Mfume weighs in on animal rights

“We’re delighted and not at all surprised that he supports animal rights and justice,” [PETA director of vegan outreach Bruce] Friedrich said. “I am deeply impressed that someone who is so busy working on human justice issues [, NAACP President Kweisi Mfume,] would take some time out for the chickens as well.”

Vegan Porn points to a story in The Scotsman titled “Now seaweed is the food of love” that discusses a vegetarian mock-animal product most people would never even think of: mock oysters made of seaweed.

The developer (the managing director of a salmon farm) says they taste like the real thing but he “[isn’t] sure if we can match the aphrodisiac qualities…”

“We’ve been sent recipe books and my aunt wrote to me with one of her recipes using dulse [seaweed] from the 1930s which stated it ‘tastes rather like an oyster’.” Though I can honestly say I haven’t had a single craving for an oyster (… ever), it’s still an… interesting… new product.

I got a note the other night from Prabu Ram from New Delhi, India. Prabu runs Infoserve, a blog that’s followed news related to genetically modified foods since March. The coverage is balanced and lets you draw your own conclusions and is worth keeping an eye on.

I think I’ve found a new favorite breakfast cereal that really delivers the goods in terms of nutrition: Organic Optimum Power Breakfast by Nature’s Path. It offers up 100% of the RDA for B12 (a vegan’s dream!), 100% of your daily folic acid, 15% of your iron, 25% of your calcium, 40% (10g) of your fiber, and it has Omega-3s from flax. Not to mention it uses organic ingredients and actually tastes good.

My only complaints: first, the box says “Flax * Soy * Blueberry.” Let me tell you: there are almost no blueberries in this cereal. I’ve never had more than two blueberries in an entire bowl, and they’re so small that they’re almost unnoticeable. I ended up adding fresh blueberries. Secondly, there are 16g of sugar. That’s a bit much for a “healthy” cereal, in my opinion (for comparison, a regular sized Snickers bar has about 28g). Otherwise, though, it’s a fine cereal and offers up plenty of what vegetarians and vegans need most: B12, calcium, and Omega-3 fatty acids.

The Washington Post ran a great piece the other day about Compassion Over Killing, a local organization that takes the friendly (but not easy) route to spreading the vegetarian word.

“We need to stop looking at this as all or nothing, black or white,” says Paul Shapiro, 24, who founded Compassion Over Killing as a high school club at Georgetown Day School in Northwest Washington. “For most people,” giving up meat and dairy “might be a daunting endeavor. What if we convert two people to be vegetarian half the time? That’s the same as converting one person to be vegetarian all the time, and it’s probably easier.”

Time for a link dump to catch up on some stuff in the news. Let’s start with:

Study Reports Increase in Portly Pets

If you haven’t gotten enough of the “America’s so fat!” message recently, here’s a study pointing to the increase in the site of our companion animals. The reason I mention the story, though, is that they mention vegetarian diets for cats and dogs:

Cats, the report notes, are descended from carnivores and their digestive system is designed for absorbing nutrients from animal-based proteins and fats.

Cats should not be fed a vegetarian diet because it could result in harmful deficiencies of certain amino acids, fatty acids, and vitamins, the report stresses.

While dogs prefer animal-based food, they can survive on a vegetarian diet as long as it contains sufficient protein and other nutrients, the report adds.

A question for Veg Blog readers: if you’re vegan or vegetarian and have a cat or dog, what do you feed them? I’d like to hear some different thoughts on if and how vegetarians’ beliefs affect how they raise their pet, especially ethical vegetarians.

Huyen and I were talking tonight and she asked, “What’s the difference between a pie and cobbler?” In case you we wondering the exact same thing, here’s the answer from iVillage (warning: barrage of ads ahead):

Cobbler is a fruit dessert baked in a deep dish or baking dish that has a topping sprinkled on before baking. A tart is made with a crust formed in a tart pan or a low, straight-walled pan with a removable bottom. A pie, similar to a tart, is baked in a pie pan that has sloping sides. Both a tart and a pie can have the crust prebaked and filled or baked with fruits, custards or chocolate.

Well, there you go!