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Hacked!

It seems our blog was hacked with someone/a bot posting Starbucks ads. Aaron doesn't drink coffee or caffeine in general and I certainly wouldn't go to Starbucks to get what they call 'a coffee'.

I'm not a fan of advertising at the best of times, so I like it even less when it invades something that we use a medium for our writing/interests. Target specific ads are everywhere these days and it makes me nauseous (not literally, that would be too dramatic).

So in keeping with our/my feelings on advertising, please check out these 2 skits by Bill Hicks and David Cross. Have a nice day and sorry if this crap popped up in your 'feed'.

Gareth x

Bill Hicks

David Cross 

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The Real Vegan Dr Martens - Vegetarian Shoes

Many people throughout the vegan community have gotten quite excited of late because Dr Marten's have finally started making non-leather, vegan friendly 8 hole and gibson style boots/shoes. Don't get me wrong, when I heard about them, my eyes widened and a smile flashed across my face, because, as a teenager growing up in England, I lived and breathed in these things. We'd buy them from the local army & navy store for £25 a pair and wear them until we outgrew them and could pass them down to a younger sibling. Ahh nostalgia...but the thing is, as of January of this year, I actually already owned a pair of Vegan Dr Martens. They just don't say that on the label.

I'm sure you're all aware of Vegetarian Shoes. For the most parts, they're amazing (their image is a touch on the patchouli side, but who cares, let them eat hemp!). The fact that they exist is just astounding. The quality is always superb and the materials they've perfected over the years is extremely hard wearing for a synthetic leather (Novacas take note). Possibly the best around from what I can gather.

Where they excel though is with their Dr Marten's or 'Airseal Footwear' as they call them. They still have them hand stitched/made in one of England's oldest shoe-making factories, which was established in 1881. Unless I'm mistaken, I think it's the original Dr Marten's factory. Unlike the new 'Vegan Dr Martens' however, which are mass produced and made over in China (cue dramatic music).

Now they don't have the yellow stitching (legally they can't, although the stitching is a neutral colour should you wish to alter them yourself) or the 'bouncing sole' slogan on the bottom, but what they do have is a legacy, regardless of what it says on the label. I actually modified mine slightly, because originally they came with black eyelits. I took some fine sandpaper to them and within 20 mins, converted them to a nice vintage looking brass eyelit.

You can dress the new Vegan Dr Marten's up whatever way you want but the truth is, you're still supporting a company where 99.9% of their business is exploiting and making money off of the skins of dead animals. If the label really bothers you that much, buy the 'real thing'. You're an adult, it's your money and it's still better than buying leather. But when there is an alternative that is more authentic than the real thing, should you even be confused. To me, it'd be like buying a veggie burger from McDonalds...

English made, hand stitched, 100% vegan company. Versus, Chinese made, mass produced, company that primarily sells leather. Support the little guys and fill ya boots!

Gareth x

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NYC - Interview with lauren Ornelas of Food Empowerment Project

Soon after the Mercy for Animals interview with Eddie Garza he was nice enough to introduce me to lauren Ornelas, the executive director of Food Empowerment Project.  She was gracious enough to agree to do an interview with XVO, and we couldn’t be more excited.  Food Empowerment Project (FEP) addresses many issues including food accessibility in low-income communities and communities of color, as well as the intersection between environmental racism, veganism and the living conditions of workers laboring for big agriculture. 

The resources provided by FEP are invaluable to the vegan community and the community at large. They illustrate that food accessibility and the lack of resources, when it comes to healthy food as well as the working conditions of immigrant workers, is most certainly a vegan issue. One can directly impact these issues by intelligently supporting a lifestyle that stands against violence affecting human and non-human animals alike in the availability, consumption and production of food and products. With race and class impacting all movements, issues and resources; I challenge every person involved in the vegan community to analyze the current state of the movement through an anti-racist lens. You should be doing this anyway, however it is more common than not, that anti-racist analysis of the movement is much rarer that it should be.

I highly recommend looking at the food availability study before reading the interview.  http://www.foodispower.org/scc_study.htm

How was Food Empowerment Project started?

The concept of Food Empowerment Project (F.E.P.) came to me when I was speaking at the World Social Forum in Caracas, Venezuela. There were speakers from Bolivia talking about the fight against Bechtel and water privatization; there were talks about immigration (why are goods able to cross borders so freely but people can’t?); there were talks about workers; and, of course, there were talks about the environment. I gave a talk on corporate animal factories and how they impacted the animals, workers and the environment. I was impressed with the global interest from people in Cuba, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and even some from the US; however, I did not know of any international groups working on all of the issues I addressed. This was one of the first things that prompted me to start thinking of a more global approach to food issues. The other piece of the puzzle was realizing that all of the issues I feel passionately about are related to food. And luckily for everyone, this is an area where we all have the ability to make choices.   Could you talk a little about the Food Availability Study?

This is a project about the lack of access to healthy foods in communities of color and low-income communities that I am very excited about and proud of, and yet many people in the vegan community don’t seem to quite understand its value. And this lack of understanding reflects one of the challenges facing an organization like ours: by connecting these issues, we don’t gain the financial support of groups that are working solely on veganism or groups working on other forms of food justice. The reason why I chose to do the food access survey was because I wanted to see how prevalent the problem of accessing healthy food really is. I have read reports and studies from Chicago, Detroit, parts of New York and North Carolina, but after moving to Santa Clara County, I wondered how it fared compared to other big cities. The Silicon Valley is now known for its high-tech industry and loads of wealth, but its history is one of orchards, canneries and the work of Cesar Chavez. Being unable to hire anyone full-time, we were very lucky to have the assistance of volunteers for the creation of our survey and the actual footwork to complete it. We had over a dozen volunteers from all over the Bay Area go into grocery stores, liquor stores, convenience and specialty stores to access the availability of the following:                                                           Fruits (fresh, frozen, canned + organic) Vegetables (fresh, frozen, canned + organic) Dairy alternatives “Meat” alternatives We also took note if locations that took EBT cards (for foods stamps), if they carried cigarettes, what types of alcoholic beverages were available, and determined if they provided information on lactose intolerance and vegetarianism or veganism, along with addressing a host of other questions. You can read our full report online: http://www.foodispower.org/scc_study.htm With racism playing a part in the accessibility of food as well as the treatment of the workers in the production of food, could you talk about your view of the role of veganism in that fight?

As a vegan organization we promote a diet that consists mainly of fruits, vegetables and grains of some sort. By doing so we feel quite strongly that we need to lend our voices to the farm workers — whether that be through legislation or purchasing power — since these are the workers who make it possible for us to put fruits and vegetables on our tables. Our website goes more in depth regarding the terrible working conditions and poor treatment of workers involved in the production of our food. The study shows that poor food options contribute to the high levels of type 2 diabetes and obesity in communities of color. The health impact on communities of color, due to racism’s impact on food access, seems to be one way that society is controlling the minority population by keeping people of color sick and without resources to heal themselves.  Could you speak on the role of veganism and the health impact on communities of color based on food access a bit?

Clearly one of the causes of high rates of type 2 diabetes and obesity in communities of color and low-income communities is the lack of access to healthy foods. Our survey addressed not only fruits and vegetables but also “meat” and dairy alternatives. We realized that not only do these communities have access to the stuff that isn’t good for them, but they also have more options of foods to make them sick. Take milk, for example:  most of the convenience stores sold milk, but rarely did any sell soymilk. When you take into consideration that in the US (and probably the rest of the world) 95% of Asians, 60 to 80% of African Americans and 50 to 80% of Latinos are lactose intolerant, this smacks of an incredibly unjust food system. It seems that a prevalent stereotype and criticism of veganism is that it is something that privileged white folks take part in.  If healthy, cruelty-free food is something only the privileged have access to, that definitely reinforces the need for food accessibility to be a vegan issue.  It seems ironic that in many other countries, like China (as pointed out in the Exporting Factory Farms section on the FEP website) a sign of privilege and wealth is consuming meat.  Could you speak a bit on privilege, the vegan stereotype and the role veganism could play in communities of color to fight against racism?

Unfortunately, I do think it is a fairly true stereotype. Sure, people can point to me and other people of color and say we are vegan, but the VAST majority of people in the US who are vegan are white. And although I grew up without a lot of money (with my single mom raising me and my two sisters), I was still privileged enough to work on animal rights issues and not have to work on fighting against toxic chemicals in my community, or dodging bullets in my neighborhood, or having friends or family members victims of such violence. Many of us, as vegans, have chosen this lifestyle as we empathize with the suffering of animals and want to fight this injustice, though I am often saddened that there are many vegans who do not have that same empathy for humans. I can’t tell you how offended I am when people comment that it’s easy to eat vegan and it isn’t expensive. Well, for some that might be the case, but for others they might have access issues, not only because of what is not available in their neighborhoods, but they might not have a car, they might not have the stamina to eat the same thing every day if all they have access to is rice and beans, or they might be working two or three jobs with little time to prepare healthy meals Honestly, besides there being many other factors, I think how veganism can affect change in communities of color depends on each individual vegan.

