21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 21

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men." — Alice Walker, American poet, author and activist

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and October 27-29 is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses—and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #21: You'll be in good company. Many of the world's greatest thinkers, artists and humanitarians have recognized the moral imperative not eating animals and chose to be vegetarian, including Plato, Plutarch, Pythagoras, Confucius, Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, John the Baptist, Saint Matthew, Horace, Ovid, Virgil, Leonardo da Vinci, Gustav Mahler, Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Kafka, Mahatma Gandhi, Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron, Gustav Holst, Leo Tolstoy, Nicola Tesla, Antoni Gaudi, George Bernard Shaw, John Coltrane, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Coretta Scott King, Cesar Chavez, Vaslav Nijinsky, Philip Glass, Jane Goodall, Sir Paul McCartney and Albert Einstein, who became vegetarian later in his life. "I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience," Einstein said, "So I am living without fats, without meat, without fish, but am feeling quite well this way. It always seems to me that man was not born to be a carnivore." In addition to seeing the moral problems that arise from meat-eating, Einstein recognized that not only are we what we eat, but the decision what to eat has a great impact on the whole of the human race, saying, "It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living, by its purely physical effect on the human temperament, would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind."

Recipe #21: Whole Wheat Fettuccine with Wild Mushroom Sauce (adapted from American Institute Cancer Research Recipe Corner). Winston Craig, MPH, PhD, RD, writes on Vegetarian-Nutrition.info: "The Pharaohs prized mushrooms as a delicacy, and the Greeks believed that mushrooms provided strength for warriors in battle. The Romans regarded mushrooms as a gift from God and served them only on festive occasions, while the Chinese treasured them as a health food...The latest findings show that white button mushrooms can reduce the risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer. An extract of white button mushrooms decreased cell proliferation and decreased tumor size in a dose-dependent manner. The chemoprotective effect can be seen with an intake of about 100 grams (3.5 ozs) of mushrooms per day...Lentinan, a beta-glucan isolated from the fruiting body of shiitake mushrooms, appears to stimulate the immune system, help fight infection, and demonstrates anti-tumor activity."

About Quote #21: Alice Walker won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1982 novel The Color Purple. Walker's recognition that animals do not exist for man and "exist for their own reasons" is fundamental to basing one's actions and attitudes towards animals on compassion and respect. While some meat-eaters find justification for their diet in the Bible, which says that man has "dominion" over animals, as Jolinda Hackett writes on About.com, "'Dominion' doesn’t mean 'exploitation,' 'decapitation' and 'domination,' but rather a responsibility for stewardship. All the world’s prominent religions teach the importance of both compassion and mercy as important values to cultivate. The choice to eat meat, dairy products and eggs is a violent one—it supports abuse." For the many reasons presented this month, it can be reasonably concluded that meat eating is unreasonable. According to the 2008 Vegetarian Consumer Trends report, 1 percent of the United States population is vegetarian or vegan — some 3 million people. And while that number is steadily growing, it will likely take a long time for a majority of humans to move from meat-based diets to plant-based ones, if it happens at all. As Irish playwright and London School of Economics co-founder George Bernard Shaw, himself a vegetarian, said, "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."

[Note: "Pet Lovers, Pathologized" is an excellent article by Kelly Oliver, a philosophy professor at Vanderbilt University, about the "complicated and often hypocritical view we hold toward animals," published online yesterday by the New York Times.]

