Veg*nism and attachment parenting

I have just starting making my way through a huge backlog of posts on bloglines that accumulated while I was away and have just had the pleasure of reading this post by To-Fu* (guest posting over at Crunchy Domestic Goddess) on the connection between Veg*nism and Attachment Parenting.

I really enjoyed To-Fu's post because it resonated with me so strongly. I like the way she points out the natural affinity between choosing to adopt a veg*n lifestyle out of compassion for other living creatures and choosing to adopt an AP parenting style out of compassion for babies & children (not that these choices are the only way of acting on this compassion - but they are the two that I personally have made).

I also agree with her that adopting both lifestyles can bring you in for a huge range of defensive reactions from other people who see your choice as an implicit criticism of their own (or, at least, of the status quo):

Both the AP lifestyle and veg*nism require a person to strip away tradition and ignore well-meaning but faulty advice [I would say "unhelpful" rather than "faulty" but...]. Talking about veg*nism can be tough for the same reasons it’s hard to talk about extended breastfeeding, sleep sharing, gentle discipline, and all that is AP: People who aren’t into it (for whatever reason) tend to feel judged or indicted.

What I related to most of all, however, was her allusion to the feelings of isolation that this can engender. The defensive reactions I can handle. In fact, they can quite easily be kept to a minimum either through tact or, with the most defensive types, silence on touchy issues. The main issue for me is the feeling of isolation that this silence (and walking on eggshells) can create.

Especially when Lily was a little baby I sometimes found it extremely difficult to share my feelings of frustration over her feeding all night (and all day), over our difficulties in getting her to nap anywhere but in the sling and in the exhaustion that this situation created for me. Most people's reaction to this issue was simply to say - "Put her down to sleep in her own cot!" or "Don't feed her so much." But the thing was that this wasn't helpful to me. I needed support in getting through what is a very short period of intense time in my baby's life - a time when she genuinely needed me to be available to her and to be truly responsive to her needs. For me, ignoring her needs (and I truly believe that they were needs) was not an option, instead what I needed was assistance in building up my own reserves - either through eating better, drinking more water, taking rest when it was available, asking for assistance with tasks that became overwhelming AND (most importantly, I think) truly accepting my choice to parent Lily in this way.

In fact, for me everything became much easier when I really embraced attachment parenting and really truly learned to trust my own instincts - rather than allowing other people's opinions and advice to constantly plant seeds of doubt in my mind and to force me to question myself all the time. Feeding or soothing an unsettled baby frequently during the night can be very tiring, but it is far more exhausting when you are constantly wondering if you should be doing something different and if you have "created a rod for your own back". When you actually believe deep inside that you are giving your child a true feeling of security and connection that will stay with them for the rest of their lives, and when you know that you are sharing this experience with countless other lovely parents around the globe, then the night becomes a lot shorter and a lot kinder.
I could turn around now and link this back into veg*nism and the joy of sharing this lifestyle (and yummy food & recipes) with other people around the world, but I really need to do some work! But, just quickly, this is why I love the blogosphere so much - because it was through other blogs (and lovely commenters on this blog) that I came to find other people who were parenting their children in the same way that P and I are trying to parent Lily and it was by reading their experiences and sharing our experiences with them that I was able to break through my own feelings of isolation and the self-doubt that these feelings created.

(OK, I really am going to write my bloody PhD now.)

[*Found through HPP, thank you!]

hello... and some thoughts on the morality of eating meat

Hello

I feel as though it has been forever since I last posted. Of course, I am supposed to be on hiatus, so that is how it should be. However, I feel a bit odd not posting for so long.

Things have been moving along as normal here at the house of the peas - except that we all came down with a yucky 'winters-on-its-way' head cold and had a couple of weeks of being snotty sad heads, which was not very fun.

I have also been trying desperately to get my PhD moving, but really not doing a very good job of this. I have just not been getting enough time and am finding this increasingly frustrating and discouraging. I would dearly love to just walk away from it and be free of the constant guilt that it seems to involve, but I know that I would always regret making that decision and wasting all of the time and all of the assistance that has been given to me by my supervisor and all of the people that helped me with my field work. And so I must somehow find a way to make it work.


On another subject entirely, I recently read this post by Pavlov's Cat (and the comments that it generated) and it made me stop and really think about the issue of the universal or absolute morality of eating meat. I really struggle with this issue - primarily, I think, because I feel deeply uncomfortable condemning the actions of people that I know and respect. However, when I am truly honest with myself I can't really say that I think that this is a subjective issue. I don't really think that eating meat is something that is perfectly OK and that it is simply up to the individual to decide whether or not they feel comfortable with doing it.

The truth is that I genuinely believe that animals are sentient beings who have the right to life and that killing them unnecessarily is, therefore, a breach of that fundamental right - in the same way that killing another human being is a breach of their right to life. I strongly reject a classification of the animal kingdom into some kind of hierarchy where human beings sit above all of the rest and have some kind of superior right to life and to consume all of the resources of this planet. (And this is before we even get to the issue of the incredibly cruel manner in which so many animals are treated while they are alive and the kind of impact that modern factory farming practices have on the environment).

