hexepunk

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Some reasons why non-vegans compare veganism to a religion (a non-exhaustive list):

Categorizing the exploitation and killing of animals as an expression of personal (religious-like) freedom allows non-vegans to isolate veganism from other movements for justice and against oppression.

It suggests that there is an element of faith involved and that vegans’ belief that animal agriculture involves cruelty and exploitation is not based in reality.

It dismisses activism as evangelizing and implies that efforts towards animal liberation are merely self-serving virtue-signaling.

It falsely equates veganism and personal purity, again suggesting that veganism is self-serving.

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Reminder to anti-vegans out there.

When you “try and one up the vegans” or say and do stupid shit like “for every animal you don’t eat, I will eat three!”

You realize you aren’t harming ME right.

Sure, I may get annoyed or sad. But nothing has really changed for ME. I’m still going to be fine and go about my day as per normal. You will be a blip in my memory.

What you ARE doing is harming humans who work picking crops for animal feed, whose land is stolen from them for animals, who work in factory farms and slaughterhouses, who live near these institutions.

What you ARE doing is harming animals by paying for their deaths, by having the wild animals who once lived where the CAFO’s now stand, the wild horses rounded up and slaughtered so cows can be housed, to the wild species who become endangered or go extinct, to the wolves needlessly shot to protect cattle.

What you ARE doing is contributing to the pollution in our air, land and bodies of water. Contributing all that gas and animal waste and blood into rivers and streams. Seeping into soil and making the land suffer.

Vegans are directly not suffering from your “hurr durr bacon” jokes. But others are.

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Photography by Xuebing Du

Instagram: xuebing.du

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Sometimes still blows my mind that popular posts on this site are like “this is how you remove a snail so you do not hurt them” and most people sharing it will eat dead body parts for every meal. So much suffering that we partake in every day and most of us never learn a thing about it. Really is horrifying what the human mind will allow as long as it’s normalized

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it’s time to look at some photos of pikas carrying plants and flowers in their mouths

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The fact that graphics like this only end up rallying concern and efforts to “save” bees that AREN’T even struggling (honeybees in North America for example) is the exact reason why native pollinators are where they are today. This is such an irresponsible post.

Talk about native pollinators or talk about honeybees. They are mutually exclusive at this point because without honeybees they wouldn’t be endangered.

Also “can be an additional source of income”? How transparent of you to admit you’re motivated by profit and not good stewardship of the natural world.

A Bee’s Worth 🐝 [Visuals] | ecogreenlove

→ http://ecogreenlove.com/?p=12401

By observing World Bee Day each year, we can raise awareness on the essential role bees and other pollinators play in keeping people and the planet healthy, and on the many challenges they face today.

Keep reading

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People who think that the mass industrial-scale animal agriculture industries today are part of “the circle of life” the “food chain” or anything close to “natural” need to fucking check themselves. Maybe go outside and use your own hands to kill who it is you want to eat and a lot fewer of you will be consuming sentient beings. A styrofoam tray of sanitized bird organs or wrapped cow discs is the farthest you could get while declaring eating meat is holistically part of the natural order of things.

Y’all aren’t eating bacon or ice cream in solidarity with planet earth - on the contrary, you financially supporting these things are what is destroying the natural world, and trillions of feeling beings along with it every year. Everyone matters and every choice is a drop in the bucket of what depth we are going to to protect or bring ruin to. Put your money / consumer habits where your morals are.

Nobody has to be a 100% purist in what they consume, but we all have the obligation to do everything that is practical and possible to mitigate harm in every way we can in our own lives. No excuses for not doing your best - you know what that is.

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“According to climate research done by the FAO, animal agriculture accounts for more human-caused (anthropogenic) greenhouse gases (GHGs) than all transportation combined.

Some go even farther and conclude the livestock industry is responsible for more than half of all human-caused greenhouse gases.

The United Nations Environment Programme has stated that a global shift away from meat, dairy and eggs is crucial when addressing world hunger, poverty, and climate change.

So why are meat, dairy, and eggs so bad for the planet? This infographic by designer Spencer Belkofer helps breaks it down:”

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i am so fucking sick of leftist carnists. you are not helping anyone by taking that position. you are not helping anyone by tolerating the torture, slaughter and forced impregnation of animals in one of the most evil industries on earth. get a grip.

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I truly love when non vegans who know nothing about veganism will make posts telling vegans what they should do and care about when.... vegans are already doing whatever ‘hot take’ you have. “hot take vegans should care about workers rights not just animals” I hate to break it to you, but the whole point of veganism is that you give humans and animals equal moral consideration which means.... surprise surprise, vegans care about humans just as much as we care about other animals. so we strive to liberate both groups

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Recently I read the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.  It is an intensive look at how devastating the effects of animal agriculture are on our environment, our health, and on our daily lives. While reading, I decided to take notes on some of the of the facts I found surprising. Please understand that on top of the 3 years Foer spent researching this book, he also had two independent fact-checkers verify the validity of his claims as well as has every single fact cited and sourced in the appendices.  

By The Numbers:

450 billion animals a year are factory farmed.

10 billion land animals are slaughtered in North America each year.

50 billion birds are killed each year.

1/3 of the land on earth is used for animal agriculture.

Animals agriculture is a 140 billion dollar a year industry.

Chickens lay 300 eggs per year.

KFC buys 1 billion chickens per year.

A cow is slaughtered at 12-14 months.

