Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

Hello beautiful people! 

IF – AS GANDHI SAYS – ‘COMPASSION IS A 

MUSCLE THAT GETS STRONGER WITH USE’, 

IS JUST BEING VEGAN ENOUGH? I’ll be honest, 

some of the nicest people I’ve ever met have been 

vegan and some of the meanest people I’ve ever 

met have also been vegan too. I strongly believe 

that if we truly want to promote radical change in 

this world, then we need to exercise our 

compassion muscles in all areas of our lives – not 

just in promoting veganism. And so the theme 

for this issue is compassion – and that’s a 

wonderful theme to start the New Year with, 

don’t you think? As usual we’ve got lots of beautiful and inspiring content to help us identify 

areas in our lives where compassion plays its part. Founder of Free From Harm and author 

of the new book ‘Farm to Fable’, Robert Grillo is our front cover interview and he gives us a 

fascinating insight into the marketing strategies of the animal agriculture industries; how 

fact is mixed with fiction to make myths our reality and it’s the animals that suffer. We 

meet the super cool Jez Haur from Hipster Veggie to discuss compassion for self and how to 

promote veganism in our communities; author Sarah Withrow King explains how caring for 

animals can help shape our faith in God, and Dr. Casey Taft shares his thoughts regarding 

oppressive behaviours in the vegan anti-natalist movement. We’ve also got some delicious 

recipes from leading vegan children’s book author Ruby Roth, from her new book ‘The Help 

Yourself Cookbook for Kids’, a few favourites from ‘Homestyle Vegan’ by Amber St. Peter 

that will take you back to the taste of home, and we caught up with Tess Masters (a.k.a The 

Blender Girl) to get her top tips for setting health goals for the New Year and her favourite 

recipes from her new book: ‘The Perfect Blend’. Plus there’s so much more! As vegans we 

already seek to live a life reflective of our values of kindness and compassion. So I’ll leave 

you with this thought… What other ways are there that we can turn this compassion into 

action to help bring more love and justice into the world in 2017? 

With love, 

Emma Letessier

Regular Contributors... 

Anneka Svenska is the founder of 

‘Green World Television’ & ‘Angels for 

the Innocent Foundation’. To view 

some of the Green World TV Films 

Anneka has released please click here . 

You can also visit her website & connect 

with her on Facebook & Twitter. 

Valerie McGowan is the Director of the 

Vegan Society of Humboldt & studied 

Holistic Nutrition . She writes about 

intersectional veganism & how Christian 

teachings support a vegan lifestyle. You 

can read Valerie’s writing at her website 

& connect with her on Facebook. 

Katrina Fox is an award-winning 

journalist, media and PR consultant, 

founder of the content and events 

platform Vegan Business Media and 

host of Vegan Business Talk podcast. 

Visit her website & connect with her on 

Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. 

Julia Feliz Brueck is an illustrator & 

runs a vegan craftivist page, where she 

posts about cruelty-free craft. She holds 

two diplomas in illustration, as well as 

undergraduate & graduate degrees in 

marine science & conservation ecology. 

Connect with her on Facebook. 

Linda Monahan is an ethical vegan, 

writer, poet, priestess & flower 

essence practitioner. You can find out 

more about Linda’s work by visiting her 

website.

Clare Mann is a psychologist, bestselling 

author & animal advocate. She 

provides skills training to help vegans 

& animal advocates communicate 

more effectively. Visit her website & 

connect with her via Facebook & 

Twitter. 

January/February 2017 

Barefoot Vegan Magazine 

www.BarefootVegan.com 

Honey Morris is the creator of 

Veggie Yum Yums, a friendly vegan 

Facebook page, & she’s also the 

Assistant Online Editor of Barefoot 

Vegan. Click here to visit her 

website. 

Editor 

Emma Letessier 

editor@barefootvegan.com 

Advertising enquiries 

advertising@barefootvegan.com 

Tom Leslie is a lover of endurance 

sport, especially running and cycling. 

A key reason for opting for the vegan 

lifestyle was his love for animals and 

his desire for all creatures to be free 

from harm and exploitation. 

Got a story idea? 

Click here to find out 

about writing for 

Barefoot Vegan... 

Design 

Emma Letessier 

‘Barefoot Vegan’ is a trade mark of Letessier 

Communications Ltd. 

ISSN 2058-9840 

© 2017 Letessier Communications Ltd. All 

rights reserved. 

While every effort has been made to ensure that 

information is correct at the time of publication, the 

authors and publisher cannot be held responsible 

for the outcome of any action or decision based on 

the information contained in this publication. 

The publishers or authors do not give any warranty 

for the completeness or accuracy for this 

publication’s content, explanation or opinion. 

This magazine is not intended as a substitute for the 

medical advice of physicians. The reader should 

regularly consult a physician in matters relating to 

his/her health and particularly with respect to any 

symptoms that may require diagnosis or medical 

attention. 

No part of this publication may be reproduced or 

transmitted in any form without prior written 

permission of the publisher. Permission is only 

deemed valid if approval is in writing. 

All images used have been sourced via Shutterstock, 

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editorial context have been credited.

Curbside 

Compassion 

78 

CONTENTS 

MIND, BODY, SPIRIT 

8 The Help Yourself Cookbook for Kids 

Recipes from author Ruby Roth’s latest book 

17 Homestyle Vegan 

Amber St. Peter shares vegan recipes that capture 

that taste of home 

24 The Perfect Blend 

Tess Masters shares her tips for setting New Year 

health goals plus recipes from her new book 

36 Veganism is Compassion 

Stacey Cook shares why she believes the two are 

inextricably linked 

40 Hipster Veggie 

We meet London YouTuber Jez Haur to discuss 

compassion for self & inspiring your community 

46 Compassion Fatigue 

Author Jennifer Blough on how to cope with burn out 

when caring for others 

50 Confessions of a Vegan Heretic 

With Valerie McGowan 

54 Faith and Compassion 

A Christian take on what it means to live 

compassionately 

FRONT COVER 

58 

Robert Grillo: We spoke with author, 

founder and director of Free From 

Harm, Robert Grillo, on some of the 

myths that prevent us from living 

compassionately.

54 

102 

17 

66 Compassion Over Cruelty 

A film to challenge what we know about cruelty-free cosmetics 

ANIMALS 

72 Vegangelical 

Author Sarah Withrow King on how caring for animals can 

shape our faith 

78 Curbside Compassion 

Linda Monahan on our attitude to animals killed on roads 

82 Compassion for Animals Through Veganism 

With Tom Leslie 

SOCIAL JUSTICE 

88 Why Compassion is Essential to Social Justice 

With Katrina Fox 

96 Anti-Natalism is Bad for Veganism 

Dr. Casey Taft shares his thoughts on oppressive behaviours 

in the vegan anti-natalists movement 

102 Craft as Activism 

Author and illustrator, Julia Feliz Brueck on creative ways to 

speak up for animals 

104 Compassionate Crafting 

96 

Honey Morris shares her love of crafting and how to ensure it 

remains vegan-friendly

“Your kiddos, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, and students 

are going to go bananas for this book! It's also the perfect 

gift for adults who are "too busy" to eat healthy. There's no 

easier cookbook, ha!” - Ruby Roth 

BAREFOOTVegan | 8

Struggling to get your kids to eat their 

fruits and vegetables? Try letting them 

help themselves! 

Ruby Roth is the world's leading author and illustrator of 

vegan and vegetarian books for kids and her latest 

offering is the gorgeously illustrated Help Yourself 

Cookbook for Kids. 

Experts tell us the best way to teach kids healthy eating 

habits is to involve them in the process. This irresistible 

cookbook presents 60 appealing recipes kids will beg to 

make themselves, in fun and charming illustrations they 

will love. Bursting with colour, humour, cute animal 

characters, and cool facts (did you know your brain 

actually shrinks when you're dehydrated? Drink water, 

quick!), Help Yourself empowers children to take charge 

of their own nutrition - for now and for life! 

Ruby has shared three of her favourite recipes with us 

from the book. So what are you waiting for? Get those 

kiddies busy in the kitchen! 

Click on the cover image above to 

buy your copy. 








Homestyle 

VEGAN 

Amber St. Peter is known for her delicious and 

approachable recipes that inspire the vegan community 

to cook at home more often. 

In her latest book, Homestyle Vegan, you’ll have 

access to creative vegan remakes of old favourites. 

There’s 80 incredible recipes―each paired with a 

beautiful photo―this book will have everyone 

round your dinner table begging for more. You’ll 

be cooking healthier dishes that remind you of 

home in no time. 

Amber has very generously shared three of her 

favourite recipes from the book with us. Enjoy! 

To get your copy of this 

delightful cookbook, just 

click on the cover image. 


Baked Butternut Squash 

Mac ‘N’ Cheese 

My mum made a mean baked mac ‘n’ cheese when I was a kid. Cheesy, ooey-gooey and covered in 

crispy bread crumbs—it was one of my favourite meals! This butternut squash version blends the 

sweet and savory flavours of winter squash into a cheesy sauce to make a meal that’ll totally take 

you back to childhood. I covered mine in bread crumbs, too. Mum would be proud! 

INGREDIENTS: 

SERVES 6 TO 8 

6 cups (840 g) peeled and cubed butternut squash (1" [2.5 cm] cubes) 

1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil 

Salt and pepper 

1 lb (454 g) elbow noodles 

1 ½ cups (360 ml) unsweetened almond milk 

2/3 cup (80 g) nutritional yeast 

3 tbsp (45 ml) lemon juice 

1 tbsp (14 g) Dijon mustard 

1 clove garlic 

½ tsp turmeric 

1/3 cup (50 g) bread crumbs 

Fresh parsley, for garnish 

TIP 

Creamier mac 

more your style? 

Skip the baking! 

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (205ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Spread the cubed squash onto the baking sheet. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake 

for about 30 minutes, flipping halfway through, until fork-tender. Keep the oven on. 

While the squash roasts, bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Pour in the elbow noodles and a pinch of salt and 

bring back to a boil. Cook for 6 to 10 minutes, until al dente. Strain and set aside. 

When the squash is ready, pour it into a high-speed blender or food processor along with the almond milk, 

nutritional yeast, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic, turmeric and 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Blend until 

smooth, then pour the mixture over the cooked noodles and stir to combine. 

Pour the mixture into a 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33-cm) baking dish, top with the bread crumbs and bake for about 15 

minutes, or until the mixture is bubbling and golden. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh parsley! 




Vegetable 

Pot Pie 

Pot pies stuffed with seasonal vegetables are the best. Easy to make and even easier to eat up, they 

come together quickly and have plenty of room for experimentation. This healthier, meat-free 

version topped with a buttery crust has become a go-to weeknight dinner in our house! 

SERVES 6 

Filling 

1 tbsp (15 ml) olive oil 

2 cloves garlic, minced 

1 cup (150 g) chopped yellow onion 

3 cups (475 g) frozen mixed green beans, carrots, corn 

and peas (or sub fresh!) 

1 cup (225 g) cubed red potatoes ( ½ " [1.3 cm] cubes) 

½ cup (63 g) all-purpose flour 

2 cups (480 ml) vegetable broth 

2 bay leaves 

1 tsp salt 

½ tsp pepper 

1 tbsp (15 g) vegan butter, melted 

Crust 

2 ¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour 

1 tbsp (15 g) sugar 

1 tsp salt 

½ cup (115 g) cold vegan butter or coconut oil 

1/3 to ½ cup (80 to 120 ml) ice water 

Preheat the oven to 400ºF (205ºC). Grease an 8 x 8-inch (20 x 20-cm) square baking dish. 

Prepare the crust by combining the flour, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl. Cut in the cold butter with a pastry 

cutter or fork until small crumbs form. Drizzle in the ice water, using a wooden spoon to stir the mixture together until 

a dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and stick it in the fridge to chill. 

To prepare the filling, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and onion and sauté until 

soft, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the mixed vegetables and potatoes and stir to combine. Next, add in the flour and stir to coat 

the vegetables. Then, whisk in the vegetable broth. Finally, add the bay leaves, salt and pepper and simmer the mixture 

until thickened, about 10 minutes. 

While the mixture thickens, remove the crust from the fridge and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Split the 

dough into two halves. Roll them out to about ¼ -inch (6-mm) thickness, and press one half of the dough into the 

greased baking dish, being sure to cover the dish completely. Set the other rolled-out dough aside for the top layer of 

the pie. 

Once the sauce has thickened, remove the bay leaves and discard. Pour the thickened vegetable filling into the crustlined 

baking dish. Carefully place the second crust over the top, using a fork or your fingers to press together the edges. 

Poke a few small holes in the top for steam to escape using a fork or a toothpick. Brush the top generously with the 

melted vegan butter. 

Bake the pie for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the crust is golden. Let cool for 5 minutes before cutting and serving. 


Chocolate Chip 

Cookie Bars 

These bars are FREAKY good. Packed with protein from the peanut butter, they’re basically a 

workout food . . . that’s how that works, right? They’re sweet, chewy, ooey-gooey and very worthy 

of your next girls’ night Netflix marathon. 

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cup (192 g) sugar 

1 cup (180 g) peanut butter 

¾ cup (180 ml) unsweetened almond milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

1 ½ cups (188 g) all-purpose flour 

2 tsp (7 g) baking powder 

¼ tsp salt 

½ cup (100 g) vegan chocolate chips or chunks 

MAKES 12 

Tip For denser, 

fudgier bars be sure 

to refrigerate the 

bars for at least 2 

hours before eating. 

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Line or grease an 8 x 8-inch (20 x 20-cm) baking dish and set aside. 

In a stand mixer or large mixing bowl, beat together the sugar, peanut butter, milk and vanilla. Pour in the flour, 

baking powder and salt and beat until a stiff batter forms. Fold in the chocolate chips, then add the batter to the 

prepared baking dish, using a wooden spoon to press the batter evenly into the pan. 

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool. Once completely cooled, cut into 12 equal bars and serve! 

Recipe credit: All recipes in this article reprinted from Homestyle Vegan by Amber St. Peter with the 

permission of Page Street Publishing Co. 

Photo credits: Amber St. Peter 




Tess Masters - a.k.a. The Blender Girl— is an online phenomenon and in 

her new book (The Perfect Blend) she offers up 100 recipes for healthy living 

with tasty, crowd-pleasing dishes to help boost nutrition. 

