Like many teens, Laura White is a vegetarian. Like many students who
choose vegetarianism, Laura is earnest, serious, concerned and
committed.

But unlike many of the 1million school-age kids estimated to have sworn
off meat, Laura actually likes vegetables and a wide range of food that
teens need to be healthy.

Laura, a vegetarian "on and off" since the third grade, takes
vegetarianism one more step, avoiding all animal products, including
leather. She is a "vegan."
...
"But I heard that it was easy to become unhealthy on a vegan diet, and I
wanted to avoid that. I found a good book, 'Becoming Vegan,' which
alerted me to the nutrients often lacking in a vegan diet and what I
could do to get protein, calcium and vitamin B-12."

full story:
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/2004/09/01/teenvegan.html

Like many teens, Laura White is a vegetarian. Like many students who
choose vegetarianism, Laura is earnest, serious, concerned and
committed.

But unlike many of the 1million school-age kids estimated to have sworn
off meat, Laura actually likes vegetables and a wide range of food that
teens need to be healthy.

Laura, a vegetarian "on and off" since the third grade, takes
vegetarianism one more step, avoiding all animal products, including
leather. She is a "vegan."
...
"But I heard that it was easy to become unhealthy on a vegan diet, and I
wanted to avoid that. I found a good book, 'Becoming Vegan,' which
alerted me to the nutrients often lacking in a vegan diet and what I
could do to get protein, calcium and vitamin B-12."

full story:
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/2004/09/01/teenvegan.html


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By CAROLYN KISSOON South Bureau
Tuesday, August 31st 2004

A rule of strictly vegetarian meals was set at the Rousillac Hindu School when
classes moved into a Hindu temple after fire destroyed the school two years ago.
But recently, both teachers and parents of other religious backgrounds have been
lodging complaints to the school's administration, refusing to obey the new
rule.

Several teachers who are not Hindus have been "offended" by having to teach in a
temple and to eat strictly vegetarian meals while on duty, the Express has
learned.

After the school was destroyed by fire, classrooms went up inside the temple at
the front of the burnt-out site. Since then, teachers have been conducting
classes in "cramped conditions", with no indication of when the new school
building will be constructed.

When classes resumed yesterday after the July-August vacation, several teachers
continued to vent their anger on the meal restrictions.

However, the authorities noted that no meat would be allowed inside the Hindu
temple, where there are murtis as a mark of respect for the religion. School
officials, who requested anonymity, admitted the problem.

Last Saturday, secretary general of the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha Sat Maharaj
appealed to Education Minister Hazel Manning to construct a building for the
pupils. He lamented that it had been two years that pupils have been attending
classes inside the temple.

Communications specialist at the Ministry Mervyn Crichlow said yesterday that
the Ministry has taken a decision to construct 15 primary schools this year.
"The Maha Sabha was asked to prioritise those schools which needed to be rebuilt
and this school was not among the two schools identified," he said.

FULL STORY:
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=35901417

Tue 31 August, 2004 22:44

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Findings from a study conducted in Japan suggest
that consumption of uncooked deer meat is an important risk factor for infection
with hepatitis E virus (HEV).

Hepatitis E, a liver infection seldom seen in the US, is usually a mild disease,
but in rare cases it can prove fatal. HEV is usually spread by drinking water
contaminated with feces containing the virus. There are no specific treatments
for the disease and it usually resolves on its own.

"The most significant finding of the study was that those who had eaten deer
meat had a higher prevalence of anti-HEV...antibody, suggesting previous
infection with HEV," Dr. Naoto Kitajima, from Kasai City Hospital in Japan, and
colleagues note.

Last year, a small outbreak of HEV was noted in Japan among people who had
consumed raw meat from an infected deer. However, it was unclear if eating such
meat represented a major risk factor for HEV infection in the country.

The findings, which appear in the Journal of Medical Virology, are based on a
comparison of anti-HEV antibodies detected in 45 Kasai residents who reported
eating raw deer meat and 45 residents who denied eating such meat. The groups
were comparable in terms of age, overseas travel history, and whether they had
hepatitis A in the past.

Eighteen percent of deer meat eaters had anti-HEV antibodies, indicating that
they had been infected with HEV at some point. In contrast, only 2 percent of
comparison subjects had such antibodies. Previous infection with hepatitis A
virus had no bearing on whether anti-HEV antibody was detected.

FULL STORY:
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6117677§i\
on=news

[EXCERPT: Turning his focus to the NANI animals, McKeith said that
most are due to rough, aggressive handling while traveling from the
farm to the processing plant.]


http://www.meatingplace.com/DailyNews/init.asp?iID=12915

Pork News
Pork summit tackles downers and traceability

by Brendan O'Neill
   on 8/23/04
for Meatingplace.com

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Two of the educational sessions at last
week's 2004 Pork Quality & Safety Summit, hosted by the National Pork
Board, provided attendees with up-to-date information on issues the
industry has faced for years.

Floyd McKeith of the University of Illinois spoke about the effects
of downers on pork quality, and while he admitted that downers are
nothing new in the pork industry, he explained that new research may
shed some light on how to keep the number of downers to a minimum.

McKeith said that there are two types of downers, non-ambulatory
injured (NAI) and non-ambulatory, non-injured (NANI).

Turning his focus to the NANI animals, McKeith said that most are due
to rough, aggressive handling while traveling from the farm to the
processing plant.

"While there is a lot of inherent variation between operations and
animals, the single most important variable relating to
stress-related NANIs is people," he said.

He went on to say that even in the same facility, with the same
trucks and the same genetics, animals handled more aggressively than
others become more stressed, thereby inducing more metabolic acidosis
that affects meat quality.

McKeith added that those stressed downers most often result in meat
graded as DFD, or dark, firm and dry.

Is true traceability possible?

Following McKeith, Dermot Hayes of Iowa State University presented
his findings on pork traceability in the European Union and how it
could relate to the U.S. industry.

Hayes identified four types of traceability being used in the EU,
including a DNA system, two batch systems and an animal-to-retail
system.

Hayes found that the DNA system was not practical because its main
use would be in litigation against individual operations.

"The producer can only lose," he said.

A Danish batch system relied on individual animal identification tags
and was successful in tracking the products, but traceability was
lost when the carcasses were split.

A batch system in the United Kingdom utilized "animal passports" and
luggage tags on the carcasses. This was effective, but the animal
identity was lost when the carcasses were further processed.

Finally, Hayes described a system used by a Dutch veal company that
used RFID ear tags and computerized every step of the process. Even
as the carcasses were split and processed, each piece was kept in a
basket or basin, and each basin carried its own RFID tag. Even the
gambrels contained small computer chips so that every piece of every
animal could be tracked at every step along the way.

"This is the only system that provides full traceability," he said.

Hayes noted that the United States already has a batch system, with a
batch being one day's kill, and that for a more accurate tracing of a
batch system, U.S. packers would have to slow their operations down.
Finally, Hayes said that the United States pork industry appears
headed toward DNA traceability, but "there really is no advantage to
such a tracking system."

Copyright © 2004 Marketing & Technology Group, Inc.

POSTED: 6:37 am EDT September 1, 2004
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. -- You won't find any home cooking in one new restaurant --
because everything on the menu is served raw.

"In the Raw" restaurant owner Barbara Banfield said unprocessed and uncooked
food is better for the body -- and better tasting, too.

She serves burgers in her Woodstock restaurant -- but they don't come off a
grill. Her "sunburgers" are made from flax meal, almonds, sunflower seeds,
celery, carrots, herbs, and spices. Of course, there's no baked bun. Her burgers
are served on butter lettuce.

Banfield said it can be tough being a raw foodist. She said guys would think she
was weird when they would go on a date -- and she wouldn't order anything that
was cooked.

Nutritionists take a dim view of many of the health claims of raw foodists. But
the uncooked diet fad has a number of celebrity adherents, including actor Woody
Harrelson and model Carol Alt.

http://www.nbc5.com/food/3697599/detail.html?treets=chi&tml=chi_health&ts=T&tmi=\
chi_health_1_12450009012004

[from Cincinnati Post]

OXFORD, Ohio -- Three decades ago, a Miami University official was
quoted in an interoffice memo as stating that vegetarian diets were a
"fad, one which can be dangerous to health and well-being."

Fast forward from 1972 to 2004, and almost 15 percent of the 12,000
students who eat in Miami's dining halls are estimated to be vegetarians
or vegans. Not only has the official attitude changed at MU, but the
food service has even won a national recipe competition with a favorite
tofu entrée of vegetarian students. It has Mediterranean flavors,
including sun-dried tomatoes and artichokes.
...
To accommodate campus vegetarians, every entrée on campus has a
vegetarian version, whether it be a vegetarian pizza or a vegetarian
burger.

An estimated 3 percent of Miami students are vegans who avoid all
animal-based products, according to Jen Baker, manager of culinary
services. Thus, ingredients such as honey or cheese, which are often
included in a vegetarian diet, must be eliminated. Miami's goal, she
says, is to continue to meet the changing needs and wants of its
students.

The fact that a national organization sponsors a vegan-recipe
competition, and that Miami took first place in it, is evidence of the
evolving campus environment.

full story:
http://www.cincypost.com/2004/09/01/miami090104.html

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THE lesbian love life of domestic cattle has prompted a fact-finding
mission to Malaysia's central highlands to study the world's last
remaining herd of wild cattle.

Australia's only professor of animal welfare, Clive Phillips from the
University of Queensland, is hoping a basic study of Malaysia's
endangered Gaur cattle will help explain why domestic cows mount each
other during fertile periods.

"With domestic cattle the cows show mounting homosexual behaviour when
they are on heat and the wild cattle don't show that," Professor
Phillips said.

full story:
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,10638369%255E953,\
00.html

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http://www.meatnews.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=Article&artNum=8111

STUNNING ADVICE

U.K. processor Deans Foods takes a new step in its animal welfare policy.

Deans Foods, one of the largest processors of spent hens and breeders
in the United Kingdom, has taken a major step forward in its welfare
program by becoming the first plant in the world to introduce
controlled atmosphere stunning for spent hens and breeders at its
plant at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom.

