Great veggie burgers for July Fourth

The author of The Whole Foods Market Cookbook offers some tips for veggie and vegan burgers that don't fall apart on the grill in today's South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Kudos to the paper for publishing this piece. It's a nice reminder that July 4th isn't all about grilling flesh!

Tags: veggie burgers | grilling

Vegan speed-dating in Manchester, England

South Manchester Reporter: Swede dating

Nifty:

Vegan Dates and Mates will initially cater for 15 women and 15 men over 18 years.

Su [Brierly] added: "We’re hoping for a huge response but we know that vegans tend to be quite shy. They shouldn’t be embarrassed. There’s no stigma attached to speed-dating any more. It’s quite a logical way to meet people, especially for vegans.

"Since we started running the vegan forum the question that keeps cropping up is, ‘where am I going to meet a vegan boyfriend or girlfriend?’.

"We’re hoping to fill that gap and make it easier for them to get out and meet people."

For details, call Su on 07870 634485.

Get thee to a phone, ladies and gents! No excuses!

Tags: dating

No meat!: Sweet-toothed vegans bake their cakes and eat them, too

Here is a positive take on veganism, focusing on our secret weapon: Desserts!

The story also features a recipe for Raspberry Tofu Cheesecake in the sidebar.

Tags: desserts | junkfood

A vegan diet for my dog?

Well, this Dallas Morning News Lifestyles Q&A from "natural vet" Shawn Messonnier was annoying:

Dear Dr. Shawn: I am a vegan and strive to improve my nutrition. I feel it important to do the same for my dogs. Both are adults at 7 and 10 years of age. Is it safe to slowly change their diet from their existing brand of dog food to a vegetarian diet? [snip]

Answer: While dogs are not strict carnivores like cats, I prefer they eat animal protein in their diets as this closely resembles what they eat in the wild.

While I respect your decision to not eat animal protein, in reality animal protein has the best ratio of amino acids (more important than the "protein" value of food) when compared with vegetables. Even vegetarians must work hard to properly balance the diet to prevent vitamin and amino acid deficiencies. [snip]

I wrote this letter to Dr. Shawn Messonnier in response:

Dear Dr. Shawn,

I read your Dallas Morning News Q&A on vegan diets for dogs, and I have to say I was dismayed by your response.

Not only have I cared for many healthy dogs that ate a vegan diet, but I am also vegan, and have had no problems in the last 4+ years getting enough protein, which is available to anyone eating a varied diet. "Complete" proteins and and the idea of combining proteins at every meal are "old school" nutrition, as we now know that as long as all 8 essential amino acids make it into the diet on a regular basis, it does not matter if the proteins are eaten at the same time.

This is known to the ADA and many other organizations, so you're doing a disservice to your readers to suggest it is difficult to stay healthy on a vegetarian diet.

Here are some resources I suggest you review:

http://www.ivu.org/faq/protein.html
http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/protein.htm
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/protein.php
http://www.vegsoc.org/info/protein.html

Tags: vegan | dogs

Punishing, yet pleasant

The Olympian has a terrific piece on vegan ultramarathoner Scott Jurek (including pictures), of which this is merely an excerpt:

Tall and trim but a bit less lanky than many hard-core runners, Jurek logs 55-70 miles a week on average, and 100-120 as he's peaking before a big race -- running as many as he can on wooded trails. In recent years, he's added yoga, weightlifting and a vegan diet to his training regimen.

Instead of milk, eggs, steak and other staples of many meat-eating runners' diets, Jurek eats a lot of tofu, tempeh (a high-protein food made of cooked soybeans) and whole grains, and adds things such as almonds, hemp seed and protein powder to the smoothies he often blends up for breakfast.

It's all part of a regimen he says dramatically has improved how his body recovers from races and all-out training runs.

"Definitely the recovery is as important as training," he said. "I wouldn't say I had things totally wrong before. It's like a fine-tuning process I've tweaked and tweaked."

