Whether youre picking them up from abandoned trains or ordering them online, it seems that its raining vegan condoms in Australia.

While the mainstream media is busy being perplexed over how so many condom brands contain animal products, we thought wed share the good news with our Australian friends. Hero, purportedly the only vegan sex company available in major retailers across Australia, has just launched a selection of new products. The two types of condoms currently on offer are the natural and ultra thin variety.

As well as condoms, Hero has launched a vegan, aloe vera based, pH balanced, petrochemical & paraben free lubricant. With every bottle sold, Hero donates 12 condoms to Africa in an effort to help combat HIV/AIDS. The same goes for the sale of condoms too; currently over half a million free condoms have been sent over during Heros initial months.

While the news is only relevant to those in Australia, the company is currently in discussions with major retailers in the UK and China too. Dustin Leonard, founder of Hero, aims to have tapped into those markets by the end of 2017.

Read the original here:

Hero Launches New Vegan Condom Range - Ecorazzi

Just in time for Valentines Day, Bethlehems Vegan Treats made a national list of Top 10 Vegan Sweet Treats.

The Bethlehem bakery was recognized for its decadent Peanut Butter Bomb Cake.

The list comes from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which is the nations largest animal rights organization. Vegan desserts are made with no animals products such as eggs and dairy products.

PETA said it tested vegan desserts nationwide. Top of the list was Chocolate Nirvana, a chocolate cake with Kahlua butter cream and dark chocolate ganache by Sublime Restaurant & Bars in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Vegan Treats Peanut Butter Bomb Cake, which was listed second on PETAs list, is a signature dessert for the bakery. Its a chocolate bundt cake filled and topped with peanut butter mousse.

The Bethlehem bakery has long been a favorite for vegans, with celebrities such as actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musicians Fall Out Boy among its clientele. Its also popular among non-vegan sweet tooths as its desserts are decidedly decadent and delicious.

Vegan Treats also offers other sweet deliciousness including peanut butter cup cheesecake, carrot cake, doughnuts and cinnamon buns. The bakery also has a full array of gluten-free options.

Other vegan desserts named to PETAs list include: Vegan Cass Avenue Carrot Cake at Detroits Avalon International Breads; Coconut Cream Pie, a chocolate cream pie topped with a coconut whipped cream at Eden Bakery in Portland, Ore.; and cannoli from My Vegan Sweet Tooth in Virginia Beach.

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DETAILS

The peanut butter bomb cake at Vegan Treats, a popular vegan bakery in Bethlehem, was named to PETA's Top 10 Vegan Sweet Treats list. Vegan Treats is at 1444 Linden St., Bethlehem.

Info: http://vegantreats.com/

To see more of PETA's list: http://www.peta.org/features/top-vegan-desserts-2017/

Link:

Bethlehem's Vegan Treats named to PETA'S Top Sweet Treats list ... - Allentown Morning Call

When the cold weather is giving you the winter skin blues, nothing has the power to perk up your makeup look like blush. Despite its status as one of the first documented makeup products used in history, blush is often overlooked by the modern beauty in favor of bronzer. Blush is known by makeup artists as the secret to looking healthy, but many blushes are hiding an ugly secret that might make you feel sick.

This Might Bug You To give blush its rosy hue, a pigment made from crushed female cochineal insects is sometimes used. This bright red coloring is called Carmine, but might be disguised in the ingredient list with nicknames like Cochineal, Carminic Acid, Natural Red 4, or C.L 75470. In addition to this creepy crawly secret, some cosmetic companies use other animal-derived ingredients and test makeup products on animals, causing them to suffer in unimaginable ways. Thankfully, you can easily add blush to your makeup wardrobe without harming animals. There are dozens of cruelty-free and vegan blushes available, but weve hand-picked 5 favorites just for you!

Touted by beauty bloggers as a universally flattering blush thats gorgeous on any skin tone,Pacificas Blushious blush in Camellia provides a peachy-pink glow. Pacifica is a cruelty-free and vegan company that uses natural ingredients like coconut and rose in their affordable luxury cosmetics. At just $12, this blush is a steal and a total must-have.

