Oh and have you heard? We’re having a little old VegFest tomorrow. You should stop by.

Do you have a radio show? Know someone who does?

Pat is going to play it on his show on on WCUW 91.3FM, which airs every other Monday evening. Can you help us get the PSA on other radio stations? Do you run a radio show in the Worcester area? Do you know someone who is connected to a radio station? We’d love to get it on WTAG, WCHC or any other radio station in town.

If you can help us out, leave a comment here or get in touch with us: info@VegWorcester.com or call 508-499-8342. Thanks!

From InCity Times article, Are Speciesists Stupid?

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but racists are dumb. That’s not just my opinion. It’s the conclusion of a provocative new study published in the journal Psychological Science. Gordon Hodson, a psychologist at Brock University in Ontario, and his colleagues found that children with low intelligence are more likely to grow up to be racist adults. A previous study examining homophobia showed that people who are less adept at abstract reasoning are more likely to be prejudiced against gays.

All of this got me thinking: Does the link between brains and bias apply to how we view animals too? Are “speciesists”—people who believe that humans are superior to other animals—just not all that bright?

“There may be cognitive limits in the ability to take the perspective of others,” explains Hodson. In other words, the less intelligent you are, the harder it may be for you to put yourself in another’s shoes—and the more likely you are to hold prejudiced beliefs about other groups.

If someone is unmoved by the plight of elephants shackled, beaten and forced to perform in circuses or of animals poisoned and blinded in laboratories, perhaps they similarly lack the ability to consider the animals’ point of view.

The anecdotal evidence linking intelligence and empathy for animals is certainly intriguing. Some of the world’s greatest minds from throughout history—including Pythagoras, Leonardo da Vinci, Mohandas Gandhi and Leo Tolstoy—have been vegetarian.

Albert Einstein, whose diet was primarily plant-based, said, “Besides agreeing with the aims of vegetarianism for aesthetic and moral reasons, it is my view that a vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind.”

A few years ago, the BBC reported on a study that linked a high IQ with being vegetarian. More than 8,000 children in the U.K….

read the rest of the article…

You can pick up a print copy at lots of places around town. I picked up my copy at Bagel Time on Park Ave, after I got a toasted chocolate chip bagel with tofutti.

With the 2012 VegFest coming up on April 15, our facebook page is a great way to stay up-to-date on developments. Yeah, we’ll post the big news here on this blog, but there are always small updates that are exciting but Manda I don’t always write a whole blog post about it. So check the fb and you’ll stay in the loop.

So, the new year is already in full force and you’ve likely started your new year’s resolution of cutting cheese out of your diet or turning your Meatless Mondays into Meatless Everyday. Heck, maybe you’re already vegan and your goal is to finally make that taco recipe from Terry Hope Romero’s Viva Vegan or spend some time volunteering at Maple Farm Sanctuary.

VegWorcester is setting our goals for the new year as well and we’re getting psyched to make some big announcements soon about our upcoming VegFest. It got us thinking; maybe we should briefly pause to reflect on the kick ass things that happened during the last 12 months in the microcosm of Worcester from a veg-head point of view. So, here goes…

In 2011…

• VegWorcester started the year off strong by hosting our second Mac Daddy Mac N’ Cheeze Cook-off, and the winner was WooDaddy Waffles!
• Duck Yao, the formerly underground vegan eatery made a comeback in Worcester, opening a small sit-in and take-out restaurant on Main Street in Worcester.
• VegWorcester members took trips to view veg-themed films such as Forks Over Knives in Boston and a showing of Bold Native at WPI in Worcester.
• In April, VegWorcester hosted the 2nd annual Worcester VegFest. We estimate that approximately 3,000 attendees came to the event at Worcester State University that included speakers Bruce Friedrich, Tracye McQuirter, Will Potter, and an awesome cooking demo by Terry Hope Romero. We had family-friendly performances, 40+ ethical and cruelty-free exhibitors, coverage in a variety of online/print/news media, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.
• After a city-wide crackdown on curiously tasty vegan cupcakes (Okay, we’re exaggerating there,)VegWorcester’s vegan bake sale fundraiser was shut down. In response, we took it upon ourselves to legalize bake sales in the city of Worcester.
• VegWorcester started a more regular monthly general volunteer meeting where we discuss ideas for vegan outreach and invite anyone who is interested to join us and get involved.
• VegWorcester raised money with your help and created a snazzy updated Summer version of the Worcester Vegetarian Dining Guide. 5,000 copies were distributed over the summer around Worcester County. 5,000 more copies of a newly updated Fall version of the guide have also now been distributed in the thousands! …..Wow!
• Volunteers leafleted at local universities and events, and did a ton of tabling outreach at just about every summer and fall festival in out city including the 3th Annual Pet Rock Festival, Start on The Street: Spring Edition, 2011 Fall StART On The Street, King St. Block Party, Open Road Festival, 21st Century Worcester Pride, Main Street Celebrates, and more.
• As a community with many animal activists, we joined with other local groups and protested Ringling Circus, Fur as “fashion,” McDonalds cruelty, and other animal abuses.
• Local animal rights defenders such as Michael Budkie of SAEN and Alexis Fox of The Humane Society came to Worcester to educate about abuses in our own state and what we can do as a community to have the most impact.
• In the fall many of us enjoyed vegan “Thanks-living” celebrations such as the free SAVVY Vegan Thanksgiving at Clark University.
• Loving Hut celebrated 2 years of Loving Hut Buffet fundraisers, and continued to donate 10% of buffet profits to VegWorcester to support our outreach to help animals.
• Finally, to close out the year with a bang, VegWorcester hosted its 1st annual Holiday Vegan Cookie Swap complete with a vegan Santa. We had 24 entrants with bakers swapping over 1,500 vegan cookies!

