Vegan in a Meat World

So, on Christmas my mum didn't want to cook anything for dinner. I think that she actually just didn't want to deal with the clean-up. But who can blame her? Well anyway, not very many places are open on Christmas Day. We ended up going to T.G.I. Friday's which is one of those restaurants where I can't eat anything. The only appetizer I could have was pita wedges and hummus without the added tomatoes (just because I don't really like them,) cheese, yogurt, and whatever else it was that they put on it that wasn't vegan. It wasn't bad hummus, but I felt like I was getting WAY over-charged for it. Though I must admit, soft, grilled pita bread is amazing. The only vegan entree I could find was a black bean burger though I had to order it without all the toppings except the avocado. I have recently developed quite a liking for avocado. It also came with candied onions that are vegan, but I really don't care for onion.

I put a layer of french fries on top of the avocado and gave the rest to my sisters. The burger was really good! It was spicy enough to have a good flavor, but not too spicy. And the creaminess of the avocado helped make the burger not too spicy. I loved it! If you are ever there, I would recommend trying it. Granted, I probably wouldn't pick T.G.I. Friday's as a first choice for restaurants probably because my meal choice options are so limited, but I survived holiday meals with my family. Though, afterwards, I went out and bought myself an avocado. I want to get some spicy black bean burgers too. I've heard that Gardenburger brand spicy black bean burgers are amazing. Maybe I'll do a post later about recreating this entree.

F.Y.I. They have no vegan desserts other than their fruit cup, but that was really lame. I could have made the same thing or better from the stuff in my fridge. (Same with the appetizer honestly.)

Well, if you happen to try this veggie burger, let me know what you thought. Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Fur Fight

I don't know who made this picture. A friend of mine emailed it to me a while ago. However, the message is still true. I have never been a big fan of wearing fur, leather, or any other animal products. I hardly even wear faux fur, or faux leather. I try to avoid the appearance of evil, so to speak. 

Not all people share my views on wearing animal products, especially certain celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, (The Trollsen Twins, as Peta2 dubs them,) and don't even get me started on Lady Gaga's notorious Meat Dress and other cruel fashion atrocities! 

People need to understand that these beautiful animals actually have to DIE for them to wear fur. Now, some people wouldn't be phased by that, in which case, they may have some deeper problems to deal with. Some people just don't really think about it enough. I know that when I was very little, I thought that wearing fur just meant that the animals would be running abound nekkid. Of course, I understood that it was mean to take their fur away, but it didn't really occur to me that the skin comes with the fur, and that the animals die when people take it. 

Let's raise awareness and spread the message that only beautiful animals, and ugly people wear fur. Share, and upload this image to your social networks to help keep people from making fashion a faux-pas!

Vegan Snickerdoodle Fail

So, normally, I have only amazing things to say about anything PETA-related. Today though, I tried the vegan snickerdoodle recipe from their Holiday Survival Guide, and I was really not impressed. At all.

 They looked amazing. They smelled amazing. They tasted like Play Dough. Well, Play Dough with cinnamon-sugar on the outside, but Play Dough nonetheless. I was so immensely disappointed by them. I remember thinking, as my sister and I were measuring ingredients, that the recipe called for a lot of salt, ( a whole teaspoon for a batch of 20 cookies!) but I followed the recipe anyway. I would like to make the recipe again, but I would only put in 1/4 teaspoon of salt next time. I'm sure that, other than that, the cookies would be fine.

I haven't tried any of the other Holiday Guide recipes, so I can't say whether or not they're any good. Maybe I'll get around to making them later.

Lemony Vegan Eggnog Cheesecake Recipe

This is my second eggnog recipe in one week. I don't know if that's enough to count as a streak, but here it goes. Earlier today, I was browsing the boards at Peta2 and I stumbled across this post which had a link for vegan eggnog cheesecake at the bottom of it. 

Now before I went vegan, I was an absolute sucker for cheesecake. I started making them for any celebration or excuse I could find, and people started ordering them from me and I was making some pretty good cash. I stopped making them as much when I found out I am lactose intolerant. Then when I went vegan, I stopped making them altogether. That was one thing that I did kind of miss, though I got used to no cheesecake pretty fast. It didn't occur to me until recently that I could make vegan cheesecakes with vegan cream cheese! However, I haven't really had the time, so this vegan cheesecake is the first one I have ever made! I'm pretty excited about it. SO excited, in fact, that I forgot to take any pictures as I was going.

So, the recipe at Fat Free Vegan Kitchen called for a pre-made graham cracker pie crust or an oatmeal pie crust that she has a separate recipe for. I'm not a big fan of oatmeal stuffs, and my past cheesecake-making days told me I could do way better than a pre-made graham cracker crust. Now, my sisters are girl scouts, and they always get more cookies then they can sell, so we have plenty sitting around the house, and since the recipe also calls for lemon juice, I figured I could make a crust with Lemonades Girl Scout Cookies, which are vegan. (And delicious.) 

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 - 2 boxes of Lemonades Girl Scout Cookies (Thanks-a-Lot Girl Scout Cookies work too if you want chocolate instead of lemon, or you could use any other 8.5 oz package of crunchy vegan cookies, preferably a relatively plain cookie, or it will distract from the flavor of the cheesecake.)
• 6-7 tablespoons of vegan butter (Earth Balance brand works well.)

