Freshly Vegetarian: Ashley See on Transitioning to A Vegetarian Diet, Including Tips, Health Benefits & Recipes

A month ago, I came across a really cool internship at Farm Sanctuary -- my dream organization to work for -- where you travel alongside the co-founder, Gene Baur, and help document his three-week road trip across America. Dubbed the "Just Eats Tour," Gene is celebrating Farm Sanctuary's 25th anniversary by hitting the road in his 1974 Volkswagen van to explore the food, people and places sparking a national awakening toward conscious consumption (veganism) and respect for farm animals.

As the tour makes its way from coast-to-coast, Gene and his team will be sharing recipes, videos, photos, blog posts, #JustEats tweets and interviews regarding the vegan food movement.

Slightly bummed that I didn't get the internship, I wasn't sure how closely I wanted to follow the tour; however, I just got a notification of the tour's first video being uploaded to YouTube, and after watching it, my excitement for the tour has been reawakened!

I think this is a great event, as it not only allows us to view veganism across the country, but it is also revealing about Farm Sanctuary and Gene himself. I've seen videos of the co-founder talk before, and always gotten the impression that Gene was a pretty grounded gent, but through this first video alone you cannot help but want to sit shotgun and soak up the experience alongside him.

Any CEO, president or founder of any organization that's stoked to climb into a car that they drove nearly 40 years ago -- let alone one they initially funded their organization by selling veggie hot dogs at Grateful Dead concerts out of -- across the country is pretty cool in my book.

Plus, there's the added bonus of vicarious living for anyone *clears throat* who has ever wanted to drive across America, but has yet to do so. Don't know about you, but I'm stoked to see what the team does once the tour reaches Nebraska and Oklahoma!

And so you know, Gene's tweets seem to be the most interesting way to follow the tour thus far.

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Twenty-five is a big number for both Farm Sanctuary and myself. While this is the year I turn a quarter of a century old, so does my favorite organization.

Time and time again I have sang Farm Sanctuary's praises and will continue to do so. It's work like theirs that keep things like this from happening. (If you're unfamiliar with their work then don't just take my word for it, read up on them starting at their research reports page.)

Since 25 is a significant milestone, Farm Sanctuary is holding two galas this year, one on each coast: New York on May 14, L.A. on Sept. 24.

If black-tie isn't your scene, then you LA-folks may be interested in this weekend's pre-party to kick of Farm Sanctuary's 25th anniversary. Some big vegan movers and shakers are going to be there, such as Moby, NBA's John "Spider" Salley, "The Biggest Loser's" Bob Harper and "Stifler's Mom"/Jennifer Coolidge (couldn't find anything declaring her a vegan, but she's definitely an animal activist).

While hob-nobbing with these notable activists would undeniably be great, if $100 is over your budget, or you're outside of the area, then there are affordable alternatives to still participate in the festivities:

1. Donate what you can afford on Farm Sanctuary's website. Just $5 makes a difference, let alone $25, or $50! Plus, there's always the option to sponsor an individual farm animal for as little as $10/month.

2. Listen to Moby's jams here (did you know he released an album in '96 called Animal Rights?), while reading about his 16 years of meatless living over on SF Gate.

3. Rent a copy of American Pie & Legally Blonde to behold Jennifer Coolidge hamming it up, while reading about how she puts the cool in Coolidge, aka her environmental background and love for animals over on Ecorazzi.

4. Burn some calories to Bob's badass workout videos (separately, moves just for the ladies), and afterward treat yourself by cooking one or two of Bob's vegan recipes. As you gobble down that deliciousness, read about his participation with Farm Sanctuary's 2010 Walk for Animals and veganism over on Fitness.

5. Admire some of The Spider's sick dribbling skills over on YouTube, and then watch him cook with Rachael Ray, and then talk turkey at Farm Sanctuary.

Because I live in Oregon, I will be acting from my list in lieu of attending the pre-launch party. Happy 25th, Farm Sanctuary!

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In lieu of typing out an epic blog post, combined with a new found desire to hone my video skills, I figured it was fair time I gave vlogging a go.

So here's a video of me explaining my next blogging endeavor:
 

I'm not sure how regularly I will be posting videos as of now - that largely depends on whether you folks dig it or not - but I have created a YouTube video channel for Freshly Veg, so feel free to subscribe to it for new videos!

And stay tuned over the next few weeks for the related blog posts on Paul Greenberg's Four Fish.

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Little to nothing broke my heart like learning that the trifecta of Thai curries -- red, yellow and green -- all have animal byproducts, predominantly shrimp paste in the curry paste itself (red: shrimp paste; yellow: fish sauce or shrimp paste;  green: shrimp paste). Knowing this, I had to either make it myself so it's truly vegetarian-friendly, or ditch one of my favorite meals (genre of foods?).

This may come as a surprise because one of the questions I am asked most frequently after telling people I'm a vegetarian is whether or not I still eat fish.

