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Tag: Vegan

0 SILENCE – The Deafening Sound of Absolutely Nothing

October 30, 2015
by nolordsnoleaders
· Events · PE Events · PE Records

We are thrilled to announce that this winter PROFANE EXISTENCE will be working with SILENCE from Pittsburgh PA to release their debut LP – “The Deafening Sound of Absolutely Nothing”.

SILENCE is a relatively new band that have been playing shows around Pittsburgh the last few years and toured the east coast earlier this spring. After a multitude of demos SILENCE recently hit the studio and recorded what can only be described as a brilliant debut LP.

SILENCE take music stylings from post punk / goth acts like SISTERS OF MERCEY, and SIOUXSIE AND THE BANSHEES with hints of NEW MODEL ARMY then combines it with anarcho punk reminiscent of RUDIMENTARY PENI, ZOUNDS, and THE MOB. Although the post punk revival is “all the rage” these days SILENCE stands apart from the crowd due to their serious political edge. Bringing activism to the forefront SILENCE’s songs are deeply rooted in animal rights, personal freedom, and convey a strong anti violence / anti war stance. Giving the post punk scene a much needed kick in a more radical direction.

Listen to the track “WAR DRUMS” here.

Lyrics…

NZ6AvB-nTf-zR5Kltatr4sFICIb0znLT4zN8dOvDNxY,ZxEqMz3ABG2hJfX-wjH9okYAZZzZ6tnzXNedVcIqDtk,4scDl3Vtjx_C3rUQHzDV4Ax81yFHxaUbk0_8xGxIpnE — Photo by Em DeMarco

When all that remains is a world in flames. Is that when they’ll say the wars are finally won? That wars are finally done?

They’re beating on the drums again, they’re fueling up the planes. The congressmen fall into line and sing the old refrain. In the name of peace they’ll burn the land and drop a thousand bombs.

Meanwhile we’ll just stay at home and go back to our sitcoms. It’s the same old song, we’ve heard it before. They’re beating the drums and they’re calling for war. What it’s supposed to accomplish, no one is sure But the victims are always the hungry and the poor.

Once the drums of war begin it’s hard to make them stop. The noise silences the dissidents once the bombs begin to drop. All those who call for peace will be mocked and pushed aside. In 10 years they’ll admit we were right after many thousands more have died

PROFANE EXISTENCE • PO BOX 647 • HUNTINGTON WV 25711 • UNITED STATES

1 SOY NOT Oi! Volume #2 “An International Culinary Conspiracy!”

March 27, 2015
by nolordsnoleaders
· PE Records · PE Web Zine · Radness · Recipes Section · Uncategorized

“An International Culinary Conspiracy!” SOY NOT Oi! Volume #2

Over 200 Original Vegan Recipes Compiled by the All-New HIPPYCORE KREW!

Disclaimer – The title SOY NOT Oi! Was chosen 25 years ago during the rise in popularity of the right wing fascist Oi scene. The term NOT Oi! Is a direct fuck you to the Nazi boneheads infiltrating the punk and skinhead scene – both then and now! We would like to note that Oi in general is not racist, and some of it is quite good. There are many anti-fascist Oi bands that we support and love… Oi POLLOi, THE SHAME, THE OPPRESSED, HARD SKIN, COCKNEY REGECTS, BLITZ and the list goes on. So to end this little “disclaimer” lets just say fuck the fascist and up the punx!

Okay so lets start with the basics…

For those that do not know the history of SOY NOT Oi! The original book was compiled by HIPPYCORE 25 years ago. SOY NOT Oi! was an international effort with contributors mailing in recipes from all over the world.

The idea was to get affordable vegan recipes into the hands of punx. It quickly became well known and was spread throughout the punk scene like wildfire. Over the years the SOY NOT Oi! cookbook became legendary, a household item no proper punk kitchen or squat was without.

Over 2 decades later the main editors Joel Olsen and Jack Kahn discussed the idea of reprinting an updated version of SOY NOT Oi! However before they could collaborate on the idea Joel passed from this world. Jack got in touch with former contributors with the idea doing SOY NOT Oi!-2 with all proceeds directly benefiting Joel’s family. Everyone was more then happy to be board with both breathing new life to SOY NOT Oi! and also paying respect’s to Joel.

SOY NOT Oi!-2 contains over 200 vegan recipes as well as… nutrition information, grocery shopping tips, essays on punk rock and veganism, tips for dumpster diving, edible wild plants, recipes for making homemade cosmetics, and even a crash coarse in home brewing! Plus a section on canning food with a step-by-step guide for preserving tomato’s written by PROFANE EXISTENCE founder Dan Siskind!

The recipes contained in this volume are vast, and with contributors submitting recipes from all over the world you will find something different on each page. Every recipe is written with easy step-by-step instructions, although some might argue the most important step is what record to spin while you are chopping up some garlic. Well don’t fear, most contributors have been kind enough to suggest what soundtrack is best for his or her recipe. For instance Dawn Dyer suggest that you jam Adolescents and Media Children while putting together her “Green Chile, Spinach, Tofu and Mushroom Enchiladas” and Todd Meszaros highly recommends blasting PISSED- “Greatest hits” while baking his “Zucchini Muffins”.

