Would You Like a Side of Aureomycin 4G Medicated Crumbles with Your Burger? March 27, 2009

I can’t tell you exactly how or why but I ended up on CattleStore.com today. It’s “Your Source for Agricultural Supplies.” Since I’ve stopped eating animals and their products, I’ve thought a lot about the fact that it is not okay for me to have someone kill animals for my dinner. I’ve also had passing thoughts about the positive environmental impact one can have when not financially supporting animal agriculture. But I’d never really given much thought to all the crazy accessories that must go along with animal agriculture today. Some of these products would be ridiculously comical if they weren’t so tragic. But the next time someone worries about my eating too much soy, I’ll think about the Corid 9.6% Oral Solution the “concerned” meateater is ingesting along with their burger. That solution, by the way, is a “coccidiostat which can be administered in drinking water, or as a drench, to treat or prevent bovine coccidiosis (bloody scours) caused by Eimeria bovis and E. zurnii in calves.” So, if the cow you eat drinks that, well, you do the math.

Here are some of the other products you can find at CattleStore:

Syrvet: Spiked Calf Weaner: These anti-sucking devices impede the calf’s ability to suck. Virually unbreakable, reusable plastic.  Turn the wingnut to apply and remove easily.

Inosol California Bender: The CaliforniaBander is a stainless steel tool which applies stretchy surgical tubing for fast and easy bloodless castrating.

Kow-Ball Chin Ball Marker:  Recognized worldwide as an effective heat detection aid assuring high conception. Made of harness leather, Kow-Ball is fully adjustable and attaches securely and comfortably to a teaser bull. Spring-loaded stainless steel ball acts like a ball-point pen marking the mounted cow with a specially formulated non-toxic marking fluid. Reservoir holds sufficient fluid for 25 to 30 mountings and is easily refilled. Marking fluid available in Yellow, Blue, Green, Magenta, and Orange.

Intervet Revalor XS: The industry’s first delayed-release combination implant. Get all the performance of reprocessing without the complication of sending your cattle back through the chute. Revalor-XS delivers the same proven combination of TBA and estradiol as an initial dose of Revalor-IS and a terminal dose of Revalor-S in a single timed-release implant. One trip through the chute boosts cattle productivity and feed efficiency for up to 200 days. Each implant contains 10 small yellow pellets, with each pellet containing 20 mg of trenbolone acetate and 4 mg estradiol.

Suddenly my lunch of tofu, tabbouleh and broccoli seems charmingly simple.

Advertisement

Veg*n Is Not Synonymous with Thin, Nor Should It Be March 23, 2009

I just heard about this blog, This Is Why You’re Fat, which features “deliciously gross” food that a lot of readers apparently feel repulsed by but simultaneously want to eat (all while being fatphobic!).

Now the author of Vegan Lunch Box has started a blog called This Is Why You’re Thin to feature people getting excited about healthy, plant-based foods.

The excitement about veg*n food is a good thing, obviously. Imitating the fatphobia of the original blog? Not a good thing at all. Not to mention veg*n doesn’t automatically mean thin (& it shouldn’t).

When Cute is Not Cute. March 15, 2009

Cute is a cultural icon in Japan.  Everything is “cute”, as you know i.e. Hello Kitty!  Everywhere you look, there are some cute cartoon characters.  Puppies and kittens are so cute, of course the Japanese people love them.  The pet industry relies upon the cute-loving culture and the impulse-buyers.  The love of cuteness greatly helps the pet industry in Japan, but there is a dark side of the story.  A few years later, very sadly, some irresponsible owners may take their grown-up puppies/kittens to shelters or pounds or worse yet release them in the mountains, because “they have grown bigger than they expected and they are not “cute” anymore.”
According to the annual report that is consolidated by ALIVE reports as below;
In 2003: Dogs 173,032/ Casts 267,214 were killed.
In 2007: Dogs: 100,963 /Cats 209,494 were killed.
The number has declined by 45.5% compared with the number in 1997 (ALIVE).  The decline is mainly due to people being more informed and becoming conscious about the ethical treatment of animals (ALIVE).  However there are a lot of improvements that still need to be made by the government, modifying The Act on Welfare and Management of Animals, which was first enacted in 1973 and modified in 2005.  Enforcing and updating the act is a must as a next step.  But in my opinion, the production of pet animals needs to be controlled in parallel with the modification of the act.  There are way too many pet shops in Japan.  They sell live animals at stores as well as on the Internet.  This means that there are too many breeders or puppy mills throughout the country.  In addition to that, the pet industry is lucrative.  Popular breeds such as toy poodles run from $2,000 to 4,000.  The other day, I saw St.Bernard puppy that was $3,500.  Where can you have a St.Bernard in Tokyo anyway?

That particular St.Bernard was in a chain store that breaks my heart every time I see it.  This store is located in a large entertainment district in Tokyo and is open all night.  The animals are treated more like souvenirs than live creatures.  In addition, a very disgusting practice often goes on in this type of store.  This practice, for example like “Enjo-Kosai” (a sugar daddy system) encourages buying pets for all the wrong reasons.  Customers at “hostess bars” buy pets for their favorite hostesses who have no interests in owning a pet, but will accept a cute puppy for a short period of time and then return the puppy to the pet store to get the money back.  There are even some cases, “a kick back system” is arranged between the hostesses and the pet shops.

