Giving Up Cheese

I tend to hear a lot of excuses about why people could never possibly go vegetarian, let alone vegan.  It's okay, you don't have go full-hearted at it...especially at first.  Those people who can go cold tofurkey are people I have a lot of respect for, but I also understand how difficult it is to change your life suddenly.  So, I advocate for any baby steps taken towards the greater cause of eradicating all animal by-products from one's life...

When it comes to cheese, giving it up altogether is the BEST way to deal with ending the addiction, in my opinion, of course.  Vegan Soapbox has a few more helpful hints, in case you're struggling with ending the addition...

Check out their tips:

Vegan Soapbox's helpful hints

As for me, I went cold cheezy sauce on the dairy cheese.  My first month of veganism - January 2009 - I focussed on ridding my diet of cheese and chocolate.  Chocolate remains my weakness...but I NEVER miss cheese...it just happens to be in a lot of vegetarian dishes that become my "only" option sometimes. (I'm getting better at politely telling people that cheese is not okay in my salad/entree/etc. ... more on Dining Out later...)  Of course, the more I make my nooch cheeze sauce for people, the less deprived they think I am for no longer indulging in such an addictive food.  That's right...once you give up an addiction, you realize how little you crave it...

Mmmmmm...gonna go make me some nooch sauce now....so yummy...

Helping or Hoarding? and a Tangent on Slumpets

A few weeks ago, I began to scour the immense amount of information on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)'s website.  Among the many treasures, I found this article commenting on the animal cruelty involved with hoarding:

Helping or Hoarding?: "Many of us have had a peek into the bizarre world of hoarding courtesy of reality television. Accumulating piles and piles of household junk is…"

If you live in Edmonton, perhaps you remember hearing about that house in Terwillegar that had over 300 rabbits in it.  I believe that was last winter when the SPCA (or some other organization) confiscated the animals. 

I think the house was even condemned because of the remaining condition of it after having way too many living beings in it.  It was the slum of the rabbits. Which is even worse than the slums of humans.  Don't get me wrong, I know that people who live in slums have little opportunity to get out of the slums, whether through financial burdens, health problems or their own fear to leave the only home they've ever been it (that's the worst fear of all: the fear of the unknown).  But, in our society, those people living in slums are given much more respect than the animals forced to live in slums.  And, in our society, those people have the freedom to leave their situation.  There are numerous social programs to help them out.  Education, I will always believe, is the path to their freedom - and there are libraries in every major city in the world. Fear can be overcome. Health problems is a difficult one, which always makes me thankful for living in Canada, where you can receive free (or at least discounted) crucial health care needs.  For those animals, though, there is nothing.  They are forced into these domestic cages, unable to live the life they feel such a strong desire to live - a life of freedom.  Who speaks for the beings without a human voice?  Who will give them the respect any living individual deserves?

This is why I'm vegan.  This is why my cat is my best friend, not "my" pet.  This is why I am filled with so much joy when I come across a rabbit in the river valley.  This post is only the tip of the iceberg on my thoughts about this topic.

I know I've hit a few different points, but I want to hear your reactions to it.  Argue with me! Tell me I'm wrong...if you actually think I am.  I want this blog to be a doorway to a dialogue I have been meaning to have for the last seven years.  Please, share your opinion with me! Oh, and read the article on PETA's site.  It's an interesting topic that spawned a lot of ideas inside my head.

Thanks!

"Ethical" Meat

"I don't have a problem with eating meat, just the ethics behind it."

The above statement was said to me during a "foodie" talk about curry.  I full-heartedly agreed with the individual and support her decisions 100%.  And, for that reason, many vegans are going to disagree with me... Many vegans disagree with me frequently, I just need to get used to it.  I'm already used to the fact that I make many people still eating meat uncomfortable...

