As readers know, October was the third annual Vegan Month of Food. Started by celebrity chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz, vegan mofos everywhere posted daily blogs in celebration of our favorite subject — food! Vegan Month of Food kicked off with World Vegetarian Day and ends with a bang tomorrow at the Boston Vegetarian Food Festival. In addition to this sandwich of events, here is a completely subjective roundup of things that made October one mofo of a month!

In the Mainstream

Vegan for the Animals
Author Jonathan Safran Foer made a big splash with a taster from his new book Eating Animals, published as a feature article in the NY Times Magazine's Food issue. After reading Eating Animals, actress Natalie Portman went vegan and announced her reasons in her essay "Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals Turned Me Vegan" for the Huffington Post (that counts as a MoFo blog, right?). Blink 182 drummer (and rehabilitated puppy-juicer) Travis Barker has once again seen the light. He says he's back to being vegetarian and "almost full blown vegan now."

Vegan for the Environment
We've been saying it all along but it looks like we may finally be arriving at a tipping point. Even mainstream sources and enviro orgs are agreeing that eating meat causes global warming and going veg reduces your carbon footprint. Omnivore's Dilemma author and foodie darling Michael Pollan stuck his foot in it by stating: "A vegan in a Hummer has a lighter carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius." Then retracted the statement the next day. I thought it was fuzzy math to begin with (here's an interview with one of the original researchers and number crunchers), but I hope his blunder doesn't cloud the issue, which is that vegans have a substantially lighter overall effect on the environment than meat-eaters. Duh. Joining the bandwagon, the WorldWatch Institute's latest magazine asks the question, "Carnivorism and climate change: Is it worse than we thought?"

Japan has released its 2009 cetacean research findings after killing dozens of whales for the study. Japan, which asserts that it must conduct fatal whaling for necessary scientific research, killed 59 Minke whales off its coast this year for the scientific program. And the conclusion of this year's Japanese whaling program is that whales eat krill.

Because no one in Japan's scientific community knew that or asked anyone else on earth.

It is, however, arguable whether or not this year's findings have more scientific merit than Japan's 2008 whaling research findings. In 2008, Japan announced - after stating it had to kill hundreds of whales for this research - that injecting dead whale sperm into a cow egg does not result in a half-whale-half-cow monster creature.

For many of us it's difficult enough to describe our vegetarianism without roaring into a heartened polemic against eating animals. A poetic narrative of our acquaintance with animals, both as food and as sentient creatures, that neutralizes the cultural and sentimental fascinations with food that buoy arguments for meat consumption can be impossibly elusive. But that's what novelist Jonathan Safran Foer gives us in an October 7 New York Times Magazine article, "Against Meat," adapted from his upcoming book, Eating Animals.

Foer's is a familiar story — of knowing that it's "wrong to hurt animals," while following fleeting and often conflicting eating philosophies that struggle at times to justify, ignore the consequences of, and scorn eating animals. From age nine he tows the line between passionate vegetarianism and a sort-of-vegetarianism of convenience until, as a new dad, he has to make a dietary choice for his kids.

The path toward that eventual commitment to vegetarianism winds around Foer's grandmother and her singular dish, chicken and carrots. As a vegetarian, what do you do with your beloved memories when they're inextricably bound to meat?

Some of my happiest childhood memories are of sushi “lunch dates” with my mom, and eating my dad’s turkey burgers with mustard and grilled onions at backyard celebrations, and of course my grandmother’s chicken with carrots. Those occasions simply wouldn’t have been the same without those foods — and that is important. To give up the taste of sushi, turkey or chicken is a loss that extends beyond giving up a pleasurable eating experience. Changing what we eat and letting tastes fade from memory create a kind of cultural loss, a forgetting. But perhaps this kind of forgetfulness is worth accepting — even worth cultivating (forgetting, too, can be cultivated). To remember my values, I need to lose certain tastes and find other handles for the memories that they once helped me carry.

And as simply as simple can be, Foer begins to tactfully, even beautifully, unravel the knotty relationship between memory — individual and collective — and meat. Here's hoping for more of that in Eating Animals (Little, Brown), which publishes November 2.

This is one of Supervegan's posts for Vegan MoFo 2009.

As the movie The Cove explains, the city of Taiji, Japan, is a huge contributor in Japan's killing of over 20,000 dolphins per year for their meat. This year, however, international pressure has accomplished something amazing: Taiji has thus far suspended their dolphin hunt due to bad press.

Probably the greatest reason for the suspension is the fact that the city of Broome, Taiji's sister city in Australia, has cut ties with Taiji due to the hunt. Unfortunately, Broome is considering reestablishing ties with Taiji today. If relations are reestablished, it may unfortunately result in Taiji resuming its dolphin hunt. Please tell Broome not to reestablish ties!

Message from Save Japan Dolphins Coalition director Richard O'Barry below:

Hello all. As you may know, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society sends a ship to Antarctica each year, to stop the Japanese whaling fleet from killing whales. What you may not know is that the entirely vegan Sea Shepherd ship must rely completely on donations from the public for its supply of food. And food is of course one of the only pleasures you're going to get in Antarctica (so good food is prized more than gold there).

Well, Sea Shepherd has finally decided its ship's food wish list for this year. Operation Waltzing Matilda, Sea Shepherd's next Antarctic campaign to save the whales, takes off this December, so there's still time to help stock the ship. The ship is currently in Australia, so it may be hard for NYC locals to donate to the ship of course, but if one reader has a friend who has a friend in Australia, or has a great deal on fedex and blenders, then who knows, concerned citizens from around the globe may all eventually pitch in to supply to the ship with all it needs. If you can, please help out! :)

Now, if you want to help but can't get items to Australia affordably or fast, you can always donate money directly to Sea Shepherd so they can buy these items. Thank you!

