the vegan revolution is happening...

wish i could take the credit for this...

but i can't... what i can do is share the wit and wisdom of marla from vegan feminist agitator as she articulates what many vegans think and feel with her sixth annual disgruntled vegan alphabet...

from vegan feminist agitator

A is for Another flaky “former vegan” celebrity just went on a talk show and is now on the paleo bandwagon so could we please stop already with the celebrity worship? Pretty please? It never ends well.

B is for “But what about the Inuit? But what about the Native Americans? But what about the lions? But what about the microscopic insects you kill? But what about soy? But what about eating humane meat? But I’m part Italian. But eating meat is how I honor my ancestors. But I was raised eating meat. But I give a blessing. But I give thanks. But my guru said it was okay. But I need the protein. But I am allergic to soy, wheat, all grains, all fruits and all vegetables except for celery. But I need the iron. But I just eat a little meat. But I don’t eat red meat. But I only support the best farms. But…”

C is for Cough in front of the wrong person and it is incontrovertible proof that I have a vegan-induced nutritional deficiency.

D is for Delusion, because apparently there is a just and compassionate way to needlessly slaughter other sensitive beings as long as you have an unlimited supply of it.

E is for the Eerie silence that happens whenever I get stopped by a Greenpeace canvasser or the Sierra Club calls and I ask them about their organization’s public position on eating animals.

F is for For once, could I either opt out of the Secret Santa exchange at work or get someone who doesn’t give me a basket of alpaca milk soaps from her brother-in-law’s farm?

G is for Gotcha moments, and, no, you didn’t “get me” with your inquiry about what my shoes or coat are made of but try again, sport, because this endless game of pin-the-tail-on-the-hypocrite never gets old or predictable.

H is for Har-har-har, writing People Eating Tasty Animals in the middle of a debate never fails to make an original and devastating counter-argument. Touché! How could anyone ever recover from such a salient point?

I is for Ick, no, I really don’t miss eating corpses. Do I look like Hannibal Lecter or something? Fava beans and a nice chianti, though, those would be fine.

J is for that Junk science video you posted about “plants feeling pain.” If this is more persuasive to you than, I don’t know, the lack of a central nervous system and an evolutionary incentive for pain reception and you ignore the fact that far more plants are consumed when eating a diet that includes animals, I am going to have to question if you are really sincere about your convictions.

K is for karma because sometimes that is all we can hope for in life and we have all heard about her general disposition.

L is for Logical Fallacies because whether were are talking about a strawman argument (“Vegans hate people and only care about animals!”), the slippery slope argument (“If we stop eating animals, they will take over the world!”) the tu quoque approach (“How can you talk about animal suffering when you are stepping on bugs, hmm?”) and an anecdote (“My cousin was vegan for two weeks and she almost died from a protein deficiency!”), these are all examples of the logical fallacies people who want to continue eating animals will wrap themselves in like a warm blanket. A blanket with a bunch of holes in it nonetheless.

M is for the Massive meltdown that happens when a vegan asks her affluent grass-fed, organic paleo cousin how many worlds we’d need in order to sustain the world’s population with his way of eating.

N is for the Namaste-spouting New Agers who try to justify eating animals and are so self-involved as to claim that “judgments” are worse than unnecessary violence and destroying the planet. Altogether now: om…

O is for Okay, do you honestly believe that vegans are pushing their views on you? Have you looked at the world through the lens of someone who doesn’t think that animals are “food” lately? Have you tried to look at the world through the lens of a being who is born and raised solely for the purpose of being eaten lately?

P is for Paranoia, as in, “I said soy milk, right? Because if my coffee has cow’s milk in it I will be really upset and disgusted. Okay, wait, I see you’ve charged me extra because apparently destroying our planet is not enough for animal product consumers, now they should be able to get what they want without any penalties at all and when is a vegan coffee shop finally going to open around here??? So, anyway, how do I know the barista didn’t make a mistake?”

Q is for having exceeded my annual Quota of weird looks and passive-aggressive remarks about my meatless roast at my family’s Thanksgiving dinner within five minutes of being there. Because family…

R is for Really, I don’t want to hear about how much you love animals but vegans “just take it too far” because, you know, this is kind of idiotic if you think about it without your ego getting in the way.  

