vegansaurus!

Your easy activism for International Human Rights Day: Ask Clif Bar where their chocolate comes from  »

It’s International Human Rights Day and Food Empowerment Project is honoring this important day by drawing attention to Clif Bar’s lack of transparency when it comes to an important issue such as child slavery in the chocolate industry. 

If you haven’t yet, please sign the petition to Clif Bar, asking them to answer the easy question: WHERE IS THEIR CHOCOLATE FROM? It’s a simple question, and should be easy for them to answer. Again, we are only asking Clif Bar for the country of origin, so if they send a LONG response and say anything other than answering that question – they are avoiding it. Please, don’t let them do this.

If you’re feeling extra activist-y — please post questions on their FB page and/or ask them on Twitter. They are a large company with many followers, so we need a lot of people to ask them to make it an issue. Let’s go!!

East Bay Vegan Bakesale this weekend!  »

It’s that time again! Hooray! The East Bay Vegan Bakesale returns this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m, at the same location as before, in front of Issues. Perennial baking superstars Fat Bottom Bakery, Cinnaholic (have you tried the pizza rolls?!), and more will be on hand dishing out treats to benefit Animal Place and Haitian relief efforts. 

New Year Resolutions, for vegans!  »

In the spirits of ringing in the new year (WOOOO NEW YEAR WHAT WHAT IN THE BUTT) and reflection and improvement, we Vegansaurs are sharing our new year’s resolutions with you, dear readers. It can be easy to forget that there’s more to being vegan than abstaining from animal products, so we’ve looked really, really hard into our routines, habits, and patterns for ways to do better in 2010, and here they are! Time to get preachy! What! YOU LOVE IT!

1. More activism! Broad, I know. So let’s break it up into two kinds. The armchair kind: Call and write to politicians. The Animal Legal Defense Fund’s state rankings are up and there’s room for much legislative improvement for farm animals (besides, uh, not eating them entirely). The active kind: Spend some time volunteering for the animals each month. Leafletting, vegan bake sales, coastal biking fundraisers, petitioning, volunteering at an animal sanctuary, starting a new animal activism Meetup group—it’s all good! Seriously, you guys. The SF Vegan Bakesale has made over 10 THOUSAND DOLLARS for charities last year. That’s insane. You can totally get that going in your town. Yes, YOU! 

2. Donate! Let’s say you send just 2 percent of your paycheck to an animal organization you support. That could add up to a lot, especially if you’re rolling in it!

3. Bring lunch to work. Every time I buy a salad, a plastic container sits in a landfill for about 450 years. I’m never buying a salad again. AND THOSE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD FOR ME. God, just eating candy from here on out. Candy that I BRING TO WORK WITH ME IN A REUSABLE CONTAINER! Win-win!

4. Along the same lines, cook more, eat out less. And invite people over to eat more often (especially if they’re not vegan!). Hey, that’s one less chicken who has to die, right? Plus, with websites like VegWeb and a million billion new vegan cookbooks out there, you gotta start testing recipes. Your life will be better when it has homemade cookies in it, trust.

5. Start composting. And while we’re at it, do all the Al Gore stuff. Get rid of the car, swap out light bulbs, etc.

6. Stop using palm oil. Why? Harvesting it clears out the rainforest and leaves elephants homeless. 

7. Get more of our meat-eating friends to go vegan, or at least get them to pledge to go meatless a few days a week (for those who need baby steps, you know who they are). Meatless Mondays, anyone? And while you’re at it, for gifts, why not give a copy of Eating Animals, along with some tasty vegan candy? So what if it’s kinda preachy, you’re already their crazy vegan friend and there’s a chance they’ll read it and learn something. If not, it’ll go in a junk pile and someone else will pick it up. Better than than giving lame, generic bath salts or lotion, right? Oooh also, adopting animals from a farm sanctuary is a great gift too! Everyone loves a chicken, even if it’s not dinner! Right? Right!

8. Get the companion animals on a vegan diet. It’s long overdue, guys. Laura feeds V-dog to Hazel and that bitch weighs 70 pounds, you feel me?? 

9. Buy less stuff. Or, at least, buy less NEW stuff. There are a million secondhand, consignment, and used clothing stores around. You can do without that dress from Delia’s. I don’t care that it cost two dollars. Wait, two dollars? Link plz? THAT WAS A TEST.

10. Ask for more vegan options in restaurants. It’s super simple, and it often works. Hypothetical, best-case scenario: I go into Mozzarelli’s and ask if they have vegan cheese. They say no, but they’d love to know which one to buy to offer their customers. I say Daiya (of course). They put it in their restaurant. It can help to bring in samples of excellent vegan products for them to try, like vegenaise and Dandies. Prove that vegan = delicious and MORE CUSTOMERS: CHA-CHING. Done.

11. This is less a resolution and more a request, but if someone could please crack the following vegan foods in 2010: clotted cream; meringue; angel food cake. KTHX BYE.

Got some of your own? Let us know! Happy new year, y’all!