Veggie Goes Vegan

Ellen DeGeneres says her vegan diet wasn’t always easy, but glad she made the change - The Washington Post

“I’ve always called myself an animal lover. And yet I ate them,” she said. “Until four years ago I would be driving past these cows on pastures, and think ‘What a lovely life that is,’ and I’d go and order a steak. It takes a click, just one light bulb, and you’re like ‘I can’t do that anymore.’”

via www.washingtonpost.com

As always, Ellen is a radical who is somehow adorable and loved. It's subversive, I tell you!

Martha Stewart on Factory Farms

Marths Stewart is not a vegan, but her daughter is, and she has incerasingly found ways to spotlight vegan and vegetarian food and issues. Last year she had an entire vegan episode, which I've saved on my TiVo.

Now she has recorded a video message on behalf of Farm Sanctuary, deploring the conditions for millions of factory farmed animals.

It's a simple powerful message: We should say "no" to cruelty, no matter what we eat.

Sure, I could be a purist and say that any animal you eat eventually experienced some cruelty. That being vegan is the only way to eschew cruelty, but I would rather every meat eater *care* about the conditions the animals they eat are raised in, and that they'd change their purchasing habits based on caring. 

Some change is better than no change. 'Cause the animals in this Martha Stewart video need a lot of change.

Vegan MoFo Day 6: An update on Bob's Red Mill

As I wrote last week, vegans were up in arms over a planned bequest from Bob and Charlee Moore to OHSU, an institutition know for its animal research.

I thought I should update that story, given both the Moores and the university responded.

Here is the statement from the Moores, including this excerpt:

I assure you that no part of our donation will be used to fund animal research. It was never our intent that any of our gift be used in that way. We have discussed these concerns with OHSU and reaffirmed their commitment that our donation will only be used to improve nutrition and wellness in a manner consistent with our intent. 

And here is the accompanying statement from the university, including this excerpt:

We understand that there have been questions about how funds from the Moore gift will be used, and we would like to offer this additional information.

We will honor the intent of their gift explicitly — as we do with every philanthropic commitment. We are at the earliest stages of identifying those specific activities that best meet their philanthropic intent — and that will have the broadest community impact in the shortest timeframe.

I actually find the full university statement kind of squirrely.

They list how they will use the money, but they never explicitly say how they won't use the money, namey on animal research.

And of course some folks are pointing out that with their non-animal research more fully funded they have more money to spread around to other intiatives, including animal-based ones.

But this is certainly more clarity and provides more comfort than we had last week, don't you think?

 

Updated: Bob's Red Mill Deals a Blow to Their Vegan Customers

Update: Statements have been issued by both the Moores and the OHSU. You can find links and excerpts here.

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I recently toured the Bob's Red Mill facility in Portland. Being with a group of vegans, the tour leader made much of the vegan options in their restaurant and their vegan-friendly offerings in general. Vegans, in turn, give Bob's Red Mill and its products a lot of love in their cooking and baking...especially gluten-free vegans, given Bob's healthy line-up of GF supplies.

So, there's disappointment in VeganLand this week as Bob Moore  and his wife Charlee have made a massive donation to an Oregon university is notorious for doing animal research. There's ongoing debate, including someone form the university itself weighing in over at The Informed Vegan.

It brings up a classic dilemma: How do you state your displeasure if you purchase Bob's products? The money isn't earmarked  for animal testing, but nor can they state it will not be used for it. Bob and his wife are no longer sole owners of the company, having sold shares to employees, but they are clearly a significant part of the operation AND his name and face are the primary branding element the company still employs. Sure, they're donating their personal money, but that money comes from Bob's Red Mill, the company.

A similar dilemma arose for me personally a few years ago when it was divulged that the owner of the Century and CineArts movie theatres in our area was a huge Prop 8 proponent and donor. That year we took the company out to a movie as a holidy outing, and we purposely chose a different theatre chain.

While it would seem the answer is simple...avoid giving your hard-earned dollars to companies who values do not align with yours...it's actually a complicated matter, involving several big questions:

1. Can you apply your decision consistently, or can you only apply it in those rare cases when we learn about a company (or its founders) charitable or political donations? Does it matter if the answer is that you only find out, and therefore act accordingly, only rarely? Does that make you a hypocrite, or just doing the best anyone can expect?

2. When an "owner" is really someone who has a stake, but not the sole stake, and they are putting in "personal money", is any action you take against the company even impacting the right people?  People who could forestall future such donations? Or are you harming employees, even management employees, who can't effect change anyway?

3. Wouldn't the boycott approach mean that you shouldn't buy the vegan products put out by companies that also sell non-vegan products? Quite the opposite of my usual approach, which is to encourage more mainstream companies to make vegan options by buying the ones that exist.

You could certainly say "This is such an outlier...it's such a large public donation; he's the face of the brand. No, I can't possibly keep track of every possible shenanigan I don't agree with happening behind the scenes at every company, but I do know about this one, so I have to act!"

And that probably is what I will say. (And admittedly, easily so, given I don't bake a whole lot.)

What will you say?

Hat tip to JL Goes Vegan and her weekly vegan news round-up.

Cross-post: The Final Bullfight In Barcelona

It's today, according to the Daily Mail.

Good.