vegansaurus!

It’s World Water Day and almost no one, save a lone sexy twitterer, is talking about the toll meat takes on water conservation! Everyone is more than happy to turn the faucet off when they brush their teeth but no one wants to look at the ginormous pink hamburger in the room: meat consumes a crapload of water. It’s bad with a capital awful. Here we are, telling people to speed up their shampoo routines while conscious choices in eating could reduce individual water usage by hundreds of gallons a day. Reducing meat consumption is a substantial, documented way to reduce water waste and yet, nobody wants to get the word out. Lucky for you! I’m HERE and I’m LOUD.

I’ve been hunting around today and National Geographic has this great interactive comparison guide for water use and different foods. According to this, it requires 1,799* gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. It’s only 216 gallons to produce one pound of soy beans. Say it with me now: JESUS CHRISTMAS! That’s a big difference!

Because reading is boring, I have more pictures for you! I found a super quiz over at H2Oconserve.org that estimates the amount of water you use a day. It’s like a Cosmo quiz with morals! I went ahead and took the quiz two separate times! In the quiz, they ask if you are an omnivore or a vegan; keeping all the other answers exactly the same, I did one go-round for each diet option and here are the results!:

So vegan diet to omnivore diet, that’s 543.9 to 1,149.9. DAMN, SON! Meat-eaters use 606 more gallons of water a day than us vegans? Yowza. I kind of saw that coming but more than twice as much? That’s pretty criminal. Yet we’re harassing people about how often they wash their hands? For real, just how many times will we tell people to turn the faucet off when they brush their teeth? Hey, did you also know you should turn the lights out when you leave your house? YES DUH now let’s talk about how we can make real change!

*This is the most conservative figure I’ve seen all day; other sources calculate that it takes thousands of gallons more.

After reading this insane bit of poorly reasoned crazy on EcoSalon, Laura decided to write a rebuttal, and it’s great! It’s everything the other article isn’t: sane, logical, and smart. 

So, read it!

Abigail Wick, the author of the Conscious Case piece, appears intent on selling herself as a former vegan for pageviews. It’s sad. People who give a shit about eating issues need to stand up for the things that REALLY matter. Focusing their efforts on taking down a group of ethical eaters is just a poor use of time. If Wick gave a shit about the food system, she would be writing about gestation crates and working conditions in American slaughterhouses. I can think of about 10 million better uses for her time, but probably none of them would garner her terrible writing as many pageviews as the vegan hate.

What an idiot.

Dude, this sounds amazing. The folks at Kasa are making it happen, deliciously. It’s only $20, the menu is HUGE, and reports from last week’s dinner were that it was off the chain. Maybe not that wording exactly but I’m too lazy to look up the emails. SO! Go this week and support them making it all vegan and maybe we’ll see more vegan nights! They are randomly doing this one vegan because the demand was so high last week, so let’s support them!

Now, here is a picture of Dhokla, a chickpea flour sponge cake drizzled with tamarind sauce. You’ll be eating it on Wednesday, and you will be very happy!

See you there! Er, but first, call 415-690-8512 for reservations or email popup@kasaindian.com for reservations!

[picture from Food Stories!]

I was on Pawesome and how surprised was I? It’s adopt a guinea pig month and I didn’t even know! The month is almost over but you still have some time to get in under the wire. Or, you know, adopt one in April. I’m sure the guinea pigs won’t mind and you can give them extra cuddles for missing their special month.

I have a special interest in guinea pigs because, while I don’t have any now, I had one when I was little. Poor Speedy, she never had the life she deserved and I will feel guilty forever! I was young and didn’t know much about guinea pigs. I had her all alone—guinea pigs are social animals!—in what I’ve now learned is the size of a gestation crate. They need friends! And room to play! If you are considering getting a guinea pig, here is a great guide for caring for these little guys. I found a great site all about how to make awesome cages for your pal and this super helpful video showing you how to make a cool cage in detail. I also found out guinea pigs can do tricks! OMJesus. The circle trick is my favorite I think.

Because I love you lazy fools, I looked up where you can adopt a guinea pig. Here’s a state-by-state rescue listing that might be helpful for finding a rescue in your area. Cavy Spirit has adoptables for the SF Bay Area. I’ve read that the SFSPCA doesn’t do small animal adoptions but that the ACC does. San Diego has a cute place, Wee Companions, that has guinea pigs and in San Jose, there’s North Star Rescue. For the New York area, there is the Have a Heart Guinea Pig Rescue and the North Jersey Guinea Pig and Hamster Rescue in New Jersey. These are both Petfinder sites and if you search, there are lots of other places to find guinea pigs on Petfinder (just enter your zip code; I set up the rest of the search for you, should work I hope. Otherwise, do it yourself!).

