09/05/2019
Hey! It’s the world’s first fully vegan LGBT focused cruise! And you’re going! WHAT!!! »
Sean of Fat Gay Vegan is setting sail on the first fully vegan LGBT focused ~*~luxury~*~ cruise on the Mekong river and YOU SHOULD ALSO BE ONBOARD FOR THE CULINARY SENSATION OF A LIFETIME!!! Sean is the best and this cruise will definitely be the best and I am so jealous that you get to go on this!!! All the details here and please bring me back some bonbons please and thank you!!!
p.s. LOOK AT YOUR ROOM HOLY S!!!!!!!
∞ posted at 14:11 by laurahooperb
04/17/2018
SF: There’s a Party in Our Plants this Earth Day! »
Hey Bay Area! What are you doing for the most important holiday of the year? No, not my birthday, silly! I mean Earth Day! Why not head on over to Cole Valley and try this beautiful vegan burger at Earthie’s Drive Thru’s “There’s a Party in Our Plants” popup!
Info:
On April 22nd, we’re introducing San Francisco to the best burger on Earth, made out of one simple ingredient: plants. But don’t let that word fool you – this isn’t your typical veggie burger. We’ve created something so satisfying, you’ll have a hard time believing it’s better for you and for the planet. Plus, we’re planting a tree for every burger we make.
Sunday, April 22nd, 2018, 5pm-8pm
205 Frederick Street, SF 94117
You can order fries and homemade sodas with your burger too. There won’t be tickets or anything but I’m told they’ll likely sell out so try to get there early! If you sign up on their site, you’ll get an email with a $1 off coupon. HUZZAH!
∞ posted at 12:44 by youtalkfunny
01/09/2018
An Interview With the Fat Gay Vegan and Enter to Win His Phenomenal New Book! Hooray! »
Hello! I’m assuming you’re all here to win Sean O’Callaghan’s EXCELLENT, HILARIOUS, INFORMATIVE, WONDERFUL, PERFECT new book, “Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink, and Live Like You Give a Sh!t,” right!? Well, it’s easy!
TO ENTER: Just go to THIS INSTAGRAM POST and make any sort of comment you want, I don’t care. Tell me your favorite color or just write “fart.” Your odds of winning are the same and it doesn’t matter to me. Hooray for you! ENTER TODAY! (I’ll pick the three winners in a few days and update this post so you don’t try to enter and I’m all, “TOO BAD SO SAD NO BOOK FOR YOU!”
NOW ONTO THE INTERVIEW!!!!
First, should start by saying I love Sean and his partner Josh very much. They’re two shining lights on this shit planet and we’re all lucky they’re around tearing it up and showing everyone what’s what. Sean’s book is truly very wonderful and if you don’t win, you would still be wise to buy a bunch of copies and give them out to friends, lovers, neighbors, family, pets, attractive people, unattractive people, dogs, cats, seals, and also everyone else. OK ON WITH THE SHOW FOR REAL!
Your book is hilarious! How do you find the humor in truly shitty things, like animals (including humans!) being treated like crap just so people can eat gross ol’ meat, dairy, and eggs?
This is already my favorite interview due to you opening with a compliment. Thank you. Humor is a great coping mechanism for dealing with hardship and unpleasantness, and there is no denying that industrialized farming and exploitation of non-human animals is incredibly unpleasant. Finding humor in horror is a way for us to not feel completely swamped and overwhelmed by what would otherwise hurt our hearts and minds too much. We laugh so we don’t cry, often. I find my irreverent approach to championing the vegan message makes me approachable to readers. Fat Gay Vegan would be a great Sesame Street character. Education about compassion with a goofy, sassy kindness and overeating.
What’s your best advice for people who are freaked out about where meat/dairy/eggs come from but are scared to take the step into veganism? To take the vegan fork in the road, we need to ensure we have the correct map and coordinates. Arm yourself with all the facts, bookmark your favorite recipe blogs, and surround yourself with like-minded people so you don’t feel alone. The strength of community comes into its own when helping you break free from the habit of relying on animals for food, clothing and entertainment. Seeing how other kind people navigate vegan living is a fabulous form of inspiration and can be the kick in the trousers you need to take the leap.
