All posts filed under: other vegan/AR things

Impressions from Ieperfest 2019. Vegan hardcore music festival

Published by

Ieperfest is a 3-day hardcore music festival, just outside Ypres (Ieper, 75km from Bruges, Belgium). Since day one, more than 20 years ago, all the food at Ieperfest is vegan! In previous years, the festival was mid August, but this year it has been set to the beginning of July. We just went for the afternoon, to taste some of the great food, and enjoy the atmosphere. The weather was mild (not too hot, not too cold) and luckily no showers when we were there.

And then this happens … Bacon!

Published by

And then this happens … Something is posted on social media about veganism, a poster, meme, or a vegan campaign, or about the living conditions of animals in agricultural industry, or maybe you just posted a comment about your experiences while dining out, and comments like ‘mmmmm, steak!‘, ‘I’ll be putting some more on the BBQ tonight‘ or – like in the meme – ‘Bacon!‘ appear. Or someone posts a photo of a hamburger, hotdog or sizzling animal flesh. I always wonder why they post this. Is it simply because they have nothing meaningful to say? Do those posting such comments really think it adds anything to the conversation (or do they simply not think at all 😛 )?  That they can somehow ‘win’ the meateaters on their hand? Or do they think it’s funny and a way to provoke vegans? (who then even write a blog about it, tsk 😉) I think it may point to some form of anxiety to think these issues through. Not daring or not willing to think about the …

Nearly one third of youngsters find vegan labelled products more appealing

Published by

A recent US study by Morning Consult on consumer trends covered these three topics: 1) online versus in store shopping habits 2) purchasing considerations and 3) product labelling. In this last section on product labelling, respondents were asked to indicate whether respective terms made food more or less appealing to them. The terms included free range, glutenfree, fresh, natural flavours and another dozen or so terms. A vegan labelled product Stats with respect to the term vegan: Overall, 17% said the term vegan made the product more appealing to buy. 35% said the term vegan made the product neither less nor more appealing. Another 35% said it made the product less appealing. And 12% said they didn’t know, or had no opinion. So that means that over half of respondents (52%) find a vegan labelled product more appealing or neither less or more appealing (combined). ‘Fresh’ was found to be the most appealing term to label a product with, while ‘vegan’ was overall the least. 81% of respondents say that a food or beverage product would be more appealing …

Yield

Published by

Pinnacle of speciesism: when an animal is reduced to her function or yield   Animals are not ‘egg’, ‘bacon’, ‘wool’ or ‘milk’, but each and every one sentient feeling beings, who can suffer pain, each with their own individuality. Spotted in a shop in Valkenburg (the Netherlands)

Vegan brownie at Cat Café Dreamcathers, Ghent

Published by

Dreamcathers is a cat cafe in between the city hall and the Vrijdagmarkt, in a small alley. It is not far from vegan lunch bar Mie Vie. There are a couple of resident cats who are up for adoption. Dreamcathers work together with the organisations Dierenasiel Gent (shelter Ghent) and Kat Zoekt thuis (Cat looking for a home). Dreamcathers has vegan cakes and brownies and also offers drinks to enjoy while being among the cats (I think all the cakes are vegan, but not quite sure). Cats and vegan cake: a great combination! 🙂 I was here a couple of weeks ago with a friend, after our lunch at vegan cafe Mie Vie. Dreamcatchers works with timeslots. It is advised to make a reservation, but you can always try to inquire on the day itself to check availability. So I did (telephoned beforehand) and it was no problem to come over. The entrance fee is 3 euro per person (if you become a member, which is 10 euro, the entrance fee is reduced to 1,5€). …

Vegan food at hardcore festival IEPERFEST, Ypres

Published by

Ieperfest is a 3-day hardcore music festival, just outside Ypres (Ieper, 75km from Bruges, Belgium). Since day one, more than 20 years ago, all the food at Ieperfest is vegan! It was two years ago that we went to Ieperfest (see our blogpost here), and it was a wet edition in 2014. This time, it was a beautiful Summer weekend, and we went again one afternoon to try out the vegan goodies and enjoy the atmosphere. We tried to taste something from each foodstall, but by the end of the afternoon were too stuffed to accomplish that plan 😉 Payment for food and drinks was with tokens: we paid 66 euros for 30 tokens in total. Our plan was to start our food trip with the Flemish stew with seitan and potatoes from the Ieperfest Hardcore Foodstall, but it was announced it was only available from 5PM onwards. Bummer! So we started with a Dutch weedburger and some ‘Wish ‘n Chips’, that latter being a new ‘algae’ based dish from TDW. Nice! Here’s an overview of the food and drinks we had:   …

Some classics in animal advocacy. And juice!

Published by

Here are some books that inspired me. And some green juices. I posted this photo earlier on instagram last Summer, but wanted to write some more about it here. It’s about 20 years since I’ve read Peter Singer‘s Animal Liberation (1975 – on the photos is a Dutch version: Dierenbevrijding). This book triggered my interest in animal advocacy and human-animal relations. I think at that time, it had a similar impact on many people like Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals had more recently (both being very accessibly written and reaching a very large audience, and both are translated in so many languages). Although it is not about animal ‘rights’ in the philosophical sense, since it is written from a utilitarian perspective. Peter Singer explains the term speciesism (discrimination on the basis of species) and documents the many ways in which animals suffer at the hands of humans. The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams (1990) is a must read for anyone interested in feminism and/or animal advocacy and the concept of intersectionality. It shows the many ways in which the …

Graduation day video: to the zoo, the rodeo, or …. ?

Published by

This is undoubtedly one of the stangest videos I have seen in a long time! The scene is a graduation class in Japan, where students receive their diploma. Otherwise I won’t give any spoilers, my comments are below. Just watch it for yourself first! (note: there are no animals used in this video, and no images of animal abuse). Graduation class of 2014 It’s a very special day, the first day of a new journey: the students receive their ‘diplomas’ and hear their final destination, the job they have to do. This is what they’ve worked for all these years. “But an end is also a beginning” is the thought of a girl graduate, central in the video. The nose rings already lead to suspect they are not just ordinary students. Indeed, we learn it’s the graduation ceremony of the ‘cattle of 2014’. One graduate’s destination is Yamada farm, another one is off to a Rodeo Park in Texas. The graduates are not called out by their name, but by their number. The girl that was reassured by her friend that she will …