Writer Jonathan Safran Foer's been getting a lot of media attention lately for the just published Eating Animals, his first book-length piece of nonfiction, which is very much against the eponymous activity. I haven't read it, and I don't expect that I (or most SuperVegan readers) will learn much from it that we don't already know about what's wrong with eating animals. This is not a book written for vegans. But it's a book that vegans ought to have some understanding of.

For better or worse, an established literary novelist like Foer can get people to pay attention to what's wrong with factory farming in a way that more academic or of-the-movement authors such as Peter Singer or Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson cannot. And Foer is relatively folksy and accessible (if not artless) compared to someone like J.M. Coetzee, whose arguments in defense of animals are unapologetically over most people's heads, and who isn't about to do a bunch of press interviews.

Foer finds lots of problems with industrial animal agriculture, and with eating meat in a general ethical sense, but he does not come down against non-meat or non-food animal products. This is a book about meat. That's got a lot of vegans understandably perturbed--an influential guy sets up a strong argument for many tenets of veganism, yet fails to go there. Mainstream media may not care, but it's important for us vegans to understand why Foer isn't vegan, and how he feels about veganism.

Josh Hooten of Herbivore attended a talk by Foer last night at Powell's Books in Portland, OR. Hooten is the right kind of vegan, and he wrote a great report/defense on the talk (which he posted on Facebook, and graciously allowed me to republish here.) Here's the first and last sentences, and you can read the whole thing below.

Foer isn't an animal rights person, he is coming from outside our community and perhaps that is why he is getting the attention he's getting for his new book Eating Animals.
...
As a messenger getting people to think about this stuff for the first time, I think he's amazing.

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?"

Big tent. Friendly critters. Funny emcee. Yummy food. Cool music. No, it wasn't the circus, it was the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's annual ThanksLiving.

Over 250 people came for this sold out event Sunday to visit with rescued farm animals and enjoy a fabulous sit-down all-vegan meal. ThanksLiving rather than Thanksgiving is a celebration of turkeys and other farmed animals during a season traditionally centered on meals of dead animals. This is the third year I have volunteered for this event, and here's my "take" on it:

The weather report promised a 100 percent chance of precipitation, but we were lucky. The cold schvitz of the morning gave way to light banks of clouds by the afternoon. The sanctuary is nestled between two Catskill mountains, which were resplendent in fall foliage. A giant heated tent was set up in the goat pasture, with elegant light fixtures, dozens of white-clothed tables, and a stage.

Author, filmmaker and parenting educator Amy Hatkoff recently turned her attention to the plight of farmed animals in the United States. Her new book, The Inner World of Farm Animals: Their Amazing Intellectual, Emotional, and Social Capacities, is part coffee table book, part scientific treatise and part love story. Amy graciously took some time out from her busy touring schedule to answer our questions.

SuperVegan: Hi, Amy. Thanks so much for talking with SuperVegan!

Your background is in family and children’s issues. What made you decide to write a book about farm animals?

Amy Hatkoff: I was riding the Third Avenue bus in NYC and saw a sign about farm animals. I don’t remember exactly what the sign was, but it depicted their suffering. I felt like I’d been struck by a lightning bolt. I had an overwhelming feeling that I had to speak up for farm animals, showing how aware and capable they are. I’d done something similar for babies in my book You Are My World: How a Parent’s Love Shapes a Baby’s Mind. However, I didn’t really know very much about farm animals and was secretly hoping the idea would go away. But the vision held on tight and kept tugging at me. So as soon as I finished a project, I got on the Internet and began my exploration into The Inner World of Farm Animals.

SV: The book is filled with beautiful photos. Did you have a chance to meet many of the animals who appear in it?

AH: One month before my deadline, I visited Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in upstate New York. There I had the amazing experience of meeting several of the animals pictured in the book, including Dylan, Olivia, Ralphie, Elvis, Jack, Felix and Albie. I also had the pleasure of meeting Bob Esposito, whose photographs are featured prominently in the book. Bob is a genius at capturing the personalities and souls of the animals. I have since been back to Woodstock and have visited Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen. Being with the animals is a profound experience. I hope more people get to visit a sanctuary and spend time with these amazing creatures.

**Edit: Two late additions for Tuesday, June 16**

Be alerted of these and other events we think you'll care about by subscribing to our calendar.

Events are free unless otherwise noted.

Now until June 14

Watch new documentary HOME free on YouTube. More info in our recent blog post.

Saturday, June 13

National Pigeon Day: Praise the pigeon at Central Park and all over the country. Our very own Patrick Kwan will be speaking.
12-4pm
Central Park, Pilgrim Hill

Get friendly with a neeeeighbor at A Horse of Course!, a walk and discussion with Kathy Stevens at Catskill Animal Sanctuary.
1-4pm
$15, or $5 for members. Register in advance by calling Julie at (845) 336-8447.

