I'm a vegan - CBBC article (uk)

[gertvegan]

Anyone not in the UK, CBBC is the BBC childrens TV channel, and the website probably gets a whole lot of hits. So its great to see veganism get a mention. Sam has his own website www.dosomething.org.uk

Saturday March 26 2005, bbc.co.uk

Vegans are strict vegetarians who don't eat or use any animal products at all - even milk chocolate.

Sam from Rutland writes about why he decided to become a vegan.

"Over the summer of 2003 I became involved with an organisation which investigates factory farming and cares for rescued animals and the pictures I saw in their investigation reports shocked me into going vegetarian.

I'd never thought about where my food really came from before, I just assumed it was from happy animals on happy farms but now I've learnt that this isn't the case.

Becoming a vegan

Seven months later and I'm now a vegan - recently I've learnt about the atrocities in dairy farming and egg production and I read about the health benefits of a vegan diet.

Now I avoid anything derived from animal sources - including flesh by-products such as leather, gelatine, wool and animal rennet and I also don't eat eggs or dairy products.

Diet

Instead I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans, pulses and also fortified foods such as tofu, soya and mycoprotein.

I also have an appetite for vegan chocolate and I like to eat fake meat occasionally!

Events

I'm a member of The Vegetarian Society and The Vegan Society and I am looking forward to promoting this year's National Vegetarian Week (23-29 May) and World Vegan Day on 1st November."

Sam, 15, Rutland

[RockyRaccoon]

Thanks for the links gertvegan. It's good to find info in a child friendly fomat and Sam's website is great.

Also from the CBBC website, by Catriona age 13 http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/cl...00/3518921.stm

Leather is just as bad as fur!

Lots of people are against wearing fur, but they still wear leather.
Catriona tells us why she thinks it's wrong.

"What I don't understand is why people say to wear fur is wrong when at least half of them wear leather.

I don't wear leather or fur so I don't feel hypocritical in saying this, and I don't really see a difference between the two.

It's very easy for people to say that wearing fur is wrong because most of the time it doesn't affect them.

Leather and fur are the same

All I'm saying is people should understand the two are the same, both the animals are killed and skinned. Just because cows aren't cute and furry it doesn't mean they aren't alive.

I understand through personal experience that finding non-leather shoes and belts is difficult but it's not impossible. I should know - I have a very large shoe collection!

I'm just asking that people who disagree with wearing fur should really think deeper into how it affects them, and perhaps try to buy non-leather shoes in future."

Catriona, 13, Bolton

[Poison Ivy]

About time CBBC had something to redress the balance, over on their toddler channel 'CBeebies' there is an episode of The Tweenies which really annoys me - one of them goes off to a farm to see how milk is made, where the myth of the happy cow joyously giving us their milk to drink is trotted out again - Grr!! Talk about starting the brainwashing at a young age

However on Nickelodeons toddler channel 'Nick Jr' they have a little 5 minute segment called 'My House' and lately they've been showing the home and family of one little boy and he proudly states (whilst mum is cooking tea) that they are all vegan and all our food is really tasty and good for you - Yay for Nick Jr!!!

[Tigerlily]

There's this show I saw once called The Tofus. I think the family is vegetarian but not vegan. They still drink goat's milk.