Overall SOY NOT Oi! #2 is pretty damn amazing. The editors have successfully combined veganism, punk rock, humor, and love for a friend all in one book that is full of information. SOY NOT Oi #2 is a fun book to just sit down and thumb through. The recipes are enjoyable to make – and exceptional to eat! I made two recipes from the book specifically for this review. Adrienne Lowe’s “Smokey Eggplant Chilli“, and April Olson’s “Chocolate Peanut Butter No-Bake Cookies“. Both dishes are delicious but even better they are simple recipes that even the most inexperienced cook could easily complete and get some great results. Needless to say my dinner guest that night went home happy that night. Only time will tell but I feel like I can say with full confidence that SOY NOT Oi! -2 will become a staple on punk bookshelves all across the world just like the first one.

Chapters include…

Staples and Foundations (Spice mixes, Vegan egg replacers, how to make Seitan and more)

Breakfast

Snacks and Appetizers

Quick Fix Meals

Salads

Soups and Stews

Main Dishes

Pissed. recording in Minneapolis, Minnesota, December 1991. Left to right: Dan Siskind, Joel Olson, and Newt Rayburn.

Side Dishes

Saucecore

Spreads and Dressings

Breads and Muffins

Deserts

Brewing

Foodways and Funstuff (includes recipes for homemade deodorant and facial masks, edible wild plants and more)

Memoriam for Joel

SOY NOT Oi – 2

CULTURE AT ALL COST PUBLISHING

CAAC #001

https://soynotoi.com

8 The Hidden Cruelty of Sustainability

November 13, 2014
by Comrade Black
· Uncategorized

With the rise in popularity of the ideas of urban gardening, deep ecology, and permaculture amongst activists, anarchists, and subcultures such as punk often questions of ethics seem to have become simplified to the equation of SUSTAINABLE = GOOD. Yet often all kinds of cruelty can be hidden behind the veneer of that buzzword sustainable.

The unfortunate reality is that simple fixes rarely offer much beyond false hope and easy ways out. Perhaps they help people to ease their personal guilt by assuming they are not part of the problem (everyone else is), but is this any more than a self serving delusion?

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/p417x417/270848_10151423231148549_2132240944_n.jpg?oh=84644c7e34e2093f6ceeaead85954973&oe=54DB3CD5 — The farm I grew up on near Kitscoty Alberta. This picture looks out the window of my mothers bedroom over the garden and barnyard

I grew up on a small family run farm in Alberta, 10 miles north of a town you have likely never heard of, with a population under 700. My mother grew up on that same farm with her two brothers. Her dad and his family lived there for many years, they had immigrated up from Nebraska where the family had farmed for a few generations since their original migration from Scotland, where again they had been farmers. It would be fair to say that farming is in my blood, so to speak (or perhaps I have just been reading too many Vampire The Masquerade books as of late?) Either way, I feel at least semi-competent to write about some of the ‘sustainable’ realities of small scale farming, drawing on my personal experiences.

I have many memories from growing up on the farm, from playing in the garden and eating carrots straight out of the ground with the dirt still on them, to collecting eggs from the chicken house, or chasing the turkeys for fun, being chased by the turkeys (which wasn’t so fun), or moving cattle from one pasture to another by horse back. There were some great memories too; picking saskatoon berries, wild raspberries that grew in the coolie, or building forts and campfires in the bush by the ravine. However, there were also just as many memories that were not so wonderful to look back on. Branding cattle with a hot iron as they screamed, or castrating steers — many city folks don’t realize you do not eat cows, and you do not eat bulls, you eat a male who had it’s nuts cut off so the flesh will taste better. All of which could be argued as sustainable.

Now I recognize that not all this is relevant to the popular trends I see amongst self styled alternative people over here on the west coast, as most of the folk punks are more into having pet goats and living on boats rather than farming beef or dairy cattle for auction. So I will try to keep more focused on the aspects of small scale farming that would be more of interest to the DIY crowd with their fantasies of farming and sustainable farming.

Chicken Squawk

One of the more popular trends amongst the urban radicals is having back yard chickens, to collect and eat their eggs. Where I live, in the Cascadian bioregion, it has become almost as cliché to have 6-10 birds pecking around your back yard of your community house as it has to wear Carhardts, have a large dog, and all black clothing, or to play banjo. Unfortunately, I also live in an area where one thing that is not popular is sticking around. The radical community here tends to be quite transient in nature, with lots of college kids, traveler punks, and others folks who often didn’t come from here and even more often don’t have much intention of putting down roots. This is a common frustration to those who are part of long term projects propelled by volunteers, but none the less, it has its pros and cons. However for the chickens pecking the dirt and laying those golden eggs, it is a much bigger problem. An average chicken may live up to 8 years, which is far longer than the school term, or even a bachelors degree. A quick peruse of Craigslist at the right times of year will give you a good indication of just how expendable these animals are to many of the people who are excited in September (at the beginning of the school term) to build a chicken coop for their back yard. But even for those who don’t intend to go traveling or tree planting soon as the summer hits, few want to care for a chicken until it dies naturally of old age. You see, chickens only lay a lot of eggs when they are still fairly young, as they get older they will produce less and less. For many of the urban agriculture enthusiasts, a chicken that doesn’t lay eggs is just work with no pay off.

