The Vegan Spring 2003

MOBY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW VEGAN ORGANIC FARMING - HOW PRACTICAL IS IT?

HONEY - AIN’T SO SWEET FOR THE BEES

OBESITY - NOT A VEGAN ISSUE?

ISSN 0307−4811 01 Laser Proof

9 770307 481000

in this issue We have recently had the very sad news that Kathleen Jannaway died on 26 January this year; she was a long time member of the Society, honorary secretary from 1971 to 1984, and was made an honorary patron last October. It was Kathleen who, with her late husband Jack, pushed forward the vegan cause then - and later with the Movement for Compassionate Living. I was fortunate in being able to represent the Society at her simple Quaker funeral in Exeter and pay tribute to her contribution to veganism. Kathleen, I feel sure, would not want us to mourn her death but to carry forward her work in advancing ourselves and others towards an ever more compassionate lifestyle.

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Spring is the time for new beginnings – consider what you might be able to do to raise people’s awareness of a more compassionate existence. For example, after reading your magazine, what do you do with it? Why not recycle it by dropping it off in a waiting room – doctor, dentist, lawyer, hairdresser, osteopath. Simple actions like these set ripples flowing that touch others without your even knowing it.

Here at the office we still occasionally receive membership application forms from magazines dating back twenty years or more!

This issue in particular deserves to be circulated widely. Apart from our exclusive interview with Moby, it is packed with interesting articles from making soya milk at home, via shopping at the Oxfam shop to eating vegan in the Arctic.

And don’t forget to let your friends know about the new Animal Free Shopper. Sales have been tremendous: in the first two months since publication we have sold more than 20% of the entire print run.

Veganism is the future.

NEWS SHOPAROUND & OFFERS MOBY EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW REFLECTIONS ON A GARDEN AN ‘EPIC’ UNDERTAKING HONEY - AIN’T SO SWEET OBJECT LESSON A GRATEFUL BLACKBIRD KIDS’ PAGE - VEGILANTICS NUTS STOCK FREE ORGANIC FARMING ‘DON’T WORRY IT’S FROM OXFAM’ MAKING SOYAMILK AT HOME RECIPES VEGANISM & POETRY OBESITY MEGAN THE VEGAN REVIEWS POSTBAG ARCTIC VEGAN LOCAL GROUPS NEWS EVENTS & LOCAL CONTACTS NEWS LOCAL CONTACTS LISTING CLASSIFIEDS PRIZE CROSSWORD

Rick Savage

The Vegan Society Road l

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Editor Rick Savage Editorial Support Vanessa Clarke, Stephen Walsh, Karin Ridgers Design doughnutdesign.co.uk Printed by Hastings Printing Company

The views expressed in The Vegan do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or of the Vegan Society Council. Nothing printed should be construed to be Vegan Society policy unless so stated.

The Society accepts no liability for any matter in the magazine. The acceptance of advertisements (including inserts) does not imply endorsement. The inclusion of product information should not be construed as constituting official Vegan Society approval for the product, its intended use, or its manufacturer/distributor.

Contributions intended for publication are welcomed, but unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a SAE. The Vegan l Spring 2003

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News HEN POLICY ATTACKED The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is calling for a ban on all types of cages for egg-laying hens by 2007. A new European directive will outlaw battery cages throughout Europe from 2012 but will allow continued use of larger "enriched" cages. However, World Trade Organisation rules might prevent a ban on battery egg imports. If your friends want to know more about eggs, send for our egg leaflets.

HEALTH MATTERS The January issue of Health Matters magazine carried a three-page special report on veganism, highlighting the potential health benefits of vegan diets and the increased availability of vegan products, often with the Vegan Society's sunflower symbol. Pictures of Vegan Society patrons Donald Watson and Moby highlighted the diversity and spread of veganism today.

WHY VEGANS WERE RIGHT ALL ALONG The highly respected newspaper columnist and anti-corporate campaigner George Monbiot may have caused many socially conscious Guardian readers to choke on their bacon and eggs on Christmas Eve. In an article entitled ‘Why vegans were right all along’ and carrying the byline, ‘Famine can only be avoided if the rich give up meat, fish and dairy,’ Monbiot set out the case for veganism. Vegans have long known of the environmental and social benefits of their diet, but thanks to Monbiot hundreds of thousands of Guardian readers have been confronted with the facts: ‘the only sustainable and socially just option is for the inhabitants of the rich world to become, like most of the earth's people, broadly vegan.’ The article can be found at www.monbiot.com under the title, ‘The Poor Get Stuffed’.

VITAMIN INJECTIONS FOR BABIES Sandra Murray of the New Zealand Vegan Society gave birth to a healthy baby in hospital but had a terrible time when she refused a vitamin K injection for her child and it became known that she was vegan: they even threatened to take her baby away. After a preliminary meeting, the authorities apologised and agreed that the actions taken by the doctors were "over the top".

Appropriate training is to be given to staff and the health authorities are revising their vitamin K pamphlets and policy to ensure that parental choice is accepted. Sandra has been invited to assist in establishing national policy on vegans for neonatal and paediatric services.

[Note: We checked with Roche, who produce the vitamin K used in the UK, and were assured that the type usually given to infants - Konakion neonatal ampoules 1 mg in 0.5 ml - is completely animal free. They stressed, however, that people should check the exact formulation being given (1mg/0.5ml) as others are not vegan.]

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SPACE AGE DIET New Scientist 21/28 December 2002.

US tissue engineers attempting to produce fresh meat based on cultured animal cells and collagen for long space voyages had their proposals rejected when NASA’s Thomas Dreschel responded: “People are vegetarians and vegans on earth and they do quite well…The vegetarian diet is about 10 times more efficient than a diet of meat.” However, the scientists may yet find a market for their manufactured meat: the fast food industry is rumoured to be interested.

MORE SCAREMONGERING ABOUT SOYA INFANT FORMULA The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition has been suggesting that soya infant formula should be available on prescription only, due to concerns based on experiments on animals. However, the authors of the largest and most recent trial on humans concluded: “Our findings are reassuring about the safety of infant soy formula”. [Journal of the American Medical Association, 2001, vol.

286, pp 807-14.] It is not clear what has prompted this latest whipping up of panic, though cynics suspect a scramble for research funding behind the scenes.

Let us hope, however, that common sense will prevail.

WILDLIFE GROUPS SUPPORT FUR TRAPPING

VEGAN SHINES IN BRITAIN’S BRAINIEST KID SHOW On ITV1 on New Year’s Eve 12-year-old vegan Laura Fitzmaurice [pictured above] showed that you don’t need fish or meat to be brainy when she reached the final of the contest to find Britain's brainiest kid, finishing just two points behind the overall champion.

New Scientist,14 December 2002, reported that WWF and other wildlife groups were backing calls for the New Zealand government to support trapping brush-tailed possums for coats, hats and possum-wool socks. The groups take the view that the current eradication programme is not effective in controlling possums, whose numbers are spiralling out of control. Possums were introduced from Australia in 1837 and now number some 75 million, eating everything from saplings to birds’ eggs. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals are recommending the use of contraceptive methods as a humane alternative.

MISLEADING CLAIM ABOUT ANAEMIA WITHDRAWN On 10 December 2002, under the headline ‘How vegetarian diets could harm your child's IQ,’ the Daily Mail claimed that vegetarianism increased the risk of iron deficiency and impaired infant development. The Vegan Society, together with the International Vegetarian Union, challenged the claim as being based on outdated and unrepresentative evidence. The Daily Mail defended its claims by reference to the British Nutrition Foundation website.

We therefore contacted the Foundation and pointed out the error. Its misleading claim that vegetarian children were three times as likely to be anaemic has now been removed.

While iron stores are generally lower in vegetarians than in omnivores, they are not so low as to lead to increased incidence of anaemia and may even be advantageous in improving insulin sensitivity and reducing risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Vegetarians may therefore have the best of both worlds in terms of adequate but not excessive iron absorption. It is important that all vegetarians, including vegans, consume vitamin C rich vegetables and fruit with meals to enhance iron absorption.

GIVING IT ALL AWAY The last few copies of the previous Animal Free Shopper were given away [pictured below] to budding vegans at concerts by Vegan Society patron Moby [see interview page 7] in Brighton and Wembley and at the Christmas without Cruelty show at Kensington Town Hall in London. Excellent publicity in Tesco Vegetarian Magazine, on websites and at various events led to a huge number of the new shoppers run being sold in the first few weeks.

CALF SALIVA IN TOOTHPASTE New Scientist 11 January 2003. Calf saliva could be the latest weapon in humanity’s fight against bacteria, according to Dublin-based Westgate Biological. Antibacterial chemicals designed to help protect newborn calves against disease are to be combined with a whey-based protein that binds to bacteria, stopping them from sticking to surfaces such as teeth. It is expected that uses will include toothpastes and antibacterial hand lotions. Yet another reason to seek out products displaying the Society’s sunflower logo!

THUMBS UP FOR NEW VEGAN RESTAURANT There was good news for vegans in central Scotland when The List, an indispensable guide to eating, drinking, clubbing, music and the arts in Glasgow and Edinburgh, published its end of year poll. First place in the category 'best restaurant to open in 2002' in Glasgow went to Mono – a 100% vegan restaurant/bar/record shop. For the same category in Edinburgh, first prize went to the David Bann vegetarian restaurant.

Mark Fisher, editor of The List, commented, “it was interesting that the two veggie restaurants came top…Between them David Bann and Mono took about half of the votes, so quite a significant thumbs up from our readers.”

A ‘HEALTHY START’ FOR KIDS The Vegan Society has long argued for reform of the Welfare Food Scheme, which provides mothers of young children with tokens that can be exchanged for cows’ milk. Now the Department of Health acknowledges that the present scheme ‘does not meet the wider nutritional needs for pregnant women and young children, who would benefit from a wider choice of foods to help address health inequalities.’ In a proposal entitled ‘Healthy Start’ the Department of Health have put forward suggestions for reforming the scheme, including extending it to encompass fruit, vegetables and other plant-based foods. The Vegan Society has welcomed the proposals and asked that they be extended to cover plant milks as an alternative to cows’ milk. See www.doh.gov.uk/healthystart

VEGAN ANTI-WHALERS TAKE TO THE HIGH SEAS Tired of accusations of hypocrisy, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has launched an all-vegan anti-whaling campaign. In December their flagship the Farley Mowat [pictured above] set off on a two-month voyage across the Southern Ocean to oppose Japanese whaling in Antarctic waters. They decided to ban meat and dairy from the ship because, says Captain Paul Watson, they were fed up with “the same tired old argument from the Japanese about how whale-savers eat cows but save whales." They also highlighted that some 50% of fishing hauls go to feed farmed animals, “With our oceans dying, with numerous fish species on the brink of extinction, with the proliferation of PCBs, mercury, and other heavy metals polluting the world's fish, it is time for humanity to question this horrendous destruction." To see how the 46-strong vegan crew are progressing visit www.seashepherd.org

IT’S GOOD TO BE SLIM – BUT NOT TOO SLIM A new paper based on the Oxford Vegetarian Study provides strong evidence that while obesity is a major health problem [see article page 25] there are serious disadvantages to being too thin. There were twice as many deaths at a given age in those with body mass index (BMI) below 18 as in those with BMI of 20 to 22. The increase in deaths in underweight individuals is as great as that seen in obese individuals (BMI more than 30) and could not be explained by smoking, pre-existing disease or weight loss in old age. These results strongly support the general rule that the ideal range is 18.5-25 and that both underweight and overweight are to be avoided. (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2003, pages 130-133).

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Shoparound Debbie Holman

PRITCHITT’S SOYA MAID Black tea and coffee when eating out could soon be a thing of the past, thanks to Pritchitt’s individual containers of soya milk. Attractively packaged in individual portions, Soya Maid mixes easily with all hot drinks and has a light, creamy flavour. It comes in boxes containing 120 portions and is a must for all vegetarian and vegan cafes. As it is a long-life product, omnivorous establishments should also take note.

Further details from Pritchitt’s Foods,

www.pritchitt.com

SPECIAL OFFER

are offering Vegan Society members the chance to win pots of Soya Maid.

The first 50 people picked at random from respondents on 1st May 2003 will receive a pack of 10 mini Soya Maids.

Send your name, address and telephone number on a postcard, by 30th April 2003, to Veganstore, 15 Chichester Drive East, Saltdean, Brighton BN2 8LD.

ST GILES FOOD PRODUCTS If you are looking for a versatile topping for savoury dishes. Florentino’s Parmazano fits the bill. Made by St Giles Food under the registered trademark Parmazano, this parmesanstyle seasoning is based on GM-free soya and vegetable oil. It gives a real bite to all white sauces and is perfect sprinkled over pasta and spaghetti.

Mashed and jacket potatoes also come alive under its influence and it adds zest to vegan pizza. In fact, any dish that needs a taste of cheese will love it. It also blends perfectly with tomato and goes well in most soups. It comes in a handy 60 gram shaker and lasts 60 days

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once opened – if you can resist it that long! Unfortunately, Tesco has stopped stocking this product for some reason.

Another vegan product from the same company is their Worcestershire sauce.

Well matured and spicy, it provides a delicious accompaniment to many cooked foods and can be used in many recipes to give a taste of tamarind and citrus. There is no added salt or sugar and it is GM free, making it a healthy alternative to high sodium table sauces. Use it to cheer up soya mince, burgers and all vegan cheese dishes, but beware - a little goes a long way!

