Joomla! site syndication http://www.shalomveg.com/ 2010-09-08T20:22:43+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//images/M_images/joomla_rss.png text/html 2010-08-25T22:53:20+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=71&Itemid=84 Rosh Hashanah and VegetarianismBy Richard SchwartzRosh Hashanah is the time when we take stock of our lives and consider new beginnings. Perhaps the most significant and meaningful change that Jews should consider this year is a shift away from diets that have been having devastating effects on human health and the health of our increasingly imperiled planet. While many Jews seem to feel that its celebration can be enhanced by the consumption of chopped liver, gefilte fish, chicken soup, and roast chicken, there are many inconsistencies between the values of Rosh Hashanah and the realities of flesh-centered diets. Consider these points:1. While Jews ask God on Rosh Hashanah for a healthy year, non-vegetarian diets have been linked to heart disease, strokes, several forms of cancer, and other illnesses. While we implore our Father, our King on Rosh Hashanah to keep the plague from thy people , high fat, meat-based diets are causing a plague of degenerative diseases that have resulted in total U.S. medical costs soaring from $80 billion in 1970 to an estimated $1,106 billion in 1994. text/html 2009-08-26T10:37:53+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=84 Yom Kippur and VegetarianismBy Richard Schwartz There are many connections that can be made between the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur and vegetarianism: 1. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to the Living God , the King Who delights in life , that they should be remembered for life, and inscribed in the Book of Life for the new year. Yet, typical animal-based diets have been linked to heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, and other chronic degenerative diseases, that shorten the lives of 1.4 million Americans annually. 2. On Yom Kippur, Jews pray to a compassionate God , who compassionately remembers His creatures for life. Yet, there is little compassion related to modern intensive livestock agriculture (factory farming), which involves the cruel treatment and slaughter of over 9 billion farm animals in 1997 alone in the United States. text/html 2010-08-01T06:35:01+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=55&Itemid=80 If This is KosherHosted By Jonathan Safran Foer text/html 2010-08-12T10:51:58+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=159&Itemid=88 Working in Defense of Animalsby Matt BallCo-founder Vegan Outreach, Oct. 2003Since the publication of Animal Liberation in 1975 and the founding of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in 1980 (to mention just two seminal events), animal rights and welfare organizations have spent hundreds of millions dollars, with volunteers working endless hours, trying to improve the treatment of animals in the United States. PETA alone has over 600,000 members and an eight-figure annual budget. From McDonald’s reforms and the Florida breeding sow initiative to a New York Times Magazine cover story and widespread media coverage of open rescues of laying hens, the treatment of animals is now a matter of wide public debate. Animal advocates and the term “animal rights” have become fixtures in American society. text/html 2010-05-27T00:53:29+01:00 http://www.shalomveg.com/ http://www.shalomveg.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=175&Itemid=88 What's Wrong with the Heifer ProjectBy Rev. Gary Kowalski I got a call recently from the Social Justice Chair at a nearby church asking if our congregation would join in supporting the Heifer Project. She seemed surprised when I told her I thought Heifer was a “feel good” charity that might harm the very people it’s intended to serve.Heifer Project International provides cows, sheep, and other livestock to rural families around the world with the aim of fighting hunger. They claim to have more than 300 projects in forty countries. With endorsements that cross the ideological spectrum, from Ronald Reagan to Jimmy Carter, Heifer is virtually a sacred cow – an organization that everyone seems to love.But there are problems with exporting animal agriculture to the Third World. Globalizing American farming methods is as big a mistake as cultivating a taste for lamb chops and barbeque among the world’s poor. Neither is the answer to starvation.