Information Editor:
Colin Howlett Advertising and Distribution Manager: Barry Kew Design by T h e T a n d e m Design Company Illustrations by Juliet Breese T y p e s e t by Brains, Reading P r i n t e d by L . J . Print Services L t d . , 83-87 U n i o n Street, L o n d o n S E 1 1SG The Vegan is published q u a r t e r l y by T h e V e g a n Society Ltd Published: 21st M a r c h , J u n e , S e p t e m b e r , December Copy Date: 1st of preceding m o n t h ISSN 0307-4811 © T h e V e g a n Society Ltd
The Vegan Society The Vegan Society Ltd R e g i s t e r e d Charity No. 279228 33-35 G e o r g e Street Oxford OX1 2AY T e l : 0865 722 166 President: S e r e n a Coles Deputy President: C h r i s Langley Vice-Presidents: E v a Batt Jay Dinshah W i n i f r e d Simmons Council: David Barrett Philip B r o w n S e r e n a Coles John Cummins Clive G r a y C h r i s Langley (Chair) Kath Manners Lorraine Munn G r a c e Smith Kim Stallwood Hon. Treasurer: John Cummins Secretary: Barry Kew Office Manager: Susan K e w Fund-Raising Officer: Mike Green
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For the benefit of new readers some general information is provided below:
33-35 George Street, Oxford OXI 2AY.
If you are already a vegan or vegan sympathiser please support the Society and help increase its influence by joining. Increased membership means more resources to educate and inform. The current subscription is just £3.00 a year (£2.00 to the unwaged and those sharing with a member at the same address). Full membership is restricted to practising vegans, as defined above, but sympathisers are very welcome as associate members. Both The Vegan Ethic challenges all full and associate members those who preach compassion receive The Vegan free of charge. Applications for yet acquiesce in institutionalized animal abuse, membership should be sent to the Oxford office, with the especially the cruel practices envelope marked inherent in dairy, livestock 'Membership Secretary'. and poultry farming.
Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom for food, clothing or any other purpose. In dietary terms, it refers to the practice of abstaining from the use of all animal produce - including flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, animal milks, and their derivatives with the taking of honey being left to individual conscience.
Abhorrence of these practices is probably the single most Local Vegans The Vegan common reason for the Society has an expanding adoption of veganism, but network of people throughout many people are also drawn to Britain who act as local vegan it for health, ecological, contacts (LVCs), providing spiritual and other reasons. support for new members and co-ordinating promotional For those in d o u b t , the words work at local level. For the 'vegan' and 'veganism' are name and address of your nearest L V C see the Contact pronounced 'vee-gan' and 'vee-ganism' with a hard 'g', as section in the magazine. in 'gorilla', and the stress on the first syllable. Vegan Publications Apart from The Vegan magazine, the The Vegan Society was formed Vegan Society publishes a in England in November 1944 wide range of free leaflets and by a group of vegetarians who low-priced books and booklets of interest to the newcomer. had recognized and come to reject the ethical compromises See the section in the magazine implicit in lacto-vegetarianism entitled Publications & Promotional Goods. and consequently decided to renounce the use of all animal The Vegan Shop sells all Vegan products. Since those early days it has grown considerably Society publications and promotional goods, as well as in both size and influence, other publications and a wide reflecting the increasingly wide recognition of veganism's range of non-animal-tested ethical, health, ecological and products. For the address and o t h e r advantages. T h e Society other details see the section in the magazine entitled now has the status of an Publications & Promotional educational charity, whose Goods. aims include encouraging the development and use of alternatives to all commodities The Vegan Self-Sufficiency Network, an organization normally derived wholly or independent of the Vegan partly from animals. Society, was established to provide a focus for all those If you would like more interested in, working towards, information please send a or practising self-sufficient large S A E to the Society at
lifestyles based on vegan principles. The Network produces a quarterly newsletter in which members can share ideas and experiences and discuss subjects related to the many aspects of vegan selfsufficiency. There are sections devoted to vegan gardening, and to crafts and selfsufficiency skills. If you would like further information on VSSN please write to
A subscription to the newsletter costs £2 a year (overseas surface mail £2.50) cheques payable to 'The Vegan Self-Sufficiency Network'. Vegan Magazines In addition to The Vegan, please note the following publications, which are produced independently of the Vegan Society: Vegan Times 25 Tabley Road, London N7 0 N A ' Veganism, spiritual growth, healing, ecology, etc. 50p in stamps for sample copy. Y Figan Cymreig (The Welsh Vegan) 9 Mawddwy Cottages, Minllyn, Dinas Mawddwy, Machynlleth SY20 9LW, Wales. 35p in stamps for a sample copy. Veganism Abroad There are active vegan societies in Australia, Sweden and the U S A , as well as contacts in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and New Zealand.
The views expressed in The Vegan do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor or the Vegan Society Council. Nothing printed should be construed as Vegan Society policy unless so stated. The Society accepts no liability for any matter in the magazine. The acceptance of advertisements does not imply endorsement. Contributions intended for publication are welcomed, but unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by an SAE.
Taking Stock
Contents
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News
»Animal T r a p Throughout the history of the world autumn must always have been a busy time. It is a period of gathering in the harvest in order to be well prepared for the rigours of the winter ahead and whatever privations it may bring. It is also a time of standing back and taking stock, and in the light of what we see making plans for the year ahead. This seasonal pattern is reflected in the political world - witness the trade-union and Party Congresses - and in the Vegan Society. It is almost a year since the most momentous AGM in the Society's history, when a number of far-reaching decisions were taken by the democratic assembly of full members. In the course of that eventful year the Council has met no fewer than 18 times, and individual Council members have put in countless extra hoursof work for the cause. The Secretary and his wife have been working record hours to cope with the everincreasing volume of incoming post, telephone and personal inquiries; The appearance of the new-look magazine alone prompted a three-fold increase in inquiries. For Society members the'new-look magazine, of which this is the second issue, is , of course, the most obvious result of all this extra work. The overwhelmingly positive response to the change of format and style (see pages 2021) has been most encouraging and some of the changes in this issue are a direct result of constructive criticisms received. And there's more to come - within weeks other new-look materials will be available and the Fund-Raising Campaign will be in full swing.
will put pen to paper, brush to canvas^ pan to cooker, or whatever may be their medium, and make their own personal contribution to the expansion drive. So, as we draw close to another AGM and take stock of the past year - one of rapid transition - 1 would warmly encourage all members to seriously consider if there are further ways in which they could assist our work at national or local level. At a time of bold, and often difficult decision-making, those responsible for the conduct of the Society's affairs need to know that they enjoy the membership's broad support. Finally, the autumn is also a
time to concentrate our thoughts and prepare to campaign both publicly and less publicly against the onslaughts of the meat and dairy industriesin the run-up to Christmas. Sunday, 6 October is World Day of Prayer for Animals - if you attend a place of worship, why not suggest some prayers for the animals that people choose to make room for on the dinnerplate, rather than in their homes? World Food Day, on 16 October, is ah ideal time for demonstrating veganism's special role in alleviating Third World hunger and malnutrition. Good campaigning!
Naomi Lewis examines the portrayal of animals in children's books
' Healthwise
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The Mineral Question
• Jailhouse Blues
Vegans in Prison • Reviews • In the V e g a n K i t c h e n
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• Growhow In the period since, the launch of the new magazine it has been refreshing and stimulating to be on the receiving end of so much high-quality material from readers - much talent has hitherto lain dormant in the Society. It is to be hoped that as the Society gathers further momentum with its new look and new thinking more people
The Seaweed Connection • Vegans & Vaccination Parti • Postbag • Family M a t t e r s • Noticeboard • Publications & Promotional G o o d s • Contact • Classifieds
18 20 22 24 25 26 27
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large number of letters received from customers - in particular from mothers whose children suffer acute toxic reactions, such as rashes, asthma, migraine and hyperactivity, caused by coaltar food dyes like tartrazine and other chemical additives. Safeway's move contrasts with the Ministry of Agriculture, which is expected to declare 'safe' 17 suspect colours and dyes currently under review.
News
Shedding Fat
All Systems Go T h a t ' s t h e m o o d in the Society's roomy new O x f o r d p r e m i s e s . W h a t was once no m o r e t h a n an idle d r e a m - a full-blown, easily accessible office - is now an exciting reality. T h e work of increasing the Society's impact on public opinion and farming practice has now e n t e r e d a longa w a i t e d a n d historic new p h a s e . 1985 will go down as the year of veganism's ' G r e a t Leap Forward'.
Vegans Come Out Tops A nutritional survey partf u n d e d by N e w m a n T u r n e r Publications has f o u n d vegans t o be "closer to the 'ideal' diet t h a n c o m p a r i s o n groups of ovo-lacto-vegetarians, w h o l e f o o d omnivores and average omnivores." The survey r e p o r t , published in the July issue of The Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, states: " A l t h o u g h it was only a small pilot study, it confirms that those p e o p l e on near vegan or v e g e t a r i a n diets can m o r e easily m e e t currently approved dietary goals as r e c o m m e n d e d by t h e National Advisory C o m m i t t e e on Nutrition Education (NACNE)."
Living without Cruelty A n i m a l Aid has launched an a m b i t i o u s countrywide 'Living W i t h o u t Cruelty' campaign, t h e aim of which is to supply
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information about practical alternatives to animal abuse, so prompting people to take a positive personal step towards ending cruelty to animals, either by becoming vegan/ vegetarian, cutting down on m e a t , avoiding factory-farm products, or boycotting goods tested on animals. Find out m o r e about this celebration of cruelty-free living by writing (please enclose an S A E ) for the 'Living Without Cruelty' information pack to: Animal Aid, 7 Castle Street, Tonbridge, Kent TN91BH.
Jacne Guide Out A f t e r falling foul of powerful vested interests and attempts at G o v e r n m e n t censorship of its findings, the guide Eating for a Healthy Heart, drawn up by the Joint Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education ( J A C N E ) , has finally been published. T h e guide's publication is the final, successful chapter in a longrunning battle between health ministers, backed by doctors and nutritionists, and the food industry, backed by Agriculture Minister Michael Jopling. A m o n g measures to curb heart disease ( U K rates are the highest in the world), the guide calls for reductions in the consumption of saturated fat in meat, butter and milk.
Safety First Safeway, the supermarket chain, has announced that it is to reduce the number of chemical additives in its ownlabel foods, following the
As from the 8 August 1985 issue. Farmers Weekly, the farming establishment's increasingly image-conscious mouthpiece, has banned the use of the word 'fat'. No longer will its pages talk of fat cattle, fat lambs or fat pigs. When describing animals 'ready for slaughter', the words 'finished,' 'fit', or 'prime' are now to be used instead.
RSPCA Dogfighting Appeal In the wake of the Potters Bar dog-fighting prosecution, the RSPCA has launched a special appeal for money to help improve the Charity's ability to combat animal cruelty. T h e RSPCA believes that cases like the one at Potters Bar are not uncommon and that the best way of attacking the evil is for the Charity to strengthen its Inspectorate, which for 161 years has been the main force opposing animal cruelty in this country. T h e Society is hoping to start training 20 new inspectors later this year. RSPCA national fund-raiser Mike Smithson: "The shocking pictures that have appeared on T V and in the press have brought home to the public what the RSPCA is fighting against. We receive no state aid - we are reliant totally on the public's generosity and we urgently need money." Donations to: RSPCA, Causeway, Horsham, Sussex RH12 1HG.
RSPCA Action Group The RSPCA Action G r o u p (RAG) has been formed by a number of RSPCA members who are committed to the idea of a radical and campaigning Society which will effectively
tackle the commercial abuse of animals. The Group's aims are: 1. To build a network of radical RSPCA members and to encourage active animal rights representation within RSPCA branches across the country. 2. T o ensure the election of radical animal rights campaigners onto the RSPCA's governing Council. 3. T o reveal 'confidential' information about contentious issues relating to the RSPCA in order to ensure that the Society does not maintain double standards. A number of disturbing developments which have recently come to light lead R A G to believe that now, more than ever before, the time is right for animal rights campaigners to unite to change the R S P C A . Firstly, the fact that the RSPCA's Animal Experimentation Advisory Committee ( A E A C ) includes practising vivisectors, employees of pharmaceutical companies, and even a member of the Research Defence Society. Secondly, the fact that the RSPCA has huge investments in companies which profit from animal abuse and exploitation. The RSPCA currently has shares in the following companies: Beechams, Boots, BP, Fisons, Glaxo, ICI and Unilever. Thirdly, the fact that the RSPCA Council is totally dominated by 'traditionalists', who recently showed their double standards by expelling Council member Kim Stallwood both from the Council and the Society for publicizing the fact that the A E A C includes vivisectors and other avowed pro-vivisectionists, and by suppressing discussion of this issue at the recent RSPCA A G M . The failure of progressive animal rights campaigners to get elected onto the RSPCA Council underlines the urgent need for all animal rights activists to join the RSPCA, to get involved in local RSPCA branches, and to use their votes to ensure the election of progressive candidates and the adoption of radical animal rights policies. It is hoped that R A G will serve as a rallyingpoint for activists to get to-
gether and transform the RSPCA. If you are interested please contact: RSPCA Action Group, do Box 199, Harrow, Middlesex HA3 9RL.
FAWC Ritual Slaughter Verdict Following a three-year study of the question of ritual slaughter for kosher and halal meat, the Government's advisory committee on animal welfare, the Farm Animal Welfare Council ( F A W C ) , has recommended a ban on the use of Jewish and Muslim slaughtering methods. F A W C chairman Sir Richard Harrison said that, although it was accepted that the Jewish teaching was to cause as little pain and suffering as possible to the animals, the report's findings showed conclusively that change was needed.
New Movement Launched Kathleen Jannaway has announced the launch of the 'Movement for Compassionate Living', whose aims are described as complementary to those of the Vegan Society. The new movement is designed to appeal to "those who realise that life is reaching a critical stage and that.its furtherance depends on a commitment to compassion to all living things, compassion worked out in action at every level of daily living". For further details send SAE, together with two postage stamps, to: 47 Highlands Road, Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 8NQ.
VSSN Gathering Paul Appleby reports: Around 50 members attended the first national gathering of the Vegan Self-Sufficiency Network at Canon Frome Court, set in the beautiful Herefordshire countryside, over the weekend of 15-16 June. The midsummer gathering featured films, talks, a craft demonstration, workshops and discussions on various aspects of vegan selfsufficiency. Robert Hart, co-author of Forest Farming and an
authority on agroforestry, described his V4-acre experimental garden in Shropshire and drew on his extensive knowlege of plants and plant foods in a wideranging discussion. Alan Raddon provided a practical demonstration of rope-soled shoe making, which had some people literally tied up in knots! Films shown over the weekend included 'Tara's Mulch Garden', describing the use of straw mulch on a Canadian smallholding, and a documentary about the late Scott Nearing and his wife Helen, depicting life in and around their hand-built New England homestead. All in all, an enjoyable and useful weekend. Especial thanks are due to the tireless organizers, Alan and Elaine Garrett, and to Canon Frome Court Community for their hospitality and sumptious vegan fare.
Alternative Medicine Exhibition Gavin Jones reports: The Vegan Society stall was well attended throughout the four days of the Exhibition (11-14 July), held in.Kensington, Central London. Whether consciences had been pricked due to the fact that we'd been placed opposite the refreshments area was hard to establish, but stocks of literature soon began to run low. In particular, there was an encouragingly large demand for cookery books. Next year, with a good range of new-look leaflets and booklets to offer, will hopefully be an even bigger success.
1985 Vegan Camp Camp organizer John Strettle reports: The 1985 Vegan Camp, the fifth to date, enjoyed the largest-ever attendance. Some 53 people, including 23 children, gathered on Anglesey early in August. Activities included morning runs, a communal meal under canvas, a visit to a nature reserve, evening sing-songs, and a puppet-show. Despite the bad weather - eight wet and windy days out of nine — the atmosphere was so good
that almost all the campers are planning on attending next year's Camp, which is to be in Dorset. Full details of the 1986 C a m p from
2nd International Vegan Festival Held at the Martinus Centre, Klint, D e n m a r k , over the period 3-10 August, the 2nd International Vegan Festival was attended by over 50 people from twelve countries. TTie U K contingent, which included Vegan Society President Serena Coles, attended various lectures, workshops and exhibitions connected with the vegan way of living. Serena wishes to thank the Festival organizer, Kirsten Jungsberg, and all of those who helped to m a k e the Festival a success.
