All posts by HowToGo Vegan

How To Go Vegan Episodes

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Hi Friends,

I have released a number of How To Go Vegan podcast episodes already which are in existence on this page. There are currently 50 plus episodes on this site. I hope you will subscribe and invite others to do so and also share information. Let’s bring about a vegan world.

List of How To Go Vegan Episodes so far released:

1) Why Vegan : Start Here

2) Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience: Start Here

3) Speciesism, Sentience and Rights

4) “Humane”: What’s in a Word

5) Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

6) Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?

7)  Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: What’s Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?

8) Calcium: Plant versus Dairy

9) That’s Where Our Safety Will Come

10) Making a Killing with Animal Welfare Reform

11) A Better World for All of Us

12) A Call To Vegetarians

13) Why Begin Again

14) What’s Wrong with Wool?

15) Protein

16) The Importance of Being Vegan

17) Can Veganism End World Hunger?

18) Freedom’s New Frontier: A Guide to Animal Rights

19) What’s Wrong with Leather?

20) Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

21) What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs?

22) Vegan: Easier than You Think

23) Magnesium: How Important Is It?

24) “Free Range” Eggs

25) Willow’s Whisper to the World

26) A Vegan Manifesto 

27) Mother’s Milk

28) Veganism : What and Why

29) Birds of the Down Industry

30) Cruelty to Animals

31) Why Vegans Don’t Wear Silk

32) How Important are Omega 3s?

Thanks and much love
Trish
HowToGoVegan.org

How Important are Omega 3 Oils?

Welcome to How To Go Vegan podcast. Hopefully you’ve looked at the episode Introduction to Plant-based Nutrition which includes important information about Vitamin B12. If you haven’t listened to that particular episode I invite you to do so before listening to this one. 🙂 But if you listen to only one episode on this site, I invite  you to listen to Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience

Before I start, I would just like to say that at times I’m going to compare animal sources of various nutrients with plant based sources. If I do this, it’s simply to to demonstrate the clear health issues, backed by science. Although I do this, I want to be clear that for me, it wouldn’t matter if animal sourced-nutrients were better healthwise for us. Even if they were not harmful, I would not consume them because they are products of great violence and also because we can be vegan and we can easily meet our nutrition requires from plants and other non-animal sources. But I will demonstrate the differences between plant vs animal sources with some examples of non-animal nutrition studies, to demonstrate how superior a plant based diet is.

Some of the information I’ll provide in these episodes about nutrition are sourced from a site Nutritionfacts.org which personally I find very beneficial. It freely provides regular science-based public information on the latest in nutrition research. So I invite you to check it out. And a please read my full disclaimer about external sites.

 

For more information

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Iron : Plant vs Animal

Welcome to How To Go Vegan podcast. Hopefully you’ve looked at the episode Introduction to Plant-based Nutrition which includes important information about Vitamin B12. If you haven’t listened to that particular episode I invite you to do so before listening to this one. 🙂 But if you listen to only one episode on this site, I invite  you to listen to Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience

Before I start, I would just like to say that at times I’m going to compare animal sources of various nutrients with plant based sources. If I do this, it’s simply to to demonstrate the clear health issues, backed by science. Although I do this, I want to be clear that for me (or the vegans I know), it would not matter if animal sourced-nutrients and animal products were better health-wise for us. Even if they were not harmful, I would not consume them because they are products of great violence and also because we can be vegan and we can easily meet our nutrition requirements from plants (and other non-animal sources). But I will demonstrate the differences between plant versus animal sources with some examples of non-animal nutrition studies, to demonstrate how superior a plant based diet is.

Some of the information I’ll provide in these episodes about nutrition are sourced from a site Nutritionfacts.org which personally I find very beneficial. It freely provides regular science-based public information on the latest in nutrition research. So I invite you to check it out. And a please read my full disclaimer about external sites.

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Willow’s Whisper to the World

Willow’s Whisper to the World | Joanna Lucas | Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

In Spanish: El susurro de Willow para el mundo
In German: Willows Geflüster an die Welt

Joanna’s message:
If living ethically is important to you, please remember that there is nothing humane about “humane” animal farming, just as there is nothing ethical or defensible about consuming its products. When confronted with the fundamental injustice inherent in all animal agriculture—a system that is predicated on inflicting massive, intentional and unnecessary suffering and death on billions of sentient individuals—the only ethical response is to strive to end it, by becoming vegan, not to regulate it by supporting “improved” methods of producing dairy, eggs, meat, wool, leather, silk, honey, and other animal products. For more information, please read The Humane Farming Myth. Live vegan and educate others to do the same.

Shared with kind permission of Joanna Lucas (Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary). Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

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“Free Range” Eggs

Free Range” Eggs | What’s Wrong With Vegetarianism? | UVE Archives

To see more about “spent” free-range hens, see Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary’s Faces of Free Range Farming.

Read More:

What’s wrong with Backyard Eggs? | Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs? | Gentle World

Should You Be Eating Eggs | Gentle World

Cage Free? Not Free Enough | Gentle World

A Hen’s Relationship with Her Eggs? | Gentle World

Shared with kind permission of UVE Archives. Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, groups, organisations, products, social media, organisations that may appear or may be mentioned on How To Go Vegan

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Magnesium: How Important Is It?

Excerpt:

Welcome to How To Go Vegan podcast. Hopefully you’ve listened to the episode Introduction to Plant-based Nutrition which includes important information about Vitamin B12. If you haven’t listened to that particular episode I invite you to do so before listening to this one. 🙂 But if you listen to only one episode on this site, I invite  you to listen to Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience

Before I start, I would just like to say that at times I’m going to compare animal sources of various nutrients with plant based sources. If I do this, it’s simply to to demonstrate the clear health issues, backed by science. Although I do this, I want to be clear that for me (and other vegans I know), it wouldn’t matter if animal sourced-nutrients and animal products were better health-wise for us. Even if they were not harmful, I would not consume them because they are products of great violence and also because we can be vegan and we can easily meet our nutrition requires from plants and other non-animal sources. But I will demonstrate the differences between plant versus animal sources with some examples of non-animal nutrition studies, to demonstrate how superior a plant based diet is.

Some of the information I’ll provide in these episodes about nutrition are sourced from a site Nutritionfacts.org which personally I find very beneficial. It freely provides regular science-based public information on the latest in nutrition research. So I invite you to check it out. And a please read my full disclaimer about external sites.

So on to Magnesium. What most of us do not know is how important magnesium is to our overall health.

One of the most significant factors in calcium deficiency is low levels of magnesium. Magnesium (as well as Vitamin D from sunlight or from supplements) is necessary for calcium uptake. If we do not have enough magnesium or Vitamin D, it would not matter how much calcium is in our diet, we can be deficient.

Our major source of magnesium has always been plants. A little known fact is that deficiency in magnesium rather than calcium is mainly responsible for arthritis and osteoporosis. About 50 to 60% of a person’s magnesium is stored in the bone, and therefore, it plays a key role in bone metabolism. Studies have revealed that even a mild ongoing magnesium deficiency can lead to a significant amount of bone loss.

Magnesium is a co-factor for over 100 enzymes involved in the control of blood sugar and glucose metabolism. As such, low magnesium status would be expected to have wide-ranging adverse effects on blood sugar control.

A 2011 study, noted “magnesium is an essential mineral in whole grains, leafy green vegetables, legumes—meaning beans, peas, lentils and soy, and nuts, as well as seeds, that acts as a co-factor in hundreds of enzymatic reactions in the human body.”

A diet low in magnesium has been linked to unwanted increases in the inflammatory process. Chronic and low-grade inflammation has increasingly been tied to increased risk of heart disease, obesity, and diabetes.

Low magnesium has also been linked with depression.

A considerable body of evidence indicates that a higher intake of dietary magnesium may favourably affect a cluster of metabolic and inflammatory disorders including many of our top killers like diabetes and heart disease.

The number one killer of both men and women in the United States is heart disease. What most of us may not know is that according to the American Heart Association, the majority of Americans who die of heart disease, do not have any history of symptoms prior to their fatal heart attack. Their first symptom is literally minutes before they die. People dropping dead in their 30s 40s and 50s. Many autopsy reports of people who suddenly died this way with no prior history of heart problems revealed significantly low concentrations of magnesium in their heart muscle.

Please listen to the full podcast episode to find out more about how important magnesium is to our health. 🙂

Thanks for listening 🙂

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Vegan : Easier Than You think

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community). Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

For more information:

A Vegan Manifesto | Gentle World

If We Were They | Gentle World

A Better World For All of Us | Gentle World

 #22 Release

 

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What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs?

What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs?

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community). Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

For more information

What’s wrong with Backyard Eggs by Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary

#Release 21

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Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community).

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that may be mentioned or may appear on How To Go Vegan

Release #20

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Can Veganism End World Hunger?

Can Veganism End World Hunger?

