Replace Factory Farm Food System With Sustainable and Humane System. Rayko, music composer

Thank you so much for listening to all of these amazing and exceptional, positive imprints.

I'm Catherine, your host for the podcast, your positive imprint, the variety show, featuring people all over the world whose positive actions are inspiring.

Positive achievements.

Exceptional people rise to the challenge.

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Your positive imprint.

What's your PI.

Well, hello everybody.

We are going to have a quick change in episodes today.

And Leif Cocks will be next week part two, because today we have a tough time frame with my guest and a vote that is coming up, which she will talk about over in California, in United States.

So Rayko was born in Tokyo and began writing songs at the age of four.

Her first song was written about her mom, which is just so sweet.

Well, since then she has composed dozens and dozens of songs heard in movies, national and international events.

And I can not name them all, but I do want to mention "until we meet again".

Oh my gosh.

And it is used in the popular series, the man in the high castle.

Rayko's hypnotic voice transcends across the continents.

She collaborates musical compositions as well as videos and movies based on topics, including the environment, my passion, gratitude, joy, suicide prevention, and animal welfare.

She was on my show, talking about music with the legendary Frank Kilpatrick on episode 147.

And I learned so much more about Rayko, including the different passions that she has.

Well today's episode features her work and active, positive imprints and voice for the voiceless, the animals.

It is super exciting to have Rayko featured on this very topic.

And she's going to talk about that and so much more on today's show.

Rayko it is so good to have you back again.

That was a long introduction, but you have so much,

well, thank you so much, so good to be here.

Yeah.

Oh, Rayko,.

Absolutely.

I learned about the positive imprints of what you're working on every single day in your life and the dedication that you have.

My life pretty much with other than music, my life evolves around saving animals.

This is a really the perfect platform to talk about the, the rights of animals and how we are all equal.

And I just do everything in my power to live my life to be the voice for the voiceless and powerless.

I had that really great role model.

My sister was vegan for 27 years and she started it a long, long time ago, way before social media exposed, all that stuff.

And it was so much harder back then.

And it's everything is exposed to us now.

And so therefore I believe there are no excuses unless you are okay with all the cruel, tortures and heinous crimes that goes on in the, slaughterhouses.

We can't shut our eyes anymore because everything is out in the open

and you're right.

There's more media coverage.

There's as you were talking earlier, there's so many more articles, so many videos that people take.

The animals don't have a voice so how do you bring their voice to the forefront to inspire others to want to save animals?

Yeah, I recently went on the rally to free fou r elephants from Los Angeles zoo.

My girlfriend, my husband and my drummer came with me and it was a great peaceful rally in front of the, the gate of LA zoo.

Hopefully made some impact because I had a very sad incident where Inokashira Zoo in Japan had this elephant called 'Hanako' who lived a horribly lonely life by herself, on the concrete for decades after decades.

While we are working and putting the petitions together, she died.

Elephants are herd animals, and they are so affectionate and they're so connected with their, families and they cannot live alone.

And, unless they are forced to.

You can't educate your children in zoos.

That's not how animals behave or live in the wild.

It's just, why do you want to look at that caged up sad, lonely neglected animals not in their habitat.

I mean, Even research animals, I mean, Give me a break.

I believe in clinical trials with humans.

These we volunteering to, with sharing, our DNA to, to help the medical science advance.

In 95% of all drug trials on animal fails.

So it really makes no sense except researchers do make money from our tax dollars.

So animal testing, zoo animals, and of course what we're going to talk about today, the so-called livestock.

They all need to be liberated and live out their, their lives as they should with our, under our love and care.

I want to talk about the elephants.

Leif Cocks again, his part 1 was last week and then part two will be next week after, after your episode today.

But he also mentioned, and I'm going to with the elephants, you have never.

Gone into the wild and spent time with the elephants in the wild.

You don't observe them.

You don't study them.

None of that.

Yet you still lifted yourself up and said, they need a voice.

This cannot be done.

And I think that's an important message that you are bringing and that Leif and other guests and other people around the world bring to the forefront is that people want

So, yeah.

And so whatever happened with the elephants

at they're still there.