Materials A Working Party has been formed to oversee t h e production of a new range of materials. W o r k is now in hand to implement t h e recommendations of the specially-commissioned Review of Vegan Society Publicity & Promotional Materials, with the aim of supporting the Fund-Raising Campaign with fresh leaflets.
Promotional Goods Negotiations with t h e Vegan Shop are underway with a view to expanding t h e existing range of promotional goods. Establishing a trading subsidiary is a distinct possibility.
TheVegan
Decisions, Decisions...
Following the introduction of the new f o r m a t , advertising rates have been revised and set at increased* but still advantageous rates. Distribution of the magazine is now being taken over on a national basis by N e w m a n Turner Publications, who service m o r e than 2,000 healthfood shops and other outlets.
Highlights of Vegan Society Council discussions in the last quarter,
Oat Cuisine
A new wholefood vegetarian/ Fund-Raising vegan restaurant.bearing this Mike Green, erstwhile L V C tongue-in-cheek name has for Northants, took up his recently opened in Brighton. duties as Fund-Raising On the night one reader visited Assistant/Press & Publicity the premises over half the Officer on 6 August. H e has dishes were vegan and starred now started work on the Fund- as such on the menu. Details: Raising Campaign and will Oat Cuisine, 113 St. George's ultimately be moving to Road, Kemp Town, Brighton. Oxford in order to work from Tel 0273 680317. the Society's new Headquarters.
Staffing
Plamil Marathon
Plamil Foods plan to sponsor a After lengthy discussion of his marathon next spring to position in the light of changes demonstrate that orthodox in Vegan Society priorities eaters have no monopoly on and other considerations, physical prowess. T h e date Laurence Main has amicably and venue have still to be and by mutual agreement left fixed, but interested readers the Society's employ. The are invited to drop Plamil Council wishes to record its Foods a line to indicate if (a) appreciation for his positive they are willing to run a full I contribution to the promotion or half marathon, (b) of veganism in his period of undertake duties on the day of employment. H e remains the event (doctors, first-aid, L V C for Gwynedd. stewards etc.), and (c) whether T o help cope with the they would be prepared to burgeoning workload at the attend a preliminary planning Oxford office Susan Kew has meeting some time this been appointed Office autumn. Contact: Plamil Manager on a six-month Foods Ltd, Bowles Well contract. Gardens, Dover Road, Folkestone, Kent CT19 6PQ.
Literature & Promotional
ANIMAL TRAP
N a o m i L e w i s , C h i l d r e n ' s B o o k s Editor For The Observer, is a w e l l - k n o w n poet a n d literary critic, w h o s e d i s t i n g u i s h e d c o n t r i b u t i o n to the c r i t i c i s m of child r e n ' s f i c t i o n a n d s e r v i c e s to c h i l d r e n ' s b o o k s g e n e r a l l y w o n her the E l e a n o r F a r j e o n A w a r d in 1975. Here Naomi explores the assumptions u n d e r l y i n g the portrayal of a n i m a l s in c h i l d r e n ' s b o o k s a n d in so d o i n g p o w e r fully i l l u m i n a t e s o n e of t h e m o r e negative f o r c e s s h a p i n g the v a l u e s of adult society.
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have a high regard for the child who, hearing the tale of the prodigal son, burst into tears and cried out, "Poor fatted calf!". It's a tiresome parable h o w e v e r you look at it, mistrusted by the good and bad alike. But this child saw straight through the assumptions to an u n d e n i a b l e truth, and that is rare in adult or in child. Assumptions, mindless acceptances, the notion that you have t o think or behave in a certain way because of custom, fashion tradition these are the cause of most of the world's evils. "You can't change p e o p l e " , "It has always been done, so it must be right". A bad or cruel thing d o e s not b e c o m e un-bad or un-cruel just by crossing a frontier, an ocean or a private wall.
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I'll name a few. Slavery. The burning alive of heretics. Or 'witches'. The crippling of girls' feet in yesterday's China. Suttee in India. Polygamy and the H a r e m . The use of five-year olds in English mills and mines. The blinding and caging of songbirds in Mediterranean countries. The bullfight. The rodeo. T h e hunt. The shoot. The belief that women, the black-skinned, the 'white' labouring poor, the blind, the deaf and of course, all animals, were subspecies, deficient in minds and souls whatever that meant. Some of these things are happening somewhere still. But in this country, anyhow, most of the human wrongs have been mended or are being so, vigorously, with plenty of funds and energy: certainly those that relate to women and 'ethnic' people and human rights and liberties. We don't have human slaves or overworked servants. But through all changes, the same victims remain, perpetual slaves, perpetually without the most basic rights. Who are these? The non-human animals on whom most humans depend. And much of the fault lies in attitudes, passed on to the young in their earliest reading and listening. When I first gave thought to this article, I began to make a list of all the things that make me pause before recommending a book. The list of abuses taken for granted and therefore given
implied approval is long. I'll name a few of the items. Pictures showing birds in tiny cages as an ornament in a room. Pictures showing dogs with amputated tails; books about dogs which take the horrible practice of amputation - a fashion maintained by breeders - as a fact of nature. (They used to do it to horses.) Approving accounts of the rodeo, that national disgrace of Canada. (The whole cowboy business with its branding, roping and all the rest is bound up in cruelty, and for what end? - a gobbet of meat on a plate.) 'Dancing' bears, still to be found in the Middle East, maybe nearer. (Do you know why they stand on their hind legs?) The revived use of bows and arrows. They are soon enough turned on animals and are a very nasty weapon indeed, smashing bones without killing. The horrible treatment of alligators and crocodiles in travel adventure books. The spurring of horses. When I see "He raked his horse's sides" I put the book down and think... Books about heath, bush and forest fires which ignore the real horror - not only the countless animal deaths but the maiming, burning and blinding of the luckless survivors. (I don't mean the humans, who generally get away.) The boiling alive of crabs and lobsters. Isn't it time, I reflect, that veal and lobster and quite a few other things came off the children's book menus? Deep-sea
fishing. Jokey abuse of camels and mules and donkeys. (A whole book could be given to this.) Sentimental accounts of cows and sheep giving birth when we know what will shortly happen.
Wolf I'll take a simple but very striking example of what I mean by assumptions' - the case of the wolf, the 'villain' of so many stories. Need I remind you? There he is, boiled alive in a cauldron of water, worse things too; no fate is too horrible. What dreadful things he must have done to get such punishments! And from tales and superstitions, handed down and down, passed on and on in print and pictures, such hatred and fear have swollen up that the wolf has been almost wiped out from the earth and in ways so obscene and vile (in our own century too) that I will not set them out here. Somewhat late in the day the true facts are being brought to light. The wolf is a highly intelligent, clean and orderly creature. It keeps to one mate, is an excellent father or mother and is far more likely to foster a human infant, make it one of the family, as it were, than to eat it. In the whole of human history the number of humans killed by wolves (then mainly in self-defence, or from provocation or extreme starvation) is absurdly small, a mere fraction of the number of animals killed every single day, year after year, by humans for food, or greed, or 'sport', or entertainment, or to keep laboratories in business, or by pollution, or because endless human increase has taken their last food and living space. As for the number of wolves destroyed by man, this is beyond counting, an almost total genocide. The key place to stop all this while a few wolves still remain, is in children's reading or listening. Every time I see a book with the same old vilification of the wolf as devil, fool and knave I sigh and hide it away. I hope that every parent or adult in touch with children will do the same.
Circus Circuses using animals are (rightly) banned today in a large proportion of London boroughs and in towns elsewhere. Yet publishers who should know better still pretend that wretched tigers, lions, elephants enjoy the degrading antics they are forced to make, let alone the cracking whip of the ringmaster. (They are shown moreover as fun-things, to be laughed at, as caged animals in menageries used to be. A parent who takes a child to an animalusing circus (or, need I add, to a bullfight or rodeo) is in the exact line of
Assumptions, mindless acceptances, the notion that you have to think or behave in a certain way because of custom, fashion, tradition - these are the cause of most of the world's evils. parents who took their young to laugh at the mad in Bedlam (a favourite 18th century Sunday sport) or to watch a public hanging. At least the intention here was moral and serious! Never mind if a prominent circus in this country claims to be free from cruelty. There used to be 'good' slave-owners. But what happens to the unhappy creatures in Ireland, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Morocco and other parts of Africa and the East? - anywhere in the world where abusing animals is considered either manly, virile or a joke. So, look out for these circus picture books, and keep them out of the nursery, school or library.
The Whipping Boy Here's a curious little piece of history. In many of those old royal courts (there used to be plenty around) a 'whipping boy' was kept at hand to be beaten when the young prince misbehaved. Of course, the tutor couldn't touch the royal delinquent. 'Not fair' says every child who hears of this - it's the ultimate junior judgment. But the whipping boy still exists today. Behind close-locked laboratory doors living creatures: dogs, cats, delicate monkeys, horses, rabbits and many others are made the whipping boys for every form of human greed and self-indulgence. Nerve gas, mustard gas and other chemical weapons, explosives, injuries caused by reckless car driving, are all repeatedly tested on animals. I know of only one good work of fiction on this subject. The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams - to my mind the best of all his books. But in a reverse way, all young children's books are relevant. A child who grows up seeing animals as Disney-type caricatures (Thelwell isn't guiltless here), as fools and baddies in myths and fables, as grotesques in 'funny' verses, will not be over-sensitive as an adult. And if there are insensitive adults to do the sinister lab jobs, these foul things will continue.
Fur Trap, Gin Trap A curious double standard seems to operate here. In the old-style boy's adventure book, any bird or beast of land or sea, never mind how rare, was simply ThÂŤ key plica to stop all this... is in children's reading or listening.
an object for the business end of rod, spear, knife, gun, harpoon, arrow, catapult, trap or snare. In today's tales, the shooting is usually done with a camera. (A few alert novelists - not yet enough - have focussed on the real safari villain, the human poacher, killing and maiming the great sad creatures in the reserves, in unspeakable ways, for ivory, horn and tourist trophies.) But the taste for animal slaughter doesn't lie down and there are ways of getting round the problem. Reissuing old 'classics' of the Henty/ Ballantyne sort is one. But almost worse than these, are the new books, often for the youngest readers, set in other times or climes. How little UgWug plunges a knife or spear in his first bear or seal and proves himself a Man! In the same way, the cruelties of the gin trap and fur trap are quite acceptable if they happen Somewhere Else.
Fable, Folk Tale This may seem a surprising statement (perhaps not the first in this piece), but don't assume that every animal fable or folk tale is sacrosanct, simply because it's in print, or has the respectable ticket of long tradition. The fable was (and still is, as in Animal Farm) a convenient way for humans to lay their own particular sins and vices on patient creatures with no means of answering back - verbal whipping boys, you could say: "You pig. You ape. You ass. You swine. You beast." Yes, we all say these things. I was delighted to find that Kenneth Grahame had exactly the same thoughts on the matter, and set them out with charm and point in his introduction to Aesop's Fables. You can find it in Beside the River Bank (Souvenir Press), a very good collection of Grahame's essays and other writings. Nor do I see much point in passing on to the young those tales giving silly and often shaming reasons why, say, the rabbit has no tail, the leopard has spots - you know the sort of thing. They don't help children to see the living creature as it is - serious, sensitive and mysterious, with gifts of its own that we cannot equal. Yes, one of the most revealing features of human attitudes to animals is the absence of all gratitude; the resentment when any concern is shown. "Why don't you think about humans?" Strangely, animal-helpers are generally human-helpers; the reverse is all too rarely the case. The human debt to non-human animals is vast beyond counting. They are used as food (a small word for a vast abuse), 'sport', labour, transport, 'entertainment' (see circuses above) and they bear the load of all human vices in the laboratories. 'Food' animals are branded with hot
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i r o n s , m u t i l a t e d a n d kept - for life - in p r i s o n s w i t h o u t r o o m to t u r n , w i t h o u t c h a n c e of e s c a p e w h e n s o m e electric fault sets the w h o l e place a n i g h t m a r e of r e d h o t m e t a l . This h a p p e n s to h e n s a n d pigs m o r e o f t e n t h a n you might think a n d is not a quick or a pleasant way t o die. C o w s and calves are n e e d lessly s e p a r a t e d s o o n a f t e r b i r t h , to the g r e a t distress of b o t h . ("Please, what is a milk mountain?" "Don't worry me, child. That's politics, not natural history.") T h e y c a n n o t strike, or ask for t h e m o s t basic rights. Yet the absence of g r a t i t u d e is not so hard t o u n d e r s t a n d . ( F o r t h e s a m e r e a s o n , slaves a n d s e r v a n t s w e r e hardly ever t h a n k e d . ) In b o o k s , in songs, i n d e e d , they were alw a y s s h o w n as vulgar comics (see Punch early in o u r c e n t u r y ) . Y o u k n o w t h e saying "The offender never forgives"? It's a valuable d i c t u m ; rem e m b e r it. If once the e n o r m o u s d e b t t o a n i m a l s w e r e a d m i t t e d , the guilt of c e n t u r i e s would be t o o m u c h t o e n d u r e . T h e a b u s e s would have to stop. A n appalling t h o u g h t !
The Feral Child F o r r e a d e r s w h o are still with m e a n d
If once the enormous debt to animals were admitted, the guilt of centuries would be too much to endure. still friends, I have a small bonus, a rare but invaluable source of evidence a b o u t the n a t u r e of animals and man. Along the centuries, one h e r e , one t h e r e , young children have been lost or a b a n d o n e d in wild forest regions and have spent all their formative years entirely clear of h u m a n influences - assumptions, if you like. Their teachers and c o m p a n i o n s have been the forest denizens, wolf and boar and snake. A few - much against their will - have b e e n b r o u g h t back to the human world, with a unique knowledge that can't be procured in laboratories. Of the authenticated cases two are of particular interest; Victor, the 12-year old Aveyron boy, captured in 1800 a f t e r nine years in the forests of central southern France, and Marcos, a Spanish boy of o u r own time, a feral child between 1935 (when he was seven) until 1965, w h e n he was seen by huntsmen and forcibly brought back into (for him) the disorderly and treacherous human world. T h e r e is not space here for more
than a few points, but in addition to exceptional sight, hearing and resistance to cold - all presently lost - the boys had other likenesses. Both lived for choice on roots and nuts. They were not aggressive or warlike. They did not respond to pornography. Marcos, ind e e d , is puzzled by the human preoccupation with sex. "The animals have their times and seasons." He finds the human world much less clean, honest, affectionate and reasoning, than the one he had left. A n d , Spaniard though he is, he cannot tolerate cruelty to animals. What is the truth about human and animal - nature?
Reprinted with amendments, by kind permission of Books for Your Child r e n , available from PO Box 507, Harborne, Birmingham B17 8PJ. Annual subscription (3 issues) ÂŁ3.50. Editor's Note: Naomi Lewis is among the contributors to a list of recommended children's books now available from the Oxford office in return for an SAE. Please mark your envelope 'Children's Books List'.
