Tag Archives: animal

Investors Are Crazy Optimistic, But For No Apparent Reason

by WendiHeaton Posted on March 31, 2017

Mother Jones

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Over at the Financial Times, Robin Wigglesworth has an interesting chart to show us. It’s a little hard to decipher, though, and takes some explaining. First, here’s the chart:

The pink line is “hard” economic data: employment rates, GDP growth, etc. The purple line represents “soft” data: things like consumer sentiment, purchasing manager optimism, etc. Roughly speaking, pink is how things are and purple is how people feel.

The fist thing to notice is that the hard data doesn’t bounce around very much. It mostly stays in a band between -0.5 and +0.5. (I have no idea what those numbers represent. Some kind of overall index, I imagine.) The animal spirits data, however, is like a kid’s yo-yo: it routinely shoots up and down from -1.5 to +2.0.

The second thing to notice is that these indexes mostly move in tandem. When the hard data goes up, the soft data goes way up. When the hard data goes down, the soft data goes way down. People react very strongly to even modest changes in the economy.

And then there’s 2016-17. After a modest slump, the hard data has been ambling along at zero for the past year. But starting around the election, the soft data suddenly went sky high. There’s nothing in the economic data to support this, but the Trump election seems to have filled the investor class with overwhelming optimism.

So what happens when reality sets in? There’s no special reason to think the economy is going to take off anytime soon, and Trump’s obvious bumbling will eventually sink in to everyone. At that point, the animal spirits are set to come crashing down.

What will that do to the actual economy? Maybe nothing. Maybe the actual economy really does respond solely to macro phenomena and animal spirits have nothing to do with it. That’s certainly been the case as animal spirits have skyrocketed. Then again, maybe the economy does react to animal spirits plummeting. This is not a real-life experiment I’m especially eager to see play out.

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Investors Are Crazy Optimistic, But For No Apparent Reason

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Americans Have Officially Reduced Their Beef Consumption by 19 Percent

by EfrenBlewett05 Posted on March 23, 2017

Turns out, Americans may be making smart, eco-friendly decisions in the grocery store after all.

The National Resources Defense Council recently released a report on American food consumption, which found that Americans reduced their intake of beef famously the most carbon-intense food on the planet by 19 percent between 2005 and 2014. For anyone who cares about the environmental footprint of their food choices, this is decidedly good news.

Americas Changes in Consumption

Americans chose to eat a lot less meat in 2014 than they did in 2005. In fact, they ate about ⅕ less meat in the former year than they did in the latter. According to the NRDC, this will result in a huge reduction in carbon emissions from the US.

Americans consumed 19 percent less beef, avoiding an estimated 185 MMT of climate-warming pollution or roughly the equivalent of the annual tailpipe pollution of 39 million cars, the report states.

And it wasnt just beef that saw decreased consumption. Milk, pork, high-fructose corn syrup and shellfish consumption also went down.

Image via NRDC

The reason behind the shift is still up for debate. According to the New York Times, some industry experts attribute the changes to steeper prices of red meat. Droughts that plagued the region increased the cost of beef, as did increasing rates of export to other countries. Additionally, about one quarter of consumers attested that it was concerns about cholesterol and saturated fat that had them reaching for alternative protein sources.

Beef vs. Alternatives

Beef is notoriously horrible for the environment. In addition to the methane gasses released by cattle, numerous other factors make beef an unsustainable option (at least, beef as it is raised today). In order to feed cows, farmers must harvest millions of acres of corn and soy, resource-intensive crops that are often heavily treated with fossil fuel-based pesticides and insecticides. Then, of course, there is the loss of arable land associated with massive Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, often known as CAFOs.

In fact, even just switching from beef to chicken can have a massive positive impact on the environment. In simplified terms, beef production emits 26.45 kilogram equivalents of CO₂ for every 1 kg of beef, which chicken only emits 5.05.

