August-05-2012

Today was Seafair Sunday in Seattle, WA.  The highlights of Seafair are the Navy’s Blue Angels Air Show and the hydroplane races on Lake Washington.

In 2010, we were on our way to the Washington coast and we noticed the Blue Angels at Boeing Field during a practice session.  We stopped to watch for a while.  It was intense to see and hear five jets take off at once!

It’s really unfortunate that Seafair– year after year– seems to be inextricably linked with the Oh Boy! Oberto company.  Why?

I discovered on the Miss Madison Unlimited Hydroplane website that:

“The Obertos’ Seattle-based meat products business is the second oldest corporate sponsor in Unlimited racing.”

No wonder.

In case you didn’t know…The Oberto Sausage Company has been in the business of turning sentient animals– cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys– into “jerky,” “pepperoni,” and meat “sticks” since 1918.

Here’s something really interesting (if not at all surprising):

Apparently, the Oberto Sausage Company, in partnership with The National MS Society, Greater Washington Chapter, is also “making outstanding strides towards finding a cure for MS.”

How is a sausage company doing that?

In 2009, they were a corporate sponsor for a 2-day MS Society event “to find a cure for MS.”  The company provided Oberto sausages to the 10,000 walkers for lunch.

????

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it beyond bizarre that anyone would consider it wise to feed anyone interested in any disease’s “cure” SAUSAGES for a fundraiser lunch.

Furthermore, with respect to Multiple Sclerosis specifically, there is ample evidence that a low-fat plant-based diet is an important factor in:

  1. preventing the onset of MS,
  2. decreasing symptom severity, and
  3. slowing the disease’s progression.

Read this excellent article by Dr. John McDougall for details and references.

I digress.  Back to Seafair…

This post was supposed to be about the perpetual “meat pushing” that goes on in mainstream society.  Seafair is a case in point:  I can’t watch a simple boat race without being literally bombarded by the logo of a company that profits from unnecessarily exploiting and killing animals.  (To be clear, they are only in business because people are willing to buy their products.)

Again, it seems beyond bizarre that vegans are the ones constantly being accused of “pushing” a certain kind of diet.

So, there I was watching the “Meatfair” television coverage and I noticed the Twitter feed along the bottom of the television screen.  I decided to provide one of the few (if any) anti-meat messages on the television for viewers today:

Yes…GO VEGAN!

By the way– here’s that blueberry ice cream, from Lick It!  (Contains blueberries, coconut milk, sugar, agave nectar, non-dairy milk and vanilla bean):