Oh, so D what, was there any media coverage to help get the word out?

Yes, there were media the news channel from England that came and joined us.

And our fight is not over yet.

We are going to keep on spreading the words and getting the petitions, through Care2 or Change.org

Oh, also Lady Free Thinker.

I love her.

She's.

Changing the law and she tries so hard and lady free thinker.

I mean, it's just conservation it's, it's not gonna work until you do it forever.

Every day there's so much that we need to do and it just piles up and piles up and, there's the the elephants that needs to be saved and beagles and the German shepherd.

I just foster this huge German shepherd and pit mix.

They're just about to be euthanized.

And, she was confiscated abandonment case at a shelter.

After the owner passed away, she was just left to die without water food.

And I just, I don't know my emotional emotionality just to take a charge and I just had to go and, my little papillion and Chihuahua mix hates it that there was this like giant monster in that, in the house.

I named this German shepherd pit-mix Gigi as in gentle giant.

Oh, so yeah, the, the human.

We have to be responsible for all of our actions, even, starting adopting animals.

I mean, if you are going to adopt an animal that is a life, it's not, some toys or material, things that you get tired of then throw it away, or, so whenever that

how do you reach people like that or do you ever,

so, I talked to farm directors.

I just recently had a length and two hour conversation with the owner of a dairy farm in up north in California.

It just, like you said earlier we get nowhere without kindness.

But the most important thing is education and you're try we try to educate those people as much as we can.

I get on the debate between hunters and vegans.

I used to think it's hard, but it's becoming easier than before that I figured out the way to just reach out kind of like the becoming the mediator.

I believe that there are no humane ways to kill anything that's living and breathing, but compared to factory farming and hunting.

If you are hunting for an animal and you kill an animal and you use every part of the animal and there's no, way to just go from meat eater to vegan in one day, I believe that transition is very important.

Now I can get a lot of heat from vegans and my fellow vegans and animal rights activists.

I believe that if you really want to get to the core of people who have no sense of understanding and how it's wrong to kill and or eat out of flesh you always want to kind of ease into using transitions.

Like Amazon owned supermarket whole foods recently dropped 90, over 90% of its chicken suppliers.

And now they only carry 365 brand their brand or Mary's chicken, which is steps three and above most of the, chickens that they have.

So transitions, educations and transition, I believe is the most important thing to get to the heart of every individual without, putting them down or being mean to them because they get frustrated.

Right.

So that's how I do it peacefully and, get the facts, research and, math has no bias.

Numbers don't lie.

So just, get the facts right.

And just talk to them with compassion and, be as kind as you can be.

I mean, I grew up in Tokyo, Japan.

I mean, Kobe beef was my breakfast, lunch dinner.

When my, my sister became animal rights activists, I was like, what is, what are you talking about?

But then I was educated slowly, but surely, and here I am.

just.

Being an activist and I cannot thank my sister enough for that.

So what is it like in Japan?

There is a a group called animal rights center in Japan and they work very hard to get the messages out.

I love reading a lot of fellow Japanese people's comments because I never thought so many Japanese people would agree to their movement and animal rights and all that.

I think that awareness is everything.

United States, whether you like it or not, we influence the world right.

Rest of the world.

I've been working hard at ending our factory farming system with nonprofit organization called direct action everywhere.

If you are near Sacramento and if you can get to the Capitol, that'd be great.

There's going to be a peaceful get together and rally on April six in Sacramento.

And it will stop all new factory farms from being built in the states and stop the expansion of existing ones if they make over a hundred thousand dollars a year, and if

Yes.

If they do.

It goes to I believe California Senate.

And if it passes that then governor can still VETO so it has some challenges, but the greatest thing is that such a bill is being discussed at all for the farm animals.

If this goes through the whole world is going to be stunned, because this is the first time that people are really paying attention to the livestock farm animals where a lot of people think that they just

I just don't understand the concept anymore at all.

We're just very happy that this bill is even introduced.

This is the first ever it's, it's it's historical and I have a pretty good feeling that because there's so many people volunteers working for this bill to pass I

Glad about the new generation, like people who are like in the teens and, early twenties, they're very, very much involved and, working hard and their university campus and getting the word out.

