global processes. They are tied to the world's new economic arrangement, in the cause of an economic ideology that cannot serve social or ecological sustainability.

In the end it comes down to this: Who should make the rules we live by? Should it be democratic governments, influenced by local communities concerned about what is good for people and the environment? Or should it be the global community of transnational bankers, corporations, and speculators? The new rules of globalization are actively undermining people’s ability to control their own fate.

Because of the many negative effects of economic globalization, there have been many recent protests against it. In November, 1999, tens of thousands of people from all over the world took to the streets of Seattle in a massive protest against the policies of the WTO. The angry protesters comprised a very varied group, including farmers, immigration-rights activists, labor unions, environmentalists, small-business people, animal rights activists, religious practitioners, and even some conservatives.

The “battle of Seattle” marked a critical turning point. While only six or seven years ago the term “globalization” was virtually unknown, there is suddenly an outburst of pain and anger against many aspects of it. Since Seattle, there have been major protests at meetings of international trade and monetary groups in Washington, D.C, in April 2000, in Chiang Mai, Thailand in May 2000, in Melbourne, Australia in early September 2000 , in Prague in late September 2000 and in Genoa, Italy in July, 2001. Resistance is growing, and the media are beginning to pay attention.
Many of these demonstrations have been marred by senseless violence, much of it initiated by relatively small groups of nihilistic conflict-seekers and faux 'anarchists'. The vast majority of protesters have been sincere and peaceful, and in fact the movement critical of the way globalization has developed in actual practice has created closeness and communication between such diverse groups as ecological campaigners, sweatshop opponents, trade unionists, advocates for the Third World, and critics of the bioengineering of foods.
A striking governmental confirmation of the extremely harmful impacts of international monetary organizations came from a 1998 report of the International Financial Institution Advisory Committee. This committee was created by the U.S. Congress and its report is commonly known as the Meltzer Report, after its chairman Alan Meltzer, a conservative academic. Among its devastating conclusions are:

* rather than promoting economic growth, the IMF institutionalizes economic stagnation.

* The World Bank is irrelevant, not central, to the goal of eliminating global poverty.

* Both the World Bank and the IMF are driven primarily by the political and economic interests of the wealthy nations, rather than the needs of the poor.

* The IMF’s mandate of ensuring a stable global financial order was often undermined by its encouragement of irresponsible investments, and by its prescribing of tight fiscal policies that worsened the situation rather than improving it in countries facing crises.

In September 2001, about 300 religious leaders signed a Statement & Call, "Global Arrogance or Planetary Community? -- A Call to Communities of Faith" that was developed and distributed by the Shalom Center and several other organizations involved with global issues, including the Religious Working Group on the World Bank and IMF. The introductory section of the Statement and Call indicated that the signers were covenanting together to oppose “unaccountable corporate globalization’” and “to seek instead a planetary community of the earth and its peoples, workers and congregants, families and neighborhoods.”

The Statement called on signers to bring the Statement and Call and the teachings of their religious traditions about "globalization" to their home congregations and communities through a fast of contrition and commitment, of some duration in late September or early October, 2001, and a gathering in Washington, D.C. on the night of Saturday, September 29, 2001 for a religious service and a candle-light vigil.

The Statement and Call asserted:

The global corporations have invented unaccountable, undemocratic institutions [including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund] to shield them from the will of the people….[These institutions advance corporate interests by] insisting that loans and grants be conditioned on [cutbacks in desperately needed] social programs, public schools, public health, and water supplies… [by imposing] privatization of the basic needs of life,…[by encouraging] sweatshops and the smashing of labor unions…,by destroying the lives and hopes of children [and supporting child labor]…, by doing all this first to the poor in the poorest societies… and then, through the threat of capital export and cut-throat competition, putting workers, consumers, and the earth itself in danger in even the more prosperous societies.” The call and statement ended by demanding that “The World Bank and IMF cancel the crushing debt of the nations that [those same international organizations] themselves have impoverished and forced into debt,…[condition all grants and loans on] workers’ freedom to organize unions and everyone’s freedom to [advocate protection of the environment] and…that they open their own meetings and deliberation to public scrutiny and democratic control.

As a follow up to the Statement and Call, the Shalom Center is preparing study guides for synagogues and churches that will facilitate local congregational work on five major aspects of globalization -- top-down control; damage to the earth; the oppression of workers; the pressure for overwhelming overwork that distorts families, neighborhoods, and spiritual life; and the destruction of public health and other public services -- and to bring sacred texts and teachings to bear on those problems.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to current economic globalization practices, an approach far better for the world’s people as well as for global sustainability. This is the way of genuinely applying Jewish values: bal tashchit (reducing waste), so that we are not dependent on repressive regimes for resources; treating every person as created in God's image, so that we will work to end violations of human rights wherever they occur; the pursuit of justice, to end the conditions whereby a minority of the world's people prosper while the majority lack food and other basic human needs; and the pursuit of peace, so that arms races that drain the world's labor, ingenuity, and resources can be reduced. Only these alternatives can result in global harmony and humane conditions for the world's people.

JUDAISM AND INTERNATIONAL CONCERNS

Judaism encompasses universal as well as particular concerns. Particularistic aspects include observances of the Sabbath and holy days, rules of kashrut (kosher eating), and prayer obligations. Jews are taught to be especially concerned about their co-religionists: "All Israel is responsible, one for each other." However, the message of Judaism is also universal, expressing concern for each person and every nation. We have already discussed many Jewish teachings related to humanity: Every person is created in God's image; every life is sacred and is to be treated with dignity and respect; we should be kind to the stranger, for we were strangers in the land of Egypt; we should show compassion even to enemies.

