I flew into Portland on Friday to attend this year's National Animal Law Conference at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, OR. I visited the "Brooklyn of the West" to make my jeans fit tighter and attend conference sessions on issues relating to the criminal prosecution of animal cruelty, the link between domestic violence and animal abuse, the intersectionality between animal rights and human rights, and so on and so forth.

But, in honor of Vegan MoFo III, you want to hear about the food, right? For the first time in a very long time, I received a vegan meal on the plane. I stopped requesting them long ago, but my Continental Airlines frequent flyer profile still lists me as a scary, radical vegan. Much to my surprise, about an hour into the flight, a box containing a vegan soy patty with cheese on a whole wheat English muffin appeared on my tray table. It was surprisingly good. A partially frozen fruit cocktail, a Sara Lee "bagel", Smart Balance (the vegan kind) and a packet of Mrs. Dash, which I'm still not sure of its intended use, accompanied it. Continental gets thumbs up on the English muffin sandwich and for getting me to Portland on time.

My first stop in Portland was La Bonita for some of the tastiest black beans to pass through my digestive track. For only $6.95, I procured a large plate with two soft tacos, a heaping mound of rice, a liberal portion of beans and chunky guacamole. Good job, NE Portland.

This May, Josh Hooten, owner of Herbivore Clothing Company, will ride his bicycle 600 miles from his hometown Portland, OR to Farm Sanctuary's West Coast headquarters in Orland, CA. The ambitious bike ride is both a celebration of his 10 year veganversary and a benefit for Farm Sanctuary. Hooten hopes his feat will inspire folks to make donations amounting to $10,000 to the 20 year old organization that has rescued thousands of animals, saves even more through education and advocacy, and largely influenced his own decision to go vegan.

Visit Josh Hooten's fundraising page to make a donation. (Josh encourages you to get drunk before doing this.) Once you've emptied your bank account, entertain yourself by reading his blog, which chronicles his transition from a regular dude to a cycling machine putting out a whopping 80 miles a day.

This is a lazy blog post to clear out some of my backlong. I think all this stuff's interesting. Hopefully you will, too!

• Who wrote avid hunter Sarah Palin's convention speech? Republican animal-rights guy and Dominion author Matthew Scully!
• "Friggin Genius" My Sweet Vegan author Hannah Kaminsky is giving out dessert samples and signing books at the Park Slope Barnes & Noble tomorrow. Check out that and lots more great events on our NYC Calendar!
• Four-year-old elephant Xiguang is receiving methadone injections for a year at five times the human dosage to kick his heroin habit.
• FoodFight! Grocery is celebrating their birthday with the PARTY OF THE CENTURY in Portland on Sunday September 7th. Highlights include: Los Gorditos 2 (all vegan taco truck!), Soft Serve from Blossoming Lotus, Velcro Wall, Bungee Cord Tug o' War, Gross Out Eating Contest, Pie Eating Contest, and the "DooDoo Storm 2000" eating contest. There's also a Facebook event page.
• Field Roast sausages are special. Here's where they come from.
• The New York Times wonders how animals grieve and mentally process death.
• After way too long as primarily an e-mail-only list, glamazon vegan consumerist queen Chloé Jo Berman's got a website for her Girlie Girl Army.
• PETA has named the top five veg-friendly rehab centers.
• Wish we'd update more often? Me too, but meanwhile just keep refreshing the "vegan" page at addict-o-matic.

A host of new coconut milk-based vegan ice cream approximations have hit the shelves lately. On the West Coast, we have an especially wide selection: there's Maggie Mudd in San Francisco and Coconut Bliss in Eugene, Oregon. They're great for anyone looking to trim a little soy from their diet (seriously, who couldn't benefit from that?) -- but until recently, they've been a pricey specialty affair.

But the new flavors from Turtle Mountain's So Delicious Purely Decadent line (based out of Oregon, natch) are the most widely available, the least tummy-achingly decadent and the most affordable in these tight times of ours. A pint of Mudd will set you back about $5, while Coconut Bliss clocks in closer to $6. They're tasty, but S.D.'s is more accessible -- creamy, but not too sweet (made with agave, not sugar!), though perhaps a little coconutty for some. But if you're looking for a seriously decadent dessert that'll knock you out for a good hour and a half after you've inhaled it, you'd best look elsewhere.

