End of the year party!

Which means we'll be meeting in Ms. Orbuch's room (K3) after finals on Wednesday, June 9- around noon.

We'll get together with the Eco Club and watch No Impact Man and eat organic vegan food from the farmer's market. See you there? Good!

Bakesale recap, new food and JOHN ROBBINS!

First things first.

At our second installment of the Bakesale for Haiti we made $118.36! The money is being sent to Doctors Without Borders for all of their awesome work for human animals worldwide, especially with all of these damn earthquakes. And they sent the club a nice thank you card for the last bakesale, which was awesome. Considering all the rain and such, this is a real accomplishment! Thanks to everyone who baked stuff, and especially those of you who forked out the big bills for our delicious vegan baked goods.

Next. FOOOOOOOOOOD!

Recently I've been craving some comfort food with all of these AP tests, finals, end of the year projects, and all of that shit that must come before graduation. So, upon perusing the aisles of our local New Leaf in Felton I found some amazing new vegan products that I can't live without. And neither can you. I don't even know how you're alive right now.

The first is cookie dough. In a jar. Like that Nestle or Pillsbury shit or whatever kids are eating these days. Except this stuff is vegan, organic, fair-trade, and delicious. Pretty much four of the best things in the world. It says it makes like 14 cookies but it makes like a million awesome midnight snacks. Or breakfast snacks. The best thing about Eat Pastry's line of vegan cookie dough flavors (besides the cute packaging) is the fact that you can shovel this shit into your mouth at record-breaking speed without any fear of getting salmonella from nasty chicken periods. Sorry, I meant eggs. Also, there is of course no cholesterol in this cookie dough. How many brands can claim that? None. SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

The other amazing new thing I found at New Leaf (that I've been asking them to carry for months!) is Daiya cheese. Obviously this stuff doesn't come out of a real cow's tit because that would just be nasty, but IT SURE TASTES LIKE IT. I've seriously had to stop buying this stuff because it tastes so much like the real deal and majorly creeps me out. BUT OH MY GOD does it make one mean grilled cheese! Load up two slices of bread with Earth Balance, throw some cheddar on there and you have one crazy meal that might make you... well, what they do in this video. Just kidding. Maybe. It also comes in mozarella for pizza and that sort of thing. JUST BUY IT. LOTS OF IT. All other cheeses, vegan or not, are totally inferior. Also, did I mention it's soy- and gluten-free? IT IS. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSES!

FINALLY, the other day I was blessed with the presence of John Robbins in my mail box! I wish. Actually, it was a hand-written letter (which is now framed in my room) from his wife, who wanted to let me know that Mr. Robbins will be at Bookshop Santa Cruz THIS MONTH! The 27th to be exact! But who is John Robbins, you ask? Who are you who doesn't know who he is, I ask! Mr. Robbins was the son of the co-founder of that horrible ice cream chain that profits off of the rape and torture of our bovine friends. However, (and this is where the story gets good!) he turned down the huge fortune his dad left behind and went on to change the world with his amazing books, including the famed Diet For A New America. He's also featured in Super Size Me and travels all over making people cry. Seriously. I saw him speak at VegFest in San Francisco last year and the whole room was bawling after his speech. So what I am I telling you to do? I'm telling you to go to this! And bring your money because he has a NEW BOOK. Email me to carpool. Beauabroughton (at) gmail (dot) com. I expect an email from every single one of you!

More information:

JOHN ROBBINS @ BOOKSHOP SANTA CRUZ

May 27 @ 7:30 pm

"Please help us

welcome back Santa’s Cruz’s own internationally best selling author (Diet
for a New America) John Robbins for his newest title.
The
New Good Life provides a philosophical and prescriptive path from
conspicuous consumption to conscious consumption. Where the old view of
success was measured by cash, stocks, and various luxuries, the new view
will be guided by financial restraint and a new awareness of what truly
matters. A passionate manifesto on finding meaning beyond money and
status, this book delivers a sound blueprint for living well on less. In
a spiritual but authoritative voice, Robbins lets readers in on healthy
tips, whether it’s detailing how to create your own definition of
success based on your deepest beliefs and life experience, to lowering
blood pressure with inexpensive alternatives. The New Good Life
provides much-needed hope and comfort in a time of fear and uncertainty.
Here is everything you need to develop high-joy, low-cost solutions to
life's challenges. Practical and timely, this book equips you with the
skills needed not only to survive but to thrive in these challenging
times.

