Old Punks Never Die!

Thursday 1st November is World Vegan Day, a chance for vegans globally to show just how positive veganism is. And not just for the animals we don't kill, but also for our own wellbeing and for the health of the planet. In fact, this year the focus will be on the ecological catastrophe that is animal farming. 'Eating The Earth? How Your Diet Could Change The World' (PDF) pulls together the evidence and makes a forceful case for veganism for those who claim to be concerned with environmental issues.

I'll be inviting a few friends round for some good vegan nosh, sociable amounts of alcohol and a bit of high- and low-brow debate to mark the day. I don't expect my bonecrunching friends to give up eating dead stuff, but if they eat a bit less of it it's no bad thing.

There are plenty of excellent vegan recipes online - I'd particularly recommend Post Punk Kitchen for some really top-class fancy examples of vegan cuisine. The rich chocolate cake is the best cake I've ever eaten, vegan or otherwise, a view shared by most of those who've also tried it. But to help you get started, here's one of my own creations.

Tofu & Veg Thai Curry

It's sometimes hard to find food that is both light and substantial, but Thai food is generally just that. Lots of fresh flavours, sharp spicing and a certain creamy fattiness all make for a lovely mouthful. It's also bloody quick.

This recipe uses Thai curry paste, which isn't cheating as the fresh ingredients can be a bit of a bugger to find sometimes (and even harder to prepare - lemon grass should definitely be renamed lemon wood to honestly reflect how tough it is). One thing to watch out for - many Thai pastes contain fish in one form or another, so check the label carefully - I use the 'Maesri' brand.

Serves 2-3.

• 1-2 tbs sunflower oil
• 150g of smoked or marinated tofu cut into cubes (Taifun smoked tofu with almonds and sesame seeds is very good in this recipe)
• 1 large carrot, cut into matchsticks
• 1 stick celery, sliced diagonally
• 2-3 shallots, thinly sliced into rings
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 8 medium florets broccoli, halved
• 75g sweetcorn
• 75g green beans, sliced, or fine green beans topped, tailed and cut in half
• 100g mushrooms, sliced
• Half a red pepper, halved lengthways again and sliced
• 2 tbs vegan red or green Thai curry paste (or according to your brand's instructions)
• 3/4 -1 tin (approx 3-400g) coconut milk
• Juice of half a lime
• 1 tbs shoyu, tamari or vegetarian 'fish / oyster' sauce
• Fresh basil (Thai if available), shredded

Heat the oil in a wok or big frying pan over a medium high heat for a minute, then throw in the tofu and stir fry until starting to brown. Add the carrots, celery, shallots, garlic, broccoli, sweetcorn and beans, and continue to stir fry for about 4 mins. Add the mushrooms and pepper and stir fry for 2 mins, add the curry paste and fry for a further min. Pour in the coconut milk so there's enough liquid for your own preferences, lime juice and shoyu / tamari / 'fish' sauce and heat until it starts to bubble, then remove from heat. If you like your veg a bit softer, then let it simmer for a few more mins in the coconut milk. Stir in the shredded basil to taste and dollop over rice (white works best with this recipe, both basmati and jasmine rice are excellent and will cook in the time it takes you to make the curry).

Best eaten with a spoon to get all the juices (call me simple, but I always prefer an easy shovel motion to the complex two-handed approach when eating saucy foods).

There was a time when my diet could've been classed as traditionally British. Main meals were built around the meat 'n' two veg approach, except for Fridays and holidays when we would have fish 'n' chips. Milk was drunk by the pint (and from proper glass bottles too!) and eggs found their way onto nearly every plate of food in some guise or another. I was even a fan of the more 'exotic' bits of dead animals - I used to watch my Uncle George make brawn from fresh pig's brain removed from the head by his own fair hands (for those that don't know, brawn is made from cooking and chopping the brain, then setting it in gelatine ready for slicing and eating, which I readily did), and baked ox tongue was a fave sandwich filler. Although I never got on with liver or kidney as I always found them too strong, almost bitter, in flavour.

I'm telling you all this just to let you know that I never had any squeamishness as such when it came to consuming bits of or things from animals.

Then I heard this band called Crass. They had some friends who were also in bands. And some of the time these bands made the point that the killing of animals for food wasn't a particularly nice thing. So I did some listening and read the pamphlets that I got at gigs, and decided to do some practical research. This mainly involved sneaking into an abattoir, then sneaking out again a fuck of a lot faster.

© Vegetarian / Vegan Society Of Queensland

Although what I'd read and seen on film had begun to raise serious questions about the whole flesh thing, nothing had prepared me for the complete sensual overload that I experienced when I saw what they actually did to animals. The dead pig's head and scooped-out brain could not convey the Bosch-like nightmare that marked these animals' final moments of life. I defy anyone who claims that the process is humane to visit one of these places. Unless your definition of humane includes terror, fear, suffering, pain and death, I think you'd find your arguments would crumble pretty quickly.

I was mixing with punks who were exploring the same ideas and turning words into action, and it was enough to convince me that vegetarianism was a necessary part of my simple desire for a nicer world. And it wasn't long before I took the logical step to veganism. Reading and learning about the way the world functioned, and the possibilities of change, encouraged me to sharpen up my logical arguments too, to make the connections at an 'intellectual' as well as an emotional level. The likes of Tom Regan and Richard Ryder played a major role in that, and they're still making their points today.

And although what I'd seen in that slaughterhouse had appalled me to my very core, I didn't let that stop me from doing the right thing, even if it involved facing the stark reality of animal suffering head on. And face it I did. Suffice to say that the things I've seen and done have removed the blinkers and I couldn't imagine making myself blind again.