Before blush was powdered and packaged, women used red fruits to color their cheeks. Cruelty-Free brand 100% Pure offers fruit pigmented vegan blushes that are suited for sensitive skin and available in a wide array of shades to suit any skin tone. The classic pink shade Cherry offers a satin finish and a flush of color in adorable packaging. At $35, this blush is less expensive than some better known luxury brands that favor cruelty over quality.

If your lifestyle is a little more active, you might prefer the ease of a blush that you can throw in your bag and apply without brushes.Tarte cheek stain comes in 6 vegan-friendly sheer shades that can be applied on the go and blended with fingers for that I just worked out look. Try the shade True Love, a sheer watermelon hue that looks like youre naturally blushing. Since not all shades are vegan, be sure to select one of the 6 shades that bear the Vegan Friendly stamp on the product photo.

While many blushes have a bit of shimmer, some prefer the natural look of a matte formula. Cruelty-free brand Modern Minerals offers a neutral shade called Love, a matte warm pink with mauve undertones that perfectly suits a minimal no makeup look. This vegan blush is ideal for those who arent comfortable with brighter hues, but want to give blush a try. At just $20, its a low risk option that adds just a little pink to your cheeks without taking much green from your wallet.

If you like pretty packaging and an equally lovely product, youll love Too Faced Long Lasting Blush. While the whole brand is Cruelty-free, only the shades How Deep is Your Love and Your Love is King are vegan so far. The first is described as a watermelon pink and the second is a plum toned rose; both of which would flatter both light and dark skin tones.

You dont need makeup to be pretty, but when you choose to use a cruelty-free and vegan blush, youre making life just a little more beautiful for the animals. To find out which cosmetic brands are cruelty-free, try our helpful database!

Read the original post:

Save Animals Beautifully With Vegan and Cruelty-Free Blushes - PETA (blog) (press release)

Calling animal-free food "plant-based" is simple and factual, but a bit bland, echoing the outmoded stereotype of vegan food as such. Instead, Rip Esselstyn, who was in Philly this week, works to spread the "plant-strong" message.

Unlike the neutral and somewhat ambiguous "based" (after all, cheese fries could be called plant-based, couldn't they?), "plant-strong" expresses a positive value judgment with oomph, and subtly implies its opposite, "animal[-based]-weak." Esselstyn calls animal foods "a dirty fuel." In speaking to fellow Austin firefighters at Engine 2, many of whom wound up cutting out meat and dairy, with measurable health gains.: "If you're eating animal foods, that's a dirty fuel, your engine is going to clog up."

This is more than a motor-based, er, motor-strong metaphor. Slowly, Americans (and Westerners more generally) are beginning to deal with the fact that a whole-foods plant-based diet is not just adequate, but a better diet to live on than the standard American meat-and-dairy meals. Esselstyn said cancer and many other common ailments are "all manifestations of eating weak, problematic, destructive food," while plants, on the other hand, "have 64 times the antioxidants of animal foods, there's over 25,000 phytonutrients, there's fiber to scrub out your system, to sweep away toxins," of which, by the way, animal fats are a rich source due to the phenomenon of bioaccumulation.

"Real men eat plants" was the slogan at Engine 2, though of course "real people of all kinds eat plants" is also true. But is vegan really, literally stronger? More, say, manly than otherwise? Well, vegan men have been found to have "significantly higher testosterone levels than both vegetarians and meateaters," so there's that. I'm not saying it will turn you into, say, Mr. Universe or, you know, the strongest man in the word... OR AM I?

Actually, those guys aren't alone; many weightlifters, bodybuilders and football players are adding to the ranks of ultramarathoners, ice skaters and tennis players (e.g. the Williams sisters) who have excelled at top levels on a plant-charged diet. That's part of the reason Esselstyn was in town, talking "Plant-Based Health & Athleticism" along with Joe Holder for the Penn Vegan Society. He cites the most recent high-profile example, 300-lb NFL Defensive End David Carter, who thought vegan eating was for 'weaklings' until he tried it out himself - and stuck with it.