Why is intersectionality so important to you?
First of all, I am unlikely to use the term intersectionality to describe my work as a vegan campaigner as I know the term was coined by Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw to describe the crossover oppressions specific to black women. Apologies for getting a little too learned, but something powerful I’ve taken on is how harmful it can be to appropriate terms and concepts designed for realities different from my own. You know what I mean? Intersectionality just doesn’t feel right for me to use as I see fit as a white man from Australia.
[Ed.: My apologies for the sloppily worded question and the reminder to be more specific and correct in my language! Learning is fun and necessary!]
But to get back on track and to what I think you are asking, it is important to me to fight to redress multiple oppressions affecting our communities and not just sit at home Instagramming my latest box of vegan donuts. When we understand that the forces of capitalism, colonialism, toxic masculinity and white supremacy are powering lots of fucked up shit in our world (racism, misogyny, homophobia, ableism, body shaming, industrialized oppression of non-human animals, wealth disparity, farmworker exploitation, etc) we can start to understand that we need to tackle the root cause of multiple oppressions if we have any hope of enacting meaningful change. If you are still with me, I’d like to also tell you that being vegan is not enough. If we don’t fight the oppressive forces that make all this shit happen in the first place, it will just keep springing up. So eat your vegan donuts, but make sure vegan donut companies are paying fair wages, are not employing sexist and racist advertising tricks, and are concerned with the safety of farmworkers growing the donuts. Yes, I have a fantasy of vegan donuts growing on trees. And please don’t just take my fat, white man word for it. Some smart and clever people you should pay attention (and money) to include Dr Breeze Harper [Ed.: Heranthology, “Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society,” is indispensable!] and lauren Ornelas [Ed.: Food Empowerment Project is AMAZING!]. They know much more than I do and should both be cited in any discussion about fighting multiple oppressions within a vegan framework.
You are essentially a professional vegan – what advice would you give other people who are looking to turn their passion for veganism into a FT job?
My number one piece of advice is to couple your love of veganism with another passion. I have always wanted to be a writer since I was small child writing poems to my local newspaper. I once won a calculator ruler for a poem called ‘Friends’ in which I recounted my sadness at being abandoned by my friends. I was a barrel of laughs as a kid, obviously.
If you are good at something and have a drive to do it (like me with writing), it makes it so much more fun to turn it into your livelihood. You might not be a writer but perhaps you are a teacher, an artist, a community organiser, or an event planner. There are so many meaningful ways to work veganism into your other life passions.
You list a bunch of cities that are very vegan friendly in your travel section, but I want specifics? What are your top 5 favorite vegan restaurants in the world?
Vedge in Philadelphia is the best vegan restaurant on the planet. If you can afford to eat with them, you won’t get finer food. Wulf and Lamb in London is a beautiful place to dine and it helps that they do the best vegan mac n cheese in the UK. Temple of Seitan in London is more of a fast food joint but I couldn’t leave their world-altering vegan fried chicken off my list. How many have I got left? Two? OK. Get into Napfényes Étterem in Budapest. It will change your life for the better with glorious goulash and decadent pastries. My final pick is a bit of a cheat as it is a chain. I really think that Veggie Grill has done a lot of good in the world by serving up consistently tasty comfort food to the masses across the USA.
And more about food because I’m also fat and I love it! What are your top 5 favorite vegan dishes?
I’m all about potato and black bean taquitos served with salsa verde. My go-to snack for when I’m Netflixing (with a borrowed account because I’m too cheap to buy my own) is a bowl of fresh popcorn dusted with chipotle powder, nutritional yeast and pink salt. The fried vegan chicken two-piece from Temple of Seitan is going to be served at either my wedding or funeral, whichever comes first. I adore an old-fashioned English fry up (or hot breakfast) featuring sausages, baked beans, toast, rashers, and scramble. I’m not famous for eating raw food but I do love vegan ceviche featuring mushrooms 'cooked’ in lime juice. My beloved friend Julio taught me how to make it, so it arouses an emotional response as well as a greed response.