We go do the postcard signing and the district of where the assembly members are.

And we just, go up to people.

I recently run into this a man he said "I'm a Mexican."

His family was very mistreated being in a factory farm workers.

He told me about this about this, um, . . Braceros Stories that the Mexican farmers are promised if they work hard in California, they were promised a piece of land in Mexico

. The whole thing was a lie.

To make a long story short, he is very against factory farm farming systems.

So he, he educated me a lot about why there is even more reasons why factory farming, business and systems should be banned.

And, I was very happy to meet him and then other people who are very proactive and very much supportive of this bill.

A lot of people might think of this and I agree that systemic environmental race racism, right?

So a lot of people who are unfortunate that they need to live around the factory farms.

And you've seen the lagoons.

It's the most disgusting site.

Let's talk about the numbers.

Every 800,000 pigs produce the same amount of waste as all the people live in Austin, Texas.

But Austin, Texas, I mean, people, humans, we have the sewage system, but the pig waste goes to the lagoons and it seeps under the ground.

And then sometimes it dispersed into the air and the waste contains more than 150 types of pathogens and , it affects all the people around the factory

It is, is the real nightmare to the public.

So I believe the transition is very important.

So it affects, it doesn't even just affects animals.

It affects workers, everything that the planet, animals, workers, people, everything.

So I believe again, transition is the key.

If the factory farms just, owns everything the meats and everything, it's cheaper, a lot cheaper.

Why?

Because it's poisonous, it's it's junk.

And, they put the labels of happy cows and happy chickens.

It's just all lies were being deceived by corporate giants.

Unless educate the public about it, nobody's going to know about it.

And then they would just keep poisoning themselves

their loved ones and their children.

I mean, still, still the number one cause of death in the US is food diet related death.

The diabetes and heart disease.

And it all comes from those poor poison, poisonous meat that's produced in factory farms.

I mean, there are farms like white Oak pastures where, even though I'm vegan, they're a very sustainable farm and they produce everything and they, process, which is Slutter all the animals in.

Farm.

So, no, no animals are being transported.

All the animals are pasture raised and none of that factory farming BS that, happens there.

So yeah, I believe that transition is the key for millions of millions of residents on planet.

the history and the amount of money lost to the factory farms.

And she is completely sustainable in a pasture free and, and et cetera.

But she also talked about the money involved to be a certified humane source and to pay for that stamp and everything that you have to go through.

And it's, it costs a lot of money.

So like you say, for the farmers that really want to do that, they can't afford to have the inspection for it and then to pay for the stamp that comes with it along with pasture free.

And I also, I learned, the difference with cage-free and pasture free and so on and so forth, which is a huge difference for those chickens, huge difference.

But when I think about my father-in-law who owned a farm, they were completely sustainable and they were proud farmers and happy farmers.

And they lived off of the meat that they raised and the milk that they had and the vegetables and , there were four boys.

Each of them was responsible for an animal or plant or whatever, or both.

And my husband was responsible for the sheep.

There was a lot of respect and dignity coming from that family . My father-in-law, I remember him saying to me that he never thought it was fair with the political issues that

And also it was hard because the four boys left the farm to begin their own lives, but he was, dignified and my husband and all three brothers, dignified.

So we'll see how this bill goes and what happens come April 6th.

If we don't act now, I mean, that's why I, I get so passionate about it.

So we all live on this planet and it ties to everything.

Sometimes I get into this debate where, I'm, I'm Christian, but other Christian people would say, well, God gave us the animals for us to eat.

And for us to use God is to me, God is all about love.

And, he gave us the animals to be our companions.

And that's how I believe.

And I believe that there is just, like I said, I believe that there are no humane ways to kill anything that has beating hearts, but transition is necessary because not everybody think the way I do.

We were talking about the planet health.

Global animal agriculture is responsible for 30% of our water, fresh water footprint, and covers nearly one half of earth usable ice-free land and get

And so today 60% of mammals on earth are livestock, mostly cattle and pigs, and 70% of all birds on earth are farmed poultry.

I mean, is this sad is so sad and only 4% I think it was four or 5%.

