World Vegan Day is November 1st!

World Vegan Day takes place every year on November 1^st, and the entire month of November is World Vegan Month.

The annual celebration started in 1994 on the 50-year anniversary of the first meeting of the Vegan Society in the UK, which took place some time in early November 1944.

According to the Vegan Society’s website, “In a natural progression, World Vegan Day evolved into World Vegan Week and now, what we celebrate as World Vegan Month, where vegans and veganism is celebrated in workplaces, shops, restaurants and in homes all over the world.”

In November 2017, to commemorate World Vegan Month, the Vegan Society will be releasing a new app called VNutrition, which helps people achieve their nutrition goals on a vegan diet. They also will be launching a new campaign called “Vegans on the Go”, which will aim to get more retailers to serve on-to-go vegan lunches. You can check out the World Vegan Month webpage here; here is their Facebook Page.

 

Of course, every day is a good day to advocate for a vegan lifestyle, but this special day is an especially useful opportunity to raise awareness about the “why’s” and “how’s” of going vegan, as well as to celebrate the lifestyle and those who follow it!

Here are some ideas of ways we can make a difference on World Vegan Day and throughout the month of November:

1) Obviously, if you aren’t already vegan, please go vegan. You can take The Vegan Society’s 30-day Vegan Pledge to help you go vegan as quickly as possible!

2) Share the Vegan Pledge with your friends and family, on your blog, and/or on social media.

3) On November 1^st, why not wish the people in your life a happy World Vegan Day? It may help spark conversations that could lead them to consider going vegan.

4) On social media and/or your blog, share something related to veganism and/or World Vegan Day. For example, you could share your own story of why you went vegan; a picture of a vegan meal you made; a link to the Vegan Society’s website; a vegan recipe; or even just a quick post saying “Happy World Vegan Day!”

5) Host a vegan meal or potluck for family, friends, and/or your local community. If it’s a potluck and not everyone attending is already vegan, make sure that everyone knows to avoid using any animal-derived ingredients in the food they bring; it can be helpful to ask people to bring an ingredients list.

6) Perhaps you could go leafleting, and wish passersby a happy World Vegan Day!

7) With your local vegan or vegetarian association, you could even help organize a talk from a vegan speaker or a vegan-related movie screening.

8) Bring vegan food to work or school, and share it with your peers. J You could just casually share it with them, or you could set up a table in a busy place where people can take the free vegan food and literature on veganism.

9) Try to get World Vegan Day or World Vegan Month recognized by your school or workplace. They could introduce a vegan menu in the cafeteria starting in November, for example (if there isn’t enough time for them to plan out a complete vegan menu in time for World Vegan Day, they can still start working on it by November).

10) If you’re a writer, write a letter to the editor, Op-Ed, or vegan recipe and submit it to a newspaper or magazine.

 

Have a great World Vegan Day and Month!

Fixing the Problems on Canada's Food Guide

Some of you may remember the blog post I wrote for the NCVA blog a little while ago, on teaching kids about healthy vegan nutrition. In that post, I mentioned how the dietary recommendations of Canada's Food Guide were influenced by the dairy, meat, and egg industries, according to this CBC article. For example, the 2003 version of the Food Guide was revised by a panel that included food industry lobby groups. More shockingly, when the 1992 revision of Canada’s Food Guide was released, the meat, dairy, and egg industries successfully lobbied the government to increase the recommended number of servings of these products, according to the CBC article. You can see the effect that these lobby groups had on the government-endorsed dietary recommendations in the article "Canada's Food Guides from 1942 to 1992" on the Government of Canada's website-- in 1982, the Food Guide had 2 servings of "Meat and Alternatives" and 2 servings of "Milk"; but in 1992, these numbers increased to 2-3 servings of "Meat and alternatives" and 2-4 servings of "Milk". These new, increased recommendations continue to exist on the most recent Food Guide to date.

Canada's current Food Guide consists of four food groups: Vegetables and Fruit, Grain Products, Milk and Alternatives, and Meat and Alternatives. In school, children are taught that the recommendations on the Food Guide comprise the fundamentals of a healthy diet. Growing up, I, too, assumed that the Food Guide was based upon scientific fact. More recently, however, science has been finding something different: meat, dairy, and eggs actually increase the risk of many chronic diseases, while a vegan diet is a very healthy way to eat and can prevent certain diseases.