However, the issue is also naturally far more complex that rejecting an anthropocentric view of the world. Some people around the world are in no position to live without killing and eating animals. People in many parts of Laos, for example, rely on the protein (and calories) provided by the lizards, rats, a other small mammals and reptiles in order to simply survive. Condemning their consumption of meat would be like condemning a lion for hunting. This being the case it is not possible to draw a clear line in the sand and to make an absolute statement against the consumption of animals.

Another issue that applies more to people in wealthier parts of the world is that all kinds of food production involve an environmental impact and the displacement and death of many animals anyway. This means that even a vegan diet does not escape the issue of causing death and destruction. Yet again this fact speaks against the idea that it is possible to argue that this as a truly black and white issue. So, perhaps, since the gray moral area of this issue is arguably fairly wide, people should have the right to navigate their own way through the inevitably moral compromises that must be made in making their own consumption choices.

So then, where does that leave me? Honestly it leaves me a little confused. However, I do think that it is reasonable to still believe that people should bring a mindful approach to their consumption choices. Also, there are clearly extreme ends of the spectrum that are objectively 'wrong'. Even with all the shades of gray in the middle, surely it is always wrong to lock up a pig in a tiny metal cage until she is fat enough to kill and eat? Surely it is always wrong to shove thousands of chickens into a filthy, dark and airless shed and to leave them to sicken and maim each other in their desperate attempts to stay alive?

As for the wrongs and rights of people's choices to eat locally raised, organic, free range meat: well personally I recoil from the idea. However, I feel less confident in my own right to condemn such a decision by imposing my ethical viewpoint on other people. And yet, I feel as though I am being deeply disrespectful to animals when I fail to do so...

Clearly I need to do a lot more thinking on this subject.

Extended breastfeeding

I was just reading this post by Corin at The Human Pacifier (as recommended by Half Pint Pixie) and it made me think about the world that Lily and I are about to enter. You see, she will be 11 months old next week and many of the women in my mother's group are starting to wean their babies. It seems that while breastfeeding is widely accepted and adopted here in Australia, 12 months or so is seen as a good age to wean.

Now, to be fair, there are many reasons for this even just within the context of my mother's group. Many of the women are going back to work and don't want to pump milk all day. A number of others are pregnant and think that their milk supply is reducing (and may just want a bit of their bodies back before giving birth again). Others have found breastfeeding a difficult and exhausting chore right from the start and are keen to see the end of it. Still others had medical reasons for weaning months ago meaning that the option of extended breastfeeding is no longer available.

I want to be clear that I am not criticising any of these choices. I know that all of these women are loving and dedicated mothers and the last thing that women need is people who haven't walked in their shoes peering over their shoulders and criticising the extremely difficult job that they do. However, I have started to realise that for all of the above reasons my commitment to keep feeding Lily well into her toddler years is going to start seeming stranger and stranger to those around me - and, well, I guess I just wish that this wasn't the case.


I wish that women received more support to breastfeed - that there wasn't so much pressure to go back to work after 12 months, that medical issues and difficulties with breastfeeding were better supported, and that more information was provided to the wider community on the benefits of breastfeeding past the first year. I wish this last point because when I tell people that I want Lily to self-wean and that I hope that she breastfeeds until she is 3 or 4 many of them look at me with utter confusion. It seems as though many people genuinely believe that it is only babies that ought to be breastfed and that there is something incredibly weird or unnecessary about breastfeeding a toddler.

The other difficulty that I face is that I feel a little tongue-tied on the subject. I feel reluctant to list the benefits (both nutritional and developmental) of extended breastfeeding, because I feel as though it may be interpreted as a criticism or judgement against those women who are not planning to also breastfeed their toddlers. I honestly believe that mothers do an incredibly challenging and often thankless job (in terms of wider society, not their little ones) and I abhor the fact that so many people seem to think that they have a right to judge and second-guess the way that they perform this 'job'. At the same time, it concerns me that some women may be weaning their babies or leaving them to cry-it-out or forcing them to be 'independent' because they do not have access to the research and information about the nutritional and development benefits of extended breastfeeding (or, indeed, the psychological damage practices like cry-it-out etc can cause).

I guess I am just saying that I have just realised that I am now entering another phase in my life where something that I am committed to doing is going to make be not just an object of curiosity, but also is going to provoke defensiveness amongst people if I am at all honest about why I am doing it. Like veganism, co-sleeping, or attachment parenting, it is hard to explain why I chose to practice extended breastfeeding without touching on what concerns me about weaning (or eating meat, or being non-responsive to your babies cries). I just wish that I knew the best way to be honest about my choices in a way that might inspire people, without leaving them feeling defensive or judged.

What is the vegan chocolate cake equivalent to extended breastfeeding?

Cloned meat is safe for consumers, say US officials

And pigs, it seems, may well fly...

Next: Europe will legislate a ban.

And then, the US will submit a challenge in the WTO.

And win.

And then, Europe will submit.

And then, it'll be our turn.

Vegan anyone?

The Cruelty-Free Living Festival

This afternoon we went along to the Cruelty-Free Living Festival at Petersham Townhall. It was on all day, but we didn't get there until 1:30pm and were happy to see that it was absolutely packed.

The first thing that we did was secure ourselves some food. We decided to share a plate of food from Peace Harmony (a vegan Thai restaurant in the CDB) and a mushroom pie from Go Veg. The food from Peace Harmony was characteristically yummy. We had a plate of rice with soy 'fish', seitan and buk choy and it was tasty and filling - particularly the 'fish' which was yummy and seaweed-y.

The pie was a little disapointing. The contents were fairly yummy, although a little too processed for my preference, but it was cold in the middle because it hadn't been in the oven long enough. They had warned me that this might be the case (after I had bought it) and so I took it back to get heated up, but it was actually still cold when I got it back... so it wasn't the best.

After we had filled our tummies we wandered the stalls to see what was there. Quite a few of the stalls were very specific in their issues (i.e. Chinese Bears, or Animal Testing, etc.) and those ones weren't all that interesting to me, but there were a few good stalls from companies that supply fair trade and vegan products - including some catering companies whose cards I stored away for future possibilities.

After checking out all the stands we decided to get some sweet stuff at Tea and Empathy (a food stall run by the NSW Vegan Society). We got some choc-chip cookies, a little chocolate muffin and a little spice cookie. They were all pretty good, but the spice cookie was particularly delicious and I wish (in hindsight) that I had bought some more for later.

Finally, on our way out we went back passed the Etiko stand and that was where danger struck. We were quite taken with their sweat-shop free footware and within about 5 minutes were suddenly the proud owners of one pair of low-rise sneakers and three pairs of Thongs for Acheh. So much for the budget! The only thing that saved it further was that they were out of size 10 sneakers (for P).

After that we made a hasty exit (having emptied our wallets) and headed home.

It was a nice afternoon and really inspiring to see that so many people were interested in living a cruelty-free lifestyle. Perhaps next time we will take the time to check out some of the cooking workshops or to listen to some of the speakers.

World Vegan Day - missed it!

Bother, we missed World Vegan Day again. So annoying, we keep missing everything these days.

Anyway, I hope that you had a good one and did something animal-friendly yesterday.

On Sunday we are going to the Cruelty-Free Living Festival in Sydney. Since it is NaBloPoMo this month, you will hear all about it from me when we get back (to my Dad's place). In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite vegan things:

• Scrambled tofu with mushrooms, spinach & tomatoes on sour dough toast
• Banana, strawberry & raspberry smoothie with Vitasoy
• Chili
• Coconut sago pudding (or black sticky rice)
• Vegetable dumplings
• Soy latte
• Cupcakes

OK, must go pack for Sydney now. Have a lovely day.

What's an ecotarian?

For a while now P. and I have considered ourselves to be ecotarians rather than just vegans, but we are generally reluctant to use the label because it is meaningless to most people (and probably confusing to anyone else). So, for a while now I have been meaning to do a post to explain what it means to us.

For us being ecotarians means that whenever we make a decision about our consumption (be that of food or any other product) we try to consider a whole myriad of ethical issues that relate to the impact of our choice on the earth. These issues include:

• Whether or not the product has been produced locally or whether it was transported half-way across the world to us.
• Whether or not the product was created using slave labour (or sweatshop labour) or whether it was ethically or fairly traded.
• How much packaging is used and whether the packaging is recycled and recyclable.
• What kind of chemicals were used in the creation of the product or whether it is organic.
• Whether the product is cruelty-free (in that it contains now animal products and was not tested on animals).
• Whether or not we actually need the product or whether we are simply consuming for the sake of it.
• How much energy and water was required to create the product.
• Whether the product is brought to us by a corporation that is highly unethical in its business practices (such as Nestle, Coke or Monsanto).
• And, well, you get the picture...

This may seem like an incredible pain to some people. It may seem like it would involve a life of constantly reading labels and standing, frozen with indecision, in supermarkets aisles. However, it is really not like that. Like any lifestyle decision it is something that becomes a natural part of your day to day routine. Good brands and products become familiar and what you buy becomes second nature.

So, for example, on Saturday mornings we go to the Farmers' Market to buy our fruit and vegetables. We try to focus on buying things that are in season and we prioritise the produce that is available from the organic sellers. Then we get our coffee from a coffee stand that stocks fair trade organic coffee and P. gets the coffee from East Timor, because it is our closest neighbour.

At the supermarket we start off in the organic/health food aisle. There we buy cans of organic beans and tomatoes (and prioritise the ones that were grown locally). We also pick up some Greens & Blacks Maya Gold chocolate when we are feeling a little naughty. It is vegan, organic and fair trade. However, it is also transported quite a long way to get to us and (like the coffee) we don't really need it, but this isn't about being perfect, it is just about trying to make the best choices that we can.

Sometimes there is no perfect choice. So, for example, we can choose between SunRice, which is grown locally, but in an area that really doesn't have enough water to sustainable farm rice, or Basmati rice, which is grown in Pakistan and transported a long way, but grown in an environment that is more suited to rice farming and in an economy that could do with our support. Sometimes, also, the best choice might be an non-vegan choice, but I am not ready to go there yet. I still feel pretty committed to veganism.

Sometimes the best choice is extremely expensive. For each change that we have made it has taken us a while to get our heads around the price difference. The first time we went to the supermarket to buy fair trade cocoa we came back with Cadbury's instead. It was $2 and the fair trade one was $10 and we couldn't bring ourselves to pay five times as much. But then we started thinking about the fact that each time we save money by buying unethical products we are simply externalising the cost to someone else. In the case of the cocoa we were externalising the cost to the slave workers that produce the cocoa that goes into all chocolate and cocoa that is not fair trade. For the non-organic products we were externalising the cost in damage to the earth and to the local environment of people that lived near the industrial farms. Slowly we are starting to be more consistent in living up to our own values.

It is still a challenge sometimes. Sometimes I baulk at the price of eco-friendly products and buy the regular one (like dishwashing detergent), but then P. is there to help push me along (he bought the eco-friendly one last time and now I will never go back). However, other changes have made things cheaper (cleaning with bicarb and vinegar is much cheaper for example) and all of them have made us feel better and made us all healthier - so the advantages make it worthwhile.

Finally, I still think of ecotarianism as a flexible approach. The aim is not to be perfect. The aim is simply to bring a conscious mind to our consumption and to to try live up to our own values. What this means will change with each situation and will our own awareness. I also think that this means that what ecotarianism would mean to anyone else would also be quite varied - which is why, for example, it is not a very useful label to use if you are going to someone's house for dinner, but this also means that it is a 'label' that makes you only responsible to yourself. It is simply irrelevant for someone to point to the inconsistencies in your lifestyle and call you a bad ecotarian the way that some people seem to feel compelled to do with veganism or vegetarianism, because the whole point is that you are simply taking each choice as it comes and making the one that feel right to you in the moment.

Hopefully, however, the end result is that we will leave a smaller footprint on the earth than we would have otherwise and we will set a good example for Lily to follow as she grows up and makes her own consumption decisions.

UK's foot in mouth

Link

Tell me again why people eat meat?

Rockin Girl Blogger

Thank you to Isil Simsek of Veggie Way for passing on the Rockin Girl Blogger award to me. I am very flattered - particularly coming from such a Rockin Blogger.

I am feeling a little stuck in nominating just five other Rockin Girl Bloggers though... and so I thought that I would cheat (a little) and nominate five for the category of Rockin Vegan Girl Bloggers - to make it clear that there are a whole lot of other Rockin Girl Bloggers out there.

Rockin Vegan Girl Bloggers

Kristy of Kblog
Anna of Veganista
Enny of EnnyPen
Autumn from If I didn't have you
and The Village Vegan

Death by Ignorance

Yesterday was World Environment Day, but I am not going to write about that. Instead I am going to vent about this ridiculous, deceitful op-ed in the New York Times by Nina Planck - "Death by Veganism".

Ms Planck's central claim is that "Children fed only plants will not get the precious things they need to live and grow." She chooses to prove this point by linking a vegan diet to the case of two vegan parents who were convicted of murder in the States because they fed their 6 week old infant a diet of only soy milk and apple juice.

I hope that you are beginning to see a problem with this argument. Clearly veganism has absolutely nothing to do with neglect - a child fed on apple juice and cow's milk would also suffer from malnutrition.


After starting with the outrageous, Ms Planck settles down somewhat into the more familiar myths about vegan diets. She claims that only animal proteins "contain all the essential amino acids needed for life in the right ratio" and that plant proteins "are inferior in quantity and quality." This concept was what gave rise to the idea that vegetarians needed to combine their foods (grains with pulses, etc) in order to create a "whole protein" because only animal proteins contain the full range of amino acids (an idea made popular through the book 'Diet for a Small Planet').

Ms Planck acknowledges that this nutritional 'wisdom' is out of date:

Nutritionists used to speak of proteins as “first class” (from meat, fish, eggs and milk) and “second class” (from plants), but today this is considered denigrating to vegetarians.

However, she doesn't acknowledge that the reason that this is no longer the case is because more up-to-date research has shown that the human body (like the body of so many other animals who eat a plant-based diet) is perfectly capable of converting all plant-based proteins into whole proteins. You see, the original research was done on rats, and we are not rats.

She goes on to claim

A vegan diet may lack vitamin B12, found only in animal foods; usable vitamins A and D, found in meat, fish, eggs and butter; and necessary minerals like calcium and zinc.

OK, let's start with the ridiculous claims first.

Vitamin D comes from the sun. In the USA they tend to add Vitamin D to meat and dairy products. This does not make them an essential source of Vitamin D.

Vitamin A is produced in the human body when you consume any foods containing beta carotene - this would include carrots, sweet potatoes, spinach, mango, kale, apricots, oatmeal, tomatoes, capsicum, peas, peaches and papaya.

Calcium is contained in abundance in many plant-based foods, including sesame seeds, tofu, tahini, soybeans, almonds, white beans, flax seed, kidney beans, french beans, seaweed, collards, figs, and soy milk (particularly when fortified). Animal sources of calcium may be more easily absorbed by the body, but they have a particularly nasty side-effect - they actually leach calcium from your bones. You see the vast majority of calcium in your bones is not sourced from your diet and osteoporosis tends to be caused by the leaching of calcium from your bones (caused by an excess of animal protein in your diet), rather than a shortage of calcium in your diet. This is why osteoporosis rates are so much higher in Western countries and why they rise when other countries start to adopt a Western diet that is high in animal protein.

While it is not as easily absorbed as animal-based zinc, zinc is also found in a wide variety of plant-based foods such as beans, chickpeas, wholegrains, cashews, pecans, peanuts, walnuts, almonds, peas, and oatmeal.

I will acknowledge that there is a small amount of truth in Ms Planck's claim that it is difficult to obtain enough B12 on a vegan diet. This might well be true if it was not for the wide variety of vegan foods that are fortified with B12 - such as breakfast cereals, soy milks and other soy products. However, as Stephen Walsh, PhD perfectly sums up:

Our need for B12 has nothing to do with a need for meat but is shared by most other primates who get B12 from dirt, insects and faeces containing B12 from bacteria. In our modern sanitised but polluted world B12 extracted from bacteria provides the most convenient and reliable source.

Finally, Ms Planck claims that a vegan diet is deficient in "docosahexaenoic acid, or DHA, the omega-3 fat found in fatty fish." Once again she fails to mention that Omega-3 can also be found in plant-based foods, including vegetable oils (canola, soybean, flaxseed/linseed & olive), walnuts, green leafy vegetables, and sesame seeds. These foods contain ALA’s (alpha-linolenic acid) which is converted by the body into DHA. Once again, Ms Planck is either ignorant of the capacity of the human body, or is willfully misleading her readers. She also conveniently ignores the fact that fish contains such high levels of mercury (from pollution) (not to mention all the hormones that are pumped into farmed salmon) that it would be extremely irresponsible to feed it to young children or to eat it while pregnant or breastfeeding.

In summary, Ms Planck's article is an outrageous attack on veganism that is not only packed with false information, but presents that information in a deliberately misleading manner.

If anyone wants to question me about the way that I choose to raise my child, they better bloody well have their facts straight AND they better have already gone and harassed all of those parents who are raising their children to a life of obesity, diabetes and heart disease when they feed them food that is heavily processed, and full of saturated fat, salt, sugar and chemicals.

For more justified ranting, see these other posts:
I'd say I have a bone to pick, but I'm a vegetarian...
Spicy Grapefruit Coleslaw
John McDougall, MD - Letter to the Editor - NY Times
A Response to "Death By Veganism"
Nina Planck Stirs the Pot; Vegans Get Steamed: Film At Eleven
Op-Ed in the NYT - Death by Ignorance
Response to The New York Times' trashing of vegans

Raising vegan children

This post sums up nicely the answer to a question that Paul and I have been asked more and more of late - "What will you do if Lily wants to eat meat?"

I was talking with a woman today about being vegan. She was very curious about our favorite foods mainly because she has just graduated. She said that she was telling a friend of hers about how we were raising K vegan and this other woman said “Well, what are they going to do when he wants to try meat?”

I told her that was a common question and then I asked her to think about a value or moral that they definitely wanted their child to be raised with (she is pregnant). Then I asked her what she might do if her child asked questions about this value or defied it or even wanted to change it. Her reply was that she would try to be open minded about it. I agreed.

My response was that being vegan for our family goes beyond our diet and what we do and don’t eat, it is our lifestyle, our belief system, our spirituality. And that every parent raises their child with the beliefs that they have because they believe that it is the best for their family and they believe that there is something inherently right about those values. Raising our son vegan is not about food it is about compassion and peace and love towards other living creatures. If there comes a time, and I really hope there doesn’t, when K is old enough (and preferably making his own money) and can developmentally grasp it all and he wants to try cow or pig or chicken I guess there is no way that I can stop him. I can only hope that with the love and guidance that we have provided for him as he grows up he won’t want to try dead animals because he believes that it is right but because he is interested in what the rest of the world is eating and what the fuss is all about. And I can only hope that it is the love and compassion that he was given that will make the interest just a fleeting thought and he won’t want to eat animals anymore because of the suffering they endured.

I told my parents that I would probably respond in exactly the same way as I would respond if she wanted to take up smoking; i.e. that I would be disappointed, but try not to be too judgmental and just hope that it wasn't a longterm lifestyle choice.

As for the health benefits for Lily of being raised as a vegan. Well, that will just have to wait for another post. For now we are all going to bed.

Pill stops cow burps and helps save the planet

This is utterly ridiculous.

SERIOUSLY!

Stopping cows from burping will stop climate change? Surely just not eating the cows makes so much more sense than preventing them from burping while they live their short, miserable lives leading to a grisly and painful death and your local supermarket.

If you give half a toss about the climate one of the easiest things you can do is stop eating meat. If we look at the impact of any single action we can take to protect our environment, adopting a vegan diet clearly has the most beneficial consequences. A vegan lifestyle uses less resources (particularly water, but also energy and land) and emits far less carbon than that of a meat eater.

There can really be no dispute about this. Facts are facts, it's the will that is missing from the majority of the populace. And willful ignorance aims to keep it that way.

That might sound harsh, and sorry for that. I just can't understand why anyone would choose the (perceived) pleasure of carnivorous gastronomy over the easiest way to protect our planet for future generations (possibly even ours).

Having 3rd Pea has really put this into perspective for me. I've been a committed ecotarian for a while now, but becoming a dad is bringing the militant out in me (not attractive, (I know).

Besides, vegan food is just so delicious. I defy anyone to come and eat at our place and leave thinking veganism means compromising on gastronomic delights.

Coetzee: is this truly the best that humans are capable of?

J.M. Coetzee gave a speech last night that I wish I'd heard. Speaking at the opening of an exhibition at the Sherman Galleries in Sydney (an exhibition called Voiceless: I feel therefore I am) Coetzee spoke up for those that truly have no voice of their own - non-human animals.

Right from the opening, Coetzee lets his calm outrage be known:

To any thinking person, it must be obvious there is something terribly wrong with relations between human beings and the animals they rely on for food.

He goes on to describe both the implicit horrors of modern factory farming (but pre-industrial animal husbandry gets a serve too) and the modern human's response - ambivalence:

The vast majority of the public has an equivocal attitude to the industrial use of animals: they make use of the products of that industry, but are nevertheless a little sickened, a little queasy, when they think of what happens on factory farms and abattoirs. Therefore they arrange their lives in such a way that they need be reminded of farms and abattoirs as little as possible, and they do their best to ensure their children are kept in the dark too, because children have tender hearts and are easily moved.

The second half of the speech (or the edited version published in today's SMH) proposes some alternatives and neatly summarises, in one short paragraph, a position I've been trying to articulate for as long as I can remember - the alternative to ambivalence is not remotely difficult or trying:

These alternatives need not involve any sacrifice in health or nutrition, and there is no reason why these alternatives need be costly. Furthermore, what are commonly called sacrifices are not sacrifices at all. The only sacrifices in the whole picture, in fact, are being made by non-human animals.

What is trying, however, is having to answer that question (and others like it - where do you get protein? What about calcium? Iron?)

"I know exactly where mine comes from", l always want to say, "and I'm fairly sure you have no idea". I never do though, just answer the question and try not to sound patronising.

Coetzee's speech ended on a powerful note. That, this, of all struggles, is truly worth it and that most closely approaching selflessness, as we can expect no thanks for our grace. More than this, we cannot even expect the comprehension of those whose lives are affecting by eliminating our consumption of the products that cause them such suffering and indignity:

The campaign of human beings for animal rights is curious in one respect: the creatures on whose behalf human beings are acting are unaware of what their benefactors are up to and, if they succeed, are unlikely to thank them. There is even a sense in which animals do not know what is wrong - they do certainly not know what is wrong in the same way that humans do.

Thus, however close the well-meaning benefactor may feel to animals, the animal rights campaign remains a human project from beginning to end.

I've never read any of his work and have always wanted to. I think I might have just found the prompting I need.

The exhibition that prompted him to write such a powerful speech is in Paddington till 10 March. If anyone gets the chance to see it, let me know what you think - I'm somewhat otherwise engaged at present.

The Exhibition's organisers and Voiceless are also calling for a Commitment to Animals Day today and asking people to sign this pledge to spend one day cruelty free. It's meant to be today, but there's no good reason why you can't do it tomorrow instead.

It's not at all difficult, in fact, it's a sheer pleasure.

*t-shirt from Peta.

Why don't we need any more clothes?!

How cute is this?



If I could get it in Australia, I would buy the bib (and about 4 of the other designs that they stock). But I am not paying US$7 in shipping for something that I really don't need...

Image from here.

Post Punk Kitchen in NYT

There's a great piece in todays NY Times on Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the author of Vegan With a Vengeance - don't buy it from Amazon, just look then order it from your local.

C and I love the book and highly recommend it.

The interview was good too.

It's also worth checking out her website for lots of tidbits and tips.

High IQ = Veg

According to a recent study in the UK, children who have a high IQ when tested at age 10 are more likely to become a vegetarian when they grow up.

"For each 15-point rise in IQ scores in the study, the likelihood of being a vegetarian rose by 38 percent. Even after adjusting to factors such as social class and education, the link was still consistent."

Unfortunately for me this study doesn't say very much about my IQ, since I became a vegetarian when I was 5. However, I least I know that I married well!

Thanks to Kristy for the link.

Vegan Lunch Box

OK, so I mentioned this in my last post, but it was somewhat buried in all the ranting about hormones etc. so I thought that I would mention it again - just in case you missed it.




Jennifer McCann, author of the fabulous blog Vegan Lunch Box, has been writing a recipe book based on those amazing lunches that she put together for her little one every school day last year. I, like many other people, have spent the year drooling over the photos and feeling very inspired by her creativity. Anyway, her book is finally ready for sale and will be available for to be posted out from 15 Nov.

Australian fans will be pleased to know that you can order it locally from an Australian site - Lunchmatters. [I was actually so pleased, well excited really, that I ordered two copies...]

I have to admit that I find this book particularly exciting because P and I are planning to bring up our little one as a vegan and anything that will make that easier for us is a real blessing. This book will ensure that we can give our little one the coolest lunches at school rather than having them feel left out because they aren't eating dead flesh or drinking another mammal's milk. However, I really think that this book will appeal to people who are omnivores or vegetarians, because the lunches are really so fun that they would suit any child.

Of course, I am well aware of the fact that our little one is actually not yet born and thus won't be eating school lunches for quite some time. I have a couple of things to say about this:

• P and I eat lunch too. [Yes, I do work from home, but still...]
• HORMONES!

Actually, on the subject of lunch. It is worth checking out these great images of vegan bento lunches on this flixr group. [Thank you to Kristy for the link]

Above image, obviously, from veganlunchbox.blogspot.com.

Food

I had a really good sandwich for lunch today. Or, at least, I really enjoyed my sandwich today while sitting in the sun at the park.

The problem with this is that it has left me feeling completely obsessed with food ever since. By 2pm I found myself reading reviews of vegan restaurants in NYC and feeling jealous about all the options that New Yorkers have. Then I remembered that HappyCow's vegetarian restaurants guide is global and I started to look a little closer to home.

The Canberra selection didn't really inspire me, because I have been to all of the restaurants fairly recently, but I did get a little excited by the Sydney section (since we are heading up there next week). I started harassing Paul at work with requests to go to various vegan restaurants while we are in Sydney and then began contemplating whether a trip to Cabramatta would be taking things too far.

As if to answer my question, Veggie Friendly (our new blog of the week) posted a new review of An Lac Vegetarian Restaurant (Cabramatta) and suddenly our fate was sealed. Well, at least that is what I am saying now.

It may be that I'll be more concerned with the beach than my stomach by next week. Only time will tell...

Carnival of Empty Cages 3

In our call for submissions for this Third Carnival of Empty Cages, we asked people to address five big questions about being a veg*n. We have organised most of the posts featured in this carnival under one of each of these headings, but a couple of people made the heroic effort of addressing all five of them and so we have included this post upfront as a great overview for the rest of the Carnival.

First up we have vegankid with the post “hey, vegan….” over at Taking Place. We were glad to hear that the questions were fun to answer, and particularly liked this quote (which runs counter to the belief of so many non-veg*ns that veg*ns are all suffering from boring starvation diets):

the most rewarding aspect has been the great love of food that i now have. I have yet to meet a vegan that doesn't LOVE food. [...] Seriously, there is nothing like a kitchen full of vegans cooking up a great meal or a room full of vegans at a potluck.

Over at Bibliobillabong, Ron has also addressed all of our questions in his carnival submission, and concludes with this great summary:

I am a vegan solely for moral reasons: any health benefits as a result are an added bonus. It hasn’t been easy. I’ve had to spend a lot of time re-learning nutrition, shopping and cooking but it has been worth it. I don’t ever see myself eating animal flesh again and, hopefully, any other animal-derived food.

Becoming a veg*n
One of our favourite vegan blogs is Vegan Lunchbox, so we were very interested to read this interview, over at New Heritage Cooking with its author Jennifer McCann about when and why she became a vegan. In it she shares the story of reading a book’s dedication to a “glossy black calf on its way to the slaughterhouse” and says that this made her decision an easy one.

Vegcat at Two Vegans emphasizes that it really wasn’t as difficult as she had always assumed in her post Simply Vegan:

Before I tried it myself, I thought being vegan was something that required loads of self discipline and denial. I thought vegans were hungry people with no social life.

Imagine my delight then, when after only a couple of weeks eating vegan, I realised with a start how easy it is, how incredibly simple. I felt fantastic, I looked better - my skin was clearer, my breath was sweeter, I slept better and I wasn't wasting away eating lettuce. I could even have a vegan version of my favourite - cappuccino with chocolate sprinkles!

Nick Kiddle, over at Livejournal, also shares his story, which is perhaps more unusual than most, but does show that transferring our concerns from ourselves to the impact of our food choices on others can help to reduce our own neurosis and insecurities around food. Over at Pure Zucchini, Pure Zuke shares a personally familiar story about some of her reasons for switching from a vegetarian to a vegan diet in “Veganized Kitchen, Evil cheese & Chocolate Bliss”:

I’m constantly appalled by what I read about the dairy industry (organic or otherwise). I’m appalled with how the animals are treated, with what is allowed in our milk (pus, ewwww), with how closely in bed they are with the meat industry.

And, finally, Ashley, at MySpace, shares a list of 30 reasons for taking up a veg*n lifestyle.

Being a veg*n
Sujay Prabhu, over at Dangerous Intersection has written a beautiful post, “Do animals have rights?” about giving a class presentation about Sujay’s reasons for being a vegan. Although the presentation focused on factory farming, Sujay emphasises that “my convictions about vegetarianism are rooted in a larger moral framework, one which recognizes the rights of all forms of substantial intelligence, including animals.” The discussion of rights that follows challenges those people who believe that rights ought to be reserved for humans, and is really worth a read.

Frustrations
The folk over at Las Vegas Restaurant and Food Blog: The Vegas Table have written about the frustrations that vegans can sometimes experience when eating out and trying to find something worth eating on the menu. However, in her post, The Hunt for Spicy Eggplant, the author describe the common experience of having her eyes opened to new food possibilities, (in this case; Spicy Eggplant):

CUE THE CLOUDS PARTING AND THE LIGHT OF HEAVEN BREAKING FORTH WHILE ANGELS SING! The spicy eggplant was like nothing I’d ever eaten! Sensing he was in the presence of a life-altering experience, Mark turned his meal over to me, secure in the knowledge that we would be eating Chinese food much more frequently in the future.

And so began a quest to find the greatest dish of spicy eggplant in Las Vegas and beyond…

Over at Martin’s Rants, Martin also shows the silver lining of one of the main frustrations of being a vegan – being surround by food that you cannot eat and of (initially) having to read all the labels on food in order to work out what you can actually eat – in that it enables you to make more informed choices, and that it becomes easier as time passes.

Finally, Wannabealtruist, over at LiveJournal, writes about the frustrations that many veg*ns in share houses experience when their meat-eating housemates decide to eat the veggie food rather than their own, in her post “It's lunchtime in the big brother house....”.

Rewards
Over at A Drop In The Stream Doug shares his story of being vegan, and also shares a few of the side benefits that he has reaped since taking the plunge two years ago:

Results:

• I lost 50 pounds
• I have no problems controlling my food consumption
• I experience no cravings for sweets
• I don’t experience the urgent need to snack mid afternoon
• I don’t get sleepy after meals
• I have more energy and feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life
• I have no problem controlling my weight anymore
• My cholesterol level dropped 30 points and remains low

There is much more to be said about the inner workings of this diet and its ripple effects into a person’s sense of well being but I’ll have to end here for now and pick up this thread in a later post.

Kristy, over at Kblog, writes about how vegan friendly Melbourne is, and links to a new blog, Melbourne Vegan, to prove her point. Peter Carman of Melbourne’s Vegan Voice puts Melbourne Vegan together and in it he lists all of the vegan and vegan-friendly activities that are taking place in Melbourne (in addition to throwing in some posts about current animal rights issues).

Converting others
Catswym, over at cat(s)wymming, shares her story of being a vegan in her post Vegetable Medley and in this story she beautifully addresses the very personal issue of whether or not to try to convert others:

but mostly i live this life quietly. i don't proselytize. if people ask, i'll explain my reasons. but i also know many people aren't ready for the truth. aren't ready to change what they do, and who they are. what i hope most is only to show that this life can be lived. that it isn't hard, it isn't out there. i recommend cookbooks, recipes. i cook for people. i live my life to show other people that this life can be lived. i think that is how change often begins. that's how it began for me.

Itsmallo, over at LiveJournal, also rejects the idea of being an “evangelistic vegetarian”. However, Itsmallo also adds, “If someone's thinking of going veggie, I'll encourage them, but I don't like to try to change people. Not my prerogative”, and then proceeds to list facts that may well compel people to consider adopting a vegetarian lifestyle.

For a slightly different take on the topic check out Veganfreak’s Why Veganism Alone Isn't Enough. Veganfreak argues that it’s not really enough “just to avoid products of cruelty”, but that we must also “educate and to be activists in our lives.”

The movement against animal suffering is broad and deep, and I guarantee you that there’s a place in it for you and your talents. Your boycott of animal products should be coupled with some kind of activism, outreach, or support in some way that you’re comfortable with.

Animal Rights
We also had some submissions on some broader animals rights themes:

Bull, over at The Bull Speaks!, writes about the ease of assisting animals in shelters, in his post “One Rescue that is Cheap to Feed!”.

Starling Hunter, over at The Business of America is Business, writes about a shocking story of the slaughter of greyhounds who are no longer considered to be fit enough to race.

Lakshmi, over at Babblogue XL, writes about her concerns over seeing a sign in a butcher’s shop window announcing that the meat was “dressed live”.

Finally, Eric, over at An Animal Friendly Life, critiques a Washington Post article entitled “Is There Anything Left That We Can Eat?” which discusses the dilemmas facing consumers who wish to be ethical while making the glaring omission of completely failing to mention veganism as a option.

Inspiration
Finally, for a bit of inspiration, here are some fantastic veg*n recipes that have been posted in the ‘sphere over the last couple of months:

SusanV at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen posted a delicious looking recipe for Inari Sushi and Kale with Mushrooms and Water Chestnuts. While Bryanna from Notes from the Vegan Feast Kitchen has a mouth watering fresh tofu scramble, Indian-style. For a different type of treat, try the Grilled Tofu, Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Gravy, Braised Leeks, Steamed Broccoli, Ciabatta at What The Hell Does A Vegan Eat Anyway? or try a veganised version of una vera cena italiana [a real italian dinner] at the urban vegan.

Then it’s time for desert, so why not try that traditional Australian favourite – lamingtons, vegan style, prepared by Jennifer over at Shmooed Food.

And that's it for this Third Carnival of Empty Cages. The next Carnival is scheduled to take place on the first of October and is currently open. If you'd like to host it, contact vegankid on veganwonder at gmail dot com.

The carnival is coming

The Carnival of Empty Cages 3 will be appearing right here in about nine hours. Right after a good night's sleep and leaving enough time for veg*ns in other time zones to send in last minute posts.

Until the morning then.