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Today is the last day of World Go Vegan Week
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Download Mercy for Animals' 25 Reasons to Be Vegetarian brochure
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• DUE TODAY, 10/31: Tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• DUE TODAY, 10/31: Say YES to protecting what is known as "the most important fish in the sea," the Atlantic menhaden—a critical fish species that plays a critical role in the marine food web as prey for striped bass, bluefish, tuna, whales, porpoises, seabirds and other wildlife—from dangerous overfishing (Care2)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Tell BCBG to stand by the original commitment and go fur-free (IDA)
• Despite a ban, India's biggest oil company, Indian Oil, is allowing bullocks to be used to transport their oil. Say NO to this continuing cruelty (PETA India)
• Say NO to the unconstitutional imprisonment of marine animals at SeaWorld (PETA)
• Urge the White House to move forward and finalize a rule to stop the importation and interstate movement of these deadly snakes as pets (HSUS)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• A host of carnivores perched atop food webs are being eliminated by humans. Although marine species such as sharks are primarily caught for food, large terrestrial hunters are often targeted for removal because they threaten humans moving into previously wild spaces (Science News)
• Many of the most notorious food-illness outbreaks in recent years were preceded by glowing private safety audits of the producers, prompting calls for oversight of auditors and forcing grocery chains to tighten screening of food (Denver Post)
• An internal email chain has exposed key police personnel who deliberately kept thousands of officers and their families in the dark about asbestos and other poisonous hazards in stations and houses across New South Wales (Sydney Morning Herald)
• For those who plunge into scientific journals, the case of bisphenol A (BPA) has all the features of a global health scandal, potentially one of the most serious of the past decade (Paris Le Monde)
• People who have never smoked, but who live in areas with higher air pollution levels, are roughly 20 percent more likely to die from lung cancer than people who live with cleaner air (Reuters)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Fur Free Friday is November 25 (FurKills.org)
• Hundreds of campaigners hoccupied the construction site of the Belo Monte dam project in the Brazilian Amazon, demanding that work on the multi-billion dollar dam be stopped, arguing that it would displace thousands of indigenous people and damage the environment (BBC News)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: Adam Foster

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 20

"It ill becomes us to invoke in our daily prayers the blessings of God, the Compassionate, if we in turn will not practice elementary compassion towards our fellow creatures." — Mahatma Gandhi

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and October 27-29 is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #20: It is not worth taking the life of an animal just to satisfy a taste. Medically speaking, it is not necessary to eat meat. According to the Mayo Clinic, "a well-planned vegetarian diet can meet the needs of people of all ages, including children, teenagers, and pregnant or breast-feeding women."

Recipe #20: Sweet Potato Curry. According to the Mayo Clinic, "The deep orange-yellow color of sweet potatoes tells you that they're high in the antioxidant beta carotene. Food sources of beta carotene, which your body converts to vitamin A, may help slow the aging process and reduce the risk of some cancers. Sweet potatoes are also good sources of fiber, vitamins B-6, C and E, folate and potassium. They're fat-free and relatively low in calories."

About Quote #20: Gandhi wasn't always vegetarian. He wasn't always on a spiritual path. It was an evolution, which takes time. Gandhi ultimately came to the conclusion that the best reason for not eating animals is an ethical one. "Those persons who become vegetarians because they are suffering from some disease or other—that is, from purely the health point of view—it is those persons who largely fall back," Gandhi said in a speech delivered at a meeting of the London Vegetarian Society on November 20, 1931. "I discovered that for remaining staunch to vegetarianism a man requires a moral basis. For me that was a great discovery in my search after truth. At an early age, in the course of my experiments, I found that a selfish basis would not serve the purpose of taking a man higher and higher along the paths of evolution. What was required was an altruistic purpose."

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/31: Tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Say NO to the unconstitutional imprisonment of marine animals at SeaWorld (PETA)
• Urge the White House to move forward and finalize a rule to stop the importation and interstate movement of these deadly snakes as pets (HSUS)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• Increasing pollution of the Yangtze River and the threat this poses to the finless porpoise is also a warning for a third of the nation's population that depends on these waters (China Daily)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Lawmakers have called on the State Department’s inspector general to investigate the department’s handling of a crucial environmental study on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and urged President Obama to delay a decision on the project until the report is completed (New York Times)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: foodpr0n.com

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 19

"Life is life—whether in a cat, or dog or man. There is no difference there between a cat or a man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage." — Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950), Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and October 27-29 is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #19: Vegetarians eat less cancer-causing chemicals than meat-eaters. Three separate studies have shown the connection between hot dogs and childhood cancer, caused by the nitrite additives which form carcinogens. One study found that pregnant mothers who ate hot dogs exposed the fetus to an increased risk of childhood brain tumors. Earlier this year, the FDA admitted that chicken meat contains arsenic, a carcinogen that is added to chicken feed. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer-causing heterocyclic amines (HCAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are formed when muscle meat, including beef, pork, fish, and poultry, is cooked.

