So I'm Thinking Of Going Vegan

welcome to 2013

Welcome to the first day of the New Year. Welcome to the first of 365 days where you can make a real difference. Whether newly vegan or a seasoned activist, today is the day where you can improve your health, the health of the environment, and most important of all, the health and happiness of other sentient beings who share our planet. Today is a fresh day of a fresh year, but every day of the next 364 days is a chance to wipe the slate clean and start anew.

The framework for this endeavour is love and compassion. For ourselves (yes, we may stumble), each other (no one is perfect), the innocent beings who suffer mightily at the hands of our supposedly superior species, and even (as hard as it may be) the ones who knowingly or unknowingly inflict such suffering. What would love do is a question that can guide us as we try to make the world better.

Joy may thus seem like a frivolous component when there's so much animal (both human and non-human) suffering going on, but without the lightness and hope that joy brings, it's too easy to get swallowed up in the pain and darkness that most of us confront daily. It would be wise for us to remember that many of us humans are drawn in part to other beings because they instinctively know how to live in the moment, how to derive pleasure and joy in the ordinary activities of living. Some of us may kid ourselves into thinking that we are more advanced, but we would do well to learn from those we denigrate.

You may have asked yourself upon reading my series of previous posts what excitement had to do with being vegan. In short, life's too short to be without it. In my own particular case, coming up with new ideas is when I feel most fully alive and is one of my biggest sources of satisfaction. The point here isn't what actually excites you (like feelings, they're neither right nor wrong), but how you apply your passions to making things better. There's lots of ways activists can contribute to animal well-being, and doing what you're good at, what you en(joy), and what gives you energy, is the surest way to become and stay involved. After all, we're in this for the long run!

What can YOU do? Well, lots. And it's up to you to decide how others will be best served. There's a plethora of skills, interests and knowledge that's needed and for you to draw upon. The key is doing what personally draws you in and what you find satisfying and sustaining. Don't make the mistake though of trying to do too much, thinking you can or should do everything. You can't, and any attempt will backfire. I even sometimes wonder if some of the ex-vegan spectacular about-face stories are the result of burnout. Can't do what I thought I could, so won't do anything at all. The aim here is balance. Be a super duper activist if that's what you want, but don't let it be your whole life. In other words, don't live in a vegan bubble. It won't help them at all, nor you.

Laughter, like joy or excitement, may seem superfluous as well when lives are at stake, but it really isn't. If you're going to try to take care of others, you need to take care of yourself as well. Laughter releases endorphins, releases and provides energy, and is vital especially because of the often-grim nature of what we face and do. A sense of humour is key, even more so because of the stereotype that vegans don't have one! 

Gratitude, as talked about in the prior post (can't believe I forgot to mention Vegg by the way!), can grease the activist engine so to speak. Building upon gains and successes develops confidence and stamina, having a supportive vegan community (even if only online) strengthens your resolve to keep doing what you're doing. And what you're doing is creating a vegan world. Slowly perhaps, but it's becoming more visible, more real and more concrete year by year. You're part of an historical movement (future generations may say with pride that you were the first in their family to go vegan) that will one day change the world forever. And the lives of her inhabitants.

Being a fan of Seth Godin (does that make me a godinite?), I'd like to end with a few questions he raised in his blog post today:

A year ago today, do you remember where you stood?

Are you more trusted? More skilled? More connected to people who care about your work?

How many people [sentient beings] would miss your work if you stopped contributing it? *

Today is the first day of 365 fresh days. So enjoy, and use wisely.

p.s. after drafting this post, I of course stumbled upon a book that covers what I tried to convey here, but likely more convincingly and probably better written -- check it out: The Lifelong Activist: How to Change the World Without Losing Your Way

* ironically, as I was typing those words, I received an unsubscription notification from a long-time blog reader, snort, so my final tip would be to stay humble! ;)

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thanksliving

This weekend Canadians celebrate the holiday that makes me so sad. I've talked about the fowl/foulness of this day before, and where I feel turkeys really belong, but today I'd like to talk about the word Thanksgiving itself. It's the second part of the word "giving" that I find quite confusing as this holiday has so much to do with taking instead. How can we demonstrate "thanks" by taking the lives of so many? Do people really think that millions of turkeys are giving up their lives willingly? We talk about give and take as a practice of compromise, but when it comes to animals, why are we doing all the taking and they the giving? 

