We are pleased to announce that our burger, sosage and hemp mixes now contain half the salt.
And, unlike many other convenient vegan staples, they still contain no palm oil, a source of major concern for the environment, and for the people and other animals loosing their forest homes. Visit saynotopalmoil.com
In fact Veggies Mixes contain no added fats at all, nor sugar or artificial anything.
Our mixes are handmade in Nottingham, in our dedicated vegan kitchen, with organically grown ingredients, including wholewheat breadcrumb, oats (from Cheshire) & soya (from France).
To find out why ours are probably the most ethical mixes available visit our Ethical Burgers & Sosages page.
Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary urgently needs donations due to recent considerable vets bills. For example the treatment of a horse for several months has run into thousands of pounds and this has now put the Animal Sanctuary into serious financial difficulties.
Green Meadow Animal Sanctuary has been taking in sick and rescued animals since 1991 and is home to in excess of 100 sheep and various other animals such as goats, turkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, horses, rabbits, cats, etc.
The sanctuary is entirely reliant on volunteers and donations to look after all the rescued and sick animals in their care and now urgently needs your help.
All the animals will live out the rest of their natural lives here, as we operate a strict no-breed and no-kill policy.
Once the animals are here they can roam the 37 acres of land to their hearts content and desire and come in for shelter whenever they want to, into our purpose built accommodation.
We need to stress to people that the situation is now urgent and all animals face slaughter if land has to be sold off. Funds have run out, and with running costs of £2500 per month, things are looking grim if we can’t get money coming in.
Anecdotes from 26th years catering at the frontline
Perhaps you were at J18 or M40 RTS street parties, the G8 in Stirling, Glastonbury or on Hatfield Peat Moor? You may even have stood with us in the snow at Molesworth US Airforce Base in the winter of ’85!
What was your favourite Veggies Event?
Recipies from Veggies events.
Have you been fed by Veggies at camps or gatherings, festivals or fairs, weddings or birthdays, or any other events?
Veggies Scoffer includes recipes from…
Climate Camps
Peace News Camp
AR Gatherings
Radical Routes Gatherings
Veggieskool Catering
Peoples Kitchen
Be your own Veggies
- How to set up a Veggies group
- Trailers / street stalls / indoor fairs / event catering
- Cooking with Veggies Mixes
Guest recipies from other campaign caterers, including Anarchist Teapot, Green Garden Cafe, Something Fishy, Fairfoods, Vegan Campaigns, Shambu’s, Screaming Carrot
Veggies Tour Dates – featuring events on our annual itinerary
According to the radio and TV news today (1 June 2011) Oxfam has warned that the cost of basic foods such as maize will double in 20 years. Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s Chief Executive, says that “We are sleepwalking ourselves into ecological disaster.”
“The only thing we disagree with is her time-scale. We know that in Kenya the price of maize has increased by more than 50% since we left at the end of March – two months, never mind two decades. At that time we were paying 2200 Kenyan shillings (about £17) per 90-kilo bag. Now it is 3500 shillings (about £27) and increasing. Beans cost twice as much. Admittedly some of the present increases are due to speculation on the food market but will they come down again? And they come on the top of what had already been a 50% increase in the previous year. Four years ago we could buy maize for less than 1000/- a bag. Imagine how this affects the poor, who already have to spend all the money they have on food. Now they simply haven’t got the money to be able to eat. The rising cost also makes it increasingly difficult for charities like HIPPO to continue to help them.
“Oxfam cites a number of reasons for the impending disaster. The one that they consistently fail to address is the most serious one of all, which is simply that more and more meat is being eaten in the world by more and more people and farm livestock consume about 10 times more food than they produce.
“In fact farm animals should not be considered as food-producers at all since they are overwhelmingly net food consumers.