How much do you love Vegansaurus and can we do a vegan cruise with you? Before I was a z-grade vegan blogger, Vegansaurus was one of my inspirations and made me feel that I could do this whole 'being a sassy vegan online’ thing. So thanks for letting me steal all your ideas and thematic approach to life. If I had my way, Fat Gay Vegan and Vegansaurus would ALWAYS be on a vegan cruise together with an unlimited supply of donuts and reality TV cameras trained on us to catch our every witticism. Come at me, bro.[Ed.: OK, WHO WANTS TO GIVE US A SHOW? Let’s go, Hollywood! You heard the Fat Gay Vegan!]
∞ posted at 07:58 by laurahooperb
01/01/2018
Vegansaurus Talks Clean Meat with Author Paul Shapiro! »
If you haven’t heard of clean meat, now’s the time to stop living under a rock and start reading up on the topic on a lot of vegans’ minds these days. If you have heard of clean meat, now’s also the time to learn more about this breakthrough that could start CLOSING SLAUGHTERHOUSES DOORS FOR GOOD. Which is the goal, OK? Because, seriously, those places gotta go.
We were lucky enough to sit down with author and animal advocate Paul Shapiro (yes, the famed Paul Shapiro of Animal News You Can Use!) to break it all down. Paul’s new book Clean Meat: How Growing Meat without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World, comes out January 2 on Simon & Schuster’s Gallery Books, WHICH IS TOMORROW! Go get it!
Paul, congrats on writing the book on clean meat!
PS: Thanks! I guess it’s true I’ve written the book on it, since I’ve written the only book on it! Not the highest bar, admittedly, but there are others working on books on the topic too, and I can’t wait to read theirs.
Ha, fair enough. But yours is still the best-selling one out right now…
Good point!
So for the totally ignorant, I mean, for the less familiar, can you tell us just what this clean meat is?
We’re talking here about real meat, just grown outside animals. Not an alternative to meat, like Gardein or Tofurky, both of which I love. But real, actual animal meat, grown from animal cells as opposed to animal slaughter. Yes, it may sound like science fiction, but it’s now science fact. The book chronicles the pioneering startups and their investors racing to commercialize these animal-free animal products and the potential such commercialization has to address many of the most pressing sustainability concerns we face.
It’s called clean meat because, like clean energy, it’s so much cleaner for the planet. But it’s also just literally cleaner.
What do you mean the meat is literally cleaner?
Well, right now meat from animals is typically riddled with feces: E Coli, Campylobacter, Salmonella, all of which are intestinal pathogens. That’s why you have to cook the crap out of raw meat—literally—to prevent it from sickening you. But when growing clean meat, you don’t grow intestines; you just grow muscle, meaning it’s much cleaner and safer from a food safety perspective.
Cook the crap out of meat—literally. OMG. I get it: it’s cleaner. But it’s still animal meat. Should vegans eat this?
Well, clean meat’s not commercially available just yet, but that will change within a matter of years, not decades. And in many ways it doesn’t really matter if vegans eat it. The goal is for clean meat to displace factory farmed meat, not to displace plant-based foods, of course. It’s an alternative for people who feel like they’re wedded to eating real meat.
Why can’t those people just eat plant-based meats?
I hope they will and expect the plant-based protein sector to explode in the way the plant-based milk sector has exploded in recent years. But even with the popularity of plant-based milks, 90-percent of fluid milk sold in the US is still coming from cows. In the case of meat, more than 99 percent meat sold
in the US still comes from animals. (Plant-based meats are less than 1 percent of meal sales.) To the extent that many people want actual animal meat, clean meat is a way to provide it while causing much less cruelty, fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and with fewer resources.
