What’s the best part about Sweet & Sarah’s Easter marshmallows in the shapes of chicks, bunnies, and eggs? There no boiled cow or horse hooves, tendons or cartilage in them! Don’t get me wrong – I love how cute Peeps are as much as the next guy, but there’s something as sinister and creepy as a Zombie-Jesus about disguising nasty slaughterhouse-scraps as yummy candy for kids. Thanks to Sweet & Sarah your celebration of Easter doesn’t have to support factory farming.
Also, don’t forget to include some vegan Cadbury-style ‘cream’-filled eggs from the Chocolate Wendy House.
• GQ’s Spring Must-Haves include a vegan new-wave boat shoe from Sperry Topsiders (without those leather laces, finally), fancy pocket squares of every pattern and color, bright and bold striped ties and straw fedoras.
When searching for a striped tie that isn’t made from hundreds of worms who are boiled alive, we suggest hitting up your local thrift or vintage store which typically have piles of ties or our favorite vegan tie company, Jaanj.com. As for straw fedoras, that one thing we love about spring. You can avoid the wool hats and go with a 100% plant-based straw hat. LiViTY makes recycled, hemp, organic, and fair trade fedoras in some bold patters and classic shapes, and Engineered Garments makes an organic linen boater cap. We suggest keeping a lid on it and sticking to classics like these:
The Hill-Side offers some selvedge Pocket Squares that we find quite fetching:
• I’ll be as happy as the next guy to see SeaWorld go under. The next guy is our pal Gary Smith, and he’s written an article on SeaWorld and the exploitation of dolphins and whales that flooded the enterprise with a 1.4 billion profit last year. In the article over at Elephant Journal. Ric O’Barry, who was featured in the Oscar-nominated documentary film “The Cove” and serves as the marine mammal specialist for Earth Island Institute, shares some thoughts with Gary on the recent killer whale tragedy. If you needed to be convinced that captive seas mammals are unhappy, this will do it!
“Orcas are the most social animal on the planet, even more so than us,” said O’Barry. “Males will stay with their mothers their entire lives. When we capture an animal like Tilikum, we take him away from the two most important things of his life; the world of sound and family. We put them in a concrete box and expect him to stay mentally healthy. It simply doesn’t work.” - Rick O’Barry, Marine Mammal Specialist EII
• Is Discovery’s Planet Green FINALLY getting the meat/global warming connection? Or not. The promos for Emeril’s Green(washed) Kitchen still lists “beef” as a major ingredient, but I got a recipe for vegan chocolate mousse in my inbox this morning, and they have a vegan section. Strangely, their new showFuture Food: Gastronomic Geniuses seems like a bunch of dudes playing with their meat. The video showcases these “geniuses” shooting bratwurst with paint-balls, and trying to figure out the tastiest way to serve this meat up in mad-science ways. The maddest science is showcasing meat on a self-proclaimed “green” network when it’s the #1 cause of global warming! Hey Discovery, WTF!?
• Rock It Out: A Night to Benefit New York’s Farm Animal Sanctuaries
Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary
This benefit will feature live musical performances, a scrumptious vegan bake sale, and an awesome raffle all to benefit farm animals at Farm Sanctuary and the Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary! Check out what these sanctuaries do to save animals like Billy, who was taken in after almost being killed by a sledgehammer at a dairy farm just a few weeks ago:
Saturday, March 6, 2010 from 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Location: Reidy Hall at All Souls Church, 1157 Lexington Ave @ 80th St, Basement Level
$10 pre-sale, $15 at the door (cash only)
Pre-sale tickets can be purchased at: https://www.mycommunitytickets.com/event_info.asp?eventid=26496
• Did society create monstrous people, or do a collective of monstrous people create civilization? This was the topic of last week’s Hardcore History, and we suggest you listen. Totally mind-bending! Could widespread child abuse and bad parenting in earlier eras explain some of history’s brutality? We think so.
