WEEK TWENTY-FOUR OF FRIENDS OF FRIDAY FORUM

Well I saw the film "A Peaceable Kingdom". http://www.tribeofheart.org/pk.htm. It featured the work of a rescue group called Farm Sanctuary http://www.farmsanctuary.org/. They are an amazing place that rescues and rehabilitates animals from factory farm torture. (You might consider giving a gift of an adopted farm animal this season; you can see the program on their website.) Parts of the film showed the grim realities of factory farming and were impossible for me to watch. However, I recommend "A Peaceable Kingdom" to see for yourself what Farm Sanctuary does - it is really remarkable and very inspiring. The film doesn't have mainstream distribution yet, but can be purchased from their website for $20. With DVD you have a choice about how much and what to take in. To understand the issues of factory farming and find some immediate resources I wholeheartedly recommend the following animation and website. It is fabulous. http://www.themeatrix.com/.

I intend to take on the issue of ending factory farming some day. Probably after I'm further along in my activist training on current projects for the Dept Of Peace and the AIDS pandemic. In the meanwhile, I'm committing to save 83 animals from torture in 2005 by boycotting all factory farm products myself. I invite you to join me. Become a vegan or eating only free-range meat (not so easy to do because of lax marketing & labeling laws) would save approximately 83 animals from torture per person per year. And I'm sorry to say the egg and dairy industry offers no saving grace. Lucky for me I love Soy milk. I will be launching a website called "Compassionate Carnivores" sometime next year that will gather all the information about how to find truly free range meats and will start to research the challenges of trying to end factory farming at length. I'll kick it off the site with an “compassionate carnivore" dinner party, and show parts of "A Peaceable Kingdom" and the meatrix and serve non-tortured meat and vegan fare. I will keep you posted! Carol [New York, NY]

QUOTE OF THE WEEK ... Once you have seen certain things, you can't un-see them, and seeing nothing is as political an act as seeing something. Arundhati Roy [The Progressive Magazine - April 2001]