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The Mineral Question
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lthough mineral elements make up only 1% of the diet, they play very important roles in keeping us healthy. Despite the fact that various authorities publish Recommended Daily Allowances ( R D A s ) for most nutrients, in the case of trace elements like minerals these recommended intakes are more in the nature of educated guesses than hard and fast rules. The problem vegans may face with minerals is that when they come from plant sources, they are not always easily absorbed, so although we may consume the R D A for a mineral in our diet it is possible that levels in our bodies could, in some cases, be lower than is considered normal. Iron is needed for the formation of blood, and deficiency leads to anaemia - whose symptoms include tiredness and weakness. Several studies of the health of vegans have shown that children and adults eat more iron-rich food than meat-eaters do - about one and a half times the R D A . However, because some plant foods contain substances called phytate (in grains) and oxalate (e.g. in spinach and seeds), some of this iron is not absorbed into the body. A 1983 study of vegans' conducted at Surrey University showed that despite the fact that they ate nearly twice the R D A of iron-rich foods, and seven times the R D A of vitamin C (which aids iron absorption), three out of ten vegans showed signs of mild anaemia. This is the first time that the vegan diet has compared unfavourably with meat-eating on this score, but since the sample of vegans tested was very small (only 10 people), it may have been unrepresentative. Although the iron in meat is more easily absorbed, meateaters' daily intake can actually be very low. A report published this year 2 revealed that a group of omnivorous young
women were consuming, on average, only three quarters of the R D A , and it has been estimated that many omnivorous women suffer from mild anaemia. Various studies of vegans indicate that our calcium intake may fall short of the R D A . A 1981 report 3 observed that the average calcium intake of 23 vegan pre-school children was only half the R D A , although, signficantly, none showed clinical signs of deficiency. The Surrey study 1 showed a wide variation of calcium intake in the vegan volunteers, but the average level was 98% of the R D A . None of the studies has taken into account the contribution to calcium in the diet made by drinking water; this depends on the hardness of the water and varies widely throughout the country. It's been calculated that this provides an average of 15% of our daily calcium requirement. Like iron, the absorption of calcium is inhibited by phytate in grains, so that although wholewheat bread and other whole cereals contain calcium, it's not all available to the body. The oxalate in green leafy vegetables has the same effect. About half of the phytate in wholewheat flour is destroyed during the proving of the dough in bread-making, if it is left for a total of 3-4 hours; so if you make your own bread, leave it to rise for as long as possible! Although our intake of calcium is marginal, there is no evidence for clinical calcium deficiency in British vegans. But calcium deficiency has its most profound effect in young children u p to the age of six, when rickets can occur; and teenagers and pregnant or lactating women need higher levels, so do try and include calcium-rich foods in your daily diet. These could be blackstrap molasses (also a very rich source of iron), sesame and sunflower seeds, carob flour, parsley, most beans and nuts, miso and edible seaweeds (also very rich in iron). The absorption of calcium needs vitamin D
- the best vegan source of which is the sunshine, although vegan margarines, and Plamil soya milk are fortified with it. Two other minerals deserve a mention. Zinc is a constituent of 25 enzymes in the body, and is important in wound and burn healing. A letter in the medical press 4 in 1984 referred to the Ministry of Agriculture survey which reported that zinc deficiency may be quite common, the level in the average diet being only V i - % of the R D A , 'with risk of less for vegetarians'. However, two scientific studies refute that statement for vegans: pre-school children on a vegan diet took in the same levels of zinc as omnivorous children, which were, admittedly, below the RDA 3 ; as were the intakes of Swedish adult vegans, who nevertheless were found to have one and a half times the amount of zinc in their diets than their meat-eating counterparts 5 . So we may all be eating too little zinc, but vegans are certainly n o worse off than omnivores. Nuts and seeds are good sources of zinc. Selenium has hit the headlines recently as a mineral which is a natural anti-oxidant and helps preserve tissue elasticity. An R D A has not yet been calculated, and intakes of selenium in plant foods depend on how rich the soil is in this mineral. This varies from country to country, but Swedish soil is poor in selenium. A study published this year 6 showed that although the selenium intake of a group of Swedish vegans was low, their blood levels were as high as omnivores' and higher than lacto-vegetarians'.
Possibly because the vegans excreted less selenium they were able to conserve their body levels. Whole grains and nuts are good sources of selenium for the vegan. In conclusion, there is n o clinical evidence of mineral deficiency in vegans, with the possible exception of iron-deficiency anaemia revealed by one small study. Although our intakes of the various minerals may differ f r o m those of omnivores, where they are lower evidence suggests that we may adapt to those lower levels; and our vitamin intake is likely t o be high, which encourages mineral absorption - important since not all the minerals we consume are available for use by the body. As one of o u r greatest assets is good health, do pay attention to your food sources of minerals.
References 1 Lockie and others, Journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, July 1985, pp333-336 2 Barber and others, British Medical Journal, 9 March 1985, pp743-744 3 Sanders & Purves, Journal of H u m a n Nutrition, vol 35 pp 349-357, 1981 4 Bryce-Smith & Simpson, Lancet, 11 August 1984, p350 5 Abdulla and others, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, vol 34, pp2464-2477, 1981 6 Akesson & Ockerman, British Journal of Nutrition, vol 53 ppl99-205,1985
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JAILHOUSE BLUES ne of o u r m a j o r tasks is to make k n o w n the ease with which one can live as a vegan. Breaking down the mystique and false stereotype image so that veganism takes on the appearance of 'normality' is, of course, a difficult brief. H o w e v e r , to some vegans finding themselves in less than salubrious surroundings such a j o b might seem to be a luxury ; f o r t h e m , mere day-to-day existence is a trial. T h o s e of w h o m I write (many of t h e m at least) know all about trials and briefs. T h e y too must understand more of what vegan pioneering means than the m a j o r i t y of vegans now benefitting f r o m the e f f o r t s of those who eschewed all animal products in the 1940s and earlier. Being a vegan in prison is tough going, t h o u g h the morning post coming into the O x f o r d office brings, inevitably, the batch of familiar Prison Dep a r t m e n t envelopes to prove that even whilst 'inside' some vegans continue to p r o m o t e veganism. Until only very recently the H o m e Office seems neither to have fully und e r s t o o d , nor cared much, about veganism in prison, yet there has been some vague kind of policy - in the shape of guidelines issued to prison governors. These are designed to assist t h e m in their efforts to cater for the increasing n u m b e r of vegans in their charge. Alas, there is ambiguity from the start. T h e H o m e Office: ' G o v e r n o r s must be satisfied that requests for such a diet are b o n a fide. If there is reason to d o u b t an inmate's commitment to veganism the G o v e r n o r may require him to p r o d u c e written evidence ... from the Vegan Society." A prison governor: 'I am obliged to o p e r a t e according to H o m e Office instruction which is, as you are aware, that only card-carrying members of the V e g a n Society will be allowed a vegan diet.' A prison administrative officer: ' D o you allow prisoners to join your Society?' Fertile ground then for misund e r s t a n d i n g , mistreatment, evasion and Catch-22. N o wonder some prisoners have b e e n refused vegan diets on the g r o u n d s that they were not 'the right religion'. Further details of the 'guidelines' given below have never despite regular requests - been given to us by the H o m e Office, only the odd letter giving a bare interpretation. T h e s e w e r e obtained via a prisoner: a. T h e basic food requirements for vegans are available from the vegetarian ration scale provided with its additional
O
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This article is intended purely as an introduction to a n area which almost defies stable description. For twelve m o n t h s most of our information has c o m e f r o m vegan prisoners - the H o m e Office being in this regard miserly, secretive and unreliable. This is not, then, a definitive piece on the subject. M o r e o v e r , it deals only with some vegan experiences and not with the broader issue of penal conditions generally.
ity/-
cash extras allowance. If eggs and cheese are not required, they can be replaced with additional rice and textured vegetable protein; or, if considered advisable by the Medical Officer, the cash value of the eggs and cheese can be used to purchase other suitable substitutes. (NB. The MOs coming to our attention seem intolerant of veganism). b. In addition, the official weekly provision of the following items may be made if necessary: - 8ozs Granogen plantmilk (or other suitable brand) in lieu of fresh milk; - lib of honey in lieu of sugar, jams, marmalade etc; - 8ozs yeast extract in lieu of tea to provide for hot drinks.
c. The vegetarian diet provides for an all-vegetable-oil margarine, oil and extra fruit, vegetables and onions. The weekly vegetarian allowance can be used to buy fruit, nuts, pasta, soya oil and lemons. It is also suggested that the canteen could stock suitable items which the inmate could purchase from his earnings.
Clothing The requirements of the prison regime mean that no special privileges in nondietary areas, as clothing or footwear, may be permitted. So much for the theory. Enter a vegan. If he/she is not already a member of the Vegan Society then a lengthy process can be faced whilst membership forms are sent, completed, returned, card issued etc., during which time no vegan diet can be expected. When, or once, the inmate is a 'card-carrying' member he/she can often find that even then things are not that simple. "The 'vegan' diet consisted of white bread/rolls, butter, powdered milk, eggs, cheese, fishfingers. The prison shop had no vegan produce on sale." "Basically our diet consists of white bread, pastries made with white flour, and vegetables that are boiled stupid." "I'm told I have to eat the ordinary sweets like everyone else, which is duff and custard. This last week it's been duff and custard four times." "I've gone between two and three months before being given an orange. I'm told they're too expensive to buy." "The Prison Department seems to feel that vegans are a nuisance, that we're trying to 'pull one over' on them." "I'm told that the more I complain the worse things will get for me." "I had learnt on the normal prison wing that they had no knowledge of nutrition, now in the hospital wing I was able to observe that they knew little or nothing about medicine also. If I had to describe what the hospital wing was like I would say just like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." The Vegan Society has, during the last year, taken up the problems with the Home Office and with individual governors and catering officers, some of whom have been co-operative, superficially at least. Details of veganism and vegan nutrition have been supplied. In February this year we found that the efforts of an MP on our behalf were followed by a Home Office announcement that 'a nutritional analysis of the typical prison vegan diet'
was being undertaken. On 31st July we were informed that: 'We have not yet reached a final conclusion, but I hope we will be able to do so in the not too distant future. I can assure you that we have not been dragging our heels on this complex matter, but it is essential that the end result is not jeopardised by precipitate action.' So much one has to sacrifice in order to remain patient and polite! However, day by day menus have been sent to us by prisoners, and our own provisional analysis shows that in terms of nutrients the diets supply only marginal or deficient intakes of riboflavin (B2), B12, vitamin D, calcium and zinc. Generally there appears to be no supply of wholemeal cereals, very few pulses, little or no salad or greens, a reliance on refined carbohydrates, and a widespread suspicion of the inclusion of nonvegan ingredients. Whilst we cannot expect vegan gourmet fare to be provided we can demand that recommended dietary allowances are made available. At this time we recommend that: 1. Whilst there is this peculiar ruling (?) that cards must or may be produced, all vegans, especially those whose animal-liberation or related activities make them eligible for prison sentences, join the Vegan Society and obtain a membership card. Not only will this mean that a lot of trouble and
starving can be avoided but our increased membership figures will begin to give us the kind of clout many people think we already must have. 2. If you find yourself in prison you quickly establish the facilities afforded, such as: - what vegan food is regularly provided; - what food and other goods can be purchased by you and/or brought in by friends/family (prisoners on remand have this right); - what clothing, especially shoes, can you wear - standard issue or your own. 3. Any complaints are lodged simultaneously with the Governor and the Vegan Society (see also note at end). 4. Maximum use should be made of Members of Parliament, who should be urged to make representations to Lord Glenarthur at the Home Office. If you know a vegan in prison find out if you can take or send any items in to him/her. Again, there is confusion in this area. The Home Office tells us that prisoners may have goods brought in to them unless these goods are deemed to be a 'security risk', and this can be anything from toothpaste (drug carrying) to yeast extract (alcohol base). Individual prisons differing so much in size and classification, and each Governor's autonomy being harnessed to idiosyncracy, any idea we might have of
producing a vegan prisoners' handbook would lead us to over 140 versions of it - one for each gaol. Moveover, although it would be possible to classify them on a five-star rating system, it is doubtful whether any would deserve the top award and there would be many contenders for the wooden spoon. The case does not rest here. Apart from the results of the dietary analysis and the developments therefrom, we await from the Home Office details of a budget upon which to base specimen menus for prison use. Two prisoners have intimated their desire to act as Vegan Society prison liaison officers upon their release; one is considering taking his case to the European Court for Human Rights. However, in all dealings with the Home Office one tends to walk a knife-edge. The last thing we want to do is antagonise the authorities; matters could easily worsen for those inside. Already they seem to have enough trouble, but not food on their plates. Useful organisations: Support for Animal Rights Prisoners (SARP), Box 101, 84b Whitechapel High Street, London El. PROP, The National Prisoners Movement, BM Prop, London WC1N3XX Tel: 01-5423744 Barry Kew
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Reviews Compassion: The Ultimate Ethic. An Exploration off Veganism by Victoria M o r a n Thorsons ÂŁ4.95 Pbk
Victoria M o r a n ' s book is s o m e t h i n g of a milestone for veganism. It's the first time, as far as I ' m aware, that all aspects of veganism have been collected comprehensively together u n d e r one cover. W h a t ' s m o r e , T h o r s o n s are a leading health publisher and, as a result, the book is more likely to m a k e an impact on t h e wider world than if it were a V e g a n Society publication. It's going to be a good advertisement. Although p e r h a p s a trifle expensive for the m o r e casual buyer, the book is attractively designed, it's well written and it's balanced and it's sensible. A l t h o u g h Victoria is an A m e r i c a n vegan (she lives in Chicago), the emphasis is on veganism as it has developed in Britain, rather than in the States. She gathered material for the b o o k both at h o m e and during two research trips to Britain; she quotes frequently f r o m individuals she spoke to, which a d d s to the b o o k ' s readability. T h e history of veganism is e x p l o r e d , and its evolving definition. T h e n she writes about its p r e d o m i n a n t ethical aspect, and its links (for some)
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with Eastern thought, Schweitzer, G a n d h i , Christianity, etc. T h e r e ' s a chapter on hunger, ecology and peace. T h e nutritional and holistic aspects are discussed, as is the rearing of vegan children, and slimming on a vegan diet. There's also a section of recipes, and an appendix on vegan organisations. I liked the emphasis on ethical veganism. Nutritional aspects are well covered but take second place, and the hunger/ecology aspects, which, in my opinion, can be used to argue near veganism, but not veganism, receive relatively little attention. On the other hand, the paradox is this: if vegetarianism or veganism, or something approaching it, is to take firm root in the coming decades, it is not likely to be for ethical reasons. She is glowing about veganism: 'I personally believe that veganism is part of an allencompassing spiritual quest... This compassion in action may be the glorious possibility that could protect our crowded, polluted planet f r o m its most intelligent and dangerous inhabitant, m a n . ' She doesn't find 'a single crack' in its logic b u t , at the same time, observes that vegans 'are not... ripe for canonization: at times, a vegan is apt to gossip or criticize, to be as rude or resentful or angry as anybody else'. What's missing f r o m the b o o k ? Not so very much. But I would like t o have seen the use of non-sexist language rather than the man/he approach which suppresses (in subtle ways) one half of the h u m a n race! Also, I felt Victoria was too often inclined to praise veganism rather than to analyse it. T h e r e is a section in which she asks several vegans " H o w do you respond to the statement 'Jesus ate fish'?" (to which one reply was "I trust he would not eat it if he were a close friend of mine now"), but the 'problem areas' appear only patchily, or tend to be t o o easily skimped over. A chapter, for example, on genuine objections to
veganism would have been interesting. It might have given the book that little bit more credibility (though it might also have provided some readers with an excuse not to change their diets). A chapter, for example, on genuine objections to veganism would have been interesting. It might have given the book that little bit more credibility (though it might also have provided some readers with an excuse not to change their diets. But take for example those people who sincerely feel that veganism does not quite fit with the broad ecological sweep of Nature. Or consider that there are quite a number of ex-vegans, only some of whom have lapsed for social reasons or lack of staying power. T h e most notable group of ex-vegans (not mentioned by Victoria, and indeed very little heard of) are perhaps the small band of people who ran the journal of the Vegan Communities Movement in the late sixties. They began, however, to believe that 'the vegan ethic is now suspect', and reverted to meat-eating. Their long document Vegan Ethic Reappraised is fascinating if you don't mind having your beliefs challenged. That I'm still vegan shows that I didn't quite agree with them, but my point is that there are other positions. I did, though, often find Victoria's enthusiasm catching. She has been inspired by veganism and she conveys that inspiration well. As Thorsons' press release says: 'For those who are considering joining the vegan ranks, this book forms an ideal guide'. Victoria: 'Vegans... seem to have developed their potential for compassion to a great degree... I did not find vegans to be weak, emotional or hypersensitive as some critics have intimated, nor completely selfless, totally courageous or generally bordering on saintly. They are human beings with human failings, although they are exceptionally caring, thoughtful and consistent.' Her book will, I hope, inspire many people to take the plunge, and to live out the caring. Malcolm H o m e
The Extended Circle: A Dictionary of Humane Thought Edited by Jon Wynne-Tyson Centaur Press ÂŁ12.95 Hbk ÂŁ4.95 Pbk
THE EXTENDED CIRCLE
A DICTIONARY OF HUMANE THOUGHT
EDITED BY JON WYNNE TYSON Where can one begin to give the flavour of this unique anthology, which runs to more than 400 pages? From the obvious, the vaguely remembered, the hitherto unknown and unlikely quotations here compiled, any selection for this review's purposes can only be taken at random. O n e is spoilt for choice, and what a choice. In the Editor's Note, Jon Wynne-Tyson expressed his hope 'that every quotation in this source book may be, for someone, a starting point'. He will not be disappointed, for not only will this dictionary begin a new train of thought for many, for as many others it will be a returning point from which to begin again and again. 'Those who refuse to help erect the milestones are not on the march.' (Lord Houghton) It is in itself a review, of the mileage already clocked up. In its gathering together of those who have pointed the way it strengthens one's resolve to travel further in the best tradition. The book appears at a key moment and yet it seems as if it has always been with us; it soon becomes an old friend whose flow of words is always a great encouragement. Weighed against its cumulative force of argument any opposing sentiment can only seem like the drivel it is. Here
we have the coherence of compassion: articulated anger. That it is possible to compile such a poignant and inspiring work is heartening. That in the face of its sheer common sense societies can still be based on systematic animal abuse only fuels one's rage at the insane callousness that even now masquerades as respectability. Some of those quoted and still among us - 'In the end we must, I think, somehow conclude that they (the animals) have as much right to this planet as we have.' ( D u k e of Edinburgh) - would do well to read through the entire book for they might be surprised to find themselves in such varied company. And whilst many may not need to read every word, we would do animals no small service by presenting some of them to people we all know. 'When a thing exists which you really abhor, I wish you would remember a little whether in letting it strictly alone you are minding your own business on principle, or simply because it is comfortable to do so.' (John Galsworthy) Here we have the major religions: 'The Goddess of Mercy has a thousand hands and needs them all.' (Buddhism) literary giants: 'Blood sacrifices are not in my line.' (George Bernard Shaw) politicians: 'I am in favour of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being.' (Abraham Lincoln) and many others who speak with one voice, though some of them be peculiar bedfellows who would deny that part of themselves which brought them between these covers. One of the more pleasing effects is indeed that of the underlying harmony which can all too often be forgotten: 'I am not basically a conservationist... I have only one concern, the suffering which we deliberately inflict upon animals whilst they live.' (Clive Hollands) 'An individual animal doesn't care if its species is facing extinction - it cares if it is feeling pain.' (Ronnie Lee) Two minor reservations might be raised. One is that
having once found a particularly outstanding quote one can have trouble finding it again. The other is that the reader must be careful that the sheer weight of words does not overwhelm with the thought that there's nothing more to be said. However, a further volume might contain more specifically vegan quotes. For now the words we have will bear repetition. 'We must admit into our moral treatises the question of the rights of animals; and not only the limits of our rights over them, but other topics hence arising ... to nourish a taste for killing is morally evil; to be accustomed to inflict agony on harmless animals without remorse prepares men's hearts for other cruelty.' (Francis William Newman) Jon Wynne-Tyson is to be warmly congratulated for performing this somewhat inevitable task. The book is destined to become a classic, a standard reference work. A place for it on every bookshelf in home libraries and schools will consolidate extension of the circle's warm embrace and will clarify the 'areas where the moral issues are blurred by material gains or by the pleasures involved.' (Lord Houghton). Barry Kew
Clinical Ecology: The treatment of Ill-Heath Caused by Environmental Factors
the possible ways in which pollution of our food and environment may lead to a wide variety of puzzling ailments, including diseases of the intestines, lungs and respiratory system, and those conditions termed 'undifferentiated disease'. This latter category includes general malaise, headache, stomach discomfort with a 'thick head' feeling, and palpitations. Vegans will be interested to read that cow's milk is implicated in many diseases found in children and adults. Thus the status of this non-food receives yet another blow. The sceptical scientist and the intelligent lay reader will have important criticisms to make, however. Firstly, the exasperating lack of references. Wild claims are made and one is left wondering where supporting evidence may be found. On page 46, for example, we are told that 'it has been demonstrated quite clearly that chronic gastritis will respond to food exclusion'; but the authors do not say who has demonstrated this, where and when, or how large the sample of patients was. On page 58 we are told that heartattack patients fare better if treated at h o m e , rather than in intensive coronary care units; this is a fairly well-known finding, but we are not given any references.
