Kitty pics and vegan tricks (well margarine, actually)

Still slogging my way through the "Vegan No More '10" (it doesn't have a catchy name as far as I know, but that's the name of the post that started it). No, I haven't joined Them (though my morals on this issue were, and still are, around abouts what Quasi-Vegan blogs). My thoughts tonight (erm this morning) are on more traditional vegan topics.

But first, some pictures of my favourite non-humans:

Practicing ridiculous cuteness as usual.

 Here she was trying to attack Haley, so I gave her the Minotaur to beat up; but you can see her cake eyes still straying back to the true object of her Grand Passion (sitting in the green tray.)

 

 

I placed a VHS tape in her way. Here she is in a death grip with Minotaur, but peering around the tape at the object of her slavish devotion (determined to remain in her green tray.) Haley used to have one tray, which she took over when Fernando bought it (so we can never use it). But Minion kicks her out of it sometimes, so now we have a second tray which also must remain empty. She travels from one tray to the other, and back, as Minion torments her.

"Oh. But I lobes you so very, very much."

 And here she has fallen asleep while sucking her thumb (aka my finger.)

 

Here's a picture of my favourite human, disguised as a non-human in his bunnyllama hat.

 

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

I just wanted to share this post, with its comments, because it's such a good example of how twisty life gets when you try to eat ethically. It begins with a discussion of palm oil, which is apparently killing the orangutans (this is old news, but I hadn't heard it -- and there are apparently many ethical problems with palm oil) - and then a discussion about which, if any, vegan margarines to use because most use palm oil.

I don't think the complexity behind the issues is reason to just sing "Fuck youuuu" and go back to eating any way you want. But I've always wanted to be an Ethical Purchaser for the long haul, so I just do it in stages.

-> Before I describe what I mean, I'll take a moment to say that... perhaps it's our obsession with food in North America that makes us focus so much on food as the main area for activism. Orrrr it's just because it's relatively easy to do? Anyway.

I use my patented Lazy Method for transitioning. I was a Lazy Vegetarian first--take one year to try to be vegetarian, give in to the worst cravings, then stop. Later I did Lazy Vegan the same way. After going food-vegan I didn't throw out every non-vegan or animal-tested thing in my home, I just worked on not replacing them as I used them up. I have "broken" my veganism at times (shoes) but that doesn't mean I will or won't again in future--the only thing I can promise is to Not Be Perfect.

And for the occasional thing I've cut out, there's the occasional thing I let in. I finally let honey back in after reading about what's killing off the bees, and some comments from Jae Steele's books (one re. the ethics of it locally speaking, since my alternative was agave, coming from far south - the other a letter she received from a honey farmer). But my condition is it has to be Quebec honey, so it wasn't a cost trade-off, and I've only found that at certain chains (Metro.) All the other kinds are a mix of Prairies honey and something Far Away like Argentina.

And margarine is another one I've always kept a wary eye on, just since I've tried eating less processed food. Man there is nothing more processed than margarine, and that includes the old vegan fave Earth Balance. (Right now I buy Becel's Vegan, which appeared in the large chain I mostly shop at.) But the real problem is that I love margarine. I love fat. I eat a lot of margarine, whether on bread or rice or potatoes or in baking. So the "OH it's so PROCessed!!"ness of it all just hasn't been enough to fight against "Ooh but I'd just like a nice piece of bread and margy please, thanks!" Or shortbread cookies, or baking powder biscuits, etc. And the unhealthiness of eating this much fat... no, that doesn't make the cut either.

But orangutans might do it. Not that the human suffering involved doesn't suck too. But like those cute pics of Minion, dead orangutans is my weak spot. I'm not the person who coos over other people's babies, I coo over their dogs and cats.

I still have some margarine on hand. ...I'm not sure I can go cold veg-turkey. Maybe I can allot a certain # of times per year when I can buy it and just go into a margarine frenzy for a week. And the rest of the time depend on my semi-local Canola oil (Canada), definitely-not-local-but-I-am-SO-not-ready-to-give-it-up-unless-there's-a-monkey-involved olive oil, and the other non-local oils I use in small quantities (coconut, sesame, peanut).

:-'(

It will mean processed foods with palm oil too. Probably just the croissants I like to buy.

X'-(

Oh well. Experience tells me that if I'm firm enough I won't miss it that much. ...Which brings me to another topic. But I'll write it up and stick a later date on it. Enough blabbing for now.