A lot of these organizations also need CASH MONEY so I was thinking for those of us who can’t adopt, we could donate some funds! You can check each site for their donation page. Oh and if you know of any other guinea pig adoption organizations, write them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list!

Update: Here’s a couple more places to adopt! Orange County Cavy Haven and Texas Rustlers Guinea Pig Rescue also have many guinea pigs up for adoption. (Thanks, Vegan Wheekers!)

Finally, here’s the famous pitbull Sharky giving his pig friend a bath!

[can’t see the video? Watch on Vegansaurus.com! Cute picture from WOAW-World Animal Welfare on flickr. Laura just taught me how to use creative commons so get ready for some flickr excitement in your future!]

You guys! I am participating in a blogger bakesale for Japan! You read right. This means I will be shipping many cookies to one lucky winner. The Tomato Tart (we love her!) is hosting the sale, and all bidding will take place on that site on Wednesday, Mar. 30. So, uh, you all gotta bid on my cookies. Actual cookies, not my boobs… is that slang for boobs? or maybe it’s vagina? Either way, you’re not winning those UNLESS THE PRICE IS RIGHT EMAIL ME.

What I’m auctioning off is a couple dozen vegan cookies of various flavors that will all be shaped like dinosaurs. They may be pink, if I can figure out science by then. Either way, they will look like Hell Yeah It’s Vegan’s dino pizza, just smaller and made with cookies:

Yum! See you tramps there!

Sami Grover at Treehugger is talking about veganism again, in “What does a Vegan World Actually Look Like?” He in no way answers this question or attempts to take a stance. Because I’m always willing to share knowledge, I’ll answer his questions for you: Is a vegan world healthier? Yes. Is it less cruel? Yes. Is it more sustainable? Yes. Now here’s MY question: We see so many good reasons to be vegan, what’s a good reason NOT to be vegan? I’d love to hear a legitimate reason that goes beyond “bacon tastes good.”

Further: Sami Grover, what is up with you, sir? With posts like “I Don’t feel Bad for Eating Meat. So Why Do I Apologize For It?” (pro tip: because you do!) and “Why Vegans Are Welcome to Call me a Murder” (OK, murderer!), it’s starting to look like you’re sourcing your articles from Defensive Omnivore Bingo. If you’re not, you should be! Please see the below game board, that should keep you busy for a while—you can do a write-up for each square!

Somehow, I just can’t see myself eating test-tube meat. I imagine it would come with the same horrific and potentially organ-altering issues as genetically modified corn and shiz, you know like growing eight uteri or something. BUT. I do think that cloning meat-tissue would take pressure off of industrialized meat production AND weird cloning experiments. Save our farm animals and just eat pseudo-meat? I’m wondering if it would be anywhere near the same as a Boca burger.

Eat, Drink…Better wrote about biologist Vladimir Mironov and his in-vitro meat research. This man with the name of a Russian astronaut claims we are already running out of agricultural space globally, and that contributes to that whole hunger thing. And PETA is a major investor. “PETA is apparently offering a one million dollar prize for anyone who can grow a commercially available synthetic meat for market by June 2012.” Whaaaaa?

I’m not so all-aboad-the-biotech-wagon as I am on the alternatives-to-animal-exploitation-mobile. But the fact that scientists are trying to develop a “product” that would eliminate all the crazy issues we face with big Ag: greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, factory farms/slaughterhouses, and fucked-up biodiversity—that doesn’t sound so horrible—as long as there are no rogue mutated species coming out of this mess. I’m not prepared to join the X-Men. [Ed.: however, some of us named Laura are! And she wants the ability to eat unlimited amounts of ice cream WITH NO HEADACHES and to fly and to be invisible and to have people-crushing fatness. Please note: she is working on the last one already, fuck science!]

Mironov claims this risk just isn’t there and that we, the consumer, will accept the test-tube meat. He says, “We are already mass consuming cultured products like yogurt, brewed beer, and distilled wine. Therefore, the prospect of consuming cultured meat is not a foreign concept.” The jury is still out over here, but it will be interesting to see big meat producers freak out—and probably try to lay claim to the profits.

