Category Archives: Vegan Philosophy

Remembering Shirley – Making Food into Poetry

The world lost a bright shining star this past weekend. My words aren’t enough to pay sufficient tribute to Shirley Wilkes-Johnson but she is the reason that I sprinkle pomegranate seeds on birthday cakes and she is the reason that we attended the Lone Star Vegetarian Chili cook-off many times, eventually entering ourselves and taking home the winning trophy in 2006 (for the now defunct Vegetarian Society of Houston). She inspired and delighted multitudes both through Go Vegan Texas (and later Vegan World) Radio and through personal encounters. She was a great thinker and a great cook. She was kind, passionate and driven.

Here is my favorite memory of Shirley…

She taught a cooking class at the Fiesta cooking school in Houston several years ago. This was after 9/11 and the theme was “A Romantic Middle Eastern Dinner”. We were fighting in the Middle East then, as now, and the idea of combining romance and the Middle East might not have made sense to many people, but when she concluded the class it all came together beautifully. She dusted the dessert with pomegranate seeds and talked about how they were considered an aphrodisiac. The pomegranate was a fruit of love, she said, and one of the ways that we learn to love and appreciate other cultures is through their food. Then she did an amazing thing. In the most poetic of ways, she extrapolated that into her dream for world peace, and made each of us there that night believe that we could all be a part of that vision simply by living a compassionate life. She made us believe that love could be spread as readily as hate and that kindness was contagious, and compassion the answer. I never left a cooking class filled with such emotion. Not before then or after. She had a way of turning a simple cooking class into a magical journey into the human heart.

Here are some remembrances of Shirley from others in the last few days…

Vegan.com: http://vegan.com/blog/2011/04/11/in-memory-of-shirley-wilkes-johnson/

Carol J. Adams: http://caroljadams.blogspot.com/2011/04/remembering-shirley-wilkes-johnson.html

Rhea on The “V” word: http://theveeword.blogspot.com/2011/04/in-memory-of-shirley-wilkes-johnson.html

You can be sure that there will be many more to follow.

 

 

Honoring the Man Who Made Us

We are “vegans” today because of Donald Watson. He coined the term in 1944 because he felt that the word vegetarian was lacking. According to Watson, “The pronunciation is “VEEGAN” not “VAI-GAN,” “VEGGAN.” or “VEEJAN.” The stress is on the first syllable,” He primarily created the word in reference to dietary practices. It was later expanded to include the use of animals for other reasons. Here is an excerpt from an interview done the year before he died (at the age of 95).

Interviewer: We understand that you are responsible for creating the word “vegan.” How did that occur? Why did you feel the word was needed?

Donald Watson: I invited my early readers to suggest a more concise word to replace “non-dairy vegetarian.” Some bizarre suggestions were made like “dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore, beaumangeur”, et cetera. I settled for my own word, “vegan”, containing the first three and last two letters of “vegetarian” — “the beginning and end of vegetarian.” The word was accepted by the Oxford English Dictionary and no one has tried to improve it.

He goes on to say “Veganism gives us all the opportunity to say what we “stand for” in life. The ideal of healthy, humane living is now easy with modern transport bringing us vegan foods from all over the world. Join us and add decades of health to your life, with a clear conscience as a bonus.” You can find the complete interview here.

Watson was very clear throughout his life that health was an important component of his lifestyle. He wanted to outlive his critics, and he refused to put “poisons” into his body, including alcohol. So the genesis of the word vegan had both an ethical and a health component. Animal rights activists that live on processed foods and sodas are outside of Watson’s ideals, as are health food vegans that wear leather. Although, I suspect that this brilliant and compassionate man would have probably embraced both as seekers on the right path. Ideally we should all seek health and justice but the road is never straight. Regarding roads, even car tires aren’t vegan – so we can at most try our very best, but until the world changes, 100% vegan purity is a near impossibility. That’s why we should work towards that change together and avoid disparaging each other as not vegan enough.