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community). Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

For more information:

The devastating effects of animal agriculture on the planet and the tremendous  contribution to global warming, please read page 2 of  “Apocalyptic Capitalism” by Pulitzer prize recipient Chris Hedges

Number of Land Animals Being Raised or Killed for Consumption | Gentle World

Agriculture on the Brink

As We Soy, So Shall We Reap | Angel Flinn

The Flu Lagoon : A Disaster Waiting To Happen | Angel Flinn

Fecal Matters | Angel Flinn

The Vegan Solution: An Ideal Whose Time Has Come  | Angel Flinn

How Much Land Do Free-Range and Grass-Fed Animals Require? | Gentle World

Destruction of Native Species | Gentle World

Tearing Down the Rainforest for Grass-Fed Cows | Gentle World

Water Pollution Caused by Animal Farming | Gentle World

On the Environmental Benefits of Being Vegan | UVE Archives

On the Environmental Disaster of Animal Agriculture | UVE Archives

Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit
by Vandana Shiva

Josh Fox  “How To Let Go of The World (And Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change“)

Chris Hedges interviews Josh Fox about his movie “How To Let Go Of The World (And Love All The Things Climate Can’t Change)”

 

Release #17

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The Importance of Being Vegan

The Importance of Being Vegan | Angel Flinn | Gentle World

Part of a slow release of already existing episodes. Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community). As usual, please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

release #15

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Protein

Part of a slow release of already existing episodes.
Hopefully you’ve looked at the episode Introduction to Plant-based Nutrition which includes important information about Vitamin B12. If you haven’t listened to that particular episode I invite you to do so before listening to this one. 🙂 But if you listen to only one episode on this site, I invite  you to listen to Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience

Before I start, I would just like to say that at times I’m going to compare animal sources of various nutrients with plant based sources. If I do this, it’s simply to to demonstrate the clear health issues, backed by science. Although I do this, I want to be clear that for me (or the vegans I know), it would not matter if animal sourced-nutrients and animal products were better health-wise for us. Even if they were not harmful, I would not consume them because they are products of great violence and also because we can be vegan and we can easily meet our nutrition requirements from plants (and other non-animal sources). But I will demonstrate the differences between plant versus animal sources with some examples of non-animal nutrition studies, to demonstrate how superior a plant based diet is.

Some of the information I’ll provide in these episodes about nutrition are sourced from a site Nutritionfacts.org which personally I find very beneficial. It freely provides regular science-based public information on the latest in nutrition research. So I invite you to check it out. And a please read my full disclaimer about external sites.

 

For more info:

The Protein Combining Myth

How Not to Die from Kidney Disease

The Great Protein Fiasco

C. difficile Superbugs in Meat is on the Rise

Dead Meat Bacteria Endotoxemia

release #14

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Why Begin Again?

Why Being Again?

Shared with kind permission of Joanna Lucas.


Excerpt

“Celeste left this world entirely on her own. She had been forced into existence by human greed, she had been a prisoner of a crippled body all of her short life, but she exited entirely on her own terms, just before noon, one summer day.

Celeste, wherever you are, “Il y a longtemps que je t’aime, Jamais je ne t’oublierai.” “I’ve loved you for so long, I will never forget you”. This will be a life-filled year. Maybe not happy, maybe not comfortable, but beautiful, and true – like your life. Worth living. Worth beginning again.”

Joanna Lucas

Joanna also writes

“If living ethically is important to you, please remember that there is nothing humane about “humane” animal farming, just as there is nothing ethical or defensible about consuming its products. When confronted with the fundamental injustice inherent in all animal agriculture—a system that is predicated on inflicting massive, intentional and unnecessary suffering and death on billions of sentient individuals—the only ethical response is to strive to end it, by becoming vegan, not to regulate it by supporting “improved” methods of producing dairy, eggs, meat, wool, leather, silk, honey, and other animal products. For more information, please read The Humane Farming Myth. Live vegan and educate others to do the same.”

Please read my disclaimer about external sites, social media groups, organisations, products, individuals mentioned or that appear on this site.

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A Call To Vegetarians

A Call to Vegetarians | Angel Flinn

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community). Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

For more info

Vegan and Vegetarian: Why They are not Similar by There’s an Elephant in the Room | Author: Linda Clark

What’s wrong with Vegetarianism? | UVE Archives

Release #12

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A Better World For All Of Us

cows in pasture fog 2Part of a slow release of already existing episodes.

“It’s been nearly 14 years since I had my vegan epiphany and vowed to never again partake of or participate in anything offered by the machine of violence that we call the animal industry. Since that time, my appreciation of veganism has continued to grow and deepen, until it has become such an integral part of my ethics and my values that I can no longer imagine being able to separate from it, and still be able to look at myself in the mirror with a clear conscience.

To no longer be vegan would mean to deny the most obvious truth I have ever learned, and to turn my back on every single animal who is counting on me and others like me to advocate for them in a world where they are seen as disposable objects rather than sentient individuals.

To no longer be vegan would mean to pretend that I do not know what is really going on – on the farms, in the hatcheries, in the slaughterhouses, in the laboratories, in the oceans, and everywhere else on this planet where animals are treated as resources for us to exploit.

To no longer be vegan would mean to deny my true nature as a person who can feel for the pain of others, and who aspires to live as peacefully as she can in this far from peaceful world.

To no longer be vegan would mean to return to a world of darkness, for it would require me to close my eyes to the light of moral progress that illuminates the way forward to a better world for us all. But perhaps an even more saddening thought is that it would require me to extinguish the light of my own integrity, which is the source of my faith in myself, and which I count on to show me my own next steps on my way to a better self.” Angel Flinn (Gentle World) To find essay start here

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community).

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, groups, products, social media, organisations that are mentioned or that appear on How To Go Vegan

 

Release #11

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Making a Killing With Animal Welfare Reform

Making a Killing With Animal Welfare Reform | UVE Archivescow in grates1

Part of the slow release of already existing podcast episodes.

Shared with kind permission of UVE Archives and Gentle World .

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations, groups that appear or that are mentioned on How To Go Vegan

 

Release #10

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That’s Where Our Safety Will Come

trudell1Part of the slow release of already existing podcasts:

Partial transcript

“We’re faced with a very serious situation in this generation. There are insane people who wish to rule the world. They wish to continue to rule the world on violence and repression, and we are all the victims of that violence and repression. We, as the indigenous people of the western hemisphere have been resisting this oppression for 500 years. We know that the Black people have been resisting it for at least that long. And we know that the white people have had to endure it thousands of years. And now it’s come full swing to this generation that we live in: the nuclearization of the world.

You see, this cannot be. We cannot allow this to continue to go on. We cannot do it. We cannot expect that the pro-nuclear oppressor, that other side, we cannot expect that they’re going to change for us. They are going to become more brutal. They are going to become more repressive because it’s a matter of dollars and their illusionary concepts of power.

We have to re-establish our identity. We have to understand who we are and where we fit in the natural order of the world, because our oppressor deals in illusions. They tell us that it is power, but it is not power. They may have all the guns, and they may have all the racist laws and judges, and they may control all the money, but that is not power. These are only imitations of power, and they are only power because in our minds we allow it to be power. But it’s all an imitation. Racism and violence, racism and guns, economics – the brutality of the American Corporate State way of life is nothing more than violence and repression and it doesn’t have anything to do with power. It is brutality. It’s a lack of a sane balance. The people who have created this system, and who perpetuate this system, they are out of balance. They have made us out of balance. They have come into our minds and they have come into our hearts and they’ve programmed us. Because we live in this society, and it has put us out of balance. And because we are out of balance we no longer have the power to deal with them. They have conquered us as a natural power.

See, we are power. They deal in violence and repression, we are power. We are a part of the natural world. All of the things in the natural world are a natural part of the creation and feed off the energy of our sacred mother, Earth. We are power. But they have separated us from our spiritual connection to the Earth, so people feel powerless. We look at the oppressor and we look at the enemy because they have the most guns and the most lies and the most money. People start to feel powerless.

john-trudell-go-beyond We are power, we are a natural part of the creation, we were put here on the sacred mother Earth to serve a purpose. And somewhere in the history of people we’re forgetting what the purpose is. The purpose is to honor the Earth, the purpose is to protect the Earth, the purpose is to live in balance with the Earth, the Earth is our mother. And we will never free ourselves as human people, we will never free ourselves as sexual people, we will never free ourselves until we address the issue of how we live in balance with the Earth. Because all our resistance and all of our struggle is hollow, it’s false, it’s another one of the oppressor’s hypocrisies. If we do not look out for the welfare of the Earth first, because I don’t care who it is, any child who turns on their mother is living in a terrible, terrible confusion. The Earth is our mother, we must take care of the Earth.

They pollute – this oppressor, this machine that has gone mad and run amok, it is beserk. They keep telling us, “progress.” They keep telling us “face reality.” Well, let’s deal with reality. Reality is the Earth can no longer take this attack. We can no longer allow this Thing to continue when it’s polluting the air, it’s polluting the water, polluting our food. They pollute the air, they pollute the water, they pollute our food, they pollute our minds. They put us out of balance.

