More accurate would be "Hi, I'm Ms Cows ass muscle! And I'm a big blob of testicles and snouts and all that other great stuff, imagine eating those parts of YOUR body, haHA!......We love being cut out from the rest of our living body, and lying here in plastic, limp and dead, so you can buy us......"
While paying at the self scanning checkout, listening to the latest episode of On Human Nonhuman Relations through earbuds I spotted "pig [sic] ears" while paying for my bag of plums:
Perhaps as consolation for Vegan shoppers, soy yoghurt is on special for about half price.
Cmon Pak n Save, how about a Vegan Week? All vegan products, fruit and vegetables etc sold are 10% off :-) Big ad campaigns, the (non Freezing) works!
These campaigns from a huge supermarket are equally immature as this radio host
"On this occasion, the final contribution was from a young girl of about ten years old who said she was a vegetarian and she thought it was wrong that cows are killed to be eaten and have leather made from their skins or that sheep are killed to be eaten and have their wool taken. After she finished speaking, listeners were transferred back to the Newstalk studio and the first thing Moncrieff said, Homer Simpson style, was, “mmmmm, rashers.”"
I get the mental image of an American style pimp demanding "his" workers cough up more money.
1m 30s through
"New challenges facing New Zealand's dairy industry will likely force a slowdown in milk production over the next decade, according to a new report.
Agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank said the industry had ridden a wave of steady growth over the past decade, with milk production increasing by almost 50 per cent.
Good returns, increased capital investment, and strong asset growth had fuelled the development of new dairy farms and processing facilities.
But farmers would need to start looking at how to better squeeze productivity gains from their existing herd, as well as finding ways to control their costs, said Rabobank senior analyst and report author Hayley Moynihan.
"Over the next decade, growth will no longer be driven by increasing the number of dairy cows in the national herd, but by productivity improvements as farmers strive to extract greater production per cow."
"New Zealand dairy operations would become increasingly intensive."
I decided to take a video of my Hen Friends running to meet me when I came home today. They were up near the front of our section, so no dramatic "running for their lives to see me" like in the earlier video, but perhaps what I've recorded is even better! My Hen Friends often follow me, as though "walking in formation", like having wingmates! :-) Aren't they lovely? :-) 1m 13s Yellow Hen 1m 19s Curious Hen, who taps the camera for being shiny, she even leaps to touch it! :-) Like Ms Hen, the all black mother of Black Chick and Yellow Hen, Curious Hen likes to hold eye contact. You can see her throughout this video looking up into my eyes to see what I'm doing. The other hens will do this too, briefly. A genuine interest in someone else. 1m 37s the sound you can hear is Geiger Hen "squealing", although I skip over her to show the now healed Home Hen looking friendly :-) 1m 50s focuses on Whole Hen, who is a blazing orange. She holds her head up to make eye contact and inspect the camera, but she had no plans of pecking it. Part of her personality, she is also curious about new objects, and seeing whats going on, she holds her head like this to suss out things :-) 1m 56s Geiger Hen, briefly, who *would* have tapped the camera too, she often bites at shoelaces etc :-)
Its nice walking with a little "gang" of Hen Friends through the garden :-) An earlier video, Bantam Hen Friends Running To Meet Me :-) Mr Rooster, Black Chick and the Yellow Hens :-)
Newstalk ZB was nice enough to talk with Vegans and Vegetarians on late night radio, with very well known New Zealand celebrity Kerre Woodham.
On air, I mentioned how it can be very affordable to live Vegan, in terms of our clothing, our choices, our food. I was allowed to read out my friend Lisa Viger's website ("vee jay"), "Raw on $10", affordable Vegan living for ten American dollars per day.