S is for being Self-righteous because it’s better than being self-wrongteous.

T is for Turducken because what kind of twisted, Caligula-minded sadist invented this grotesquery?

U is for the Universal sign of warm weather, which means that when I can finally open my windows for a few months, the smell of charred, tortured flesh filling the air greets me. Yay.

V is for getting Verklempt at the Vicarious thrill we enjoy when one of our protégés goes off and becomes an awesome little vegan agitator in his or her own right. Fly, little bird. Fly! Oh, wait. This was supposed to be complaining. Okay, V is for Vasectomy because, please, 98% of humanity, let’s look into it. Snip, snip, done.

W is for Wings as in do you know that people actually sit around and eat a bird’s severed limbs and then dump the bones in a bowl and, um, tofu is gross? Oooookay, then.

X is for the Xenophobes who think that Asian cultures that eat dogs are barbaric while they themselves eat dead chickens and cows. Um, what???

Y is for the boiled Yellow squash plate vegans are served at our cousin’s wedding that no amount of salt, pepper, denial or wishful thinking will be able to remedy. This is why an emergency nutrition bar should always be in the glove compartment.

Z is for the Zany situations that turn your life into a tragicomedy that will make for an excellent screenplay for a film that roughly two percent of the population might be willing to see one day."

i've got nothing to add... marla has said it all...(but you can read her previous alphabets - sixth annual airing of grievances (each word is a link to one of her earlier alphabets)...

a quick share...

i came across this youtube video via the youth page of the uk evolve campaigns website (and heartening it is to discover sites where young people are informed, passionate, and sharing their vegan philosophy with others) -  it's a compilation of cartoons by vegan cartoonist dan piraro and i thought i'd share...

and a friend sent me this video... a 'snow-boarding' crow having a ball on a roof slope ...

hmmm, forethought and enjoyment - another sentient creature exhibiting intelligence and emotion...

yummmmmm....

i was inspired yesterday when i came across a very quick and easy, no-bake chocolate cheesecake recipe - vegan of course... so i had to make one (with a couple of minor changes) and this was the result... berries would have been a nice topping but i only had chocolate chips (and they only went on one piece - should have melted and then drizzled the chocolate over!!!) still, simple yet delicious - although i did have the munchies at the time so perhaps anything sweet would have been delicious...

my (slightly altered) recipe...

1 1/2 containers soy cream cheese (i used tofutti)

150g of dark dairy-free chocolate (i only had sweet william and only about half the required amount - and it's really only good for 'emergencies' - now a good quality raw dark chocolate would have made it richer - next time!!)

big slurp of dark agave syrup (i only had light syrup on hand but it's not as dense and full-flavoured)
approximately 8 plain biscuits (e.g. leda golden crunch or mcvities digestives)

3 tablespoons of nuttelex
cake tin or dish (in hindsight i should have lined this with baking paper!)

crush the biscuits until crumbs

mix the crumbs with the nuttelex until it all sticks together

pat down the crumb mixture on the bottom of the sandwich tin

place in freezer until finished next part of the recipe

for the filling:

place cream cheese in a mixing bowl

melt the chocolate and fold into cheese

add agave syrup
mix thoroughly

take the crust out of the freezer

pour the mixture into the sandwich tin

level out with spoon

put in fridge for 3 hours to set;

after set, top however you'd like and enjoy!!!

and no, allie and i haven't eaten it all - yet!!! for all her other elderly infirmities me old girl's sense of smell is amazing - that nose twitches away - then she's off the couch and on a mission - doesn't take her long to zoom in on her target!!! even shadow doesn't mind the filling (fuck the biscuit base he reckons though!!)

my vegan transition...

my progression from vegetarianism to full-on veganism was a long time in the happening, but as a result of reading a lot of heart-wrenching articles and viewing a plethora of horrific graphics on animal welfare over the past few months i was forced to stop procrastinating - reality could no longer be denied - i couldn't fool myself anymore with the blinkered belief that the organic milk, cheese and free range egg industries meant humanely treated animals compared to the cruelty perpetrated by battery farms, feed lots and the overstocked and under-regulated farming industry in general - nor could i disregard the fact that even if there was some semblance of humane treatment (a rarity, mostly a fallacy!!), in the end the animals are still slaughtered for human consumption.

