Green Daily

First it was Pope Benedict who announced to the world that we should save the environment. Now the Bishop of Rochester is urging his congregation to opt for free range poultry.

Speaking in Rochester Cathedral with caged battery hens by his side, Anglican Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali announced that "free-range" originated in the bible, specifically Isaiah 11. I'm not sure exactly which verse he was looking at but it also says that the wolf will be the guest of the lamb and I can't see that happening.

The bible says a lot of things from giving man dominion over animals to telling him not to eat anything that chews cud. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about religious figures urging their flock to support responsible chicken mongers, however, claiming that God supported free-range when there was not alternative seems a little far fetched to me.

Sure, T. Boone Pickens gets a lot attention these days for his plan to ween America off of foreign oil, build ginormous wind farms, and all that jazz -- but this week it's Mrs. Pickens' turn to make headlines. Not to be outdone, Madeleine Pickens has come up with an eco-friendly plan of her own. On Tuesday, she announced that she will purchase one million acres to serve as a giant sanctuary for America's famous wild horse population.

Vermont's Burlington Free Press highlighted Holly Rae Taylor a.k.a. the "Compost Maven" this week in their paper. Taylor is, without a doubt, the most committed composter I have hear of. Not only does she bring home table scraps from eating out but she also saves her scraps while traveling and dumps them into her home bin upon returning. She composts just about anything from meat to leather shoes. In order to detour rodents, she uses her self designed composters.

Armed with a master's degree in botany, Taylor worked ata composting company before starting her own online business, Waste Free Living. Her company sells hand-selected items that are earth friendly and practical. There are items to help you with waste and preservation like her composters and canning supplies. But there are also fun items like Hot Chicks cloth napkins and brightly colored Bamboo Lacquerware Bowls.

Taylor and her company strive to be waste free which means rethinking every thing that comes in and goes out. She throws out a whopping four bags of trash a year. Wow.

Yesterday was the official DVD/Blu-ray release of Disney/Pixar's acclaimed hit WALL-E. If you've seen the film then you already know that one of the major themes concerns the care of our planet and what will come from our society of want and waste- but in a fun way.

Things are grim lately in the PETA offices. They have that grisly Cooking Mama parody to attack turkey eaters. Lindsay Lohan was assaulted with a flour bomb because she is a "Fur Hag". And that was just the tip of the (melting) iceberg.

The new PETA ad starring Christine Dolce, aka MySpace star "ForBiddeN" is flat out gory. Besides a big heap of cleavage, the main elements are: blood, gore and a very disturbing skinned rabbit that I'm going to guess is fake.

It is fake, right?

PETA has decided to go after those of us still interested in cooking a Thanksgiving turkey with a rather disgusting version of the Cooking Mama video game.

In the original game, available for a variety of platforms, you do a variety of actions that cause you to "cook." In the PETA game, you cook, but in the most disgusting way possible I think. You have to do a variety of things to the turkey that those of us buying turkeys at the supermarket would never experience.

First you pull off the feathers, which results in much blood running down your arms and later you have to cut off the turkey's head and chop its neck into bits for the gravy. The blood may be animated but I still found it rather gross and off putting. This game is definitely not for children.

The game did not convince me to take the Pledge to go Veg as PETA hoped. Instead, it made me more annoyed with them for feeling the need to make the message so very unpalatable. I prefer facts to gore when making my decisions.

[Via Planet Save]

I have to admit, Shannon Elizabeth went up in my estimation when I found out that she started a non-profit animal rescue organization, called Animal Avengers.

The dark haired beauty is probably best known for the role of Nadia, a sexy foreign-exchange student, in the "classic" film American Pie. She also energized her fan base when she appeared on season six of Dancing With Stars, where she was partnered with her current boyfriend, dancer Derek Hough. And she's also a skilled poker player!

This last hobby has been put to good use for the animals. In partnership with Bodog Entertainment, Shannon has participated in several charity events, including one night of poker that raised over $50,000 for Animal Avengers.

So what does Animal Avengers do? The short answer is, a little bit of everything. They rescue homeless animals, pay for veterinary care, plus find foster and adoptive homes for animals. They are a no-kill organization, so they are dedicated to finding a home for every single animal they rescue.

Besides her poker activities, Shannon helps Animal Avengers by selling autographed photos, and official Animal Avengers gear. Think baby tees and sparkly belt buckles. Check out some of the Animal Avengers schwag in the gallery.

