Vegetarian Star

Felix M. Cobos on Flickr

Afternoon pop quiz:

What do the economic crisis, water shortages, global warming, healthcare, and energy all have in common?

Give up? The answer, according to Dilbert creator Scott Adams, is food!

Simply put, Adams thinks that if we start making healthier choices with our food, these problems will resolve on their own.

On his blog, much like cartoonist Dan Piraro, Adams like to dabble in veg related issues from time to time.

Going veg would solve many problems, says Adams, only creating the tiny inconveniences of ticked off meat farmers and 200 year old senior citizens who haven’t kicked the bucket because they’re so healthy.

“Healthy eating would have a huge impact on healthcare costs. It would be partially offset by people living longer, but I have to think multiple sports injuries cost less than one heart bypass operation. And I read somewhere that 40% of mortgage foreclosures are caused by health problems. (Anyone have a link for that?) So in the short run, until the world is overrun by 200-year old marathoners collecting Social Security, the economy would be better off if people ate right. And that would free up money to insure the uninsured.”

“Now imagine that cattle are taken out of the food chain. Suddenly you don’t need to cut down the rain forests to create new pastures, and the cost of food would drop because veggies are much cheaper than cows. Preserving trees would help the environment, which is also good for the economy. Beef suppliers wouldn’t be too happy about this situation, so that is one offset to consider. But your food bill would be substantially lower.”

Read Adams’ remaining explanations of how vegetarianism can solve the world’s biggest problems at Dilbert.com.

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“It was because of my wife. I was a guy who was compassionate to animals but not particularly involved in anything. I never wanted to be a vegetarian – I always thought vegetarians were hippies with too much free time. And then when I met my now wife and we started dating, she just opened my eyes to factory farming and a lot of stuff I’d never heard of.”

—-Cartoonist Dan Piraro, in an interview with Ecorazzi, on how he got involved with animal rights. Piraro’s works, which humorously portray vegetarian and animal rights issues, can be found on his website, Bizarro.com. He also blogs.

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But is Minnie Mouse cage-free?

Disney has come up with its own brand of eggs. All your favorite cartoons from classic Mickey to Cars characters that will ultimately be indiscernible once crushed against the side of the stove top before frying appear on the eggs that are hormone and anti-biotic free.

Good to know at least Disney is using products from chickens who weren’t on steroids, but it’s not sure whether they’re from cage free animals. Or if the dyes contain any animal derivatives.

Hopefully, they were free-range and went on all the magic carpet rides with Aladdin they desired.

The cute marketing idea that probably comes with an extra price tag Ebeneezer Scrooge wouldn’t be interested in will have children dragging their parents to the dairy section of the grocery store, so let’s hope Minnie’s products are as egg-thical as they possibly can be.

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Vega training: part one of four from Brendan Brazier on Vimeo.

Brendan Brazier is a vegan Ironman triathlete who invented the Vega nutrition and energy products-completely plant based items that he started making as young as 15 years of age.

He met up with cartoonist and fellow vegan Dan Piraro one day who revealed that when he’s stuck in a creative rut, it helps to go on a long bike ride to get the ideas flowing again.

Brazier receives similar mental charges after running.

“I find it is really helpful when I go for a run,” he said. “I wrote most of The Thrive Diet while I was running. All of the ideas and the thoughts would seem to organize themselves, and when I got home, I would write them down.”

A component of his new book, Thrive Fitness: Mental and Physical Strength for Life, is teaching how exercises like “biking, hiking, in-line skating, rowing, running, speed skating, swimming, and brisk walking” fuel your right brain and release your creativity side.

Take a look at the video Brazier filmed about Vega. You’ll find it comforting to know he eats his own products, chowing down on an energy bar.

Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to go on a hike before posting again.

via Straight.com

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Just a little reminder if you live near New York and you haven’t already made plans for the weekend. And if you have, just tell your date a “family affair,” came up. Better yet, take him or her with you to the benefit for the Woodstock (N.Y.) Farm Animal Sanctuary featuring cartoonist Dan Piraro and singer and songwriter Nellie McKay. Hopefully, Nellie will grab something nutritious to eat before her performance, versus her usual fare of french fries.

The most bizarre cartoonist will do his 45 minute comedy act followed by the feminist who sings about having no sense of humor when in comes to equal pay and ending child abuse.

Tickets are $20, doors open at 7pm, and it’s first come, first be entertained with a night of awesome vegan performers. Go to their website for any other information you might need to convince yourself that this is going to be one fun night.

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Scott Adams is the creator of the popular Dilbert cartoon series that has launched a thousand laughs about the office, management, and the regular 9-5 grind most of us partake in.

Adams is a vegetarian and also has a blog, where, like cartoonist Dan Piraro, he sometimes like to discuss his beliefs about the lifestyle.

In one of his posts, he said that in order for humans to be natural meat eaters, two things must take place:

1. Eating lots of meat wouldn’t increase your health risks.
2. Seeing a cow would make you salivate if you were hungry

He then goes on to argue that if eating meat is that natural, meat eaters shouldn’t have to barbecue things up or shape them into steaks and so forth. Obviously he’s gotten lots of comments about the argument, but we can’t help but give him credit for such a brillant and hillarious way to argue against meat eating. The next time your friend chomps into a hamburger, ask him if sinking his teeth into live cattle rump would produce the same experience!

Don’t forget to check out Scott’s blog from time to time!

Photo: Tricia on Wikimedia Commons

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Dan Piraro and his wife, Ashely Lou, attended the 2008 Farm Sanctuary Gala in May, along with several celebrities, including Russell Simmons, Emily Deschanel, Lisa Edelstein, and Hal Sparks.

Farm Sanctuary’s mission is to protect the well being of farm animals, through education, rescue, and other directives. The gala serves to raise money for the organization via both a dinner party and an auction.

Dan Piraro, creator of the Comic Strip, Bizarro donated 2 pieces of his artwork, one which poked fun at some people’s repulsion by women breast feeding in public. The scene featured a hippie-looking mother in a restaurant asking another mother, “Do you have to do that in public?” as she feeds her child chicken breast meat.

It was a visit to a farm animal sanctuary that swayed Piraro in the veg direction, but he hasn’t always thought fondly of those involved with animal rights, as he told Metroactive 2 years ago:

“If somebody had told me five years ago that I was going to be an animal-rights activist and a vegan, I would have laughed in their face,” Piraro said.

“Back then I thought, like most people, that animal-rights activists were hippies with too much spare time…”

“I met these farm animals–cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, sheep–in a non-stressed environment where they were allowed to be the kinds of animals that they are supposed to be.”

“And I realized that they are not stupid eating machines that didn’t care whether they lived or died. I saw first-hand that these guys are every bit as sentient and emotional and affectionate and diverse as cats and dogs–and people, for that matter.”

via Living Without Meat and Metroactive

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