Animal Activist Forum 2016 Day 2

After a somewhat harrowing first day, it was time to front up for the second day. I should mention that at the beginning of each day, there was an opportunity for anyone to get up and give a short (a few minutes) talk on what they or their organisations had been up to. It was really fabulous to see how many great groups there are getting stuff done!

The first talk, 'the duty to bear witness', was given by Anita Krajnc of Toronto Pig Save (given via Skype). Anita gave a brief history of 'bearing witness' through social justice leaders and literature, then an update on Toronto Pig Save and her impending court case.

Morning tea was a selection of fruit, and hummus with veggies. I was very pleased that they had slightly steamed the broccoli and cauliflower (I find they hurt my stomach if I eat them raw unless they are very finely shaved or chopped).



I then went to a talk by Kelly Levenda of VeganGMO about 'how biotechnology can help humans, non-human animals, and the environment' (also via Skype). This talk was fascinating, and discussed a lot of the ways that biotech can help reduce or remove animal use in food, medicine and other aspects of life, as well as how it can provide greater food security and environmental benefits. I know GMOs can be a contentious issue in the world, and in the vegan world as well, but I am all for responsible science helping to make things better.

The next talk was 'understanding and using values in creating change for animals' by Marianne Macdonald. This was an interactive presentation, with lots of discussion! The basis was about using values as a method of motivating change, and used a chart with 58 core values (grouped into categories) to discuss what we should be aiming for. The interesting part came in that different people had different interpretations of the different values, so there was lots of great points raised.

Then it was lunch time! Again provided by the Cardamom Pod. Because both Elizabeth and I found it a bit spicy the day before, they put together a milder option for us, with a higher rice to curry ratio and some cooling salad.



After lunch I went to a talk about 'animals used in science', given by Alexandra Sedgwick of Cruelty Free Labs Australia. The talk ended up mostly being about how she started and ran her campaign, I had was hoping for a bit more information about the organisation itself and humane education.

I had to take a break and sit out for a bit after this. I was feeling pretty terrible about my time in vet school, where there were a lot of animals used in classes. I was a new vegan, very isolated, very timid. I did decline to take part in several classes (especially in later years when I was a bit more confident), but I still feel pretty crappy that I didn't speak up more during my time in vet school. (Interestingly, the new Uni of Melbourne post-grad vet degree has a stipulation that you must consent to animal use in class, or you cannot take part in the degree... they know the tides are turning). Anyway, basically I had to go and have a cry and a breather.

Then afternoon tea! Even though I wasn't feeling terribly hungry, I still managed to find room for a beautiful aquafaba meringue (I chose pink), and also a few slices of fruit.



The final talk I went to was called 'Vivisection: The evidence is all on our side' by Douglas Leith. He quoted a lot of articles and examples that really show that animal testing is a costly and inhumane practice, given that humans are not monkeys, rats, mice, etc. This tied in a little with the biotech talk from earlier, where they offered some cool alternatives to animal testing. I have heard several interviews on this topic, and a lot of researches do seem to want to move away from animal testing, but there is so much bureaucracy that makes it hard to do so.

The conference ended with a wrap-up meeting, where it was announced that next year's Forum will be held in Melbourne. I am hoping it works with my roster so that I can go! It was a pretty intense weekend, and very emotional at times. But it is important to remember why we do the things we do, and how we can do them better. The animals are counting on us.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Let's lighten the mood a little with a photo of Dim Sim being super cute!

Animal Activist Forum 2016 Day 1

This weekend just gone, I attended the annual Animal Activist Forum. This was my second time attending. Last year I visited Melbourne for it, but this year it was at the Gold Coast. This meant that I could drive from home each day to attend. I'm going to go through the talks that I went through, as well as the food (it was all provided!). CW: There will be some references to some distressing things, and be careful before clicking on any links. There were three talks going on at a time, so I had to pick carefully between some great speakers. I'm splitting this into two posts, though there aren't as many food photos as usual.

But to start off, some cupcakes! This beautiful array of cupcakes were available for purchase during the day, for if you needed a sugar hit. I didn't have one, but they look gorgeous.



The first talk I attended was by Michael Webermann from FARM, speaking via Skype, on 'Moving the masses towards compassionate vegan eating'. This was a great talk (and included a surprise visit from his puppy), which included some great information on how to best attract new vegans and also how to prevent recidivism.

Then it was time for morning tea! The forum had a few sponsors providing food for us. Morning tea included Fry's nuggets, lots of fresh fruit, doughnut holes, dried fruit, soy crisps and gingernuts! Excuse the reaching hands in the first photo, vegans be hungry!





My next talk was by political scientist and academic Peter Chen, and was called 'Lessons from history for animal activisits'. Peter was a very entertaining and engaging speaker. I discovered that pre-WW1, Australia had a burgeoning vegetarian and animal rights scene, that just vanished. He also discussed different campaigns from the past, and how lessons learned can inform future campaigns.