Why can't we give thanks by letting beings live? What would be a better act of gratitude than appreciating all the wondrous species that cohabitate the planet Earth? Why don't we celebrate Thanksliving instead?

This prayer by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau has been circulated widely, but it's beautiful, and so appropriate for a holiday that spells horror for many:

My hope is that we can navigate through this world and our lives with the grace and integrity of those who need our protection. May we have the sense of humor and liveliness of the goats; may we have the maternal instincts and protective nature of the hens and the sassiness of the roosters. May we have the gentleness and strength of the cattle, and the wisdom, humility and serenity of the donkeys. May we appreciate the need of community as do the sheep and choose our companions as carefully as do the rabbits. May we have the faithfulness and commitment to family of the geese, the adaptability and affability of the ducks. May we have the intelligence, loyalty and affection of the pigs and the inquisitiveness, sensitivity, and playfulness of the turkeys.

My hope is that we learn from the animals what it is we need to become better people.

from Vegan's Daily Companion: 365 Days of Inspiration for Cooking, Eating, and Living Compassionately, Day 310, p. 263

p.s. Unfortunately I was too late with writing a letter to the editor asking folk to consider celebrating the holiday in a more living way, but did manage to slap a few "New Vegan Age" stickers (thanks, Tom!) on a couple of butcher shop windows in town.

the end of summer

Has sadly arrived so quickly (zip, zoom, there she goes!), and while my mind is percolating on a few future blog posts likely to end up in the unpopular vegan viewpoints category, I thought I'd close the season with a poem from my favourite poet, Mary Oliver:

The Summer Day

Who made the world?
Who made the swan, and the black bear?
Who made the grasshopper?
This grasshopper, I mean—
the one who has flung herself out of the grass,
the one who is eating sugar out of my hand,
who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down—
who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.
Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.
Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away.
I don't know exactly what a prayer is.
I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn't everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?

Oliver, Mary. New and Selected Poems. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992.

So tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious and vegan life? :)

are you a strategic organizer?

I'm currently reading Melanie Joy's Strategic Action for Animals and am enjoying it enough that I may feature more future excerpt posts. I suck at book reviews however, so check out the ones on Amazon, or take a look at Ginny Messina's review.

Back to the question at hand. Strategic organizers are personnel in key leadership positions whose role is to build the power base of organizations, and to channel this power externally to bring about change. A good understanding of power dynamics is needed otherwise organizers will not only be less effective, but also counterproductive as they risk disempowering staff, decreasing public support, and potentially damaging the reputations of the organization AND the movement. (p. 35) Yikes.

So what characteristics and skills make strategic organizers effective? According to organizer Saul Alinsky, the following traits and behaviours are helpful:

• avoid dogma and remain open to others' ideas while maintaining faith in your own position
• be realistic yet optimistic so that people retain hope and reason to fight
• help people recognize their own power to bring about change
• continue to learn new skills to enhance leadership and organizational abilities such as conflict resolution
• stay focused on goals and helps others do the same
• maintain a sense of humour to keep up morale

Effective organizers should also:

• have excellent communication and facilitation skills
• listen more than speak
• share information freely so that a) others are groomed into taking over if necessary and b) knowledge doesn't die with them (p. 35-6)

Well! A huge task no doubt, and one that I'm certainly not up to (although to be frank, I think some of our current "leaders" could brush up on some of the above skills as well, snort), but if you recognize yourself as having the badly-needed skill set of a badly-needed strategic organizer, then please step up to the plate and enrich our movement already! ;)

p.s. another interesting looking book (although not yet available on Amazon.ca) is: Animal Impact: Secrets Proven to Achieve Results and Move the World -- hmmm, horrible subtitle in my opinion, but...

