ISSUES
IN
ETHICAL
EATING
ANIMAL
WELFARE |
General
This certified
humane label gets the vote of the Humane Society of the United States.
A graphic
video by PETA asks consumers to "Meet
Your Meat"
 When
it comes to animal welfare, the new "USDA
Organic" standard is barely any standard at all, says
the Humane Society of the United States.
Some
organic farmers who have been truly following the philosophy of ecologically
sustainable agriculture have given up trying to get certified. They believe
the certification is empty if organic integrity has been compromised. .
. .Talk to the farmers and find out how they grow their crops or raise
their animals. Only through direct dialogue can you be sure of how your
food was grown.
False
Advertising
USDA approves
certifying cooped-up chickens as organic and flouts other standards. |
 In
the U.S., "free farmed," "free range," and other hopeful labels belie very
loosely
defined welfare standards and status quo suffering, argues
Monica Engebretson of the Animal Protection Institute. |
Cattle
Pigs
Why
we must "quit stalling"
The European
Union has banned them, but a lifetime of confinement inside a 2' X 7' metal
cage is still the norm for the sows of North America.
Poultry
Caught
on tape
An undercover
investigation reveals shocking, routine animal abuse at a Maryland poultry
plant that supplies KFC.
Blowing
the whistle on sadism at a slaughterhouse run by the world's largest
poultry producer.
“Free Range,”
“Cage Free,” “Organic”—What’s the Story?
Emagazine
has some answers about "Happy
Eggs."
The egg industry's
"Animal Care Certified" logo is a scam, charges
Compassion Over Killing.
Fish & Seafood
Life
and death of a lobster
PETA devotes
a website to the travails of a creature that's smarter and more sensitive
than you may think.
SOCIAL
WELFARE |
Farmers, labourers, rural communities,
and people living in poverty in both developed and developing nations are
most affected by differing agricultural and dietary practices.
Hunger
Humanity must
adopt a plant-based diet or starve, argues
columnist George Monbiot in a Guardian special report on famine.
We live in
a world of food haves and have nots. While most people in the developed
world can afford to eat more than is good for them, roughly one billion
people - mostly in the developing world - are chronically malnourished.
Five million children starve to death every year, according to the UN Food
and Agriculture Organisation. Can a diet be ethical if a portion of
it isn't shared with the hungry? If you have money to spare, please
spare some for the hungry. You can find charities that feed the hungry
in these directories:
Looksmart
| Yahoo
Farmers and Workers
"American slaughterhouses
are grinding out meat faster than ever - and the production line keeps
moving, even when the workers are maimed by the machinery," according
to this Mother
Jones investigative cover story by Eric Schlosser (Fast Food
Nation).
"The
Shame of Meatpacking": The Nation documents the struggles of
meatpackers to fight for their rights in a brutal, repressive industry.
Fair Trade and
Foul
"Eating
organically is about putting your environment and your health first; eating
Fairtrade is about putting the health and environment of others first."
If it doesn't say "fair trade certified,"
your chocolate may have been grown
by child slave labourers. |
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Counting
Calories of
Kindness
HOW ETHICAL
IS YOUR
DIET?
|
Relax! An ethical diet isn't
code for vegetarianism. "Isms" are optional; compassion is what counts.
It's up to you. The key is to learn how the foods
we eat affect
us, our fellow creatures
(including
other people) and the planet
— and then strive to eat ethically
with those considerations in mind.
Use this page to learn to count
the calories of kindness or cruelty in your diet and balance
it for the benefit of all.
 |
ETHICAL
EATING OPTIONS |
Why "Ethical Eating"?
Ethical
eating, like ethical living, is not about absolutes. It's about doing the
best you're willing and able to do – and nurturing a will to keep doing
better.
The Three Rs of Ethical Eating
Reduce,
refine,
and replace the inhumanely and nonsustainably produced animal foods
in your diet, says the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
in their booklet, "Farms
as Factories."
Vegetarianism
vs. Mindful
Meat Eating
Conscious
Choice magazine polls the pundits and ponders the alternatives.