Common sense

Folks. I don't mean to get snarky here, but to sample from The Vegetarian Society:

• Fish: cold-blooded, water-dwelling animal
• Vegetarian: someone who doesn't eat animals

I love nothing more than a common sense approach to most situations. So by the above logic, wouldn't you say that eating fish and/or seafood discounts one's vegetarian efforts? I would.

Do fish suffer?

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Vegetarian or not, you should learn about where your animal products are coming from.

To be an animal rights activist, I don't think you need to be a vegan; however, if you choose to consume animal products then you should get to know where your animal products come from, and that those places treat their animals humanely.

Otherwise, you're putting money in the pockets of those who may not deserve it. Case in point: Conklin Dairy Farms.

In the last few days, Conklin Dairy Farms worker Billy Joe Gregg Jr. has been charged with 12 counts of animal cruelty for sadistic behavior toward the dairy cows he earned a living from.

An investigation into the cruelty reported at the Plain City, Ohio dairy farm includes nearly 20 hours of undercover camera footage (shot between April 28 and May 23) provided by Mercy for Animals, a not-for-profit group that publicizes what it calls cruel practices in the animal product industry and wide promoter of a vegan diet.

Apparently Gregg wasn't the only abusive worker in the footage. Over on The Columbus Dispatch, Holly Zachariah and Alan Johnson reported:

Although industry leaders say Conklin is a man of experience and integrity, no one came forward yesterday to defend the abuse seemingly inflicted by him and at least two employees in a graphic, nearly four-minute video released by Mercy For Animals, an animal-rights group based in Chicago.

One scene in the video showed a man identified as Conklin kicking a sick or injured "downer cow" in the head several times.

Over on Mercy for Animals' blog, they reported that Gregg and other dairy farm workers captured the following acts on a hidden camera implanted for several days:

• Violently punching young calves in the face, body slamming them to the ground, and pulling and throwing them by their ears

• Routinely using pitchforks to stab cows in the face, legs and stomach

• Kicking "downed" cows (those too injured to stand) in the face and neck - abuse carried out and encouraged by the farm's owner

• Maliciously beating restrained cows in the face with crowbars - some attacks involving over 40 blows to the head

• Twisting cows' tails until the bones snapped

• Punching cows' udders

• Bragging about stabbing, dragging, shooting, breaking bones, and beating cows and calves to death

The bottom line is while Conklin Dairy Farms has fired Gregg, and is doing their best to salvage the reputation by condemning the video, this can't be that big of a surprise. I have a hard time believing they were absolutely clueless of this behavior. After all, their livelihood is dairy, so shouldn't they be first to know how their cows are being cared for and treated?

It shouldn't take an investigative video leaked on YouTube for this dairy to learn what's going on with their cows.

And while Gregg is undeniably scum of the earth, I think Conklin Dairy Farms should also be held responsible. Whether they were aware of this sadism or not, they should have been.
 

What can we learn from this?

It's really quite simple. Know where your dairy, meat and eggs come from. There are a lot of quality farms out there that take good care of their animals. Find them, learn more about what they do and support them even if their products do cost more.

After all, the more money we put into farms that treat their animals like this, the more we promote this behavior.

Related resources:

• Lindsay Barnett of The Los Angeles Times' Unleashed - Ohio dairy farmworker charged with animal cruelty after advocacy group releases undercover video
  
  
• Daelyn Fortney of This Dish is Veg - Jamie Lee Curtis and Christopher Guest pen open letter to Conklin Dairy Farms
   
• Brian Palmer of Slate asks "Cow Whipping: How violent can a farmer get with his livestock?"

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In February, I learned that Ellen Degeneres sat down with Katie Couric to talk about all sorts of things. In the hopes of hearing why she loves to dance so damn much, I ended up learning that Ellen used to be a vegetarian, but after seeing various movies and books, like Skinny Bitch, she's now a vegan.

Completely blown away by not knowing this, I was curious what makes a vegetarian turn vegan. In Ellen's interview, she reveals that the movie Earthlings is what did it. Upon hearing this, I knew I had to order up Earthlings on Netlfix.

If I could make everyone in the world see one film, I'd make them see Earthlings.
—Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation

Three days later I summoned up the courage and time, so I popped it in and hit, "Play." Broken up into five areas of how humans exploit animals, the first is on the realities of pets. Watching this first fifteen minute segment took me an hour, as I had to keep pausing to collect myself. 

A month later, I had yet to continue watching. Guilt and obligation told me I needed to watch this movie to be well-informed. Yet, emotions ruled reason and the next day it was in my outgoing mail slot.

Over on Powered by Produce's review of Earthlings, I learned what happened in the following segments that I was too wuss to watch for myself. While I will finish this movie, even if it takes me a year of watching minute-long clips per week, I recognize the importance of the message.

While I won't go to the degree that Ellen does in her above clip by saying that every farmed animal is mistreated, diseased and pumped full of antibiotics, I do think that no matter how hard animal snuff is to watch, if you're going to eat animal products, you should be informed about the factors that influence those products -- whether those products reign from an organic farm, your neighboring farmer's steer or Tyson frozen chicken breasts.

In case you want to beat me to the punch in watching this film in full, you can watch Earthlings, on Google anytime for free.

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