Our duty as compassionate people is to not just refrain from eating and wearing animals, but to also support independent business owners who are doing their best to promote veganism.
Shaya and Julia, a Mexican-French couple, are opening a permanent home for their Café Vegetal coffee and cake business and you can be a part of this huge adventure.
Ever since they met, Shaya and Julia have shared the same dream of having a place to showcase their passion for coffee and vegan food (especially desserts!). After one year of offering their products in markets and bazaars, the project has grown and they have decided to venture into the opening of their first store.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxp70JHF25j/
Just like anywhere on the planet, opening a vegan business in México City costs money so we all need to come together to get this new venture over the line.
Café Vegetal is running a Kickstarter campaign to help cover some of the costs associated with launching in México City and you can throw a few pounds, dollars, or pesos their way.
Click here to donate and to check out the rewards.
With just under two weeks remaining of the campaign, Café Vegetal need just over £800. Let’s help them get there!
There is a new vegan candle maker on the scene and I’m thrilled to have them trading in our weekly vegan section of Venn Street Market.
Anu is the brains behind this South London business called Kera and the story behind the products is just as beautiful as the candles themselves.
Read what Anu says about her brand below:
Kera was inspired by my childhood, growing up in the beautiful state of Kerala in southern India surrounded by some of the most stunning mountains and waterfalls you’ll ever see and the best mangoes and coconuts money could buy. I grew up seeing my grandparents use natural and simple ingredients every day from our farm and create products that not only were super gorge but also produced almost zero waste. They literally made shampoo from water and hibiscus leaves.
I guess that stuck with me…especially when it came to the products I use around my home. I’m a huge fan of non-fussy, biodegradable and reusable goodies that don’t contain ingredients I can’t pronounce.That’s why all the candles I make are made from vegan soy wax and cotton wicks (none of that nasty paraffin stuff). They are handcrafted in small batches in my kitchen – much to my mother’s despair. I also use high quality essential and fragrance oils, as well as reusable jars which you can get creative with afterwards.
Each candle is named after a special place in Kerala. I hope you too can enjoy a little piece of it.
I’m in love with this brand!
Be one of the first people in London to get your hands on these exquisite candles by visiting Venn Street Market on Saturday June 1, 2019 between 10am and 4pm. This is currently your best chance to buy as the Kera online shop is still in development. Full market details here.
The following is a personal message I wrote to my Patreon supporters today to explain my recent absence from the site.
Patreon is a way for people to financially support the FGV platform and the work it does to champion independent vegan business, support human rights, and help improve outcomes for non-human animals.
If you would like to pledge a monthly amount to keep my blog and social media platforms alive, you can at my Patreon page.
Now for the letter…
Hello everyone.
This post is both an apology and an explanation.
I have been missing in action on Patreon for about half a year and I owe you an explanation.
The past six to eight months of my life have been some of the most difficult and I’ve only just come out the other side.
One of the biggest changes and challenges I faced was the end of my relationship with Josh. Actually, we are still best friends and we love and support each other unequivocally but the period of transformation where we changed our relationship to a friendship took a huge toll on me and my mental health.
I lived with extreme depression and found myself accessing weekly therapy here in Mexico City. My therapist was so very kind and helpful. I honestly don’t know what I would have done without the support.
Having been in such a co-dependent relationship for 20 years, I was just incapable of even the most mundane life tasks on my own. I lost track of how many times I would just lock myself in my room and cry. Minutes were hours and hours were days and days were weeks.
The whole emotional and mental struggle was one of the most gruelling fights of my life. I’m still living with depression daily but have a hold on it at the moment.
It was during this period when I also discovered that I was NOT living with a medical condition that it was thought I was living with for decades. This is an extremely convoluted story, very private, and almost unbelievable so expect to see me write more about it in the future. For now, all I can say is that the experience broke me down to nothing and I’ve been building myself back up from scratch.
It pushed me into a type of depression and mental breakdown that I had never believed would happen to me and it felt like I would never recover.
It was also tough to say goodbye to Hackney Downs Vegan Market and Vegan Beer Fest UK events during this time. Neither of these ventures were financially viable any longer but making the decision to end them all hit me hard.
They never made a lot of money but losing even that tiny amount of income triggered my anxiety and depression.
Having exited a 20 year relationship in which Josh and I cared for each other in all aspects including financial, I felt beyond vulnerable. I had no job security, no savings, and no future financial plans. I was scared and lonely. The thought of growing old with no money is not pleasant. I went from being 50% responsible for my rent, bills, and food expenses to 100% responsible and the change has been a big adjustment.
