The Long Island Food Not Bombs (L.I. F.N.B.) chapter gets sh*t done. They coordinate three food shares (Hempstead, Huntington and Farmingville) each week; redistribute clothes, toys and books; and many L.I. F.N.B. activists also carve out time in their busy schedules to volunteer with the Food Not Bombs chapters (Bed-Stuy, Bushwick and Manhattan) in New York City.

Naturally, L.I. F.N.B. did not balk at the prospect of redistributing a 2,000 pound donation from Soyatoo. So, if you want to see what 2,000 pounds of vegan whipped cream looks like, get thee to Long Island this weekend for the start of "Long Island Food Not Bombs Thanksgiving Bonanza"!

The latest episode of the popular mainstream Fox TV show "Bones" featured an animal rights/veg story line. Entitled "The Tough Man in the Tender Chicken," it's surprisingly jam-packed with info and intelligent discussion. Centered on a murder at a poultry processing plant, footage and info on how chickens are treated were shown, including video of the debeaking of newborn chicks. It isn't all blood 'n' guts (they show those images only briefly), there is an emotional discussion between characters on the ethics of saving one pig from slaughter. Animal activists are also part of the story line. But that's enough. I won't spoil it...



I suspect the star (and a producer) of the show, Emily Deschanel, an ethical vegan, had something to do with it. Go "Bones"!

You can watch the episode on Hulu for free or click on the image above.

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?"

Bob Barker this week donated $1 million to the creation of the college professorship we've all been waiting for: an animal rights-focused undergraduate program. The donation to his alma mater, tiny liberal arts-focused Drury University in Springfield, Mo., is the second of two million-dollar donations Barker has gifted to Drury; the first, made last fall, established an animal rights forum and brought to life a single class in animal ethics, taught for the first time this semester. Prof. Patricia McEachern, professorship awardee, will develop this class into an undergraduate degree-granting program in AR studies with Barker's help, using the funds gifted this year. The AP reports: "McEachern said it is too early to know how soon the animal rights program could be started, but she hopes to add two more courses to the program in the next two years. Drury would first offer animal rights as a minor before students can major in it." Check out the donation in action here.

Drury's is one of the few US college animal rights courses (compared to, say, classes on human ethics) I've heard of, outside of those that focus on bioethics. I speak from experience when I say that it's tough out there for a college student who wants to focus on non-human issues with the guidance of knowledgeable professors with even vaguely similar goals. Often there is only one professor in a given university with any modicum of expertise in animal rights discourse, and then she goes on leave and what do you do? (You write about Shakespeare.)

So three cheers for Bob Barker, Drury University, and animal studies programs! May there be a master's and a Ph.D program coming soon!

Horrified by the way the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus beats its animals, thousands of concerned German citizens appealed to the venues that would have hosted the Circus in Germany.

This concern for animal welfare made it clear that Ringling Bros. is not welcome in Germany because of the way Ringling tortures animals. The result is that Ringling Bros. canceled their entire tour of Germany!

If Germany can stop the circus from coming to town, what's stopping us in the US from opposing such blatant useless cruelty?

Full story here.

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.

In a series for this very blog, SuperVegan's Tod Emko turned upside-down my ingenuous perception of the Galapagos Islands. What I imagined to be, and what once was, an unscathed paradise for albatross, tortoises, finches, sea lions, and hundreds of other tropical-weather-loving species has become something of a perverted hell for human-introduced domesticated animals and the native species on which they prey. Disease-carrying feral pups and cats on Galapagos are decimating native species, and with no natural predators, the dog and cat populations are soaring. Hundreds of sick, injured, and abused feral mutts found their way to Tod while he was in the Galapagos this spring, and several even followed him home. Struggling to manage the overwhelming need for medical care and humane population control for these disregarded creatures, Tod enlisted the help of a veterinarian and the guidance and partnership of nonprofit Amigo Fiel to plan the Galapagos's first animal hospital and shelter.

Tod spared several hours last week from the two jobs that fund his apartment-menagerie to describe the cause and plans for this ambitious project.

Samantha Cohen: Your blog series, Blog of a Vegan Pirate in Galapagos, details your travails in the area this spring, including your experience with the exploded dog and cat populations there. For those who haven't had a chance to read your vibrant posts, could you explain the need for a Galapagos animal hospital?

Tod Emko: It may surprise a lot of people who haven't been there recently, but the Galapagos islands are under a lot more unnatural pressure than they can handle. The animals of Galapagos are suffering from too much human interference and development, and there is almost nothing restoring balance to give the animals a chance at having a future there.