Vance Lekmuhl, Lee Hall, James LaVeck and Harold Brown (l to r) speak on "Animal Rights: The Basics, the Controversies, and the Future" at the Vegetarian Summerfest.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Heather Mills gives the keynote speech at the Vegetarian Summerfest. Mills has just opened VBites, a vegan restaurant in England, that she plans to turn into a chain.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Lee Hall of Friends of Animals speaks on "Eco-Radical: What's the Relation Between Militancy and the Vegetarian Movement?" Hall explains that veganism is direct action (as stated on her T-shirt) and that veganism is a conscientious objection to our domination of other animals.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

The North American Vegetarian Society's book store, at the Vegetarian Summerfest. On Sunday morning, I buy one of Victoria Moran's inspirational books to read on the train on the way home. When I run into Moran at the Amtrak station, I ask her to sign my book.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

Heather Mills gives out free samples of her VBites vegan food, that will be sold in supermarkets. She packs my sample bag with vegan rashers, hot dogs, fish sticks and Greek style cheese.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com, Inc.

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Terry Hope Romero (R), vegan cookbook author, makes her vegan tamales at the Vegetarian Summerfest and lets volunteers from the audience try their hand at tamale making. Romero's upcoming book is tenatively titled "Vegan Latina."
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

Pizza in the dining hall is made with Teese vegan cheese.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

Vegan breakfast at the Vegetarian Summerfest includes home fries, a whole grain blueberry muffin, scrambled tofu, and fresh fruit.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

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During tonight’s plenary session, Jonathan Balcombe, Senior Research Scientist with the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, spoke about the intelligence and emotional complexity of non-human animals in a talk titled, “Second Nature: The Inner Lives of Animals.” While some of Balcombe’s information came from animal experiments, Balcombe explained that he doesn’t approve of animal experiments, but if the data is available, he wants people to be aware of it. One of the topics Balcombe discussed was the many symbiotic relationships in nature, for example, flowers and pollinating insects, and (who knew?) warthogs and mongooses. Mongooses will eat parasites and dead skin from warthogs. The warthog gets a grooming, and the mongooses get a free meal. He then stated that veganism is not a sacrifice, but a mutually beneficial relationship: fewer animals are exploited and slaughtered, while we get better health.

Hans Diehl, DrHSc, of the Coronary Health Improvement Project, spoke on “Modern Medicine: Miracles, Medicines, Money & Mirages.” Diehl advocates “lifestyle medicine” - exercise and a healthy diet. Diehl explained that our society needs a paradigm shift. Instead of taking care of symptoms with drugs, we need to take care of the causes of our health problems with lifestyle changes. Too often, someone goes to the doctor expecting a miracle drug to address their symptoms, when what they really need is a healthier lifestyle.

The Summerfest definitely practices what the experts preach. All meals are vegan and prepared with whole foods. Raw foods, gluten-free options, low-oil selections and a salad bar are available at every meal. The conference takes place on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh, Johnstown, and the athletic facilities, including a workout room and swimming pool, are available to Summerfest participants. Every morning starts with group fitness classes, yoga and tai chi. Throughout the day, you can find people engaged in planned and unplanned outdoor activities like volleyball, Frisbee, soccer, and nature hikes.

After leaving the plenary session, I ran into Howard Lyman, who had spoken on mad cow disease at the plenary the night before. There was no Q&A at the plenary, but this late evening encounter on the sidewalk gave me the chance to ask him some more about the subject. According to Lyman, approximately 10% of Alzheimer’s cases in the United States are actually the human form of mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. CJD is frequently misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease because the symptoms are very similar, but CJD is fatal. While Alzheimer’s itself is not fatal, a secondary infection like pneumonia frequently is. Lyman told me that the state of Georgia, in the United States, has prohibited autopsies on people with dementia, in order to prevent contamination of their medical facilities with CJD. The threat of CJD is real, but money from the animal agriculture lobby is causing our government to stick its head in the sand. One of our nation’s biggest exports is red meat, and acknowledging that CJD is a significant threat in the US would jeopardize that source of income for this powerful industry.

This is one of the very cool experiences at conferences. Not only do you get to hear these expert speakers, but you sometimes get the chance to have a one on one conversation with them about an important issue.

