You are so lucky to have had such a beautiful afternoon, Ionesco. I love to watch the deer near here. Your Mr. Deer must have been one happy fellow with all of those sweet does kissing up to him and nuzzling!
Oh no! Cow mommies and their poor calves cry for each other long after they are separated. I found this cool vegan girl's blogsite which kind of explains the whole thing, although she is English I think so not everything makes sense. I am not sure you will enjoy reading it, but I am pretty sure Bill and company won't, so I will copy it to this post and then go to bed, since I am sleepy and the dogs need a big cuddle. I'm sorry it is so long, but parts of it are interesting, I think:
Vegan FAQ
All the good things in life are made out of plants. Not convinced? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you VODKA. And wine, beer, scotch, rum, etc. etc. Now think about coffee beans, tea, garlic, onions, olives, porcini mushrooms, black kale, tobacco, various drugs (that of course I wouldn't advocate blah blah blah), macadamia nuts, dark chocolate, strawberries... Not made of dead animals, are they? People who think a vegan diet is boring have obviously never drunk a bloody mary with a plate of olives beside them, or eaten strawberries straight out of a field. Even our pub staple in this country - a pint of lager and a packet of crisps - is vegan.
Why are you a vegan?
Blame book reviewing. Yes, basically, I read too many books about farming. Here's a summary of what I learned. Animals are kept prisoner against their will (they would all run away from slaughterhouses if they could), bought and sold as if we owned them and have their natural behaviour and diet supressed because that is what the market requires. Pigs, highly intelligent creatures, are brutally treated; as are cows, chickens and all the others. Chickens regularly have their beaks removed (without anaesthetic) to prevent them from pecking each other to death in the cramped conditions. No farm animals are allowed to build nests or form natural 'family' groups, as they would in the wild. Most farm animals have their offspring immediately taken away and killed. Cows, ruminating herbivores (which means they naturally chew grass and other vegetable matter), are often kept in concrete-floored sheds and fed concentrated food - like those pellets you give your dog. This concentrate usually contains meat - often the remains of 'waste' material from the farms: the chickens' beaks, the male chickens that are just thrown away, dead cows etc. etc. And, of course, umtil recently, sheeps' brains - which led to BSE. 'Cheap' food isn't cheap in the long run. Farming is not only cruel, unnatural and bad for the environment, it is a huge source of disease, fear and lies. How many people out there still think animals on the 'farmyard' have relatively happy lives before they are 'humanely' killed? Whatever else you want to think, believe etc. this simply isn't true. Like many other people, I believe that future generations will see the behaviour of ours as barbaric. Remember, there were people who thought slavery was OK and that it was natural for men to 'own' their wives. It's time animals were free too.
People have been eating meat for centuries, though.
Yeah, and the world's so great as a result of it. Complex economics created by the agri-business, globalised, trade system is seen by many people as the reason for both obesity and starvation around the world. Much scientific analysis has shown that the hunter/gatherer model was the most natural and healthy way for us to interact with our environment. Even when people did begin to farm, they had only arable crops. Their mainly vegan diets would be supplemented with the odd bit of meat that would be hunted rather than farmed. Although I am against hunting as a sport, and I probably wouldn't want to eat hunted meat, I can see that this model is preferable to the one we have now. If someone wanted to kill me, I would rather they just did it quickly while I was out walking one day. I would not want to be imprisoned, fed the cheapest possible 'protein pellets', forced to be pregnant, have my children taken away to be killed, be 'fattened' up, fed antibiotics, forced to piss on myself and then have my throat cut, knowing all my descendents would have the same life. OK, maybe that's just me. And of course animals don't rationalise things in the same way people do (as far as we know). But maybe that's worse. If I had to live the second option, I would rather know why this was being done to me (so people can have hamburgers that cost 99p - great reason).
Farming animals is also dangerous. Bad (or even 'good') farming practices have given us Salmonella, E-Coli, BSE, avian flu and so on. If the current avian flu virus mutates it could be the pandemic that does away with us all. A small price to pay for farming birds? Or maybe not. Read Fast Food Nation to see the human cost of the global meat industry.
Dairy products like milk, cheese and butter are natural though, surely?
Natural... Well, perhaps. I was a vegetarian for years and I ate loads of all these items (and got a little bit podgy, actually). It was only when the facts were presented to me in books that I finally realised that milk comes from cows who are forced to be pregnant year after year and then have their calves taken away so we can drink the milk that was meant for them. The thing that really got me...? Apparently the cow and the calf will call for each other constantly after they are separated, and the cow will never stop looking for her calf.
Is this really true? I've never heard this before.
Yes it is true. Check it out for yourself. And no, it's not something the milk industry publicises. Then again, I guess if you saw the way most foods are actually produced you'd find it a bit yucky. It's nicer to think of sandwiches in cartons than to think of the production line on which they are made. But there's a difference between being a bit squeamish about sandwiches or ready-meals and realising that you are buying into an industry so cruel it is unbelievable. Read about how they make foie-gras, what they do to veal-calves and what happens in the slaughter house. The information is out there.
This is all a bit sentimental...
Imagine treating your dog or cat like a farm animal. Would you eat a puppy cooked in its mother's milk? No? Well why is it different with veal? We don't know cows as well as we know dogs but all sources suggest that they are just as complex emotionally and just as intelligent. Personally, I believe that there are only two logical positions about eating meat. Either you don't eat any animal products at all - or you eat them all (this includes cannibalism and eating 'pet' animals). Sounds disgusting? Why? If you eat acceptable forms of meat, it is only culture that stops you eating the 'unacceptable' sorts: rat, dog, kitten, human. If you agree that you can't eat an animal you like (say your pet horse) but you can eat animals you have never met, then you are the one being illogical and over-sentimental.
But drinking milk is natural.
No, it's not. No other mammal drinks milk in adulthood, especially not that of another species. And really, the fact that we basically kill the offspring to rob the mother's milk; that isn't natural however you look at it. Traditional, yes. But not natural. Also, many people in the world can't process milk anyway. Other people get eczema and rashes because of it. It produces mucus. Oh, and it has pus and blood in it too, by the way.
You need milk for calcium.
Oh, yeah? And Guinness is good for you. A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play. Actually, there's lots of evidence that milk in fact takes calcium from the bones and drinking too much can contribute to calcium deficiency. This is borne out by the fact that milk-drinking societies (mainly rich, western societies) have much higher rates of osteoporosis than societies where drinking milk is not traditional (China, Japan etc.). This one came as a shock to me too, actually. I was all ready to start taking supplements - then I started reading all this stuff. The Guardian did a big report on it not long ago. We think milk is good for us because there's an advertising campaign that says, literally, 'Milk is good for you.' And it turns out that the whole oily fish thing is also just marketing. Sure, fish is full of healthy fat. So are nuts, coconuts, sunflowers, olives...
Don't you just waste away as a vegan?
Yes! It's better than heroin. All right, being serious: you just drop down to your natural weight and stay there. The first couple of months as a vegan, I lost about a stone and a half. But since then my weight has just stabilised. I eat quite a lot of fat (olive oil, crisps, nuts, chips etc.) but my body just seems to deal with it in a different way now. Humans were designed to be lean. If anybody cares, I don't have cellulite either.
Are there any famous vegans?
Yeah. Me. OK - I know. Well, how about Moby, Prince, Alicia Silverstone, Kelly from Beverly Hills 90210, Alice Walker, Benjamin Zephaniah, Woody Harrelson, the whole of Fugazi, Joaquin Phoenix... Oh, and Jon from SClub7. There are loads, actually, but I can't be bothered to write them all down. Albert Einstein was a vegetarian, as was HG Wells.
Do you feel like a freak being a vegan?
In a good way, yes. It's like an adventure, actually...
I want to become a vegan but I don't want to eat 'meat substitutes'. Is there any 'normal food I can eat?
Yes. On a very basic level, you can still have chips! Most fish and chip shops (if not all) in this country fry their chips in vegetable oil. When I was about 18, I knew a bunch of vegans who lived on chips, beer and Fry's Chocolate Cream. I don't think they knew how to cook. Here are some other normal foods vegans eat:
Baked beans
Mushrooms
Fry's Chocolate Cream (a real vegan favourite, this)
Red Bounty Bars
Jam tarts
All fruits
All vegetables
Mash
Any kind of pie (as long as the pastry is made with vegetable oil rather than butter) apart from, obviously, meat pie etc.
Fruit pies (ditto)
Vegetable pasties
Nuts of any sort
Oats
Cornflakes (and any cereals)
Bread (of any sort)
Batter (as long as it's made with just flour and water)
Maize/corn/polenta
Beans
Rice
Lentils
Cous-Cous
Any dried pasta, including ordinary spaghetti
Olives
Garlic
Condiments galore: ketchup, mustard, onion relish, brown sauce, soy sauce, hoi-sin sauce, most oriental sauces
Noodles (but not, obviously, egg noodles)
Marmalade
Jam
Vegetable samosas, pakora, bhajis, spring rolls
Most vegetarian items from your local Indian Restaurant - check they don't use ghee (clarified butter), though.
Anything involving dried pasta and a tomato based sause at your local Italian restaurant
Coconut (including cocount milk, cream and fat)
Any vegeatble oils: olive oil, corn oil, sunflower oil etc.
All herbs and spices
All seeds: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds etc.
Peanut butter
Ice lollies
Treacle tart
Crisps (but maybe not beef flavour, or cheese and onion)
Miso soup
Most vegetable soups (apart from 'cream of' varieties).
Tofu (unless you want to count it as a 'meat substitute' which it isn't, really.)
I think that a lot of Pot Noodles are vegan, if you are that way inclined...
What if I do want to have a go with meat-substitutes?
The rule of thumb that I use is the following: if it is a natural product, a traditional product or a really good vege-burger, I'll try it. Some of the stuff they make is well-intentioned but gastronomically suspect. Fake cheese, for example, doesn't do it for me. Quorn, I think, is evil and trying to take over the world (although my brother assures me the mince is nice - and he's not even a vegetarian). Soya products of all sorts are great though. They are traditional, and not designed to 'replace' anything. I have heard that soya-mozzarella is nice but I have never tried it.
The thing to remember about vegan 'meat substitute' products is that although a lot of them may seem to have some weird ingredients, they are not going to be weirder than the stuff they put in sausages. Some people go, 'Soya, yuck!' Check the labels, folks, they stick soya in pretty much everything now. If you're eating a mainstream, western diet including ready-meals and take-aways, you are already eating almost all the additives in existence. Outside of the EU, you really are getting them all. A vegan experience could simply be that, minus the dead stuff, if you want it to be. I can recommend Linda McCartney 'meat' pies if you really want the 'Seriously - this must be meat' experience. Also the vegeburgers at the Cavern Club in Exeter.
What's soya milk like?
Some brands are really, really, horrible. But some are pretty delicious. I read on various websites that you have to try some before you find one you like and I thought it was bollocks. But, like so much advice you are given in life that you think is bollocks, it turned out to be true. Anyway, soya milk really comes into its own when it is cooked. I have found some wonderful Carribean recipes for rice puddings, cornmeal porridge and other things that use soya or coconut milk. If you find a soya milk you like you can have it on cereal and it's just great - it isn't milk and it isn't meant to be but it really does taste nicer when you get used to it.
What about vegan cakes, biscuits etc?
Surprisingly nice. The chocolate cake on my recipes page is very good... There are recipes for good vegan cakes everywhere.
How do you make the transition, really?
Well, this is what I did. I was a vegetarian anyway and for a week or so, I cooked mainly vegan meals, just as an experiment. I read vegan recipe books to see what sorts of things you could actually make as a vegan. I visited websites like Vegan Village and Vegan Street. Then I tried to give up milk in my tea. This was always the most difficult thing for me. I have been drinking milky tea since I was a young child. After a few attempts, though, I did it. I developed a taste for green tea and black coffee. I tried to get only really good green tea, coffee and herbal teas. I stopped eating butter and cheese. At first I didn't have any kind of butter/margerine at all. Then I started using a vegetable margerine (with no hydrogenated fats) occasionally. I have to say, though, that this is definitely the least 'gourmet' item in my fridge.
What sort of meals do you eat on a day-to-day basis?
Autumn/Winter:
Vegetable curry with coconut milk and rice
Stir fries of all sorts, often with rice, lots of soy sauce and some sort of green stuff - like black kale.
Vege burger (with fried onions, tomato sauce and American mustard) and chips
Mashed potato, vegetables and gravy (Sunday dinner without the meat - yum)
Onion pie, celeriac mash, vegetables and gravy
Spring rolls with chips and beans or some other, healthier accompaniment
Mushrooms on toast
Vegetable chilli on baked potatoes
Soup and freshly made bread (out of the, er, breadmaker)
Beans and rice
Vegan fry-up: tomatoes, mushrooms, hash browns, fried bread, baked beans and veggie sausages
Take-away curries
Vegetable stew and vegetarian dumplings
Vegetarian pie, mash and peas
Pasta with tomato, artichoke, olive and caper sauce (or any tomato-based sauce)
Any ideas for sandwich fillings?
Sainsbury's do this lemon and coriander hummous which is really nice. Add some salad, chilli jam/onion relish and jalapeno chillis and yes, you'll be eating what I have every day for lunch. For the full experience, drink a cup of black coffee as well, eat a pack of plain crisps and sit in a car listening to Radio 4 (it's a long story...)
Ernest Hemingway invented a vegan sandwich of his own: peanut butter and onion on rye bread. So you see, literary sandwiches are also vegan...
Felafel sandwiches are good, also with salad, relish, chillis
Avocado salad is nice, and sun-dried tomatoes.
I'm on the way home from a club/holiday/whatever and I have no food. It's 1am and the only thing open is a 24-hour garage. Help! What can I eat?
Nuts, raisins, Bombay mix, crisps, vegetable pasties, some soups (if they have a hot drinks bit) packaged salads (if the garage is really swish), hummous sandwiches, salad rolls, Fry's Chocolate Cream, Red Bounty Bars. Yes, if you are really desperate it is possible to live on Fry's Chocolate Cream, cigarettes and black coffee. Really...
Where is the best place to shop for vegan food?
Get onto a local organic box scheme for your vegetables, or visit a local market. Health foods shops are very good. The Co-op is one of the only UK supermarkets to label food properly so you can see what is vegan and what isn't. I can recommend its own brand jam tarts and cola. Sadly, despite my anti-corporate leanings, I do visit Sainsbury's sometimes. Apart from the Co-op, it has the best labelling and a good range of 'health food' and vegan products. Safeway is pretty shit, as is Tesco.
Are there other things that vegan's believe/avoid, etc?
Yes. Being a vegan isn't just about diet, it is about trying to avoid all products that are created by exploiting animals. Some of these are by-products of the meat industry: leather is the best example of this. True vegans avoid all animal products, including wool, honey, silk, and any products which have been tested on animals. To find out what products have not been tested on animals, check out BUAV. Most big cosmetics companies, especially American-owned ones, do still test on animals so it is worth checking first.
Are you against all animal experimentation?
Yes.
What if there is an experiment that could be done on animals that would create a cure for a child's cancer?
Any society has to decide which practices are and are not acceptable to it. In our society, it is currently acceptable to harm animals if it is deemed (by the state) to be in the interests of humans. Not everybody can harm animals - it is against the law to beat your dog, or play football with a hedgehog, for example. But in cases where the people harming the animals are scientists, and what they are doing is called 'research' and that research is seen to be valid (everything from testing a new mascara to studying terminal diseases) then, as a society, we accept it - for the time being. Most people do not believe that testing 'unneccessary' products like cosmetics on animals is correct, although most people feel it's OK when life-saving drugs are at stake. However, it is clear to many of us that most pharmaceutical drugs developed and tested in these labs are problematic. Most, if not all, have side-effects. Some turn out to be fatal. Most common chronic diseases in the Western world (eczema, asthma, arthritis and so on) do not have pharmaceutical cures despite decades of animal research. Millions of animals are tortured every day for, as far as I can see, no good reason. Occasionally something is discovered that 'sort of' works, and we all take things like side-effects for granted. Many people argue that if corporations used different forms of research, the results would be better. We are closely related to, say, mice, but not so much that drugs affect us in the same way as them.
The 'child with cancer' argument is an interesting one. First of all, it isn't at all clear that animal research would help to find a cure for this hypothetical child's disease. History suggests otherwise. Of course, if you ask a parent whose child has cancer exactly what they would do to make it go away, well, they would do anything. They would give up their own lives to help their child - or my life, or yours, if that was possible. If you were told that you had to choose between your mother dying and the death of someone you've never met before, you would choose the death of the person you had never met. Most people get very emotional when the lives of the people they love are at stake and do not necessarily make rational, or even lawful, decisions if offered difficult choices about what to do about it.
As a society, however, we have to decide where to draw the line. Who will suffer for whom? Whose lives are more important, and whose are less so? Most people in our society agree that it is not right, say, for human beings to have medical experiments performed on them without their consent. It doesn't matter what kind of human being you are talking about - this human could have a particular disability, or be of a certain race or class - it is still not right. It doesn't matter that such experiments could help a child with cancer - no doubt some of them could. As a society we don't feel these experiments are right and we do not allow them no matter who they might help. It is currently illegal to use certain kinds of primates for research. The state has decided that these animals are too close to humans. They can use language and feel pain and therefore should not be made to suffer in laboratories. So even if experimenting on one of these animals could help the child with cancer, it would not be allowed. But yet creatures in the 'next level down' are legally tortured every day, for cosmetics companies, cleaning-product manufacturers, drugs companies and maybe the occasional child with cancer. These animals all feel pain. They have forms of language. Some human beings do not have language (especially, for example, babies) but we do not experiment on them. How do you decide what kind of beings are OK to exploit, torture and kill? We believe in the sanctity of life but yet we are unclear about exactly how we define that life. Just human life? Just humans and primates? Just mammals? You can argue that it is OK to perform experiments on all sentient beings, or only on sentient beings who cannot talk, or who are a particular race, or species. Or you can read contemporary evolutionary biology, realise how closely connected we all are and draw the line somewhere very clear: under ALL sentient beings, and conclude as I have done that experimentation on any sentient animal is not acceptable.
So what for the child with cancer? Well, much as we all feel an emotional pull when faced with this kind of dilemma (wouldn't you do anything to help this poor child) we should not condone illegal or immoral acts because emotion (not reason) tells us these acts will help. It is possible to go down the 'if it will help just one child it is worthwhile' route but you soon reach a dead end. There are lots of things we could do to help all sorts of children that we do not do. Would you give up, say, half of your salary every year to help children with cancer? Do you do this? If not, then why are you arguing that millions of animals should have to give up their freedom and their lives for a cause for which you are not prepared to suffer even a little bit? Personally, I would argue for more research (not animal based) into the causes of cancer, and more legislation to protect us from carcinogens (in artificial sweetners, pollution and so on).
This is all very well, but what about human suffering? I haven't got time to worry about animals. There are wars out there, and famines, and abuses of human rights. Shouldn't we do something about those things first?
What, you seriously think that in your lifetime you are going to solve all those problems and only then think about moving onto something 'less important' afterwards, if you have time? Come on. We are not issued with 'caring tokens' that can only be spent on one thing. You can be a vegan and support human rights charities, and oppose war, and do any other charitable or voluntary work you want. Being a vegan does not require you to donate money to an organisation or give up any time. In fact, as a vegan you will probably save money. Why not save up all the money you used to spend supporting the meat/cosmetics industries (for example) and give it to Oxfam instead? Then you are helping all beings to be free. Imagine how nice that would be...
Further Reading
So Shall we Reap by Colin Tudge
Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
Animal Liberation by Peter Singer (This is the real classic)
The Pig Who Sang to the Moon by Jeffrey Masson
The Great Food Gamble by John Humphrys
The Wold is not For Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food by Jose Bove and Francois Dufour
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