**If you only take away one thing from this article, it should be what lauren has spoken about above.  Privilege is something that many vegans tend to forget.  As pointed out in the Food Availability study by Adam Drewnoski, Director of the Center for Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle, many people in low-income communities are not just cash poor but time poor.  Think about this alongside what lauren pointed out above. When one compounds food access issues, with being time poor (due to working several jobs or other various reasons), transportation challenges and the many other challenges found in low income communities related to violence, it requires the largely white middle class vegan population to put down its privilege and think about how the movement includes communities of color and low income communities. 

If the education put forth by a movement can only be put into action by those with the privilege to do so, that movement is not anti-racist or anti-classist.  It therefore requires those that identify as anti-racist vegans to put food access and environmental racism on the same level as freeing enslaved and tortured animals. This must happen alongside exposing factory farming and big agriculture, in general, for what it is; a racist murderous industry based on the exploitation of human and non-human animals alike to which society uses access to these tainted resources to control and many times destroy communities.  While reinforcing anti-racist analysis in the vegan community requires much more space and time than this blog has room for, you can look forward to a future feature focusing on anti-racism and veganism.**  In the Food Availability study that FEP put out, lactose intolerance is addressed as it relates to having a genetic component as follows:  From the US Department of Health via the FEP Food Availability Study: “The pattern of primary lactose intolerance appears to have a genetic component, and specific populations show high levels of intolerance, including approximately: 95 percent of Asians, 60 percent to 80 percent of African Americans and Ashkenazi Jews, 80 percent to 100 percent of American Indians, and 50 percent to 80 percent of Hispanics. Lactose intolerance is least common among people of northern European origin, who have a lactose intolerance prevalence of only about 2 percent.” This is a startling statistic.  I wonder if the prevalence of dairy products in the US is a symptom of the overriding and dangerous mindset of “If it’s good for white folks, it must be good for the rest of the population.” Could you speak on this a bit?

Sure, and I apologize that I covered it a bit earlier. I would probably add that it is mostly white men that we seem to base many things on in this country. Additionally, however, it is important to note that the dairy industry is extremely powerful, with an incredible amount of money to spend to continually persuade people that dairy is good for you, even if you are lactose intolerant! FEP has great resources on Environmental Racism especially as it relates to big agriculture and its impact on communities of color and low-income communities.  Could you talk a bit about what Environmental Racism is for those readers who may not be familiar with the term and how FEP raises awareness about it?

Environmental racism is a term that every social activist should know about. It refers to how communities of color are disproportionately impacted by certain pollutants, whether it be diesel exhaust, oil refineries or factory farms. For example, in North Carolina a majority of the pig farms are located primarily in communities of color. Here the people suffer from respiratory problems and headaches, not to mention the decrease in the value of their properties. I have investigated a number of factory farms, and of all of those that I investigated, pig farms by far had the most pervasive smell. And of course, this only adds to the suffering of the pigs who also suffer respiratory illnesses. FEP did a project relating to chocolate and slave labor.  Could you talk about what you found, with regard to slave labor and chocolate production?

I first became familiar with the chocolate slavery issues in 2002 when the BBC did a piece on it. I was horrified to learn that slavery was still taking place, where the workers were locked in at night and were beaten or killed if they tried to escape. We at Food Empowerment Project decided to make this a main issue we focus on. Because we, like many vegans, chose this diet so as to not be a part of the injustice and suffering of animals, why would we feel any differently about human animals? Oppression is oppression in whatever form it takes. Therefore, we decided to create a list of companies that make vegan products with chocolate that are not connected with slavery. As child slavery was found at one fair trade co-operative in Ghana, we have chosen, at this time, to not recommend any chocolate that comes from the Ivory Coast or Ghana. To the cooperative’s credit, as soon as the children were found they were removed and placed in school. Unfortunately, many vegan companies did not respond to our request for information. We encourage people to contact these and let them know it matters to them! Here is a link to F.E.P.'s chocolate list: http://www.foodispower.org/chocolatelist.htm. Thank you for doing this interview! In closing are there any resources, issues, people etc. in addition to what we talked about, that you would like the readers to know about?

Everyone can make a difference with their food choices and make sure these choices reflect their values. As most vegans make the choice to be vegan due to ethical reasons, we believe that more than not, many can understand our message and take part in helping to end the other injustices in our food system. We encourage people to check out our website www.foodispower.org and check out our recipes (as well as donate some) at www.veganmexicanfood.com. We are also on Facebook and Twitter. The FEP website has become one of my favorite vegan resources.  Thank you lauren for taking the time to do this interview and for all of your incredible work.  Follow FEP on twitter, follow the blog and check the website often!

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LDN - Redwood Foods Meat Free Duck Style Pieces Review

Part 2 of the Redwoods Food review comes in the form of their 'Meat Free Duck Style Pieces with a Hoisin Glaze'. Now, if truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food, as I never feel that great after eating it as it's usually too greasy or sweet for my liking. Obviously there are great Chinese restaurants out there, but there will always be other cuisines that I'd go to ahead of Chinese. So, upon receiving these 'Duck pieces', I wanted to make something that I know I'd enjoy (whoever sets out to make food they don't enjoy is understandably a little odd). I'd had a 'Black Bean' dish once before that I remember really liking, so I decided to make 'Duck In Black Bean Sauce with Brown Rice'.

First off, I made the 'Black Bean Sauce'. I looked up some basic recipes online and it included, onions, garlic, ginger, chilli, black beans, soy sauce, vegetable stock, coriander, tomato paste & a touch of tamarind. It actually tasted really good, so I was pretty happy with the start.

I then fried up some onions, garlic, yellow and green peppers and carrots.

Then I added the 'Duck pieces', broccoli and bean sprouts.

Then I added the black bean sauce and continued cooking for a short while.

And we're done! It was actually pretty good and I preferred this to other Chinese food I've eaten (yes you guys, I'm more skilled than the whole of China at cooking the cuisine of their country...) as I could control the amount of oil and sweetness going into the food. Plus, I could have it with boiled brown rice.

Anyway, the 'Duck Pieces'! They were pretty good and went well with the dish. Good texture, similar to seitan and the hoisin sauce was nicely balanced and not too sweet. It didn't taste 'synthetic' which can often be the case with these type of things. They'd obviously work really well in a 'pancake situation' (little known fact is that this was the original title of the Guns N Roses cover album, 'The Spaghetti Incident'), so might try them again at some point, although as I don't miss eating meat in the slightest, it means that if I made a dish that required more than just vegetables, I'll always go for Tofu/Tempeh ahead of a meat substitute.

Thanks again to Redwood Foods for sending these over, the final review will be up shortly.

Gareth

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XVO - Interview with Peter Young

Peter Young is a veteran activist, who the FBI once labeled “an active member of the Animal Liberation Front”. He was wanted by the FBI for 7 years and eventually spent 2 years in a federal prison for raids on fur farms throughout the mid-west that resulted in the freeing of thousands of minks. These days, he is an activist, lecturer, and unapologetic supporter of those who work outside the law to achieve human, earth, and animal liberation.

He was nice enough to talk with us about his experiences as an activist, discussing his incarceration, direct action and veganism in general.

