Define Your Terms

Material Content (outer shell): 70% acrylic, 30% polyester
Material Content (lining):  100% polyester
Country of Origin: China

Look at this person... caring about the animals, not wanting them to suffer... We have to wear fur because it's fun, but fur is bad, so we'll make faux-fur and be just as cute and trendy, but AWARE. This cute vest says, "Look at me. I want the look, but I'm of a higher consciousness, so I would never wear the skin of a poor tortured animal. I'm above that. I'm enlightened."

Good.

Now let's re-visit the other information up there. All material in this enlightened piece of clothing is made from chemicals. Water-intensive processes. Stuff and crap that will never biodegrade, because you have to be bio to biodegrade. Nothing there is bio. So, while no animals were killed directly in the making of this item, let's think about the eco-suffering that may commence as the result of the pollution caused by making this product. Let's think about the cancer from introducing unnecessary chemicals into the world, because you are too enlightened to wear the hide of an animal. And how about where it is made? China. There are awesome factories in China, and then there are others that might not be quite so ideal. From which is this? The clean, fun to work in, great factory? Or the horrible condition, slave wages, foul dirty disgusting polluting one? Don't know? Shouldn't you? I mean, if you care so much about the animals that real fur would come from, shouldn't you care about the people that are making this product? No? Not your problem? I see. Caring about animals doesn't extend to humans. Humans have free will, after all.

Here's my argument: purchasing leather or even fur at a thrift store is the most eco-friendly thing you could buy. Anti-fur people would never do that, even though that product has already been made and used and is not a new resource-consuming  thing that has to be manufactured. No new processes or chemicals are getting introduced into the world so that you can be warm. "But it's fur!!!" Yes it is. And it is already there. Your not buying it in favor of some chemical product vs. natural will not change that. You aren't killing animals. You may be saving some, actually. You are actually promoting awareness. Afraid someone just like you will come up and throw red paint blood on you before you have a chance to explain yourself? Hmm... maybe we should think about that.

Do I wear fur? No. Do I want to wear fur? No. Do I condone wearing fur? No - although go ahead and tell me that farm-raised chinchillas have a bad life. I do wear leather. It's better than pleather and that crap, though I realize it is also a very water- and chemical-intensive process. I limit it. Most clothes I buy these days are in second-hand stores and all cotton. It's not organic cotton, yet, because that's not really going to be found second-hand, yet, but it's a fuck of a lot better than buying something new. 

Just sayin'... be AWARE. THINK about your actions. THINK about the consequences. REALIZE what is behind and underneath. Define your terms. You say you are being eco-friendly and Earth-conscious and enlightened. Define that, tell me how. Prove it. Show is you put thought into it. We'll wait. 

A Wee Bit O' the Greenwash

I'm still wading through vegan products I received at various shows. The most recent one I tried is a "cruelty free and vegan" body wash, Papaya, by Nature's Gate. I'm strictly a Dr. Bronner's bar soap kind of gal, but I thought I would branch out to give this a try. Why not?

Nature's Gate Papaya Velvet Moisture Body Wash says it Brightens Dull Skin, is Paraben Free, and has 7 Natural Moisture Boosters. OK. I open the sample and wonder how much I really need on my sponge. Hmm. Soapy. It smells WONDERFUL. Good so far. Turns our I used way too much, but that happens. I feel pretty silky. But then, it doesn't rinse off my skin as well as my Dr. Bronner's. That bothers me because I feel I am using more water than I would like. Then there is my sponge. It takes forever to get it all out of my poor little natural sponge (use not approved by hard-line vegans). There goes more wasted water than usual.

