Living Without Meat

Want a chance to win your favorite animal charity a donation? Head over to TaxGirl’s “12 Days of Charitable Giving” and leave a comment about an organization that you personally donated to this year.

For 12 days in December, TaxGirl, with a panel of judges, will select one charity per day. The charity will receive a donation and will be featured on the blog.

Who will get your mention - Farm Sanctuary? Humane Society? PETA? Haven’t donated yet this year? No problem, donate today!

What are you waiting for? Go!

This time last year, the Humane Society announced to the public that many top designers and labels were using real animal fur in products labeled as faux, and were selling raccoon dog fur under the false label of raccoon. The time line of their investigation from winter 2006 to December 2007 can be read by clicking here.

And now there’s a new development: the Humane Society is suing, on our, the consumers, behalf, retailers that allegedly knowingly sold or advertised mislabeled fur. The lawsuit was filed in Washington, D.C., Superior Court under the Consumer Protection Procedures Act and is specifically going after Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s (which owns Bloomingdale’s), Dillard’s, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and the parent company of Andrew Marc. The lawsuit also alleges that these six retailers are in violation of the federal Fur Products Labeling Act and Federal Trade Commission Act.

Rebecca Judd, senior attorney with the Humane Society noted that these six offenders were all sent letters alerting them that some of their products were found to be incorrectly labeled in regards to fur. All six continue to sell mislabeled fur.

The only one that responded to the Wall Street Journal was Julia Bentley, senior vice president of investor relations and communications at Saks. Bentley assured that the one jacket sold online through Saks.com that tested positive for mislabeling, was promptly removed. In 2007, Charles Jayson, chief executive of Andrew Marc, stated that the accusations were false, and that all Andrew Marc clothing was and is correctly labeled.

The lawsuit was filed Monday, November 24, and the named companies have 20 days to respond.

Read the full story as written by the Associated Press.

Read the Humane Society’s opinion and statements at President Wayne Pacelle’s blog.

Heroes cheerleader Hayden Panettiere is stir up some controversy with animal rights organizations and bloggers. Recently, she collaborated with fashion brand Dooney & Bourke to design the “Hayden Clutch,” which is a calfskin and leather purse.

Now if you follow your animal-loving celebrities, you’ll know that this use of animal product seems to conflict with Hayden’s moral beliefs. She’s a vegetarian. She is also a strong, outspoken, and highly active voice for Save the Whales Again.

So why chose to promote calfskin?

While I 100 percent disagree with her choice to use any animal products, I also have to point out that, although she has been in the animal-loving limelight lately, she is not, and never claimed to be, a vegan. She is a vegetarian, and, by definition, only refrains from eating animal flesh.

Interestingly, earlier today I happened upon the Wikipedia page for “cruelty to animals.” It reminded me that there are more distinctions to be made besides just vegetarian or vegan within the animal rights realm. Here’s a snippet:

The animal welfare position holds that there is nothing inherently wrong with using animals for human purposes, such as food, clothing, entertainment, and research, but that it should be done in a humane way that reduces unnecessary suffering. Animal rights theorists criticize this position, arguing that the words “unnecessary” and “humane” are subject to widely differing interpretations, and that the only way to ensure protection for animals is to end their status as property, and to ensure that they are never used as commodities.

So while Miss Panettiere has a big heart, specifically for whales and dolphins, she is, alas, neither a vegan nor an animal rights believer. Thus she has no problem promoting a calfskin clutch for which we cannot accurately call her actions contradictory or hypocratic. She, and others like her, support animal welfare - not animal rights. There is a difference.

Animal rights believers can and should, however, reach out to politely educate her, as PETA is already doing.

Everyone seems to have strong opinions about the classically Thanksgiving dish: green bean casserole. People hate it, and largely speculate that it is primarily the use of canned beans that make it so gross. Others love the creamy vegetables topped with crunchy, fried onion bits.

While I enjoy the concept, I detest the cream of mushroom soup which can be found in a true French’s green bean casserole. Milk products aside, the soup is just a gross, jellied mess that I find anything but appetizing.

