Veganism banned in Austria?

UK Indymedia - About the Austrian animal rights prisoners

It seems the sausage loving Austrian Government are trying to make it illegal to be vegan in Austria

10 vegans were arrested in Austria in May and are still being held without trial including the chair of The Vegan Society in Austria

Obviously some traditions are still alive and flourishing in the Austrian administration system and hard to shake.

www.vgt.at

Face Book

Amnesty International

Austrian Vegan Society

Right wing and Neo Nazi nationalist organisations apparently still flourish in Austria.

Freedom Party of Austria

Alliance for the Future of_Austria

You can contact the Autrian Embassy here - Contact Austrian Embassy

Although I have second thoughts even as a vegan author let alone Turkish, Jewish or Homosexual leanings having just read about Austrian Politics and neo nazi popularity.

RSPCA Freedom Food Fake Farms

Fake Freedom at RSPCA Freedom Food Farms

Just goes to show if it's not vegan it's not cruelty free.



Once again the farcical RSPCA Freedom Foods scheme has been exposed for not policing it's licensees and ensuring actual farm conditions live up to public expectations. The RSPCA need to take a leaf out of the Soil Association's book and make enforcement , infringement and trade descriptions abuse something to be feared rather than scoffed at.

The RSPCA are sitting back and nonchalantly allowing the whole scheme to fall into disrepute by failing to ensure animals do actually recieve the 5 freedoms they publicise.

1) Freedom from hunger and thirst
2) Freedom from discomfort
3) Freedom from pain injury and disease
4) Freedom to express normal behaviour
5) Freedom from fear and distress

You wouldn't think these could be so open to commercial interpretation and abused so dramatically but they frequently are. Normal behaviour for instance is interpreted by some farms as normal behaviour for a claustrophobic, caged hen with obscessive dementia and depression.

Despite numerous previous exposees by organisations such as The Hillside Animal sanctuary in Norfolk this is the first time that the RSPCA have finally agreed to launch a long overdue full and 'thorough' review of their Freedom Foods scheme.

All talk or more hollow promises to keep the millions of ££££s rolling in from the public ? We'll have to wait and see. At least this one farm has now been thrown out of the scheme and supermarkets may be prompted to carry out their own spot check quality control investigations to avoid loosing faith with their customers along with the RSPCA.

See video Channel 5 Report

Takeaway Food - Secret Ingredients

Secret Ingredients in Takeaway Food

Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston gives Takeaway Foods restaurants a good bashing.

Restaurants make it very difficult to find out what's actually in their food. Sometimes we only find out through court action as with KFC and Mcdonalds and using secret ingredients such as extract of chicken and beef fat in chips and flavourings.

Enforced honesty about a whole days portion of saturated animal fat in just one dish would encourage more healthy plant based dishes on the menus.

We like to kick start a campaign for a Healthy (vegan) Pizza on the High Streets for World Vegan Day - contact us if you are interested in helping with this.

Daily Mail - Vegan Hunt Season Starts

Vegan - Mail Online



The hunt is on. Despite tripping up over cavity ridden silver toothed, massively obese spotty gasping for breath rounded backed sick meat eating kids almost everywhere you go the hunt is now on for rare examples of sick vegan kids.

After many weeks of searching following a case of vegan rickets in the sun starved outer western isles of Scotland todays Daily Mail has managed to track down a family of goats cheese eating raw food vegans (???????!!!!!???) at the other end of the country in Devon with minor health problems.

Any doubt of neglect is quickly verified when the mother admits it wasn't until she noticed a mouthfull of brown teeth in her children that she decided veganism was to blame.

It seems the biggest blight on the vegan movement is that it attracts far too many nob heads

Yes veganism could save the world and help everyone to be healthier - marvellous as it is it won't brush your teeth and just like a meat based diet of McDonalds it won't provide a balance of nutrients unless you eat a balanced varied diet and you'll still need to visit the dentist regularly.