But the plight of the urban chicken doesn’t end there — or more accurately; it doesn’t begin there. You see, chickens don’t just appear, and they are not brought by the stork to deserving families, they come from somewhere – or in other words, someone breeds them. Few of the breeds of chickens people farm have any resemblance to wild breeds, and wild chickens are pretty rare these days due to our destruction of wildlife habitat for cities and farm land; never mind that there was chickens, like Europeans, are an invasive species to this part of the world. So most of the domesticated birds come from a hatchery; either directly – or indirectly.

I remember how exciting it was for me as a kid to order chicks. We would get a catalog in the mail, with pictures of the full grown birds, and you would select them by recording the order number of which breeds you wanted to buy. A few weeks later, you would get a large cardboard box in the mail which would be chirping. Upon opening it, you would see it packed full of fluffy yellow chicks, divided and layered with cardboard dividers so they could fit more into each box. Every so often a couple would die while in the mail, so you would get a few dead ones in every box.Kinda like two scoops of raisins, right?

An important thing to note is, that they also were separated not just by breed, but also gender. See chicks are born about half females and half males, but most people don’t want to order males. Roosters don’t lay eggs for one, and for two, if you have more than one (or maybe two) roosters, they will kill each other. So the chicks are bred, the females are sold through mail order and the males are killed. Yup, right into the wood chipper. When people get back yard chickens, they often order from a breeder or hatchery. I know some get “second hand” or even call them “rescues”, but where do you think those birds came from before you got them? Buying chickens is putting money into the industry that breeds them for profit. This is the industry of commercial chicken breeders, and they are often the same places that supply big farms, as well as small farms and your average urban gardener with their new found interest in permaculture. And I didn’t even talk about the forced insemination.

Permanent Agriculture?

The study of words can reveal a lot. If you look at the etymology of the word Garden, we discover it is related to the German word for guard, and to words for walled, or closed lot. It doesn’t take a lot of thought to begin to see the relationship between these terms. As anthropologist Layla AbdelRahim explained in Wild Children – Domesticated Dreams, domestication requires the domesticator to control access to food and land. When you begin to garden a space, you must control what other species have access to that land or you will likely not have much of a crop to harvest. Whether we are talking about other non-human animals that might desire and easy lunch, or even competing plant species, insects, or other humans – gardening requires us to control what species are able to access the space. On an even more basic level, gardening usually begins with removing undesired plant species to prepare the land so we can plant seeds of the species we desire.

It has always amazed me how uncritically many Green Anarchists, Vegans, and Primitivists seem to embrace and support permaculture. Yet permaculture is in its essence another system of domestication rooted in anthropocentric desires. In other words, permaculture might be presented by its proponents as being sustainable (and therefore ethical) and based in local ecology, but in fact it is once again about human wants and needs. As well revered permaculturist Erik Ohlson explained in his interview in the book Tangled Roots: Dialogues Exploring Ecological Justice, Healing, and Decolonization, “Permaculture, which could be permanent—agriculture or permanentculture is about designing human culture that is beneficial to both the land and to human at the same time.” That might sound great on the surface, but look at it a bit more closely and it follows all the same old patterns; humans are in control, Erik posits us as the managers and designers, and in the end it is about human needs first and foremost. Animals are not even acknowledged in this relationship, even though you would be hard pressed to find a permaculturist who doesn’t argue that domesticated animals are needed in order to maintain a healthy closed circuit. The implicit goal of permaculture is to make this human domination of wildlife spaces, plants and animals – sustainable and thus permanent.

I am fully aware that not every radical out there agrees with the anarcho-primitivist critiques of domestication, which sees domestication as not only the control of the wild, but also as the root of many other systems of domination such as patriarchy. It took me a long time myself to come to a place where I was open to those conclusions and the difficult questions they lead to. However there are many lenses to view the question of ‘sustainable farming’ through. From an animal liberation lens, another set of problems presents itself in that permaculture like other forms of gardening for human consumption involves turning wildlife habitat into farm lands that are exclusionary to certain wildlife, and even further permaculture also uses domesticated animals.

This is where it really becomes a problem for me, as it perpetuates the use and domestication of non-human animals for human benefit. But due to the SUSTAINABLE=GOOD formula, we choose to not see its implications for animals: both wildlife and domesticated. Often when I have presented these arguments to proponents of permaculture design, the response I get is akin to the lesser of two evils. The same argument often used to justify voting for shitty, racist, business friendly politicians.

