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New York, 10:26 AM
Wed Nov 11
68 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/14/09
10/14/09
If so, that sounds fairly accurate.
10/14/09
10/14/09
Cows shouldn't need to be slaughtered when there are so many great alternatives to leather.
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10/14/09
Even if you're not a vegetarian/vegan, there are other, healthier and more socially-responsible forms of meat (such as non-endangered fish and free-range poultry. They still aren't animal-friendly, since meat never is--- but at least they don't support beef slaughterhouses or generate the same level of greenhouse gases.) Red meat should be avoided at all costs.
Buying and making leather-wear just supports the industry. Recycled leather might be better, but that isn't what they are using.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
Anyway, in regard to all this beef v no beef business... are we REALLY judging what those in a nation continually tormented by poverty and famine are eating? Really?
10/14/09
The US and Australia have done enough damage to animals and the environment with beef-production. I'm a proud US citizen in every sense of the word, but I'm not proud of this tradition. Ethiopia must not cultivate this kind of destruction... it's a step in the wrong direction, if they hope to set trends for socially responsible business.
10/14/09
Also, they are not solely (hah!) using leather - they are also using tires and other material. But I don't know how available these other leather alternatives are there.
10/14/09
We have this intense anti-pastoralist mentality as US environmentalists because of things like "The Tragedy of the Commons," which, while seminal, doesn't account for societies with different notions of communal land use in which socio-cultural systems evolved to work with the landscape rather than against. While I have mixed feelings about government and NGO priorities in promoting pastoralism in SSA, there's no denying that it works, and that it's a tremendously better alternative than traditional agriculture -- which is not suited for the ASAL in the first place and breaks up wildlife migration corridors, affecting the whole ecosystem in a tremendously negative way.
Pastoralism FTW.
10/14/09
Ethiopia is also one of the continent's poorest nations, with bouts of ... famine
10/14/09
Given the relative lack of industrial infrastructure, I'd be very surprised if Ethiopians are eating factory-farmed beef-- I'm guessing most is from small farmers, and is essentially free-range.
Also, given the following sober statistics, I think it's really naive and culturally insensitive to push vegan/vegetarianism on Ethiopia right now:
"...the federal Disaster Risk Management and Food Security Sector (DRMFSS) has announced that rising malnutrition and food insecurity were a growing concern and likely to lead to 6.2 million Ethiopians relying on food aid, out of a population of approximately 77 million.
At present, 4.9 million people in the country benefit from relief food.
According to the DRMFSS, the country has a shortfall of 176,000T of food. However, this is likely to increase to 390,000T in the months up to December 2009. "
[www.irinnews.org]
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
Beef is a part of many "traditional" diets, but traditions are not static. They change as people change, otherwise we would all be living in the stone age. Reducing beef intake is always an option.
10/14/09
It takes more resources and more crops to produce beef than it does to produce any other kind of meat or crop. Beef also does more environmental damage than other meats and crops.
10/14/09
I really can't believe that people are debating the ethics of eating beef in sub-Saharan Africa. I mean seriously, go there. Seriously.
10/14/09
What's low is assuming that just because Ethiopians are starving that we should encourage them to engage in destructive meat-producing and consuming practices.
10/14/09
Currently, one third of the world's grain is fed to livestock. The US is a world leader in this, with so much grain that it exports it to other countries... feeding cows rather than hungry people.
10/14/09
10/14/09
And as I said: grazing. Hence, rangelands. A lot of the issues that make large-scale beef production an environmental issue in the US are completely inapplicable in east Africa.
10/14/09
10/14/09
10/14/09
If you want, I can find other sources of supporting data that are less confusing to backup my claim that it's incredibly insensitive to push veganism/vegetarianism on a country where a great many people are undernourished or starving.
10/14/09
"Africa's second most populous country after Nigeria, with nearly 80 million inhabitants, Ethiopia is also one of the continent's poorest nations, with bouts of drought, famine, the overthrow of a junta in 1991 and a bloody border war with Eritrea in the 1990s that left 80,000 dead exacerbating economic woes."
'Nuff said. I'm a vegetarian, but in my heart, cows come second to people. If I'm starving, I will eat that high horse that PETA is riding in on.
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10/14/09
10/22/09
I'm not "pushing" anything except compassion--- killing animals is not a "must", and it is insensitive to people and humans to assume it is.
Leather has become a big business in Ethiopia, and a lot of it is sold abroad as a luxury good. These shoes, mostly sandals and flip-flops, retail for a cushy $20-$60 in the US. The lowest is a sandal retailing for 11.60, which makes me wonder how this company will keep up leather supply-and-demand if it grows. Chances are, as demand for cow-skin grows, the way the animals are kept worsens. More cows, less space, more profit.
Ethiopian leather is advertised as "friendly" because cows are allegedly allowed to roam around a bit before they are killed... yet that doesn't change the fact that cows are still killed, and that people are forced to kill cows without many alternatives. If you care about peoples' rights, ask yourself why their industries are so limited in the first place? Shouldn't people have the right not to kill animals in order to send their kid to school?
There are alternatives to beef just like there are alternatives to leather--- they are both unnecessary cruelty. It is sad that Ethiopia's business model is so dependent on this commodity. This shoe business can change that by encouraging other, more compassionate local industries, instead of this single destructive one. There is no excuse for perpetuating this cruelty when there are alternatives. #solerebels
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
10/22/09
The reason that a lot of "grazing land" exists in Ethiopia is due to environmental damage and land mismanagement. The huge outside demand for Ethiopian leather goods contributes to this, which is why Ethiopia doublted livestock exports in 2009. They have also created the "Ethiopian Meat and Dairy Technology Institute," which exists to create "modern" dairy farming--- to create more cows. [source: [www.ethiopianreview.com]]
This shoe company only states the leather comes from a local source, not that that local sources is free of the animal abuse found in ranching. #solerebels
10/14/09
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10/14/09
10/14/09
04/20/09
This girl would not have been in this position had she not been raped! F the conversation about access to contraceptives in her case because that would not have prevented her attacker from raping her.
04/20/09
04/20/09
04/20/09
(Totally not saying that sympathy for Rubina Ali is unjustified or wrong, I'm just saying...)
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04/20/09
sorry.
04/20/09
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04/20/09
12/10/08
12/10/08
12/10/08
FOETUS!! FOETUS!! FOETUS!! yeaaaaaa!!! Say it! Yall know you want to!!!!!!!!!