The Vegan Voice is intended to promote vegan ideals but we acknowledge that the word means different things to different people. Whether someone is vegan for health, ethics, the environment, or religious reasons we believe that their choice is valid and they have the right to call themselves vegan. We personally try and follow a “nutritarian” style vegan diet. We consider ourselves “plant strong” vegans and eat a “WFPBD”. I find all the qualifiers unwieldy though, so usually we just call ourselves vegans. I don’t buy leather but my husband will, and since the term originally referred to dietary practices I consider him just as vegan as I am. Many people may disagree, but as I see it, the “more vegan than thou” attitude just creates divisiveness in the end. We are stronger if we stand together.

If you’d like to know more, here are some additional Resources:

Watson’s Obituary

Remembering Donald Watson from VegNews Magazine

The very first issue of The Vegan News from November 1944

Resolve to Inspire Others by Sharing What Inspired You.

Among the reasons we started this site was to be a resource for other vegans, a window into veganism for non-vegans and a way to let the world see who vegans really are. That’s what all those tabs under the title are about. Events, Food, Humor, Resources, The People Project – are intended to address those things. One thing we haven’t addressed – and didn’t think to in the beginning was our personal inspiration. We are all inspired in some way by something. There is a tremendous amount of resistance to our way of life. We need to have good reasons to go against the grain. We don’t commit to something that much of the rest of the world finds inscrutable for nothing. Something leads us here. It’s almost always knowledge. Many of us feel that once we learn the facts there is no other choice. Then why when we share the facts with others do they not come around and see things our way? They have a multitude of “reasons” I suppose, but none that ring true any longer to us. So it appears sometimes the facts aren’t always enough. We can also use our experiences to inspire others, and telling them what we experienced often strikes just the cord someone else needs to take the next step, or to keep going.

My husband Ed and I came from very different places, but we each arrived here together. Our paths crossed as the paths of so many do. He came from a conservative background, and I from a more liberal family.

Many of my relatives embraced vegetarianism early on and I too became vegetarian at 14, but my lack of knowledge and need to fit in combined, led me to resist becoming vegan for many years. His transition was instantaneous. Ironic that the more “liberal” of us spent more years fitting in than the “conservative”. Ed’s strong sense of right and wrong and his tremendous intellect allowed him to make a choice overnight, that I had wavered on for years. Those years I now regret, but as my journey inspired him, his too inspired me.

That is in part why we added the Personal Stories section under Vegan Voices, on the right side column. Please consider telling your story as a way to inspire others to choose vegan. Even when we know it’s the right thing, sometimes we need someone else to help show us the way.

Have a Happy, Healthy & Compassionate New Year.

Amanda (& Ed)

Creating Cultural Change

Why is it that our culture, or so many of us individually choose not to recognize the cruelty and slaughter that takes place every day in producing an animal based diet? We eat more than one million animals per hour in our country alone. How do we effectively exhort others to such a personal epiphany?

The human race is capable of expressing a very compassionate and humanitarian side of our character. By the same token, our species is capable of expressing some of the most barbaric and extreme cruelty imaginable. The pages of history are wrought with testimony to these facts. When you strip away all of the extraneous factors that motivate and drive us to accomplish the heights of humanitarianism, or alternatively drives us to the depths of cruelty, there are two interests which are capable of driving us in either direction in furtherance of those interests. More than anything else, self-preservation and self-interest can and will lead us to actions that we as individuals, or as a society would consider to be repugnant. Just look at how the western world, for the most part, turns an eye to the atrocities occurring in Sudan and on the African continent. Yet, we readily intervened in the atrocities of Serbia. Why? We recognize some world events impact us more so than those in the underdeveloped world. We choose not to recognize the cruelty in those areas of the world, because to do so would require us to respond. It is the same on the personal level. To assuage our conscience, we create a façade of justifications for inaction that are rooted in self-interest. Then we can perpetuate our blindness to these cruelties. Otherwise, our consciences would demand action.

The answer to these questions, I believe lies in capitalizing on these inherent interests in self and preservation of self. We do this through education. Good health is a strong motivator. We have all of the science, medical research, and media capabilities available to us to educate people about nutrition and its relationship to our personal health. The western world is in a health crisis that is for the most part caused by our diet. Heart disease, diabetes (Type II), strokes, osteoporosis, obesity, and to a large extent cancer are all diseases of eating the western animal based diet, as opposed to eating a healthy nutritarian plant based diet. Notice I didn’t use the word “Vegan.” It is possible to eat a plant based “junk food” diet composed of refined products, fats, oils and known carcinogens. These foods are devoid of the health promoting phytonutrients and phytochemicals that fuels the body’s immune system to prevents arterioscleroses, diabetes, and most cancers from taking hold of our health. 