Secondly, nowhere is there a satisfactory definition of eczema, some of which will respond to an exclusion diet and others will not. When comparing the efficacy of the treatment of childhood eczema by G.T. Lewith and J.N. it is therefore essential to Kenyon know which kind one is looking Thorsons ÂŁ4.95 Pbk at. Thirdly, the chapter on techniques of measurement of Over the past ten years the the various symptoms of medical establishment has 'sensitivities' is grossly been critical and dismissive of unsatisfactory. In particular, I the possible role of Clinical have serious reservations Ecology in the diagnosis and about the value of hair analysis management of various 'sensitivities', or those allergies in the study of the levels of heavy-metal pollutants. It is which defy orthodox almost impossible to control immunological medicine. The for metals which appear in authors of this book are well samples of shampooed hair. placed to provide an Among a range of objections, introductory account of the medicated shampoos contain subject, as they are cozinc, selenium and sometimes founders and directors of the other fairly noxious chemicals. Centre for the Study of Also, how does one take Alternative Therapies in account of frequency of hairSouthampton. washing and hardness of Drs. Lewith and Kenyon water? provide a sound discussion of
In summary, as a thorough introduction to the subject this book is largely unsatisfactory. This is a serious and worrying criticism, since the orthodox medical profession needs to be convinced that alternative or unorthodox treatment can work. O n e of the conclusions of the joint Royal College of Physicians/British Nutritional Foundation Working Party (referred to on page 110) states that there is a need for dietary diagnostic methods to be carried out and interpreted in accordance with strict criteria, particularly as placebo responses are c o m m o n . This book does not succeed in persuading the critic that the methods of Clinical Ecology are sufficiently rigorous or soundly based. Dr. C . K . Langley
Editor's Note: Copies of Compassion: T h e Ultimate Ethic and The Extended Circle are available from The Vegan Shop (see pp25-26 for ordering details).
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W e l c o m e s Vegans
For 25 years the STRICTL Y VEGETARIAN guest house in the Lake District has enjoyed delicious international vegetarian cuisine. Orchard House, known for its comfort and serene atmosphere, enjoys a quiet inviting garden, is close to mountains, streams and lakes. For those who seek the peace and beauty of the Lake District, Orchard House is for you. OPEN ALL YEAR! Stamp appreciated for brochure to: Keswick, Cumbria CA125DE Tel: (0596) 72830 13
In the Vegan Kitchen A regular colnmn on vegan cookery and food preparation, together with news and views on n e w vegan food products
The Soya Scene — Part I Soya Beans Soya b e a n s are perhaps the world's oldest f o o d crop. In one form or another they have b e e n a staple of the diet in the O r i e n t for thousands of years. Only comparatively recently, however, has this r e m a r k a b l e food resource become m o r e widely known and exploited in the W e s t . Soya b e a n s may be used in an ext r a o r d i n a r y variety of forms f r o m fieldfresh to highly processed. T h e dried b e a n s , which are available from w h o l e f o o d and health-food outlets, as well as s o m e supermarkets, are a very c h e a p source of protein. Try them out in this simple, but tasty dish: Baked Soya Beans 1 lb ( 4 5 0 g ) s o y a b e a n s , s o a k e d in a cool place for 24 hours 3 t b s ( 4 5 m l ) v e g e t a b l e oil 14 o z ( 4 0 0 g ) tin of t o m a t o e s 5 o z ( 1 4 0 g ) tin of t o m a t o p u r e e 1 tbs (25g) brown sugar 2 tsp dried mixed herbs
Rinse s o a k e d beans, drain and place in an ovenproof casserole with all other ingredients and cover with about an inch of water. Bring to the boil and simm e r for a few minutes, then cover and place in a slow oven (275°F/135°C/Gas M a r k 2) for 4-5 hours, or until the b e a n s are cooked and a thick sauce has f o r m e d . Season to taste. This makes a large quantity, so some can be frozen and used later to m a k e quick stews and casseroles m o r e substantial. Soya beans can be sprouted in the same way as other pulses in about 5-6 days. Soya sprouts are a valuable source of protein and vitamins, and can b e a d d e d to soups rs^ a n d salads. j^]
Soya Hour Perhaps the best known soya product is soya flour. It is not a flour in the same sense as wheat and rye flours and cannot be used on its own for thickening, since it contains no gluten or starch. But it is a valuable addition in baking, because it adds extra protein and also helps to emulsify the fat. It can be successfully added to other flours in the ratio of 1 part soya flour to 7 parts of the other flour. Always sift it first. Add a tablespoon of soya flour and then use water to mix in most recipes requiring milk. Try the following recipe: Soya Custard 1 heaped tbs (20g) soya flour 1 tbs (20g) custard powder 1 tbs(30g)sugar >/2 pt (280ml) water
Mix flour, custard powder and sugar in a small saucepan. Gradually mix in water, stirring well to avoid lumps. Heat gently until desired thickness is reached. Here's another recipe for those with a sweet tooth. It makes a delicious and nutritious sweetmeat, also avoiding cocoa for those with allergy problems. Soya Carob Fudge 8 oz (225g) golden s y r u p 1 oz (30g) m a r g a r i n e 2 oz (60g) c a r o b powder 4 oz (120g) soya flour 2 oz (60g) c h o p p e d nuts (optional) Dessicated coconut or ground nuts.
Cream margarine and syrup. Sieve carob powder and soya flour and gradually work into syrup mixture. Add chopped nuts. Shape into logs and roll in coconut or ground nuts. Refrigerate. Slice into small sections as required. Soya Milk Much of the credit for pioneering the production and sale of soya milk and other soya-based products in this country belongs to Plamil Foods, an allvegan enterprise launched in 1965, when people were far less conscious than now both of the cruelty inherent in dairy farming and of the health benefits of dairy-free food products. Plamil now market their liquid soya milk in concentrated, ready-to-use, and sugar-free versions. These soya milks are, by the way, the only readily available liquid soya milks which are fortified with calcium and vitamins - a fact which
strengthens their appeal to the more nutrient-conscious section of the soya milk market. Soya Milks in the Supermarket Spectacularly increasing demand has, however, made liquid soya milk production big business in the mid-eighties and smaller companies, like Plamil Foods, have been outpaced in the keenly-contested race to win a place on supermarket shelves. Granose, who launched their liquid soya milk in late 1981, are now selling 3Vi million litres a year. Other brands are appearing regularly and the consumer has no lack of choice. Here's a current list of what the big chains stock: Boots Granose Co-op Sunrise (sugar-free) Safeway Provamel (sugar-free), under own label Sainsbury Sunrise Tesco Alpro Waitrose Alpro Superdrug Granose and Sunrise. If your local branch of any of the above is not yet stocking a soya milk it may be because it does not fall into the right size-category. But have a word with the manager(ess), and that might be all that's needed to establish a cheap and convenient supply source. To give new or would-be vegans some guidance in the matter, we sampled all four brands listed above, along with the long-established Plamil and Sojal - a sugar-free newcomer available from Holland & Barrett branches. All were fine for tea and coffee whitening purposes. As for general palatability, Granose, Provamel, Sojal and Plamil scored high marks: Alpro we found to be too 'flavoured' (vanilla?) and Sunrise too 'beany'. Our six-yearold daughter, a life vegan, liked Granose and Alpro , but gave all the others the thumbs-down. Of course, our preferences may not coincide with yours, so do your own experimenting, and remember: if the first one you try doesn't grab you, keep on trying until you find one that suits your palate. The days of being limited to an single brand are long gone, thank goodness! In part II of The Soya Scene I shall be discussing powdered soya milks, including soya infant formulas, as well as other soya products. Lis Howlett
Cooking with Sea Vegetables by Peter and Montse Bradford Thorsons £3.95 Pbk
Subtitled 'a vegan macrobiotic cookbook' this attractive volume ably fills a gap in the vegan household, as most macrobiotic books are quite heavily fish-oriented. Sea vegetables (never 'weeds') are a fairly recent addition to the European kitchen, though they have long been popular in the Orient, and also locally (e.g. laverbread and samphire). The book contains a brief history of the cultivation and uses of sea vegetables through the ages, as well as a useful introduction to other ingredients commonly used in the macrobiotic kitchen, nutritional analyses, advice on storage and cooking methods, and how to make the best use of the key elements of cooking - fire, water, salt, pressure and time. The Bradfords also point out the enormous potential of off-shore farming, if practised on a larger scale, to help alleviate world hunger. Sea vegetables are remarkably high in many essential minerals - notably iodine, calcium and iron - high in protein, and have useful amounts of most vitamins, including traces of the elusive B12 - indicating that their daily use (or that of such other macrobiotic ingredients as miso and tempeh) would be a sensible and ethical alternative to either supplements or fortified vegan 'convenience foods'. Each section of the book is devoted to a particular vegetable (e.g. nori, wakame, hijiki), briefly mentioning their cultivation, nutritional properties and general uses, before giving the actual recipes. A newcomer to sea vegetable cookery, imagining this would mean a dollop of slimy green next to the nut roast, is in for a pleasant eye-opener. The versatile and imaginative recipes range from Crepes with green nori flakes and Stuffed pumpkin with wakame, through a variety of sushi-nori rolls and pickles, to such exotic desserts as 'Tangerine' or 'Strawberry' kanten, set with agaragar. Plenty of use is also made of the soya wonder-foods tofu, miso and tempeh. O u r household was excited and inspired by this book, and in fact the only criticism I would venture to make is regarding the indifferent quality of the artwork. Japanese/macrobiotic dishes look so attractive that it would have been nice to see really detailed illustrations, or better still, some colour plates. However, this is a relatively minor point, and at £3.95 would perhaps be unrealistic to expect. Hilary Craddock.
Editor's note: A n y o n e wishing to find more about macrobiotics might like to send for a copy of Macrobewek, a quarterly newsletter containing articles, interviews and book reviews, and listing macrobiotic food outlets in the U K . The August issue carries an article entitled 'Veganism and Macrobiotics'. For a sample copy send 50p to: 9 Trevethan Rise, Falmouth, Cornwall. Try this recipe, selected from 'Cooking with Sea Vegetables', reviewed above: Sweet and Sour Tempeh Serves 3-4 Vz lb (225g) block of tempeh Vegetable oil for deep-frying (preferably unrefined sesame oil) 2 5-inch (12.5cm) strips of kombu 8 fl oz (230ml) water 4 medium carrots, cut into chunks 3 tbs shoyu 2 tbs mirin or barley malt 3 tbs brown rice vinegar Spring onions, chopped to garnish
•i^y Pmircmit
If tempeh has b e e n d e e p frozen allow time t o thaw out thoroughly b e f o r e using. Cut the tempeh into rectangles a b o u t l'/2 inches x 3 inches (4cm x 7.5cm). Heat the oil in your deep-frying pan to 350°F/180°C. D e e p - f r y the tempeh for 2 or 3 minutes until the colour changes. R e m o v e from the oil and drain on a paper towel. Place the kombu in the b o t t o m of a heavy pot, cover with the water and soak f o r 1 hour. Cut the kombu into fine strips and return to the pot. Add the fried tempeh, carrots, shoyu, mirin o r barley malt, brown rice vinegar and any additional water n e e d e d to cover the tempeh. C o o k for 20 minutes on a medium flame or until the liquid has evaporated. Garnish with the c h o p p e d spring onions.
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October 26th - Diana Virgo: 'Right f r o m t h e S t a r t . G e t t i n g it Together Cookery in the Vegan Kitchen'. ~ . . . . , ™ . . November 16th - Joyce D'Silva: T o be held at The Vegetarian ' C o o k i n g & B a k i n g W i t h o u t Dairy Centre, 53 Marloes Roadf, KenP r o d u c e and Eggs' sington, London W 8 6LA. November 23rd - Leah L e n e m a n : 'International Vegan C o o k i n g ' , \ \ i / . , ^—^ Each session will last f r o m 1 0 . 3 0 a m Ugr* 3.30pm .fctiu Fee: £12.50 per session, including •V. > " m o r n i n g coffee, lunch and a f t e r n o o n v, tea.
