I'll be speaking at the Brooklyn Food Conference this Saturday:
Saturday, May 12, 2012, 9am - 6pm
Brooklyn Technical High School
29 Fort Greene Place
Brooklyn, NY 11217
(map and directions here)
The conference features over 150 workshops in 50 classrooms. I'm speaking in two of the Occupy Wall Street Animal Issues Working Group's series of workshops. The entire series includes:
*Workshop #1: 11:00AM-12:15PM*
Ethics of Eating Animals (Room 5W16)
w/ Gary Francione, Julian Franklin, Lori Gruen and John Maher
(Mariann Sullivan, Moderator)
Animals and the Food Industry: A Left Critique (Room 5W24)
w/ Norman Markowitz, Sachio Ko-Yin, Katie Pryor, and Brian Dominick
(Rachel Kay, Moderator)
Access to Healthy Food and Plant-based Diets in Communities of Color (Room 5E4)
w/ Donnie Smith, Terry Hope Romero, Doris Lin, Konju Oruwari, and Bina Ahmad
(Ruth Santana, Moderator)
*Workshop #2 12:30PM-1:45PM*
Corporate Power, Diet, and Animal Agriculture (Room 5W22)
w/ David Kirby, Caryn Hartglass, Victoria Moran, and Milton Mills
(Nicholas Laccetti, Moderator)
Foraging for Empathy (Room 5E4)
w/ Zaac Chavis
*Workshop #3: 2:00PM-3:15PM*
Globalizing Agribusiness: Free Trade, Factory Farms, and Genetically Modified Food (Room 5W12)
w/ Adam Weissman and John Maher
Women, Feminism, and the Use of Animals for Food (Room 5E6)
w/ Lori Gruen, Caryn Hartglass, and Doris Lin
(Jasmin Singer, Moderator)
*Workshop #4: 3:30-4:45 pm*
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Hide Slaughterhouses (Room 5W8)
w/ Victoria Moran, Gary Francione, and Timothy Pachirat
(Katie Pryor, Moderator)
Taking Action for Global Food Justice (Room 5W12)
(followup to Globalizing Agribusiness: Free Trade, Factory Farms, and Genetically Modified Food)
w/ Christina Schiavoni and Adam Weissman
Other programs include issues such as fracking, free trade and school food. There are also cooking demos and a film room.
The organizers have really made an effort to make the conference accessible to all. The event is free, and includes free child care, activities for kids, and a youth summit. The $8 lunch ($5 for a kid's lunch) includes several vegan options. Organizers are encouraging everyone to pre-register, since they're expecting 5,000 people.
If you're able to attend the conference, I hope to meet you!
Frank Siteman / Getty Images
The Sportsmen's Heritage Act of 2012 (S.2066/H.R. 4089, a.k.a. "Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act") is a drastic and extreme attack on wildlife and the environment, and has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives. According to the Animal Welfare Institute, the bill would:
- Require that the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Department of the Interior open nearly all public lands to recreational hunting, and provide that they may do so without following the environmental review processes required under the National Environmental Policy Act; and
- Eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to protect wildlife, habitat, and people from lead and other toxic substances released by ammunition waste under the Toxic Substances Control Act, thereby undermining the Agency's obligation to protect public health and the environment.
Also, the National Wolfwatcher Coalition points out:
- It amends the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) to allow for the importation of polar bear "trophies" from Canada that are presented as having been taken prior to the May 2008 Endangered Species Act listing . . .
- It would allow recreational off-road vehicles to invade federally designated Wilderness Areas -- something that has never been allowed before. It would also open the door to new logging, mining and extraction of fossil fuels in these special places;
What you can do: If you are a U.S. resident, contact your U.S. Senators and ask them to oppose S.2066. Your senators' contact information can be found on the official Senate website.
J & L Images / Getty Images
Links:
April 21-29 is World Week for Animals in Laboratories. Here are four things that you can do to help animals in laboratories:
- Support the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act, (H.R. 1513/S. 810), which would phase out the use of chimpanzees in laboratories. Learn more about the bill here, then contact your U.S. Senators and Representatives.You can look up your U.S. Representative on the House of Representatives website, while your senators can be found on the official Senate website. A personal communication is always best, but if you're short on time, you can use this webform from the New England Anti-Vivisection Society.
- Boycott products tested on animals, and go cruelty-free. Learn more about cruelty-free products here.
- When donating to health charities, be sure to support only cruelty-free charities that do not fund animal research. Learn more about cruelty-free charities here.
- Write a letter to the editor of your local paper to reach others. You can find sample letters here.
Photo by China Photos / Getty Images.
To follow up Nugent's 2005 cookbook "Kill It & Grill It," his next cookbook should be, "Poach It & Poach It."
Ted Nugent has once again pled guilty to illegal hunting. This time, he illegally killed a black bear in southern Alaska. And like his previous poaching incident, he filmed and broadcast the events for his television show, "Spirit of the Wild."
Nugent claims that his arrow only grazed the first black bear, who got away. The guitarist, who is probably better known for his controversial political statements than his 80s hits, then killed a different bear and exceeded his limit. Nugent's attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, explained, "They've got apparently some crazy law in Southeast that says if you even touch an animal with an arrow, it becomes your animal." Nugent claims he was ignorant of the law.
As a result of the plea agreement, Nugent will pay a $10,000 fine, make public service announcements about responsible hunting during his television show, and be on probation for two years. He'll also be banned from hunting or fishing in Alaska or on any U.S. Forest Service land nationwide for one year.
In his previous poaching incident, Nugent pled guilty in 2010 to illegally baiting deer and failing to have a deer tag countersigned in California. In exchange for his guilty plea, the charges for illegally killing an immature buck were dropped.
From an animal rights perspective, it doesn't matter whether the animal was killed legally or illegally; the killing violates the animal's right to live free of human abuse and exploitation. But even hunters condemn poaching, which can endanger fellow hunters, innocent bystanders, and wildlife.
Nugent was most recently in the news for making vaguely threatening remarks against President Obama, but was cleared after a Secret Service investigation.
