Vegetarian Star

Miyun Park and Moby

Together at last!

Well, not really, but the editors of Gristle, Moby and Miyun Park answered a few short questions via email and their publicist to Washington City Paper.

While many previous interviews in the media have been made with only Moby, Miyun offers an additional perspective, one that hints her goal is to get everyone thinking about factory farming but not necessarily going vegetarian.

Take for example, the creatively worded question of “Gustatory preferences aside, is there any good reason for wealthy urbanites in industrialized nations to eat meat?”

Moby’s Answer:
Objectively, I cannot think of a good reason to eat meat — wealthy urbanite or not. It is an inefficient use of resources and more often than not, it leads to obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Miyun’s Answer:
There is certainly no reason for anyone to support industrialized animal production and there is no reason for farmers themselves to support these intrusive systems. I encourage everyone to make informed choices at every meal.

Similarly, while Miyun applauds the work of Temple Grandin for easing the stress of slaughter animals, Moby considers the question “tricky” because although less suffering is desirable, a world where animals aren’t used for food period is his ultimate dream.

Read more at Washington City Paper.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills

Emily Barclay would like you to know a few things about the animals that you eat the next time you sit down at the dinner table.

“I’m not against people who eat meat but I’d like them to know what happens in a factory farm where highly intelligent animals like pigs live horrific lives,” Barclay told Confidential.

Rolling Stone featured an article several years ago describing the conditions pigs lived at a Smithfield Foods farm, a leading producing of pork.

“Smithfield’s pigs live by the hundreds or thousands in warehouse-like barns, in rows of wall-to-wall pens. Sows are artificially inseminated and fed and delivered of their piglets in cages so small they cannot turn around. Forty fully grown 250-pound male hogs often occupy a pen the size of a tiny apartment. They trample each other to death. There is no sunlight, straw, fresh air or earth.”

“Taken together, the immobility, poisonous air and terror of confinement badly damage the pigs’ immune systems. They become susceptible to infection, and in such dense quarters microbes or parasites or fungi, once established in one pig, will rush spritelike through the whole population. Accordingly, factory pigs are infused with a huge range of antibiotics and vaccines, and are doused with insecticides. Without these compounds — oxytetracycline, draxxin, ceftiofur, tiamulin — diseases would likely kill them. Thus factory-farm pigs remain in a state of dying until they’re slaughtered.”

Is this a place where you would send your 3-year old to day care?

According to GoVeg,  pigs have the intelligence level beyond a child of the same age and are the smartest animals outside of primates.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• Jaimie King Creates Vegan-Friendly Makeup Alchemy From ColourPop
• SeaWorld Phasing Out Whale Breeding Program
• Pamela Anderson Launches Vegan Shoes

Credit David Shankbone on Wikimedia Commons

Jonathan Safran Foer did extensive research before writing his latest book, Eating Animals, which included visits to farms where animals were reared for food.

Not every farm welcomed Foer with open arms and Foer indicated to Lateline that finding out how meat gets from the farm to the plate isn’t as easy as learning the source of other foods, like produce.

“If you wanted to know where your orange juice comes from, you could probably write a letter to the manufacturer and get a tour of the orchard.”

“If you wanted to know where your bread is made, the baker will almost certainly let you behind the counter and show you the ingredients and the machines.”

And although Foer says attempting to know where meat comes from might be difficult, he encourages people to investigate this as well.

“But if you want to know where meat come from you are totally out of luck and I would encourage all viewers of this – go to your refrigerator, open it up, find a brand name and give the company a call.”

Might the final answer in the evolution of meat turn every amateur investigator vegetarian?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills
• Controversy Over Pro-Vegeterian Curriculum In Schools
• Ellie Goulding Creates Protein Bar “Everlasting Joy” With GoMacro

Jonathan Safran Foer spoke with Ellen DeGenres on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he created the scenario of whether or not people agree it’s okay to eat meat.

Foer said that while most people say yes, the answer may change when you consider the consequences of modern day factory farming like reduced antibiotic efficiency, environmental damage and pregnant animals living unnatural lives confined in cages.

“Nobody wants that,” Foer said. “I don’t care how much or how little you care about animals.”

Watch the clip for more.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills

Stephen Colbert recently hosted Jonathan Safran Foer on The Colbert Report to discuss his latest book, Eating Animals.

Foer discussed the realities of how factory farms and the mass production of meat affects animals, giving the example that turkeys today don’t get it on.

“The Thanksgiving turkey isn’t even capable of sexually reproducing anymore,” Foer said.

When Colbert asked how turkeys multiply, Foer first joked that they are stimulated by porn.

Stimulated by PETA anti-fur ads featuring naked women, no doubt.

“They’re all artificially inseminated,” Foer claimed.

