Food Co-op in Linco

 We have a food co-operative running that anyone can join. We will place an order with Lembas once the combined total reaches GBP150. To place an order email us with the item name, code, number of items and cost. We ask to be given the money before we place any order. Deliveries are on Tuesdays.

Lembas do a great variety of products in bulk and single, the cost of a lot of their bulk  products are cheaper than supermarkets this makes being vegan even cheaper.  They also do vegan dog and cat food: http://www.lembas.co.uk/

Feel free to email us with any questions or to place an order.

This is the co-operative facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Lincolns-Lembas-Food-Co-operative/229615017098036

Film Showing For World Vegan Day

Vegan Outreach East Midlands are pleased to present a Screening of the critically
acclaimed film "Forks Over Knives" for World Vegan Day.

The screening  will take place in:
Jackson Lecture Theatre - Tuesday 1st November, starting at 7pm

Admission FREE

Forks Over Knives examines the profound claim that most, if not all, of
the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by
rejecting animal-based and processed foods. The major storyline in the film trace the personal journeys
of a pair of pioneering researchers, Dr. T. Colin Campbell and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn.

"I'm now vegan, goodbye eggs... just watched "Forks Over Knives". Russell Brand

"My assistant showed me a video called Forks and Knives (sic) or something, about
(cutting out) meat and dairy products, so I thought, 'I'll give this a shot!'" Ozzy Osbourne

View trailer here:www.forksoverknives.com

Website:www.forksoverknives.com

All are welcome to this free screening - running time is 90 mins with a 5 minute talk on all the reasons (not just health) to become vegan at the begining, educational material avaliable and a chance to ask questions afterwards.

Further enquiries veganoutreacheastmidlands@gmail.com

PETA Advert in Australia

 PETA are at it again, totally misjudging a situation and doing more harm than good by releasing the above above advertisement at the site of a recent shark attack in Australia. 

 The ad implies that the 21 year old man  deserved the attack, because he was spearfishing when it happened. Thus adding some kind of grudge to the shark's actions when they are simply obligate, carnivorous hunters

 In the eyes of an already speciesist public the Jaws-style imagery serves only to further demonise sharks.  If there was said to be any war going on between humans and sharks, humans have certainly won long ago. We kill 73 million sharks a year (according to study in the respected scientific journal Ecology Letters), often but not only for the trade in shark fin soup, many others are left to dwindle in trawler nets or discarded as "bycatch." Unsurprisingly many species are facing extinction.


Ultimately PETA are being needlessly antagonistic, this is not going to make anyone receptive to the vegan message. They would surely be better off using their vast funds to partake in vegan education that promotes ceasing the exploitation of all animals, be they fish, shark, cow or any other non-human animal.

Henry Spira: One Man's Way. A "what not to do" film.

Just watched  "One Man's Way" about Henry Spira the animal rights advocate. He seemed a very nice, well meaning man but was sadly self defeatingly welfarist in his activities. As such this is a good film to watch as a "what not to do." I did however like his closing quote:

"I guess basically one wants to feel that one’s life has amounted to more than just consuming products and generating garbage. I think that one likes to look back and say that one’s done the best one can to make this a better place for others. You can look at it from this point of view: What greater motivation can there be than doing whatever one possibly can to reduce pain and suffering? "

Certainly a good sentiment but I would personally urge animal rights advocates to call for all animal exploitation to be ended via vegan education, rather than working with corporations to make things "slightly better".

Moral Schizophrenia Makes It to the Mainstream Media!

Now this is unusual, a mainstream article commenting on how there is huge cognitive dissonance at play when people partake in eating one animal and making a beloved family member of another. It's nice to see Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall coming to the logical conclusion that there is no moral difference between eating a dog or pig.

However in his own personal activities (Notably regarding over fishing of the seas) he sadly misses the point that eating no fish at is most sustainable and ethical of all. As with much welfarist reform his campaign actually served to increase fish consumption. The demand for the threatened fish stayed the same with his preferred species just being consumed in addition.

