a voice for the voiceless
It is time for Blog Action Day again. This year’s topic is an easy one for a vegan: Climate Change.
A couple years ago I read “With Speed And Violence” by Fred Pearce, a book that did a great job explaining what “global climate” means. It explained what wasn’t known, various theories about what the linchpin of the global climate actually is, and why no one knows yet which theory might be right. It explained the significance, in terms of carbon and the impact on climate, the melting of the ice caps and the razing of the rain forest. A lot more than this list besides. It was exactly the kind of detailed but not-overwhelmingly-technical look at this huge phenomenon known as “climate” that I wish everyone (especially journalists and politicians) would read.
That book might be a couple years out of date already, but I think the majority of the information it contains has not changed, and it remains the best resource I can point people to who have an interest in understanding how dust storms in Chad add to the fertility of the North American Breadbasket, and why shifting weather patterns could eliminate that source of fertility that we unknowingly depend on. These are the types of things that can’t be explained in soundbites, and which illuminate in garish neon why talking about “global warming” is destructively simplistic. Because let’s get real: we’re not talking about “global warming”, we are talking about “climate change”. That’s a lot bigger, and a lot badder, and whether or not you think that humans are a contributor, it is something that should make you sit up and pay attention, because it is happening whether or not you want your political opponents to score points.
My own education in Biology helped me make other connections. I understand rain forest ecology on a high level; enough to know that the rain forest resources are held in the canopy, not in the topsoil, and what that means when rainforests are cleared for farming. (i.e., a big fail) And the rainforests are being cleared at an alarming rate. For cattle ranching, for palm oil plantations, for coffee.
Maybe the doubters are right, and the shifting climate is within normal for the history of the earth, and isn’t accelerated by human-added pollutants and human-caused alterations. What the doubters should try to understand is that the majority of human history has occurred in a period of remarkable climate stability, and signs are pointing to that stability ending. We all need to understand that sustainability and survival are going to require us to change, and that in the end it probably doesn’t matter what caused it or whether there has been an acceleration. If the author of “With Speed And Violence” is right about there being a tipping point, I think it is hugely unlikely that we, humans, will change our behavior quickly or significantly enough to not sail right past that tipping point.
We still need to protect what we have. Protect the water, air and soil quality from our human-added poisons. We face enough environmental pressures without self-destructing in such a direct way. We need to think about sustainability, not just in so-called “third world” countries, but everywhere. We need Food Not Lawns, we need to think about the Story of Stuff before we consume ourselves to death.
It is clear that climate change is happening:
That’s just the start.
And if you’d like a peek at what we have to look forward to, there is a list of 100 effects of global warming.
There are so many changes we can all make. Reduce the paper products we consume: get cloth napkins, cloth handkerchiefs, cloth utility towels instead of rolls of paper towels. Reduce the disposable plastic products we consume: get To-Go Ware or similar solutions, carry real silverware with you so you’re never caught without, use your non-disposable refillable water bottle instead of purchasing water in plastic bottles. Shop in your closet or from second hand stores instead of purchasing new. Bike or walk if you can; otherwise try public transportation or ride-sharing, and if all else fails with those options, figure out how you can minimize your driving by planning out your errands.
And the big one: go vegan.
I was listening to some Animal Voices podcasts this past weekend as I drove up to Vermont, bringing some former fighting roosters up to Eastern Shore Chicken Sanctuary to be rehabilitated. One of the shows was an interview with the author of “Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We Can Truly Eat Responsibly”, which challenges some of the assumptions of the locavore movement. He had a lot of great information to share, some perspectives I hadn’t thought of before, but one of the most powerful moments to me was when he explained that in his research for the book, he came to understand that the most powerful action you could take was to go vegetarian. His pithy statement:
“If you want to make a statement, ride your bike to the farmers market. If you want to make a difference, go vegetarian.”
I’m going to assume he means vegan, because I don’t see how dairy and egg farms aren’t contributing as much if not more to the entire issue as the beef and broiler farms are.
It was his own research that caused him to decide to change his consumption habits. He started writing the book as an omni. That’s a pretty powerful statement to me. We have heard from many sources about the impact of animal agriculture on the environment, but I know that many if not most omnis assume that vegans have an agenda and therefore dismiss anything we might have to say, facts be damned. But here is someone who did not start out writing his book as a veg. His transformation came about because his research showed him what we’ve been saying all along: meat consumption is hell on the environment.
