Josh Tetrick

Bill Gates Sees Veggie Burgers in Your Future

2013-03-29T19:47:48-04:00

"We need to start thinking about the future of food if we are going to feed 9 billion people in a way that does not destroy our environment." -- Bill Gates' recent Facebook post

Our food system is broken. And it's eroding our values and the environment with equal ferocity.

Want absurd? The animals we eat consume more food than the 1.3 billion people who go to bed hungry every single night. And by 2050, all the animals we eat will themselves consume as much food as 4 billion people. Just a thought, but I'm guessing all that food would be more effective in the stomachs of the 16,000 children dying every day from hunger-related causes. Eighteen percent of all GHG emissions flow from this same place: animal farming.

At the very heart of the answer to all this absurdity is a central question: How can we feed a growing world without destroying our environment -- and our values? See, as smart folks like Bill Gates know, as population grows in the developing world, a desire for meat (and the inefficiency that comes along with it) will only grow. We need to start thinking about the future of food today that doesn't involve the resource intensity of raising animals tomorrow.

And a revolution in food is about to break open -- in fact, it's already started. Hampton Creek, a company I co-founded with my best friend last year to develop plant-based eggs, is honored to have been selected by Bill Gates and his team as one of three companies leading this reinvention of food. The Future of Food, a Gates-led special on our food system, was just released on the official website of Bill Gates -- gatesnotes.com. you should watch. And then talk about it with your family.

In writing about Hampton Creek and others, Gates said: "Beyond Eggs, an egg alternative from Hampton Creek Foods, does away with the high cholesterol content of real eggs." And, "... companies like Beyond Meat, Hampton Creek Foods and Lyrical [plant-based cheese] are doing some amazing things." Here's a featured video on his Future of Food special:

Why do we focus on eggs? And why a plant-based alternative? Because of the 1.7 trillion eggs laid in the world last year, over 95 percent came from female chickens who are confined in battery cages, small wire enclosures that afford each hen a space smaller than a single sheet of letter-sized paper. The hens are fed massive amounts of corn and soy, both crops that would be better off in the mouths of a hungry world. It's an outdated and inefficient system. We think the world deserves better.

My best friend once said: "We didn't move on from the horse and buggy because of morality alone." I think he's right.

How One Liberian Girl Is Uniting Thousands

2012-12-06T09:40:19-05:00

I am Abigail.

That is the song and scream of More Than Me, an organization that lifts girls off the street and into school. Abigail was a child prostitute on the streets of Monrovia, Liberia. Now? She's in school and dreaming (big) for the first time.

From writing, "I am Abigail," on their foreheads to leading flash mobs, More Than Me is doing everything possible to lift the voices of the girls they work with in Liberia.

And continuing in their creative outreach approach... it's pretty cool when intensity and love unite for one cause -- and in one video:

Take some time to lift your voice for her, too.

'I Am Abigail' on Thousands of Foreheads

2012-11-28T15:27:09-05:00

More Than Me, an education and girls' empowerment non-profit, is gaining notoriety through its guerilla-style marketing, inspiring hundreds of people to write "I am Abigail" on their foreheads and posting the photos on Facebook.

This really begs the question, "Who the heck is Abigail?"

Abigail was an orphan in West Point, Liberia. You may have read her letter in a previous article here on the Huffington Post. At six, she was left with prostitutes. She learned to work the streets in order to get access to drinking water and food. Education was not an option.

Then Abigail met Katie Meyler, the founder of More Than Me, an organization dedicated to getting girls off the streets and into schools. Katie and Abigail became fast friends, and More Than Me has raised the money to put Abigail through school. She is learning to bake, and aspires to one day be a Senator, so she can, in turn, help other girls like her.

So, why are all these people also "Abigail"?

Abigail could be you. Abigail could be your sister, your niece, your student, or your neighbor. Remember, we live in a global community; there is no "me" without "we", Abigail is because you are, and you are because Abigail is.

Join the community. When you've done that, help the community grow by spreading our story. And most of all, get inspired by checking out www.voteabigail.org.

Vote for Abigail

2012-11-16T12:54:11-05:00

We live in a complex world. And having an impact is not always simple. This is. Here's why educating one girl changes, well, everything:

- When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

- An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.

- When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.

More Than Me, an organization that lifts little girls at risk of prostitution off the streets of West Africa and into school, is competing for $1 million dollars on NBC in two weeks. "If we win that, thousands of girls will break free from that life," says Katie Meyler, their founder.

