Tim
This article is dedicated to our readers who have thought about going Vegan but haven’t yet had a catalyst for the transition.
Besides the delicious food there are a number of benefits to taking the challenge
- For the duration of the challenge your cholesterol intake will be ZERO (that stuff that causes heart attacks and strokes and is responsible for the biggest cause of death in the developed world,)as cholesterol is only found in animal products.
- Your intake of H.C.A. Carcinogens will be wiped out as these are caused by heating animal products – the creatine that speeds the process up in animal based meals is a byproduct of muscle and thus is entirely absent in a Vegan meal ( see http://www.pcrm.org/newsletter/jun09/carcinogen.html for more info on H.C.As).
- You will be reducing your water usage in magnitudes.We are encouraged in Australia to limit the duration of our showers but in comparison to a simple clothing or meal choice this is utter folly.
A 3 minute shower uses around 45 litres of water ( see water usage chart http://www.thisplace.com.au/eco/tt_waterusage.htm ) which is insignificant in comparison to the 16000 litres of water required for a kilogram of beef.
If you were to have a kilo of soy product you would be saving 14000 litres as soy clocks in at around 2000 litres a kilo. - You will reduce your carbon & methane footprint in the most drastic way possible.
Animal agriculture accounts for 18% of the greenhouse gas emission causing global warming, that is 40% more than the nearest offender,being Vegan is a better move for the planet than swapping your car for a hybrid or living in an electricity free shack – there is no such thing as an animal consuming enviromentalist! - People often ignore veganism by saying they only have time for so many causes like world hunger for example but consider this, while eating vegan you will reduce the amount of land needed to sustain you from 3 1/4 acres to just 1/6 of an acre. With such a small proportion of vegans on the planet we simply do not have the landspace to produce enough food for our population in excess of 6 billion but the 19 fold increase in food per head of a vegan world would give us more than enough food supply every individual human on the planet, so much for veganism being misanthropic !
- Most importantly of all you will reduce the amount of suffering you are commissioning through the products you consume – you will send no male chicks to be shred or gassed to death,you will confine no chicken into a tiny space & pool of excrement,you will submit no pig to having its teeth pulled,tail chopped,ears notched or testicles removed – in fact you will spare cows,chickens,sheep,ducks,calves and pigs from all manner of confinement, cruel farming practices,seperation from offspring/mothers and a fear filled painful death.
If you are willing to try the food aspect of Veganism you could win $1000 dollars Australian.
The Vegan Easy Challenge requires that you eat vegan food for 30 days and it provides a menu of well planned, delicious Vegan dishes to sustain you from Nov 1st – 30th..
The recipes source ingredients that are easy to come by and straightforward to work with.
To enter the competition and get your menu/recipe list send an email to vegan@alv.org.au requesting entry or phone 03 9513 4367
I give this competition personal endorsement as ALV is one of the few abolitionist organisations in our region, they seek to end animal use not make it more palatable (and thus make consumers more comfortable with consuming sentient beings) through welfare reform.
Their website is of particular interest to Victorians for local animal activism and to Australians for information on campaigns or just the straight word on practices that are commonplace in Aussie animal agriculture/animal use(pet breeding etc).
http://Alv.org.au – Animal Liberation Victoria website
Or to register directly http://veganeasy.org/
Disclaimer – The Vegan Easy Challenge requires the applicant to adhere to veganism only in the dietary sense for the 30 days in order to be eligible for the $1000.
Veganism itself is not a diet but an ethical choice to exclude all animal products where possible, for example Vegans do not partake of silk,wool,leather,feathers or fur in addition to food products and components/ingredients of other products that are animal based.
Cheers & good luck from all the Ethereal Blend contributors
#1 by Naty on October 19, 2009 - 5:36 AM
I’m so super excited about this challenge – I wish it was around when I turned. I found the main reason it took me so long to actually ‘turn’ was because I thought it would be hard – diet wise. In fact, as Tim points out, it is an ethical choice you make well before you get to the dinner table so it wasn’t hard at all. Hopefully the vegan easy challenge will help people realise that.
If you are thinking of doing it let me know and I’ll be sure to post a few tips for young players;)