Due to undercover investigations of factory farms becoming more and more present in mainstream media, the general public is being faced with the reality of an animal based diet. In light of this, the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) Canada, an organization dedicated to spreading awareness and taking concrete action to end animal cruelty, has taken it upon itself to offer an opportunity to celebrate plant-based diets.
Hence, World Tofu Day! Plant-based diets are an integral part of a vegan lifestyle that respects the right to life of all living beings regardless if they are covered in fur, spots or scales!
World Tofu Day is approaching, and you may be asking yourself, what is tofu exactly? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, tofu is a: “Soft, bland, custard like food product […] It is made from dried soybeans that are soaked in water, crushed, and boiled to produce a solid pulp and liquid soy “milk.” Coagulants are then added to the milk to separate the curds from the whey.” [1]
Learn MoreTofu. It is probable that this is the first word that comes to your mind when you think of a vegetarian or vegan diet. How many people have asked the famous question “But what do you eat, salad and tofu?” when they are told someone is vegetarian or vegan. However, if this assumption makes sense in the 21st century, the link between tofu and vegetarianism and veganism hasn’t always been that clear, and was actually inexistent until
Learn More― Peter Singer, Animal Liberation
How you can take action to celebrate World Tofu Day
How do you like you tofu? Tofu is a very versatile food, which is one of the many reasons why we chose to celebrate it on World Tofu Day! With a new year beginning, a great resolution to take is to go vegan! The question we always receive is: what do vegans eat? A great tip to keep in mind is that vegan food is normal food, and can be extremely tasty! Here at SPA Canada, we love experimenting with the many vegan options available and being creative! Let’s start with breakfast. One of our go to recipes is tofu eggs benedict! The consistency of the tofu, smothered in a vegan cheezy sauce topped with your favorite veggies is a sure way of enjoying the most important meal of the day! How do you like your tofu in the morning?...
Learn MoreWhy are there not more than 4% of vegetarians or vegans among North Americans? Everything boils down to a lack of knowledge. We were raised in a culture that tells us to eat meat at every meal, and we cannot imagine that it could be otherwise. Veganism is still not sufficiently considered because it is unfortunately associated with food deprivations. However, a diet based on vegetables, fruits, whole grain products, legumes, soy, nuts and seeds brings us much more protective elements and much less elements that are harmful to our health. Vegans who opt for a variety of plant-based foods, ideally the least processed as possible, do not lack the essentials such as proteins, iron, and calcium. Oh yes, perhaps vegans do lack something … they lack diseases and...
Learn MoreTo the question of ‘the chicken or the egg’ we say: Neither. What about eggs? Is it possible to produce them humanely? We often have in mind images from our childhood books where happy hens would run around on green prairies. What harm could it do to them if we eat their unfertilized eggs? Unfortunately the reality of egg production is far from these pastoral images. Laying hens spend their entire life crammed in a cage where they cannot open their wings nor can they can make a nest to lay their eggs. To satisfy their natural nesting need, some hens will make a semblance of nest in the body of one of their dead companions. The psychological distress of these birds is shown in the aggressive behavior they adopt toward each other in their much too small living environment. To palliate to this behavior and prevent the wounds that it causes, we cut the hens’ beaks without any anesthesia. They live with this mutilation. And what about free-range eggs? The «free-range» label does not mean much in Quebec. It can mean, for example, a warehouse where thousands of hens are packed together and where we could find an access to the outdoors at one extremity, no matter if the hens in reality have access to it or not. Indeed, it could be difficult for a hen to make her way through thousands of other stressed and aggressive hens to head toward an exit that she might never have seen. Free-range hens are often wounded and featherless because of the multiple attacks that they suffer from other birds in...
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