Our brand new Gentle Thanksgiving Website is up! Plans are underway across the USA for Gentle Thanksgiving events! Start planning your wonderful way to spend a Gentle Thanksgiving and sign up on our web site

Our Featured Thanksgiving Product this week: Road's End Organic makes a delicious vegan gravy in several flavors. Check it out at www.chreese.com

If your workplace participates in Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) workplace giving, please designate FARM for your workplace giving: Farm Animal Reform Movement #1805.

Help even more by giving FARM CFC fliers to your coworkers and placing them in your lunchroom.

When the California Healthy School Lunch Initiative passed the State Senate, Jackie Domac -- Health Teacher at Venice High School, Chair of the Health Department, a member of VHS School Based Management, Policy Consultant for the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, and Coordinator of the Linking Education, Activity and Food Grant -- expected the LA Unified School District to consider how they would begin implementation.

CHOICE has a new poster available with Alicia Silverstone promoting vegetarianism. It will be a hit in schools across the country. Call FARM if you are interested in having this poster in your child's school (888-FARMUSA or email info@farmusa.org)

Click here for the CHOICE website

A recent released by the Mathematica Policy Research, Inc of Princeton, New Jersey and baby food maker Gerber Corp in conjunction with the Tufts University School of Medicine has found that US toddlers have been eating too many fats and sweets. Please use these talking points to alert your community about this problem.

-A survey of the eating habits of 3,000 youngsters aged four to 24 months found their diets were surprisingly similar to that of older children - heavy on soft drinks, sweet candy and other junk foods, and light on vegetables and fruits.

- "French fries are the most popular vegetable eaten by children 19 to 24 months old," researcher Dr Kathleen Reidy said at an American Dietetic Association conference.

- "Twenty to 25 per cent of these kids did not eat a single healthy vegetable on the day of the survey, and 25 to 30 per cent did not eat a single fruit.

- Children aged 1 to 2 years require about 950 calories per day, but the study found that the median intake for that age group is 1,220 calories,--an excess of nearly 30 percent. For those 7 months to 11 months old, the daily caloric surplus was about 20 percent.

- Eating habits are set in early childhood. Vegetarian diets give your child the chance to learn to enjoy a variety of wonderful, nutritious foods. A diet of whole grains, legumes, fresh fruits and veggies, and soymilk provide excellent nutrition

Meatout Mondays is a weekly email sent to 2,500 subscribers who get veg recipes, inspiration and nutrition. Throughout the month of November we will be featuring Thanksgiving recipes and meat/dairy alternatives for you holiday feast.

If you know of a product you would like to recommend to Meatout Mondays subscribers, email kelcey@meatout.org

IBP MEMORIAL FOR THE COWS, 2003 This moving update was provided by activist and author Judy Carmen.

"On October 11, 2003, 25 activists from Lawrence, Kansas City, and Emporia, KS, stood together in a silent memorial for three hours in pouring rain and bitter north winds. Most of us had come unprepared for the weather, because it was sunny and fairly warm in the morning. Some had umbrellas, but very few had jackets, and some brave souls stood without jackets or umbrellas for the entire three hours. Many commented that what kept them going was the constant awareness that farmed animals endure so much worse than that. Gandhi and King both stressed that the willingness of an activist to suffer arouses the conscience of the opponent.

We stood on all four corners in front of the IBP Slaughterhouse, which is in the city of Emporia, while a constant stream of traffic passed us. We wore black, carried flowers, and held signs and banners, all of which were in black and white. Our banners read “In Memory of the 3500 Cows Killed by IBP Daily.”

Many trucks filled with cows bound for the kill floor passed by us within just a few feet of where we were standing. We could see their faces and look into their eyes. It was heartbreaking, and, at the same time, confirming that we needed to be right where we were. Each one of us, in our own ways, sent our love to them as they passed by. And each one of us was bearing witness to their suffering, and that is a great act of mercy. How we longed to be able to liberate them and stop the madness. Martin Luther King said “The non-violent approach does not immediately change the heart of the oppressor. It first does something to the hearts and souls of those committed to it. It gives them new self-respect; it calls up resources and strength and courage that they did not know they had. Finally it reaches the opponent and so stirs his conscience that reconciliation becomes a reality.”

We stood as flames of light in one of the darkest and saddest places on this earth, and with our hearts we spoke to the animals of earth, and we said, “We will not stop until all people hear your cries. We will not stop until the last factory farm closes its doors and you are all free. We will not stop until all people learn to live in harmony in the great web of life. We will not stop until the terrorism and war on all animals is over. Dear animals of the earth, we are here for you. We will fight for you and give you a voice until your freedom is won.” And as we said last year,:there is no power greater than Love, and on October 11, 2003, Love came to Emporia’s IBP Slaughterhouse.

Albert Schweitzer said, “We must fight against the spirit of unconscious cruelty with which we treat the animals. Animals suffer as much as we do. It is our duty to make the whole world recognize it.” Together with animal rights groups around the world we’re doing just that. "

Peace to All Beings, Judy Carman

To order Peace to All Beings, go to http://www.lanternbooks.com/ May we all hold the vision of a better world and from our hearts repeat each day: "May Peace Prevail on Earth" and "Compassion Encircles the Earth for All Beings Everywhere."