The plant, which processes more than 7,000 birds per hour already has
a well-known welfare record and operates as an RSPCA Freedom Food
approved poultry hauler and abattoir. Deans has now chosen
nitrogen-based controlled atmosphere stunning equipment from Anglia
Autoflow joining a group of major chicken and turkey processors now
using the system. In its particular application Deans opted for the
Nitrogen / Argon based system.

"Without a doubt the single most important factor to us in buying the
Anglia Autoflow CAS system is that it is the most welfare friendly
system of stunning poultry available" Mark Gaskin, divisional
director at Deans Foods, said. Both the RSPCA and the Humane
Slaughter Association have inspected the system and have given their
approval.

"We are also very impressed with the improved staff working
conditions and the dramatic change in meat quality," Gaskin said. "We
aimed for a certain level, but the actual results have far exceeded
our expectations."

The processing of spent hens and breeders has always been a
challenging task, as the birds tend to be more "flighty" and "lively"
than broilers. This was of particular concern at the hanging on
stage, where the birds seem to suffer additional stress before being
stunned.

With a CAS system, live bird handling finishes on farm, eliminating
this problem. Nitrogen based CAS also has many processing benefits
over traditional stunning, and processors can expect to see dramatic
improvements in meat quality plus cost savings throughout the initial
stages of the process.

Terry Fowler, a Deans Foods plant manager, said: "The introduction of
CAS has helped our ability to control staff welfare, and makes
working overtime and weekends far more acceptable to them. On the
meat side, bruising and bone damage arising from hanging on are now a
thing of the past. And the difference in the quality of the breast
meat really has to be seen to be believed. We can now de-bone hens on
line, maturing in just two hours rather than the 24 hours that we
used to."

Karl Brown, a sales manager for Anglia Autoflow, said: "Deans Foods
represented another first for Anglia Autoflow - a welfare friendly
system of processing spent hens and breeders. Deans installed the
Easyload system a number of years ago, and the introduction of CAS is
a natural progression. We're also pleased that the major retailers
see the introduction of CAS as a major step forward in meat quality
and in a more welfare friendly produced product."


Web posted: August 31, 2004
harris@...


Copyright Watt Publishing Company © 2003-2004
122 South Wesley Avenue
Mt. Morris, IL USA 61054-1497
+1-815-734-4171 (Voice)
+1-815-734-5631 (Fax)X

----- Original Message -----
From: "hecal_2000" <hecal_2000@...>
To: <animal_net@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 2:57 AM
Subject: [animal_net] EU: misleading labelling of eggs in many countries.

PRESS INFORMATION


Brussels, 2nd September 2004


Government Inaction Leaves Consumers in the Dark
Eurogroup Survey finds absent and misleading labelling of eggs in many
countries.


A survey of retailers throughout the EU has found that retailers in
many countries continue to disregard regulations that were put in
place to help shoppers tell the difference between eggs from battery
cages, and those from systems that offer higher welfare to the birds.

According to Europe-wide legislation from January 1st 2004, eggs,
packaging and the display shelves all have to be clearly labelled so
that the consumer can see how their eggs were produced. Generally,
retail outputs were happy to label the eggs when they came from
organic or free range farms, which command a higher price. However,
moving down the scale through non-caged barn laid eggs to those from
caged hens, labelling was increasingly absent or misleading.

Eurogroup for Animal Welfare, whose member organisations carried out
the study, have complained to Commissioner Fischler, naming the worst
offenders as Belgium, UK, Hungary, Czech Republic, Spain, Slovakia and
Austria.

Clearly consumers have the right to eat the kind of eggs that they
want. In the case of animal welfare labelling goes further than that,
with many consumers wanting to support those sectors of the industry
that provide the best care for laying hens.

"We have consumers who want to buy eggs from hens that are kept in
better conditions, and we have farmers who are producing the eggs they
want. But poor labelling means many leave the shop with eggs from a
bird that will spend all its productive life in a barren, overcrowded
cage, believing them to be free range." says Sonja Van Tichelen,
director of Eurogroup. She also cited a previous report showing up to
75% of consumers confuse eggs from battery systems with those from
alternative production methods.

"Not only are retailers not labelling their eggs, but we found many
examples of their using meaningless terms like "natural" or "farm
fresh" on battery produced eggs"

To protect consumers from misleading claims, regulations now only
allow the terms "Organic" "Free Range" "Barn" and "Caged" to be used.

"It is the responsibility of national governments to enforce the laws
on labelling, and we are looking to the EC to insist that they do" she
concluded.

-:ENDS:-

For further information, please contact:-

Dil Peeling
Tel       +32 (0)2 740 0820
Eurogroup for Animal Welfare.
Email   d.peeling@...
Rue Des Patriotes 6
Brussels.

The 'other' good kids
http://www.statepress.com/issues/2004/09/02/arts/680833

quote:

They have tattoos. They listen to loud music. But followers of straight
edge walk a line other parents only wish their kids would.

...

While a woman who spends her days working at a tattoo parlor may find such
ideas idiotic, there are straight edge sects that follow them strictly.
This difference in ideals causes vast variation on what it means to be
straight edge -- some people choose to avoid caffeine, others abstain from
premarital sex while others believe that to be straight edge one must also
be vegan -- a stricter form of vegetarianism where all animal by-products
are avoided.

Vendettoli says being a vegan is not a prerequisite to being straight
edge. She points out there are people who have just discovered straight
edge, and, like any trend, people follow it merely for peer approval. Many
newcomers are under the impression that being vegan will show how far
you'll go to have a clean life, in an attempt to gain credibility.

"Straight edge is a popular thing to be now. So, it's [also] hot shit to
be vegan and edge," she says.

If newbies won't score points with people like Vendettoli they may win
over vegans like Brady. He agreed with Vendettoli that vegans do not have
to be straight edge and vice versa but says, "I'm vegan, and I think it
goes hand in hand with being straight edge."

Sticking to soy instead of steak are not the only ideas that vary from
person to person. How seriously the "no-drugs" rule is taken regarding
medical drugs varies.

--
http://www.waste.org/~oak/

Vegans finally find variety of desserts
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20950~2374055,00.html

quote:

No sugar? No eggs? No cream? No problem.

Vegan desserts, devoid of all animal products, used to be bland
concoctions that even their loyal consumers acknowledged really weren't
that tasty. Since they were rarely available in supermarkets, devotees of
the strict diet had to make do with homemade recipes or survive on the few
crummy, crumbly cookies or unpalatable pies they ran across in the health
aisle. It wasn't easy being vegan.

But now, fueled by a public hungry for healthier fare, bakers who kick
butter out of their kitchens and eschew refined sugar for chicory and
fruit juice are finding success. New recipes have made the food tastier,
while greater awareness has grown the market. Though still a tiny
industry, so small even leading vegetarian and vegan organizations don't
track the size of the market, local bakeries who target a vegan sweet
tooth all report dramatic expansions in business.

The trick, they've learned, is in the taste.

"If it tastes like cardboard, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have
something in it," said Steven Fabos, president of Fabe's All Natural
Bakery. "You don't eat dessert because you want to improve your body, you
eat it because it tastes good."

--
http://www.waste.org/~oak/

Wed Sep 1, 2004 12:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Omega-3 fatty acids, found in soy, fish and other oils
and known to provide a range of health benefits, may help protect against
Alzheimer's disease, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.

Tests on mice showed that a diet high in one particular omega-3 fatty acid
called DHA helped protect the brain against the memory loss and cell damage
caused by Alzheimer's disease.

"We saw that a diet rich in DHA, or docosahexaenoic acid, dramatically reduces
the impact of an Alzheimer's gene, said Greg Cole, a professor of neurology at
University of California Los Angeles school of medicine.

Writing in the journal Neuron, Cole and colleagues said they studied mice bred
to have genetic mutations that cause brain lesions associated with Alzheimer's
disease.

They were looking for something else but noticed the mice did not have the
expected memory loss or brain damage. Notably, the synapses, the connections
between brain cells, were not as damaged as would be expected.

"We discovered that the mice lived on a nutritious diet of soy and fish -- two
ingredients chock-full of omega-3 fatty acids," said Sally Frautschy, who worked
on the study.

"Because earlier studies suggest that omega-3 fatty acids may prevent
Alzheimer's disease, we realized that the mice's diet could be countering the
very thing we were trying to accomplish -- showing the progression of the
Alzheimer's-related brain damage," she added in a statement.

The researchers took the fish and soy out of the mouse diet and substituted
safflower oil instead, which is low in omega-3 and rich in another fatty acid
called omega-6, which does not include DHA. Some mice got the original diet and
others got the new, less-healthy diet.

"We found high amounts of synaptic damage in the brains of the
Alzheimer's-diseased mice that ate the DHA-depleted diet," Frautschy said.
"These changes closely resembled those we see in the brains of people with
Alzheimer's disease."

Mutant mice on the DHA-rich diet did better on memory tests than the mice fed
safflower oil, the researchers said.

"After adjusting for all possible variables, DHA was the only factor remaining
that protected the mice against the synaptic damage and memory loss that should
have resulted from their Alzheimer's genes," said Cole. "We concluded that the
DHA-enriched diet was holding their genetic disease at bay."

People are already advised to eat omega-3 fatty acids to protect the heart.

FULL STORY:
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=6126725

[from Brandon Sun]

Texas reptile showman Daniel Conner never thought marrying a
vegetarian would land him in a Canadian court.

But that's just where the 47-year-old San Antonio resident found
himself Wednesday, pleading guilty in Brandon federal court to
smuggling two pythons into the country in a bag of tortilla chips.

Maximum penalties for his two charges totalled $75,000 and a year in
jail, but after hearing of Conner's bizarre ordeal, Associate Chief
Judge Brian Giesbrecht handed down a fine of just $50.
...
As court heard yesterday, Conner had secured travel paperwork for
almost all of his animals before he left San Antonio. But as he was
leaving, it occurred to Conner he didn't have any papers for his two
ball pythons.

Leaving them at home was not an option, because his vegetarian wife
couldn't stomach having to feed the two carnivores their diet of live
little creatures.

