As of April 7, 2008, TasteBetter.com is going on hiatus. The site will stay online, and the Vegan Booze Directory will continue to be updated, but regular updates will cease for the time being while the publisher takes a break and works on developing some new perspectives on activism, both online and off. Thanks to everyone who had a part, however small, in nearly 7 years of online adventures here on The Better and VP before that. I've learned a lot and really enjoyed collaborating with you. If you want to stay in touch, the contact form still works, and if you subscribe to the newsletter you'll be in the loop for what I'm up to when I come back (but I'm looking forward to some time off, so if you're planning on waiting eagerly by your inbox, pack a great vegan lunch or two.) Thanks, Jason

In the latest installment of our vegan business and finance section The Colour of Money, we talk with Santamrit Violet & Simran Khalsa, who are sisters and co-proprietors of Vegan Divine, an online vegan gift basket shop. I really enjoyed doing this interview, particularly where they said "...it's in direct alignment with how we live, so it's not something that we felt was a burden to do, it's exciting for us to find these things for ourselves and then share these things with others." There are all kinds of great opportunities out there for people to match what they do for a living with how they live every day, and I got a great feeling talking with these two. Check it out and see how it all comes down.

In his latest An Animal Friendly Life column, Eric Prescott continues taking us along the path towards, as he puts it, "a sustainable, morally consistent foundation for achieving animal liberation." This month, Eric examines the relationships between animals and humans in today's society, and how it pertains to advocacy and outreach. If you've enjoyed his past columns, this one will fit right in. If you've been wary of his writing for some reason, this is a good chance to give it another try: check it out here.

Hooo boy, back when we had a forum this was one of those things where you needed a pair of fireproof underwear, but here we go: Laura's just gone and done it: what's the deal with honey? I'll admit, I didn't understand the honey thing at first, and eventually went along with it as part of the package, while acknowledging at the same time that I couldn't enjoy, say, almonds without the help of bees. It's a complicated issue, moreso now with the increased commercialization of beekeeping. Check out what Laura thinks and see how it vibes with your philosophy.

I admit it - I'm a closet foodie. Deep in the closet, anyway, since I don't get the Food Network and don't subscribe to Fancypants Magazine or anything, but I like watching and reading about chef stuff when I have time - while they might not be vegan, there are a lot of simple tricks that adapt well to vegan cooking. I read Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential a few years back after watching the short lived TV show, and I managed to learn a few things, although I had to get through the occasional shot at vegans, like, oh, this one: "Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food." Know your enemy, folks, know your enemy. Or, better still, mock the hell out of him! Hezbollah Tofu is my new favourite food blog: they're veganizing Anthony Bourdain recipes. They run the vegan filter so you don't have to! (Though they are accepting recipe submissions) (via Vegan Bits)

Colleen reports that Canadian pork products are super! SuperBUG filled, that is! Oh snap, how great was it when I did the twistabout there? Bob, queue the replay: Colleen reports that Canadian pork products are super! SuperBUG filled, that is! Yeah, that's good stuff. The superbug, if you haven't been following mainstream news from the safety of under your bed where "they" can't hurt you, is an antibiotic resistant strain of staph bacteria known as MRSA, which is short for, I believe, "MR. So Amazinglyscary" because the stuff needs the antibiotic equivalent of a nuke to eradicate, and it's probably adapting to that too. Symptoms for those afflicted range from boils to pneumonia to death from infected blood. And it's in pork. 10% of pork tested positive for the stuff in a sampling that spread across four Canadian provinces. This mirrors tests done in the Netherlands and Japan (where it was chickens instead of pigs) Curiously absent from the analysis is the fact that something like half of the antibiotics in North America are given to farm animals to help them grow big and dead, which is something I'd think would be relevant when you're talking about something that's evolved by continually being attacked by antibiotics. Authorities aren't sounding the alarm, because while antibiotics aren't working, heat is, so following proper cooking procedures should do the trick, assuming you can understand them and manage not to get any residue on your hands or face. Look for kitchen hazmat suits for sale by 2010.

Danielle reports that a Cargill meat packing plant in Arkansas is, well, gone. A fire that started in a freezer section led to a series of explosions that ultimately destroyed the $100 million dollar facility, and no, no foul play is suspected - it appears to be related to some welding work that was going on in the area where the fire started. It's not known if the plant will re-open or not. The fire forced the evacuation of 180 people from their homes after 88,000 pounds of ammonia gas leaked out into the atmosphere during the blaze. Due to the gas risk, firefighters opted to let the facility burn down. Nobody was injured. I do't know which number to pay more attention to: that the plant employed more than 20 percent of the town's population (who are likely in some trouble, even if Cargill chooses to rebuild), or that the plant produced more than two million pounds of ground beef and steak every week. So here's the weird Monday question: do we lament the potential destruction of the town's economy, even if it was based on the slaughter of animals?

