Most know Tuna as a fish, the ‘chicken of the sea.’ However, there is another type of Tuna that has nothing to do with fish or animals at all. It is actually a fruit!

This ‘tuna’ that I am referring to is a bold green in color and about the size of a pear when its thick skin is still intact. It is a fruit that grows on a prickly pear cactus that is very abundant in the Mexico region.

It is perfect for hot, summer weather and is surprisingly sweet.

To prepare the tuna, make sure it is very clean and there are no thorns. You must be very careful in removing its skin for it is very thick and can give splinters if not cleaned properly. The best way to remove the skin is by chopping off about half an inch off each end and then slicing the tuna in the middle so that the skin can be easily peeled off and removed. All throughout the inside there are little gray seeds. Just bite into the tuna as you would a tomato. It will have a much more crunchier texture but all of it (except the skin) can be consumed.

Written by VRG intern Veronica Lizaola

Youth Empowered Action Camp is accepting applications for their summer programs (youth ages 11-16). If you are interested, contact details are below.

Youth Empowered Action Camp (YEA!) is a summer camp for young people ages
11 to 16 who want to make a difference in the world. YEA builds
knowledge, skills, confidence, and community to prepare young people to be
confident and effective changemakers. Youth will learn valuable
communications, leadership, and campaign skills during this six-day camp
in the Santa Cruz mountains. All participants will leave YEA camp having
chosen an issue important to them, having created a thoughtful plan of
action and the support of a community of peers and a year-long mentorship
to help make it happen. YEA has locations in the Santa Cruz Mountains, CA
and outside or Portland, OR.

What: Youth Empowered Action YEA! Summer Camp
When: Session 1: from July 25-30, 2010 OR Session 2: July 31-August 5, 2010
Where: Ben Lomond, CA, Santa Cruz Mountains

OR

When: August 14 – 21
Where: Molalla, OR just outside Portland
For more info, including inspiring testimonials and details about our
activities, please visit www.yeacamp.org, email [email protected], or
contact us at 415-710-7351.

If there are any vegetarian/vegan readers who are (or were) in the military, we would love to hear from you for an upcoming article on the subject. Please contact Ann Marie at [email protected]. Thanks!

The May 2010 issue of VRG-NEWS is being emailed out now, and is also available online.

VRG-NEWS is our free, monthly email newsletter which offers recipes, ingredient information, reviews of new products, announcements of new books, free samples of products, events, and highlights of materials that are available through VRG.

To sign up for VRG-NEWS, simply enter your first name, last name, and email address in the fields to the right on this page.

Back issues are available here.

Our Guide to Food Ingredients, which lists the uses, sources, and definitions of 200 common food ingredients, has now been published in its entirety online: http://www.vrg.org/ingredients/

The Guide is also still available for purchase in print for just $6: http://www.vrg.org/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=8

Our objective in this Guide is to provide an easy-to-read, useful list of ingredients commonly found in many foods and beverages that indicates whether they are vegetarian, vegan, or non-vegetarian. Our Guide is unique in that we place emphasis on the commercial sources of ingredients most commonly used today while mentioning other possible sources of ingredients.

The Guide is one offshoot of an ongoing VRG food ingredients project. New information and changes in commercial processes and sources will constantly appear. Check http://www.vrg.org for updates.

We are happy to now provide this content on our website and hope that it continues to assist people in deciphering ingredient labels.

Your support allows us to continue this ingredient research and make updates as new information arises. Please consider making a donation here: https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?CID=1565

If you’re looking for a summer getaway in the Blue Ridge Mountains, or even a more permanent rental, Bruce Moose has several properties available where you can enjoy the mountains, wildlife, and also support VRG. They have just built a loft and done extensive work in one of their chalets, Bear’s Den, which backs up to the Shenandoah National Park with great views, and deer and bears as neighbors.

If you are interested, please contact Bruce Moose, and don’t forget to mention VRG, as a donation will be made to us!

VRG is in the process of compiling a set of Teen FAQs, written by our wonderful interns and volunteers.

Today we are featuring an FAQ about visiting Japan as a vegetarian, written by VRG intern Yuko Tamura:

I'm going to be traveling to Japan with my family. What do I need to know about being vegetarian in Japan?

