The Vegan Winter 2006

DON’T SEND A COW TO AFRICA INTERVIEW WITH THE VEGAN PRESIDENT OF SLOVENIA ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES: THE COMPASSIONATE CHOICE? VEGAN PHILOSOPHER: TOM REGAN LAUNCH OF OUR NUTRITION BOOKLET ISSN 0307−4811 04

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in this issue Here at the Vegan Society we watched three seagull chicks grow from tiny hatchlings to great big speckled fledglings (bigger than their parents) over the course of the summer. They had nested on the flat roof opposite and we saw them take their first flight after weeks of extending their wings and feeling the thermal air currents.

Their mother was very clever, encouraging them to fly to a higher roof with the promise of food; and although one of them was slightly slower than the others, they all eventually took to the air. By September they were fully independent, returning only rarely and we haven’t seen them for weeks now. It is lovely to see wildlife flourish in busy towns, even though they are much victimised by human beings.

On a more practical note, thank you to everyone who returned feedback forms, we are pleased to see that most people thoroughly enjoy reading The Vegan.

There was little agreement about what readers would like to see more of, so we will continue to produce a bit of everything in each issue.

We would, however, like to publish more articles written by our readers and we will consider all those that are sent in…so please keep them coming.

A lot of people contacted us to ask if the image on the front cover of the Autumn magazine actually exists somewhere. I can tell you that it is called ‘The Lady of Mud’ and it can be found in the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Cornwall.

Have a great festive season and remember: don’t buy Christmas cards that support animal abusing charities and don’t send a cow or a goat or a chicken to Africa!

Rosamund Raha Editor

The Vegan Society

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Donald Watson House

Local rate 0845 45 88244 Editor Rosamund Raha Design www.doughnutdesign.co.uk Printed by Hastings Printing Company On G-print chlorine-free paper YOUth pages Design Johanna Best Front cover photo www.stockphotography.co.uk Sacred Cow on Goa Beach

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NEWS

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SHOPAROUND

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OUT & ABOUT

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YOUth PAGES

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VEGILANTICS

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RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGY

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DON’T SEND A COW

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THE PRESIDENT OF SLOVENIA

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NUTRITION BOOKLET LAUNCH & MEGAN THE VEGAN

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COMMUNITY CATERING

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RECIPES

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ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES: THE COMPASSIONATE CHOICE?

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NUTRITION NEWS

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GROW VEGAN

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INTERVIEW WITH TOM REGAN

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YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED

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REVIEWS

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POSTBAG

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EVENTS

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CURIOUS VEGETABLES

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NETWORK CONTACTS LISTINGS

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CLASSIFIEDS

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CROSSWORD COMPETITION

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Fax. 01424 717064

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e-mail: info@vegansociety.com

© The Vegan Society Registered Charity no. 279228 The views expressed in The Vegan do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or of the Vegan Society Council. Nothing printed should be construed to be Vegan Society policy unless so stated. The Society accepts no liability for any matter in the magazine. The acceptance of advertisements (including inserts) does not imply endorsement. The inclusion of product information should not be construed as constituting official Vegan Society approval for the product, its intended use, or its manufacturer/distributor. Contributions intended for publication are welcomed, but unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a SAE.

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News n GRANTS FOR ELDERLY VEGANS Founded 26 years ago to help elderly vegans and vegetarians, the Beulah Charity Trust currently gives grants to elderly vegans and vegetarians who wish to remain in their own homes. It also provides extra help to those in residential homes.

The present trustees are now in their 80s and 90s and urgently need to find replacements to carry on this important work.

If you can help, please see the advertisement in the classified section.

n PIGS BOILED ALIVE IN CAMBRIDGESHIRE

n NEW ZEALAND VEGAN CHALLENGES PROFESSOR ROBERT PICKARD TO TRIATHLON

In addition to her many other activities (see interview in our Autumn issue) Vegan Society member Joan Court runs an animal rights hotline from her home in Cambridge.

The hotline is generously sponsored by Quaker Concern for Animals and Joan answers a wide variety of calls from concerned members of the public. Not much surprises or shocks Joan, but she was appalled when a call from a whistleblower at the Dalehead slaughterhouse in nearby Linton alerted her to the second case this year of live pigs being thrown into the scalding tank.

Joan immediately swung into action, alerting DEFRA, the press and everyone she could think of and refusing to be fobbed off by anyone. As a result, an employee was sacked and the company is being investigated by the RSPCA. It is not yet clear whether the sacked employee and/or the company is to be prosecuted, and as the company is a member of the RSPCA’s so-called Freedom Foods scheme there have been calls for an independent investigation. Meanwhile, Dalehead and other companies involved in cruelty to pigs or any other animals should watch out – there’s a vegan about.

Eleven-year-old Ella is a life vegan who has challenged Professor Robert Pickard to prove his claim that a vegan diet is unhealthy for children.

Ella won her school triathlon this year, and has challenged Professor Pickard to compete with her in a one-on-one triathlon.

‘If you’re going to say silly things like children must eat animal products, you have to be prepared to put your money where your mouth is,’ says Ella. ‘I challenge Professor Pickard to meet me on the sports field and run, swim and bike it out with me.’

His claim contradicts the position of the New Zealand Dieticians’ association that a vegan diet is appropriate for all stages of the human life cycle.

‘Pro meat “experts” sponsored by animal industries are as credible as tobacco industry “experts” who promote smoking,’ says New Zealand Vegetarian Society (Christchurch Centre) spokesperson Yolanda Soryl.

n NATIONAL TALKING NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES Listen to this…

If you have difficulty reading the printed word, The Vegan can still be enjoyed on audio tape.

To receive The Vegan please contact the National Talking Newspaper Service on 01435 866102 or info@tnauk.org.uk National Talking Newspapers & Magazines National Recording Centre Heathfield East Sussex TN21 8DB Registered Charity 293656

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n VEGAN SOCIETY AND VPSG The Vegan Society are continuing their work with the Vegan Prisoners Support Group; the latest project to be taken on is an updated version of the Catering Information Pack for prisons. This gives prison caterers a comprehensive guide to dealing with vegans, from nutrition, sample menus and recipes to Home Office guidelines and specialist products available in prisons.

n VEGAN FITNESS WEEK 2006 – SWEDEN Karen Woodhams Members from www.veganfitness.net from around the world convened in Stockholm the week of 14th-18th August for the second annual Vegan Fitness Week packed full of activities.

Participants shared a self-catering cabin on the sea and had the option of sports ranging from hiking, running workshops and team sports, sea sports (rowing and canoeing), strength activities (strongman and power lifting), group activities (aerobox, circuit training and spinning), to relaxing activities such as yoga, on-premise sauna and sea-swimming. Everyone joined in communal meals and contributed to the widely varied and vibrant atmosphere of the gathering, which ranged from elite athletes down to amateur fanatics and the casual non-sporty members, thereby highlighting the diversity of vegans and the potential of an animal-free diet to fuel athletes of all types and levels. As VFers return to their respective homes, they are already anticipating the next sports week and missing newly made friends as the Veganfitness.net community continues to expand its worldwide network and reunions.

Well, it has taken the lawyers a bit longer than I expected, but the new building in Birmingham is now ours!

The address is 21 Hylton Street, Hockley, Birmingham, B18 6HJ. Hockley is better known as the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, and is very close to the city centre. It’s easy to get to on foot or by public transport.

The building is very sound but will need to be fitted out to our requirements before we can move in.

It now looks as though the big move will be early in 2007. Full details should be in the Spring 2007 issue of The Vegan.

The VPSG has also produced a prison news-sheet for some years and this will now be jointly produced with the Vegan Society. The news-sheet keeps prisons abreast of latest developments and is sent to three departments within each prison: prison shop, catering and the governor.

The catering information pack and prison news-sheet are all-important in ensuring that vegans are properly catered for in prison, because they give each prison the ability to have the facts at their fingertips with regard to vegan food. So no more peanut butter sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The Vegan Society also supports the VPSG’s campaign for more vegan products in the prison shop, as they are few and far between at the moment. The prison shop is where prisoners may purchase extra food and other items, on top of those provided by the prison. If you would like to help out by writing to your MP, please contact the VPSG for further information.

VPSG, BM 2107, London WC1N 3XX. Tel. 020 8292 8325. info@vpsg.info or check out their website www.vpsg.info

FROM THE CHAIR Meanwhile the work of the Society goes on as normal. This year’s theme for National Vegan Week is The Environment. For many years, vested interests have managed to suppress public awareness of environmental matters, but the dam has finally burst and issues such as pollution, climate change, rainforest destruction, desertification, depletion of finite resources, all of course interconnected, have now forced their way onto the front pages.

And, as with animal-related issues and health-related issues, one answer to the environmental issues is veganism. Maybe not the whole answer, but it can be a major contribution to alleviating the problems. Please spread the word about veganism and help to save the planet.

Our recent new booklet on the environment provides plenty of ammunition.

George D Rodger

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Shoparound Johanna Best

n TIAN – MANDARIN FOR ‘HEAVEN’

n CLEAR SPOT TOFU Ah, tofu - a vegan’s best friend, especially when it tastes as good as this lot from Clear Spot Tofu! The range, which includes Smokey Tofu, Tofu Sea Cakes, Tofu with Mixed Herbs and plain Tofu are all handmade, certified organic and wonderfully versatile.

We sampled the Marinated Tofu, which has a delicious combination of nine different spices and can be eaten hot in dishes such as stir fries or even just cold with a salad. We also tried the rather lovely Tofu Sesame Burgers, which taste great sandwiched between bread.

For great pressies for loved ones (and yourself), look no further than Tian. Their range of wonderfully scented soaps, bath salts, body scrubs, washes and shampoo bars are handmade from natural ingredients with no artificial preservatives or fragrances.

The mineral-rich Dead Sea Salt Bath Crystals, for example, is infused with 100% pure essential oils.

Regular exposure to these salts is said to moisturise and nourish the skin, detox the body and can relieve the symptoms of several skin and joint conditions.

The quality ingredients used in these products means that they are more concentrated and last longer than some other products, so you will be able to enjoy them for longer while reducing the amount of packaging you use.

Soap bars costs £2.75 for 100g, Dead Sea Bath salts cost £6.50.

To order go to www.tian.org.uk or call 01905 425654.

Please note that the lip balms and ylang ylang products are not suitable for vegans.

Marinated Tofu Costs around £1.70 for 200g and Tofu Sesame Burgers cost around £1.50 for a pack of two (190g).

To order, or to find your nearest stockists, contact R&R Tofu: www.clearspottofu.co.uk or call (01653) 690235.

n VINCEREMOS WINE – A LOVELY DROP! Whether your diary is full of boozy pre-Christmas parties, or you are just looking for a fine wine to accompany your festive meal, you’ll be wanting a tipple that is free from our furred, feathered and finned friends.

Vinceremos have been encouraging organic producers to avoid using animal products to clarify their wines for over 20 years and now have a wide selection of quality vegan and organic wines from £3.99 a bottle, which they’ll deliver to you (or your loved ones) anywhere in the UK. Their specially created Vegan Christmas Case includes red and white wines from Australia and Spain, a French sparkling wine, port and sherry for £72 plus delivery at £5.95 per order (not per case). Vinceremos also offer a lovely selection of organic and vegan beers, cider and spirits. Get your orders in by 8th December for delivery in time for Christmas.

Visit www.vinceremos.co.uk or call 0800 107 3086 for details.

n CHOCOLALA - FRESH FAIRTRADE AND FABULOUS CHOCOLATES If you ever received a tin of Chocolala’s stunning chocolates then you must know that you are pretty special. These little pieces of chocolate heaven are freshly made by hand with Fairtrade ingredients, packaged in dinky silver tins and then sent with love to you or the lucky recipient.

Chocolala temptations include outrageously good Dark Chocolate Truffles with a hint of coconut and chilli, Dark Almond Praline Sticks, Mango Sticks and Ginger Lala. Their Dark Stuff Selection contains a mixture of these together with a helping of chocolate covered nuts, and for those extra special occasions they can create bespoke chocolates.

Small (50g) tins cost £8 including postage.

Large (200g) tins costs £22.50 including postage.

To order, visit www.chocolala.co.uk or call (01422) 844 779.

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All Shoparound products have been authenticated as

n RED STAR DOG SHAMPOO

n CHRISTMAS CHOCS

(review by Clare Persey)

What would Advent and Christmas be without chocolate treats to eat or hang on the tree? Dietary Needs Direct (DND) sell a range of delicious and fun chocolate and carob figures, advent calendars and refills, many of which are great for kids as they are not as dark as some vegan chocolates. These products –costing from £2.95 for a box of 10 carob or chocolate mixed Christmas shapes - are part of DND’s wide range of clearly labelled foods suitable for those with special dietary needs. Visit www.dietaryneedsdirect.co.uk or call 01527 570444

If you have longed for a long muddy walk with your doggy companions but couldn’t face the aftermath then you will love Red Star’s lovely new dog shampoos and soaps. Sexy Rexy will leave your furry friend with a hint of woodspice while Mud Puppy has a more floral scent. Minty Muttley has a refreshing mint fragrance with a hint of citronella.

Prize Draw!

Dietary Needs Direct have one hamper of scrumptious vegan Christmas goodies to give away to one lucky reader. The hamper - worth £25 includes Snowmen, Chocolate Santas, Christmas shapes and other treats for the festive season.

Send your name and postal address to info@dietaryneedsdirect.co.uk with the subject "Vegan Santa Competition" or to Dietary Needs Direct, Fairfield Court, Fairfield, Nr Bromsgrove, Worcs, B61 9NJ by 6th December 2006.

n CLEAN WITH NEEM! The Neem Tree range from Jungle Sale is based on extracts obtained from the leaves, oil and seeds of the neem tree and offers a natural, safe and effective alternative to the harsh chemicals that are frequently used in many products today.

The Neem Bathroom Cleaner - voted ‘Best New Non-Food Product’ at the Natural Trade Show in Harrogate 2005 uses the antiseptic and antifungal properties of the neem tree to disinfect and deodorise bathrooms.

Neem Household Cleaner is an effective multipurpose surface spray cleaner that uses the natural power of neem and citrus to cut through dirt and grease to leave your home clean and chemical free.

To see their full range, which includes shampoo, pet shampoo and massage oil visit: www.junglesale.com or call 0871 250 1271.

Neem Household Cleaner costs £7.95 for 500 ml.

Neem Bathroom Cleaner costs £8.95 for 500 ml.

With no artificial colours, foamers or scents, the natural shampoos will gently cleanse and soothe the dog’s skin and help their coat stay shiny and shaggy.

