October, 2019
Marin VEG
I never imagined that Tyson, Kellog, McDonald's, KFC, Smithfield
Foods and Disney would be making headlines in vegan circles. But
here is news about these huge companies all jumping into the vegan
world. (They are still producing tons of meat, though. See both Will
Tuttle's article and the How to Digest piece below.) In this
newsletter you will also find much more, including information about
a new vegan restaurant in San Francisco, a triple your donation
opportunity at a local sanctuary, and a terrific article asking
people to stop making fun of vegans. Happy October (or as I think
of it, time to make soup month)!
Stop Mocking Vegans
This most welcome article by Farhad Manjoo was published in
August in the New York Times. He is not a vegan, but he calls on
everyone to stop mocking vegans. Why? Because he says we are on the
right side of history and role models for doing the right thing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/28/opinion/vegan-food.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Goatlandia Triple Treat
Hooray for generous donors! Throughout October, any
contribution to Goatlandia, a terrific animal sanctuary in Santa
Rosa, will be tripled. Learn more about the sanctuary, their vegan
advocacy and more at www.goatlandia.org And
consider a gift to support their good work. Your donation will go
three times further between now and October 31.
Rebuttal of Stroke Warning for Vegans
The BBC recently ran a story that gained world wide attention.
It said that a study showed that vegan and vegetarian diets
increased the risk for stroke (but lowered the risk for heart
disease). On reading this I thought it didn't make sense, as both
stroke and heart disease come from similar causes such as clogged
arteries. Then I read this explanation from Free From Harm that
explained why this BBC report was not to be trusted. https://freefromharm.org/health-nutrition/vegetarian-and-vegan-stroke-scare/
The Free From Harm article did not receive the same publicity as
the BBC piece, so share it widely. As the rebuttal concludes: Unfortunately
rebuttals like this will likely not reach the meat lover who will
latch onto this stroke notion for years to come. For a more
detailed, scientific explanation of the study reported on by the
BBC, here is the response from Physicians' Committee for
Responsible Medicine: https://www.pcrm.org/news/blog/meat-and-stroke
Vitamin B12
Just a reminder that every vegan should be supplementing with
Vitamin B12. Every credible physician and nutritionist agrees that
this vitamin is needed in supplements or fortified foods to ensure
good nerve health. A few years after I first went vegan in 1986,
this was not well known. I developed numbness in my hands and was
found to have dangerously low B12 levels. Now I supplement
regularly and check my blood levels every year. Do not ignore your
B12 levels. Some nerve damage is irreversible.
Greta Thunberg
This 16 year old from Sweden is my favorite activist. She knows
the urgent plight of our fragile home planet and will not stop
urging us to do all we can to slow the climate crisis. This is her
talk at the United Nations last week. I encourage you to look up
more about her. She is a remarkable truth teller. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok
Diet and Climate
To learn more about how your diet affects climate change, visit
https://350marin.org/climate_diet_team/ This
wonderful, local organization keeps the focus on the ability of food
choices to make an impact. Follow the links there to see short,
powerful videos on vegan choices and planetary health.
Vegan Awareness in Environmental Activists is Growing
Katie Cantrell, founder of the incomparable Factory Farming
Awareness Coalition (FFACoalition.org) participated in last month's
student-led climate protests. Her experience was heartening. Here's
what she told me. It was truly inspiring to be out there
marching with the students in the Climate Strike. I've never had
an easier time leafleting, people were actually coming up to me
and asking for leaflets! And it seemed like one in every five
people said, "I don't need one, I'm already vegan!" While
the climate crisis is still a significant cause for concern and
action, this shift among environmentalists is encouraging.
Will Tuttle on the Fires in The Amazon
Dr. Will Tuttle has written a thoughtful piece about the fires that
are destroying the Amazon forest. As always, this author of the
bestselling World Peace Diet is wise and impassioned. The last
paragraph is a beautiful and inspiring description of veganism. http://www.worldpeacediet.com/2019/08/who-is-responsible-for-the-amazon-fires/
How to Digest All This Change in Big Business
I like this article by a long time vegan on how confusing it can be
when giant animal abusers start to add vegan options. She captures
my own mixed feelings about the conflict between love, peace,
kindness on the one hand and corporate greed now embracing plant
based alternatives on the other. It's a good companion piece to
Will Tuttle's, above. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/summeranne/morality-didnt-turn-people-vegan-capitalism-might
Vegan at Disney Parks
Disneyland and Disney World are adding vegan options at all their
restaurants. That says a lot about how mainstream veganism has
become. Here's the story:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vegan-disney-plant-based-walt-disney-world-resort-theme-parks-hundreds-of-restaurants-options/
World's Largest Pork Producer Adds Vegan Food Division
Smithfield Foods, the world's largest producer of pig based meats,
has created a division called Pure Farmland to offer plant based
breakfast patties, meatballs and burgers.