Perhaps these two geniuses could help make some strides!

This guest post was brought to us by Jessi Stafford! Jessi is originally from St. Louis…ish. She’s now squandering her fortune while freelancing in Baton Rouge, L.A. A University of Missouri Journalism grad, Jessi uses her degree for cocktail-drinking. She loves hyperbole and whoring around thrift stores. This is Jessi’s second post for Vegansaurus. Thanks, Jessi!

[Can’t see the video? Watch it on Vegansaurus.com!]

The whole incident is pretty funny and I don’t think it’s as bad as Ecorazzi makes it out to be. No blows are thrown, relax. Ecorazzi’s takeaway is that, “Olivia Munn + alcohol + uninformed remarks about animal cruelty = great television.” I’m hoping they are talking about the Today Show host making “uninformed” remarks because I don’t see what’s so uninformed about Munn’s remarks. Horse-drawn carriages are fucked up and barbaric. I’m glad Munn’s not a fake celebrity animal-rights activist and actually calls people out when an issue arises instead of keeping some PR-pleasing passive voice on the subject. Although, her brand is “just one of the boyz who tells it like it is but is still totally adorable and sexually accessible and OOPS I FARTED LOLZ” so that could be it, too. Either way, I’m glad she used her big mouth.

Munn is probably best known for getting naked for a variety of reasons, and for being a woman on The Daily Show. More specifically, the shit storm her hiring created—which culminated in The Daily Show displaying its true (asshole) colors regarding women. Anyway, I can’t tell if she’s vegan? Peta quotes her earlier this year on horse-drawn carriages:

The least romantic thing to do in New York or any other city is going on horse-drawn carriage rides…. [I]f you knew the pain and misery these beautiful animals endure just to fulfill the false symbol of uniting two hearts, it would actually break your heart. To see the horses in the harsh, cold weather being forced to cart people around the city is the farthest thing from romantic in my opinion.

Word.

Hey young world! My brother and I went to Manhattan’s Dirt Candy last week and it was pretty awesome. It’s called Dirt Candy because, like, vegetables are the candy of dirt. So all the dishes are like, “carrot” and then it has insane stuff made with carrots in the description (“steamed barbecue carrot buns, cucumber & sesame ginger salad”). The whole place is vegetarian but almost every dish can be made vegan; there was just one dessert that couldn’t be vegan when we were there. It would be a lot cooler if the whole place were vegan, but nobody besides me is perfect.

My omni brother was sweet enough to get vegan stuff too so that I could try more dishes. For our appetizers, we had squash: “butternut squash broth, squash dumplings, delicata coconut cream” and mushroom: “portobello mousse, truffled toast pear & fennel compote.” The mushroom dish (pictured above) is one of their most popular but we both actually preferred the squash dish. The mushroom plate was very good though and looked pretty with it’s crazy cube of portobello mousse.

For our entrees, we had zucchini: “mint & tarragon pasta, squash blossom relish, yogurt & saffron sauce” and cauliflower: “buttermilk battered cauliflower, waffles, horseradish, wild arugula.” The cauliflower was a truly great concept; it’s the veggie take on chicken and waffles. I applaud the idea, but the execution was not good. Though waffle was good of course, the battered cauliflower was pretty much gross. I assume it was supposed to taste smoked or something but it basically tasted like charcoal. We couldn’t finish it. The waitress was very nice and asked if anything was wrong (“usually the plates are licked clean!”) but I am such a nancy, I just couldn’t complain about it. I know, I’m not doing anybody any favors but I hate complaining about stuff while I’m actually in a restaurant. Outside of a restaurant, it seems I’m totally fine complaining! Oh well. The zucchini dish was really great though. We both enjoyed it. It had miniature falafel balls in it and now I wonder why ALL falafel balls aren’t mini; they are great and adorbs.

My favorite part was dessert! I got the chocolate beet cake! BEET cake! Can you imagine? It was actually like a chocolate lava cake which happens to be my favorite dessert ever. You couldn’t taste any sort of beet flavor, which was fine by me. Maybe it was just sweetened with beets. It wasn’t super-chocolaty but the gooey inside was great! I would definitely go there just for dessert sometime. And wine! You know I love dessert and wine—a little combo I like to call, “reason to live.”

[Photo by Scaredy_kat from flickr!]

