Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
Announcement
1. Forward Article on Glatt Kosher Meat/My Letter/Please Write
2. Coalition On the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) Launches National Global Climate Change Campaign
3. Interested in a Teshuvah/Dietary Campaign?
4. JVNA Advisor To Again Take Part in a Grueling Bike Ride To Help Handicapped Children
6. Much of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crisis (Two Items)
7. Update on Hakol CHAI Helping Animals in Israel
8. Another Article Showing the Urgency of Our Efforts
10. Grassroots Rebellion Needed to Respond to Global Warming
11. Is Ethanol a Potential Solution to Potential Fuel Shortages?
13. Course Offered Re Impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
14. Vegan Homeschooling Fraud
15. International Vegetarian Conference in India Next Month
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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Announcement
Shalom everyone,
I want to emphasize again that my discussion of Israel’s struggle against Hezbollah represented only my personal views and do not represent in any way at all any JVNA position. Even so, I should not have used the JVNA email distribution list. I apologize for that and I will not use the list for a personal statement on any non JVNA-related matter again.
When I sent out my "My Analysis of the Present Situation Re Israel's Struggles against Hizbullah and Hamas," I thought of it as a one-shot effort to stimulate some thought, since I had been receiving many messages that were wonderful for winning debates but none that seemed to be considering possible solutions. I received several responses, some agreeing and some disagreeing with my position, and all of them were respectful. I replied respectfully to all of them, I believe -- if I missed responding to any, it was inadvertent or possibly because I was away for a few days and haven’t completely caught up yet, and I apologize. I have not shared these responses with this list because of time limitations and because I did not want to divert attention from the main issues that this list is considering.
However, the response I received from long time friend and vegetarian activist Steve Kelter is so thoughtful and comprehensive that I have decided to make it available, along with the ensuing dialogue between myself and Steve, in the hope that it will stimulate further thought and perhaps actions that will lead to positive results for Israel and others. If you would like to receive Steve’s response and the ensuing dialogue between myself and Steve please let me know. Thanks. This will be the last time that this issue will be mentioned or considered in a JVNA newsletter.
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1. Forward Article on Glatt Kosher Meat/My Letter/Please Write
Glatt Kosher Meat Is Not All It Is Cut Out To Be
Marc Shapiro Fri. August 18, 2006
Due in no small part to the recent controversy at the AgriProcessors slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa, there has been a lot of talk of late about how glatt kosher meat is produced. Yet for all the sensational headlines about whether the standards of kashrut are being met, little attention has been paid to how those standards are actually determined.
In nearly every Orthodox community today, glatt kosher has come to stand for unquestionably kosher, with the result being that food carrying the regular kosher label is shunned.
This is more than simply an issue of certification. It is a significant transformation in the religious lifestyle of the Orthodox, a group that, ironically, claims to embody religious continuity.
Regular kosher might be okay if you’re in, say, Montana, and it’s the only meat available. Even then, though, you might want to think twice before bringing home such food. If you’re thinking of having a barbecue for Orthodox friends and throwing some regular kosher hot dogs on the grill, don’t be surprised if your guests suddenly develop a distaste for meat and profess that they’ve recently become vegetarians. You might as well be serving Oscar Mayer franks, because the reaction will be little different.
For hundreds of years, halachic authorities disagreed as to what exactly could be considered kosher. The “Shulhan Arukh” insisted on no adhesions — glatt means smooth, and refers to the fact that the lungs of animals slaughtered according to glatt kashrut do not have any adhesions. Rabbi Moses Isserles disagreed, and ruled that an animal could be declared kosher even with certain adhesions.
In the Ashkenazic lands, regular kosher was the standard, with glatt being reserved for the exceptionally pious, who were also willing to pay more. This is also how matters were in America until about 30 years ago.
Since then, the Orthodox have adopted a new standard in kashrut, one that defines only glatt kosher as acceptable. Regular kosher has been relegated to Conservative Jews and others who don’t take kashrut as seriously as the Orthodox.
Recognition of the change in kashrut standards has, by all indications, been picked up by the Jewish community at large. On numerous occasions I have been informed by non-Orthodox relatives or colleagues that I can eat the food that is being served since, they told me, it is glatt kosher, with the emphasis on glatt. This community-wide acceptance of glatt in the United States is quite significant, as things are rather different in Israel and Europe, where regular kosher is still very popular among the Orthodox.
In previous years, it wasn’t simply the masses who ate regular kosher. The great rabbis did as well. Many of them, including Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, even provided hashgachot, or kosher supervision, for non-glatt kosher meat.
So how did we reach this point in the United States where a practice that was basic to Orthodox society simply disappeared and came to be no longer regarded as acceptable? Much of the blame — or praise, depending on your outlook — falls on the Orthodox Union, which is considered the gold standard of kashrut supervision in the United States.
As part of its effort to achieve universal acceptance, even in the most right-wing circles, about 30 years ago the O.U. stopped providing supervision to non-glatt meat. Once the O.U. no longer recognized the validity of non-glatt, it soon became verboten for the average Orthodox Jew. The great irony here is that the leading Modern Orthodox organization is itself responsible for creating a situation where virtually all Orthodox Jews in this country, even the most liberal among them, would not dream of buying anything but glatt kosher. It is also impossible for a restaurant or hotel to attract an Orthodox clientele without being exclusively glatt.
The O.U.’s move to glatt is not the only example of the organization adopting policies that are not in line with the Modern Orthodox tradition of its founders. Many Forward readers, I am sure, have wondered about the Popsicles and other products that have absolutely no milk in them yet are still stamped “OU-D.” Or, for that matter, the yearly Passover guide that tells people that their candles and laundry detergent do not need a special Passover hashgachah, but do need a regular one.
It was the O.U.’s move to glatt, however, that had a truly momentous impact and changed the religious landscape of American Orthodoxy. Other hashgachot soon followed the O.U.’s path, leaving supervision over regular kosher in the hands of hashgachot that in many people’s minds were regarded as less reliable. Even if these hashgachot were, in truth, completely dependable, the fact that they agreed to certify meat that the O.U. and others would not reinforced the idea in people’s minds that there were problems with regular kosher. It took just a few years following the O.U.’s decision before regular kosher was no longer regarded as acceptable in American Orthodoxy.
Yet this is not all there is to the story, and here things get even more interesting. The very meaning of glatt kosher in the United States is not what most people think, namely, meat that has no adhesions. While this is indeed the original meaning of glatt and the meaning most people identify it with, the word as used today means something more expansive, depending on which kashrut organization you ask.
For some, it simply means that they hold themselves to a very high halachic standard in all areas of meat production. For others, it means that they permit only a couple of small, easily removed adhesions, a type of glatt that was actually quite common among Hasidim in prewar Europe. One thing that is certain is that glatt in the United States does not mean that an animal’s lung is completely smooth. Sephardim, who are supposed to eat only real glatt, are under normal circumstances not permitted to eat the typical “American glatt,” and they therefore have their own special “Beit Yosef glatt.”
While the kashrut organizations have not exactly hidden this information, and will tell you the truth if you ask, they have not been exactly forthcoming about it either. There is, for example, no explanation on the O.U. Web site as to what it means when it stamps a product glatt. The closest you get is an article titled the “The Kosher Primer,” which explains that real glatt is free of all adhesions on its lungs. The primer does acknowledge that, “Recently, the term ‘glatt kosher’ is increasingly used more broadly as a generic phrase, implying that the product is kosher without question.” Yet there is no clarification that the O.U.’s glatt falls into the second category — which also explains how the organization believes it appropriate to certify “glatt chickens.”
A great deal has been written about how the Orthodox have in recent years adopted new religious standards. The turn to glatt, however, is in its own category, because here the Orthodox have indeed adopted a new standard, but it is not what most people think it is. If they knew the facts, they might not be so attached to the glatt-only culture of contemporary Orthodoxy — which is something worth chewing over the next time you munch on a Hebrew National regular kosher salami.
Marc Shapiro is a professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Scranton.
Copyright © 2006 Forward Association, inc.
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Editor, The Forward
letters@forward.com
Dear Editor:
RE: ‘Glatt Kosher Meat Is Not All It Is Cut Out To Be” (August 18, 2006 issue):
Whether meat is glatt kosher or just plain kosher, it is a product that has been linked to an epidemic of heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer and other chronic degenerative diseases, and whose production contributes to global warming, widening water shortages, destruction of tropical rain forests and other environmental threats. In addition, the production and consumption of meat violate basic Jewish mandates to guard our health, treat animals compassionately, protect the environment, conserve natural resources and help hungry people.
So for our health and that of our precious, but imperiled planet, and to best fulfill the spirit of the Jewish kosher laws, why not shift toward a nutritious plant-based diet?
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
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2. Coalition On the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL) Launches National Global Climate Change Campaign
From: Barbara Lerman-Golomb, Acting Executive Director, COEJL
Notice: COEJL’s On the Move
The COEJL offices have moved to 116 E. 27th Street, 10th floor, New York, NY 10016
(same zip, email, phone and fax).
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How Many Jews Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb?
You may have already heard that COEJL has launched a nationwide climate change campaign to bring the issue front and center in Jewish public life. “A Light Among the Nations” aka “How Many Jews Does it Take to Change a Light Bulb?” will engage the Jewish community in awareness, advocacy, and action to conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If you have already heard, then you are probably on both our e-bulletin and campaign lists. This means you’ll receive two emails from us this week, but the good news is, what we have to say is so exciting you’ll want to hear about it twice!
To help us light the way for the campaign, COEJL is pleased to welcome Liore Milgrom-Elcott who will be the Campaign Coordinator. Liore will be starting on August 22. Please feel free to contact her at climatechange@coejl.org or 212-532-7436. Click here to read about Liore.
To help round out the COEJL team, it is with great pleasure that we also welcome Dr. Daniel Orenstein in the new position of “Science and Policy Fellow,” a position funded through a Leadership Grant from the Switzer Foundation. He can be reached at Daniel@coejl.org. Go to www.coejl.org to read more about Daniel.
If you haven’t heard about the campaign, go to www.coejl.org. You’ll learn that our goal is to not only get every member of the Jewish community to change to energy efficient, cost effective compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs, but to also engage the Jewish community in energy legislation, greening synagogues, and help our youth get involved in activities to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by offsetting one’s own energy usage.
To all of you who have contacted us about participating, thank you. For anyone we haven’t heard from yet, what are you waiting for? CLICK HERE if you need updated information. If you didn’t attend our July 31 campaign launch meeting/conference call, CLICK HERE to read the summary or listen to the full recording. You’ll be inspired!
Take Action TODAY
* Contact us at climatechange@coejl.org to sign on to the campaign! Join in this Jewish community effort to conserve energy and stop global warming.
* Write a blurb about the campaign to be included in your synagogue or Jewish institution’s newsletter or on the web site.
* Provide us with the name and contact information for a campaign Point Person from your congregation or institution who will work with us to coordinate your involvement in the campaign.
* Tell us how many campaign brochures (including CFL bulb order forms) you need for the High Holidays and beyond. We are suggesting one/congregational family and ~100 additional. For a Jewish organization, you’ll want brochures for your employees and for community outreach.
* Tell us if you need sermonic materials to inspire your congregation.
* Reach out to your Jewish community (synagogues, JCCs, CRCs, Hillels, Hadassah chapters and more). Tell them about the campaign and how to contact us. Or, send us the names of people we can contact.
* Think out of the box. Do you have a local Jewish newspaper in your town? Not only should they be contacted so that their ready to cover the story of millions of Jews around the country installing CFLs, but they should be installing them in their offices as well. What about Jewish social service offices? Remember, changing to CFLs is not only good for the planet; it’s good for the wallet too.
Watt’s in a Name?
When people hear the name of the climate change campaign, they always laugh, and then they often share a light bulb joke. If you’ve got one that you’re just burning to tell, send it to us. But, here’s the twist, it should have a Jewish and or environmental spin.
Haikus for Eco-Jews
If you’re up for an even bigger challenge, please send along “Haikus for Eco-Jews” focusing on compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs and or energy conservation—extra points if you manage to incorporate Hanukkah or general Jewish content as well. Haikus, much like CFLs, are powerful in their minimalism.
hai•ku
n. pl. haiku also hai•kus
a. A Japanese lyric verse form having three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables, traditionally invoking an aspect of nature or the seasons.
b. A poem written in this form.
Send jokes and haikus to climatechange@coejl.org. Please include your name, city and state, and age (if you’re under 21).
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3. Interested in a Teshuvah/Dietary Campaign?
THOUGHTS ON A DIETARY-TESHUVA CAMPAIGN
Shalom everyone,
If you would like to be involved in a proposed “dietary-teshuvah” campaign (below) or have any any suggestions about it, please let me know. Thanks.
I suggest that we start a “dietary-teshuvah” (repentance for harmful eating habits) campaign for the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (the “ten days of teshuvah), since this is the time when Jews are to especially consider their deeds for the previous year and do “teshuvah” (that is repent for past misdeeds and vow to do better in the future). It is also a time that we ask for God's compassion and His blessings for a good, healthy, prosperous year. Hence, it is a good time for people to also exhibit greater compassion.
I suggest that Jews contact their local rabbis and other key people in the Jewish community and ask them to consider how the realities of animal-based diets and agriculture contradict the values of this sacred period (in terms, for example, of our prayers for God's compassion and for a good, healthy year - hence, the need for teshuvah.) There should also be e-mail messages, letters and articles sent to Jewish publications, calls to talk shows, and other approaches to spread the teshuvah message.
We could provide rabbis and other Jewish leaders much background information on the contradictions between the holiday's values and conditions related to the production and consumption of animal products. For example, my “Rosh Hashanah and Vegetarianism” and “Yom Kippur and Vegetarianism” articles (above) have much re this.
It would be wonderful if we could afford ads in some Jewish publications.