The third product from the St Giles Food range that we tested was their red pesto. Made from tomato puree, sun dried tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil, this pesto is generously flavoured with herbs and garlic. We added it to pasta sauce and it made a delicious topping for spaghetti over food. It brightens up many dishes as an added ingredient and tastes great mixed into sandwich fillings.

Further information from St Giles Food Ltd, 4-5 Church Trading Estate, Slade Green Road, Erith, Kent DA8 2JA

MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE WITH VEGAN CATERING Seven-day ‘Highlights of the Mediterranean’ cruise including Spain, France, Italy, Malta and Greece, departing 20 August 2003. A real luxury cruise with all the trimmings – air conditioning, private bathrooms, indoor and outdoor pools, jacuzzis, theatres but with interesting and varied vegan meals and a separate dining area for vegan/vegetarian participants.

Entertainment while at sea will include two mini-conferences hosted by Vegetarian Society Chief Executive Tina Fox with contributions on health and nutrition by Vegan Society Chair Stephen Walsh. Information: Grosvenor Travel, telephone 01492 593674, email grosvenortravel@grosvenortravel.co.uk, website www.grosvenortravel.co.uk

SHEPHERDBOY CRANBERRY BAR This new snack bar contains a total of 70% fruit, of which 30% are cranberries, sweetened and dried before being mixed with apricots, pineapple, oats and sunflower oil. We found the bar very sweet, lacking the characteristic sharpness normally associated with cranberries, but still delicious as the fruits combined well to produce pleasant taste sensations. The texture was very chewy and moist and only 122 kcals for a satisfying snack. The bar is also free from wheat and is cold pressed. For more information contact Shepherdboy Ltd, Cross Street, Syston, Leics, LE7 2JG www.shepherdboy.co.uk

PERMACULTURE COURSES IN SOUTHERN SPAIN Permaculture Design Certificate courses 14th-27th April and 15th-28th September 2003 and one-week Natural Health and Sustainability courses (vegan), including an Introduction to Permaculture, 18th - 24th May, and October. Information: http://www.ecoforest.org. See page 33.

Energising blend of oils we used was created to raise the tempo with the mingled scents of lemon and spearmint and it smelled wonderful in a vaporiser. Very little was needed to create a rich aura that stimulated the senses in a refreshing way and left a long-lasting perfume in the room. It also worked well in the bath. There are six other vapour blends to suit individual moods, varying from Sensual to Restful Night, each using a unique blend of oils to inspire the spirit.

THE TOFU COMPANY A complete kit to make shopbought tofu a thing of the past is offered by the Tofu Company, together with unlimited online support for any problems. The kit comprises of a tofu box with a plate for pressing the tofu, muslin cloth, food grade gypsum powder and a step-by-step guide. All you do is supply the soya milk and labour.

The booklet takes you through the necessary steps and pictures help simplify the process, but the instructions are copious and clear, so it would be hard to go wrong.

Although the process seems lengthy at first, it would become quicker with subsequent batches as the steps become more familiar; even the first time, it is not complicated to carry out, merely time consuming. The tofu produced was delicious in texture and after the initial purchase money could be saved if tofu was made on a regular basis. For more information, see www.TheTofuCompany.com or email sales@TheTofuCompany.com

ORGANIC BLUE

The Organic Blue range of natural toiletries, supplements and vapour blends has been created to provide high quality products that nourish the body and uplift the mind. In conjunction with this, they produce a philosophical thought each week which can be emailed free to inspire and allow the mind to explore its full potential… Just send your email address to www.organicblue.com and who knows what creativity may flood over you? “Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it ” is a line from one such moment given us by the German poet Goethe.

Certainly it is an undeniable fact that a person’s state of mind is fundamental to their outlook on life.

The Muscle Rub was a mixture of eucalyptus, ginger and lavender and smelled divine. We used it after strenuous exercise and the eucalyptus penetrated tired muscles while the ginger warmed the system and the lavender soothed the whole body and also relaxed the mind. Perfect also for hard-working feet that have stood all day or walked many miles.

As well as these ranges, Organic Blue make food supplements and other body care products. For further information, contact Healthquest Ltd, 7 Brampton Road, London NW9 9BX, telephone 020 8206 2066, fax 020 8206 2022, email info@healthquest.co.uk, website www.organicblue.com

We tried two items from the Organic Blue range – a vapour/bath mood blend and a muscle rub. The

LEISURE CLUB OFFER Dan Fivey, manager of the David Lloyd leisure club in Kensington, London, became vegan eight years ago and believes that his healthy diet perfectly balances the fitness achieved by regular exercise. David Lloyd clubs around the country [www.davidlloydleisure.co.uk] have classes for all ages and abilities.

SPECIAL OFFER

The David Lloyd club in Kensington has guest passes to give away and a prize for the first name out of the hat on May 19th, the start of National Vegetarian Week. Send your name and address on a postcard to David Lloyd Health and Fitness Club, Vegan Magazine Offer, Point West, 116 Cromwell Road, London SW7 4XR The Vegan l Spring 2003

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MUSICIAN MOBY:

& VEGAN SOCIETY PATRON

AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Q: If you met Donald Watson, the man who invented the word ‘vegan’ and founded the Vegan Society in 1944, what would you say to him?

A: I would ask him why the word ‘vegan’ is pronounced the way it is.

Q: If you had meat eating friends over for dinner what would you give them to eat to prove how good vegan food can be?

Karin Ridgers and Tony Weston

A: Stop subsidising oil production.

Stop subsidising meat and dairy production.

Stop subsidising tobacco production.

Stop subsidising coal production.

Eliminate special interest corporate lobbying groups.

Q: What would you do if you were responsible for the Vegan Society? What do you think would be most likely to encourage more people to be vegan?

A: I would take them to Teany, my little restaurant in New York City, and give them the faux-turkey club sandwich and some vegan chocolate cheesecake and they would be converted.

Q: What are your top ten vegan foods?

A: Vegan cheese that actually melts.

Q: You're always saying how much you miss Teany, your café in New York City.

Do you have your own cook on tour?

What is a typical day's tour menu?

A: On tour I eat remarkably well. I eat steamed broccoli with ginger, baked tempeh and brown rice almost every day.

Q: You are a great advert for a vegan diet: full of energy, leaping from one side of the stage to the other how do you keep so fit?

A: I eat fairly well, I exercise fairly regularly and I love to move around.

Q: If you could hypnotise President Bush, what are the main US policy changes you would influence him to make?

A: How does veganism affect your sex life?

Answer: Wonderfully.

Q: What would you do if you couldn't make music anymore?

A: Become an architect.

Q: People’s attitudes to veganism seem to have improved tremendously in the past year - there was even a Vegan Smirnoff poster. If you released the album ‘Animal Rights’ today, do you think it would fare better?

A: No - it's a dark and difficult record.

A: Seitan fajitas at Real Food Daily in Los Angeles.

Faux-turkey club sandwich at Teany in New York City.

Chana masala at Woodlands in London.

Anything at Millennium in San Francisco.

Anything at Café 8 in Tokyo.

Sauteed, marinated exotic mushrooms at Essene in Philadelphia.

Vegan Ethiopian meal at The Blue Nile in Detroit.

Steamed spinach dumplings at Vegetarian Paradise in Chinatown, NYC. Vegetarian plate at Indochine in NYC. Vegan chocolate cheesecake at Teany in NYC. Q: Is there anything missing that you wish someone would invent? Vegan marshmallows? Vegan Mars bars? Vegan camembert? Vegan cowboy boots?

Q: If you were the interviewer, what question would you ask yourself? And what would be your answer?

Q: What do you look for in the perfect partner? Would you have a relationship with a meat eater?

A: I'd rather have a relationship with a compassionate and happy meat eater than with a cruel and miserable vegan.

Ideally, though, I'd love to have a relationship with a compassionate and happy vegan.

Q: Can you see yourself as a dad? Would it bother you if your kids grew up to be omnivores?

A: We should all be happy and relaxed in our efforts to get people to accept and embrace veganism. No one likes a miserable, strident, didactic vegan.

Veganism should be a happy thing, not a miserable one. And we shouldn't make people feel bad or guilty for their lifestyle choices, even if they reject veganism.

Q: You've twice been a finalist for the Vegetarian Society Achievement Awards.

How can we make it third time lucky? It would be good to have a Vegan Society Patron winning. What about a vegan recipe section on your award-winning website? Or the vegan Mobydog hotdog available in cinemas and Disneylands throughout the world?

A: Anyone who comes into Teany and tries our food will be converted. Basically, it’s a vegetarian restaurant for nonvegetarians: food that even nonvegetarians can like, in an environment that is fun and accepting, not rigid and monastic.

A: I don't judge people’s lifestyle choices.

It would bother me if my kids grew up to be omnivores because I would worry about their long-term health.

Q: Could you please record a "Hi, this is Moby, have a great World Vegan Day and please try some of the great new vegan foods out there and discover how delicious a healthy vegan diet that benefits humans, animals and the environment can be" kind of message on mini-disc or CD before 1st November 2003?

A: OK. Q: Did the tee-shirt we sent fit OK? Could you send us a picture of yourself wearing it? Will you design a new one for us ?

A: I'd be happy to design a new tee-shirt for you.

Q: Are you bored yet?

A: No, I like talking about veganism.

[Win a signed photo of Moby with our prize crossword page 40].

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REFLECTIONS

KATHLEEN JANNAWAY (1915-2003)

ON A GARDEN Rufus Cannon

Kathleen Jannaway died on 26 January 2003, a little before her 88 birthday in February.

She was a long time member of the Society, a distinguished honorary secretary from 1971 to 1984, and since last year's Annual General Meeting an honorary patron of the Society.

A professional gardener reflects on the therapeutic and uplifting effects of gardening.

T

he festive period is well and truly over and I find myself leafing through seed catalogues and contemplating the past few years. Maybe it’s the return of snow that has stirred up memories of times past. For me, the value of gardening is now much less its amenity value and much more its ability to promote mental and spiritual well-being.

A simple Quaker funeral service was held at Exeter Crematorium and Memorial Park on 3 February. Family and friends paid tribute to her contribution tocompassionate living.

I began thinking of recent projects that have not only given me immense inspiration for the future but have also increased my faith in gardening. One that particularly springs to mind began with a simple brief three years ago: I was asked to create a retirement garden – a perfectly routine project, looking back.

For those who were unaware or could not attend the funeral service, a memorial service is planned for 17 May in Dorking (details of venue and time are not yet known).

The garden had been neglected for some 30 years: a square patch of lawn in poor condition and some brutally pruned shrubs - obviously the work of a once keen gardener who had lost their motivation when life got in the way. It did, however, boast established trees and mature fruit trees 80 to100 years old. It has also been a helpful base from which to observe organic principles, given the diversity of plant and animal life within it, including informal areas left to grow wild over the years.

A full tribute will appear in the Summer issue.

I have adopted an approach based on good housekeeping: always working with natural principles - together with a sprinkling of ingenuity, though I say it myself!

THE ANIMAL FREE SHOPPER 6th Edition

The results have been stunning this year and it has given me much pleasure to see the couple enjoying all the elements of the garden - not just the plants, but also the new water feature that I created for them. I have observed much more movement in the garden now: ever-changing colours and many more species of birds, butterflies and other wildlife from stag beetles to the occasional unwanted visitor. There is also the joy of seeing the couple ‘lost’ in their garden, benefiting not only their personal well-being but also their social world when they proudly display it to friends and relatives.

Our most popular book is also the most comprehensive guide to vegan products

The therapeutic aspect of gardening is particularly poignant in these days of worry at home and abroad. Both ‘hands-on’ gardening and the sheer experience of life in its most natural setting help to put everything else into perspective: in my view, pretty much any plant, anywhere, makes a difference.

Even gardening disasters have the ability to induce a more relaxed approach to life. In themselves they are outcomes from which one can learn and move on - all part of gardening as, indeed, of life. The garden will evolve gradually despite setbacks and can be gently harnessed to create tremendous happiness.

So now that Spring is here and the new year has begun, forget health clubs and aerobics classes and spend a bit more time in the garden or on the allotment. Give it a go: that elusive new healthier lifestyle you’re planning may be better enjoyed in the garden accompanied by a nice cup of tea and that last slice of vegan chocolate cake - I wish you all the best of luck!

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The Vegan l Spring 2003

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AN EPIC UNDERTAKING: UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF DIET IN HEALTH AND DISEASE

Chris Langley BSc, MA, PhD

Health, well-being and life span are influenced by many factors. Throughout our lives the decisions we make about our diet, the amount of exercise we take, whether or not to consume stimulants and other factors will interact with our genes to produce the people we are. The result of any seemingly simple choice is therefore always one in which roles of varying importance are played by a whole range of factors.

M

any of us feel that diet is of major importance both for our health and for our consciences, and it is now commonplace to be told that a prudent diet is one which includes plant foods aplenty, with sensible amounts of plantderived fats, especially those that are unsaturated. However, it is still difficult to obtain reliable information on the precise role of diet in the maintenance of overall health: today's certainties sometimes become tomorrow's doubts. One way to track the possible influence of diet on health and disease is through comparisons between groups of people who are closely matched for lifestyle features other than diet 1, but even this is not so simple as it sounds.

