Coming up today... we reflect
on London VegFest 2015 alongside organiser Tim Barford and participants
Gary Francione and Alan and Frances AKA The Grumpy Old Vegans.
We're
on course for the hottest year on record, the number of trees halved
under human civilisation, meats as carcinogenic as smoking, Study
suggests society will collapse by 2040 due to food shortages, Study
labels humans "superpredators", in one year 5000 acres of greenbelt land
has had it's protected status removed, Morrissey announces he's vegan
and was Charlotte Church so wrong for citing climate change regarding
Syrian refugees?
The Big Debate: "Single Issue Campaigns: Taking the Animal Rights Movement Forwards or Backwards?"
Opening statement: "We're all so familiar with the refrain, "Sign our petition against dog
meat, send us a donation so we can oppose kangaroo leather..." A vegan
argument on behalf of single issue campaigns, how we have come to
commonly understand them at least, can only be defended via subterfuge,
duplicity and a secret agenda of "I know we did that but we're really
saying one thing and meaning another".
Our alternative is a
consistent and rational message of veganism as the moral baseline. Over
the decades we have had the opportunity to observe and think critically
about the standard way that the animal organisations utilise their
authority as supposed experts on these matters. The never ending to and
fro dance led between campaigners and industry over fur popularity is a
prominent failure.
I recently saw a campaign to stop grouse being
kept in cages, yes that would be the same grouse who are bred in order
to be shot. The big "animal rights" organisation involved makes no
grander request of the public than that they ask the birds be bred for
shooting in a supposedly nicer way.
So often they target the exotic
other. Think of the campaigns surrounding niche markets for flesh and
fur from dogs or cats in foreign lands. This coming from countries where
we exploit and cause suffering to billions of farmed animals who are no
less sentient.
Think of VIVA's campaign against kangaroo leather,
singling out an animal that is exotic to us here, but how many people do
you know who even wear kangaroo skin in the UK? The very same UK where
virtually every citizen is using the skins of cows on either their feet
or as seating, bags, purses or jackets.
Why the disproportionate
amount of time given to a focus on fur when leather is so much more
profuse? The only implication can be that cow exploitation is more
acceptable or that cows matter less than furry victims.
The single
issue campaign is all too often used as a way of criticising some niche
use that "other groups" partake in, absolving the donor base of their
sins and letting them know that by not shooting grouse, wearing fur, or
kangaroo skins they have done their bit and merit the animal rights,
expert seal of approval. Again, the public assumes that the big orgs are
the authority on what our obligations are to individuals from other
species. Why wouldn't they?
Of course none of these unusual
categories of exploitation apply to the average UK citizen so what it
comes down to in the end is feel good but ultimately hollow victory
announcements and donations, plenty of donations. VIVA have just
announced that Tesco will no longer carry kangaroo meat this time... the
kangaroos surely salute you but the standard farm animals who will
replace them in meals won't. These campaigns do nothing to reduce total
demand for animal products.
The big animal organisations are reliant
on public funding and need plenty of donations in order to perpetuate
their bureacratic operations. As such their message must not be
controversial and instead welcomes all comers into feel good back
slapping. Non-vegan money is sought and therefore a largely non-vegan,
confusing message is what is used to appeal to them.
I personally
experienced this in Lincolnshire when VIVA came to town to attach
themselves to the campaign against the local Nocton mega Dairy proposal.
It was eventually rejected on environmental grounds, as we know farming
cows is very pollutive, but that didn't stop them claiming it as an
animal welfare victory. Regardless of undeserved credit, what was the
victory exactly? The demand for cows and their milk had not been
reduced, new vegans hadn't been created and the ever growing demand for
dairy products will simply be met from another location.
Another
example I can draw on, again featuring VIVA I'm afraid was at a local
vegan festival in Lincoln. Tim of course has now brought in a greater
emphasis on veganism but generally vegan festivals offer up a confusing
mishmash of single issue campaigns vying for public's attention. This
one was no different and while all products had to be suitable for
vegans, the campaigning was without any consistent vegan education.
Don't
get me wrong I'm sure that veganism is buried away in their literature
somewhere but signs such as "Go VIVA veggie!" were the prominent ones.
Not only shoehorning in the charity's branding needlessly but with
"veggie" generally referring to consumption of eggs and dairy, actually
promoting the use, exploitation, suffering and killing of farmed
animals.
We injected some unequivocal vegan education into one
single stall and overheard VIVA's director and founder call us "trouble
causers" and suggest that we should "go and be radical somewhere else".