The Perfect Blend functions not only as a cookbook but also as a 

guide for how to lead a more vibrant and healthy life. Tess lays 

out a dozen healthy goals for readers, capitalising on current 

trends such as gaining energy, boosting immunity, reducing 

inflammation, detoxing the body, and probiotic power. Then, 

using her fun, playful voice, she gives easy-to-follow recipes for 

smoothies, elixirs, snacks, salads, sides, soups, mains, and desserts 

that help get results fast. Including a guide to key ingredients, an 

extensive resources section, and optional nutritional boosters for 

each recipe, The Perfect Blend will help readers find their own 

perfect blend. 

We spoke with Tess to get her tips for setting New Year 

health goals and she has also very kindly shared some 

of her favourite recipes from The Perfect Blend. To get 

your copy, just click on the cover image, right > 


It’s the New Year, and your book is perfect for 

those of us who need a health reboot! What 

are some of the health goals people should be 

setting for themselves? 

There are a few easy things people can do to achieve optimal 

health: 

Hydrate: drink plenty of low sugar fluids like filtered water, 

freshly made juices, and herbal teas, as well as increase the 

intake of high-water contents raw fruits and vegetables like 

melons, cucumber, celery, lettuces and leafy greens, citrus 

fruits, radishes, tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, and cauliflower. 

Go Green: increase the consumption of green vegetables 

like spinach, kale, chard, collard greens, bok choy, arugula, 

lettuces, broccoli, brussel sprouts and other mineral-rich 

vegetables. Either use them in a salad, or add them to stirfries, 

stews, and soups, or throw them into a smoothie. 

Push The Probiotics: include pre-biotic and probiotic-rich 

foods to aid gut health and immunity. Include beverages like 

kefir, kombucha, or rejuvelac, eat ½ cup of cultured 

vegetables with a meal, or add some probiotic powder to a 

smoothie or juice. 

80/20 Plate: Reverse your thinking about portions. Consider 

filling 80% of the plate with vegetables and 20% with clean 

protein choices. 

Move: engage in some kind of gentle movement – walking, 

rebounding, stretching every day, and some kind of weight 

bearing exercise a few times a week. 

How does the content in The Perfect Blend 

support people towards achieving these 

goals? 

I open the book with a master list of nutrient-dense hero 

foods that help keep the body in optimal health. Anchored 

to this master list, the recipes are then divided into 12 

chapters, all categorised by health goals. You can make 

recipes to gain energy, optimise protein intake, boost 

immunity, lose weight, combat inflammation, lower carbs, 

utilise healthy fats, include probiotics, balance alkalinity, 

combine foods for optimal digestion, or just blend fabulous 

flavours for culinary pleasure. 

Each chapter opens with the top foods that help 

you achieve that specific goal, practical information 

about their health benefits, and tips for how to blend 

them for amazing textures and tastes. Then, there are 

recipes for smoothies, elixirs, snacks, salads, sides, 

mains, and desserts utilising these foods. So, 

incorporating your daily quota of fruits and veggies is 

easy and fun. 

The recipes are designed to be functional and 

flexible, and all include three optional boosters that 

enhance flavour and nutrition. So, you can tailor these 

meals and snacks to your own preferences to find your 

perfect blend. 

On your blog, you describe your own 

health journey, and explain that one of 

the biggest lessons you learnt was that 

there is no ‘one size fits all’ diet approach. 

What advice would you give to others who 

are still searching for the way of eating to 

suit them best? 

Yes! I dogmatically followed countless whole foods 

diets, and the moment I embraced the concept of bioindividuality, 

and adopted a flexible and fluid approach 

to health and nutrition my whole world opened up. 

We all have varying needs depending on our genes, 


“Perception is a huge 

barrier to healthy 

living. When you have 

amazing recipes, 

vegetables can be sexy, 

mind-blowingly 

delicious, and really 

enjoyable.” 

age, activity levels, overall health, and so on. And there is a 

lot of conflicting information about health and nutrition. It 

can be confusing to know what to do. But, the one thing 

that everybody agrees on is vegetables are a boon to health. 

So, I always start there. Vegetables are a great base from 

which to build a healthy diet around. Beyond that, keep a 

food diary, and note what you eat, and any changes in your 

body. After a week or two a very clear pattern develops. 

With this personal experience, take this information to a 

healthcare practitioner who can help you interpret and 

study the information further. 

Read books, look at cookbooks or food websites, and 

compile a great collection of staple recipes that are plantbased, 

taste delicious, and are easy to prepare. Healthy 

living must be fun or it doesn’t stick. 

What do you think are the major challenges 

people face today regarding access to 

healthful foods? And what advice would you 

give on how to overcome them? 

Perception is a huge barrier to healthy living. When you 

have amazing recipes, vegetables can be sexy, mindblowingly 

delicious, and really enjoyable. Arm yourself with 

the tools to succeed – great recipes, friends and family who 

want to prepare healthy food with you, and set goals and be 

accountable to making positive lifestyle changes. Join 

groups to meet other people with similar interests and goals 

so you’re not in it alone. 

Getting extreme – going cold turkey off of your 

favourite foods or coming at things from a place of 

deprivation is never any fun. Be gentle with yourself 

while you make changes. Small consistent shifts with 

encouragement and love is the best strategy for lasting 

results. 

Finances – fresh foods can be expensive. So, if 

budget is holding you back, head up to your local 

farmers’ market towards closing time, and see what 

boxes of produce they’re giving away at a huge 

discount. Join a CSA or community garden, and start 

growing your own food. You can grow many vegetables 

and herbs in small pots on a balcony or small backyard. 

What’s one of your favourite recipes from 

your latest book? 

There are so many delicious recipes. But the shiitake 

and asparagus lettuce cups with lime drench on page 

126 hold a special place in my heart because they’re 

super easy, take less than 30 minutes to throw 

together, and are low in carbs. We’ve been enjoying 

these for many years and they’re always a huge hit. I 

served them at my launch party for The Blender Girl 

Smoothies and woke up the next morning after the 

party with over 100 texts, calls, and emails begging me 

for the recipe. I knew I had a winner. 

BAREFOOTVegan | 27 

>

shiitake & asparagus lettuce cups with 

lime drench 

MAKES 16 LETTUCE CUPS; SERVES 8 AS AN APPETIZER, 4 AS A MEAL; LIME DRENCH MAKES 2/3 CUP (160ML), 

FILLING MAKES 4 CUPS (800G) 

lime drench 

¼ cup (60ml) fresh lime juice 

3 tablespoons brown rice vinegar 

1 tablespoon mirin 

1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos, gluten-free soy sauce, or tamari 

1 teaspoon minced garlic (about 1 clove) 

1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger 

1½ teaspoons coconut sugar or other sweetener 

filling 

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 

1 tablespoon minced garlic (about 3 cloves) 

1 small green chile, ribbed, seeded, and finely chopped 

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger 

1 cup (72g) finely chopped green onion (white and green parts) 

6 cups (312g) finely diced shiitake or cremini mushrooms 

1 cup (110g) finely diced zucchini (1⁄2 medium zucchini) 

1 cup (140g) finely diced asparagus (about 5 medium spears) 

¼ cup (60ml) toasted sesame oil 

3 tablespoons Bragg Liquid Aminos, gluten-free soy sauce, or tamari 

1⁄2 cup (14g) loosely packed finely chopped cilantro 

16 large butter, Bibb, or romaine lettuce leaves (outer leaves of about 4 heads) 

optional boosters 

Pinch of red pepper flakes 

½ cup (70g) raw or dry-toasted pine nuts 

2 tablespoons gomasio (ground sesame seeds and sea salt) or sesame seeds 

To make the lime drench, throw all of the ingredients, including the red pepper flake booster, into your blender and 

blast on high for about 30 seconds until well combined. Transfer to a container and set aside. 

To make the filling, in a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat and sauté the garlic, green chile, ginger, 

green onion, mushrooms, zucchini, and asparagus for 3 to 5 minutes, until the mixture has reduced to about half the 

volume; gradually add the sesame oil and liquid aminos as the mixture cools. Don’t overcook or the vegetables will get 

mushy. Stir in the cilantro and the pine nut booster. 

To assemble, scoop ¼ cup (50g) of the filling into each lettuce leaf, drizzle with 1 teaspoon of the lime drench, and 

sprinkle with the gomasio booster. Serve immediately, passing the remaining lime drench at the table. These are 

fabulous cold, too. Chill the filling and the dressing before assembling. 


nutritional facts (per serving, based on 16 servings) 

calories 65 kcal | fat 5.3 g | saturated fat 0.7 g | sodium 224.4 mg | 

carbs 3.9 g | fiber 1.1 g | sugars 1.5 g | protein 1.4 g | calcium 16.1 mg | 

iron 0.6 mg 



avocado avenger 

SERVES 4 TO 8; CHIMICHURRI MAKES 1¼ CUPS (300ML) 

chimichurri 

¾ cup (180ml) extra-virgin olive oil 

1½ tablespoons finely grated lime zest 

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice 

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 

1½ tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves) 

1 teaspoon natural salt 

¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus more to taste 

¾ cup (30g) firmly packed mint leaves, plus more to garnish 

¾ cup (30g) firmly packed cilantro leaves, plus more to garnish 

½ cup (24g) firmly packed finely chopped chives, plus more to garnish 

4 avocados, halved, pitted, and peeled 

¼ cup (35g) peeled and finely diced English cucumber 

¼ cup (35g) seeded and finely diced tomatoes 


½ cup (55g) shaved zucchini ribbons (½ small zucchini) 

¼ cup (70g) seeded and finely diced watermelon, plus more to taste 

¼ cup (35g) raw sprouted watermelon seeds 

To make the chimichurri, throw the olive oil, lime zest, lime juice, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes into 

your blender and blast on high for 10 to 20 seconds, until the sauce is emulsified and the zest, garlic, and pepper flakes 

have been completely pulverized. Add the mint, cilantro, and chives, and pulse on high for a few seconds, then on low 

for a few seconds just to break down the herbs, but keeping the dressing very loose and not completely blended. 

On a large platter, lay out the zucchini ribbon booster. Then place the avocado halves cut sides up on top of the 

zucchini, like boats. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of the chimichurri into each pit hole. Next, place 1 teaspoon diced tomato and 

1 teaspoon diced cucumber into each pit hole or on top of each avocado. Place 1 teaspoon of the watermelon booster on 

top. With a squeeze bottle or a spoon, drizzle more chimichurri sauce onto the avocados. Top with a sprinkle of mint, 

cilantro, chives, and the watermelon seed booster. Sprinkle with the remaining tomato and cucumber and with the 

remaining (or more) watermelon booster if desired. Enjoy immediately. 

nutritional facts (per serving, based on 8 servings) 

calories 350 kcal | fat 35 g | saturated fat 5 g | sodium 301.5 mg | carbs 13.9 g | fiber 7.4 

g | sugars 1.2 g | protein 2.5 g | calcium 30.3 mg | iron 1 mg 


french toast with caramelised bananas 

SERVES 4 

french toast 

1 cup (240ml) unsweetened almond or macadamia milk (strained if homemade) 

1 ripe medium banana 

2 tablespoons pure maple syrup, plus more to serve 

1 teaspoon natural vanilla extract 

1 tablespoon white (or black) chia seeds 

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1⁄4 teaspoon natural salt 

8 slices gluten-free sandwich bread 

1⁄4 cup (60ml) coconut oil (in liquid form), plus more as needed 

caramelised bananas 

2 medium bananas, thickly sliced on the diagonal 

1⁄4 cup (37g) coconut sugar 

1 to 2 tablespoons coconut oil (in liquid form) 

Pure maple syrup, to serve 


1⁄4 cup (60ml) bourbon or rum 

2 tablespoons crushed raw pecans or walnuts 

1 tablespoon unsweetened dried shredded coconut 

Set the oven to its lowest temperature or the “warm” setting. 

To make the French toast, pour the milk, banana, maple syrup, vanilla, chia seeds, cinnamon, and salt into your 

blender and blast on high for about 30 seconds, until well combined. Pour the mixture into a large shallow baking dish 

and let rest for about 5 minutes to thicken slightly. In batches, place slices of the bread in the baking dish and let soak 

on one side for 8 to 10 seconds. Flip the slices and let soak for another 8 to 10 seconds, until evenly moistened. 

In a medium skillet (that fits two slices of bread) or on a large griddle (that holds all of the slices) over medium heat, 

warm 1 to 2 tablespoons of coconut oil per two slices of bread. (Resist the urge to use less coconut oil, or the bread 

won’t get crispy.) Add the bread and fry for 4 to 6 minutes on each side, until golden brown and crispy on the edges; 

you may need to add more coconut oil after you flip the bread. If cooking in batches, transfer the French toast to a 

lined baking sheet and place in the oven to keep warm, and repeat to fry the remaining bread, adding more coconut oil 

to cook each batch. 

While the last pieces of toast are cooking, make the caramelized bananas. Combine the banana slices and the coconut 

sugar in a zipper-lock bag, seal, and shake to coat evenly. In a skillet over medium-high heat, warm the coconut oil, 

add the coated bananas and the bourbon booster, and fry for about 2 minutes on each side until nicely caramelised. 

Serve two slices of French toast on each plate, topped with one-quarter of the caramelized bananas, one-quarter of the 

crushed nut boosters, and one-quarter of the coconut booster. Pass maple syrup at the table. 

CREDIT: All recipes in this article reprinted with permission from The Perfect Blend, copyright 2016 Tess Masters. 

Published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. 

Photography copyright 2016 by Anson Smart. 


nutritional facts (per serving) 

calories 476 kcal | fat 26.4 g | saturated fat 16.4 g | sodium 414.3 mg | 

carbs 60.5 g |fiber 6.1 g | sugars 29.4 g | protein 6.5 g | calcium 78.6 mg | 

iron 1 mg 




IS 

Compassion 

By Stacey Cook 


Each choice along this path 

is made with mindfulness and 

deep consideration for 

ourselves, for others and 

for all animals. 

C 

ompassion. It’s likely the most important trait we 

can develop, nurture and pass on. The ability to 

feel another’s suffering and deeply wish to end 

that suffering has profound power individually 

and world-changing potential collectively. 

In a world dominated by a “me” culture, this emotion 

stands out as a game changer. Often, it’s the catalyst to 

great change through its creation of thoughtfulness, 

kindness and right action. A life lived with compassion as 

the focal point is the most efficient way to creating our best 

selves and our best world. It is the simplest strategy to 

living out Mahatma Gandhi’s famous quote, “Be the change 

that you wish to see in the world”. 

And like Gandhi, compassion doesn’t discriminate. 