We would also try to get support from other religious groups and vegetarian/animal rights groups for the campaign.
The use of e-mail and the Internet would help us get our messages out to many people. We already have the start of an effective network through my e-mail lists.
This is just the very first rough draft for this concept, so please let me know what you think. Perhaps we can build on the recent increased interest in vegetarianism. If it is too late for this year, we can start planning for future years.
Thanks,
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4. JVNA Advisor To Again Take Part in a Grueling Bike Ride To Help Handicapped Children
Once again JVNA advisor Steve Kelter will soon be taking part in the Alyn Hospital Wheels of Love Charity Bike Ride to help rehabilitation of severely disabled children from war, terrorism, accident or birth, in Israel. If you would like to join me in contributing to Steve's efforts, please go to www.alynride.org. Click on About the Ride. Click on Meet the Riders or About the Riders. Click on Steven Kelter. (You will see Steve's picture and his email. The T-shirt he wore for the picture has an environmental message related to an endangered species.) Directions for donations on-line appear. They are tax-deductible in the U.S. and Canada.
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6. Much of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crisis (Two Items)
a. Water Crisis Warning
By James Grubel
CANBERRA (Reuters) - A third of the world is facing water shortages because of poor management of water resources and soaring water usage, driven mainly by agriculture, the International Water Management Institute said on Wednesday.
Water scarcity around the world was increasing faster than expected, with agriculture accounting for 80 percent of global water consumption, the world authority on fresh water management told a development conference in Canberra.
Globally, water usage had increased by six times in the past 100 years and would double again by 2050, driven mainly by irrigation and demands by agriculture, said Frank Rijsberman, the institute's director-general.
Billions of people in Asia and Africa already faced water shortages because of poor water management, he said.
"We will not run out of bottled water any time soon but some countries have already run out of water to produce their own food," he said.
"Without improvements in water productivity ... the consequences of this will be even more widespread water scarcity and rapidly increasing water prices."
SNIP
Message forwarded from Grist (Online) Magazine
b. Water crisis doesn't care if countries are rich or poor
Water crisis: not just for poor countries anymore. Industrialized nations must make drastic policy changes if they wish to maintain water supplies, warns the World Wildlife Fund today. In cities from Seville to Sydney to Sacramento, water has become a hot political issue as supply declines thanks to everything from global warming to wetlands loss. A report by the International Water Management Institute, also published today, said that a third of the world faces water shortages; water use has increased by six times in the last century and will double again by 2050, mostly from agricultural use. WWF suggests a combination of solutions -- conserving, repairing infrastructure, reducing pollution, and requiring agriculture interests in rich countries to pay more for water and be held accountable for efficient use -- but noted that implementing common-sense measures "in the face of habitual practices and intense lobbying by vested interests has been very difficult." You think?
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7. Update on Hakol CHAI Helping Animals in Israel
Pets left behind in the North are focus of Israeli volunteers
By Dina Kraft
August 15, 2006
YOKNE’AM, Israel, Aug. 15 (JTA) — When tens of thousands of Israelis fled their homes as Hezbollah rockets began raining down on northern Israel, they left behind not only hastily locked-up houses but, in many cases, their pets.
After days and weeks of being left to fend for themselves, many of the animals were found starving and dehydrated in the streets of northern towns and cities. Estimates put the number of animals in distress at about 8,000.
Three dogs were killed after a rocket hit the house in Kiryat Shmona where their owner had tied them up and left them. Some dogs were found wounded, their bodies riddled with shrapnel.
Many others, terrified by the sound of rocket fire and artillery blasts, fled their homes and began living on the streets.
Soon after the fighting began, Hakol Chai, an Israeli animal welfare group, began sending volunteers to feed and water animals and rescue those in need of medical attention. Yadin Elam, the organization’s director, finds it hard to believe so many pets were left behind.
The owners “probably thought it wouldn’t take so long, thinking, ‘We’ll leave food for our pets.’ Some of them called us,” Elam said. “I have some issues with those people, but they’re not the same as people who didn’t do anything. Some even chained their dogs in the yard.”
Largely supported by donations from American Jews, Hakol Chai sent 12 tons of pet food, hundreds of water bowls, medicine and other supplies to the North during Israel’s monthlong war with Hezbollah.
Risking Katyusha fire, volunteers scattered at night into the streets of cities like Kiryat Shmona, Nahariya and Haifa looking for animals that needed medical help, and putting food and water in the streets for the others.
Noam Vardi, Hakol Chai’s volunteer coordinator, started the job two weeks before the war began. He wasn’t sure how he would find volunteers, but when the war started he was flooded with calls from people anxious to help.
The first night, instead of finding cats to feed in the town of Ma’alot, volunteers were overwhelmed by the stench of death: Many cats already had died.
Since that night, Vardi and his volunteers rescued countless animals by putting out food and water and finding foster homes for others. Many of the cats were street cats that had lived off residents’ handouts and garbage. With the locals no longer there, their situation turned desperate, Vardi said.
Vardi tells the story of two large, emaciated dogs his team found during one of their night rescue tours. Their owner had left food and water for a few days, but had chained the dogs on leashes so short that the food was just out of reach.
The dogs were brought to a shelter in the center of the country, as was another dog found with internal injuries after he tried to make his way into a bomb shelter. Instead of being brought to safety, he was attacked by the people in the shelter, Elam said.
Meytal Nuriel, a 23-year-old student from Kiryat Shmona, made sure a neighbor took care of her cat when she left for central Israel. Last week she decided she wanted to collect him, but was too scared to do it herself.
She read about Hakol Chai online, and had volunteers pick up the cat and bring him to her.
“If I weren’t so scared, I would have gone myself to help them,” she said. “They’re doing something really important — without them, many animals would starve.”
On one of Hakol Chai’s patrols, a collection of hungry animals was discovered in a yard — three dogs, eight puppies, pigeons and rabbits crowded inside small cages alongside 20 chickens, parrots, and numerous cats. Foster homes are being found for the animals.
Farm animals also were affected by the fighting. Farmers say cows are producing less milk because of the stress. Some 20 cows and calves were killed by rocket fire on Kibbutz Amir, near Kiryat Shmona, Hakol Chai officials said.
On Sunday night, just before the U.N. cease-fire went into effect, volunteers gathered in the town of Yokne’am and debated whether or not to go to Kiryat Shmona, where they had planned to distribute food and water.
Some returned to the center of the country, but two others — including a volunteer who had traveled from the United States to help with the rescue effort — headed north.
Noa Ginzburg, 25, decided to volunteer.
“It’s unthinkable that people would leave their animals behind,” she said.
Donations to Hakol Chai relief efforts can be made through www.chai-online.org, or can be mailed to Hakol Chai, POB 51858, Tel Aviv 67214, or in the U.S., to CHAI, POB 3341, Alexandria, VA 22302, USA.
© JTA. Reproduction of material without written permission is strictly prohibited.
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8. Another Article Showing the Urgency of Our Efforts
Forecast puts Earth's future under a cloud
• 3 degrees C increase would bring fires, floods and famine
• Climate prediction most comprehensive so far
Alok Jha, science correspondent
Tuesday August 15, 2006
The Guardian
More than half of the world's major forests will be lost if global temperatures rise by an average of 3 degrees C or more by the end of the century, it was claimed yesterday. The prediction comes from the most comprehensive analysis yet of the potential effects of human-made global warming.
Extreme floods, forest fires and droughts will also become more common over the next 200 years as global temperatures rise owing to climate change, according to Marko Scholze of Bristol University. Dr Scholze took 52 simulations of the world's climate over the next century, based on 16 different climate models, grouping the results according to varying amounts of global warming they predicted by 2100: less than 2C on average, 2C-3C and more than 3C. He then used the simulations to work out how the world's plants would be affected over the next few hundred years. The results were published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Alan O'Neill, science director for the National Centre for Earth Observation, said: "Some work in this area has been done before looking at the meteorological forecasts for climate change and feeding those into vegetation models ... this is a much more comprehensive study."
He added that Dr Scholze's results would give climate scientists the most accurate scientific projection yet of the future effects of global warming.
Dr Scholze said the effects of a 2C category were inevitable. This is the temperature rise that will happen, on average, even if the world immediately stopped emitting greenhouse gases. This scenario predicts that Europe, Asia, Canada, central America and Amazonia could lose up to 30% of its forests.
A rise of 2C-3C will mean less fresh water available in parts of west Africa, central America, southern Europe and the eastern US, raising the probability of drought in these areas. In contrast, the tropical parts of Africa and South America will be at greater risk of flooding as trees are lost. Dr Scholze says a global temperature rise of more than 3C will mean even less fresh water. Loss of forest in Amazonia and Europe, Asia, Canada and central America could reach 60%.
A 3C warming could also present a yet more dangerous scenario where the temperatures induce plants to become net producers of carbon dioxide. "As temperatures go up, plants like it better and they start to grow more vigorously and start to take up more carbon dioxide from the air," Dr O'Neill said. "But there comes a point where the take-up is saturated for a given vegetation cover, then the ecosystem starts to respire more than it's taking up."
Dr Scholze's work shows that this so-called "tipping point" could arrive by the middle of this century. His scenarios echo research from the UK's Hadley Centre, a world leader in climate change modelling. In a report published last year called Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change, scientists at the centre predicted that a 3C rise in average temperatures would cause a worldwide drop in cereal crops of between 20m and 400m tonnes, put 400 million more people at risk of hunger, and put up to 3 billion people at risk of flooding and without access to fresh water supplies.
SNIP
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10. Grassroots Rebellion Needed to Respond to Global Warming
Ten Years or Less column, August 15, 2006
Fire and Heat
Only a fiery grassroots rebellion in the USA will end global warming and the runaway wildfires and heat waves now afflicting our nation.
By Mike Tidwell and Ted Glick
The summer of 2006 has brought both record-breaking heat waves and a record-breaking number of wildfires across the western United States. How bad has it been? So bad that ultra-conservative religious broadcaster Pat Robertson said two weeks ago on his “700 Club” show that what is happening this summer is “making a convert out of me. We really need to address the burning of fossil fuels.”
Will miracles never cease? If only Robertson could convert George Bush and Dick Cheney.
This summer’s global heating comes on top of the first half of 2006 being “the warmest first half of any year since records began in 1895, according to scientists at the NOAA National Climatic Data Center in Asheville, N.C.,” as reported in an article posted on July 14th on the NOAA web site (www.noaanews.noaa.gov). “The continuation of below normal precipitation in certain regions and much warmer-than-average temperatures expanded moderate-to-extreme drought conditions in the contiguous U.S.”
This summer’s heat wave is not new. The National Climatic Date Center also studied temperature records for the past 96 years. Robert Miller in the Danbury News-Times reported that they “found that minimum temperatures in summer—the lows, rather than the highs--have been ‘much above normal’ over the last 30 years.
“Each of the past eight years has experienced minimum summertime temperatures that are 10 percent higher than in the past.
“During the past 15 years, about 20 percent of the United States had experienced hotter than average summer nights; from 1964 to 1968, that number was 2 percent.
“’We don’t cool off at night the way we used to,’ [Brenda] Ekwurzei, [a scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists] said.”
The West contains many of the U.S.’s drought-plagued regions, and this has contributed to a dramatic and continuing rise in the number of wildfires. A study released last month by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Climate Research Division found that the wildfire season was extended by 78 days in the 1987-2003 period as compared with 1970 through 1986. A July 7 article by Mike Taugher in the Contra Costa Times explained that, “Researchers found that large wildfires in national forests burned four times as often and charred more than six times the number of acres since 1987” as compared to the 1970-1986 period.
And the study found that “a temperature increase of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit caused earlier snowmelt, which in turn caused forests to dry out earlier in the year. The result: a longer fire season with more opportunities for fires to start and more time for fuel to dry out.”
Thomas Swetnam, one of the paper’s authors, drew the obvious conclusion from the study: “Lots of people think climate change and the ecological responses are 50 to 100 years away. But it’s happening now in forest ecosystems through fire.”
Fire is something that human beings have been fascinated with going back to our caveman days. Controlling fire is one of our first great achievements, providing light that kept predators away, cooking food and thus controlling all manner of diseases. Fire led to smoke signals, one of the earliest forms of communication. It lets us forge metal into steel, creates the explosions in guns, and fire’s the spark inside our combustion engines. Knowing how to manipulate fire has been a driving force behind the creation of civilizations.
However, as with so other things in our culture today, fire’s negative effects are increasingly outweighing the positive ones. The carbon dioxide gas produced when things burn has changed our climate, heated up the globe and put our future at grave risk.
What the world needs is fire and heat of a different kind: a passionate dedication by growing numbers of people to speak out, work and organize every day in some way on this most fundamental of issues. Let our love for this earth, its people and all its threatened life forms fire our energies and our continuing sense of urgency.
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Mike Tidwell and Ted Glick are, respectively, Director and Coordinator of the U.S. Climate Emergency Council (www.climateemergency.org). The U.S. CEC is spearheading a protest at NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Md. on August 26th, a year after Hurricane Katrina became a Category 5 hurricane. We will call for justice for Katrina survivors and an end to the NOAA cover-up of the scientific evidence showing a direct connection between global heating and more frequent and destructive Category 4 and 5 storms.
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11. Is Ethanol a Potential Solution to Potential Fuel Shortages?
Forwarded article:
Ethanol could leave the world hungry
One tankful of the latest craze in alternative energy could feed one person for a year, Lester Brown tells Fortune.
FORTUNE Magazine
By Lester Brown
August 16 2006: 5:39 AM EDT
(Fortune Magazine) -- The growing myth that corn is a cure-all for our energy woes is leading us toward a potentially dangerous global fight for food. While crop-based ethanol -the latest craze in alternative energy - promises a guilt-free way to keep our gas tanks full, the reality is that overuse of our agricultural resources could have consequences even more drastic than, say, being deprived of our SUVs. It could leave much of the world hungry.
