You might have heard about the recent agreement on a new federal law between The Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers, but in case you haven’t, I wanted to give a small breakdown on what the deal is, what it will do, and how it was reached.

In my opinion, there are two things that make this one of the single most significant moments in the history of animal welfare/rights. First, the agreed upon legislation, if passed, will directly better the lives of each the more than 250 million hens involved in egg production in the United States. It’s incredibly rare to see animal protection groups and the agriculture industry come to any agreement at all, but for the two sides to agree that every animal within a particular industry segment deserves better living conditions is nearly unprecedented. It’s a huge win for those of us who wish to see less animal cruelty in the world; it will result in there being less of it.

The second reason that this deal is so groundbreaking is that if the proposed law gets passed, it will be the first federal law ever to deal with the welfare of farm animals while they are living on farms. There are laws that deal with slaughter, transporting animals, etc., but this would be the first law to say “if you own a farm animal, you cannot treat it in these cruel ways.” And what happens when one part of the national agriculture industry finally agrees that the wellbeing of its animals matter? Well, hopefully the rest of the industry realizes it better get on board and do the same. I think this makes it possible to envision laws requiring better treatment of dairy cows, pregnant sows nursing their piglets, and other animals in the near future. Yes, this is just one step, but it’s the first step of its kind and it has the potential to lead to more victories for animals in the near future. Read the rest of this entry →

Sorry I’ve been a bit M.I.B.A. (missing in blogging action…obviously), I’ll try to do better.  To be honest, I’ve been busy with family visiting town and a couple vegan birthday celebrations. Speaking of vegan b-days, ours is coming up! If you haven’t yet, please place a vote in our online poll and tell us which CHOMP! dish you’d like to see repeated. And don’t worry, we won’t just be reliving the past on April 6th, we’ll be putting together some fancy new creations as well.

So, back to the point of this post – do you know anyone in Washington state? If you do, I hope you’ll let them know about Washingtonians for Humane Farms. It’s a coalition group made up of the HSUS, Farm Sanctuary, the ASPCA, the National Black Farmers Association (hooray for getting some brothers involved!) and plenty of local humane societies. The organization is currently gathering signatures for a fall ballot measure that would ban the intense confinement of egg laying hens in the state. As expected, the powers that be in Washington’s agricultural establishment are already lining up to sling mud and make ridiculous claims to defend their current way of doing business. My personal favorite? The claim that the chickens themselves must be “happy” in tiny cages that prevent them from spreading their wings. Why, you might ask? Because if they weren’t happy, they wouldn’t be laying so many eggs!

Read the rest of this entry →

Image from the Washington Post, 2008

How do you feel about fake?

The debate about whether imitation animal products help or hurt the vegan cause is not new. It’s also no closer to being resolved. Whether we’re talking about “fake meat” or faux fur, there’s much disagreement both within and outside of the vegan community about how those products reflect on our cause.

Does it make us hypocrites to eschew animal products but embrace man-made products intended to mimic them? Are they facilitators or barriers to convincing others to consider a vegan lifestyle? Read the rest of this entry →

pizza time!

Hello this is my first post! I thought i would show off this pizza i made! it was really God damn good! i made it using whole foods pizza crust, follow your heart vegan mozzarella, morning star meal starters (in your frozen section), spinach, red onion, and franks red hot sauce! like i said it was really good i would suggest making one right now! ok see you soon