I had a great day wandering the Vancouver Wellness Show and came home with a bag of goodies to share. That’s the sign of a successful tradeshow visit, isn’t it? Well not exactly, but getting free stuff always feels good. Which is what promotions people are counting on, that the goodwill of getting free stuff will make you feel good about the products they are promoting. But even at an event called The Wellness Show you really must keep your wits about you. Continue reading
Category Archives: Industry Issues
Deciphering Food Labels
I’m a big fan of my local health food store/grocer. Nature’s Fare Market has a great selection of products and is staffed by well-informed staff, especially in their vitamins and supplements department. In addition, they are involved in the community and regularly offer educational seminars. Another of their great educational tools is their newsletter, The Good Life. In an issue this past summer they included a great explanation of food labels that was so clear and thorough I am reprinting here, with permission. Continue reading
Bottled Water Builds an Island
In Vreni Gurd’s article the other day, Another Reason Not to Drink Bottled Water, she touched on the issue of where those plastic water bottles end up. It may be much worse than you imagined.
Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? Yeah, I didn’t just make that up, it’s real. A giant (and I do mean giant) garbage dump floating in the North Pacific Ocean, made mostly of plastic. And it’s not going anywhere fast. Because plastic doesn’t break down and decompose. Continue reading
Another Reason Not to Drink Bottled Water
A couple of years ago I went on a bit of a rampage about bottled water (click “Water” in Categories to see a list). I knew it was more than a little ridiculous to pay for something you could get for free out of the tap, but the more I learned the more than ridiculous I realized whole affair has become. Continue reading
How to Beat the Worldwide Food Shortage
When I talk with people about accessibility to food (a key element in food security) I’m often reminded by them that there are too many people on this planet and not enough food and THAT is the problem. This is “common knowledge” after all. Right? Well actually it’s a more a common misconception. The problem isn’t that we don’t have enough food, it’s that what we have isn’t used very wisely. Continue reading
Learning More About Animal Welfare
After the rise in awareness of animal abuse in the dairy industry in recent weeks, I’m very excited to have just completed the first week’s assignments of a FREE 5 week online course on Animal Behaviour and Welfare from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. I am very interested in animal behaviour and want to understand more fully what truly constitutes animal welfare from their perspective, so coming across this course was a great find. Continue reading
Is Organic Livestock Management Better?
In response to the post Drinking Milk From Abused Cows, one of my readers commented, “I didn’t watch the video. I’m far to sensitive to watch cruelty. We started buying organic milk many years ago. Do you think that means the cows are treated better?”
In response I did a little digging and thought I’d share what I discovered. Continue reading
An Easy Way to Help the Cows (and Chickens and Goats and Pigs and…)
Shamelessly cute cow with calf. I am NOT apologetic if it motivates you to contact your MLA.
The other day I contacted the BC SPCA to ask how Joe and Jeni Citizen (that’s you and me) can support turning the Canadian Code of Practice for the Care and Handling of Farm Animals — which outlines standards for humane treatment of all manner of livestock, including dairy cattle — into law.
The Code of Practices is a document that covers the minimum in appropriate livestock management practices for all manner of species raised for food production. Continue reading
Don’t Forget the Cows
Have you thought about the milk you’ve been drinking this week and where it came from?
It’s so easy to let yesterweek’s news of animal cruelty in the dairy industry slip between the cracks of things you care about and want to change, and things you just need to get done to survive the week. Life is busy, I get it.
I get it and I still think it’s worth not letting this issue slip back into obscurity. Because the lives and welfare of these kind, gentle animals is at stake. And if we don’t care enough to do something, there’s no guarantee someone else will. Continue reading