What Foods to Eat (And What Foods Not to Eat) To Save the Planet

When it comes to a diet that can improve the state of the planet by reducing carbon emissions, the waters are murky. One thing, however, is certain: Eating mainstream beef is bad for the planet. Swap out beef for plant-based proteins whenever possible, but dont swap it out for dairy. (In fact, most types of dairy have a C02 emissions rating higher than chicken or pork!). You should also avoid some resource-intensive vegetables, like asparagus (big shocker: asparagus is worse for the planet than chicken!), as much as possible. Here are some swaps you might consider making, according to the EWG:

Swap out salmon (11.9 kgs carbon emissions) for beans (2 kgs)
Swap out cheese (13.5 kgs) for eggs (4.8 kgs)
Swap out pork (12.1 kgs) for tofu (2.0 kgs)
Swap out turkey (10.9 kgs) for peanut butter (2.5 kgs)
Swap out canned tuna (6.1 kgs) for lentils (our clear winner at 0.9 kgs)

Finally, eating local should be your first priority if youre trying to go gentle on planet Earth. Even if you just cant give up eating a burger once in awhile, youll be doing the earth a huge favor by simply choosing a local, grass-fed producer.

Most beef cattle in the United States today are finished on grain in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), states the NRDC report. Growing this cattle feed (primarily corn and soy) requires large amounts of pesticides and fertilizers, which, in turn, require significant inputs of fossil fuels. Alternative models of beef production, such as intensive rotational cattle grazing, can help sequester carbon in the soil and provide numerous other health and environmental benefits compared to CAFOs.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Americans Have Officially Reduced Their Beef Consumption by 19 Percent

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20 Unexpected Ways to Use Dish Soap

by JeremiahLongstre Posted on January 24, 2017

I am one of those gals who geeks out pretty quickly when I discover multiple uses for any given household product.

These days I’ve been a big fan of multi-use products like Castile soap, distilled white vinegar and baking soda; dish soap is a fabulous new addition to the list. Who knew?

Chances are, you already have a big bottle of this tucked underneath your kitchen sink. So, break out the dish soap and get ready to have your mind blown!

25 Unexpected Ways to Use Dish Soap

1) Remove greasy build-up in your hair.

Hair oil and daily grime can build up in your hair over time. Try mixing a little squirt of dishwashing liquid into your shampoo, then moisturize well for a renewed shine.

2)Deep clean your blender.

Rather than disassembling the entire unit to deep clean, fill your blenderpartway with warm water and a few drops of dishwashing detergent. Run for a few seconds, empty, rinse and air dry.

3) Wash away ants.

Ants can be an extremely invasive species; you don’t want them in your home! Get rid of ants with a 50/50 solution of water and white distilled vinegar, with a few drops of dish soap. Spray, wait a few minutes and wipe up the mess.

4) Kill weeds kindly.

Make a natural weed-killer that is free of harmful herbicides by mixing one teaspoon of dishwashing liquid with a cup of salt and one gallon of distilled white vinegar. Spray the solution on weeds that are taking root in the cracks of your sidewalks.

5) Freshen up your makeup brushes.

Make a light solution of warm water and a couple drops of dish soap then shake to combine. Gently swirl your brushes in the solution, then rub on your hand or a soft cloth to removeproduct from the bristles. Air dry.

6) Make bubbles.

This is an excellent activity to do with kids! Many people use this recipe in schools and at children’s museums: mix together 1/2 cup of dishwashing soap, 1/2 gallon of warm water and 1 tablespoon glycerin (available at any drug store). Stir gently, skim the foam off the top and dip in your bubble wand for endless fun.


7) Get grease out of your pet’s hair.

There’s a reason why Dawn is the International Bird Rescue Research Center’s cleaner of choice after an oil spill. Dishwashing soap like dawn removes greasewithout harming the animal’s skin. It’s also biodegradable and phosphate-free!

8) Shineyour windows.

Mix a few drops of dish soap in 1 gallon of water, then fill a spray bottle of your choice. Spray and wipe as you would with any conventional window cleaner.

9) De-ice the sidewalk.

Tis the season for icy weather. To de-ice your steps and sidewalk, mix 1 teaspoon of dishwashing liquid with 1 tablespoon of rubbing alcohol, and half a gallon of hot water. Pour over your walkways. They won’t refreeze!

10) Soften your cuticles pre-home manicure.

