Category Archives: Vegan Blog

The “Gotcha!” Vegan

A guest blog by James McWilliams

You know them, I know them, you may even be one of them: the “gotcha” vegan. In my mind, there are few characters more annoying than those who troll the vegan world on the lookout for a vegan slip-up. Leather car seats, animal-tested travel toothpaste, beer filtered through isinglass, the wool socks your 90-year-old grandmother knitted you for Christmas, the leather puffs on the inside of your fancy headphones: these are just some of the violations that a “gotcha” vegan will nab you for, administering a moralistic finger-wagging rebuke as they sip their soy lattes and cinch up their pleather belts in smug satisfaction.

Of course, we need to be reminded—constantly—about the relatively hidden places where industrial production secretes animal products. It’s not at all uncommon, after all, for highly intelligent and aware people to remain completely oblivious to the fact that, say, beer might not be vegan or your canvas shoes might have melted horse hooves in them.  But animal exploitation is animal exploitation, so they need to know. We all need to know.  How we are educated on this issue, though, matters as much as the message. And when we fail to live up to an ideal standard, it really sucks to be chastised for it, especially when we’re already trying so hard to do what’s right in a world that generally thinks we’re nuts.

Thus the dilemma: it’s critical to spread the word about vegan responsibility, but nobody likes to be told what to do—or be reminded of their faults—by someone who appears “holier-than-thou.” Adding to this burden is the backfire potential of yelling at someone for their belt when he’s just gone through hell to give up bar-b-que and fried eggs.

I’ve no simple answer to this common problem. Ultimately, though, it comes down to personal qualities: tact and humility stand out in particular. Tact–in that when we do seek to educate potential or practicing vegans we must tread gently in terms of messaging. “Gotcha,” for example, should be replaced with an understanding that there are many levels of awareness, and that different people are in different places. Instead of crying foul, maybe we could say “maybe it’s time to think about taking your activism to the next level by, say, replacing all your leather shoes with non-leather ones.” “Let me know when your ready and I’ll shoot you some links.” Etc.

Humility—in that when you, vegan old-timer, encounter someone who knows better but falls short, just calm down. I recall a seasoned activist once expressing admiration for the fact that I travel with my own soap. I recall thinking “and this person doesn’t?,” but then I also remember feeling a bit relieved by this person’s honesty and willingness to publicly admit imperfection. In no way was this person’s activism diminished for the soap laziness. In my mind, his humanity was enhanced. Plus, I later learned, he later started to carry along his own soap. No proselytizing required.

Ethical veganism is not an all or nothing position. It’s a journey on a long continuum. It’s critical that we never stop articulating the ultimate goal: a world as free of animal exploitation as we can achieve. It’s equally critical that we help make that road as accessible, welcoming, and supportive as possible.  Hence the importance of yesterday’s post: we need leaders who are humble, direct, and tactful.

Oh, and a sense of humor helps, too.

McWilliams

James McWilliams is a professor at Texas State University and the author of four books on food and agriculture, including Just Food: Where Locavores Get it Wrong and How We can Truly Eat Responsibly. His work appears regularly in Slate, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Washington Post, and  the Atlantic.com. He blogs at his Eating Plants Blog and lives in Austin.

 

 

 

The most important new year’s resolution of your life

A guest blog by Talia Fuhrman

fox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote this article for VegNews.com last week, one of my most favorite magazines in the whole world. I loveVegNews so much because the mag supports all of the values I hold most dear- saving the planet from environmental catastrophe, human rights, animal rights, healthy living, and amazing tasting food (I just couldn’t leave this last one on the list out- doesn’t saving the world while eating delicious food seem like the best plan ever?!). The overwhelmingly awesome content in the magazine and website makes my heart skip a beat. When my monthly issue arrives in the mail, my face lights up and I become as giddy as Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was when he found that golden ticket in his chocolate bar. Speaking of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, if Willy Wanka understood that sugar kills, I can only fathom the creativity he would have employed to develop delicious, naturally fruit sweetened candies. Wow, what an awesome daydream! Alas, my imagination just got the best of me and I have digressed. Here is the article I wrote for VegNews:

Forget nixing sugar or eating more kale—here’s the number one change to make for your health.

