The VEB Review– new hooligan wild monkeys (translation: kittens), what I’m reading, CHEESE!
Many, most, all of you thought that Empress Floof should be mine forever… but I got her adopted.
HEAR ME OUT!
Actually, I don’t think I need to type words… LOOK AT THIS PHOTO. Then we will discuss.
I guess now this post is basically over because I can barely type words other than: dat widdle face! dat widdle tongue!!! doez widdle EARS!!!!! doez widdle whiskers!
Seriously. I nearly had a seizure typing that I would take him.
Then I had to wait decades for him to be cleared to go to foster!
Ok. I’ve gotten ahead of myself… back up.
I had Empress Floof, of the Fancy Feet clan.
Behold her regal fluffballness:
The woman who adopted her has just (within one month of each other) lost both her husband and her beloved cat… Her grief is very recent, and I just fell in love with this lady.
She came over on a Saturday morning. And Floof was amazingly not afraid of this woman!
Floof did not exactly jump in her lap, BUT she sniffed Lady’s hand, AND then deigned to grace us with her presence by lying under a chair nearby… this was a cat who was still running to hide under the bed when the heater kicked on, so voluntarily hanging out with a stranger was nothing short of miraculous!
Lady fell in LOVE with Floof, and she has called me frequently to tell me how amazing Floof is doing– and to tell me how much love and comfort Floof is bringing her… and now I have these two little men; they are brothers and best buds! They are ALWAYS together.
I know it might seem really strange that I could keep giving away these cats! But the more cats I can give a temporary home = the more cats not euthanized simply because they are struggling at overcrowded shelters.
If you can’t foster… there are still MANY ways to help! I wrote a post here about ways you can help your local shelter!
Fostering adult cats is nearly ZERO work! You give them a nice quiet place, in a room with little traffic… give them a blanket, food, scoop the litter box… done.
Yes, they come with a little bit of emotional baggage. But if you can sit nearby in the room, read a book, watch tv, do internet… just be patient with them, it can be very rewarding to see them slowly relax and go from terrified to interested in life!
On the other hand, KITTENS.
Kittens will chew your shoes. And your earbuds. And do some kind of thunderdome apocalyptic aerobics on your bed at 5 o’clock in the morning.
And if there is anything precariously balanced ANYWHERE IN YOUR HOUSE… they will find it and alert you to your own stupidity.
BUT KITTENS STEAL YOUR HEART.
***
SOAPBOX: Milk… it does a body good CANCER, DROUGHT, GLOBAL HUNGER.
Casein, which makes up 87% of the protein in cow’s breastmilk, is the most significant carcinogen we consume… Casein promotes all stages of the cancer process. — Dr. Colin T. Campbell
Have you ever asked yourself:
Why are humans the only animal to consume breastmilk after infancy?
Why are humans the only species in the entire animal kingdom to drink another species’ breastmilk?
Who decided that breastmilk intended to turn a 70 lb newborn calf into a 1,500 lb cow… is good for humans?
Is the answer to all of those questions: because our government got involved in the dairy industry?
Below is an outtake of a longer video that gives an overview of how the USDA got into the business of selling us a carcinogen.
Dairy Management, (which reported expenditures of $136 million last year,) is our government’s branch of the USDA that works to promote dairy sales… By comparison, the department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, which promotes healthy diets, has a total budget of $6.5 million. — The New York Times, how a government-created industry group works to bolster cheese sales.
OH… WHO CARES!!
We love cheese!
BUT WHY? WHY DO WE LOVE CHEESE SO MUCH?
There’s actually an answer to this!
Cheese is highly-concentrated breastmilk… and condensing and concentrating that milk also concentrates the hormones that make nursing feel good to a baby.
In the human brain, these hormones stimulate the same receptors as heroin and morphine; regardless of whether that breastmilk comes from a human, a cow, a goat, etc.
“Digesting breastmilk creates casomorphins, which attach to the brain’s opiate receptors; causing a calming effect in much the same way heroin and morphine do.”
— Dr. Neal Barnard, professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., and president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
Does it matter that the links between dairy consumption and cancer are striking?
Does it matter that science tells us that other species’ breastmilk is bad for us… UNLESS that “science” is conducted by Dannon or funded by the milk-industry ?
