Civil Eats

In a move to help consumers make more informed choices when choosing to eat humanely sourced animal products, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) developed and launched the very first restaurant database. The resource identifies 150 restaurants in 15 U.S. cities that offer products and menu items created by methods that benefit animal welfare, human health, and the environment. The free database includes 11 Bay Area restaurants and others in: Atlanta, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Diego, Seattle, and Washington, DC. Read More

Last week The Humane Society of the United States co-hosted a screening of the film Food, Inc. for policymakers in Sacramento. It was a lively and engaged crowd representing the gamut from vegan activists to staunch carnivores, and it seemed every one of them learned something from Food, Inc. Alice Waters, Martin Sheen, Elise Pearlstein (the film’s producer) and the two most powerful state Senators brought cache and insight with their post-screening panel.

Dave Murphy’s great review of Food, Inc. the other day was spot-on and HSUS urges everyone to see it. Its fundamental aim is to expose the rampant abuse of power that has resulted in an inefficient, polluting, degrading, cruel, and unhealthy food system in America.  To add to Dave’s commentary, I wanted to offer the perspective  of someone who works daily to address the torturous conditions that 10 billion animals raised for food routinely each year endure. Read More

We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals…. They are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth.

- Henry Beston, The Outermost House, 1928

It can be easy to forget that food comes from somewhere. Those of us who eat animals tend to like it that way. For that reason, for most of my life, I’ve done my hunting in the deli case, training my shopping cart on plastic-wrapped livestock at rest in a Styrofoam pasture. Read More

The Humane Society has brought a wave of national attention this year to the cause of the fair treatment of farm animals, beginning with the video of a slaughterhouse in Chino, California that displayed for the world the terrible treatment that cows in our food chain are receiving.  Now, The Humane Society is sponsoring Proposition 2, which, if passed with a vote of “yes” tomorrow on California’s ballot, would require pregnant sows and veal calves enough space to turn around and stretch their legs, and would require hens the space to spread their wings.  The ballot initiative has received so much national attention, even bringing the President of The Humane Society, Wayne Pacelle, to Ellen and Oprah’s stages.  Naomi Starkman spoke with Wayne Pacelle to ask him about what will follow Proposition 2’s vote tomorrow. Read More

Yesterday, Oprah spent her entire show discussing the treatment of the animals we raise for meat in this country. No wilting flower, Oprah did not shy away from discussing a subject that got her into a lot of hot water in the late 1990s, when she was sued by cattle ranchers for food disparagement when she admitted during the period of fear surrounding the early outbreaks of mad cow disease that she was “stopped cold from eating another burger.” Read More

The recent debate over Proposition 2, eloquently outlined in Paul Shapiro’s post, is a timely example of the dilemma we now face: We want food we can feel good about, even after we know all the facts; but the vast majority of our meat, dairy and eggs still come from factory farms. So how did we get here, and how do we change course? Read More

The plight of the animals we raise for food in this country rarely enters the forefront of our societal consciousness, but Californians are about to learn a whole lot more about what these animals go through when election season kicks off this fall. Read More