If there is one thing that I have learned in 2012, it is that our physical and our emotional are inexorably linked. Our lifestyles affect our emotions, and our emotions affect our health. Showing compassion towards ourselves, nurturing positive relationships with friends and family, and taking actions to support causes we believe in actually makes us physically healthier. In fact, multiple studies support the idea that people with close, loving relationships with friends and family actually live longer than those without social support.

That’s why the most important New Year’s resolution of your life should be to nurture your relationships with like-minded, caring people whom you know support and love you, and whom you can support and love in return. Not only will you be physically healthier for it, but your quality of life will skyrocket, too. By fostering our close relationships we maximize our enjoyment of life and our health at the same time.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand
What are the findings of those studies I speak of? One intensive study found that people who were disconnected from others were roughly three times more likely to die than people with close social ties. Interestingly, the people in the study with a supportive network of friends and family yet who had unhealthful lifestyle habits (such as smoking, obesity, and lack of exercise) actually lived longer than those with poor social ties but more healthful living practices. Of course, those in the study with healthful lifestyle habits and close relationships were the healthiest and lived the longest of all. We could eat the healthiest diet in the world, but die a lonely, likely premature death simply by being a hermit. The people in our lives give us reason to want to be free of health problems and in turn, the act of having relationships themselves help keep us healthy.

Puppy Love
The type of social relationship or whom it is with doesn’t matter, what matters is the closeness of the relationship. Even people with pets live longer than those who are have no furry friends. One compelling study found that, in patients hospitalized with coronary heart disease, those who had a cat or dog were six times less likely to die than those without an animal companion. These findings held true even when accounting for differences in the extent of heart damage and other medical problems.

This study doesn’t stand alone. The health benefits of cuddling and loving our companion animals was again found during trials for two pharmaceutical drugs used to treat cardiac arrhythmia. Results indicated that patients who had dogs were only one-sixth as likely to die during the study’s duration than those who didn’t have a dog. It seems the best medicine really is love and affection.

Whether it is people or pets, feeling connected to other living creatures is good for our hearts. In a study called the Beta-Blocker Heart Attack Trial, the pharmaceutical drug on trial didn’t improve survival rates or life expectancy in heart attack survivors. Trending with the findings from the other studies, what did improve survival rates was have strong social ties with other people. Astoundingly, those people with strong social connectedness had only one-fourth the risk of dying as opposed to those more isolated. This was even true when controlling for smoking, diet, alcohol, exercise, and weight.

The findings of these studies are remarkable and the overwhelming evidence is a motivating force that we all should take advantage of the proven benefits of prioritizing close relationships. We often make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, quit smoking, and exercise more, all which are great resolutions to make, yet most of us have never been taught about the tangible health benefits of spending quality time with loved ones and furry friends. Host a vegan potluck, visit your local animal shelter or bond with a friend over a planet-based meal. That’s why this New Years, we should all put our relationships first. You might be surprised by how fantastic it feels to reconnect with old friends or spend more quality time with your family.

Cheers to a healthy and joyous New Year with plenty of good times in good company!

Talia

Talia Fuhrman, the oldest daughter of Dr. Fuhrman, has a degree in nutritional sciences from Cornell University and is currently working on a manuscript of her own health and wellness book for young women. She is on a mission to help people of all ages understand that eating healthfully can be fun, delicious, and easy. A lover of cooking and writing, she understands that disease prevention must be made positively delicious! Talia has her own website with psychological musing, nutrition tips and recipes. In addition to her posts on Disease Proof, you can find her at taliafuhrman.com.

Bill and Lou and Shifting the Paradigm: Now Is the Time to Go Vegan

A guest blog by Kathy Stevens

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I never would have guessed that the fate of two old oxen on a Vermont college campus would inspire tens of thousands of people around the world to raise their voices. But it did. Bill and Lou, scheduled for slaughter after a lifetime of service to the college, were featured in the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Globe and many other major media outlets, and inspired action and dialogue around the world. But now that Lou has been euthanized due to an injury and the college has decided to keep Bill, an even more urgent dialogue needs to happen. It is a dialogue about sustainability.

Green Mountain College in Poultney, Vermont is a liberal arts institution whose mission is to “prepare students for productive, caring and fulfilling lives by taking the environment as the unifying theme underlying its programs.” This laudable mission is seen in course offerings, green jobs programs, numerous campus-based green initiatives and much more. The school’s commitment to the environment appears to be close to a raison d’etre. Look, for instance, at its Strategic Plan 2020, which charges the school with becoming “authentically sustainable,” or, in their words, “giving back more than we are taking.” Named the nation’s greenest college by The Sierra Club, the Green Mountain community intends to walk their talk. Good for them. Good for us.