OK, so good smell but too much water. Let's look a little deeper. The company itself is a really good one... concerned about sustainable products, trying to be all responsible with the packaging, supporting clean water initiatives... they say this product is, besides paraben free, also sulfate free, phthalate free, and biodegradable with no EDTA. Let's look into this. Paraben: bad. So we have to make a big deal of that, I get it. Phthalates and sufates, also bad. EDTA is a "persistent organic pollutant." OK, also bad, let's stick that on the label. What does it actually have in it? Is it all-natural in its vegan-ness? I have to say no, as the first "natural" ingredient, papaya, doesn't actually appear until #8. In fact, it has lots of big chemical names that I cannot pronounce without a few good tries. I gotta copy this right from Wikipedia because, well, otherwise that's a lot of typing. Hah. The first ingredient after water: Cocamidopropyl hydroxysultaine (CAHS) is a synthetic amphoteric surfactant from the hydroxysultaine group. It is found in many personal care products (soaps, shampoos, lotions etc.). It has uses as a foam booster, viscosity builder, and an antistatic agent. It is a cheap and very effective foaming agent. Um. That's not very natural. I won't bore you with the rest of the dozen or so other unpronounceables interspersed with natural oils. Suffice it to say that this product is more laboratory than Nature. My Dr. Bronner's? More Nature than lab. Also cruelty-free. Perfectly safe for grey-water systems. No fancy labels.

Oh, you know what else? My Dr. Bronner's soap comes in a paper wrapping. These products come in plastic bottles. They say, of course, that they are recyclable, of course, and post-consumer content, or course, but, of course, it's still plastic, as I, of course, always say.

Nature's Gate: you are a nice enough company, I am sure you mean well, but I have to pass. Your labels aren't fooling me. I think you greenwash vegans with your labels. Thanks for the samples, but it's a no-go for me. Lemme know when you have fewer chemicals in your life. And less plastic. I stick to my castille soap, thanks. Maybe someday, people will stop falling for half-truths on labels, quit seeing what they want to see and hearing what they want to hear.

Oh, but then, about whatever shall I rant??? :)

Harmful by Degrees

I recently attended a big vegan event. Yeah, I know, call it a momentary lapse of reason. (Just kidding.) (Mostly.) It's amazing how I'm not good enough as an eco-warrior because I am not "one of them". (It should be "all of us.")

It was a really hot day. We were in a hot tent. We were screening a really great movie, "The Big Fix", about BP's Deepwater Horizon, a movie that is not readily available to see yet. And yet, there was very little interest by the festival attendees to come in to see it. I get it; I avoid a lot of documentaries because they bring me down, man. Was that it, it was too a heavy topic for a day that was more about being kind to animals? That can't be it, many of the booths were heavy in topic. And this affected a LOT of animals. Those other booths were about animals. Could it be that, at this event, it's more about animals than the planet? Could that be true? Dare I make a generalization that the people at that event cared more about animals and themselves and showing how noble and *sacrificy* they are, and being seen as "oh look how much I care about dogs!"? Am I being unfair? These are the random thoughts that I had.

But still affecting them

More thoughts came later. It was a weekend of events where I was sure to come up with products aimed at vegans and vegetarians. I'm all for them, really I am. I don't want products to be tested on animals. I don't have to be a vegan to want that. They don't have the corner market on love for animals, just because they don't eat them. These products seem all well and fine by people. They are good products, I surely am taking nothing away from the intention. Um. Anyway. I get to wondering.

Not tested on animals. Great. Good for you. Nice start. Then... then what? What does your product do now? Does it have chemicals in it? If so, are they safe for the planet, or are they harmful? If they aren't all natural, how can you say they aren't harmful? Are there chemicals in this product that were made in a lab and not by Nature? And what about the packaging? Are you putting your wonderful expensive lotions and shampoos and creams in glass? Hmm, I see you are using plastic. How does that figure into this world of not harming animals? Plastic harms us all. Is it OK to start out not harming them, but then harm them once you throw away the container? Oh, yes yes I know I know, you're RECYCLING it. Mm hmm. We know how effective THAT is. Do we absolve the plastic waste because we cared SO much up front? Or, so long as we aren't testing on animals, it's OK to be bad to human-kind. Cute bunnies shouldn't get testing, but fish can swim in a plastic soup, no worries?

Where's the line? Are you better than am I because you are soooo careful about what you use, but then you don't think about it afterwards, and I do?

Look, just sayin', don't get all high and mighty on me unless you are PERFECT. I know I'm not. I got miles and miles to go. You may think you're ahead of me. You are not. So please walk beside me. We'll talk awhile, shall we?

Stewards of the Earth...

Exploit Humans, Not Animals.

