In the news: The Good Stuff

How often do you get excited by the news?  Usually I end up pissed off or depressed.  Today that is not the case :)  I actually have some happy things to share.

Adventures in Veganism features a very positive outlook on veganism.  Published in our local 417 magazine, editor Katie Polluck goes vegan for a week and writes about her experience.

Have you heard of Loreen Dinwiddie?  This awesome lady just turned 108 and has been vegan since 1922.  That's 89 freakin' years!!!  Check her out on Vegansaurus!


*Don't forget to sign-up for the Poetry Swap!   
*Check out the updated Blog lists (in the right column)!  I've added some newer pals and cool blogs.  You can always contact me if you would like to be added ;) 
*Coming up: Spreading the Word (The Importance of Vegan Advocacy)

Do not support VegNews!

You've heard of the VegNews fiasco by now, right?  Luckily for me, the ever-reliable Erik Marcus laid it all out.  Quarry Girl spilled the beans a few days ago on VegNews' meaty photos.  VegNews uses stock photos of nonvegan food to represent vegan food in their magazine and on their website.  After this was discovered, their initial response was to delete website comments that "bullied" them by revealing the truth.

Their response is not good enough.  What would be good enough is to take responsibility for the mistake and become a real advocate.  I really think that the recent New York Times headline "Meat discovered in Meatless Magazine" says it all.  These issues are confusing enough for people. 

Want to read more?  Check out Quarry Girl, some of the comments are interesting, too.  Though there might be a million by now.  Vegan.com updates regularly with related articles.  You can now read comments on VegNews site since the release of their statement.  And of course, since everyone's talking about it everywhere, you can hit up the PPK forum and anywhere else that supports veganism.

UPDATE 4/18:  VegNews has now issued an apology.  

Why Vegan? - a story from Warped Tour

Here's a pretty cool video about a girl who decided to go vegan after attending Warped Tour.  I could not post the clip here, so please follow the link.  To those who are already vegan, this shows that we can make a difference in a variety of venues.  You never know who might be inspired to make a change ;)  Organizations like Vegan Outreach off lots of resources to help anyone interested in reaching out to their community.

Other sites that might be of interest:
Info. for new vegans 
Why Vegan - Vegan Outreach

Blog Updates
Coming Up:  DR pt. 2; cookbook reviews and giveaway; and more...
Recent Changes:  You might notice that there is now a search bar to aid in searching through past entries.  This has allowed me to condense the amount of labels used ;)  More to come...    

Monday News

Cameron ponders the backyard

This week I would just like to encourage you to check out Vegan.com  (if you don't already).  This is an awesome place to get a good dose of vegan related news stories, books and a variety of good information.
Some recent entries to check out:

Egg Recall Increases to Half a BILLION - You've got to be kidding me!  But guess what, they're not kidding...

Humane Society Calls to Abolish Battery Cages - Perhaps Salmonella is good for something.

Beef, the Tenth Healthiest Food - Served up with a side of heart disease, yum!

Hog Farmer Goes Vegan
 
As recommended at Vegan.com, check out Jack Norris RD.  This blog is, also, really impressive.  As it mentions on the site, it's intentions are to provide: summaries of recent research related to veg. diets and notifications of VeganHealth,.org updates. 

Something else:
Animal Rescue Stamps:  This is actually from Vegan Etsy, but it was too sweet to not share with you ;)


Stay tuned...
More book reviews and a give away to come!

Why Vegan? - Meet Your Meat

This video is extremely important to me.  It is the initial reason I became vegan:


Find out more at meat.org.

In the Hometown News

In Missouri there has been a lot of rallying against puppy mills these days.  Fellow Missourian Lisa, at Show Me Vegan, recently posted about the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act.  In the midst of it, some livestock owners have become concerned over how far regulations might go.
On March 25 an article titled Proposal: No government intrusion in livestock was published in the Springfield News-Leader.  The end of the article really struck me,

"Loehner, a Republican and farmer from Osage County in central Missouri, said there are methods in raising livestock that the general public doesn't understand.

For example, Loehner said, lambs are born with an eight-inch tail that is cut off after birth. If the tail is left on, it can affect the lamb's growth and development, making the animal less productive and profitable, Loehner said.

"It seems awfully cruel that you have to do that, but that's the only way it can survive" and farmers can make a profit, Loehner said."

________

I agree on one point, that there are a lot of methods that the public doesn't understand.  And I would go as far to say, a lot of methods that the public would rather not know about.  Ignorance is bliss, after all.