One of their girls, Abigail, has been saved from a life of prostitution and is now thriving (and smiling) in school. And Abigail has a message for all of you:

Dear World,

My name is Abigail.

I'm 13-years-old. I live in West Point, Liberia. I don't know my parents... I was left with prostitutes when I was six-years-old. They took care of me, but life was hard. Often, I didn't have a place to sleep or food to eat. I never went to school. And I would often sleep at a video club so men could find me and then "rent" me for the night. I was abused, both in my mind and body. I didn't feel loved.

When I met the people at More Than Me, my life changed. I have a new home now and food to eat. I'm in school now. I'm happy now. I feel like I have a future now. I feel loved. I've learned how to bake, which helps me earn extra money.

Please help vote for me so I can continue in this new life and stay in school. Your vote is my future. I'll do anything to show you that I'll do my best in school and become something with my life.

Love,

Abigail

Take 15 seconds (yes, just 15 seconds) to make the lives of these girls a bit better by doing two very simple and extremely meaningful things:

VOTE Nov. 27 - Dec. 4 for Abigail and girls like her at voteabigail.org and... then share it with others.

That's it -- nothing more.

Invisible Food

2012-07-10T15:55:01-04:00

"The most obvious, ubiquitous, important realities are often the ones that are the hardest to see and talk about." - David Foster Wallace

In other words: What we think we know for sure is often bizarrely wrong.

Here's an example: Have a blueberry muffin with your latte this morning? Or sneak a chocolate chip cookie during your work break? Dip your carrots in ranch dressing during the game? Or have a bowl of angel hair pasta for dinner? Living inside all of these products is an ingredient that would cause us to hesitate before the next bite -- if we only knew its source. Of the 79 billion eggs laid in the U.S. last year, over one-third are used as ingredients in the food all of us buy every single day. And 95% of the egg ingredients that end up in our food come from female chickens that are confined in battery cages, small wire enclosures that afford each hen a space smaller than a single sheet of letter-sized paper. It's an outdated and inefficient system -- and it's invisible.

See, eggs serve a functional purpose in our food: They make our muffins plump, help our dressings hold together, enable our cookies not to crumble too easily. But, cruelty feeds and thrives on all this abstraction. Empathy depends on us to consciously take the invisible, and make it real. Our consumption of eggs, in many ways, represent the manifestation of the problem. Something that impacts our health (cholesterol), degrades our local and global environment (GHG emissions and waste runoff), and erodes our collective values (see definition of compassion) operates much like the old fish in the water tale: Two young fish are swimming along and happen to meet an older fish swimming the opposite way. The older fish says: "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes: "What the hell is water?"

A few more things to consider before reaching for that egg-soaked cookie next to you:

-- If we're only eating eggs (and their ingredients) from female chickens, it's worth asking: What happens to all the male chicks? All of them, over 250 million a year, are destroyed. Some are suffocated in plastic containers; others are tossed into a wood-chipping-like machine.

-- Last year, half a billion eggs were recalled because of food poisoning.

-- Female chickens might never feel the sun or touch the soil.

So, what to do? Eat fewer eggs and less food with egg ingredients. Seek out plant-based products that take the animals (and the cholesterol) out of the equation. And, finally, send a note to your representative in Congress to support H.R. 3798, legislation that would make the lives of laying hens just a bit better.

This system of animal farming craves our ignorance -- but it also fears our empathy. Which one will you give them?

Grab the Land

2012-04-03T17:08:16-04:00

It's a global trend, and not a good one.

It's called land grabbing, and it's happening on a massive scale -- especially in Africa. For millions of indigenous villagers and pastoralists it means forced relocation, loss of livelihoods, and a death blow to their ancient cultures. Ethiopia is a sad example of the worst of these outcomes.

"Right now, the Ethiopian government is forcing 200,000 indigenous Anuak people off their ancestral farmlands, grazing lands, and forests in the Gambella region," says Paula Palmer, director of the Ethiopia Campaign at Cultural Survival, a non-profit that defends the rights of indigenous people worldwide.

Once the indigenous people are herded off the fertile land, it's then leased for industrial agriculture. As the bulldozers move in, habitats are destroyed, including, in Ethiopia's case, Gambella's last remaining forests and wetlands. According to the Oakland Institute, Ethiopia has transferred 3,619,509 hectares of land. And despite government claims that such forced taking of land for private investment brings in needed currency, there are "no mechanisms in place to ensure that these investments contribute to increased food security," states the Institute's report "Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa."