If you’re interested in getting involved with VegWorcester or the 3rd annual Worcester VegFest, come to our General – Volunteer Meeting this Tuesday, January 17th @ WPI (Taylor Room – Campus Ctr) from 7pm~8:30pm and we’ll get you up to speed on what we have planned for 2012!

From Harvard’s press release:

Nutrition experts at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) in conjunction with colleagues at Harvard Health Publications have unveiled the Healthy Eating Plate, a visual guide that provides a blueprint for eating a healthy meal. Like the U.S. government’s MyPlate, the Healthy Eating Plate is simple and easy to understand—and it addresses important deficiencies in the MyPlate icon.

…

[USDA] “recommends dairy at every meal, even though there is little evidence that high dairy intake protects against osteoporosis but substantial evidence that high intake can be harmful;”

Check out Harvard’s healthy eating plate (pdf).

via Care2.com

Coooooooookies!!! If some of you are still in a sugar-induced coma following the  Sugar Mama Vegan Cookie Swap we won’t blame you. We asked entrants to bake 6 dozen vegan cookies each. There were a few entrants with less than 6 dozen and a few with more than 6 dozen, but with 24 entries, the Sugar Mama Cookie Swappers swapped at least 1,500 vegan cookies last Thursday!

About 50 people attended the holiday-themed swap, and many brought all types of vegan goodies, including Coconut Macaroons, Chunky Peanut Butter & Banana Oatmeal, Chewy Chocolate-Raspberry, Almond Cranberry, Wood Stove Baked Mint-Chocolate-Chip cookies, Oatmeal-Raisin, Gingerbread Hanukkah cookies, Gluten-Free Gingerbread, Cookies & Cream truffles, Chocolate-Peppermint Graham Cracker, Oatmeal Pumpkin Walnut, Magik Bars, Peanut Butter Cookie Sandwiches, Oatmeal Jam, Espresso Chip, Snickerdoodles and many more! Vegan cookies do not contain any nasty animal products such as milk, butter, eggs, or gelatin. There are plenty of vegan alternatives to animal products and the cookie swap showed just how tasty they can be! There were also vegan snacks, apple cider, soy milk and other vegan “milks” to try.

Contestants voted for the first prize award of “Sugar Mama” for best tasting cookie overall. Jennifer Kunz took home the prize for Sugar Mama with a vegan handbag donated by Bello Iris. Her prize-winning cookies were the delicious Princess Squares.

RECIPE for Vegan Princess Squares
Cream together:
1 ¼ cups Vegan Margarine
1 ¼ cups Sugar
1 ½ tsp. Vanilla Extract
Egg Substitute for 2 eggs (such as ¼ cup Tofu or Ener-G Egg Replacer, etc.)
Combine:
4 ½ cups Flour
¾ tsp. Salt
12 oz. Shredded Coconut
Directions:
• Mix all together until crumbly.
• Press ½ of mixture onto a large baking tray (11 ½ x 16 ½)
• Flatten with hands or rolling pin.
• Spread a layer of fruit jam (10 – 12 oz.).
• Top with remaining crumb mix.
• Pat down lightly.
• Bake @ 375 for 20 – 25 minutes, or until lightly browned

Second prize was “Cute Cookie” for the most attractive or interesting looking cookie or display. The prize was a copy of the book My Sweet Vegan. Cute Cookie was won by Elena Cruz for her creative Calvin and Hobbes – inspired vegan cookies.

RECIPE for Gingerbread Snowmen Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup earth balance
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon allspice
Directions:
Cream margerine and sugar. Blend in molasses, water, flour, salt, baking soda, ginger, nutmeg and allspice.
Heat oven to 375F. Roll dough into small balls and place on ungreased baking sheet.
Bake 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from baking sheet and press slightly with a spatula. Cool.

Icing:
1 tablespoon organic extract: almond, vanilla, lemon, coconut, etc.
1 16-ounce bag of confection powdered sugar, sifted
8 tablespoons soy milk
1 tablespoon Karo Syrup, light

Decoration:
Add a vegan marshmallow and decorate with gel frosting and silly toothpick signs!

The prize for most ugly sweater or best holiday attire was won by Anne Lewenberg for her sweeeeeet holiday sweater! Her prize was also a copy of My Sweet Vegan.