So Conner, knowing full well he'd be breaking Canadian law, decided to
take his chances with the pythons, who were still small at two years
old.

full story:
http://www.brandonsun.com/displayad.cgi?adnum=603

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Please visit http://meatoutmondays.org/09-06.htm to take a peek at the current
edition of the Meatout Mondays e-newsletter. This edition features Purely
Decadent Soy Delicious Mint Chocolate Chip, a recipe for Fire Roasted Gazpacho,
an article titled Too Many Veggies are Good for Your Health, and the Vegan World
Fusion Cuisine Cookbook.

Meatout Mondays are an excellent vehicle for reaching out to your wannabe
vegetarian friends, associates, and relatives. You can forward them a copy or
just subscribe them directly at http://www.mailermailer.com/x?oid=13808p. There
is no charge.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

http://www.salon.com - Aug. 27, 2004
Got guilt?
Dairy workers grub for minimum wage in sickening manure pits -- so American
consumers can have cheap milk and cheese.
By Rebecca Clarren

WEST SALEM, Ore. -- Lazing cows dot the rolling hills of the picturesque
Willamette River valley, and the air smells sweet of grass and manure. But this
sunny image masks a grim reality for dairy workers like Arturo Ramirez. For six
years, Ramirez's duties included maintaining a pump that sprayed liquid dung
onto the fields as fertilizer. To get to the pump, he had to walk waist deep in
manure across a pit as long as a swimming pool. Wading through manure isn't like
walking through water: The sludge is heavy, the rotten-egg smell of hydrogen
sulfide rises off the slick surface, and if you're unlucky, you can slip and
drown.
Ramirez didn't die in the manure pit -- a fate met by three workers in
California -- but as he waded through the waste of 380 cows, it slid into his
knee-high boots. Because it's impossible to completely scrub away the bacteria
from manure, Ramirez passed a skin infection on to his wife and her two
daughters. "I felt like a slave; it was like my boss had a whip," says Ramirez,
27, who relocated to this lush rural valley from the desert of central Mexico.
Arturo Ramirez is not his real name, and he has a new job at a different dairy,
but he worries he'd be fired if his boss discovers he has talked to a reporter.
Ramirez can't afford to be out of work. When his father died 12 years ago, he
crossed the border through the Arizona desert to find work to help support his
mother and four younger brothers and sisters. Without the $400 he sends home
every month, his family would barely survive.
It's not an easy sacrifice: Ramirez works 12 to 16 hours a day, six days a week,
for minimum wage and no overtime pay. Until this past February, when Oregon
passed a new law, dairy workers were afforded no lunch or rest breaks. In more
than 40 states no such law exists, leaving many employees no choice but to eat
lunch while working. Ramirez, like other dairy workers, is regularly kicked by
cows and is exposed to toxic gases in the manure, such as hydrogen sulfide, that
may cause permanent neurological damage.
"I worry every day that I will break my hand or get hurt, but I never say
anything for fear I'll lose my job," says Ramirez, who uses a fake Social
Security number. "No American would do this job. This is a shit job, for shit
money." Yet Ramirez, like most other dairy workers, has few other employment
options besides agriculture. Since the vast majority are non-English-speaking
immigrants, and none are unionized, relatively few complain to state or federal
agencies for fear of losing their jobs or being deported, according to legal aid
organizations in Oregon and California and the United Farm Workers of America.
Even if they were speaking up about working conditions, fighting for protection
would still be an uphill battle.
The workers, who on average make between $5.15 and $7.06 per hour, can't compete
with the wealth and political power of their employers. In 2002 the dairy
industry gave more than $5 million to state and federal campaigns. "Dairymen
have a good ear when it comes to approaching the legislature," says George
Gilman, an Oregon state representative and recently retired dairy owner. "The
industry is really well represented in legislators around the United States.
There's enough people that understand the challenges of our industry."
The federal government collects no statistics about dairy workers, no advocacy
groups work solely for dairy worker protection, and federal law has lagged as
family farms have been consolidated into more-corporate enterprises. This
failure to develop and enforce even the most rudimentary health and safety
standards goes unnoticed because immigrant workers are among the most
exploitable members of the workforce. "Despite the fact that the conditions
amount to near slavery, dairy workers tend to get ignored," says Brent Newell of
the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment, based in San Francisco. "This
industry is extremely powerful." And with consumers mostly concerned about the
availability of cheap milk and cheese, there's no public clamor for an
improvement of the dairy workers' labor conditions. Says Charlie Tebbutt of the
Western Environmental Law Center: "Who's going to fight milk? It feeds and
nourishes babies; it's Chevrolets and apple pies."
Dairy work is a repetitive and debilitating dance. Hundreds of times a day dairy
workers attach hoses from automated milkers to the teats of cows. They also lift
hay bales, carry or shovel grain, and attach equipment to tractors. All these
motions can cause chronic sprains, strains and lower back pain.
Over time, repetitive motion injuries can cause permanent, crippling damage.
"While these men are young, if they continue this work for the next decade they
can end up with lifelong pain and permanent disability," says James Meyers, an
agriculture and environmental health specialist at UC-Berkeley's School of
Public Health. "These types of injuries are very painful, very limiting and very
expensive to treat. This side of fatalities, musculoskeletal disorders are the
most debilitating occupational injury."
Aside from chronic problems, dairy workers often break bones from being kicked
by cows or from slipping in the muck-covered concrete floors of dairy barns,
explaining why the rate of injury on dairy farms is higher than in all other
types of agriculture and all private industry, according to a 2003 report in the
Journal of Agricultural Safety and Health. Furthermore, dairy workers exposed to
toxic-gas-releasing manure may experience nausea, diarrhea, sore throats, stress
and alterations in mood, according to a 2000 study published in the Journal of
Agromedicine.
Workers are not getting the treatment they need, says Tillamook County (Ore.)
Health Department case manager Diane Barnes. Immigrant workers rarely file
workmen's compensation insurance claims for fear they will lose their jobs,
Barnes says. Such insurance covers medical costs and wages lost due to
injury-caused time off, but they also cost employers as much as $2,000 per
worker. "The guys with documentation don't work in the dairies, and there's a
huge fear of retribution because there are people just waiting to take their
job," says Barnes. "Whether spoken or unspoken there appears to be some kind of
agreement that they aren't going to make waves. Everyone seems to acknowledge
that the employer has them there to make money, not cost money."
Yet workmen's compensation claims are one of the prime ways that the Oregon
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the state agency charged with
protecting workers, prioritizes what companies to investigate. With only 75
field officers to regulate more than 80,000 employers in Oregon, a state more
than twice as large as New England, the agency admits there's no way it can be a
watch-dog. Due to the dearth of worker's comp claims, last year the agency
investigated only 17 of the state's 343 dairies. That figure earns Oregon a
better than average grade: In 2003, state and federal agencies inspected 51 of
the nation's 86,300 dairy farms.
"There's no way we can be everywhere at once. We want employers to be
self-sufficient," says Trudi Tyler, an Oregon OSHA compliance officer. "We've
gone a long way to create an atmosphere to not create an adversarial position
within the industry."
Even when agents do conduct inspections, the regulations are marginal. Unlike
the meat packing or construction industries, the dairy industry has no specific
standards; nearly a century ago, Congress caved in to powerful Southern rural
politicians and exempted agriculture from most worker-protection laws. As the
farming industry has expanded into an industrialized enterprise, the laws
haven't changed. Today, dairy owners are held to the same weak regulations
governing farms, with no specific guidelines for how workers should be
specifically protected from milking machines or general interaction with cows.
In the 24 states that defer to federal regulations, dairies with fewer than 10
employees are exempt from inspections unless an employee dies or at least three
people are hospitalized.
Indeed, basic labor laws found in other industries don't even apply to dairy
industry workers. Like all other agricultural employees, dairy workers are
excluded from the National Labor Relations Act. But because dairy work is year
round, they are also omitted from the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker
Protection Act. Protected by neither of those two laws, dairy workers are exempt
from overtime pay and the right to form a union or to confront an employer with
workplace concerns as a group, and they have no general safeguard against
employer misrepresentation. This makes dairy workers the least protected
laborers in the country, says attorney Mark Wilk of the nonprofit Oregon Law
Center.
"Dairy folks are legally in the worst of all worlds. There really is no federal
law at all to protect them," Wilk says. Nearly one-third of his 89 clients are
Hispanic dairy workers, and Wilk says their Mexican and Guatemalan origin is
part of why the laws remain weak. "This is the last bastion of feudalism. The
ugly reality of the world that my clients live in is shocking. We're the richest
country in the history of the world. We can do a better job making sure all
workers have minimum standards of decency."
Over the craggy Cascade Mountains, the arid plateau of eastern Oregon is a
lonely landscape of sagebrush, power lines and ochre dust. Just south of the
Columbia River, down a long narrow road, Threemile Canyon Farm stretches across
93,000 acres, housing 35,000 cows. This massive enterprise is one of the most
extreme examples of the corporatization that has steadily been swallowing small
dairies throughout the country. In just little over a decade, the number of
dairies nationally has declined by half but the average size has increased by 73
percent.
A joint venture between R.D. Offutt, one of the largest potato growers in the
country, based in Fargo, N.D., and John Bos Family Farms, a Bakersfield, Calif.,
dairy operation, Threemile Canyon Farm's three dairies produce 1.3 million
pounds of milk per day -- enough to serve nearly the entire population of Idaho.
Such size is a good business model: Threemile, which also grows potatoes and
alfalfa and has a composting operation, generates an estimated $250 million for
the local economy. Critics say the poor working conditions for the dairies' 140
employees help spell this fat bottom line. In rural Boardman, about 20 miles
from the dairy, a group of workers just finishing an 11-hour shift spill into
Gerardo Castellano's three-room apartment. As the smell of frying tortillas
wafts from the kitchen and a young boy all belly and dark eyes runs through the
room, the men fold their exhausted forms into sagging couches and explain in
Spanish why they feel like second-class citizens.
They often work as many as 12 hours a day, six days a week, and are paid a
weekly salary of $550. If there are 31 days in a month, they are not paid for
the 31st day. While they would like a weekend, and more than one week off a
year, they say if they miss a day, even for a family emergency or visit to the
doctor, they will be fired. "We're disposable to them. We're like a machine. I
don't think they see us as real people," says Julio Arturo Sepulveda. "I need
this job. I feed my family with this job, but it's not right."
As the men joke and tease each other over who works the hardest, they all list
the same woes: bruises from kicking cows, chronic coughs and asthma from the
dust, achy joints, and lower back problems. Castellano, who once worked in an
accounting office in Mexico, says, laughing, "Pick a place -- it all hurts."
Paradoxically, this trend toward corporatization may offer dairy workers a small
slice of hope. No dairies in the country are unionized, largely because the
majority of dairies are small, decentralized operations with only a handful of
employees. Dairy workers at Threemile Canyon say that with numbers comes
strength. In January 2003, a group of 100 dairy workers stormed the United Farm
Workers local in southern Washington, outraged at sudden wage cuts, says Erik
Nicholson, the union's regional director. Since then, change has been tangible.
Union organizers, effective at beating the drums, have spurred articles in the
local and regional media, written letters to Oregon legislators and the Mexican
consulate, and instigated an OSHA investigation, which resulted in 12 citations.
Subsequently, the dairy has increased wages by $200 a month, provided health
insurance to its workers, and has started to provide the required safety
equipment and training for the use of hazardous chemicals, Nicholson says.
"These guys have come to experience firsthand the power of collective action,"
says Nicholson, sitting on the tailgate of his truck, parked in Boardman. "Now
they understand their rights and they're overcoming their fear."
Indeed the tone of the workers congregated at Castellano's apartment is miles
from the hopeless and anxious tenor of isolated workers in western Oregon.
Rather, their voices are strong and determined. "I have faced a lot of
discrimination because I'm a union supporter, but I want to stay and fight until
they understand that we have rights," Sepulveda says. He and 68 other workers
recently settled claims against the dairy for failure to pay minimum wage. "I
want the best for my kids, and so the abuses, the discrimination, it has to
stop." Still the process is slow. After over a year of repeated attempts at
negotiation, the company still does not recognize the union. It has hired
consultants and lobbied at the state Legislature for a bill that would outlaw
harvest strikes and allow farm owners to negotiate union contracts for an
unlimited amount of time. According to the company, its size makes it a union
target.
"It's economically efficient for them to try and unionize because we're a
large-scale enterprise," says Len Bergstein, a spokesman for Threemile Canyon.
The company has a letter signed by 100 dairy workers saying they don't want a
union. "This is no more than a series of attempts to ruin a business enterprise
that workers depend on." Industry insiders take a broader view, explaining that
this fight is just part of the growing pains the entire industry has experienced
over the past decade.
As Hispanic immigrants increasingly replace young family members or other local
teenagers, dairy owners are working to meet the needs, such as insurance and
benefits, of this new population of workers, says Agnes Schafer a vice president
of the Dairy Farmers of America, based in Kansas City, Mo. "Throughout the U.S.
we are going through an evolution of understanding," says Schafer. "Farmers in
general are pro-Hispanic because it's economical and it's people who want to
work and who value agriculture, but we're going through a cultural shift."
While the industry is not working on any legislative efforts that would supply
insurance or other services to undocumented workers, industry lobbyists say that
President Bush's proposal to grant some farmworkers citizenship would help. Yet
in the short term there is little on the horizon that offers much solace for
immigrant dairy workers.
Even if Threemile Canyon Farms is eventually unionized, the thousands like
Ramirez who work in dairies with just a few employees will continue to work
despite low pay and dismal conditions. "Back there [in Mexico], you work for $5
a day. All we had in my town was one donkey," says Ramirez, shaking his head at
the memory. "My mom misses me; she cries sometimes when we talk on the phone,
but I can't go back to Mexico. I'm afraid to die in the Arizona desert."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
About the writer
Rebecca Clarren writes from Portland, Ore. This article was funded in part by a
grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism.

