Vegan Fitness

Who has been the greatest vegan athlete of 2013? Nominations are in and we are pleased to reveal our five finalists. Now it’s over to you, we want your votes to decide who deserves the title. All five of our vegan greats have made a massive impact on their sport, but there can only be one winner. Please read their summaries and pick your winner.

Our friend the Fat Gay Vegan has organised a NYE event starting at one of the best Vegan restuarants in London. Followed by celebrations at a pub and an after party. Join 100 other vegans and start off 2014 in style. 

Sadly, badgers are now being shot in two areas of England as part of a terminally misguided attempt to control TB in cattle. 

Please help us to stop this cull. It is inhumane and barbaric. The scientific evidence has shown that it will not work, yet the government have pressed ahead with it. The badgers are scapegoats for farmers' failings and outrageous political backslapping. 5000 are due to be murdered in Somerset and Gloucestershire over the next 6 weeks. If successful and I pray to God that it fails, it will roll out across the country. DEFRA insists that the cull is being conducted humanely, yet people are hearing badgers left screaming in pain after they have been shot. This morning badgers in Somerset were also discovered mauled by dogs, which is totally illegal. 

What can you do:

• Sign the e-petition: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/38257
• Write to/email your MP, David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Owen Paterson and your local papers. There are some useful resources on the Viva site to help you with this: http://www.viva.org.uk/campaigns/badgers/action.php
• Boycott Milk and other dairy products. Go Vegan! There are now many delicious alternatives to milk such as soya milk and nut milks. 
• Some of you may want to get out in the field and help the volunteers patrolling the cull zones. These groups are working peacefully within the law. It is hoped that their mere presence will prevent shooting in the areas. There are also volunteers out looking for injured badgers. There are several groups on Facebook that can provide information for this, StopTheCull, SomersetAgainstTheBadgerCull and GloucestershireAgainstBadgerShooting for example.

* image coutesy Paul Silver 

The capital of Germany? -Well, yeah. The capital of partying? -Yup....The capital of Veganism?! -HELL YEAH!

Its pretty clear to anyone who spent time in Berlin that if you are vegan you can live a normal life in that city. You get pizza, ice cream, grill gatherings and most important: Acceptance. It is just a normal thing in Berlin to be who you are. Maybe because of its history, maybe because of its atmosphere, all kinds of people are magnetically pulled to this city and make together a colourful everything that lives side by side. What evolves out of this is so much energy and the impulse to create and just live the moment Read more
Hauptstadt von Deutschland? -Mhm. Party Hauptstadt? -Jap..... Veganer Hauptstadt? -Aber sowat von!

Es ist für jeden, der Zeit in Berlin verbracht hat, offensichtlich, dass wenn man vegan lebt, man dort ein recht normales Dasein fristen kann. Du kriegst Pizza, Eis, Leute die sich regelmäßig zum Grillen treffen und was am wichtigsten ist: Akzeptanz. Keiner sieht dich an, als wärst du ein Freak. In Berlin ist es normal, so zu sein, wie man ist. mehr lesen

Taken from the Vegan Berlin thread in our Vegan Travel Section. To submit a similar article about your favourite vegan city, start a thread in the travel section or email webmaster@veganfitness.net.

Urban Escrima teach realistic self defence training in London to better enable practitioners to protect themselves in confrontations or violent situations which may arise. We teach practitioners how to defend themselves from a variety of attacks, including weapon awareness. 

Urban Escrima is structured on a non-hierarchical basis (as much as martial arts can be). Both Instructors are vegan, one for many years. The club also has a number of vegans and vegetarians, which has created a really nice and camaraderie training environment. The club is not a vegan club, although many vegans / vegetarians seem to have gravitated to us, which we are very happy about.