This Thanksgiving, it’s my job to make the green bean casserole, and thus I went out on a hunt for recipes that held true to the basic mushroom-green bean-fried onion concept, but were vegan. I’ve narrowed it down to two.

My sister e-mailed me a link for the best vegan green bean casserole ever from Fatfree Vegan Kitchen, which she followed last year when making the dish.

I also came across VeganYumYum’s Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole, which ironically linked to Fatfree Vegan’s as another good recipe option.

Both intrigue me and I will likely end up making some combination of the two.

As for the rest of the meal … no Tofurkey or other imitation animal meat will be making an appearance on my plate, but I will surely have plenty to eat. My dad is set to create another scrumptious vegan stuffing, as he did last year, and all of my family members are thoughtful and vegan-conscious in their food prep as well.

How about you - what are you making and eating for Thanksgiving? Any Tofurkey fans out there?

Check out Cute Overload, a site that posts pictures of cute animals. Today, they featured Farm Sanctuary’s Adopt a Turkey program!

Alas, the dreaded dooms day for American turkeys is upon us. In three days, millions of Americans will sit down to nosh on the dead flesh - and even play with its wishbone - of one of my favorite animals.

Mass killing of turkeys for society’s feasting aside, I have been surprisingly pleased with non-vegans this Thanksgiving season. I’ve been amazed by the number of articles discussing how to have a vegan Thanksgiving, or even just how to accommodate a vegan guest. Of course, every veggie blog has done a wonderful post or two as well, but today I am thanking the non-veggie press that took the time to acknowledge that not everyone wants to contribute to animal cruelty.

My thanks go out to these newspapers and press outlets. Click on each one’s name to read their veg-related Thanksgiving article:

New York’s Village Voice
Orlando Sentinel
University of Colorado’s Campus Press
San Francisco’s Navy Compass
Washington Post
Chicago’s Gapers Block
Well Fed Network
Rowan University’s Whit
Los Angeles Times
Michigan’s City Pulse
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette
Gary Post Tribune
California’s Orion
Washington’s Western Front
Schenectady Gazette
Texarkana Gazette
NewHampshire.com
Pennsylvania’s Op Ed News
Maui Weekly
Denver Dining Examiner

Although I can’t find it online, my morning read - Philadelphia’s edition of the Metro - had a taste testing review of five different vegan turkeys.

And a special congratulations and thanks to Baltimore City Paper’s Steve Gdula for not only working on a personal transition to become a vegan, but for sharing it with his readers.

I have news for you, Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, there is nothing smart, proud, nor pretty about wearing the pelt of a animal that lived and died under horrendous conditions. You can try as hard you’d like to make your “Pretty in Mink” calendar classy - imitate classic Hollywood icons, use great photographers and crew members, even use it as a fund-raiser for your nonprofit efforts - you will never convince me that fur is smart, proud, or pretty.

Honoring women is a very respectable goal, but these so-called “smart, conservative women role models” downgraded themselves the minute they donned your furs. You say they are pretty, you say they are smart, you even say that you are showcasing them with pride … but I say their inability to show compassion makes them ugly, their willingness to conform shows their ignorance, and you should be ashamed to promote cruelty.

I was eating dinner with a group of friends last night. Three of us were vegetarians and this intrigued the kids at the table.

8-year-old: Why would someone not eat meat?

Meat eater: Ask her (pointing to me), she’s a vegetarian.

8-year-old: Why can’t you eat meat?

Me: I don’t want to eat animals.

*pause*

8-year-old: (With a mature shrug-nod-smile combo) That makes sense.

Meat eater: Then why do you eat meat?

8-year-old: ( With an almost maniacal grin) Because it tastes gooooood!

So she’s not going vegetarian any time soon probably, but it is so awesome that a young child is interested and open to not only asking questions, but listening to and contemplating the answers. I loved her response: “That makes sense.”

