Most simply put, someone who regularly eats factory-farmed animal products cannot call himself an environmentalist without divorcing that word from its meaning.
For every ten tuna, sharks, and other large fish that were in our oceans less than a century ago, only one is left. Many scientists predict the total collapse of all fished species in less than fifty years.
From 1935 to 1995, the average weight of “broilers” increased by 65%, while their time-to-market dropped 60% and their feed requirements dropped 57%. To gain a sense of the radicalness of this change, imagine human children growing to be 300 pounds in 10 years, while eating only granola bars and Flintstones vitamins.
Animal agriculture is now dominated by the factory farm- 99.9% of chickens raised for meat, 97% of laying hens, 99% of turkeys, 95% of pigs, and 78% of cattle.
In 1930, more than 20% of the American population was employed in agriculture. Today it’s less than 2%.
Smithfield spilled more than 20 million gallons of lagoon waste into the New River in North Carolina. The spill remains the largest environmental disaster of its kind and is twice as big as the iconic Exxon Valdez 6 years earlier... at the time of the spill, Smithfield was the 7th largest pork producer in the US; two years later it was the biggest.
Cruelty: Not only the willful causing of unnecessary suffering, but the indifference to it.
A group of boys lumbered down the halls of Adas Israel, laughing, punching, blood rushing from developing brains to developing genitals and back again in the zero-sum game of puberty.
The older one gets, the harder it is to account for time. Children ask: “Are we there yet?” Adults: “How did we get here so quickly?
Are they both special?” He cracked up and said, “Of course their pop is gonna say they’re special.” “But objectively.” “What’s that?” “Like, factually. Truthfully.” “The truth is I’m their pop.
Mom?” “Yes.” “Nothing.” “What is it, baby?” “Well it’s just that wouldn’t it be great if mattresses had spaces for your arm, so that when you rolled onto your side, you could fit just right?” “That would be nice.” “And good for your back, probably, because it would let your spine be straight, which I know is important.” “That is important.” “Also, it would make snuggling easier. You know how that arm constantly gets in the way?” “I do.” “And making snuggling easier is important.” “Very.
Kein briere iz oich a breire. Not to have a choice is also a choice. How will we tell the story of he who never had no choice? At stake is our notion of righteousness, of a life worth saving.
Long before man traveled into space, rabbis debated how one would observe Shabbat there-not because they anticipated space travel but because Buddhists strive to live with questions and Jews would rather die.
I am the one who broke the rule. But I am the one who made the rule you couldn’t live with.
Stephen Hawking won’t come to Israel? I’m not one to punch a quadriplegic with glasses, but I’m sure he won’t mind if we ask for his voice back – you know, the one that was created by Israeli engineers.
I thought about packing my bags, I thought about jumping out a window, I sat on the bed and thought, I thought about you. What kind of food did you life, what was your favorite song, who was the first girl you kissed, and where, and how, I’m running out of room, I want an infinitely long blank book and forever.
The more you love someone, he came to think, the harder it is to tell them.
Just how common do such savageries have to be for a decent person to be unable to overlook them? If you knew that one in one thousand food animals suffered actions like those described above, would you continue to eat animals? One in one hundred? One in ten?
I have suffered so much more than I needed to. And the joys I have felt have not always been joyous. I could have lived differently.
Mi s-a parut foarte emotionant sa-i simt atingerea si sa-mi amintesc ca mainile pot exprima si iubire.