Monday, May 21, 2012

"Celebration of the New Zealand Cow"

Another Pak n Save supermarket theme has gone and upset me.  This has never happened before! :-)

Now, I reckon I have a sense of humour, a strange, unusual, undesirable sense of humour, sure, but a developed sense none the less! :-)

For example, while praising a friends cooking*, I also mentioned that the below recipe
reminded me of Michael Jacksons sister , which you can see directly here (unless you're a priest who was raised on infant formula, we've all seen them before)



Once you've seen the world through my eyes, you cant unsee it!

*I know how much it stung when the chefs partner said my early chocolate cakes looked "like crap" :-)

I had a dentist appointment today, where I found out that one of my teeth will be "extracted", yanked out by the lovely new British dentist, and the friendly, always-mouth-covered assistant who I joke with.  My first visit I cracked jokes the whole time - nervous laughter - and the second trip was no different.  At the end of the first appointment, I said I'd drop them off some Banana Chocolate Chip muffins in thanks, which I did the next day.

Today after they handed me a rather snazzy pair of green sunglasses to wear while the overhead light blared at my mouth, I told the two dentists about seeing The Avengers in 3D the previous night, that I hoped the effects would be just as good.

As they informed me that there was a possibility of nerve damage with one procedure, which I smiling asked if the damaged nerve would prevent my jaw from ever becoming wrinkly, "like botox?".  We all got along quite well, as they took to me with injections, x rays, picks, probes, little motorcycle stalk mirrors and high speed drills.

I find one aspect of the assistants job most funny, when she has to hold a gloved finger in the patients mouth for a long time, for example, holding in the "sucker thing", a vacuum, or the air blower.  I keep meaning to tell her "boy, you picked the right career for that talent, it was either being a proctologistgynecologist or working in dentistry - I reckon you picked the right orifice to probe with your gloved finger!", but not everyone shares my sense of humour, and its not a nice thought for either of us to focus on while she has that gloved finger inside my mouth!

Nor have I told her about the clever song by smooth RnB singer Frank Ocean, "Novacaine", about abusing dental painkillers to feel "high"

"she said she wanna be dentist really badly
she's in school paying
for tuition doing porn in the valley
at least you working
but girl i can't feel my face
what are we smoking anyway
she said don't let the high goto waste
but can you taste a little taste of
novacaine
baby baby
novacaine baby i want you"


Somehow it seems inappropriate, yeah?  Yeah.

As we waited for a second Xray to develop, the dentist asked me if I had any questions, presumably about a root canal (drilling the hell out of my mouth, hoping to patch the tooth a little, costing 1200 dollars) or full extraction (pulling the tooth out, 200 dollars, leaving a gap at the upper back of my mouth).  I asked if they would like chocolate chip muffins next time, I'll bake them tonight and go back tomorrow with them :-)  ***update  "you spoil us Jordan" ***

I've already gotten my next joke ready, if they ask me why I'm in such a good mood while being operated on, I'll say its a) "nervous laughter" and b) "the laughing gas you flood the waiting room/pay area with, for when we have to pay exorbitantly for our dental sins" :-)

On the way to Pak n Save supermarket today, I came across this pharmacy display, in a "drug store" as the Americans say :



The display is "Quit Now, its about Whanau" (Whanau meaning "family" in Maori, the native language of New Zealand).  Quit smoking now, for your family, so you can live to see your family, so your family is not exposed to the harm of second hand tobacco smoke.

However, with my sense of humour, I choose to interpret it as an older woman, with her hair in "curlers", crocheted blanked over her legs, a table made in a secondary school woodwork class, hooked up to a canister of the black stuff John Coffey breathes out in The Green Mile, that her doctor is named Kevorkian. "Quit Now" says the campaign poster for DIY euthanasia tanks of poison, "its about family" - not the life insurance payout you wont get for killing yourself, but the thrill of dying penniless at the time of your choosing, to force your ungrateful adult children into paying for your expensive funeral - HA, that'll teach the wretched brats for never stopping by to talk with mum!

But this latest supermarket theme is a bit much, even for me.

