Search Results for thursday's Working for Change

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Schooled in Food
When I was a kid, the only thing the culture at-large taught most of us about food was: 1) Fast food restaurants, microwaves and TV dinners will make our lives easier. 2) Buying soda was somehow going to help the world “sing in perfect harmony.” 3) As long as breakfast cereals had cute, funny-named characters on the packaging and a prize in the box, they must be good. I was fortu
Jamie Oliver is oliver the place!
Is it just me, or are we all seeing Jamie Oliver all over these days? And I haven’t even seen Jamie’s Food Revolution USAshow on ABC (we don’t have a television that gets channels since we opted to not get a converter when it went digital, so now we just watch DVDs and skip all the network/cable stuff). From everything I’ve read, Oliver, while not at all vegan o
The Sexual Politics of Meat
The 20th anniversary edition of the enlightening, empowering, life-changing book The Sexual Politics of Meat is due out this month. I pre-ordered my copy, and can’t wait to read it — again. Written by feminist and veg activist Carol J. Adams, I first read this book as a college student when a hip, mysterious unusually empowered (compared to the other young women like m
The Meatout Is In
This Saturday, March 20, is the 25th official Meatout day, one of the oldest, largest anti-meat events in the world. The non-profit organization FARM (Farm Animal Rights Movement) sponsors the event, and grassroots gatherings fuel it. It’s not too late to get involved. Find out ideas and register your event here, and help spread Meatout around
Are you dark green or light green?
Listen to an eye-opening (or is it ear-opening?) story on American Public Media’s show Marketplace about what motivates people buy enviornmentally friendly products — it’s not the environment. (The segment is near the end of the show, so if you’re not interested in other business stuff skip those stories).   Along with that little piece of “I do
Top 5 Non-profits Vegans Should Support
These are my top 5 picks for organizations that are making a real impact in the quest for a healthier world for humans, and a happier world for animals: Farm Sanctuary: Based in California and New York, its mission is “to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. We envision a world where the violence that animal agric
Have you been to The Cove?
Have you seen the documentary The Cove? If not, you must. Especially if you in any way are as transfixed by the wild grace, playfulness and intelligence of dolphins as I am. Now that I’m living in the Land of Dolphins, the movie — created in large part by Ric O’Berry, fellow Floridian and iconic Flipper TV show dolphin trainer — has taken on an ev
Vegan Politics
Will politicians (other than vegan Sen. Dennis Kucinich, of course) ever take seriously the political and social reasons for eating a plant-based, meat-free diet? Farm Sanctuary thinks so and it’s asking people like you and me to do some grassroots work to make it happen. Through its Green Foods Resolution Campaign, Farm Sanctuary is working in cities and towns throughout North A
The Life You Can Save
Peter Singer’s book about the ethics of deciding what people in countries who have money should do for those in poverty around the globe is an incredible read. Singer, who is best known as the ethicist who jump-started the animal rights movement, cites studies that show the estimates of “saving one life” of a person in a third-world country from maladies ranging from
Food Inc. Better Late Than Never
So I just saw Food Inc. on DVD this past weekend, and I was somewhat embarrassed at how long it took me, someone who really cares about where my food comes from and how it’s produced, to sit down and watch this extraordinarily important movie. Where was I when it came out in theaters? Even more surprising, however, is how long it’s taken for a movie like this to be created
Experiential Travel
The current (April 2009) issue of Ode magazine features articles on “Experiential Tourism,” meaning traveling beyond all-inclusive resorts, beach fronts and big city attractions, which can make a real, positive impact on communities around the world — and within ourselves. Instead of calling this Experiential Tourism, my term for this mode of travel is “The Only Way To Go
Eat Yummy Food, Cut Cancer Risk
The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine promotes the endless health benefits of an animal product-free diet. PCRM’s Cancer Project Food for Life classes bring those health benefits into people’s lives through cooking seminars held throughout America. If you can find one of these classes in your area, go. You’re sure to be inspired and come home w
Vegan=World Peace
Discovering the reasons why people decide to stop eating animal products fascinates me. In particular, I’m amazed by the religious reasons behind different dietary choices. I dwell upon my memories when as a journalist on assignment I watched a man pray and then cut the throat of a bull for an Islamic holy feast, and upon the ideas in an article I read by a priest who believes that in the
Common Vegan
When I first heard about veganism in the early ’90s (even though the term has been around since the 1940s), it was an exotic, extreme word. Imagine, life without cheese? Why? I didn’t know whether to pronounce it “VEE-gan” or “Veg-an.” Even dictionaries printed in the 1980s define veganism as “an extreme form of vegetarianism.” Veganism is rapidl
Words for Change
This poem by George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) epitomizes why working for change in the way we eat benefits all the living, man and beast. Living Graves  We are the living graves of murdered beastsSlaughtered to satisfy our appetitesWe never pause to wonder at our feastsIf kine, like men, can possibly have rightsWe pray on Sundays that we might have lightTo guide our footste
The Big Election News
Obama’s win wasn’t the only big change that came to America during Tuesday’s election. The first major ballot measure addressing factory farming practices passed in California, after a campaign that brought widespread attention to the severe living conditions of factory farmed chickens, calves and pigs. Known as Proposition 2, this ballot measure requires that calves raised for
Go Geotourism
Vacationing at an all-inclusive resort to focus on sun and sleep may not be tomorrow’s idea of a truly renewing vacation. If geotourism enthusiasts have their way, immersing yourself in a local environment, community and culture while enjoying time away from your everyday life may be the preferred travel experience of the future. The recent Geotourism Challenge contest highlights top geot
Endless Ways to Make Change Happen
My 75-year-old dad and I were walking through a park last weekend when I stopped to point out a stalk of milkweed pods breaking open. As I held onto one of these fascinating pods, which I hadn’t done since childhood, he proceeded to tell me this even more fascinating story: During his childhood circa World War II, he and other grade school children were instructed to bring paper bags with th
We Are What We Eat
What might you be eating for dinner tonight if you lived in France, Mexico or Chad? The amazing book What the World Eat by Faith D’Aluisio and photographer Peter Menzel lists, describes and shows in photos the weekly diets of families in more than 20 countries. It also touches on global health and food issues in sections between each family’s photos and stories. But the photo
What Do You Think of Factory Farms?
Today is World Farm Animals’ Day, which makes me ponder how far we’ve moved away from the time when Native American hunters would give thanks to the spirit of the buffalo which gave up its life for their food and shelter. These days, simply thinking for one day about the animals from which animal-based foods come from seems like a radical idea. I grew up in a farming communi
Common Sense is a Rare Find
I wrote about the movie Hoot yesterday, and what a big part of life this movie has been for my own personal set of Save The Environment kids. The fact that just one movie can impact three kids so deeply shows what an impact media has on children, for better … or worse.That’s why I love CommonSenseMedia.org. This non-profit, non-partisan organization provides reviews based on
Island Farm Paradise
Every Thursday, I’m highlighting a force of change: A person I’ve had the great fortune to meet who is making some remarkable change for the better in their corner of the world. An organization that makes me happy just to know it is out there working for change. Or a book or quotation that worked to change my life.This week, it’s the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute. The