Reviews

By Satya Bhat, 23 February 2011

I was invited by a friend to attend a talk by Sarah Rutherford-Smith who is a PHD law student and a lecturer at UNISA. She is conducting a research on taking a different approach to animal rights so that society can view it differently.

The event was hosted by the Vegan Society at a small cafe called Love and Revolution, which is in Melville. It is a homely place that offers hot and cold drinks, various sandwiches, yummy vegan cake and a variety of books to read. It is a social hub for people who have respect for others, even if their views are different.

As I entered the cafe the place was full of people chit chatting. I met a few of my friends there but my taste buds were calling me to the dessert or was it the dessert calling my taste buds? I was told that there were vegan chocolate brownies and I just had to pamper myself, so I made my way to the till and was welcomed by the lovely Ishtar and Jasmyn who are partners and co-owners of the cafe. They know by now about my sweet tooth and cravings for desserts.

Sarah’s talk began just 10 minutes after I arrived. 26 people attended the talk and there were some heated discussions which lasted an hour. Sarah started off explaining how the case of the Ukweshwama-Zulu bull-killing ritual was brought to court by Animal Rights Africa (ARA) to stop the killing of the innocent animals, but the case was rejected on grounds of “freedom of worship and religion”. She went on to talk about Rastafari lawyer Gareth Prince who challenged the court for the use of cannabis in accordance to his Rastafarian religion. The South African government disagreed stating that “any religious practises must be conducted within the framework of the law and must, if necessary, be adapted to comply with the law, as a failure to do so will result in anarchy”. The point of these examples was to express how the court and society find rituals and culture to be of great value and influence but also seem to consider the law. It made me wonder that the law seems to take the use of dagga to be more of a crime than killing of an animal.

Sarah mentioned how society views vegans as activists or protesters, often portraying a negative image. So the idea was to consider veganism as a form of culture rather than an animal rights movement. Cultural rights brings more focus on oneself and society which some people may find easier to relate to. It seems that society is more about oneself; same cause just a different approach to get what we want. Our approach must not be aggressive but we could rather plant a thought in a person’s mind. Veganism should be seen more as a way of life.

So how can we get society to see what we are all about and bring some sort of understanding? Let us think about branding. Sarah mentioned that when people have to decide where they should put a donation: breast cancer or animal rights, most often the answer is breast cancer, not that people may think that breast cancer is more important than animal rights, it’s just that the awareness of breast cancer is greater. So when we try and portray animal rights we should consider slogans, symbols and brand equity: “What do people want to be associated with?”

After a 20 minute talk the floor was open for discussion. Some people were open to Sarah’s idea, while others were very sceptical. So the main question that was raised: When and how do we start this religion? We could try by being positively visible to others to bring more awareness to all. A great start would be by marketing at schools, universities and colleges, after all, the younger generation are the future of our country.

Allow people to take their own steps to veganism: remember a small step can lead to a giant leap. For some it’s easy – it can all happen in a day but for most it takes some time, for example starting with the programme of Meat Free Mondays which Fry’s and Vegan SA supports. People can be educated in increments rather than being overwhelmed by it.

Open people’s minds to look at animals differently: we find many people who adore their animal companions and would never want any harm to them, so use what people can relate too, to follow a good cause. Try and make animal activism socially acceptable by involving celebrities and talking about it without bringing any judgements on others.

A man who has started a vegan catering company mentioned that most of his customers come there because the food is tasty, healthy and quite affordable, not because of animal rights. Yet when you look at it, tackling what people want (like healthy living), in turn we can tackle what we want (like animal rights). More people read the newspaper, a glamour magazine or a “you” magazine than they would a vegan one, so why not put a vegan/animal rights article where the public can easily view the information?

There were also people who absolutely disagreed with everything above. They did not feel that we should be branded or labelled and that people should naturally from their hearts know what is the right thing to do. But off course, everyone is different and if we want to influence everyone we should think as if we are the other person.

The discussion ended off with the Vegan Society mentioning that there would be more events and picnics yet to come with the next one at Leafy Greens in Muldersdrift around the 13 March 2011.