Tags: vegan | ultramarathon | Scott Jurek

EPA factory farm proposals anger activists

MSNBC.com | Environment

Count me in among the angry.

Thanks to a lawsuit lodged against the Environmental Protection Agency by Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), and Waterkeeper Alliance, a federal appeals court ordered the EPA to revise rules from 2003 that did not adequately protect waterways in the U.S. from factory farm animal waste. That the courts had to tell the EPA to do their job properly is bad enough, but the "fix" is even worse: Basically the EPA has put the fox in charge of the hen house.

Large factory-style chicken, hog and cattle farms might soon have to get permits from the Environment Protection Agency when animal waste from their operations finds its way into local rivers, streams and lakes.

The agency proposed the new requirement Thursday, but it said it will leave up to farmers to define what constitutes pollution, and that if it’s only stormwater, never mind.

A federal appeals court had ordered EPA to also consider issuing new standards for controlling disease-causing bacteria, viruses and parasites in farm runoff. The agency opted not to adopt any.

So on top of handing over the protection of our environment to Big Ag, whose primary concern is profits -- environment be damned -- the EPA was so bold as to flat-out ignore a major instruction from the court.

With the EPA on their side, the industry is quite happy. Now they can do whatever they want:

“Pork producers can decide for themselves if they will need a federal Clean Water Act permit as they meet these standards, or if they want to meet these standards while not getting a federal permit,” said Randy Spronk, a producer from Edgerton, Minn., and chairman of the National Pork Producer Council’s environment committee. “Either way, we can have an effective regulatory program.”

As the NRDC's Melanie Shepherdson put it: “[The FDA is] letting the factory farms police themselves, which flies in the face of the whole purpose of the Clean Water Act permitting process.”

While the author here includes a quote from an activist that uses the term "factory farm," the rest of the article is careful to avoid it, though we're given a clear enough picture that the visual it conjures is quite apt:

At issue are about 18,800 concentrated animal-feeding operations, which contribute up to 60 percent of all the manure generated by farms that confine animals, according to EPA. Those farms generate 500 million tons of manure annually.

That's a lot of crap.

And so is the EPA's requirement, as proposed. Environmental protection does not seem to be as important to the agency as toadying up to the Bush Administration's agribusiness buddies.

Tags: EPA | factory farm | CAFO

Winning waffles for vegans at Miami

The Cincinnati Post

Sweeeeet. After dining out tonight with an old friend at possibly one of the most vegan-unfriendly (hell, one of the most health-unfriendly) restaurants I've been to since going vegan, I can really appreciate this...

Now if only I could have some!

Feed Recalled Over Mad Cow Violation

Chron.com

Ahem. Hello?

Livestock feed ingredients shipped to nine states may have been contaminated with cattle remains in violation of a 1997 ban to protect against mad cow disease, a manufacturer said Tuesday.

H.J. Baker & Bro. Inc. said it was recalling three livestock feed ingredients, including two used to supplement feed given to dairy cows. A sample tested by the Food and Drug Administration was positive for cattle meat and bone meal, said Mark Hohnbaum, president of the Westport, Conn.-based company's feed products group.

Get this, it is not known how much of the feed ingredients the company sold...

Tags: BSE | mad cow

The Vegan Side of Rock

For those keeping score, chalk up multi-talented Mike White as another Hollywood (er, Indiewood) vegan. I know those that live by the (quasi-)celebrity die by the (quasi-)celebrity, but lots of people are interested in this stuff, so I thought I'd share this New York Times Style interview that Olivia Lane sheepishly wrote about at SuperVegan today.

The interview transpired at Real Food Daily, the organic vegan restaurant in Los Angeles, along with avowed meat-eater Jack Black, in support of Nacho Libre, their #2 film at the box office this past weekend (as Jack Black's production partner, White co-wrote the script). For the record, Tac-O-The-Town is an awesome dish.

