Green Daily

Theme Week: Chemical free pet treats

Sea Stachura — 2008-05-11T09:00:00 00:00

Every week we pick a theme to explore in more depth, and this week that theme is eco-friendly pets. To read all our posts related to this theme, click here.

I once bought a bag of cat food that touted its all-natural, all-organic ingredients. It had raisins and bananas and other items I had never seen in a list of ingredients for cat food. My cats refused to eat it. And I thank them for it.

Cats and raisins don't agree. Raisins cause kidney damage in cats, though at the time I didn't know it.

Advertisements told me my boys would love Greenies. You may recall the 2006 news stories of dogs dying from indigestible Greenies. The cat treats are supposedly very different. Nonetheless, my cats refuse to eat them.

So I've done a little digging for natural pet treats. I can't testify that these treats will clean your dog's teeth or that your cat will even want to eat them. I can't promise anything. You could stick with tins of tuna or sardines, but be careful of the mercury.

This is what I found:

Only Natural Pet Store sells its own variety of cat and dog treats. They include Poultry Crispies, oven-baked chicken crackers. The chicken is cage-free organic.
Whole Life Pet Products sell freeze dried meat treats. Cod, lamb, venison, salmon, chicken and beef. The treats are made with just one ingredient, the meat or fish, it's human grade food made from free range animals.
Sojourner's Farm features a wide range of natural dog treats, including the doggie fortune cookie. Most of the treats are wheat and corn free. Chicken pot pie and blueberry cobbler are a couple of the flavors.
Cherbey's All Natural Pet Treats are for cats and dogs. The only difference is the size of the treat. A couple of chefs make these free-range, antibiotic-free tilapia jerky treats.

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Gordon Ramsey says "Use local ingredients, you %$#&ing @&$#%!

Patrick Metzger — 2008-05-10T15:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Celebrities, Food, Polit-eco

Foul-mouthed and unexpectedly green TV chef Gordon Ramsey wants to move up from terrorizing would-be cooks on his TV show Hell's Kitchen to telling the whole restaurant industry what to do.

In an interview with BBC News, Ramsey says that all fruit and vegetables served in restaurants should be locally sourced and in season. "I don't want to see asparagus on in the middle of December. I don't want to see strawberries from Kenya in the middle of March. I want to see it home grown."

Ramsey feels so strongly about the issue that he's calling for laws which would require restaurants to use seasonal produce or be fined. According to the story, he's already spoken to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the idea, no doubt shrieking abuse at jet engine decibel levels, with the terrified head of state cowering behind his desk mumbling "Yes chef, yes chef."

I'm a little torn here. The use of seasonal, local food is a great idea with very tangible social and eco-benefits, especially when it comes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. On the other hand, laws requiring the practice would be expensive and unenforceable, and as an Oxfam spokesperson points out, possibly devastating to African famers who rely on food exports for their living.

Also, if the real-life Ramsey is anything like the person we see on TV, he's such a rude, loathsome bully that I'm inclined to disagree with him just on principle. Still, at least he's using his celebrity to raise awareness for a good cause, and kudos to him if his tirade convinces more restaurants to go locavore.

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A BioBag found in the wild

Marisa McClellan — 2008-05-09T16:57:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, GreenTech

Last Sunday was the opening day of my favorite Farmers' Market in Philadelphia, the Headhouse Farmers' Market. Operated by the Food Trust, which works ensure that all people have access to fresh, healthy and affordable food, this market is largest one that Philly has. It started last summer and quickly became a fixture in my weekly food shopping. It closed down in December and ever since, I've been counting down the weeks until it reopened.

One of the reasons I like shopping at Farmers' Markets (in addition to the fact the food is always fresher, lasts longer and just tastes amazing) is that by shopping directly from the growers, I avoid consuming much in the way of packaging. The man who sells the eggs is always delighted when I bring back my carton from the previous week, and the folks who sell apricots, peaches, nectarines and apples are happy to reuse their green fruit boxes. I bring a couple of reusable bags and so when I get home with all my food, I hardly have a thing to throw away.

Last week, I bought a pound of locally produced turkey sausage that was frozen. I was about to refuse the plastic bag that the woman was offering, when I realized that it was going to defrost a bit while I walked around that a bag to insulate the condensation would be a good idea. However, when I got home and was unpacked, I realized that she hadn't given me just any bag. It was a BioBag! Made from corn, it is biodegradable and compostable. It was the first time I had run across one of these bags and I was thrilled to discover how sturdy it seemed. Here's hoping that we all see more of these going forward.

