ANOTHER KIND OF FOOD MILE
Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2006 9:38 pmANOTHER KIND OF FOOD MILE
Activists dramatize horrific scale of animal slaughter
AnimalWatch Manitoba
http://www.animalwatch.ca/index.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2006 (Winnipeg)—“I want to convert the dry statistics of man's inhumanity to nonhuman animals into horrific visions that shake people out of their complacency,” says Vancouver wildlife preservationist and grassroots activist Anthony Marr. Marr is in Winnipeg this week on the first leg of his fourth continentwide Compassion for Animals Road Expedition (CARE).
One such vision is a decidedly dark variation on the concept of “food miles,” the carbon-belching distance food travels from farm to plate.
“A single eight-hour shift at the proposed OlyWest slaughter plant in St. Boniface would kill enough pigs to line Portage Avenue, head to tail, from Main to Sherbrook,” estimates Syd Baumel, co-director of AnimalWatch Manitoba, which is sponsoring a talk by Marr in Winnipeg this Wednesday.
“When you do the math for a full year at OlyWest, the vision is shocking,” Baumel adds. “Two and a quarter million dead pigs lined single file would stretch approximately 3400 kilometres from Winnipeg.”
“That would be like me driving from Vancouver to Winnipeg and halfway back with a line of dead pigs haunting me every time I glanced over at the shoulder of the highway,” comments Marr.
Seals, not pigs, are the main theme of Marr's tour this year. “In 2006,” says Marr, “325,000 seals were slaughtered by Canada's commercial sealers, mostly for the foreign fashion market. That's 200 'fashion miles' – a not-so-tranquil drive through the rolling prairies of southwestern Manitoba from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan border.”
Marr is leading a symbolic “Funeral Motorcade for the Slaughtered” or bikethon every chance he gets along his 24,900 mile (40,000 km) route through six provinces and 35 states – a distance that equals the circumference of the earth. So far, Marr's motorcades in Western Canada (the tour began in Victoria on the Canada Day weekend) have attracted much public participation and media attention. “Making the media look and listen” will be the theme of Marr's talk at Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Wednesday night at 7:30.
“Anthony's food and fashion miles are more than attention-getting gimmicks,” says Baumel. “These motorcades, bikeathons and 'horrific visions' should challenge us to ponder whether the massive death and collateral suffering we inflict upon other animals is proportionate to any benefits we derive. Even when it seemingly is, is it just, is it moral in 21st century Canada?”
CONTACT:
Anthony Marr: Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org, 775-0667 (in Winnipeg)
Syd Baumel: 452-1509, sydbaumel@animalwatch.ca
Websites:
www.HOPE-CARE.org (Marr)
www.animalwatch.ca
A Few Food and Fashion Mile Facts and Figures1
- 2,000 whales are slaughtered annually for meat by Japan, Norway and Iceland. Food Miles: 13 – a very bloody ride to the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
- 22,000 dolphins are slaughtered by Japan every year for meat. Food miles: 28 – will line the highway from Winnipeg to Selkirk and then some.
- 250,000 broiler (meat) chickens are inadequately stunned, cut or bled and therefore dropped alive into scalding water feather-removal tanks each year in Manitoba. Food miles: 52 – try not to think about that as you motor out to the lake this weekend.
- 325,000 seals were slaughtered by Canada's commercial sealers in 2006, mostly for their pelts. Fashion miles: 200 – a not-so-placid drive from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan border.
- Nearly half a million caged mink and foxes are killed each year on Manitoba fur farms. Fashion miles: 200 – something to think about on your way back in.
- Four million pigs are slaughtered for their meat each year in Manitoba, mostly for export to the U.S., Japan and other countries. Food miles: 3700 – you're flying all the way to Dublin; some of that pork could be going with you.
- Seven million male layer chicks are disposed of at birth each year in Manitoba (they can't lay eggs and they're not bred to get fat fast), usually by dropping them alive into a macerator (a kind of industrial-strength garburator). Food miles: 450 – it's a long, cold drive from Winnipeg to Thompson.
- 25 million chickens are slaughtered for meat each year in Manitoba. Food miles: 5200 – a flight to Turkey, where the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to humans (some experts consider factory farmed poultry to be the chief incubator of new, more virulent strains of bird flu).
- Some 650 million cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep and other farmed animals are slaughtered for meat each year in Canada. Food miles: 200,000 – that's almost a trip to the moon, Alice.
- Worldwide, 50 billion farmed animals (not including fish) are slaughtered for meat every year. Food miles: 15.5 million – a line of sacrificial animals almost halfway to the red planet, Mars.