On a similar note, a friend showed me this piece on a blog which I think is worth reading; it’s called ”It doesn’t matter if we are right”.

By Satya Bhat, 29 January 2011

The Vegan Society was planning on having their first picnic in the Johannesburg area. Some of my friends attended to find out what this was all about.

We all had to bring a vegan item to share with each other. Something like a Potluck Picnic. So I decided to make a traditional Konkani dish called ‘Muskud’, which is like a semolina banana pancake. It is one of my favourite sweet dishes, but off course nothing can beat the ones made by my mom!

As usual, my sense of direction needs a lot of working on, I got lost in Zoo Lake! After several calls and walking around the place looking for the picnic, I finally found it. I was parked on one end of Zoo Lake while the picnic was on the other end. Well, can’t complain really.

With all that worked out, I was hungry. We shared our food and made conversations to get to know each other. Some people from Beauty Without Cruelty were present with their 2 dog companions. I tell you, do not judge one by its size – the small little white dog was a feisty one barking at us, while this huge black dog that could probably stand on its 2 feet and be taller than me was the gentle one. Please forgive me for not knowing the species of dogs.

I spoke to a Rastafarian who follows vegetarianism and a Fruitarian who came along with a box of mangoes. I got inspired to eat more fruits, I do love mangoes and watermelon. Ariel, master mind of Freefood Products came with a whole tray of delightful Carob Cacoons. Oh my sweet tooth! He supplies gluten free products to stores like Fruits and Roots in Bryanston, Greenside Cafe and some Spars. Some of the other items he makes include vegan cheese made from baby marrow and gluten free pizza bases. Anyone interested in stocking the Freefood range for their store or restaurant can contact Ariel at ariel@freefood.com.

It was 5 pm and I was tired, I bid my farewells and I left the picnic yet again learning new things about people and making new friends. Looking forward to the next event!

By Satya Bhat

Being a vegan myself for just 3 years and vegetarian for 13 years, I am used to eating food that is cooked and has spices. But since October 2010, attending the Vegan Society South Africa’s functions and meeting other vegans, opened a whole new door to the World of FOOD. I have been exploring tastes of other cultures so yesterday (26 January 2011) I went to a Japanese UN-Cooking class conducted by Brittany Kesselman. I have heard so much about her and her raw vegan cookery classes for months now from friends and I just had to see what she was all about.

I was quite sceptical as everything would be raw, yet excited to try something new. The menu included; Sushi, Teriyaki Vegetables and Green Tea Ice-cream. I thought: raw vegan sushi? Is sushi not normally made with rice? How would we make it? Parsnips … words cannot describe it! But let me try. Brittany made magic – converting simple to amazing! My absolute favourite: Sushi and the Green Tea Ice-cream! YUM is an understatement.

6 ladies attended the class and left with amazement at the new flavours and with new friendships. I had the fortunate opportunity to taste Brittany’s Coconut Ice-cream which was not part of the class. It is vegan but not raw. This was the winner to my heart! It had a smooth creamy texture. My craze for sweetness caused over indulgence in probably half a kg of ice-cream. BUT certainly no regrets at all! Because it was full of nature’s goodness, free from artificial chemicals and processed foods and unknown ingredients. My mind was in peace.

If you love food, love to eat and love your health then Brittany’s JOZI (UN) cooked: A Raw and Vegan Food Company is a MUST! Brittany’s next class will be on Thai flavours. She also takes orders for Raw Tuesdays and supplies some of her foods at selected food stores. With her natural curiousness for flavours, she is making new creations. She makes a superb cashew nut cheese which I have yet to taste. For her latest updates and recipes stay posted on her website.

Some insight in to Brittany’s cooking:
“I have been vegan for 17 years. I became vegan for ethical reasons, though I believe I have stayed vegan for a combination of ethical, environmental and health reasons.

I became interested in cooking when I became vegan since I suddenly needed to worry about feeding myself; the rest of my family wasn’t even vegetarian. Since then I have become more and more interested in the many different cuisines of the world and have experimented a lot with cooking. I have been working with raw food for just over a year now. I am mostly self-trained, though I did spend a month training in the kitchen of Pure Food and Wine, a gourmet raw restaurant in New York.

