Gary Francione Podcast

Gary Francione has just released a podcast in which he very thoughtfully analyzes what has gone wrong with the Mercy For Animals campaign whose video I linked below (the "veal" exposé). MFA has followed up with an announcement that Costco has pledged to only sell "humane" veal. MFA is touting this as a huge step in the right direction. However, Francione points out that the counterproductive outcome is that people hear the veal at Costco is "humane" and feel more comfortable buying/consuming it. Ultimately, this will cause veal consumption to rise, and lost in the shuffle is the whole idea of going vegan--not eating, using, or wearing animals at all. Further, the veal producer whose calves were shown in the video has said that he was moving away from the small crates anyway. Francione explains that this move will ultimately save the veal producer money, with lower veterinary bills, while the calves that have slightly larger living space and co-housing with another calf will still living miserable, short lives that end in slaughter.

Francione also addresses that pervasive argument that since it's impossible to completely avoid animal use--i.e. if you use roads, computers, cars, telephones, and any number of other ubiquitous things that contain animal products--then you shouldn't even bother being vegan.  He draws a very compelling comparison to white privilege.  By the same logic, anyone who benefits from white privilege--especially white, male privilege, wouldn't need to bother fighting discrimination against people of color.  What springs to mind to me, whenever I hear these "don't even bother" arguments, is "the perfect is the enemy of the good."

I'm still in the middle of the podcast, but I just wanted to write up something quick on this.  Francione has a new book coming out, scheduled for November 2010 release:  The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?

I definitely plan on reading this when it comes out.

Bob Barker narrates Mercy For Animals "Hidden Price of Veal" exposé

This video just makes my stomach clench. 

The Alyza Challenge

A film in development, Rising Star, might have a sympathetic lead character who is vegan or vegetarian.  The filmmaker, Marty Lang, is leaving that decision up to a vote.  I would love to see this character developed as a vegan.  All too often, when I've seen vegans depicted in pop culture, the character is judgmental and annoying, and the characters that we viewers are supposed to identify with mock the vegan character[s].  How I Met Your Mother, I am looking at YOU!  Oh, and I haven't seen Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but I have heard that the villains in the movie are evil vegans who are defeated when tricked into consuming half-and-half laden coffee.  Not cool, if that's true.  

I agree with the film's Sustainability Planner, Ali Berman, that this is a tremendous opportunity to create positive associations with being vegan.  Vote "vegan" and give Ali a chance to run with this!

Hogwashing

In one of my entries below, I proposed the name "humanewashing" as the happy-meat equivalent of greenwashing.  I just discovered that the Humane Myth site has its own term for this:  hogwashing.  I kind of love that.

Vegan Hood TV: I LOVE this YouTube Show!

I found out about this YouTube program from an entry at the Animal Rights and AntiOppression blog.  I just love this!  Some vegan guys in Brooklyn with an awesome DIY "vegan" show highlighting inexpensive, healthy vegan eating.  I am definitely going to follow this program's subseqent episodes.

Averie's Vega Shake-and-Go Give-away

Because I love Brendan Brazier so much, I can't resist posting an entry about this give-away at the Love Veggies and Yoga blog.  I already love Brazier's Thrive recipes and would love to try these instant smoothies.  Thanks for doing this, Averie.  :)

I love you, Brendan Brazier!

I haven't tried that many of Brendan Brazier's recipes yet, but I have been making and using his recipes for energy pudding, recovery pudding, direct fuel bites, sports drinks, and recovery drinks.  The puddings have bananas as their base, so of course I'm sold.  The drinks I've been using are the lemon-lime (though I've skipped the lime only because I didn't have any).  The fuel bites are made from dates, coconut oil, and a little bit of lemon juice and salt.  They are mostly geared for what Brazier calls "Level I" activities--those that last an hour or less.

Why do I love Brendan Brazier?  Because I really notice a difference in my performance and recovery.  I can go faster for longer and I bounce back--most notably from my long runs--faster than I ever have before. So lots of <3 <3 <3 to you, Brendan!   

Humanewashing

Something that's been rattling about in my head lately is a concept I'm calling "humanewashing." Just as "greenwashing" leads consumers to believe they are buying eco-friendly products, humanewashing is something designed to allow omnivores to feel virtuous about buying their meat, eggs, and dairy. They buy meat while reassuring themselves that it came from local, grassfed, well-loved animals that lived happy and productive lives until the moment they were painlessly killed in their sleep. They buy eggs while reassuring themselves that they came from happy uncaged chickens that can spread their wings, cluck and play while voluntarily producing eggs for their loving farmers. They buy milk while envisioning Bossie living an idyllic life of happy, magic lactation. I just wish more people would read Humane Myth instead of allowing Michael Pollan and his ilk to convince them there's such a thing as humane meat and animal products. If you have the mindset that animals are not ours to use, the whole myth falls apart. If I were allowed to live my life in a cushy, luxurious spa, with the catch that one night someone would kill me, suddenly and painlessly, that person who killed me would be as much a murderer as someone who tortured and violently killed his victim. Why in the case of animals do people think it's okay to kill them for food, just so long as they were raised for that express purpose and allowed to graze on a grassy field? Then, there is also the ugly truth behind the so-called cage-free eggs and happy cows.