The World Wildlife Fund have launched a fancy new report on "Potential Low Carbon Growth Opportunities for the Southern Region Economy". I attended the event with Dan on behalf of the Invercargill Vegan Society, where we met Grant of Sea Shepherd, Dave Kennedy, local Green Party MP, Jenny of Transition Towns, Local Council candidate Rebecca Amunsden and partner Phil.....HEAPS of people! :-)
On signing my name in attendance at the door, I placed my Invercargill Vegan Society canvas bag on the table. It was readily noticed by World Wrestling Fed.........World Wildlife Fund member Rosa, who commented "OH, theres a Vegan Society here?". Yup :-)
Rosa is Vegan! And so is Niamh, who I met a few months ago at a similar environmental event. Its a small world out there, with a lot of Vegans :-)
Guy on the bottom left has a great haircut! :-) Dans sitting next to me too, when we realised the cameras were behind us, she pinned my INVSOC badge to the back of my jacket. This photo managed to avoid adding in our ad :-)
I'm also slouching as much as I can so those behind can see! 1.95M tall, my legs are touching the chairs in front! :-)
Held at the Invercargill Public Libraries meeting room, the speakers were fantastic, and I learnt that New Zealand has a decent hazelnut industry in the South Island, you learn something new every day!
Heres to a world where we move away from Non Vegan exports, to becoming world leaders in Hazelnut milk! :-)
The escalators, shut off as the library closed to the public, we walked down them, gingerly for fear of sentient-swallowing-stepper on-er behaviour! Meeting room in the background
I had some left over lemons at home, had to use them for something......a third of a glass of lemon juice.......sweet.....sour....gorgeous......painful.
But tonights meeting with WWF? Wholly Wonderful and Fulfilling!
I woke up on Sunday morning to find Neil Armstrong had died, the first person to walk on our moons surface. The last time I felt this way was Michael Jacksons death, back in 2009. I remember where I was when I found out (at work, my friend Dan, first Vegan I ever met txt me). I found out about Neil Armstrong dying from checking The Verge on my phone. While now EVERYONE will claim to have been hugely interested in space history, in travelling to other worlds, I've been mentioning the moonlanding for years now!
The last episodes of this show have made manned flight to landing on the moon analogies for an example of progress over time, of how Veganism can likewise grow rapidly over the period of sixty, seventy years. Episode 83 "Rainbow Warriors with Vegan Cupcakes fly to the Moon"was recorded on July 20th, 2012.
Just like with Michael Jackson, *I* had been a fan for a long time, not just boom, once the great man had died! :-)
There were three American astronauts for the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and the often forgotten Michael Collins, who kept the orbiter successfully "in orbit" around the moon, to then pick up the two astronauts who ventured to the moons surface, and return home to Earth. Michael Collins, who designed the mission badge for Apollo 11 should be remembered and respected! :-)
Your spacesuit might not be as cool as Michael Jacksons in 3D themepark ride "Captain EO"....
...but still amazing to think yours *actually* worked.
Your footprint is as iconic and well recognized as Mr Jacksons white glove.
If there were a heaven, I'd like to picture the you took photo of Buzz Aldrin, added into this photo of the moon I took today at the Otepuni Gardens: learning to moonwalk from Michael Jackson, while wearing Etiko fair trade sneakers (astronaut picture didnt have any footwear!), while the 2001: A Space Odyssey starchild Bowman watches on in awe.
Neil Armstrong, the first person from planet Earth to walk on another planetary body in our universe. Our greatest collective achievement as a species.
(epic moonwalk at 5m mark, while the bass part gets really funky) You went there in peace, you took photos of your friend Buzz (below) and you changed the world.
Day Two of Newsletter Delivery : Gang HQ interrogations, Car Crashes, 911 Conspiracy Bumper Stickers and the South City Mall
Day Three of Newsletter Delivery : Fantastic skies, Closed Police Stations with antique telephones, shorts and white legs
A gorgeous day! Seriously, this photo is unedited, beautiful, FANTASTIC sky :-)
"No Hoodies" at the stationery shop?
I guess the Bic man gets away with his jersey though?
A bag full of Green Party newsletters
The house my paternal grandfather lived in, South City Mall in the background. He lived up top, my best friend growing up lived in the bottom :-) Sam used to pull all kinds of pranks on my poor grandfather, such as stealing his keys. As a very young child, he once released the handbrake of his mothers jaffa red Ford Escort, rolling it down the drive and onto the road!