Recipe #19: Penne Pasta with Cannellini Beans and Escarole. Escarole, a kind of endive, like other dark leafy greens, is known for its anti-oxidizing ability to reduce cancer risk. Additionally, according to Christine L. Sardo of Livestrong.com, just 1 cup of cooked dark leafy greens provides 600 percent of the RDA of vitamin K (necessary for blood coagulation and the maintenance of healthy metabolic pathways in bone and tissue), more than 150 percent of vitamin A (necessary for the healthy functioning of the retinas in the eyes) and 65 percent of vitamin C (which protects against oxidative stress). Low-fat, high-fiber cannellini beans supply high quality magnesium, fiber, iron and folate. In fact, they contain twice as much iron as beef, helping to ensures a stable supply of hemoglobin. One cup of cooked cannellini beans supplies 177 percent of the RDA of molybdenum, a trace mineral that helps detoxify sulfites, one of the top 9 food allergens.

About Quote #19: Sri Aurobindo was a leader of the Indian nationalist movement to free India from British rule. Aurobindo believed in the evolution of human life into the divine, writing, "Man is a transitional being. He is not final. The step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth evolution." Though Aurobindo argued that humans had the capacity to evolve spiritually, he also recognized that humans are not the finality of evolution and occupy just one branch of the evolutionary tree. This recognition is central to the evolution of consciousness and can be viewed as a starting point for maintaining a compassionate diet. Indeed, certain Mahayana sutras reveal Buddha as a stern denouncer of meat-eating because it spreads fear among sentient beings and is a direct violation of the bodhisattva's fundamental cultivation of compassion.

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Say NO to the unconstitutional imprisonment of marine animals at SeaWorld (PETA)
• Urge the White House to move forward and finalize a rule to stop the importation and interstate movement of these deadly snakes as pets (HSUS)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• No safe drinking water in Nigerian state (Abuja Daily Trust)
• Clashes between tribes and agribusiness increase in Malaysia (New York Times)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Toronto city councillors overwhelmingly approved (38-4) a ban on the ownership, sale or consumption of shark fin. The brutal practice of "finning" satisfies a vanity-food demand and is so widespread (an estimated 90 million sharks are killed each year) that it is pushing several species toward rapid extinction (Born Free)
• Toronto council ordered 3 elephants at Toronto Zoo be transferred to PAWS sanctuary (Born Free)
• The Obama administration on Wednesday formally unveiled a plan to ban new uranium and other mining claims on 1 million acres of federal lands bordering the Grand Canyon for 20 years (Christian Science Monitor)
• Today begins the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals (Farm Sanctuary)
• Late last week, Arch Coal agreed not to mine for coal underneath Buckhannon Upshur High School in West Virginia. More than 60,000 people signed a CREDO petition to Arch Coal telling the company that mining underneath a high school is unacceptable—that activism made a real difference in this campaign (CREDO)
• Lufthansa joins BUAV’s list of airlines that do not transport monkeys for research (BUAV)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: Canada goslings (credit: Eric Bégin, Flickr Creative Commons)

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 18

"The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery." — Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it take 21 days to break a habit. So for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and later this month is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #18: Vegetarians help preserve forests, which provide many environmental services such as storing carbon, providing habitat for countless species and providing food and livelihoods to some 1.6 billion people. Switching from a meat-based diet to a plant-based diet reduces the demand to cut down the world's forests to make room to raise livestock.

Recipe #18: The Vegan Stoner's Chickpea Curry. A 100-gram serving of cooked unsalted chick peas (aka, garbanzo beans) has "27.42 g carbohydrates, which helps to create energy; 7.6 g dietary fiber for good heart health and a healthy digestive system; 2.59 g fat; and 8.86 g protein," writes April Khan on Livestrong.com. "Garbanzo beans also contain vitamin A, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin C, vitamin E and vitamin K. Minerals contained in garbanzo beans are calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium and zinc."

About Quote #18: Charles Darwin proved that all species of life have descended from a common ancestor. The understanding that all living things are related gives credence to the belief that all life should be valued as one values their own. This concept is especially heightened in regard to lifeforms that can feel pain and desire to avoid it. Indeed, Darwin was well aware of the fact that all lifeforms are engaged in the struggle for their own survival and reproduction, no matter where they may reside on the evolutionary tree of life.

