An Ex-Student’s Perspective May 12, 2009

I decided to carry the Babycakes cookbook, since so many people out there, vegan or not, have gluten or sugar sensitivities (full disclosure: my best friend falls into both camps). To get the book at wholesale cost, I had to order so many books total from the publisher, so I decided to try out a couple of other titles. (The carton just arrived – I can’t wait to try out the pumpkin spice muffins!)

One of those titles is a vegan cookbook geared toward students.

I went vegetarian halfway through my freshman year of college, then vegan during my final year. When perusing the publisher’s catalog, I reasoned that having a cookbook that considered the limited resources of a busy student would have come in handy, and perhaps it would be helpful for some of my college-age customers as well. A quick perusal of online reviews didn’t turn up any serious caveats, and the reviews were positive.

However, having now perused the actual book, there is a caveat. And it’s a big one.

Most students are lucky enough to have apartments, rent rooms in someone’s home, live with family and commute to college, or have shared kitchens in the dorms.

However, many students don’t have a proper kitchen at all (or, at best, have spotty access to one that isn’t well-equipped, let alone well-maintained). What, exactly, can they do with a book that requires an oven or stove top for almost every recipe?

The book would have been useful during my first two years of school, since I had unlimited access to my parents’ kitchen. (It wasn’t the most well-stocked kitchen – the baking powder was older than I was, and I think my parents still own maybe six jars of spices, tops – but it was something.) I didn’t know how to cook at all when I went veggie, but I began to slowly pick up a recipe here, a technique there. I was doing fine.

The second two years are another story entirely.

I transferred into a design school that was too far away for me to commute. Renting an apartment would have cost more than living on campus, and I’d have to battle for parking in the commuter parking lot every morning. Kitchen facilities were not available to students, and a quick perusal of the student handbook indicated that cooking devices of any kind were not allowed. Not wanting to experience any unpleasant surprises, I asked the admissions counselor if vegetarian food was available in the cafeteria.  “Oh, of course,” she reassured me. I shouldn’t have believed her, but what did I know?

For my entire first term, I pretty much lived on French fries (which, fortunately, contained no icky animal products), and LOST seven pounds, believe it or not. I could mock up a good meal out of a large baked potato and some fresh veggies from the salad bar, quickly zapped in the microwave and drizzled with a mix of olive oil, salt, and pepper, but more often than not, the salad-bar veggies were well past their prime, and sometimes, all of the baked potatoes were bad. Call me crazy, but I think slimy carrots and bad potatoes should be composted, not left in the same tray under a sneeze shield for three weeks.

By the end of my first year, I and several other students had successfully lobbied the head of the food services department for decent veggie food, not just mushy overcooked pasta, far-from-fresh produce, and “vegetarian” baked or refried beans that smelled suspiciously like bacon. Since no one else would do it, I assumed the role of student liaison with the department.

For a while, it went well. The nice lady who oversaw the rest of the staff was always willing to listen to suggestions (mine and others’), and since I was also an RA, the other students knew who I was and felt comfortable coming to me with any concerns. Finally, decent balanced vegetarian meals began to appear. Case in point: when I mentioned that the staff always overcooked the veggie burgers (making them so dry and hard they were very difficult to bite into) and usually forgot to put out buns (unless they were making hamburgers for the omnivores at the same meal), the overcooking stopped, and just like magic, we got our buns. Then, one day when some ill-bred omnivore spilled ground beef on all of the veggie burgers (what the hell is wrong with some people?), I brought it up, and after that, all the vegetarian dishes were moved to one end of the steam table to prevent future cross-contamination. Nice.

Then, that nice lady unexpectedly went on medical leave, and we were pretty much back to Square One. The rest of the staff didn’t care about students with special needs (they also refused to accommodate hypoglycemics and brittle diabetics), and just like that, promised dishes began to appear only sporadically. God only knows how often they cross-contaminated things before putting them out, but several of us got food poisoning on a regular basis.

The worst was the cheese overkill. On one occasion, there were FIVE cheese-loaded dishes served in two days! I loved cheese back then, but come ON. No one should ever ingest that much. I still wonder if they were trying to give us all heart attacks.

Of course, that year I figured out dairy products were making me sick, and sure enough, I’d developed an allergy to them. I’d planned to go vegan after graduating and moving out, since I wasn’t allowed any appliances other than a mini-fridge, but I knew I couldn’t put it off any longer – and I was incredibly relieved.

