Bah! September 19, 2012

Bah! Pic snaffled from The Discerning Brute website.
An interesting read.

Well, this is interesting. I’ve been away from my blog for too long and don’t know how to work anything anymore. I just managed to delete my written post and publish a picture with no context.

Edited to include: Take 2.

In the time I’ve been away I’ve really been thinking about what living ethically and enjoyably means to me and have found that “vegan” just doesn’t cover it as much as I used to think it did. Being vegan is a component of it.

To explain, when I buy products, for example, I’m not just looking to tick the vegan box, I want it to be (in no particular order and where relevant) palm oil free, fair trade, organic, non-GMO, non-monocrop, non-virgin forest, recycled, recyclable, reused, reusable, low carbon footprint, minimal/no plastic, supporting local or o/s independent businesses/people, minimal processing, minimal ingredients, healthy, necessary. There are probably more that I’ve forgotten but I think you catch my drift.

I realise that I can’t tick each box in every purchase, and I have a long way to go with getting the basics right on this, but while I’m working on it, I’d love an all-encompassing name to describe this approach. Does anyone know if one exists and I’m just too tired to think of it? If not, can we make one up?

Any ideas?

Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings February 17, 2011

Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings – found on Care2 – what a beautiful business! Imagine everything ethically taken care of! Assuming coffee and chocolate are fair trade, etc. They are also eco-friendly and support same-sex and non-traditional couples. Is there anything they can’t do?!

I wonder how easy it would be to pull off a vegan wedding in any city in Australia… It would be wonderful to put a little list of caterers, make-up artists and whatever else together. Any contributions?

Ninja Vegan Update! February 16, 2011

In my first Ninja Vegan post I mentioned a list of websites where you can find accidentally vegan products. I wanted to add a new list which is very active and mentions if products contain palm oil.

Vegan Products you can buy in Australia is only on Facebook. The discussion board is just starting up and contains some excellent examples of letters to companies inquiring about vegan and palm oil free products, along with their responses.

The palm oil debate is very interesting and, although I’m completely against chopping down even one more frond of virgin forest, I’m wavering on where I stand on “sustainable” palm oil from Africa or South America, for example. I would “like to think”* that there is such a thing as sustainable palm oil but I just don’t trust the claims yet.

What do you think of sustainable palm oil?

*A post on thinking coming soon!

Australian Bobby Calves Screwed and The Cartoon That Went Viral February 14, 2011

As if it’s not bad enough to be a bobby calf already, Dairy Australia now wants to introduce new “standards” that increase the time these babies do not receive food right before slaughter.

If you want to get a bit more up-to-date on the issue as it has been publicised in Australia, check out the 7pm Project report. The details of the new standard are here if you want to read it for yourself.

What I really wanted to show you though, was this insightful ‘toon by Fluid Ink. It’s been downloaded around 9000 times in just a week or two so I know it is “speaking” to people. I hope you’ll forward this ‘toon to anyone and everyone you think might connect with the message of the ‘toon’s protagonist.

Milk, the other white meat

It’s also time to face a few facts. The talk of acceptable and unacceptable standards is misleading. Whether or not the Time Off Feeding (TOF) standard is 30-hours, 24-hours or 15-hours, these calves will still be born, separated from their mother, chained in tiny “veal crates” for their short lives then trucked to slaughter, all of which is totally unnecessary. It’s one thing to read what happens, please watch the video to see it for yourself.

Calves are waste products of the dairy industry. Very few people realise this, which is why it’s important to spread the message. Anyone who drinks milk, eats cheese or yoghurt or any product with dairy in it is complicit in these acts. The veal industry simply wouldn’t exist without the dairy industry.

Metaphorically, there is a hunk of veal in every glass of milk.
~Stephen Gross, PhD.

We all have a choice. Make it compassionate, make it count. Go Deliciously Dairy-Free! Go vegan!

Bucket loads of dairy-free alternatives!

Disgruntled vegan but laughing! February 9, 2011

I found this awesome Disgruntled Alphabet through Beautiful Vegan who found it on the Vegan Feminist Agitator blog. It’s worth checking out her first Disgruntled Alphabet too. Enjoy!

via Vegan Feminist Agitator

A is for the predictable but no less Antagonizing way in which your family (or co-workers) think that you can and should just “eat around” the meat.

What do you mean "eat around it"???