Vegan Environmental Awards

Bristol Vegan Fayre 2008!!! - Vegan Environmental Awards

Here are the results of the Vegan Awards 2008, presented every year at the Bristol Vegan fayre but voted for by the public.

No huge surprises given the context of the awards - though encouraging to see Booja Booja stuff in a tub ice cream as a winner - this is truly amazing and well worth hassling your local independent health food store to stock it. Delicious and healthy a rare combination in the world of desserts it is a nutritionists dream come true - it tastes like Häagen-Dazs but is raw, organic, free from processed sugar - it's vegäandazs!

The results of 5 months of voting for the World’s best in the vegan circles has been announced,
Benjamin Zephaniah
The Vegan Magazine
Suma
Andrew Tyler from Animal Aid
Booja Booja Ice Cream
the Bristol Vegan Fayre
Bristol Vegans
Yaoh

To nominate your worthy suggestions for the 2009 awards please email Tim Barford at Yaoh Hemp foods the organiser or Karin Ridgers at Veggievision now.

Kentucky Fried Chicken Go Vegan

Kentucky Fried Cruelty

The Good News - Apparently PeTA have negotiated with Kentucky Fried Chicken to sell a Vegan version of KFC nuggets made from soya or wheat protein so that KFC customers can choose a more ethical, environmentally friendly and healthier option if they want to.


Make your own KFC sign at KentuckyFriedCruelty.com

The Bad News - KFC Vegan Nuggets will so far only be available in Canada!!!!!!!! Contact KFC to ask them to make an ethical, more environmentally friendly, healthier vegan version available in the UK too.

http://www.kfc.co.uk/contact.aspx

If we are really lucky it will be Redwood's Cheatin Chicken that they use.

Bristol Vegan Fayre Food & Music Festival

Bristol Vegan Fayre Food and Music Festival



OK Last chance - I'm not going to tell you again - it's now or never for the time of your life! Bring your friends as it the best place in the world to prove what a fun, delicious and inspiring life a lifechanging vegan lifestyle can be. But hey - it's your life.

see http://www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk

Skiddle Events Bristol

Also on Facebook Bristol Events

Bristol Summer Sales Start Early

World Record BBQ Event

Oprah Winfrey Goes Vegan

The 21-Day Cleanse: Oprah's Blog 2

OK it's only 21 days - but you know how it is - once you've dived in then you suddenly realise it's not about giving up it's about saving , vibrancy, having your eyes opened, more energy, optimum health, inner peace, saving the planet andloads of delicious new dishes you never knew existed.

Orah Winfrey is unlikely to stray very far away from veganism once she's tried it for 21 days - it's no longer why? it becomes Why not?

Oprah winfrey's journey of discovery could be world changing for vegetarianism and veganism with her huge Angel Network and influential friends (Lord knows everyone know's she likes her food) that's got to kick a few stereotypes and preconcieved ideas about being a vegan in the goolies.

National Barbecue Week

National BBQ Week 2008


National BBQ Week has been hijacked by the Vegetarians and Vegans for 2008. Linda McCartney claim their products are better than the real thing, whilst Vegans in Bristol are planning a 10kg Vegan Hog Roast (for 10,000 people - how much is that each?)

In London Croydon Vegetarians are staging a Battle of the Bangers Barbecue challenging Londoners to judge the best meat free BBQ option out of 5 different vegan sausages Redwoods, Frys, Linda McCartney, Real Eat and perhaps Northumbrian Wicken Fen vegetarian sausages too.

Croydon Is National Vegetarian Week 2008

National Vegetarian week Croydon is Top London Venue for National Vegetarian Week Events

Croydon is linked to some highly esteemed people from DH Lawrence to Kate Moss but it is often the butt of comedians’ satirical taunts. Certainly it’s a place full of oxymorons , thus a lush oasis of comedic material ready for harvest.