To Make The Crust:

• Empty a box and a half of the cookies into a gallon zip-lock bag and zip the bag shut. If you prefer thicker or higher crust use the entire second box. 
• Use a rolling pin, tenderizer, large baking spoon or whatever large hard-to-break kitchen utensil you can find, and take out all of your days frustrations on those cookies! Beat the cookies with your utensil of choice, until the crumbs are finely crushed. 
• Empty the bag of cookies into a medium bowl, and set them aside. 
• Put vegan butter into a microwaveable container, and heat for 30 seconds. Most of the butter should have melted, but should there still be any unmelted, stir for a few seconds until all the butter has turned to liquid.
• Pour the butter into the bowl of cookie crumbs and stir until all the crumbs are evenly coated with the butter-stuff. (If you want, you can use your clean hands to mix the butter and crumbs.) It will begin to clump. That's okay. 
• Scrape the mixture into a meduim (9") springform pan. With clean hands, (or formerly clean hands now slightly coated in vegan butter and cookie crumbs,) press the crumb mixture evenly on the bottom and along the sides of the springform pan. Make sure there aren't any holes in the bottom of your crust. 
• When finished, set the pan aside.

I followed the original recipe for the most part, except for a few ingredients and some of the preparation. I didn't want to use brandy or rum because that's unnecessary calories, and I can't buy any for myself anyway since I'm under-aged. So I was going to use imitation rum flavoring that we already had in the pantry, except when I checked it, I didn't have enough. So I used extra vanilla and I think it turned out just fine. I also simplified a lot of the preparation, so there are fewer steps, and it works better for a blender than the original instructions.

Filling Ingredients:

• 1 12.3-ounce package extra firm silken tofu (Use a light version for fewer calories.) 
• 1 8-ounce package vegan cream cheese (Tofutti Better than Cream Cheese works well.) 
• 3/4 cup vegan sugar 
• 1/2 cup vegan eggnog (Silk Seasonal Nog, which I used in my Vegan Nog Waffles, works great.) 
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice 
• 3 tablespoons vanilla 
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/2 rounded teaspoon cinnamon 
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch 

To Make the Filling:

• Preheat Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• Drain tofu. 
• Crumble tofu into blender or food processor (I used a blender.) Add the package of vegan cream cheese, vegan eggnog, lemon juice, and vanilla. Blend or process until you have reached a uniform, creamy consistency. 
• Add sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cornstarch, and blend until sugar and cornstarch have dissolved, and cinnamon and nutmeg are evenly suspended. 

Final Preparation:

• Pour filling into crust. Filling may fill the pan above the top of the crust, which is perfectly fine. 
• Place springform pan on a cookie sheet (To prevent dripping melty vegan butter from making a mess all over your oven,) place it in the oven, and shut the door. 
• Bake for 50 minutes, though I'd recommend checking the cheesecake at 45 minutes just in case it is already starting to brown. The center should still be slightly jiggly. 
• Remove the pans from the oven with oven mitts or potholders etc., and place the pans on a cooling rack. 
• Leaving the cookie sheet on the cooling rack, place the springform pan with cheesecake in the refrigerator to chill. Allow to cool for at least an hour before serving. 
• To serve, remove outer edge of springform pan, and if you are brave, slide the cheesecake onto a serving dish. If you would rather avoid potentially making a huge mess all over your kitchen, throwing away your cheesecake, and having to bake a second one, just place the whole bottom of the springform pan on a serving dish, or just eat the cheesecake now off of the pan without getting an extra plate dirty. 
• Enjoy! 

So, if you try out this recipe, let me know what you thought of it! I would really love to have some feedback, and I would be happy to try out any variations that you all come up with. Have fun baking!

Vegan Nog Waffles

Well it's been a while since I've posted, and I apologize for that. I've been getting way too busy for my own good, but that's beside the point. Since today is Christmas, I figured I'd give you all a quick holiday food post!

Making waffles for breakfast today was kind of an excuse to try out the Ener-G Egg Replacer that I bought for recipes. It was also an excuse to use up a partially empty box of Belgian Waffle Mix from my family's overstocked pantry. I also just got back from a trip to northern Vermont, and you can't leave Vermont without buying at least one kind of Maple Syrup. We picked up Raspberry, Cranberry, and Chai flavored syrups, (the Cranberry is my favorite,) but I couldn't find them quickly because we hadn't unpacked them yet. (I'm not the most patient person in the world, so I used light Agave Nectar which I had also bought for the first time recently and haven't had a chance to try yet.) I basically followed the directions on the box, which are going to be pretty similar but could vary depending on what brand of mix you get and how many you're making.

In a small mixing bowl, I mixed 1 1/2 tablespoons of egg replacer mixture with 2 tablespoons of hot water with a whisk until a uniform consisteny was reached. In a medium-sized bowl, I mixed 1 1/2 cups of waffle mix, 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 3/4 cup of Silk Nog (instead of milk or water), a dash of nutmeg, a dash of cinnamon, and added the egg replacer mixture (instead of eggs obviously), stirring until I reached a uniform consistency with no lumps.