 

 

Although there were several fantastical holiday outfits and ugly sweaters, Anne’s sweater won by a spirited show of hands for its mom-inspired style.

 

.

The event was held at Worcester Photo Studios and featured a holiday photo booth where participants took photos with vegan Santa. Check them out at UnityMike Photography’s Facebook . Please support his work by purchasing a high res print of your cookies and santa photo from UnityMike’s SmugMug.

Also check out Kaitlyn’s awesome review of the Sugar Mama Cookie Swap on The Tie Dye Files Blog.

The widely popular MacDaddy Vegan Mac N’ Cheeze Cookoff was the inspiration for the Sugar Mama, and it will be returning in early 2012. Keep an ear out for news of the MacDaddy. The title and belt is sought from all over Worcester County, the competition is fierce and the cheeze is bubbly. Be ready!

Post a comment with your tastyyy vegan cookie recipes from the swap!

I don’t know how this slipped by me, but the Telegram & Gazette recently ran this AP story about celebrities taking veganism to a more mainstream audience. The story’s called, “The New Face of Veganism”. Isn’t veganism already mainstream?

Veganism is already mainstream

The Washington Post even proclaimed this back in July 2011. It’s no surprise either. Books like Tal Ronnen’s cookbook, The Conscious Cook, was a top seller on Amazon.com and Jonathan Safron Foer’s book, Eating Animals, made a huge splash. Mercy for Animals’ recent investigation into the egg industry got headlines and Ebert gave Forks Over Knives a solid review. For god’s sake, Bill Clinton even went vegan. Why are people talking about veganism now? Because it’s relevant. We’re facing a global ecological crisis that was largely caused by animal agriculture and the US has an obesity epidemic which is correlated to a diet high in animal products and low in plant-based foods. Everyone knows that factory farms are bad for animals, but now people are also starting to realize that eating animals is bad for us too.

Anyway, veganism is now mainstream and it’s not going anywhere. Check out this AP article that the Telegram & Gazette published last week.

From “The new face of veganism” on Telegram.com:

NEW YORK —  Walk into Pure Food and Wine on Manhattan’s chic Irving Place and back into its spacious, luxurious garden, and you might spot actress Katie Holmes. Or Alec Baldwin and his new girlfriend, whom he met at the restaurant.

Or football player Tom Brady. Or radio host Howard Stern. Or Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea, who’ve made a number of visits together, enjoying the sweet corn and cashew tamales with portabella or a mint sundae for dessert. Or any number of Wall Street moguls.

It could be any trendy New York eatery, but Pure serves only vegan and raw food, with nary an egg nor an oven in sight. Its upscale clientele is a mix of vegans, vegetarians and just plain foodies, but clearly a sign of how the image of veganism has changed in recent years.

Call them the big-time vegans: The celebrity standard-bearers for a vegan lifestyle aren’t just wispy young actresses. They include talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, along with wife Portia de Rossi. (Or Oprah Winfrey, who isn’t vegan but led her staff on a public 21-day vegan cleanse.) Or men like Ozzy Osbourne and Russell Brand, who in recent weeks both declared themselves vegans. Athletes like Carl Lewis and Mike Tyson. Even NFL player Tony Gonzalez, tight end for the Atlanta Falcons and 245-plus pounds — attributes his longevity to a largely vegan diet.

…

The question is, of course, how much those changes have influenced ordinary Americans. “All the exposure is absolutely having an influence,” says advocate Joseph Connelly, editor and publisher of VegNews. “People can pronounce the word ‘vegan’ now! Five, 10 years ago they couldn’t. It’s nothing but positive.”

…Read the rest of the story

Please watch this investigation. It can be tough to watch, but you should spend 4 minutes and watch it. These conditions are the industry-norm. 99.99% of all eggs come from places like this. Whether the eggs come from Price Chopper, Shaws, Stop-n-shop, or Wegmans, Whole Foods, or the Living Earth, they most likely come from a factory farm like the one shown in this video.

See the video investigation for yourself:

Hidden-camera footage taken at Sparboe facilities in Iowa, Minnesota and Colorado reveals:

• Hens crammed into filthy wire cages with less space for each bird than a standard-sized sheet of paper to live her entire miserable life, unable to fully stretch her wings or engage in most other natural behaviors
• Workers burning off the beaks of young chicks without any painkillers and callously throwing them into cages, some missing the cage doors and hitting the floor
• Workers grabbing hens by their throats and ramming them into battery cages
• Rotted hens, decomposed beyond recognition as birds, left in cages with hens still laying eggs for human consumption
• A worker tormenting a bird by swinging her around in the air while her legs were caught in a grabbing device – violence described as “torture” by another worker
• A worker shoving a bird into the pocket of another employee without any regard for the animal’s fear and suffering
• Chicks trapped and mangled in cage wire – others suffering from open wounds and torn beaks
• Live chicks thrown into plastic bags to be suffocated

Read more about the investigation on: McDonaldsCruelty.com