It might look like Esselstyn is riding the recent "vegans can be macho" mainstream-media trend, but actually he's the original macho vegan, a former firefighter and triathlete who was using his brawn to back up his bran more than a decade ago, and who has continued to speak out about healthful food as a source of strength, becoming a #1 New York Times Bestselling Author in the process. So if (and it's a big if) men in general are finally moving away from macho myth and toward the facts of plant-strong advantage, he's one of the people to thank.

Esselstyn said he's working now on a documentary to be released at the beginning of next year, called 'Game-changers.' Could be an apt term for Rip himself, no? But he demurred: "If you want to be a true hero, for your health, for the planet, for animals, you'll start eating a plant-based diet - that's what I tell everyone I talk to."

The trigger for the NFL's Carter was seeing the film Forks Over Knives, which features the work of Rip's father, Caldwell Esselstyn, who did the science proving that heart disease can be reversed with a rigorously healthy diet. Another scientist featured in that documentary, T. Colin Campbell, also laid much of the groundwork in this area with his long-term, large-scale work that culminated in The China Study.

Campbell's son Nelson established PlantPure (after the film PlantPure Nation), a national group working to put the health benefits of whole-foods plant-based eating into practice, and its first affiliated restaurant, the PlantPure Caf, has its grand opening today, Saturday, Feb. 11.

The ambitious new healthy vegan fast-food joint run by Fernando Peralta of VGE Caf is at 1115 Walnut Street, in the space where Maoz used to be, but with a fresh, updated look. Having soft-opened in December, PlantPure is now ready for its crunchy, yummy closeup. As the Caf's page put it, "It's a moment to celebrate the plant-based lifestyle and taste some delicious food!"

Stop by from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and enjoy a Seitan Reuben or a Groothie alongside Nelson Campbell himself, along with his wife Kim Campbell, who will sign her PlantPure Nation Cookbook. (UPDATE: She is also signing copies of her newest cookbook, PlantPure Kitchen.) Get a copy or two to help you go plant-pure, or plant-strong, or plant-charged yourself!

Along with many others, we'll be watching the progress of the PlantPure pioneers, but the indications are sunny. The food is good and the science is strong. And though it's not an Esselstyn project (family friends with the Campbells, but they're not affiliated) it's safe to say that this little green plant-forward eatery could turn out to be a game-changer.

Published: February 11, 2017 6:37 AM EST | Updated: February 11, 2017 1:36 PM EST Philadelphia Daily News

Originally posted here:

Vegan science getting stronger, and so are vegan eaters - Philly.com (blog)

A small, idyllic German town has a cute tradition of having its town hall building play an array of different but familiar German folk songs on its chimes. One song was removed recently, though, because a local vegan resident complained that it was about cruelty to animals.

According to The Local, the song, Fox, You Stole the Goose, is a familiar German folk song thats popular with kids, and it was one of the 15 or so songs programmed into the glockenspiel of the town hall building in the little town of Limburg an der Lahn.

The song is about a fox stealing a goose, which is just part of the circle of life. But the song also includes a line about how the hunter will probably shoot the fox for stealing the goose, and that upset a local vegan resident who worked within earshot of the glockenspiel and who said it was very disturbing to hear about animal-killing while she was trying to work.

Out of consideration for the womans feelings, the town hall director took the song out of rotation. He said they often rotate the songs, and there are plenty more songs in the rotation, so it was no big trouble to remove one just to be considerate.

More:

Vegan Protest Shuts Down Town's Folk Song Performance - The Daily Meal

LOS ANGELES There are many places where you might expect to find Danny Trejo. On-screen, in one of the 300 or so movies the 72-year-old actor has appeared in over his long career, including three From Dusk Till Dawn films. In commercials heres hoping he reprises his 2015 Marcia Brady imitation during the next Super Bowl. You might not expect to see Trejo working the line in a kitchen, even if it is his own restaurant.