a vegan's daily companion

It's nice to see a vegan's daily companion (in this case my friend Krissa's beloved Spike) heartily support and endorse Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Vegan's Daily Companion. ;)

p.s. speaking of support, please consider making a small donation (but only if you can) to my Team Vegan fundraising effort -- I'm $50 away from reaching the $500 goal! :)

Update: Thanks to gentle Harry and a lovely donor couple who wishes to remain anonymous (thank you all so much!), the fundraising amount now stands at $525 -- so $1050 will go towards raising awareness that ALL sentient beings matter. Because the goal has now been reached I won't badger folk in every upcoming post (although I may issue a reminder of the campaign towards the middle and end of June), but feel free to contribute more to this worthwhile cause anytime you like. :) 

Amazon books that are pissing me off right now

The problem with reading blog posts and linked articles on Twitter, YouTube and FB is that you can come across stuff that even as a fairly seasoned vegan you didn't anticipate. Who knew that the training of K9's involves such cruelty? Never occurred to me. Another blind spot on my part I suppose, although every institution engaged in animal use is complicit to some degree in keeping practices secret from the general public. But now that I know, I can't unknow, and the information on the site regardless of its actual accuracy haunts me. Because if this is how many police dogs ARE trained, how can we expect officers to care about other forms of animal cruelty?

Vegans becoming hunters. WTF? Hunting now promoted as a cool hip thing for women to do. The taking of life somehow seen as a badge of gender equality. Again, wtf? And all this nonsense about being "connected" to nature, "knowing" your food, and showing "respect" by becoming a DIY backyard slaughterer. It makes me think Sir James Paul McCartney had it all wrong -- glass walls won't make a damn difference.

So being already annoyed by a sign advertising an annual church-sponsored pig roast on my way to town earlier (guess the Would Jesus Eat Meat Today? booklet I sent them last year didn't have much impact), I then get thoroughly disgusted by some of the glowing but-make-me-puke reviews of the following dreck found on Amazon:

• Chicks with Guns
• Girl Hunter: Revolutionizing the Way We Eat, One Hunt at a Time
• The Mindful Carnivore: A Vegetarian's Hunt for Sustenance
• Everything but the Squeal: Eating the Whole Hog in Northern Spain and last, but probably the worst of all (although at least it got negative reviews as well)
• Putting Humans First: Why We Are Nature's Favorite

Bah! And having, um, some anger issues, snort, I resort to tweeting and emailing rude responses to dickwads of both sexes. Not effective I'm sure, and not what Colleen Patrick-Goudreau would stoop to, but like I said, anger issues. Sometimes I really DO understand wanting to hide your head in the sand. There are days when I just don't want to hear of another instance where humanity treats other sentient beings like complete crap. The best antidote for me at those times is to burrow my face in my feline's furry belly or indulge in a helping of Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul. Yeah, I know, singling out one cute species is probably speciesist, but don't you dare tell me that today cuz I'm not in the mood! ;)

top ten carnist phrases/excuses that drive me crazy

Speaking of crazy, is it true that Melanie Joy is now being considered a "new welfarist" by some abolitionists after having written An Introduction to Carnism? I haven't read it myself yet, but that would seem like a stretch. Even if the main focus of animal use in her book is on eating meat, surely it's recognized that while she's dealing with one form of speciesism, she's not denying there are others? Anyway, Top Ten, take it away!

Top Ten Carnist Phrases Or Excuses That Drive Me Crazy:

10. "I respect your personal choice, so you have to respect mine."

 9.  "But what would happen to all the animals otherwise?" 

 8.  "It's not natural because you have to supplement with vitamin B12."

 7.  "The proof is in our teeth."

 6.  "Our brains wouldn't have gotten so big without meat."

 5.  "God said we could."

 4.  "But plants have feelings too!"

 3.  "If lions can kill gazelles..."

