What I’ve Been Reading – A Collection of Vegan Links

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”] It’s been a while since I’ve put together a list of interesting vegan links here on the blog. Those of you who follow me on Twitter, or are a fan of the Facebook page, will have seen a couple of these videos and articles already because I’ve been posting some of the things that interest me during the week. I will probably be doing more of that in the future so be sure to become a fan or follow me if you are interested.

First of all I wanted to share this DELICIOUS looking recipe from Ross over at Vegan Eats. I think I’ll definitely be trying this recipe in the future, but in the meantime you can drool over his delicious Chocolate Peanut Fudge HERE.

HERE is a video of Jonathan Safran Foer’s segment on the Colbert Report. I’ve discovered, since watching this segment – I don’t own a TV and have never seen the Colbert Report before – that I don’t much like Colbert but JSF is great (as always) so I thought I would share.

HERE is a youtube video about raising vegan children which I found interesting.

THIS video has been doing the rounds a bit lately so a lot of you will already have seen it but I find it so heartbreaking that I just have to share it. It’s not a gory video, you don’t see any physical torture (aside from some prodding, which I admit is pretty upsetting), or a single drop of blood, but this clip really speaks volumes about just what an animal feels and how much he or she understands as they make their way to the slaughter. I think this clip would provide great clarification for anyone who doesn’t fully understand what the term ‘sentient being’ really means.

HERE is a new blog, especially created as a resource for Western Australians but it’s a great blog for vegan product reviews and recipes as well so I think you’ll find it interesting no matter where you live.

Shannon over at Diary of a Vegan always has so many interesting articles, I really recommend heading over and checking her out. My two favourites during the last few weeks have been:

Heal Yourself, Heal the Planet, A Little Guide to Transformation
Eating Raw on the Run

Mercy for Animals have an article on their blog about the decline of animals being killed for food in the USA. Which is a wonderful and really encouraging trend. Let’s hope that trend continues! Below is a graphic of some of those statistics which can also be found in the article linked above:

CBS News this week had an article discussing the overuse of antibiotics in animals and the effects on humans, read the article and watch the video HERE.

HERE is an ABC news article about a dairy worker who was suspended from work after hitting a cow with a wrench. How disgusting that this kind of behaviour is only enough for a suspension, it really illustrates the way that these animals are viewed by the people who run these companies.

There is a bit of a misconception out there that in order to be vegan you have to be wealthy, which I don’t think is true. Of course there are vegan food items that are expensive, but that is true of any diet. In my case, meat items were always the most expensive items in my grocery basket when I was an omnivore and later, when I was a vegetarian, dairy products always took the biggest chunk out of our food budget, as a vegan there are weeks that I spend a lot of money of specialty items like agave nectar or dark chocolate covered goji berries, but the majority of my grocery list consists of beans, grains and vegetables and I find that I spend less than ever on my weekly shop. In that spirit: HERE is an article entitled “How To Eat Vegan Cheaply”.

Also on Vegan Soapbox is an article about the standard industry practice of cutting off cow’s tails without painkillers. **Warning, there is a graphic video attached to this article, but it doesn’t start automatically so you don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to.

And, a piece that discusses the flaws in the omnivore’s claim that it’s natural to eat other animals: We Are Not Lions.

Gary L. Francione writes about Violence in his blog.

Normally I don’t post links about celebrity veganism or vegetarianism but I really liked THIS article about Ginnifer Goodwin and her decision to go vegan so I thought I would include it this week.

I’ve always been a little baffled when speaking to “vegetarians” who still eat fish (pretendatarians?), I was never quite able to understand how they were able to justify taking the life of a fish but not the life of a cow. Maybe some of them would change their mind about eating seafood if they read THIS article about farmed salmon. It’s a VERY informative read, I’d highly recommend you all read it. In the article he talks about a documentary called “Farmed Salmon Exposed”, HERE is that documentary on YouTube. **Warning the video is graphic

As a bit of a contrast to the unhappy animals you’ve seen in a lot of these links and videos I thought I’d share THIS link which is a collection of some smiley happy animals. I have to put a disclaimer here because I feel a bit weird about sharing this link since some of the photos included are of animals in captivity (zoos etc) which I personally don’t agree with, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded of what happy, clean, well treated animals look like so I’m including it. The pictures at the end of this post are from that video.

Well that’s it for this week, I’ll leave you with another happy herbie video because there is nothing like some herbie love to cheer you up. Herbie the rescued steer plays with a tree branch.

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Eating Animals Giveaway

I’ve been talking about this book now for weeks, and I know that practically everyone on earth has heard about it by now, but if you don’t yet have your copy, now is your chance to try and snap up a freebie. In the spirit of Christmas, I’m giving away one copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Eating Animals” to a lucky reader.

Simply leave a comment below for a chance to win.

For additional entries you can blog or tweet about the giveaway, make sure you include the post link so that I can keep track of your entries (one tweet entry per twitter account).

I will randomly select a winner on the morning of Wednesday the 16th of December (local time).

NB: Contest is open to all readers worldwide. I’ll order the book on the winner’s behalf and get the book sent to their address directly from Book Depository to avoid double shipping and extra packaging.

Good Luck!