I poured half the mixture onto the center of my non-stick waffle iron and closed the lid to cook it. When it was ready, I put it on a plate, and as soon as I took a picture of it, I opened a few Christmas presents while the iron was heating up enough for the second waffle. Then I scraped the rest of the batter into the iron with a spatula, and let it cook. When it was done, I set it on top of my other waffle and poured a generous amount of agave onto them and dug in. I could only finish half of them, so I shared the rest with my sisters who thought they were delicious even though none of them are vegans.

You may have noticed from the picture that my waffle isn't really square. That's because I've had too many experiences with waffle batter dripping down the sides of the hot iron and making a huge mess that I have to clean up later. So, I just make slightly less visually attractive waffles that mean I don't have to clean up so much after myself because I'm sort of lazy. Okay, really lazy. But hey, it would be wasting perfectly good waffle if I made a mess.

By the way, I was really impressed with the Ener-G Egg Replacer. I've tried some other ways to replace eggs in the past, like flax seed for example, and those were less-than amazing in waffles. The Ener-G stuff didn't alter the taste of the waffles to make them taste like some horrible gruel, it kept them light and fluffy, and they're only 15 calories per replaced egg! (Eggs are 70 calories each.) I can't wait to try the egg replacer in other recipes.

If you try my little recipe, let me know what you thought of it, and if you made any other variations. I'd love to try out anything you all come up with. Personally, I am going to be trying something similar with some gluten-free mix that I found, though I don't know if I'll be using vegan nog. Maybe I'll try my vegan chocolate chips. . . Well anyway, happy holidays everyone! I hope this season has been wonderful and relaxing for everyone! Happy New Year!

P.S. Nog is a really funny word. Makes me want to laugh every time I say it.

It is a Question of Suffering

Before anyone jumps on my case about saying that animals are dumb, let me give you a vocabulary lesson. The word 'dumb' technically means mute, or unable to speak. So, Anna Sewell has got this totally right. People insult animals when they're upset. Verbal abuse hurts animals as well because they can tell intuitively when people are angry,which can often leads to physical abuse, such as kicking, swatting, etc. that can leave permanent physical and psychological damage to animals who can't speak up for themselves. We should be ashamed of ourselves for picking on the weaker man, so to speak. Basically, I think this is a brilliant quote, and paired with this photo, it is absolutely heart-melting. I hope you like this image as much as I did!

Rolling Phone

Ah ha ha ha! The title of this post was such a lame joke. Alright now, I'm over it.

Here is a little something-something, mostly because I really haven't run across anything stunning to post recently. A while a ago, I mentioned Sevenly, a group that creates apparel designs, the proceeds of which benefit many different humanitarian charities. When you purchase their products, they give you a sticker for free!

The part of the sticker that peels off basically asks you to put it on your phone, so I did. I actually get comments on it all the time. The sticker back also asks you to take a picture of yourself with your freshly stickered phone, and post it on their Facebook page, which I also did. So I figured I'd share the pictures with you all, and you could tell me which ones you like the best! (Please note, I did not have access to any fancy cameras, so I just used a plain old boring digital camera. My apologies to any photographers out there!) I am, by the way, also wearing a Sevenly shirt. The proceeds of this particular shirt went to providing orphaned Jamaican babies with food, water, and diapers. The last item of note is my phone itself. It's a Nokia phone. You know, the kind that are virtually indestructible? The ones that have whole pages of internet memes dedicated to them because of their amazing capabilities not to break. Yeah. That's because it's my 8th phone. So far, it's outlived almost all of them.

Ok, so before anyone says that I look angry in these pictures, let me inform you that I am in a tree. That means that these photos were taken from the ground. Let me also mention that I have almost complete mono-lids. That means that my eye lids crease in such a way that when my eyes are open, you can hardly see the crease at all, making my eyelids look very small, which has a tendency to make people look more serious, even when they are not. The fact that the pictures were taken from the ground really exaggerated that feature. Now, I hope you all feel a little bit smarter about anatomy.

Rambling about Ethics

 

I've posted photos with quotes like these before, but it never stops hitting home. A great part of morals and ethics is compassionate treatment of others. This certainly includes compassion towards animals. Few people will dispute that Gandhi was a great ethical teacher, specifically in the area of basic human rights. If he's right about one thing, what's to say he isn't right about another? When you look at nations in the past that were infamous for their treatment of the common people, were people the only ones poorly treated? No. If they're going to abuse their fellow humans, leaders often allow poor treatment of animals. Even in the present, the most highly civilized areas have implemented humane regulations for animal treatment and slaughter. While ideally, the consumption of animals for food would be eradicated, at least reducing the amount that animals suffer makes nations morally praiseworthy.

"Hippie" Freebies

Now, before you start thinking about all the stereotypes associated with hippies, let me tell you that this post is not about hippies. Not really. What I'm actually talking about is a web page full of links that was created by a self-proclaimed "Modern Hippie" for the purpose of connecting young activists with campaign materials that fit into their price range. Everything on the link page is free. Are you interested now? At Hippie Freebies, you can find materials such as Vegan and Vegetarian Starter kits with helpful information and recipes, Animal Rights campaign materials and stickers, Human Rights and Equality stickers, Environmentalism buttons and clings, and much more. Most of these links help connect you to various organizations that send out newsletters, online petitions, forms for letters to congressmen, etc, and give you free items as a token of appreciation. There is also a page that has links to many more organizations. Most of these organizations and freebies only operate in North America or the UK, but several work worldwide. Maybe not all of them will interest you, but chances are, you'll find something you'd like to find out more about.

