General

Universal Vision of Sunnydale, Cape Town, produce Almond Milk and Coconut Milk powders that are mixed with water to create a delicious and nutritious milk. Great with cereals, in smoothies or on its own, warm or cold.

Almond milk contains a good level of protein, magnesium and calcium. The Coconut Milk is excellent for children. Excellent for children. FREE of gluten, soya, lactose or any animal products.

Universal Vision also produce a Himalayan Crystal Salt, a natural unprocessed pinky-orange coloured crystal rock salt which is used instead of ordinary table salt. Formed millions of years ago through a crystallization process when an ancient sea in the Himalayan region evaporated.

The quality of the salt one uses on a daily basis affects the functioning of one’s system on all levels. It is thus important to choose a salt as close to its natural form as possible, and Himalayan Crystal Salt is salt in the form that nature intended. It contains various other minerals besides just sodium chloride, including magnesium, sulphur, potassium, calcium and iron.

Available from Pick n Pay, Dis-chem, Checkers, Wellness Warehouse, Spar, health stores and delis.

Visit Vegan SA for more vegan foods.

Taste of Italy is a blend of dehydrated vegetables and herbs. There are no added preservative or additives in these vegan pasta blends. Available in 5 varieties, simply re-hydrate and add to your favourite pasta dish… just like you may do with pesto!

Taste of Italy mixes are available from Fresh Earth food stores, Mooiberg farm stalls, Peregrine farm stalls, Pickles & Things.

Visit Vegan SA for more vegan cooking sauces.

Some of you may be aware of the Fur Free anti-fur group and you may be on their mailing list. If so, you would have received an alert recently about the cat box pet-hyper (Linden) selling products which are made of fur.

Of course all animal lovers are against fur and in this case Fur Free have asked that we write to the establishment head office politely expressing our disgust at the shop selling these items.

But this got me thinking: I have been to this particular pet shop quite a few times and when you enter you are greeted with large ostrich bones, hooves and other animal product chew toys. The pet food certainly isn’t vegan so can we really write to them expressing our disgust at one item when there are shelves of products which are the result of animal cruelty and suffering?

Can we really complain about products with real animal fur being sold in a shop which has always sold real animal flesh and bones?

Question posed by Lesleigh Harnwell

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Spring has arrived, blossoms are blooming, spirits are lifting and there is a general sense of relief from the cold and the guilt of having our heaters on. Our warm and sunny days are welcomed with picnics, park visits and garden get togethers.

Just as the trees shed the last of their dying leaves and sprout new green life, we too clear out the old to make way for the new, and with the arrival of Spring we welcome the abundance which our gardens can bring. Not only do we tend to our gardens but we also take into consideration what havoc cooked and fatty foods may have reaped on our bodies during winter and, with the warmer weather upon us, eating mostly raw food is a cinch and almost certainly as enjoyable as our winter treats.

Some of us may have recently visited the natural and organic show and one of the focuses, something which you may have been considering, was to grow your own veggie garden. With the warmer weather, new growth and weaving weavers, there is no better motivation to get out there and plant something. And if you don’t have the space, pot gardens are equally as rewarding and somewhat easier to maintain.

Some good nutritional veggies to plant this spring are carrots which give you vitamin A and B, and spinach – a great source of calcium, iron, vitamins A, C and K, iodine and more. I would definitely say pop some tomatoes in your garden or pot as these are very hardy plants and are a good source of vitamin B and C. Also plant some dwarf or runner beans. These are very appealing to the eye and will give you your protein and zinc provisions. And another hardy vegetable to plant, the ever so popular potato and sweet potato, which as we know is a great carbohydrate but also provides other vitamins such as B and C, and some minerals such as phosphorus, sulphur and potassium. A great nutritional and often forgotten herb which we should definitely consider for our delightful dishes is parsley, which is a source of calcium, iron, vitamin C and D.

Growing your own veggie garden will ensure you get the correct foods at the correct time of year and adapting a raw vegan diet will ensure you receive good plant-based nutrition. The benefits are immeasurable and with a growing awareness toward healthy eating in South Africa, there are plenty of raw eating resources which can help push you in the right direction.

If you are unable to grow your own veggie garden, your local organic market will be more than adequate and if you are willing to give the growing a go, the most sustainable and eco-friendly way of growing organic is with permaculture principles. I strongly recommend that some information on growing with permaculture principles is acquired before starting your garden, or even as a guide for an already established garden, as this will only benefit your garden plants and soil quality and help alleviate the need for commercial pesticides or excessive water use.

As we celebrate the joys of Spring with the cleaning of our houses and planting of new life. We disperse the toxins from our bodies with fresh produce and replenish the dry bark of our souls with lively new green leaves of friendship and the outdoors.