Steve Irwin Current Wish List
Location: Circular Quay Sydney 10am till 5pm until Monday 12th October

Sea Shepherd Australia: australia@seashepherd.org

Need:
Sour dough starter
Industrial blender
Wooden Chopping boards
Tea towels
Scissors
Blender
Handwash
Hand blender
Food processor
Green power champion juicer
Black polar fleece balaclavas
Laptops

Food Needs:
Tempeh
Tofu
Soy milk
Olive oil
Brown rice
Icing sugar
Smoked paprika
Bragg's bouillon/amino acids
Lemons
Limes
Soft drinks
Fruit juice
Fresh herbs (parsley, basil, cilantro, etc.)
Asian fake meat products
Tofutti products - cream cheese, sour cream, cheese slices)
Soy/veggie hot dogs/sausages
Nuts and seeds (cashews, almonds etc)
Dark vegan chocolate

Non-Food Related But Badly Needed:
AAA batteries.
Portable battery charger 6,12,24 volt.
Good quality hand held marine radios.

This is one of Supervegan's posts for Vegan MoFo 2009.

Here at SuperVegan we hold a special place in our hearts for Captain Paul Watson and the Sea Shepard Conservation Society. Not only because one of our own, SuperVegan blogger and bona fide vegan pirate Tod Emko has fought right alongside Mr. Watson, but also because while you and I may be content to sip on our agave-sweetened soy lattes while debating the nuances of vegan "cheese", these ladies and gents are in the trenches fighting the good fight.

At the Edge of the World opens today in NYC at Cinema Village and will continue until September 3rd.

Those familiar with Animal Planet's, Whale Wars will be acquainted with the premise (incidentally, the finale was the most watched show in the channel's history): a determined group of eco activists attempt to disrupt a Japanese Whaling fleet in Antarctic Waters by any means necessary!

The director will be on hand for a Q&A at tonight's (Friday) shows.

Usually, I love reading the Huffington Post. However, in the past week they posted a surprisingly scathing blog entry calling Sea Shepherd a terrorist group.

However, the blog made all its arguments based on many assumptions that many people seem to be making about conservation lately, so it seemed worth it to address the blog.

For the first part of this post, we will first address the main themes of the Huffington blog, for the benefit of most readers. Afterwards, we will have, for anyone who has the time or curiosity, a much longer section analyzing every other argument made in the Huffington blog, as it does address other arguments against conservation law enforcing.


The main themes

The central theme of the Huffington blog is mentioned time and time again, and put succinctly in its eighth paragraph:

"Of course the whalers, whatever you may think of their activities, are operating legally. It is Watson and the Sea Shepherds who are the criminals."

So, although we've addressed this partially in previous posts, let's cover it comprehensively here.

Here is a list of illegal activities that the whalers are performing on video, much of which was outlined by Paul Watson:

Until June 14, HOME, a film that gorgeously illustrates the devastating impact of careless human consumption on Earth's ecosystems, can be viewed in full for free on YouTube in high definition.

In this stunning (and carbon-offset) bird's eye view of Earth, breathtaking visuals implicate viewers in the interconnectedness of the planet's dazzling, seldom-seen landscapes and multitudinously various life. Facilitated by Glenn Close's urgent narration, HOME highlights patterns and atrocities of human existence: "concentration camp-style cattle farms," "a forest...turned into meat," and diversity replaced with standardization. Simply put, "humanity has barely 10 years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoilation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption," says Director Yann Arthus-Bertrand on the movie's official page.

To deliver that message to the largest possible audience, HOME's creators released the film with its viewers' pocketbooks in mind; besides offering the film free on YouTube for a limited time, the creators, with financial backing from PPR—a French holding company that, perhaps conflictingly, owns Gucci and Puma—, are showing it at theaters at discounted rates, on select TV stations, and at free screenings worldwide. The Blu-ray and DVD versions will be in stock at Amazon on June 13 and 14 respectively.

Watch the trailer for just a blink of the eyeful that is HOME:

Today, after a long struggle, the European Union has finally voted to ban all seal products. This is a huge victory for the seals, and hopefully it will go a long way to ending the massacre of any more Canadian baby seals.

Even before it passed, it seems the threat of the ban already devastated the baby seal hunting industry. In 2006, seal pelts sold for $105, while this year they sold for $14 each.

The result being, Canada had a quota of 280,000 seals this year, but the sealers ultimately only bothered to slaughter 59,500. Longtime seal hunter and seal hunt advocate Jack Troake stated, "We just couldn't seal for those prices. The prices were too low."

Canada's government tried many things, including sending Inuit seal hunters to the European Parliament to plead Canada's case for them, before the EU finally voted in favor of the ban. Canada's great effort against the ban and the dramatic drop in seal pelt prices both indicate that the seal hunt will no longer be worth it post EU ban. Hopefully the permanent end of the hunt is now imminent.

From September to December 2008, the vegan conservation group Sea Shepherd waged a fight to protect the ecosystem and all the animals of the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. This blog recounts what happened in that time, serving for the group.

The post below recounts what Wolf Island was like, the island that we were on a mission to defend.

On Wolf Itself

Wolf is surrounded on all sides by high cliffs, and there's no dock, since no humans are allowed on the island. To get onto Wolf, you take a speedboat to the cliff edge, when the waves permit. Then you run off the front of the speedboat and cling to the cliff rocks as the boat speeds away. Then you hope there's enough footing to get up the cliff because no one else probably climbed that rock face before you. At the top, you'll be ripped to shreds by cactus, but it's worth braving all of that because you'll see things you'll never see anywhere else in the world.