October is the third Vegan Month of Food (Vegan MOFO)! Vegan superstar Isa Chandra Moskowitz started the tradition three years ago as the vegan community’s answer to NANOWRIMO. For the month of October, food bloggers all over the internet are going to be talking about vegan eats.
When folks think about veganism they imagine weirdly-textured baked goods and loads and loads of salads. That’s just not accurate at all! I promise that I could never, ever live like that. The folks behind Vegan MOFO want to debunk that way of thinking with delicious vegan recipes.
Why Veganism is Awesome
On top of veganism’s health benefits, plant-based foods are better for animals and for the environment. According to Greenpeace Brazil, cattle ranching is responsible for 80% of Amazon deforestation. Factory farming, which produces most of the conventional meat on supermarket shelves, is terrible for animals and for the environment. If you want to get an idea of what life is like for animals in factory farms, check out this hatchery video. On top of that, meat production is a notorious source of pollution. It might even pose risks to human health beyond high cholesterol and heart disease. Some folks even suspect pig farming is to blame for the H1N1 swine flu virus.
Animal-based foods are resource-intensive. You can’t just account for the land and water it takes to raise all of those cows, pigs, and chickens. Don’t forget that those animals need to eat, too. Rather than growing food for human consumption, farmers grow over 60% of the grains in the U.S. to feed livestock. Imagine how many people all of that grain would feed if it went straight into the food supply!
Cutting out or cutting back on the animal products in your diet can have such a huge environmental impact, and you don’t have to feel deprived for a minute! Vegan MOFO is going to be full of motivating stories, photos, and recipes for anyone curious about a vegan diet.
How to Get Involved
If you want to take part in this year’s Vegan MOFO, it’s easy! Head over to Kittee’s blog to check out the list of participating bloggers. If you want to participate, just leave a comment! They’re looking for folks to post every weekday for the month of October, which works out to 20 posts over the month. Just tag your posts “veganmofo 2009,” so other MOFOers will be able to find you.
If you want to learn more about Vegan MOFO, there are some great MOFO threads over at the Post Punk Kitchen!
Are any of you guys planning to give this a shot? I can’t wait to see all of the awesome vegan food porn!
Image Credit:
Vegan Cupcakes. Creative Commons photo by Cara B Anderson
Organizations like this often advocate lies. That is why I didn’t attend veggiefest in Chicago recently. Nor would I ever participate in these events. They lie about the health impact of veganism. They promote all sorts of stuff that has nothing to do with veganism.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
In what way? Are they lying or espousing opinions that differ from yours? What stuff do they promote that has nothing to do with veganism? I’m not being argumentative. I’m just looking for clarification because I’ve never been to one of these and your claims were very vague.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
Let me give you an easy example. They say veganism has health benefits right in this article that is being linked to. But when you click that link you find an entirely reasonable page that doesn’t say anything about veganism having health benefits. If the page they link to doesn’t support their position, why are they linking to it? Have they even read it? Why are they making unsupported claims? In person it’s far worse. A friend of mine went to veggiefest. http://www.veggiefestchicagoland.org/ She discovered people claiming veganism can cure cancer! And insomnia! There were yoga practitioners pushing their religion on people. What does that have to do with vegetarianism? There were beauty products, people pushing aromatherapy, people pushing raw food diets (which are dangerous), chiropractors (snake oil salesmen), religious organizations, and all sorts of other nonsense.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
So in other words you disagree with some of the people that participate so you feel the organizers Vegan MOFO are lying? As far as Veggiefest is concerned, name one trade show or convention in any industry that doesn’t have brand or lifestyle evangelists pushing a particular product, practice, system or lifestyle. That’s the name of the game. >They say veganism has health benefits right in this article that is being linked to. But when you click that link you find an entirely reasonable page that doesn’t say anything about veganism having health benefits. The article links to veganoutreach.org which does claim that eating vegan is healthy. They point out that simply eating vegan isn’t going to improve your health, you have to do it right. I happen to believe that a carnivorous diet can have health benefits but just like vegan diets if implemented improperly they’ll be health hazards. >raw food diets (which are dangerous) Over simplified. Can be dangerous, or can be very healthy. >chiropractors (snake oil salesmen) Just like medical doctors, some are good some are bad. Basically it sounds like you are opposed to alternative health and so you take the most extreme examples to justify vilifying the moderates that are promoting smart lifestyle changes.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
> That’s the name of the game. I’m not saying it’s not, just that I choose not to participate for this reason. > The article links to veganoutreach.org which does claim that eating vegan is healthy. This blog is not saying that. They are saying it has benefits. >Just like medical doctors, some are good some are bad. No, chiropractic is snake oil. None are good. Some have good intentions, but they are taking peoples money and giving them nothing in return anyway. > Basically it sounds like you are opposed to alternative health Opposed to snake oil, yes. > and so you take the most extreme examples to justify vilifying the moderates Nope, the everyday examples do that just fine. >that are promoting smart lifestyle changes. Smart in what way? I agree it’s smart because Veganism is the right thing to do. But there is no other reason to do it. This particular blog is also pushing organic nonsense, and the "green" marketing nonsense. The blogs that participate seem to do much of the same. I don’t like seeing this stuff tied to veganism. They have nothing to do with each other. It makes veganism look bad.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
I agree that veganism isn’t nessecarily a healthy way to eat. I mean, we could all live on potato chips and beer and technically be eating vegan. The thing I dig about Vegan MOFO is that it’s about all the awesome things about vegan food….from the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet to animal rights to cupcakes!
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
"I agree that veganism isn’t nessecarily a healthy way to eat." Sigh. I never said that! "from the potential health benefits" This is what is bad. There are no potential health benefits of veganism over other diets. That’s exactly what I don’t like about vegan mofo.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
Hey bradsnet, I feel your pain. I went to the toronto vegetarian food fair for the food and that’s it. The usual suspects you’ve already listed were there plus some hare krishna chanting that i could also do without. Also, the animal liberation front was there (strangely, I didn’t see PETA), the ferret rescue society and some other crap.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
I guess I inferred that because you said some folks lie about the health impacts of veganism. Sorry if I misread what you were saying there. Vegan MOFO isn’t really an organization…it’s just food bloggers talking about why they think veganism is awesome. I think veganism does have potential health benefits over other diets, though, if you stay away from the junky convenience foods. Cutting out animal products is how I got my cholesterol from superduper high to normal with no drugs. It might seem like voodoo, but then I guess that makes me a believer?
This comment was originally posted on Reddit
"Vegan MOFO isn’t really an organization…it’s just food bloggers talking about why they think veganism is awesome." It’s an event, and the people who participate push these sort of lies. "I think veganism does have potential health benefits over other diets, though, if you stay away from the junky convenience foods." So you are saying that if you are a vegan who eats healthy that has health benefits over a meat-eater that eats unhealthy? *Of course* that is true! That doesn’t mean veganism has a health advantage over other diets. Eating a healthy diet that includes meat is healthier than eating an unhealthy diet that doesn’t. There is no inherent benefit to JUST going vegan. If you eat healthy, you are healthy… no matter if your diet includes meat or not.
This comment was originally posted on Reddit