I am by no means arguing that permaculture is worse for the land than monocropping, factory farming, or industrial agriculture, rather I am arguing that it is not the be all end all simple fix that many seem to desire it to be. Permaculture still means wildlife habitat is destroyed and used for human benefit that does not allow wild species full access and use of the spaces. Permaculture still involves captive breeding and continued domestication of animals for human consumption, whether it be chickens to scratch and turn the soil, or goats, pigs, or other species. Many of those animals will be from commercial breeders, and the care of those animals will continue to support industries that profit off of animal agriculture. Many of those animals will also still be killed in the end either so humans can consume their flesh and bodies, or because they have quit producing at the rates desired by the domesticators. Most of those animals will also be of breeds that simply did not exist in the wild, did not exist until humans interfered with their reproductive strategies to cause them to develop traits deemed more desirable. Did you know that wild pigs were never pink skinned, that sheep didn’t produce a harvestable amount of wool for hundreds of years after domestication, or that cattle bred for meat are different breeds than the cattle bred for dairy production? Wild cattle don’t produce as much milk, the animals we farm today are the product of thousands of years of selective breeding.

It is indisputable that modern industrial agriculture is anything but sustainable as it depletes the infrastructure of the landbase for higher temporary crop yields. Such a system by definition is incapable to sustaining itself indefinitely and would eventually lead to a collapse as once fertile croplands become less and less able to produce, due to nutrients in the soil being depleted. Technological fixes such as fertilizers may increase yields in the short run, but only work to deplete the health of the land in the long term. Permaculture on the other hand aims to be sustainable, which may be its most insidious trait. It seeks to make permanent the ability of humans to dominate the wild, and thus maintain industrial civilization. Advocates often argue that permaculture can allow us to use less land in order to grow crops to feed our populace (which is a population of not just humans, but also of the animals we domesticate for our use). However, promises of abundance aside, we live in a society of exponential growth. Capitalism is an economic system that requires such growth, both in profits and in populace which will consume the products of the capitalists. Permaculture does nothing to challenge or disrupt this growth, and in fact may allow it to continue far beyond the limits of industrial agriculture in its current form.

Capitalism kills animals. Industrialism kills animals. Civilization as we know it is based on the domestication of animals and destruction of the wild. I have no doubt that permaculture may live up to its promise of sustainability, I would even go further and suggest that many older practices of agriculture (such as crop rotation and choosing crops based on soil conditions) can also allow long term sustainability, yet like permaculture these techniques do nothing to challenge the relationship of human dominance, capitalism, growth, or cruelty to animals. The system always seeks to recuperate easy reforms in order to maintain itself. If we do not actively work to disrupt these power relations and include questions of ethics, sustainability will just become another way of hiding our violence and rationalizing our domination of other species.

At the very root of agriculture is the domination of other living beings by humans. At the very core of ethics is the question of domination and hierarchy. For me, any system that perpetuates these historical patterns is a system based on violence. I am always reminding myself that agriculture is a relatively new invention in the timeline of human existence. The world I would like to work towards in one that encourages and fosters the growth of wild species and habitats, not the subjugation of them.

I don’t know what the solution to all of this is, but I do know that if we hope for total liberation it can not perpetuate the oppression of others.

For those of interested in finding alternatives to these oppressive systems we need to consider more than simple solutions. Directness of our relationship to our food, and sustainability of our practices is only one part of the question we need to be asking. Another key question is, what is the outcome for non-human animals and for other species? Do the ‘alternatives’ we are promoting make any difference to the chicken in the cage? How about to the Wolf? the Trout? The Orca? Or Mycelium? Are they better off because of our actions? Or does our liberation continue to come at their expense? How can we begin to foster relationships that benefit wildlife? And how can we imagine our relationships to other species in ways that have the potential to be liberating and symbiotic?

by Comrade Black

0 Rise of the Fitpunx…Comrade Black

September 28, 2014
by stinkbot
· Features · Radness

In this latest of the posts spotlighting those in our community who are into actively pursuing healthy lifestyles I am happy to bring you a conversation with Comrade Black. Many know that Black is a prolific poster on PE, is actively devoted to animal rights and politically aware. I am happy to bring you Black’s story about fitness and health.

I’ve read that you were into martial arts as a young person, has fitness always been important to you? Or has dedication to physical activity been a more recent occurrence?

Physical fitness has been a big part of my life at some points and not at others. Kinda had an on again off again relationship with fitness for many years to be honest.

I started Judo at 11, in large because I was picked on growing up because I was so small in a town known for sports and jocks (the sign on the way into town actually reads “Western Canada’s Biggest Little Sports Center”). I wanted to be able to defend myself. Turned out Judo wasn’t that useful for that, but once I started I loved it. I competed in tournaments across Saskatewan, and won a few silver and bronze metals. I even went to Judo camp at 15 yrs old where I was lucky enough to train with people like Sensie Hiroshi Nakamura and Ralf Ibanez.

