EARTHLINGS, Make the Connection

Horrific. Devastating. Unflinching. If, when you think of farms and ranches, you think of old MacDonald and happy cow advertisements, think again. I figured if I couldn’t watch this movie I had no business eating flesh, going to the circus, or wearing animal skins. I have no business asking other human beings to do my dirty work for me. I forced myself through Earthlings in part to firm my vegan resolve. I’m probably not the only one to do this. Among other things, I found a video of Ellen DeGeneres on YouTube where she talks about having done the same thing.

About two weeks ago, at the suggestion of my dear and compassionate primary care physician, I found myself sitting in front of a nutritionist. She was very dear too, very concerned, and started rattling off the foods I need to eat. Two things struck me: If I wasn’t spending such a significant portion of my income on meds and prescribed supplements (of which she was offering more), I could afford better food; and, I was tired of people telling me to eat meat. I gave it a try. It doesn’t work for me. I’ll share my solutions to the former issue when I review Forks Over Knives at Jamie’s Table. I want to share my insights on the latter issue today.

Although I’ve never been a huge meat-eater, I am guilty of preparing lots of heavy-duty meat dishes for family and friends. One look at the recipes I’ve posted at Musing by Moonlight and Brooklyn, Memories Most Green and you’ll realize that. Giuvetsi, hot dogs with Sabrett onion sauce, classic quiche made with bacon, winter stews … Once, however, I found myself with no one else to cook for, I became what I call a virtual vegan. The only animal foods I ate were nonfat Greek yogurt, half-and-half in my coffee, and parmigiano-reggiano on pasta, in risottos, and with salad.

In 2008 due to the progression of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, I could no longer hold down a job and I started having to use supplemental oxygen. We also discovered that I have multiple food sensitivities and am allergic to wheat and gluten. When I threw wheat and gluten out of my diet I had a 16% increase in DCLO, the exchange of gases, oxygen and carbon dioxide. That’s good news, but it is also a tough challenge to be wheat-and-gluten free and vegan. My resolve started to slip. My docs referred me to pulmonary rehabilitation.

Pulmonary rehab is great. They teach you lots of wonderful things about using supplemental oxygen and taking care of yourself if you have an interstitial lung disease or COPD. They provide lots of supervised exercise and offer suggestions for dietary modifications. One issue most folks like me have is prednisone, the medication we love to hate. It saves our lives. I’d certainly be long gone if it weren’t for prednisone. On the other hand, it alters our minds and bodies. It ages us prematurely. We become manic, bloated, diabetic, and develop high cholesterol when we are on it long term, as I have been. We quickly learn that on prednisone we must go easy on the carbs, especially starchy carbs and easy on the fats, including yummy half-and-half and the presumably healthy olive oil. Weight-gain is unavoidable.

At pulmonary rehab we were instructed to eat “balanced” meals, low in simple carbohydrates and inclusive of at least eleven ounces of lean protein meats a day. So there I was back in thrall again. Until now. I’m in the process of using up what I have left of animal foods in the fridge, freezer, and pantry and revamping my kitchen to be vegan again. Hooray!

Earthlings goes where our best self fears to tread. Using undercover cameras it takes us inside of farms and dairies, slaughterhouses, labs that do animal testing, fur ranches, and circuses. It shows us the pain our younger brothers and sisters in the animal kingdom suffer for our sakes. It also shows us just how far we humans can go to debase ourselves: at least that was my reaction to seeing people skinning animals alive and leaving them to die slowly, slitting the throats of cattle while they hang alive and upside down, tossing baby male chicks into a grinder while they’re alive, swinging chickens on a hook just for the fun of it, tossing a live dog into the back of a garbage truck and laughing about it, digging hooks into elephants to train them … you get my drift. It’s painful to think of the calves that are separated from their mothers to prepare them to be veal and of all the dairy cows and chickens going insane packed into small indoor spaces and never walking the good earth or seeing the sky.

A key point this movie makes is the link between our ability to be cruel dominators of our fellow creatures in the animal kingdom with our ability to be cruel to other human beings. It shows the damages done to the environment as we pursue dominance over nature and not stewardship of it. Both thumbs up on this one. It’s the movie to watch for the sake of our humanity.

This trailer below is not as graphic as the movie. You can view the entire movie for free HERE.

On Jamie’s Table, I plan to share recipes and information learned on transitioning to and maintaining a healthy-vegan life (vs. a junk-food vegan life) and we’ll also see if I get the better of hypersensitivity pneumonitis in doing so. Maybe others will be helped too. If you have stories to share on this topic or recipes, let me know. I’ll test them out and post them with all links and credits as appropriate. jamiededes@gmail.com I’ve set up a Facebook page, Compassionate Lifestyle where we can share information and resources on human and animal rights. Please join me there. Together, let us be HumanKIND.