They have made us be insecure with ourselves. They have put us into a situation where we have to play many roles. You know, we gotta be chauvinist, or we’ve got to be on some kind of a class trip, or some kind of illusionary power trip. We’ve gotta play a role, see? We’ve gotta play a role to communicate with other people. We’ve got to go through this charade because they have attacked our self confidence. They have attacked our self confidence and they have made us to listen to *them.* They have made us to believe that they are power. But they are not – they are violent and they are brutal, but they are not power.

We are a natural part of the Earth. As a natural part of the Earth, we have the energy and the power that IS the Earth. The Earth will take care of us if we will remember the Earth- in more than just our words. If we will remember the Earth in our way of life; we are all here to play a role. And all of the animals, and all of the life on the Earth is playing it’s proper role except the human people. Somehow we are betraying, we are betraying our purpose here and that is why we live in the confusion that we live in. They tell us, they want us to believe, that we are powerless.

trudell3We are a natural part of the earth, we are an extension of that natural energy. The natural energy which is Spirit, and which is power.

Power.

A blizzard is power.

An earthquake is power.

A tornado is power.

These are all things of power that no oppressor, no machine age, can put these things of power in a prison. No machine age can make these things of power submit to the machine age. That is natural power. And just as it takes millions and billions of elements to make a blizzard to happen, or to make the earthquake, to make the earth to move, then it’s going to take millions and billions of us.

We are power.
We have that power.
We have the potential for that power.

I remember in the 60s and 70s I heard all these things about “power to the people” and I never really understood because everyone was saying  “power to the people” when they were talking about demonstrating, they were talking about votes, they were talking about dealing on the terms of the oppressor. Our power will come back to us, our sense of balance will come back to us, when we go back to the natural way of protecting and honoring the Earth. If we have forgotten how to do it, or we think that it looks overwhelming, or think that we can never accomplish it, then all we have to do, each one of us, as an individual, we can go and find one spot on the Earth that we can relate to.

Feel that energy, feel that power.
That’s where our safety will come.

The Earth will take care of us. We have to understand that the American Corporate State will not take care of us. They do not care about us. Maximize their profit, that is where their whole life’s value is placed upon- maximizing the profit. They will turn us against each other to maximize the profit, because they have done it in the past.

Nuclear energy. It’s the final assault. Nuclear energy should tell each and every one of us that they have gone beyond the reasons of sanity. That they are no longer sane. That they no longer deal with the real, natural world. Because they want to create a radioactivity that is going to make it impossible for the mother earth to take care of our life. We will not destroy the world. We are arrogant and we are stupid and we are foolish if we believe that we will destroy the world.  Man has the ability to destroy all of the people’s ability to live on the Earth, but we do not have the power to destroy the Earth. The Earth will heal itself.  The Earth will purify itself of us. If it takes a billion years to get rid of the radiation the Earth will do it, because the Earth has that kind of time. We do not.

Our obligations and our loyalty have to be to the earth, and they have to be to our sense of community and to our people and to our relations. Our obligations and loyalty should not be to a government that will not take care of our needs. Our obligations and loyalty should not be to a government that has proven time and time again that it is the enemy of the people unless the people are rich in dollars. That has been the consistent history of Western civilization and the American Corporate State Government – that’s reality. They are not our friends, they do not care about us. We have to face the reality that we have an enemy.

We all want to talk about nuclear war, everyone’s afraid of nuclear war, and it’s going to come between the Americans and the Russians or the Chinese or whoever. But are they not waging nuclear war on us now when the miners die from cancer from mining that Uranium? Are they not waging nuclear war with Three Mile Island? When they release that stuff into the air? Are they not waging nuclear war when they build these nuclear reactors and it’s not safe? Are they not waging nuclear war when they attack the Indian people on their land, militarily attack the Indian people, racistly attack the Indian people, so they can get at the natural resources to feed their radioactive machines? That is war, and they are waging it against us. They bribe congress, they bribe your elected officials, they terrorize and intimidate your elected officials by getting the FBI to blackmail them. Those are acts of war. We have to come to a time in our lifetime, and it will come in our lifetime, where we are going to have to deal with the fact that the enemy has taken over your government. The government is not your ally. The government will use you, chew you up and spit you out.

You think that we are wrong? You think that we are talking unrealistically? Then go look at your elders and see what has happened to your elders in your machine age society. See what kind of respect that they get. See what kind of a voice they are allowed into your society, what kind of input they have. See what their final reward of happiness is after working for this slave state for 30 or 40 years and allowing someone to exploit their labors.

What is racism? Racism is an act of war. What is sexism? Sexism is an act of war. It’s a war against our human dignity and our rights to self respect. This is the war that they wage there. War! They are war-like.  And we have to understand that the American Corporate State got to where it’s at through the act of war. The next war… you wanna worry, you wanna think about a war? The next war that you better be concerned about is the one that they’re gonna fight here. Here in the continental United States. They have fought many wars here. They fought us all along, see, because we said ‘it’s ours and you haven’t got a right to it.’ They fought us. Now you all are claiming that it’s yours under this illusionary concept of private ownership of property and they’re gonna fight you. But they’re going to call it “national security” and “national energy crisis.” They’re going to call it “constitutional rights” and they’re gonna call it “judicial proceedings.” They’re going to nationalize… you know, your military coupe is going to come there. They’re going to nationalize the police departments, there’s your military coupe. In the name of “violence.” “Rising crime.” But all we must do is look in the corporate office and see the rising crime that is taking place there and nobody’s going to jail for it. So we’ve got to understand that they are arming themselves to wage a war against us and it’s going to be called the war of “law and order.” Because they’re twisting it around.

For 500 years my people have resisted. For 500 years we will resist again if it becomes necessary. We want to be able to relate and communicate with all of the people who are living on this land, but we want to be able to relate and communicate from a position of truth. You all gotta face the truth. We have had to face it through 500 years of genocide, we have had to face the truth, we have had to live the truth. We have had to die the truth, before we’re gonna ever see our evolutionary liberation, the people that call themselves Americans are gonna have to face the truth also.

They tell us to “be realistic,” that “progress” means that all these things have to happen. They tell us that we can’t go back to the old way. They tell us “be realistic.” But there is no old way, no new way, there is a way of life. We must live in balance with the earth. We MUST do it. We have no choice. If we allow ourselves to be apathetic, or we allow ourselves to be lied to, or tolerate their lies about what they’re doing to the Earth, then we are betraying our intention. We are betraying our purpose here. We cannot protect that 7th generation if we do not protect the Earth. We cannot protect ourselves if we do not protect the Earth. The Earth gives us life, not the American government. The Earth gives us life, not the multi-national corporate government. The Earth gives us life, we need to have the Earth. We must have it, otherwise our life will be no more. So we must resist what they do.

They want to break our spirit. They will do everything and anything to break our spirit, our will to live. We must learn to resist, we much learn to see, we must learn to look. We must learn to step out of this reactionary-ism. All of our lives they’ve had control of us through their schools, their TV, their electronic media.  They’ve had control of us all of our lives. They have programmed us, they have made us become reactionary. We don’t think, we react to what they do. We don’t think, we react. To everything that they do- we react to it. They’re setting us up in the 80’s because they know consistently throughout the past the people have always reacted to their manipulations of circumstance. They know that the people always react. They’re counting on it in the 80’s.

See, and they outnumber us with guns. They outnumber us with money. They outnumber us with votes. They control all the machines that count the votes. They’ve got it all stacked in their favor. Except there’s a key. The key is we must start thinking, and stop reacting. The oppressor has no thinkers, they have no philosophers, it’s all scientific, it’s all economic, it’s all manipulative. They have no thinkers. You go look and you deal with the enemy and what the enemy does is: the enemy will send somebody out on the street to hit you in the head and the guy says “I’m only taking my orders.” And if you can come from a position of strength to this guy whose hitting you in the head and say “Hey, you’ve got to stop hitting me in the head, we want to talk.” then he says “Well I have to go to my superior to see.” They have no thinkers, either.

If we will start to think we will learn to see, to see what reality really is, and we will outnumber them through the thinking process. We will take our minds away from them. Because through their manipulation of our minds they control our spirit, and they know this is true. They tell us, see, they want us to believe that we are powerless. They want us to believe that we are becoming overwhelmed, that they can overwhelm us. You see, but they are paranoid. They are more paranoid than any of us are, no matter what happens to us. You see, because they have to put people in here to come and listen to what we’re saying, so they can go back and tell.

See, so they’re afraid! They’re afraid because they know we’re talking about reality! Now why are they afraid? They are afraid because they know they are dealing with the illusions of power which are based on the realities of violence and brutality. They’re afraid! See, they don’t want people to think, they don’t want people to be talking, and they don’t want people to think about what they talk about.