Therefore, understanding another’s suffering is not 

dependent upon their species. All sentient beings suffer, and 

more importantly, all desire not to. Showing compassion to 

those similar to ourselves is helpful (some would even say 

easier), but showering it to the world and to all who 

experience pain is a necessity if we want to create a kinder, 

more peaceful place to live. 

It’s a fact that animals feel no less pain than we do. 

Making any distinction or drawing lines between us/them, 

defeats any real progress on this front. With that in mind, 

choosing a vegan lifestyle becomes the definition of living a 

compassionate life. 

Each choice along this path is made with mindfulness 

and deep consideration for ourselves, for others and for all 

animals. It takes a very caring individual to devote their 

time, sacrifice their convenience, and endure living on the 

outskirts of today’s society - all to ease the suffering of 

others. 

Compassion for Ourselves 

We are told that you must love yourself before you 

can fully love another. The same argument could be 

made for compassion. How can we begin to 

understand another’s anguish and ultimately desire 

to help them, if we haven’t attempted to lessen our 

own? 

Many of the worst types of physical suffering are 

attributed to the consumption of animal products. 

The American Cancer Society confirmed this when it 

concluded that red and processed meats are 

carcinogenic. And science consistently proves that 

cooking beef, pork, fish and poultry at high 

temperatures, whether over a stove or a grill, 

increases cancer risk. 

Add this information to what we already know 

about antibiotics and hormones in animal products 

and it’s a no brainer - giving up meat and dairy is in 

our own best interest. It takes a pro-active mindset 

to prevent chronic illness and disease. Making the 

effort to greatly lower your chances of extreme 

suffering from heart disease, stroke, cancer, and more 

is a tremendous act of self-compassion. 

Compassion for Others 

The health benefits of being vegan don’t end with us. 

They are plentiful, far-reaching and we can lavish 

them on the world with our commitment to abstain 

from animal products. 

Raising animals for food is destroying not only our 

health but our planet’s as well. Factory farming is 

one of the largest contributors to climate change, 

land degradation, water pollution and more. Plus, 

the amount of grain used to feed the animals we are 

raising for meat/dairy is enough to feed our world’s 

hungry. Take that in for a moment… We could 


>

Compassion becomes a practice that 

expands its reach and becomes allencompassing 

with time and attention. 

possibly stop world hunger by refusing to consume 

animals. 

Each time a decision is made (whether mindfully or 

not) to consume or refrain from animal products, it has 

an impact on every life on earth. Multiple choices are 

presented to us each day to have a positive or negative 

impact on our family members, friends, neighbours 

near/far and for all future generations. 

Taking a stand, going against the grain, doing what is 

simply “right” and going or staying vegan is an act of 

compassion for others … for the world. 

Compassion for Animals 

Working towards ending the world’s suffering is an 

excellent end goal, but why not start with not causing it 

in the first place? 

Eating animal products is the most direct cause of 

animal suffering. What’s worse, is that eating animals is 

not mandatory or even necessary. We’ve been 

conditioned to think it is, but a balanced vegan diet 

provides all the vitamins, minerals and protein we need. 

Plant sources are available to supply vitamin D, B12 and 

Omega 3, the three most often cited as “lacking” from a 

cruelty-free diet. 

Even if you truly like the taste of meat, the new meat 

alternatives are surprisingly close to the real thing and 

can be eaten with a clear conscience. 

Same for apparel. Determining between wants and 

needs here is imperative. The truth is we don’t “need” to 

consume animals in any form. Once this realisation is 

made, it becomes clear how to stop suffering before it 

begins. Going vegan severs the direct cause/effect link 

between the person with buying power and the 

defenseless animals who suffer for it. 

If you factor compassion into your buying decisions, 

the choice is easy. And choice is the key word. The path 

to a more humane world boils down to each choice 

culminating in change. 

Current vegans are leading by example to push this 

idea forward. Leading with compassion for those simply 

interested, or trying it out, will open far more doors 

than a strict all-or-nothing approach. Veganism is 

typically a process. There are of course exceptions, but 

my experience has been that most give up one animal 

product at a time. Each achievement along the way is 

important in creating lasting change. And each 

compassionate act, no matter how small, deserves to be 

celebrated and encouraged with equal amounts of 

compassion. 

To quote Gandhi again, “Compassion is a muscle that 

gets stronger with use.” Every meal, purchase, and 

interaction is as an opportunity to flex this muscle and 

strengthen it. Compassion becomes a practice that 

expands its reach and becomes all-encompassing with 

time and attention. 

This truth is evident because veganism is on the rise. 

More and more people are adopting the lifestyle and the 

affect really is benefitting humans, animals and the 

environment. More and more of us are considering and 

subscribing to a future filled with more compassion for 

all. And by simply and openly living our lives in this 

way, we bring more normalcy to the lifestyle, open more 

doors for discussion on the topic and create smoother 

transitions for others. In truth, veganism is compassion 

and a definite path to a kinder world. BV 

Stacey Cook is a freelance 

writer that combines her 

education, work and 

volunteer experiences to 

raise awareness around 

causes she’s passionate 

about. Follow her work at 

https://stacey-cook.com/ 


“When you can cater to yourself, you start to 

be better equipped to cater to other people 

without feeling so overwhelmed.” 


Jez Kaur 

Hipster 

Veggie 

Jez Haur is a vegan YouTuber bringing to 

light the importance of compassion for 

self and empowering your health with 

organic, plant-based foods. Having grown 

up in London, embracing her Punjabi 

heritage has helped Jez radically 

transform her outlook on life. We caught 

up with her to find out more… 


Tell us about yourself and how you 

came to be vegan… 

I think the first thing that made me switch my diet was 

when I was about 18. I was on holiday for a week with 

my friends. It was a week of very unhealthy living and I 

came back and my brother was in hospital and no one 

had told me. It turned out that he had diabetes and my 

father has always said that he was the healthy one in the 

family. He always went to the gym; he followed the 

men's health lifestyle of a high protein-low carb diet, 

something that we believed to be very healthy back 

then. And he's only five years older than me, so he must 

have been about 24 when he got diabetes. Some of my 

other family members had high cholesterol and cancer. 

Cancer was just popping up everywhere around me. 

I went vegetarian and then I went vegan. I began 

talking to my parents about how they used to live. I 

started to read about how our lifestyle has changed so 

much from how it was even in my parents’ generation 

and that this can be a factor in the high cancer rate. I 

realised that our body and health is affected hugely by 

what we eat. We can have a generic predisposition to 

being obese, having heart disease or cancer, but if we 

adjust our lifestyle we can limit those genes from 

expressing themselves. It's about taking our health back 

into our own hands. 

How would you define self-care? And 

how does that show up in a practical 

way in your everyday life? 

Self-love is being selfish in a sense, but being selfish has 

a really negative connotation in society today. But we 

need to get rid of that because being selfish can be a first 

step to being self-less. When you can cater to yourself, 

you start to be able to be better equipped to cater to 

other people without feeling so overwhelmed because 

now you are running on full fuel. How this looks in my 

everyday life is apparent in what I choose to eat. 

Obviously I go out. I don't stop my social life from 

existing, because that is also a part of self-love. I have 

friends, I have a social life but on a day-to-day basis I 

only consume organic food. I only buy from local shops 

when I can and that is how I see me loving myself. I 

want to consume certain foods because I see my body 

and my health as being very important. It deserves the 

best food that I can provide. 

You’ve mentioned before that 

vegetarianism is quite common place 

in many Indian communities, but a 

lot of Indian families that come over 

to the UK or to other Western 

countries leave their previous 

lifestyle behind and it begins to 

become detrimental to their health. 

So from your perspective, what are 

some of the biggest health challenges 

that are facing your community? 

In terms of disease, cancer, heart disease and diabetes 

are the top three threats to my community. It's so 

common amongst us and I think it’s one of the risks of 

being an immigrant. You literally leave everything that > 



you know behind and you have to change the way that you 

behave once you come to this new soil. Nothing is familiar 

to you so you try to change your lifestyle. You no longer eat 

those organic fresh fruits and vegetables. You're eating 

these convenience foods and they're using ingredients 

totally alien to you and your ancestors. I think those are 

the things that really affect the South Asian community. 

Heart disease is something that comes along, obviously 

because of food, but also because of stress levels. Being an 

immigrant is a very, very stressful thing in itself. I think all 

of that combined - changing the food, changing the 

environment - really takes its toll on the body. I can't even 

imagine being a first generation immigrant, it must be 

really difficult. 

You learned Punjabi to connect and 

learn from your grandparents and they 

have really encouraged you to embrace 

a simple lifestyle. What are some of the 

most important lessons that you've 

learned from them? 

My granddad’s literally the coolest guy on the planet. He’s 

got a huge beard and he's a Sikh, so he carries around a 

sword with him all the time. How can you not be a cool 

guy looking like that, right? He's awesome. There are a few 

things I've learned, but the first one would be the 

importance of growing organic fruit and vegetables 

yourself. He has his own garden and it's not a big 

garden, just a couple of metres, but he's got so 

much. He’s got his garlic, his kale, his spinach, his 

beetroot, his carrots. And he's grown so much in 

abundance. And he stresses so much that we don't need 

to add chemicals to our produce because it's from 

Mother Earth. From God. We don't need to tamper with 

it because it's perfect the way it is. He's a firm believer 

that there is a Creator and we are the created. We 

should be looking after ourselves with that kind of 

respect. 

They also taught me how to embrace being 

Punjabi and that we have come from a small village. I 

used to think it was the most un-cool thing in the world 

when I was younger. I remember one of my earliest 

thoughts was I wished that I was white because of where 

I grew up. I look at that now and I see that was so 

messed up. Having dialogue with my grandparents 

makes me realise that being who I am is really cool and 

there's so much to learn about from the ways back 

home. 

At the Vevolution Festival that was 

held in London in November last 

year, you were on a discussion panel - 


and one of the questions that came up was, 

"How can we ensure the vegan movement is 

more inclusive?” Can you recap on your 

thoughts on this for any readers that 

weren't present? 

That was a great question because it's one thing identifying a 

problem, but we also need to come up with a solution. I think one 

of the biggest things we can do is be open with our dialogue so 

that we aren’t just speaking to vegans or those that follow a plantbased 

diet. We should encourage people who eat meat, people 

who don't love themselves, people who don't love animals and talk 

openly with all of them about why they should give veganism a go 

without making them feel intimidated about it or that they are 

going to be labelled. 

We need to realise that there's a massive world out there. As 

vegans, we're still the minority and we need to engage with people 

who are the majority. You’re never going to agree 100% with 

anyone on this planet, so if you can find some common ground 

cling to that. Everyone's different and we need to identify our 

similarities and fight the good fight together. 

What's next for you? Have you got any 

projects for Hipster Veggie on the horizon? 

I'm currently studying to be a health coach, so that will be a 

service I’ll have up and running pretty soon. I’ll be working in the 

community to help people move towards a plant-based diet, 

looking at any nutritional deficiencies they might have and 

helping them with food shopping, etc. There are a lot of other 

things that I’ve also got in the pipeline for the New Year but I 

won’t say too much about them just yet! BV 

For more information on Jez’s 

work visit her website. You can 

also connect with her via 

YouTube, Facebook, Instagram 

and Twitter.

Jennifer Blough is a professional counsellor, 

certified compassion fatigue therapist, and certified 

pet loss grief specialist. She owns a private 

practice in southeast Michigan called Deepwater 

Counselling and has recently published a book about 

coping with compassion fatigue. 

Tell us about yourself… 

I have been involved in animal welfare/rights in some capacity since I 

was a child. I became vegetarian at a very young age and attended my 

first protest with my grandma (also a vegetarian) when I was about 12. 

My grandma was very involved in the animal rights movement and I 

followed in her footsteps, including eventually going vegan. I also 

have a professional background in animal welfare, including work at 

shelters and as an animal control officer. I ended up becoming a 

therapist after a personal tragedy. My special-needs parrot and 

feathered soul mate, Albert, died suddenly in 2011, which turned my 

world upside down. As I worked through my grief, I realised that 

resources for people struggling with companion animal loss were 

scarce, and so I wanted to become that resource. 

What is compassion fatigue? 

Compassion fatigue is the emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion 

that occurs when caring for animals or people who are suffering or 

have been traumatised. It’s not a mental disorder nor an illness; it’s 

simply a normal consequence of caring so much that it hurts. All 

caregivers and helping professionals – from nurses to police officers to 

veterinarians – are vulnerable to compassion fatigue.

“Compassion fatigue 

is the emotional, 

physical, and mental 

exhaustion that 

occurs when caring 

What inspired you to want to specialise in 

this particular area? 

It wasn’t until I went back to grad school to study 

psychology that I learned about compassion fatigue. It 

was emphasised in my program because therapists can 

easily develop it when working with traumatised clients. 

As I learned more about it, I thought, ‘so this is what I’ve 

been struggling with all these years… it actually has a 

name!’ In addition to pet loss grief, I wanted to specialise 

in compassion fatigue, particularly among animal welfare 

professionals and animal rights activists because these 

populations are underserved, misunderstood, and so 

saturated with pain and grief. Their pain and grief is 

often not recognised or accepted by mainstream society. 

By that I mean there are a lot of misconceptions out there 

that this community is either a bunch of “animal nuts 

who care more about animals than people” or they go to 

work and play with puppies and kittens all day. Nothing 

could be further from the truth. Whether you are 

exposed to videos of factory farming or you work with 

animals that have been abused, our community faces an 

extraordinary amount of trauma and grief. 

Why is compassion fatigue a problem? 

Compassion fatigue is a huge problem within the animal 

welfare and rights community. It affects those of us who 

care the most, and so we run the risk of those people 

burning out and leaving the field altogether. Untreated 

compassion fatigue can lead to serious problems such as 

clinical depression, substance abuse, and even suicide. 

Veterinarians and animal control officers have alarmingly 

high rates of suicide. Compassion fatigue not only takes a 

toll on us personally, but also affects our relationships 

with others and spills over into our work. Employers 

should take compassion fatigue very seriously as it affects 

for animals or people 

who are suffering or 

staff and volunteer morale, work productivity, and 

retention. 

What are some of the warning signs that 

you’re suffering from it? 

Compassion fatigue can look different for everyone. 

For me personally, sometimes it sits quietly simmering 

on the back burner and other times it boils over. It’s 

really important to know your own warning signs so 

that you can take steps to manage it. Some of those 

warning signs or symptoms include sadness, anger, 

anxiety, sleep problems, appetite disturbance, 

nightmares or flashbacks, low energy, lack of 

motivation, grief, wanting to withdraw from others or 

isolate yourself, guilt, feeling empty or numb, work 

problems, relationship conflicts, low self-esteem, poor 

concentration, bodily complaints such as tight muscles 

or headaches, developing a bad attitude or negative 

worldview, unhealthy coping skills such as alcohol 

abuse, and suicidal thoughts. 

