5 Simple Ways to Eat More Compassionately in the New Year
1. Eat less chicken and fewer eggs. When you reduce or eliminate chicken and egg consumption, you’re helping some of the most abused animals on the planet. Chickens raised for meat are crammed by the thousands into filthy warehouses and denied access to the outdoors, fresh air and sunlight for their entire lives. Specifically excluded from the Federal Humane Slaughter Act, chickens are carried through the slaughter process so rapidly that many are injured but not killed and are instead boiled alive when it comes time to remove their feathers. Gardein and Quorn, two brands widely available in supermarkets, make chicken alternatives that — wait for it — taste just like chicken! Minus the fear and suffering, of course.
Chickens raised for eggs don’t have it much better. They are packed so tightly in fetid cages that they can never engage in basic natural behaviors or even stretch their wings. Millions are starved for a few weeks each year to shock their bodies into another egg-laying cycle. Think about it: Is your momentary enjoyment of an omelet really worth making an already depressed and miserable animal go hungry for weeks? If that doesn’t sit right with you, opt for the high-protein, cruelty-free tofu scramble instead.
2. Replace cow’s milk with a healthy, animal-friendly, non-dairy, calcium-fortified milk made from almonds, rice, oats, coconut, soy or hemp. It’s complete hooey that people need cow’s milk for calcium. Cow’s milk is for baby calves, and there are plenty of delicious, more healthful and calcium-rich plant-based alternatives we can consume. The only way for people to consume cow’s milk is to routinely tear newborn calves from their mothers as dairy cows are trapped in an endless cycle of pregnancy and lactation. Pushed beyond their biological limits, they are worn out and sent to slaughter after just a few years “in production.” Have you had an almond milk or soy milk mocha latte? They are fantastic and truly guilt free!
3. Avoid foie gras like the plague. Foie gras, or fatty duck liver, is only produced by the systematic and abusive practice of over feeding ducks via a metal tube that is forced down their throats. Foie gras is in a class with veal in terms of the cruelty inflicted on animals, and we should shun it every bit as much.
4. Resolve to eat vegetarian one day each week. If the above seems like too big of a challenge to start, eat vegetarian at one meal a week. Before long, you’ll realize how easy and delicious it is to eat vegetarian, and it will feel effortless to increase how often you eat vegetarian meals. Using this incremental approach, you may decide to eliminate animal products from your diet all together. Simply decreasing your consumption of factory-farmed meat will prevent countless animals from living a life of pure misery. More than 95 percent of all meat sold in restaurants and supermarkets comes from animals so cruelly confined they cannot lie down comfortably, extend their limbs, or engage in any of their natural behaviors.
5. Eat more plants! From salads and pasta dishes to vegetarian meats and cheeses, there’s a new world of flavorful alternatives to enjoy as part of a kinder, healthier eating plan. If you want cheese, try the Daiya non-dairy varieties; for sausage, reach for the Field Roast chipotle or apple sage links; instead of a hamburger, try a veggie burger with pickles, tomato, onion and other fresh toppings; when the kids want chicken nuggets, they won’t even realize that Quorn brand nuggets are missing the meat.
It’s 2012 — isn’t it time we stop eating foods produced by industries that treat animals like unfeeling commodities and start eating in a way that reflects the healthy, evolved, compassionate society we aspire to be? Let this be the year you opt out of eating cruelly. You’ll be amazed at how great it feels (and tastes) to eat compassionately.
For more by Gene Baur, visit farmsanctuary.typepad.com/making_hay/
Photo credit: Beth Terry
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12 Comments
This article is, overall, far too based on fact. It’s sickening. BUT, please don’t bunch the ethical CSA’s into this category. I try to avoid meat whenever I can, although my family doesn’t so I do everything I can to ensure that what I serve them is ethically raised and, yes, ethically slaughtered based on the best information I have. I’d stil rather eat vegan any day of the week and would like my family to also, but we also have to do the very best based on the situation at hand.
Great article:) Just an FIY Quorn does have egg white protein in it, thought everyone needed to know:)
Love this article, but I really think we should be promoting a vegetarian diet more then once a week! How about 3 or 4 times a week!!!!! Once is not enough
T
There’s no such thing as “ethically raised”. These animals do not freely give their lives, their flesh, their secretions or their skins for the “privilege’ of ending up on our plates. They do not willingly offer their throats to be slit or broken so that we can satiate our addiction to meat and dairy.
They struggle to survive – they do not die quietly, without any fuss – that’s a fantasy. They scream in terror and pain and try to get away from their murderer. Just go Vegan. Stop making excuses and being an Excusitarian. Veganism helps you (your health), the planet (the environment) and most importantly the ANIMALS.
great info and great tips.. although I question the Quorn recommendations, almost all of their products contain egg
I have recently returned to veganism and feel this information you’ve so clearly, concisely presented needs to have a wider audience. I also started wondering why there are no vegan/vegetarian cooking shows, even on the Food Network. Do the animal food industries have a stranglehold on TV? There are many more vegetarians now, percentage-wise, than in the past. You’d think there would be a decent audience. I’d watch a good food/cooking show if it was dedicated to ethical consumption.
Why is veal “on a class of its own” together with Foie-Gras? Why is the obtention of veal meat more cruel than that of lamb or chicken? Thank you.
It’s a terrific recommendation. That said, I love to cook with eggs; baking cakes, making crepes and souffles and a host of other things that require one or many of them.
Keenly aware of the conditions in most egg “factories,” I finally found a solution. We have a young neighbor who raises her own chickens and sells the eggs to sock away money for travel and college. Once a week, this young ninth-grader stops by our house to deliver one or two hand-painted egg cartons with the freshest, free-range chicken eggs I could possibly find. Buy locally when you can. It doesn’t contribute to that factory farm system and it helps your neighbors.
Terry, there are no vegan cooking shows because although we all think they would be marketable, the reality is they aren’t. I think we often feel that we are large in numbers, but we (quite unfortunately) are not. Another reason is that vegan ism still has a really bad public image. I read an article recently about vegan bakeries. Although they are making amazing products, no one in the mainstream will go into them if they are labeled as vegan. However, as soon as the vegan name and marketing is changed…..sales start to climb.
In the mean time, keep an eye out for programs that make vegan dishes, without claiming to be vegan. I find much more diversity on the newer FoodTV channel than is available on The Food Network. The ethnic diversity of the shows seems to lend itself naturally to more vegan and vegetarian options.
Terry, there are no vegan cooking shows because although we all think they would be marketable, the reality is they aren’t. I think we often feel that we are large in numbers, but we (quite unfortunately) are not. Another reason is that veganism still has a really bad public image. I read an article recently about vegan bakeries. Although they are making amazing products, no one in the mainstream will go into them if they are labeled as vegan. However, as soon as the vegan name and marketing is changed…..sales start to climb.
In the mean time, keep an eye out for programs that make vegan dishes, without claiming to be vegan. I find much more diversity on the newer FoodTV channel than is available on The Food Network. The ethnic diversity of the shows seems to lend itself naturally to more vegan and vegetarian options.
Great post. Since I developed some allergies and my daughter at age 10 decided to go veggie we’ve discovered a whole new world of veggie options and I do feel healthier as the food is lighter.
Are free range eggs not a cruelty free option?
I do eat eggs but only organic ones. Would never buy non-organic ones. Have to say though, I use quorn a lot and have for a long time to replace minced meat and it works great for pasta sauces and tacos BUT quorn products do contain egg white so that’s important to remember if you want to stay away from animal products completely. :)
January 25, 2012