Soak your fingers in a shallow dish of dish soap. It will make your cuticles soft and malleable, while removing oils from your fingernails.

11) Scrub your linoleum floors.

Just a few drops of dish soap in 8-ounces of water makes for a great floor cleaning solution. Spray on the floor, or use with a mop, to remove dirt and debris.

12) Repel pests from your houseplants.

Don’t buy a chemical spray. Instead, remove pests on your houseplants (including aphids) by spraying with a mild solution of a drop or two of dish soap with warm water.

13) Clear foggy eyeglass lenses.

Place a small drop of dish soap on your finger and rub on your glasses lenses to remove streaks. Rinse with water and air dry or wipe with a dry cloth.

14) Clean the toilet bowl.

Keep a solution of a few drops of dish soap and water in a glass jar in your bathroom or cleaning closet. Pour into your toilet bowl and scrub as normal for a nice clean.

15) Soothe a poison ivy rash.

Poison ivy spreads via oil within rash blisters. To keep a poison ivy rash from spreading, wash it with dish soap to dry up poison ivy fluid and soothe the itch.

16) Degrease your tools.

Rub a small amount of dish soap over grease spots on your household tools. This will also prevent rust from forming on your items!

17) Pre-treat oil stains on clothing.

Dish soap is an excellent remedy to any oil-based stain. Great examples are butter, motor oil, cooking oil and lipstick. Just apply dish soap directly to the stain, then scrub with a small brush until the oil is removed. Launder normally.

18) Put togethera makeshift ice pack.

Here’s a fun one! Fill a zip-type sandwich bag with dish soap, close and freeze. It stays cold much longer than water and can be re-frozen indefinitely, while remaining malleable.

19) Remove paint from hands.

Paint can be tough to remove from the skin. Scrub with dish soap to dissolve oily paints and then wash as you would normally.

20) Unclog your kitchen sink disposal.

If your dish disposal has taken on more than it can handle, pour approximately 1/4 cup of dish soap down the drain, then follow with boiling water. Let sit. Test the drain.

Which of these tips do you think you’ll start using? Let us know in the comments!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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20 Unexpected Ways to Use Dish Soap

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3 Ethical Fashion Companies That Care About the World

by AnnSumner13 Posted on October 25, 2016

Thirtyyears ago, so called “ethical fashion” was essentially non-existent. The manufacturing boom brought with it all sorts of high profile disasters, from child slave labor to unethical sourcing of materials, and big name brands were disproportionately more concerned with making a buck than creating socially and environmentally-responsible items.

Now, more and more traditional mega brands are recognizing the importance of sustainable fashion. And alongside them, dozens of stylish, ethical brands are finding their place in the sun.

What is ethical fashion?

Ethical fashion has come a long way since its dull, scratchy, eco-beginnings. Today, many sustainable brands lead the chargewhen it comes to creating classy, beautiful garmentsthat also honor what it means to be a responsible creator of goods.

The Ethical Fashion Forum saysit this way:

“Ethical fashion represents an approach to the design, sourcing and manufacturing of clothing which maximizes the benefits to people and communities, while minimizing impact on the environment.”

But what does that mean exactly?

Ethical fashion brands are commonly judged on whether or not the brand cares aboutthe following:

Countering fast, cheap fashion and damaging patterns of fashion consumption
Defending fair wages, working conditions and workers’ rights
Supporting sustainable livelihoods
Addressing toxic pesticide and chemical use
Using and/or developing eco-friendly fabrics and components
Minimizing water use
Recycling and addressing energy efficiency and waste
Developing or promoting sustainability standards for fashion
Resources, training and/or awareness raising initiatives
Animal rights

Another way to look at it is through the lens of the “Triple Bottom Line.” This means thatrather than examining a business purely from a profit-perspectivethat the brand’s attention to social and environmental aspects is also considered.

With those criteria in mind, here are the five newcomers to the ethical fashion scene! You may want to consider adding these companies to your Christmas gift short-list.

The Simple Kind

The Simple Kind Website

The Simple Kind is an ethical fashion company that celebrates women and childrenby making”whimsical and timeless dresses that reflect the hearts of the little girls who wear them.” Every item isdesigned in-house in Denver, Colorado, then carefully madeby groups that empower women all over the world.