Bryan Lehrer explores
the moral questions with vegetarian animal liberation philosopher Peter
Singer, ethical omnivore Michael Pollan, and radio listeners.
Fair Food
Slavery, impoverishment,
child labor, and environmental degradation are among the hidden costs of
most fruit, coffee, tea, rice, chocolate and other foods imported from
developing countries. Advocates of fair trade put their stamp of approval
only on sustainably produced foods purchased at fair prices without
worker abuse or exploitation.
Oxfam's
fairly traded food products: UK
and Ireland |Canada
(Bridgehead)
Other
U.S. and Canadian fair traders.
Carnivore Lite
Popular Canadian
scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki urges everyone to
take
at
least a day off meat each week to help save the planet.
In the U.S.,
the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health endorses a national
campaign for "meatless Mondays."
In an extensive
2004 report, the UK-based Compassion in World Farming Trust argues the
case for "THE GLOBAL BENEFITS OF EATING LESS MEAT." (Complete
|
Summary
)
Ethical Omnivorism
Like many other
Americans, I've reconciled myself to the idea that an animal's life has
been sacrificed to bring me a meal of pork or chicken. However, industrial
meat and production - which subject animals to lives of torture - have
escalated the karmic costs beyond reconciliation.
In
a landmark
New
York Times Magazine cover essay, Michael Pollan decries
the modern meat industry and advocates humanely produced meat instead.
Boston
Globe columnist Chet
Raymo reads Pollan and changes his diet.
The world's
bestselling vegan author weighs the pros and cons of grass-fed
beef.
In the UK,
the Food Ethics Council argues for a fair "contract" with the animals
we eat - "a
moral menu."
Undoubtedly,
the lives of many farm animals, and the ways their products are used in
food, could be much better. We believe it is possible to give them a good
life and a humane death as part of a fair contract in which they supply
us with food.
Eatwild.com
makes the case for eating grass-fed instead of feedlot-finished beef and
other ruminants and links to North American suppliers in most states and
provinces.
"Every
organic or free-range animal product sold
means
a factory farmed product is left on the
shelf.
Use your power as a customer to help
drive
the organic market and animal welfare
standards
forward."
-- Compassionate
Consumers' Guide (Compassion in World Farming Trust)
|
Local, local, local
A
Tale of Two Tomatoes
It's not just
better flavour that makes "Local Lucy" a better choice than "Traveling'
Tom."
Vegetarianism
An
illustrated guide to the whys and hows.
"101
Reasons Why I'm a Vegetarian."
Veganism
This
graphic,
informative pamphlet has convinced thousands to "go vegan." This starter
pack shows how.
Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating
- a free PDF download
- covers all the bases, simply and fairly.
Freeganism
There's gold in
them thar dumpsters. With billions of dollars worth of safe. edible food
landing in dumpsters every year, freegans
are determined not to let so much go to waste.
"Flexitarianism"
Somewhere between
100% vegetarian and '"we don't eat as much meat as we used to anymore"
is the flexitarian - a vegetarian who cheats once in a while to make it
easier to follow a mostly vegetarian diet.
Even
after five years, Christy Pugh has no trouble sticking to her vegetarian
regimen.
The
secret to her success? Eating meat.
Fruitarianism
In principle,
fruit, nuts, seeds, grains, and beans all belong in this no-kill (not even
plants), resource-sparing diet. In practice, most ideological fruitarians
focus on raw fruit alone, with controversial results.
...
as a vegan, I believe that much of what we generally eat may not be as
ethically sound as we would like to believe.. on many subtle levels..
To
begin with, much of the cereal food which tends to play such a major role
in the average vegan's diet often causes a considerable amount of destruction.
An ex-fruitarian's
guide to the pros and cons.
|
|
ISSUES
IN
ETHICAL
EATING
HUMAN HEALTH |
Feeding healthy
food to yourself and your loved ones is one of the foundations of an ethical
diet. Learn more about what's good for you and what's not.
Why
organic is healthier
Fruits and
Vegetables
Eat
nine servings a day, not five, suggests the Harvard School of Public Health.
