The moment we’ve all been waiting for… Beet Box, Denver’s favourite vegan commissary bakery, is finally opening their very own storefront! You’ve seen their donuts at NOOCH, their cookies at Vegan Van, and all sorts of other items at various coffee shops around the city. But now you’ll be able to get all that Beet Box-y goodness straight from the source, not to mention some coffee and (coming soon) cafe items as well!

The guys gave us a sneak peak at what the place looks like, and we are very excited! With a large kitchen (read: limitless vegan food), coffee bar, dining room (complete with opening garage door for those gorgeous Colorado days), and a vintage historic look, this is definitely a place that you’ll want to kill the majority of your time. We know we’ll be frequenting it.

Why we love Beet Box (and you should too):

• They are 100% vegan and also specialize in gluten-free and nut-free goods.
• They are awesome folks and good friends!
• They love giving back to their local community.
• Their food is delicious!

Beet Box plans to do a soft opening this week at their new location, 1030 E 22nd Avenue, with a grand opening to be announced later. Stay tuned for more info on a Carrot Mob at BeetBox to support these awesome folks!

Follow the jump for some pictures of the new space.

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Some of you may have heard that Urban Decay, one of my favourite vegan-friendly cosmetics companies and one of the biggest opponents of animal testing, announced a month ago that they would be expanding their business into China.  Sounds like a good business move, right?  Except for that it means more than just that.  In China, animal testing for cosmetics is required, which would mean that Urban Decay would no longer be selling cruelty-free products.  This, of course, caused quite an uproar in the vegancommunity, meriting a response from PETA and a Change.org petition (which I personally signed).

Well, it seems as though it works, because Urban Decay announced this weekend that they have rethought this business expansion and decided to not sell their products in China, therefore keeping their products cruelty-free.  According to the press release on their website, “ultimately [they] did not feel [they] could comply with current regulations in China and remain true to [their] core principles.”  They go on to state that “Urban Decay does not test its finished products on animals, nor do we allow others to test on our behalf,

and we require our suppliers to certify that the raw materials used in the manufacture of our products are not tested on animals. Urban Decay is proud to be 100% cruelty-free.” Urban Decay does use some animal products in some of their cosmetics, so just look for the paw-print (right) to tell if it’s totally vegan.

Win for us, right?  Kind of.  We get our cruelty-free Urban Decay makeup back, but what is the real issue at hand?  The fact that China requires animal testing for cosmetics.  Yeah, we can keep our cruelty-free products, but that door is closed in China.  So how can we stop animal testing in China so that they can have their cruelty-free cosmetics too?  I’m not sure, and it won’t be easy, but it is definitely necessary.

In other cruelty-free makeup news, Lush has announced that they are expanding into makeup.  Their new Emotional Brilliance line comes out July 21st.  Who wants to go stake out with me?

LA held its 10th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational contest this weekend, and guess who one of the winners was?  The Aurora Borealis from Gwendolyn Mathers over at Compassion Over Killing took home 3rd place in the pro “Honey Pot” (dessert) category.  This is the first year that a prize has ever gone to a vegan sandwich.  How exciting!  There were also a few other vegan entries into the competition.  You can read more about Gwen’s experience on the blog here, but I really just wanted to share with you how INCREDIBLE this sandwich looks:

It’s like a grilled cheese pastry french toast delicious party that I want in my mouth.  The best part?  She’s included the recipe on her blog!

All in all, well done Miss Mathers.  It is one of the biggest satisfactions in my life to be able to win over the omni’s with my delicious vegan food, and you have done it well.  Congratulations!

I came across an article today in the New York Times about vegan bodybuilding. It’s an interesting article; of course, there’s definitely some nay-saying in it. But the people they interview also talk about the strength of the growing community, which is always awesome to hear. With more support, the vegan diet gains even more strength (no pun intended). My favourite part, though, is at the end, when they are interviewing a vegan body builder. He says, “I’m no longer an athlete; I’m a warrior now. There’s a big difference. The athletes are just out to get paid. Warriors stand for something.”
Plus, you gotta dig this guy’s tattoo.

Turkeys are always one of the saddest animals to me (factory-produced, that is), and this article on NutritionFacts.org pretty much sums up why. 

Their meat is artificially grown more than three times their normal rate, then slaughtered.  That is, if they’re not part of the 20% that dies from lameness, heart failure, spontaneous bone fractures, or being trampled to death before it’s actually slaughtertime.    That 20% is no big though, as most producers see that as a “healthy flock.”  (DISGUSTING.) In fact, one producer writes “the sign of a good meat flock is the number of birds dying from heart attacks” (Read: this is fucked up).