"Celebration of the Kiwi cow" - getting over my dislike of the phrase "kiwi" for the people (and cows) of New Zealand, New Zealanders, the poster boasts of "[celebrating]" the harming and killing of (female) cows (and male bulls presumably).....by the companies who harm "dairy" cows.  Fresh n Fruity is a non Vegan yoghurt company, Tip Top makes non Vegan icecream, Mainland makes non Vegan cheese, Anchor is a brand of cows milk, which, incidentally, happens to be non Vegan :-)




Ok, not everyone gets the link between dairy, forcing female mammals into pregnancy, taking their milk from them and eventually killing them as they grow old, producing less milk for each round of soon killed children......but the theme continues further on.....in the flesh aisle  "Celebration of the cow", with their bodies sold "on special" too, little labels with each discounted price.


Surely Non Vegans too would get why this is a really weird idea?  "lets celebrate the animal we kill for this meat!  I'm sure she'll appreciate looking down from heaven and seeing us celebrate for her!"

Its times like this that you're aware you're in a little "Vegan Bubble", when the hundreds of people around you are Non Vegan, when you feel rather on your own, seeing things very differently.  Banners and posters everywhere, including a seemingly "downed cow"



Even some of the actual trolleys were "Cow Carts" (according to my friend Michael who works at a Pak n Save supermarket).  Its rather something seeing a small child being pushed around in one of these, presumably rather pleased with "the cow".  "Easygoing speciesism" - being pushed around in a "Cow Cart" through a supermarket buying cows milk intended for *her* child, and her actual body with *your* own mother - in a "celebration" paid promotion by the actual cow exploiting industries!



Pak n Save held "the running of the cows" in Auckland....



Heck, these days even "cat food" is sold as "Meat Lovers", containing "Lamb" (baby sheep) and "Beef"(presumably the cows we are "celebrating")




As Mayor Tim Shadbolt mentioned during his time working in a "petfood company", its all "offal", guts boiled up and sealed in cans, which can go horribly wrong.  Next episode I'll include the clips from his Guinness World Record setting 26 hour interview, where he mentions the cans of intestines, brains, tongues etc not being "cooked" for long enough, and the contents rotted, giving off gas, to the point the cans started exploding from the pressure in supermarkets across the country.  It was sold under the brands "Love Your Cat" and "Love Your Dog".

As I went up town today, I stopped inside the SBS building (Southland Banking Society)

(Google Maps Streetview is always eager to help out!)

Just inside their main doors to the other, non SBS bank sections of the large building, by the elevators we see that the Alliance slaughterhouse chain (and the Alliance website) take up much of the second, third and fourth floors:



Sometimes you can be all to aware that the majority of your city isnt Vegan, that the people around you are wearing shoes and belts made from animal skin ("celebrated" or not), that they go to Killing Friendly Chickens and eat Hens and Roosters, that they drink milk from cows.

The Invercargill Vegan Society, with our ten members who pay no membership dues cannot compete on the scale of slaughterhouse chains (a "chain" also being where the sheep and cows are hooked onto, as they are dismembered, as the chain rolls down the line between workers like a "hanging" conveyor belt), it'll be a fair few years before INVSOC tower is built, where we take up parts of the second, third and fourth floors! :-)

We succeed on a smaller scale, by living positive lives, with a sense of humour (dark or otherwise), by being happy people who promote Veganism, respect for others.

I "celebrated" the animals harmed in the New Zealand "dairy" industry by purchasing New Zealand made Soy Ice Cream, by voting with my dollar, that we as vegans do *not* want to be apart for their ongoing harm and exploitation.



On my walk home, I stopped by the INVSOC World Vegan Day tree, and while it has been jokingly referred to as just a "Majestic Twig", like Veganism worldwide, it is growing each day.


The two story building in the centre background is Federated Farmers / Dairy NZ, the Southland headquarters of our other main Non Vegan enterprises.  The Dairy NZ motto is "Profitability, Sustainability, Competitiveness", all about making money.

INVSOC page on "Southlands History"




The sun never sets on Veganism, all across the world there are always people alert and awake working for a world where, to use the totally original INVSOC motto, "all animals are equal".  And like our majestic Kauri tree planted on World Vegan Day, one day we'll be mighty giants, huge in mass and numbers.

Maybe one day we'll be worth a fortune too!


"Farm owner Bruce Tucker said the log would earn him more than $25,000 - 40 per cent of the eventual sale price - and he was told it was for the Beijing World Art Museum"


"It's the oldest workable timber in the world, you just don't get it anywhere else in the world. Once it's gone, it's gone. You are never going to get it back.""



