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Cool article over at LA Times talking about how the automakers are thinking like vegans when it comes to Hybrid and low/zero emission vehicles.
Snippets from the article:
In raw numbers, vegans such as Bell are so few that they barely register on surveys of consumer habits. But to automobile manufacturers trying to win favor among the increasing number of consumers who say they are environmentally conscious, vegans ? who avoid all animal products ? are what one marketing expert called the center of the bull’s-eye.
Pleasing vegans, the theory goes, is key to reaching a wider group of consumers ? affluent shoppers who worry about the environment and who are willing to pay extra for food, clothing and even automobiles, if they are made in ways that do less harm to the planet.
Ford Motor Co., under fire from environmental activists for its gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, ran an eight-page advertisement in the New Yorker magazine touting the company’s green credentials. The ad led off with the boast that 11 members of the design team for the company’s soon-to-be-released hybrid Escape SUV are vegetarians, and its leader is a vegan.
Registration/Password required for LA Times. Just use eclips/eclips or hope over to BugMeNot.Com to get a fresh password w/o handing over your email address.
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It’s always been hard for me to throw away anything that could possibly have another use. Boxes, neat packaging from products I’ve bought, ribbons, gift bags, wrapping paper from gifts given to me 10 years ago.. I’ve got it!
And sometimes it pays to keep all that crap.
Joe Hinkle at PETA sent me my KFC leafleting pack. It had 6 posters, a slew of leaflets and stickers.
Of course, I’ve had this material for a few weeks… and I of course left it until the morning of our planned leafleting at the local KFC to figure out what to do with everything.
I get up at 7:30 am, feed the hungry cats, have a drink of water, quickly check my email, and then the scavenger hunt begins!
I need to find cardboard to mount these posters so we can make our message easily visible, and I need to figure out am I bringing a table for the leaflets and Vegetarian Starter Kits or are we going to hold it all….
As to the ‘we’, there will be two of us (I hope!), maybe even three, meeting today in Pacifica. Worse case scenario, it will be just me…
Cardboard … cardboard … why did I leave it until the last minute… looking in my office, under the desk, behind the door, in the closet.. quick glance in the room that holds everything, found some some new posterboard (do I want to use that or save it for something else?) … in the laundry room (the staging area before anything gets moved to the garage and the finally out to the street for recycling day) I find something very promising!
A tall box from our shiny new steel-plated kitchen garbage can with hinged lid… Perfect! I quickly measure that against the posters, deciding if it can a poster on each side. Yes, looks good. Okay, now to find three more pieces of cardboard.
I’m thinking… when was the last time I needed cardboard. Oh! SF Gay Pride! We mounted a slew of posters and signs and had some extra. Okay, that stuff all got stuck in the garage in this corner. Wading through stacks of recycling bins, camping gear, already mounted posters… aha! Three pieces!
I’ve figured out how to re-cut the cardboard so all the posters fit. I’ve got my posters mounted on our new KFC kiosk, and three posters ready for individual leafleters. From previous experience leafleting at circuses, rodeos, anti-fur, anti-hunting, etc. events, I know a few things. One, your fingers cramp when you hold a poster for a long period of time. Two, unless you are very nimble, it’s hard to hold a poster and leaflets at the same time.
So, I punch two holes in each of the individual posters and thread recycled gift ribbon through them. Guess you could consider it a really tacky looking (but compassionate) necklace for activists.
Rummage through the garage again… find my plastic stand to put the Veg Starter Kits in, place that on the top of my KFC kiosk and there we go! Recycled box now has a poster on each of its 4 sides, top becomes a table to present Vegetarian Starter Kits, and three signs for leafleters to wear.
Not bad for two hours, huh! See, that’s why I leave it to the last minute… somehow it all just works out!
3 pm
It went really well. Since this KFC is located right off Highway 1, we made a strategic decision to direct our message to the traffic. So, about 2000 cars, buses, and a bicyclist saw our message of “Boycott KFC”, “Scalded Alive”, and we rotated the sign kiosk to show the different messages. We got a mixed reaction of supportive beeps and waves and a few folks with some type of hand problem.
We’ll be back again next month, and it’d be great to get a couple more folks to join us so we can get the message out even further.
And, as an added perk, there is the Advocacy Rewards Program!
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So I have this theory about why Raw Food and related events or products seems so expensive to your average vegan like myself.
It dawned of me that it?s not that gourmet raw food is expensive, it?s just that compared to regular vegan and vegetarian foods and events it seems that way.
I know there?s the time/money issue with preparation. I love dining at local Raw restaurants, especially Urban Forage, where I see them putting in a lot of love into what they make.
I really want the Vegan message to get out there and most Raw cuisine is vegan, so every little helps.
I guess I should put things into perspective that most raw foodists I meet are coming to the movement for health or business reasons, whereas most vegans I know, be they individuals or business people, are vegan for ethical reasons ? their goal is to save animals and get the message out to as many people as possible, whereas the raw foodists may not have the same objective. e.g. I see people offering free or near free vegetarian classes all the time, whereas a raw class or workshop may run you $30-100 for similar information.
There are always exceptions, e.g. the recently defunct Roxanne?s in Larkspur, who spent a lot of money promoting and bringing the Raw and Vegan lifestyle to the general population. I?m sure they didn?t make a lot of money, but did show there was a huge demand ? and maybe responsible for the rising numbers of raw restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.
