SoulVeggie

DC Area AR2013 Conference & "Making a Pizza in 30 Minutes" Clip

Preparing to table at a Conference (in this case, the esteemed Animal Rights 2013 Conference in DC) is a daunting task.  Sure, I've helped others at Conferences, and did several "head photographer" gigs for the the yearly FARM sponsored Conferences (including the 1st ever, "this is what happened the past few days photo slideshows" presentation at the Banquet (back when it was difficult, before Instagram and WannaPeek? or WatchMoreOfMyStuff!, the past two being non-existent, of course).

This time,though, I don't have a team and I've had to invest in books, various resources, exhibiter fee(s), handouts, the early setup, managing my event, talking all day each day for 3 to 4 days, then breaking it all down. Logistically, it's amazing what some of these Activist Groups do so frequently, and they deserve credit from the physically, emotionally, and spiritually hungry people who attend these events, often oblivous to all that these people went through on their behalf, and for the animals.  Then there's the incredible program of speakers, panels, and learning.  And there's the food... gawd, the food...

To support my effort, I've clipped out a 3 minute or so video clip from my recent 1st Cable TV Broadcast, the "up close and personal" stuff on how to make a plant-based pizza in 30 minutes and surrounded it with some text.  I'll be adding this to 2 more minutes of text, quotes, marketing stuff, for an estimate 5 or 6 minute "loop" I can show on a large monitor at my table.  Hopefully seeing how I make pizza will answer a lot of questions early, demonstrate how simple it is, and be encouraged to do the same (maybe even buy a autographed copy of the 1st Vegan Cookbook with a Conference Discount. Stop by and visit! I'll be bored beyond belief unless I get to interact with other quasi-humans.

Here's an imbedded version of the 1st part of my "soon to be created" video piece.  Thanks again to Jorge Meras, at Healthy Food Happy You for his directorial and producing efforts:

Of course, I'm not anxious to "hear my voice" looping over again and again (think Prometheus and the vulture), but I want to help people realize that they can truly make and enjoy "heart healthy pizza."

So, if you're in the DC area the next four days, stop by the Mark Hilton Hotel and visit AR2013.  The entire exhibit area is FREE, there's FREE transport from the Metro to the hotel available, and a LOT of FREE vegan snacks, goodies, and information.  Visit to support the exhibiters, to support the animals, and meet a lot of great like-minded people.  You could spend your time much less wisely in this beastly DC heat.... oh, did I mention the food (FREE samples and hotel-provided?).

Short Bootleg Clips of My Cable Broadcast Debut

They're small (parents took them with smart phones, I haven't seen the full broadcast and won't until the digital version is available late this month), but I strung them together to give some friends, family an idea of how it went.

Great sport, and Jorge Mera did a fine editing job.  Details about this event can be found in my previous post and with the video.

FYI, Mark

Video Review: "Chow Down," Heart Disease, & Blockage Bob

"Chow Down" is the story of three people, who when faced with heart disease, decide to follow Dr. Esselstyn's advice and follow a no-added fat vegan diet.  Uplifting, with insightful commentaries from Dr. Esselstyn and Dr. T. Colin Campbell (among other experts), this DVD also includes some clever explanatory animations. 

"...CHOW DOWN exposes the three factors that fatally impact our country’s health: the medical community’s allegiance to the status quo, the government’s allegiance to the food industry, and Americans’ allegiance to cheap, convenient food." [from the "Chow Down" website with a trailer]

Emotionally and intellectually convincing, with a lot of disturbing statistics, the authors and producers of "Chow Down" should be praised for taking on a hard topic and pulling few punches.  The medical establishment has been inept in ignoring the solution to what they have not been able to do:  reverse heart disease via a no-added fat vegan diet, as Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn have proven through, collectively, 40+ years of peer-reviewed research.

The problem is a serious one:

"Estimates for the year 2006 are that 81,100,000 people in the United States have one or more forms of cardiovascular disease (CVD)"  [Source:  American Heart Association]

Here's a fun embedded animation from the DVD (also available at the website here) on "Blockage Bill" and what really causes most strokes, dispelling a common myth.