Maybe that's why the cookie dough and mint chip versions were kind of disappointing for me. They're tasty, no doubt, but you can really taste the coconut-milk base, and they're overall not as rich as I want those flavors to be. The vanilla bean and coconut ones, on the other hand, far surpassed my expectations. The vanilla has now become my go-to summer snack (I have a lot of those "free pint" coupons saved up, okay?). Great for anyone looking to cut some soy and indulge in some summertime junk food. (Might I suggest some ripe summer peaches?) Mix a serving with some fresh cut fruit to cut down on total snack calories and foodie guilt. And then go out trick your favorite omnis because seriously, this stuff ain't no Tofutti. They'll be shocked. Then sweet-talk them into buying another carton for sharesies.

A pint will set you back less than $3 at the Park Slope Food Co-op, but more like $4 at Whole Paycheck -- though S.D. has some generous coupon offerings on their Web site. It comes in vanilla bean, chocolate, coconut, mint chip and cookie dough varieties. They're up for the VegNews Awards (vote for SV, too!) against Mudd and Bliss. I won't tell you who I voted for, because that would violate my journalistic integrity -- but let's just say I'm kind of a cheapskate.

Remember when Vegan Porn was shut down to make way for Taste Better? Well Taste Better itself has since gone dormant, but impersario Jason "Herman Thrust" Doucette just launched Barnivore, a site dedicated to tracking vegan alcoholic beverages, "with over 400 companies listed, as checked and double checked by people just like you." Pretty awesome!! (But of course as sponsors of Vegan Drinks, we would say that!)

We've added Barnivore to the Alcoholic Beverages section of our link directory.

(PS: If you're drinking in Portland, Oregon (like I have been lately) don't miss the awesomeness at Bye and Bye and the Someday Lounge. I sure wish New York had vegan bar food like these places!)

(PPS: Speaking of Portland, drinking, and things ending in "-ivore", check out the new blog from Herbivore's Joshivore, Vegan Metal Bike Dad Punk Blog!)

• I'm in Portland, Oregon for a while. It really is the clean, quiet, inexpensive, leafy, bicycle-and-vegan-friendly town they say it is, dammit. Anyways, if you're at the Let Live Conference this weekend, say hi! They've finally posted the conference schedule (PDF), so check that out.
• One highlight of the conference is Isa Chandra Moskowitz's "How To: Culinary Activism" on Sunday afternoon. Isa was just profiled in the Portland Mercury. "America's Favorite Vegan Cookbook Writer Now Calls Portland Home." Sob.
• The vegan minimall (home to Food Fight!, Herbivore, Sweetpea Bakery, Scapegoat Tattoo) is even nicer than any pictures I've seen led me to believe. And certain amongst our readers will be pleased to know that Herbivore's got almost nothing brown for sale these days.
• Elsewhere, apes got legal rights in Spain, a country with no wild apes or apes in laboratories. But hey, it may be a start towards rights for apes elsewhere, or for other species in Spain.
• Ram Singh Munda, a single dad in Orissa, India, was arrested for adopting an orphan wild bear cub. Now he's's in jail, his six-year-old daughter Dulki was sent to a state-run boarding school, and Rani the bear is in an isolation cell at the zoo, refusing to eat. People for Animals is campaigning for Munda's release and has promised him a job at a wildlife rehabilitation center.
• Tennis fans: Wimbeldon keeps some hawks around who keep most of the pigeons away, but got in trouble recently for shooting some pigeons who were "creating a health risk around the players' lawn and a restaurant". Awful of course, but any worse than killing rats and mice and ants and roaches like nearly every institution does?
• What else ... oh yeah, Oprah Winfrey's not vegan anymore. She pledges "I will forever be a more cautious and conscious eater. That's my commitment for now. To stay awakened." I wonder how long it will be before she's enlightened enough to eat that grilled sea bass she's been missing.

