Viva!Life Issue 61 | Spring 2016

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Veggie France Tracy Cassidy set up a ‘GoFundMe’ page and shared it on the Manchester Vegan FB pages to promote veganism. It resulted in this super billboard on Great Ancoats street in Manchester for two weeks from February 1. Brilliant!

The huge French hypermarket chain, Carrefour, has announced the launch of its first-ever, all-vegetarian own-label range – prompted by growing consumer demand, it says. The ‘Carrefour Veggie’ range features around 15 what they term ‘simple and easy-to-cook’ products, 11 of which are vegan. They include wheat and onion nuggets, cereal and vegetable pancakes and vegetable and soya balls, all priced between €2.10 and €3.50. The idea sprang from consumer research it undertook in 2013 to mark its 50th anniversary.

And on the seventh day… Seventh Day Adventists are a Mecca for health researchers as most are vegetarian and avoid smoking and alcohol and believe in exercise. In the case of 101-year-old retired Californian heart surgeon, Dr. Ellsworth Wareham, it all worked splendidly. He retired only five years ago and describes his vegan diet as being ‘the fountain of youth’. He walks without a stick, says his balance is great, is sharp-witted and still drives. Pass the tofu!

Poor old Bernard… According to figures from Company House, turkey producer Bernard Matthews is having a few difficulties. Group sales up to June 28, 2015, were down by about £30 million, to some £276 million for the corresponding period of the previous year. Its net assets for the same period were almost halved to a little over £11 million. I do hope we have contributed to the slump.

Cardiff’s 1st vegan café The city’s first 100 per cent vegan restaurant has opened for business. Called Anna-Loka it is in Albany Road and was the baby of Hare Krishna monk, Adam El Tagoury. Its menu, however, is more prosaic than the name might suggest and you can indulge in a full English breakfast or even pork sliders – whatever they are – as well as vegan alternatives to classic dishes. You can also indulge in traditional freefrom breads, custom-made pizzas, pancakes, doughnuts and smoky, crispy vegan rashers. Also on the menu is cinnamon pad pie, scrambled tofu on toast and sweet potato hash browns. The café has a very modern edge and industrial feel with carvings and sculptures on the walls and a corrugated iron ceiling, in which is housed its 20 tables. It was got off the ground by a crowd-funding campaign which raised £6,000.

Give up meat, says Arnie Having delivered such scathing lines as “you hit like a vegetarian”, mister muscle man, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has changed his mind. Having probably devoured several herds of bullocks, he is now telling people that they should slash their meat consumption. Cries of ‘hypocrite’ resound from the rafters but change is to be welcomed. Few of us started off life in the perfect way. Speaking at the climate change talks in Paris, he stated that seven million people are dying

every year because of climate change and a good way to reduce the total was to cut our meat consumption. Of course he was asked if he would possibly have been as muscly as he is as a vegetarian. He replied: “Luckily, we now know you can get your protein through vegetables if you’re a vegetarian. I have seen many body builders that are vegetarian and they get strong and healthy.”

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