New Year’s Show: Resources for Going Vegan in 2020

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This show features an exciting announcement of the Vancouver premiere of the documentary The Animal People, plus resources, tips, and tricks for kickstarting your new vegan lifestyle in 2020.

Vancouver Premiere of The Animal People, Featuring Seven Members of Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty (SHAC)

New film The Animal People documents the first-ever indictment of six animal rights American activists for terrorism. The reason for their indictment was their leadership of a controversial open-protest campaign aiming to close down the largest animal testing lab in the world, then called Huntington Life Sciences. We have had the privilege of interviewing two of these American activists, Twyla Francois and Josh Harper, in a previous show here.

Animal Voices Vancouver will be co-presenting the Vancouver premiere of The Animal People at UBC Robson Square, room C300 on January 16th from 6:30-9:30 PM. The building is fully wheelchair accessible. There are accessible, gender-neutral washrooms located on the same level as the theatre. These are the two options on how to get to C300 (classroom level):

1. Elevator from the street level on Hornby Street
2. Ramps blended into stairs on the South side of Robson Square (Provincial court side, not Art Gallery side)

This film will have subtitles, and there will be an ASL interpreter with us for the evening.

The Facebook page for the event is here and admission is by donation. All proceeds from this screening will be directed to the legal team representing Amy Soranno, and every activist who had participated in the movement Meat The Victims.

Amy Soranno organized the first Canadian edition of Meat the Victims, a mass action which exposed the horrors of farming labelled as “humane” at Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, British Columbia in April 2019. As the organizer, Amy was singled out and is the only participant to be facing charges at this time. This court case will be an opportunity to expose the reality of how animals are treated on Excelsior Hog Farm and the animal agriculture industry as a whole. Animal Voices has previously reported on Meat the Victims here and here.

What is Veganism, Exactly? The Theory and Ethics

Our recommended books for exploring vegan philosophy:

1. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol Adams
2. Racism as Zoological Witchcraft: A Guide to Getting Out by Aph Ko
3. Aphro-ism: Essays on Pop Culture, Feminism, and Black Veganism from Two Sisters by Aph Ko and Syl Ko

Going Vegan for 2020: Where Can You Go?

To start, a plant-based diet can be convenient and budget-friendly when you know what you’re looking for. Plant-based diets center mainly on whole foods such as vegetables and fruits, legumes, nuts, and grains, all of which can be found at your local grocery store. Support, resources, and more can be found by signing up for Veganuary 2020. Join a community of over 300,000 people who have signed up this year to try a vegan diet for all of January!

Our favourite grocery stores in Vancouver:

1. Sunrise Market – great value bags of fresh produce and many deals on vegan alternatives to meats and cheeses
2. Donald’s Market
3. The Real Canadian Superstore – many locations and amazing selection of plant-based foods available, including a bulk section and international foods section

Some of our favourite vegan-friendly restaurants in Vancouver:

1. Virtuous Pie – gourmet plant-based pizzas and more
2. Chau Veggie – a twist on Vietnamese veggie cuisine
3. MeeT restaurants – delicious vegan comfort foods with the #1 voted veggie burger in Vancouver in 2019, as well as #2 in the category of all burgers within Vancouver’s restaurants, with locations on Main Street, in Yaletown, and in Gastown

Some of our favourite recipe resources:

1. BOSH
2. Hot for Food
3. Sweet Potato Soul
4. The Tasty K
5. Avant Garde Vegan
6. Olives for Dinner

Some of our favourite vegan cookbooks:

1. Chloe’s Kitchen and Chloe Flavor: Saucy, Crispy, Spicy, Vegan by Chloe Coscarelli
2. The Simply Vegan Cookbook by Dustin Harder

Animal-friendly stores for apparel:

1. Nice Shoes – based in Vancouver, they are the only fully vegan shoe store in Canada
2. Buy secondhand – this means that there will be no further cost to Earth’s resources

Resources for Navigating Social Situations as a Vegan

Local communities to join in Vancouver for vegan-curious individuals:

1. Vancouver Vegans on Facebook
2. Plant-Based Vancouver on Facebook
3. Greater Vancouver Animal Activists on Facebook
4. Vegan Feminist Book Club Vancouver on Facebook
5. Meatless Meetup on Meetup.com
6. Vancouver Chicken Save – search on Facebook for your local movement!
7. Vegans United on Facebook

Our recommended online resources:

1. VeganHealth.org – comprehensive, evidence-based vegan nutrition info, run by Registered Dietitian Jack Norris
2. TheVeganRD.com – accessible, no-nonsense, evidence-based vegan nutrition info, run by Registered Dietitian Ginny Messina
3. VegetarianNutrition.net – more evidence-based nutrition info, run by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
4. “Food for Thought” Podcast – run by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau (we have interviewed her multiple times, most recently here and here), an excellent resource for navigating any tricky social situation that might arise

Resources for traveling as a vegan:

1. Happy Cow – a website and app great for travelers who are looking for vegan-friendly restaurants, cafes, and even stores wherever you are in the world
2. The Vegan Passport – a resource for traveling vegans available in booklet or app form, outlining our dietary requirements in most languages covering 96% of the world’s population
3. The Vegan Roadie – web series by Dustin Harder (we have had him on the show here)
4. The Nomadic Vegan – travel blog run by Wendy Werneth (we had her on the show here)