------------------------------------------
Respect Animals - Don't Eat Them!
www.farmusa.org; 888-FARM USA

http://www.enn.com/news/2004-09-03/s_26870.asp


Reopening swordfish fishing will harm endangered species, say environmentalists

September 3, 2004

By Associated Press

HONOLULU - Environmentalists have sued the National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS), saying the agency's decision to reopen commercial
fishing for swordfish will harm albatross and endangered sea turtles.

The lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court contends the
service violated the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Endangered
Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act when it
resumed allowing the Hawaii-based longline fishers to catch swordfish
after a four-year hiatus.

Wende Goo, a spokeswoman with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration, said the agency couldn't immediately comment because
it hadn't had time to study the lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by the environmental law firm Earthjustice on
behalf of two environmental groups, the Center for Biological
Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network, and Ka Iwa Kua
Lele, a group of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners.

U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered a ban on longline swordfishing
across a vast swath of the Pacific in 2000 because of the lack of an
environmental impact statement.

Longline fishers use lines up to 50 miles long that carry thousands
of baited hooks to catch swordfish.

Earthjustice said longlining for swordfish will cause the deaths of
black-footed albatrosses and Laysan albatrosses, as well as
endangered sea turtles, who get caught on the hooks.

The Hawaii-based fishery was reopened by the fisheries service in
April under guidelines that were relaxed after experiments in the
Atlantic Ocean showed that longline fishers using "circle" hooks and
mackerel-type bait were able to reduce the number of sea turtles they
accidentally hooked.

Before the court-ordered ban, 112 leatherback turtles and 418
loggerhead turtles were accidentally caught between 1994 and 1999.

Under new rules, if a total of 16 leatherback turtles or 17
loggerhead turtles are hooked, swordfishing will be closed for the
remainder of the year.

"Time and again, NMFS has turned its back on protected species, the
health of the oceans, and our legacy to future generations and
instead kowtows to the longline industry's demands for more fishing
at any cost," Earthjustice attorney Paul Achitoff said.


Source: Associated Press

3 charged in Ontario meat-packing probe
Last Updated Thu, 02 Sep 2004 15:57:40 EDT
LONDON, ONT. - Police in Ontario have charged the owner of an Aylmer
meat-packing company with fraud and selling meat unfit for human consumption
following a year-long criminal investigation.

Richard Clare, the owner of Aylmer Meat Packers Inc., and his two sons,
Jeffrey Clare and Jay Clare, face four counts each of fraud, conspiracy to
commit fraud, selling meat unfit for human consumption, as well as false and
misleading labelling of food. The charges were laid under the federal Food
and Drugs Act.

If convicted, they could face fines of $250,000 and up to three years in
prison.

In a statement released by their lawyer, Clare and his sons say they
"categorically reject any suggestion that they permitted tainted meat to be
sold for human consumption."


In August 2003, Ontario Provincial Police launched a criminal investigation
into the slaughterhouse, located 25 kilometres southeast of London, Ont.

The operation had been closed following allegations that uninspected meat
from the plant was sold to butcher shops across Ontario.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency recalled all beef products produced by
the company and Ontario's public safety commissioner warned people not to
eat the company's products.

Police investigated whether the plant was selling deadstock, animals that
have died before slaughter. It's illegal to sell or process meat from
deadstock for human consumption.

In 2002, the same Aylmer slaughterhouse was convicted on six counts of the
illegal disposal of abattoir waste and fined $30,000. The company's owner
was personally fined $15,000.

Written by CBC News Online staff

LONDON - Dieters on the popular high-fat, low-carb Atkins approach
lose just as much body fat as those on low-fat diets, but the annoying
low-carb side effects could mean problems down the road, according to
a scientist who reviewed five dozen diet studies.

Danish obesity expert Dr. Arne Astrup, whose survey is published this
week in The Lancet medical journal, concludes that headaches, muscle
weakness and either diarrhea or constipation are reported more often
by Atkins dieters than people on conventional diets. Those side
effects may be signs that the eating plan isn't healthy in the long
run, he says.
...
The Atkins diet, which allows unlimited consumption of protein and fat
but drastically limits carbohydrates and does not restrict calories,
has had a following for decades but only recently has come under
serious scientific scrutiny. It has been embraced by an estimated 20
million people worldwide.
...
Longer studies have since shown that when dieters are followed for a
year, the total weight loss ends up almost the same with the two
approaches. The long-term effect on cholesterol has not been studied
yet.

full story:
http://www.portervillerecorder.com/articles/2004/09/02/ap/headlines/d84rvfgo0.tx\
t

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----- Original Message -----
From: "ARS News Service" <NewsService@...>
To: "ARS News subscriber" <MaryFinelli@...>
Sent: Friday, September 03, 2004 7:56 AM
Subject: New Plant Nutrient Database


STORY LEAD:
New Plant Nutrient Database Launched
___________________________________________

ARS News Service
Agricultural Research Service, USDA
Rosalie Marion Bliss, (301) 504-4318, rbliss@...
September 3, 2004
___________________________________________

The Agricultural Research Service has launched a database for phytonutrients
known as "proanthocyanidins," a subclass of flavonoids, in 206 selected
foods. Phytonutrients are beneficial compounds found in plant-based foods
and are widely studied by the scientific community because of purported
health benefits.

Proanthocyanidins are abundant in certain fruits, nuts, beverages (such as
red wine and purple grape juice) and even some chocolates. Those in
cranberries, for example, may help protect against urinary tract
infections.. Other health associations of these powerful antioxidants
include a reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer and blood
clotting.

The unique food-composition resource was released this month on the World
Wide Web by scientists with ARS' Beltsville Human Nutrition Research Center
working at the Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL), Beltsville, Md., headed by
nutritionist Joanne Holden. Collaborators include scientists at the
ARS-funded Arkansas Children's Nutrition Center (ACNC), Little Rock, Ark.;
Mars Inc., of Hackettstown, N.J.; and Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc., of
Lakeville, Mass.

ARS researchers, led by chemist Ronald Prior at ACNC, adapted an earlier
method for analyzing proanthocyanidins in foods. They used it to analyze
proanthocyanidins in nationally representative food samples procured by the
NDL. The new compilation is based on acceptable data extracted from reviews
of existing scientific literature, as well as data analyzed by researchers
at ACNC.