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15
Shoparound T h e latest edition of the fast-selling Vegan Shopper's Guide is available f r o m T h e Vegan Shop for just £1.25 (see p p 25-26 for ordering details). H e r e are some new vegan products you may like to try or ask your local suppliers to stock, if they do not have t h e m in already: Sunrise soya-milk yoghurt - this is a live yoghurt based on a yeast culture. Retailing at 30p a carton, it comes in five flavours, plain, peach melba, raspberry, black cherry, and strawberry. Sunrise soya-milk 'Ice D r e a m ' - at last a vegan ice-cream without all sorts of d u b i o u s (healthwise) additives. It c o m e s in hazelnut and vanilla flavours and is priced at £1.49. Sunrise 'Vegetarian Frozen Q u a r t e r p o u n d Burgers' are vegan and should be in the shops any time now. Direct Foods - have a range of 'Savoury B a k e s ' for the substitute-minded: beef, chicken, and pork and p e p p e r flavours. Retailing at £1.25, they are quick and easy to p r e p a r e . Hera o f f e r two complete meals in a pack e t , each at 99p - ' C o m p l e t e Pizza Mix' a n d ' C o u s c o u s with Vegetable K o f t e ' . B o t h are very easy to p r e p a r e and w e r e thoroughly e n j o y e d by our family. It's good to have convenience foods with n a t u r a l ingredients and free from chemicals. T h e y may also inspire users to b e m o r e adventurous in their own cooking, w h e n time allows. Duchesse 'All-Natural T o f u Dressing & D i p ' is vegan and actually says so. It is, in fact, the first food product I know of to be clearly m a r k e d as being suitable f o r vegans. B e w a r e , however, of the o t h e r s in their range which are not! Duchesse also have an 'All-Natural Sandwich Spread with Dill Pickle', which is a very tangy and attractive filling. CRUEL-rrFREE. COSMETICS ^toiletries
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Marks & Spencers produce a number of oven-ready dishes which are vegan, but I would like to particularly recommend their 'Vegetable Casserole & H e r b Dumplings'. This sells at £1.15 for one serving and comes in a container suitable for heating in a microwave or a conventional oven. It makes a delicious complete meal and is likely to become a firm favourite among those with lunch-time access to a microwave and people living on their own who don't want to cook every night. Finally, call in at your local healthfood stores and encourage them to lay in stocks of Plamil's delicious new 'Carob Bar', priced at 59p. If it's stocked already, look out for the yellow and green wrapper.
Titbits Signs of the times: The Co-operative Wholesale Society has produced a leaflet entitled 'Cooking the Vegan Way', which contains some 20 different and imaginative vegan recipes. If you'd like a copy, simply write to: Mary Langham Home Cookery Service, 28 Knowsley Street, Manchester M8 8JU. Heinz, increasingly aware of the commercial potential of the vegan market, are also anxious to please. The company recently contacted the Vegan Society to determine the acceptability to vegans of foods fortified with Vitamin D 3 and were informed that its nonvegan derivation ruled it out in favour of the all-vegan D 2 . Other manufacturers, including Van den Bergh, have consciously brought the ingredients of some of their products into line with vegan requirements. Even farmers' wives are thinking twice before serving up meat and two veg. In the May 31 issue of 'Farmlife' (a magazine insert in 'Farmer's Weekly'), an article entitled 'What Should We E a t ? ' questioned the use of chemicallycontaminated foods produced by modern intensive farming methods, and ended up with two vegan recipes! If you live in or near the Oxford area you might care to pay a visit to Earth 'n' Wear, at 15 Cowley Road. This is an 'alternatives shop', run as a voluntary co-operative. All products are described as 'cruelty-free, containing no artificial additives, resource-conscious, vegetable-based non-polluting and biodegradable' (phew!). They stock cosmetics, toiletries, cleaning products, recycled paper products, alternative medicines, garden products and much more. Shop there for some of the items mentioned in Growhow. And here at last are some ecologists who practise what they preach: all deliveries (locally, I presume) are made by bicycle trailer!
Tried & Tested
Tlie Food & Cookery editor shares some off her favourite recipes with readers Here is a good, warming pudding to use up some windfalls: Apple Brown Betty 3 tbs (45ml) vegetable oil 3 oz (90g) soft b r e a d c r u m b s IV2 lbs (750g) cooking apples, peeled, cored and diced 3 oz (90g) brown sugar V2 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp cinnamon Grated rind and juice of V2 lemon 5 tbs (75ml) water
Combine oil and breadcrumbs. Combine apples, sugar, lemon rind and spices. Arrange alternate layers of fruit and crumbs in a greased baking dish, ending with a layer of crumbs. Pour over lemon juice and water. Bake at 350°F (180°C)/Gas Mark 4 for 40 min. Serve with a soya custard or nut cream.
Eva Batt's Vegan Cookery How nice it is to welcome back an old friend in a spanking new outfit and yet know that inside it is still a faithful helpmate from the past. I wonder how many people have, like myself, learnt from the pages of this book their first lessons in a way of cooking that was to become part of a whole new way of living and looking at the world? Eva's pioneering and now classic work has been completely reset to make it easier to consult and has been embellished with attractive line-drawings. The background information is all there, updated in some places, as are all the handy hints and little factual gems for which I particularly valued it. Gone only is the convenience of the spiral binding, but perhaps you could treat yourself to one of those perspex cookery book stands to protect this treasure from floury fingers. In the next issue of The Vegan this section will be edited by Leah Leneman.
Growhow Alan and Elaine Garrett, co-founders of the Vegan Self-Sufficiency Network, continue their regular column aimed at existing and would-be vegan gardeners.
The Seaweed Connection
O
n e of the questions we are most frequently asked asked as vegan gardeners is how we maintain soil fertility without the use of. manure and other animal by-products. In addition to vegan composting and the practice of 'green manuring', seaweed is one of the most useful and versatile fertilisers for vegan growers. W e hope the following information will b e both of interest and assistance to many of you. Gardeners and farmers in E u r o p e have used seaweed as a soil improver at least since the twelfth century, and, in other parts of the world, its use can b e traced back much further. Seaweed is rich in minerals, trace elements and h o r m o n e s all beneficial to healthy plant development. Various research programmes have been carried out to record the effects of seaweed fertilisers on crops, and very positive results have been produced. Crops treated with seaweed in various forms showed improvements in seed germination rate, improved resistance to frost, insect damage and fungal diseases, and also increased yields and enhanced storage qualities. In their Report of Seaweed Research (1975), T.L. Senn and A . R . Kingman of Clemson University U S A recorded that plants treated with seaweed solution showed the following favourable results in comparison with untreated control plants: pepper plants fruited earlier, peaches had a longer than average shelf life, and tomato plants survived a frost of —2°C which would normally have killed them. Seaweed can be obtained in three main forms: in its fresh state, as a liquid concentrate, and as dried seaweed meal. If you live near the sea, you can collect seaweed from the beach - abundant supplies are especially available after rough weather, when seaweed is
thrown above t h e high tide mark. Fresh seaweed can b e used as a mulch on top of the 5>oi| - it will gradually rot down into the ground - or it can be used as an ingredient of the compost heap. Several brands of liquid seaweed concentrate are available, and these should be diluted before use in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. The solution can be used for soaking seeds b e f o r e sowing, as a plant food which also helps to develop resistance to frost, disease and insect damage, and as a root-cutting compound. Dried seaweed meal can be used in many ways around the garden, particularly as an in r gredient of potting compost or applied to the soil around plants. It will act as a slow-release fertiliser for two o r three months after application and will also help to improve the soil quality. Commercially available seaweed products include the following: S.M.3 is a concentrated liquid form of selected seaweed and land-plant tissues and is available in a variety of sizes from: Chase Organics, Gibraltar House, Govett Avenue, Shepperton TW178AQ. Chase Organics also market a dried Seaweed Meal, available in several sizes. Maxicrop is another liquid concentrate manufactured f r o m a seaweed containing over sixty minerals. It is available in several varieties, each suitable for a specific purpose. Maxicrop is stocked by many garden centres and is distributed by: Maxicrop Garden Products Ltd, 21 London Road, Great Shelford, Cambridge CB2 5DF. A seaweed which is naturally high in calcium is dried and ground to m a k e Seagold, It is available from some garden centres or directly from the manufacturer: Vitseamin (S.C.) Ltd, Woodside, Charney Road, Grange over Sands,
P. W e have assurances f r o m each of the above companies stating that no animal-derived ingredients or animal testing is used in the manufacture of these products.
Indoor Cultivation Fresh herbs are a welcome addition to many dishes, and late summer to early autumn is the time to pot; up a few plants of your personal favourites to ensure a supply through the winter months. Basil, m a r j o r a m , thyme, chives, mint and parsley are all suitable for indoor cultivation.. JBefore transplanting a garden plant into a pot, check that the surrounding soil is moist. If necessary, water an hour or two beforehand. Place a layer of stones in the bottom of the pot for drainage, then add some good potting compost. Carefully transfer the plant to the pot, then top up with m o r e compost. Water the plant and leave.it in a shady place out of doors for a few days.The final indoor position for the plant should be well lit and of an even. temperature. Another crop which can b e grown indoors during the winter - or at any other time of the year - is sunflower greens. These delicious sprouts have a mild watercress flavour and are an excellent ingredient for a crispy salad. Use whole sunflower seeds those with the black and white striped hulls still intact. Soak 50g/2oz of the seeds in water for 24 hours, then drain and leave to sprout for a further 24 hours. Fill a standard size seed tray with a 2.5cm/l inch layer
of moist peat and cover t h e surface with the seeds, o n e d e e p , pressed lightly down.. Cover the tray with a piece of cardboard for about three days or until the sprouts are a b o u t 2.5cm/l inch high. R e m o v e the card and place the tray in a partially-lit position. M a k e sure the peat remains just d a m p . The sprouts will be r e a d y to eat when they are approximately 7.5-10cm (3-4 inches) high. They can be put in a well-lit position for a day or two b e f o r e cutting to maximize t h e development of chlorophyll. C u t at soil level to use. Happy Growing!
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BRIGHT EYES In a d d i t i o n to o u r o w n r a n g e of v e g a n s k i n a n d hair care p r o d u c t s , w e also stock a w i d e r a n g e of vegan a n d v e g e t a r i a n cosmetics m a d e b y o t h e r cruelty-free m a n u f a c t u r e r s , e.g. J a n e H o w a r d , Yin Yang, Caurnie Soap Co, Chandore (perfumes). For a copy of o u r c u r r e n t catalogue p l e a s e s e n d S.A.E. (large, if p o s s i b l e ) to: Bright Eyes, 15 T o d s t a b l e G a r d e n s , Stonehouse, Lanarkshire ML9 3NY
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VEGANS AND VACCINATION O
ne of our body's most important defence mechanisms is the imm u n e system, which enables specialised cells and proteins (antibodies) in the bloodstream to combat 'foreign' substances, including bacteria and viruses. When exposed to germs, the body creates antibodies to deal specifically with them, and in a healthy person infection is overcome.
later, in the 1940s, a national immunisation campaign. Even though Professor McKeown reckons diphtheria immunisation is one of the more successful, he admits that because deaths from whooping cough and measles also fell over a long period - when there was no vaccine available - it can't be assumed that vaccination alone accounted for the decrease in diphtheria deaths. Again, better nutrition, improved sanitation and housing conditions, and purer drinking water played a major role. It's impossible to generalise about the successes of vaccines of different sorts. As we've seen, results depend not only on the effectiveness of each vaccine but also on nutritional, environmental and behavioural factors. So it seems that smallpox has been eradicated, at least for the time being; and yet a study of BCG vaccination in India showed after seven years that there were as many cases of tuberculosis of the lung in vaccinated people as there were in those who had not been immunised. Success rates for BCG vaccine vary from 80% among American Indians to nil among schoolchildren from Georgia!
Principles... T h e aim of vaccination is to prime this natural defence system. A vaccine consists of large numbers of killed or weakened bacteria or neutralized toxins. Introduction of these substances into the body by vaccination results in their recognition as 'foreign' and the production of antibodies against them. A s the vaccines are not virulent (i.e. cannot cause infection), the main result is that if the vaccinated person subsequently comes into contact with the infection, the immune system swings into action much more quickly and gives protection against the disease.
...and Practice T h a t ' s the theory anyway; do the results show that vaccination is always successful? Vaccination, being based on the germ theory of disease, is a central part of modern medicine. The 'conquest' of the infectious diseases of the last century and early years of this is often claimed by doctors to be one of the m a j o r successes of modern medicine. But a closer look at the history of medicine reveals a somewhat different picture. In his book The Role of Medicine (Blackwells, 1979), Professor Thomas McKeown writes that the contribution of clinical medicine to the prevention of death and increase in life expectancy was smaller than that of other influences (and certainly smaller than is often claimed), and he spends some time dealing with the part vaccines have had to play. For example, deaths from tuberculosis fell consistently from the time it was first recorded in 1838, and by the time the B C G vaccine was introduced in the mid-1950s, deaths had already fallen from 3,500 per mill-
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Safety people. The rate of decrease in deaths from tuberculosis has not changed since vaccination became common, and McKeown attributes most of the reduction in mortality to increased resistance due to better nutrition, and to less overcrowding. By comparison with Britain, the Netherlands has never had a national BCG vaccination programme, but has the lowest death rate from tuberculosis of any European country. Since the early years of this century the death rate from diphtheria fell constantly both during and after the introduction both of antitoxin treatment and „.the Netherlands has never had a national BCG vaccination programme, but has the lowest death rate from tuberculosis of any European country.
Everyone is concerned that vaccines should be safe, and vegans will also be concerned about the origins of vaccines and the way they are tested for safety. In the case of viral vaccines such as smallpox and rabies, in the early days the virus was obtained from infected animals. Smallpox virus was collected from skin sores on infected calves. But later developments have allowed the virus to be grown in cell cultures, and human cells are now used in culture to produce rabies, smallpox, polio (in the UK), german measles and measles vaccines. Bacterial vaccines such as diptheria and tetanus were originally produced from meat broths, but the bacteria are now grown in chemically-defined liquids. Each batch of vaccine is subjected to a number of tests before it is sold, and most of these entail the use of laboratory animals. Safety tests are done to ensure that there is no active, virulent virus remaining in the vaccine, and
these involve injecting mice, guinea pigs, rabbits or monkeys, sometimes directly into the spinal cord, to see if any infection results. Potency tests check that the vaccine really does give protection: two groups of animals are infected with the disease, and one group then receives vaccination. This group shouldn't develop the disease, but the other animals aren't so 'lucky'. Finally, the vaccines have to be tested for purity, to ensure that there are no other infectious viruses contaminating the vaccine, and these tests are conducted using adult and suckling mice, guinea pigs and rabbits. Alternative humane methods of vaccine testing are being developed, such as cell-culture techniques and biochemical tests, but so far I believe there is no vaccine which does not at some stage involve animal exploitation. The safety of vaccines in use remains a contentious issue. If animal tests are effective, all vaccine batches which 'pass' should be safe for human use, but this is obviously not the case. Cause of the greatest concern has been the whooping cough (pertussis) vaccine. In the early 1970s eight out of every ten children received the triple vaccine, diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus. However there were cases of brain damage associated with the pertussis vaccine, and fears led to a fall in the vaccination rate so that by 1977 only three out of ten children had been immunised against whooping cough, and even now only six in every ten are vaccinated, and miniepidemics occur every two or three years. Until 1968 the whooping cough vac-
Success rates for BCG vaccine vary from 80% among American Indians to nil among schoolchildren from Georgia1 cine was only effective 20% of the time, but doctors claim that since then the vaccine has been improved. There are, though, some eminent doctors who regard the whooping cough vaccine as ineffective and dangerous. A study of its safety was set up, and in 1981 reported that the risk of permanent brain damage after pertussis vaccination was 1 in 110,000 injections. Critics claim that by only counting those children who were hospitalised, the numbers were underestimated and the risk could be as high as one child brain-damaged for every 50,000 injections. Earlier this year the controversy was sparked off again by the sudden deaths of five-month-old twins two hours after receiving the triple vaccine. So the situation remains unclarified, and although there is also a risk of brain damage from the disease itself, the words of reassurance from the Department of Health have a hollow ring to them. A question about the long-term safety of vaccines has recently been posed by a study of measles in Denmark. A team of doctors found that most of the people who apparently never had measles in childhood actually did have antibodies to the measles virus in their blood, showing they had been infected but hadn't developed the ...there is no vaccine which does not at some stage involve animal exploitation.
