"Why Love One But Eat the Other?"

You might have seen the title phrase above through animal compassion campaigns by Mercy For Animals.

This isn't just an ad, it's a nudge towards re-evaluating our core values because our beloved pet animals are inherently no different than the intelligent and social farm animals that suffer needlessly for our food choices. A new video (less than 3 minutes in length) uploaded by Mercy For Animals gives us a reason to stop, think, and hopefully make compassionate choices for these pigs that are abused beyond belief, just because we choose to eat pigs but not dogs when the lives of both are equally valuable.

The New Food Plate

USDA has come out with a new food guide in the form of the icon below. All information regarding these new dietary recommendations can be found here: http://www.choosemyplate.gov/ At the website you can click on one of the five components to find out what foods fall into each category. The USDA lists the following non-meat options to fulfill the protein category (source):

Beans and peas

black beans
black-eyed peas
chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
falafel
kidney beans
lentils
lima beans (mature)
navy beans
pinto beans
soy beans
split peas

Processed soy products:
  tofu (bean curd made from
   soybeans)
  white beans
  bean burgers
  veggie burgers
  tempeh
  texturized vegetable
   protein (TVP)

Nuts and seeds*
  almonds
  cashews
  hazelnuts (filberts)
  mixed nuts
  peanuts
  peanut butter
  pecans
  pistachios
  pumpkin seeds
  sesame seeds
  sunflower seeds
  walnuts

An interesting thing to note:

PCRM's new article on the food plate brings up the point that USDA's modified food icon is at opposition with federal subsidies for meat and diary. PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) states that currently over 60 percent of agricultural subsidies have instead supported meat and diary production, leaving only 1 percent to go towards fruits and vegetables. The USDA is advising people to take on a healthier diet with less fat content, and I wonder if it knows its suggestions clash with the federal government subsidies which give billions of tax money to the meat and diary industries.

PCRM also has a food guide that can be found here: http://pcrm.org/health/powerplate/ It is resemblant of the new USDA power plate and has "proteins" replaced with "legumes, definitely for good reason as about 68% of Americans are obese or overweight. According to the same PCRM article, more than 60 perecent of the deaths in the U.S. are caused by heart disease and other diet-related diseases. The PCRM power plate is also interactive, so feel free to click on the portions to find out how to best balance your diet!

Heartwarming Hug

I wouldn't mind being a "crazy" cat lady...

Cat Plays the Shell Game

I'm so tempted to try this with my cat!