Rather than try to edit all the science into one paragraph, I’ll send you to read this excellent and thorough article at Mother Jones.
Dr. Willett (Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School) found that men who drank two or more glasses of milk a day were twice as likely to develop advanced prostate cancer as those who drank no milk.
Women who drank two and a half or more glasses of milk a day had a higher fracture risk than their counterparts who drank less than one glass a day.
Studies showed a connection between dairy consumption and breast cancer; researchers theorized that the high levels of hormones in dairy foods—specifically estrogen, progesterone, and an insulin-like compound known as IGF-1—may speed the growth of tumors. — The Scary New Science That Shows Milk Is Bad For You
Hang on! I thought milk = calcium!! Strong bones! HEALTH!!
Right…???
But WHERE did we get that idea?
WHO told us that?
Was it the people who are financially invested in SELLING US MILK?
Is it possible that politics and capitalism dictate the American food system; creating a market that is completely destructive to public health and the environment; and yet embraced because societal norms tell us that WE LOVE CHEESE! (AND BACON!)
Is it possible… THAT WE ARE NOT COWS??
Is it possible that what we ate to survive winter in Kansas in 1823, is the dietary equivalent of living in a cave without wifi? I mean, survival is awesome! But why are we still making choices to feed ourselves like we are only going to live to be 42?
Is that a biological development? A cultural development? Or a development based on the PROFITABLY OF DAIRY CORPORATIONS?
Lobbying by the $50 billion dairy industry clouds policy on nutrition.
— Food Politics, Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University.
Does it matter that our own wellbeing, the health of our loved ones, and the health of the planet that our children will inherit… are MOST IMPACTED BY HOW WE FEED OURSELVES.
Does it matter that the intensive farming of animals is the single biggest cause of climate change?
Not cars
Not overpopulation
Not countries with no environmental regulations
WHAT WE EAT.
Does it matter that the way we feed ourselves requires that children in underprivileged countries go hungry?
82% of starving children live in countries where food is fed to animals, and the animals are eaten by western countries. — Dr.
Does it matter that our planet’s resources are finite and that we NEED THEM TO SURVIVE… and yet allow meat and dairy industries to exploit, pollute, and destroy the planet we live on!
Does it matter that animal agriculture is the leading cause of rainforest destruction… 70% of former forests in the Amazon have been turned over to grazing. — United Nations, FAO
Does it matter that while California experienced a drought of alarming proportions… the industry that exports CA-grown alfalfa to China’s growing dairy industry was exempt from water regulations? Video below is from National Geographic.
Does it matter that animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones? (source: our own epa!)
Does it matter that 80% of antibiotics used in the United States are for livestock? (FDA pdf)
Does it matter that a food system that uses SO MUCH ANTIBIOTIC has huge repercussions for human health?
Does it matter that everything is connected?
I think so! I think there is nothing that matters MORE!
I think it is terrifying that our government values profit and lobbyists over human health and the PLANET WE ALL NEED TO LIVE ON… and it makes me MAD.
MAD. MAD. MAD
If it makes you mad too, go forth and make other people mad!
If you haven’t seen Forks Over Knives, start there! Then watch Cowspiracy… (both of these are on Netflix)… Read all of the ALARMING (and well documented) facts page on the Cowspiracy website.
Read The China Study: learn about the factory-farming industry’s attempts to brainwash everyone in America into thinking they will die at any moment from a protein deficiency! Like this pitiful weakling: USA’s Olympian record-holding weightlifter who is vegan… Farris set an American weightlifting record by lifting 800 pounds at the 2016 Olympic Trials… SAD!
Is it possible that our collective insanity surrounding the cultural obsession with PROTEIN… is BAD FOR US? Do any of those guys slamming down shakes, bars, supplements even know that TOO MUCH PROTEIN IS BAD or did Men’s Fitness magazine fail to mention that because their job is to sell magazines and those magazines are funding by the advertising dollars from protein supplement manufacturers?
Some individuals, especially teen boys and adult men, also need to reduce overall intake of protein foods by decreasing intakes of meats, poultry, and eggs.
Overall, our human and animal studies indicate that a low protein diet is likely to be useful for the prevention of cancer, overall mortality, and possibly diabetes. — health.gov/dietaryguidelines<– OUR OWN GOVERNMENT
Did you know that one of the mysteries of human breast milk is why the protein content is so low?