A letterbox where you insert mail from the side!?!?
Cutout shapes! Very cool! The mailbox has a hinged flap, the whole thing swings in! :-)
It'll take a lot more than a closed footpath, traffic cones and fresh fenced off concrete to stop me putting a Green Party newsletter in THIS mailbox! The only thing that *could* stop me? Hmm, probably an "adressed mail only" warning.
The centre left Labour party have tried to stake this turf as THEIR patch, well, I'll see about that!
Today a strange envelope arrived at my work, I'd received second place in a vegan essay contest for new website Go Vegan :-)
The Hen Friends were excited too (albeit for the oats I scattered nearby while taking photos)
Curious Hen even did a hand stand!
Go Vegan should be launching sometime soon.... I hope to interview them on the big day :-)
"New Zealand Vegan Short-essay Competition:
We are running an essay competition. We invite you to submit an essay.
We are looking for moving, well-written essays by New Zealanders explaining why they are vegan, and the ways in which veganism benefits humans, animals and/or the planet.
Entries should be no longer than 1000 words long. The winning essays will be published on the upcoming website for a new, National vegan outreach project currently in development. There may also be an invitation to speak publically on the topic, and we would offer the winning essays for publication in the New Zealand Vegetarian Society and Vegan Society magazines. We would also offer the winning entry for publication in newspapers and magazines across New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US. When you submit your essay you are giving us permission to do so.
With not an hour to spare before the deadline was up, email sent at 11pm or so 30th of July, 995 words :-)
"Just five years ago, living here in Invercargill, I'd never really met any "vegetarians", and I *certainly* didn't know what a "vegan" was! The only Vegetarians I knew in person were distant family members, from "The Far North" ( Christchurch ) and they were rather "alternative". From extrapolating how you would die based on the lines and creases in your palm, sensing mystical energies in semi-precious stones and generally being a pain when ordering fish and chips from The Albatross takeaway while visiting Invercargill - "do they make small samosas? how much cilantro do they add?" - they were always a little…….. "different"…….than what I was used to :-)
I attended Catholic schools, primary/intermediate, then high school. Senior students at Verdon College were asked to "give up meat" each Friday during the religious festival Lent - I remember thinking this was a mad idea! How could they *possibly* expect The Big Kids to give up the majority of their food? What would they be allowed to eat each friday, a couple lettuce leaves with a garnish of grated carrot for flavor?
My father spent around a decade doing seasonal work in slaughterhouses. Because of his left handiness, he was put to work on the disassembly chain cutting off the left sides of the animals as they swung past upside down. My dad : a left handed cog in the vast slaughterhouse machine.
I grew up in a Non Vegan family, in a Non Vegan part of a Non Vegan Country in a Non Vegan world. What made me decide to take the red pill, and learn more about the harm and death we inflict on Other Animals, to reject becoming a right handed cog at a local slaughterhouse?
The first time I can remember consciously realising how I felt was while watching horror movie Silence of the Lambs. "IT rubs the lotion on ITS skin, or else IT gets the hose again", the way a human being, a human animal was treated as though she was merely a "thing", as though she were someone elses "property". Her life did not belong to her, she was regarded as living property, living stock, she was "livestock", and talked about by her possessor as though she had no gender or independent life of her own, called an "it" rather than a he or she. The character in the movie was valued only for her skin, which was to be preserved into what we call "leather", to be worn by a human being. Growing up wearing, eating and using Other Animals my whole life, I suddenly felt like I'd known all along this was wrong, and that this was not who I wanted to be, this was not who I was inside.
When I was a little boy, sick in bed, my mother let me know we had baby chicks, that these tiny hens and roosters had hatched from the eggs their mother had made, that their father had fertilized, that their mother had laid and kept warm for weeks and weeks. Photos show me in my bed, surrounded by my colorful duvet and these delightful baby chickens. Its obvious to all the world that I loved these birds, my little friends, who would never cause any harm to anyone.