On a recent morning, Trejo moved around the 400-square-foot kitchen of Trejos Cantina in Hollywood, the actors second taquera the original year-old location is on La Brea Avenue deftly working the stoves with his executive chef, John-Carlos Kuramoto. Finding Kuramoto, a veteran of Campanile, Michaels in Santa Monica and Osteria Mozza even though hes only 29, working the line is less unlikely.

Trejo is hardly wearing chefs whites. Hes dressed all in black, a large crucifix around his neck like a relic, his long hair under a Trejos Tacos baseball cap. His face, deeply etched around the handlebar mustache, is an off-road map. But the trademark scowl is noticeably absent, replaced by laughter, a running commentary with Kuramoto and the fact that he keeps pausing to eat tacos. And not just any tacos: the roasted cauliflower tacos that have become one of the most popular items on the restaurants menu.

This is how you take a bite of a vegan taco, says Trejo. You bite it harder.

My mom always wanted to open a restaurant, says the actor, who grew up in Echo Park and lives in Mission Hills. But my dad was like a Mexican Archie Bunker. We have a kitchen right there, hed say. Kuramoto tosses a corn tortilla onto the flattop like a frisbee as Trejo sautees cauliflower. Did he ever think hed open a restaurant? I never thought Id get out of prison, says Trejo, smiling broadly.

Before Trejo began appearing in movies, youd likely have found him in jail or in a boxing ring or both he won lightweight and welterweight titles while serving time in San Quentin for drug offenses or in the rooms of 12-step programs; he got his first acting job, as an extra, while working as a drug counselor. His appreciation of food evolved over time (when you get sober, youre not eating pickled pigs feet in a bar), and to reflect it. When youre in the industry, the entertainment industry, inevitably someones going to say: Im vegetarian, Im vegan.

So when Trejo actually opened a restaurant, not only did he and his chef put the tacos of Trejos childhood on the menu, they made sure to put vegetable-centered and specifically vegan tacos there as well.

Cauliflower is one of those things you fall in love with, says Kuramoto, as he arranges the heady mixture of orange, green, lavender and pale florets with roasted corn on the tortilla, adding a cream made from cashews, pickled onions, the traditional accompaniments of cilantro, radishes and lime wedges.

I thought about Nancys whole roasted cauliflower, the chef says. Hes talking, of course, about Nancy Silvertons whole vegetable dish, which the James Beard Award-winning chef has installed on the menu of Pizzeria Mozza, her restaurant about a mile and a half away from Trejos. (Silverton is one of the patron saints of L.A.s new vegetable cooking, as well as Kuramotos former boss at the Osteria.)

Were trying to stay as authentic as we can, Trejo says, putting down the breakfast burrito someone had handed him. My mom cooked with lard, he says, by way of explanation. But they also want to cater to a community of families, of both kids and adults with health concerns and, yes, the entertainment industry that has given Trejo a remarkably prolific career thats showing little signs of slowing down.

Kuramoto goes back to work: Jidori chicken with achiote, or maybe the taco hes making with young jackfruit and tomatillos. And Trejo heads out into the restaurants casual dining room to greet some regulars, the kitchen doors swinging behind him like those in an imaginary saloon.

ROASTED RAINBOW CAULIFLOWER TACOS

About 1 hour, plus overnight soaking time. Makes 6 tacos

CASHEW CREAM

1 cup cashews

3 cups water

2 tablespoons salt, or to taste

2 teaspoons lime juice, or to taste

In a bowl, soak the cashews in water, cover and set aside overnight at room temperature for the cashews to soften. The next day, strain the cashews, reserving the water. In a blender, puree the cashews with enough water to form a smooth sauce with the texture of heavy cream. Season with salt and lime juice to taste. This makes a generous cup of cream, which will keep, covered and refrigerated, up to 5 days.

PICKLED ONIONS

1 small red onion, very thinly sliced

cup lime juice

1 tablespoon salt

In a nonreactive bowl, stir together the onion, lime juice and salt until the salt is dissolved and all of the onion is covered. Set the mixture aside to marinate for at least 20 minutes before assembling the tacos. The pickled onions will keep, 3 to 5 days, covered and refrigerated.