THINKING AHEAD? There must be many of our readers who would like to support the Vegan Society in its work but have limited means at present. There is, however, an easy way of giving valued financial support regardless of present circumstances - by including a legacy to the Society in your will. Great or small, such legacies can make a real and lasting contribution to the promotion of vegan ideals. What better way can there be to help the Society without loss of income? For those who would like to remember the Society in their will the following form of bequest is suggested: "I bequeath to the Vegan Society Ltd, Registered Charity no. 279228, presently at 33-35 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AY, the sum of ÂŁ and I declare that the receipt of the Treasurer or other authorised officer of the said Society shall be good and sufficient discharge of such legacy." Property left to the Society is another valuable contribution to our cause. If you wish to will land or property to the Society please write for details to the Treasurer, at the registered office.
characteristic rash. These people developed more apparently unrelated diseases in later life including such serious conditions as arthritis, bone problems, skin diseases and certain tumours than those who had a full-blown measles infection. The doctors suggest that if a person is exposed to measles but doesn't develop a rash, the virus may survive and cause illness later on. This casts a doubt on the advisability of vaccination, which causes a build-up of antibodies to the measles virus. A doctor will not know when vaccinating a child whether or not they have already been exposed to infection, in which case measles may be in the incubation stage. If so, the rash could be suppressed and the virus may linger in the body, causing much more serious problems in years to come. This study provides unexpected support for the philosophy of holistic medical practitioners who have always believed that suppression of illness damages the body's long-term ability to fight off disease; to them, childhood infections such as measles help establish natural immunity in later life, and suppression of symptoms drives disease deeper into the body. The Unitary Theory, common to all natural therapies, states that the identity of the disease-causing bacteria or virus is of less importance than the equilibrium of the body, mind and spirit. In Part II of this article we shall explore the question of to what extent these holistic practitioners can offer a healthy and humane alternative to orthodox vaccination. Dr. Gill Langley
To be
continued.
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Postbag Contribntions to Postbag are welcomed, but accepted on the understanding that they may be edited in the interests of brevity or clarity. Send your letters to: The Editor, THE VEGAN, 33-35 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AY.
Feedback — readers' reactions to the new-look magazine
Y e s , I like it. T h e new Vegan displays all that's g o o d in t h e V e g a n Society clear thinking, a definite direction, and awareness. T h r e e m o s t important c o n s t i t u e n t s for a magazine p r e s e n t i n g what in t h e general public's eyes are controversial and highly emotive subjects. A few w e e k s ago I registered my c o n c e r n at the rumblings going o n within the Society's s t r u c t u r e a n d leadership, which s o u n d e d most disturbing. H o w e v e r , if this is t h e result I can only applaud it and wish The Vegan and all w h o sail in her every success. L o n g live the Vegan Society a n d m a y it go f r o m strength to strength. Sylvia Matthews, Salesbury, Nr. Blackburn. M a n y t h a n k s for the new-look Vegan, it was very good. My wife and I were two of t h e p e o p l e w h o asked for the m a g a z i n e t o remain as it had b e e n f o r years, but after seeing t h e new f o r m a t we both admit that we w e r e wrong. K e e p u p the good work, all p o w e r t o y o u r printing press! Tony Smith, Boston.
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Congratulations on the first issue of the new-look Vegan. I thought it was splendid. Reading it I was really struck by how much talent there is within the Vegan Society and how it has been wasted in the past. Thank heavens the breakthrough was made. Leah Leneman, Edinburgh. Congratulations! N o , many congratulations on the splendid new-image Vegan magazine! Congratulations on reaching the turning-point, the turningpoint in bringing veganism and the Vegan Society up to date and into the eighties. Having been in advertising and P R for many years, I have long been concerned about t h e 'image' of veganism projected to t h e outside world, i.e. dull and strictly for weirdos! With the dawn of this new magazine I feel sure that every vegan now has a better chance of being heard and understood. Non-vegans will now, I am sure, sit up and take notice. If the Vegan Society had millions to spend on its public image, and was given the chance to state its case to the mass media, we'd surely see the end of animal exploitation. But the new magazine is a start - and a good one! Lots of luck. Lizzie-Anne Meachin, Ness, South Wirral. Congratulations on the transformation of The Vegan magazine. T h e new format and content are excellent. T h e previous (1950s) style magazine had no place in the 1980s, and served only to project an oldfashioned and cranky image of the Society. I ' m sure that the new image will result in a much broader
appeal and win many new readers. I look forward to the next issue. Vincent E. D. Fitzgerald, Wraysbury. I, for one, welcome the change of format of The Vegan. A few years ago, before I was a vegan, I saw a copy of the magazine in our local library and, to be honest, found it a little stuffy and uninspiring. I feel the new format is much more likely t o attract nonvegans to read it, which must be the aim - no point in preaching to the converted or engaging in self-indulgent back-patting.
slaughterhouse and numerous chickens and rabbits rescued to my credit, I am willing to admit that I haven't really achieved anything. The chicken cages have been refilled, the rabbits have been replaced with more purposebred, and the slaughterhouse repaired on insurance money. The only way to end the torture and death of these animals is to take away the consumers' need for them, which is exactly what the new Vegan magazine is all about. Love, light and liberation. Tony Smith, Boston.
All the best for the work ahead. Steve Bailey, Felixstowe. Congratulations on the newlook magazine. It is well worth all the effort that must have been put into it. Whereas I can't even remember if I read the last issue - it's probably at the bottom of a pile of 'things to read soon' - 1 read this one from cover to cover as soon as I got it. Lisa Geary, Brighton. Feedback on the new Vegan - yes, I like it very much, particularly because it is now much easier t o show it to friends. The interview with Chris Langley impressed me caring is not enough and just being vegan yourself is too slow a method of change, even though it is a necessary and important factor. We have to try and combat the effects of advertising - the most powerful force against us, apart from sheer apathy - and we can only do that by advertising ourselves. Jane Davies, Sweden.
Huskvarna,
The new-look Vegan is so much better than the old turgid and stilted offerings. I particularly welcome the acknowledgement of convenience foods (Bejam frozen puff pastry containing dare I say it - white flour). O K , we all know that wholemeal is much healthier, but it's nice to let the puritanism slip a little now and then! Sue Boulding, Morden. I As an ex-ALF activitist, with a prison term for damaging a
\ We are sorry to be critical of a first effort, but do not at all like the enlarged page-size and thin cover of The Vegan, which now necessitates a vertical fold for posting. My wife at first thought it was another double-glazing advertising circular and almost dumped it in the bin - until we spotted The Vegan on the wrapper. We feel that far from enhancing the professionalism of the magazine, as claimed, the new format greatly reduces it! In the rush to embrace new technology the innate quality and composition of the oldstyle Vegan has been forgotten. Far too little credit is given to the sterling work of the stalwarts of the past, which ignores the fact that in a far less favourable public opinion environment these people have, by their quietly dignified efforts and writings, brought about the present high joining rate for new members. We have yet to read better articles than those written by Kathleen Jannaway, the late Jack Sanderson and others. Anne and Edward Smail, Christchurch, Dorset. Opinions are requested on the new-look Vegan magazine. I don't like it!
The layout in the old-style mag was actually better more clear, less 'bitty' and easier tofollow. Also since photographs are not vegan, why have you begun printing them? I don't need to know what people look,like. It goes without saying that I approve the subject matter, but I'm concerned that you may become less purist with all this newness. Sue Berry, Leyland. I regret the change in format of The Vegan. T h e old design was clean and simple and to me spoke of a life free from guilt. I always read it on the tube, held u p so that the title could be seen for some distance. Now it has to be folded to travel, the title cannot be easily read, and surely vegans do not need to be reminded of the suffering of cows! A positive statement has become negative, it now looks like any other animal magazine. Change is not necessarily a good thing - in this case it seems to have been without benefit. (Miss) S.M. Turtle, London. You.have asked for comments on the new-look magazine. My horror began with the front cover. T h e old-style cover had always conveyed to me beauty and gentleness and I had hoped only that the pictures of wild flowers and fruit might be produced in colour. If I saw the new-look magazine, in a bookshop I would not open it, never mind buy it. I am a life-member of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, but I cannot bear to read their magazine. I put it in our College library in the hope that others will read it, but I have yet to see anyone do so. Human sensitivity can accept just so much horror and so a concentration on it can be counter-productive. The inside of the new magazine I found had moved towards a cheap trendiness, which was lacking before, and, far from being new, the size had simply joined the ranks of the majority, which, because they will not stand up, find themselves in the dustbin instead of the book-cupboard. You say in the magazine that veganism was spreading rapidly - why then did you feel
such a burning desire for change? H. A. Warwick, London. Having received The Vegan magazine for Summer 1985,1 am hereby writing to cancel my former subscription to it, as I do not like the enlarged form or increased price. T h e cover photo of a cow is quite revolting. M. Frackman, St Leonards on Sea. The Editor replies: Considerations of space prevent me from taking up every point in the above letters, but I would like to make the following brief remarks. The Smails are mistaken the cover of the new Vegan is no thinner than that of its immediate predecessors. Nor have 'the innate quality and composition of the old-style Vegan' been forgotten - merely carefully examined and found wanting in a number of important respects, as the overwhelming majority (around 90%) of the letters received on the subject confirm. I'm totally at a loss to understand the criticism that the new magazine is in any way harder to follow than the old one. Among other innovations, the addition of detailed 'Contents' and 'Classifieds' sections was expressly designed to make the magazine easier to refer to. The appearance of photographs in Vegan Society publications does not represent a new departure. The appearance of photographs in the Summer 1985 and subsequent issues of the magazine does, however, reflect a policy decision on the part of the Vegan Society Council to more fully exploit the medium than in the recent past.
and written polite letters to change unless they a r e their MPs, all to no avail. We challenged. A n d challenge we have gone from barely 200, to must. some 3 % million experiments Taggart King, Bishop's a year! Stanford. In the last 10 years, since the inception of the Animal I would like t o comment on Liberation Front, the animal Pat Brown's letter regarding rights issue has been rammed so-called 'violent actions'. into the headlines - it is on I refuse to believe that an everyone's lips and the subject"" animal rights person would of public debate. For the first really inject turkeys with time, the pharmaceutical poison, as claimed. R e m e m b e r industry and factory farmers that the A L F have a strict are on the defensive. Smashing, policy of non-violence towards butchers' shop-windows and humans and animals, which to laboratory equipment or my knowledge has never been threatening to poison broken. consumer products may be I take great offence at the distasteful, but this economic insinuation that people w h o sabotage is justifiable. commit these actions are not There is nothing wrong with compassionate. W h y do you violence towards property, as think they do this? It's not for self-glory or personal gain, but long as this never spills over out of compassion - to try and into violence towards other stop animals from being living things. The A L F are motivated by compassion. To abused and tortured. Remember that these people sit meekly by and wring our hands, while all the horrors of are laying their liberty on t h e line for animals - that must be the world pass us by, in the the ultimate in unselfishness vain hope that people will and compassion. come round to our way of thinking because of our Yours f o r human and radiating goodness is a naive animals rights, attitude. People will never John Quirke, London.
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Direct Action In reply to Pat-Brown's letter in the Summer Vegan (Vegans and Violence), I am afraid that 'educating by example' is no longer feasible. If we take the example of the anti-vivisection movement, for over 100 years dedicated campaigners have handed out leaflets, collected signatures
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Family Matters Lis Howlett, a vegan of 13 year's standing and mother of two daughters, aged six and two, continues this regular column exploring various aspects of vegan child-care and parenting. While gathering materials f o r this column I received a moving letter f r o m Claire Rhys-Jones, a vegan m o t h e r of three f r o m F i s h g u a r d , which touched on a whole r a n g e of issues relating in one way o r a n o t h e r to vegan parenting. So forcefully did it bring h o m e to me the discrepancy between popular misconceptions and assumptions on the one h a n d , and objective reality on the o t h e r , that I thought it deserved a wider readership. I m a k e no apology for quoting f r o m it at some length: " I n A u g u s t 1984 I gave birth to a little b o y , Silfan, with gastroschisis - a serious congenital a b n o r m a l i t y . His stomach wall o p e n and his intestines hanging outside of his b o d y , he was r u s h e d t o hospital, where his intestines were replaced and his s t o m a c h sewn up. It was not k n o w n w h e t h e r or not he would survive. Although he was n o t allowed any milk for t h e first t h r e e weeks, I was expressing my breast milk 3hourly every day, to k e e p it going until he could feed. Bef o r e Silfan was allowed h o m e several p e o p l e working in the hospital expressed ignorance a n d d o u b t a b o u t o u r 'strange' vegan diet. Relatives blamed my diet during pregnancy for Silfan's gastroschisis and were hysterical at the thought of me 'inflicting' my way of eating on t h e ' p o o r b a b y ' . H e weighed 51bs w h e n he c a m e h o m e at 4 w e e k s , b u t took happily to f e e d i n g a n d , apart f r o m being sick o f t e n and having very bad wind ( b o t h d u e to the condition of his intestines), he was very well a n d h a p p y . At a b o u t f o u r m o n t h s I introduced solids, — m a s h e d b a n a n a , avocado p e a r , baby cereals etc. - o n e at a t i m e , so that I could ascertain any a d v e r s e effect on his very delicate digestive system. I f o u n d that he reacted badly to w h e a t g e r m , fruit juices and pulses, a n d if I ate beans or pulses he would still react badly f r o m d r i n k i n g my breast milk. By six m o n t h s , however, he was able to t a k e all of the above
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without problems. H e was, however, still considered to be extremely underweight. H e was admitted into hospital with pneumonia and was there for two weeks while they did dozens of tests to see why he was so thin. One doctor told us that what he needed to 'build him u p ' was meat and fish and plenty of added sugar to his meals. While he was in hospital we were under constant criticism about our diet, despite the fact that they could see that my o t h e r two children, both life vegans, were obviously very healthy and not at all thin. It was found that Silfan was suffering f r o m malabsorption and was only absorbing 50% of the food he was eating. Consequently, he has to eat twice as much as any normal baby of his age. At last he started to gain weight and now, one year on, is physically and mentally perfect, with only his scar to remind us of past troubles. He eats everything we eat and drinks soya milk. H a d I been less devoted to a vegan way of life I may have given in under the determined pressure from the so-called experts. O n the plus side, however, babies in the Special Care Baby Unit are either fed on breast milk or soya milk, of which they have vast supplies in the 'Milk R o o m ' , as they have found that these babies do better on soya milk than on cow's milk formulas." G o o d for you, Claire, for flying the vegan flag!
Milk Tokens O v e r the years the Society has m a d e repeated attempts to persuade the D H S S to allow vegans in receipt of milk tokens to use them to obtain soya, rather than cow's milk. Despite mounting scientific evidence to the contrary, the DHSS's stock reply continues to be that soya milks are nutritionally inferior to cow's milk. Contrast this statement with the closing lines of Claire Rhys-Jones's letter
above; one would be hard pressed to find a clearer example of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing. At a time when a full-scale review of the Social Security system is underway, the Secretary has written to the DHSS, making further representations on the matter of milk tokens and soya milk. Vegan parents can lend practical support to the Society's efforts by writing individually to their MPs, urging high-level action. Please inform the Secretary of any sympathetic response you may receive.
Breastfeeding Claire's letter also underlines the role that breastfeeding can and should play in vegan mothering, whatever place soya milk may have in the diet, "if you had a friend who was breastfeeding, you'd find it a lot easier" is the watchword of T h e Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, which aims to establish throughout the country a network of informal groups and counsellors offering support and encouragement to mothers who want to breastfeed. You can find out details of your nearest counsellor by ringing 01 778 4769, or by writing to: The Association of Breastfeeding Mothers, 129 Catford Hill, London SE6. The Association publishes a regular newsletter, plus lots of helpful leaflets, and runs a very reasonably-priced breast-pump hire service.