***UPDATE*** the wonderful Robert Guyton of Environment Southland wrote a blogpost sharing one of my photos from Pak n Save :-)

http://robertguyton.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/celebration-of-cow.html

Fresh from visiting local farms on ES business, he shares photos of the ever increasing "factory farm"-isation of Southland farms, where soon enough all the cows will be kept *inside* these structures, farm workers sacked in favour of robot machinery :

http://robertguyton.blogspot.co.nz/2012/05/wintering-barns.html

Friday, May 18, 2012

May 2012 INVSOC Potluck

Another great potluck guys!

Katharine, Dan, Russell, Steve, Kerri and Jess, plus two new to Invercargill vegans, Steve and Amber :-)  Dan's Chocolate, Coconut cheesecake was divine!






Pumpkin Kumara curry with rice, Pepper Pita Pizzas :-)



Bottom left, Katharines Cashew Cranberry Loaf, bottom right Pumpkin Kumara curry, Top right Macaroni Cheese (vegan), top left Pepper Pita Pizza





With Dans Chocolate Coconut cheesecake with ANZAC biscuit crust (bottom)




Steve and Amber came on Ambers motorcycle.  The English Sociologist Dr Roger Yates would approve!


"One advantage of being "at it" for so long is seeing the changes that younger campaigners don't see and certainly do not appear to appreciate. For example, when I decided to live vegan in 1979 in England, there was not a single type of soya milk on the market - no soya ice cream, none of that fake meat and cheese (assuming that's your thing), apart from "textured vegetable protein," a foodstuff with possibly the most off-putting name ever.


Obviously the availability the vegan foods and other goods on the shelves means little in itself - but social ideas have shifted too. A little. Gone are the days when the only vegetarian restaurants were called "Cranks," and people tend not to faint so quickly at words and phrases like "vegan," "animal liberation" and "animal rights" any more. If new and recent animal advocates could be transported back to the late 1970s and early 1980s just for a day or two, I think that they would see that things have changed and changed for the better.


Don't think this is about complacency or sitting back - its about context."


We in Invercargill have so very much to be thankful for, great food, and great friends, thank you all for coming :-)

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Episode 81 Vegan Bubbles


Episode 81 Vegan Bubbles

New logo design, Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals listener survey (which you can find at www.coexisting.co.nz , please fill it out! :-) ), The Vegan Option friendly competition, Hearts, Necks, Frames, Friends, Expanding our Vegan circle, our "Vegan Bubble", Shooting Ducks to death, an Emergency doctor speaks out on drunken injuries, "just shut up and do your job!" says angry commenter, Vegan Potlucks in Invercargill, INVSOC taking off, Veganism spreading around the world :-)


Listen now by downloading directly from here or, better yet, subscribe in iTunes to get each episode automagically!
Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals iTunes link



Hello and welcome to another episode of Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals, Episode 81, Vegan Bubbles


I recently got an app called "Paper" on my iPad, its a really fun, simple way to draw, and while I have no creative abilities for art, I do enjoy doodling away in the sunshine outside with the Chicken Friends.  This episode has a work in progress logo design, made by drawing a few of the different Chicken Friends, and then moving the images around using Pixelmator, a drawing tool on my iMac.  I essentially drew a quick black outline of a few different Chickens, then shaded them in using the watercolour tool, real masterpiece stuff, right?

I drew a definite Mr Rooster, and Black Chick, thats my second attempt at drawing her after the first was a big blurry warped mess of splurges, the other Chicken Friends are less accurate, as in, even less "accurate" than my doodled orange Mr Rooster-esque drawing and squiggly Black Chick :-)  There are currently a Rescued Hen, and a Yellow bantam Hen, *not* Yellow Hen herself I decided, as I couldn't figure out how to half assingly draw Yellow Hen right.   There were six Yellow bantam Hens, and the Yellow Chicken Friend drawn is an example of them all.

When I have time, or a sudden infusion of artistic skill, I'll hopefully improve the image.



Its great to see more people have taken the Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals listener survey, which you can find at www.coexisting.co.nz , theres a link to it on the upper right side of the website, under "Important Links".