Additional Jewish universal teachings include:

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7/21/05 JVNA Online Newsletter

Shalom everyone,

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

1. Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) Hierarchs Endorse [Very Strong] Statement on the Environment/My Response

2. Israeli Knesset Committee Discussion of Animal Treatment in Israel

3. OUR MESSAGES ARE SPREADING

4. SHOULD YOU LIMIT YOUR CONSUMPTION OF SOY PRODUCTS?

5. Another Article in Yosef Hakohen’s Series on "Relating to Other Creatures"

6. Which of the Following Gives the Better Idea of Where We Are Heading?

7. AMERICA'S GOVERNORS DECLARE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE!

8. JVNA Joins Other Animal-Rights and Vegetarian Groups in Opposing CAFTA (The Central American Free Trade Agreement)

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 kashrut, Shabbat observances, or any other Jewish observance, 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.

As always, your comments and suggestions are very welcome.

Thanks,
Richard

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1. Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) Hierarchs Endorse [Very Strong] Statement on the Environment/My Response

[This statement from a Christian group is included because of the very serious nature of the threats it discusses, because so much of its analysis is based on Jewish teachings, such as stewardship, and because I believe it provides material that should make us think more deeply about the issues. I think that it is a very important, challenging statement and I strongly recommend that you read it and consider applying some of its message, which I believe is very consistent with Jewish vegetarian teachings and objectives. My interspersed comments (on the early sections of the article are in brackets and are preceded by 3 asterisks ***. Comments and suggestions are very welcome. The SCOBA material has been slightly modified for this primarily Jewish group.]

SCOBA, 8 East 79th Street, New York, NY 10021
7/8/2005

Statement on the Environment

A group of Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant theologians, convened in Washington, DC by the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, released a letter recently calling all Christians to reject teachings that suggest humans are "called" to exploit the Earth without care for how our behaviour impacts the rest of God's creation.

[*** The nature of the group is very important as there are some people who consider people concerned about the environment as a fringe element, or “Environmental wackos.” It is becoming increasingly clear that environmental concern is becoming more and more mainstream.”]

This letter, reprinted below, was endorsed by the hierarchs of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) at their meeting in New York City, on June 21, 2005, following its approval by the SCOBA Social and Moral Issues Commission, and recommendation by the SCOBA Study and Planning Commission.

[*** This indicates that much study went into preparing the report. It is indicative of the deeper analyses that are being carried out and are pointing to major environmental threats and the need for quick responses.]

God's Earth is Sacred:
An Open Letter to Christians in the United States

God's creation delivers unsettling news. Earth's climate is warming to dangerous levels; 90 percent of the world's fisheries have been depleted; coastal development and pollution are causing a sharp decline in ocean health; shrinking habitat threatens to extinguish thousands of species; over 95 percent of the contiguous United States forests have been lost; and almost half of the population in the United States lives in areas that do not meet national air quality standards. In recent years, the profound danger has grown, requiring us as theologians, pastors, and religious leaders to speak out and act with new urgency.

[*** This is just one of many recent statements pointing to the seriousness of current threats and the importance of rapid responses. Fortunately, there are groups in the Jewish community like the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) and Canfei Nesharim (a recently formed group of Orthodox environmentalists) that are working on applying Jewish teachings to current environmental threats, but, as in other communities, much more needs to be done.]

We are obliged to relate to Earth as God's creation "in ways that sustain life on the planet, provide for the [basic] needs of all humankind, and increase justice."

[** This certainly consistent with Jewish teachings.]

Over the past several decades, slowly but faithfully, the religious community in the United States has attempted to address issues of ecology and justice. Our faith groups have offered rich theological perspectives, considered moral issues through the lens of long-standing social teaching, and passed numerous policies within our own church bodies.

[*** Yes, fortunately there has been much greater concern re environmental threats in religious communities, and we hope this trend will continue and expand.]

While we honor the efforts in our churches, we have clearly failed to communicate the full measure and magnitude of Earth's environmental crisis - religiously, morally, or politically. It is painfully clear from the verifiable testimony of the world's scientists that our response has been
inadequate to the scale and pace of Earth's degradation.

[*** A very honest statement – while religious groups have, as indicated above, become increasingly involved, far more needs to be done in all religious communities. One of the goals of the JVNA is to help promote greater environmental awareness and activism in the Jewish community, while, of course, also pointing out how animal-based agriculture is a major part of the problem.]

To continue to walk the current path of ecological destruction is not only
folly; it is sin.

[*** A powerful statement. Can we make a similar statement from a Jewish perspective. Are we, for example, failing to adequately apply Torah teachings, such as bal tashchit (the mandate not to waste or unnecessarily destroy anything of value), tsa’ar ba’alei chaim (the mandate not to cause unnecessary pain to animals)?

As voiced by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who has taken the lead among senior religious leaders in his concern for creation: "to commit a crime against the natural world is a sin. For humans to cause species to become extinct and to destroy the biological diversity of God's creation...for humans to degrade the integrity of Earth by causing changes in its climate, by stripping the Earth of its natural forest, or destroying its wetlands...for humans to injure other humans with disease...for humans to contaminate the Earth's waters, its land, its air, and its life, with poisonous substances...these are sins." We have become un-Creators. Earth is in jeopardy at our hands.

[*** Again, a very powerful statement. I hope that many more religious leaders will speak in these terms, because the fate of humanity is at stake.]

This means that ours is a theological crisis as well. We have listened to a false gospel that we continue to live out in our daily habits - a gospel that proclaims that God cares for the salvation of humans only and that our human calling is to exploit Earth for our own ends alone. This false gospel still finds its proud preachers and continues to capture its adherents among emboldened political leaders and policy makers.

[*** Certainly Judaism also, while teaching that only human beings are created in God’s image teaches that God is very concerned about animals and the entire natural world.]