What happens to the indigenous people who are removed from their lands? They're hustled off to state-built "villages" with the promise of jobs, healthcare and education. But investigators from Human Rights Watch found little evidence of such amenities. Many of the new villages lack access to water and lands for farming, and Anuak parents don't know how they will manage to feed their children. One Anuak elder told Human Rights Watch that he believed the government "brought the Anuak people here to die."

And, complicating matters further is the fact that Ethiopia is jailing, torturing and exiling journalists and human-rights activists who speak out against these abuses.

Yet, Ethiopia continues to receive more U.S. and foreign relief aid than any other country in Africa. Is this aid underpinning Ethiopia's land-grabbing and forced resettlement policies? What we know is that the resettled Anuak people have been forced into dependence on food aid, and most of that comes from Western governments.

"It is shameful that U.S. tax dollars could be directly or indirectly supporting such devastating human rights violations," says Palmer.

Palmer says Cultural Survival and other organizations are also concerned that the Anuak people -- already the victims of discrimination, arrest, torture and forced resettlement -- may once again be the targets of the military, as they were in 2003 when more than 400 Anuak men were killed. Palmer says she has received on-the-ground reports of Ethiopian troops now converging in Gambella, raising fears that they may cross into South Sudan to target some 3,000 Anuak refugees who fled there after the 2003 massacre.

"There has been a spiraling number of incidents of violence against and arrests of Anuak by the military, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the 2003 massacre and the two or more years of human rights abuses that followed," says Obang Metho, executive director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia and an Anuak refugee living in Ottawa.

There is no sign of the country backing down. Human Rights Watch, in its grimly titled report, "Waiting Here for Death," says the country has plans to forcibly move 1.5 million Indigenous minorities from their native lands by 2013.

"The land-grabbing and 'villagization' programs violate international human rights laws and arguably the Ethiopian constitution," says Suzanne Benally, executive director of Cultural Survival.

Ethiopia continues to haul in $3 billion a year of foreign relief aid. It's time donor nations -- the United States, the United Kingdom, and countries of the European Union -- used their influence with Ethiopia to stop the land grabbing for the enrichment of private investors. Concerned U.S. citizens can send letters to the U.S. State Department via Cultural Survival's website.

Make your voice heard.

Intermix Ignores Pleas for Compassion From Over 32,000 Consumers

2012-03-02T11:14:45-05:00

Intermix, a leading retailer known for following popular fashion trends, is under fire for selling, promoting, and glamorizing animal fur this past season.

Prominently displayed in their storefront windows and publicly advertised on social media, shoppers see rabbit fur scarves, raccoon fur trim, fox fur vests, and coyote fur jackets. Since October, the organization Fur Free Los Angeles has been asking Intermix to drop the cruelly obtained pelts and instead incorporate equally luxurious faux furs before next season. After numerous protests outside Intermix locations in Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Miami and after 32,000 signatures have been collected in support of the campaign, the company has still not responded.

The fur industry is one of our world's most barbaric and unnecessary businesses. Animals in the wild can languish for days in steel traps, metal cutting into their bones, until a trapper arrives to put them out of their misery. Victims of such traps have been known to chew off their own limbs for a chance at freedom. On fur farms, rabbits, foxes, mink, raccoon dogs, coyotes, and other animals spend their entire lives in cramped wire cages. Foxes are most often anally or vaginally electrocuted by a steel rod, a method employed so as not to damage the pelts. Conditions on fur farms in China, where there are no animal protection laws and where much of America's fur supply (including multiple items sold by Intermix this season) comes from, are even worse.

Campaign organizer Jessica Schlueter wrote the following in a post for Change.org:

The company's refusal to engage us or cooperate with us in any way can only mean one thing: Intermix knows it has no defense. Intermix knows there is no excuse for killing up to 100 animals for one single item of clothing... Intermix knows that by using words like "luxurious" and "exotic," it is distracting shoppers from what they are actually adorning their body with: the sewn together skins ripped from animals whose crime was nothing more than to be born with soft fur. Intermix knows it is placing greed and profits above ethics, compassion, and human decency.

See, when a company is targeted by a petition, it has two choices. It can follow in the steps of Cindy Barshop, whose Completely Bare Spa was recently on the receiving end of a Change.org anti-fur campaign. After the petition hit 1,200 signatures, Cindy released a public statement thanking petitioners and announcing her complete transition to faux fur. Alternatively, the company can choose to stay silent, pretend that their choices and actions are not contributing to horrific violence, and hope that the public outrage eventually fades away. However, judging by the determination of campaign organizers and the recent support lent by public figures like supermodel Janice Dickinson, veteran actor Andrew Keegan, swimsuit model Katarina Van Derham and Playmate Jessica Hall, this campaign is far from fizzling.

