:3

:3

feel free to boop me however many times!

lol I'm a little less than 2.5 years vegan and I'd say I have a "standard dish" right now

more like two actually

for a long time it's been lentil burgers (although recently I've been too lazy to go make the patty matter, so I've been having them with store-bought patties or nuggets). Original recipe taken from an app "eat more plants" (or something like that), but I've adjusted it for myself, notably adding peanut butter instead of walnuts and soy isolate instead of bread or flour. I've definitely been eating those for months, maybe even over a year, and pretty consistently too

a recent development in my diet has been Ceasar salad. I just press and then marinade tofu in soy sause, make croutons, add them to salad, dress with vegan mayo, chopped garlic, a bit of tumeric and a bit of curry seasoning. I've been eating it for weeks

anyone else had a standard dish when they first became vegan? like that one meal that you made for every other dinner?

anyway, mine was minimalist bakers creamy vegan garlic pasta with roasted tomatoes

1) Try to see if there are any vegan online communities for your country/region. They might share resources and you can find friends there.

2) Would be good if there are any resources on checking the ingredients/testing or sharing products that someone's checked. The thing is, others often don't understand the nuances of veganism, so you can't trust the word "vegan" on the package. Are they confusing vegan and vegetarian? Veganism and healthy dieting? Do they care about insect products? (mainly carmine, honey and beeswax). Did they really check everything, even small components? (some dyes can be based on gelatin, some ingredients may come from either plants or animals, bacterie may be raised on animal product substances, D3 is often made from lanolin (wool fat/grease)). Sometimes they think that a little bit of animal products in ingredients is no big deal (and I'm not talking about traces) :/

Even certificates aren't always trustworthy. For example, some organisations may still give certificates for cosmetic products sold in my country, but a local vegan organisation's founder reached out to them to confirm how they check testing on animals/animal products... and they said they don't know enough to check that 🥴

Vegan brands make mistakes too, and also you don't always know how thorough they are.

But it depends. If you have a vegan certification organisation that's trustworthy, it's good. Where I am, we have a non-profit organisation that has a website with confirmed vegan products, they're pretty thorough and I trust them. They're only working towards actually being able to certify profucts though.

3) Yeah btw, this applies to restaurants and cafés too :( One time a café here released something with tofu, even advertising it with "here you go, vegans, we made something for you!"... the sesame seed sauce contains some eggs snd dairy, of course...

Usually what you see on menus is just a description and not the full ingredients list

4) However, veganism has levels. It's easy to exclude some obviously non-vegan products like meat, dairy, eggs, honey, leather and wool, but I understand that emailing the manufacturers to ask if their beta-carotins have gelatin as a base or no is much more of a hussle. Especially if you don't have trustworthy vegan certificates or a community that confirms things. Even regular sugar in countries like US or Japan may be made using bone meal. Testing is also hard to check (where I am we sometimes email manufacturers and ask for documents of the tests, but they far from always send them)

Plus, there are things people don't usually try to find out the vegan status on. Are your printer inks vegan? Pens? Pencils? Glue? Paper? That local vegan org did begin checking stationary and even some house building/renovation supplies, but who usually cares about this? Some things might be tested on animals by law, and some of them you can't replace (for example, medicine. Please don't try to exclude/replace actual medicine. You may choose some that don't contain animal products like lactose or gelatin, but only do that if you have options and your doctor approves or smth)

So, accept that we live in a carnist world and that it's almost impossible to not use any products involved in animal exploitation. What you're doing is good, and you should not give up - the more veganism grows, the more vegan stuff there is. Take veganising your life at your own pace, just do your best :3 It is still doing a lot.

5) Speaking of positivity, it's good to realize that veganism is not just restrictions or sadness over animals' treatment. It is also community. The joy when you realize you are trying your best to oppose treating animals like people's belongings or objects. I really felt proud of myself when I switched to making my own detergent (all household chemichal products must be tested on animals where I live :/)

6) Traces/may contain ≠ actual ingredients. You can still avoid foods with them if you want though, just understand the difference between a product that actually contains animal ingredients VS a product that is manufactured near ones.

