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alt.food.vegan
is the least self-explanatory link because it uses Google search
site this Usenet group. Usenet is the largest of the systems
by which anyone - for better or worse - can read or contribute
to an e-mail discussion. Based on e-mail, rather than the web,
you do not have to be logged-on to read the text as long as your
server company carries the Usenet group that you want and your
software is set-up to read it.
Because a lot of people will be reading this site at work
or in internet cafes, it seemed best to link to the Google
service that indexes Usenet, and doesn't require changes
to the settings on your software or downloading of messages.
It is possible to contribute to the groups through Google, and
they give some good
instructions for doing this of which an important one is
hidden in the last section called "Posting FAQ":
- Question: I don't want my email address to be published
on the web [because it will be used to send me junk e-mail about
toner cartridges and cheap vagary] , but I still want to post.
How can I hide my email address?
Answer: We require a valid email address to post to Google
Groups. If you don't want your normal email address to be listed,
we encourage you to sign up for an anonymous account with one
of the many free email services available on the web and to post
from that account. You can find a list of such services by conducting
a Google search
site. or just clicking
here.
Another way to contribute to Usenet, share recipes and such
is to get your e-mail software to keep a mail-box just for messages
for a particular group, and automatically update it each time
you log-on. It is best done at home, where it's OK to leave the
machine set-up do download your recipes, and it is particularly
useful if you pay for phone calls to the internet and prefer
to read messages while you are not online. You can tell how easy
to is to subscribe by clicking this link: news:alt.food.vegan
. Quite likely your e-mail programme will pop-up, know what you
want and offer to set-up a mailbox for the group. If not, one
of the companies - freeuk - has a
guide to setting - up Usenet. Most of the others will have
some explanation, and there will be something in your e-mail
programme's help files under "Usenet" or "news
groups".
If you prefer a group with the arguments and the rudeness
filtered-out, there is a moderated one in which a brisk volunteer
checks each message before it is made public: try news:rec.food.veg.cooking
.
Another hazard of Usenet is its tendency to bring ill-suited
people together. It's useful not to answer irritating messages,
and to read any attempts at ground-rules, or answers to frequently
asked questions, that may have been written for the group. It's
good to read a few weeks of posts before posting anything yourself.
alt.food.vegan has no strict rules, but an introduction has been
attempted
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- The unofficial alt.food.vegan FAQ - quoted
without permission from the news group as a guide for anyone
who might want to contribute. Guides
to other Usenet groups are available here.
This isn't a statement by Veganline.com.
- What is a vegan?
- What's the difference between a vegan an a vegetarian?
- Why
do people decide to become vegan?
- What is the purpose
of the alt.food.vegan news group?
- What
is a vegan? A vegan
is a person who avoids the use of all animal products, byproducts,
and animal-derived substances. There are two broad categories of
people who are referred to as vegans-those who follow a vegan
diet (avoid consuming animal products as food) and those who
follow a vegan lifestyle (avoid animal-derived substances in
food and other products, and often those that have been developed
via animal testing as well). The term vegan may also be used
as an adjective to describe a food or that was produced without
using, and does not contain, animal-derived substances.
- What
is the difference between a vegan and a vegetarian? A vegetarian diet does not include
meat, poultry, or fish, or substances derived from them. Those
that follow a vegetarian lifestyle also avoid products containing
animal, bird, or fish derived substances that were extracted
via the direct death of an animal. Common non-vegetarian foods
or ingredients include meat, fish, poultry, and gelatin. Common
non-vegetarian materials include silk and leather.
- A vegan diet excludes the
same substances, but also excludes products derived from any
form of animal agriculture, including but not limited to those
derived from eggs and milk as well as meat, fish, and poultry.
Common non-vegan foods and ingredients include, but are not limited
to, meat, fish, poultry, eggs, milk, honey, gelatin, albumin,
whey, and casein. Common non-vegan materials include leather,
silk, and wool. Occasionally, someone following the vegan diet
or lifestyle makes an exception and use a food or product when
no viable vegan alternative exists, or if they feel there is
a compelling reason to do so. These decisions are made for many
reasons, but are individual deviations. Two examples would be
a vegan who takes photographs on film with a gelatin emulsion
for her job, and a vegans who keeps his own beehive to pollinate
his garden, and eats the honey produced by it as an organic alternative
to refined sugar. These are examples of vegans who have a made
a personal exception for a non-vegan product, but the products
do not become vegan simply because someone who is otherwise vegan
has a
compelling reason to use them.
- Why do
people decide to become vegan? There are many reasons to become vegan. Frequently
cited reasons include:
- Ecology: raising animals for food is much
more resource intensive than plant-based agriculture.
- Religion: many religions support or even advocate
the vegan diet and lifestyle as a way to ensure the health of
the body or bring more compassion into one's life.
- Health: a balanced vegan diet has many health
advantages over an omnivorous diet, especially for, but not limited
to, people who suffer from high cholesterol or high blood pressure.
- Animal Welfare: concern for the ethics of killing
for food (directly or indirectly), the treatment of animals raised
as food sources, or a belief in animal rights
- What
is the purpose of the alt.food.vegan news group?
- Alt.food.vegan is a forum
for anyone with an honest interest in issues of concern to vegans.