it's been remarkably easy (for the most part) - i have't had a drastic change in my eating habits - a lot of my menu was already vegan  (you just can't go past a yummy chickpea and/or vegie curry - it just gets served minus the yoghurt dip these days!!) - and animal liberation has been  integral to my personal politics for decades...

but yes, there are some things i miss, like the animal-rennet-free cheeses i enjoyed - and no, soy cheese just doesn't 'cut it' - you would think soy cheese was just that wouldn't you? alas you still have to read the labels because a lot of the soy cheeses contain casein or calcium caseinate, a milk protein used to give the 'cheese' texture!!! i tried the non-dairy 'tofutti' the other day - i could only get the american-style soy slices but that was rather disgusting - maybe the bright orangey colour turned me off a bit when it was melted - maybe the mozzerella slices might be better if i can find them!!! but then it does come from america, home of cheese in a can!!!!! 

surprisingly i found that i quite enjoy a good soy latte - but that depends on the 'barista's' competence - if they make horrible coffee it doesn't matter what 'milk' they use, they're just crap coffee makers!!! and it needs to be hot (when did lukewarm coffee become 'the norm'???) some say it depends on the brand of soy used, but i've had the same brand from different outlets and they've all tasted different - some good, some bad!!! i don't mind the nutty flavour but no, i couldn't just have a glass - i can only have it as a latte!!!! rice milk is not too bad as a replacement in a cup of tea or instant coffee (not as strong as soy!!) and it's quite okay with cereal (oooh, maybe i'm putting more sugar on the cereal though!!!!) - and i've just tried a vanilla soy milk which is quite yummy!!

i'm going to try out a cake recipe this weekend that a work colleague gave me... a very simple recipe - 1 cup flour, 1 cup coconut, 1 cup raw sugar, 1 cup milk (soy, rice - whatever you prefer - you could probably replace some of the liquid with orange, lemon or lime juice for a tangy flavour) and that's it... he adds a whole grated nutmeg nut to his - guess you could also use cinnamon, or mixed spice... hope it turns out as yummy as michael g's!!!!!

unfortunately peoples attitudes are one of the hardest things to deal with - cynicism, sarcasm, being looked on as an absolute weirdo, the belief by some that it's 'just a phase', others who believe it's 'just a diet' - yes, some people do follow vegetarian or vegan dietary practices purely for health reasons, but that doesn't make them vegetarian or vegan, it just means they eat vegetarian or vegan food!!! i am well over hearing the phrase "I used to be vegetarian/vegan but..." i've heard it many times over the years but i'm not sure how people expect me to react to it - am i meant to feel understanding of, or comraderie with, a perceived 'shared experience'? sorry, i don't - all i can say to a comment like that is "if you weren't 'doing it for the animals' you weren't vegetarian or vegan - they're lifestyle choices, not just eating regimes!!!"


these same attitudes have existed much of my vegetarian life so nothing has changed on that front - however people do find vegetarianism easier to comprehend than veganism... perhaps that has something to do with veganism being a philosophy, a way of life, a political stand, a belief in animal liberation...

if you have a vegan friend that you want to share a bottle of wine with, why not try a bottle of  ishtar from balthazar of the barossa vineyard...

i was looking for a bottle to share with a friend and just couldn't go past a wine named after "a Babylonian Goddess of Love and War – the chief goddess in the pantheon of Babylonian Gods and Goddesses"!!

with no mention on the bottle of the fining agents used, i emailed the winery - run by a womon named Anita Bowen - and received a very prompt reply, which read in part...