7) B12 is needed. Supplement it if you don't eat many products fortified with it. I have Natrol strawberry ones, they're tasty and you can take them without water, they dissolve. With taking ~ 1 dose per 1.5 weeks it should last 2-3 years :3

8) Peanut butter jelly sandwiches are my main dessert, they fill that role well

9) You can search for some apps with plant-based recipes. That's how I found lentil burgers that I now make often (it was from EatMorePlants, I think)

10) Find something for the savoury/umami taste. Letting go of cheese may be hard, but know you can get similar feelings with stuff like nutritional yeast, soy sauce or taste enhancing additives. I often make Caesar, and honestly, garlic + vegan mayo fills the sauce role pretty well and even reminds me a little of cheese (I also add tumeric and curry spices mix)

11) Don't be too harsh with yourself if you find out you've been using sonething non-vegan you could've avoided. We make mistakes sometimes, and that's ok

12) There are some vegans you can follow here (like @vegance, @oediex or @acti-veg (I've seen you've been recommended that blog alredy), there are also sometimes lists of people to follow). But also anti-vegan views on tumblr are quite popular 😔

13) btw there's also a discord server, I'll maybe search for the invitation post after this

14) feel free to dm/ask me any questions, if you want :3

15) thank you for showing interest 💚

Think I’m finally going to go up another level of lesbianism and try to commit to being vegan. Any tips and tricks are welcome 🙏🏽

it really is so uncomfortable being a trans man in cis centric conversations of feminism. I just wonder. do they know about people like me? do they care? if I brought it up to them, how would they react? Do they expect me to be their human shield?

@whackacole3

I think the main thing about a friendship-favorable aplatonic would be

a) thinking their friends are cool people

b) enjoying socializing with their friends/getting attention from them

c) perhaps establishing friendships for something they get out of it (validation, security etc)

d) something I'm not thinking of

e) all of the above

but not specifically loving their friends/struggling with the concept of platonic love.

I think I personally view friendships as some form of social contracts. I want attention, I want people to listen to me, I want to talk about my interests - therefore, I get into connections with people where we mutually do that. Imagine playing sims and having your character do certain actions to increase the friendship.

I can enjoy talking and spending time with people, but for my friends... the word love doesn't really fit. I feel like I just don't care enough about other people. I think I rarely engage, and sometimes I do that not because I really care, but because I'm afraid I'm failing this "contract" we have going on ("good friends reach out! if someone doesn't message you first they are a bad friend!" etc).

For example, I made a bunch of friends through streaming, but out of all the people there's ONE person who's streams I'd eagerly join, unless others stream a category I'm passionate about. For other friends, joining their streams/lurking feels like a chore I should do to support the relationship. And even for that one friend? We have a lot of things we could discuss, so I'm not even doing that out of love, but because I get to have an amazing conversation and get attention.

So really, at least for me, friends are a way to get you a safe socialization consistently, and also a nice way to have people that would help you in dire situations.

As an alloromantic allosexual, I know what romantic and sexual attractions feel like. I can imagine being romantically in love with someone to the point I would happily sacrifice something for them. But I wouldn't feel as self-sacrificial for a friend. I would do my best to help them in need, and I could sacrifice something - but perhaps not out of love, but out of obligation.

A lot of focus in arospec communities goes onto how friendships and platonic relationships are not lesser than romance, that they could reach the same intimacy level. And that is important and true! Idk how it is for the majority of people, but for me though... it is not like that :/

Moreover, idk if I'm just lonely and still hormonal, but if I even experience platonic love, it is tied to sexual/romantic one. If I get close enough with a friend, I will start having thoughts about us in a romantic/sexual relationship and might develop a light crush. It is often not serious and I don't pursue them, but I've had those kind of thoughts about a bunch of people. It's as if intimacy for me is tied with romance/sex.

I am just one person, and my experiences are not universal (and different from aro/ace/loveless/etc apls), but here are some points I think could help:

- what does your character get out of friendships? If you don't experience platonic love, then there must be something else tying you to your friends. Safety? Common interests you can freely talk about? Do they want to be around cool people? Something else?