Then it was on to Chris Delforce from Aussie Farms (CW, Aussie Farms has disturbing videos). Chris is responsible for a huge amount of undercover footage coming to light of the horrific treatment that goes on in piggeries, hatcheries and other 'production animal' places. His talk was 'An update on the Aussie Farms initiative: Combating the myth that it doesn't happen here'. Too often Australians dismiss vegan concerns with 'that doesn't happen here', but the footage that Chris has managed to obtain proves that it does. He also has put together the Thousand Eyes video (CW: graphic images in video), that is used as a pay-per-view initiative all over Australia.

I have to say, I wasn't feeling too hungry after the footage in his talk. But lunch was provided, and with only 45 minutes for break it was eaten quickly! Lunch was provided by The Cardamom Pod. It included a kofta ball, some curry and rice, and a tofu and spinach salad. The curry was a bit on the spicy side, so thankfully they had soy milk out on the tea and coffee stations to help cool us down!



The first talk after lunch was 'David vs. Goliath: The story of SAFE's campaign against NZ's sacred cow of dairy' by Mandy Carter (from SAFE). I didn't realise that dairy was such a major industry in New Zealand, nor that they export their milk all over the world. The campaign run by SAFE (including undercover footage collected by Farm Watch) has threatened the industry so much that they are trying to revoke their charity status.

The next talk was titled 'Sustainable Activism: Developing resilience of heart and mind (meditation for vegan activists)', by Tamasin Ramsay. Self care and prevention of burn out is so important in the activist community, so I was really hoping that this would be a helpful talk. Unfortunately it was mostly a tale about Tamasin's life, which was interesting but not really practical. It did end with a short meditation.

Afternoon tea was a selection of sweet things! More doughnut holes, chocolate chip cookies and Leda's choculence (aka vegan Tim Tams). Nothing like an afternoon sugar rush!



The final talk of the day that I went to was by Anna Ludvik and called 'Domestic violence and animal abuse - International perspectives and intersectionality'. Anna is the founder of Lucy's Project, a foundation that aims to help human and animal victims of domestic violence by encouraging safe shelters for both people and animals. Keeping families together, and hopefully preventing people from feeling like they cannot leave an abusive situation because there is nowhere safe for their animals.

The first day was harrowing, though very thought provoking. To sustain me on the drive to Brisbane, I stopped by Kuan Yin Tea House in Southport and picked up a Taro Soy Milk Bubble Tea... aka cookie drink!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara spent all evening yesterday tucked up in the pink fluffy bed. I had to go and get her out of it to take her up to proper bed!

Melbourne 2015 Part 3

Sunday dawned and I was sad. No Smith & Deli today because they were not open. Thankfully I had planned ahead! I had chilled my chai overnight in the fridge and enjoyed it with some leftover chester scroll before heading into the Forum. And I ate the doughnut for second breakfast during the opening session of the forum.



I will talk briefly about the days' talks here. I went to a talk about the work that the Coalition for the Protection of Race Horses is doing, a talk on intersectionality and diversity (which was a highlight), a talk called 'One Bad Day', which I will talk more about in a moment, a talk on how the meat industry is manipulating people about the environment, a fascinating talk about using psycholinguistics to get our message across, and a talk about share holder activism. All good talks.

I did just want to touch on the 'One Bad Day' talk. Many people who buy into humane meat do so on the belief that the animals have super lives and then 'one bad day'. The first half of this talk was about the totally pathetic regulations governing the transport of live animals, which can include extended periods with out water. The second part of the talk was from an ex-abattoir worker who is now a vegan, about his experiences in the abattoir. This was a hard talk to sit through, and it was very clear that he is still quite traumatised from his time there. It also shed important light on something we don't often talk about in the animal community, about the exploitation of many workers within the abattoir system. He lived in a town where the abattoir was the main employer, and education was minimal, so if you couldn't somehow get out of the town you just went to work at the abattoir. His compassion for his former co-workers, as well as for the animals, was touching.

Okay, that got a bit heavy, so back to food! I had two lunches. The first was an Everything Bagel with Dill Cream Cheese that I had bought the previous day from Smith & Deli. It was so good! Though the seeds went everywhere!



Second lunch was something light, a mix of kale and quinoa salad and spring green salad from Sumo Salad. As well as a green juice, which sounded really savoury but ended up having pear and lemon juice in it so was sweeter than I was expecting.



The reason for the light lunch was because I had big dinner plans at Smith & Daughters. When I was in Melbourne last year on my birthday Leigh and I went here for dinner, but we had just been poisoned by the evil Trippy Taco, and so our dinner was pretty uncomfortable even though the food was great. Thankfully we were feeling better the next morning and had a great brunch there! But this was my redo at dinner. I was hungry and not feeling sick, so things were getting off to a good start! And then they got better. NOM. I started with a delicious grilled apple, lime and mint juice.