Rarely making the top 10 fact lists about Croydon is that Croydon is home to one of the oldest surviving vegetarian groups in the world. Croydon Vegetarians was established in 1886 and is still going strong. Armed with this fact it’s probably then not quite so surprising that Croydon should have the most events organised for the Vegetarian Society’s National Vegetarian Week (19th – 25th May)

This year Croydon is celebrating National Vegetarian Week on every day of the week

1. National Vegetarian Week kicks off with a chocolate tasting session in Oasis Natural Health 96 The High Street, Croydon. Other goodies to try will be on offer too. Ladies from Croydon Vegetarians will be there to help you with any burning questions you may have.
2. On Tuesday 20th May a Croydon greengrocers in Waddon will be challenging Croydon citizens to try a different fruit or vegetable and dishing out free tasters. Graham the greengrocer will also have some tips about what to do with various more exotic fruit and veg and their nutritional properties.
3. On Wednesday the 21st Oasis health food store in Croydon High street has organised a Battle of the Bangers BBQ to engage Londoners and inspire them to judge London’s best meat free BBQ alternative from 5 competitor manufacturers. You’ll be able to nibble on Linda McCartney, Frys, Redwoods, Real Eat and Wicken Fen sausages. Celebrity nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston will be on hand to answer nutrition questions.
4. Thursday 22nd is the night when Lush Croydon will be hosting a pamper party, a book-signing, massage and taster therapy sessions. The first 50 visitors will receive a free rare bath bomb not available in the shops – a Rainbow Worrier.
5. On Friday night the 23rd Peppertons vegetarian restaurant in Selhurst will be offering a free glass of wine to the first 20 diners and the option to try a dairy free vegan cheese board supplied by Bute Island foods.
6. For Saturday the 24th of May Croydon’s Fair trade shop Fair Enough opposite the Croydon Parish Church in Church Street will be holding a Fair trade Tea Party for National Vegetarian Week with Fair trade cake and biscuits to try from Doves Farm.
National Vegetarian week 2008 celebrations end with a finale down in Bristol harbour on the 31st May and the 1st June at the Bristol Vegan Fayre. www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk - 10,000 people attracted by an awesome line up of bands, food, speakers, entertainment and ethical shopping.

Vegan Aware at London Aware

It's hoped the penny will drop and an eco light bulb will light up in the heads of visitors to UK London Aware at the Barbican this weekend.

Nigel Winter CEO of The Vegan Society and Annette Pinner CEO of The Vegetarian Society will be speaking as well as celebrity London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston. It's hoped all three will highlight the many advantages of eating lower in the food chain and the subsequent benefits for the planet.

Check out the Foods for Life 2 for 1 ticket offer - quote IT241 for an extra free ticket. See London Aware

A great warm up act for National Vegetarian Week 2008

Vegans out Rock National Vegetarian Week

Vegan Greens will Rock UK in World's biggest Vegan Festival and Music Event



Bristol Greens and Vegans are set to out rock all the other events for National Vegetarian Week and National BBQ week with an awesome line up of Reggae, Rock, Ska, Pop and Jazz on the 31st May and 1st June.

It's not just vegan food and talks anymore - The annual Bristol Vegan Fayre event has morphed into a monster ethical party in Bristol harbour part green fair, part music festival, part food fayre, part vegan congress and rally - it's difficult to put your finger on the true essence of The Bristol Vegan Fayre apart from ethical fun and frollocks.

Check it out on www.bristolveganfayre.co.uk

Aswad, Dreadzone, Misty in Roots & Bad Manners head up Bristol’s premier Multi Cultural Music Festival May 31st June 1st 2008 for only £12 for the whole weekend!!!!

Reggae Stars head for Bristol Vegan Event

Vegans to Rock Bristol harbour in National Vegetarian Week Event

Vegan Display Bad Manners in Bristol

Green Vegan Event to Rock UK

Earthday

Earthday

Oh and by the way - Happy Earth Day!

Saf Restaurant & Bar London

Saf Restaurant & Bar London
Saf -ilicious. Manhatten New York vegan raw cool comes to London.

