Veganism: one more thought

In October, when celebrating one more vegan anniversary, I wrote that I'm having some thoughts about veganism in general and that I wanted to write more about it. Yesterday it was the World Vegan Day and considering the attendance of the event in Dublin some of that thoughts came back when I was talking to Matteo about it.

One thing that I'm noticing lately - and the fact that veganism is going more and more mainstream has helped me to notice this - is that being vegan seems to be more focused on the diet and the consumption. Of course not eating and not consuming anything derived from animals is a huge part (and maybe the core?) of veganism but it's not everything. You are, for sure, helping the animals but you could do more. I know you could say that everybody could do more and I agree with you, but there are some things that are not that hard or "extreme" as some people like to say to fight more for animal lives, for animal rights.

I'm not saying that I think every vegan should be an animal liberation  activist, involved in direct actions and I know there is a difference between being vegan and being an activist, but I think everybody should try to do more and more. How? Supporting your local vegan group, helping them with campaigns and protests (there are so many good causes around and most of the protests are pacific ones), organizing small events to spread the word, sharing vegan food with those who need food (this is a great way to help both humans and non-humans animals), etc. I know that our lives today are busy and crazy, but are you sure you can't do any of these things from time to time?

What all this have to do with the event of last night? Nothing really directly related to the event, which was really great and I hope Vegan Ireland will keep doing them, but with people. I think I (still) expect too much from people but I was hoping to see more people I know there (vegans and non-vegans). Vegan Ireland does an amazing work and they need all the support they can get. It's not up to me to judge what people can or can't do, want or don't want to do, but I really believe the animals deserve all of our efforts and as many voices as we can bring together to defend them.

Buying vegan products, cooking, eating vegan food (and writing about vegan food, recipes and places to eat) is truly amazing, but it's a hard battle and we need to keep on fighting.

The good and the bad

The good: going to a vegetarian restaurant and listening that "everything today is vegan".


The bad: going to a meeting against carted stag hunting and having to listen to just animal welfare arguments. (Just to make clear: this is a very important issue and the Irish bill is not a bad thing, we just need more than that.)




We need more. The animals need more. The world needs people that take a stand.

A day in the life of the ALiberation group

I can't believe that I had my last class today. I'm so relieved and at the same time it seems that everything happened fast. Well, I can say that I had exactly one semester because it was just three months of classes. I still have two final exams in May but I just need to study at home. I really like to study, like to go to the university and enjoy having to read all the academic stuff. So, I'm really happy to say that I did well in this first period of the Master.

Today I had the feedback about my Photojournalism assignments and I'm very happy to say that I got an "A" in the final one, that I loved to do. We had to choose between three proposed themes and one of them was "A day in the life of..." and I decided to photograph the vegan/animal rights Irish group ALiberation. They do a demo basically every Saturday in the city center and now they are fighting against the fur factories in Ireland. I stayed there for hours and did more than a hundred pictures. It was very nice, I already know most of them, so it was good to be doing something related to my choices, to my values. For the final project we should choose at least 6 photos and present them as a book or a magazine article.

My final project:






The words:

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The voice of the animals in Dublin


In the last years the groups that fight for the animal rights are increasing around the world and campaigns to spread the vegetarianism and veganism started to be more mainstream, with some celebrities embracing the cause. The Irish group Aliberation is a group based in Dublin that is trying to be the voice of the animals around here. The group focuses its aims in informing the public about the respect for the rights that all animals – human or nonhuman – have: “The right not to be murdered; the right to freedom, the right to bodily integrity and the right not to be considered property”.

The group prefers to work with one campaign each time to have the opportunity to dedicate 100% to it. Right now they are promoting the fight against the animal fur industry in Ireland. Their aim is not an easy one: they want the abolition of the Irish fur factory farms. In times of economic crisis, the group is facing some protests against their protests that happens basically every Saturday afternoon in front of the store Barnardo Furriers (the oldest fur shop in Ireland), located in the city center. The group has also to do with the Gardaì many times, even when they are doing nothing wrong or illegal. Their purpose is to talk to people and get signatures for some petitions. It is freedom of expression, it is freedom of information.

The work they are doing for the animals seems to attract a lot of people in Dublin, that agree with the actual campaign. During one afternoon with the group it's possible to see different types of people going to the table to join the cause: teenagers, old people, families, Irish or non-Irish, vegetarians, vegans or omnivores. There are no stereotypes – as many people use to think – about the ones that believe in the animal rights. People that have in common the opinion that animals shouldn't be treated as object, especially when it is just too promote the (cruel) fashion industry.


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I will make a set with more photographs soon at my Flickr page soon too!

Vegan Mofo III - Day 13 - Great cause

As I told you in the first day of the Vegan MoFo, veganism for me is not just about the food/diet, it's a life choice, a choice for the life. So this is a short update to post a link of something great: Lush is launching this week the "Fabulous Mrs Bubble Bar". The proceeds of the product will go to the Hunt Saboteurs Association and you can read more about it here.

How cute are they?

GO VEGAN!

All about... trust

Some time ago, I wrote a post about cruelty free personal care products. At that time I quoted The Body Shop as a reliable option because they do not test on animals. But Andrea, from Brazil Nut, wrote that the company was sold to L'Oreal a few years ago.

