let's talk farm animals

Animal activism: Like a charging cow

Guest blog: Adele Buettner, Farm Animal Council Saskatchewan

Most reasonable North Americans have always opposed animal cruelty. But if you had said “welfare” to ranchers and farmers 30 years ago most would have thought you meant a government cheque.  If you had spoken about farm animal care to most retailers, you would have been met with a blank stare.

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Posted by FFC on January 23rd, 2012 :: Filed under Activism,Vegan,Vegetarian
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The Myth of Meatless Mondays - Alleviating the consumer’s conscience without affecting climate change

The following is reprinted with permission from the Animal Agriculture Alliance in the United States (www.animalalliance.org). For its full collection of Meatless Monday resources, visit  http://animalagalliance.org/current/home.cfm?Section=Meatless_Monday&Category=Current_Issues.

The Myth of Meatless Mondays – Alleviating the Consumer’s Conscience Without Affecting Climate Change
Judith L. Capper, PhD, Washington State University

In July, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a report claiming that everybody should eat less meatand dairy products in order to mitigate climate change. It was an interesting report, not least because it recommended that if consumers were going to eat meat, they should choose “meat, eggs and dairy products that are certified organic, humane and/or grass-fed as they are generally the least environmentally damaging”. Working within the sustainability arena, I firmly believe that any production system has a role within agriculture provided that it is environmentally conscientious, economically viable and socially acceptable. However, the EWG’s promotion of organic or grass-fed systems as having a low environmental impact is ironic given that such systems actually have a greater carbon footprint per unit of meat or milk produced compared to their conventional counterparts.

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Posted by FFC on October 6th, 2011 :: Filed under Activism,Beef cattle,Feeding the world,Global Warming,Meatless Monday,Misconceptions,Organics,Sheep,Vegetarian
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Animal Ag Alliance to Yellow Tail: Please Reconsider

Animal Ag Alliance To Yellow Tail: Please Reconsider
02/12/2020 11:05AM

In an effort to assist Yellow Tail Wines in determining its best opportunity to help animals, the Animal Agriculture Alliance has written a letter this week to the company’s owner, Cassella Wines. Yellow Tail Wines announced last week their intent to donate $100,000 to the Humane Society of the United States.

Yellow Tail’s announcement has generated considerable controversy among livestock producers and a backlash against the wine company. “The uproar over the last week has shown that you will undoubtedly lose a significant segment of your American customer base if you continue with your pledge of support for HSUS,” the letter says.

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Posted by FFC on February 16th, 2010 :: Filed under Activism,Consumers,Letters to the Editor,Vegan,Vegetarian
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Animals for meat beneficial to earth

BY CRYSTAL MACKAY, ONTARIO FARM ANIMAL COUNCIL, London Free Press, 2006.04.22; Letter to the Editor

Regarding the letter, Meat products harmful to the environment (April 20):

I’d like to do something crazy and write in favour of something, which seems to be out of vogue these days. Eating meat is actually good for the environment and makes ecological sense.

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Posted by FFC on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under Letters to the Editor,Vegetarian
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Revealing the truth about lean meat

Myth about calves raised in darkness hampers veal image

By Greg Burliuk, Kingston Whig-Standard, 2021.06.01

Mention the word veal and some people cringe.

“How can you eat baby cows?” was the cry I heard years ago. A British friend once told me that was why veal consumption was so low in her animal -loving country.

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Posted by FFC on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers,Education and public awareness,Veal,Vegetarian
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Meat industry not immoral

VALERIE TAPLEY, Red and Black, GA, 7/3/08

In response to Tulsi Patel’s column “Vegetarian pleas for animals,” (June 19), first, Ms. Patel, I do applaud you for having an opinion on this issue, as so many people are apathetic about many parts of our culture today.

However, I hope you see that people like myself, who are hoping to enter the meat industry as an employee in the near future, are not writing articles in an attempt to convert vegetarians to meat-eaters.

I’m glad you have a lifestyle you’re proud of, but that doesn’t mean I want to necessarily be converted to your ways of thinking. I do grant that you are able to get an adequate intake from a vegetarian diet, so long as you watch carefully your intake of certain vitamins and proteins.

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Posted by FFC on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers,Education and public awareness,Vegetarian
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Addressing misconceptions about farming

By KIM HARLESS, February 26, 2007, Farmers Advance (OHIO)

The public has many misconceptions about the modern food system. Many of those misconceptions have been developed by authors with fine intentions, but a serious lack of understanding.

Unfortunately, once a so-called “fact” is in print, it is often repeated endlessly and used to build other “facts.”

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Posted by FFC on July 19th, 2009 :: Filed under Beef cattle,Education and public awareness,Vegetarian
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Where’s the beef?

The Washington Times, October 17, 2020

Wendy’s coined the phrase “Where’s the beef?” in the 1980s. Today, it seems that meat is out, and more expensive soy products and supplements are in. Helped by activist groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), who cry “Meat is murder,” they make Americans feel embarrassed to bite into a steak or take a swig of milk.

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Posted by FFC on July 13th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers,Vegetarian
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First U.S. count finds 1 in 200 kids are vegetarian

By Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, Jan 07, 2021

Sam Silverman is co-captain of his high school football team — a safety accustomed to bruising collisions. But that’s nothing compared with the abuse he gets for being a vegetarian.

”I get a lot of flak for it in the locker room,” said the 16-year-old junior at Westborough High School in Massachusetts.

”All the time, my friends try to get me to eat meat and tell me how good it tastes and how much bigger I would be,” said Silverman, who is 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds. ”But for me, there’s no real temptation.”

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Posted by FFC on June 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Consumers,Vegetarian
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