Upon opening the pages of Jeffrey Mousaieff Masson's newest nonfiction titled: The Face on Your Plate: The Truth About Food, I was no longer in doubt of my recent decision to return to the vegetarian ways of my youth. Masson provides concrete facts and evidence to support why animal farming on any level, factory or smaller, is leading us into the largest environmental crisis known to man. Many people don't realize the awesome destruction eating meat and dairy products has on the environment. From global warming to the latest scare of swine flue, factory farms are to blame.

Following the explanation of environmental crises factory farming poses on mankind, Masson provides a detailed account of the life and treatment of the different species of livestock. These are mostly based on his firsthand eyewitness account from actually visiting the farms. After learning the fact that dairy cows and egg-laying hens lead the most horrific lives of all the livestock, I instantly decided that I must become vegan if I want any chance at redemption from the cruelty humans inflict on these animals.

For the entirety of the book, I was unable to put it down, as I was constantly being shocked by these devastating facts of mass meat, dairy, and egg production. You will leave the book a better, more compassionate person. The dairy and meat companies have blinded consumers with false promises of happy, grazing cows through incorrect images and words like, “organic”, which mean nothing in terms of the life of the animal.

Dear Oprah

I love Oprah. She is an outstanding woman that we can all learn something from. However, I am pretty confused when it comes to her KFC coupon promotion. So, I wrote her a letter. I think everyone who is dissapointed with her decision should do the same. Click Here, to contact Oprah's show. Feel free to use my letter, just change the name of course.

Dear Oprah,

I am writing you regarding your recent decision to promote the cooperate food chain, Kentucky Fried Chicken. While I do not doubt that this coupon offer was done out of your genuine kindness I cannot help but question your personal moral standing on aiding the promotion of KFC. While Kentucky Fried Chicken without a doubt provides a tasty, hearty meal, the company has been criticized for the treatment of their factory farmed chickens.

After hosting a show in 2008 where Lisa Ling investigated animals living in factory farms and revealed the outrageous circumstances that livestock such as pigs, cows, and chickens endure I was quite sure you would find this letter of utmost importance. Sources such as Kentucky Fried Cruelty (managed by PETA) reveal the circumstances under which chickens produced for KFC live.

I am honestly shocked at your choice to provide free meals to anyone at Kentucky Fried Chicken. Please understand the moral conflict this campaign has created and promote cruelty free food.

Thank you ever so much,
(name)

Sinful Waste Wednesday

Every Wednesday I will be posting photos of ridiculous wastefulness in hopes that we ALL can learn from these mistakes. So send in photos with a caption explaining who the sinner is and what is going on in the photo. My all time favorite example of wastefulness is packaging. Have you ever noticed how companies tend to ship tiny items in large packaging with tons of fluff?!? Or what about golf courses growing grass in a desert-- How much water does that take? Anyways! Let's see your pictures!

Send all photos to: me@corissa-jade.com

"The other day, a work colleague ordered a 1.8″ hard drive for a laptop from an unnamed supplier. Admittedly, hard drives need some packaging to protect their internals, but I feel this particular one was packaged perhaps a little too much…"

Please visit HobbsBlog for the full story.

Sadly, as Richard Hobbs states.. The cardboard can be recycled but the styrofoam will just end up in some landfill.


Keep it real!

Will the Road Grow Too?

Map of the Coachella Valley - Does it look like grass should grow here?

The summer months are coming, and in the Coachella Valley summer has already begun. With summer comes the inevitable need to water lawns in an effort to keep them lush and green. The Coachella Valley is an awful place to grow grass, grass which is not native to the desert. In order for this grass to survive and grow into plump, healthy grass it must have an abundunt water source, which may require it to be watered several times a day year round. In addition to this, the city and public college use very inefficient water sprinklers that produce runoff and often don't even water the grass! The water either runs off onto the scortching hot black pavement, where it is evaporated and essentially lost and wasted or the sprinkler quite literally waters the street.

I would just like to remind everyone to be sure to adjust the heads of their water sprinklers so they actually water the grass. Also, adjust the pressure so that the water doesn't runoff into the streets. It is estimated that 25% of all water used by humans is wasted through sprinkler runoff! How absurd!

For information on how to reduce your own sprinkler run off please visit this link.

Happy Watering!

Baby I'm Back, It's Been Too Long...

I'm finally back. The blog starting from today will have more 'oomf" and be more frequent and regular. I was waiting to start this blog until it became listed in google search. Look forward to the coming rants:

"Will the Roads Grow Too?"

&

"Sinful Waste Wednesday 04/28/09"

Keep it real!

NatureMill PLUS Fully Automatic Compost Machine

Oh my gosh! I'm in love! This tiny little compost machine takes in up to 120 lbs. of food per month and runs on the same amount of energy as a nightlight (which is way less energy than it takes to haul away your garbage in big garbage trucks). I want one of these so bad! It is also completely odor free, yes the makers thought of everything! Too bad one of these babies will cost you $300. However, there are several cost benefits to having one, such as getting a trash collection reduction rate and saving on fertilizer.

Check out NatureMill for more information and to purchase.

Cheers!

Sinful Waste Wednesday

Every Wednesday I will be posting photos of ridiculous wastefulness in hopes that we ALL can learn from these mistakes. So send in photos with a caption explaining who the sinner is and what is going on in the photo. My all time favorite example of wastefulness is packaging. Have you ever noticed how companies tend to ship tiny items in large packaging with tons of fluff?!? Or what about golf courses growing grass in a desert-- How much water does that take? Anyways! Let's see your pictures!

Send all photos to: me@corissa-jade.com

Here is our first sinner:

"I ordered a battery for my Plantronics headset from Headsets Plus last week. It’s about the size of a SD Card. And it was the only thing I ordered." Thanks to Scott Clark for this image and story.

Please send all email to: me@corissa-jade.com

Eco-Friendly Reusable Snack/Sandwich Bags

I can't even begin to count the number of times when I have sat outside on my lunch break, pulled my sandwich from a disposable zipblock bag and felt ridden with guilt. I try to use reusable containers, but find that they are often too obnoxious and space consuming.

Naturallyfelt has created a solution to this problem, introducing her Eco-Friendly Reusable Snack/Sandwich Bags. (I love the pattern!) They are made from cotton/bamboo blend fabric with a velcro closure the entire length of the opening. These brilliant reusable sandwich bags can be tossed in the washer, (only with a full load of course!)

Welcome!

I'd like to welcome everyone to my blog! The aim of Sinful Waste is to shame wastefulness, which will be probably accompanied by rants.