Our long-time project finally came true! We managed to raise enough and make a donation to our favourite animal sanctuary – Dara Farm Sanctuary! It sure took us a long time to make this little project come true, but now it is over. We definitely …
We want to be here more for animals. One way we can do our part is to donate our time to the voiceless. Dara Farm Sanctuary fundraiser is here! 🎄🎄🎄Tis’ the season to give and so we are having a community fundraiser sidewalk sale this …
After three and a half months of living on hiatus, it seems most suitable to break the long silence and share what we have been up to!
Dear you who you just stumbled to this small corner of our big world. Our website, where we mostly write about sustainable living, animals, and vegan food. Or you who you have been coming back and seeing no action here. Yes, we have been gone for a while, but not far at all. We just moved from our desks to the kitchen. The laptop was replaced with a stove.
Ever since we started our home-cooking vegan food business, which mostly concentrates on vegan snacks and dried fruit chips, we had literally no time for writing. That doesn’t mean that we are not coming back. We may, but only time knows. The situation on our Mother Earth is not getting any better, so there are really urgent articles to write. But as urgent it may be, we also need to support ourselves to make the ends meet. As for you, so for us, the current world order has introduced many life changes. So more than ever it is important that we follow our passion and make a living on what we know the best – vegan cooking.
Cooking is not the only thing that matters a lot. We love freedom, we love liberty and animals. This is why we try more to fight for our rights. Not only of the human brothers and sisters but also non-human brothers and sisters. We want to do more for the voiceless, for those who are caged, who are trapped or abused daily. The fight for animal liberation will never end. This is in our blood and in our hearts. We love animals and there is no place for animal abuse in our world.
If you do love animals as well, please consider taking the steps in your life, where you harm them the most. The easiest is to become vegan. If you are not quite ready this year, then please start freshly on the new year. Veganuary is taking place every year. This is your chance to start with a change. If you stop eating animal products, you will notice soon that your dog or cat is not much different from a cow or a chicken. They both have a right to the best lives. Just one is keeping you company and making you happy. While the other is meant to keep far away from you and feed you. They all should be free and not serve us, especially not sacrificing their lives for our taste buds. Living cruelty-free is good for animals, good for the planet, and good for you.
Choose a compassionate living and start with eating no animal-derived foods. We are here to help you. We can help you out with a consultation, we can cook for your Christmas meal and we can become your friends. Help us to help animals by ordering special items from our Vegan Very Much Shop. You can find some fundraising food items made only using plants. We will donate the 50% as promised to a lovely animal sanctuary called Dara Farm Sanctuary. They are a cruelty-free, vegan living organization run by two guys. We have some other great ideas, how we can support them in the near future. Keep checking back and remember all lives matter.
Yours,
Eve and Kerly
This is not our average post, but a short and quite sharp and straightforward announcement! Visit our shop while supporting our fundraiser! We are so happy to announce that our Very Very Much Shop is finally open for business! To start it off in a …
Do you celebrate your vegan anniversary? Is this even a thing? Yes, it is! And it even does have it’s special name – veganniversary!
You have made a wonderful decision of going vegan. Good for you, we applaud your decision. But what’s next? Let us share some simple tips to help you!
Pat yourself on the shoulder for making that amazing decision. Summer is the easiest time to start your vegan journey. The new beginnings are sometimes hard and full of challenges. Let us direct you through the obstacles, which may arise. Please take a look at our short to-do list after making a decision when transitioning to a plant-based life. Please know that this list is in random order. You will find what is more important to you, so you can tackle that first. If you have anything else to add, please let us know, we would love to update this list.
*Start clearing your pantry, fridge, and freezer – read the labels and take all out which is not made of plants. But please do not trash the food. Look for donation options via community fridges, food banks, especially if you have lots of unopened products. If you have opened items and feel comfortable giving them away, please put everything in a box. Put it on the curb, or by recycling collection areas and your food will find a new home fast.
*Plan your meals – in the beginning, it may hard to find what to eat. That’s why you should have ideas for the first weeks. Find inspiration from Elephantastic Vegan.
*Tell your friends and family about your decision on going vegan – tell them your story. Add whatever you want to share with them, now when you are on your plant-based journey. Perhaps sharing this link from The Spruce Eats helps them to understand you better from the eating perspective.
*Educate yourself constantly – read more. Follow vegan news, check new recipes, visit vegan forums – the vegan community is there to help you.
*Meet other vegans – post on Instagram, follow fellow vegan websites, reach out in your neighbourhood groups – the people you meet there will always offer you support and help to answer your questions.
*Ask help from us – we are always here to help people transitioning to vegan and share personal tips on their righteous path.
We will break these points to separate articles and help you find more information behind all these suggestions. So, please check back weekly to find more information.
It may not be easy in the beginning, but which beginning is easy ever? So stay true to yourself. Remind yourself of the reason for you going vegan. Think of the values, the lives of the animals in whose death you are not participating, and of what it means to you. We are creatures of habits, we can change if we want to, it takes time, but it can be done!
