This is a sign sitting right by the grill area in my apartment complex in Dallas! It makes me so happy to think that everyone going to grill a steak sees this!
Totally awesome that this is up there, but while most of these are top-notch, I sort of take issue with 7 & 8. I think there are better ways those could be worded and combined.
America alone consumes about 72,767,123 lbs of beef a day, give or take.
It takes (at the absolute minimum, by estimates from the beef industry) 441 gallons of water to produce a lb of beef.
If America only stopped eating beef, we would save roundabout 32,090,301,243 gallons of…
Didn’t believe you? A sure sign of not paying attention. Nothing against your dad! He’s not at all alone! Let me see if I can help:
From the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): Pollution from Giant Livestock Farms Threatens Public Health (the citations for this article are also excellent)
The Environmental Impact of Dairy Production: 1944 compared to 2007
From Eat Humane: Eating our Future: The environmental impact of industrial animal agriculture
SUSTAINABLE IMPROVEMENT OF ANIMAL PRODUCTION AND HEALTH
Sustainable Table: Environment
Vegan Outreach: Environmental Destruction
I’m not kidding you, the scholarly literature on this subject is intense and there’s a wealth of it. There can be no denial.
You may call me Jacqui :)
Probably the most helpful: Will There Be Enough?
The World Food Supply: Damage Done by Cattle-Raising
Can We Feed the World and Sustain the Planet?
Hunger, Duty, and Ecology: On What We Owe Starving Humans
Dairy Farming and Cattle Ranching; Consequences on Human and Environmental Health
A Sustainability Assessment of UBC Food Services’ Beef Food Products
Hopefully this posts this time, and hopefully these help you out.
This is a very simple formula for the information Supervegan is constantly posting on the internet to those that do not understand why the agricultural industry is so detrimental to the environment.
Be concious of your consumption.
(via seitanicslut)
This quote makes a great point and this is 100% something that more PEOPLE need to be aware of, but whoever wrote that “Vegans miss the larger point” could not be more wrong. Miss the larger point? Look, I’m sorry nothing is 100% vegan is today’s society - that is not something that is my fault, and it certainly isn’t the fault of the representative “vegan” movement. Are you trying to say that people, not all of them vegans, largely consuming faux-leather and fur is worse than the actual thing? That is hardly an intelligent message.
We ALL need to be careful of our consumption. If you proceed to consume animal products then this Earth is fucking doomed. If you’re going to keep shrugging at the fact that meat and dairy are evil consumers of lives, resources, and our health because faux leather is bad in its own way, then we should have given up a long time ago. Right, slaughtering thousands upon thousands of living, breathing, sentient creatures is better than the petroleum issue.
Also, are you out of your fucking mind thinking vegans are the only ones to blame for faux leather and fur being so widely purchased? I only know a handful of people in my entire life, in my entire surroundings that buy actual leather, for two reasons: 1, while many people see no moral issue eating an animal, many of them do have a problem wearing its skin. I know so many omnivores that think fur is the most horrible thing, it would make your head spin. 2, Leather and fur are fucking expensive. Way more expensive than the fake stuff. THAT’S why EVERYONE, regardless of their diet or lifestyle, opts for the faux. Mystery fucking solved?
Vegans get blamed for everything. Absolutely everything, and I am so beyond sick of it. Education - pointing out the petroleum issue with these products - that is what helps people to make better-informed, educated decisions about their own consumption. Shaming mother fucking vegans to make yourself feel better about all the creatures who die to fill your corpse-ridden stomach is just pathetic.
“Staples of vegan fashion,” give me a fucking break.
(Source: voorwaarts)
These corporations, if they were individual human beings, would be locked up for life. Instead, they continue raking in the big bucks. Human rights abuses, murder, war, eco disasters, and animal exploitation keep these evil companies raking in the green. Prepare to be disgusted.
I don’t think the list is in any particular order. Even if you don’t agree with all of them (eg. the cigarette company) most of them are legit horrible. I’m posting a summary but I recommend reading the full article: http://brainz.org/15-deadliest-us-corporations/
- Chevron : (then Texaco) discharged 18 billion gallons of toxic water into the rain forests of Ecuador without any remediation, destroying the livelihoods of local farmers and sickening indigenous populations. Chevron was responsible for the death of several Nigerians who protested the company’s polluting, exploiting presence in the Nigerian Delta. Chevron paid the local militia, known for its human rights abuses, to squash the protests, and even supplied them with choppers and boats. The military opened fire on the protesters, then burned their villages to the ground.
