Living With Compassion is about increasing awareness and education to make the most informed choices as a consumer. Modernization of the world has taken many of us away from our connection with the environment, our Earth and where everything comes from.

One great example of this is many people still believe that most of the farm animals humans consume are from beautiful, peaceful pastured lands where they get to graze on grass, and roam the earth.  This is often what producers try to make consumers believe through commercials and what we call false advertising.  The truth is, the majority of farm animals that we eat today come from factory farms where animals are kept in extreme tight spaces, often too small for them to turn their body.  They stand everyday on steel grates and there is not a single blade of grass, or ray of sunlight.  Another example is the food disparity that we have in the world.  Due to the vast increase in meat intake in the last few hundred years, farm production has had to increase to meet demand so instead of feeding farm animals grass, they are fed grain, often corn. Did you know that the amount of grain grown in the U.S. to feed livestock can feed 800 million people? But instead of feeding the people who are starving, they are fed to cows so people can eat enormous and excessive amounts of steak.

There has also been a comeback with fur fashion, and when we interviewed a group of people, most people thought that fur was simply shaved off from animals for fur which is another myth.  Fur is obtained through skinning an animal and often in factory settings where things often go wrong, some animals are skinned when they are still alive, making it one of the cruelest industries. Most people were shocked to learn that wearing fur is cruel, and usually unnecessary because there are humane, faux fur options that are equally warm.

Living With Compassion is the willingness and choice:

To be more aware of…

To educate and seek the truth behind…

To care and have empathy…

To bear witness and not turn a blind eye…

To avoid and decrease…

To help mend…

…the suffering and destruction to the environment, people and animals, even if it means reducing our own personal pleasure.

Read this amazing article How To Help Animals, written by Jo-Anne MacArthur, a world renowned animals rights photographer and author of the incredible book We Animals.

Living with Compassion is a choice and if everyone is willing to do just their own part and change their habits and ways slightly, the collective effect can be profound.  We have the ultimate power to shape how we want our world to be by simply changing the choices we make.  Start making adjustments today, no matter how small and we can create change together.