The secular counterpart of this gospel rests in the conviction that humans can master the Earth. Our modern way of life assumes this mastery. However, the sobering truth is that we hardly have knowledge of, much less control over, the deep and long-term consequences of our human impacts upon the Earth. We have already sown the seeds for many of those consequences. The fruit of those seeds will be reaped by future generations of human beings, together with others in the community of life.

[*** Yes. Judaism teaches that the wise person considers the possible consequences of his or her actions before acting. We must increasingly make people aware that conditions will be far worse for our children and grandchildren if we do not move to a more sustainable path.]

The imperative first step is to repent of our sins, in the presence of God and one another. This repentance of our social and ecological sins will acknowledge the special responsibility that falls to those of us who are citizens of the United States. Though only five percent [*** actually, closer to four percent and dropping] of the planet's human population, we produce one-quarter of the world's carbon emissions, consume a quarter of its natural riches, and perpetuate scandalous inequities at home and abroad. We are a precious part of Earth's web of life, but we do not own the planet and we cannot transcend its requirements for regeneration on its own terms. We have not listened well to the Maker of Heaven and Earth.

[*** Yes, it is essential that the United States and other developed nations recognize our major impact on the planet’s ecosystems and make proper changes. The SCOBA statement ignores the significant contributions of animal-based diets and agriculture on many environmental threats. I have e-mailed them about this, but I have not yet received a response. Please consider emailing them at the email address at the end of their statement. Thanks.]

The second step is to pursue a new journey together, with courage and joy. By God's grace, all things are made new. We can share in that renewal by clinging to God's trustworthy promise to restore and fulfill all that God creates and by walking, with God's help, a path different from our present course. To that end, we affirm our faith, propose a set of guiding norms, and call on our churches to rededicate themselves to this mission. We firmly believe that addressing the degradation of God's sacred Earth is the moral assignment of our time comparable to the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s, the worldwide movement to achieve equality for women, or ongoing efforts to control weapons of mass destruction in a post-Hiroshima world. [*** My emphasis of the last sentence.]

Ecological Affirmations of Faith

[*** From this point on, I plan to comment far less.]

We stand with awe and gratitude as members of God's bountiful and good creation. We rejoice in the splendor and mystery of countless species, our common creaturehood, and the interdependence of all that God makes. We believe that the Earth is home for all and that it has been created intrinsically good (Genesis1).

We lament that the human species is shattering the splendid gifts of this web of life, ignoring our responsibility for the well being of all life, while destroying species and their habitats at a rate never before known in human history.

… We believe that the people of God are called to forge ways of being human that enable socially just and ecologically sustainable communities to flourish for generations to come. And we believe in God's promise to fulfill all of creation, …

We lament that we have rejected this vocation, and have distorted our God-given abilities and knowledge in order to ransack and often destroy ecosystems and human communities rather that to protect, strengthen, and nourish them.

We believe that, in boundless love that hungers for justice, God … acts to restore and redeem all creation (including human beings). …

We confess that instead of living and proclaiming this salvation through our very lives and worship, we have abused and exploited the Earth and people on the margins of power and privilege, altering climates, extinguishing species, and jeopardizing Earth's capacity to sustain life as we know and love it.

We believe that the created world is sacred - a revelation of God's power and gracious presence filling all things. This sacred quality of creation demands moderation and sharing, urgent antidotes for our excess in consumption and waste, reminding us that economic justice is an essential condition of ecological integrity. We cling to God's trustworthy promise to restore, renew, and fulfill all that God creates. … We look forward to the day when the lamentations and groans of creation will be over, justice with peace will reign, humankind will nurture not betray the Earth, and all creation will sing for joy.

Guiding Norms for Church and Society

These affirmations imply a challenge that is also a calling: to fulfill our vocation as moral images of God, reflections of divine love and justice charged to "serve and preserve the Garden (Genesis 2:15). Given this charge and the urgent problems of our age-from species extinctions and mass poverty to climate change and health-crippling pollution -how shall we respond? What shall we be and do? What are the standards and practices of moral excellence that we ought to cultivate in our personal lives, our communities of faith, our social organizations, our businesses, and our political institutions? We affirm the following norms of social and environmental responsibility:

Justice-creating right relationships, both social and ecological, to ensure for all members of the Earth community the conditions required for their flourishing. Among human members, justice demands meeting the essential material needs and conditions for human dignity and social participation. In our global context, economic deprivation and ecological degradation are linked in a vicious cycle. We are compelled, therefore, to seek eco-justice, the integration of social justice and ecological integrity. The guest for eco-justice also implies the development of a set of human environmental rights, since one of the essential conditions of human well-being is ecological integrity. These moral entitlements include protection of soils, air, and water from diverse pollutants; the preservation of biodiversity; and governmental actions ensuring the fair and frugal use of creation's riches.

Sustainability - living within the bounds of planetary capacities indefinitely, in fairness to both present and future generations of life. God's covenant is with humanity and all other living creatures "for all future generations" (Genesis 9:8-17). The concern for sustainability forces us to be responsible for the truly long-term impacts of our lifestyles and policies.

Bioresponsibility - extending the covenant of justice to include all other life forms as beloved creatures of God and as expressions of God's presence, wisdom, power, and glory. We do not determine nor declare creation's value, and other creatures should not be treated merely as instruments for our needs and wants. Other species have their own integrity. They deserve a "fair share" of Earth's bounty - a share that allows a biodiversity of life to thrive along with human communities.

Humility - recognizing, as an antidote to arrogance, the limits of human knowledge, technological ingenuity, and moral character. We are not the masters of creation. Knowing human capacities for error and evil, humility keeps our own species in check for the good of the whole of Earth as God's creation.

Generosity - sharing Earth's riches to promote and defend the common good in recognition of God's purposes for the whole creation and [God’s] gift of abundant life. Humans are not collections of isolated individuals, but rather communities of socially and ecologically interdependent beings. A measure of a good society is not whether it privileges those who already have much, but rather whether it privileges the most vulnerable members of creation. Essentially, these tasks require good government at all levels, from local to regional to national to international.

