Thursday, August 08, 2019

TIME for a PUBLIC OPTION on plantmilks?? Let's not WAIT UNTIL we get sick. Let's get our plantmilks NOW.

TIME for a PUBLIC OPTION on plantmilks??
Let's not WAIT UNTIL we get sick.
Let's get our plantmilks NOW.

So MUCH competition in the plantmilk space is broadening opportunities for consumers to try an array of very different plantmilks (not all plantmilks are the same - in fact, NO plantmilks are the same as any other plantmilks; they ALL differ).

But if ACCESS to plantmilks is the issue, there are SOME locations - by zip code - where plantmilks are NOT immediately accessible to coffee drinkers, cereal eaters, and others who tipple at the extruded plants.

Arguably, all this competition in the plantmilk space may be great for consumers, but the price point BENEFITS of competition cannot be GREAT for the fiscal sustainability of all these risk-taking innovators.

Some plantmilk producers will WIN - and some may go out of business after they have done 'their yeoman's duty' to expand the market for plantmilks.

Is it not time for some public strategy for dispersing plantmilks among the ENTIRE human population - maybe granting plantmilk as a protected right - so that everyone can have some plantmilk when and where they need it, and so that the nation's farmers can know that there's a continuing demand for high quality organic non-GMO plants to supply this industrial demand for producing soymilk.

In nations outside the USA, a national healthcare plan can mandate universal coverage yet periodically open to competitive bidders for supplying the national 'right to healthcare'! A national right to plantmilks could be organized the same way without disemboweling competitors who want to continue producing. Those additional competitors would just not win the federal contract for supplying the public option, and the public option could be 95% powered by private industry efforts.

What MIGHT be DIFFERENT (and hopefully BETTER) would be ACCESS to nondairy plantmilks, nondairy cheeses, nondairy creamers, and (I think that this would be INESSENTIAL) nondairy desserts.

I'd wager that restaurants in THAT kind of economic regime would carry plantmilks as a rule because it's a right, not because they suddenly took pity on the paying consumer.

Those who declare 'SOY MILK IS A RIGHT' can build upon their public values.

Plantmilk availability COULD become or be declared ethically normative in such a society.

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Urgent Need to Green All Industrialization Globally

Contemplate what industrialization allows to come into the environment from the individuals who own and/or control the use of that industrialization:

Israel’s targets included a 25% reduction of its 2005 greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 – limiting residents to 7.7 tons of carbon dioxide per capita. The government’s plan also involved making renewable energy resources responsible for 17% of the country’s electricity usage by 2030, as well as reducing overall electricity consumption by the same percentage. The targets also included a 20% decrease in private vehicle usage.

My thinking is, don't blame the nations as much as the ecologically TRAGIC state of industrialization, which requires MUCH more greening globally.  Currently, industrialization is used for privately-controlled profits; whatever the rhetoric, private advantage is ADVANTAGED by currently ownership of industrialization.

If the public were not so negatively impacted by its use, such a condition MIGHT be tolerable; however, because the general public worldwide IS so negatively impacted by the use of industrializaed technologies in their currently 'un-greened' state, mere 'public buy-in' to their use (as in cellphone, computer, A/C, and vehicular use do NOT excuse the perpetuation of their unmitigated use without massively-funded and staffer programs to green those currently-tragic technologies and to migitage the harms that their widespread use cause to lots and lots of vulnerable persons, both human AND nonhuman.

Time is short.  I would be interested (ONLY) in USEFUL and HISTORICALLY CONSTRUCTIVE comments on how we can move forward with greening all industrialization for life on this planet Earth.