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Say NO to the unconstitutional imprisonment of marine animals at SeaWorld (PETA)
• Urge the White House to move forward and finalize a rule to stop the importation and interstate movement of these deadly snakes as pets (HSUS)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• Colossal waste exposed in Afghan electric projects (Scientific American)
• Canadian logging plan threatens habitat of grizzly bear, steelhead trout and dozens of at-risk species (CPAWS)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• In a groundbreaking move for animals, PETA, with the help of three marine-mammal experts and two former orca trainers, will file a landmark lawsuit tomorrow asking a federal court to declare that five wild-caught orcas forced to perform at SeaWorld are being held as slaves in violation of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The 13th Amendment prohibits the condition of slavery, without reference to "person" or any particular class of victims. PETA's general counsel, Jeffrey Kerr, stated, "Slavery does not depend on the species of the slave any more than it depends on gender, race, or religion." (PETA)
• Fashion group M&Co plans to run 300 U.K. shops on wind power (UKPA)
• Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Oct. 5, expressing "serious concern" about TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline project (Politico)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: Baby chicken (chick) (Gallus gallus domesticus) (credit: Fir0002/Flagstaffotos, Wikimedia Commons)

Special Alert | Javan Rhino Declared Extinct in Vietnam

The illegal trade in rhino horn, prized by traditional Chinese medicine, has exterminated every single Javan rhino in Vietnam

WWF and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) have confirmed the extinction of the Javan rhino (Rhinoceros sondaicus annamiticus) in Vietnam. Despite the fact that rhino horn has been proven to have no medicinal effect, it is highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine.

For more information on this breaking story, visit Planetsave.

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 17

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living things, man will not himself find peace." — Albert Schweitzer, French philosopher, physician and musician, Nobel Peace Prize 1952

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and October 27-29 is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #17: Rearing animals for human consumption creates antibiotic-resistant superbugs that make humans sick. According to Scientific American, "Modern animal production methods are virtually designed to create antibiotic resistant bacteria. We produce nine billion food animals in the United States every year. And most of these animals are fed antibiotics throughout their life." The result? The rise of antibiotic superbugs, which means that these same antibiotics are less effective in treating humans. Dr. Kellog Schwab of John Hopkins University, said, "It's not appreciated until it's your mother, or your son, or you are trying to fight off an infection that will not go away because the last mechanism to fight it has been usurped by someone putting it into a pig or chicken."

Recipe #17: Avocado Wasabi Salad. Lolo of VeganYumYum.com writes, "Who wants to go to a vegan website and see a recipe for salad? I keep salads to an absolute minimum around here. So when one does show up, it's a freakin' delicious salad. And this one is definitely freakin delicious." Because of their high fat content (about 30 grams of fat, the same amount in a quarter-pound hamburger), avocados got the nickname "butter pear." But unlike the saturated fat and trans fat that occurs in hamburger meat and increases the risk of heart disease, the fat in avocados is monounsaturated fat (MUFA), the good kind of fat that actually lowers cholesterol levels and decreases heart disease risk. WebMD cites a 1996 study by researchers at the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social in Mexico (Archives of Medical Research, Winter 1996) that found that people who ate avocados every day for a week experienced an average 17 percent drop in total blood cholesterol. Also, according to the Mayo Clinic, "MUFAs may benefit insulin levels and blood sugar control, which can be especially helpful if you have type 2 diabetes."

About Quote #17: Central to Albert Schweitzer's philosophy was his idea of "Ehrfurcht vor dem Leben" (meaning "Reverence for Life," or more accurately, "to be in awe of the mystery of life," a philosophy for which he received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. Western civilization was is a state of decay, Schweitzer believed, because it had neglected a respect for life as an ethical foundation. The absence of this respect for life is clearly expressed by the fact that humans continue to kill animals for food, when it is not necessary.