I wonder if this environmental innovator has begun a conversation about becoming a vegan college. Plainly and simply, growing animals to feed humans — no matter how conscientiously — is not sustainable, and animal production appears to be a key piece of the Green Mountain experience. The controversy over Bill and Lou, in fact, began when a farm animal sanctuary offered lifetime care to the boys, but the college refused to sign them over, deciding instead to feed them to the students.

The devastating impact of animal agriculture is a hard, cold fact, presented convincingly by dozens of organizations including the United Nations and borne out by scientific review, the careful charting of environmental degradation, human illness and cancer rates, and increasing global climate instability. Why does it have such ill effects? A very complex issue can be boiled down to this: with a growing human population demanding more animal products, there is an accompanying demand for more water, more land, more feed for the animals, more fertilizer and pesticides and antibiotics (all toxic, all entering our soil and water), more fuel, more electricity, more waste disposal capacity, and on and on. That constant demand for more has pushed Mother Earth to the breaking point… and she is pushing back.

Let’s take a look at just one resource: water. WorldWatch Institute notes that the standard American diet (meat and dairy-based) requires 4,200 gallons of water per day, while a plant-based diet requires only 300 gallons a day. It takes between 2,500 and 5,000 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef, vs. 49 gallons to produce a pound of apples. We’re taking 13 trillion gallons of water per year from the Ogallala aquifer, the largest body of fresh water on earth, mostly for beef production. As a result, say many scientists, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico may soon be virtually uninhabitable. These are but a handful of thousands of ways that animal production taxes our finite water supply.

As our diet is causing the middle of the country to shrivel up like a prune, lower Manhattan, the Jersey shore and other areas in the Northeast have just experienced their own Katrina. Climate scientists’ predictions are coming true sooner than anyone anticipated: our shorelines may soon be underwater. Look at the havoc wrought by Katrina, Irene and Sandy alone, not to mention more devastating catastrophes farther from American shores. Conversations unfathomable a few short years ago are taking place — about putting houses on stilts, about building towering walls at coastlines to keep out the sea. On the heels of so many other “natural” disasters, Sandy convinced even some naysayers that global warming is here, is real, and that we need to act. But first, we need to question. To think. To change. We need a paradigm shift.

Green Mountain College envisions itself “leading the world toward sustainability through our example” by the year 2020. But “animal production” and “authentic sustainability” are mutually exclusive. Even though Green Mountain is growing animals far more responsibly than agribusiness does, it turns away from a larger truth: to be authentically sustainable means to be vegan. No matter how animals are grown, growing plants to feed humans is easier on the earth than growing plants to feed animals and then turning those animals into food. Indeed, the breadth of devastation wrought by animal agriculture is impossible to capture in a brief blog post, but ranges from the loss of biodiversity to the loss of 40 percent of our ecologically vital Amazon rainforests and 75 percent of our topsoil to the extinction of entire bodies of water and thousands of plant and animal species. According to Time, regarding its impact on global warming, “the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concluded that livestock farming generates 18 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions,” while other scientists postulated that the more accurate figure may be as high as 51 percent.

Where, America, is the urgent conversation about changing our personal behavior — i.e, our diet — to mitigate environmental disaster, and prevent loss of life and other hardship on a scale that we likely can’t imagine? Right now, all I’m hearing are conversations about sea walls and raising the foundations of houses. Impractical, for starters. More to the point, these remedies are nothing more than sticking our head into the sand and waiting for Mother Nature to whack us in the ass. They are band aids, not preventive medicine.

As we humans bump along through history, we become more enlightened, not less. Despite a vociferous few who cling to archaic ideas that fail to serve the greater good, most of us march forward, toward a more enlightened view of the world. Social change is a tall order, requiring folks to reconsider deeply held beliefs influenced by culture, religion, family history, personal bias, and more. But to our credit, we Americans are good at paradigm shifts. Consider, for instance, the election, and reelection, of Barack Obama. It is my hope that Bill and Lou — two humble, beloved souls — become the teachers who jettison us to the next level, creating the conversation that helps us all make the next urgent paradigm shift: the shift to veganism.

