Sam Iles's Blog

Look at this entry in my calendar from last year:

Yeah, that’s right. On the 6th of April 2010 I became vegan after about four years of vegetarianism. And, veganism, oh how I do love you.

It all started when I read a book called Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. To call it a life changing book would be an understatement. Foer actually made the case for vegetarianism (himself being a vegetarian, not a vegan) but the way in which he described the conditions of chickens and cows kept for eggs and dairy really made me think. A quick Google while reading the book solidified my decision, and, I distinctly remember that the last time I ate any non-vegan-but-vegetarian food was when I turned the very last page of the book. If you haven’t read it, you should.

So thus began the journey. It was one of the easiest things I’ve ever done. I can say with absolute and total honesty that I did not once want to eat cheese, et al, or relapse or regret my decision. I believe this is because I truly wanted to be vegan. This made it easy. I would suggest anyone else considering it to not consider it, but read their facts, make a decision, and do it. That’s the only way it can work.

Then, the food. Oh, Lordy, the food. To science, it’s known as NOM. I can honestly say that I have never eaten better. If you eat meat, you’re all, “oh, dinner, let’s have meat and potatoes like all nights”. It must get so boring. But, veganism forces you to cook. It forces you to use the best cookbooks out there. It forces you to discover plants and herbs and spices and flavours and cuisines you didn’t know existed before. I just love vegan food. I. Love. Food.

And, then there is the health. I feel healthy. I have plenty of energy. I have – according to a qualified nurse person – iron levels which are firmly “above average”. I have had what amounts to, oh, three spots in the last year (a increasing trend among models is to be the vegan thing to reduce the job ruining spots).

And, then there is the environment. My diet produces far less carbon dioxide. My diet uses far less water. I use less land. I pollute less. I am an anti-global warming device.

And, thirdly we have the little animals. Bless them. How many of your lives have I saved, I wonder? How many of you have not had to die for an industry for which apparently animals do not die. How wonderful.

As to the cookbooks, my favourites are as follows:

• Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The ultimate vegan cookbook. Hundreds of amazing recipes, from soups to “sammiches”, enchiladas to “elephant nori rolls”, it literally is the book of vegan.
• Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by the same as above. 75 cupcake recipes. 75. Never in all my life did I imagine I could love anything as much as I love vegan cupcakes. Such inventive, unimaginable varieties.
• Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar by the same as above. 100 cookie recipes. 100 this time! Never in all my life did I imagine I could love anything as much as I love vegan cookies. Serious nom to be had, here.
• Viva Vegan! by one of the above (Terry). 200 recipes from the Latin American countries. Latin American food is now my favourite food. I can’t even express in words the unrivalled awesome of the tastes, the textures, the nom. Buy this book if you are the vegan thing (or if you’re not).
• Vegan Scoop by Wheeler del Torro. 150 recipes for ice cream. But, not just any ice cream – VEGAN ice cream. I mean, vegan ice cream people. Of course, there are vanilla and chocolate (yawn) but things really get exciting when you start talking about curry ice cream and peanut butter ice cream and so many more.

So there. Those are my five favourite vegan cookbooks.

In addition to cookbooks, I should also mention the wonderful ‘Vegan Freak’ by Bob and Jenna Torres. This book really is awesome. They are both vegans and explain why they made the choice, all about being vegan and all manner of wonderful information. This book is a must read for any vegan or anyone thinking of becoming a vegan.

So there you have it. A year of wonderful, healthy, environmentally friendly and compassionate food and a year of vegan books.

I’ve enjoyed it so much and I can honestly say that I never look back and never regret it or wish I could eat a certain vegan food.

So, here’s to another vegan year – and all the rest of them!

Why I want an egg substitute, I want a product which is not an egg. Not a real egg product. Not an egg at all, please.

Just, like, why?

[Via BoingBoing]

INGEN, ahoy!

Sure, not everyone has seen or read Jurassic Park. Not everyone knows what Dr Grant and Dr Sattler went through. But, I think we should consider it a little more.

You see, a few scientists at Japan’s Kyoto University have set themselves a task which they are fairly certain they will achieve: to clone an ice age mammoth – within the next five years.

Don’t you remember what happened to Dr Arnold and Mr Gennaro? They died.

I give it one year before the mammoths randomly switch genders and start breeding. I give it one month after that before they take over downtown Tokyo.