I just hope more people begin to question the happy face being placed on the products. I saw Food, Inc. and was disappointed at its conclusions--namely that people need to get the "happy" versions of animal produce. No! Gah!

2010 already?

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted anything since November of 2008. I was planning on posting something for my one-year veganniversary, but it came and went without my really having much to say about it. Here I am at two years since I started my process. Though I initially imagined it would be more of a process than it actually turned out to be. It now just feels normal to me to be vegan.

Since that last post in November, I've done my first half marathon and two more 15K's. This is going to be my year to do my first full marathon. W00t!

That holiday party I was worried about? It didn't happen. No one said anything about it, but I am guessing it was economy-related--everyone is cutting back on things like that. December 2008 AND December 2009 went by without that tradition. One less thing to worry about.

So, let's see--vegan goals for 2010. Try more recipes. Write here semi-regularly. Be a good example. :)

Skinny Vegan

In early May, I found my weight had crept to the high end of the "healthy" range (I'm 5'7" and I was weighing in at 159.4 LBS). I cranked my running into high gear and cut back on eating veggies cooked in oil--loading up on steamed veggies/salad instead. Then, in June, I picked up Eat to Live and started doing a modified version of that (I don't abide by his "no snacks" rule--sorry, I'm active and I need to stay fueled!) So, between early May and late September, I went down to 133, where I've been ever since. The funny thing--to me anyway--is I've reached a tipping point of some sort, where people have gone from saying "You look great" to "You're getting too skinny!" Funny to me because I'm not even close to being underweight. I'd have to drop below 118 for that.

I'm now reading The Thrive Diet, which is awesome because it's written by a vegan triathlete, Brendan Brazier, and he actually gets the whole "needing fuel" thing and is all about meals + snacks. He's got some promising-looking recipes at the end, too, many of which are raw (though not all, and I don't see myself becoming a 100% raw vegan).

In related news, here is where I am with my running progress. In October, I did Race for the Cure, and my time was 26:47. Last year's was 30:28. Average per-mile time went from 9:49 to 8:38. Then, earlier this month, I did my first 15K (longest race I ever did, including high school, when I ran cross country and track). My first mile I did in about 8:42 and I got slower as I went, but I was still happy with my overall time. 1:28:11--9:29/mile average (so still faster than last year's 5K pace!).

My yoga practice has also been developing so that I can do things I couldn't do before and overall I'm stronger than I've been, maybe ever. It's so silly that people have a stereotype of weak vegans--I just keep getting stronger and faster and I've never felt better. 41 years old and I feel younger than I did when I was 21.

Vegetarian Expo

This past Saturday (September 13), we went to the NY Capital Region Vegetarian Expo in Saratoga Springs. Despite the name, it definitely had a "vegan" slant to it, which of course made me very happy. We were lame and slackerly, so only managed to get our acts together to catch the tail end of Jeff Novick's talk and then T. Colin Campbell's talk. Fortunately, this last talk was the one we were most interested in attending. When he asked the audience how many people had read his book The China Study, almost every hand shot up. Later on, Dkat commented, "I'm glad he was treated a little bit like a rock star." :)

The downside to being as late as we were: The exhibitors were packing up once we got out of Campbell's lecture. I would have liked to have gotten the chance to check them out and gather literature. The upside to that is Boykat is only five, with limited patience. Though he was happy to see ponies and greyhounds--albeit briefly. Dkat had been hoping to get a chance to sample foods--which is another thing we'd actually have had the chance to do if we'd gotten there earlier.

Oh, well. Presumably, there's always next year!

Healthy Veganning

Not every vegan vegans alike. There are plenty of foods that are vegan but also junky/fatty/sugary, etc. It would be so easy to live on vegan cupcakes, So Delicious frozen desserts, and entrees laden with oils. Of course doing that would also lead to being a fat vegan and an unhealthy one to boot.

Using The China Study and Eat to Live as our guides, we've shifted to consuming most of our calories from fresh fruits and veggies. We load up on salads, soups, steamed vegetables. Healthy fats come from nuts rather than oils (though a small amount of olive oil with a larger proportion of balsamic vinegar can go with our salads). We have beans and legumes, tofu, and some whole grains, such as barley, quinoa, or brown rice. The idea is to have the most nutritionally dense foods--namely produce. Most people don't realize that veggies are a high-protein food. In terms of caloric composition, many veggies are more than half protein. But it's necessary to eat them in large enough quantities to get a substantial amount of these nutrients.

