Commentary on life, travel, and the world
When global leaders won’t save our food system, cities take the lead.
This piece I co-wrote with Anita Krajnc of Plant Based Treaty and Nital Jethalal of VegTO was published by the Independent Media Institute in December 2022 and syndicated in Countercurrents, CounterPunch, AlterNet, Independent Australia, and others.
While oil and gas corporations are notorious for campaigns to hinder climate action, are other industries escaping under the radar? Laura Lee Cascada investigates the impact and obfuscations of the meat industry, and a worrying pattern of green organisations in their pay. Sponsored by the Better Food Foundation.
Coral reefs are dying, and fish are disappearing. The current of devastation begins in our everyday lives, including the food on our plates.
We’re celebrating our second Earth Day in the midst of a global pandemic, which, in just one year, has redefined the word “normal” for us all. Yet COVID-19’s disruption has also afforded us an opportunity to hit the reset button and establish a resilient, sustainable new normal. We’ve long counted on environmental groups to model what this sustainable future looks like—one where single-use plastics are rare and electric vehicles are business as usual. But what about our fragile food system, which has all but crumbled under the pandemic’s weight? Does the way the climate movement eats line up with its own sustainable values?
(This piece was published by the Royal Examiner on November 25, 2020.) For a holiday grounded in tradition, this Thanksgiving is going to feel unsettling: face masks, socially distanced gatherings around an outdoor fire pit, and even Zoom calls with relatives from afar. In the midst of such a shakeup, perhaps the most grounding step Read More
(This piece was originally featured on Happy Eco News on September 14, 2020.) Hello, Happy Eco News readers! My name is Laura, and I’m writing to you from the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, where I’ve recently made a home for my pitbull mix, potbellied big, and myself, nestled between the trees and the Read More
Originally published by Tenderly on Medium. Let’s get to the meat of Burger King’s new singalong: the absurd stunt of announcing a diet change for “some” of your cows isn’t a sudden departure from the company’s dismal environmental record. It’s a thinly veiled marketing campaign to help the burger giant to get back to what it Read More
Originally published by One Green Planet. It’s tough, in the midst of a global pandemic, to find a cause for celebration this World Rainforest Day. And the smoke still lingers from the Amazonian fires that lit up the headlines nearly a year ago. From their ashes have crystallized the realization: There is no just or sustainable return to life Read More
This photo — two women’s hands, one black and one white, gently intertwined — has long been one of my favorites that I’ve treasured up to this moment, nearly 14 years after it was taken. I’ve cherished it because it represents love and unity between two women transcending racial divides, a sentiment that remains powerful even more than a decade after that romantic relationship ended. But I’ve also cherished it because it evokes a dark, formative memory that will forever haunt me — and, more importantly, remind me that true unity and solidarity can’t be sustained by a fleeting moment of anger or an empty hashtag.
(Originally published on Medium) Four years ago this month, I penned a piece at The Dodo defending an organization to which I had dedicated nearly five years of my life managing animal rights campaigns: PETA. In it, I described a bill being considered by the Virginia legislature that would redefine an animal shelter’s purpose as existing to Read More
This might just be the most important thing I’ve ever written. More important than the journals that comforted me through the angst of my teenage years. More important than the 2,000-word late-night essays that got me through college and grad school. More important than the blogs, press releases, letters, and op-eds I’ve drafted over my Read More
This article was originally published by One Green Planet. (By Laura Lee Cascada) We all know and love Esther the Wonder Pig, the “micro pig” who fell into the arms of Canadian couple Derek Walter and Steve Jenkins and then kept growing, and growing, and growing. At 650 pounds, today she fills Facebook, Instagram, and Read More