Because they know. They’ve known it all along, that they built their whole Thing on illusions. And because they have drawn us in to giving this illusionary world all this power, they have taken our power away from us. Because we believe in the illusions.”

John Trudell,
Thanksgiving address (1980), Activist and author, 1946 – 2015)

Please go vegan, start here HowToGoVegan.org

Release #9

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Calcium: Plant vs Dairy

How to go vegan Calcium header1Part of the slow release of already existing podcast episodes. Welcome to How To Go Vegan podcast. Hopefully you’ve looked at the episode Introduction to Plant-based Nutrition which includes important information about Vitamin B12. If you haven’t listened to that particular episode I invite you to do so before listening to this one. 🙂 But if you listen to only one episode on this site, I invite  you to listen to Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience

Before I start, I would just like to say that at times I’m going to compare animal sources of various nutrients with plant based sources. If I do this, it’s simply to to demonstrate the clear health issues, backed by science. Although I do this, I want to be clear that for me (or the vegans I know), it would not matter if animal sourced-nutrients and animal products were better health-wise for us. Even if they were not harmful, I would not consume them because they are products of great violence and also because we can be vegan and we can easily meet our nutrition requirements from plants (and other non-animal sources). But I will demonstrate the differences between plant versus animal sources with some examples of non-animal nutrition studies, to demonstrate how superior a plant based diet is.

Some of the information I’ll provide in these episodes about nutrition are sourced from a site Nutritionfacts.org which personally I find very beneficial. It freely provides regular science-based public information on the latest in nutrition research. So I invite you to check it out. And a please read my full disclaimer about external sites.

For more information specific to nutrition:
Cow’s milk allergy can rarely manifest as epileptic seizures. Milk may also rarely induce apnea in infants. Click to see video

The Role of Bovine Leukemia Virus in Breast Cancer

Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot

 

Release #8

 

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Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit: What Is Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?

Picking the Low-Hanging Fruit: What Is Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?  | UVE Archives

Part of the slow release of already existing episodes.

Shared with kind permission UVE Archives .

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, products, social media, organisations that appear on How To Go Vegan

SICampaigns

Fore more info:

Single Issue Campaigns, Speciesism, and Compartmentalization

Why I Won’t Support Single Issue Campaigns | My Face Is On Fire

Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?

How Should We Respond to Australia’s Live Export Ban or Its End?

Legal Slavery In The 21st Century

Making a Killing With Animal Welfare Reform

Release #7

Please read my full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, social media sites, groups, organisations, groups etc that are mentioned, or that appear on this podcast.

About episode content in this podcast:
88x31 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

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Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?

Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?  | UVE Archivesconfined cows

Part of the slow release of already existing episodes.

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn and UVE Archives.

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, products, social media sites, groups, individuals, organisations that are mentioned or appear on How To Go Vegan

Release #6

About episode content in this podcast:
88x31 Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs CC BY-NC-ND

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Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

Part of a slow release of already existing episodes.

Shared with kind permission of Angel Flinn, Director of Outreach at Gentle World (A vegan intentional community) and UVE Archives.

Please read full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, groups, products, social media, organisations that are mentioned or that appear on How To Go Vegan

Release #5

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“Humane”: What’s in a Word

nice exploitation not possible big 2Humane”: What’s in a Word
(Transcript of Podcast Episode)

The fourth in a slow release of already existing podcast episodes.

This How To Go Vegan podcast episode titled
“Humane”: What’s in a Word”covers a question some of us might have and that is: Isn’t it okay to eat animal products if they’re “free range”, “cage-free”, “organic”, locally-raised, or “humanely raised”?

I’ll talk about this topic informally, and personally.

Let’s talk about the term “humane”, a term we hear in the public sphere mostly in relation to animals. The word “humane” promotes the idea that there are “compassionate” and “kind” ways we can exploit sentient animals.

We tend to only talk about “humane” in relation to humans when we talk about imprisonment, euthanasia, solitary confinement, detention, or killing people. When we hear the word “humane”, we should expect that the outcome for those involved will, no matter what transpires, be less than desirable and will involve some suffering and injustice at best. In the case of sentient animals, our application of what we believe is “humane” for them, if applied to humans, would be considered torture. In other words, any time that word “humane” is uttered, it’s almost always the case that something morally questionable and possibly unjust is going to follow, whether it’s execution, refugees, interrogation techniques, asylum seeker detention centres, industrial prisons, or in this case, the animal industry and regulation of animal exploitation. We know that it will ultimately mean suffering for someone.

For example in the US industrial prison system (and most prisons around the world), much of what prisoners endure, particularly the use of solitary confinement, a form of torture, should be considered completely morally unacceptable. Prisoners are almost completely reliant on their captors, and society doesn’t know, and often does not want to know what goes on behind prison walls. In US prisons, prisoners are being used as slave labour. It’s neo-slavery. It’s not enough that they are incarcerated for a period of time, but for most prisons, the whole system is designed to be a form of degradation, dehumanisation and in some cases, torture. Yet penitentiaries were promoted as more “humane” than transportation, the exiling of people to remote colonies where they were forced to work as virtual slaves, for crimes like stealing a loaf of bread or a shirt, transportation being seen as “humane” compared to execution, or punishments like chopping off hands. The guillotine, electric chair, gas chamber, all were efforts celebrated as “humane” alternatives to previous practices. This is what “humane” means: something horrible that is deemed to be slightly less horrible than something else.

For sentient animals, due to the unquestioned societal belief that they are our property simply because they are a different species, the “humane” conditions we keep domesticated animals in and our treatment of them, would be considered torture if applied to humans. But because other species are viewed as “lesser”, and because they have no voice of their own, they are completely vulnerable. And we take advantage of their complete vulnerability. Something we need to understand is that while sentient animals are viewed as property, our interests will always trump their interests every time. Even in the “best” of circumstances, there’s great suffering as I will give an example of toward the end of this episode.

But even if the word “humane” in some bizarre alternate universe meant zero suffering: a wonderful happy life for all animals concerned. And even at the time of their murder, they were cradled in our arms, stroked gently with Mozart playing in the background while they were killed, it would still be wrong. It is wrong because despite laws and society reinforcing the belief that animals are ours to do with what we wish, in truth, they are sentient beings, they are not our property, and ultimately, we’re still killing them for our trivial reasons of palate pleasure, convenience, habit and tradition.

Unfortunately many of us today, thanks to large animal organisations endorsing and promoting “humane” animal exploitation, and “humane” animal products, feel it’s morally acceptable to eat “certified humane” animal products because we are told that these animals were raised “compassionately”. We think to ourselves: well if an animal rights organisation thinks this is OK, it must be OK.

If I may I would like to share my experience. Not long after my partner and I became vegan in early 2005, we had the impulse (that many have) to try and do something to end this terrible exploitation. We did a brief search online and came across PETA, a very prominent large animal organisation. I looked at their site and found they were promoting many single issue campaigns. Most involved targeting industry and many campaigns were asking industry for “improvements” in their treatment of animals. None of these campaigns asked members or the public to go vegan. We just naturally assumed that if one was a member of a so-called “animal rights” organisation, that before one did anything at all, the first thing they would need to do is go vegan, to stop using animals. Later to our amazement, we were to discover that most of PeTA’s two million plus members were not vegan, which was a real eye opener as to how ineffective these large animal organisations are, that even their member base is eating, wearing and using animals. But I’ll get to that later.

So shortly after becoming vegan in early 2005, we started an animal rights group that consisted of the two of us, so we could have an identity when we advocated. We had a brief and naive dalliance trying to influence government departments. We were invited to go and observe a slaughterhouse where chickens are slaughtered. We declined because I couldn’t think of anything worse. I had read the description. My imagination is vivid enough. I don’t want to physically stand there while animals are terrified, mutilated and murdered in a production line before my eyes. After a couple of meetings with Department of Primary Industry employees we quickly noticed they were trying to co-opt us, trying to get us “on side”, and talk about “improvements” rather than ending use. I think this is most definitely a tactic they employ whenever animal advocates approach them. If we are “on side”, if we eventually agree with them and endorse their position, then we are not causing trouble for them. And if the public sees that animal activists are making alliances with industry then it reinforces the belief that the best we should hope for animals is that they are exploited and killed “humanely”. And of course, this is pretty much ALL the public witnesses these days – large so-called animal “rights” organisations praising industry, endorsing and even promoting industry’s so-called “humane” animal products. Here’s an example: In Jan 2005, Peter Singer, Farm Sanctuary, PeTA, In Defense of Animals, Mercy for Animals, Vegan Outreach, VIVA (USA), The Humane Society of the United States, Compassion in World Farming and a few other animal organisations sent a support letter congratulating John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods on his “happy” animal products. PETA, Farm Sanctuary, and Viva! USA Mackey claims were “stakeholders” in this the process of discussing what “humane” welfare standards Whole Foods should implement. Fast forward to 2015 and PETA has filed a lawsuit against Whole Foods for what PETA describes as Whole Foods’ deceptive marketing and the complete lack of enforcement of its animal welfare standards. This from an organisation which has a porn site and which gave an award to a slaughterhouse designer Temple Grandin. It would take far too long to list all morally confused campaigns these large animal organisations participate in and promote. And what all these activities do is encourage the public to think that “animal rights” groups are in agreement and in business with animal industry and government departments on how animals are being used.