They say it’s safe. Perfectly safe is it, scientists? I’ve a feeling that in 6 years from now, “I’ll be accepting your apology”.

In the words of Dr Malcolm: “your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should”…

For a while now, controversy has been building around a proposed US-style ‘megadairy’ in Nocton, Lincolnshire.

The dairy would see 3,700 cows spending their entire lives indoors in small cages with no access to grass. They would be fed artificial foods, constantly inseminated and then have their babies taken away and mostly killed and be under constant stress. This system is the same way chickens are kept for eggs: in tiny cages in which they cannot move.

Fortunately, cows have so far escaped the fate of chickens in the UK, but this new dairy will be just as bad and, in the words of the company who wants to build it, be ‘just the start’. They want to build more and many people are predicting the that all milk produced in the UK could come from facilities like this within 10 or 20 years.

It is horrible, horrible plan and you can help stop it. You have just two more days to oppose the plans with the planning regulators. Sadly, plans such as this do not have animal welfare considered. But, you can mention many factors in your objection such as size of the unit, air pollution, waste pollution and noise.

Please, whether or not you are vegan – you must agree this is not right, so I implore you to head over to this webpage where there are full details on how to object. It only takes a few minutes and you could make the lives of thousands of cows infinitely better. Thank you.

A few days ago, thousands of birds (crows and one duck) fell from the sky, dead in Arkansas, USA. Nobody knows why. Hours later the feds arrive in full on bio-hazard gear to clear the birds up. BIO-HAZARD GEAR. Y’know, the big white ones with masks and the like.

And what are we told? Fireworks. I kid you not. The principal theory put forth by the government is that the birds were “startled” by fireworks and had thousands of simultaneous heart attacks. It really is laughable. Other theories suggested range from “hail” to “stress”. I do not joke, friends. We are being told that the birds we’re either “startled” or “stressed”. Stressed?! What do birds have to be stressed about? One or two, perhaps. But, thousands?

Allow me to share my theory.

This was done entirely on purpose. Here is why:

Bird flu. All this was part of a plan by the government, drug companies, New World Order, whoever, to kill some birds so they could say “HEY LOOK THE BIRDS ARE DYING! THAT MUST BE BIRD FLU! QUICK! HAVE YOUR FLU SHOTS! BUY VACCINES!!!!!” People associate one type of flu with the other and, after the media blows it out of proportion, everyone scrambles to buy flu shots.

We all know that vaccines are where drug companies make their money, most of them are entirely bogus and not needed. The more fear they can plant in us, the better.

But, it went wrong. Too many damn birds died. They had to abort their plan. But, they realised that “bird flu” would reveal their plan too early, so they scrambled for ideas and throw “fireworks” at us. I mean, why send in men in bio-hazard suits to deal with firework induced death? Makes no sense.

You know what makes this most obvious? In the media reports, nobody has mentioned bird flu. Surely, in this were a natural event, the idea the birds all contracted a disease that spread among them seems the most plausible and obvious, right? So why not say it? Why tell us obviously insane ideas like “fireworks” and “stress”? Surely bird flu would at least make the list of possible scenario. But, it doesn’t even get a mention.

I’m telling you: this is solely an attempt to muster bird flu fear that went wrong. Or at least, that’s what I think…

Remember The Last March of the Ents? It was an exciting moment. When faced with destruction, the Ents did something they hadn’t done for years and something very much out of their character. They rose up, and marched on Isengard to teach Saruman a lesson. And that they did. Since then, I like to think that they lived long and happy lives.

And – would you believe it – the forests of the UK face a similar plight. For you see, the government has decided to sell off nearly all of the UK’s forests to private companies. This is very bad news.

Now, I hesitate to compare the current Coalition government to the coalition between Sauron and Saruman, but… I shall. I like to think of the Tories as Sauron and the Liberal Democrats as Saruman. You see, Saruman used to love the trees of Fangorn forest. He used to walk amongst them and talk to the trees. I see the Lib Dems in the same way. They were fans of the trees. Their manifesto contained plans to further their protection.

Sauron however, didn’t care about the trees. You see, he had bigger plans. All he wanted was that ring. And Sauron used Saruman to get it. Sauron forced his ally to burn the trees to power his industry of war. Compare that to the Tories. It’s strikingly similar. Sauron wanted his ring, and used Saruman had to burn his beloved trees. The Tories want to make their damn cuts, and the Lib Dems have to agree to sell their beloved trees.

