Living Without Meat

The economy may be struggling, but people are not giving up supporting nonprofits; they are just getting more creative about how they raise funds. At work the other day, we had a woman call to say that she threw a party for her dog and asked people to make a donation instead of buying a gift. She brought in $100 with this party!

Another supporter of ours is also a yoga instructor, so she is hosting a special compassionately inspired yoga workshop. Instead of charging for this class, she is asking that attendees make a minimal $25 donation to the Humane League. (If you’re in Philly, check out more about this upcoming event at the end of this post).

So if you want to donate, but can’t personally afford to, figure out what talent you have that can be used to fund-raise. Are you good with kids? Baby-sit, or host a children’s Easter party. Crafty? Sell your goods. Good at cooking? Host a dinner party or bake sale. Have lots of books, movies, or clothes that you no longer use? Host a swap party, where everyone brings what they want to trade and leaves with new stuff.

It is possible to raise funds during a time where finances are tight - you just have to get creative!

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Hey, Philadelphians! Join the Humane League at Peace to All Beings: A Special Yoga Workshop for Animal Advocates and Their Friends this Saturday, April 4, from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at Dhyana Yoga in Old City. Find all the details at www.thehumaneleague.com/yoga or e-mail info@thehumaneleague.com.

In fall 2007, when handbag designer Hogan created a ponyskin leather purse and named it “the Chrissie” after Pretenders’ lead singer and PETA activist Chrissie Hynde, she successfully sued. So I’m wondering - now that designer Chloe has created a calfskin leather purse named “Sally,” can I sue?

Aside from the color, which I love, what about this bag made you think of me, Chloe? I am vegan, the shoulder bag is leather. I am cute, the bag is not. Please don’t use my name to promote your cruel fashions.

But anyway, speaking of Chrissie Hynde … In a recent interview with her Akron, Ohio, hometown news, Chrissie talked about her vegan restaurant, the VegiTerranean, and why she is a vegan: “For me it’s about [the animals] health. If I get any (nutritional) benefits from not killing them, I guess that’s a bonus.”

Hynde’s restaurant is making the news a lot lately as her Executive Chef Scot Jones is making a name for himself in the vegan health food world. When he’s not working up new creations at the VegiTerranean, he’s been writing for vegan cookbooks and developing recipes for Oprah’s 21 Day vegan cleanse. Ironically, this master veg chef isn’t even vegetarian, let alone vegan. But since his life is increasingly saturated with all things veg, he has been incorporating more vegan food into his regular diet.

The cookbook that Jones wrote for is due out this fall, and currently has a working title of The Conscious Vegan. Chef Tal Ronnen, founder of Veg Advantage, a non-profit organization that helps restaurants put vegetarian items on their menus, is the main author of the book.

Two weeks ago I found a cute sewing tutorial for making your own reusable snack bag with a Velcro closure, a perfect way to tote around your homemade trail mix.

Now I found another great project to make as a lunch=packing accompaniment to your snack baggie: a reusable sandwich wrap.

Betz White shares the how-to directions for this simple project shown here, from her craft book Sewing Green, on Craft Stylish, where she is a contributing blogger.

Place your sandwich in the center of your handmade sandwich wrap, fold the two shorter sides in, then fold in and Velcro shut the other sides, throw it in your bag and you are good to go! With this project and the snack bag, you’ll be well on your way to never using a plastic baggie again. Plus, with a container this cute you’ll be more likely to brown bag your lunch just to show off your awesome creation!

I am constantly surprised when I meet someone who genuinely believes that today’s meat comes from mom and pop farms like the one in Charlotte’s Web. I’m saddened that so many people are misinformed or unaware, but also invigorated to keep going. It gives me the energy I need to hand out more leaflets. It motivates me to reach out to more teens on MySpace. It keeps me optimistic while I battle ignorant arguments. And most of all, it fuels my writing. (All of which are tasks that I perform for my new job with The Humane League.)

If you don’t believe me that there are people out there who have never heard of factory farms, just check out this real newspaper notice, as seen on the Fail Blog:

If you can’t read the words in the image, it reads: “To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed.”

Fortunately for our cats and dogs, Bob Barker will never quit. The man just doesn’t stop speaking out about spaying and neutering your pets. Since retiring from The Price Is Right, he has continued to be an outspoken friend to the animals. Earlier this month he hosted the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida Gala, and now he’s written a book.

Priceless Memories, which is due to hit shelves April 6, is not an animal rights read exactly. It is Barker’s memoir about life as a TV host, his time spent on a Native American reservation, and being raised by a single mother through the Great Depression. He recalls meeting and falling in love with his wife, and training as a fighter pilot with the Navy during World War II. But, since animal rights has always been a large part of his life, he also discusses the importance of animals in his life. Plus, proceeds will benefit the D&T Foundation, which he founded in 1994 to help foot the bill of spaying and neutering animals.

