I cannot for the life of me remember where it is this was found but all I can say is FUCKING BRILLIANT:

Bottom line: the only reason we humans capture, manipulate, harm, commoditize, and destroy animals (and plants, and all non-human life forms for that matter) is because people can. Because people have the power to do so without fear of consequences. Because our laws do not protect animals or plants or trees. Because our laws prohibiting animal cruelty are astonishingly weak. Because the punishments for animal cruelty are horribly lenient. Because a deer can’t pick up a rifle and shoot back at the hunter. Because a tree can’t grab the chainsaw away from the lumberjack and cut his arm off. Bottom line: people dominate other living things because there are no consequences in doing so.

Every other answer is merely a hollow justification. I’ve heard them all. “People are superior.” (We aren’t) “God made man dominant over all other living things.” (He didn’t — if even a God exists) “People control animals to control their population.” (No, we control them primarily for our benefit — controlling their population is an ancillary concern) “Animals and plants don’t have feelings.” (Irrelevant — a creature’s right to live free from human intervention isn’t predicated on whether it has feelings) The list of absurd justifications goes on and on. None are satisfactory.

Undoubtedly, humans owe much of their physical and intellectual evolution to controlling, dominating, and ultimately consuming other life forms. Evolution as a function of survival of the fittest — which I accept as a maxim.

However, inferential to Darwin’s theory of evolution is the notion of ethical evolution as well. That a species would one day evolve to such a point that it would create a system of laws to govern itself. That such a species would transcend “survival of the fittest” by internalizing its role as a good global citizen. That for humans, being a good global citizen means devoting our time, energy, capital, technology, and other resources to limiting human interference on other living creatures, and the resources upon which they depend.

Human beings are at such a stage in our evolutionary development. Ethics are a huge part of our social structure. We do govern ourselves. We do have a sense of right and wrong. But where we fall short is that we limit our ethics to that which is convenient to us.

Convenient ethics is not enough. Right and wrong do not recognize what is the path of least resistance. Capturing, dominating, manipulating, harming, displacing, destroying other living creatures — and the resources upon which they depend — is wrong. Period. Always has been, and always will be. But unlike humans of the past, modern-day man possesses the ethical self-awareness and the technological capability to change — to be that good global citizen. That should be our collective imperative.

I’m sure someone here will comment, “Maybe you should live in a cave.” or offer up some other absurd remark. Many will not understand or appreciate what I’ve written above. Many will react defensively, as they often do, when confronted by vegans, animal rights advocates, plant and tree advocates, etc. Many among them react dismissively, calling us “tree huggers” or “PETA-files” etc.

But regardless of what the naysayers offer, they know right from wrong. In their hearts, they know its wrong to capture, harm, manipulate, destroy, or otherwise interfere with other living things. And they know that the right thing to do would be to demand our legislators to invest in technologies aimed at mitigating human interference. That goal won’t happen today, but if we demand to start on that road, and see it through, then one day, humans will be able to call themselves good global citizens.

Eat Yer Veggies,
Vegun

PS: if you see this and you wrote it or know who wrote it have them comment back so we can get some dialogue going. I really love this post.

Yes it has been a while and yes I apologize. I have been too busy to actually post and work on the blog a whole lot. However I was talking with a friend of mine and they are really interested in helping out with the blog. As you know this blog is mainly a food blog just because I am interested in sharing recipes but we do also deal with politics and this was a perfect posting my friend recently sent me:

Donald Watson in his later years (proving once again you can be vegan for life, lived 95 years 61 years as a vegan and previous too that 20 years as a vegetarian)

I am very concerned about what I see happening to the definition of veganism.  It has become a largely recognized word, but the definition has been so bastardized by the media, internet dictionaries, wanna-bes, and worst of all, people within the AR movement, that I no longer take any pride in calling myself “vegan” and am abandoning that word in favor of “I do not use animals”.

We need words to communicate, but if we do not agree on the definition of a word we are not communicating.  The popular use of the word has become limited to dietary issues, and often the focus is on the benefits to humans.  We already had a word for that, “strict vegetarian”, but since “vegan” sounds so much cooler and “we don’t want to be an exclusive club”, as Nathan Runkle actually said to me, the word has started to retrogress.

When Donald Watson formed the Vegan Society in 1944 he did indeed concentrate on diet, but I think the reason that he did that was because it was such a huge issue he was battling at the time.  I think that he saw his greatest hurdle as the dietitians and popular attitude that we could not survive without animal proteins.  He did not have the benefit of the research that he started, and groups like PCRM (pcrm.org) continue to prove. He was concentrating so much on breaking through that mentality that it would seem, at first, that he really was limiting the definition to dietary aspects, but if you read his very first newsletter you will see that it was not the limit of his concern. http://www.vegansociety.com/uploadedFiles/About_The_Society/Publications/The_Vegan_magazine/Feature_Articles/1944-news.pdf

He stresses the compassion aspect, condemns exploitation and compares animal exploitation with the enslavement of humans, and he makes a snide remark about vivisection. He was a pioneer, laying the groundwork on which to BUILD.  He clearly expects us to build on what he starts when he talks about laying the foundation for our movement, and he says that the impediment to our moral development is our parasitic treatment of other animals, but you can tell that he is still struggling with his own ingrained speciesist attitudes and previously accepted science when he refers to other animals as “lower”.  We all have to unlearn speciesism, and he was starting from scratch.