 2.  "top of the food chain"

 1.  "circle of life"

Obviously there are more than ten annoying excuses and phrases and no doubt you have your own favourites (let us know in the comments!), but the above ten seem to rankle me the most. Or at least, the quickest. The last two in particular really bother me because they're lazy clichés that folk frequently spew out to justify their habits so that they don't have to spend any real time contemplating why they do what they do.

For a complete dismantling of the above lame phrases and excuses (plus many more) check out Vegan Poet's comprehensive responses to typical comments so that you'll always know how to reply to those still not vegan yet. I'd do it myself, but I'm lazy too. ;)

drum roll please!

Ahem, it's that time, dear readers, to announce the lucky recipient of my first vegan giveaway contest. So, let's stroll over to the random number generator site. Ready? Let's go!

Ta dah! The number is 6. And that corresponds to joy olivia. Woot! Congratulations, you'll be receiving Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Vegan's Daily Companion.

I'll email and ship said book before you can even trip over these tongue-twisting words: I have won Have Gone Vegan's (also formerly known as So I'm Thinking of Going Vegan) first vegan giveaway contest! 

Thanks to everyone for participating. Aw, I wanted you ALL to win, but my wallet's not THAT full. It was fun though, so maybe I'll do it again sometime. :)

Valentine's Day vegan book giveaway

Yep, don't blink, you read that right. And because today is supposed to celebrate cheesy soppy over the top schmaltzy commercialized sentiment love and generosity, I've decided that the best way to show appreciation for my readers is to hold my very first vegan book giveaway. Plus, it'll be fun, and who doesn't like fun in February?

One of the most loving vegans I know of is Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, and I continually marvel at her ability to show understanding and compassion toward folk who would possibly receive sarcasm and snark if they were on my receiving end, instead of hers. I'm quite sure her strategy is more effective than mine is, and she's a definite vegan hero. So I'm pleased to offer her Vegan's Daily Companion in my giveaway. But, in case you already have the book, and to make this giveaway doubly fun, I will let you choose between her book and the nutritionally wise and easy to read Vegan for Life. Already have both books? Then pass it along as a gift. Woot!

How exactly is this contest going to work? Good question. Leave a comment indicating which book you would prefer, and on February 21 (a week from today) I will pick a winner lucky and-the-book-goes-to recipient using a random number generator. So remember, let me know in the next seven days* which book you would like to receive via Amazon (one comment per person), and always ALWAYS follow your vegan heart.

Three things in human life is important. The first is to be kind.
The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. -- HENRY JAMES

Speaking of kind, I somehow missed the kind of vegan I want to be back in November, but it's excellent reading for Valentine's Day as well. So go read. Now. 

* deadline for entry is Monday, February 20, 2012, 11:59pm

Psst! Checking to see who won? Then click on the drum roll post pronto.

vegan lit for little ones

Because, after all, A person's a person, no matter how small. -- Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears A Who!

Have to admit I never gave much thought to vegan kid lit until Harry lamented the lack of vegan nursery rhymes in response to my last post. The only children's book I had actually heard of before was Ruby Roth's That's Why We Don't Eat Animals, but luckily, Bea provided a great Vegetarian-friendly Kids Book List. Thanks Bea! And this prompted me to do some rooting around on my own. So here's a few other booklists to peruse in order to help our pint-sized vegan heroes of tomorrow:

• 10 Great Books for Vegan Kids
• Vegetarian & Vegan Friendly Books for Kids
• Top 5 Books for Kids
• Vegbooks -- Reviews of Kids Books and Movies

If there are any specific books that you would like to recommend (To Market, To Market, for example, looks fabulous!), please let us know in the comments.

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,
nothing is going to get better. It's not. -- Dr. Seuss,
The Lorax

p.s. I was actually, and quite tragically, Seuss-deprived as a child (didn't even know any English until I was nearly eight), but I figure it's never too late... ;)

wanna be a veganpreneur?