The company releases just a few specially constructed pieces at a time with the intent to see their high-quality garments last for generations to come. All materials are intentionally and thoughtfully sourced in ethical and environmentally-friendly ways.

You can find out more about the company and its originshere.

UNIFORM

UNIFORM Website

UNIFORM, a new clothing line featuring hip, minimalist clothing, is taking sustainability to the next level. The company was founded by Chid Liberty, a Liberian-American who pioneered Africa’s first Fair Trade Certified apparel manufacturer, Liberty & Justice, and got its start via a Kickstarter campaign.

UNIFORM is on a mission to give back to its West African community by investing in local manufacturing and donating school uniforms to children who otherwise could not attend school.

Help them get to their goal of 50,000 uniforms donated here!

Sseko Designs

Sseko Designs Website

Sseko Designsis an ethical fashion brand that “hires high potential women in Uganda to make sandals, to enable them to earn money through dignified employment that will go directly towards their college educations.” So far, Sseko has sent more than 70 women to university.

Sseko Designs blends a financially self-sustaining business model with a cause: sending young women to school in Uganda and other regions of East Africa. Peruse their website to discover beautiful goodies, from footwear to leather bags and other accessories.
Have you ever shopped ethical brands? Which are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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3 Ethical Fashion Companies That Care About the World

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Cool Ghouls’ Trippy Goodness

by MyraWetter Posted on August 22, 2016

Mother Jones

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Cool Ghouls
Animal Races
Empty Cellar

Courtesy of Empty Cellar Records

Fire up the incense, dust off those love beads, and reconnect the strobe light: The San Francisco band Cool Ghouls has a fine new album of trippy goodness. Fusing glistening folk melodies, jangly, psychedelia-tinged guitars, and woozy vocals evoking the search for a higher state, Animal Races dares to echo long-ago greats like Jefferson Airplane and Arthur Lee’s Love, but never feels nostalgic. There’s a refreshing rough edge to the quartet that suggests they’re making it up as they go, not following some dusty recipe book. Should you be so inclined, there’s armchair philosophizing in such mesmerizing tunes as the title track and “Time Capsule,” but simply surfing the Ghouls’ sublime waves of sound is a delicious pleasure for its own sake.

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Cool Ghouls’ Trippy Goodness

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Friday Cat Blogging – 12 August 2016

by RosemarDemaio Posted on August 12, 2016

Mother Jones

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As everyone knows, the best cat toy is also the cheapest: a three-foot piece of string. But everyone also knows that you can make anything better by putting it on a stick. Hot dogs. Grilled peppers. Ice cream bars. Three-foot pieces of string.

With that in mind, yesterday we drove by the animal shelter and picked up a few new toys for the cats. One of them, of course, was the ever-popular feather-on-a-string-on-a-stick. So behold, Hilbert and Hopper at play. Note the color commentary from Marian at the beginning and Hilbert’s graceful belly flop on top of Hopper at the end.

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Friday Cat Blogging – 12 August 2016

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A Conservationist’s Call for Humans to Curb Harms to Our Animal Kin

by Myrna Posted on July 12, 2016

A conservationist explores climate change and implications of the blurring line between humans and other animals. Visit source: A Conservationist’s Call for Humans to Curb Harms to Our Animal Kin ; ; ;

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A Conservationist’s Call for Humans to Curb Harms to Our Animal Kin

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A Huge Chicken Company Wants its Birds to Play More Before They’re Slaughtered

by LannyIsabel51 Posted on June 27, 2016

Mother Jones

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“Do the birds get what they want?” Perdue executive Bruce Stewart-Brown asked. We were surrounded by 20,000 squawking chickens in a vast indoor facility in Maryland. I was in the midst of reporting a Mother Jones deep-dive on the meat industry’s over-use of antibiotics crucial to human medicine, and how Perdue had moved decisively away from that practice.