Also when I was really young I was a geeky kid and was super into professional wrestling, and super hero comic books; so I always wanted to be huge and built and strong. I convinced my mom to buy me weights from an auction sale when I was around 11 years old and for a few years I lifted as much as I could. I didn’t really know what I was doing as I had no training but I would read bodybuilding magazines and try to make sense of it. I did get pretty strong, I could almost do an iron cross on the rings when I was in gymnastics in about grade 8, and for a lot of years the only reason I passed gym class each year was gymnastics, weightlifting, and the ne or 2 years we did Olympic style wrestling. Years of Judo helped me with all of those.

I did judo and weight lifting until I was about 16 and started getting to much into traveling and drinking, and left town to live on the streets. When I was around 20 II spent about two taking Muay Thai kickboxing, and submission grappling and later took Jujitsu. After that I ended up back on the streets again. I have also taken a small amount of Ninjitsu here and there.

It has been an on again off again thing throughout those years; but what’s different now is that I really fucked my body up from all of it, so now paying attention to health isn’t an option – it’s fucking necessary just for me to be able to function day to day. If I don’t eat well, sleep well, and keep fit I deal with more pain.

1 Rise of the Fit Punx xmyamayhemx

August 19, 2014
by stinkbot
· Features · Radness

This series began as a project to celebrate good things and positive actions we, as punks are doing. For some it’s exercise, or meditation. Or giving up unhealthy behavior or addiction. I got in touch with Mya who is doing it all. She was kind enough to share her story in her own words. Here is Mya Wollf.

When I first saw this series on healthy punk living, I got really excited. Punk, radical sobriety, veganism and yoga totally saved my life, each in their own different way, and I feel that it’s really important to share our stories with each other, without judgment, in the hopes that we can use our experiences to help motivate one another to break free of the systems of oppression that hold us down. I want to add here that, in my opinion, the only way to do this is to act without judgment. There are so many amazing subcultures of punk that celebrate healthier, less oppressive ways to live, but if we keep judging others for not being like without first trying to understand how that individual person is being affected by external oppression, then we’re going to stay divided and powerless against the real systems of corruption. However, the more we can lead with love, the more we can find understanding, compassion and empathy for where others are at and THEN move forward unilaterally towards dismantling the oppressions that bind us all, the more freedom we’ll all find. But back to healthy living…..

0 5 Simple Tricks to Great Vegan Cooking

August 10, 2014
by Comrade Black
· Columns · PE Web Zine

Cooking a good Vegan meal is really fucking easy, yet often people seem completely confused as to what to do to make a Vegan meal. When you are new to anything it can be baffling, even though once you know your way around it will seem so stupidly simple. So here is some simple advice that I hope will help you out so that you don’t have to feel stupid, whether you are a new Vegan, or if you have friends or family who are Vegan and you want to have them over for dinner. Or perhaps that cute boy who you want to impress with the Animal Liberation Front back patch

Start Simple – Most Vegan meals follow this basic format: Choose 4 or 5 vegetables, chop/prep them, boil, fry or bake them, add spices or sauce. There is really nothing difficult about that. Often simpler is better.
You Don’t Need Processed Specialty Items – Stores are full of all kinds of over packaged and over priced “Veggie” items such as fake meats, cheeses, and dairy alternatives. The simple reality is that most Vegans don’t eat that much of this stuff, and if they do it is only now and then. You don’t need it. Stick to vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, and legumes and you will be better off than with some heavily processed fake meat wrapped in plastic.
Be Open To New Foods – Often when someone is considering going Vegan people will think that it means you are cutting stuff out of your diet and being restrictive, yet in reality the opposite is what normally occurs. There are tons of foods you may have never heard of that are totally worth trying, such as Chia Seeds, Nutritional Yeast, Quinoa, Hemp Hearts, etc. Experiment with them, be open. There is nothing weird about these foods, most have been eaten by people around the world for thousands of years before the word Vegan was even coined. They are only new to a boring western diet.
Use A Recipe or Ask A Vegan – Especially when baking, it is good to use a vegan recipe at first rather than trying to modify a non-vegan recipe. That’s because baking is all about formulas; mix your dry ingredients, add your fats & sugars, then mix in liquids. But if you don’t understand what certain ingredients do on a chemical level, you may find the baking doesn’t come out quite how you were expecting. For example, in a omnivorous diet recipe, eggs work as a binder. You can easily replace the eggs with other binding ingredients, such as bananas, apple sauce, or boiled flax seeds; however, you may find your baking seems dry or doughy. This is because eggs don’t just bind the ingredients together, they also cause a chemical reaction with other ingredients such as baking powder. If you don’t use eggs, the baking powder won’t respond like normal and your cake might seem heavy. Most vegan recipes compensate for this by adding other ingredients that replicate the reaction that animal proteins usually create – such as adding an acid like vinegar or lemon juice which will cause the baking powder to react as it would with milk or eggs. My recomendation is to either use an already Vegan recipe if you are just starting out, or ask a Vegan for advice. Guess what, most Vegans know how to cook Vegan food.
You Already Know How to Cook Vegan, You Just Didn’t Realize It Till Now – Thats’ right, and here’s why. Pretty much everyone on the face of this earth already eats Vegan foods every single day; they just don’t think of them as “Vegan Food.” Think about it; ever ate falafle? Pakoras? Dahl? Hummus? How about beans and rice? A fruit salad? A Veggie wrap? Bean salad? Corn on the cob? Or pasta with tomato sauce? A pear? Bananas? Grapefruit? Guess what, all these foods are typically Vegan (unless you are doing something really fucking weird with that grapefruit). You don’t need to do anything fancy, stick to what you know. Mashed potatos can be done vegan super simple too, just use olive oil instead of butter. Or the most basic of all deserts, an apple crumble. You can make home made granola or oatmeal Vegan super easilly, all fruit smoothies, etc. This is so easy I am going to stop talking right now.

