Pet Rock, Kowalski, Meat & Cancer, Ornish, Cheap Meat, Events, Videos
September 8, 2008
- BVS Brings Vegan Food and Exhibits at Pet Rock Festival
- Vegan World Wrestling Champion and BVS Member Walter "Killer" Kowalski
- Meat and Cancer Linked (Again)
- Dean Ornish on Diet Wars
- The Cheap Cost of Meat
- Events & Happenings
- Videos - Mad Cow, Bird Flu, Baby Moose in Sprinkler
BVS will be exhibiting this Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Pet Rock Festival at Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester, a nonprofit annual event to promote kindness to animals that offers rock bands and lots of animal-friendly exhibitors, with an emphasis on companion animals.
Six years ago when we first learned of Pet Rock, BVS contacted the organizers about the food served, which was standard carnival fare of sausages, hamburgers, and hot dogs. We asked for a meeting to discuss making all their food vendors serve only veg items -- consistent with their animal kindness mission. They generously agreed, and Pet Rock became, along with our own veg festival, the second all-vegetarian major Festival in New England!
This year BVS has organized some vegan international food vendors for Pet Rock, adding to their vegetarian carnival food offerings. A great day to introduce veggie foods to thousands of non-vegetarian attendees, while BVS distributes veg starter kits, recipes, nutrition and other info at our exhibitor table!
http://petrockfest.com Admission $12 to benefit animal charities. An outdoor event. Dogs on leash welcome!
The many news articles about the death of World Wrestling Champ Walter "Killer" Kowalski at age 81 on August 30 include reference to his vegetarianism, which spanned 60 years of his life. Mr. Kowalski lived in Reading MA and was a dues-paying member of BVS. He was a speaker for us in our first year in 1987, which resulted in a full page (yes!) article on page 2 of the Boston Globe. He spoke again in the 90s, covered by the Phoenix, and again in '02 when it made the Names & Faces celebrity column in the Globe. He shared stories of life as a vegetarian traveling the international wrestling circuit though the U.S., Far East, Africa, and Australia in the 50s, 60s, & 70s, and revealed the gentle vegan spirit beneath the tough-guy public image. More recently he was at our fall food festival, at 6'7" towering above the crowd enjoying food samples. He got married for the first time at age 79.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/09/wrestler_kowals.html
July 02, 2008
National Institutes of Health (NIH)-AARP Diet and Health Study
Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute examined data on 494,000 participants, comparing cancer data on the 20% who ate the most red (defined here as beef, pork and lamb) and processed meat with the data on the 20% who ate the least.
Risk was significantly higher for colorectal, lung, esophageal, liver, and pancreatic cancers. According to the researchers, one in 10 cases of lung or colorectal cancer (the first and second leading causes of cancer death, respectively) could be averted by limiting red meat intake.
Prior studies have also linked meat consumption to increased cancer risk, particularly colorectal and stomach cancer, bladder, breast, cervical, endometrial, esophageal, glioma, kidney, liver, lung, mouth, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers. Scientists have said that roughly 35 percent of cancers can be attributed to diet, a connection as strong as that with smoking.
Researchers noted that meat also contains other potential carcinogens, including heme iron (the type of iron found in meat), nitrates and nitrites, saturated fat, hormones and salts. All of these substances have been observed to affect hormone metabolism, increase cell proliferation, damage DNA, encourage insulin-like growth hormones and promote damage of cells by free radicals, all of which can lead to cancer. Full article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/023556.html
Newsweek
July 16, 2008
Dean Ornish M.D. comments on the substantial flaws in an Atkins Foundation-funded study published in The New England Journal of Medicine of 7/17/08. He compares to his own state-of-the-art studies, which employ plant-based diets. "Our latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that these diet and lifestyle changes caused beneficial changes in gene expression in over 500 genes in just three months-'turning on' disease-preventing genes and 'turning off' genes that promote heart disease, cancer, and other illnesses."
Dr. Ornish also comments on HDL (the "good" cholesterol) and explains why not everything that raises HDL is good for you and not everything that lowers HDL is bad for you. He goes on to describe a consensus that is emerging among nutrition experts on an optimal diet. "To the degree that you eat a diet higher in fruits, vegetables, whole (unrefined) grains, legumes, soy products, ..., low in fat, low in refined carbohydrates and served with love, you're likely to look better, feel better, lose weight and gain health." [The ... is where he mentions fatty fish for Omega 3, but flaxseed oil, ground flaxseeds, and walnuts are excellent sources of Omega 3 and come without the many downsides of fish.
