Non-natives must be able to position ourselves as active and integral participants in a decolonization movement for political liberation, social transformation, renewed cultural kinships and the development of an economic system that serves rather than threatens our collective life on this planet. Decolonization is as much a process as a goal. It requires a profound recentring on Indigenous worldviews. Syed Hussan, a Toronto-based activist, states: ‘Decolonization is a dramatic reimagining of relationships with land, people and the state. Much of this requires study. It requires conversation. It is a practice; it is an unlearning.’
This is my very belated acknowledgement of Vegan Pizza Day, which was celebrated for the second time on June 30, 2012. These delicious pizzas were, in fact, consumed on June 30 - I’m just late in posting them.
The first is a simple, greasy, delicious deep dish pizza topped with tomato sauce, red peppers, and heaps of Daiya mozzarella. The dough recipe is from The New Best Recipe, a book by the makers of America’s Test Kitchen and Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. The book is definitely not vegan, but this is hands down the best pizza dough I’ve ever made. The secret is mashed potato!
The second is a much healthier but still slightly sinful pie with a standard crust, tomato sauce, kale, red peppers, and mushrooms, smothered with cheesy sauce and parmesan sprinkles from the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook. The cheese sauce should have been added after baking - it got a little dry in the oven.
Vegan apple fritters! They tasted as good as they looked. Better, maybe.
Recipe from All Hail Seitan.
Chickpea “tuna” melt with Daiya mozzarella, from Vegan Junk Food. My favourite from this book so far. Delicious!
Tofu scramble with chard; skillet-roasted potatoes with garden-fresh rosemary. Recipes from Vegan Brunch.
I got a response from my email to Nudie Jeans regarding their use of leather patches. The company’s manager of corporate social responsibility wrote the following (introduction omitted):
We have a major part of all our leather items made by vegetable tanned leather, a more sustainable way of tanning to avoid the chemicals normally used when tanning. ( although all our leather products are made in Italy following the EU laws and regulations for allowed chemicals)
The animals used for leather is coming from the food industry, meaning they are not killed just for their skin.
As you know we have high aims for being sustainable in every aspect of our work, for the leather patches on the jeans however we have so far not been able to make it by vegetable tanned. The reason is that when you eventually wash your jeans, the leather patch with vegetable tanned leather shrink and becomes all hard and not nice looking. So for the comfort of the jeans we have at the moment no other choice. ( the chemically tanned leather makes the leather still soft after washing) But our suppliers are making tests to develop new ways of adjusting this- hopefully in the future we can offer a vegetable tanned leather patch on the jeans with as well.
I wrote back to clarify that regardless of how the leather is tanned or where it comes from, I will not be buying their jeans as long as they contain animal products. She wrote back with the hope that they can match my standard somewhere in the future.
In the meantime, I went out and purchased a great new pair of APC jeans, thanks to a tip from vsin! They’re well made, nicely cut, and leather free. Yay!
Open letter to Nudie Jeans
My old Nudies are worn out. I’d love to buy more (they are the best jeans I’ve ever owned, hands down), but they’re not vegan-friendly thanks to that nasty little leather patch. I just sent them the following letter, and I thought I’d post it here as well to spread awareness. If you have any suggestions for leather-free raw denim jeans, drop me a line!
—-
Hi Nudie,
I wrote to you many months ago asking if there was any chance you might make some jeans without leather patches, and I never got a response. I have a pair of your jeans that I absolutely love, but my conscience can’t support buying another leather product - especially one so completely frivolous (it ends up being covered by my belt anyway).
The leather industry contributes to the torture and slaughter of more than a billion animals a year, and then tans their skins with toxic chemicals that pollute huge volumes of water. I’m thrilled to see that Nudie jeans are now made from 100% organic cotton, and I hope you will consider extending this philosophy of environmental consciousness to the animals that needlessly suffer and die for your logos.
I’m disappointed that you didn’t think my question was worth answering. Since I last contacted you, my old Nudies have finally worn out, and I will soon be looking for a leather-free pair of jeans from one of your competitors. If you do decide to offer such a product in the future, I would be thrilled to buy it.
