Archive for the ‘Animal-friendly Products’ category

John Dory’s SASSI platter

March 23rd, 2011

Some of you will not have heard about the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI), whereas some of you wouldn’t dream of eating a fish not on its green list. SASSI began as a response to the critical impact that overfishing has had on the world’s fish stocks. The problem is mainly due to the unsustainable fishing methods and the unmoving attitude of the industry towards change for the better. SASSI is a ray of light in the gloomy state of the sea’s depletion, and is inspiring restaurant-owners and businessmen to make a change.

According to the SASSI site, the association was initiated by the World Wide Fund South Africa (WWF) in November 2004. It was a collaborative movement with a number of participating partners. The focus was on informing those involved in the seafood trade about the dire straits of our waters. It was an elaboration of an organisation created in KwaZulu-Natal which attempted to educate restaurant-owners and dealers about the Marine Living Resources Act and other issues surrounding marine conservation.

The organisation’s primary aims include the promotion of voluntary compliance of the law through awareness and education, attempting to shift consumer-demand from over-exploited fish to sustainable options and creating awareness around marine issues and conservation. One of the ways SASSI is educating people is with the red, orange and green seafood lists. The red list comprises seafood species that are unsustainable, including black tail, tuna and kingfish. The orange list refers to species that are cause for concern either because of the harmful way in which they are caught or because of low stocks. The green list is a showcase of well-managed species that are not in danger of being overfished.

My friend is a vegetarian but until a year ago she still ate fish. She was adamant about sticking to the SASSI green list and would never eat anything from the red or orange section. It made life much easier for her because every time she came across a fish she wasn’t sure about she would just Google it on the SASSI list.

SASSI has inspired others to lead a healthier and more eco-friendly seafood diet too. South African restaurant John Dory’s Fish and Grill offered its customers an environmentally-clean SASSI platter with only green-listed species on it.  Over two months last year (October and November) visitors to the restaurant could enjoy a scrumptious seafood platter guilt-free. The restaurant took its dedication to the SASSI green list even further and donated R5 from every platter sold to SASSI.

Customers responded amazingly and John Dory’s was able to hand over a whopping R55 000. If all seafood restaurants were to follow by this establishment’s example the positive effect on endangered ocean species would be phenomenal. The next time you decide to go out for dinner to a seafood restaurant think about checking out the green list first. The fish will thank you.

Image by Mohamed Aly via Stock.xchng.

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Posted in Animal-friendly Products, Conservation, Eco-friendly Products, Endangered Species, Sustainable

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Cape Town’s meatless Mondays and going vegan

March 14th, 2011

Save a cow, eat your veggies.

Meatless Mondays is an initiative that has spread across the globe quickly. While South Africans enjoy their meat, especially at braais, the city of Cape Town decided to encourage its inhabitants to set aside one day a week as meat-free. The idea is to promote awareness about the amount of meat that people eat. But what if you want to take it even further? Well, then there’s veganism.

According to Lisa Nevitt, of Cape Town Magazine, Cape Town is the first African city to encourage and promote a meat-free day once a week. Institutions and blogs adopted the cause as their own as restaurants began adding delicious vegetarian dishes to their menus and bloggers posted easy-to-make meals. The Protea Hotel Victoria Junction joined the Meatless Mondays campaign with a three-course vegetarian meal including poached quail eggs, Kalahari truffle-topped asparagus, and a baby marrow and peanut burger.

A food-blog, Simply Delicious, has a number of vegetarian recipes to help the everyday meat-eater out. As people explore the idea of eating less meat they tend to share their experiences and meals, and as a result more people are encouraged and tempted to try out something completely different. Oprah, SAB Catering (Dutch catering company), Bob Harper (fitness trainer for The Biggest Loser), Women’s Health magazine and many more have all pledged to support the initiative by posting their recipes, offering discounts on vegetarian meals on Mondays, or, in the case of Oprah, making Harpo Studios offer more vegetarian options to the crew and audience.

There’s even a step further you can take to ensure you eat healthier and protect the lives of animals born to the slaughter: Veganism. This month is the Vegan Easy Challenge; a 30-day challenge where you are expected to eat only vegan food for the whole month.