Do you reject all animal products because you do not believe in exploiting them? Well, good for you. Are you enjoying that tomato on your vegetarian sandwich or on your Gardein burger with the soy cheese? It's good, isn't it? Hang on a second, it's January. Where is that tomato coming from? It's surely not in season. Your own greenhouse? A local hothouse? Oh, wait, it's OK, they grow them in Florida where they can be harvested all year long, and look! - it gives people jobs, too! Woo hoo economy! Your tomato is giving someone employment! Great.

Let's look at that. Is your simple slice of tomato more humane than my grass-fed cow burger? Obvious answer: yes. Real answer: snort. (Sorry, I could only manage a derisive snort for a second there.) My cow was local and sustainably raised and fed with care and avoiding pesticides and antibiotics at all costs. Your tomato was shipped from miles and miles away and was coated with pesticides and harvested with the cost of human health.

 If you are not aware of where your food is coming from, then you cannot call yourself concerned about the well-being of anything. Do you not exploit bees for honey, or worms for composting, or hens for eggs, or animals for ANYTHING, yet you can allow humans to be exploited because... why? Humans have "free choice" and allow themselves to be exploited? Or, hey, it's a job? People need jobs? Yeah. Check out the book I have put here down below. People are suffering and dying because you have to have a tomato out of season. And this is just a tiny example. Don't tell me you are concerned about other living creatures when you have your head buried in the sand about all else. Oh... sand. Yeah - that's what they grow tomatoes in down there in Florida. No nutritional value from the soil AT ALL.

 The long and short of it is this: unless you are growing all your own food or everything local and eating what is in season and not full of processed crap, then I can't take you seriously. You spout your beliefs but you don't even follow them. Yeah, I'm angry. Don't lecture me about my meat-eating unless you can tell me exactly where what you are eating comes from and how not one thing was harmed to bring it to your plate. I know exactly ONE person like that. He walks his walk. He gets a pass. All you others that feel you can pass judgement on me? Consider yourself served. I got my eye on you, and I know stuff. Bring it. If you don't care about the exploitation of humans, but are all over not using bees... well. All I can say is please don't procreate. Thank you.

 

You Are Still Using Bees

And again.

Bee keeping... I always think of it as one of the best things you can do. Any beekeeper I ever met CARED about their bees, each and every hive, and looked after them with such great care. You have to. Healthy happy bees are the key. And oh do we need bees. Honeybees bother no one in their daily lives, really... only defend their hives. I stepped on them regularly as a child, as they collected among the clover flowers. Ouch. But I also would park myself right outside their hive in the wall of our garage and they simply flew around me with no concern. I just watched them. But, bee keeping is apparently another one of those anti-vegan things. Even though... well, let me get into it.

I'll say up front I am NOT an expert. Most of my knowledge is gathered along the way and some of it is, I am sure, anecdotal. For instance, all bees you see out and flying about are female. They do all the work. Thus: worker bees. The men stay at home and service the queen. Drones. Bees are great. We cannot exist without them. They are the main pollinators of everything we eat. Try as we might, we as humans cannot possibly duplicate what bees do for our food supply. Here's the hardline from the vegan perspective: "In common with other animals kept to produce food products bees are farmed and manipulated, and the honey they produce for themselves is taken from them. Vegans do not eat products taken from any animal, including bees, because it is neither desirable nor necessary to exploit animals in order to obtain food for humans."

Exploit? Aren't you exploiting bees by simply eating ANYTHING? After all, they worked for it. They worked hard. I just want to know where the line is drawn. If you give bees a home on your property, is that expecting something from them in return, even if you aren't taking their honey? Keeping bees is a wonderful thing. I don't eat a lot of honey  myself, but I would keep bees just to pollinate my garden. This, apparently, is not correct. I would be enslaving them. Again, I fail to see how providing creatures with a good place to live and benefiting from their labor is such a bad thing. It's symbiotic.

 Honey and bee pollen is amazing for our health. Mother Nature provides something that is so good for us, but because commercial practices are bad, the whole thing is bad? I go back to the beekeepers I have known. They won't take more than they should, and they are very careful about everything. And I feel they know more about Nature and the ways of things than most "gimme processed soy product" vegangelicals. What if you are NOT exploiting them? What if you have that symbiotic relationship with them? Why is it still wrong? Commercial ANYTHING is pretty much bad, so can we take things case by case and quit overreacting to everything??