By Comrade Black

Comrade PE

0 Don’t Hate on Soy!

July 18, 2014
by Comrade Black
· Columns · PE Web Zine

I know that people have a hate on for soy and tofu, but I honestly think Soy gets an unfairly bad rap.

In part I think it is because soy is often associated as “the vegan food” even though tons of vegans don’t eat soy, and tons of non vegans around the world regularity eat soy. None the less, people who are anti-vegan, including industry – often will attack things they deem as “vegan things.” Another example of that is articles like Can Vegans Stomach The Unpalatable Truth About Quinoa? Which was an odd article since quinoa is eaten by people around the world and vegans only make up a small percentage of those people. Never mind that most the arguments could apply to nearly any industrial crop.

Now I am not saying Soy has no problems, any industrially produced monocropped cash crop definitely does. What I am saying is that soy gets a disproportionate amount of criticism compared to other crops. Here’s the thing, most of the time when people hear you eat soy and reply with a statement like “oh you better watch out, soy isn”t healthy because…” they end up pointing out something that is common in other foods as well – foods which they eat and never think twice of. For example, Soy is known to contain Phytoestrogens… You know what else contains Phytoestrogens? Try: nuts, seeds, oils, breads, oats, grains, legumes and even animal flesh. Flax seed is actually the food highest in Phytoestrogens, and I think any nutritionist or dietitian out there would tell you the health benefits of eating flax far out way any potential disadvantages. In fact, I saw a certified dietitian speak last year who has been vegan for 30 years, and she was asked about soy, she wasn’t too concerned about it. Flax, like soy is also high in tons of important nutrients like EFA’s.

A second weird criticism is this idea that most soy is GMO. Aside from the fact this simply isn’t true – at least not where I live – it also isn’t exactly unique even if it was true. People do this thing where they cherry pick the science they will cite based on what agrees with the things they already want to believe, and I think this is what is happening here as well. I see it all the time, where people will be concerned with GMO’s in some foods, then gorge on junk food or other processed foods that are completely GMO. In the case of soy, read the package. It isn’t that difficult. Where I live most soy sold in stores is labelled GMO free and Organic; and most the soy that isn’t labelled as both is labelled as either GMO free or Organic. And for the record I don’t shop at some fancy yuppy store either.

The other direction that anti-soy rhetoric often comes from is an ecological one, in which the arguments are just as equally flawed. one common one is that soy is causing the rainforest to be cut down to grow soy crops for vegans. This simply isn’t true, the parts of the rainforest being cleared to grow soy are not for human consumption but rather to feed beef and dairy animals. Most the soy we consume here is grown in places like California. Now again I am not saying that makes it ok or there is no issues with it, but rather saying that the problems are not unique to soy. Pretty much every crop we buy from industrial farming is grown with the same problems and then shipped thousands of miles. None of these problems are unique to soy. As much as people might want someone to blame, vegans are not at fault – industry and agriculture are.

Back to the health thing, there is 2 other aspects of the arguments against soy that I find absolutely silly. One is that most the people I have met who ever try and say how unhealthy soy might be, have never actually read any of the studies about it. They are simply repeating what they have heard some where.

The second, well let me tell a short story. When I first moved to Victoria, and got involved with Food Not Bombs, I would meet these people who would tell me things like that I shouldn’t put pepper in my food cause it can be hard on the colon, Then I would see these same people go out to all night dance parties where they would consume MDMA all night, and not sleep for days. I have seen this patterns often, of people who don’t seem to live healthy lifestyles or care much about health who take it upon themselves to lecture me or others about how soy, or pepper is unhealthy. The reality is this, there are more more unhealthy things most of us do than eat soy. In fact, there are far more unhealthy things most people eat than tofu.

Aside from that, I fucking love fried tofu! I can eat an entire pack, 14 ounces, as a snack – 14 ounces is 65g of protein! You can hate soy as much as you like, but I am gonna fry some more up with Cajun spice and sesame seeds! Your loss.

By Comrade Black

1 Up The Ante to Shut Down the Stampede – No More Dead Horses: Interview with Marley and Sam from VADL

July 11, 2014
by Comrade Black
· Interviews · News · PE Web Zine · Radness

On July 4, 2 activists from Vancouver Animal Defense League locked themselves down to the inner railing of the chuckwaggon race track at the Calgary Stampede. Marley Daviduk and Samantha Baskerville used bike U-locks around their neck, in this inspiring act of civil disobedience. PE took the opportunity to ask them more about what they did, why they did it, and what they hope to achieve.

