Hello, everyone!

The Holiday Market brought people out in thousands on 12/13 and 14th and EVEN was thrilled

to have over 600 visitors of which over 450 took vegan literature to read or give away! Our

stores of pamphlets, dvds and other material were down considerably after 2 days (by about

1,300) so that is very, very, very good news! Information makes all the difference. To people,

to the animals and to the earth.

Thank you to Nature's Path, Tofurky, Compassion Over Killing, People for the Ethical

Treatment of Animals, FARM and Vegetarian Resource Group for supplying EVEN with

tasty goodies and informative brochures and dvds.

Great to talk to so many new folks about veganism and we are always glad when those who

already know EVEN stop by to say hello, too! Since the same questions continue to come up

over and over, time and time again, I've taken the main ones, the most frequent ones, and the

most typical ones and would like to address some of them here.

Rotten: Why Vegans Don’t Eat Eggs

More than two hundred million chicks like these will die each year in the United States alone because of the egg

industry and because of the people who buy their products and perpetuate this cruel cycle.

When you eat an egg you are supporting the murder of hundreds of millions of male chicks every year (200,000,000 – two-hundred million in the United States alone). They are killed by the hundreds of thousands

every day by being thrown in a dumpster and left to die, tossed in garbage bags and suffocated, or more commonly, by being ground up alive in meat grinders. But why do they need to do this? Wouldn’t it be more profitable to kill them for meat? Actually, it is more profitable to kill male chicks by the millions because the money spent raising them wouldn’t be worth the money earned in profits. It takes a lot of food, shelter and water to raise a chick into a full-grown

chicken. Boy chickens simply will not grow as big or as fast as female chickens. They also are not able to produce eggs. Their bodies are a liability that must be disposed of before they start eating too much into the farm’s profits, so they cut their losses early and “humanely euthanize” (aka grind up) baby chicks that are only a day old.

Every time you buy a carton of eggs, whether they are conventional, organic, free-range, cage-free, certified humanely raised, etc., you are in effect paying for the murder of hundreds of millions of baby animals. [Video: Life in a Nightmare Egg Farm]

Conventional eggs

Though the males die a relatively quick death, the females will live their entire lives in giant warehouses holding hundreds of thousands of birds in tiny battery cages

so small that they can’t even stretch one wing. They are treated by humans as egg-laying machines with little to no regard for their basic biological and behavioral needs. Many conventionally raised egg-laying hens are put through periods of complete starvation that can last from as few as five days to as many as fourteen days to force the birds to molt

, which will boost their egg-laying productivity. Though this particular process is on the way out, it is still fairly common and at any given time there are at least six million hens intentionally being starved in the name of profits. The vast majority of the eggs consumed around the world come from hens kept in conditions like the ones above. These hens natural life span of 15-20 years is cut drastically short and they are only able to live 1 to 2 years before they are slaughtered when their productivity declines. That is the thanks they get after all we have taken from them. After a lifetime of abuse their bodies are so wasted and emaciated that their meat is only able to be used in soups and pet food.

Cage-free eggs come from hens that are kept in conditions that prevent them from living a normal life.

Cage-free eggs

Cage-free eggs come from hens who are not kept in tiny battery cages like the hens mentioned above. However, they are still confined their entire lives inside and their lives are still very far from normal. The only difference is the size of the cage the chickens are kept in. Instead of being crammed six to a cage in tiny battery cages, they are jam-packed into a giant warehouse. They are still debeaked

, kept in filthy conditions, often not able to see or be in the sun, often fed the same food conventionally raised chickens eat (a feed that has disturbing ingredients that include rendered chickens), and they are still sent to the same slaughterhouses at the end of their short miserable lives.