“The world’s people are eating more animal-based foods every year whilst the world’s population is growing rapidly. Meanwhile the remaining wild areas of the world are rapidly being destroyed to feed farm animals, e.g. the vast clearance of the Amazon rainforest to grow soya for feeding to the cattle, pigs and poultry of Europe, leading to changes in the world climate, especially in the patterns of rainfall. Trees are the ‘pumps’ that recycle water back into the atmosphere.
“HIPPO has been saying this since its foundation in 1999 and some others have been saying it for even longer. But even taken all together we are but a David to the Goliath of the worldwide meat and dairy industry. That is why we are sending you this email, asking you to take its message to heart and to pass it on, please.
“The world as a whole needs to consume less meat. As individuals our best contribution is to eat none at all. We can use the money we save to help the poor!”
———-
Veggies adds:
Since 1984 Veggies has been pleased to support the work of Vegfam in ‘feeding the the hungry without exploiting animals’.
The fragile environment cannot support two populations – humans and their food animals. Vegfam raises funds to eliminate hunger, thirst, malnutrition, and starvation, helping people in over 40 countries, by financing sustainable, self-supporting plant food projects, fruit and nut tree planting, irrigation and water wells.
We have sponsored and distributed Vegfam fliers and raised funds through a premium on the sales of bottled water and donations from our ‘samosas for social change‘ project.
You can help us to help Vegfam by using the Everyclick search facility, to raise funds for Vegfam whilst surfing the web.
Meanwhile, for more information on the work of HIPPO (in comparison to that of Oxfam) see our article Don’t Send A Cow – Plant a Tree!
Well, not actually ours, but Growing with Grace is looking for investment to save their stock-free organic farm!
Former Sumac volunteer, Eleanor Fairbrother has recently become a grower at Growing With Grace, an organic farm in the Yorkshire Dales.
The farm is an amazing place, with 2 acres of glass houses. It supplies organic vegetables to local people via its shop, box scheme, and wholesale to other retail outlets. It is committed to its stock free status, with all its fertility coming from an onsite composting scheme of the local green waste.
Growing With Grace is also committed to environmental stewardship, using biodiesel made on site in its tractors and delivery vehicles, and promoting biodiversity in the greenhouses with permaculture techniques, including a spectacular forest garden under glass (with peaches, figs, and nectarines!). It is also committed to co-operation and non-hierarchy, having been a workers co-op since its inception, and now being a community co-op.
The farm has been in financial trouble for 2 years, after a failed take over by a larger social enterprise, but it now has a bunch of new directors who have changed it from a workers co-op to a community co-op, reorganised the business plan, and are now doing a share issue to raise funds to save the farm.
Growing with Grace needs around £60,000 to make it financially viable and has until the end of July to get it!
They are asking individuals / groups to buy a £100 share in the farm (or more if you want!). You will then be part owner of the farm, and able to vote at AGMs etc. The farm will be able to get back on its feet, and will be able to get back to full production and profitability. Copies of the share issue prospectus, and an application form are available in PDF form on our website.
It is essentially an ethical donation, but technically you could withdraw your money in a couple of years, and you can also expect to get a small dividend on your money from around the same time. Until they have raised enough money that they know they are financially viable, your money will be kept in a holding account, and if they don’t raise enough money to save the farm, we will return it.
Veggies adds…
As a ‘stock-free’ farm no animal products such as blood, bonemeal or slurry from factory farmed animals are used. More information on truely animal friendly farming can be obtained from the Vegan Organic Network.
Can you help us continue our essential networking work?
After years of use and abuse maintaining our ‘vast and extensive’ internet networking, our laptop has finally reached the end of the road.
The loss of a series of keypad keys was managable, but now the hinges have collapsed, the battery only lasts 3 minutes and the memory, like mine, is fading away.
Can you help with a donation toward an essential replacement?
A suitable Samsung Netbook costs £230, but a recent Ethical Consumer report gives Samsung the second lowest ethical rating (after Toshiba), whilst a relatively highly ethical ASUS model would cost £340. Four donations of £25 would help us make the better ethical choice.
