Animals Australia are releasing a new ad on TV to raise awareness about where pork products come from. It is all too easy for Australians to believe that factory farming is mainly in America and whilst it is heartbreaking to know that most animal products in Australia are in fact factory farmed, it is great news that this national TV ad campaign will be reaching millions of people.
Watch it here.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness
Ok, I realise this is my fourth post for the day (but then again, I WAS away for 4 days too, so I'm gonna stick with that excuse).
I thought I better just sneak this one in as well because it's for such a great cause and because it's an easy way to do something good.
Katie is running Operation Chocolate Covered Kindness. So every click she gets to her blog this month will raise money for The Enough Project. Head over there to help her out and don't forget to
link her from your blog!
The no-shopping dinner menu
Having discovered I had completely well and truely blown my budget for the month I decided I would have to eat only what I have in the house for as long as possible - allowing no veg to go to waste and getting creative with what I had in the freezer and pantry.
And somehow this is the most fun and interesting my vegan cooking has been! AND actually quite delicious.
Tuesday: I started the week with teriyaki tofu steaks, with asian mushrooms and bok choi sauteed in garlic and ginger.
Wednesday: I was off to the pub so could get away with a meal consisting solely of two cobs of corn and a few crackers with hummus. Followed by a main course of a few pints of the finest vegan beers at Grumpy's.
Thursday: A quick stirfry of bell peppers, bok choi, asparagus, onions and mushrooms in Braggs, mirin and blackstrap molasses with tofu steaks on the side.
I then went away for the long weekend and came back with some leftover veg - and whipped up steamed asparagus spears and fried eggplant rounds with quinoa on a bed of rocket and red onion salad with cider vinegar and tahini dressing. (This was surprisingly great! The bitter rocket was great with the slightly salty eggplant and the nutty quinoa and the delicate asparagus, topped with the vinegary dressing. Or maybe I was starving.)
And last night was a few crackers in beetroot dip whilst waiting for my entree of steamed mushroom dumplings with sweet chili and soy dipping sauce, and a main of corn on the cob. Ok, not such an obvious combo but I was getting a bit desperate and determined to eat my fridge empty! I made up for it with dessert: Purely Decadent Cherry Nirvana soy icecream with grilled banana patties, maple syrup and cacao nibs. Divine. Even better if I had fresh strawberries.
And what's great is I think I can keep going through to next week also and use things I have bought but not got around to trying yet! So going by the success of this last week I think I will make this a permanent addition to my cooking: 1-2 weeks of eating the place bare.
And somehow this is the most fun and interesting my vegan cooking has been! AND actually quite delicious.
Tuesday: I started the week with teriyaki tofu steaks, with asian mushrooms and bok choi sauteed in garlic and ginger.
Wednesday: I was off to the pub so could get away with a meal consisting solely of two cobs of corn and a few crackers with hummus. Followed by a main course of a few pints of the finest vegan beers at Grumpy's.
Thursday: A quick stirfry of bell peppers, bok choi, asparagus, onions and mushrooms in Braggs, mirin and blackstrap molasses with tofu steaks on the side.
I then went away for the long weekend and came back with some leftover veg - and whipped up steamed asparagus spears and fried eggplant rounds with quinoa on a bed of rocket and red onion salad with cider vinegar and tahini dressing. (This was surprisingly great! The bitter rocket was great with the slightly salty eggplant and the nutty quinoa and the delicate asparagus, topped with the vinegary dressing. Or maybe I was starving.)
And last night was a few crackers in beetroot dip whilst waiting for my entree of steamed mushroom dumplings with sweet chili and soy dipping sauce, and a main of corn on the cob. Ok, not such an obvious combo but I was getting a bit desperate and determined to eat my fridge empty! I made up for it with dessert: Purely Decadent Cherry Nirvana soy icecream with grilled banana patties, maple syrup and cacao nibs. Divine. Even better if I had fresh strawberries.
And what's great is I think I can keep going through to next week also and use things I have bought but not got around to trying yet! So going by the success of this last week I think I will make this a permanent addition to my cooking: 1-2 weeks of eating the place bare.
Vegan cookbook - for beginners
My Mum is getting more into the idea of going vegan for Dad's diabetes so I am keen to encourage her and get her a vegan cookbook. Any suggestions? I would want something easy, quick, healthy, low GI, with pics, not too many weird ingredients, and preferably metric or cup measurements (not imperial).
Would love to hear your suggestions!
PS. She is in New Zealand, if this makes any difference on ingredient listings etc...
Would love to hear your suggestions!
PS. She is in New Zealand, if this makes any difference on ingredient listings etc...