In our brief and naive dalliance with government departments, Primary industries talked with us about PeTA’s recommendations for Controlled Atmosphere Killing – the gassing of chickens with helium or nitrogen instead of the traditional method of hanging them in shackles, stunning them, slicing their throat and de-feathering them in a scalding tank. It was during this awful conversation and I remember it well, to my horror I fully realised what we were talking about. I realised that we were talking about sentient animals and what was the “best” way to murder them, the most “humane” way to murder them. I felt sick in my stomach and I decided there and then, that I never wanted to talk to these people again. I felt like the whole conversation was simply wrong. It was immoral.

Around that same time, I naively thought we could influence an animal ethics committee. We talked to them about their standard of what was “humane” (“necessary cruelty”) and what was “inhumane” (“unnecessary cruelty). We said to them that both were unethical and cruel. In retrospect it all seems silly that we thought that those on the “Ethics Committee” in their heart of hearts didn’t already know that it was all cruel and wrong. They were employed to make it seem like there was some oversight, a “watchdog”, and that there were some regulations in place. But this “animal ethics” committee did not come into existence out of some concern for animals. They existed to reassure the public that we were not inflicting “unnecessary” cruelty on those animals used in experiments.

But here’s the problem: While our non-vegan society views animals as property, animals have no rights. They are basically viewed as a “thing”. It means we cannot negotiate rights for them. The only way we could end cruelty for those animals used in experiments, is for their use to end. But while most of society is not vegan and thinks animals are resources, demand for their use will continue, particularly when they mistakenly think using animals in experiments is necessary. The very act of breeding sentient beings into existence to be used as a “thing” is wrong. The very act of confining sentient beings, depriving them of their freedom is wrong, no matter what we do to them from that point on, just as it is wrong to confine humans without their consent. So whether we are simply observing animals in confinement, or whether we are performing invasive and extremely painful and lethal procedures on them, it is without their consent. And if we believe that we need to perform torturous and lethal procedures on animals, then our needs and whims will always violate their very fundamental right not to be used as a “thing”. To use sentient animals, self aware individuals in this way, is a rights violation.

The unquestioned basic assumption of the “animal ethics” committee we spoke to is that we as a society have the right to breed animals into existence to be used for experiments, simply because they are a different species. Society once experimented on disabled people. Society once did experiments on people of different races without consent or knowledge. In fact this has been going on as recently as this century. In relation to nonhuman animals, because they are property and therefore it means they have no rights, society’s needs will always outweigh the interests of animals. At this present time, many people (including “animal ethics” committees) are under the mistaken belief, due to convention, misinformation and disinformation, that it’s “necessary” to use animals in experiments. The fact is it’s “unnecessary” to use animals in experiments (or for any other purpose) and I’ll link to some good resources which explains why.

I spoke to a non-vegan friend online just recently who watched Earthlings (a documentary about society’s pervasive use of animals). Although Earthlings does not have a vegan message, my friend was horrified at what takes place in all animal industries and what is viewed as acceptable. She could plainly see that there was no way to “fix” this situation and that she had been complicit by creating demand for animal products and use. She could plainly see that terrible “cruelty” was built-in to any animal industry and that there was no possible way to make it morally right, except to abolish it altogether and that meant being vegan and educating others.

This is the message I am trying to convey in this episode. Society claims it is against cruelty to animals. Many of us believe animals morally matter. Many of us often go to great lengths to save an animal from harm no matter what species. But we don’t make rational connections. We are relieved when an animal escapes a slaughterhouse and is rescued by a farm animal sanctuary, and then we sit down to our cheeseburger. We claim that when it comes to animal exploitation that we are against “unnecessary” cruelty. We want animals to be treated “humanely”. But if one does any real research at all, the very notion of “humane use” is not only a myth, but it’s impossible. There’s no right way to do what is essentially inherently immoral. And since we don’t need to eat animal products to be healthy and we don’t need to wear or use them at all, we only do so out of habit, pleasure, tradition, and convenience. So all our reasons are trivial. If there’s no good reason to use them at all, then ALL animal use is “unnecessary” cruelty.

It shows the depth of our speciesism that we think that giving an animal a few inches more leeway in a cage is “humane”. It is speciesism to think it’s “humane” to take their children from them and kill them. It’s speciesism to think it’s “humane” to gas them, or castrate them without anaesthetic or cut their sensitive beaks off without anaesthetic, or starving them. The list of torture is endless and unimaginable. It shows the depth of our speciesism that we find it reassuring when we walk into a store and see “compassionately raised” stamped on slabs of flesh in the display case or when we see commercials with cartoon cows dancing and singing on our TV screens, or even more perversely, when we see smiling cartoon animals happily giving up their life for us, pigs in aprons cooking up bacon.

So let’s rethink the term “humane” animal use for a minute, because like most of us, we haven’t really thought about this issue at all and what it entails. We’ve been looking through a smoke screen at this issue all our lives.

“Humane” is a loaded, and deceptive word. I touched on this issue on what’s wrong with promoting animal welfare in an episode where I talk about my personal experience being vegan. I spoke about the catalyst which made me decide to go vegan: my discovery online about the normal functioning of the dairy industry and how cows and their calves are treated. I later found out after becoming vegan that it doesn’t matter whether it’s “industrialised” farming or “organic” or so called “free range” or “enriched cages”, or if they are labelled “Freedom Food”, “RSPCA approved”, “5 step animal welfare” etc, all these are labels are designed to deceive us. They are designed to appeal to our empathy and ethics, and to soothe our conscience while making us complicit, and they are a marketing ploy designed to sell animal products, often at a hefty price. Animal welfare and animal welfare standards on labels on products have little if anything to do with any concern for animals. In fact, the basic premise of animal welfare is that “unnecessary”, intentional harm to an animal is wrong and should be avoided, but any harm “necessary” for a typical use is acceptable.

Free-range”, “cage-free”, “enriched cages” or “locally-raised” are all uses that are both unnecessary and harmful (because we can be vegan); therefore, are wrong and should be avoided. It is irrelevant that some of these operations may be less harmful than “more industrialised” uses. And let me add that “free range” today often means 10s of thousands of animals in large faeces ridden, smelly, cramped, sheds, with sick, starved and dying animals being trampled to death.

So what fuels this belief that we can do what we do to sentient animals?

Let talk more about speciesism.

Speciesism and animal welfare reform are inextricably intertwined. It’s sometimes difficult to talk about one without mentioning the other, because if we were not speciesist, if we didn’t have a level of discrimination against animals, and if we recognised them as the sentient beings they are, we would not be promoting the notion that it’s morally acceptable for us to use them as long as we do it “humanely”.

Speciesism (just like any form of discrimination – racism, sexism, heterosexism etc) is the act of “otherising”. It’s an irrational prejudice of favouring one or more species over other species without a morally relevant characteristic providing justification. We ignore the morally relevant characteristic of sentience which allows us to exploit and kill sentient nonhuman animals for food, clothing, research, and entertainment, all of which are unnecessary.

We irrationally morally compartmentalise. An example of speciesist compartmentalisation is when we value, and love a dog while we sit at a gathering where the body of a turkey, pig or fish is at the centre of the table.

Just like any other ethical position we adopt, whether it be against homophobia, or against heterosexism, or racism, or sexism etc, we don’t adopt an ethical position part time. We don’t adopt an ethical position 3 times a week and then participate in slurs, and violence the rest of the week. We hopefully internalise the reason that discriminating against humans, no matter what race, gender, sexual orientation, ability (cognitive and otherwise) etc, is wrong and then we bring our actions in line with that ethical position. We probably all agree that less suffering is better than more suffering but most of us would not support campaigns which call for more “humane” child exploitation, because hopefully we agree that child exploitation is morally wrong. It should not be happening but sadly child slavery and slavery in general is widespread in the world. But just because it is widespread, does not mean we should be supporting campaigns to make it more “humane”. We should be calling for its end.

There is nothing different in the way we should behave when it comes to our response to addressing our speciesism. Yet many of us make moral compromises, encouraged by large “animal advocacy” organisations. We take half measures and use excuses like, we are on a “journey” or that “every little bit helps” or we become “reduceatarians” (reducing our consumption of animal products), or we buy “humane” animal products, and so forth: all measures which are not morally consistent and which mean we are still participating in exploitation and violence. We need to apply the same morally consistent response to sentient animals as we do to humans. If we do not, then we have not fully addressed our own speciesism. And this is one reason why this podcast exists: to explain and reinforce why it is so important that we fully recognise our own speciesism and then respond accordingly by becoming vegan and educating others to be vegan. It’s the only rational response.

