Isn't it nice to know that there is quite a large selection of candy that doesn't cause as much harm to animals and the environment as that with milk and eggs?

 

I was so startled to see this sentence in a letter to the editor in the SF Chronicle Friday, August 7, 2026, in response to the  extensive "'Death row' for dogs" reportage:  "The majority of the population does seem to be concerned for animal welfare, as we have strict laws regulating how farm animals are raised." 

 "We have strict laws regulating how farm animals are raised"?   Imagine speaking of "farm animals" rather than "factory farm animals."  Imagine thinking that allowing our factory farm animals enough space to turn around and flap their wings is an example of "strict laws."  And those very weak California animal confinement laws--specifically Prop 2 and 12, which mandate that breeding pigs, veal calves, and egg-laying hens have enough to room to turn around, are being challenged in federal court by the meat industry and through federal legislative maneuvers in Congress! 

Peter Sherman of San Francisco also has a letter on the same day, which is titled "Selective hypocrisy."  

If you’re angry about those dogs being killed at that shelter — and if the Chronicle is going to splash it across its front page — then you’d better be a vegetarian.

Otherwise, the Chronicle and its readers are wallowing in a profound cognitive dissonance. We whip ourselves into a public frenzy over more than 100 dogs whose remains have been recovered — with hundreds of additional transferred animals still unaccounted for — yet blithely turn a blind eye to the millions of equally intelligent, feeling animals slaughtered every single day for our dinner tables. We harm our own hearts and psyches by accepting this mass suffering as totally fine — just so long as we get to pay $5 or $7 a pound. Running headline stories to feed our outrage over a rescue shelter while blithely promoting the daily consumption of farm animals isn’t journalism or morality; it’s selective hypocrisy. 

If you actually care about animal suffering, look at the Chronicle’s story and look at your plate. If you won’t, spare us the moralizing.

Peter Sherman, San Francisco

Of course, there's cognitive dissonance.  Does anyone doubt?

 

Plant Based Chocolates at Target!

 

The Transbay Coalition provided food for us hungry people rallying and seeing legislators in Sacramento yesterday.  What looks like some kind of meat on the little tacos is jackfruit!  I wish I had correctly identified what looked like green beans before I piled them on my plate.  They were jalapeño peppers!  But I am grateful that something plant-based was provided.   

 

𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓: 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐚'𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐩 𝟏𝟐

Crammed into tiny, filthy cages. Chained up to tiny stalls. Never seeing sunlight before they’re mercilessly slaughtered. This is the reality that many pigs are facing on factory farms.

Pigs, and other farm animals, are often being forced into these HORRIFYING living conditions because Big Meat and Dairy corporations only see them as a means for profit. With California’s commonsense farm animal protection law under attack, we could see even more cruelty on factory farms.

𝐏𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞 𝟏 𝐨𝐟 𝟏𝟗𝟐 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐝𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐃𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐬𝐮𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐬?

Vegan and not vegan

At an otherwise wonderful event, you see a table with sandwiches filled mostly with ham and a small sampling of sandwiches filled with egg salad plus a really delicious pasta and veggie salad.  You don't see the ice cream--from cows separated from their calves after giving birth.    Once again a "progressive" organization has failed the animal-welfare-environmental awareness test, and it's ironic that Jodi, the one being honored, is a vegetarian (for health reasons). I'm sure she didn't give it a thought, but of course, I did! I'd met for the first time and really liked a concerned environmentalist who talked a lot on our trip to Sacramento about what we need to do for the environment. When I mentioned diet, I could tell that wasn't on her list. She had a ham sandwich. I had the delicious salad. But one thing I noticed:  There were many more sandwiches with ham than with egg salad leftover at the end of the evening.  Was that because they provided so many more or because a lot of people really do prefer not to eat dead animals whose natural instincts had been suppressed during their lifetime?  

 

 

Firefly--the dessert at the end of a delicious dinner

 

 

Saturday, July 25, 2026  8:50 am

 

Here’s what ChatGPT recommended I say:

 

I want to begin by thanking everyone who planned such a warm and enjoyable luncheon. It was a lovely gathering, and I really appreciated all the work that went into it.

I did want to mention one small thing. When the announcement was made, 'There's meat!' in such a celebratory way, I felt a little sad. More and more people choose plant-based meals for ethical, environmental, or health reasons. Kaiser Permanente, for example, recommends a plant-based diet for many people, and many of us are increasingly concerned about animal welfare and climate change.

