vegansaurus!

Copyright PETA.

Hi everybody, did you hear about this recent PETA UK demo? I’m interested in what you think about it. Details:

PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk caused enough of a scene outside British retailer Fortnum & Mason to make Britons drop their brollies in a colourful protest for PETA UK.

Showing what geese on Fortnum & Mason’s foie gras farms endure, a man bound Ingrid with ropes and pretended to shove a pipe down her throat. The pipe was attached to a funnel packed with grain, and fake blood oozed down her face to represent the mouth and neck wounds that geese sustain when they are gouged by the pipes.

In order to fully replicate how foie gras is produced, Ingrid would have had to be force-fed several times a day for weeks, until her liver had swelled to up to 10 times its normal size, when it would then be sold as a “delicacy.”

Until Fortnum & Mason stops the goose abuse, PETA UK vows not to stop the grotesque protests.

Take it away, Paul!

Newspaper editorial pages haven’t been kind this week to the meat industry’s legislative efforts to suppress animal cruelty whistleblowers. The SF Chronicle called the effort “the worst PR gaffe since New Coke.” The LA Times said “it should be put out of its misery and killed quickly in committee.” And a columnist for the Indianapolis Star notes that “an unnecessary bill like this one sends a loud and clear message to the worst of the worst in the agriculture business. And that message is this: Come to Indiana. We don’t care what you do.” Want to see HSUS’s full-page ad running in several Indiana papers on the same topic? Here you go.

The FDA just released results of retail meat sampling, finding that 12% of retail chicken contained salmonella, 74% of which were antibiotic-resistant to one or more antibiotics. More than three-quarters of turkey samples contained E. coli, 75% of it antibiotics-resistant.

Here’s some interesting commentary on NPR’s blog this week from a couple friends of mine about why animal advocates should be reasonable. Quite a notion! :- )

Finally, yet another major pork producer, Canada’s second-largest, announced it will end its gestation crate use, based on requests from its major customers.

Video of the week: Think cats are the only animals who like laser pointers? (Seriously, this is amazing.)

Cartoon of the week: Cat manicures. Too true.

I don’t usually celebrate Easter, but this brilliant idea has me pondering a party. It’s apparently a THING in Europe: Sending your buddies all over the yard/park/house in search of pastel-painted delicious adult beverages. Not only is this much more vegan-friendly than hiding eggs (assuming you pick your beers well; barnivore.com), it’s also SO MUCH TASTIER. Beer, people! On a Sunday morning! With pastels!

You can get fancy and invent rules, winners, blind taste-tests, etc. Or you can be lazy and just hide cans of PBR in your roommate’s bathrobe. Whatever you do, tell us about it! Get the full scoop on Food Republic.

Photo by Shawn Allen on flickr.com

Thanks, Zagats, for pulling together this list of 8 vegan “diners, drive-ins and dives.” I was going to take issue with them putting Denver’s Watercourse on the list, since that place is damn classy, but the buffalo seitan wings are definitely junk food, so I’ll let it slide. 

I think it’s probably not cool for me to just steal all their photos and paste them here, so go look at their site if you want to see pics, but here are their choices: 

• Chicago Diner, Chicago
• Bender’s in SF
• Foodswings, Brooklyn
• Arlo’s, Austin
• Watercourse, Denver
• Sticky Fingers, DC
• Blackbird Pizzeria, Philly
• Flore, LA

I’ll just throw some other nominations out there…you got any to add? Let us know!

• Vertical Diner, SLC
• Souley Vegan, Oakland
• Ike’s Place, SF (& LA soon!)

Ike’s is the top spot in the Bay Area for serious business vegan sandwiches, and this very spring he’s opening a new shop in L.A. What’s more, he’s replacing a Subway! What? Per Scott James:

Ike’s secured the Westwood spot after a campaign on Facebook that encouraged fans to email the property owner, asking her to rent the space to Ike’s after Subway’s lease expired. It was a risky move that Shehadeh admits could have backfired. “If she was going to get mad, she wasn’t going to rent to us anyway,” he said.

Instead, Shehadeh said, the landlord was impressed when she was flooded with 1,000 emails in favor of Ike’s. Such passion…for a sandwich shop? Soon the deal was signed.