Did you know that cows’ milk has 35 grams of protein per liter, while human breast milk has only 9 grams of protein per liter?
Did you know that the ratio of whey and casein proteins in human breast milk range from 80/20 – 60/40 (as breast milk progresses from colostrum to mature milk,) whereas cow milk is completely opposite at a 20/80 ratio.
The dairy industry has long promoted the myth that milk and milk products promote increased bone health—but the opposite is true. The evidence is now abundantly convincing that higher consumption of dairy is associated with higher rates of bone fracture and osteoporosis, according to Yale and Harvard University research groups.
— Dr. Walter C. Willett, M.D., Dr. P.H., is Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Does it matter that just like humans, dairy cows carry their babies for nine months?
Does it matter that those babies are taken from their mothers immediately?
Does it matter that the dairy industry IS the veal industry?
Does it matter that the mother cow will cry for her baby loudly enough to alarm neighbors enough to call the police?
Does it matter that after her body is worn out, after being forced to have child after child, and never getting to nurse or raise any of them… she will be sent to slaughter?
It matters to me.
I believe that babies belong with their mothers. I believe that forcing an animal to birth baby after baby… only to have those babies taken from her so that the dairy industry can sell us cancer in the form of cheese and ice cream is a grotesque mockery of nature and motherhood and our own humanity.
And I have one more question:
If we can live healthier,
MORE COMPASSIONATE lives
without dairy…
WHY WOULDN’T WE?
THIS POST IS DEDICATED TO THE FORGOTTEN MOTHERS… SPECIFICALLY, THIS ONE.
She arrived at the slaughterhouse, unable to walk off the truck.
Please read her story.
This mother spent her life pregnant, but she never knew any of her children. Her sons became veal. Her daughters suffered her same fate so that humans could harvest her breastmilk.
When her production dwindled with age, she was sent to slaughter. She was injured in transport, and wasn’t able to walk off the truck… the slaughterhouse workers used their electric prods in her ear to try to get her out of the truck, then beat and kicked her in the face, ribs, and back, but still she didn’t move.
They tied a rope around her neck, tied the other end to a post in the ground, and drove the truck away. She was dragged along the floor of the truck and fell to the ground, shattering her legs and pelvis.
She remained like that from 8am until 7:30pm. For the first 3hours, she lay in the hot sun crying. When she urinated or defecated, she used her front legs to drag herself along the gravel roadway to a clean spot. She tried to crawl to a shaded area but couldn’t move far enough.
The employees didn’t allow her any water; the only water she received was given to her by Jess Pierce, a local animal lover who had been contacted by a woman who witnessed the incident. After receiving no cooperation from stockyard workers, she called the Kenton County Police. A police officer arrived but was instructed to do nothing.
In the afternoon, the slaughterhouse manager informed Jess that he had permission from the insurance company to kill the cow but wouldn’t do it until Jessie left. Although doubtful that he would keep his word, Jess left at 3pm. She returned at 4:30pm and found the stockyard deserted. Three dogs were attacking the cow, who was still alive. She had suffered a number of bite wounds, and her water had been removed.
Jess contacted the police again. 4 officers arrived at 5:30pm, and a State trooper wanted to shoot the cow but was told that a vet should kill her. The 2 veterinarians at the facility would not euthanize her, claiming that in order to preserve the value of the meat, she could not be destroyed.
The butcher arrived at 7:30 p.m. and shot the cow. Her body was purchased for $307.50.
Vickie H.
March 22, 2017 @ 10:34 am
I want to comment on the kittens but am crying too hard over the final story in this post.
Victoria Elizabeth Barnes
March 22, 2017 @ 10:36 am
From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU for reading it.
xoxo
Roberta
March 22, 2017 @ 10:55 am
no, thank YOU for making the world a better place with your humor, and your stories, and your work to enlighten us and make us think.
Amy G.
March 22, 2017 @ 3:48 pm
Oh god, me too. I am totally crying right now.
Bebe
March 23, 2017 @ 4:18 pm
South Korean women have the longest life expectancy in the world. And they NEVER eat cheese and rarely drink milk except to add to coffee in the morning. They live on average to 88, soon approaching 90.