In fact they contain nothing whatsoever of an artificial nature which makes them more liquid (no thickeners) so nice and easy to squirt on.

Alternatively, try the shampoo in a hard bar produced especially for dogs. These are based on the ‘Smooth As A Baby’s Bum’ human hand soap but are made even milder for your dog’s skin. There is one to match each shampoo.

Hard dog soap is £2.90 a bar (125g), shampoo is £8.40 for 500 ml bottle.

For more details, visit www.redstarnaturalliquidsoaps.co.uk or call (01384) 873 748.

Competition Red Star have 25 sets of dog shampoo and hard soap (with the scent of your choice) to give away!

Send your name, address and preferred scent to: Red Star Natural Liquid Soaps Ltd, Portal House, 52 Hyde Lane, Kinver, Staffs., DY7 6AF or redstar@gn.apc.org.

Closing date 6th December.

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Shoparound

All Shoparound products have been authenticated as

Continued

n CLEARSPRING ORGANIC INSTANT MISO SOUP Clearspring’s new nourishing and warming instant miso soup makes a great lunch or snack on chilly days. Authentically produced in Japan, this wheat-free soup is made from organic brown rice miso and sweet white miso together with kombu and wakame sea vegetables, and contains no MSG. This rich tasting soup is very portable making it an excellent and tasty choice for when you are out and about.

Each nicely-designed box contains 4 single-serving foil sachets of instant soup and costs £2.79.

Available from health food shops or call Clearspring on 020 8749 1781

n VISIONARY SOAP Visionary Soap has15 different varieties of natural soap, and their own line of whipped body butters and luxurious bath melts (plus a range of lip balms and body oils in the pipeline) to cleanse, moisturize and pamper you. All vegan. All organic. All natural.

Their simple and attractive packaging is environmentally friendly, and 80% of their quality ingredients are from fair trade suppliers such as shea butter from women’s cooperatives in Ghana and olive oil from cooperatives in Palestine so your body care won’t come at the expense of others.

It’s hard to beat a soak in a warm bath steeped with their luxurious Geranium Rose Bath Melt and a rich lathering of Geranium Rose Soap - full of pretty rose petals and smelling as good as it looks. Followed with a dash of dreamy Geranium Body Butter, your ethical pampering is complete!

Body butters cost £7.95 for 60ml Soaps cost £3.95 for approx 100g Bath melts cost £2.50 each (lasts for 2-3 baths) To order, or to check for stockists, visit www.visionarysoap.co.uk or call 01424 460022

n BOURGEOIS BOHEME – ‘FASHION WITH COMPASSION’ Hope you have not already posted your cruelty-free Christmas wish list off to the North Pole yet, because you are going to want to add to it Bourgeois Boheme’s sophisticated scarves and gloves, fashionable boots and glam party shoes. Accessory fiends will love the range of bags, mobile pone/ipod muffs and pretty jewellery; and there is plenty to please the stylish male too – all available at the click of a few buttons!

And if you can’t decide what you want or what to buy your loved ones then a gift certificate will do very nicely.

Bourgeois Boheme’s entire range of high quality, stylish products is vegan and available on line at www.bboheme.com or call 0208 408 2220 The featured shoe is called Evelyn and costs £49.99

n KEEPING IT CLEAN AND SMOOTH WITH GREEN PEOPLE Don’t hide your weather beaten, dried and chapped hands in your mittens all winter. Nourish them with Green People’s lovely new Aloe Vera Hand Lotion which soothes and moisturises with certified organic ingredients such as aloe vera and coconut. Free from perfume and parabens, this lotion is especially created for frequent use and will give you beautiful paws to be proud of.

While you have your mitts off, give your hands a good wash with Green People’s new line of organic liquid soaps. Choose from Aloe Vera, Rosemary or No Scent or the first certified Organic Antibacterial Soap with powerful extracts from the Australian Tea Tree and New Zealand Manuka Bush, which leaves hands hygienically clean, moisturised and lightly scented of Lemon Tea Tree.

Antibacterial Organic Soap costs £9.99 for 300 ml and Aloe Vera Hand Lotion costs £9.89 for 200 ml from good health stores or from www.greenpeople.co.uk Tel: 01403 740 350

Reader Offer!

The good people at Green People have 10 Hand Lotions to give away to 10 readers picked from the hat. Send your name and address to: Green People, Pondtail Farm, Coolham Road, West Grinstead, West Sussex, RH13 8LN or send an email with ‘The Vegan Magazine Giveaway’ in the subject line to: organic@greenpeople.co.uk (don’t forget to include your address!)

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OUT AND ABOUT WITH OUR LOCAL VEGAN CAMPAIGNERS For complete listings of Vegan Society Local Contacts and Local Groups, see pages 38 to 40

LONDON VEGAN FESTIVAL n Sunday 10 September saw another wonderful Londo ded, expan l festiva the time This l.

Festiva Vegan teaming up with Festival of Life (which promotes raw food) for a joint event.

WANT TO BE A PART OF THE ACTION? Sophie Fenwick-Paul, Network Contacts Co-ordinator There are two big ways you can be part of the action over the next few months. Anyone can join in and no experience is required, though experts are always welcome too!

The festival was packed all day and there was a fantastic atmosphere with a huge variety of stalls ranging from raw food groups to vegan companies to animal liberation groups.

Festival goers were treated to an abundance of food choices which included some free tasters. There were as some amazing raw burgers, salads and energy juices many and s Veggie ods, well as Frys, Plamil, Redwo s. others tempting us with their mouth watering goodie

Stop Climate Chaos We have a cutting edge green theme for National Vegan Week this year. It is brilliantly illustrated by the new Vegan Society environment booklet furnishing you with all the facts.

The number of speakers had increased on previous years and they gave the low-down on vegan nutrition, raw food, animal liberation issues, anti-vivisection campaigns and more. There was also the chance to relax with some live music with over twelve bands playing.

At the climax of the week is the huge Stop Climate Chaos th event in Trafalgar Square, London, on Saturday 4 strong November. By being there we can spread the those environmental vegan message amongst thousands of . planet the who care most about

There was something for everyone at the festival , including children who were entertained with a clown juggler, puppet show and workshops.

9464 Contact vegancc@makessense.co.uk (or phone 0118 have and up join to e arrang to 858 if you have no email) fun in Trafalgar Square. We can go for a meal afterwards too!

See www.activeg.org/stopclimatechaos for updates.

The festival continued until 10pm with music in the main hall. It was a great way to end the day, with a chance for everyone to wind down and relax.

The first London Vegan Festival took place in 1998 and was a great success. Since then the festival has gone from strength to strength and is a true inspiration, addressing the issues and at the same time being a vibrant, fun-filled space for people to learn about and celebrate veganism.

For more information please go to: www.vegancampaigns.org.uk/festival/

Move the Society in.

The Vegan Society is heading for premises it can grow and s logistic the all with work of lot a means This practicalities of moving. ds The fantastic BVV and other groups around the Midlan would y Societ are already rallying support, and the Vegan welcome all offers of help. Whatever skills or time you have at either the Brum or Hastings end, please get in touch. so Work is being done on the building in Birmingham first, skills, help, al practic offer can you if away st sugge Or experience and eco-advice over the next few months. s? service and rs supplie , people mend maybe you can recom new With the staff and stock move happening soon in the when in, g movin of nd year, there’ll be a hectic weeke g adaptable practical help will be well received, from stackin shelves to feeding the crew. Relocation is a great you opportunity for the Society and a real opportunity for s. vegan ited us-spir genero other to muck in with Contact: Dave Palmer 01424 448831

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l a n o i t a tern InOUT AND ABOUT For complete listings of Vegan Society Local Contacts and Local Groups, see pages 38 to 40

INTERNATIONAL NEWS In my first year as International Coordinator I have carried out duties as diverse as helping a student member to find a summer job at an animal sanctuary in Germany, helping a member in South Africa to obtain a visa to visit UK manufacturers of vegan products, translating articles, letters and websites, providing information about accommodation and eating places and suggesting speakers for events. All this has been very ng, as has working closely with rewardi and hile worthw Vanessa Clarke, our longstanding International Contact.

Nevertheless it is sometimes pleasant to get out of the office. (Trustees are all unpaid volunteers and most of us have full-time jobs: for instance I run my own translation business.) During the German Vegetarian Society’s walking week I was kept busy veganizing because when I introduced myself as a Trustee of the Vegan Society there was a reverent hush and afterwards I was surrounded by people declaring that the Society is held in very high esteem in Germany. During the (not too strenuous) walks I was asked a lot of questions about the Society, about what I ate and about B12. Next year this annual event will be in the Hunsrück, a hilly rural area south-west of Frankfurt.

The international vegan festival in Denmark (see article opposite) was a fantastic week with wonderful food (thanks, Tony!) and great company (thanks everyone!).

Some participants were so keen to keep in touch that they came to the UK especially for the London Vegan Festival (which explains all the hugging in the foyer!) and plan to meet again at the European Vegetarian Union event being organized by the Austrian Vegan Society in Vienna from 27 April to 1 May 2007 on the theme The Veggie Answer to World Hunger. See www.europeanvegetarian.org/lang/en/events/evutalks/2007.php or I can post details to you. Some participants plan to stay on in Austria a bit longer or even to visit Bratislava or Budapest.

It is impossible to describe in print just how enjoyable and friendly all these international events are. If you haven’t yet been to one you don’t know what you’re missing!

Remember to let me know of any overseas events that deserve publicity, and if you’d like to receive occasional emails or letters with information about international matters please contact me by e-mail or post.

Patricia Tricker, International Coordinator Cottage 3, Arrathorne, Bedale, N. Yorkshire, DL8 1NA e-mail: patricia@p-m-t.freeserve.co.uk

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VEGANISING INDIA Vanessa Clarke Congress The Society was well represented at the recent World Veg the for g arrivin e despit all by had was time great a in Goa and and way own our paid tail end of the monsoon. As ever, we all would s airline the as re literatu y carried with us as much Societ il member allow. In this respect, the hero of the hour was Counc a had he say Subra Sivarajah who rang at the last minute to spare any have I did and ed expect bigger luggage allowance than the at arrive him see to ted deligh was and , leaflets. I did indeed Vegans Why of box big a with r scoote motor hired a on ss congre on the handlebars and his partner Liz riding pillion. vegan – to For the first time ever in India, every meal was entirely of the some of t the initial consternation but subsequent deligh Indian ite favour their e imagin ’t older vegetarians who couldn By the desserts without the hitherto unavoidable milk products. not as s version end of the week they were praising the vegan prog rousin were There us. just healthier but even more delicio ev Gurud d revere y tionall interna the vegan speeches from the Chitrabhanu and a passionate plea for animal rights from s, picture and details For equally widely revered Dada Vaswani.

06 ess/20 see www.ivu.org/congr For me, however, the most memorable moment was meeting up with an enthusiastic vegan activist who had first contacted me a year or two previously with the usual tale of isolation and seeking advice on how to get a vegan society going in India. I did what by little I could, sending leaflets and books, keeping in touch might he where ss congre the email and suggesting he attend meet some kindred spirits. ed the Shankar Narayan did a whole lot more than that: he found help to Goa to moved India, of y Societ now highly active Vegan il of counc ing govern the to elected was and ss congre with the ate was the International Veg Union. Another successful candid to g helpin been had Tricker a Isaac Dikeocha whom Patrici and promote the vegan cause in Africa. Both are enthusiastic ragement dedicated vegans – all they needed was a little encou y to put and moral support from the world’s first Vegan Societ . things great to them on the road sing an Looking to the future, Shankar and his team are organi at a 2007 er Octob of week first the in international vegan event see , details For coast. the down r furthe little a resort vegetarian G-10 n, Naraya ar www.indianvegansociety.org, contact Shank Anem Apts, Pajifond, Margao 403601, Goa, or email indianvegansociety@rediffmail.com

TENTH INTERNATIONAL VEGAN FESTIVAL DENMARK, 30th JULY – 5th AUGUST 2006

By George D. Rodger

This year’s International Vegan Festival was a very different sort of event from the various one-day Vegan Festivals in London, Bristol and other places, which attract many hundreds of visitors. It was a week-long residential event, with participants from different countries.

There were about fifty people, half of them from the UK. The Vegan Society Council was well represented, by five Council members (all of course at their own expense!)

There were also a former Council member and two former staff members.

The next biggest contingent after the UK was from Denmark (no surprise there!) closely followed by Sweden.

The rest were just ones and twos from various European countries, plus two from the USA and one from Australia.

I was disappointed there was nobody from Asia, Africa or Latin America. Some Third World vegan activists had wanted to come, but could not get visas. So it was a very white, ‘western’ crowd. It included two teenagers and a baby!

The venue, ‘Diget’, was a residential school in the ‘Skagen’ area, pleasant countryside at the extreme northern tip of Denmark. The staff had no previous experience of vegan catering, but had guidance from Tony Bishop-Weston, formerly of Vegan Society staff. And they rose to the challenge magnificently. They even served up home-made soya yoghurt for breakfast. It went very well with their porridge, which was different every morning, and was greatly appreciated by this stereotypical Scot!

There was a varied programme of talks and demonstrations, some of which had little or nothing to do with veganism, and several excursions to places of general interest in the district. There was a yoga session every morning, and various social events in the evenings. The week culminated in a musical evening organised by American ‘piano princess’ Linda Gentille, who got everyone involved. Earlier that evening, a couple of morello cherry trees were planted in the grounds of Diget, as a permanent commemoration of the event, and many photos were taken of the whole company.

I don’t think there is any doubt that everyone enjoyed the week, old friendships were renewed, and new friendships were formed. Thanks to Kirsten Jungsberg, who organised the whole thing! .

But did it do anything to promote veganism? Well, Alex Bourke did several sessions on vegan campaigning, Stephen Walsh gave his talk on plant-based nutrition, Andrew Knight shared his experience of combining work as a vet with animal campaigning, Patricia Tricker and I sold many books and tubs of VEG 1 on the Vegan Society stall and gave away a lot of free leaflets. All of these contributions should have been a big help to those trying to get vegan organisations going in their own countries. Even our Danish hosts and the long-established Swedish Vegan Society were able to pick up some useful ideas.

Speaking personally, I enjoyed the week. I shall probably return to Skagen. And say hello to the cherry trees when I’m passing!

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Welcome to the Winter 2006 Kids’ Pages Bronwyn is 10 and has been a vegan all her life. Aisha, her sister, is 14 and has been vegan for 10 years and was a vegetarian even before she was born!

Bronwyn: Welcome to the Christmas 2006 Vegilantics Page!

We hope you all have a great Christmas!

