Two amazing high school students in Bombay just added hundreds of young people to the Animal Aid family through “Take a Paws,” a sensational fundraiser for Animal Aid Unlimited.
Held in their high school (Bombay International School) Diya Chitrabhanu and Ananyaa Mehra took care of every aspect of this special event from staging performances, selling tickets for 3 weeks prior to the event, and collecting over 2 lakhs (about USD $3000)in donations from students and many other donors.
This money will provide medicine for more than a hundred animals in treatment for wounds and illnesses.
Diya and Ananyaa sold Animal Aid tee-shirts and caps, food and gave everyone who attended not only entertainment but animal protection information and inspiration. Attendees watched singers, dancers and Animal Aid rescue videos, and were moved by Diya and Ananyaa’s powerful vision of a kinder world where animals are protected by all of us.UN LAB Middleware Label: Petition Body Ends
Badly wounded but cheerful older dog, Moti thrived after his rescue
The massive hole near Moti’s ear must have hurt so badly, but his tail wagged when he greeted his rescuers and he was the best little patient ever. He had a very serious maggot wound with dozens of small tunnels bored through his flesh. We removed the maggots, cleaned and dressed the wound, changing his bandages daily for several weeks. We felt that because of his loving nature he thrived on care and attention and this helped him heal especially fast.
Street animal rescue saved darling Moti’s life. Please donate.
Celebrate the Caregivers: Shanta Bai!
Shanta Bai Gameti has been with Animal Aid for six years, cheerfully helping animals by making sure hundreds of blankets and towels are washed and hung out to dry every day so that dogs, and large animals too, can have fluffy and dry bedding. This might sound like a minor task but it is not. Even though we do have a washing machine, it can only take small loads and even those loads have to be thoroughly rinsed clean before loading. So it’s hand and muscle work. We celebrate Shanta Bai today for her enduring high spirits, serving countless animals by keeping them clean and comfy.
We thank you deeply for all you do, are, and inspire for animals.
As demonstrated by the athletes and research featured in The Game Changers, switching to a diet centered around plants can yield significant performance advantages, providing optimal fuel, increasing blood flow, making muscles more efficient, and speeding recovery by lowering inflammation. These benefits can not only be experienced by athletes, but by anyone who wants to feel and perform better in any aspect of their lives. UN LAB Middleware Label: Petition Body Ends
Hard-working muscles run primarily on glycogen, a form of carbohydrate stored in our liver and muscle. Carbohydrates, which come almost exclusively from plants, also provide our brain with its primary and preferred fuel — glucose — which helps us stay sharp and focused during intense training sessions and competitions (1).
Performance-based diets built around meat and other animal products often provide dietary fat at the expense of carbohydrates (2,3). Unlike carbohydrates, fat can’t produce energy fast enough to meet the demands of intense exercise, so diets that sacrifice carbohydrates typically impair high-intensity performance (1). Low-carbohydrate diets, including the ketogenic (keto) diet, have been shown to cause so much fatigue that they even affect our motivation to begin a training session, let alone finish it (4-6).
Protein can also be used as a fuel source, but it’s highly inefficient, wasting 20-30% of each calorie as heat (7).
All told, carbohydrates are the ideal source of energy for optimized performance, whether it’s doing squats, playing football, or running a marathon.
And as we’ll discuss later in Getting and Staying Lean, despite the common misconception that “carbs make you fat”, unrefined carbohydrates — like those found in whole plant foods, including oats, sweet potatoes, and bananas — are consistently associated with decreased body fat, another advantage for most performance goals.
Increased Blood Flow
Efficient blood flow is another cornerstone for optimized performance, since blood is how oxygen and vital nutrients reach the cells in our muscles, brain, and the rest of our body, while also helping to eliminate waste (8).
Just as the experiment conducted on three NFL players in The Game Changers revealed, a single animal-based meal can quickly thicken our blood (9), which slows down the flow of oxygen and the nutrients blood transports to the areas that need it most, including the muscles we use during exercise (10). People who avoid meat experience the opposite effect, since plant-based meals allow blood to remain fluid and flow quickly to its destination (11).