I admit it, I get a little jaded after writing what seems like the same stories month after month for so many years (well, the same bad jokes, at least). We've tracked the growing number of bans against cockfighting with some interest, but to be honest, I was skeptical regarding how much the laws might be enforced. Washington and Oregon, you totally blew my mind. Gregory reports that following a two year (!) effort, federal and state authorities have arrested more than 50 people in the two states in one of the largest cockfighting crackdowns in Northwest US history. Charges ranged from conspiracy to illegal gambling to racketeering to drug trafficking to, oh yeah, violations of the Animal Welfare Act. US Attorney Karin Immergut also pointed out "the close relationship between cockfighting and drug-trafficking in the Pacific Northwest." Congratulations to all involved, and kudos for recognizing that cockfighting isn't just a harmless gathering of yokels and giving the issue the attention it deserves.

Following up on his recent series of Opportunities for Activism (parts 1, 2, 3), Eric Prescott returns with some cautionary notes: Don't Just Do Something, make sure you know what you want to accomplish first. One of the things I love about Eric's column is that he not only offers some great ideas and thoughts, but usually he's got some pointers to more information if you want to know more. This time's no exception, and my "to-read" list just grew accordingly (thank goodness his column's only once a month!)

This is interesting: Tom sent in news about a PETA campaign targeting chimps used in entertainment and commercials, and one of the objections isn't about the exploitation of animals. Instead, there's a study showing that many people don't realize that chimpanzees are endangered, precisely because they're seen so often in movies and commercials, so there must be a lot of them out there. I like campaigns with more than one angle. It can be harder to focus the message, but it's important to recognize that the core message might not be getting through to everyone, at least not right away - just like how many people go vegan for health reasons and then learn about the animal rights stuff later, when they used to routinely ignore those issues in their meat-eating days. For more information about the campaign (which, granted, is largely focused on ending cruelty), you can visit http://www.nomoremonkeybusiness.com/.

See what I did today? I posted a bunch of semi-silly stories so I wouldn't feel as bad for posting Michaels's submission about a man who forced his 7 year old daughter to stab the family cat. The thing with stories like this is that they're not inherently vegan. It's not like we can write about these things and say hey, look at us, we don't do that kind of stuff. No kidding - most of the planet's population doesn't do that kind of stuff. The guy's deranged and needs help. Jail help. Check it out, we've got something in common! But wait! How is this different from the father who takes his kids hunting and teaches them how to kill an animal? For that matter, how is this different from the parents who teach their kids how to prepare dead animals for dinner? Is it the level of attachment that one feels for a family pet? Why is that the basis of the decision of who lives and who dies? The story here isn't that most of the meat-eating world finds it disgusting that this happened, but rather that most of the meat-eating world is somehow able to rationalize this complex set of contradictions and still live productive lives.

I'm mesmerized by this slow motion video of a tomato in a blender, and there's a reason that we don't see much of this kind of thing for meat products, as captured by the original poster: "If we were all tomatoes this would be difficult to watch." Being vegan means being able to joyfully slice, dice, mash and grind your dinner without worrying about your psyche. Oh, and I just showed this to my mom, and she says she likes this one better. Not that it has anything to do with veganism, but she's making me dinner later so I need to humor her.

German police were challenged last week by what appears to be a new breed of super sheep. Let's review the facts as we know them: running at 30 miles per hour to evade police cars, jumping over other police cars set up as a roadblock, and headbutting police dogs? Remarkably, the sheep was eventually caught without being killed - possibly because he or she is bullet proof. Folks, if this is evolution in action, I for one welcome our new four legged overlords, and hasten to point out that I'm totally on their side of the dinner plate issue. Veganism: forget the health, forget the environment, and start planning for the farmageddon uprising.

OK, so there's new interweb quiz that's on the interweb, and I don't know if you've heard of the interweb yet, but that's where they put the interweb stuff, anyway, How Many Cannibals Could You Feed? provides a truly useful service for people who aspire to, uh, serve man. Here's the weird part though - most of the questions are about body type, but at the very end, there's one asking if you're vegetarian or vegan. I tried doing the quiz for both yes or no (true, I lied to the interweb, but it was for research purposes), and it seems that an identically sized vegan can feed 2 fewer cannibals than his or her omnivore counterpart. What's this about? Is it that we're stringier or something? One would think that we'd be the healthier option, with less cholesterol and whatnot. Is this potentially THE reason that people haven't chosen a vegan diet? Maybe when the whole world saw Alive some years ago, they all thought, hey, if I'm ever killed in a plane crash, the fact that I'm vegan might mean that I'll save 2 fewer human lives, and that extremely unlikely possibility is totally worth holding out for instead of saving 80 or a hundred or whatever the number is animals each and every year through the simple act of not eating them. Outreach people, it's time to change your propaganda. 2008 will be the year of tasting better, I guarantee.

