Worcester VegFest is Sunday, April 15, 2012 at Worcester Tech High from 11am-5pm. Check out WorcesterVegFest.com for more info. RSVP to the facebook event.

Jasmin Singer and Mariann Sullivan will be speaking at the 3rd Annual Worcester VegFest!  Our Hen House, named the 2011 Indie Media Powerhouse by VegNews Magazine, produces multimedia resources that you can use in order to find your own way to change the world for animals.

Our Hen House’s mission is to “effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals.”  Our Hen House produces resources that you can use in order to find your own way to create change for animals.  Using video, audio, interviews, reviews, and the written word, it provides daily updates on what you need to create change.

More about Our Hen House…

In order to address the cruelty of animal food production, as well as other forms of animal exploitation, a mass movement is needed that reaches into the homes and working lives of vast numbers of individuals.

Currently, the work of animal advocacy organizations deals primarily with educating people about the conditions within which animals exist, encouraging followers to make individual dietary and other lifestyle changes, and providing opportunities for involvement, primarily for top-down organizational campaigns based in legislative proposals and policy initiatives.

Our Hen House builds on the work being done by those advocacy groups to truly catalyze a mass movement in which individuals do not merely follow the leadership of animal advocacy organizations, but also take personal responsibility for leading the way to a new world in which the exploitation of animals is recognized as no longer necessary for human progress and must come to an end.

With our primary goal being to effectively mainstream the movement to end the exploitation of animals, we showcase opportunities for individuals who care to start changing the world.

Our Hen House has a daily blog, weekly podcast, a video page and more. Check it out at http://www.ourhenhouse.org

Worcester VegFest – April 15, 11am-5pm, at Worcester Tech High

Don’t miss Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan of Our Hen House at the Worcester VegFest on April 15 at Worcester Tech High. 11am-5pm. Jasmin Singer & Mariann Sullivan will join Kathy Freston, T. Colin Campbell and Nathan Runkle, all speaking at the event! This is going to be amazing!

RSVP to Worcester VegFest 2012 on Facebook!

From “Does meat kill more Americans than cigarettes do?” on Alternet by Kathy Freston:

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product consumption.

Photo Credit: Alaettin YILDIRIM via Shutterstock

For many years, tobacco companies were able to maintain a strong pro-tobacco façade. Smoking focuses the mind. It’s good for you (doctors smoke!). It’s great for weight loss. It’s sexy. It’s cool. The tobacco industry spent big bucks to keep these ideas in the mind of the public for as long as it could.

And for many years after the lethal effects were universally known and undeniable, some of our nation’s smartest and most successful businessmen continued to believe, because it was in their interest to believe, that “nicotine is not addictive.” (Watch the seven most powerful tobacco executives of 1994 make exactly that statement, under oath, to Congress — not even two decades ago.)

I was reminded of how far tobacco has fallen reading the New York Times magazine interview with perhaps the most successful screenplay writer in history, Joe Eszterhas, who has lost 80 percent of his larynx to tobacco, and has apologized for his glamorization of smoking in such films as  Basic Instinct.

When I think about the effect of animal products on human health, I’m reminded of how quickly we’ve done a national about face on tobacco, and I look forward to the day when the Times magazine has a similar apology from someone who promoted animal products — because the evidence is in and it continues to grow: Animal products kill a lot more Americans than tobacco does.

The West’s three biggest killers — heart disease, cancer, and stroke — are linked to excessive animal product consumption, and vegetarians have much lower risks of all three. Vegetarians also have afraction of the obesity and diabetes rates of the general population — of course, both diseases are at epidemic levels and are only getting worse.

But much more important than the vegetarian community’s general statistics are…

Read the rest of this story…

Join us at the Worcester VegFest on April 15 to hear Kathy Freston speak in person. Copies of her new book, The Lean, will be available for sale. Book signing to follow. RSVP on facebook.

From InCity Times article, Are Speciesists Stupid?

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but racists are dumb. That’s not just my opinion. It’s the conclusion of a provocative new study published in the journal Psychological Science. Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario, and his colleagues found that children with low intelligence are more likely to grow up to be racist adults. A previous study examining homophobia showed that people who are less adept at abstract reasoning are more likely to be prejudiced against gays.

All of this got me thinking: Does the link between brains and bias apply to how we view animals too? Are “speciesists”—people who believe that humans are superior to other animals—just not all that bright?

“There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others,” explains Hodson. In other words, the less intelligent you are, the harder it may be for you to put yourself in another’s shoes—and the more likely you are to hold prejudiced beliefs about other groups.

If someone is unmoved by the plight of elephants shackled, beaten and forced to perform in circuses or of animals poisoned and blinded in laboratories, perhaps they similarly lack the ability to consider the animals’ point of view.