"... appreciate your enquiry, as I am very aware of dietary issues around wine, given my list of severe food allergies. NO, I don’t use any animal products (fish, milk or egg derived) as I don’t use any fining agents in making my wines. The only addition I make is a minimum amount of sulphur dioxide to prevent oxidization/spoilage..."

no longer sharing life and space with a partner who was a long term alcoholic has definitely changed the way i drink these days - i very rarely buy alcohol to have at home, but if i do it's usually when socialising with friends (that's also rarely these days!) - so it's nice to be able to say when i drink now, it's for the taste and pleasure - not just to 'get pissed,' and not because being pissed is the only way to share time with an alcoholic partner...

the calm before the storm??

hasn't today been a lovely respite from the heat of the last few days... but is it 'the calm before the storm'? i wrote a post - 'melting moments' - in february last year when we were having a run of 42+ degree days... ooooh, is the worst still to come???

me mother didn't cope very well at all with a few days of heat, and by yesterday she wasn't looking too good either - it's really debilitating for her - as if her chronic kidney disease isn't debilitating enough coupled with her age!!! she was feeling a bit 'perkier' today luckily but told me she was at the point yesterday where she was just willing herself through an hour at a time...

allie found it hard too - once the flat heated up she just couldn't settle and wandered around for hours - and that's distressing for both of us because she bumps into so many things... even shadow wasn't interested in food and looked like life was an effort... and those north winds make it so hard to breath - they do 'wonders' for the asthma...

and then there's the 'horrible when you're hot' syndrome - that's definitely affecting a lot of people... enjoy the cool while you can...





before i go i have to tell you that i've finally done it - yep, after being a vegetarian on moral grounds for decades i've finally taken the next step - i've given up dairy (it was always organic, with my favourite cheese (animal-rennet-free of course) a passion (and possibly an addiction!) and eggs (always free-range but mostly consumed as cake or quiche) - why? because...

"Veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living that seeks to exclude, as far as possible, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, nonhuman animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, nonhumans and the environment. Vegans avoid all animal produce: meat (including chicken and fish), eggs, animal milks, honey, and their derivatives" read more at vegan voice

and i have to share my latest find... chocolate rum balls - they taste just like the rum balls me nan used to make - fuckin' delicious - and vegan!!!! my new addiction perhaps!!!

made by LEDA Nutrition, according to their website - "LEDA's entire facility is Vegan, with all of our products suitable for vegan consumption."

i found them at iga and apparently coles and woolworths stock the brand too... yuuuuummmmm!

i'm definitely going to have to check out some of their other products...

dissention in the ranks? or just good old fashioned common sense?

i came across some articles this week on a couple of topics i'm passionate about - marijuana and vegetarianism... could there possibly be a move to a more 'enlightened' attitude on these subjects from countries australia tends to 'follow' (albeit usually quite a lot later - the (very slow) 'trickle-down' effect??)...

on the marijuana front...

"UK drug adviser fired after marijuana comments" by Raphael Satter, Associated Press Writer – Fri Oct 30, 2:57 pm

LONDON – Britain's top drug adviser was fired Friday after saying that marijuana, Ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.

David Nutt's comments have embarrassed the British government, which toughened the penalties for possessing marijuana earlier this year over the protests of many prominent British scientists...

In later comments to BBC radio's "PM" program, Nutt accused British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of making "completely irrational statements" about the dangerousness of marijuana.

"I'm not prepared to mislead the public about the harmfulness of drugs like cannabis and Ecstasy," he said...." read more here

_______________

"Push to Legalize Marijuana Gains Ground in California" by Jesse McKinley, October 27, 2009

SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana.

State lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in the United States. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated he would be open to a “robust debate” on the issue." read more here

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and this makes very interesting viewing on the issue...

on the vegetarian front...

"Climate-Change Authority Advocates Vegetarianism" by Heather Moore, from the Care2 Causes & News page

"It might take a while for Al Gore and other noted “environmentalists” in the U.S. to branch out from giving “safe” advice like "use energy-efficient light bulbs" and "recycle"—and American politicians may not even be all that quick to promote an official meat-free day—but one of the top climate chiefs in the U.K. is taking the lead. Lord Stern, the author of the 2006 Stern Review on global warming, recently told The Times, “Meat is a wasteful use of water and creates a lot of greenhouse gases. It puts enormous pressure on the world’s resources. A vegetarian diet is better.” read more here

Heather Moore is a freelance writer and a senior writer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and you can read more of her articles on animal welfare and climate change here.