Excellent! I hope many of you do because we sorely need vegan goods and services. And as a consumer wanting to spend my measly dollars in humanitarian sentientarian ways, here's a small sampling of what I personally would like to see more of:

• vegan-themed calendars (both wall and engagement planners) -- because how many did I come across scouring Amazon back in December? Nada. Tsk, tsk.
• vegan books that aren't cookbooks -- because not every vegan is infatuated with food. At least, I'm not.
• vegan books discussing the politics of food, however, are always welcome
• vegan anthologies -- because it would be cool to have collections of authors discussing their vegan journey or other aspects of the vegan experience
• vegan documentaries -- because they rule!
• vegan humour -- more jokes, comics, standup comedians and funny books, please
• vegan art
• vegan plays and musicals -- why not?
• vegan apps 
• vegan directories
• vegan databases, studies and surveys
• vegan classes and courses
• vegan job boards -- there's one or two, but we need more
• vegan career counsellors, and
• vegan life coaches -- with special emphasis on stress and anger management, snort

So, step up to the plate all my vegan entrepreneurial friends and let's fill in the gaps! :)

happy summer solstice!

And happy summer reading.

Whether on vacation, long weekends, or on breaks between all the other activities that keep vegans busy, I hope you'll get the chance to indulge (no, that makes it sound like a luxury) crack open a bunch of new favourite books over the summer months. I'm still finishing a few I started and because one of my quirks is to save until last what I like best, Nick Cooney's Change of Heart will have to wait a bit. (Pssst, I may feature this book as a giveaway sometime--I think it's that useful!--so keep your eyes peeled.)

Two books on top of my must-read-this-summer list are Green is the New Red by Will Potter and Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet from our favourite nutritionists Jack Norris and Virginia Messina. But there's also a couple of other books (okay, a whole pile but I can only read/buy so many at a time) that I think would be super interesting. For a Canadian perspective I can't wait to get my hands on John Sorenson's About Canada: Animal Rights in part because most vegan books are American, but also because John teaches at Brock University which is close enough that I'm even entertaining fantasies of going back to school! On my own personal Amazon list I've got three books that look at animal rights from a gender perspective, including (despite the two kinda odd reviews) Women and the animal rights movement, Sister Species: Women, Animals and Social Justice (you gotta check out the cover!), and Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak. Hmmm, that'll be a hard pick. Also a couple of books that directly compare animal exploitation to slavery and the Holocaust, but the list is so long that it'll keep me anticipating for years ahead no doubt.

But enough about what I want to read. Yes, make sure to take advantage of the weather (remember how long winter was?), get away if you possibly can (whether in Canada or elsewhere), spend extra time with beloved furry, finny or feathery ones, and enjoy your vegan reading this summer!

words of encouragement

One of the books I'm reading right now is The Longest Struggle by Norm Phelps as I think the adage of "to know where you're going you have to know where you've been" is so true. And because reading about the long history of humans treating other sentient beings badly (which is an understatement if ever there was one) was depressing even if informative, I snuck a peek at the conclusion to see if he would at least be able to end on a cheerier note. Well, encouraging is probably a better adjective, so here are his last two paragraphs:

For more than 2,500 years--since the days of Lord Mahavira, the Buddha, the later Prophets, and Pythagoras--men and women of compassion and goodwill have sustained the struggle for a world in which no sensitive being is imprisoned, enslaved, tortured, or killed simply because it suited humankind to do so. And the end of that struggle is not yet in sight. Today, we still face the same twofold challenge that has existed since the Axial Age: first and foremost, to bring closer the day when all sentient beings will live securely in a world without cruelty; and in the meantime, to relieve as much suffering as we are able.