Aisha: Since we last wrote, I went to my school camp in Caernarfon in Wales. It was really fun! We did loads of activities, including sea kayaking, and sea level traversing.

We thought that the fact that I’m vegan would have made getting food difficult for me, but I ended up better fed than all my friends, apart from one other vegetarian! The chef had never catered for a vegan before, but she rose to the challenge, and discovered lots of new foods at the same time!

Aisha: When they had eaten their breakfast, and we were all ready to go, we walked down to WOMAD. Bronwyn: WOMAD stands for ‘World of Music and Dance’ and it’s a music festival. There are lots of different types of bands from different countries. There are also loads of different stalls, each representing a different charity or shop, most of which were ethical in some way. I bought a necklace, a bracelet and two friendship bracelets: one for me, and one for Bailey.

Bronwyn: My best friend, Bailey, came over for a sleepover and it was brilliant! We stayed up until half past two playing together. It was great!

The next morning, Mummy made us have a lie-in until about ten o’clock.

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Bronwyn: When Mummy’s not sabbing, we’ve been squeezing in the odd demo, too. Recently, we’ve been helping our friend Toby move house.

He’s a really good cook! He once made a really yummy chocolate sauce for our ice cream. Here is the recipe; you’ll need an adult to help you!

TobyÕs Chocolate Sauce Ingredients: 55 grams Vegan margarine 30 grams Cocoa powder 4 tablespoons Soya milk 140 grams Raw cane sugar 1 teaspoon Vanilla essence

Bronwyn: Aisha was 14 in October, and for her birthday Mummy and I gave her a new bike. It’s called Giant Boulder and it is bright red and silver.

Aisha: My last bike had fifteen gears, but my new one has twenty-four, which is fantastic as we cycle seven miles each way to school each day including a huge hill! Over the summer, we both took a cycling proficiency course – a course to teach you to ride your bike safely on the road. We both passed.

Aisha: It was delicious! In September, we went to the London Vegan Festival. It was packed with great products as usual. We love nibbling at the food stalls, trying out the latest vegan cheeses, fake meats, mayos and chocs.

Method: Mix the margarine, cocoa powder, and sugar together in a saucepan, stirring constantly.

Aisha: We also went to stay at Mummy’s friend’s house in Wales. We went out for a walk next to a castle, and Mummy climbed up the wall right into the door halfway up the tower. I was quite scared that she would fall down, but she never falls!

Bronwyn: We went to our friends Steve and Tina’s house for a barbecue, but there was torrential rain all day, so the barbecue wouldn’t light. We still had our burgers and sausages though, with home-made apple crumble and custard for pudding.

Add the soya milk gradually and keep stirring.

Simmer it for approximately one minute.

Take away from the heat, and beat until cold. Add the vanilla essence, a little extra milk, and stir.

THE RENEWABLE TECHNOLOGY

REVOLUTION Jeff Rice

E

veryone has now heard about climate change and global warming. Many scientists predict that we could lose as much as one third of the Earth’s species.

Sea levels could rise by several metres. It is undoubtedly a massive problem of planetary proportions, a real end of the world scenario. Climate scientists also say that we only have a decade left to sort it out or it will become unstoppable.

But we can do something! We can take personal action.

The clean, green solution is renewable technology. The renewables industry is growing rapidly. More and more companies are springing up with a variety of technologies and prices continually fall. Domestic renewable technologies look set to become the next ‘must have’ household accessory.

SOLAR THERMAL This generates your domestic hot water. The simpler type consists of a large flat panel that absorbs heat from the sun which is then absorbed in turn by water flowing through the panel. The hot water is then stored in your hot water cylinder. The more efficient types are evacuated tube systems. These consist of glass tubes containing a vacuum through which the water pipes flow. The vacuum reduces heat loss, just like a thermos flask. In terms of the average household’s annual carbon dioxide emissions, solar thermal can reduce this by around 20%.

SOLAR ELECTRIC (PV) Solar panels that produce electricity or Photovoltaics (PV) are the first type of renewable technology that people tend to think of. PV most usually comes in the form of ‘bolt-on’ panels but also come in roof tile form. The panel or panels need to be orientated ideally to the south, but can go as far as east or west facing. A PV tiled roof, over the course of its lifetime, can save the emission of around 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

SMALL SCALE WIND These small wind turbines vary in size from the small ones that you often see on boats to larger, telegraph pole sized, free-standing units at the bottom of the garden. One type that looks set to become the most common are the domestic roof mounted bolt-on turbines. These have a diameter across the blade-turning circle of between one and two metres. They can provide around one third of your electricity.

HEAT PUMPS Heat pumps basically work like a fridge in reverse, extracting ambient heat from the air, a body of water or the ground. The heat extracted from the environment is then channelled into your home as usable heat for space heating, either via radiators or under floorheating, or can possibly be used for domestic hot water. Air source heat pumps look a little like an airconditioning unit attached to the outside of your home.

Ground source heat pumps require the heat exchanger coil or loop to be buried either vertically or horizontally, depending on the property space available. For every unit of energy used to run the pump you get three to four units back as heat.

MICRO HYDRO Micro hydro is obviously much more of a niche market. However, there are plenty of old water mills out there just crying out to be brought back into productive life generating electricity.

BIOMASS Most typically for domestic usage, this means a wood-burning stove. Varying types use wood in the form of chips, logs or pellets. They are either stand-alone stoves to provide space heating or can have a back boiler connected to a central heating system. The latter can also provide your domestic hot water. The above systems that produce electricity can either be ‘stand-alone’ or connected to the national grid.

To check out companies dealing in the above technologies and to find out about grants available, have a look at the Low Carbon Buildings Programme at www.lowcarbonbuildings.org.uk or call them on 0800 915 0990. Also, have a look at the Energy Saving Trust at www.est.org.uk or call them on 020 7222 0101. Another great source of information on renewable technology is the Centre for Alternative Energy (CAT, at www.cat.org.uk).

Let’s not forget energy efficiency. Before installing any of the above technologies make sure you are first cutting down on wasted energy with simple measures like fitting loft insulation, double glazing, draft excluders, low energy light bulbs and turning down your room thermostat. An easy one: don’t leave electrical appliances on stand-by.

You could also switch to a green electricity supplier.

Check these out at www.greenelectricity.org It’s time to join the Renewable Technology Revolution.

Don’t wait. Act today!

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DON’T SEND A COW TO AFRICA (OR ASIA OR ANYWHERE ELSE) Rosamund Raha

P ‘Famine is largely caused by Western greed and the poverty and corruption that stem from it.

70% of the crops fed to animals in the factory farms of Europe are grown in the developing world.

If these crops were redirected to feed people, there would be no famine.’

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eople who are concerned about third world hunger often turn to charities such as Send a Cow, Christian Aid or Oxfam to lead the way when it comes to famine relief. However, these charities’ policy of asking people to buy non-human animals (such as cows, goats and chickens) for rural communities to exploit for meat, milk and eggs is seriously misplaced. It’s an instance of fragmented thinking rather than looking at the root causes of famine in Africa and other poor areas.

The politics of food is complex, however, it is fair to say that famine is largely caused by Western greed and the poverty and corruption that stem from it. 70% of the crops fed to animals in the factory farms of Europe are grown in the developing world. If these crops were redirected to feed people, there would be no famine.

Encouraging the developing world to adopt western eating habits will only serve to increase the problem.

POPULAR MISCONCEPTIONS ANSWERED Misconception 1: parts of the world have dry wasteland areas where a little grass can grow but crops will not grow. We can graze cattle in these areas but we cannot grow food crops.

Actually, grazing cattle on scrubland presents a problem.

As the scrub grass is eaten away, the land turns to grassless desert, and then forests are cleared to

increase scrubland areas for grazing. In fact the expansion of agricultural land accounts for more than 60 per cent of worldwide deforestation. Most of this land is used to graze beef cattle. Two World Bank specialists in agriculture concluded: ‘Livestock-induced ranching in rainforests has led to significant loss in plant and animal biodiversity especially in Central America: 320,000-430,000 hectares per year and in South America about 1.1 million hectares per year.’

Misconception 2: eating soya as an alter native to meat, eggs and dairy products involves cutting down trees in Brazil to grow the soya.

This is something that is often said by people who are unaware that most of the soya grown in Brazil and elsewhere is for animal feeds. So it is meat, eggs and dairy-eaters who are destroying the rainforests.

Indeed humans use much less land and water if they eat crops directly rather than through the intermediary of an animal. This is because farmed animals consume much more protein than they produce: most of the protein from their vegetable feeds is used for the animals’ bodily functions and not converted to meat, eggs or milk. More water and land is therefore needed to grow crops for farmed animals to eat, leading to deforestation, water scarcity, soil erosion and increased pesticide use. The average vegan’s ecological footprint is much smaller than the average meat-eater’s!

Misconception 3: why shouldn’t people in the developing world enjoy the meat and milk that we enjoy?

As vegans, we would like all people to stop eating animal products. The West needs to set an example to the rest of the world. If everyone in the world ate a western meat-based diet we

‘Most people in developing countries are slaves to the Western taste for animal products.

They are paid a pittance for their soya and grains which are mostly produced for animal feeds. ’

would need at least another two planets the size of Earth to grow the crops to feed the animals!

earlier, we would need to grow fewer crops so less water is used both to grow the crops and for the animals to drink. This means that more water should be available close by. It is better to provide the water directly than to provide an animal to carry it.

What people in developing countries need is a better deal and a chance to escape western exploitation, not to stay part of it.

Misconception 5: many tribal people are hunters; we cannot deny them their meat-eating cultural heritage.

Actually, very few people in developing countries are hunters.

Most people in developing countries are slaves to the Western taste for animal products.

They are paid a pittance for their soya and grains which are mostly produced for animal feeds. We need to set our own house in order, but making the third world as bad as us really won’t help!

Instead of sending money to Oxfam or Christian Aid, why not send money to Hippo or Vegfam or to organizations such as the Vegan Society which are working for fundamental changes in a Western food culture which exploits the poorer nations?

Misconception 4: as well as providing meat/milk, etc, the animals are also working animals until they are slaughtered: they help villagers to work the land, carry heavy loads, etc; isn’t this better than women having to carry water miles from a well/stream to their village?

If people adopted vegan diets, there would be far more water available because, as stated

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THE PRESIDENT OF SLOVENIA: HUMANITARIAN, ENVIRONMENTALIST AND ADVOCATE OF VEGANISM Roger and Anna Merényi

D

r Janez Drnov s˘ ek, President of the Republic of Slovenia, is – to our knowledge – the only vegan Head of State in the world. He kindly agreed to an interview for the UK Vegan magazine and invited Vegan Society members Roger and Anna Merényi to the Presidential Palace in Ljubljana to share some of his ideas and beliefs.

Dr Drnovs˘ ek is a popular politician and a household name not only in Slovenia but across the country’s borders in Austria, Italy, Hungary and beyond. He was instrumental in leading Slovenia to independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991 and has become an increasingly important voice in the European Union, since Slovenia’s two million citizens became members of the EU in 2004. He was elected President of Slovenia in 2002, having been Prime Minister for over a decade, leading his party to victory at the parliamentary elections in 1992, 1996, and 2000.

A speaker of five languages, Dr Drnovs˘ ek is a frequent guest of honour at conferences around the world and has received a number of international awards.

‘When I have an official lunch or

dinner, only vegan is served and our visitors have to accept it.’

‘I had such a hectic job as Prime Minister that I didn’t pay much attention to what I ate. But my illness made me think about it much more’. Dr Drnovs˘ ek began to embrace alternative medicine and investigated different approaches to health, such as Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine. ‘There came a point, however, when I simply decided to follow my inner voice, my intuition. My feelings told me to abandon meat, fish and dairy products.’

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It was Dr Drnovs˘ ek’s illness which acted as a catalyst for change. However, it would be wrong to see this transition as purely motivated by a desire for better health: the treatment of animals was another motivating factor. The President says that people are nowadays so far removed from the brutality of the slaughterhouse that they fail to see the true picture when they pick up the packaged pieces of meat in the supermarket. ‘They just don’t think how the animal has suffered from being transported, very often without water, and how they have endured terrible conditions.

I am against the killing of animals.’ He smiles wryly, adding: ‘I have already made a lot of adversaries as a result. I think the meat producers have me at the top of their blacklist.’

and vegetarian food

We began our interview by asking Dr Drnovs˘ ek whether his transition to veganism was a gradual or rapid one.

He explained that the process started in 1999, when he had surgery for cancer and felt that a healthier diet would help with his recovery. He gave up red meat and then poultry, but continued to eat fish at first, following advice from his doctors.

He then decided to give up eating fish and to become a vegetarian. Having accustomed himself to a vegetarian diet, he moved on to eliminate dairy and egg products and has now been vegan for over a year. He currently enjoys a varied, and largely raw, diet of fruits and vegetables, supplemented by unleavened bread, which he bakes himself.

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Convinced of its health benefits, the President now recommends the vegan and vegetarian diet to his friends and relatives: ‘It is important to at least give up meat, so that you have better energy in the body.’ He approaches the topic in a gentle, nonjudgemental way but he is determined to preserve these values at the Presidential Palace. ‘When I have an official lunch or dinner, only vegan and vegetarian food is served and our visitors have to accept it. Last week the Prince of Monaco was here on a state visit and we served only vegetarian meals.’ So at state functions Dr Drnovs˘ ek eats vegan food and, for guests, a vegan or vegetarian option is provided.

Even the President’s dog, Brodi, is a vegetarian. ‘He is a happy dog and he eats well. Years ago I would have envied him for the quality of his meals!’ he laughs.

Dr Drnovs˘ ek has spoken out strongly against subsidising mass livestock farming in Europe and argued in the Financial Times last year (5th November 2005) that funding from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy should be used to encourage the growing of organic crops. We asked whether these suggestions were being listened to and acted upon by his counterparts in other European countries and whether he was encouraged by the response so far. ‘Not yet,’ he replied, ‘And it is not enough.

The subsidising of each European cow by two dollars a day continues, and it is the biggest nonsense in the European Union.’

He is hopeful that when the European budget is discussed in 2008, there will be an opportunity for positive change. The President is also aware of the benefits of vegan-organic agricultural practices and told us that there are farms in Slovenia that already use zero animal input methods of crop-growing.

Dr Drnovs˘ ek sees the health and animal cruelty issues as inextricably linked. ‘If you eat meat, then you are consuming negative energy. When the animal is badly treated and slaughtered, it is frightened, it is shocked, it is terrified – all this is bad energy which remains in its body. Then this is consumed when the animal is eaten.’

Meat and dairy consumption, he argues, thus lowers the health, energies and consciousness of human beings. Meateating, hunting, animal experimentation and the general disrespect shown towards our fellow creatures are all seen as impeding awareness.