Plenty of “duh!” research study results presented in the medical and vegan news worlds lately.

First up, it has been confirmed that meat and mortality are in fact related. (Let me here the resounding “duh,” my veg friends.) After studying more than half a million people, the medical team determined that “high intakes of red or processed meat may increase the risk of mortality.” Read the full scientific study report by clicking here.

Next we move to the animal realm to learn from Ireland’s Queen’s University that … get ready for this mind-blowing announcement … “crabs not only suffer pain but retain a memory of it.” And again, “duh!” Click here to read the BBC News article.

Even though these results offer no new knowledge to most compassionate people, it is certainly helpful to have scientists backing us up. Now hopefully these studies were all performed without any animal testing.

This past weekend Reading Terminal Market hosted ScrappleFest 2009. I will never understand this city’s obsession with a “meat” made by grinding up all of the unusable pieces of the pig (eyes, ears, snouts, bones …), but I have become obsessed with the results of the contest.

Coming in second out of eight competitors, Vrapple, a vegan scrapple imitation, was the talk of the day. Vrapple creator Sarah Cain, owner of Fair Food Farmstand in the Market, and chef John Blanche created a maple-roasted pumpkin dish using the faux scrapple for the (second)prize-winning. I must confess, despite my feelings about scrapple, I may have to go try a bite. Especially after Cain left me a comment on my post about this on VEGdaily:

“You really should try it! Vrapple has it’s own unique flavor and texture,” commented Cain. “I always tell people who are squeamish about it being ‘too much like scrapple’ that it’s like polenta, with different seasoning - because what is scrapple, but a cornmeal mush with pork, set into a loaf pan. Vrapple is a cornmeal mush with wheat gluten, set into a loaf pan. Try it, you may just love it!”

Although I am increasing my raw intake, I am not aiming to go 100 percent uncooked. I won’t say never, but at least for now I am still cooking, including this delicious herb potato bread that I baked in my bread maker this weekend.

Herb Potato Bread

Into the bread machine add these ingredients, starting with the yeast and gluten first:
2 1/4 tsp. yeast
1 1/2 tsp. gluten
3 cups flour (I used 1 cup each of bread, rye, and whole wheat flours.)
1 1/2 tsp. sea salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
3/4 cup water
1 to 2 Tbsp. fresh or dried herbs, whatever sounds good with potatoes to you. (I used sage, parsley, garlic, and oregano.)
1 med. cooked, peeled potato, or 1 can of pre-cooked and pre-peeled potatoes

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Are you a raw enthusiasts? Please share your favorite raw bread replacement!

Unfortunately, it seems as if there will not be a Farm Sanctuary Gala this year. There is one in the works for 2010, potentially in Los Angeles, California, but for 2009 we will just have to find another way to get our Farm fix. Living less than a day’s drive from the Watkins Glen, New York shelter, I am contemplating a northward vegan road trip with friends. Those Farm fans that are not able to work in a tour-season trip (and those that can, too) can and should check out the goods up for auction at Charity Buzz to benefit Farm Sanctuary, open now through April 1.

As always, there are a lot of top-name vegan celebrities and brands offering autographs, meet-and-greets, fashions, and more. The most popular lots right now include exclusive meet ups with Kelly Clarkson, Ali McGraw, Joan Jett, Gene Baur, Kevin Nealon, and Amy Smart. There are also yoga classes, raw and vegan nutritional counseling, an audition with an agent, tickets, salon and spa treatments, and so much more.

I’m having a lot of fun playing around with raw food concoctions! I even created my own nut-based, raw, vegan apple pie (follow my recipe by clicking here).

Today I recreated Kristen’s Raw’s Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce, which was one of the featured recipes in the raw prep class that I went to this weekend. Kristen Suzanne is a raw recipe guru who has written a number of raw recipe books that are available in both e-book and printed formats. This recipe is a sample from her all-hemp book Kristen Suzanne’s Ultimate Raw Vegan Hemp Recipes.

The recipe blends red pepper for color, nutritional yeast for a cheesy flavor, chili and other spices for some heat, and hemp for the base. Get the exact recipe from Kristen’s Raw blog.

Today I went to a raw foods preparation class at a local natural food market and cafe with my mom. It was a two-hour workshop, titled Raw Foods Made Easy - 10 Minute Meals, hosted by Michelle Pierson of Living Sun Foods.

During the class, we tasted mango cucumber soup, hemp nacho cheese dip, and a mock fettuccine Alfredo. After class, I was inspired to pick up some new ingredients at the market to play around with at home. I bought tamari, nutritional yeast flakes, raw chickpeas, dates, agave, and hemp seeds.

