TRADITION VS MINDFULNESS

Tradition vs Mindfulness

So much of what we do is done by tradition, without any thought as to why we do it. Yet, most of our traditions aren’t really traditions. They started out as really good advertising campaigns. The tradition of diamond engagement rings started in 1938 from an advertising campaign created by DeBeers diamonds.  Our traditional Santa started as an advertising campaign for Coca-Cola in 1931. We think vitamin C cures colds and that orange juice is nutritious (even though it is mostly sugar) from advertising.

 Killing and eating turkeys for Thanksgiving started in the 1860’s from promotions by the turkey industry. People ate them only at Christmas because they were cheap and could feed a lot of people. Wealthy people considered turkey “peasant food”.  Commercial beef wasn’t eaten by people until the late 19^th century.

 Our Christmas celebration, started from Pagans celebrating the Winter Solstice. Historians state Jesus was born during the summer months, not winter. Christian churches could not stop Christians from celebrating this Pagan holiday, so they made it Jesus’s birthday. Decorating our houses with lights started in the mid-20th century again from advertising campaigns.  We have been programmed by advertisers just to do these “traditions” without any thought as to why we are doing them.

We continue to think dairy products build strong bones, even though study after study has shown people who consume dairy products are at a higher risk for bone fractures. We continue to think we need to eat meat for protein, even though study after study has shown meat eaters have a much higher risk for heart disease, diabetes and cancer, and that plant proteins are much easier for the body to process. We have been taught to ignore the suffering of animals and kill billions of them every year without regard.

Slavery was traditional. Stoning people was traditional and in some countries, still is. Spanking children with belts use to be the traditional way to punish bad behavior. It took many years of public outcry to get these traditions out of the mainstream.

As we mature and leave home to become our own person, we must examine our “traditions” and find out why we do them. Traditions that do not sit well with our souls must be dropped.  We cannot use “It’s tradition” or “We’ve always done that “, as excuses for bad behavior.  We must consider if others suffer from our traditions.

Mindfulness is being aware—aware of what you are doing and how it affects others. It is taking responsibility for your actions and your choices. Being aware means researching what you are doing and what the consequences are. It means making necessary changes.  It is taking control of your life back from corporations and their propaganda. It puts you in the driver’s seat.

 When you are mindful of what you eat, you are fully aware of the suffering and torture on your plate.  It is as if you tortured and slit the throat of the innocent animal yourself.  You are aware of the planet destruction your food choices cause.  You soon will find the taste of death unpalatable.

Being mindful, you are aware of the freshness of fruit and vegetables and the vibrate taste of life that comes with every bite. It is the most wonderful feeling to eat healthy and know that nothing suffered or died. It feels great to know that you are bringing peace to our planet as well as ending planet destruction.  Thinking for yourself is the feeling of true freedom. 

FERRET MILLS

FERRET BUSINESS

Animal agriculture is about exploiting and using animals for profit. Animal agriculture views animals as inventory and nothing more. Their only concern is making money from the animal. We have all heard of puppy mills and the horrible cruelties that they inflict on dogs. But so many more animals that are sold at pet shops come from mills. Rats, lizards, snakes, hamsters, guinea pigs and ferrets. These mills are all part of animal agriculture and are only concerned about money, not the animals.

My son has a pet ferret named “Twitch”. When my son comes for a visit, he often brings Twitch along. I love ferrets. They are sweet, very tame and playful. A group of ferrets is called a “business”. About a month ago, Twitch became ill, and I took him to the vet for my son. Our family vet, Elmbrook Veterinary Clinic, has great experience with all types of animals. I take my ducks to him when they get ill.  He told me Twitch probably had a cancer which is very common in ferrets. Life span of a ferret normally would be 10-12 years, but in today’s pet shop ferrets he is only seeing 5-7 years. Their life spans are nearly cut in half because of the way they are bred.

Most pet shop ferrets come from ferret mills. Marshalls, Triple F Farms, Path Valley, and Real Canadian Ferrets are the main ones. These ferret mills not only make money selling ferrets to the major pet stores, they sell ferrets to labs and universities to be used in animal testing and experiments. Marshalls not only has a ferret mill; they operate a puppy mill where they sell dogs for animal testing. These mills have multi-million dollar contracts with universities and labs, including the CDC. Medical schools will often use ferrets to teach students how to shove breathing tubes down babies’ throats.

