Jaya Bhumitra is the Los Angeles campaigns director of the group Compassion Over Killing, which promotes vegetarianism and veganism. (Steve McCrank / Staff Photographer)

Jaya Bhumitra stopped eating meat when she was a young girl.

She was inspired by the sight of her family's pet chickens, which she realized felt fear and pain just like dog and cats - and people.

Today, the 30-year-old Torrance resident, who has a business degree, works as campaigns director for Compassion Over Killing, a national group that promotes vegan and vegetarian eating and encourages restaurants to include such diets in their menus.

What does your job entail?

I have two functions. The first one is to oversee the outreach department. We have two staff members, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast. They do outreach and education. I help them plan events and how to educate people on the ways and means of vegetarian eating.

What's the difference between vegetarians and vegans?

Vegetarians avoid meat products and vegans avoid any products that have any animal origin. Vegans also avoid any products like cleaning products that were tested on animals. We want to do the least harm and minimize the suffering. We don't wear leather or fur.

What's your second function?

The second thing I do is campaign work. We do corporate campaigns. For example, we have a campaign called WeLoveSubway.com. We're trying to get them to add a vegan option such as tofurky (a vegetarian turkey replacement).

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At Work: Directing campaigns on behalf of vegan and vegetarian eating

Feature Article of Friday, 23 March 2012

Columnist: Tamakloe Kojo

Kojo Tamakloe

It has been about two years since Nana Dankwa Akuffo Addo was unveiled with a lot of fun fare as the Presidential candidate, known as flag bearer of the opposition NPP. That is a lot of time for him to have been able to develop a vision and policy frame work accompanied by the strategies to be used to accomplish them . That would ,after he and his team have sat down and diagnosed the ailments that afflict Ghana as a developing country and therefore the most likely cures to get it moving to become whatever vision he would have spelled out for the country.

Nkrumah our first leader had a vision to make us a proud African people and nation . In that light he sought a United States of Africa summed up in the Independence day statement The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked with the total liberation of the continent He therefore put programs into place that will achieve the status and at a rapid pace. As we were mostly illiterate , and without capital he introduced mass education and fee free education to produce educated people and the requisite manpower he needed for rapid development. In this science and mathematics were subjects that were encouraged and so produced the local doctors, engineers, architects, etc. No field was left untouched .He went on to quick start as many as 200 new industries that would in the first instance serve as job avenues for the citizenry while creating a middle class for a future take off. Africa was to be the ultimate market place for the manufactured products which was why he pursued the African Unity concept.

Construction work was all over the place , with well structured neighborhoods. Ghana national Construction Corporation was formed to absorb the engineers and artisans to construct the many works while gaining experience for the future Agricultural units , Commercial farms and dams were started to ensure food security but later abandoned by the UP/PP/NPP

Today we are supposed to rejoice about fee free education in SHS , which in the first place is Not an original idea but a re harsh of what the UGCC/UP/PP declared white elephant and a socialist or communist idea and hail Nana Addo for it . Should you ask questions ,then the NPP s supporters do what they do best, insult you or label you a tribalist or a foreigner . The question remains what is the over all vision of the fee free SHS scheme ?

When NPP left power there was a huge debt and up to today children are still going to school under trees. A lot of the schools are seriously under resourced and teachers poorly paid and trained . The whole education system lacks direction and focus . What should the JSS be doing and so what will the SHS be doing ?In the light of this we argue about the length of the SHS 3 or 4 years as we point out the quality is below par . Why allocate so much of the scarce resources to a scheme that will not generate an immediate income ? Where or how are we going to get the funds from when we are aware our Western donors to whom we have turned our independence to are suffering financially and are borrowing themselves . The British PM just met with the USA president and the theme was on how to balance the budget.

Mr Flagbearer , the time has come to start a new agricultural revolution so Ghana and Africa becomes food sufficient and food secure. That money can be used to train the JSS dropouts in agricultural science or other trade skills and given start up capital . That money can be used to subsidize fertilizer and tractors to increase agricultural output. That money can be channeled into poultry farms to give us protein in our diets. That money can be used to develop cattle production and fish farming .That money can be used to help the fishing communities improve the fishing gear to get better catch of fish. That money can be used for dams and building silos for extended food production and food storage . We do not need kenkey politics because there was insufficient rainfall. With that we save a lot of foreign exchange that can be used to import CAPITAL goods to add value to our raw materials

Mr Flag bearer , you went round the country on a Listening tour . Did they not tell you about housing shortage? Can you not use that money even if it were in the form of loans to alleviate the 2 million housing shortfall ? You did economics so you know supply and demand . Ghanas population is increasing and the populace instead of living in slums like Sodom & Gomorrah, need descent homes. Those children from Sodom & Gomorrah and its likes will not benefit a twit from the Fee free education, because they are hungry and because of the home environment . Their parents need jobs so they can afford to make choices for their children to get out of the ghetto

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NPP Flag Bearer, Nana Akuffo Addo What is he up to?

Ladies who lunch are creatures of habit. They have their favorite table at celeb-laden Freds at Barneys, their favorite drink at Saks Fifth Avenues femme-friendly Cafe SFA and plenty of time for languid two-hour midday meals safely ensconced in the luxe egg chairs at Bergdorf Goodmans BG restaurant.