- DeBeers : was knowingly funding violent guerrilla movements in Angola, Sierra Nevada, and the Congo with its diamond purchases. In Botswana, DeBeers has been blamed for the “clearing” of land to be mined for diamonds — including the forcible removal of indigenous peoples who had lived there for thousands of years. The government allegedly cut off the tribe’s water supplies, threatened, tortured and even hanged resisters.
- Tyson : Even if you don’t care about the horrendous animal abuse that has been documented in Tyson’s factory farms, you have to flinch at Tyson’s appalling environmental abuses and workers’ rights violation- Tyson has allowed e coli tainted beef to enter the food supply. A recent study showed that Tyson’s chickens were the most salmonella-and-campylobactor filled poultry of all the major suppliers and has even been accused of human trafficking to supply themselves with cheap labor.
- Smith & Wesson : In a study of the top ten guns involved in crime in the U.S., the first was the Smith & Wesson .38 Special.
- Phillip Morris : is the largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the U.S.
- Haliburton : is a huge “oilfield services” company, profited big time from the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq when Cheney called in his boys to quell burning oil wells — and to “help” the Iraq oil ministry pump and distribute oil. Haliburton has also been implicated in countless oil spills, including the BP disaster of 2010.
- Coca Cola : corporation has wrought devastation in India, where its factories use up to one million liters of water per day, leaving tens of thousands of nearby residents dry during the drought months. Then the factories dispose of the wastewater improperly, contaminating whatever water is left. A lawsuit in 2001 accused Coca Cola of hiring paramilitaries in Columbia which suppressed unionization in the cola plant there through intimidation, torture and murder.
- Pfizer : the largest pharmaceutical corporation in the U.S., pleaded guilty in 2009 to the largest health care fraud in U.S. history. Pfizer decided to use Nigerian children as guinea pigs. In 1996, Pfizer traveled to Kano, Nigeria to try out an experimental antibiotic on third-world diseases such as measles, cholera, and bacterial meningitis. They gave trovafloxacin to approximately 200 children. Dozens of them died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities. According to the EPA, Pfizer can also proudly claim to be among the top ten companies in America causing the most air pollution.
- ExxonMobil : is perhaps best known for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill which resulted in 11 million gallons of oil contaminating Prince William Sound. But they have also been responsible for a huge oil spill in Brooklyn and for aiding in the decline of Russia’s critically endangered grey whale because of drilling in its habitat. The Political Economy Research Institute ranks ExxonMobil sixth among corporations emitting airborne pollutants in the United States.
- Caterpillar : supplies the Israeli army with bulldozers which are used to demolish Palestinian homes — sometimes with the people still inside. In 2003 a Caterpillar bulldozer ran over and killed Rachel Corrie, an American protesting in Gaza who stood in front of the tractor to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian home.
- Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Baily : “The Cruelest Show on Earth” is famous for its abuse of wild animals.
- Monsanto : Monsanto’s list of evils includes creating the “terminator” seed which creates plants which never fruit or flower so that farmers must purchase them anew yearly, lobbying to have “hormone-free” labels removed from the labels of milk and infant milk replacer (through bovine growth hormone is believed to be a cancer-accelerator) as well as a wide range of environmental and human health violations associated with use of Monsanto’s poisons — most notably “Agent Orange.”
- Nestle : crimes against man and nature include massive deforestation in Borneo — the habitat of the critically endangered orangutan — to grow palm oil, and buying milk from farms illegally-seized by a despot in Zimbabwe. Nestle attracted worldwide boycott efforts for urging mothers in third-world countries to use their infant milk replacer instead of breastfeeding, without warning them of the possible negative effects. Supposedly, Nestle hired women to dress as nurses to hand out free infant formula, which was frequently mixed with contaminated water, or the children starved when the formula ran out and their mothers could not afford more and their breast milk had already dried up from disuse.
- British Petroleum : Who can forget 2010’s oil rig explosion in the Gulf Coast which killed 11 workers and thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins and other animals, effectively destroying the fishing and tourism industry in the region? This was not BP’s first crime against nature. In fact, between January 1997 and March 1998, BP was responsible for a whopping 104 oil spills.