1. By Anthony Marr and Syd Baumel. Most numbers are approximate.
Activists dramatize horrific scale of animal slaughter
AnimalWatch Manitoba
http://www.animalwatch.ca/index.htm
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 18, 2006 (Winnipeg)—“I want to convert the dry statistics of man's inhumanity to nonhuman animals into horrific visions that shake people out of their complacency,” says Vancouver wildlife preservationist and grassroots activist Anthony Marr. Marr is in Winnipeg this week on the first leg of his fourth continentwide Compassion for Animals Road Expedition (CARE).
One such vision is a decidedly dark variation on the concept of “food miles,” the carbon-belching distance food travels from farm to plate.
“A single eight-hour shift at the proposed OlyWest slaughter plant in St. Boniface would kill enough pigs to line Portage Avenue, head to tail, from Main to Sherbrook,” estimates Syd Baumel, co-director of AnimalWatch Manitoba, which is sponsoring a talk by Marr in Winnipeg this Wednesday.
“When you do the math for a full year at OlyWest, the vision is shocking,” Baumel adds. “Two and a quarter million dead pigs lined single file would stretch approximately 3400 kilometres from Winnipeg.”
“That would be like me driving from Vancouver to Winnipeg and halfway back with a line of dead pigs haunting me every time I glanced over at the shoulder of the highway,” comments Marr.
Seals, not pigs, are the main theme of Marr's tour this year. “In 2006,” says Marr, “325,000 seals were slaughtered by Canada's commercial sealers, mostly for the foreign fashion market. That's 200 'fashion miles' – a not-so-tranquil drive through the rolling prairies of southwestern Manitoba from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan border.”
Marr is leading a symbolic “Funeral Motorcade for the Slaughtered” or bikethon every chance he gets along his 24,900 mile (40,000 km) route through six provinces and 35 states – a distance that equals the circumference of the earth. So far, Marr's motorcades in Western Canada (the tour began in Victoria on the Canada Day weekend) have attracted much public participation and media attention. “Making the media look and listen” will be the theme of Marr's talk at Mondragon Bookstore and Coffeehouse, Wednesday night at 7:30.
“Anthony's food and fashion miles are more than attention-getting gimmicks,” says Baumel. “These motorcades, bikeathons and 'horrific visions' should challenge us to ponder whether the massive death and collateral suffering we inflict upon other animals is proportionate to any benefits we derive. Even when it seemingly is, is it just, is it moral in 21st century Canada?”
CONTACT:
Anthony Marr: Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org, 775-0667 (in Winnipeg)
Syd Baumel: 452-1509, sydbaumel@animalwatch.ca
Websites:
www.HOPE-CARE.org (Marr)
www.animalwatch.ca
A Few Food and Fashion Mile Facts and Figures1
- 2,000 whales are slaughtered annually for meat by Japan, Norway and Iceland. Food Miles: 13 – a very bloody ride to the Winnipeg Folk Festival.
- 22,000 dolphins are slaughtered by Japan every year for meat. Food miles: 28 – will line the highway from Winnipeg to Selkirk and then some.
- 250,000 broiler (meat) chickens are inadequately stunned, cut or bled and therefore dropped alive into scalding water feather-removal tanks each year in Manitoba. Food miles: 52 – try not to think about that as you motor out to the lake this weekend.
- 325,000 seals were slaughtered by Canada's commercial sealers in 2006, mostly for their pelts. Fashion miles: 200 – a not-so-placid drive from Winnipeg to the Saskatchewan border.
- Nearly half a million caged mink and foxes are killed each year on Manitoba fur farms. Fashion miles: 200 – something to think about on your way back in.
- Four million pigs are slaughtered for their meat each year in Manitoba, mostly for export to the U.S., Japan and other countries. Food miles: 3700 – you're flying all the way to Dublin; some of that pork could be going with you.
- Seven million male layer chicks are disposed of at birth each year in Manitoba (they can't lay eggs and they're not bred to get fat fast), usually by dropping them alive into a macerator (a kind of industrial-strength garburator). Food miles: 450 – it's a long, cold drive from Winnipeg to Thompson.
- 25 million chickens are slaughtered for meat each year in Manitoba. Food miles: 5200 – a flight to Turkey, where the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu has spread to humans (some experts consider factory farmed poultry to be the chief incubator of new, more virulent strains of bird flu).
- Some 650 million cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep and other farmed animals are slaughtered for meat each year in Canada. Food miles: 200,000 – that's almost a trip to the moon, Alice.
- Worldwide, 50 billion farmed animals (not including fish) are slaughtered for meat every year. Food miles: 15.5 million – a line of sacrificial animals almost halfway to the red planet, Mars.
1. By Anthony Marr and Syd Baumel. Most numbers are approximate.