So, will Intermix keep their heads down with blinders on and continue to ignore the countless emails they have been sent, the calls they have received, and the images they have been shown? Or will they join other leading designers and retailers like Anthropologie, Calvin Klein, Kenneth Cole, Stella McCartney, Ella Moss, Free People, Ralph Lauren, Urban Outfitters and True Religion, all of which have publicly vowed not to use fur in their designs?

Only time will tell. Until then, contribute your voice to the campaign by signing the petition and following the campaign on Facebook.

Your move, Intermix.

The Strongest Generation

2012-02-06T18:16:21-05:00

Janessa Goldbeck is a woman on a bicycle -- and a mission to ride 4,200 miles for her country. But she needs your help.

Janessa's not a professional cyclist. But she does love her country. Last week, Janessa signed her contract to go to Marine Corps Officer Candidate School in June. Between now and then, Janessa is trying to protect her country in a different way: by bicycling across the country to talk to Americans about how development keeps us safe and makes America great.

Starting this morning in San Diego, 26-year-old Janessa is beginning the Cycle For Security bicycle tour. In the next few months, she'll bicycle through places like Midland, Texas and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, into the high desert and over the Appalachian Mountains.

It's an important message that Janessa's working to spread. Not everyone realizes that international development (sometimes called "foreign aid") is important to keeping America safe -- but it's not exactly a new concept. Janessa's grandfather was a World War II veteran, and it was his generation that taught us about keeping America strong. After the Greatest Generation won World War II, they realized that the only way to truly stamp out fascism -- and make sure that communism couldn't sweep through Europe -- was to rebuild the countries we had defeated. And it worked. Today, those nations we went to war with are now strong economic partners, and reliable allies.

Development did more than just stabilize Europe, though. In the decades that followed, America helped beat back smallpox and polio. By taking these diseases on abroad, we eliminated these pandemics, so they don't pose a threat to us today.

And after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was international development that dismantled nuclear programs in former Soviet states. Today, anti-American extremists can't get their hands on nuclear weapons because, for decades, international development has made sure there aren't any out there for them to get.

The problem is, not everyone in Congress realizes how important our international development efforts are.International development is around 1 percent of our budget, and development actually saves American lives and American dollars by keeping us out of conflicts. But some are still irresponsibly eying these programs for cuts.

That's why the Cycle For Security Tour is so important. All along the way, Janessa will be speaking to students, elected leaders and other members of local communities about how important international development is to America's security, working to get them to contact their members of Congress about this important issue. Janessa and the people she meets along her tour will be able to send the message that Congress needs to protect these vital development programs.

She needs your help -- but you don't have to travel 4,200 miles to pitch in. Chances are, if you're reading this, you're closer than 4,200 miles from your computer. Sign up to join the campaign for international development at www.makeUSstrong.com. Or, if you're reading this article on your phone, call (202) 505-0212 and leave a message for your Member of Congress about the importance of development.

We need people standing up for international development everywhere -- in Portland and Plymouth, Detroit and Des Moines, Minneapolis to Miami -- to take small steps to make the case that international development keeps us safe, makes us strong, and needs to stay. Tell your members of Congress: if they're serious about keeping America safe, they'll fully fund international development.

Antibiotics With Your Thanksgiving Leftovers?

2011-11-26T14:26:45-05:00

Spit out that Thanksgiving leftover ham and pick up a barf bag. Because even the hardy Pilgrims would take a pass on some of those leftovers if they knew just how gross our contemporary system of raising animals for food truly is...

1. It's like 80's porn, but for female pigs

Before pig factory employees stuff pregnant mamma pigs in cramped crates, the animal "scientists" at the factory put the, um, robotic moves on the soon-to-be mothers with their super saddle machine. Note to the guys: Please don't buy this machine for your date tonight.

2. Chocolate milk?

A large percentage of dairy cows are infected with Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, an illness that causes relentless streams of diarrhea to shoot out of their butts. And since the cow's butt is conveniently located next to her milk-producing utters, all of us can have a little chocolate in our milk without even adding the syrup. Dairy industry: God bless you.

3. Buying bacon pays the guy that pleasures the pig

Dr. Temple Grandin, an esteemed animal behaviorist, tells the story of one pig farmer who, in discussing his masturbating of his pigs, says, "I have to stick my finger in his butt -- he just really loves that."