Tags: vegan | celebrity | Nacho Libre | Real Food Daily

Vegetarian vigilantes in Mumbai

Reading this piece, I had to wonder what kind of culture clashes we might expect in N. America if vegetarianism becomes a stronger force in public life.

Husband, wife and even family dog defy odds to survive cancer

Another nifty "veganism cured my cancer" story.

UPDATE: Oh, and here's another one!

Tags: health

Daryl Hannah's vegan story

Los Angeles Times: What Sent Hannah up a Tree.

Actually, it's an article about how she ended up getting arrested for trying to save an urban farm in Los Angeles the other day, but it starts out with her vegan story, which is pretty cool:

She became a vegan at the age of 11 after she befriended a little calf being hauled by a truck that was parked near a road. The calf kissed her face for about an hour. When the truck driver appeared, she asked him what the calf's name was. "Veal, tomorrow morning at 7," he shot back.

Life without the meat

Fort Frances Times Online | Health & Wellness (Canada)

Here's yet another positive, relatively well-researched piece on vegetarianism, and this one gets into some detail, too, so it could be useful to some.

Tags: diet | health

Versatile Vegetarian

The Herald-Dispatch | Health

National Post (Canada)

While I object to the categorization of flexitarians as versatile vegetarians (it's a bad use of the word versatile, if nothing else), I don't really have a problem with the word flexitarian itself.

I think most people generally have an idea what it means (according to the Herald-Dispatch article, "The term refers to people who get most -- about 80 percent -- of their nutrients, from a plant-based diet"), and it fits a growing category of people that vegetarians should embrace rather than condemn.

No matter how much we want them to, not everyone is going to go vegetarian. But so much good would still come about if the vast majority of the American public improved their eating habits from the standard American diet (SAD) by consuming a flexitarian diet instead. In fact, the flexitarian expansion is really only building on what is already there, according to the National Post article:

Charles Stahler, co-director of the Vegetarian Resource Group, based out of Baltimore, estimates that while true vegetarians make up around 3% of the American population, flexitarians may account for up to 40%. And there's been more research that suggests some 75% of the vegetarian products consumed annually in North America are by meat eaters.

Companies are seeing this as a market that is largely untapped, and their investment dollars could well grow the category, bringing more avowed carnivores into the flexitarian fold. And these articles provide a non-threatening look at a lifestyle that busy people might be more inclined to consider, which could well lead some of them to a fully vegetarian diet some day, though perhaps not (from the Herald-Dispatch):

"If I could make the decision now to become a vegetarian, I could see myself becoming a flexitarian," (Paige) Markum said.

Still, I see this being particularly helpful to people who aren't yet comfortable going totally vegetarian or vegan around family or peer groups, people who traditionally find it rude to turn down meals prepared for them, or people who can't find anything else appropriate on the menu when dining out, but who want to eat vegetarian or vegan at all other times.

It's also an easy way for meat-eaters to experiment with vegan and vegetarian dining without feeling like they are making a radical conversion. Despite the fact that flexitarians may propose a sort of walking contradiction in the minds of some, a market that provides more vegetarian products to vegetarians and flexitarian consumers alike is a better marketplace for all.

Tags: flexitarian

Does America’s appetite for meat contribute to global warming?

This previously appeared in The Washington Times, and I wrote a letter to the editor that I posted here (along with a link to the original article).

But the American Enterprise Institute is serving its corporate masters by spreading misinformation and obfuscation in other, smaller papers as well. Look for this to show up in sympathetic local papers all over the country. Fight back with your letters, and lets start straightening out the facts of this so-called think tank.

Tags: meat-eating

Omega-3 trend could lead vegetarians to eat fish by mistake

NUTRAingredients.com (Europe)

Hot on the heels of my proclamation that veg food contamination would be a more frequent news item as vegetarianism became more common comes this story from the UK about the potential contamination of seemingly vegetarian products by fish:

The trend towards adding omega-3 to dairy and other staple food products may be causing vegetarians to inadvertently eat fish products, a predicament that could be avoided through open, honest labelling.

