Enewsletter
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Enewsletter • April 18, 2007 | ||
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Notes from Vegan OutreachNew Languages Available On-Line!A French language version of Why Vegan is now on-line (pdf). Many thanks to Jean-Philippe Rioux for translation, Lauren Panos for design, and Stephane Groleau for editing. Our friends at Agire Ora edizioni have created a new Italian booklet; you can see a pdf here, and, if in Italy, order print copies here. All language versions currently available as pdfs can be seen here; print versions of Vegan Outreach's English-language booklets and Por que vegetariano can be ordered here.
Matching Campaign ContinuesSo far, Vegan Outreach has raised $7,878.89 towards April's $20,000 matching donation challenge. Please help Vegan Outreach receive more of this challenge. All one-time donations marked "Matching" will be doubled. The initial amount of a new quarterly recurring donation will be tripled (i.e. a new $50 quarterly donation will be matched with $100), and the initial amount of a new monthly recurring donation will be quadrupled!
Checks may be mailed to: Vegan Outreach All donations must be marked "Matching" and dated in April to qualify. Thanks! At right, Andy Pollens leaflets at the University of Michigan; photo by Jon Camp.
Product of the WeekBruce says he and his wife use their Vitamix every day: With one smoothie, each of us get our 5 fruit servings and plenty of Omega 3s [with added flax seeds and/or walnuts] for the day. Send your nominees for Product of the Week to product (at) veganoutreach (dot) org; previous products can be found here.
Notes from All Over"Arsenic in Chicken Production"excerpt: "[S]ome of the 2.2 million lb of roxarsone mixed in the nation's chicken feed each year converts into inorganic arsenic within the bird, and the rest is transformed into inorganic forms after the bird excretes it. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, long-term exposure to inorganic arsenic can cause bladder, lung, skin, kidney, and colon cancer, as well as deleterious immunological, neurological, and endocrine effects. Low-level exposures can lead to partial paralysis and diabetes. 'None of this was known in the 1950s when arsenicals were first approved for use in poultry,' says Ellen K. Silbergeld, a toxicologist at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. ... Even though the drinking water standard for arsenic has been strengthened, the standards for arsenic residues in poultry-2,000 ppb for liver and 500 ppb for muscle-have remained unchanged for decades. ... Chicken manure introduces huge quantities of arsenic to agricultural fields. "
Reform News"Cargill Phasing Out Crates for Sows." Houston Chronicle uses recent agreements to highlight conditions on standard farms: "Consider the 9 billion chickens Americans eat every year. Almost all the fowl pass their lives in filthy, windowless sheds, brightly lit day and night to prompt constant eating. Hens are jammed into wire cages so crowded they cannot turn or stretch. To keep the stressed birds from pecking each other to death, the ends of their nerve-filled beaks are sawed off. Starving, for up to two weeks, stimulates the birds' egg output. Pigs have it worse...." Agribusiness journal Feedstuffs recently (April 2) editorialized: "Very recent developments would suggest that producers are now losing. If producers are losing, others are also losing -- everyone who has a stake in dairy, meat and poultry production... [I]t's not about animal welfare. It's not about cages and stalls... It's about raising animals for food, and the activists' agenda is to end the practice. It will take decades, but they are the ones who are winning -- piece by piece by piece."
Feedback from Our MembersYou have opened my
eyes, and I'm really
trying to go vegan. It is difficult
when you are 12 and your parents
aren't vegan. Here is a letter from a 12-year-old vegan; and a page of vegan kids.
At right, a student studies an Even If at Syracuse U; photo by Amber Coon.
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At
Cal State Chico today,
I distributed 1,200 Even If
booklets. This school is very "Ag"
compared to most of the schools
near where I live -- lots of camo
baseball caps. At times, I encountered
very high turn-down rate. After
the 2pm class change the reception
rate had really slowed ("I've
already got one") and was thinking
it about time to pack it in when
a guy approached, leaflet in hand:
"I turned you down the first
two times you offered because I
eat meat everyday. But the third
time I figured, 'What the heck'
when I heard you mention 'Factory
Farming.' Then I read the bottom
about cutting consumption in half
and this really seems like something
I can do."