The anecdotal evidence linking intelligence and empathy for animals is certainly intriguing. Some of the world’s greatest minds from throughout history—including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mohandas Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy—have been vegetarian.

Albert Einstein, whose diet was primarily plant-based, said, “Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”

A few years ago, the BBC reported on a study that linked a high IQ with being vegetarian. More than 8,000 children in the U.K….

read the rest of the article…

You can pick up a print copy at lots of places around town. I picked up my copy at Bagel Time on Park Ave, after I got a toasted chocolate chip bagel with tofutti.

From ecorazzi:

Last summer the author of the book, Jonathan Safran Foer, revealed Portman “is going to make a movie of it.”

“She wants to make a very personal documentary,” the author explained in an interview with the French site Chap. “She contacted me, she told me that she loved the book. I know her now. I will help her eventually but it will be her vision. She’s only at the very beginning.”

read more

Thanks for the heads up, Duck! Story via Ecorazzi

I don’t know how this slipped by me, but the Telegram & Gazette recently ran this AP story about celebrities taking veganism to a more mainstream audience. The story’s called, “The New Face of Veganism”. Isn’t veganism already mainstream?

Veganism is already mainstream

The Washington Post even proclaimed this back in July 2011. It’s no surprise either. Books like Tal Ronnen’s cookbook, The Conscious Cook, was a top seller on Amazon.com and Jonathan Safron Foer’s book, Eating Animals, made a huge splash. Mercy for Animals’ recent investigation into the egg industry got headlines and Ebert gave Forks Over Knives a solid review. For god’s sake, Bill Clinton even went vegan. Why are people talking about veganism now? Because it’s relevant. We’re facing a global ecological crisis that was largely caused by animal agriculture and the US has an obesity epidemic which is correlated to a diet high in animal products and low in plant-based foods. Everyone knows that factory farms are bad for animals, but now people are also starting to realize that eating animals is bad for us too.

Anyway, veganism is now mainstream and it’s not going anywhere. Check out this AP article that the Telegram & Gazette published last week.

From “The new face of veganism” on Telegram.com:

NEW YORK —  Walk into Pure Food and Wine on Manhattan’s chic Irving Place and back into its spacious, luxurious garden, and you might spot actress Katie Holmes. Or Alec Baldwin and his new girlfriend, whom he met at the restaurant.

Or football player Tom Brady. Or radio host Howard Stern. Or Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, who’ve made a number of visits together, enjoying the sweet corn and cashew tamales with portabella or a mint sundae for dessert. Or any number of Wall Street moguls.

It could be any trendy New York eatery, but Pure serves only vegan and raw food, with nary an egg nor an oven in sight. Its upscale clientele is a mix of vegans, vegetarians and just plain foodies, but clearly a sign of how the image of veganism has changed in recent years.

Call them the big-time vegans: The celebrity standard-bearers for a vegan lifestyle aren’t just wispy young actresses. They include talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, along with wife Portia de Rossi. (Or Oprah Winfrey, who isn’t vegan but led her staff on a public 21-day vegan cleanse.) Or men like Ozzy Osbourne and Russell Brand, who in recent weeks both declared themselves vegans. Athletes like Carl Lewis and Mike Tyson. Even NFL player Tony Gonzalez, tight end for the Atlanta Falcons and 245-plus pounds — attributes his longevity to a largely vegan diet.

…

The question is, of course, how much those changes have influenced ordinary Americans. “All the exposure is absolutely having an influence,” says advocate Joseph Connelly, editor and publisher of VegNews. “People can pronounce the word ‘vegan’ now! Five, 10 years ago they couldn’t. It’s nothing but positive.”

…Read the rest of the story

About a year ago, Bill Clinton went on Wolf Blizter’s show and talked about switching to a plant-based diet. He seemed to avoid the word “vegan”. Back then he described his new diet as plant-based, but that he would very rarely eat fish. Apparently now he has fully made the switch to veganism. He made an appearance on CNN and talked about his new diet (video).

From CNN video:

Clinton: You know, I like the stuff I eat. I like the vegetables, the fruits, the beans…

Do you call yourself a vegan now?

Clinton: Well I suppose that I am if i don’t eat dairy or meat or fish.

From Meatless Mondays Catch On, Even With Carnivores the NYT:

“It’s very interesting, but for some reason when people come to Aspen, they want to eat meat,” said Mimi Lenk, a vegetarian for more than a decade and the manager of Syzygy, a downtown restaurant where elk, bison and lamb are the big sellers.

A new nationwide pro-veggie effort, however — aimed at persuading people to go meatless at least one day a week — has been embraced here more than in any other city in America. At least 20 institutions and restaurants, including Syzygy, are offering vegetarian choices on Mondays under a plan announced this month.