    ⁃    Do you mind talking about the reality of being imprisoned and how you felt when you realised you'd reached a point where there is 'no turning back' and that 'by any means necessary' were the way things had to be done to achieve the aims you wanted? I came into the movement knowing I was going to prison. Not courting it, but accepting if I acted in a way commensurate with the urgency I felt towards acting to stop what was happening to animals, I would go to prison. From the beginning, stopping animal abuse and the probability of prison were a package deal. To take the fur farm campaign I went to prison for, for example. We never had a conversation about prison and how we would handle arrest. It was just implicit in the grassroots movement at the time that prison was  an accepted consequence of throwing yourself into the frontlines. Most of us would get away, but a few be caught. It was accepted because the only insurance against it - inaction - was not an option. A difference between those with a warrior mindset and those more passive is what I call “line of sight compassion”. That is, the former are just as motivated by the suffering they don't see but know is happening, as the suffering they do see. Why are circus's and rodeos the biggest protest targets? You can see the animals.  Yet in Seattle where I lived, I found many well-disguised labs and slaughterhouses that went “out of sight, out of mind”. The people I know who have been serious about getting things done have compassion that can see through walls. They know these horrors are not limited to the lobster tank at Wal-Mart. It's everywhere. There's a tremendous peace that comes from an acceptance of prison as a possibility. The how's, why's, and where's of direct action are all at our fingertips. It's the fear that is the biggest obstacle we face. Only when fear is conquered do we become a true threat.     ⁃    What was the initial influence or spark that got you into Veganism and Animal Rights. In previous interviews you mention 'Vegan Straight Edge' being the reason your life took the path it did. Could you expand on that a little and also how it lead you ultimately to the point you're at now. You often hear of people saying they went vegan because of a personal exposure to severe animal cruelty. Was there one of those moments for you? There was a moment, skimming channels in high school, where I glimpsed slaughterhouse footage on a public access channel. It was a 3 second clip, but it provided the spark that soon became veganism and a more active roll in the movement. A movement that talks but doesn't act is not one I want to be a part of, even as a teenager. This is what drew me in about  about the angle of my particular gateway to the movement, the vegan straight edge subculture. It had an emphasis on direct engagement of the animal abusers, vs. a passive critique about the way things “should be”. It became apparent to me though time that music-based subcultures primarily attract egos and big talkers, and not  people serious about action. But the lack of sincerity in this scene that is evident upon scrutiny is, I think, irrelevant. That people create the image of a straight edge army ready to burn down every slaughterhouse is tremendously empowering to a lot of younger people, as it was to me. Fictitious or not. There will be a few who make that message their life's work and move on, even if the rest go to hair school and become DJ's.     ⁃    In your opinion what are the best and most effective ways to be active, after going vegan, for people whose path does not include working outside of the law? My faith in the two extremes only strengthens with time: getting large numbers of people to be vegan through outreach, or A.L.F. tactics. I'm very suspicious of anything in the middle. And I'm saying this as someone who does most of his work in the middle: I'm no longer carrying out A.L.F. actions, and most of the people I talk to are already vegan. I'll say that upfront. With veganism, I really like the undercover footage that has come out recently. It's powerful, and that footage going viral is very high-impact. Music is another very strong tool. When I think about the people I know, the majority would credit their veganism to 1) seeing footage of animal abuse 2) vegan bands 3) a friend. When 90% of our effectiveness is coming from 10% of our actions, we should focus fiercely on that 10%. With the other end of the spectrum, I would like to see the A.L.F. focusing on live liberations on a large scale, and choose actions that fit these parameters: *Avoiding small scale sabotage for high-impact actions *Going after weak links in vulnerable industries, not just soft targets *Targeting industry's infrastructure, not retail *Choosing low-risk, high-yield targets *Going after small, vulnerable industries. Live liberations of animals happen infrequently because of the difficulty in finding homes for domesticated animals. These actions would happen more if there were broader awareness about the scale of wildlife farming in the U.S., and the prevalance of animals that can be released directly into the wild. There are many thousands of pheasant farms, deer farms, bobcat farms, and many others to be found if you do your research. Wild animals have no greater right to freedom than a chicken in a factory farm, yet targeting confined wildlife operations allows the A.L.F. to liberate thousands of animals without the burden of homing them. Addresses of fur farms are widely available, and other wildlife farms in one's area can be found via the internet, or a local state Department of Agriculture or Department of Fish & Wildlife office.     ⁃    We find ourselves often debating why the mainstream tend to view people that are into Animal Rights as being only concerned with single issues and somehow that we don't care about other issues like racism, homophobia, sexism etc. With visible and well known groups like PETA using ignorant methods, such as dressing like Ku Klux Klan members to protest the Westminster Dog Show, it tends to reinforce this unfortunate stereotype. What are your thoughts on how things like this impact the movement? Do you have any feelings on PETA as an organisation? Too often when people are accused of projecting an image we, as animal advocates, only care about one issue, it is really a case of someone having an opinion about the most important issue. And it is absolutely fine to say: I care about human injustice, but what happens to animals is immeasurably worse. The whole notion that “you can't place a rank injustice” is offensive and propagated primarily by people who either 1) do nothing, or 2) want to cultivate the appearance of being “radical” while not being vegan. Anyone faced with the choice of having their toe stepped on or spending their life in a metal crate will quickly find the inspiration to “rank injustice”. Among the examples you cite, I think it a totally appropriate to compare dog breeding to Eugenics, which is the analogy PETA was trying to make. With an organization as large as PETA, it would be foolish to say I agree with everything they do, because they do a lot of things. I also know it would be futile to waste precious space in an interview casting stones at PETA, because truthfully PETA doesn't much care what I think, and my opinion is to no effect. - For you what role does Veganism play in fighting other types of oppression? Its a bottom-up approach – when you can accept the oppression of non-human animals as a legitimate injustice, other forms of oppression become more apparent and legitimate as well. While my work has been primarily non-human animal focused simply because those issues affect the largest numbers, you will rarely meet a vegan whose politics are limited to factory farming, for example. The vegan ethic, by the nature of its philosophical underpinnings, will bring one to have very strong opinions about the prison industry, environmental issues, and every injustice and inequity affecting all species, genders, races, and classes.     ⁃    You've been raided by the FBI a couple of times over the past year or so. Why did this happen? Do you accept that this intrusion will now be a part of your life ongoing? I was raided twice in the past year as part of A.L.F. investigations. In the first, I was named an “unindicted co-conconspirator” in the 2004 A.L.F. raid at the University of Iowa. The A.L.F. got 401 animals out of the labs and did hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to equipment. They attempted to link me to this action through very specious evidence, and raided my house in an attempt to find anything that would corroborate their fictious narrative. The second raid came five months later after a series of A.L.F. arsons in Colorado and Utah (for which Walter Bond is now in jail). They attempted to link their suspect, Walter Bond, to my house. Or, that was the ostensible reason for the raid. Their actual reason was communicated to by FBI agents to my roommates during interrogation: “We're really here for Peter Young”. Its my opinion the arsons were a pretext to get back in the house and see what “evidence” against me they may have missed in the first raid. The basic fact is they can't catch the Animal Liberation Front. So, they go after the only names they can link to the A.L.F. I am a name on that very short list.  The went after Rod Coronado ruthlessly after his first prison sentence, putting him back inside three more times. I've had my garbage taken, my ex-girlfriends questioned, and another woman I dated briefly was revealed in federal court documents to be working for the FBI. More recently, I was the target of an even more sinister neutrilzation attempt by a private intelligence firm with animal abuse industry clients (lawyers are involved and am unable to discuss in detail presently). I will embrace the attention, because in going after me they divert time and resources away from those who are still out there in the dead of night saving animals. I am happy to serve as a distraction if it means those carrying out A.L.F. actions remain free.     ⁃    You did some talks in mainland Europe last year. How come you didn't head over to the UK? Is there any place you can't travel because of your incarceration? The Amsterdam talk went well (and was attended by undercover police, which came out in some documents that surfaced recently). That particular tour I didn't have any involvement in booking. It was all taken care of by other people, so regrettably I didn't make it to the UK. So far, no country has denied me entry because of my criminal record. To be fair, I haven't had many opportunities to be denied, having only been asked for my passport once: in Holland. It will be interesting to see if I am barred entry to the UK – they have a history of doing that to people who say incendiary things, such as Jerry Vlasak and Steven Best. I am back in Europe the first 3 weeks of July, and will be all over the continent, including Scandinavia, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, and elsewhere. Anyone interested in setting up a talk, get in touch: [email protected] And finally... Top 5 bands Earth Crisis Vegan Reich 108 Undertow Government Issue Top 5 books Confessions of a Master Jewel Thief Free the Animals Operation Bite Back Cometbus Omnibus Influence Top 5 foods The animal liberation movement has been hijacked by food fetishists. The best food is that which most quickly allows one to finish it and move on to more important things.

Voice Of The Voiceless

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LDN - Redwood Foods Meatballs & Desert Review

Redwood Foods were kind enough to send me some of their new products to try and review. Wrapped amongst a defrosted ice pack were

A packet of 'Gourmet Meat Free Meatballs'; 2 'Wot No Dairy?' Deserts; 1 tube of 'Vegan Tuna pate', 1 tube of 'Gourmet Mushroom pate' and a box of 'Meat Free Duck pieces in hoisin glaze'. Today, I'll be reviewing the meatballs & the deserts.

I decided to cook the obvious which was 'Spaghetti & Meatballs'. My girlfriend was as excited as I was to try these new treats, so I added a few extra touches. The cooking instructions recommend you oven cook or grill them, so I oven cooked them, but took them out a little early as I was cautious they could be over cooked or not soak up any of the flavours if I just added them into the sauce at the end. I fried up some onions and garlic in a little olive oil and then when soft, added oregano and basil. I then added the meatballs and moved them around so they were coated in a little oil. I then added red wine and allowed the meatballs to soak some of that up whilst it also reduced.

Then, I poured in 2 cans of chopped tomatoes, seasoned with salt & pepper and allowed the sauce to thicken.

As this is obviously an Italian dish, I thought it deserved Italian wine. Marks & Spencer have just started labelling all their wine accordingly, so I tried a bottle of the 'Barbera d'Asti'. It was a cracking bottle, but we're not here to review the wine are we...

The meatballs tasted fantastic. They were nicely spiced and actually resemble a sausage meatball as opposed to a beef meatball. Some fell apart, but I think this could've been due to me cooking them through the sauce, but I didn't mind as it added a really nice texture to the dish. My girlfriend said through happy bites, 'vish tayshts umazun', which I translated as being 'this tastes amazing'. So it looks as though the meatballs were a winner! We ate leftovers the next day and I actually think the meatballs tasted even better.

I also made some, what I affectionately call 'Pikey Garlic Bread'. Just toast some bread, spread on some vegan butter, sprinkle garlic powder on then grind on a touch of salt & pepper. Smooth it all in, put in the oven for 2 mins. Boom!

Next up was desert! What's interesting about these deserts, is that unlike most other non-dairy deserts, they're also soya free. I have no problem with soya products (as it can be an allergen for some people), but I don't like to go overboard, so this was a perfect end to the dinner.

I didn't do anything special other than add them to some fresh strawberries. Fresh berries for desert is always fine by me as it keeps things light.

The plain desert was actually more like a vanilla pudding and the raspberry one was like a cross between a yoghurt and a pudding. Both were really nice and after quite a heavy meal, didn't leave us feeling like we were about to slip into a food coma. However we did sit on the couch for the next 2 hours watching Parks & Recreation.

Thanks again to Redwood Foods for sending these over. I'll be reviewing the other products soon.