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I stumbled upon this great banner from LOBSA, a non-profit buddhist vegan abolitionist organisation (now that's a mouthful - and no, i'm not buddhist - but i can definitely appreciate the sentiments expressed!!!)...

and these two buddhist prayers from the same source - for all the suffering animals...

even though i've been a vegetarian for ages - i stopped eating and wearing dead animal over 3 decades ago - i still eat organic, animal rennet-free cheese, free range eggs and drink organic milk - i really need to take that 'final' step and remove them from my 'table' - as much for my conscience as the welfare of the supposedly (hopefully) more humanely treated (but still enslaved) animals in those industries... once i achieve that therein lies a whole 'other' dilemma - my canine and feline companions are carnivores, so how to feed them because they're unable in this society to hunt for themselves??? ahh, another quandary to ponder...

political and pleasurable...

i had a work colleague around for dinner last night - she's vegan, around my age and an animal lover (which definitely went down well with Allie and Shadow - they loved being caressed by her!!!)... what an enjoyable evening - ideals, beliefs and experiences shared with someone with similar politics - not having to explain or justify ourselves, as vegans and vegetarians so often have to, because there was understanding... refreshing...

I love a good, positive political conversation - and a really deep conversation with someone who shares your views is always rewarding - an expansion and validation of your beliefs - really encouraging - and all too rare... it does the mind a wealth of good... you feel less like a "stranger in a strange land"... yes, it was a good night!!!!

i made a delicious ratatouille with rosemary baked potatoes and garlic - Den brought crusty rolls to sop up the yummy juices, and we shared a delightful organic semillon sauvignon blanc... she also brought a lovely bunch of daffodils and irises that complimented everything... very thoughtful - and the colours look great with the maroon venetians as their backdrop!!!


mind you, finding wine that vegetarians and vegans can drink can be a tiresome process... reading all of those labels - so many wines are 'fined' with non-vegetarian/vegan friendly substances - blood, egg whites, egg albumin, casein (milk protein), gelatin (derived from bones), isinglass (derived from fish), chitin/chitosan (derived from the shells of crabs or lobsters) and I must have read 20-odd labels yesterday before I found a suitable organic one.

like me, Den doesn't go out often these days - yeah, our age has something to do with that - but so does the still limited vegetarian restaurant choice - let alone vegetarian dish choices in 'standard' restuarants - and then there are the odors of rancid decaying cooking flesh that can be overpowering, nausea-causing even - and let's face it, once something dies it starts to decay immediately!!!

there's also the constant having to explain your vegetarianism to people who can't quite grasp the concept, and the graphic descriptions they give you of their carnivorous habits - 'we' really don't want to hear your favourite dead animal recipe or where you get the best cut of dead animal from!!!

from the blog "Provoked... by the way we use animals"

and then there's the wearing of 'leather' products - some vegetarians and vegans find this a hard thing to do away with - but how do they justify it to themselves - how is dead animal as food source different to dead animal as clothing source - the animals suffer and then die - it's all part and parcel of the same industry - the death industry... and then there's the other abusive, inhumane practices - the feed lots, the battery farms, the farms that provide no shelter or water (and there are so many - just take a drive in the country!!!), the transportation, the abattoirs, the pain, the suffering - and that's not even touching on animal experimentation - the list goes on...

there seems to be an inability to understand that 'our' vegetarianism is an integral element of us - who we are - our morality - our belief in the complementarity of nature - our respect and compassion for other species - our non-belief in human superiority!!!

it's a hard choice to make - to live on the outside of what's considered 'normal' takes determination and strength - always having to 'qualify and quantify' your beliefs can wear you out - so can the jokes and jibes about vegetarians - and the disrespect to animals - it also takes time, energy, and lots of research - you have to read everything - time-consuming and frustrating - it's a way of life...

so, like a lot of vegos, i find myself thinking - "what hope for animals, when humans don't even respect or have compassion for their own species"??!!

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. ~ Paul McCartney

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends. ~ George Bernard Shaw

Nothing more strongly arouses our disgust than cannibalism, yet we make the same impression on Buddhists and vegetarians, for we feed on babies, though not our own. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic- and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal. ~ Ingrid Newkirk

We all love animals. Why do we call some "pets" and others "dinner?" ~ k.d. lang

Think of me tonite
For that which you savor
Did it give you something real,
or could you taste the pain of my death in its flavor?
~ Wayne K. Tolson, from "Food Forethought"


quotes from Quotegarden