Frugality - restraining economic production and consumption for the sake of eco-justice. Living lives filled with God's Spirit liberates us from the illusion of finding wholeness in the accumulation of material things and brings us to the reality of God's just purpose. Frugality connotes moderation, sufficiency, and temperance. Many call it simplicity. It demands the careful conservation of Earth's riches, comprehensive recycling, minimal harm to other species, material efficiency and the elimination of waste, and product durability. Frugality is the corrective to a cardinal vice of the age: prodigality - excessively taking from and wasting God's creation. On a finite planet, frugality is an expression of love and an instrument for justice and sustainability: it enables all life to thrive together by sparing and sharing global goods.

Solidarity- acknowledging that we are increasingly bound together as a global community in which we bear responsibility for one another's well being. The social and environmental problems of the age must be addressed with cooperative action at all levels - local, regional, national and international. Solidarity is a commitment to the global common good through international cooperation.

Compassion - sharing the joys and sufferings of all Earth's members and making them our own. … From compassion flows inclusive caring and careful services to meet the needs of others.

A Call to Action: Healing the Earth and Providing a Just and Sustainable Society

For too long, we, our Christian brothers and sisters, and many people of good will have relegated care and justice for the Earth to the periphery of our concerns. This is not a competing "program alternative," one "issue" among many. In this most critical moment in Earth's history, we are convinced that the central moral imperative of our time is the care for Earth as God's creation.

Churches, as communities of God's people in the world, are called to exist as representatives of the loving Creator, Sustainer, and Restorer of all creation. We are called to worship God with all our being and actions, and to treat creation as sacred. We must engage our political leaders in supporting the very future of this planet. …

We believe that caring for creation must undergird, and be entwined with, all other dimensions of our churches' ministries. We are convinced that it is no longer acceptable to claim to be "church" while continuing to perpetuate, or even permit, the abuse of Earth as God's creation. Nor is it acceptable for our corporate and political leaders to engage in "business as usual" as if the very future of life-support systems were not at stake.

Therefore, we urgently call on our brothers and sisters … , and all people of good will, to join us in:

Understanding our responsibilities as those who live within the United States of America - the part of the human family that represents five percent of the world population and consumes 25 percent of Earth's riches. We believe that one of the surest ways to gain this understanding is by listening intently to the most vulnerable: those who most immediately suffer the consequences of our overconsumption, toxication, and hubris. The whole earth is groaning, crying out for healing - let us awaken the "ears of our souls" to hear it, before it's too late.

Integrating this understanding into our core beliefs and practices surrounding what it means to be "church," to be "human," to be "children of God." Such integration will be readily apparent in: congregational mission statements, lay and ordained ministries, the preaching of the Word, our hymns of praise, the confession of our sins, our financial stewardship and offerings to God, theological education, our evangelism, our daily work, sanctuary use, and compassionate service to all communities of life. With this integrated witness we look forward to a revitalization of our human vocation and our churches' lives that parallels the revitalization of God's thriving Earth.

Advocating boldly with all our leaders on behalf of creation's most vulnerable members (including human members). We must shed our complacency, denial, and fears and speak God's truth to power, on behalf of all who have been denied dignity and for the sake of all voiceless members of the community of life.

Join us in restoring God's Earth - the greatest healing work and moral assignment of our time.

Contact: SCOBA Office
East 79th Street
New York, NY 10021

Phone: 212-570-3593
Fax: 212-774-0202
Email: scoba@goarch.org

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2. ISRAELI KNESSET COMMITTEE DISCUSSION OF ANIMAL TREATMENT IN ISRAEL

Thanks to Israeli vegetarian activists Coby Algisser and Oren Roman for translating the following discussion in an Israeli Knesset committee and sending it to me:

Words of MK (Member of the Knesset (Israeli Parliament)) Meshulam Nahari and other MKs at the Education, Culture and Sports committee debating regulations for veal farm-storage on June 6, 2005.

Meshulam Nahari (MN): It is not good. It is cruelty to animals (tsa’ar ba’alei chaim). … we are talking about the law. How do we check whether he broke the law. I am more concerned that people are breaking the Torah prohibition of tsa’ar ba’alei chaim.

We already discussed this matter here regarding the forced feeding of geese, and I presented a ruling of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef that regarding this matter there is no question. It is forbidden. When it comes to tsa’ar ba’alei chaim, there is no use in talking about certain conditions or regulations. When it comes to inflicting suffering on animals - it is forbidden.

Dr. David Haimovitz (DH): Then let me ask you: why does Judaism allow us to slaughter animals?

MN: The Torah allowed slaughtering for "people's existence" (i.e. in order for people to eat its meat and live from it). [*** We now know that people can be properly nourished, and even healthier, without eating meat.] But it didn't allow taking a calf, and raise it cruelly. This doesn't constitute "people's existence".

DH- The same goes for cows. A cow doesn't give milk, people have to take it from her. She won't give it willingly.

MH: The Jews are [supposed to be] merciful people born to merciful parents [rachmanim b’nei rachmanim]. But here we go and choose cruel ways. Most of the foie gras, from force feeding geese, is sent abroad.

Avraham Poraz (AP): Regarding ventillation, I don't see why we can’t apply the laws at once.

MN: The cells too. You speak of 3 farms. People abuse animals to profit from it. For the sake of greed they go and violate the Torah's orders. Who needs that? In order to make money?

DH: We don't NEED to milk cows either.

MN: There is no tsa’ar ba’alei chaim here. You cause the animals pain if you don't milk them. What are you talking about? A cow which is not milked suffers.

DH: Have you ever milked? Have you ever fed cows?

MN: Believe me I grew up with this and I know what it is.