These mills are only interested in one thing—profit. Many will spay, neuter, and descent their ferrets themselves, without a vet. Vets cost money. Ferrets are raised in overcrowded, dirty conditions. Their cages have wire bottoms and very often young ferrets will fall through the wires and be killed. The cages are stacked on top of each other, so waste from the upper ferrets hit the lower ones. Often the temperature in their quarters will reach over 100 degrees. It’s very much how factory farms and egg farms treat their larger animals.  Peta did an undercover investigation into Triple F farms in 2011  http://www.peta.org/features/investigation-exposes-cruelty-ferret-mill/

http://investigations.peta.org/animals-gassed-frozen-petco-petsmart/?utm_campaign=Pet%20Trade%20Investigation%20&utm_source=PETA%20E-Mail&utm_medium=Alert

These ferret mills practice closed colony breeding where animals are kept in cramped cages and there is often incest. It only takes a few generations of such poor breeding practices before genetic weaknesses, abnormalities, diseases, and a shortened life span show up.  A few of the diseases ferrets eventually get from these poor breeding practices are cancer, adrenal disease and insulinoma. 

Ferrets are typically taken from their mothers at an early age, packed into crates, and trucked for days or flown hundreds of miles to dealers and then to pet stores, often without adequate food, water, or ventilation.

At the pet store they are put into cages with many other ferrets. They usually do not get a proper diet or enough space to move around. Ferrets that are not sold are either killed by the pet store and thrown in the trash, used by the pet store as live feed for snakes and reptiles, or sent back to the mill for a credit. If they are sent back to the mill, the mill will kill them and they will wind up as livestock feed. This is the fate of most of the small mammals that do not sell at pet stores.  

So what can we do? We can stop buying animals from pet stores and instead get pets from rescues and shelters. We can stop buying products that use animal testing. This will put these mills out of business. It is up to us, the consumer, to show these businesses that the lives of others matter, that animals are not the same as toasters.

While the vet could not do much for Twitch, we started him on Essiac tea and he is improving greatly. He is running around and playing again. Essiac tea may not cure his cancer, but it has greatly improved the quality of the days he has left. 

Please note, I am not a vet and am not giving medical advice. 

THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION YOU WILL EVER MAKE

THE MOST IMPORTANT NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION YOU WILL EVER MAKE

Every year most of us make New Year’s resolutions like losing weight or eating healthier. The top three resolutions people make each year are: Lose weight, get organized and spend less. The most important resolution you can make this year will not only make you a better, healthier person, it is necessary to save our planet.

Climate scientists have been warning us about global warming for decades. Scientists say a warming of two degrees will cause massive extinction and problems for humans. At the rate of our current global warming we will be warming by four degrees in just a few short years. They have stated 2017 is the point of no return. If we do not start to reverse global warming by 2017, it will be too late. It is estimated, at our current trend, by 2030 there will be a mass extinction not seen since the dinosaurs.

So what can we do to reverse global warming? Stop driving our cars? Turn off our lights? None of these will be effective enough to start a reversing trend. The most effective way to reverse global warming is to adopt a plant based diet—in other words, go vegan.

 

 

The number one cause of greenhouse gases is animal agriculture (dairy, meat, and eggs). According to the World Bank Group, it is responsible for 51% of greenhouse gases. Transportation total is responsible for 13%. Animal agriculture is the number one cause of methane and nitrous oxide.  Methane is 25 times worse than carbon dioxide as far as creating global warming. Nitrous oxide is 300 times worse than carbon dioxide. The following charts show the growth in factory farms compared to the growth in greenhouse gases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An interesting note, researchers have discovered that the smog over many cities was not caused by cars (like we are told) but by the smoke and fat from thousands of restaurants grilling meat.

Animal agriculture is the number one cause of rainforest destruction. 91% of rainforests were destroyed for animal agriculture compared to 23 % for palm oil. In the US alone, every minute 7 acres of trees are cleared for animal agriculture. These lands are not only cleared to raise the animals, but also to grow food to feed them. Trees are needed to clean our air and reduce greenhouse gas build up. It takes 16 pounds of feed to make one pound of meat. Think about it. If we all adapted a plant based diet, we could not only reverse global warming, we could feed the world.

The majority of our dwindling oil and natural gas supply is used by animal agriculture. Animal agriculture uses 25 times more fossil fuels than our cars and other transportation. We are going to run out of oil. The only question is when.

Animal agriculture is number one in water usage and water pollution. 85% of the water in the US goes to raising livestock.  Climate change will cause more and more drought conditions, making our water even more precious. Our underground aquifers are being drained at a tremendous rate, faster than they can be replenished. Add to that, the run-off from animal farms pollute our precious waters. There is a 7000 square mile “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico that continues to grow. Our Great Lakes also have dead zones caused by animal agriculture. One pig farm creates more sewage than the entire city of New York and this waste is untreated. This waste winds up in our lakes, rivers, and our groundwater we use for drinking. When the waste lagoons get too large, some factory farms start to spray the waste water into the air. We know conserving water is important and we want future generations to have access to water. One pound of beef takes 5,200 gallons of water. That is over a year’s worth of showers. Compare that to 24 gallons to make a pound of potatoes or tomatoes. In the US, fracking uses 140 billion gallons of water every year. Animal agriculture uses 340 TRILLION gallons every year.

