VegBlogger - a vegan / vegetarian blog

"Vegan is Love" Book Ruffling Feathers All Over the Place

Ruby Roth wrote the book "That's Why We Don't Eat Animals." It's a good book that we own and my kids
like. It's a message that I want them to understand. She has now released her second book, titled "Vegan is Love," and it is ruffling feathers around the country!

There has been a lot of controversy about this book. I've seen them discussing it on the Today show, as well as on news sites and more. I even came across this article today here written by the editor of Pork Magazine (you can imagine her position, right?).

People are up in arms that this kind of information is being put out for children. Why? Because they don't want their kids to learn about what goes on behind those closed slaughter house doors. Heaven forbid we actually teach our children a different way of life.

Critics like to say that it is based on "fear." Well isn't the idea of eating meat based on fear? How many times have you told someone you are a vegetarian or vegan and they ask about protein deficiency (or some other type of nutrient deficiency)? Haven't omnivores been lead into fearing going without eating animal products simply because they may shrivel up of some sort of deficiency? Why is it when the shoe is on the other foot the fear is a problem?

Furthermore, I don't think it is fear. I think it's based on education and information. There are plenty of books out there that discuss eating animals or have them pictured being eaten in the illustrations. Until recent years it was difficult to find a Thanksgiving book that didn't involve seeing a dead turkey on the table. So why is it that when we vegetarians and vegans have just a couple of books people are up in arms? Fear.

It's their fear that this is based on. Fear that their children will know more about food production than they do. Fear that their children will (gasp) want to eat a better diet that doesn't include animal products. Fear that their children will be compassionate and they will become a mirror that makes them feel uncomfortable about their own food choices. Fear that they will lose their position as editor of "Pork Magazine" if people stop eating the pigs. All their fear.

Ruby Roth's book "Vegan is Love" is about teaching compassion. It's about being aware of what is going on and using that information to make informed food choices. Compassion. How can that ever be wrong?

They say that no news is bad news when it comes to publicity for a product. So I hope that Ruby is selling a lot of books from all the controversy. I can tell you we will be adding it to our animal-friendly collection.

Kudos to Ruby for having the strength to put out a book that was bound to make waves. That takes courage. And in doing so, by getting people talking, the dialogue has been started and positive change will come out of it.

Celebrating Earth Day 2012 With My Family

Happy Earth Day!

It’s one of my favorite holidays, so I like to do things with my kids to make it special for them as well.
Yesterday we went to the Earth Day festival in Orlando. Then today, to celebrate Earth Day, we started at the beach, doing a little beach clean-up and nature walk. We talked about everything we came across and carried a bag to pick up all the litter we encountered (which is a lot).

After about a half an hour or so it started raining. It was a huge downpour! We had to run all the way back to the car. By the time we got back we were all soaked, but we were all laughing so hard. I told them that it was nature in all its glory!

After that we stopped by a thrift store, and then went to see the new DisneyNature Chimpanzee movie (read my review). I love that my kids see that Earth Day is an important day and that we do something to celebrate. It’s a tradition that I hope they, and you, pass down!

 

DisneyNature Chimpanzee Movie Review

I saw DIsneyNature Earth and loved it. Then I saw DisneyNature Oceans and loved it as well. We skipped
the DisneyNature African Cats movie, because it largely didn't look worth the price tag. Three out of the last four years I have taken my kids to see the new DisneyNature movie on Earth Day, including this year (read what we did today here). Today we took the kids to see the DisneyNature movie called Chimpanzee.

The good news is that I thought they had some really good chimpanzee footage and you can't help but to fall in love with Oscar (the baby). He's adorable and captures your heart. My kids loved him as well and got many laughs out of his antics.

The bad news is that I think the movie was poorly done and could have been so much better. They "Hollywood-ized" the movie too much by turning it into an overly dramatic action flick, which included pathetic narration done by Tim Allen. I can see saying that the different groups of chimps clash and fight. Showing it once will suffice. But I felt like half of the movie was a continous build-up of clashing "gangs." It made the movie seem depressing and somewhat staged for Hollywood effect. 

And back to the pathetic Tim Allen narration. First off, his voice is completely wrong for such a narration. Second, they gave him unfitting lines to say that made it even more painful to listen to. They would spend too much time hypping "Scar's" gang moving in on the other one. It reminded me of a poorly done action flick that includes boring overly dramatic chase scenes (and more than one of the same thing!). That, added to cheesy music and I was left shifting in my seat and rolling my eyes a lot.

Another thing that really bothered me is that while the credits were rolling (after the theater was half cleared out) they put on the screen about thow the number of chimps in the world have declined over the years. But that's all they said. You would think that during the movie, before half the audience had left, they would have let people know about the decimation of the chimpanzee population, and that they would have said why they are declining (which is because of humans eating them and destroying their habitat). But they said nothing as to the reason why, which was really unfortunate and I think irresponsible on their part.

The bottom line is that DisneyNature is losing what it is that they were when they first started. All the drama and silly narration is, well, too much Hollywood and quite frankly, not enough nature.

Last year I took my kids to see the Jane Goodall movie called Wild Chimpanzee's. It played at the Orlando Science Center in the Cinedome (read my review). That movie was excellent! That movie was not Hollywood, it was nature. If you can, opt for seeing Jane Goodall's Wild Champanzee's movie. You can learn more about it here. Check with a Science Center in your area that has a Cinedome, to see when they might show it. Unlike DisneyNature's Chimpanzee, when you see Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzee, you will not be disappointed!