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June 2005—Issue #20
Vegetarian News, Food & More!
Brought to you by VegNews Magazine
In this issue
**Inside the July/August Magazine
**Vote Now for the 2005 Veggie Awards
**News Snips: This Month's Hottest News
**Veg Spotlight: Honoring Ben White
**We Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
**Make Your Dollars Count: Avoid Animal Testers
**Recipe: Green Gazpacho
**Veg Product Review: Natural Choice Sorbet
**Veg Musician: Elvis Costello Backs Adopt-A-Minefield®
**VegChic: Green Karat Both Stunning and Conscious
Thanks so much for your interest in VegNews, America's premier vegetarian lifestyle magazine. The popular VegNewsletter arrives in your e-mailbox just once a month and is filled with vegetarian news, tidbits, recipes, products, reviews, and more. It's the perfect accompaniment to a VegNews subscription.
This July, VegNews Magazine celebrates 5 years in publishing. Besides throwing ourselves a fabulous birthday bash (sorry, the August 5 party is now completely booked!), our July/August edition honors this milestone with a top-notch editorial lineup:
Here's a peek inside:
**Sizzling Interview with Vegan Music Sensation Moby
**5 Years in Review: The Stories You Adored
**Books and Cookbooks that Rocked the Veg World
**The Original Vegan Weddings
**Finger Lickin' Summer Barbeque
**Succulent Strawberry Shortcake
**Book Review: Jonathan Safran Foer's Veg Characters
**Plus... All the usual goodies: the latest vegetarian news, must-read books, the hottest new veg products, celebrity buzz, and so much more.
The magazine is now available on newsstands everywhere. Single copies of this special issue are available from our website. It's a keeper!
Click here to purchase the Anniversary Edition now
It's that time again to vote for your favorite vegetarian products, people, and places in the fourth annual Veggie Awards. Each year, in the November/December holiday edition of VegNews Magazine, we publish the best of the best as voted by our readers. It's the largest survey of its kind in the world and features over sixty categories, from Best Vegetarian Restaurant to Best Vegetarian Vacation Destination. As always, all ballots are entered into a Grand Prize Drawing with a chance to win these great prizes:
GRAND PRIZE: An all-expense paid six-day/five-night cruise aboard the Wanderbird Cruiseliner off the coast of Maine. Breathtaking scenery and delicious vegan fare await you. (one winner)
SECOND PRIZE: A $100 gift certificate to Vegan Unlimited, one of the top online vegan shops. (two winners)
THIRD PRIZE: A delicious gourmet vegan cookie basket from Sun Flour Baking Company. (five winners)
Hurry and vote today! The polls close on September 1.
Click here to vote in the 2005 Veggie Awards
Naturally Slimmer
A new study of more than 55,000 Swedish women shows that vegetarian women have more svelte figures than their meat-eating sisters. While vegetarians wind up with half the chance of being overweight or obese as carnivores, vegans take the cake with two thirds less of a chance. Go veg—your inner femme will thank you.
Trawlers Banned from West Coast
The US government has imposed a trawling ban on the West Coast. This will shelter roughly 300,000 square miles of vital ecosystems, hence safeguarding the continued biodiversity of the coast. Trawling involves dragging heavy nets across the ocean floor to catch bottom-dwellers. The ban will protect reefs, coral, kelp, and fish that lay low. Environmentalists are hailing this piece of legislation as a huge victory for the fishes and deep blue seas.
Summerfest Honors Dr. Richard Schwartz
At the 31st Summerfest Conference at the University of Pittsburgh in Johnstown this June, the North American Vegetarian Society inducted Dr. Richard H. Schwartz into its Hall of Fame. His work in the Jewish community includes his writing for jewishveg.com. He has also authored three books, "Judaism and Vegetarianism," "Judaism and Global Survival," and "Mathematics and Global Survival" and is a regular contributor to VegNews Magazine.
Learn more about Summerfest at vegetariansummerfest.org. If you haven't made it to this conference, you may want to consider checking it out. With amazing speakers and over-the-top vegan buffets set to the backdrop of secluded Appalacian terrain, NAVS offers the best summer camp for grown-ups around.
2005 Animal Rights Conference
On July 7-11, Los Angeles lived up to its name as the City of Angels when compassionate and concerned individuals from across the country met for the 2005 National Animal Rights Conference at the posh Westin LAX Hotel. Persia White acted as emcee of the awards banquet, where Wendy Malick, Gretchen Wyler and Casey Kasem received top honors. Renowned activist Ben White (see next VegNewsletter item) was honored as well, though he could not attend due to his struggle with cancer. Notable speakers included Paul Watson and Howard Lyman. To learn more about this fabulous conference, visit arnconference.org
Ben has taken on Japanese fishers, Canadian seal clubbers, the World Trade Organization, and countless other adversaries. Now, Woodstock era activist Ben White faces his most formidable battle yet in the form of advanced stomach cancer. Doctors are claiming he may only live a few more months.
White began his career in activism at the age of sixteen when he infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan, and has remained fearless since. He worked for the Animal Welfare Institute, founded in 1951, to liberate dolphins from hunters, often cutting the nets himself. In 1999 he organized a protest in which 250 demonstrators marched through Seattle—all in turtle suits. This event spurred worldwide attention to the plight of sea turtles. Now faced with staggering medical bills, he has become the subject of the Ben White Medical Relief Fund. In true form, this brave soul told reporter M.L. Lyke of the Seattle Post-Intellegiencer, "I have a lot of curiosity about what happens with death—what happens when you turn that corner."