Will I ever meat again? No.  Like the true-blue animal-rights vegetarians mentioned in the article below, I have developed an ethical opposition to the consumption of another animal.  I believe in speciesism, and hope for it to one day be as politically incorrect as racism, sexism, and all other prejudices in this world.  In the meantime, though, I want to support any baby steps away from the horrible and disgusting abuse that happens in every single factory farm, where speciesism is at its worst.  Like the feminist movement that has gone before it, the animal rights movement needs to focus on making violent rape/and torturous mercy killings illegal before we elect a cat for leader of the free world.  It's all about the baby steps...

As such, I support Meatless Mondays.  If everybody gave up eating meat for a day at least once a week, just imagine how many lives could be saved!  As long as you don't go on about it to me, I'll even be okay with you eating a steak the next day.  I'd prefer if you didn't...but if you know the producer, and you choose that over a factory-farmed chicken (who, by the way, I think need more protection than cattle in this country), I'll appreciate you're baby step.

I'm a farmer's daughter, and always will be.  Giving up meat was my single act of rebellion as a teenager, and I've always maintained a level of respect from where I've come from.  But I also have an idea for where we're heading...especially if we don't do anything to stop not only the abuse of animals for our mere pleasure (not nutritional benefit), but also the obesity epidemic and environmental consequences of over-production.  These are all points that I'll cover in the future...

After the "foodie" conversation, I made my way home and found this article on a Vegan Mainstream's facebook page.  Like many vegans I know, this article upset Vegan Mainstream.  It didn't paint rainbows of happiness across my heart either, but I can appreciate parts of it - especially the honesty.  Having profitted from the life of a farmer as a child, I do support "seeking out and paying a high premium for meat."  It should be a luxury - not a daily occurence!  In the same respect, fresh vegetables should be a daily occurence and not a luxury...and so I support local vegetable farmers.

Today I had a separate discussion with somebody whose sister had been a vegan for two years.  The reason for her to stop identifying as a vegan was because it was "too hard." She found herself deprived when going out with friends (to KFC...I'll hold back my comments on friends like that...) and following a strict diet too difficult.  This is exactly why I advocate for "cheating." I'm human.  I make mistakes.  And I'm not going to lose sight of the greater good just because there is milk ingredients in the bread I bought this week because I ran out of time to make my own.  As a fellow vegan pointed out, "an environmentalist doesn't stop calling themselves an environmentalist if they throw a pop can in a garbage can rather than the recycling bin."  So, to make the die-hard vegan police (who-don't-actually-exist) happy, I'll acknowledge that I'm a "Cheatin' Vegan."  For those who find life as a vegan or vegetarian too difficult for them, I'll be here to guide you in the right direction.  I won't, though, like the ex-vegetarian in this article, ever slide back into eating meat...and I mean that.

All that being said, I'm sure you're thoroughly confused about my point by now.  So, now's the perfect time to read somebody else's point of view.  There are some interesting points here, which inspired the above tangents, etc.  Check it out: "Why Vegetarians Are Eating Meat" in Food and Wine Online magazine.

Okay, so I am slightly sad that the ex-vegetarian started eating animals again, but everybody is entitled to their own choices.  Just as vegetarians and vegans concerned about the "questions being raised about meat replacements derived from soy and wheat gluten" have the choice of a HUGE variety of other vegetable protein sources out there.  And that's my favourite part about being a vegan right now - they just keep multiplying!  After seven years of not eating meat, I can honestly say that the times I have gotten my protein from ONLY soy or "omnisub" fake meats has been rare.  Maybe, if you add it all up it would be two servings a day for two months.  Out of 84 months, I'd say that's pretty rare.   Just think about the rise in popularity of the nine protein sources currently in my cupboard: quinoa, lentils, millet, white navy beans, brown rice, almonds, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), barley, kidney beans.  It definitely makes the choice of beef, pork, chicken or fish boring in comparison. And that's just what's in my cupboards right now.

So, if you're currently on an omnivore diet, I hope you at least try to chose more "ethical" meat.  Better than that, I'd be thrilled if you committed to giving up meat completely, but once a week is still good.  Otherwise, well, there's always more room over here in the veg*n room!