Costco in Docklands, Melbourne
I have been contemplating forking out the whopping great $60 membership to go to Costco in the vague hopes they might have some great vegan options, cheap.
Anyone been there?
Anyone been there?
Friday, October 30, 2009
Agribusiness exposes the lies of climate change.
What an intelligent argument against climate change - from Agribusiness.
From declaring Meatless Mondays dangerous to telling us environmentalists have to convince us of climate change or they will no longer get funding (What? Is agribusiness exempt from writing in favour of agribusiness to keep the public thinking they need to consume animal products?)
What a surprise.
I wonder why agribusiness should be so opposed to the idea of climate change being real - is it because of profits? Surely not.
Agribusiness never lies for the sake of profits. They don't really employ illegal immigrants because they will take low pay and unacceptable working conditions, or provide the West's most dangerous employment via slaughterhouse processing, or slaughter sick animals for public consumption, or engage in horrific animal cruelty from rubbing salt into cut off snouts to cutting calves out of the sides of dairy cows, or let millions of tonnes of manure run-off into nearby rivers, or let their manure lagoons infiltrate the water table.
All this for profits... and I haven't even touched on climate change.
What a horrific article riddled with faulty logic.
From declaring Meatless Mondays dangerous to telling us environmentalists have to convince us of climate change or they will no longer get funding (What? Is agribusiness exempt from writing in favour of agribusiness to keep the public thinking they need to consume animal products?)
What a surprise.
I wonder why agribusiness should be so opposed to the idea of climate change being real - is it because of profits? Surely not.
Agribusiness never lies for the sake of profits. They don't really employ illegal immigrants because they will take low pay and unacceptable working conditions, or provide the West's most dangerous employment via slaughterhouse processing, or slaughter sick animals for public consumption, or engage in horrific animal cruelty from rubbing salt into cut off snouts to cutting calves out of the sides of dairy cows, or let millions of tonnes of manure run-off into nearby rivers, or let their manure lagoons infiltrate the water table.
All this for profits... and I haven't even touched on climate change.
What a horrific article riddled with faulty logic.
The Center for Selfish Consumer Freedom
Has anyone seen this website?
The Center for Consumer Freedom
They are here to dispel the lies from the various 'do-gooders' of the world.
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. We believe that the consumer is King. And Queen.
Some of their points:
Do you have a bias?
Yes! We believe that only you know what's best for you. When activists try to force you to live according to their vision of society, we don’t take it lying down.
So what exactly is "consumer freedom"?
Consumer freedom is the right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves.
Do you guys support gluttony?
Of course not! No one would endorse the "Super Size Me" diet. Like all things in life, moderation is key. Eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of physical activity is crucial. Unfortunately, Americans have been force-fed a diet of bloated statistics hyping the problem of obesity. Those statistics have been used by Big Brother government bureaucrats and greedy trial lawyers to justify a host of noxious "solutions," like extra taxes on certain foods and lawsuits against anyone who grows, makes, or serves anything tasty.
I wonder if they also promote and encourage you to do as you wish in all aspects of life? Who cares if child abuse is wrong - you know what's best and others should let you live your life how you see fit. Who cares about sweatshop children making your clothes, it's your life, right? What does it matter if your activities pollute and destroy the environment, it's all about you and nobody has any right to tell you what to do.
They claim people know best what's right for them - yet are publishing article after weak article with a bias against a healthy lifestyle and opposed to animal welfare or rights.
They are a not-for-profit organisation funded by over 100 companies and individuals... despite saying they are fully disclosing who funds them they don't actually tell you who because the contributors want to remain anonymous . But it's not so hard to guess is it?
Ugh.
The Center for Consumer Freedom
They are here to dispel the lies from the various 'do-gooders' of the world.
The Center for Consumer Freedom is a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting personal responsibility and protecting consumer choices. We believe that the consumer is King. And Queen.
A growing cabal of activists has meddled in Americans’ lives in recent years. They include self-anointed "food police," health campaigners, trial lawyers, personal-finance do-gooders, animal-rights misanthropes, and meddling bureaucrats.
Their common denominator? They all claim to know "what's best for you." In reality, they’re eroding our basic freedoms—the freedom to buy what we want, eat what we want, drink what we want, and raise our children as we see fit. When they push ordinary Americans around, we're here to push back.
Some of their points:
Do you have a bias?
Yes! We believe that only you know what's best for you. When activists try to force you to live according to their vision of society, we don’t take it lying down.
So what exactly is "consumer freedom"?
Consumer freedom is the right of adults and parents to choose how they live their lives, what they eat and drink, how they manage their finances, and how they enjoy themselves.
Do you guys support gluttony?
