December 2003 Archives

picture and text from : http://www.goveg.com/feat/foie/

"Foie gras, which is French for "fatty liver," is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. Birds have up to 2 pounds of food per day pumped into their stomachs through long metal pipes that are shoved down their throats. The cruel ordeal often causes severe injuries that make it painful or even impossible for birds to drink. Those who survive the feedings suffer from a painful illness that causes their livers to swell to eight to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to walk and are reduced to pushing themselves across their cages with their wings. When the birds are slaughtered, their livers are sold for foie gras. "

picture from: http://meltingpot.fortunecity.com/estonia/669/protest.html

that's what gonna happen to the 6 days old calves i met, in around 170 days...
they gotta leave this monday (29th december 2003) to be sold to this horrible battery slaughter house, before being killed to be eaten...

once again, i've been in this farm, on the 25th december, to see the "milk extraction" ... and i've been crying for hours after coming back from the farm.
to be honest i wasn't able to write down here my feelings straight away after being there as i did after my first time in the farm...
this time it took me time just to feel able ...

first of all i hope you won't be so chocked by this picture... this picture is not mine, but that what i see in my head each time i remember these 2 calves i hugged in the farm this second and last day...

to sum up: i've seen the cows, standing on this cement bridge, quite high from the floor... then the farmer put this machine on their nipples to suck up the milk... it seems to be REALLY PAINFUL... as soon as the machine is on, the cows start to mark time, they look really stressed and we can easily understand how painful it is, just watching their faces! it's really horrible... they have to live that twice a day, and these cows are "lucky", because in some other farms they do it three times a day (but it reduces their lifetime...)
i've chated with the farmer again, and he told me it's the same in the organic stock farming... (the only differences in organic farming, are that the animals are fed with non chemical stuffs and they don't use battery slaughter houses, but the animals are still killed as soon as they are no longer profitable...)

in the room next door to the exctracting milk machines, there were these 2 calves i've mentionned... 6 days old, about to leave to go in the battery slaughter house for 165 days, to be force fed and killed.
why?? why human beings are that cruel??
they are so innocents!! so young to be afraid of human beings, they were playing with me and licking my hands... poor beings... they don't know what a big mistake it is to be unscarred of a human!!!
the only question that keep on resouning in my head is "why?"
why are we that cruel and how can one be that cruel? you have to be a monster to be able to hurt these 6 days old calves!!!

the good thing is... now i've seen it, with my own eyes, and now i am not about to crack up for a piece of cheese!!!!!!

thanks for reading, and please, i beg you : pass a resolution for this new year: try to go vegan or at least veggie... and if you really can't, please, try to reduce your consummation of meat, fish, eggs and dairies. this is really the only way! petitions and everything you can do is useful, but i am afraid the really power we have in this consumer's society is to be consumers.... so please don't support all these sufferings and all this waste buying meat or dairies!
there are a lot of very good websites that will help you to have a healthy cruelty free diet (check the links, just on the right)
thanks,

no�mie

more picture on : http://www.factoryfarming.com/gallery.htm

Today i met 2331, 2330, 2325� and many more (Sorry guys, I can�t name all of you)

I spent the afternoon with cows and calves in a farm. I need to know, I need to see. I took bunch of pictures, but I only have my 90 mm with me� I am so dumb!!! I forgot I sent my 35mm lens to be checked and repaired. I used to borrow this magical 28mm from this shop where I am used to buy all my photos stuffs� and I forgot to pick it up this time� So here I am, taking pictures of cows and calves with a 90mm� I feel really silly, and uncomfortable� but�well, taking portrait of all these innocent animals about to be murdered is still very intense.
I am gonna tell you what I�ve learned today, but before I start, you must know these info come from a regular farmer, who has studied regular farming stuffs� he doesn�t support organic farming, he�s not involved in/for any organization for the ethical treatment of animals, and he doesn�t feel really concerned by animals suffering. He�s just a typical farmer. I know him since I am a child, but we are not specially friends� he doesn�t know anything about my commitment for the animal cause. I just asked him questions.
First of all I asked him to tell me the truth about milk� I am hanging around on a French vegan forum, and we have been wondering if a cow can produce milk without getting pregnant� it may sounds silly, and I already knew the answer� but someone told me sometimes some cows were able to have milk without pregnancy� and at this moment I felt dumb because I wasn�t able to be 100 % sure it was impossible. Now I am. The farmer answer was clear: � it�s impossible: a cow has to get pregnant to produce milk. As soon as the calf is born, we remove it from his mother, to start to pump the cow�s milk. The calf never tastes his mother�s milk. We give him powder milk instead. The calf grows up apart, with other calves, while we keep on taking his mother�s milk regularly. The more we take the cow�s milk, the more she produces milk. After few weeks, I sell the calves to this guy, who put them in this place, where everything is done by machines. I�ve been there once, it�s really horrible� it�s very small and dirty. The calves spend 165 days in there, before being killed to be eaten. They are the met you buy at your butcher�s (oh my god, he really doesn�t know me!!!!!)�. So even this typical regular farmer was chocked by the �slaughter house�, this industrial breed�. I asked: �how long do the cows live?�
- well as long as they produce milk� when a cow is no longer productive enough, we sell her to be killed and eaten� look: the cows on the right are elder and they gonna be killed quite soon� the ones on the left are youngest and they still produce milk enough�
I spent the afternoon with the calves, they were all trying to lick my hands and clothes� it made me cry. Yes, I cried because of this cruelty� while I was watching the calves in the yes I was thinking of what he�ll have to go through in the next 200 days� I would like to have money enough to buy 2331, 2330� but I haven�t� so these calves will have to leave the farm in a couple of days, to be carried in very bad conditions to a slaughter house� where they will be fed by machines during 165 days, to be fat enough to be killed. Then they will be carried again in very bad conditions� the journey gonna be painful and very stressful� and they gonna be killed, sold and eaten. This is how the story ends.
I gotta go back at the farm at half past six, to see how the machines take the milk from the cows� boobs�
I am definitely vegan. I know witnessing and experimenting that kind of situation make my convictions stronger� and I know it�s more efficient than everything I could have read or seen on the internet..; but now I feel sorry because I can�t really help them that much� the only thing I can do is taking pictures to show what they have to go through�. To try to make people realize how cruel is the today�s farming�

thanks for your attention,
no�mie.

picture: "grom staring at the ocean" by no�mie ventura

one day i was
driving on my own
thinking about the world
about my destiny
singing few words... of some rock'nd roll songs i know
"i need to take off" i thought
"i need to escape frome here, sometimes"
driving, singing, thinking on my own...

The countryside.
10 000 leaves falling from the trees
the rainbow, the amazing light...

the exiles makes me be more creative
but i am always happy to come back
sometimes i need the exile and sometimes i need to be locked ... in my box, with my mates
stay-at-home and gypsy in the mean time.

orl�ans - anglet - bidart - biarritz - bidart
orl�ans - bayonne - saint pierre d'irube - anglet
orl�ans - bayonne- mouguerre- hossegor - seignosse - mundaka - berm�o - bakio- guernika- saint jean de luz - saint pierre d'irube
... biarritz la n�gresse...
orl�ans - paris - brest - logmaria plouzan� - rennes
orl�ans- bayonne - mouguerre- marcheprime- le grand crohaux- mimizan
orl�ans - paris- marseille
orl�ans - paris - london
london- porthtowan- saint yves - saint agnes- newquay
orl�ans - lacanau - seignosse - bayonne - saint jean pied de port - hossegor - barrou
orl�ans - hossegor - seignosse- mouguerre
paris- mumbai - mundgod - hubli - delhi - kathmandu - mumbai

-Mumbai -
every single soul in there is busy. by night, by day... this city is never aslept.
orl�ans

it's been a quiet and busy year...

thank you for spending some time to read this blog and visit my website!

may the peace prevail on earth

no�mie.

picture: "listening to The Fragile" by no�mie ventura

hi there....
the new page with my b&w postcards is ready...
i am making postcards for christmas (front side an original print of one of my b&w pictures, backside: a regular postcard)...
the price is 3� / US$ each, it's not that expensive considering every single postcard is a hand made original print...
so, check them out!
you can order them on line from my website (www.noemieventura.com) in the "Eat" category.
i hope you'll like them...
thanks for your attention,

no�mie.

hi there...
the new page with my postcards is almost ready... it should be on line tomorrow, so don't hesitate to visit again!!
here is a really interesting movie, please click on the link below and watch it!

http://www.bancruelfarms.org/meatrix/

thx for your attention!!
no�mie.

picture: "ink" by no�mie ventura

i am back... i have done with my removal and i just get back my internet connection... so now it's so much easier for me to write down here!!!

I'm putting out some postcards. So if you'll forgive the shamelss self-promotion, let me tell you about it...

I have bought this special ilford paper... i can print one of my picture on the front side and it looks like a regular postcard on the back ...
the price is 6�/$ each, it's not that expensive considering every single print is hand made...
just email me if you are interested...(click on the "contact" thing on my website)

Since the last time, i've ended to make the prints of the pictures i took on the surf world championship tour, i've took pictures of some friends of mine and their one year old kid... and i did this shooting with the devon miles, this rock'nd roll band from the city i live in...
well that's it for tonight....
thanks for reading,

no�mie

ps: concerning my new publications... the "no skate boarding on london underground" picture has been published in kingpin magazine last month (well, too late)... i should have some images in the current issue of extreme world news (uk) as well... i have one picture of eric rebi�re in the new surf session (in france), in the special photos issue... and i should have images in the new zigzag in south africa... well, i think that's it...