10 Questions: Vegan Rock Star with Cynthia von Buhler

This week’s Vegan Rock Star is animal rescuer, multimedia artist, playwright, director and surrealism-enthusiast Cynthia von Buhler, a creative force of nature who builds immersive theatrical productions, most recently The Illuminati Ball, an homage and reinterpretation of a legendary surrealist dinner party from 1972. The Illuminati Ball, happening on select dates through August at a secret location an hour outside of NYC (they are taking applications) is described as what happens when you cross “Eyes Wide Shut with Burning Man and mix in a healthy amount of science fiction.” With fire performance, opera and "esoteric ceremonies" as well as audience interaction in the form of animal kinship roles and an appearance from Persephone, Cynthia’s pot-bellied pig, The Illuminati Ball will also feature an all-vegan menu. In other words, this is not your typical potluck or dinner theater experience.

When not developing vegan surrealist immersive theatrical events, Cynthia is a children’s book author, visual artist, performer, and creator of some very cool cat things. She is also a longtime animal advocate and I am honored to feature her today as our Vegan Rock Star.

1. First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped to pave your path?

When I was a girl, my parents got me a de-scented skunk as a pet and it taught me about unconditional love. A skunk is a wild animal and shouldn’t be a pet. She wasn’t remotely cuddly, and would constantly bite me. Even so, I made her meals every day and tenderly cared for her until she died of old age. Later in life I began rescuing feral cats. I even wrote a children’s book about one, The Cat Who Wouldn’t Come Inside (Houghton Mifflin). Feral cats require a high degree of unconditional love. The meaner the cat, the more I want to understand and love it.

My most important value is compassion. If I wouldn’t like to be treated a certain way, why would they? Why is my life more important than theirs? Why would I take their whole life away for one unimportant meal for myself? It just didn't make sense to me — so I stopped eating animals. In the application for The Illuminati Ball, two of the questions I ask candidates are 1) Do they like animals and 2) Do they eat meat? Most people rave about their deep love of animals, but a few questions later they excitedly explain how much they adore eating meat. That doesn’t compute for me at all. There’s a serious disconnect happening here. I always felt it was wrong to eat animals and over the years those feelings have grown stronger. So I educated myself on my own disconnect.

2. Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: How could someone have talked to you and what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most effective way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

Seeing someone I admire thriving as a vegan was the biggest influence for me. They showed me it is possible. Of course, watching animal cruelty videos affected me, too. We need to face the truth.

I was also influenced by meeting animals face-to-face. Places like Farm Sanctuary are amazing. Take people who eat meat to meet the animals. Quality time with a farm animal can have a profound effect. Posting positive videos of animals released from captivity can also be extremely moving. 

3. What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as a vegan? For example: humor, passion, images, etc.?

I have a large number of followers on social media, and so I try to set an example by posting articles and pictures. I do not constantly barrage people with negative images or videos; I occasionally post something strong, but not often, or it may turn them away. I try to remain upbeat and open to their concerns. I gently express my feelings to naysayers. If they admire my lifestyle, I can influence them when I talk about my own choices. Posting videos of Persephone running happily around my yard, bathing, blowing bubbles in her water bowl and snuggling with me shows people how sensitive and sweet pigs are.

During The Illuminati Ball, kinship leaders give the most compassionate of their seven “Illuminati candidates” an antique key with a note telling them to “see Cynthia.” These people receive private visits with Persephone. They pet her, feed her and give her belly rubs. I also introduce her to everyone at the end of the show. If you pet and feed a living pig, you might think twice about eating bacon the next morning.

4. What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

I think social media is having a profound effect on the movement. We can distribute information and visuals more effectively now.

5. What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out effectively?

The Ag-Gag laws are a disaster. We need to fight them to the death.

Perception. Some vegans come across as militant or condescending and that scares people away. We need people to perceive us as open-minded, healthy and wise. We should try to be understanding and set a good example. Most of us were once meat eaters (thanks to our parents), and we need to remember that disconnect in order to help others bridge that gap.

6. All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

My best pitch would be to bring Persephone onto the elevator. When they meet her they fall in love. 

7. Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

I illustrated a book by Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer, “Evelyn Evelyn, An Unfortunate Tale in Two Tomes.” Investigating and drawing the plight of circus elephants and farmed chickens really affected me. I had already stopped eating most meat by the time I illustrated it, but drawing this book made me stop eating chicken soup, something I once thought I couldn’t live without. I read Animals Make Us Human by Temple Grandin and Skinny Bitch. I recommend showing people Cowspiracy. This film led me from vegetarianism to veganism. The Chipotle animated factory farming video is also remarkable, having been created and released by such a large fast food corporation. It’s extremely powerful and I wish more people could see it. I’m still evolving. I’m still learning.

8. Burn-out is so common among vegans: What do you do to unwind, recharge and inspire yourself?

Because I’m a vocal online advocate for animal rights, other activists send me horrific animal cruelty videos. I’ve seen most of them already and sometimes when I’m feeling angry and overwhelmed I cannot watch them. Many of my activist friends have written me saying that they are so depressed about the plight of animals that they can’t get out of bed. I have been there myself and I tell them they need to stop watching and reading the bad stuff. They will be useless to help if they are paralyzed. Sometimes we need to step away in order to become strong again. Spending time loving the dogs, cats, pigeons and pig I rescued help me recharge.

9. What is the issue nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

I’m starting an Illuminati for animals. I’m seeking successful people who want to use their talents and businesses to help gain power for the powerless. We will have yearly retreats at my lakefront estate to brainstorm solutions to help animals. I will be sending membership invitations to companies, organizations, artists and activists who have done something exceptional for animal rights. I will also invite people with skills we could use who might not already be involved in animal activism, like animal-friendly journalists, politicians, scientists or lawyers.