Adding insult to injury, animal-based meals can cripple our arteries, preventing them from fully opening to allow for increased blood flow. Research has shown that just two hours after eating a heavy animal-based meal, arteries can constrict by 40%, essentially causing a traffic jam. The calorie-matched plant-based meal allowed them to open freely for quick, easy transit (12).
But it isn’t just the lack of “baggage” in plant foods that help keep our blood flowing quickly; there is also a common ingredient found in plant-based foods like spinach, lettuce, carrots, and beets that actually signals our blood vessels to open, allowing more blood to flow through at a faster pace (13). This ingredient is nitrates which, unlike the cancer-causing nitrates in cured meats like bacon (14), serves another important function.
Improved Muscle Efficiency
The energy reserves our muscles use for intense training or competition are limited, and when we run out, we’ve reached the end of line. The more efficiently our muscles work, the further these energy reserves can take us.
In addition to encouraging our arteries to expand, the nitrates found in plant foods also allow our muscles to contract more efficiently, sparing their energy reserves and allowing them to accomplish more work with the same amount of effort (15). This translates into measurably better performance, whether it’s lifting weights at the gym, playing football, or running sprints (16).
Reduced Inflammation
Inflammation is our bodies’ natural immune response to injury, foreign invaders, or even exercise. In its acute form, like after spraining an ankle, coming down with a bacterial infection, or recovering from a workout, inflammation is an immediate and necessary part of the healing process. Left unchecked, or further intensified, inflammation can prolong healing time from injuries or sickness, and also increase soreness and swelling, slowing recovery between workouts and competitions.
Chronic inflammation often begins with the same cellular response, but shifts in nature when the immune system fails to heal the injury effectively, eliminate the foreign invaders, or continues to respond to a threat that no longer exists. Once it reaches this stage, inflammation often begins damaging healthy tissues, including muscles and joints (17).
Taking all of this into account, unnecessary inflammation can have a significant negative impact on our physical performance (18).
Fortunately, diet can be a powerful tool to get us through acute inflammation faster and combat chronic inflammation as well. But it can also have the opposite effect.
Animal-based diets fall into the latter category. Extensive research has shown that meat and other animal products contain (or lead to the formation of) a wide range of pro-inflammatory compounds and molecules, including bacterial endotoxins, trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), nitrosamines, heterocyclic amines (HCAs), N-Glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (19-23). If these words sound scary, you’re right: the damage they inflict can be severe, with research showing that a single hamburger can increase measures of inflammation by 70 percent (24).
Plants fall on the opposite end of this spectrum, coming naturally packed with high doses of anti-inflammatory compounds, including thousands of powerful antioxidants. The contrast between these two classes of food is dramatic, with plants having on average 64 times the antioxidant content of animal foods (25). This helps explain why switching to a plant-based diet can help reduce measures of inflammation by 29 percent in just three weeks (26).
Not surprisingly, numerous studies have shown that the anti-inflammatory nature of plant foods can help decrease soreness, reduce muscle damage, and support recovery — all of which contribute to improved performance (27-31).
Eating plants also combats the inflammation caused by animal foods (24,32). Therefore, decreasing animal foods while increasing plant foods has a dual effect: it not only replaces pro-inflammatory compounds with anti-inflammatory ones, but also frees up the beneficial plant compounds to address the inflammation caused by exercise, injury, and sickness (33).
The reduction in both acute and chronic inflammation reveals why so many plant-based athletes, including those featured in The Game Changers, report reduced DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), quicker recovery times after workouts and competitions, faster healing from injuries, reduced tendonitis and joint pain, improved immunity, and significantly increased career longevity.
Plants for the Win
Whether you’re a competitive athlete, weekend warrior, or someone who simply wants to feel and perform better in the gym, at work, or at home, eating more plants and fewer animal foods can provide powerful advantages. As we’ll see in Optimizing Health, eating a diet centered around plants can also have a dramatic effect on our health.
In order to prevent the spread of swine fever in Germany (where so far not a single case has been reported), sow bottom-catches are tested in Lower Saxony!
In certain counties in Lower Saxony, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Agriculture has new execution methods, the so-called “sow bottom-catches” set up. These are about 20 square meters of fishing enclosures, in which entire pig herds can be trapped and killed. The ministry considers this more effective than individual shootings. This should not only be allowed if the virus is detected, but also for prevention (!!!)
