August, 2018
Marin Vegetarian Education Group
Along with our neighbors, in June Stan and I helped to create a new
community garden. Now the sunflowers are spectacular and attracting
bees. Hooray! As I eagerly and impatiently await the maturity of the
basil, cucumbers, and squash, I am in awe of the magic in a seed,
sunshine, water and soil. May you find magic and delight in your
life every day this month!
Sunday, August 18
10AM - 6PM
Sonoma VegFest
I m honored that the Sonoma County VegFest invited me to speak
this year! I will be speaking at 10:30 AM in The Grand Lobby
on Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned: Love, Laughter and Living as a
Vegan for 32 Years at this exciting festival on Sunday, August 18.
Here is more about this wonderful, annual celebration:
The Sonoma County VegFest is the North Bay's wildly popular
celebration of compassionate, health, and environmentally
responsible living. The event features dozens of Bay Area vendors,
three rooms of inspiring speakers, professional cooking
demonstrations, lots of free samples, and an exciting food court.
There is also a kids zone with a full schedule of activities for
families.
General Admission is $5
Luther Burbank Center for the Arts
50 Mark West Springs Rd, Santa Rosa
For more information and to see the schedule go to www.socovegfest.org
This is a once-a-year event you will not want to miss! I hope to
see you there!!
Thursday, August 30
Clean Up for Those Who Live in the Ocean
At Any Shoreline Near You
In honor of oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, The Food Empowerment
Project is encouraging us to do our part to help all the beings who
live in the ocean by cleaning up shorelines on Thursday, August 30
(and by not eating fish, ever). Read this moving tribute to Dr.
Earle to learn more about this new campaign at http://appetiteforjustice.blogspot.com/2018/04/fight-for-ocean-august-30-2018-in-honor.html
And consider joining the Bodega Bay group or starting your own:
http://www.foodispower.org/fight-for-the-oceans-day/
Personal and Professional Congratulations to
lauren ornelas and the Food Empowerment Project
This summer, lauren ornelas, founder and executive director of
the Food Empowerment Project was inducted into the Animal Rights
Hall of Fame at the Animal Rights Conference in Los Angeles. I'm
thrilled that her 31 years of activism and leadership have been
recognized and honored this way.
And even more exciting, an eight year long campaign by the Food
Empowerment Project has become successful this summer. Until
Governor Jerry Brown signed a new regulation this year, there was a
50-mile rule that harmed the families of the people who grow our
food. Forced to move at least 50 miles away after each harvest
season, the children of farm workers had to miss school or change
schools every year. Relentless work educating and lobbying for a
change to this rule finally paid off in July. Learn more at https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/07/06/50-mile-rule-migrant-farmworker-housing-policy-changed-to-allow-children-to-stay-in-school-year-round/
and join me in congratulating and thanking FEP for their
persistence and success. FoodIsPower.org is their web site.
Costco and Ikea Adding Vegan Food
Vegan options are showing up in more and more places. Costco and
Ikea are the latest:
https://m.andnowuknow.com/behind-greens/costco-launches-new-vegetarian-al-pastor-salad-its-food-court-menu/jessica-donnel/58892
Starting in England and expected soon in the U.S. : https://www.plantbasednews.org/post/ikea-to-launch-vegan-soft-serve-ice-cream-in-its-stores
Dairy Feeling the Threat of Non-Dairy Options
The dairy industry is trying to make it illegal to call any
product "milk" if it doesn't come from an animal. Here is one story
about The Dairy Pride Act, a proposed bill asking the USDA to ban
the word from almond, soy and other non-dairy milks: https://www.newsweek.com/why-fda-cracking-down-nut-milks-1032040
While many of us who use soy, almond, cashew or oat
milk agree that this is absurd, dairy farmers are desperate while
dairy consumption continues to fall. And here is a report from Mercy
for Animals that tells us that some former dairy farmers have
switched to making beer: https://mercyforanimals.org/dairy-consumption-is-so-low-that-new-york
Finally, here is one article about the liklihood of this bill being
enforced, if enacted: https://vegnews.com/2018/8/dictionary-expert-assures-plant-based-milk-labeling-is-here-to-stay
Summerfest News
Early in July I attended and spoke at Summerfest, the annual
celebration/conference/camp of the North American Vegetarian
Society. The biggest news at the conference, announced during the
Saturday night plenary session in a packed auditorium is that the
organization is changing its name to the North American Vegan
Society. The Vegetarian Hall of Fame is now The Vegan Hall of Fame
(Chef AJ was inducted this year). The change was a reflection of
the reality that every dietitian, physician, philosopher, ethicist,
and scientist in attendance, has, for many years, stressed the
urgent need to go vegan to help the earth and its inhabitants. This
was an exciting moment, but only one of many. To me, watching the
fireflies at dusk was another highlight. And to see Miyoko show off
her singing, dancing, comedic timing and lyric-writing talent was
reason enough to cheer. There are parallel sessions every hour, and
at those I attended, every speaker was inspiring. It was a
gathering of some of the brightest and most compassionate educators,
chefs, health promoters and activists in the country. I highly
recommend that you look into going next summer. Getting to
Johnstown, PA is not easy from the West Coast. But, it is worth the
hassle to spend four days learing so much and eating such good food
in the company of such good people.
How A Body Changes on a Vegan Diet
Orignally published in The Conversation, Newsweek picked this up
and published it on line as well. While there are enough warnings
here to scare away some people, the overall message in this article
is encouraging. It does stress the importance of knowing your levels
of vitamin D an supplementing if needed, and definitely
supplementing vitamin B12.
https://theconversation.com/vegan-diet-how-your-body-changes-from-day-one-100413
Do It Yourself Vegan
People often ask me how I gather the news that I share in these
newsletters. Here are some of my best sources. Sign up for weekly
or daily emails from these organizations so that you can be the
first to know when vegans are in the news. I recommend this
especially because I am traveling a lot and not always available to
share the news with you.
plantbasednews.org From the UK, this is an excellent way to
learn about global trends.
www.google.com/alerts Here you can enter the word "vegan,"
or any other term, and get a daily digest (or multiple emails each
day) of any news that Google tracks that has the word in the
article. Learn more about how this works at https://www.bloggingbasics101.com/how-to-set-up-a-google-alert-and-why-its-a-good-idea/
Sign up to get emails from any/all of these excellent
organizations:
Food Empowerment Project foodispower.org
A Well Fed World AWFW,org
Factory Farming Awareness Coalition FFACoalition.org
Coalition for Healthy School Food
www.healthyschoolfood.org/
DawnWatch
Dawnwatch.com
Plant Based Food Association
plantbasedfoods.org
Veg News
VegNews.com
One Green Planet
OneGreenPlanet.org
Vegetarian Resource Group VRG.org
There are dozens more, including Mercy For Animals, Free From Harm,
Compassion Over Killing, Fish Feel, United Poultry Concerns . . .
You just have to decide how much email you want to get every week.
Also, join and sign
up for updates from www.bayareaveg.org/events.htm
and www.meetup.com/marin-vegan/
to find out what's happening in the coming weeks. And join
Compassionate Living in Sonoma County at www.socoveg.org/.
And The San Francisco Veg Society at
www. SFVS.org
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