Even though she's no Olsen twin, Lindsay Lohan's been known to turn up on the red carpet wearing fur. She was listed on PETA's worst dressed celebrities of 2008, and she hangs out with notorious fur user Karl Lagerfeld.

After what just happened, she may be rethinking that wardrobe strategy.

Last night in Paris she wore a fur stole over a sequined dress, festive duds for an evening out on the town with girlfriend Sam Ronson.

Then, as they entered the VIP Room Theater, an animal rights protester pelted Lindsay with flour.

No, not flowers, flour, as in powdery, white and messy.

The tiny, angry activist is also reported to have called her a "Fur Hag" which must have sounded pretty funny in French. You can see the blow by blow photos on X17.

Lindsay was fine, the flour was brushed off and she posed on the red carpet for photos with Sam. But that has to shake you up!

She should call Natalie Portman for some advice on stylish vegan looks, just to make sure this doesn't happen again.

What says "Stop eating meat!" more than a Playboy model wrestling a PETA model? If you guessed having them wrestle in tofu, you win a special (imaginary) prize for pervy thoughts!

In keeping with their practices of nudity, hyper-sexualization of vegetarianism and all around provocativeness, our friends at PETA are courting media attention with this moderately unsafe for work video.

The stars are Kayla Rae Worden, in the blue bikini, and Kira Eggers of Playboy "fame" in the white thong. Both ladies are also sporting large, fake breasts, which you can say at least are not made of anything animal-related.

I believe the stated goal of this piece is to raise "awareness" by way of raising other "things." I'm sure all of the dudes standing around watching them wrestle are totally thinking, "Yeah, there's something to this vegan thing after all!"

Enjoy the clip with caution. When the drumming stops, the scary animal cruelty videos start. It might have nearly naked ladies, but it's is still a PETA video, after all.

Which celebs got naked for PETA?



I'm still bad about remembering my reusable bags ever time I go to the market. Consequently, I find myself refusing a bag walking out with an armful of loose products. Maybe if the canvas bag had a theme song, something that I could get stuck in my head every time I went to the store. What if this song had a sexy video with dancing hippies wearing too much eyeliner? Oh, and trumpets! It must have trumpets!

Too bad British comedian Tim Minchin already beat me to it. I guess that I could always write a rousing tribute to worm composting.

In a recent issue of Newsweek the magazine released some very interesting and insightful information from the presidential campaigns of both John McCain and Barack Obama, respectively. This newly released information was a collection of quotes and situations that Newsweek was privy to, but agreed not to publish until after the election.

In relation to Green Daily the most relevant quote came from Barack Obama regarding his views on solving global warming:

Just when we -- and Greenpeace -- were about to go over the edge in our fight against the ubiquitous and evil palm oil, some good news appeared on the horizon: sustainably farmed palm oil!

I know I never expected to put those four words together, and Greenpeace isn't buying the story. Still, it could it be a good first step.

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) is an organization created by the palm oil industry, so they're suspect to start with. But they did create a certification system that requires participants to follow sustainable farming and fair trade practices.

The first batch of palm oil produced under these guidelines is about to be delivered to Europe, where it will distributed to buyers including Unilever and British grocer J. Sainsbury.

I think the quote from Fiona Wheatley of Sainsbury's sums it up best. To paraphrase, she subtly acknowledges that these guidelines aren't perfect yet, but they're better than the big fat nothing we've done to regulate palm oil production in the past.

So there you have it. Progress. Ugly, lurching and inelegant, but better than what we were doing before. I'll take it!

We live in a time of strange bedfellows (see GOP ticket) and stranger duets (see Tony Bennett and Friends) but the recent teaming of hardcore rapper 50 Cent and gay icon Bette Midler may be the strangest yet.

Yes, their stories, talents and fans could not be any more different, but they do share some common ground- so they dug in it.

As we've highlighted here on Green Daily in the past, palm oil -- well ... it kinda sucks. Each year, thousands of acres of rain forest are chainsawed to make way for the rapidly growing palm oil farming industry, and let's just say industry practices aren't exactly sustainable. Still, when a tanker full of legally produced palm oil tries to leave a port in Indonesia on its way to Europe, is it OK for Greenpeace to use its sea-faring forces to form a naval blockade?

California had an interesting day at the ballots last week. They elected Barack Obama, that was a given, but it is the propositions that are generating the local (and national) talk.

Altering the constitution to outlaw same-sex marriages, Prop 8 is getting all of the headlines, and like a nasty kidney stone it is not passing quietly. It burns.

Prop 2, however, passed quickly and quietly. It was the issue regarding the treatment of animals raised for market and food production.