Climate Activism: Beyond 'Climate Change is Real'

I do wish I were better at climate activism.  I feel like this is an urgent problem that needs more attention than it gets and that lifestyle changes, while sometimes positive, are not remotely adequate to address it. 

I also think dialogue on it needs to go beyond 'it exists', which is too often where it ends.  In order to solve a problem, it needs to be discussed in its specifics.  Not all 'solutions' proposed to this issue are actually realistic, possible, just, or compatible with each other.

I also don't think this issue is seperable from other social justice issues, and especially not from other types of environmental activism (eg. pollution and mass extinctions).

But my skills on writing about what I know on these issues are not as developed as I'd like them to be for sure.  It's not that I don't have things I want to say, but actually articulating them fully is difficult for me.  It's very frustrating.

Overstating The Issue More Than A Bit, But I May Retry Daiya

From the article Soon Daiya's Vegan Cheese Will be Unrecognizeable. Why That's a Good Thing

In 2023, Daiya is taking the next big step to push vegan cheese forward: a multi-million dollar investment into natural fermentation that will completely transform its products. 

Developers have been working in stealth mode at a new fermentation facility positioned within Daiya’s 400,000-square-foot British Columbia production site. Here, they are using modern technologies combined with age-old cheesemaking techniques to develop exciting next-generation vegan cheese formulations that the public will taste soon. 

To learn more about the move, we spoke with Daiya’s CEO Michael Watt on the floor at the recent Natural Products Expo West, the trade show where VegNews first gave the company a Best in Show award in 2009 for its groundbreaking meltable cheeses.

“This is a game-changing breakthrough for Daiya and plant-based cheese,” Watt told VegNews.

This article practically reads like a Daiya infomercial with how effusive it is.  Plenty of companies that produce vegan-friendly cheeses already use fermentation (eg. Miyoko's), and  people who are into fermentation can even roll their own (https://rainbowplantlife.com/fermented-cashew-cheese/)

Also, in another part of the Daiya article, this is mentioned:

The new formulations are centered on pea protein and oats but also involve microbes, cultures, and enzymes along with a proprietary fermentation process that gives the vegan cheese the sought-after qualities of dairy.

(emphasis mine)

This part is one of the things that makes me look on this kind of thing with a certain amount of cynicism.  I'm all for making actually fermented vegan cheese more widely available, but I think it's important to get away from the 'corporate savior' mentality that aticles like this push.  Corporations are not our friends, and we need to view their greater control over our food supply as a problem, not as a solution.  None of us needs another proprietary method for making food, and I'll reiterate that there are already freely available methods for making fermented vegan cheese!

Making palatable vegan cheese more widely available is good; believing corporations ever have our best interests in mind is not. 

I might give the new Daiya products a try to see if I like them any better than the formulation they've been using (which I am not a fan of). I don't believe in boycotting every terrible company because I'd have to boycott too many to be able to buy much of anything.  That doesn't mean I'm going to venerate them for 'innovating' something that was already possible.

Why I Always Read the Label for 'Vegan' Food

I alwys like to read food labels.  One reason for this is because I am a vegan.  Here's a list of some things I have encountered that were, at times, not actually vegan:

* Food without visible nonvegan ingredients (the most common issue I've encountered)

* Things that used to be vegan

* Food from a company I thought only produced vegan food

* Things that label themselves 'vegan' (to be fair, I think it might not have included an actual vegan certification label, but still. not cool)

* Food offered to me by another vegan (not malicious, they just didn't know)

Boycotts And The Limits of Their Political Power

I do long-term boycott a few companies (eg. Amazon, Disney, and Nintendo), and short-term boycott others for various reasons, obviously because they've done and continue to do terrible things, but that's more a 'personally fed up with this nonsense' or strategic action type-thing than something I view as a viable strategy for getting these companies to change their behavior long-term.  Most companies are evil.  I think it makes sense to move away from dependence on them as much as practical, but I don't think it makes sense to try to boycott every evil company--because they produce the vast majority of all goods in our society. In order to address the evil these companies do, the structure of society itself needs to change.

Biden Moves Forward With Mining Project That Will Obliterate A Sacred Apache Religious Site

Biden Moves Forward With Mining Project That Will Obliterate A Sacred Apache Religious Site

Biden administration attorneys were in court this week to defend a mining project that will obliterate one of the most sacred Apache religious sites in the American Southwest.

In oral arguments Tuesday, the U.S. Forest Service said it was nearing completion of an environmental impact study that will transfer land east of Phoenix to two of the world’s largest mining companies for the purpose of building one of the largest copper mines on the planet. The massive project will hinge on the destruction of Chi’chil Bi?dagoteel, a mountain otherwise known as Oak Flat, that is sacred to many Native American tribes, particularly the San Carlos Apache, who consider the area among their most holy of sites.

( Read more... )

“This land is sacred. This land is holy. It may not have four walls or a steeple. It may not be a mosque, but this is my religion and my spiritual belief from my ancestors and to the yet to be born,” she said. “We have to fight for those who are not here so that they can go to Oak Flat, and they can pray and be one — because the United States government assured us today that their land is their land and that they can take it away, that they can say what I believe in, and what you believe in, does not matter.”

The Free Tags Have Run Out

Well, found out I finally used all 1000 of my free tags available on this site. I've usually tried to tag posts generically to conserve tags, but now it seems I will have to do this. For the time being at least. I believe more tags are available for people who pay for a subscription, which I've done before, and may do again (there are other benefits to a subscription as well).