If humanity is to survive, a shift of this magnitude must happen right now. Now is the moment for us to talk seriously, as a world community, about veganism. Vision, knowledge, leadership, and political courage are desperately needed. If it chooses to, Green Mountain College, in the once-sleepy town of Poultney, Vermont, is poised to lead the conversation for, thanks to its own admirable mandate and two old oxen named Bill and Lou, the whole world is watching.

Suggested reading: “Livestock’s Long Shadow.”

Kathy Stevens is the founder and director of Catskill Animal Sanctuary, one of the nation’s leading sanctuaries for horses and farmed animals, located in New York’s Hudson Valley. A passionate but patient advocate of the vegan lifestyle, she presents her message of “kindness to all” through her writing, as well as at speaking gigs at “kindergartens, colleges, and conferences and everything in between.” She has authored two books on the work of CAS and the animals who call it home. The first,Where the Blind Horse Sings: Love and Healing at an Animal Sanctuary, received critical and popular acclaim and was released in paperback on 2009. Her second book, Animal Camp: Lessons in Love and Hope from Rescued Farm Animals, has just been released. Kathy lives on the grounds of Catskill Animal Sanctuary with her dog Hannah and her cats Fat Boy and Mouse.

Help Homeless Horses

A guest blog by Alicia Silverstone

 

 

During the recession, many people with horses lost their homes and can no longer care for these amazing animals. Some of these surrendered or abandoned horses find loving new homes, but others become victims of neglect and abuse or end up being sent to slaughter. Many people are working to change that.

To find out more about the issue of homeless horses, I spoke to Shelly who is the founder of Dude’s Ranch Equine Rescue Center in Acton, Ca. Her rescue is at capacity – they have to turn away thousands of horses every year for lack of funding and space. What happens to these horses that are turned away? According to the Humane Society, there is no data on the specific number of horses slaughtered in this country every year, but some speculate it to be in the six-digits. There are many organizations and sanctuaries around the country like Shelly’s that adopt out horses and desperately need help. If you’re thinking of getting a horse, please, please don’t buy one! Instead, consider adopting one of these beautiful creatures, or encourage others who you know love horses to adopt. Find out how to adopt a horse through the Humane Society here. You can also call your local animal sanctuary to find out if they have any horses available for adoption. If you are unable to adopt a horse, you can still make a donation to the Humane Society to help homeless horses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alicia Silverstone  is an actress, producer, author, activist, vegan mom. But the author of bestseller The Kind Diet makes time to interact with and encourage new and aspiring vegans through her website, www.thekindlife.com. In addition to tips, recipes, and personal views on going green, she posts success stories that site members have shared with her, helping others to see the wonderful changes that a plant-based diet can bring to your health and well-beinga

Animal Tales by Farm Sanctuary

Check out this new video from our friends at Farm Sanctuary. It is narrated by the beautiful, Allison Janney. I promise, you’ll have a tear in your eye before it’s done playing. To find out more about Farm Sanctuary, visit their website and don’t forget to adopt a turkey!

 

What Did American Indians Eat, Actually?

A guest blog by Dr. Will Tuttle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A couple of months ago, in early November, 2011, my wife Madeleine and I visited Natural Bridge State Park in the mountains of Virginia, and as part of that, we also visited the Monacan Indian Living History Village that is there. It was a fascinating experience!

The Monacans were a tribe living for many centuries in the Appalachians before the arrival of Europeans, and the display at the state park is a replica of part of one of their villages. It was staffed by several docents who were there to explain things to the tourists. We happened to arrive there shortly after a large field trip of local high school students had arrived, so there were probably 60 kids there and a male docent was explaining to them the Monacan people’s life. He was, not surprisingly, talking a lot about their methods of hunting and fishing and how they killed and ate animals for food.

As Madeleine and I were looking at some of the beautiful baskets they created, a female docent came over and we started talking about the food practices of the Monacans. There was a small plot of corn growing, and I asked her about the corn the Monacans traditionally grew and what percentage it was of their total food consumption. She replied that it was only about two percent. She told us that she is herself descended from the Monacan Indians, and that her people had traditionally set up and stayed in villages such as this one for several years, and that they would then would move to a slightly different location in the same general area, and did this repeatedly because they would gradually exhaust the local resources. I asked if she was referring to the animals who were hunted and fished, and she said no, that meat and fish accounted for less than two percent of their food. Virtually all their nutritional needs – 96 percent – came from acorns, together with nuts, berries, roots, seeds, leaves, shoots, and other plant foods that they gathered.