Japan has a lot of foods like tofu or miso, which are globally well known especially among vegetarians, however, it is actually far from a vegetarian friendly country. Though Japan had a vegetable-oriented eating style in the past, food-westernization completely changed the landscape. Now meat is found everywhere and many people believe that having meat, fish and dairy products is good for their health. Therefore, it can be challenging to be a vegetarian in Japan. In a society where animal product consumption is strongly encouraged, people tend to be prejudiced against a vegetarian way of eating.

However, we, who used to be rarely meat eaters, have developed very healthy and nutritious vegetarian food. Tofu and soy lovers will definitely get excited to see shelves filled with a variety of tofu and unique traditional soy products such as natto or yuba in supermarkets. (Natto is soybeans fermented by natto bacillus, it is sticky and has strong smell and taste. Yuba, also known as bean curd skin, is the skin that forms on soy milk when it is heated. Both are highly nutritious and good sources of protein.) These products are often served with fish and seaweed stock called "dashi" in restaurants, but when you buy and cook them by yourself, you can enjoy them without dashi. In fact, these products are delicious when you use only salt or soy sauce for seasoning. If you stay in a ryokan (Japanese traditional hotel with tatami and futon) or a hotel with cooking facilities, you can also try cooking Japanese noodles without dashi. You can season them with soy sauce and sweet sake.

Since many Japanese dishes are cooked with dashi or any kind of animal products (mainly fish and seafood), it is actually very difficult to find vegetarian dishes in Japanese restaurants. I have to tell you that the availability is limited, still, there are some. At first, you can order a bowl of steamed rice, the everyday must for Japanese. Then as side dishes, try vegetable pickles, fried tofu, grated radish, vegetable tempura, fried noodles or okonomiyaki without meat and sauce. (Okonomiyaki, or vegetable pancake, is usually made with eggs, but you may be able to ask for them prepared without eggs. You also need to ask not to put sauce, which usually contains animal products.)

Click here to read the entire FAQ.

VRG will be having a booth at Veggie Pride Parade! See details below, and stop by and say hi!

*********************
Veggie Pride Parade NYC
http://www.veggieprideparade.org/
Sunday, May 16, 2010

Veggie Pride Parade is a noncommercial First Amendment event.

Parade line-up, 11 a.m.
Start point:
9th Avenue & Gansevoort Street
New York, NY

Download poster with map (PDF):
http://www.veggieprideparade.org/pdfs/veggieprideposter.pdf

Parade launch:
12 Noon

Parade route:

Start point: 9th Avenue & Gansevoort St.
southeast on Greenwich Avenue
east on 8th Street
north on University Pl.
to Union Square Park (north end, across from Barnes & Noble)

If you’re raising veggie kids right now or plan on starting a family soon, you may want to join The Vegetarian Resource Group’s online parents list. See: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vrgparents/

This group now has over 1,500 families participating. A wide range of questions are raised and parents quickly respond with supportive and practical advice from their own experience raising veggie kids. Some questions have included:

• Parent looking to relocate to a veg-friendly area to raise family.
• Someone looking for green bed for child that is moving out of
  their crib.
• Someone looking for help to raise hypoglycemic child veggie.
• Parent asked if it was worth it economically to join a CSA Farm.
• Parent raising kid veggie without soy asked for suggestions on
  what to feed him high in protein, etc.
• Someone looking for help with vegan food ideas for an 18 hour
  train ride.
• Searching for natural alternatives to give a child with a stuffy
  nose and cough.
• Kids looking for veggie pen pals.
• What’s a reasonable food budget for a vegan family of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids)?
• Child is starting pre-school. How do I explain that we are vegan
  and I don’t want my child to be given non vegan food, etc.

Our brochure Save Our Water: The Vegetarian Way is now available online in Spanish: ¡Salvemos el agua por medio del vegetarianismo!

Thanks to VRG volunteers Cecilia and Elizabeth for translating this!

Sin lugar a dudas, todos necesitamos agua limpia. Cómo obtenerla y mantenerla limpia y abundante se está convirtiendo en un problema universal. De hecho, la FAO (la Organización para la Alimentación y la Agricultura de las Naciones Unidas), en un informe titulado La larga sombra del ganado (Livestock’s Long Shadow), predice que en el año 2050, dos tercios de los seres humanos en todo el mundo carecerán de agua potable para satisfacer sus necesidades básicas. Sin embargo, una parte de la solución es fácil y factible. Todo comienza con el tenedor. Read more