A little bird tweeted us to the fact that (gasp!) a vegan diet might keep you alive longer. You know, in case you've got some books that still need reading or something. Rheumatoid arthritis sufferers are more likely than other groups to die from strokes and heart disease - something to do with the disease doing something to the arteries - so the group that looks after rheumatoid arthritis decided to look into ways to reduce their risk of strokes and heart disease. Apparently just for them. How selfish, eh? Anyway, as it turns out, a vegan diet had the best results in reducing levels of the "bad" cholesterol (they've got to give that cholesterol a better name. Like Mortimer. And a mustache. Anyway.) The Arthritis Research and Therapy organization published the study, focusing on how a vegan diet could help their people. Could this possibly work for other people without arthritis? Probably, but you can tell there was a bit of a debate internally: the charity also says that "A vegan diet may be helpful in reducing cholesterol, but it is difficult to get enough of some important nutrients on a vegan diet." Dude, what nutrients are you talking about? Ignorant? Ugly? Oh wait, those aren't nutrients. Sorry, I was distracted by all that being brilliant and good looking. Anyway, it's 2008. Isn't it about time that people realized that a balanced diet is just as easy (or just as hard, depending on where the water is in your glass) to achieve on a vegan diet as it is on a meat-based diet? You can probably research that with all that extra time you'll have from not being dead because you followed the vegan diet that they talked about in the study.

Troy McClure may remember Vegan Sweeties from their recent Colour of Money feature, but if you still don't get the concept, we've got a video review of the product on the latest Vegan Review Show. Oh, and check out the new studio. And the new co-host. That's right, there's something for everyone in this one, even for people who are tired of looking at Jason all the frigging time.

Apparently Easter is this weekend, which means, oh, let's see, a shorter work week, some religious festivities for those who celebrate them, a potentially annoyingly meat-centered family get-together for some, and oh yeah, an influx of bunny rabbits. It's like when 101 Dalmatians does a product launch and every kid wants one (I think there was even a surge in demand for hawks after one of the Harry Potter books or movies), except this happens every year: well-meaning relative buys rabbit for child. Family discovers that raising a rabbit is not as simple as it seems (while rabbits discover that being picked up and cuddled kinda sucks when you like to stay low to the ground). A few weeks back, someone working on an article wrote to me with questions about this stuff, and it's not something I know too much about, so I referred her to Kirk, who some of you may remember from the VP days as being involved in this area. That worked out well, but I realized that it doesn't help the rest of you get the word out - I'm guessing that this is the week where most of these ill-advised purchases take place, so here's some info that might help if you've got a friend or colleague who's thinking of adding a rabbit to their family for no good reason other than the fact that it's Easter. Kirk writes: "Here are some excellent links about the problems with for rabbits at Easter: Make Mine Chocolate campaign This site has great information and wonderful activism ideas (including posters, handbills and cards that people can print out and spread around their city to help spread the word). [ed: you can find vegan chocolate bunnies here] The National House Rabbit Society web site has good information. And, of course, my organization's website is at http://www.michiganhrs.org In addition to rescuing death-row rabbits and finding them good permanent homes we also provide free educational support to anyone who has questions or problems regarding rabbit care and behavior." Thanks Kirk!

Some light weekend reading: the latest edition of The Colour of Money, our vegan business and finance segment is online! This week, we talk with Laurie Dolan, founder of Vegan Sweeties, a vegan cookie company that sells their products both online and via pre-order walkup sales. Laurie also sent us a batch of cookies to try out - check back Monday for our video review!

Tom sent news of the crazy dolphin whale rescue. No, the dolphin wasn't crazy, and there wasn't a big rescue of the mythical dolphin-whale, but there was a rescue of two stranded whales in New Zealand this week. By a dolphin. The whales were in trouble, and conservation officer Malcolm Smith sometimes has to put down whales once they become beached. This time around, the local dolphin (a regular in these parts, to the point where the locals call her Moko) swam up, calmed the whales down and led them back out to sea. This story made the rounds a fair bit on the news, so I can guarantee at least one thing: a significant percentage of the people who discussed it at lunch did so over fish and chips or something similarly disconnected. It's depressing, but we need to pay attention to that and figure out how to break that pattern.

Gregory notes that Beijing is under fire for their "cat death camps" as they try to clean up the city in preparation for the summer Olympics. It's ugly, it's sensational, and it makes you want to be all, "oh, stupid China," but maybe we should be saying "oh, stupid Olympics" - Greece rounded up its stray dogs in preparation for their 2004 games, though granted, the scale was an order of magnitude smaller. In any event, we've got some stupid policies and attitudes out there, and an "oh crap the in-laws are coming over quick let's clean up by whatever means necessary!" attitude isn't going to exemplify the world's achievements, which is what I thought the Olympics were supposed to be about...