The Extinction of the Wild in Favor of the Domestic

Our ability to justify our consumption of animals never ceases to amaze me, but I must confess I’m often struck dumb by the claim that by eating animals we’re actually helping them. It’s a popular defense these days, especially since every other attempt to defend this unnecessary, unhealthy, and inhumane habit has failed. It isn’t surprising that in response we would reach for the most improbable and irrational of justifications: “if we stopped eating them, they would all go extinct.”

Revealing breathtaking arrogance, proponents of this theory refer to our domestication of animals as a “sacred and mutual bond” whereby we protect animals from the “cruelties of nature” and in return they gift us with their bodies. If manipulating, controlling, confining, and eating someone else constitutes a “mutual bond,” I wonder what you have to do to breach it.

People who feign concern about some unlikely future extinction of domesticated animals would be well advised to remember the wild animals, many of whom have gone extinct or are on the brink of extinction, whose habitats are destroyed and whose lives are ended in favor of their non-native domesticated cousins.

Animal Damage Control, which recently changed its name to the more euphemistic-sounding Wildlife Services, kills millions of wild animals every year on behalf of the private livestock industry, using taxpayers’ dollars. In 2006 alone, they killed 1.6 million wild animals, ranging from coyotes, wolves, and prairie dogs to beavers, sparrows, and egrets.

In fact, no wild animal is safe – not even those considered our “national treasures.” Every year, thousands of wild horses and burros are rounded up by the Bureau of Land Management and either kept in pens or sent to slaughter in order to make more room for millions of cattle and sheep grazing on over 215 million acres of public lands.

The bottom line is that we eat meat because it is a habit that we enjoy, and we add insult to injury by couching this habit in “concern for the animals.” If we have to disguise, rationalize, romanticize, and ritualize eating animals to such a degree, then perhaps we’re not comfortable with it at all.

Vegan in Scotland!

OK, well, I wasn't in Scotland, but I was close! In Boulder, CO, there is a fabulous Scottish pub (yes, I said Scottish - not Irish!), called The Scotch Corner Pub (1800 Broadway), owned by the most delightful Scottish family, and the matriarch of the family, Maggie Pitkethly, is vegan - an outspoken, compassionate, ethical vegan!

You won't be surprised to learn, then, that vegan Bangers and Mash (Vegan Sausage and Mashed Potatoes) are on the menu (see photo!), but you may be surprised that ALL of the mashed potatoes are vegan - no matter if they're part of a "vegan meal" or not! And they were fantastic (Earth Balance is a gift, is it not?)

The Cottage Pie, a dish similar to the English Shepherd's Pie is also vegan (oil for the pie crust - of course!), the crispy fries came with a delicious dipping sauce, and something called Scotch Broth was delicious and much different than what the name implies to Americans. Broth in the United States is essentially thin, vegetable-infused water. In Scotland, however, it is a thick stew, and this one - vegan by nature, not by design - is dominated by hearty lentils and healthful vegetables. We liked it so much that Maggie is contributing it to my new cookbook!

To boot, the vegetarian dishes are cooked in a separate kitchen, and though the chairs in the lounge look leather, they're not. Maggie wouldn't hear of it. Though she wishes the entire restaurant were vegan, she's still working on her husband, but she did say that the vegetarian dishes are very popular - and not just with vegetarians (though there are a lot of them in this fair town).

Though I'm not a drinker, my hubby and good friend tried their fair share of Scottish ales, including the Belhaven, a "smooth, slightly sweet amber," which was their favorite.

We look forward to returning to the pub and highly recommend it to anyone visiting Boulder. The only thing we regret is that the live music was canceled (unexpectedly) the nights we were there, but we spent hours talking to Maggie, to the other staffers, and enjoying the really friendly, tartan-clad atmosphere.

AWARE in Lake Tahoe

This month marks the beginning of what will be several months of quite a lot of travel. With several events coming up and The Joy of Vegan Baking making its way around the globe, I am so thrilled to be traveling in the spring. The cookbook first came out in the fall/winter of 2007, which meant some pretty cold east coast trips, honored as I was to share my vegan thoughts with peeps in D.C., Boston, and New York. Brrrrr....

Speaking of cold weather, this weekend I had the privilege of speaking in Lake Tahoe at the Lake Tahoe Community College, via the fabulous group called Lake Tahoe A.W.A.R.E. (Advocates for Wellness, Animal Rights, and the Environment) and was thrilled with the turn-out. After I spoke about the myths of being vegan, we were all treated to a full meal of dishes made from my recipes - and *I* didn't have to cook! A handful of culinary students volunteered to prepare my Three-Bean Chili, Caesar Salad, No-Queso Quesadillas, Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Banana Walnut Muffins. The food was fabulous, the people were incredibly friendly and responsive, and the weather - though a tad chilly - was really beautiful. Couldn't have asked for more.

THANK YOU to Esta Lewin, founder of the 5-year-old A.W.A.R.E. group, for all she does to raise awareness and promote a compassionate, plant-based diet; thanks to the students who prepared a beautiful feast for 100 people; and thank you to all the folks who came out to hear the talk - despite the 35-degree weather!

My new right arm, Chris Marco, took lots of pictures, but it seems that I don't stand still long enough to get a decent photo of me while I gab. So amid the goofy photos, I found a few I could share with you.

Though many people I spoke to at the event lamented that Lake Tahoe didn't have too many options in terms of restaurants, we were actually quite thrilled with what we found. Though David and I had been to Sprouts several times and certainly had a lot of vegan things to choose from on their menu, the three of us did find that we all ordered - without really meaning to - virtually the same thing. My Tostada was almost identical to Chris' Rice Bowl, which was perfectly similar to David's Tempeh Burger.

So, the next day we headed to another veg-friendly restaurant in town, called Freshies, whose incredibly vegan-friendly menu gave us a lot to choose from. In fact, I'm still obsessing over the East Indian Spinach Salad I ate with glee: a huge amount of spinach with coconut, mangos, perfectly spiced tofu, with a chutney dressing. It was just delicious. Oh yeah - and the "Tri Fries" were spicy and fantastically yummy!

After spending some time (probably far too much) at the Pirate shop across the way from Freshies and photographing David in the array of piratey hats, we walked around the lake and laughed - a lot.

Tea snob that I am, I tend to judge a restaurant by how they treat the tea-drinking populus, and I must say, I just wish restaurant served real tea, loose tea, good tea instead of the generic stuff in a bag. Trust me - it's not the same thing! To their credit, the servers at Freshies, went out of their way to make sure we had rice milk for our Chai Tea, and though I was grateful, I still wished I hadn't left my green tea back at the hotel.

Finally, speaking of the hotel (Inn at the Lake), it's worth mentioning that their breakfast room is free to guest and offered bananas, apples, oatmeal, hot water, bagels, and cereal. I plan on recommending that they offer a non-dairy milk with which to eat the cereal, but the breakfast room was a nice touch, and the hotel is right across the street from the lake.

All in all, it was a great trip, and I look forward to spreading the vegan word in Denver, Detroit, and Cleveland.....next on the agenda.

A Prayer for the Humans on Behalf of the Animals

I have often said that as an animal activist, I have learned many, many things about animals, but I have learned a lot more about humans. If I didn't hear from the most remarkable people every day who share their stories of transformation with me, I think it would be very challenging to hold onto any hope for humanity in general or the animal rights movement in particular. But I do have hope. It fills my heart every day.

My hope is that we can all navigate through this world with the grace and integrity of those who need our protection. May we have the sense of humor and liveliness of the goats; may we have the maternal protective nature of the hens and the sassiness of the roosters. May we have the gentleness and strength of the cattle, the wisdom, humility, and serenity of the donkeys. May we appreciate the need for community as do the sheep and choose our companions as carefully as do the rabbits. May we have the faithfulness and commitment to family of the geese, the adaptability and affability of the ducks. May we have the intelligence, loyalty, and affection of the pigs, and may we have the inquisitiveness, sensitivity, and playfulness of the turkeys.

My hope is that we learn from the animals what it is we need to become better people.

Cloned Animals on "This American Life"

I'm an avid listener to radio, particular KQED radio, my local National Public Radio station, for which I'm also a contributor on their show called Perspectives. For those of you who know the NPR show, This American Life, you know that it's often moving, funny, thought-provoking, and just plain ol' entertaining. (Yes, NPR can be entertaining!) :)

It was such a thrill to learn a couple years ago that Ira Glass, the host and producer, became vegetarian when he visited Karen Davis' sanctuary for turkey, chickens, and other birds raised as "poultry." On a recent episode of the David Letterman show, Ira talks about this experience (though he plays it up for humor a bit), and he ultimately says he became vegetarian because he realized these animals had their own personality and interests and was tranformed into not wanting to eat them!

Now I realize that doesn't make Ira an animal activist, but nonetheless, it still gives (gave?) me hope that his own personal change of heart about animals would inform the stories he tells on his weekly show.

Perhaps if it were anyone else I wouldn't have been so utterly disappointed to listen to one of the segments from this past weekend and discover it was about a guy who prized his huge "bull" so much that, when the bull (named Chance) died, he was so distraught (he was also making money off of this bull - taking him around to BBQs (yes, BBQs) and other events for people to get their photo taken sitting on top of Chance) that he had him cloned.

In response, I wrote a letter to This American Life, and I urge you to do this same. My letter is below, and the email addresses to write to are web@thislife.org and ira@thislife.org. To learn more about the ethical problems around cloning animals, please read the American Anti-Vivisection Society's information on this issue.

Dear Ira and producers of TAL,

I wrote to you recently encouraging you to feature a show on the transformations that take place in people who awaken to the truth about animal suffering in our society - and how this transformation informs so much of your life once you know the truth.

Having said that, I was so disappointed to hear your recent show that featured someone who had their "prize bull" cloned - just because. The cloning of animals is a despicable example of humans tampering with the natural world for our own gain. Stories like the one you featured may sound funny and intriguing to your listeners, but absent from such entertainment is the behind-the-scenes look at how much suffering takes place to clone animals. Not only do the clones suffer from various types of diseases, age rapidly, and have many other complications, what is never talked about are all the failures that take place - the freakish results that cause great suffering to the "unsuccessfully cloned" animals - and to the females who have to bear these clones (who are often so large that the female dies or is in extreme pain during birth). Most people don't know that 96-99% of cloning attempts regularly cause death or severe health problems.

I'm just so sorry that you didn't consider the big picture when you decided to produce this story. The animals lose every single day, and even a show as seemingly harmless as yours has great consequences for a society that acts as if animals are here for us to use, to eat, to entertain us, to experiment on - and to clone. The more we stay desensitized, the more the animals suffer.

For the animals,
Colleen

Nobody's Perfect! Corrections to Some Eensy Teensy Errors in The Joy of Vegan Baking

I pride myself on being a meticulous editor (as do the hard-working editors at Fair Winds Press, I'm sure), but in a 287-page book that contains over 150 recipes and tens of thousands of words, there are bound to be errors.

Though any mistakes we come across will be corrected in subsequent printings of The Joy of Vegan Baking, I hate the idea of errors just sitting there in the books from the first printing, so I'm here to correct those I'm aware of. Please don't hesitate to tell me about others you may find, though I hope this list includes them all!

1. In the Drop Biscuits recipe on page 48, the "yield" currently says "24," but that's not right. One batch of these delicious biscuits makes between 10 and 12, depending on how large you make them. Eat them right out of the oven when they're piping hot! Yum!

2. Under the Better Than Eggs section on the bottom of page 18, I'm talking all about using Baking Soda and Vinegar to leaven baked goods, and then in the paragraph itself, I mistakenly refer to Baking Powder. Clearly, it should say Baking Soda.

3. As the book came close to publication, the publisher decided to add the lovely front and back inside flaps. On the back flap, they added my photo, but because my photo was already on the very last page (About the Author), which faces the back inside flap, there are two photos of me back to back. As fondly as I remember the Thanksgiving on which that photo was taken, there is no need for two mirrored photos of me! In the next printing, the publisher will either remove one photo - or potentially replace it with a different photo. Just wanted to clarify that. :)

4. Under Suggestions for Making Healthful Transitions on page 154, there is a mistake in the heading of Tip #6; unfortunately, "Meet the Farmers" was repeated as the name of that tip. It should be "Prep in Advance."

5. Under the Acknowledgments on page 287, Patti Martin was thanked twice. She really did help a lot, but one "thank you" is sufficient within one paragraph. Also, my dear friend Kristin Schwarz should be included in the list of testers!

My hope is that I will not have to add to this list, but in the event that I do, you will definitely hear from me again, and you can check here for corrections. Enjoy!

The Joy of Vegan Baking is Born! 10 Ways to Help it Succeed

Well, I suppose I "gave birth" to it several months ago, but now it's out for all the world to see. Today seems to be the first day that bookstores have it in stock, so whoever has "preordered" it will now actually receive it! And those who want to buy it don't have to wait!

So, on this very special day, I wanted to just send a greeting to everyone who has landed on this page and expressed interest in what I think is a fantastic book. I say that humbly but also with the knowledge that Fair Winds Press, my fabulous publisher, did a beautiful job on the design, photography, and artwork. Creating a book is a collaborative effort, indeed.

But I am also very proud of the content and know that you will find much to love about this very comprehensive book - not just about vegan baking but about baking in general. Not just about food but food history. You will find not just recipes but stories about recipes. You will find a bevy of resources, such as Cake Pan Substitutes, a chart of different apples and what the various kinds are good for, tips, suggestions, and so much more.

Call me a geek (I'm guilty), but I'm also very excited about the three different indices ("indexes" in non-geek language). In the back of the book, you will not only find the MOST comprehensive alphabetical index of any book you've ever owned (the cross-references will make you sing!) but you can also find recipes according to their seasonality and according to special occasions and holidays.

Please don't hesitate to contact me here - ask me questions you have. I'm very grateful to all of you who have shown appreciation and enthusiasm for The Joy of Vegan Baking, and I'm humbled to know that some of these recipes will become part of your own repertoire.

There are many ways you can help support the book:

1. Add it to your collection! :) Purchase it from an online store or at your local bookstore.
2. Call several bookstores in your area (and beyond) and ask if they carry the book. If they get enough inquiries about a book, they will be more likely to carry it and display it prominently.
3. Order the book from your local bookstore - and ask them to please carry it and stock several copies of it - besides the one they're buying for you.
4. Call your local library - and several others - to ask them to carry the book.
5. Whether or not your purchase the book from a local bookstore or an online store, please make a point to visit each of the stores listed on my website to leave a review - hopefully favorable! :)
6. Give the books to friends and family - vegan and non-vegan. In many ways this is a "vegan cookbook through and through" and in many ways it's a baking cookbook that "happens to be vegan." It will appeal to a very wide audience.
7. If you are interested, please ask me about getting postcards that you can and will distribute in front of cafes, bookstores, health food stores, at vegan events. I don't mean simply stacking these in cafes; I mean if you are interested in actually handing out the cookbook postcard to like-minded audiences, this is the kind of grassroots marketing we need!
8. If you have a blog or podcast, please tell your visitors/readers/fans/listeners about our book. Just send them to www.joyofveganbaking.com or www.compassionatecooks.com.
9. If you regularly visit a blog you think would want to know about our book, please tell them!
10. If you purchase books to sell to the public in any capacity, please contact me about buying copies wholesale from my publisher.

Featuring 150 familiar favorites–from cakes, cookies, and crepes to pies, puddings, and pastries, and more!

More than just a collection of recipes, this informative cookbook is a valuable resource that will:
• enlighten and inspire you to bake with confidence and joy
• demystify what it means to bake without eggs and dairy
• entertain and educate you with fascinating stories about the origins of your favorite homemade treats
• empower and inform you about the benefits of vegan baking

Learn more at The Joy of Vegan Baking website.

10 Survival Tips & Tactics for Eating Veg in a Non-Veg World

This post originally appeared on my Green Options blog, and the responses have been...interesting (one person said he had never seen a "more self-righteous bunch of bull.") Feel free to add your thoughts via comments, and please "Digg" the article to increase the amount of exposure it gets. You can also rate it (5 stars are always nice!) :)

Some people are afraid that their social lives will suffer when they eliminate meat and dairy from their diet, since social occasions and food tend to go hand-in-hand. For anyone who has ever thought it is difficult as a vegetarian to dine out, to eat at the home of a non-vegetarian friend, or to find food to eat at parties, I hope this can be a guide and a resource.

1. Be Specific. Not everybody knows what it means to eat "vegetarian" or "vegan," and it's important for vegetarians/vegans to be specific about what their needs are. I know plenty of people who think chickens are plants with wings or who think "chicken broth" is vegetarian. They think as long as there are no chickens floating around in it, it's acceptable for those who don't eat birds. So be clear and ask for exactly what you want.
Scenario Suggestion: When eating out, or when invited over a friend's for dinner, it's helpful to state specific foods. So you can say to your server "This dish/menu sounds wonderful. Just to be clear, I’m vegan, so please tell me if I order something with eggs, meat broth, cheese, milk, or cream." I’ve never had a server unwilling to accommodate me, and this takes care of any potential misunderstandings.

2. Be Positive. Most likely, you made the choice to leave animals off your plate because it makes you feel good — physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. If that's your truth, then that's exactly what you should express to those around you. Your attitude will influence the perception and attitude of others about what it means to be vegan.
Scenario Suggestion: When ordering in a restaurant, of course it's polite and appropriate to thank the server for accommodating you, but try not to apologize to the point of being self-effacing. If you had a food allergy, you would just explain to the server and move on. Your food preferences are just as valid when based on ethical reasons. And remember, you're paying them – they should accommodate you if they want to keep your business. So thank them, but then just move on.

3. Be Confident. Food is a personal as well as political subject that has been known to bring up people's defenses, and vegetarians have found themselves on the receiving end of ridicule, criticism, interrogations, jokes, and plain old rudeness. Remaining confident that the attack has nothing to do with you personally will help you take the encounter in stride. Also, don't feel you need to carry the weight of defending all the benefits of vegetarianism. If asked why you make the choices you do, speak from your heart and tell your truth. That is much more powerful than trying to espouse all the latest nutrition research that supports vegetarian eating (and of course there's lots of it!).
Scenario Suggestion: You are at a party, and someone – rather hostilely – says to you, "I just finished a book by a prominent anthropologist, and he provides a lot of evidence that humans were never pure vegetarian at any point in our evolution." Many might be tempted to respond with the fact that early humans actually gathered more than they hunted, that we're physically designed to eat vegetarian diets, etc., and if your goal is to win an argument, then argue away. But, consider an alternative response that diffuses the attack, speaks to the real issue, and enables you to remain true to yourself. You could say something like "I don't know much about anthropology, but I do know that I feel really good about eating this way. It’s better for my health and certainly better for the animals. And besides, isn't being human about doing things better than the way we did them before, especially as we learn more?"

4. Be Generous. Co-workers, neighbors, clients, friends, and family all appreciate the gift of homemade goodies, and every vegetarian knows the power of delicious food. Anytime non-vegetarians try your infamous meatless chili or your decadent dairy-free cookies, they are exposed to dishes they may have never chosen on their own, and often they'll walk away with a new perception about "vegan food."
Scenario Suggestion: Bring muffins in for your morning office meeting, leave cookies on your neighbor's porch, make a cake for a special occasion and share it with co-workers. You can visit http://www.compassionatecooks.com/ to get lots of delicious recipes.

5. Be Assertive. I'd be lying if I said that healthful plant-based options are available in every restaurant, but they are available in almost every restaurant whose focus is not "American cuisine." Every other cuisine, from Italian and Thai to Indian and Mexican, offers plenty of healthful vegan dishes. But for those times when you don't have a say in choosing the restaurant, at an employee lunch or office party, it's worth calling the restaurant in advance to find out which menu items can be made meat- and dairy-free or what they can make special to accommodate you.
Scenario Suggestion: Most people don't like having their food choices be the center of attention, especially when people may already perceive veganism as "different" or "difficult," but anytime I've asked for something "off the menu," everyone else at the table has coveted my meal. They had no idea you could suggest something different than what's on the menu, and they will wish they followed your lead!

6. Be Attentive. The stereotype that vegans talk all the time about being vegan is, well, true, but only because once a meat-eater learns you're vegetarian, you become their Confessor, counselor, and sounding board. They often proceed to tell you how often they eat meat or how they've become vegetarian except for the chickens and fish they still consume. Though you've heard it before, be respectful, be attentive, and be sensitive. They clearly want to identify as a "vegetarian" and are trusting you with a bit of information about themselves. What they are saying may be more important than what you have to say in response. Ask them questions instead of simply responding.
Scenario Suggestion: A non-vegetarian tells you she tried to be vegetarian but it was too hard. Ask her what was hard about it. She tells you she doesn't want to know about how the animals are treated. Ask her what she thinks might happen if she knew. The point is to create a dialogue and to realize that it is not "me against you," the "vegetarian against the meat-eater," but rather us against cruelty, us against violence. For those of us who are vegan, it’s also important to remember our own stories so we don't become self-righteous. At one time or another, most of us ate animals and their secretions and some of us relied on silly excuses to continue eating them.

7. Be Prepared. There may be times when a work or family event centers around meat (like a barbecue) or takes place in a restaurant that is unfavorable to vegans (such as a steakhouse). At such times, it might be worth eating something before you go and/or bringing your own food to eat when you get there. It may be inconvenient, but it's better than not eating at all, and once again, the food you bring will most likely inspire others to try something new. To be perfectly frank, BBQs – when they’re not vegetarian – are the one event I refuse to attend. It's just much too painful and offensive to witness the ravenous gluttony of this meat-fest, but I don't want to make it seem like being vegan isolates you. I don't not attend because there wouldn't be something for me to eat – I don’t go because I don't want to; it's just too upsetting.

8. Be Equipped. There are numerous occasions that offer the opportunity to bring a dish. Bringing your favorite vegan lasagna or chocolate cake is a surefire way to ensure that you’ll enjoy the fare, and it's a wonderful way to introduce people to delicious and nutritious veg food.
Scenario Suggestion: If you are attending a dinner party where guests were not asked to bring a dish, you might want to call to find out if it's okay that you bring something. Or, better yet, ask the hostess if you can alleviate some of the cooking burden for her and bring one of the dishes. It would also provide you with an opportunity to clarify what you eat (see #1).

9. Be Humorous. Non-vegetarians as well as vegetarians can get a little uptight around such a sensitive subject. Humor has a way of diffusing tension. Always keep in mind that whatever jokes non-vegetarians might make at your expense, it really has nothing to do with you. Passive aggressive though these people are, it will help to respond with humor and levity. Scenario Suggestion: I try to keep things light while at the same time telling the truth. So, for instance, when I’m around non-vegetarians and one might say something about the chicken sandwich they had for lunch and then they turn to me to apologize, I usually say something like "look – don’t apologize to me. Apologize to the chickens." It’s a good way to get people thinking without being judgmental; besides, this has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the animals. Responding with levity to hostility is always a good way to go.

10. Be Vocal. One thing some non-vegetarians don't understand – I don't think I really understood it before I was vegan – is that to sit in a restaurant watching everyone chewing on animals is an incredibly painful experience. Eating at a vegetarian or, better yet, vegan restaurant is so wonderful – not just because you can choose anything on the menu – but because it’s a nonviolent atmosphere. There's kind of a feeling of serenity when you look around you and know that no animals were (intentionally) killed in the making of the meals and everyone's just munching on wonderful plant-based food.
Scenario Suggestion: So, when you can speak up and ask your friends or family or co-workers to try a vegetarian restaurant, I encourage you to do so. If you’re a non-vegetarian, extend an invitation to your vegetarian friend to go to a veg restaurant. That way, everyone can eat and experience the abundance!

The Holidays: I want to say a quick note about the holidays. Many of these suggestions will help, I think, but here's another sure-fire way to ensure all the food is vegan: host a holiday dinner yourself. You can make it potluck style, guiding non-vegans about what to bring, giving them recipes, etc. It will inspire them to make something vegan, although they'll probably realize they cook vegan all the time but never called it vegan. There are times I've gone back East for the holidays and cooked the entire holiday meal (with some help from my hubby, of course) for our families. They were happy to have someone do all the cooking, and the meal was something everyone was able to enjoy. Yes, it means more work, but whatever. A few hours in the kitchen is nothing compared to what the animals endure.

Letters to The Atlantic Monthly

In my last post, I encouraged you to write to The Atlantic Monthly Magazine after getting your hands on a copy of the Sept. 2007 issue. The email address is letters@theatlantic.com. In the meantime, I thought I would share with you both my letter as well as that of my friend and activist extraordinaire (and letter-writing machine), Patti Breitman.

Written by Patti Breitman:
I was simultaneously delighted and discouraged by Hard to Swallow by B.R. Myers. Delighted to read the truth about how animals are raised for food and how food writers, Michael Pollan in particular, but not alone, ignore the moral component when focusing on the taste of animal flesh. Discouraged to realize through my tears as I read, that it is so rare to see anything in the media about the cruelty involved in breeding, confining, and slaughtering animals to satisfy human habits. Thank you for printing this much neglected point of view. There is a reason that class trips are never to slaughterhouses or factory farms, and a reason that only vegetarians are willing to bear witness to the horrors perpetuated by the billions each year. I am indebted to B. R. Myers for pointing out how "foodies" make light of and a living from the suffering of other living beings.

Written by Me (Colleen Patrick-Goudreau):
I cannot thank you enough for publishing B.R. Myers' wonderful article ("Hard to Swallow") in your September 2007 issue. It is a powerful truth-telling piece that finally sheds light on the spurious claims and specious arguments of Michael Pollan and other "excuse-itarians," whose romantic depictions of something so ugly belies a pathological denial of reality. I've been writing about this for years, likening the public's response to his justifications for eating meat to Hans Christian Anderson's fable, The Emperor's New Clothes. In Anderson's morality tale, it takes a child to say what everyone knows is true but nobody would admit. The child's declaration that the emperor is wearing no clothes at all makes the public feel as duped as the emperor feels naked. Myers is the child in our own very real morality tale and skillfully reveals the gaping holes in Pollan's logic and the troublesome degree to which Pollan makes poetry out of pig slaughter. I have been waiting for a very long time for just one reviewer to take Pollan to task, and I am very grateful to Myers for doing so.

Hope At Last: A Book Critic Finally Takes Michael Pollan to Task (a.k.a. I Knew I Wasn't Crazy!)

As many of you know, the notion of “humane meat” or “humane any kind of animal product” is an oxymoron to me. There is simply no such thing. (See From Cradle to Grave: The Facts Behind “Humane” Eating.)

Over the years, I have become increasingly distressed by the romantic assertions posited by those who consider themselves “foodies” or “gourmands” or “slow-foodists” or “consumers of sustainable meat or humane meat or organic meat.” Anyone who’s ever been uncomfortable at the thought of killing animals for human consumption but who has resisted taking responsibility for it (i.e. most of us) has always sought to have their meat and eat it, too. That is, they figured if something was labeled in such a way that enabled them to enjoy their steak but still sleep at night, then that was good enough for them. So, they abandon their ideals of compassion, nonviolence, kindness or whatever it is that makes them feel inclined not to eat animals at all and put their trust in the very industries who have the most to gain from such spurious labels and feel-good marketing campaigns.

But alas, it wasn’t until the spring of 2006 with the publication of Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma that meat-eating was elevated to such a degree that you’d think the very animals themselves gave their blessing. With lyrical language, Pollan turns pig slaughter into poetry and likens the consumption of animals’ bodies to a spiritual transcendence that “transforms the body of the world into our bodies and minds.” The romanticizing of something so ugly belies a desperate attempt to deny what’s true.

A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, they say, and Pollan’s text is awash in all manner of sweeteners. For those who so desperately wanted to rid themselves of their nagging conscience and to wash clean their blood-stained hands, they now had their messiah, their liberator. Pollan became canonized, “ethical ranchers” became idolized, and veganism – the one true response to the violence inherent in turning beautiful beings into butchered bodies – became perceived as a naïve (and even dangerous) ideal. Pollan admits he “pities” the vegetarian, ironically (and arrogantly) asserting that “dreams of innocence are just that; they usually depend on a denial of reality that can be its own form of hubris.”

With that, Pollan completely dismisses the idea of not eating animals at all, not because the arguments for veganism and animal rights aren’t convincing enough or sound enough or compelling enough but, in short, because he wants to keep eating animals. Period. Pure and simple. He says it himself: “If I believe in equality, and equality is based on interests rather than characteristics, then either I have to take the interests of the steer I'm eating into account or concede that I am a speciesist. For the time being, I decided to plead guilty as charged. I finished my steak.”

Throughout the book, he skillfully makes it appear as though he thoughtfully considers an alternative to killing animals for human consumption, but it is all a ruse. He is a meat-eater and wants to defend his meat-eating; his arguments against vegetarianism are unfounded and embarrassingly pedestrian. But for all the praise and accolades he received, not one reviewer ever questioned his logic. He kills a pig to “see if I could,” and not one reviewer or interviewer questioned this unethical decision, which, among other things, breeches the journalist’s code of ethics to “minimize harm.” I suppose, however, that the “harm” refers to human beings – not all beings. He uses the pathetic argument that humans are physically designed to eat animals and even says that we’re denying our heritage by not eating animals.

And nobody questioned any of this. Nobody!

Well, *I* did. And so did like-minded folks who, having no need to spend hundreds of pages defending an unnecessary habit, saw right through Pollan’s lofty language. But my blog posts and podcasts didn't exactly have the power to overturn the damage Pollan caused.

In my podcast version of my article: The Rise of the Excuse-itarians, I read Hans Christian Anderson’s fable, The Emperor’s New Clothes, because I find it a fitting analogy to the “sustainable meat” phenomenon. In summary, it’s a morality tale whose message is “Just because everyone else believes something is true, doesn't mean it is.” And it takes the voice of innocence, of truth, in the form of a little child to pierce the illusion and lift the veil from everyone’s eyes.

Well, I'm now thrilled to report that another voice has just pierced the illusion - and what a voice! B.R. Myers, a book critic for the Atlantic Monthly magazine, has written a fiercely honest criticism of Pollan’s book in the Sept. 2007 issue of the magazine. It’s called “Hard to Swallow: The gourmet’s ongoing failure to think in moral terms.” I ran to my local bookstore, sat down, and almost squealed with delight as I read it. In fact, I did squeal and sigh and cry, and I'm sure my fellow book patrons were wondering what the heck I was reading!

Myers adeptly scrutinizes Pollan’s arguments, chews them up, and spits them out. Though the doublespeak of such “excuse-itarians” as Michael Pollan has always been very clear to me, it was incredibly satisfying to have a respected writer agree that Pollan’s justifications leave as bitter a taste in his mouth as they do in mine. And to have it published in a magazine such as The Atlantic gives me great reason for hope.

I will be reading the article in my next podcast episode, but I highly recommend that everyone get themselves a copy and more importantly write a letter to The Atlantic Monthly magazine. The email address is letters@theatlantic.com. Thank them for publishing Myers piece, a powerful piece of truth-telling that recognizes that the emperor is indeed wearing no clothes.

All About Tofu - Part I

The versatile little soy bean is used to make such delicious foods as tofu, tempeh, miso, and soy milk, and yet it's misunderstood, especially here in the West. Tofu is derided, scoffed at, and even feared by some, and I'm here to set things right. Our little lesson may seem technical at first, but once you read it, I think you'll come away with a much better understanding of our high-protein friend and look with suspicion upon anyone who denigrates it. I think you'll also gain a new perspective of animal-based cheese, which far too many people think "they couldn't live without." When we look closer at its production, perhaps you just might change your mind.

Tofu originated in China about 2000 years ago, and while the details of its discovery are uncertain, legend has it that it was discovered by accident when a Chinese cook added the seaweed nigari to a pot of soybean milk, causing it to curdle, and the result was tofu.

Tofu was introduced into Japan in the 8th century, where it was originally known as "okabe," but was not called "tofu" until the 15th century, though tofu did not gain its great widespread popularity in Japan until the 17th century.

Tofu's popularity in the West has mirrored the increasing interest in healthier foods. First gaining more widespread attention during the 1960s, tofu has been skyrocketing in popularity ever since research has begun to reveal the many significant benefits of this food.
So, what is tofu? What is this white block of what is also called "bean curd"?

Tofu or Dofu (based on the Chinese spelling) is a food that is made in much the same way that people make dairy-based cheese. First, you coagulate soy milk.

Well, let's back up. As with cheese, when you make tofu, the first you need to start with is milk.

In the case of dairy-based cheese, in our crazy world, we use the milk of animals. To make tofu, we use soy milk. Now, most commercial tofu makers make their own soy milk, which anyone can do by soaking, grinding, boiling, and straining dried (or, less commonly, fresh) soybeans.

When you have your soy milk, you then need to add a coagulant. When you coagulate something, you cause it to curdle. In other words, you transform it from a liquid into a soft semisolid or solid mass. Most of us have seen curdling when cow’s milk starts to go bad and you see little semi-solid white lumps floating around. Those are curds. That’s a process of curdling to indicate that it’s spoiling, that it’s going sour.

But there are other ways to sour milk intentionally. You do this by adding an agent that will produce that souring effect. Acidic liquid substances are the most obvious, such as vinegar or lemon juice. For instance, and I talk about this in my new baking cookbook, to make “buttermilk,” all you need to do is add some lemon juice or vinegar to your non-dairy milk, and you’ve got what is sour milk – “i.e. buttermilk.”

So that you better understand the process of creating tofu, let me first talk a little about curdling cow’s milk before I continue with soy milk. For animal-based cheese, what is most often used as a curdling agent is rennet. Rennet is essentially a bunch of enzymes produced in the stomach of mammals to help the offspring digest the mother's milk. One of the enzymes causes the milk to coagulate, to curdle or separate into solids (curds) and liquid (whey). Now you understand what Little Miss Muffet was eating. Couldn’t tell ya why she’d wanna eat it, but now at least you know what it is: curds and whey are the solid and liquid results of curdled milk.

For cow’s milk cheese, the rennet is extracted from the fourth stomach of young calves. And where would you find an abundance of young calf stomachs? The veal industry, of course. The stomachs used to get rennet are a by-product of veal production. Each ruminant animal produces the special kind of rennet needed to digest that species' mother's milk, so there is kid-goat rennet especially for goat’s milk cheese and lamb-rennet for sheep’s-milk cheese.

Let's pause for a moment to examine a few health considerataions. I mentioned that increased acidity in cow’s milk causes curdling. Let’s go a little deeper. What’s actually happening is that the milk proteins (the casein) is tangling up into solid masses or "curds.” The rest, which contains only whey proteins, is the whey. In cow's milk, 80%-87% of the proteins are caseins.

If you haven’t yet read T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study, I can’t recommend it highly enough. I urge you to read it. Campbell is a highly respected researcher and policy advisor in the field of diet and cancer. He is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University and has had a long career in research, teaching and development of national/international studies on diet, nutrition and health.

About casein he says that it is the “#1 carcinogen (i.e. cancer-causing substance) that people come in contact with on a daily basis.” We’re consuming, drinking, swallowing, digesting this stuff every time we drink animal milk or eat animal-based cheese. And in cheese it’s even worse, because the casein is super concentrated.

So back to rennet, there is vegetarian rennet, and sometimes it’s used in the production of kosher cheeses but just keep in mind that though rennet can be produced by plants that have coagulating properties (such as nettles, thistles, or mallow – as in marshmallow – you probably know that marshmallows that are made with gelatin (the boiled hooves, bones, and other leftover body parts of the slaughter industry), but they used to be made with the marshmallow plant!).

Though plant-based rennet is technically possible to create, nearly all “vegetarian” kosher cheeses are produced with either microbial rennet or genetically modified rennet. Microbial rennet is produced by using certain molds that are fermented. Apparently, using microbial rennet produces a slightly bitter tasting cheese, so with the development of genetic engineering, scientists starting using calf genes to modify some bacteria, fungus or yeast to make them produce Chymosin, one of the enzymes found in rennet. Chymosin produced by genetically modified organisms was the first artificially produced enzyme to be registered and allowed by the FDA in the USA. In 1999, about 60% of U.S. hard cheese was made with genetically engineered Chymosin.

When we eat animal-based cheese, we're consuming either the by-products of the veal industry or genetically engineered enzymes based on calf genes.

So that’s rennet – used to curdle animal milk to make animal-based cheese. Now we can return to tofu.

As I said, you have to add a coagulant to your soy milk to curdle it, and for commercial tofu, the two coagulant types most commonly added are acid-based and salt-based.

SALT COAGULANTS

-An example of a salt-based coagulant is calcium sulfate, which is essentially tasteless. Tofu that’s made with calcium sulfate is obviously rich in calcium, and such tofu is pretty common. Tofu made with calcium sulfate tends to be Chinese-style tofu, which is tender but slightly brittle in texture.

-Other salt coagulants used are Chloride-type Nigari salts - Magnesium chloride and calcium chloride. These are the coagulants used to make Japanese-style tofu with a smooth and tender texture. Calcium chloride is a common coagulant for tofu in North America. You’ll recognize this coagulant on the list of ingredients, because it will most likely say Nigari, which consists primarily of magnesium chloride. It’s produced from seawater after the sodium chloride is removed and the water evaporated.

ACID COAGULANTS

Another coagulant that’s used – mostly for silken tofu or soft – is Glucono delta-lactone (GDL), a naturally occurring organic acid, which produces a very fine textured tofu that is almost jelly-like. Think silken tofu.

Tofu producers may choose to use one or more of these coagulants, as they each play a role in producing a desired texture in the finished tofu. So when you notice a different taste or texture in tofu depending on the brand, this is why. A lot of it depends on the coagulant used. The coagulant mixture is dissolved into water, and the solution is then stirred into boiled soy milk until the mixture curdles.

So, now you’ve got your curds, which, like in the process of making cheese, you press these curds. The curds are processed differently depending on the form of tofu that is being made. For soft silken tofu, the soy milk is curdled directly in the tofu's selling package. For standard firm Asian tofu, the soy curd is cut and strained of excess liquid using cheese cloth or muslin and then lightly pressed to produce a soft cake. Firmer tofus are further pressed to remove even more liquid.

In Part II, we'll talk about the various texture varieties of tofu. That's it. Science lesson over.

(Visit CompassionateCooks.com for tofu recipes or for our DVD, in which we demonstrate various uses with tofu, such as our Veggie Stir-Fry with Peanut Sauce and Eggless Egg Salad.)

Cow's Milk: A Substitute for Human Milk

(This article is from my recent blog entry on Green Options. Feel free to visit that page and add some supportive comments. According to a few comments up there now, some people are none too happy with my perspective. I do, however, think the photo they chose is really good.)

People often refer to non-dairy milks, such as soy and rice, as "alternatives to" or "substitutes for" cow’s milk, and the dairy industry scathingly calls them "imitation milks." By definition, the words "alternative" and "substitute" imply that the thing they are being measured against is the superior choice; that is, you choose the "substitute" when you can’t get the real thing, and so on.
However, I don’t like the use of these terms when referring to non-animal-based foods for a number of reasons. By all calculations, meat, dairy, and eggs are superior in no way – not in terms of health, not in terms of taste, and certainly not in terms of ethics. And if we step back for a moment, we’d see that animal foods are actually the alternatives to plant foods, and we’d remember that cow’s milk is actually a substitute for human milk.

ANIMAL PRODUCTS REPLACE PLANT FOODS
When animals were first herded and domesticated for human consumption, about 9,000-10,000 years ago, they essentially became the alternatives to plant foods. Plant foods were the foundation of the human diet for a long, long time - long before people started domesticating non-human animals. (READ: Plant foods were the foundation. I’m not saying humans didn’t eat "meat" at all.) Fast forward thousands of years to our own "modern" culture. With millions of dollars, the animal exploitation industries convinced people they need to consume the flesh and secretions of animals, and fruits, vegetables, beans, mushrooms, nuts, seeds, herbs, and spices were pushed off to the sidelines and sold as garnish, and meat, dairy, and eggs, with their powerful lobbies on Capitol Hill, enjoyed government support, subsidies, and protection.

Thanks to the dairy industry, whose government-sponsored advertisements pose as public service announcements, humans are continually sold the idea that we need cows’ milk to be healthy. This stuff is sold as if it contains some magical formula designed just for human bodies. The truth is it is a perfect formula, designed just for growing babies — bovine babies, that is.

HERDING ANIMALS - DUPING HUMANS
Cattle are herd animals, which means they are easy to control because they move together and stay together. In other words, "cattle" meet certain requirements that make it easy for humans to contain them. Let’s not kid ourselves into believing that humans struck nutritional gold when they started drinking cows’ milk. Cows’ milk — just like soda — is a commercial product that is sold to the public by the dairy industry that has billions of dollars behind it in advertising and enjoys government protection from false advertising laws.* Whether it’s cow’s milk, goat’s milk, sheep’s milk, buffalo’s milk, rat’s milk, or dog’s milk, it is totally unnecessary for human survival and health.

Not only are we the only animal that drinks another animal’s milk, we are the only animal that drinks it into adulthood. All female mammals produce milk for the same reason: to feed and nourish their offspring. At a certain age, depending on the mammal, the infant is able to move onto solid food and is weaned off of the mother’s milk — every mammal, that is, except humans.

Despite the fact that humans don’t continue drinking human milk after being weaned, we’re told we have to drink cows’ milk. And despite the fact that calves naturally stop drinking cows’ milk after they’re weaned, humans have been duped into believing that they must drink it as adults. Our own physiology supports the cessation of milk-drinking in that - at about time time when we should be weaned off of breast milk - our bodies stop producing lactase, the enzyme that enables us to digest lactose, the sugar that’s in mammalian milk. One of the reasons the majority of the world population suffers from lactose intolerance is because we’re not able to digest it. Drinking milk - human or otherwise - into adulthood makes absolutely no sense, but it makes really good business and very good money.

TAKING BACK THE WORD

The dairy industry has made attempts to own the word "milk" and stop non-dairy milk companies from using the word; they loathe the use of the word "milk" in any other context outside of that which refers to the stuff they take from cows and sell to humans. (Perhaps they would prefer human women to say "breast beverage" instead of "breast milk.") Besides referring to the fluid that a female produces when she is lactating, the word "milk" also refers to the liquid extracted from various plants, whether they are nuts, grains, seeds, or fruits. Many of these milks have been around for thousands of years in different parts of the world. The milk from these plants are hardly "alternatives." Rather, they stand on their own as delicious and much healthier choices for human consumption.

SOY
Soy milk originated in China, a region where the soybean was native and used as food long before the existence of written records. Later on, the soybean and soybean foods were transplanted to Japan. Soy milk is reputed to have been discovered and developed in the Han Dynasty in China about 164 B.C. Cow’s milk is definitely the "alternative" to soy milk, particularly in the East. Sadly and ironically, however, the consuption of cow’s milk now exceeds that of soy milk in Japan. The advertising arms of the North American dairy industry reach far and wide.

RICE
If you’ve ever been to a traditional Mexican restaurant, you’ve had the pleasure of imbibing Horchata, a delicious sweet beverage made primarily of rice, sugar, and cinnamon – and often almonds. The Mexican Horchata is based on the Spanish Horchata de Chufa, which was traditionally made from a grassy plant called the Chufa or tiger nut and has its origin in ancient Egypt and Sudan.

NUT
Almond milk – by far my favorite! – was used widely in the Middle Ages in regions stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to East Asia. It was prized for its high protein content and its ability to keep better than milk from animals, which soured if it wasn’t used right away. Milk derived from other nuts also has a long history, including that of walnut, cashews, peanuts, macadamia, and hazelnuts.

COCONUT
The milk of the young coconut is referred to as coconut water or coconut juice and is absolutely delicious and drunk as a beverage. It’s been a popular drink in the tropics since the discovery of the coconut palm tree! (Early Sanskrit writings reveal that the people of India were using coconuts as a staple for food.) It’s naturally fat-free and low in calories with high nutrition content. (Coconut milk is the thick sweet, milky white substance derived from the meat of a mature coconut and is often used for cooking and not for drinking.)

FOLLOWING THE COWS’ LEAD
The bottom line is we have no nutritional requirement for the milk of another animal. Though we have nutritional requirements for nutrients such as calcium, we can do what the cows do and get our minerals from the green leafy stuff that grows in the ground. That news, however, hasn’t quite made its way to our living rooms and classrooms. The kale growers don’t seem to have the money for multi-million-dollar ad campaigns (got kale?); the chard lobby has yet to be formed; and the broccoli farmers just haven’t gotten around to producing glossy marketing materials (I mean - "educational" materials) for young children in school to compete with those that the dairy industry have been supplying to teachers for decades. Get them while they’re young, and you’ve got them for life.

Though humans have been drinking the milk of animals for thousands of years, there is enough evidence now to support the detrimental effects it has on our bodies. Just because we’re in the habit of doing something doesn’t mean we should continue. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.

(*The California Milk Advisory Board was sued by animal advocates and organizations for falsely representing the condition and treatment of dairy cows in the state. Because the California Milk Advistory Board is the marketing arm of the California Department of Agriculture and thus a government agency, it is exempt from false-advertising laws. The case was thrown out, but not before the judge acknowledged that California cows "probably aren’t happy and that if the ads implying that they were happy had been made by a private individual, false-advertising laws might apply.")

*Listen to my podcast episode on my favorite non-dairy milks.

Coping as an Animal Advocate: How to take care of ourselves and remain effective (PART II)

LAUGH

Whereas I think it’s really important to feel the sorrow and embrace it as part of the whole package – the whole package of being human, of living life, and of being an activist, I think it’s also really important to laugh. I watch a lot of movies, many of them pretty melancholy, but I also watch comedies. I really do. Now, I’ve been accused of being a bit of a film snob, and frankly, I don’t mind. There are just so many amazing films out there, and I don’t like wasting my time with the fluff that’s churned out. Having said that, David and I rent and own a lot of stuff that makes us laugh – for us, it’s British TV shows. I’ve a watched every episode of every season of the Blackadder series like a million times each; it’s quite pathetic. I also adore Jeeves and Wooster (based on the P.G. Wodehouse comic novels, which are also fantastic. I mean if you want to laugh out loud while reading. You absolutely have to read P.G. Wodehouse). We watch Keeping Up Appearances, Absolutely Fabulous, French & Saunders, Fawlty Towers – although Fawlty Towers actually stresses me out a bit – John Cleese is INSANE in it. Anyway, the bottom line is I just know when I’m in the mood for something light or heavy. And I listen to myself.

I think spending time with people who make you laugh is really important, especially when we need a charge – don’t spend time with people who drain your energy; do something t and be with people who replenish you. This is just another reason for having like-minded people in your life. Scheduling down time. Playing games. Hiking. Going to museums. Just spending time away from everything that makes you sad. Now please understand, all this is coming from someone who really struggles with this balance thing. This stuff is on my mind 24/7, and because I work from home and struggle with my own guilt when I’m NOT doing something, I’m speaking from experience when I say it’s important to do all of these things. It took me a long time to admit I’m a bit of a workaholic, and sometimes it takes physical pain for me to stop working. I’ve recently come down with some serious wrist pain, which has led me to change the way I do some things, and it’s a little scary to know that I drove myself to physical injury. My more even-minded friends – and husband – remind me that it’s not optimum to wait until I’m in pain to stop working, so I’m learning to do all this stuff, too. Burn out is all too common in animal activists, and that’s not a place you want to get to.

The problem is I feel best – emotionally – when I’m doing SOMETHING to end the suffering of animals, when I’m doing SOMETHING to raise awareness of their suffering, and doing SOMETHING to empower people to live according to their own truth and compassion. But I’ll be super honest with you. Some of my workaholism stems from the pangs of guilt I have felt when I’m NOT doing these things. I’ve thought, “who am I to relax and enjoy life when there is so much suffering out there?” And though that might sound noble, I really do believe now that a) that sounds too much like martyrdom and b) I will be no good to the animals or to other people if I don’t take care of myself. I mean I reeeally believe that now. But it took a long time to get there. So, I really do strive for balance now and know that the healthier I am physically and emotionally, the better representative I am for animals.

ACTIVISM

So, having established the fact that I encourage finding balance in our lives as advocates, I want to talk briefly about the main thing that keeps me going day in and day out: I’m an activist! I absolutely don’t have time and the animals don’t have time for me to get mired down in despair. They need me to act for them, to speak for them, to be their ambassador, and this is what gets me up every morning. But that’s not the whole truth – the fact is I wouldn’t be able to keep going if I didn’t have hope. I mean I literally spring out of bed every morning, anxious and excited to start my day (annoyed at needing to sleep at all), so I can speak on behalf of animals and spread the word that needs to be spread.

When people ask me what they can do to help – what type of activism they can get involved in, there are soooooooo many options, but because being vegan is such a powerful means for preventing suffering, I think it’s so exciting that by just making different food choices, different choices for our clothing and shoes, for our entertainment, for the cleaning and personal products we buy, we can have such a huge impact. So even if you don’t have time to be an activist in the formal sense, you ARE making a difference – Beatrize - by choosing a compassionate lifestyle. This stuff is contagious! We’re not talking about thousands of people – we’re talking about millions.

If you want very specific things you can do, I highly, highly encourage you to visit the website http://www.strikingattheroots.com/. It is the website of a new, fabulous book coming out in January 2008, written by activist extraordinaire, Mark Hawthorne, an amazing friend to the animals and a very good friend of mine. His book is called Striking at the Roots: A Practical Guide to Animal Activism, and it’s the most comprehensive book ever written on the many ways you can act on behalf of animals – not just animals killed for human consumption but animals exploited in every way in our society.

In the meantime, I’ll tell you what I think is the best form of activism for you: whatever it is you’re good at and whatever it is you love. I happen to think this is the key to not just activism but the answer to “what am I supposed to do in the world.” I don’t believe it’s natural to have this separation between the work we’re supposed to do in the world and the way we’re supposed to make a living. I believe the work we’re supposed to do in the world should be an extension of our passion and our gifts. It’s such a cliché – but you know “do what you love and the money will follow.” Unfortunately, many of us get fed a bunch of lies that make us afraid to live our truth and manifest our gifts. In terms of activism, I do think certain types of activism are more effective than others, but the bottom line is you’re going to be the most effective if you’re really coming from a truthful and joyful place. Again, I don’t think we’re supposed to be martyrs; I think we’re supposed to be at our highest when we’re speaking our truth, and if we’re finding that we’re using a method that doesn’t really reflect our joy or truth, then perhaps we need to find a method that works for us.

The work I’m doing now really is similar to the type of activism I did early on. Writing has always been something I loved doing and had a knack for, so my very early activism involved me making little brochures and flyers about different issues – early on they were about puppy mills, vivisection (i.e. animals as research tools), and vegetarianism. This was before the Internet, so I typed the names and telephone numbers of various organizations people could get in touch with to learn more. I still have these early brochures and flyers – they were pretty cute – and I used to walk around the mall (I’m from NJ, okay?) and hand out these flyers, especially the ones about puppy mills because there was a pet store in the mall. I was scared to death doing this. I didn’t know any other activists, but I just needed to do this to inform people and to feel like I was doing something. When I left grad school, and my fellow graduates talked about what we were going to do, I remember saying “I don’t know what it’s going to look like, but know it has something to do with writing, teaching, and raising awareness about animal rights. I just didn’t know how it was going to look, so I kept trying a number of different things and listening to what I heard was most needed. That’s how I started teaching cooking. It wasn’t something I had planned, but it was a gap that needed to be filled, and I did enjoy cooking, so it made sense. Anyway, you get the idea. More important than the answers we have are the questions we ask. I just kept asking “what do I love and what am I good at?” and I kept getting direction about what I needed to do. I worked for many years building Compassionate Cooks while I worked out other organizations. When the time was right, I left (yes, it was scary), and I was able to do this work full-time – I feel so blessed, but it didn’t happen over night. I worked hard and still work hard to make this happen.

For those of you who don’t do this work full-time, please don’t think that’s absolutely necessary, either. There are so many ways to be effective advocates in the framework of our current lives. Plus, you can have more than one passion. So, it’s not like only those of us doing this work as our vocation are the most effective ones. In fact, I think in many ways you’re doing the harder work. Admittedly, I live in a bit of a bubble. My husband is vegan. All of our friends – well most of them – and all of my closest friends – are vegan, and I’m immersed in and carried by the hope I see every day, because of people like you. I’m not making that up. For those of you who are surrounded by non-vegan co-workers, friends, colleagues, spouses, etc., this work can be very taxing, which is why I come back to this mantra again and again: Seek out the hope. It’s absolutely there.

I get to hear from people every day who are changing themselves, changing their minds, changing their habits, and changing the world, and this is why I created The Joyful Vegan blog – joyfulvegan.wordpress.com. This blog is really YOUR blog, because it’s full of YOUR stories; it’s so special to me, because I get to share with the world (with your permission, of course) how special you all are. Please send me your stories of transformation so you can give hope to others.
And if that doesn’t do it for you, I’d like to end this episode with an excerpt from a wonderful essay by Vegan Outreach co-founder Matt Ball. Susan, the sponsor of today’s episode wanted me to recommend this essay, and today’s topic was a perfect time to do so. Plus, it honors Susan and the work she’s been doing leafleting. Leafleting really is a wonderful, effective, fulfilling, and vital form of activism, and I encourage you to get involved. You can visit http://www.veganoutreach.org/ for ways to volunteer for them and to read Matt’s full essay, called A Meaningful Life. Here’s just an excerpt.

"Is the situation hopeless? If you look at the big picture, I do believe that there is reason for optimism. Indeed, anyone interested in creating a fundamental change for the future is advised to take the long view — at least longer than the next year, or even the next decade. While it is frustrating how slow the pace of progress can seem to us, the rate of change has been unprecedented in the past few centuries.

As Bruce Friedrich of PETA points out:

Socrates, considered the father of philosophical thought, was teaching more than twenty-five hundred years ago. It was thousands of years later that we saw the beginnings of our democratic system. Not until the 19th century was slavery abolished in the developed world. Only in the last century was child labor ended, child abuse criminalized, women allowed to vote, and minorities granted wider rights.

When viewed in this context, it seems clear that today we have the great and singular opportunity to make the Economist (Magazine’s) prediction come true:

Historically, man has expanded the reach of his ethical calculations, as ignorance and want have receded, first beyond family and tribe, later beyond religion, race, and nation. To bring other species more fully into the range of these decisions may seem unthinkable to moderate opinion now. One day, decades or centuries hence, it may seem no more than "civilized" behavior requires.

Is this enough to keep an activist going, day in and day out, when trying to do the hard and often abstract work of promoting veganism (especially while not surrounded by other activists to provide support)? We aren't robots. We each want to be happy.

Yet our desire for happiness is, I believe, the answer to the final challenge.

Ultimately, happiness isn't to be found in "stuff." While the U.S. is the richest country on earth, Americans aren't the happiest people on earth. The phrase isn't "the pursuit of happiness" for nothing! As biological creatures, it is our nature to always desire more, to constantly strive for a greater share, regardless of what we already have. Over the millennia, those creatures who were satisfied were erased from the gene pool by our unfulfilled ancestors, leaving us with a nature that pursues happiness but isn't able to acquire it.

Where does this leave us? The best answer I've found is: happiness is the result of a meaningful life, and meaning comes not from things, but from accomplishment.

I believe that meaningful accomplishment comes from living life beyond ourselves, viewing our existence beyond the immediate. Doing my thoughtful best to make the world a better place is as meaningful a life as I can imagine.

To paraphrase Martin Luther King, Jr.:

The arc of history is long

And ragged

And often unclear

But ultimately

It progresses towards justice." (End of Matt's excerpt)

Every time we speak up for animals and act on behalf of those who need us most, we are part of that progress. I also believe the creation of the world we want starts with our thoughts. If we believe that injustice will prevail, let me just say I don’t share those thoughts, and those negative thoughts compete with the hopeful thoughts that justice will prevail. Don’t underestimate the power of thought; it shapes our perceptions, it determines our actions, and it creates the world we live in. That’s just my opinion; I could be wrong. And if I am, I have nothing to lose by thinking this way; but if I’m right, there WILL come a time when look back upon our treatment of non-human animals and say “what were we thinking??”

Coping as an Animal Advocate: How to take care of ourselves and remain effective (PART I)

I'm continually amazed and touched by the emails I receive from people, who share their stories of transformation and express their enthusiasm and joy about becoming awakened - about becoming vegan. But I also hear their sorrow and their weariness.

In a recent podcast episode, I addressed how to cope with the pain of the awareness of animal suffering and also how to be an effective advocate for animals, because I think these things go hand in hand. I address some of this in an earlier episode called Taking it All In, so I encourage people to check that out first. Among the many emails I receive, two recently stood out, inspiring me to revisit this topic.

One email was from Misty, who wrote “I am a new vegan and have literally been attacked in all sorts of verbal arguments. Everything from - no wonder you look sick (which I don't) to why don't you care about babies? You have given me so much ammo so that I don't have to resort to arguments. But I have a question. It is overwhelming all of the information I have learned. About animal suffering, and the humans that suffer along that are involved in the killing and processing of animals. How do you deal with that awareness? I lived in misinformation for so long - or maybe it was denial - and now that I know - I have a very hard time dealing with it. I feel anxious or depressed and try to stretch myself to do every little thing I could possibly do to reduce my impact, or tell someone about it.”

Another email was from Beatriz: "Today I listened in incredible pain to your podcast on fishing bycatch.... As an avid scuba diver, who has spent many hours underwater sharing the wonderful ocean with beautiful marine species, I cannot tell you how excruciatingly depressing it was for me to hear you quote the agonising facts and figures on over fishing, bycatch killings and atrocious effects that the fishing industry is having on the wonderful lives below the surface. Nothing on your podcast was new to me. What really pained was to realise what little difference I, as an individual, and a few thousands like me, can make to this dismal situation. I truly feel that what I do, what you do, what many like us try to do, has hardly any true effect on the atrocious actions that the fishing industry and governments carry though every day. I feel like we are as small flea trying to shift an elephant. How do you do it, Colleen? Where do you get the energy to continue fighting on every day? Don't you get depressed and feel like giving up because you feel that your efforts hardly make a difference? I certainly feel like that. I will of course continue with my efforts every single day, but I have resigned myself to think that whatever I chose to do, the world around me will continue to charge ahead with its destruction.”

So, these two emails compelled me to address this issue again. I’m sure you can see why. It just pains me so much to hear that kind of despair and frustration. And as usual, I don’t have all the answers. All I can do is share with you what *I* do and have done to cope in this crazy, mixed up world that seems bent on destroying the lives and homes of everyone who isn’t human – and some who are.

CRY

First things first. I cry. I absolutely let myself feel this stuff. It probably helps that I don’t smoke or drink, so I feel this stuff pretty acutely. There’s no numbing or avoiding this pain. A really lovely woman named Victoria – a new vegan – who recently wrote to me phrased this really beautifully (and in fact you can read Victoria’s story at the Joyful Vegan blog). She wrote, “Right now, sorrow for the creatures who endure unthinkable suffering is large for me. But I am grateful for the sorrow, which is real, and is part of awakening further to life.” I don’t know if this makes sense, but there’s something comforting about being able to feel that grief, to feel that pain, to feel that sorrow, because I would choose that over oblivion any day.

Ironically, my favorite books, music, and films tend to be somewhat – okay VERY – melancholy. It’s just what I’m drawn to. I really like stories about people struggling for justice, which means you’re gonna see a lot of injustice in the telling. These stories make me sad, but they also motivate me. That doesn’t mean I watch sad movies JUST so I can feel the sorrow, cause Lord knows I don’t need anymore reasons than I already have. But I guess I just feel okay – I feel comfortable enough to feel the sadness.

KNOW YOUR LIMITATIONS

This also doesn’t mean I watch sad movies all the time, and it certainly doesn’t mean I watch the videos of ani