10. Please finish this sentence: “To me, being vegan is...”

“…being evolved.”

The Art of Listening (Or Your Allies are More Important Than Your Ego)...

 

“The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.” - Stephen Covey

About a month ago, I observed of one of those little dust-ups that happen fairly often on Facebook. It happened when someone high up with a respected animal advocacy organization was questioned by others about his use of a derogatory term, usually used against women, to insult other vegans whose strategies irritated him. This was on his personal time, not in his official capacity with the organization, but because he’s a fairly high-profile individual and it was publicly said in a way that could be easily shared, it was. Social media being what it is, for better or worse, he was quickly called out for the way he used this term and given the opportunity to make a reasonable case for using it, apologize or dig his heels in and refuse to listen. He chose the last option.

To be fair, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean to be offensive or sexist. I have never met him in person but my impression is that he is a good guy and he’s one who devotes his time to building a more compassionate world. He is very gifted at what he does. That said, when he was – in my opinion – gently questioned about it, he lashed out in a pretty disproportionate way, not only listing all the ways in which he personally is oppressed by society – mentioning his sexual orientation and his ethnic background – as proof that he could not be sexist (???) but he also chose to dig his heels in and refused to entertain the idea that it was worth considering the voices of those who had differing views. He went further, implying that anyone who had anything to say about the subject that wasn’t supportive of his viewpoint was petty and ineffective. Despite what I felt were some very reasonable points to consider, he basically wrote off anyone who had an opinion to share that contradicted his own as a humorless, unproductive hater and huffed away.

The thing is, I absolutely knew where he was coming from and I empathized with his situation. Nobody likes to feel ganged up on and even when people are pretty careful about not demonizing one another, we can overreact when we feel like we’re under attack and that people are judging us, which is especially amplified by when it happens on a social media platform. With our increased capacity to interact with one another virtually, we also have a potential powder keg that can turn what should be civil disagreements into flame wars that become much more personal, messy and hurtful.

I understand as well as anyone how uncomfortable it is to admit mistakes and apologize. There is almost nothing that sets me off more than feeling like I’m being lectured and nitpicked. I get irritated and angry. When those uncomfortable feelings arise, which is at least a few times a week at this point due to having an active presence on social media, this is when it’s really vital for me to take some deep breaths, step away from my reactive self, and, with my ego removed as much as possible, ask myself if there something of merit and consideration in what is being said to me. I will also ask someone who is more neutral about it, like John, for his thoughts and many times he lets me know that I am overreacting.

Often it is baseless and just part of the social media landscape of, yes, bored people who are looking for something to attack. That is certainly always a distinct possibility. Sometimes it’s not, though. Sometimes there is something valid there. I’ve learned through observing that when people tell you that the words you used are offensive and this is why, these people and their thoughts deserve your consideration. Dismissing the voices of those who care enough to try to bring something they care about to your attention smacks of a conceited, callous attitude.

Years ago, I first became disillusioned with a vegan I once considered a hero because of the arrogant and condescending way that he dismissed anyone who disagreed with a term he created to describe our society’s confused and inconsistent treatment of other animals. It was an expression that he coined that found its basis in a specific mental illness and he applied it in moral terms. It didn’t bother me at first – it seemed to be an accurate descriptor and I had no quarrel with it – but as people who either have or care for those who suffer with this specific condition voiced their opposition to his use of the term and the way he used it, I was so turned off by his defensive and mocking response that I couldn’t help considering more of what they had to say. What they said made me more aware that mental health is a massive privilege that I take for granted; how might I feel if I saw a condition of mine treated like just another a tool in a toolbox to make a point? Might I be offended? Might I be justified in being offended? I had to answer yes to those questions. Through that new lens, seeing this man lash out and continue to deride peoples’ thoughts on a subject that didn’t affect him personally set the wheels in motion for me to scrutinize more of his interactions with the public. With that new perspective, I could see that the traits that I once perceived as confidence and honesty could also be interpreted as cockiness and meanness. It wasn’t long before this man was no longer a hero to me.

Since then, I have seen many examples of vegans refusing to budge when asked to be considerate to less advantaged populations and, time and time again, I have seen many who fail to meet the bare minimum of what one should expect, defaulting instead to white, ableist and patriarchal standards. Even worse, I have seen them treating the people who dare to speak up like impudent insubordinates for having the audacity to question their authority. If that’s not reinforcing unjust power structures, I don’t know what is because…

* When we tell people of color that their genuine challenges to veganism, often due to lack of access, time and financial resources, are petty and selfish, they are being told to shut up and deal with it. They are being told that their real lives don’t matter.

* When we tell women that they are being self-absorbed if they speak up about objectification and misogyny in the vegan sphere, they are also being told that their lives don’t matter. I don’t know if sex sells, but I do know that sexism sells out a movement.

* When we assert our intention to use every tactic is on the table if it might possibly sway some people despite negative personal and long-term consequences, we are saying that we care more about tactics than individual lives. As with the detractors above, these people are told that they need to stop whining and get in line.

I believe that the people who refuse to acknowledge the importance of caring for and about one another are setting themselves up for irrelevance. An inability to understand and appreciate the value of respectful, real allyship will ultimately ensure their obsolescence but I hope that too many people don’t become isolated in the process.

As a writer, words matter to me deeply. I am protective of them and I take great pleasure in the delicious variety available to me. At the same time, as a writer who is also a vegan and an activist, I care about being effective and a considerate, reliable ally more than I care about individual words. If I learn that something I’ve said is unintentionally harmful, I can adapt. There are many words out there including, “I’m sorry. I hadn’t thought about that. Let me try again.” There are many options. My guess is that if you want to write off any critique as the “word police” coming after you, your advantages are clouding your ability to understand your own privileged status and clouding your ability to empathize. You need to take a step back. You need to learn that an honest apology isn’t the worst thing in the world.

