If you were vegetarian in high school, the best thing you could hope for at lunchtime was a chance cholesterol fest fried cheese sticks were available in the Ala-Carte line. If you were vegan…didn’t everybody wonder why you were such a skinny kid?
A vegetarian for three years now, the 14 year old even persuaded her mother to go veg (hello? Montel? What gives?)
In middle school, the lack of veg options made her want to go back to classes, so she urged the school to make additions to their menu. It worked. Now it’s time to work on Congress.
You can visit Healthyschoollunches.org and sign the petition telling congress students deserve more vegetarian and vegan items on the menu, including non-dairy beverages that aren’t soda pop.
Written by Vegetarian Star on March 30th, 2009 in Authors.
Comments Off on Jonathan Safran Foer Book Will Feature Farmers In Meat Industry
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Novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, best known for his book, Everything Is Illuminated, has a non-fiction book coming out in October and he revealed to NYU local some secrets about its contents.
“Yeah, so it’s a whole book about meat, basically. The premise is that I have been an on and off vegetarian since I was a kid, sometimes very off, sometimes very on. But never really all too informed about my decisions. I just based them more on intuitions or instincts. But when my wife became pregnant and I thought about having to make these decisions on someone else’s behalf, I took it pretty seriously and wanted to make good decisions, especially because they can be hard, difficult– they can create awkward situations. So I spent about a year going to farms all over America, talking to farmers and learning what I could and writing about.”
When Foer was “on” he recorded a video where he shared his thoughts on vegetarianism. He said the hardest place to be a vegetarian was in the Ukraine. Other than that experience, he said he “just can’t imagine it being easier to be a vegetarian.”
Ten year old Gabriel George is the poster child for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. Sickle cell disease is a red blood cell disorder that affects mostly people of African descent, but Hispanics and Caucasians can become afflicted too.
The disease can cause chronic pain, strokes and severe damage to organs, including the spleen, liver and kidneys and although many kids Gabriel’s age have already required many blood transfusions and suffered several strokes, he so far has been relatively healthy. Mom attributes this to prayer and his diet.
Gabriel is vegetarian, avoids junk food, and drinks plenty of water.
He plays violin, likes taking pics with his digital camera, and enjoys bike rides.
Recently, Gabriel, his mother, and other sickle cell disease advocates met with President Obama to discuss the disease.
The 23rd annual Genesis Awards were held this weekend and vegan Heather Mills was present with a very handsome companion: a golden Labrador retriever, one of the dogs who played Marley in the Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson hit movie, Marley & Me.
The Genesis Awards are held annually to recognize celebrities and notable public figures that have made the biggest bark (had to throw that pun in) for animal rights.
Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi received the Wyler Awards this year. The couple recently became vegan and were huge Proposition 2 (which allows some farm animals to move around freely) supporters last year.
Rapper David Banner has been on a quest to trim down and shape up.
After experiencing high blood pressure, the rapper born Levell Crump, who took his stage name from the lead character from the CBS Incredible Hulk series, decided it was time to change his macaroni and cheese and fried chicken routine.
“I tell people is this: once you submerge yourself into healthy eating, I am willing to bet any amount of money that you will find the same amount of healthy things that you like and dislike. I don’t like every unhealthy thing in the world. I don’t like fried catfish. There are certain things I don’t eat. But in the healthy world, there’s the same amount of things that I like and dislike, there’s certain things that I consider to be sweet. There’s a vegan smart cookie that they sell at Smoothie King that I love, and I really can’t taste the difference. There’s certain healthy salad dressings that taste as good as the unhealthy ones, but you just have to take the time out to submerge yourself in that world to find those things.”
Awesome that Banner found out how great vegan cookies taste! Maybe his sweet tooth for vegan cookies will lead him to “submerge” himself completely in the veg life!
It’s no secret that environmentalism and vegetarian go hand in hand, and what other Hollywood star to demonstrate this than Ed Begley, Jr. After all, it is his name Bones actress Emily Deschanel screams in the dark in the name of saving energy.
He recently discussed his motivations for going green as well as vegetarian.
You’ve been green before green became trendy. What made you decide to get involved in sustainable living?
It was growing up in smoggy L.A. I started in 1970 because I’d lived for 20 years, from 1949-1970, with horrible, choking smog and I got fed up with it one day. I wanted to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem. So I bought an electric car for $950, started recycling, composting, I rode my bike, took the bus, shut out the lights, turned off the water. I did as many things as I could on a very modest budget. What happened next I didn’t count on. I was doing it for the environment and realized I was saving money. I was a broke actor in 1970 and couldn’t afford fancy solar panels or something like that, so I just did cheap stuff and I realized I was saving dough. I liked that, obviously. Who doesn’t like that? And I did more and I saved more dough, and so 39 years late, I’m still doing it.
I read that you are a vegetarian. Was becoming a vegetarian something you did prior to green living, or was it a part of it?
It was part of the whole environmental choice. It was a 1970 choice to be green, to eat lower on the food chain. I had heard it was better for the environment. It took less water, less land, less energy to grow 1 pound of broccoli than a pound of beef. So, for that reason, and in a humane world, the kinds of things that go on in slaughterhouses. It’s not like the old days of raising cows out in a pasture and I’m sorry Bessie but you’ve got to die so we can live. It’s not like that anymore. It’s very bad conditions in these factory farms. The hogs, chickens, cows and I don’t want to be a part of that. But for my own health, I thought it was better to eat a plant based diet. I’m going to be 60 soon and I have boundless energy and I feel really good so I’m all for it.
Read the entire interview with Ed at The Examiner.
Comments Off on Rise Against Singer Tim McIlrath Praises Australian Pumpkin Love
Rise Against singer Tim McIlrath says the band likes touring Australia because the Aussie’s love their pumpkin.
“We love Australia, because Australia loves pumpkin,” said Tim McIlrath, in a recent interview. “In Australia they put pumpkin in everything. And pumpkin is great.”
Sure, pumpkin is delicious, but Tim likes pumpkin for another reason: It produces less greenhouse gases than meat, so praising Australia for its pumpkin love is a way Tim and the band can get their vegetarian message across to fans.
“For me it’s about their [the animals] health. If I get any (nutritional) benefits from not killing them, I guess that’s a bonus.”
—-Pretenders’ singer Chrissie Hynde, in an interview, on the health benefits of being a vegan. Chrissie’s reason sounds a lot like the late Isaac Bashevis Singer, who said he went vegetarian for the health of the chickens.
What health benefits did you receive as a bonus for going vegetarian or vegan?