I'd like to thank the wonderful Salena for creating this list of links. Also, check out her blog, because she has reviews of some pretty awesome products like eco-friendly clothing etc.

Hope you all find everything helpful!

Runway Wednesday: Humanitarian of the Week

Today, my post has absolutely nothing to do with veganism. In fact, it has nothing to do with Animal Rights. I'm not even going to be talking about Environmentalism. This is, however, related to activism.

There are a lot of charities, and non-profit organizations out there, and sometimes it is hard to decide which ones to support. Sometimes it's even hard to know HOW to support the ones you want to. Especially with humanitarian-type charities, the problem is often very far away, or out of the boundaries of our finite eyesight. You can always donate money, but not very many people have the kind of money that they can just throw around to whichever charities they run across. Even when you'd like to donate money, it's often difficult to know which charities need it the most. I mean really, there are hundreds of thousands of cancer support charities, and while that is a noble cause, what about the charities that say, help feed starving orphans? Not many of us run across starving orphans every day, so that sort of things tends to be out of sight, out of mind.

I have recently discovered an organization that is the solution to all of those problems. Sevenly is a group of people who were trying to solve these same problems. They have now made it their mission "to harness the power of art and community to build sustainable awareness and funding movements that support charities in their efforts to change the world." This is a small organization comprised of artists and researchers who find worthy charities that need support, and they create designs for clothing that they turn around and sell to raise support for their charity of the week. Every shirt, tank top, hoodie, tote bag, etc. donates $7 to a specific non-profit. They have both guys and girls designs, and multiple styles and colors of apparel to appeal to as large of a target audience as possible. Every design has a story behind the art to show what inspired it, but each design is only available for 7 days. New designs are available every Monday at noon, but orders for the previous week's shirts are processed exactly up to that point. Once the time is up, the orders are processed so they never run out before the week is up.

Organizations they have worked with in the past include. . .

1Love - Helped put abandoned babies and toddlers into nurseries and provide with them with the necessities they need to survive.
Feed My Starving Children - Each purchase provided the money to feed a child in Thailand for a month.
The Sheepfold - Raised money to put abused women and children in safe-houses.
Somaly Mam - Funded a raid on a brothel in Cambodia to free women and children who had been sold into sex-slavery.

. . . And so many more.

This week, they are raising support for Autism Speaks, a charity that provides tools and therapy for children with severe autism that helps them learn to communicate with their families. The extra cool thing about it is that someone is doubling the money they raise for Autism Speaks, up to $180,000. Sevenly is also selling iPhone cases this week with both guys and girl's designs. Pretty cool, huh? Even if you can't buy something from them, they really appreciate you sharing the page on all your social networks. That way, maybe someone else can hear about it for the first time, and buy something to support the week's charity.

I am really hoping that I can get this week's design featuring the phrase "Live Loud for Autism."



I've bought 3 other shirt in the past few weeks, but since the designs are only available for 7 days, and I can't find an archive anywhere, I can't show you the designs. Maybe I'll just have to take a picture wearing them myself.

Anyway, I think that Sevenly is a great way to become aware of different organizations and charities, and show support for a myriad of organizations with Sevenly's amazing apparel art.

Does this sort of organization seem helpful to you? Are you interested in humanitarian non-profits like this one? Had you heard of Sevenly before? Give your opinion in a comment!

Update: I have added this to my Runway Wednesday series, even though I wrote this post a long time before the Runway Wednesday series started.

Getting out of your Shell

I don't really have much to say today, but I'd like to share some fail pictures from Shell's "Let's Go!" ad campaign. If you are not familiar with it, the company essentially created a meme generator and told the general internet public to make ads for Shell's billboards using provided images and words of the people's own choosing. For a while there was voting, and the winning ad's creator got a prize pack. That, however, is not the important part. The important part is that the general internet public made it clear that people don't like oil companies. Some of the images from the campaign make that very obvious.

Here are some of the more thought provoking environmental images.



These pictures are still have an environmentalism flavor, but they come at it from a more comical approach.

 

Some of the funniest images were the ones that made pop-culture references.



This is probably my all-time favorite.



Well, what did you think of Shell's marketing tactics? I'd say they made a fool out of themselves in a very public way. The general internet public is bringing them down. Which one was your favorite? Did you create your own make-fun-of-Shell meme that you'd like to share a link to? Leave a comment!

CTTVCC: Breakup Pudding

Well, I haven't been in any relationships lately, but I tried the "Breakup Pudding" recipe from PETA's Vegan College Cookbook when two of my friends were dumped by their boyfriends within a week of each other.

I have made it twice now, but both times, I've had a few variations from the original recipe. 

First off, I used light tofu. Now, seeing as tofu is usually considered a diet food, I thought it was particularly interesting that there was diet tofu. I'm not even kidding. The light tofu has half the calories per serving. It has 45 calories vs. regular tofu which has 70-80. I chose to make it with light tofu, because I didn't want my friends (or myself) to gain weight because of some stupid boy. (No offense guys.) I consider it a guiltless indulgence.

The second variation I had was that, because I have a cheap blender, I had to add a splash or two of unsweetened alternative milk to get the blending process working. I suppose you could use a regular sweetened alternative milk, even a vanilla flavored one two give it a bit more flavor. I just keep regular unsweetened milks at my house to cut down the amount of calories I consume when I use it in cereal.