I look forward to your response. I will be posting a copy of this note at nefstead.ca as an open letter, and I would be pleased to also post any statement on this issue that you might want me to share.
Lunch today is some lasagne I made this weekend. Cashew ricotta, almond parmesan, Daiya mozzarella, and fresh chard, beet greens, and mustard greens. I think it’s safe to say this ranks among the best lasagne I’ve made. Recipe cobbled together from the Veganomicon, the Ultimate Uncheese Cookbook, and the stuff I had in my fridge and garden.
BOYS ONLY: How to Survive Anything!
Table of Contents:
How to Survive a shark attack
How to Survive in a Forest
How to Survive Frostbite
How to Survive a Plane Crash
How to Survive in the Desert
How to Survive a Polar Bear Attack
How to Survive a Flash Flood
How to Survive a Broken Leg
How to Survive an Earthquake
How to Survive a Forest Fire
How to Survive in a Whiteout
How to Survive a Zombie Invasion
How to Survive a Snakebite
How to Survive if Your Parachute Fails
How to Survive a Croc Attack
How to Survive a Lightning Strike
How to Survive a T-Rex
How to Survive Whitewater Rapids
How to Survive a Sinking Ship
How to Survive a Vampire Attack
How to Survive an Avalanche
How to Survive a Tornado
How to Survive Quicksand
How to Survive a Fall
How to Survive a Swarm of Bees
How to Survive in Spacevs
GIRLS ONLY: How to Survive Anything!
Table of Contents:
How to survive a BFF Fight
How to Survive Soccer Tryouts
How to Survive a Breakout
How to Show You’re Sorry
(and chapter 3 is where we no longer care about “survival”)
How to Have the Best Sleepover Ever
How to Take the Perfect School Photo
How to Survive Brothers
Scary Survival Dos and Don’ts
(“don’t throw things or yell at your ghost. it may react badly.”)
How to Handle Becoming Rich
How to Keep Stuff Secret
How to Survive Tests
How to Survive Shyness
How to Handle Sudden Stardom
More Stardom Survival Tips
How to Survive a Camping Trip
(“fresh air is excellent for the skin”)
How to Survive a Fashion Disaster
How to Teach Your Cat to Sit
(are you #$&^%*@ kidding me?)
How to Turn a No Into a Yes
Top Tips for Speechmaking
How to Survive Embarrassment
How to Be a Mind Reader
How to Survive a Crush
Seaside Survival
(don’t wear heels. tie your hair back. sunglasses add glamour.)
How to Soothe Sunburn
How to Pick Perfect Sunglasses
Surviving a Zombie Attack
How to Spot a Frenemy
Brilliant Boredom Busters
How to Survive Truth or Dare
How to Beat Bullies
How to be an Amazing BabysitterI came across these books myself and remarked on them to Jenn, but didn’t pick them up to open them. Jackie did, and it’s her comments in italics there. These books were published this year by Scholastic. They are not, as you have have guessed by the insane sexism, published in the 1950s. Scholastic: this is not your proudest moment?
Maybe - MAYBE - How To Pick Perfect Sunglasses is actually in the same class as Surviving When Your Parachute Fails. And maybe the authors truly believed this but also truly believed these two identical classes of disasters (for some reason?) needed to be in separate books. If you ever find yourself in this situation, please oh please don’t say “THIS ONE IS FOR BOYS AND THIS IS FOR GIRLS”. Perhaps instead say “THIS ONE HAS A BUNCH OF INTERESTING REAL-LIFE DISASTER SURVIVAL AND THIS ONE HAS A LOT OF PERSONAL HYGIENE AND INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP STUFF IN IT, ALSO, TIPS ON GETTING YOUR CAT TO SIT DOWN, I DUNNO”.
The content of the book is what really makes it egregious, though I do recognize I react to “boys only” and “girls only” in most contexts really negatively (dating profiles and middle school sex ed classes being I suppose some exceptions). I can’t help subbing in other groups that have had privilege:
How To Survive Anything! STRAIGHT PEOPLE ONLY
How To Survive Anything! WHITE PEOPLE ONLY
Wow those book titles seem really horrible, huh? Weiiiiiiiiiiiird
This makes me furious.