AP: Gentlemen have no doubt. I think this whole phenomenon of "milk veals" is wrong from A-Z, but we need to be realistic and therefore need to do the following things, in my view: Firstly, ventillation should be applied immediatly, there is no reason that even in existing facilities ventilators or air conditioning systems should not be used.

MN: I would like to ask, if they are raised like regular animals, would that be wrong? Except for some people who don't care about tsa’ar ba’alei chaim, who would not make so much money.

AP: MK Nahari, I hold the same opinions, but since these things already exist and we need to allow people adjustment time, we need to allow for an adjustment period. ---

MN: A year. Not more than a year

AP: --but this 10 year period seems exaggerated.

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3. OUR MESSAGES ARE SPREADING

Dear Dr. Schwartz:

I noticed your article on “TEN WAYS FOR VEGETARIAN WORLD” on a Jain forum on a Yahoo group. It is a wonderful concept.

Can you permit use of your article in our quarterly magazine JAIN DIGEST? we will of cource give complete credit to you and publish your picture along with it.

If you need information on our organization: www.jaina.org and you can click on publications link to see a few back issues of JAIN DIGEST.

Sincerely,

Dilip V Shah
First Vice President, JAINA

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4. SHOULD YOU LIMIT YOUR CONSUMPTION OF SOY PRODUCTS?

Thanks to JVNA advisor and author of the current series of articles on "Relating to Other Creatures" Yosef Hakohen for sending the following message. I am including it because I understand that it is consistent with the view of a leading vegetarian doctor, John McDougall. The main idea I believe is to have as many natural products, such as fruits and vegetables as possible in our diets and to limit soy products and other processed foods.

HEALTH MINISTRY [OF ISRAEL]: EAT SOYA ONLY IN MODERATION

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, THE JERUSALEM POST Jul. 20, 2005

The Health Ministry will issue a director-general's advisory recommending that consumption of soya products be limited in young children and adults and avoided if possible by infants.After a year's work, a committee of experts said that people who eat soya products should do so in moderation, pending additional studies in the coming years that reach firm conclusions on whether it promotes cancers, harms male fertility or has other harmful or beneficial influences.

The 13-member committee, headed by Prof. Zvi Weizman, included ministry Food and Nutrition Service head Dr. Dorit Nitzan-Kalusky, oncologist Prof. Tamar Peretz, Metabolism expert Prof. Elliot Berry, gynecology Prof. Amnon Brzezinski, pediatrics Prof. David Branski and other specialists, who looked into soya products and health.

Soya contains an estrogen-like hormone (phytoestrogen) that can have some of the effects of human estrogens if consumed in large quantities. The local food industry is a major developer and producer of soya-based food. Nitzan-Kalusky said that soya is widely used by all ages because it is a cheap protein substitute for meat. The ministry, as it said during the Remedia baby formula scandal a few years ago (in which babies died or suffered permanent neurological damage due to the lack of a B vitamin in soya-based Remedia formula) reiterated that infants should ideally be breastfed, and if not, given baby formula based on cow's milk. Only in special circumstances (such as allergies to cow's milk) should they get mother's milk from a breast-milk bank or be given soya-based formula, which is popular among haredi families who do not want to mix milk-based baby formula with meat meals for supposed kashrut reasons.

The ministry decided not to adopt a regulation allowing babies to get soya formula only upon recommendation of a physician (in effect in some countries such as New Zealand). However, because of potential dangers of significant amounts of soya in the diet, the ministry will disseminate information to the public and health system workers about possible harm from its frequent consumption.

The ministry said it could not reach practical conclusions regarding soya and cancer, as study results were conflicting. Excessive estrogen is known to be involved in breast cancer, but since the evidence is not clear, women at high risk for breast cancer or who have the disease itself should consult their physican before starting a high-phytoestrogen diet. Since estrogen is a female hormone, there is evidence that it may reduce male fertility, thus men who eat soya should do so in moderation, the ministry said. Soya and flax seed have been shown to reduce blood cholesterol, which is beneficial, but there is no clear proof that isoflavones in these products reduce the risk of heart disease, the ministry said.

This article can also be read here

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5. Another Article in Yosef Hakohen’s Series on "Relating to Other Creatures"

The Journey to Unity - 123

The Song of the Hen:

"He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His lovingkindness endures forever" (Psalm 136:25)

"He gives nourishment to all flesh" - The great lovingkindness of the Compassionate One extends to all creatures, for He prepares for each and every creature the food that is fitting for it. (Commentary of Radak)

Dear Friends,

In his book on Perek Shirah - "Nature's Song" - Rabbi Nosson Slifkin writes: "The chicken finds food everywhere. It is also very flexible in its diet, able to eat different types of seeds, vegetables, insects, and so on. Thus, the song of the chicken is one of acknowledging God's provision of food, one way or another, to all His creations." The Song of the Hen is a therefore a song of faith - a reminder that the Creator has many ways of providing sustenance to all creatures, including us!

The theme of the hen's song - the Divine nurturing of all creatures - is a major theme within our traditional prayers. For example, we chant Psalm 145 three times a day, and according to the Talmud (Brochos 4b), the main theme of this psalm is found in verse 16: "You open Your hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing." We also chant the following passage each morning:

"Call out to the Compassionate One with thanks, with the harp sing to our God - Who covers the heavens with clouds, Who prepares rain for the earth, Who makes mountains sprout with grass. He gives to an animal its food, to young ravens that cry out." (Psalm 147:7-9)

Another example are these excerpts from Psalm 104, a psalm which we chant on "Rosh Chodesh" - the New Moon:

You are the One Who sends the springs into the streams; they flow between the mountains. They water every beast of the field; they quench the wild creatures' thirst. Near them dwell the birds of the heavens, from among the branches they give forth song. The One Who waters the mountains from His upper chambers, from the fruit of Your works the earth is sated. The One Who causes vegetation to sprout for the animal, and plants through human labor; to bring forth bread from the earth and wine that gladdens the human heart; to make the face glow from oil, and bread that sustains the human heart. The trees of the Compassionate One are sated, the cedars of Lebanon that He has planted; there where the birds nest, the stork with its home among cypresses, high mountains for the wild goats, rocks as refuge for the gophers. The One Who made the moon for the setting of the festivals, the sun knows its destination. You make darkness, and it is night, in which every forest beast stirs. The young lions roar after their prey, and to seek their food from God. The sun rises and they are gathered, and in their dens they crouch. The human being goes forth to his work, and to his labor until evening. How manifold are Your works, O Compassionate One; with wisdom You made them all; the earth is full of Your possessions. Behold this sea, great and of broad measure; creeping things are there without number, creatures small and great... All of them look to You with hope, to provide their food in its proper time. You give it to them, they gather it in; You open Your hand, they are sated with good. (Psalm 104, verses 10-28)

Our appreciation and thanksgiving for the Divine nurturing of all creatures is expressed in the opening blessing of the "Birchas Hamazon" - a series of blessings which we say to the Compassionate One after eating bread:

"Blessed are You, O Compassionate One, our God, Sovereign of the universe, Who nourishes the entire world with goodness - with grace, lovingkindness, and compassion. He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His lovingkindness is eternal. And through His great goodness, we have never lacked, and may we never lack nourishment for all eternity, for the sake of His great Name. For He is God Who nourishes and sustains all, and benefits all, and He prepares food for all of His creatures that He has created. Blessed are You, O Compassionate One, Who nourishes all."

According to the Talmud (Brochos 48b), the above blessing was composed by Moses in gratitude for the manna with which the Compassionate One sustained the People of Israel in the desert. The universal language of this blessing seems to indicate that Moses understood the Divine gift of manna to the People of Israel as a manifestation of the Divine love and concern for all life; therefore, Moses praises the One, "Who nourishes the entire world."

Shalom,
Yosef Ben Shlomo Hakohen (See below)

Related Teachings:

1. The Hebrew text of the Song of the Hen is, "Nosen lechem l'chol basar, ki l'olam chasdo." The ArtScroll Tanach translates this verse as, "He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His lovingkindness endures forever." The ArtScroll commentary on Psalms cites an alternative translation of the Song of the Hen. The word "olam" also means "world"; thus, "ki l'olam chasdo" can be translated as, "His lovingkindness is to the world" (Alschich). The song of the hen can therefore be translated in the following manner: "He gives nourishment to all flesh, for His lovingkindness is to the world."

2. Special foods such as bread, wine, the seven species for which the Land of Israel is praised, and certain grains have their own unique blessing of thanksgiving which is said after eating. For other foods and beverages, there is the following "general" blessing of thanksgiving to the Compassionate One where we express our appreciation for the nurturing of all creatures:

"Blessed are You, O Compassionate One, our God, Sovereign of the universe, Who creates numerous living things and their needs; for all that You have created with which to maintain the life of every being. Blessed is the One Who is the life of the worlds."

3. When we say in Hebrew our traditional prayers and blessings, the sacred Four-Letter Divine Name which expresses the attribute of compassion should be pronounced as if it was spelled, "Ado-nai" - the Master of all. The ArtScroll Siddur adds: If one is saying the traditional prayers and blessings in English, one should say "God" or "Lord" or one should pronounce the Divine Name in the proper Hebrew way – "Ado-nai" (in accord with the ruling of most halachic authorities).

Hazon - Our Universal Vision: www.shemayisrael.co.il/publicat/hazon/

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6. Which of the Following Gives the Better Idea of Where We Are Heading?

The following items are forwarded from GRIST MAGAZINE

a. MAD IN CHINA
Chinese villagers riot to keep polluting pharmaceutical plant closed

Thousands of Chinese protestors battled police for hours on Sunday night in an effort to stop a polluting plant from resuming operations. Villagers in Xinchang, China, 180 miles south of Shanghai, say corrupt local officials have refused to do anything about chemical wastes from the Jingxin Pharmaceutical Co. that have ruined crops, poisoned the local river, and made villagers sick. Jingxin was closed after an explosion there killed a worker in early July; after plans to reopen it were announced on Thursday, people traveled via mountain paths and rice paddies to protest by throwing rocks and overturning police cars. Police have bussed in reinforcements and closed off all roads to the facility. Protestors in Xinchang say they're inspired by the success in the nearby city of Dongyang, where more than 10,000 rioters turned out against a polluting pesticide factory in early spring. They vow to keep it up until the Jingxin plant is moved. Says one demonstrator, "They are making poisonous chemicals for foreigners that the foreigners don't dare produce in their own countries."

straight to the source: The New York Times, Howard W. French, 19 Jul 2005

straight to the source: Reuters, 19 Jul 2005

b. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' GARBAGE
Seattle to reduce landfilling by producing less trash in the first place

Seattle is pioneering programs to cut landfill costs by stopping trash before it starts, pursuing an ambitious long-term goal of becoming a "zero-waste" city. Seattle Public Utilities is using more electronic documents, radically reducing its use of paper, and instituting a green buying program for non-toxic cleaners, greener electronics, and other eco-friendly products. Manufacturers are being encouraged to institute take-back programs for their products, intercepting them for reuse or proper disposal before they are sent to the dump. Last year, 11 city-sponsored green-building projects salvaged or reused 57,000 tons of materials, and the "Use-It-Again-Seattle" give-and-take-free-stuff program kept 221 tons of materials out of landfills. While recycling means making something new from something used, "waste prevention means not making the waste in the first place," said Chris Luboff of Seattle Public Utilities. "We're trying to broaden that concept."