Gareth

Disclaimer - As hopefully some of you already know, XVO is run by 2 people. Aaron in New York & me (Gareth) in London. Aaron is straight edge so doesn't drink. Any alcohol references will only ever come from me and if they do, they'll be minimal because I'm really not a big drinker for an Englishman.

[nycxvoldn-blog]

NYC - Homophobia, Capitalism and Straight Edge

[FYI: XVO (both blog and twitter) is run by two people:  Aaron in NYC, who is straight edge and Gareth in LDN, who is not.  Please address hate mail to the correct people.  It’s just polite.]     I was walking to work several weeks ago, when I saw the following poster:

There is so much about this poster that does not sit well with me.  Being straight edge, I am never happy to see alcohol ads. I am even less happy to see when they are directed at the queer community, especially under the guise of equality. If this wasn’t enough, seeing the GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, who does some good work) logo on the poster was the final nail in the coffin.  I knew I had to do a blog post about this.  (Yes I am aware that it says Rokk supports GLAAD and not the other way around but it seems to be clear from events that GLAAD has embraced them as a partner.  While I understand it is a difficult choice when finding allies and not wanting to alienate those that wish to support you, it doesn't change the need for dialogue.  That is the purpose of this blog.) According to this article: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/glaad-selects-rokk-vodka-as-2011-premiere-partner-113289304.html “The brand's [ROKK] first marketing efforts were geared toward LGBT consumers in New York City, and ROKK Vodka has since worked with several national and local LGBT organizations to help promote full equality.” I don’t know if ROKK is queer owned and I appreciate that they are working with LGBT organizations to “promote full equality.” However, what equality are they promoting?  Equality as consumer?  That seems to be what advertising based equality boils down to. Considering NYC’s large concentration of LGBT people and considering a study done by www.samhsa.gov found 20%-25% of gay men and lesbians are heavy alcohol users compared to only 3%-10% of heterosexuals, that would make LGBT folks a prime target for those whose aim is to sell alcohol, especially under the guise of “Filtering Out Inequality.” This statistic above concerning LGBT people who abuse alcohol due to an internalized response against homophobia does not seem like something a truly pro-LGBT company would want to exploit to drive sales.  Perhaps, that isn’t their conscious aim at all, but considering all of this in conjunction with their marketing choices, I can’t help but feel nauseated that in times when people are fighting for marriage equality the most rampant manifestation is the marriage of marketing poison and faux equality.  With GLAAD co-signing these choices, I feel that it sends a dangerous message.  In a capitalist society where the worth of the individual is largely defined by their ability to consume, equality comes under the cloak of pandering to people who have the money to support you.  This does not translate into additional rights, a sense of safety or the ability for LGBT people to take advantage of resources that were unavailable before.  This reinforces homophobia and classism because it only serves to lift up a construct that uses homophobia and classism as its fuel.  While many in the straight edge community have different views on why and how their straight edge manifests, mine includes a component of fighting against homophobia.  As a queer youth, when I was struggling with my identity, straight edge was something that reinforced my belief that I would rather feel real emotional pain instead of manufactured happiness by escaping through drugs and alcohol.  This same belief at 31 years old also includes how I manifest my ethical veganism, in that I feel a moral obligation to boycott that which contributes to oppression or hinders progress.  Unfortunately, many of my queer brothers and sisters (and those who don’t identify as either or both) haven’t had the same experiences and have become part of the statistic cited above.  I manifest my straight edge ideology as a way to fight against what serves to destroy queer identity and real pride; a pride that is not defined by mimicking the habits and constructs of a hetero-normative society.    When I see ads like the ROKK ad that see partnership with pro-queer organizations like GLAAD it is clear that there is so much farther to go before society as a whole truly understands what equality is.  It requires more than just treating the symptoms of feeling alienated, alone or unaccepted. It requires fighting the overriding disease of classism, homophobia, racism, sexism and a hetero-normative capitalist society that defines one's worth by what and how they consume. (Not to mention the difficulties in the non-human animal struggle for liberation.) It makes it difficult to separate out positive queer visibility and marketing choices made to exploit a community.  Unfortunately, these aren’t mutually exclusive and tend to play in the same territory.  I am much less critical of an orbitz.com ad promoting their gay-centric trip booking site than I am of an alcohol brand pandering a product that many times serves to undermine the queer community and its progress.  Keep all of this in mind as gay pride month starts.  Be vigilant to view the brand partnerships as what they are.  This is not equality. Love, Aaron

[nycxvoldn-blog]

LDN - One Of Our Robots Is Missing

I'm not a collector of anything really, but a few years ago when I saw these, I just thought they were too daft not waste my money on. However, it's now created a bit of a problem. There were 5 of these Tofu Robots made and the OCD in me is kicking in because I don't have the other. It's ridiculous beyond belief, but a belief I totally believe because I know what I can be like.

The missing one is the Redrum one designed by Frank Kozik. Now, I've seen some signed ones on ebay before, but I really don't want to get those, partly because I'm not bothered about the signature, but more to the point, the price was silly. I would like to complete the set, but not that much. Anyway, if anyone knows a reasonably priced whereabouts of the missing Robot, can you drop me an email. Thanks!

Gareth

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LDN - Sarah Kramer @ VX

Cookbook superstar Sarah Kramer came to VX yesterday in London for a book signing and I popped along to say hi and thank her for the amazing interview she did for us the other week. Another great event held by Rudy & Kirstin. Looking forward to the next one!

Gareth

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NYC - Eddie Garza from Mercy for Animals talks with XVO

Recently, I sat down with Eddie Garza, the New York Campaign Coordinator for animal rights organization Mercy for Animals, to discuss the organization and the role of veganism in general, over some incredible Vietnamese food at Lan Cafe.

First, the food.  I say, if you are going to have an in depth conversation about animal rights and how veganism plays a role in fighting all types of oppression, you should do it over some papaya salad, pad thai, green water spinach with black bean sauce and a serious noodle bowl of veggies and other goodies.  You say that too?  Weird.

All of it was great.  Short review eh?  It might be longer if I had remembered to bring my camera and take food pictures.  Oops. :( (I’ll totally remember to take pictures next time.  Please don’t punch me in the face Gareth!) Lan Cafe is a favorite spot for me, as finding vegan Vietnamese food is not always the easiest thing to accomplish.  The food is good, their avocado shakes are friggin’ MAJESTIC and the people are nice.  It’s cash only, so be prepared. You’ll need to bring cash anyway because if you are eating at any of the good vegan places in the east village and don’t walk to Lula’s Sweet Apothecary afterwards for dessert, you may have a brain tumor and those are really dangerous. 

The lesson is, go to Lula’s. It will change your life and Blythe as well as many of the other folks there are super sweet.  Plus, they give you ice cream.  Go there. Now. Go. Seriously go.  Okay you can finish reading the blog first.  Then go.

Now, the politics!  Eddie was nice enough to talk to me about how he started working with MFA as well as MFA’s recent investigation into E6 Cattle Co in Hart, Texas.  (See the video and read about the investigation here if this is news to you.)

Choice was the main theme in our conversation, regarding how veganism fits into our world, our lives and our everyday interaction with other people’s choices and the struggle against all forms of oppression. We all make choices everyday, and if you are reading this blog, you are probably part of the minority of people that actually think about how the choices you make affect the world around you. But what does this mean when you think about the powerful interaction of your personal conscious choices with other people’s unconscious choices and default behavior?  Eddie and I discussed the idea of veganism and personal choice.  Eddie put it very simply, when he said “Veganism involves more than just you...my responsibilities go beyond eating a plant based diet.” I completely agree.  If our conscious choices are to have the impact we want them to, they also have to be accompanied by education.

With the outreach that MFA does, whether it is handing out leaflets, exposing animal abuse in their investigations or showing people what really happens to animals in the creation of animal based products, they are forcing people to make a conscious choice.  Most people haven’t made the conscious choice to be omnivores. They defaulted to a lifestyle that is accepted as normal, in part, because people are so far removed from the creation of the products they consume.

Eddie shared that when he first began leafleting, as a volunteer, in Texas with MFA the take-rate was 80%, which is off the charts.  As the surrounding area became aware of what MFA was promoting, people became less receptive, but the take-rate still hovered around 40-50% which is still pretty great.  They passed out literature at colleges and high-schools in rush hour after school outreach that ended up yielding many young conscious volunteers for MFA.

So what happens when people resist the information and don’t want to face making an informed choice?  What happens when the government in cooperation with agricultural behemoths put their many dollars together in an effort to extinguish the ability to even create the information? This is in reference to proposed laws in MN, FL and IA that would make it criminal (read felony, 30 years in prison) to conduct any sort of investigation into entities like E6 Cattle Company.  We see that the idea of anti-choice manifests in depriving people of information and even punishing the creation of that information, therefore creating a climate where those that are unaware will not even understand there is a choice to be made. 

When Mercy for Animals first posted the youtube link to the undercover video of E6 Cattle Company, youtube promptly took it down.  Youtube explained that they do not allow “gross out” videos and videos just used for “shock value.”  (Follow the link here to read Nathan Runkle’s letter to youtube, which prompted them to put the link back up!)  Think about what that says.  When abuse is so heinous that the reaction is to remove it and label it as a “gross out video”, it clearly is something that MUST be seen.  This is true for so many kinds of hate and violence.  People are inspired to take action when they realize the atrocities that are going on, especially when it is the direct result of their own choices.  If they are not inspired to take positive action, they are at least forced to make a choice to ignore or combat this violence.  It changes from defaulting to an autonomous action to fully owning the choice one is making.