4. There's crap in your meat

99 percent of chickens take a long, cold bath in massive tanks of water and communal feces before their meat leaves the slaughter plant. The chicken industry literally calls it, "fecal soup." And the USDA legally requires companies to indicate what percentage of their chicken meat "retains" the shit water. The next time you buy chicken, just look closely at the small print on the bottom-right of the package.

5. The male chicks

If we're only eating eggs from female chickens, it's worth asking: What happens to all the male chicks? All of them, over 250 million a year, are destroyed. Some are suffocated in plastic containers; others, like those in this video, are tossed into a wood-chipping-like machine. Skip to 2:22 and, ah, enjoy your egg salad sandwich.

6. Hogging our antibiotics

We give 8 times the amount of antibiotics (read: medicine) to the animals we eat as we do to sick people. Drug resistant infections have soared in recent years, killing an estimated 70,000 Americans in 2010. It's a growing crisis that scientists say is partially caused by gorging animals on all this medicine.

7. You

No jokes on this one. Let's call this what it is: When we eat food from these violent animal factories we're supporting (and eating) all this absurdity. There are so many reasons (shit in the meat, pig porn, diarrhea in the milk) to turn our backs on this system, but here's one to remember: We are better than this.

From Prostitution to... First Grade

2011-11-18T13:35:00-05:00

Educating one girl changes, well, everything. Here's why:

- When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.

- An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.

- When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.

When we invest in girls -- we all win. Our communities are stronger. Our families are healthier. And our collective future is brighter.

More Than Me, an organization that gets girls off the streets and into school, needs you. They're competing in a contest sponsored by JPMorgan Chase bank, which is giving away $3 million to charities through a Facebook vote. "If we win that, it's a game-changer," says Katie Meyler, their founder.

More Than Me from What Took You So Long? on Vimeo.

We live in a complex world. And having an impact is not always simple. This is. Help Abigail and 99 other girls get off the street and into school with just one click: http://bit.ly/rUKTyh

Why Martin Luther King's Son Doesn't Eat Meat

2011-08-07T18:20:01-04:00

Location: Cape Town, South Africa

I asked her for directions (read: flirted) to Clifton Beach five days after unpacking my luggage: a muddied, yellow backpack.

Two months later, she's my girlfriend, and I'm the boy at her family's annual "braai," the word for barbecue in Afrikaans, the language of Dutch settlers in South Africa. Her Grandma was lounging in a chair, peacefully snoring on the porch. Enormous mugs of beer teetered in the hands of slightly tipsy people. A goofy German Shepherd was playing keep-away with my girlfriend's even goofier 7-year-old niece in the grass. And the "boom, boom" of Springbok Nude Girls, a popular South African band (seriously, that's their name) moved her aunt to put down the mug and dance.

And they had food. Sosaties (skewered meat), kebabs, "crayfish" or kreef in Afrikaans, marinated chicken, pork and lamb chops, steaks, what seemed like ten kinds of Boerewors (sausages) of different flavors and thickness, and five racks of something that looked vaguely like spareribs. A lot of meat. Maybe it's because I was raised on BBQ pork in Birmingham, AL, but it felt like, well, home.

And then I met Uncle Johan: "Do all those [insert euphemism for African-Americans] in America frustrate you?," he casually asked me. And everyone around us -- my girlfriend's dancing aunt, her sister, brother, and, disturbingly, my smiling girlfriend -- nodded... approvingly. "Na, all is good," I said. And then I guided the conversation back to those sausages on the grill. And the fun-filled braai rolled on past midnight.

I still regret my pathetic answer. Because to do nothing, is to do something.

The fairy tales of Apartheid, a system that smothered the values of many white South Africans, were entrenched in her family's story. Blacks are violent. Lazy. And filthy. This is common sense. Some segregation is necessary, otherwise we'll have "racial violence," my girlfriend once told me. It's normal. Her Grandma and pastor and teachers and friends and their families magnified the myth with more stories. And it's natural. Have you seen the new scientific study? Our brains are actually physically larger... Have you read our history? These are facts.

She was fed these absurdities since birth. And it sounds strange, and it's difficult to write, but: Were her perverse beliefs the result of a conscious choice? Wouldn't a choice imply the awareness of another approach? To her, Apartheid was like gravity -- it was an invisible and unquestioned truth. Bizarrely, she was raised inside the belly of a nation that made it easy for good people to support a system that was hostile to their deepest values.

And in that sense, she has some company. (Hint: look in the nearest mirror.)