This just in! Seven of the nation's most influential Governors--Governors Rod Blagojevich D-IL, Jim Doyle D-WI, Christine Gregoire D-WA, Ted Kulongoski D-OR, Janet Napolitano D-AZ, Bill Richardson D-NM, and Brian Schweitzer D-MT-- signed an open letter to the President urging him to make energy independence a top national priority. They called on the President to"lead a bold national project to achieve environmentally and economicallysustainable American energy independence within a decade."

www.apolloalliance.org

[With regard to the message below, please keep in mind the generally overlooked fact that plant-based diets require far less energy, land, water, and other resources than animal-based diets.]

America's Governors Call for Bold Solutions as the Energy Bill Moves Forward

The call for energy independence from seven prominent Governors comes at a crucial moment as the long-awaited conference committee meets to negotiate the energy bill. In light of soaring gas prices, lawmakers are under pressure to send the President an energy bill before the congressional recess in August.

Governor Rod Blagojevich (D-IL), noted that both the House and Senate versions of the energy bill do little to stop rising gas prices. "We need an energy bill that delivers relief to everyday people who work hard to make ends meet," said Blagojevich.

Read the Governors’ Letter


'Industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb'

"If ever we had proof that our nation's pollution laws aren't working, it's reading the list of industrial chemicals in the bodies of babies who have not yet lived outside the womb," Slaughter, a Democrat, said.

Cord blood reflects what the mother passes to the baby through the placenta. "Of the 287 chemicals we detected in umbilical cord blood, we know that 180 cause cancer in humans or animals, 217 are toxic to the brain and nervous system, and 208 cause birth defects or abnormal development in animal tests," the report said. - Reuters

This article was originally published on page 4 of Cape Argus (a South African paper) on July 14, 2005

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8. JVNA Joins Other Animal-Rights and Vegetarian Groups in Opposing CAFTA (The Central American Free Trade Agreement)

By a 14-2 vote, with two abstentions, the JVNA Advisory Committee endorsed the letter below, opposing the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), largely because of the reasons given in the letter:


Sign on Letter for Animal Rights, Animal Welfare, and Vegetarian

Organizations Opposed to DR-CAFTA


Dear Member of Congress:

We, the undersigned animal rights, animal welfare, and vegetarian
organizations, are writing to express our opposition to the Dominican
Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

This agreement poses a serious threat to the welfare of billions of
nonhuman animals, including farmed animals, marine animals, and terrestrial wildlife, as well as to human health and the environment.

Expansion of Factory Farming

Under DR-CAFTA, animal agribusiness interests view the elimination of
import tariffs as an opportunity to dramatically increase exports of beef, pork, dairy, and poultry products and to undercut small farmers in Latin America using traditional agriculture methods. US agribusiness will flood Latin American markets with cheaply produced meat and dairy products created with cruel, industrial scale methods, including "factory farm" agriculture.

Latin American producers using traditional methods fear that these cheap imports will force them to shift to a US-style intensive confinement factory farm systems to remain competitive. The high volumes of water used to clean these factory farms will be a serious concern for the environment and public health in areas lacking adequate water treatment facilities.Beyond absorbing market share from Dominican and Central American producers, agribusiness interests also view DR-CAFTA as an opportunity to dramatically increase consumption of animal products in Latin America by making cheap meat products more available. While this may be profitable, it will be a public health disaster for Latin America.

Already, increased consumption of meat and dairy products in the Caribbean and Latin America have led to dramatic increases in diabetes and heart disease rates, with experts predicting that 62% of global diabetes will be in these regions by 2025.

This increase in consumption will also mean increased production. This
will guarantee more animal suffering and environmental degradation. Factory farm poultry and pork production are two of the most severe causes of water pollution in the US. Increased beef production will
lead to the further degradation of rangelands, including taxpayer
subsidized public lands.

Marine Life Threatened by Expanded Fishing

As commercial zones are increasing and regulatory controls are undermined, larger enterprises will move into areas previously zoned solely for small fisherman and their use of larger nets. This destructive practice not only catches more of the fish, it also sweeps up other species that have been left alone by small fisherman, like sea turtles. This is just one example of the ways in which plant and marine biodiversity is gravely threatened by CAFTA-DR.

Weak Environmental Protections Endanger Wildlife

According to the Sierra Club, "While [CAFTA countries (excluding the US)] account for less than one percent of the earth's land area, 8% of all the planet's biodiversity is found in this region, including some 24,000 plant species, over 1000 bird species, over 600 species of reptiles and several hundred types of mammals. Three out of four migratory bird routes in the Western Hemisphere pass through the CAFTA countries. Of the 836 migratory bird species that are listed in the U.S. Migratory Bird Treaty Act, some 350 neo-tropical migratory species (mainly songbirds) migrate through or are winter residents of the CAFTA countries. Even the U.S. trade negotiators admit that CAFTA could contribute to the ‘loss of migratory bird habitat’ through investments in the agricultural sector."Loss of habitat means starvation and death for their resident animals, making environmental preservation an animal rights issue as well as a
conservation issue.

DR-CAFTA’s weak environmental protections, contrasted with its strong protections for corporate investors, provisions for corporations to sue countries over natural resource agreements, and ability for corporations to sue nations in international tribunals severely imperils protection of critical wildlife habitat areas. The agreement’s sole environmental provision merely requires simply that countries enforce their existing environmental law, and even this is undermined by language that gives countries discretion on which laws they prioritize in allocating enforcement resources. DR-CAFTA requires that international enterprises be subjected to rules no more strict than those for national enterprise, despite the ongoing problem of flagrant abuse the law and environment national enterprises. Environmental enforcement is already lax in Central America and will not be up to the task of policing added environmental pressure from new investments under DR-CAFTA.