DIET AND CANCER Many dietary factors - for example, antioxidants - have been suggested as playing a role either in promoting or in protecting against cancer, but unequivocal evidence is still tantalisingly lacking. In general, it has been estimated that overall around 30% of cancers are related to diet and thus in principle avoidable, though the estimated contribution varies between different cancers from about 10% for lung cancer to 80% for cancers of the large intestine. Some people have particular genetic susceptibilities to certain cancers and diet may well have a more marked impact on such individuals.

The main well established dietary effects on cancer are related to obesity, alcohol, fruit and vegetables. Obesity is an important factor in cancers, especially those affecting the oesophagus, colon, rectum, endometrium and kidney. Alcohol has been implicated in cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, oesophagus and liver and is thought to have an impact on the incidence of breast cancer. Research suggests that adequate consumption of fruit and vegetables, which contain various antioxidants, probably lowers the risk of several types of cancer, especially those of the gastrointestinal tract.

SOME HISTORY For those bewildered by the complexities of understanding how diet might influence our health, help came in the 1990s when the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition was launched. EPIC was designed to tease apart the various relationships between diet, nutritional status, lifestyle and environmental factors and the risk of cancer and other chronic diseases: in essence, to chart what people reported that they ate and the incidence of cancers in those individuals.

EPIC is the largest study of health and diet ever undertaken: more than half a million people have been recruited and studied in ten European countries, including the UK.

There are more than 23 EPIC research centres in participating countries, representing a rich tapestry of diets from northern countries such as Norway and Sweden to the warm south where Spain and Italy each have five centres collecting data. Vegans, vegetarians and omnivores across Europe have been participating in the EPIC studies and information has been collected since 1992. Many reading this magazine were or are EPIC participants and will be aware that detailed questionnaires seeking the innermost secrets of our diets and lifestyles formed the basis of the EPIC study in the UK. Blood samples are stored in liquid nitrogen and will be analysed over time to examine whether, for example, people with high blood levels of certain vitamins have a lower risk of developing cancer than those with relatively low levels.

EPIC AND THE UK There have been and continue to be well constructed, long term studies of health, lifestyle and disease across Europe and the USA. Examples include the Nurses' Health Study, the Tomorrow Project and the Leeds Women's Cohort Study. Such studies make use of diet diaries, individual questionnaires, blood sampling, simple physical examinations and measurements and the keeping of identical samples of each meal for analysis. The two EPIC centres in the UK, at Oxford and Cambridge universities, both have special interests and target populations and build on experience gained in previous studies.

Researchers in Cambridge have used the county of Norfolk as their sample population because few people in the age group studied (45 to 74) move out of the county, so it is easier to follow individuals. More than 30,000 people in Norfolk have been recruited and asked detailed questions, allowing the EPIC team to build up a detailed picture of health, lifestyle and the incidence of cancer and other diseases with a marked impact on a gradually ageing population.

The researchers in Oxford have a long history of involvement in studying the links between diet and disease. This is due in large part to the interest and expertise of Jim Mann, Margaret Thorogood, Paul Appleby and Tim Key and their insight into vegetarian and vegan diets.

Previous UK studies by these researchers and others include the Health Food Shoppers Study, which recruited participants between 1973 and 1979, and the Oxford Vegetarian Study, which recruited between 1980 and 1984. These studies each included about 11,000 participants, of whom roughly 50% were vegetarians.

The new EPIC-Oxford cohort includes a total of 65,500 participants of whom 31,500 do not consume meat and 2,500 are vegans.

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AN EPIC UNDERTAKING UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF DIET IN HEALTH AND DISEASE Chris Langley BSc, MA, PhD

WHAT ARE THE LESSONS SO FAR? Analyses over the years from the Oxford group have shown that mortality in non-meat eaters (vegans and vegetarians) is low compared with the national average but similar to that of meat eaters where other lifestyle factors are comparable; the only disease for which the vegetarians show lower mortality than comparable meat eaters is ischaemic heart disease.1 Vegans were found to have both lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol concentrations than meat eaters, vegetarians and fish consumers.2 Early results from the EPIC-Oxford study suggest that certain features of the diet of those who abstain from animal products reduce the incidence of obesity.3 This may reduce risk of diseases influenced by high body mass such as certain cancers and diabetes. Levels of some hormones appear to be influenced by the diet and hormones play an important role in initiating or maintaining diseases like cancer. One thread in the story of hormones and disease concerns prostate cancer and blood levels of sex hormones. If diet can be shown to alter hormone levels, this may lead to ways to prevent the disease by changes in diet.

Two studies at Oxford addressed this question.

The first study indicated that blood levels of the male sex hormone, testosterone, were similar in three dietary groups (meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans) but that a chemical which has been found to act as a cancer growth promoter, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), was lower in vegans than in either vegetarians or meat eaters.4 It is therefore conceivable that if a cancer was initiated it might progress more slowly.

The second study looked at soya intake and blood levels of phyto-oestrogens (plant-derived analogues of human female sex hormones) which have been suggested as potential cancer reducing agents. Although the Oxford study found that levels of two phyto-oestrogens - genistein and daidzein - were high in some women in the sample, similar to levels in Japanese women who ate a traditional soya-rich Japanese diet, no association between soya milk consumption and blood levels of human sex hormones was found.5 Very recent work from the Oxford group has continued to address the levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), previously found to be relatively low in vegan men. IGF-1 levels have been linked by other researchers to an increased risk of prostate and breast cancer. A study looked at 292 women drawn from the three groups and found a similar picture to that found earlier in men, namely that IGF-1 was markedly lower in vegans compared with meat eaters and vegetarians.6 As both sexes have low levels of IGF-1 on a vegan diet, this may have an impact on cancer incidence.

So what else will the Oxford EPIC studies tell us about the vegan diet, lifestyle and a healthy and happy life? More results are being analysed even as you read this article, so stay tuned to this wavelength.

I should like to thank Tim Key and Paul Appleby for their time and assistance in helping me write this article.

SOURCES 1. T J Key et al. [1999] Mortality in vegetarians and nonvegetarians: detailed findings from a collaborative analysis of 5 prospective studies, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 70, 516S-524S 2. P N Appleby et al. [1999] The Oxford Vegetarian Study: an overview, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 70, 525S-531S 3. T Key ands G Davey [1996] Prevalence of obesity is low in people who do not eat meat, British Medical Journal, 313, 816-817 4. N E Allen et al. [2000] Hormones and diet: low insulin-like growth factor-1, but normal bioavailable androgens in vegan men, British Journal of Cancer, 83, 95-97 5. P K Verkasalo et al. [2001] Soy milk intake and plasma sex-hormones: a crosssectional study in pre- and postmenopausal women (EPIC-Oxford), Nutrition and Cancer, 40, 79-86 6. N E Allen et al. [2002] The associations of diet with serum insulin-like growth factor-1 and its main binding proteins in 292 women meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans, Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, 11, 1441-1448

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE OXFORD GROUP CONTRIBUTION – Stephen Walsh, PhD The research by the Oxford group over more three decades is the main source of direct information on vegan health in the world and continues to generate intriguing observations and insights.

Reference 1 above is the only study to report meaningful results on mortality in Western vegans, mostly gathered from the Oxford group’s work. The results are both encouraging and disturbing.

They are encouraging in that the vegans studied, like the other health-conscious participants, had about half the death rate of the general population, which translates to living about 5 years longer if sustained into old age. They are disturbing in that vegan heart disease mortality was not so low as expected, given our lower cholesterol levels, while vegan mortality from certain other causes was actually slightly higher than for other groups. This may well be related to elevated homocysteine due to low vitamin B12 levels in many vegans (www.vegansociety.com/articles/homocysteine1). For our own good and the promotion of veganism in general, we should therefore make sure that we get at least 3 micrograms of B12 per day and thus help to make the results of later studies even better.

The low IGF-1 levels in vegans suggest a potential advantage in terms of cancer risk, but IGF-1 stimulates healthy as well as unhealthy growth and it is currently unclear what level is optimal for overall human health. It is noteworthy that in the study of IGF1 in women (reference 6 above), only vegans consuming a quarter of a pint of soy milk per day or less showed below average IGF-1 levels. This illustrates the dangers of focusing on a single intermediate measure such as IGF-1 levels as the basis for health recommendations. The balance of evidence does not suggest that half a pint of soy milk per day is unhealthy: indeed, it seems more likely to have a beneficial effect. The results on IGF-1 point to interesting areas for further research, but the key outcome of studies such as EPIC-Oxford, with twice as many vegans as all previous studies combined, will be data on overall mortality. As new information - favourable, unfavourable or mixed - becomes available on vegan health, you will read about it in The Vegan.

Our thanks to the EPIC-Oxford team for their special contribution to the promotion of healthy vegan diets.

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AIN’T SO SWEET FOR THE BEES George Rodger

H

oney bees live in complex social colonies of up to 60,000. Although individual bees are short lived, a colony can continue for many years.

Honey, the colony’s food reserve, is stored in a "comb" - an array of hexagonal wax cells. Honey is nectar produced by flowers, swallowed by bees, then concentrated, partly digested and finally regurgitated. It could fairly be described as bee vomit. Beeswax for cell building is secreted by glands on the underbelly of the bee.

From earliest recorded times, humans have manipulated bees for their own purposes. There are several hundred commercial bee farmers in the UK, plus many thousands of small scale "hobby" beekeepers.

At the heart of every bee colony is the queen bee - the only one capable of laying eggs. While the ordinary "worker" bees live just a few weeks during the active season, the queen can live for several years.

However, in commercial beekeeping the queens are regularly killed and replaced some experts advise as often as every six months. New queens are mass produced by specialist breeders under carefully controlled conditions. The queen is artificially inseminated with sperm from decapitated males. She often has her wings clipped off to prevent swarming the natural way for the colony to reproduce itself.

Sometimes whole colonies are killed off to save feeding them over the winter.

When they are kept through the winter, the honey is often removed and replaced with sugar candy or syrup, which are cheaper, though less healthy for the bees.

Beekeepers often transport their colonies to areas of flowering crops where the bees pollinate the flowers, increasing crop yields and earning fat fees for the beekeepers. However, this is to the detriment of local wild bees and other pollinating insects, which are swamped by the temporary visitors.

As with all intensively farmed animals, commercial bee colonies are prone to the rapid spread of disease. The Varroa mite is rife among both commercial and "hobby" bee colonies and is threatening the few remaining wild honey bee colonies.

Honey and beeswax are used in food, cosmetics and toiletries, candles and polishes. Both can be easily replaced by animal-free alternatives. Other bee products such as propolis, pollen, royal jelly and venom are valued by humans for supposed health-giving properties, though it is questionable whether they are of any real benefit - except for the bees themselves.

Vegans use no bee products, preferring to forgo the doubtful benefits and well known risks [such as infant botulism] of substances stolen from bees.

[The text of the above article forms the basis for a new Vegan Society leaflet, available shortly.]

OBJECT LESSON Mary Kalugerovich

‘Of shoes and ships and sealing wax,’ said the Walrus, ‘and cabbages…’

‘Cabbages!’ exclaimed the Carpenter.

‘What is there to say about them?’ ‘The name,’ replied the Walrus, ‘is derived from the Latin word caput meaning ‘head’. They belong to the genus Brassica of the family Cruciferae, so called because they bear cross-shaped flowers. Historically, they have been known since ancient times. The Romans, indeed, had the expression crambe repetita equivalent to the Scots cauld kail het again, which is to say something old served up as something new.

‘Geographically, they are widespread, the three principal varieties being the white, the red and the Savoy. The latter is a winter crop, distinguished by its large close head and wrinkled leaves. Their chief natural enemies are the cabbage white, a large butterfly whose larvae injure the leaves, and the cabbage fly whose maggots attack the roots.

‘As to nutrition, they are a valuable source of ascorbic acid. They constitute the main ingredient of, among other things, sauerkraut from German and coleslaw, originating in Holland and now

very popular in the United States of America. They are also used in dishes such as colcannon from Ireland and our own bubble and squeak. In addition, cabbage soup is traditional throughout Europe.

‘To end on a literary note, the sixteenth century French essayist Michel de Montaigne expressed the wish that death should find him planting his cabbages. I hope that that answers your question.’

‘Well, I never!’ said the Carpenter.

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A GRATEFUL

BLACKBIRD Donald Watson

This is a story never before told about an event which happened more than fifty years ago. As an example of a wild bird showing gratitude it deserves a place in our records.

S

oon after coming to live in this house in 1951,we were asked by our neighbour, who was a retired nurse dying of cancer, if we would have any objection if she built a conservatory to sit in.

As it would break the line along the front of our terrace of three houses we were not keen on the idea, but in the circumstances we approved and so the conservatory was built. I doubt if the old lady ever sat in it, though - she died first.

This is where the story about the blackbird starts. The day after the structure was glazed, I found a male blackbird - whose flight path along the front of the terrace had been blocked - lying dead on the garden. He was a handsome bird I had often seen around, so it was with some regret that I buried him.

Two days later I found his mate lying in the same place, not dead, but in a sorry state, with one eye hanging out about an inch from her face. Many humanitarians would probably have decided to put her out of her misery, but my wife and I had never deliberately killed anything and chose to put her with a saucer of water in the greenhouse, where she would be safe from predators.