The Animal Voices radio show is an hour long, but it is definitely worth making the time to listen. It might just change the way you think about the impact of your food choices on the environment.
Going vegan is a positive step from every direction. Less harm to the environment. Less harm to the animals. Less harm to ourselves. And it opens up a whole new world of food brimming with deliciousness and fun.
This has been an interesting week in the news. There is the tales of the weird:
Dr. Paul Grabb, a pediatric brain surgeon, said he was surprised when he discovered a small foot growing inside the brain of 3-day-old Sam Esquibel.
“The foot literally popped out of the brain,” Grabb told TheDenverChannel Wednesday.
I looked at the picture linked in the article. It was fascinating, and horrifying, and makes me feel queasy to think about. And while there are occasional cases of what they call a “fetus in fetu”, where a fraternal twin begins to develop inside the other twin, I can’t help but to wonder, when I hear of cases like this, if we are beginning to pay the price of all the poisons dumped into our ecosystem for all these years.
Will, over at Green is the New Red, posted a challenge for his readers to connect the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) to terrorism in less than 6 steps. Real terrorism, that is, not the saving of bunnies or the waving of signs. This was in response to the CCF taking out a huge ad in the NYTimes linking HSUS to “terrorism”. They had to use a diagram in the ad because it was so weird and convoluted, and frankly absurd. They had six steps to form that link, which is why Will’s challenge was for us to connect CCF to real terrorism in less than six steps.
The result? Two steps separating CCF from the funding of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. Go read his post, it is eye-opening!
And that leads me to a post on Crisis? What Crisis? regarding Obama’s chosen appointee for the energy secretary.
Scientists and everyone else who value intelligence, accuracy, research, and freedom of thought over dogma are rejoicing over one of PEOTUS Obama’s key appointments. The Tribune yesterday used a brief profile of Steven Chu, the new energy secretary, as a jumping-off point to examine the anti-science, pro-corporate stance the Bush Administration has taken the past eight years.
Chu is a scientist. Imagine that, putting a scientist in a position where scientific knowledge is not only useful but downright necessary.
It remains to be seen what Obama’s presidency will look like, but one thing is for sure – he’s making big changes, away from anti-science positions. He gives a shit about the environment. How far that will get us, time will tell.
And of course the environment is one thing, his attitude towards freedom and activism might be an entirely different topic. He voted for the FISA after all.
An email tonight reminded me that Sea Shepard’s final episode of Whale Wars on Animal Planet airs tonight. Not that I’ve seen any of these episodes myself, but someday perhaps I’ll get them on DVD and remember to watch them. (It is a challenge…for all my focus (haha) on photography, I have a hard time sitting down to watch movies!)
Sea Shepard’s email also provided a great visual to highlight the difference between the tools used by those who have an intent to kill, and those who have an intent to prevent killing. The preventateurs (yes, I made that up) are called terrorists by most governments. Yet who has the deadly weapons? Sea Shepard lays it all out for us.
My friend, Rich, sent this to me earlier today. I have no idea how he stumbled on it, but it seemed the perfect cap to this post!
Ari commented on yesterday’s post that:
… fortunately I find that just like the transition to veganism, it isn’t just about “giving things up” but also about gaining new awareness and wonderful new alternatives.
and I’m so glad she reminded us!
That was one of the many things that I think I had intended to say, but was chased away by the chill in my condo.
Ari’s comment also reminded me that I’d intended to write at some point about something that her partner had posted back in November, Recycling…the least you can do.
Most people have heard “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” in which the first is preferable and recycling is only what you should do after you’ve exhausted use, but Holmgren adds a couple more key Rs to the list – Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle. To refuse is paramount, especially in the United States, which is disproportionately responsible for resource consumption and carbon emissions. To refuse is pretty easy when you start asking yourself “Do I really need this?” before purchasing new stuff.
Ari and Shira are pursuing sustainability with real dedication, which I find inspiring.
Back to Ari’s comment, I can say with emphasis that the biggest changes I’ve made towards sustainability (or at least lessening my impact) have brought me incredible joy and satisfaction. Bike commuting is so far from being a “sacrifice”, it is something I love. Unfortunately I don’t think anyone can imagine that trading an easy against-traffic 20 minute commute for a hilly bike commute that takes over an hour would be anything other than a sacrifice unless they got out there and did it themselves.