Bees need our help. They have problems. How many people know about Colony Collapse Disorder? I do. Beekeepers do. And they try to protect their hives. Isn't that a good thing? Or must all bees be free-range because of that whole expecting something from them thing? Wild bees are in trouble and keeping hives might help. So if it is said that no bees should be kept, yet they all dies because no bees were kept and protected, well then...

Say goodbye to your food. When the cannibalism hits because all plants are dead, certain people will go first.

Just sayin'. :)

You can tell me I'm full of crap and to quit picking on non-omnivores. Fine. I just want answers. Because this defies logic to me, and I want logic. Be logical and I will leave you alone. But right now, I just want answers. Anyone?

Worm Slaves

"Here she goes again." It's OK if you think that. I can see how it looks like I pick on vegans. It could be because I've been lectured one (ten?) too many times. It's a hazard of the trade. I accept it, but I do enjoy giving it back.

I love worms. Always have. Don't like fishing with them; hate to have to kill them to put them on the hook. Always pick them up from the sidewalk where they are at risk of drying in the sun or getting trod-upon. Never been grossed out by worms. Never ate one either, by the way. I guess kids do that sometimes when dared. I avoided that fate. I would love to compost with worms, but it seems daunting. Especially in an apartment. But it seems like a great thing to do.

So, imagine my amusement when I came across a debate on Facebook about whether or not composting with worms, or vermiculture, is vegan. Imagine my chuckle as some vegangelical came across and said, "NO! You are enslaving worms!!! You are making them serve you!" (Oh, and bee keeping is ALSO not vegan, but that's another post. I promise.) I did a search, and came across this from a vegan-ish board: "vermiculture is not vegan. vegans don't use animals or animal by products, compost from worms is an animal by product. the worms are working for you, they are not pets like dogs and fish because they are kept for an end result, poop. even if you keep them in the best conditions and treat them with respect, you are still harvesting them for your own purpose."


Seriously? Um... So, giving them a nice warm home and lots of great food and keeping them from harm and giving them the best life ever... that's... well... that's not a good intention, it can't be vegan because you are using their poop? It's OK to eat things that grow out in the wild 'cuz them worms is free-range type worms? The poster goes on with a little more clarity: "i understand that it is nearly impossible to find out what type of compost was used to grow food and plants, and that most food is grown with animal manure or compost with animal by products, however these methods or unnecessary because vegan compost works just as well as vermicompost and other composts with animal by products. we get to choose how we fertilize our own plants at home, choosing vermicompost is not vegan."


Frankly, I'm confused. Someone please enlighten me on this one, because I REALLY don't get it, even after this enlightened explanation. It could be this particular person is just a crock, and this isn't an all-encompassing feeling. But I have seen it more than once, and so that tells me I need to address it. See, extremism scares me. I wish to understand. I want to know. Inquisitive mind, remember? Someone please tell me why providing worms with a good place to live and lots of free food and protection from birds and the elements is WRONG? We're using their poop. They are using us for all the things just back there in that sentence right back there you just read back there. It's a SYMBIOTIC relationship. And those are good. By this crock (IMHO) line of reasoning, we should flush all the e.coli out of our systems, because we are using them for our own health. How very.

Look, live how you want, but please learn some logic. I wish for there to be logic. Because my brain hurts, otherwise. And I like my brain. I give it a nice home and it gives me...

Wait... I'm USING my brain for my own purpose.

Mm hmm.

Meat Monologues Part 3: Hug a Vegetable

Lest it come across like I am vegan-bashing today, let me just get this part out. I'm an omnivore. I still eat meat. I'm going to have hot dogs in an hour, actually. I have cut back on my meat intake. Are vegans and vegetarians greener eaters than I? Yes, of course. Over and above, no question. I fully freely admit that. (I would question some of your items for their packaging, but that something else for another time.) I give it up to them. And generally my posts are not aimed at vegans because they are already doing good stuff for the species. If I lash out sometimes, it's against the militant ones, not the ones I personally know and like lots. And in these recent posts, I was just getting stuff out of my head that had been rumbling around in there.