All I could manage was to keep my blog alive in order to help independent vegan businesses and manage the FGV section of the weekly Venn Street Market for a small amount of income and to support those traders. I also had my monthly Vegan Life Magazine column to write each month.
I physically and mentally couldn’t keep up with anything else, and sadly that meant Patreon postings.
I loved giving weekly news updates and sharing content on here, but when there were weeks I couldn’t get out of bed that meant that some things got lost.
I’m am forever grateful for the support you have all given me on here. It makes me emotional to know you have stayed by my side when you had no idea why I wasn’t sharing content.
The money from your pledges has kept my head above water during the darkest times of my life and you have been a huge part in keeping the FGV platform alive.
I still get a thrill out of helping promote independent vegan businesses and the blog and social media platforms do make a huge impact. It is your support that has allowed me to keep all of this alive during my breakdown.
And I’m still here.
I’m still blogging all the time. I’m still promoting my events and events run by others. I’m still answering reader questions every day.
I’m still FGV and I’m still fighting for human and non-human animals.
Going forward, I need to make some changes to how this Patreon platform rewards you for your support. I’d love to know what you would like to see in return for your pledge. Feel free to respond here or send me a private message.
My idea is to keep the blog and the market running (your support helps with this) but also start sharing more personal writing on here. This would include vegan and non-vegan specific topics.
I never went away but I’m back here in a big way… and I couldn’t have done it without you.
I have exciting plans for the future and it would mean a lot to me for you to be by my side. A second and third book are being planned, while next year sees me taking on a huge adventure by curating a vegan cruise for LGBT people and their friends/family.
I am helping launch vegan events in Mexico City and have just curated an FGV food section for the Mighty Hoopla and Cross The Tracks festivals in London. It is still full steam ahead!
I have a new boyfriend in my life who has been the most wonderful support I could have hoped for. Gil is kind and loving and handsome. He has come into my life at the perfect time and means the world to me. My friends have also stayed in touch to make sure I was still surviving and I’ll never forget their love and support.
I know it is all a lot to take in so I’ll leave it there and hope to hear from you all soon.
I reported a few days ago that I’ve curated a vegan food area for two MASSIVE London music festivals next month.
You can eat your fill AND dance your cares away at the pop extravaganza that is Mighty Hoopla on Saturday June 8 and the jazz, funk, and soul explosion Cross The Tracks on Sunday June 9, 2019.
The vegan food line up is SENSATIONAL and you can read all about it online here. You can party along to some of the best music on the planet and never run out of vegan food choices.
It sounds like heaven and we have some of the finest food makers in the biz.
To celebrate my love of pop music and the inclusion of the FGV section at both events, I’ve curated a special Spotify playlist featuring my favourite songs by artists on the Mighty Hoopla line up.
You all know I’m a complete pop fanatic, right?
Have fun listening and be sure to grab your tickets before they sell out!
There is a brand new, made-in-the-uk, vegan shoe brand called Vyom.
Founders Ravi and Vishaal told me the following about their shoes:
Usually when you think of faux leather, you think of those cheap shoes you get from H&M that last a few months. But Vyom London was created so you can feel good about where your shoes came from without sacrificing quality. 100% vegan and hand crafted in England by the finest Goodyear Welted process.
This is an exclusive excerpt from my book Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t. Published by Nourish.
An important exercise in flexing your compassion has to do with respecting language that doesn’t belong to you or to veganism.
One sure fire way to NOT be the kindest and most compassionate vegan you can is to appropriate the language and imagery of oppressive struggles as a way to draw attention to the animal rights movement.
Many activists find themselves comparing industrialised farming to slavery or the Holocaust. It is alluring to reach for something so undeniable in its horror, renown and infamy to conjure emotion and grab attention but what you are also doing is minimising the reality of what people went through and are still living through today.
Industrialised farming has enough of its own atrocities that can be explained in clear language attributable to that distinct situation. There is no need to use language that does not belong to the vegan movement.
Historical and current references related to slavery, genocide and sexual violence against humans are not ours to use as we please. It is harmful and disrespectful to do so.
If you would like to get hold of a copy of this book, you can order online via Amazon.
If you are in the UK, you can order online via The Hive. This is a great way to support your local independent retailers as your order will be fulfilled by a high street store.
This is an exclusive excerpt from my book Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t. Published by Nourish.
My auntie Jackie once took me to the circus and you had better believe me when I say the animals outnumbered the humans. I lost track of the number of creatures forced to jump through flaming hoops, walk on wires or drive tiny motor vehicles.