Once people are motivated by their own personal health concerns to change their dietary habits, and experience the resulting health benefits, they suddenly are able to recognize and embrace animal welfare issues that they could not or would not see before. I have seen this occur many times over. Granted, taking a humanitarian intellectual argument may persuade some, but others must come to grips with changing to a plant based diet for the health benefits, before they are capable of seeing the humanitarian aspect of a plant based, Vegan diet. If you want to change the world and you want credibility with society, show them how by example. Don’t just eat an unhealthy junk food Vegan diet. Show the world the benefits from eating a plant based, nutritious, healthy Vegan diet. Concern for animal welfare will automatically follow, once self-interest no longer stands in the way.

Lady Gaga,The Meat Dress & Me

The whole Lady Gaga meat dress thing has so repulsed me that I want to purge my whole closet of leather. I haven’t bought leather in ages. It’s all from my pre-vegan days, except for a few items that were gifts from well meaning  but uninformed friends. My thinking was, “Animals died for this. Throwing it away means they died for nothing. I will just use it until it wears out and then replace it with a vegan alternative.” Additionally, I felt that it was environmentally irresponsible to throw away usable items and add them to a landfill.

Lady Gaga’s meat dress at the VMAs helped me realize that leather is the same as fur is the same as meat from an ethical standpoint. So now my dilemma is what to do with these things. Donate, discard? Probably donate. Many needy folks could probably benefit from the shoes and belts that now feel like carcasses in my closet. When I was a vegetarian I justified owning leather by telling myself and others that leather was a byproduct of the meat industry. I now know this not to be entirely true. Leather supports the meat and dairy industries by giving them another income stream. Without leather (and enormous government subsidies) it is doubtful that animal agriculture could go on in it’s present form. Animal products would cost significantly more and less people would be using them as a result.

I have many friends and family members who are okay with leather still, even though they eat a vegan diet. It was a process for me. The veil of self deception falls away quickly for some and more slowly for others. Many of them are just interested in eating a vegan diet to improve their health, which it does, but I’ve also noticed that it tends to open their hearts. There are many former fur fans among them. I doubt that will buy fur again. They will probably say they have enough already, but I think the truth is that none of us wants to see what we do as cruel. We want to believe that we are good people and acknowledging that we are involved in torture and animal cruelty is just too much harmonic dissonance. Admitting we were part of that says something about who we are that is hard to face. It says that we contributed to animal suffering. Even admitting that animals suffer is hard for some. Although you can bet that if someone kicked their dog they’d be furious.

Most people consider themselves kind. Hunters love their dogs. Lady Gaga wants to be socially conscious judging be her interviews. Our culture deceives us, and we deceive ourselves. I know animals feel. When one of my pet chickens was being chased by a dog she changed course the moment she saw me and leaped into my arms. She was trembling and tucked her head tightly under my elbow. I chased off the dog and comforted her. The complex thinking required for her to know that I would protect her and her obvious desire to be comforted afterwards is something most KFC customers would never imagine their Double Down sandwiches capable of. This shouldn’t be a surprise though, because the complex thinking required for people to understand what we are doing to animals is something that many of us are still struggling with.

The Curse of the Children’s Menu

The ubiquitous nature of the children’s menus found throughout the world today hides the fact that they mask a sinister change. One that has occurred without most of us even noticing. The change from trying to teach children to eat healthy food to giving them junk that most nutrition conscious adults wouldn’t even touch. They are everywhere so they can’t be bad right? They are very bad for many reasons. In part they are responsible for the skyrocketing obesity rates among the young, although meat and dairy subsidy driven school lunches share the blame.


Pregnant women are often very careful about what they eat for good reason. They want a healthy baby. The health of our children from a nutritional standpoint does not end at birth. Dr. Joel Fuhrman in his book Disease Proof Your Child explains brilliantly the connection between childhood nutrition and future health problems such as cancer and heart disease. Childhood is the time when humans need superior nutrition  the most, to fuel their developing bodies and brains. Chicken nuggets and burgers with fries are not the right kind of fuel.