We are facing an epic competition between the 800 million motorists who want to protect their mobility and the two billion poorest people in the world who simply want to survive. In effect, supermarkets and service stations are now competing for the same resources.
This year cars, not people, will claim most of the increase in world grain consumption. The problem is simple: It takes a whole lot of agricultural produce to create a modest amount of automotive fuel.
The grain required to fill a 25-gallon SUV gas tank with ethanol, for instance, could feed one person for a year. If today's entire U.S. grain harvest were converted into fuel for cars, it would still satisfy less than one-sixth of U.S. demand.
Worldwide increase in grain consumption
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that world grain consumption will increase by 20 million tons this year, roughly 1%. Of that, 14 million tons will be used to fuel cars in the U.S., leaving only six million tons to cover the world's growing food needs.
Already commodity prices are rising. Sugar prices have doubled over the past 18 months (driven in part by Brazil's use of sugar cane for fuel), and world corn and wheat prices are up one-fourth so far this year.
For the world's poorest people, many of whom spend half or more of their income on food, rising grain prices can quickly become life threatening.
Once stimulated solely by government subsidies, biofuel production is now being driven largely by the runaway price of oil. Many food commodities, including corn, wheat, rice, soybeans, and sugar cane, can be converted into fuel; thus the food and energy economies are beginning to merge.
The market is setting the price for farm commodities at their oil-equivalent value. As the price of oil climbs, so will the price of food.
In some U.S. Cornbelt states, ethanol distilleries are taking over the corn supply. In Iowa, 25 ethanol plants are operating, four are under construction, and another 26 are planned.
Iowa State University economist Bob Wisner observes that if all those plants are built, distilleries would use the entire Iowa corn harvest. In South Dakota, ethanol distilleries are already claiming over half that state's crop.
The key to lessening demand for grain is to commercialize ethanol production from cellulosic materials such as switchgrass or poplar trees, a prospect that is at least five years away.
Malaysia, the leading exporter of palm oil, is emerging as the biofuel leader in Asia. But after approving 32 biodiesel refineries within the past 15 months, it recently suspended further licensing while it assesses the adequacy of its palm oil supplies. Fast-rising global demand for palm oil for both food and biodiesel purposes, coupled with rising domestic needs, has the government concerned that there will not be enough to go around.
Less costly alternatives
There are truly guilt-free alternatives to using food-based fuels. The equivalent of the 3% of U.S. automotive fuel supplies coming from ethanol could be achieved several times over - and at a fraction of the cost - by raising auto fuel-efficiency standards by 20%. (Unfortunately Detroit has resisted this, preferring to produce flex-fuel vehicles that will burn either gasoline or ethanol.)
Or what if we shifted to gas-electric hybrid plug-in cars over the next decade, powering short-distance driving, such as the daily commute or grocery shopping, with electricity?
By investing not in hundreds of wind farms, as we now are, but rather in thousands of them to feed cheap electricity into the grid, the U.S. could have cars running primarily on wind energy, and at the gasoline equivalent of less than $1 a gallon.
Clearly, solutions exist. The world desperately needs a strategy to deal with the emerging food-fuel battle. As the world's leading grain producer and exporter, as well as its largest producer of ethanol, the U.S. is in the driver's seat.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of "Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble."
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13. Course Offered Re Impacts of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations
Thanks to author and JVNA advisor Charles Patterson for forwarding the notice below. It would be nice if someone attended who would make sure that the vegetarian perspective was presented.
CONCENTRATED ANIMAL FEEDING OPERATIONS IN NEW YORK STATE:
Environmental and Animal Welfare Issues will be held at the Albany Law School on September 15, 2006 in Albany, New York. The 5.5 credit Continuing Legal Education course is open to the public and will synthesize “the environmental, property, and animal welfare issues that stem from the operations of large scale agricultural animal production facilities.”
More info at: http://tinyurl.com/nuszx
Material from the web site:
New York State Bar Association
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations in New York State: Environmental and Animal Welfare Issues
Friday, September 15, 2006
- Location -
Albany Law School
Government Law Center
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY
(518) 445-3287
9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Presented by:
Government Law Center of Albany Law School
In cooperation with:
New York State Bar Association
Environmental Law Section
Special Committee on Animals and the Law
New York City Bar
Committee on Legal Issues Pertaining to Animals
Environmental Law Committee
Albany Law School
Environmental Law Society
Environmental Alumni Group
Environmental Outlook Journal
About the Conference:
This 5.5 credit Continuing Legal Education course synthesizes the environmental, property, and animal welfare issues that stem from the operations of large scale agricultural animal production facilities. Experts including government regulators will explain the complex statutory scheme that governs these facilities. Litigators will share their experiences in trying some of the precedent-setting cases in this increasingly important field. Professionals from the animal welfare and farming industry will discuss the controversial issues surrounding food animal production and the growing support for small farm operations.
Please "click here," for additional information and how you can register to attend the above program or call 518.445-3287.
For more information, contact: jsche@albanylaw.edu
NEW YORK STATE BAR ASSOCIATION, 1 ELK STREET, ALBANY, NY 12207 PH: (518) 463-3200 FX: (518) 487-5517
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14. Vegan Homeschooling Fraud
Forwarded message (that follows up on a recent announcement in a JVNA newsletter):
A few weeks ago we sent out an announcement about a new vegan homeschooling program that got a lot of people pretty excited. We were excited too. Since that time, I've been contacted by a number of people who have told me that the person behind the announcement was in fact a fraud.
The claims made against this woman were that she was collecting detailed information about people and their children, collecting money, and then never sending the promised materials. She's also telling people that she is in serious need of donations and money because of some personal tragedy which changes from a flood to a fire and other problems. Apparently this isn't the first time she's done something like this (if it's even a woman, there are some doubts).
I tried to contact her to discuss the claims but her email address and website are both gone. I've removed her ads from VegFamily.
Please be on the lookout for this person as apparently she posts in other vegan publications as well. If you've posted anything about the vegan homeschooling on message boards, please go back and update those threads so people know what's happening.
VegFamily was in no way affiliated with this person. She paid us hundreds of dollars to place her ad, her credit card went through with no problems, and on the surface everything seemed legitimate. We're saddened that there is someone out there preying on vegan families, and wanted to make you aware of the problem.
Sincerely,
Erin Pavlina
Editor, VegFamily.com
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15. International Vegetarian Conference in India Next Month
Goa [India] to host vegetarian congress
Posted by: "AnimalConcerns.org" animalconcerns@gmail.com
Date: Sun Aug 20, 2006 9:32 am (PDT)
MARGAO, AUG 19 - Goa will play host to the 37th IVU World Vegetarian
Congress from September 10-16.
The Indian Vegan Society, a member of IVU, will be part of the
Vegetarian Congress, where only plant based (vegan) food will be
served. Many vegans from across the world are expected to participate
in the event.
full story
[I know three people who will be attending and perhaps promoting the idea of a campaign for a “Vegetarian-conscious World by 2010.”]
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** Fair Use Notice **
The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.
August 21, 2006
July 24, 2006
7/24/06 JVNA Online Newsletter
Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
Announcements
1. Campaign to Ban Foie Gras Sales in New York City
2. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom Creates Web Site To Make Cruelty-Free Feathers Available
3. Response from Al Gore Communications Director in Response to My Letter Urging Linking Animal-Based Diets to Global Warming
5. Recent Article Re Investigations of Agriprocessors’ Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa/Two Letters to Editors From Me and Lewis Regenstein
6. Interested in Helping Plan JVNA Events or a Conference?
7. DVD "If This Is Kosher" Now Available
8. Canfei Nesharim Introduces Sukkot Environmental Project
11. Quotations Worth Considering
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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Announcements
We are deeply saddened by the recent horrible events in Israel. I have 2 daughters living in Israel with their husbands and all of my grandchildren. Thankfully, they are not in areas being hit by rockets from Lebanon. One of my daughters is putting up a family that had to flee from the northern part of Israel. I also am in touch with many vegetarian and animal rights activists in Israel and I pray that they are also ok. I am sure I express the feeling of others on this list in hoping and praying for a just, peaceful, long lasting resolution of the present situation, so that Israel and all the nations of the world can focus on addressing the many current environmental and other threats to humanity.
Due to some computer problems, I may have lost some material that was sent to me for this newsletter. Also, I may have missed some email address changes. I apologize for any inconvenience.
As I indicate from time to time, if you would like to be removed from this list for any reason, please let me know. No questions asked. On the other hand, if you know of people who might like to be added to the list to get free JVNA newsletters, please contact them and ask them to contact me if they would like to get the newsletters. Thanks.
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1. Campaign to Ban Foie Gras Sales in New York City
I have been approached by some vegetarian activists with the possibility to try to get the NY City Council to ban sales of foie gras in NY City, just as the Chicago City Council did. While there has not been any follow-up on this on the part of the activists who contacted me, I modified a previous press release to make it applicable to the NY City Council situation. As always, comments and suggestions are very welcome.
---------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE
JEWISH GROUP URGES BANNING OF SALE OF FOIE GRAS IN NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS
For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2006
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
Rschw12345@aol.com Phone: (718) 761-5876
The Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) urges that the sale of foie gras, which is produced by the force-feeding of massive amounts of grain down the throats of geese and ducks, be banned by the New York City Council. The JVNA position is based on Jewish teachings on compassion to animals and on several recent events:
* Recently, the Chicago City Council banned the sale of foie gras in Chicago restaurants.
* On August 11, 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court made a landmark decision that banned the force-feeding of geese and ducks, for the production of foie gras, as a violation of Israel’s animal cruelty laws. This ruling conforms to the position of major Ashkenazic and Sefardic rabbinical authorities in Israel, including Rabbis Zvi Pesach Frank and Eliezer Waldman of the previous generation, and Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Shear Yashuv Cohen, among today's chief rabbis. As the judges indicated, to produce this pâté “delicacy,” the birds are force fed enormous amounts of grain through a pressurized pipe shoved down their throats. As a result the birds develop degenerative diseases of the liver.
* California Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, introduced a measure in February, 2004, that would ban foie gras from being produced and consumed in California. The state would be the first in the nation to ban the product, though it has been outlawed in
several other countries, including Israel. Burton stated: "We just shouldn't be cramming a tube down a duck's throat and forcing in food to make foie gras. It's an inhumane process that other countries have sensibly banned. I'm please California will be next on the list."
Since California and New York are the only states that produce foie gras, the JVNA urges members of the New York City Council to follow the lead of Israel, Chicago and California by addressing the cruelty involved in producing foie gras, and by passing legislation that would ban its production. This would be consistent with Judaism’s teachings on tsa’ar ba’alei chayim, the Torah mandate to avoid causing pain to animals, and with teachings about compassion in Judaism and other religions.
Rabbi David Rosen, a contemporary Israeli Orthodox rabbi and former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, stated:
“It should be obvious that pate de foie gras is produced in a manner that is in complete contravention of the Torah's prohibition of causing tsa'ar ba'alei chayim - pain to animals (see Maimonides, Yad Chazakah, Hilchot Rozeah, Ch. 13, M. 8). Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the Noda Bi-Yehuda, clarifies that causing any cruelty to an animal while alive is a desecration of this prohibition (Noda Bi-Yehuda, Yoreh Deah, Response No. 10) and that if food can be obtained in a manner that does not involve additional pain and one chooses to obtain such through causing pain to an animal, one desecrates a Torah prohibition. Pate de foie gras is obtained through the willful desecration of a Torah prohibition and any truly God-revering Jew will not partake of such a product which is an offense against the Creator and His Torah.”
More information on Jewish vegetarianism is available at JewishVeg.com. The JVNA will send a complimentary copy of Richard Schwartz’s book “Judaism and Vegetarianism,” and a related cassette tape, to anyone who contacts us and tells us how he or she will use the materials to make people more aware of Jewish teachings on these issues.
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2. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom Creates Web Site To Make Cruelty-Free Feathers Available
Forwarded message from Rabbi Gershom, author, scholar, book reviewer, hobby farmer and JVNA advisor:
Richard:
I thought you might like to know that I created a Web page about a month ago called "Do You Know Where Your Feathers Come From?"
(http://stores.ebay.com/The-Happy-Rooster/About-our-Cruelty-Free-Feathers.html).
This page is on the site of my ebay store, The Happy Rooster, where I sell cruelty-free feathers from my geese and chickens. Of course, this isn't just about selling feathers, although people do buy them. But mostly it's about general education -- eBay pages get a lot of priority on the search engines. Animal Liberation Front liked the page so much they linked to it on their site -- without me even telling them about it! And if you Google "cruelty-free feathers," both these pages are on the top of the links list. Not to brag -- just showing another way to be creative in getting our message out there! (My page has a plug for JVNA too!)
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3. Response from Al Gore Communications Director in Response to My Letter Urging Linking Animal-Based Diets to Global Warming
Dear Dr. Schwartz,
Thank you for your correspondence. I will make sure to provide the Gore's with more information from the websites you suggested.
Cheers, Kalee
--
Kalee Kreider
Communications Director
Office of the Honorable Al Gore & Mrs. Tipper Gore
2100 West End Avenue, Suite 620
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: 615-327-2227
Fax: 615-327-1323
Please also write to the address above and urge Al Gore to stress the importance of a shift to plant-based diets in order to reduce global warming. Thanks.
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5. Recent Article Re Investigations of Agriprocessors’ Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa/Two Letters to Editors From Me and Lewis Regenstein
Kosher Meat Plant Accused Of Abuses
By Nate Herpich
Religion News Service
Saturday, July 15, 2006; B09
letters@washpost.com
An investigation by a leading Jewish newspaper has uncovered abusive working conditions at the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the United States -- a facility that was already under investigation over allegations of unethical treatment of livestock.