The last alteration I had was using dark chocolate cocoa powder. When I was at the grocery store, a lot of the regular cocoa powder I found had some milk derivatives in it, and personally, I like dark chocolate better. Here's how I see it: if I'm going to eat something, like chocolate for example, I want to eat the real stuff. I mean, the chocolate I eat is practically baking chocolate, which if any of you ever tried as a kid when your mother wasn't looking, is pretty bitter. I guess it's an acquired taste I developed because of some of the other bitter things I consume, like coffee. That, however, is a story for another time.

Anyway, I really like this recipe, and now that I actually OWN a copy of this amazing book, I don't have to make it off the website, or using the recipe cards I've gotten in various activism packs I've ordered from PETA and Peta2. Even my non-vegan friends and family members love this recipe. When my (non-vegan) mother tried it, she said:

"This pudding is so good, it would definitely be worth breaking up with someone for."

 I would definitely recommend trying it, maybe even with my little twist on it. I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know what you think of the recipe in the comments!

Food Finds Friday: Annie Chun's

College students have a few kinds of reputations. However, there are two main things that college students are known for. One of them is for being party animals, and another is for being broke and having to live off only Ramen Noodles for weeks. I will only be addressing the latter of these two. Now, vegetarians and vegans are often thought, mostly by outside sources, to not get proper nutrition, especially while in college. I might just have a solution to the nutritional problems that students have, while keeping in mind expense and the fact that most students need nonperishable foods.

While it would be great if, while away at college, we could all cook all of our meals out of PETA's Vegan College Cookbook, there are still various reasons why we might not be able to. (By the way, the book can be purchased with Peta2 Street Team Points, which means basically FREE!) Sometimes, just the thought of having to think about what you're cooking might be too much for a brain about to go into a study-induced coma. There is something comforting about sitting down with a cup or bowl of hot noodles and taking a second to relax. So, before you place a bulk order of Ramen, (which is full or preservatives and has next to no nutritional value,) and become victim to the stereotype, consider trying a healthier, and in the opinion of many, tastier vegan option that should still be in your price range.

I recently tried Annie Chun's Miso Soup, and I was absolutely shocked at how good it was. It was more than a million times better than any prepackaged noodles I'd had before! Not only did it taste AMAZING, it's all natural, contains no MSG, or preservatives, has 8 grams of protein, 4 grams of fiber, only 240 Calories, and completely vegan. The container is also recyclable, or reusable since it's relatively durable and resealable. It is very fast to make. ( It takes 2 minutes vs. Ramen which takes 3 minutes. OMG A WHOLE MINUTE MORE TO STUDY! )

Annie Chun's also has other vegan soups such as the Udon and Korean Kimichi; vegan noodle bowls like the Garlic Scallion, Korean Sweet Chili, Kung Pao, Peanut Sesame, and Teriyaki Bowl; as well as Instant Rice; and well, they have Ramen too. Spring Vegetable is the only vegan Ramen flavor that I am aware of.

Soup and Noodle Bowls are $3.49 each if ordered or purchased individually, or $2.89 each if purchased in packs of 6 that cost $17.34. If you must have Ramen, theirs is $6.57 for a 3 pack, and $24.97 for a 12 pack. When I was researching this, I saw that there were other companies that were selling the Miso in huge bulk sets for a really good price, but I didn't really look at the actual website.

Anyway, I hope you have a chance to try the Miso, and that you love it as much as I do! Let me know what you think in the comments!

Update: I've added this to my Food Finds Friday series even though it  was written long before the series began. I also wrote this before I realized I needed to go gluten-free. So, I can no longer eat most of these products, sadly. 

Real Men

Photo courtesy of Plant Powered Living.

Well, if this isn't a great way to convince the men in your life to cut meat out of their diets, I don't know what is. If I were you, I'd share this infographic everywhere you can, and as soon as possible. You never know, but you could save someone's life! In fact, you could be helping to save a whole lot of lives, because if someone goes vegetarian or vegan, not only would they be lowering their own risk of getting heart disease, but animals wouldn't have to die for their meals!

I must admit, I am not the biggest fan of the way they illustrated the risk of heart disease. To me, it looks as if it's saying that the vegans don't 'have as much of a heart,' as the saying goes, as the omnivores do. I don't think that was their intention though.

We all need to let guys know that REAL men are compassionate. Spread the love!

Animal Testing Poetry Reading

So, earlier, I posted the poem I had written about animal testing, "For the Sake of Progress." Well, I decided to do a video reading of it for an I Am Peta2 video for street team points. (By the way, if you haven't joined the Peta2 Street Team, you should. Its a great way to get active for animal, and you can earn free stuff!) Anyway, I decided to share my video here. Even if you're not the biggest fan of poetry, it would mean a lot to me if you all watch it anyways! Just think of it as me telling you a story that happens to rhyme and have meter. ;) Give the video a "thumbs up" if you like it, and feel free to share it on whatever social networks you use. (I think you have to go to the video's page on YouTube to share it.) The goal here is to expose people to the negative side of animal testing, and to get some traffic to the Peta2 website where people can learn more about animal rights. Thanks!

Steak, Steak, Go Away!