I had grown a lot taller than other children my age by the time my circus trip was foisted upon me and the donkey assigned to carry me around the ring did not look pleased with the prospect. My brown-corduroy adorned legs dragged in the dirt as the hot lights beat down and depraved-looking clowns smirked at the tall kid on the sad donkey. I’m fairly certain that was my final experience at any form of circus, but I think more due to the mortification and shame felt by me rather than concern for animal welfare.
Christmas in my hometown was always brutal. First of all, it was always sweltering hot and furthermore we had the joy of sitting around with relatives ranging from mildly to wildly racist. Animals featured heavily Christmas day, from the pig-now-called-ham wrapped in a water- soaked pillow case to keep it fresh to the family dog sitting under the table hoping for scraps. Prawns, crabs, chickens and turkeys who used to all be alive at some point were scattered around the buffet in order for me and the people I didn’t like all that much to experience festive cheer.
So, animals were absolutely everywhere in my life as a child in Australia, but I honestly didn’t give them much more thought than what I have described above. Not one adult explained to me the difference between prawns on the table and the dog under it. Understanding how animals lived and died was not my concern. I was socialised into thinking animals were available to eat, wear and prod with sticks unquestionably.
That’s what I think I have in common with a lot of you turning these pages right this moment.
Reflect for a moment on just how much animals were used in your young life, but how little thought was given to the how, what, when and why. Did adults and people responsible for your emotional growth explain the process of factory farm to dining table? The shark took a chunk from the turtle (another story from this chapter) just as I watched crabs being boiled alive in my kitchen at Christmas time, but they were all just ‘things’ in my mind. Objects. Just like the pine cones and the cliffs and the polished glass fragments at the seaside.
I didn’t understand that these animals were capable of fear and pain because nobody told me, and I would bet my last block of tofu they didn’t tell you either.
If you would like to get hold of a copy of this book, you can order online via Amazon.
If you are in the UK, you can order online via The Hive. This is a great way to support your local independent retailers as your order will be fulfilled by a high street store.
This article was originally written by me for Vegan Life Magazine. My column appears each month and you can find out about subscribing online here.
When faced with penning this column, I was slightly unsure of what I could say on the subject of vegan fashion. I’m not celebrated for my sense of style and I’ve been known to wear the same second-hand jeans for a decade.
But after a bit of reflection it became clear.
Fashion shouldn’t simply be about what it does for us personally. In addition to helping us get through the day and making us feel stylish, we need to consider what fashion does to animals and the planet.
There are many reasons why people decide against buying and wearing footwear, clothing, and accessories made from animals.
Of course the number one driver when it comes to dressing vegan is a desire to not contribute to animal suffering. For as long as there have been people not wanting to exploit animals, there have been attempts at dressing more kindly.
There are obvious materials to avoid when you start dressing with compassion such as leather and fur, but it sometimes takes a bit more convincing when it comes to wool. Even though they are not killed directly for their wool, sheep experience ongoing hardship such as exposure to extreme heat and cold while the practice of muelsing sees chunks of flesh being cut from them while alive and awake.
Pleather shoes, plastic skirts, acrylic cardigans, and PVC jackets started to find a following with compassionate fashionistas after initially launching as inexpensive alternatives. Just like we have accidentally vegan food, we have a lot of vegan-friendly fabrics that just happen to be that way.
There was a huge surge in the popularity of leather and fur alternatives in the 1980s and 90s as many celebrities took the cause to heart. Perhaps you remember anti-fur advertisements such as the series featuring rock band The Go-Gos brandishing the slogan ‘We’d rather Go-Go naked than wear fur’?
Purposively-vegan fashion brands started to emerge around this time including Vegetarian Shoes which commenced operations almost 30 years ago and Ethical Wares which came to be around 1993.
More recent high profile footwear and fashion brands include Will’s Vegan Shoes from London and VAUTE fashion label of New York City.
An important part of shopping for vegan fashion is understanding that not all animal-free materials are good for the planet or the people handling them.
Of course the fallout from leather is atrocious as it needs to be drenched in chemicals to stop it decomposing (a reminder that leather is dead animals!) and these chemicals are washed off into waterways therefore creating immeasurable environmental damage, however some alternatives can do their share of long-lasting harm as well. PVC has been used as a leather alternative for decades but we don’t currently have records to show how long this material takes to break down.
But where there is a problem, there is a more vegan-friendly solution.
Lefrik is an all-vegan bag and accessories fashion label using recycled plastic bottles to create fabric. The use of recycled PET fabric from plastic bottles saves 90% of water consumption and has a 75% lower carbon footprint than regular polyester. This fashion initiative is helping to keep plastic waste from landfills and oceans, as well as lessen CO2 emissions.