We expected to find her dead the next morning, but she was not. She had completely recovered, her eye was back in place, and she flew out to continue her life. Needless to say, we prevented any more birds flying into the conservatory by erecting a row of tall canes in front of the glass.

This is where the significant part of the story begins. The next time my wife was hanging out clothes on the line in the garden, this bird flew by, dipping her flight as she passed, showing gratitude in the only way she could for services rendered. This was repeated several times later whenever my wife hung out clothes.

At this dangerous time, when we seem to be near the start of yet another war, many people may wonder why anyone should bother to report what a blackbird did fifty years ago, and why any editor should give space for such a story. Others, who have had close empathy with animals, have been surprised and rewarded by the response they received. It is an observation not to be dismissed lightly. A right relationship with the rest of sentient creation could have an effect on our own prosperity or adversity.

Long ago, someone - I forget who - wrote that "Man's treatment of his fellow man and his treatment of other animals bear a constant relationship." It would be surprising if this were not so. As we try to grapple with all the nasty effects in life, we cannot avoid the conclusion that they are the result of causes. It is a hard lesson to get across, but after sixty years the Vegan Society has made progress. We need all the help we can get from any source, even from a wild bird who had shown gratitude.

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Welcome to the Spring 2003 Kids’ Page Bronwyn (life vegan ) is 6. Aisha her sister is 9 and has been vegan as long as Bronwyn and vegetarian since before she was born!

Bronwyn: On Boxing Day we went along to the local hunt to show our support for the poor foxes. We’d never been before. There were some lovely friendly people there, dressed like they were in the army but really they were there to save the foxes.

Aisha: There were around twenty demonstrators. We went with our friend Rosie, who we also go with to the vegan children’s parties in London. Unfortunately, the pro-hunt crowd had to spoil the day by shouting at Mummy, who was quietly holding up her banner, and by making rude gestures at me.

Hopefully there will be a ban on hunting before next Christmas.

Bronwyn: On 29 December we went up to Newchurch in Staffordshire to support the guinea pigs and met up with some other vegan families for dinner.

Aisha: We also played with some friends we made at vegan camp last summer. I hope we go again this year. The website address is www.vegancamp.org - ask your parents to bring you, too.

Bronwyn: It was nice of David to invite us to his house. Thank you, David.

Aisha: And thank you to David’s mummy and daddy who made lots of lovely vegan food – coleslaw, potato salad, bhajis and sausage rolls and to the lovely people at the Newchurch demonstration who gave us hot chocolate and scones with cherries in. We’re looking forward to going again soon.

Bronwyn: On New Year’s Eve we went to the gates of Huntingdon Life Sciences for the night vigil, to show our support for the animals being hurt and killed in the laboratories. The weather was lovely for us; it can be quite cold and windy, but it was not so cold as we expected and it didn’t rain until we got home.

Aisha: It’s nice to see friends from all over the country all gathering with a common goal.

We’ve made so many friends since we first started going to HLS three years ago.

Bronwyn: I can’t wait for the next vegan children’s party. There’s usually a treasure hunt.

Aisha: One year we went to Highgate Woods for a picnic. There was an adventure playground and a café with vegan options

including Tropical Source chocolate I hope they still sell it. While we all play in the adventure playground after the picnic, someone hides Easter eggs in the woods and we all have to run around and find them. Every year it gets better as more brands and designs of vegan Easter eggs come out.

If you would like to come to some vegan family parties in or around London, just contact Lesley Dove in Harrow (telephone 020 8861 1233 or email Lesley@vegan4life.org.uk). She has two daughters and one son all under ten and there are older children at the parties too.

Bronwyn: The New Year party was great. It was held in a room near Kennington station with a real open fire!

Aisha: There was a fireguard, though, so it wasn’t dangerous.

Bronwyn: We played Pass the Parcel, there was music and dancing, we went to a recreation ground to play, and we persuaded our friend “Bendy” Ritchie to do some bending.

Aisha: Ritchie is a contortionist who does funny things like crossing his legs around the back of his neck and then walking around the room on his arms.

Aisha: In January we took in a cat which is FIVpositive. We called it Salem, after the cat in Sabrina the Teenage Witch. If we can find a friend to look after it for a few days we hope to see you at vegan camp this summer.

Until next time, we have a competition for you.

How many words can you make from the word “Easter”? So far, I’ve made ten.

Bronwyn: Please carry on writing and sending your poems, pictures and letters. You can also leave messages in our forum at www.worldveganday.org and post pictures in the gallery too.

Bronwyn: I wrote a poem. I hope you will like it. Here it is:

‘In The Wild Ponies run around In the wild Rabbits live underground In the wild Pigs find food themselves In the wild We hear the animals play about In the wild And we would like to play with them.’

Aisha: We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. We had a last minute change of plan at Christmas and ended up having Christmas dinner with our grandparents and making puddings instead of main courses. We made Christmas cake, trifle and rum and raisin ice cream. It was so nice that we are celebrating Easter with trifle and ice cream too.

Bronwyn: Mummy adapted the recipe for the ice cream from the Animal Aid website (www.animalaid.org.uk): Put 100g raisins in a jug.

Pour vegan rum flavouring over raisins.

Put jug in fridge.

Take it out and stir it every evening.

After three days in the fridge, stir raisins and rum into a tub of vanilla Swedish Glacé.

It was yummy!

Aisha called out the instructions, Mummy weighed the ingredients and we all helped with the stirring and eating.

Aisha: This is the way we made the trifle Make or buy a basic vegan sponge cake and place it in the bottom of a two litre dish.

Make up one pack of raspberry flavour vegan jelly crystals.

Let the jelly cool, but keep stirring it so it doesn’t set.

When it is cooler, pour it over the cake and let it set.

Now make another jelly while the first one is setting.

Once the first jelly has set, pour the second one over it.

Take a tin of mandarins and a tin of peaches and strain off the juice.

Stir all the fruit into the second jelly When it has all set, pour a carton of vegan vanilla dessert over the top.

We would love to hear from you: Why are you vegan? What do you like about being vegan? How do you persuade your friends to become vegan? Please send your stories, poems, pictures & photos to: Bronwyn & Aisha’s Vegilantics c/o The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 7 Battle Road, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, TN37 7AA or Email media@vegansociety.com with “Vegilantics” in the subject line.

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NUTS Pauline Lloyd

So why are nuts so good for us? Nuts are high in fat, but contain little saturated fat, being largely made up of monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Nuts are also a useful source of protein and contain valuable dietary fibre, vitamin E (an antioxidant) and many B vitamins, particularly vitamins B1, B2, B3 and B6. In addition, nuts provide appreciable amounts of magnesium, potassium, calcium, copper, iron and zinc. Brazil nuts contain exceptionally high levels of selenium.

R

ecent human nutritional studies suggest health benefits for regular nut eaters. For example, regular consumption of nuts could offer some protection against coronary heart disease, although exactly why this should be the case is not yet clear. Eating nuts lowers serum cholesterol levels, particularly the dangerous lowdensity lipoprotein (LDL) component. As elevated serum cholesterol levels play an important role in the development of coronary artery disease, lowering cholesterol by consuming nuts regularly may help to reduce the risk of developing the disease. Pistachios, almonds, macadamia nuts, walnuts and pecans have all been confirmed to lower cholesterol, largely due to their high unsaturated fat content. It is possible that the dietary fibre, vitamin E or other components of the nuts may also be conferring additional health benefits.

Protein from nuts is unusually rich in arginine, the precursor of nitric oxide which can reduce blood clotting and relax and expand the blood vessels.

Walnuts (English, not black) and butternuts are exceptional among nuts in being high in alpha linolenic acid (about 12% of calories). High intakes of this essential omega-3 fatty acid are associated with reduced risk of coronary heart disease, possibly due to alpha linolenic acid reducing blood clotting and promoting a regular heart rhythm.

So far, five large independent studies (the Adventist Health Study, the Iowa Women Health Study, the Nurses’ Study, the Physicians' Health Study and the CARE Study) have found that frequent nut eating is associated with a decreased risk of coronary heart disease. The Nurses’ Health Study, for example, found that women who consumed nuts five or more times per week had an approximately 35% lower risk of coronary heart disease than those women who rarely ate nuts. In the Adventist Health Study, subjects who consumed nuts five or more times per week had a 50% reduced risk of coronary heart disease and were estimated to live two years longer than those who never consumed nuts.

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Nuts don't just seem to offer some protection against heart disease. A recent study, conducted by researchers from Harvard University, examined the effect of nut and peanut butter consumption on the incidence of diabetes. They found that women who ate 140 g or more of nuts per week were 27% less likely to develop diabetes than those who reported rarely or never eating them, and that those who ate nuts four times a week reduced their risk of contracting the disease by 16%.

Increasing our consumption of nuts and peanut butter may therefore also provide some protection against the development of type 2 diabetes.

Nuts can be easily incorporated into a vegan diet, but because they are high in calories they are best consumed moderately as a substitute for some other food. Use them in nut roasts, nut cutlets and nut burgers, or simply sprinkle some chopped nuts over your favourite salads or desserts. Quickly whiz up nutritious nut milk in your blender or invest in a jar of ready-made nut butter to use in your sandwiches. Alternatively, packets of mixed almonds and raisins make an excellent and easily transportable snack.

If you fancy a tasty treat in your lunchbox, why not try out these instant almond bars: For each bar, place 25g ground almonds in a bowl and add 25g of chopped apricots, preferably organic and unsulphured.

Mix in a small amount of water or orange juice (about 1 tablespoon per bar) and firm the dough into one or more rectangular bars.

Store the bars in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

STOCK FREE ORGANIC FARMING -THE ETHICAL VEGAN SOLUTION Liz Turner

Not wishing to consume anything from an animal or give any support to the meat and dairy industry, vegans try to meticulously avoid all animal products including the less obvious dairy by-products and meat derivatives. However, this is extremely difficult because current farming methods rely on animal wastes. Manure is spread extensively on the land to provide nutrients for plant growth. Slaughterhouse waste, including blood, bone meal and fish are used in both conventional and organic farming. So what price the goal of dissociating ourselves from the livestock industry?

technically feasible, economically viable and to produce comparable or even greater yields than other organic farms.

There is thus no practical reason why vegan organic farming could not replace conventional and organic agriculture.

T

he use of animal products to fertilise arable crops effectively supports the livestock industry, which is not ethically acceptable to vegans. The environmental problems are just as crucial as the appalling suffering of farmed animals.

About 85% of Britain’s landscape is used either for animal grazing or to grow animal feed and further grain is imported from poor countries to feed livestock. It is well known that the meat and dairy production take far more land, energy and water than crop growing.

Grazing animals also compact and erode the soil, while water pollution from excess manure causes serious ecological and health problems.

So what are the alternatives for a discerning vegan? Not all fertilisers originate from animals. Although in previous centuries traditional mixed farming was largely dependent on producing sufficient animal manure, in the last 50 years the energy intensive production of synthetic fertilisers has revolutionised farming. As a result, our population has nearly quadrupled in the 20th century and agriculture contributes substantially to the use of fossil fuels.

Together with other serious ecological and health issues, chemical farming is also undesirable for those seeking an ethical solution.

However, traditional farming also used crop rotation and it is this method along with other sources of fertility that vegan organic farming embraces. While most organic farming uses animal manures instead of artificial fertilisers, vegan organic agriculture maintains fertility by using vegetable compost, green manures, crop rotation, mulches and undersowing.

Composting requires large amounts of organic materials, so often needs to be supplemented by outside sources.

Green manures are plants whose roots have associations with soil bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and supply it to the plant. The vegetation

Some vegan organic growers farm on a smaller scale, supplying their local economy with fresh, healthy, animal-free organic produce. This is desirable for many ethical reasons. A diversity of crops rather than monocultures is more feasible and provides better wildlife habitat. Small-scale production is also more animal-friendly by avoiding the large machinery that kills and maims animals in large fields. Growers who adopt this method tend also to plant and leave more areas for wildlife, while composting and mulching are easier to achieve on small farms.

can then be utilised to enrich the soil and provide essential organic matter.

Crop rotation is central to vegan organic agriculture. A balance should be achieved between crops and green manures.

Mulching involves applying an organic layer to the soil such as hay, straw, grass and leaves. The decomposing material provides nutrients, increases soil organic matter, retains moisture and prevents soil erosion.

Vegan organics can nevertheless be applied on any scale, from conventional monocultures to small farms and permaculture systems. Plants for a Future is a pioneering project in the south-west of England using vegan organic permaculture. Avoiding the use of animals in farming cuts through many of the ecological and health problems associated with modern agriculture. It is a model of humane, sustainable and healthy food production, especially

when practised on a small scale.

Undersowing is the growth of green manures under existing crops, acting as a living mulch.

The practicality of these methods depends on the scale and type of farming. Crop rotation is the most appropriate for conventional scale farming systems. The Elm Farm Research Trust has undertaken ten-year trials of organic stockless rotations – without artificial or animal fertilisers. Instead of pasture, green manures are rotated with arable crops to accumulate nitrogen.

Stockless rotations were found to be

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STOCK FREE ORGANIC FARMING -THE ETHICAL VEGAN SOLUTION Liz Turner

So how is vegan organic produce being promoted? Although on the increase, there are still only a handful of vegan organic growers. The Vegan Organic Network (VON) promotes stockless agriculture and links people who share this aim. VON has issued stock-free organic standards to regulate commercial growers and act as a guideline to others.