4% of all mammals are wild 4%.

And that made me think of something that Lisa Hywood said, who's from Africa.

Her dad was Tiki Hywood.

She opened up after the death of her father, an animal sanctuary.

And she mentioned something that was important that I don't think we do enough of in United States.

If something is going to be removed such as you can't go out and hunt this animal or that animal, which was livelihood for some people, what will you do to replace that income or that food?

And so they do come up with ways to produce something.

Another gal, Mmbatho.

She's a beekeeper in Africa.

And you don't think about a beekeeper saving animals like elephants.

Right.

But she saw that people were killing elephants because the elephants would come in and eat their gardens.

Well, that's their livelihood.

So what can be done instead of saying stop you can't touch those elephants.

They're protected.

Instead of doing that, she came in and said, look, I know a way that will prevent the elephants from coming and eating your garden.

We build beehives all around the perimeter of this village and it will keep the elephants out because they're afraid of bees.

That's perfect.

And it worked.

And in return, the people had these beehives producing honey and Mmbatho would purchase the honey from them.

So now they have an income.

There are ways to transition without losing livelihood or finances or, or whatever.

I do want to talk more about the impact of workers at factory farms.

They very often suffers post-traumatic stress disorder palpitation induced, traumatic stress and range of other horrifying syndromes.

Studies have found that slaughterhouse worker and slaughterhouse work itself is connected to higher incidents of domestic violence and alcohol and drug abuse, too.

Two amputations per week occurs in slaughter houses throughout the United States.

That's why I talked about environmental racism.

Those people are treated so poorly, at those places where it produces trauma.

And she is completely against factory farming system.

And it's very strong coming from people who were in it and seen everything.

She, nightmares after nightmares because nobody not too many people likes to torture and kill huge cows and pigs.

They, they might not speak, but they have, they cry, they screams and they know that they're going to get killed and they refuse.

And, oh, there's another documentary short documentary that I would love you and your audience to watch.

It's called Imperial Dust.

It's produced by this woman named Raven, Brooke.

Brooke, Raven, Brooke, I'll get that name, but Imperial Dust.

Within , 12 minutes, audience will learn so much facts.

How factory farming systems affects slaughterhouse workers, environment, and animals.

It's a great short film and I highly recommend.

So we covered the animals, cruelty workers being mistreated, and we covered some of the planet health and pollution.

But also I would like to point out the the factory farming accounts for 37% of methane emissions, which has more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2.

Greenhouse gas emissions from primary agriculture contribute up to 14% of the total annual global emissions.

From a global perspective, livestock production is responsible for nearly 80% of all agricultural related emissions.

There's a lot of moral questions and there's also livelihood and traditional practices.

So there has to be a coming together,

. My nephew who is only 11, he chose to be a vegetarian.

He did not want using Leif Cock's words.

He did not want animals to suffer for him.

So he made that choice on his own.

Sometimes children can influence the adults like crazy.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And there are.

Kids all around the world who are working with their positive imprints to activate them in many different ways, which I take to heart myself because that's part of sustaining our future.

Before I became a music composer I was a professional personal trainer and meal planner.

And so I studies so much about nutritions.

I still help my friends with, when they want to transition to vegan or even, when they're eating fish or chicken, I always give them the meal plan that's slowly, they can transition.

Well, you certainly are very passionate, but you're also active in trying to make change and trying to inform people about the compassion regarding animal welfare.

So we will definitely look April 6th for the bill.

But, but again, like you say, it's making an historic entrance.

Yes, yes it is.

And US influence the world, California influences the US.

I hope that, this is going to pass and it's going to be a turn of events.

I just want love and peace for everyone.

That's that's the world I want.

And the reason why I worked so hard, with music and everything is because I want to have a animal sanctuary of my own in Oregon one day when I retire.

Oh.

And maybe not even when you retire, maybe just a few years down the road, so yeah, Rayko,, you are very inspiring and you practice what you preach and you are out there making a difference for our tomorrow.

And I really appreciate you and, and I enjoy your company.

We always have so much to talk about and we talk off of the podcast.

So, yeah.

So is there anything that you wanted to share before you get to your last inspiring words?