Other animal-friendly materials finding a home in the world of fashion include hemp, bamboo, pineapple fibre and cork. Many inventive designers are also repurposing and up-cycling vintage fabrics to help lessen the demand for animal skins and furs.
Steve Madden and Skechers now allow customers to search their online footwear catalogues using the ‘vegan’ category, while Reebok is going a step further to create a shoe made from organic cotton uppers and rubbery soles concocted from milled corn.
This mainstreaming of ethical and vegan products has been powered by compassionate fashion pioneers such as Angela Corcoran and James Beal of London ethical boutique and shoe store, The Third Estate.
Angela and James sell ethical vegan fashion to compassionate shoppers all over the planet via their online store and are a treasured local business with their shop front in North London.
I approached the duo to find out what advice they have for people looking to make better fashion choices for animals, workers, and the environment and they were both adamant when saying that there is no such thing as an inexpensive ethical product. If consumers are not paying very much for something, someone else is paying in other ways. A pair of shoes might be animal free, but if they are low-priced that undoubtedly means workers are being paid poorly.
The Third Estate is on the frontline of tackling all of the ethical dilemmas thrown up by fashion. The business promotes labels that put animals, workers, and the planet at the centre of all they do by using animal alternatives, paying fair wages, and working to strict environmental guidelines.
Angela reminded me of that old adage that less is more when it comes to fashion, but maybe in a different sense than the quote was first intended.
She said, “We should buy less fashion and we should think carefully about what we do buy. We can look fabulous and make kinder choices for animals, factory workers, and the planet at the same time.”
Sounds perfect to me. Kinder choices will never go out of style.
There are two huge music events coming your way in June 2019 and they BOTH feature a fabulous FGV food area.
Mighty Hoopla and Cross The tracks combine to take over Brockwell Park, South London on Saturday June 8 and Sunday June 9, 2019.
Mighty Hoopla is a pop music explosion featuring live performances by Chaka Khan, All Saints, Bananarama, Artful Dodger, and many more acts to keep you movin’ or chillin’ (depending on your style!).
Sunday sees the takeover of Cross The Tracks with an amazing line up featuring Chaka Khan again alongside Masego, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, Jordan Rakei and some of South London’s most-forward thinking new jazz collectives.
But what about the vegan food? The FGV section has you fully covered. Check out this list:
Extra news: to celebrate the FGV food section at these events, I have curated a special FGV/Mighty Hoopla Spotify playlist featuring some of my favourite tracks from the line up. If you LOVE pop music, you need to listen now.
Put this date in your calendar because you are definitely going to want to be a part of this fab event.
To help Hackney Downs Studios celebrate their annual Open Studios event on July 4, I am thrilled to announce the return of Hackney Downs Vegan Market for ONE NIGHT ONLY.
Eat Work Art are incredibly excited to announce their 10th anniversary Open Studios Series 2019, a celebration of 10 years of Eat Work Art across Netil House, Hackney Downs Studios and Old Paradise Yard.
The Eat Work Art Open Studios event at Hackney Downs Studios is taking place on Thursday July 4, 2019 from 6pm.
This year, Eat Work Art celebrates a decade of transforming under-appreciated buildings into vibrant, creative communities. Hackney Downs Studios was the second site to be developed, back in 2011, and since then they have attracted thousands of people to their annual Open Studios events, with the public eager to witness the magic that surrounds their catalytic home.
As you know, Hackney Downs Studios was also home to the legendary and game-changing Hackney Downs Vegan Market so it felt right that we should be back on site for this momentous celebration.
Hackney Downs Vegan Market will be back with half a dozen of the very best vegan street food traders in the capital.
We are going back to where it all began!
Open Studios will allow you to meet and network with over 300 inspiring creatives, as you discover their spaces and check out their incredible work. Take a tour of our collaborative spaces Palmspace and Heartspace to meet the makers & artists behind them for a chance to purchase original works of art, craft and design.
Expect exhibitions and talks curated by residents as well as taster classes & workshops, exclusive sample sales and art showcase at Public Gallery. Enjoy live music, food, drinks and dancing at our after party.
Not only will you be able to dine at our vegan market curated by Fat Gay Vegan (that’s me!) but you will also be able to explore on-site zero waste emporium Re:Store for environmentally friendly and sustainably sourced goodies.
Doesn’t this all sound fabulous?!
Due to the overwhelming demand for this event, free tickets need to be booked in advance. Yes, free tickets!
Click here to RSVP to the Facebook event and book your free tickets. Don’t just RSVP.
