[Vegan Green Tea Cupcakes. Photo (and cupcakes!) by Becky Striepe]

Meat production has gotten a lot of coverage for its impact on the environment lately, but what about all those dairy cows? Whether they’re slaughtered for meat or milked, we’re still talking cows and all the impacts that go along with raising them. The Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale organizers strongly feel that veganism is better for the planet and its inhabitants. Check out their intro to veganism to learn about the story behind animal products like eggs and dairy.

From New Zealand to Nigeria to New York, groups around the world are holding vegan bake sales during the last two weekends of this month. They’re encouraging both vegan and non-vegan groups to hold events, as long as the baked goods at the sale are completely vegan. To help facilitate, they’ve set up a page of vegan baking tips and vegan recipe resource guide. Each participating group is working to benefit a cause that matters to them. Check out some of the participating groups:

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For most of our existence, we humans have seen ourselves as superior to animals, as “above” the “lower” creatures. Rene Descartes, for example, in the 17th century argued that animals were mere “machines” incapable even of true feeling, let alone “higher” thinking. Cultures throughout antiquity sacrificed animals by the thousands to their gods, so that their value was in the ends they served rather than in their independent lives.

On the other side, there are some traditions of vegetarianism in our history. Examples include the Pythagoreans in Greece, Hindu yogis, Jains and Buddhists, among others. And other societies (such as the Native Americans) ate and used animals but with a reverence and gratefulness for the lives that they were taking. Overall, though, the predominant notion in the human noggin is one of superiority.

But then Darwin knocked us down a notch…at least some of us. Evolution and the descent of humanity from primates still left wiggle room for us to see ourselves as “thinking, rational animals,” and therefore still better than the lesser beasts. Around that same time, though, something started to shift in the cultural mindset. A cultivated, conscious concern for the welfare of animals began in the late 19th century in England and then spread. (For example, the SPCA has its origins from this era, not to mention the idea of a “vegetarian society.” Ethics entered into the discussion of how humans relate to, and treat, animals. There was a recognition that, however higher or lower we might be, we had some responsibility for animals.

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A German study found that cows are major contributors to global warming, and it doesn’t matter if they’re raised on a conventional or an organic farm.

[Creative Commons photo by Jelle]

I’m with Stephanie Ernst over at change.org on this one, though: let’s not blame the poor cows. The culprit here is humans’ taste for meat and dairy and the sheer number of cows we have to raise to put beef on all of those plates.

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Animal rights activists have filed suit against Washington’s King County to dispute a state-wide law that essentially allows farmers to decide what treatment is humane and what is not.

In a press release, the Northwest Animal Rights Network declared that “Foxes should not be guarding the henhouse” and argued that the law is against the state constitution. The suit focuses on a handful of clauses in a Prevention of Cruelty to Animals law from 1994 that the group believes are particularly vague.

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The longstanding and notoriously outspoken punk outfit Propagandhi has released their new two-track single as a high-quality download for fans who donate $1 to $10 to Sea Shepherd, PETA2, or Partners in Health.

The two songs, “Supporting Caste” on the A-side and “Human(e) Meat” on the B-side, come from their upcoming new record. The downloads are available through G7 Welcoming Committee, a record label collective that became download-only for environmental reasons in 2007.

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Organic, free-range, or factory farmed—according to a new study conducted by UC San Diego’s School of Medicine, all red meat and milk spurs the growth of cancerous tumors.

Researchers found a non-human cellular molecule called N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc) inside human cancerous tumors. The study, published Friday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the molecule causes inflammation and further cancer cell growth.

As it turns out, that molecule is found solely in animal-based food products like dairy and red meat. Perhaps PETA was right to suggest meat-eaters deserve higher insurance premiums.

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