Vegans, Overmarketing, Lies and Bullshit.

The debate about veganism vs vegetarianism vs omnivorism has raged on for a long while.

Some people choose one or the other, or the choice is made for them, on religious grounds. Those who make a dietary choice for religious reasons are certainly welcome to their faith and their reasons for that choice. It is the right one for you.

The strongest objection towards those who encourage others to choose veganism is towards those persons and organisations who over-market, and with great fervency, falsehoods, misquotes and misinformation in order to further their particular cause.

Having been in the selling profession for a very long time, I've noticed that when someone is selling something - an idea, some goods, anything - that if they over-sell then there is a huge chance that they need gullible customers to achieve their goal. It's the flip-side of "if it looks to good to be true, then it probably is". It's the "if it looks too horrific to be true, then - yep - you guessed it" situation.

Not long ago, I found a link that offered a free CD about food production in the USA and promised to tell the truth. I thought it interesting enough to write away to receive it and perhaps to learn more about that. After all, food is very dear to our hearts and slightly essential for sustenance of human life. I'm keen on quality food, well grown, ethically produced and harvested and doing it at a fair price so that everyone can be healthy and happy and productive.

I received that disc in the mail. It was a shonky, low-rent collection of pro-vegan propaganda with more copyright violations than I would care to mention. I think Pink Floyd wants their song back, guys. And probably the other 'artists' and their emo-tastic content too.

Propaganda? Yes. Not even thinly veiled. It was pure "if you eat meat, you hate animals" white-hot hate. If a religious organisation was uing similar methodologies, they would be extremists.

It's fair enough to mention that any kind of propaganda like this, regardless of which side of whatever argument is presenting, is quite likely to be weighted to suit their particular and peculiar agenda. Perhaps as a reference, former Soviet era and present North Korean 'news' and 'morality plays' might be a fair representation of propaganda.

Weighting of information? Understandable - it can part of forming a persuasive argument. Marketing spin? So long as it's plausible, factual and ethical then OK, I'll listen and weigh and measure. However, when the content relies on ignorance or innocence to falsely market an ideology - well - that's when I call the material a lie.

The video content was emotive. There were inaccuracies, footage was obtained unlawfully and it was old. Real and accurate visual representation of events? Yes. Majority of meat production occurring in the manner demonstrated in those videos? No. Sorry guys - your content is more sensationalist than some major syndicated 'news' channels.

The audio content? Reprehensible and so full of falsehood and overstatement as to render any good and useful facts and truth therein indistinguishable from the bullshit, extrapolation and misrepresentation. If you listen to the content with an open mind, take the time to assess each 'fact' stated by the speaker and compare the claim to both scientific neutral evidence, WHO data and recommendations, and the anecdotal fact that our species seems to keep surviving... draw your own conclusions.

Excessive non-vegetable content in one's diet? Yes - detrimental. Draw a line in the sand and listen to your body. Eat meat, fish and chicken and pork and all of God's tasty creatures (as permitted by law), but eat plenty of leafy greens, orange vegetables, root vegetables, rice, fruit and all of God's tasty plants too. If you eat three to five more times volume (not weight!) of plants matter compared to the amount of meat you eat, you'll feel better, be healthier and live longer. Give fast food and restaurants a big miss - they don't give a crap about how long you live, just about how much you spend with them.

If you live longer, you can give these nutbag vegan propagandists the mouthful of sensible living advice they deserve. One group decided to rename 'fish' as 'sea-kittens'. I kid you not. Google it. Be prepared to be amazed how much of that amazing vegan THC-containing plant their marketing department must have been consuming to come up with such material and how much completely vegan organic Colombian marching powder the officer who signed off on it may or may not have been consuming. Fish == Sea Kittens? Get outta here.

Go watch "Food Inc" and be wiser about the US food production chain and the errors in quality and management in favour of profit therein. Take the time to find out about bull shit in your food supply. It and the pathogens therein may be in your preferred source of processed meat. Buy local and fresh, if you can.

Ladies and Gentlemen - choose whatever diet you prefer for the reasons you prefer it - but do not let yourself be badgered into a meat-free diet by bullshit.

Cracker-tastic!

Everyone loves crackers! They're crunchy and tasty and ever-so-nice to snack on. Snack crackers!!


Out here in Australia, 'cracker' is a savoury biscuit of some kind. In the USA, I hear it's a derogatory term for white folk. So, if I put some additives in my crackers and they come out a less pale colour, can I describe them with another adjective?


I don't like what I've been tasting from the supermarket on the few odd occasions I buy crackers. Maybe the quality is changing or maybe I'm more discerning, but the taste is no longer as appealing.

I thought to myself, "So - why not make your own crackers?" After all - I've made rather a lot of very tasty bread. Time for some crunchy savoury goodness!


Sourcing around for different recipes, and trying those, has caused me to form the impression that Americans can't cook. Ingredient combinations, flavour errors, cooking times, dough thicknesses and even worse errors were culled out by testing to arrive at a simple, plain and tasty recipe which anyone can do with a minimum of equipment. If you remove the parmesan from this recipe, it becomes the most basic of crackers which can then be re-tailored to any taste.


Here's the recipe for you:

• 100 grams plain flour
• 20 mls olive oil
• 45 mls water, room temperature
• 10 grams dried parmesan (yes, that crap from the 1970s)
• A sprinkle of whatever fancy salt you like
• Some dried herbs to suit your taste

Combine the flour, water, oil and knead until it becomes a silky dough. Adjust flour and water to suit, adding oil to maintain the proportions.


Leave the dough to relax for about 30 minutes.


Preheat your over to 220C.


Roll the dough nice and thin on a sheet of baking paper, place onto a baking tray (a nice flat tray with low walls). Sprinkle the salt and herbs on top and allow to rest for a further five or ten minutes while the oven warms up.


Cut the dough with a blunt knife, pizza cutter or cookie cutters into the shapes and sizes you prefer. They will shrink apart naturally.


Cook in the oven for 8 - 12 minutes, or until the crackers are coloured to your liking.



Have fun with mixing and matching flavours with whatever you sprinkle on top of the unbaked dough.


The recipe is scalable. As always, be aware that different batches of flour need more or less water or oil or other additives to make the same result.

And yes, the recipe is quite similar to the piadina recipe in an earlier post. I wonder why...


Happy Cooking!!