Free-range eggs

The label “free-range eggs” might conjure images of an open pasture, where chickens are free to run around, peck at the dirt, flap their wings and enjoy life, but in truth it is just another marketing ploy. In the USDA’s own words:

“The birds are raised in heated and air-cooled growing houses with access to the outdoors…”

This outdoor area that chickens may have access to (and the amount of access they have varies) can be as small as a back porch or covered patio, with a small, hard to find door. While this is a great step in the right direction compared to the lives of conventionally raised egg-laying hens, it is still most definitely not cruelty-free. Once again,

many chickens are debeaked, forced to live in their own waste, often fed the same antibiotic and arsenic-laden feed that conventional chickens eat, and are still slaughtered in ways that will make your stomach turn. Free-range chickens are far from free, and they don’t live on a range.

Organic eggs

Organic eggs come from chickens that are kept in cage-free conditions and are fed a certified organic, vegetarian diet (though chickens’ natural diet is not strictly vegetarian). There is still no pasture, no space and often no sunlight. The

quality of the eggs may be improved, but the living conditions are still far from cruelty-free. Farmers are permitted to confine their egg-laying hens twenty-four hours a day if they feel that the weather is too harsh, that there may be a disease outbreak, to protect soil and water from being contaminated by all of the waste inherent in the keeping of thousands of chickens, or the chickens’ “stage of production”. There are no clear regulations on any of these factors, and because they are left completely to the farmer’s discretion, are almost never regulated or enforced in any way. Keep in mind that all of the industries mentioned still support the murder of hundreds of millions of male chickens every year to keep their supply of female “producing” chickens fresh.

[Video: The Faces of Free-Range Farming] “Certified Organic”, “Free-range”, “Cage-free”, “Hormone-free”, “All Natural”, “Humanely Raised and Handled” — all of these labels are designed to make you feel less guilty for buying a product that is always cruel. The level of cruelty

may fluctuate slightly between them, but to the hens, cruel is always cruel.

The egg industry is taking advantage of your good heart, and profiting off your ignorance.

These labels are false advertising that was created to make you pay up to three times more for eggs that are nearly

identical to cheap, conventional eggs. When you buy eggs from a grocery store, whether they are conventional, cage-free, organic, free-range, etc., you can safely assume that you are being taken for a ride by those companies, and are throwing your hard-earned cash down the drain for a false peace of mind. Don’t be a dummy. Stop wasting your money on fancy packaging and labels that lie. LIVE VEGAN. For more information on chickens, please read: Amazing Animals: Chickens

Actions speak louder than words. Do something about it.

Source: Vegan Rabbit

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Why Is Milk Bad For You? How many times growing up did kids hear things like, "Milk does a body good" or "Got milk?" How many times did mom tell her children, "Drink your milk so you have healthy teeth and bones"? Americans have heard growing up that they must consume milk or suffer dire consequences when, in fact, drinking milk is what's dangerous. Milk isn't always bad. Mother's milk -- that is, human milk -- provides a growing infant with all the nutrition he needs

for the first six months of his life. In fact, human breast milk is designed by nature to be the perfect food for human infants. Similarly, cow's milk is designed by nature to be the perfect food -- for calves, not for human beings. According to Robert Cohen, Executive Director of the Dairy Education Board and NOTMILK.com, milk consumption is

to blame for a variety of health woes, including the following:

o breast cancer

o diabetes (both diabetes mellitus and juvenile diabetes)

o kidney stones

o acne

o heart disease

o osteoporosis

o multiple sclerosis

o stroke o rheumatoid arthritis

So why is milk so bad, and how does it cause all of these and other health problems? According to Vivian Goldschmidt, founder of Save Our Bones, there are a variety of myths surrounding milk consumption. One of the first myths, she says, is that drinking milk creates healthy bones because of the calcium found in the milk. However, the animal protein found in milk actually depletes the human body of calcium, exactly the opposite of what milk drinkers expect it to do.