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Tell your senators: End our addiction to dirty oil, help dolphins and other marine life survive, say YES to S. 1397 Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (Oceana)
• Say NO to healthy horses being shot in the head weekly, dumped in a mass grave in Indiana (Care2)
• Say YES to protecting the fragile coral reefs and marine habitats of Biscayne National Park (National Parks Conservation Association)
• Tell US Fish & Wildlife Service: Protect all chimpanzees before wild populations become extinct (PCRM)
• Say NO to North Carolina Wildlife Commission killing tame deer and fawns (Change.org)
• Sign petition to free Tony the Truck Stop Tiger (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• Girls exposed in womb to BPA have risk of behavior problems (Bloomberg News)
• In a move aimed at improving national security, House Republicans want to give the U.S. Border Patrol unprecedented authority to ignore 36 environmental laws on federal land in a 100-mile zone stretching along the Canadian and Mexican borders (McClatchy)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Friday marked an inspiring victory for pigs, who were routinely being cut apart, surgically mutilated, and killed as part of an elective medical training course at Germany's University of Ulm. Just two hours after PETA Germany asked supporters to contact university officials, the university announced that it would be permanently ending the pig lab (PETA)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: baby goats (credit: kaymoshusband, Flickr Creative Commons)

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 16

"The world, we are told, was made especially for man — a presumption not supported by all the facts...Why should man value himself as more than a small part of the one great unit of creation?" — John Muir (1838–1914), American naturalist

[October's theme is "21 Days, Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and October 27-29 is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #16: Humans are vegetarian by design. "You can't tear flesh by hand, you can't tear hide by hand," says the renowned anthropologist Richard Leakey, professor of anthropology at the Stony Brook University in New York, and chair of the Turkana Basin Institute and founder of WildlifeDirect, both in Kenya. "Our anterior teeth are not suited for tearing flesh or hide. We don't have large canine teeth, and we wouldn't have been able to deal with food sources that require those large canines." Additionally, human saliva contains the enzyme alpha-amylase, whose unique purpose is to digest the complex carbohydrates found in plant foods. Notably, this enzyme is not found in the saliva of carnivores.

Recipe #16: Edamame Avocado Spread. Edamame are green soybeans that are packed with antioxidants, which strengthen the immune system and reduce the risk of cancer and neurodegenerative disease, and isoflavones, which studies suggest reduce the risk of prostate cancer, breast cancer and heart disease, and also lower blood pressure and alleviate symptoms of menopause.

About Quote #16: Born in Scotland, John Muir was an American naturalist and an early advocate of preserving the American wilderness as the founder of the Sierra Club, the oldest and largest environmental organization in the United States. His philosophy centered around the dichotomy of civilization and nature — and his belief that "wild is superior."

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Tell your senators: End our addiction to dirty oil, help dolphins and other marine life survive, say YES to S. 1397 Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (Oceana)
• Say NO to healthy horses being shot in the head weekly, dumped in a mass grave in Indiana (Care2)
• Say YES to protecting the fragile coral reefs and marine habitats of Biscayne National Park (National Parks Conservation Association)
• Tell US Fish & Wildlife Service: Protect all chimpanzees before wild populations become extinct (PCRM)
• Say NO to North Carolina Wildlife Commission killing tame deer and fawns (Change.org)
• Sign petition to free Tony the Truck Stop Tiger (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• BP’s plan for drilling in the gulf is approved (New York Times)
• Polar bears are ill from the accumulated environmental toxins (ScienceDaily)
• 40,000 Dallas-Fort Worth children under 6 have lead in blood (Dallas Morning News)
• Even as the second season of PCB dredging in the Hudson River comes to an end, emerging research points to links between the pollutant and heart disease (Lower Hudson Valley Journal News)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• After 13 years of legal struggle, nearly 50 million acres of America's richest natural resource — the National Forests — are now protected by a decree of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals (Earthjustice)
• Bolivian President Evo Morales announced Friday he was scrapping a hugely controversial plan to build a highway through an Amazon ecological reserve that has triggered widespread protests (Agence France-Presse)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: PETA

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 15

"Many years ago, I was fishing, and as I was reeling in the poor fish, I realized, 'I am killing him — all for the passing pleasure it brings me.' And something inside me clicked. I realized as I watched him fight for breath, that his life was as important to him as mine is to me." — Sir Paul McCartney, English musician, animal rights advocate