There, the hunters lay out food for the wild boars until they go into the cage with the whole group. Then the flap closes and the aktion ends in a masacre. This should not only be allowed if the virus is detected, but also for prevention (!!!).
“The hunt in bottom traps usually ends in a masacre, says the Chairman of the Animal Welfare Association of Lower Saxony Dieter Ruhnke. In escape attempts, the pigs injured each other. In order to meet them more purpose, hunters need an “extensive shooting training” that they have not received, criticized Ruhnke, who considers the increased hunting for fear of African swine anyway absolutely absurd.
He rejects the regulation as well as the preventive use of traps. All this serves only to protect the meat industry.
African swine fever is a disease affecting both wild and domestic swine. It is harmless to humans, as is the consumption of infected pork.
It spreads through blood and blood-containing tissue. For example, if a hunter shoots an infected boar, has blood on his shoe and then goes to his pigsty, he can lure the virus in. The same applies to a carelessly thrown sausage bread, which is eaten by a boar. Very slow, however, is the spread of wild boar to wild boar.
The disease almost always ends in death for the animals. For pig farmers, the outbreak of the virus in their own barn represents a major economic loss. Although they are well compensated for it. From the EU fund, that means with our money.
Farmer slaughter their pigs anyway, that is, they do not care whether the animals are slashed open in the slaughterhouse or die from African plague. Only .. in the second case they can not make a profit.
The Vice President of the German Farmers’ Association,Werner Schwarz (who operates a pig mast himself), has given us a “clear explanation” to why in the “Land of Meat Mafia” (Germany) hunters and their policy accomplices invest so much imagination, money and effort in preventative murder methods for something that has not even claimed a sacrifice in their own stables:
“The economic and social impact of an outbreak of African swine fever is hard to imagine. Already the appearance in the boar population would mean that pork can no longer be exported to third countries, ie to countries outside the EU “!
And if we translate that into mathematical numbers, then 600,000 wild boars should be killed (with premiums of 25 euros per boar), so that about 60,000,000 pigs (so many are slaughtered per year in Germany) can be slaughtered.
Enigmatic oil spill kills animals along the Brazilian coast –
The world sees that the Amazon in Brazil is burning the lungs of our planet. And it’s still burning, but another environmental catastrophe is coming.
Since September 2, 2019, an enigmatic oil spill kills wildlife along the Brazilian coast. Meanwhile, according to the Brazilian Environmental Agency Ibama, beaches along the 3000 km long coast of the Brazilian Northeast are affected.
Recalling “Deepwater Horizon”, 580,000 million liters of oil flowed into the sea, destroying the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem. Even now, many marine animals in Brazil are fighting for survival after the oil spill, including oil-glued birds and poisoned turtles, as contact with oil can cause serious damage to their health.
Tortoises were found dead – photo tipomanaus.com.br
Although there are extensive oil exploration activities off the coast of Brazil, the authorities have excluded this as the cause of the oil spill. That means a 3,000 km coastline is destroyed by an oil spill and nobody knows where this oil comes from (!!!).
It was April 2019 that the Brazilian Environmental Agency approved the exploration of oil in the largest coral reefs in the South Atlantic.
Again and again it comes to bad oil catastrophes, quickly the news disappeared from the media and we rarely learn what damage this disaster has left. And in Brazil nobody wants to have caused the oil spill, even though there are extensive oil exploration activities.
An oil rig in front of Rio de Janeiro. (Image: David Silverman / Getty Images)
The oil spill, first discovered on September 2, 2019, spanned more than 1,500 km and was discovered at 105 locations in eight states that affect wildlife and popular beaches, including Praia do Futuro in Ceará and Maragogi in Alagoas.
According to the latest report from the Brazilian Environmental Institute (Ibama), which was updated on Saturday, September 28, in the state of Alagoas, 11 sites in 9 communities are affected by oil spills. According to Ibama, the crude oil reached 112 locations on the northeast coast. The number of cities affected by oil spills has risen to 53 since the beginning of September. Alagoas is one of 8 states with the same substance.
Whether fish and crayfish stocks are affected by the pollution is not yet known. Meanwhile, many dead turtles have been found on the beaches. Ibama’s recommendation is to bring back living animals, not just cleaned, to the sea. In these cases, the population was asked to visit the competent environmental authorities to have the animals examined before returning to the sea.