(I often joke around about my problem of food hoarding.  When there are also talks of disasters striking, though, I take comfort in - and comfort my cat with - the knowledge that he'll eat me before I eat him...which won't likely happen for six months after being trapped in my overstocked apartment.  Even in the worst disaster, I'm sure we'll be able to sneak out into the river valley for some vegetation by that time...)

Meatless Monday in the Workplace

Meatless Monday in the Workplace: "People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"

My Meatless Mondays in My Home have been so successful that I'm struggling to find the time to write about them!  I should have a few more posts up this week, now that VVOA's Gluten-Free Cook-Off has wrapped up.  In the meantime, check out PETA's article on Meatless Mondays in the Workplace.  Could you start something like this where you work?

Alicia Silverstone Not 'Clueless' About Vegan Health

This video is a bit older, but still fairly interesting. I know Alicia Silverstone and her book, The Kind Diet, have not been in the news as much lately, but she's still very relevant! In fact, among all of the information I picked up at VVOA's presentation on "Becoming A Vegan" on the 1st of March, the mention of Alicia Silverstone was almost a highlight for me. I ran into the girl who mentioned The Kind Diet again tonight. She's been vegan for nine days now, and feeling great! ("I've lost five pounds," she told me, with a surprised grin on her face.) Silverstone's book is the only vegan cookbook she has, but I think she got a lot of ideas from the potluck we were at!

The Vegan Song

So, this music video is a little out-dated, but it's still pretty nifty. I'd say circa 90s rap scene...but I think it may be more from the early 00's.



Now, I don't advocate the eating of potato chips and such, just 'cause they're vegan, but a lot of their other points are good. You know, things like being more compassionate to pick up chicks...and thus the rise of "he-gans" out there... :-D

Vegan TVP Sauce and Cheeze

"How is that vegan?" is what you're probably thinking right about now.  "It looks like meat sauce, noodles and shredded cheese!" 

That's exactly what one of my friends who follows an omnivorous diet said when he tried a similar dish back in December.  At that time, I had made us a "meat" sauce out of Yves' veggie ground, which I don't have very often, but that I enjoy.  Not quite sure what to eat last week, I was inspired by that memory.  This time, however, I decided to try my hand at TVP (Textured Vegetable Protein) rather than Yves' veggie ground, and make a simple vegetable sauce to compliment it rather than using a jar of the home-made tomato sauce I made with my sisters last fall.

TVP is a high-fiber, high-protein "meat analogue" or "omni-sub" as I prefer to call them.  Made from defatted soy flour, a byproduct of extracting soybean oil, they are dehydrated flakes of protein.  Once rehydrated, they resemble ground meat.  And, like tofu, they absorb almost any flavour you soak them in.  It's not my favourite thing to eat in the meal, but it is an interesting soy product worthy to try out.

TVP Sauce, Noodles and Cheeze

This recipe serves four and freezes really well!  Do not freeze with the cheeze, though.  I just had leftovers of it last night!  YUMMY!

Ingredients:

Noodles, enough to serve four (I used organic rotini from my local health food store; depending on your strictness to a vegan diet, check the ingredient list for eggs as this can be a common ingredient.)

1 cup TVP granules (these can be found in most grocery stores; check your health food aisle.)

1 1/8 cup boiling water

1 Tbsp Tamari sauce

1 Tbsp canola or other vegetable oil

1 onion

3 - 4 medium carrots

7-8 mushrooms

1 can tomatoes, chopped coarsely

1 Tbsp Italian spice (or a mixture of oregano, basil, thyme and cumin - 1 tsp each)

Cook noodles as per package instructions. (Boil water, add noodles, reduce heat, cook until desired tenderness.)

In a small bowl (your average soup bowl), place 1 cup of TVP granules.  Pour 1 1/8 cup of boiling water over top of the granules.  Cover with a plate for about ten minutes (while you prepare the vegetables is fine).  Splash tamari sauce over top of the granules, stir and let sit for another five minutes or so to soak up the flavour of the tamari.