Not resisting the chance to offend, Colbert placed a plate of bacon in front of Foer, which Foer, keeping in theme with animal reproduction, labeled as merely, “flaccid.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills

Lisa Ling has been reporting on animal welfare issues for years.

In 2008, she worked as a correspondent for Oprah to uncover the story of mistreatment in a Pennsylvania puppy mill.

Although she’s not a vegetarian (yet), her investigative work conducted while visiting factory farms and free range farms has made her think more about the food that does arrive on her plate.

A few highlights from her interview with TailsInc.:

You also exposed the reality of factory farming on Oprah. Has it affected you and the way you eat meat in your own life?

“It absolutely has. These animals we consume never even get to mate. They never for their entire lives come out of these factory-like conditions, and it’s horrifying. I can’t even imagine what is going into them and then what’s going into us. Has it made me stop [eating meat]? No, but I’m just more conscious about it.”

Did the animals seem happier on the free-range farm?

“Absolutely. They’re still animals we would consume, but at least for their short lives they are able to actually just live. The man who had the grass-fed chickens said, “I believe that people should feel OK about consuming animals, but we just don’t want to torture them.” I just found that really interesting because he was really religious. And there are certainly people who say we shouldn’t kill anything. During Jesus’ time they were consuming animals, but they weren’t torturing the animals. They weren’t injecting the animals and pumping the animals with who knows what foreign substances.”

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• SeaWorld Phasing Out Whale Breeding Program
• Best Vegetarian Stories Of 2015
• Morrissey Adds Vegan Touch To First In-Person Interview In Decade On “Larry King Now” (Video)

Author Kathy Freston interviewed Dr. Michael Greger of the Humane Society of the United States to get his thoughts on the possible connection between recent outbreaks of the flu virus and factory farmed meat.

According to Dr. Greger, the first hybrid mutant strain of swine flu was found in a factory farm in North Carolina, where hundreds of pregnant sows were crammed together in crates.

Dr. Greger believes these conditions provide the environment necessary for viruses to emerge.

But does touching or eating meat actually increase your risk of contracting the virus?

“There are certainly lots of viruses people can pick up from handling fresh meat… There have been a number of cases of human influenza linked to the consumption of poultry products, but it’s not clear whether swine flu viruses get into the meat. Regardless, the primary risk is not in the meat, but how meat is produced. Once a new disease is spawned from factory farm conditions it may be able spread person to person, and at that point animals–live or dead–may be out of the picture.”

But in the end, it probably pays to go veg anyway.

“We’ve known for 20 years that the immune function of those eating vegetarian may be superior to those eating meat. First published in 1989, researchers at the German Cancer Research Center found that although vegetarians had the same number of disease-fighting white blood cells compared to meat eaters, the immune cells of vegetarians were twice as effective in destroying their targets–not only cancer cells, but virus-infected cells as well. So a more plant-based diet may protect both now and in the future against animal-borne diseases like pandemic influenza.”

Read Dr. Greger’s online book about bird flu at birdflubird.com.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Jon Stewart and Wife Tracey Stewart Adopt Horse
• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey Elephants Retire To Sanctuary
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills

Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

Eating Animals author Jonathan Safran Foer was interviewed by Kerry Trueman of the Huffington Post recently.

Jonathan did extensive research before writing Eating Animals, primarily investigating factory farms and the conditions that animals raised for food endure.

As expected, some farms wouldn’t let Jonathan past the front door.

A few excerpts:

KT: Did you have any real expectation that Tyson–the world’s largest processor and marketer of chicken, beef, and pork, as you note in your book–would agree to give you a tour of any of its farms?

JSF: To be honest, I did, because I know that they have “show farms”. All these companies have show farms. I thought I would at least get a response–you know, “Unfortunately, we won’t be able to show you the farms because of biosecurity, but we’d be happy to give you these brochures.”

The thing that really surprised me was the total lack of a response. I didn’t get anywhere with anybody.

KT: And now, of course, after the fact, the industrial livestock industry’s accusing you of not doing your homework, which is really funny, because when they had the opportunity to throw open the doors–

JSF: –Yeah, so let’s do it! Let’s do the homework now, it’s not too late! Seriously, I would be so happy to revise my book if they showed me something else. But they’re not going to show me anything.

You can at least do your homework on Jonathan by reading the entire interview at Huffingtonpost.com.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Chrissy Teigen Failed Vegan Experiment
• Mia Evans Is A “Masterchef Junior” Vegetarian Star
• Holly Madison Enjoys Vegan Smoothie From M Cafe In Beverly Hills
• Controversy Over Pro-Vegeterian Curriculum In Schools
• Ellie Goulding Creates Protein Bar “Everlasting Joy” With GoMacro