So, there’s been a run on iodine pills here on the west coast because it’s protective against radioactive iodide, and lots of people are freaked the fucked out. 

Well, our friend Brant at The Telling Compulsion has some news from Dr. David J. Brenner, director of the Center for Radiological Research at Columbia University, and it’s MESSED UP! I mean, for most people. Not for vegans. Yet again, we’re doing everything right:

Dr. Brenner said the iodine pills were protective, but were “a bit of a myth” because their use is based on the belief that the risk is from inhaling radioactive iodine. Actually, he said, 98 percent of people’s exposure comes from milk and other dairy products.

“The way radioactive iodine gets into human beings is an indirect route,” he said. “It falls to the ground, cows eat grass which has got the radioactive iodine in it and make milk with radioactive iodine, and you get it from drinking the milk. You get very little from inhaling it. The way to prevent it is just to stop people from drinking the milk.”

You see? Science wants you to go vegan. And you can’t argue with science! Hey, I have an idea: Let’s rub Coconut Bliss all over our bodies because that’s got to extra protect us, right? SCIENCE!

Have you been thinking about the animals affected by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan? Well, @FigaroRascal’s favorite paper, the Anipal Times, has posted a wealth of information on how the situation with animals in Japan is being handled as well as what you can do to help. GO! READ! HELP!

Lunch Box Bunch had a post this week with 15 food photography tips! I need to read them. Shut up! I do the best job my iPhone can do.

Bay Area vegan Ai Hiruma-Martinez of If Martha Was Vegan got a recipe published in Rachel Ray’s magazine! Go Ai! It’s a quinoa salad. Pick up your copy of the magazine and tell them you love vegan recipes! In other news: I find Rachel Ray insufferable, anybody with me?

If there’s one thing I love, it’s bechamel sauce! I started following this French blog on twitter and they posted this super-looking bechamel recipe. I plugged it into google translate and it doesn’t look that difficult! What’s your favorite recipe that calls for bechamel sauce? Tell me now! I’m hungry!

The oldest wild bird in the northern hemisphere, a 60-year-old albatross named Wisdom, totally got her groove back! Wisdom has a new chick! She is amazing scientists with her longevity and fertility. God bless you and your libido, Wisdom.

Hey, ever wonder what a gay rights activist thinks about being vegan? Check it out!: Being Vegan is SO Gay!

Hey, ever wonder what Glamour magazine thinks about being vegan? Check it out!: Why is Everyone Going Vegan?

Hey sandwich-lovers! Check out this list of the seven best vegan sandwiches in New York for under $7! GIVE THEM TO ME.

Now here’s something, from CALMaction.org, a successful grassroots model to shutting down fur stores! Successful stuff is like my fave.

What are you doing this weekend for Meatout? You are supposed to host a meat-free event and get the people excited about vegan food! DO IT! OR go to an event someone else is hosting like this one in San Francisco:

What: Vegan Feed-in, leafleting, and signs at the March & Rally to Stop the Wars
When: Saturday, Mar. 19 at noon.
Where: UN Plaza
RSVP: Contact FARM’s new West Coast Coordinator, Alex Felsinger;
831-601-9082, alexf@farmusa.org

In these end-of-days times, it’s easy to feel like everything is spinning out of control and we’re all screwed and fuck it, I give up. Well, don’t give up! Give money! I know, we’re always asking for something around here—validation, praise, cash. Well, this time it’s for a good case: The animals in Japan who were affected by the recent earthquakes and tsunami and their devastating effects. VegNews has a terrific post about how to help out and what you can do. So, in addition to all the other monies you’re giving, maybe you can look out for our animal friends, too? And then we can all hold each other as the entire Earth falls into the ocean/simultaneously bursts into flames.

On a more personal note (what’s new ME ME ME ME ME), my very first dogs growing up were Japanese! My parents rescued them while living outside of Tokyo, and brought them home! Then they had me and my siblings and BAM! Culture clash! They didn’t know how to use forks! We didn’t know how to use chopsticks! It was mayhem. Anyway, they were the greatest, and so I must assume that is the case with all Japanese animals.

[Buzzfeed via SF Gate, which also has a story about how to help animals in Japan!]

You know how most conventional chocolate is flavored with children’s tears? Actually, it’s much, much worse than that but I can’t bring myself to write about it because if I did, I’d have to hit the streets afterwards and start punching Whatchamacallits out of people’s idiot faces.