• Learn to Lobby for Animals with the HSUS. We are only a few weeks away from the 2010 New York State Humane Lobby Day on Wed, March 24th in Albany. Join fellow activists to help pass legislation to crack down on animal fighters, stop puppy mills, end canned shoots of captive exotic wildlife, and protect farm animals from cruel treatment. To RSVP and get more info, click HERE.
• Jessica Reid asks GGA readers if a No Kill Nation is possible when it comes to dog shelters. There’s always a fierce discussion on the GGA comment-board, so have you say!
“The truth is you cannot blame having to kill shelter animals on an “irresponsible public” or “too many animals” when a shelter doesn’t implement lifesaving and low cost programs. I personally witnessed missed opportunity after missed opportunity from alienating potential fosters to terrible customer service to rude behavior toward rescue groups. I heard the same stories from other volunteers. These were not isolated cases. These were failures of management and staff to do what they should be doing: saving lives.”
Often we hear about how “well managed” and “humane” regulated fur farms are in Europe. People make statements like, “it’s not in our economic interest to mistreat the animals”. Personally, I don’t believe that unhappy animals make bad fur any more than unhappy chickens make bad eggs. What’s worse, fur industry propaganda websites like furisgreen.com claim that the undercover documentation that animals rights activists risk their safety filming is staged in order to reap the millions of dollars in fund-raising profits that animal advocacy organizations “rake in” so that their staffs can lead lives of luxury (as if the fur industry itself weren’t money-driven). I tend to believe the motives of compassion-based non-profit organizations over the motives of for-profit businesses. The EFBA (European Fur Breeders Association) recently released a ridiculous video that is borderline comical. “Openness and transparency are our key words!”, the website yells with an exclamation-point. Goofy rock music plays as we see cute furry baby animals and people relaxing among the rows and rows of cages. At the end, we see images of young teens hugging some animal, and then suddenly, cut to: fur on the runway. Never once do they address how the fur goes from the back of the animal to the back of the runway model. Is killing even involved? Or does the fur magically and joyfully leap off of the animal and onto a runway after each animal gets hugged by kids? Try not to sway to and fro:
Oikeutta Eläimille and Animal Defenders International jointly released a new investigation on Finnish fur farm. The investigators went to 30 different fur farms in the summer and autumn of 2009. They recorded cruel neglect of animals and living conditions with no stimuli where caged animals displayed signs of extreme stress and anxiety. In Finland approximately three million animals are killed annually because of their fur at these farms. Sweden, Denmark, Great Britain, Holland, Switzerland and Croatia have either totally or partially banned fur farming by law.
What about Finland? It’s now time that the largest exporter of fox pelts and one of the largest fur producers in Europe come clean. It’s time to shut down the Finnish fur farming industry. Look at the videos and pictures of the investigation and demand for the ban! Take a look also at Animal Defenders International’s Fur Stop -site.
Grasp your pearls, for the future of the luxury market is at risk! We saw this video over at EcoStiletto (a special that appeared on The Luxury Channel) and were both intrigued and sort of disgusted by these luxury brands who are finally realizing that their own futures are at risk if the resource-tap they call Earth dries up. With their own mortality in sight, the main question this video raises is, “Does looking and acting rich conflict with sustainability?” Hello? Does a bear shit in the woods?
Let’s get over the noble idea that these brands actually care about the Earth, right now. It’s like the classic case where a Hollywood mega-star get’s a disease and then suddenly they’re the biggest advocate for finding a cure. They are simply trying to save their own existence, which is not the worst thing. Often it can help, but in the case of an entire market, that means certain sacred cows can not be questioned. Like what? Poverty. Caste and class systems. Money. Materialism. Greed. Hierarchical power structures. Resource access. Viewing the planet as a stockpile of resources. Anthropocentrism. The list goes on.