I certainly don't expect everyone to share my views, and I appreciate that there was a choice. I simply hope that in the future we can celebrate being together rather than celebrate one particular kind of food. That would feel more welcoming to everyone.

 

 

Here’s what I just sent to the OWL Board members:

 

Dear OWL Board Extraordinaire!

 

That was a lovely gathering yesterday, and I appreciate all the work you all did to make it happen.  I especially liked the opportunity to hear from everyone there, including people I didn't know, and I felt lucky to be seated next to Eunice, a long-time member I got to know yesterday, when I found out how wonderful and life-affirming she is!  I was startled by how briefly we heard from Joan, who does so much for us and for the travel industry!  She didn't even mention her recent trip(s)!     

 

I hope we can all learn to use the microphone.  Betty did her best, taking it around to everyone.  But most people didn't know how to hold it. I could hear everything people said, but some others at my table could not, and I had the impression until we got to the final table that no one was holding it right.   If we have another OWL Newsletter, maybe we can include this link:

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+it+true+that+we+should+hold+a+microphone+like+an+ice+cream+cone%3F&oq=is+it+true+that+we+should+hold+a+microphone+like+an+ice+cream+cone%3F&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRiPAjIHCAIQIRiPAtIBCTI2NzE5ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&source=chrome.ob&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b09a4e6f-a14e-487d-9c5d-1cf1255a19a4_c8d8a1f3,vid:GXjzPk6GDmg,st:0

 

On the subject of the OWL Newsletter, I feel hopeful about Dana Cayce, whose contact info I now have.  She expressed a willingness to take it on, and I'd like to help her with what doesn't require her tech-savvy skills.  Was it Ed who mentioned the OWL Newsletter yesterday as the way he kept up with OWL?

 

Getting back to being life-affirming, when the announcement was made, "There's meat!" in what may have been heard as a celebratory  way, I felt a little sad. More and more people choose plant-based meals for ethical, environmental, social justice, or health reasons. Kaiser Permanente, for example, recommends a plant-based diet for most people, and many of us are increasingly concerned about animal welfare and climate change, which are affected by factory farms/animal agriculture, as are the workers in factory farms, who see and are asked to do horrendous things and have more injuries than people in other factory jobs.   (I'll spare you details about the dairy and egg-producing industry here.) I know that eating animals has been normalized for centuries and is still associated with human pleasure if not with pleasure for other sentient beings.   But I do think that OWL members care about animal welfare, the environment, their health, and the physical and mental health of workers.  Giving choices is usually a wonderful thing, but if OWL had been in operation during the Delano Grape Strike, I'm not sure it would have provided grapes.  

 

On the subject of good causes, I'm forwarding something I just saw about a protest at O'Farrell and Van Ness today, focusing on the two people most recently killed by ICE.

 

Again, I admire all of you enormously and appreciate all your good work!  

 

Tina

 

I really enjoyed the SFVS's discussion of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel ORYX AND CRAKE, which we discussed in Yerba Buena Gardens. We liked it so much that we decided to read the complete trilogy, which continues with The Year of the Flood (2009), and MaddAddam (2013). The series explores a bio-apocalyptic near-future shaped by unchecked genetic engineering, corporate power, and catastrophic pandemics. But here's a close-up of an important part of our discussion: Tofu fries:

I made them in reference tot he "soy fries" that Oryx rhapsodizes about. "We're so lucky to have soy fries," she tells Jimmy. So many people go without. The depiction of vegans in this novel is not attractive, but I'm happy to say that all of us enjoyed the tofu fries!

Savor is one of my favorite restaurants, and the SFVS had a great time there this past Wednesday, July 24, the evening after I got back to SF.  Photo by Lina Huang, pictured below.

 

 

Three dishes Patty, Jonathan, and I enjoyed at the Rad Radish when we celebrated her birthday before the SF Symphony on June 25, 2026

 

I took this picture of Lina, who was behind the camera most of the time.  Now she can be seen!

This was our menu at Savor on June 24th, 2026.

Soup & Starter Mushroom & Spinach Paprika Soup Fresh Herb & Fresh Fava Bean Stuffed Artichoke Hearts With a lemon-lavender sauce Main Course (choose one) Roasted Tempeh & Quinoa Cakes With wood ear mushrooms, seaweed, and a saffron sauce Hodo Tofu & Vegetable Couscous Dessert (choose one): Kataifi Coconut Cream Pie Caramel Pecan Bars