Yet I and my family still bought chickens someone else had killed and we ate their bodies. We never considered how there was no difference between the chickens in the photos, beaming as I hold them in my hands, and all the other chickens we bought from Killing Friendly Chickens or our local supermarket, or their eggs which were taken from Hens, or what happened to the male chickens who would never lay eggs for the farmer. We didn't think, we just acted like everyone else did.
Since becoming Vegan a few years ago, I feel like I'm the person I've always been inside, on the outside.
I started the Invercargill Vegan Society (INVSOC) to offer support to others who perhaps felt the same way I had, who wanted to be Vegan, or who had been Vegan and wanted to be part of a local community. We hold monthly Vegan potlucks which all are welcome to join, and they are simply fantastic, it really is incredible what a group of friends can accomplish. We share recipes on our website, and vegans around the world have sent in photos with their honorary member INVSOC badges. We share these as our "We Are INVSOC" project so that you can see Vegans are all shapes and sizes,in all countries. People who are exceptionally nice, and who wouldn't be a hassle with questions of how much "cilantro" were in the takeaway "samosas"! :-)
I started INVSOC by myself, "the only vegan in the village", having never met another Vegan in person. Now, I'm in contact with the dozen or so Vegans here in Invercargill, New Zealand and the world each and every day. Veganism has grown rapidly in the last few years, and its exciting to meet new Vegans, and to see Veganism now mentioned in mainstream New Zealand news and television shows :-)
Its as easy to be vegan as not, instead of buying milk from cows made pregnant to keep their female bodies producing mammalian milk, I simply reach for the Soy Milk on the same shelf as the cows milk, goats milk and sheep milk. Its easy to wear clothing not made from Other Animals. We have sausages and burgers, they're made from plant sources, are easily available at any decent supermarket nation wide, and taste great!
Its lovely to know that wherever you live in New Zealand, there are now other vegans online and/or in person interested in friendship and support while we tell the truth about how we feel towards others.
We promote compassion and respect towards those smaller, larger and even medium-er than ourselves, as vegans, as Human animals.
My overall progress, blacked out in a trail of green pamphlets placed inside letterboxes. I respect "NO JUNKMAIL!!!!" warning signs, of which there are some fantastically angry examples! Today I finished off the bottom quarter or so of the permanent marker-ed out grid.
The Appleby Tavern, known for being a little...."rough around the edges". A good place to catch your friends playing in their punk band though! (location on Google Maps)
We're promised ten dollar meals, and buxom blonde busty boozed-up bombshells. President Hillary Clinton after finally getting the top job?
Just around the corner from "the Appleby" is the Road Knights gang headquarters, where you're greeted by this huge fence.
The main enemies of the "Road Knights", "The Mighty Mongrel Mob", seen watching a fire at *their* headquarters.
I took the photo of the door in the fence, then walked a few metres away to take the above whole house photo.....and then a GUY popped up at the top of the fence! No kidding, I had my hands up, just having hit the shutter button when the man appeared! "Why'd ya take a photo of our door?" he said, I was....to be polite......scared as heck! Trying to be reasonably confident, I told the truth, I remembered the huge fire, and was taking a photo of how the building looked now. I told the gang member, who was a good 3, 4 metres high up into the air at the top of his watchpost hidden just behind the massive fence I was on a pamphlet run, delivering pamphlets. I asked him if he'd like a Green Party pamphlet, and reached up with all my strength, he was damn high up! He took it, I kind of nodded with a small smile, and kept going. This Green Party newsletter delivery run can *really* get the heart racing! As I left, I thought about how this watchman must man his post all hours of the day and night, on this hot Southland day, he was just metres behind that fence. No less than twenty seconds had passed total since I'd stopped to take the first photo, then stopped to take the second photo when he appeared atop the outpost at the top. There must be stairs or a ramp or something on their side, a platform of some kind. I didnt hear any climbing, he just seemed to be "there". Walking away, I tried to stay at least reasonably confident, if I was going to be SHOT in the back or whatever, I might as well die like a trying-to-look-calm-man, rather than running for my life! Click to read more
The Southland Times article "Industry Does Well Slaughtering Meat Prices" covers "homekill", when a small operator will drive out to a farm and shoot animals to death, before dropping their body off to a registered butcher to handle the rest, then delivering the "meat" to the animals "owner".
