It's no secret that "Shit ____ Say" family videos (i.e., Shit Girls Say, Shit Yogis Say, Shit Girls Say to Gay Guys) have caught on like wildfire. And while I can laugh at them all, my favorite series has to be the vegan ones. Vegans are undeniably easy targets for jokes, and for this very reason, I love the following satirical videos:
My name is Ashley and I’m a negligent blogger. I have been cooking new things without sharing; I went on a juice cleanse for two weeks; hells bells, I have been eating as a gluten-free vegan and only mentioned it in passing.
Before you give up hope on me, it’s worth letting you know that in addition to all these other things, I also got a job with Slow Food USA in Brooklyn! (And by job I mean internship for the fall.)
This time last year I was aboard a plane to the land down under. And this year, I’m on a plane again, but this time to a place that doesn’t require a passport: New York City. As I type, I’m actually en route (this was written Friday evening) to La Guardia via American Airlines (sigh, how I wish my beloved Air New Zealand did more flights within the U.S.).
Juicing
About a month ago, I picked up a Breville juicer, and it’s readily become the love of my life. If I could date it, I would. Seriously! Someday I’ll write a formal review of its performance, but I can summarize it with one very enthusiastic oh yeah!
I didn’t quite know what to expect, as I’ve only used one juicer previously, so learning the juicer language – i.e., centrifugal v. masticated – and coming through the various reviews took time, but in the end I'm very pleased. I even loaded up on natural healing books to help me identify which juices were best for certain ailments. Personally inspired by poor skin, I’ve been on a mission to juice regularly since UK raw chef, Russell James suggested I juice at lease once a week, as he cleared up his acne by adopting a raw food-only diet, along with a juice cleanse in the beginning. He advised checking out Jason Vale, another notable Brit who’s known as THE juice man. Jason has a 30-day clear skin routine posted for free (a relief considering most regimens I’ve found are costly).
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.
Dr. Oz isn't a vegan, nor is he a vegetarian.
He is, however, fairly sensible and did a a pretty cool, but unfortunately short segment on his show yesterday highlighting plant-based eating and how that can help prevent cancer and heart disease. Instead of focusing on the word diet, or vegan, Oz talked about a lot of good, commonsensical approaches to a healthier lifestyle.
Inspired from just having seen Forks Over Knives -- a film that examines whether most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict mankind can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting both animal-based and processed foods -- the famous doctor hosted a few of the film's stars, in addition to the authors of The China Study.
Since the show airs in the middle of the day, here are the takeaway points in case you missed it:
3 food groups everyone avoid:
Continue Reading...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.
While I settle back into blogging consistently, I think it's ye ol' time I revive my weekly post where I discuss the hot topics around vegetarian news.
In vegetarian news this last week:
As I saw over on ecorazzi and TreeHugger, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in South Africa and SASSI, the South African Sustainable Seafood Foundation, (website for joint project) have unleashed a brilliant campaign showcasing the realities of the tuna fishing industry and why people should only eat fish that are caught in environmentally-friendly ways instead of those that encourage bycatch.
Close-up:
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Long-line fishing is the method most commonly used to catch tuna (as well as marlin and swordfish). Varying in length by where the boat is fishing, long-lines are a series of short lines with baited hooks, attached at regular intervals to a longer main line--which can in total range from a mere 25 hooks in short strands to much longer strands that stretch for miles and can carry several thousand hooks.
Image via AU DAFF
The problem with this method is the bait attracts sea life other than the fish at-hand. According to Greenpeace,
Long-lines catch many endangered sharks, turtles, marine mammals and seabirds. Bycatch can be reduced in a variety of ways including circle hooks to prevent catching turtles, and setting deeper lines to reduce catches of turtles, sharks and marine mammals. Techniques such as setting lines quickly and at a greater depth, using bird scarers, and setting at night can reduce the number of seabirds that get caught on hooks and drown when diving for bait.
WWF has been combating bycatch for years, behold this ad from 2007:
Moral of the story: commercial fishing gear isn't as selective as we'd like it to be, so the cost of your tuna comes at a much bigger price as several other endangered sea animals are also captured in the process of catching the tuna.
While I advocate a vegetarian diet that's fish-free, I will say that if you do eat fish then be sensible about it. Don't eat species that ride on extinction, and as this advertisement highlights, take your head from beneath the sand and learn how your favorite fish are caught. If your favorite fish isn't caught through sustainable methods and you're not willing to do it yourself then you may want to re-evaluate whether or not it's worth it.
SASSI has a helpful guide on which fish should and should not be eaten: red list - never eat; orange list - eat w/ caution; green list - fine to eat.
Last weekend was destined to be a doozy, as some pals and I escaped Seattle's pathetic excuse for summer weather and went whitewater rafting out in Leavenworth, WA to get our outdoor exercise on. We had a great time, and while the Class III rapids weren't as intense as I was expecting, our wetsuits proved worthwhile with our boat being the bully boat of water fights with six other boats highly determined to pay us back for our attacks.
Meanwhile, things in my kitchen have been unusual in the last month and a half. I've kept things quiet on the new recipe front after some recent experimenting with my diet to see if my new found skin sensitivity is attributed to a food allergy. I gave up all excess sugar for three weeks, and most recently dairy (I did come across some pretty amazing vegan recipes that I should blog), so I haven't been making my usual dishes. Next up: wheat.
In vegetarian news this last week:
The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy...parents withhold the truth from their kids all the time; however, Melissa Ford takes it to a whole new level as she explains why she hid being a vegetarian from her kids, as well as why she's a vegetarian, but her kids are not. (Wednesday - BlogHer)
Joining Scarlett Johansson and Ellen Degeneres, Sarah Silverman is the newest celebrity to promote vegetarian lunches for The Healthy Schools Meal Act introduced by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), which would reward school districts with additional food aid if they offer the majority of students plant-based vegetarian food choices daily. (Thursday - Strollerderby)In any given week, it seems all sorts of vegetarian-related news pops up, so I'm going to make my best attempt at documenting weekly news in a round-up like fashion each Friday.
Yes, I recognize today is Sunday, so you can expect future installments at the end of the week, but today's will come out of order.
So here's what happened last week (plus some):
Vegetarian or not, you should learn about where your animal products are coming from.
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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:
Looks like this we're not the only ones in the midst of award season. Last night, the 2010 BRIT Awards - Britian's version of the Grammys - were held in London and pop songstress, and longtime vegetarian, Leona Lewis shuddered at the thought of foie gras filling the tummies of attendees.
For those that don't know, foie gras (French for "fatty liver") is a highly protested dish by animal rights activists, who believe ducks are unnecessarily force-fed, raised in cruel conditions until their physical condition is at its worst (and livers at their plumpest), in which they're then slaughtered and robbed of those corpulent livers and later served up on fine dining porcelain China.
According to SFGate's post in The Daily Dish, Lewis was outraged after learning the French delicacy was on the menu -- so much so that she convinced event planners to swap it for something else.
On Feb. 11th, Lewis tweeted her thoughts,
"I was outraged 2 hear that the Brit Awards were planning 2 serve foie-gras at the ceremony. They hav now removed it from the menu,well done!"
Lean ducks + Lewis: 1. BRIT Awards: 0. And, cheers to a celebrity using their soapbox for a good cause.
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