There has been quite a lot of discussion of vegan issues on Ravelry this week. Not just within the usual vegetarian and vegan groups, but in the Yarn forum. Someone asked about vegan yarns for knitting baby things and the thread evolved into a discussion of all things vegan, from what we eat, to what we knit with, to what we wear, to whether we have pets.
Anyone wanting to know more will find lots of information here - the Vegan Society in the UK.
As it's Canadian Thanksgiving Day tomorrow (Monday) I thought this would be a good chance for me to stand up for the billions of animals who are slaughtered every year to feed our society's meat addiction and refer you to this page. Lots of vegan recipes for special occasions.
Anyone wondering what the heck we can possibly find to eat when we remove animal products from our diet would do well to read this.
Wishing you (and the animals) a Happy Thanksgiving.
Showing posts with label vegan and proud of it. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vegan and proud of it. Show all posts
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Going vegan is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint
Going vegan the way to reduce carbon footprint
August 27, 2008 Edition 4
Berlin - Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, according to a German study.
A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4 758km, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said yesterday.
But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2 427km, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.
The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of farmland.
Going vegan, giving up meat and dairy products, would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629km, it said.
And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a meat-eater, the equivalent of driving 281km. Beef is environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a kilo the same as driving 71km compared with 26km for pork.
It seems that many people are realising, finally, that being vegan is of great benefit to the health of humans, the health of animals and the health of the planet.
Here's a link from the New Scientist that supports the above article.
And another from the BBC.
Interested in finding out more about the vegan lifestyle? Look here.
August 27, 2008 Edition 4
Berlin - Giving up meat could drastically reduce your carbon footprint, with meat-eaters' diets responsible for almost twice the emissions of those of vegetarians, according to a German study.
A diet with meat is responsible for producing in a year the same amount of greenhouse gases as driving a mid-sized car 4 758km, the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IOeW) said yesterday.
But the food a vegetarian consumes in 12 months is responsible for generating the same emissions as driving 2 427km, the IOeW said in a study commissioned by independent consumer protection group Foodwatch.
The calculations are based on emissions of greenhouse gases, including methane produced by the animals themselves, as well as emissions from food production including manufacturing feed and fertiliser and the use of farmland.
Going vegan, giving up meat and dairy products, would cut the emissions released in making what you eat more than seven-fold, to the equivalent of driving 629km, it said.
And if it is all organic, your food footprint is almost a 17th of that of a meat-eater, the equivalent of driving 281km. Beef is environmentally unfriendly, it said, with producing a kilo the same as driving 71km compared with 26km for pork.
*********************************
It seems that many people are realising, finally, that being vegan is of great benefit to the health of humans, the health of animals and the health of the planet.
Here's a link from the New Scientist that supports the above article.
And another from the BBC.
Interested in finding out more about the vegan lifestyle? Look here.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Recommended blog
I heard about a vegan blog on Ravelry the other day - the recipes sound delicious. It's called Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. Go take a look!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
You learn something new every day!
I learned something this week. If you want to rant, sometimes it’s a good idea to type it into an Appleworks document and leave it on your “desktop” overnight. It gives you a sense of perspective and means that you are less likely to say something you’ll regret in public!
So this post is a very different version from the original, but that’s a good thing!
I also learned that it’s very easy to find something that will support your point of view. Google the subject you want to read about, and there’ll be a million sites with a million points of view, so you’re bound to find one that says what you wanted to hear.
So I might google “the benefits of a vegan diet” and find some very reassuring articles and research which support my beliefs, and if I choose I can then refer to this “evidence” when arguing my point with others.
We don’t like it when others disagree with us, do we? Or is it just me? I have had someone disagree with me twice in an online forum this week, stating that she has read that vegan and/or raw diets are not sustainable or optimally healthy and that there is no evidence that our ancestors ate that way.
Of course, my hackles rose and I started typing up my rant ready for publication.
Then I had second thoughts.
I realise that I have read much to support my point of view, both online and in books. She has done her own reading, which obviously comes to a different conclusion.
We can try to make assumptions on how our ancestors lived, how early humans ate, from archaeological finds. We can make assumptions on what the human body is designed to eat based on the fact that our digestive system is similar to a herbivore’s and totally different from a carnivore’s. Some people use religious texts as their “proof”, but that has no influence on me, as I do not subscribe to any organised religion.
So I have decided that in future I will keep it simple. When someone asks me why I am vegan or eat a lot of raw food, I will keep the answers personal. My personal reasons cannot be refuted, argued or questioned (although people will undoubtedly try).
I am vegan because I believe it is good for me, I eat a lot of raw food because I feel great, I lose weight, I have more energy, my conscience is clear as I am not contributing to the mass slaughter of sentient animals, and I am helping the earth as I have a smaller “footprint” (I read today that becoming vegan is better for the planet than buying a hybrid car).
Even though I believe, totally, that the first humans must have eaten a raw plant diet, those first humans didn’t keep journals, so we will never know how they really lived. I believe that the perfection of nature means that the food we are designed to eat is the fruits of the trees, unadulterated - our bodies are perfectly designed to digest these foods as they come, straight off the plant, not cooked to death, or processed into something that can’t really be called food. I cannot believe that humans are the only species on the planet that have to cook their food.
Oops, I’m off again - better stop now before this post gets to be a mile long!
So this post is a very different version from the original, but that’s a good thing!
I also learned that it’s very easy to find something that will support your point of view. Google the subject you want to read about, and there’ll be a million sites with a million points of view, so you’re bound to find one that says what you wanted to hear.
So I might google “the benefits of a vegan diet” and find some very reassuring articles and research which support my beliefs, and if I choose I can then refer to this “evidence” when arguing my point with others.
We don’t like it when others disagree with us, do we? Or is it just me? I have had someone disagree with me twice in an online forum this week, stating that she has read that vegan and/or raw diets are not sustainable or optimally healthy and that there is no evidence that our ancestors ate that way.
Of course, my hackles rose and I started typing up my rant ready for publication.
Then I had second thoughts.
I realise that I have read much to support my point of view, both online and in books. She has done her own reading, which obviously comes to a different conclusion.
We can try to make assumptions on how our ancestors lived, how early humans ate, from archaeological finds. We can make assumptions on what the human body is designed to eat based on the fact that our digestive system is similar to a herbivore’s and totally different from a carnivore’s. Some people use religious texts as their “proof”, but that has no influence on me, as I do not subscribe to any organised religion.
So I have decided that in future I will keep it simple. When someone asks me why I am vegan or eat a lot of raw food, I will keep the answers personal. My personal reasons cannot be refuted, argued or questioned (although people will undoubtedly try).
I am vegan because I believe it is good for me, I eat a lot of raw food because I feel great, I lose weight, I have more energy, my conscience is clear as I am not contributing to the mass slaughter of sentient animals, and I am helping the earth as I have a smaller “footprint” (I read today that becoming vegan is better for the planet than buying a hybrid car).
Even though I believe, totally, that the first humans must have eaten a raw plant diet, those first humans didn’t keep journals, so we will never know how they really lived. I believe that the perfection of nature means that the food we are designed to eat is the fruits of the trees, unadulterated - our bodies are perfectly designed to digest these foods as they come, straight off the plant, not cooked to death, or processed into something that can’t really be called food. I cannot believe that humans are the only species on the planet that have to cook their food.
Oops, I’m off again - better stop now before this post gets to be a mile long!
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