And so, I kept my eyes and ears open to see who was doing what in the vegan scene. Little did I know, the first sign had been placed in front of me years ago. And, given the success of that one cookbook, I suspect it’s been in front of many of you as well. Of course, it wasn’t until some major events happened that all of these signs came together to make up my mind that the next T.O.F.U. grant recipient would be Sarah Kramer.

Building a Community

Long before everyone and their blog had a publishing deal, let alone a single vegan cookbook in Barnes & Noble, Sarah Kramer was spreading the vegan message through great plant-based recipes and her charm. Although the start of her publishing career rings a little close to the T.O.F.U. home, Sarah’s first zine eventually became the original vegan bible that is How it All Vegan. With over a quarter of a million copies sold worldwide since it was published over ten years ago, that book, like Sarah, laid the foundation for so much of what has happened in the vegan community.

But Sarah didn’t stop there. With two other books (Garden of Vegan and La Dolce Vegan), a travel-friendly compilation of recipes (Vegan A Go-Go), and an iPhone/iPad app (Go Vegan! with Sarah Kramer) under her belt, Sarah took an even bigger step and opened her own vegan boutique (Sarah’s Place) in Victoria, BC, Canada two years ago.

This time, it’s personal

If you’ve had the chance to talk with Sarah in some way, whether it was through a tweet, an email, a blog comment, or while looking through all the wonderful and curious things in her boutique, chances are you already know how nice she is. Of course, that’s always been a part of what made Sarah and her work so great: it was personal. From her near daily pics of her dog, Fergus, to the fact that her store is filled with hand-picked finds of curiosity and beauty, Sarah’s secret ingredient to her success seems to always be a simple dash of herself in everything she does.

So, when she broke the news that she had breast cancer, it was no surprise that the support was almost immediate. Even though those in the vegan community can certainly get wrapped up in a lot of drama, especially online, this time it wasn’t about who now ate what for what reasons. This time it was about Sarah, and, instead of tearing something or someone down, people were doing something positive: they were touching themselves.

Taking care of business

Over two months and a bunch of blog posts later, a lot has happened for the newest grant recipient. As can be expected, there have been some ups and downs, and there are more to come, but at least one constant has been the support of the vegan community. Of course, when you’re running your own business, flowers and get well cards can only go so far before the bills take over, especially when you’re faced with recovering from surgery and needing to work at the same time.

Although I can’t relate to recovering from serious surgery, especially a mastectomy, I do understand the toll a small business can take on a person, even when they’re healthy. So, for this and many other reasons, the best way I could think of to help Sarah and thank her for everything she has done for more than a decade was the T.O.F.U. grant.

If you’d like to show your support or tell Sarah thanks, here are some of the ways you can reach her:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Since it started, the magazine has grown a tremendous amount, and I owe so much thanks to all of you for that. So, it should go without saying that I’m excited to get the new issue out to see just how much further it can go!

Before that happens though, I still need to lay it all out, pass it along to a lovely designer friend of mine, and find companies to get onboard with a little financial support.

Although I’ve approached plenty of great businesses so far (thanks to many suggestions by folks on the Facebook page), I figured it wouldn’t hurt to mention it here as well. With the deadline a little under a week away, I’d hate to see some great folks miss out on a chance to advertise what they’re doing.

Not only that, but the more companies I get onboard to advertise, the more I can show support through the T.O.F.U. grant program. If you have not heard about it already, I give half of the advertising income for each issue to a recipient who continues to work on improving the vegan movement in one way or another. Thus, advertising with the magazine supports more than just T.O.F.U., it directly supports a member of the community as well.

So, do you know of any great companies that I should approach? For that matter, are you doing something vegan-friendly that you would like to tell folks about? If so, please feel free to let me know, and, if you’re interested yourself, you can check out the prices and specifications for more info.

thanks,
Ryan

From the vegan duo The Pleasants, who were kind enough to travel across North America with me for issue three, to photographer Jo-Anne McArthur, who continues to challenge our view of animals within our world, the T.O.F.U. grant has been our way to give back to a community that has supported what we do since day one.