For those of you who use Facebook, you are probably familiar with the sidebar ads. You know, the ones on the right side of the page, right next to the scroll bar, that most people just ignore anyways? I get a lot of ads for vegan / animal welfare things that I sometimes check out. Well, for whatever reason, I just got an ad for Fatz, (its a restaurant for those who aren't familiar,) and the advertisement image said "Love Steak?" with a silhouette of a steak. Now, this succeeded in catching my attention, but as must be obvious by the fact that I'm running a veganism / animal rights blog, I happen to NOT love steak. In fact, I've always HATED steak! Even before I was even a vegetarian. (Which was before I was a vegan, logically.) Now, normally, I don't bother to hide ads on Facebook, but since I was already looking at it, I decided to hide all ads for Fatz. Once I clicked it, Facebook wanted to know why I didn't want to receive any more ads for Fatz. There were several general reasons you could choose, and the closest one to "This is an advertisement for steak, and I am a vegan" was "Against my views," so I went with that. Something about that particular reason struck me as funny. I mean, how often do you think people select that for a restaurant? My guess is: not very.

In Your Own Words

It is absolutely ridiculous how much fun I had making these Anti-Cruelty signs. I was laughing maniacally under my breath while I was coming up with little phrases to type into Peta2's clever little generators. It actually impressed me how realistic these signs look. While I am more involved with the McCruelty campaign, mostly because there are more McDonald's restaurants in my area, the Kentucky Fried Cruelty Generator signs looked more like an actual photo to me. Maybe that's because there were cars in most of the images. I don't know. That is not to say that the McCruelty Sign Generator designers didn't do a good job, because they certainly did.

Now, if you click the links to the generators, you can type in up to 3 lines of text to display in the store sign. If you want to save and share your pictures on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, or whatever, you'll need to use a screenshot. Just in case you aren't sure how to do that, I'll explain.

Step 1. Using the scroll wheel on your mouse, or the scroll buttons on the side of your browser, adjust the screen so that your Anti-Cruelty image is clearly in view. It is best to leave a visible margin of the webpage around your image.

Step 2. Locate the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It is usually toward the upper right-hand corner. It might be abbreviated to something like "PrtSc" depending on the maker.

Step 3. Push the Print Screen button.

Step 4. Open a new project in Paint, which comes pre-installed on most computers.

Step 5. In Paint, click the button says "Select" on it, and displays a dotted-lined rectangle.

Step 6. Using the select tool, right click anywhere in the empty project. A screenshot of the page with your Anti-Cruelty sign will appear.

Step 7. Left click on the selected screenshot, and drag it toward the upper left-hand corner of your project until only the Anti-Cruelty sign is in view in that corner.

Step 8. Left click anywhere within the image, but outside the the selected screenshot to deselect it.

Step 9. Using the scroll bars, scroll to the bottom right-hand corner of the image.

Step 10. Click and drag the small white box in the corner up and to the left until only your Anti-Cruelty sign is visible. Make sure that the borders are even.

Step 11. Click the "Save As" button, and save your image, preferable as a PNG. This will keep your image quality nice so that everyone will be able to clearly read your Anti-Cruelty message!

Step 12. Upload your image to all your favorite social networks, or email your image to share it with all your friends! Make sure you include a link to the McCruelty or Kentucky Fried Cruelty websites so your friends can get more information and make their own Anti-Cruelty Signs.

Alright. I hope that little tutorial was helpful, and that you have as much fun making your Anti-Cruelty signs as I did! For any of you who are members of the Peta2 Street Team, make sure you go to the "Take Action" page, and turn in a screenshot of the website where you shared your sign for Street Team Points!

"For the Sake of Progress"

A certain man, in sterile robes,
His prisoners to seek,
Comes strolling down the dingy halls,
That, nauseating, reek.

Their eyes reveal such grievous hurt.
Infection crusts each tear.
Corrosive burns are all they know,
Save tormentors they fear.

Now, here is a sedated one—
Electrodes watch his brain.
No drugs will he receive for his
Excruciating pain.

Experimental surgeries
For those who need them not,
But who cares should they live or die?
They're all just left to rot.

These needles inject certain death—
The cancers men abhor—
So maybe victims can be forced
To outlive those before.

What were the crimes that brought them here
To clasp these metal bars
With hands that bleed in ill-repair
And stiffen with their scars?

These countless, captive creatures lie
So brutalized and weak.
They cannot really save themselves,
Since they can't even speak.

So history has taught us: do
Because you simply can.
But why would you test man's best friends
To see what works for man?

I wrote this ballad for my Senior English class. If you couldn't tell, it is an anti-animal testing poem. When My teacher read it, he said that he thought it was about a WWII concentration camp until the last 2 lines. Ballads are supposed to have twist endings, and my teacher said that he was so surprised by the ending that he actually jumped out of his chair! Needless to say, I got a perfect score on the poem.

A Wise Man Once Said:

There have been many people that have said that a variety of things allow us to judge people, (and not in the negative sense necessarily,) from the way he eats gummy bears, to well, lots of things. Besides the fact that this picture is absolutely adorable, I think that the quote from Kant here is actually one of these statements that holds the most truth. You often hear how, according to the FBI, most serial killers and rapists started out with abusing and killing animals. Stories with a villain often tell you things about their past like they liked hurting puppies as a child. It is in fact, very revealing of one's character. Once you have developed a callous towards the suffering and treatment of animals, it is not hard to develop one towards that of humans. So, think about it, and notice people.