When people tell us something matters to them, we should listen. Most important, we should hear.

10 Questions: Vegan Foodie with Natalie Slater...

 

Have you ever met anyone who you’d expect be too cool for school because she’s so stylish and effortlessly fabulous but it turns out that she is all that groovy, she’s just not stuck up about it? That is Natalie Slater of Bake and Destroy fame, a tattooed pixie with an enviable bob who has more than a little extra sparkle in her personal faerie dust supply but given her great sense of humor and lack of pretension, you are put at ease right away. A fellow Chicago girl, Natalie has built a name for herself with her very popular, ahead-of-its-time Bake and Destroy brand and website, where she shares about her love of vegan kitchen witchcraft and, you know, pro-wrestling because why not? In addition to having written a well-loved cookbook, Natalie stays busy as the marketing director at I Heart Keenwah, helping to put on Chicago’s ultra-fun Vegan Vortex events (next one is coming up April 17!), caring for her sweet son and adorable dog and never breaking her unapologetically fabulous stride. Follow her on Facebook, Instagram and wherever vegan pixies dwell. I am so happy to be able to feature the delightful Natalie as one of our Vegan Foodies today.

1. How did you start down this path of creating delicious food? Was a love for food nurtured into you? Did you have any special relatives or mentors who helped to instill this passion?

My family is Italian, so to us, food is love. There’s no better way to show someone you care than to stuff them full of carbs and marinara. I was still very young when I realized the freedom you have when you know how to cook. You want cookies? Get out a recipe and make yourself some, kid!


2. What was your diet like when you were growing up? Did you have any favorite meals or meal traditions? Do you carry them over today?

My mom, who has been a vegetarian for several years now, prepared me well for a life of veganism even when we were still eating an omnivorous diet. We ate a lot of vegetables, and not just as side dishes – that definitely made the transition more of a tiny life change as opposed to a jarring experience.

My grandma’s “famous” spaghetti has been my favorite food since before I can even remember. I talk about her technique in my cookbook – there’s even an illustration of how she cuts the onion for the sauce. I loved eating spaghetti for dinner and then mixing left over sauce with rice for lunch the next day. Did I mention that I love carbs? [I do, too, Natalie! Here is the recipe for all the other carboholics out there: Spaghetti Cake with Grandma Sharon's Hater-Proof Sauce. – Ed.]

3. What is the best vegan meal you've ever had? Give us all the details!

A girlfriend of mine took me to Shizen Vegan Sushi Bar in San Francisco a few months ago. Honestly I didn’t have high hopes because usually vegan sushi is just “whatever we have that isn’t fish,” but this meal was so amazing no one even noticed how bad I am with chopsticks. My favorite dish was the Surprise Ending – the menu says the ingredients are “Kale, avocado, asparagus, shredded tofu, tapioca, yuba, beets, rice crackers, and suspense” because only one roll contains a dollop of insanely spicy sauce. I was terrified the whole time I was eating it, but it was really tasty and my friend got the hot roll so not only did I get to eat delicious food, I also got to laugh at my friend while she coughed – win-win.


4. If you could prepare one meal or dessert for anyone living or dead, who would it be for and what would you create?

You know, I flashed on so many famous people and heroes of mine but ultimately, they’ve all had people cook for them and meeting me would be no biggie for them. So I think I’m going to go with roasting a big pan of vegetables and garlic and tossing them with farfalle and olive oil for my great-grandpa Teno. He passed away before I was born but I heard so many sweet stories about him and his beautiful garden from my mom and grandma that I named my son after him. I’d love to be able to get to know him over dinner.

5. What do you think are common mistakes in vegan cooking and how do you avoid them?

Not to discourage anyone who dreams big, but I think the easy access to complex recipes can sometimes make new vegans overly-ambitious. I’m not saying you can’t make homemade cashew mozzarella as your first foray into vegan cooking, I’m just saying you might want to start with like, nutritional yeast cheese sauce. I’ve had a lot of friends go vegan, attempt aquafaba meringue the first day, fail and then just give up like that’s all there is to it. “Well, I can’t make meringues so I’m out!” My advice is, get your hands on a fantastic cookbook like Julie Hasson’s Vegan Casseroles – simple, homey, no weird ingredients you can’t buy at a regular store. Make a few things, feel proud of yourself, and then maybe attempt that raw walnut and date cheesecake thing.

6. What ingredients are you especially excited about at the moment?

This is super general, but I feel like vegetables are finally having their day, right? Like, cheers to nutritional yeast and chickpea brine and cultured non-dairy everything, but how stoked are you that cauliflower steaks are a thing now? [Very! - Ed.] Today I saw a recipe for cabbage steaks. That is awesome! Carrot hot dogs? Yaaaaaas! Vegetables are delicious and I’m just really excited that people are letting them be the star of the plate.

7. What are your top three cuisines from around the world?

Obviously Italian is my #1 girl. Pasta, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, bread. All the major food groups. After that, it’s a pretty close tie between Indian and Thai food. Indian food is super vegetable-heavy just exploding with flavor – and for the record, Indian food mixed sweet and savory before it was cool. Once I figured out how to replace fish sauce in Thai dishes I fell back in love with all the salty peanut dishes – and I love all the fresh basil and garlic.