Sure, I could have moved off campus and learned to do some serious cooking in my own kitchen, but I would have had to give up my job as an RA. Most of the other RAs didn’t take their jobs seriously, so I routinely found myself counseling students who didn’t live on my floor. If I left, who would help them?

Cooking appliances were not allowed in the dorms for good reason – they shorted out the electricity. (Every time there was a blackout on any given floor, there was always a microwave, blender, toaster, or rice cooker at the heart of it. The wiring was VERY old.) But, I had my tiny fridge, and there was a communal microwave in the TV room (which had newer wiring). I had a total Scarlett O’Hara moment (“As God is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!”) in the produce aisle of the nearest grocery store.

Of course, I was limited to things I could prepare in the microwave – and I had to prepare them quickly, since it was shared with about 300 other girls! My staples: jarred spaghetti sauce, potatoes, broccoli, spinach, baby carrots, dried and fresh fruit, canned soup, instant rice, canned beans, packaged baked tofu, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Not as much variety as I would have liked (keep in mind I could barely cook at all), but I managed to do it for an entire calendar year – and I stopped getting sick, too.

Of the 135 or so recipes in the book, I would only have been able to prepare about 30 of them – and nearly all of those are spreads, dressings, or dips, not entrees. Given the number of students who are lucky to even have a microwave, one would think that a student’s cookbook would be sensitive to the fact that not all of them have access to a stove, oven, or so much as a hot plate.

Oh well, I only ordered five copies…someone will buy them.

BTW, can I just say how tired I am of a select few students whining about the veg*n options in their school or college cafeterias not being good enough? If the omnivores are getting chicken ‘a la king while the plant-eaters are expected to make do with raw tofu and salad composed primarily of rusty iceberg lettuce, a complaint is perfectly justified, but I’ve heard more than a few vegan students groan about insignificant things like the marinara sauce having too much oregano in it. Come ON.

While the importance of having good vegan food readily available for omnivores to try must not be underestimated, it is also of extreme importance to be gracious, polite, and – above all else – grateful. You don’t want the staff to roll their eyes and make comments on how rude and picky veg*ns are, and you don’t want them to spit in your food, either. When cooking food in bulk, cafeterias do sometimes have to cut a few corners, so cafeteria food isn’t likely to be restaurant quality. Frankly, if you’re getting good, healthy, balanced vegan meals that don’t taste too much like cardboard, you are very lucky, and should be grateful for it.

If, however, you are getting unhealthy meals or food that tastes awful, make it easy on the staff and on yourself: meet with the the kitchen manager and give him/her a cookbook. Not a complicated one like the Millennium cookbook (which is wonderful, but not well suited to cooking in volume on a budget) – a basic one like Veganomicon. It’ll get your point across.

Post-Parade Musings April 28, 2009

Now that I’ve had a chance to catch up afterward, I have to say, the LA Veggie Pride Parade on Sunday was a GREAT event.

I’ve commented before on some of the PR issues veg*nism gets – mainly the widespread belief that we’re sickly, whiny, boring, no fun at all, and don’t get to eat anything good. The VP Parade was proof that the opposite is true. It was fun, it was a healthy outdoor activity, lots of cute costumes were involved, and good food was readily available (C’est La V’s chocolate crinkle cookies are AWESOME). Definitely my kind of day.

I did hear a few people commenting on my skin tone, probably because I was easily one of the fairest people there. I’d just like to make one thing perfectly clear: I am NOT sickly. My skin color is NOT the result of a health problem, it is an entirely genetic matter. While my facial features are clear indicators of my French heritage, the rest of my DNA comes from England, Ireland, and Denmark – all countries that receive limited sunlight. I don’t tan naturally (given the skin cancer risks, I wouldn’t want to anyway), and I refuse to waste money on a tanning salon. I like myself the way I am.

LA people – yes, we do want to move the store to LA. BUT, we have this little thing called a lease agreement, so we have to stay in Orange County for now. When the lease is closer to ending, we’ll have a look at spaces in LA. In the meantime, please be patient…driving to Costa Mesa still beats driving to San Diego, and we’re in a center with ample free parking too.

I will definitely be looking forward to the parade next year – and I hope to see more of you there, too. Stop by the booth and say hi!

Real Vegans Boycott Payless: Open Letter to _______ Magazine* April 21, 2009

Dear _______:

Way back on December 30, I contacted you to express my disappointment about your decision to not only include Payless in a list of vegan-friendly apparel retailers, but to place the company at the top of the list as well. You have yet to acknowledge my letter, let alone respond.