I'd love if you'd spend a minute of your time to fill out the short survey to tell me what I'm doing wrong, what would make the show better to listen to.  It only takes a minute, heres an idea, just skip the last minute of this episode, where I basically always say the same thing, and use that minute to take the survey!  Rather than reading my thank you's and "you can find this show at coexisting.co.nz " etc, it would be really great if I could figure out how to record a clip of myself saying it, and then simply add that clip to the end of each episode, yeah?  Shame I don't know how to include clips in this crazy podcasting thing ;-)

The survey is truly anonymous, so there no need for being a decent human being and saying a token positive thing or two, although one person did include their name, which was a really nice touch, thank you to my new friend Kathy Monton up there in Canada, on the other side of the world!  As I always say in the last minute of the show you could just skip by now, and instead fill out the survey at www.coexisting.co.nz, Thank *you* for listening, Kathy :-)



I also have a Facebook comment from Elisa,  "hi Jordan..i love your podcast and sometime i need to do a little clip of my voice and name and blog for your intro :-) love hearing about your chicken friends. you keep me sane driving to work. my car is my vegan "safety zone" while driving around this cruel non vegan world.."

You can find Elisa's blog at 

www.freeheelvegan.com , free heel vegan.com

I also received an email from Eric, Elisas husband, so hello to both of you :-)




Finally, my friend Julie, of Animal Rights and Wrongs told me "listening to your podcast makes doing dishes fun!"   Thanks Julie!  Whatever it takes to pretend washing dishes is fun, I'm glad to help out!  Actually, if I ever need an endorsement, can I please use that?  "Listening to your podcast makes doing dishes fun!", in big bold letters.

Saturday, May 12, 2012

PKE (Palm Oil) use by NZ Dairy near majority of cows food

This article on "wintering barns", sheds for warmth during cold months features a diet breakdown for the cows used on this dairy farm :



"COW NUTRITION
The cows' new diet to prepare for the wintering barn:


520 tonnes of grass silage a year
500 tonnes of palm kernel a year
300 tonnes of whole crop silage a year300 tonnes of whole crop silage a year
150 tonnes of molasses a year
100 tonnes of hay or straw a year
100 tonnes of hay or straw a year

30 tonnes of soya meal AF or canola meal a year"

*order changed from original in order to show proportions, most used to least.




Palm Oil is increasingly avoided worldwide for its direct links to deforestation and loss of habitat in endangered forests.

Fonterra, New Zealands largest company, our cows milk monopoly have this to say about PKE given to cows by farmers:

"New Zealand dairy farmers use PKE (palm kernel expeller) – traditionally a waste product from palm oil production – as a supplementary feed.  (edit : not in the example above, where its NEARLY the main food given to these poor cows, 520 tonnes Grass Silage vs 500 Palm Kernel Extract)

It plays a role in feeding cows, including during adverse weather such as the droughts we have experienced in recent years. Pasture remains the dominant source of feed for cows with PKE making up approximately 1% of the New Zealand dairy cow diet.

Fonterra shares community concern about tropical deforestation, which in some cases has been driven by the establishment of palm oil plantations. Consequently the company has been proactive in ensuring a sustainable supply of PKE and ensuring we do not support deforestation, directly or indirectly.

Fonterra is also a member of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to ensure we are informed on sustainability issues in South East Asia and to actively contribute to more robust sustainability certification systems. We know there is more work to be done which is why we are closely involved with the RSPO."


They swear up and down "we only use the good stuff", after calling Palm Kernel Extract "...a supplementary feed".

Greenpeace New Zealand have a campaign against Fonterra and their massive purchases of PKE, which is a huge subsidy towards Palm Oil.




Fonterra are often targeted for their other environmental issues, such as using coal on a large scale




Our own local Southland town of Edendale has the worlds largest "dryer" for milk, to take liquid cows milk, and turn it into a yellowish powder, the dryer runs on coal.

I've written before about "Dairy for Death" here, along with a video I took of the Edendale plant, largest of its kind in the world




Saturday, May 5, 2012

Reading "Obligate Carnivore" book with Hen Friends

My friend Romina sent me her copy of "Obligate Carnivore" by Jed Gillen (the book gives its address as www.jedgillen.com , which now links to his Facebook page?)  An interview with Jed can be read here on "Let Them Eat Meat", an "exvegan" site

I sat reading the first chapters in the garden today, with my Hen Friends :


I noticed a particular Simpsons quote inside which seemed familiar



"Alcohol: the cause of - and solution to - all of lifes problems"

A version of this was read by Dr Ian on the latest fantastic episode of The Vegan Option , "America, the cause of and solution to all of lifes problems" @ 20m 48s through.  A lovely little domestic dispute, with American born Diana "correcting", "Homer says its beer, not America!" :-)







Duck Killing 2012 ("Duck Shooting season")

As covered previously - Killing ducks is "Man Christmas" - its once again "Duck Shooting season", where (stereotypically) men go out shooting nice little birds to death, while (stereotypically) their wives wait for them to come home/go out and get boozed up themselves with their friends, perhaps during a promotional "Duck Shooters Wives" sales event at local stores.