Although many vegan activists are already spreading the message about the healthfulness of veganism, it isn't just activists who are willing to point out the health benefits of an animal-free diet. Here are some statements on veganism and plant-based diets from just a few high-profile organizations around the world:

• Dietitians of Canada: "A healthy vegan diet has many health benefits including lower rates of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer."
• American Dietetic Association: "It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases."
• World Health Organization:
• "Specific recommendations for a healthy diet include: eating more fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts and grains; cutting down on salt, sugar and fats. It is also advisable to choose unsaturated fats, instead of saturated fats and towards the elimination of trans-fatty acids."
• The WHO has declared some types of meats to be Group 1 carcinogens (right up there with cigarette smoking) and Group 2 carcinogens.
• According to a study conducted by students at the University of Oxford, if the world went vegan, millions of human lives would also be saved due to dramatic reduction in the incidence of chronic disease: "A global switch to diets that rely less on meat and more on fruit and vegetables could save up to 8 million lives by 2050, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by two thirds, and lead to healthcare-related savings and avoided climate damages of $1.5 trillion (US)... ...They found that adopting diets in line with global dietary guidelines could avoid 5.1 million deaths per year by 2050. Even greater benefits could come from vegetarian diets (avoiding 7.3 million deaths) and vegan diets (avoiding 8.1 million deaths)."
• British Dietetic Associaton: "Well planned vegetarian diets [including vegan diets, which they mentioned as a form of vegetarianism] can be nutritious and healthy. They are associated with lower risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, obesity, certain cancers and lower cholesterol levels."
• United Nations Environment Programme: "A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products." (Found on page 82 of this document, or page 84 of the PDF)

Based in the United States, an organization of medical professionals called the Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine more actively promotes a vegan diet as a way to prevent and reverse chronic disease. They've devised a new food guide made up of "The New Four Food Groups", which include Fruit, Vegetables, Legumes, and Whole Grains.

Click on the image to see it in full-size!

When one combines the health, environmental, humanitarian, and, of course, animal-related reasons to live vegan, it becomes obvious that the government ought to start supporting it, too!

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, Health Canada is now working on its next revision of Canada's Food Guide. From October 24, 2016 to December 8, 2016, Health Canada is holding an online public consultation on the Food Guide to get the public's input; all Canadians are welcome to submit their opinions through the Government of Canada's website.

In Mid-2017, the government will present a revised version of the Food Guide to the public, at which time Canadians will have another opportunity to provide their feedback on the revisions. After that, the new materials will be published.

I've already completed the questionnaire. On one page of the questionnaire, I was asked whether I find the current four food groupings in the Canada Food Guide helpful. I clicked "no", and then a box came up asking, "Why do you say that?"

Here was my response:

"I don't bother using the Food Guide, because the current recommendations simply doesn't apply to vegans like myself. The Food Guides' current food groupings are actually promoting ill health among Canadians. Furthermore, the current Four Food Groups are not at all accommodating for vegans and others who follow a dairy-free diet.
Dairy is not essential to the human diet. Although it is the perfect food for baby cows, it simply was not designed for human consumption. Some may claim that dairy is healthful because it contains calcium and protein, but the fact is, there are plenty of healthier plant-based sources of protein and calcium available. According to the Dieticians of Canada, calcium can be found in abundance in leafy green vegetables, fortified soy products, tahini (sesame seed butter), and many more vegan foods; protein can be obtained from soy products, beans, grains, nuts, and nut butters, to name a few.
According to the Dieticians of Canada, “A healthy vegan diet has many health benefits including lower rates of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer.” (Source: http://www.dietitians.ca/Your-Health/Nutrition-A-Z/Vegetarian-Diets/Eating-Guidelines-for-Vegans.aspx)
I would like to propose 4 new food groups: Fruits, Vegetables, Grains, and Legumes/Nuts. The latter category combines the current two food groups of “Dairy and Alternatives” and “Meat and Alternatives” into an overall “Plant-based Protein” food group. The Physicians’ Committee for Responsible Medicine, an organization of medical doctors in the United States, also promotes this idea (Source: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/vsk/vegetarian-starter-kit-new-four-food-groups).

I hope that Health Canada can start promoting healthy eating in the ways I’ve mentioned above. I also hope that Health Canada can specifically mention the word “veganism” as a healthy diet on the Food Guide itself."

I also gave more information, such as statistics on the environmental benefits of veganism, in response to another one of their questions.

In addition, one thing that Health Canada seems to be focusing on in this revision of the Food Guide is reducing sugar consumption. If you are going to be filling out this survey, you may wish to point out that dairy products are actually quite high in sugar-- for example, there are 13g of sugar in one cup of 1% M.F. cow's milk.