GRILLED WHITE CORN

2 ears white corn, husks removed

Olive oil, for brushing

teaspoon salt, or to taste

teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste

Brush the corn with a light coat of olive oil and sprinkle over salt and pepper to taste. Cook the corn over a grill or grill pan heated over medium-high heat until the corn is charred and tender on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cut the kernels from the cobs. You should have about 1 cup corn kernels. Set aside.

ROASTED CAULIFLOWER

4 cups colored cauliflower florets, from a mixture of purple, orange, green and white cauliflower heads

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, toss the cauliflower florets with the olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, until evenly combined. Spread the cauliflower onto a rimmed baking sheet and roast until slightly charred and tender, about 15 minutes, depending on the size of the florets.

ROASTED RAINBOW CAULIFLOWER TACOS

1 teaspoon olive oil

Prepared roasted cauliflower

Prepared grilled white corn

Salt

Lime juice, for seasoning

6 corn tortillas, warmed

cup prepared cashew cream, or to taste

Prepared pickled onions

Cilantro leaves, for garnish

Crushed roasted cashews, for garnish

2 radishes, thinly sliced, for garnish

Lime wedges, for serving

1. Heat a saute pan over medium-high heat until hot, and add the olive oil. Add the cauliflower and corn, stirring until warmed through. Remove from heat. Taste and season the mixture as desired with salt and lime juice.

2. To assemble the tacos, drizzle about 2 tablespoons cashew cream over each warmed tortilla. Spoon over about 1/2 cup of the cauliflower corn mixture. Top the mixture with a pinch of pickled onions, and garnish with cilantro leaves, roasted cashews and radish slices. Serve the tacos with lime wedges.

Note: Adapted from a recipe by Trejos Tacos.

Link:

How to make Danny Trejo's favorite vegan cauliflower tacos - The Keene Sentinel

The first time I made truffles from chocolate ganache, it was a revelation: How could just two ingredients, chocolate and cream, set up to form such a perfect texture? It almost felt like a cheat; this shouldn't be so easy. Scoop, roll, coat, done.

It wasn't until I cooked with two of my favorite vegan chefs, Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby, a few years ago that my truffles evolved further. Jacoby showed me how to make a pot de creme using little more than dark chocolate, beet juice, coconut milk and cornstarch. I loved it warm - and then noticed that when I refrigerated it, guess what happened? Yep, just like ganache.

I figured a simple coconut milk-chocolate combo would do the same thing, so I tried it, and sure enough, magic. Since then, I've seen plenty of other recipes that play with the same ingredients - and often add several others - but I've never found a good enough reason to branch out beyond that effective one-two punch.

I have experimented with lots of coatings, though: Plain cocoa, unsweetened coconut, pecans or other nuts, chipotle or other ground chiles for the brave-hearted. I love them all, but the best coating of all came to me when I was rooting around the pantry for inspiration. I found a bag of freeze-dried strawberries and blitzed them to a powder in a mini food processor, and the truffles I rolled in them turned out to be my favorite. (Freeze-dried raspberries would be a natural, too.)

The best thing about these is that if you use dairy-free chocolate, they're vegan, and just as tasty as traditional ones, which broadens their appeal to include just about anybody who loves chocolate.

The second-best thing? The fact that, unlike ones made with heavy cream, they're built on shelf-stable ingredients I happen to always have around. That means I can melt, scoop, roll and coat them on little more than a whim.

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Vegan Chocolate Truffles

24-30 pieces

With just high-quality dark chocolate and coconut milk, you've got deeply flavored truffles that you can roll in your choice of coatings. Below are suggestions for making a box or plate that includes five varieties, but feel free to mix and match, or choose other favorite possibilities.

You'll need paper candy cups. A #100 size disher is helpful for making consistently same-size truffles.

Make Ahead: The ganache needs to be refrigerated for 1 to 2 hours before you form and coat the truffles. The finished truffles can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days. From Food and Dining Editor Joe Yonan.