He also misses the point that all animal products are morally problematic as his experiment was as a vegetarian (Predictably tied in with an "In time for Xmas" vegetarian cook book) so Hugh still needlessly continued to contribute to animal suffering.

It's okay, I'm a vegetarian....

 In the last few months as we have been doing vegan education stalls one of the most common things to find is vegetarians coming over to us expecting us to pat them on the back and tell them how amazing, compassionate and wonderful they are for not eating meat (or in pescetarians' case for not eating land animals).

I'm sorry but we're not going to lie to you and pretend you are making any tangible difference, nor that you are doing your best to avoid exploiting animals, you are not. "But I eat free range eggs" I hear them cry and "I buy organic milk... sometimes". Exploitation is exploitation, no matter how "nicely" you do it. To borrow an analogy from Gary L Francione, hitting your spouse only on a Sunday but being nice to him/her before and after is still violence! By changing the circumstances in which we use them just changes the type of suffering. It doesn't matter whether a chicken is given an extra inch of cage space, what matters is that the chicken is in a cage at all.

People have long been wrongly led by large animal welfare groups to believe that vegetarianism and veganism are two sides of the same coin, they are not. Vegetarians (especially long-term ones) often become entrenched in the belief that they are doing all they can and have met their moral obligations towards other animals. Again I blame this on large charities telling them they're doing the right thing. I see nothing wrong however in people who pass through vegetarianism as they transition to a vegan diet. That's how Ruth personally became vegan.

However this does not mean that giving out vegetarian educational material is morally a good idea. It's like knowing that slavery is wrong and should be abolished but promoting "nice" slavery (you know the type where you only beat them if they do something REALLY bad and they get every 4th Sunday morning off). In fact in many cases a vegetarian diet high in dairy and eggs could be said to have a higher net cruelty than that of a standard omnivore.

So what can you do if you do come across such a vegetarian? Simple, do what we do and engage them on why you are vegan. Ask them why they're vegetarian? For the animals? Direct them to information on the obsolete male calves produced by dairy and the "useless" male chicks produced by the egg industry etc. For the environment? Direct them to information on the environmental impact of farming cows and destructive inefficencies of feeding grain to livestock. For people? Direct them to data on mental health and violent behaviour in slaughterhouse workers.

Most importantly remember that the biggest argument for veganism is the ethical one; that other animals are simply not ours to use and abuse. If someone opposes inflicting unnecessary suffering on an animal then they better make one hell of a case for why animal products are in any way necessary?

Finally having food at stalls helps, especially cupcakes/other goodies as it shows what good vegan food is available, that you can still eat "comfort foods" and that being vegan is not about "sacrificing" anything, especially taste. Have a look at our recipe pages for recipes that we have found to be popular as it really (ahem) "sweetens" the pill.

Recipe: The best "cheese" sauce ever

Found this recipe the other day and made it last week, we ended up having it two days in a row it was that good.

INGREDIENTS:

1-1/4 C raw cashews

1/2 C nutritional yeast

2 tsp onion powder

1 to 2 tsp salt, to taste

1 tsp garlic powder

1/8 tsp white pepper

3-1/2 C nondairy milk

3 Tbs cornstarch

1/2 C oil

1/4 C light (yellow or white) miso

2 Tbs lemon juice

DIRECTIONS:

Place cashews in a large-sized bowl of the food processor and finely grind–just don’t let the cashews turn to a paste. Add nutritional yeast, onion powder, salt, garlic powder, and white pepper. Pulse three more times to blend in spices.

In a heavy saucepan, combine milk, cornstarch and oil(s). Bring to a simmer over high heat. Decrease heat to low-medium, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes, or until cornstarch dissolves.

With the food processor running, gradually add milk/oil mixture to cashew/nutritional yeast mixture. Blend for 2 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Next blend in miso and lemon juice.

Put on top of anything, pasta, veg etc etc

The Second Issue of the Abolitionist

The second issue of The Abolitionist, an online free magazine put out by Vegan UK has now been published. It has some fantastic articles and really is worth a read.

http://www.theabolitionist.info/