In your experience, how common is it for 

those working with animals and humans 

to suffer from it? 

have been 

traumatised”. 

Not only is compassion fatigue common, but it’s also 

normal. You can’t be exposed to that much suffering 

and not be affected. It’s not like you either have > 


compassion fatigue or you don’t – it’s more like to what 

degree do you have it. If left untreated, it can become 

severe enough to the point of burnout. If well managed, 

you can remain energised and experience more 

compassion satisfaction than fatigue. 

Your new book - To Save a Starfish: A 

Compassion Fatigue Workbook for the 

Animal Welfare Warrior - offers a holistic 

approach to dealing with compassion 

fatigue. Why is this important? 

I have a very holistic approach to treating my clients, and 

I wanted this book to reflect that. We hold trauma, grief, 

and stress in our bodies – not just our brains. I believe 

very strongly in the mind-body connection. And so I 

wanted to offer a variety of practical stress management 

techniques and self-care skills that people could 

incorporate into their daily lives. I don’t believe that 

healing comes in a one-size-fits-all approach, and so my 

hope is that readers will try the recommendations and 

discover what works best for them. 

What will readers gain from the book? 

The very first thing that I hope readers will gain from the 

book is validation. Assurance that you are not alone, that 

what you are going through has a name and is normal. 

You’re not weak; you’re not flawed. There is no 

compassion fatigue without compassion, so chances are 

you probably care a great deal. But that comes with a 

price, and so we have to learn to manage the symptoms 

that can arise from caring so much. We have to take care 

of ourselves in order to take care of others. This book 

offers helpful tools to manage the many symptoms of 

compassion fatigue, including relaxation techniques, 

nutrition advice, self-care skills, sleep hygiene, 

challenging unhelpful thinking styles, using physical 

activity and creativity to combat compassion fatigue, and 

much more. Because it’s written in a workbook format, 

readers have the opportunity to reflect on their own 

struggles and experiences. BV 

For more information, visit 

Jennifer’s website at 

www.deepwatermichigan.com to 

learn more and to join her email list 

for regular advice on compassion 

fatigue, as well as upcoming events 

and announcements. Be sure to also 

look for The Compassion Fatigue 

Podcast, which is scheduled to be 

released this month – January 2017! 


By Valerie McGowan

A professed believer who maintains religious 

opinions contrary to those 

accepted by his or her church or rejects doctrines 

prescribed by that church. 

I 

am a heretic. Not something I ever thought I would 

be accused of during my Christian life. I mean I’ve 

always felt like I was a bit too liberal for my Christian 

community, yet too conservative for the liberals in 

my world. More than once I’ve stated in a mostly joking 

way that if I expressed all my beliefs and convictions I’d 

annoy just about everyone. 

A few years ago, I lost a friend for no other reason than 

the fact we didn’t see eye to eye on some issues. She was a 

fellow Christian who had an uncommon compassion for 

animals since her childhood. That was what we initially 

bonded over. I say uncommon, because she was the first 

Christian that I’d come across that seemed to share my 

passion for animal rights. She was not vegan, but 

described herself as ‘mostly vegetarian’. 

After we first connected through a Christian vegan 

website, it didn’t take long to share with each other our 

histories, beliefs and perspectives on life. When we finally 

met in person, a couple of months later, that rapport 

simply transferred over and much of our time spent 

together was shopping, discussing history (which we both 

loved and she was extremely knowledgeable of) and 

laughing. 

Yes, laughing. We shared a sarcastic, obnoxious sense 

of humor. And even though she was nearly 20 years older 

than me, there was never a dull moment. 

The small thorn in the side of all this friendship bliss 

was our respective political beliefs. I was the liberal 

conservative or conservative liberal, depending on how 

you want to look at it. She, politically conservative, yet a 

self-described bleeding heart when it came to her love of 

animals. 

For the first few months of our friendship, we 

continued to challenge each other with our opposing 

views. I found this to be intellectually stimulating, as I 

appreciate hearing from different perspectives. But over 

time, it became clear that the philosophical differences 

between the two of us became more of a strain on our 

interaction. 

This wasn’t because we didn’t care for each other. I 

was happy to continue our friendship as it was. Only, she 

wasn’t. After all those months, she was unable to sway 

me in to her political/spiritual camp. It had become a 

source of frustration for both of us. 

To justify ending our friendship, she appealed to the 

Bible verse in the book of Amos, Chapter 3, Verse 3(Old 

Testament), which states: “Can two walk together except 

they be agreed”? The idea that we must have total 

agreement on every issue to have positive relationships 

baffled me. But, I guess being the liberal, heretical 

Christian was just too much. 

More recently, I received the honour of being 

formally pronounced a heretic. This interaction took 

place on social media with a man who came to the 

Facebook page for my blog, just to argue with me about 

veganism. His condescending and paternalistic tone 


leapt from the screen. Calling me ‘dear’ and such. I must 

admit, I found it a bit amusing. 

The Bible-thumping was on full blast as he 

continuously posted long passages of scripture on my 

page to prove that I was in deep sin for refusing to eat 

animals. I refused to fight with him, but kept 

respectfully firm in my responses. He questioned the 

legitimately of my faith in Christ, accusing me of twisting 

the scriptures to bend to my vegan beliefs. 

I replied that just because something is commanded 

or condoned in scripture at the time it was written, 

doesn’t necessarily mean it’s binding for all people for all 

time. I asked him if he ate bugs, since it’s recorded that 

God through Moses gave the Hebrews permission to eat 

certain ones. I reminded him that in the New Testament 

there are passages where women are told to keep silent 

and cover their heads. Although I’m sure by this time he 

was wishing I would just shut up and submit to his 

‘teaching’ like a good, submissive Christian woman. 

When I referenced the importance of considering 

context in biblical interpretation, that’s when I suspect 

his head exploded, because he was having none of 

it! There was no context as far as he was concerned 

and apparently, no way to misinterpret the many 

verses he shared on my page. 

Then pronouncement was made. Heretic. And 

not only that, but condemned by my own words 

and “clearly not a Christian.” As I mentioned earlier, 


I found this whole interaction somewhat amusing. But, at 

the same time I could not shake the eerie realisation that 

had this been four or five hundred years ago, and the 

conflict was over me being a woman preacher on the 

wrong side of European religious history, my Facebook 

bible teacher would’ve happily seen me tortured and 

burnt at the stake, all the while believing he had done 

God a great service. 

So, while I was initially taken aback by the accusations 

and questioning of my faith, I feel no regret or doubt over 

my choice to live as compassionately as I can and causing 

as little harm as possible towards all of God’s creation. 

One way I live that out is by being vegan. If that makes 

me a heretic, then so be it. BV 

You can read 

more of 

Valerie’s 

writing at 

her website 

and connect with her 

via Facebook.

FAITH 

and compassion 

By Craig Wescoe 

T 

o some this may come as a surprise, but not all 

vegans deny the existence of God and not all 

Christians believe animals are here for us to kill 

and eat. In fact, more and more people today are 

identifying as both Christian and vegan. There are hundreds 

of passages in the Bible that support the idea that living a 

vegan lifestyle is consistent with living a life that glorifies 

God – and there are thousands of vegan Christians in the 

world today proving it! 

Christians living a compassionate plant-based lifestyle are 

not confined to one type of church either. They can be found 

kneeling at Catholic Mass, taking the Orthodox Eucharist, 

praising in a Baptist worship hall, celebrating the Sabbath in 

a Seventh Day Adventist pew, evangelising on the street 

corner, or even giving a sermon in front of their own 

Lutheran, Presbyterian, or Methodist congregation. They can 

be found anywhere, though they are often the only vegan in 

their church – at least in the beginning. 

If you ask a Christian vegan for the basis of their beliefs, 

they’ll likely have a Bible full of highlighted passages ready to 

show you in detail, but the two focal points that tend to 

come up the most are from Genesis and from the gospels. 

Genesis depicts the world’s original state of perfection and 


its subsequent decline while Jesus represents a return 

to that original state of perfection. 

The Bible opens with God creating a perfect world 

in which animals and humans live together in 

harmony, eating all the colorful fruits and vegetation 

of the earth (Genesis 1-2). It wasn’t until after the fall 

of man that this harmony was broken and humans 

deviated from God’s plan and began killing animals 

and seeing them as food. Humans were said to be 

created in God’s image. Restoring humanity to that 

holy image involves no longer deviating from God’s 

will and plan for the earth, which means going back to 

eating fruits and vegetation and living in harmony 

with all of God’s creatures. 

In the gospels, Jesus taught that the two primary 

commandments are to love God wholeheartedly and to 

love your neighbour as yourself (Mark 12). Vegan 

Christians extend this love to all of God’s creatures 

that inhabit the world around us – not just to our 

human neighbours that live next door. Jesus warned 

never to seek to justify acts of cruelty (Matthew 23) 

and instead to always go the extra mile when it comes 

to matters of love (Matthew 5). We have authority 

>

Humans were said to 

be created in God’s 

image. Restoring 

humanity to that 

holy image involves 

no longer deviating 

from God’s will and 

plan for the earth, which means going 

back to eating fruits and vegetation 

and living in harmony with all of 

God’s creatures. 

over the animals just as Jesus has authority over the 

church. Jesus lovingly watches over his flock and would 

never harm even the least of his sheep. The idea is that it is 

good for ambassadors of Christ to likewise follow his 

example of compassionate leadership in how we treat the 

animals we’ve been entrusted with. It’s a rather simple idea 

really. 

Given that vegans exist in all types of churches, there is 

no universal set of creeds agreed upon or unanimous 

interpretation of the scriptures among Christian vegans. 

The one common thread is having a heart for God and a 

heart for animals. Given that the message of the New 

Testament is one of love and mercy, it should come as no 

surprise that more and more Christians are adopting a 

compassionate attitude toward animals or that vegans are 

finding a new hope in a nearly three thousand year old 

promise of a world where the lion and the lamb live 

peacefully together alongside us on the earth (Isaiah 11). 

If you are Christian but not vegan, you may want to 

prayerfully consider extending your love and your mercy to 

all of God’s creatures. If you are vegan but not Christian, it 

may be wise to keep an open mind about God and about 

the Bible. Like the Ethiopian in Acts 8, perhaps you simply 

haven’t come across the right person to help you 

understand what you are reading. I think we can all at least 

agree on one point: the world could use a bit more hope 

and compassion right about now. 

Craig Wescoe graduated with an M.A. in 

philosophy from the University of Toledo in 

2007. He taught undergraduate courses in 

Logic and Critical Thinking before taking a 

job in business in 2010. He is a longtime 

animal-loving vegan and servant of God. You 

can follow his blog here. He is also a member 

of the Christian Vegans, Vegan Christian 

Community Facebook groups and co-creator 

of the New Vegan Support Facebook group. 



Robert Grillo 

Farm to Fable 

Why do the vast majority of us continue to consume animals when 

we could choose otherwise? What are the cultural forces that 

drive our food choices? These are the fundamental questions 

founder and director of Free from Harm, Robert Grillo sought to 

answer in writing his new book – Farm to Fable: The Fictions of 

Our Animal-Consuming Culture. We caught up with Robert to discuss 

some of his conclusions as to how fictional narratives 

orchestrated by the multi-billion dollar marketing campaigns of 

the animal agricultural industries keep people from consciously 

choosing to live compassionately. 


Tell us a bit about yourself… How did you 

become vegan? 

I’m a writer, activist and speaker who grew up working in 

publishing and advertising where I got a behind-thescenes 

perspective on the image building industries and 

how they influence the public. I became vegan in 2009 

after watching some documentaries, such as Food Inc. 

For anyone that doesn’t know about Free 

from Harm, can you explain about the 

work you do? 

We’re a non-profit founded in 2009 and dedicated to farm 

animal education and advocacy. Our vision is a world 

where non-human animals are no longer exploited and 

made to suffer to serve some human end. We live in an age 

when this is finally possible and we should celebrate that. 

What inspired you to write Farm to Fable? 

And what do you hope it will achieve? 

Farm to Fable is the culmination of years of exploring the 

fictions of animal consumption from the perspective of a 

branding and marketing person who has worked on the 

inside to see how these fictions are created and how they 

function once they’re out there for the public to digest. I 

realised early on that even vegans were, to varying degrees, 

under the spell of these fictions and some animal groups 

even use them in their campaigns. So I felt compelled to 

write a book in the hopes that it would bring a much 

needed awareness to the vegan community as well as 

the public at large. For the general public, my hope is 

that the book will prompt them to question what 

appears to be “normal” in their everyday lives, to look 

more critically at what they see in the grocery stores and 

restaurants, what they see on TV and online. I hope that 

they might better see how we are being manipulated to 

make food choices that ultimately betray our core values 

of kindness, reciprocity and decency. 

From all the examples of fictional stories 

we are told about consuming animal 

products that are featured in the book, 

which do you feel is the most dangerous 

and why? 

Consent is the foundation. Consent has us believing that 

animals are willing participants in whatever it is we 

want to do with them, that they willingly sacrifice 

themselves for some greater human purpose. We say 

that they give us their eggs, their secretions, their bodies 

and even their lives. Of course we know that animals are 

not only incapable of giving their consent; they clearly 

indicate their resistance to domination and will fight 


“For the general 

public, my hope is 

that the book will 

prompt them to 

question what 

appears to be 

“normal” in their 

everyday lives…” 

“might-makes-right” worldview. Thanksgiving is an 

important example of how these fictions are alive and 

well today, sabotaging our judgment to support 

unspeakable horrors in the name of tradition and 

culture. 

like hell to avoid pain and death. Once we believe in consent, 

then it’s just a matter of how we treat them. Use is off the 

table since it is assumed that they don’t mind being used. This 

is why humane-washing has emerged as such a prominent 

fictional device today. 

You mention how since the beginning of our 

recorded history, humans have used 

narratives of animals choosing to sacrifice 

themselves for the greater good, and how we 

have made up elaborate rituals around the 

killing of animals for food as a form of 

repentance and absolution of guilt. How do 

you see this still being a part of people’s 

psyches and being played out today? 