The new database complements several other databases, including a flavonoids
database developed earlier by the NDL, and will impact previous estimates of
the total flavonoids in foods. For example, the range of proanthocyanidins
in various small apples is between 70 and 140 milligrams each, but the sum
of other known subclasses of flavonoids in the same samples is only about 5
to 13 mg.

The new database will be valuable in the continuing investigation of the
health benefits of consuming diets rich in plant foods. To access the new
database on the Internet, go to:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/Data/PA/PA.html

ARS is the chief scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture.
___________________________________________

* This is one of the news reports that ARS Information distributes to
subscribers on weekdays.
* Start, stop or change an e-mail subscription at
www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/subscribe.htm
* NewsService@... | www.ars.usda.gov/news
* Phone (301) 504-1638 | fax (301) 504-1648

[EXCERPT: Birnbaum said, "The fattier the foods, the more PBDEs you'll get."]


http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9556222.htm


Posted on Wed, Sep. 01, 2004

Traces of toxic chemicals found in supermarket food, study says
By Seth Borenstein
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A wide variety of food in American supermarkets is
contaminated with tiny doses of toxic manmade chemical flame
retardants, according to a new study of everyday groceries released
Wednesday.

Samples of grocery stores' fish, pork, duck, turkey, cheese, butter,
milk, chicken, ice cream and eggs were tainted with polybrominated
diphenyl ethers, known as PBDEs, according to a peer-reviewed article
in the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Because this is a relatively new health concern, no one has studied
yet if PBDEs are harmful to humans and at what levels, the
Environmental Protection Agency's top toxicologist said. However, in
animal tests they've harmed the nervous system, altered hormonal
function and changed the development of reproductive organs. The
federal government has ruled that one PBDE in large doses is a
possible human carcinogen.

Wednesday's finding indicates that the group of chemicals - used in
carpeting, electronics and furniture - is getting into people through
their food and remains in the body for several years.

Industry officials said the amounts were too small to worry about.

In the study, scientists found the chemicals in 31 of 32 common and
name-brand groceries in three Dallas stores, which they said should
be typical of most American supermarkets. Only nonfat milk came up
clean. Scientists said animal fat was a big factor.

"It's the first documentation that PBDEs are widespread in food that
the American population would eat and that the concentrations in food
are high enough for a chemical like this that it is going to persist
in our bodies," study co-author Linda Birnbaum said. She's the EPA's
director of experimental toxicology and the president of the Society
of Toxicology, a professional organization of scientists.

The amounts of PBDEs in U.S. groceries were nine to 20 times higher
than those in foods in grocery stores in Spain and Japan, where not
as many PBDEs are used, the study reported. This matched earlier
studies of elevated PBDE levels in human breast milk, which found
American amounts 10 to 100 times higher than elsewhere, said Arnold
Schecter, a University of Texas environmental sciences professor who
co-wrote the most recent study.

"We're documenting it at the highest levels in the world in the
United States, everywhere we look," Schecter said.

He said there were no PBDEs in the human body 40 years ago, before
use of the chemicals began.

Birnbaum said, "The fattier the foods, the more PBDEs you'll get."

Because health officials don't know what levels of PBDEs are safe,
Birnbaum recommends that people follow "heart-healthy" diets, which
cut down on fats that store PBDEs and other toxins.

The amounts of PBDEs found in food ranged from 1 part per trillion
for margarine to 3,078 parts per trillion for salmon.

Those levels are "millions of times below acceptable limits," said
Peter O'Toole, the U.S. director of the Bromine Science and
Environment Forum, which represents the three chemical companies that
produce these types of flame retardants. A person would have to eat
80 tons of cheese a day to ingest enough of one certain type of PBDE
to be harmful, he said, basing his analysis on a National Academy of
Sciences risk assessment in 2000 for that type of PBDE in the textile
industry.

Scientists aren't sure how PBDEs get into food. The theory is that
particles escape from carpets, furniture, computers and televisions
into the air. Those particles fall to the ground and into the water,
where animals consume them. PBDE concentrates in fat as it moves up
the food chain. Scientists didn't test vegetables and fruits, but did
find PBDEs in a soy infant formula.

The EPA convinced the two makers of PBDEs in America to stop
producing two troublesome types of the chemicals by next January. But
deca-BDE - which the federal government has linked to cancer - isn't
banned because it's so crucial to fireproofing electronics, Birnbaum
said.

The federal government should get rid of deca-BDE, said Jane
Houlihan, the vice president of the Environmental Working Group, a
Washington activist organization.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2004 KR Washington Bureau and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/03/science/03cat.html

The New York Times

September 3, 2004

Study Finds Bird-Flu Virus Can Spread Among Cats
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN

The avian influenza virus that has spread widely among poultry and
other birds in Southeast Asia and infected some people there has also
crossed another species barrier to infect cats, and can be spread
among them as well, Dutch scientists have found.

The finding is "extraordinary because domestic cats are generally
considered to be resistant to disease from influenza A virus
infection," like that of the avian strain, the researchers are
reporting in today's issue of the journal Science.

In the Dutch study, some cats with the infection died of it, while
others survived. A few did not even show any symptoms that they were
carrying the disease.

Whether cats can transmit the virus strain, A(H5N1), to humans is not
known. The World Health Organization has received no reports that
cats played a role in afflicting the 35 people who have developed
A(H5N1) infection, all in Thailand and Vietnam, said Dick Thompson, a
spokesman for the agency in Geneva. Those cases were traced chiefly
to direct contact with sick birds.

Even so, the Dutch study has important implications for human and
animal health, said Juan Lubroth, a senior animal health officer at
another United Nations agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization.

The findings, Dr. Lubroth and the study's authors said, underscore a
need to investigate the possible role of cats and an array of other
animals in the spread of avian influenza among poultry farms and to
humans.

An estimated 200 million birds have either died of A(H5N1) or been
slaughtered to control the outbreak since last winter, when the
strain simultaneously appeared in eight Asian countries. United
Nations officials have described the scale of the epidemic -
geographically and economically - as unprecedented for an avian flu
outbreak.

The strain has also been particularly lethal for humans, killing 25
of the 35 people infected.

Many influenza experts and health officials fear a worst-case
occurrence in which a person becomes infected with both an avian
influenza virus and a human one. Under such a circumstance, the
viruses might swap genes, creating a new virus that could cause an
epidemic all over the planet much like that of the so-called Spanish
flu of 1918-19, which killed 675,000 people in the United States
alone and more than 20 million around the world.

The laboratory in Rotterdam that reported the new findings has
conducted research on A(H5N1) since 1997, when its scientists
detected the strain in a child who had died of the disease in Hong
Kong.

The Hong Kong case was a scientific bombshell, because it was the
first in which a new avian influenza virus had been transmitted from
birds to humans without first mixing with mammalian influenza strains
in pigs.

Since then, the A(H5N1) virus has mutated to become more virulent.

Last January a clouded leopard died, apparently of avian influenza,
at a zoo in Thailand after eating virus-infected chickens, Thai
health officials recalled in recent interviews in Bangkok.

A month later, scientists identified the A(H5N1) virus in three dead
cats, and in a white tiger that recovered after becoming ill in the
same zoo where the leopard died. The cats belonged to a Thai woman
who had 15 in all, 14 of which apparently died of avian flu, although
the remains of only those 3 could be found for testing. The woman did
not develop bird flu.

Tests showed that the molecular makeup of the viruses isolated from
the cats and the tiger was the same as that of the virus found in
chickens.

After learning about those infections, the Rotterdam team, led by Dr.
Thijs Kuiken, conducted three laboratory experiments by using the
A(H5N1) virus isolated from a Vietnamese patient who had died of it.
The findings confirmed what had been observed in the cats in Thailand.

First, Dr. Kuiken's team introduced the Vietnamese virus into the
airways of three European shorthair cats, the breed generally used in
animal experiments. All three became sick beginning the next day, and
one died on the sixth day of illness. In comparison, none of three
cats infected with the most common type of human influenza virus
became ill.

In the second experiment, three cats were fed infected chicken.
Examination of their tissues under a microscope showed that all three
had developed severe lung damage similar to that seen among birds and
humans. (People are not vulnerable to infection by eating chicken
that is cooked, but the person who cooks it may be at risk from
handling it, health officials say.)

In the third experiment, the researchers put two healthy cats in the
same cage two days after infecting a third cat. The healthy cats also
became ill.

Dr. Kuiken said in telephone interviews that he did not know whether
these two cats had caught the infection by licking, through droplets
or through the air. His study, he said, was not devised to determine
how the cats spread the virus.

Additional research is needed because of the small size and scope of
the Dutch study, experts said.

But the Food and Agriculture Organization "is not set up to conduct
this type of research," Dr. Lubroth said, adding that scientists at
universities and other research institutes would have to do much of
it, though with technical advice from his agency.

One avenue of research will be to test whether cats that are
susceptible to other strains of influenza virus can spread those
strains as well.

In addition, Dr. Kuiken said his team planned to test whether the
original A(H5N1) virus, from the 1997 Hong Kong case, could infect
cats, or whether only the later, mutated form could do so.

At the same time, Dr. Lubroth said, agricultural workers need to
educate farmers about good practices like not raising swine with
chickens.

Another reform will be teaching farmers to keep cats away from
poultry, although that step, Dr. Lubroth said, "may be as difficult
as herding wild cats.''

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/09/03/clinton.tests/index.html

Bill Clinton to undergo bypass surgery
Former president undergoing tests at New York hospital
  From John King and Ed Henry
CNN Washington Bureau

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Former President Bill Clinton will undergo heart
bypass surgery as early as Saturday.

Clinton was in New York-Presbyterian Hospital on Friday undergoing
tests for chest discomfort.

Clinton's office issued the following statement:

"Former President Bill Clinton is being admitted to New
York-Presbyterian Hospital today and is scheduled to have bypass
surgery.

"The former president went to Northern Westchester Hospital yesterday
afternoon after experiencing mild chest pain and shortness of breath.
Initial testing was normal and he spent the night at home in nearby
Chappaqua, New York. After undergoing additional testing this morning
at Westchester Medical Center, doctors advised he should undergo
bypass surgery.

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and (daughter) Chelsea Clinton will be
with the president in New York City."

