Eat Your Vegetables: Life and Times of a Vegan

Successful Activism!

2010-11-03T19:21:00.003-04:00

I feel so alive right now!

I just got out of our film screening of Fowl Play and never have I felt more grounded and committed to my ideals! Everything just clicked -- it's such a great film (I had seen it before) and people responded positively to it! Not only did the people there respond positively to it, but there was a really good turnout! So many people are reevaluating their diets, they were all talking to the speaker afterward, and I'm just so thrilled to have been able to screen the film, to have organized a successful event. This is really giving me motivation for my future as an activist. Maybe this is the event that will give me force for the rest of the semester.
Oh, Dylan, you'd be so proud of me.

Thesis Mantra!

2010-10-22T16:42:00.001-04:00

“Thus, rendering gender and masculinity visible offers a challenge to existing power relations and their continuing reiteration.”

– Beasley, Men & Masculinities (2008)

YES!

Eulogy

2010-10-04T14:57:00.003-04:00

"Dylan Ravenfox was an incredible soul. I had the honor of living and working with Dylan at Farm Sanctuary during the summer of 2009. We became great friends right from the start and he taught me so many life lessons over the course of a few months, over so many dishes of red quinoa stir fries, over bowls of the local vegan ice cream, over nutritional yeast popcorn.

When I arrived at Farm Sanctuary as an admittedly disillusioned activist, Dylan gave me so much hope for the future. If people were as committed to changing the world as he was, maybe we could make a difference after all. His work in the Education Department had him giving tours of the farm to newcomers, and even when my housemate and I unsuspectingly snuck onto a tour to try to divert him from his task -- as pesky friends often enjoy doing -- we couldn’t do it. In spite of our best comical intentions, when he opened his mouth, the calm and sincere voice was not an employee reciting a tour by rote; here was as man who deeply believed in the words he was saying and saw Farm Sanctuary as a means of resisting structures of oppression. It was only at the end of the tour that I realized we hadn’t just gotten a tour of the farm; we had gotten a glimpse of Dylan in his element. Dylan’s drive to bring justice to the lives of animals was a flame that never burned out.

But he was more than an activist; at the very core, he was an artist. He was a skilled writer and anyone who knew Dylan knows that art just poured out of him. He carried his passion for art, for pottery, for language, for critical thought with him to every activist endeavor I saw him undertake. He reminded me how much art and social justice can overlap in beautiful ways and how we can sustain each other through art.

And though he’s gone, I know that flame is still burning, for he has passed it on to so many others. I miss him so much, but I know he will be with me forever, always inspiring me, pushing me forward, teaching me to be a better person and a more passionate voice for the animals."

Delivered Sunday October 3rd, 2010 at Haverford College.

le bon chemin

2010-09-24T20:26:00.001-04:00

Left foot. Right foot.

Jonathan Soud just died of leukemia last Saturday. I didn't know him, but I know his father who taught at my high school, and he had a huge impact on my social networks at home. Leukemia is usually treatable in children. My mom said she diagnosed him, and he was going to be fine.

Left foot. Right foot.
My friend had liver pains yesterday, couldn't move her neck at all.
Left foot. Right foot.
My other friend suddenly threw her back out in rehearsal today and had severe pain. "I'm fine! I'm fine" she said, crying, trying to stand up.
Left foot. Right foot.
My friend's mom has been in the hospital for two weeks and they don't know what's wrong with her.
Left foot. Right foot.
I'm tired. So damn tired.
I can't write Dylan's eulogy. I just can't. The words. I just. Don't know what to say. I have to. But I know it's not going to be what I want to say. If he were alive, I don't know what I'd say to him.

Left foot. Right foot.
Fuck these feet. When does the bullshit end?

BirdWings by Rumi

2010-09-15T10:47:00.000-04:00

Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you’re bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
if it were always a fist or always stretched open,
you would be paralyzed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting
and expanding,
The two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as bird wings.

Eat Rice, Have Faith in Women

2010-08-24T16:50:00.006-04:00

Poring over Carol J. Adams' The Sexual Politics of Meat, she reminds us of a beautifully moving poem entitled "Eat rice have faith in women" by Fran Winant. I'm posting it here:

eat rice have faith in women
what I don’t know now
I can still learn
if I am alone now
I will be with them later
if I am weak now
I can become strong
slowly slowly
if I learn I can teach others
if others learn first
I must believe
they will come back and teach me
they will not go away
to the country with their knowledge
and send me a letter sometime
we must study all our lives
women coming from women going to women
trying to do all we can with words
then trying to work with tools
or with our bodies
trying to stand the time it takes
reading books when there are no teachers
or they are too far away
teaching ourselves
imagining others struggling
I must believe we will be together
and build enough concern
so when I have to fight alone
there will be sisters who
would help if they knew
sisters who will come
to support me later

women demanding loyalty
each with our needs
our whole lives torn by
the old society
never given the love or work
or strength or safety or information
we could use
never helped by the institutions
that imprison us
so when we need medical care
we are butchered
when we need police
we are insulted ignored
when we need parents

we find robots
trained to keep us in our places
when we need work we are told
to become part of
the system that destroys us
when we need friends
other women tell us
I have to be selfish
you will have to forgive me
but there is only so much time
energy money concern
to go around
I have to think of myself
because who else will...
I have to save things for myself
because I am not sure you could save me
if our places were reversed
because I suspect
you won’t even be around
to save me when I need you
I am alone on the streets
at 5 in the morning
I am alone cooking my rice

I see you getting knowledge
and having friends I don’t have
I see you already stronger than me
and I don’t see you coming back
to help me
I imagine myself getting old
I imagine I will have to go away
when I am too old to fight my way
down the streets
my friends getting younger and younger
women my age hidden in corners
in the establishment
or curled up with a few friends
isolated at home
or in the madhouse
getting their last shot of
motivation to compete
or grinding out position papers
in the movement
like old commies
waiting to be swept away
by the revolution
or in a hospital
dying of complications
nurse or nun
lesbian in clean clothes
reach out a hand to me
scientists have found
touching is necessary
and the drive to speak our needs
is basic as breath
but there isn’t time
none of my needs has been met
and although I am often comfortable
this situation is painful

slowly we begin
giving back what was taken away
our right to the control of our bodies
knowledge of how to fight and build
food that nourishes
medicine that heals
songs that remind us of ourselves
and make us want to keep on with
what matters to us
lets come out again
joining women coming out
for the first time
knowing this love makes
a good difference in us
affirming a continuing life with women
we must be lovers doctors soldiers
artists mechanics farmers
all our lives
waves of women
trembling with love and anger

singing we must rage
kissing, turn and
break the old society
without becoming the names it praises
the minds it pays

eat rice have faith in women
what I don’t know now
I can still learn
slowly slowly
if I learn I can teach others
if others learn first
I must believe
they will come back and teach me

Eating Animals

2010-08-23T15:08:00.005-04:00

I just finished Jonathan Safran Foer's book Eating Animals (albeit much later than I'd hoped to read it) and I cannot stop thinking about kind of cultural "storytelling" that surrounds meat consumption, particularly in the U.S. What kind of new stories can we tell around otherwise tradition-ladden holidays? What kind of cultural rewriting allows us to sustain our connection to heritage? Or do we even need to sustain that kind of tradition? Should our new-found ethics take the precedent over tradition and remind us of the newness of this new kind of ethical tradition we are forging? As a vegan, I love holding the cultural paintbrush right in my grip, and know that culture is a flexible and malleable thing. But reading Foer's book reminds me so much of the positive role that culture and tradition play for so many people.

Unlike many seemingly die-hard vegans and vegetarians (I often fall victim to this), Foer examines the importance of digging deep into the reality of things and then living one's life according to one's values -- something which I respect wholeheartedly. Framing the entire story through the need to choose what kind of life he should create for his son (more specifically, whether his son should eat meat or not), Foer does in-depth research on factory farms, family farms, and activist to pull the veil off of a world that is all too frequently forgotten.

What makes Foer's book so unique is that his story is one of paradox, of seemingly philosophical contradictions-- at the core, a nuanced understanding of how ethics and meat consumption can manifest in this country. As an accomplished writer, he dances through his sentences and hybridizes his space as both a quasi-narrative and quasi-non-fiction scientific literature, using no footnotes for his text chock full of statistics, but leaving all citations arranged by chapter at the end of the book for his readers.

To order a copy, visit Amazon.

Cruelty-Free Cooking! From ChooseVeg

2010-08-23T11:51:00.004-04:00

Baking Substitutes for One Egg

1 tsp. Baking Soda + 1 Tbls Vinegar (household vinegar or apple cider)

1 Tbls. Ground Flax seeds + 3 Tbls water

Let sit until mixture becomes gelatinous.
Great way to get your Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Note that this adds slight nutty flavor to recipe

¼ cup Silken Tofu

not the tofu from coolers, which are less creamy
adds moistness & denseness

¼ cup soy yogurt

adds moistness & denseness

½ banana, mashed well

note that this does add a banana flavor to your dish

¼ cup unsweetened Applesauce

adds moisture

Ener-G Egg Replacer (potato starch & tapioca flour)

can be found in most health food store
Mix 1.5 tsp Ener-G + 1 Tbls water

For more information, visit ChooseVegBlog.com

Cartoon Source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/v/vegan.asp

Easy Vegan Pancakes (Lauren's Subversive Pancakes)

2010-08-22T23:29:00.011-04:00

Ingredients You Should be Needing:

2 cup subversive flour (all-purpose should do. Go crazy with quinoa flour. Or whole wheat.)

2 cup subversive milk (any kind of vegan milk will do)

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

2 Tbls oil (canola will do)

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of ground nutmeg

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp salt

2 large bananas (mashed well)

handful of chopped pecans or walnuts

An extra banana for topping (optional)

Directions To Make This Baby Happen:

Mash bananas with a fork. Mix wet ingredients and sugar into a smaller bowl. Mix together dry ingredients (except sugar) in a large bowl. Pour wet into dry and mix ingredients. Fold in the walnuts or pecans. Bake with love on a non-stick skillet. Cut up any remaining bananas in your kitchen into tiny bits to top your pancakes. Drizzle in syrup. Ba-bam.

An Era of Loss

2010-08-20T13:12:00.003-04:00

I've been denying it, but now it just seems too unreal. Everyone is dying.

My good friend's father died this semester.
My sister nearly died in a car accident this March.
My grandfather died of Alzheimers this April.
My friend Dylan committed suicide this August.
The day before his mother's birthday.
I learned that an old high school classmate killed himself last year.
A girl at my high school died of a mysterious brain inflammation last week.
A teacher's son from my high school is suffering from his second bout of leukemia.
My close friend just had a miscarriage today, after 4 months.

When everything is fleeting, what can we cling to? Maybe to making subversive pancakes, to flowers growing out of the cracks, to meaningful sidewalk art, to a stranger's smile, but fuck. There's so much loss. It hurts.

2010-08-18T02:00:00.002-04:00

Canvas By Dylan Ravenfox

An old girlfriend would always write on my skin,
in blue or black ink. We both knew she was destined
to be a tattoo artist, though she never would admit it.
Little yin-yangs, tulips, messages like why
are you so nervous, or decisive, or spontaneous.
I let her write a poem down my spine
with a sharp black ball point,
and never found out what it said. It used to tickle
so much that she would get mad at me
for ruining the shapes. I got used to it though,
when the skin art became our ritual of afterplay,
and we kept a pen on the table beside the bed.
When she drew a stick figure angel
in between two little clouds on my thigh,
I took the pen from her and scribbled
“Don’t fake orgasms”
on her rib cage.
Eventually we broke up
because the ink was soaking in and poisoning
the whims, revealing that we didn’t really love
each other. Years later I walked into her tattoo
parlor, on a side street in Chicago.
She smiled to see that I had tracked her down,
but put a finger to my lips. She sat me down
without a word and began stabbing my forearm
with her little machine. When she was done
there was an intricate human heart, that
you could almost see beating,
colorless and real. It hurt more than I’d expected.
“Don’t worry about the girls,” she said,
“Anyone who can’t understand that
doesn’t deserve you.

From "We Are What We See" http://www.thisispush.com/read/excerpt_whereweare.htm

ShoutOut

2010-08-13T10:53:00.004-04:00

This is a shout out to animal rights activists, who see so much pain around them, but are forced to bite their tongues in seemingly banal social settings, who are ‘not offended by the sight of meat’ when prompted -- the raw flesh of another living being, the scent almost carrying the image of slaughterhouse slashing down upon their genetically mutated bodies. But oh no, we don’t mind. We’re mainstreaming the movement, after all.

We lost a vegan voice in the movement last week: Dylan Ravenfox was an eloquent and intelligent voice for the animals. He reminded me how much we, too, are animals and how important it is to recognize our own animality. He reminded me of the importance of language and the intricacy of its structure to understanding the world we live in. The interconnectedness of social movements, and above all, the importance of art in social movements. With his loss, I feel compelled to tell you that we need to step it up a notch. He was a force to be reckoned with, and he’s gone.

Knowing that he was someone who struggled with depression for much of his life, I want to shout out to you animal advocates. The sadness that lingers behind the corners for us is real, and if you need a helping hand, I’d be happy to support you. As activists in a damaged world, we need to help each other along the path to healthiness. To healing. So that we can change this world of which we are so critical.

I feel much joy as an activist—I see the change in the world that I’m trying to create. Even though social change is slow, I see it, I see us making a difference, and it’s beautiful, invigorating, and always rejuvenating. I just wanted to take a moment to examine the shadow of this brightness – that depression is a real and serious illness and that you, me, we all must take it very seriously. Even if you’re just stumbling upon this blog, feel free to email me if you need anything at all. Sometimes having a little extra support is all we need.

Love,

Lauren

laolaughlin@vassar.edu

For radical people, they think in surprisingly binaristic terms.

2010-07-17T22:57:00.004-04:00

(Yes I just created the word, but binary deserves a goddamn adjective.)

I'm at the Animal Rights 2010 Conference which is mad orgasmic but also challenging blur of all the best animal rights activists ever. I'm surrounded by activist 'celebrities' who really inspire me, so many who just really know what they're talking about. This includes

Dennis Kucinich (vegan presidential candidate)
Peter Young (ex-prisoner for freeing mink)
Gene Baur (founder of Farm Sanctuary)
Erica Meier (executive director of Compassion over Killing)
Nathan Runkle (exec. director of Mercy for Animals)
David Benzaquen (staff and previous fellow intern at Farm Sanctuary)
Matt Rice (previous fellow at Farm Sanctuary and currently Campaigns Director at MFA) George Eisman (vegan nutritionist)
Josh Hooten (founder of Herbivore)
Will Potter (author of GreenIsTheNewRed.com)
Jon Camp (founder of Vegan Outreach)
the entire staff of COK, naturally, and all the random people I've bumped into.

Back to the title of this post:

I can not get over how goddamn divided the animal rights movement can be. I know, i know, this is old news, but seriously, there normally aren't that many of us all in a room so we don't have to address these problems.

What is the problem, you may ask? Well, here I go:

Like all other social movements, the animal rights movement is full of individuals who believe in different tactics to achieve their own defined goal of success for animals. This generally falls into two camps:

Animal Welfarists
Abolitionists

Welfarists are stereotypically the puppy-lover activists who only argue for bigger cages for slaughter animals (though many of these activists are often vegan, too.) Abolitionists do not believe in any kind of legislation that engages with, and thereby legitimizes the meat, dairy, and egg industries and only advocate for pro-veg*n education or in extreme cases, animal liberation. This has become a seriously contentious topic, because abolitionists believe that welfarists are actually hindering their own abolitionist efforts -- They argue that if legislation is passed that bans cages for layer hens, more people will feel better about buying eggs, and will actually increase their purchases of eggs--Welfarists often believe that abolitionists come on too strongly -- the most radical of abolitionists refusing to talk about anything but animal cruelty as a reason to go vegan -- which turns people off to veg*nism in the first place.

These two poles have been created, and I scratch my head. This is supposed to be one of the more radical conferences, and these people make me want to eschew away from the identity of a radical-progressive! The politics of animal rights is a continuum and organizations and people can occupy multiple points on that line when they have multiple campaigns. Must I always bring up the word spectrum? It is not an either-or question, nor should we all agree. The palpable tension and hostility between these two main camps is really frustrating, but I guess inevitable.

Gah. If anyone has ideas or suggestions as to how to navigate the strange political waters of social movements, don't hesitate to throw stuff out there. I'm all ears. I'm really passionate, but it's difficult to deal with sometimes. (It also makes me feel very wary about analyzing the role of gender in the animal rights movement for my thesis, because that will only serve to divide the movement.)

Fancy New Blog Design

2010-07-10T23:48:00.001-04:00

Because Blogger is still free.

Diane di Prima

2010-07-10T23:28:00.000-04:00

Stumbled upon some delicious Beat poetry. Not my words, di Prima's. Enjoy.

From her Revolutionary Letters:

#29

beware of those
who say we are the beautiful losers
who stand in their long hair and wait to be punished
who weep on beaches for our isolation

we are not alone: we have brothers in all the hills
we have sisters in the jungles and in the ozarks
we even have brothers on the frozen tundra
they sit by their fires, they sing, they gather arms,
they multiply: they will reclaim the earth

nowhere we can go but they are waiting for us
no exile where we will not hear welcome home
'goodmorning brother, let me work with you
goodmorning sister, let me
fight by your side'

This One's for You, Col.

2010-07-05T20:21:00.001-04:00

Alright, so apparently more people read my blog than I think.

So it's time for an update.

The House (not Haus):

Intergenerational living is rad, difficult, but rewarding. The chore system is way different from Ferry's and it's really annoying/difficult. Essentially, you have to do way more work because there are messy kids who don't do any of the chores and adults who have to clean up after them. Plus we do our own yardwork, trash, maintenance, etc. It's a completely independent house, unlike Ferry. I don't like the amount of work, or the fact that it's a first-come first-served signup.

There have been a number of days where I've just wanted to climb into my room on the top floor and never come out. Sometimes the workday is really damn long, and I have a tendency to have depressive and anxiety episodes, which really doesn't help much. Over the past couple years, I've been hovering in this strange struggle between introvertedness/isolation and extrovertedness. I consider myself to be a nurturing person, and am genuinely interested in the wellbeing of all the people with whom I cross paths, so cooperative living seems to make sense, even though I do have those down times when I have a tendency to isolate. Fortunately, my housemates often support me when I'm feeling weird or shitty, which is awesome. I feel connected here to a lot of my housemates (there are varying levels of commitment, like any cooperative), and have become good friends with some of them. It's nice to come home to a cooked dinner, and great people. Coop: 1. Mainstream Society: 0.

The Job:

Working as an outreach intern has its boring times, where I'm sitting at the computer, editing vegetarian restaurant guides for hours, but I get to leaflet, and write weekly letters to the editor, organize future events, and do generally rad stuff. I've gotten pretty good and leafleting and really feel like I'm finally coming into my activist skin after my 3rd year post-enlightenment. (Thanks, Tom(?)). Working in a vegan haven like that seems feel pretty basic to me and my mental well-being. Trying to figure out whether I'd want to do non-profit work post graduation (probably will.)

Strokes of Luck:

There have been so many strange serendipitous events accumulating over the past couple months that I'm questioning my hesitation around spirituality/my usual athiesm. It was a hard semester, what with my sister's near-fatal car accident and my grandfather's death, but the goodness in life is beginning to thaw me back into reality. This is probably way too personal for a public blog, but whatever, we're all going to die anyway and I have nothing to hide from anyone.

Examples:

-finding a great guitar half off in a random mall in New Jersey that I had never been to before and will probably never go to again the day after I decide I seriously want to learn the acoustic guitar

- finding an intentional community less than a mile away from my job

- finding a housing scholarship through my hometown (of all places!) to pay for that housing

- finding an internship semi last minute with an organization I really support after everyone else was like 'fuck you'

- Dumpstering skills! 'nuff said.

- Randomly running into a fellow Vassar activist at the Capital Pride Festival (where I was tabling for COK), and finding out that she's doing an animal rights internship this summer! She was only in the DC office for a week, and I managed to grab a vegan meal with her.

-opening the Takoma Voice paper for the first time ever on an otherwise banal metro ride and seeing that Amy Goodman would be speaking that day two miles away. After serious disbelief and confirmation calls, I went and bought a $10 ticket to hear her speak. When she signed my book, I mentioned Vassar and she mentioned Joe Nevins. I drooled. I love her.

- Randomly meeting the supposed founder of the organization I work for, and finding out that he used to go to Vassar and take class with Bill Hoynes (Bill told me about this guy who "dropped out his freshman year for animal rights") What are the fucking odds I would meet this exact guy? Small world

- Randomly making an amazing Swedish vegan progressive friend in a vegan bakery in DC who I talked to for many hours about politics, culture, and language-- who was only in DC for 2 days. (Life is fleeting but beautiful.)

- running into an awesome floormate/previous classmate from Vassar on the metro (who was only coming into town for the weekend)

- being able to attend 2 amazing animal rights conferences in D.C. later this month / having free housing because I'm already here, bitches.

What the fuck. So much interconnectedness. So much awesomeness. When I look at it all like this, it makes the banal shit seem actually bearable. Everything is fleeting, but there's so much beauty, too. Count your blessings, folks. It's not cliché, it's how we survive.

Alright, this was a sufficiently personal post. Hope you enjoyed crawling inside of my mind. Make sure you shut the door on your way out.

UNEP Report

2010-06-08T14:24:00.000-04:00

The new United Nations Environmental Programme released a report on June 2nd, 2010 that calls for a shift towards plant-based diets in an effort to curb carbon emissions of the meat industry.

The following is a direct quotation from the site on its proposal :

[…] the priorities for achieving transformational change are:-
Agricultural goods, particularly products from animals, which are fed more than half of all world crops. Agricultural production accounts for 70% of the global freshwater consumption and 38% of the total land use. Food production accounts for 19% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions and 60% of the phosphorus and nitrogen pollution and 30% of toxic pollution in Europe;
Users of fossil fuels, especially electrical utilities and other energy-intensive industries, residential heating, and transportation. Fossil-fuel production and consumption dominate as the world's leading cause of environmental degradation. Extraction from alternative fossil fuel sources, such as tar sands, poses potentially even heavier environmental consequences."
Materials, especially plastics, iron, steel, and aluminium, use of which is growing, not least in the unsaturated emerging economies; and the energy requirements for which are rising because of declining grades of ore as they get used up.

'Agricultural Goods' gets FIRST MENTION. This is another huge success for vegetarian and vegan activists everywhere.

Here’s even an FAO report from 2006 that I just stumbled upon that illuminates the damages of animal agriculture.

The amount of administrative support for vegetarianism on at least a sustainability angle is enormous, and that’s pretty awesome. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the awesomeness of this.

Moment over. Let’s go kick some ass.

I live in the best place in the world...

2010-06-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

When I first moved in, everything was so uncomfortably new, like a was an invader in some strange way, in spite of everyone saying that they wanted "short term guests" to feel just as welcome. All the kitchen drawers were foreign, the pots didn't make sense there, I couldn't figure out what anything in the fridge was so I just didn't eat. I didn't unpack my things because I didn't feel at home. I felt like a store-bought plant just taken out of its pot and dumped onto the lawn, my roots hesitating to unravel as my soil crumbles around me, because I was so unaccustomed to this earth beneath me.

I've only been here a little over a week, and I've realized co-ops are my home. Naturally, not all co-ops fit my needs, but I've learned in a short time that living cooperatively sustains me best. Individualized society numbs me, turns me cold against myself and my own creativity, whereas being in constant interaction with others allows me to be constantly creating. We can learn so much from each other, but when we're constantly taught to be in competition by the larger capitalist society, collaborating seems cause a bit more hesitation. Naturally, living cooperatively doesn't have to happen in the form of a co-op or commune, but it can often help.

At first I thought this specific house would be a little too 'ooshy gooshy' for me, a little too overly emotional, and well hey, i guess sometimes it can be a little bit. But at the same time, I feel an explicit connectedness with everyone in the house because everyone has explicitly said that they care deeply about each other. This house is an actual support network, and everyone works through their issues with everyone else -- often around good dumpstered food (tonight, potatoes, eggplant and polenta!) Yes, the word "share" is a buzzword of sorts, but I guess there are worse things in the world. For instance, not caring about the people you live with.

But one thing I can say is that I've moved into a completely foreign town, and using my housemates, I feel like this is could be my home already, like I could have lived in this town for several months already. I'm even considering moving here after graduation. Can't say that about too many places, now can you?

Of course it's not perfect. There is conflict and complexity to the house, especially this one in all of its non-conventionality, but it's so much better than so many other alternatives. I feel so oddly privileged that I happened to stumble upon this place and email them, in hopes that they might want a 2-month guest. And that it happens to be less than a mile away from my work. Seems oddly divine, though I'm not religious in the slightest way. It's going to be bizarre and painful to leave, but ay, it will show me the importance of growing the roots of a nomad. (I really like that line. One of my housemates said it in a meeting, and it still resonates with me very deeply. I feel like I'm constantly struggling to find a sense of community in a life that requires frequent moving around, and I'm trying to figure out what that means.)

More soon.

New Co-op Living

2010-05-31T09:09:00.002-04:00

I just moved into a new co-op in DC, kind of blindly assuming that all co-ops are pretty much the same, and knowing only tidbits about this new space I was about to inhabit. I've been here for less than a day now and it's already been a challenge in so many ways... There are six kids, one of whom is mentally challenged. I awoke this morning at 7am to screaming children and slamming doors. . . I'm not sure how to address that. Some of the people seem standoffish, but then again so do I. Some of the people are really gentle and centered, though, and I think I will pretty much depend hugely upon them for the first few weeks.

The common spaces are huge and the dumpstered food is plentiful! The house is beautiful and my room is massive, though un-air-conditioned. The age range of house members is wide, and I'm definitely one of the younger ones, the kids and dogs excluded, which is weird since I'm 21. There is no uniform dietary intake -- that is to say, not everyone is vegan or even vegetarian, though I believe house dinners are all vegan (we'll see). In spite of all the awesomeness, though, I feel very unsettled, constantly on edge, not really knowing where I'm going just yet, but I'm sensing that I'm going to learn a great deal from this time here. Much more than I'd be learning from living in a single room in some craigslist apartment anyway... This is a difficult summer for me in a number of ways, so hopefully I'll come out of this experience with some tools to better understand the world.

Silver Lining: I bought a guitar in new jersey and I believe this will punctuate my summer. I'm going to be one of them self-taught guitar players, because I don't have the patience or money for guitar lessons. Woot.

Animal [Rights] Dissertations

2010-04-28T01:01:00.000-04:00

An actual fucking list of ALL ANIMAL-RELATED DISSERTATIONS RECENTLY WRITTEN! Beautiful. Too bad I don't have access to most of them, but it's still very helpful and frankly kind of moving to see the huge body of literature that is growing around animal issues.

Animal Rights in Academia

2010-04-24T16:22:00.000-04:00

Very interesting dissertation on the 5 most prominent animal rights organizations in the U.S. and the ways in which they frame their campaigns/goals. Written in 2008 by Carrie P. Freeman.

(Marilyn Frye comes to mind again)

2010-04-24T15:24:00.000-04:00

Sympathy, by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)

I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals —
I know what the caged bird feels!

I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting —
I know why he beats his wing!

I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,—
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings —
I know why the caged bird sings!

"Interruption" by Brenna Sahatjian

2010-04-12T18:14:00.001-04:00

I've just stumbled upon a gem! I've listened to the Climate Composition that Evan Greer gave out when he came to play here but I guess i kept missing the last track entitled "Interruption" by Brenna Sahatjian. I know what you're thinking. Obscure song references are boring and self-indulgent. But seriously, the minor melody and bittersweet voice of the singer really makes this an interesting song, i think, and if you're a person hiding in the shadows of oppression and trying to forge your way into something better then maybe you'd get a kick out of this too. It's always great to realize that you're not alone in your resistance, that we're all in this punky goodness together.

The last four lines -- which are much more meaningful when properly contextualized in the entire song -- are as follows:

Excuse me I was talking or living or dreaming or just being
too bright for the gray malaise of these modern days
To each interruption we'd answer with eruptions
of the lava that bubbles underneath the mundane.

She writes/sings about how we all resist the mundane through our daydreams, but how interruptions bring us back to our banal monotony, keep luring us into our cages. But there's lava bubbling up under that mundane, so it's okay. We can make it through the gray malaise :)

Sooooo good. I'm so grateful for music, for words, for poetry, for communication. And oh god this unread blog is turning into a stereotypical quasi-journalish radical space. Woe is me.

love yo'self

2010-04-12T12:01:00.000-04:00

Snatched from a good vegan friend's blog whose been through some tough times. Here's to you, Nicole.

Exploitation and Resistance: The Story of Tilikum

2010-04-12T08:32:00.000-04:00

Exploitation and Resistance: The Story of Tilikum

Cooperative Living : Rant / Prose of Epic Proportions

2010-04-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

There's something so fulfilling about eating the food that your haus-mates make you,

Knowing that they're busy busy people who could have spent those few hours differently,

Writing a paper, reading for a class, calling their families,

People who might know a thing or two about cooking but who are really still just kids,

who are fuckups just like you sometimes,

who are tired, stressed,

who are confused, lost,

but who are really beautiful,

really really beautiful,

just by the virtue of wanting to be in a community,

putting time aside to nurture others, and thereby themselves.

It makes it all taste so good.

The burnt broccoli bits or the oily plaintain chunks are so tasty, so personal, make the dish unique,

every meal is somehow epic,

somehow conquering... and empowering.

Deeply connecting us with the ways that we nourish ourselves.

so unlike the usual practice of buying and selling prepared foods,

buying from cooks who don't see you, don't know you, but who want to earn an extra dollar,

or even unlike baking alone,

baking alone, for yourself,

for you and your tupperwares,

for the week? for the freezer? who knows.

cook in small quantities or it'll all go to waste!

No no, not here.

Every day is a baking party here,

A ravenous feast, a sustainable space of composting, of quinoa, of beans soaking, of Moments.

A space where food vanishes into invisible tummies and libations are poured to the Haus Gods. (But not really.)

Where the pizza is made with the help of 4 others, where granola greets you in the morning... just because.

Just because its a community.

Everything is OK. Too much flour? salt? You usually can't even taste it.

It's all OK.

Alles wird gut.

Tout sera bien.

There's something so fulfilling about cooperative living, I don't think I'll ever be able to leave it.

Interview with Jasmin Singer

2010-03-30T11:46:00.001-04:00

Kiss Me, I'm Vegan! interview with the activist extraordinaire Jasmin Singer. She's an AMAZING activist and a great interview. Check it out here!

Green Your Grounds

2010-03-30T11:27:00.000-04:00

I switched to a French Press recently, and I'm a serious fan, besides the fact that my coffee is coming out oddly strong. Maybe I need to work on my proportions. Or maybe my coffee just became magical overnight. I'm going to stick with the latter possibility. I like to think that my Don's Local Coffee Beans uses magic as a secret ingredient over its evil archnemesis Maxwell House.

Anyway, while Coffee is still a neocolonial cash crop that you should probs just avoid, I know myself, and right now in my life as a busy student, I am a happier person with large quantities of caffeine in my body. Maybe you share this feeling. When I drink coffee now, I'm going to use a more environmentally-friendly alternative to the drip-coffee machines:

The French Press!

No coffee filters required (for you daily coffee drinkers, visualize how much extra waste this makes! even if you are composting!), no hot plate using energy to keep the coffee warm, just the initial heating of water in your hot-water heater, hot-water spigot, or handy-dandy microwave.

Price range $20-$30.

A good link on this.

Challenging Hierarchies in Education

2010-03-29T19:27:00.000-04:00

I love it when professors go by their first names,

When classes are in circles,

when i learn just as much from the guy

sitting next to me as the professor on the roster.

when professors fumble for acceptance like a schoolkid,

It begins to radically examine the way we go about learning and what it means to truly learn,

It breaks down the distance that we build up between students and professors,

It almost makes up for every hierarchical jab my French professors made when they tutoied me (but s/he required the respect to be vousvoied)

It takes away the pretentious air of learning that people are so fond of

it allows us a space to recognize that some have more wisdom than others,

but there's still room for equality

It makes me welcome to learning, and not just learning in an academic space in a specific set of four walls --

but anywhere anytime in my life.

And this is pretty fucking great.

Sure, my school is still hierarchical in many ways, but it makes my day so much brighter to see the little glimmers --the cracks of resistance.

*pic from here. No copyright infringement intended!

Pamela Anderson's Commercial of Milky Madness: Is it Really PETA material?

2010-03-15T16:42:00.000-04:00

Pamela Anderson was one of the first, and perhaps most annoying, animal rights celebrities to grace the world with her presence. Although most of her work seems to have been with PETA, her fame led her to work with a number of vegan advocacy organizations (therefore necessarily being against the production of milk.)* Pamela Anderson has never technically claimed to be a vegan but she was the Honorary Director of PETA for a while in 2007 and it should be noted that PETA is an explicitly vegan NGO.

Oddly enough, Pamela Anderson was recently pictured in a now banned Australian commerical for the internet company Crazy Domains. She plays the object of a businessman's sexual fantasy as she is sprayed with milk or cream in a golden bikini. SuperVegan notes that she blatantly uses Milk and Sex to sell a product completely unrelated to either of these things.

Personally as a feminist, a vegan, and as a human being, I cannot stand Pamela Anderson. There's just something about her that makes me want to gouge my eyes out. Something that makes me cling to the nearest copy of Carol Adam's The Sexual Politics of Meat. I somehow sense that I'm not alone here.

But let's be nice and get back on subject: Naturally organizations don't have complete control over what their spokespersons do, but most would probably hope that their spokespersons would avoid directly contradicting their basic mission statement. Sure, money may be tight for Pammie Pam because people are done watching her porn films, but really Pamela? Where are your principles? You make me mad about PETA, even though they make really cute stickers and created the amazing, famous I Can't Believe It's Vegan website which rocked my world in early vegan days. In just a couple eloquent words: Umm.... what?

*Often for reasons including: milk is destined for calves, milk can only be produced with cows are pregnant therefore requiring yearly re-impregnation of cows-- but calves are taken away at birth, cows are slaughtered once production rate begins to decline, the milk industry is the reason the veal industry is in business, etc.

Personal Revolutions

2010-03-01T18:04:00.000-05:00

There's this strange conception that activism occurs only outside of the self, that the ultimate goal is the changing of others. But something I think is so undeniably radical is the idea that revolutions can occur within the self. We are constantly changing beings in an unstable world and we gain something from every new process, progress, change and revolution that occurs within ourselves. Let's stop marginalizing our own personal growth, because we're better people when we're not mindless drones moving about our lives with a narrow perception of what it is to exist.

(One of the many awesome Crimethinc posters)

Haus

2010-01-31T16:25:00.000-05:00

I just moved into a vegetarian co-op on campus and it's a strange and beautiful journey already. There are a number of factors pulling and tearing at the way I frame it. This is how most people respond when I mention the co-op :

"Oh where's that again "
"I've never actually been INSIDE ..."
"What?"
"Aren't you guys all like vegans or something? Do you run around naked?"

It's this strange place so ridiculously CENTRAL on-campus but so socially removed that no one dares venture inside.

It is a square building of many bikes, of rags, of hairy bathrooms, of let-it-mellow yellow, of baked goods, of Haus Decisions, of theoretical, of cheap and good food made with love, of creation, of tension of growth, of stickers of hall posters, of beans, of lentils, of Crimethinc signs, of dirty things in clean places, of smiles and 3 am kitchen porn, of song-singing and couch-lounging, of very little academic work and so much interaction, of re-usable yoghurt containers, of eggs and things of disgust, of vegan idealism, of camaraderie, of apple scones in the morning with your name on it, of hall parties, of tensions, of growth, of change, of many things... in the last 4 days.

I'm so thrilled to be a part of it, and so thrilled to watch myself grow in it..

MTRBlows

2010-01-30T23:58:00.000-05:00

Radical Mountain Top Removal Action:

http://www.climategroundzero.org/

Beautiful and simple, tree-sitting is a non-violent form of protest which aims to fight the systematic destruction of natural resources for energy and profit. Awesome.

Vegan Conversion Machine

2010-01-26T20:58:00.000-05:00

Veg*ns and activists of all sorts and varieties can get so riled up, after all, and want to change the world that they lose sight of the very beauty of their own relationships... We're not vegan conversion machines.

That said, I'm not going to stop handing out flyers and tabling and getting shit done. Shifting to a plant-based diet is helpful to our society in so many ways. Not to mention that it allows us to see the connections behind all the products we have been so blindly led to consume... But to side with certain PETA-activists who argue that every possible interaction should be one that shows veganism in a certain light can be crippling. After all, aren't vegans and vegetarians animals, too? Shouldn't we provide ourselves with some due 'animal justice' in a hustling, bustling world of alienation?

Just a reminder to bring some balance into our lives. Personal revolutions are equally important.

"Race"

2009-12-17T16:34:00.000-05:00

L'INTRO FRANÇAIS : Je le trouve très intéressant de voir comment nous choisissons nos mots en général, et en bonnes sociologue, specifiquement autour de l'inégalite. Pour ce petit "post" j'aborderai le langage français autour de la question de "race" sur les êtres. Encore un petit mot sur l'animalité et l'inégalité entre êtres humains et animaux, mais bon, c'est un grand problème dans le monde aujourd'hui qui doit absolument pris en compte !

And now for ENGLISH:

There is Only One Human Race

In my sociological studies here in France, I have come to realize very interesting subtleties surrounding the word "race." In fact, in France, using the word race to denote an ethnicity of a human is not only rude but quite simply not said. In sociological work and study, however, if you want to specifically use the word race as it is meant in English, it is necessary to put the word in quotation marks. (A feminist author Colette Guillaumin made something of a scandal when she chose to simply capitalize 'race' rather than put it in quotes). The French explain the word choice by saying, "Il n'y a qu'une race chez nous: l'être humain !" meaning approximately "There is only race amongst us : the human being!" In spite of continual struggles of identity and somewhat worrisome discussions on the 'immigration problem' thanks to Sarkozy, I personally find this word choice to be a major success. We still have denigrating words put towards people of different ethnicities and cultures, but quite frankly, the fact that there is no "human race" is beautiful.

Animal Races

However, even amongst animals, we see the objectification and inequality launched upon animals in that in the French language, people often use the word "race" to denote "species." "A good race of cow, that makes for a delicious meat.." etc. Though I am not suggesting that there isn't a variation of species in the order Animalia outside of human beings, I'm highlighting the curiousness in using the word race is used rather than species in the French language for animals yet there is a conscious abstinence from the use of 'race' respecting human beings. Moreover, the word racisme (le racisme) exists in French to denote injustice towards individuals of other ethnicities. The weight and the violence of the word race is very evident in the French language, yet finds its way into discussions of animality. Interesting how four letters can mean so much.

Seeing

2009-12-10T18:50:00.000-05:00

Marilyn Frye, a famous feminist author, once said the following about realizing one's oppression:

Consider a birdcage. If you look very closely at just one wire in the cage, you cannot see the other wires…It is only when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you can see why the bird does not go anywhere.[1]

While vegan activism is definitely the most important to me (because there appears to be such a dearth of vegan activists) taking my africana studies class and this women's studies class reminds me just how important all these systems of oppression are to tackle. As a sociology major, I'm quite literally a student of inequality. At this moment in time I feel so stretched across the vast abyss of inequality, pulled in all directions, constantly shifting between these different political campaigns and it's often so hard to tie them all together. I am passionate but unable to mobilize.

I am critical of the radical vegan activists who tie all social oppression together, who recognize the ways in which all of the following themes can create inequality: gender, sex, sexuality, poverty, race, class, age, ability. The problem is that although this is true, to use all of these rather strong radical political stances all at once dissuades the average listener from hearing. In reality, we are forced to normalize ourselves in an effort to gain coverage from the media and the average passerby. Given the massive budgets behind meat advertising, we have to make our voices be heard as much as possible.

So I am finding myself in this strange crevice, this strange space of social inequality overwhelm, where my radical feminist politics can never cross with my radical animal rights efforts, except perhaps amongst already radical folks. Where my critiques of current economic structures cannot find its way into these campaigns, for fear of overwhelming the average listener with more than one non-conventional notion at a time. Too much new and we shut down, after all.

But there's definitely something about all this that hurts. Something that hurts about only being able attack one inequality at a time, an impatience, a hunger for change, a need for change that drives me mad. I want to be able to fight against gender norms, against horrendous foreign aid programs, against AR-abusers, but I simply can't get past the fact that it's not efficient to overlap my efforts.

I see the wires of the cage,

but I can't see how they all work together.

How can I break the cage ?

There are way too many birds in here,

and time is running out.

We've gotta get out.

source

[1] Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality: essays in feminist theory. Crossing Press: Freedom, California, 1983; pps 2-7

Cercle de Silence à Paris (Place des Innocents) par OneVoice

2009-12-06T18:31:00.000-05:00

Circle of Silence

for Animals Exploited by the Fur Industry

for info on the action, check out OneVoice's website

For information on the egregious methods of the fur industry, please check out this brief factsheet.

Humor + AR

2009-11-29T19:28:00.000-05:00

Ummm so I've been thinking a lot about using Humor and AR, and how to tie the two together...

So in my procrastination on my french sociology work, I was bopping around looking how humor can be used for AR. The following cartoon only somewhat touches on the whole human-animality question but definitely brings to light this question of superiority which we hold to be unique to the human race.

Shamlessly snatched from the following site. I hold no rights : http://www.vegetus.org/vegtoon/ar.htm

The site in general can be found here: http://www.vegetus.org/vegtoon/vegtoon.html

Some duds but some that are pretty interesting.

The End.

Embracing Animality vs. Vegetarianism : Opposing Arguments?

2009-11-19T12:13:00.001-05:00

A theoretical veganism question came to me today. Here it is in the roughest of forms. Tell me what you think:

Animality :

I consider myself a vegan in practice and in theory. So I'm constantly reevaluating my relationship and the larger human relationship with non-human animals. (Sorry if that seemed to be creating an immediate divide between the two.) Animality, quite simply put, is the essence of being an animal, something which we necessarily tie to being non-human. However, as I have put in other posts, humans are necessarily animals and I think there is something quite radical about embracing one's animality, that is to say, questioning cultural norms that go against "animality" and hiding one's "animalness." We also see how animality ties in with feminism quite frequently (check out Carol Adams or Pattrice Jones for more on that) and how The Woman is often connected with The Animal, that is to say that She possesses more animal-like qualities that Man (male) does not possess (see: emotions, involuntary menstruation, focus on the body rather than the mind, and all the rest of that garbage.) So. I think more and more amongst vegan advocates we see a shift towards embracing our own animality, that is to say that since humans are necessarily animals we must recognize our own needs and desires as necessarily human, rather than dismissing them when they arrive. Our animal needs are just as legitimate as our "rational" needs.

Vegetarianism and Embracing Our Animality... Does it Clash ?

FYI, this is a space of thought, not of thesis. I attended a lecture on vegetarianism and the speaker coined vegetarians and vegans alike as "Abstinents" as if it were some necessary withdrawal from society, an abstaining from part of the cultural story-telling, etc. However, the argument can be made that meat and killing is a desire. Fortunately in our society most of us have come to terms with the fact that killing one another is unacceptable (exceptions: government-approved activities such as war, grassroots independence movements, etc.), so my argument for vegetarianism doesn't crumble by me saying this :)

However, to what point can one remedy the notion that we embrace our own animality and desires and all the while "abstain" from an industry so horrible?

I think the answer lies somewhere in the fact that questions and categories are not quite as discrete as I've made them out to be. Animality does not mean savageness, after all, it simply means recognizing that we are animals and as such are not simply brains detached from the rest of our physical beings. One can be animal and ethical at the same time. But all the while the argument is continually made that meat is a desire, a need to consume the flesh of another being. I think this question merits some more evaluation... So please don't hesitate to give me feedback!

VG-Zone: Veg Guide to Paris

2009-11-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

Best website ever for FRENCH VEGANS/VEGANS IN PARIS/

végans/végétaliens/végétariens à Paris!

VG-Zone.net

Spread that shit around!

Furthering Oneself from the Culture of Meat: Good or Bad?

2009-11-17T17:53:00.000-05:00

I keep asking myself if it's a bad thing that I'm losing my connection more and more to the culture of meat-eating. On the one hand, that's a good thing. It's a great thing! But by losing my tie with this huge part of our culture (current culture, I should add) am I separating myself too much from omnivores? That is to say, from a campaigning standpoint, am I losing my ability to connect to meat-eaters ? Am I losing my ability to effectively rework the culture of meat, but removing myself from it? Culture is moldable, after all, and just requires a good bit of time and energy to change. Here's the equation for you right-brained people (also I'm bored, and procrastinating on homework)

TIME + starting a VeganDialogue + vegan cupcakes + SUSTAINED PATIENCE

= Vegan Revolution !

So I ask myself, am I still able to effectively relate to the people I'm talking to?

It's true there are always the lines like ---

"I used to love meat!"
"This tastes just like meat, try it."
"I know that veganism sounds kind of extreme but... "

all of which help the non-vegan in question from feeling judged. Also to keep her/him from completely tuning me out, and everything that I have to say, for fear that I've just lost it.

Making Non-Veg Alliances? This has consequently led me to consider developing slightly odd ties/alliances with my friends who are vegetarian or omnivore and get their insight as to how best campaign. For instance, I could show them a series of pamphlets, videos, presentation methods and they could respond with their feedback. Especially when it comes to vegan food, I sometimes question how people really find Isa's cupcakes of heaven (As for me, I don't remember what milk tastes like.. though I was mildly lactose intolerant for most of my childhood anyway. As are many people.) AND! If you ask someone about this business, they may *MAY* actually listen to what you have to say for once.

---%---

But as I was thinking about how far I'm separating myself from the culture of meat, I have to pat myself on the back. Once you've seen all the pain, suffering, and madness that goes on in the meat industry, you just kind of want to run out into the street and scream at the top of your lungs "DIE YOU MOTHERFUCKING AGRI-INDUSTRY OF HELL!" And sometime it really hurts. It really fucking hurts at first to see so much and feel so disempowered. To see a mother bellowing for her calf in just 8 oz. of milk. A putrid, ammonium-wreaking, file-cabinet-sized hen facility in every little egg. And a serving of meat? Tail-burning, beak-clipping, ineffective stun-guns, "kosher" lies, scalding tanks.

Sometimes it hurts, but when you realize how much of an impact you can have, everything kind of looks up. I've been a vegan activist for not too long, and I can already see the impact I've made on my friends and family. And as W.E.B. DuBois once said,

One thing alone I charge you. As you live, believe in life! Always human beings will live and progress to greater, broader and fuller life. The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long.

Time sure as hell is long. But it's important to keep that in mind. Because change is a-happening.

Noam Chomsky on Vegetarianism

2009-11-07T09:10:00.000-05:00

http://platosbeard.org/archives/416

The Animal Activist's Handbook.

2009-11-07T02:29:00.000-05:00

Bruce Friedrich's 20-minute interview on his book "The Animal Activist's Handbook" can be found

here.

sidenote: I had no idea that Bruce Friedrich had such good diction! Quite unique in this day and age if I may say so myself. It's also incredible that a Lefty like Bruce would be allowed to use his personal politics while still speaking on behalf of Peta, eh? I would think that for vegan activist orgs who want to steer away from other political stances, one might be turned off by religiousness and his delicious poverty and peace work ?

Veg Your Cafeteria!

2009-11-06T19:11:00.000-05:00

I just found a great how-to guide on Veganizing your School Cafeteria from Viva! USA check that shit out.

Vegan Table in HAMBURG, GERMANY

2009-11-06T05:09:00.000-05:00

I literally stumbled upon this vegan tabling event when I was wandering the streets of Hamburg. It definitely made my day.

Sign on the left is a play on the word "Buttermilk (Buttermilch)"and says "Mothermilk (Muttermilch) ? Naturally!"

(Same kind of poster as from the Anti-Fur March on the 24th..

ie "My flesh belongs to ME. If you want to eat meat anyway, bite into your own ass.")

The movement is spreading and it's exciting!

Luxembourg: Marche contre la FOURRURE

2009-10-25T09:08:00.000-04:00

(see official website here)

This weekend I trekked out to Luxembourg (4h drive from Paris) for a march & tabling event against the fur industry with the organization I've been working with : Fourrure Torture. Because the AR movement and activism in general is not as developed in Luxembourg as it is in a super-urban setting like Paris (according to the people I spoke with there), I think it made quite an impact even if it was smaller than most of the events I've attended before.

There were about 8 organizations tabling, and there was vegan food up for sale, thanks to an organization from Luxembourg called SAVE ANIMALS:

Deets for the Eats:

1euro for a bowl of vegan pasta and 2 euros for a large plate. Basic white-flour noodles with carrot and cucumber bits and a creamy vegan sauce. Preserved in monster tupper-ware-ish boxes. I can't imagine that costing too terribly much, and think I'm going to look into doing that for another event.

Another thing to remember! Activists need to eat, no matter what, so why not bring your vegan catering to non-vegan events? That's a form of activism in itself and shows people that vegan food is not only edible but damn tasty!

However what was super about these guys were that they were environmentally friendly and they bought actually dishes and silverware so as to avoid buying disposable plates and dishes. Really smart idea, and they just added a deposit fee so that people don't forget to bring back the dishes. They went to their home in Luxembourg and washed them allll around 6pm and then served us dinner at the bar/café at 8pm (where I did not take photos, sorry). Dinner was a pumpkin soup of heaven with super-oily, therefore delicious home-made croutons and parsley garnish.

Requirements: Crockpot + silverware + dishes and they were ready to get the vegan party started.

Signs from a German Org:

Above: "Fur Trade is Death Trade / Boycott the Murder of Furbearers"

Right: "Don't say you didn't know about it!"

There was one German AR org who REALLY had their shit together : TierFreunde (which means Friends of the Animals). I was quite impressed. Check it out:

They were playing Earthlings from the TV screen in the back of their car!

(English is one of the languages they speak, in addition to French, German, & Luxembourgeois.)

TierFreunde had

an official-looking banner
traps with [fake] stuffed animals
orange umbrellas and tables to match their theme
professional looking signs (see 2nd photo)
an old van that they converted to an AR-Mobile!
Lots of Pictures

**super idea for stands, if you have a tent: clothes line/string + clothespins + pictures = more visuals for your table!

Here were the rest of the orgs:

Fourrure Torture (FR) (DE)

Animal Justice (LUX) Bite Back (Dutch)

------------------------ Bite Back -------------------------

Regarding the image of the halloween mask + fur coat: not a bad display, I must say . I think the best part was when these giggly 13-yo/14yo girls walked by and wanted to take a picture with it. They walked up to it to take a picture and then were like "Oh! This is AGAINST fur?" I'm pretty sure that made my day. I couldn't believe that a halloween mask had the ability to be ambiguous.

Some Snapshots of The Protest

I don't think there were any welfarist groups present (which was kind of nice... as much fun as it is to hear people hypocritically chatting about how horrendous it is that cat and dog fur is secretly used in fur coats.) There was a slight tension, as always, between the more radical and non-radical groups. For instance, when there was chanting "One Struggle, One Fight! Animal Liberation, Human Rights!" or "ALF! ALF!" my friend and I looked at each other and kind of scratched our heads.

Unfortunately, the Animal Rights Movement is not one struggle and I don't think it ever can be. There are and will continue to be moments when we can work together for the most part, but of we all had the same ideas, we would only be one organization with multiple subgroups. Also, we see these kinds of divides in pretty much every social justice movement ever (ex: women's rights, civil rights, etc.) If you ask me, it's somewhat problematic to go through the streets chanting things about the ALF because the ALF is technically an illegal organization. I'm making no comments whatsoever about my own support or non-support for the ALF, but there is something to be said for allowing moments for non-radical AR groups to do their thing.

Albino

This German hiphop artist was kind of amazing -- really eloquent lyrics that tie speciesm to other methods of oppression such as sexism, capitalism... all with some ass-kicking beats. I would definitely go see this guy perform. If you can understand German, *please* check out some of his lyrics here or the music here.

SOCIAL ACTIVISM GUIDE

2009-10-25T08:43:00.000-04:00

I stumbled upon this and I HIGHLY recommend you take like 30 seconds and look at this. Because it's a good summary of info if you didn't already know this.

<<Find the guide here>>

EDIT: Another sweet guide is HERE.

- Highlights

gives specific demo events
how to be involved with the media
publicity tips
lots of other random stuff.

Granted, it also covers a number of campaigning efforts that I'm not AS fond of, but it's worth your time. I'm pasting the bits I found particularly useful, but i'm saying right now it's not my work. it is coming from the site linked above.

"Use the Media: Basic Tips for Working with the Media

Develop and maintain a "press list" (which consists of the reporter's name, title, address, phone number, email, fax number, deadlines). Be sure to include: wire service (Independent Media, United Press International, Reuters), local and regional newspapers/magazines, local "zines," local TV news and talk shows, local cable stations, special interest publications (ethnic, college, high-school, religious, punk, trade, professional).
Meet with reporters, DJs, talk show hosts, and editors personally--develop the relationship and establish rapport. See where their interests lie. Follow-up with phone calls to give them story ideas or to give them an update on your program.
Read reporters' stories. Give them feedback--make them aware you are reading, watching, and listening to them. By reading their stories you will know whom to contact for your media outreach.
Be prepared to give reporters facts, accurate information, quotes, historical background information, and if possible an "exclusive," meaning they are the reporter breaking the news.
Return reporters' calls as soon as possible.
Use all the "free" resources the media offers, such as the calendar column, letters to the editor, Op-Ed articles, and Public Service Announcements

Creative Action

In today's busy world, how do you get people to stop and take notice? Creative action can be a great way to get attention and help to educate others about an issue.

Tips:

Focus your creative action on a specific target and message.
Creative actions do not have to be theatrical; you can make a banner, billboard, or anything visual.
Research history--the civil rights movement (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), non-violent actions (Gandhi), apartheid (South Africa)--to learn more about direct action techniques already taken, including challenges and successes.

Here are some examples:

100 Chairs

To demonstrate the growing wealth divide in the U.S., line up 100 chairs in a high-traffic place on campus. Ten people spread out over 70 chairs (lying down, stretching out) while 90 people have to fit on the remaining 30 chairs. This shows that 10 percent have 70 percent of the wealth, while all the rest (90 percent) have only 30 percent of the wealth. You can modify this using 10 chairs and 10 people or use this concept to demonstrate other statistics.

Source: United for a Fair Economy

Human Bar Graph

One hundred students line up to represent the president's salary, while one person represents a janitor's salary. A sign or spokesperson explains what is represented. Source: United for a Fair Economy: The Campus Living Wage Campaign

Interactive Theatre

Create a short (5 minute) skit on some issue (for example, hunger, homelessness, racism, sexism). Make the skit controversial. Go through the whole skit once for your audience. Then repeat the skit, allowing the people in the audience to say "stop" at any point. The person stopping the skit then replaces a character they choose and changes the play. Hold a discussion at the end.

Guerrilla Theatre

Create a dramatization that highlights your issue. For example, when Georgetown University students were protesting sweatshop labor in the production of campus wear, they staged a fashion show in a high-traffic area of campus. Students donned clothes with the university logo, and as they strutted down the walkway, the emcee talked about the sub-standard wages paid to workers who assembled the clothes. Guerrilla Theatre was used in the 1980s to dramatize death squad abductions in Central America. Students would stage an "abduction" in the cafeteria; this creative action engaged many students to join in Central American solidarity work.

Invisible Theatre

Create a situation that will draw on-lookers into a discussion about an important issue. Example: Two people go into a clothing store where sweatshop labor is being used to manufacture the clothes. The cell phone of one person rings. "Hello. Yeah, I'm here shopping at the (Name of Store). What? You're kidding! They use sweatshop labor to produce their clothes? Hey (to other person, in a loud voice so that others can hear), did you know that (Name of Store) uses sweatshop labor to make their clothes?" Draw the other shoppers and staff people into a discussion on living wages as a human right (see Global Exchange, globalexchange.org, for current campaigns on living wages and other issues).

Demonstrating Inadequate Shelter

Build shantytown housing on campus to demonstrate how people not earning a decent wage are forced to live in many countries. Sleep out in your quad to demonstrate homelessness in the U.S.

Cyber Activism

Rallying a Large Group of People for an Event (Virtual Organizing)

As the November 1999 Seattle WTO and the April 2000 IMF/World Bank protests showed, the Internet can be an extremely powerful organizing tool.

Tips:

Create a web page to go with your event. Make your emails short and direct people to a hyperlink to the web for more details. Make sure your page is always up to date.
Find a service provider that will allow people to easily subscribe to your listserv (try groups.yahoo.com orgroups.msn.com)

Op-Ed Pieces

Op-Ed Pieces are a highly effective way of expressing your opinion in the newspaper. Op-Eds are opinion pieces that appear opposite editorial pages. They are persuasive, well thought-out, well-written, short in length (usually about 800 words) but longer than a letter to the editor, and authored by a high-profile person or someone who has experience with the issue. The published op-ed should be timely, and present a strong, well-informed position, supported by facts.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor represent your perspective in the local newspaper and can be a counter argument for articles that you do not agree with. They also:

reach a large audience;
are monitored by elected officials and other decision-makers; and
create an impression of widespread support for or against an issue.

Press Releases

A press release is a full and succinct account of your story/event, usually one or two pages, and should be written as a news article. Press releases help editors write an article. In fact, some small community newspapers will actually print your press release "as is."

The first paragraph is the lead. It is one to three sentences long and answers "who, what, when, where, why, and how?" The lead must grab the editor's attention.
The second paragraph is the bridge. It provides the source and a transition for the more detailed information.
The third paragraph is the body. The information given in the lead is explained in detail in the body. Add quotations, facts not included in the lead, and general information on the organization.
Add a photograph to grab attention.
Follow-up with a phone call and/or personal visit-it may increase their interest in the story.

Bruges/Brussels

2009-10-22T19:40:00.000-04:00

So I went to Bruges / Brussels last weekend...

saw crazy awesome wall art

... saw some all-around beautiful stuff

saw some outrageous propaganda (Chocolate Museum of Bruges)

... and some bizarre images...

such as this one...

and a dead rabbit.

(Purpose? To demonstrate what 20 cocoa beans was worth hundreds of years ago.

Why? Because people don't know what a dead fucking rabbit looks like.

I'm going to write these people a series of letters until this body is removed from the Musée de Chocolat in Bruges )

... and a taste of oppression.

I did, however, see a lot of beautiful things in spite of all the exploitation/oppression... more photos of which are soon to come, after i repose myself a bit.

FLORIDA VEG VEST: October 24 2009 - Orlando

2009-10-14T16:25:00.000-04:00

VegFest! For info click here.

PVs and Veganism as a Religion?

2009-10-11T05:24:00.000-04:00

LESSON OF THE DAY:

Everyone is a potential vegan. I mean EVERYONE.

Everyone is a possible vegan. OK, yes, I think it was somewhere in a how-to activism guide or something that in terms of efficiency, you shouldn't cater to really old people or guys who seem to really love preparing their meat. But I honestly think veganism spreads in all and any directions, even if there are venues that are more likely to latch on to vegetarianism/veganism. Alright, don't try to convert folks on their deathbeds, because that's just not nice (come on, are we that desperate?), nor is it efficient for the movement. But otherwise, have at it. (EX: Health food stores, fitness centers, nutrition centers, pet stores(eesh), pet-related things, other social justice movements, universities, children-centers, etc. are great places to start)

Veganism isn't necessarily like a religion (although it can become religion-esque for a lot of people). I think that defining Veganism as a religion is very problematic because it takes the objectivity and the ultimate reality out of the matter. (this is not a critique of traditional religion. Though I am not religious, I am not about to defame any of them). However, it is largely agreed that religion is a perspective. Although each group views their god or gods as the proper god, we have had to come to terms with the fact that we all live on the same planet and that therefore this must be something about interpretation. On the contrary, it is not as if veganism and vegetarianism is opposed by a number of strong unified groups of meat-eaters that ritualistically worship their meat. No, no, what we see with the veg/AR movement is a spectrum

Omni-->Flexitarian-->Pescetarian-->Lacto-Ovo Vegetarian-->VEGAN

To say that veganism and vegetarianism is a religion is to shut your eyes to reality. While on the one hand i am not hesitant to hide my own animality -- to show that I have urges and instincts and other things which we try to conceal from ourselves as a 'supreme' species, I think that we have no need to gnaw on other animals to sustain ourselves. Our societies and civilizations have become so developed (in the traditional sense of the word) that killing other animals is completely superfluous and frankly inefficient for society, environment, etc. Because it is unnecessary to sustain ourselves via animal products, it is cruel to use them. (I personally don't believe in using animals for any means, so...)

Point of the story: Veganism is not a religion.

(I wish i had the motivation for mindless schoolwork that i do for vegan activism.)

The politics of animal rights.

2009-10-10T19:43:00.001-04:00

It seems that the animal rights movement is like a human body suffering from a flu.

Every organization is like an organ, theoretically and ultimately working together for the same cause but in the mean time doing all kinds of crazy shit to spite one another. In this flu-ish haze that is animal rights, organizations have a hard time working together on immediate things, and often keep each other from moving forward.

There needs to be some kind of Tylenol for the animal rights movement (non-animal-tested Tylenol, then)

- organizations have to be able to coexist. Public displays of hatred are unacceptable. Don't have to be buddy-buddy, or anything. In fact, it is much better to have several different organizations and groups because they all cater to different people and accomplish different things. But some basic manners need to be observed.

- organizations need better online social networking

- veg*n organizations need to recognize that their methods may vary from audience to audience

- everyone in the AR Movement has a different place on the grand spectrum of other social movements : if an individual refuses to normalize themselves for the cause, who are we to normalize them/force them to blend?

- Other things which will come up when I am less sleepy

en fait (in reality), what we need to realize is that no single activist is more successful than a group of activists. That said, we MUST educate ourselves adequately (and beyond) if we want an effective movement. We need people from all over -- politics studies, lit, sociology, photo, graphic design, media/journalism, etc. As much as we need people who are going to go hand-in-hand in the movement, we need people who know their shit.

And we NEED more people to study the veg*n movement as a whole. Absolutely. In the U.S. and abroad, to see how things are going, what methods and approaches are effective, and how we can recognize the optimism which the movement surely merits.

Look at civil rights and women's rights movements, for instance, and the similarities are undeniable. Seemingly radical at the time, women have the right to vote in many countries in the world... and soon that will be ANIMAL RIGHTS! Woo! I can't wait.

Things to Think About TODAY:

How can I make the most impact on the movement RIGHT NOW?
Do I have the right personal attitude for this (Am I sustaining myself)?
Do I know enough about the things I believe in? (Can I learn more to help the cause?)
Have I honed in and developed on any natural skills that I have[that can be useful for the movement]?
Do i have an adequate vegan support network? (If not, how can I go about expanding my vegan friend network and resource network?
Have I figured out what my own personal most effective medium of convincing people is?
Most importantly: ... when is the last time I baked vegan cupcakes?

Translating for Animal Rights Orgs

2009-10-08T04:23:00.000-04:00

I've discovered a new way to be helpful in the Animal Rights Movement -- translating! Since English is kind of a hegemony, it's helpful to be able to translate things back and forth. However, it is dawning on me just how hard it is to capture all the subtleties of the language, and how easy it can be to just transform a piece that was once moderate French into slightly liberal English. Which changes a lot ! Moral of the story - i have a lot of respect for people who do this professionally.

ADA Paper 2009

2009-10-05T04:53:00.000-04:00

In case you missed this ADA document published this year, please check it out here.

"Position of the American Dietetic Association: Vegetarian Diets"

It is the position of the American Di-

etetic Association that appropriately

planned vegetarian diets, including

total vegetarian or vegan diets, are

healthful, nutritionally adequate, and

may provide health beneﬁts in the

prevention and treatment of certain

diseases. Well-planned vegetarian di-

ets are appropriate for individuals

during all stages of the life cycle, in-

cluding pregnancy, lactation, infancy,

childhood, and adolescence, and for

athletes. A vegetarian diet is deﬁned

as one that does not include meat (in-

cluding fowl) or seafood, or products

containing those foods

Please note that vegetarianism and veganism has been officially approved for ALL STAGES OF LIFE, including infancy, pregnancy, and lactation. Vegan babies, here we come!

Camera Broken

2009-10-02T14:08:00.000-04:00

So, my camera broke, meaning my blog will probably once again return to a rambly mess of random tidbits about the day.

Yesterday: Tabled at the Place de la Sorbonne for World Farm Animal Day with an organization called Fourrure Torture, who I guess will be my organization while I'm in France, since I've already tabled with them twice, and they do events almost every week. Which is good for me. Also, I've already had the opportunity to speak English and German with people - some of which successfully donated money!

(TBC)

How To Table : Activism 101

2009-09-28T02:46:00.000-04:00

THE BARE BASICS:

- Table (didn't see that coming, did you?)

* lightweight, folding-tables are the best

- Literature

* Know your stuff! If someone asks you a question about your literature, you shouldn't have to reread it. This doesn't mean that there won't be questions you don't know, but you should at least know what you're handing out...

* Have a variety of documents available and remember that your audience is varied!

* A lot of organizations make it really easy for activists to get literature, so just contact an organization pertinent to your cause and see if they can't help you out.

- Donation Can

- Paper & Pen

* to write down the names of other activists who want to get involved

- Permission

I know, I know getting permission to express yourself?? But to maintain a peaceful and effective stand, I recommend asking permission first. It is not difficult to do, all you need is at least 2 weeks before your event. Contact your local government or police office for more information. Make sure to ask what the conditions of your permit are, and what kind of equipment is prohibited.

THE REST:

Posters preferably at least one with your group's name on it in huge letters :) Doesn't need to be perfect, but a poster is almost a must.
Petitions
Email List of folks who want to get involved. (See Paper & Pen above)
Paperweights (which could be as easy as having more pens)
Tablecloth
TV: crappy is fine. TV's are large enough that they capture the attention of the masses quite easily, especially for veg activism. (A laptop can be substituted easily, since they are ubiquitous. However, the mere size of a TV makes it appealing. Save up for one of these bad boys if you can.
Tent: Makes your tabling experience a lot more bearable, for you, in heat, rain, or shine. Trust me.
Chairs: This goes along with the whole idea of making your tabling experience comfortable, but it may as well be in the necessary category if you're planning on tabling for several hours on end. Folding chairs, naturally.
Items to Sell (proceeds can go to whatever cause you're tabling for, or for equipment for better tabling.) Ideas include: Pins, Stickers, Posters, Wristbands, Apparel with your Logo (can be made at a DIY/Printing store). I am personally a fan of the pins, because it allows your org to make $ as well as your movement to grow!
Food! (Please consider making vegan food because (a) its harder to spoil, since there are no eggs, milk, meaty, whatever, in it (b) it's better for the environment (c) it tastes just as good, if not better. Naturally I'm speaking to people who *aren't* already vegan and/or tabling for veganism, haha.)
Books Pertinent to Your Cause, to decorate the table & because then you just look smarter...

THINGS TO HAVE HANDY

tape
rope/cord
scissors
fat marker and/or sharpie
BandAids? Activists mean business ;)

THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

Deciding where to Table: Find a central location with a lot of foot traffic.
If you have not already formed a group, search around for individuals with the same activist interests as you, and see if you can help out. Otherwise start your own group and work on gaining interested activists!
Do not clutter your table too much
Smiling is good
Tabling with 2-3 people is more effective than tabling with one person.
Take breaks if you get tired out.
Hand people literature. Do not wait for them to ask for it. People can be hesitant and shy... put yourself out there!
Tabling around specific events is VERY helpful. Petitions can also be effective.
Get ready for assholes. They are everywhere, but they make everyone else look better. Also it allows you to become a much more hardy activist.

Roasted Beet-Tofu Burgers

2009-09-27T13:01:00.000-04:00

Holy shit this looks delish:

http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2009/09/roasted-beet-tofu-burgers.html

stole the above pic from the site "FatFree Vegan." CHECK IT OUT!

VEGFEST: Samedi 26 Septembre

2009-09-27T08:04:00.001-04:00

This picture hit me hard. It means: My Flesh Belongs to Me!

Notre stand de "Fourrure Torture"

(A group that has 3 campaigns: Anti-vivisection, Anti-fur, vegetarian (vegan) diet)

I had a conversation with a guy from Sénégal [in English, actually] and he was like, ' OK, so if I wanted to become vegetarian tomorrow i could? Nothing special? ' He was my success of the day. Woo! It was also quite practical to have an American/English-speaker, because seeing as there are so many tourists in Paris, there are many opportunities to speak English. Woo! Also, it's very helpful for me to hear all the arguments in French, so as to further my French. I feel like I'm making pretty good connections here so far ;)

In front of our stand

In front of the stand for the group "Lush"

No idea why they would put 74% Vegetalien (74% Vegan)... Same vegetarian/vegan debates as in the states, it seems. Weird. Their soaps looked pretty sweet-as though... (See below)

(Yes, those are soaps!)

Lots of badges, books, and vegan treats to be sold. VEGETARIAN SHOES even made an appearance and were selling shoes! Unfortunately the boots I wanted were already sold out. Fortunately they have a website.

Veg Mag, and they had DELICIOUS vegan goodies, including what seemed to be a pumpkin loaf.

Sweet.

Peta en France! (Not a very strong group in France, actually. I think that the Fondation Brigitte Bardot is the equivalent of Peta, with regards to its famousness and its use of sexism to convey its point.)

Another AR org in Paris: droits des animaux. They were selling some pretty wicked shirts, I must say:

Excellent stuff. I bought myself a t-shirt here, and oogled all the other goodies.

This guy on the left here was smart and bought a bunch of plain vests and had vegetarian propaganda put on the backs of them (unfortunately I failed to take a photo). Virtually an iron-on. Anyway, the vests also have very large pockets, making them perfect for flyering/brochure-handing-outing.

L214: An organization based upon the law that says that animals should not be killed except out of necessity. They have naturally taken this further and said that animals are not necessary for human consumption and nutrition. They are a traditionally welfarist organization and advertise the importance of cage-free eggs. (Not inherently bad, but this is where certain vegans would be turned off.)

Health Food Store... en France!

2009-09-27T06:50:00.000-04:00

3 Health Food stores near me (3 within 6 blocks)

Lots of delicious things, and many vegan options. Seitan, tofu, croque tofu (several styles), and the vegan cheese here is so delicious. I bought the Seitan en tranches (see blue box in above photo), which I prepared with some tomato salad, and a creamy spinach dish. C'était délicieux!

Vegan Tabling Day Pics- Dimanche

2009-09-22T17:09:00.001-04:00

Vegan.fr in the flesh. Vegan flesh, that is. (Yep that's me in the middle!)

Another stand.

Our stand

Conference This Thursday: Anti-Vivisection

2009-09-21T18:15:00.001-04:00

Flash Mob Alarme à la Bastille

2009-09-21T18:03:00.001-04:00

This morning I went to a "Flash Mob Alarme" manif to raise awareness of environmental problems. Basically a bunch of people showed up and rang their alarm clocks and cellphones at 12:18 PM at the same time to make some noise and at the same time, people were calling their representatives and demanding that environmental concerns be taken into account with upcoming legislation.

FAWAFFLES?!

2009-09-21T17:10:00.000-04:00

Um oh my god this deserves its own post:

FAWAFFLES.

http://www.veggie-wedgie.com/?p=976

i LOVE falafel, and i LOVE waffles, so this looks like one giant orgasm to me.

That is all.

[Accidentally Vegan] Moroccan Crêpes/Pancakes: Baghrir

2009-09-21T14:01:00.000-04:00

VEGAN MOROCCAN CRÊPES*

This makes a thicker, bready-ish, crêpe with many small holes. It is delish with a bit of jam or fruit sauce (maybe some pineapple + arrowroot powder + sugar, heated on the stove until thick?). The traditional recipe calls for butter + honey, so I vote for vegan margarine + agave nectar!

1 bowl semolina (wiki)

1/2 bowl flour

baking powder (varies by region and by the size of the bowl, I'd say a teaspoon is more than enough. However, baking powder isn't a biggie.)

spoonful of sugar

small spoonful of salt

2 bowls of hot water

Mix and leave in fridge overnight (you can probably make it right away with American baking powder, but here they have to wait).

Pour into circles onto a lightly greased frying-pan. Cook to perfection. Again, these are not traditional French crêpes, these are more like a pancake/crêpe hybrid. They are pretty great, and one of my host dads, Samir just taught me how to make them.

*Written in neither metric nor english form, so as to make it a universal recipe. Bowl is a consistent bowl -- probably about ... 2- cups? just experiment -- this is what cooking is all about!

Sunday 20 Septembre: Journée de l'animal

2009-09-21T05:15:00.000-04:00

Sunday -- la journée du patrimoine -- I spent approximately 6 hours tabling for veganism with an organization called "Vegan.fr" at a big gathering of AR orgs, centering around the sale of rescued cats and dogs. Vegan.fr is an abolitionist organisation, it is comprised of approximately 19 people, 7 of whom were at the actual event. It was very interesting to see the same divisions in the animal rights movement in France as in the states; the abolitionist/welfarist organizations do *not* get along very well. Seeing as I happened to stumble upon vegan.fr first, I did chill with them, but I fall somewhere between the abolitionist/welfarist argument. I honestly do not believe that the abolitionist approach will get people to consider veganism, even if it *is* the more moral approach (most of the people running these so called vegetarian organizations are vegan anyway). Maybe it's too capitalist of me to say, but I think it's all about numbers -- if there are 100 cows dying in the next ten minutes, I don't want to give those 100 cows solidarity by telling their exploiters that they deserve the absolute best and that we should treat them as equals, though I thoroughly believe it. I think that veganism is not an easy perspective to gain all at once, which is why so many vegans are vegetarians first -- it takes a bit to realize just how much consciousness these animals have. And once you stop eating meat, *then* it's much easier to question milk and cheese. Again, I *never* *ever* give people vegetarian recipes that include cheese and milk. I simply call my regime vegetarian so people don't tell me to fuck off. Once there are more vegetarians on the earth, then I think that the abolitionist movement can become stronger. Again, I am in no way saying we don't need exclusively vegan organizations, but my experience with this highly-exclusive, virtually purist vegan organization turned me off. Dressing in all black and bickering amongst other vegans just isn't making much sense to me. I understand those people who don't want to fight for bigger cages -- i am n0 fan of that. But advocating a vegetarian diet or a veg diet rather than bluntly saying GO VEGAN is fine. It's about numbers, it's about the movement, it's about change. Animals are dying every second, and we unfortunately all play into exploitation in small ways, so I am of the mindset that i do not support injustice in my personal life, and I advocate for justice. However, I do so as an activist, as a vegangelist, not as a philosopher. I have strong principles and philosophy about speciesism, but I do not want to be an unopened textbook, I want to be change.

Someone once told me "The only way you can attract bees is with... agave nectar." I think I want to make a shirt out of this.

http://cleda.over-blog.com/article-36189929.html

UPDATE: I just stumbled upon this article, and it seems quite appropriate: Tension between Vegans & Vegetarians

Saturday Mornings, Cookie Crumbs & Lingering Sleep-Deprivation

2009-09-19T04:42:00.000-04:00

Restaurant Loving Hut

http://www.lovinghut.fr/

This is pretty great. A totally vegan resto (along with 2 others) in the meat-center of Paris! I think I may go AUJOURD'HUI!

I went to a health food store yesterday and found

- Nutritional Yeast

- TVP

- Almond Milk

- Soy milk (obvi)

- Rice milk

- Oat cream

- Quinoa milk

- Hazelnut milk!

And some vegan cookies. Which I have promptly consumed.

In other news, after emailing my life away to AR orgs in Paris, I finally got a connection! They're already having a tabling event this Sunday (with too many people -- 7 of their 19-person army of love). So I'm super pumped to take part in that! Gotta read my "Animal Liberation" in french. Makes me wish I had more time ...

Also, my program director recommended an internship/volunteership at the WWF. As far as I know, it's a pretty tame organization (ha! tame! I'm so funny.) and may actually go against veganism if it comes down to specifics. So. . . but i need a job! If anyone knows an AR organization that would like to offer help... I'm getting desperate!

Oh yesterday I made pancakes and it was a minor-fail, but they were still pretty damn tasty. Because of the conversion things, I ended up eyeballing a lot of stuff.. her's the recipe

VEGAN PANCAKES*

- 2 tsp (small... spoons?) baking powder**

- 1/2 tsp of cannelle (cinnamon, en français)

- 2-3 small spoons sugar (sugar added because i had no maple syrup to top my pancakes

- 1 3/4 cups flour - 2 cups flour (T65 in France. Flour for patisseries)

- 1.5 cups soy milk + 1 Tbls apple cider vinegar (put aside to let curdle for 5)

- 1.5 cups well-mashed banana

- Walnut pieces, approx 1/2-3/4 cup

- 1 Tbls sunflower oil (canola oil works better, I think).

Key to cooking is to taste your batter after you're done and add ingredients by taste!

Served with banana slices, cocoa powder & powdered sugar. (No one ever said these were health pancakes). If you don't have maple syrup like I did, consider making some mashed banana sauce -- add a pinch of soy milk or soy cream to your banana mush, and possibly some granulated sugar if you're feeling up for it to make a delicious topping.

*This recipe is much better when you add almond extract (1/4 tsp) and vanilla extract (1/2-1 tsp)

**baking powder in France is BIZARRE.

2009-09-15T18:05:00.000-04:00

Oh and we just made some hummus. They have a food processor which is MUY helpful (I want one!) but can also be done by hand:

some garlic cloves
pinch(es) salt
chick-peas, drained and rinsed
well stirred tahini
fresh lemon juice, or to taste
hint of olive oil
whatever else your heart desires

BEST DONE ACCORDING TO TASTE, but here is a recipe from Epicurious:

4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon salt
two 1-pound 3-ounce cans chick-peas, drained and rinsed
2/3 cup well stirred tahini
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, or to taste
1/2 cup olive oil, or to taste
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
2 tablespoons pine nuts, toasted lightly

Accompaniment:Toasted Pita Thins

print a shopping list for this recipe

preparation

On a cutting board mince and mash the garlic to a paste with the salt. In a food processor purée the chick-peas with the garlic paste, the tahini, the lemon juice, 1/4 cup of the oil, and 1/2 cup water, scraping down the sides, until the hummus is smooth and add salt to taste. Add water, if necessary, to thin the hummus to the desired consistency and transfer the hummus to a bowl. In the food processor, cleaned, purée the remaining 1/4 cup oil with the parsley until the oil is bright green and the parsley is minced transfer the parsley oil to a small jar. The hummus and the parsley oil may be made 3 days in advance and kept covered and chilled. Divide the hummus between shallow serving dishes and smooth the tops. Drizzle the hummus with the parsley oil and sprinkle it with the pine nuts. Serve the hummus with the pita.

Highlights: Aniseed Vegan Cake and YES MEN!

2009-09-15T17:34:00.000-04:00

OK! I return.

The weekend à la campagne was great! I got to chill with the bébé and Ghislain's family (who still lives in this little town in the Lorraine region). He had apparently spoken to like everyone in advance so as to make sure everything was vegan. It's pretty convenient to have a vegetarian to speak for you because, well in France, it seems, vegetarianism is about as alien as veganism. We had some pretty delish food there though, i'm not gonna lie. Brussel sprouts were def at the top. (Sorry all my friends who wonder why I'm so obsessed with food. Go vegan, and your love for food shall blossom!)

We walked around the petite village and I got to see all the beautiful greenery. Saw a few pastures -- cows, and lambs, all of whom seemed to be beckoning for me to open zee gate. We ate fruit directly from the trees, and it was marvelous. Organic at its finest. It was beautiful, but also mighty quiet. (Said town has about 100 inhabitants, max. It's so isolated that the boulanger comes by car to sell bread to the town.)

After chilling with his family on Saturday and then staying at his sister's on Sunday for food (and so much wine! agh!), we headed home. Got in about 6:30pm, promenaded with my friend who lives in the same quartier, then had some delicious pumpkin-carroty soup made with a fresh pumpkin we had stolen from Ghislain's sister's house earlier that day.

MONDAY:

Mildly freaked out because my friend said classes WERE starting today (monday) at Paris 7, contrary to what a random woman in the Sociology Dept. said. So after a short-lived hour or two of concern, I figured out my stuff. (No class at Paris 7 until next week.) I went to Reid Hall, hung out with some friends, got some déjeuner (lunch), then sat in on a class I'm considering switching in to (namely L'idée du monstre, The idea of the monster). As an AR-person, I think analyzing animality and human fear of animality could be quite an engaging endeavor.

Speaking of AR, activism-withdrawal is seriously kicking me in the balls. I'm trying super hard to connect with orgs, but no one responds to my emails, and i've emailed dozens. Agh! Cracktivism.... Must have... orgs! (Oh well, i'll make my own activism.)

Another Highlight: More vegan cake is made! This time, slightly too dry because Ghislain didn't use soy milk or even anything to remplace les oeufs (eggs) -- you don't need it to actually cook it, but sometimes it helps create a nice texture if you add banana or apple sauce or tapioca or flax seed or the official egg-replacer (which i have yet to try). We threw some soy yoghurt on there and we were happy campers.

TUESDAY:

9h00-12h30 Orientation at Paris 7. Lots and lots of french. Met nice french folks. Got free crap, including a smoothie. (Random, I know.)

14h00-17h00 Run around quartier latin, finally cave in response to apparent caffeine addiction for a café ... in a café, of course. Watch people gorge themselves on shopping.

17h45-19h45 Globalization of sub-Saharan Africa Class. Prof gives us a paper and asks us to label all the African countries. Shame is felt.

19h45-20h00 People look at their watches a lot - class is supposed to be out, but this dude is pretty bavarde (chatty)

20h25 Ghislain calls me and asks where I am...

20h26 I entre dans la maison

20h30 Orgasmic food is consumed, including Samosas and Samir's famous Ramadan Moroccan soup. Oh and leftover vegan cake. I feel like I am going to vomit from all the deliciousness.

21h00 Samir has to leave for work because he got screwed over this week.

21h30 See Yes Men! for the first time, on French TV. Ghislain thinks they are genius. I tell him how we wanted to bring them to Vassar, and he is impressed. I also now remember Gene Baur raving about these dudes.

22h30 Watch TV show on the politique of La Gauche (the Left) in Germany and France.

23h00 Conversation with Ghislain about the mediocrity/shittiness of capitalism, but the difficulty in determining the most effective replacement on a large-scale.

C'est tout!

Oh here's a link on veg budgeting:

http://hungryhungryveganos.wordpress.com/2009/07/06/vegan-on-the-cheap/

Random Schtuffs

2009-09-10T17:41:00.000-04:00

Today I woke up still feeling crappy (un peu enrhumé, one could say). I woke up, had my petit déjeuner with Ghislain (because Samir leaves early). Then the Nounou came in, and I left the room so he could properly explain to her that she was being ridiculous. (She no longer wants to take care of the other baby because she cries too much. What are babysitters for ? Just wondering. If it's not taking care of crying babies, I'm not sure what I've been doing...)

After that, I left at about 9:45 to catch my 10:30 emergency filling appointment, thinking that'd be MORE than enough time. But no. I walked in at 10:33 after rushing my ass off. Turns out it was literally on the OTHER side of Paris, namely the 8ème Arrondissement. When I got off the metro stop, i literally walked out onto the Arc du Triomphe, looking onto the Champs Élysées. (Life is tough!) The dentist was sketch as hell, but fortunately he spoke english very well. He only took cash (hence the sketch), but whatever. I no longer have a huge hole on the side of my face where a filling once was.

I had good intentions of meeting up with everyone, because today was their day to go into the 8ème Arrondissement luckily enough, but then I started feeling crappy and fevery and just wanted to go home. I went to Monoprix and bought myself some lunch (supermarkets = cheaper than cafés. By far!) and then I treated myself to a cadeau that I've been meaning to get for a while, namely an AR book in French. THe only one that can be found without being specially ordered was naturally Animal Liberation (La libération animale) by Peter Singer, which I have already begun to read.

I got home, fixed up my resumé to send off to AR orgs in France -- even though i'm not going to be officially hired anyway -- and tried to figure out more of my class stuff. (Honestly I'm LIVID with this program right now. So much stress and strain, and they don't help at all. In fact, the director has just been sending bitchy emails to me like i'm a 4 year old. And well, honestly, that's no fun.

I napped and chatted with some loverly folks online. I hid out in my room while Ghislain & Samir interviewed the new Nounou (babysitter). I don't think they cared for her too much, so they'll just still with the old one right now. Samir ultimately pulled me out from my room :) and we all had dinner (TONIGHT: delicious eggplant, peppers, rice with some salad and pain, of course. The french don't know how to live w/o pain.) Some yaourt de soja and some chocolat noir for dessert.

After dessert, Ghislain corrected my french exercise -- it was really funny. He like counted them all up and everything, and then gave it back to me like it was a graded assignment haha. Then we all played Baccalauriat (which is apparently like... Here's a letter. Now think of a fruit, a veggie, a city, country, profession, and object that begins with that letter). I played in French and Ghislain in english. Samir was in charge of the letters/falling asleep. I sucked, needless to say, and Ghislain invented a few words.

Tomorrow is the big day that we're off to the campagne to visit Ghislain's mother, so, pas d'Internet pour moi! Oh well. Soon enough. Anyway, I'm going to upload some images I thought were cool, leave me some feedbacks if you is being wanting to.

Permitted, but [only if] kept on a Leash...

FML I hate my french

2009-09-09T09:46:00.000-04:00

Apparently my french sucks. A lot. I feel like it's not getting better unfortunately, because i become more and more aware of how awesome everyone else's french is -- everyone else being... well... The French. Hah.

I spent all morning trying to figure out my classes -- only to discover that the course lists hadn't even been made up yet. It's stressful because its all do-it-yourself and the actual study abroad program does virtually nothing to help you. No wait, scratch that. Completely nothing.

Ce soir is the réunion de cinéma at Reid Hall, so we're going to be watching a film of some sort, and i'll be missing the wondrous cooking skills of my pères d'accueil (host fathers). That's all for now. More later.

But I'm trying not to be American!

2009-09-08T16:59:00.000-04:00

Seriously. These guys kick fucking ass.

For all my loyal followers of this post... I am sorry.

Dinner:

- Pizza bites (homemade, naturally) w/ mushrooms, spinach, capers and tomato sauce for me

- Salade aux noix et aux pommes (Salad w/ nuts & apples) w/ a nice homemade vinaigrette.

- Delicious Moroccan soup of noodles, lentils, tomatoes and a variety of veggies.

- hummus of champions (yes, champions.)

- i had no room left for the leftover orgasm chocolate vegan cake. you know the previous dishes were good when there's no more room for gateau végétal au chocolat.

So apparently my french accent sucks a lot, in spite of my french teachers... and I thought I had a pretty decent accent! Anyway, I keep speaking in French in places, and people respond in english -- even if i don't really hesitate in my shitty french. Ugh, my pride.

Ghislain was really nice and said that if I wanted to improve my french i should write like 5-10 sentences about my day each day and they should correct it. I thought that was pretty nice, considering that it's totally not their job.

Mardi à Paris: Lauren is a Lazy-Ass Obnoxious Blogger

2009-09-08T11:23:00.000-04:00

Yeah until classes start, i think i'm gonna be an obnoxious blogger. So if you don't like that, don't check my blog. That easy! ;)

Ce matin: More moroccan crêpes... and almond butter! I honestly don't mean for this to be all about food, but delish is the name of the game here. I made myself lunch and was very dissatisfied. (And usually I am never dissapointed by cumin, nutritional yeast and broccoli, yet they failed me aujourd'I need to take my cooking skills up a notch here. I was going to surprise them with vegan cookies, but alas, they wrote on my sheet that i shouldn't use the stove when they're not there (fair enough, but but but.... ) All in due time.

Went to Paris VII today to try to figure out classes, ended up being in the wrong arrondissement entirely, showed up late to the meeting for orientation (which ended up being distancing and ridiculous anyway, so i left that early haha). Some of you readers are perhaps proud of my slothfulness. You know who you are.

When I went to the Bio shop, I was very happy to see vegan things (végétal) but it's interesting to note that there are proportionally fewer vegan things in bio/health food stores in France than in the U.S. Perhaps that has to do with the fact that there are very few vegetarians here? Mmm lots of work to be done.

Oh and veal and foie gras is everywhere. Not a stereotype! Some people were handing out foie gras SAMPLES at the winery near Bordeaux. SAMPLES! How can you hand out samples of that much cruelty?? Say what you will about "humane slaughter" but no one can win an argument saying that foie gras is humane. I will fight you to the death on that one.

ANYWAY.

Ghislain & Samir also invited me to join them this weekend to see Ghislain's mom in Lorraine. All weekend! I hope this means they like me because they are hella awesome. Also I'm missing out on the Musée d'Immigration because of them, soooo we better have some fun :)

Damn I am tired. No idea why. I spent most of the day either on the metro or in the park attempting to get WiFi. Oh and my cellphone is now broken - dunno why - so if any of you who have my france # are having trouble reaching me... Tant pis pour vous (Too bad for you) ;) Reach me via Skype.

I'm gonna go sleep now. Or buy some yarn with which to knit. (tricoter for you french-savvy folk)

P.S. That picture is the view from my window in the good ol' 12ème Arrondissement.

Premier Lundi à Paris: VWPP &

2009-09-07T13:54:00.001-04:00

This morning Samir made Moroccan crêpes with jam. they were delish and the texture was fab. Also some pretty delicious almond biscottis that Ghislaim made yesterday. However, i'm still coming to terms with the fact that the French eat VERY LITTLE for le petit déjeuner (breakfast) and a LOAD for le dîner. After watching both of the dudes head out for work, one left in a suit. Schmancy-pants! Pfft and the homophobic woman at the VWPP said they were "unintellectual." Unintellectual my ass!

Today was the first day at Reid Hall -- we had some mediocre orientation (basically, don't dress like a prostitute on the metro after midnight and look at a map) after which we had lunch (they refused to provide me with a simply sandwich au crudités, crudités being the vegetables, so i went to the supermarché quite close to the school. And then I discovered a bio restaurant right there with loads of veg options! Unfortunately it was pretty pricey for my budget, so I turned down the deliciousness for a pretty tasty pre-made salad for a euro and a half.

After lugging home a huge ass package of luna bars (Thanks, Mom) and falling down a flight of stairs, I headed back off to the metro, where we took a nice boat ride on the Seine. On the subway, however, I ran into a pretty radical dude who was singing political songs and criticizing Sarkozy for being too rightist, and even singing against environmental destruction. It was honestly really awesome to hear, though most people shuddered, laughed, etc, and thought he was going to rape and/or rob them. I gave him a piece of money and he started talking to me WAY too fast, unfortunately for me, but I think he said something like "things are gonna change" and "you should sing too." That was nice to see. Maybe he said I should go fuck myself. The world may never know.

Now I'm back at my humble abode in the 12ième Arrondissement, about to go play with the bébé and see what's cooking for dinn-dinn. I hear the stovetop a-crackling. And the smell! Hopefully delicious things are a-happening over yonder...

Lauren in Paris!

2009-09-06T04:08:00.000-04:00

Alrighty, so I know that I haven't been keeping up with this blog at all - thanks to the mediocre/non-existing internet at my host family's house in Bordeaux. Now i'm in Paris (*said with a French accent* Pah-reeeee) and just getting to know my host family.

My host family is a gay couple (Ghislain & Samir) with a pétit bébé that's 9 months old, and one of the two guys in a végétarien. It's pretty awesome. I shall take a picture of all 4 of us sometime soon. But not only is he a végétarian for health reasons, he totally gets the animal rights angle -- Apparently a Peta / KFC video pushed him over the edge! That and Babe. These guys love to take walks (which is good, because i've been eating a lot of pain (bread)), so we had a little promenade through this awesome parc really close to the apartment in the 12 Arrondissement. We saw THREE magasins bio (health food/organic food stores), yet somehow vegetarianism is only 1% of the population here (yes, vegetarianism! not even veganism, which is 'végétalien'). Saturday after I got here, I went for a long walk with Ghislain and the bébé Nathaniel and talked about the importance of animals and how people who abandon their animals are stupid. And then we talked about BABE the movie. It was a pretty great day.

These guys are super chill and since they have a baby they aren't really ridiculous about the strict long-dinner habit here, that is to say you can get up after an hour of dinner for a moment if need be (In Bordeaux it's a *minimum* of one hour for dinner. Usually more. Try that with broken french. Fun times.)

But the guys are great and yesterday they said that we should figure out a way to extend my plan so that I can eat more meals with them (the program says 3 meals/week, plus breakfast). But this is awesome news for me because this guys cook delicious things! Some of the things I've eaten:

- lots and lots of dates

- vegan almond biscottis

- carrottes Moroccains (carottes with a variety of spices, particularly cumin, with lemon zest!)

- Quinoa!!

- authentic Moroccan Couscous

- Homemade gazpacho

- vegan chocolate cake

- homemade bread

- homemade hummus (apparently not hard to make! lots cheaper, too.)

- plus lots and lots of other delicious carby things. (The french love their bready carbs!)

And yesterday I went to the Louvre! I'll have to upload a few pictures soon, but Paris is great thus far. Lovely weather and no tourists in my neighborhood!!

OK that's it for now, i'm off to Reid Hall for an orientation. And then a break and then boating on the Seine. Oh life is tough...

British Veal is Better!

2009-07-15T17:27:00.000-04:00

CALF LIFE: Wanted Not Wasted
Compassion in World Farming wants UK male dairy calves to be reared under the
highest welfare systems possible. We want a permanent end to live export of our
calves to continental veal farms and the unnecessary shooting of calves at
birth.

We know that 28% of the British population eats veal (YouGov 2009),
many without knowing the majority of this comes from continental veal farms. The
Calf life – wanted not wasted campaign seeks an end to the import of this low
welfare veal.
We want consumers who eat veal to choose British.
Why?
British veal is better
Compared with continental veal calves, British calves are given more space as they grown, are fed a more natural diet – with more fibre for younger calves – and are group housed with bedding. Male dairy calves are generally considered a waste product. Thousands of calves are not reared in the UK and are either shot at birth or suffer long distance transport to veal farms on the continent*. Once on the
continent these calves are intensively reared on bare slatted floors; conditions
which would be illegal in the UK.* Exports from the UK are currently suspended
due to an industry-led import ban of British calves. This is due to fears over
bovine TB.

But the welfare of calves reared for veal differs. Compassion believes that
when produced under the best conditions, veal does not need to be a cruel
meal.
Help us give calves a life worth living. Go to the Be involved page for more information on how to take part in this
campaign.

http://www.ciwf.org.uk/what_we_do/calves/calf_life.aspx
(emphasis mine)

Alright so this is kind of garbage. Sure the conditions of living are much better for veal in the EU than the U.S., but this is a bit much...

Random

2009-07-15T17:24:00.000-04:00

So random: RANDOM:

An interesting quote that I stumbled upon in my random internet wanderings -- overall an interesting exploration on animality (I have pasted direct quotations from the website below:)

Anthropologist Marcel Mauss already wrote that humans domesticated the dog but
that the cat domesticated humanity.

It is also notable that when animals of different species live together -
dog and sheep, dog and cat it is through the intermediary of humans.

http://ec.europa.eu/research/research-eu/animality/article_animality08_en.html

Animality

2009-07-15T14:39:00.000-04:00

Over the past few days I have been having discussions on the animality of language. If you think about it, we are unable to plainly describe animals without using terms doused in racism, sexism and other systems of oppression. Yet all the while the medium through which we look at these things – the medium through which we describe animals, the English language -- is inherently speciesist, because we assume to it be most intellectual form of communication. Though humans do have faculties of reason that other animals do not, there is no reason that we necessarily understand what true reality or perception or intellect is. Other species undoubtedly perceive the world in ways that we will never be able to and , and have a radically different understanding of the world, of relationships, of life. To assume that humans are the superior being is to wed oneself to modernity, to necessarily split oneself from potentially fruitful exploration of postmodernist thought.

As a race, humans are largely unhappy beings, I would argue, and although we have acquired the skills to procure our own food with both efficiency and speed, we have grown further and further from being able to cope with life as a whole. By divorcing ourselves from our immediate connection to the earth, to the natural resources into which we have been thrown, we gain nothing over other species in terms of emotional intelligence. Suicide rates are higher than ever, and is it surprising? As we pack ourselves away into our little cubicles with our iPods and MacBooks and cellphones and STUFF, we try to drown ourselves out, we become more and more detached from our animality, and entrench ourselves into a cold economic system whose goal has little to do with the wellbeing over

I find it interesting to analyze the ways in which humans fight their own animality on a daily basis. For centuries animality has been used to emphasize the inferiority of various oppressed groups such as slaves and women. Not only terms of oppression, but largely derogatory. We see the ways in which the derisiveness of the animal term lessens when we enter the realm of domesticated pets, especially cats and dogs.

cattle : slaves
cow : overweight woman, also calls forth the notion of female objectivity
ass: rudeness, obnoxiousness
pig: gluttony,
dog: sexually 'successful,' humorously mischevious, or misbehaving in a way that is largely socially acceptable
puppy: (as in 'puppy dog eyes' or 'puppy face' or 'puppy love')
fox: deceiving. sexy
sheep sheepish, shy, does not think for self
Snake deceptive, woman, garden of eden
Turtle slowness, inefficiency
vulture ruthlessness

Why do we see other species only by these kinds of traits? How would another animal describe humans? What kind of characteristics would we become stereotypes for? [And I wonder how terminology of animality varies from culture to culture.... (Mmmm I smell a research project!)] Every day we try to cover up the fact that we, too, are animals. We clothe our bodies in an effort to forget about them, but in doing so we actually create our own vulnerability. The beings we are so quick to label as 'animals' wear no clothes, thus are technically naked all the time. However, because they never cover up their bodies, they are always simultaneously clothed and not clothed.

We drown out our body odors with perfumes and deodorants. Female-identifying humans often conceal their blemishes, and make themselves up as a piece of art. Menstruation, flatulence, sexual intercourse are all taboo. Though a daily occurence, we all pretend we do not defecate. We turn on the vents, and make our best efforts not to be heard as we pop one out. Perhaps I am speaking from a largely female-oriented-culture-behavior. (Perhaps someone can comment on that, and the ways in which male-oriented behavior around taboo subjects diverges from that of female. -- Judith Butler and her spectrum of gender will be creeping in later, don't you worry anti-gender-binary folks.) Though humans do not technically have control over their physical bodies (lack of control over mental bodies will be addressed later), we seem to treat one another as if we must each take personal responsibility for the blemishes and illnesses that befall us. Just as we keep our 'animals' in cages, so we keep our own animality behind bars.

But just as we lock up our own animality, so we also reproduce these images again and again and again in our every day culture -- as if we are yearning to unlock our full selves, but are bound under lock and key by "reason" and "logic." But because we isolate our own animality -- well, i suppose we can never really separate our animality from our humanity because we humans are animals. Alright so then, we construct this fictional notion of 'animality' and what that should mean for humans. We know that we possess the 'instinctual' qualities of all other species, yet we try with amazing effort to squelch these. To distance ourselves even further from our truth, we use other species to define the qualities which we know lay buried deep within us. Advertisements call upon images of wild and domesticated animals to evoke certain raw emotions and themes. However, like other species, we must recognize that all species cannot be reduced down to one trait. To think of doing this for humankind sounds outrageous. Why not then for other species? No animal within a given species is identical to another. But for the sake of constructing an air of 'intelligence' with the human race, we necessarily associate all non-cognitive aspects of human life with the most basic of basic behaviors and characteristics of other species.

Raw Vegan Brownie Recipe

2009-07-10T15:07:00.000-04:00

I just had the most amazing vegan brownies. And they were raw vegan! While I could probably never handle observing a *raw* vegan diet because (a) i'm not that disciplined (b) my health is probably going to shit anyway, I seriously admire the people who have the skills to whip up HEALTHY foods!

Super simple recipe:

1 cup dates
1 cup walnuts
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

Mix in food processor. May need to add a little bit of water, depending on consistency. (Definitely no more than a Tablespoon!) place in brownie tray and leave in fridge to harden for an hour. Serve. Enjoy.

Feel free to add cinnamon or other things as you see fit! Cooking is about experimenting!

(p.s. i totally snagged that image above from someone's flickr account, so if you happen to be reading this, flickr user, thank you!)

Morbid Irony

2009-07-10T10:51:00.000-04:00

I just learned this morning that a “Farmer John’s Slaughterhouse” has painted murals of bucolic animal scenes on the outside of its slaughter facilities. I think this is revolting beyond belief.

Here are some of the images:

And she's back!

2009-07-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

Sorry to take such a long hiatus, everyone! Things have been crazy here at the farm. And by crazy, I mean crazy awesome. There's a lot to be done, but I feel more and more motivated every day.

We had the Pignic here last weekend for the 4th of July at Farm Sanctuary (obnoxious name, I know) but the event was a great success. The turnout was great and the vegan hot dogs were in abundance! I've never had the vegan dog called 'field roast' and the title reminded me of roadkill, but it was probably one of the tastiest things i've had in a while! Tofurky dogs get old after about a year or so hah... Free tours went on between 11 and 4, and there were so many small children. I got some great photos! Naturally, I went on another tour, even though I'm living on the farm at the moment, just to get pictures of little kids interacting with the animals. Children are so intelligent in many ways.

Some links for your viewing pleasure while I temporarily go back to work :)

Chickens Sold in Paper Bags

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUA5JxOOa2Y

Physical Characteristics of the Human Body that Point to Natural Herbivorism:
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/2062/ana.HTML

ALSO! Tasty nutritional yeast queso:
http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=12238.0
this looks fucking delicious. i think i will pick up some garlic and paprika on my way home and make this immediately...

2009-06-23T11:46:00.000-04:00

So I found an interesting blog this morning, with quite the catchy title - "Too Vegan to Function" Hah. (I'm sure there are quite a few vegans laughing right now, myself included.)
http://toovegantofunction.wordpress.com/

It really is incredible how social interaction becomes the greatest challenge of veganism (Not that we are somehow all antisocial freaks!). But most people assume that finding food is the hardest... which it really isn't. Honestly. The hardest is when you sit down at the restaurant with your omni friends and munch away at greens in a sea of flesh. Naturally you don't want to come off as condescending in any way, but it does hurt you, too. The key is to recognize that veganism is a great path, but can be a sad one at times. You've got to keep your life full with other things in order to maintain your sanity.

So, I found that blog to be interesting. . .

The Mountain Goats at Farm Sanctuary??

2009-06-17T14:58:00.000-04:00

John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats

This is pretty stellar: (http://farmsanctuary.org/mediacenter/2009/pr_zoopII.html)

Indie Rock Legend John Darnielle from the Mountain Goats Returns to Farm Sanctuary for Zoop! II

Sold-Out Concert to Benefit Nation’s Leading Farm Animal Protection Organization

Watkins Glen, NY – June 9, 2009 – Forty years after Woodstock, music— and animal — lovers have another reason to flock to a farm in rural upstate New York. Back by popular demand, indie rock legend John Darnielle, Peter Hughes and John K. Samson of the Mountain Goats will return to Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter once again this Saturday, June 13 and Sunday, June 14 for Zoop! II, a weekend of intimate, solo acoustic sets, shelter tours, camping and a communal bonfire to benefit Farm Sanctuary, the nation’s leading farm animal protection organization.This one-of-a-kind musical experience, named after a lively goat who arrived at the New York Shelter barely able to walk, and now sports a state-of-the-art prosthetic leg that keeps her zipping through the pastures, offers concert-goers the unique opportunity to meet the benefit’s namesake, as well as the hundreds of other rescued farm animals that live at the shelter, camp and picnic with new friends, and tour local attractions in beautiful upstate New York.

Darnielle, hailed by premiere music magazine Paste as one of the “100 Best Living Songwriters,” alongside such greats as Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, describes the first Zoop! as “one of the absolute highlights of ten-plus years as That Guy From The Mountain Goats.”“We are thrilled to welcome John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats back to Farm Sanctuary for Zoop! II,” said Michelle Waffner, Farm Sanctuary’s education director. “The first Zoop! raised critically needed funds for the hundreds of rescued animals we care for at our New York Shelter, and the fact that this year’s concert sold out just days after we opened registration is a testament to Darnielle’s amazing talent and loyal fan-base.”The hyper-prolific, highly literate and militantly lo-fi musician’s first benefit for the sanctuary in 2007 was an overwhelming success, drawing attendees from all over the country for a magical weekend that is still talked about today.

Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter, located next door to Sugar Hill State Forest, just west of Watkins Glen, is open for tours from May through October. Daily guided tours provide visitors the unique opportunity to learn the stories of the hundreds of cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens and other farm animals that call the sanctuary home and spend time interacting with them. Summer tour information is available here:

http://www.farmsanctuary.org/farm/newyork/ny_tours.html.

2009-06-17T09:39:00.000-04:00

I just came across this video and found it to be quite horrifying. I have to share it... (Disclaimer: this content may be innappropriate for very young viewers, or any individuals heavily discomforted by animal abuse.)

Wegman's, Part I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THGD-55WGdU

There are 3 parts, totalling 30 minutes, and I highly recommend you check out at least a few minutes of the first clip. It's definitely worth your time, vegetarian or not. Plus you know you're not actually going to do much with those 3 minutes.... Please leave me a comment and tell me what you think!

For Starters...

2009-06-16T14:39:00.000-04:00

Well let's see. It's been so long since I've blogged, so let's give this another try.

My name's Lauren and ive been vegan for almost a year now, and am loving every minute of it. It undoubtedly has its ups and downs, but it has been such a rewarding experience. I just feel like there isn't nearly as much dialogue as there should be about vegetarianism---from all perspectives!-- I hope that this blog can ultimately foster some discussion, as well as to simply provide a piece of support for all the other veggies out there. Keep it up!