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.
Jane
March 23, 2017 @ 11:23 pm
Where did this horrific crime take place?? Which slaughterhouse was it and who do they sell their meat to??? This is awful and must be stopped. We can vote with our money and bad publicity!!!!
Mary
March 24, 2017 @ 12:14 am
Are you vegan or just vegetarian? My family is in the process of going vegetarian. We do dairy, but only local and organic dairy (and a lot of it goat not cow). I don’t think I could go without butter – I know, I know…
Anyway, can you – or any of your readers – recommend a favorite vegetarian cookbook or recipe? I’ve been using library/internet, but I love recommendations! (I should mention that I am not a fabulous cook.)
Victoria Elizabeth Barnes
March 25, 2017 @ 10:51 am
Hey! Paul and I are vegan… I’m not much of a cookbook person, but my mom is… especially for deserts (we are practical people!)
Her favorite is The Vegan Baker… http://amzn.to/2n2vkOj she’s been really happy with everything she’s made from there. (and my brothers and I endorse it too!)
And this one http://amzn.to/2nn7Jv9 Isa’s cookbook— but she also has a website, not sure if they are repeats, or new… but she has really appealing meals.
Online, if you haven’t visited these, I always recommend:
http://www.theppk.com/recipes/
http://ohsheglows.com/categories/recipes-2/
http://yumuniverse.com/topics/blog/recipes/
Of course you know that Pinterest is great, even just for ideas/jumping off points… here’s my board of vegan recipes… I rarely actually “follow” the instructions, so can’t vouch for them all, but I like to just remind myself of new combinations.
https://www.pinterest.com/barnesvictoria/plant-based-meals-recipe-ideas/
If you make anything you really love, let me know!!
Sarah E Dykstra
March 27, 2017 @ 12:18 pm
We have found some amazing vegan cookbooks lately. The classic is Veganomicon and I put off getting it for a long time because it’s about 10 years old, BUT it is amazing. The Mac Daddy recipe is fantastic, the butternut squash rice paper rolls are incredible and there are great ideas for every type of occasion.
The First Mess has simple and easy to prepare meals – everything we’ve made has been outstanding (also a good blog to visit).
Minimalist Baker’s blog and cookbook are also very good.
Nina
March 24, 2017 @ 6:37 am
The creators of Cowspiracy have a new documentary that came out last week: http://www.whatthehealthfilm.com
Agree with all of your points & can’t wait to see it.
Loran Watkins
March 24, 2017 @ 12:05 pm
Laughing Cow cheese is currently the ‘ad of the moment’ on your sidebar, followed by Babybel. I don’t know if you have control over those ads but you might want to look into that…. Since technically someone can click on that, order cheese and you get a tiny percentage of that sale. Sigh. I know, we try to do the right thing but stuff can be so ENTANGLED.
Thanks to you I am now the proud owner of three large pieces of slate from one dissembled pool table 🙂 And the BF is going CRAZY trying to convince me that I can/can’t do the projects I’ve outlined. HA! So I said to him “stand back, because of Victoria and Paul ima gonna show you what can be done!” And so I shall. Thank Paul ahead of time for me 😉
Kathleen
March 24, 2017 @ 2:23 pm
Thank you for the information about milk and cheese. I’ve had a problem eating meat for several years now. I would complain about wanting to eat “happy cows” or getting milk and butter from the idyllic pictures of cows roaming green pastures in the sunshine with their babies next to them and birds singing, etc. I’ve known them to be false images and would keep complaining and yet I did nothing. I’ve always hated the idea of eggs and milk causes me great digestive upset (yet I drink it in my coffee and eat ice cream and cheese and suffer the consequences) and I would eat meat and gag and complain.
Today I decided to go vegan and finally walk the talk, thanks in part to your posts on animal cruelty. They have forced my eyes wide open and I can no longer unsee the abuse and turn my head away and say that someone should do something. I am that someone. I can choose to not eat or use animal products or products tested on animals. I can choose to make a small difference for the animals, my health, the planet’s health.
I enjoy all your posts. Keep educating us on animal cruelty. And the cat posts and house posts are great too!
Amber
March 24, 2017 @ 5:22 pm
I recently watched Forks Over Knives (just last week, actually), and I thought it was fascinating. This post feels very timely for me, personally, and has reinforced my desire to eat more plants and less meat. It’s so hard to change habits, especially bad habits, but I believe it is so important for our health. Thanks for the thought-provoking post! Oh, and good luck with the kittens – may God have mercy on you.
Kim
March 24, 2017 @ 9:17 pm
LOVE this post!! Educate yourselves people. Plant based eating is the way to go! It’s the most humane, healthy and responsible way to live. Thanks Victoria!
Meanwhile try to read anything written by Drs. Campbell, Esselstyn, McDougall, Barnard, and Greger.
wanda garrett
March 26, 2017 @ 3:59 pm
Loved the kitten/cat story! But found the rest of the post most disturbing! I don’t drink cows milk and am vegetarian; how can people actually think this ok? I am too upset now to do anything but cry.
Avien
March 28, 2017 @ 1:02 pm
OMG. I understand that you are vehement in your advocacy for animal protection and sustainability.
I support that. However, I have to say that showing that picture and telling that story …
Does it advance what goals you strive for through your advocacy?