The Soil Association is currently assisting in implementation, so growers will be able to opt for stock-free organic certification. Animal waste products and the deliberate killing or injuring of animals are prohibited. The standards also reflect the importance of sustainability within vegan organics, addressing issues such as pollution, erosion, loss of biodiversity, global warming, waste and depletion of resources.

A forthcoming handbook will explain stock-free organic methodology and VON is raising funds and planning for a research, education and demonstration centre. This should raise the profile of vegan organic farming and provide consumers with the knowledge to make informed choices. For the first time, vegans will be able to adopt an ethical standpoint on the way food is produced as well as on food types.

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How can we make ethical food widely available? All vegans should support a switch to vegan organic agriculture as part of their commitment to end livestock farming. In the meantime, many people may have the opportunity to grow their own vegan organic food or create a demand for it in local communities.

For information on vegan organic permaculture: Plants for a Future.

Email webmaster@pfaf.org, website www.scs.leeds.ac.uk/pfaf/ or telephone 01208 872963.

As vegans, we inevitably imagine life without the misery and suffering of animal abuse. The idea of such a revolutionary shift in farming systems also allows us to envisage an accompanying change in landscape.

Vast areas could be released for wildlife habitat, thereby accommodating animals as they should live.

Growing Green International, nos. 7, 8 and 9. Journal of the Vegan Organic Network.

Winter Grow Vegan Puzzler Winner What has been the greatest threat to native bulbs in the UK? (a) garden centres & commercial growers (b) pharmaceutical companies (c) habitat destruction for development The correct answer was (c) habitat destruction for development and the winner was Melanie Daniels Sheffield, South Yorkshire

CONTACTS To support vegan organic agriculture, for further information and details of current growers: Vegan Organic Network,

For information on stockless organic research: Elm Farm Research Centre, Hamstead Marshall, Newbury, RG20 0HR. website www.efrc.com

REFERENCES

Norberg-Hodge H, Merrifield T. and Gorelick S. (2000): Bringing the Food Economy Home. International Society for Ecology and Culture, October 2000.

Phillips L, Welsh J and Wolfe M. (1999): Ten Years Experience of All Arable Rotations, in Designing and Testing Crop Rotations for Organic Farming – Proceedings from an International Workshop. Danish Centre for Organic Farming, Borris, Denmark, 14-16 June 1999. (Available from Elm Farm Research Centre).

Smil V. (2001): Enriching the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the transformation of world food production. MIT Press.

‘DON’T WORRY IT’S FROM OXFAM’ & OTHER ETHICAL VEGAN DEBATES Stephen Walsh

The defining step in becoming vegan is stopping eating foods derived from animals. For many vegans, though by no means all, the aim is to stop supporting the exploitation of animals for food or other purposes, so far as possible and practicable.

This has implications beyond not consuming meat, fish, milk, eggs or honey and products incorporating them, and making the best decision is often not easy.

F

or instance, ethically motivated vegans would not dream of buying leather shoes or woolly jumpers first hand, but some might consider buying such products from a charity shop. None of the money paid for a second-hand sweater in an Oxfam shop goes back to the sheep farmer, so this avoids directly commissioning the exploitation of an animal - but it is not so squeaky clean as it might seem.

First, if a vegan buys cheap second-hand woolly clothing from Oxfam someone with less compunction about the origins of their food and clothing will have to get their desired woolly clothes from a mainstream store. The commissioning of harm to a sheep through displaced demand is indirect, but real. Secondly, a vegan wearing wool sends the confusing message that animal products are somehow desirable or necessary. Thirdly, buying a product from any organisation supports the overall activities of that organisation.

Oxfam does not support animal research, but it does sometimes use animals and animal products in its poverty relief projects. Most vegans probably regard buying non-animal products from Oxfam as acceptable, but would avoid shops run by organisations which fund vivisection, such as Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

These three issues (displaced demand, confusing messages and indirect support) apply also to buying leather or silk from a charity shop and are relevant to other perennial debates among ethical vegans.

What should ethical vegans do with old animal-based clothes: wear them out, bury them, bin them, or give them to a charity shop? Continuing to wear them sends a confusing message. Burying them or binning them avoids this problem, but does nothing to reduce the demand for animal products. The difference between burying and binning is purely psychological, but it may still be important: burial can be a means of focusing on the harm done to the animal and strengthening commitment for the future. Giving the clothes to a charity shop reduces demand for new

animal-based clothes and conserves resources. If the charity is animal-friendly, e.g. an animal protection charity, then the indirect support through donating items for sale brings further benefit. This is generally the preferred option if the clothes are saleable and finances allow replacement with non-animal alternatives.

Fur raises a special issue as it is particularly expensive and much closer to becoming socially unacceptable than other animalbased clothes: giving old fur to a charity shop could contribute to keeping fur on the streets rather than to avoiding the death of more animals, thus altering the judgment as to what is best for the animals.

What about eggs from a hen sanctuary if the proceeds go to support the sanctuary?

Consuming these rare items stops a nonvegan who would otherwise eat ordinary eggs from eating them instead (displaced demand) and suggests that eating eggs is OK so long as the hens are well enough treated (arguably a confusing message).

Many vegans avoid buying even vegan products from any business whose activity is centred on selling animal products, to avoid indirectly supporting the company’s use of animal products. This is most commonly applied to fast-food chains such as McDonald’s, Burger King and KFC, due to their high levels of advertising promotion of animal-based foods. Some vegans also apply this to supermarket chains, particularly those which also own farms or dairies. However, the limits of the possible and practicable generally mean that some indirect support of animal exploitation is unavoidable since there are very few entirely vegan shops and most manufacturers use animals in other products.

Other vegans take the view that if a nonvegan outlet provides a vegan product, then this should be supported because keeping the product available makes it easier for others to choose a non-animal alternative. The ethical arguments are finely balanced and the decision in each case will come down to judgment and personal

taste: some vegans find being near animal products more disturbing than others.

An interesting variant of this debate was the widely circulated declaration in the USA last year, by individuals declaring themselves to be vegan, that vegans should purchase an almost vegan burger from the Burger King chain in the hope that if this product was successful it would displace demand for meat burgers. This call for deliberate consumption of an animal product was condemned by the Vegan Society as falling outside the bounds of vegan ethics: deliberate direct harm, however small, cannot be justified by speculative hope of an indirect benefit which could be achieved in other ways, and a vegan deliberately eating an animal product is not merely confusing but a contradiction in terms.

Some vegans will only buy vegan food from a restaurant if the processing ensures that there is negligible cross-contamination with animal products, e.g. chips fried in separate vegetable oil from fish or meat.

While personal taste, religious belief or fear of infection from small amounts of animal products are sufficient justifications for this choice, there is no obvious benefit to animals: if all the ingredients deliberately added are vegan, there is no direct commissioning of harm and no confusing message - it is a matter of personal judgment and decision.

Ethical veganism is about much more than diet and I hope that this personal view has illuminated some of the issues to be considered in trying to avoid any exploitation of animals for food, clothing or other purposes so far as possible and practicable. It is important to remember that perfection is not an option, that circumstances vary and honest judgments differ. The step that all vegans, whether ethically motivated or not, have taken by stopping using animals for food is the key step to ending the vast majority of animal exploitation: we should not let debating the finer points of vegan ethics distract us from encouraging more people to become vegan and cherishing those who have already taken this decisive step.

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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MAKING SOYA MILK & TOFU

AT HOME Cynthia Robinson

I was bought a SARC soymilk maker by my partner in August. I had experimented a little with making soya milk and tofu before, but it was a messy and long-winded business. Having been given this machine, however, I dashed out to get some organic soya beans as partner had not thought of this himself.

O

nce soaked overnight, the beans are ready to go. About 2 litres of water is put in the plastic container of the machine and the assembled lid is put on top. The machine has a little chute in the lid, through which the beans are fed. They fall into a sieve-like metal cylinder with a blade at the center. The chute is then blocked with a little plastic plunger and you plug in and switch on. The machine goes through a 15-minute cycle of heating and grinding and the result is fresh hot soya milk.

You can drink the soya milk straight, add salt or flavourings of your choice and it can be stored in the fridge in a clean container for up to seven days. Personally, I always filter the soya milk through a few layers of muslin before use or storage so as to remove any chalky texture due to fine bean particles in the milk.

Once this is done, you should clean the machine as soon as possible – or at the very least soak it by filling the base with water and placing the lid in it so that the element, thermostat etc are covered. If you don’t do it quickly, the residue of the soya milk dries on and becomes hard to shift. The machine comes with a scrubber and a brush to help, and if you do it straight away it only takes a couple of minutes.

the lid so that the curds are squeezed together and remaining liquid is squeezed out. It is generally ready after a few hours.

Having made the tofu, you can use it straight away, refrigerate it, marinade it or do as I do and freeze it. I find the texture much better: once frozen, the tofu becomes firm and spongy, it is easier to handle and it takes on flavours more easily.

Defrost and use it as required. As I have the luxury of a smoker in the garden, I can even make smoked tofu fantastic!

General Hints and Tips For a smoother texture, filter the soya milk through muslin.

Clean the machine immediately.

Use the okara in bread/burgers etc.

Store the soya milk in the fridge in a clean container.

Freeze fresh tofu for a spongier texture.

Nut milk can also be made, but don’t use the heater setting - just the grinder.

Remember, too, that the pulp (okara) left over in the sieve can be used in things like bread or burgers.

To make tofu, put the soya milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Take care as it will easily boil over. Then simmer for a couple of minutes. I usually add some salt to the milk and sometimes some chilli before starting to make the tofu, just for flavour.

While the soya milk is heating, dissolve 1 to 2 teaspoons of nigari in a little water. Nigari is magnesium chloride that has been crystallised from sea water. It is available from some good health food shops or you can order it from Edinburgh by calling or over the web from www.telinco.co.uk/roger/Foodrink/Essential/Foodlists/herbs.htm.

It is cheap and lasts for ages. The more nigari you add, the firmer the tofu will be.

Once the milk has simmered a little and the nigari has dissolved, add the nigari mix to the pan and stir well. Turn off the heat and leave to stand for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, set up the tofu kit. I usually rest the contraption (a plastic box with removable lid and base) in a colander over a bowl. The box is lined with muslin and the curdled soya milk can then be poured through. It can take a while to filter through, but you can give it a helping hand by squeezing the muslin (carefully!) Once all has been filtered and the curds are caught in the muslin, fold the edges of the muslin over the top of the curds and place the lid on top. I then place the whole lot somewhere flat, such as a baking tin, and put a weight on The Vegan l Spring 2003

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FISHY

SOMETHING

Graeme Reekie

It was perhaps inevitable that everybody following the recent story of EU fishing quota cuts would be disappointed. For some, the reduction by around 50% of North Sea white fish quotas is not enough, for others, too much. The fact remains: thousands of tonnes of fish will still be taken every year until ‘stocks’ are extinct.

W

e all know of ‘vegetarians’ who eat fish – we are reminded all the time by meat-eaters and restaurant menus! I have even heard stories of ‘vegans’ who eat fish from time to time – for their yin/yang balance, or because you ‘can’t not’ eat fresh fish at the seaside / in Spain etc.

Hopefully the recent reminders about the perilous state of our marine ecology will bring some of these people to their senses. If not, let’s let the food do the talking as usual.

So what can penitent piscatarians eat with their chips? What’s wrong with the usual chipshop classics of mushy peas, curry sauce, beans or even pancake rolls?

And anyone who has had to eat at motorway service stations will be familiar with the vegan option of chips and onion rings. I mean, we’re not talking fancy food here anyway. If you want to be fancy, have some mint sauce with your mushy peas – or why not make your own mushy peas and sauce to match? For a healthier tea, humous in warm pitta bread with salad is cracking.

Chinese supermarkets also sell great (vegan) curry paste, easy to make up, and totally chipshop authentic!

20

The Vegan l Spring 2003

You can even make your own delicious condiments without too much effort: home-made tomato ketchup is lovely - try it with green tomatoes for a ghoulish hue that the kids will love!

If you start to miss the salty, fusty tang of fish, why not try some of the many seaweed products available in health food stores? Their nutritional value may outweigh their taste appeal, but let’s face it, everything that comes out of the sea tastes the same: fishy!

ACKEE & SMOKED TOFU KEDGEREE Ackees are available in cans in Indian and Caribbean stores, and increasingly in supermarkets. They are expensive (about £2.50 a can) but worth it for an occasional treat. Their texture is quite eggy, so they give a soft, creamy richness to this dish, in addition to their gently sharp taste.

300g long grain rice 800ml stock

Fishless fishcakes have been on the market for a long time, and they are scarily authentic. Redwood foods recently launched their ‘Fish Style Fingers’, and again, these are a close match to the original – if you used to like fish fingers, you will love these.

1 small onion, chopped 1 clove garlic, crushed 1/2 teaspoon turmeric 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, or 1 teaspoon fresh 1220g block smoked tofu, sliced 1 540g can of ackees juice of half a lime salt and pepper

My first recipe is a lovely dish of ackees and rice which reminds me a bit of kedgeree but lacks nothing from the absence of yellow-stained ‘smoked’ fish. The rest follow the Caribbean theme of these ingredients and can be served together or separately. There’s no need to be a fishy recidivist when food tastes this good, so tell your ‘vegetarian’ friends!