Payless is NOT an appropriate choice for anyone with ethical or environmental concerns (moreover, in the future it won’t be an option for anyone who shuns leather either). They commit design theft left and right. They are a longtime user of sweatshops. The crappy vinyl they use for shoe uppers is highly unlikely to biodegrade at all (quality faux leathers can be 30-100% biodegradable). Their goods require frequent replacement due to their low quality, which generates much more waste (and uses more energy) than buying good-quality faux-leather shoes, which can last for years with proper care.

Earlier in the very same issue, you ran an article about labor practices in the food industry [title deleted].  While I applaud you for drawing attention to the importance of fair-trade agriculture, I must protest the inherent hypocrisy in supporting Payless. You don’t approve of the cocoa industry exploiting African children, yet you won’t extend the same compassion to factory workers, the majority of them teenage girls, in Southeast Asia (many of whom are beaten or groped by supervisors, denied restroom breaks, housed in overcrowded firetrap dorms, fined for everything under the sun, fed amphetamines to stay awake for forced overtime shifts, and paid so little they are lucky if they can afford two meager meals per day).

Being vegan is about reducing suffering. Sweatshop labor is inherently not vegan. Your list should have been composed entirely of ethical companies. I myself have offered to cover the fashion beat for you in the past, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but I could have come up with a far better list of leather-free shoe companies. If a mere shopkeeper (with a fashion background and a few published articles under her belt) isn’t good enough to write for _______, fine, but at least assign fashion-related articles to writers who are actually knowledgeable about truly vegan fashion.

Incidentally, cheap shoes do not offer sufficient support or air circulation. Cheap shoes are the high-fructose corn syrup of the footwear trade – they seem like a good idea to uninformed consumers at first, but only later do they realize their unhealthy mistake.

If you are going to present yourselves as an ethical veg*n publication, you must be 100 percent consistent! Mistakes like this are precisely the sort of thing that causes omnivores to write off herbivores as animal lovers who hate people. While I will openly admit to cracking the occasional joke about people being no damn good, I would never knowingly support such a cruel and immoral industry. Furthermore, I certainly don’t want to be lumped in with people who call themselves veg*n but don’t give a damn whose rights they spit upon in the pursuit of a well-stocked closet.

I’ve spent the past three years trying to convince certain apathetic self-proclaimed veg*ns why they should care about sweatshop labor, and in one fell swoop you unraveled my work by telling my target market Payless was “okay” (which it quite clearly is not). I am not going to ask you for compensation or anything like that (I’m the Vegan Shoe Lady, you know). I just want you to tell your readers you made a mistake.

Sincerely,

The Vegan Shoe Lady

P.S. Dear Readers – here’s the original letter:

Dear Editor,

Words cannot describe how shocked I was to see Payless topping the list in your [title deleted] sidebar from the January/February 2009 issue. Payless may offer some wares that contain no leather, but they are not an appropriate choice for anyone with environmental, ethical, or animal-rights concerns.

Payless shoes are extremely cheap because they are made with extremely cheap materials and are assembled as cheaply as possible. The company is well-known for using sweatshop labor. It’s true that they pulled out of one abusive factory several years ago (following an investigation by Chinese labor officials), but it is highly unlikely that Payless will ever really pay its factory workers a living wage. Having a basic understanding of apparel manufacturing, I can tell you that it is, in fact, fiscally impossible to fairly compensate workers and still profitably produce a shoe that will retail for $20. Being vegan is supposed to be about reducing, and hopefully eliminating, suffering. Given that you ran an article addressing labor issues in the food industry [title deleted] earlier in this very issue, I find the mention of Payless incredibly inappropriate.

Because Payless’ shoes are haphazardly assembled from cheap materials, their level of quality is hardly ideal, and they require much more frequent replacement than a higher-quality vegan shoe. The cheap plastics they use aren’t going to biodegrade anytime soon, and when cheap shoes wear out, they take up landfill space. Frequently-replaced shoes take up a LOT more landfill space than a well-made pair that will last for years.

Incidentally, “cheap” shoes aren’t always so good for your wallet. (Not too long ago, in my blog, I compared and contrasted two people; one wearing only cheap shoes, one wearing only good ones. Because cheap shoes wear out so quickly, the person who wore only cheap shoes wound up paying more than twice as much over a 10-year period.) Also, cheap vinyl shoes lack proper structure and do not breathe. I personally would prefer that the veg*n community NOT be known for stress fractures and sweaty, malodorous feet.

Please, _______, help your readers to do the right thing. Why not encourage them to support ethical companies, preferably run by people who truly understand what “vegan” means?