The education that MFA provides doesn’t just create a climate for conscious choice to be made on an emotional level, but a logistical and legal one.  While some proposed laws may threaten to restrict the ability to expose certain atrocities with undercover investigations, some laws can actually help.  Eddie illustrated that when MFA can show that there is actual illegal abuse happening at places like E6, it creates a whole other level in which legal action can be taken.  This shows the importance of knowing all of the outlets available to fight abuse and oppression. 

Another effect of education, and why many people in big-agriculture are trying to stifle this information, is because of financial impact.  What can I say? As vegans, we are amazing at boycotting and are very familiar with the impact of not supporting particular brands etc.  Another amazing piece of information that Eddie mentioned was that even before the video investigation was released, and only the news of it was in circulation, cattle futures started to go down. 

We see that from this one investigation, there has been emotional impact, financial impact and educational impact.  Never underestimate the power of educating people! 

As Eddie and I continued to discuss the animal abuse that is clearly apparent in the E6 investigation, we started to discuss the other social implications that were evident.  As discussed in previous blogs, we see that veganism is a small puzzle piece in fighting all types of oppression and that most oppression is interlinked.  In a world where racism is still alive and well, we shouldn’t be surprised to see it reflected in all actions, not just human to human interaction.  Eddie pointed out the that all of the mixed breed calves were the ones that were denied veterinary care and that this really resonated with him as a Latino male, to see Spanish speaking immigrant workers reflecting the societal construct of racism and abuse that they themselves were also victims of.

The overriding presence of bigotry against the “other” is exemplified in this situation.  Oppression as a learned behavior is reflected in all our interactions and it is the conscious and informed choices discussed earlier that helps us deprogram this from our lives.  It wasn’t so long ago that slavery was legal in the US, women couldn’t vote and that all queer people were considered mentally ill (still on the books for some).  We are all still fighting for equal rights, but we have made strides.  It goes back to education and standing up.  Someone had to make the first step and say, “We aren’t going to take this anymore!”  There was a time not so long ago when the idea of an equal rights movement for people of color, women, queer folks etc. was looked at as ludicrous by the majority, but we have all come a long way -- and have a long way to go.

This raised an interesting fact about MFA as Eddie and I discussed these things.  He mentioned that MFA’s up close investigation of a fish slaughter facility (check it out here) was the first time that people had really seen what goes into the torture of these animals, which includes pulling off their skin while still alive.  Eddie mentioned that MFA received letters less than satisfied that they were focusing on fish and that it was ridiculous.  However, fish do feel pain and seek to avoid it.  It may seem ridiculous to some people now, but Eddie made a great point that about a decade ago people were having the same discussion about chickens/hens and now there is a significant awareness around how battery cage hens are some of the most abused animals on the planet.  It takes a first step for someone to say, “These creatures (human or otherwise) don’t deserve to be treated this way for your lifestyle.”  It can be avoided.

I can hear the hate mail now, “Are you comparing the civil rights struggle to taking a first step against slaughtering fish?.” Listen closely, if one doesn’t need to oppress anyone/anything to live, why would you?  Whether it is treating someone poorly because of their race, gender identity, sexual orientation or non-human status, why harm or hurt anyone especially when you don’t have to?  Remember when your grandmother said to live by the golden rule? “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.” Well I would like people NOT to gut me and pull my flesh off, so I don’t do that to others (i.e. fish). Just courteous I think. 

Well, that about wraps it up for now, follow this link to see some of the rescued E6 cattle (link)

Thanks a million Eddie! (follow him on twitter @VeganEddie)

Be good to each other folks and have a momentary rock out session listening to XCHOKEHOLDX “Burning Bridges.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AqPV9lue7A

I kept finding myself singing this when writing this blog. :)

Love,

Aaron 

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LDN - Interview with Sarah Kramer, vegan chef & cookbook superstar!

If you're Vegan, then Sarah Kramer really shouldn't need any introduction. But if you're new to this and need some convincing that Veganism is the right way to go (did Earthlings not convince you?), then you should first take a look at one of her many cookbooks. Then, come to terms with the fact that the recipes she has put together will crush the myth that Vegan food is boring or inferior and show that with regards to invention in cookery, people like Sarah are setting new and exciting standards. The ultimate added bonus to your taste buds receiving the experience of their little lives is that none of the food will contain animal flesh or their bodily secretions. Amazing!

Sarah is about to embark on a trip to London and will be making her first and only public appearance at a book signing at VX on the 27th May. I was lucky enough to chat to her via email where she kindly took time out to answer a few of our questions before she sets sail for our little island.

    -    First off, we always ask this as an opener to everybody, but was there a specific moment in your life that made you go Vegan? For some it’s witnessing an act of cruelty on a school trip to a farm and then connecting the dots, for others it’s health etc. What’s yours? I talk about my journey from vegetarian to vegan in my first book How It All Vegan but long story short I've been vegetarian since I was a baby. My mother raised my brother and I veggie and when she passed away when I was 10 my Dad continued to raise us vegetarian, even though he was a meat eater. I did a little "experimenting" with meat when I was a teenager and quickly went back to vegetarian. Eating animals was never something I was comfortable with. The transition to veganism was a natural one for me. I have always been a lover of animals but didn't fully understand how much they suffered until I saw a documentary called "The Animals Film" which was an eye opening experience for me. I walked out of that movie a changed person. After that movie I started to educate myself as to the horrors of the meat, dairy and fashion industry and it was not difficult for me transition from vegetarian to vegan. In fact it seemed like an obvious choice for someone who loves animals and who wants to help the planet recover from the devastation caused by factory farming.     -    You’re on your way over to the UK soon. Most airlines offer a ‘vegan option’ these days, but not a lot of thought usually goes into it. My best experience was with Qantas recently on my trip to Australia. I was in economy, yet I had a menu card explaining what each bit was. Very impressed. How do you usually fair with airline food? Maybe that should be your next venture! You could work alongside the airlines of the world to bring to bring vegans the best food 30,000 feet in the air can offer. I order the “fruit plate” from the airline and then I bring my own food. Not only am I vegan - but I’m also gluten/soy free (due to an intolerance) so it makes travel a challenge. I make sure to only bring solid foods. I tried to bring hummus on a flight once and homeland security took it away. I guess they thought I was going to “garlic bomb” the plane or something. *laugh*     -    What’s your ‘go to’ meal if you’re struggling to decide on what to cook and what’s your favourite ‘comfort food’ meal. I think mine is something with mash potatoes and gravy. Very British, very beige. Aaron’s is chilli garlic tofu over rice. My Mum was British and so I also love mashed potatoes. Beans on toast is another fav of mine. :)     -    The whole ‘Raw Foods’ thing got pretty big over the past couple of years. Have you got into that at all? I did a course which I really enjoyed as I learned to make some amazing deserts (blueberry and cardamom cheesecake being my personal favourite). However my impression of it was that it makes food too ‘structured’. In that it wasn’t just regular food preparation, it was ‘prepare your food days in advance’ preparation. I felt it took the fun out of eating as there was just too much to consider. Also (now this is a generalization as a friend of mine is a raw foods chef and she’s ace) but so many people into this way of eating were super spaced out and almost ‘cult like’. I guess with raw foods, it’s not really about Veganism with regards to Animal Rights issues, it’s just Vegan by default. However I will say this, everything I’ve ever eaten has been incredible and if I could live off Kale Chips, I would. I love raw food and I always feel so satiated when I eat a raw meal. Now that I’m GF/SF as well I find myself leaning more and more to raw. I know how you feel about the preparation. I love to walk into a market and say “what do I FEEL like eating” and then grab my veggies and make a meal. I haven’t quite mastered the planning ahead required for some raw foods. But not ALL raw meals have to be like that ... there are lots that you can make on the spot like Beth’s Raw Slaw in Vegan A Go-Go. You can whip that recipe up in 10 minutes.     -    You already have a number of tattoos, but do you have a ‘Vegan’ tattoo? I always like the idea of one, but can never think of what would work. I don’t have a vegan tattoo (yet) but I do have a tattoo to remind me how many tsps are in a tbsp (3 tsp = 1 tbsp). I can never remember... so now I don’t have to.  :)     -    What finally motivated you to write your first cookbook and what were the challenges you faced? Tanya and I were really broke punk-rock kids who were looking for a cheap alternative to buying our friends family x-mas presents so Tanya came up with the idea of doing a vegan cookbook zine (this was during the height of 90‘s zine culture) and we cut and pasted together a little 50 page home-made zine that we printed and bound ourselves. 