From what I have learned, the Monacan Indians were pretty typical of the people living here in North America before the Europeans came. Indians’ diets were overwhelmingly plant-based, as in the case of the Monacans, according to this docent, 98 percent. And yet, ironically, all the school kids visiting the Monacan Living History Village got the impression from the male docent that they subsisted primarily on meat and fish. They left the Monacan Village with a completely different message than we got, one that would reinforce their acceptance of the foods in their school lunch programs and at the local fast food restaurants, and it was in many ways forced onto them by exploiting their trust and innocence. Of course the male docent was in no way consciously exploiting the children, but was part of a process that happens inexorably—the replication of culture.

What I continue to discover is how far from reality are many of the “official stories” that we tell ourselves and teach our children. They are stories that serve a specific purpose, which is to justify the existing order, and they are passed on effortlessly and subconsciously, because they make us all comfortable in believing, in this case, that our current practice of enslaving and slaughtering huge numbers of animals for food (75 million daily in the U.S. alone) is somehow a normal and natural expression of who we are as human beings. It is no accident that we term native cultures “hunter-gatherers.”

This emphasis on “hunter” for earlier humans is chosen by the mainly male meat-eating anthropologists whose views are unconsciously filtered by their own culturally-imposed meat-eating behavior, and the deep discomfort it inevitably causes. We will and must go to great lengths to justify violent behavior, and this is an example of this.

It is long past time to question these official stories, and to create new stories that more accurately reflect the fact that plant-based foods provide us all that we need to thrive on this Earth and celebrate our lives here with wisdom and compassion. The animals of this Earth, the oceans, rivers, and ecosystems, hungry people, slaughterhouse workers, and the future generations of all living beings are certainly yearning for the day when we awaken from the indoctrinated delusions that we need meat and dairy to get adequate protein and calcium, and that the world and nonhuman animals were put here for us to use.

We are not separate from this world and from the precious web of life here. Eating the products of enslaved and murdered animals forces us to forget this, but at any moment we can question the official stories, remember the truth, and become a force for healing, peace, joy, freedom, and health for all. The ancient Lakota prayer, Mitakuye Oyasin – “All my relations” or “All are related” – reflects this fundamental human wisdom of our essential interconnectedness that is repressed by the corporate diet of death and denial.
The wisdom of the Monacan people can inspire us today if we listen deeply within and question everything.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Will Tuttle, an educator, author, pianist, and composer, presents 150 lectures, workshops, and concerts yearly throughout North America and Europe. Author of the acclaimed best-seller, The World Peace Diet, he is a recipient of the Peace Abbey’s Courage of Conscience Award, and is the co-founder of Circle of Compassion ministry. A vegan since 1980, he is a Dharma Master in the Zen tradition, and has created eight CD albums of uplifting original piano music.

Image Source: *~Dawn~*/Flickr

What Fur Really Symbolizes

A guest blog by Samuel Hartman

As the holiday season approaches in the United States, many consumers anticipate “Black Friday” (this year November 25) as a day to shop and spend wantonly. Long a token of luxury, the fur industry expects increased sales in the colder months, and will often use Black Friday as a jumping-off point. This had led many animal right groups to declare the day “Fur Free Friday” amidst a slew of protests and activism. To consumers, this may appear brash, over the top, or even ludicrous – why protest the sale of a garment, especially one with such a classic history as fur?

While vegetarianism has generally been accepted by the mainstream as “okay,” the anti-fur activist continues to be marginalized as a “radical” or “offensive.” Sure, we know that animals are killed for their fur, but so what? So are cows for leather, and pigs for pork. Such is the way of the world. It was monumental, then, when the West Hollywood City Council voted in September to ban the sale of fur, or any product made with the “hair, wool, or fur” of an animal. While furniture (leather in origin) was exempted, and the bill has an effective date in 2013, the symbolic nature of this legislation is no less grand: West Hollywood decreed what many who have researched the fur trade have known for decades, namely that the fur-farmed animals killed for clothing endure unimaginable suffering, unnaturally short lives, and filthy, inhumane conditions.