And some days ago, I met a amazing group of people here in Dublin, that promote veganism and animal rights. And they have a great website, called Vegaplanet. So, I started to read the site and found two articles related to this kind of products:

The first one is about The Body Shop: “The body shop was sold to L’Oreal/Nestle in March 2006 for £652m. According to Anita Roddick, who founded the firm 30 years ago, this deal was the best 30th anniversary gift the Body Shop could have received. Anita Roddick was expected to make £130 from the deal. Can The Body Shop be considered an ethical company?” (Click here to read the entire article)

The second one (that made me feel really sad) is about Original Source. (Yes, the company that I wrote so good words about and that I love its products): “Although Original Source may sound like an ideal company to support and buy from, things are not always what they seem and a little research is needed to know who we are dealing with.” (Click here to read the entire article)

It's really hard to find products 100% vegan (that don't cost a lot), but I can not trust these two companies anymore. Hope they can change their policy in the near future.

Check too: Companies to Avoid and Cruelty Free Products (at least Lush is in the good list!)

For the Earth, the Oceans and all form of life

Here I am to spread some great news: the Italian hardcore band TO KILL, from Rome, is releasing a CD with to songs to support the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society:


"Evoking the Maelström

The defense of the animal rights always had an essential place in every heartbeat in To Kill. We always tried to spread this value as much as we could with every tool we had. through our songs, talking at our shows, in the interviews we did..... this, together with some other ideals, was a key issue of the band, as important as our music.

During all these years involved in the enviromentalist movement we've got to know so many organizations and collectives, together with a huge amount of hearts filled with this passion that we also share.

Of all those organization there was one that always caught our interest and that always received our support as individuals: the SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY. Since 1977 these people fight every day putting their lives in danger for what they believe in, defending the oceans and the wildlife from the violence that sometimes (more and more often actually) mankind is able to create. With direct action and passion as their main weapons in reaching their goals,with the lead of Captain Paul Watson, this group of bravehearts deserves all of our support.
So We decided to release a mcd and devolve all the income to this organization to support them in their daily struggles so that we can help them in their endeavour with what we have: the chance to express through the hardcore scene.

So we are writing this announcing to all of you the release of MAELSTRÖM. 2 new heavy and honest songs which are 120% Tokill.

We are really happy to share with you the first material we have done for our new record which is coming out in fall. these 2 songs are, as usual, the result of everything we are, we tried to push ourselves to the best of what we can, putting our hearts and our blood into our music.

To these new songs we added and old "classic" re-recorded to which we also added something new: the song "1001 days" which was the first song off our first record. and since we wanted something more we will also have a bonus track with a spoken word from none the less than Greg from Trial and Between Earth and Sky and music from our friend Christian Di Vito (myspace.com/christiandivito). We are so happy Greg agreed to work with us since he has been with his band and his lyrics source of inspiration in our hc life, so with this occasion we also had the chance to get to know him better or, for some of us, to know him for the first time in our life, and we are really thankful of having him as a friend... Greg is also going to be our guest vocalist in one of the songs and this is simply amazing to us.

The recordings have been done with the help of our friend Alex JM @ HellSmell studio, and mixed and mastered from Riccardo Pasini @ Studio73 (Ephel Dual, Memoryes of Apocalypse, This is a Stand off).

We have to express our gratitude to Matteo@Nexus Enterprises and Lexi@Desperate Days Designworks for taking care of all the visual aspects of this release, lending their precious time to the cause and wanting nothing more in return than being a part of this project.

Special thanks go out to Theo and Rob@Gsr records for letting us do this release in complete freedom and for always being more than supportive with us.

The cd sounds amazing and we really had a hard time deciding which song to put on myspace due to the fact that to us they are both amazing, heavy and catchy even if they are different one another.

Maelström will be totally self produced just to be sure that all the money will go for the benefit and at our shows you can obviously decide to overpay it and we will make sure everything will go to Sea Shepherd.

Make sure you'll get your own copy, support them with all the help you can give them and if you don't know the sea shepherd conservation society, please check them out.



MAELSTRÖM will be released in the end of april but stay tuned to find out a preorder and an online way to get a copy. it will obviously be available at all of our shows as well.

For the Earth, the Oceans and all form of life."

Spreading the word

It's really amazing to see more and more people caring about veganism. The website RawPeople.com is a new virtual community that has a lot of good informative articles and recipes about not just the raw food, but a way of life. They asked me to write an article about cruelty free personal care products because they want to start a section for animal rights.

I feel so good writing about something I care every day in my life. Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks, RawPeople.com!

Cool vegan cartoons

My Brazilian friends of Gato Negro introduced me to Bizarro, that has an "Animal Stuff" section. Check out the Animal Rights Cartoons, they're awesome!

Not happy with this

This is not something new, I started to read about it a few years ago, but it's something that is becoming more and more usual: people are eating meat again after years of vegetarianism because of the 'happy meat'. I still want to write a post about that, but I need more time. So I will just post today a piece of two articles of the website Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach.

"(...) She was a vegetarian for 10 years but now she has gone back to eating meat. Deacon is a “conscientious omnivore” who illustrates the problem with the “happy” meat approach that has overtaken the animal movement. (...)" (Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach - Feb/07)

"The writer, Tessa Williams, proclaims that after 25 years as a vegetarian, she is now eating meat again. (...) This is where the happy meat/animal products movement is leading. And it is certainly not confined to Britain. (...)" (Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach - Feb/09)

This is something I can't understand. This is a step back for all these years of vegetarianism and animal rights fights.

What do you think about it?

Para os amigos brasileiros: Esta é uma discussão que gera opiniões bem diversas e gostaria de saber o que vocês pensam também. Sintam-se à vontade para postar em português.