8. Who or what has been most influential to you on your vegan path? Individuals, groups, books, films, etc. included.

I worship at the altar of Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero and I have told them both that much to their faces and it was as awkward as you are imagining it to be. Post Punk Kitchen came into my life at a time when my idea of feminism was being more like a man – and seeing these two bad ass punk rock girls baking cupcakes and taking charge made me realize that enjoying domestic activities does not make you a bad feminist and, in fact, that cooking and baking is s DIY and punk rock as it gets. I also owe so much to Julie Hasson, who has always been so generous to me as a mentor and whose books have made deciding what’s for dinner so easy over the years. [Julie is pretty fab! - Ed.]

9. What issue is nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like people to know more about?

OK, promise to stick with me here, but I’m going to talk about Mad Max Fury Road for a second. Without giving away any spoilers here, the basic premise of the movie is that this tyrannical ruler, Immortan Joe has taken over the post-apocalyptic world. One of the many disgusting, psychotic things he does is keep a group of female prisoners – some of them are “breeders,” who he has forcibly impregnated (aka raped), and the other group exist solely to nurse the newborn babies – there’s a scene in the film where you see these miserable women endlessly being “milked.” The whole story really revolves around a group of rebels who rescue the “breeders” and then it goes on from there.

What really struck me about this was how shocking this behavior was to the audience – the idea of imprisoning and forcibly impregnating women is horrifying, as is the idea that women could be viewed as “property” – but isn’t that exactly what we do to dairy animals? I’m not going to get into an argument about whether you can compare women to cows, that’s not the point I’m trying to make. What I mean is that people really, truly do not understand that cows don’t just magically make milk. They make it to feed their babies – then we steal those babies, and their milk, and we keep doing it over and over again until they die. It just boggles my mind that a blockbuster film premise could basically be the story of a dairy cow and everyone would freak out and cheer on the demise of the protagonist and then, by eating certain foods, be that actual protagonist themselves.

You can probably imagine the comments I got when I posted this review as my Facebook status. Also you might not want to go to movies with me, I am zero fun.

10. Last, please finish this sentence. "To me, veganism is…"

The easiest way to change the world.

Uninvited Vegan Nutrition Critics: You Need to Stop.

 

An open letter to those vegans who offer unsolicited opinions on my vegan food choices,

Not that I asked for your opinion*, but since you offered it, we should probably just have this conversation. I’ve brought it up before but maybe you need a reminder or you didn’t see it the first time. Or maybe I need to be more direct. In that case, let me cut to the chase: I don’t care what you think of my vegan food choices.

I don’t mean to sound snippy but that’s kind of the long and short of it. I will continue to return the favor and most assuredly not care about your food – at least not enough to voice concern or condemnation – because as long as it’s vegan, I truly don’t care. And I think you should do the same thing.

Because…

I don’t care if you think I should be raw.

I don’t care if you think I should be a fruitarian.

I don’t care if you think I should be raw until a certain hour of the day.

I don’t care if you think I should re-examine my relationship to nightshades.

I never made a promise to be raw, a fruitarian, raw until a certain hour of the day or apprehensive about nightshades so you don’t need to supervise or patrol me on that. I’m good. I hereby relieve you of this role that you seem to have assigned yourself. I have no ethical attachment to those other dietary choices and I also feel no responsibility to speak up about your vegan dietary choices. I have, however, made a promise to be vegan and I do have an ethical attachment and responsibility to maintain it.

In the same vein, I don’t care if you think I eat too many or too few many carbs as evidenced by the occasional food photographs I may share. It seems that you think you can extrapolate from a single photograph that this picture represents the entirety of my diet and I don’t want to waste a lot of time wondering why you’ve reached this bizarre conclusion because even if it were accurate, which it isn’t, it is fundamentally besides the point because it’s not your business.

And, again, I really don’t care.

Eat all the mono-fruit meals you want and if that makes you feel great, I am happy for you. Truly. Non-sarcastically. Happier people create a happier world and maybe one with fewer unsolicited opinions about someone based on whether nuts are consumed or are verboten. So post your gigantic produce hauls – go ahead. Eat barrels of rice and mountains of potatoes if that is your thing. Similarly, you can scrupulously avoid soy, gluten and sugar: I promise you that it has no bearing on my life. See how easy this is? Imagine how great you're going to feel to be relieved of the burden of ensuring the optimal dietary practices of someone else.

I have to say that for a vegan to be so bothered by the presumed nutritional standards of other vegans, I cannot imagine how you get by in life, being offended enough by a picture of pasta, tofu and broccoli that you would think berating a stranger is an appropriate response. What does your nervous system do in the case of, I don’t know, Donald Trump? Ted Cruz? The trickle down, institutionalized racism that obstructs access to a fair education? The cesspools of fecal waste leaching into our groundwater as the polluters are given tax exemptions and no penalties? Carpet-bombing random Muslim communities? What do these things do to your emotional health knowing how upsetting it is to you that I may have cavalierly combined starch with protein?  

I suppose in this increasingly stressful world, it’s easier to care about things like whether someone else is eating a diet that is not high-alkaline or raw enough for your standards than those things I mentioned above. I believe that we’d live in a better world, though, if we cared more about those other issues and less about rushing to judgement about what is on another vegan’s plate.

So here is what I propose -- if you see a vegan food photo of mine that makes your fingers tingle with a desire to post a critique, I’d ask you to ask yourself one simple question: Did I ask for anyone’s opinion on the nutritional value of what I was eating? If yes, feel free to offer it. If no, don’t. It really isn’t so complicated and we’ll be on better terms if you don’t jump to conclusions and voice opinions about the kind of person I am based on the vegetable-to-starch ratio represented in a single photo. It’s not fair, it’s nosy and it’s obnoxious. If, however, you want to ensure that the viewing public feels justified in believing that vegans are a bunch of joyless scolds who micromanage one another and are pushy about whatever personal dietary preferences they have, by all means, continue. I know that this is not what veganism is about, though, and I’d be really grateful if I didn’t feel obligated to reverse the messaging you put into the public realm so that the animals could actually stand a chance of not being born into oppression.