Whenever some new-age, hipster foodie who captures the 

media’s attention waxes spiritual about how we must “give 

thanks” or “honour the sacrifice” of the animals we needlessly 

exploit and kill for food, we can be sure they are invoking 

ancient fictions that are as old as civilisation itself. There’s 

absolutely nothing progressive about this “tooth and claw”, 

Your book points out the kind of 

marketing budgets that the animal 

agriculture industry has to target 

consumers – annual budgets over a 

billion US dollars! What does this 

mean for organisations trying to effect 

change? How can we compete with 

those kinds of resources? 

It’s important to realise that aside from advertising, the 

entire entertainment, television and film industry, as 

well as the mass media where we get our news about 

the world, are all disseminating the fictions of animal 

consumption. What does it mean for us? Most 

fundamentally, it means we must recognise the power 

of ideas, beliefs and values in shaping our behaviour 

and choices. The fact that corporations spend billions 

of dollars on appealing to those beliefs and values is a 

testament to just how powerful they are. It means that 

just advocating behaviour changes, such as Meatless 

Monday, will never even begin to challenge those 

beliefs that are necessary for the meaningful change we 

want to see. As for how do we compete? The answer is > 


“Consent has us believing that 

animals are willing participants 

in whatever it is we want to do 

with them, that they willingly 

sacrifice themselves for some 

greater human purpose.” 

we can’t compete. We can never win the struggle for 

justice by using the exploiter’s tools of deception. Like any 

other social justice movement, our success lies in mass 

education and building an organized grassroots 

movement. And we should partner with all other like 

movements to strengthen our common cause to fight 

oppression wherever it rears its ugly head. 

As a vegan living in a non-vegan world, it 

often feels as if people don’t care about 

animals. However, your book points to 

research that argues otherwise. Can you 

tell us a little more about that and how 

that should shape our promotion of 

veganism? 

In his recent BBC series, “Sex, Death and the Meaning of 

Life,” the world’s most famous evolutionary biologist, 

Richard Dawkins, tell us that: “Science shows we humans 

are hardwired to have empathy. Scientists can now scan 

which parts of the brain register vicarious pain or 

pleasure.” “Brain science helps us to see why we find it a 

bad idea to steal, why we hate to see somebody kicking a 

dog. We can trace the chemicals in the brain that reward 

kindness. We can see what goes on in the brain when we 

feel for others. Goodness is natural to us. Kindness is in 

our physiology.” 

More specific to vegan advocacy, we find a very high 

rate of caring about the suffering of other animals, 80% to 

90% in people surveyed, but this doesn’t necessarily or 

easily translate into food choices. Nevertheless, if one 

really believes that one should “meet people where they 

are” then we should first recognise that empathy is there 

in most of us yet needs to be cultivated. That’s where we 

come in. Even if one insists that humans don’t care about 

other animals, this is largely a cultural construct that 

should not be used as an excuse to avoid the subject. 

Culture is malleable. It’s our job as their advocates to 

make the case for why people should care, just as it is the 

role of any other justice activist to make a case for their 

cause. They too dealt with incredible obstacles and 

terrible odds and yet succeeded. We have compelling 

stories and compelling evidence for why people should 

care. 

What is the biggest mistake most vegan/ 

animal advocacy groups are doing in 

trying to change people’s behaviour? 

What should they be doing instead? 

There are certain high profile figures in our movement 

who do their fair share of critiquing the vegan messenger, 

telling her what to wear, how to act, what to say and how 

to say it for maximum “effectiveness.” At times we seem 

more obsessed about what people think about us than > 


“We must 

communicate the 

very real and 

urgent need for 

change, rather 

than pretend that 

baby steps are 

enough.” 

carrying out our actual activism. Some of these people 

actually sound like a vegan Miss Manners, extolling pop 

psychology or self-help tropes which I don’t see advancing 

our cause. My work is instead focused on exploring the 

culture that perpetuates “non-veganism.” 

As for our vegan community, I think it would help us 

immensely to develop a platform that conveys more 

dignity, confidence and storytelling savvy. I’d like to see 

more honesty and conviction about our goals for animal 

liberation and the kind of radical activism achieving those 

goals will require. I’d like to see a greater reverence for 

truth as the most powerful tool we have against the 

exploitation industries that are built upon fictions and lies. 

This means that animals never become our “bargaining 

tools” to broker deals with their exploiters or with the 

public. After all, who are we, as their supposed advocates, 

to negotiate the use — any use — of their bodies, or to 

negotiate the level of their suffering or victimisation? What 

other victim advocates would find this even remotely 

ethical? I can’t think of any. I’d like to see more of us 

abandon the myth that we have the luxury of time to 

advocate transition in steps. If we listen to the urgent calls 

from leading climate and environmental experts, then we 

must honestly face the fact that time is most certainly not 

on our side. We must communicate the very real and 

urgent need for change, rather than pretend that baby steps 

are enough. They aren’t. As Noam Chomsky famously said, 

“Just tell the truth.” 

As you quite rightfully point out, it can 

be quite a popularity contest between 

the various animal advocacy 

organisations vying for financial 

contributions and public attention. For 

those that can’t afford to be so physically 

active with their advocacy due to 

whatever reason, what advice would you 

give in terms of how to choose an 

organisation to support? Are there any 

criteria for an effective organisation? 

In the process of writing my book, I came to question 

many more assumptions than I had anticipated. And 

one of them is this belief that non-profit organisations 

are at the forefront of change and progress for our 

movement. I think we just assume that they are — some 

appear so polished, professional and convincing — but 

maybe that’s just wishful thinking. As much as I 

appreciate the Free from Harm donors who have helped 

us advance our mission in so many ways, I can’t help 

but wonder if larger organisations that become heavily 

dependent on and therefore influenced by donors do 

not risk losing their focus and impetus for meaningful 

change. Maybe instead it will be certain visionaries who 

are driven by nothing more than a passion for their 

cause who people will rally around, like they rallied 

around Cesar Chavez. Other movements have not 


equired a lot of non-profits and donors to build a movement. They 

just needed to organise properly. So this all begs the question: can 

donating replace actual participation? Can we really expect giving 

to replace activism, as the Effective Altruism movement seems to 

suggest? Grassroots activism means physically showing up for 

events, but it can also mean spreading the message through social 

media. At Free from Harm we developed the Pollinators Network 

because we realised there is an enormous and still largely untapped 

potential to impact our online audience. We also realised that we 

have a loyal following of very savvy social media people and still 

others who want to become more active and sharpen their skills. 

So we mentor them and give them the tools and skills to become 

strong “virtual” activists. It’s the next best thing to being there, but 

it’s still important to show up. 

Connect with Robert’s 

organisation Free 

From Harm via their 

website, Facebook, 

Instagram, YouTube 

and Twitter. Click on 

the image below to 

order your copy of 

Farm to Fable. 

You come from a creative consultancy 

background and you’ve very successfully used 

your talents to create ‘Free from Harm’. What 

advice would you give others to encourage them 

to use their own unique gifts and talents to 

promote veganism? 

Yep, cultivate those talents and see how they can work for your 

activism but also share them with a community. On the one hand, 

we think it might be more of an effort to show up and develop a 

community, but then we also have a yearning for community — for 

the community of like-minded, kindred spirits. This is vital to our 

own personal fulfilment as well as building our movement. We 

want to feel a part of something bigger than ourselves, part of 

history in the making, part of a legacy that future generations will 

hopefully benefit from. In the end, the pay-off for showing up is 

well worth it because of the sense of community with which it 

rewards us. BV 


Challenging what we know about 

cruelty-free cosmetics 

By Anneka Svenska 

O 

n October 25 th 2016, Naturewatch 

Foundation in collaboration with my 

animal conservation production company, 

GreenWorldTV, launched “Compassion Over Cruelty” – 

a film to challenge what we know about cruelty-free 

cosmetics. 

Every year, millions of animals worldwide are 

subjected to painful tests all in the name of beauty. 

Chemicals are dropped in their eyes and on to their 

skin, often causing painful blinding and burning. Once 

used, their bodies are discarded like rubbish as more are 

bred to take their place. 

The British public is overwhelmingly against the use 

of animals for cosmetic testing and indeed, in 1997 the 

UK introduced the Cosmetic Testing Ban on the use of 

animals to test finished cosmetic products, followed by 

a ban in 1998 on the use of animals in testing cosmetic 

ingredients. These history-changing laws paved the way 

for the European Union, which in 2013 banned all sales 

within the EU of cosmetic products or ingredients that 

have been tested on animals. 


But this isn’t enough. Cosmetic shoppers in the UK are 

still buying into cruelty by purchasing from companies 

that sell products outside of the EU, in countries like 

China where testing on cosmetic products is still a 

requirement by law. By purchasing these brands, or 

brands owned by parent companies that are tested in 

China, shoppers – who are trying to do the right thing for 

animals – are being duped. Compassionate shoppers are 

unknowingly handing over their money for cruel animal 

testing. 

Many of these companies are big multinational labels, 

or are selling prestige products and trying to crack the 

Chinese market. They offer high-end products that are 

perceived as being the best of the best, and they rely on 

customer loyalty for their well-known brands. But it is 

the animals who are paying the true cost. And it’s 

completely unnecessary. 

So I joined forces with Naturewatch Foundation to 

put truly cruelty-free, compassionate, cosmetics to the 

test. How would they hold up against the big players in 

the cosmetic industry? 

>


Top hair stylist, Daniel Field from the Daniel Field 

Hair Salon in Central London, and makeup artist to 

the stars, Alexa Riva Ravina kindly offered to put the 

Naturewatch Foundation endorsed cruelty-free 

products, featured in the Naturewatch ‘Compassionate 

Shopping Guide’, to the test. 

Some incredible animal-loving celebrities offered 

to appear in the film alongside myself, including 

actress Rula Lenska, model Daryna Milgevska, and 

comedian Jake Yapp, who put their faith – and faces – 

in Daniel and Alexa’s hands. And the results were 

beautiful and 100% cruelty free. 

The resulting film proves that you can choose 

compassion over cruelty, and look fabulous in the 

process! We launched the film in front of an audience 

of 100% animal loving celebrities at Sanctum Soho in 

London’s West End. The evening was hosted by our 

dear, compassionate friend Rula Lenska and attended 

by some brilliant people including BBC Radio 5 DJ 

Nicky Campbell, This Morning’s on screen makeup 

artist Bryony Blake and TV presenter Matt Johnson, 

the animal-loving Jilly Johnson, actress Vicki Michelle, 

cruelty free beauty expert Cindy Jackson and actor Dan 

Richardson from Disney’s The Lodge, who has recently 

become vegan. 

Background 

Despite the EU and countries like Australia, Israel and 

Norway banning the sale and importation of cosmetics 

and cosmetic ingredients tested on animals, millions of 

animals are still used in cosmetic testing around the 

world. 

Cosmetic brands may advertise their products as 

cruelty-free in the UK – but if they are also selling in 

countries like China, where animal-testing on cosmetics is 

still a legal requirement – they cannot genuinely claim 

cruelty-free status. At the same time, many popular 

brands are owned by larger, multinational ‘parent’ 

companies that may sell other products in China – 

meaning that, for the ethical consumer, being genuinely 

cruelty-free can be extremely difficult. 

Naturewatch Foundation researches companies 

thoroughly and only approves those brands that have a 


Click above to watch the official 

‘Compassion Over Cruelty Film’ and click 

on the image below to get your copy of 

the ‘Compassionate Shopping Guide’. 

fixed cut-off date animal-testing policy in place. The same fixed 

cut-off date must apply throughout the entire company range, 

including the parent company and any subsidiaries. 

So Naturewatch Foundation has done the hard work for you. 

Naturewatch Foundation has published the ‘Compassionate 

Shopping Guide’ regularly for over 20 years. It is now in its 14 th 

edition. It has become the definitive guide to cruelty-free 

shopping for cosmetics, toiletries and household cleaning 

products. It has the strictest criteria of any cruelty-free 

endorsement scheme in the world. They do not accept animal 

use in cosmetic testing at any level. BV 

Anneka Svenska is the founder of ‘Green 

World Television’ & ‘Angels for the Innocent 

Foundation’. To view some of the Green World 

TV Films Anneka has released please click 

here . You can also visit her website & connect 

with her on Facebook & Twitter. 




“Animals glorify God in their particular animalness, 

animals worship God. A friend of mine recently 

said that every time a species goes extinct, worship 

is silenced, and that’s blasphemy.” 


Vegangelical 

How Caring for Animals 

Can Shape Your Faith 

In her latest book, Vegangelical, author Sarah 

Withrow King argues that animal stewardship is a 

necessary aspect of a holistic ethic of 

Christian peace and justice, and care for animal 

welfare correspondingly strengthens our care for 

environmental and human flourishing. We spoke 

with Sarah to learn more about her work to call 

people to a greater attentiveness to one of the 

primary relationships in God’s created order, 

that between humans and animals. 


Tell us about yourself and how you came 

to be vegan? 

I think the first time I heard the word “vegan” was when 

my brother took me to a restaurant he really loved in 

Eugene, Oregon. It was all vegan and totally delicious. I 

survived on junk: a lot of fast food and super processed 

groceries, so this all-vegetable restaurant was like an 

explosion of actual flavour, and I didn’t feel like garbage 

after I ate there. There was a booklet on the table that a 

local activist group had left and I read it while I was 

waiting. It talked about factory farming, routine 

mutilations and other abuses of animals, the resource 

inefficiency of raising and killing animals for food, and 

the health implications of a vegan diet. I was stunned. I 

loved animals, I had always loved animals, but I never 

thought of them when I ate meat. I never thought of 

meat as an animal. And I had no idea what modern 

farming looked like or the damage it was doing. So, I 

resolved to go vegan. And then my resolve broke. So I 

resolved again. And broke again…but one of those times, 

my resolve stuck! 

When talking to other Christians about 

animals and veganism, what are the 

biggest challenges you deal with? 

I find, in this regard, that there isn’t a big difference 

between Christians and others. A lot of people, Christian 


or not, hold the same misconceptions that I did about how 

animals are raised and killed for food, what those 

processes look like. Once the truth about industrial 

farming is exposed, many people (again, Christian or not) 

feel at a bit of a loss for how to go about making more 

compassionate choices. Eating is a deeply complex act for 

many of us and food is so tied up in our family and social 

traditions that the thought of making a drastic change can 

be overwhelming for people. “What do I do now?” and 

“How do I talk to my family and friends about this 

change?” are the most common questions we see. 

The first book of the Bible – Genesis – 

explains that God has given humans 

‘dominion’ over the animals. All 

theologians agree on this, but what are the 

main sticking points that come when 

defining ‘dominion’? 