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The Suburban Farmer: Chicken Companions

Shawn Schuster — 2008-05-09T16:29:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Home

This marks the final installment of The Suburban Farmer's chicken series, but don't fret! The Suburban Farmer will be back with many more topics to come in the near future.

So for this last piece, I'm going to talk a bit about what other animals can get along with chickens, typically. Now remember, as with any animal, they all have their own personalities and traits. Cats and dogs are said to traditionally not get along, yet many pet owners know this isn't the case.

The most obvious companion choice for chickens is other chickens. Even though they may peck at each other sometimes, they're a social animal who thrives in numbers. Also, there's rabbits. Technically, rabbits are considered poultry, so it only makes sense. Rabbits are sometimes messy eaters, getting their feed all over the ground, and the chickens are more-than-happy to come along and finish up the crumbs!
Another obvious choice for chicken companionship is ducks. They're very similar in nature, and they tend to treat each other as equals. Sheep, goats and pigs are also common friends for chickens, as they mostly tend to nonchalantly ignore each other.

Larger animals like horses and cows shouldn't really be a concern for a suburban farmer, but rest assured that for the most part, these animals can get along with chickens. Horses tend to be a bit skittish, but if introduced slowly over time, they can adapt.

As for unfriendly animals, turkeys and geese are the biggest offenders here. In general, both of these animals tend to be aggressive towards anything, so keep any eye on your chickens when they get around either of these.

I hope everyone enjoyed this chicken series, and please feel free to leave any comments or questions for me.

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I have a dream: finally, legal rights for vegetables

Patrick Metzger — 2008-05-09T12:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Activism

Free the celery! Switzerland could be the first country in the world to give rights to plants. The Swiss Federal Ethics Committee on Non-Human Biotechnology has issued a report saying that plants have certain inalienable rights simply by virtue of being living things, and we can't just do whatever we want with them. In the words of the report, "we may not use them just as we please, even if the plant community is not in danger, or if our actions do not endanger the species, or if we are not acting arbitrarily."

The report does allow - rather grudgingly - that human life takes precedence over plant happiness, so eating a potato now and again to stave off starvation is probably ok. However, casual violence against say, tulips, is an affront to the dignity of the flower, to avoided at all costs.

Is veggie liberation the next great frontier of social justice? Can we look forward to being taken to court by our hibiscus for underwatering? Will we see a million-melon march on Washington?

Probably not - this concept is a little extreme even for the most committed treehugger, and likely doesn't demonstrate much except that there are people within the Swiss government who have way too much time on their hands. Still, something to think about next time you're ~~torturing~~ steaming that head of broccoli.

The full English language report is available here .

via [The Weekly Standard]

Poor Americans hurting in global food crisis

Patricia Mayville-Cox — 2008-05-08T17:31:00 00:00

Filed under: Food

Food prices are rising, rising, rising, all around the world, causing much hardship and even political unrest. The hardship extends to the U.S., and as always, it's the poor that are the first and most affected in hard times. And they probably weren't buying organics to begin with.

According to a recent Reuters article, nearly one in 10 Americans, around 28 million people, are expected to use food stamps this year, the highest number ever, excluding a spike after the hurricanes of 2005. Food stamps are hardly an answer these days though, as the average benefit per person is about $100 per month, which is $1 per person per meal.

Program officials say that food stamps were never intended to make up a family's entire food budget ,and are counseling people on how to make their stamps last as long as possible. Lawmakers also plan to add over $10 billion to the food stamp program over the next decade, as part of a massive agricultural bill.

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The Suburban Farmer: What to do with all those eggs

Shawn Schuster — 2008-05-08T16:58:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Home

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Is Fiji bottled water really carbon negative?

Josh Loposer — 2008-05-08T16:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Green by the Numbers

At the end of last year, Fiji announced it's plans to offset its carbon emissions by 120%, so that -- according to their website -- drinking Fiji will "result in a net reduction of carbon in the atmosphere." While that sounds great and all, I'm finding Fiji's claims a little hard to swallow. How about you?

The truth is that Fiji has done more than most bottled water companies to lessen its impact on the environment, but still: bottled water is bottled water. Despite their buying huge carbon offsets and shipping their water on container ships that are already destined for US ports -- bottled water is simply not as green as drinking from the tap. According to estimates from Triple Pundit, it takes almost 6 times more water to produce and transport a bottle of Fiji than the bottle actually holds. No matter how they offset it, that is not a very green equation.

