Wesleyan U. Social Psychology Professor Scott Plous studies people’s attitudes towards using animal products. I’m taking his intro to social psych online course and we had to participate in this interesting survey. I plan to read his research, but this survey shows you what the front end looks like (at least part of it – your answers determine what further questions you get, like a “Write your own adventure.” It’s open to the public, so give it a try, help Prof Plous figure out what’s going on.
Posts Tagged ‘milk’
Revived AR website with local bloggers
Posted by tinako on March 2, 2015
I’m in the local AR group Animal Rights Advocates of Upstate N.Y. We just re-launched our website, arauny.org, with a schedule of local writers contributing to our blog a few times a week.
Check it out and subscribe by email or social media for updates.
Posted in AR | Tagged: animal rights, cow, dairy, food politics, livestock, meat, milk, peace, vegan, vegetarian, violence | Leave a Comment »
Cowspiracy
Posted by tinako on August 19, 2014
The movie Cowspiracy has come out. I was so excited to learn that someone was finally asking these questions – why aren’t environmental organizations talking about livestock’s impact on the environment? It’s such a glaring omission. I supported the filmmakers on Indiegogo, so I received my promised DVD a few days ago. You can look up local screenings at their web site.
The film is very well done, and I think it could have a big impact if it is put before local environmental leaders. Two local vegan/AR organizations I’m in are going to co-host a showing. Don’t miss it, and be sure to recommend it to your “environmentalist meat-eater” friends.
Posted in Environment | Tagged: an inconvenient truth, CO2, cow, dairy, environment, film, food politics, gmo, greenhouse gas, livestock, meat, milk, vegan, vegetarian | Leave a Comment »
51%
Posted by tinako on February 28, 2011
Worldwatch Institute (Wikipedia entry) is claiming that the 18% greenhouse-gases-from-livestock figure that the U.N. came up with is too low, and the actual number should be 51%.
Last year the U.N. did urge people to move to veganism.
Posted in Environment | Tagged: CO2, dairy, environment, greenhouse gas, livestock, meat, milk, vegan, vegetarian | 1 Comment »
Why isn’t there a veggie cartel?
Posted by tinako on October 17, 2010
I am reading Marion Nestle’s Food Politics, and on p. 131 I have found the best explanation I’ve read so far of why meat, dairy, and eggs are promoted so much more than fruits and vegetables. Those animal-based industries are rather homogenous. I mean, how many different kinds of those products are there? The dairy board is just milk producers. Then you have the beef board, which is all people with cows, a pork board, I guess a poultry board, and an egg board. So just a few boards and all of them cover everyone making basically one product.
Compare this with a veggie board. In her words, “fruit and vegetable growers view each other as competitors, a contest of peaches vs. apples or carrots vs. broccoli. Although grain producers might be expected to join alliances to promote plant-based diets, they do not; most grain is fed to animals.” So ironically, fruit and vegetable growers are politically weakened by the bounteous variety of the plant world.
In the next chapter she covers “check-offs,” where those boards lobby government to force producers to contribute to group generic advertising. This is successful for promoting those homogenous products (think the Milk Moustache campaign, Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner, or Pork: The Other White Meat). But plum growers, for instance, don’t want to contribute to a fruit promotion fund that they believe will mostly promote more popular fruits such as apples and bananas. So they sued to be released from check-offs, nobody contributes much, and very little fruit and vegetable promotion happens. More is spent to advertise Altoid Mints than fruits and vegetables combined.
Although she didn’t specifically make this connection, she does mention that while check-off money is not supposed to be used for lobbying but for “education” and “research,” the groups that do the two different functions are essentially or actually one organization. It follows that if fruits and vegetable growers are not well-organized for check-off activities, they are also not well-organized for lobbying, which does seem to be the case. And which explains a lot about the USDA.
Posted in Nutrition | Tagged: dairy, food politics, livestock, meat, milk, nutrition, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments »