{"id":3429,"date":"2012-04-24T20:24:45","date_gmt":"2012-04-25T03:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?p=3429"},"modified":"2012-04-24T20:24:45","modified_gmt":"2012-04-25T03:24:45","slug":"we-send-them-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/","title":{"rendered":"We Send Them Off"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

The local food movement folks often think they have a very different philosophy from the compassionate vegan folks.\u00a0 The reality is that our intentions are very much the same.\u00a0 We want to do the right thing.<\/p>\n

The problem is that everyone I know who claims to just eat locally, doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 They often buy non-local products and eat out at restaurants that use non-local ingredients.\u00a0 I have also found that most of the people who are trying so hard to eat locally, haven\u2019t done their homework about the real affects of their choices.<\/p>\n

When judging the carbon footprint of a particular food, it is important to take into account the water and energy required to produce the product, not just the transportation of the item.\u00a0 It turns out that transportation is a very small part of the ecological impact of our food.\u00a0 A study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology found that switching just two meals a week from meat and dairy products to vegan choices reduces more greenhouse gasses than buying all local food.<\/p>\n

The local food trend is very popular in the USA.\u00a0 As a part of this local food movement, many people are buying chickens and goats and plopping them in their backyards to produce their own meat, eggs and dairy.\u00a0 Most of the people doing this do not have a clue how to really meet all the needs of the animals they are raising.\u00a0 Craigslist here is full of listings from people who did not know what they were getting into and now have animals they will give away free to anyone.<\/p>\n

I recently led a compassionate living program at a week-long camp for teens.\u00a0 I arrived at the camp just as the program before mine was in full swing.\u00a0 A local woman who has goats in her yard was letting the campers milk her four goats. I sat in on the session. Many of the campers would not taste the milk because they saw the source and it grossed them out.\u00a0 I asked them if they would drink it if it was in the store in a plastic jug.\u00a0 They all said they probably would.\u00a0\u00a0 The goat woman was talking about her spiritual connection with the goats. I asked her if she keeps the goats pregnant so they will keep producing milk. I wanted the campers to have the full story of the reality of dairy.\u00a0 When she shared that she does keep them pregnant, I asked her what happens if a male kid is born?\u00a0 She said, \u201cWe send them off. We cannot keep them around because they have a strong smell and it affects the milk.\u201d\u00a0 I wanted the campers to understand that the male goats don’t just go to boarding school when they are sent off, so I kept inquiring.\u00a0 When I asked the goat woman where she sends them off to, she slid away from the question.\u00a0 The director of the camp was also in the session.\u00a0 He said, \u201cWell, it is all part of the cycle of life, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 They are learning about the cycle of life..\u201d\u00a0 \u201cYes,\u201d I replied, \u201cthey are learning about the cycle of life and the cycle of unnecessary premature death.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two of the lucky baby goats seen here at Sasha Farm Sanctuary (Photo: Rae Sikora)<\/em><\/p>\n

Possibly the best part of the local food movement is that people have a bit more of a connection to where their food comes from.\u00a0 The worst part is that, when animals are involved, the glossy wholesome image that goes along with it covers up what it really means for the individual animals and the environment.\u00a0 Mothers and babies torn apart so we can steal their milk, males sent to slaughter and mothers who are no longer producing large quantities of milk also sent to slaughter, buying baby chicks shipped from hatcheries who kill off the males in often barbaric ways, chickens kept in small boxes in backyards (common in our community), non-local feed often fed to the animals on farms marketing products as \u201clocal\u201d, trucking and non-local slaughter of many of the animals whose flesh is sold as \u201clocal\u201d, and the use of large quantities of water for each animal (in many areas, water is a very scarce commodity).<\/p>\n

I know that death is part of life.\u00a0 I also know that we can make choices that support our own health, the environment and all beings and thrive on compassionate vegan choices.\u00a0 We cannot live a life that does no harm, but we can make choices that cause the least harm.<\/p>\n