This interview with Marley and Sam was conducted by Comrade Black

PE: Why are you targeting the Calgary Stampede? It seems far away from home for a Vancouver based group?

Sam: I lived in Calgary for about 7 years and have always thought poorly of the Calgary Stampede. When this opportunity was presented to me, I couldn’t say no.

IMarley: I’ve been a horse person my whole life and my love of horses is what brought me to veganism and activism. Ever since I was young, the Calgary Stampede, specifically the Chuckwagon races, has been on my list of issues that needed to be dealt with. It came to a point where I felt that the Chuckwagon races were vulnerable and lacking public support. I hoped that an action like this would give us the opportunity to bring national media attention to the event and, for the first time, to their sponsor GMC. The Calgary Stampede may take place in Calgary but it’s an event that puts Canada in the public eye.

Sam: Being the largest rodeo in Canada, we knew that this action would raise international awareness and really enlighten people on the deaths and risk of injury during the Chuckwagon races.

PE: Was this action pre-planned, or improvised based on opportunity?

Marley: We started planning this event more than two years ago. This event was actually supposed to take place last year until Calgary was hit with a devastating flood, and much of the downtown core was under water including most of the Stampede grounds. The Stampede adopted the slogan ‘Come hell or high water’ and the show went on. We decided it would have been an inappropriate time to address this issue, the media was rightfully wrapped up in covering the devastation of the flood. There was a MASSIVE amount of planning and preparation involved with coordinating a crew of more than 18 people in 3 locations. In the last two years we have had dozens of strategy meetings, training sessions and fu VADL3 ndraising events. Sam and I had locked down to just about every basketball hoop, cat scratching post and fence post in East Van to train for this. We had to be able to get on the track, lock down and dispose of the key in less than 30 seconds, in full view of a crowd of 20,000 people. It would have been reckless to attempt this without serious preparation efforts.

PE: How did you get onto the chuck wagon track without being noticed or stopped?

Marley: All it took was a plaid shirt. Just joking. We paid for tickets to get into the venue and both Sam and I had our bags searched. Our bike locks were in our bags and we had prepared for the search by filling our bags full of tampons and pads knowing most people wouldn’t dig through them. The security guard took one look inside our bags, and basically recoiled in horror and pushed us through. Once we were in the grandstands, all we had to do was hop over one small barrier and we were on the track.

Sam: It was pretty easy. We just ran from the beer garden down the inner track and locked down. It took several minutes before security reached us.

PE: You have a lot of firsthand experience with horses, yet I have read some people are trying to dismiss you by claiming you don’t know what you are talking about…

Marley: It seems like the most common response from Stampede officials in response to opposition is that ‘these dang city folk simply do not understand the ways of the horse’. I understand horses as much as any of them, but it doesn’t take an expert to acknowledge the risk of injury and death associated with the Chuckwagon races. This years death makes it the 10th year in a row horses have died during the event. Denny was a 12 year old thoroughbred, he died of an aortic aneurism near his kidneys, resulting in massive internal bleeding.

Sam: My experience is minimal in comparison to Marley’s but I did have a horse while growing up and took lessons as a child. Regardless, when one or more horses are dying every year from an event that only lasts ten days, you know that something is wrong and change is needed.

PE: Did you have any expectations of the outcome? Were you hoping this would shut down the race?

Marley: We were hoping that our actions would get national media attention and we knew that would happen even if we got tackled before we had a chance to lockdown. It would have been great to have prevented the races from happening that night, but due to unforeseen complications we had to lock down earlier than expected which gave them more time to locate a grinder to get us out.

PE: In the video, the officials with the stampede covered you with a black tarp. What’s the significance of the black tarp?

Marley: They covered us with the black tarp, which is the same black tarp they use when a horse goes down on the track. They use it so the crowd cannot see what’s happening.

Sam: I felt like we were that tragic mess that they were trying to hide from the public. Just like they do with the horses.

PE: Are you facing charges now? What are the repercussions?

Marley: We are facing mischief charges, our court date is on Aug 20th. We are banned for 99 years from the Stampede and we cannot approach within 3 blocks of the grounds.

PE: How can people help?

Sam: We need to keep this momentum going by sharing information, helping the Calgary activists, and by voicing their opinion to GMC to ask them to end their sponsorship of the Chuckwagon races.

Marley: People can help by contacting GMC the sponsor of this event, asking them to pull their sponsorship. @GMCcanada 1-800-263-3777 They can support our legal defense and the cost of this action by donating here. The cost of moving a crew of 10 people more than a 1000km’s to Calgary was pretty expensive and we were not able to find a lawyer in Calgary who was willing to do pro-bono work for us.

PE: What other campaigns are VADL engaged in? Have you had much success?