But department stores are shaking up peoples routines with a stable of chic contemporary cafes that give frenzied shoppers a respite, without all the pomp and circumstance of the shops flagship restaurants.

Bergdorfs 5F soda shop, Saks SnAKS, and Barneys newly opened Genes@Co-op cafe all cater to this younger, on-the-go crowd.

And talk about the future. Genes boasts Matrix-like tables embedded with extra-large touchscreens from which customers can order. SnAKS offers all of the food and none of the lines its big sister restaurant suffers from, while 5F is renowned for having one of the best low-cal fro-yos in town.

I cant tell you how many requests weve had since Freds opened asking, Is there anyplace we can go just to get a cup of coffee? Something quick, says Barneys chef Mark Strausman. I love Freds. But sometimes you just want a sandwich.

So in November Barneys opened Genes@Co-op, which has communal tables.

My mother will probably never go to Genes, admits Samantha Solmonson, 28, an Upper East Sider who works in digital media.

That may be the point.

Heres the skinny on the latest crop of cafes perfect for a quick bite while spring shopping.

Genes@Co-op at Barneys Location: Eighth floor View: The fancy-shmancy buildings of 61st Street

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Label to table

March 22, 2012

The once thriving captive-born southern white rhinoceros population is being threatened by their diet, according to new research. San Diego Zoo Global researchers predict that phytoestrogens in the rhinoceros food may be causing reproductive failure in the females.

In a press release detailing the research, Christopher Tubbs, researcher with the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research explained the importance of the study.

Understanding why the captive white rhinoceros population has been dwindling for decades is an important part of protecting the future of this species. Our work is the first step toward determining if phytoestrogens are involved in this phenomenon and whether we need to reevaluate captive white rhino diets.

Zoologists have only recently found the northern and southern white rhinoceros to be different species rather than a subspecies of the African white rhinoceros. As such, conservation efforts have been specifically designed to increase the population of the southern white rhino.

According to SanDiegoZooGlobal.org, The San Diego Safari Park has had great success in conserving the southern white rhino population and has bred more than 88 rhino calves since the Parks establishment in the early 1970s.

While there have been successes in conservation efforts, scientists at San Diego Zoo have noticed a decline in reproduction in females born into captivity.

Reproductive issues such as cystic endometrial hyperplasia; cervical, ovarian, and uterine cancers; and ovarian cysts have placed the sustainability of the captive rhinos is jeopardy. In trying to find the cause of these issues, San Diego Zoo scientists began to look at every aspect of the rhinos daily life, such as social experiences, animal density, enclosure size, premature copulations, and diet. Their research suggests examining the rhinos diet as a starting point for unlocking these reproductive mysteries.

The captive southern white rhinoceros eat a diet of alfalfa hay and soy-based, commercially made pellets. Scientists believe that these foodstuffs may contain phytoestrogens such as isoflavinoids. Previous research has shown abnormalities to occur in livestock exposed to these phytoestrogen-rich foods. The abnormalities occur particularly during embryonic development and are similar to those found in captive-born rhinos. The phytoestrogens activate estrogen sensors in the female southern white rhinos, making it difficult to conceive and reproduce. As the southern white rhino is genetically different from other species of African white rhino, the phytoestrogens affect them much differently than other rhinos, such as the one-horned rhinoceros.

Second only to elephants, the southern white rhinoceros is one of the worlds largest land animals. While captive-born populations now face the threat of reproductive difficulty, wild rhinos face the threat of poachers and sport hunting. These factors have placed the southern white rhinoceros on the International Union for Conservation of Natures near-threatened species list. According to the San Diego Zoo, there are currently 17,500 southern white rhinos in the wild, with 500 rhinos in captivity.

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Rhino Diet May Affect Reproduction

Legislation to partially roll back the postal system privatization is expected to sail through the current Diet session because the ruling Democratic Party of Japan will join the two major opposition parties that agreed Thursday to jointly submit a reform bill to this end, lawmakers said.

Earlier in the day, the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito agreed on a bill to overturn the postal privatization spearheaded in the early 2000s by then LDP Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that would have had the government sell off its stockholdings in Japan Post Bank and Japan Post Insurance Co. by 2017 to achieve full privatization of Japan Post Holdings Co.'s financial units, the lawmakers said.

Senior DPJ lawmakers, including Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi, said the ruling party will endorse the accord.

The bill agreed on by the LDP and New Komeito states that the sale of all shares in the postal banking and insurance units should be realized "as early as possible" by taking their financial conditions and roles in the postal business into account.

The wording means Japan Post Holdings will decide when shares in the two units should be sold, the lawmakers said.

The bill, which the LDP and New Komeito will jointly present to the Diet next week, also envisages merging Japan Post Network Co. and Japan Post Service Co. to reduce the number of companies under Japan Post Holdings to three from the current four.

As the postal privatization reform would lift a freeze on the government's sale of postal shares in line with a 2009 law, New Komeito hopes to use proceeds from the sale to finance reconstruction work from the earthquake and tsunami disaster of last March.

But the bill is opposed by a considerable number of LDP lawmakers who want the current privatization plan, which would completely remove the two postal financial units from government control, to stand.

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Diet passage likely of postal privatization partial rollback