In much the same way, she also dispels another milk myth, that drinking milk will help reduce bone fractures. She cites sources that show that higher milk consumption can actually be linked with an increase in bone fractures. Further, she also states that milk is a "processed food." Milk is pasteurized and homogenized, and the cows that produce the milk are given hormones and antibiotics (which, of course, wind up in the milk). Goldschmidt then links hormonal additives to cancer. Ultimately, Cohen, Goldschmidt and hundreds of others want Americans (and, in fact, every human being on the planet) to get this message: Say 'No' to Milk! Source: Natural News, Cindy Jones-Shoeman

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Milk: A Cruel and Unhealthy Product

Given the chance, cows nurture their young and form lifelong friendships with one another. They play games and have a wide range of emotions and personality traits. But most cows raised for the dairy industry are intensively confined, leaving them unable to fulfill their most basic desires, such as nursing their calves, even for a single day. They are treated like milk-producing machines and are genetically manipulated and pumped full of antibiotics and hormones that cause them to produce more milk. While cows suffer on factory farms, humans who drink their milk increase their chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many other ailments. Cows Suffer on Dairy Farms Cows produce milk for the same reason that humans do—to nourish their young—but calves on dairy farms are taken away from their mothers when they are just 1 day old. They are fed milk replacers (including cattle blood) so that their mothers’ milk can be sold to humans. Female cows are artificially inseminated shortly after their first birthdays. After giving birth, they lactate for 10 months and are then inseminated again, continuing the cycle. Some spend their entire lives standing on concrete floors; others are confined to massive, crowded lots, where they are forced to live amid their own feces. A North Carolina dairy closed its doors following revelations from a whistleblower that the cows were forced to eat, walk and sleep in knee-deep waste. Cows have a natural lifespan of about 20 years and can produce milk for eight or nine years. However, the stress caused by the conditions on factory farms leads to disease, lameness, and reproductive problems that render cows worthless to the dairy industry by the time that they’re 4 or 5 years old, at which time they are sent to be slaughtered. On any given day, there are more than 9 million cows on U.S. dairy farms—about 13 million fewer than there were in 1950. Yet milk production has continued to increase, from 116 billion pounds of milk per year in 1950 to 185 billion pounds in 2007. Normally, these animals would produce only enough milk to meet the needs of their calves (around 16 pounds per day), but genetic manipulation—and, in some cases, antibiotics and hormones—is used to cause each cow to produce more than 20,000 pounds of milk each year. Cows are also fed unnatural, high-protein diets—which include dead

chickens, pigs, and other animals—because their natural diet of grass would not provide the nutrients that they need to produce such massive amounts of milk. Mastitis Painful inflammation of the mammary glands, or mastitis, is common among cows raised for their milk, and it is one of dairy farms’ most frequently cited reasons for sending cows to slaughter. There are about 150 bacteria that can cause the disease, one of which is E. coli. Symptoms are not always visible, so milk’s somatic cell count (SCC) is checked to determine whether the milk is infected. Somatic cells include white blood cells and skin cells that are normally shed from the lining of the udder. As in humans, white blood cells—also known as “pus”—are produced as a means of combating infection. The SCC of healthy milk is below 100,000 cells per milliliter; however, the dairy industry is allowed to combine milk from all the cows in a herd in order to arrive at a “bulk tank” somatic cell count (BTSCC). Milk with a maximum BTSCC of 750,000 cells per milliliter can be sold. A BTSCC of 700,000 or more generally indicates that two-thirds of the cows in the herd are suffering from udder infections. Studies have shown that providing cows with cleaner housing, more space, and better diets, bedding, and care lowers their milk’s SCC as well as their incidence of mastitis. A Danish study of cows subjected to automated milking systems found “acutely elevated cell counts during the first year compared with the previous year with conventional milking. The increase came suddenly and was synchronized with the onset of automatic milking.” Instead of improving conditions in factory farms or easing cows’ production burden, the dairy industry is exploring the use of cattle who have been genetically manipulated to be resistant to mastitis. The Veal Connection If you drink milk, you’re subsidizing the veal industry. While female calves are slaughtered or kept alive to produce milk, male calves are often taken away from their mothers when they are as young as 1 day old to be chained in tiny stalls for three to 18 weeks and raised for veal. Calves raised for veal are fed a milk substitute that is designed to make them gain at least 2 pounds per day, and their diet is purposely low in iron so that their flesh stays pale as a result of anemia. In addition to suffering from diarrhea, pneumonia, and lameness, calves raised for veal are terrified and desperate for their mothers. Environmental Destruction Large dairy farms have an enormously detrimental effect on the environment. In California, America’s top milk-producing state, manure from dairy farms has poisoned hundreds of square miles of groundwater, rivers, and streams. Each of the more than 1 million cows on the state’s dairy farms excretes 18 gallons of manure daily. Overall, factory-farmed animals, including those on dairy farms, produce 1.65 billion tons of manure each year, much of which ends up in waterways and drinking water. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that agricultural runoff is the primary cause of polluted lakes, streams, and rivers. The dairy industry is the primary source of smog-