‘New’ Netbook up and running
Thanks to the response to this appeal we have found an appropriate Advent netbook to downsize and replace the previous Dell laptop.
As ever we did our best to be guided by the research of the Ethical Consumer Research Association (EC). By lucky chance their current Ethical Consumer Magazine had a major report on computers. It suggested various brands, such as ASUS with an ‘ethical score’ of 9.5.
This being a score of 9.5 out of 20 indicates that there are no truely ethical brands, so EC also recommend 2nd hand as the ‘best buy’. We were therefore well pleased to find an Advent netbook which was not only 2nd hand, but matched the 9.5 ethical rating. Further to that it was found by a vegan campaigner who does a bit of ebay trading purely as a means to keep the bailiffs from the door, whilst supporting all kinds of local community-based campaigns, including running our diy Community Print Resource, and Veggies Volunteering!
And it only cost £140 rather than £300 so, with the donations received so far, we only need to raise another £95 to pay for it!
The netbook was configured less than hour before catching a megabus train to London for a 3-day networking mission that took in visits to:
GreensCool, who are assisting us with our campaigns networking exhibition
Kingston Environment Centre, a campaign resource centre with similar aims to our Sumac Centre
Kingston Green Radio, an internet streamed green radio station in Kingston
Green Futures Festivals, who co-ordinate the area at which we run our campaign catering at Glastonbury
56a Infoshop, a radical resource for local people, campaign groups and projects in South London, hosting an exhibition for…
Calais Migrant Solidarity, giving practical support for migrant communities, one of the many groups in our Networking Directory
Ratstar, a squatted resource centre and hub for many campaign initiatives
PixelPunch, the vegan web designer (and Veggies Volunteer) that redesigned our website and built our new Networking Directory
Oh yes, and whilst this was happening I did a 20 minute live interview with Talk Radio Europe from Spain, for Animal Aid’s Vegetarian Month The research in preparation for this was gathered at http://www.veggies.org.uk/2011/03/veggie-month/. This would not have been possible without the ‘new’ netbook.
So thank you for your support, helping us make great things happen!
For over 25 years Veggies has taken a wide range of campaign messages to over 100 events each year, but we can only do it with your support – Find more fundraising ideas at http://www.veggies.org.uk/about/donate.
Please donate to support our campaigns for humans, other animals and the environment.
Food Not Bombs is an all-volunteer global movement that shares free vegan meals as a way of supporting local communities and promoting social change.
We have been pleased to have hosted to visits to Nottingham by Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs, in the 1990′s and again in January 2010 during the Peace News Gathering. Both visits have boosed our enthusiasm and commitment for “feeding the hungry without exploiting animals” (the byline of Vegfam).
I headed down to southern Arizona to finish writing a new book about Food Not Bombs. The below zero temperatures in Taos made it too painful to live in my van. My eye lids were freezing to my eyes when I woke so I headed south to warmer weather. Instead of frozen eye lids I woke to news that Representative Gabrielle Gifford and 17 others had been shot just a couple of miles from where I had spent my first evening in Tucson.
Food Not Bombs has been promoting a message of peace and nonviolence since 1980. Our message is more important then ever and I hope you will consider supporting the work of Food Not Bombs in any way you desire.
Thank you everyone for all that you have already done. Many of you donated money and time last year. Your help is needed more then ever in 2011. Nearly a billion are going hungry, tens of thousands become homeless and with food costs increasing we are seeing a new wave food riots.
The most important thing you can do is join or help start a Food Not Bombs chapter in your community. Also Orlando Food Not Bombs is heading to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, Georgia the week of February 14th and one way you can help is to organize a vegan meal outside your local federal building or U.S. Embassy. A number of Food Not Bombs groups have been threatened with arrest if they continue to express the view that America would be more secure if it diverted tax dollars from military spending towards healthcare, education and other domestic needs so that our people don’t find themselves homeless and hungry.