Does that work for you? I hope so. Have some pancakes. Or don’t. I really don’t care.  

xo -

Marla

*This does not mean that I don’t care about health and that I am recommending that people eat junk food. Having been down this road before, I know that to an absolutist mindset, everything I have written here becomes, “Oh, she’s telling people to eat processed foods! She’s the one who is ruining veganism!” If that if your conclusion after reading what I’ve written, this disclaimer is for you: Read this again if you need to but I never said anything of that nature. Everyone has a different opinion about what constitutes processed or harmful foods and it is very open to individual interpretations. Some people think hummus is processed; others think walnuts are evil. The take-away is that I am vegan, I never promised to follow anyone else’s dietary advice and nor did I ask for it. I am not “asking” for help or advice so unless I am, don’t offer it. It is controlling, presumptuous and condescending. Now was that an endorsement of “junk” food?

10 Questions: Vegan Rockstar with Ruby Roth

 

How fabulous is Ruby Roth? I’m not sure how to quantify fabulousness but I’d say she’s pretty up there.
Ruby Roth is a talented artist and book author who burst on the scene in with her beautiful and poignant book, That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals in 2009 (watch the Fox News anchors freak out on the unflappable author, which paved the way for her follow-up efforts, Vegan is Love in 2012 and V is for Vegan: The ABCs of Being Kind in 2013. All of Ruby’s books are geared to children and are lushly illustrated by the author. I am appreciative that her books speak honestly but sensitively to children, who are so often feel a strong emotional connection to other animals: she manages to be both candid and considerate of tender feelings as well as empathetic to the feelings of despair and sadness children might feel when learning about what we do to animals. Thankfully, Ruby also offer alternatives and gives her readers a chance to become empowered to take compassionate action after they have learned about what happens in so many abusive industries. It’s not all doom-and-gloom, though! Her books also overflow with enthusiastic encouragement for embracing a mindful, cruelty-free life.

Ruby’s newest effort, to be released April 5 but taking pre-orders, is a really exciting addition to her collection: The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids: 60 Easy Plant-Based Recipes Kids Can Make to Stay Healthy and Save the Earth.  I was lucky enough to receive an early copy and it is a fantastic new resource for vegans, vegan kids and people who are transitioning, full of fun, health-focused recipes, whimsical illustrations and great bits of information, all aimed to get kids in the kitchen and cooking tasty vegan food. (Full review to be published on VeganStreet.com Friday!) Ruby Roth is a very positive and creative world-changer and I am so glad to be able to share her thoughts today as this week’s Vegan Rock Star. 

1. First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped to pave your path?

I think I was always vegan at heart, I just didn’t know it. My mom had been vegetarian my entire life, I always loved animals, I was raised part-time on an organic tree farm on Kauai, my grandparents were holocaust survivors which instilled many sensitivities in me, I’ve always been anti-authoritarian and punk rock at heart, I had a very progressive, liberal education in high school and college, and participated in a lot of activism for various social justice causes. But I ate meat and had never questioned it. Then, when I was 20, a new friend pointed out to me that my eating habits didn’t match my morals and values. And when I looked into the reasons why, I was absolutely shocked at what I was participating in. It changed my view on justice, health, environmentalism, and all the activist work I had done before without putting my money where my mouth was! I stopped eating animal products cold turkey as a “heath experiment” and never went back. It’s been about 11 years.

2. Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most effective way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

What worked for me is someone picking up on my particular values and passions before they took aim. My friend knew I was concerned with social justice and with health, too. His approach was, “Hey, you’re into activism, you’re into health, check THIS out.” And I think that’s a great approach for all activists. You have to become a good listener—not for an opening to give your favorite spiel that you’ve practiced a million times, but for an opening to find out what a particular person is into, what they’re about, and present an angle from there. Also, having people around me who were positive, energetic, shining examples of health, and full of the knowledge to point me on my way—which at first was simply incorporating kale into my diet for the first time—was major.

3. What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.?

One-on-one, I get the most traction out of simply being helpful—and it’s funny, because this ties in directly to my new book, The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids! Humans are self-oriented. If you can find a way to offer someone help or resources or anything that serves their needs or interests, they’re usually into it! If someone wants to lose weight, you have (vegan) answers. If someone needs new lipstick, you have (vegan) suggestions. I’m serving kids with fun in the kitchen, and their parents by getting their kids to eat more fruits and veggies, and then I don’t need to say hardly anything at all about veganism—I’m helping them help themselves—and all other living beings, too.

4. What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

First, we have truth on our side—no one can argue with undercover footage of animal abuse. And more and more, statistics and numbers about the effects of animal agriculture on global food distribution and world hunger, the environment, and our health are hitting the mainstream. Two, vegans are great sharers. Going vegan is so transformative, you want to share all the benefits you experience and learn about with everyone you know. And as “annoying” as people say we are with our sharing, there’s a reason you can get quinoa at Applebee's now. Vegan activism works.

5. What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out effectively?

In-fighting and negativity within the movement. I post a lot of news and I see many people waste a lot of time saying “nothing is ever enough” or leaving vitriolic, hateful commentary about who can claim “vegan” or not. A positive post about a new or helpful resource will get fewer shares and likes than one about a celebrity or an exposé. We need to support the world we want to see, not just promote the superficial or negative. I understand the anger and the sadness, but I think every single person working for the cause has to learn to process it instead of unleash it. It almost never does good, no matter how justifiable the emotions are.