It's also worth noting that Dr. Esselstyn believes that it is added [not a real food anyway] oil or fat, that fuels development of these smaller plaques and the potentially devastating consequences:

"...Every forkful [or spoonful] of fat [or oil], he [Esselstyn] says, causes an immediate biochemical assault on the endothelium, the lining of the arteries. White blood cells collect there, gobbling up bad cholesterol and creating fatty deposits over time. For many people, especially those who smoke or have other risk factors, accumulation of plaque is a time bomb for a coronary event..." [Excerpt Source]

Everyone needs to be aware of the truth, not only why we are dying in epidemic numbers by various degenerative diseases, but how we can prevent, stop, and reverse that process. This fine DVD is a very big step forward in getting the word out.  Kudos to "Peanut Butter Productions" for all their hard work.  Lives will be saved by your efforts, and you have every right to be proud.

"Bananas!" Outing Dole Food, Inc.

Getting the US to invade Hawaii, exploiting foreign workers, pesticide lawsuits... Dole Food, Inc. has quite a checkered past and present.  Imagine my surprise at how hard they worked (and to some degree successfully) in preventing this independent film expose from getting widely viewed.  The website has a lot of very interesting information, facts, and a timeline, of sorts, of how Dole has been attacking the producter(s) of the film.

Here's the trailer:

BANANAS!* trailer from WG Film on Vimeo.

Here's a link to the website. Know where your food comes from and boycott companies like Dole until they clean up their act. Apparently, in June (last month) Dole was seeking a postponement of the trial (suit and countersuit?) over the film itself and what Dole did to try and keep it from being seen widely.

POM, Privitizing Water, Pesticides, & Animal Activists

This is an addendum to my recent post.  What many people don't know about POM Wonderful and it's billionaire owner.  I didn't know these things when I wrote the previous post, put POM originally force-fed their juices to animals for testing (even deliberately brain-damaging young mice to see if the juice helped).  Peta announced this stopped in 2007 (article is here).  Furthermore, POM, in 2006, filed a lawsuit to keep activists from putting information about and protesting their company on websites (here).  Many activists believe the reason POM went on a recent campaign to give so many VEGAN bloggers free samples, was to counter the bad image in the vegan community.

POM is quite litigious... they've filed lawsuits against many other beverage makers with claims such they are piggybacking off POM nutritional claims or aren't 100% pure pomegrante juice for the full "health benefits."

Also, from this article:

"Resnick  owns Fiji Water, Pom Wonderful, pesticide manufacturer Suterra and Paramount Agribusiness, the largest farming company in America and the largest pistachio and almond producer in the world. Resnick is also the brain behind a little-known water privatization scheme that brought Enron-style deregulation and privatization to California's water market and made him one of the largest, if not the largest, private water brokers in America. He also happens to be friend and major contributor to Feinstein's political career."

It was through Feinstein that Resnick was able to deliver a personal letter to the White House proposing fewer environmental regulations and more water for his farms."

Finally, check out the hypocrisy on the POM Wonderful website ("about us").  Sustainable?  Community?  Their products "essential to the health of all mankind?"  Unbelievable, yet apparently, a lot of bloggers believed otherwise. 

Personally, even if the health claims panned out, Resnick's unethical behavior, policies, and efforts are such that I would consciously try to avoid purchasing any of his company's proudcts, as I would Monsanto, and any other company damaging the environment while claiming to be "green."  I'm voting with my dollar.

New Film Trailer: "What's "Organic" About Organic?"

"[This film]... rings the alarm for the need to develop an ecological consciousness.  The film illustrates that the organic food debate extends well beyond personal choice and into the realm of social responsibility.

Each of the film’s characters is intimately connected to the organic world; they’re farmers, activists, and scientists.  While many folks can easily endorse “organic,” the characters in the film take the discussion beyond just shopping for another eco-label. As we glimpse into each of their lives, we see how organic agriculture has the potential to solve many of our environmental and health problems.  The film will explore how organic farming can be used as a soil and air protection system, a healthy solution to toxic pollution, and an innovative means to combat global warming.

WHAT’S ORGANIC ABOUT “ORGANIC?” delves into the debates that arise when a grassroots agricultural movement evolves into a booming international market.  As the film moves from farm fields to government meetings to industry trade shows, we see the hidden costs of conventional agriculture.  We also see how our health, the health of our planet, and the agricultural needs of our society are all intimately connected.  The film compels us to look forward, towards a new vision for our culture and encourages us to ask, “What should our future food system look like?”