We as South Africans embrace the warm weather with welcoming arms and flourish under our nourishing sun. And for Jo’burg resident,; we anticipate our first rain so it may wash away all the dust and smog. Green will prevail again, the season has changed. Hooray spring is here!

Written by Lesleigh Harnwell

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Do you own a pet? Do you visit aquariums or safari parks occasionally? Do you have a feather pillow? Do you sometimes use cosmetics or skin creams from your local supermarket?

Well then my friend, you’re just not a vegan.

…or so some people might tell you.

Contrary too what you might think, the question of whether you are a vegan is not as straight forward as it first appears. So, just what or who is a vegan?

Well first let’s explain what veganism is. The UK Vegan Society (who coined the term ‘vegan’) define veganism 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”. So veganism, under this definition, is a lifestyle choice, and one can deduce by extension that a vegan is someone that practices this lifestyle. I term this the philosophical approach to veganism.

So what or how then, must a person conduct their life in order to be a vegan?

In order to avoid animal exploitation, a vegan should not consume, use or support any of the following products or practices:
* Foods that contain products of animal origin: meat, fish, dairy, eggs, cheese, honey, gelatine, etc.
• Clothes or personal wear made from origin products leather, wool, silk, down, fur, animal skins
* Cosmetics/personal care items/toiletries/home care products that contain animal ingredients and/or are tested on animals
* Keeping pets, pet shops, puppy mills, breeding, buying or selling animals, confining animals in cages or fish in bowls
• Fishing, hunting, rodeos, cockfights, and other forms of animal ‘sports’
* Circuses, zoos, aqua parks; safari parks, oceanariums and aquariums
* Dog racing, horse racing, dog shows, horse-drawn carriages, horse riding
• Using animals as beasts of burden

This non-exhaustive list is already quite substantial and many would say onerous. The likelihood probably is that we are all (nearly all) guilty of breaching one or more of these edicts. But how many breaches does it take before someone will say “you’re not a vegan” anymore? When does one change from being a vegan to not being a vegan? Or is being vegan just a meaningless article of faith, a badge or label that anyone can carry around … just like, for example, a ‘Christian’ that has affairs outside his marriage, doesn’t keep in touch with his parents, works on Sundays, doesn’t believe in the Old Testament, is an overt racist, cheats on his tax returns and swears like a trouper?

In reality, the truth is that no such scorecard exists. Anyone can claim to be a vegan, saying that they live their lives in order to avoid animal exploitation, but this approach leaves a big black hole … The hole of FAILURE. Often people’s lives are markedly different in reality from their lofty ideals. And so this definition of being a vegan fails due to its non-verifiable and unquantifiable nature. In this sense it is just a rather unsatisfactory and vague term that may or may not mean something specific about the way a person conducts their life.

Note importantly, people who have a vegan diet for health reasons, religious purposes, or as a means of combating global warming, are excluded from this idealistic version of being a vegan. This is because they do it for the “wrong reasons” as they aren’t eating vegan in order to avoid animal exploitation. This reasoning smacks of bigotry and echoes faith-based illogic that says, for example, under Catholicism that most of the world’s leading humanists such as Ghandi would be banished to hell for believing in the wrong god. This rationale has strong negative consequences for the vegan movement as I believe it leads us down a cul-de-sac.

I believe that a different approach to finding a meaningful definition of being a vegan is required. The most obvious tenet to being a vegan is the consumer element, and it is also readily verifiable. So this is how I define a vegan:
“A person that does not consume animal products” … (‘consumption’ here meaning use, wear, buy, eat …)

That’s it, the practical definition of a vegan – short, simple, and modest. And easily tested.

I’m not suggesting that the other forms of animal exploitation are insignificant; far from it. They are equally as important and therefore deserve their own movements to halt these horrors. So animal-testing and pet breeding can be tackled by anti-vivisection and animal rights activism, and so forth. This simple approach allows us to pitch resources and expertise at each issue individually, instead of trying to fruitlessly tackle all the issues as if they are one. This is not watering down the ideals of veganism. It is merely reclassifying issues under more appropriate labels – animal welfare and rights issues are handled under those identifiable banners.

Note also that the Vegan Society implicitly accept this in their definition of vegan food. They make no attempt to verify if foods were brought to market by oxen or ploughed in fields by buffaloes. This is because they realise it’s impractical and self-defeating to ask these questions.

An additional and ultimately overriding benefit of the practical definition of vegan is that it is an inclusive approach. People that choose a vegan diet for health, environmental reasons, or religion, will be warmly greeted inside the vegan movement, instead of being rejected as they are under the philosophical and elitist alternative approach. This can only be a good thing for advocacy and growing veganism into a more powerful association for social change.

Written by Sheldon Hey

Human rights are protected by law, to lesser or greater extents, in all societies around the world.