The vast majority of people I’ve encountered agree that 

dominion can’t be interpreted to mean, “do whatever you 

want, with impunity.” I’ve talked to a very few individuals 

who would argue that, but they do not represent the 

majority of Christians. I think the trouble comes in 

understanding that when we interpret dominion to mean 

“use for food,” that comes with a host of consequences 

now that couldn’t have been seen thousands of years ago. 

So, we have to ask what dominion now looks like, and

eating animals isn’t it when we live in a world where many of 

us can healthfully and sustainably feed ourselves on plants. 

What instructions/teachings in the Bible 

stand out the most to you as promoting 

mercy and compassion towards animals? 

I always caution against taking a verse or two and using it as 

a proof for any kind of argument. CreatureKind wrote a little 

about that recently. To me, the most biblically compelling 

argument for compassion to animals is one that takes the 

whole movement of the scripture and the Spirit in mind: we 

know that this broken, bruised world is being reconciled 

back to a Creator who wants every being to flourish and 

thrive. Jesus taught his followers to pray, “Thy Kingdom 

come, on earth as it is in heaven.” We know that this 

Kingdom will be one of peace for all, where the wolf will lie 

down with the lamb, where violence and suffering are no 

more. On earth. Not up in the sky, on earth. So, if we know 

the Creator is reconciling the whole world back to Godself 

and we know that part of that reconciliation will be the 

reconciliation of humans and animals to one another, why 

wouldn’t we take steps now to realise that? 

What does the Bible say about the animals’ 

relationship to God? 

God created animals, God provides for animals, God sees 

animals. Animals glorify God in their particular animal-ness, 

animals worship God. A friend of mine recently said that 

every time a species goes extinct, worship is silenced, and 

that’s blasphemy. Humans have so centred ourselves in the 

world that we fail to see how we are one part of the whole 

creation. 

love for one another.” –Jesus. How do we know if 

something is Christian? We know that because it’s 

loving, love-giving, love-promoting, love-sustaining. 

Right before Jesus gives this new commandment, he 

washes the feet of his disciples. Washes their feet. He 

humbles himself and he serves others. Industrial 

farming causes human, animal, and environmental 

suffering on a massive scale while lining the pockets 

and filling the coffers of wealthy corporations and 

their officers. It is destructive, dangerous, and evil and 

can’t, in any way, be construed as loving. 

It can be tough belonging to a church group that 

doesn’t include any vegans. What advice do you have 

for vegan Christians that want to remain part of a 

church but are struggling with the fact that people in 

their fellowship are not interested in, and/or perhaps 

ridicule the decision to live a vegan lifestyle? 

I wrote about this in “A Plea to Stay Rooted,” 

because I’ve been there and I know what it feels like! 

We set ourselves up for disappointment when we 

expect that people will change their views and actions 

on our timetable, but the need for fellowship is real. As 

much as possible, don’t make vegan the litmus test for 

a relationship. Connect on other levels with people, 

answer their inquiries honestly and with compassion, 

and let God work on their hearts. People I never 

thought would go vegan have done just that, 

sometimes long after our initial conversations! I love 

connecting with other Christian vegans, and I do that 

on a regular basis online, by telephone, and at events. 

But don’t let that become your main fellowship, 

because if you’re not there in the church, who will 

speak up for animals? > 

Because veganism/vegetarianism is 

promoted in other religions, I have come 

across some Christian-based organisations 

actively promoting meat-eating, saying that 

it is un-Christian not to eat God’s animals. 

What response do you have for that 

position? 

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. 

Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By 

this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have 


How has your faith and relationship with 

God, helped you be a better advocate for 

animals and humans? 

Faith and animal advocacy is actually a two-way street for 

me! My advocacy has reminded me over and over again 

that compassion is a choice we make and that applies to 

humans (including ourselves) as well as animals. 

Advocacy for animals helped open up the depth and 

breadth of God’s promises to the created world in a way I 

hadn’t understood before. My faith helps me to remember 

to extend grace to people and situations when it’s hard for 

me to feel like it. But perhaps most importantly, my faith 

is a constant reminder that I am part of a much larger 

story, a story that started long before I was born and will 

continue long after I die. 

During the time that you’ve been vegan 

and advocating for animals, what positive 

changes have you noticed in the church’s 

opinion/stance towards animals? 

Oh my gosh, when I first went vegan I felt like I was 

totally alone in the church world. Now, literally 

everywhere I go… every conference, every church, every 

school, every organisation… there’s at least one other 

“animal person.” Denominations are passing resolutions 

about animal welfare. A huge group of evangelical 

Christians signed a document called “Every Living Thing” 

last year that named animals as a topic of moral and 

practical concern for Christians. Pope Francis’ climate 

encyclical was full of thoughts about animals. The 

CreatureKind project that I help run with UK theologian 

David Clough, was founded in part because enough 

Christians care about animals and want to advocate on 

their behalf that there’s now a need for church-based 

organisations to equip them with the tools to do so. 

You wrote and had published two books 

on Christianity and veganism/animals 

that were released last year. Can you tell 

us about them and what inspired you to 

write them? 

The first book I wrote is called Animals Are Not Ours (No, 

Really, They’re Not): An Evangelical Animal Liberation 

Theology (Cascade Books, 2016). I was inspired to write it 

“This prayer, written by Bishop Ken Untener of 

Saginaw in honour of Oscar Romero, is one that I 

return to again and again, and helps keep my 

place in this difficult work in perspective”. 

Archbishop Oscar Romero Prayer: A Step 

Along The Way 

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a 

long view. 

The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is 

even beyond our vision. 

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny 

fraction of the magnificent 

enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is 

complete, which is a way of 

saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us. 

No statement says all that could be said. 

No prayer fully expresses our faith. 

No confession brings perfection. 

No pastoral visit brings wholeness. 

No program accomplishes the Church's mission. 

No set of goals and objectives includes 

everything. 

This is what we are about. 

We plant the seeds that one day will grow. 

We water seeds already planted, knowing that 

they hold future promise. 

We lay foundations that will need further 

development. 

We provide yeast that produces far beyond our 

capabilities. 

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of 

liberation in realising that. 

This enables us to do something, and to do it 

very well. 

It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step 

along the way, an 

opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do 

the rest. 

We may never see the end results, but that is the 

difference between the master 

builder and the worker. 

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, 

not messiahs. 

We are prophets of a future not our own. 


“My advocacy has 

reminded me over 

and over again that 

compassion is a 

choice we make and 

that applies to 

humans (including 

ourselves) as well 

as animals.” 

during my seminary studies, where I did a lot reading 

about nonviolence, liberation theology, and creation 

care theology. I would get so frustrated because there 

was this obvious blind spot towards animals in the vast 

majority of the works. So, in Animals Are Not Ours, I 

wanted to demonstrate how animal liberation was a 

natural fit with other liberative theologies. It’s a very 

wide-reaching book, and I didn’t hold back. 

My second book is Vegangelical: How Caring for 

Animals Can Shape Your Faith (Zondervan, 2016). I 

really wrote this book for my dad. I needed a very 

careful, biblically-based introduction to animal issues. 

In Vegangelical, I talk about how a few core Christian 

beliefs and values can shape our understanding of our 

responsibility towards animals. So, once we’ve 

established what it is we believe, we can look at the 

different ways we use animals today—as pets, 

entertainment, research subjects, clothing, and food— 

and ask ourselves if what we believe is played out in 

how we live. It was a fun book to write, it’s super 

accessible, and my dad went vegan after he read it, so I 

think I did my job well. 

You can read some of 

Sarah’s writing at her 

website. Click on the 

images below for more 

info on Sarah’s books. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share 

with readers? 

I feel really lucky every day that I get to work on 

CreatureKind, which is a project working from within 

the church to engage Christians on farmed animal 

welfare. You can read about our first ten months on our 

website. We are always looking for partners and are 

eager to talk to people who have a heart for this work, 

no matter their own faith expression. BV 



By Linda Monahan

P 

utting our compassion into action is what makes 

us vegan. When confronted with animal 

suffering, we have each chosen to do something 

rather than remain complicit. But what do we 

make of those instances when the there is no 

clear actionable response? 

The routine deaths of animals that have been hit by 

cars, commonly known as “roadkill,” is an issue that has 

been especially challenging for me since becoming vegan. 

Though I see body after body on the roadside, there is no 

company to hold accountable, no rescue to donate or 

volunteer with. And unless we are able to abstain from 

driving cars, there is no boycott that will lessen the death 

toll. 

Every day, roughly one million animals are killed by 

vehicles in the United States alone (1). Bodies of large 

mammals like deer are usually moved from traffic lanes by 

state transportation authorities, but they remain visible on 

shoulders and ditches as they decompose. The majority of 

animals we routinely kill with our cars, however, are 

smaller mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians whose 

bodies stay on roadways to be driven over and over to 

disintegration. 

With nearly four hundred million animals killed by cars 

annually, “roadkill” is the second largest cause of animal 

death in the United States, behind animals killed for flesh 

(2) . 

Despite these figures, road-killed animals are rarely 

afforded human compassion. There are several factors that 

contribute to their exclusion from the moral community, as 

well as several compelling responses to encountering 

“roadkill” that could help to change this fact. 

In my chapter for the recent academic anthology, 

Mourning Animals, edited by Margo DeMello, I suggest 

that demonstrating compassion for road-killed animals 

is a productive entry point for people to engage greater 

respect for all animals (3). Because vegans already 

include all beings in our circle of compassion, we are 

primed to become advocates for our local wildlife on 

this widespread issue. 

Road-killed animals, of course, do not spontaneously 

appear in travel lanes as disfigured corpses. There are 

identifiable and, often, preventable factors that put 

animals at risk of being killed on the road. Road 

ecologists have studied what brings certain animals to 

the roadside and have long been working toward 

preventative measures (4). 

Wildlife crossings like vegetation-covered bridge 

overpasses and tunnel- and gully-like underpasses have 

been proven effective in rerouting the migration 

behavior of many commonly road-killed species (5). 

These measures, however, are far from commonplace. 

Despite the efficacy of these mitigation efforts, 

“roadkill” is generally regarded as regrettable but 

inevitable. We might express a moment’s despair when 

passing evidence of a particularly gruesome collision, or 

allow ourselves brief grief over the death of certain 

species more than others. 

It is hard not to notice the body of a dog or cat on 

the side of the road, for example, but it is easy enough 

for many to roll past a squirrel or opossum without a 

second glance. As wild species, road-killed animals lack 

the strong ties to a human community that companion 

animals—even those hit by cars—can claim. 


>

To further understand why these animal victims are still 

regarded with such little compassion, consider the 

similarities between animals hung in butcheries and 

those flattened on the road. Both require rationalisation 

on the part of the would-be compassionate human. 

Language is a big part of this mental-moral negotiation. 

As labor scholar Dennis Soron explains, “As a human 

creation, ‘road kill’ is just as de-animalized as ‘beef’ and 

just as open to cultural meanings that are bracketed off 

from the embodied experience of the suffering 

animal.” (6) In other words, 

simply calling these animals 

“roadkill” is the first exclusionary 

mind-trick. 

For this reason, I use the term 

“road-killed animals” to 

emphasise that the way in which 

these animals die does not 

exclusively define their 

relationship to the human 

community. As individual beings, 

road-killed animals have full and 

varied lives independent of the 

final violence inflicted upon them 

by humans. 

Other factors that limit the extension of compassion 

to road-killed animals include both the practical and the 

cultural. On a practical level, travel by car is inherently 

inhospitable to demonstrating compassion for roadkilled 

animals due to the speed at which we move. Not 

only are we only granted just a few seconds to react to an 

animal on the roadway (living or dead), but high-speed 

traffic makes it dangerous to stop and engage with any 

potential feelings of concern or grief upon seeing an 

animal’s disfigured corpse. 

Culturally, road-killed animals have largely been a 

punchline. Twentieth century cartoons like Wile E. 

Coyote and gag-gift variations on Playboy columnist 

Buck Peterson’s The Roadkill Cookbook series are 

expressions of a larger speciesist discourse that 

maintains a hierarchical divide between human and 

nonhuman animals. Narratives of human dominion and 

progress, along with the desire to travel further, faster, 

and more frequently in North American car culture work 

together to create conditions inhospitable to compassion 

for road-killed animals. 

A final factor contributing to the lack of compassion 


for road-killed animals is the frequency of drivers’ 

encounters with such violent imagery, fostering a culture 

that is desensitised to the sight. The mundane visibility of 

bloody, dismembered wildlife on the road naturalises this 

automotive violence in the same way that constant 

imagery of meat products in food advertisements 

naturalises the consumption of animal flesh. 

It is possible, however, for the constant visibility of 

road-killed animals to disrupt these animals’ cultural 

status as outside the realm of human compassion and 

mourning. 

Recognising the individual value of road-killed 

animals is a critical step toward human accountability for 

their lives and deaths. Mourning is a powerful affect that 

can translate into compassion for road-killed animals in 

ways that are familiar to humans. 

Mourning, in contrast to grief, connotes an expression 

of feelings of deep sorrow. By making feelings of sadness 

and regret visible, audible, or otherwise public, mourning 

animals who have been violently killed on the road 

mirrors the highly visible, public nature of their deaths. 

In recent years, road-killed animals have begun to be 

integrated into larger narratives of subjectivity and 

interspecies community through activism and art that 

seek to fit road-killed animals into established human 

mourning practices. PETA, for example, has petitioned 

several state legislatures for roadside memorials for 

animals killed in transit (though none so far have been 

approved). 

Author Barry Lopez offers another response on an 

individual level in his beautifully woodcut-illustrated 

essay, Apologia. He describes his encounters with 

individual road-killed animals as moments to take 

accountability. For Lopez, accountability means pulling 

over to move the broken bodies from the road. 

Awareness of the individual compels him to act, to 

express his apology through the ritual of burial. 

American photographer Emma Kisiel has a similar 

response to witnessing wildlife mortality on U.S. 

highways. In her series At Rest (2011), Kisiel constructs 

and photographs makeshift memorials for found roadkilled 

fauna. Kisiel’s new visuality of road-killed animals 

allows us to recognise them as individuals worthy of 

mourning. 

Kisiel, Lopez, and PETA encourage us to take the 

time to recognise each road-killed animal we pass. If we 

can mobilise compassion for the visible violence of 

“roadkill,” we may then be able to inspire greater 

compassion for the victims of the invisible violence of 

slaughterhouses and laboratories. 