- how do they sustain those friendships? Maybe they've absorbed the societal view of friendships and do a lot of things for their friends, because "that's what friendships are like" and "that's what being friends is". They may be more distant and reach out less. However, that doesn't mean they don't care! As per point one, they are in a friendship for something, so they do care about their friendships and friends. But maybe not really because of love, but because of mutual benefit or something else

- they may have grown distant with a lot of their past friends. I personally grew apart with many childhood friends because they lived far, but I'm not sure I really miss it. There's that girl I was kinda friends with last 4 years of school, but none of us ever went for a deeper bond, so after school ended we haven't even talked once. Maybe your character also falls out of the connections easily and doesn't miss them

- they may have lots of acquaintances at places like school/work, and enjoy spending time with them as a way to socialize, but would rarely if ever pursue a deeper bond with them

- how do they feel about their lack of care? Considering how friendships are normalized, they may feel guilty for not being good enough friends to other people and try to compensate out of that guilt. Or have they done some deep introspection and accepted it? Do they have some boundaries because of it?

- they may still tell their friends "I love you", even though it is empty. I have a friend we often exchange "love you"s with, and for me it is not really a way of expressing feelings, but a way to sustain a friendship (they throw a heart at me, I throw it back). I know I'm basically lying, but... I don't want to make things awkward or try and dismantle the friendship. Plus, even though I don't really love them, I may still act as if I do. Maybe your character prefers not to use any love-based words? Maybe they use something like "I care about you" instead?

- they may also use "love" words when discussing caring about friendships, just because that's a widespread language to talk about it. They may equate "loving" friends to "caring about friendships" in general, even if there isn't a feeling that "love" is a proper term for

- hugs may feel uncomfortable/empty too. So how does your character feel about that and other forms of friendly gestures? Do they like them, do they dislike them, do they feel empty?

- perhaps they can't imagine what platonic attraction is. If somebody asked me what platonic love feels like, I don't think I could answer, and for me, trying to imagine gets a muddy picture with romantic/sexual attraction involved. They may be surprised to learn about the concept of "platonic crushes"/"really wanting to be friends with someone" - "Is it like thinking someone is cool or being interested because they share your interests and you can talk about it?"

- do they experience other types of love or attraction? is intimacy tied to some, if yes? Idk if my mom just did something wrong, but even when I was a child I would only say I love her just because "You're supposed to love your mom" and it'd be awkward if I didn't. I don't think I love my sister either. That's more afamilial territory, but maybe the same things that lead to aplatonicism lead to not loving family too. Out of "non-partner-oriented" types of love I experience maybe sensual and aesthetic and I love my cats (that's kind of parental love? I want to care about them and protect them)

- they can probably have any number of friends (from a small circle of those they really click with or a lot of surface-level acquaintances to chat with, if they're an extrovert)

- when it comes to negative traits, maybe portraying the character as manipulative would not be the best. They may view friendships as contracts, but they may also care about those friendships and people in them. They may even act as if they love the people, just without feeling much about it and being more obligation/honor-driven

- also tying aplatonicism (and especially lovelessness) to being evil, incomplete or inhuman. Evil is obvious (people may have many reasons to not experience platonic attractions aside from being jerks, and jerks also often have their jerk friends). By "incomplete" I mean treating it as if something's missing or it's an inherent flaw to be fixed. If your character is unhappy about their lack of deep friend connections maybe trying to examine why that is and tackling it could work for a story, but I think the majority of people here would love to see an apl that's not there to be "fixed". People can be fine with it! And still happy about their life! If anything, a story of self acceptance would probably bring a lot of joy to apls, maybe with messages of how you can have personal connections with friendship and you don't have to do it like everyone else. Inhuman is also obvious - people don't have to experience love to be people

I'm sorry this is so long (I have a lot of thoughts, so I always write lengthy), but hopefully, this can be of help!

hey, hope this is okay to ask, but do you have any tips for writing a friendship-favorable aplatonic character? i don’t want to get into any stereotypes or negative things. feel free to ignore this ask if you want!

id say probably try to acknowledge the lack of bond with friends? like the character likes their friends, but lacks the bond kinda? sorry if this isn't a good explanation

DeSmog

Meat Industry Using ‘Misinformation’ to Block Dietary Change, Report Finds

The agriculture sector has spent millions of dollars on discrediting plant-based diets, a new report has claimed.  The report, published by

The agriculture sector has spent millions of dollars on discrediting plant-based diets, a new report has claimed.

The report, published by the consumer advocacy organisation Freedom Food Alliance on Thursday (29 February), found that multinational meat companies and lobby groups were using industry-funded research, public ad campaigns and educational materials to sway public opinion on meat and dairy.