Pour the stock over the rice, cover and cook on a medium heat for 15 minutes or until all the stock is absorbed and the rice nicely cooked. Fry the onion and garlic gently until soft, then add the turmeric and thyme. Now add the tofu and cook for another 2-3 minutes before adding the ackees, the rice and the lime juice. Heat through and serve.

PLANTAIN & SPINACH CURRY Plantains are basically large savoury bananas. They will be browner in appearance than bananas, so don’t be put off by black marks on the thick skin, which is removed. If you haven’t cooked with them before, they are well worth a try. They are also nice roasted and go well with spicy food, bean dishes and tangy salads. Scotch Bonnets are the only chillies I’ve come across which will still be stinging your hands the day after using – rinse well after chopping! Do seek them out, though, as they give this dish not just heat but its distinctive taste.

1 plantain 1 small onion, chopped thumb-sized piece of root ginger, peeled and finely chopped or grated 2 cloves of garlic, crushed half a Scotch Bonnet chilli, finely chopped pinch of salt

RED BEANS AND RICE

1 can of spinach, drained a good fistful of fresh coriander,

So nice you could eat a plate twice.

chopped

1 onion, coarsely chopped

Peel the plantain, then slice into rounds

2 cloves garlic, crushed

about the thickness of a pound coin. Fry

1 teaspoon dried, or 2 of fresh chopped thyme

in a little oil until golden. Now add the

1 teaspoon allspice

onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and salt. Fry for

300g long grain rice

a couple of minutes, then add the drained

1 bay leaf

spinach. Cover and cook for 20-30

400ml can coconut milk

minutes, stirring occasionally and adding a

400ml water

little water if required. When ready,

1 can kidney beans

throw in the coriander, stir and serve.

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil for a few minutes, then add the thyme and allspice. Add the rice, stir, and add the bay leaf, coconut milk, and water. Bring to the boil, add the beans, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Stir from time to time to

[Editor: This regrettably is Graeme's last regular cookery column for us after 3 years. I'm sure you will all wish to

prevent sticking. Season with salt and pepper towards the end.

join me in a very big THANK YOU to Graeme for

Delicious served with a splash or two of Pickapeppa Sauce.

providing us all with lots of wonderful recipes.]

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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VEGANISM & POETRY John Kinsella - Australian poet and Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge

Which came first - poetry or veganism? My mother was a poet, so I was brought up with poetry. She wasn’t vegan, or even vegetarian, but she was always interested in the esoteric, so maybe the ideas floated around the house. I’m from a family of farmers, foresters, and miners - not trades historically renowned for vegan inclinations. Maybe it was a heritage designed to provoke a rebellion, not just in myself but also in my brother - a strange set of ingredients with free will and personal experience thrown in.

T

he veganism came when I was twentytwo, nearly eighteen years ago. I’d been a poet all my life. Poetry had always meant examining one’s relationship to the ‘external’ world for me: a synaesthesia of thought, sound and sight. The first poem that I considered a ‘real’ poem - ‘Strike’ - didn’t come until I was thirteen. The subject was marlin fishing. I was still up to my ears in fishing and hunting at that stage, but I felt that to kill a marlin was wrong. It came from majestic notions of large animals: the exotic. I would kill a rabbit, but never a kangaroo.

In those days, I differentiated between life forms through a belief in a hierarchy. What eventually led me to be vegan was the recognition that all life is equal. I eat plants because the human body cannot survive effectively without them, but it can certainly thrive without animal flesh or animal byproducts. I became a vegan for ethical reasons: a desire to minimise abuse and suffering, and a belief in the selfdetermination of all creatures.

Another early poem, ‘Beasts of Burden’, dates from my fifteenth year. It was similarly concerned with the mistreatment and use of animals, but I can recall only the last lines of this rhyming four-line poem from memory: ploughing the upturned field, rusting chains chafe at their thighs for the sake of the farmer’s yield.

The manuscript of ‘Strike’ has been lost with time, maybe as it should be, along with my school diaries and an early science fiction novel, though I have always regretted its loss as I feel retrospectively that there was something honest and something pivotal in this poem for me as a writer and an ethical vegan.

Had I written more ‘Strike’-type poems, I might have made the transition to veganism even earlier. Instead, I went on to write in more abstract vein, contemplating the ironies and wrongs, as I perceived them, of the human condition, the irony between

the human ability to perceive beauty in nature while simultaneously destroying it, though lots of references suggested a consciousness that would later lead to veganism.

There was an ethical and conceptual struggle going on, heavily tied up with a developing artistic consciousness. Are the two separable? I guess that’s what I was subliminally asking myself. I remember a few words of the poem ‘Strike’, and I certainly remember the shape and ‘theme’.

To accompany the poem, I drew a picture which I remember clearly: the back of a fishing boat with the marlin being hoisted over the side - a huge gash where the gaff had ‘rent’ the body and the ocean bleeding as much as the marlin.

Strike The ocean flashes silver as the fisherman cries ‘Strike!’

He hauls the marlin’s bright body to the boat a sharp gaff rends its flesh and the green-blue water runs red.

Poetry wasn’t just conceptual for me by this stage: it was the reality of who I was and how I represented myself. Two years later, my first full length book was published, and things have gone on from there. I don’t always write about vegan issues - in most of my poetry it exists like a residue, a subtext - but it always informs the way I see the world, how I interact with it. I also became concerned a about how animals are exploited in the publishing of books, in the making of paper, the glues that bind books, and so on.

Veganism is a holistic concern for me. For every reaction, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. Whatever we do has an implication for something or someone else.

At the very least, one should express a consciousness of this. My most pointed early poems were called: ‘Of’, ‘That’, and ‘Note from the Butcher’. These were overt vegan statements with a lyrical and figurative framework - poetic declarations of veganism.

That’s pretty close, I think. The loss of this poem, and the desire to reconstruct it have driven whole books of poems in 27 years of writing.

I don’t think one should overdo this, and sometimes by writing about the things that one abhors a greater luminosity can be brought to the issue. As I tell students, ‘Show – don’t tell’. Creating a feeling, evoking a perception, is far more effective than telling someone what is right and wrong. The best poems are ambiguous: the reader or listener decides, re-decides, comes to their own decision. So long as the possibility for a ‘decision’ is built into the poem, it is effective.

Having published a few poems and a small booklet, at the age of twenty I ‘renounced’ (strange lad that I was!) all poetry publishing as a grotesque fetishisation of capitalism, and for a while wrote only for myself and for friends. The only poem I published during that time was in the Western Australian vegetarian and vegan magazine.

It was about the army’s machine-gunning of emus along the border with South Australia.

I was so angry and disgusted that I thought it the obligation of poetry to speak out.

More recently I was involved in an overt vegan poetry project with the wonderful vegan poet and activist Coral Hull. Entitled ‘Zoo’, it tackles cruelty, injustice and other animal rights related issues from a vegan perspective. But really, whatever I write comes out of the sentiment of that ‘Strike’ poem: whether vegan or not, or whether the poem says something is right or wrong, the language should make us consider who and what we are and how we see the world around us.

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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OBESITY NOT A VEGAN ISSUE? Sandra Hood, BSc (Hons), SRD

Obesity is arguably the major diet-related health hazard in the developed world and it is an increasing problem in the developing world, so much so that the World Health Organisation (WHO) now talks of ‘globesity’. Obesity is strongly associated with increased blood pressure and cholesterol levels and increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers. Obesity in middle age is estimated to reduce life expectancy by about seven years: comparable with the impact of smoking.

B

esides the damaging effects on physical health, obesity can restrict mobility and cause social and psychological problems. Despite the undoubted link between weight gain and ill health, the prevalence of obesity has rocketed in the developed world over the past 50 years. In 1995 there were about 200 million obese adults worldwide. Recent figures for the UK figures report that 17% of men and 20% of women are obese and that 45% of men and 33% of women are overweight.

Obesity is defined in terms of body mass index (BMI), calculated as weight in kilograms divided twice by height in metres. Thus a person weighing 60 kg and 160cm in height would have a BMI of 23.4 (60 divided by 1.6 and again by 1.6). The World Health Organisation recommends that adults maintain a BMI between 18.5 and 25 and avoid weight gain of more than 5 kg (11 lb); obesity means a BMI above 30.

Where fat is stored may have important consequences for health which are not fully captured by measuring BMI. Excess fat around the abdomen, the characteristic ‘apple’ shape, poses a greater risk than the ‘pear’ shape where more fat is stored around the buttocks and thighs. Fat in the upper part of the body seems to involve increased risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Risk is greatly increased by a waist circumference of more than 88cm (34 inches) in women and 102cm (40 inches) in men.

Genetics and the environment both influence risk of obesity. Genetics influence fat accumulation, appetite regulation and basal metabolic rate, but the rapid change in prevalence of obesity shows that environmental factors affecting the balance of energy intake and energy expenditure are a key cause for the vast majority of obese people.

Tackling obesity isn’t easy and merely giving information and instructions about diet and exercise is not enough.

The WHO report on obesity in 1997 stated that “obesity cannot be prevented or managed solely at the individual level. Committees, governments, the media and the food industry need to work together to modify the environment so that it is less conducive to weight gain”.

Society should be seeking to prevent obesity rather than merely treating it.

The WHO recommends increasing dietary fibre intake, reducing energy density of foods and drinks, and increasing physical activity. Energy density is the ratio of food calories to food weight. Sugar-loaded soft drinks are as easily consumed as water, but have a far higher energy density. In general, adding fat or sugar to foods increases their energy density, making it easier to consume more calories without feeling full. Higher fibre content reduces the energy density of foods and often demands more chewing rather than just slipping down the throat effortlessly. The other important factor is to increase energy expenditure through physical activity: for maximum benefit, a healthy diet must be combined with good levels of activity.

Vegan diets can be readily aligned with these guidelines, particularly if centred on whole foods and including plenty of fruit and vegetables, and an appropriate vegan diet could lead the way in preventing obesity. Studies have shown that vegan children and adults tend to be lighter than their omnivore peers by an average of 2 BMI units and that obesity is rare. However, with the increasing availability of vegan convenience foods and changing lifestyles, we cannot afford to be complacent.

Unfortunately, certain popular diet philosophies and vested interests continue to undermine healthy eating messages. For instance, diets with high fat, high protein and low carbohydrate may often lead to rapid short-term weight loss, but they are generally very high in saturated fat and therefore inconsistent with long-term health. The evidence-based recipe for long-term maintenance of healthy weight is reduced energy density and increased activity.

The UK Government recently launched a national school fruit scheme to provide every child aged 4 to 6 years with a free piece of fruit each school day by 2004, but the scheme is already under attack from the National Farmers Union, concerned that it may replace the current school milk provision and “lead to the loss of some 82 million pints in milk sales”.

Nutrient requirements vary from person to person: a younger, leaner, more active person may need a higher level of dietary fat to maintain their weight than an older, less active person, so it is difficult to generalise about percentages of energy from fat, protein and carbohydrate. In general, however, weight is only gained when energy intake exceeds energy expenditure and will only be lost when energy intake falls below energy needs. Recommendations are to eat a balanced diet including the following food groups on a daily basis: Fruits and vegetables; Nuts, seeds, pulses, soya foods; Starchy carbohydrates such as bread, cereals, pasta, and potatoes.

The evidence is overwhelming that a plant-based diet can provide optimum nutrition and help with maintenance of a healthy weight and that appropriate vegan diets provide a means to tackle the growing problem of obesity.

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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Reviews Debbie Holman, Tony Weston & Vanessa Clarke

A Cat In Hell’s Chance Editor: Anny Malle Slingshot Publications ISBN 0-9519646-2-3 Price: £10 This is the true story of Hillgrove cat farm and the determined campaign launched against it which resulted in the closure of the farm in 1999. Written entirely from the campaigners’ point of view, the book covers the ten-year period from the birth of the crusade to total victory. The background is heart breaking, the appalling conditions and treatment of the cats setting the scene for the necessary action to follow.

But this is not just the history of Hillgrove: it is the story of one tenacious woman – Cynthia O’Neill – and her indomitable quest for justice against the evils of vivisection. With contributions from many different campaigners, the overwhelming themes of compassion and dedication run through the book like a silver thread leading us to the joyful conclusion.

Written with meticulous detail, this book gives us hope that injustice can be tackled and overcome so long as there are people like Cynthia to fight for those who have no voice and no rights. However, this is not a book about leaders – it is about everyone who signed a petition, raised some money, went on a demo or served a prison sentence and thus put another nail into Hillgrove’s coffin.

Inspiring, sad, frustrating, but ultimately optimistic this is a book no true campaigner will want to miss.

The book is full of good old fashioned dishes for which British cooking is famous.

With over 100 recipes there are certainly plenty to choose from. Favourites include Sunday morning fry-up breakfast, porridge, bread pudding and custard, bubble and squeak, rice pudding, macaroni cheese, burger and chips and sausage casserole.

For straightforward thinking, how about ‘Bacon Sandwich’ (page 3), which recommends putting cooked vegan bacon between two slices of bread with tomato sauce.

In contrast, some of the later recipes may take some people unawares with instructions such as "make pastry" or "make custard" with no further embellishment.