According to Vegan Easy, it’s actually really easy to lead a vegan lifestyle. A vegan is someone who doesn’t eat, wear or buy products made from animals. People imagine that a vegetarian diet would be boring so it can be difficult to convince those same people that vegan food can be varied, tasty and scrumptious. I had a friend who spent most of his life as a vegan and he never had a problem finding great meals to enjoy.

By living a vegan lifestyle you will save the lives of many animals, be more environmentally aware and be healthier. Vegan Easy reports that almost 60 million land animals and up to three trillion sea animals are killed for our consumption or use every year. By cutting those products out of your life you can reduce that number and, if your diet is well-balanced, you can reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and strokes.

If you’re keen to experience a vegan lifestyle you don’t have to jump right in. Why not start by cooking a vegan meal once or twice a week? As you find it gets easier to come up with great recipes and easy to find the right ingredients you can progress from there. Or you could start out with Vegan Easy’s “30 day vegan easy challenge menu”.

Let us know how it goes.

Image via Stock.xchng.

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Posted in Animal-friendly Products, Eco-friendly Products, Green Living, Raising Awareness, Vegetarian, Vegetarian Recipes

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PETA wins the cup of tea

February 1st, 2011

I have some exciting news! I’m on the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) mailing list and a few months ago they sent out an email describing a horrible fact; Lipton Iced Tea manufacturers were conducting tests on animals in their labs.

It’s shocking to find out how many companies actually use such brutal measures, and PETA decided to take action against the tea-makers by using the compassion of animal-lovers worldwide.

Over 40 000 people around the globe responded to PETA’s call to speak out against the tests, and I was one of them. We were asked to send an email to the company, Unilever, stating that we did not agree with the horrible methods they used to create the product and that if the company did not put a stop to the suffering of the animals we would not only boycott the iced tea product, but we would tell all our friends, family and acquaintances to do the same.

Unilever must have got a bit of a shock because I recently received an email from PETA to say that the company had agreed to stop “all non-required animal testing for their teas and tea-based beverages worldwide”.

Here is the digital letter that Unilever sent out in response:

“Hello from Unilever,

Thank you for your email. We take your views seriously. We are committed to eliminating animal testing. That is why we have been leading our industry and investing€3 million a year for the past 7 years on developing alternative non-animal testing methods. We are actively trying to accelerate the approval of these testing protocols by authorities. In addition, Unilever is committing to no animal testing for our tea and tea-based beverages, with immediate effect (http://unilever.com/sustainability/news/news/default.aspx).

This is in line with the positioning of our tea category as a leader in environmental sustainability and the ethical sourcing of tea. However, there are still several countries where we are still legally required to test the safety of our products as a condition for us being allowed on the market, and in these cases the testing will be provided by third parties. The issue is a complex one and more information is available at:http://unilever.com/sustainability/consumer/testing/?WT.LHNAV=Developing_alternative_approaches_to_animal_testing

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for giving us the opportunity to respond; we hope that the enclosed information is helpful. Let me assure you that your comments are extremely valuable to us and will be shared with those persons responsible for our product development.

Yours sincerely,

External Affairs Department

Unilever PLC
Registered in London number 41424
www.unilever.com”

The animals in question had to endure painful incisions into their intestines, and were force-fed the tea ingredients via tubes down their throats. Some were purposely infected with the E. coli toxin and had their intestines cut open while they were alive. The suffering that these animals had to go through is totally unnecessary and should be shocking to anyone who reads this.

Thankfully there are organisations like PETA out there that are making a difference in the lives of these helpless creatures. In response to Unilever’s call to stop all non-required animal testing PETA wants everyone to thank Lipton for being compassionate. You can do this too by emailing the corporation using the contact form.

I’m very proud to have been a (small) part of the process that caused the end of the animals’ suffering and am so grateful to the volunteers of PETA for being so dedicated and focused. Without groups like this one who knows what kind of horrible things animals would have to endure unquestioned.

Please remember to try be aware of the products you buy; where possible purchase animal-friendly products that you know are not causing animals any harm.

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Posted in Animal-friendly Products, Eco-friendly Products

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Vegan clothes for an animal-friendly wardrobe

December 1st, 2010

People are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their shopping habits. Shopping locally, buying organic and focusing on natural products are all becoming common place. The upshot is that people are paying more attention to the carbon footprint of certain manufacturing processes, like clothes, which lends more credence to arguments against clothes made from animal products.