“Nobody is saying, ‘go become a vegetarian,’ ” said Martin Oswald, a restaurateur who led the effort in signing up Meatless Monday participants among his food-industry friends. Mr. Oswald said he thought the dynamic that made Aspen such a prime place to expand Meatless Monday was not philosophy or health, but rather the cutthroat economics of the restaurant business — keeping up with the Joneses for fear of being left out.

“The key was to get enough restaurants involved, then I could say: ‘Well, that guy does it and that guy over there and this guy does it over here. Do you want to do it, too?’ ” he said, sitting across the table at one of his restaurants, Pyramid Bistro. That approach, with its hard-to-say-no overtones, worked well. “So far, nobody has actually refused,” he said.

Read the full article.

Link via Paul Shapiro on twitter.

Forks Over Knives is a new film that looks at the root causes of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease in the United States. The take-away message from the film is: dump dairy, ditch meat, and go vegan. This is the same nutrition-science that convinced Bill Clinton to adopt a plant-based diet.

The film seems to have made an impact on Robert Ebert too. He gave the film a solid review, but more importantly he gave veganism the strongest endorsement you could imagine. He said, “What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period.” With films like this one, it’s no surprise that veganism is becoming so mainstream.

Here is a film that could save your life. So you’d better stop reading now, because you don’t want to go to the trouble. You are addicted to fat, salt, sugar and corn syrup. Your body has established a narcotic-like dependence on them, and you’re comfortable with that, just like smokers know why they keep on smoking. If you have to die 10 or 25 years sooner than necessary to smoke, if you need Viagra because your vascular system is compromised, or if you’re overweight, you can live with that.

Hey, I’m not going all holier-than-thou on you. Think how fat I was for years. I knew the solution, I was weak and lazy. Over 12 years I was eventually able to lose about 70 pounds with a proper diet, but my current weight and superb physical condition can be attributed to my illness. I am unable to eat or drink anything, and my (therefore) perfect diet of canned nutrition has given me an ideal weight and incredibly good blood numbers. I don’t recommend that you get sick to get well, however.

What every human being should do is eat a vegetarian diet based on whole foods. Period. That’s it. Animal protein is bad for you. Dairy is bad for you. Forget the ads: Milk and eggs are bad for you. Skim milk is no better, because it contains proportionately more animal protein. What you’re trying to avoid is dietary cholesterol. You also need to cut way down on salt and sugar, and run like hell from high fructose corn syrup.
read the rest of Ebert’s review

See the film
The Kendall Square Cinema in Cambridge is showing the film now. As far as I know, there are no other theaters in Mass that are showing Forks Over Knives. VegWorcester will certainly do a showing in Worcester as soon as the DVD comes out.

E6 Cattle Co. confines approximately 10,000 calves and subjects them to lives of prolonged neglect and misery. For over two weeks in March of 2011, an MFA undercover investigator documented the operation’s deplorable conditions and brutal mistreatment of animals. Watch the video investigation now.

Here is how Erik Marcus describes the video:

…This video will haunt you…

The first few moments of the video begin with a worker letting out a sadistic laugh, and then swinging a pick axe that bursts open the skull of a dairy calf. I’ve seen every major undercover cruelty video, and this may be the single most upsetting thing I’ve ever witnessed.

How is it that there are only five or ten undercover cruelty investigations produced a year, and yet time after time investigators end up with the most disturbing footage imaginable? It’s because horrendous abuses are endemic throughout animal agribusiness.

Last Friday from 5pm-6pm Charlene had me on her show, The Weekly Shuffle, to discuss Worcester’s upcoming VegFest. Charlene is the founder and an organizer of the Pet Rock festival, an annual animal protection festival. She hosts a weekly show about local music. Pet Rock will also have a table at VegFest next weekend.

Here is the radio program (mp3).

Couldn't help but think about this cartoon when Charlene and I talked about how strange it is to drink milk.

Show Notes

On the show we discuss: how we started VegWorcester, breaking stereotypes about vegans, what to expect at Worcester VegFest, veg-friendly restaurants in Worcester, the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival, and Bruce Friedrich’s talk at VegFest. Then Charlene and Jeff play some music and talk about upcoming concerts in Worcester. When we go back to talking about the VegFest: we discuss vegetable circus, Diet for a New America by John Robbins, how footage from factory farms got me personally started as a vegan, WPI going cage-free, Duck Yao opening on Main Street, Belmont Veg, the health argument for veganism, we spend a few minutes talking about how weird it is for humans to drink milk from another species, how I whole-heartedly support junk food veganism, animal cruelty on egg farms and the undercover investigation at New England’s largest egg farm.

After the show Jeff, Charlene and I went to get falafel next door at Fantastic’s. Jeff told me I pronounce “food” like “fewd” and said I sound like I’m from California. After listening to the recorded show, I believe he is absolutely right.