That all sounds great, but will people actually eat clean meat?
Well, look at the meat people eat now. It comes from animals who were raised in the most unnatural and inhumane conditions imaginable. Sure, there may be some people who’ll say they refuse to eat meat unless an animal was slaughtered for it, but I suspect a lot of people will be quite glad to be
able to enjoy real meat with so many fewer downsides. And consumer surveys suggest that quite a lot of Americans would be happy to eat clean meat, too.
But will clean meat have the same unhealthy aspects of meat, like increased heart disease risk?
The nutritional quality of clean meat will likely be the same as conventional meat, but again, with food safety improvements. Theoretically that could be improved upon, but it’s likely that at least at first, it will just be nutritionally equivalent. All that said, I’m friends with a lot of vegans on social media, and
my feed is generally populated by celebratory messages about the latest vegan donuts, pizzas, ice creams, and other foods that are delicious but certainly unhealthy, so I don’t know what percentage of vegans are so concerned about health that they don’t occasionally eat unhealthy foods. Still, the goal
isn’t for vegans to eat clean meat, but vegans concerned about animals and the planet certainly should be enthused about the prospect of commercially viable clean meat so that many who do eat clean meat can switch.
GOT IT. So where can people learn more about the book?
PS: Check out www.CleanMeat.com, get the book, and tell me what you think about it!
You heard Paul Shapiro! Now leave our site and go buy the book! (Don’t worry, you can come right back afterwards!)
∞ posted at 07:11 by laurahooperb
12/23/2017
The most dangerous threat animals face in the Congress RIGHT NOW! »
The cultural revolution for animals keeps moving forward. From my home of Montgomery County, Maryland to Scotland, more and more governments keep banning circuses from exploiting wildlife. Also, Michael Kors became the latest big fashion brand to swear off animal fur. And that was just this week! For a fuller rundown of awesome things that happened for animals in 2017, check out Wayne Pacelle’s list.
With so much progress, there’s always pushback from those who want to keep abusing animals. Fortunately, the LA Times editorial board this week called out the most dangerous threat animals face in the Congress right now. Want to help defeat this danger? Here’s your chance!
While animals always face threats, the factory farming industry is also at threat from Silicon Valley’s interest in disrupting the meat industry, as Fortune reports this week. And I published a piece in Scientific American this week on that too.
Video of the week: Pit bulls + balloons. Need more?
Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement, The Humane Society of the United States
∞ posted at 08:19 by laurahooperb
12/10/2017
Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use: Instagram, Viva Mexico, and Adorable Pit Bulls! »
Missouri led a group of states this week in filing a legal action to overturn California’s hen protection law, prompting the state’s biggest newspaper, the Kansas City Star, to slam its own state’s attorney general for the misguided action. Talk about egg on his face. Given the concern factory farm defenders have about our work, perhaps it’s unsurprising that Feedstuffs lists as two of the biggest threats agribusinesses will face in 2018: Animal advocates and plant-based meats.
As a relative newcomer to Instagram myself, I was impressed to see its new policy this week for alerting users to potential wildlife abuse. Good to see such depravity doesn’t go over easy on the social media platform.
Animal abusers also got scrambled in court a lot this past year. Here’s Wayne Pacelle’s uplifting round-up of such successes.
And finally, Viva Mexico! As the U.S. was hatching a plan to shrink our protected national parks this week, our neighbors to the south shell-shocked the hemisphere by creating the largest protected marine area in North America which is now off limits to fishing and drilling.
Video of the week: How many pit bulls is too many?
Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement, The Humane Society of the United States
∞ posted at 08:03 by laurahooperb
11/24/2017
Paul Shapiro’s Animal News You Can Use: Protecting elephants, the b.s. fur industry, and turkeys playing soccer! »
It was the week of pleasant surprises.
The president of the United States called trophy hunting a “horror show,” and put on hold his own administration’s recent decision to allow imports of African elephant heads. The move earned praise from HSUS and across the political spectrum, from the National Review to the Washington Post editorial board.