Click here to donate to the Ben White Medical Relief Fund.
The Humane Society of the United States has begun an aggressive campaign encouraging Trader Joe's to discontinue the sale of eggs from caged hens. Trader Joe's, like natural food markets Whole Foods and Wild Oats, shares a desire to sell wholesome, organic products. But unlike its competitors, Trader Joe's, still sells eggs from hens confined in battery cages so small they can't even spread their wings. In the past, Trader Joe's has shown concern for customers who want farm animals to be treated more humanely, but to date the chain refuses to stop selling eggs from caged hens. Hopefully this campaign will bring that practice to an end.
Let Trader Joe's Know What You Think!
To be an ethical V means to strip your life clean of all those products and practices that exploit animals, be them chickens or chimps, beagles or bovines. You wouldn't believe how many household names still animal test. The good news is that in a society ruled by money, you can perform minor acts of activism just by choosing not to include certain products in your shopping cart. Even if a product is vegan, that doesn't mean it hasn't propogated animal abuse in some form or another. Do you think this practice is wrong and archaic? Then avoid giving these companies your dollars whenever you can. And if you're feeling particularly ambitious, contact them asking that they cut the cruelty.
Companies that test on animals include:
Arm & Hammer (Church & Dwight)
Bic Corporation
Braun
Chesebrough-Ponds (Faberge, Ponds, Vaseline)
Church & Dwight (Aim, Arm & Hammer, Arrid, Brillo, Close-up, Mentadent)
Clairol
Clorox
Gillete Co. (Braun, Duracell)
Helene Curtis Industries (Finesse, Salon Selectives, Thermasilk)
Johnson & Johns (Aveeno, Clean & Clear, Neutrogena)
L'Oreal U.S.A.
Olay Co./Oil of Olay
Pfizer (BenGay, Listerine, Visine)
Procter & Gamble Co. (Clairol, Cover Girl, Crest, Girogio, Iams, Max
Factor, Tide)
Salley Hansen
S.C. Johnson (Drano, Glade, OFF!, Pledge, Shout, Windex, Ziploc)
3M (Post-It, Scotch)
Unilever (Axe, Calvin Klein, Dove, Helene Curtis, Lever Bros., Sauve)
The National Anti-Vivisection Society provides a wonderful service in which you can simply type in a product, and it will let you know whether its makers do the deed. Link directly to that service at NAVS.org.
Don't let the heat get the best of you this summer. Cool down with Natural Choice Sorbet, the perfect vegan treat on a sweltering July afternoon. Its smooth texture and rich flavor make it a real treat. And better yet, it's the only USDA certified organic sorbet on the market. When you bite into the heavenly mango flavor you feel like you're spooning into a chilled, creamy mango fruit. Other flavors include raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, banana, lemon, and strawberry-kiwi. You may also want to check out their fruit bars if you like your dessert on a stick. For those serving a fancy dinner, this sorbet acts as an ideal palette cleanser. Or enjoy it straight out of the carton. We won't tell!
Find Natural Choice Sorbet at Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and other select natural foods stores nationwide.
Click here to check out Natural Choice
By VegNews Food Writer Patti Breitman
Serves 4-6
When it's too hot to cook, here is a surprising and delicious gazpacho that uses no tomatoes and the season's best fresh produce. Happy picnics!
4 large cucumbers, peeled and seeds removed, chopped into large pieces
2 ripe avocados, halved, pitted, and scooped out
3 medium garlic cloves
2 medium green bell peppers, seeds and ribs removed, chopped in large
pieces
4 green onions, chopped in large pieces
2 cups water
Juice of one-and-a-half lemons
1/3 small bunch of cilantro, cleaned
Freshly ground black pepper, a pinch of cayenne pepper, and paprika
Set aside a few sprigs of the cilantro for garnish. Place the cucumber, avocado, garlic, peppers and onions in a food processor. Blend until creamy, adding water a little at a time to desired consistency. Add lemon juice, cilantro, salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Serve with paprika sprinkled on top and cilantro for garnish. If using a blender rather than a food processor, add the cucumbers slowly at first, blending as you go, so there's a liquid base for the other ingredients.
What do Elvis Costello, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, and Lynyrd Skynyrd have in common? No, they aren't all vegan, though the first two make the cut. They have, however, all opted to support the United Nations Association's Adopt-A-Minefield® Campaign, which focuses on cleaning up minefields in Afghanistan. Vegan post-punk rocker Elvis Costello has donated VIP concert tix and face-time with winners of an auction on Charity Folks. You can bid on those through the end of July, and tune into The Late Show with David Letterman on July 21st to see the legend jam with Emmylou Harris.
Surf the Charity Folks Auction by clicking here
Did you know that throughout history, jewels have been mined at a huge cost to ecology and human rights? Whether you're looking to tie the knot or just indulge, Green Karat opposes mined jewels for their ecologically destructive properties and offers instead equivalent synthetics. In addition the company sells recycled gold that has already been mined, and it engages in fair trade practices. What better way to make that commitment than through a company that believes in sustaining the planet? This jewelry is gorgeous, inside and out.
Learn more about Green Karat now
You won't want to miss the August edition of the VegNewsletter. We'll have loads of great veggie tidbits and information to arrive in e-mailboxes everywhere in August.
Please help us get the word out. We'd be most grateful if you could share this edition of the VegNewsletter with your friends, family, colleagues and any related lists you're on. If this issue was forwarded to you, please visit our home page at vegnews.com to begin receiving your own copy each month. Past editions are available for your enjoyment by clicking on "See our past VegNewsletters" on the home page.
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