NZ Vegan Podcast

Listen HERE This week I speak to fellow NZ abolitionist and podcaster Sam Tucker about single issue campaigns, welfarist thinking and what the future may hold for a 14 year old vegan.  We also speak a little bit about living in a farming community and advocating for veganism at a school where many of the students actually live on farms themselves. In this episode we talk about Sam's radio show and podcast, which can be accessed from the following site: http://fftradio.wordpress.com/ We mention the last fft radio episode (which will be available in iTunes soon): Johnny Weir and Single Issue Campaigns Here is the article profiling Sam on Veganacious Fierce at Fourteen Follow Sam on Twitter: @fftradio And we also discuss another recent single issue campaign in New Zealand, you can read a local newspaper article about it here: Auckland SPCA to destroy catch-a-cray games Thanks Sam for coming on the show!

Listen HERE This week I talk about Victor Schonfeld's article in the Guardian newspaper and Ingrid Newkirk's response in the same paper.  Please go on there and comment, please help us spread the vegan message.  It is really happening, I can feel it in my bones. These are the links Five Fatal Flaws of Animal Activism (Victor Schonfeld) A pragmatic fight for animal rights (Ingrid Newkirk) Please read this latest blog post (and then go on to read the entire site of course) by Vincent Guihan of We Other Animals which really nicely illustrates some of the things I am bumbling on about today. Hegemonic Tendancies Thanks for listening!

Listen HERE This week I welcome back to the show my first ever podcast listener Jordan Wyatt from the Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals podcast, and we discuss his podcast about veganism and animal rights, what it is like to be vegan in Southland, talking to NZ farmers about veganism, the economy, the issue of sterilization, the counter movement of industry advertising and other things. You can find Jordan's blog here: Coexisting with Nonhuman Animals You can subscribe to his podcast via iTunes here Follow Jordan on twitter: jaywontdart and on Facebook: #/jaywontdart Thanks Jordan for coming back on the show!

Listen HERE This week I talk to Pao Aldana AKA Porolita, who lives in Guatemala and is spreading the vegan message on YouTube in English and in Spanish, plus educating people in her local community about veganism and abolition.  We talk about Porolita's journey to veganism, the ease and necessity of abolitionist advocacy, the usefulness of social networking sites like YouTube to spread ideas, and what it is like to be vegan in Guatemala.   Please check out Porolita's great videos on her YouTube channel: Porolita22 and here is the video featuring her Mom, talking about her experience with illness and her doctor's advice that she immediately switch to a vegan diet in order to save her health, and what happened after: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePc0m24aDVQ&feature=email This is the link to Porolita's vegan cooking blog (in Spanish) which she uses to educate members of her community or the surrounding regions on how easy and cheap it is to sustain a vegan diet in Guatemala and therefore other countries with similar climates and food types: La Lonchera de Un Vegan This is the link to the BBC World One Planet documentary that we discussed on the podcast: Animals and Us Part 1 Animals and Us Part 2 I would like to thank Porolita for coming on my podcast!  Enjoy!

Listen HERE I have had a wonderful week hanging out with my fellow NZ abolitionists William and Vish, and we had a chance to do the street stall together!  This epidsode we talk about our experiences on Queen Street in our first street stall event of 2010. We also mention Part 1 of the BBC Documentary Animals and Us which is archived here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p005k2zy Thanks Vish for coming up to Auckland to visit us and thanks to both William and Vish for helping with the street stall and for coming on the podcast. Enjoy! And remember; THE WORLD IS VEGAN!  If we want it.

Listen HERE This week I am very pleased to have back as my guest William Paul.  We talk about his experience as a peaceful activist and how about an occurrence where he was challenged on his nonviolence stance while speaking out against violence.  We also talk about the NZ Vegan Society's Big Book of Vegan Products which is a fantastic new resource by this great new NZ Vegan Society.  We discuss the up-and-coming (we hope) SAFE vegan campaign and whether it will actually happen, how it will happen and whether it will it actually be a vegan campaign that we can get behind, among other things. Also as both William and I have unfortunately been without internet access for a week, coincidentally, we came back online to discover the recent development of a wonderful new resource for vegan advocacy by Gary Francione and the team at The Abolitionist Approach which is based on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's "War is Over if you want it" Times Square Billboard: The World is Vegan! If you want it. Links: theworldisvegan.com William Paul on Facebook William Paul on Twitter The NZ Vegan Society on Facebook (please join and show your support!) Please look at all the resources for The World is Vegan! if you want it resources from: Vincent Guihan at We Other Animals Adam Kochanowicz at The Vegan News John Colvin Please also read this NOTE from Professor Francione about the billboard: Thanks everyone for all this great work and thanks to William for coming back on the show!