forming pollutants in California; a single cow emits more of these harmful gasses than a car does. 2/3 of all agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them. Each cow raised by the dairy industry consumes as much as 40 gallons of water per day. Human Bodies Fight Cow’s Milk Besides humans (and companion animals who are fed by humans), no species drinks milk beyond infancy or drinks the milk of another species. Cow’s milk is suited to the nutritional needs of calves, who have four stomachs and gain hundreds of pounds in a matter of months, sometimes weighing more than 1,000 pounds before they are 2 years old. Cow’s milk is the number one cause of food allergies among infants and children, according to the American Gastroenterological Association. Most people begin to produce less lactase, the enzyme that helps with the digestion of milk, when they are as young as 2 years old. This reduction can lead to lactose intolerance. Millions of Americans are lactose intolerant, and an estimated 90 percent of Asian-Americans and 75 percent of Native- and African-Americans suffer from the condition, which can cause bloating, gas, cramps, vomiting, headaches, rashes, and asthma. A U.K. study showed that people who suffered from irregular heartbeats, asthma, headaches, fatigue, and digestive problems “showed marked and often complete improvements in their health after cutting milk from their diets.” Calcium and Protein Myths Although American women consume tremendous amounts of calcium, their rates of osteoporosis are among the highest in the world. Conversely, Chinese people consume half as much calcium (most of it from plant sources) and have a very low incidence of the bone disease. Medical studies indicate that rather than preventing the disease, milk may actually increase women’s risk of getting osteoporosis. A Harvard Nurses’ Study of more than 77,000 women ages 34 to 59 found that those who consumed two or more glasses of milk per day had higher risks of broken hips and arms than those who drank one glass or less per day. T. Colin Campbell, professor of nutritional biochemistry at Cornell University, said, “The association between the intake of animal protein and fracture rates appears to be as strong as that between cigarette smoking and lung cancer.” Humans can get all the protein that they need from nuts, seeds, yeast, grains, beans, and other legumes. It’s very difficult not to get enough calories from protein when you eat a healthy diet; protein deficiency (also known as “kwashiorkor”) is very rare in the U.S. and is usually only a problem for people who live in famine-stricken countries. Eating too much animal protein has been linked to the development of endometrial, pancreatic, and prostate cancer. Consuming too much protein may also put a strain on the kidneys, causing them to compensate by leaching calcium from the bones.

Source: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ========================================================

Cheese and Obesity

The epidemic of obesity has grown dramatically in recent years, most notably in children, one-third of

whom have been swept up by weight problems and are at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and certain

forms of cancer, among other problems.

Unfortunately, the battle against obesity is getting a lot harder. First of all, people trying to lose

weight have been lied to. They have been told that the problem is a lack of exercise, when, in fact,

studies clearly show that weight gain in the United States over the past 30 years is almost entirely

due to changing eating habits, not a lack of physical activity.

They have been lied to about food, with quick-fix, low-carb advocates pointing a finger of blame at

bread and fruit, when carbohydrates actually have only four calories per gram, unlike fats, which have

nine. That’s why people in Asian countries stayed thin and healthy until Western fast-food chains

brought in meat, cheese, and other junk foods that displaced traditional rice-based meals.

