Cruelty Free Vegan Shopping article

[Catchawave]

From: Dawnwatch

There is an extraordinary article on the FRONT PAGE of the Sunday, December
12, San Francisco Chronicle, headed "High Tech and Cruelty Free Vegan
Shopping: Making a list, checking it twice -- no cashmere sweaters, no silk
ties, no leather jackets -- but lotsa style."

It is by Chronicle Staff writer Joe Garofoli.

It talks about the difficulty of finding "a decent pair of shoes -- that
wasn't once a cow or an alligator."

Garofoli explains: "Vegan-friendly designers and retailers say part of the
reason for the relative dearth of products is that many manufacturers have
an outdated image of your typical vegan consumer. Or, at least, of what they
want."

But he lets us know that the prospects are improving as vegan specialty
stores and trendy clothing lines are starting to take off.
For example, "Jackie Horrick of Pasadena, who started the online Alternative
Outfitters in April and has seen her business double every month since. The
big sellers among her 300 items: a vegan takeoff on the trendy Ugg boots and
a Gore-Tex cell phone pouch." "

Since I have a cool little Matt & Natt wallet I was interested to read the
planning behind that label:

"The designer wanted to wait until his company, whose Matt & Nat bags are
available in 1,500 North American locations, was known for its style before
its sensibility."
That designer, Inder Bedi, is quoted:
"We wouldn't go very far if we were known as a vegan company that sold
handbags. We had to be a handbag company that happened to be vegan."

We learn that "Bedi will open his first store next spring in Montreal --
with a shoe selection."

The article shares wonderful news:
"In a survey of 100,000 college students across the country earlier this
year, 24 percent of respondents said they wanted vegan meals offered on
campus, according to a study conducted by the ARAMARK food service company.
Over the next two months, the firm will roll out vegan meals such as sweet
Thai tofu stir-fry at two dozen campuses."

Aramark's Doug Warner is quoted: "That number kind of surprised us. But it
made us believe that we had to provide options for vegans."

The article mentions the terrific magazine VegNews, (Check out
http://www.vegnews.com) "which debuted as a 24-page free newspaper in 2000,
into a full-color, bimonthly lifestyle magazine. Subscriptions have tripled
over each of the past three years for VegNews, which is located in San
Francisco's Sunset District -- about a block from the zoo."

The magazine's founder and editor, Joe Connelly, is quoted, saying that for
the vegan world: "The writing is on the wall. The hippie days are over."

The article ends with an interesting discussion about whether new vegans
should wear out the leather shoes they already own.

You can read the whole article on line at:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/12/12/MNGN9AAPGN1.D
TL
or http://tinyurl.com/4vctz

It gives us a great opportunity to open a bottle of champagne and celebrate
the movement of compassionate living from the fringes of society onto the
front pages. And it provides the opportunity to keep the story alive on the
letters page, and to make it clear that this kind of front page story is
well received. Please write an enthusiastically supportive letter about the
joys of cruelty-free living to the San Francisco Chronicle. The Chronicle
takes letters at: [e-mail] and advises, "Please limit your
letters to 200 or fewer words ... shorter letters have a better chance of
being selected for publication."

I am always happy to edit letters being sent to papers.
Please include your full name, address, and daytime phone number -- most
papers require that information.

Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in
the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets.
You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at
http://www.DawnWatch.com.
To unsubscribe, go to www.DawnWatch.com/unsubscribe.php. If you forward or
reprint DawnWatch alerts, please do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the
title and include this tag line.)

[Catchawave]

1. EcoMall

Great place to compassionately shop online:


EcoMall: Enlightened Living: organic, natural, earth friendly, non toxic, heal
http://www.ecomall.com/

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Any others? Add to the thread :D