As the book targets mainly young people and those with no culinary skills at all, they may suddenly have to learn rather fast to keep up.

Some of us are real suckers for all the pie and mash and gravy type of stuff, so it's good to see that someone has picked up the torch for UK food amidst the snowstorm of trendy cooking fads from Mexico to Indonesia that are gradually taking over. If you have a craving for the type of traditional English grub mum used to make, but using all vegan ingredients, this is definitely the cookbook for you.

Vegan Recipes (Rachel Henderson) Bowbridge Publishing, 2002 ISBN 0-9544344-0-4 Research shows that people are cooking less and less, and this is leading to a rise in sales of ready made convenience foods and fast food outlets. Rachel Henderson’s emailable E-book is a nod to this trend and provides the reader with a guide to easy vegan cooking.

SPECIAL OFFER

Bowbridge Publishing have 10 copies of ‘Vegan Recipes’ to give away.

Email rachel@bowbridgepublishing.com to enter. Please put ‘Vegan magazine Free Book Offer’ in the subject of the email.

The first 10 emails received will win.

Document: A Story of Hope (Niall McGuirk) Hope Publishing, 2002.

Price £5.99.

[Available from the Vegan Society] A collection of vegan recipes and stories from the independent Dublin music scene, this book tells the story of Hope: from its beginnings as one teenager with a telephone wondering why bands wouldn’t come to Ireland to the glory days of the Hope collective, as an enthusiastic and energetic group of people realised that the answer was to just get on and organise a few gigs themselves. This book tells of the triumphs and disasters they experienced and of the wide variety of bands and musical styles they brought to Dublin over a period of a decade or more, but above all it tells of their enthusiasm and energy.

There are enough evocative black and white pictures to bring the events to life and give an idea of how things really were – and how things always could be if people would only believe in what they can do and then get on and do it.

In all, Hope staged about 150 events and many of the bands who played at them have contributed vegan recipes to go with the descriptions of their performances.

The whole book is put together in a lighthearted and anecdotal way, but with an underlying enthusiasm that is refreshing and uplifting. The recipes range from the ultra-basic bread sandwich to tasty and varied feasts, but always good sustaining grub – nothing too frilly or fancy!

The author, himself a vegan, is now editing the Irish vegetarian magazine and helping to organise the veggie festival in Dublin on 28th September [see events, page 33].

He may even be visiting our own national vegan festival in London with his four-yearold daughter if anyone would like their copy of Document autographed.

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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Postbag Contributions to Postbag are welcomed, but accepted on the understanding that they may be edited in the interests of brevity or clarity.

Norman Brinkworth, one of the vegan pioneers from the 1940s, passed away peacefully on Sunday 5 January 2003 at the age of 82, following a very short illness – the first in his life.

Norman became my right-hand man at the Strand offices of the former London Vegetarian Society where I was assistant secretary and we struck up an immediate friendship by virtue of both being vegan. The London Vegetarian Society eventually merged with the Vegetarian Society, Manchester, to become the Vegetarian Society UK Ltd. Norman joined the first sub-committee formed by the Vegan Society (c1949). Its terms of reference were to help formulate a vegetable milk. This in turn led to the creation of Plamil.

Norman and I had many common interests, chief among them being devotion to the vegan cause.

Our condolences go to Norman’s devoted wife Zillah, who has been conducting vegan cookery courses from their home in Seaford for many years.

Vegan Society Email Discussion Group Marc Palmer We are pleased to announce the launch of an email discussion forum set up exclusively for Vegan Society members: vegansoc-talk. It is intended as a community in which Society members can meet and share ideas, experiences, information and support in overcoming those occasional vegan lifestyle problems.

This valuable resource allows members to send email messages that will be received by all participants in the group. All messages posted by members of the group will arrive in your normal email "inbox", and you may reply to them if you feel you have something to contribute. If the frequency of postings becomes a problem, there is a “digest” option where you receive just one message per day bringing together all the messages of the previous 24 hours.

As a life member of the Vegan Society and a vegan since 1970, I write in support of an article by Malcolm Horne in the current issue of Vegan Views suggesting that The Vegan no longer gives the same support to fringe groups as it once did.

The list has been piloted for several weeks and currently has about 150 members, including many local contacts, a number of Council members and the society’s Information Officer. The number of messages ranges from just two or three to twenty or so per day, depending on the number of topics in play and the level of interest in them. Recent topics have included vegan makeup, pet food, the ethics of using secondhand leather goods, diet and health questions plus experiences with family and colleagues and news of events relating to veganism and animal issues.

I am a member of the Vegan Organic Network and the Movement for Compassionate Living as well as a subscriber to Vegan Views, and I have attended a few of the Vegan Summer Gatherings. I believe that The Vegan has a duty to inform readers of such groups and events since more recent members of the Society may be unaware of them as they have had little or no publicity in recent times. The Vegan Society has become a professional organisation, but other groups are still run by volunteers, as the Vegan Society itself once was, and paid advertising is likely to be a strain on their meagre resources.

Each message is vetted by a "moderator" to ensure that discussion remains within the bounds of veganism and of the mailing list charter. All members are asked to read the charter thoroughly on joining the list to avoid the disappointment of having a message rejected. These provisions seek to avoid repetition, irrelevancy, aggressive language etc and are designed to keep the forum friendly and of interest to the majority of members. All members are free to unsubscribe or transfer to the digest option at any time.

I am myself a vegan activist and have for some years been coordinator of the Vegan Community Project. Although this was in the doldrums for some time, we now have a chance to make progress. It would be easier with support and publicity from the Society, and the same must be true for all the other groups.

If you wish to join the list, please send an email to join.vs.talk@anyware.co.uk including your full name, Vegan Society membership number and postcode. As soon as we have checked that you are a fully paid up member or supporter, you will be subscribed to the list. You will then receive a welcome message explaining how to post to the list and the full text of the list charter.

Arthur Ling Kent

Robert Howes Mid-Glamorgan [Note: As regular readers will know, the section devoted to local contacts, local groups and events has almost doubled in the past year. Dates of events such as the Vegan Camp, Summer Gathering and National Vegan Festival are included as soon as they are notified to the Society. Articles or reports on particular events or groups are always welcome and will be considered for publication as and when submitted.]

[Note: This facility is provided free of charge by Marc, who has recently been co-opted to the Vegan Society Council, and costs the Society nothing. Marc also carries out the time consuming but extremely important task of moderating the list on behalf of the Society. – Ed.]

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ARCTIC VEGAN Amy Clarke Whittle

Our proposed expedition to the Arctic eating only vegan food was met with scepticism at best from some of our colleagues and at worst was deemed foolhardy if not plain dangerous. ‘You’ll starve’ and ‘You won’t have enough energy to work’, were the kind of comments we encountered.

U

ndeterred, we set off for Greenland, ready to prove yet again how healthy and balanced a vegan diet can be, even in harsh Arctic conditions. I was merely vegetarian at that time, but my companion Suzanne had already been vegan for over 10 years and for ease of packing rations and working out menus we decided that it would be easiest if we both followed the same diet.

Planning our vegan menus proved to be one of the easier tasks, despite the lack of confidence shown by some meat eaters in the idea. In fact, eating our evening meals while watching the stunning Arctic sunsets, we could think of no meat or dairy-based alternative that would have suited our expedition better.

As space was so limited, supplies of dried foods such as TVP, rice, bulgar wheat, dried mushrooms and fruit were ideal.

Before leaving the UK, I stocked up with supplies of TVP (textured vegetable protein), bulgar wheat, soya margarine and other essentials as Suzanne was living in Denmark, where the concept of a dairy-free diet was virtually unknown.

We also had serious doubts about the range of vegan food products that might be available in the village we were to set off from in Greenland.

Breakfast each morning consisted of a steaming bowl of hot porridge, made with the fresh water from the nearby lakes, and a strong cup of coffee - both with plenty of sugar. This set us up well for the morning’s work taking soil and vegetation samples from a large area.

The vegetation in that part of Greenland is dense, so covering large distances was hard work. The only beaten tracks were those created by the local reindeer and musk oxen and we sometimes took advantage of these, though the result was often a confrontation with an angry musk ox – an experience well worth avoiding.

Those doubts proved largely well founded: the village shop had a range of Danish products, together with a large freezer containing a vast array of frozen fish, seal, whale and other local meat products. However, it did partially redeem itself by having a large supply of vegan jelly sweets, which we purchased in ample quantities and divided into small bags to take into the field with us. This daily ration was a real treat as we merrily munched our way through our daily quota of sweets while carrying our heavy packs through the Arctic tundra.

Before we set off, we had to calculate our food rations for the following few weeks with great care as we also had a substantial amount of equipment and personal camping gear to carry with us.

Moreover, as we would be collecting water and soil samples to bring back we knew that our packs were likely to get heavier rather than lighter. Despite packing only the absolute essentials, our backpacks were still enormous and extremely heavy.

At lunchtime we would find a suitable rock to set up our cooker and make a welcome mug of soup. Wheat and rye crackers, adorned with red pepper or mushroom pate, always accompanied ^ this. The large selection of vegan paté available in handy tubes proved ideal for transporting and using in this type of environment. Lunch would be finished with a handful of dried fruit or nuts before setting off once again through the tundra.

Suzanne was the self-appointed chef of the expedition and the food she cooked was always extremely welcome and tasty, which left me with the less desirable task of washing up in the freezing cold lake water. As a small consolation, the moment I finished these domestic chores I would dive into my cosy sleeping bag and thrust my hands into my large warm gloves.

The culinary delights created by Suzanne each evening were rarely the same and always delicious and filling. The limitations imposed by being in the middle of Greenland with one small camping stove meant that they were perhaps not the most inspirational dishes the vegan community has ever seen, but they were none the less healthy and balanced and provided us with ample energy to continue our work without any detrimental effects.

After successfully completing our work, we set off on the long trek back, both feeling extremely fit after our work in this barren setting - probably thanks to a combination of the clean, crisp air and the carefully planned and nutritious diet we lived off.

Before setting off from the village, we had frozen some vegan sausages and carefully labelled them and we were both looking forward to enjoying these with a mountain of potatoes as a treat on our return. Sadly, a German scientist staying at the same base – ironically, an avid meat eater - had mistaken them for his favourite dish and eaten them in our absence. Whilst there was an ample supply of meat products for him to eat, the local Inuit shop had not progressed as far as stocking veggie bangers, so we were deprived of our treat.

Nevertheless, we were both very pleased at how well the expedition had gone and returned home happy and healthy.

Whenever anyone suggests that a vegan diet is inadequate or unhealthy, I am always delighted to tell them this tale.

Their arguments tend to crumble when they hear how fit and well we both were, living on a vegan diet while doing a large amount of physical work in a harsh environment and freezing conditions. I have even known dedicated meat eaters to concede that a meat and dairy free diet might, after all, be both well balanced and good for your health.

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LOCAL GROUPS NEWS There is no formal Vegan Society affiliation – so long as a group is for vegans and not just vegetarians and a Vegan Society member is willing to be named contact, it can be listed. Please let the Local Contacts Co-ordinator know of any omitted. Check first that the contact person is a Vegan Society member. If not, you could offer to be the contact yourself and get publicity for the group.

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events Up to date diaries of other events can be viewed at: www.veggies.org.uk www.veganlondon.freeserve.co.uk www.veganvillage.co.uk

MARCH

JUNE

Sun 2nd Vegan Society event at Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynnleth.

Sat 21st – Thurs 26th European Vegetarian Festival Turkey www.european-vegetarian.org

Wed 12th World Day of Action against Seal Hunting Coalition to Abolish the Fur Trade www.caft.org.uk Sun 16th V2 – day in Antwerp Second vegan festival to be held in Belgium, email info@vegetarian.be

APRIL All month –Animals in Laboratories Month See www.navs.org.uk or contact National Anti Vivisection Society T.02088469777 info@navs.org.uk Sat 5th Vegans in Scotland Social event for adults and children over 12 at the Salutation Hotel, Perth. Booking essential:

Tues 8th National Circus Day Captive Animals Protection Society

Mon 21st National Day of Action Against Zoos Captive Animals Protection Society

AUGUST Sat 2nd – Sat 16th Vegan Camp – Lyme Regis, Dorset

Wed 20th – Wed 27th Mediterranean cruise with vegan catering www.grosvenortravel.co.uk Sat 30th – Sat 6th Vegan Summer Gathering, Gower Peninsula near Swansea www.veganviews.org.uk/vsg T 01792 792442

SEPTEMBER Sunday 14th National Vegan Festival, London Conway Hall, Red Lion Sq, 10 -5.

T 020 8670 9585 Sun 28th Vegetarian Festival, Dublin St Andrew's Resource Centre, Pearse Street, Dublin 2.

OCTOBER MAY

Sun 26th – Sun 2nd Nov UK Vegan Week

Sat 17th Veggie Pride march and gathering in Paris www.veggiepride.org email info@veggiepride.org

NOVEMBER

Mon 19th - Sun 25th National Vegetarian Week Vegetarian Society T.0161 925 2000 info@vegsoc.org Mon 19th – Mon 26th National BBQ Week – National BBQ Promotions Ltd with the American National BBQ Association.

Saturday 1st World Vegan Day 2003 Sat 15th Vegan Society AGM at the Guildhall, Chester Sun 23rd Christmas Without Cruelty Fayre, Kensington Town Hall, London.

