Jewish-Vegan Blogger Follows Up Two Great Posts With Random Blurbs

Maine Bans Gestation Crates and Veal Crates
Yesterday, Maine became the sixth U.S. state to ban gestation crates for pigs and veal crates for calves. "It's cruel and inhumane to confine animals in cages barely larger than their own bodies for months on end," said Katie Lisnik, Maine state director of The Humane Society of the United States. It's been widely reported that Maine became the fifth U.S. state to legalize gay marriage last week; Maine is the only state to do both.

Twitter Cofounder Pushes for Vegetarian School Lunches
Twitter cofounder Biz Stone has joined forces with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine to urge Congress to include vegetarian options in school lunches. "Even students who aren't vegetarian would benefit from having low-fat, high-fiber vegetarian options," wrote Stone in a letter. " In response, Rep. George Miller tweeted, "re: veg.– thanks 4 insight. Our goal 4 the child nutrition reauth is 2 improve children's access 2 healthy & affordable meals at school."

'Thou Shalt Not Eat Meat' on Jcarrot
On Monday, The Jew & The Carrot featured a post titled "Thou Shalt Not Eat Meat" by Jewish Vegetarians of North America president Richard H. Schwartz. Schwartz wrote that "our modern meat-centered dietary culture is doing great harm to Jews, Israel and, indeed, the entire world and is inconsistent with several important Jewish values."

Update on Shechita in Europe
Earlier this month, I noted that a proposed humane slaughter law in the European Union is a threat to kosher slaughter. Last week, IsraelNationalNews.com reported, "The European Union Parliament on Wednesday voted to legalize kosher slaughtering ... but a critical vote next month will determine if EU countries can effectively get around the approval by demanding pre-stunning, which violates Jewish dietary laws." The chair of a European pro-shechita group called the vote "the first time that ‘shechita’ has been recognized as a legitimate form of animal slaughter by any European institution."

Jews and Vegetarians Look for Connections With Vulcans
"You can spin a dreidel with Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock—both Jewish," famously sang Adam Sandler. Not only are the actors who play both Star Trek characters Jewish, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy are both animal advocates as well. On Monday, the New Voices Blog featured a post about the supposed "association between the Vulcans and the Jews." And The PETA Files wrote, "The always-logical Vulcans are ethical vegetarians .... PETA Trekkies will be sporting their specially designed 'Live Veg and Prosper' tees at theaters on opening night, putting an animal-friendly spin on the Vulcan greeting made famous by Mr. Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy, himself a vegetarian), 'Live long and prosper.'"

The L.A. Times on Eco-Kosher Eating
Last week, the Los Angeles Times ran an article titled "'Eco-Kosher' Jews Have an Appetite for Ethical Eating." The article noted that a kosher, vegetarian, green Shabbat dinner "reflected a powerful current in Jewish culinary consciousness: Growing numbers of people are choosing to express their values through the food they put on their tables, altering the most basic day-to-day decisions about nourishment." Click here to read my 2006 post "Eco-Kosher versus Veggie-Kosher."