I've got to hand it to them, they've come up with a pretty good marketing tool -- but seriously. If Exxon bought 120% offsets for it's operations, would we believe that filling up with Exxon results in a net reduction of greenhouse gases?

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For mom: Climate change chocolate

Jonathon Morgan — 2008-05-08T14:43:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Shopping Guide

As you're preparing to throw together a last-minute gift idea for Mother's Day (again) this year, consider the following: I bet, right now, your mom is thinking to herself, "Sure, it's nice that the kids remember every year, but really, I wish we could all spend a little more time thinking about how our actions affect the planet."

So true, right?

Good news, now can kill two birds with one stone. The Climate Change Chocolate bar will not only satisfy mom's sweet tooth, but will also buy 133 lbs of carbon offsets -- the average daily use of one American.

Then you can burn her a CD of your favorite mom-friendly music and send her an e-card instead of picking something out at the store -- not because you're lazy, but because you love your mother, and she loves Mother Earth. Aww. Cute.

Gallery: 10 Green gifts for Mom

[via Alternative Consumer]

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Organic dietary supplements: because even greenies get lazy

Ellen Slattery — 2008-05-08T10:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Health

Why can't you just take a normal vitamin or supplement, you ask? Well, Real Food Organics claims that those typical pills tend to contain dangerous synthetic materials, and they came up with nutritional supplements derived from organic fruits and veggies.

In addition, the company has pledged to be green: the vitamins are packaged in a glass bottle within a biodegradable box, which is made from mineral powder. And its paper marketing materials are made from food by-products.

And groups like the Organic Consumers' Association are touting organic vitamins, and even launched a campaign, NutriCon, to get the word out that Big Pharma is giving people unhealthy supplements.
It's great to see an organic vitamin company, especially one that uses green packaging. But is this just another way to get us to buy something we don't need? The Center for Disease Control says that, on average, we consume fewer than four servings of fruits and veggies a day, instead of the recommended six to ten.

But we've all heard that excess Vitamin C just gets flushed out of our body, and taking too much of certain vitamins, like Vitamin E or iron, can be bad for us. For vegetarians or vegans, like myself, a vitamin is an important part of our daily regimen. But what about people who are getting a decent amount of iron, B12, folate, and the like? Will they really benefit from a supplement? Or are they simply wasting their money on these products, organic or not?

via [the alternative consumer]

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Tip of the Day: Take cloth napkins to work

Marisa McClellan — 2008-05-08T06:00:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Tip of the Day

Going through lots of paper napkins eating lunch at your desk?

Instead of using three or four paper napkins every time you eat lunch at work, bring a couple of cloth napkins to keep at your desk. When you have a cloth napkin close at hand, you have a good place to wipe your fingers, you can mop up spills easily and you are keeping waste out of the landfills. The only inconvenience is that you have to take it home every week or so in order to wash it, but that's a small trade off when you consider the savings and the benefits.

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The Suburban Farmer: Acting like a chicken

Shawn Schuster — 2008-05-07T19:02:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Home

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

The behavior of chickens is a fascinating and peculiar thing. They're unlike dogs or cats or your "normal" household pet, but they also share many of the same behaviors of these animals. Chickens are trainable to a certain extent, and of course their personalities are primarily dictated by their upbringing and surroundings.

I covered the most common behavioral "issue" with hens in yesterday's article about brooding, so in this article I will cover a few more common behaviors you may discover with your chickens.

Aggression - You'll find this most often in roosters (male chickens), and rarely in hens unless they are brooding. When chickens display aggressiveness, it simply means they're trying to dominate another chicken or another human. This is a very important social structure for chickens. The best way to curb aggression is to show them that you're the boss by picking them up and holding them regularly, and feed them from your hands. As the old saying goes, they will rarely bite the hand that feeds them. As with any animal though, chickens can still show unprovoked aggressiveness. This is why I advise against letting your children play with chickens unsupervised.

Wandering - As a general rule of thumb, chickens will not wander more than 50 meters away from their coop. This is a natural instinct for them, but of course sometimes there are exceptions. In a suburban yard, this becomes more of a problem than in large acreage. I've had chickens fly over a 6-foot wooden fence into the neighbor's yard simply because the coop was placed only 10 feet from that fence. The best advice I have for this problem is to place your coop in the middle of the yard, or closer to your house than the neighbor's yard.

Digging - Again, perfectly natural for them to do. If you want to have free range chickens and a perfectly-manicured lawn, you're dreaming. They will pick a spot, dig a hole about 4 inches deep and use that as their very own personal dust bath. The reason they bathe in the dust is to prevent mites and other parasitic insects from making a home in their feathers and skin.

