How To Prevent Year Zero, When All Wild Animals Are Gone

Words by Dr. Sailesh Rao

In 2015, I was visiting India on a project field trip when the main news in New Delhi was the spate of farmer suicides occurring on a daily basis. And I was shocked to discover that the farmers were committing suicide because they had harvested a bumper crop of potatoes! The price of potatoes plummeted and many farmers were dumping their potatoes by the side of the road instead of taking them to market in New Delhi. They were then drinking pesticides and killing themselves because they couldn’t repay their debts.

We live in a socioeconomic system that depends on scarcity and it tries its best to turn natural abundance into artificial scarcity. Globally, 7.5 billion human beings consume about 1.5 billion tons of food annually. However, we procure almost 9 billion tons of food, six times as much food as we really need. But we turn this natural abundance into an artificial scarcity through Animal Agriculture. We feed nearly 7.5 billion tons of food to our animals and in return, they give us less than 190 million tons, a nearly 40 fold reduction in dry weight. Since animal foods are scarce, we compete over them and in fact, around 9 million people actually die of starvation each year, despite the fact that we are procuring 6 times as much food as we really need! read more

When Beloved Local Crocodile Passes Away After 130 Years, 500 People Attend His Elegant Funeral

By McKinley Corbley for Good News Network.

Though most people might be afraid of a giant crocodile, this particular reptile has always been considered a beloved part of his village. So when he finally passed away of natural causes earlier this week at the age of 130, the village gave him a funeral fit for a king.

The ancient crocodile, named Gangaram, had grown to be almost 10 feet long (3 meters) at the time of his passing. Despite his intimidating size, the Indian residents of the Bawamohatra village in Chhattisgarh adored the scaly giant. read more

Belugas to Become Residents of the World’s First Retirement Home for Ocean Animals in Show Business

By McKinley Corbley for Good News Network. Photo by Sea Life Trust.

These two beluga whales have been performing for spectators at a water park in China for the last 7 years – but soon, they will be the residents of the world’s first retirement home for oceanic animals in show business.

Little Grey and Little White are the two whales currently living in a concrete tank at Changfeng Ocean World in Shanghai. For years, animal rights activists have been urging the aquarium to rehome the 12-year-old belugas to a healthier, more humane environment – but since the whales have been raised in captivity, they would be unable to survive in the wild. read more