There are exceptions, women who go out killing these birds too, but generally, as seen in the first link, its portrayed as "Man Christmas", a male event.

The promotion of killing birds blares at you, from newspaper stories about all the recent spates of "hunters" shooting each other, and  of marine animal killing boats finding themselves in trouble, to the "opening weekend" having supermarkets using this great event as a promotional theme :





("maimai's" are a New Zealand term for "hunting blinds", mostly tin sheds with comfortable chairs etc for the brave hunters to occupy while they shoot at birds)  I think they took the "hunter pointing rifle skywards" clipart from a Baseball game series, the guy with his bat cocked back! ;-)

While shopping for tomatoes and red onions I heard supermarket instore ads based on savings, with quacking duck sound effects followed by guns being shot after each special.

Another example, this weekends Southern Express, a free community newspaper :




My Rescued Hen Friends didnt leave their mark of disapproval on the paper, but never the less, the "duck shooters" may have escaped their wives for the weekend, but they've been well and truly "hen pecked" as my Hen Friends investigated the newspaper.  They'd never seen one before, being modern birds living in 2012, keeping up to date with the news on their iPad :-)





The actual text of these adver-torials is quite shocking, on the left how to have your most prized kills preserved, showing what a great man you are, able to shoot small defenceless harmless birds to death.  And when you come across them and all your shooting hasnt actually killed them yet, why, then you simply crush their lungs with your hands - being careful not to damage the feathers of course, you dont want to damage your trophy!!!!  On the right, a description of how ducks behave, how they "...are'nt colour blind, so its critical to wear natural coloured clothing and camouflage your face with either a face net and hat or camo face paint."  An odd thing to assume, that "those dumb birds" wouldnt be able to see colour like we superior eye'd humans - I would have written "...like us, ducks can fully see colour, they notice changes in their environment quickly with their keen sight."

Also, another gem "Ducks love company...", of how to put out floating decoy ducks outside your maimai, your hunting area so it seems like other ducks have landed, like all is safe, safety in numbers....before we humans shoot them to death.

I look forward to a world where supermarkets cease promoting "flesh weak" and bird killing as a masculine activity, where we are instead informed of the specials for tofu and soy ice cream, with bird song inbetween.















Friday, May 4, 2012

Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt on exploding offal Non Vegan "petfood"

***UPDATE***

Petfood Factory "Love your Cat", "Love Your Dog" brand petfood, made by future Mayor of Invercargill Tim Shadbolt from slaughterhouse offal....not cooked long enough to save time and produce more cans of "petfood", the cans "turned into yeast and exploded", the not cooked, rotting guts created enough pressure to burst the sealed steel cans!


Download audio of Mayor Shadbolt on "rendering" guts and goodness knows what into "Love Your Cat" and "Love Your Dog" non vegan petfood





Recorded from Mayor Shadbolts Guinness World Record for Longest interview, at over 26 hours in length!

Video I took as the 24 hour mark was broken



Invercargill Vegan Society gets a mention on the scrolling ticker :-)




To see more about the world record being broken, visit the official page :-)


*** UPDATE ***

September 6th 2012

"A $13 million rendering plant is set for the start of the season at Lorneville, near Invercargill.

Alliance Group operations manager Ross Smith said the rendering machinery was being connected in the new 1121 square metre building at the Lorneville plant.

Rendering would begin next month, Mr Smith said.

About 12 tonnes of animal waste product from the hocks to the heads could be rendered every hour and animal parts once deemed useless were rendered into a valuable protein for many products, such as petfood, he said."

"All the raw material pumped into the plant would be completely contained in pipes along with any vile smells.

''We like to be good neighbours,'' Mr McKenzie said.

The Lorneville plant had about 2000 staff and had capacity to slaughter 32,000 sheep in 24 hours, he said."

YUM.  Mayor Shadbolt would be proud!



The Southland Times "New Kit For Meat Works"