My Korean grandmother, who never drank milk or ate cheese ever, died in 1992 at age 86 and had NO WRINKLES. She was not pretty but she was always full of energy.
Laura Lind
March 22, 2017 @ 10:37 am
Oh, dear Victoria, you owe it to yourself to read A Childhood, by Harry Crews…
harder to find than The Glass Castle, but oh, SO worth hunting around for a copy.
As Francine Prose wrote in the New York Times:
“At times, the litany of gothic misfortune recalls Harry Crews’s classic memoir, “A Childhood.” The two books have striking similarities; both, for example, feature the horrific scalding of a child. But to think about Crews’s book is to become aware of those mysterious but instantly recognizable qualities — the sensibility, the tonal range, the lyrical intensity and imaginative vision — that distinguish the artist from the memoirist, qualities that suggest the events themselves aren’t quite so interesting as the voice in which they’re recounted.”
Victoria Elizabeth Barnes
March 22, 2017 @ 10:48 am
Thanks for the recommendation!! I just requested it from the library… they have a copy!
Laura Lind
March 22, 2017 @ 10:39 am
Sorry, that last Francine Prose quote was from a review of The Glass Castle.
robin
March 22, 2017 @ 10:52 am
Thank you for this post.
Joy
March 22, 2017 @ 10:57 am
Victoria, if the kitten is still having seizures, you might want to look at DogtorJ.com. He’s a vet who has virtually eliminated seizures in animals through proper diet. He helped my wonderful Westie (Rex) who now has no more health problems. He talks a lot about nutrition for people too. He calls dairy one of the “four horsemen of the apocalypse” along with gluten, corn, and soy. Animals (and people) aren’t meant to consume those foods, and he explains why. If you’re short on time, just look up the article on “what should my pet eat?”
Suzanne Forbes
March 22, 2017 @ 11:00 am
Thank you for educating me. Just poured out the milk in my fridge, gonna switch to some plant based milk for my coffee every day.
Victoria Elizabeth Barnes
March 22, 2017 @ 11:03 am
You made my day. LITERALLY.
xoxoxo times 10,000
ps- you might need to try a few different plant-based ones to find the one for “you.” they are all a little different… etc.
Suzanne Forbes
March 22, 2017 @ 11:12 am
Here in Berlin there are a lot of ads for oat.ly, which I have been meaning to try. I will get assorted milks in vegan heaven Friedrichshain tomorrow when I am teaching…
Stacey
March 22, 2017 @ 11:05 am
I started reading your blog well before your soapbox posts – which incidentally – I LOVE as much as all of your other posts. A life long environmentalist and animal lover, it suddenly dawned on me how inconsistently I was living and I went vegan almost two years ago – I don’t know how long you have been vegan but I find it incredibly heart warming to see us traveling a parallel path in life 🙂 And I love seeing you live consistently with your love of animals – dairy has always been beyond my comprehension as well – so THANK YOU for posting this well researched and persuasive list of resources for those who are curious. There are so many amazing cheese and milk substitutes – there are so many delicious ways to eat without causing animal suffering – it is beyond me at times when I read ingredients in a product that could taste just as good, if not better, WITHOUT using animal products. Sending you a huge hug 🙂 Forks over Knives offers an INCREDIBLE ONLINE cooking course for those interested – I LOVED every moment of it: https://www.forksoverknives.com/cooking-course/
Ellen McCarthy
March 22, 2017 @ 11:06 am
Can’t say I love this because it makes me so sad, but thank you for it nonetheless. My husband and I watched Forks over Knives a month ago and immediately became vegans. We are so thrilled with the results to our health in only a month yet so angry that we were “fed” this total crap for so long.
Alexandra Welch-Zerba
March 22, 2017 @ 11:10 am
Victoria, thank you for posting about the dairy industry. I drink Almond milk from Califia Farms for this very reason. I do not eat meat yet I do eat cheese and eggs and man I really want to not eat them. I do not want to support these industries. Nothing breaks my heart more than seeing these videos. I know the horrors, I have seen them, read about them. Yet so many people are not aware of the severe abuse, the pure horrors of the dairy and meat industry. Some people won’t care, and some people will say “well, that’s too bad, but there are other causes more important.” I say, this is one of the biggest atrocities of us human beings. How can we, the so-called ‘superior’ species, treat other species this way. They are innocent, they have no voice. We must be their voice. If more people become aware of what really happens on these “farms”, how these animals are mistreated every day, how they are slaughtered, how calves are literally torn away from their mothers, I’ve got to believe that things will change. Continue your good work, be their voice. For the animals, thank you.