Heat oil over medium heat in a medium sauce pan.  Chop onion to desired size (I always aim for the smaller the better in sauces; longer and leaner in stir-frys) and add to the heated oil.  Stir occasionally to avoid burning.  Chop carrots to desired size (I chop a full carrot in half, then cut each half lengthwise into quarters.  From there, I can get a smaller-sized carrot as well.) Once onions are translucent, add carrots to sauce pan.  Chop mushrooms to desired size.  Search through your fridge for any other vegetables that you may also find delicious in your sauce. (The joy of cooking vegetable sauces is that you can put almost anything that is almost past its expiration date into the pan and they are yummy and nutritious! If I had had leftover brocolli, I would have put that into the sauce in a flash as well!)   Add mushrooms or whatever else you have found to the carrots and onions.  Let simmer for a few minutes until vegetables are tender.  Add chopped tomatoes (if they're in season, definitely use fresh.  In the winter, I tend to avoid fresh tomatoes so that I can more fully enjoy the first ripe tomatoes of the spring!) either from a can or from  your fridge.  Bring to a gentle boil.  Reduce heat.  Add Italian spices.  Let sauce simmer for another five minutes or so, for the flavours to all co-mingle.  Add TVP granules to the sauce.  Again, more simmering to allow the TVP to soak up more flavour.

Place noodles on plate.  Scoop or pour sauce over the noodles.  (As this is a vegetable sauce rather than tomato sauce, it will be runnier than you may be expecting.  To avoid that, you could always add tomato paste to thicken it up, and run it through a food processor to make it creamier.  Add TVP after running it through the food processor, though, to maintain that texture pictured above.) Sprinkle with my current favourite non-dairy cheeze, Daiya.  (Unlike most other earlier vegan cheezes, Daiya is made from arrowroot, and is able to melt more like the cheese you may have grown up with or that you eye with envy as you pass the local pizza shop.  It is scrumptious!  And produced by a Canadian company!)

Check out some photos of the process:

After adding the TVP to the vegetable sauce.

A close up of the sauce.

On my plate, before adding the Daiya.

After adding the Daiya!

Daiya, in its package.  Absolutely delicious!!!

Vegans Have Feelings, Too

I've written about this before, but I was fairly brief at the time.  And, since then, I've gained a bit more focus on the issue and some personal awareness of why I can be so easily offended by what people say about vegans.  So, here I go again...

In an act of compassion (as many acts done - or left undone - by vegans are), I invited my numerous Facebook followers and friends to a home-cooked meatless meal.  I'm doing this as part of my contribution to March Meat Out, and I explained the whole process in this post back in February.  The response has been fantastic!  And I'm very excited for the friends I get to cook for, and catch up with in the crazy month ahead.  There was one response, though, that keeps hurting me, and I've been torn about how best to handle it, so I'm asking for your advice.

An old colleague of mine posted on the wall for the Facebook Event page: "thanks for the invite but I'm breast feeding and I need as much protein as I can get seeing as my blood tests came back saying that I'm not getting enough for both ... My dr said I'm to eat lots of beef." I'm sure she meant nothing by it, as most omnivore's comments about not getting enough protein on a vegan diet go, but it still really cut me down to my core.  It's not anything new, it's just such an old myth about veganism that it's become an insult!

There were several responses that I wanted to reply with:

• "Oh, gee, your doctor should read the China Study.  And you should probably watch Food Matters.  It's really a shame that so many practitioners of western medicine continue to understand so little about nutrition!"
• "That's funny, I donate plasma (the yellow substance of your blood that contains dissolved proteins, glucose, clotting factors, mineral ions, hormones, etc.) once a week.  As a precaution, they have to measure my protein levels every time.  Frequent plasma donors are at a higher risk for depleting protein levels and these tests are more for my health than the health of my blood, just like the iron tests they do with all blood donations.  I haven't eaten beef in seven years, get my protein mostly from whole grains, beans and the occasional tofu product (less than once a week), and there isn't a single problem with me donating as frequently as I do - weekly.  And, my iron continues to increase the more blood I give.  I don't donate blood to monitor these levels of iron and protein in my blood, because there is never any doubt in my mind that I am getting enough of those nutrients.  I donate because I never had a disease as a child that is deadly for babies in the first several months of their life.  As such, my blood doesn't carry the antibodies to that disease that could pass the disease on to the babies.  So, if your baby ever needs blood, you can thank me for donating my vegan blood - 100% beef free!"
• "I'd be careful with that beef!  You never know when you'll pick up Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease.  Apparently there was a case here in Edmonton back in December that was never reported to the media.  Well, the lack of media attention to that is not so surprising here in I (heart) AB Beef country, but the lack of numerous diseases you are more likely to get from eating beef are not: heart disease, cancer, obesity, etc. Not to mention all the extra hormones and antibiotics in over-manufactured/ factory-farmed animal products  If I were breast-feeding, I'd want to be a little bit more careful about the risks I'm passing on to my baby."
• "Weird!?! You never really hear about protein deficiencies, but you sure do hear about nutrient deficiencies.  I'm also training for a 10km run in June, and still getting enough protein.  The only extra thing veg*ns have to be aware of (more than meat-eaters) are vitamins B12 and D, which are found in fortified foods.  Are you sure you're eating enough vegetables and whole grains?  And calcium?  The acidity of animal products actually depletes the stores of calcium in your bones, making them weaker and more prone to osteoporosis.  Vegetables such as broccolli, kale, and bok choy, as well as plant proteins, such as almonds, white, navy, Great Northern and soy beans are great sources of calcium.  and your body absorbs them better than animal-derived calcium sources." 
• "Did you know that a steer loses 95% of the protein it consumes in the building of its flesh?  I can't believe your doctor would still advocate that lack of our natural resource.  Especially while talking about the future generation, your son!"

You see, it's not the lack of information I possess, but the right tact to provide this information.  As I read all of these fact-based responses, I feel as if they are attacking her right back.  Which is, of course, the reason I thought all of the up.  I felt attacked when she said she could only get protein from beef.  I may not have four feet to walk on, or four stomaches to ruminate with, but I am a compassionate person.  I feel empathy for the millions of animals who have their lives sacrificed every year not of their own free will, but because the animals with the power in this world - us, humans - have decided that their flesh will provide us with the best nutritional value out there.  This thought didn't appear over night, and the solution won't come as quickly as the problem did, but continuing to think that you can only increase your protein levels through the consumption of another living being won't work to eradicate all the suffering we support in this world.  So, yes, my words are attacking the words she posted on that wall.  I want those words to die!  I want those thoughts to no longer exist in our current society.  So, perhaps my tone is a little insulting as well.

I want everybody I talk to about veganism to actually understand that protein is not the most important thing in the world.  Like me, though, most people do not respond well to confrontations.  I was convinced of my choices over a period of years, not by being yelled at about how we all need to change, but because I have looked into the eyes of chickens, pigs, cows, and later sat down at a table to eat them.  I may never have felt comfortable doing this, but this was our life.  We treated our animals with respect, and kindness and we were good small-scale farmers.  We could respect the animal we put in our mouths.  It was looking into the eyes of a picture of a pig (the image is forever imprinted in my mind) that had lost that respect that made me change.  It was knowing that there were so many animals - living beings - out there that were treated like pieces of meat rather than individuals who even feel pain or suffering that made me stop supporting that industry immediately.  And I think there are many other sensitive souls out there who feel like I do and will only come around to vegetarianism if we can provide them with love and support on their journey rather than our violent opposition to the status quo. 