Researching Vegan-Style

One of the requirements for Junior English in high school is a research paper. My teacher recommended choosing a topic you feel strongly about, so I chose veganism. It really wasn't much of a shocker for those who know me even the slightest. My teacher actually liked my paper very much, and was actually surprised at the amount of evidence I was able to offer, particularly towards the ethics side of it. Those who know much about veganism, animal rights, etc. probably would not have been so surprised. Within the 1350 word limit, my paper touches on why veg*nism is superior to eating meat in 3 different areas. Trust me, if it weren't for that word limit, I would have taken the time to wax eloquent. Here is my junior English research paper (left in the required format, and original word limit.)

Be a Happy Herbivore

It is said that what a person does not understand, he will either fear or hate because most people are raised with biases and prejudices. With controversial subjects, generally even those who are relatively uninformed wish to opine. Veganism and vegetarianism fall in this category. However, a surprising number of people do not know the difference between vegetarianism and veganism. Veganism began as an offshoot of vegetarianism. Like vegetarians, vegans do not consume meat. They also do not use any products made from or tested on animals. Avoiding animal products has a beneficial impact that makes vegetable-based diets physically, globally, and ethically superior to omnivorous diets.

Vegetable-based diets are more healthful than omnivorous diets. Eating meat contributes to diseases. Not only are animal products inefficient to produce, but they are unhealthful because “we take a crop. . . rich in protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. . . and totally devoid of cholesterol and artery-clogging saturated fat. . . . We feed it to [animals] to create a product with no fiber or complex carbohydrates at all, but with mega doses of cholesterol and saturated fat.” (Newkirk [1]). There are other hidden dangers in meat. According to Freston, achidonic acid, which causes inflammation and leads to Alzheimer’s and a plethora of other diseases, is unavoidable in meat (“A Few” [1]). A more frightening reality is that “one sausage a day increases our chance of bowel cancer by 20%. It only takes 1.8oz (50g) of processed meat daily to significantly increase our risk of this deadly type of cancer” (Walters [1]). Meat in diets is not the only animal source of problems. According to Dani Veracity, milk worsens asthma cases by stimulating mucus production, and many are allergic to milk proteins or the antibiotics found in it. Milk allergies, which are extremely common, manifest themselves in worsened acne and eczema, as well as diarrhea, asthma, ear infections, rashes, and hives. ([1-2]) Certainly all of these illnesses are plenty of cause to avoid meat and animal products.

Herbivorous diets provide essential nutrients and reduce risk of illness. Many people have qualms with giving up eggs, milk, and meat for fear of deficiencies; however, Veracity explains that broccoli and tofu provide calcium just as well as milk. ([2]) Other deficiency fears include vitamin B12 and protein. However, “Any food that gets dirty develops B12 from bacteria. . . . we get our B12 from meat because its dirty. And our need for B12 is tiny. . . akin to four grains of rice in our lifetime” (Rivera [1]). When it comes to consuming proper amounts of protein, “most people on a standard meat diet are actually protein deficient. . . . Vegetarians actually grow muscle mass at a faster rate with a diet of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.” (Rivera [1]). Not only do plant diets provide essential nutrients, but “a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that people of all ages, including children, that adhere to a vegetarian diet. . . are generally leaner than their meat-eating counterparts” (Huff [1]). Those who maintain healthy weights are less likely to suffer from heart disease and other diseases linked to obesity. In fact, “Dean Ornish, M.D. was the first person to prove that heart disease can be reversed, and he did so by feeding his patients a vegetarian diet” (Rivera [2]). Abstaining from meat protects from reduces cancer risk. “[Researchers] found that the lifetime risk of developing cancer was 14 percent lower in vegetarians than in the general population. The protective effect was greatest for stomach cancer, bladder cancer, Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and blood cancers. Vegetarians were less than 50 percent as likely to develop lymph and blood cancers as nonrestricted eaters, while their risk of. . . multiple myeloma was 75 percent lower” (Gutierrez [1]). Vegetable-based diets obviously are more healthful because of their lowered risk of disease.

Second, vegetable-based diets reduce and discourage the animal cruelty caused by omnivorous diets. Eating meat promotes the unjust treatment of food-animals. The cruelty in factory farms exists from the beginning of animals’ lives. According to Matt Ball, animals live their whole lives with “the confinement and overcrowding, the stench, the racket, the extremes of heat and cold, the attacks and even cannibalism, the hunger and starvation, the illness, the mutilation, the broken bones and failing organs etc. Indeed, every year, hundreds of millions of animals. . . actually suffer to death” (“A Meaningful” [3]). Law requires that the animals lucky enough to survive until they reach the slaughterhouse be stunned before slaughter to desensitize them, but “it’s not uncommon for an animal to suffer one or two failed stuns. . . . Unconscious animals whose necks are not cut soon enough may regain their senses after being hung on the bleed rail” (Ball, “If Slaughterhouses” [1]). These stuns are supposed to be the humane way of killing animals, however, when they are unsuccessful, pigs “are dunked in tanks of hot water after they are stunned. . . . A botched slaughter condemns [them] to being scalded and drowned” (Ball [4]). Even worse, kosher and other ritual slaughterhouses are not even legally required to desensitize animals before they begin the butchering process.