So, when work started on the sixth issue we knew we also had to keep our eyes open for the recipient of the third grant. Given the serious focus of the issue, it seemed logical that the recipient would be heavily involved in pushing the envelope on the topics we knew we would only be able to touch on. Thus, the decision came easy to choose A. Breeze Harper.

Truly Ethical Veganism

A PhD Candidate at the University of California, Harper’s work focuses on intersections of critical food studies, critical race theory, and black feminist thought. She is also the founder of The Sistah Vegan Project, which explores the lives of black female vegans. The project also looks at how geopolitical status, race, class, gender, and sexuality affect vegan philosophy. In 2010, Lantern Books published Harper’s edited volume Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans on Food, Identity, Health and Society, the first book of its kind to look at the experiences of American veganism through the lens of race and gender.

In an interview with the Creative Director for issue six, Harper goes into detail about the importance of critically thinking about veganism and its intersectionality with forms of oppression:

“…it’s not that I have a problem if a vegan still chooses to eat a vegan tomato product, but I have issues with the lack of transparency of how the vegan food actually got to your plate. Marking it as ‘cruelty-free’ elides the possibility that human beings may suffer in order to get that product to you. I actually feel that framing a vegan product as ‘cruelty-free’ creates a one-dimensional “it’s only about the animals not being exploited” approach to vegan consumerism.”

It is due to her continued efforts to put such problems on the table that we proudly support A. Breeze Harper and her work to make veganism, and the world, better.

Show Your Support

A. Breeze Harper is trying to finish her dissertation work, titled Situating Racialization, Racisms, and Anti-Racisms: Critical Race Feminist and Socio-spatial Epistemological Analysis of Vegan Philosophy in the USA. Due to California budget cuts, her dissertation fellowship for 2011-2012 was not renewed. If you would like to support her finishing her PhD and social activist scholarship for 2012 summer graduation, she is accepting donations through paypal: breezeharper@gmail.com

So, although it’s not a lot, things like the T.O.F.U. grant have really helped to make us feel like we’re headed in the right direction issue after issue. Furthermore, over the past few months, and thanks partially to a grant from VegFund, we’ve also started to be a part of events around the world. It’s a little something we like to do to try and support the community that has always been so nice to us.

One of those events, the Vegan IronChef, happened recently in Portland, Oregon, and we’re happy to hear that things went incredibly well.

Top Portland chefs beat the heat with impressive cooking in second Vegan Iron Chef

Now, we just need to plan next year better so we can attend most of these things!

“…the We Animals project is my life’s work and I don’t foresee ever stopping, though I do imagine it growing from an archive of photos into a really powerful humane education program. Whatever happens, I want my future and my career to be entwined with the changing of hearts and minds about our treatment of animals around the globe.”
- Jo-Anne McArthur, T.O.F.U. #5

For over ten years now, Jo-Anne has been working to connect people with the animals who share the planet with us. Jo-Anne has documented both abuse and love between humans and other animals around the world, and with her lens she is helping to change things for the better. Although the T.O.F.U. Grant comes with no specifications on how the money should be spent, we are confident that Jo-Anne will put it to good use, and we are proud to be a part of any challenge she takes on.

Current projects (Warning: graphic images)

Puppy Mills (photo)
There are more puppy mills in Quebec, Canada than anywhere in the world, second only to China. They are largely unregulated and lax animal welfare laws make it next to impossible to regulate these operations. The Humane Society and Montreal SPCA are working to close these operations and raise awareness about them and about what you are really supporting when you buy a cute little puppy from a pet store. I look forward to continued work with them, in order to help their campaign and to also raise awareness about puppy mills through the We Animals project.

In this photograph, a male poodle mix has been rescued and brought to the SPCA shelter. He hasn’t yet been groomed and a lot of his mouth and jaw have rotted away due to bad food and lack of hygiene and vet care. He was given medical care, a foster home and eventually a forever home.

Slaughter (photo)
In this photograph, and about the “slaughter” story in general….