I was speciesist before I became vegan and even after becoming vegan, it took a little while to address this, because there’s a lifetime’s worth of speciesism to undo. Unfortunately, not all who call themselves vegan thoroughly address their own speciesism. Not all of us who call ourselves human rights activists address all our bigotry and prejudice towards humans either and there’s a lifetime’s worth of discrimination (including speciesism) we’ve been exposed to that we need to address.

In life it’s important to question everything. It’s something many of us are not encouraged to do at school and today there are many universities that discourage certain opinions also. As Prof. Noam Chomsky said “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum….”

We are taught to subscribe to binary gender stereotypes, to ignore the abuse of economic power under capitalism, to think the distorted and elitist two party representative systems are “democratic”, to conform to heterosexist norms, to accept structural racism, to accept patriarchal society, to accept that idea that politicians and government actually care for our well-being, to believe that Western countries invade other countries for “humanitarian reasons”, to accept that imperialism and perpetual war is normal. We are taught to accept without question that capitalism is the best system, to accept that that animals are “lesser” than us and therefore here for our use, to obey illogical rules and unjust laws and not question them.

But not all laws are just.

Not all rules are fair.

Not every position held by a majority is ethical or just.

Not all opinions are valid (even if the internet gives them equal standing).

Not all individuals who hold the attention of a movement are possibly the best representatives of that movement.

Not all politicians have the best interest of their constituency at heart and so forth.

It’s important to question our own motivations at regular intervals in our life and examine our opinions and positions. It’s important to question our politicians and our governments. It’s important to question why there is social inequality. It’s important to question what the media reports. It’s important to question our social and personal belief systems, our political positions, in short, just as it is important to look after our physical health, it is important to regularly examine our views on everything, particularly long-held positions. And if we feel we have examined something thoroughly we can accept it, and at some point think about it again. As Mark Twain wisely said “Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”

So having talked about speciesism, I cannot talk about the term “humane” and animal welfare without mentioning large animal organisations and their instrumental role in being the >main driver in promoting “humane use”, so please excuse me if I mention this issue every so often. It’s important.

For many of us who call ourselves vegan, it is true that INSTEAD of calling for what animals deserve – for society to go vegan – we promote regulation of animal exploitation via single issue campaigns. In doing so, we demonstrate a lack of conviction, lack of moral consistency and lack of confidence in our position: which is that nonhuman animals deserve at least one basic right: not to be used as “things”, as resources, as property. One would hope we would speak differently and clearly when talking about human rights issues. But sadly those of us who call ourselves vegan and who support large animal organisations will make all kinds of excuses as to why we do not speak clearly about veganism. We will even put forward skewed studies in a desperate effort to back up our speciesist position. We will make all kinds of excuses as to why we do not ask the public to go vegan straight out. But the truth of that matter is, we demonstrate that we do not fully understand what animal rights means. We do not fully understand what veganism is and we have not internalised the position that nonhuman sentient animals are moral persons.

And here’s what we need to remember and take on board.

IF we truly believe that all sentient beings, no matter what species, are morally equal, and if we truly believe that exploiting sentient beings (no matter what species) is wrong, then we must act in accordance with that position that there is no hierarchy of suffering, there is no hierarchy of species. If nonhuman animals are sentient, then ALL exploitation in ALL it’s forms is wrong. I wish all of us who call ourselves vegan could take that as a given, write it down and place it on our bed-side tables and look at it every morning upon awakening.

If we have not internalised fully this ethical position, and if we do not fully believe this in ourselves (which I think is the case with many, many vegans who promote welfare and single issue campaigns that privilege one species over another, or seek “improvement” in use), then what we sow is what we will reap from this lack of understanding and lack of moral consistency. We will most definitely spread our moral confusion to others. And this is what we see today everywhere. We see moral confusion behind all the speciesist single issue campaigns, especially those that promote “humane welfare improvements”, promoted by all large animal organisations and by their supporters, and this has been going on now for decades. It’s fully entrenched. It’s normalised. Many vegans do not question it. And this is why the nonviolent, grassroots, abolitionist vegan movement has finally come into existence, because we have needed an alternative movement to the current “humane use” movement.

Please understand that I’m not questioning the motivations of anyone in these large animal and so-called vegan organisations. I can’t read anyone’s heart. I’m not saying that there are not good, well-meaning people who are supporters or who are working in these organisations. I’m sure there are many. But we have to be honest with ourselves and examine what we are doing and start calling out our own speciesism, and we have to at least have an open mind to be able to recognise it. And if we are called out on something, (hopefully in a respectful civilised way) we need to at least think about it and see if there is some truth in it, before we discard it. And that includes any accusations levelled at those of us in the abolitionist vegan movement.

But back to welfare reform: I would hazard a guess that anyone who is abolitionist vegan, prior to becoming one, experienced a time where they stopped going along with the majority of animal advocates and had to think about who and what they were supporting in these large animal organisations. What I am essentially saying, is that speciesism is rampant and implicit in the “humane” use movement, and this moral confusion is something we very much need to address before we begin to educate others about the rights of animals / veganism.

The fact is we cannot have animal rights WITHOUT veganism. And veganism has to be up front and centre in our advocacy. It’s a straight path, with no diversions, no obfuscation, no trickery. Veganism cuts at the root of speciesism while everyone else is hacking at the branches. When all we do is prune a tree, we end up making the root system much stronger. We don’t want to reinforce the public’s speciesism, but that’s what happens if we do not have veganism as our moral baseline, and instead promote “humane use”. Whenever we say, “This way of using animals is better” we are really saying “Animal exploitation is acceptable, justifiable, ethical, as long as we do it like this.”

As I mentioned in another episode, all large animal organisations explicitly or implicitly endorse and promote “humane” use of animals. Some speak out of both sides of their mouth on this issue: on one hand saying there’s no such thing as “humane” exploitation, but then supporting and endorsing single issue campaigns which implicitly or explicitly endorse it.

And something which many of us probably don’t realise is that if we all called for the end of use by promoting veganism, industry would respond by implementing these welfare “improvements” anyway. By focusing on “abuse” or “cruelty” instead of opposing use altogether by promoting veganism, it clearly demonstrates our speciesism. It states there are “better” ways of exploiting animals. It reinforces the belief that there’s such things as non-abusive slaughterhouses or non-abusive dairy farms or non-abusive egg farms and so forth, which is simply false. Focusing on “reducing cruelty” instead of calling for end of use (veganism) is something even so-called vegan organisations promote and I’ve explained that often this lack of clarity is not so much due to poverty of ambition, “pragmatism” and speciesism, but it is a business model.

Why do large animal advocacy organisations advocate “humane” use?

Large animal organisations are businesses. As they grow in size, they require a more involved structure. Big campaigns require money. Advertising, newsletters, flyers, magazines to members and the public, all require money. Fundraising becomes a priority. Accountants, professional fundraisers, PR people are all needed. So the larger animal advocacy organisations find they “need to” employ many people, and some of them make six figure salaries with all the benefits that these positions entail. All this requires significant amounts of donations to maintain. What attracts the public, donors and new members, is splashy and shocking protests and demonstrations, celebrities and lots of individual single issue campaigns, highlighting this or that “abuse”, and asking for support for “change”. It then becomes important to have goals that are “achievable” in the short term… donors want to see “success”, so everything, whether it’s some pathetic torturous incremental reform or anything which is remotely pro-animal becomes a “victory”. This often means highlighting “humane use” reforms. It’s a lot easier to push for a different type of killing, than to demand for an end to killing. Not only that, it requires frequent liaison with animal industry. And when some animal industry company implements some pathetic change, large animal advocacy organisations both “celebrate their success”. And as a way of encouraging other companies to do the same, they congratulate the company that is exploiting, and killing, non-human animals in “better” “more humane” ways. That’s why we see large charities like PeTA or Animals Australia, promoting “happy” animal products, slaughterhouses, and stores that stock “humane” animal products. They end up promoting animal use, not opposing it. And they have to cater to their donor base, which is mostly non-vegan. This often means being mealy-mouthed about veganism, if they mention it at all.

Large animal organisations rely on single issue campaigns and undercover investigations for fundraising. Organisations like PeTA or The Humane Society of the United States, to name a few, have 100s of millions of dollars in their coffers. Little, if any of this is used for vegan education. A constant flow of single issue campaigns, generally for “humane” improvements, is important to these organisations because SICs are their “bread and butter”. When the CEOs of these large organisations say they are being “pragmatic”, this is code for, “we cannot promote veganism front and centre because it would alienate our non-vegan donor base, and we need their donations”. All large animal organisations tend to treat veganism as, at best, optional and promote it in a humancentric way, as a way to “reduce cruelty” and as a diet, and since promoting veganism clearly runs counter to their business model, large animal organisations have been instrumental in society’s increasing demand for “humane”/ “happy animal products” and “happy” animal exploitation. By pushing for “humane” use, they actually work against ending use because it enmeshes animals further in the property paradigm.