‘In May of this year the President published a book, Thoughts on Life and Awareness, which became an immediate

This concept of awareness is a crucial one.

For the President, veganism forms part of a wider philosophical framework that covers many other related issues. Earlier this year Dr Drnovs˘ ek founded the ‘Movement for Justice and Development’ with the aim of ‘raising human consciousness and making the world a better place’. He is actively involved in ‘Foundation Together,’ an organisation which is dedicated to helping children, and has supported the rights of refugees, as well as raising money for Tsunami relief and the disaster in Darfur.

A donation of almost 1 million euros to projects in Darfur attracted criticism from some Slovenians, who argued that the money should have gone to supporting the less well-off within Slovenia’s borders and that ‘charity should begin at home.’

Fortunately, Dr Drnovs˘ ek’s worldview is a far broader, generous and compassionate one. In an age of political opportunism, popularism and spin, it is refreshing to find a Head of State who is genuinely unafraid to stand up for his beliefs.

bestseller, beating Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code into

second place in Ljubljana’s

bookshops.’

‘It is clear that humanity cannot develop on the same path now with all of its imbalances.’ We need to reach a critical mass to increase consciousness, to change our value systems and thus change the world.

Dr Drnovs˘ ek maintains that this process has already started and that the level of consciousness is changing. Alternatives to violence and suffering are being offered to humankind and people are gradually becoming more aware. As he himself listened to his inner voice before becoming vegan, so he believes that increasing numbers of people are starting to do the same. ‘It is this inner voice that always knows what is best for you’, allowing us to establish contact with universal consciousness, to more easily challenge the restrictions of outmoded convention and to help move humanity towards a more compassionate and enlightened way of being.

We asked if Dr Drnovs˘ ek had a message for readers of The Vegan: ‘I am glad that there are so many vegans, and a Vegan Society, in the UK. I would just like to encourage them and say that they are on the right path. They should continue.

Don’t listen to those who doubt your decision. This is the most natural, healthy diet that you can have.’

Slovenia has made tremendous strides forward since independence in 1991 and it is clear that its influence in the world goes well beyond its size. Let us hope that the positivity, wisdom and compassion of its President has a similar impact on the planet, for the benefit of people, animals and the environment.

In May of this year the President published a book, Thoughts on Life and Awareness, which became an immediate bestseller, beating Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code into second place in Ljubljana’s bookshops. Dr Drnovs˘ ek is clearly delighted by the response and the willingness of his countrymen and women to listen to his ideas. The book is, he says, ‘a recipe for how to live’, with the emphasis on increasing your energies and raising your consciousness, on being positive, overcoming the ego, helping other people and tackling social and environmental problems. One chapter in the book is, of course, devoted to the human-animal relationship.

Why is it, we wondered, that despite all the information available about the suffering of animals, so few people are willing to change their lifestyle? The President feels that the general level of awareness, of consciousness, is simply not yet high enough. He suggests that we live in a world containing much negative energy, and so we can understand why people struggle to raise themselves up from self-limiting behaviour.

We see violence which only leads to more violence and, he says,

Roger Merényi, Dr Drnovs˘ ek and Anna Merényi at the Presidential Palace, Ljubljana

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NUTRITION BOOKLET Rosamund Raha

We are pleased to announce the launch of our new nutrition booklet. In sixteen pages it gives you all the information you need for a balanced, nutritious vegan diet; it even gives you basic cooking tips.

These booklets are perfect for giving to friends or for giving out on stalls.

To order free copies of the new booklet phone: 01424 448823 or e-mail: info@vegansociety.com

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COMMUNITY CATERING Clare Persey

What or who are the inspirations for your recipes?

N

ot for profit community catering groups provide a much needed service to the vegan community and to other groups that are struggling to make the world a better place.

Clare Persey questions The Anarchist Teapot about their work.

ANARCHIST TEAPOT How long has Anarchist Teapot been around and what was the original motivation that got it started?

The Anarchist Teapot began life as a café opening up in squatted buildings around Brighton. It offered a socialising space, information, free tea and sometimes food too. Whilst running out of steam (and buildings) to continue squatting (after being evicted from 10 buildings in two years!), we found people in the Netherlands who had set themselves up as a mobile kitchen many years earlier, amongst other things to feed direct action, i.e. provide vegan food at gatherings, conferences, action camps and at demonstrations (this Dutch group has now split into two kitchens: Le Sabot and Rampenplan).

We agreed with them that it made sense to have a group set up on a similar basis in the UK, instead of them travelling over here to cook at events.

This was in 1998, and it felt like a good thing to do at the time; we thought that growing movements such as ecological direct action, animal rights and the beginnings of what is now called the anti-capitalist or anti-globalisation movement needed such infrastructure, and we quite fancied the large stainless steel pans they could provide us with too… So after a short mass cooking apprenticeship, we borrowed some money, got some equipment and cooked!

Since then we’ve cooked for hungry people as varied as home-educated kids, striking bin workers and the masses protesting against the G8 summit in Scotland...

We are all volunteers, and the aim is not to get wages or make profits but to do it because we enjoy cooking and love food, because we want to support and build movements we feel close to politically, and because we can!

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‘Cooking on a larger scale is more efficient and less wasteful than everyone cooking for themselves.

10 people can easily make dinner for 300, using less packaging, energy, and other resources!’

On the other hand, since it’s all done in our free time, we can’t always cook at everything we’d want to and need to limit what we do.

What feedback do you get about your food?

We’ve had a lot of good feedback over the years. Especially when people are camping, they seem to be really appreciative of properly cooked, healthy meals. Then again, if someone wanted to complain, they might not dare! We make an effort to serve food that’s flavoursome and filling, and the meat and dairy doesn’t seem to be missed. Though sometimes we notice people desperately looking for cow’s milk for their hot drinks.

We are a group of people with different tastes and preferences so we inspire each other! New cooks getting involved always bring new ideas. We look for recipes and meals that are not too fiddly, are simple but tasty, and involve ingredients that are affordable, and are easy to prepare. We also like to use seasonal, local ingredients.

We have some staple meals we know work well, though they always turn out slightly different depending on which cook is making it. We’ll experiment with other dishes which either don’t work out, or get taken into our repertoire and evolve over time to ‘the way we make it’.

What is your connection with the Cowley Club?

Most of us are also in some way or other involved with the Cowley Club, a volunteer run social centre in Brighton that hosts a vegan café and bookshop during the day, bar in the evening and other resources (www.cowleyclub.org.uk).

We almost all cook in the café at least occasionally. It’s a great place to try out recipes in ranges of 20-40 portions to then see if they would work for 100-300!

What plans have you got cooking in the pot for future Anarchist Teapot ventures?

One thing a couple of us are working on is a cookbook that will include not only a whole host of vegan recipes, but also articles on food production, growing your own, home-brewing, wild foods, and generally improving the way you eat and the relationship you can have with your food, without restricting yourself or making it take over your whole life either!

It will be published by Active distribution (www.activedistribution.org) sometime in the future. We’ll probably be cooking at some local events over the winter, then next summer we may go to the G8 summit in Germany and cook there, which should be exciting!

We’ll see where things take us…

If someone wanted to start up a catering venture like yours, what tips would you give them?

We aren’t in it to make money, and that’s probably one reason why it works, allowing us to cook for cost price at events we want to support.

We don’t want to have to charge a lot and end up as more of a luxury than a provider of one of the necessities of life. I can’t imagine it’s easy to run a profitable business doing catering unless you’re willing to really compromise on quality, or to only cater for the relatively wealthy. You need a good group of people who get along well, and who really want to cook for people and can be vaguely organised about it.

Good equipment helps too.

REVIEW Dandelion and Burdock Vegan Café, 16 Town Hall Street, Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire. Tel: 01422 316000.

By Lucia Lucchessi We enjoyed a wonderful meal at Dandelion and Burdock. We were warmly welcomed by David Wilson and his professional team. The ambience, décor and background music complemented the medley of food which surpassed all expectations. Situated at the west edge of the Yorkshire Dales, Sowerby Bridge has clearly become a popular location to live and eat out in. With more restaurants per square foot than Hollywood Boulevard, David described how he was determined to create something different to interest everyone.

A stunning 75% of his regular customers are non-vegetarian, which speaks volumes about the standard and flavours he creates. Much of his inspiration comes from California, something of a gastronomic capital for healthy food.

His work there led him to believe that there is a huge appetite for food free from any animal ingredients yet exciting, well balanced and totally edible for all.

A different menu is designed by David every month and can be viewed on their website. I started my August meal with a fine Belgian beer from the impressive list of fine wines and beers. This set me up nicely for the freshly made tasty tomato and basil soup accompanied by a sensational strawberry vinaigrette salad. My partner kicked off with ‘Kicking Kola’ and a deliciously light Creole salad. He described his main course (Biryani) as ‘the best ever.’

Praise indeed from one of the world’s fussiest vegan bunnies. He was, like me, impressed with the stylish way the food was presented.

The Wilson passion for stylish, healthy cooking is reflected in the language of the menu, for example, zucchini sounds so much more sexy than courgette. The American influence is clear with no aubergine, just baby eggplant served with a slender spinach tart for my main course, which was immersed in a bold bed of mixed leaf salad and more of that superb strawberry vinaigrette. The only carbs in my meal were in the light pastry base, so I felt no guilt at ordering the melt-in-the-mouth strawberry shortcake served with a subtle vanilla ice cream for dessert. Knickerbocker glory provided the pièce de résistance for my darling bunny whose cup was literally running over (with chocolate sauce, kiwi and a host of other fresh fruits) as we finished what had been a wonderful end to a short break holiday in England.

We’ve produced a publication ‘Feeding The Masses’ which is part how to cook for large numbers of people the way we do, and part recipes and cooking tips. It’s available for £1.50 including postage from the address below, and it is also going to be added to our website as a pdf.

The restaurant overlooks the point where the two rivers which run through Sowerby Bridge meet providing added entertainment for diners. The sight of the wild geese and puddle ducks feasting on offerings from local children was, like the whole experience, refreshing to the senses.

Full marks to David. It would be so fantastic if Dandelion & Burdock became a well-known brand throughout the country.

Anything else you would like to add?

Cooking on a larger scale is more efficient and less wasteful than everyone cooking for themselves. 10 people can easily make dinner for 300, using less packaging, energy, and other resources!

You can contact us at PO Box 74, Brighton BN1 4ZQ,

Autumn review was: Eat and Two Veg, 50 Marylebone High St, London, W1U 5HN. Tel: 0207 258 8595

website: www.eco-action.org/teapot

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RECIPES Helen Edwards

CHESTNUT AND PORCINI MUSHROOM PATE Serves 8-10 A rich warm pâté ideal as a starter or for Christmas buffets. Alternatively, wrap the mixture in puff pastry and bake en croute. Delicious hot or cold.

50g Dried porcini mushrooms 2 medium White onion 2 cloves Garlic 1 tbsp Olive oil 1 tin (435g) Chestnut purée (unsweetened) A generous sprinkle Black pepper Vegetable oil (for greasing) Place in a dish and just cover with hot water. Leave to stand for 10-15 minutes. Rinse well to remove any sand and dirt. Drain the mushrooms. Reserve a few for decoration, and coarsely chop the rest.

Finely chop the onion and the garlic, by hand, or in a food processor.

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion & garlic and fry gently until coloured.

SAUSAGE ROLLS Makes 24 large, 36 medium or 48 small

Place the chestnut purée in a large bowl and mash to soften and break up any lumps.

Add the pepper to the bowl along with the cooked onion and garlic. Mix well. Add the chopped mushrooms and fold them into the mixture.

Place the mixture in a lightly oiled 600ml (1 pint) dish.

Arrange the reserved mushroom pieces on the top of the pâté for decoration. Bake at 180˚C for approximately 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

These generously filled ‘sausage’ rolls are delicious hot, fresh from the oven, or chilled. They can be made well in advance and frozen, then defrosted and cooked when needed.

4 medium Carrots 1 large head Broccoli 240g Kidney beans, tinned 200g Firm silken tofu 3 tbsp Sunflower seeds 3 tbsp Pumpkin seeds 50g Pecans, roughly chopped 1 tbsp Fresh chopped parsley

2 tsp Mixed dried herbs 1 large White onion 4 cloves Garlic 1 dstsp Olive oil 1 mediumPortabello mushroom, diced 2 x 500g Puff pastry Vegetable oil (for greasing) Soya milk (for glazing)

Peel and slice the carrots.

Wash the broccoli and chop into small florets, cutting a cross in the end of any larger stalks to aid cooking. Place in a saucepan of boiling water with the carrots and cook until very tender. Drain well. Mash roughly in a large bowl.

Rinse, drain and add to the mashed vegetables. Partly mash the beans.

Add to bowl and mash coarsely.

Finely chop the seeds in a food processor and add to the mashed vegetables, along with the nuts and herbs. Mix well with a spoon.

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Finely chop the onion and the garlic, by hand, or in a food processor.

Heat the oil gently in a frying pan. Add the onions and garlic to the pan and cook gently for 3 minutes.

Add the mushroom to the frying pan and continue cooking for a further 3 minutes. Add the mixture to the bowl, and stir well, to create the filling for the sausage rolls.

Wet one of the long edges of each of the strips with a little water. Then, for each strip, roll the pastry up from the opposite side, over the filling and onto the moistened edge, to make a long roll. Press the pastry edges together lightly to make a seal. Cut each roll into 4, 6 or 8 sausage rolls, depending on the size you prefer.

Roll out the second portion of puff pastry and repeat.

Roll the first 500g portion of puff pastry out into a square approximately 36cm x 36cm. Use a sharp knife to cut the sheet into 3 equal strips. Place one sixth of the filling in a sausage shape centrally all the way down each of the strips.

MANDARIN TRIFLE Serves 6-8 A vegan version of a classic English trifle.

This creamy dessert slips down so easily‌ 150g Vegan sponge cake 150g Mandarin segments, fresh or tinned and drained For the jelly: 100ml Water 2g (2tbsp)Agar flakes 400ml Fruit juice (e.g. raspberry) 1tbsp Sugar For the topping: 1 tbsp Sugar, granulated 3 tbsp Cornflour 500ml Soya milk 1 ⠄2 Lemon 25g Vegan margarine For the custard: 2tbsp Sugar, granulated 4tbsp Custard powder 500ml Soya milk 1 tbsp Vegan chocolate, grated Cut the sponge cake into 1-2cm cubes and place in a layer at the bottom of a large decorative bowl.

Reserve a few mandarin segments for decorating the top of the trifle, if desired.

Place the remainder of the mandarin segments in a layer on top of the sponge.