Panting/Flapping wings - Both of these behaviors mean that the chicken is too hot. They flap their wings to cool their bodies, and their temperature-regulators are located in their beaks. This is also why they fill their beaks with water, hold their heads back and let the water run down their throats. It cools them off better in hot weather than simply gulping up the water.

Pecking Order - This is one of the most important structures in a chicken's life, besides dinner time. Don't fret if you see one chicken pecking the back of another. It's a disciplinary action from the pecking chicken to let the other know who's boss. It's natural in most pack/social animals and will work itself out eventually. If it doesn't, or the pecked chicken begins bleeding, separate them for a few days. If you're ever curious as to which chicken is the supreme boss, check them out while they sleep. Whichever chicken (male or female) is highest on the perch, even if it's only a centimeter higher, is the boss. This is why it's important to make the perch at a very slight angle in the coop. If the boss can't be higher on the perch than the rest, it will sleep on top of the coop or up in a tree.

Flying - Yes, chickens can fly, and quite high, too! As I mentioned, you will find them up in your trees eventually, if there are branches lower than 12-15 feet from the ground. Once they discover that they can get up there, you may have trouble getting them down and back into the coop unless you cut that branch.

Communicating - Chickens are said to be capable of making over 30 distinct sounds. These vary according to mood, but it is believed that chickens have a complete vocabulary all their own. Not only that, baby chicks can recognize their mother's unique sound in a group of hens.

Sickness - Generally, if your chicken is laying on its side, or has its head down, it is not feeling well. They tend to stay on their feet at all times, with their heads up, even when sleeping. So when this isn't happening, you may want to research the symptoms more thoroughly or seek professional veterinary help.

Again, these are basic signals to look for, but more research is certainly needed if any of these behaviors become problematic. It is important to realize that while you can keep chickens as unique pets with wonderful personalities, your neighbors might not think so. If you own roosters who crow loudly, or your chickens insist on jumping the fence and hanging out in the neighbor's hedges all day, you may have some complaints. In my experiences, people are much more forgiving of behavioral problems in dogs or cats than chickens.

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Bamboo To-Go!

Laura Malesich — 2008-05-07T12:37:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Shopping Guide, Travel and Vacation

I hate it when I go to a take-out restaurant or I'm grabbing a bite in the airport (where I seem to be frequently these days) and I have nothing else to use but plastic silverware. Fortunately, while reading FitYoga magazine today I came across something portable and most likely airport friendly. To-Go Ware Bamboo Utensil set includes a fork, knife, spoon, and chopsticks for your eating pleasure without the guilt over the waste of plastic. It comes in a fold-and-wrap cotton holder which is handmade by a women's cooperative on the Thai-Burma border. There are some other great reusable products from To-Go Ware, featured in the gallery below, which makes eating on the run much more green!

Gallery: To-Go Ware

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The Suburban Farmer: Preventing an Easter Egg hunt

Shawn Schuster — 2008-05-06T17:32:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Health, Home

One of my biggest interests, and one of the biggest topics I bring to the table at GreenDaily is a way to live a more sustainable life through raising your own food free of hormones and chemicals. This includes vegetables and animals, but mainly chickens. This series is an on-going introduction to the wonderful world of raising chickens in a non-rural environment.

While it may be fun to hunt Easter Eggs once a year, doing it several times a day can be daunting. As with any animal, you can train your chicken to perform a certain behavior just the way you'd like. In this case though, it's not fetching your slippers or going in a litter box, it's laying their eggs in their nests.

Let's first get one thing straight. Hens don't need roosters to create and lay eggs. Many people don't realize this, but there's a simple distinction. If you want fertilized eggs and to continue the generations of backyard chickens, the roosters will be needed, but to just simply lay unfertilized eggs, a rooster is not needed. In fact, according to most suburban or city codes, roosters are actually illegal to own because of the constant noise they make. No, they don't just crow at dawn.

So at around 18-22 weeks old, your female chickens will begin to lay eggs. You'll want to provide comfortable nest boxes for the chickens to lay, with no threats or dangers to spook them. Right around the 18 week time, place a small ping pong ball in each of the nest boxes to let the chickens know that this is the place to lay the little white things.

If you find that your chickens are laying in various places around your yard, block those places off and continue the ping pong ball trick. They will catch on eventually. If they continue to ignore the nest boxes, you may want to look into the placement of the boxes in the coop. They may be too low to the ground, too close to the door or too drafty. In any of these situations, the chickens will opt for better laying grounds.