Now, two Conservative Jewish organizations have created a task force to investigate the abuses and what they might mean for the nation's kosher meat supply.
According to the Forward, a national Jewish weekly newspaper, Iowa-based AgriProcessors Inc. -- owned and managed by Hasidic Jews -- is guilty of shorted paychecks, little or no safety training and accidental amputations, all affecting its largely undocumented workers.
A month after the piece ran May 26, the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism launched a fact-finding study to find out what wrongs, if any, are being committed at the plant in Postville, Iowa.
For meat to be declared kosher, or fit for eating, Jewish law requires that animals be killed quickly and humanely, and the processes must be approved by supervising rabbis.
The Forward reported that the company's "kosher seal gives it an apparent moral imprimatur in a business that is known for harsh working conditions and labor violations. But even in the unhappy world of meatpacking, people with comparative knowledge of AgriProcessors and other plants say that AgriProcessors stands out for its poor treatment of workers."
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited AgriProcessors for six safety violations this year, or more than half of Iowa's meatpacking plant violations, the newspaper reported.
AgriProcessors, whose product is sold in stores under the brand name Aaron's Best, did not respond to several calls seeking comment. A spokesman for the plant wrote to the Forward, saying all employees must provide the proper documentation required by the federal government.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has also campaigned against the slaughterhouse in recent years, alleging that workers, including rabbis, ripped the tracheas and esophagi out of the throats of fully conscious cows, which were left trying to stand three minutes after their throats were slit.
PETA cites a 2004 videotape it says was obtained by an undercover cameraman for the group. In the video, cows that have had their throats slit are shown writhing on the ground of the plant in pools of their own blood. AgriProcessors denied charges of inhumane slaughter then, telling PETA that its practices complied with kosher law.
Temple Grandin, a designer of livestock handling facilities and the author of several books on animal handling, welfare and facility design, saw the PETA tape but has not been allowed to visit the facilities.
"During my career I have visited over 30 kosher beef plants in the U.S., Canada and other countries . . .," she writes on her Web site. "Kosher slaughter without stunning can be done with an acceptable level of welfare when it is done correctly. When shehita [Jewish ritual slaughter] is performed correctly with the long knife, the cattle appear not to feel it. This tape shows atrocious procedures that are NOT performed in any other kosher operation."
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report finding that AgriProcessors had indeed violated provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act. The USDA did not, however, pursue criminal charges.
PETA recently released a new video documenting the situation at AgriProcessors. It has joined the Humane Society of the United States in asking federal prosecutors to enforce state and federal humane slaughter laws.
Bruce Friedrich, vice president of international grass-roots campaigns at PETA, said AgriProcessors had agreed to stop ripping the throats out of cows and to curb some of its practices. But, he said, the company has refused to allow inspectors to verify that such changes have been made.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
--------------------------------------------
My letter to the Washington Post, in response to the article:
July 16, 2006
Editor, Washington Post
letters@washpost.com
Dear Editor:
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I read with much interest your July 15 article, “Kosher Meat Plant Accused Of Abuses,” which discussed alleged violations of laws on the proper treatment of workers and animals at the kosher slaughterhouse at Postville, Iowa. Whatever current investigations of these reported abuses find, it is important to consider that the product that the facility produces is having devastating effects on human health and the sustainability of our imperiled planet, and violates basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
---------------------------------------------
Lewis Regenstein’s letter in response to the article:
Lewis G. Regenstein
3691 Tuxedo Road, N.W.
(404) 814-1371 Tel
Atlanta, Georgia
(404) 814-0440 Fax
30305-1061 Regenstein@mindspring.com
16 July, 2006
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C.
To the Editor:
It is truly ironic, and shameful, that cruel animal slaughter methods are being undertaken in the name of Jewish law, as pointed out in your 15 July article by Nate Herpich, " Kosher Meat Plant Accused of Abuses.”
Revelations of shocking and illegal abuse of animals at this kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa have largely overlooked a fundamental fact: the Jewish religion has strict laws and teachings forbidding cruelty to animals. In fact, there is an entire code of laws (the requirement "to prevent the suffering of living creatures") mandating that other creatures be treated with compassion.
Indeed, the Jews invented the concept of kindness to animals some 4,000 years ago, and it is mandated throughout the Bible and Jewish law. Even the holiest of our laws, The Ten Commandments, requires that farm animals be allowed to enjoy a day of rest on the Sabbath. So the Almighty must have felt that kindness to animals was not a trivial matter.
Indeed, the first commandments given by the Lord (Genesis 1:22-28) concern the welfare and srurvival of animals, and human responsibilities toward them.
Jews are not allowed to pass by an animal in distress or to ignore animals being mistreated, even on the Sabbath. Yet this is exactly what we do when we certify as kosher products from animals that are treated cruelly.
It is truly a shanda, a shameful thing, that we endorse the massive abuse and suffering of billions of factory farmed creatures, many of which spend their entire lives in misery, fear, and anguish, in addition to the cruel way they are killed.
Sincerely yours,
Lewis Regenstein
The writer is the author of Replenish the Earth: The Teachings of the World's Religions on Protecting Animals and Nature, and president of The Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature.
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6. Interested in Helping Plan JVNA Events or a Conference?
Vegetarian activist Dr. Douglas Graham has suggested the possibility of the JVNA having an evening event or an all-day conference in New York City.
He wrote:
“One [possibility] would be a one-day event where you bring in an assortment of presenters and educators to give their ideas on a theme of your design.
Another would be to offer an evening event, (much lower risk) and bring in one speaker who would present on an appropriate topic for the evening.
Either way it would be a fund raiser for JVNA...
D
--------------
If you would like to help in organizing such events, please let me know. Doug has indicated that he has contacts in NY City which could be helpful.
Thanks.
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7. DVD "If This Is Kosher" Now Available
'IfThis Is Kosher' DVD
Narrated by Jonathan Safran Foer, author of “Everything Is Illuminated”
The New York Times described PETA's undercover investigation at the world's largest glatt kosher slaugherhouse as "grisly” in its news coverage of our breaking story of animal abuse.
The story broke in November 2004, but remains the biggest scandal in the kosher meat industry in recent memory. For many in the Jewish community, the seriousness of these abuses and kosher authorities’ failure to denounce them have raised fundamental questions about the consumption of meat.
This video contains footage of what was revealed during our investigation.
Price from PETA: $5.00
Run time: 30 minutes.
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8. Canfei Nesharim Introduces Sukkot Environmental Project
Forwarded message from Canfei Nesharim
This Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres, join Canfei Nesharim in appreciating water and the connections between Torah, nature, and our responsibility to protect the environment.
On Sukkos, we celebrate water through the Simchas Beis Hashoeva (Celebration of the Water Drawing Ceremony). It is said that anyone who has not participated in this celebration has not known true joy. (Sukka 51a)
On Shemini Atzeres, we continue recognizing the value of water through tefilas geshem, the beginning of our prayers for rain. We compare and connect our forefathers and teachers with water, and we ask for rain in their merit, “for plenty and not for curse, for life and not for death, for plenty and not for scarcity.”
What did our rabbis and ancestors understand about water that filled them with joy during the Simchas Beis Hashoeva, and with dread and hope when davening for rain? They knew that water is essential for life, and that we rely on Hashem to provide all our needs.
This year, take the time on Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres to reflect on our natural resources and our dependence on Hashem’s blessing of rain.
Canfei Nesharim has organized resources for families and synagogues to celebrate Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres with an appreciation for water, including:
Ø Sukkah decorations
Ø Text materials for shiurim
Ø Science-based fact sheets on water resources
Ø Sukkos Stickers
Ø Activity Suggestions for Simchas Beis Hashoeva Parties
Ø Seventh Generation™ recycled paper plates and napkins (for an eco-friendly celebration in your community)
Individual packages are available for families and communities. For more information and to reserve your package, visit www.canfeinesharim.org/sukkos.shtml.
Deadline for orders: August 15. (Please note that this deadline is required for products to arrive on time for Sukkos.) Invite your community to participate today!
Canfei Nesharim is dedicated to educating the Orthodox community about protecting the environment, from the perspective of Torah and halacha.
Canfei Nesharim expresses our gratitude to Seventh Generation for financial and product support for this program.
Canfei Nesharim is grateful to Targum Shlishi for a generous grant to support for this program.
Canfei Nesharim expresses its sincere gratitude to Bikkurim, a joint project of JESNA, UJC, and the Kaminer Family, for taking us into their incubator for new Jewish ideas beginning in the Spring of 2004.
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11. Quotations Worth Considering
"It's not about doing everything, it's about doing something" - Laurie David, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth" and co-founder of the virtual march against global warming with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives." -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
Thanks to Israeli vegetarian activist Jonathan Danilowitz for sending us the Albert Schweitzer quote above.
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** Fair Use Notice **
The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
Announcements
1. Campaign to Ban Foie Gras Sales in New York City
2. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom Creates Web Site To Make Cruelty-Free Feathers Available
3. Response from Al Gore Communications Director in Response to My Letter Urging Linking Animal-Based Diets to Global Warming
5. Recent Article Re Investigations of Agriprocessors’ Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa/Two Letters to Editors From Me and Lewis Regenstein
6. Interested in Helping Plan JVNA Events or a Conference?
7. DVD "If This Is Kosher" Now Available
8. Canfei Nesharim Introduces Sukkot Environmental Project
11. Quotations Worth Considering
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
=========================
Announcements
We are deeply saddened by the recent horrible events in Israel. I have 2 daughters living in Israel with their husbands and all of my grandchildren. Thankfully, they are not in areas being hit by rockets from Lebanon. One of my daughters is putting up a family that had to flee from the northern part of Israel. I also am in touch with many vegetarian and animal rights activists in Israel and I pray that they are also ok. I am sure I express the feeling of others on this list in hoping and praying for a just, peaceful, long lasting resolution of the present situation, so that Israel and all the nations of the world can focus on addressing the many current environmental and other threats to humanity.
Due to some computer problems, I may have lost some material that was sent to me for this newsletter. Also, I may have missed some email address changes. I apologize for any inconvenience.
As I indicate from time to time, if you would like to be removed from this list for any reason, please let me know. No questions asked. On the other hand, if you know of people who might like to be added to the list to get free JVNA newsletters, please contact them and ask them to contact me if they would like to get the newsletters. Thanks.
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1. Campaign to Ban Foie Gras Sales in New York City
I have been approached by some vegetarian activists with the possibility to try to get the NY City Council to ban sales of foie gras in NY City, just as the Chicago City Council did. While there has not been any follow-up on this on the part of the activists who contacted me, I modified a previous press release to make it applicable to the NY City Council situation. As always, comments and suggestions are very welcome.
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NEWS RELEASE
JEWISH GROUP URGES BANNING OF SALE OF FOIE GRAS IN NEW YORK CITY RESTAURANTS
For Immediate Release:
July 24, 2006
Contact:
Richard H. Schwartz, President of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA)
Rschw12345@aol.com Phone: (718) 761-5876
The Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) urges that the sale of foie gras, which is produced by the force-feeding of massive amounts of grain down the throats of geese and ducks, be banned by the New York City Council. The JVNA position is based on Jewish teachings on compassion to animals and on several recent events:
* Recently, the Chicago City Council banned the sale of foie gras in Chicago restaurants.
* On August 11, 2003, the Israeli Supreme Court made a landmark decision that banned the force-feeding of geese and ducks, for the production of foie gras, as a violation of Israel’s animal cruelty laws. This ruling conforms to the position of major Ashkenazic and Sefardic rabbinical authorities in Israel, including Rabbis Zvi Pesach Frank and Eliezer Waldman of the previous generation, and Rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Shear Yashuv Cohen, among today's chief rabbis. As the judges indicated, to produce this pâté “delicacy,” the birds are force fed enormous amounts of grain through a pressurized pipe shoved down their throats. As a result the birds develop degenerative diseases of the liver.
* California Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, introduced a measure in February, 2004, that would ban foie gras from being produced and consumed in California. The state would be the first in the nation to ban the product, though it has been outlawed in
several other countries, including Israel. Burton stated: "We just shouldn't be cramming a tube down a duck's throat and forcing in food to make foie gras. It's an inhumane process that other countries have sensibly banned. I'm please California will be next on the list."
Since California and New York are the only states that produce foie gras, the JVNA urges members of the New York City Council to follow the lead of Israel, Chicago and California by addressing the cruelty involved in producing foie gras, and by passing legislation that would ban its production. This would be consistent with Judaism’s teachings on tsa’ar ba’alei chayim, the Torah mandate to avoid causing pain to animals, and with teachings about compassion in Judaism and other religions.
Rabbi David Rosen, a contemporary Israeli Orthodox rabbi and former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, stated:
“It should be obvious that pate de foie gras is produced in a manner that is in complete contravention of the Torah's prohibition of causing tsa'ar ba'alei chayim - pain to animals (see Maimonides, Yad Chazakah, Hilchot Rozeah, Ch. 13, M. 8). Rabbi Yechezkel Landau, the Noda Bi-Yehuda, clarifies that causing any cruelty to an animal while alive is a desecration of this prohibition (Noda Bi-Yehuda, Yoreh Deah, Response No. 10) and that if food can be obtained in a manner that does not involve additional pain and one chooses to obtain such through causing pain to an animal, one desecrates a Torah prohibition. Pate de foie gras is obtained through the willful desecration of a Torah prohibition and any truly God-revering Jew will not partake of such a product which is an offense against the Creator and His Torah.”
More information on Jewish vegetarianism is available at JewishVeg.com. The JVNA will send a complimentary copy of Richard Schwartz’s book “Judaism and Vegetarianism,” and a related cassette tape, to anyone who contacts us and tells us how he or she will use the materials to make people more aware of Jewish teachings on these issues.