In my mind, that kind of ‘fact showing’ shuts people down. I was engaged in the first part, because I know its factual. You had me. Then the story of the cow – and BOOM. I shut down. Not because I didn’t believe it but because of the helplessness I felt in the face of that kind of brutality. What was the point?
With the current political climate of ‘us versus them’, how does that type of pictorial brutality advance anything? With the proposed Wall and its impact of Wildlife and the political divide between people and animals…how does a picture of a brutalized cow advance common ground and collaboration?
When climate change is being vehemently denied at the Federal level, how does that picture engender a solution that meets the political divide and breed common ground?
Shouldn’t the goal be to broaden perspective, not alientate people new to the knowledge you are sharing by brutalizing them? or in a sense, shaming them? Food for thought, I hope.
Avien
March 28, 2017 @ 1:02 pm
OMG. I understand that you are vehement in your advocacy for animal protection and sustainability.
I support that. However, I have to say that showing that picture and telling that story …
Does it advance what goals you strive for through your advocacy?
In my mind, that kind of ‘fact showing’ shuts people down. I was engaged in the first part, because I know its factual. You had me. Then the story of the cow – and BOOM. I shut down. Not because I didn’t believe it but because of the helplessness I felt in the face of that kind of brutality. What was the point?
With the current political climate of ‘us versus them’, how does that type of pictorial brutality advance anything? With the proposed Wall and its impact of Wildlife and the political divide between people and animals…how does a picture of a brutalized cow advance common ground and collaboration?
When climate change is being vehemently denied at the Federal level, how does that picture engender a solution that meets the political divide and breed common ground?
Shouldn’t the goal be to broaden perspective, not alienate people new to the knowledge you are sharing by brutalizing them? or in a sense, shaming them? Food for thought, I hope.
Shelley Cuatt
March 28, 2017 @ 5:27 pm
I wish I could foster cows…
Court in NZ
March 29, 2017 @ 6:05 am
Dear VEB, you’re sort of right. The majority of the health problems you cite in your article have more to do with the fact the dairy cows in the United States are crammed into feedlots, which are filthy and absolutely horrendous, then fed Roundup-dowsed, genetically-modified grains (something they are not designed to eat), which therefore makes them sick. Sick cows need antibiotics, and it’s actually legal to sell milk with antibiotics in them in the States (it’s illegal elsewhere). On top of that, the milk is then pasteurized and homogenized, changing its chemical structure and rendering it dangerous to consume. So it’s actually no surprise that milk created in this way would make humans sick!
However, RAW MILK from pastured cows, allowed to graze on fresh, green grass in the sun, is very healthy; in fact, raw butter from cows grazing on the rapidly-growing grass in the Spring and Autumn is a super food! An eye-opening read on the subject is “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Dr. Weston A Price.
So, yes, shun the conventional dairy industry and support your small, local organic farmer (or make friends with someone with their own house cow!) who grazes his/her cows on GRASS and consume the milk/milk products in their raw state. Cheers 🙂
kate
April 20, 2017 @ 1:42 pm
wow. you eat a LOT of kale.
also, we had cat brothers who loved each other & were inseparable but then chewed a hole in the screened-in porch for a night of adventure. one ran off & never came back & the other has been inconsolable ever since 🙁 I guess we shouldn’t have named them after the tragic hobbit brothers Fili & Kili who ended up dying in Lord of the Rings. We doomed them from the beginning.
Jenny Young
April 23, 2017 @ 5:54 pm
I’ve been browsing your blog archives after finding it through Pinterest.
I recently had a friend recommend I read Hillbilly Elegy. She & I both grew up in West Virginia, not very far from each other actually. We went off to college, married, had children then met in the midwest & become friends. We’ve had many conversations about our childhoods & how we just never seem to fit in anywhere else we’ve been. She was a coal miner’s daughter, my childhood is too crazy to explain in one sentence. She said it was the first book she’d ever read that really seemed to understand where she came from & what she deals with. I cannot wait to read it! She believes I’ll connect with the author well.
I have not watch Wild Wonderful Whites of West Virginia….I don’t really want to from the clips I’ve seen. It’s nothing like I was raised even though I WAS raised in severe poverty (think no indoor plumbing for one). I will say though, that dental care is a luxury there. Truly, if you go to the dentist at all it’s to have a tooth pulled because you’re in so much pain. I lost so many teeth before I got to college because buying food was more important than repairing a tooth. I was thrilled when I was able to afford dental insurance & actually maintain my teeth.
Anyway…certainly people are not so naive as to believe this show is normal for even West Virginians. Reality shows magnify the extreme, those on the edge. They’re only thinking about ratings & I’m sure many things are aired out of context or manipulated to show a certain story line. I’ve never understood a desire to watch something like this anyway…what you think is real life & to choose & observe someone’s self-destruction? It sounds like the Ancient Roman coliseum to me. Society feeding off of pain & destruction.
I’m really enjoying your writing style…loved your post on kitchen trends & keeping up with the Joneses! I think I’ll be following you to see what other fun things you come up with.
Kallen Ramey
August 28, 2017 @ 4:07 pm
I absolutely loved The Glass Castle, have you read the second book? It’s just as amazing as the first one. And, thank you, for the last story..I wasn’t planning on having an ugly cry in the office but oh well!
I’m still quite new to your blog but it’s kept me very entertained and given me a newfound desire for GFT’s! I can’t wait to read more on your Craigslist conquests, keep on being fancy!