Our strategy, therefore, must be to accomplish the possible while inspiring those who will come after us to achieve the impossible. We must dream the impossible dream and broadcast that dream so that every year, every decade, every generation, there are more and more of us who share it. All the while, we must never retreat from doing what we can. To abandon either the dream or the work is to abandon the animals, because it is this union of the impossible dream with the possible work that will bring success. Nothing else will. At some time that we cannot yet see, the dream and the work will merge, brought into reality by generations of dedicated dreamers and workers, and the animals will be freed forever from what George Orwell's philospher pig called by its true name: "the tyranny of human beings." p. 310

Amen, brother! If, like me, the negative reaction of those who don't get it yet and the seemingly monumental task ahead of us sometimes discourages you, I think these are good words to keep in mind. Other books if you're interested in exploring vegan and animal rights history while trying to keep your eyes on the better future ahead include: A Vegan History: 1944-2010 by Erik Marcus (Kindle Edition) and For the Prevention of Cruelty: The History and Legacy of Animal Rights Activism in the United States by Diane L. Beers.

is the V word too scary?

And no, I don't mean The "V" Word, which is a lovely blog full of tempting recipes that one day its author will turn into a delightful cookbook. Right, Rhea? ;) 

I mean the word vegan of course. I've thought about it before, but it really struck me yesterday as I watched the segments of the Dr. Oz show discussing The China Study and The Engine 2 Diet without once referring to veganism. Not surprising I guess since the show is more about diet and health, but I wondered if only using the phrase plant-based diet was deliberate. And in a sense because they were only talking about veganism in terms of the diet aspect and not about the other essential parts, plant-based diet was probably appropriate, but still. To be vegan IS to follow a plant-based diet, so it was a little odd not to hear about the philosophy behind the food choices. Mind you, the Dr. Oz show tends to be hyperkinetic with shorts bursts of rapid-fire information so no topic gets more than a superficial treatment in the time allotted.

But I still wonder if they intentionally avoided using the word and if so whether that was wise. As an ethical vegan (although I don't really like that terminology either) I have no problem with labeling who I am and what I eat as vegan, but if the main goal is to reduce suffering and eliminate use, then does it matter what words are used? If the phrase plant-based diet is easier to digest, so to speak, then is my preference of the word vegan important? If people find it easier to adopt and say they're on a plant-based diet than to label themselves vegan, and if a real reduction of animal use occurs, should we focus more on results than labels? Because in a sense I'd rather that 100 people actually adopt a "plant-based diet" than 10 people to identify as vegan. In the end, I guess I wonder which strategy is more effective: getting more people to greatly reduce consumption or getting fewer to eliminate it completely. 

I don't know. What do you think?

vegan mail delivery part 1

Woohoo! Received Nick Cooney's Change of Heart: What Psychology Can Teach Us About Spreading Social Change in the mail Friday and after only one chapter I already think it'll be invaluable. Not only is it interesting reading (although I'm biased towards the social sciences), but I feel it will help us to become more effective activists. I like how the title is Change of Heart as opposed to Change of Mind because while facts, logic and reasoning are certainly part of the activist's arsenal, facts by themselves are not enough. Compassion is more a matter of the heart, and hearts have to be opened before information can settle in. 

Chapter One is called Looking Inward and it deals partly with the relationship between self-identity and activism. Cooney reminds us that because we're so strongly and emotionally invested in our cause, we tend to believe that our own advocacy methods are the right ones and that any criticism of them can feel like criticism of us. That in turn can make it hard to abandon them if it's shown they're flawed.

He also suggests that negative aspects of self-identity (like ego, jealousy and insecurity) need to be kept in reign if we want to be effective, and asks the following:

Are we as activists willing to keep our anger and passion in check so that we're directing them rather than they directing us? Are we willing to put those we hope to help ahead of our desires for self-expression, for standing up for ourselves, and for loudly proclaiming what we believe regardless of how others will respond? Are we willing to go beyond the comfortable boundaries of our current self-identity in order to be as effective as possible? (p.15)

All good questions.  (And it makes me wonder what HE thinks of the VegNews scandal, snort. My own take on it is expressed in a comment I left at The Discerning Brute, but check out the excellent post Vegan Feminist Agitator has written on the matter.)

So I'm looking forward to the next chapters, and if any of you are interested I may share bits in the future that resonate with me. Or, if you don't want to wait, you can read a complete interview posted by Vegan Outreach to get a sense of what's in store.

