Office by Alex Penny
My name is Emily. I'm a vegan and aspiring ESL teacher living in Little Rock, Arkansas. This is where I share things that, well, I'd like to share.
I never knew :(
UDDER FLAMING/SINGEING
One of the torturous practices “dairy” cows are forced to endure for humans’ taste buds is udder and belly hair removal. Dairy farmers claim that hair removal is a vital process to improve udder cleanliness and reduce bacteria and that udder flaming/singeing is a “humane” way to accomplish this. Udder singeing is further described as a way to remove hair “quickly and painlessly, using a 6” cool flame, eliminating the need to clip udders manually.”* The cows in UDDER SINGE demonstration video appear to disagree with the claim that it is painless: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0LzliJzoXs
While some dairy farmers flame the udders when they are full of milk, some flame them after the cows have been milked.
*www.animart.com/uddersinge
● The truth about the dairy industry (including organic): www.humanemyth.org/happycows.htm
● The truth about the goat dairy industry (including organic): http://tinyurl.com/copkql3
● YOUR GUIDE to VEGANISM: www.tinyurl.com/d4spyjd
(via vegetathiest)
Hostility Towards Vegans
I’m preparing for a mini-lesson (in Spanish) and I need to present this dish (for vocab building) that is usually made with pork or chicken, and I can’t decide how I should convey that. I want to show a cute little pig and chicken, but I hate the idea of having to refer to them as ingredients! But at the same time, I don’t want to use images that objectify these creatures or represent them merely as food (i.e. images of packaged meat or chicken and pork that you’d find in the super market).
This is why I hate teaching food! I feel like I can’t do it with a clean conscience. If I didn’t teach “meats” I’d be doing the students a disservice (which I simply cannot do), but when I do teach all the meat-related vocab as it was meant to be taught, then I feel like I’m betraying my own ethical code. But then I think that the language classroom is no place for this kind of discussion anyway, and I’d only be taking advantage of the power I have as a teacher (and authority figure to some?) (which would also be unethical). But then I think that getting this conversation going does matter and it should be held more often, and people need to be aware that the mere idea of speciesism does exist. I just can’t find a way to reconcile the two sides, and feel “okay” about how I’ve taught it. At least it’s only one chapter, right? And I can let me students know that I’m vegan in the appropriate context (i.e. when I’m sharing about myself or when we are talking about our favorite foods in the target language), and that I’m open for discussion about anything that comes up in class, right?
Rant done. I’ll probably use my passive-aggressive cute animal images and make no reference to them being anything other than… ingredients.
I hate teaching food.
I made the switch from vegetarianism to veganism in October but I’m still having trouble getting dairy completely out of my diet. The first time i did it a year ago i had absolutely no problems.
Help me with tips to get rid of cravings? Good substitutes? Any other helpful tips or motivation? thanks <3
These are some alternatives for dairy. There are others like rice milk and hemp milk but I haven’t tried hemp milk yet. My favorites are almond milk and hazelnut milk or soy milk with vanilla, they taste great!
You can find rice, soy, hemp, almond, cashew, hazelnut, or oat milks at your local specialty/health food store or grocery. If you looking for vegan cheese, yogurt, or creamer, you can also buy them at specialty/ health stores like Whole Foods. You can also make your own vegan cheese or non-dairy milks!
If you’re not near a Whole Foods or your other local health food store doesn’t sell many vegan dairy alternatives you could order some at veganessentials.com. If it’s ice cream your after, I love the coconut milk ice creams! It can be hard to give up old favorites when you first go vegan, you just have to remind yourself why you’re doing this; remind yourself where that cheese, milk, eggs, chocolate, ice cream, yogurt (or whatever) came from, and how good you’ll feel when the “craving” lifts and you didn’t give in! Also, start hunting for vegan recipes and try out new ones often. Once you start expanding your options, and you find some delicious favorites, you’ll start to just crave those.
(via opinionatedcheese)
1. Objection: “Being vegan is fine for you, but I like meat.”
Response: People don’t usually go vegan because they dislike meat or cheese or any other animal product. They go vegan because they dislike animal cruelty. And the reality is, you can’t have one without the other. But going vegan doesn’t mean you have to give up the flavors and textures you’re used to. There are lots of amazing vegan alternatives out there, today. Check out Field Roast, Gardein,Daiya and So Delicious, for starters. Plus, many people who go vegan discover that their meal options actually become broader, not more limited, as they explore new foods and creative cuisines.
2. Objection: “What about plants? Don’t they suffer, too?”
Response: Unlike animals, plants aren’t sentient and they have no nervous systems. However, even if it were discovered that plants were somehow capable of suffering, it would still be preferable to eat a vegan diet since it takes far more plants to feed livestock than it does to feed people directly.
3. Objection: “Vegans kill animals, too. Field mice, snakes and other small animals can be killed when crops are harvested.”
Response: It’s impossible to live in this world without causing some degree of harm, that’s true. But shouldn’t we try to cause the least harm, rather than the most? While we don’t need to eat animals to survive, we do need to eat plants. And ethically-speaking, there’s a big difference between accidentally harming animals during the production of necessary food, and deliberately harming animals during the production of unnecessary food.
4. Objection: “People have always killed animals for food, that’s not going to change now.”
Just because we’ve always done something doesn’t make it right. People have always killed and raped other people, too. Does that mean we should allow such violence to continue unchecked? Or should we strive towards creating a more peaceful and just world?
5. Objection: “What about lions and tigers – are you saying they should be vegan, too?”
Response: Unlike lions and tigers (who are obligate carnivores), humans do not require animal products to survive. We are opportunistic omnivores and can survive quite well on a plant-based diet. A tiger may not have that choice, but we do. Those of us who live in the modern world and choose to eat animal products do so not out of necessity, but rather out of desire, habit and convenience.