Place the agar flakes in the water and stand for a few minutes. Heat to boiling, and then stir to help the agar dissolve.

When the agar has substantially dissolved (it may not completely dissolve) start adding the fruit juice, a little at a time. Allow the mixture to warm up in-between each addition, stirring well. Add sugar (if desired) and stir to dissolve. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. To see if the jelly is ready to set, remove a few drops of liquid and

Place the rolls on a lightly oiled baking sheet and brush the tops of the rolls with soya milk. Bake at 220ËšC for about 15 minutes, until golden.

place on a cold dish. If the removed liquid does not set, simmer a little longer, and repeat the test until it does set.

When ready, remove the jelly from the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Carefully spoon the hot fruit juice mixture onto the sponge and mandarin layers.

Leave to cool, until the jelly has set.

Mix the sugar and cornflour in a jug.

Place approximately 1tbsp of the milk into the jug with the sugar and cornflour, and mix to form a smooth paste.

Place the remainder of the milk in a saucepan.

Peel the rind from the lemon half and add to the milk in the saucepan. Heat the milk gently in the saucepan, until just below the boil.

Slowly pour the hot milk through a sieve (to remove the lemon rind) into the jug containing the cornflour/sugar paste. Stir the contents of the jug well as you add the milk, to ensure it mixes smoothly with the paste.

Discard the lemon rind.

Return the milk mixture to the saucepan, and continue to heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat.

Place approximately 1tbsp of the milk into the jug with the sugar and custard powder, and mix to form a smooth paste.

Place the remainder of the milk in a saucepan. Heat the milk gently in the saucepan, until just below the boil.

Slowly pour the hot milk, a little at a time, into the jug containing the custard powder/sugar paste. Stir the contents of the jug well as you add the milk, to ensure it mixes smoothly with the paste.

Return the milk mixture to the saucepan, and continue to heat, stirring constantly, until the custard thickens.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 2 minutes, then slowly pour the custard onto the set jelly made previously.

Cover, and chill in the fridge until firm.

Once the custard is set, remove the topping from the fridge and mix the topping well with a fork or spoon until smooth. Gently pour the topping onto the set custard layer made previously.

Cover, and chill in the fridge until firm (at least half an hour).

Decorate with the reserved mandarin segments and grated chocolate, if desired.

Add the margarine to the pan, stirring until melted and well mixed.

Pour the topping into a clean jug or bowl. Cover the surface of the topping directly with a piece of baking parchment or plastic film to prevent a skin forming. Leave in the fridge to cool.

Place the sugar and the custard powder in a jug and mix.

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ALTERNATIVE MEDICINES AND COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES:

THE COMPASSIONATE CHOICE?

By Carol Newman, Science Officer of the Dr Hadwen Trust

A

lternative medicines and complementary therapies, such as acupuncture, homoeopathy and herbalism, developed over centuries of human use, are now being tested in animals.

Increasing numbers of us now seek to pursue an ethical, cruelty-free lifestyle. For many, this choice involves avoiding the use of modern orthodox medicines when possible, in favour of the more natural and gentle approach of alternative therapies to treat illness and maintain health. As a result, complementary and alternative medicines are flourishing.

While modern drugs are routinely developed and tested in animals, most alternative therapies have been developed over centuries of traditional use in humans. It is therefore shocking that many of these alternative therapies are now undergoing investigation and testing in animal experiments.

Published scientific research reveals experiments conducted on living animals to study the effect of acupuncture, Chinese herbs, essential oils, green tea, aloe vera, ginseng, ginkgo biloba, Ayurvedic compounds and homoeopathic remedies.

The research papers do not make pleasant reading. For example, acupuncture has been tested on cats given experimental heart attacks, dogs with electrodes implanted in their stomachs, and rats subjected to convulsions or chronic pain. Ginkgo biloba has been studied on ear damage in guinea pigs, brain-damaged rats, and rabbits with purposely-damaged eyes, while the healing effects of aloe vera have been investigated on full-skin thickness wounds in pigs.

Unethical, Unnecessary and Unsound Animal experiments are more likely to cloud our understanding of alternative therapies than to clarify it.

Animals can react very differently from us, and experiments using caged laboratory animals suffering from artificially induced illnesses cannot fully replicate the human situation.

Denied a Choice Despite the widespread use of these therapies by people worldwide, it seems some scientists are intent on ‘proving’ their effectiveness in animal tests. Such experiments inflict needless suffering on animals and effectively remove our choice to use complementary and alternative medicines that are free of animal cruelty. This is a serious betrayal of both patients and animals.

An important element of many alternative therapies is the emphasis put on a holistic approach. Treatment is often tailored to the individual, with the underlying causes of ill health identified and removed rather than merely suppressing symptoms. This aspect is wholly ignored by animal experiments, in which induced symptoms are modelled in an animal, with little regard for the complex underlying causes of the human illness or the lifestyle factors that invariably contribute to the condition.

Ginkgo biloba has been studied on ear damage in guinea pigs.

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Many people who use and practise alternative therapies have no wish to see them tested on animals. Animal experiments are needless when safe and ethical assessment of alternative therapies could be made by studying the many thousands of people who regularly use them, or by using advanced non-animal methods.

These techniques are allowing scientists to safely and noninvasively observe the effects of therapies such as acupuncture on the brains of volunteers. The effects of herbal supplements, including ginseng and ginkgo biloba, on brain activity, concentration and memory have been studied in healthy volunteers.

Epidemiology (the study of health in populations) can identify lifestyle and diet factors that affect health. For example, lower rates of cancer have been recorded in populations that drink green tea. In addition, laboratory studies show that green tea prevents the growth of human cancer cells in culture, suggesting it can play a role in fighting cancer.

Humane Research without Animal Experiments The Dr Hadwen Trust is a registered charity that funds the development of replacements to animal experiments.

The Trust has 36 years’ experience of promoting advanced non-animal research methods such as cell cultures, computer simulations, chemical and molecular analysis, test-tube techniques, and human studies to replace animal experiments (www.drhadwentrust.org.uk).

‘For the sake of good medicine, safety and our right to choose ethical options, animal tests

Real and positive progress is being made that doesn’t involve animal experiments. Non-animal research methods, together with long-standing evidence of human safety and effectiveness for many alternative therapies, provide a far more positive approach. For the sake of good medicine, safety and our right to choose ethical options, animal tests must be opposed. Readers who belong to or support an alternative healthcare association or professional body, can help by urging them to take a stand against animal suffering, preferably by adopting a formal policy statement opposing animal experiments.

Ways You Can Help Contact the Dr Hadwen Trust for a free information pack about their work to develop non-animal research methods.

They also offer a mail order catalogue packed with cruelty-free gifts. Call 01462 436819 or email info@drhadwentrust.org.uk.

The Dr Hadwen Trust, 84A Tilehouse Street, Hitchin, Herts, SG5 2DY. www.drhadwentrust.org.uk Contact your MP and let them know of your support for nonanimal research. Urge them to bring an immediate end to animal testing for alternative medicines. You can email your MP at www.locata.co.uk/commons/ or write to them at House of Commons, Westminster, London, SW1A 0AA or call 020 7219 4272.

must be opposed.’

Non-animal methods can be used to study a range of alternative therapies and investigate their effectiveness, without resorting to animal experiments. For example, the effects of herbs and essential oils can be studied on human cells and tissues cultured in laboratory flasks. Human liver cells are increasingly used to screen compounds for any potentially harmful effects.

Sophisticated brain scanners such as PET (positron emission tomography) and fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) have opened a ‘window’ into the human brain.

Ladybirds for Life breast cancer lapels The small ladybird that’s making a BIG difference Show your support for non-animal research by wearing one of the Dr Hadwen Trust’s Ladybirds for Life breast cancer lapels. Sold in aid of the Trust’s breast cancer research project at London’s St Bart’s Hospital, these humble lapels are helping to raise vital funds to study breast cancer and develop new methods for assessing therapies, all without using animals. The lapels are just £2.49, p&p free. To order yours call 01462 436819 or visit the Dr Hadwen Trust’s fund-raising webshop at www.crueltyfreeshop.com

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NUTRITION NEWS PLANT FOODS AND BONE HEALTH Stephen Walsh

OVERVIEW

CALCIUM

A

lthough the mantra of ‘calcium, calcium, calcium’ as a panacea for bone health is flatly contradicted by the evidence, the media and some health professionals continue to foster an excessive focus on calcium which distracts from other equally important factors for bone health. This does not mean that calcium does not play an important role in bone health. The reality is that low calcium intakes (below 500 mg per day) almost certainly increase the risk of poor bone health but that much higher intakes have only a limited protective effect and are far from a panacea.

While there are plenty of good sources of calcium available to vegans, dietary surveys such as the EPIC Oxford study suggest that many vegans consume much less than the UK recommendations. This can easily be avoided by consuming 500 mg per day of calcium from calcium rich foods such as kale and spring greens (150 mg/100 g), broccoli, cabbage and oranges (about 50 mg/100 g), tofu (varies with brand but often 300 mg/100 g) and fortified plant milks (usually 120 mg/100 ml). Together with the smaller amounts of calcium present in many other foods this will give a good total intake of calcium.

The US Nurses’ Health Study has played an important role in laying myths to rest. By using repeated surveys of the participants’ diets it has built up a particularly good picture of the associations between diet and health. The recent updates from this study have shown that:

PROTEIN

n dairy products have little or no apparent effect on fracture risk; n higher intakes of vitamin D and vitamin K may give significant protection; n high intake of pre-formed vitamin A (retinol) appears harmful.

As these results show, bone health is influenced by many factors. A good level of physical activity and avoiding being underweight are important. In terms of diet, adequate protein and plenty of potassium, vitamin D and vitamin K appear each to be as important as getting an adequate amount of calcium.

FRUIT AND VEGETABLES Dietary patterns rich in fruit and vegetables are more consistently associated with good bone health than dietary patterns rich in dairy products.

Some studies have focussed on vitamin K, which is found in large amounts in green leafy vegetables and broccoli and in some fermented soy products. In the Nurses’ Health Study, people eating one or more servings of lettuce a day showed about half the risk of fracture of those who ate no more than one serving a week.

However, the benefit of fruits and vegetables does not seem to be limited just to green leafy vegetables. All fruits and vegetables along with beans and lentils are good sources of potassium and have an alkalising effect in the body, reducing losses of calcium.

Studies have indicated potassium intake, alkali intake and fruit and vegetable intake to be linked with lower risk of fracture, higher bone density and reduced bone turnover. All these findings support a beneficial effect of fruits and vegetables on bone health.

A recent editorial by Susan Lanham-New in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2006; 83: 1420-1428) highlights the need for further research and notes that ‘a “fruit and vegetables” approach may provide a very sensible (and natural) alternative therapy for osteoporosis treatment, one that is likely to have numerous additional health-related benefits.’

One hypothesis about bone health that has not stood the test of time is the idea that low protein diets are best for bone health. Protein has an acidifying effect in the body and increases losses of calcium but protein is also a key ingredient of bone and adequate protein is important for growth and repair.

For both bone health and general health, it is desirable to at least meet the World Health Organisation recommendations for protein intake (about 0.75 g of protein per kg of body weight). Diets based mainly on rice or fruit or containing large amounts of extracted oils and sugars can be low in protein by this standard but a normal varied vegan diet will comfortably meet the recommendations. If calorie intake is reduced due to either age, inactivity or dieting it can be particularly useful to include some soya products or other legumes to boost protein intake. Eating plenty of fruits, vegetables and legumes provides alkali to neutralise the acidifying effect of protein.

VITAMIN D Vitamin D is naturally obtained from the action of sun on our skin, but the sun needs to be well above the horizon for this to happen. In the UK we rely on stores built up in summer and early autumn to meet our needs from late October through to early March. Getting out around mid-day in September and October helps boost stores but vitamin D from fortified foods or supplements may be useful during the winter.

CONCLUSION A varied vegan diet following some simple guidelines provides a sound basis for healthy bones and general good health.

For further information on good health from plant foods, see Plant Based Nutrition and Health, available from the Vegan Society.

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GROW VEGAN Christine Mackay

WHY NOT TRY AN ALLOTMENT?

W

inter is not a bad time to rent an allotment, you can take your time to survey the site and see what needs doing; Christine offers encouragement and sound advice.

It is five years since I first took up my allotment. As is often the case in life, everything there is to know about ‘growing your own’ the vegan-organic way cannot be learned in one season. If I had had an inkling of just how much there is to learn (and often the hard way at that), I would probably have thought twice about taking on a full-sized plot and opted instead for a half plot.

Down at the allotments, my title of veganorganic gardener has brought with it some notoriety, which is another reason why I have never quit, in spite of being very close to it sometimes. I have been encouraged by kind comments from neighbours about how diverse my allotment looks and how it has inspired new plot-holders. Unlike many other meticulously managed plots, my allotment has a rather untamed and slightly chaotic look about it. However, on closer inspection, there is a certain amount of order to be found. For instance, the brassica, roots and leaf crops are more or less grouped according to rotation and there are wildlife corridors to ensure the safe passage of frogs, etc.

Encouraging the Wild!

Other plotholders have followed my example in recent years by installing small ponds and I have also noticed that many of the newer growers are combining flower and vegetable growing to attract beneficial insects such as hoverflies.

Grow Vegan Puzzler What beneficial insect will flowers attract?

Send your answers on a postcard to: The Vegan Society (address details on page 1) by 4th December 2006. The winner will receive a bag of Funk Bubble goodies.

Answer to Autumn Grow Vegan Puzzler: the inclusion of wildlife features will normally increase biodiversity.

Winner: Brit Turner from Horsham.

These are encouraging signs because they demonstrate a general empathy towards nature rather than a competitive and annihilative approach which leads to sterile plots with rows of showy dahlias along their perimeters.

Each year I add more and more plant species that will benefit both wildlife and my crops.

Top on my list of insect-attracting plants are oregano, marjoram and borage. These all readily self-seed and I only ever remove them if I absolutely have to, usually to transplant them. Together with other annual selfseeders such as candytuft, feverfew, calendula, poached egg plant (which flowers early) and forget-me-not, the soil is kept well covered and ‘weeds’ suppressed (with a few notable exceptions such as thistles and couch grass).

Successes Balance the Losses After several years of trial and error I feel I have arrived at a manageable system that enables me to keep a large plot reasonably productive without being in frequent attendance (apart from watering in the seven-week hot dry spell this summer!)

Using a combination of minimal dig, mulching (usually with seaweed, cardboard, leaf mould and compost) and keeping the ground covered with a wide range of plants in the summer, both I and the critters are kept happy.

