Tainted beef sickens at least twenty-four

In what is now the seventh widening of scope since May, a Colorado meat company in the United States has updated its recall to include over 400,000 pounds of beef products that are suspected of contamination by the potentially deadly E.coli bacterium.

At least 18 illnesses so far have been linked to the meat, which has been distributed nationally and internationally. According to the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the type of E. coli bacteria that causes illness in humans comes from the intestines of ruminant animals, mainly cattle, and can result in symptoms ranging from intestinal disorders to kidney failure that can result in death.

Recently, members of the media such as independent journalists, Dan Flynn and Andrew Shain at The State newspaper in South Carolina have requested that the public be informed of retail locations receiving the tainted products.

Caring Journalists, we laud your request for the release of information that would enable greater protection of public health.

At the same time, we pray for humanity’s quickly advancement towards the more assured safety and manifold benefits of the plant-based diet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUSN2833527820090628
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31596299/ns/health-food_safety/

Alcohol a lethal substance globally

Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada have found that alcohol is responsible for one in 25 deaths internationally, one in 10 deaths in Europe, and one in seven deaths in the former Soviet Union countries.

Although moderate intake is often touted as an effective protection against cardiovascular disease, the researchers also noted that these so-called benefits were far outweighed by the significantly greater risk of disease associated with alcohol consumption, including mouth and throat cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, depression and stroke.

Professor Ian Gilmore, president of Britain’s Royal College of Physicians, stated, “This study is a global wake-up call. We need an international framework convention for alcohol control, similar to that on tobacco, as soon as possible, to put into practice the evidence-based measures needed to reduce alcohol-related harm.

These include increasing the price of alcohol, reducing its availability and banning advertising, and the action needs to start now."

Our grateful thanks, University of Toronto scientists and Professor Gilmore for this comprehensive study and compelling call to action. We look forward to seeing successful policies of governments worldwide that bring the freedom of alcohol-free lives to societies everywhere.

Reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8118475.stm

South African advocate working to save seals

Head of the organization Seal Alert-SA, Mr. Francois Hugo is calling for a halt to seal hunting in Namibia where, beginning July 1, the world’s largest seal cull is expected to begin.

The hunting season is scheduled to last until November 15 and is seeking a quota of 85,000 pups and 6,000 bulls, which will result in the brutal slaughter of 91,000 endangered Cape fur seals.

Francois Hugo – Head of Seal Alert-SA, South Africa (M): in english On the first of July when the seal babies are seven months of age weighing 12 kilograms each, the Namibian government issues a sealing quota for the sealers to go into the colony and round up 85,000 baby seals and club them to death.

VOICE: According Mr. Hugo, this annual practice has caused the former seal colonies that had inhabited 23 islands off the Namibian coast to become 97% extinct.

Seals that do manage to escape the cull instinctively abandon the islands and do not return to their homes.
Francois Hugo – Seal Alert-SA (M): The problem with the conservation of the species is the seal industry. So that is the first hurdle that has to be removed, and once the seals are no longer clubbed, we then need to reverse the damage man has done over the past few centuries.

Our next endeavor is to repopulate those extinct islands with the seals that are being killed on the mainland beaches in Namibia.

VOICE: Mr. Hugo has worked tirelessly for the past 10 years to rescue this endangered species. In 1990, seal culling was halted for good in South Africa. If the same could be done in Namibia, the entire species may still have a chance to be saved. Seal Alert-SA is now negotiating the purchase of the seal industry itself in order to halt the cull by raising US$14 million by July 1st.

Once the seal hunting has been stopped, Mr. Hugo plans to begin repopulating the abandoned Namibian islands with the 60 seal pups he has rescued so far.

VOICE: Our heartfelt appreciation and support, Mr. Hugo and Seal Alert-SA for your dedicated perseverance in saving the Cape fur seals.

We too pray for the immediate protection of these gentle beings and that humanity fully awakens to our compassionate nature to live in peaceful co-existence with all species on Earth.

http://www.youtube.com/user/sealmancam#play/uploads/5/uzPcAvEARwI.
http://www.economist.com.na/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=17091:
hunting-seals-cruel-financially-not-viable&catid=542:headlines&Itemid=62

Mekong dolphins at the brink of extinction

An intensively polluted Mekong River has resulted in alarmingly low populations of the freshwater Irrawaddy dolphin. Numbers are now less than 100, with more than 50 calves who have lost their lives since 2003 from toxic levels of pesticides, mercury, and other pollutants that suppressed their immune systems.

The species has been listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) since 2004, and Seng Teak, Country Director of WWF Cambodia, stated, “A trans-boundary preventative health program is urgently needed to manage the disease-affected animals in order to reduce the number of deaths each year.”