They have been lied to by some well-meaning, but not-yet-well-informed fat-acceptance advocates

who, while helpfully rallying against discrimination, have also sought to minimize obesity’s dangers

with phrases like “obese but healthy.” You can also be “a smoker, but healthy,” but that simply means

the complications have not yet arrived.

But most of all, they have been lied to by the meat and dairy industries, which aim to convince us that

we need cheese, meat, and other unhealthful foods. The federal government, traditionally beholden to

industry, has joined in the duplicity, not only by subsidizing the very foods that cause weight gain

and by dumping them into our children's school lunch programs, but by issuing dietary guidelines that have been too timid to chuck unhealthful foods out.

As a result of this lack of forthrightness, obesity has settled in for the long term, and many people

have simply become resigned to it for themselves and their children. The consequences will be

devastating: Experts estimate that one in three children born in 2000 will go on to develop diabetes—

a disease strongly linked to excess weight.

The obesity epidemic is not caused by inactivity, bread, rice, gluttony, weak will, or a bad childhood. It

is caused by a tsunami of unhealthful foods, and one of the worst, perhaps surprisingly, is cheese.

Typical cheeses are about 70 percent fat, and every last fat gram packs nine calories that no one

needs. Most of that fat is saturated (“bad”) fat—the kind that increases cholesterol levels and puts us

at risk for diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and other diseases. A 2-ounce cheese serving also packs 350

milligrams of sodium and, ounce for ounce, as much cholesterol as a heart-stopping steak.

In 1909, the average American consumed only 3.8 pounds of cheese in a year’s time. Today, that

number is pushing 34 pounds. That’s an increase of 30 pounds per person this year, next year, and

again the year after that, thanks to the combined promotional efforts of government and industry. Of

those extra 30 pounds of cheese we are stuffing into our mouths every year, it would only take one or

two to stick in order to explain the entire weight problem in America. Of course, there are other co-

conspirators in the obesity epidemic, too, notably the rise in meat and sugar consumption.

A Wake-Up Call

PCRM erected billboards in New York State depicting a heavy-set man and woman and pointing out,

clearly and simply, that cheese contributes to obesity. Judging by the press response, it was a

message that was badly needed. Many reporters had no idea that cheese was so high in fat and

calories.

We knew that the dairy industry would object. But the fact is, dairy farmers and their families need

this message, too. After all, they run the same risks as their customers.

Some overweight people may object, too. Just as cancer organizations have used images of tobacco-

damaged lungs and anti-drunk-driving organizations have shown grim accident scenes, graphic visual

reminders are painful for the victims of these conditions.

Certainly, there is no value in blaming overweight people for a condition that results from a mixture of

industry marketing, government promotions, addictive qualities of foods, genetic vulnerabilities,

medication effects on appetite, and, in the end, overeating. Instead, it is essential to zero in on the

problem foods, expose them, and do what we can to get them off our collective plates. The PCRM

billboards are a mirror, showing obesity as it really is, linking it appropriately to cheese, and making it

clear that there is a problem here.

The worst thing that doctors or the public can do is to slow down the fight against obesity and against

the foods that contribute to it. Prying a generation away from tobacco was tough, and prying people

away from obesogenic foods today will be far more challenging. People struggling with weight

problems deserve understanding and support, and we do them no favors if we hide the problem,

sugar-coat it, or fail to address its causes. We have to face the dangers of obesity directly, make it

clear that certain foods are serious problems, and do all we can to support the changes that are

essential for good health.

Source: Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

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Fishing Billions of fish die every year in nets and on hooks. Some are destined for human consumption,

many are tortured just for “sport,” and others are unintended victims who are maimed or killed

simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Fish Feel Pain When fish are yanked from the water, they begin to suffocate. Their gills often collapse, and

their swim bladders can rupture because of the sudden change in pressure. Numerous scientific

reports from around the world confirm that fish feel pain. Researchers from the University of

Edinburgh and University of Glasgow studied the pain receptors in fish and found that they were

strikingly similar to those of mammals; the researchers concluded that “fish do have the capacity

for pain perception and suffering.”