[Love the phrase: "conscientious consumption" from the trailer.  The "about" excerpt above is from the really kewl and resource-full website here.  Check it out and pass the URL around. Oh, and go low-fat vegan... been too busy harvesting, preserving, planting, watering to do much else than this quickie post... still slow in typing with finger recovering...]

Steven Colbert: "Eric Schlosser is a Food Nazi"

"You wanna sit me down and force-feed me kale."  Steven Colbert's statement after calling Eric Schlosser a "food nazi."  This was last night, a day after my previous post, and Schlosser is the writer of "Fast Food Nation," and involved with the new documentary, "Food, Inc.," on where your food comes from, food-borne illness, factory farming , re-arranging corn, your power as a consumer, and more...  This sub-7 minute video clip interview below is wonderful, and will be available until 30 days from now (07/02/09)... enjoy it will you can.  The linked website has a trailer and lots of useful information.

Video: "Engine 2 Diet" Rip Esselstyn on "Today Show"

Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn's son, Rip, has a new book out that's combination "save your life plan" of exercise, diet, and recipes (plant-based; no added oil).  As a fireman and professional athlete, Rip's been following this diet (as recommended by his father) for over 12 years (winning many impressive contests).  Rip was on the Today Show this recent Monday, and here's a clip from the show (note:  I'll be interviewing Rip in a few weeks for the Mad Cowboy Newsletter, and my thanks to the post from the Healthy Librarian as pointed out by Rip's proud mom!)

"Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead!"

"In the gory tongue-in-cheek style of Evil Dead II and Shaun of the Dead, Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead! continues Troma Entertainment’s long history of cinematic political activism and satire. It was written by a fast-food employee, produced with the support of PETA, and shot almost entirely through volunteer effort. Poultrygeist! represents true grassroots guerilla-style filmmaking. And it’s coming soon to a theater near you.  When the American Chicken Bunker, a military-themed fried-chicken chain, builds a restaurant on the site of an ancient Indian burial ground, local protestors aren’t the only ones crying fowl! The previous tenants, fueled by a supernatural force, take “possession” of the food and those who eat it, and the survivors discover that they must band together before they themselves become the other white meat!

This big-screen open letter to the CEOs of McDonald’s, KFC, Hardee’s, Wendy’s, and every other high-calorie, high-fat, low-protein corporation in America doesn’t stop with a war on imitation food. Poultrygeist! also takes on America’s cruel fascination with its own military might, rampant anti-Muslim racism, and today’s skewed and confused gender politics.  Poultrygeist! is scheduled to hatch in theaters February of 2007, and will screen internationally."

[ADVISORY:  the following video/trailer is lewd, crude, fowl, bloody, juvenile, and violent... depending on your perspective, it's also quite funny, clever, and/or disturbing.  Almost as rough to view as actual slaughterhouse footage... imagine that...  the above discription is from the movie's website... I'm blogging about it as kind of a Halloween special.]

[The full trailer can be found here, and it's even worse (funnier?)... definitely not for the squeamish and/or politically-correct.]

BECAUSE...

"BECAUSE heart disease is the number one killer in America.
BECAUSE it doesn't take anything away from a human to be kind to an animal.
BECAUSE this tradition of eating animals "for traditions sake" should be replaced
... with better traditions.
BECAUSE wincing at animal suffering speaks well of our humanity.
BECAUSE eating meat and dairy is unhealthy for us.
BECAUSE it takes 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef.
AND BECAUSE it only takes 1 pound of grain to produce 1 pound of bread.
BECAUSE 400 pound animals in factory farms are trapped inside 7 foot crates, 22 inches wide.
BECAUSE fattening animals up for slaughter produces environmental waste.
BECAUSE most animals are vertebrae (having spinal columns) just like us.
BECAUSE animals feel pain.
- Shaun Monson"

From the website about the new film: "EARTHLINGS"   check this out!  And thanks to Mimi ([email protected]) for posting this on the Veg-DC List.  Read more about the "Earthlings" film below.