I came across breaking news last night about the menu brand cat and dog food recalls and the subsequent fallout which reminded me of Howard Lyman. In 1997 I was gifted with the opportunity to hearHoward Lyman speak at a local subscription organic garden that was just beginning to get off the ground. Howard had come out to speak and perhaps increase interest. I had never heard of him before this event and I likely will now never forget him. During this same time frame Howard and Oprah Winfrey were in an embittered legal battle with the Texas Cattle Ranchers who were attempting to sue the two for slander.
Howard was such an engaging, dynamic and informative speaker whose passion and personal experience around this topic exuded him. People literally sat and listened to him in awe. For me this was an event in which I had surmised boredom would prevail within minutes and I could not have been more wrong. Instead, I ended up not wanting to let Howard leave! The reality is here the time is now to start making healthier choices about what we eat, breathe and drink. Organic foods & foods with less additives should be cheaper but they are not. One should not have to have a mind like Einstein or need special abilities to be able to pronounce words with 20-40 syllables just in an effort to understand whether a food label is healthy or not. It should not matter whether it is for a human or your pet. Gandhi said it best when he said:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
can be judged by the way its animals are treated"
~Gandhi
Howard is a 4th generation Cattle Rancher who became very ill and paralyzed one day with what he was told was an inoperable tumor in on his spine. I'll save Howard's story for Howard to tell and I'd encourage you to read his books Mad Cowboy and No More Bull!
Check out his web site here and/or go and see him speak, I can't imagine that anyone would be disappointed. Ultimately Howard, became a vegan which means he does not partake in any meat, fish or dairy at all. As you might imagine a 4th generation cattle rancher turned vegan is quite a powerful statement. During his talk, Howard claimed that it was not a matter of if...Mad Cow Disease would make it to the US but when. He also made it a point to note that most likely we would see the earliest issues with our domestic pets as the dog and cat food industry is not as regulated as it could be and as a result a lot of the scraps and animals who don't pass inspection end up in Rover's dish. Most of us realize these days that bulk pet food and even some of the more popular brands are not as good for our animals as their manufacturer wants us to believe. Howard explained that most all of the "feedlot" animals that are judged too bad, diseased, sick or whatever for human consumption, go right into the pet food. Who knows what else will be discovered or pop up. Saves money for them and being the industry is not regulated very tightly, they get away with it. Based on this it is truly just a matter of time rather than an impossibility. If you are a smart consumer, you realize that for every single animal we hear about who dies, there are no doubt ten more that no one knows about.
Please make sure you are reading your pet food
labels correctly and if you do not know how,
or Google more resources on the web.
Everyday we get one step closer to learning the inevitable lesson that unless we start allowing our Brain's the opportunity to come out from that sock drawer that one might have been so snuggly tucked behind, and engage in even the slightest bit of critical thinking....
we, our fur friends and our entire world may cease to exist.
If there is one thing we all share in common,
it is that....we are all mortal.
So please, educate yourself and do your part to stand up and speak out for safe,
healthy and organic food for all living creatures!
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