Zuckerberg Literally Killing His Own Meat

A butcher, hunter, and rancher discuss the ethics of eating animals

(NEWSER) - For long stretches of their lives, Nicolette Niman, Tovar Cerulli and Joshua Applestone were all vegetarians or vegans. Now, they’re a rancher, a hunter, and a butcher, respectively, who “firmly believe food from animals can be healthful, environmentally appropriate, and ethical,” they write in the Atlantic . Their stories:

• Nicolette: She became vegan “after hearing that beef was deforesting the Amazon,” but eventually “learned that animals were essential to sustainable farms.” They increase soil fertility and convert otherwise inedible vegetation and uncultivated land into food.
• Tovar: He became a vegan after listening to Buddhist teachings, but eventually “realized that all food has its costs. From habitat destruction to combines that inadvertently mince rabbits … crop production is far from harmless.” What matters, he decided, “wasn’t what we ate, but how that food came to our plates.”
• Joshua: He was a vegetarian until he met his wife and opened a meat company. “Once I saw how the meat we were selling had been raised, and met the farmers who were striving to raise animals sustainably … I realized I didn’t have a problem with meat. I had a problem with the inhumane practices of the commercial meat industry."

Humane Society video sparks new battle with farmers

(NEWSER) - A video showing chickens being slammed into metal crates has reignited a battle between the Humane Society and farmers. The footage, shot by an undercover Humane Society volunteer, shows chickens held in battery cages over enormous manure pits and chickens being violently shoved into a euthanizing chamber. "We're asking they not be crammed into cages and crates barely larger than their bodies," says a society rep. More»

Everything's got meat in it, for one—bad news for vegetarian

(NEWSER) - Many years of life in Japan have thoroughly soured American expatriate Tim Rogers on the country, despite his long personal history of “tolerating the hell out of some world cultures.” Herewith, some reasons:

• Animé sucks. Used to be fine, but now “it’s inbred trailer-trash in entertainment form … a bunch of shit pandering to perverts and pedophiles.”
• There’s meat in everything. Bad news for a vegetarian, sure, but what’s more irksome is how Japanese go out of their way to add meat to, say, white bread.

Ghent officials, schoolkids to observe "veggie day"

(NEWSER) - In good news for Belgian cows, the city of Ghent this week begins a weekly “veggie day,” on which officials will go vegetarian, the BBC reports. The move is an effort to cut greenhouse gases, almost a fifth of which come from livestock, the UN says; the city also foresees health benefits for locals. Schoolkids will have a veggie day of their own in the fall. More»

Veggie diets can mask unhealthy behaviors

(NEWSER) - Many teens dabble with vegetarianism, and the choice is usually accepted by parents as a mild form of rebellion. But a new study suggests some use vegetarianism to hide an eating disorder, Time reports. Researchers found that 20% to 25% of current and former vegetarians had engaged in binge eating or extreme dieting such as laxative pills or forced vomiting—compared to only 5% of meat eaters. More»