When we think about animal abuse and environmental destruction on factory farms, we think about cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, but we often don’t think about fish. However, fish are abused just as awfully as land animals and fishing is destroying our planet just as quickly as factory farms are. Aquacultures (Fish Farms) Aquacultures are …
Aug
02
May
26
Cheese Addiction Rehab Program
It seems that many vegetarians (myself included*) struggle to make the leap to veganism because of one thing: cheese. I’ve found that most vegetarians agree that eggs are as easy to drop as the meat. And non-cheese dairy has plenty of not just adequate, but downright tasty subsitutes (butter, ice cream, yogurt, sour cream, cream …
Apr
22
Why Vegetarian Is The New Prius (Earth Day 2011)
First, allow me to re-iterate some of the facts from my Earth Day 2010 post: The livestock industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire world’s transportation industry combined. Researchers at the University of Chicago found that going vegan is more effective in countering climate change than switching from a standard American car …
Mar
22
World Water Day 2011
International World Water Day was started in 1993 by the United Nations and is held annually on March 22nd “as a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources.” In the US, where we regularly indulge in overabundance, we don’t often worry about conserving water. …
Oct
15
Blog Action Day 2010: Water
Today is Blog Action Day 2010. This annual event, organized by change.org, is held every October 15 to unite the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking a global discussion and driving collective action. This year’s topic is water. Today thousands of bloggers from over 125 …
Aug
19
The Power Of One
This post was inspired by a comment regarding someone who believes going vegan is useless because what difference can one person really make? A man walking on the beach after a storm comes upon a person picking up starfish on the sand and flinging them back into the ocean. The man looks around. Starfish litter the sand …
Aug
11
The Good Life Doesn’t Have to Cost the Planet
I’m still working on getting into a daily rhythm here in Austin. It’s been just over a week since I moved here, so between starting a new job, trying to unpack, and struggling to run in 100 degree heat, you’ll have to bear with me as I slowly ramp back up on the blogging habit. …
Jul
14
Be Careful What You Fish For
Anyone who made it through Biology 101 knows that fish have nerves and brains that sense pain, just like all other animals. Scientists tell us that fish nervous systems closely resemble our own, even including neurotransmitters like endorphins that relieve suffering – of course, the only reason for a nervous system to produce pain killers …
Jul
02
Washington, DC Joins The Meatless Monday Movement!
The City Council of the District of Columbia passed a ceremonial resolution encouraging city residents to “abstain from animal products on Mondays.” Not just meat, but all animal products. Nice. This victory for farmed animals was helped along by the fine people at Compassion Over Killing. And because I like this resolution so much, here …
Jun
30
Frankenfish
The FDA is eerily close to approving genetically modified salmon for human consumption. These “AquAdvantage” fish, as the company that created them calls them, are Atlantic salmon that are genetically altered to contain a growth hormone gene from a Chinook salmon as well as a genetic “on-switch” from the ocean pout, a distant relative of the …
