What are your thoughts on the Milk campaigning from the Trump administration? I feel like its connected to animal agriculture but idk how
I know the meat is tied to Argentina, and unless the Dairy is too then idk whats the angle. (keep public, id like others imput)
It is part of the wider restructuring of the US food pyramid, and its elevated importance of ‘healthy fats’ and protein compared with the Obama-era food guidance. Whole milk has more fat than any kind of skimmed milk, so that is the logic on the nutrition side of things.
Beneath that though, whole milk has cultural significance for Trump and the MAGA crowd. It is often framed and thought of as ‘real,’ 'pure’ and ‘traditional.’ Milk have always had this really strange symbolism for the far right, associated with purity realness; I’ve not been able to put my finger on precisely where that comes from.
There is also the fact that Trump promised American dairy farmers he would help them, and so far most of his policies have hurt small farmers in the US. We also know that this is something that RFK Jr. has been getting excited about, with his recent endorsement of raw milk, despite quite a lot of people dying from pathogens carried in raw milk before the ban finally came into place in the late 80’s.
There is really no health argument for this, but like so much with RFK Jr. it is about the cultural signal he wants to send rather than science, it is about purity, about 'all American’ values and a return to foods he thinks of as the kind of things that Real Americans™ should be eating.
I don’t really understand what it is about just heating up milk for a few seconds to kill pathogens that makes it 'impure’ whereas selective breeding, factory farming and copious amounts of antibiotics seem to be just swell… But there is really no logic to where they put that arbitrary line. This is an administration whose health policies very much based on vibes.
I haven’t seen this mentioned in coverage on the change, but the return of whole milk to school cafeterias also has a pretty substantial profit motive, and animal agriculture industries wield a lot of lobbying power in Washington. I can make an educated guess that this was part of it, too, as a concession to a lobby that Trump has largely been disappointing with his domestic and global policies so far.
im having feelings about the uffington white horse again
so essentially there’s this cool horse drawn into the hills in england made out of chalk and it’s like 3,000 years old.
people carved trenches 3,000 years ago and filled them with chalk in the shape of a horse but what’s interesting is that if you fail to maintain the horse by adding new chalk regularly, it will disappear. for 3,000 years, we’ve been filling in chalk in this horse so it doesn’t disappear.
we’ll never know what the purpose of the horse was originally. we’ll never know if it had ritual or spiritual significance or if it was just art. but we do know that people maintained it then, and, even though the meaning of the horse has long been lost to time, we continue to maintain it now.
the people who made this horse are long dead, but they live through us still, don’t you think?
Partial-rant, partially asking for help: how do people simultaneously believe we can grow enough crops to feed over 80 billion farmed animals a year, but 8 billion humans is impossible??? and do you have any succinct responses to the arguments that land can't grow crops suitable for humans/that most of the crops aren't edible for humans/that animals eat waste products? I don't know how to respond in a casual conversation without going on tangents they just tune out...
I think that this is one of those topics that people have not actually thought that deeply about, yet are still pretty happy to share their thoughts on… most have this idea that farmed animals are all just in fields eating grass is or hay, others who are more informed will know about things like alfalfa that humans cannot eat. Here is a short response for you:
“It isn’t true that farmed animals only consume crops that are inedible to humans. We feed about a little over a third of our crops to farmed animals, and it takes about 100 times as much land to produce a calorie of beef or lamb verses plant-based alternatives like peas or tofu. It is true that animals are often fed inedible crops like alfalfa, but the trouble is that alfalfa is grown on arable land and using water that could have been used to feed humans directly, rather than feeding to animals who we then eat. This is why we could feed far more people using far less land if we were all eating plants rather than animals.”
Anonymous asked:
Hello, do you or your followers have any recommendations for fiction books that have vegan, or even vegetarian characters?
I’ve just finished reading Lessons in Chemistry and while it is a new favourite of mine and it’s main character is my new role model, I was quite disappointed in the characters’s comment on vegetarianism and it soured the experienced a bit, but I’ve reasoned myself into it reflecting the time period the book is set in (although the main character being so intelligent when it comes to food makes it hard to believe she wouldn’t be more progressive in that area, though I do see her as autistic-coded and we are quite black-and-white thinkers when it comes to certain things, so I suppose it could make sense, but that’s just my interpretation).
I’ve come to the conclusion that while I need to accept the fact that along with the majority of people, the majority of books will be lacking or anti vegan/vegetarian if I’m going to enjoy anything, it’d be nice to read something where I don’t have to mentally add ‘vegan’ behind food descriptions, or read anti vegan/vegetarian sentiment. So if you or your followers could recommend anything I’d be so thankful.