But you may still be unconvinced and ask, well isn’t this a good thing? Don’t welfare regulations protect animals from “unnecessary” cruelty?

No. Animal welfare regulations do not protect animals from “unnecessary” cruelty. Firstly let me further elaborate on the notion of “necessary” and “unnecessary”. I guess we need to really ask ourselves why any cruelty is acceptable at all? What is “necessary” cruelty? And why should it be acceptable? I will attempt to give an exaggerated example of how ridiculous and extreme the idea of “necessary” and “unnecessary” cruelty is. If we put a dog who shares our life in a kennel for the a few days and the owner of the kennel said, “well I whipped and kicked your dog daily because she was barking, but don’t worry, I never tried to strangle her”, would we think that acceptable in any way? Would we think any “cruelty” toward our dog appropriate? The kennel owner felt that regularly whipping and kicking “our” dog was “necessary”, but strangling her for barking would be considered “unnecessary” cruelty. I should think we would think ANY cruelty to our nonhuman friend would be completely inappropriate wouldn’t we? And we wouldn’t think whipping and hitting is better, more “humane”, than whipping and kicking. We wouldn’t support a campaign for that. We recognise that dogs are sentient, they have self awareness and they do not want to suffer. We consider “our” dog a “family member” despite the fact that she is considered property by society. We have arbitrarily assigned her moral value that we do not afford other species. “Our” dog has a name. She has self awareness, a personality, likes and dislikes, loves us, engages with others and the environment, and the world. The dog who shares our life, loves her life, has an interest in continuing to live, and just like us, does not want to die. We know this if we pay any attention whatsoever to the dog who shares our life with us.

But out of convenience or simply because we don’t or won’t think about other species, we ignore the obvious sentience of pigs, cows, chickens, sheep, goats and so forth. Like dogs, they have self awareness, interact with the environment, with others, have personalities, likes and dislikes, interact with the world, love their young, have an interest in continuing life and, just like us, do not want to die. What they do not have is our personal attention. What they do not have is a shared personal existence with us. What they often do not have is a name, they have a number. But just like the dog who shares our life and who is loved so much by us, each and every member of those other domesticated species does not suffer less, does not love their life less than the dog whom we consider a “family member.” And that’s the truth. We can deny it all we want as we stand in front of the “meat” section in our deli, or in front of the “free range” eggs section, or the “organic” dairy section of our supermarket, but it’s a reality.

So the very notion of “necessary” cruelty and “unnecessary” cruelty, is somewhat perverse and very odd indeed. And the word “humane” usually just means “better” cruelty, but cruelty none-the-less.

We have morally compartmentalised these species. Most of us are outraged at the thought of someone murdering a lion for entertainment, particularly if we give him or her a name. Most of us are outraged when we hear of some individual intentional torturing an animal (no matter what species), yet when we consume animal products (including the welfare standard rating ones), we pay someone to torture and murder them for us. We think goats, pigs, chickens, cows etc are not the same as our dog and we do not accord them equal moral value because we have not had any daily personal experience with them, any ongoing personal interaction with them, as we have had with the dog who shares our home. We make arbitrary assumptions that dogs and cats are “family members”, and every other species is just here to be used as resources. But even if we suspended our belief for a few minutes and opened our mind to the reality that all sentient species possess many of the qualities we value and love about the dog with whom we share our life, we might start to question what we are doing. But even if other species are nothing like our dog, even if they are aquatic animals like squid or lobsters and show no recognisable emotions on their face, they are still sentient and deserve our moral consideration. And using them is unnecessary, so all cruelty is unnecessary cruelty.

A year before I became vegan, I fostered Anjushri and her babies from a local shelter in Sept 2004. That was approximately 9 months prior to my becoming vegan. We loved Anjushri and her babies almost immediately after bringing them home. We watched how she loved her babies and protected them and her every living moment was devoted to their safety. We were devoted to her safety and happiness from the moment we adopted her. Prior to becoming vegan 9 months later, I didn’t put it together that she was not unlike any of the sentient beings who we were eating or wearing. Those sentient beings I considered food at the time were once all young like Anjushri’s babies. And had I known each and every one of them, I probably would have loved and valued them just as much as Anjushri and her babies. Tragically on some level we probably know there’s something wrong with what we are doing, but it is buried under a tremendous amount of speciesism and moral compartmentalisation.

The truth is the “humane standards / animal welfare” industry tends to accept are those that protect their property. They don’t want animals’ bodies to be damaged. That’s why some Australian slaughterhouses’ preferred method of killing is to suffocate groups of pigs in small gas chambers filled with carbon dioxide. It’s less likely to cause bruising and damage to their “product”, and it reduces claims of injury from their workers. But carbon dioxide makes animals panic. If we put a bag over our head and filled it with carbon dioxide quickly and someone held the bag tightly around our throat, what would happen? We would become extremely anxious, and then become violently agitated, thrashing about, desperately trying to breath. Pigs experience all the same reactions we would. And as I mentioned earlier, PeTA campaigned in Australia for “Controlled Atmosphere Killing”, and PeTA is an organisation which states that animals should not be used for any purpose. It takes the pigs a while to die as they panic, scream and gasp for air and finally asphyxiate in these gas chambers. Can you imagine what that must be like for them? And let’s remember that controlled-atmosphere killing is promoted as more “humane” than a captive bolt to the head, hung upside down in shackles and the throat sliced. PeTA encouraged industry to adopt controlled-atmosphere killing because PeTA said it would cut down on worker injuries and claims and would prevent damage to the bodies of animals which can occur when animals are not properly “stunned” and when they are flailing and panicking upside down in shackles. These are the “selling points” when PeTA and similar organisations try to “change” the mind of industry.

We must be clear, “humane use” “welfare standards” and “reform” have nothing to do with any concern for animals. It’s all about appearances and how it looks to the public and it’s mostly about economic efficiency. Animals represent dollar signs. What we hear about these welfare regulations and slaughterhouses is that they are supposed to “protect” animals from “unnecessary” cruelty, but as we can plainly see, the whole cost of doing business is cruel. It’s built in. It could not be any other way. And “humane” animal products represent more dollars for businesses because most consumers DO have a moral concern for animals, and many of us are willing to pay more for “humane” labels. And producers, with the help of all large animal organisations, exploit and betray this public concern.

So I’ll leave you with this if I may. It’s a description of the normal functioning of the “organic” dairy industry. This is the supposed “good” way to exploit dairy cows: Keep in mind that the following is a description of “humane” practice.

“Organic” cows are repeatedly impregnated, often on a device called a “rape rack”, where they are inseminated either artificially or by a bull. Cows would normally live about 20 years, but due to the economics of the “organic” milk industry, they are usually slaughtered after about 5 years when they lose the ability to generate commercially-viable quantities of milk. During this short 5-year life, they are pregnant about 9 months out of every 18 to 24 months and give birth to a calf two or three times. Some of the female calves will end up as dairy cows to eventually replace their mothers and grandmothers. Most of the calves from “organic” dairy producers, however, are forcibly abducted from their mothers – who often grieve the loss intensely – and sold to the veal industry. Although some “organic” dairy cows are permitted to graze outside during part of the year, many “organic” cows never see the light of day until they are transported to slaughter.

Just as with “free-range layer hens”, “organic dairy cows” and their calves are transported and slaughtered in the same manner as any other cow or steer. Often, they are confined to a tractor trailer for days of transport, and sometimes through extremely hot or cold weather conditions. Because they are depleted from so much milk production and from genetics designed to maximize milk output, they are often much weaker than “beef cattle” when they arrive at slaughter. Indeed, most of the “downers” – cows too sick to walk – are dairy cows, including dairy cows from “organic” dairies. When they arrive at slaughter, “downers” are often cruelly prodded with electric prods and/or bulldozed into slaughter. Actual slaughter can be an unimaginably horrific and terrifying experience. Although the cows and steer are supposed to be “stunned” with a captive-bolt gunshot to the skull, this can be difficult for workers to achieve, especially with the rapid pace at which the animals are moved on the line. This can result in the animals being fully awake when they are shackled, hoisted upside down, and cut at the throat. Because cows and steer who are not properly stunned are sometime flailing around at the cutting section of the fast-paced line, they occasionally miss the throat cut or the cut is not sufficient to kill them. Due to production pressure to keep the line moving, these cows and steer will often end up alive at the hide-ripping machine.

Commercially-viable milk production, including “organic” milk production, regardless of the label it is sold under, is extremely cruel to cows and calves and requires mass-slaughter. “Organic” dairy cows are physically and psychologically broken by the time they reach the slaughterhouse, which can be an unimaginable horror story in itself. Consuming “organic” dairy products – milk, cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, sour cream – simply makes no sense for anyone concerned about the treatment or slaughter of animals.” (from What is Wrong with Vegetarianism?)