Saturday, April 04, 2015

Vegetarianism and the Salvation Army

April 10th is considered Salvation Army "Founders' Day" - though sometimes July 1865 is considered the date of the founding of the Salvation Army.
"William Booth, born April 10, 1829, was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General (1878-1912)."
  • https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/618-analysis-of-the-salvation-army-an
  • http://www.amazon.com/Catherine-Booth-Biography-Cofounder-Salvation/dp/080105706X *
  • Vegetarian America: A History by Karen Iacobbo - page 133
  • http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/sa3.html ** from Boston, LINCOLNSHIRE, in England
  • http://www.curezone.org/forums/fm.asp?i=943526 *** 
  • "Founders of Salvation Army were vegetarian, and wrote about why they thought Christians should emulate Jesus in nonviolent diet" ****
  • http://www.biographyonline.net/people/famous/vegetarians.html *****
  • http://thesalvationarmynova.blogspot.com/2015/02/salvation-army-founders-advocated.html ******
  • http://salvarmy.blogspot.com/ - Repeats what has already been posted (above) and may be the INTERMEDIATE source FOR the posting above
  • http://www.all-creatures.org/cva/famousveg.htm (the CVA page) *******
  • http://www.ivu.org/history/europe20a/william-booth.html (IVU page on religion and vegetarianism) ********
  • http://www.salvationarmyexpectchange.org/2015/01/23/salvation-army-founders-advocated-vegetarian-lifestyle/  (web author  FROM the SA seems "convicted" about vegetarian diet and THE LOGICAL AND MORAL GROUNDS Booth's advocacy of vegetarianism - by her apologizing for her not strictly adhering to it) *********
  • http://salvationarmyusa.org/usn/history-of-the-salvation-army
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salvation_Army
  • http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/salvation-army-founded
  • http://www.salvationarmy.org/ihq/history
  • http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Great%20Men%20of%20God/general_william_booth.htm
  • http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/sa1.html
  • https://www.christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/issue/william-and-catherine-booth-salvation-army-founders/
  • http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1863162,00.html
  • http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Salvation+Army+Founder's+Day
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqISi0k-85I
  • http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/subdivisions/salvationarmy_1.shtml
  • https://archive.org/details/SchoolOfPrayer-FoundingOfTheSalvationArmy-WilliamBooth
  • http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper158.html

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

By Brien Comerford on April 12, 2006 (Brien Comerford was from Boston)
Format: Paperback
Until I read this wondrous book, I had no idea that Catherine Booth, the conservative Co-Founder of the Slavation Army, embraced women's rights, animal rights and vegetarianism. The author provides many documented instances when Catherine would intervene and stop people from being cruel to dogs, horses, donkeys and oxen. He also mentions the Booth's and their Children loving an array of pets. I always knew that Catherine Booth was a groundbreaking Christian and Humanitarian, but Roger Green surprisingly informed me about Catherine Booth being an animal-loving vegetarian. Too bad today's Christian leaders have failed to emulate her reverence for all God's creatures' creed !

** Catherine Booth, known as the Mother of the Salvation Army, was one of the most extraordinary women of the Victorian era. She had firm convictions on a broad range of issues, such as social work among the poor and destitute, abstinence from alcohol, the legal age of consent for girls, vegetarianism, and the humane treatment of animals. She also held that women must have full equality with men in Christian ministry.

*** "
General Booth treated alcoholism with vegetarian diet.. and found that this treatment severed the meat-alcohol chemical marriage. His success spread the Salvation Army around the world. )

**** GENERAL BRAMWELL BOOTH OF THE SALVATION ARMY ON VEGETARIAN DIET:

These passages are taken from a pamphlet written by General Bramwell Booth, former director General of the Salvation Army, and a son of founder General William Booth.