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2. Rabbi Yonassan Gershom Creates Web Site To Make Cruelty-Free Feathers Available
Forwarded message from Rabbi Gershom, author, scholar, book reviewer, hobby farmer and JVNA advisor:
Richard:
I thought you might like to know that I created a Web page about a month ago called "Do You Know Where Your Feathers Come From?"
(http://stores.ebay.com/The-Happy-Rooster/About-our-Cruelty-Free-Feathers.html).
This page is on the site of my ebay store, The Happy Rooster, where I sell cruelty-free feathers from my geese and chickens. Of course, this isn't just about selling feathers, although people do buy them. But mostly it's about general education -- eBay pages get a lot of priority on the search engines. Animal Liberation Front liked the page so much they linked to it on their site -- without me even telling them about it! And if you Google "cruelty-free feathers," both these pages are on the top of the links list. Not to brag -- just showing another way to be creative in getting our message out there! (My page has a plug for JVNA too!)
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3. Response from Al Gore Communications Director in Response to My Letter Urging Linking Animal-Based Diets to Global Warming
Dear Dr. Schwartz,
Thank you for your correspondence. I will make sure to provide the Gore's with more information from the websites you suggested.
Cheers, Kalee
--
Kalee Kreider
Communications Director
Office of the Honorable Al Gore & Mrs. Tipper Gore
2100 West End Avenue, Suite 620
Nashville, TN 37203
Phone: 615-327-2227
Fax: 615-327-1323
Please also write to the address above and urge Al Gore to stress the importance of a shift to plant-based diets in order to reduce global warming. Thanks.
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5. Recent Article Re Investigations of Agriprocessors’ Glatt Kosher Slaughterhouse in Postville, Iowa/Two Letters to Editors From Me and Lewis Regenstein
Kosher Meat Plant Accused Of Abuses
By Nate Herpich
Religion News Service
Saturday, July 15, 2006; B09
letters@washpost.com
An investigation by a leading Jewish newspaper has uncovered abusive working conditions at the largest kosher slaughterhouse in the United States -- a facility that was already under investigation over allegations of unethical treatment of livestock.
Now, two Conservative Jewish organizations have created a task force to investigate the abuses and what they might mean for the nation's kosher meat supply.
According to the Forward, a national Jewish weekly newspaper, Iowa-based AgriProcessors Inc. -- owned and managed by Hasidic Jews -- is guilty of shorted paychecks, little or no safety training and accidental amputations, all affecting its largely undocumented workers.
A month after the piece ran May 26, the Rabbinical Assembly and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism launched a fact-finding study to find out what wrongs, if any, are being committed at the plant in Postville, Iowa.
For meat to be declared kosher, or fit for eating, Jewish law requires that animals be killed quickly and humanely, and the processes must be approved by supervising rabbis.
The Forward reported that the company's "kosher seal gives it an apparent moral imprimatur in a business that is known for harsh working conditions and labor violations. But even in the unhappy world of meatpacking, people with comparative knowledge of AgriProcessors and other plants say that AgriProcessors stands out for its poor treatment of workers."
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has cited AgriProcessors for six safety violations this year, or more than half of Iowa's meatpacking plant violations, the newspaper reported.
AgriProcessors, whose product is sold in stores under the brand name Aaron's Best, did not respond to several calls seeking comment. A spokesman for the plant wrote to the Forward, saying all employees must provide the proper documentation required by the federal government.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has also campaigned against the slaughterhouse in recent years, alleging that workers, including rabbis, ripped the tracheas and esophagi out of the throats of fully conscious cows, which were left trying to stand three minutes after their throats were slit.
PETA cites a 2004 videotape it says was obtained by an undercover cameraman for the group. In the video, cows that have had their throats slit are shown writhing on the ground of the plant in pools of their own blood. AgriProcessors denied charges of inhumane slaughter then, telling PETA that its practices complied with kosher law.
Temple Grandin, a designer of livestock handling facilities and the author of several books on animal handling, welfare and facility design, saw the PETA tape but has not been allowed to visit the facilities.
"During my career I have visited over 30 kosher beef plants in the U.S., Canada and other countries . . .," she writes on her Web site. "Kosher slaughter without stunning can be done with an acceptable level of welfare when it is done correctly. When shehita [Jewish ritual slaughter] is performed correctly with the long knife, the cattle appear not to feel it. This tape shows atrocious procedures that are NOT performed in any other kosher operation."
In March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report finding that AgriProcessors had indeed violated provisions of the Humane Slaughter Act. The USDA did not, however, pursue criminal charges.
PETA recently released a new video documenting the situation at AgriProcessors. It has joined the Humane Society of the United States in asking federal prosecutors to enforce state and federal humane slaughter laws.
Bruce Friedrich, vice president of international grass-roots campaigns at PETA, said AgriProcessors had agreed to stop ripping the throats out of cows and to curb some of its practices. But, he said, the company has refused to allow inspectors to verify that such changes have been made.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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My letter to the Washington Post, in response to the article:
July 16, 2006
Editor, Washington Post
letters@washpost.com
Dear Editor:
As president of Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I read with much interest your July 15 article, “Kosher Meat Plant Accused Of Abuses,” which discussed alleged violations of laws on the proper treatment of workers and animals at the kosher slaughterhouse at Postville, Iowa. Whatever current investigations of these reported abuses find, it is important to consider that the product that the facility produces is having devastating effects on human health and the sustainability of our imperiled planet, and violates basic Jewish mandates to preserve human health, treat animals with compassion, protect the environment, conserve natural resources, and help hungry people.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz
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Lewis Regenstein’s letter in response to the article:
Lewis G. Regenstein
3691 Tuxedo Road, N.W.
(404) 814-1371 Tel
Atlanta, Georgia
(404) 814-0440 Fax
30305-1061 Regenstein@mindspring.com
16 July, 2006
The Washington Post
Washington, D.C.
To the Editor:
It is truly ironic, and shameful, that cruel animal slaughter methods are being undertaken in the name of Jewish law, as pointed out in your 15 July article by Nate Herpich, " Kosher Meat Plant Accused of Abuses.”
Revelations of shocking and illegal abuse of animals at this kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa have largely overlooked a fundamental fact: the Jewish religion has strict laws and teachings forbidding cruelty to animals. In fact, there is an entire code of laws (the requirement "to prevent the suffering of living creatures") mandating that other creatures be treated with compassion.
Indeed, the Jews invented the concept of kindness to animals some 4,000 years ago, and it is mandated throughout the Bible and Jewish law. Even the holiest of our laws, The Ten Commandments, requires that farm animals be allowed to enjoy a day of rest on the Sabbath. So the Almighty must have felt that kindness to animals was not a trivial matter.
Indeed, the first commandments given by the Lord (Genesis 1:22-28) concern the welfare and srurvival of animals, and human responsibilities toward them.
Jews are not allowed to pass by an animal in distress or to ignore animals being mistreated, even on the Sabbath. Yet this is exactly what we do when we certify as kosher products from animals that are treated cruelly.
It is truly a shanda, a shameful thing, that we endorse the massive abuse and suffering of billions of factory farmed creatures, many of which spend their entire lives in misery, fear, and anguish, in addition to the cruel way they are killed.
Sincerely yours,
Lewis Regenstein
The writer is the author of Replenish the Earth: The Teachings of the World's Religions on Protecting Animals and Nature, and president of The Interfaith Council for the Protection of Animals and Nature.
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6. Interested in Helping Plan JVNA Events or a Conference?
Vegetarian activist Dr. Douglas Graham has suggested the possibility of the JVNA having an evening event or an all-day conference in New York City.
He wrote:
“One [possibility] would be a one-day event where you bring in an assortment of presenters and educators to give their ideas on a theme of your design.
Another would be to offer an evening event, (much lower risk) and bring in one speaker who would present on an appropriate topic for the evening.
Either way it would be a fund raiser for JVNA...
D
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If you would like to help in organizing such events, please let me know. Doug has indicated that he has contacts in NY City which could be helpful.
Thanks.
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7. DVD "If This Is Kosher" Now Available
'IfThis Is Kosher' DVD
Narrated by Jonathan Safran Foer, author of “Everything Is Illuminated”
The New York Times described PETA's undercover investigation at the world's largest glatt kosher slaugherhouse as "grisly” in its news coverage of our breaking story of animal abuse.
The story broke in November 2004, but remains the biggest scandal in the kosher meat industry in recent memory. For many in the Jewish community, the seriousness of these abuses and kosher authorities’ failure to denounce them have raised fundamental questions about the consumption of meat.
This video contains footage of what was revealed during our investigation.
Price from PETA: $5.00
Run time: 30 minutes.
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8. Canfei Nesharim Introduces Sukkot Environmental Project
Forwarded message from Canfei Nesharim
This Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres, join Canfei Nesharim in appreciating water and the connections between Torah, nature, and our responsibility to protect the environment.
On Sukkos, we celebrate water through the Simchas Beis Hashoeva (Celebration of the Water Drawing Ceremony). It is said that anyone who has not participated in this celebration has not known true joy. (Sukka 51a)
On Shemini Atzeres, we continue recognizing the value of water through tefilas geshem, the beginning of our prayers for rain. We compare and connect our forefathers and teachers with water, and we ask for rain in their merit, “for plenty and not for curse, for life and not for death, for plenty and not for scarcity.”
What did our rabbis and ancestors understand about water that filled them with joy during the Simchas Beis Hashoeva, and with dread and hope when davening for rain? They knew that water is essential for life, and that we rely on Hashem to provide all our needs.
This year, take the time on Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres to reflect on our natural resources and our dependence on Hashem’s blessing of rain.
Canfei Nesharim has organized resources for families and synagogues to celebrate Sukkos and Shemini Atzeres with an appreciation for water, including:
Ø Sukkah decorations
Ø Text materials for shiurim
Ø Science-based fact sheets on water resources
Ø Sukkos Stickers
Ø Activity Suggestions for Simchas Beis Hashoeva Parties
Ø Seventh Generation™ recycled paper plates and napkins (for an eco-friendly celebration in your community)
Individual packages are available for families and communities. For more information and to reserve your package, visit www.canfeinesharim.org/sukkos.shtml.
Deadline for orders: August 15. (Please note that this deadline is required for products to arrive on time for Sukkos.) Invite your community to participate today!
Canfei Nesharim is dedicated to educating the Orthodox community about protecting the environment, from the perspective of Torah and halacha.
Canfei Nesharim expresses our gratitude to Seventh Generation for financial and product support for this program.
Canfei Nesharim is grateful to Targum Shlishi for a generous grant to support for this program.
Canfei Nesharim expresses its sincere gratitude to Bikkurim, a joint project of JESNA, UJC, and the Kaminer Family, for taking us into their incubator for new Jewish ideas beginning in the Spring of 2004.
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11. Quotations Worth Considering
"It's not about doing everything, it's about doing something" - Laurie David, producer of "An Inconvenient Truth" and co-founder of the virtual march against global warming with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
"Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives." -Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)
Thanks to Israeli vegetarian activist Jonathan Danilowitz for sending us the Albert Schweitzer quote above.
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** Fair Use Notice **
The material on this site is provided for educational and informational purposes. It may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. It is being made available in an effort to advance the understanding of vegetarian, environmental, nutritional, health, economic, social justice and human rights issues etc. It is believed that this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have an interest in using the included information for educational or research purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. The information on this site does not constitute legal, technical or medical advice.
July 12, 2006
7/12/06 JVNA Online Newsletter
Shalom everyone,
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
1. JVNA Coordinator Noam Mohr Leads Protest Against KFC in Tel Aviv/My Letter to Editor of the Jerusalem Post
2. Commendation from Nina Natelson, JVNA Advisor and Founder and Director of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
3. Israel’s Vote Helps Prevent Renewal of Slaughter of Whales
4. Campaign Against Foie Gras Production in New York State
5. Two Important New Recommended Books
6. Can We Help Rescue an Imperiled Planet?
7. Fast Food Nation Author Discusses His New Book and Movie to be Made of Fast Food Nation
8. PETA Letter Responds to Jewish Press Editorial
9. JVNA Member Publishes Book On Benefits and Uses of Nuts
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. JVNA Coordinator Noam Mohr Leads Protest Against KFC in Tel Aviv/My Letter to Editor of the Jerusalem Post
KFC diners remain unflappable in face of chicken cruelty protest
Jul. 3, 2006 Jerusalem Post Article
By JENNY MERKIN AND YAEL WOLYNETZ
The typical passerby would not likely expect to see a chicken-clad woman in the heat of a July afternoon. However, that was the scene outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Rehov Shaul Hamelech in downtown Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon.
A group of animal rights activists gathered outside of the restaurant to protest KFC's reputed mistreatment of their chickens. According to the KFCCruelty Web site, chickens are scalded alive after being crammed by the tens of thousands into sheds that smell of ammonia.
The rally was organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and attracted nine participants. The protesters stood outside the KFC restaurant with signs reading: "KFC Tortures Animals," and attempted to hand out flyers detailing the issue to passersby. One woman dressed up as a chicken with a crutch, in order to provide a picture of the situation.
Noam Mohr, coordinator of the demonstration, outlined the objectives of the protest, saying: "By raising awareness, we will pressure KFC to have more compassionate treatment and take steps to eliminate their very worst abuses." "These are steps their own animal welfare advisers have recommended," said Mohr, Farm Animal Research Associate for PETA.
This is the first rally about this issue in Israel, as a part of an international campaign. "The people of Israel would not want to patronize KFC any more than anyone else would if they knew that animals were being scalded alive," said Mohr.
Among the protesters was a soldier who took the day off to participate. "The only way to fight this issue is if people boycott KFC, and KFC will stop producing," said the soldier, who wished to remain anonymous due to military rules against political activism by officers.
In response to the protest, KFC employment gave out free chicken wings and passed out advertisements. KFC Manager, Salim Salyeh viewed the protest as beneficial to the restaurant. "They are doing publicity for me. It's a good thing," said Salyeh.