• On Sunday, June 29, at noon, cookbook author Hannah Kaminsky will be at the Herbivore store in the vegan mini mall in Portland. Buy a copy of My Sweet Vegan (I highly recommend it!), meet the fantastically talented sweets guru, have her autograph your tome, and enjoy some of her treats!
• I eat a lot of cashews, but if researchers in Japan have their way, there’ll be less in the supermarket for me and more on feedlots, since the nuts appear to cut greenhouse emissions made by cattle. Not to be outdone, New Zealand scientists are looking for a vaccine.
• ESPN finally gives props to veg*n athletes.
• Boston offenders can now get vegan meals in the clink.

Now that "green" is mainstream, every May many publications roll out their Green Issues. It almost seems as if green is the new black, which has its pros and cons. Overall, Elle's third annual Green Issue was a hit with me. Additionally, thanks to Aveeno Active Naturals, the entire issue was printed on 10% post-consumer recycled paper. Corporate America, can we see that more often, please?

What I loved:
Guest editor Laurie David's poignant message about making "global warming the reason you pull the lever at the polls in November." Their "Green Stars" article (pg. 210), featuring the best natural beauty products out now. Many are organic and vegan. Too many to list here, but if you're a product junkie, watch out! "Big Gulp" (pg. 232) covers the growing interest in cleansing with juice fasting (aka juice feasting). Their 2008 Green Awards (pg. 252), noting the philanthropic and eco-conscious projects of Brad, Stella (and Sir Paul McCartney for making her), Cate Blanchett, Fiji water, those Google guys and NYC's local meteorologist Sam Champion. The Madonna cover story (pg. 279), and her work with the HIV-afflicted in Malawi.

What I loathed:
"Beauty And The Beast" (pg. 245) was a major let-down for any "green" issue. The article covers "Beast," a popular restaurant in Portland, Oregon, where allegedly the chef "has found an elegant, dare we say feminine, solution to the ethical eater's dilemma: how to eat pig without being one." Umm... excuse me darlings, but ethical eaters and anyone claiming to be an environmentalist doesn't do animals. Period.

The June issue of Elle is already on newsstands. The subject of being green is not in the press as much now that Earth Day has passed and we're halfway through May. I still continue hoping this green thing continues gaining steam so that we don't have to wait until May for the media to note more ways to save the day.

Nothing screams cross country road trip like an animal rights conference organized by the kick-ass vegan businesses and non-profits Food Fight Grocery, Herbivore, No Compromise, and Vegans for Animal Advocacy. So I'm ready to hop on the Greyhound bus ride of my life to make it out to the Let Live Northwest Animal Rights Conference, which is taking place June 27th to June 29th on the Portland State University campus.

Billed as a grassroots conference, Let Live aims to create an "open, respectful, and friendly environment that will provide an opportunity for attendees to learn skills and strategies to become better advocates for the animals, no matter ones experience level in activism." The cost of attendance is a suggested donation of $10 (or more, if you can swing it).

Visit (and RSS) the website for information on registering or becoming a sponsor, and to watch the speaker schedule grow. Oh yeah, book your train, plane, or bus tickets early too!

Today The New York Times reports on the riff in the vegan community over whether or not using female sexuality to animal rights is ethical.

Vegan Vixens founder Sky Valencia, Suicide Girls founder Missy Suicide, Skinny Bitch Rory Freeman, and the everclassy vegan strip club owner Johnny Diablo were quoted as being among those who don't have a problem with the use of sexuality to promote animal rights. Sexual Politics of Meat author Carol J. Adams, chef/Veganomicon author Isa Chandra Moskowitz, and Vegan Freak Bob Torres were also interviewed and clearly aren't buying into the idea that the path to animal liberation will be paved with dropped panties.

In related news, Isa Chandra Moskowitz will soon be abandoning Brooklyn for Portland! We'll miss her and all the vegan street creds her residency lent our fair borough.

As one door opens for the Portland vegan community, another door closes. Johnny Diablo has put Casa Diablo, the world's first and only vegan strip club, on the real estate market a mere 2 months after an extremely well-publicized opening.