I am all for eating locally and growing our own food whenever possible.\u00a0 Imagine the double positive of choosing local and plant-based foods!\u00a0 So, when you are looking at what to do with that backyard of yours, plant fruits and veggies. Health, compassion and environmental responsibility can all be part of your local food plan!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The local food movement folks often think they have a very different philosophy from the compassionate vegan folks.\u00a0 The reality is that our intentions are very much the same.\u00a0 We want to do the right thing. The problem is that everyone I know who claims to just eat locally, doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 They often buy non-local products and eat out at restaurants that use non-local ingredients.\u00a0 I have also found that most of the people who are trying so hard to eat locally, haven\u2019t done their homework about the real affects of their choices. When judging the carbon footprint of a particular food, it is important to take into account the water and energy required to produce the product, not just the transportation of the item.\u00a0 It turns out that transportation is a very small part of the ecological impact of our food.\u00a0 A study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology found that switching just two meals a week from meat and dairy products to vegan choices reduces more greenhouse gasses than buying all local food. The local food trend is very popular in the USA.\u00a0 As a part of this local food movement, many people are buying chickens and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40130,"featured_media":3430,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[678,679],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animal-rights","category-general","tag-local-food","tag-locavore"],"yoast_head":"\nWe Send Them Off - HappyCow<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"We Send Them Off - HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The local food movement folks often think they have a very different philosophy from the compassionate vegan folks.\u00a0 The reality is that our intentions are very much the same.\u00a0 We want to do the right thing. The problem is that everyone I know who claims to just eat locally, doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 They often buy non-local products and eat out at restaurants that use non-local ingredients.\u00a0 I have also found that most of the people who are trying so hard to eat locally, haven\u2019t done their homework about the real affects of their choices. When judging the carbon footprint of a particular food, it is important to take into account the water and energy required to produce the product, not just the transportation of the item.\u00a0 It turns out that transportation is a very small part of the ecological impact of our food.\u00a0 A study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology found that switching just two meals a week from meat and dairy products to vegan choices reduces more greenhouse gasses than buying all local food. The local food trend is very popular in the USA.\u00a0 As a part of this local food movement, many people are buying chickens and […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HappyCow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2848\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2134\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"RaeSikora\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@happycow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@happycow\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"RaeSikora\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"RaeSikora\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d756d59862508ac31bf46eb06c44d05a\"},\"headline\":\"We Send Them Off\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\"},\"wordCount\":825,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"local food\",\"locavore\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Animal Rights\",\"General\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\",\"name\":\"We Send Them Off - HappyCow\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg\",\"width\":2848,\"height\":2134},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"We Send Them Off\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"HappyCow\",\"description\":\"Find Vegan Food + Community\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"HappyCow\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/happycow-with-text500x500-rgb.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/happycow-with-text500x500-rgb.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":500,\"caption\":\"HappyCow\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HappyCow\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/happycow\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/happycow\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/happycowguide\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/happycow\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d756d59862508ac31bf46eb06c44d05a\",\"name\":\"RaeSikora\",\"description\":\"Rae Sikora has been a spokesperson for animals, the environment and human rights for over 30 years. Her programs have been changing people's vision of what is possible to create in our lives and in the world. Rae has worked internationally with participants ranging from teachers, students and prisoners to businesses and activists. As co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education, Rae created interactive critical thinking tools that are now being used by people around the globe. Rae draws from years of experience to help individuals and groups discover how implementing changes personally\/locally can bring about positive change globally for all life. She is and co-founder of VegFund and co-founder\/co-director of Plant Peace Daily.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/members\/profile_pb.php?id=40130\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/author\/raesikora\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"We Send Them Off - HappyCow","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"We Send Them Off - HappyCow","og_description":"The local food movement folks often think they have a very different philosophy from the compassionate vegan folks.\u00a0 The reality is that our intentions are very much the same.\u00a0 We want to do the right thing. The problem is that everyone I know who claims to just eat locally, doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 They often buy non-local products and eat out at restaurants that use non-local ingredients.\u00a0 I have also found that most of the people who are trying so hard to eat locally, haven\u2019t done their homework about the real affects of their choices. When judging the carbon footprint of a particular food, it is important to take into account the water and energy required to produce the product, not just the transportation of the item.\u00a0 It turns out that transportation is a very small part of the ecological impact of our food.\u00a0 A study in the Journal of Environmental Science and Technology found that switching just two meals a week from meat and dairy products to vegan choices reduces more greenhouse gasses than buying all local food. The local food trend is very popular in the USA.\u00a0 As a part of this local food movement, many people are buying chickens and […]","og_url":"http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/","og_site_name":"HappyCow","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HappyCow","article_published_time":"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2848,"height":2134,"url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"RaeSikora","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@happycow","twitter_site":"@happycow","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"RaeSikora","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/"},"author":{"name":"RaeSikora","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d756d59862508ac31bf46eb06c44d05a"},"headline":"We Send Them Off","datePublished":"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/"},"wordCount":825,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg","keywords":["local food","locavore"],"articleSection":["Animal Rights","General"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/","url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/","name":"We Send Them Off - HappyCow","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg","datePublished":"2012-04-25T03:24:45+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/Baby-Goats-at-Sasha.jpg","width":2848,"height":2134},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/we-send-them-off\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"We Send Them Off"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/","name":"HappyCow","description":"Find Vegan Food + Community","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#organization","name":"HappyCow","url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/happycow-with-text500x500-rgb.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/happycow-with-text500x500-rgb.png","width":500,"height":500,"caption":"HappyCow"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/HappyCow","https:\/\/x.com\/happycow","https:\/\/instagram.com\/happycow","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/happycowguide\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/happycow"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d756d59862508ac31bf46eb06c44d05a","name":"RaeSikora","description":"Rae Sikora has been a spokesperson for animals, the environment and human rights for over 30 years. Her programs have been changing people's vision of what is possible to create in our lives and in the world. Rae has worked internationally with participants ranging from teachers, students and prisoners to businesses and activists. As co-founder of the Institute for Humane Education, Rae created interactive critical thinking tools that are now being used by people around the globe. Rae draws from years of experience to help individuals and groups discover how implementing changes personally\/locally can bring about positive change globally for all life. She is and co-founder of VegFund and co-founder\/co-director of Plant Peace Daily.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.happycow.net\/members\/profile_pb.php?id=40130"],"url":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/author\/raesikora\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.happycow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}