Experts are still scratching where the oil actually comes from. But it is certain that the oil comes from one and the same source.
However, one of the environmental protection agencies’ hypotheses is that a ship has drained crude oil on the high seas, because the substance has just been commissioned by Brazil’s largest oil company Petrobras.The state oil company Petrobras confirmed that.
Brazil’s oil giant Petrobras is under criticism for its foul investments. Petrobras is Brazil’s largest company, with a market capitalization of around $ 170 billion. Petrobas promotes the lying under a thick salt crust oil deposits off the coast of Brazil.
And just the oil company Petrobras now checks the cause of the oil spill?
Since the British energy company BP has been forced to pay a record $ 20.8 billion (following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico), major oil companies are worried that such sums of money will be due again.
That means – where no plaintiff is not a crime. And unfortunately, the media also play an important role here, because that the huge oil company BP had to pay, is also due to the worldwide protest.
The platform Deepwater Horizon, Mexico, April 21, 2010
Who or what triggered the oil spill is not clear even after almost a month. The beaches were released for swimming despite the oil spill. And so the oil catastrophe should disappear again from the media and the causer remains unrecognized.
Signatures from overseas visitors would be most welcome and would strengthen the case – Mark.
Hi Mark,
If plans for an intensive pig farm in North Kesteven, Lincolnshire, are approved, nearly 2,000 pigs at a time will be crammed into a small building, where they’ll never be able to breathe fresh air or see daylight.
At just 20 to 24 weeks old, they’ll be packed onto a lorry and sent to the abattoir, where workers will slit their throats and leave them to bleed out.
We have only two days left to speak out against this proposal – the deadline for submitting comments is Tuesday, 1 October. Please add your name to our petition now:
More info and sample letter that you will be supporting:
Plans have been submitted to North Kesteven District Council for an intensive pig factory farm in Lincolnshire. If the proposal is approved, thousands of pigs will be sent to slaughter every year.
On factory farms, pigs are treated like machines rather than sensitive, living beings. At the proposed facility, nearly 2,000 of them at a time will be crammed into a small building, where they’ll never be able to breathe fresh air or see daylight.
Unable to behave naturally, pigs in extreme confinement often suffer from stress and frustration, which can drive them to engage in aggressive behaviour such as tail-biting, so farmers routinely cut off their tails without painkillers.
The pigs will reach their “finished weight” when they’re just 20 to 24 weeks old, at which point they’ll be packed onto a lorry and sent to the abattoir. At the end of this terrifying journey, the animals are typically stunned with electric tongs or suffocated with carbon dioxide in a gas chamber before their throats are slit and they’re left to bleed out.
Speak Out for Pigs Now
Local residents have described the proposal as an “atrocity” – they are worried about overwhelming odours, noise, and pollution and don’t want this misery on their doorstep.
Please join them in speaking out against these horrific plans by signing our petition to North Kesteven District Council:
Re: Planning application 19/1085/FUL
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To: Tom Siddons, Case Officer, North Kesteven District Council
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Dear Mr Siddons,
We are writing in relation to planning application 19/1085/FUL, which seeks permission for the construction of a pig rearing and finishing unit on land north of Station Road, Harmston, Lincoln. The building would hold as many as 1,920 pigs at a time in intensive conditions. We object to this proposal for the following reasons:
Waste from the farm – including the pigs’ excrement and spent litter and the on-site slurry tank – would likely produce strong odours, which could potentially have a negative impact on local residents’ quality of life.
Operations on the farm – including 16 extractor fans, vehicle movements to and from the facility, and the confinement of 1,920 pigs in a small building – would generate large amounts of noise, which could disturb local residents.
The 124 vehicle movements to and from the farm each year would intensify traffic in the area, potentially causing disruption for local residents.
Ammonia from the pigs’ waste would be emitted from the farm into the surrounding area, which would likely have a negative impact on air quality and potentially a detrimental effect on human health, wildlife, and the environment.
The farm would produce large amounts of slurry, which would be stored on site before being pumped overland for spreading. There would be a risk that this material would leak or spill and contaminate the surrounding area.
The new building would likely diminish the character of the rural landscape and spoil natural vistas.
