Daily Loaf

This controversial ad by PETA (below) addresses some of the appalling living conditions and slaughtering methods of turkeys. Apparently, this ad was set to run on NBC during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this year.

NBC pulled the plug on this one and wanted statistics to back up these claims about conditions in factory farms. That request was then answered by Patrick Martins, head of Slow Food USA, in a piece run in the New York Times today. NBC then stated, “this commercial does not meet NBC Universal standards” and still declined to run it. (Read PETA’s blog response.)

What do you think? Do you think PETA’s in-your-face tactics are too much for mainstream media or do people have the right to know what’s really going on with their food?

Video after the break.
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What’s the buzz on the latest issues in the Green Community? Check out what you may have missed this last week:

Sustainable beer 101: A guide to growlers- Benefits of refillable beer jugs far exceed the lure of fresh tap beer.

Refresh your mind, body and spirit by reconnecting with nature- Living in such a busy world these days overloaded with technology leaves little time to get back to the basics and connect with the planet we live on. Take some time out of your busy schedule and reconnect with nature, which will balance you physically, mentally and spiritually.

Ronald McDonald gets a pie in the face from PETA protester- Ronald McDonald takes one in the kisser from a PETA protester who is against McDonald’s “controlled-atmosphere killing” of chickens.

St. Petersburg College and Tampa Bay green building chapter announce partnership- St Petersburg College’s Corporate Training Office announced a partnership with the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter (FGCC) of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) to provide a comprehensive sustainable building operations training course based on the LEED for Existing Buildings: Operations and Maintenance rating system.
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The new marine doc The Cove takes you on an aquatic journey with elements of suspense, horror, tragedy and beauty that serve as a wake-up call to a problem that seems insurmountable: the systematic murder of dolphins by humans. I can tell you from personal experience that seeing The Cove will change you.

The film begins with seemingly paranoid animal-rights activist Richard O’Barry, a man who appears to blindly charge into situations hoping only to make a big stink and “change the world.” As the movie progresses, however, you start to learn more about O’Barry. Turns out he was in charge of capturing and training dolphins for the TV show Flipper. After a horrific event, something inside him snapped, and O’Barry realized he had become a torturer of dolphins.

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(This is the first in a series of posts where we look behind the curtain at how omnivores, vegetarians, vegans and raw-foodists justify what they eat. No value judgments, just information.)

If you chose a vegetarian lifestyle to avoid playing a part in the millions of animal deaths necessary for meat production, you’d better put down that hard-boiled egg. If you eat mass-market, free-range, organic or local eggs — or even raise some chickens in your backyard — you are contributing to the slaughter of potentially hundreds of millions of chickens every year.

Eggs only come from hens — female chickens. Seems obvious, but have you stopped to think what happens to all the roosters born in hatcheries? Read the rest of this entry »

This is an interesting way to protest McDonald’s and draw attention to oneself:

Courtesy of Nicole Matthews, PETA

A woman who identified herself as a PETA member and was dressed as a giant chicken hit Ronald McDonald with a vegan custard pie at the “grand” opening of the new McDonald’s in the Hancock Village Shopping Center in Midlothian on Saturday morning.

Despite the clown’s cry of “No pie!“ the plucky protester managed to cream the corporate mascot with the confection before flying the coop, leaving Ronald to change his costume. The protest is part of PETA’s campaign to convince McDonald’s to make reasonable, humane, and basic improvements in the way chickens are killed for its restaurants.
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Although it may not be the most grotesque image in food production — that’s reserved for industrial chicken houses and pre-skinny Paul Prudhomme — it’s difficult to think happy thoughts when confronted with gavage. This traditional method of fattening goose or duck livers usually starts with a funnel filled with corn-based feed attached to a long metal tube. Grab a bird, shove the tube down its throat, release the right amount of food, then send the animal waddling away. No matter where you stand on animals as foodstuff, it’s not a pretty sight.

Problem is, gavage is the only way to produce foie gras, one of the most prized and delicious of the world’s luxury food items. And, for the past decade, one of the most contentious. Read the rest of this entry »

Lowry Park Zoo CEO Lex Salisbury has resigned amid allegations of improper business dealings between the zoo and his for profit venture Safari Wild.

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