What I’ve been reading

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]I thought I might take a bit of a break from the recipes today to share with you some of the sites and info I’ve been reading in the last week or so. Over the last few weeks I’ve started to realise that it’s not enough simply to not participate in the culture of cruelty, sometimes it’s just as important to provide people with information so that they can make an informed choice about their eating habits, SO, in that spirit I thought I would do a weekly or fortnightly post with some interesting links, blogs etc.

The Hidden Lives of Cows: A website about the dairy industry in New Zealand

Some Thoughts on Vegan Education: By Gary L. Francione

This video was the “light-bulb moment” for my husband, who has always been a very avid meat eater, he always picked on me for my tendency to anthropomorphize animals, but then he saw this video and he hasn’t eaten meat since. (not graphic or violent!)

An interview with the very fabulous Jonathan Safran Foer on Ellen

A children’s book about veganism and factory farming: Why We Don’t Eat Animals

Abolitionist Approach FAQs

Of course there is the documentary “Earthlings” which I highly recommend, even though I’m still having nightmares after forcing myself to watch it. I know it’s hard to watch, but as I said to a friend of mine the other day who said she just couldn’t watch it, closing my eyes doesn’t make the cruelty any less true. If you aren’t able to watch it, imagine how it must be to live it.

Here is a Thanksgiving Ad by Peta, in light of the fact that it is Thanksgiving. I have a lot of issues with Peta and a lot of their approaches to vegan education – in particular the way they exploit women – but I do quite like the simplicity and sincerity of this advertisement so I thought I would include it.

And you all know by now that I think everyone (in the world!) should read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, even if you have no interest in veganism, it is still such an important read, please read it!

Okay that’s it for this week. I’ll come back next week with anything interesting I find between now and then!

PS: Just a note, I will not link anything graphic without a warning either before or directly after the link, I am VERY sensitive about that kind of thing so I wouldn’t ambush anyone that way, however, some of the sites I’m linking to may have graphic pictures in their headers or sidebars, linking to various things around their sites, so tread carefully if you are likely to be easily offended.

**NOTE: This post was supposed to be posted yesterday, but due to technical difficulties didn’t go through until today, which explains the Thanksgiving theme 🙂

Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer

[tweetmeme source=”VeganChickie”]If you know me in real life you will probably have already heard me talk about Jonathan Safran Foer. He is my favourite author and has been since I read the first chapter of his first book all those years ago (thanks Adam), I have bought his books over and over and over again, because I keep giving my copies away to people who I think will enjoy them. After reading “Everything’s Illuminated” I wanted to name my first-born daughter Brod – Luke, wasn’t too keen on that one though – and halfway through “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” I went back to page one and started the book over again because it was so beautiful that I just didn’t want it to end. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that I love his most recent book, in fact if he had written a book in support of factory farming I probably still would have bought it, that is the depth of love I have for this man. As it turns out Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book “Eating Animals” is quite the opposite, thank goodness for that! Before I heard about the book, I didn’t really think that I could be MORE in love with JSF, I thought the love fest had reached it’s peak, imagine my surprise when I find myself swooning for him all over again.

I  pre-ordered the book on Amazon, literally within minutes of finding out about its existence, and waited – impatiently – for weeks for it to arrive. The day I discovered it in my postbox, I couldn’t even wait to get home before I read it, so I walked the whole way back to my house with my nose stuck in the book, I tripped once or twice on the treacherous terrain and twisted my ankle a little, but it was still worth it.

I haven’t finished it yet, it’s in my nature to devour books, sometimes I can read 5 in a week, and I always feel sad once they are over, so I’m trying desperately to savour it. Having said that, even though I’m only 111 pages in, I can confidently say that this book has changed my life. By page ten I had already laughed out loud, and had to mop my tears off one the pages. It’s the first non-fiction book to make it into my ‘top ten favourite books’ list, and in fact, it has even surpassed both of Foer’s other novels and found itself in first place. When Foer wrote about the first time he made the connection between meat and animals, I almost wept with my personal recollection of that moment from my own childhood.

“My brother and I looked at each other, our mouths full of hurt chickens, and had simultaneous how-in-the-world-could-I-have-never-thought-of-that-before-and-why-on-earth-didn’t-someone-tell-me? moments”.

Everything about this book is thoughtful and compassionate. Every description so moving and so heartfelt, JSF brings so much grace to this argument, which is usually filled with aggression and anger, he is truly a breath of fresh air. His book is really unlike any other on the subject, and I’m already trying to think of ways to work into my weekly budget enough money to buy multiple copies of the book just so I can send them to everyone I know. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately for all the meat eaters in my life – I just don’t have the money to do that at the moment.

Anyway, I am not a book reviewer, and generally I’m not the kind of person who speaks so openly about vegan issues, preferring to keep a low profile and avoid the aggression from others that comes with voicing your opinion about such things – although that is changing! – so I won’t go on, the whole point of this post is to simply say:

Buy it! Read it! You won’t be disappointed!

I’ll leave you with this passage from the book which I think speaks volumes:

“Silently the animal catches our glance. The animal looks at us, and whether we look away (from the animal, our plate, our concern, ourselves) or not, we are exposed. Whether we change our lives or do nothing, we have responded. To do nothing is to do something”.