Category: Veganism

TryVeg Bike

Compassion Over Killing publishes one of the best “vegetarian” ( only talks about vegan foods ) starter kits at TryVeg.com. The nutrition information is complete. The tone is respectful. It explains many of the reasons why people might choose to go vegan. It has a recipe section with great pictures. Compassion Over Killing will send you a very nice hard copy version of the starter kit for free. However anyone can read the starter kit and more for free at TryVeg.com. I also like that Compassion Over Killing also gives away “TryVeg.com” bumper stickers, because while I am stuck in traffic people behind me will see the easy to remember URL “tryveg.com”, some will be curious, some will go to the site, and some people will learn some cool things.

I gave such a bumper sticker to a friend who is a biker rather than a driver. Being a crafty Martha Stewart/MacGiver type of person my friend modified her bumper sticker for her bicycle in a really cool way:

Soul Vegetarian not vegan?

I thought I would pass on a warning to Vegans who like to eat at the Soul Vegetarian restaurants.

I read a message on a web board from someone in Tallahasse Florida about their local Soul Vegetarian. He discovered that their barbecue sauce contains honey, even though it is labeled as “vegan”.

That doesn’t mean that your local branche(s) of this restaurant do the same, but if you are concerned about avoiding the use of honey you might want to ask about the ingredients of what you are interested in ordering.

The word “vegan” was coined by Donald Watson and his wife in 1947 to refer to the belief ( and practice ) that it is wrong to exploit animals, including food production. Insects, as well as fish, other sea creatures, chickens and other birds are animals.

Granted nobody owns a word, but I think if a word is only 60 years old it is too new for people to redefine it away from its original meaning.

I think if vegans politely ask about the ingredients of food at Soul Vegetarian restaurants and politely educate their local branches about what veganism is, that these restaurants will comply. They tend to be very respectful about people’s beliefs in addition to being talented cooks.

On that same web board I read this information someone mentioned that a similar situation existed in Chicago ended with Soul Vegetarian dropping non-vegan ingredients after local vegans communicated with them.

FYI, FWIW

A pleasant veg surprise today

I had a nice little incident this morning when I went for my vehicle emissions inspection.

While my car was getting tested I had to wait in this little room with a television playing videos about air quality issues. I still had some leaflets explaining the animal agriculture and climate connection leftover from some leafleting I did with FARM (http://www.farmusa.org ) the other weekend. I snagged them out of my car and left them in the waiting room hoping people would read them while their minds were still primed by the motor vehicle associations anti-pollution video.

Once the inspection of my car was done the technician told me that he saw my bumper stickers ( tryveg.com and one about veganism improving global climate issues ). He told me that he was a vegetarian.

I said that it must be cool since it had a connection with his job protecting air quality.

He said “Ah no, I’m a vegetarian for ethical reasons”.

We chatted a bit and I gave him one of the environmental fliers mentioned above.

When I think about all the unexpected dumb comments I get this incident was a nice little surprise that made my day.

🙂