Welcome to the wonderful vegan family!
As luck has it January is known as Veganuary. Therefore it is very easy to try to be vegan for a month! Our three tips will help you!
Probably by now, everybody has got their fair share of staying home and practicing social-distancing. But how to boost your immune system during these trying times.
If you want to be more environmentally friendly, then you should eat local food. We all know that, right? But how wrong we have been believing that!
I love the many ways of awakening. I read and learn and think that now I know something. Then some new information comes along and it opens my eyes. Again. Wider. I am so excited about the recent discovery of food. Sharing is caring, so let us tell you the latest news about local food.
I guess by now there is not a single person, who doesn’t know that eating local food is better for the environment. After all, we are more aware of what is happening in the world. Especially what is the situation in nature. The very precious thing we keep destroying because of our needs, wants, and habits. We all need to eat, we all want to enjoy the good food, right? Not thinking much of from where the food is traveling to our plates or how it is made.
Somebody once told that eating local food is better for the environment. We all have been believing it, preaching it and sharing our valuable knowledge. Guess what, we have all been wrong. New data is out and it is eye-opening:
Why we have been thinking that local food is better for the planet? Because when food is produced elsewhere and transported to where we are, it has been creating those nasty emissions. Logically thinking, the furthest the food is traveling from, the more destroying it is for our climate. Yes, transport does lead to emissions, but it is insignificant compared to the amounts that food production does. For most food products, transport accounts for less than 10%, and it’s much smaller for the largest GHG emitters.
It is important to state that not just transport, but all processes in the supply chain after the food left the farm – processing, transport, retail, and packaging – mostly account for a small share of emissions. (Look at the graph below)
But many people may not be aware that food production is actually very exhausting for the planet. As a matter of fact, one-quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) are created because of it. This is a frightening number, which definitely shines new light for our knowledge of planet conservation so far.
Different foods need different stages to be produced. Which means that each stage has its own emissions originate. Different stages are:
Depending on a food product the above-mentioned stages are bigger or smaller on creating GHG emissions.
The following graph shows you the data from the largest meta-analysis of global food systems to date, published in Science by Joseph Poore and Thomas Nemecek (2018). In this study, the authors looked at data across more than 38,000 commercial farms in 119 countries.
What you are looking at is the total of GHG emissions per kilogram of food products. CO2Â is the most important GHG, but not the only one. Food production in agriculture is a large source of greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide. Think of cows eating constantly, their burps and also the constant pooing.
How often you think of how far the food traveled to the store? I have been thinking of that when looking at goji berries or seeing those beautiful Instagram avocado photos. I tend not to consume food, which has traveled for long, if except cocoa powder. This is the main ingredient for our staple food – dark chocolate. If you looked at the graph above, then, unfortunately, we have contributed a lot to the GHG because of our eating habits.
Before reading the article, which inspired me to write this post, I also thought that a lot of food is transported by air. Luckily only very little food is air-freighted. It accounts for only 0.16% of food traveled in miles. This is great, but unfortunately, those few products which still need to be air-freighted, create high emissions.
To limit your carbon footprint, it should be advised to avoid the small share of foods that are air-freighted. It is very difficult to know, which have taken a plane to wherever you’re living. Especially if the labels are not giving enough information.
The key element to know is those foods tend to be highly perishable. This means they need to be eaten soon after they’ve been harvested. Transporting them by boat would take too long. That is why the perishables are most of the time air-freighted. For example asparagus, green beans and berries are common air-freighted goods.
Next time when buying foods, which seem had arrived from far-away. Look for a country of origin and then think of the freshness of the product. These help you to figure out a bit where the food is coming from.
Yes, we are back at it again – it is better for the planet to be vegan. Animal-based foods tend to have a higher footprint than plant-based. Quit that lamb and cheese-eating. Both emit more than 20 kg CO2-equivalents per kilogram. Poultry and pork have lower footprints but are still higher than most plant-based foods, at 6 and 7 kg CO2-equivalents, respectively.
The largest GHG emissions, for most foods, resulting from land use and the farm stage. The latter is responsible for applying fertilizers, organic and synthetic, and also enteric fermentation (the production of methane in the stomachs of cattle). If to combine these two, then land use and farm-stage emissions account for more than 80% of the footprint for most foods.
So what can you do to be more aware of your eating habits and food choices? As what you eat has a significant impact on our carbon “footprint”. If you want to reduce it, avoid air-freighted foods where you can. But more than this, you should focus on what you eat, rather than eating local. Eating no animal products while switching to plant-based alternatives will reduce your footprint by much more.
I survived! I wrote this article during the last hour of my 20 hours fast after almost two weeks. Wow! Thank you for making it to the end. Hug yourself and be smart while consuming food. Think about fasting, as well, as this will make you appreciate your food even more!