"Homekill in Southland is humming but competition can be cut-throat. Shawn McAvinue talks to four companies making a killing in Southland.
Homekill is nothing new but more slaughtermen are surfacing in Southland.
Lumsden slaughterman Ray Orchard said killing beasts has grown his business steadily since he started six years ago.
The sole operator used to kill about four cattle a week and about 140 sheep, but now he slaughtered about a dozen cattle and 60 sheep, and the odd pig and alpaca, he said.
"Eighty per cent was for dog tucker. Now two thirds is for the table."
After the television show Sunday investigated the popularity of homekill in April his business boomed, he said.
Business had been so good he bought a new refrigerated truck.
Mr Orchard slaughtered animals for clients and then recommended a butcher."
"Slaughterman Trevor McMullien said he was empathic when slaughtering animals by ensuring no children or women saw."
Goodness, cant let any children or women see as we big strong men kill animals for the children and women to then eat!!!
"He slaughtered about 15 beasts a week but sheep slaughters dropped to about 30 a week when the meatworks gave farmers better prices, he said.
However, lifestyle block owners around Invercargill were becoming a bigger part of his regular clientele, he said.
His partner Catherine Julian free-flow packed the meat beautifully, he said."
"Most beef was slaughtered before winter when the cattle were in the best condition so there was a spike in slaughtering, he said.
He did not advertise and in a busy week his company would kill for 200 customers, he said.
Half the slaughter was beef, then sheep and a few pigs and deer, he said.
Homekill was popular because people got fillet steak for the price they were paying for mince in the supermarket, he said.
Isla Bank butchery slaughterman Tim Ellison said knowing how to walk into a paddock with his .243 calibre rifle was a skill.
"There's a lot more to it than you think. What is the animal thinking? What if he gets toey? Could he jump a fence?"
Aranui Skins managing director Darryl Gerken said most slaughtermen dropped off their skins to his business in Gore.
He sold the skins to exporters in Christchurch and was the only company accepting cattle and sheep skins from slaughtermen, he said.
"Homekill is getting busier and busier every season."
He had owned the company in Gore for seven years and he bought more skins this season than the past one, he said.
When the recession hit in 2008, hides were worthless so slaughtermen threw them away, but good prices returned in 2010, he said.
Prices for sheep skins were falling, mirroring falling wool prices, but the price of cattle hides was stable and they sold well to Italy, he said.
About 15 years ago, the company got 1500 sheep skins but now it was about 350, he said.
Good prices for mutton at the meatworks meant farmers bought rolls or biscuits for their dogs rather than killing a sheep, he said.
He estimated about 4000 beasts would be killed by slaughtermen each year in Southland"
Hell Pizza is a New Zealand chain, started as a cheap student pizza joint, now taking over the world. A cool company, its rare to have a strong New Zealand business chain, when ALL of our banks were Australian owned until the government created Kiwibank inside of each and every post shop. Our mainstream news media are almost entirely Australian owned, and our most popular website TradeMe, a sort of New Zealand take on eBay was bought out a few years ago.
I'd love to support Hell Pizza, but *should* I?
