World Veg Fest Diversity

I was so impressed by the World Veg Fest Diversity!  Here's the link to a "talkie" I made about it.

World Veg Fest

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUxWrFVOsWg

An Open Letter to Soleil Ho, Who Sounds Wonderful!

Dear Soleil Ho,

 I was happy to read that the next restaurant critic of the San Francisco Chronicle would "confront questions of ethics and social justice."    Since both environmentalists and animal welfare activists are urging a move towards a plant-based diet, it would be wonderful if articles always considered vegans.

 To the credit of the SF Chronicle, Jonathan Kauffman reported on Manu Gaji's "vegan turn" in a full-page article on November 25.

 But I saw "Our favorite new cookbooks of the year,  and I didn't notice a single one that was vegan.  I wanted to be sure, so I went on line and did a search in the two-page article for "vegan" the results were 0. 

 What a wonderful change you could make if you always asked restaurants for a vegan entree as well as other dishes.  Asking and reporting would show restaurateurs that plant-based dishes and vegan diners are valued.  You could show your readers too.

 I acknowledge that there are more vegetarian articles than vegan ones.  I sometimes think that vegan is where vegetarian was about twenty years ago.

 I just checked out your podcast, and I see that you're way ahead of the rest of us!   I hope this means more respect shown to plant-based diets and those of us who choose them.  

Now I'm a subscriber of both  The Racist Sandwich and Popaganda as well as the SF Chronicle.

I'm looking forward to your moving the Chronicle forward in the new year.

 Lots of good wishes,

 Tina Martin 

The U.N. Recognizes Beyond Meat as a "Champion of the Earth"

https://www.beyondmeat.com/whats-new/view/the-un-recognizes-beyond-meat-as-a-champion-of-the-earth

The United Nations has recognized Beyond Meat as a "Champion of the Earth."

Beyond Meat Uses MUCH Less Water than Beef from a Cow

Beyond Meat "worked with the University of Michigan to lead a 3rd-party, peer-reviewed Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) comparing the environmental impact of making a 1/4 Beyond Burger versus everything that goes into making a ¼ lb. U.S. beef burger.

The LCA study concluded that The Beyond Burger uses 99% less water, 93% less land, generates 90% fewer Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGE), and requires 46% less energy than a beef burger."

This is what I copied from this link:

https://www.beyondmeat.com/whats-new/view/a-burger-with-benefits

WOW! FFAC Really Gets Things Done!

I mentioned the gala FFAC, Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, had last Sunday.  Today I got a chain of responses from the people working for the FFAC.  I'm impressed!

Oh, this is a wonderful response!  I'm really going to make every effort to make an additional donation before the end of the year because you are clearly using funds very productively!

Here are a couple of the e-mail addresses for people who would benefit from hearing from you:

Anya Deepak, who's with both SF Department of the Environment and WEN, Women's Environmental Network:

lavanya.deepak@sfgov.org

Maia Piccagli, head of the San Francisco chapter of Mothers Out Front.

maiapic@gmail.com

Joyce Ganthavorn, who's WEN's secretary:  wenbayarea@gmail.com

Will there be a report after the presentation at the SF Department of the Environment?

Thank you all so much!  You're my heroes!

Tina

On Wednesday, December 5, 2018, 4:06:13 PM PST, Monica Chen <monica@ffacoalition.org> wrote:

Hi Tina,

Thanks for your email.  I will be presenting with one of my interns at the SF Department of the Environment this month!  Hopefully we can schedule more presentations with them specifically about Green Monday.  Additionally if you have the email addresses of anybody I should be in contact with at WEN (or any other organization), please do introduce us.

Thank you so much!

Warmly,

Monica

On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 11:49 AM Amy Laff <amy@ffacoalition.org> wrote:

Hi Tina,

Yes! We have begun speaking to the SF Board of Supervisors!

I’ll connect you with others on out SF Green Monday team. I’ll  be sending you a Green Monday Packet within the hour.

Welcome to the SF Green Monday Citizen Lobbyists team! 

Respectfully,

Amy

Amy Halpern-Laff

Director, Strategic Partnerships

Factory Farming Awareness Coalition 

(480) 215-2710 m

On Dec 5, 2018, at 11:41 AM, Rachel Shippee <rachel@ffacoalition.org> wrote:

Hi Tina,

Thank you for your message. I am grateful to have your monthly support and I appreciate you thinking of us for an additional EOY donation. 

Glad to hear you enjoyed the gala. I apologize for the dessert situation. We will do a better job of securing them next year! 