At last! After nearly 30 years of waiting the restaurant of my vegetarian / vegan dreams has finally arrived in London. Saf means pure in Turkish and it truly is pure - pure magic. A personification of epicurean delight. A magical mystery tour into textures, flavours, visual artistry and culinary enlightenment.

My 4 course dinner at Saf was divine. I'm humbled, time for me to retire from messing about about in the kitchen and leave it to the new young blood, a chap called Chad.

Flavours, presentation, ambiance, service, and energy of the whole experience was exquisitely luscious and sumptuous.

Admittedly they had only just opened and were full of that initial earnest passion to please and not too busy to treat everyone like a celebrity but there was nothing I could fault them on - they'd thought of everything. I don't think it will be long before it's full of ingonito hollywood socialites, celebrity anglophiles and the cream of British arthouse bohemia. Saf's Joe McCanta, sommelier/mixologist/jazz pianist (ex counter New York) and Chad , gourmet chef, already have a fanbase in New York and next time Moby comes to London I can't think why he'd eat anywhere else other than saf.

Review - Saf Restaurant

See www.safrestaurant.co.uk

More Reason to Shop with Vegan Logos

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NEWS STORY FROM WWW.NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.CO.UK - MORRISONS FINED £18,000 FOR MEAT IN VEGETARIAN RAVIOLI




This is just one of many examples of where supermarkets are getting it wrong on vegetarian and vegan labelling. Look for the official Vegetarian Society or Vegan Society Logo on products to have reassurance that there are manufacturing procedures in place to stop cross contamination and the vegetarian and vegan ingredients sources have been thoroughly checked.

At Northampton magistrates court on 16th March, Wm Morrison Supermarkets plc based in Gain Lane, Bradford, received fines totalling £18,000 and ordered to pay costs of £1,981.41 after pleading guilty to two charges of contravening the Food Safety Act 1990.

The prosecution followed an investigation by Northamptonshire County Council’s trading standards team after a complaint was made by a local man who purchased two tins of Morrisons own brand ‘Meat Free Ravioli in Tomato Sauce - suitable for vegetarians’ from a store in Northampton. The complainant had been a vegetarian for 23 years and was ‘unimpressed, disgusted and disappointed’ to find meat in the product.


The ravioli product had been manufactured and packed in Italy and during the investigation it became clear that Morrisons had received several other consumer complaints of the same nature in the previous two months and had failed to investigate them properly.

Cabinet member for community safety Councillor Liz Tavener said: “Food labels are there so that consumers can get the information they need to know before they buy. This is important not just for health reasons, but also for people who follow specific diets or have food allergies.

“In this case, someone who was vegetarian unwittingly purchased a product that contained meat; this falls well below the standards that consumers can expect and would not have happened if appropriate action had been taken by the supermarket following earlier complaints from other customers. Thanks to trading standards, the product has now been withdrawn from Morrisons supermarkets.

"Any consumers who consider that food is mis-described or mis-labelled should inform trading standards by calling Consumer Direct on 08454 04 05 06"

For help with legitimising your products with an independent, well recognised and internationally respected accreditation please contact MiV The Ministry of International Veganism.

Politics: Vegetarian Party Fight for London seat

BBC NEWS | Politics | Animals party eyes City Hall seat



Vegetarian Animal Rights party Animals Count are campaigning hard for a seat on the London Assembly.Their sister party in Holland already have elected members but the UK have some catching up to do.

Jasmine de Boo, 32, is the first person to stand in a UK election for the Animals Count party and hopes to pick up votes from disillusioned animal lovers.

The Dutch national, who lives in Kennington, south London, stood in the European elections for Holland's Party for Animals.

Ms de Boo, who works for an animal welfare charity, came to the UK shortly afterwards and founded Animal Counts, which she says has more than 100 members - mostly in London and Wales.

She hopes to pick up votes from Londoners who are "disappointed and disillusioned" with the main parties and says it is "possible" to pick up 5% of the vote - enough to secure the deposit.