The rest of the article is mostly about James’s relationship with his reportage of the saga of Ike’s in San Francisco, which is significantly less interesting. The point is: Congratulations L.A., the king of vegan sandwiches is coming to you! Viva Ike’s!

[photo by digiyesica via Flickr]

Have any of you attempted to make creme eggs? I loved the Cadbury’s original more than life itself as a kid, and had an excellent grown-up version at Timeless the other week—creamier centers with a sort of lemony finish to the vanilla, offset by darker chocolate—but I’ve never felt inclined to do them myself. There’s a recipe on VegWeb, though, for the brave!

[photo by Liza Eckert for Persephone Magazine]

The rumors are true—Source now carries organic, GMO-free wines and beers!

To celebrate, we’re hosting our own vegan beer and food fest on our patio, from 4 to 6:30 tonight, Wednesday, March 27. We’ll be serving all-you-can-drink beer and house wines, as well as some tasty bites including mac n’cheese, chocolate stout cake, salads, and bruschetta.

It costs $25, but if you picked up a Source pin on our anniversary, we’ll take $5 off. What a steal, right? Small bites, dessert, AND drinks for $20-$25? This shindig is my little brainchild, and if it’s a success, I’ll get the green light to keep it up, which I’d like to do probably once a month!

Let’s party, vegans—and be sure to bring your omni/vegetarian friends. What better way to show them the thrills of veganism than with cake and beer? 

Source is located at 11 Division St. in San Francisco. Call us for more details at 864-9000. See you tonight!

Having trouble getting gorgeous, crispy tofu for your stir-fry? Let Isa help you with her simple guide. Turns out all you really need are a good pan and a good spatula. Then you practice till you get it right every time!

[photo by Brian via Flickr]

Namely, chickens sold through one Ohio-based mail-order hatchery caused 195 cases of salmonella in humans between March and September of last year. Moreover, per the CDC:

This outbreak investigation identified the largest number of human illnesses ever linked to contact with live poultry during a single outbreak, and it underscores the ongoing risk for human salmonellosis linked to backyard flocks.

Because backyard chickens aren’t born on a scallop shell out of the sea foam, or a magical egg from the grocery store. People buy little chicks, which are sent through the mail, and even though the supplier works with the FDA to breed chickens without certain types of salmonella, chickens are basically salmonella machines. Mmm, eggs.

[Story via The Salt. Photo by key lime pie yumyum via Flickr]

Are you observing Passover this year? If you are, surely you know it begins at sundown today and lasts seven nights. How vegan will your table be?

[photo by mollyjade via Flickr]

It’s time for the amazing and wonderful Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use! YES!! And HAPPY FRIDAY YOU GLORIOUS FOOLS!! Let’s take this weekend by the tits and make it something special!

Take it away, Paul!

Ready to have your mind blown? Check out Bill Gates’ new site promoting plant-based food companies like Hampton Creek Foods and Beyond Meat. Make sure to check out the videos, especially this one!

Did you miss this week’s ABC Nightline feature on how the meat industry wants to criminalize whistleblowers? Check out a video of the segment where the industry seriously makes fools of themselves. As well, Associated Press did a major national story on the same topic that’s really a must-read. Haven’t had enough? Then see what Raw Story says about it, too.

Okay, so you still want more on this topic? Well, editorial boards across the country have been slamming the animal ag industry for its attempt to suppress animal welfare whistleblowers. Just this week alone, papers in Indiana, California (and again in Calif.), and Tennessee have all taken the industry to task for supporting these bills.

You already know the pork industry supports locking pigs in tiny cages where they can’t turn around. Did you also know their main trade publication (Pork Magazine) is suppressing pro-animal viewpoints on the topic? Too bad for them that the New Jersey Assembly voted overwhelmingly yesterday to ban gestation crates. (The bill will now go to the governor.)

And to end your week on some promising news, USDA is granting HSUS’s petition to ban downed calves from the food chain. (This was based on HSUS’s undercover investigation of a calf slaughter plant.)

Video of the week: 12 seconds of pig and dog having as much fun as you wish you were right now!