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A panel of lifelong vegans, raised by vegan parents.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

I attended some great sessions at the Vegetarian Summerfest during the day today. First was the "Tweetup," led by Vance Lekmuhl of the "Earth to Philly" blog, where we talked about how we use Twitter and Facebook and found that a bunch of people were tweeting about the Vegetarian Summerfest. In the separate but related session, "Veggie Social Media," led by Vance Lekmuhl and Maynard Clark, we discussed how to use different social media for activism, for fun, and for networking.

A more serious session was “Why Raw Foods? Are You Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired?” by Dan Ladermann of Living Light. As with many things, raw foods is not all or nothing. The more raw veggies you eat, the better. I never thought about this before, but Ladermann pointed out that we are the only species that heats our food. Vitamins, enzymes and phytochemicals are changed when food is heated above 120F. Heating fats destroys the antioxidant qualities and are known to make them carcinogenic. I vow to eat more raw salad.

For me, the most interesting and entertaining session was the panel of lifelong vegans - adults and children raised vegan by vegan parents. They were very positive about being "different" from other kids, and found that the older they got, the more proud they became of their veganism. They also emphasized that vegan parents should allow their kids to choose whether to be vegan, or the kids will rebel. I asked whether any of them had ever eaten meat out of curiosity or rebellion. Several had eaten animal products accidentally, as occasionally happens to almost all vegans. One replied, “I’ve tried cheese and stuff. It wasn’t that exciting.” Another who had tasted cheese said that she found it unappealing, "like mucus."

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Colleen Holland and Joseph Connelly of VegNews are inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

What an evening! During the plenary session, Victoria Moran spoke about "Victoria's Victorious Bailout Plan." Subtitled, "6 Simple Steps to Living Exquisitely - Even Now," it was an inspiring talk about thinking positively and appreciating the little things in life, as well as the important things.

Next, Colleen Holland and Joseph Connelly, founders of VegNews magazine, were inducted into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame. Connelly got choked up as he thanked Holland for making everything she touches "beautiful." VegNews is now available in a tree-free, digital format.

Howard Lyman, a.k.a. the "Mad Cowboy," was as entertaining and eloquent as ever, and told the story of how he testified about mad cow disease at the McLibel trial, and also how he came to be a guest on the infamous Oprah Winfrey show that got himself and Winfrey sued by the Texas Cattlemen. Lyman warned about mad cow disease in humans often being diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease, and the dangers of feeding roadkill and euthanized cats and dogs to farmed animals.

In a talk titled, "Dairy Products - the New 'Red Meat'?" dietician George Eisman spoke about the cruelty of the dairy industry, and also gave a thorough debunking of the dairy industry's claim that cow's milk is healthy and necessary for humans. Not only is milk unnecessary, but it has been linked to breast cancer and prostate cancer, and causes the body to lose calcium because of the high protein content. The naturally occurring hormones in milk are also a health risk, since they are supposed to turn a 40-pound calf into a 1,000 pound cow in one year. And while some might argue that eating meat or fish was a natural part of the ancient human diet, drinking the breast milk of another species is highly unnatural. So while some people say, "I don't eat as much red meat as I used to," Eisman wishes more people would say, "I don't drink as much milk as I used to."

The evening concluded with a musical performance by Amanda Rogers an indie/blues/pop singer/songwriter. I really enjoyed Rogers' music, which reminds me of Jewel's breathy sincerity, but with more upbeat, catchy melodies.

Looking forward to tomorrow's programs!

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The banner from the child care center of the Vegetarian Summerfest, 2009.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

I spent the morning doing my volunteer shift in the child care center of the Vegetarian Summerfest. It's a great program, where parents are expected to volunteer in the child care center to defray costs. This arrangement means that child care is free for the entire 5-day conference.

In the afternoon, I heard a talk by Dr. Kerrie Saunders, titled "Using Food and Fitness to Fight Osteoporosis." In a nutshell (pun intended), Saunders emphasizes whole foods - "beans and greens." And french fries do not count as a vegetable.

Inspired by Saunders' talk, I actually filled up one plate with salad at the dinner buffet, and took small portions of the brown rice & lentils, sauteed greens, and "meat" loaf. While I stood in line for the chocolate icebox cake, I overheard Dr. Michael Greger recommending the decadently rich, sweet dessert to someone, explaining, "It's Summerfest." Well, who am I to argue with Greger?

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Vegetarian Jeopardy at the Vegetarian Summerfest, 2009.
© Doris Lin 2009, licensed to About.com

My daughter and I arrived this evening at the Vegetarian Summerfest, after spending 6 hours on a train. First, I have to say that the train is the way to go! Not only is it eco-friendly mass transit, but it allows you to take a nap, read, and walk around. And since each seat has an electrical outlet available, I was able to charge my cell phone and watch DVDs on my laptop.