Aside from the obvious cruelty involved in the leather, fur, wool, down and silk industries, the processes that lead up to the finished product are all carbon heavy, from the land required to house animals to the chemicals used to treat skins, furs and feathers.

There’s also the small matter of cost. Leather, wool, down and silk products cost the earth (in so many ways), whereas their alternatives are much more affordable.

So, how do you shop for an animal- and environmentally-friendly wardrobe?

  • If you like designer labels and brand names, the first thing you should so is check out Peta’s website. Peta has a comprehensive list of animal-friendly designers and brand labels. You may be surprised to know that Nike have vegan or leather alternatives to their shoes, as do Sketchers, Nine West, Timberland, Adidas and Puma.

    Certain designers, the most prominent of whom is Stella McCartney, also embrace animal-friendly principles and don’t use any animal products in their clothing ranges. Leona Lewis, the beautiful UK siren, has expressed interest in creating an animal-friendly clothing line. Emma Watson (most famous for growing up in the public eye as Hermione in the Harry Potter movies), has joined forces with People Tree to create an ethical and animal-friendly clothing range.

  • Shop online. There are a number of vegan clothing producers online, all you have to do is Google them. For example, there are TheVegetarianSite.com, The Vegan Store, Vegan Shoes, Moo Shoes, Matt & Nat, and feelgoodhandbags.
  • Read the labels. Don’t buy anything wool, leather, silk, fur or down. Instead of leather, look for labels that contain manmade leather, all-manmade materials, pleather, or synthetic material. Instead of wool, Peta recommends polyester fleece, acrylic, and cotton flannel. Replace silk with nylon, polyester, rayon, Tencel, milkweed seed pod fibers, and silk-cotton tree and ceiba tree filaments, while synthetic down, down alternative, polyester fill, and high-tech fabric, Primaloft, are a good alternative to down. Don’t even think of real fur, it’s faux all the way.

  • Care2.com advocates buying at least one cotton garment per season, to fuel changes in the clothing industry; making your own clothes; and buying stylish items that will last and won’t go out of fashion so that you don’t have to needlessly keep buying items.

Most clothing stores cater to animal-friendly shoppers, intentionally or not. Regardless, stocking and maintaining a wardrobe that is animal and environmentally-friendly requires no more effort than a trip down to your local store.

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Animals still being tested on

November 24th, 2010

The cosmetics, household cleaners and even pet food industries are still largely using animals to test their products before sending them to our shelves. Even after all the technological advancements throughout the years, defenseless animals are still being forced into cages and under the knife in the name of “safety” and “science”.

Shortly after PETA was founded in 1981, the group launched the “Silver Spring monkeys” case which resulted in the first ever arrest and criminal conviction of an animal experimenter in the US on charges of cruelty to animals, the first confiscation of abused animals from a laboratory, and the first US Supreme Court victory for animals in laboratories. The case set a precedent but there is still so much to be done to protect innocent animals from abuse at the hands of humans.

If you think that there’s nothing you can do to help stop this injustice, you’re wrong – there are so many small lifestyle changes that you can make to help save these animals. Cruelty-free living means using your purchase-power for good. You can vote with your wallet by choosing not to support brands that test their products on animals.

Here are a few resources to help you along your cruelty-free way:

  • Cruelty-free cosmetics: Hundreds of house-hold and cosmetics companies have signed PETA’s statement of assurance promising that they will not use animals for product testing. Find out which products are cruelty-free.
  • Cruelty-free charities: Many well-known and well-supported charities, such as the American Cancer Society, the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the March of Dimes, and the American Lung Association, fund experiments on animals. There are cruelty-free lots of charities that focus on modern experiments.
  • Cruelty-free companion-animal food: Many popular pet-food manufacturers conduct tests to measure the “metabolic energy” of dog and cat food. Rather check out this product database to find companies that don’t test on animals in labs.
  • Pledge to be cruelty-free: By signing PETA’s pledge you can put pressure on those responsible for animal testing to stop. Join thousands of worldwide consumers who refuse to buy products from corporations that abuse animals.
  • Get involved locally: You can join PETA’s Action Team to get tips on how to help animals in your part of the world.

By making small lifestyle changes you can join the thousands who refuse to support animal abuse. Too many people accept the unacceptable. PETA says that “We must demand change. We are so fortunate to have you as part of our community—together we can end animal experimentation”.

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