Ingredients

1 cup full-fat coconut milk, stirred well

10 1/2 ounces dairy-free dark chocolate (preferably 75 percent or higher cacao), finely chopped

1/2 cup freeze-dried strawberries (about 1/2 ounce)

1/4 cup unsweetened, dessicated (dried) coconut

2 tablespoons chopped pecans or nut of your choice

1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

1 tablespoon chipotle powder

Steps

Heat the coconut milk in a small pan over low heat until it's just starting to bubble.

Place the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl. Immediately pour the warm coconut milk over it, whisking to form a smooth ganache. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set, 1 to 2 hours.

Grind the dried strawberries to a fine powder in a mini food processor or clean spice grinder, then transfer the powder to a small bowl. Place the coconut, pecans, cocoa powder and chipotle powder in separate small bowls.

Once the truffle mixture has set, uncover it. Grease your hands with cooking oil spray and use a tablespoon-size scoop or #100 disher to scoop out a ball, then roll it lightly between your palms. Place on a tray, and repeat to create balls using the remaining truffle mixture. (Your palms will become covered in chocolate as you work, and the balls will soften on the outside, but that's okay.)

Use a fork to help lift and toss the truffles. Roll some of them in strawberry powder, some in coconut, some in pecans, some in cocoa powder, some in chipotle powder (for those who don't mind something fiery) or in a mix of chipotle and cocoa (for a kick that's a little milder) until well coated. You may need to use your fingers to press in the coconut and the pecans. Set each one into a paper candy cup as you finish.

When all the truffles are made, pack them into an airtight container (being careful not to stack them) and refrigerate until ready to serve -- or give.

Nutrition Per serving, calories per piece (based on 30): 80, total fat: 6g saturated fat: 4g, cholesterol: 0mg, sodium: 0mg, total carbohydrates: 6g, dietary fiber: 2g, sugar: 3g, protein: 0g

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Video: All you need are two ingredients plus your coatings of choice to create a delicious set of truffles for a special someone this year. Bonus: They're vegan! (Ashleigh Joplin/The Washington Post)

Author Information:

Joe Yonan is the Food and Dining editor of The Washington Post and the author of "Eat Your Vegetables: Bold Recipes for the Single Cook

." He writes the Food section's Weeknight Vegetarian column.

@JoeYonan

Link:

Spectacular (and vegan) chocolate truffles from a few ingredients - MyDaytonDailyNews

Its happened again! Another ice cream company has released a vegan ice cream without telling anyone. Recently, lovers of dairy-free ice cream had a lot to rejoice about when Ben & Jerrys, who previously had only four flavors in their line of almond milk ice cream, added two new flavors to their roster:Cherry Garcia and Coconut Seven Layer Bar. There was no PR release, no new additions to their website, and not even a social media announcement they simply shipped ice cream to stores, kicked back, and waited for vegan ice cream lovers to do the talking. It looks like this is going to be a thing now because last night, word broke via social mediathat Breyers, a staple in the frozen dessert world, secretly released their very first vegan ice cream flavor! Their first choice for a non-dairy ice cream was cookies and cream. Like Ben & Jerrys line of vegan ice cream, Breyers vegan ice cream is made from almond milk.

Dairy consumption in the United States has been declining steadily by 25 percent per capita since the 1970s, so it makes complete sense that ice cream staples like Breyers would want to hop aboard the dairy-free train. In fact, a recent studyby Packaged Foods revealed that free from frozen desserts, which includes vegan ice cream, are one of the products that are driving the U.S. ice cream industry towards a $28 billion market. And according to David Sprinkle, a researcher for Packaged Foods Ice cream and frozen novelties remain among the top ten food categories in supermarkets. More than 85 percent of U.S. household use ice cream or sherbet. So, smart move, Breyers.