6. All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

Given the specific looming problems of our era—from mental and physical health to water, energy, the environment, politics, agriculture, biotech, and the economy —I think veganism is the right direction to go in this day and age. People making vegan choices seem to me to be the only figures in the public realm addressing all major issues at their roots instead of trying to band-aid a million problematic tributaries. 

7. Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

Earthlings, The Food Revolution by John Robbins, all books by David Wolfe, the annual Longevity Now Conference, all books by Dr. Gabriel Cousens, the documentaries Blackfish, Cowspiracy, Food Matters, and the consistent study of all kinds of books about the underbelly of our culture—from food to medicine, government, economy, health, labor, history—it all adds to my vegan arsenal of knowledge.

8. Burn-out is so common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and inspire yourself?

Yes, you have to find ways to let out all the sadness and anger about the world so that it doesn’t affect your personal or public progress. Music is very cathartic for me—blasting it in the car or listening with earphones. Sometimes, though, I have to just lay on the floor, be quiet, breath or cry or just watch my thoughts, and stay there until the feelings dissipate.

9. What is the issue nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

If I could upload or transfer an idea into other people’s heads, it would be, above all, about the transformative power of veganism—on one’s self, on animals, the environment, and on the public realm at large. 

10. Please finish this sentence: “To me, being vegan is...”

…one of the best ways to learn how to love deeply, think critically, and act responsibly (my motto!).

10 Questions: Vegan Rockstar with Ellen Kanner

I have never met Ellen Kanner in person, but I have this feeling that if/when we do, we will talk for hours and hours. She feels like a kindred spirit. In addition to writing the popular Meatless Monday column on Huffington Post (recently featuring yours truly) and fabulous Edgy Veggie column in the Miami Herald, Ellen is the acclaimed author of Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith, and What to Eat for Dinner - A Satisfying Diet for Unsatisfying Times, prolific recipe developer, coach and consultant and all-around cheerleader for everything vegan, green, healthy and compassionate in the world. Please check out Ellen’s website, sign up for her newsletter and try out her recipe for below, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day. I am so happy that I can count someone as talented, active and positive as Ellen as one of my vegan sisters and to be able to feature her this week as our Vegan Rock Star. Go, Ellen, Go!

1. First of all, we’d love to hear your “vegan evolution” story. How did you start out? Did you have any early influences or experiences as a young person that in retrospect helped to pave your path?

I went vegetarian at 13 because I love cows and wanted to piss off my parents a little. That bit was easy — I never missed meat, never regretted my decision for one hot minute.  Suddenly, though, I had to think about what I ate.  This was in the dark days before internet, so like you, I had to figure things out for myself. 

There was no way I was going to live on the tired lettuce that lived (and died) in our refrigerator.  Having to think about food brought me into the kitchen and out into the garden. It also brought me uncomfortably close to the realities of our food system.  Becoming vegetarian and ultimately vegan gave me both my passion and my profession — it’s what made me a food writer, chef and vegan advocate.

2. Imagine that you are pre-vegan again: how could someone have talked to you and what could they have said or shown you that could have been the most effective way to have a positive influence on you moving toward veganism?

I got the standard pushback — humans are designed to eat meat, don’t you miss bacon, you won’t get enough protein, etc. I was a kid. I didn’t doubt myself but I didn’t know how to frame arguments. I was a pariah, or often felt like one. I wish I’d had a compassionate mentor who could give me the language, the information I needed. I wish someone had told me, Don’t be afraid to stand up for what you believe. 

By the way, I still get the protein question. Really, people?

3. What have you found to be the most effective way to communicate your message as a vegan? For example, humor, passion, images, etc.? 

I cook and write to seduce.  I also like using humor. Whether it’s sharing a recipe for a show-stopping, lightening up a complex issue with some sly wit, or teaching a hands-on cooking class, I use all the tools in my vegan wheelhouse to invite everyone in.

Many of my readers and followers aren’t vegan. Jacques Pepin and Norman Van Aken, brilliant and dedicated chefs aren’t vegan, but they wrote generous blurbs for my book Feeding the Hungry Ghost: Life, Faith and What to Eat for Dinner.

The mainstream is — hallelujah — increasingly interested in vegan.  I really want to connect with them. Preaching to the chorus is great for morale, but to know we’re extending the vegan message to a broader audience — that’s exciting. I’m the vegan inviting everyone to the table. Change starts with connection, with dialogue, and nothing facilitates that more than a great meal. 

4. What do you think are the biggest strengths of the vegan movement?

That there’s so many ways to play. Marla, you and I have talked about how vegans come in every flavor. Some of us are organizers extraordinaire, some are social media gurus, some are passionate outspoken animal advocates. Some of us open restaurants that showcase a cuisine that’s powerfully delicious and happens to do a kindness to animals, too. Some of us harness the power of narrative or create recipes or teach. Every way is good, and it takes all of us.  Whatever your talent and your passion, hold on to it. That’s what keeps the vegan power stoked.

5. What do you think are our biggest hindrances to getting the word out effectively?

           It’s tempting to blame the beef and dairy industries. You wanna talk effective, they’ve done a good job of trying to drown out our messaging.  But that’s changing. We’ve got truth and compassion on our side. Those are a couple of handy superpowers.

Perhaps the bigger barrier is human nature.  I’m only half-joking here.  A passionate new vegan wailed to me, “But given all the cruelty, vegan is a rational choice.” Alas, we’re not always ruled by reason. Human design flaw.  

