Book Review: No More Bull!

Howard Lyman is a fourth generation cattle rancher who took over his small organic family farm and transformed it into one of the biggest cattle farms in America. This required him to use heavy pesticides to reduce the flies and dope his animals with antibiotics. After getting cancer and being paralyzed from the waist down, he had time to reconsider what he was doing to the land, to his animals, and to the health of Americans. He's now a lobbyist in Washington and speaks tirelessly all over the country, passionately advocating veganism.

No More Bull has the candor of a mad cowboy (which is the title of his first book) and shows you the ugly truth of factory farming, plain and simple.

The second half of the book is a collection of over 100 recipes. If you still think you're sacrificing something by eating vegan, these recipes will finally turn this silly notion on its head. Vegans are actually luxuriating in gustatory rapture, feasting on scores of rich flavors and textures, and enjoying a far more sophisticated repertoire than a typical menu with meat.

This book offers so much hope and inspiration.

Fabulous Cookbook!

Brooklyn native Isa Chandra Moskowitz is a best-selling author of several vegan cookbooks and is followed by millions on her website, Post Punk Kitchen.

Isa Does It is her most recent triumph. There are nearly 200 recipes, and almost every one of them is photographed! These recipes are smashing. Marinated portobello mushroom burgers with Korean kimchi, sesame dragon noodle salad, carrot cake pancakes...You can just close your eyes and point to a page, and something unforgettable will be on offer. And if you're hosting, you'll never know a skeptic again!

For Non-Vegans

If you eat meat and dairy, please watch this movie. You'll see that vegans are not fringe, bushy-under-the-arms, self-righteous worry-warts. Well, some of us may be, but we're just people who know what you'll know after seeing this movie. That's the only difference. A year ago, I had no idea that the animal I was eating was miserable before being slaughtered and packaged up for my plate. I absolutely had no idea. I simply never thought about the fact that this animal had feelings and suffered. Absolutely incredible. I ate chicken for breakfast!

Movie Review: Peaceable Kingdom

This is a beautiful film with lots of footage of farm animals in clean, open-air, loving environments. Cows, chickens, goats, sheep, and pigs are each utterly charming and glow with health, trust, and freedom.

The film depicts a group of deeply devoted farmers who've had a change of heart and are now appalled with what they've done to animals. They're now running sanctuaries and speaking all over the country educating people about animal abuse on farms.

Seeing these animals' individual personalities and their sweet, innocent souls makes the idea of abusing them extremely heart wrenching and absolutely bewildering. Relatively few people are actually engaged in abusive farming, but millions of people drive the demand for it, unknowingly, by eating meat.

Movie Review: Speciesism

Directed by Mark Devries.

You can rent this movie for $2.99 on vimeo.

Mark Devries begins to be deeply troubled by the possibility that human beings might be conducting the most horrific holocaust in our history. Today, right now, we lock millions of animals away against their will, in atrocious conditions, and then butcher them and eat them. After visiting cow, pig and chicken farms, and speaking with a number of philosophers and ethics professors, Devries concludes that the only possible way people reconcile the murder and eating of animals is by being Speciest. Speciesm is a prejudice that puts human beings above animals, with no moral or rational reasoning to justify it. It is directly analogous to racism and sexism.

This film lays out the moral fallacies, one by one, of mistreating and killing sentient creatures, and eating a fellow sentient being.

"When I entered the theater to see Mark Devries' film Speciesism:The Movie, I was a speciest. When I came out, I could no longer justify the treatment of animals with any rational arguments because they were all demolished in this brilliant and compelling film. The intellectual debate over speciesism is over." - Michael Shermer, monthly columnist for Scientific American.

Book Review: Sacred Cows and Golden Geese: The Human Costs of Experiments on Animals

By C. Ray Greek M. D. and Jean Swingle Greek D.V.M. (Jul 1, 2000)

Written by two doctors, this is a detailed and highly footnoted scientific argument against animal experimentation. Many books and articles make broad-brush claims about the benefits, or not, of experimenting on animals. But Ray and Jean Greek are meticulous in demonstrating, case by case, that animal research is ineffective. The authors go even further and present a ream of animal studies whose results have actually harmed human health. These are cases when animals don't react to drugs that are indeed dangerous to humans, or when drugs that would be extremely helpful and are safe for humans are kept off the market because of adverse effects in animals.

The authors point out that today we have inexpensive, effective methods to conduct medical research without using animals. Please see a list of these alternatives by clicking here.

The authors make the compelling claim that animals are only being used in laboratories today because of academic tradition and governmental requirements based on ignorance.

And recent update! Big news! Read all about it HERE!

Book Review: The Animal Activist Handbook

By Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich

This is a condensed, crash course for anyone who wants to get started with animal activism. Both authors are seasoned activists who have learned from their mistakes and have compiled their most efficacious strategies for social change. The book is down to earth and highly practical and includes a very helpful bibliography for further reading.