Eating copious amounts of nutrient-poor food leaves the body looking for those nutrients--hence becoming hungry again and again. Conversely, we're finding ourselves less hungry even with fewer overall calories consumed. I've dropped 13 pounds since last month. Everything's fitting more loosely and best of all, I feel great! Dkat is also having similar results. We can hardly believe how energetic we feel. I know my running is improving.

But doesn't it figure I bought Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World? I didn't even get around to baking any of the cupcakes before we banned the flour and sugar from our lives. Maybe for Boykat's birthday next year, I'll make an exception.

The Family that Vegans Together

Earlier this week, I checked The China Study out from the public library. Last night, when I got home from yoga, the first thing my husband said was, "After reading The China Study, I threw away the meat and cheese. No more animal products." Whee, I now have a vegan family.

This definitely offsets the vegan sadness I felt last month when I discovered that Food For Thought, Albany's one and only vegan café, was no more. I'd gone in intending to get a smoothie during lunch, only to discover that the café had morphed into a Little Anthony's pizzeria. Little Anthony's already had another location on Central Avenue, and Food For Thought was owned by the same family. In fact, when Food For Thought initially opened, someone who did a write up for the Happy Cow website insisted on referring to FFT as a "branch of Little Anthony's," while another simply wrote up that address as "Little Anthony's." And it came true, jinxers! No, FFT used to be a distinct, all-vegan café, with a menu that was quite different from what LA's has to offer. LA's, to its credit, offers vegan pizzas and calzones. But FFT offered much more. In any event, the guy who was working in there the day I found out this sad news told me that the café was just not making enough money to sustain itself. ::sob::

So now that my family is vegan, we have no place to eat. Well, we can get pizza from Little Anthony's, I guess, but we have no place that is 100% vegan and where we can be 100% confident that there will be no cross-contamination involving egg. That's a related issue. Boykat went to the allergist this week, who did a skin test that confirmed he's still allergic to egg, and the allergist said that he's unlikely to outgrow it. Complete avoidance of egg is the only way to go. Which, of course, having a vegan home supports.

Hezbollah Tofu!

This site came to my attention thanks to a post at the "veganpeople" LiveJournal community.

The famed Anthony Bourdain has a hate-on for vegetarians and vegans. I've never seen his show Without Reservations, but he's shown up as a judge on Top Chef, which I do watch. This quote of hate comes from his book Kitchen Confidential:

Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.

The "Hezbollah Tofu" blog quotes this nastiness in its first entry and offers the following message to Bourdain:

So we aren't just going to "enjoy" food, we're going to enjoy vastly improved, veganized versions of your masturbatory, blood-oozing recipes. And then we're going to compile them, sell them in zine form, and donate the proceeds to vegan outreach organizations and farm sanctuaries--in your name. Anthony, I have to say, I'm really looking forward to the great work we're going to do together for veganism.

This is an open call to vegan cooks of all stripes: professional chefs and bakers, cookbook authors, food bloggers, amateur cooks, and--perhaps most importantly--ordinary, everyday people who just want to live their lives and eat their dinners without unnecessary heckling from the heroin-addled peanut gallery.

I have to say I adore this idea. I've come across Bourdain's quote o' nastiness before and found it equal parts baffling and irritating. I can hardly wait to see what people come up with.

Isa and Terry's Books Will Take Over the World!

My mom came up yesterday to celebrate my son's birthday. He's five! Because of his egg allergy, I got a vegan chocolate-cake recipe from the Post-Punk Kitchen site. Would you believe this was my son's first-ever taste of cake? In any event, he enjoyed its chocolaty goodness. Dinner was a vegan pizza of Dkat's invention, which Boykat happens to love.

My mom is a lacto-veg, so she was also happy to have a chance to eat cake without worrying about egg. I showed her Vegan With a Vengeance, and almost immediately she decided she'll have to buy a copy of her own. When I raved about the ease and goodness of the seitan recipe, she looked it over and immediately made a trip out to the coop to buy vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast so she can make some of her own. She also perused Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World. The Moskowitz/Hope domination is imminent!

In related news, I forgot to report here that I had success a couple of weeks ago with the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon, which (almost tearfully) I had to return to the library after a scant two weeks, because it was requested. See, these books are taking over the world!

Seitan Success

The seitan was a success. Shockingly easy to make (I love when that happens). We haven't made anything with it yet, though I had some in salad today. Dkat likes the taste and texture, so thumbs up.