Ironically, the United States banned the import/export and sale of dog and cat fur in 2000, citing, among other things, that “the trade of dog and cat fur products is ethically and aesthetically abhorrent to United States citizens.” Indeed, a quick reflection by most citizens will support this, imaging their own pet being killed, skinned, and used for some form of clothing. But why is there an exemption for fox, mink, rabbit, and other animals? Largely, this is due to the literal trading of fur, which generated huge profits for Russia, Canada, and the United States as far back as the 1600s. While the perception of animals used for clothing, food, or entertainment has improved, most still believe that animals outside the realm of dogs and cats are available to be farmed and exploited.

“Exploited” is a relative term, and defenders of fur, particularly those who wear it, often feel that precautions are in place to protect the animal from undue harm. Unfortunately, this sort of faux (no pun intended) protection is a myth: the laws that reference fur trade and production in the United States are vague, and consistently defer to state laws instead of federal mandate. Again, the local laws fall short as most anti-cruelty measures specifically exempt animals used for fur. Indeed, the regulations are more often concerned with fur labeling rather than the treatment of the animal itself. Ignorance is bliss, however, regarding said treatment – many consumers of fur are in the dark, sometimes by the choice, of the cruelty involved at a fur farm.

A recent Photo Blog on MSNBC shows the stark reality: manual laborers, most likely dulled to the killing of countless animals, carry, process, and create the pelts that make the coats of the wealthy. Consider the animal, a mink or fox, as one as loving and similar to your dog or cat as the following is illustrated:

  • Each animal may self-mutilate or cannibalize as a result of stress
  • Each animal undergoes inbreeding to produce specific “fashionable” coat traits, inbreeding that leads to genetic defects
  • Each animal lacks interaction with its natural environment: grass, water to swim in, or companionship
  • Each animal is typically killed by being gassed, poisoned, suffocated, or severely injured, sometimes resulting in the animal being skinned alive

While fur once represented a form of commerce and clothing when no other alternative was available, it is now time for the trend and consequent cruelty to end. Faux fur, produced using synthetic textiles and “greener” materials, satisfies the need for aesthetics, while synthetic fleece made from recycled materials provide warmth and sustainability. Fashion will often dictate our mindset, but remember that we, the consumers, dictate fashion. If what we choose to wear can be obtained in a compassionate and just way, sparing the needless death of millions of animals, then we are obligated to do just that.

Samuel Hartman has traveled far and wide looking for incredible vegan food, but calls the Midwest home. Believing that food is one of the best forms of activism, Sam enjoys making delicious vegan meals for his friends while volunteering with animal rights organizations. He lives with his fiancée and two rescued French bulldogs in Louisville, KY. Amidst his goal to eradicate speciesism, he still finds to time to bike, play music, and blog. His writings can be found at thenailthatsticksup.com

You can also follow him on Twitter as @TNTSU

Notes & References:

West Hollywood endorses first fur ban in United States, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/10/us-fur-ban-california-idUSTRE7A909T20111110

United States Title Code, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode19/usc_sec_19_00001308—-000-notes.html

Overview of Fur Laws and Fur Production, http://www.animallaw.info/topics/tabbed%20topic%20page/spusfur.htm

Fur Farms, http://www.mercyforanimals.org/fur_farms.asp

Fur, Mean Not ‘Green’: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-clothing/environmental-hazards-of-fur.aspx

Environmental impact of mink fur production, http://www.cedelft.eu/news/146/Environmental_impact_of_mink_fur_production/?PHPSESSID=6acd2c69b0143060f34a7a752f499bd3

Apple Cinnamon Cupcakes with Cashew Cream Frosting

Fall is my favorite season; it’s hard to like the three others as much when it’s so full of wonderful produce like pumpkins and apples!  This is why I am so glad that my birthday comes around with it, I get inspired to make delicious desserts for others, and (mostly) myself, using these ingredients.  I went apple picking a little ways away from where I live and had a surplus of local, organic apples; and what better way to use them then in cupcakes?

