Animal Products

The Nordstrom shoe salesman approaches. "May I help you?" he asks. "You really don't want to," Sabri na LeBeauf assures him. The actress, best known for her work on "The Cosby Show," is a vegan (VEE-gan) who wants nothing to do with animal products. She believes in "compassionate shopping," a practice that applies to clothing, cosmetics, accessories--even sporting goods and automobile interiors. Although many of the nation's 12.

The fourth annual LA Vegan Beer Fest is just around the corner, and attendees will have the opportunity to sample vegan brews from more than 15 breweries and vegan eats from a variety of LA-area restaurants and food trucks. Regardless of whether you keep vegan, vegetarian, or you're a dedicated omnivore, the LA Vegan Beer Fest is one of the better beer festivals in Los Angeles. Held in the Roxy Theatre and co-hosted by the folks behind Tony's Darts Away and vegan food-blogger Quarry Girl , The Vegan Beer Fest is a great way to kick-off a Spring and Summer filled with beer festivals.  The festival is on May 4th at 1pm, and tickets can be purchased online for $40 ($50 for VIP admission)

Averting an imminent showdown with the United States, the Japanese government bowed Friday to pressure from Washington and announced that it plans to end its trade in endangered hawksbill sea turtles, whose shells are used to make jewelry and eyeglass frames. The action came after months of negotiations and just hours before the Bush Administration planned to impose a products ban on the import of all animal products from Japan.

Amid all the cost-cutting and tax increasing that the Los Angeles City Council is proposing, there's one more thing the council would like you to give up: meat. Just on Mondays. The council unanimously approved a resolution last week endorsing the international “Meatless Monday” campaign that began as a nonprofit initiative of  the Monday Campaigns Inc. in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future. The city will encourage residents to abstain from meat and go vegetarian one day a week for health and environmental reasons.  According to the campaign, cutting back on meat can reduce risks of  cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Nilo Amier massages Bag Balm into her chapped hands. Formulated 100 years ago to soften the udders of milking cows, the salve works just as well on people, said Amier, who tends a half-acre mini-ranch in Tarzana. "And it sure beats Vaseline." Canyon Country feed dealers Odie Fox and his son Jerry swear by Flex Free, a pricey supplement for easing stress and strains in horses. One dissolves a pinch of the bitter powder in his orange juice. The other sprinkles it on breakfast cereal.

The fourth annual LA Vegan Beer Fest is just around the corner, and attendees will have the opportunity to sample vegan brews from more than 15 breweries and vegan eats from a variety of LA-area restaurants and food trucks. Regardless of whether you keep vegan, vegetarian, or you're a dedicated omnivore, the LA Vegan Beer Fest is one of the better beer festivals in Los Angeles. Held in the Roxy Theatre and co-hosted by the folks behind Tony's Darts Away and vegan food-blogger Quarry Girl , The Vegan Beer Fest is a great way to kick-off a Spring and Summer filled with beer festivals.  The festival is on May 4th at 1pm, and tickets can be purchased online for $40 ($50 for VIP admission)

Bringing food, plant, and animal products into the United States is not a cut-and-dried certainty.

If you've ever wanted to learn how to cook with beans and grains, author David Gabbe will share his insights Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the Senior Center. Participants will prepare a variety of simple dishes that contain no animal products, white sugar or refined products. Information: (714) 229-6780.

Acknowledging the existence of animal cruelty is unpleasant, and getting people to actually watch footage of it is understandably difficult. The folks at Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) found one way: Pay them. Operating on the premise that watching a four-minute video could persuade a viewer to drastically and permanently reduce the amount of animal products consumed in their diet, FARM launched a national tour in early May to show the public a graphic “Farm to Fridge” video, made with hidden-camera footage showing farm animals, including cows, chickens and pigs, living in factory farm conditions and being processed at slaughter.

There is a really dire problem with wildlife in foreign countries. Their plight is horrific when you think of all the circumstances under which they are being exploited. Please ask your readers not to buy any live animal or bird, or any wildlife product such as fur, skin, ivory or tortoise shell. Discourage them from having their pictures taken with chimpanzees, monkeys or lion cubs. (It is a big racket at many of the world's beach resorts and one which involves gross cruelty.)