Six years later, when I think of my first and only South African barbecue, I think about two things: Uncle Johan and all that meat. Today, in America, what often seems normal is nothing more than the stories all of us seem to accept -- without even thinking. Sound familiar?

And like my former girlfriend, and as equally bizarre, we're living inside a system that makes it easy for us to support practices that violate our most cherished values. We've been fed our own uniquely American absurdities. And we've been unconsciously digesting them since nursery school. Just ask your parents how many cases of Gerber Ham or Beef Gravy meals you slurped down as a baby? My Mom's answer: Laughter, and "a lot." Seriously, go ask them.

When we look at the sausages on the grill during our next family BBQ and see only dinner, we aren't really seeing reality anymore. We're seeing the fairy tales (red barns, straw hats, happy cows, and crowing roosters) we tell ourselves about where our food comes from. And when we casually ask, as I have many time before: "So, how long did you sear the meat?", the myth grows.

One minute inside one of the animal factories that produced those sausages or chicken patties, and yes, even that Gerber Ham Gravy meal would leave you shaken -- and sickened. And that is a big fact. And 99 percent of all animals eaten or used to produce milk or eggs suffer in this very American system of injustice. If you doubt whether you'd be revolted, you won't 10 seconds after you click here.

We might feel anger by the comparison implicit in invoking racism and animal protection. After all, Nelson Mandela didn't move the nation of South Africa to secure the rights of mother pigs or egg-laying chickens. Human oppression is wholly different, and maybe you're right. But we view the contributions of Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King too narrowly if we assume that they cannot stand against all forms of injustice. And make no mistake, there's a reason King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and his son, Dexter, are committed vegetarians.

No jokes here; let's call this what it is: When we eat food from these animals factories we're magnifying another myth and trashing our values. Is this what we want? Or is there something we want even more? Because our life stories, whether stories of apathy or empathy, are being written with every meal.

And to do nothing, is to do something.

Five Reasons Why Man = Meat

2011-07-31T21:14:34-04:00

To my fellow men:

It's time to bring forward some reasoned arguments against the wave of "evidence" and public opinion claiming that meat is unhealthy, unethical, and unattractive. The next time you're being bullied by the carrot mobs, give them a spoonful of sloppy joe and the following five reasons why you've made the choice (it's a free country!) to keep on eating 222 pounds of meat a year.

1. Fecal Soup.
99 percent of chickens take a long, cold bath in massive tanks of water and communal feces before their meat leaves the slaughter plant. The chicken industry literally calls it, "fecal soup." Here's the cool thing: A small, but now extinct tribe of men in Burundi believed that inhaling chicken crap gave them "special" powers. We could have those powers. And the USDA legally requires companies to indicate what percentage of their chicken meat is infused with crap water. Unfortunately, the law doesn't allow for more than 11 percent liquid absorption. The next time you buy chicken, just look closely at the small print on the bottom-right of the package. Anything over 5 percent should be enough to give you superhuman qualities.

2. Sex.
You'll get it less. Mostly because eating lots of meat (read: inhaling cholesterol) has been linked in study after study to impotence. And the first blocked artery in men is usually pumping blood to, yep, the penis. If you think strategically, though, your impending arousal issues should mean that you'll become even more irresistible to your partner. The "hard to get strategy" worked with your last two ex-girlfriends, right? It's time to bring that same strategy to the bedroom. Side note that you should probably keep to yourself: Erectile dysfunction is the canary in the coal mine for heart disease.

3. Strength.
Modern women aren't attracted to men that challenge stereotypes, have the strength to act in alignment with their deepest values, and live with compassion and integrity. And the fact is that women just dig men who see clips of defenseless mother pigs stuffed in crates so small that they can't turn around, and then blurt out, "But, I love me some bacon!" It's a turn on. Go ask them.

4. Salt.
Eating lots of meat will make your "stuff" smell like a decomposing -- but salty -- pig carcass. The digestion of animal protein creates a dumpster-like bacterial environment, giving your girl that, "Did I just throw up in my mouth?" taste. See, the less a woman is interested in all that down there, the more satisfying it'll be the two times a year (read: your birthday and Valentines Day) that she's brave enough to give it a try. Common sense dictates another strip of bacon on that BLT.

5. Sympathy.
Colon cancer has been linked to slurping down red and processed meats, presumably related to the armies of nitrates swimming around in every bite. And "vegetarians have the lowest rates of coronary heart disease of any group in the country," said Dr. Castelli, director of the longest-running study of diet and heart disease in the world. What should all that "science" mean to you? In romantic relationships, the sympathy card is always a winner. And getting sick means lots of it. Expect more massages and more home cooked breakfasts -- a silver lining, even if you're crapping blood.

