Oct 2011 - Video "Why I Am Vegan"

Hiya Friends,  I just found this video on Facebook and it totally explains and represents me and what I stand for.  Let me know what you think?  Lots of luv, xox

http://youtu.be/fKr4HZ7ukSE

Oct 2011 - The Happy Egg Company

Hi Friends, has anyone seen the TV ad's in the UK for The Happy Egg Company?... I get really annoyed by these ad's showing farm animals running around happy and playful.  Recently Tesco's had their ad for sausages banned because it showed pigs strolling down a country lane with a farmer... misrepresentation of how the pigs were really being reared.  The ad was banned because concerned viewers complained to the ASA (Advertising Standards Agency).
I checked the internet this morning about The Happy Egg Company and found the following report on the Viva website:

Spread the word: 'Free Range' eggs Viva! investigates: The Happy Egg Company Contented hens, pecking at the ground and enjoying a dust bathe in the sun - that’s free-range egg production. It is if you believe the TV adverts. A major Viva! investigation into the egg industry shows a very different story – one of disease, incarceration, mutilation, short lives and electric shocks. In one of the most ambitious undercover operations Viva! has ever undertaken, we have laid bare the awful truth of one of the biggest UK consumer deceits. As consumers move away from cruel battery eggs and buy free-range, Viva! discovers that they are still… Unhappy Eggs A Viva! undercover investigation Contented hens, pecking at the ground and enjoying a dust bathe in the sun - that’s free-range egg production. It is if you believe the TV adverts. A major Viva! investigation into the egg industry shows a very different story – one of disease, incarceration, mutilation, short lives and electric shocks. In one of the most ambitious undercover operations Viva! has ever undertaken, we have laid bare the awful truth of one of the biggest UK consumer deceits. Not very Noble Foods You probably haven’t heard of Noble Foods but they are Britain’s biggest egg producer and supply almost every supermarket. They claim to be the ‘progressive’ arm of the egg industry and supply 60 million eggs a week under stores’ own labels or their own Happy Egg label. Noble Foods – and others like them – have taken advantage of consumers’ growing concern for animal welfare and free-range is now big business. With sales around £2bn a year, output now matches that from caged systems because we falsely believe that free-range equals high welfare. The Happy Egg Company’s TV advert feeds that belief, showing hens in sunshine, exploring verdant vegetation and even taking a ride on a farmer’s quad bike. They paint a picture akin to a holiday camp for hens. If the plants we visited are typical, they are more of a death camp. Free-range prisons The irony of free-range egg production is that its success because of ethical concerns has led to increased stocking densities and intensification. Our investigation shows they are nothing short of factory farms. Hens are not placed in the free-range units until they are 18-21 weeks old, during which time they are kept in intensive sheds in their thousands. This conditions them to stay indoors, something which is encouraged because of the ‘hassle’ of collecting eggs from outside. In their first weeks, young birds were shocked into submission by electric wires running along the feeders and drinkers to prevent them from defecating on their food. This is against Freedom Foods guidelines. Sorry, I forgot to say that RSPCA’s Freedom Foods is supposed to monitor these farms. Whilst we saw their guidelines often flouted and ignored, the fact remains that this objectionable system as a whole is rewarded with approval by an organisation set up to stop animal abuse.  Home for these hens are cavernous, industrial sheds with small ‘pop holes’ down the sides. Even when open, many birds are seemingly so traumatised by their first few months of life indoors that they never venture out. Add to this the highly hierarchical nature of hen society, where one bird will not want to cross another’s territory, plus unnatural flock sizes in the thousands and it’s a wonder that any go out at all. Healthy Hens? One shed was infested with red mite, which can cause stress, anaemia and even death. Our footage shows many bald and bedraggled birds and worker confirmed that there are big problems in another shed where hens “peck and kill each other.” We filmed plastic yellow bags full of dead hens being carried away. And this despite birds having the ends of their beaks seared off (beak-trimmed) at a few days old to prevent pecking.  In a world removed from the TV ads, at one site birds had to paddle across stretches of dirty standing water simply to get outside. Some of the so-called ‘enrichment’ elements, which supposedly make life better for the birds, were useless. Dust-bathing pits, for example, were submerged in inches of water in mid-summer. A short life The life of a Happy Hen, it seems, is far from happy – it is also far from long. They are slaughtered at just 72 weeks so once the weeks indoors after hatching are subtracted, they spend barely more than a year in this supposedly free-range system. Hens from one shed were to be slaughtered even younger because they weren’t making enough money. Entire sheds are emptied of hens in one go to make way for the next flock. The final insult for these ‘spent’ layers is a gruelling 214 mile trip to the ironically named Jolly’s slaughterhouse in Lincolnshire. This, sadly, is the reality of large-scale, free-range egg production in Britain. Battery cages and barn systems are, of course, no better which is why we advocate avoiding eggs altogether.

Oct 2011 - Football match weekend away

Hi Friends,  Still recovering from the joys of being away in England (Newcastle upon Tyne) for a football match at the weekend (we didn't win but we drew against Spurs, happy enough!).  Now, travelling can be a bit difficult if you are vegan/veggie or have special dietary requirements.  If I'm going out to eat at home (in Lisburn/Belfast) I will always check ahead by reading menus on websites or phoning ahead to ask if any vegan options are available.  When we're away in Newcastle I usually only eat in a football pub called The Strawberry where we are regulars and they will adapt the menu to make me vegan food.  We ate out one other time at The Shark Club gastro bar... you may have heard of these, it is a Canadian chain... a kind of sports bar... not really my scene as the music was really pumping very loudly... showing my age here! ... but it came highly recommended so we thought it was only fair to give it a chance.  My partner Geordie told the waitress that I was vegan & she was absolutely brilliant, she sat down with us and went through the whole menu to see what she could come up with & then she went to the kitchen to discuss it with the chef.  I ended up with a beautiful starter of vegetable lettuce wraps (not First Date Food... I ended up using knife/ fork as it was a wee bit messy but really tasty) and then a gorgeous Thai vegetable stir fry.
We were staying in one of Jury's hotels, we did a bit of shopping of food for the room.  We went to Holland & Barrett & got soya drinks/ desserts.  Then we found a really good little Sainsbury's, one thing you have to be really careful about shopping in the UK, especially on the mainland is that a lot of food is halal but not labelled as such and being sneaked into food, so I have to be 100% sure that food really really is vegan (I am not anti-Islamic, far from it, but as you may know halal & kosher food means that the animals cannot be stunned before slaughter).  So we got some bread and fruit juice there and we had packed herbal teabags in the suitcase so we were all set!
When drinking in the bars it is important to me to know that what I am drinking is vegan friendly.  If you're not already aware, you might be surprised to know that a lot of animal ingredients are used in the filtration process of some drinks, e.g. fish bladders can be used to make white wine become clearer by attracting the sediment to stick to it!  Bit yucky even if you aren't vegan/veggie!! And Fanta and Lilt contain fish gelatine  :-(    I stuck to WKD Blue, (not too many, believe it or not), diet Coke or soda water & lime.
If you have any other tips about where to shop/eat or where NOT to shop/eat I would love to hear them.
'Bye for now friends,
Lots of love
Fiona
xoxox

First post on new blog

Hi Friends... no-one may ever read these posts but it's nice to put your thoughts down in writing to clarify them!  xox