Fish Oils Not Sustainable DHA EPA Source

A London Nutritionist says "Fish oil is not a sustainable source of omega 3 DHA and EPA essential fats. Algae oil is an ethical, organic, fair trade, sustainably grown alternative" See Fish Oil vs Algae Oil for more info



Report by Chris Choi ITV ITN news filmed in Holland and Barrett London and Co Durham school. London Nutritionist Yvonne Bishop-Weston.

YouTube - EXCLUSIVE: Queen Rania

YouTube - YOUTUBE EXCLUSIVE: Send me your stereotypes:

Queen Rania of Jordan launches a plea for understanding and tolerance.



Vegans and vegetarians should be able to relate to problems caused by stereotypes and being shoved in a box. Sadly some vegetarians and vegans don't use that learning to extend the lesson of a need for tolerance and understanding and pass it on. Maybe it's about time we did. The roots of vegetarian and vegan philosphy are based in this concept of goodwill to all (including animals) and humanitarianism are the bedrock of the movement. A little more learning, a little more understanding or overstanding to quote Benjamin Zephaniah won't hurt anyone.

World’s First Human In Vitro Meat available online

April 1st 2008 - World's first lab grown human meat available online But is it vegetarian?



So we now have the world's first laboratory grown meat for sale online. No animal suffering as no brain involved but is it vegetarian? Well nothing has been killed so by the definitions of the UK Vegetarian Society I guess the answer is "Yes!"

Whether it will ever be awarded the Vegetarian Seedling symbol logo is another matter.

But is it vegan? The Vegan Society guidance is to avoid all animal products and humans are from within the animal kingdom rather than the plant kingdom so probably technically no.

There are exceptions - The official Vegan society answer to the age old question "is it OK to swallow as a vegan" is "if you want to" although it's generally accepted that the donor should be vegan too as much for taste purposes as anything else. Bodily fluids such as breast milk are considered completely natural and vegan providing there's no exploitation involved. So thus human milk for a mother's baby, yes - camembert cheese made from human milk milked from a poorly paid chinese mothers sitting in a factory connected to pumps probably wouldn't get passed the Vegan Society council.

Our guidance ? Forget it ! The whole idea is Yucky! There are so many vegan alternatives to meat out there - this year at The Bristol Vegan Fayre on 1st June there will not just be the usual burgers but a 10kg Vegan Hog Roast being BBQ'd to celebrate National Vegetarian Week and National BBQ Week.

Vegatopia: Promoting ethical veganism through academic research and teaching.

Just when you thought 2008 couldn't get any more veganically exciting some very clever people in Wales have started an awesome new vegan website

Vegatopia: Promoting ethical veganism through academic research and teaching.

Announcing www.vegatopia.org a multi-disciplinary academic resource

Vegatopia is dedicated to providing a comprehensive academic resource on all things vegan. If you are a student, researcher or teacher interested in any aspect of veganism, then Vegatopia is the site for you. We hope to facilitate new areas of research into issues relating to veganism. We want vegatopia to be an interactive forum for dialogue, informing individual and collaborative research and teaching, as well as making a contribution to vegan activism and having a positive impact on veganism in a wider sense.

The website includes:

• A news page with information about vegan academic activities, such as conferences, seminars, publications or courses.

• A diary with alerts to upcoming talks and other events.

• A comprehensive, interdisciplinary bibliography. We have archived over 1500 references relevant to the theory and practice of veganism. The bibliography is searchable according to keywords, such as ‘social research’ or ‘activism’.

• A list of significant media sources relevant to veganism, including print, television and radio broadcasts, films and music.

• A set of resources for research and teaching veganism in academia, including the text or notes of lectures on veganism, conference papers, theoretical notes, and other unpublished work.

• A research forum, inviting discussion of ideas for future academic work to research and promote ethical veganism.

• An archive of public statements on vegan matters.

• Links to other organizations promoting veganism, including activist groups, educational charities and more.


Interested in joining vegatopia, or finding out more?

Contact us:

Dr. Matthew Cole
matthew.cole @ vegatopia.org
School of City and Regional Planning
Cardiff University