Strap on a pair, and enjoy your dinner.

Undercover Investigation of a Dog Factory Farm

2011-07-12T10:00:12-04:00

Last week, the animal protection organization Mercy For Animals released a video taken undercover by an employee wearing a hidden camera at a dog factory farm in Kamrar, Iowa. The worker was employed between April and June of this year.

The employee documented horrific abuses such as workers ripping out puppies' testicles without a single drop of painkillers, leading many to suffer from herniated intestines due to botched castration and die from their wounds. Workers were filmed cutting of the tails of puppies with clippers, again, without any use pain killer. A process called "thumping" was used at this facility where workers picked up puppies by their back legs and slammed them to the ground bashing their heads in order to "euthanize" the ones who weren't growing fast enough.

Many of the mother dogs were documented as suffering severe uterine prolapse - a condition where their uterus literally falls out of their bodies as a result of their repetitive, forced breeding. These dogs received no veterinary treatment.

Some of the most disturbing footage is of animals suffering as a result of standard, routine breeding practices. On the video, you can see row after row of mother dogs confined in what the industry calls "gestation crates," metal cages that are so narrow the dogs can't even turn around or move side-to-side more than a few inches. The dogs are confined in these crates for four months, taken out to give birth then feed their young for several weeks in a "farrowing crate," which allows them to lay on their side but still not turn around. After about two and a half weeks, the puppies are weaned and the mother dogs are put back in the gestation crates to restart this cycle, which lasts about four years until their reproductive cycle slows down to a point they're no longer economically viable. By this time, many of the dogs suffer lameness and crippling leg deformities due to muscle atrophy. Their tired, battered bodies are loaded off to slaughter.

After viewing this footage, best-selling author and animal behaviorist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe stated, "this video depicts scenes of unbearable suffering and inexcusable neglect." Veterinarian Dr. Armaiti May commented, "I was greatly disturbed and appalled to watch footage of such horrifying cruelty."

Perhaps the most shocking part of this investigation is that all of the cruelties described are standard agricultural industry practices and this farm's method of production follows its industry's guidelines for "humane" treatment of its animals. In fact, most likely no laws were broken because animals raised for food have virtually no legal protection while on the farm. The video sent shockwaves throughout the restaurant and retail industry with major companies scrambling to be sure their meat wasn't coming from this farm.

Wait a second. Wait just a second. I just realized that I accidentally (OK, it was purposeful) wrote 'dog' every time I meant 'pig' and wrote 'puppies' instead of 'piglets.' My apologies. We can all rest easy knowing that these abuses weren't inflicted on our beloved household pets.

To watch the video, click here.

Building a Humane Economy

2011-07-11T18:00:15-04:00

"Why the light bulb?" a young entrepreneur once asked Thomas Edison. "I find out what the world needs, then I proceed to invent."

And our 2011 world has a lot of needs. One of them, though, is particularly ripe for a new brand of capitalism.

See, we wouldn't tolerate someone ripping our dog's teeth out (baby pigs); stuffing him in a cramped wire cage (egg-laying chickens); or searing the tip of his nose off with a hot blade (broiler chickens). But sixty billion animals suffer from that type of cruel and inhumane treatment behind the walls of warehouses called factory farms. And 99 percent of all animals eaten or used to produce milk or eggs are factory farmed.

All of this violence fuels a $140 billion-plus a year industry. An industry so entrenched that it feels bizarrely invisible. We're not only being fed meat by this violent system; we're also being fed lies... But not everyone took the blue pill (see: The Matrix):

• 18% of college students are vegetarian
• There are more vegetarians in college than Catholics
• There are more vegetarians than students enrolled in any major, except for business
• 76% of American say that animal welfare is more important than low meat prices

Compassion now has a market. And we're seeing even wider cracks in the system of factory farming, including this week's historic agreement between the Humane Society of the United States and the egg industry. As an entrepreneur, there are a lot of reasons to care about all this, but here's one to remember: selflessness is profitable.

This isn't a story about being a martyr; it's a story about thriving.

Skeptical?

Tal Ronnen didn't just use his culinary skills to launch another steak house; he helped build a booming line of animal-friendly food products. Donna Oakes didn't just use her fashion sense to start another clothing company; she's using it to bring world-class (and ethical) designers to the marketplace. Greg Dollarhyde doesn't only see consumer demand for animal products; he sees a band of conscious consumers waiting in line at his hip West Coast restaurant chain.