The collective force of these millisecond mournings 

can have political power: once the affect of care shrouds 

these animals, we can press for preventative measures 

such as wildlife crossings and driver education 

campaigns that value animal life. Alongside creative 

works of remembrance, these measures will help 

“roadkill” continue its cultural transformation from 

laughably grotesque to grievable, animal death. BV 

References: 

(1) Marcel P. Huijser et al. “Cost-Benefit Analyses of Mitigation 

Measures Aimed at Reducing Collisions with Large Ungulates 

in the United States and Canada: A Decision Support Tool,” 

Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009): 15. 

(2) Andreas Seiler and J.-O. Helldin, “Mortality in Wildlife 

Due to Transportation,” in The Ecology of Transportation: 

Managing Mobility for the Environment, ed. John Davenport 

and Julia L. Davenport (New York: Springer, 2006), 166–68. 

(3) Linda Monahan, “Mourning the Mundane: Memorializing 

Roadkill in North America,” in Mourning Animals, ed. Margo 

DeMello (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State UP), 151-157. 

(4) Seiler and Helldin, “Mortality in Wildlife.” 

(5) Diana Balmori and David K. Skelly, “Crossing to 

Sustainability: A Role for Design in Overcoming Road Effects,” 

Ecological Restoration 30, no. 4 (2012): 363–67. 

(6) Dennis Soron, “Road Kill: Commodity Fetishism and 

Structural Violence,” in Critical Theory and Animal Liberation, 

ed. John Sanbonmatsu (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011), 

63. pp.55-70. 


Compassion 

for 

animals 

through 

veganism 

By Tom Leslie 



B 

eing or becoming a vegan means that you show 

compassion towards animals. Veganism is based on 

the philosophy that the killing of or exploitation of 

any animal is not justified and goes totally against the 

compassion we should show towards the animals we share 

our planet with. 

If we did live in a world where animals are treated 

‘humanely’ and got the respect they deserved, the following 

statement would not be true: over 40 million one-day old 

chicks are killed every year. That means 40 million lives that 

deserve to have their rights upheld are ended within 24 hours 

of birth, due to cruelty, greed and a vast shortcoming of 

compassion. There is a common misconception that 

veganism is only about diet, the truth is it is a belief that goes 

much deeper than simply changing what we eat and drink. 

From campaigning to get animals out of circuses and sport, 

to only purchasing ethically produced clothing and 

household items. Veganism is about showing compassion to 

all animals, not only those kept cruelly on factory farms. 

I would love to encourage people who read this to think 

about veganism in the bigger picture, not just the diet, and 

also to show more love towards animals and their habitats. If 

you are reading this as a non-vegan, maybe a vegetarian 

considering going the extra step, then I assure you that 

leading a vegan life is the single greatest step you can take to 

show that you care about animal welfare and the planet you 

live on. If you are a vegan then I would urge you to get out 

into nature and see animals thrive in their natural 

habitat, where they should be and really appreciate the 

wildlife that we are so lucky to have. Doing something 

like this is a wonderful way to remember the 

importance of veganism, and reinforce the fact that 

you are living a kinder, healthier way of life as a vegan. 

Finally, if you are a non-vegan reading this then I 

imagine you are quite curious about the diet and 

lifestyle. I could not encourage you enough to try a 

plant-based diet as a first step (why not sign up right 

now to Veganuary?) and start to discover the beauty of 

a cruelty-free way of life. For animals, the planet and 

your own health. BV 

Tom Leslie has been a 

vegan since February 2016. 

He is a lover of endurance 

sport, especially running 

and cycling. A key reason for 

opting for the vegan lifestyle was his love for 

animals and his desire for all creatures to be 

free from harm and exploitation. His personal 

aim is to use his passion for endurance sport 

to promote veganism and to prove that it is in 

no way a hindrance to people with active 

lifestyles. 





By Katrina Fox


Our psychological wounds can cause us to lash out at 

ourselves and others, even those we’re working with 

for a common cause and whose values of kindness we 

claim to share. Acknowledging our personal and 

collective shadow is key to learning to embrace 

compassion for all, writes Katrina Fox. 

“You’re a filthy little Arab who should go back to where 

you came from.” So said my adoptive mother for the first 

time when I was age six, after I’d spilled crumbs on the 

floor from a biscuit I was eating. “No wonder your real 

mother didn’t want you.” The impact of this cruel remark 

was instant and lasted for decades. As humans are wont 

to do, I made it mean that I was unlovable and would 

never be good enough. 

Factual inaccuracies aside (my birth father was 

Persian, not an Arab), it was—unbeknownst to me at the 

time—my first experience with racism. The idea that 

anyone who wasn’t a white English person was inferior 

was further solidified by my dad’s constant referencing of 

“bloody wogs” to describe black people. I quickly learned 

to deny my ethnic heritage right into my 20s—if anyone 

asked, I said I was part Spanish or Italian. I even went so 

far as to have a nose job in 1993, partly to remove a small 

bump, but I can’t deny I was pleased the adjustment 

made me look less obviously half Iranian. 

Around the age of 10, in 1976, I became obsessed with 

the women in the hit TV show Charlie’s Angels. I started 

a scrapbook, and asked my classmates to save any 

newspaper or magazine clippings featuring the trio of 

glamorous female detectives. In addition, my best friend 

Susan and I told everyone we loved each other. It was an 

innocent enough comment, but a boy in our class said he 

thought we were lesbians. It was the first time I’d heard 

the word, and when he explained what it meant, without 

any judgment, I was happy to take it on. But when I told 

the teacher I was a lesbian, she was horrified and told me 

not to say that word again or I’d be sent to the 

headmaster to be punished. This was my first experience 

with homophobia. And, in his typical uncreative manner, 

good old dad confirmed my suspicions that same-sex love 

and affection was bad by yelling “bloody poofs” at the TV 

screen whenever footballers hugged each other after 

one of their teammates scored a goal. Cue more 

disempowerment. 

My first experience with sexism happened around a 

similar time, when I asked to play football and rugby 

and was told by both the boys and the teachers that I 

couldn’t because I was a girl. 

So, before I’d even hit puberty, I’d learned that if 

you weren’t white, straight, and male, there was 

something wrong with you and you didn’t deserve to 

participate in life on an equal footing. Essentially, you 

were “lesser than” privileged others, although I didn’t 

have the fancy language for it back then. 

By age 11, I’d learned that animals had it even 

tougher. My jaw literally dropped open when I learned 

that the beef burger on my plate had once been part of 

a beautiful, living cow. While I was brought up on a 

council estate just outside of south London in the UK, 

I’d visit my cousin in the country occasionally where 

I’d climb over fences into farmers’ fields to stroke the 

cows and give them apples, with no clue that they 

would be trucked off to an abattoir and killed. Learning 

that I’d been ingesting the dead bodies of these gentle 

creatures made me feel sick, and I became—without 

knowing the word at the time—vegetarian 

immediately. 

Although I embraced feminism, queer rights and 

animal advocacy in my early 20s, and found a plethora 

of examples of culturally entrenched sexism, racism, 

homophobia, and speciesism, I didn’t make the 

connections between these forms of oppression until 

much later—almost a decade, in fact, when I was 

introduced to veganism by a schoolteacher on an antivivisection 

demo. It was finding out about the cruelty 


involved in the dairy industry in particular that made the 

light bulbs in my head start to go off. 

I learned that in order to produce milk, a cow must be 

kept pregnant and lactating, a process carried out by 

restraining her in a head stall and artificially inseminating 

her; that shortly after birth, calves are torn away from their 

mothers, who bellow for several weeks with grief; that dairy 

cows are hooked up to milking machines—after suffering 

the agonising ordeal of having their horns and, on occasion, 

excess teats cut off with scissors solely for aesthetic reasons; 

that mastitis—the inflammation of 

the mammary glands—is the most 

common affliction affecting dairy 

cows around the world and causes 

them severe pain; that this relentless 

cycle of forced endless pregnancy, 

birthing, and lactation puts so much 

pressure on the reproductive systems 

of cows that they become spent— 

verging on dead at around four to five 

years of age, whereas naturally they 

would live for a couple of decades. 

It was this moment that the 

connections between feminism and 

animal rights became obvious: how 

could I call for my own reproductive autonomy while 

actively supporting the assault on female non-human 

animals’ reproductive systems through the consumption of 

dairy? As Shy Buba wrote on The Vegan Woman blog, “It’s 

contrary to feminism to defend one type of female body 

while using and abusing another.” 

Fighting Back or Fighting Ourselves? 

Over the years, I’ve been involved with both 

mainstream gay, lesbian, bisexual and sex and/or 

gender diverse communities, as well as alternative 

queer groups. Within both communities, there are 

passionate individuals and groups campaigning 

against one or more forms of oppression while 

perpetuating other forms. For example, the rise of 

“black face” and other modes of appropriation of 

native cultures by white performers in queer feminist 

...One of the more 

confronting aspects of sacred 

activism is learning to love 

and forgive the perpetrators 

of oppression, cruelty, and 

horrendous injustices. 

circles; sexism, racism, and misogyny within the 

animal rights movement; and speciesism in the 

majority of campaigns for human rights. 

It both breaks my heart and frustrates me when my 

queer, feminist friends and colleagues speak out so 

passionately about homophobia, sexism or racism in > 


one breath, while updating their Facebook statuses 

describing the sentient being they ate for lunch or serving 

the dead bodies or secretions of tortured farmed animals 

at events to celebrate equality or advancement for women 

or queer folk. And when the issue of animal oppression is 

raised (in the same way that they attempt to gain support 

for their particular cause), reactions generally fall into two 

camps: “I know, but I don’t care enough to change my 

lifestyle to give up my gustatory delights,” or “I don’t want 

to know because I don’t want to give up my power and 

privilege. Besides, (insert type of creature here) tastes so 

good.” 

Some are often accompanied by a patronising smile 

and a comment along the lines of, “Aw, your love of 

animals and vegan lifestyle is so sweet.” Imagine the 

reaction if you said that about their anti-racism work. 

Unsurprisingly, such disagreements result in an 

interminable amount of infighting—in which I admit I’ve 

contributed my share. Activist movements are full of 

people who have experienced cruelty, oppression, 

discrimination, and often physical violence. We’ve been 

told that we’re “broken,” “wrong,” “not good enough,”— 

not only by individual people, but through the 

perpetuation of overt as well as the insidious 

reinforcement of what is considered culturally acceptable 

or unacceptable. 

Depending on the educational or emotional resources 

we have access to at any given time, many of us will live in 

a state of unconsciousness about our own or others’ 

oppression, reacting with anger each time we are triggered 

by others’ comments. Many of us are fuelled by a deepseated 

rage, which can on one hand be a motivator to take 

action against injustice, yet unchecked on the other hand 

destroys not only our own sense of peace but very often 

any power or leverage we may get to achieve our goals of 

liberation. While we’re busy putting all our energy into 

fighting each other and our potential allies, it seems 

oppressors are finding new ways to hold onto and extend 

their privileges. 

Integrating the Shadow Self and Embracing 

Compassion for All 

In July 2011, my personal life was a mess. Despite being in a 

relationship of 18 years with a woman who loved me very 

much and living in an apartment that I co-owned, I was 

deeply unhappy and dissatisfied with my life. My career as 

a freelance writer and editor wasn’t bringing me the joy it 

used to; I felt like I’d lost my writing mojo and felt 


As social change 

makers, we owe it 

to ourselves, and 

to humanity, 

animals, and the 

planet, to take 

action that comes 

from a place of 

compassion: for 

others and 

ourselves. 

resentful and trapped. Up until that time, I believed that 

life happened to me, that my feelings ran the show and I 

was at the mercy of external circumstances—in other 

words, despite my obvious privileges, I was a victim. 

Fortunately, a close friend offered a different 

perspective on my situation, one which suggested that I 

had a choice in how I acted, reacted, and behaved. At 

the age of 46, I was finally ready to hear the pearl of 

wisdom that personal development gurus had been 

spouting for decades. I felt not just a light bulb but a 

whole panorama of bright stadium lights switch on in 

my mind. The following 12 months saw me devour 

books, audio recordings, and DVDs, and attend 

workshops and seminars, all of which taught me that 

the past only defines you if you let it; it is possible to 

consciously choose to move beyond it and decide who 

you want to become. 

Now, I realise this may be all very well for a whiteskinned, 

middle-class lesbian with certain privileges, 

and I’m not suggesting it’s easy (I still struggle with 

negative self-talk, but it’s lessening as I equip myself 

with the tools of self-awareness), but I have come to 

believe that compassion for self and others is the key to 

making a difference in the world. As I allowed myself to 

be open to new possibilities, I found myself exposed to 

individuals who had figured out the importance of 

integrating our shadow parts into our lives, instead of 

running away from them. 

>


Our “shadow side” is anything we dislike about ourselves 

that we’d rather others did not know about us. It can 

range from a sense of entitlement and righteousness to 

feeling incompetent, like a failure or a fake. 

In 2012, I met and conducted an interview with author 

Andrew Harvey who coined the term “sacred activism,” a 

mixture of radical action/activism and spirituality. What 

I like about Harvey’s philosophy is his acknowledgement 

of the need to do intense work around the personal and 

cultural shadow (our own private wounding as well the 

shadow cast by a society that is “narcissistic, selfabsorbed 

and utterly suicidal in its pursuit of 

domination of nature ” ). 

Harvey believes that positive social change will not 

be achieved by activists fueled solely by anger or by 

“bliss bunnies” who meditate and do little else. In 

addition to personal and group shadow work, one of the 

more confronting aspects of sacred activism is learning 

to love and forgive the perpetrators of oppression, 

cruelty, and horrendous injustices. This is a challenging 

one, and I am not sure I am quite ready to embrace this, 

yet intuitively it rings true. 

“It doesn’t mean you don’t act against their policies,” 

Harvey told me. “Gandhi didn’t hate the British, but 

acted systematically to unseat them. Martin Luther King 

didn’t hate white Americans, but fought with sacred 

power to bring in civil rights. Not hating people, and 

instead forgiving them, doesn’t mean you let the policies 

or actions continue, but it does mean your whole action 

is not action against; it’s for a vision that includes [the 

perpetrators] and their healing. Gandhi believed the 

British were killing themselves by gunning down the 

Indians, so his action was on behalf of both. King 

understood that white Americans pretending to love 

Jesus while dishonoring their black brothers and sisters 

were destroying a part of their soul, so his actions were 

on behalf of White Americans and black people.” 