Marley: For the last 1.5 years we have been targeting Canada Goose retailers with protest campaigns (Canada Goose jackets with wild trapped coyote fur). Our efforts have resulted in 2 (out of 14 Vancouver retailers) dropping the brand and adopting a fur free policy. For a more detailed list of our campaign history please visit www.vancouveranimaldefenseleague.com

PE: Some people feel the tactics employed by VADL are controversial and too confrontational; why do you choose these tactics? Are they proving effective?

Sam: Protesting outside the venue was no longer bringing the attention that we need (although I still appreciate their efforts and encourage them to continue) so we had to amp it up a bit. And look, people are talking and the support has been overwhelming.

Marley: Sometimes I think we get more criticism for our tactics from vegans in the movement than from the opposition we target, especially when it comes to those who are involved with large multi-national organizations. We choose these tactics (pressure campaigns) because they work, and they provide achievable goals; which keeps people involved and motivated. Civil disobedience, like a lockdown, is not something we see very often within the Canadian animal rights movement, and yet actions like this have been such a massive part of AR history. We hoped to inspire activists across Canada and show them that there really is a diversity of tactics available that go well beyond vegan outreach and we hope to see more actions like this happening within our movement.

PE: Where can people get updates on your actions? Is there a way people can get involved with this campaign or VADL in general?

Marley: People can get in touch with us via facebook or vancouveranimaldefenseleague@live.ca or www.vancouveranimaldefenseleague.com

PE: Is there anything else you want people to know about the stampede?

Marley: We want other activists to know that we chose the Chuckwagon races because we felt there was a tactical advantage to isolating this race, not because we are at all okay with any other rodeo events.

Sam: While Marley and I cannot participate in direct protests against the stampede, I strongly encourage Calgary activists to continue the fight. The rodeo consists of events that cause extreme stress to the animals involved and continuous action is needed to bring the abuse to light so that more people will raise their voice against the Calgary Stampede.

PE: Any last advice for other activists?

Marley: My advice to other activists would be to pick a tactic/tactics that you are comfortable with and work at them without condemning the actions of others. I see so much public criticism of campaigns and tactics, specifically coming from people with little or no knowledge of historical campaigns and what has worked in the past. All I can ask of people is to embrace a diversity of tactics, please challenge yourselves, and finally lets learn about the history of our own movement.

Sam: don’t be afraid to push the limits a little bit, as long as it’s done safely and you are prepared to face the consequences responsibly.

0 Rise of the Fit Punks…Jake

May 10, 2014
by stinkbot
· Features

I first met Jake through the old PE message board. We became better acquainted through correspondence and teamed up to start the CCCP. Jake is a cyclist and like me a coffee hound, for our purposes here he’s a fitness bike-fellow.

So Jake, how long have you been interested in physical fitness?

Hello good sir! As far as interested, it’s only been about five years. In my mid 30s, I realized that my body wasn’t going to just get awesome on it’s own and it was just going to deteriorate if I didn’t take a proactive stance. Due to some shitty circumstances beyond my control Dawn and I moved to an area where we needed to own a car to get anywhere instead of being able to walk or hop on a bike. That was brutal since bikes have been my preferred mode of transportation(as well as skateboards) since my early teens when I raced bmx then transitioned to street/freestyle in the mid 80s.

0 Rise of the fit punks

April 2, 2014
by stinkbot
· Columns · PE Web Zine

This year I’ll be forty years old, and I’m in better shape now that when I was sixteen.

I was 27 when I started taking fitness and health seriously. My son was just born and I was going back to school. I was re-discovering my love of punk and hardcore after leaving the community for a while, so changes coming on anyway. I wanted to be healthy and fit again, but my love of sweets, fried foods and booze had got in the way. Also I’d started eating meat after I met my partner at the time and started eating fast food and with all that I had really let myself go. All those horrible processed foods and empty calories over a period of time had taken its toll.

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The legendary crust classic is now available once again!

We are happy to announce our next new release

WILT – “Self Titled”

Here is a track from the upcoming LP

“Sermon for the Bootlickers”

Tag: Vegan

0 SILENCE – The Deafening Sound of Absolutely Nothing

We are thrilled to announce that this winter PROFANE EXISTENCE will be working with SILENCE from Pittsburgh PA to release their debut LP – “The Deafening Sound of Absolutely Nothing”.

Listen to the track “WAR DRUMS” here.

PROFANE EXISTENCE • PO BOX 647 • HUNTINGTON WV 25711 • UNITED STATES

1 SOY NOT Oi! Volume #2 “An International Culinary Conspiracy!”

“An International Culinary Conspiracy!” SOY NOT Oi! Volume #2

Over 200 Original Vegan Recipes Compiled by the All-New HIPPYCORE KREW!

Okay so lets start with the basics…

8 The Hidden Cruelty of Sustainability

0 Rise of the Fitpunx…Comrade Black

1 Rise of the Fit Punx xmyamayhemx

0 5 Simple Tricks to Great Vegan Cooking

0 Don’t Hate on Soy!

1 Up The Ante to Shut Down the Stampede – No More Dead Horses: Interview with Marley and Sam from VADL

0 Rise of the Fit Punks…Jake

0 Rise of the fit punks