Another way to support Food Not Bombs is by bringing “The Change We Knead Now- Bake Goods Not Bank Bailout Tour” and solar baking demonstration to your community. If you are a college student or teacher consider hosting the presentation at your school. We can also speak at cafes, book stores and other venues.
The tour is a great way to inspire your community to participate. The presentation is also a good way to encourage participation in Food Not Bombs. I just returned from working with Food Not Bombs in Africa and have much more to share about their progress.
Love and Peace
Keith McHenry
co-founder of the Food Not Bombs movement
keith@foodnotbombs.net
I was driving to help cook and share food at the large rally in Washington DC when my engine exploded as I was driving past Oklahoma City. I also live in this van and have it packed with cooking equipment, solar oven, rice, beans, banners, folding table and literature for the Food Not Bombs tour. Getting my home back on the road is very important. My first lecture in at American University on October 6th in Washington D.C.
Calls and emails seeking support an interest in Food Not Bombs are at an all time high. A homeless mother of three just called for help in starting a local Homes Not Jails squat. We also had emails this week about new groups starting in Hilversum, the Netherlands, Saint Petersburg, Florida and Ruston, Louisiana . A volunteer was arrested in early September in Minsk Belarus framed in the fire bombing of the Russian Embassy. Floods, droughts and speculation are driving up the cost of food and forcing millions into hunger. We are also facing the new “Food Safety and Modernization Act” written by the good people at Monsanto which will cause another increase in the cost of organic food. Before the van’s engine exploded I was speaking and tabling at the Raw Spirit Festival. It was fantastic and we had lots of encouragement. Interest in the work of Food Not Bombs is growing.
We raise most of or funds by speaking at colleges. It has been difficult booking presentations at colleges and acquiring honorariums this fall. I just spoke with another student that said they were having a hard time raising even the minimum $500 for the resentation at their college when last year they provided several thousand to their speakers.
We have a number of very cool projects we are requiring funding including the printing of a short run of our new book “Cooking For Peace – Feeding the hungry and building a sustainable future with Food Not Bombs,” a World Food Not Bombs Gathering in Mexico, the completion of a documentary on Food Not Bombs and responding to the huge increase in requests for support for bulk dry goods.
We generally do not ask for financial support but the death of my engine and the inability of colleges to provide the usual honorariums has put us in an economic bind. We know most people have very little money these days but if you are able to contribute more then the usual dollar we suggest please help.
First of all, thank you all so very much for all your continued support, kind words and donations at this difficult time.
…
As you may or may not already know back in August this year we posted a comment on our Facebook page about a distressing development in the relations we have with one of our neighbours at The Retreat. Here it is again:
URGENT HELP NEEDED!
Due to a neighbourly dispute, The Retreat is unfortunately having to leave its long-standing home in Crockenhill and relocate with all its resident animals and their accommodation. We are desperately looking for new land and the funding/support to help us move there. This has all come as quite a shock to us. Your help would be sincerely appreciated. Please contact us if you can help. THANKS AGAIN. (posted on Facebook 20th August, 2010)
The above dispute is still ongoing, despite continued attempts by The Retreat to cooperate with both the local council and the neighbours involved, to come to a peaceful agreement and put an end to the pointless conflict.
What we believe began as personal hostile behaviour towards the owners and volunteers of The Retreat, has now clearly escalated to a whole new level, and become a clear disregard for animal life.
12 animals killed in fireworks display aimed at The Retreat on 5th November, 2010.
The neighbours in question, who have lived next to the animal rescue centre for many years, threatened to and then intentionally held a fireworks display aimed directly at The Retreat property, its straw-filled accommodations, and all its animal residents. They even invited around 25 “guests” to watch this act of animal cruelty.
This disgusting display of animal hatred went on for 45 minutes, with over 70 rockets and fireworks landing in and around the animals. While The Retreat had to cancel all rescue work to call on all its volunteers to calm and protect the highly distressed and terrified animals, laughter and cheers could be heard from the other side of the fence!