"Here are some of my reasons for doing so (becoming vegetarian):
1. Because I have myself tried a vegetarian diet with the greatest benefit having been for more than 10 years at l time a strict vegetarian.
2. Because according to the Bible God originally intended the food for humans to be vegetarian. (here he quotes Genesis 1:29 "Behold I have given
you herb yielding seed. To you it shall be for food.")
3. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to purity, to chastity,and to
perfect control of the appetites and passions which are often a source of great temptation, especially to the young. (http://www.notmilk.com)
4. Because a vegetarian diet is favourable to robust health and strength. With very few exceptions, and these only confirmed invalids, I believe the people would be stronger....
5. Because tens of thousands of our poor people (could save money)...http://www.ivu.org
6. Because a vegetarian diet of wheat, oatmeal and other grains, lentils, peas, beans, nuts and similr food is more than ten times as economical as a flesh diet. Meat contains half its weight in water which has to be paid for as though it were meat. A vegetarian diet, even if we allow cheese, butter and milk will only cost about a quarter as much as a mixed diet of flesh and vegetables.
7. Because a vegetarian diet would stop the enormous waste of all kinds of animal food.
8. Because a vegetarian diet is a great protection against our drinking
(this belief of General Booth has been upheld by modern biochemistry research about the relationship of meat and alcohol)....
9. Because a vegetarian diet is favorable to industry and hard work...
10. Because it is proved that life, health, and happiness are all favoroued by a vegetarian diet.**
11. I favour a vegetarian diet because the digestive organs of humans are not well adapted to the use of flesh....
12. Because it is very difficult.. especially in hot weather and warm
climates to keep flesh food sweet long enough to cool and eat it and
a great deal of meat is eaten after it has begun to decay...
13. Because a great deal of the flesh meat which is supplied for human food is already diseased, and because it is nearly impossible to be sure than any flesh is quite free from the germs of disease. Much
common meat, which is often that of old animals, is well known to be sold to the butchers because the animals are sick, or unhealthy. 
And the best meat is nearly always the flesh meat of young animals who are fattened and killed before the germs of many diseases have had time to develop so as to show themselves. So that many animals re killed, which though believed to be healthy, are really diseased.
This is especially the case with calves for veal, young bullocks for beef and with lambs and young pigs.
14. Because I believe that the great increase in consumption and cancer during the last hundred years has been caused by the great increase in the use of animal food, and that a strict vegetarian
diet would greatly help to ward off these most terrible and 'incurable' diseases.
15. Because I believe that a flesh diet brings on many very painful diseases, which though not perhaps immediately dangerous to life cause much suffering and loss. I mean such complaints as eczema, constipation, piles, worms, dysentery, severe heaches and the like. A vegetarian would do much to relieve if not cure them.
16 Because of the awful cruelty and terror to which tens of thousands (now billions)of animals killed for human food are subjected in
traveling long distance by ship and rail and road to the slaughterhouses of the world. God disapproves of all cruelty whether to man or beast.
17.Because of the terrible cruelties practised for killing animals in many slaughter houses. The whole busines of killing is cruel.. even when it is done with care, and we know that in the case of millions of creatures it is done with very little care. Ten thousand pigs are
killed for food every hour in Europe alone. (Now Oscar Mayer kills 1100 pigs an hour at their Madison Wisconsin plant.)
18. Because the occupation of slaughtering animals is brutalising to those who are required to do the work. "The highest sentiments of humane
men" says a certain writer, and I agree with him, "revolt at the cruelty, the degrading sights, the distressing cries, the perpetual
bloodshed, and all the attendant horrors which must surround the transit and slaughter of suffering creatures." *
19. Because a flesh diet is not necessary to hard work. A great part of the work of the world is done by animals which subsist on vegetable food..
namely, horses, mules, camels, oxen, etc.
I believe this matter is well worthy the serious consideration of Christian leaders. It has an important bearing not only on their own
health and happiness but upon their influence among the people, as men and women who are free from the bondage of that selfish gratification which so often afflicts the professed servants of Christ. Let us remember the Apostle's direction: 'Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' "

(published by the LVS 53 Marloes Rd. Kensington London UK W8)

(We copied from an old pamphlet.. to have the full text, write or webvisit the London Vegetarian Society)

*****
John Wesley (1703-1791) – Great preacher and founder of Methodism. Wesley advocated a plant based diet, for health reasons.
William Booth (1829 – 1912) – founder of Salvation Army. William Booth became a vegetarian and credited his diet with giving him the strength for a vigorous lifestyle and founding the Salvation Army.

******

Salvation Army Founders Advocated A Vegetarian Lifestyle

Tuesday, February 17, 2015    
January is the time of year when many of us take stock of our habits and resolve to do better. Topping the list – as mentioned in my previous post – are health and fitness habits.

If you’re looking for some inspiration to make healthy change this year, look no further than The Salvation Army’s founders William and Catherine Booth and their family.

William Booth was born in 1829 and with his wife Catherine founded what would become The Salvation Army in the late 1850s. The Booths came from the Methodist tradition and – like many from their denomination – followed the vegetarian practices of John Wesley even though doing so was difficult in Victorian England.

Catherine was partial to vegetarianism and is credited with encouraging her husband to adopt the lifestyle too.

In fact, William Booth responded to a news reporter inquiry in 1909 that he believed his vegetable-based diet was key to helping him maintain his rigorous travel and speaking schedule into his 80s.

The Booth’s children were also active in the ministry of The Salvation Army and carried on the family’s commitment to vegetarianism. Especially Bramwell Booth who succeeded his father as General of The Salvation Army.