Sincerely,

The Vegan Shoe Lady

P.P.S. I wish Laura Little had photographed me for the store’s early press coverage.

*Name (and article titles) omitted, but it’s not hard to figure out.

It’s About Freaking Time… April 3, 2009

…that we herbivores started seeing more veg*n TV and film characters who aren’t walking stereotypes. I hate stereotypical characters – it doesn’t help the animal-friendly movement to have a vegetarian character on a sitcom if he or she is the sort of person other people fear becoming (i.e. whiny, sickly, boring…). In a world where fiction (TV, film, Second Life, etc.) dominates culture, more and more people are becoming horribly lazy about sorting it from fact.

(Side note: A few veg*ns feel Lisa Simpson is a little too straight-laced and self-righteous, but it’s important to remember that Lisa isn’t just The Simpsons’ most well-known vegetarian character. She’s also the show’s voice of morality, quite possibly its smartest character, an excellent student, and a gifted musician. If it’s wrong to wish for a little of Lisa in all of us, I don’t want to be right.)

With Ugly Betty on a brief hiatus, my Thursday nights are currently ruled by Bones. I was a little hesitant to watch last night’s episode, since I knew it would take place in a zoo, but I couldn’t resist tuning in because I knew the show would be introducing a vegan character. The wording of the TV Guide spoiler led me to suspect the character would be new – someone never before seen on the show. Some fans were even speculating that the vegan character might be Michelle Welton (daughter of last night’s victim) or recent intern Arastoo Vaziri.

Instead, the writers gave us a little surprise, and I applaud them for it.

In the first five minutes of last night’s episode, we find out recurring character Dr. Clark Edison is the mystery vegan. I certainly wasn’t expecting that! Clark is my kind of vegan character – highly intelligent, hard-working, articulate, occasionally witty, and clean-cut. Sure, the writers took an existing character and added veganism to the mix, but so what? The importance of likable fictional vegetarians and vegans should not be underestimated where veg*n PR is concerned. Characters like Clark (who is fairly popular with viewers) serve as fictional ambassadors for ethical living, indirectly telling viewers from Seattle to Spain that being vegan doesn’t have to mean being a cranky anarchist, an unwashed hippie, or that scrawny guy from the accounting department who grumbles loudly about the odor from a coworker’s meatball sandwich. (No offense meant to veg*ns who fit the above descriptions, of course. Lots of us have been there at least once.) Going vegan doesn’t mean overhauling one’s entire personality – it means becoming a more ethical and conscious person. But, omnivores generally need to see it to believe it, and many of them rarely (or never) meet herbivores in real life.

Honesty compels me to admit my favorite intern is still adorably fact-obsessed English nerd Vincent Nigel-Murray*, but I will certainly look forward to Clark’s future appearances.

BTW, if you would love to see more tree huggers and plant eaters portrayed positively on film, check out Green Light Flix.

*I may be a little biased here, since I’m romantically involved with a brainy Brit and have a head full of random facts. Would it interest anyone to know that vegetarian rock goddess Joan Jett wears latex on stage, not leather as many fans assume?

Vegans from Another Planet! Part 3 December 2, 2008

Stop saying the “P” word.

I’m not kidding. Stop it right now! Ban it from your vocabulary, at least in reference to apparel, unless it is preceded by the word “recycled.” It’s derogatory and often misleading.

So many clueless, arrogant nonvegans snottily deride vegan apparel as “plastic.” Which makes me want to give them the lecture of their lives, since it’s not only incredibly rude to say such a thing but often completely inaccurate.

It’s true that SOME vegan shoes, bags, etc. contain plastics. NOT ALL OF THEM DO. The better-quality faux leathers, aka the ones that are worth the investment, are generally carbon-based. Some are even biodegradable. When someone incorrectly refers to your shoes as “plastic”, don’t you dare let it go. Correct them immediately and don’t let them do it again, or they’ll never stop saying it. (If it’s a co-worker who is prone to other bad behavior, keep a log and complain to HR.)

I’m sometimes asked what the exact makeup of a given material is. Good luck getting ANYONE to disclose that! The fashion tribe, including textiles manufacturers, guards secrets and such with extreme jealousy. You are only slightly more likely to get a textile company to freely disclose the exact formula for a given man-made material than you are to obtain the recipe for Coca Cola. I can’t even get precise answers to certain questions and I’m in the trade! But, all I really need to know is how a material performs and whether it lasts long enough to be a good investment.