Better yet, buy the book! :)

Ninety-Five

It wasn't planned, but by coincidence this happens to be my 95th post, so I think it highly appropriate to be reviewing one of my favourite animal rights books today: Ninety-Five: Meeting America's Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs. 

As the subtitle of the book says, Ninety-Five is about meeting America's farmed animals in stories and photographs, and what photographs and stories they are! The photos are gorgeous, and besides being a visual feast for the eye, they are illuminating for folk like me who have never seen most animal species in real life. And that, I think, is one of the saddest facts: people who regularly dine on chickens, cows and turkeys (Thanksgiving is celebrated here in Canada next weekend) are probably more familiar with what the animals they're eating used to look like from the packaging, than from what they've seen in real life. Justice, on the front cover for example, is beautiful, and I was quite amazed to see tufts of hair on his back, and that's how far removed I am from the reality of real animals. 

I loved reading the stories of all these rescued animals and when I brought this book over to show my parents (at ages 83 and 94, these two are unfortunately not prepared to give up their meat-eating ways) I kind of had to laugh (even though it was sad) when what struck them the most was that all the featured nonhuman animals had names. For them the primary purpose of these beings is to be eaten, so naming them seemed foreign. But that's exactly what I love about this book: it gives names and faces to those that we are used to--and here is where I get stuck with language because really, the most appropriate word to use is dehumanizing. One of the ways we distance ourselves from other species is by using the terms humans and animals, but even human animals and nonhuman animals still puts the human animal as the norm and treats nonhuman animals as deviations from that. 

But what I'm really trying to say here is that we're so used to objectifying other species and stripping them of their sentient features, that this book is a contrast and a welcome relief. It does the opposite and reintroduces us to who our fellow creatures are, which is so important when trying to convince others that veganism is the way to go. After all, what good is focusing on the horrors of factory farming and other animal use/abuse when most of us don't even know who the victims are? I'm not saying those other books aren't valuable in their own right, but I think this one does a great job of showing who we're actually slaughtering and makes us more aware that the meat (another distancing term  I hate) we're eating had a name and a face. 

I keep this book on my desk as a daily visual reminder of why I'm vegan, and wish I could donate a copy to every library and every school because it's just that good.

Oh, nearly forgot, the title Ninety-Five refers to the estimated average number of animals said to be spared annually by one person's vegan diet. And because I'm actually not that good at writing book reviews, here is a much better one. (Thankfully I wrote mine before finding his otherwise this might have been a one-line post, snort.)

am I the only vegan who DOESN'T like cupcakes? ;)

I know; I almost feel like a traitor just for saying it! Snort. And it's not as if I hate them per se, but they just don't do anything for me. They don't make me squeal with delight, don't make me go ooh and aah, and they don't (unlike a certain cookbook would like) take over my world in any way. Now before you go thinking I'm the grumpiest vegan ever, I've never really liked regular-sized cakes either. The icing, especially, is usually too sweet for my taste.

And that, at the risk of you viewing me as ultra grumpy, brings me to the commonly held assumption that a vegan diet is healthier. Well it can be, but not always. All those cupcakes and other admittedly yummy vegan desserts can be high in both sugar and fat. I myself gained weight after turning vegan in part because I felt I deserved more treats. Using a generous amount of olive oil when sautéing onion and garlic didn't help either. In some ways, I find eating healthy even more of a challenge these days because I've never liked vegetables much, am not keen on most faux products, and find that beans will only take you so far!

Now another perfectly reasonable explanation for my cupcake aversion could be that I'm not only grumpy but also lazy, and not having easy access to vegan sweets in a small town means that I would have to bake them myself. And baking is NOT something I'm good at, or enjoy. Or maybe my appetite is so large that those little cakes are too darn small for me?

So, do you like cupcakes? Is it unveganly not to? Should there be a support group for cupcake-challenged vegans like me? ;)

don't have a cow

To be honest I never gave this phrase much thought before, but its meaning of "don't get so worked up" is actually kind of funny when applied to animal rights, because that's exactly what we should be doing in my opinion. If enough people DO get worked up, then perhaps real change will eventually take place. And these days when I say don't have a cow, I tend to mean it literally, as in, don't eat 'em! So I'm wondering if vegans can somehow reclaim or sloganize this phrase, snort.