Lucky for us, we can happily eat everything on the Food Empowerment Project’s list, which includes companies like Sjaaks (we want all the Eli Earth bars SO BAD) and Allison’s Gourmet (looooove, look at those insane pb cups)! Check out the whole list, which includes ice cream companies who use chocolate, too! Vegan ice cream can be evil!? Sadness. Support these companies and not the others because seriously, chocolate that’s not fair trade is FUCKED.

That’s right:

What’s your usual order? I’m not joking when I say that I eat a Chipotle vegetarian burrito every single day. It’s rice, black beans, peppers, onions, and guacamole. I’m thinking a lot about vegetarian food these days, which is kind of funny when you consider what I’m known for. Right now I’m experimenting with something called Garden Blend for Chipotle, which is a soy and protein combo. I’m going for vegetarian food more often and now it’s my goal to only eat very good meat, which means eating it much more rarely than I used to. I’m treating meat as something special.

That’s pretty cool because he’s one of those celebrity chefs who is usually all OMG MEAT and now he’s all OMG VEGETARIAN BURRITO. So, you know, Go on Nate Appleman, and Go on, Chipotle. Rock out that Garden Blend (made with Gardein!) and make that shit even more delicious and then put it in all of your “restaurants” and finally make us vegans happy for once in our miserable lives. Sheeeeit.

Garden blend burrito photo from quarrygirl, who also has the update on them stopping Garden blend sales! But perhaps this Nate Appleman character can change all that!

This is all I’m posting about St. Patrick’s Day because I think it’s a lame holiday. This stems from my hatred for drunk college kids in themed outfits. But I do love beer so let’s look at some vegan beers. Yee-freaking-ha!

I’ve consulted vegan booze expert Barnivore and found some solid choices for your drunken pleasure. Turns out SF’s own Speakeasy Ales and Lagers is vegan-friendly.* My favorite as of late, Allagash, is listed as vegan-friendly too! I always get the Allagash white because it comes with a lemon or orange slice and I love a good lemon or orange slice. Another beer I like, Ommegang, is vegan-friendly also. I don’t actually like this beer that much but IT SAYS MY NAME IN IT! So I often order it.

If you want to get fancy, Chimay is vegan! I like to bring Chimay as a housewarming present for beer-enthusiasts, but why not treat yourself! It is a holiday after all. On the other side of the fence, you kids will be glad to hear that Pabst is listed as vegan-friendly too. You kids with your Pabst!

Turns out Japanese favorite Sapporo is vegan. My personal favorite Japanese beer, Asaji, is vegan-friendly as well. If you want to stay stateside, Sixpoint, which I like very much, is apparently from Brooklyn and is listed as vegan-friendly. Everyone and their mom will be glad to hear Yuengling is vegan-friendly. I thought only Philadelphians liked Yuengling but all kinds of people order it at my local bar in Brooklyn. I’m like, “you know Yuengling isn’t that great, right?” And they’re like, “But it’s so cheap!” Sorry friends, $4 is not cheap. Back in MY day, you could get a Yuengling for $2.50! Goddamn booze inflation.

Now maybe you’re like, um, where are the Irish beers? Well, that is an issue. I guess there are some Irish beers that are vegan-friendly, like Bulmers’ (only the pear cider) and Carlow Brewery, but many Irish and British beers aren’t vegan because they are filtered with isinglass, old-school style. I just steer clear of any British or Irish beers that are called “ales” and any brands that spell old as “olde.” But that’s my own personal system, I don’t know how accurate it is. But whatever, screw British and Irish beers! If you go foreign, go German—that’s what I always say! (applies to beer and lovers!**) By law, German beers are vegan. They regulate those mofos.

If you really want to go Irish, stick to whisky. A lot of them seem to be vegan. Plus, then you’ll be more hardcore! A real St. Paddy’s Day tough guy! Alright, that’s all the advice I’ve got for you today. Now go out there and make me proud!

Update!: I guess it’s St. Paddy’s day not St. Patty’s. Guess who doesn’t care?

*Barnivore uses the term “vegan-friendly” instead of just vegan. Because it’s user submission-based, they rely upon users for the information and they don’t go checking each beer themselves. As they say, “we publish as much information as we can about each company, and if we get a reply that’s clearly not good enough, we’ll follow up ourselves before we add it, but the reality is that keeping up with user submissions can seriously cut into our drinking time.”

**Just kidding! Germans are a cold, cold people.