99% of milk and egg production is factory farmed.

Each American eats 21,000 animals in their lifetime.

Pollution 

Meat eaters produce 7 times the greenhouse gasses than vegans do.

Meat on average travels 1500 miles.

According to the UN, Animal agriculture makes up 18% of all global warming. 40% greater than all transportation in the world combined

According to the EPA, animal excrement has polluted 25,000 miles of waterways in 22 states.

Land degradation due to factory farming has cost americans 26 billion dollars in property value.

Shit

A typical pig farm will produce 7.2 million lbs of shit annually, Chicken farm: 6.6 million lbs and a typical cattle feed lot: 334 million lbs.

All farmed animals in the U.S. produce 130 times more raw waste than the human population

In the U.S. animals produce 87,000 of shit per second.

People and pigs shit about the same amount. About 281 lbs. per year.

Production costs.

It takes between 6-26 calories of food to produce 1 calorie of animal flesh.

Animal agriculture uses 756 million tons of grain and corn per year, much more than enough to feed the 1.4 billion humans who are living in dire poverty.

98% of the 255 million ton global soy crop is fed to animals.

Due to bycatch (the catching of untargeted animals while fishing), 26 lbs. of animals are killed to catch 1 lbs. of shrimp.

By 2050, the world’s livestock will consume as much food as 4 billion people.

The Human Factor

Studies show vegetarians and vegans meet or exceed their daily protein requirement.

Excess animal protein can lead to osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones and some cancers.

Vegetarians have lower blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, and lower BMI than meat eaters.

Children raised on the grounds of a typical hog farm have asthma rates exceeding 50% 

Due to the industrial expansion on factory farming, half a million independent hog farmers have gone out of business in the last 25 years.

Factory farm and slaughterhouse employees, which are made up  substantially of  immigrant labor, have an annual turn over rate of 150%

Cow slaughter workers have the highest work related injuries of an job at 27% annually.

Farmers are 4 times more likely to commit suicide.

2 generations ago virtually all farms were family farms.

In 1950 one farm worker supplied 15.5 consumers. today its 1 to 140.

Vegetarianism will prevent deforestation, curb global warming, reduce pollution, save oil reserves, lessen the burden on rural america, improve public health, and help eliminate the  systematic animal abuse in world history.

Things to think about

Less than 1% of animal meat comes from family farms.

There isn’t enough non-factory farmed chickens in the country to feed the population of Staten Island and not enough Non-factory farmed pork to feed New York City.

Factory farming relies on their customers having a nostalgic  image of farming.

Thanksgiving day accounts for 18% of Turkey consumption.

Americans spend less percentage of their income on food than any civilization in history

In perspective terms, the genetic manipulation of chickens has increased its growth rate so much that it would be equivalent to a child weighing 300 lbs. by the age of 10 from only eating granola bars and vitamins.

Modern turkeys cant walk, jump or naturally reproduce.

83% of poultry contains Campylobacter or Salmonella at time of sale.

In the U.S., consumers ingested 3 million lbs. of antibiotics each year. Farm animals were fed 24.6 million lbs. of antibiotics which only account for preventative use. 

Pigs have complex social hierarchies and social groups.

Ethics

A person who regularly consumes animal products cannot call themselves an environmentalist without divorcing it from its meaning.

Every time you purchase an animal product you are farming by proxy.

Taste shouldn’t exempt ethics. A horny person has as much right to rape an animal as a hungry person has to kill and eat it.

If an equally more advanced creature started treating us like fish, what would our argument be to not being eaten?

But What About Dogs

Cows, pigs, chickens and many sea animals are as smart as dogs

3-4 million cats and dogs are killed each year

if you let dogs unrestrictedly multiply and eat the unwanted dogs you have a high producing, low input method of animal protein production that puts the best farms to shame. 

Euthanized cats and dogs are sold farms to factory farms to feed livestock. 

#it’s been years and i still love this book

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I watching Earthlings quite a long time ago now, and it took me a couple of tries to get through it. There is a lot of empathetic pain experienced from watching it, but in my opinion being able to witness and sit with suffering is a valuable life skill. Not witnessing such things does not disappear them, but it does leave those suffering alone in it. I also love the wide breadth of animal rights & environmental topics are covered, from the pet industry (puppy mills), to mink farms. You absolutely will cry. It’s extremely important to take breaks, no matter how frequently you need them.

#earthlings #vegan #earthlings documentary #veganism #vegans #Youtube

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Description from Farm Sanctuary:

This Earth Day, Joaquin Phoenix reflects on the calf and her mother who he helped liberate from a Los Angeles slaughterhouse with the help of Los Angeles Animal Save almost a year ago and the environmental realities we’re facing today.

In this powerful new video directed by Earthlings Director Shaun Monson, Phoenix reunites with the pair at Farm Sanctuary, the country’s first farm animal sanctuary and advocacy organization.

Screenshot from the end of the film:

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them: i just want to prevent mass shootings, i want to prevent death, thats why i want a larger police presence in the usa

the police:

#ACAB

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So one of my posts is making rounds again and it’s making me really want to revitalize this blog. I have been vegan for 4 years, 3 months, and 21 days! Including through the entirety of college, which is wild. My partner, who I have been with for almost 3 years, by now, has gone “90% vegetarian” 🥰

#personal

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Slow Cooker Coconut Curry (Vegan + Gluten Free)

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#leaf eating