And I'm still a vegan more than 20 years later.

Why am I saying this? I guess it was triggered by recently reading that Pete Boyce, one of the founding members of Antisect, a band that championed animal liberation, was now a bonecruncher again. This was the guy who had written 'Tortured And Abused', a devastating attack on animal murder wrapped around the simple refrain 'Why? Why must I die?'. A song that, according to his own website was 'from the heart'.

From the heart.

Yeah, right. I have to seriously question that statement. If he's now crunching bones again, how could it have ever been from the heart? To me, that expression implies something that is an intrinsic part of who you are. Something that, although it may have a degree of elasticity, will be with you for life. Clearly, whatever he was saying back then wasn't 'from the heart'.

Amongst the folk I know, the ones who slipped back easily from veganism to flesh eating were those whose beliefs hadn't been informed by experience. They'd read the leaflets and learnt the words and that was it. No action (apart from a change in diet) followed. They didn't bother finding out for themselves, didn't immerse themselves in the reality of what they claimed to believe in, didn't think but merely followed the herd. Simply playing in a band singing songs doesn't count. Those of us who were (and continue to be) active, who took the songs as a starting point rather than a conclusion, have maintained our ideals because they really are heartfelt.

Compare what Boyce has done with the attitude of Colin Jerwood from Conflict. Here's a man who walks the walk he's talked over the years. A man who's got stuck in and got his hands dirty because he knows the words don't mean shit on their own. A man who knows what 'from the heart' really means, who's maintained consistency and integrity in his outlook even as that outlook has changed and evolved over the years. In this short video, Colin talks about why he believes what he does.

I'm not saying that everyone who becomes a veggie or whatever just because of a song or leaflet won't become committed to that cause and take it to heart for life. But I do think it's much easier for people to slip back into unthinking, uncritical and passive ways of living when what they claim to believe is only based on words and pictures. It's much harder to do it if you've been in the thick of it.

People change, I can accept that. But if you do change, at least have the bollocks to admit that what you once 'believed' was really nothing more than a herd mentality mindset and not 'from the heart'.

Useful Links:

Arkangel

Animal Liberation Front

Hunt Saboteurs Association

The Vegan Society

If you've been keeping an eye on the media in recent times, you'll have probably noticed yet another round of stories resulting from the latest UN report about global warming and impending ecological catastrophe. Human activity is put in the frame, and quite rightly so. There is now no question that what we do and how we do it has led to destructive climate change and, if we fail to tackle the problems caused by our activities on this planet, then our future's going to be short-lived, unpleasant and brutal.

What struck me more, though, was how another report, issued by the UN back in November last year, seems to have bypassed the mainstream meeja's radar. This report looks at one of the major causes of global warming - farts. Not just farts, to be fair, but all the greenhouse gases, as well as other negative environmental effects, that are produced by farming animals for food. And it makes for sphincter-clenching reading.

Did you know, for example, that farmed animals produce more greenhouse gases than transport - around a fifth of the global total? Not only that, but the farming of animals for food has seen around a quarter of our planet given over to livestock farming, a third turned over for growing farm animal feed crops, and nearly 10% of the world's water supply being used in the whole process. Their piss becomes acid rain - two-thirds of all the anthropogenic (caused by human activity) ammonia comes from farming animals. The waste products, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and pesticides pollute the land, air and water.

In short, animal farming is an environmental catastrophe.

But it's also probably one of the easiest problems to solve. It involves nothing more than changing what we eat. Despite the failure of the UN to say as much, switching to a vegan diet is about the simplest and most direct way that we can make a real difference. It's far easier to change what you eat today, right now, than it is to change the way that industry operates or what fuel you put in your car.

To help get you started, here are the lyrics-cum-recipe for Anarcho-Pie by Jockish herberts Oi Polloi:

Pastry
Mixed veg
Red beans
Courgettes
Walnuts
Cashews
Tomatoes
Mushrooms!!

Let's make a tasty anarcho-pie - ace vegan food for you and I
Let's make a tasty anarcho-pie - ace vegan food for you and I

Take eight ounces of pastry and, leaving a little bit aside, roll out two equal portions each a quarter inch thick. Then use one of these to carefully line the bottom of your chosen pie dish.

Cook the ingredients for the pie filling separately and then place these inside the pie dish on top of the pastry base. Wetting the top of the edge of the pastry base, affix the pastry cover to the anarcho-pie.

Now comes the important bit: using the spare bits of pastry, decorate the top of the pie with a pastry anarchy sign - symbolising our never-ending resistance to the omnicidal system that perverts our lives.

After baking the pie in the oven for between thirty and thirty-five minutes at approximately four hundred degrees farenheit it should be ready fir serving and by this time should have developed a good crust!

Mmm… uurrgh, I don't like mushrooms. Howay, pass them ower - I'll have them. Aye, this pie, this pie's barry - it's almost as good as - as a singing hiney man! Mmm… mmmm… Alright John eh aye? Aye barry! That's what it is - pure canny! Uurgh, I don't like walnuts. I'll have them. Mmmmm… Aye, ye canny beat this vegan food, ken? Aye, vegan food. Oh, it's the best. Pure dead brilliant man. Anarcho-pie rules, ken? Aye. How long does this go on for? Who's doing the dishes? The wimmin! Aaaahhh!! Street cred gone! Knife him!! Knife the anarcho-pie anyway. Aye man. Aye. 'kin raj! Aye etc.