A close friend of Clinton said the former president called him to say
that his doctors had advised him that he needs bypass surgery.

The friend told CNN that Clinton's condition is serious and the
former president had told him he might have a quadruple bypass.

No known history of heart trouble

Clinton, 58, has been in good health with no known history of heart problems.

A medical report in January of 2001 showed he had an above-normal
cholesterol level and borderline high blood pressure.

During his presidency, Clinton had a reputation for eating fast-food meals.

Since leaving office, Clinton has lost weight and he told talk show
host Oprah Winfrey that he had gone on the South Beach diet.

Clinton had been scheduled to tour the New York State Fair in
Syracuse Friday afternoon with Sen. Clinton.

In recent days, he has continued to maintain an active schedule.

Last Sunday, Clinton delivered what was described as an energetic and
forceful sermon at Manhattan's historic Riverside Church.

On Monday, Clinton was on the campaign trail in Pittsburgh, stumping
for Rep. Joe Hoeffel, the Democratic U.S. Senate candidate running
against incumbent Arlen Specter. (Special report: America Votes 2004,
Pennsylvania's races)

And on Wednesday, Clinton participated in a book signing in New Orleans.

During that appearance, Clinton was asked about his weight loss after
leaving office.

"I work out a lot and I went on the South Beach Diet for a while,
that helped, but the combination -- I have a wonderful man that comes
in two or three times a week and we work out," he said.

"You know when you get older you really got to watch it. It gets
harder. The older I get, the harder it is (to lose weight)."

[EXCERPT: "Somehow it's un-American to restrict people's right to
fish recreationally," he said. "People love to fish. But, like a lot
of things in the ocean, we are loving them to death."]



http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-me-fishing27aug27,1,4733658.story?coll=la\
-news-science

Sportfishing Blamed in Depletion

Calling for more limits, a new study says recreational anglers catch
nearly 25% of overfished coastal stock.

By Kenneth R. Weiss
Times Staff Writer
August 27, 2004
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times

Sportfishermen have a much larger role in depleting ocean fish than
previously thought, catching nearly a quarter of the overfished
species in U.S. coastal waters and about 59% of severely depleted
rockfish off the Pacific Coast, a new study shows.

The study, which scrutinized 22 years of fishing statistics for the
journal Science, shines the spotlight on recreational fishermen, who
have long blamed commercial fishermen for the severe decline in the
ocean fish populations off America's shores.

To help stocks recover, the authors say, sportfishing will have to
face more severe restrictions. The government, they say, may have to
limit the number of people who are allowed to fish for sport in the
ocean, just as it restricts commercial fishermen at sea and
recreational hunters on land.

"All we are saying is that recreational fishing can no longer be
ignored," said Felicia C. Coleman, the study's lead author and marine
ecologist at Florida State University. "At first the restrictions are
going to be awfully painful. But recreational fishing is extremely
important, a huge industry, and we would like to see it sustained."

Coauthor Larry Crowder, a biologist at the Duke University Marine
Laboratory, said the problem was one of cumulative effect.

"The fisherman who makes a few trips a year and catches a few fish
says, 'I'm not the problem.' That's true," Crowder said. "But there
are 10.5 million recreational fishermen, and their catch of millions
and millions of fish becomes a problem."

An earlier study showed that recreational fishing pressure had surged
20% in the last decade. And the researchers say that unlike the
Norman Rockwell image of a boy equipped with a hook and a worm on a
bamboo pole, an increasing number of anglers have boats loaded with
high-tech gear: fish-finding sonar and GPS devices that increase
their ability to home in on fish congregating around rocks and reefs.
The fish, they say, no longer have anyplace to hide.

Mike Sissenwine, director of scientific programs for the National
Marine Fisheries Service, said the study accurately reflected his
agency's statistics. But, he said, "I think the paper is based on a
false premise: [that] somehow fishery managers are overlooking
recreational fishing because they think their catch is insignificant."

Sissenwine said state and federal regulators have imposed many
regulations on recreational fishing, some specifically to cover
overfished species.

Mike Nussman, president of the American Sportfishing Assn., dismissed
the paper as "an effort to try to pin something on recreational
fishing." He said the study's conclusions were obvious. "In some
species, we catch a significant portion of the catch. It's like,
well, duh."

He also took issue with the authors' contention that traditional
recreational fishing regulations - restricting the size that can be
caught of a particular species, limiting the number that can be taken
home or shortening fishing seasons - were incapable of resuscitating
fish stocks.

"I'd be the last one to say we don't need to do a better job to
manage our ocean resources," Nussman said. "But there are lots of
tools out there that work just fine."

The study comes as California Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman is
about to relaunch plans to develop a rarely used tool to help fish
recover: establishing no-fishing zones along the state's coast to
protect marine life and habitat.

The program was suspended earlier this year because of budget
shortfalls. At a state Fish and Game Commission meeting today,
Chrisman plans to outline a $500,000 state program to be supplemented
by $2 million in donations from charitable groups that want the state
to follow the 1999 law mandating a network of near-shore protected
areas.

"The governor is committed to it, to protecting and supporting our
oceans," Chrisman said.

He said former Democratic Assemblyman Phil Isenberg will lead a panel
that will help propose the first set of near-shore reserves somewhere
off Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties by March 2006.

Proposals for marine reserves, which now cover less than 1% of U.S.
waters, are anathema to the recreational fishing industry, whose
leaders hate the idea of making some ocean areas off limits to
fishing indefinitely.

To explain why they should be exempt from closures, recreational
fishing lobbyists often cite a federal statistic that recreational
fishing accounts for only 2% of the total U.S. saltwater catch.

Study coauthor Coleman and three other researchers decided to examine
that figure and other fishing statistics. With a $240,000 grant from
the Pew Charitable Trusts, they figured out that the recreational
catch actually averaged about 5% over the last two decades.

They also discovered that the proportion was being masked by two
enormous populations of fish targeted by commercial operations:
pollock in Alaska, used for fish sticks and imitation crab, and the
Atlantic's menhaden, a small fish ground into meal for livestock
feed. If these two groups are not counted, recreational fishing
brings in 10% of the total catch, the researchers say.

They focused in part on "populations of concern" that federal
officials know to be overfished.

About 23% of these increasingly rare fish were caught recreationally
in 2002, the latest year for which statistics are available. In a
breakdown by region for that year, sportfishing reeled in about 64%
of the overfished species in the Gulf of Mexico, 38% in the South
Atlantic and 12% in the Northeast Atlantic.

Off the Pacific Coast of California, Oregon and Washington, 59% of
the overfished species were caught recreationally in 2002. The
average was about 14% over the last 22 years. The fish counted in
this category were ling cod, bocaccio and six other types of rockfish
with depleted populations.

The study, the authors say, underestimates the total effect of
recreational fishing because it does not count fish that are thrown
back for being too small but that die anyway.

Anglers who catch and release don't always help, because many of
those fish die, the mortality increasing with depth, according to the
study.

Pacific rockfish, for instance, when pulled from 120 feet or deeper,
with eyes bugging out and air bladders expanding out of their mouths,
have very poor chances of living if thrown back.

Andy Rosenberg, a former deputy director of the National Marine
Fisheries Service, said the study takes on an important but
sacrosanct issue.

"Somehow it's un-American to restrict people's right to fish
recreationally," he said. "People love to fish. But, like a lot of
things in the ocean, we are loving them to death."

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at
latimes.com/archives.

Greetings, VegFriends!

A quick bulletin to bring you up to date on the upcoming VegSource Healthy
Lifestyle Expo, and to let you know about some new streaming videos online.

The Healthy Lifestyle Expo takes place Oct 8th - 10th at the Los Angeles
Sheraton Gateway Hotel near LAX airport. Hope to see as many of you as possible!

We have a great lineup of top speakers, two big ballrooms filled with vegan and
green exhibitors, samples galore and great vegan food!  Come learn about
healthy, environmentally-friendly products, about animal issues and about a
healthy lifestyle.

Friday night's keynote promises to be high octane with Susan "Stop the Insanity"
Powter talking about using exercise and a vegan diet to live life to the
fullest.

Michael Jacobson from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) will
be talking about the importance of adopting a vegetarian diet, and bestselling
author Frances Kuffel of "Passing for Thin" will talk about using a 12-step
program to get control of her weight and shed 180 pounds, transforming her life.
Many many more great speakers will be appearing during the weekend including
Ocean Robbins, John McDougall MD, Caldwell Esselstyn MD, Brenda Davis RD, T.
Colin Campbell PhD, Doug Lisle PhD, Rev. Heng Sure, Mary McDougall, Chef Tanya,
and Marie Oser.

The cost for Friday night through Sunday is only $120 and includes all speakers
and fun events.

And anyone can come and check out the Expo exhibitor booths for FREE on Saturday
and Sunday!  Admittance is FREE to see all the great companies.

We've just posted the Expo weekend speaker schedule online at
http://www.healthylifestyleexpo.com/speakers.htm

And you can ALSO watch -- online right now -- last year's fascinating
presentations from John McDougall MD and Caldwell Esselstyn MD on the dangers of
dairy and on prevent/reversing heart disease with a vegan diet, respectively. 
These are eye-opening, critical -- and very entertaining -- talks.

To watch these videos (and others) and to get more information about the Expo,
visit:

http://www.HealthyLifestyleExpo.com/

Speaking of online videos, the Nelsons recently had a wonderful vacation in
Yosemite with some good friends, and you can watch the home movies online (hey,
if enough people watch, maybe we can deduct it from our taxes? :-)

http://www.vegsource.com/video/yosemite04.htm

For those who don't want to watch a video, we've got photos, at --

http://www.vegsource.com/yosemite/

Peas and love,
Jeff & Sabrina
http://www.vegsource.com

Ca-ssss-e Clo-ssss-ed. A travelling reptile showman from Texas was
fined $50 in Brandon court last week, after trying to smuggle two
pythons into the country by hiding them in a bag of tortilla chips.

Daniel Conner, a 47-year-old San Antonio resident, pleaded guilty to
attempted smuggling charges last Wednesday, after being arrested on
July 1, 2004, while trying to cross the Canadian border south of
Boissevein.