Family Contacts Following the notice in the Summer Vegan, Vegan Family Co-ordinator Eve Gilmore reports that she now has upwards of 20 families from different parts of the country 'on the books'. Some of these parents, especially those new to veganism, often feel very isolated and vulnerable in the face of aggressive questioning from seriously underinformed medical personnel and sceptical relatives. Even though not needing contact yourself, if you have a vegan child or, perhaps, grandchild, you could offer valuable and much-appreciated support to young vegan families in your area. So, please write and add your name to our list. You may also have older children looking for pen-friends in different parts of the country; Eve will do her best to satisfy all such requests. Simply write to her do the Oxford office, giving your name, address, telephone number (where applicable), and the names and birth-dates of your child or children, and enclosing an S A E . All families joining the list will be sent a copy of a new Vegan Society information sheet on recommended reading for children.
Children's Books Talking of which, I hope you enjoyed Naomi Lewis's thought-provoking feature article on pages 6-8 of this issue.
If so, you will n o d o u b t b e eager for more information on this important subject. For t h e m o r e contact-shy, t h e information sheet r e f e r r e d to above is available separately f r o m the Oxford office. M a r k your letter of inquiry 'Children's B o o k s List' and b e sure to enclose an SAE. By way of a preview, let m e draw your attention to t h e following quartet of books, which tackle the subject of hunting in
With Presents in Mind It is with s o m e reluctance that I draw your, attention so early in the autumn t o t h e season of great slaughter that marks the end of our western calendar year. But, despite t h e carnage and gross self-indulgence, the Christmas period does have a positive side - it is a time of giving and a time of sharing. T h e winter Vegan arrives at the end of D e c e m b e r , when one may have already bought yet another pair of socks or chain-store gift voucher for that friend or relative who might well have appreciated a gift reflecting a little m o r e of the giver. F o r this reason I invite readers to consider the following ideas that show that gifts can both please and make an important point; that we can all contribute to lessening the burden of suffering and cruelty b o r n e by animals. So see if you can fit the people to the presents; with a little extra thought t h e r e should be something suitable for everyone. Most obviously, you can send for a current gift catalogue from your favourite charity and know that you are painlessly contributing to a good cause. T o m e n t i o n just a couple of candidates: The Doctor Had wen Trust for Humane Research (46 Kings R o a d , Hitchen, H e r t s S G 5 1 R D ) has an attractive range of Christmas cards, as well as packs of recycled stationery and various toilet bags and h e r b pillows; Animal Aid (7 Castle Street, Tonbridge, K e n t T N 9 1BH) publishes a good anthology entitled The Unkindest Beast, with contributions both old and new on t h e subject of humans' mistreatment of their fellow creatures.
different ways, yet in each o n e t h e tables a r e turned .and it is the h u n t e r , rather than t h e prey w h o ends u p being h u n t e d . Firstly, for t h e youngest age group: 1 Hunter, by Pat Hutchins (Puffin, £1.25), a.delightful counting and hide-and-seek book with a surprise ending. Slightly older children would e n j o y t h e beautiful and original illustrations in T o m i e de Paola's The Hunter and the Animals (Sparrow Books,
£1.50), a story without words, in which t h e h u n t e r loses his way in t h e forest, is b e f r i e n d e d and helped by t h e animals and birds and finally decides to t h r o w away his gyn. Michael F o r e m a n ' s Trick a Tracker (Gollancz, £4.50) is an amusing fantasy, stretching f r o m t h e earliest times t o t h e m o d e r n day, in which p e o p l e a r e outwitted by t h e animals in their hunting expeditions. Children familiar with Egyptian
pyramids and I n c a t e m p l e s would find this a novel twist t o history. Finally, f r o m m a s t e r story-teller R o a l d D a h l . The Magic Finger ( P u f f i n , 95p) is a hunting story f o r 7-9 year-olds, where t h e h u n t e r s really d o get a dose of their o w n m e d i c i n e . In t h e next issue I shall b e surveying b o o k s o f f e r i n g a d vice o n a vegan diet d u r i n g p r e gnancy a n d lactation, as well as on weaning children o n t o a healthy diet.
H o t f r o m the press and ready for gift-wrapping are Jon Wynne-Tysons's instant classic The Extended Circle (sec t h e review elsewhere in the magazine), and E v a B a t t ' s Vegan Cookery. Copies of both can b e obtained f r o m T h e Vegan S h o p (see pages 25-6 for details), which also stocks many other items that would m a k e excellent gifts, including cruelty-free toiletries, cosmetics and p e r f u m e s . Books are also a suitable gift for children. Y o u might like to send for a copy of our list of recomm e n d e d books (see Family Matters) and select o n e f r o m there. I would like to m a k e a special mention, though, of a new anthology of n a t u r e verse for children selected by Naomi Lewis, entitled A Footprint on the Air (Hutchinson, £4.50; paperback edition out very soon). It includes some real treasures and none of the usual 'sentimentalia'.
Postage and packing can be expensive and fiddly, so if you want to save money and time leave the recipient f r e e to select their o w n gift. Holland <$: Barrett have gift Vouchers available in £1,.£3 and £5 denominations. Pick u p a leaflet in o n e of their shops.
hand-made c o n f e c t i o n e r y . They h a v e a varied vegan selection available in e i t h e r carob or chocolate, and also some delightful novelty i t e m s suitable f o r children or decorating a Christmas tree. G i f t boxes and whole h a m p e r s can be m a d e u p to o r d e r . F o r full details and prices s e n d a n S A E to: The Welsh Fudge Shop, 6 Bridge Street, Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales. Lis Howlett
Something to last right through the year is a magazine subscription. H o w about giving a special friend or relative a subscription to the new-look Vegan (just £2.75; see pages 25-6) or to Animals Now, published by Y o u t h for Animal Rights? (Hjllview, Chaffcombe, Nr. Chard, Somerset TA204AH). This year there are even records promoting h u m a n e causes. G r e e n p e a c e has a compilation L P ( E M I Fund 1) with tracks by over a dozen big-name artists, including Eurythmics, Kate Bush, G e o r g e Harrison, and vegan singer-actress Haze) O ' C o n n o r (look out for a profile in t h e next issue of the Vegan). Proceeds f r o m sales of this record, available f r o m record shops, go to support G r e e n p e a c e projects.
Last, but not least, that classic gift - a box of chocolates - can b e a vegan o n e . The Welsh Fudge Shop specialises in
TOTALLY SYNTHETIC WALKING BOOTS Available by Mail Order! 'CB' WALKING BOOT
The 1986 Animals Diary shows animal exploitation and liberation in photos, drawings and cartoons - many produced especially for the book. Following last.year's format, the Diary contains 128 pages with a week to each doublepage spread. Special dates are marked, and appropriate picturesaccompany World Day for Laboratory Animals, hunting seasons etc. The resource section at the back includes an expanded list of cruelty-free cosmetics, alternative medicine, first aid for wild birds, information on animal farming/human famine and, of course, comprehensive lists of animal societies in the UK and abroad. Size: 8V« x S W (leaflet size) wjth laminated cover. Price: £2.50 + 50p p&p. from The Vegan Society Ltd, 33/35 George Street, Oxford OX1 2AY. The Animals Diary is produced by Animus - Against All Forms of Animal Abuse.
Strong upper w i t h s o f t ankle rolls, sewn-in tongue, s o f t insole, w i t h the ecologically approved 'klets' sole unit. £26.95 p l u s £ 1 . 7 5 p & p Sizes 4-11 No half sizes
FELLWALKA' WALKING BOOT
Very similar t o t h e 'CB' but made of lighter w e i g h t synthetic materials. Ideal for c a s u a l w a l k i n g and rambling. £19.99 plus £1.75 p&p Sizes 4-11 No half sizes Available from: Westsporta. 17 Fleet St.. Swindon Tel. (0703) 32588/ 14 day approval against payment.
IMPACT
The Labour Party and Trade Union Animal Protection Association For free copy of Impact's Magazine and Membership affiliation details, please write enclosing 17p stamp to: ' The Secretary, Impact, P0 Box 9, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE31ET. 23
Noticeboazd 2 October World F a r m Animals' Day. 4 October St Francis of Assisi Day 6 October World Day of Prayer for Animals 12 October 9.30am-5.15pm. C o m m o n w e a l t h Institute T h e a t r e , Kensington, L o n d o n W8. ' D o i n g Right by Animals' Symposium. A m o n g those participating will be Neil King, C h a i r m a n , British Veterinary Association Animal Welfare F o u n d a t i o n , Alastair Mews, Assistant Chief Veterinary Officer, R S P C A ; and D r Alan L o n g , Vegetarian Society. Tickets: £2.50 ( O A P s and students £1.50) f r o m : The Vegetarian Society, 53 Marloes Road, Kensington, London W8 6LA (SAEplease). 16 October World Food Day. Y o u r o p p o r t u n i t y to d e m o n s t r a t e veganism's role in helping alleviate Third World f a m i n e and malnutrition. Contact your L V C (full list on p.26) for details of local initiatives to mark the occasion. 6.30pm. N a t u r e Cure Clinic, London 15 Olbury Place, W1M 3AL. 'Improving the Quality of Life for B e t t e r H e a l t h ' by Gilbert A n d e r s o n , M . N . C . P . Tickets £1.50. 20-27 October O n e World W e e k . O x f o r d s h i r e L V C Paul A p p l e b y has drawn up a leaflet ( R e c i p e s for Justice) for use in the days leading up to and during this w e e k . Price: 1 0 0 £1.34, 2 0 0 - £ 2 . 6 6 , 5 0 0 - £ 6 . 2 2 , 1000 - £ 1 1 . 1 0 , including p & p f r o m Paul at 57 Sharland Close, Grove, Wantage, Oxon OX12 0AF. 9 November Oxford College of F u r t h e r Education, O x p e n s Road, Oxford OX1 ISA. E x t r a o r d i n a r y General M e e t i n g , followed by 1985 A n n u a l G e n e r a l Meeting of T h e Vegan Society Ltd. (see Annual Report insert for full details). Proposals f o r resolutions must be seconded and received in writing at t h e registered office by 18 O c t o b e r 1985.
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Nominations for m e m b e r s of 12 months or greater duration to serve on the Council or as officers of the Society must be made in writing, signed and received at the registered office not more than 21 days, and not less than 3 days before the A G M . Within the same period candidates are required to furnish written confirmation of their willingness to stand for election. W h e n so doing they are also requested to furnish a brief (not more than 200 words) personal profile. It must be stressed that the efficient management of the affairs of a modern and rapidly expanding Society requires that, over and above enthusiasm and a desire to serve, candidates f o r election offer expertise or professional skills in fields such as company law, accounting, personnel management, publicity and marketing. Refreshments and creche facilities will be available. 16 November 1.00pm. Cambridge. Campaign Against Farm Animal A b u s e ( C A F A A ) National Demonstration against B a b r a h a m Laboratories. For further details contact: CAFAA, PO Box 45, B5. Birmingham Tel 021 5447581. 20 November 6.00pm. Rooms 7, 8 and 9, Friends House, Euston R o a d , L o n d o n NW1 2BJ. Frey Ellis Memorial Lecture. On ' F o o d , Fats and Health', by D r . W . R . H a r e , Dept of Nutrition, Institute of Zoology, London. 23 November 2.00pm. Manchester A b b a t o i r Demonstration and march. For details contact: VSUK, Parkdale, Dunham Road, Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 4QG. Tel 061-928 0793 23-29 November National "No Meat' Week. See below for further details. 30 November 1.00pm. Institute for Complementary Medicine, 21 Portland Place, London W l . Annual General
Meeting of T h e Nature Cure Clinic. Vegan lunch will be served, followed by talks by Drs. L. Mount and G. Latto. 4 December 6.30pm. Nature Cure Clinic. 'Homeopathic Aspects of Vaccination' by Dr. Michael Finnegan. Tickets: £1.50. 14 December 1.00pm. Norwich. C A F A A coordinated demonstration against Bernard Matthews Turkey Farm. For further details contact: CAFAA, PO Box 45, Birmingham B5. Tel. 021 544 7581.
Wot! No Meat? Saturday 23 November to Friday 29 November. Take part in National 'No Meat' Week. Why? • T o raise money for longterm vegetarian projects in the Third World. • T o reduce the number of animals slaughtered for food. • T o educate people about the link between eating meat and Third World hunger. How? • By sponsoring someone to give up meat for one week, 23-29 November 1985. All proceeds to Third World projects. For further information telephone, Sherry: 03224 37084 (evenings). Geoff: 01-989 2762 (daytime), or send large SAE (18p) for information pack and sponsorship forms to: Dartford & Bexley Animal Rights, PO Box 46, Erith, Kent.
Animal Rights or Wrongs? 24 September - 29 October 7 . 3 0 - 9 . 0 0 p m . Runnymede Educational Institute. Rosla Centre, Magna Carta School, Thorpe Road, Staines, Middlesex. Six-part course examining the animal rights issue, sponsored by Surrey County Council. Believed to be the first of its kind in Britain. Guest speakers: Angela Walder, Scientific Advisor to British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, and Mark Gold, Campaign Director of Animal Aid. For further
details contact Course Tutor
Travelling Fellowships The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust annually awards grants to people to engage in research abroad relating to their trade, profession or interests. Categories for awards include: the role of education in animal welfare and farming and market-gardening in relation to the environment. Readers are invited to apply direct to the Trust: The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, 15 Queen's Gate Terrace, London SW7 5PR. Closing date: 31 October 1985.
New NAVS Group The City of London NAVS group has recently been formed and has a full programme of autumn events. Vegans, vegetarians and others living in London are welcome as members. Further details from: Robin Bourton, 152 Upper Clapton Road, London
Missing Papers Would the lady who borrowed papers from me at the International Vegan Festival in Denmark please return them without delay to:
Vegan Farm Project The Council has entered into negotiations with a kindred organization regarding the use of land for an agricultural project. T h e services of a member with agricultural expertise are sought for the purpose of determining the suitability of various locations. Please apply to the Oxford Office.
Treasurer Sought The Council regrets that it is shortly to lose the valued services of the Society's present Hon. Treasurer, John Cummins. Members able and willing to perform this responsible task are invited to contact the Secretary without delay.
Vegan Mothers and Children Ten m o t h e r s of this and t h e last g e n e r a t i o n describe t h e rearing of vegan children. Includes r e p o r t s of r e c e n t research by T . S a n d e r s , P h D (Nutr) 70p
Publications & Promotional Goods FIRST HAND FIRST RATE
Feeding the Family Leaflet with recipes 25p Festive Recipes Leaflet with Christmas and special occasions in mind 25p Backpacking & Hostelling the Vegan Way Leaflet with recipes 25 p Plant Foods for Human Health Prof. J. Dickerson 35p
What better gift to an home-grown foods. Includes interested friend or relative gardening hints. 65p than a year's subscription (4 issues) to the new-look Vegan? Vegan Nutrition Just send the.name and address by F. Ellis M D F R C (Path) of intended recipient and we'll and T . Sanders P h D (Nutr) take care of the rest. Price A scientific assessment of the £2.75. vegan diet, incorporating easy-to-follow tables enabling Please order from The Vegan r e c o m m e n d e d intake of Shop not The Vegan Society essential nutrients to be met (see order form at the bottom from plant products only of page 26 for details). All £1.00 prices include postage and packing. Unless otherwise indicated, all publications are paperback.
Publications:
The Role of Plants in Feeding Mankind by Prof, A . Bender Price 45p Veganism - Scientfic Aspects by T . Sanders P h D (Nutr) 40p
THE VEGAN
WAY...