There were three of us at dinner, and we shared a bunch of food. This is the Champinones al Ajillo - button mushrooms simmered in a creamy Spanish sauce of Pedre Ximenex, garlic & smoked paprika, served with toasted bread. This was so good, the sauce was drinkable! It just could have done with some more bread for soaking up that sauce.



The Layered Queso Dip was also fantastic. I had this last year, but my tummy was so sad that it was just a bit too much back then. Now, it was super yum! House-made cashew cheese layered over spiced black bean dip, topped with salsa and served with corn chips. There was no wrong here.



The Kale and Leek Bake was a combination of braised leek cooked with kale in a bubbling cream sauce and topped with crispy garlic bread crumbs. Yum.



This huge potato platter was the Patatas Con Romesco Ahumado, crushed and fried chat potatoes with smokey romesco sauce and chimichurri. I suspect there may have been a bit of coconut oil in play here because I did have a faint coconut oil hangover. It was a super generous serving! I love chimichurri and this was great.



And finally the tuna and pea croquettes, described as Spanish bechamel folded with tuna and green pea and served with caper aioli. I was a bit wary of mock fishy-ness, but this was lovely. Not as good as the paella fritters.

We finished our meal with some of their delicious quince-stuffed doughnuts. I seem to have forgotten to take a photo, so here is a photo of them that I took when I was there at brunch last year.



And of course no trip to Smith & Daughters is complete without these little guys as dining companions. The return of Salt and Pepper Ninja!



This dinner was delicious, though very rich! I was a little overcome by food as I waddled back to my AirBnB to get some sleep. I am so happy I finally got to have my proper Smith & Daughters dinner!

I was heading home the next morning, but I left enough time to visit Crumbs Organic Bakery in North Melbourne (not the one in Ascot Vale) for breakfast. I was still a bit full from the night before, but a breakfast of doughnuts helped me through. I had my favourite cinnamon sugar sourdough doughnut, and also branched out and tried the lemon curd filled doughnut, which was delicious! Very good curd. I also had a chai, which sadly was not a patch on the chai from Smith & Deli, but nothing ever is.



I also bought some goodies to take home with me, and for my lunch on the plane. But I was so full that I didn't actually eat until I was home and suddenly in the mood for pastries for afternoon tea. I had bought another cinnamon sugar sourdough doughnut, a Nutella doughnut, and a raspberry and rhubarb pastry from Crumbs. They were all so good.



I shared these with my parents, along with that challah sticky bun I had bought two days before from Smith & Deli. Stored in a snap lock bag in the fridge and then given a quick zap in the microwave, this was incredible! The sticky sweet glaze was rich, like brown sugar, rather than being overly sweet. I could eat an entire one of these and then some!

Crumbs also sells savoury options, and I had bought a spinach, tomato, mushroom and red onion calzone for lunch on the plane. As mentioned I didn't eat it on the plane, but it kept well overnight and I had it for lunch the following day.



Photo of other goodies that I brought back from some vegan shopping in Melbourne.



Overall it was a really good weekend in Melbourne. The food was great, the people were lovely, the food was amazing... even though I was seriously craving some greens and smoothies by the time I got home. The forum was also a good learning experience, there are so many people out there doing amazing things, I feel kind of inadequate. Hopefully it will fire me up to become more involved! Oh, and did I mention that the food was out of this world?

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



A final photo of Max the AirBnB kitty in all his fluffy glory.

Melbourne 2015 Part 2

Between breakfast and lunch I took a trip to the Cruelty Free Shop to pick up some goodies. The Cruelty Free Shop has an online store, but also shops in Sydney and Melbourne. It is the only place I seem to be able to get my favourite Tropical Source chocolate chips, and they have a lot of other goodies as well, so it is well worth a visit if you are in the area.

After shopping, it was back to Smith & Deli to meet up with a friend for lunch. This is their awesome sign out the front of the shop.



It was a lot busier at lunch time, particularly because this is when they serve their famous sandwiches! Once we were in possession of our goodies, we headed back to the park for a lovely lunch. I got another chai as well, this time iced because it was hot.



Smith & Deli has an extensive list of sandwiches, which can be a bit overwhelming when you have the chance to just order one. For the month of MoFo, Quinces and Kale reviewed most of these sandwiches, which helped me to narrow it down. I chose the Home Alone - seitan turkey, mashed potatoes, brussels sprouts, stuffing, cranberry sauce and gravy on a roll. It was glorious. Messy, but glorious!



My friend had the Club Sandwiches Not Seals, which he said he loves! I also love a good club sandwich, though the amazingness of the club at Wayward in Seattle is still fresh in my mind. One day I would like to try this club. it looks pretty great!