The Vegetarian Society in the UK does not consider fish-eaters to be vegetarians, although dairy products that are free from animal derivatives, such as animal rennet, and free-range eggs are acceptable.

But with the explosion of omega-3-containing products onto the market, there is concern that some dairy and egg products contain fish oil that is not declared on the label.

Moreover the omega-3 in some dairy products and eggs are believed to be a result of feeding animals with fish – even though it does not form part of their natural diet.

That fish is not vegetarian may come as a shock to some, amazing as that is (I've never understood how one could consider seedless, reproducing fish to be vegetarian), but even an Indian Fisheries Minister recently tried to classify prawns as vegetarian! One expects that from Forrest Gump, who called shrimp "fruit of the sea," but of course the Fisheries Minister was more concerned with improving prawn sales than protecting the ethical and cultural vegetarian diet of millions upon millions of Indian vegetarians.

It's good that vegetarians have societies like The Vegetarian Society looking out for them. The Vegetarian Society worked with the Food Standards Agency on a set of guidelines for vegetarian and vegan products that were released a couple of months ago:

However a spokesperson for the FSA told NutraIngredients.com that these guidelines are not legally enforceable, but that they are designed to improve labelling by providing criteria, help manufacturers avoid common mistakes, and help enforcement agencies identify misleading labelling that contravenes the 1990 Food Safety Act or the 1968 Trade Descriptions Act.

She confirmed that if a product claims to be vegetarian but is found to contain fish oil, it could be seen as misleading labelling. This interpretation excludes products that are generally presumed to be vegetarian, such as milk, but are not labelled as such.

For now the FSA is committing only to reviewing the guidelines once they have had time to take effect – although The Vegetarian Society's goal is the development of legal definitions of the terms.

As food and supplement ingredients and labelling become more and more complicated, it is going to become increasingly necessary for concerned vegetarians of all stripes to depend on resources put out by trusted organizations like The Vegetarian Society Approved Products Database and their seedling logo.

Of course, the Vegan Society has a trademark they use to distinguish vegan products and restaurants.

Tags: Omega-3 | fish | fish oil

Guess who's been researching the impact of a certain opinion piece for the Arizona Daily Star?

My post came up when someone with the American Enterprise Institute domain did a Google search on Kenneth P. Green's opinion piece on organics and veganism:

Here, take a look for yourself at this screenshot from StatCounter.

Could it have been Mr. Green himself? Hmmm.

BTW, there are now some comments responding to the opinion piece. One so-called person, Peter V., referred to the other commenters as "true believers," as if to somehow cast aspersion on them. Nice try, but carnists are true believers of their own sort, aren't they?

This is making me consider... Animals need a think tank of their own, don't they?

Tags: scandalous

McDonalds at a vegan restaurant

I was startled to see a man come into California Vegan with a couple of friends, carrying a take-out bag of McDonalds, which he may have mainly bought for his son, assuming that's the relationship there.

He was asked to take his food outside, and he proceeded to gripe about how we vegans were so inflexible.

Man, I may have been perturbed by this man's insensitivity and disrespect before, but now I was downright annoyed.

Vegans in America have to put up with an incredibly non-vegan culture. We finally get a smattering of vegan restaurants to call safe refuge, then you feel that our objections to your pollution of that venue are unreasonable?

Think for one second how many times I must have had to go hungry or order pasta with oil and diced tomatoes for lunch, and how many times cheese was accidentally served on top anyway. Or what about all those times I went out with friends, and my only vegan option was a side salad?

So, you'll forgive me if I don't cry that you weren't allowed to eat your McDonalds at a restaurant where vegans can eat anything on the menu without being disturbed by the scent of cheap, greasy animal flesh.