Grains and Beans
Bean Power
'...
it looks as if a cup of dark-colored beans has the same amount of antioxidants
as a glass of red wine.'
Soy worries
Although many
studies suggest soy
has important preventative health and medicinal benefits, some research
suggests too
much soy may be unhealthy for some people.
Nuts and Seeds
A major source
of protein and good fat, study after study says nuts
cut heart disease. Even the
lowly peanut rivals fruits and vegetables in antioxidant content -
prevention for heart disease and cancer.
MEAT (general)
"Is America's
Meat Fit to Eat?" asks the Government Accountability Project (GAP)
and Public Citizen in a 2000
survey of USDA meat inspectors.
“Plant managers
say the rule is—there are no rules! We [plant managers] write our own regulations.”
"Hamburger
Hell": a 2002 GAP/Public Citizen investigation finds widespread
salmonella poisoning in "inspected" beef.
Whether
due to systematic incompetence or bad faith, USDA’s “don’t look, don’t
find” policy means it is fundamentally deceiving the public with false
reassurances.
October, 2002:
Consumer advocacy groups accuse
USDA of replacing inspection with irradiation:
[USDA]
officials would rather promote irradiation and have consumers eating sterilized
filth than stand up to meat companies and stop the line when there is a
problem.
See also New
York Times report.
Dairy
Does milk do a body good, or suck?
This
report tries to "separate the curds of confoundment from the sweet
whey of truth."
Eggs
Eggs
are nutritious and probably safe in moderation (about three a week) for
most people, experts now say.
You
can live - and cook - without eggs, says the Physicians Committee
for Responsible Medicine.
Fish and Seafood
Research suggests mercury contamination
cancels out the heart-friendly effects of the omega-3s in fish and
that plant-based omega-3s are a healthier choice, argues
Stephen Walsh, Ph.D. (Note: technical.)
Poultry
Coming!
Beef
Women who replace carbs with beef up
heart disease risk,
a
Mayo Clinic study finds.
PBS's "Frontline"
examines
the food safety crisis in today's beef industry.
Other Foods
Coming!
PLANET
WELFARE |
Eating less
meat battles global warming as well as better gas mileage, according
to University of Chicago scientists.
The agribusiness corporations that
put most meat, eggs, and dairy on American tables have a "rap sheet"
of environmental offenses a mile long, reports
the Sierra Club in a 2+-year study.
FAITH &
RELIGION |
The ethics of eating are an important
concern within all religious and spiritual traditions.
Multifaith
The
Society of Ethical and Religious Vegetarians makes the case that religious
and spiritual traditions support "plant-based, nonviolent nutrition."
AllCreatures.org
offers a trove of information, illustration, and persuasion for an animal-friendly
diet from a Judaeo-Christian point of view.
The International Vegetarian Union
has scores of links on vegetarianism
and religion, categorized by faith.
Buddhism
All things Buddhist
and vegetarian at veggiedharma.com.
Christianity
"What
Would Jesus Eat Today?" asks the Christian Vegetarian Association.
"Eating is a moral act," says the
National Catholic Rural Life Conference in their campaign on "The
Ethics of Eating."
"Christians, who should extend compassion
to all animals, all too often ignore those which suffer most – the billions
crowded in misery in barren factory farms."
Islam
Modern meat - even if halal -
and Islam are ethically incompatible, says Islamic
Concern:
Neither the
kindness to animals taught by the Prophet (pbuh) nor the special place
of animals as described in the Qur’an is reflected in modern methods of
raising animals for food.
Judaism
Several chief rabbis, including Rabbi
Shlomo Goren, the late Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Israel, and Rabbi Shear
Yashuv Cohen, Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Haifa, have been or are strict
vegetarians.
Using the Old Testament and the Talmud
as his guide, Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. argues that, for Jews, vegetarianism
is
a spiritual
imperative.
Everything
you ever wanted to know about Judaism and vegetarianism: a collection
of articles by Richard Schwartz, Ph.D. and others.
|