But I do have one question that whispers when I look at vegan food. What's UP with all the imitation food??? Fake meat, fake bacon, fake cheese, fake burgers... if I didn't know better, I'd say you were envious of "our" food. Your magazine industry recently took a hit for using real meat products in their photos, to look all appetizing etc. The vegan I most respect is a raw food vegan, John McCabe. He has written several books on the topic (http://www.amazon.com/John-McCabe/e/B001K81LGI/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1306797776&sr=8-1), and they are good. He doesn't go for all that fake, processed, maybe-I'm-meat stuff. He goes for real actual food. If I did it, I think I would do it like that.

Why you gotta copy our stuff? Do you miss it that much? Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery... nuh-uh. If you don't want to eat bacon, why you gotta eat something that tries to taste like bacon? If you don't wanna eat cow, why you try so hard to make it seem like cow? Chicken? Whatever? If you are so into non-meat, why not just eat what isn't meat or near-meat or wannabe-meat?

I understand John. I don't understand the other part. He's the greenest eater I know, with the other raw food vegans. Will I do it? I don't know. Not now and not in the foreseeable future. But is that the way I would do it? I think so. If I'm gonna not eat meat, I'm not going to tease myself with not-meat-but-sure-trying-to-be processed FOODSTUFFS. I would be a consumer of fruits and vegetables and grains and nuts and whatever wasn't meat or anything like meat.

Just sayin'. Just another one of those things that makes me wonder. Now, where's that BBQ?

Meat Monologues Part 2: I'll Show Ya Suffering

It's an old argument between those who think hunting is cruel, and those who love venison. I bet you can guess which group I'm in, huh? Yup. I love me some venison. It has been forever since I've had it. Pretty common in the towns I lived in back in PA, not so common in Los Angeles. Where I come from, men hunt. And then we eat what they hunt. Seems pretty straightforward. No "sport hunting" I knew of. We were also known to go fishing for food too. One of my favorite meals ever was fresh-caught river trout, hard-won, pan-fried when we got home. YUM. This was a great way to get food. I've even cooked bunnies into a lovely stew. You hunt, you kill, you eat. It's the equation with which I grew up. Someone I knew even had a great relationship with the local game warden, and when a poacher was caught, that guy got the deer. You see, the poacher couldn't keep it, but something had to be done with it... and it got ate, believe you me.

OK, wait, where was I? Oh yeah, the argument. "Hunting is so cruel" versus "If we don't hunt the deer, they'll overpopulate." Allow me to REALLY break this down for all y'all. This is the reality in which we live. This is how it is. Feel free to debate, but... well, I'm right. Deer populate certain areas. Those areas used to have their predators to keep their numbers in check, but because we humans have encroached so much, we tend to knock out the deer's predator because the predator poses a "threat" to us and our way of living, too. So, with Nature's control gone, deer are free to roam and proliferate. Which they do. So then THEY get out of control and eat stuff we don't want them to eat, like OUR crops. So now we have to control their numbers, as we have interfered with Nature and her control. We hunt them. We eat them. It's a controlled hunt; we don't go all out and slaughter them, but we keep their numbers manageable. I'm OK with this, because, as stated, I love me some venison. Cruel?

Yeah, you say. Cruel. I'll TELL you what "cruel" is. We stop hunting altogether and abruptly, because hunting is "cruel". But no: cruel is a bunch of deer, untouched by hunters, protected and free to do as they please, suddenly populating as they would anyway, suddenly faced with a major shortage of food. They are starving in the woods. They raid our fields and gardens. That's not cool, but what to do? Higher fences? Snort. They compete with all those cows we just set free because it was cruel to keep them. Now everyone's starving and SUFFERING and dying. Dying because they are starving. Because we thought it kinder and happier to let them be. SUFFERING. Think about the starving animals. I'll wait.

Sure, sure, the population will eventually balance, if we just left well enough alone. But when, how long? Plus, necessarily, we would see an increase of the predators as Nature tries desperately to balance her creatures. Now there are more predators killing our cats and dogs and cows and horses and chickens, not to mention our children playing in the back yard. What happens to them? We can't be cruel, so we can't kill them either. So I ask, how much starvation and death and stalking predators equals the sudden compassion and "civility" of not hunting anymore? How many years of waiting for that cycle to correct what we humans have effed up in the first place? What is the acceptable, palatable number here?