Read the full article here.
*******
William and Catherine Booth.  Founders of the Salvation Army."It is a great delusion to suppose that flesh-meat of any kind is essential to health. Considerably more than three parts of the work in the world is done by men who never taste anything but vegetable, farinaceous food, and that of the simplest kind. There are more strength-producing properties in wholemeal flour, peas, beans, lentils, oatmeal, roots, and other vegetables of the same class, than there are beef or mutton, poultry or fish, or animal food of any description whatever."
(Orders and Regulations of the Officers of the Salvation Army)

********
Europe: early 20th Century
General William Booth (1829-1912)
Founder and first General of the Salvation Army.
From the Vegetarian Messenger (VSUK magazine):
May 1908:General Booth on Diet - The Daily News says :- "Before leaving Norwich to-day General Booth, during an interview with a press representative, was questioned as to his diet. The General said he could still enjoy a potato with a little butter and salt; but the human race had run wild with their eating. Instead of bringing their appetites down to their food they brought their food up to their appetites."
February 1909
General Booth.
 - one of the Dresden journalists had an interview with General Booth during his visit in the neighbourhood , and gave his report in the Dresden Auseiger . In answer the question how he managed to sustain so much hard work, and particularly so much public speaking at night, at his advanced age, the General replied :- "I owe it to my careful vegetarian diet."
March 1909
Self denial week in the Salvation Army 
- At the request of Colonel Moss, of the Salvation Army, the Secretary of the Vegetarian Society has supplied a quantity of directions of inexpensive cooked and uncooked diets, with a number of recipes. They are to be published in the Salvation Army journals.
*********

 





NOTE: "vegetable-based" diet is NOT "junk-food vegetarian" or "junk food vegan" and it's RESPECTFUL of the human body as God's "temple"!




Maynard

Monday, March 16, 2015

Eat Your Fiber

Eating your daily supply of fiber will keep the intestine and colon running healthy, helping to prevent colon cancer and various intestinal diseases.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Bird Conservation Group Wants Tighter Controls on Wind Industry - Blades run afowl of the MBTA

Bird Conservation Group Wants Tighter Controls on Wind Industry | Wind | Rewire | KCET





The SOLUTION - the ENGINEERING SOLUTION - is to SHIFT THE PLANE from rotating the blades in the VERTICAL plane to rotating the blades in the HORIZONTAL plane.
Let's THANK animal (bird) advocates for raising this issue, but let's insist that future design integrate this concern from the outset.
Lots of blade building has already gone ahead, production machinery has been purchased, and workers have been hired and put on the assembly lines.
I raised this concern nearly a decade ago - and suggested this solution about 3-4 years ago. 
Advocates didn't see that as an issue at that time (or some merely said, yes, the blades shouldn't hurt the birds).

News and analysis about energy in California with an eye toward renewables.


Calling bird law violations inevitable at wind facilities, a group wants tighter controls on permitting. | Photo:  Changhua Coast Conservation Action/Flickr/Creative Commons License

Bird Conservation Group Wants Tighter Controls on Wind Industry

Saturday, September 06, 2014

25 years younger ???

Today I was told that I "look 25 years younger than the calendar says and still have boundless energy."

Well, I do typically get my age estimated to be 12-15 years younger than my age, but not 25. That wasn't (and isn't) always the case.  Staring at a computer, getting inadequate sleep, and drinking tea or coffee can depress the muscles in the eyes and face.  But I think that proper nourishment is important, and merely eating vegan-compliant diets may not do that.  Avoiding the animal-based inputs is important, but ensuring the plant-based inputs is just as important for health.

In the dispute between John McDougall* (vegan diet except for holidays), and Joel Fuhrman (vegan nutritarian all the time) 
(but tolerant of others because they publicly say that their principles apply to everyone, but that meat eaters should not eat much meat or dairy - and McDougall tells them to swear off the dairy first - Fuhrman says that dairy is entirely unnecessary - and shows them how to nourish themselves), 
  • the Fuhrman "nutritarianemphasis is on the nutrient-rich diet and fat-burning (which I strongly advocate - selecting foods for nutrient value, not for taste or satiety.  I think that satiety and satisfaction follow from getting the nutrients in one's daily diet (one MUST exercise** IN ORDER TO build muscle and burn fat - Fuhrman photos show that, despite his foot injury, he hasn't stopped exercising after he left competitive figure skating);
  • the McDougall "starchitarianemphasis seems to be on a "starchitarian" weight loss by "no added fat" - and that means no nuts or oils.
*One of my long-time vegan friends in Boston has FLIPPED his loyalties from the vegan diet of Dr. Joel Fuhrman ("His diet is a good diet") to the vegan diet of Dr. John McDougall on the basis of the emphasis non weight loss (we all have problems with piling on extra weight; Steve lost "mucho" weight when he stopped eating a handful of nuts each day)
** All right - so, to START exercising, one walks around as much as possible; gently move and exercise each of the joints (yoga has ways to do this); in bed before rising, something called "a crunch" is stretching your chest UP toward your abdomen as much as possible - about 8-10 times - that's a set of 'reps' or 'repetitions' - and the goal is to build the muscles one has by exercising each muscle group, including the muscles in the abdomen.  On can also stand up and rotate around the waste, then slowly bend forward, back, sideways, and stretch up and down until one aches.