We barely had to time to check in before we had to run to dinner - an all you can eat buffet featuring black bean chili, corn bread, sauteed spinach, fresh fruit and lemon poppyseed cake. Yum!

Afterwards, we heard a talk about a program in the Marshall Islands to combat diabetes with a vegan diet and exercise, by Brenda Davis, RD. The program has been hugely successful in reversing diabetes and getting people off meds. Davis's talk ended with a standing ovation from the audience.

Next, we watched "Vegetarian Jeopardy," a live stage game hosted by Dr. Ted Barnett. (Did I mention that the Summerfest is a fun conference?) I won't make you squint and guess - the categories for the first round, pictured above, were: Famous Vegetarians, Potpourri, Vegetarian Publications, A.K.A., The Main Ingredient, and Before and After. And while we were being entertained, we also learned something. Did you know that rapeseed oil is the same thing as canola oil?

We had planned to attend the evening social, but ended up running into a friend of a friend, and stood outside chatting for the better part of an hour. Always fun to swap vegan stories!

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I'll be tweeting and blogging live from the 35th annual Vegetarian Summerfest, from July 8-12. I attended several Summerfests back in the 90s, but I haven't been in over ten years. It's a really fun conference, and I'm looking forward to it!

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There's an interesting new poll in the forum. Would you be willing to be arrested for animal rights?

I was once arrested for my animal rights activism. Find out why, and how the case turned out.

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The Investigation Bureau in Taiwan last month found that up to 50% of the processed foods labeled as "vegetarian" actually contained meat. DNA tests revealed that samples from 17 of 31 "vegetarian" vendors included animal flesh. It is possible that the meat was the result of unintentional cross-contamination if meat products were also processed in the same facility. Manufacturers who are found to have deliberately added meat to their products will be prosecuted.

This is not new news for Taiwan. A 2004 investigation by the Department of Health in Taiwan found that 15 out of 21 "vegetarian" products contained pork, beef, fish or fowl. A Buddhist nun told vegetarians who may have eaten the contaminated food, "It was not your fault because you didn‘t know."

Is some of this adulterated food making its way to the United States? Apparently so.

A vegan blogger in Los Angeles and two friends recently conducted a very scientific undercover investigation of local vegan restaurants. They obtained laboratory test kits to test take-out food for eggs, casein and shellfish, and found that only 10 of the 17 restaurants passed. The other seven restaurants either intentionally or unintentionally had eggs or casein (a protein from animal milk) in their food. None tested positive for shellfish.

In Los Angeles, it appears that at least one restaurant was deliberately using dairy cheese and misrepresenting that cheese as vegan. But among some of the other restaurants, the amateur investigators believe that it is "highly likely that these restaurants use the same food supplier for meat substitutes," and were relying on the labels that listed only vegan ingredients in the fake meats. Like seasoned investigative reporters, the trio followed the supply chain and contacted a Taiwanese manufacturer of meat substitutes who told them:

Sometimes the ingredient listings are not 100% inclusive of what’s in the product . . . Sometimes eggs, fish flakes and milk might be added but not on the label, and we never include ingredients of all the additives – there would be too many . . . Most of the time, the “veggie meat” products contain egg albumen because the isolated soy protein base we purchase comes that way from the manufacturer.

Want to conduct your own experiments with food from your favorite vegan restaurants? It's going to be tough. I contacted Elizabeth Berryman, VP of Corporate Development for Gen-Probe, a company that manufactures scientific testing kits, including testing kits for shellfish, egg and casein, and she responded:

Unfortunately, we do not sell these products to the general public; we do however work with food manufactures many of whom use our products as part of their quality control procedures. These kits were all designed for use by food manufactures and contract labs in a controlled setting. The reason being is the critical nature of both the sample collection process as well as the need to validate the tests for a producers' specific product to ensure that the test kits can detect the allergen of interest in a user's specific sample matrix.

One of the L.A. investigators, "Mr. Wishbone," recommends "dating a technician at a food lab" if you'd like to conduct your own tests.

On July 1, Taiwan's new vegetarian food labeling law went into effect, and is said to be the "world's strictest law" on the issue. I certainly hope it's enforced.

Links:

• What is Veganism?
  
• Arguments For and Against Humane Meat
  
• What are Cruelty-Free Products?
  
• Vegan, Cruelty-Free Gift Guide

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