Mid-January Updates
Hello friends!
We’ve had a bustling start to 2015, and we’ll sum up some of the highlights here! Continue reading for the latest updates at VeganStart (including our first recipe posting, a revealing blog post on almonds and water consumption, plus our new logo), news items, other nifty online finds (and concerns), a little vegan humour and more. If you’re on social media, be sure to join us to get these updates in a more timely fashion! Check out the top of the menu on the right for all our accounts.
VeganStart Updates
Are you joining us for Fauxtella Friday? We’ve published our first recipe, a quick & easy vegan ‘nutella’ recipe, and at the VeganStart HQ we enjoy it every Friday morning, make it your tradition as well and tell us how you enjoy it in the comments section, or by using the hashtag #Fauxtella!
- Have you heard that almonds require a lot of water? Mother Jones reported that almonds are contributing to the drought in California. It’s true, almonds do require a fair amount of water – 1 gallon per almond – but is that a lot? How does this stack up to livestock? We put this into context in a blog post, and illustrate how it’s clear almonds aren’t the problem.
- Don’t be alarmed by the change in appearance – it was New Logo Day last Friday, and we’re really excited to be working with a vegan designer for a much more professional look! Our website will be updated in the upcoming weeks as well – I can hardly wait!
Plus a seemingly random hashtag has helped someone on Twitter eliminate animal products:
@VeganStart Glad I was looking though #InquiringMinds – I've been trying to figure out how to avoid eggs or cereal (cow milk) for breakfast!
— Tara Parker-Essig (@TaraMakes) January 7, 2015
News We Choose (For Yous!)
(Experimenting with a new heading. ;)
Here are some news highlights that would be of interest to readers from the last couple weeks:
- A TIME writer tries Hampton Creek’s Just Scramble
Why One Company Invested $30 Million to Grow a Vegan Egg
http://time.com/3660402/hampton-creek-30-million-dollars-vegan-egg/ - This piece is a bit older but handy to know: Food miles vs food choices? Looks like vegan trumps locavore when it comes to GHG emissions
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0602-ucsc_liaw_food_miles.html - Grist shares 5 helpful charts illustrating how 2015 was the hottest on record: http://grist.org/climate-energy/the-hottest-year-ever-in-5-charts/
- Scientists say: Pigs have feelings too!
Farm animals feel empathy towards their penmates, study claims. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2911570/Pigs-feelings-Farm-animals-feel-empathy-penmates-study-claims.html
What We’ve Come Across
Here is a selection of links and highlights!
- Some insights from the Vegan RD on being more successful with our activism: Why Do Some People Fail At Being Vegan
http://www.theveganrd.com/2015/01/why-do-some-people-fail-at-being-vegan.html - A huge thank you to Vegan Essentials, the best online vegan shop, who highlighted us in an email!
http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs101/1010947984388/archive/1119703281553.html - Gratitude to our pals at the wonderful Food Duo for their email mention:
- http://us6.campaign-archive2.com/?u=0e289a1ebab134f1d8b75e09a&id=c9f7d160f7
- Vegan blogger from Brussels, Miss Rachida B, featured VeganStart in an interview. Check it out for a little more behind-the-scenes info on us:
http://missrachidab.com/2015/01/20/an-interview-with-veganstarts-dave-shishkoff/ - The Reasonable Vegan site has an interesting feature on ‘how the health argument fails veganism‘:
http://rvgn.org/2015/01/20/how-the-health-argument-fails-veganism/
Plus, we’ve added Crofter’s Organics as a VeganStart Choice in our ‘Veganize Your Breakfast‘ section. We were happy to discover this:
We're pleased to learn that @croftersorganic jams & spreads are all #vegan! Added them to our VeganStart Choice list: http://t.co/L4pNvS82Ll
— VeganStart (@VeganStart) January 21, 2015
If you’re on Twitter, consider joining us for one of the regular weekly vegan tweet-ups, our friends at Vegan Chat Room list them nicely! Follow these tweeps for more info, and we hope you join us for one: https://twitter.com/VeganChatRoom/status/554378398353854464 (Apologies, this item isn’t displaying properly when we embed it, but here is a screen grab..oh, the mysteries of WordPress.)
Speaking of Crofter’s, this tip to for using up jam was a popular shot of ours on Instagram:
The Mystery of the Shrinking Soy Milk
Finally, over on Facebook we reported our discovery that the new ‘gable top’ cartons of So Nice (owned by Earth’s Own) have shrunk, from 1.89L to 1.75L. We called and were informed this was a “business decision” and that ‘organic is expensive’. This is an 8% reduction in volume, and the smaller packaging results in more waste – both in the garbage and for transportation…we really wish it were going in the direction of larger cartons! We haven’t seen this in any other cartons but worry that this might be a new trend. Let us know in the comments or send us a note if you see any other cartons this size.
For Your Amusement
Coming Up
We’ve still got lots of goodies in the works: tune in to our social media accounts, or if you’re not already on our email list, sign up there for updates every few weeks! (See menu on the right.)
Cheerio!
Thanks for all the support, interactions and kind words! We’re very excited to offer a new way for people to more easily transition to veganism, and your help getting the word out really aids in this!
Until next time, have a great breakfast!
– Dave
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