One glaring issue is that companies like Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Alexander MQueen, and others that rule the world of luxury, who perpetuate images of desirable and unattainable lifestyles, are all addicted to leather, fur, cashmere, wool, and other animal products. We also know that raising livestock is the single greatest ecological threat that exists. So, until these brands covert all their products to be vegan (which is possible), it’s all greenwashing and very difficult to take them seriously. Even Stella McCartney, who uses no fur or leather, still uses plenty of wool and cashmere. Once again, when talking about environment and sustainability, the livestock industry was completely brushed over and left out, although it is the single greatest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
If we leave it up to luxury brands to define the mainstream understanding of environmentalism, of course extracting things from nature and turning them into expensive products (and the social and political atmosphere maintaining their position to do those things) will not be questioned in itself. If we let luxury brands use their powerful positions to create the mainstream discourse on sustainability, it’s like letting a drug addict head up the ATF.
I was astounded to hear the list of luxury brands who helped create the documentary “Home” by Yann Arthus Bertrand. Do they not see how drastically they need to change everything about themselves? If the current definition of sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without undermining the ability of future generations to meet their needs” then I wonder whether these brands could ever be capable of accommodating such an aspiration as that?
According to the video, the “I am not a plastic bag” phenomenon reduced plastic bag consumption in England, but is it simply an accessory of mass distraction as The Observer’s George Monibiot suggests? My fear is that greenwashing will prevail, not unlike the Canadian Fur Council’s “Fur is Green” and Diesel’s “Global Warming Ready” campaigns, and they will attempt to capitalize on the market value of “green” as opposed to actually changing industry practices from labor and environmental impact to animal welfare.
Heritage is what is at risk for luxury brands. Changing the factories, formulas, and ingredients of their products changes who they are at the core, which is a huge and uncertain undertaking. But if done thoroughly, honestly, and openly, it’s more than an opportunity. It’s common sense. It’s not biting off the hand that feeds them. It’s realizing that there is only one Planet Earth, yet many of us live in a way that requires three Earths to sustain the status quo.
What do you think? Can luxury brands change their ways? Or is the very nature of luxury in conflict with sustainability?
• We have green souls, right? Rachel Comey is back with more Vegan Spillers. This time, the cap-toe oxfords are in a beige canvas upper with a green sole. $208 at Steve Alan
• Planet Green weighs in on, the horror!!! - living without your Blackberry. “I was like Gollum in the Lord of the Rings, devoted to fondling My Precioussssss.”
• SUNDANCE FUR FESTIVAL : Heartless or Stupid? We know it’s hard for celebs to express how rich they are, but you’d think the creators of the The Green would have an anti-fur policy at their festival. Sundance has become known for it’s unhealthy association with fur-drenched celebs strutting around like idiots, literally. I mean you either have to not know how it’s made, or not have a heart. Usually the ladies are taking heat for wearing fur, but check out these images of some less-than-men I’d like to sic Mac Danzig on: Ashton Kutcher, Wesley Snipes, Nick Cannon, and Nick Hogan, all from the Sundance Film Festival in 2010. Find out what you can to help end this archaic industry.
• Six Reasons for Dudes to Hit on Etsy
1. Shoot dirt dead with gun soap scented with black tea! Practice your best Dirty Harry while scrubbing your hairy-dirty areas. vegan glycerin soap base and scented with black tea. $8.50
2. Yes, it’s OK to embrace the murse. But call it a portfolio and you’ll sound so much manlier. UNI-LAP portfolio case, vinyl $125
3.Find great one-of-a-kind vintagelike this Vintage Tan Faux-Suede Jacket $40
4. Don’t Hurt the Bean Curd! Clever and/or offensive Organic cotton items like Tofu Never Screams and Small Hanging Wang Underwear! Also Skeletons and wings always make gentlemen happy.
5. Find rebellious ties and bow-ties from Toybreaker. Silk-like microfiber and nontoxic water-based inks, $10- $40
6. Stinky Bomb Lip Balm! Place some explosive kisses on your lover: candelilla wax, coconut oil and sweet almond oil, 5$
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Also, don’t forget to include some vegan Cadbury-style ‘cream’-filled eggs from the Chocolate Wendy House.
• Did society create monstrous people, or do a collective of monstrous people create civilization? This was the topic of 