After shooting at many places and situations where animals are killed, I’m piecing together a small project within We Animals that looks at animals at the moment of death, as well as the moments leading up to their death. The purpose is to show that no matter what country, no matter by blade or gassing or electrocution, no matter if they were raised in a factory farm or pasture-fed as “humane meat”, each animal must face an involuntary and painful death. We, as consumers, should be aware of this when making our food choices.

Aquariums (photo)
Mammals, birds and fish of all kinds are overlooked in aquariums which, like zoos, only offer their captive animals cramped space and limited enrichment. I’ve recently shot at SeaWorld in Florida and will be shooting at more aquariums in Canada and the USA throughout this year in order to raise more awareness about this type of captivity.

In this photo, a young boy looks at a sting ray in a tank, and the ray looks back, or more specifically looks for food. The rays are turned into beggars as they swim in circles all day in their cramped space and people buy other fish to feed them for entertainment. Sting ray tanks are increasingly popular at zoos, even though it is only beneficial to the humans who are amused by them. Sting rays live short lives in tanks. At Canada’s Calgary Zoo, all of the string rays “mysteriously” died within a few days of one another after the sting ray exhibit was opened.

For more information, please see We Animals.

To support Jo-Anne and the We Animals project, please consider making a donation.

Photo credit: Karol Orzechowski

With the past issue we were able to go one step further with helping people through the T.O.F.U. grant, and we’re looking forward to being able to continue this program through future issues. Since another one is just around the corner, we have been working towards finding other avenues to support people in their related work. One of the ways we have decided to do this is through directly sponsoring vegan-related events, or at least advertising with them when possible.

With this in mind, T.O.F.U. is proud to be involved with the following:

Berkeley Vegan Earth Day – San Francisco, California, USA
April. 22nd, 2011

Berkeley Vegan Earth Day will feature a screening of the award-winning feature documentary, “Call of Life, Facing the Mass Extinction” by Species Alliances, which investigates the growing threat to Earth’s life support systems as a result of dwindling biodiversity. Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion featuring experts in vegan lifestyle and nutrition, and environmentalism. The admission also includes a delicious, vegan, catered reception sponsored by Vérité Catering, which specializes in plant-based cuisine.

For more information, please contact Karine Brighten Events.

Ottawa Veg Fest 2011 – Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Sunday, May. 1st, 2011

From fun costumes, to free samples, to guest speakers and a silent auction, there is something for everyone at this family-friendly, grassroots event. This year’s keynote speaker, former NHL-player turned vegan Georges Laraque, and the great NCVA Cupcake Challenge are bound to be highlights from what is set to be a great event.

Vida Vegan Blogger Conference – Portland, Oregon, USA
August. 26th to 28th, 2011

Workshops, discussion panels, speakers, special events, vegan food, and more. This conference will celebrate, explore, and fine-tune the practice—and ever-growing community—of vegan bloggers.

For more information, please see the Behind the Scenes post on the organizers, one of whom contributed to the last issue.

We’re hoping this list will continue to grow over the coming months, and we’re open to suggestions if you have them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxhdk8mg5EI

Those of you who caught the T.O.F.U. tour as we traveled from coast to coast should be no stranger to these two lovely vegans. Although they were billed simply as Amanda Rogers and Mike Matta at that time, the duo has since released an album called Forests and Fields under the name The Pleasants. Described as “Indie Grunge” or “Recession Rock,” they just recently finished up a European tour and are now back in America for the holidays. As two vegans who were nice enough to invite me into their van for a month and a half long journey without having ever met me before the tour, I am happy to be able to support The Pleasants as they provide their audiences with an excellent example of how to make the world a better place not only through their art, but also through the way they live their own lives. In fact, you may also recognize Amanda’s name from the article she wrote about simple living for the third issue. So, if you have a moment, check out their music and drop them a line. Both Amanda and Mike have other albums available through their past endeavours, which means plenty of new music for you!

Check out The Pleasants here:

Myspace | Bandcamp | Facebook

Labels:

Do It Together Records (American) | Friend of Mine Records (Japanese) | Make My Day Records (European)