I CC'd Amy Halpern-Laff, our Director of Strategic Partnerships, on this email. She worked directly with the Berkeley City Council on the Green Monday initiative and will be able to answer your questions. 

I also CC'd Monica Chen, Our Bay Area Director and Intern Program Coordinator, so she can work with you to set up presentations with the groups you mentioned. 

All the best,

Rachel 

On Tue, Dec 4, 2018 at 11:55 AM Tina Martin <tina_martin@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

Dear FFAC,

I am giving monthly to FFAC, and at this time I can't increase my monthly amount, but as soon as I can, I will.  I may be able to make an additional end-of-the-year donation.

I really enjoyed the gala this past Sunday.  The food was delicious (even though the dessert disappeared before it was served), and I was so impressed by the interns and all they're doing under the leadership of Katie Cantrell and Monica Chen and others.  I was really excited to meet and hear Kate Harrison, and I'd like to take whatever action I can to get the SF Board of Supervisors to be pro-active like the Berkeley Council.

Do you have any suggestions?  I have some contact with WEN, the Women's Environmental Network, and the SF Department of the Environment.

Thanks for all you're doing.

Tina Martin

Links to Videos of the World Veg Fest Presentations

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrBBUuTzBsLLQLZs0zu5Qh7f5Nc3tAc5z

The above is a link to all the video-taped presentations at the World Veg Fest on October 27, 2018.

This is the presentation Greg Rohrbech gave of the history of the San Francisco Veg Society:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t4wpcaERqY&index=2&t=0s&list=PLrBBUuTzBsLLQLZs0zu5Qh7f5Nc3tAc5z

An Open Letter to Kate Harrison, Leader of Berkeley Council's Green Monday Resolution

Dear Kate Harrison,

I'm so grateful to you for the resolution that you led the Berkeley Council in passing!  I'm glad I got to shake hands with you and thank you after Katie introduced me to you and your husband.

Has something been written up about what you've done so far? I don't mean the press releases and articles from September, when your resolution was first announced.  

  I know you said you had your first Green Monday this past week  "and nobody died."  But you spoke of only 9 people.  Was that just for your Berkeley Council?  I was hoping you were going into schools and libraries.  Did anyone observe Green Monday besides you council members?

Do you have pictures of what you ate after the food provider expressed belief that he could come up with a whole vegan lunch?   (I'm going to be something together at the end of this year to answer that question, "What do vegans eat?" to show how many possibilities there are.   I'm going to show what I ate!)

You said during your talk that we shouldn't hesitate to ask for your help in getting Green Monday started in our cities.  Could you help us get it started in SF?  Of course, a lot of councils don't meet on Mondays, but I assume it could be any day of the week.  

If you have a starter kit, I could share it with SF's Department of the Environment and WEN (Women's Environmental Network).  

I don't know why SF is lagging so far behind, but I guess no city can keep up with Berkeley.

Many thanks,

Tina

FFAC Gala on Sunday, December 2

Chouquet's Came Through with the Best Thing on the Table!

I had misgivings about going to a French restaurant whose menu didn't show any accommodations for diners who want to support a plant-based diet for animal welfare and the Good of the environment.  I called ahead of time, and the person I spoke to didn't seem to believe there was any way to accommodate vegans but said she'd look into it.

I looked up an explanation in French for how restaurants can benefit by offering vegan entrees even if they serve  meat eaters too, and I found a good one. 

https://malou.io/decryptage-pourquoi-tendance-vegan-profitable-restaurant-omnivore/

But I forgot I had it when they were, after all, quite accommodating.

What they came up with was colorful and delicious. 

Then the SF Bach Choir sang it's annual revision of the Boar's Head: 

          Advice for the modern host:
          You need not kill the thing you roast.
          In faith whereof I propose this toast:
          Ally ally al-ly oxen free!

COP 24 Needs to Promote a Plant-Based Diet

Dear Staff of COP24,

I just got a news release on the various measures that COP24 will take to keep their carbon footprint as small as possible and to sent an example, making COP 24 sustainable.

Please remember food!  It's very important to educate on the importance of moving to a plant-based diet.

Last year at COP 23, I heard that more than 60% of the food choices were meatless.  I hope that this year they can also be free of animal products altogether with no more than 40% containing dairy, eggs, or meat.  

I also heard that at the COP23 in Germany, the carbon footprint was put on each food item made available.  I've never seen those pictures, but I'd like to.  Could you make them available?  Can you use them again?

Lots of good wishes,

Tina Martin.