I’ve already eaten almost all of the dates, which were intended to be used as a sweetener. I have also started the chickpeas soaking, and plan to sprout them a little and make some raw hummus.

For dinner tonight I made an awesome, raw “pasta” dish. As always, I didn’t follow a recipe, but here’s the gist.

Wash and peel the skin off of zucchini or yellow squash. Toss the peels into the blender or food processor, then use a vegetable peeler to slice the meat of the squash into slivers to make your “pasta.” Stop when you get to the seeds and throw the scraps into the blender.

With the peels and seeds, mix some garlic, tomatoes, red pepper, nutritional yeast, sea salt, and Italian spices. Add water if you need to get your machine moving.

Hand toss the squash noodles with the tomato sauce. Sprinkle with some hemp seeds and enjoy!

Now, back to the kitchen to make a raw pie for dessert …

Writing letters to your newspaper’s editor is such an easy way to reach a large crowd that probably doesn’t know much about veganism, animal rights, etc. I send out dozens of letters each week, to papers across the world. Here’s one that has been published recently:

Re-examine Response

To The Editor:

The reality behind factory farming practices that often lead to outbreaks of diseases such as Avian flu is sad (“Change a need to re-examine our farming practices,” February 3, 2009). According Scientific American (“How Meat Contributes to Global Warming” February 2009,) worldwide meat production (beef, chicken and pork) emits more atmospheric greenhouse gases than all forms of global transportation or industrial processes. The current levels of meat production are responsible—between 14 and 22 percent of the 36 billion tons of “CO2-equivalent” greenhouse gases the world produces every year.

The factory-style farms provide 90-95% of all meat and dairy products today and they are not just letting down consumers; the animals are suffering far worse. The current system does not allow animals to live any natural sort of life. In order to maximize profits, animals on factory farms are treated like units of production rather than as living beings. The instinctual needs of each animal are denied, and most spend their entire lives indoors in filthy, cramped conditions in immense dark warehouses. Most will never feel the sun, never feel the grass beneath their feet, and many will never be able to turn around with hitting cage bars or another animal.

Our farming practices do need to be re-examined, but we need to keep the animals, as well as ourselves and the environment, in mind.

Sally Andersen
The Humane League
Philadelphia, PA

Happy MeatOut 2009!

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Spend your day spreading the veg love today! Don’t eat any meat, and encourage your friends to do the same … for the animals, for personal health, and for the environment. Take a page from the book of Bones star Emily Deschanel, who recently convinced former Chairman of Fox, Peter Ligouri, to go vegan, and help your friends and family with encouragement, support, and education.

“We were at a party, and I said, ‘You’d make a big difference by just trying it for a week.’ I sent him food, and he really stuck to it,” said Deschanel about helping Ligouri find the vegan light.

One day not a challenge? Try a week, or every Monday. The same folks that encourage to spread the veg word every year with Meatout Day, also host Meatout Mondays. Every meat-free meal makes a difference!

There are a lot of things happening tomorrow, March 20, the first day of spring. The Twilight movie will be released on DVD. It’s the 20th anniversary of Eric Carle’s classic picture book The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It is also National AIDS/HIV Awareness Day. And, of course, it’s the day when Rita’s give out free water ice!

But more relevantly … it’s Meatout!

Meatout day has been an international celebration since 1985 and is held annually to “expose the public to the joys and benefits of a plant-based diet, while promoting the availability and selection alternatives to meat and dairy in mainstream grocery stores, restaurants, and catering operations.”

What will you to tomorrow to share the veg love? There are thousands of events already planned worldwide that you can join. Invite all of your friends out to dinner, and talk to the restaurant ahead of time about having vegan options available. Hand out pamphlets on the street. Send your friends a Meatout e-card. Tell random people that you don’t eat meat. Shout “Happy Meatout Day!” from the roof. Wear a veg shirt and carry a reusable veg tote. Donate to an animal charity. If you’re not veg, refrain from eating any meat!

And, of course, order a vegan water ice for free at Rita’s!

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My plans for the day, after getting some work done and my hair cut, are to grab my free Rita’s, and then meet up with Humane League members and volunteers to leaflet in the heart of the city. After, we’ll be having dinner at a tiny little restaurant that has agreed to add more vegan options to their menu and will be offering a special three-course, all-vegan dinner for the evening. And then I’ll need to find another Rita’s and get another free one!

Have you heard about Vegan Drinks? It’s taking the veg world by storm! Find out how the social event got started, what cities host one regularly, and how you can get one started in your hometown by checking out my first post as a writer for the brand new blog VEGdaily!