Radical
was presumably intended as a slur given the context, but it's etymology
is an empowering one, "from the root". Independent, grassroots actions
are the very thing that scares the animal advocacy industry. They seek
to disempower people from pursuing their own grassroots efforts and
instead create a state of dependence with all roads leading through
their machine. Essentially getting paid to offer diluted, confusing
single issue campaigns to the public. Sign this petition, cheerlead us
as we claim meaningless victories, go vegan if you're radical but most
of all please send us your donations.
You are free to reject the
status quo of learned helplessness. Remember that the power is yours to
encourage a real actual cultural shift in favour of genuinely
emancipating other animals. Giving time and effort to the tacit
promotion of killing cows for your shoes, instead of kangaroos, simply
won't get us there.
Closing statement: Exploitation of all other animals is
certainly on the rise and I don't attribute all of that increased demand
to the failures of the animal welfare movement. That the human
population rises by 230,000 people daily, many of whom will likely never
hear about veganism and may aspire to consume animal products as a
measure of status would likely be more significant still.
That said,
the argument that if other sentient animals matter morally they
therefore should not be used as our property has never been given it's
due focus. Therefore it is currently harder to supply supportive
evidence, bar our personal anecdotes. What we can say is the arguments
make sense, aren't confusing and are clear in their claims making. If
other animals matter at all then the least we should do is go vegan.
With that consistent stance the cards will fall as they may with the
public, but we won't have sold out or short changed the other species
who we advocate for."
Episode #35 of The Species Barrier... South African Professor of Philosophy David Benatar, writer of Better To Have Never Been, The Harm of Coming Into Existence joins us to discuss his work. Mistro, musical artist from Norway has a new album out called The Tragedy of Birth and author Jan Smitovicz from America is the writer of revenge novel Orange Rain.
Also in the news discussion, we attended the Premiere of Unity (Long awaited followup to Earthlings) and give our thoughts, World Overshoot Day passes, water and food predicted to run out, The Pope's encyclical covers environmentalism and animal ethics, Beyonce's "veganism", techno fixes can't save the oceans, Cecil The Lion and it's been made official that humans are driving The Sixth Great Extinction event in geological history.
Before serving, always make sure the Earth is fully cooked.
Unity is Shaun Monson's long awaited sequel to the 2008 film Earthlings. An animal rights staple you have likely heard of, Earthlings, narrated by actor Joaquin Phoenix is now largely seen as the go to film for a reality check in how humans exploit and kill other animals.
We were fortunate enough to attend the World Premiere global event, although the local cinema was sparsely attended. It was notable how this film is much more anthropocentric than it's predecessor, giving only 14 minutes of it's lengthy running time to other animals on this occasion. That said it did offer two affecting, non gory scenes of a bull being led to slaughter and a live fish being consumed as "sushi."
A recurring problem here is the false distinction the film makes between humans and other animals. Ironic given the wish to present Unity. "Plant rights" are commonly used as an anti-vegan cliche and here it is suggested that their moving towards the sun is a sign of their sentience and often the film maker includes trees in the trio of classifications, alongside humans and (other) animals. This is problematic given that plants aren't sentient, although they are of course host to and important to the survival of sentient beings.
The film relies on a celebrity narrator format, each one (Helen Mirren, Jennifer Aniston etc) taking a few lines. The words are subtitled and the celebrity's photograph is displayed each time. This device proves highly distracting, taking away from the onscreen action. Also it was made clear that the celebrities in question didn't necessarily believe in the content they were reading out, this was a distraction also.
Promo Poster Problems: Humans, animals, trees and celebrities.
Celebrity culture and it's many egos (Michael Jackson, Kanye West and Lady Ga Ga are the examples used) is belittled as shallow and vacuous. This is strange given Unity's reliance on celebrity narrators, the subsequent celebrity Q&A panel and the red carpet premiere in the USA was full of the usual paparazzi and posing.
The subject matter flails around wildly, one minute we are pondering how tiny we are in the Cosmos and the next pseudo-scientific spiritual ideas are being proffered. Baseless statements are made such as observing "the joy of life" in other animals' eyes as they battle for survival. There is also stigma against sharks and their aggression, almost attributing some nefarious intent on their part.
The film contains no mention of veganism as a response to speciesism nor any suggestions on how to achieve the grand ambitions that Shaun clearly possesses. Nor is any time given to the many problems posed by human population growth. A wish to unify 7.4 billion humans (A predicted 11.2 billion and rising in 2100), from distinct cultures on an ever more ecologically degraded planet, with fewer and fewer remaining resources seems to be an empty and toothless fantasy.