Finally, the farm would cause immense suffering to the pigs confined there. Pigs are highly intelligent animals who naturally live in small family groups and enjoy playing, exploring their surroundings, foraging for food, and building nests for their offspring. On intensive farms, they are typically crammed by the hundreds into barren enclosures, where they are denied the opportunity to carry out any of these natural forms of behaviour. This extreme confinement often causes them to become highly stressed, which can drive them to engage in aggressive behaviour such as tail-biting, so farmers routinely cut off their tails and clip or grind down their sensitive teeth, often without pain relief. Ultimately, they endure a terrifying journey to the abattoir, where they are typically stunned with electric tongs or suffocated with carbon dioxide in a gas chamber before their throats are slit.
We hope you will take our objections, along with comments made by local residents, into account when making a decision on this application.
‘It is time for a new law on ecocide to go alongside genocide and the other crimes against humanity,’ says Michael Mansfield QC
Eating meat could become illegal due to the ecological damage it does to the planet, a top British barrister has said.
Michael Mansfield QC believes the government should introduce tighter legislation to make activities which destroy the natural world illegal – and in the future this could even include banning the consumption of meat.
Michael Mansfield QC (pictured) believes the government should introduce tighter legislation to make activities which destroy the natural world illegal ( Getty )
“There are plenty of things that were once commonplace that are now illegal such as smoking inside,” said Mansfield, who will present his ideas at the Labour party conference on Monday.
“We know that the top 3,000 companies in the world are responsible for more than £1.5tn worth of damage to the environment with meat and dairy production high on the list. We know that because the UN has told us so.
“I think when we look at the damage eating meat is doing to the planet it is not preposterous to think that one day it will become illegal,” he said.
Currently 25 per cent of global emissions come from agriculture, with livestock contributing to 80 per cent of that.
Industrial agriculture relies on fossil fuels to create fertilisers and machinery to harvest crops and transport animals. Farmed animals also produce half of the world’s methane emissions. Research last year found that meat and dairy companies could overtake the oil industry as the world’s biggest polluters by 2050.
“It is time for a new law on ecocide to go alongside genocide and the other crimes against humanity,”(Michael Mansfield).
The top QC will be making a speech at the launch of the Vegan Now campaign at the Labour party conference where he will be sitting on a panel of experts debating the damaging effects of livestock farming on biodiversity and climate change.
Juliet Gellatley, director of animal rights group Viva!, who will also be on the panel, said: “Thirty years ago people didn’t bat an eyelid if you lit a cigarette in a pub or restaurant. But now society accepts smoking is harmful and totally unnecessary and so we legislated against it. The same could happen with eating meat.”
Experts behind the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found red meat had high greenhouse gas footprint because of the emissions livestock give out as well as the impact of land being cleared to grow crops for animal feed.
The report says we should be eating balanced diets with plant-based foods such as grains, vegetables and pulses, and animal-based food produced in sustainable systems.
My comment:51% of all greenhouse gases emitted worldwide are caused by livestock farming – more than by total worldwide traffic …. A scary fact!
The problem seems so obvious and it would be so easy to solve: Minimize or completely eliminate the consumption of animal products. For this we need a strong campaign against meat consumption, as in the anti-smoking campaign.
Unfortunately, the problem is swept under the table, everything is twisted or downplayed, people are being manipulated, as the reality of climate control would not be accepted. No attempts are made, and if any at all, then the most absurd, and as always at the expense of the animals.
This goes to such perversions that a part of the flank is surgically removed from the cows and replaced by a glass plate just so that one can better observe the processes of methane production.
The fact that humankind’s “enjoyment” of animal products is more important than an intact climate is frightening evidence of the irresponsible and primitive thinking of our species.
28/9/19 – The news today is positive – ‘Animal Welfare’ is the big issue at the Conservative party conference.
Here in the UK at the moment; we have a Conservative (Party) government. This weekend and into next week is the Conservative party conference; where the ‘table is laid’ about their proposals for the near future. We are very pleased to say that in both the last DEFRA Minister, Michael Gove; and the current minister, Theresa Villiers; we have very animal welfare friendly people. Theresa has always been a big player in the ban for live animal exports. This is reflected in the new manifesto paper released today which outlines the changes which we could see in the future under a Conservative government.