Despite the protest outside, people continued to eat inside KFC. Yitzchak Mokitada, one such diner, was not bothered by the issue.
"There's nothing to do. This is life and it is all part of the food chain. I have to eat," said Mokitada.
It remains to be seen how effective the protest was, but as passerby Alla Simonitz said while "it is important to be informed of such issues, you don't think of the lives of food - when you are hungry, you eat."
© 1995 - 2006 The Jerusalem Post. All rights reserved.
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My Letter to the Editor:
July 4, 2006
Editor, Jerusalem Post
letters@jpost.com
Dear Editor:
Re: “KFC diners remain unflappable in face of chicken cruelty protest” (July 4 edition)
As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I want to express kudos to Noam Mohr and others who took part in the demonstration outside Kentucky Fried Chicken to help increase awareness of the mistreatment of animals raised for food.
Certainly we have a choice about our diets, but shouldn't we consider the very negative effects of animal-based diets on our health and on environmental sustainability and how the production and consumption of animal products violate Jewish teachings on preserving human health, treating animals compassionately, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
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2. Commendation from Nina Natelson, JVNA Advisor and Founder and Director of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
In a message dated 7/5/06 3:25:11 PM, chai_us@cox.net writes:
Hi Richard,
I just wanted to express deep appreciation to you for all the enormous and amazing groundbreaking work you have done over the years, on which so much of what others do, including CHAI, is based. I am pulling together some sample lesson plans for Monday's meeting and everything I know, I learned from your writings. Your name will be on these materials along with Lynne's and Rae's (they wrote modern stories to accompany the Biblical ones, and activities for kids, and arranged things in a good order for teachers, etc.) and the illustrator, of course. You will be credited with the fundamental research and writing that made this project possible, unless you object. It made the project so much easier. It just wouldn't be right to issue these materials without crediting the source.
Gratefully,
Nina
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3. Israel’s Vote Helps Prevent Renewal of Slaughter of Whales
Re-Paying Jonah’s Debt to the Whale
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Israel arrived like the proverbial cavalry onto the beaches of St. Kitts and Nevis this year.
Thousands of years after a whale saved Jonah, Israel has returned the favor by helping to save the whales.
After years of economic bullying, bribery, cajoling and arrogant posturing, the Japanese whaling interests had thought they had the votes to form a majority bloc at this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission.
The Japanese delegation arrived in the Caribbean, booked into the best hotels and began to wine and dine their bought and paid for puppet delegates from Mongolia, Senegal, Mali, Togo, and assorted other small nations that recently joined the IWC at the behest of Japan.
The Japanese had counted the heads and were confident of the votes to finally seize majority control of the world’s only whaling regulatory body.
But victory was snatched from their hands with the arrival of Israel and the defection of Belize.
Israel did not come to the table because of bribes, they came to save the whales and their enlistment as the 70th member of the IWC stopped the Japanese takeover bid in its tracks.
One of the defeated Japanese resolutions would have allowed commercial hunting of 150 Piked and 150 Byrde whales in the territorial waters of Japan, Iceland and Norway. It was defeated 31-30.
It was the Israeli vote that carried the day for the whales.
Another motion would have removed the prohibition on hunting dolphins and porpoises. The Israeli vote made the crucial difference.
The votes were cast by Esther Efrat, the head of the treaty division at the Foreign Ministry.
"The Israeli position on whaling is clear. Whaling is illegal in Israel and off of Israel's coast. We were bringing our position to the international forum," explained Mark Regev, spokesperson for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"Israel has a very strong commitment to environmental matters. We've got a ministry for environmental affairs whose full-time job it is to make sure the environment is looked after. Whaling is illegal in Israel and when we go to the international forum, we are making those opinions known. That's why on the whaling issue we lined up with those who believe whales should be protected," he said.
Israel joined at the last minute after an alert was sent by the US government representatives to Israel's Foreign Ministry urging Israel to join the US against theplans by Japan to take over the IWC.
Israel was not bribed but reacted to support an ally on an issue that the Israeli citizens firmly supported. Most of the nations supporting Japan are doing so in defiance of the polls that demonstrate that their citizens are opposed to whaling.
It also made a difference that Belize decided to switch allegiance to the whales and decided to vote against Japan after influential members of the Belize tourist industry pressured their government to vote for the whales. (See earlier posting on the Power of One)
Israel has never had a whaling industry. In fact the Old Testament [states] that whale and dolphin meat is prohibited by God.
By joining the IWC Israel has also assumed a position of leadership as a marine conservation nation for the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel’s own non profit NGO IMMRAC is devoted to protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises.
Mia Elasar, a committee member at IMMRAC said that hat she hopes Israel's participation in the IWC will mean the country will put its heart into local issues, such as those addressed by ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area).
"The recent vote against whaling is expected to put Israel on the local map. It shows us that there is a place to really vote for preserving Mediterranean marine mammals,” said Elasar, who hopes Israel will take the reigns and lead awareness to marine conservation.
"There [at ACCOBAMS] we can really make an impact. This authority will affect seals and dolphins, which are a threatened species in the Mediterranean more because of fishing and less of hunting."
"There are whales in the Mediterranean," Elasar confirms. "There are six species to be found off the Israeli coast. The main problem with conservation of marine mammals is that their reproductive rates are slow. What we are doing now we will only get back in 10 or 20 years. The animals will disappear if we don't watch it."
The Mediterranean is home to the world's second highest percentage of endemic species, including the Posidonia sea grass and the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal. Species also include 28 cetaceans, the loggerhead turtle, and the blue-fin tuna and swordfish. But currently, less than 1% of the Mediterranean is protected.
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
Director - Ocean Outfall Group of California
Advisory Board Member - Telluride Mountain Film Festival
Advisory Board Member - The Animals Voice Magazine
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe,
The Shepheard of the Ocean by Name,
And said he came far from
the main-sea deepe.
- Edmund Spenser
A.C.E. 1590
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA
---------------------------------------------
Please consider emailing a message of thanks to directors of the Israeli Foreign Ministry below. Thanks.
E-mail addresses:
Foreign Minister's office - sar@mfa.gov.il
Director General's office - mankal@mfa.gov.il
Spokesman's office - dover@mfa.gov.il
Public Relations - pniot@mfa.gov.il
Ministry Address:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd.
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91035
Tel. 972-2-5303111
Fax 972-2-5303367
sar@mfa.gov.il
mankal@mfa.gov.il
dover@mfa.gov.il
pniot@mfa.gov.il
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4. Campaign Against Foie Gras Production in New York State
Kelley Wind of the Animal Welfare Trust has contacted me re the group’s campaign to stop expansion of foie gras production in New York State. NY State has voted to provide the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Company with $400,000 to build manure processing facilities and to expand its operations. If you would like to help with this campaign or have suggestions, please contact Kelley at kelley@animalwelfaretrust.org. Thanks. There are many Orthodox Jewish camps and summer bungalows owned primarily by Orthodox Jews in the area.
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5. Two Important New Recommended Books
I don’t have much chance to read many books recently, but I read two very important ones this past Shabbat. The first is “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore. It is a very fitting companion tio the movie of the same name. It is chock full of wonderful pictures, graphs, charts and explanations that provide an excellent scientific but very readable primer on all aspects of global warming including causes, threats and what people can do about it. Unlike the movie, the book does mention reducing meat consumption as something that people should do in responding to globl warming. I very strongly recommend that everyone read this book. It provides perhaps our best argument for vegetarianism in that major changes are needed to combat global warming and a shift toward global warming is an essential part of the solution.
The second book that I also strongly recommend is “Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry” by Danielle Nierenberg (Worldwatch Paper #171). Wile the author does not promote vegetarianism, she thoroughly documents how horribly animals are treated on factory farms and the environmental and health problems of animal-based diets and agriculture. While short (only about 67 pages of text), the volume is full of graphs, charts, and facts that can be very helpful in promoting vegetarianism. More information about the book and other Worldwatch books and other educational material can be found at www.worldwatch.org. The Worldwatch Institute is a leading group in increasing awareness of current global threats and potential responses. The group was founded by Lester Brown, whose writings are in the next item in this newsletter.
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6. Can We Help Rescue an Imperiled Planet?
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress
By Lester R. Brown
Energy Bulletin
Monday 03 July 2006
Our global economy is outgrowing the capacity of the earth to support it, pushing our early twenty-first century civilization ever closer to decline and possible collapse. In our preoccupation with quarterly earnings reports and year-to-year economic growth, we have lost sight of how large the human enterprise has become relative to the earth's resources.
A century ago, annual growth in the world economy was measured in billions of dollars. Today it is measured in trillions. As a result, we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can regenerate.
Forests are shrinking, grasslands are deteriorating, water tables are falling, fisheries are collapsing, and soils are eroding. We are using up oil at a pace that leaves little time to plan beyond peak oil, or the period during which demand for oil far exceeds all available supply. And we are discharging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere faster than nature can absorb them, setting the stage for a rise in the earth's temperature well above any since agriculture began.
Fortunately, there is a consensus emerging among scientists on the broad outlines of the changes needed. If economic progress is to be sustained, we need to replace the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model. Instead of being based on fossil fuels, the new economy will be powered by abundant sources of renewable energy: wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and biofuels.
The throwaway economy will be replaced by a comprehensive reuse/recycle economy. Consumer products from cars to computers will be designed so that they can be disassembled into their component parts and completely recycled. Throwaway products such as single-use beverage containers will be phased out.
We can already see glimpses here and there of what this new economy looks like. We have the technologies to build it - including, for example, gas-electric hybrid cars, advanced design wind turbines, highly efficient refrigerators, and water-efficient irrigation systems.
With each wind farm, rooftop solar panel, paper-recycling facility, bicycle path, and reforestation program, we move closer to an economy that can sustain economic progress. But there is still a long way to go and a very short time to get there. Our success will depend on learning from the changing world around us and implementing those lessons we have already learned.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute, 1350 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, 20036. Their web site is www.earth-policy.org. This article draws from his latest book, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (updated and expanded), published by W.W. Norton (2006), which may be ordered online from www.wfs.org/bkshelf.htm.
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7. Fast Food Nation Author Discusses His New Book and Movie to be Made of Fast Food Nation
Five Minutes With: Eric Schlosser
By Timothy Fernholz and Ben Adler
Campus Progress
Wednesday 14 June 2006
The author of Fast Food Nation discusses his new book, the ongoing dangers of fast food and how the more things change, the more they stay the same under the Golden Arches.
Is obesity the next big American political issue? With one Republican presidential hopeful, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, gaining national recognition for his personal weight loss and collaboration with former President Clinton to keep sweets out of school, it's possible. One person responsible for raising public awareness of the issue is Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist and modern-day Upton Sinclair who penned Fast Food Nation in 2001, a blistering expose of the dark side of the fast food industry: health risks, horrific working conditions and industry efforts to market directly to children.
Now, Schlosser is back with a fast food follow-up, Chew on This, a similar expose written with Charles Wilson; it focuses particularly on the dangers of fast food for children. But Schlosser is now set to reach an even larger audience: In the coming months we'll see a film based on Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater and featuring big name stars like Patricia Arquette, released across the country. Since we couldn't convince him to sit down with us over a burger, Campus Progress chatted with Schlosser over the phone.
Campus Progress: Fast Food Nation was a dramatic wake-up call for a lot of young people about foods we had all grown up eating. What inspired you to write that book?
Eric Schlosser: Well, I didn't come to it out of any great hatred for fast food, I used to eat it all the time. I did a big investigative piece at The Atlantic Monthly. It was about illegal immigration, it was about farm labor, migrant farm workers, and I told a very complicated story through something simple and concrete: a strawberry. We love strawberries and we eat lots of strawberries, and we eat lots of strawberries without ever thinking that each one of those strawberries has to be picked by hand. So, you want a lot of strawberries, you need a lot of hands. And that article was read at Rolling Stone magazine, and they invited me in to do the same thing for fast food.
Basically, they wanted me to go behind the counter and show all the complex systems that bring you this heavily processed food. I didn't jump at the opportunity because I eat fast food, and I didn't want to write something condescending and elitist putting down the industry, but the more I learned, the more amazed I was, and what was incredible to me was that I would be eating this food all the time without thinking about it, without having any idea where it came from or how it was being made.
Campus Progress: As a writer, I have to tell you the lead to that book is just incredible. You start out in a military base ...
E.S.: ...Cheyenne Mountain. One of our most top secret military bases, which is inside a hollowed-out mountain in Colorado.
Campus Progress: How do you come up with something like that?
E.S.: You know, it's not always premeditated. A lot of it comes out of the reporting. I was looking for a place to set Fast Food Nation, and Colorado sounded really interesting to me. It felt like, with the whole conservative religious fundamentalist culture, it was at the cutting edge of change in America. Little did I know how much that culture would take over America.
I decided to set it in Colorado Springs. There are these big military bases, so I applied to visit the base. And while I was there I started talking to them about what they eat there and it just blew my mind that, at that point, and I'm sure its no longer true post 9/11, the Domino's Pizza delivery guy would come right up to the gate at one of the most top-secret, important military installations in the United States. [If] you can get Domino's delivered to the Cheyenne Mountain air station, fast food has really infiltrated every part of American life.
Campus Progress: Tell us a little bit about your new film based on Fast Food Nation and whether you and Morgan Spurlock have a rivalry.
E.S.: Firstly, Morgan Spurlock: He made a totally disgusting film, but a really funny film. There's no rivalry whatsoever. As a matter of fact, we have a standing agreement that I will testify in his behalf when he gets sued by the industry, and he has promised to testify in mine.
