Animal Trapping in Dane County Parks

Dane County Parks Resolution 17, 12-13 is regarding the acceptance of Stewardship Grant money for reimbursement of several Dane County parks. The way the resolution is written, if Dane County accepted this money, they would also need to allow hunting and trapping in the parks.

Here is the video of the part of the meeting on May 7, 2012 which discussed this issue.

Trip Review: Vegan Safari to Tanzania

by Ben and Gina

Because finding food on vacation is always a pain, we looked for a specifically vegan travel company. We ended up choosing Your Time Travels for a wildlife safari to Tanzania, and it was a great experience.

Liz, our contact at YTT, sent us weekly emails before the trip letting us know what to expect, how much to tip, and she even left a bottle of wine in our hotel room the first night (which we were way too jet lagged to drink at the time). We felt very prepared and didn't forget to pack a single thing (how often does that happen!?). Our trip was all pre-paid; the only thing we had to pay for were tips, and this made the trip a lot less stressful, I think, than if we had tried to plan it ourselves.

The trip was just the two of us with our guide, which seemed to be standard (based on the other tour groups we saw). Due to safety concerns you will spend most of your time inside a jeep, but they have full sunroofs which you can look out of for easy viewing and better pictures. Our guide taught us a few Swahili words along the way, was very knowledgeable about the different national parks and species in them, and a pleasant person to spend the week with.

We saw a phenomenal number of animals - even driving along the highway (or rather: what counts as a highway in Tanzania) we would see giraffes and elephants in the distance. Inside a park, we never went more than a couple minutes without seeing wildlife. Our guide knew all the names of the different species of gazelle and birds and where to look for the hard-to-spot creatures.
Now, on to the important stuff: food. A lot of the local food is vegetarian (due to poverty) and every lodge we stayed at had vegetarian food on the buffet (all food was served buffet style). The major food crop of Tanzania is bananas, which is a food I would never make the center of my meals, but it turns out that fried green bananas taste quite similar to fried potatoes, and bananas aren't half bad in a curry. Of course, if you stay at a nice lodge it will probably have a lot of American/European type food as well (including Champagne for breakfast, which I had never heard of but is apparently all the rage).

Like everywhere, vegan food is harder to find than vegetarian. (You can't eat anything that's been washed in the water, so the worst-case-scenario-fall-back of salads is out.) Our guide was great in ensuring that we had good food for lunch, but we were on our own for dinner and breakfast. We just asked waiters/chefs which foods were vegan and they were very nice in figuring it out (there was always a vegan option), but it would have been nice if things on the buffet were marked vegan. (Your Time Travels is working on arranging that with the lodges they use, so by the time you read this the problem may have been fixed.) For lunch, our guide made us a delicious fresh fruit and vegetable salad each day, after washing the fruit with bottled water, and we also had food packed up from the lodge that morning.

The lodges that we stayed at were no worse than a nice hotel in America: shower soaps, flushing toilets, great views. Our guide told us that there are lodges that are less expensive, but we guessed that Your Time Travels only books with certain lodges that they know can provide vegan food and excellent service, so if you're looking to stay in a vegan-friendly hostel (or equivalent) in Tanzania, it probably doesn't exist.

A plane ticket is about $1,400 round trip (protip: buy about nine weeks before you leave) and Liz told us that it's hard to spend less than about $200/day/person (and quite easy to spend more) so you should expect to spend a few thousand dollars for a week-long trip (it seemed like ~10 days was the standard, but we were fine spending only 7).

All in all, I think it was a worthwhile trip. Rhinos are near extinction, and if we had gone even a few years later we probably wouldn't have seen one (even today, seeing a rhino is unusual). It is phenomenal just how close you can get to a lion, and pictures don't do justice to the sheer number of zebras and wildebeest migrating across the Serengetti. And vervets are just so cute when they play.

Hidden Factory Farming Cruelties and Ag Gag Laws

Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies

Chocolate Fudgy Oatmeal Cookies

from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz & Terry Hope Romero

Ingredients:

2 cups quick-cooking oats (I used regular rolled oats)

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup cocoa powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tablespoons ground flax seeds

2/3 cup nondairy milk

2/3 canola oil

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

3/4 cup chocolate chips

1 cup dried cherries, chopped, or raisins (optional, I didn’t)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a medium-size bowl, stir together oats, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.  Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, beat together sugar, flax seeds, and nondairy milk until smooth.  Add the oil and the vanilla and almond extracts and beat until well mixed.  Fold in half of the flour mixture to moisten, then fold in the remaining half.  Just before the mixture is completely combined, fold in the chocolate chips and dried cherries or raisins, if desired.
4. For each cookie drop 2 generous tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches of space between each cookie.  If desired, flatten slightly with moistened fingers or the moistened back of a measuring cup.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until cookies are firm and risen.  Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to complete cooling.  Store in a tightly covered container.

Animal Research Ethics Forum Series 2012

The University of Wisconsin - Madison has hosted 2 more animal research ethics forum series talks this year so far. Below are the recordings of the talks and my notes. I've previously shared the 2011 series.


Feb. 3, 2012 - Frans de Waal presented "Prosocial Primates: Empathy in Animals and Humans" (my notes)


Apr. 12, 2012 - David Abbott presented "Polycystic Ovary Syndrome" (my notes)

Tahini Miso Potato Soup

This soup also has another key ingredient: spinach. I think any green could be substituted in here pretty easily.

At the end of the recipe it says to blend it up with an immersion blender, but I think next time I would leave it a little more chunky. It was prettier before I blended it all the way, when I could see some pieces of red onion.

My dad said this recipe is the best potato soup he's ever had!

Tahini Miso Potato Soup

from 500 Vegan Recipes by Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman

1 T. extra virgin olive oil

6 sweet potatoes, peeled, washed, and cut into large chunks

4 baby potatoes, scrubbed and cut into large chunks

2 cloves garlic, grated

1 t. packed grated gingerroot

¾ cup chopped red onion

2 T. lemon juice

¼ cup tahini

2 T. tamari

¼ cup nutritional yeast

¼ t. cayenne pepper, to taste

3 ½ cups water, divided

3 T. white miso

2 cups frozen spinach

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add the potatoes, garlic, ginger, and onion.  Cook for 5 minutes, stirring often. 

In a large measuring cup, whisk together the lemon juice, tahini, tamari, nutritional yeast, cayenne pepper, and 2 ½ cups of the water.

Add to the vegetables, and bring to a boil. Cover with a lid and let simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. The potatoes should be tender but still firm. 

Whisk together the remaining 1 cup water and the miso. Add to the saucepan along with the spinach, stirring well.  Do not bring back to a boil, or the miso will lose its healthy properties.  Let simmer for another 5 to 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are to your liking and the soup is heated through.

Using an immersion or a countertop blender, puree until smooth. You can also leave some chunkiness to it by removing some of the soup and only partially blending it.

Notes:  I substituted regular potatoes for the sweet potatoes and it tasted fine. Also a potato masher works well if you prefer the soup have a little texture but no big chunks of potatoes.

My dad is vegetarian!

Today I got great news: My dad has been vegetarian for over a month now!