Gardening, which I just started this year, is another of those changes. I had such a great time. Watching green things grow, being able to walk outside to gather ingredients for a meal, it was inarguably well worth the time spent, and brought me a great deal of satisfaction. It was also extremely motivating from a photography standpoint! I got a book from the library yesterday on organic gardening. I need to do some planning for next year’s garden, and will be starting to sprout seeds in just a few months, so even though we are at day 2 of winter, according to the meteorological calendar, it is a good time to be reading about gardening.
I also want to read about permaculture, though my patio has been smothered by landscaping rocks for years, so there is no natural habitat to work around. Still, I think there will be many things I will want to incorporate into my small patio garden, as I begin to plan things.
I started composting this year also, from which I derive another good amount of satisfaction, if a bit more low-key. It is great to feel that those organic scraps are being made good use of, rather than ending up in the garbage. My neighbor now contributes to my compost as well.
And of course there is the vegan food. I can honestly say that I never enjoyed food as much as since going vegan. Though I now take it for granted, I can remember those first few months after going vegan, when I felt giddy every time I made something and rejoiced in the fact that I was finally not contributing to animal exploitation with the food I ate.
Of course all of this is a process more than a destination, and there are always new things to incorporate into my life. This year has been fairly amazing, actually, with the gardening, composting, bike commuting, and switch to handkerchiefs.
It feels good. And so it deserves an ani difranco quote:
i do it for the joy it brings
because i’m a joyful girl
because the world owes me nothing
and we owe each other the world
i do it because it’s the least i can do
i do it because i learned it from you
and i do it just because i want to
because i want to
As I stubbornly resist turning on the heat — it is a balmy 62 in my condo, after all, and I’ll be going to bed soon enough — I can’t help but to think about energy consumption.
Though if I’m honest, that is not why I have delayed turning on the heat. It was a balmy fall, and the bitter cold came suddenly, and for whatever reason I decided that I was comfortable enough working on my computer wrapped in a blanket, and so the weeks went by. And now it is a sort of “how long can I hold out” issue.
The heat will go on, there is no doubt. Just…not tonight.
So, energy consumption. At this time of year, it has to be insane. All those holiday lights? As cheerful as they are to see on my dusk and dawn commutes, they’re incredibly wasteful.
Isn’t it time to reframe how we think about energy? About resource consumption in general?
Sometimes it is good to leave our comfort zones, to better understand what we need versus what we want.
It isn’t like we have to make giant changes all at once, after all, but I do wish more people would think about consumption, and what they could do to limit their own.
I recently started using hankettes instead of tissue. Years ago I stopped using paper towels and sponges. Toilet paper is not something I’m willing to give up!
I did give up most of my driving. It started with taking the bus to NYC when I’d go for a visit instead of driving. And then bike commuting most of the week. Eventually I’ll start going to the sanctuary on the bike, at least occasionally. And of course I’ll add in the majority of my errands to be done on the bike.
My point is there are always small steps we can take. Sometimes the biggest step of all is to stop assuming that there are changes that are too difficult. Six months ago you’d never have convinced me that I’d be a bike commuter, and now I can’t imagine why it took me so long to start.
And of course, it reminds me of my transition to veganism. The day before I learned something that made me realize I had to go vegan (I was already vegetarian), I stated emphatically to a fellow vegetarian coworker that I would never go vegan.
Didn’t we all say that? We wouldn’t, we couldn’t, etc.
Here’s to all those things we never thought we could, but did.
When we talk about what food we are going to eat, most of us think of those ingredients simply as things we go to the store to buy. And indeed, that’s the extent of our involvement, usually.
About a year and a half ago I read Food Not Lawns, and it began to change my outlook on food. Not to mention on lawns. Around the same time I read Diet For a Dead Planet, and though only part of the book focused on supermarkets, enough information was in there to leave me horrified.
“How can I shop in a grocery store again? Ever?” Those were my thoughts.
The reality, somewhat unfortunately, is that I am dependent on the grocery stores. Even when I’m buying as much as I can from farmers markets and growing as much of my own food as possible, I’m still having to supplement at the grocery store.
That’s just modern life, in many ways. The best we can hope for, it seems, is to grow as much as possible in our own backyards or in community gardens or in the empty lot down the street, and get as much from farmers markets or local growers as possible. Lighten our supermarket burden.