He was travelling with a menagerie of snakes, lizards, turtles and
crocodiles at the time, and had the proper paperwork for everything
except two ball pythons.

Conner told court he couldn't leave the pythons at home in Texas,
because his wife -- a vegetarian -- wouldn't be able to handle feeding
them live animals.

Knowing full well he was breaking the law, Conner decided to bring the
snakes with him anyway and hid them in a half-eaten bag of tortilla
chips when he approached the Canadian border.

full story:
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/09/04/615140.html

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UROPEAN VEGETARIAN UNION - NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2004

Dear friends,

In this Newsletter I mention more EVU business as usual because we
have initiated a number of projects in which you are invited to
participate. All helping hands are welcome in our common effort to
exchange information and to promote vegetarianism.

The first contribution of this Newsletter reports about a press
conference given by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which I
attended last Wednesday. The topic is of general interest: Trans fatty
acids. I hope that you'll find the remarks and links helpful.

I wish you all a nice weekend

best regards
Herma Caelen
EVU Secretariat
www.european-vegetarian.org



==========================================

Contents:
-1- EFSA Press Conference on 1 September 2004
-2- EVU News
-3- Health
-4- International News
-5- Talking about Meat
-6- Books and Videos
-7- Quote
-8- Recipe
-9- Interesting Links
-10- Upcoming Events

==========================================
-1- EFSA Press Conference on 1 September 2004

Last Wednesday I attended a press conference given in Brussels by the
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the topic of trans fatty
acids (FTAs). You can read some reports under the links below *) but
I would like to mention additional details, which came up during the
Q&A period:

*The study had been initiated by Denmark and ordered by the European
Commission. EFSA's Scientific Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition
and Allergies (NDA) did the research based on comprehensive studies,
which are almost 10 years old. The question why not more recent data
was used "was noted" but not explained by EFSA.

*It was stressed repeatedly that EFSA has the role of giving
scientific advise but that implementation of their findings is the
responsibility the European Commission and/or the member states'
governments. The issues of labeling and promoting certain foods
(question by an Italian journalist: "why not promote olive oil instead
of meat") is not EFSA's responsibility.

*There is no data available regarding the following topics: -at what
temperatures do changes occur and to which oils -what are comparable
intakes in USA, Japan, China etc.

*The Mediterranean Diet was discussed at some length. It is thought
that the beneficial effects are largely due to the fact that liquid
vegetable oil, low in TFA, is generally used.
*) links: http://www.efsa.eu.int/science/nda/nda_opinions/588_en.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=534&ncid=534&e=14&u=/ap/20040902\
\
/ap_on_he_me/fit_europe_fatty_foods


-2- EVU News

*Invitations
--The EVU has created some working groups (and a mailing list has been
organized for some of them) and you are very welcome to participate.

You can find details here
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/about/groups.php

Guido Barth is building up the EVU Sports Team and asks interested
persons to join: "Invited is everybody who is interested in
participating in a global communication-network on sports, a plant
based diet and animal issues."

--EVU runs also an international mailing list "Vegetarian Community"
where you can read and post information regarding vegetarianism. To
join just write a note to evu@... - Welcome!

*News
--If you want to find out what is going in the world of animals and
vegetarianism, please have a look at our website
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/news/news.php (in EN/GE/FR)

*Events
--A collection of events-info can be found under
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/info/diary.php . In order
to keep this data collection updated I ask for your help: please let
me know about your plans and projects.

*Volunteer needed
For our new website, which offers a solid working basis for many years
to come, we are looking for a webmaster who is interested in further
developing this important tool with us: Webmaster Wanted:
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/about/home.php


-3- Health

--A health fad that's hard to swallow
One in four people in the US regularly pops a magic pill in the hope
it will improve their health, well-being and longevity. Different
people swear by different ingredients, but there is one constant: the
assumption that such pills, broadly known as dietary supplements, are
safe. Most people assume that the vitamin A, B, C or D, or iron,
selenium, manganese or cod liver oil, or ginseng, Ginkgo biloba or St
John's wort they swallow has been rigorously tested by government and
declared harmless. It has not. ..
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994853

--Atkins "Nightmare" Diet
When Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution was first published, the President of
the American College of Nutrition said, "Of all the bizarre diets that
have been proposed in the last 50 years, this is the most dangerous to
the public if followed for any length of time." When the chief health
officer for the State of Maryland, was asked "What's wrong with the
Atkins Diet?" He replied "What's wrong with... taking an overdose of
sleeping pills? http://www.AtkinsFacts.org

--DVD Cancer presentation "Stopping Cancer Before it Starts:
Cancer-Proofing Your Body with Plant Superfoods." can be ordered
directly from
http://www.veganmd.org/dvd.html (all proceeds to charity)


-4- International News

--Belgium:

---Encouraging News from Ethical Vegetarian Alternative (EVA): Belgian
vegetarian society EVA receives extensive government funding
.. the Belgian vegetarian society EVA got the final confirmation that
as of January 1 2005, it will be subsidized by the Flemish government
(Flanders is the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). We will receive a
yearly sum of 100.000 Euros (120.000 USD), normally for the next five
years. We are subsidized as a socio-cultural movement, educating
adults. EVA is probably one of the first organisations to get
structural government support of this level.
Maybe the most important message is that the government in this way
recognizes the value of a social movement for the education about the
benefits of vegetarian food.
Last year, Flemish organisations were invited to submit a business
plan for 2005-09, which was examined by an advisory committee to the
secretary of culture, who signed the agreement. The money will be used
to further the society's aims of spreading information about
vegetarianism by means of (among others) developing a publicly
accessible vegetarian information center & library, reaching out to
restaurants and catering businesses, developing campaigns in secondary
education, etc. The organisation, which up till now is entirely
volunteer-run, will be able to employ its first paid staff-members. We
hope this good news may inspire fellow organisations around the world!
mailto:info@... - http://www.vegetarian.be

---Vegi-Info Belgium/EVU organise a vegetarian lunch gathering near
Mons/Maubeuge on 12 September 2004:
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/info/diary.php?id=647

--China:

---Sent by FAO: A REVIEW OF THE STATISTICS: China accounts for nearly
28 percent of total meat production (estimated at 70.2 million tons in
2004 with pigmeat accounting for 46 million tons- or a whopping 47
percent of global output). Meat exports from China are likely to
exceed 1 mmt in 2004,compared to Brazil's 3.9 mmt, US's 3.5 mmt, the
EU's 2.1 and Australia's 1.5. This positions mainland China as the
world's 6th largest exporter (accounting for 6 percent of global
trade). Incredibly enough, while poultry exports (because of AI) are
expected down 15 percent to 425,000 tonnes, pigmeat shipments
(destined mainly to Russia, Japan, Philippines, HK, and Singapore) are
expected to rise to 470,000 tonnes.

---China's Carnivorous Eating Habits Become Food for Debate
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-cuisine4jul04,1,6246955.stor\
\
y

Quote from "How China will feed its growing population" : China has
the fastest growing economy in the world causing people to want
better, more expensive food such as more meat in their diet. (tama).
This raises the question how can they feed their population and
animals at the same time, since it takes 6 grain calories to produce 1
animal calorie..
http://www.public.iastate.edu/~rjsalvad/reports/s99/chinapopulation/chinapopulat\
\
ion.html

--EU

--- European demography in 2003 - EU25 population up by 0.4% to reach
456 million\One in 14 people in world live in the EU25
http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/Public/datashop/print-product/EN?catalogue=Eu\
\
rostat&product=3-31082004-EN-BP-EN&mode=download

---Prospects for agricultural markets 2004-2011 - Update for EU-25
According to this report, the medium-term perspectives for the EU
cereals,meat and dairy markets appear relatively favourable. ...The
meat markets have returned to a more normal situation after the
extreme market conditions due to the second BSE scare, the FMD
outbreak in 2001 and avian influenza in 2003. The current situation in
the beef market - where consumption is higher than domestic production
- is expected to persist over the 2004-2011 period.
Pig and poultry production and consumption are expected to keep
growing over the medium term,...
http://europa.eu.int/comm/agriculture/publi/caprep/prospects2004a/index_en.htm

--Great Britain
New Cruelty Law Would Stop Children Buying Pets
Pets and farm animals are to be given extra protection under a major
Government crackdown on cruelty. The move, in a new Bill announced
today that modernises century-old laws, also safeguards circus
animals, and halts the sale of goldfish as prizes at funfairs.
Children under 16 would be banned from buying pets if the Bill becomes
law.. http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3201696

--USA: Vegans' food chain
Franchising emerges as new way to spread the meatless message
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040618/news_1b18vegan.html


-5- Talking about Meat

--Greenhouse gas emission trends and projections in Europe 2003,
European Environment Agency Nr. 36/July 2004 - Under Agriculture
---Agricultural soils are the largest source of N2O emissions in the
EU and these accounted for about 5% of the total EU greenhouse gas
emissions in 2001. Emissions of N2O from agricultural soils occur from
the application of mineral nitrogen fertilizers and from organic
nitrogen animal manure.
---Enteric fermentation of animal feeds in the stomach of cattle is
the largest source of CH4 emissions in the EU, accounting for 3% of
the total greenhouse gas emissions in 2001. (..) The main driving
force of CH4 emissions from enteric fermentation is the number of cattle..

