Lantern Books Announces 2006 Essay Contest
The Grumpy Vegan is a big fan of Lantern Books, which publishes books on animal advocacy, spirituality, social justice and environmentalism. Lantern published the two Animals’ Agenda anthologies that I edited and is the host company for this Web site. They’ve published many important books and host the terrific Super Vegan Web site.
Lantern recently announced their 2006 essay competition. Its aim is to allow new thinking to emerge on the key subjects of Lantern’s publishing program and to encourage new voices to step forward to shape the debate for the future.
The first prize is $1,000. There is no entry fee. Essays should be no longer than 1500 words. The deadline is December 31, 2006. Complete guidelines, as well as last year’s winning essays, can be found here.
I’m proud to have been one of the judges in last year’s inaugural competition.
Boycott Bjork and all the rest of them
Satya and CIWF
The Grumpy Vegan’s attention was brought to the October issue of Satya, which is the second in a two-parter on the strategic challenges facing the animal rights movement. The editorial refers to Compassion In World Farming and its recent support for British-produced, “humane” veal. Satya asks why CIWF, which was at the “forefront of the successful protests that inspired the 1990 ban on veal crates in the UK,” is “now lauding British veal consumption”?
As CIWF’s Campaigns Organizer (1976-1978) who personally worked with its founders, Peter and Anna Roberts, as their second full-time employee, I can offer some historic understanding as to why this is a position that they hold. Although, I should add, I’m not representing CIWF in any official capacity.
Peter and Anna Roberts predated Howard Lyman by some 30 years. They were dairy farmers who were outraged by the treatment of farmed animals. After giving up farming and as vegetarians they formed CIWF in 1967. They also launched Direct Foods, which produces the staple of many British vegetarians and vegans, Sosmix and Burgamix, a dry mixture that becomes a burger when added with water and fried. The mission of Direct Foods is to provide consumers with a soy product that they can eat without it first being consumed by animals that then become meat.
Peter and Anna established CIWF as an organization that opposed cruel practices in animal agriculture. It never promoted vegetarianism — although they and many of the staff do not eat meat and dairy products — because they believed it’s important for the consumer to make their own mind up on what was on their plate. It also made strategic sense. CIWF is an organization for veg and nonveg alike to comfortably come together to challenge the most egregious examples of farmed animal abuse.
And, as it is said in Britain, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. As Satya correctly points out, CIWF led the way in accomplishing many of the bans on factory farming practices.
Alive but only just
Ten days without blogging is a long time. The reason? Don’t try to direct a national conference and have a stinking cold at the same time. The Grumpy Vegan’s good intentions were to blog daily from The Strength of Many but a hideous cold took its toll….mercilessly. Hence, no blogging.
Still the conference was a success–notwithstanding my ironic hope to the audience that they returned home with my cold. (I’m not a patient patient.) So, what’s left to say about the weekend in LA? Not much other than it was successful. All the speakers were great and, at times, provocative or deeply informative. Most importantly, the food was fabulous. Credit goes to my wonderful colleague, Jill Howard Church, and the Renaissance Montura Hotel staff who were equally fabulous and wonderful. What a shame that the folks at this summer’s Taking Action for Animals conference in Washington, D.C. weren’t in town to see what outstanding vegan hotel cooking can be like. Oh well.
So, what have I been up to since we last met? Well, resting, reading, sneezing, coughing and alcohol-soothed grumpiness. Finished reading the best short biography of Virginia Woolf (Harold Nicholson) and Frank Rich’s The Greatest Story Ever Sold. I love Frank Rich. His column is sufficient reason to buy Sunday’s New York Times. It’s a masterful writing cocktail that mixes political commentary and cultural analysis with a dash of bitters–literally! Such moments shine in the Greatest Story but it’s surprisingly more sober than I expected. Consequently, I’m focusing more on the Iraqi war and what Bush2 has done–and continues to do–in promulgating a fundamentally questionable war than Rich’s sarcastic writing style. What I mean to say here is that I wanted to read the book in order to spend time to learn more about how Rich writes. I am, of course, happy (well, happy is the wrong word but you know what I mean) to learn about our government gets up to with our tax dollars.
The other book this summer I promised myself is James Jasper’s Getting Your Way. His Art of Moral Protest is a must-read. Hopefully, more to follow on that one … but my promises aren’t always fulfilled.
An Intimate Evening with three celebrated authors