So that is what is happening. The modern day coalition of the Black land is selling the remaining trees of Britain. Yes, unconditionally selling our trees. Like Middle Earth, there was once a time when nearly all of the UK was covered in forest, now what little public woodland we have left is being taken from us for whatever use its purchaser sees fit. Anything. Cutting it down for timber, making a Center parcs, or installing a structure similar to Barad-dûr to suspend your giant eye from. This scares me like crazy.

Our forests are vital. They are havens to countless species of animals (dormice are already under threat of extinction in the UK due to habitat loss). They are incredibly important carbon sinks and oxygen producers. They provide thousands of people with places to walk and ride and study and whatever else they want. They are so, so important. I believe it to be the worst thing they’ve done yet. What it next? Selling roads? Selling schools? Children? Producing a super army of Uruk-hai in the basement of the government buildings of Whitehall?

I say we march on Isengard Whitehall. Who’s with me? (If we’re really fortunate, our quest may even yield the entwives.) What say you, Ent council?

I has a thought, which I tried to compress into 140 characters but couldn’t. So here it is.

Animal testing has an 8% success rate. In other words, 8% or drugs which work in animals work in humans. For example, 30 AIDS vaccines have been developed that worked perfectly, but failed in humans. I won’t bombard you with facts though, you can look it up if you need more.

My point is this: of so many drugs have passed animals and failed or killed at humans, imagine how many more have failed animal tests but could have worked for humans.

Literally, we could have discovered thousands of cures for cancer and AIDS but they were written off because they failed to work on animals.

It just seems like such flawed science to me.

Anyway: Cures Without Cages

I’ve never really understood where I stand on animal testing.

Of course, I’ve thought it was wrong and I wanted it to stop. But, I wasn’t sure of what should happen in the mean time. Of course, animal testing won’t happen over night. I’ve always struggled with questions like “should we just stop animal testing right now” because I’ve never been sure of the impact it would have on medical research.

That’s why I set up Cures Without Cages. I thought that it would help (in a way other charities don’t at all) reduce demand and funding for animal tests and allow the industry to adjust. (I, of course, don’t expect CWC to have that much of an effect, that’s just the vision).

I am firmly convinced that animal testing is not essential. The alternatives are better. Also, the results really are bad for science, not helpful to it. This is agreed by science. So, I think that it should stop and always have done so. However, it is my position on what should happen now that I’ve been rethinking.

My question is simply is it ever right to experiment on animals? Is there ever any justification in the use of animals for human benefit? Take this quotation from Gandhi on animal experiments: “All the scientific discoveries stained with innocent blood I count as of no consequence”. I think this sums it up perfectly. Gandhi was firmly on the side of it never being acceptable, in any situation.

I think that reading the horror stories of experiments has what’s confirmed my opinion. I won’t bother relaying them to you – you can head over to PETA if you want to see some. But, fundamentally, I began to question whether this horribly evil level of suffering is right and I came to the conclusion that it isn’t.

I mow believe that never, under any circumstance is it essential to test on animals. Despite the potential benefits, there is no reason to do it. Mostly because those benefits don’t exist. Scientist after scientist and university after university and report after report are saying that animal tests are pointless and only hinder science.

So, I’m pleased to finally have an more concrete and stable answer to the animal testing debate: I hate it, wish it would stop and don’t care about the ‘benefits’ at all.

But, there is one more thing to clear up. The question ‘would you reject a cure for cancer if it was obtained through animal testing’. There are few problems with the question first off. Namely, this isn’t the debate. The point is that it isn’t needed at all. The same cure could be developed through the use on non-animal means. The makes the question moot and a highly hypothetical situation.

But, I like hypothesising, so I will attempt to answer it anyway. Short answer: yes, I would reject, on behalf of humanity, such a animal obtained cure. I’ve come to the conclusion that animal testing is always wrong, no matter what it may bring us. If I presented you with the question ‘would you happily torture a hundred or so children and adults for a few years to get a cure for cancer?’ you would probably say no. Some of you would say yes, I expect. But, not me. I don’t think it’s right to torture people for the benefit of others. For me, this also expands to animals, I now realise. Of course, this is just a fictitious, hypothetical situation, so doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, that’s my view: animal testing is bad under any circumstance. No exceptions.