... Why? & How ?.. BY W VERY
DIFFERENT
VEGANS
WHAT ELSE
IS PRACTICAL VEGANISM
COOKING? FURTHER ADVENTURES IN COOKING WITH COMPASSION
By EVA BATT
What Else is Cooking? by Eva Batt 300 vegan recipes, together with practical hints. Wipeclean cover, spiral-bound £3.95 An Introduction to Practical Veganism A beginner's guide. 60p First Hand, First Rate by Kathleen Jannaway 60 simple and economical sugar-free recipes based on
Vegan Shopper's Guide by Sandra H o o d Check-list of vegan products £1.25 Vegan Menus/Nutrition Card Laminated for kitchen use 50p
VEGAN
COOKERY
The Vegan Way: Why? And How? T e n very different vegans tell their tale 60p Pioneers of The New Age Twelve-early vegans reminisce 60p In Lighter Vein by Eva Batt Verses to a m u s e and arouse pity 65p For a Future More Sane, More Humane by Reuel L a h m e r A spiritual plea 45p 1985 Directory of Places Catering for Vegans Lists hotels, guest-houses, bed & breakfast accommodation, cafes, restaurants 90p
•s (ft^p "IV Cbsskr\fcgan Cucifcbcvfc G>-j*iHishcd wiih lhe\fcgan Society
Eva Batt's Vegan Cookery by E v a Batt A revised and u p d a t e d reprint of What's Cooking? t h e classic vegan c o o k b o o k . P a c k e d with recipes a n d practical advice £3.45 In addition to the Vegan Society publications listed above, the following are among many useful and informative works produced independently of the Society available from The Vegan Shop: Food for a Future by J o n W y n n e - T y s o n A classic w o r k , p o w e r f u l l y arguing all aspects of t h e vegan case - m o r a l , e c o n o m i c , ecological, physiological and nutritional. Packed with information, statistics, quotations, nutritional and dietary data £1.80 Compassion: The Ultimate Ethic by Victoria M o r a n Examines t h e philosophy and history of veganism £5.45 Healthy Eating for the New Age by Joyce d'Silva A vegan c o o k b o o k full of excellent and varied recipes which follow h e a l t h - f o o d , as well as vegan principles £4.35 Vegan Cooking by L e a h L e n e m a n A vegan best-seller. Includes 'The V e g a n D a i r y ' , ' T o f u the W o n d e r F o o d ' and recipes using p r o p r i e t a r y h e a l t h foods £2.25p An Extended Circle: A Dictionary of Humane Thought
25
Promotional Goods
THE EXTENDED
Button Badges 1 W b a d g e s 25p (please enclose SAE)
In addition to national initiatives, local campaigning and activities are essential to a vigorous and effective Vegan Society. With back-up from the Oxford office, each of the local vegan contacts (LVCs) listed below is responsible for co-ordinating promotional work at local level. You can play your part by getting in touch with your nearest LVC and finding out what's on in your area. If you would like to act as an LVC yourself, please write for full details to the Oxford office, marking your envelope •LVC Co-ordinator'.
ENGLAND
A DICTIONARY OF HUMANE THOUGHT,.
EDITED BY JON WYNNE TYSOKN e d i t e d by J o n W y n n e - T y s o n A unique anthology, destined to b e c o m e a standard reference work £5.95
New-style Vegan Society T-shirt (as illustrated) with c o l o u r f u l , eye-catching design Sizes: Adult - S / M / L £3.50 Child - ages 2-4, 6-8, 8-10 £3.00
Tofu Cookery by Louise Hagler 200 e a s y - t o - f o l l o w r e c i p e s , f r o m appetizers to main-course dishes and desserts. Superbly i l l u s t r a t e d £10.95
A small stock r e m a i n s of t h e old-style T-shirt, with ' V e g a n i s m Shows t h e W a y ' slogan written green on white. C h i l d r e n ' s sizes only - 24" 26" 28" 30" Price £3.00 Look good and s p r e a d the word!
Order Form
N. IRELAND
O r d e r n o w (block capitals t h r o u g h o u t please) f r o m : T h e Vegan Shop, 86 T i l e h u r s t R o a d , R e a d i n g , R G 3 2 L U Please send the following item(s): Item
SCOTLAND
Quantity
Cost
I e n c l o s e a c h e q u e / p o s t a l o r d e r m a d e payable t o : T h e Vegan Shop f o r £ Name Address Postcode Eire & Overseas: P a y m e n t m u s t b e by sterling c h e q u e d r a w n o n a n English b a n k o r an i n t e r n a t i o n a l m o n e y o r d e r . Overseas:
A d d e x t r a to c o v e r a d d i t i o n a l postal e x p e n s e s .
P l e a s e tick h e r e Q if y o u w o u l d like t o receive o u r Vegan Products Mail Order List. If r e q u i r e d separately, please s e n d S A E . P l e a s e allow up t o 28 d a y s f o r delivery.
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WALES
atmosphere, bungalow home. Evening meditation in the cedar room. Tel (0304) 373739 'LIFE IS FOR LIVING'. Informal conference with buffet lunch at St Andrew's Church Hall. Cullompton, Devon. (M5 328) on Saturday October 12th. 12 noon. Subject 'Christianity
When replying to these advertisements please mention The Vegan.
ACCOMMODATION ACCOMMODATION in return for help with upkeep; house/grounds (nature reserve). Vegfam. The Sanctuary. Nr Lydford, Okehampton. Devon EX20 4AL Tel 082 282 203 ACCOMMODATION available from October 1st in shared centrally heated vegan house in East Oxford. 3 miles from town centre. Phone (0227) 276727. ACCOMMODATION in return for part-time organic gardening in beautiful part of North Wales Tel 0766-770242
ANIMAL RIGHTS/ WELFARE ANGLING - THE N E G L E C T E D BLOODSPORT Maimed fish, lead in swans, fish used as bait CAA, PO Box 14, Romsey SOS9NN.
CATERING IMAGINATIVE VEGAN AND VEGETARIAN CATERING AND QUALITY telephone sample menus.
ease for
LINCOLNSHIRE. Vegan D. B&B Lincoln Wolds, Viking Way. Children welcome. No smoking, dogs. Crompton, Lapwings, Apley LN3 5JQ Tel Wragby 858101. LONDON. Q U I E T . W A R M , friendly hotel. Good home cooking, proprietors vegetarian. B&B from £10.50. Queendale Lodge, St Augustine's Avenue. Croydon. Greater London Tel 01-688 2839. HOLIDAYS IN PEACEFUL SURROUNDINGS midway Inverness/Nairn. Vegetarian/Vegan. Touring, walking. Guests welcome all year. Lawson. Eynhallow, Croy. Inverness. Tel 06678-352. SCARBOROUGH. The Berjac'. 69 Westborough. Family-run hotel. Near town centre, own car park, midweek bookings accepted. BB&EM £8.70, no VAT. Reductions children sharing. Vegetarian and vegan meals always available. Brochure - Mr. mountains sweep down to the sea, our converted farmhouse (inglenook/woodburner) nestles high on the slopes of Yr Eifel. Spectacular views of sea/ mountains. Designated 'area of national beauty'. Superb beach. Hiker's, sailor's, historian's paradise. Strictly vegetarian/vegan. D.B&B £89.25 per wee August Dorset. All vegan families (couples and singles also welcome) are invited to the 6th Annual Camp. Come for the weekend and/or the full week. Full details are available from J
EATING OUT For comprehensive list see Vegan Society publication 1985 DIRECTORY OF PLACES CATERING FOR VEGANS. ESSEX. ACORN N A T U R A L F O O D CAFE Oakwood Arts Centre. Maldon. Vegan and vegetarian catering. Open Mon-Sat. 10am5pm. Early closing Wed 2pm. Tel 52317 LA VIDA, 164 Cherry Orchard Road. Croydon, Surrey. 681 3402. South London's vegetarian restaurant which also caters for vegans.
GARDENING SUPPLIES ORGANIC GARDENING WITH CHASE. High quality seeds and seaweed products free of chemical additives. Also SPROUTING SEEDS in bulk. Free catalogue from: Dept V, Chase Organics, Terminal House, Shepperton TW17 8AS.
HOLIDAY ACCOMMODATION For comprehensive list see Vegan Society publication 1985 DIRECTORY OF PLACES CATERING FOR VEGANS. BEXHILL-ON-SEA. Vegan/vegetarian bed and breakfast. Bedtime and morning drinks facilities. £7 a night. £35 weekly. Tel. 042 43 5153. IRELAND. County Wicklow. Vegan accommodation: Old world cottage in scenic location. Close forests, beaches, mountains, charming town. Details: Tel London 01-341 1577 or write: Palmer, 134B Middle Lane, Hornsey. London N8 7JP. ISLE OF WIGHT. Small private hotel in peaceful West Wight. Near National Trust downland and Tennyson Heritage Coast Comfortable accommodation with central heating. Excellent home cooking by vegetarian proprietor. Wholefoods, vegetarian or vegan. Open Easter ring h MOORHAYES VEGAN/VEGETARIAN FARMHOUSE HOTEL. Talaton, East Devon. Tel Whimple (0404) 822895. Comfortable, caring service Relaxed, peaceful atmosphere. The house is full of antiquity and character. Beautiful rural surroundings. 10 miles coast. Organic vegetables. Home-made bread. Enquiry and brochure. Write or phone Duncan and Jennie Hulin PENZANCE. Self-catering accommodation for 3-4. Two miles from Penzance with large garden, sea and country views. Occasional vegan meals available. Tel 0736 62242.
MAIL ORDER 'THE VEGAN SHOP' sells all Vegan Society publications and merchandise, plus other books of interest to vegans. Also vegan, nonanimal-tested toiletries, cosmetics and household goods. 5% discount to Vegan Society members (except on books). Please support an all-vegan enterprise, and help us expand into s order
VEGETARIAN MATCHMAKERS: Discreet postal introduction service exclusively for unattached adult vegetarians/vegans, nationwide. (Clients from diverse walks of life - ages from 18 to sunset years). Dreams could become reality for you too, by requesting details today from V M M . Dept V Q , 131 Sirdar Road. London N22.
SITUATIONS VACANT Young, truly dedicated ANIMAL RESCUE CENTRE (reg. Charity) needs totally reliable staff. Essential qualities - versatile, honest, hardworking, responsible, good memory, vegetarian, nigh sense of hygiene, ability to get on with people. not seeking fame or Fortune, desire to help animals in every way, 101% dedicated. In return - small wages, caravan accommodation, good fun, job satisfaction, exhaustion, sense of achievement, lots of animals to love. Over 25yrs preferred but any age if all above qualities are there. Please write (enclosing phone no if possible) to: Heaven's Gate, Animal Rescue Centre, W. Henley, Langport, Somerset T A 1 0 9 B E .
SITUATIONS WANTED
CELLULAR COTTON BLANKETS. Grade 1 Government surplus, excellent condition and value. Colours orange, grey or mauve. Single £2.75. double £3.25, both p&p.
LIQUID CONCENTRATE is the biodegradable liauid soap derived from coconut oil, whicn is free from animal products and animal testing. SAE for details: Dept EV, Janco Sales, 11 Seymour Road, Hampton Hill, Middlesex TW12 1DD.
NATURAL BEAUTY (See also MAIL ORDER) DOLMA VEGAN PERFUMES. Animal-free and not tested on a stamp for details.
PUBLICATIONS AHIMSA. Quarterly magazine of the American Vegan Society. Veganism. Natural Living, Reverence for Life. Calendar year subscription $8. Address. 501 Old Harding. Highway, Malaga. NJ 08328, USA. VEGAN TIMES. Articles on spiritual growth/ healing; personal and planetary; ecology; animal rights; food; recipes; letters; poems, etc. A non-violent Green magazine. Sample copy 50p or 4xl3p stamps. Subscription £2.50 for 4 issues inclusive of postage Back copies available. All cheques/P.Os made pavabie to Alpay Torgut, 25 Tabley Road, London N7 0NA. WORDS TO AWAKEN THE WORLD. Posters, books and cards with powerfully transforming energy. Books inclusive p&p: The Superbemgs £5 90. Self-mastery £6.90 Acorn Book 1 £3. Hopi Prophecy £2. Trade enquiries from Bookshops and Centres welcome. Send large SAE for catalogue: Acorn (VN), 2 High Street, Glastonbury. Somerset.
RATES AND CONDITIONS Personal £3.00 for 20 words (minimum). Additional words 15p each. Commercial £4.00 for 20 words (minimum). Additional words 20p each. Series discount 4 consecutive insertions 7 V i % . PAYMENT By cheque or postal o r d e r , made payable to T h e Vegan Society and sent to: Advertisement Manager, The Vegan, 33-35 George Street, Oxford OX1 2 A Y. Eire and Overseas: payment must be by sterling c h e q u e drawn on an English bank or by international money o r d e r . PUBLICATION DATES 21 March (Spring) 21 June ( S u m m e r ) 21 September ( A u t u m n ) 21 December (Winter)
MISCELLANEOUS BUDDHIST MEDITATION: Two practical booklets. Send £1 to: Buddhist Publishing Group (V), PO Box 136, Leicester LE2 4TZ VEGFAM feeds the hungry via plant-based foodstuffs, leaf protein, seeds, irrigation etc. The Sanctuary, Lydford. Okehampton, Devon EX20 4AL. Tel Lydford 203 SEND SAE to Unit A1, Chapman's Yard. Waterhouse Lane, Scarborough Y O l l 1DP for free leaflets on 'Raw Food Diet' and/or 'Tao', the great philosophy of ancient China, still thriving. GO MAD O LOOKING FOR PENPALS? Monthly lists of people in many countries. £1 each. 1 Burnwood Drive, Wollaton, Nottingham NG8 2DJ CONTACT CENTRE is a friendship agency, quite different from all others. It enables you to choose your friend(s) from detailed advertisements or to write an advertisement yourself without disclosing your name and address. C O N T A C T C E N T R E gives you full scope; you don't even have to complete a form. CONTACT CENTRE now operates a Vegan Service in addition to the Vegetarian/ vegan Service and the International Pen-friend Service without hidden charges and with many offers for a nominal fee, or even free. As we cannot tell all in this advertisement, please find out how you too can benefit by the range of flexible services by requesting free details from Contact Centre, BCM Cuddle, London WC1V 6XX. Full translational services from and into German, French and Dutch KALAMAKI RETREAT, Dover. Imaginative, nutritious vegan/vegetarian/wholefood. Bed, breakfast, evening meal. Tranquil, spiritual
COPY DATES The first day of the m o n t h preceding the month of publication CONDITIONS OF ACCEPTANCE The submission of an advertisement is d e e m e d to warrant that the advertisement does not contravene any Act of Parliament nor is it in any o t h e r way illegal or d e f a m a t o r y or an infringement of any o t h e r party's rights or an infringement of the British C o d e of Advertising Practice. The Vegan Society reserves the right to refuse or withdraw any advertisement without explanation. Although every care is t a k e n , the Vegan Society cannot accept liability for any loss o r inconvenience incurred as a result of errors in the wording, or the late or non-appearance of an advertisement. Cancellations may not be accepted after the copy date. Refunds are only payable when an advertisement is cancelled b e f o r e the copy date. In such cases a charge of £1 is m a d e .
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Sportspeople sebhhhb takes the biscake
This is the new and convenient way to take a high proportion of your daily requirement of first-class protein Each biscake (and there are twelve in every pack) provides 1.875g of protein. Sports people need extra protein and 'GrannyAnn' Hi-Pro Biscakes can give that necessary complementary boost. Take a couple with you on your training sessions - eat them anytime, anywhere. They are really wholesome and nutritious too . . . all the ingredients are natural
and free from animal products and glu
ten. Because of this they are also a most useful source of additional nutrition for people who are ill or convalescing. Or for people who simply like good wholesome food! 'Granny Ann' Hi-Pro Biscakes are avail able from health food stores.
QRflN/yrmW HI-PRO Btscahes For f u r t h e r i n f o r m a t i o n s e n d SAE for free leaflet to:
Itona Products Limited, Leyland Mill Lane, Wigan
SATISFIED? DISSATISFIED? Y o u r e a l l y like y o u r w o r k b u t y o u ' r e n o t settled i n t h e job. M a y b e you could earn more or maybe your f u t u r e doesn't seem secure o r your prospects not bright enough W e m a y n o t b e able t o o f f e r y o u a j o b s t r a i g h t a w a y b u t if y o u like us a n d w e like y o u w e c a n s o o n p r o v i d e a real c a r e e r o p p o r t u n i t y t h a t y o u ' r e unlikely t o f i n d elsewhere
You have t o live in L o n d o n and be e n g a g e d professionally as either a: — J O B B I N G , E L E C T R I C I A N (Advanced/Technician) J O B B I N G , P L U M B E R (Advanced/Technician) H E A T I N G / H O T WATER F I T T E R / T E C H N I C I A N / E N G I N E E R ( w i t h w e l d i n g experience) AIR C O N D I T I O N I N G T E C H N I C I A N (Maintenance) SALES E N G I N E E R (Building Services Maintenance) J U N I O R SECRETARY T E C H N I C A L T R A I N I N G OFFICER (Partime/Evenings)
We are a more than equal opportunities company. Write or Ring N o r m a W i l l i a m s 01-654-3133. Simpson, Delvarr & Co. Ltd., 10 Market Parade, Portland Road, S.E.25