Everyone can do crunches each day.






The nuance seems to be on the definitions of a 'starch' and a 'carb' or carbohydrate (few of us have the sophistication, but we ought to understand the differences between starches and sugars - particularly simple sugars.  A starch is a carbohydrate; fiber is a carbohydrate.

From Wikipedia:
In food science and in many informal contexts, the term carbohydrate often means any food that is particularly rich in the complex carbohydrate starch (such as cerealsbread, and pasta) or simple carbohydrates, such as sugar (found in candyjams, and desserts).
McDougall likes COMPLEX carbohydrates but not simple carbohydrates; Fuhrman likes the carbohydrates bound in vegetables, beans, and whole fruits, but not those carbs that are ground up into grains and then made into breads.  However, what about whole grain cereals (oatmeal, not instant oatmeal)?
  • As I seem to recall it, McDougall was trying to help us understand how we would educate all of South and Central American about plant-based vegan diets. No one wanted to do that EXCEPT for Victor Forsythe, who inherited the California Vegetarian Association from Blanche Leonardo, then moved to Colorado and joined the Colorado Green Party.  South American root vegetables are SUFFICIENTLY rich in proteins to provide all the human requirements for protein, according to the WHO.  Therefore, one could live entirely on tubers and root vegetables grown in the South American mountains without supplementing with nuts, beans, or soy.  "Protein is not an issue" in a plant-based whole foods diet based on real foods, not prepared and packaged foods.  The indigenous diet is sufficient; in America, the (SAD/MAD) diet isn't mainly whole foods.  When I talk with inquirers, I tell them that many Americans like to "eat out" - eat out of a package, out of a drive-in-window, eat out of a tragically conceived restaurant menu, etc.
  • Fuhrman began as 'a natural hygienist' an told me in person, when we flew together in mid-August 1995 from the 8th International Vegan Festival in San Diego to Boston, that he was 'more vegan' than hygienist - then he said, 'just vegan' with an emphasis on the nutrients in whole fresh vegetables - more vegetables than fruits.
They agree, but they substantially disagree - and they settled on agreeing to the notion that they "agree about 90% of the time..."

From Wikipedia:
Starch is the most common carbohydrate in the human diet and is contained in many staple foods. The major sources of starch intake worldwide are thecereals (ricewheat, and maize) and the root vegetables (potatoes and cassava).[23] Many other starchy foods are grown, some only in specific climates, including acornsarrowrootarracachabananasbarleybreadfruitbuckwheatcannacolacasiakatakurikudzumalangamilletoatsocapolynesian arrowrootsagosorghumsweet potatoesryetarochestnutswater chestnuts and yams, and many kinds of beans, such as favaslentilsmung beans,peas, and chickpeas.
Widely used prepared foods containing starch are breadpancakescerealsnoodlespastaporridge and tortilla.
If we ate fewer starches, might we fart less frequently?

From Wikipedia:
Digestive enzymes have problems digesting crystalline structures. Raw starch will digest poorly in the duodenum and small intestine, while bacterial degradation will take place mainly in the colon
Some of us have celebrated the WIDE VARIETY of available foods of plant origin  Vance Lehmkuhl even sings about it.

I still think that erring on the side of nutrient-density is good, but affordability and refrigeration can be issues.  Therefore, whole vegetables (grow your own, like the Obama family does at the White House); farmers' markets; regular grocery store (shop produce aisle first), etc.  Eat them as you need them (and share the rest).  Further, when talking with students, other singles, and general inquirers, buying vegetables in the grocery is ALWAYS cheaper than dining out.  But college students have overpriced dining hall meal plans.

I need to credit my boss who raised the rhetorical question: "Why do so many Americans NOT want to be thin and attractive?"  Nudging from many sources - my boss, my vegan friends, and my doctor - pushed me to search for how as a vegan I could lose weight on an evidence-based program.

And to credit Michelle Obama, though she and her program are not my specific reason for 'daily motions' throughout my day, every one of us ought to get up and get out there and 'start moving' around...

I'm concerned to live by just principles.  Vegans CAN do that with evidence-based strategies that are built from the growing bodies of knowledge relevant to that project in human history.  Others seem to live, but that may not be justice, simply because they are able to live in health, if they do great damage and harm to other persons - simply because they only ways they know to feed themselves involve the destruction of others.


Maynard         

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Maynard S. Clark, MS (Management: Research Administration)