Listen HERE Just articulating some things that I have been trying to come to terms with lately, specifically this desire to see "results" and to claim responsibility for things we really have no right to claim responsibility for. When someone takes animal rights seriously and goes vegan, it's their "victory" and no one else's.  The benefit is for all, but the credit for that is given to the individual who takes that action.  And alternatively if people resist and turn away, that also lies with them.  Let us pay closer attention to our own actions as individuals and if more of us do that, advocates especially, then I think there will be some wonderful "results".

Listen HERE The second half of my conversation with Adam Kochanowicz where we talk about issues and opinions and share experiences as two advocates for abolitionist veganism in this speciesist, welfarist world! Enjoy! Please check out the interview with Gary Francione at The Vegan News: All Episodes Subscribe to The Vegan News Video Subscribe to The Vegan News Audio Or watch on YouTube

Listen HERE This week I was chatting with Adam Kochanowicz, as we often do, and we thought it would be an interesting experiment to post our conversations about events and about what we think and what we are doing, and see if anyone else can relate! Please check out the interview with Gary Francione at The Vegan News: All Episodes Subscribe to The Vegan News Video Subscribe to The Vegan News Audio Or watch on YouTube

Listen HERE This week I address the silliness of thinking that it is "manly" to consume animal products, specifically "eating meat" because that is one of the most touted myths and one of the biggest misunderstandings of our times, and is another paradigm shift in thinking that we must dismantle and redirect towards obvious truth. Thanks for listening! Please check out these quotes at Atheist Vegan: Pro Slavery Anti Slavery

Listen HERE This week I have a long awaited and well worth the wait interview with Corey Wrenn from the Roanoke Vegan Examiner.  We talk about Professor of Philosophy Bernie Rollins with whom Corey is taking an animal "rights" seminar, and the many challenges involved in being the only actual rights advocate in the room, and that includes the lecturer.  We also discuss student advocacy, the absence of animal issues from the environmental movement. sociology and academia in general,  and discuss what will be involved in Corey's PhD. Enjoy!  Thanks so much to Corey Wrenn for coming on the show.   You can follow her on Twitter at this link. Major apologies from me for not checking my SKYPE input and using the built-in mic rather than the headphone mic. You can play 'guess the frequency!' every time my mic comes in.  Sorry for the hummmmmmmmmm and whhhhhhirrrrrrr. :-) (lucky I am not getting paid to do this, if I were my boss I would fire me)

Listen HERE This week I talk about how as a vegan consumer in a capitalist society I am trying to work as best as I can in the system, as a consumer in my daily life, aside from the main focus of advocating to individuals for a paradigm shift, and opening people's minds up to a fundamentally different way of thinking about all other animals and life on the planet by promoting the abolitionist approach and veganism. I admit I am very uneducated about politics, history, agriculture, sociology, and a myriad of other extremely important subject matters related to vegan advocacy, so I will do my best to educate myself as best I can for the rest of my life, and in the meantime lean heavily on my colleagues and fellow advocates who ARE educated in these things :-) So this podcast is just some of my personal thoughts, as always, and I do appreciate any advice and constructive criticism. One of the things I touch on is how we can avoid buying from companies that are direct exploiters of animals and their products, i.e non vegan restaurants for example. The truth is, most of us can't. I mean, we can easily choose to avoid some of them (non vegan restaurants for example) but what about the supermarket? What about where we buy our clothing? What about where we buy our fruit and vegetables? My fruit and vege place sells eggs and ice cream bars. Some people are lucky enough to have access and money to buy all their products from purely vegan online suppliers, but I am not one of them. That is why I always affirm that I personally am part of the problem, which is one of the many reasons I feel such a strong urge to rectify the problem and why make it my personal responsibility to do so as best I can. Please keep in mind, this is nothing at all like some "Vegan Outreach" advocacy that says "oh don't make a fuss and try to be pure, just eat the egg product every now and then so people don't think we are too fanatical". No no no. I am an ethical vegan. I am, however, a human being, an active consumer, and I live in a speciesist society, and whether I like it or not, I am contributing to industries that exploit animals, even when I buy my fruit and veges from the fruit and vege store. BUT we must let the producers know we vegans exist—that there is a legitimate and lucritive demand for vegan products. I am not a supporter of capitalism, I would like to see a better system, but I also live in reality and face truths. Right now, today, I live in a capitalist society and am an active member and consumer in that society whether I like it or not. So in the meantime too, while we are still working for change, we must have a voice. It will grow to a thunderous roar, right now it is a whisper in the grand scheme of things. But that will change. Until it does; don't be shy! Demand vegan! Ask for vegan products. Enquire about vegan products. MENTION vegan products at the very least. Educate sellers and producers about the vegan consumer. Tell them it's a guaranteed sale. That'll prick up their greedy little ears. Note: I don't consider "prick up their ears" to be a bad animal metaphor. That is because the way I look at it; noting that some lovely animals have ears that can prick up and using it metaphorically for human animals whose ears don't prick up doesn't have anything to do with exploiting the animals whose ears do prick up, so I think this is an acceptable animal metaphor. Thoughts? There is SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT it is just an inexhaustible subject this animal exploitation, unfortunately. I wish we didn't have to talk about it, but we DO. This week I mentioned some other podcasts and blogs and I would like to provide those links here, but they are also in my blog link list too. Firstly I mentioned Gary Francione's latest episode from his Abolitionist Approach Commentary: A Discussion of Abolitionist Principals Roger Yates from his On Human Nonhuman Relations podcast: Dehumanization Processes Part One Dehumanization Processes Part Two Vincent Guihan from We Other Animals and Animal Emancipation: We Other Animals Radio I must make a correction - the podcast is called We Other Animals Radio not Animal Emancipation. I am sorry! Sam Tucker from Food for Thought Radio fftradio podcast on iTunes And Jordan Wyatt from Jaywontdart's Podcast has a new blog and vegan podcast: Coexisting With Nonhuman Animals And this is the link to my favourite vegan restaurant in the whole world (especially since it is right here in Auckland NZ) Golden Age Vegan Restaurant This is the video that Randy Sandberg posted: Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood. It is blood chilling, but watch it! Knowledge is power! This is all part of it too. Thanks Randy, this is a great find. Finally, I was wrong (in a good way) there ARE other actual physical vegan stores in the world. Here is one: The Pangea Store in Rockville Maryland.  I am sure there must be others.   Awesome!