On the Vegan Society page that discusses the origin of “vegan” they state: “vegan lifestyles (I really do not like the word “lifestyles”, though)- that is, ways of living that seek to exclude, as far as is possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.” http://www.vegansociety.com/about/history.aspx

“Any other purpose” is key.  Our moral development depends on our building on what Donald Watson started.  One of my favorite excerpts from his newsletter is, “There is an obvious danger to leaving the fulfillment of our ideals to posterity, for posterity may not have our ideals. Evolution can be retrogressive as well as progressive, indeed there seems always to be a strong gravitation the wrong way unless existing standards are guarded and new visions honoured.  For this reason we have formed our Group, the first of its kind, we believe, in this or any other country.”  He created the Vegan Society with the expectation that it would be progressive, and that we would build on what he started.

Now, the “cool club” kids are taking veganism in a retrogressive direction, downgrading it to a dietary issue and focusing on the benefits to humans, and well-known leaders of “the movement” are aiding this retrogression.

People (maybe even, to a small extent, the 1944 Donald Watson) have a very hard time grasping the concept that humans can live without using other animals. When someone limits the definition to dietary aspects, or makes it confusing with too many or too few “whys” and “hows” we lose the opportunity to teach people that other animals have moral rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness free from human exploitation.

People are used to the concept of dietary changes for one’s health, and it is still important to educate people about the health benefits (because they really want to believe the lies of the animal exploiting industries) of a vegan diet, but they really need to know that veganism is not about diet.

Veganism is about moral growth and a just society.  It is about compassion and mercy.  It is something to build on and live by, not to hinder and bend to one’s current lifestyle.  It is a way of living that seeks to exclude all forms of animal exploitation for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, pet-trade, transportation, or any other purpose.  That was the original society’s point; not diet.

Well, that was the idea anyway.

Eat Yer Veggies and happy new year,

Vegun and Qt

the more you toot, the more you toot the better you feel so lets eat beans for every meal.

Seriously these were some really good bean burgers and quite healthy. Plus they take money away from the mega corps and their crappy expensive veggie burgers and don’t support the meat industry or dairy industry. Plus they are easy to make and you can probably make them even cheaper if you make your own beans however canned beans are way easier.

Spicy  Bean Burgers

Ingredients:

2 15 oz cans beans drained well (I would go with red and black because I am an anarchist, though seriously you could probably use any we just used red and black)

2 cups of cooked brown rice (you can use white rice but brown rice is better for ya)

1/2 onion, diced

1 tsp hot sauce (the chain burrito place always has extras if you don’t have any)

1 small bell pepper, diced (optional)

2 tbsp seasoning blend (paprika, garlic, pepper)

Salt too taste

Flour (I used All Purpose but Vital Wheat Gluten probably would also work)

oil for frying

Directions:

1.Mash the beans in a large bowl and add remaining ingredients

2.mix until well combined. Adding flour as needed to help firm up the mix and absorb liquid

3. Press firmly to form into patties

4. lightly fry in oil

A photo of said dish is soon too come a friend took a picture of them  and she will hopefully send it my way soon!

Also the Deep Purple is going to be posted soon I have been busy and I don’t have the recipe handy yet as I wrote it up somewhere else!

Eat Yer Veggies

Vegun

Haven’t been around in a while. I will hopefully be making a post soon. Until then I recommend you take a look at this:

http://zinelibrary.info/files/Blueprint.pdf

I will soon be posting a recipe for my “Smoke on the Water because it is Deep Purple” I won’t ruin the surprise other than too say red cabbage, that is all!

Eat yer veggies,

Vegun

So obviously my last post was not pretty but here is something that is a bit more pretty or should I say pretty delicious!

BPC  4 life Shake that Smoothie

Bananas (put about 3 in the freezer if you can so they get really cold)

Peanut Butter (about a 3/4 of a cup will do ya I usually use smooth try to use natural stuff)

Chocolate (chips work fine as do smashed chocolate bars I would say at least 1/2 cup)

(see what I am talking about with the BPC)

Soy Milk (you can also use rice or hazelnut or whatever you like milk…I like plain I hate Silk (owned by Dean Foods which is the largest dairy producers in America and possibly the world and they take over smaller farmers as well as exploiting and killing animals))

Agave Nectar (I sometimes add some just if it needs an extra hint of sweetness I like the dark stuff but whatever works for you)

Ice  (just too chill it down)

Take all your ingredients and add too a blender and blend till smooth and not too thick (add more soy milk if it is too thick) It is simple and easy and filling and I tend to fill a blender cup full so I have extra for breakfast or dessert or lunch. It is not an exact recipe it is just a delicious one you can edit too your likings. I hate Elvis so just putting it out there this has no relation to Elvis nor was thought up because of Elvis. According to an old doctor of mine chocolate is a vegetable so this is pretty much a health drink with fruits and vegetables and legumes hahahahahaha. Seriously though don’t eat this too often unless you are trying to gain a few pounds because it probably is a bit fattening but I don’t really care about that because this is a perfect pick me up and filler and will probably help clear up minor funks of depression (or at least give you some happiness)

Eat your veggies

Vegun