Their "hell" theme might be offensive to religious believers, and I can respect that. Their ads and advertising campaigns are often somewhat "edgy", such as this about "piles of cocaine"
Hell have been in trouble for bullying franchisees, people who run local stores. They've sent out free condoms to promote their "meat lovers" pizza, the "Lust" - the prophylactics were found to be of inferior quality. Actually, many of their ads and campaigns are *very* offensive to Vegans, such as the below which shows a cartoon lamb who has been horribly maimed, for their "lamb shanks", they've been outfitted with prosthetic rear legs:
Yet..... Hell Pizza also offer the "Sinister", an *advertised*, featured on the menu VEGAN pizza! Look at how gorgeous it is! Click to see at HUGE size :-) How fantastic it is to be able to simply ask for "a double Sinister please", nationwide! Actually, Hell is international, Ireland, UK (same thing, eh Roger? :-) ), Australia, India....Canada......but not Canadas Seat for some reason........hmmmm..... :-) They have a large Non Vegan, vegetarian range. Currently Hell are running ads for products featuring "Quorn", a birds egg containing "fake flesh" product. This ad *does* make fun of Vegetarians, in typical Hell fashion, but its fairly mild by the standards of their other ads:
At least one Quorn product is actually Vegan, it would be GREAT if they were to all be Vegan, worth encouraging the company! :-) The ad gives the website URL www.hell.co.nz/v for more info, a copy of the ad and this fantastic information, hard to believe a mainstream pizza chain takes this seriously, terrific!
They dont mind changing their gloves as policy? They use a separate blade? Of course, presumably Vegan and Vegetarian pizzas are all lumped together, so the Vegan pizzas will technically be cut by the "veggie blade" which touches cows milk products. Still, isnt it great that Hell are taking this seriously, for Vegetarians at least? Are they a great company, for having so many options for Vegetarians, and one well featured option (the Sinister) for Vegans? Or, are they a terrible company, for making fun of harming and killing Other Animals? For going leaps and bounds ahead of all other restaurant chains with separate cutting utensils for "Vegetarians", yet "contaminating" Vegan pizzas (presumably) with dairy drenched steel? Would *you* support such a company? My personal view is that all companies are run by Non Vegans, for a Non Vegan world. I love that Hell have the "Sinister" option for Vegans, that they would feature the word VEGAN in their menu, nationwide, in several countries. Their ads can often be gross, but then again, all our local supermarkets have literal dead corpses, killed animals on display, the hearts, kidneys, heads, skeletons of Chickens no different to my beloved Hen Friends. We cannot avoid Non Veganism in this Non Vegan world, so does that make it ok for me to buy a Sinister every now and then from a company which jokes about harming cartoon sheep, while also harming *actual* sheep like nearly every other Non Vegan food company? *** Update *** "A new menu item at Hell Pizza has left a sour taste, with the company's "misfortune cookies" sparking accusations the company is transphobic. Hell Pizza customer Tamsyn Clemerson was shocked when she and her boyfriend opened a fortune cookie last night, and found a piece of paper saying: "you will marry a transgender". "I pulled it out and read it to him and we both of us made a `what on earth is going on here' face," she told NZ Newswire. "It's implying that to be associated with somebody who is trans is a misfortune, and that is so awful - trans people in New Zealand and worldwide have a really difficult time as it is." The other cookies contained amusing messages, but this one missed the mark, she says." 3 News "Customer Shocked by Hell Pizza Stunt" "Wellington Rape Crisis has agreed to accept a $10,000 donation from Hell Pizza as the company seeks to quell accusations it made light of a sexual assault. The controversial pizza company was hit with a wave of criticism last night after it announced the winner of its 'Confessional' competition on Facebook. Its winning entry described an incident of sexual abuse where the confessor put his penis in the mouth of a drunk man who had passed out. Hundreds of people expressed their disgust at the company's decision on Twitter and Facebook, with many comparing it to making light of crimes committed by notorious 'Beast of Blenheim' rapist Stewart Murray Wilson. Teressa Rooney accused Hell Pizza of using sexual assault as a "jolly laugh" to sell its products. "Disgusting and evil," she said. Others called the post a "new low". Hell Pizza responded by removing the original Facebook post and replacing it with a message explaining it thought the winning entry was "in the spirit of a prank between mates"." NZ Herald "Rape Crisis Accepts Offer from Hell Pizza" Should we stick to making our own Vegan Pizza?