This year I started gardening. I have a small patio, and I had no idea what the soil was like under the decorative rocks, or really any idea what I was doing. I just went for it, figuring the worst that could happen is nothing would grow, which was the guaranteed outcome if I didn’t try at all.
My tomato plants are doing amazing. The cucumbers are trying to take over the patio. The peppers also have done really well. I never did get around to planting greens – I ran out of the rock-moving energy to clear a spot. The eggplant never did anything at all.
So the first year is a resounding success. I couldn’t keep up with the cucumbers, and I’ve struggled to keep up with the tomatoes. It is really amazing how much food we can grow in pretty small spaces. The thing I can’t imagine growing is grains. That’s what would keep me going to the grocery store. Oh, and spices, and cocoa and tofu and…well, a lot of things. But I can say that I haven’t bought a cucumber or a tomato in about three months, and rarely have I needed to buy a pepper.
Plus, as it turns out, gardening is a lot of fun. Watching things grow, knowing that they started from little seeds, and ended up being a foot taller than me (I’m short, it is true), producing fruit I can walk outside to get.
Starting a recipe, and seeing that it calls for a can of diced tomatoes, and being able to walk outside, and pick straight from the vine what will be used for dinner that night? Really, it is a wonderful feeling.
Next year I hope to grow even more. Someday I might put myself on the waiting list for a spot at a nearby community garden. But really, I want to put to play some of the other things that were talked about in Food Not Lawns. I want to take back, in small degrees, unused public spaces that could grow food to nourish a community. I’m not exactly sure how I’d start, but it is always in my head.
I don’t know what I can do for this bird. He (I think it is a he) can fly, but his ground hopping is definitely impaired. Balance, agility….if he couldn’t fly, I would be able to get this trash off his legs. As it is, there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do, other than remind people that when we don’t take care of the environment, we’re killing animals.
In November of 2006, Eric wrote a post about the Orangutans in Malaysia, and the associated palm oil issues. There are some first hand accounts linked in that post of his, and they’re heart-wrenching.
I realized in horror that my beloved Earth Balance uses palm oil. I wrote them asking about the palm oil that they use, and this was their response:
100% of the palm oil used in Earth Balance originates in peninsular Malaysia and not Eastern Malaysia (i.e. Sarawak and Sabah on the Island of Borneo), the main home for orangutans. As the orangutan.com website points out, slash and burn clearing methods are illegal. We purchase our oil exclusively from reputable, law-abiding plantations which are registered with the Malaysian
government.Palm oil and soybean oil are the major edible oils in the world, together they account for over 50% of all oil consumed worldwide. The alternative to palm oil in the world markets is hydrogenated soybean oil. If we reduce the world supply of palm, the markets will compensate by growing more soybeans.
Soybean cultivation is wasteful of natural resources. Palm plantations require only a fraction of the acreage to produce the same quantity of oil as soybean farms. An acre of palm trees will produce roughly 8,000-9,000 kgs of oil per year while an acre of soybeans produces roughly 1,000 kgs of oil
per year. Brazil is now the world’s largest and fastest growing producer of soybeans. For every acre of Malaysian palm oil converted back to jungle, several acres of Brazilian or Argentinean forest must be converted to farmland.It is for these reason that we feel palm oil should be part of an environmentally friendly food supply chain. The following site has more information about the cultivation of palm oil in Malaysia.
http://www.mpopc.org.my/index1.htm.
This looked like good news. I checked out the website they had linked in, and it looked legit, with what looked to be some pretty solid information. I didn’t look into palm oil further, but there has always been a worry in the back of my mind. What will I find out if I do research it for real?
It has been a year and a half. Today RAN (Rainforest Action Network) posted about rainforests and palm oil. They are in the middle of an action campaign, where people act as supermarket sleuths and register products that use palm oil, and starting on July 1, RAN is going to start contacting these companies and basically demand that these companies give up their palm oil. And soy oil? I would think they would cover that as well.
I registered Earth Balance on RAN’s site. I also commented on RAN’s blog post to see what they could tell me about Earth Balance’s response to my question a year and a half ago. You can read the exchange by following the link above, but part of the response from Brihannala at RAN was this:
If killing orangutans were the only problem that existed with palm oil, then maybe Earth Balance could get off the hook. But it simply is not. Every where that palm is grown– very much including Peninsular Malaysia– involves clear cutting rainforest and planting massive monoculture plantations– with serious consequences for both endangered species (the tapir lives in Peninsular Malaysia.. does it deserve to go extinct?) and the climate. It also involves displacing communities off their traditionally owned land, which regularly occurs in Peninsular Malaysia. Particularly in Peninsular Malaysia, migrant workers from Indonesia and India are forced into modern day slavery, forced to work for minuscule wages while paying back the companies for their their transportation from their country of origin. It’s a wreck.