For the first year of egg production, the chicken is referred to as a pullet. This is from the time of the first egg-laying to the time when they begin moulting and their egg production slows. Pullets are the most economical chickens to possess, which is the reason most chicken farmers process their pullets after a year. If you're more interested in keeping your chickens as pets, this may not be a concern for you.

Another big concern for egg-laying chickens is broodiness. This happens when a chicken lays on her eggs and refuses to get up. It's a perfectly natural behavior, but it makes collecting the eggs a bit difficult with all the pecking and squaking they'll do. The best prevention for broodiness is to collect the eggs at least twice daily. When the hens see that there are no eggs in their nest, they'll work on laying another one. For this reason, if you go on vacation or are away from your chickens for a few days during the first year of egg production, you'll need to get a friend or family member to collect the eggs daily. Trust me, preventing broodiness is much easier than breaking their broody habit once it get established, which is accomplished by picking the hen up off the eggs, collecting the eggs, and trying your best to prevent her access to that broody spot. Of course, in the situation where you want your hen to raise her eggs until they hatch, brooding is a very good thing.

I hope this little guide helped you with your egg-layers. Be sure to join me for the next installment of this series where I'll cover other chicken behaviors, and common tricks to getting your birds to play nice!

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Häagen-Dazs tries to save the bees

Eugene Sandhu — 2008-05-06T10:30:00 00:00

Filed under: Food

First, Häagen-Dazs releases a Vanilla Honey Bee flavor to raise awareness on the barley understood issue of those disappearing bees. Now, they want to go a bit further.

Look out for an ad campaign from the ice cream maker to include TV spots and the web site helpthehoneybees.com. An upcoming print ad in certain issues of Newsweek will consist of a page lined with real flower seeds on recycled linen asking readers to physically "plant this page. save a bee,".

Colony Collapse Disorder is the official name for the puzzling and ominous news that millions of bees are disappearing. Häagen-Dazs wants to help fight the problem.

Why should the ice cream maker want to get involved? Turns out a lot of ice cream flavors (40% of Häagen-Dazs varieties in fact) require the sweet, bee-produced stuff.
It's hard to choose the scariest environmental crisis we face, but the mass-death of bees has always freaked me out, partly because the problem is so mysterious.

Losing ice cream flavors is pretty horrifying. But the scarier issue would be that a third of everything we eat requires the pollinating services bees are so good at providing. So you can't really go wrong with saving the creature that we hugely rely on for much more than ice cream.

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4 startling facts about the organic food found in your reusable grocery bag

Kelly Leahy — 2008-05-06T10:06:00 00:00

Filed under: Food

I try to buy local before I buy organic but when it comes down to organic apples versus apples from some unknown source, I'll take organic every time (well, unless they're $5 a pound and then I pass ... quickly). I do this automatically because I believe that organic is better for me and my family. The question is, how much of what I believe is fact and how much is myth? A recent article by Ronald Bailey would have me believe that nearly everything "good" about organic is a fallacy.

Organic milk requires as much as 80% more land use than conventional. This has the potential to raise global warming and release more nitrates into groundwater.
Organic farms use more fuel per vegetable because each acre has a smaller yield than conventional farming.
There is no correlation between pesticides and rising cancer rates. In fact, cancer rates are falling.
There is no conclusive evidence that organic food is healthier. As soon as one study comes out claiming it is, another one is released rebutting it.

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Help pigs escape captivity with Pig Blaster

Jonathon Morgan — 2008-05-05T13:46:00 00:00

Filed under: Food

If you've been following the news lately, you'll know that the enormous hog farms supplying our ham are bad for our health, hard on the environment, and all around gross. This is a bummer, especially if you enjoy the occasional tasty strip of scrumptious bacon.

Step 1: Shop local, and shop organic.

Step 2: Divert your attention from this depressing situation by playing Pig Blaster!

In this web-based game, you attempt to help a pig escape his barnyard incarceration. The pig is aided in this endeavor by the power of his incredibly sonorous flatulence -- an eruption that is capable of lifting him beyond the farmer's fence. But fart too hard, and your pig will soar into the clouds and out of sight. Don't far enough, on the other hand, and your porky protagonist won't make it far enough to escape. (Clearly this is a game that takes skill, virtue, maturity, and dedication -- so don't expect to master it on your first try.)