Of course not! No one would endorse the "Super Size Me" diet. Like all things in life, moderation is key. Eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of physical activity is crucial. Unfortunately, Americans have been force-fed a diet of bloated statistics hyping the problem of obesity. Those statistics have been used by Big Brother government bureaucrats and greedy trial lawyers to justify a host of noxious "solutions," like extra taxes on certain foods and lawsuits against anyone who grows, makes, or serves anything tasty.
I wonder if they also promote and encourage you to do as you wish in all aspects of life? Who cares if child abuse is wrong - you know what's best and others should let you live your life how you see fit. Who cares about sweatshop children making your clothes, it's your life, right? What does it matter if your activities pollute and destroy the environment, it's all about you and nobody has any right to tell you what to do.
They claim people know best what's right for them - yet are publishing article after weak article with a bias against a healthy lifestyle and opposed to animal welfare or rights.
They are a not-for-profit organisation funded by over 100 companies and individuals... despite saying they are fully disclosing who funds them they don't actually tell you who because the contributors want to remain anonymous . But it's not so hard to guess is it?
Ugh.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Dumbest comments of the day re: Lord Stern
Lord Stern's urging us to go veg to save the planet has had a lot of publicity (which I posted about here) and a lot of unsurprising backlash from the devoted meat eaters and global warming doubters.
Now, I know it's not nice to laugh at others, but as I have some sort of masochistic gene and I love reading shit that gets me shaking my head in amazement and wanting to punch some peoples' stupid faces I have amassed a nice little collection of idiotic comments for your viewing pleasure.
Eugene Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Major consequences of not eating meat:
1. Wild boar population of US and especially TX will exponentially grow making ruined farmlands. This is due to boars not having any natural predators except humans.
2. All major sports and Olympics would be pitiful ghost of strong athletes. When is the last time you ever saw a vegetarian linebacker in the NFL. No more tailgates!
3. Vegetarian children will be making civil rights claims due to being beat up all the time by the meat eating children.
4. Jesus ate meat (fish) when he visited the disciples after he died. People won’t be like Jesus they will be like Judas.
5. No more BBQs – this idea seems anti-American.
Hey, wait Eugene has another stroke of genius:
Eugene Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Most vegetarians are a bunch of cry babies when it comes to animals they put animals on the same plane as humans so lets apply animal rules to them. We can spade or neuter animals so they don’t breed. Animals are kept in cages. Animals don’t vote. Animals don’t have government benefits such as medicare or social security.
People are higher than animals thus we can eat them just as animals are higher than plants.
Sadly, I haven't come across anyone else quite so "enlightened" (but it is only 10am so I still have the whole day...) but here are a few more tidbits.
Lawrence Hendry wrote:
Get out of our lives you enviomental nuts!
If you want to live in the woods and eat berries then don't let me stop you, just stop trying to ruin the lives of the majority who know that global warming is a lie.
And if anyone was wondering about the riots, plagues and cave dwelling that would result from shunning dairy, don't worry cos Victor has thankfully put in his two cents.
Victor Southern said...
No milk, no cheese, no dairy farmers, no cheese-makers, no butter churners. Vast numbers of jobs lost. Ruined economy, malnourished babies, abject poverty, riots, mass starvation, plagues, cave dwelling, no carbon emissions, ice age returns, begin again.
Ahhh... don't you love it?
Now, I know it's not nice to laugh at others, but as I have some sort of masochistic gene and I love reading shit that gets me shaking my head in amazement and wanting to punch some peoples' stupid faces I have amassed a nice little collection of idiotic comments for your viewing pleasure.
Eugene Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Major consequences of not eating meat:
1. Wild boar population of US and especially TX will exponentially grow making ruined farmlands. This is due to boars not having any natural predators except humans.
2. All major sports and Olympics would be pitiful ghost of strong athletes. When is the last time you ever saw a vegetarian linebacker in the NFL. No more tailgates!
3. Vegetarian children will be making civil rights claims due to being beat up all the time by the meat eating children.
4. Jesus ate meat (fish) when he visited the disciples after he died. People won’t be like Jesus they will be like Judas.
5. No more BBQs – this idea seems anti-American.
Hey, wait Eugene has another stroke of genius:
Eugene Says:
October 28th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Most vegetarians are a bunch of cry babies when it comes to animals they put animals on the same plane as humans so lets apply animal rules to them. We can spade or neuter animals so they don’t breed. Animals are kept in cages. Animals don’t vote. Animals don’t have government benefits such as medicare or social security.
People are higher than animals thus we can eat them just as animals are higher than plants.
Sadly, I haven't come across anyone else quite so "enlightened" (but it is only 10am so I still have the whole day...) but here are a few more tidbits.