I would like to conclude this; many people in Japan get (buy) pets for the wrong reasons.  They get them because they are cute at first and when the cuteness or the novelty wears off, the poor animals become disposable.  For this reasons the concept of cuteness has its dark side to it.

Cute is not always good and maybe torture for some animals.  These puppies that are bought, because they are cute, “given as gifts”, returned like unwanted and unloved products, probably wish they weren’t cute.

The attitude of animals being a source of food as an inalienable human right and the attitude of animals being objects to be bought, sold and returned stem from the same mentality.

<Reference>
http://www.alive-net.net/material/materialbook/siryou28.html

CFP: Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism March 5, 2009

This just came my way

—–

From: Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz [mailto:mpuskarpasewicz@gmail.com]

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS
CULTURAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VEGETARIANISM

I am currently seeking contributors for a reference work on
vegetarianism to be published by Greenwood Publishing Group. This
encyclopedia will include approximately 100 entries and covers cultural
and historical aspects of vegetarianism. Scholars from a diversity of
fields, such as History, Nutrition, Anthropology, American Studies,
Religious Studies, Women’s & Gender History, History of Childhood &
Children, and the History of Medicine, are encouraged to submit. Entries
vary in size from 500 to 1500 words.

Some available entries include but are not limited to:
Transcendentalism, The Shakers, Fruitlands, Brook Farm, Octagon
Settlement Company, The Bible-Christians, “Back to Nature” movement,
Eastern Influences on Vegetarianism in the U.S., and Asia.

The deadline for submission is May 1, 2009. The deadline is firm;
please do not respond to this call unless you are confident that you can
complete an entry or group of entries by that date.

If you are interested in contributing to this work, please send a c.v.
that includes your background and interests in cultural aspects of
vegetarianism as well as your preferred e-mail *and* postal address to:
mpuskarpasewicz@gmail.com. Qualified candidates will receive a listing
of all available topics and additional information. Prospective
contributors will receive an assignment, contributors’ guidelines, and
sample entries by e-mail followed by a release form mailed from the
publisher to be signed and returned. Completed entries are subject to
the normal editing process required for quality publications and are
accepted for publication at the
discretion of the editor and publisher.
Thank you for your interest,

Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz, Editor
mpuskarpasewicz@gmail.com

Win a Copy of Vegan Soul Kitchen March 4, 2009

Win a copy of Bryant Terry’s new cookbook, Vegan Soul Kitchen: Fresh, Healthy, and Creative African-American Cuisine just by leaving a comment detailing your favorite soul food dish by Friday, March 6. Your pick doesn’t have to be one traditionally associated with U.S. southern soul food–just any food that warms your soul.

• My picks:
  arroz con gandules, otherwise known as rice with pigeon peas with avocado, salt, and lots of hot sauce
  ciabatta dipped in olive oil
  brownies
  sweet potato fries coated with panko and sea salt

I’ll pick the winner randomly after Friday. I can only ship to those in the U.S.Sorry, overseas/overborders folks. When you comment, be sure to sign in with your email address so I can contact you directly.

Even if you don’t win the copy, check out this book, which includes mouth-watering food and drink recipes like Cajun-Creole Spiced Tempeh Pieces with Creamy Grits, Frozen Memphis Mint Julep, Roasted Plantain Pieces with Roasted Garlic-Lime Dipping Sauce, Sweet Cornmeal-Coconut Butter Drop Biscuits, and many more.

Veganism/Vegetarianism in Japan March 3, 2009

I tell you, being vegan in Japan is not so easy. 　Reason number 1, veganism and vegetarianism are hardly accepted in modern Japanese society.  Number 2, thus there are not so many vegan or vegetarian restaurants.  Number 3, social pressure of “being in the same and harmonize with others” is strong.  If I said, “I am vegan,” I would usually get responses such as, “What’s that?” “are you some kind of cult religious?” or “But you eat eggs right?”  I respond simply to avoid any complications.  “I disagree with factory farming and commercial fishing.  And it is also good for the environment.”  The reactions vary.  Some would get shocked to the idea itself and some would ask more questions with interests.  They are not bad people, they just are not well informed, likewise me five years ago.  In any case, it is not easy to be vegan in Japan.  The safest way to eat vegan food without any stress is to cook at home.  Actually a lot of non-meat ingredients are available at stores, including soy, kelp and dried vegetable products and so on.

For me, the most challenging situation is when going out with our business clients.  Business over meals and beers is very common here.  My husband and I have a business, so we occasionally need to go out to talk about business over meals with our clients.  This is really merely to built rapport.  We try to guide them to restaurants where we can order meatless food.  But sometime, we fail to persist. (We ask the restaurants to take out meat and fish though…)

A list of vegan/vegetarian restaurants is a must item to take with me.  There is a good website here.
http://www.vegietokyo.com/info4vegie/restaurant/index.html

Last month, I traveled to Hokkaido on business.  I had imagined that eating out would be extremely difficult for me, because I was in the countryside.  But fortunately a closest restaurant that was opened that day was a vegan place!  Bravo!  In the middle of a snow country, where the most of the businesses were shut due to the bad economy, there was a bright hope for me!  The restaurant was very homey and welcoming.  I highly recommend you dropping by, if you happen to travel to Kushiro.
Amamu:
5-38 Horikawa-cho, Kushiro-city, Hokkaido  Tel: 81-154-23-5594
http://hokkaido-kushiro.sagasite-net.jp/shop300/315.html