Help Wrap, Thanksgiving News & Recipes, Turkey Production, Green Thanksgiving
November 23, 2010
We hope you are poised for a safe, happy, and peaceful Thanksgiving!
- Wrapping To Help Animals - Volunteers Needed
- New York Times on Veg Thanksgivings
- Dining Out - Vegan Thanksgivings in MA
- Turkey Production
- Emerson's Green Thanksgiving
1) WRAPPING TO HELP ANIMALS - VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
A few years ago BVS offered a speaker event highlighting the excellent work of Animals Asia Foundation in addressing bear bile farming, and dog and cat meat markets in Asia. As a fund-raiser for Animals Asia, volunteers have signed up for shifts doing holiday gift wrapping at Borders Books on the corner of School and Washington Streets in downtown Boston. We wrap, customers give a donation for the wrapping, and the funds go to support the work of Animals Asia.
It's fun, too! Can you help? Hit Reply and sign up for a shift -- one or two hours, 3 or 4 hours, even up to 9 hours, we'll be there! Please help!
Volunteers are needed during these times:
Friday, Nov. 26, 12 Noon - 9 PM
Friday, Dec. 3, 10 AM - 3 PM
Friday, Dec. 10, 10 AM - 3 PM
Thursday, Dec. 23, 4 - 10 PM
2) NEW YORK TIMES ON VEG THANKSGIVINGS
A Vegetarian Thanksgiving, Even for Carnivores
New York Times
November 22, 2010
"For the past three weeks, The New York Times’s Well blog has been collecting holiday vegetarian and vegan recipes from an all-star team of chefs and food writers. The haul has been mouthwatering...
"Interest in vegetarian cooking is surging, even among those who eat meat...
EatingWell magazine plans a vegetarian cookbook for the spring, said Jessie Price, its deputy food editor. “Our readers keep saying, ‘Give us more vegetarian recipes,’ ” she said. “And it’s not just vegetarians. It’s people who eat meat who want to have more meals each week that are vegetarian.” "
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/22/a-vegetarian-thanksgiving-even-for-carnivores/?scp=1&sq=A%20vegetarian%20Thanksgiving&st=cse
Centerpiece Dishes Without the Turkey
New York Times
November 19, 2010
This blog links to VegNews Magazine's recipes, including those by past Boston Vegetarian Food Festival chefs Tal Ronnen and Robin Robertson.
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/19/centerpiece-dishes-without-the-turkey/
3) DINING OUT - VEGAN THANKSGIVINGS IN MA
Some scrumptious menus are being offered locally!
Red Lentil Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant in Watertown is offering a special pre-fixe five course meal for $45 on Wednesday, 4 - 10 PM.
http://www.theredlentil.com (scroll to bottom)
The Pulse Cafe in Davis Square, Somerville is offering a Thanksgiving Menu at dinnertime this week (closed Thursday):
http://www.thepulsecafe.com/thanksgiving_week_menu.html
True Bistro in Teele Square, Somerville is offering a prix fixe dinner on Thanksgiving Day, 2 - 9 PM, four courses for $55 or $80 including wine pairings with each course.
http://www.truebistroboston.com/Home.html
Here are other veg restaurants in MA that will be open on Thanksgiving Day, where you can have a delicious meal in a veg environment. Call before going to confirm holiday hours.
Contact info is at http://www.bostonveg.org/restaurants
- Grasshopper in Allston (Boston)
- My Thai Vegan Cafe (Chinatown)
- Dosa Temple in Ashland (MetroWest)
- Udupi in Shrewsbury (MetroWest)
- Udupi Bhavan in Lowell (North)
- Mysore Veggie in Lowell (North)
4) TURKEY PRODUCTION
Just released today, a new undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States reminds us of the grim reality of atrocious cruelty behind commercial turkey farming and the suffering involved for the 250 million turkeys bred in the U.S. each year.
This new video was taken at the country's largest turkey hatchery:
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2010/11/turkey_willmar_112310.html
Here are six short videos which show different aspects of turkey production. They are a window to the everyday cruelties of poultry production.
* See what is done to baby turkeys.
Standard Practices at a North Carolina Turkey Hatchery
"...the newly-hatched turkeys are tossed around like inanimate objects—they are sorted, sexed, de-beaked, de-toed...", "scenes of chicks gasping for air as they slowly suffocate in plastic bags." Watch the short video at
http://www.cok.net/camp/inv/turkeys06/
* This three-minute video, narrated by actress Shirley Jones (Partridge Family), gives an excellent quick overview of turkey production. A must-see.
http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/Prefs.asp?video=shirley_jones
* Undercover video of a turkey slaughterhouse investigation shows gratuitous cruelty.
http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hor/
* Undercover video taken at Butterball's turkey facility:
http://www.peta.org/features/butterball-peta-investigation.aspx
* Today's turkeys have been genetically manipulated to grow twice as fast and twice as large as their wild ancestors. This causes leg, skeletal, and cardiovascular diseases that result in acute and chronic pain. Bred to be fleshy and have abnormally large breasts (the popular breast meat), these animals often can barely stand. Thus spending most of their lives prone, they suffer foot-pad lesions, breast blisters, and hock burns, which are openings for bacterial infections.
They have lost the ability to mate naturally; virtually all commercially produced turkeys are the result of artificial insemination. Males face twice-weekly manipulation to "milk" them, and females endure forcible insemination in assembly-line style.
Here is perhaps a first-ever video of forced breeding techniques for modern turkeys:
http://www.farmsanctuary.org/mediacenter/turkey_ai.html
* Another undercover investigation gave this astonishing inside view of Aviagen Turkeys, Inc., the self-proclaimed "world's leading poultry breeding company."
https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1692
5) EMERSON'S GREEN THANKSGIVING
BVS was pleased to participate in Emerson College's Green Thanksgiving by speaking and offering free veg starter kits and other materials. Students did a fabulous job organizing free food donations for a bountiful veg feast for a full house of students.
The message was clear, the best Thanksgiving is a Green Thanksgiving that is kind to the planet and to turkeys!