While while intentioned and needed, and largely accurate, I think authour is making the common culture war mistake of equating "vegan" with "hippies who buy $10 asparagus water at Whole Foods" - mistaking an ethical principle for the common depiction of those with the media access to advocate for it and those to whom it is marketed as a luxury - rather than what the term actually means.

Regular vegan food can be whatever the heck else one would be eating with a few substitutions or subtractions. By substitutions, I'm not talking about making everything out of emulsified whatever mixed with tapioca starch and moonlight - I mean, for example, beans for beef: healthier, more ethical, cheaper and, since the beans are just fine canned or dried, less prone to spoilage even without refrigeration (and also not buoyed up by inequitable meat subsidies) Likewise: baking with applesauce (tinned or blendered out of second-rate apples) instead of eggs; veg oil and table salt instead of butter; lentil soup for chicken noodle; nutritional yeast for KD cheese powder. Fresh (organic? local?) produce is nice, but it's not the same thing as vegan, just like organic alligator liver isn't the same thing as "omnivorous." And instead of starches - well those were already vegan in the first place. Sure have to add some B12 now and then, but that's still much cheaper than eggs, cheese, milk or fish.

This is noting new. In many (most? all?) agrarian cultures, for a long time, eating meat has been a sign of wealth - this is a natural extension of entropy: it simply takes more nutrients, labour and energy to farm a calorie of animal than of plant. Since entropy is still a thing, this hasn't changed.

I can think of four exceptions to this: (1) because of restrictions on time, health, housing or ability, you are living on fast food, where for some bullshit reason (likely tied into marketing ideas from the first paragraph) a veggie burger costs thrice what a basic burger, or (2) you are not exchanging money for food, instead living from shelters, donations, prisons, barracks, dumpsters or food banks that don't have don't know or don't care about veg nutrition, or (3) your grocery supply is extremely limited and unreliable, or (4) you live somewhere where at times it's easier to hunt or fish than grow things. In these cases, vegan food is impractical and, one could argue, has less of an ethical imperative behind it. Otherwise however, even with ethical considerations aside, it's cheaper, easier, and less likely to give you food poisoning. It's viable, and it's a shame that we don't push it harder as a tool in the fight against food scarcity.
Denman Island chocolate bars are awesome, and I want to buy them in the future, but I had some questions. So I emailed them.

I really enjoy this application of the Internet. I think I might even like it more than Desktop Tower Defense. It takes less time, and is more satisfying.



Dear Denman Island Chocolates,

I enjoy your chocolate bars but am reluctant to buy them over Camino and other brands because while your product's chocolate content is organic (which is great), I'm not sure what labour practices it is made under. The bars say "product of Canada," but I assume that the cocoa is grown elsewhere. I couldn't find your company green-lighted here, and this site only looks for slavery in chocolate manufacture, not overall economic fairness. So I thought I should email you.

Can you tell me what labour (or community economic development) standards are in place in the sourcing of your raw materials? Have you made any plans to use fair-trade certified chocolate?


Sincerely...
I did a lot of searching, but last night, I got the last of this combination of make and warranty food processor available anywhere in the GVRD. I carried it home in the slush. My shoes are soaked, but I think that this device will not only be super-awesome in the kitchen, but the amount I save on food through its use should see it pay for itself by the end of next year, if not this one.
1. "Axum" is a new Ethiopian restaurant near the Northeast corner of Clark and Hastings. It has 9 vegan options, 7 of which were available when I was there. You can get any 3 with injera for $10. It's tasty. There's an Ethiopian place near 12th too. It's good as well.

2. I am finding success in getting over my habit of conserving useful consumables. Example: as a child, I wouldn't eat my halloween candy, I'd just save it until it went stale. I don't understand where this comes from. Was there some kind of environmental trigger? I never went hungry. Maybe it's instinctual.

3. I am finding that it's easier to tie together polyhedral (as in "many surfaces") information. I've heard people accredit this to hormones, but by ts timing, I think that it has something to do with not being depressed.

4. I am finding that I actually enjoy embodied activities now, when before there I was a lot more ambivolent. I really enjoyed lifting weights at the gym.

5. I am seriously looking forward to getting on to the next stage of Stuff I Want to Do. I won't be working full time at the union, so I'll be able to do more stuff. The prospect of idleness still scares me though.

Thinglets.

Dec. 10th, 2007 11:52 pm
1. I am now mostly done my post-bachelor's. I'm taking a grad course next semester, and then any two upper division or grad classes.

2. There's a wallpaper store just West of the Astoria on hastings. It has a giant neon sign that reads "PAINT" on both sides. The "T" on one side is busted.

3. Speaking of the above, some worthwhile things require pain and sacrifice. While blend electrolysis stings like a bitch and drains my wallet, the real loss is this: I will never again be able to even try to grow a goatee. This will remain a dim memory - and a blurry photo. Except when the inflammation from electrolysis forms into a musketeer-beard-shaped rash.

4. Journal mostly locked down until CFS shit is over

5. Results of the experiment with inducing menses are as follows
- feels right - cycling hormones linked to feelings of embodiment and self-comfort (yay!)
- breasts no longer hurt all the time (yay again!)
- PMS sucks (expected)

6. Healthier psychological stage reached. Capable of retrospect without anger. Feel strong need for community.

7. Will not be running for another Executive term at Student Society. May run for part-time at-large position. I will avoid full-time work plus part-time classes or vice-versa in the future.

8. You know what's tasty and easy to make? Potatoes boiled in coconut milk and a bit of yellow curry. What's easy and healthy? Aloo gobi made with canned mashed spinach and potatoes not boiled in yellow curry and coconut milk, plus a little mustard. You know what's a cheap fast-food snack? Veggie "French" sandwiches at either Ba Le Vietnamese Deli (around 700 main and 120 Kingsway). You know where's a good place to go for a meal? The Cafeteria at the downtown campus of Vancouver Community College.

9. Losing your passport and then your citizenship card sucks. I cannot leave the country - and getting a new passport requires a citizenship card. Dammit. Forms printed out.

10. Speaking of healthier states and embodiment, I feel much more comfortable doing exertion now. I enjoyed my time in the weight room. And I want to go dancing - especially somewhere sly* (a Firefly term meaning "Queer"), or maybe kinky, or even better, anywhere with music that's actually to my tastes. I'm not that picky.

11. If you have not done so, register for Phamacare, preferably online. If you were on the lower end of the income scale to years ago, and have spent over $300 on medication, the BC government-people will send you a cheque next Spring - but only if you register before January. You can do this online. All you need is your care-card (which I have not lost) and your taxable income from two years past (which I did, but I phoned in and they were helpful).

12. Dating is now more awkward, as you can imagine. But it's easier now too. Better to get shot down than never know.

13. It's hard to isolate the source of heat-loss in one's apartment.

That is all
There will be another movie night and brain squeezing at my place on July 27th.
The Movie will be



It' a fine movie, somewhat based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

Doors open at 7. Movie starts at 8:30. Event ends at 12:30.

RSVP's are appreciated. There will be food, but if you want some, you should either RSVP by Tuesday evening with any dietary considerations (I will keep all animal products organic ) and bring $4 or bring some of your own food to share.

Throughout the event, I will be asking y'all for your opnions re: my business project The Next Now, a form of Broken Reality Caberet

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