Lawrence Hendry wrote:
Get out of our lives you enviomental nuts!
If you want to live in the woods and eat berries then don't let me stop you, just stop trying to ruin the lives of the majority who know that global warming is a lie.
And if anyone was wondering about the riots, plagues and cave dwelling that would result from shunning dairy, don't worry cos Victor has thankfully put in his two cents.
Victor Southern said...
No milk, no cheese, no dairy farmers, no cheese-makers, no butter churners. Vast numbers of jobs lost. Ruined economy, malnourished babies, abject poverty, riots, mass starvation, plagues, cave dwelling, no carbon emissions, ice age returns, begin again.
Ahhh... don't you love it?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Kind veal. OxyMORON anyone?
I really shouldn't read these articles - all it does is rile me up.
I can't believe how much of this article is just ridiculous, hypocritical and oxymoronic (yep, that's a word).
Check out some of these quotes if you are a masochist or you hate cows.
What if, under the right circumstances, eating veal were actually more ethical than shunning it?
I have no words for this one.
For example, one common consumer complaint is that the animals are killed so young. But veal calves are in fact older than chickens, turkeys and pigs and about the same age as lambs when they are slaughtered.
Don't chickens get killed at 6 weeks? Is a 6 week old calf considered old? Why are they comparing them anyway? Does that make it ok?
Most important, dairy cows must give birth to provide milk. Their male calves are unsuitable for beef production and too costly to keep on the farm. "It's a resource that needs to be utilized," said Nancy Pritchard, who raises calves at Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Va. Or to put it more bluntly, as producer Sandy Miller of Painted Hand Farm in Newburg, Pa., does: If you consume dairy, you should eat veal.
Ok, Nancy and Sandy are right, the two 'resources' are inextricably linked. Isn't the answer to produce/consume neither, not both?
The animals are not raised in confinement and live their whole lives with their mothers on open pasture.
Their whole lives? Their whole lives which are cut short whilst they are still babies?
The industry spent years trying to convince consumers that veal was another white, bland meat. "Veal from an authentic cow-calf relationship is pinker," Strauss said. "But the richer, redder color is your assurance that it's humane and compassionate."
Compassionate? What's compassion got to do with bringing a life into the world to kill it?
In 2006, celebrity chefs including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall championed a Good Veal campaign, which argued that eating humanely raised British veal prevented the calves from being either shipped to continental Europe, where animal-welfare standards can be less strict, or killed shortly after birth. "It's a more responsible way for everybody, including the animal," Armstrong said.
Yes, I'm sure the calves would choose this over the other unmentioned option of not getting killed at all.
How's that for a good news story?
I can't believe how much of this article is just ridiculous, hypocritical and oxymoronic (yep, that's a word).
Check out some of these quotes if you are a masochist or you hate cows.
What if, under the right circumstances, eating veal were actually more ethical than shunning it?
I have no words for this one.
For example, one common consumer complaint is that the animals are killed so young. But veal calves are in fact older than chickens, turkeys and pigs and about the same age as lambs when they are slaughtered.
Don't chickens get killed at 6 weeks? Is a 6 week old calf considered old? Why are they comparing them anyway? Does that make it ok?
Most important, dairy cows must give birth to provide milk. Their male calves are unsuitable for beef production and too costly to keep on the farm. "It's a resource that needs to be utilized," said Nancy Pritchard, who raises calves at Smith Meadows Farm in Berryville, Va. Or to put it more bluntly, as producer Sandy Miller of Painted Hand Farm in Newburg, Pa., does: If you consume dairy, you should eat veal.
Ok, Nancy and Sandy are right, the two 'resources' are inextricably linked. Isn't the answer to produce/consume neither, not both?
The animals are not raised in confinement and live their whole lives with their mothers on open pasture.
Their whole lives? Their whole lives which are cut short whilst they are still babies?
The industry spent years trying to convince consumers that veal was another white, bland meat. "Veal from an authentic cow-calf relationship is pinker," Strauss said. "But the richer, redder color is your assurance that it's humane and compassionate."
Compassionate? What's compassion got to do with bringing a life into the world to kill it?
In 2006, celebrity chefs including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall championed a Good Veal campaign, which argued that eating humanely raised British veal prevented the calves from being either shipped to continental Europe, where animal-welfare standards can be less strict, or killed shortly after birth. "It's a more responsible way for everybody, including the animal," Armstrong said.
Yes, I'm sure the calves would choose this over the other unmentioned option of not getting killed at all.
How's that for a good news story?
Self absorbed and smelly vegans
Check out this post.
Great picture. Shame about the uninformed article, I only hope he's joking.
Great picture. Shame about the uninformed article, I only hope he's joking.
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