I mean, I'm all for inclusiveness when it comes to promoting a plant-based diet -- just leave the fast food where it belongs.

Tags: vegan | McDonalds

Eating for two

Star-Telegram

There's been plenty of coverage on how meat and dairy products increase the likelihood of giving birth to twins already, but the above-linked article is the first time I've seen a doctor recommend women considering pregnancy seek protein from sources other than meat, so as to avoid the greater risk of complications in multiple births. Nice.

Tags: meat | dairy | twins

"Vegan-organic lifestyle doesn't help Earth, isn't necessarily best"

I'm getting pretty fed-up with well-funded conservative think tanks, especially since they're the ones behind many of the attacks on animal welfare and rights groups that claim they're only in it for the donation money, which is preposterous.

What really annoyed me about the above-titled opinion piece is that the writer is a fellow with the notorious American Enterprise Institute, which is inherently biased against the subject matter: vegetarianism and organics. I decided to write a letter to the editor of the Arizona Daily Star:

Kenneth P. Green, writer of Monday's "Vegan-organic lifestyle doesn't help Earth" opinion is heavily biased, but the newspaper does nothing to point this out to readers. While it is noted at the end of his piece that he is a visiting fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, few of your readers may already know that -- despite its alleged non-partisan status -- AEI is a pro-business right-wing think tank that serves as a strong neo-conservative base with very strong ties to the Bush administration, including Richard Perle and senior fellow, Lynne Cheney (yes, Dick Cheney's wife). It specializes in promoting free enterprise capitalism and works to place people in influential government positions. This organization counts among its alumni Dick Cheney and Antonin Scalia.

Green wasn't writing to do your readers any service, but rather to protect corporate contributors that have included Philip Morris and ExxonMobil.

Knowing this, readers are better equipped to realize that Green is spinning a lot of misinformation to turn readers off of the idea of vegetarianism and organics, when there is a preponderance of scientific literature demonstrating the benefits of both to the environment, including much to contradict the outright falsehoods presented in Green's opinion. I hope your readers will research this subject for themselves, and with unbiased sources. Because, once they do so, the choice will be much more apparent.

Well, there you have it. I don't expect it to get published, so we'll see what happens. I urge you all to read it, do your own research on the matter, and write your own, unique letters before the end of business today. Maybe one of us will get published if enough letters with a similar opinion are sent in.

Tags: organic | vegan

Tofu Sabotage Debacle at Whole Foods!

The New York Observer | Daily Transom

As vegetarianism becomes more commonplace, how much more often will we hear stories like this one, from Tofu Sabotage Debacle at Whole Foods!:

At the Whole Foods in Union Square, at 1 p.m. today, an employee came barreling through the store. The very upset and very loud chef had an important message: The tofu had been cooked in meat juices!

The busy store went quiet. Three vegetarians—or were they meat-eaters who happen to like fermented soy products?—anxiously, embarrassedly shifted out of the market's well-groomed lines to return their lunches.

There's more to it than this, of course, but you'll have to follow the link to see just how messed up this whole situation is. I have a love-hatefrustration relationship with Whole Foods Markets, and this article doesn't do anything to ameliorate that!

Tags: tofu | vegetarianism

Mock-meat morsels convert Cuban-American carnivore

MiamiHerald.com

Another one for the omni conversion files:

Julio Maza grew up in a meat-eating Cuban-American family. But after enjoying tasty morsels of mock beef, chicken, ham, fish and shrimp at a cookout 10 years ago, he became a vegetarian almost overnight.

Maza became friends with some Taiwanese folks he met at the cookout and traveled with them to Taiwan, absorbing the Taoist philosophy of balance in life and diet.

Maza went on to found Harmony International, a "vegetarian meats" wholesaler. A lot of the items they sell look a heck of a lot like the mock meats I see all over town at vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants.

And the company is now open for sales to the public!

Tags: food | mock meats | vegetarian meat