where science and ethics intersect with politics
According to the socially conscious Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return (FAIRR) investor initiative, global meat consumption increased five-fold between 1992 and 2016. This rise has worldwide implications for human health as well as the environment. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the average American consumer will eat a record-breaking 222.2 pounds of red meat and poultry in 2018.
In a split decision on Idaho’s 2012 “ag-gag” law, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled on January 4, 2018 that audio and visual recordings in animal agricultural facilities could not be prohibited by the state, upholding an earlier ruling that invalidated the Idaho law for violating free speech. The January 4th ruling is a partial victory for animal activists.
The Humane Party’s Staff Coordinator, Brandy Walt, continues in their role for a second term, January 1-March 31, 2018. This announcement also lists some of the notable changes that were made during their first term, October 1-December 31, 2017.
The report of the Humane Party’s Economic Transition Team, “Animal based Agriculture vs. Plant-based Agriculture: A Multi Product Comparison,” has been named one of the most important research articles of 2017 by Faunalytics. The 27-page report analyzes products of animals and plants from the perspectives of land use, yield, income, expenses, and profitability.
In Sister Species: Women, Animals, and Social Justice editor Lisa Kemmerer brings together essays by 14 women who work as animal advocates. Carol J. Adams contributed the foreword to the book, addressing the importance of bringing together these women’s stories as a way for the reader to discover their own stories of awareness and engagement. In the field of biology, “sister species” refers to pairs of species in which each is the other’s closest relative.
Fashion industry icon Michael Kors has joined the list of designers who will no longer use fur in their fashion lines. Kors follows on the recent announcement by the Italian industry giant Gucci that they will begin phasing out fur starting in the spring of 2018. Unfortunately, fur products are sometimes mislabeled as fur-free.
The present article marks the third installment of the “Mythology and Fantasy Literature for Activists” series. The story of A Christmas Carol has been presented, re-made, copied, and imitated in so many forms that it and its progeny serve as perennial landmarks of the modern Christmas tradition. The essential event and theme Dickens permanently installed into this tradition—personal transformation and redemption as a result of new insight—has many features to which vegans can relate, and revisiting this story can serve to prompt reflections on and new insights regarding one’s life choices for modern activists just as it has for several generations of other readers and viewers over the last 150 years.
Back in 1992, The Union for Concerned Scientists and more than 1,700 more independent scientists called on humankind to curtail environmental destruction. Today in 2017, world scientists have released a second warning notice, stating that most environmental challenges “are getting far worse.” Thankfully there is hope. There is the Humane Party, and within the Humane party there is the Economic Transition Team that is diligently working on bringing these issues to light and on creating effective change. Join the Humane Party to help us accomplish our mission.
This article briefly proposes an initial framework for articulating and formalizing a literary theory informed by the values of veganism and ahimsa and for applying that theory through literary criticism of individual works of literature. “Literature” here is broadly construed so as to include fiction and non-fiction written and spoken material as well as works in the fine and performing arts and in all expressive media, from painting and sculpture to audio and video recordings to video games and computer-generated simulations.
The Humane Party’s Economic Transition Team has completed its report analyzing the manure generated from animals. The purpose of the document is to understand the daily generation of animal manure due to animal agriculture and its implications. Recommended rates of manure application to farmlands are taken into account along with each state’s total land and farming-allocated land to evaluate whether the amount of manure generated per state is insufficient, sufficient, or excessive to meet the fertilization needs of each state.
In the November 13, 2017 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Robin R. White and Mary Beth Hall attempt to establish why a hypothetical vegan world is not possible. Their findings do show a decrease in greenhouse gas emissions, but they argue that a diet without animals or any kind of supplementation would be nutritionally deficient. Our mission at the Humane Party and specifically in the Economic Transition Team is to create a United States agriculture and economy 100% free of animal exploitation.
The first installment of this “Mythology and Fantasy Literature for Activists” series sought to introduce the potential value of mythology and fantasy literature for activists. Examining such literature may yield insights that reading history alone may not readily provide, particularly when one faces a challenge that, as far as the historical record goes, has never been overcome. Since animal emancipationists face just such a challenge, this potential value is, in the present author’s view, worth exploring. The previous article provided an example of a possible gleaning from Tolkien’s mythology-rich universe in which The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy are set. The present article continues to explore fantasy and mythology as a source of insights and inspiration for activists by means of another example.
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is a phrase that is relatively new to our lexicon. Only since 1994 have GMOs been approved for use in the United States. But what are GMOs, who grows them, where do they exist, and why should we say No? This is what we will explore in this article.
I’m thankful for my human kin who want to protect other animals from our own fierce species as we recognize that the playing field isn’t level and as we’re unwilling to take advantage of the power differential, all the while acknowledging superior kinds of intelligence embodied in other species.
The over 30 million people living in Venezuela face shortages of many basics, and what many call a hunger crisis faces the country. President Nicholas Maduro announced a plan on September 12, 2017 to alleviate the hunger crisis through Plan Conejo, a plan to convince Venezuelans to eat rabbit. A better plan in promoting food security is being implemented with the government’s much more efficient proposal to have residents plant rooftop gardens.
Humane Party Volunteer Bio: Mike Harms found veganism in the summer of 2014 after reflecting on the health limitations preventing his parents from having an active role in their great grandson’s life. He could see that if he stayed on his current course the same problems would plague him. He now aims to accelerate the growth of veganism through his work with the Humane Party and various social media outlets.
The Humane Herald 