Whilst we at WAV welcome many of the initiatives set out in the paper; after all we are an animal welfare / rights organisation; we do have concerns that some issues are still not covered; including a reduction of animals being used in experiments; and failures to promote protection for drastically needed animals such as bees, butterflies and hedgehogs. Nothing has also been said about the culling of badgers; which is currently taking place under this same government.
But we do very much welcome the wording regarding a ban on the live export of animals; which is something we have been campaigning for (for) over 30 years; and which as a nation we are against; but unable to implement all the time we are an EU member state. We, as a group; did say a long time ago that if the UK was able to break free from the shackles of the EU, we could take back our own national control; and go for a live export ban. It seems that we have been listened to finally.
Under the proposals; the UK could see:
Protection of farm animal welfare standards – that animal products sold in the UK come only from animals raised to UK standards or higher.
The end of cages – phasing out of intensive cage systems by the end of the next parliament; supporting farmers who make the transition away from cage systems.
Mandatory labelling of all meat – the public will be given information on how animals were raised and slaughtered; enabling them to make a choice on what they buy.
The end of live animal exports from the UK for both further fattening and slaughter.
The introduction of a new law to recognise that all animals are sentient beings; and by going further than EU legislation, it will allow the government and ministers to take animal sentience into account when making lawful decisions on legislation.
Teaching animal welfare to children as part of the national curriculum. Children have a natural affinity with animals; so they will be taught about their needs, sentience, and requirements needed in order to respect and protect them.
Banning the import of all Foie Gras products into UK, once we leave the EU.
A focus on subsidising farmers and rewarding them financially if they adopt higher animal welfare standards and end cruel practices such as debeaking and the killing of male calves; the by product of a cruel dairy industry, along with the killing of male chicks at birth by the egg industry.
Opposing the resumption of commercial whaling; as is currently supported by the UK.
Seeking measures to end the terrible business of shark finning.
Legislate to improve fish welfare, at production, handling and slaughter.
A free vote on non-stun slaughter; and labelling of food to identify how an animal was killed – stun or no stun; enabling the public purchaser to make the choice of what they buy.
Myself campaigning at Dover port against the export of young male dairy calves to Europe for intensive systems.
A British Veal Calf is Restrained in an EU Veal Crate – now that’s worth fighting for !
(see photo above and video below)
The ‘Animal Cruelty Investigation Group’ (ACIG – England) follow British Calves to the Netherlands.
The woman behind my respect for animals – my mum (right) with Virginia McKenna of Born Free Foundation.
After some 40+ years of being a voice for animals, all of the above is very welcome news. Naturally there are other issues that we still have to work on; but hey; main issue at the Conservative conference; 15 years ago ‘animal welfare’ was not even really spoken about.
In Brussels, Belgium, EU HQ – a long, long time ago !
In the Netherlands with CIWF – European tour against intensive farming systems.
Today is a good positive sign for me; that my 40+ years of campaigning have not been wasted. Finally our voices are being heard where it matters by the people who are able to make the changes we ask for. The changes will not happen in the next week, but some of them could be underway by the time hopefully we get out of the useless EU by the end of this year.
Thanks to the tenacity of many excellent folk I have campaigned with over the years; sadly some of whom are not around now to hear this; I am tonight thinking back at them and remembering what they did to be a voice for animals.
Mike Tucker – Live Export Campaign hero – sadly no longer with us.
Tonight I am thinking and hoping that the 40+ years I have campaigned for animals, will move on in the near future to even better things. Finally we are being listed to. I also want to send respect and good luck to Greta with her environmental campaigning; she has done wonders with the global support of many activists.
She and her ideas and recommendations are the future; not those of the ignorant ‘Trumps’ of this world.
It all started in Thailand. A Thai supermarket had come up with an ingenious way of reducing plastic packaging: instead of using plastic banana leaves.
When the supermarkets in Vietnam found out about this ingenious idea, they too took part. Fruits and vegetables are simply wrapped in a banana leaf and wrapped in a flexible bamboo. Banana leaves are a great alternative to plastic because the leaf is big, thick and supple enough and can be folded. Instead of throwing away the banana leaves, they are now meaningfully used.
How quickly such ideas are implemented, now also show supermarkets in the Philippines. In line with this environmentally friendly trend from Thailand and Vietnam, supermarkets are beginning to use banana leaves instead of plastic as packaging.