I'll wait. Go ahead and think on it.

And as you finish reading this and think, "Hm, what's green about THIS topic, GG? Do you have BBQ on the brain today, or something? This isn't your usual green fare," I say this: Green living to me means living WITH Nature, according to Nature, respecting the rules of Nature. Those rules are pretty clear. All other creatures on this planet live with Nature, by her rules. We do not. So now there are too many people and too many dogs and too many cats and too many deer and too many people (yeah I know) and not enough predators and the equation is skewed... and we hunt. And we can't just plain stop. THAT would be cruel.

I just want people to think beyond their own noses for a change. There are consequences to things.

Go ahead. I'll wait.

Meat Monologues Part 1: Zuckerberg Method

Vegan Monologues was already taken. I'm not talking about meat here. I'm talking about vegans, and I'll probably get some flak. Oh well.

So the news that shook up the food world this past week was that Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, revealed that "he is currently only eating meat from animals he has personally killed himself." To that, I say, good for him. That takes some huevos. Vegans, however, are horrified. How can he??? That's BARBARIC!!! How is it different from eating an animal someone else killed? Well, let's see, shall we? For one, he is living an understanding of where his food comes from and is appreciating it more, and is cutting back, and is living much more sustainably. I wish we could all live in such a way that we got rid of factory farming and were much more in touch with our food. (Oh yeah - we could, if we weren't hell-bent on such needless useless rampant over-population. Oops, separate post. I digress.)  It's funny to me how an admitted omnivore makes a mooooove (SORRY! I really couldn't resist. I did try.) towards healthier, more sustainable, more of a vegetarian-based diet, and all the vegans can do is be all horrified and condemn him instead of applauding him.


I'm not saying I will never be a vegan or a vegetarian. I have cut back on the meat, but I have yet to even think about wanting to give it up. I try to be responsible about where it came from. Mr. Z doesn't eat meat in restaurants, just vegetarian foods. Why can't this be a good thing? How about we moooove (didn't even try this time) some of that ire and outrage back to Go-Daddy founder what's-his-name, for needlessly killing elephants? (I could look up his name, but I refuse to give him that much thought. Please look it up. THAT'S bad.) Here, we have someone trying to raise his own awareness, and we have to turn it into a bad thing. OK, not "we"... "they". Yes, I will put up that wall right here. 


Aw hell, I just think it's funny they are lamenting this ON Facebook. Now That's irony. Thoughts?

Something Vegan This Way Comes

And I liked it.

I know. Don't go into shock.

This past weekend was World Fest LA, a vegan gathering that was open to us omnivores, as well. I did not sample much of the food. And actually, I'll be writing more about vegan food in another post. This post is for praise. I got a goodie bag, and in it were these tiny little samples of some energy bars. I usually find vegan, gluten-free stuff extremely mealy, bland, weirdly textured, etc. So I did no open the Bearded Brothers Colossal Coconut Mango Energy Bar sample with very much enthusiasm. But you know what? For once, I was pleasantly surprised! This tasted very good!

I'm not all anti-everything-vegan, I'm really not. (Just seems that way most times.) But I don't expect much in the way of taste when I look at packaged so-called vegan anything. These raw bars have good texture and taste wonderful and really do make me want to try more. "100% organic snack food company. Handmade with love and joy, in Austin, Texas." Austin is actually intriguing me lately. I hear it's great. These guys are intriguing me. I think I'll hit them up. Sure, they are a little pricey for what I think, but then again, I don't know much about vegan food products. They could be very reasonable. And I'm... frugal. (almost said cheap. which could be true.) But, yes, I am intrigued. Downright yummy. I applaud them. I was ready to go off on the packaging, but I think I will save that for the vegan-food rant I have cooking in my head. (cooking - with bacon grease heh heh heh.) I'm just going to simply like these guys for awhile.

Here's their site: http://www.beardedbros.com/ It's not what you'd call high on information, but it's simple and straightforward, perhaps, as I suspect, they themselves are. Um, straightforward; I don't want to call them "simple." Hah. Yikes, almost got in trouble on that one.

So, there it is. Take it for what it's worth. I won't be this nice in the next one, you can say that twice and mean it.