So in summary, the ethically motivated vegans really want to get their message out at all costs, even when it means underwriting the cost. Whereas the raw foods folks, well, it is a business to them and they pass the costs on.
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On a superficial level, enjoying a vegan sundae at MaggieMudd’s was the best part of tonite’s letter writing party. In reality, though, writing letters on behalf of the animals is the real reason.
I could never write letters before. I’m really not sure why, I think I was a bit self concious and wasn’t sure what to say. But when we started having these letter writing parties, I realized it is easier than I thought, and I actually find it a rewarding experience. I found that the support of having people around and being able to ask questions, discuss the issues at hand helped a lot.
Just wanted to encourage more folks to join us. You may consider letter writing a solitary activity and can be done at home, but it’s so much easier as a group. How many of you put off writing those letters? Between the five of us there tonite (which included two children) we must have easily written 35 letters on important issues.
The BAV letter writing events are scheduled for the 3rd Thursday of every month.
In addition to earning Advocacy Reward Program points, we also gave out samples of vegan products that companies have donated to us.
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Spotted at Pacifica Pier while hiking today.
Joking aside, the sad thing is the city is routinely poisoning and killing local Squirrels who live along the sea wall. I’m at a loss on what to do about it.
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Well I came across this very unusually site tonight. Not really sure how I came by it.
1.6 million people have written on US Dollar Bills:
http://www.wheresgeorge.com
The site calls itself ?Where?s George? and over the five years of its existence, it?s become one of the Net?s most fun and unusual sites. Users typically enter dollar bill serial numbers on the site and then write the Web site address on bills. Then they spend the bucks, hoping whoever gets it in change someplace sees their note ? you can write on a dollar bill as long as it doesn?t make it unfit for circulation ? and then goes to the site and reports on where they received it. More than 1.6 million people have entered some 49 million bills ? in various denominations ? totaling $283 million in U.S. currency.
Bizarre but true!
8/12/04
This got me thinking that I could add my own “Go Vegan” message to the bills, plus add pro-veg messages in the log entries on the site, so that others would see them.
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Craigslist is amazing. It’s one of my favorite places to aimlessly pass the time, a way to electronically people-watch.
They have this category for ‘free stuff’ and there’s an amazing assortment of stuff listed. But I’m always abit disappointed when people list cats in this section.
First of all, I don’t like ‘cats’ to be considered ’stuff’. ‘Stuff’ applies to inanimate objects. Cats are hardly inanimate nor are they objects like a paperclip or empty candy bar wrapper.
Cats are not objects to be given away for free much as one leaves an unwanted desk on the curbside with a FREE sign.
Cats are feeling, thinking, and lovable beings. Anyone who has a relationship with a cat knows this! Alas, it is apparently why the cats are listed as ‘free stuff’ because the human behind the listing just doesn’t get it….
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I’m guessing that not many people know that when you search the internet, with say, google, and then click on the resulting links to sites, that your search phrase is passed on to the site you’re visiting.
So, as you can imagine, we get a lot of interesting searches to BAV. Excluding the obvious, here’s some of the top results -
- vegan pizza
- vegan shirts
- urban forage
- bay area vegetarian restaurant guide
- saravana bhavan
- maggiemudd
- half moon bay camping
- arroyo seco camping
- street fairs
- trader joe s cashew
- vegan foods & there advantages
- geranium (this was our number of for a long time when they first opened)
- bay area stargazing
- easy cooking dinner recipe
- vegan party menu
- vegetarian hotdog stand
- best vegan ice cream
Plus, some of the more ‘interesting’ phrases people put in -
- cupertino dog friendly restaurants
- unusual sushi vegetarian
- sandcastles organic cafe
- pig supplier bay area
- gabe quash
We also get a few strange searches on the Ultimate Guide. The one that caught my eye this week was ‘lenscrafters’. I have no clue why someone would search our vegetarian guide for this 
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I am really excited about the launch of our mentor program to help folks go vegetarian / vegan.
When I first became vegan, over a decade ago, I did it at the same time with a friend. We went from being carnivores to vegans in about 6 months. Some folks are surprised that we transitioned so quickly, but I think it all has to do with this simple fact: we supported each other.
For folks that don’t have many or any veg family/friends, I really really hope the mentor program will provide the support that they need to become and remain veg*n.
I’m hopeful and excited (yes, I know I already said that) to see how this all turns out!
BAV Mentor Program
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Today is a day of firsts….
Mite, who we were initially discouraged from adopting because of his wobbly legs and our having stairs in the house, was able to jump up on the kitchen counter. He did that twice today! We have no idea how he does it but I’m guessing its a bit of a scramble for him. He is mighty Mite, indeed.
For the first time when I’ve been around, all four cat beds in my office are occupied with cats! Two of the fleecy cat donuts actually sit on my desk, next to my computer. A few weeks ago, I was almost convinced that I had spotted something new one day… that there was some synchronicity between them in how they curled up, i.e. head to head. But they quickly dissuaded me of that theory the next day….
In honor of Mite’s accomplishment, which means he can make it to the bay window behind the kitchen sink, which is a favorite sun spot for the other cats, I have written this poem.. for Mite Spidey (his official name)
Spidercat, Spidercat,
Does whatever a spider can
Walks and wobbles on the run
Catches fingers just for fun
Look Out! Here comes the Spidercat!