Guest Blogger: Darkstardust

Please welcome a new guest blogger! Classically trained, jazz-inspired, electronica influenced & standards-obsessed modern vocalist – Damiana K. (also known as ‘Dark Stardust’ & ‘Lady of The Lorax’) is a trained vocalist, program presenter, semi-retired professional print/promotional/fetish model, choreographed dancer/performer, and promoter of conscious living. Mainly post blogs at blog.DarkStardust.com,  food-related entries at LoraxKitchen.blogspot.com & as part of Lorax Community team at Loraxproject.blogspot.com. Please welcome Damiana!

The following is a post from blog.DarkStardust.com, originally posted to a forum I ran in 2007. It deals with issues related to veganism, corporate food politics, and my eventual adherence to a raw food diet. It contains an addendum, which will appear italicised in purple.
Is it really vegan? Who can you trust?

How & why I became a “raw foodist”

I believe in (and am firmly committed to) a life of absolute consciousness, especially when it comes to consumerism. My distaste for corporate handling and greed when it comes to target marketing toward “the vegan dynamic” eventually led me to my current lifestyle as a raw foodist.

Please allow me to give an example:

Boca Burgers.
Boca was acquired in the year 2000 by Kraft foods. Before the time of acquisition, Boca Burgers were organic, non-GMO and also vegan.

Here is where it all went downhill…

Kraft is the number one manufacturer of genetically modified “food” products on the market today. They use clever wording to hide the fact that every one of their products is a “Frankenfood,” but they taint everything they touch with GMO crap. “Made with organic soy” can mean that they used 1% of organic material in their product, while the other 99% is GMO. They are legally allowed to print that something is made with organic materials, provided at least 1% of what they used is organic.

Fun, no?

Let’s move on to the even better stuff.

Kraft is owned by Philip Morris, a company now known as Altria. Philip Morris changed their name as a PR/marketing tactic which was a rather clever attempt to distract consumers from the bad press they had been getting for problems related to their tobacco products as well as animal testing.

So let’s do the equation:

Altria = Philip Morris = Kraft = Boca = vegan? I think not.

Supporting corporations who test on animals for ANY of their products still funds their stupid behaviour.

Something I would like to add here is that PeTA and PeTA2 have been encouraging people to patronise the fast food/burger joint Johnny Rockets since they have decided to add a “veggie burger” to their menu. Care to make a guess as to who is providing Johnny Rockets with their “awesome vegan burger”?

PeTA runs the smokinganimals.com website which speaks out against Philip Morris for their animal testing. I’m disgusted that they would use one hand to point a finger at a company and the other to jack them off under the table.

SHAME ON PETA.

Morningstar farms uses eggs in many of their products. The eggs they use in their manufacturing plants come from factory farms which debeak chicks and force their birds to live in horrendous, unsanitary conditions. Are their so-called “veggie burgers” really vegan either?

I’m thinking no.

I could list dozens of examples, but it really can become depressing after awhile…
There were also other factors involved after awhile – my newly discovered gluten intolerance (gluten free + vegan + WHOLE ingredients = not easy to find in most places), my unreasonable addiction to soya, the amazing high and rejuvenated sensation I felt on days/weeks/months when I would adhere to an entirely raw diet and finally my eventual realisation that most things I was consuming as cooked (such as rice/grains, beans & other high-volume bulk ingredients) were coming from massive factory sources where the lives or habitats of other animal species were barely considered or spared by large machinery when it came to harvest time.

In any case I suppose in retrospect my decision was as highly politically and consciously motivated as my adherence to an entirely vegan diet for so many years preceding the change.
It really did seem at that point that a 100% raw diet was the only answer after years of endless boggling over research and juggling between one company gone bad to the next one sold.

Now that I have been eating only organically grown/raw/chemical-free/unprocessed foods year-round for over 5 years, I suppose I continue to stick with it because of the way I feel: healthy, energetic, strong and truly able to enjoy vibrant flavours of fresh food with all nutrients and enzymes fully intact. =)