vegansaurus!

Support local vegans + your love of nacho cheese!  »

Never Felt Better, the adorable all-vegan store in Sacramento that we all love, has a Kickstarter to raise money to put in a !!!!VEGAN NACHO CHEESE BAR!!!!  If you’re reading this blog then I’m assuming you love nacho cheese. If you’re reading this blog and you don’t love nacho cheese then don’t be reading this blog, you feel me? JK PLEASE DON’T LEAVE WE NEED THE HITS TO VALIDATE OUR EXISTENCE/LOVE YOU.

Anyway, the money you’re donating is going to support the ONLY all-vegan store in California and nacho cheese and the vegan economy. If you’re a vegan with a little extra change in your pockets, do a solid and kick them some. Also, please see our coverage of vegan cheese because it’s pretty great, if not poorly tagged. FUCKING TUMBLR. Now, some nachos one time for your mind:
[Photo via the delicious and amazing Vegan Crunk!]

Keep an eye out: Red Radio!  »

Our own Erin Red is starting a vegan podcast, Red Radio! From the girl herself:

From an outspoken and realistic standpoint, I plan to address a number of topics ranging from Veganism 101, to animal rights and abolition, to health and fitness, to environmentalism, to cooking, baking, and more. I will have guests from the activist community along with music, television and film personalities on the show, record on location at vegan hotspots, interview vegan ‘celebrities’ and include real stories with vegans of all walks of life. My goals are to educate, entertain, and enforce. To wake people up. And have an unreasonably good time doing so.

Check out her Kickstarter page for more information, links, and of rewards for your generosity - from Twitter shout outs to delicious french fries to muay Thai classes, she’s got you covered.

Vegans on Kickstarter, kick-starting some kick-ass projectss!  »

Who wants a new vegan-friendly, employee-owned, veggie restaurant in Grand Rapids, Mich.? How about L.A.’s first vegan dessert truck? Or a vegan food truck in Rhode Island? Duh, you do. Why do bloggers even ask dumb rhetorical questions?

The power is in your hands, grasshopper. 

On Kickstarter, people with creative ideas can get other people with dollars to help make the creative ideas happen. The cool thing about it is that the people with dollars don’t have to have very many dollars to help out. Like, one is probably enough. 

Here’s how it works: The creative person sets a funding goal and then they have up to 90 days to convince as many (suckers) heroes as possible to donate. It’s like a zillion NPR fund drives are going on simultaneously up in that joint, with thank-you gifts for different contributor levels. Though usually on Kickstarter the thank-you gifts are more relevant to the project at hand than a tote-bag is to public radio. (Am I supposed to use the bag to carry my radio around so that I never miss a second of NPR? Is that what you’re trying to tell me, Terry Gross?)

And the best part is, here are VEGAN projects on Kickstarter. Right this second! Waiting for your vegan dollars and wanting to give you vegan tote-bag-equivalents and the warm fuzzy feeling that comes with making something cool happen (and also with lying in a roomful of kittens). (Wait, can someone do a Kickstarter project to start a business that lets you lie in a roomful of kittens? Because I’d totally fund that.)

Here are a few of the projects currently looking for funding:

[Can’t see the videos? Watch them on Vegansaurus.com]

Interview with a vegan: Sonya Cotton!  »

Sonya Cotton is a vegan and musician with a serious animal-rights agenda. She’s close to releasing a six-song EP and raising money for an eco-friendly tour through Kickstarter. Laura interviewed Sonya about her musical projects and vegan lifestyle, and why she dedicated her new album to her animal-rescuing mother.

Vegansaurus: Are you vegan for health, environmental, animal-rights reasons, or a combination?
Sonya Cotton: I’m vegan primarily for animal-rights reasons. The magnitude of animal suffering that goes on inside of the meat/dairy/egg industries is what hits me the hardest, and makes me want to cry/scream/do my part to change the world. The environmental impact of these mega-industries is also horrific, and a very compelling reason (totally independent of animal-rights issues) to go vegan in my opinion. Health doesn’t figure as much into the equation for me, though I know some people really stand behind the health benefits of veganism.