The potential threat to the environment of this Chapter 11 expansion can be seen in the Harken Oil Case.As reported in the online environmental journal Grist, "Harken Costa Rica Holdings, a transnational corporation with close ties to Harken Energy of Texas, obtained an agreement to drill off the coast of Costa Rica, contingent on the outcome of an environmental assessment. When it was found that the drilling would pose a serious threat to the rich marine ecosystems of the Talamanca region, the Costa Rican government decided the drilling was contrary to its environmental law, and Harken was denied the right to drill. In response, Harken tried to bring an
international suit against Costa Rica. It demanded the outrageous sum of $57[.5] billion to compensate for profits Harken would have made from the drilling. A stipulation in the contract forced the company to take their suit to domestic courts in Costa Rica, but had CAFTA's investor rules been in place, Harken could have bypassed the domestic court system and taken the case straight to a NAFTA-style tribunal."

With a GDP of only $38 billion, the threat alone would have forced Costa Rica to concede and settle, regardless of whether Harken would have been able to substantiate their case in the end. If the project had proceeded as intended, sea turtle nesting beaches, rare manatees, and over 100 species of fish would have suffered.

Forests at Risk

Forest ecosystems in Central America, including rainforests and coastal mangroves, represent critical and irreplaceable wildlife habitat. Already experiencing an unprecedented rate of destruction, DR-CAFTA will hasten the logging of these forests.

Oxfam International has warned that DR-CAFTA may replicate the increased deforestation that came as a result of US corn dumping on Mexico. 1.5 million small farmers were driven off their land. This led to an upsurge in tree clearing for farming and fuel. Subsequent to NAFTA’ implementation, the annual rate of deforestation in Mexico rose to 1.1 million hectares, practically doubling the pr-NAFTA rate of 600 thousand hectares per year was practically doubled. Under DR-CAFTA this phenomenon is likely to be repeated with Central America’s rice farmers. This will also hasten a trend already seen in El Salvador-as farmers are forced out of business by cheap agriculture imports, they move to the cities for work. Forested rural areas are cleared to open to roads and logged for development.

DR-CAFTA will allow large-scale dumping of imported shrimp on the US, resulting in increased logging of Central American mangrove forests to create shrimp farms, destroying refuge and nursery grounds for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimps, and mollusks, and shelter for birds.

We ask that all members of Congress recognize nonhuman animals as stakeholders when weighing the costs of this agreement. Mahatma Gandhi once said that, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." Our nation must apply this principle to matters of international trade as well as domestic policy and members of Congress must vote "NO!" to this inhumane agreement.

Signers:

National Organizations:
Animal Protection Institute
Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting
EarthSave International
Friends of Animals
Humane Farming Association
In Defense of Animals
League of Humane Voters USA
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
United Poultry Concerns
Vegan Research Institute
VIVA! USA
Voice for A Viable Future
Wildlife Watch

Publications
No Compromise
Veg News Magazine
Satya
Vegan.com

Local Organizations
Activism Center at Wetlands Preserve
AESOP-Project [Allied Effort to Save Other Primates]
Alliance for Animals
Animal Acres
Animal Defense League-Los Angeles
Animal Protection and Rescue League
Animal Protection of New Mexico
Animal Rights and Rescue Coalition
Cape Cod Coalition for Animal Rights
Delaware Action for Animals
Division of Animal Welfare
Eastern Shore Sanctuary and Education Center
Feral Cat Caretakers Coalition
League for Earth and Animal Protection
League of Humane Voters of Ohio
LIBERATION COLLECTIVE
Mercy for Animals
Michigan Animal Rights Society
Orlando Animal Rights Alliance
petstorecruelty.com
Rattle the Cage Productions www.RattletheCage.org
ROAR-USA
S.P.E.A.K.
Showing Animal Respect And Kindness
Sonoma People for Animal Rights
Southern California Vegetarians
The Coalition for New York City Animals, Inc.
The Empathy Project
Uconn Animal Rights Club
Unitarian Universalists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals - Los Angeles
Voices for Animals
Woodstock Animal Rights Movement

Animal-Friendly Businesses
Oh Sweet Mamas

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Quotations
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"God is good to all, and His mercy is upon all of His works" (Psalms 145:9).

"The righteous person understands the needs of his animal" (Proverbs 12:10).

"Just has God has compassion for humans, so He has compassion for animals" (Midrash: Devarim Rabbah 6:1).

"We should regard all creatures as our friends in the universe, for we are all created beings whose abilities are God-given" (Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, the Baal Shem Tov ["Master of the Good Name"] 1698-1760)

Just as [God] is merciful, so shall you be merciful. (Talmud: Sota 14a).

God watches over and shows mercy to all. Similarly, a person should be benevolent to everyone, and no creature should seem despicable to him. Even the smallest living thing should be exceedingly worthy in his eyes. (Rabbi Moses Cordovero).

The Maker of All, the Wise One Who transcends everything, is associated with His creatures in having made them. To disparage them, God forbid, would reflect upon the honor of their Maker. (Rabbi Moses Cordovero)

Love of all creatures is also love of God, for whoever loves God, loves all the works that He has made. (Maharal of Prague).

The rabbis regarded the human body as a sanctuary (Ta'anit 11a-b).
Since maintaining a healthy and sound body is among the ways of God – for one cannot understand or have any knowledge of the Creator if one is ill - therefore one must avoid that which harms the body and accustom oneself to that which is helpful and helps the body become stronger.
- Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Hilchot Deot

Jews comprise only a small percentage of the world’s people. We are responsible for only a small portion of the problems resulting from modern intensive livestock agriculture. However, it is essential that we Jews strive to fulfil our challenge to be a light unto the nations and to work for tikkun olam – the healing and repair of our imperfect and unjust world. This mission must include the lightening of the immense burden of our diets on animals, the environment and the world’s poor and hungry. To do so is to demonstrate the relevance of Judaism’s eternal teachings to the problems of the world today.

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