I also made squash-oatmeal cookies. They're really supposed to be pumpkin-oatmeal cookies, but we only had two cans of pumpkin (which I've used) and the rest are squash. I left out the raisins because we didn't have any and left out the nuts because I forgot to put them in. I was going to use almond slivers instead of walnuts, only because I'm not a big "walnut" fan. The cookies are good in spite of everything, so they are going fast.

Miscellaneous

Dkat made an awesome vegan pizza this past week, completely of his own invention. It was soooo good! He made a pizza sauce with veggies, spices, and tofu. Last night, he used his sauce recipe as a pasta sauce and we brought it to a vegetarian potluck. We are talking about hosting some potlucks of our own sometime.

Yesterday, my office closed to attend a funeral (husband of a co-worker passed away early Wednesday). I've only just started telling people that I'm off dairy and egg. A bunch of us from work were sitting together at the reception held after the burial, and someone asked me what I'd had from the buffet. I had put together a sandwich of lettuce, tomato, cukes, and a bit of baked ziti that, thankfully, was just pasta and red sauce. I mentioned that I was off dairy and egg, so no cheese. Naturally, someone asked where I was getting my calcium. This is kind of funny to me, considering that there are populations all over the world wherein people do no consume dairy, and we're really the only species that not only consumes the milk of another species, but does so throughout our lifespan. But anyway, I told her fortified soy milk, vitamins, and green leafy vegetables.

Another co-worker told me that she'd never be able to give up cheese. I told her that I used to feel the same way, but I am finding I don't miss it. This same co-worker asked me if I skip over baked goods if I know they have egg or dairy in them. I told her not only that, but I will skip over baked goods unless I know for a fact they they don't have egg or dairy in them. She sort of shook her head as if she were talking to a major head case. Then, to top things off? About 20 minutes later, she came to our table with a tray of cookies, offering them to each person there. And she offered them to me. Hello, what were we just talking about? ::boggle::

Though I can't harsh on her too much, I guess. Even Dkat, though he knows I'm veganning and he's supportive, will sometimes forget--like when he was in the hospital, he told me he'd had egg for breakfast and asked if I was jealous. This comes from our egg ban in our home, due to our son's egg allergy. Me: "No, I'm not eating egg anymore, remember?" "Oh, yeah." Same thing last night. He asked me if I'd had one of the [non-vegan] cookies. Nope. Still veganning. "Oh, yeah."

In related news, I have a pot of seitan cooling on the stove. I'm kind of excited since it's pretty easy to make. Will report on the results.

Odd and Ends

Dkat had to spend a couple of nights in the hospital this week. When asked if he had any dietary preferences, he said that he eats mostly vegetarian at home, was interested in becoming vegan someday, but didn't expect to be able to eat vegan while in the hospital. The nurse told him, "Oh, we can do vegan!" They gave fruit and nothing else! After that, he didn't try for vegan or vegetarian again.

Yesterday, I made another dish from Vegan with a Vengeance, the Breakfast Veggie Chorizo. It's meant to be used as a filling for breakfast burritos, and features Textured Vegetable Protein. It turned out really good and Dkat loved it.

We had a family walk to our neighborhood food coop today and picked up a bunch of great vegan staples, like nutritional yeast, flax meal, sunflower seeds, agave syrup, wheat gluten flour (to make our own seitan--see p. 157 of Vegan with a Vengeance), and others I've already forgotten. My confidence in my cooking skills has definitely been boosted.

Awesome Pumpkin Loaf

Since we have cans of pumpkin, I wanted to bake something pumpkinny. I was originally thinking pie, but then I found the recipe for "The Best Pumpkin Muffins" in Vegan with a Vengeance. Besides looking yummy, it's a simple recipe with non-exotic ingredients.

One hitch was that the muffin tray I imagined we have is probably a muffin tray that my mom has, and we don't have any of those little paper/foil muffin cups. So I resorted to making two little muffin loaves instead, using our loaf pans. Also, we don't have molasses, so I substituted 2T tahini for the 2T molasses.

The result? So much awesome! Mm. They are so, so gone and my husband LOVED them. :)

Veganning with a Vengeance

I've gone on a binge of ordering vegan cookbooks from the library. True, I've only actually done one recipe so far, but I have a stack of potential.

Dkat borrowed from me Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance and was so impressed he decided to buy it. In his words, it's got realistic, doable, tested recipes. He likes the fact that the recipes do not rely on all kinds of processed meat replacements and fake cheeses, but on fresh, whole foods. He's jonesing to try the falafel recipe and I'm very curious about the homemade seitan. I had no idea it could be made so simply (or at least it appears so from the recipe). I've also got her new book, Veganomicon, on order from library.

As a testament to the growing interest in vegan cooking, I found I was unable to renew Vive Le Vegan because someone else had requested it. Part of me thinks, "Harumph" but another thinks, "Go, vegan cooking!"

In other veganning news, I had a dream that I accidentally ate some butter cookies.