When I make raw food, all of the ingredients are completely natural, plant-based ingredients.”

Sometime in the last week of November, I was sitting in Greenside Café and came across this pamphlet, mentioning about a Raw Luck Club. It happens to be a monthly function held at a venue where those who wish to attend need to bring a raw vegan dish and a small venue fee of R20. It was just 2 days then since I had missed the most recent one and they were taking a break in the December holiday season. I just had to make it for the next one.

Being quite a new bird to raw food, I decided to make a salad consisting of avocado, cucumbers, bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, sprouted brown lentils, raw flax seed powder, raw sesame seed powder and crushed sun dried curry leaves. It took me 3 days to sprout my own beans and I was so proud of them.

To be raw, the food cannot be cooked above 42°C, so I couldn’t use toasted seeds. The idea is that the nutritional content of the food remains intact when exposed only below this temperature. Now I know that cold pressed oils are actually raw.

So on Thursday 27 January 2011, I attended the Raw Luck Club for the first time at the Regent Hotel which is situated in Sandton. I arrived there just a few minutes before munching started and set my salad on the table with the rest of the dishes the guests had made.

There were about 50 people who attended. Dr Heidi van Loggerenberg has been hosting this event for just about a year. The theme for the evening’s dinner was ‘Detoxification’, so most of the foods were green in colour. After a short introduction by Heidi, we all had to queue up for the food. I had to take photo’s before the food vanished so, as people queued up, I went around taking my snaps. Finally, I was the last one standing in the queue with my tummy rumbling waiting impatiently to eat!

I met many new and exciting people: Serna and Ayanda from RawWorks who host workshops relating to weight control by choosing what you eat. They are raw food specialists who make wonderful meals that will ease your conscience for enjoying what you eat. Brittany Kesselman from Jozi (Un)cooked and Antonia De Luca from Leafy Greens Café were also at the potluck.

We had an international guest, Jasmine Lovelstzy all the way from the US who happened to have hunted on the internet for this club as apparently RAW Potlucks are quite popular in the USA and some other countries. Jasmine is visiting family in South Africa and is originally from Yugoslavia. She is one with a lovely spirit who was drawn to raw veganism from a very young age.

There were wide ranges of salads, raw sushi, soup, and fruits decorated to be irresistible. Yet again my craving for sweet stuff does not surprise me, I had the desserts first! The top 3 fantabulious desserts which sat at the very end of the table were: Chocolate Delights, some Mango/Granadilla Chocolate Tart and Raw Chocolate/Vanilla Tart. Unfortunately the exact names and recipes I have yet to obtain.

Jenny and Antonia de Luca from Leafy Greens Cafe shared their experience from the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida in 2010. They were kind enough to provide raw nuts and their special homemade green juice to every guest who attended the potluck.

It was prize time, and people had to fold their sticky name tags and drop them in a hat. 2 little kids pulled out names and 3 prices were given away. The one that I recall is the book: Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko, which talks about the healing powers of greens and green smoothies. We even had a demonstration conducted by Doris Goodenough on how to make one’s own green juice – using a blender and a pillow case. YES, a pillow case – who would have thought about that! A lot of greens, some of which were green beans, cucumber, spinach, mint leaves, were blended together and created a very thick mush. It was then poured into a clean white pillow case that was placed in a container; the pillow case was squeezed to obtain the juice out of it, walla Green Juice. It was passed around for guests to have a taste.

It was time to go home and I discovered my love for raw onions was certainly not shared with most people, most of my salad was left untouched and so I had enough to last me for the weekend. Besides the pungent smell, some people have the notion that onions and garlic causes the body to be imbalanced. Next time I will think twice about onions if I want people to eat my food! This potluck was indeed worth attending! For more information of the Raw Luck Club you can contact Heidi at liveheidi@liveheidi.com and find them on Facebook.