That being said, we must not hesitate to voice our ethical views about veganism-- if Health Canada is aware that people are vegan for ethical reasons, they may be more likely to accommodate vegans in their next version of the food guide.

If you believe that veganism should be better represented and promoted on the Food Guide, please consider taking a few minutes out of your day to fill out the questionnaire. Feel free to copy and paste the quotations from the organizations I've listed above in your responses.

Thank you for caring!

Think of the Animals on Remembrance Day

In November 2013, I wrote a blog post called "Remembering the Animal Victims of War on Remembrance Day", in which I discussed some of the ways that animals have been used in warfare and are still used for modern-day military purposes. I also mentioned Animal Aid's purple poppy campaign, in which people could buy a purple poppy to wear alongside their red poppy on Remembrance Day.
With Remembrance Day 2015 coming up, I'd like to re-visit the issue of war's animal victims. To start with, you can read my 2013 post here: http://theanimalrightsactionsite.blogspot.ca/2013/11/remembering-animal-victims-of-war-on.html.
One part of that post, however, is no longer current-- namely, Animal Aid's purple poppy campaign. Animal Aid is now replacing the purple poppies with purple paw badges instead. Here the reasoning behind the switch, as stated on Animal Aid's website:

"Animal Aid Director, Andrew Tyler, explains a change of emphasis for our animal victims of war initiative.
When we at Animal Aid launched our purple poppy initiative – to commemorate the animal victims of war – no other organisation seemed to be addressing the issue. Our aim was to make it clear that animals used in warfare are indeed victims, not heroes. They do not give their lives; their lives are taken from them.
But too often the narrative promoted by the media has been one of animals as the valiant servants of people in violent conflict. This is precisely the opposite message to that which we intended. An equivalent situation would be if animal victims of laboratory research were to be presented as brave heroes in the service of human beings – with Animal Aid’s name attached to that idea. Having said that, many of our poppy sellers have worked extraordinarily hard and with great passion on this campaign. Certainly, our message, via their work, has to a degree got through. But the dominant narrative (animal victims of war are heroes who died for us) is so deeply embedded that only a huge effort (costly in every way) can uproot it and lay down something that will benefit the animals. We considered the massive-effort option but decided that Animal Aid’s finite resources are best used on other urgent, more productive campaigns.
We are, therefore, replacing the purple poppy with a purple paw badge that will commemorate all animal victims of human exploitation. It can be worn all year round – at special events or day to day. Rest assured that we will continue to promote our victims-not-heroes message every year in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday (but without the purple poppy), and we will continue to produce our Animals: the hidden victims of war booklet and other resources."

Although I really liked the idea of people wearing purple poppies on Remembrance Day (because it gives people a way to pay respect to animals on that solemn day in particular), I can understand why Animal Aid decided to switch. It's unacceptable to be giving people the message that animals volunteered to give their lives to help humans fight wars, and if that's the message that some people have been thinking after seeing the purple poppies, then maybe it does make sense for Animal Aid to switch to something else. Besides, the purple paw badge can be worn on any occasion-- it's not just for Remembrance Day-- and it is meant to commemorate not solely the animal victims of war, but all animals who are exploited by humans. However, the fact that it can be worn year-round is both a benefit and a problem; since it isn't specific to Remembrance Day, people might be less likely to talk about it, because it isn't for a special occasion. But the badge still does raise awareness about the exploitation of animals, and that's very important, so it's definitely worth buying a badge for yourself!
If you do order a purple paw badge, I commend you for making the effort to raise awareness for the animals. Just make sure to explain to people what the significance of the purple paw badge is-- that it is meant to commemorate the animal victims (not voluntary heroes!) of war.
You can check out Animal Aid's booklet, "Animals: the hidden victims of war", at http://www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/booklets/war.pdf. Perhaps consider printing it off your computer and handing out copies/leaving them out at school or work for people to take!

Summary of some things you can do to help:

1. Order a Purple Paw Badge from Animal Aid and wear it! (You can see all available accessories at http://www.animalaidshop.org.uk/accessories.)
2. Print out "Animals: the hidden victims of war" and distribute it!
3. Write letters to the editor about the use of animals in warfare.
4. Call in to radio talk shows on or around Remembrance Day to educate people on the animal victims of war.
5. Do research on whether your country uses animals in the military. If it does, write to the people who are in charge of defence in your country to express your disgust with these practices.
6. Tell people in your life about how animals were/are used in war.
7. Post on social media to raise awareness for the Purple Paw Badge campaign!

This Remembrance Day, why not take some time to educate other people about the animal victims of war, and of other forms of human-caused exploitation?