12 adorable animals died on that night as a direct result: Our poor little Milly, a lovely Shih Tzu, who had become a very dear friend to all at The Retreat, died of a stress-induced heart attack; terrified Lydia, a semi-feral cat, died trying to escape the onslaught of rockets and noise; Thomas, a beautifully majestic cockerel who had been recovering in our hospital wing from a minor injury, died of shock along with 3 other cockerels; 5 of our pigeons, unable to find shelter from the chaos and perished; fireworks also went straight through the wings of a bat, were caught in the tail of a pony, stuck in the wire of the aviary, even landing in a hay barn. The damage and suffering does not stop there, however, as we are still having to deal with the distressing after-effects on a number of our animals with more nervous dispositions, such as Dana, a gorgeous pig, who we sadly lost last week. She had never been the same since the night of the attack!
Luckily, the police were called by our other neighbours, but the damage had already been done. Despite acknowledging the antagonistic nature of the event, no charges have been pressed or further action taken.
For the sake and safety of the animals, we have to surrender to this animal hatred and move.
The above event and the possibility of having to endure future acts such as this, e.g. New Years Eve, has left us all here at The Retreat heartbroken. A clear lack of objective support from both the council and local authorities leaves us with no other choice but to leave our long-standing home.
Now more than ever we need your support!
Please send your anecdotes, endorsements, pictures and recipe ideas.
Veggies Scoffer may include…
Anecdotes from 26th years catering at the frontline
Perhaps you were at J18 or M40 RTS street parties, the G8 in Stirling, Glastonbury or on Hatfield Peat Moor? You may even have stood with us in the snow at Molesworth US Airforce Base in the winter of ’85!
Recipies from Veggies events, including gatherings, festivals and fairs
- Have you been fed by Veggies at camps or gatherings, festivals or fairs, weddings or birthdays, or any other events?
- Let us know which is your favourite Veggies Food, and why?
Climate Camps
Peace News Camp
AR Gatherings
Radical Routes Gatherings
Veggieskool Catering
Peoples Kitchen
Be your own Veggies
- How to set up a Veggies group
- Trailers / street stalls / indoor fairs / event catering
- Cooking with Veggies Mixes
Guest recipies from other campaign caterers, including Anarchist Teapot (yes), Green Garden Cafe, Something Fishy, Fair Foods, Vegan Campaigns, Shambu’s, Screaming Carrot
Veggies Tour Dates – featuring events on our annual itinerary
In 1987 Veggies fought off libel action by McDonalds, who then went after the McLibel Two. The ensuing 313 day epic trial and ultimate total victory in the European Court of Human Rights was documented in the film ‘McLibel’, directed by Franny Armstrong.
Franny went on to direct the Climate Change blockbuster ‘Age of Stupid’, which Veggies was pleased to support as part of the Nottingham Not Stupid team that brought the film to Nottingham.
In producing ‘McLibel’, Franny’s Spanner Films invented a new concept of ‘Crowd Funding’, whereby hundreds of ordinary people made an affordable investment in the film.
Now the Crowd Funding concept is (hopefully) bringing a new kick-ass activist film to the screens:
It’s called Just Do It and it’s going to be a feature film about climate change activists, it’s going to be funny and inspiring. Who knows you might even spot Veggies at the now infamous G20 demonstrations in London or at the Great Climate Swoop at Nottm’s Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.
They’re making it totally independently (ie no big backers) and planning to give it to us for free. But money doesn’t grow on trees, so they need our help.
The producers, all climate activists themselves, are seeking crowd funding and Lush are doubling donations. Having benefited from Lush support ourselves we have sent a small donation from the Samosas for Social Change fund, but others are encouraged to go over to their website, check it out, and make a donation.
And, unlike many other convenient vegan staples, they still contain no palm oil, a source of major concern for the environment, and for the people and other animals loosing their forest homes. Visit saynotopalmoil.com
It’s called 