See http://www.bostonveg.org/go_veggie.html#fish.]
Full Ornish article: http://www.newsweek.com/id/146641
Factory farms produce cheap meat, until you consider the rivers of sewage, the contaminants and the superbugs."
August 23, 2008
Los Angeles Times
In this opinion piece, Paul Roberts, author of The End of Food, describes how the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals, and other factors, keep meat super cheap. He writes, "meat is cheap only because we don't count all the costs: Taxpayers spend $4.1 billion cleaning up livestock sewage leaks and $2.5 billion treating salmonella. All told, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists, CAFOs may be costing taxpayers $38 billion a year -- costs that aren't reflected in the retail price of meat."
A cost that he omits is the suffering caused to animals, and health care costs for treating diseases linked to meat consumption.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-roberts23-2008aug23,0,1032529.story
Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 6-8 PM
Vegetarian/Vegan Cooking Class at the Peace Abbey
2 North Main St., Sherborn MA
This is the first of four sessions to learn to create some new taste delights in the wonderful environment of the Peace Abbey. Register with Dotty at 508-655-2143 or dwalsh@peaceabbey.org. $25.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008, 5:30 to 9:30 PM
Waltham Raw New England Community
"Superior Health & Spiritual Longevity"
Dr. Brian Clement, Director of Hippocrates Health Institute
U Mass Waltham Center, 240 Beaver St., Waltham, MA
5:30 DVD, 6-7 Raw Potluck, 7 PM Speaker, book signing
Bring a raw, organic, unprocessed, non-animal based, ready to serve dish to feed 6-8 people, with serving implements. Bring your recipe. $10 non-members (with potluck dish), $5 members (with potluck dish, annual membership $25)
www.rawnewenglandcommunity.com
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Annual Walk for Farm Animals to Benefit Farm Sanctuary
Registration 1 PM; Walk 2 PM
Boston Common, Brewer's fountain outside of Park St. T stop
Local Walk Coordinator: Jason Silver
E-mail: boston@walkforfarmanimals.org
Phone: 508-612-2300
Cost (includes T-shirt): $15 in advance, $20 day of
The walk will be 3.5 miles with a 1.5 mile option. Ends with snacks, fun, and new friends!
http://www.walkforfarmanimals.org/
Saturday, October 4, 2008, 7 - 10 PM
An Evening to Benefit the Animals at Maple Farm Sanctuary (Mendon MA)
Come and enjoy drinks, hors d' oeuvres, delicious vegan catering, silent auction, animal artwork, complimentary valet parking and more.
Tickets: $35 per person
Call 508-831-1106
Benefit to be held at Dzian Gallery, 65 Water Street, Worcester, MA
http://www.maplefarmsanctuary.org
October 17-19, 2008
Animal Law Conference
One Earth: Globalism & Animal Law
Lewis & Clark Law School
Portland, Oregon
Top minds in animal law from around the world meet to explore cutting-edge issues in the field of animal law and educate today and tomorrow's lawyers about the legal challenges and opportunities in this growing area of specialization.
www.AnimalLawConference.com
Saturday, November 1, 2008, 10 AM - 6 PM
13th Annual Boston Vegetarian Food Festival
We'll send this year's fabulous lineup of speakers soon!
* BVS friend Judy Stitt writes that she has completed a project "years in the making," and has posted on YouTube a lecture on Mad Cow Disease which popular BVS speaker Michael Greger MD gave at MIT in 2004. It is in seven segments of less than 10 minutes each. The first clip in the series can be viewed at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ5hjpruPhU Hats off to you, Judy!
* Judy reminds us of a previous eNews item announcing Dr. Greger's four-minute Bird Flu video, which offers a concise overview of the relationship between factory farming and bird flu. Watch the video at http://birdflubook.org/g.php?id=6
* Endorphin Release Time: Twin Baby Moose Playing in Sprinkler
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=yNy9jTeolUk
Hope something here was of interest to you!