I ate meat from my family's farm for the first eighteen months of my life as a vegetarian, and I don't regret that part of the journey. My family was able to adjust to my changing diet at a pace that was much better for our long-term relationship.  It was finally getting violently ill after a Christmas dinner that made my family realize that I couldn't eat meat any more.  My body rejected it.  Four months later, I tried veganism for the first time.  It lasted only a month, but it made me more aware of how much I still supported the factory-farming industry.  I've baked vegan since becoming vegetarian, and people have always loved my baking.  After my fifth anniversary of the beginning of my journey, I decided to go all the way.  I lasted a month and half before having eating a baked good somebody had purchased for me that I knew had milk ingredients in it.  At first, I felt terrible.  After a few months of this occasional "cheating," I stopped beating myself up about my falterings.  In social situations, I decided, it would be okay to be only vegetarian.  Then, it became a battle of my will power to remain true to my ethics.  This is a battle I continue to face every day.  I know people who have stronger will powers than I do, who are much healthier as a result, and have been vegan for much longer than me.  I know I won't be a cheater one day.  But, for now, this is part of my journey.  At in this leg, I want to help as many people up the ladder as I can.  I was born to be a leader, and helping people on their journey helps me succeed on mine as well.  Nobody is perfect, and many people struggle to follow a strict diet.  I'm here to tell you it's okay.  I welcome the guilt these days as it is a way of reminding me where I want to be someday, but I also congratulate myself on how far I've come.  Ninety-five animals a year are saved because I have come this far on my journey.  Imagine how many more I can save if I help more omnivores reduce their consumption of meat, let alone stop it completely.  Even taking out one meal a week will help.  And slowly, over time, there won't be the need to attack comments like "my doctor says I'm to eat more beef" because doctors like that won't be tolerated in our society.

In the past month, I have had a major wake-up call about how to talk to people about veganism.  I hit rock bottom on my anger scale one day and felt like my life was going nowhere.  I've done a lot of things since turning 25 to improve my life and finally get started on a better path to what I want to do with my life: change the world.  In my transitional financial stage, I have returned to a more relaxing work environment, where unfortunately I serve gallons upon gallons of mammalian lactations (cow's milk) every single day.  At the time of my major break with anger, I was reading Joseph Keon's Whitewash:The Disturbing Truth about Cow's Milk and Your Health.  Searching for an outlet, my anger directed itself at the consumers of the mammalian lactations. 

As I later explained to my family in the first re-telling of this transformation, it angers me so much that the people we trust with the most important thing in life - our health - continue to contribute to the lies that have become indoctrinated into our culture.  We have been so brainwashed by the big food companies, meat producers and dairy producers that we never even think to question who is sponsoring those healthy eating food guides that our government - an institution that is supposed to protect us and govern us (just think of ALL those checks and balances that are supposed to be happening!) - supports as well.  (I will have to go into this tangent later on, but if you want to read something now, pick up Paul Robert's End of Food, which explains how our food system has been corrupted over the past century.  Also invaluable is Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemna.  I'll get into my opinions on the issues later, I'm sure!)  It angers me so much that money is so often put before something so much more valuable - health!

The next day, I attended my first of many inspiring meetings of the last month.  The topic of the meeting was "Professionalism."  Now, we all think we know what "professionalism" is, but what would a list of "professional" characteristics look like?  As we went through the list, I realized that allowing my anger to even bubble under the surface while at work was not beneficial to me, and definitely not beneficial to the hundreds of people who currently consume the mammalian lactations.  Instead, I could be helping those people.  And so began my quest to find the most professional way to do just that!

My journey to conveying my message more professionally has stopped me from replying at all to this post made on the wall of a compassionate event.  My biggest contribution to the list of professionalism was "How To Deal With Conflict."  If it's affecting your life to such a point that the conflict has to be resolved, resolve it.  Remember, though, to respect that we all have different opinions on the world. Rejoice in this fact as it is the only way "new" ideas are born; and social change requires new ideas all of the time! Once resolved, release the anger involved with the differing opinions.