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and later this month is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #15: Fishing is inhumane. And the fishing industry has pushed many of the world's fish stocks towards collapse. Also, the fishing industry kills millions of "non-target" animals, such as dolphins, endangered sea turtles and "by-catch" fish every year. The fishing industry treats fish as if they are inanimate objects, but fish are intelligent creatures and have complex social structures. "Fish are more intelligent than they appear," according to Culum Brown of Macquarie University. "In many areas, such as memory, their cognitive powers match or exceed those of 'higher' vertebrates including non-human primates." And fish can feel pain. "Dragged from the ocean depths, fish undergo excruciating decompression, which can rupture their bladders and pop out their eyes," according to the non-profit animal advocacy group Mercy for Animals (MFA). "They are then tossed onboard where they slowly suffocate. Some fish are gutted, filleted and frozen while still alive and conscious."

Recipe #15: Walnut-Flaxseed Hummus. "Instead of sesame tahini, this hummus recipe uses walnuts and flax seed, which are rich in important Omega-3 fatty acids," writes Susan Voisin on the Fat Free Vegan blog. "The result is milder-tasting than traditional hummus, but equally delicious." As MFA notes, "Flax seeds and vegan DHA (algae oil) are excellent sources of Omega 3 fatty acids, without the cruelty or mercury that come with fish consumption."

About Quote #15: Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney is an outspoken animal advocate and has done much work as a spokesperson for PETA. In 1999, he spent GBP 3 million to ensure that the line of vegetarian food produced his wife Linda McCartney (who died in 1998) contained no genetically modified (GM) food. In 2006, the McCartneys travelled to Prince Edward Island to bring international attention to the seal hunt. He has also fought against the Chinese fur trade. And he is a staunch advocate of vegetarianism. "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian," he said.

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Tell your senators: End our addiction to dirty oil, say YES to S1397 Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (Oceana)
• Say YES to protecting the fragile coral reefs and marine habitats of Biscayne National Park (National Parks Conservation Association)
• Tell US Fish & Wildlife Service: Protect all chimpanzees before wild populations become extinct (PCRM)
• Say NO to North Carolina Wildlife Commission killing tame deer and fawns (Change.org)
• Sign petition to free Tony the Truck Stop Tiger (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• Last week (8th October) saw a horrific attack on anti-bullfighting protestors in a bullring in Rodilhan, France. The group of ninety-five activists were attempting to stage a peaceful sit-in when they were attacked by a mob of pro-bullfighting thugs (League Against Cruel Sports)
• Wild cotton in Mexico has been contaminated with genetically-modified material, posing a risk to biodiversity (Inter Press Service)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• The European Commission once again urged today the Member States to implement a ban on un-enriched cages for laying hens, which enters into force on 1st January 2012, and warned that it will adopt measures against those that will fail to comply with the relevant EU legislation (Europa)
• "Since September 2010, PCRM has been reaching out to Carolinas Medical Center requesting that it replace the use of ferrets for endotracheal intubation training. We also had to wrangle with the medical center's attorneys to gain access to records on animal use. It seems that our persistence has paid off because earlier this month, Carolinas Medical Center informed PCRM that it has stopped using animals. PCRM could not have accomplished this without the help of our members." — John J. Pippin, M.D., F.A.C.C., Senior Medical and Research Adviser, PCRM
• Family-owned pet store chain Jack's Pets decides to stop selling puppies and partners with ASPCA to increase in-store pet adoptions (CNBC)
• The California Air Resources Board has unanimously adopted the nation's first state-administered cap-and-trade regulations, a landmark set of air pollution controls to address climate change and help the state achieve its ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Los Angeles Times)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: PETA

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 14

“I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals." — Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Walden, 1854

[October's theme is "21 Days, Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and later this month is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #14: Vegetarians conserve more non-renewable energy, i.e., fossil fuel, through their diets than meat-eaters. According to The Whole Earth Vegetarian Catalogue, it takes 78 calories of fossil fuel to produce 1 calorie of beef protein; 35 calories for 1 calorie of pork; 22 calories for 1 of poultry; but just 1 calorie of fossil fuel for 1 calorie of soybeans. "The meat-based food system requires more energy, land, and water resources than the lactoovovegetarian diet," write David Pimentel and Marcia Pimentel from the Department of Entomology and Division of Nutritional Sciences, respectively, of Cornell University, in their study on the environmental sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets, published in 2003 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. "In this limited sense, the lactoovovegetarian diet is more sustainable than the average American meat-based diet." At a 1997 meeting of the Canadian Society of Animal Science in Montreal, David Pimentel said, "If all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million."