We gave them away to friends and family and the response was overwhelming. They wanted copies to give their friends, so we printed a couple hundred more and those sold out right away. So we did another run of 900 and started selling them at punk-rock shows and via the internet. The internet was a brand new baby at that time and I utilized the web to build a web-presence with www.GoVegan.net The book took-off and we knew we were on to something - so I wrote a cheeky book proposal. Sent it off to 6 different Canadian publishers and THREE days later we had a book deal with Arsenal Pulp Press. HIAV has sold over 1/4 of a million copies and is still going strong. It started out as a little snowflake of an idea and has turned into a giant snowball. It’s amazing! :)     -    What do you think about the increase of gluten free options for vegans at both restaurants and in stores for prepared foods?  It seems like there are many more gluten free vegans with regard to health and allergies I think it’s fantastic! Being GF myself - it’s hard to find GF products that don’t include egg but I’ve been noticing a trend towards more vegan friendly GF products.     -    What are the biggest most significant changes you have noticed in the vegan community over the years? Well 10+ years ago you could say to a waiter that you’re vegan and they would look at you like you were a crazy person. Now there are vegan dishes on menus, waiters know what a vegan is, your Great Auntie Dotty probably knows what a vegan is thanks to Oprah and Ellen talking about it on their shows.     -    So what’s next? I can imagine it’s a labour of love, but do you plan on doing any more cook books? If so, can XVO submit a recipe (providing your like it) No cookbooks on the horizon. I know this bums some of my readers out but I am really enjoying not being in the kitchen working on recipes. I took a year off last year to work at Tattoo Zoo (the shop I own with my husband Gerry) and realized how much I miss working with people. I have opened up an online store called Sarah’s Place (www.GoVegan.net)and my goal is to turn it into a bricks and mortar store in downtown Victoria BC. That way I can still do my thing ... but people have a place to come and visit me. What are your top 5 bands? #1 - The Go-Go’s #2 - TRIAL (hardcore band from Seattle) #3 - Beastie Boys #4 - Miles Davis #5 - The Specials/The Sex Pistols (it’s a tie - I can’t decide)

Top 5 books? #1 - Generation X by Douglas Coupland #2 - The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum #3 - The World According to Garp by John Irving #4 - PopCo by Scarlett Thomas  #5 - Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

So there you have it, what more do you need? Go Vegan already! Thanks so much to Sarah for taking time out to do this. If you can, make sure to get yourselves down to VX in London on May 27th to meet Sarah in person. It'll be a lot of fun, plus you'll be able to sample the amazing delights that VX has to offer. Safe travels Sarah!

Gareth

x

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LDN - London to Brisbane Airline Food

I'm currently in Byron Bay, Australia for a friends wedding. I've surfed/failed at surfing every day, eaten amazing fresh fruits straight from the trees and generally been having a blast catching up with friends and my girlfriends family.

As we're no longer able to get to Australia by stealing binoculars from the theatre and thus being shoved on a boat, our only choice is to fly.

As most of you will have experienced at one point or another, airline food is for the most part terrible. Unseasoned rice and vegetables or pasta with ketchup for the vegan option with a small portion of fruit for desert is pretty much what you can expect. Step up Qantas!

It’s by no means high end gastronomy, but the food we had from London to Hong Kong was the best airline food I’ve experienced so far (the Hong Kong to Brisbane leg of the flight was the unseasoned pasta I mentioned before). Check out the photos for full details.

  Right, it’s 7.30 in the morning and I’m off to go surfing. Yieeeew!

  Gareth

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NYC - Jamie Kilstein: Politics, Comedy and Martial Arts

Remember when I told you in the Comedy For Karma (CFK) review (view it here) that there would be a special guest coming up to discuss some of the issues raised that night? Well, here he is! Comedian and activist, Jamie Kilstein, was nice enough to sit down with me at Organic Grill and discuss veganism, politics, comedy and martial arts over a good meal before we darted off to a show he was doing at the Tank. As the waitress brought out Jamie’s vegan omelet with Daiya cheese sauteed spinach, kale and side of fruit alongside my vegetable paella and orange juice (oh shut it, that’s not a weird combination), we dug right into both our food and politics. So why, at a benefit for an animal sanctuary, it ended up culminating with two well known omnivore comedians playing the hostile douche-bag role of pretending that vegans are somehow unaware and unconcerned with anything outside of animal rights and the need for them to slag off our activism? Well, as Jamie puts it, “We’re already doing something you should be doing. You should be hidden in shame that you still support factory faming.” I agree. As it has been shown many times, not only do many people not give a shit, they tend to get angry when other people do. Why? Because it exposes how much they don’t care. Jamie joked, “It’s easy to protest the war. What do we have to do? Not get shot? Done!” The fact that people can wax poetic about the environment, slag off big business and animal cruelty while eating a hamburger, drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette shows that many folks just don’t understand. One experience Jamie recalled was a guy doing just that after sharing “I’m a liberal and you’re not funny.” The moment you suggest a change in lifestyle to make an impact on all of the things people are concerned about, the hostility tends to shift from the problem to those being active against it. Jamie commented “There is a difference between having morals to be better than someone else and being an activist...That’s why liberals always lose. It’s because we’re just at a bar talking shit about how much smarter we are than other people. And what Republican’s lack in facts and empathy they make up for in pamphlet making skills and marching and writing to congress...” Jamie hit it on the head. Because of the diversity of issues on the left, it requires us to dialogue much more than the right. However, that doesn’t seem to happen as much as it should and therefore we splinter off. It is a shame that our basic requirements for unity are only asking people to be decent human beings. Hate racism? You should hate homophobia. Want to do something about animal cruelty and the environment? Go vegan. However, as easy as it is to put on paper, we end up with too many people not talking. Jamie put it very eloquently, “We have too may people with more things in common than things they don’t and they are not talking to each other! The liberal infighting needs to stop. I’m guilty of it too. We all are.” This shows the importance of figuring out how to be constructively self-critical to create a climate of unity where people can disagree, but still have each others backs on the left. Clearly, Citizen Radio (which has featured such diverse guests as Sarah Silverman, Noam Chomsky, Propagandhi and many others) has figured out how to achieve this unity as illustrated when Jamie shared, “I’ve probably gotten 1000 e-mails about people going vegan, and plenty of others that don’t want to hear about [veganism] on the show at all. But it’s in every episode and we don’t loose listeners.” That is a pretty amazing feat considering that Jamie expressed how he always has to be prepared and on his toes when he does a gig. When you can get booed at an Athiest convention, a Democratic fundraiser and feel that you have to open up with a buffer joke (about torture, you know, light stuff) at a benefit for an animal sanctuary, obviously the climate for dialogue on the left has a way to go. The good thing is that quick thinking and staying on his toes really comes as second nature. Whether he is verbally brutalizing a heckler, or dodging flying knees and head kicks at 6:30 in the morning when practicing Muay Thai, he tends to have the mental game down. Yup, in addition to being an incredible comic, a switched on political dude, and an all around good guy, he also trains in mixed martial arts. Why? Well, when your jokes elicit personal threats out of everyone from crazy drunk Scottish people and burly Aussies to groups of American audiences following you to your car after a gig, it might be good to be able to throw down like a windmill of death. We discussed his MMA training while in a cab to the Tank where he did a rapid fire set that included illustrating how attacking people with robots (drone strikes) has never seemed to go well in the movies and how homophobes that jerk off to lesbian porn have to make a choice. “You get to cum....or you get to oppress....you don’t get to do both.” I feel like that should be an easy choice right? Unfortunately, I have to bring this blog to a close, but it was great to sit with Jamie and discuss such important issues. What I walked away with is that we all have our ways of combatting ignorance. Jamie uses the mental fortitude honed in both the comedy and MMA arena to keep is mental game sharp. I’m glad to have him on our side. You should be too...or he’ll brake your arm. Love, Aaron

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LDN - Justin Pearson @ VX

Yesterday I went to see 'noise punk trailblazer' (I put those in quotes although I've never actually heard him called that) Justin Pearson read from his new book 'From The Graveyard of The Arousal Industry'. It was held at London's only fully vegan outlet, 'VX' on Caledonian Road, which is about 5 mins walk from Kings Cross station. It was an intimate affair with maybe 20 people or so crammed into the downstairs cafe area, so it had the potential to be awkward, but thankfully never became so.

I'll come back to the reading in a second, but I just wanted to touch upon 'The Secret Society of Vegans' who are responsible for the shop (pronounced V Cross). SSOV has gone from wesbite to market stall to shop in 8 short years and whilst I only occasionally go there, I think it's amazing that they're able to keep the place going and create such a cool space for regulars and people travelling through the city to visit. All too often London can get way too cynical about people trying to start something new and specialist, even people that are part of that scene. For instance, I've read criticisms from vegans about VX being purely a shop that sells only junk food, which isn't entirely true. But even if it was, there's obviously a 'market' (using that word in that context makes me feel ill) for it within the vegan community. There are plenty of supermarket's and grocery stores where you can get your other bits and bobs, so in short, I'm glad they're here and long may they continue to be. Here's a short interview from the 'Animal Rights Advocates' blog that'll give the unfamiliar a little snap shot into what SSOV & VX are about.

Anyone that has been into or is into punk/hardcore/whatever from the past couple of decades will be fully aware of Justin's involvement in the scene. You may not know his name, but chances are, you'll have heard of at least one of his bands (The Locust, All Leather, Some Girls, Holy Molar, Swing Kids, The Crimson Curse, head Wound City, Ground Unicorn Horn & Struggle). He also runs the independent record label 'Three One G' which have put out many of the aforementioned bands amongst others.

Now I'm not a 'Justin Pearson completist' by any stretch (jeans), as I only own albums by Swing Kids & Some Girls. His other bands have never really grabbed me, but what I've always admired about him is his passion for doing something new, not letting a band outlive its welcome, keeping his music/art within his grasp and above all, being as fiercely independent as you can be in this day and age. So this is partly why I was curious to head down to hear him read from his book.