Additionally, it is now accepted by most scientists that human moral behaviour has developed from prehistoric times, when our less evolved ‘forefathers’ lived in social groups and developed bahavioural patterns that best allowed them to succeed in their own clans, i.e. helping out other members of their group often lead to later and reciprocal rewards.

Given the above 2 factors, what would you do in the following scenario:

- You see a man out walking his dog down a busy street. You see him about to cross the road and he clearly hasn’t seen the car rapidly approaching. It seems that unless you act then both will surely be killed by the rushing car. But you can only reach one or the other – dog or human. Which one would you save, and why?

- If you had chosen to save the dog, would you then be guilty of a crime punishable by law?

Question posed by Sheldon Hey

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As I read of 30 brave and aspiring activists in Wietze near Hannover, Europe, squatting on a piece of land to prevent the construction of a large chicken slaughter house which would have been responsible for the death of 2.5 million chickens per week, I ask myself how far would I go to help farm animals?

These guys were great, they ensured they were not easily evicted by building a tripod, and chained concrete barrels around themselves. While squatting, they drummed, ran vegan workshops on cooking, animal rights and others. They received vegan food from the locals and managed to stand their ground. The owners of the land and police were gobsmacked as they had no legal right to evict them. I am unable to find out what happened with the squat, if anyone can read German or knows please let us know. For some great pictures of the ‘chicken squat’ please visit http://antiindustryfarm.blogsport.de/fotos/

There are many brave activists out there who go out on a limb for animals, and although we do our bit by being vegan does it stop there? Would you squat for the chickens?

Questions kindly posed by Lesleigh Harnwell

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1. How do you feel about synthetic meat and what are your views on testtube burgers?

Meat that’s grown in a lab might be the next new craze … “eat without guilt”, but at what cost? When will we know the side effects of lab-grown meat and would you try it (assuming animal cells can be ‘harvested’ in an ethical way)?

2. If you kept chickens and they left unfertilised eggs at your kitchen door would you eat them? My boss keeps chickens and one hen secretly lays eggs which she protects (my boss cannot eat them) and will lay another egg in my bosses bedroom almost as if to say “here you go you can have this one, but not my precious ones hidden beneath the bush” ~ would you eat them?

3. Would you eat an animal if it died of natural causes and lived a healthy natural life? If you would then could you prepare the meat or would you only consume it if someone else cuts it and nicely presents the flesh on a platter, bone- and skin- free?

What are your views on “alternative” meat?

Questions kindly posed by Lesleigh Harnwell

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By Marie Louise Swart

I was thinking of the days in Eden when we were eating fruit from the trees and veggies from the earth and it came to me that we never had to wonder about our food. Since it was raw the food was natural and all the nutrients went into their bodies and didn’t get lost in the cooking process.

But most people don’t always want to eat food raw. Cooking food brings out the flavour and with added spices and herbs it also makes it tastier. Studies in recent years also show that iron and aluminium from cooking pots can leach into food and toxic polymers from non-stick pans are released in to the air, causing several serious health risks.

Cooking with clay pots is becoming very popular and is a healthier option because clay is a natural product. Minerals that are in the clay dissolve into your food, making it tastier and healthier.

Using glazed earthenware has several advantages over metal pans:

• Food cooks with a minimum of liquid and no additional fat.
• Food browns in clay pots, even with the lid on.
• More of the essential nutrients and vitamins are retained in foods cooked in clay pots because food cooks in a closed environment with limited liquids.
• As long as you don’t overfill the cooker, your oven will remain clean.
• Argilla clay pots may be used in the microwave very successfully. It is best to use lower power settings.
• Food can be kept warm by leaving the lid on the pot, after removing it from the oven, without overcooking.
• You only use one pot for the whole meal.
• Argilla pots have a glaze which makes for easier cleaning.
• Clay pots are very durable.

Argilla clay pots come in mocha and sandstone and are oval and round bakers, pie plates and casseroles. Try cooking dishes like lasagna and other pastas, casseroles and baked goods.

A disadvantage of clay pot cooking is the longer cooking time (1 hour), but the exquisitely tastier food will soon have you forget about this.

For some great vegan dishes that you can cook with Argilla, visit: www.argillasa.net.

What made you decide to go vegan? Were you influenced by a person, an event or a movie?

Were you vegetarian first and then later became a vegan? At what age did you become vegan and how long have you been vegan for?

My own story:
I was a vegetarian at 19 a result of my body just not liking meat, and then gradually I let go of other foods like fish and eggs. Finally, milk was the last item, which was the only item that I actually gave up for animal rights reasons; all other animal products and by-products just made me sick. I have been a non-meat eater for nearly 7 years now and vegan for about 3 years.

What made you the vegan you are today?

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