Recipe #14: Radiant Beet and Kale Penne Pasta, by vegan chef Beverly Lynn Bennett. Beets are a unique source of phytonutrients called betalains, which are antioxidants, anti-inflammatories and detoxifiers. According to a 2006 study by the National Institute for Food and Nutrition Research in Rome, beets are a prime sources of lutein and zeaxanthin, two carotenoids, organic pigments that enhance the immune system. Since humans and other animals cannot synthesize carotenoids naturally in the body (only plants can do this), they must be obtained through diet.

About Quote #14: Henry David Thoreau, one of the leading transcendentalists, is best known for his book Walden, a reflection on living simply in harmony with nature, personal independence and spiritual discovery — a landmark manual of self-reliance. He did not intend to live as a hermit — he had frequent visitors and also visited friends regularly — but he did want to remove himself from the predominant sociocultural context in order to experience first-hand the basic fundamentals of living and being alive. In Chapter 2 of Walden, Thoreau explains his decision: "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." In Chapter XI of Walden, Thoreau wrote that eating animals was "unnecessary, and cost more than it came to."

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Due 11/15: Tell US Fish & Wildlife to keep the Arctic Refuge Wild (Wilderness Watch)
• Tell your senators: End our addiction to dirty oil, say YES to S1397 Incentivizing Offshore Wind Power Act (Oceana)
• Say YES to protecting the fragile coral reefs and marine habitats of Biscayne National Park (National Parks Conservation Association)
• Tell US Fish & Wildlife Service: Protect all chimpanzees before wild populations become extinct (PCRM)
• Say NO to North Carolina Wildlife Commission killing tame deer and fawns (Change.org)
• Sign petition to free Tony the Truck Stop Tiger (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• A diet high in farmed salmon contaminated by persistent organic pollutants - POPs - contributes to weight gain and increases the risk of diabetes (ENN)
• BPA again tied to diabetes risk (Reuters)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Judge halts uranium-mining plans in Colorado over environmental issues (Denver Post)
• Environmental group to rate the safety of 10,000 foods (Time)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: A young calf from the children's petting area of Australia Zoo (credit: Andrew G. Young, Flickr Creative Commons)

21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes | Day 13

"I think that everything connected with vegetarianism is of the highest importance because there will never be any peace in the world so long as we eat animals. This also applies to fish. I do not eat any fish. I had felt guilty and ashamed about the fact that I had eaten the flesh of an animal. I think that animals are as much God's creatures as men are. And we have to respect and love them, not slaughter them." — Isaac Bashevis Singer, Nobel Prize in Literature, 1978

[October's theme is "21 Days, 21 Reasons, 21 Recipes, 21 Quotes." It has been said that it takes 21 days to break a habit, so for each of the 21 weekdays this month, 13.7 Billion Years offers one reason why humans should switch to a vegetarian diet, one vegetarian recipe and one notable quote. Considering that October 2nd was World Farm Animals Day (WFAD) and later this month is the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: For Health, Environment and Farm Animals, October is the perfect month to consider the more than 65 billion cows, pigs, turkeys, chickens and other land animals who needlessly suffer and die every year in the world's farms and slaughterhouses — and how not eating animals isn't just compassionate behavior, but healthy for humans and the global environment.]

Reason #13: Vegetarian men are healthier than meat-eating men. Confirming a report by the American Dietetic Association that found that vegetarianism is a nurtritious way to maintain a healthy weight, a recent study in China found that vegetarian men typically have more ideal body weights and lower risk of disease compared to non-vegetarians.

Recipe #13: Vegan Tofu and Vegetable Pot Pie. This "warm and savory vegan tofu and vegetable pot pie with a super buttery, flaky crust" has an "appeal isn't limited to vegans," writes Emily Ho on TheKitchn.com. "My partner, a bacon and barbecue loving omnivore, confessed that he liked this pot pie even better than the meat versions he's had."