Vegnews tells the whole story: https://vegnews.com/2019/8/worlds-largest-pork-producer-launches-plant-based-breakfast-patties-burgers-and-meatballs
McDonald's Testing Beyond Meat Burger
In Canada, McDonald's is offering a PLT (plant, lettuce, tomato)
burger at 28 restaurants. Working with Beyond Meat, McDonald's is
jumping on the vegan bandwagon along with many other fast food
restaurants. Here are two perspectives on the story, one from the
Associated Press (which includes a brilliant quote from Ingrid
Newkirk) and one from The New York Times (which includes news about
KFC's successful test of vegan fried chicken):
https://www.apnews.com/1eab9492b91440f288be071a8b4818dc
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/26/business/mcdonalds-plant-based-burgers-canada.html
KFC Testing Vegan Chicken
KFC is working with Beyond Meat to test Beyond Fried Chicken.
It was tested in Atlanta in September and the entire test supply
sold out in five hours. Still, it is not certain that they will roll
out the plant-based fried "chicken" across the country in the coming
year. https://www.livekindly.co/kfc-is-launching-vegan-beyond-fried-chicken/
Tyson Invests in Vegan Shrimp
Tyson Ventures, the investment division of Tyson Foods, has
invested in Bay Area based company called New Wave Foods that makes
vegan shrimp. It amazes me that so many businesses want in on the
vegan future. VegNews reported this story. https://vegnews.com/2019/9/tyson-invests-in-vegan-shrimp-company
Kellogg Creates Incogmeato Burger
Morning Star Farms is a division of Kellogg. They just
introduced a plant based burger called Incogmeato Burger to compete
with the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat. Read more about it here:
https://www.cnet.com/news/kellogg-enters-the-faux-meat-game-with-its-incogmeato-burger/
New Vegan Restaurant in San Francisco
The founder of Goatlandia, Deborah Blum, is an accomplished and
popular vegan caterer. She is part of a team that was instrumental
in creating the food at a new San Francisco restaurant in the Marina
neighborhood called Wildseed. Located at 2000 Union Street,
Wildseed is open only for dinner Tuesdays through Sundays. Wildseed
is in the space of a former sausage restaurant; how cool is that?
Here's more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/article/Wildseed-San-Francisco-s-new-vegetarian-14455729.php?psid=oRVl
California Bans Fur Trapping
While billions more animals die because they are raised or
caught for human food, it is still very much worth celebrating the
end of fur trapping in California. There are few more horrendous
ways to die that being snared in a trap. Thanks to DawnWatch
(DawnWatch.com) for sharing this article from the L.A. Times. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-04/fur-trapping-ban-california-law
Victory in the Language Laws
The Plant Based Food Association just announced a victory in the
Food Labeling Laws fights. In their own words:
We are
thrilled to share that as of last night, the Mississippi
Department of Agriculture proposed a new regulation that
would allow vegan and vegetarian food companies to continue
using meat and meat product terms on their food labels. This new regulation is a direct response to PBFA
and member company Upton’s Naturals’ lawsuit that was filed
this past July. The suit, which was made possible with the
help of Institute for Justice, claimed that the state of
Mississippi was violating plant-based food company’s First
Amendment rights by limiting their ability to label foods in
ways that consumers understand. Three
cheers for PBFA and the defeat of laws that would not allow
plant based meats to be called meat!
As always, be sure to go to http://www.bayareaveg.org/events.htm and http://www.meetup.com/marin-vegan/ to find out what's happening in the coming weeks. And check out Compassionate Living in Sonoma County. Their web site is www.socoveg.org/ and The San Francisco Veg Society at www. SFVS.org.
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