6. Objection:“Aren’t vegans being elitist? Not everyone can afford fancy faux meat products.”
Response: You don’t need to eat fancy foods to be vegan. A vegan diet is based on combinations of grains, beans, vegetables, nuts, seeds and fruit. That said, vegan meals can be as elaborate or plain, expensive or inexpensive as you choose. Some packaged vegan foods may appear to cost more than non-vegan counterparts, however, it’s important to remember that animal products are kept at artificially low prices through unjust government subsidies (as this eye-opening chart demonstrates). Additionally, in terms of “elitism” – what could possibly be more elitist than believing that other beings should be enslaved and killed solely for your own pleasure?
7. Objection: “I can’t go vegan because I don’t like tofu – and I’m particularly bothered by the production of GMO soy, corn, and the destruction of the rainforests.”
Response: Who says you have to eat tofu? Plenty of vegans don’t. You can be a soy-free vegan. You can be a gluten-free vegan. You can even be a nut-free vegan. Besides, if you are truly concerned about GMO soy, corn and the destruction of rainforests, the best thing you can do is stop buying animal products, since those are the primary crops grown to feed livestock. By eating animal products, you are almost certainly consuming GMO soy and corn, you’re just getting it secondhand.
8. Objection:“I only buy humane meat.”
Response: Considering that more than 95% of all animal products produced in the U.S. come from factory farms, is that really possible? And what do labels like “humane” and “free-range” really mean? Sadly, the reality is a far cry from the idyllic images printed on the packages. But regardless of how animals are treated before they’re slaughtered, is it really ethical to use, manipulate and kill others –not out of need – but only out of habit, convenience and desire? Can killing for for those reasons ever really be considered “humane”?
9. Objection: “So animals should be given the same rights as humans? Should they have the right to vote, too?”
Response: Animals should have the right to be left alone and not be used as resources for human profit and pleasure. As Alice Walker remarked: “The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for white, or women created for men.”
10. Objection: “Why worry about animals when there are people out there who need help?”
Response: Luckily, compassion isn’t a limited resource. Actually, it seems that the more we use it, the more we get! Since going vegan, I’ve starting caring moreabout human and environmental issues, not less. Because really, they’re allintertwined. Plus, it’s important to note that human and environmental problems are actually made worse by animal agriculture, which exacerbates world hungerand climate change, among other things.
While it may be natural to show concern for people first, that doesn’t mean we should feel free to abuse animals. A father may care more for his own child than for the child of a stranger, but does that give him the right to enslave and kill other people’s children? Likewise, just because we may instinctively care more about members of our own species doesn’t mean we have the right to enslave and kill members of other species.
Bless this post.
This is Caillou. He’s currently being hospitalized for a blocked urinary tract. This is a life-threatening situation which requires him to be hospitalized for at least 48 hours while they flush out his bladder and tract, and already his vet bills are going to be over $1,300. I applied for Care Credit and was denied due to having no verifiable income. I currently need to pay rent on top of his vet bills but I had to spend all of my rent money just so they would take him in today. I’m going back tomorrow morning and they’re going to possibly need to keep him for longer, so I may have to pay even more (and I have currently only paid $700).
I feel like a total douche for asking for money from anyone, but I don’t know what else to do. If anyone can help in even the slightest bit, I would be beyond grateful. If you’d like to, you can donate through paypal here: Donate here.
Thank you in advance to anyone who helps. If you can’t donate, even just reblogging this for a signal boost would be awesome.
Donation made!
Best of luck to the both of you. <3
(via another-vegan-feminist)
I can’t help but roll my eyes when a carnivore claims to be “pro-life.”
Most brilliant response to the question asked of vegans/vegetarians: Where do you get your protein?
This woman is schooling all these mother fuckers. Go girl.
(Source: marissalc, via vegpocalypsenow)
“Vegan alternatives are not inherently better for animals or the planet. Pleather and faux fur—staples of vegan fashion—are petroleum-based products. The environmental devastation caused by petroleum—climate change, oil spills, toxic water, acid rain, genetic mutations—are well known and vast. While many vegans will tout the environmental values of hybrid cars, bicycling, reusable shopping bags and eliminating demand for factory farms, the analysis rarely curbs the demand for couture. Sure, cows were not slaughtered for our beloved shoes, coats and belts. However, plenty of other animals were destroyed when their habitats were ransacked, covered in oil, poisoned and abandoned.
If the world as we know it were to go vegan, the dietary shift would not save animals or preserve land. Many of the plant-based products that vegans rely on come from subsidiaries of the largest food corporations. General Mills, Kraft, Heinz and ConAgra—big hands in animal industries—are the purveyors of some of the most popular soymilk, tofu, prepared food and meat substitute brands.”
An interesting read about:
http://www.theprecarious.com/content/vegans-miss-larger-point
Too bad Zoe thought it would be a good idea to use one source for her article on veganism. Not that I wear a pleather suit with faux fur trim most days, but I highly doubt the about of patroleum used to make vegan friendly clothing come’s anywhere near the about of fossil fuels that are used by animal industries. The same can be said for Zoe’s misinformed conclusion that eating soy products is terrible given that so much deforestation takes place for the sake of growing soy beans (last time I checked, I ate way less than any cow). The gist of the article is that there is no way to do anything good for the world unless you join a commune somewhere, and that it is possible to do more harm than good as a vegan. I guess, on the internet, anything can be published by anyone. Oh you silly, silly, carnivores, when are you going to come to the light?
I am a vegan
