Veganware shout-outs

One easy way to promote veganism is just to wear something that says "vegan" or makes people think about their food/clothing/entertainment choices and how they relate to animal suffering. T-shirts are great and can be seen from a pretty far distance, but when I want to be a little fancier (or warmer!) necklaces work well too...

Which is why I love Christy Robinson's earth- and animal-friendly jewelry! And I love my Dad for getting me one of her awesome necklaces shown below! And I love Vegan Cuts, which gave me the opportunity to buy another one of her hand-stamped creations at a discounted price! With Vegan Cuts you can subscribe to weekly deals on a wide range of vegan products.

"VEGAN" necklace from my Dad

Image from Christy Robinson Designs

People will notice when you wear something about veganism, and you may even be the first person they've met or seen who is vegan! Just getting the word out there helps churn people's thoughts about their consumption of animal products. The other day I was at the grocery store and the grocier/clerk/scanner guy? read "Peace, Love, Vegan" off my shirt and started talking about a vegan restaurant he knew in CA. Almost every day we see people we don't know (and they see us!), so be a walking advertisement for the animals!

Bees have moods

In an earlier post, I said that I wasn't convinced about the ethical issues with honey. This study has shown that bees appear to have moods, and are more pessimistic / have different behaviors when they're put in a bad mood. Since honey is fairly easily avoidable, I'll make an effort to do so and give the bees the benefit of the doubt.

Avoiding mass-produced veggie farms which use insects for pollination is a trickier issue, and one I'm not ready to tackle, but I admire those who can sustainably and enjoyably grow their own food and allow free insects to do the pollinating.

Fairtrade Chocolate

Sometime around Vegan Fest I heard someone mention buying fair trade cocoa powder for baking, which got me thinking that I need to start buying fair trade chocolate. I know it's an issue with coffee, and luckily for coffee-drinkers it seems fair trade coffee is pretty easy to find in grocery stores and coffee shops. I have yet to see a coffee shop or bakery label their chocolate baked goods as fair trade - let me know if you've seen this! I did find fair trade cocoa powder, semi sweet chips, and chocolate bars at my local co-op, though.

SIDE NOTE: I always thought coffee and chocolate were from the same plant, but I just looked it up and coffee is from coffea, chocolate is from cocoa or cacao, (and cocaine is from coca). I think I read about about all three in this book about mind-active drugs but apparently the information didn't stick with me.

Back to fair trade chocolate. Wow, it is expensive! A bag of semi sweet chocolate chips was almost $6 and when I compared it to my non-fair trade stuff in the cupboard, it's an even smaller bag! 9 oz. for $5.79 compared to 12 oz for $3.29 or so. I will stick by it though, now that I've learned that, like coffee, cocoa beans are often harvested by slave workers, and I don't want to have any part in supporting that. Please join me in buying expensive organic fair trade chocolate! As the quantity demanded goes up, the price will go down!