Ah,

So, factory farms ruins and shuts down small family farms.

Today.

They only produce quarter of the nation's food and the workers rely on off- farm income to earn their living rage.

So, yeah, that's, I really wanted to point that out because a lot of people want to support the small family farm.

I run into a lot of people that, says, yeah, I want to support the small family farmers.

If they're not completely against eating meat, they are at least against huge corporate giants that's just totally ruined the small businesses.

So I wanted to bring the awareness of that factory farms ruins small businesses and small family for family owned farms.

Again, the family farm income went down by 92% because of the the factory farming system.

So it's, it just affects everybody in every way.

So there's, I just really don't see any reasons why factory farm system needs to exist.

So excuse me.

If I am pronouncing her last name, wrong, but Lana Weidgenant youth climate saves says "we need to acknowledge the role of food system in climate change that

And that.

True.

Rayko,, one of the things that comes out very clearly with the way you speak and what you speak about and how you speak about it is you do not come across as judgemental.

You know, that people have their value system but you don't come across as judgmental.

And I think that's important for messages to really be taken with consideration.

So thank you for that.

I thank you.

Thank you.

I believe that so much that.

I get into debate all the time.

My husband, my husband belong to this group called master debater or something.

It's just the funniest name.

But I learned that everything can be done with compassion and I believe everything will be done better.

And you can only win with kindness and compassion and love.

And if you want to get your point across it just, everything needs to start with love and respect and honor, everybody has different opinions.

I get it.

But the reason why most of the people are kept in the dark is because they're not aware.

They just never seen anything except that, happy cows and chickens on the labels and ads, they don't know what goes on in factory farming system.

I mean, it is all about education.

Yes.

Being informed.

Rayko,, are there any updates regarding your music?

Yeah, so, I just signed the five-year contract of contract with this publishing company called empath and they.

Gave me 3 months to actually was so much longer that, you, you are so generous about speaking of the men in the high castle, they , gave me three days to

So that was great.

But this one was a three months to produce empowerment songs about empowerment.

And I, I really am proud of this production and the compositions and they accepted all four songs.

Congratulations.

Thank you so much.

It just happened like a week ago.

Oh, congrats.

Very happy.

And there was a song called "I am Here" that I wrote and it was about all the voiceless animals and the woman and children who are being trafficked

. uh, When you're writing something for a publishing company, for the

So I have to use a lot of imageries and stuff like that, but the whole time I was writing it, I was thinking about the animals and children and women even men, . The men are being trafficked for jobs.

I'm just, I don't know, I'm just a little, person, but I'm just doing everything I can to bring awareness to the public as much as I can through my music and my work with passion.

Well, you are definitely, a compassionate voice.

And I'm so happy to have you on the show again.

And to call you my friend.

I'm so happy to call you my friend and I.

Oh, absolutely.

I love my conversations with you.

You can find Rayko on Instagram @lolitadarkmusic, L O L I T A D A R K M U S I C.

So your last inspiring word.

Okay.

So, this is a totally moment of my goofiness.

I used to love the show called the vampire diary.

I mean, and then I love the main actor, Paul Wesley.

And I did not know that he is a vegan and he has been an animal rights activist for a long time.

And I just want to share what he said that is really, really inspiring to me.

And I believe that it will inspire.

So Paul Wesley says, in the end of the video that he made for farm sanctuary

" today's industrial food system hides the lives in suffering farmed animals.

It teaches people that some animals are to be eaten and others are to be loved.

It creates a worldview that says the exploitation of farmed animals is necessary to nourish people.

It reinforces hierarchy that separate people from other animals and from each other.

The truth that all animals are feeling and thinking, being worthy of our love must replace the lies that draw the lines between humans and other animals for people, animals, and planet.

Now is a time to end factory farming and replace, our factory farm food system, we must make a choice to nourish everyone at no one's expense.

We can unite to build a just and compassionate food system for people, other animals, and our shared environment.

We can replace exploitation with sanctuary.

Rayko,

thank you for sharing your positive imprints here on the show.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I apprecitate you.

You.

Thank you.

Leif Cocks will be next week part two.

Your positive imprint.