As a whole the film was an unsatisfying mishmash of ideas, although it may be of interest to those who would describe themselves as "new age" or otherwise "spiritually" inclined.
Marcus and I had the pleasure of staying at Michael House vegan Bed and Breakfast near Tintagel in Cornwall for a night.
We had room one which has a superking sized bed and a bath with an amazing view!
View from the bedroom
They are 100% vegan and as well as being a bed and breakfast they also serve evening meals for guest and non residents. The first people to book an evening meal get to chose the menu which we did. We had sushi for starters, braised tofu for mains and sticky toffee pudding for dessert. The food was delicious and the portions were very generous indeed. I couldn't finish my sticky toffee pudding so the self sacrificing Marcus offered his help! Sadly we were so busy we forgot to take photos of the food, not like me at all!
In the morning, despite still being full from the night before (I am a lightweight!) we had a big breakfast. We had a selection of muesli and fruit followed by cooked breakfast. Marcus had pancakes (I nicked one) which tasted like donuts so you can safely say they were very yummy! I had "The Full Michael" which was a full English breakfast, again it was delicious.
After all that food we decided we really needed a walk and asked Vanessa and Simon if we could borrow the 2 beautiful doggies who live with them, Velvet and Berry. She kindly allowed us and we took them down to the beach which is about a 10-15 minute walk away.
Velvet a Springer x Collie
Berry, a Golden Retriever, loving the water
It was a lovely day and the beach was busy near the middle but became lovely and quiet as we walked further away from the entrance.
Stunning blue sea
We walked back to Michael House and returned two wet and sandy dogs (sorry!) and had to get on our way. We will definitely be back and this time for much longer. It's a great bed and breakfast in a very peaceful and beautiful area of the world and Vanessa and Simon are fantastic hosts. If you go you absolutely must have dinner there, you won't be disappointed.
We have been down in Cornwall cat sitting and thought it would be nice to go to Samphire Brasserie a vegan eatery in Plymouth. We went with Marcus's Dad Brian and Step mum Val who are non vegans.
Samphire Brasserie has recently (as of the 29th April 2015) gone from Vegetarian (with vegan options) to 100% vegan and they're very proud about it. No shying away from their vegan credentials here!
In the main cafe
The menu is pretty damn amazing and it took us ages to choose, I for one just couldn't deal with all these amazing options! The pics below are but a sample of this feast for your eyes.
After a while we chose, a Hawaiian pizza, Nacho Pizza, a Fajita style crepe (chickpeas, veg, sour cream and salsa and a full works (basically a full fry up with tempeh, tomatoes, baked beans, potatoes, sausage and onion rings in place of mushrooms). We also added a side salad and extra chips!
Hawaiian Pizza
Side Salad
The Full Works with Onion Rings
Fajita Crepe
Taco Pizza
The potions were absolutely massive and the food was out of this world, i've never had such an amazing pizza (Hawaiian) and everyone agreed that their food was really, really good.
We were pretty stuffed (had to take home some of the pizzas) but as the lady serving us said "I believe there's another stomach dessert uses" and so we decided to get 2 sweet treats to share there and one to take away. Marcus and I ordered the lotus cookie dough which is hot caramelized biscuit cookie dough topped with vanilla ice cream and squirty cream. Brian and Val had key lime cheesecake. Both were absolutely delicious. We took away another key lime cheesecake.
Hot Caramalized Biscuit Cookie
Key Lime Cheesecake
We cannot recommend Samphire Brasserie highly enough. The place would be brilliant to take non vegans to to show them everything they eat we can eat vegan (and better!).
Episode 34 of The Species Barrier...we speak with Population Media
Center's Director of Issue Advocacy Joseph Bish and Tom Butler of The
Deep Ecology Foundation. Both organisations are involved in The
Population Speak Out campaign and it's centrepiece book Overdevelopment
Overpopulation Overshoot.
Sandra Higgins is back on the show to discuss International Respect for
Chickens Month. We also discuss the documentary Virunga, symbolic
crossing of the 400ppm level of Carbon Dioxide, the Antarctic ice shelf
on course for collapse plus Morrissey and Monbiot weighing in on animal
agriculture.
Alice in Wonderland: Eden resident in happier surroundings
Coming
up today… plant based dogs.
Domesticated dogs are ever more present in human society and the environmental
book 'Time to Eat The Dog?' highlights their meat diets as an ecological ill.
How well can they adapt to plant based diets? We speak to Piers Morgan's electoral candidate of choice, vet Andrew Knight. Fellow vegan Carla Gardner is in the studio to discuss her experiences with dogs and various topics pertaining to other animals.