Sometimes I feel like we’re delivering the same message over and over again, and I want to say, people don’t you get it? But the shining truth hits people in different ways at different times, and we have to be ready to receive it. I try to remember it’s always going to be somebody’s ah-hah moment, someone’s first time, and like sex, you want the first time to be fabulous.

6. All of us need a “why vegan” elevator pitch. We’d love to hear yours.

It’s the single greatest multitasking tool we have. Going vegan means a more sustainable planet, more nourishment for you, more color on your plate, more flavor in your mouth, more money in your wallet, more friends (two-legged and four-legged) to connect with. What’s not to love? Come to veganism because you love the rocking vegan cupcakes, stick round because you can save the world.

7. Who are the people and what are the books, films, websites and organizations that have had the greatest influence on your veganism and your continuing evolution?

One of my earliest influences was E. B. White’s classic, Charlotte’s Web. It’s wonderful to read at any age and has everything to do with compassion and our precious bond with animals. I also love the movie Babe for that reason. Hmmm, I seem to have a thing for pigs. We all should.

But what really inspires me is our big-hearted vegan community.  There isn’t even enough room for me to list everyone. You and John have been our guiding lights. Chefs and authors like Jill Nussinow, Fran Costigan have encouraged me. Growing Miami’s vegan community is exciting. And I am so, so grateful to the countless vegan, animal rights and environmental advocates and foot soldiers who never get their due. Like my friend Jessica, who tirelessly tables and volunteers at every health fair, every animal rights rally. I mean it’s like she’s cloned. Or my friend Pears, who organized the first-ever Dublin Vegfest last year and who, even before we met, organized a talk I did in Dublin. They’re just two of the many people who make things happen. You all keep me motivated and positive.

8. Burn-out is so common among vegans: what do you do to unwind, recharge and inspire yourself?

I connect with what gives me joy.  I rub a dog’s belly or harvest an heirloom tomato from my tiny vegetable garden. In the garden or in the kitchen, surrounded by fresh, local produce, fragrant green herbs and healing spices, I feel pleasure but also a sense of reverence and gratitude for the food the nourishes me and the planet that provides it. I can’t wait to prepare a meal and share it with people I love. 

I like to take a hike in the Everglades or a walk on the beach with my husband. We went this morning — the ocean was a perfect aquamarine and for the crowning glory, we saw 50 pelicans flying in formation. That image stayed with me all day and had me grinning like an idiot. 

All these things remind me how precious our planet is, how lucky we are to live here. It’s a nice place, Planet Earth. Thank God, we haven’t screwed it all up yet. It’s our honor and responsibility to protect and preserve it.

9. What is the issue nearest and dearest to your heart that you would like others to know more about?

At a time when we’ve become such a divisive global community, one of the things I love best about food is that it’s a connector. However different or divided we are, we all need to eat.

So I’d ask everyone to DIY their dinner a little more often. Stop relying on processed food and get in the kitchen. Cooking is a basic life skill. It also has benefits far beyond the next meal. As I mention in Psychology Today  — it’s good for you. We forget the value of being really hands on, of filling your kitchen with fresh fruit and vegetables and the people you love, so you can cook and share it together. We all deserve food that’s made with compassion, that’s safe, affordable and accessible to everyone. We are better together than apart, and food is the best way of bringing us together.  

10. Please finish this sentence: “To me, being vegan is…”  a win-win-win. It’s a luscious, joyful thing you do for yourself that also benefits the planet and every living thing on it. 

Vegan Irish Soda Bread (From SoulfulVegan.com)

1-1/4 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/4 cup wheat germ
4 tablespoons vegan margarine like Earth Balance, softened
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
6 dried figs, chopped (or 1/2 cup raisins)
3 tablespoons sugar
1-1/4 cup almond milk

Preheat oven to 425.

In a large bowl, combine spelt flour, oatmeal, wheat germ and baking soda. Work in vegan margarine until mixture forms crumbs. Mix in cinnamon and sugar and almond milk. When you have a nice, thick batter, stir in chopped figs or raisins.

Pour into a lightly oiled pie or loaf pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. Allow to cool before slicing, or bread may be crumbly. Even crumbly, it’s good.

What I Learned About the Free Speech Narrative at Donald Trump’s Rally in Chicago

Just over a week ago, I was frittering away some of my precious remaining life moments on Facebook when I happened upon one of those rare links that grabbed my attention and this time it wasn’t for another cashew cheese recipe (these look good!) or leading me down a twisty rabbit hole of Gertrude Stein recordings but something that actually changed my plans for the week ahead: I learned that Donald Trump was going to be speaking in Chicago and that I could request tickets. I clicked on the link, assuming that when I truthfully answered no and no to whether I was a Republican and if I would be interested in working on Mr. Trump's campaign that I would likely go deleted into that good night, so I was a little surprised a moment or two later when I got a confirmation text and message that I had two virtual tickets waiting for me online. It was strange that it was so easy; while it made me feel a little skin-crawl-y out to have a message from the Donald Trump campaign sitting in my very own email box, my mission was accomplished. (I will look into performing laptop exorcisms later.) I notified one of my wackier friends and in short order, she had tickets as well. We were off to the presidential races.

A lot of people asked why I would want to go to what is essentially a monster truck rally for misplaced white rage and racial anxiety. I wanted to go because I wanted to see it – particularly the whole strange spectacle around Donald Trump – with my own eyes in person. It seemed like such an obvious answer: how could I not want to see it? (Sometimes I forget that not everyone has my level of morbid curiosity and they are saner for it.) It just felt like something I just needed to bear witness to and observe. I think – or maybe just hope in a wishful thinking sort of way – that it was an historic night and the beginning of the end of his campaign’s ascendancy.

