Episode 9 of The Vegan News

Part I of Episode 9 of The Vegan News is out today. In it, Adam Kochanowicz travels to Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary in Colorado to talk to Michelle and Chris about the myth of "humane" farming. Listen to Michelle and Chris tell Adam about how all of the sanctuary's residents are former victims of the same types of small-scale farms too often promoted as supposed cruelty-free operations. Aside from letting the animals' stories convince visitors otherwise, Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary volunteers also take the opportunity to educate those who stop by about veganism. Part II of Episode 9 shuld be up tomorrow, so stay tuned for more. In the interim, enjoy Part I:

The Vegan News Episode #8

Another episode of The Vegan News is out--Episode #8 can be enjoyed right here. Aside from covering the latest that's of interest to vegans, host Adam Kochanowicz also responds to a voice-mail from a younger listener requesting information on how to prepare easy vegan lunches to bring to school everyday. He obliges with a show-and-tell of various food items in his pantry. It's a longish episode and (as with previous episodes) is very well worth watching. Support this show made by vegans for vegans!

Incidentally, Adam's featured in a two-part interview with Elizabeth Collins of the NZ Vegan Podcast this week. I just read her update about it on Twitter, so I haven't had a chance to listen to it yet; I'm looking forward to doing so as soon as I can fire up my iTunes.

Eva Batt and What Other Abolitionists Have Been Discussing Lately

A little over a week ago, Nathan Schneider of the Vegan Abolitionist blog "resurrect[ed] a bit of vegan history by posting an essay by early vegan advocate and longtime Vegan Society member Eva Batt. Batt wrote "Why Veganism?" in 1964, around 10 years after she'd gone vegan herself, and close to 20 years after the term was first coined by the Vegan Society's founders. Today, 45 years after the essay was written, some of its facts concerning food or animal usage may be a bit dated, as practices have changed over the years. Worth nothing, though, is that in 45 years, some of the more heinous practices in so-called "animal husbandery" have not changed at all. For instance, while describing the failings inherent in following a lacto-vegetarian diet, Batt wrote:

If, however, we were to compare degrees of cruelty, it would be clearly seen that of all the "food animals" the cow suffers far more than beef cattle. For the whole of her life, this soft-eyed, docile animal is regarded siply as a milk machine. She is kept going with drugs and "steamed up" with hormones, injected with anitbiotics, and still has to suffer the horrors of the slaughterhouse when she has at last become unprofitable.

Overall, much of what she wrote is still valid and the spirit in which she wrote it is more than significant. It's a piece of history in the vegan movement, but it's also a call to eschew the use of all animals which still resonates today.

Elizabeth Collins of the NZ Vegan Podcast wrote about Nathan's blog post on her own blog a few days ago and read the piece aloud on her most recent podcast, reflecting upon the points in the essay that she felt were most relevant and on how she feels it would make an effective introductory essay on veganism for many non-vegans. In her post, she also pointed out that Adam Kochanowicz (of Abolition Vegans) discusses Batt's essay in Episode 7 of his Vegan News video podcast. Please check out what Elizabeth and Adam had to say about Bett's essay and take the time to have a look at the piece itself.

The Vegan News

A vegan I know, Adam Kochanowicz, has recently launched a site called Vegan FM which is devoted to showing video and audio podcasts produced by vegans (albeit not necessarily dealing with vegan or animal rights issues). One of the features of the site is The Vegan News, a news show hosted by Adam and focused specifically on stories of interest to vegans. Check it out and get involved!