--This Little Piggy Went to the Global Market
Meat production has increased by 500 percent since 1950. Today, most
animals are raised on industrial "factory farms" that are displacing
sustainable family farms. Thousands of animals are crowded in
unsanitary conditions, spending their entire lives indoors without
sunlight or pasture. To prevent disease from these inhumane practices,
antibiotics are added to feed, contributing to the worldwide growth of
antibiotic resistant bacteria. Vast amounts of manure pollute rivers
and streams, causing toxic pollution of air and water and endangering
human health. .. .
http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/goodstuff/meat/

--Hungry world 'must eat less meat
World water supplies will not be enough for our descendants to enjoy
the sort of diet the West eats now, experts say. The World Water Week
in Stockholm will be told the growth in demand for meat and dairy
products is unsustainable. Animals need much more water than grain to
produce the same amount of food, and ending malnutrition and feeding
even more mouths will take still more water. Scientists say the world
will have to change its consumption patterns to have any realistic
hope of feeding itself..
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3559542.stm

--The true cost of meat
Americans each chomp their way through an astounding 100 kilos of meat
every year - that's a medium steak per person per day. This worries
Robert Lawrence, because a meaty diet with so many calories in
saturated fats squeezes out healthier fruits, vegetables and grains. .
http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opinterview.jsp?id=ns24601

--Meat-eaters soak up the world's water - A change in diets may be
necessary to enable developing countries to feed their people, say
scientists Governments may have to persuade people to eat less meat
because of increasing demands on water supplies, according to
agricultural scientists investigating how the world can best feed itself..
http://www.guardian.co.uk/water/story/0%2C13790%2C1288702%2C00.html


-6- Books and Videos

--The great compassion - Buddhism and Animal Rights
Norm Phelps n.phelps@... argues that, "Buddhism ought to be an
animal rights religion par excellence. It holds kindness and
compassion to be the highest virtues; and it explicitly includes
animals in its moral universe. And yet," he admits with dismay, "Many
Buddhists, including teachers, eat meat.".
http://www.lanternbooks.com/detail.html?session=af1070ea44a31603f85e619a9a98914b\
\
&cat=16&id=1590560698

--Fast Food Nation: What the All-American Meal Is Doing to the World
Eric Schlosser's disturbing and timely exploration of one of the
world's most controversial industries, has become a massive bestseller
in America and rightly deserves to be so this side of the pond.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0141006870/seekingperfec-21/202-7726730\
\
-9865451

--VEAL VIDEO HITS THE AIRWAVES: A snappy new flash video
ForgetAboutIt --- http://www.noveal.org/forgetaboutit/

--Miscellaneous Videos
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=mym2002
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=skin-trade-ili
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=nude_run
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=furfarm
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=classroom-cutups
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=Leather-video
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=sexy_veg
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=fur-is-dead-psa
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=ringling_expose
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Video.asp?video=playboy_rosie
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=idol
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=Leather-video2
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=bullfighting-school
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=unhappy-cows
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=Turkey-farms
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=jenna
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=carson_barnes
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=ringling-bros
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=herman_the_hermits_big_adventure
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=david-gallagher-psa
http://www.christianveg.com
http://www.islamveg.com


-7- Quote
In the article Demographic 'Bomb' May Only Go 'Pop' - dealing with the
question of global populations - the father of the population bomb,
Dr. Ehrlich, a professor of population studies and biology at
Stanford, says: "I have severe doubts that we can support even two
billion if they all live like citizens of the U.S. The world can
support a lot more vegetarian saints than Hummer-driving idiots."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/weekinreview/29mcne.html

-8-Recipes
-->Recipes galore can be found here:
http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/info/kitchen.php

-9-Interesting links

--The 'Livestock Revolution' Development or Destruction? CIWF's
Project on factory farming in 'developing' countries -
http://www.ciwf-livestock-revolution.co.uk/

--Responding to the Livestock Revolution
http://store.blackwell-professional.com/1904761518.html

--Give a Gift. - http://www.vegetarian-society.org/GiftOfChoice3.pps

--The concept of "Meatless Monday" sounds like an excellent good idea
but to my amazement the organizers recommend a meal with ..shrimps.
Have a look under http://www.meatlessmonday.com

-10-Upcoming events
please see http://www.european-vegetarian.org/lang/en/info/diary.php

=====================================================================

She no longer has the shaved head, but Susan Powter of "Stop the
Insanity" fame still has the muscles, the machine-gun delivery and the
righteous anger that has endeared her to millions of women.

The high-energy fitness guru who put infomercials on the map and
several books on bestseller lists will discuss her latest book, "The
Politics of Stupid," Thursday at 7 p.m. at Barnes and Noble
Booksellers at the Holyoke Mall at Ingleside.
...
Powter, 46, has been living in Northampton for almost a year, quietly
(if such a word can ever be applied to her) working with a local
director on a one-woman show based on "The Politics of Stupid," which
she plans to take on tour.

Her message: Americans have fallen prey to a food industry that
encourages them to eat in an unhealthy way and leads to obesity,
diabetes and high cholesterol.
...
Twelve years after "Stop the Insanity," Powter still practices what
she preaches. Movement is a daily part of her life, whether she's
bicycling, lifting weights or swimming.

She is a vegan, having renounced meat and milk products, but says good
food is not a matter of being vegetarian or non-vegetarian. What's
important, she says, is eating "whole" foods that have not been
chemically altered.

full story:
http://www.masslive.com/living/republican/index.ssf?/base/living-1/1094300431139\
970.xml

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Headlines, Events, E-Mail Lists, Jobs, and Organizations! Try
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[from Albuquerque Tribune]

The organization that recently gave a failing grade to lunch menus for
Albuquerque Public Schools is biased against meat and dairy products,
say local registered dietitians who praise the nutritional value of
APS meals.

Stephanie Fila, nutrition coordinator for APS, said she probably would
not have cooperated with the group, Physicians Committee for
Responsible Medicine, if she had known more about it.

Fila said she has learned the group has a vegan bias, which means it
favors meals that contain no meat or animal products.

full story:
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/090404_news_nutri.shtml

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http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/01/dining/01CAVI.html

September 1, 2004

World's Caviar Faces a Ban
By CHRISTOPHER PALA and FLORENCE FABRICANT

THE United Nations agency that controls trade in endangered species
has halted exports of caviar until the countries where it is produced
comply with an agreement to protect sturgeon, an official of the
agency said yesterday.

The main exporting countries, those that border the Caspian Sea, have
failed to provide an accurate measurement of how much much sturgeon
is illegally harvested, the official, Jim Armstrong, deputy secretary
general of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, said in an interview at the agency's
headquarters in Geneva. The countries had not complied with a
conservation agreement signed in 2001. It took affect this year, and
the agency has not issued new permits since January.

As a result of the ban, the legal supply of Caspian caviar in the
United States — the osetra, beluga and sevruga that sells for up to
$3,000 a pound in the West — is likely to dry up once the 2003
harvest is consumed. Prices are already rising.

International trade in the world's 20-odd varieties of sturgeon has
been regulated by the agency since 1998, after a drastic rise in
poaching. Last year, Iran, Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan exported
150 tons of beluga, osetra and sevruga caviar from the Caspian.

The agency has also frozen much smaller exports of those species from
the Black Sea; of Amur River sturgeon from China and Russia; of
Canadian sales of four Great Lakes varieties to the United States and
even of American exports of paddlefish roe to Japan.

The agreement, which was signed in 2001 and came into force this
year, does not affect the international trade in caviar taken from
farmed sturgeon, a tiny but fast-growing industry in California,
France and Italy. Nor does it affect domestic markets, including that
in Russia, where most illegal caviar is consumed.

Exporters cannot legally ship caviar without a permit from the
agency. In the United States, the Customs Service and the Fish and
Wildlife Service check incoming shipments for the necessary export
permits and other paperwork.

Officials of the United Nations agency do not believe that there is
much illegal sturgeon fishing in Iran, the other major exporter of
Caspian caviar, but as a signer of the 2001 agreement it is subject
to the ban.

Dr. Armstrong said the illegal trade in Russia may be so great that
there might not be any legal quotas issued in the foreseeable future
if the total catch was counted accurately.

He also said the reasons for denying the export quotas outside the
Caspian Sea varied. For the Great Lakes sturgeon, he said it was
because the United States and Canada had failed to submit a joint
management proposal.

All the high-quality fresh beluga, osetra and sevruga in importers'
warehouses is from the 2003 catch. Paramount Caviar in Long Island
City, Queens, received some 2003 Iranian two weeks ago and Hossein
Aimani, the owner of Paramount, said he has enough caviar on hand to
tide him over through the holiday season.

Fresh caviar, when properly cured and then shipped under
refrigeration and stored at about 29 degrees Fahrenheit, has a shelf
life of about 18 months. The expiration date on tins of 2003 Iranian
osetra that Rod Mitchell of Browne Trading in Portland, Me., received
last week is May 2005.

But plenty of black-market caviar is available in this country, as
well as caviar that may have been frozen or is two or even three
years old. Caviar listings on eBay show unbelievably low prices, like
$34 for four ounces, for Russian caviar that is best avoided.

Reliable wholesalers who also sell caviar to consumers — like Browne
Trading, Petrossian and Paramount, to name a few — are probably the
safest sources, in terms of quality and dependability.

Fresh caviar can vary in color from jet to pale gray to gold and even
to ivory. The individual eggs can also vary in size, but should be
consistent within an individual tin.

They should be glistening and moist, but not soupy or broken, which
might indicate that they have been stored poorly or frozen. They
should also not be excessively hard or dry, which means they may have
been pasteurized or may simply be too old.

A mild sea-breeze aroma is typical, but a strong odor or any
offensive smell is reason to reject the caviar.

Chefs say they will make do. "If we couldn't get imported caviar in
the restaurant," said Jonathan Benno, the executive chef at Per Se in
the Time Warner Center, "we'd probaby use American farmed sturgeon
caviar from California."

Some chefs, including Rick Moonen of RM, already rely on farmed
American sturgeon roe and roe from other kinds of fish.

Some dealers are trying to be optimistic, saying sources, especially
in Iran, expect the agency may soon allow exports of the 2004 catch,
and that the delay is due mainly to bureaucratic problems in Russia.
But Dr. Armstrong held out little hope for that.

"We had a similar case in Jamaica," he said about poaching. "They had
a quota of 1,200 tons of queen conch. When we asked them to take into
consideration the poaching by fishermen from Haiti and the Dominican
Republic, they estimated that was worth 800 tons. So we cut their
quota from 1,200 tons to 400 tons, and that gave them the incentive
to crack down on the poachers. This year we increased them to 550
tons."

But cutting down on poaching in Russia and Kazakhstan will not be as
easy as chasing off foreign fishermen from coastal waters.

In both these countries, according to fishermen, traders and local
officials, poaching, negligible during the Soviet period, has become
a way of life in the past 15 years of economic upheaval and
widespread corruption. Most estimate the illegal catch at many times
the legal one.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company