But if an 8-year-old can comprehend why I don’t want to eat meat, then why can’t all adults? Plus, after she asked me about vegetarianism, she left me alone to eat as I please. She didn’t feel the need to show me meat, or try to get me to taste it, or even prod with more questions such as “but don’t you think it tastes good?”

When the news hit yesterday that Alicia Silverstone is writing a book about veganism called The Kind Diet, I could not have been more excited. I did not think it was possible for me to be disappointed related to this publishing announcement. However, I am.

While the book sounds phenomenal - read more about the theory and recipe book at Ecorazzi - it is being published by Rodale, which is where my disappointment enters.

I work by day as an editor, and have considered applying for a job at Rodale numerous times. As a job with this healthly lifestyle-based publishing company would mean a move away from the city of Philadelphia, I have not applied (yet). But just think! If I had applied, and they had hired me, I could be working on Alicia Silverstone’s vegan book!

Alas, I must wait with the rest of the world for The Kind Diet to release next fall to catch a glimpse of the knowledge this once Clueless beauty has to offer.

“The book explores the connection between what we put in our bodies and what we’re doing to the planet, and how choosing the right foods in the kitchen can help you feeling lighter, sexier, and more alive than you ever thought possible,” according to Rodale’s press release. “The book will include a three-step diet program and 75 vegan and macrobiotic recipes.”

Rodale has been a strong force in healthy books and magazines. In the past, the company turned out Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Eat This, Not That! by David Zinczenko and Matt Goulding. Rodale’s magazines include Men’s Health, Prevention, Women’s Health, Runner’s World, Best Life, Bicycling, Running Times, and Organic Gardening.

Maybe one day, when my current apartment’s lease is nearing an end, I’ll man up and send Rodale my resume and then I too can get a sneak peak editing awesome vegan books.

While cleaning off and sorting through my bookshelves the other day, in my semi-annual “where am I going to put all these books?!” panic, I realized that I was still holding on to several non-vegetarian cookbooks. I flipped through and decided that none of them had enough veg-friendly recipes to make them keepers. So into the “get rid of these” pile they went.

But what do you do with a recipe book you don’t want anymore? If it were just magazines, I would recycle them so as not to encourage cooking with meat. But I am pretty sure it’s a sin to throw a book away.

I offered them to friends and family; no one had space or need for more recipe books. I took some of the large, heavy ones to my local library and left them on the “free” table.

But with the ones that were could be shipped for a reasonable rate - keeping in mind that you can get a discounted book rate - I posted online at PaperBack Swap.

PaperBack Swap (PBS), and its related site“> Swap a DVD, are communities where you can post books or movies to swap with other members.

I posted my non-veggie cookbooks and waited. PBS e-mailed me when someone else was interested in one of my books. I printed postage from the PBS site, mailed it out, and received credit that I could use to request books that I wanted. PBS even has a vegetarian section underneath the Cooking, Food & Wine search option - so you can trade in your meaty recipe books for tofu ones!

There are aspects of leading a vegan lifestyle that you might never realize unless you are a vegan. This weekend, I attended a benefit Masquerade Ball. My ticket cost $75 for dinner and open bar. As I don’t drink and don’t eat meat or cheese, I paid thinking of it as strictly a donation.

In preparing for the event, I looked around at different mask options. Unfortunately, most pre-made decorated masks seem to include feathers. Sure, some of them might have been fake, but they weren’t often labeled either way. Plus, as an outspoken vegan I would get flack even if I wore fake ones.

So making my own mask was the best option. And it was a big hit! I got lots of compliments on how my mask matched my dress. My mask only cost about $5 in total to make, and many other attendees mentioned paying $30 or more for theirs. In the photo here, I am on the right and my roommate - a vegetarian who also made her mask - is on the left.

And as for the food? A vegan girl could not have been more satisfied! There was a carving station, but that was the only meat anywhere. There was a make your own salad table with lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, croutons, dressings, parmesan cheese, and more fresh veggies. There was another make your own set-up: a pasta bar. You could select from seven different fresh vegetables - red pepper, onion, olives, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli rabe, mushrooms - and either red sauce or garlic-infused oil, and a chef cooked it for you, tossing it with some penne pasta.