LOCAL CONTACTS NEWS I

hope you all survived the festive season without too many comments from friends, family and colleagues about your “peculiar” eating habits. The day will come when eating bits of dead animals will be regarded as even more peculiar. The vegan chocolates I gave to all and sundry to celebrate the new year seem to have gone down well - I shan’t mention the brand again lest I be thought to be on commission!

The Local Contacts’ Day in York was well attended and feedback both in comments and increased activity were encouraging. So much food was brought to share that I couldn’t finish my meal at the Rubicon afterwards! It was a pity to discover after an excellent meal that discounts did not apply at the weekend despite the information provided by the restaurant for the new edition of Vegetarian Britain.

All Vegan Society members are welcome to join us at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth on Sunday 2 March [see Events opposite]. If you would like to come, please contact me as soon as possible. There will be opportunities to meet members of the VS Council as well as fellow activists and local vegans in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, to attend talks and discussions on nutrition, media and other topics and to take part in a quiz with prizes. The centre is also a fascinating place in its own right.

If this event is a success, as we expect that it will be, we may repeat the formula on another occasion – perhaps on the weekend of the AGM in Chester [see Events].

The e-mail discussion group is now up and running - for details of how to subscribe, see page 29.

If you are thinking of applying to be a Local Contact but are not sure if this is for you, you could start by helping an existing Contact in your area [see pages 34 and 35]. All Local Contacts are there to help, but please remember that like me they are all unpaid volunteers and most have jobs, so please enclose a stamped addressed envelope when writing and if you ring do not be offended if you are asked to ring back later. If you are sure that you want to be a Contact but you have not yet been a member for a year, you can put in an application in advance and I’ll ensure that it goes before Council at the first appropriate meeting so that you can begin your duties as soon as possible. A frequent comment from members is that they feel isolated. A network of Local Contacts covering the whole of the UK would be a great help and this will remain my goal so long as I am National Coordinator.

Finally, two reminders. First, public libraries can receive copies of The Vegan if they submit a request, so all members, not just Local Contacts, can help to spread the word by persuading their local library to write/ring/email the Society accordingly.

Secondly, I will send an A4 page of recipes for two chocolate cakes, fruit scones and fruit cake to anyone who sends me a stamped addressed envelope marked cake recipes.

Best wishes for a cruelty-free 2003!

Patricia Tricker, National Local Contacts’ Coordinator

Sat 31st May – Sun 1st June Animal Rights Activist Gathering

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VEGAN SOCIETY LOCAL CONTACTS Note: Local Contacts are Vegan Society members who have offered to act, on a voluntary basis, as a point of contact for those interested in the Society's work. They are not official representatives of the Society.

Their levels of activity and knowledge may vary according to their individual circumstances.

When writing to a Contact please remember to enclose a SAE. Local Contacts' Coordinator: Patricia Tricker - see under Yorkshire (North)

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LISTINGS Founder Donald Watson Hon Patrons Serena Coles Freya Dinshah Maneka Gandhi Dr. Michael Klaper Arthur Ling Moby Cor Nouws Wendy Turner Donald Watson Benjamin Zephaniah Council Alex Bourke (Vice Chair) Chris Childe Vanessa Clarke Laurence Klein (Hon Treasurer) Laurence Main Caroline Malkinson Marc Palmer (Co-opted) Karin Ridgers George Rodger Patricia Tricker Stephen Walsh (Chair) National Local Contacts Co-ordinator Patricia M. Tricker STAFF Chief Executive Officer Rick Savage Administration/Finance Officer Janet Pender Head of Promotions/PR Tony Weston Information Officer Catriona Toms Information Assistants Gemma Barclay Debbie Holman Fundraising/Marketing Officer James Southwood Sales & Membership Officer Jason Thornton Sales & Membership Assistant Sundari Poorun Sales Assistants John Rawden Derek Waller Volunteers Wendy Crathern Joyce Sandground Erica Wilson

VEGANISM may be defined as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. In dietary terms it refers to the practice of dispensing with all animal produce — including meat, fish, poultry, eggs, animal milks, honey, and their derivatives.

Abhorrence of the cruel practices inherent in an agricultural system based on the abuse of animals is probably the single most common reason for the adoption of veganism, but many people are drawn to it for health, ecological, resource, spiritual and other reasons.

If you would like more information on veganism a free Information Pack is available from the Vegan Society in exchange for two first class stamps.

THE VEGAN SOCIETY was formed in England in November 1944 by a group of vegetarians who had recognised the ethical compromises implicit in lacto-vegetarianism (ie dairy dependent). Today, the Society continues to highlight the breaking of the strong maternal bond between the cow and her new-born calf within just four days; the dairy cow’s proneness to lameness and mastitis; her subjection to an intensive cycle of pregnancy and lactation; our unnatural and unhealthy taste for cow’s milk; and the de-oxygenation of river water through contamination with cattle slurry.

If you are already a vegan or vegan sympathiser, please support the Society and help increase its influence by joining. Increased membership means more resources to educate and inform.

Dietary Consultant Sandra Hood

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CLASSIFIEDS

DEVON (Lydford) S/C for N/S visitors at VEGFAM’s HQ. SAE to ‘The Sanctuary’, nr Lydford, Okehampton EX20 4AL.

(UK) HOLIDAY

SOMERSET

ACCOMMODATION ISLE OF WIGHT

CUMBRIA SUSSEX

KENT MARGATE. KENT, exclusive Veg/Vegan B&B by the sea, romantic/sexy room with en-suite.

BRISTOL LANCASHIRE

CORNWALL

MY HOME IS YOUR HOME Bed and Breakfast. Country cottage bedroom. Plenty of scrumptious veggie/vegan food. Food lovers and cat lovers especially welcome! £35 per couple £20 per person

DEVON

SCOTLAND WALES ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY B&B and RETREATS Magical Victorian country house, natural carpets and paints, vegan organic meals, overlooking stunning coastal conservation area. Easy for public transport. South West Wales. www.heartspring.co.uk PEMBROKESHIRE. A warm welcome & good food (exclusively Veg/Vegan) in modern bungalow. Close to Newgale beach. Coastal paths to explore.

Green Haven B&B -

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The Vegan l Spring 2003

MISCELLANEOUS

FOOD

STEPHEN BERRY is in the process of taking legal action against HMP Preston owing to his treatment there, and would like other vegans who have been in prison to contact him.

VEGAN BUT STILL SICK? Perhaps your diet/lifestyle could do with some improvements. Contact Dr Gina Shaw Health and Nutrition Consultant, Iridologist and Fasting Supervisor. South Devon retreat. Also, correspondence courses in Natural Health, natural hygiene magazine/books and raw recipe classes.

www.vibrancy.homestead.com/pageone.html.

GREEN/DIY FUNERALS Eco-friendly inexpensive coffins, memorial treeplanting. Please send £1 in unused stamps with A5 size 33p SAE to Box 328

OPPORTUNITIES TEMPEH KITS – it’ so easy and cheap to make this PERFECT protein food for vegans at home. Kits comprise enough starter for 10.5kg finished tempeh PLUS a colour instruction/recipe book - £15. Call Polly at PHYTOFOODS –

COSMETICS YORKSHIRE

ABROAD KERALA, SOUTH INDIA a vegan’s paradise.

Tours, accommodation including selfcatering. Brochure:

VEGANS SOUGHT for ecocommunity/organic farm. Live on and work land in harmony with nature and health.

NATURAL FOOD STORE FOR SALE. Successfully trading for 15 years. Prime city centre location (Leicester). Busy takeaway trade with on-site bakery/kitchen.

Interested?

NORTH YORKSHIRE Comfortable, homely, exclusively vegetarian/vegan B&B from £16.50 p.p./p.n. at Prospect Cottage situated in Ingleton village. Wonderful

HOLIDAYS

VEGAN LAND PROJECT needs short term investment to buy two acres of land adjoining new vegan community in South Wales.

10TH VEGAN SUMMER GATHERING near Swansea 30th August - 6th September.

Coastal/Countryside trips, communal meals, discussions. Single/twin/double rooms. £80/week self-catering (unwaged less). 60+ usually attend, all ages.

SUCCESSFUL vegan/vegetarian guesthouse in Southern Spain being sold for personal health reasons. Long established and well advertised.

PUBLICATIONS ACCOMMODATION

EATING OUT

Website:www.keralconnect.co.uk WEST CORK self catering apartments for singles, couples and families in peaceful wooded surroundings. Organic vegetables, bread & vegan wholefoods available. Reasonable rates. Green Lodge, Trawnamadree, Ballylickey, Bantry, Co Cork, Ireland. web:http://homepage.eircom.net/~greenlodge PYRENEES: Vegan B+B, dble room w/shower and organic brek: £27 for two.

Contact: www.vegan.port5.com/flashvegangite2.html' ALPUJARRAS - ANDALUCIA. Attractive townhouse. Garage, roof terrace. Excellent views, birds, walks.

Healthfood shops and veggie restaurants in town. Sleeps 2-6. From £190 pw.

Available all year.

COURSES

EMPLOYMENT

Ecoforest 2003 Vegan Permaculture Courses in Southern Spain.

Probably the healthiest 2 week Permaculture Design Certificate courses you can get! 14th-27th April and 15th-28th September, 2003.

Also 1 week Natural Health & Sustainability courses (vegan), including an Introduction to Permaculture, 18th24th May, and October. Teachers Steve Charter and Devin Howse See: http://www.ecoforest.org for more details, course pack and booking information.

PRACTITIONERS ANDALUCIA Southern Spain 3 rustic mountain village cottages, one a remote mountain retreat with waterfall. Excellent birding in area of outstanding natural beauty.

PERSONAL

or Web: www.holidaybank.com/retreat VEGAN GUEST HOUSE, SW Ireland, http://homepage.eircom.net/~cussens cottage. All major credit cards accepted.

The Vegan l Spring 2003

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CLASSIFIEDS PERSONAL Continued

ARTICLES AND ADVERTISEMENTS TO BE SUBMITTED BY 10 APRIL 2003 FOR INCLUSION IN SUMMER 2003 ISSUE OF THE VEGAN

Box Numbers When replying to a box number address your envelope as follows: Box no. _____ The Vegan Society, Donald Watson House, 7 Battle Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN37 7AA

PENPALS

TO ADVERTISE IN THE VEGAN PLEASE CONTACT 01424 448822 OR EMAIL ADVERTS@VEGANSOCIETY.COM FOR ASSISTANCE OR A QUOTE CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTANCE: Advertisements are accepted subject to their satisfying the condition that the products advertised are entirely free from ingredients derived from animals; that neither products nor ingredients have been tested on animals; and that the content of such ads does not promote, or appear to promote, the use of non-vegan commodities. Books, records, tapes, etc. mentioned in advertisements should not contain any material contrary to vegan principles. Advertisements may be accepted from catering establishments that are not run on exclusively vegan lines, provided that vegan meals are available and that the wording of such ads reflects this.

CLASSIFIED ORDER FORM Want to meet new vegan friends? Looking for romance? After a roommate?

Why not advertise in The Vegan classifieds, and reach a large audience of like-minded people.

It costs just ÂŁ6 for 35 word max (commercial rates also available) - simply return this form to us in time for the next issue.

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PRIZE CROSSWORD Send in a photocopy (or original) of the solution to this crossword, together with your name and address by the 10th April 2003.

PRIZE: the lucky winner of the draw will be sent a signed picture of Moby Solution in the next issue.

Name...................................................................................

Address................................................................................ ............................................................................................

Postcode

Across 1 4 9 11 12 13 16 18 19 20 21 23 25 26 29 30

Fruit drink (8) Take up (liquid) (6) Zucchini (9) Salt (French) (3) Having supper (6) Saw the cereal grasses (Anag.) (6) Fizzy (5) Mix together (7) Hors d'_ _ _ _ _ _ _ (7) Burst, crack, split (5) Dairy product (6) Utensils for removing the middle of apples, for example (6) Metal food container (3) Building containing a kiln for drying hops (4-5) Juicy purple or green-skinned fruits (6) Biscuits served in the afternoon (3-5)

Down 1 2 3 5 6 7 8 10 14 15 17 18 22 24 27 28

40

Chinese black tea (7,8) May develop on old bread (5) Bottles for serving wine or water (9) Comes after bean, brown, cool and tea (3) In the open air (3) Edible fungus which looks like a piece of meat (9,6) Where wine grapes are grown (9) Uncooked (3) Alcoholic beverages made at home (4-5) Liquorice-flavoured seeds or oil (5) Barbecue, bechamel or tartar (5) Style of Chinese cooking (9) _ _ _ friendly; _ _ _ tourism (3) Part of a celery plant which is eaten (5) _ _ _- kale cabbage (3) Garden tool (3)

The Vegan l Spring 2003

Solution to The Vegan Prize Crossword

30 CONGRATULATIONS to the Winner Barbara Smith, Kilcrohane, County Cork, Ireland

CHR I STMAS TRE H A O C D Y LO I N DI A A A A N C K I N G D OM C A R A E S E R G NOT I CE BELON H O T A THE I R HAMROL H F A R O PA I N OAT TEA E L N S GRA SS LANTE R

Apologies to those of you who spotted the missing clue!

E R G O T G E L A T I N