The reading started with a short acoustic set by 2 guys from his new band 'Retox'. It wasn't that great, but due to the close proximity of everyone, you were forced to do that 'deep reflective nod' of approval, as merely the faintest whisper of negativity would've been picked up on. But more to the point, you would've looked like a prick. It was great they did take time out to come and do it though, as playing acoustic in front of an audience no matter how big or small is always admirable. Unless of course you're a white dude with dreadlocks and you're blasting out Bob Marley jams, in which case, someone needs to figuratively set fire to your hair and pull out your tongue.

The first part of the book Justin read from was called 'Soul Crushing Beef', a chapter he described as being "...about him as a child and when he realised that music was the direction he had to go in". It starts with him reminiscing about how much he loved the band Kiss, only to then realise as he got older that "...their music is total crap, musically and ethically". He talks about how he was a disappointment to his father, an alcoholic who used to beat up his Mum on a pretty regular basis and how because of this, he was "...bound to avoid the cliched, nihilist aspects of punk culture".

It was during this chapter that I quickly realised that this book was going to be far from the hipster musings I'd unfairly possibly expected it to be and in fact be more like 'Get In The Van', but if 'Get In The Van' spanned Henry's childhood also. The next chapter he read was called 'The Better You Do, The More They Expect' and is about confrontation, hostility and violence whilst on tour with 'The Locust'. I've never really gotten into 'The Locust', but I used to love reading about how they'd play these type of gigs, stick out like the sore thumb they were and just not take any shit from anybody. In an age where everyone in a punk or hardcore band wants to start their own lame t-shirt company full of tattoo culture designs that are fake diamonds away from being 'Ed Hardy' or are sincerely posturing in photos sponsored by some shitty drinks company, to be able to provoke such extreme reactions and not play safe, is pretty impressive.

There was then a brief Q&A where many of the questions came from some guys who were very much the 'Justin Pearson completists' so there were times I didn't really understand what either party was going on about. Subsequently this made me want to speak up a little and and as this is for a vegan blog, I asked the very cliched question, "How did you get into veganism or vegetarianism?".

"One day when I was younger a bird shit on my head and I then went to this Jack-In-A-Box where there was this steak sandwich and I ended up getting completely sick. Then as a joke, my friend said I should be vegetarian as the world is trying to tell you something. But at the same time I was starting to get into bands like 'Downcast' and there were people around that were speaking, not necessarily about the healthy side of it, but more so about animal rights and ethical things, so I got into through that when I was around 15 or so and just kind of stuck with it".

Then, without missing a beat a girl asked "That's not a real leather jacket then?". I hate to say it as I'm not a person who scrutinises other peoples clothing, not least to see if it's synthetic or of animal origin, but I did wonder if it was or not, so I was glad someone did ask. Below is Justin's response

"It is real yeah, but I'm not going to eat it. It's weird, I do have this discussion quite a bit and I've gone over it in my head a lot too and the ethical things are obviously that I'm a hypocrite in some sense, but I'm not wearing a vegan shirt or have a vegan tattoo and I think it is fucked up, but at the same time it's like if we really want to be truly vegan and stick to living that lifestyle we have to avoid using public transportation and using electricity and things of that nature. I agree, I mean it's just a weird thing to discuss, it's not black and white you know so...I think synthetics are probably...(the girl who asked the question interjects with 'It's ok it suits you' and everyone chuckles)...for a while when I first became vegan I would always try to find dress shoes that were not leather and they would fall apart all the time and then I started realising that all these synthetics are pretty bad for the environment and I think I could go through one pair of shoes that were leather and have them last for a few years or go through lots of vegan shoes because at least at that time they'd fall apart pretty fast and then go onto the landfill and besides the glue on them has animal products in them too so I was just like fuck it I guess, so that was my thing...so...sorry...".

And back to the music questions...

I don't want to get into a lengthy rant on this piece about why I think leather is wrong and why I think Justin's answer is bit of a cop out (the bit about not using public transport was tired and weak), as one of the points of this blog was to get people who weren't into veganism the chance to rationalise, discover the information with our help and to come to their own conclusions, without feeling like they were being given another lecture by the 'vegan police'. Nobody likes the hard sell. More to the point, I feel it'd be out of context with the actual article itself. There are plenty of resources and articles on the internet that are a lot more detailed and eloquent than I could ever put together, so I'll link them here and you can do the research yourself in your own time if you wish.

Leather Jacket - The Rebel Icon That Lost Its Gall (source, The Discerning Brute)

Leather - Animals Abused & Killed For Their Skins (source, PETA)

Leather - The Big Cover Up (source, VIVA)

I imagine that 20 years ago when he became vegan, footwear wasn't particularly good quality and probably didn't last long, but we live in a different era now. There are many companies springing up making great quality, ethical shoes that are made of hard wearing, breathable synthetics such as Bourgeoisie Boheme, Novacas & Vegetarian Shoes. However this is for a separate article that both Aaron and myself want to tackle in more detail, in that we've often discussed why it is that to buy non-leather, you have to pay through the nose to get something that lasts or looks decent. It being 'vegan' almost seems to be part of the fashion statement in itself, which ultimately, unless you have a lot of money, will put many people off. So I'll sign off with this...

I'm currently half way through his book and it's in equal parts a brutal, sad and funny snapshot into what his life has been like so far. It's definitely encouraged me to check out some more of his music, especially now I have a better understanding of the place it came from. I also really enjoyed the afternoon and I'm pretty certain that maybe half the people there weren't there due to any vegan interest, which personally I think is great. So if those there for the music side of things took something away from the afternoon that sparks their curiosity into exploring veganism further, surely that's better than another vegan like myself just getting excited by the array of cupcakes, buying one then suffering crazy sugar shakes to the point I felt sick the rest of the day, thus regretting the purchase. Hopefully they learned something useful, whereas I just re-learned that my attraction to pretty cakes is akin to the lifespan of most of Justin Pearson's bands, limited.

Gareth

[nycxvoldn-blog]

NYC - Comedy for Karma

Alright, well hot on the heels of the Vegetarian Food Festival on Sunday was the Comedy for Karma benefit for Woodstock Animal Sanctuary at Gotham Comedy Club last night. It featured JAMIE KILSTEIN, Myq Kaplan, Gary Gulman, Wyatt Cenac (Daily Show) and John Oliver (Daily Show).

Many folks turned out for this very long (!) comedy onslaught.  First up was Jamie.  For those of you who may not be familiar with him, stop reading this right now and click his name above.  In my (and Gareth's) opinion, he is absolutely one of the best comedians working today.  He creates a potent blend of comedy and politics more bitingly hilarious and eloquent than a love child between George Carlin and Noam Chomsky could even think about creating. 

Yeah I laughed my ass off at his set, but even more it was inspiring and truthful and delivered like your favorite punk tune with no musical backing.  It was like being at a hardcore show and wanting to climb the folks in front just to grab the mic and finish screaming the joke's chorus (or punchline if you wanna be like that) into the mic with him. 

For the first half of his act, he tackled Vegan subject matter that kept the crowd laughing and thinking.  For the second half, he took on homophobia, not the easiest subject to make funny and thought provoking at the same time, and recited a litany of rhythmically delivered punchlines that were all PUNCH, even slaying folks like Ted Haggard, the anti-gay preacher caught with a male prostitute with whom he engaged in a "meth-induced fuck spree."  These are Jamie's words and unfortunately not my own. 

His set was brutal and hilarious....and was the high point of the evening.  Yeah...remember when I said he was the first one huh?  Well the decline was pretty quick as soon as he left the stage.

Next up was Myq Kaplan, another vegan cat. He was a finalist in Last Comic Standing.  While his comedy is not my deal, he is a vegan out there doing his thing and I gotta show the guy some respect for that.  Many folks reacted well to him. Check him out.

Gary Gulman was next.  He made sounds that came out of his face into a microphone for a while and then left the stage.

Nah, he had a couple funny moments and did work a few creative political jokes in.

Next up was Wyatt Cenac from The Daily Show who decided to open with, "Well I'm not ashamed to say I eat meat, so fuck you.  I've got a farm that saves vegetables." I wasn't offended in the least, but there is a lot to say for assessing your crowd.  It is just a dumb thing to say at an event like this. Dumb because he is a comedian with some talent and he probably could have found a way to make that funny.  Instead, he committed comedy suicide right off (if the crowd's reaction was any indication) and then proceeded to bomb what could have been a good set.  Which I guess makes him a comedy suicide bomber. And you know how we feel about terrorists. Yeah....bad. 

However, he did do one good thing.  He took a swipe at PETA. A very clumsy swipe, in perhaps the wrong forum, at PETA. Why is this good? Let me explain.

Well, here is the thing, PETA...makes me angry.  Wyatt made a joke slamming PETA's protest of the Westminster Dog Show, where they dressed up as KKK members (yeah I know), stood outside Madison Square Garden and handed out leaflets comparing the breeders at the show to the KKK.  I KNOW! It's ridiculous and is detrimental to the movement.  This is a much longer conversation for a future blog (stay tuned for a surprise).