Until next time!

Awesome Examples of Famous Vegetarians and Vegans Throughout History!

Hello everyone,
Need inspiration? Today we're sifting through inspiring info on famous vegetarians and vegans throughout history...

Why not take a look at the list of famous vegetarians and vegans on HappyCow.net? The link can be found here: http://www.happycow.net/famous_vegetarians.html. I warn you: there are a LOT of names on that list! Don't blame me if you end up spending a lot of time looking through them all :) This list can be useful if you want to look up the name of a particular individual, to see if they're veg*n or not.

Alternately, a more user-friendly list can be found at VeganWolf.com:  http://www.veganwolf.com/famous_vegetarians.htm#Bogus%20Vegetarians. On this website, you can go directly to different "categories" of people, such as Politicians; Actors & Filmstars; Sports Personalities; and Writers, Philosophers, Scientists. It's very inspirational.

If you'd like to read more in depth about some of these people, check out this article on Treehugger.com: http://www.treehugger.com/slideshows/green-food/13-great-vegetarians-from-history/#slide-top.

Whew, that's a lot of links. If you don't want to look at any of those websites today, why not just watch this video instead? It made me cry the first time I watched it... (Make sure the sound is on.) For some of the people from ancient times, whether or not they were actually fully vegan/vegetarian is disputed, but I would think that most of the facts are correct/accurate.



Have a nice day!

A Recent History of Veganism: Part I-- The Vegan Society

Vegetarianism has a long history, stretching back all the way to Ancient Greece, Ancient India, and more. Veganism also has a long history-- in fact, in Jainism, veganism plays an integral role in the practice of compassion and non-violence. However, for most of history, veganism was referred to as "pure vegetarianism", "strict vegetarianism" or "total vegetarianism" (and in some parts of the world, it still is!). Although this pure/strict/total vegetarianism has a rich history of its own, today I want to explore with you the recent history of veganism as we know it today in the Western world, starting with the year the word "vegan" was born.
In this post, I'll be discussing the history of the Vegan Society, which is how the term "veganism" came to be.
The word "vegan" was coined in 1944 by Donald Watson, co-founder of the Vegan Society, which is based in the UK. According to Wikipedia,

"In August 1944 two of the Vegetarian Society's members, Donald Watson (1910–2005) and Elsie "Sally" Shrigley (died 1978), suggested forming a subgroup of non-dairy vegetarians. When the executive committee rejected the idea, they and five others met in November that year at the Attic Club in Holborn, London, to discuss setting up a separate organization.
They suggested several terms to replace non-dairy vegetarian, including dairyban, vitan, benevore, sanivore and beaumangeur. Watson decided on vegan.... As he put it in 2004, the word consisted of the first three and last two letters of vegetarian, "the beginning and end of vegetarian." He called the new group the Vegan Society. Its first newsletter... was distributed to 500 people."

- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veganism

To read the FIRST EVER copy of the Vegan Society newsletter from 1944 ("The Vegan News" (Quarterly Magazine of the Non-Dairy Vegetarians)), follow this link: http://www.vegansociety.com/uploadedFiles/About_The_Society/Publications/The_Vegan_magazine/Feature_Articles/1944-news.pdf. It's really cool to see on page 2, for example, where they discuss what to call themselves:

"We should all consider carefully what our group, and our magazine, and ourselves, shall be called. ... As this first issue of our periodical had to be named, I have used the title "The Vegan News". Should we adopt this, our diet will soon become known as a VEGAN diet, and we should aspire to the ranks of VEGANS. Members' suggestions will be welcomed."

In 1976, The Vegan Society produced a 30 minute program on veganism. It presents shockingly similar knowledge to the modern-day information on veganism and is still highly relevant to veganism today-- watch it to see for yourself!


If you can't watch this video on my blog, you can view it on Youtube instead: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VlTYjaQLy2o

The gardener who was interviewed, Kathleen Jannaway, later left her position as the secretary of the Vegan Society and formed The Movement for Compassionate Living, which focuses on both veganism and sustainable living (the two are closely correlated, of course).

The Vegan Society focuses on a wide variety of tactics, including education, food labelling, and their (still quarterly!) magazine, The Vegan. Check out their website: http://www.vegansociety.com/default.aspx.
The Vegan Society is definitely one of my favourite vegan organizations; it doesn't do offensive things like PETA, and it doesn't scorn personal purity in the vegan diet the way Vegan Outreach does.

Here is a much more recent video from the Vegan Society:


Check back soon for my next post, everyone!