Tasha is a food-loving blogger, who loves everything about food -- thinking about it, writing about it, talking about it, cooking it, and most of all eating it. Tasha chronicles her foodie adventures on her blog,
Voracious, previously known as
Vegan Voracious. But, after more than three years of being a vegan, her health was in danger, and she had to seriously reconsider her dietary habits. This is one blog post you are going to want to read!
Tasha writes in her blog post, A Vegan No More, “Of course, I never questioned why I was constantly hungry. Why two veggie burgers, a giant raw vegetable salad, and a bowl of nuts couldn’t keep me full longer than two hours. It was exhausting, physically painful, and tedious trying to keep myself fed, but I figured it was worth it. I was healthy. Or at least, that’s what I thought until it was proven otherwise. I’m still not sure why I accepted for so long that fatigue, exhaustion and growing depression were a normal part of life that was to be expected as one grew older. After all, I am only 28 and I’ve never in my life suffered from ill-health. But the fact is: I wanted veganism to work. I wanted desperately for it to be right, for my ethics to outweigh my physiology.”
Of her experience, Tasha says some of her readers have been “amazingly supportive and have shared many thought provoking ideas,” but sadly “others have made threats against me and my family.”Read her post here.
Switching gears, I would also like to give you a heads up about a situation cropping up with the Pepsi Refresh Project. Pepsi began this project in 2010, with the goal of awarding grants to "innovative and inspiring causes." Ideas are submitted by individuals, groups, non-profits and businesses. Each month, up to 10 grants are awarded for $5,000, $25,000 and $50,000. Two grants of $250,000 are also given. Winners are selected by public votes, and past groups winning the grand prizes include Kanzius Cancer Research Foundation, AIDS Research Alliance, Homes of Hope for Children, Inc., Teach for America and the American Legion. Sounds great, right?
Unfortunately, the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS) has been deemed eligible to compete to win the $250,000 in the online Pepsi Refresh Project. Of course, we know that HSUS has a $100-million budget, and its main mission is to regulate farmers and ranchers out of business. My call to action today is simple: head to the website and vote for an actual worthy cause of these dollars. There are plenty of choices -- ones that will truly make a difference. Come on, agriculture! Let's band together and make that difference. Your vote counts!
Also, just for fun: check out the very kind, humbling blog post, Guts, Steel and Beef, written by Brandi Buzzard about my recent trip to Kansas State University. I would like to give my sincere thanks to Brandi for her support. She is serving as an excellent advocate for the industry, and I think you will enjoy her many thought-provoking entries.
Finally, don't forget that today is the last day to vote for your favorite photo in the BEEF Daily Fall Harvest Photography Contest. Check out who is in the lead, view the entire collection and add your two cents to the polls. Winners will be announced Thanksgiving Day, so stay tuned!