I am, of course, all in favor of making apparel out of recycled plastics. I still have that soda-bottle fleece shirt from 1995, though I don’t often need it.

(Blind item: what clueless, arrogant non-vegan writer snarkily derided vegan apparel because his equally clueless wife once bought a cheapo vinyl purse that predictably fell apart? You can’t buy bottom-of-the-barrel crap and then snottily declare all vegan bags are just as bad. And can someone at the syndicate please tell me why he hasn’t yet been fired for deliberately spreading false information on top of being a dumbass?)

Vegans From Another Planet! Part 2 November 4, 2008

So many ignorant people think of vegans (and even vegetarians) as dull, humorless Puritans. Some extremely intolerant ones deride us as fascists (probably to detract attention from their own disturbingly intense need for conformity).

No way should we let someone else rain on our parade just because they don’t “get it” yet.

Most herbivores are compassionate people by nature. We find it impossible to overlook something that is wrong. Political mudslinging, Darfur, the war, the economy, our polluted planet, religious intolerance, human and animal abuse – it’s all awful. And many of us have dedicated our time, money, and votes (you DID remember to vote today if you are an eligible US citizen, right?) to reducing or eliminating such problems.

However, while it is extremely important to demand the positive changes the world needs, we must remember to take care of ourselves, too. Let yourself have fun!

In this article from 2003, Dan Mathews (senior VP of PETA and a Costa Mesa boy) mentioned that “People are surprised to find out I do shots of Jaegermeister, that I like having a good time. Just because you’re devoted to a cause doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve never burned out.” Love or hate PETA, the point still holds up, especially in a down economy and at a time when the end of the Bush era has emotionally drained so many people around the world.

I try to have a little fun whenever I can. I read the comics online every day, watch Ugly Betty and The Simpsons every week, play classical LPs at 78 RPM when I need a pick-me-up (it’s a gas), roller skate, make homemade vegan ice cream (I made a batch of vanilla-cinnamon for Halloween), check out Mutts books from the library (along with anything else that looks interesting), and dress up for any reason (or no reason at all). Running a business is stressful (and there are certain aspects of running an ethical business that can be very trying at times), but taking the time to enjoy my life keeps me from crashing and burning. A good animal advocate knows they are less effective if they are drained, too tired to maintain their inner fire, or just plain burned out.

It’s worth noting that in modern culture, everyone wants to emulate the people who they think are having the most fun – the young, rich, beautiful, well-connected, etc. Let’s show the world just how much fun life can be when you just happen to eat plants instead of animals.

By the way, please try not to be a thumping bore. That’s bad vegan PR, too. Bringing an animal-related issue into a conversation is fine (it’s always good to raise consciousness), but not talking about anything else may turn off a lot of people who would otherwise ask you for more information later. (Also, using humor and style is always appropriate.)

Vegans From Another Planet! Part 1 October 29, 2008

Everyone knows that celebrity blogger Perez Hilton, aka Mario Lavandeira, is funny as hell, but can be judgmental or just plain vicious.

I’ll never forget the day he posted some very unflattering pictures of Alicia Silverstone. Alicia had stepped out to pick up some takeout food, sporting sweats, a ponytail, and, unfortunately, some noticeable blemishes.

Clogged pores are somewhat inevitable for actors/models/musicians – hot stage lights, heavy makeup, sweating, stress, overbooked dermatologists, etc. are not especially conducive to perfect skin. Which is probably of little concern to Mr. Hilton, who ended the posting with a typical snotty comment along the lines of “if this is what veganism can do for you, remind me not to try it”.

I was sorely tempted to overload his email inbox with close-ups of my (crystal clear) complexion, but frankly, I have better things to do than track down a gossip hound’s email address. Besides, Alicia could have bad skin days for the rest of her life and still be awesome.

Veganism is more common now than ever before, but many omnivores still view us as creatures from another planet (Herbivore Magazine once did a tongue-in-cheek piece about space aliens called “Vegans” in old sci-fi literature). We’re often viewed as stinky hippies, foul-tempered anarchists, boring ascetics, fanatics, or freaks. While there are vegans who fall under one of those categories, most of us are not walking stereotypes and don’t exactly appreciate the association.

The solution to that problem is simple enough: we need to remember that we are not just vegans, but ambassadors for veganism. Like ambassadors to foreign countries, we must remember that we are under scrutiny when we are in the company of nonvegans.

I’ll be going into more detail on this in a series of future posts. For now, remember this: when veganism is more PR-friendly, more people will go vegan (or at least leave vegans alone).