There are many types of vegan represented on this group. While
a topic is not relevant to the group merely because a vegan is
interested in it, it is relevant if the issue reflects a motivating
factor in becoming vegan. These issues include, but are (as always)
not limited to: vegan health, vegan foods, vegan recipes, vegan
products, animal rights or welfare, organic farming, and environmental
issues.
- The discussion is by no means
limited to "practising vegans"- after all, there are
no foods consumable by vegans, but not by public at large. Many
vegan foods are a staple of a balanced diets, and are healthy,
low-fat, no cholesterol alternatives to traditional western diets.
We also welcome people who are acquainted with a vegan and want
to learn more about vegans in general. If you are interested
in learning more about, or perhaps becoming vegan, we are willing
to share what we know and /or help out every step of the way.
Since this is an alt group, alt.food.vegan
does not have a charter, However, by our own informal agreement
this news group exists to share ideas and issues of concern among
vegans, but not to debate the merits of vegan versus omnivorous
diets or lifestyles.
- The following is quoted from
a post by John A. Stuart-Clarke
Subject: The Purpose Of The Group?
Date: Sat, 27 No 1999 20:19:10 -0000
<snip>...I think that we all have to live with the fact
that some of us are here for diet advice, some for health tips,
some for general chat and friendship and some for info on animal
rights, environmental news & views, etc.. Some of us have
strong views, some of us have wild views
and some of us have no views at all on the threads we find in
here, but we all have some sort of interest in veganism and that
should be enough to unite us.
...end of quote from unofficial introduction to news:alt.food.vegan
by a member
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vegan-food.net
is much more self-explanatory than the alt.food.vegan link. A
lot of the recipes are the same but some people have put time
into collecting them into a database format and putting them
on a very neat web site. At the time of writing there were these
sub sections: appetisers,
beverages,
biscuits,
bread,
breakfast,
cake, cheese,
condiments,
confectionery,
curry,
dessert,
eggs, grains,
legumes,
meat, noodles,
nut, pasta, patties,
pies, pizza, quiche,
salad,
sandwiches,
soup, soy, stew,
stir-fries,
vegetables.
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Vegweb.com is the oldest
of the American online message boards where you can swap recipes
once you have given them your e-mail address and a password to
become a member. Most of these boards are in the USA because
of the free local phone calls there.
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Vegeats.com is written
in the simplest possible web site format to archive recipes from
the fat free mailing list, which you can also reach from fatfree.com.
Although it is hosted on a slow college web server, it downloads
quickly even if you live in the UK and has relatively few adverts
and distractions on each page. The fatfree page includes a search
site service that will search
site map according to dietary categories:
- Any vegetarian
- Vegan: no milk, eggs, or honey
- Nearly vegan: no milk or eggs
- Ovovegetarian: no milk
- Lactovegetarian: no eggs
Most of the recipes seem come from a form of e-mail group.
The way this one works is that you send an e-mail to fatfree-REQUEST@fatfree.com
with the word "subscribe" in the subject line. A machine
then starts sending you shared digests of all the recipes that
people have sent-in each day. Send another e-mail with the word
"unsubscribe" in the subject and it stops. One of the
first e-mails will be a set of instructions with other things
you can tell the machine to do, including these editorial guidelines:
This list is for discussion about very low fat vegetarian
eating and cooking. For this list, "very low fat" indicates
diets with less than 15 percent of calories as fat and "vegetarian"
includes milk, eggs, and honey but excludes all meat, fish, and
poultry.
The primary audience of this list are those who are trying
to keep relatively strictly to a very low fat vegetarian eating
plan for reasons of health. However, anyone with an interest
in very low fat vegetarian foods and cooking is welcome here
provided they respect the nature of the list and abide by the
posting rules.
The default format of this list is a digest. This means the
multiple posts are compiled into one long email message. Most
folks prefer this format. You should expect to get a digest mailing
at least once a day, sometimes more often if traffic is heavy.
A non-digest format is available, instructions are sent on how
to switch over when you subscribe to the digest.
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IVU.org is an
international union or trade association of most of the Vegetarian
Societies that have been set-up since the mid nineteenth century.
Some of the history need not be gone-into here in part because
it is lost, but as you would expect the web page
is a great focus for voluntary effort, from co-ordinating discussion
about world hunger to assembling phrase-book supplements and
theology to compiling massive lists of recipes that people have
sent-in from round the world. For example there is a section
for root-based currys as well as one for bean-based ones, while
the "western" section includes a section on tex-mex. The
search
site map box on the recipe page can restrict search
site mapes to African, Chilies, Chinese, Deserts (Western),
East Asian, European, Extras (Western), Greek, Middle East, Holidays,
Indian Beans, Indian Chutneys / Spices, Indian Rice / breads,
Indian Root Vegetables, Indian Salads, Indian Snacks, Indian
Vegetables, Italian, Latin American, Main Courses (Western),
Mexican / Tex Mex, Burrtos, North American, Pasta, Salads, Snacks
& Soups (all Western). There is a form for suggesting even
more recipes, although they only have room for vegan ones.
Pugh
is an elegantly thorough site. I would have called it Kate Pugh
except that it looked a bit egotistical for someone who has chosen
not to register her own domain name - the site is presumably
based on un-paid experience of moderating the news:rec.food.veg.cooking
news group, and of all those who have contributed to it. I have
not checked the links and write-up of this site with any great
care, so please mention any mistakes.
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