In
the news, The Guardian puts it’s emphasis on climate change reporting, date
proposed for the start of the Anthropocene epoch, photography book on
overpopulation and consumption takes the media by storm, water is the next
great crisis and EU removes limits on cows milk production.
We recently had the opportunity to view new, short documentary film Becoming Vegan. Such a topic originating from the local university and featuring two members of the recently revived Veg Soc meant that we would obviously be inclined to check it out.
Given it's status as a student project that was made on a small budget we obviously weren't as keen to assess the production and presentation (perfectly adequate) as much as the message. How would the film portray veganism?
We get off to a very shaky start. A nutritionist is called upon to define veganism, thus perpetuating the idea that we are dealing with a diet rather than an ethic. What was needed is the definition as laid down by The Vegan Society and an expression of the belief that other animals are not ours to exploit.
The presenter (Rachael) will undertake a two week dietary challenge, the nutritionist warns that a sudden change in diet is likely to be felt negatively by the body and after all they do say it takes a month to adjust to any new habit.
We are now in the supermarket aisles and two random microwavable ready meals are held up, one contains milk protein and the other is free of animal products. The later is more costly so our host concludes that "vegan food" is seemingly more expensive. Seriously.
There are constant references to "gluten free" and "wheat free", which along with the difficulty in having to read labels adds to the general feeling of ascetic misery experienced during the experiment.
This is puzzling, either Rachael believes that veganism entails being gluten free or this is a personal choice, either way it should be made clearer. She is intrigued to try "vegan pasta" as opposed to normal pasta. This involves getting a supermarket Free-From brand that she has heard will be chewy due it's lack of gluten. Clearly most standard pastas, whether white or brown are suitable for vegans seeing as wheat is a plant. The occasional exception exists for fresh pastas which may contain egg.
The perceived deprivation continues in the morning when the cereal has to be gluten free also and as such is described as "powdery." Sandwiches for lunch? Of course not, only cereal bars and snacking on fruit as others enjoy their wheat bread. Again, veganism is concerned with products of animal exploitation and wheat avoidance isn't part of the deal.
Cupcakes are handed out from Bailgate's vegan shop, will the public spot the differences to "real" cakes? The assumption being that no eggs and/or dairy clearly renders cupcakes counterfeit. Given the prior warning that these are vegan cakes the public seem hesitant to tuck in (lacking the prerequisite chicken ovulations and bovine mammary secretions to make them optimally palatable) but conclude that they are in fact genuine cakes and perfectly edible.
Unsurprisingly Rachael is feeling lethargic as she goes into calorie deficit. Her previous diet was replete with animal products and cooking a meal without flesh a foreign concept. To conclude she accepts that without the ethical beliefs this lifestyle shift seems superfluous and inconvenient. It is repeated twice that she doesn't "believe in" vegan ethics, presumably content to provide demand for the unnecessary suffering of other sentient beings. As stated earlier by it's definition veganism requires the moral foundation and as such the documentary would have been better titled "Becoming Plant-based".
Episode 32 of The Species Barrier. Comedian, actor, writer and TV
presenter Simon Amstell joins us for a chat about fusing his vegan
ethics with his comedy. We also speak to members of Frack Free
Lincs after their Truth Behind The Dash for Gas screening in
Lincoln.
In the news 2014 was the hottest year on record, scientists move the
Doomsday Clock forward, journalist Chris Hedges on his veganism and as
America is predicted to have it's worst droughts in a 1000 years tens of
millions will starve as fertile land turns to dust bowls in China and
Africa also.
No Bunny Boiler: Simon is an ethical vegan
Listen to The Species Barrier 32 Laughing Gas Here Download/Listen to the MP3 (Save As): Here
Coming up today we have more analysis on human civilization and the
modern environmental movement from American anarchist and primitivist
philosopher, author John Zerzan and Paul Kingsnorth writer and
co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project.
Kevin White reflects on his recent West Midlands Vegan Festival event and activism in general. We are also joined by Jess Smith project officer at Lincolnshire county
councils sustainability team she tells us about their score initiative
to reduce energy usage in schools.
Also as human numbers have doubled other vertebrate animals have reduced
by half, UK farm land has only 100 more harvests left, human
overpopulation would survive wars, disasters and disease, American cold
snap caused by climate change and how can grass feeding cattle be worse
for the environment than the feed lot system?
JZ: I wanna be Green Anarchy
Listen to The Species Barrier 31 Uncivilised2 Here Download/Listen to the MP3 (Save As): Here