The president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States says he wants a seat on the board of directors at Tyson Foods so he can begin working from the inside-out to improve the plight of farm animals -- especially pregnant pigs. Let that sink in for a second. The head of one of the world's largest animal-rights organizations wants to help oversee one of the world's biggest meat producers.  Wayne Pacelle said in a statement posted on the Humane Society's website that he has filed paperwork as a candidate for election to the board of directors of Tyson Foods.

Acknowledging the existence of animal cruelty is unpleasant, and getting people to actually watch footage of it is understandably difficult. The folks at Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) found one way: Pay them. Operating on the premise that watching a four-minute video could persuade a viewer to drastically and permanently reduce the amount of animal products consumed in their diet, FARM launched a national tour in early May to show the public a graphic “Farm to Fridge” video, made with hidden-camera footage showing farm animals, including cows, chickens and pigs, living in factory farm conditions and being processed at slaughter.

I currently follow a strict vegetarian diet and consume no animal products at all. Since vitamin B-12 is missing from the vegan diet, I wonder how many micrograms of it I should take. I've seen B-12 pills of up to 1,500 micrograms each in my food co-op, but the daily requirement is just 3 micrograms. Vitamin B-12 deficiency is far more common than most people realize. Vegans (who eat no eggs, dairy or other animal products) are frequently lacking in this essential nutrient.

"Cheap protein" sounds like something you buy from a shady character in a raincoat, but it's right there in the grocery store. The Chicago Tribune reports that in recent years Americans have never paid less for food, with meat singled out as a particularly cheap source of protein. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends 46 grams of protein per day for women 19 to 70-plus years old and 56 grams of protein per day for men of the same age. (Read the CDC chart on recommended grams per day by age and sex in "Nutrition for Everyone.

Billie Mae Richards, a Canadian actress best known for voicing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in the enduring animated 1964 television special, has died. She was 88. Richards, who had suffered strokes, died Friday at her home in Burlington, Canada, west of Toronto, said Rick Goldschmidt, who documented the history of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and its producers. Like most of the cast, Richards was a veteran of Canadian radio when the producers traveled north to assemble the voices for the program based on the 1949 song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Reporting from Paris — As Brigitte Bardot approaches her 76th birthday, her starlet aura has been enjoying a broad resurgence — and the woman herself, plenty of attention. In the year since her widely commemorated 75th birthday, a fashion elite — Dior, Lagerfeld and Gaultier — have offered their catwalk homages to France's famous "sex bomb. " The actress' tantalizingly retro 1960s-era face looks out over shoppers from the posh Lancel store on the Champs-Élysées (where they sell the recently launched eco-chic Brigitte Bardot Bag)

Regarding the Feb. 22 letter from P. Johnston in response to the vegetarian article on Feb. 1: Gee whiz, P. Johnston! What are you so angry about? I am a vegan and know many other people who are vegan (those who eat no animal products at all, as opposed to ovo-lacto vegetarians who eat eggs and dairy products). Neither I nor any of the other vegans I know buy, use or eat any animal products . . . no leather anything, no fur, no skins. I hope your [leather-wearing vegetarian] friend has made merely the first step in becoming a vegan with a truly compassionate and non-harmful lifestyle.

Re "Faking It" (Dec. 17): So the vegans get free press in View promoting their lifestyle sans animal products. Thankfully, in America we have the freedom to choose what to wear, eat and benefit from (medical advances, for example). I choose to wear natural products--fur, leather, wool and silk. This way my conscience is clear. I'm not polluting the planet with rubber and vinyl manufacturing plants. I'm not supporting those huge tankers that carry gasoline from which synthetics are made, and that in one accident at sea have wiped out entire ecosystems.

Every so often, we take a candid look at the private dietary lives of people whose food choices need a makeover. Up this week: the kitchen and dining habits of 22-year-old Jessica Watson and her boyfriend, 31-year-old Todd Preboski. She's a vegan; he eats fish but no other animal-based foods. Such diets may conjure up images of fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, tofu and whole grains. But a lack of time and planning have cornered the couple into relying too often on Taco Bell burritos, protein bars and potato chips.

FOR YEARS NOW, preservationists have been pleading and preaching in a failed attempt to get humans to stop slaughtering exotic and increasingly rare animals whose organs are believed to increase sexual potency. But it hasn't worked. Poachers risk bullets, handcuffs and steep fines for the profits from rhinoceros horns, tiger penises or the eggs of endangered sea turtles, all wrongly believed to enhance male sexual performance or desire. It's time for a new approach.