Please

join us for what is sure to be an insightful and noteworthy evening as
John Robbins discusses & reads from his new title. (There will also
be an audience Q&A)."

Recap of PETA's VP at UCSC!

The following is a post written by SLVARC co-founder Jasmin Valdez, who attended a recent debate at UC Santa Cruz: "Is eating meat ethical?" with Bruce Friedrich, VP of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

Once I heard the vice-president of PETA was coming to town to speak about the ethics of eating meat, I jumped on the opportunity to hear a celebrity in the animal rights world speak and share his beliefs. Lucky me, I got my dad to go with me (gnarly carnivore) hoping he would actually listen and learn a thing or two. To my surprise he did! I thought the location of the debate (UCSC) was an ideal spot to host this event because I knew a lot of open-minded college students would attend and hopefully share their thoughts about vegetarianism with their friends. You know, basically spread the word. I was happy to see the room was full of a diverse crowd of people of all ages. Bruce Friedrich spoke against the UCSC Ethics Bowl Team. He really showed them what they weren’t prepared for. I'm not dissing them- they were good speakers and all, but basically Bruce is the pro. I learned that not only is consuming meat bad for animals and the environment (may I mention that it is the number 1 cause of global warming!) but also causes poverty. The grains and crops that are grown in other countries for people are given to cows and other animals, who are all slaughtered in the end. Therefore, this unfortunately causes starvation. If you would like to hear the debate for yourself, see the video below!

Event!

From the Facebook page:

Is eating meat ethical?

Come listen as PETA vice president Bruce Friedrich faces off against members of the UCSC Ethics Bowl Team on this very question!

Bruce Friedrich is vice president of policy for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the world's largest animal rights organization. He has debated meat, fur, and animal-experimentation industry representatives on countless television and radio programs, including NBC's Today show as well as various programs on CNN, the Fox News Channel, MSNBC, and Court TV. He is a frequent contributor to HuffingtonPost.com, and coauthored a book about activism, the widely praised Animal Activist's Handbook (www.animaladvocacybook.com). He also produced the influential PETA film "Meet Your Meat", which is narrated by Alec Baldwin and was viewed more than 1 million times last year alone.

Ethics Bowl is a team-debate style competition. It is an event designed to develop and demonstrate students' capacity for ethical analysis and judgment.

Student teams analyze case studies that demonstrate ethical dilemmas drawn from a wide range or areas (environmental ethics, biomedical ethics, business ethics, institutional ethics, personal ethics, etc.) This analysis enables students to determine a morally defensible resolution to the dilemmas, a resolution that they defend before a panel of judges and a competing team.

This event is co-hosted by peta2 and Banana Slugs for Animals.

A second installment is coming...

...of the crazy, fun, succesful bakesale for earthquake relief! And it's gonna be better than ever because YOU are going to make wonderful vegan desserts and get all of your friends to drop dough. Right? RIGHT! Also, how can you possibly ignore this amazing poster? YOU CAN'T!

Here are some of my favorite vegan baking cookbooks (bakingbooks?):

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

The Joy of Vegan Baking

Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar

but there are like a million recipes, including tons online. Check out http://vegweb.com/ & http://theppk.com/

Why yes...

Why yes, that would be US, featured on the Vegansaurus blog. Which means we're kind of a BIG DEAL!

Thanks, hilarious fools from the bay.

Bakesale SUCCESS!

That's right, bitches, a SUCCESS! When you have so many baked goods that you can't even fit them on one table and you run out of plates to serve stuff on, you know you've done something right. Oh, and we also made $233.56, by the way. Just thought you might want to know. TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY THREE dollars!

Thanks to everyone who baked up delish vegan baked goods and to everyone who forked over some cash to stuff their faces with cruelty-free awesomeness. This will definitely be happening again.

$2 3 3 ! ! ! ! For Haiti!!!!!!!

Thanks thanks thanks thanks thanks!

Plus, how sexy is that epic cookie-serving face that I have on in the back right corner? (Thanks for the awesome pics, Shelley.)