Sacrificing yourself to the beast of conventional wisdom is a 21st century race to a better spot in the unemployment line. Enjoy the wait -- the economy still isn't looking that good.

Billions of dollars and one hundred years later, Edison's answer captures how some entrepreneurs are responding to the needs of so many animals -- and the values of so many consumers. The system of factory farming craves your ignorance -- but it also fears your creativity. And that is a big fact.

Dog: The Other White Meat

2011-06-26T19:12:50-04:00

Hundreds of dogs were crammed on a truck heading north along a major highway in Beijing on April 16th of this year.

The dogs were headed for restaurants in Changchun, a city in northeastern China. Have you been? If yes, you'll know that in Changchun restaurants you can choose from a long list of dishes, including dog soup (Gaejang), boiled dog mixed with spices and vegetables (Jeongol), and dog-red pepper paste pickle. Most people in this region take their dog spicy. Thirsty? Wash it all down with a drink made from cooled dilution of digested dog. Side note: For those of you that "need" ketchup with every meal, ketchup made from digested dog and tomato puree is available year-round, so not to worry.

Back to that truck.

Mr. An, driving north along the same highway, saw the truck and heard panicked barks and anxious whimpering. An, a volunteer at the Beijing-based China Small Animal Protection Association, posted an alert on a Twitter-like site to the local animal protection community. Within the hour, a group of two-hundred animal lovers blockaded the truck at a toll booth. Some of the dogs were dehydrated; others were suffocated by disease. And one delivered five puppies through the rusty bars of her cage. The truck driver eventually released the dogs for $17,000, saving most of them from being slaughtered and eaten hundreds of miles up the highway.

Would you have stopped the truck?

I wonder if we're too quick to judge the residents of Changchun, the city where the dogs were headed. Is it truly that bizarre to consider the potential benefits of including a little dog meat in our diets?

Think about it: Do you care about the American worker? With the unemployment rate stagnating, a bi-partisan bill ramping up investment in the "processing" of dogs for food consumption would create thousands of new jobs. And who doesn't want cheaper food? Dog-processing farms ("DPF's" in industry speak) would produce megatons of nutritious meat for the least cost. Dog meat is loaded with protein, particularly at the base of the tail, and has 5% less fat per ounce than that "other" white meat. And many of our ancestors ate dog. Our digestive systems and teeth are practically designed for it. For the sake of efficiency, we could start by collecting and processing the millions of dogs in animal shelters. Why waste all that meat?

Our arbitrary emotions shouldn't stand in the way of progress.

Why save dogs, but eat other animals? Pigs are more intelligent. They can dream, recognize their own names, fetch a tennis ball, and lead social lives of a complexity previously observed only in primates. Some -- sadly unlike my dog Jake -- even enjoy cuddling. Pigs "have the cognitive ability to be quite sophisticated, even more so than dogs," says Dr. Donald Broom, a Cambridge Professor of Animal Welfare. And don't forget Louie. Last year Louie the pig spent his afternoons running a dog agility course and playing fetch. His favorite treat? Ginger biscuits. You can watch him do his thing here.

Today, like every day before, hundreds of trucks crammed with thousands of pigs (read: thousands of Louie's) destined for our kitchens and restaurants and family barbecues fill our major highways. To say there is a difference between "our" pigs and "their" dogs heading north on that truck to Changchun seems absurd, doesn't it?

The difference between "our" pigs and "their" dogs is us. When we look at a pig and see only a meal, we aren't really seeing the pig anymore. We're seeing the fairy tales we tell ourselves about where our food comes from. One minute inside one of these animal factories would leave you shaken -- and sickened. And, yes, this unequivocally includes the chicken, cow, and other factories used to produce milk or eggs.

Here's what I'm sure of: I wouldn't tolerate someone ripping my dog's teeth out (baby pigs); stuffing him in a crate so small he couldn't turn around (pregnant mother pigs); or ending his life with a bolt gun between his brown eyes (virtually all pigs). All standard and legal violence behind the walls of pig factories.

And to shake one's head at the cravings for dog in China while texting friends "How many McRibs should I order from McDonald's for the football game?" shows just how deep the rabbit hole of denial around all this really is.

This mechanized system of violence politely labeled "factory farming" is responsible for 99% of all the animals eaten or used to produce milk or eggs. There are so many reasons to turn our backs on this system, but here's one to remember: We are better than this.