About Quote #13: Isaac Bashevis Singer was a Polish Jewish-American author who, like Milan Kundera and a 2009 study on slaughterhouse workers conducted by researchers at Michigan State University and the University of Windsor in Ontario, saw the connection between a meat-eating society and violence.

GET INVOLVED

• Want give a compassionate diet a test-run? Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days" and make October your month to see what it feels like to not eat animals. "Animals killed for food are neglected, tortured, kept in filthy conditions, and often slaughtered in painful ways, such as having their throats cut while fully conscious. I won't support this cruelty. By signing my name, I pledge to try a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days." Sign the "Pledge to Be Veg for 30 Days"!
• Get a free Vegetarian Starter Kit to help with your Pledge to Be Veg
• Learn about the past global successes with the World Farm Animals Day 2010 Annual Report
• Learn about Farm Sanctuary, a non-profit organization in Watkins Glen, New York, that for the past 25 years, has been working to protect farm animals from cruelty, inspire change in the way society views and treats farm animals and promote compassionate vegan living
• Get "vegucated" with Marisa Miller Wolfson at Mercy for Animals (MFA)
• Learn about the first-ever National Conference to End Factory Farming: for Health, Environment and Farm Animals, held October 27-29, 2011, in Arlington, Virginia
• Follow 13.7 Billion Years on Twitter

ACTION ALERTS

• Due 10/19: Tell Montana to free captured buffalo, relocate them as wildlife in tribal and public herds (Buffalo Field Campaign)
• Due 10/28: Say YES to the swift and aggressive enforcement of a USDA proposed rule that will amend the Animal Welfare Act regulations to prohibit the import of puppies under six months of age for resale (HSUS)
• Due 10/31: Join 16,945 others and tell EPA to clean up oil and gas drilling air pollution (Earthjustice)
• Tell US Fish & Wildlife Service: Protect all chimpanzees before wild populations become extinct (PCRM)
• Sign petition to free Tony the Truck Stop Tiger (Animal Legal Defense Fund)
• Submit your vegan health question to hope@idausa.org and maybe you'll see it answered in an upcoming In Defense of Animals (IDA) eNews
• Sign the Universal Declaration of Animal Welfare (AnimalsMatter.org)

PART OF THE PROBLEM

• Far more bluefin sold than reported caught (AFP)
• After a summer where record fires, floods, rains and droughts dominated the news, polar bears and the Arctic have been far from most people’s minds. This does not mean polar bears have had it easy in 2011. In fact, almost every month this year has yielded bad news for polar bears and their Arctic environment. (NWF)

PART OF THE SOLUTION

• Australia: A vote before State Parliament seeking a standard definition for free-range eggs will be the first time the Shooters and Fishers Party backs a Greens bill. The bill, which also has the support of Labor, would mean eggs in NSW could be labelled as free-range only if they have come from a farm that has no more than 1500 hens an hectare (Sydney Morning Herald)
• Nearly a third of all malaria-affected countries on the path toward elimination in the next decade (United Nations)
• 2011’s Greenest TV Shows and Movies (TakePart)

PAST SERIES

• Rich Dog, Poor Dog: Considering man's best friend (September 2011)
• Physicists & Priests: Looking at the relationship of science and religion (August 2011)
• Deep Space: Staring at the stars (July 2011)
  
• Gray Matters: Thinking about thinking (June 2011)
  
• Flower Power: Stopping to smell the angiosperms (May 2011)
• Animal Cruelty: Looking at the devil within (April 2011)
• Chemical Month: Exploring the vast laboratory of our daily lives (March 2011)
• Africa Month: Visiting the world's second-largest continent (February 2011)
• Reports from 2050: Imagining the future (January 2011)
• Victory Month: Looking at the victories of 2010, made possible by you (December 2010)
• Tree Month: Climbing the perennial woody plants that appeared 375 million years ago (November 2010)
• Food Month: Considering what we put in our mouths (October 2010)

image: lamb (credit: Stephen Mitchell, Flickr Creative Commons)