For the first time I have grown soya beans and they have done very well (apart from some rabbit predation). One plant in the glasshouse grew to over 3 feet and set a fine crop. The prolonged dry weather resulted in small onions and a very poor crop of self-seeded potatoes. The runner beans

and broad beans also struggled with the drought and required frequent watering to encourage fruit set. Every season is different and what stresses one crop is often good for another so you never lose out overall.

I have converted the leaves of dozens of basil plants into jar loads of pesto. A packet of Thai basil that was two years out of date germinated very well. I also had a fantastic volume of raspberries and enjoyed a good crop of French beans, chard, spinach, mixed leaf salads, turnip, beetroot, cabbage, sweet peppers, chillies, blackberries and apples. This year many of my tomatoes have split. I kept them well watered but I think it got too hot in the glasshouse and they really needed watering twice a day.

Each year I apply a bit more knowledge and each year my allotment becomes more diverse and productive, with vegan-organic principles continuing to provide a constant source of inspiration. The start of a new growing season is such an exciting time and there are so many new crops to experiment with – including produce you will never see in any supermarket!

Joining VON is the best move for the veganorganic gardener. Remember there is a world of difference between vegan-organic (stockfree) and conventional organic – join VON and help to get real vegan-grown food into the shops.

Write to: VON, 80 Annable Rd, Lower Bredbury, Stockport SK6 2DF or email info@veganorganic.net VON Membership & general enquiries to 0845 223 5232 (local rate) Registered charity 1080847 Visit the VON website and join online at www.veganorganic.net

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INTERVIEW WITH TOM REGAN Rosamund Raha

T

om Regan is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at North Carolina State University. He is also an uncompromising ‘Animal Rights Advocate’ (ARA). In his latest book Empty Cages – Facing the Challenge of Animal Rights he argues that human beings should not enslave non-human animals and use them as means to their ends. Rosamund Raha puts some questions to him.

In Empty Cages you refer to ‘Da Vincians,’ ‘Damascans’ and ‘Muddlers’; what do you mean by these terms?

These names refer to three different ways people can acquire what I call animal consciousness. Da Vincians follow the model of Leonardo Da Vinci who, from a very early age, would not hurt animals and sought to protect them. Nobody had to convince him to be this way. He did not need a rational proof before he adopted his compassionate way of being in the world. It’s just the way he was, as a matter of his individual nature.

Something in the genes, so to speak.

Many ARAs are like this, which is why I call them Da Vincians.

Damascans differ. They don’t have the natural empathy we find in Da Vincians. But neither are they wanting some proof, some rational argument before they enlarge their animal consciousness. No, their life is changed radically, dramatically because of something they experience, the way things changed for Saul, in the Biblical story, as he travelled on the road to Damascus. According to the Biblical story, Jesus spoke to Saul ‘from the heavens,’ directly to him in a quite dramatic fashion. It was on the basis of this single, life-transforming experience that Saul, one of the main detractors of Jesus, became Paul, Jesus’s most influential disciple.

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Some ARAs undergo a similar transformation, which is why I call them Damascans.

They see something. They read something.

They hear something. And there, on the spot, in the blink of an eye, they are born into animal rights advocacy. A dramatic event in their life changes the direction of their life forever.

‘The story we need to get out is that these industries not only are abusing animals, they are abusing the trust (and insulting the intelligence) of their customers.’

Then there are those I call Muddlers.

Unlike Da Vincians, Muddlers are not born with natural sympathy for animals.

And unlike Damascans, there is no single event in their life that changes who they are, changes why they live. Instead, Muddlers - well, they just muddle along, asking one question, then another; learning this, then that; asking for reasons for why they should change; needing to be convinced. Change is a drawn-out process for them, a journey. But if they keep at it, a day dawns when they look in a mirror and, much to their surprise,

they see an Animal Rights Advocate looking back at them.

That’s certainly what happened in my life. Nothing in the genes. No Road to Damascus conversion experience. Just a long slog to animal rights advocacy.

In your essay Animal Rights and the Myth of ‘Humane’ Treatment, you say that most people believe that non-human animals are treated well on farms and in laboratories. Why do you say this?

Most people believe this because this is what they are told by the multi-billion dollar animal-abusing industries. And by the government, whose inspectors basically serve as arms of the industries themselves. Read any mainstream magazine. Peruse any newspaper.

Watch any television station. The story is everywhere the same. Animals are treated really well by really caring people. When Joe and Jane Consumer hear the same message, over and over again, it’s natural that they would accept it as true, especially if those of us who challenge the message are pictured as extremist wackos. The major animal-abusing industries are very skilful at blunting our message by attacking the messengers.

How do you think people should respond to this betrayal of trust?

The first challenge is to help people see that their trust is being abused, which will take time and patience. In my own view, one of the best ways to do this is to let industry spokespersons speak for themselves. For example, we have quotes from the hog industry or the veal industry saying how ‘humanely’ they treat their animals. And next to what they say we show pictures of how these animals are being treated.

The sub-text is, ‘These spokespersons think you (consumers) are so stupid, so uncaring that they can say “Black is white” and you’ll go along with them.’

The story we need to get out is that these industries not only are abusing animals, they are abusing the trust (and insulting the intelligence) of their customers. Once we have raised consumer consciousness to this level, but not before, we have an opportunity to channel consumer anger and outrage into a positive force for the animals.

‘Yes, a vegan world is possible. Why do I believe this? All I need to do is look in the mirror and

In the autumn The Vegan magazine, Peter Singer said that he could ‘imagine a world in which people mostly eat plant foods, but occasionally treat themselves to the luxury of free-range eggs, or possibly even meat from animals who live good lives under conditions natural for their species, and are then humanely killed on the farm.’ How would you feel about that kind of world?

see a vegan looking

I can imagine such a world but, in my judgment, it certainly is not the one Animal Rights Advocates should be working to realize. Think about what ‘humanely’ means. It means to do something with compassion, kindness, and mercy. Are any animals ever killed in this fashion? Yes, I think so.

Consider those animals who are dying and who suffer greatly; there is nothing we can do to help make their life any better. In circumstances like these, I think the humane thing to do is to end their life, on grounds of compassion, kindness, and mercy.

‘meat’ of every cut

However, this is far, far different from taking the life of a healthy animal, in the prime of life. What kindness, what compassion, what mercy do we show to these animals by slitting their throat? In my honest opinion, people who endorse a view like the one proposed by Singer are too interested in preserving French haute cuisine and too little interested in working for a world that truly reflects respect for animal rights.

As the natural habitats of some species have been mostly destroyed,

forms of predation. Not circuses, for heaven’s sake. And not safe havens open to hunters. It will take vast sums of money, expansive natural habitat, and fierce enforcement of tough laws.

For an example, consider the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (USA). I think the founder, Carol Buckley, and her staff are living proof of what can be done to save imperilled animals without compromising the animals’ dignity in the process.

back at me.

People need to understand.

Not only did I eat and description as I was growing-up, I worked as a butcher to help pay for my college expenses.’

Peter Singer suggested that animals such as chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas and orang-utans may need to live under human control and protection. Do you consider this necessary?

I believe we may be fast approaching a time when the best home for these and other wild animals might be in sanctuaries or wildlife preserves that protect them from human and other

Yes, and of course in a vegan world there would be so much more land available to rebuild wildlife habitats because eating lower down the food chain uses much less land and water than eating crops through the intermediary of an animal. Do you believe that a vegan world will ever be possible?

Yes, a vegan world is possible. Why do I believe this? All I need to do is look in the mirror and see a vegan looking back at me. People need to understand.

Not only did I eat ‘meat’ of every cut and description as I was growing-up, I worked as a butcher to help pay for my college expenses. During those years, I had eyes but did not see, I had ears but did not hear.

So if I, Tom Regan, can evolve into a vegan, anyone can do the same. We who have arrived at this destination must never lose hope that others will join us. We are all imperfect creatures in an imperfect world. The last thing we should do is provide people with another reason for ignoring animals.

Which is why, in my view at least, we must open our arms to others, not drive them away from growing more compassionate because of what we say or how we say it. The means we use create the ends we achieve. Our hate can only create more hate. But our love for others, even those with whom we most disagree . . . well, in the long run, that is the only solution, when you stop and think about it.

Thank you very much for giving such an uplifting interview, your positive comments give us all hope!

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?

I have been a vegetarian for many years and would like to become vegan. However, I have tried soya milk, but can’t stand the taste. Are there any welfare benefits to drinking organic cow’s milk or goat’s milk?

Unfortunately organic cows and goats are still exposed to many of the cruel practices of nonorganic production: continual pregnancies, selective breeding for high milk yield, offspring removed at birth, early slaughter and a link to the veal industry.

Here are a few tips on adjusting to non-dairy milk: Try different brands of soya milk; they all vary in taste so it is worth trying a few to see if you like any.

Try flavoured soya milk at first as the taste of the soya is less prevalent, or get used to using it in cooking.

Try other milks like oat milk, almond milk or rice milk. Oat milk is nice in hot drinks. Rice milk is a bit too thin for hot drinks but tastes good on cereal. Almond milk has a slight sweetness which makes it nice to drink on its own.

It takes a few weeks to get used to the taste of plant milks but in time, most vegans come to prefer them.

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YOUR QUESTIONS

ANSWERED I want to feed my cat Vegecat or one of the dried vegetarian cat foods but I am worried, because I have read that cats are pure carnivores. Can you advise?

Vegecat (which is vegan) and the dried vegetarian cat foods such as Ami Cat and Benevo Cat contain taurine and other vitamins to prevent deficiencies which might otherwise arise. Vegecat is a food supplement which you add to vegan cat food recipes (recipes supplied with the supplement) and Ami cat and Benevo cat are dried cat foods.

Some cats (especially if caught young) get on well with Vegecat while others prefer the dried vegetarian cat foods. However, some cats become addicted to supermarket cat foods and find it hard to make the change.

Consequently some vegan cat owners feed their cats a mixture of different foods including small amounts of meat or fish while others stick purely to vegetarian or vegan cat food. Obviously, you don’t want to end up in a battle of wills with your cat or for your cat to leave home and look elsewhere for their food; in the end each individual has to use their judgement in this matter. Because of these difficulties, some vegans decide that it is best not to have a feline companion at all.

I am very active and I like to play sports; a friend has told me that I won’t get enough protein if I go vegan. Is this true?

You don’t have to eat animal products to get enough protein, in fact your best source of energy is from complex carbohydrates and food which contains both protein and complex carbohydrates. Nuts, seeds, oats, wheat, quinoa, rice, lentils, beans (especially soya beans) are all proteinrich. If you are doing a lot of sport, eat three moderate meals a day which contain plant protein and three carbohydraterich snacks (bananas are an excellent source). This will help you to keep your energy levels up.

After all Carl Lewis won nine gold medals while he was a vegan!

Reviews Capers In The Churchyard – Animal Rights Advocacy In The Age Of Terror

by Lee Hall Nectar Bat Press ISBN 0-9769159-1-X US Price $14.95 Reviewed by Colm McBriarty Taking its title from the events in Staffordshire in 2004, when the remains of Gladys Hammond were allegedly taken by animal rights activists, Lee Hall presents this challenging analysis of animal rights campaigning to encourage the movement to completely reevaluate itself.

Hall, the Legal Director of the US-based Friends of Animals, analyses the methods used by “extremists”, global animal charities and animal rescuers.

Her conclusions are unequivocal and controversial: animal rights “militancy” fills jails, allows the enemies of the movement to focus on the very worst aspects of it and encourages even more draconian responses from the state; likewise, the attempts made by the more mainstream animal welfare groups at improving the lot of commercial and abused animals are misguided and fail to address the wider picture.

Within a framework that embraces environmentalism and feminism, successful advocacy for Hall involves a complete rejection of “the culture of dominion”, and food is the central focus: “Educating about a vegan life engages the animal-rights question at its fundamental level”. A provocative and very well-written book.

Field Guide to Edible Mushrooms of Britain and Europe

by Peter Jordon New Holland Publishers ISBN: 1-84537-419-3 £14.99 hard back Reviewed by Erica Wilson If you are horrified by the thought that your mushrooms are probably grown in poultry manure then make room in your rucksack for this book.

Written by Peter Jordan, the UK’s leading foraging expert with 60 years’ experience, it is the best field guide to mushrooms I have seen. It contains 200 large, clear and colourful photos of over 70 edible varieties, and details how to cook or store them.

There are some incredible specimens: the Amethyst Deceiver is a beautiful purple, and the Cauliflower Fungus is apparently excellent!

A clearly separated section on poisonous fungi is included to prevent confusion. I can’t wait to get out in the autumn and use this book – no more tasteless button mushrooms for me!

Vegan Animal Rights

By David Horton ISBN 0-9585769-4-7 Price: $10 Australian dollars or equivalent which includes postage to Australian and overseas addresses.

Reviewed by Clare Persey This book is easy to dip in and out of with seventy short articles on vegan animal rights. The author suggests that veganism and animal rights are linked: you can’t advocate animal rights unless you are a vegan and you aren’t an ethical vegan without supporting animal rights.

Through the various articles the book discusses how to best campaign for vegan animal rights. It also explains various aspects of animal cruelty right down to insects. It looks at these issues from various perspectives and David Horton puts himself in the shoes of: the vegan’s next-door neighbour, a dog kept in a house all day and a horse in a field. There is even an encouraging message from ‘God’!

The book has a grass roots feel and Horton bravely delves into the psychology of campaigning, though not in a structured way, so you don’t necessarily need to read the whole book but pick and choose the articles that interest you.

I enjoyed dipping into the book and although I may not have agreed with all of the author’s viewpoints, he offered them in a way that didn’t put me off, and he had some interesting points to make.

The Bloodless Revolution: Radical Vegetarians and the discovery of India

by Tristram Stuart HarperCollins ISBN 0-00-712892-4 £25 Reviewed by Clare Persey This book traces the history of vegetarianism with a focus on the influence of India. The author states that vegetarianism truly came to the West after travellers visited India and were inspired by what they saw there.

The book spans across four centuries, from 1600 to modern times. Stuart includes reference to the English Civil War and French Revolution, highlighting vegetarianism as central to radical political thought during both wars, as the relentless bloodshed encouraged people to embrace vegetarianism.

Controversially, at the end of the book, Stuart resurrects the argument that Hitler was a vegetarian.

If you enjoy history books you will likely enjoy this, especially as it embraces vegetarianism, and Tristram Stuart threads various arguments in favour of vegetarianism through the book. However, he makes virtually no mention of the rise of veganism, which is the natural progression, and this is a let-down in the book.

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Membership / Renewal

I wish to become a member and support the work of the Vegan Society.