Vegansaurus: How long have you been vegan? Why did you become vegan?
Cotton: I was an on-and-off vegetarian for 12 years, starting when I was 15. Then last May when I was on tour with my band on the East Coast, we played a house show for a group called the Montclair Ethical Vegans. The woman who led that group asked me after the show if I was vegan. When I told her I wasn’t (just a vegetarian and an animal-lover) she gently yet passionately told me all the reasons why she choses veganism, and gave me an amazing book to take with me, called Ninety-Five (a reference to the number of animal lives saved in a year from one person going vegan). I remember reading this book, which chronicles individual lives of animals that were destined for the slaughterhouse but somehow found their way to sanctuaries instead. I connected with those stories so deeply, I was really rooting for each one of those creatures, and I remember saying out loud to my boyfriend: “I have to go vegan, I totally believe in this.” Then I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, which utterly sealed the deal for me. (To those of you out there who haven’t read Eating Animals, please do!)

Vegansaurus: When did you start writing and performing music?
Cotton: I wrote my first song in high school (an embarrassingly bad love song.)  But I’ve been performing since I was pretty young. I remember singing “By My Side” (from Godspell) in sixth grade at an open-mic at my school. In my head I was singing it to my English teacher who I was in love with at the time, and who was leaving the school: “Where are you going?  Will you take me with you?” Heavy! I also remember my first solo in Girlchoir in fifth grade. I got to sing a line from the song “Vine and Fig Tree” that goes: “And into ploughshares turn their swords, nations shall learn war no more.” Good stuff!  I was hooked at a young age.

Vegansaurus: Do you write about animals or animal issues?
Cotton: Yes, I frequently do. I feel deeply inspired by and connected to animals that I see around me in my daily life, as well as animals that I read about. I’m often taken by their beauty, their nobility, their lack of self-consciousness, their pursuit of what I see as “truth” (i.e. survival/self-preservation and social connection/love as opposed to fame and excessive amounts of money/material goods.)  On my last album, Red River, I sing a lot about the dead deer by the roadside, and all that that sight represents to me. I grew up in the suburbs of New Jersey so for much of my life that was a very common sight for me. In my more recent songs I am trying to write more clearly and directly about animal welfare issues. I just finished a song about a pig born into a factory farm, and on my upcoming album there is a song where I speak pretty directly to some of the fucked up things people do to animals: hunting falcons solely for their feathers, destroying wolf and deer habitat to build mansions and raise cattle, etc. I also frequently express the flipside of my outrage, in other words, my reverence and my gratefulness for the wild animal life around me.

Vegansaurus: Your album is dedicated to your mom; please tell us more.
Cotton: My mother passed away a year and a half ago;  she had cancer for just 10 months. I’ve struggled a lot with this loss, and writing songs for her/about her/inspired by her has felt like a poignant form of therapy for me as well as a meaningful tribute to her. So many people are struggling with similar feelings that I’m struggling with, either because of a death of a loved one, or some other kind of loss, and I hope this album reaches them, helps them, makes them feel less alone. 

I should also share that my mom was an amazing advocate for animals throughout her life: She took in homeless dogs and cats; fostered shelter animals; worked to stop the deer hunt in my hometown and promote a more humane, nonlethal, form of population control; and worked internationally with a number of incredible organizations over the years, including the International Fund for Animal Welfare, working to stop the harbor seal hunt in Canada, and the farming of moon bears in China for their bile; New York City Audubon to preserve migratory bird populations; and most recently as the bird collisions campaign manager for the American Bird Conservancy.

Vegansaurus: Can we listen to your music anywhere?
Cotton: Yes, here and here.

Vegansaurus: Do you have any companion animals? Tell us all about them!
Cotton: There is an amazing cat named Buddy who lives in my house. His mom’s name is Lea, she’s my housemate. Buddy is a big beautiful guy; he’s often a blissed-out purring machine, so cute. But it kills me on a daily basis that I don’t have a dog in my life. As soon as I figure out how to live in a place that allows me to have a dog—dogs are not allowed in the house where I live—I’m going to foster a shelter dog. And then, once I have figured out how to be a touring musician that is also a responsible dog-owner, I’m going straight to a shelter and finding a dog who needs a permanent home. It’s going to be amazing. Until that day, I will continue walking/hanging out with dogs at Family Dog Rescue, a wonderful shelter in the city.

