“Mindful” Meats? I live in ag country. When you drive around Sonoma County, especially getting out of any city just by a couple of miles, there are signs of animal agriculture everywhere. I often drive by dairy operations with signs posted that say “Real California Milk” and “Certified Organic Dairy,” as if appeasing the people driving by implying that “only good things are happening on this READ ON
The original article by Robert Grillo was published April 28, 2018 on Alternet.org. This post is part of a series called Common Justifications for Eating Animals which looks specifically at the false "conservation" narrative used by the hunting establishment and how we can challenge it. The email I received from a leading progressive organization contained a meme featuring Jimmy READ ON
The following is a first person account of Susana Romatz's transition from dairy goat farmer to vegan cheesemaker. READ ON
"I grew up on a dairy farm. It's the reason I'm vegan today. Just the other day, my father told me that one of the cows died because she refused to eat after her baby was taken away from her. This broke my heart. For cows to produce milk at profitable levels, they need to have a baby every year. After birth, their calf is taken away from them within a couple of hours. The calf is put into a READ ON
Hof Butenland is a farmed animal sanctuary in North Germany founded by Jan Gerdes & Karin Mück. Jan was a dairy farmer for many years but after a change of heart that included the decision to go vegan, he converted the farm into a sanctuary and vowed to devote the rest of his life to caring for farmed animals and working to end their exploitation. Speaking about the animals he once used, READ ON
Helen Peppe grew up the youngest of nine children on a farm in Maine, where she lived until college. In her recent memoir, Pigs Can’t Swim, she recounts how the early connections she made with the animals raised and killed on her family’s farm drove her decision to become a childhood vegetarian (and a vegan in adulthood), and the often lonely world she inhabited as a result of that READ ON
"In April of 2009, we purchased 32 acres and decided to get into breeding and selling meat sheep to help pay the mortgage and to provide income after we retire… I am horrified to tell you my motto about our sheep breeding business. I would tell everyone, “They have a really great life, up until they no longer have one.” It makes me cringe now to type that. I wholeheartedly believed in the “humane READ ON
Six years ago, Renée King-Sonnen fell in love with, and married, a fourth generation cattle rancher. She moved from suburbia to 96 acres of Texas pasture where she soon discovered she had fallen in love with the herd of cattle who lived there, too. Fascinated by the animals, Renée began spending a lot of time on the range with them, getting to know their individual personalities, and observing READ ON
Dr. Michael Klaper is an internationally recognized clinician, teacher, and speaker on diet and health. He has practiced medicine for more than 40 years and is a leading educator in plant-based nutrition and integrative medicine. Klaper writes: “I did much of my growing up on a dairy farm in northern Wisconsin. I began milking cows when I was 8 years old. Several things are now clear to me: The READ ON
In the summer of 2016, Mike Lanigan, a multigenerational farmer and cattle rancher, decided he no longer wanted to raise animals for slaughter. He said it felt too hypocritical to continue loving the animals on his farm as much as he did, only to send them to violent, unnecessary, early deaths. With the help of an employee, Edith Barabash, who had gone vegan while working on the farm, he decided READ ON