Not only are they unhealthy but they teach poor eating habits that are likely to continue on through adulthood. They set us up for a life of bad choices because they offer no healthy options. It is impossible to learn how to order a healthy meal with only chicken fingers, grilled cheese, hot dogs and burgers to choose from.

One of the other alarming lessons that children’s menus deliver to kids is that meals are based on animal products. Except for the occasional pasta marinara dish, every item is usually some type of meat or cheese dish. Vegetarian choices are almost nonexistent and vegan  options virtually unheard of. Kids grow up indoctrinated with the idea that a meal means meat and/or dairy, usually fried, and if a vegetable is present that is generally fried as well, mostly in the form of potato chips or french fries.

For most of human history children ate what their parents ate. Our son, at 10, loves all kinds of vegetables other children won’t go near. Is it because he’s different? He was just offered better choices. Should we reform the children’s menu and ask them to include healthier options? A better solution might be to eliminate it all together and feed our kids the same nutritious choices that we want ourselves to make. Every meal is a learning opportunity for our kids. It’s important that we use these opportunities to teach the right lessons. We may have to improve some of our own our own choices to be better examples, but why not? What better gift can you give your child than a healthier life ahead. If you get a little healthier in the process that’s a bonus!

Adopt a Doctor

Most doctors don’t know much about nutrition. A sad fact, but true nonetheless. One of the best ways to promote veganism is to educate them about the benefits of a vegan diet. There are great books available on the subject such as The China Study, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, Dr. Neal Barnards Program for Reversing Diabetes, Healthy at 100, The McDougall Program, Eat to Live, The Vegan Diet as Chronic Disease Prevention and many more, plus quite a few DVDs. There are also outstanding brochures available from PCRM (The Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine) that you can obtain for free here. So next time you visit the doctor for a checkup – or even if you have a friend in the medical profession - why not hand them a book or a brochure to help them learn the health advantages of a plant based diet? If you have an extra brochure leave one in the waiting room for your fellow patients. You may just save someones life. If enough of us do this we may just create a groundswell of support in the medical community that leads to real and lasting change.

Is History Repeating?

In preparing to attend the PCRM 25th Anniversary Gala this coming weekend in LA, I can’t help wondering: Does or can history really repeat itself?

Just think back to a few years ago, when we saw cigarette smoking displayed in advertisements from magazines and newspapers, to sexy television commercials. All extolled the virtues of cigarette smoking, which if true, smoking only one would have satisfied you for a lifetime. Remember the TV ad with the “doctor” in the white exam coat telling us that more doctors preferred a particular brand of filtered cigarettes over other brands?

What happened? Forty to fifty years ago the public became aware of the health hazards associated with smoking i.e. heart disease, cancer, emphysema, increased health costs, etc. Slowly but surely, an informed populace began to demand accountability from our elected officials, and the tide began to turn. Remember how the tobacco industry fought disclosure of the health risks and withheld information? Now, anyone today who chooses to smoke cigarettes certainly does not do so out of ignorance, but out of indifference to their personal health and cost to society. At least in the U. S. and developed countries.

Is another similar shift stirring in the wind? Could it be that for the past five to ten years we have been witnessing the beginning of a new awakening, and an enlightened populace? More and more we are seeing vegetarian and vegan options on menus, and even restaurants that are totally dedicated to exclusive vegan/vegetarian menus. More and more, doctors across the country are embracing what some would call a nutritarian plant based diet to arrest and reverse heart disease, diabetes, and even cancer. All supported by documented, peer reviewed, published studies in prestigious journals. Many such studies conducted by recognized and renowned research organizations and individuals.  In the face of skyrocketing health costs, childhood obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer rates, the public, along with doctors, and the media are slowly becoming educated. They are beginning to demand disclosure, accountability and responsibility from our government and from corporate America for the health consequences of promoting an irresponsible and unhealthy diet on an uninformed public.