The thing that stuck out to me in the media and public comment sh*t storm that followed Chicago’s unforgettable “UM, NO” response to the Trump spectacle was a variation of a trope that as vegans, we hear all the time: You guys are suppressing someone else’s right to free speech. I’ll get to the vegan parallel in a bit.

As someone who was at the Trump rally, I can promise you that while there were moments of protesters being collared and escorted out to a thunderous chorus of chants from his supporters (“Kick him out! Kick him out!”), for the most part, it was a very boring and low-key event until the final 30 minutes or so. The police officers, security guards and assorted campaign workers were on it as soon as anything possibly rambunctious emerged, clued in first by the masses with their smartphones at the ready who responded to any little flare up hungrily. A riot was not happening. A riot of dudes in red “Make America Great” baseball caps, perhaps, or maybe a riot caused by a crowd driven to madness by the constant replaying of “Tiny Dancer” and “Mother’s Little Helper” from the sound guy. Other than that, for the first 2/3 of the night, things were uneventful to the point of tedium. In fact, by 6:15, I was nagging my friend that I wanted to go and thankfully she talked me out of it because if I had gotten my way, I would have missed everything that made this night newsworthy. (Trump was scheduled to speak at 6:00.)

When it was announced at around 6:30 that Trump would not be speaking, of course, the crowd went wild and this was what was shown in the news clips. The sleeping giant was awakened and suddenly, we could see that the arena was thick with anti-Trump protesters: they took to the stadium floor and rejoiced: jumping, whooping, shouting, arms raised, high-fiving and unabashedly savoring the moment of unexpected victory together. The tumult was deafening and a clash was imminent: one side was blatantly savoring the triumph (“We stumped Trump!”) and the other brandishing their Trump signs and chanting, “U.S.A.! U.S.A! U.S.A!,” looking like soccer fans whose favorite team just lost the most important game of the season. I couldn’t resist heading to the floor myself and seeing it up close.

I saw a lot of heated exchanges; I saw a lot of skirmishes that stopped just short of actual violence (it was more like a mosh pit); I saw a lot of enraged and frustrated Trump supporters, many of whom no doubt travelled long distances and spent many hours waiting, and a lot of thrilled protesters taking obvious delight in their victory dance but you know what I didn’t see that whole afternoon? I didn’t see any activists blocking anyone’s right to free speech. This was Trump’s rally to cancel and that’s just what he did. Like I said, things were pretty boring until the announcement of his cancellation, the announcer claiming that after consulting with the Chicago Police Department (later refuted by the CPD), Trump didn’t deem it safe to speak (suddenly he cares about safety?) and that was when the scenes people saw on CNN of inside the pavilion broke out in earnest.

After the event, I’ve seen this spin in conservative media and commentary again and again: Those violent, rude activists -- they only value their own free speech. Whether you like Donald Trump or not, he has a right to free speech. Um, okay. Nobody, and I repeat nobody, was in any way standing between that man and his microphone. As an aspiring President of the United States, if dissent is such a big threat to you that you cancel speaking at an event that your supporters spent hours and hours to be able to attend, you, sir, are not cut out for the job. But that’s not even what I want to talk about.

What I want to dispute is this notion that merely by having a presence at the Trump rally, even one that was occasionally loud, activists somehow silenced the windbag that is Donald Trump. This individual whom we have heard bloviate on and on about “Mexican rapists,” “terrorists,” “walls,” “wiping out Isis,” “deportation,” “pigs,” “dogs,” and “losers” ad nauseum was somehow silenced?

Democracy is messy. Sometimes democracy is loud. Sometimes democracy is intimidating. Sometimes in a democracy we hear things we don’t want to hear and we hear it in a way that don’t like but that is not in the same ballpark as silencing. No one violated Mr. Trump’s freedom of speech, which he enjoys amplification of due to his celebrity, while exercising their freedom of speech. If the only way Mr. Trump and his supporters feel that his freedom of speech is protected is if his opponents are silenced, he’s got bigger leadership and self-aggrandizement issues than I thought.

Because this is a blog that focuses on veganism, I can’t help but circle back and point out a parallel of what I heard about the protesters (“They’re trying to take away his free speech!”) and what I often hear about vegans (“They’re trying to take away my freedom of choice!”).

Often times, when vegans speak up for the animals and against our use of them, we are accused of being tyrants. Let’s put that in perspective: vegans are, at best, two-to-three percent of the population of the U.S., which means that 97-to-98 percent of the population is not vegan. There are between 55 to 70 billion land animals killed each year for consumption worldwide. This is just land animals, not sea-life, which is guessed to be even higher. Millions more animals suffer in laboratories, on fur farms, zoos, canned hunts, circuses and so on. Again, we are supposed to believe that the two-to-three percent of vegans are somehow suppressing the “rights” of people to continue to use animals as they wish when the law completely supports their consumption habits? Please tell me how one’s “freedom of choice” is violated by an activist saying things that person doesn’t want to hear. It isn’t. It is the presence of activists or simply vegans that make those who still consume animals feel oppressed, much as in the case of Donald Trump. In this power structure, let’s remember who really is dominant.

The next time you want to say that activists don’t believe in freedom of speech or freedom of choice, I would ask you to really examine how much you value your freedoms: Is it enough to accept dissenting views? Enough to not be so threatened by these views that you accuse others of oppressing you when they say things you don’t want to hear? Enough that you understand that speaking up against oppression and violence is not taking away anyone’s rights?  

The Trump campaign refers to their supporters as “the silent majority.” Whether they are silent – or a majority – is up for debate. Were they silenced, though, by protesters? Are people who eat animals losing their “freedom of choice” when activists speak up against violence to other animals? No and no.

To borrow a phrase, this is what democracy looks like.