Anyway, because of all of these heart problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 9 out of 10 samples of turkey tested positive for e. coli, including the type blamed for human urinary tract infections. Turkey also had the highest contamination rates for Enterococcus faecalis and multidrug resistant Enteroccocus faecium. You can also watch a video on the Fecal Bacteria Survey here (sounds like a good watch, huh?).

Anyway, you can read the whole article here.  And if you haven’t checked out NutritionFacts.org, by Michael Greger, M.D. and The Jesse & Julie Rasch Foundation, do so now.  No, not everything is about feces.  Just about health and food!

7News investigators have found evidence “probable” inhumane euthanization at a puppy store in North Denver.  The owner, according to two former employees, allegedly injects dish soap with a syringe into dog’s hearts, thereby killing them. (WTF?) An investigator even found a syringe that fit the description.  The owner used to also own a breeding facility in Kansas, which was shut down last year when he euthanized more than 1,000 dogs.  As for the puppy store here, however, there is no proof to go after his license and they can’t get a warrant.  The supposed “pet care program” of the Colorado Department of Agriculture essentially refuses to do anything.  So his store remains open.

Seriously, am I the only one that thinks this is seriously the most fucked up story EVER?  Okay, maybe not ever, because people do some fucked up things to animals, but SERIOUSLY?  Here’s one more reason why I will only adopt pets from no-kill shelters, like Max-Fund.  What do you think? 

Read the article here

And here’s his store’s website here

I got to see Dr. Michael Greger speak recently at VegFest. It was the highlight of the day for me, and I was really excited to hear that he would soon be launching NutritionFacts.org where he would post a new video every day about the latest studies in health and nutrtion. The site has been launched, and there are already nearly 300 videos up from Greger’s popular lecture series. Now, these videos don’t do him justice, and you should definitely try to see him speak if you can, but it is amazing to see this wealth of information available online.

Here’s what he does. Greger spends his days poring over medical journals to get honest up-to-date information on nutrition studies and discoveries. In his videos, he breaks the latest medical information down into terms that we can all understand. This is great for people who want to know what is new in the medical world, and since the studies are in peer-reviewed medical journals, we can be confident that the info is legit. Each video is just a few minutes, and there are some really surprising ones. My favorite one isn’t up yet. At VegFest he did a section about how larger bowel movements are a sign of health, and vegans have the biggest BMs. Maybe not something to brag about, but… you know how dudes are. But you can watch videos on brain parasites in meat, protein & puberty, and the fecal bacteria survey, among other gems. The video above is about eliminating the #1 cause of death in the U.S., heart disease. It’s good, but man I can’t wait for the one about how vegan moms’ sons have bigger penises. Seriously, he talked about that too.

Hit the jump to learn more about Michael Greger, M.D. Read the rest of this entry →

Have you ever seen serious animal cruelty or neglect and not known what to do about it? If you’re like me, I’m sure you have. I’m sure you’ve seen a poor dog panting alone inside a car in the blistering summer heat and thought, “what person would be mindless enough to cause that suffering?” Or maybe you’ve had a neighbor who left their dogs outside all day and night with no access to shelter? Whatever you’ve seen, if you had a chance to help the animal at risk, would you? A new statewide program is aimed at giving you good reason to do so. Read the rest of this entry →

You might have heard about the recent agreement on a new federal law between The Humane Society of the United States and United Egg Producers, but in case you haven’t, I wanted to give a small breakdown on what the deal is, what it will do, and how it was reached.

In my opinion, there are two things that make this one of the single most significant moments in the history of animal welfare/rights. First, the agreed upon legislation, if passed, will directly better the lives of each the more than 250 million hens involved in egg production in the United States. It’s incredibly rare to see animal protection groups and the agriculture industry come to any agreement at all, but for the two sides to agree that every animal within a particular industry segment deserves better living conditions is nearly unprecedented. It’s a huge win for those of us who wish to see less animal cruelty in the world; it will result in there being less of it.

The second reason that this deal is so groundbreaking is that if the proposed law gets passed, it will be the first federal law ever to deal with the welfare of farm animals while they are living on farms. There are laws that deal with slaughter, transporting animals, etc., but this would be the first law to say “if you own a farm animal, you cannot treat it in these cruel ways.” And what happens when one part of the national agriculture industry finally agrees that the wellbeing of its animals matter? Well, hopefully the rest of the industry realizes it better get on board and do the same. I think this makes it possible to envision laws requiring better treatment of dairy cows, pregnant sows nursing their piglets, and other animals in the near future. Yes, this is just one step, but it’s the first step of its kind and it has the potential to lead to more victories for animals in the near future. Read the rest of this entry →