Though it's worth noting that, rewarding as it may be to liberate your hog from the confines of his pig pen, his flatulence isn't exactly wonderful for the environment. In fact, previous studies have ranked animal flatulence as a serious contributor of greenhouse gas emissions (and thus,a significant factor in global warming). Seriously -- pig farts are bad for the planet.

[via Neatorama]

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Urban chickens making a comeback?

Patrick Metzger — 2008-05-05T13:01:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Home, Local

I remember back when I was a young whippersnapper, Ma and Pa used to keep chickens in the house, which we treated just like family, except we ate 'em. Course that was afore we found oil out in the yard and moved to Beverly Hills.

In recent years, urban poultry farming has declined in popularity, but with food prices rising and people becoming more interested in eating locally, the practice may be making a comeback.

The Toronto Star reports that more and more city-dwellers are turning towards personal chicken coops for fresh eggs and even meat (even here in Toronto, where it's technically illegal to raise poultry other than pigeons for "sport".)

In other jurisdictions, including many US cities, raising chickens is legal so long as basic hygenic precautions and specific regulations around the size of coops and runs are observed. If it's something that interests you, check out backyardchickens.com, or Green Daily's own resident expert to help you get started.

Next week, the coming trend: backyard cattle ranches.

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The trip between a whiskey bottle and its processing plant

Sea Stachura — 2008-05-04T13:15:00 00:00

Filed under: Food, Health, News, Activism

At the opening of The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan has purchased a cow. He hoped to follow Steer number 534 from his start in a massive feedlot to his end, on a dinner table. Unfortunately, Pollan wasn't able to follow his steer as far as he hoped. But his idea may have had some influence on Scott Ballum, a Brooklyn resident who has decided to follow the chain of his consumption.

His Mission: "A year-long effort to meet the laborers and craftsmen who build what I buy - and put a human face on consumption. For every transaction, there must be a personal connection with someone along the production chain."

That hasn't meant he's given up his Kentucky-brewed Maker's Mark, but he did shake hands with one of the guys who turns the barrels.
He's documenting his experiences, thoughts and travels in a blog. In one entry he asks how this experiment has changed his life. "The honest answer is that I'm finding it affects everything. Generally, I haven't sacrificed anything major (a cup of coffee while out and about, using hair product since I've run out) but it has changed how I buy things, and I've definitely started making substitutions. I make coffee at home everyday, with coffee from the Co-op."

The blog also has resources for his viewers, books on his reading list, sites he's found useful. Pollan's book is not to be found, but I have no doubt the cultural impact of that tomb is somewhere in the pixels on that page.

[via Gothamist]

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Ron Jeremy takes on Colonel Sanders for PETA

Patrick Metzger — 2008-05-04T10:26:00 00:00

Filed under: Celebrities, Food, Activism

More chicken-hating porn stars

Adult entertainment superstar Ron Jeremy has surfaced on the PETA website, in a video interview where he opines on what KFC should do to make their food more cruelty free. Jeremy, a man who's no stranger to the phrase "finger-lickin' good", wants the Colonel to raise his prices by a few cents a bucket and invest in more humane farming techniques.

While it remains to be seen how much influence Jeremy will have over the chicken-eating public, he and PETA are a nice fit - an organization committed to public nudity in a good cause, and a man whose drumstick is already familiar to millons of adult film enthusiasts. Can we expect to see Ron crouched naked in a cage in Covent Garden in the near future? And is it weird to be looking forward to that?

Can you guess the nude PETA celebrity?

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Green Daily

Theme Week: Chemical free pet treats

Gordon Ramsey says "Use local ingredients, you %$#&ing @*&$#%*!

A BioBag found in the wild

The Suburban Farmer: Chicken Companions

I have a dream: finally, legal rights for vegetables

Poor Americans hurting in global food crisis

The Suburban Farmer: What to do with all those eggs

Is Fiji bottled water really carbon negative?

For mom: Climate change chocolate

Organic dietary supplements: because even greenies get lazy

Tip of the Day: Take cloth napkins to work

The Suburban Farmer: Acting like a chicken

Bamboo To-Go!

The Suburban Farmer: Preventing an Easter Egg hunt

Häagen-Dazs tries to save the bees

4 startling facts about the organic food found in your reusable grocery bag

Help pigs escape captivity with Pig Blaster

Urban chickens making a comeback?

The trip between a whiskey bottle and its processing plant

Ron Jeremy takes on Colonel Sanders for PETA

Can you guess the nude PETA celebrity?

Gordon Ramsey says "Use local ingredients, you %$#&ing @&$#%!