Sunday, September 30, 2012

Harvard Advocates a Plant Based Diet

Though Harvard School of Public Health has not taken the leap in advocating a plant based vegan diet, they have very clearly stated that a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and whole grains is the most beneficial to our health. They even acknowledge that milk is not the best source of calcium, and to limit our consumption of it. In place of pushing the consumption on milk, they are advocating drinking water to quench our thirst and hydrate throughout the day.

Harvard School of Public Health has released a "Healthy Eating Plate" which diagrams how much of the above foods should be consumed. This new nutritional guide is leaps and strides more accurate than the Food Pyramid many of us grew up with. Now we just need to get this information out to the nation at large, and people of to make an informed decision about every piece of food they put in their mouths.









Friday, September 28, 2012

Ag-Gag Laws- Keeping Factory Farm Conditions Hidden

http://serbiananimalsvoice.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/ag-gag-1.jpg 
It has been said that if slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. Since they do not, people create these "glass walls" for each other by going into factory farms, filming everyday conditions, and releasing this footage to the public. Nothing exaggerated or extreme, just the every day circumstances in which these animals live ( I use the term "live" lightly).

The release of this information has paved the way for strides to be taken in changing the brutal treatment of these animals. Many people who have seen this footage stop eating animal products altogether, which collectively lessens the demand for this cruelly obtained food. Bills to change this brutality have been pushed to Congress. All as a result of the release of this footage. 

If people do not know what is going on, they do not realize that there is need to change anything. Under the first amendment, everyone deserves to know the truth about what happening in factory farms, in order to make an educated decision on whether or not they want to participate in this system.
Ag-Gag laws are in the process of being passed in states across the country. They have already been passed in five states (Iowa, Utah, North Dakota, Montana and Kansas). These laws make it illegal to release accurate, truthful images from inside of factory farms. This is a violation of the first amendment, so these laws are written in such a way to be legally passed. For example, making it a crime to lie on an application to work in a factory farm. So, if someone says they are not affiliated with an animal activists group on the application, and they really are, they can be incarcerated as a result.
We need more transparency, not less, when it comes to factory farms. We need to look up to see if there are pending Ag-Gag laws in our states; if there are, write to our State Representatives and voice our opposition and why. People are making a lot of money off of this brutal business, and care more about protecting their profit then protecting our rights. Freedom is not a given, we need to actively participate in order to protect it.

-Kelly