Well, I can’t argue with that.
I think this is always a danger when we focus too completely on one piece of an issue – the companies can find ways to address the small concern while ignoring the bigger picture. And if we don’t know the bigger picture, we’ll accept their “green animal friendly washing”. (Obviously I made that phrase up just now. And it is cumbersome. Greenwashing is a great and immediately understandable term; do we have one for the animal rights aspect?)
When I emailed Earth Balance, I had talked specifically about the orangutans and the clear cutting and burning. I didn’t even know about the tapir, I didn’t know about the workers, and I really was fairly ignorant about rain forest issues in general.
Every time I turn around, I’m reminded about how intertwined these issues are. Social justice, environmental protection, animal rights. Palm oil is a hat trick of issues, and it is something we all need to pay attention to.
Rainforests are important and delicate places. They are huge carbon sinks, which makes them incredibly important to the entire issue of global climate change. Their carbon is held above ground, however. Something I remember from college ecology classes is that there is virtually nothing contained in the soil of a rainforest, it is closer to a desert in terms of soil ecology than it is to anything else. All of the nutrients and minerals and everything needed for life is held in the plants themselves. Before they drop their leaves, they actually are able to pull the nutrients out of them first, making the reclamation of nutrients immediate, rather than having it be processed through decomposition and uptake through the soil.
This makes rainforests really bad areas to clear to use for farming, obviously. It also makes rainforests really bad areas to clear from a carbon stand point, because it is all held in the living matter. Cut those trees down, and you’re destroying direct carbon sinks.
Not to mention the fact that rainforests remain the most biodiverse areas of the planet. Biodiversity is important for all of us, for all of our survival, though you have to take the long term view of it to understand why it is important.
And you can’t talk about the destruction of the rainforests without talking about giant corporations and how they profit off of the social injustices perpetuated on the local people. Whether it is South America or Asia, the script is the same.
Now that I have more information, I’m sad to say that Earth Balance’s answers are far from satisfactory.
I’m hoping that someone has a vegan palm-oil free and soy-oil free replacement they can recommend. A recipe, a product, something…
Regardless, I’ll be going without Earth Balance from here on out, unless they change their product to eliminate the palm and soy oils. Pleasing my tastebuds with a buttery spread just isn’t worth what it costs the people, the environment, and of course the animals themselves.
4/22/2011 — Update! There is a recipe for a buttery spread that is soy free and palm free, and which Ryan reports to be quite tasty! Check out the recipe and also Ryan’s review of the recipe.
11/11/11 — Update! An even better recipe for a buttery spread: http://www.veganbaking.net/other-vegan-treats/735-vegan-butter
3/10/12 — Update! A recipe for palm-free shortening!
http://www.veganbaking.net/other-vegan-treats/776-how-to-make-vegan-shortening
02/17/12 — Update to add links for RAN’s 3 part series on “What is Sustainable Palm?”
Also, what about Agropalma (in Brazil), right? Here’s an in-depth article: Occupy the Amazon so as Not to Lose it—with Palm Oil
I can’t claim to know that much about sustainability, but whenever I get an email from FARM, I think about sustainability. Does that sound strange? Well, I have heard Dawn of FARM mention that she came from the sustainability movement, originally, and I have often wanted to pick her brain and get a crash course on the issue. Not that I’ve ever had the chance, but the thought is often there.
I also know that a lot of folks in the sustainability movement see vegan outreach in many areas of the world as being…hm. I don’t know the term that would best describe it, but something along the lines of elitist, obtuse, or maybe even blind. And I can sort of see their point, even though I very strongly believe that the absolute most efficient and most sustainable thing to do in any environment is grow plants. I know, however, that I am basing this primarily on my biology knowledge, and ignoring any potential social issues.
And really, we can’t frame the argument for other people in situations we’ve never imagined, so we have to educate ourselves before we can think to offer anything.