I also had one of their apple pie spiced doughnuts, which was lovely. Kind of like a cinnamon doughnut but with a hint of apple.



Full from lunch, I headed into the city to see the David Bowie Is exhibit at ACMI. I love Bowie. I have loved Bowie ever since I was younger, when I saw him in Labyrinth. I think there were a lot of us who thought Sarah was an idiot for wanting to take her brother home and not stay there and be with Bowie and be his queen. Incidentally, I have seen those breeches at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, where the original Jareth costume is displayed. I also enjoy his music a lot. What I didn't realise is that he is a creative genius! I learnt so much about him, his history, his music and art... it was amazing! It is only in Melbourne until the 1st of November, if you have a chance to see it. Get ready to swoon a bit.

I spent quite a bit of time in the Bowie exhibit, because it was fascinating and it was also a nice break from the hot sun outside. Eventually I went to meet my friend Jess for dinner at Warung Agus, a new-to-me place but one of his favourites. It is not a vegan restaurant, but has a good vegan menu. Sorry for the crappy photos, the lighting wasn't great and my phone camera has decided to have difficult focusing sometimes.

We started with Krupuk Singkong, which is spicy cassava crackers with peanut sauce. This was a fun starter, and the crackers were not too spicy for me. The peanut sauce was good, however no peanut sauce can measure up to the brilliant peanut sauce from Araya's in Seattle.



For our mains, we shared the Tempe Jagung (tempeh in sweet soy sauce with corn, spring onion and spices) and the Tuung Mebasa Santen Lalah Manis (sliced eggplant and tofu braised in coconut milk, sweet soy and spicy gravy), and some rice of course. We also had some Sesaur (shredded coconut with palm sugar and spices) on the side. It was very nice! I enjoyed the nutty friend tempeh, but the stand out for me was the beautiful eggplant. So silky and delicious!







Wow, some of those photos were worse than I realised. Afterwards we took a longer stroll back towards Carlton, and stopped at Casa Del Gelato for some vegan options. The small option here has three scoops in... I am not sure in what universe that is small. Anyway, we had chocolate, strawberry and jasmine. The jasmine was lovely, and combined it was like a super fun neopolitan blend.

The next morning was the first day of the conference, and I headed straight back to Smith & Deli to pick up some breakfast! As well as a yummy chai, I had the Friend Zone, which is a toasted cheese, tomato and ham sandwich. Delicious!



I also got a Chester Scroll to take to the conference for a snack - this had mashed potatoes, gravy, peas and cheese in it. Yes, it was as good as it sounds.



Then it was a tram down to Melbourne Town Hall for the first day of the Animal Activist Forum. I attended some great talks, including a talk on the role sanctuaries play in animal advocacy by Kyle Behrend from Edgar's Mission (complete with super cute photos!), a talk called 'What to say when you don't know everything' by psychologist Clare Mann, an update on Ag-Gag laws in Australia from Voiceless and a talk by Ron Prasad on the five keys to effective outreach.

Lunch wasn't provided at the forum, so I headed to Supercharger at the Emporium for some much needed wholefoods. In the big bowl, the base is butternut mash with sesame seeds and also some fresh baby spinach. This was then topped with avocado tofu smash with tofu and spices, shredded beetroot, carrot, radish and ginger with braggs, fermented daikon and garlic and tahini sauce. In the small bowls, there is braised assorted mushrooms in ginger broth and chickpeas in cinnamon curry. I also had a blueberry, strawberry and sage infused water. It was all great, except for the avocado silken tofu smash. It was advertised as being 'like guacamole', but the tofu taste was too strong and I couldn't really taste the avocado.



After the conference, I headed back to Smith & Deli to pick up some snacks and breakfast for the next day as they are closed on Sunday and Monday so this was my last chance. I bought this box of sweeties. Gluten free raspberry chocolate brownie, sugar doughnut and sticky challah bun.



For dinner, I went on a solo dinner date to Yong Green Food, which is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. I started with a detox turmeric shot, because they are tasty.



I was in need of some greens, so I ordered my favourite Seaweed Salad. This is so light and fresh, I could eat it all day!



I also tried the Tofu Katsu, which is something new. A tofu katsu patty served on a generous bed of coleslaw with brown rice, pickle and katsu sauce. The katsu itself is unique, it is not simply a slab of tofu but is a mix of tofu, shiitake, arame and veggies coated in crunchy quinoa.





When I got home I had the raspberry chocolate brownie I had bought from Smith & Deli. Holy smokes, that was amazing! So perfect, rich, moist, dense, fudgy... such a great deep flavour, not too sweet. Perfect. I could have had a million.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



More Max! The AirBnB kitty. His mum was out all Saturday night, so he slept on my bed. Yay!