The cow in the photo above by the way is not just some stock image, but a real cow living in Germany that a friend of mine (hi Krissa!) has gotten to know. And she will attest to the fact that this lovely creature is very friendly and will run up to greet her. Sadly though we continue to deny that the emotional and social lives of farm animals are just as real and complex as that of their perhaps cuter or cuddlier counterparts, and maybe in part that explains why some people still feel they have the right to eat these non-human animals. Consuming cows just doesn't get most non-vegan folk as worked up (okay, I SO want to make a joke here, but I'll spare you) as the eating of dogs and cats, but I think that particular indignation (and now I feel like joking about indigestion!) can still be used as a starting point. People love companion animals, and if we can get them to see that eating them is not fundamentally any different from eating farmed animals, then that's one possible way of leading them to veganism.

Incidentally, when I Googled the title of this post, I found an interview with Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (of When Elephants Weep fame) that's definitely worthwhile reading.

why did the tofu cross the road?

To prove he wasn't chicken.

Ha ha! Alright, maybe that was kinda lame, but it DID make me laugh. And this one's not bad either:

Q: Did you hear about the vegan devil worshipper?
A: He sold his soul to seitan!

Snort. These two vegan nuggets live at the Happy Cow website, but that made me Google vegan humour to see what else is online. Well! First, I was happy to see 519,000 results, and that Happy Cow was on top. And I laughed when I saw my own humble little blog at the bottom of page 1, but laughed even harder when I saw the following book title: Friend or Faux: A Guide to Fussy Vegans, Crazy Cat Ladies, Creepy Clingers, Undercover Sluts, and Other Girls Who Will Quietly Destroy Your Life. Now I'm not gonna link to it, but the fact that I laughed out loud (in a decidedly, um, unladylike manner) just proves that vegans DO have a sense of humour, and that "vegan humour" is NOT an oxymoron. Right? Although, if you spell humour humor, you get 2,150,000 Google results, so does that mean that Canadian or British vegans are three-quarters less likely to enjoy a good guffaw? I doubt that. I bet we just like our humour a tad drier. :)

Darn! Apparently there was a segment on CBC radio exploring vegan humour (appropriately called Why Did The Vegan Cross The Road), but that was back in 2008, so the clip won't play anymore. Hmmm, let's see what else I can find. Okay, here's a page of veggie jokes that are kinda lame as well, but it's a start. And this list of reasons for not going vegan is more interesting than funny per se, but it counts, no? Oh dear, maybe I can find some funny-bone-friendly vegan books instead. Yay, I found one! And it's gotten great reviews, so you'll definitely want to check out The Vegan Monologues.

Well, I'm not going to lie. I'm a little disappointed with the results thus far, so I guess that means that you and I are going to have to prove to the rest of the non-vegan world that vegans are by no means grim, angry, bitter, sour, or humour-challenged. At least, not all of the time. ;)

made my own jam!

I'd been meaning to do this for a while ever since my neighbour gave me some of his. So I found a recipe for sugar-free berry jumble jam in The Garden of Vegan cookbook (click on link in Amazon widget if you want more info on the book), and it was super easy. I decided to use a 600 gram bag (equals about 3 cups) of mixed frozen berries instead of fresh, and 1/2 cup of frozen apple juice concentrate. Couldn't be bothered putting it in a blender, so just used my potato masher to squish the berries a bit more. Cooked them for about 10-15 minutes, added the frozen apple juice concentrate, brought it to a boil until it reached a consistency I liked, poured it into a warm glass jar with an air-tight lid, let it stand overnight, and voila! Tasted really good, although I have to admit that buying store-bought jam IS cheaper. But hey, not half as much fun and making my own jam really impressed my mom. :))

Will take and upload a photo when I can, although it might take a while what with moving and all. Hope to be back soon, and hope to post more regularly then too.