This created two interesting things.  It completely turned about 60% of the crowd against Wyatt, who made a funny joke and also illustrated how fucked up PETA (and racism) can be and then said FUCK PETA.  It also showed that he probably felt that it was so fucked up that he felt compelled to drop that commentary into a forum of people who he felt most likely support PETA.  I can't blame him. If there was some homophobic shit being perpetuated by an organization and I went to do stand-up in front of a group of people that probably supported that organization, I would use it as a forum to make a joke about it as well to bring it to people's attention.

The problem you ask?  PETA hardly represents all vegans and animal rights supporters.  In fact, I know many other people, including myself, who have serious issues with many of the things they do and therefore do not align with them.  I will be covering other organizations in future blogs to illustrate that there is much more diversity out there than PETA and you can find intelligent organizations out there.

Unfortunately, some woman from the audience decided to punctuate his joke with "I LOVE PETA", which got cheers from half the crowd, to which Wyatt responded by basically saying that, what he loves is being able to walk down the street and not see KKK members and fear for his safety only to find out it was PETA being "provocative". To which I had to yell a supportive "YEAH!!".

If his set had been strong, and he had not already decided to do a "fuck vegans" opener, that joke could have manifested some real power, and perhaps the 60% of mostly white PETA supporters that cheered for the woman's "I LOVE PETA!" comment, could have dug a funny joke and maybe walked away thinking to themselves, "Shit, maybe we should address how PETA as a mouthpiece could use some sense, since people seem to lump us all together."

It got me thinking, why do so many omnivores look at vegans and animal rights folks like we are somehow oblivious or unconcerned with the other ills of society?  In my case and many other ethical vegan's cases, the same ethics that make me vegan, are the same ethics that make me anti-racist, anti-homophobic and anti-sexist.  The same ethics that make me want a place like Woodstock Animal Sanctuary to be able to save animals from slaughter houses and factories are the same ethics that make me ask WHY THE FUCK DON'T WE HAVE A SIMILAR ORGANIZATION THAT COMES BACK TO SAVE THE ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WORKERS IN THESE FACTORIES FROM A LIFE OF SERVITUDE AND ABUSE FROM THEIR BOSSES?!

These questions shed light on how complex these situations are and how veganism is a small piece of a greater puzzle. For me and many others, my veganism is not just based on the horrific treatment of these animals...it includes the horrific treatment of the humans in the industry as well as many other things too numerous to include in this already way too long blog.

Here is a surprise, you can look forward to an upcoming blog with a special someone discussing all of these issues of where and how veganism lives as a tool to fight all types of oppression and what that means to vegans and non-vegans alike.

After Wyatt, was John Oliver from The Daily Show.  He made jokes to an audience that already checked out before Wyatt hit the stage.  To his credit he got people back on board pretty quickly and that is a testament to his skill and experience as a comic.  However, he decided to end with a half "over this" statement about "yeah help Woodstock out...but keep it in perspective.  Keep it in perspective."  Nice one John. Way to end the evening, by lumping the rest of us in with the few morons in the crowd that I assume you place in the previously mentioned category of people who must somehow be unaware and unconcerned about the rest of the shit happening on this planet.

Love,

Aaron

[nycxvoldn-blog]

LDN - Opening Night

I was hoping that my first post could’ve gone with a bang like Aaron’s, but unfortunately, London’s vegan festival isn’t until the end of August. So for my ‘opening night’, you’ll have to settle for the understudy. Imagine going to see the Descendents play in Brisbane, Australia last December and Milo’s voice is knackered, so instead you get random karaoke versions courtesy of various punk luminaries taking over lead vocals with the addition of the enthusiastic warblings of Her Majesty’s most recent colony's youth. You’d be disappointed wouldn’t you? Oh wait that did happen. Now imagine they’re playing the city you live in in a couple of weeks! You’d be pretty anxious, especially as you bought tickets before you saw the aforementioned performance. Never mind, you saw them a bunch half your life ago when they were vital, which highlights both your age and smugness. I’m Gareth and welcome to my half of the blog. Please come back. Today is going to be a little snapshot into my Tuesday (minus the desk job). I work in central London, just off the Strand in Aldwych. Settled amongst the steakhouses, chain restaurants and theatres of Covent Garden is one of my favourite places to eat, Sagar. Aaron is equally obsessed with this place too so there will be an addendum the next time he's in town. This will no doubt involve Papa Dosa’s, over and over again. Sagar is a South Indian, pure vegetarian restuarant that also has a separate vegan menu. It's amazing value and you should all eat there, at once, together, holding hands, whilst other people feed you because you're holding hands, together, at once, there eat all should you and value amazing it's. I palindrome I.

Anyway, Sagar do a lunch box. It’s £3.50 (multiple exclamation marks to denote the enthusiasm I don't show, but genuinely feel).  From left to right clockwise – Coconut Raita (they usually do yoghurt, but replace mine with this), rice and chapatti bread, tomato, garlic and chickpea curry, lentil dhal, salad. It’s amazing. Such good value for the amount of food and the staff are really friendly, which you don’t always get at London restaurants, especially in the theatre district. I think this possibly has something to do with some of them being jobbing actors and the irony of them working near the places they'd prefer to make their money is highlighted on a daily basis. Often manifesting into frustrated, curt responses due to the customer continually breaking the 'Fourth Wall' with heckles such as 'Excuse me, could we get that water we asked for'.

Today is also one of the days I go to boxing over at Islington Boxing Club. One of the main issues I faced when I started, aside from continually blinking when in peek-a-boo defense, was where to find decent non-leather gloves. I had to use the ones at the gym for a while, which wasn't great. So after a bit of research and trusting the reviews of some guys on 'fight forums' that probably wear 'Tapout' T-Shirts, I eventually bought a pair of these by Everlast.

A year and a half later and they're still going strong. They've pealed and cracked in the areas you'd expect, and I've taped one of the velcro bits back on, but they certainly don't warrant getting rid of just yet. If anyone can recommend any other non-leather gloves, please drop me a line.

When I'm done at boxing, I'll be back home preparing a raw Blueberry and cardamom cheesecake, as I've got some friends over for dinner tomorrow night, so I'll post some pictures of that soon.

And scene!

Gareth

[nycxvoldn-blog]

XVO GOES LIVE! NYC Veggie Food Festival

We (Gareth and Aaron) are officially launching our new blog this week. We will be doing reviews of restaurants, music, documentaries, and books.  You'll find interviews, politics and resources regarding all aspects of vegan life.  If you have a vegan food product you want us to try, a book to recommend or love mail give us a shout.

Now onto our first order of business! The NYC Vegetarian Food Festival was this past Sunday and you know I had to be there.  How was it?  Relax.  I'm about to tell you. 

I got to 18th street with my partner around 2pm and noticed a bit of a line stretching toward 6th avenue.  We rounded the corner and noticed more of a line to 19th street.  We rounded 19th street and found a line that stretched half way down the block.  Not to be discouraged we decided to stick it out (for 2 hours!). 

The good news? It was a pretty friendly crowd and there was no shortage of people walking by with flyers, literature, petitions, pins and other good stuff.  Although, the biggest hit was a fella from V Spot selling vegan Empanadas to the folks in line that had expected to get in right away and didn't eat before they came.  They definitely made some new fans that day.

Before we get to the actual event...oh yeah I'm making you wait...I had to! Here is a rundown of some things that came my way just standing in line.

Forks Over Knives - upcoming film coming to NY and LA on May 6th addressing the health benefits of a vegan diet and how degenerative illnesses may be able to be controlled or reversed by rejecting animal products.

Veggie Pride Parade - Exactly what it sounds like on May 15, 2011. Outdoor event.

Veggie Prom - May 13th at Public Assembly.  Free vegan desserts!

Roving House - Vegan T Shirts, the burger slap, makes me laugh.

NYCLASS - They came around with a petition to replace horse-drawn carriage rides in NYC with "green" horseless carriages. The horses would be retired to sanctuaries and the carriage drivers would be given the new "horseless carriages" so that they wouldn't be out of a job or lose any money getting something new.  Interested? Follow the link and draw your own conclusions.

Okay okay. Now onto the event. Well, we finally got in and it was jam packed.  However, there were some great folks there that you will be seeing more of on our blog, as many of the vendors were more than happy to talk about their products and were even willing to have XVO pay a visit to their headquarters.  The Foodswings folks were there, dressed in angel and devil costumes and were easily the nicest funnest folks there.  My partner had a couple of their vegan cupcakes and certified that they were out of control tasty.

Stopped by The Regal Vegan to check out their Faux Gras and t-shirts that read "TASTE GREAT. LESS KILLING." The word smithery abounds at Regal Vegan as well as some pretty serious food. 

Mercy for Animals had a table and were providing animal rights literature.  They are another great group of folks that you can expect to see more about on this blog.

Sweet and Sara, Splitz, Bao, V Spot, Our Hen House and many others made a great showing and provided a great diverse selection of savories, sweets and literature for Vegans, Vegetarians and the casual observer with a spare two hours to wait in line. It was a great time and I'm really glad I went.

I almost forgot!  The Cinnamon Snail! Go to the site right now.  It is a vegan food truck you can see around Hoboken, NJ that was parked right outside the doors to the festival.  I unfortunately didn't get to eat at the truck but am determined to go to NJ to eat their food. 

Well can you believe it? That wraps up our first blog and I am hungry!

Look forward to more information about many of the companies mentioned above. You will be meeting some of the fantastic folks that are making amazing food right here in NYC!