I wish to renew my membership.

Membership No. (if known)......................................................................

Name:................................................................................Address:..........................................................................................

Postcode:........................................Tel:..........................................................email:..................................................................

Date of Birth: (for security purposes)........../.........../..........Occupation:.....................................................................................

Please tick this box if you are a dietary Vegan. This entitles you to voting rights in the Society’s elections if aged 18+.

Please treat my membership subscription as Gift Aid. I have paid UK income or capital gains tax equal to the amount the Society reclaims.

My income is less than £8000 per year and I qualify for the low income discount of 33%.*

A copy of the Society’s rules (Memo & Articles of Association) can be viewed on our website or at our office. Alternatively you may buy

I wish to enrol other members of my household for an additional £7 each.**

a copy for £5.

Please give full names of additional members and specify if dietary vegan and / or under 18. (If more than four additional members please attach separate sheet.)

Membership

How to pay Individual £21

* Less £7 low-income deduction (if applicable) ** Add £7 per additional household member Under 18 years old £7 Memo & Articles of Association £5 Overseas: Europe +£5 / Rest of World +£7 Payment may be made by credit card, sterling International money order or sterling cheque drawn on a British bank.

Donation Total:

Cheque / PO payable to The Vegan Society Credit / Debit card (enter details below) Direct Debit (phone for details) Website: www.vegansociety.com Please debit my Visa / Mastercard Access / Visa Delta / Connect / Switch Solo card number

ccccccccccccccccccc Name on card:.........................................................................Signature:..................................................................

Today’s date........./........./.......Start date:......../........Expiry date......../........Switch Issue No.:.....................

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The Vegan l Winter 2006

Postbag Contributions to Postbag are welcomed, but accepted on the understanding that they may be edited in the interests of brevity or clarity. Please send letters to: editor@vegansociety.com or post them to our usual address.

IN DEFENCE OF ANIMALS

SPECIESISM In my book Speciesism I coined the terms old-speciesist and newspeciesist. The opposite of a nonspeciesist (who supports rights for all sentient beings), an old-speciesist limits rights to humans. A new-speciesist favours rights for some nonhuman beings, those who seem most human-like. As Rosamund Raha noted in her autumn 2006 interview with Peter Singer, I consider Singer a newspeciesist. In his repeatedly stated view, most animals—many mammals and all nonmammals— ‘do not qualify for a right to life’ or a right to liberty.

Singer contends that he isn’t speciesist because, in his words, speciesism ‘refers to discrimination on the basis of species, not to discrimination on the basis of cognitive capacities.’ That definition denies the fact that cognitive criteria themselves can be based on species. If discrimination is based on the actual or presumed absence of cognitive capacities typical of a particular species, then such discrimination is species-biased.

Singer’s cognitive criteria for equal moral consideration are speciesist because they’re human-biased.

Singer has described these criteria as ‘the characteristics that normal humans have.’ Normal humans.

Singer advocates rights only for animals as self-aware as a normal human beyond earliest infancy. In his view, nonhumans must possess human-like intelligence to merit equal moral consideration.

Singer claims that his cognitive criteria aren’t speciesist because they don’t require membership in the human species. However, they’re clearly human-biased (species-based) and therefore correctly termed ‘speciesist’.

Joan Dunayer, author of Animal Equality: Language and Liberation (2001) and Speciesism (2004) Champaign, Illinois, USA

I very much enjoyed reading Dave Palmer’s concise piece on direct action in the previous issue. So often I have heard meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans regurgitating mainstream corporate media responses to direct action that it is somewhat refreshing for the issue to be dealt with responsibly in The Vegan.

There are many good books around including Terrorists or Freedom Fighters? edited by Steve Best and Anthony Nocella, that can help us try to understand the actions of people within the vegan animal rights movement as we look toward a world that can bring justice for animals and respect for the environment we live in.

Kevin Watkinson Leeds

I am writing to express my concern at the publishing of the article “Direct Action: Right or Wrong?” in the Autumn 2006 issue of The Vegan. It’s my opinion that this article would have been better titled “The Case For Direct Action” such was its failure to argue both sides of the case.

In today’s highly charged political environment, such an article does not merely give the mainstream media ammunition to use against us, it helpfully loads the bullets into the magazine and inserts the magazine into the rifle.

I would urge the editorial team of The Vegan to consider the wisdom of publishing future articles of this type.

Will, London

I enjoyed your inspirational interview with philosopher Peter Singer. I am a great admirer of his but I was disappointed to hear him reiterating the myth that killing is not a form of abuse. It is surely the very worst kind. All animals, human and non-human, are driven by two overwhelming desires: to avoid pain and to stay alive. To needlessly deny them either is therefore a form of abuse. Of course, I cannot prove beyond question that a fox running from the hunt is fleeing death as much as pain, but surely common sense tells us it is the case.

Why should one be forced to prove such a hypothesis anyway? In applying the cold demands of logic to a complex and unknowable world, philosophers too often condemn animals to a regime of guilty until proved innocent, insensible until proved feeling, worthless until proved worthy. If it were the other way around, non-human animals would not have had to wait so long to be protected as sentient beings instead of objects.

James Dixon Bury St Edmunds

Your summer edition featuring Soya, contained a lot of useful information about this common vegan food source. However, I was disturbed that the section subtitled ‘Poison or Panacea’ made only passing reference to soya intolerance.

I have been completely vegan for almost 4 years and for the last 2 found myself getting more and more unwell with asthma, eczema and general lassitude.

A homeopathic practitioner suggested that soya could be causing my problems because it was overloading my kidneys and advised me to cut it out completely.

The effect was nothing short of miraculous: within a week I was feeling better than I had done for years with all my symptoms clearing up. Nearly 3 months later, they have not recurred; the asthma sprays I’ve used for 30 years lie unused on the shelf and I

can now easily cycle up hills which previously left me completely knackered!

I would counsel any vegan to make sure they don’t over-consume any one food source, especially soya.

It is not that hard to eat a soya-free vegan diet, by the way!

Mirian Walton Bristol

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events

Updated diaries and events information can be viewed at www.vegansociety.com

n OCTOBER

Saturday 28th Vegan Society AGM 2pm Conway Hall, Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube Holborn) Vegan Society members only.

Followed by Donald Watson memorial event at 5pm and presentation of the 2006 vegan awards at about 7.30pm.

This is also the beginning of National Vegan Week. World Vegan Day is 1st November. Last year the theme was Typical Vegan (there’s no such thing!). This year’s theme will be on the environment. http://www.worldveganday.org/ For further information please contact Rosamund Raha, Head of Information Services, at the Vegan Society, or Dave Palmer, General Manager rosamund.raha@vegansociety.com dave.palmer@vegansociety.com

n NOVEMBER

Wednesday 1st World Vegan Day. To find out what is going on in your area, talk to your local contact, or for ideas visit: www.lcat.makessense.co.uk Saturday 4th 10.30am - 4.30pm Viva! Veggie Roadshow The Assembly House, Theatre Street, Norwich www.viva.org.uk/roadshows06/nor wich.html

Saturday 18th November 10am - 4pm Southampton Compassionate Living Fair Free entry Solent University Conference Centre, St James Building, Above Bar Street, Southampton.

Free veggie food. Lots of stalls, cookery demos by Viva!, holistic therapists giving free sample treatments, talks, lots of seasonal ethical and Fair Trade gifts, information, books, plants, green cleaning products, campaign news, refreshments. Fully wheelchair accessible. www.octoberbooks.org/clf

n DECEMBER

Sunday 3rd 10am – 5pm Christmas Without Cruelty Fayre Admission £1, children (under 11) free Kensington Town Hall, Hornton Street, London W8 (opposite High Street Kensington tube station) Campaign groups, ethical traders, vegan food. 70+ stalls selling Fairtrade crafts and jewellery, crueltyfree cosmetics, recycled goods, environmentally friendly clothing, non-leather boots and shoes, seasonal cards and gifts. Celebrity auction, talks, videos, fun events for all the family including a magician, a contortionist, a body builder, jugglers and a press-ups competition. www.animalaid.org.uk/xmas/fayre. htm or phone Animal Aid: 01732 364546

If you are a vegan or vegetarian, keen on the non-exploitation of animals and the environment, an appropriate Overseas Aid Charity to support is

VEGFAM

Registered Charity No.232208 Inland Revenue Ref. XN8555 & XAD67AG (Gift Aid) VEGFAM “FEEDS THE HUNGRY WITHOUT EXPLOITING ANIMALS”

– The Fragile Environment cannot support TWO populations – Humans and their Food Animals.

Since 1963, VEGFAM has been raising funds to alleviate hunger, thirst, malnutrition and starvation, helping people in over 40 countries, by financing sustainable, self-supporting plant food projects and safe water supplies.

VEGFAM helps people to help themselves by providing funds for seeds and tools for vegetable growing projects, fruit & nut tree planting, irrigation and water wells.

Emergency feeding in times of crisis and disaster.

Food security prevents malnutrition and starvation. Using plant foods is a far more efficient and sustainable way of addressing hunger overseas.

VEGFAM is professionally operated, entirely by volunteers, so as much as possible is spent on famine relief projects.

GENERAL DONATIONS paid into a/c No. 65023307 00 will be apportioned between: Projects (90%) Administration Expenses (9%) Office Building (1%) The Co-Operative Bank plc, 242 High Street, EXETER, EX4 3QB Sort Code 089290 SUPPORTERS ARE INVITED TO PAY DONATIONS DIRECT INTO THE ABOVE BANK ACCOUNT, ONLINE, OR BY POST TO THE ADDRESS BELOW. For more information (Project News, Bankers Orders, Gift Aid Legacies), please send an SAE to: VEGFAM, c/o Cwm Cottage, Cwmynys, Cilyewm, Llandovery, Carmarthenshire, SA20 0EU. Telephone 01550 721197 Facsimile by arrangement.

Email: vegfam@veganvillage.co.uk Online Giving: https://www.charitychoice.co.uk/vegfam Thank you for your support.

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Saturday 9th 11am – 5pm East Midlands Vegan Festival The Council House, Old Market Square, Nottingham (venue to be confirmed) Stalls, talks, food and more.

For more information contact Reuben: 07904 402209 (or 08704 870215) or visit http://www.eastmidlandsveganfe stival.co.uk Saturday 9th 12.00 - 6.00pm SARA (Scottish Animal Rights Alliance) presents Caledonian Christmas without Cruelty MONO Kings Court, 10 King Street, Glasgow G1 5QP (very near bus and train stations) A Scottish Compassionate Christmas Fayre supported and staffed by many Scottish Campaign Groups* and featuring lovely vegan food, including FREE tasters, friendly folk and a great prize draw.

For more details contact Lynda on: 08454 082385 or email: scotland@animalrightsalliance.or g.uk *Members of the Scottish Animal Rights Alliance include Greyhound Action Scotland, West Lothian Animal Rights & Veggies, Glasgow Vegan Network, 1World Scotland, Clydeside Animal Action, Animal Concern and Edinburgh Hunt Saboteurs

Sunday 10th 8th International Day for Animal Rights Uncaged co-ordinate events across the world, calling for fundamental rights to be bestowed upon non-human animals by 2048 (100 years after the Declaration of Human Rights on this date). Groups are encouraged to hold candle-lit vigils outside local sites of animal abuse, (e.g. vivisection facility, abattoirs, butchers shops etc.) to highlight links between human and animal rights.

For more information contact: Uncaged, 9 Bailey Lane, Sheffield, S1 4EG Ph: 0114 272 2220 E-mail: info@uncaged.co.uk Website: www.uncaged.co.uk/iard.htm Saturday 16 December 2006 Vegan Festival of Wales Talypont Leisure Centre, Cardiff (venue to be confirmed) Sponsored by Beanies health foods and the Vegan Society.

Organised by www.realfood.org.uk, organisers of previous West Midlands vegan festivals.

REMEMBER WORLD VEGAN DAY ON 1ST NOVEMBER If you haven’t already organised an event, stall, display or publicity stunt to promote veganism on or around November 1st, and would like to, it is not too late.

Please contact the Information Department for copies of our booklets and posters.

(01424) 448823 or e-mail info@vegansociety.com

CURIOUS VEGETABLES: THE COURGETTE Bill Laws

A profusion of confusion surrounds the tender little courgette.

It looks like a little marrow; and if you let it grow up in the garden it turns into a marrow. So why don’t we call them little marrow? And why do the Americans insist on calling them zucchini?

Columbus was the first European to spot them.

He discovered courgette growing all over America - not surprising since American Indians, who regarded the courgette as part of their mythology, were careful to cultivate them. According to the Algonquin Indians the vegetable was eaten green or askoot asquash.

Seeds were shipped back to Spain, Italy, France and - around 1700 - to Britain. When the likes of Linnaeus came to classify the courgette it was properly placed among the amazing Cucurbita family - amazing because the Cucurbita rank as the worlds most versatile veg: in their different forms they have served as drinking cups, yak fodder, bathroom loofah and bottles.

They were variously known as squash (the word borrowed from those Algonquin Indians), marrow (because their soft centres resembled bone marrow), pumpkin (from the endearingly French word poumpom) and gourd, or as the French called them, courge.

The gastronomic Italians had no time for fat marrow: they prepared them as small marrow or zucchini. The French rather liked the small ones too and served up their baby courge as courgette.

And the Americans? Well they would have continued serving up squash if wasn’t for Italian migrants who flocked to the US cities and reintroduced their little marrow, or zucchini, to the courgette’s country of origin.

Bill Laws is a member of the Society of Authors and author of Artists’ Gardens, Spade, Skirrett and Parsnip - The Curious History of Vegetables, Common Losses, Traditional Houses of Rural France, Old English Farmhouses, The Perfect Country Cottage, Irish Country Style and editor of local, social histories including In The Munitions and Boots on! Out! He edits Travellers’ Times (www.Travellerstimes.org.uk), the national magazine for Gypsies and Travellers, and writes about homes and gardens for national magazines and newspapers.

IDEAS FOR WORLD VEGAN DAY n n n n n n n n n

Join a local eco group and share food and information with them; hand out copies of our new environment booklet.

Contact us on 01424 448823 if you need more copies.

Write a letter to the local newspaper about World Vegan Day and its environmental theme. Use our new environment book for quotes.

Recruit volunteers to bring non vegan friends to try some vegan food at a local restaurant, your house or community centre.

Take pictures and send them to your local newspaper.

Give free talks about vegan nutrition at your local school, college or university, hand out information and put posters up.

On supermarket customer boards put up a customer card that says "Happy World Vegan Day".

Put a poster up in your library, community centre, school, health centre, day care centre or church hall.