Listen HERE Just having a little whine today. Things have just GOT to change!

Listen HERE This week I comment on a breaking story by Greenpeace NZ which has everyone up in arms about how the dairy farmers are importing palm kernels to NZ by the millions of tonnes in order to supplement the feed of the dairy cows. Thing is, nobody is vegan, so they all eat dairy products. Ummmmm? These are the articles by the NZ Herald about the story: Greenpeace Moves Palm Kernel Protest to Port Greenpeace Defiant over Palm Oil Protest Here is a link to my Indymedia NZ article (PLEASE feel free to comment! Help! :-) Why are we blaming the farmers? This is a link to the BRAND NEW AUCKLAND VEGAN RESTAURANT! YAY! Golden Age Vegan Restaurant This are to Adam Kochanowicz's fantastic resource on Vegan FM: Vegan FM/Is it Vegan? Golden Age on Vegan FM listing you can also see things like ingredients listings , animal testers, alcohols that are vegan etc. This is a link to Vegan Help on Twitter - if you are on Twitter, join in! It is helping people go vegan! Twitter/VeganHelp Finally this is a link to the youtube entry that Stan uploaded for me to use to practise for our next performance (there is a little mistake in there on my part but you will get the idea) Cows Thanks for listening

Listen HERE This episode I talk about my support of non violence and of the abolitionist approach and peaceful non violent vegan education. I give my reasons why, based on my own personal experience and non-expert opinion, and my core beliefs, which is all I can do. In this episode I am specifically talking about some of the things that I have read over the last few weeks in which proponents of violent tactics in the name of animal rights have been getting a lot of attention, and I have read some things that I thought were not only misguided and tactically wrong, but also deeply immoral. Not all those involved are supporters of the extreme physical violence that a couple of writings and advocates are proposing, however it was very distressing to see support of these advocates by anyone at all. I realise that a lot of the really extreme positions come from people who are deeply disturbed by what is going on in our world and are perhaps totally overwhelmed with everything, the horrific amount animal exploitation and who feel desperate. I say they need to snap out of it and help us create a peaceful vegan movement, but of course they don't agree with that, nevertheless I stand firmly in my beliefs, as always. I also object to people who are trying to confuse the issue by dragging things like Open Rescues into the debate about violence, I think that is muddying the waters and taking the focus of the debate off where it originally began and where it should remain, which was an objection to the hate mongering, propositions of actual physical violence and an escalation in violence in general by some advocates. Finally I think we must realise that it is important for us to be there for new vegans who may be overwhelmed by their new knowledge, and help them stay sane and positive, because they are our ethical vegan movement and we need them to not lose control, we need them to help us get the ethical vegan movement going, and that is not going to happen if they spiral down into despair and hate. And now for the good news! These are the podcasts I mentioned in the episode: Professor Gary L. Francione from Abolitionist Approach: Abolitionist Approach Commentary at the iTunes store Vincent Guihan from We Other Animals: animalemancipation.com - We Other Animals Radio at the iTunes store: We Other Animals Radio And Dr. Roger Yates from On Human-Nonhuman Relations: On Human-Nonhuman Relations Podcast at the iTunes store This is the link to Barbara DeGrande's Veganacious blog http://veganacious.com/ and this is to Corey Wrenn's Vegan Examiner articles, I hope to have Corey on as a guest very soon. Roanoke Vegan Examiner Thanks for listening.