Rethos.com - chickenlady's Global Feed

Cage Free Eggs: Behind the Myth

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:03:34 -0400

From HumaneMyth.org, which was created by award-winning filmmakers James LaVeck and Jenny Stein and launched this week.

Oprah Tries Veganism as a"Cleanse"

Wed, 21 May 2008 17:43:44 -0400

Pictured are Delectable

Vegan Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Baked by Yours Truly

Kathy Freston has a new book, Quantum Wellness, wherein she writes of the importance of "Conscious Eating," which sounds very much like part of Animal Rights Africa (ARA) was launched last month in South Africa, with the One Struggle conference, "ushering in a brand new era of strengthened activism for animals. ARA is committed to the promotion of inclusive justice, showing compassion across species and building a better future through campaigns, research and analysis." Dr. Steve Best was invited to deliver the Keynote, as he has ...

Is "Compassionate Carnivore" an Oxymoron?

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:05:43 -0400

Is Compassionate Carnivore an Oxymoron?

It's become fashionable to call yourself a compassionate carnivore if you aren't going to stop eating animals and their secretions (milk) and menstrual excretions (eggs), but you don't want to appear barbaric and you want people to know that you don't agree with the atrocities committed in the name of factory farming.

I don't personally know anyone in 2008 who thinks factory farming is anything but cruel. But I do know a lot of people--and I read about similar people every...

Animals and Culture, Part Deux

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 14:20:49 -0500

Animals and Culture, Part Deux

Part of our culture is the media that confirms the values we're supposed to have. In most of the United States, when we're young, we play with all manner of furry creatures and stuffed animals, and most of us enjoy that experience and feel a kinship with other creatures. At the same time, our parents and the world around us tell us that our instinct of kinship across-the-board is not acceptable, and they begin to whittle away at any connection we naturally experience with other creatures, with the excepti...

Ally Request - James L Wolcott

Sat, 23 Feb 2008 13:57:21 -0500

Social Change and Food

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 17:08:15 -0500

AN UNPOPULAR VIEW OF SOCIAL CHANGE

Food just might be the most powerful medium of social change, although most people don’t see it that way. In the 20th Century, with the development of concentrated feeding operations (CAFOS, or factory farms) the way human animals thought of nonhuman animals took a bit of a turn. Though we used nonhuman animals for virtually whatever purpose we wanted before then, the Industrial Revolution led to the dominance, control, exploitation, mutilation and slaughter of nonhuman animals as an industry<...

New comment - Nonviolence and Food

Sun, 27 Jan 2008 18:11:57 -0500

Alec, Thanks for your thoughtful reply.

Donâ€™t beat yourself up about backsliding and eating meat. Instead, ask yourself what makes leather, cheese or eggs worth backsliding for?

If indeed you cannot find moral justification for using animals when you donâ€™t need to, and using them involves horrific violence, ask yourself why you would allow your moral code to be sacrificed for a slice of pizza?

On the more practical front, make a shopping plan. For instance, my husbandâ€™s office often gets lunch delivered to them so it is very, very easy for him to ea...

New comment - Nonviolence and Food

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 16:37:23 -0500

Thank you Mary, you teach some important lessons here. As a Dharma student I have renounced killing and yet I struggle to maintain a vegan lifestyle and often (more than is acceptable to me) I cave in to convenience and apathy and let things like cheese and eggs and leather into my life.

You are 100 percent right when you state that in the modern developed world there is no excuse for the continued infliction of violence upon other sentient beings, that being true I am unsettled about my own consumer habits..I even slip and eat meat from time to time.

I don’t wa...

Nonviolence and Food

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:09:49 -0500

AN UNPOPULAR VIEW OF NONVIOLENCE

If I were to ask you to define nonviolence, what would you say? The traditional macro-type answer would have something to do with peaceful resistance to a government. And either you believe in passive resistance or you think that sometimes force of some kind is necessary; sometimes violence is necessary.

Now what about nonviolence on a micro level—on an individual level. What does nonviolence mean in your daily life? More specifically, do you ever think of your eating habits as ha...

Thinking Critically About Animal Rights: What you need to know, What you need to question (Part 4)

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:06:46 -0500

Thinking Critically About Animal Rights:

What you need to know, what you need to question Part 4

As you know if you’ve read Parts 1-3, I’ve left what is perhaps the most controversial item for last: What to do with your charitable dollars. It’s controversial because most groups that are known for being “animal rights groups” are indeed not. Rather, they are animal welfare groups, meaning they campaign for better treatment of the animals we use for food, clothing, etc… However, unless you’re v...

Thinking Critically About Animal Rights: What you need to know, What you need to question (Part 3)

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:26:33 -0500

NOW WHAT? Most people who begin considering why and how we use animals say the same things: *I never thought of it that way! *It seems so all-encompassing and overwhelming! *Weâ€™ll never live in a society where animals arenâ€™t treated heinously! *Abolition will never become a reality! *What can one person possibly do?

Those are all understandable reactions. Fortunately, thereâ€™s plenty that you can do . . .

WHAT YOU CAN DO It may indeed be true that we will never stop using nonhuman animals. How...

Environmental Justice, Environmental Racism and Social Justice

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 02:45:11 -0500

This evening I decided to whittle down my Rethos “Issues of Passion” tags down to just Environmental Justice, Environmental Racism and Social Justice, after it dawned on me that every other one of the passions I used to have listed could, in one way or another, fall under one of those categories. Biodiversity, for example, is an environmental justice issue, as is access to clean water or urban planning. Corporate social responsibility, over fishing and activism could – all issues that I am seriously concerned about – all fit nicely under the Social Justice umbrell...

Alliance Accepted! - Bryan Moats

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:36:18 -0500