All around the event was fun and extremely vegan friendly. I had a blast!

On top of having fun vegan snacks, shirts, and whatnot as they always do, the PETA store also has gift sets put together such as the cat or dog lovers, snackaholic, and cruelty-free beauty.

Plus, you can get free shipping right now when you spend at least $45. Just enter code “shipgs” when checking out.

This morning my daily grind landed me on the Wikipedia page for Storrs, Connecticut, the town where University of Connecticut is located. Under “trivia” about the town, I found this tidbit:

“As a result of several students illegally entering private buildings on the university campus, and releasing photos of government protected animal treatments, the town took the decision to ban the carrying of concealed cameras.”

The response to this baffles me. Yes, the students did something illegal when they broke in. But you would think that seeing a picture of something disturbing would cause anger at the disturbing thing, not at the people trying to educate you. This is just another incident that reminds me that people really do prefer to stay ignorant to the truth about how society treats animals.

I wonder what the town meeting was like … I’m seeing something I don’t like. I know! Let’s ban cameras, then we won’t have to see it anymore.

You know how the saying goes: Hear no evil, see no evil; evil must not exist.

As my personal budget tightens, food and litter for my cats are never an area of my expenses that I consider cutting out. I have drastically cut back cat costs lately, finding store brand litters for $2 (Target) and $3 (Acme) for a large bag, but I would never think to stop feeding - or worse get rid of - my cats.

Apparently, however, many people do see this as an option. Tight on money? Dump the dog.

At one of my bus stops there is a sign begging readers to adopt a woman’s two loving, adult cats because she moved to a smaller apartment and pets are not allowed.

A vegetarian, animal-loving friend, who already has a rescued dog living with her in a city apartment, is desperately looking for a home for a another dog that she has rescued. This newly homeless dog was a family pet. When the family broke up, no one wanted to be responsible for the dog.

And that is really what it comes down to: responsibility. If you have cats, ask landlords what their pet policy is. There are inexpensive rentals that allow cats. Don’t “rescue” a dog if you aren’t in it for better or worse.

Apparently, America is not the only country having a problem with an influx of newly homeless dogs: Animal Board, a doggy soup kitchen, just opened in Berlin, Germany!

Claudia Hollm, director of Animal Board, disagrees with arguments that the money and donations collected would be better spent on humans. “Nowadays people underestimate dogs. They are incredibly important for those who lack social contact with other humans,” Hollm said. “Making sure dogs don’t go hungry is just as important as making sure that people don’t starve.”

Homeless and/or unemployed pet owners can feed their dogs free of charge at Animal Board thanks to sponsorships from companies, including animal food manufacturers.

I’ve tried to check my carbon footprint before with online calculators, but have never felt that my lifestyle was rightly represented in my results. One carbon calculator I tried didn’t have an option for not owning a car. Another was British and thus didn’t match on a number of aspects.

Today, however, I found WattzOn! WattzOn asks you a series of simple questions about your life and offers feedback on how much carbon your lifestyle produces. Plus, you can then compare it to other people.

WattzOn not only includes not owning a car as an option, but the site also asks you how many miles per week you use different forms of public transportation and factors that in to your number.

And get this: it asks you about your diet through an interactive slide-bar tool where you rank how much meat, milk, sugar, produce, etc. you consume. As you slide the bar from “average” to “none” for meat, your carbon impact number starts dropping quickly. You can also select vegan, vegetarian, lacto-ovo, or another of other dietary choices and have the site estimate your intake.

The calculator’s assumed average diet created 495 watts of carbon; the estimated vegan diet, only 339. When I reduced the beer and wine (I drink none) and sugar consumption level to match my diet, the number dropped to 259.

My total number, which included their average number for my household heating and electricity as my utilities are included in rent, was 5,246 watts. My number is almost half the average WattzOn user’s number!

Compare your number to mine.