Usually in the net photos excite indiscriminately in plastic packed fruits or vegetables, but this time it was the other way around. Instead of throwing away the banana leaves, they are now meaningfully used. Many countries in Asia have declared war on plastic and also return the plastic waste from Europe to the countries of origin.
It all started in March 2019 after a real estate company in Chiang Mai posted photos on its Facebook page showing the banana leaf packaging. And quickly gained worldwide attention.
Large supermarket chains in Vietnam such as Lotte Mart, Saigon Co.op and Big C have begun to implement the idea of Thai business and also experiment in their banana leaf business as a packaging alternative. According to the United Nations (UNEP), Vietnam ranks fourth in the world in terms of the volume of plastic waste entering the ocean. Increasingly, measures to reduce plastic waste have already been successfully implemented.
At least three supermarket chains in Vietnam are using banana leaves to wrap vegetables. Photo by VnExpress/Nghe Nguyen
“This is part of our plan to do something about plastic waste, and we hope we can use that idea for fresh meat as well,” said the supermarkets in Vietnam. Customers are excited: “When I see vegetables in these beautiful banana leaves, I’m more willing to buy larger quantities. I think this initiative will help the locals better protect the environment, “says one customer.
The United Nations Environment Program estimates that by 2050, 12 billion tons of plastic will be in landfills, the environment and the oceans. By the way, Coca-Cola alone uses three million tons of plastic packaging in one year and the other companies like Nestlé use millions of tons of plastic every year.
Many consumers here in Europe no longer want plastic packaging. Supermarkets and discounters are currently campaigning with numerous actions against plastic waste. Great!! thinks the consumer, but especially carrots and apples cost unpacked more than the comparison product in plastic packaging.
The use of banana leaves for wrapping food has a long history. In some tropical regions of Mexico tamales are wrapped in banana leaves. Hawaiians also use banana leaves for cooking. They are also used in Southeast Asia to wrap sticky rice.
My comment: Some countries are really doing something to save the climate factually and with simple means! Although they are poor countries and not European.
We do not have bananas in Europe, but we have paper. Paper bags are available in most supermarkets in Germany so the customers can pack their food environmentally friendly.
And here is the problem!
Most do not do, plastic packaging is more comfortable and uncomplicated!
Measures must always come from the top and as a law, not as a voluntary alternative.
Because the climate problem is serious, very serious, and therefore can not be left to the free will of each individual.
So far, and despite 100,000 demonstrators at the strike demonstration in Berlin, we remain patriotic on our German national sport: outrage!
The topic is on everyone’s lips, wich really is nothing other than to speak about FACTS:
Plastic is to blame
Factory farming is to blame,
Cars are to blame
Forest fire is to blame …
and nobody sees himself responsible for at least one climate killer.
An army of propaganda as a climate savior has suddenly appeared.
Some useless politicians think climate rescue is good, and a lot of unsuspecting but enthusiastic demonstrators are hoping this rescue will be through parade demos. Most do not even know what climate is and confuse it with weather.
Mass animal husbandry as a climate killer No. 1 is deliberately not addressed, only these militant vegans do it … bad, right? The outraged environmentalists are currently concerned with the Deus ex machina Greta Thunberg, the icon of the climate hysterics, whether she will finally be pronounced as saints or at least receive the Nobel Prize.
Of course, Greta will get a Nobel Prize.
Even Obama got it.
What happens to the many breeding animals that are exported from Germany to the world? They land – for example – in Qatar – by plane. Qatar is one of the richest countries in the world, but relies on imports for food. Now the little emirate wants to be self-sufficient. No matter what it costs. Especially for the animals!
On a mega-dairy farm with 14,000 cows. Soon it will be 20,000. A total of 30 luxury stables will be built!!
“This is pretty much the last place in the world where you would build a dairy farm,” says Peter Weltevreden. He must know, because Weltevreden is the boss of Baladna, the most extraordinary cow stall in the world. The company is preparing to provide the desert state of Qatar with milk and dairy products.