Additionally, Herbivorous diets reduce the suffering of innocent animals by promoting ethical eating. A single person’s asceticism may not seem to have an impact, but the laws of supply and demand explain that when demand for a product decreases, the supply of the product decreases. The result would be the slaughter of fewer animals. Causing the suffering of sentient beings is ethically wrong, so if one reduces the number of animals who suffer, his action is ethically praiseworthy. Animals “are not things. They can feel pain. They can suffer frustration and boredom. They have lives of their own” (Mason, 122). According to “Vegetarian 101,” an article published by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, 27 billion food-animals are slaughtered annually, but every year, an individual vegetarian saves approximately 100 of those animals (“Vegetarian 101” [1-2]). If more people would become vegetarians or vegans, the number of animals saved from the torture and slaughter would be astronomical.

Last, vegetable-based diets are environmentally friendly than omnivorous diets. Eating meat encourages environmental degradation caused by inefficient factory farms. These commercialized farms traffic millions. Their “livestock accounts for 18 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions” (Klein [1]). For example, “‘manure lagoons’. . . [are] acres of animal excrement that sit in the sun steaming nitrous oxide into the atmosphere” (Klein [1]). Additionally, Inefficiency continues because “we have to transport the animals to slaughterhouses, slaughter them, refrigerate their carcasses, and distribute their flesh all across the country. Producing a calorie of meat protein means burning more than ten times as much fossil fuels. . . as does a calorie of plant protein” (Freston, “Vegetarian” [1]).

Herbivorous diets promote a more efficient use of natural resources. It is commonly known that plant-based diets require approximately only a tenth of the crops that are required to create animal products. Because of this vast difference, “Americans and Europeans can't raise all the feed domestically that is needed to sustain their meat addictions. . . . Agribusiness has started cutting down the rain forest. . . . If more people went vegetarian, we would need far less land to feed people” (Freston, “A Few” [2]). Veganism also conserves water resources because “it takes about four times as much water to feed a vegetarian as it does to feed a vegan and 14 times as much water to feed a meat-eater. And, if you have to feed animals, you have to irrigate the crops that you feed to them and you have to give them water too. You have to hose down the factory farms and slaughterhouses with water” (Newkirk [2-3]). Clearly, going vegan is the most responsible lifestyle choice.

Meat-free diets are undeniably physically, globally, and ethically superior to eating meat. Many Americans believe in a right to eat meat, classifying it as part of their right to the pursuit of happiness. However, consuming meat is not a right, and trying to ignore the facts will not make them any less true. Those in wealthier countries should implement ways to reduce their use of animals products. Failure to do so is clearly irresponsible.

Works Consulted

Adams, Mike. “Red Meat Consumption Doubles Risk of Colon Cancer, Says Study, Is It Time to Go Vegetarian Yet?” Natural News. 2005. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Ball, Matt. “A Meaningful Life.” Vegan Outreach. n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Ball, Matt. “If Slaughterhouses Had Glass Walls.” Vegan Outreach. n.d. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Douglas, Jerome. “Smart Kids More More Likely to Go Vegetarian Later in Life.” Natural News. 2006. Web. 24. Jan. 2012.

Evans, Kim. “New Study — Whole Food Vegetarian Diets Reverse and Eliminate Many Serious Illnesses.” Natural News. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Evans, Kim. “Wild Grass Makes Many Vegetarian Diets Work.” Natural News. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Fox, Michael W. Eating With Conscience: The Bioethics of Food. Troutdale, OR. NewSage. 1997.

Freston, Kathy. “A Few More ‘Inconvenient Truths.’” Huffington Post. 2007. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Freston, Kathy. “Vegetarian Is the New Prius.” Huffington Post. 2007. Web. 24 Jan 2012.

Gutierrez, David. “Vegetarians Have Lower Cancer Risk Than Meat Eaters.” Natural News. 2009. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Huff, Ethan A. “Study: Vegetarian Diet May Help Children Stay Fit, Avoid Obesity.” Natural News. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Jones-Shoeman, Cindy. “Four Reasons Why People Become Vegetarian.” Natual News. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Jones-Shoeman, Cindy. “Vegan Vitamin B12 Deficiency is a Myth.” Natural News. 2010. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Klein, Ezra. “Gut Check: Here’s the Meat of the Problem.” Washington Post. Washington Post, 29 July 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Mason, Jim and Peter Singer. Animal Factories. New York. Crown Publishers. 1980.

Minton, Barbra L. “Buckwheat: Gluten-Free Grain Substitute Offers Complete Vegetarian Protein.” Natural News. 2009. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Moritz, Andreas. “Eating Meat Kills More People than Previously Thought.” Natural News. 2009. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Newkirk, Ingrid E. “Saving the Planet One Meal at a Time.” In City Times. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

Rivera, Duran. “Vegetarian Truths Empower.” Natural News. 2011. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Singer, Peter and Jim Mason. The Ethics of What We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. n.p: Rodale, 2006.

“Vegetarian 101.” PETA. n.d: Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Veracity, Dani. “Asthema Explained by Common Allergy to Milk and Dairy Products.” Natural News. 2005. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.

Walters, Sheryl. “Eating One Sausage Per Day Causes Cancer.” Natural News. 2008. Web. 24 Jan. 2012.