Most of us have probably had a tub of Breyers ice cream in our freezer growing up so hopefully, now that a vegan version is available, longtime fans will be tempted by this new flavor (we certainly are). It is also interesting to note that Breyers, along with Ben & Jerrys, are both owned by Unilever, the multinational company that attempted to sue Hampton Creek over the validity of calling their vegan mayonnaise, Just Mayo, mayonnaise. They dropped the suit and then released their own variety of vegan mayonnaise soon after. At the very least, they did not try to pull the same stunt with ice cream and other dairy products, like a handful of dairy supporters in the U.S. are attempting to do right now over the validity of non-dairy milk being called milk.

If this whole secretly-releasing-vegan-ice-cream-flavors thing is going to be a thing, then it is one that we will readily embrace with spoons in hand, a cozy couch, and a TV series queued up for binge-watching. A 1.5-quart carton of Breyers vegan ice cream retails for $4.99.

Lead image source: Alyssa Weiss

Read more here:

Breyers Secretly Releases Their First Ever Vegan Ice Cream! - One Green Planet

Today, a friend posted a status update about how inexplicably happy reading the Esther the Wonder Pig story had made her when she read it in The Guardian. Of course it made her happy because very few of us are made unhappy about a story of someone finding love and sanctuary. I am delighted she expressed that feeling and that Esthers story could elicit that sentiment. What I find disheartening is that on this perfect occasion and spoken to a vast, international audience, the author did not even think about mentioning veganism or using this opportunity to say hey if Esthers story speaks to you, then you really should go vegan because like Esther, all the animals we eat and use are just as deserving to live their lives. There is no difference between Esther and the billions of fish, cows, chickens, pigs, sheep, goats and rabbits except that they have no given name. Can you imagine the impact of that? On my friend? On your friends and family?

Instead, the author did tell us about how Esthers social media presence became [his] job. Well, that is good for him, but why does that matter? How does that matter to Esther herself or to anyone like her? He also tells us how Esther makes a lot of people smile and many really open up to her, which is wonderful and speaks volumes about the responsibility the author has as someone who could reach a lot of people. In fact, the author indirectly admits this by letting us know that, [a] woman in the US recently wrote, Thank you for showing my two young boys that its OK to have two dads. Exactly! How wonderful! Look at what you and Esther can do by your very presence and existence, dear author.

Yet, no, Were not out to promote gay or animal rights in a direct way, Esther just seems to have this positive effect on people. Why not? Why are they not directly speaking about the very things that they are? Why are they being so oblique about the very thing justice, love and sanctuary that defines them and everything in which they believe in? Why would anyone with access to a huge platform diminish, or relegate to an indirect space, the very essence of the thing that so deeply defines them? Why is it so anathema to advocate clearly for the right of all beings to be left alone and not slaughtered for our taste buds and vanity? It baffles this authors mind and breaks her heart too.

Esther has a life because of her two dads. She might not have been the pig they were expecting, but her very existence demands that they and we become the advocates that she and all the animals like her want us to be.

Photo from Huffington Post

See original here:

Esther the Wonder Pig wants you to be vegan - Ecorazzi

Just in time for Valentines Day, our affiliate PETA Australia conducted an experiment to determine who gets more right swipes on Tinder: vegans or meat-eaters. Even its staffers were surprised by the results. When the same guy, using similar content, created one Tinder profile as a vegan and another as a carnivore, his vegan profile got double the number of right swipes.

In one profile picture, 29-year-old Peter wore a shirt that read, Vegan, and in the other, he wore a shirt that read, Bacon. His other photos showed him at the supermarket buying fruit or meat and at the beach holding a dog or a fishing rod. His bios were identical for each profileexcept for one phrase, which read either Vegan for life or Bacon is life.

Peter found out that there were double the number of fish in the sea for guys who care about animals, the environment, and their health.

And theres more:

PETA U.K. conducted its own Tinder study, in which Oliver duplicated precisely the same kind of contrasting content that Peter had used. Once again, the same guy got almost double the right swipes when his profile said that he was vegan.

Women looking for men on Tinder cant seem to resist tapping on the heart when a guy clearly has one.

Swipe right on your vegan starter kit today.

Visit link:

Want More Right Swipes? Go Vegan - PETA (blog) (press release)