So that’s a description of supposedly “humane” dairy farming, the “good” type of exploitation that we are all encouraged to support. It is horrific, and yet we are urged to buy these as “humane” animal products. “Humane” is a word that is not only misleading, but it betrays our desire to be ethical. It’s a betrayal because it’s not ethical at all to USE animals. Period. “Humane” is a trick to sanction horror, and quiet our conscience and make us complicit.

So let me be clear what veganism is and why we should become vegan and promote veganism.

Veganism (the ethical position) rejects the notion that it’s morally acceptable to exploit animals for any purpose, no matter how “humane” we might claim it to be. If we truly believe that exploiting sentient beings is wrong, or at the very least if we believe “unnecessary” cruelty is wrong, then we must be vegan because we don’t need to eat animal products to be healthy, nor do we need to use animals for any purpose (clothing, labour, hunting, experiments and so forth), so all our use of them is unnecessary. If we agree with this, we cannot be anything less than vegan or promote anything less than the abolition of animal use (veganism) to the public. In short, the basic premise of veganism is that all our uses of animals, especially the most typical uses, are both unnecessary and harmful; therefore, are wrong and should be avoided. We are either vegan, or we are participating in violence. There’s nothing in between.

What I would like you to take from this episode is that there’s no such thing as “humane” use of animals, and even if there were, it would still be wrong and that the very word itself is problematic. So let’s abandon any false notion we might have about “humane” animal use and let’s be vegan and promote morally consistent veganism.

I will leave some links in the information section of this episode which will explain this in greater detail.

Thanks for listening. Till next time. Bye for now.

 

Please read the site disclaimer about external sites, organisations, groups, individuals, social media pages appearing or mentioned on this site.

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For more information:
Property Status and Animal Welfare: Two Deep Roots of Cruelty
What’s Wrong with Vegetarianism?


10 Things You Should Know About Animal Testing

Release #4

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How To Go Vegan Podcast: Sentience, Speciesism and Rights

HTGV sentience rights speciesismPart of the slow release of How to Go Vegan episodes already in existence on the site: In this episode I’ll share some thoughts on basic rights, sentience, why it matters and how it is important in relation to our recognising nonhuman animals as moral persons. And when I say moral persons, I simply mean animals are not viewed as a “thing”.

I discuss some of the inherent problems with single issue campaigns including campaigns which call for an end to certain forms of animal use, (or certain species) and which are always linked to building ties with animal industry.  I will talk about why single issue campaigns (SICs) are, by their very nature, problematic, and speciesist, and at best pointless.

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To find out more, check out the recommended reading section.

Picking The Low-Hanging Fruit: What is Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?

Sentience: The Morally Relevant Characteristic Justifying Basic Rights

Property Status and Animal Welfare: Two Deep Roots of Cruelty.

Please read my full disclaimer about external sites, individuals, social media sites, groups, organisations, groups etc that are mentioned, or that appear on this podcast.

About episode content in this podcast:
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Release #3

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Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience: Start Here

cropped-HTGV-header-3.pngThe 2nd in my slow release of already existing podcast episodes.

Excerpt

Welcome Friends to “How To Go Vegan” Podcast. I just want to preface this by saying that I’m so glad you’ve dropped by this site. I’m sure for some, the topic of veganism may be very new. And what I present here will be very different to what we might encounter generally. Usually veganism is presented in a very human-centric anthropocentric way today. If you have not thought about this issue before, it may even seem a little bit scary for some, but trust me, being vegan really is much easier than it’s often made out to be.

So some may ask why create this abolitionist vegan resource in podcast form? As far as I know there isn’t one in existence to assist new vegans. I thought it might be beneficial for those who prefer obtaining information via podcasts to hear a rather informal presentation of veganism in a clear and personalised way by someone who has been vegan since early 2005 and abolitionist since mid 2009. I thought it might be helpful if one can also hear a friendly voice and be able to listen to various podcast episodes in one’s own time. I decided I would start with a personalised informal introduction to my becoming vegan just to give those who are thinking about becoming vegan or who have an interest in knowing more about it, the opportunity to hear a personal take on it.

What do I cover in this episode?

In this episode I briefly explain the difference between being vegan and abolitionist vegan and I go into more depth in other episodes on this site but for now, I’ll start by talking just a little about what the catalyst was for my deciding to become vegan and what subsequent steps I took to bring myself in line with that ethical position; what the trigger was which made me decide I needed to immediately stop eating animal products and stop participating in the exploitation of animals. Then I’ll talk a little on how I removed animal products from my diet and how I stopped using animals in my life, and I’ll touch on nutrition. Then I’ll talk generally about what it’s like to be vegan, what we should avoid and I chat a little about why I became an abolitionist vegan 4 years after I became vegan.

Thanks for listening. 🙂

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Release #2

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Why Vegan? Start Here

Being vegan is easier HTGV

If animals love life as we do and they are sentient (have self awareness and so forth), then exploiting and using them for trivial reasons (which is what we use them for) is unjust.

We can go vegan right now. We just first need to get in clear in our mind why we should go vegan and then the rest is easy.

I invite you to listen to all the various episodes in this podcast and I hope they will assist you in becoming vegan. It will be one of the best decisions you make in your life. It certainly was for me  🙂

About episode content in this podcast:

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Release #1

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Slow Release of How To Go Vegan Episodes

cropped-chameleonweird-HTGV2.pngHi Friends,

I will be releasing How To Go Vegan podcast episodes already in existence on this page at approximately one a week. There are 50 plus currently. I hope you will subscribe and invite others to do so. I hope to also post new episodes as well in the not to distant future.

List of How To Go Vegan Episodes so far released:
(Find them on iTunes)

1) Why Vegan : Start Here

2) Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience: Start Here

3) Speciesism, Sentience and Rights

4) “Humane”: What’s in a Word

5) Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

6) Are Anti-Cruelty Campaigns Really Effective?

7)  Picking the Low Hanging Fruit: What’s Wrong with Single Issue Campaigns?

8) Calcium: Plant versus Dairy

9) That’s Where Our Safety Will Come

10) Making a Killing with Animal Welfare Reform

11) A Better World for All of Us

12) A Call To Vegetarians

13) Why Begin Again

14) What’s Wrong with Wool?

15) Protein

16) The Importance of Being Vegan

17) Can Veganism End World Hunger?

18) Freedom’s New Frontier: A Guide to Animal Rights

19) What’s Wrong with Leather?

20) Legal Slavery in the 21st Century

21) What’s Wrong with Backyard Eggs?

22) Vegan: Easier than You Think

23) Magnesium: How Important Is It?

24) “Free Range” Eggs

25) Willow’s Whisper to the World

26) A Vegan Manifesto 

27) Mother’s Milk

28) Veganism : What and Why

29) Birds of the Down Industry

30) Cruelty to Animals

31) Why Vegans Don’t Wear Silk

32) How Important are Omega 3s?

Thanks 🙂
Trish
HowToGoVegan.org

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Welcome to How To Go Vegan Podcast

cropped-How-to-go-vegan-assortment4.pngWelcome to How To Go Vegan podcast. This podcast is a reasonably comprehensive vegan resource with an abolitionist flavour (although if it’s vegan, then it should naturally be abolitionist) 😉 This podcast contains episodes and written material on what veganism is, how to become vegan, how to stay vegan, and how easy it is to be vegan once we have made the ethical decision to do so.

I’m not selling anything. There is no donate button. I have no association with any organisation, product, business or any individual.  I don’t profit in any way from this or any of my vegan education efforts.

I just want you to go vegan 🙂

This project is ongoing.  I will be updating it with new episodes specific to assisting those interested in becoming vegan or to assist new vegans, so please subscribe or join the Facebook page.

If you are not vegan, or new to veganism my suggestion would be to start at  Why Vegan: Start here  then move on to  Becoming Vegan: My Personal Experience.  Then on to Humane: What’s in a Word, and then Sentience, Speciesism and Rights and then go from there.

There are some sections in “What’s Wrong with …. that are not completed as yet and there are some other sections which will be completed in the near future.  I hope you will subscribe for updates.

Please read my disclaimer about any organisations, groups, social media groups, individuals, and sometimes products etc which I may occasionally mention or which may appear on this site. Such mention does not mean I endorse them.

Thanks for dropping by. 🙂 I look forward to your company in the future.

_____

Addendum 18/4/16

Friends, thanks for joining the Facebook page over the last day or so and thanks for sharing the page with others.

Just to advise there’s a few sections of this site that are yet to be completed. e.g some sections in “What’s Wrong with…” . There’s also a section “Our Stories” which will be filled out over the next few weeks. There will also be a FAQ which will be filled out over time one episode at a time and eventually become a table of contents as there will be at least 20 to 30 questions and answers in that section. There will also be more headings added in the future.

Anyway, this is just to let you know that the site is only 2/3 complete and is an ongoing project 🙂

That is all 😛

Final note about episode content in this podcast:

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