Take PCRM for example. PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) is a multi faceted organization. One facet has been taking on the big commercial agricultural, processed food interests and the fast food industry to hold them accountable for truth in advertising. In California, they have recently filed suit to require the fast food industry to comply with existing laws requiring posted disclosure of carcinogens in the foods they are serving. Is this an early sign of a new era? Is the day coming when the food industry counterparts to the tobacco industry will be held financially accountable in our civil courts, for the health consequences that have been knowingly foisted upon an unsuspecting public? Is there a day of reckoning coming for the processed food, beef, poultry and dairy industries? I believe so. The dike has sprung a leak. Can the finger of the processed food, meat and dairy industries plug the hole and stem the coming deluge? I think not.

Big Wheel Keep on Turning

The Holistic Holiday at Sea (Taste of Health Cruise) was a great experience for us once again. This was our second time and we already plan to do it again next year. It is an unmatched opportunity to enjoy memorable vegan cuisine, see informative lectures from world class experts, exercise your mind and body, visit new places, and meet interesting and inspirational people.

One evening at dinner we were sitting with Dr. Neal Barnard of PCRM and Christy Morgan, The Blissful Chef, having a conversation about the various ideas and tactics that the vegan community uses to spread it’s message. There is a level of dissent that can be troubling at times, and Christy in her blissful wisdom likened the players to the spokes of a wheel. They may not all line up perfectly, but they are unified in trying to accomplish the same goal. Moving things forward. Creating progress. We may have different ways of getting there, but we are getting there.

T. Colin Campbell, in one of his lectures, expressed optimism that we may now have reached the tipping point - and I wholeheartedly agree. We are so much further ahead of where we were just a few short years ago. Our message is reaching people, and whether we choose to stress health, compassion, religion, or the environment, the end result is the same. The more we influence others to adopt a plant-based diet, the better off we all are. The synergistic benefits of a vegan diet are potentially world changing. We may be idealist, optimists, cynics, or critics in our approaches, but we can all agree that our goal is a better world, one that may soon be within reach.

Let’s keep that wheel turning and we’ll get there someday.

Why Won’t They Say It?

We just watched the documentary film The End of The Line. It was an in depth look at the consequences of over fishing to our oceans and world. It was an excellent film. Definitely worth watching. There was one thing that troubled me about the film and I have seen it time and again. When they talk about what can be done to prevent the devastation that commercial fishing causes, the film advises how to choose fish that have the least problems. Perhaps line caught and non threatened species would be a better choice, it suggests. What it doesn’t suggest is not to eat fish at all. Not one mention of vegetarian or vegan diets as a possible solution. As a matter of fact when it comes to animal agriculture – be it fishing, or factory farming, be it the environmental damage, or the devastating health and economic consequences to our society – the best, most effective, most complete solution is always switching to a vegan diet. Granted at this time most people won’t do that, but why not at least say it, put it out there, give it as an option. Let it sink into the collective consciousness so that someday it is acknowledged as the logical choice that it is by more people.

I’m not singling out this film. We watched The Cove and Food, Inc, and numerous other documentaries in the last few years that all had the chance to offer eliminating animal products as a solution but did not. All were otherwise excellent films. Why won’t they say it? Most likely they don’t know it or practice it. If they do, then they either don’t think people will do it or don’t want to get sued. That means it’s up to us. We need to say something when these issues come up. We need to promote veganism as the solution that it is: the solution to over fishing, factory farming, the health crisis, animal cruelty, environmental destruction. When you see a film like this you also have an opportunity to educate the filmmakers. Write to them and tell them how important their work is and how offering a stronger solution might even make a greater impact. Let them know that you are a vegan and it’s easy. Maybe send them a book along with the letter.

I also just watched an Oprah episode on the diabetes epidemic. I like Oprah. She’s featured several vegan guests in the past and really wants to help people in general. Unfortunately, they featured a recipe for “healthy fried chicken” as an example of improved eating. Most diabetics die of heart disease. Animal foods cooked differently are not the answer for them. So, when I run my errands today I will take Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes and leave it on the book cart at our local hospital. I don’t have millions of viewers and maybe I won’t solve the health crisis, but if one person who needs the message picks it up, maybe it will make a difference for them. At least I’m putting it out there. It’s up to us to do what we can. Read, write, share. We’ll get the message out.

Just keep trying.