‘Sport’ Fishing While the numbers continue to decline compared to decades ago, more than 29 million people

still went fishing in 2006, spending billions of dollars on their “hobby.” According to a Florida

State University study, sport fishers are responsible for killing almost 25 percent of overfished

saltwater species. Many trout streams are so intensively fished that they require that all fish

caught be released; the fish in these streams may spend their entire lives being repeatedly

traumatized and injured.

What’s Wrong With Catch-and-Release Fishing? Fish who are released after being caught can suffer from loss of their protective scale coating that

makes them vunerable to disease, a dangerous build-up of lactic acid in their muscles, oxygen

depletion, and damage to their delicate fins and mouths. According to one fishery expert, catch-

and-release victims “could be vulnerable to predators, unable to swim away, or if nesting, not

capable of fending off nest raiders. Some guarding males could in fact abandon the nest.”

Researchers at the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation found that as many as 43

percent of fish released after being caught died within six days.

Other Victims According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “[M]ore than one million

birds and 100,000 marine mammals die each year due to ingestion of, and entanglement in

marine debris.” The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission reports that discarded

monofilament fishing line is the number one killer of adult brown pelicans, although one

Audubon biologist says that “[p]retty much every type of water or shore bird can get caught up

in fishing line …. We find dead cormorants, anhingas, herons, egrets, roseate spoonbills … you

name it.”

One out of every five manatee rescues conducted in the 1980s and 1990s was related to fishing-

line entanglement, and during a four-year span, at least 35 dolphins died from injuries that they

sustained as a result of being tangled in fishing line.

Eating Fish Is Hazardous to Your Health Like other animals’ flesh, the flesh of sea animals contains high amounts of fat and cholesterol.

“Seafood” is one of the most common causes of food poisoning in the U.S., and almost 7 million

Americans are believed to be allergic to it.

Fish flesh (including shellfish) can accumulate extremely high levels of carcinogenic chemical

residues, such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The flesh of farmed salmon has seven times

more PCBs than the flesh of wild-caught salmon.

According to The New England Journal of Medicine, fish “are the main if not the only source of

methyl mercury,” a substance that has been linked to cardiovascular disease, fetal brain damage,

blindness, deafness, and problems with motor skills, language, and attention span. The

Environmental Protection Agency and the FDA warn women of child-bearing age and children

to refrain from eating fish such as shark, swordfish, and king mackerel and to consume fewer

than 12 ounces a week of other fish flesh because of mercury levels. Of course, the best way to

avoid the dangers of mercury is to not eat fish at all.

Source: People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

======================================================== You can make a difference. EVEN will help! Email us or visit EVEN's website for info on

how to go vegan. We all can make a difference in this world. You can find more information on these sites

all of whom have been inspected and are well-respected!

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Thank you for reading and caring. Lin Lin Silvan Founder and Executive Director Eugene Veg Education Network (EVEN) 1574 Coburg Rd., #120

Eugene OR 97401 www.eugeneveg.org Eugene Veg Education Network ---EVEN - serving as a vegan resource since 2005---

Check Out EVEN's News Blog for hundreds of valuable, vegan morsels. The Eugene Veg Education Network (EVEN) is an official 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Eugene serving as a resource for those seeking information on a healthful, vegan lifestyle. EVEN's emphasis is one of non-violence, compassion and sustainability. Focus is on the interconnectedness of all life and how a plant-based diet benefits the earth, non-human animals, and the individual. EVEN's Mission Statement is to inform, educate & encourage our members--- as well as the larger community ---by providing pertinent information on veganism and its positive impact on the health of the planet and all its inhabitants. www.eugeneveg.org Peace. s