Michele
March 22, 2017 @ 11:14 am
As a confirmed cat person I want to applaud you for the fostering you are doing. It takes a special kind of person to do this. I have never fostered but have had several feral cats (outside and inside) and adopted shelter cats. They are a love and delight – as your kitten images clearly show.
Cows and dairy is another thing. It is sickening what these animals go through and big agra is the problem. And it touches on pigs and chickens and there is no dignity for the animals. I read Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” several years ago and it changed the way I look at the food I eat and the food industry. It is good to be reminded.
Alexandra Welch-Zerba
March 22, 2017 @ 11:16 am
P.S. I love the posts about the kittens (SO adorable!) and of Floof!
melissa
March 22, 2017 @ 11:17 am
Thank you so much for posting EVERYTHING that you post. I’ve been a vegetarian for over 20 years and haven’t been able to make the jump to veganism. I’ve cut down on my milk consumption, and will try even harder to make the switch this year. Thank you for reminding me that milk is not necessary and even terribly cruel.
Abby Bean
March 22, 2017 @ 11:47 am
I’ve been vegan for 17 years and this stuff still breaks my heart. Thank you for being you and for being such a fantastic educator of compassion in all facets of life. <3
Cheryl
March 22, 2017 @ 12:06 pm
I live in Massachusetts and we just passed a law about the small confinement of farm animals, like veal, hens, pigs. One thing that happens in Massachusetts, Every time a animal rights law needs to pass we all, liberal or conservative vote the same. I’ve worked for animal rights groups in Mass. most of my life and saw a major change in abuse of animals. You will never see a free sign for cats or dogs outside a home in this state. Citizens where educated. However, in the last few years we have noticed an increase in abuse cases from people from third world countries. I’m convinced that slaughterhouses hire third world people to work in their companies, because they know they won’t talk about what’s going on. This needs to stop.
ActualConversationsWithMyHusband
March 22, 2017 @ 12:08 pm
Kittens are a ridiculous amount of work, but it’s important work you’re doing. In many areas, shelters are overcrowded to the point where they literally cannot take in even one more stray, and (I learned this when I found a stray kitten and couldn’t not do something about him) if you call Animal Control they will come and get the new animal but they will not bump an adoptable they’ve already photographed for this new critter. So the animal they just picked up gets euthanized immediately, due to SPACE CONCERNS. Which is crazy to me, because the solution is so simple (more people opening their homes) and it’s not happening.
I can’t foster cats right now (legal limit – I have reached it) but I foster dogs and am applying to foster bunny rabbits. Because that’s a thing. Something for people who can’t have kitties to consider – you might be able to foster caged animals, who also desperately need your help!
Pat
March 22, 2017 @ 12:42 pm
You have done in one post what I have been unable to do in 62 years. I will never consumer dairy products again.
Linda D.
March 22, 2017 @ 1:09 pm
I like to think of myself as an open minded omnivore. I try to eat responsibly, even though I am a city dweller. I can’t grow my own food or hunt/fish, but I try to buy responsibly – free range, grass fed, no antibiotics, etc. I understand that quite a bit of the ‘health’ information out there is market driven and that reasonable scientists can disagree with one another. For me, the key is respect – both respect for the humans who disagree with me, and the animals and animal products I continue to consume.
My Mediterranean peasant background has always used meat sparingly. We’re all about the garlic, olive oil and vegetables, although I have given up a familial over-reliance on wheat, and my aging knees have thanked me. My great grandfather (yes, I knew him!) always spoke of moderation in all things…yet he often began his day with a raw egg beaten with a jigger of brandy followed by a double expresso!
Even if I’ve no desire to go vegan or ‘raw’ I think there is much we can do to elevate the quality of our food delivery system. Thanks for continuing to educate your blog readers about the inherent dangers of industrial food production. It’s far too easy for ‘convenience’ to make us blind to the hidden costs of our food, like animal suffering and our own health.