Why not have a sponsored walk or swim to prove how fit vegans are.

Have a Football or Rugby match Vegans vs Meat Eaters – everyone dressed up as animals or vegetables. Take photos and send them to your local newspaper along with details about veganism.

Newspapers and radio stations will often give free advertising for local events and gatherings.

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VEGAN SOCIETY NETWORK The Vegan Society Network These people are here to help. Simply get in touch.

Send an SAE if posting. i

- for local vegan information and support

F - family contact with parenting experience Y - for young vegan support G - group (social and/or active) N - New entry Thinking of getting active or starting a group? Take a look at the wealth of advice at www.activeg.org then email Sophie vegancc@makessense.co.uk, or phone 0118 946 4858 if you don't have Internet access.

d

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CONTACTS

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LISTINGS Patrons Freya Dinshah Maneka Gandhi Rebecca Hall Dr. Michael Klaper Moby Gordon Newman Cor Nouws Wendy Turner-Webster Benjamin Zephaniah Council Alex Bourke (Vice Chair) Chris Childe Vanessa Clarke Sophie Fenwick-Paul (Network Contacts Co-ordinator) Laurence Main Ian Nicoll George Rodger (Chair) Subra Sivarajah (Assistant Treasurer) Patricia Tricker (International Coordinator) Stephen Walsh (Treasurer) Jay Ashra (co-opted) Vanessa Payne (co-opted) Staff General Manager / Head of Marketing & IT Dave Palmer Head of Information Services Rosamund Raha Information Officers Johanna Best Clare Persey Business Development Officer Colm McBriarty Sales Assistant John Rawden Office Manager / Finance Officer Jody Hazell Volunteers Michaela Altman (proofreader) Erica Wilson

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VEGANISM may be defined as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. In dietary terms it refers to the practice of dispensing with all animal produce — including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, animal milks, honey, and their derivatives.

Abhorrence of the cruel practices inherent in an agricultural system based on the abuse of animals is probably the single most common reason for the adoption of veganism, but many people are drawn to it for health, ecological, resource, spiritual and other reasons.

If you would like more information on veganism a free Information Pack is available from the Vegan Society in exchange for two first class stamps.

THE VEGAN SOCIETY was formed in England in November 1944 by a group of vegetarians who had recognised the ethical compromises implicit in lacto-vegetarianism (ie dairy dependent). Today, the Society continues to highlight the breaking of the strong maternal bond between the cow and her new-born calf within just four days; the dairy cow’s proneness to lameness and mastitis; her subjection to an intensive cycle of pregnancy and lactation; our unnatural and unhealthy taste for cow’s milk; and the deoxygenation of river water through contamination with cattle slurry.

If you are already a vegan or vegan sympathiser, please support the Society and help increase its influence by joining.

Increased membership means more resources to educate and inform.

CLASSIFIEDS (UK) HOLIDAY

LANCASHIRE

ACCOMMODATION

WALES SOUTH WEST WALES tranquillity, natural beauty and friendliness. Self-catering cottages only metres from sandy beach and lovely walks. Heated outdoor swimming pool and excellent facilities.

Eco-friendly owners. Tel 01267 241654 www.innisfreeholidays.co.uk

CORNWALL ST. IVES - Self-catering accommodation in great location. Vegan café/restaurant in same complex opening soon. Close to beaches, harbour, shops and Tate Gallery.

Tel: 01736 795255 or e-mail

FRENCH PYRENEES: Vegan B&B in beautiful old stone farmhouse run by English organic vegetable farmers. Two large en-suite rooms.

Optional three course evening meal. Set in quiet wooded valley, ideal for walking, cycling, bird watching, relaxing. Contact Trevor or Sue, Le Guerrat, 09420, Rimont, France. Tel.: (0033) 561963703.

E-mail: info@leguerrat.org Website: www.leguerrat.org

CUMBRIA CRAZI-CARROTS. DE - TOX or RELAX in Lancashire.

Healthy, creative & vegan weekends.

Yoga, massage, training, walks or just B&B. Ensuite & comfortable B&B. tel. 01204 704600 admin@wellbeingworkshopsworldwide.com

GET STUFFED THIS WINTER! Spend Christmas with Sue and Trev at Le Guerrat this year, in the French Pyrenees.

SCOTLAND

Copious amounts of vegan fayre, organic wines, log fires, holly, mistletoe and party games….

Scotland Is Beautiful All Year Round!

Why not plan to visit soon?

DEVON

Carnbren Vegan Guesthouse is a comfortable home in the centre of the northern Highlands. Bed & Breakfast from £18 - please contact us for details. We are organising special weekends (writing, art etc.), please check our website or telephone for details. If there is something that you'd like to do, please ask us to organise it for you; wildlife spotting, relaxation & pampering, photography? Or just a pleasant holiday!

Carnbren, Station Road, Lairg, Sutherland, IV27 4AY Tel. 01549 402259, email: www.carnbren-vegan.highlandguesthouse.co.uk

SUSSEX

WEST CORK- vegetarian self-catering apartments for singles, couples and families in peaceful wooded surroundings.

Organic vegetables, bread & vegan wholefoods available. Reasonable rates.

Green Lodge, Trawnamadree, Ballylickey, Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland.

Tel: +353 2766 146, 00353 0861955451.

Email: greenlodge@eircom.net or website http://homepage.eircom.net/~greenlodgeF

Book early to avoid disappointment: (0033) 5 61 96 37 03, or send an e-mail: info@leguerrat.org

Exclusively vegetarian & vegan 3 bedroom holiday cottage in the picturesque countryside of SW France. Combine the privacy & freedom of a traditional French cottage with the luxury of a vegan breakfast service provided by neighbouring owners.

YORKSHIRE WHITBY B&B FALCON GUESTHOUSE. Vegan/vegetarian Quiet location, seven minutesí walk from centre and harbour.

Lounge and sunny breakfast room.

Teamaking facilities. No smoking throughout. Ample breakfast, with organic fare. £20 p.p.p.n. (for couple).

Tel 01947 603507

Close to the village of St Claud (cafes, market & open-air pool) & within easy reach of low cost airports/TGV station, the nonsmoking cottage suits couples, families or groups of friends; intimate enough for two but offering generous space for 6 adults.

Vegan Society Member’s Discount Jocelyn & Trevor Bridge Le Fayard, 16450 St Claud, France Tel: 0033 545 89 03 45 E-mail: le.fayard@wanadoo.fr Web: www.lefayard.com

HOLIDAYS ABROAD HAMPSHIRE

KERALA, SOUTH INDIA a veganís paradise.

Tours, accommodation including selfcatering. Brochure: Tel: 01892 722440, Voice Mail/Fax: 01892 724913.

E-mail: info@keralaconnect.co.uk Website:www.keralaconnect.co.uk

NEW FOREST Veg*n guest house (‘The Barn’) - perfect for walking, cycling etc.

B&B from £24pppn - ensuite, n/s evening meals. 023 8029 2531 or www.veggiebarn.net

ALPUJARRAS - ANDALUCIA Attractive townhouse. Sunny, roof terrace. Excellent views, birds, walks. Wholefood shops and restaurants serving veggie food in town.

Sleeps 2 - 6. £280 pw. Available all year.

Tel: 01736 753555. email:

ISLE OF WIGHT

ARTICLES AND ADVERTISEMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED BY 4TH DECEMBER 2006 FOR INCLUSION IN THE SPRING 2007 ISSUE OF THE VEGAN

ANDALUCIA - remote mountain village 40 mins sea - walking, wildlife - from £100 per week - 2 persons - £180 4 persons.

Tel 01202 431867 www.orgiva.org/alfornon

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CLASSIFIEDS VEGAN VIEWS - informal quarterly for Vegan Opinion. Sample copy £1. 4 issues £4 inc p&p. Harry Mather, Flat A15, 20 Dean Park Road, Bournemouth BH1 1JB

PERSONAL

SUNSHINE AND SHADOW. Autobiography of Wilfred Crone, well-known vegan/fruitarian. £7.50 inc P&P. Harry Mather, Flat A15, 20 Dean Park Road, Bournemouth BH1 1JB

FELLOWSHIP of vegan/vegetarian Christian believers. Not a dating agency.

For details please write to VCR, 55 Long Street, Wigston, Leicestershire, LE18 2AJ

ACCOMMODATION Nice sunny room, 14ft by 12 ft. Share flat with one other. Must be organic vegan female, ecosystem friendly with common sense awareness. Flatshare experience duties preferred. Provide details. £73 weekly (bills included). Quiet Maida Vale.

Tel 0208 9682089.

EATING OUT

Four 3-Bedroom houses in Telford Shropshire to rent from September 2006.

Beautiful location, all amenities. £525 £550 pcm. Vegans Vegetarians preferred.

Contact Gorge Investments on 01952 432874 or email

ACCOMMODATION OFFERED (small flat) in exchange for few hours garden/diy help at Holistic Retreat Centre. n/s quiet veggie person (no children/pets), some heavy work needed. Stunning West Wales coastal location. Call 01267 241999

INTERNET SERVICES

PUBLICATIONS

DIVINE FROG web services. A vegan business. Website design, implementation, development, maintenance and hosting.

Please contact Ian : Tel : 07981 057697 Email : i.nicoll@divinefrog.co.uk www.divinefrog.co.uk

HUMAN WRITES is a non-profit humanitarian organisation offering support to death row prisoners through letter writing.

Please make someone’s life better with your letters. For details, SAE to: 343a Carlton Hill, Carlton, Nottingham, NG4 1JE. Thanks!

‘Jesus was a vegetarian’ www.donoteatus.org

Holy Lance: Secret knowledge and wisdom (Includes 'Natural Treatments for Cancer' and 'The Vegetarian Origins of Christianity') http://holy-lance.blogspot.com

ORGANISATIONS

GRANTS FOR ELDERLY VEGANS AND VEGETARIANS

We help those who wish to remain in their own homes rather than go into a residential home or hospital.

For further information contact: The Beulah Charity Trust 40 Olivers Battery Road North Winchester Hants.

SO22 4JB

Adopt a Goat For Christmas

COSMETICS The ideal gift for the person who has everything. We take into care those who have suffered from neglect, abuse and abandonment.

Providing a loving home for the rest of their days Buttercup Sanctuary for goats, Maidstone, Kent, ME17 4JU Tel: (01622) 746410 Registered Charity: 1099627

www.Buttercups.org.uk PRACTITIONERS Essentials For Equilubrium; Holistic Health for animals and people. Specialising in emotional trauma, allergies, skin problems, pain management. Free newsletter. Fabulous courses; Holistic Health for Animals; beginner - practitioner levels. All details call Leigh 01830 520098 / www.essentialsforequilibrium.co.uk VEGAN VOICE magazine promotes a nonviolent lifestyle beneficial to the planet and to all animals. For the latest on veganism and animal rights, subscribe now to Vegan Voice, Australia's celebrated and singular quarterly magazine! www.veganic.net

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VEGAN BUT STILL SICK? Vegan health practitioner available for consultations, personal health retreats, iridology, fasting supervision, emotional healing, etc.

Contact /http://www.vibrancy.homestead.com/pag eone.html or telephone (01626) 352765 for free brochure.

HOMEOPATH. Aubrey Burge LBSH. RSHom. Treating you towards good health. All remedies carried on a vegan base. Clinic in Wiltshire or reasonable distance home consultations welcome.

Tel 01980 630601 for more information.

CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTANCE: Advertisements are accepted subject to their satisfying the condition that the products advertised are entirely free from ingredients derived from animals; that neither products nor ingredients have been tested on animals; and that the content of such ads does not promote, or appear to promote, the use of non-vegan commodities. Books, records, tapes, etc. mentioned in advertisements should not contain any material contrary to vegan principles. Advertisements may be accepted from catering establishments that are not run on exclusively vegan lines, provided that vegan meals are available and that the wording of such ads reflects this.

DISCOUNT CARD

This card entitles the bearer to discounts at a range of outlets, restaurants and hotels.

A full list of discounts is available from The Vegan Society.

DISCOUNT CARD THE VEGAN VALID FROM

NOVEMBER 2006 UNTIL

FEBRUARY 2007 REFERENCE CODE

SITUATIONS VACANT

Ref:COG 007

Disabled male vegan seeks PA/befriender.

West Central Scotland. Pay and conditions to be agreed, free room and board available. Please send personal details to Box 669

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CHRISTMAS CRYPTIC Vega

ACROSS 6,7

DOWN

Animal-friendly culture on brightest star in Lyra? (5,7)

9

1 2

Press abstainer in Seb’s zucchinis (10)

10

3

Opus about starter - could be lentil or tomato (4)

11,22 6ac 7 founder was not old and saw lies about (6,6) 13

Hard fruit deity surrounds old city (5)

17

8

When do we want a 6ac 7 if not now abbreviated? (4)

15

6

Monitor river for essential stream delivered home (3,5)

14

4 5

Mushrooms edible once

12 13 16

psilocybin contained (4) 19

Wherein Glastonbury Tor 18

seems enchanted (8) 22

See 11

23

6ac milk substitute initially

20

saves only young animals (4) 24

Wet berries entwined 21

eglantine (10) 27

Apollo-Soyuz link-up

25

cutting benefits (7) 28

Omega nine contains the 6ac strip (5)

people

Donald Watson House 7 Battle Road St. Leonards on Sea East Sussex TN37 7AA

26

For starters, a gelling agent really useful in 6ac desserts (4) Anticipated loser wrongly grounded (8) Is not contracted from bad sin with model (4) Shaken catsup misbehaves (4,2) Long-haired companion convolutedly entraps CIA (7,3) The charms of Haiti you twelve overheard in French (7) Solvers informally hear sheep or trees (5) Scale up pea stew to get stewed fruit - codswallop! (5,5) Strut about like Dr. Hadwen for example (5) Period spent not working in Newcastle, Bangor and Newry? (8) Eton rip off provides essential 6ac nutrition from 23 for example (7) Roman poet composed about love in elliptical fashion (5) . . . – – – . . . 1009 pigs’ bacon saved by this (6) Uncompromising 6ac after going straight as a rule (4) 1 gets up for Indian musical melody (4)

animals

environment

Tel: 0845 45 88244 Fax: 01424 717064 info@vegansociety.com www.vegansociety.com

THE VEGAN DISCOUNT CARD

44

The Vegan l Winter 2006

Solution to The Vegan Prize Crossword

44 CONGRATULATIONS to Carolyn Griffin of Redditch who wins a Funk Bubble Box of goodies.

Send in a photocopy (or original) of the solution to this crossword, together with your name and address by the 4th December 2006 Prize this issue: Prize this issue: A selection of delicious vegan cakes from Blue Lotus.