We shed tears to know of the suffering of these aquatic co-inhabitants, and pray that they may remain strong as we strive to restore their habitat to healthy purity through our more caring stewardship of Earth.

During a July 2008 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan), Supreme Master Ching Hai reminded once again of our impact on the lives of others, saying that it is through our consideration of other beings that we can ensure the welfare of all inhabitants.


Supreme Master Ching Hai: Farm animals get sick due to pesticides. Fish die because of farming insecticides, pesticides, etc. Wild species suffer similar fates because we also drain our chemical substances, insecticides, pesticides into the rivers, into the lakes, into the oceans.

So we lost many of these precious species, we lost many, many of us, because they are us.
And we also lose ourselves, many of us humans, because of these poisonous substances – even from the farm industry -and we still did not wake up yet.

So we must protect the environment. And the wild, they can take care of themselves. If the environments are friendly and conducive to a healthy lifestyle, then the wild will never get sick. The wild will have no problem.

Reference
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8106323.stm

Formosan (Taiwanese) city launches vegetarian school meal program

In efforts to promote a low carbon emission diet, Tainan city is encouraging self-catering schools to begin with one vegetarian lunch per month, moving to once a week while at the same time developing organic vegetable gardens on the school grounds. Amongst 51 elementary and middle schools in the city, 48 have adopted the program.

The city’s Director of Education, Mr. Suie-Wen Wong and Deputy Secretary of the Environmental Protection Bureau, Mr. Jen-San Lin, joined the students in Rihsin Elementary School for its launch of the eco-friendly lunches.

What encouraging news! We thank the Tainan City Education Department and Environmental Protection Bureau as well as the participating schools for your veg endeavors.

Wishing many teachers, students and families the manifold benefits of living in health with the compassionate and Earth-friendly vegan diet.

Reference
http://www.nownews.com/2009/06/05/11468-2460648.htm

Oceans found to be rising faster than predicted

A newly published report by the International Alliance of Research Universities, “Climate Change –Global Risks, Challenges and Decisions,” states that the rate of polar ice caps disintegration as well as sea level rise are both substantially faster than what the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted two years ago.

The paper, which was prepared by researchers from 10 international universities, predicts the ocean levels to rise 1 meter by the end of the century, a nearly 70% increase over what the IPCC previously projected.

Similarly,oceanic temperatures are climbing 50% faster than forecast by the IPCC. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director of Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, stated, “We have to act immediately and we have to act strongly. Time is clearly running out.”

Our sincere gratitude, scientists of the International Alliance of Research Universities for this report that clearly highlights our imminent global crisis.

Let us all quickly transition to nobler lifestyles to protect the future of our unique and beautiful planet. During the March 2009 Juice Fast for Peace seminar in California, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai acknowledged the reality of the world’s changing oceans, offering at the same time a way to truly transcend this planetary dilemma.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Where are we going with this kind of rising levels? Even if we dig a hole… Nowadays, they have something like the tube ready for you, like a room, and then you can put it in the Earth to protect yourself from climate change, from gases and all that, but how can we protect ourselves in this case when the sea level rises 70 meters and bury everything in its wake?

And no more food, no more agriculture, nothing! No animals even to eat. Even if we want to eat meat, there will be nothing left for us.

We have to change to a vegetarian diet, animal-free diet. Animal industry must be out. That’s it.

Reference
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=afmw1nT6inhA

Natural disasters are on the rise

According to a report just released by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), weather catastrophes have increased over the past decade. The average of 200 per year in the 1990s has increased to 350 per year this decade. Last year there were over 235,000 fatalities from disasters linked to weather such as Cyclone Nargis.

Speaking of the impact of global warming through these extreme events, IFRC Secretary-General Dr. Bekele Geleta said, “The disasters which climate change will trigger potentially threaten more lives and livelihoods than any before.”

Our sincere appreciation, Secretary-General Geleta and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for this disturbing reminder of our planet’s fragile state.

Let us safeguard all lives on Earth through the loving vegan, meaning animal-free, lifestyle. In a July 2008 videoconference with our Association members in Washington, USA, Supreme Master Ching Hai conveyed her deep regard for humanity’s plight in facing global warming, as she offered a way to address its effects.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: If the planet is polluted and poisoned, then people will die slow and in agony. So many disasters happen, and people will suffer so much.

Everybody has to join to into the vegetarian diet, and stop the killing, stop the harm to other people and the animals and save energies every way possible and go green wherever possible. Then we still can save the planet.

Reference
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Tech%2Band%2BScience/Story/STIStory_391419.html
http://www.rcstandcom.info/m-geleta.shtml