Woodstock FAS hosts its family-friendly Jamboree. Games, face-painting, animals, and food by Isa Moskowitz. That's right--another chance to dose on Isa before she heads back to Oregon.
11am-5pm
$10. Register in advance at the website.

Tuesday, June 15

Protest against the netting and gassing to death of at least 2,000 NYC geese
12-2pm
Port Authority Headquarters, 225 Park Ave. South

Ingrid Newkirk's book-signing for The PETA Practical Guide to Animals Rights: Simple Acts of Kindness to Help Animals in Trouble
7pm
Borders, Columbus Circle

Thursday, June 18

Mercy for Animals celebrates the opening of its New York office with vegan appetizers and drinks at MooShoes. And wait, it gets better than vegan food and booze: MooShoes will be donating 10% of that day's in-store and online sales to MFA, so you finally have a scale-tipping reason to get that pair of Simples.
6:30-9:30pm
MooShoes, 78 Orchard St.

Friday, June 19

Join Mary and Peter Max for the kick-off party for the production of Standardized Testing. The film "follows PATH founder Kelly Overton...as he attempts to return his diplomas and get his tuition refunded in an effort to bring attention to the dangerous and wasteful biomedical research being done at the universities." Food will be provided by 4 Course Vegan, BabyCakes NYC, Blackwell's Organic Gelato, Candle Cafe, Frey Vineyards, The Power of Food, Tuthilltown Spirits, Vegan Treats Bakery, and others.
6:30-8:30pm
The Max Studio
37 W. 65th St., 7th floor
$100 and up. Purchase tickets here.

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:

If you've never met a farm animal and you care about critters ... WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Vegans listen up: it's time to make friends with the 'friends' you don't eat by visiting a sanctuary. It'll change your life, I guarantee it. Here's how: we've got TWO farm animal sanctuaries within two-plus hours of our fair city. So log off of Facebook and head for the Catskills to 'friend' rescued pigs, goats, chickens, turkeys, sheep, cows and others. Get checked out by curious turkeys and goats or give a pig a belly rub. Bring a meat-eating pal for extra credit (especially if s/he has a car). And for you car-less New Yorkers, fugeddaboutit: the Woodstock sanctuary is accessible by bus from Port Authority, so there's really no excuse.

Both the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary and the Catskill Animal Sanctuary are open on weekends for visits. Tour the farm, meet the critters and hear their rescue stories. You'll be surprised how many of the animals came from NYC live-kill markets (especially goats and birds). It makes a wonderful day trip to meet the animals, hang out, maybe even volunteer a few hours (there's always barns and coops to clean or pig meals to prepare). But if you need an event to draw you there, the next two weekends are guaranteed good-times - just for you:

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.

Just a month after the launch of BOCA-egg-facts.com and Compassion Over Killing, Mercy for Animals, and the Animal Protection and Rescue League's combined campaign to convince BOCA to remove egg products from its line, BOCA has announced that all of its products will be eggless by 2010.

A BOCA spokesperson told COK, "I am pleased to let you know the BOCA brand will be eliminating eggs in all of its products by the end of this year. We anticipate all BOCA products will be egg free in 2010."

E-mail BOCA to thank them for the change.

Craving a BOCA burger and can't wait till the new year? (Or just tired of checking the backs of packages at the supermarket?) These BOCA foods are vegan: Chili, Vegan Burger, Chik'n Nuggets, Chik'n Patties, Spicy Chik'n Patties, and Ground Crumbles in the regular line and the Vegan Burger and Ground Crumbles in the Natural line.

Death On a Factory Farm debuts tonight, Monday, March 16 (10pm ET/11:30pm PT), exclusively on HBO. The documentary will repeat through Wed, April 1 and will be available on HBO On Demand from Tue, March 17 through Sun, April 12. Check schedule here.

Synopsis: DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM chronicles an investigation into alleged abuses that took place at a hog farm in Creston, Ohio. This shocking documentary is produced by Tom Simon (a seven-time Emmy® winner) and Sarah Teale, producer of the 2006 HBO special "Dealing Dogs," which received two Emmy® nominations, including Best Documentary.

Three years in the making, DEATH ON A FACTORY FARM follows the undercover investigation of Wiles Hog Farm by the animal rights group The Humane Farming Association (HFA), and the resulting court case against it.

In the trial that followed, prosecution and defense waged a tense battle over the legality and morality of practices rarely seen by the public and described by the presiding judge as "distasteful and offensive," but defended by Ken Wiles and other members of the tight-knit Ohio farming community as the commonplace reality of producing livestock for consumption.

Check out the NY Daily News interview with "Pete" the undercover investigator and a New York Times review of the documentary.