The film that's based on Fast Food Nation is totally different from Super Size Me, and I love Super Size Me. This film is a fictional film, it's an independent film made by a wonderful director, Richard Linklater, who did Slacker and Dazed and Confused. It takes the title of my book and some of the themes but pretty much puts aside the book. There's nobody in the book who's literally in the film. The film is about the lives of some intersecting characters in a small town in Colorado, a lot of the film is in Spanish, some of the crucial characters are illegal immigrants, and in some ways it's an updating of [Upton Sinclair's] The Jungle on the hundredth anniversary of the publishing of that book.
Campus Progress: Why did you write your new book, Chew on This?
E.S.: Chew on This is aimed at kids, and it's aimed at the people who the fast food industry is heavily targeting with its mass marketing. When I finished Fast Food Nation and the manuscript was all done, I hired a fact-checker from The New Yorker, Charles Wilson, and his job was to make sure that every fact was right.... He came to me with the idea of doing a children's book based on Fast Food Nation, arguing that these kids are being targeted by the fast food industry, they need the same sort of information in Fast Food Nation, and they need an alternate view of the world than the one they're getting from all these ads. So it sounded like a good idea, and I recruited him to help me with it.
Campus Progress: What do you think of the recent announcement of several major soda companies, including Coke and Pepsi, to stop selling their products in elementary and high schools come this fall, and why they might be motivated to do that?
I'd like to think that they were motivated solely by concern for the health of American children. But, whatever their motivations are, I think it's a good thing. The deal was brokered by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and the current governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, a conservative Republican. I think it's a terrific step because it shows bipartisan support for ensuring that kids are eating healthy food in schools. I don't think it's an ideal agreement; it's going to be phased in over a number of years [and] it's a voluntary agreement. But to me it's a sign of the times, a sign that attitudes are really changing and there's a real feeling growing that we can't afford to have these companies marketing unhealthy food to kids in schools. I applaud the move by the soda companies to make voluntary changes, but I also support moves at the state and federal level to put tough restrictions on what kind of food can be sold in schools.
SNIP
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8. PETA Letter Responds to Jewish Press Editorial
Forwarded message from Bruce Friedrich. PETA Vegan Director
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 1:16 PM
[Since a recent JVNA newsletter had a Jewish Press editorial attacking PETA, their response is included below.]
To: 'letters@jewishpress.com'
Subject: Letter to the Editor:
Dear Editor,
Re: “Here we Go,” 7/5/06: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) investigates both kosher and non-kosher slaughterhouses and notifies authorities whenever we witness gross mistreatment of animals and violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
Our most popular vegetarian video by far, titled “Meet Your Meat,” documents exclusively non-kosher plants (see www.Meat.org), and our late-2004 investigation of Agriprocessors was our very first kosher investigation, in our 24 year history. Had Agriprocessors agreed, when we asked them in 2003, to allow Dr. Grandin to come in, we would never have investigated. Mr. Nathan Lewin’s condescending letter (available at www.goveg.com/feat/agriprocessors/) left us no choice but to investigate the whistleblower reports of cruelty in the plant.
We blew the whistle on AgriProcessors, not because of concerns about the principles of shechitah, but because employees were shocking animals in the face with electric prods, ripping out their tracheas while they were still fully conscious, and dumping them in their own blood to die slow and painful deaths – some animals even struggled to their feet in agony over three minutes after they were dismembered. Dr. Temple Grandin, now recognized by Agriprocessors as an authority, called what we found “The worst thing [she] had ever seen,” declaring that AgriProcessors “is doing everything wrong they can do wrong.”
It is a black eye for kosher certification that the Orthodox Union continues to declare that the kosher status at AgriProcessors was never in question. As long as that remains the OU’s stance, the kosher public will not be able to feel secure that the OU hechsher has anything at all to do with the strong Jewish tradition of kindness toward G-d’s other animals.
Jewish law mandates that animals should be treated with compassion and respect. It is this principle that we need to defend, not those companies who so cruelly abuse animals.
Sincerely,
Bruce G. Friedrich
Vice President for International Grassroots Campaigns
PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
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9. JVNA Member Publishes Book On Benefits and Uses of Nuts
JVNA member Zel Allen has published a book that covers all aspects of nuts: “The Nut Gourmet: Nourishing Nuts for Every Occasion. The book how nuts can be an essential part of a balanced diet. It shows how nuts can be used as the focal point in a variety of dishes and it provides 150 “tasty, gourmet, plant-based recipes.” The book also provides extensive information about the health benefits of nuts.
The book is endorsed by several leading vegetarian health professionals, including Neal Barnard, M.D., President of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,” William Harris, author of :The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism,” and Jay Gordon, M.D., author of “Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow.” Brenda Davis, R.D., author of “Becoming Vegetarian,: states: “The book is a treasure. It is beautifully written, comprehensive and entertaining. It provides accurate, detailed information about the value of nuts in the diet, numerous practical tips, charts and tables, and dozens of mouth-watering recipes. It is a delightful cookbook and a tremendous nutrition resource.”
I have had the pleasure of working with Zel and her husband Reuben for many years and I strongly commend Zel for this important contribution. I hope the book is very successful. The book can be ordered on the internet through “Vegetarians in Paradise,” an internet magazine that Zel and Reuben have edited for over 7 years
(www.vegparadise.com), or through Amazon and other online book vendors.
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** Fair Use Notice **
This document may contain copyrighted material, use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. I believe that this not-for-profit, educational use on the Web constitutes a fair use of the copyrighted material (as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law). If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
This update/Jewish Vegetarians of North America (JVNA) Online Newsletter has the following items:
1. JVNA Coordinator Noam Mohr Leads Protest Against KFC in Tel Aviv/My Letter to Editor of the Jerusalem Post
2. Commendation from Nina Natelson, JVNA Advisor and Founder and Director of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
3. Israel’s Vote Helps Prevent Renewal of Slaughter of Whales
4. Campaign Against Foie Gras Production in New York State
5. Two Important New Recommended Books
6. Can We Help Rescue an Imperiled Planet?
7. Fast Food Nation Author Discusses His New Book and Movie to be Made of Fast Food Nation
8. PETA Letter Responds to Jewish Press Editorial
9. JVNA Member Publishes Book On Benefits and Uses of Nuts
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. JVNA Coordinator Noam Mohr Leads Protest Against KFC in Tel Aviv/My Letter to Editor of the Jerusalem Post
KFC diners remain unflappable in face of chicken cruelty protest
Jul. 3, 2006 Jerusalem Post Article
By JENNY MERKIN AND YAEL WOLYNETZ
The typical passerby would not likely expect to see a chicken-clad woman in the heat of a July afternoon. However, that was the scene outside of Kentucky Fried Chicken on Rehov Shaul Hamelech in downtown Tel Aviv on Monday afternoon.
A group of animal rights activists gathered outside of the restaurant to protest KFC's reputed mistreatment of their chickens. According to the KFCCruelty Web site, chickens are scalded alive after being crammed by the tens of thousands into sheds that smell of ammonia.
The rally was organized by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and attracted nine participants. The protesters stood outside the KFC restaurant with signs reading: "KFC Tortures Animals," and attempted to hand out flyers detailing the issue to passersby. One woman dressed up as a chicken with a crutch, in order to provide a picture of the situation.
Noam Mohr, coordinator of the demonstration, outlined the objectives of the protest, saying: "By raising awareness, we will pressure KFC to have more compassionate treatment and take steps to eliminate their very worst abuses." "These are steps their own animal welfare advisers have recommended," said Mohr, Farm Animal Research Associate for PETA.
This is the first rally about this issue in Israel, as a part of an international campaign. "The people of Israel would not want to patronize KFC any more than anyone else would if they knew that animals were being scalded alive," said Mohr.
Among the protesters was a soldier who took the day off to participate. "The only way to fight this issue is if people boycott KFC, and KFC will stop producing," said the soldier, who wished to remain anonymous due to military rules against political activism by officers.
In response to the protest, KFC employment gave out free chicken wings and passed out advertisements. KFC Manager, Salim Salyeh viewed the protest as beneficial to the restaurant. "They are doing publicity for me. It's a good thing," said Salyeh.
Despite the protest outside, people continued to eat inside KFC. Yitzchak Mokitada, one such diner, was not bothered by the issue.
"There's nothing to do. This is life and it is all part of the food chain. I have to eat," said Mokitada.
It remains to be seen how effective the protest was, but as passerby Alla Simonitz said while "it is important to be informed of such issues, you don't think of the lives of food - when you are hungry, you eat."
© 1995 - 2006 The Jerusalem Post. All rights reserved.
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My Letter to the Editor:
July 4, 2006
Editor, Jerusalem Post
letters@jpost.com
Dear Editor:
Re: “KFC diners remain unflappable in face of chicken cruelty protest” (July 4 edition)
As president of the Jewish Vegetarians of North America, I want to express kudos to Noam Mohr and others who took part in the demonstration outside Kentucky Fried Chicken to help increase awareness of the mistreatment of animals raised for food.
Certainly we have a choice about our diets, but shouldn't we consider the very negative effects of animal-based diets on our health and on environmental sustainability and how the production and consumption of animal products violate Jewish teachings on preserving human health, treating animals compassionately, protecting the environment, conserving natural resources, and helping hungry people.
Very truly yours,
Richard H. Schwartz, Ph.D.
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2. Commendation from Nina Natelson, JVNA Advisor and Founder and Director of Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI)
In a message dated 7/5/06 3:25:11 PM, chai_us@cox.net writes:
Hi Richard,
I just wanted to express deep appreciation to you for all the enormous and amazing groundbreaking work you have done over the years, on which so much of what others do, including CHAI, is based. I am pulling together some sample lesson plans for Monday's meeting and everything I know, I learned from your writings. Your name will be on these materials along with Lynne's and Rae's (they wrote modern stories to accompany the Biblical ones, and activities for kids, and arranged things in a good order for teachers, etc.) and the illustrator, of course. You will be credited with the fundamental research and writing that made this project possible, unless you object. It made the project so much easier. It just wouldn't be right to issue these materials without crediting the source.
Gratefully,
Nina
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3. Israel’s Vote Helps Prevent Renewal of Slaughter of Whales
Re-Paying Jonah’s Debt to the Whale
Commentary by Captain Paul Watson
Israel arrived like the proverbial cavalry onto the beaches of St. Kitts and Nevis this year.
Thousands of years after a whale saved Jonah, Israel has returned the favor by helping to save the whales.
After years of economic bullying, bribery, cajoling and arrogant posturing, the Japanese whaling interests had thought they had the votes to form a majority bloc at this year’s meeting of the International Whaling Commission.
The Japanese delegation arrived in the Caribbean, booked into the best hotels and began to wine and dine their bought and paid for puppet delegates from Mongolia, Senegal, Mali, Togo, and assorted other small nations that recently joined the IWC at the behest of Japan.
The Japanese had counted the heads and were confident of the votes to finally seize majority control of the world’s only whaling regulatory body.
But victory was snatched from their hands with the arrival of Israel and the defection of Belize.
Israel did not come to the table because of bribes, they came to save the whales and their enlistment as the 70th member of the IWC stopped the Japanese takeover bid in its tracks.
One of the defeated Japanese resolutions would have allowed commercial hunting of 150 Piked and 150 Byrde whales in the territorial waters of Japan, Iceland and Norway. It was defeated 31-30.
It was the Israeli vote that carried the day for the whales.
Another motion would have removed the prohibition on hunting dolphins and porpoises. The Israeli vote made the crucial difference.
The votes were cast by Esther Efrat, the head of the treaty division at the Foreign Ministry.
"The Israeli position on whaling is clear. Whaling is illegal in Israel and off of Israel's coast. We were bringing our position to the international forum," explained Mark Regev, spokesperson for the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
"Israel has a very strong commitment to environmental matters. We've got a ministry for environmental affairs whose full-time job it is to make sure the environment is looked after. Whaling is illegal in Israel and when we go to the international forum, we are making those opinions known. That's why on the whaling issue we lined up with those who believe whales should be protected," he said.
Israel joined at the last minute after an alert was sent by the US government representatives to Israel's Foreign Ministry urging Israel to join the US against theplans by Japan to take over the IWC.
Israel was not bribed but reacted to support an ally on an issue that the Israeli citizens firmly supported. Most of the nations supporting Japan are doing so in defiance of the polls that demonstrate that their citizens are opposed to whaling.
It also made a difference that Belize decided to switch allegiance to the whales and decided to vote against Japan after influential members of the Belize tourist industry pressured their government to vote for the whales. (See earlier posting on the Power of One)
Israel has never had a whaling industry. In fact the Old Testament [states] that whale and dolphin meat is prohibited by God.
By joining the IWC Israel has also assumed a position of leadership as a marine conservation nation for the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel’s own non profit NGO IMMRAC is devoted to protecting whales, dolphins and porpoises.
Mia Elasar, a committee member at IMMRAC said that hat she hopes Israel's participation in the IWC will mean the country will put its heart into local issues, such as those addressed by ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area).
"The recent vote against whaling is expected to put Israel on the local map. It shows us that there is a place to really vote for preserving Mediterranean marine mammals,” said Elasar, who hopes Israel will take the reigns and lead awareness to marine conservation.
"There [at ACCOBAMS] we can really make an impact. This authority will affect seals and dolphins, which are a threatened species in the Mediterranean more because of fishing and less of hunting."
"There are whales in the Mediterranean," Elasar confirms. "There are six species to be found off the Israeli coast. The main problem with conservation of marine mammals is that their reproductive rates are slow. What we are doing now we will only get back in 10 or 20 years. The animals will disappear if we don't watch it."
The Mediterranean is home to the world's second highest percentage of endemic species, including the Posidonia sea grass and the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal. Species also include 28 cetaceans, the loggerhead turtle, and the blue-fin tuna and swordfish. But currently, less than 1% of the Mediterranean is protected.
Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director - The Farley Mowat Institute
Director - www.harpseals.org
Director - Ocean Outfall Group of California
Advisory Board Member - Telluride Mountain Film Festival
Advisory Board Member - The Animals Voice Magazine
Whom when I asked from what place he came,
And how he hight, himselfe he did ycleepe,
The Shepheard of the Ocean by Name,
And said he came far from
the main-sea deepe.