Overfishing is destroying our oceans.  Fish help to keep the oceans healthy and reduce ocean warming. Many fish species have been depleted to the point of extinction. 80% of the fish caught goes to feeding livestock.

If you want to give up your car, live in the dark, stop taking showers, go ahead, but none of that will stop global warming and our inevitable destruction. We should be mad as heck at the meat, dairy and egg industries. They are wasting our oil and our water. They are poisoning our water and our air. They are destroying our planet and our way of life. This year make it your resolution to do something about it. Show the animal agriculture industry that they cannot get away with making huge profits by destroying our children’s futures. Go vegan. Take away their money, take away their power.  Not only will you be helping to save our planet, lose weight, and be healthier, you will be helping to end the torture and slaughter of 96 billion animals and 3 trillion fish every year.  It is amazing how one simple small step can do so much.

 

 I encourage everyone to read more and learn. Knowledge is the key to making responsible food choices.

My Sources:

“The Sustainability Secret” by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn

“This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein

“World Peace Diet” by Will Tuttle PhD

“The Food Revolution” by John Robbins

“The Conscious Planet” by Neil Pine

“Comfortably Unaware” and “Food Choices and Sustainability” by Dr.  Richard Oppenlander

epa.gov http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/ch4.html

http://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/gases/n2o.html

You can change for the better. I am here to help.

READ THIS BEFORE YOU DONATE TO HEIFER INTERNATIONAL

READ THIS BEFORE YOU DONATE TO

 HEIFER INTERNATIONAL

This time of year we are bombarded with charities asking for donations. One charity that tries to hit me up for a donation every year is Heifer International. Heifer International takes your cash donations to buy livestock to give to people in underdeveloped countries. While their intent is good—trying to teach people to feed themselves in these countries, the concept is ill-conceived.

Animal agriculture is the number one polluter of our planet. Fifty one percent of greenhouse gases come from animal agriculture. It is the major cause of water pollution. Seven thousand square miles of the Gulf of Mexico is a dead zone, caused by the run-off from animal agriculture. Absolutely nothing can live in this dead zone. Dead zones are affecting our Great Lakes also. Animal agriculture is responsible for 91% of rainforest destruction. It has destroyed millions of acres of land in the United States. Is this really something an impoverished, underdeveloped country needs?

Animal agriculture is the major user of water and is responsible for the current droughts we are facing today. Half of all the water used in the US is used in animal agriculture. According to the University of California, it takes 5200 gallons of water to make one pound of beef, 1000 gallons to make one gallon of milk, 1639 gallons of water for one pound of pork, and 820 gallons of water for one pound of chicken. By contrast, a pound of potatoes uses only 23 gallons, a pound of wheat uses 25 gallons, and a pound of tomatoes uses 23 gallons. Most of the countries Heifer International gives animals to face water shortages and drought. It takes 16 pounds of feed to make one pound of beef. People in underdeveloped countries need food more than cows. How can Heifer International expect people, who cannot even feed their children, to feed the cows, pigs, chickens, goats that they are given?  Does it make any sense at all to introduce animal agriculture to these countries? Animal agriculture is not sustainable for countries like the US or Europe. Why would anyone think it is sustainable for underdeveloped countries?

People in underdeveloped countries face oppression and violence on a daily basis. Most people do not think of this, but raising and slaughtering animals for food perpetuates violence and oppression.  The way men treat women is directly connected to the way we treat animals. Oppression of animals started in the Middle East and look how women are treated there.  When we treat animals with violence and oppression, we will start to oppress and be violent toward people. Many books have been written on this subject. “An Unnatural Order: Roots of Our Destruction of Nature” by Jim Mason, and “World Peace Diet” by Will Tuttle PhD are both good, informative books that cover this subject intensively.

The way animals shipped overseas are treated is horrendous. They are treated more like products than living beings. They are beaten, overcrowded, underfed, and violently killed. There are no laws that protect them in overseas shipping. Why sponsor more animal cruelty for Christmas?

Eating animal products causes many diseases in humans. According to the PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine), dairy, meat and egg products cause osteoporosis, diabetes, allergies, cancer, obesity and numerous other diseases. Ebola, aids, and Hepatitis all were traced back to meat eating.  People living in underdeveloped countries do not usually have access to medical treatment.  Do we really want to inflict these illnesses on people living in these countries?  

According to a lecture given on “TED” by Joy Sun, the majority of people who receive these animals sell them right away for money.  TRU TV’s show “Adam Ruins Everything” states the best way to give is to give money directly to the people who need it.  So this year, instead of supporting charities like Heifer International or Oxfamgifts.com (a charity that copies Heifer International) find charities that improve the world instead of destroying it.  Givedirectly.org gives money directly to the needy. Givewell is a good source to find respectable charities.  You can help people and our planet, you just need to be informed.