I don’t always read Vogue, but when I do, it’s to read interviews with HSUS about the demise of the fur industry.
And while I’d expect an animal protection organization to decry the rampant abuse of turkeys this time of year, seeing the Los Angeles Times editorial board railing against cruelty in the turkey industry on Thanksgiving day was very welcome.
There’s some other promising news for turkeys and other farm animals, too. In case you missed it in Beef Central, the trade publication this week called clean meatand plant-based meat “a potentially serious competitor to conventionally grown meat.“
Video of the week: Perhaps you watched football yesterday, but did you know turkeys play soccer?Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement
The Humane Society of the United States
∞ posted at 17:38 by laurahooperb
11/14/2017
Animal News You Can Use: Paul’s Amazing New Book!!! »
What do former secretaries of agriculture, Republican and Democrat alike, agree on? That you should read my new book, Clean Meat: How Growing Meat Without Animals Will Revolutionize Dinner and the World. See what they have to say at CleanMeat.com! (And here’s the first review, which calls the book a “carefully researched and lively written volume.” I’ll take it!)
The current USDA, though, is another story. The agency just shamefully delayed—again—animal welfare upgrades for the organic program.
While the federal government may not be doing much to help animals in the US right now, there’s good news abroad. Italy’s parliament just voted to ban animal circuses (with a one-year phase-out)!
Finally, as you prepare for the holidays, are you wondering which Thanksgiving product to try out this holiday season? A couple experts and I recently did a taste test for you!
Video of the week: There are two types of people in winter. Which are you?
- Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement, The Humane Society of the United States
∞ posted at 11:38 by laurahooperb
11/08/2017
Animal News You Can Use: Prop 2, Smart Cows, and Jessica Chastain! »
Ten years ago, ag-funded researchers tried to mislead voters about California’s Prop 2 farm animal protection ballot measure. This time around, former state senator Dean Florez warns them not to try it again in a must-read Sacramento Bee column. (As well, here’s a new paper I was honored to coauthor with colleagues Sara Shields and Andrew Rowan on the advancement of farm animal protections.)
If you’ve ever wondered how to make healthy smoothies taste better, whether clean meat will succeed, or how animals may gain greater legal protections, I was glad to explore these questions and more in a new Thought for Food podcast. Check it out!
One of those ways animals may gain more protections involves helping others see just how intelligent they actually are. Newsweek explores cattle minds this week and asks provoking questions about the implications of the field of bovine cognition.
Finally, did you love Jessica Chastain in The Martian and Interstellar? Me too! Well, you’ll love her even more now after reading this People profile on her work for animals and with HSUS.
Video of the week: You’ve never hugged a cow?
- Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement, The Humane Society of the United States
∞ posted at 10:09 by laurahooperb
09/19/2017
Animal news you can use: Later, foie gras! Bye girl!! »
The latest in animal news you can use from Paul Shapiro, Vice President of Policy Engagement:
Ducks are quacking in celebration today, as a federal court unanimously reinstated California’s ban on the sale of foie gras from force-fed birds. (More on the HSUS blog!)
The foie gras industry isn’t the only one reeling this week. Animal-using circuses, the bell tolls for thee. Santa Fe just banned circuses from using wildlife while Maryland’s two largest counties are moving in that direction too.
I had a great time chatting about animals, aliens, clean & plant-based meats, and more with comedian David Huntsberg on his show this week. Check it out!
Speaking of clean meat, The Atlantic has a compelling look at a new company making waves for its real fish meat, grown without the fish. As the story notes, “Pretty much every Silicon Valley zillionaire wants to free the world from the mass slaughter of animals and the environmental havoc it causes.”
Finally, if you want a truly moving story about an imprisoned refugee who’s spending his time trying to help animals on the island where he’s imprisoned, The Guardian’s profile of Mansour Shoushtari is a must-read.
Video of the week: Hugs aren’t just for humans!
∞ posted at 09:57 by laurahooperb