It is a tough one. Attempting to love and forgive 

those who carry out the most heinous atrocities on 

people, animals, and the environment is not a place I 

have reached yet, but I am teetering on the edge of 

compassion, with the awareness that the perpetrators of 

violence, cruelty and destruction are acting from a place 

of fear, self-loathing, and unconsciousness. When I was 

around nine, I deliberately killed a centipede. For no 

particular reason other than I could. I suppose I felt 

powerless, and this was a way I could feel powerful over 

another being. I felt guilty and ashamed for many years 

afterwards. I have also been reactive, unkind, and harsh 

to various people throughout my life—as most of us 

have. 

We all seek love, significance, and belonging. In that 

search we may hurt others. It is because we do not love 

ourselves that our ego needs power over others, rather 

than empowerment. As social change makers, we owe it 

to ourselves, and to humanity, animals, and the planet, 

to take action that comes from a place of compassion: 

for others and ourselves. BV 

This article is an extract 

from Circles of Compassion: 

Essays Connecting Issues of 

Justice, edited by Dr. Will 

Tuttle. To 

order your 

copy, click on 

the cover 

image. 


Anti-natalism is a philosophical position 

that assigns a negative value to birth or 

that views non-existence as preferable to 

existence (source). There is an 

increasing population of vegans 

publically expressing aggressive antinatalist 

views and here, Dr. Casey Taft 

explores how doing so can have a negative 

impact on our vegan advocacy efforts. 



I 

n a patriarchal society there is great pressure on 

women to have children. Women are taught from an 

early age that one of their primary functions is to 

have babies. When they don't fulfill this societal 

role, they may be subtly or not so subtly pressured by 

those around them to get with the program. 

I have great respect for those women who decide that 

having children is not right for them despite the pressure 

they're under. For many, the decision not to have children 

represents a reclaiming of their personal identity and 

what it means to be a woman. 

Other women make a different choice and opt to have 

children. This choice also may connect them with their 

womanhood. 

There is perhaps nothing more personal than one's 

reproductive choices. I don't think that anyone should be 

shamed for these choices, whatever they may be. 

Unfortunately, within the vegan movement, many 

women and men who refer to themselves as "antinatalists" 

engage in shaming women for their choice to 

have kids, creating an unsafe space for many women in 

the movement. In anti-natalist spaces, and even in other 

vegan spaces, women with children are derided as 

"breeders" and far worse, and jokes are made about 

women who have miscarriages or babies with disabilities. 

The ugliness I've witnessed knows no bounds. But yet, 

even when direct calls for violence towards women and 

babies are exposed and made public, there is often a 

disappointing silence among other "child-free" vegans 

who otherwise are strong anti-violence advocates. I 

suppose it's human nature to ignore violence and hatred 

by those whom we may share certain other beliefs or 

characteristics. 

The anti-natalist argument is based primarily on 

scientific claims that rapid overpopulation will be the 

death of us all. The science behind these arguments is 

weak, with data showing that birth rates are actually 

declining in developing and developed nations. 1 The birth 

rate in the United States is the lowest rate ever 

recorded. 2,3 Despite this, 16% of the world’s population in 

developed nations consumes 80% of its natural resources, 

indicating that the real problems lie with 

overconsumption and misallocation of resources. 4 This 

overconsumption is clearly occurring at the corporate 

rather than the individual level, as we have a global 

economic system that has no regard for the damage that 

our major industries cause to the planet. 5 Vegans are as 

mindful of this as anyone, since our vegan advocacy helps 

combat climate change. The data seem to be telling us 

that focusing on people having babies is placing the focus 

in the wrong area. 

But one should not engage in shaming, coercing, or 

abusing women based on interpretations of scientific data 

regardless. Our reproductive choices are protected 

human rights, and efforts to take away these rights are 

oppressive and abusive. Looking the other way when 

others in the community do the same is also an injustice. 


How are we going to convince others 

that we're a social justice movement 

if we promote violence and injustice 

among ourselves? How can we be taken 

seriously when we speak out against 

violence towards non-human animals 

while promoting or ignoring abuse 

towards our fellow humans? 

Just like veganism is an issue of justice and not merely an 

issue of nutritional science, so too is the issue of 

reproductive choice. 

Another tenet of anti-natalism is that it's cruel to bring 

other humans into this terrible world. If one believes that 

living on this planet is a form of cruelty, I absolutely agree 

that having a child may not be a good decision for them. 

But many of us feel gratitude for each day that we exist on 

this planet. Many of us are vegan because we believe that 

being alive is amazing and no animal should be deprived of 

this gift. 

Yet another argument made by anti-natalists is that 

there's no guarantee that a vegan child will grow up to be 

vegan, and thus they will do greater harm. As a father of a 3 

-year old vegan girl who just grilled all our neighbors about 

veganism while trick or treating for Halloween, I call BS. 

Our little girl is stronger in her vegan convictions than 

many adults we know. When kids are not brainwashed to 

do harm to animals, it becomes unthinkable to do so, and 

it’s highly unlikely that anything is going to change that. 

Having a vegan child has forced us to engage in vegan 

education efforts in all kinds of spaces that we otherwise 

would not have: with neighbours, pre-school, family, and 

friends. If we truly want a vegan world, we need to raise 

awareness everywhere, not only with those from a singular 

demographic or lifestyle choice. 

Our veganism has been strengthened by having a vegan 

child. It was the impetus for starting a vegan-themed 

publishing company with a mission to raise vegan 

awareness. Our connection with our child has made the 

bond between non-human animals and their babies 

more real and personal for us. When we see a young non 

-human animal in an animal use industry, we see them as 

we see our own child and it pushes us to try even harder 

to make a difference for animals. Our parenthood is a 

fundamental part of our veganism. 

That is just us, of course, and others will have a 

different experience. I'm not trying to suggest that every 

vegan should go out there and reproduce, but at the 

same time, we should not gloss over the good that can 

come from parenting and we should avoid thinking of 

vegan babies as some kind of plague for humanity. 

Before somebody blurts out "Just adopt!" they should 

educate themselves on the difficulties and costs of the 

adoption process. I wish this was a more accessible 

option and I urge anyone with the inclination and the 

means to please do so, but adoption of a human is simply 

not the same as saving a companion animal, and I know 

of no vegan anti-natalist who has actually adopted a 

human child. 

Since I've become more vocal against anti-natalism, 

I've had several vegan mothers thank me and tell me 

stories about how they've been bullied and abused by 

others in the community, and how their "friends" have 

failed to speak out for them. Many have also described 

not feeling safe in the vegan community anymore 

because of this. It should go without saying that this is 

the opposite of what we should be doing. We should be 


>

inviting others from various backgrounds and lifestyles 

into our movement, including parents. 

How are we going to convince others that we're a 

social justice movement if we promote violence and 

injustice among ourselves? How can we be taken seriously 

when we speak out against violence towards non-human 

animals while promoting or ignoring abuse towards our 

fellow humans? It's time to get serious as a movement and 

cut out the oppression, in all of its forms. BV 

References: 

1 Nargund, G. (2009). Declining birth rate in developed countries: 

A radical policy rethink is required. Facts Views Vis Obgyn. 

2009; 1(3): 191–193. 

2 Park, M. (August 11, 2016). U.S. fertility rate falls to lowest on 

record. CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/11/health/us-lowestfertility-rate/ 

3 Rossen LM, Osterman MJK, Hamilton BE, Martin JA. (2016). 

Quarterly provisional estimates for selected birth indicators, 

2014–Quarter 2, 2016. National Center for Health Statistics. 

National Vital Statistics System, Vital Statistics Rapid Release 

Program. 

4 Utley, G. (October 12, 1999). World’s wealthiest 16 percent uses 

80 percent of natural resources. CNN. http://www.cnn.com/ 

US/9910/12/population.cosumption/ 

5 Global Sisterhood Network (Fall 2006). 10 Reasons to Rethink 

“Overpopulation.” http://www.global-sisterhood-network.org/ 

content/view/1319/59/ 

In addition to his work 

managing Vegan Publishers, 

Casey Taft is Professor of 

Psychiatry at Boston 

University School of 

Medicine. He is an 

internationally recognised and 

award-winning researcher in the 

areas of trauma and the family. He has published 

over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and 

scientific reports, and has consulted with the 

United Nations on preventing violence and abuse 

globally. He sees the prevention of violence 

towards animals as a natural extension of this 

work. Visit the Vegan Publishers website and 

connect with them via Facebook and Twitter. 

NATURE VS. NUTURE? 

“Parents are often bewildered when their 

children who have been raised to hold certain 

values, go on to reject those values later in 

life. However, there is no insurance policy that 

your children will follow your own values, even if 

they have been subjected to them throughout 

their developing years and seen those values 

lived out in the family. 

“Vegan parents often believe that one of the 

biggest contributions they can make to a 

creating a vegan world is to raise a child as 

vegan. Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that 

those children raised as vegans will continue to 

be when they grow up. 

“It is healthy and essential for children to 

develop an increasing autonomy and 

independence so they can function effectively in 

the world. This independent stance could mean 

a child who is raised vegan will reject those 

values and see their non-veganism as a form of 

independence and defiance. However, upbringing 

and culture is a major determinant of how 

people behave so fortunately for many children 

raised as vegan, they continue to be throughout 

their lives.” 

- Vegan psychologist, Clare Mann 


By Julia Feliz Brueck 

I 

ncluded with the latest submission to The Vegan 

Craftivist Project was a note that read in part, "I like 

the idea of vegan craftivist projects because I want 

to feel useful and feel like I am still part of a 

movement even though I am physically unable to be part 

of a lot of actions. Everyone has something to give in 

life." 

As the note reminds us, we all have something to give 

and we can all speak up for non-humans in whatever way 

we can. The Vegan Craftivist Project started as a way to 

stay active in speaking up for non-humans after my move 

to a foreign country where I did not speak the language. I 

felt unable to use my voice on behalf of non-human 

animals as I did before my move. I was grateful to find an 

outlet a few months later when I learned that I could use 

my hands to create works that could speak on their own 

on issues that I was passionate about. I decided to use 

craft as activism within the vegan and animal rights 

movement through the collective display of banners 

silently yet loudly proclaiming "why vegan" for nonhuman 

animals. 

Whether you are the only vegan in your area, 

unfamiliar with the local language like I was, physically 

unable to take part in many actions, or very active in the 

vegan movement, the great thing about craftivism is that 

vegans from all walks of life can speak up through the 

use of their hands. 

The term ‘craftivism’ was coined by Betsy Greer with an 

aim of speaking up for social justice issues through the 

use of craft - knitting, crochet, sewing, and embroidery, 


for example. Community outreach, making things for 

those less fortunate, creating something to protest an 

issue, or crafting a piece that delivers a message to the 

viewer, all count as craftivism. The Vegan Craftivist 

Project was the first vegan project to join the craftivist 

movement. 

With a goal of collecting 100 banners, which will be 

sewn together as a large flag and displayed in vegan 

venues and demonstrations, world-wide submissions in all 

languages from vegans of all crafting skills are welcome to 

send in banners. To learn more about vegan craftivism, 

the project, and submission guidelines, 

visit vegancraftivist.blogspot.ch or join our Vegan 

Craftivist Facebook page. BV 

Julia is an American currently 

experiencing life in 

Switzerland. She has spent 

the last decade or so 

exploring the world 

outside of the US, and on 

that journey, while in Ireland, she 

discovered ethical veganism. Julia has recently 

published her first vegan children’s book ‘Libby 

Finds Vegan Sanctuary’.

We all have 

something to 

give and we 

can all speak 

up for nonhumans 

in 

whatever way 

we can. 



By Honey Morris

I 

love to craft, it’s a hobby, and a passion, that I have 

rediscovered in my thirties. I find crafting to be 

surprisingly relaxing, mediative almost, and I spend as 

much time channelling my creativity as possible. A lot 

of my family and friends are baffled when I talk about vegan 

crafting but frustratingly, a lot of crafting materials are nonvegan. 

That’s right, a lot of crafting materials contain animal 

products and/or animal by-products! Yes, it’s sadly the case 

but on a positive note, eco-friendly and vegan crafting 

supplies are becoming more and more popular and as a 

consequence, retailers are being encouraged to cater for 

conscious crafters. 

As an example, paint and paint brushes are often nonvegan, 

paint commonly contains charred animal bones, 

cochineal, ox gall and squid sacs and paint brushes are, 

more often than not, made from fur. 

Personally, my main craft is crochet, so my key 

consideration is wool. I refuse to crochet with any animalbased 

wool, the most common of which is sheep’s wool. 

The commercial wool industry is profit driven, shearers are 

often paid per sheep and consequently, sheep suffer 

emotionally and physically as a result of the shearing 

process. I also prefer to use eco-friendly wools, with 

bamboo and organic cotton being firm favourites. 

When I’m crafting, I love to reuse items. I love the 

challenge of creating something with items that are 

considered “trash”. This is something that a lot of my 

family and friends are aware of so they often pass me things 

like buttons, corks, fabric scraps, glass jars, ribbon, 

wrapping paper, and I especially love to craft them 

something with the items they kindly donate. 

I was actually introduced to the idea of craftivism when 

my family and friends started offering to pay for my 

creations. Initially, I felt a little awkward when 

discussing potential prices, however, I soon realised 

that I was being presented with an opportunity to use 

my hobby to raise some much needed funds for not-for 

-profit animal rescue organisations. 

So, as a craftivist I use my creativity to make a 

difference, albeit a small and gentle one. I donate all of 

the profits I make from selling items I have crafted 

and/or crocheted and excitingly, since mid-2016, I have 

donated over $300.00 (AUD). 

Recently, I was able to combine my love of crafting 

and my love of food by hosting a Christmas 

crafternoon tea. I was overwhelmed with how 

enthusiastically my friends embraced the crafting 

aspect and it was a fantastic opportunity for me to 

share some delicious vegan food with them all. 

I am looking forward to continuing with my 

craftivism in 2017. I have some exciting ideas for 

crochet projects that also raise awareness of important 

animal rights issues. 

The beginning of a New Year is the perfect time to 

introduce a new hobby or like me, rediscover an old 

hobby! So, if you’re feeling inspired to channel your 

creativity, have a think about what you’d like to do; 

jewellery making, crocheting, knitting, quilting, 

sewing, card making, scrapbooking, or woodwork! Give 

it a go, the possibilities really are endless! BV 

Honey is the creator of Veggie Yum Yums, a 

friendly vegan Facebook page, and the 

Assistant Online Editor of Barefoot Vegan. 

Click here to visit her website.

Barefoot Vegan Mag Jan_Feb 2017

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