B is for Buzz-kill, the way you feel when you’re reading the list of ingredients on that fabulous looking chocolate bar or bag of salt-and-vinegar chips when you come upon whey as the second-to-last ingredient.

C is for Caustic, because sometimes you feel like your head might explode if you cannot release the pressure with a caustic aside, like, “Oh, yes. I can certainly understand why you think that tofu is disgusting when you eat animal corpses, mammary secretions and ovum regularly. That makes perfect sense.”

D is for Damn right, I eat plain nutritional yeast straight out of the bag. What of it? Like you don’t have any bizarre habits, freaker.

E is for Eating. Just let us eat in peace. Aren’t we supposed to be the annoying and judgmental ones?

F is for Finally, as in I looked through a veritable mountain of winter coats and I finally found one without fur trim or wool and it’s not even that hideously ugly.

G is for Gross, as in Gross! What is that at the bottom of my produce drawer? Is that from freaking last summer? Can I just buy a replacement drawer?

.

The only "creatures" you should find in your fridge

H is for Hegan and any other silly media catchphrases that get some attention for about two weeks before being tossed into the dung pile until Larry King half-heartedly resurrects it for five seconds before it is finally, inescapably retired.

I is for, “I’d like to get the burrito without cheese or sour cream. Right. No cheese or sour cream. Right. Could I just get extra guacamole instead? I mean…I’m not getting the cheese or sour cream. A dollar extra? But I’m not getting those things that are costing more so it kind of evens out – oh, never mind. I’ll eat at home.”

J is for Just kidding, as in, “I think it’s awesome that you think you’re rebelling against the status quo by eating bacon like just about every other shmuck on earth. Just kidding!”

K is for Kale because, damn, sometimes you feel so broken down by the world you want to curl up in a ball but you should really try a vitamin infusion from this heavyweight of the produce world instead. Or fine, curl up in a ball instead. Like a gallstone, it’ll pass.

On Ex-Vegans: Unpopular thoughts on why people become, stay or stop being vegan February 7, 2011

I’ve always found Unpopular Vegan Essays to be highly thought-provoking, whether or not I agree with the author. The piece “On Ex-Vegans“  has got me thinking about some of the people in my life who were vegan or vegetarian and no longer are. [If you've never heard the ex-vegan arguments you can find some here and here and here in these "confessions of an ex-vegan" blogs.]

It makes me wonder about their reasoning and character but, more importantly, it makes me question mine.

As an ethical vegan, among other types of vegan, it’s confronting to hear that someone who I had known was passionately vegan due to their concerns for animals turn around and say it’s all too hard, especially when it’s taste-related, and even more so when they give up every aspect of veganism at the same time. I say this without judgment – or perhaps an element of it, though none is intended and I actively try to avoid it – and with the recognition that I did this myself when I was vegetarian (including 3 months following a vegan diet) many years ago. I think back to my reasoning and I attribute part of my decision to stop being a vegetarian to a lack of knowledge about myself, my health and animal rights as well as a lack of support (not that I asked for any) and active pressure from those around me to stop being vegetarian.

Sorry little calfy and piggy, I just like cheese and bacon too much

But what about character? I stayed vegetarian for at least a few years despite thinking it was making me sick (for those who don’t know, it wasn’t being vegetarian, it was consuming dairy and lots of it). I guess that shows either persistence or stupidity! But I think the weakness in character was more to do with

Haunted by the Protein Myth? Parkour brings it back from the dead! February 2, 2011

I decided a few weeks ago to try out Parkour. It looks amazing and the philosophy sits very well with me. It’s probably the part about overcoming mental, emotional and physical barriers that made me decide I would try it out. So I went to the first class of the year, really nervous because I haven’t exercised properly for several years (or at all for over a year) and because I knew most, if not all the others, would be male and much younger and fitter than me. I was actually going to pretend I was just walking by and secretly watch the class while reading a book, but somehow steeled my nerves and went ahead with it. I’m glad I did, it was great fun! But oh so hard. I realised just how hard it was – and how hard I tried – when I could barely walk for the next three days. I was so sore I couldn’t even change gears in the car! I was sort of recovered by the second class but still feeling a bit weak in my muscles (also it was that time of month so I felt pretty crap just by waking up that day).

The Original Traceur!

But I’m hooked now and as a novice traceuse, I