Last wednesday I got the priviledge of being invited to Kindfood in Burlington, Ontario with a few other local bloggers, media and entrepreneurs. I got there a bit early so I wandered down to the water to snap some photos. I thought it appropriate that before I went to eat a vegan breakfast, I got to take some great photos of beautiful Canadian Geese.
Kindfood, run by a mother-daughter team of Kelly Childs and Erinn Weatherbie, is not what you would expect out of a vegan cafe and bakery. First, would you expect those cupcakes to be vegan, gluten-free, soy/egg/dairy/casein free with no refined sugars and kosher? Oh, and freaking delicious. Yeah… that too.
When you really want to, it’s amazing what you can make that is both good for the environment and does not exploit animals.
Our breakfast that morning consisted of a tofu scramble (which I’ve never had before) with some salsa, the most amazing sourdough bread ever, a mini banana chocolate chip muffin, fruit and the “Gene Smoothie.” I’m not sure what was in the smoothie, but it was just slightly sweet and perfectly refreshing. And this meal kept me full the entire day (except for one of the cupcakes I clearly had to buy on my way out to share with my co-workers).
People are becoming very aware about the food they are eating, where it comes from, how it is made, what it is made of, and how it directly reflects who we are. We are all learning that, “you are what you eat!”! Our food choices are also a very important part of our environmental challenges. Eating whole organic plant-based foods is not only the healthiest choice you can make for you and your family, it is also good for the planet, and it tastes better! - from the Kindfood website.
Now, on to Gene. Who’s Gene? Gene Baur runs Farm Sanctuary which rescues abused animals whose abuse is often directly caused because of the factory farming industry, but also because apparently some people are more cruel than I could ever have imagined.
But, I try to be a positive person. I rather not talk about how awful some people can be and the disgusting conditions and pure torture that some of these animals go through… instead, I rather point out the following:
- how amazing vegetarian food can taste
- how it has been consistently shown to be a healthier lifestyle than one that includes meat an
- that you can eat an entire meal, knowing no animals were harmed or abused
- it is also so, so much better for our planet.
I realise that for some people, they want to run away screaming just at the idea of cannot fathom cutting out animal products out of their diets (I, myself, still struggle with cheese & butter). But, even if you could change your diet to a vegetarian one for only two days a week, that would immensely help the environment, your health and the well-being of the animals you chose not to eat that day. Other changes you can make are buying from local organic farms where you know the living conditions of the animals are good, and they are not using anti-biotics.
A little mor eabout Farm Sanctuary. This month the organization celebrated their twenty-five year anniversary! They have a location in Watkins Glen, NY and one in California, 175 acres and 300 acres respectively (wow). If you are close to either of those places, you should definitely go visit and hang out with the animals. Read about some of the rescues here. Honestly, how adorable is Riley??
I spoke to Hubs and we’re going to try and make it out to Farm Sanctuary in the next few months. Yay!!
If you would like to help, there are many ways you can on the site including donating and sponsoring an animal for a year.
- agata.