The desire for self-sufficiency has a serious background: Saudi Arabia and the neighboring Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi – traditionally Qatar’s major trading partners – accuse the Qatari of supporting terrorism and seeking proximity to Shiite Iran. In mid-2017, Saudi Arabia closed the border and cut the emirate off its traditional supply routes. Other countries in the Sunni-Arab world joined the boycott. Procuring food has suddenly become a national challenge for the richest country in the world.
Especially dairy products were scarce. They were delivered almost exclusively from Saudi Arabia. Every day, 400 tons of yoghurt, milk and cheese crossed the border.
Dairy cattle by air freight
In the future, 20,000 cows will be responsible for milk, yoghurt and meat “made in Quatar”. The first 4,000 cows were flown in without further ado. Now the remaining cows are delivered by ship,BlackHolsteiners cows from all over the world. The food is also brought by ship, the water prepared for the animal. A gigantic effort. A muscle game. And part of a larger plan for Qatar to build alternative industries to the lucrative gas business. Most of the Holsteiner Frisiansare from the USA; there were not many in Europe, that’s what the company says.
Livestock at 50 degrees outside temperature sounds bizarre. But farms like Baladna are nothing new in the Middle East. Everything is imported, including the professionals. Water is recycled. The stables be cooled.
“The special tunnel ventilation system has been specially designed for us,” says Ramez Al-Khayyat, owner of Baldana Farm,“as well as the water mist cooling system that controls the climate – something that is nowhere else in the world.” The air conditioning provides 25 degrees, fans exude a slight breeze in the halls. “The animals will be better off here than in Europe”, so his analysis.
And now , cattle from Germany should prevent a food crisis in the Gulf of Qatar. Although the first Holsteiner cows were supplied by a Hungarian dealer, industry experts know that they are originally from Germany.
But in northern Germany, no breeding cattle association currently wants to come out to Qatar as a current or future cattle supplier. “We have no contacts to Qatar and no other customers in Arabia,” says a spokeswoman for the cattle breeding association Schleswig-Holstein in Germany.
Edmund Haferbeck,agricultural expert of the animal protection organization PETA, describes the cow connection as “completely wrong and meaningless”. For one thing, the animals would have been carted to the airports through half of Europe; on the other hand, Qatar has neither the know-how for cattle breeding nor the climatic and holding possibilities.
“If I hear that the Qatarians have European animal husbandry standards, it is more of a cause for concern than reassurance,” says the PETA man. “I even believe that there is not even an animal protection law in Qatar.” Completely nonsensical is the action anyway, says Haferbeck, because many people in Arabia, like Asians, lack an enzyme in the body that can process dairy products”!
My comment: An end to the blockade is not in sight. But instead of the planned isolation, it seems to bring Qatar economic reforms.
Although Qatar is small, has become extremely rich through the trade in liquefied gas from the Gulf. With the import of cows Qatar wants to prove (in addition to other political aspects) that the country can provide itself.
A cow in a climate environment under 30 degrees requires 100 liters of water per day. We can imagine how many liters of water need 25,000 cows in a 50 degree desert.
These cows in these mega stables will almost certainly never put a hoof in the desert in their life because cows should get as little upset as possible to give them as much milk as possible.
They will do what cows all over the world and in any farm do: eat, sleep, calve, give milk.
Heat, embers and gerbils are a potential source of excitement. Everything is obviously kept sterile and eerie, as if they were not live beings.
The animals in the factories here in Europe are not better, they are even worse.
But the air-conditioned mega stables with suffering animals in the middle of nowhere are no progress in the factories of slavery.
“It is not larger, cleaner cages that justice demands…but empty cages, the total eradication of these barbarous practices” (Tom Regan)
🐷You’ve heard of sow stalls, but have you heard of boar stalls?
In an unseen facet of pig farming, boars are kept in small stalls all their lives, only briefly being released for semen collection a couple of times a week.
Please share Boe’s story.
Stay tuned for the full investigation of this facility.
Tortoises were found dead – photo tipomanaus.com.br
An oil rig in front of Rio de Janeiro. (Image: David Silverman / Getty Images)
The platform Deepwater Horizon, Mexico, April 21, 2010
Michael Mansfield QC (pictured) believes the government should introduce tighter legislation to make activities which destroy the natural world illegal 
At least three supermarket chains in Vietnam are using banana leaves to wrap vegetables. Photo by VnExpress/Nghe Nguyen
World Animals Voice 