There are small things I do in my own life with sustainability in mind. Growing a garden, of course, and shopping at the farmers market when I can. Not using plastic bottles, and avoiding as much plastic in general as possible. Composting (which I’m only just getting started on) and recycling, of course. This has a lot to do with avoiding putting things into the garbage stream. I also try to avoid taking from the earth, and so I avoid buying things new, when I can. Books, I have to be perfectly honest, are a big failure of mine here. I indulge myself at the bookstore way too often, even though I also use half.com to find used books, and I use the library quite a bit as well.
I also buy off craigslist when I can, rather than buying something new. Today, for instance, I bought a desk. It is a really nice desk, actually, and I’m lucky to be in an area with an active craigslist – I know not all areas have such an active list, and buying things used is much much easier when nice used things are easy to find.
The man I bought the desk from noticed right away the RAN shirt I was wearing. Turns out he works for a company that essentially does sustainability consulting for huge corporations. Like…Walmart. He saw the look on my face, and started laughing. He knew exactly what I was thinking, and we ended up having an interesting conversation. He talked about what his company does to get the big execs at places like Walmart to sit down and talk to the environmental groups, like RAN, and see what they can do to improve. He’s helping teach these big exploitative companies that the better they are from the start in protecting the environment, the better they are overall. Image, of course, but also from a cost perspective. It always comes down to that.
I’m not sure what I feel about it, overall. I think what he’s doing is important – he’s helping people to look at the environment in a way they might never have done on their own, and that’s important. I think there is a deeper more serious problem, and it has to do with exploitation. Of the earth, of the people. Is Walmart going to stop selling massive quantities of new cheap stuff?
No, of course they are not, they are only going to try to sell more. That’s what they do, that’s their business.
And I have a problem with that – if nothing else, the earth can not sustain that consumption indefinitely. The social aspects are legendary as well, of course.
Still, it was an interesting conversation, and an interesting business that this man works for.
I was also able to talk to him about SHAC and animal testing. He had a really hard time imagining how they were convicted of terrorism, without having ever committed a crime. It is indeed a mystery, right up until you realize they were driving HLS to bankruptcy and had their trial in that Land of BigPharm, which is also known as New Jersey.
It was amazing to find someone with whom I agreed on so many levels, just by buying a desk from craigslist.
The obvious answer is yes.
The USDA doesn’t agree. Not that we’re clueless as to where they get their paycheck, this nevertheless is a slap in the face.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on May 21st that it plans to cut its Pesticide Reporting at National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). The program tracked national pesticide use and proved critical for consumer groups, scientists, farmers and environmental groups to monitor pesticide trends and impacts.
NASS’ elimination of the Agricultural Chemical Use Database will have a major impact on consumers’ Right to Know about pesticide residues and food safety.
Pesticide Reporting has become particularly important in the last ten years since Genetically Engineered Crops have become widely used and pesticide use has actually increased!
This is a serious issue. Reading Silent Spring outlines in horrifying detail just how important this is, and how far-reaching the consequences. The impact these poisons have on the animals and the food, water, and general environment they require for life are usually devastating. Which is exactly why the poison companies and their government sidekicks want to stop recording the damning information.
Now would be a good time to contact your Congressional Representative and let them know what you think. Can we assign them summer reading?
This probably isn’t new to most people, but in case you haven’t seen this video, The Story of Stuff, it is well worth watching.
It is about 20 minutes long. Environmental, social justice, and capitalist issues are brought up. I thought it did a great job of showing just how important it is that we think about what we consume, whether it be food or non-food “stuff”. I was thinking today about how if you look at old death certificates or read old stories, you’ll often see that people died of “consumption“. They meant tuberculosis, of course, but I think that between the Standard American Diet and the pollution of the earth and the resources we need just to survive, both of which are deadly…well, we’re still dying of consumption, just not (as often) of tuberculosis.
She’s got a blog too, which is worth adding to your reader. And for Rich, or other teachers, she has a post specifically talking about this video being used in classrooms, and some organizations that have resources available to help you out.
When I talk to people and have reasons to believe they’re really not hearing the message, I figure it is because I’m not approaching it from a direction that matters to them. What it comes down to, I believe, is finding a way to encourage people to think about their consumption habits, whether food or otherwise. Once the door is opened, other aspects of the issue of consumption can be raised. The issues aren’t discrete, after all.
This video is powerful, and it might help get people think. Worth trying. And hey, you probably will learn something from it. I know I did!
All proceeds will be donated to the sanctuary.
Coupons: http://www.lulu.com/current_specials?cid=eng_advent_specials_112210
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