FROM THE EDITOR

WELCOME to Vegan Voice, all you vegans and those yet to be converted. And convert you we will – by force of logic, appealing to your better nature, being pushy, telling the unpalatable truth and generally making ourselves indispensable to anyone who likes to keep an open mind in these crazy times.

First up we have an interview with renowned animal activist Jamie Yew, who explains why she does what she does and why going vegan is the best solution to at least some of the planet’s problems. Read what she has to say and find out how to join her new group UPROAR.

Asenati Toilolo-Meijn talks to us from New Zealand about her vegan life and where it’s taking her. She’s intent on spreading the word and never leaves home without her bag of vegan tricks to hand out to the unsuspecting public.

Nick Pendergrast writes about his journey from welfarism to abolition, so if you’re a new vegan wanting to understand what animal rights is all about, this is a good place to start.

VV spoke with author and activist Jarid Manos in Texas about his book Ghetto Plainsman and his work with the Great Plains Restoration Council. We discovered Jarid and his book by accident (he’d probably say there are no accidents) and were so blown away we wanted to give him the recognition that is his due. Rarely have we read a book that’s had such a deep impact on us, so we’re featuring an excerpt from that as well.

We have an interview with Miss Zahra Stardust, burlesque performer, pole dancer, adult entertainer and outspoken defender of strippers and sex workers of every shape and size. She reveals why she went vegan and how and where to obtain animal-friendly costumes for the erotic stage, just in case you’re looking.

M. Butterflies Katz believes that to be a feminist is to be a vegan, and explains exactly why that is. Can’t argue with her line of reasoning. Alison Waters wants her children to know and love nature, as opposed to the way most modern kids spend their time. And Dr John McDougall advises people to chuck their vitamins and supplements in the bin where they belong and start eating properly. Better do it now – you don’t want to get on his bad side.

I know in the last issue I said I was attempting to wear rose-coloured glasses, but I have to tell you those things hurt my eyes. They just didn’t take. It didn’t help that we had a bleak wet winter, sport was everywhere and the BP oil disaster just kept getting unimaginably worse. (“Like putting a bandaid on a dead man,” said one local when they capped it.) Now we’ve got an impending federal election with yet another dreary batch of unimaginative grey people on offer. The world is asleep at the wheel. And you expect me to cheer you up?

Regular readers will know I’ve been in turmoil lately (all my life, actually). But sometimes I talk to people who are just shining examples of how to live in a state of grace while all around is madness. On the whole I’ve little faith in humanity. I just make my way along, foundering and fumbling, cursing the world while drawing inspiration from it. I guess I must like it like that or I’d change. As Larry David would say, “Whatever works.”

Here’s your positivity fix – small but these days aren’t they all. (I suppose I could try harder or just plain lie to you, but vegans are too smart to fall for the usual rhetoric. If lies were what you wanted, you’d be reading virtually any other magazine but this one, right?) Recently we bumped into an ex-neighbour who announced he’d gone vegan. With all the zeal of the new convert he told us he’d discovered what really went on in the “dairy” industry and proceeded to list the horrors. Good for him. It made our day.

Happy reading.

Sienna

Read more from the editor in our Sep–Nov issue, out around 20 August.
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