At the time, Stewart-Brown’s rhetorical question sounded a bit silly, coming from a company that slaughters and packs 650 million chickens per year, making it the nation’s fourth-largest poultry company. Yet as I found during my reporting, Perdue isn’t just any chicken producer. Unlike all of the other industry giants, the company had quietly begun to move away from antibiotics around a decade ago.

Now Perdue has announced an animal welfare program that seems as ambitious as its move away from drugs. The company has committed itself to following the Farm Animal Welfare Council’s “five freedoms” for farm livestock, the most notable of which are the “freedom from discomfort,” “freedom to express (most) normal behavior by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind,” and “freedom from fear and distress.”

“Our goal is to double the rate of play/activity by our chickens in the next three years,” the company states in a newly released “Commitment to Animal Welfare.” Moreover, acknowledging that modern chickens have been bred to grow rapidly, causing leg injuries and making it very difficult to walk late in their lives, Perdue says it’s considering moving to “breeds of birds that grow slower.”

In concrete terms, the facilities that house Perdue’s birds will eventually be outfitted with windows, giving them access to sunlight, and be less densely stocked, giving the birds more room. The company so far hasn’t released details on how much more space birds will get (the current industry standard is eight-tenths of a square foot per bird). As for the windows, the company plans to install windows in 200 of the 6,000 existing poultry houses that supply it. They’ll be used as a kind of controlled experiment, to “compare bird health and activity to enclosed housing.” If the windows prove effective in increasing activity among the flock, “we will establish annual targets for retrofitting houses with windows,” Perdue states. All new chicken houses will be required to have windows.

New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom got a look at one of the the window-equipped chicken houses, run by an operation that contracts for Perdue:

Sunlight floods the floor at one end of the chicken house here at Ash-O-Ley Acres, and spry little Cornish game hens flap their wings and chase one another. At the other end of the barn, where the windows are covered as part of a compare-and-contrast demonstration, the flock is largely somnolent and slow to move.

In addition to responding to long-simmering animal-welfare complaints about factory-scale farming, Perdue is also openly discussing another highly controversial topic: Big Poultry’s reliance on nominally independent farmers to grow their chickens, under contract terms that largely favor giant processing companies like Perdue. (See my piece on a particularly presumptuous contract term that Perdue quickly nixed when I exposed it.)

Normally, when a big chicken company decides it wants to change something about the enormous barns where its birds are grown, it merely changes the terms of its contracts, forcing farmers to upgrade their facilities or risk losing their market. In this case, Perdue will pick up the cost of retro-fitting the 200 pilot houses, a company spokeswoman told me. As the windows program expands, the company says it will continue to pick up at least part of the cost. “We’ll determine how it will get paid for,” the spokeswoman said, “whether we will pay for it directly or compensate the grower through a premium for upgraded housing or…a cost-share or financing approach.”

And the company’s “Commitment to Animal Welfare” document even includes a pledge to “do a better job listening to farmers and communicating with them.” Rather than set pay solely based on factors like efficiency and output, contracts will include incentives for “care of the birds and welfare performance,” the document states. A Perdue spokeswoman added that the company is consulting with farmers to figure out the best way to compensate them for making the birds’ lives better.

Of course, as with all voluntary corporate initiatives, Perdue sets the terms of the program and controls the information that emerges from it. As Maryn McKenna notes on the National Geographic website, “For most of its initiatives, the company has not disclosed a timeline.” But as I discovered in my reporting, Perdue’s anti-antibiotics effort proved to be the real deal, and it has pulled the bulk of the poultry industry in the same direction. Perhaps its animal-welfare reforms will do the same.

Leah Garces, executive director of Compassion in World Farming, which released a video in 2014 exposing harsh welfare conditions on a Perdue-contracted farm, thinks they just might. “Just as Perdue led the way on antibiotics, they are laying out the inevitable direction of the market,” she said. “I’m confident every poultry company today is thinking hard about steps they also need to take to improve the lives of chickens in order to keep up.”

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A Huge Chicken Company Wants its Birds to Play More Before They’re Slaughtered

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What Do Meat Labels Really Mean?

by RamonitaPalladi Posted on June 5, 2016

If you’re a meat eater and want to get the healthiest, tastiest cuts, how do you know what to buy?

