NEWSVEGANISM & VEGETARIANISM

In honor of the Royal Wedding on April 29th, British department store Fortnum & Mason is selling numerous foodstuffs, not to mention Royal Wedding Commemorative China. I'm all for Will & Kate plates, but the store still doesn't get my royal stamp of approval: Fortnum & Mason continues to sell several varieties of foie gras.

Foie gras isn't a dish fit for a Prince: In 2008, Prince Charles banned foie gras from all Royal Menus, because he objects to the cruel way that foie gras is produced. In order to create the fatty liver appetizer, ducks and geese are systematically force-fed using metal feeding tubes. This feeding process can result in liver disease, and the feeding tubes can tear holes in the birds' throats.

Foie gras production is illegal in the U.K., but the pâté is imported from France and sold across Britain. It will likely not be served at the Royal Wedding, but that hasn't stopped Marco Pierre White, a British celebrity chef, from suggesting that Brits dine on foie gras in celebration of the day. White says he will watch the televised matrimonial event with "some foie gras on hand and a tear in [his] eye."

In last week's finale episode of Top Chef All-Stars, Richard Blais beat out Mike Isabella for the title. Blais won with an array of dead animals: from raw oyster to veal, from pork belly to beef short rib.

As a vegan, there isn't a thing I'd eat from that meal, but what really got my goat was Richard’s dessert. Blais whipped up a foie gras ice cream for the finale.  A blogger for Time magazine said that the dish "looked like cat food — at some point after the cat had eaten it."

I'm disgusted over the dish, and not because of its cat food-like consistency. Nothing makes me madder than when someone ruins dessert with animal cruelty.

In 2004, Donna Karan told New York Magazine: "We are all one. I’m a traveler. I’m an explorer. I live nowhere. I live on my [yoga] mat.” In the same article, Karan said she "can see why people become vegans," and condemned those who use alligator skin to make handbags. Given these past statements, it's unclear how Donna Karan now justifies her use of rabbit fur in her 2011 clothing designs.

These inconsistencies have led PETA to call Karan a "New Age Hypocrite," warning the designer that skinning rabbits brings bad karma. Now PETA has enlisted the help of B.K.S. Iyengar, one of the world's first yoga instructors, to get Karan to give up the fur habit. B.K.S. Iyengar isn't someone Donna Karan can easily ignore; she is an Iyengar yoga devotee.

In a letter, the ninety-two-year-old yoga master asked Donna Karan to stop using "furs, which are violently removed from the living animals, so that those animals which have the right to live, live in peace." Iyengar's letter to Karan continues: "As a yoga practitioner, may I request you, on behalf of myself and my friends from PETA India, to take a stand against using the fur of animals that is removed by the cruelest killing methods."

Ah, the annual Vogue Shape issue. The time of the year when your mailbox is stuffed with a 332-page magazine to remind you it's time to start transforming "your sweater body to a swimsuit one."

But this year I might actually listen to the fashion mag's weight-loss tips, as Vogue consulted three vegan experts for their 10th annual Shape issue: health coach Latham Thomas, author Kathy Freston, and exercise physiologist Marco Borges.

Kathy Freston, author of The Veganist, had pretty simple weight-loss advice: "Go vegan!" Freston explains why a compassionate diet might help you lose weight: “Vegan food has a high thermic effect (calories burned as body heat during digestion), which amps up your metabolism.” She also advises to stay away from junk food, since chips and cookies can be vegan. Rats.

Fitness for Women, a British magazine, just launched its second issue, but animal lovers should leave this one on the newsstand. On page 13 of the April issue, the fitness rag has published an article called "Vitamin D High." The misguided blurb states that meat eaters have higher intake of vitamin D and calcium, and concludes that meat plays an important role in a healthy diet. The article states that eaters need meat for protein, iron and zinc, as well as B vitamins not present in plants.

Any sage vegetarian can tell you that those vitamins and nutrients can be easily obtained in a meat-free diet, leaving out the saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal cruelty. But the real kicker is that Fitness for Women provided a link to meatandhealth.com, a website "published on behalf of promotional red meat industry bodies." It is published by the biggest factory farming organizations in Britain.

Oceania Cruises has recently debuted a new ship, the Marina, in their four ship fleet. The line's 1,250-passenger Marina is basically the horror movie version of Noah's Ark, as nearly every animal in existence is served onboard. The ship's extensive menu includes: beef, veal, lamb, roast chicken, free-range pork, frog legs, lobster, crabs, and many species of fish.

But what's really got my goat is the cruise line's insistence on serving several dishes that include duck foie gras. The cruel production methods of foie gras are well documented, and I'm dismayed that the cruise chefs would serve it.

What do lazy vegans eat? We can't exactly hit the drive-thru. So when I felt slothful last night, I simply boiled water and threw in a package of butternut squash ravioli made by Rising Moon Organics. The pasta company is completely vegetarian, and largely vegan. The ravioli caught my eye in the grocery store because the package was stamped "Vegan Certified," and their website reassured me: "No animals even came near this creamy creation."

The pasta business as a whole is getting kinder to animals. You may have already read on the Sustainable Food blog that Barilla, the world’s largest pasta making company, announced that it is switching 45 percent of its eggs to cage-free by the end of 2011.

Barilla's decision is an important move for animal welfare. Battery cages are still the most common form of egg production in the United States, with U.S. factory farms confining about 280 million hens in cages so small they can't even spread their wings. According to the the Humane Society of the United States, cage-free hens have about two to three times more space per bird than caged hens.

Good news to all the mighty ducks in Canada: Montreal chef Martin Picard will no longer be serving foie gras at the Feburary 4th Winterlude dinner. In fact, Chef Picard won't be serving dinner at all, having chickened out from the "culinary event of the year" after he was asked by Winterlude organizers to cook without his signature foie gras poutine.

Tickets went for $125 a pop for the event to be held at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and organizers were worried the opening gala would be marred by animal rights protests. Well, there's certainly nothing civilized about devouring the liver of force-fed ducks and geese, but when Chef Picard was asked to change his menu, he quit in a huff.

To be fair, Winterlude organizers knew that Picard would be serving foie gras when they hired him, as his restaurants reportedly serve more foie gras than any other dining room in North America. What they didn't anticipate was the outcry from animal activists, many of whom showed up to protest a December 14th Winterlude news conference. 

As I anxiously await this year's Oscar Nominations (fingers crossed for Natalie Portman and her vegan ballet shoes), I'm glad I have the Libby Awards to tide me over. PETA2, the youth branch of PETA, held the Libby awards ("Libby" stands for "liberation") to celebrate animal-friendly people and companies.

I'm in absolute shock that vegan-darling Lea Michele lost to Christofer Drew (who?) for Favorite Animal-Friendly Celebrity, but otherwise I'm happy with the results. The amazing vegan coat designer Vaute Couture won for Best Clothing Company, Urban Decay eyeliner won Best Vegan Cosmetic, and Vegan Treats won for Best Vegan Bakery.

Chipotle took home the award for most vegan-friendly restaurant chain, in part due to their partnership with meatless company Gardein. Chipotle just introduced their Chick'n Sandwich, made using Gardein's fake meat products. The sandwich is currently only available in New York, D.C. and Los Angeles, but hopefully it will soon be added to the menu at all of the chain's 1,000 locations.