- Dyncorp : is best known for its brutality in impoverished countries, for trafficking in child sex slaves, for slaughtering civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for training rebels in Haiti. This privatized military company is often hired by the U.S. government to protect American interests overseas — and so the government can claim no responsibility for Dyncorp’s actions.
Two delicious CLIF samples from the gym - both vegan, and only the Builder bar has palm oil.
Please sign this petition to ask CLIF to remove palm oil from ALL their products: http://www.change.org/petitions/clif-bar-company-change-product-recipes-to-boycott-the-use-of-palm-oil
Boycott the use of palm oil in their products.
Clif Bar & Company puts out some fantastic products that promote health for absolutely anyone - their protein bars are absolutely delicious, diverse, and beneficial to the body - especially after a great workout. Their CLIF bars and Luna bars are vegan, and they’re products I myself consume quite often and promote on my vegan nutrition blog, Vegan Skinny Bitch.
They may be vegan, but they are not cruelty-free.
I respect and adore the CLIF company and their aspirations to sustain the planet, community, people, business, and brand - however, the use of palm oil in their products contradicts and harms the company’s good intentions, as well as the natural rain forests that are destroyed to get palm oil.
The Girl Scout Foundation, working with the Rainforest Action Network (ran.org), are advocating for a boycott of palm oil and so am I. As a vegan, my objective is to abstain from contributing to the suffering and exploitation of sentient beings while trying to live as sustainably as is possible. Palm oil is the #1 cause of deforestation of the rainforests, and the reason orangutans are going extinct.
Something must be done. Please sign this petition to ask Clif Bar & Company to change their recipes to boycott palm oil.
To read more about the damaging effects of palm oil production on the earth and orangutans, please visit: ran.org/palm-oil
————————
Sincerely,
Jacqueline Frasca
Nicholas Burroughs (via homedesigning)
I believe veganism is minimalist - minimal impact on the Earth and suffering of other sentient beings.
(Source: officialteamgreen)
Everyone - this is MY petition, and it would mean the world to me if you’d read through it and consider contributing your signature. CLIF bar is great company with good intentions that I actively promote and buy from, but palm oil is an evil industry: the #1 cause of deforestation of the rainforests and the reason orangutans are going extinct.
Please, read and share - I am hoping for 5,000 signatures and hopefully we can get them to change their recipes. :)
About the palm oil addition - I wanted to buy Earth Balance which ALSO contains palm oil! There were also other vegan products that contain palm oil which upsets me, because obviously many vegans care. COMPANIES: STOP. There are so many alternatives, which is why it is mind boggling why they continue to use palm oil!
Everyone, please keep sending this around!
Everyone - this is MY petition, and it would mean the world to me if you’d read through it and consider contributing your signature. CLIF bar is great company with good intentions that I actively promote and buy from, but palm oil is an evil industry: the #1 cause of deforestation of the rainforests and the reason orangutans are going extinct.
Please, read and share - I am hoping for 5,000 signatures and hopefully we can get them to change their recipes. :)
The Keurig question: What to do with those used coffee cartridges?
If you received a one-cup coffee maker — or a box of coffee for one — as a Christmas gift, by now you likely have brewed through and tossed out plenty of those little capsules, and perhaps you’ve started to wonder about the environmental impact and the value of convenience.
Turns out that many people have opted for that convenience: In the 12 months ending in November, nearly 46% of the dollars going toward the purchase of coffee or espresso makers went to single-serve machines, according to NPD Group, a market research firm.
Keurig, a major player in the one-cup coffee business, reports that research it commissioned indicated that 13% of all U.S. offices have one of its brewers.
The company confronts the green issue head-on, saying on its website: “As the single-cup coffee market and our Keurig brewing systems grow in popularity, we understand that the impact of the K-Cup portion pack waste stream is one of our most significant environmental challenges.”
The K-cup coffee and tea cartridges are difficult to recycle because they are made of three materials: a plastic cup, which is lined with a heat-sealed paper filter, plus a polyethylene-coated aluminum foil top. Keurig says the packaging keeps coffee fresh, but the cartridges are not biodegradable.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal has reported that 9 billion cartridges have been sold. Keurig said it doesn’t make that information public, but it did say sales of K-Cups more than doubled in 2011 over 2010.
Read the rest: LATimes.com