- Edmund Spenser
A.C.E. 1590
www.Seashepherd.org
Tel: 360-370-5650
Fax: 360-370-5651
Address: P.O. Box 2616
Friday Harbor, Wa 98250 USA
---------------------------------------------
Please consider emailing a message of thanks to directors of the Israeli Foreign Ministry below. Thanks.
E-mail addresses:
Foreign Minister's office - sar@mfa.gov.il
Director General's office - mankal@mfa.gov.il
Spokesman's office - dover@mfa.gov.il
Public Relations - pniot@mfa.gov.il
Ministry Address:
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
9 Yitzhak Rabin Blvd.
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91035
Tel. 972-2-5303111
Fax 972-2-5303367
sar@mfa.gov.il
mankal@mfa.gov.il
dover@mfa.gov.il
pniot@mfa.gov.il
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4. Campaign Against Foie Gras Production in New York State
Kelley Wind of the Animal Welfare Trust has contacted me re the group’s campaign to stop expansion of foie gras production in New York State. NY State has voted to provide the Hudson Valley Foie Gras Company with $400,000 to build manure processing facilities and to expand its operations. If you would like to help with this campaign or have suggestions, please contact Kelley at kelley@animalwelfaretrust.org. Thanks. There are many Orthodox Jewish camps and summer bungalows owned primarily by Orthodox Jews in the area.
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5. Two Important New Recommended Books
I don’t have much chance to read many books recently, but I read two very important ones this past Shabbat. The first is “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore. It is a very fitting companion tio the movie of the same name. It is chock full of wonderful pictures, graphs, charts and explanations that provide an excellent scientific but very readable primer on all aspects of global warming including causes, threats and what people can do about it. Unlike the movie, the book does mention reducing meat consumption as something that people should do in responding to globl warming. I very strongly recommend that everyone read this book. It provides perhaps our best argument for vegetarianism in that major changes are needed to combat global warming and a shift toward global warming is an essential part of the solution.
The second book that I also strongly recommend is “Happier Meals: Rethinking the Global Meat Industry” by Danielle Nierenberg (Worldwatch Paper #171). Wile the author does not promote vegetarianism, she thoroughly documents how horribly animals are treated on factory farms and the environmental and health problems of animal-based diets and agriculture. While short (only about 67 pages of text), the volume is full of graphs, charts, and facts that can be very helpful in promoting vegetarianism. More information about the book and other Worldwatch books and other educational material can be found at www.worldwatch.org. The Worldwatch Institute is a leading group in increasing awareness of current global threats and potential responses. The group was founded by Lester Brown, whose writings are in the next item in this newsletter.
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6. Can We Help Rescue an Imperiled Planet?
Rescuing a Planet Under Stress
By Lester R. Brown
Energy Bulletin
Monday 03 July 2006
Our global economy is outgrowing the capacity of the earth to support it, pushing our early twenty-first century civilization ever closer to decline and possible collapse. In our preoccupation with quarterly earnings reports and year-to-year economic growth, we have lost sight of how large the human enterprise has become relative to the earth's resources.
A century ago, annual growth in the world economy was measured in billions of dollars. Today it is measured in trillions. As a result, we are consuming renewable resources faster than they can regenerate.
Forests are shrinking, grasslands are deteriorating, water tables are falling, fisheries are collapsing, and soils are eroding. We are using up oil at a pace that leaves little time to plan beyond peak oil, or the period during which demand for oil far exceeds all available supply. And we are discharging greenhouse gases into the atmosphere faster than nature can absorb them, setting the stage for a rise in the earth's temperature well above any since agriculture began.
Fortunately, there is a consensus emerging among scientists on the broad outlines of the changes needed. If economic progress is to be sustained, we need to replace the fossil-fuel-based, automobile-centered, throwaway economy with a new economic model. Instead of being based on fossil fuels, the new economy will be powered by abundant sources of renewable energy: wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower, and biofuels.
The throwaway economy will be replaced by a comprehensive reuse/recycle economy. Consumer products from cars to computers will be designed so that they can be disassembled into their component parts and completely recycled. Throwaway products such as single-use beverage containers will be phased out.
We can already see glimpses here and there of what this new economy looks like. We have the technologies to build it - including, for example, gas-electric hybrid cars, advanced design wind turbines, highly efficient refrigerators, and water-efficient irrigation systems.
With each wind farm, rooftop solar panel, paper-recycling facility, bicycle path, and reforestation program, we move closer to an economy that can sustain economic progress. But there is still a long way to go and a very short time to get there. Our success will depend on learning from the changing world around us and implementing those lessons we have already learned.
Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute, 1350 Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC, 20036. Their web site is www.earth-policy.org. This article draws from his latest book, Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble (updated and expanded), published by W.W. Norton (2006), which may be ordered online from www.wfs.org/bkshelf.htm.
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7. Fast Food Nation Author Discusses His New Book and Movie to be Made of Fast Food Nation
Five Minutes With: Eric Schlosser
By Timothy Fernholz and Ben Adler
Campus Progress
Wednesday 14 June 2006
The author of Fast Food Nation discusses his new book, the ongoing dangers of fast food and how the more things change, the more they stay the same under the Golden Arches.
Is obesity the next big American political issue? With one Republican presidential hopeful, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, gaining national recognition for his personal weight loss and collaboration with former President Clinton to keep sweets out of school, it's possible. One person responsible for raising public awareness of the issue is Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist and modern-day Upton Sinclair who penned Fast Food Nation in 2001, a blistering expose of the dark side of the fast food industry: health risks, horrific working conditions and industry efforts to market directly to children.
Now, Schlosser is back with a fast food follow-up, Chew on This, a similar expose written with Charles Wilson; it focuses particularly on the dangers of fast food for children. But Schlosser is now set to reach an even larger audience: In the coming months we'll see a film based on Fast Food Nation, directed by Richard Linklater and featuring big name stars like Patricia Arquette, released across the country. Since we couldn't convince him to sit down with us over a burger, Campus Progress chatted with Schlosser over the phone.
Campus Progress: Fast Food Nation was a dramatic wake-up call for a lot of young people about foods we had all grown up eating. What inspired you to write that book?
Eric Schlosser: Well, I didn't come to it out of any great hatred for fast food, I used to eat it all the time. I did a big investigative piece at The Atlantic Monthly. It was about illegal immigration, it was about farm labor, migrant farm workers, and I told a very complicated story through something simple and concrete: a strawberry. We love strawberries and we eat lots of strawberries, and we eat lots of strawberries without ever thinking that each one of those strawberries has to be picked by hand. So, you want a lot of strawberries, you need a lot of hands. And that article was read at Rolling Stone magazine, and they invited me in to do the same thing for fast food.
Basically, they wanted me to go behind the counter and show all the complex systems that bring you this heavily processed food. I didn't jump at the opportunity because I eat fast food, and I didn't want to write something condescending and elitist putting down the industry, but the more I learned, the more amazed I was, and what was incredible to me was that I would be eating this food all the time without thinking about it, without having any idea where it came from or how it was being made.
Campus Progress: As a writer, I have to tell you the lead to that book is just incredible. You start out in a military base ...
E.S.: ...Cheyenne Mountain. One of our most top secret military bases, which is inside a hollowed-out mountain in Colorado.
Campus Progress: How do you come up with something like that?
E.S.: You know, it's not always premeditated. A lot of it comes out of the reporting. I was looking for a place to set Fast Food Nation, and Colorado sounded really interesting to me. It felt like, with the whole conservative religious fundamentalist culture, it was at the cutting edge of change in America. Little did I know how much that culture would take over America.
I decided to set it in Colorado Springs. There are these big military bases, so I applied to visit the base. And while I was there I started talking to them about what they eat there and it just blew my mind that, at that point, and I'm sure its no longer true post 9/11, the Domino's Pizza delivery guy would come right up to the gate at one of the most top-secret, important military installations in the United States. [If] you can get Domino's delivered to the Cheyenne Mountain air station, fast food has really infiltrated every part of American life.
Campus Progress: Tell us a little bit about your new film based on Fast Food Nation and whether you and Morgan Spurlock have a rivalry.
E.S.: Firstly, Morgan Spurlock: He made a totally disgusting film, but a really funny film. There's no rivalry whatsoever. As a matter of fact, we have a standing agreement that I will testify in his behalf when he gets sued by the industry, and he has promised to testify in mine.
The film that's based on Fast Food Nation is totally different from Super Size Me, and I love Super Size Me. This film is a fictional film, it's an independent film made by a wonderful director, Richard Linklater, who did Slacker and Dazed and Confused. It takes the title of my book and some of the themes but pretty much puts aside the book. There's nobody in the book who's literally in the film. The film is about the lives of some intersecting characters in a small town in Colorado, a lot of the film is in Spanish, some of the crucial characters are illegal immigrants, and in some ways it's an updating of [Upton Sinclair's] The Jungle on the hundredth anniversary of the publishing of that book.
Campus Progress: Why did you write your new book, Chew on This?
E.S.: Chew on This is aimed at kids, and it's aimed at the people who the fast food industry is heavily targeting with its mass marketing. When I finished Fast Food Nation and the manuscript was all done, I hired a fact-checker from The New Yorker, Charles Wilson, and his job was to make sure that every fact was right.... He came to me with the idea of doing a children's book based on Fast Food Nation, arguing that these kids are being targeted by the fast food industry, they need the same sort of information in Fast Food Nation, and they need an alternate view of the world than the one they're getting from all these ads. So it sounded like a good idea, and I recruited him to help me with it.
Campus Progress: What do you think of the recent announcement of several major soda companies, including Coke and Pepsi, to stop selling their products in elementary and high schools come this fall, and why they might be motivated to do that?
I'd like to think that they were motivated solely by concern for the health of American children. But, whatever their motivations are, I think it's a good thing. The deal was brokered by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, and the current governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee, a conservative Republican. I think it's a terrific step because it shows bipartisan support for ensuring that kids are eating healthy food in schools. I don't think it's an ideal agreement; it's going to be phased in over a number of years [and] it's a voluntary agreement. But to me it's a sign of the times, a sign that attitudes are really changing and there's a real feeling growing that we can't afford to have these companies marketing unhealthy food to kids in schools. I applaud the move by the soda companies to make voluntary changes, but I also support moves at the state and federal level to put tough restrictions on what kind of food can be sold in schools.
SNIP
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8. PETA Letter Responds to Jewish Press Editorial
Forwarded message from Bruce Friedrich. PETA Vegan Director
Sent: Friday, July 07, 2006 1:16 PM
[Since a recent JVNA newsletter had a Jewish Press editorial attacking PETA, their response is included below.]
To: 'letters@jewishpress.com'
Subject: Letter to the Editor:
Dear Editor,
Re: “Here we Go,” 7/5/06: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) investigates both kosher and non-kosher slaughterhouses and notifies authorities whenever we witness gross mistreatment of animals and violations of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.
Our most popular vegetarian video by far, titled “Meet Your Meat,” documents exclusively non-kosher plants (see www.Meat.org), and our late-2004 investigation of Agriprocessors was our very first kosher investigation, in our 24 year history. Had Agriprocessors agreed, when we asked them in 2003, to allow Dr. Grandin to come in, we would never have investigated. Mr. Nathan Lewin’s condescending letter (available at www.goveg.com/feat/agriprocessors/) left us no choice but to investigate the whistleblower reports of cruelty in the plant.
We blew the whistle on AgriProcessors, not because of concerns about the principles of shechitah, but because employees were shocking animals in the face with electric prods, ripping out their tracheas while they were still fully conscious, and dumping them in their own blood to die slow and painful deaths – some animals even struggled to their feet in agony over three minutes after they were dismembered. Dr. Temple Grandin, now recognized by Agriprocessors as an authority, called what we found “The worst thing [she] had ever seen,” declaring that AgriProcessors “is doing everything wrong they can do wrong.”
It is a black eye for kosher certification that the Orthodox Union continues to declare that the kosher status at AgriProcessors was never in question. As long as that remains the OU’s stance, the kosher public will not be able to feel secure that the OU hechsher has anything at all to do with the strong Jewish tradition of kindness toward G-d’s other animals.
Jewish law mandates that animals should be treated with compassion and respect. It is this principle that we need to defend, not those companies who so cruelly abuse animals.
Sincerely,
Bruce G. Friedrich
Vice President for International Grassroots Campaigns
PETA
501 Front St.
Norfolk, VA 23510
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9. JVNA Member Publishes Book On Benefits and Uses of Nuts
JVNA member Zel Allen has published a book that covers all aspects of nuts: “The Nut Gourmet: Nourishing Nuts for Every Occasion. The book how nuts can be an essential part of a balanced diet. It shows how nuts can be used as the focal point in a variety of dishes and it provides 150 “tasty, gourmet, plant-based recipes.” The book also provides extensive information about the health benefits of nuts.
The book is endorsed by several leading vegetarian health professionals, including Neal Barnard, M.D., President of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,” William Harris, author of :The Scientific Basis of Vegetarianism,” and Jay Gordon, M.D., author of “Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow.” Brenda Davis, R.D., author of “Becoming Vegetarian,: states: “The book is a treasure. It is beautifully written, comprehensive and entertaining. It provides accurate, detailed information about the value of nuts in the diet, numerous practical tips, charts and tables, and dozens of mouth-watering recipes. It is a delightful cookbook and a tremendous nutrition resource.”
I have had the pleasure of working with Zel and her husband Reuben for many years and I strongly commend Zel for this important contribution. I hope the book is very successful. The book can be ordered on the internet through “Vegetarians in Paradise,” an internet magazine that Zel and Reuben have edited for over 7 years
(www.vegparadise.com), or through Amazon and other online book vendors.
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