Vegansaurus: Do you have any super-cute photos of animals to share with us?
Cotton: Here is a picture of my family dog, Lorenzo, who passed away a couple of months ago. He was part of a litter of 10 puppies that my mom fostered when I was in 10^th grade. My mom found homes for all of his nine brothers and sisters, but Lorenzo was returned to us twice!  So we decided to keep him. He was such an amazing fellow, so handsome and spirited; I miss him.

Vegansaurus: What is your favorite animal? I know, this one is REALLY TOUGH.
Cotton: This is an impossible question! If I have to choose, I’m going to say…wolf.

Vegansaurus: Favorite vegan cookbook?
Cotton: There are a bunch of vegan cookbooks floating around my kitchen (there are four vegans in my house), and I like all of them, but I’m not so inspired by any one of them to call it my favorite. I think I need a favorite vegan cookbook in my life, that’d be great!  Any suggestions?

Vegansaurus: What’s your favorite vegan dish to make? What about for a vegan bakesale?
Cotton: I love Brussels sprouts sautéed with onions, garlic, olive oil, soy sauce, and apple cider vinegar. I also love kale and fried tofu over brown rice or whole wheat pasta with a peanut sauce. For a bakesale, the chocolate chip cookies from How It All Vegan! are so delicious!  Yum.

Vegansaurus: Favorite vegan dish at a restaurant?
Cotton: I love the fresh imperial rolls at Sunflower (3111 16^th St. at Valencia Street) affordable and delicious.

Vegansaurus: Favorite vegan restaurant?
Cotton: Souley Vegan.

Vegansaurus: Tell us about the Kickstarter Project. How can we support you?
Cotton: I launched a Kickstarter campaign last month to fund the making of my next album: a six-song EP dedicated to my mom, as well as a northeast tour in May. The goal was $10,000, which, amazingly, was reached in just 11 days. People have been so generous!  We’ve now exceeded our goal by about $500, and it runs until 7:45 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 28. Though it sounds crazy, $10,000 was the bare minimum we needed to make this album and tour happen as we envisioned it: recording live in a professional studio, and traveling the East Coast by train, which is more expensive but kinder to the earth and the animals than cars and freeways! We’re so excited, and so thankful to have made it this far. But if we continue to exceed our goal this will allow us to expand the project in some really exciting ways. Depending on how much we get, we’ll be able to book an extra day in the studio, record an extra song, hire an arranger for several songs, and compensate the musicians involved more fairly. 

If you’re interested supporting this project, have a look at my Kickstarter page where you can watch a video explaining the spirit of the project more fully. You can also see the different rewards for donations, (for example, you can pre-order a digital copy of the album for a donation of $10.)  If you want to support me in a way that has nothing to do with money, you can help me spread the word about this project by sending the link to your friends, you can help me book a show on the east coast in May—ideally in a home or a church or a similarly intimate space—or come to my show in San Francisco this Friday, Feb. 11 at Viracocha!

Hayes Valley Farm is making improvements! Can you spare some change to help?  »

We’ve written before about cool things happening at the Hayes Valley Farm. While it’s not an exclusively vegan farm (they have a bee colony that produces honey), their main focus is growing food sustainably and teaching others to do the same. They have a variety of classes, from yoga at the farm to Soil 101, and you can stop on by and visit the farm during their visiting hours to get involved, or just to see what’s up. It’s pretty awesome; when I first moved to San Francisco in 2008, the spot on Octavia and Laguna where the farm now lies was just an abandoned chunk of old freeway off-ramp. Now, in under two years, the area has been completely transformed and is now a functional, sustainable farm. Pretty inspiring for anyone who has ever tried to get a project off the ground in San Francisco!

Now, the Hayes Valley Farm is trying to raise money to improve the farm and expand their outreach and education programs. They’ve put together a Kickstarter package (Kickstarter is an online fundraising tool), and with three days left to pledge money, they’re just $3,000 short of their goal. If you have some extra cash burning a hole in your pocket, consider donating to the farm!