Servings: 20 Cupcakes

Ingredients For Cupcakes:

  • 1 ½ Cups
    Unbleached All Purpose Flour
  • 1 ½ Cups Whole
    Wheat Flour
  • 2 tsp. Baking
    Soda
  • 1 tsp. Salt
  • 1 ½ tsp.
    Cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. Nutmeg
  • 1 Cup Oil
    (Olive, Coconut, Grapeseed, Canola, etc.)
  • 1 Cup Sugar
  • ¾ Cup Fig Puree,
    Blended Figs
  • 1 ½ Tbsp.
    Vanilla Extract
  • 1 Tbsp. Apple
    Cider Vinegar
  • 3 Cups Chopped
    Apples, about ¼” Squared
  • 1 Cup Chopped
    Pecans

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to
    350°F. Combine flours, baking soda, salt,
    cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Sift together until there are no
    chunks. In another bowl combine oil, sugar, fig puree, vanilla, and apple
    cider vinegar; stir together until even and smooth.
  2. Mix the wet
    mixture into the dry mixture and combine very well, then add in the
    chopped apples. The mixture will be very chunky, so take about 3 quarters
    of it and place it in a food processor; pulse together until the apple
    chunks are much smaller and the batter is more of a paste. Add that batter
    back to the unblended portion along with the pecans and stir together.
  3. Using an ice
    cream scoop, scoop batter into cupcake pans with liners so that the batter
    is about ¾ of the way up on the liner. If you are using two cupcake pans
    at the same time place them on two different racks in your oven and bake
    for 12 minutes, then switch racks and bake for an addition 10-12 minutes
    or until your toothpick comes out clean. Set on cooling rack and continue
    on to making the frosting.

Ingredients for Frosting:

  • 2 Cups Raw
    Cashews, Soaked for 2 hours or more
  • 2 Tbsp. Maple
    Syrup
  • 1 Tbsp. Agave Nectar
  • 2 tsp. Vanilla
    Extract
  • ¾ Cup Water
  • 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Place all
    ingredients into a high-speed blender, and puree until very smooth. Cool
    in refrigerator for 30 minutes, then spread roughly 1 Tbsp. of frosting
    per cupcake.

Ingredients for Apple Chip Garnish:

  • 2 Small Apples, Cored
    and Sliced thinly
  • 2 Tbsp. Brown
    Sugar
  • 1 tsp. Cinnamon

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F, place apple slices on baking sheet and
    sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over them. Bake for 10-12 minutes or
    until the edges start to curl up a little bit. Take them out to cool then
    garnish the cupcakes with them.

Introducing Guest Bloggers on The Vegan Voice

Ed and I have so much going on with Get Healthy Marshall that we have hardly blogged this year. There are many excellent and exciting voices out there in the blogosphere that we would like to promote and share however. For this reason we are inviting guest bloggers to The Vegan Voice Blog. If you’re interested in guest blogging, just send an email to veganvoice@gmail.com. If your blog fits our criteria (vegan related, reasonably well written, and free of profanity), you’re in. Anyone who submits a blog that we use will receive an Amazon gift card to show our appreciation. We will also promote your entry mercilessly to our over 4000 social media followers.

Our first guest post comes from Jackie Sabon, the mastermind behind Vegan Yack Attack,  a vegan food blog that covers everything from indulgent desserts, to healthy dinners, and even raw recipes. Jackies blog also includes restaurant reviews and a beer bit of snobbery. Not to mention her beautifully sumptuous food photos. You can find her here tomorrow - and the rest of the time at http://veganyackattack.com

A Letter from a Shelter Manager

What follows is an anonymous letter from an animal shelter in North Carolina. Where it’s from isn’t really relevant though, because it’s true of shelters everywhere. I volunteered years ago in animal shelters in Houston, Texas and on the island of St. Maarten in the Caribbean and it was equally true in both places. Please share this with every animal lover that you know. I beg you.

A Letter from a Shelter Manager

I think our society needs a huge “Wake-up” call. As a shelter  manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all… a view from the  inside if you will.

First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the “back” of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know.

That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays”, that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are; “We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).” Really? Where are you moving too that doesn’t allow pets? Or they say “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”. How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? “We don’t have time for her”. Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! “She’s tearing up our yard”. How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she’ll get adopted, she’s a good dog”.

Odds are your pet won’t get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “Bully” breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door.

Those dogs just don’t get adopted. It doesn’t matter how ‘sweet’ or ‘well behaved’ they are.

If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long .
Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.

First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to “The Room”, every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep”, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump?
Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this and it made me want to adopt”.

THAT WOULD  MAKE IT WORTH IT.

-Anonymous in North Carolina