Satya Bhat, 27 Januray 2011

… Review by Mark Scheepers

This book is one of those reads that is so powerful in its description of the current state of factory farming in America that it leaves one wondering about the state of our own food producers in this country.

This book is for the most part a balanced account of one man’s search to find out more about the food he was eating, spurred on by the prospect of fatherhood. So started Safran Foer’s 3 year journey of exhaustive research, night time trips to factory farms and first hand accounts of this controversial industry by those on the front lines on both sides of the fence.

He sifts through tons of information and presents most of it to the reader in a funny, readable and, most of all, credible manner. Although the book is focused on the meat and dairy industry in America, he also alludes to the spread of these farming methods to other countries.

This book began as one man’s unbiased quest for knowledge and an attempt to present that knowledge in a fair and balanced manner to his readers. Unfortunately there is simply no way that one can read this book and not be doubled over in pain at the description of the torture that these animals are subjected to. As a writer he managed to present a balanced account of the industry by giving both sides a chance to express their views but Safran Foer’s journey, much like most readers, will land firmly on the side of the earth and the animals because no matter what rationalization is used by farmers, the cruelty of their practices can not be simply washed away.

There are many instances of farmers and ranchers in the book who by Safran Foer’s own admission are wonderful human beings who truly care about their animals but who at the end of the day still choose to slaughter them, however humanely according to them.

Safran Foer’s book is thorough in its presentation of the facts and exhaustive in the scope of its research. This man has truly done his homework and the fact that he directly names the companies who are amongst the worst offenders in the cruelty stakes, you know he speaks the truth. No-one would go up against these megalodons of the food industry without having their ducks firmly in a row.

The facts aside though, what will make your skin crawl when you read this book are the graphic first hand accounts of the cruelty of the workers in some of these plants and the violence and torture they subject the animals in their care to. After reading this book it will be impossible for anyone to make the support of this industry ok.

The reality is that many of us continue to support this industry because of a lack of information about what goes into bringing these products to our table. What this book so deftly does is take that excuse away and forbids us from hiding behind a defence of ignorance.

Eating Animals (soft cover): Little Brown and Company – R187, available at Kalahari.net

… Review by Mark Scheepers

In this unique and informative book, actress and activist Silverstone details the process that led her to choose a vegan lifestyle. She also lays bare the different factors that played a role in her decision, from the abhorrent ‘farming’ methods in factory farms in America, the impact of the animal industry on our world and the inherent advantages to eating a plant based diet.

She tackles many of the myths and misnomers we as a society have been fed regarding the importance of meat and dairy in our diet. Silverstone effectively deconstructs the publicity machine that led to society adopting the belief that animal products are an essential part of the human diet and provides readily available alternative sources for the nutrients we’ve come to believe can only be found in animal products, like calcium and protein.

She is completely honest in her account of living as a vegan and being an activist, as well as her struggle to find suitable food sources. This trend has changed dramatically in the US as more people are being conscientized to ask where their food is coming from and to demand alternative choices for those who opt not to support the inhumanity and cruelty of the animal farming industry. Unfortunately we are sorely behind in this regard in South Africa and the search to find a few of the products she refers to in the book continues.

What sets her book apart from others in the industry is her dedicated section of delicious and easy to prepare recipes, from soups and snacks to yummy deserts. This book thoroughly debunks the idea that a diet free of meat means dreary eating choices. Instead of a take-no-prisoners approach, Silverstone has allowed people to come to veganism in a relaxed and natural way. This is done by dividing the book into sections which allows readers to ‘flirt’ with veganism by having a number of animal product free meals a week, and either stay there or progress to being a fully fledged vegan or the ultimate ideal – a ’superhero’ which is a vegan diet that incorporates the best eating principals of macrobiotics. It is the diet that Silverstone herself follows and the one she credits with her abundant energy and a clear complexion after being plagued by acne well into her twenties.

This book is an absolute must for anyone even contemplating switching to a cruelty free lifestyle and that is where the book gets its title from, Silverstone’s philosophy of living a life that is kind to the world, yourself and your body, is a truly remarkable and inspiring one.

The Kind Life: Rodale Press – R260.91, available at Kalahari.net