Leticia
March 24, 2017 @ 8:08 am
I think a measure of common sense is lacking in this discussion. I also think living gives you cancer. Our forefathers didn’t get cancer because they died much younger of starvation, TB, bacterial infections and such. I also think the greatest killer of the 21st century will not be cancer or heart disease. It might just as well be viral infections.
Besides, the starvation we see today is not a matter of production. I live in Brazil, not your poster boy “developed country” and we do have enough food for everybody. People still starve in some places. In America people “starve” out of eating processed food with no nutritional value, here in some cases, people still starve out of denial of caloric intake. Sad, yes, cruel, maybe, but it has nothing to do with the herds of cattle. It happens where agriculture is done as it was done two centuries ago or where people live by extracting survival off the jungle, as it was done millennia ago. When crops fail, you die, when there is a calamity, you die. Is that better than mechanized agriculture? You can feed yourself much better by living on the streets in any major city around here. The climate is perfect: it never freezes. The staggering numbers of the street population seem to confirm.
On the other hand, the images of misery we see on the internet are mostly caused by war. War is a whole other level of stupidity. It has to do with power plays by the great powers for the greatest resources. Nothing that the little people like us here in South America have anything to do with. Ops, not all of us are in SA, right? Syria, that everybody likes to pity, isn’t it some sort of staging place for the Americans and the Russians and someone else to be showing off their war toys?
So, my point about cheese. Cheese might kill ya. But then, if you are alive, death and taxes are unavoidable.
While you wait for death, read Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond, please.
https://www.amazon.com/Guns-Germs-Steel-Fates-Societies/dp/0393317552
Alex
March 26, 2017 @ 12:58 pm
Cheese might kill ya, and it’s definitely killing and torturing other sentient beings. As a Brazilian, surely you see that rainforests burned to plant soy to feed cattle and poultry is an ecological disaster? We can’t get those ecosystems back, and we barely understand how they keep us alive before they’re destroyed. Brazil is being rocked by a contaminated meat scandal at the moment. Climate change is reality. This is not a sustainable way to feed the world. If you understand the role you play in this mess, do what you can. It’s not about vegan perfection. It’s about doing something possible and practicable to reduce suffering! And cutting out cheese in this cheese obsessed world is certainly something that can reduce suffering, whether it’s reducing your chance of prostate cancer, carbon footprint, or not paying someone to rip a newborn calf away from their mother.
Personally, I like clean water and clean air. Neither of which are promoted by a mega-dairy or other factory farm. Animal waste doesn’t get treated. It sits in a lagoon, which often overtops into waterways or leaches into groundwater. The human misery in animal agriculture is not ignored either. The abuse of migrant workers in slaughterhouses is well-documented. So are the incidences of respiratory illnesses downwind of factory farms. The public health disaster of obesity and heart disease where meat and dairy consumption is high.
Our food choices have more impact than are ever emphasized.
Laura
March 22, 2017 @ 1:23 pm
I wish every American knew this information. I feel like if people understood even half of what you wrote, everyone would immediately become vegan. It’s such a shame that the government is so powerful when it comes to food choices and they abuse their power. It reminds me of how the government promoted cigarettes even though it was well known the health issues that came with smoking.
The good news is I really do think progress is being made. It seems like more and more people understand these truths.
We went to a Mexican restaurant last night that had a vegan section on their menu. This is completely unheard of in Northwest Ohio.
Elaine Miller
March 22, 2017 @ 1:31 pm
Another fantastic post. My husband and I went plant-based just over 5 years ago now. Initially we did it to help with his cholesterol and to get off Lipitor. However, we both noticed an increased concern for animal rights the longer we’ve been vegan. I’ve always considered myself an animal lover (we got our first dog when I was 9 months old) but now I don’t know how people can call themselves animal lovers and still consume them. Maybe they’re dog lovers or cat lovers or hamster lovers but unless they stop eating animals then they cannot call themselves animals lovers. Just my growing opinion though. I shall dismount my soap box now. Good on ya’ VEB. Fight the good fight.
Katherine
March 22, 2017 @ 2:00 pm
Thank you for the last part of this post, especially. I have been painfully aware of some of this but not all of it, and even after the final, horrific story of poor Mama cow, I am going to read up on all you included and more to see what I can do. I’m married to a man for whom no meal is considered a meal without meat, and we live in cheeseland (France) so not easy but I feel I must do something, anything.