I'm not sure which answer would have been best for dealing with the conflict.  I want to respect the fact that many people still hold true to their opinions on nutrition. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear!  Everybody must come in their own time. So, this post is my Release of the conflict.  Some may call it being "passive aggressive," but it's my blog.  I discuss my challenges, my feelings, and vent every once in awhile, too.  I don't mean to offend anybody with discussing my own journey within veganism, but rather highlight the problems that come up on any path to a better life. I do hope I've shed some light for the people who make the comments on what it's like to be on the other end of all those "protein" comments.  After some contemplation, I must say: Pretty healthy, thank you!  And I've never looked better either.

Also, as I recalled the story about the "my doctor says I'm to eat beef" to a current coworker, she pointed out that I'm asking people to join me for one day without meat.  Your body is an amazing machine that stores nutrients over a period of time, not just 24 hours. In fact, if you are eating meat, it'll take more than 24 hours for your body to actually digest what you're putting into your mouth!  Don't even get me started on cheese!  And, on a personal note (which I'll get into when we know each other better), I blame my history of meat-eating on my most chronic health problem - GERD - for this very reason.  Sadly, that's a condition that does require surgery to correct, not just a change in diet.  So, take out the beef, insert the grains, whole foods and vegetable protein, and you'll be able to absorb so many more of the nutrients in your food!  Ah, if only her doctor was smarter!

Thank you for reading my venting!  I hope you learned something!  Also, please feel free to comment.  If you're a vegan I know you`ve had to deal with the protein issue before.  What did you do?  If you're an omnivore, which of my responses do you think would have been best received? What would have offended you the most?  What do you want to know more about?  I welcome your comments! 

Thanks!

Vegan Video

For anybody who grew up reading the funny pages, you've probably heard of the Bizarro comic before. If not, you missed out on some strange humour as a child...I'm sure you'll love it as an adult! Check out the website.

If you did grow up reading the website, you may not have realized that the artist was vegan. I didn't either up until a few years ago. I was reading my new addiction - VegNews magazine - when I came across a familiar name: Dan Pirraro.

"Hmmm, I thought. Didn't he do those Bizarro comics?"

Turns out he did! And he had also been advocating for animal rights for several years, too. I read his column and fell in love with his sassy vegan style. (Although today I wouldn't adopt many of the clever comebacks he has provided me with, even if utterly offended by the omnivore world. I just don't like confrontations. ;-D)

Anyways, you should watch this video, 'cause it's clever, and it's packed full of vegan philosophy...you know, in case you needed another reason to MARCH Meat Out!

Funny Vegetarian Quotes

For the month of March, Im trying to profile vegan music on my music blog.  In my search today, I came across this funny music video that has some great quotes.  I don't agree with all of them, but you might find them all funny!

Ending Animal Testing

There is always differing levels of commitment to a cause.  I call myself a 'Cheatin' vegan because I know many more vegans on a much stricter level of commitment than I am.  My general philosophy is, though, that I'm always working towards being a better vegan.  Not supporting companies that themselves support non-vegan practices (such as vivisection, or animal testing) is just one more step at becoming a better vegan.

Education is the key to many successful things in life.  PETA does a fantastic job of educating the world on some atrocious things that happen in our world, like vivisection.  Below is the link to an article they posted about Lipton, a major tea company, and their end to animal testing.  I never would have thought that tea would be non-vegan, but I'm glad that PETA does their research and has ended this horrible practice!

Victory! Lipton Ends Cruel Animal Tests: "We are thrilled to announce that after more than 40,000 supporters of PETA and its affiliates around the world sent e-mails urging Unilever to stop…"

Tonight, my vegan knowledge grew even more!  I went to a presentation performed by two of my fellow board members for the Vegans and Vegetarians of Alberta at the library downtown.  As always, my two colleagues were a wealth of information, and I think the presentation helped convince interested parties in the ease of transitioning to a cruelty-free lifestyle.

As part of my vow to become a better vegan, I'll share with you the information I learned tonight over the next month, or probably even longer.  For now, while on the topic of vivisection, I thought I would share a link to another group that is doing what it can to stop animal testing in medicine.  They are called the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and you can find out more about them here!