Most labels today carry some kind of certification from the USDA (US Department of Agriculture), which basically acknowledges that the meat came from a facility that is supposed to meet the USDA’s standards for health and safety. But you might see other words on the label as well, such as “natural,” “fed vegetarian feed” or “no hormones or added antibiotics.” Some of these terms are significant, but others are essentially worthless.

Here’s a guide to the most common labels you’ll see on packaged meat and what they mean.

Grain-fed: These words indicate that at some point in its life, the animal was fed grain. The animal may have been raised in a factory-farm type operation or on a small family farm. Grain-fed doesn’t tell you that information. It only indicates that the animal ate corn, soy, brewers grain or another grain-based feed.

Grass-fed: Rather than being cooped up in a barn eating grain, grass-fed cows roam outdoors eating nothing but grass from the time they’re weaned until the time they go to market. The term does not guarantee that the animals weren’t treated with antibiotics nor confined. Grass is closer to the actual native diet of cows than grain, but that in and of itself might not be a reason to buy meat labeled this way.

AGA-Certified Grassfed: This label has some teeth to it. It says that the cows verifiably ate only grass, that they were not confined in a feed lot, and that they’ve never been given antibiotics or hormones. Unlike other grassfed meat, that which is AGA-Certified Grassfed is guaranteed to have been born and raised in the U.S.

Grass Finished: According to American Grassfed, this label is completely meaningless. It does not meet any standards set by the USDA and is used primarily for marketing purposes rather than to indicate superior quality.

Natural: In this context, “natural” does not refer to how the animal was raised, but rather how its meat was processed and packaged. According to the USDA, describing meat as “natural” means that it contains no artificial ingredients or added color and was minimally processed (such as ground into beef or trimmed into steaks). The word natural does not refer to the animal’s diet or how it was raised.

Naturally-raised: An animal that is “naturally raised” was not fed animal byproducts (like ground up parts of other animals), nor was it administered growth hormones or antibiotics. Other than that, the animal could have eaten either grain or grass and could have spent its life outdoors roaming or confined in a factory-type feedlot.

Organic: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established a set of standards that farmers must meet if they are to label their meat organic. Those include that the animal was given no antibiotics or synthetic hormones, ate a pesticide and herbicide-free vegetarian diet, and was was fed or ate no food that was tainted with genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Cows may either be fed organic grain or eat organic grass, and they may be confined rather than allowed to roam free.

Pasture-Raised: This is a term that sounds nice, but like “natural,” means essentially nothing. There’s no federal definition for what pasture-raised means, and not much industry cohesion behind the term either. Any producer can put it on any package at any time.

Certified Humane: This label primarily attests to how animals were treated as they were raised. It says that “Livestock must have access to fresh water and a diet formulated or assessed to maintain full health and promote a positive state of well-being. Feed and water must be distributed in such a way that livestock can eat and drink without undue competition.” It prohibits treatment with hormones and antibioticsother than to selectively treat disease and mandates that feeding and watering troughs be kept clean. This label also requires that calves be able to suckle for 24 hours after they’re born and not be weaned for 6 months after birth.

Of all these labels, the ones that mean the most are Certified Humane, Organic and AGA-Certified Grassfed. Don’t waste your money on “natural” or “pasture-raised” beef.

Related:
Five Myths About Grass-Fed Beef
With These Veggie Burger Ideas, You’ll Never Crave Beef Again

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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What Do Meat Labels Really Mean?

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Four Pictures and a Video

by lbxmtg Posted on May 29, 2016

Mother Jones

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Picture #1: On the Verizon website, the number of “agents” who are eagerly waiting for you to call is…a random number between 1 and 15. The wait time is also a random number.

Picture #2: Congratulations, particle physicists! You have finally isolated the rare glutino and packaged it for the masses. Who says basic science is useless?

Picture #3: Rejection letter to George Orwell for Animal House: “What was needed, (someone might argue), was not more communism but more public-spirited pigs.” So I’ve heard.

Picture #4: Sort of speaks for itself.

And a video: I’m not sure Hopper ever noticed what was going on.

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Four Pictures and a Video

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