I am so tired of people who care more about looking moral and ethical than actually being moral and ethical. They parrot all of the right buzzwords, but don’t really care about taking the time to truly understand or engage with what they mean.
Perception is everything. As long as they appear morally pure to the correct crowd, that is truly all that matters.
Hello! Is using animals products for another animal still exploitation, assuming they are all rescues/not being kept/bred for those products? For example, I have chickens and rats - if I feed excess eggs the rats will benefit more from (it's helpful to help elderly ones gain weight) to the rats instead of the chooks, is that exploitative? Or like, giving furr/feathers from moulting animals to animals that nest, or wool from sheep to pigs to build nests/houses with?
Hey anon. I think that if we’re talking about a product that the animal would produce anyway and have no use for themselves, I think that this is a really good way to make use of them. It isn’t uncommon for sanctuaries to donate eggs or even wool to animal shelters to use for food and blankets, and that kind of arrangement is positive in my view. It is certainly better than you taking that product for your own benefit. So long as an animal isn’t being bred into existence and exploited to serve the interests of another animal, I don’t see this as any kind of issue.
Heba Muraisi is now on day 66 of her hunger strike. Bobby Sands died on day 66
Heba and other members of the filton 24 and brize norton 5 have been in prison without a trial for months, Heba has been locked up for over a year. Heba’s in a really scary condition and police have been attacking protestors outside new hall prison, pepper spraying them
if you haven’t already the easiest quickest thing you can do to support Heba and the other prisoners is to fill out this template email it’s so fucking easy
and if you can do more please call the ministry of “justice” 0203 334 3555
tell them you support the hunger strikers and repeat their demands:
an end to censorship of communications
immediate bail
right to a fair trial
drop the terror link and terror charges and de-proscribe palestine action
shut elbit systems down
and if you can join protests irl outside new hall prison where Heba is being held; peterborough prison where Teuta Hoxa is being held (again, without a trial!!); Qesser Zuhrah at bronzefield; outside the ministries of “justice” and at pentonville where Kamran Ahmed is being held
these people are choosing to face hunger and pain in solidarity with hundreds of thousands in palestine who are being murdered with bullets and bombs and starved to death for the benefit of imperial governments like the uk, usamerica, and of course israel… for allegedly doing “criminal” damage to elbit systems weapons factory in bristol and brize norton raf. to stop british bombs from landing in Palestine
Heba has said “this is not about dying, because unlike the enemy i love life”
please do whatever you can to ensure that her life doesn’t end here
Anyway if you’re doing Veganuary this year know that I love and support you! Have fun trying out exciting new foods, embracing a lifestyle more in line with your morals and making a difference, you rock
It’s that time of the year again
Anonymous asked:
What do you think of Brigitte Bardot?
I don’t know much about her beyond her work in animal rights to be honest. She was a staunch early advocate of vegetarianism and her foundation still does a lot of work in the animal welfare space. My understanding is that she had some pretty far-right views politically though and was quite closely involved with the Le Pen family, which is one of the reasons I haven’t bothered to look into her work any further. I don’t know enough about her to say much else!
to anyone who may be considering ethical/environmental/animal welfare-related diet changes this year, please remember that even small changes stack and compound to have a larger impact than you may realize!!!!
you do not need to be perfect to be good!!!!!
your meatless monday night dinner has a greater impact on animals and the environment than a sanctimonious redditor chastising someone for enjoying dairy cheese
your interest in environmentalism and animal welfare and the impacts of eating animals is worth exponentially more than any amount of shame about what you choose to eat
eating well is not about trying to meet an ever changing standard of purity or perfection, but about doing the best you can with what you’ve got every day :o)
i’ve said the is before but it’s so obvious how this whole ‘narcoterrorism’ thing was just manufacturing consent for what is happening in Venezuela. The US war on drugs, just like their ‘war on terror’, is and was just an excuse to attack oil rich countries. the US isn’t attacking Venezuela cuz they’re evil and bloodthirsty. they’re also not attacking us cuz they care about drug trafficking of human rights. they’re attacking us for our resources. it really is that simple. they don’t view anyone outside the US as truly human and they’re gonna keep killing us until they get what they want. The least you can do as a US or European citizen is to stop talking about the ‘narco’ bullshit. it’s the image the US created of latin americans so they can justify killing us. anyone who keeps spreading it is complicit with what’s happening right now
