Friday, January 26, 2007

Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism

On Wednesday, The New York Times published a great article, which currently resides at spot number one on the paper's list of most emailed articles. It focuses on my absolute favorite vegan chef, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, while favorably portraying veganism and breaking down a few stereotypes. It also includes some great down-to-earth words from Isa to everyone, vegans and omnivores alike. There are three free recipes alongside the recipe, all of which look great.

ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.

“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”

Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies...

Full Article

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Vegetarian Kids

A super-positive KYW report in Philadelphia on vegetarian kids includes the statistic that approximately 1.5 million kids between 8 and 18 are vegetarian... That ups the nation's vegetarian percentage significantly, seeing as how how must polls on vegetarians only include adults, about 2.3 percent of whom never eat any kind of meat. It's hard to pull an exact number on this, but estimates put the figure at about 5 million adults. So adding 1.5 million kids to that base gives us about 6.5 million full-time vegetarians in the U.S. over the age 8, to say nothing of those that eat vegetarian part of the time, or flexitarians.

At any rate, getting back to the newscast:
Medical Reporter Stephanie Stahl reports there are ways to make sure those growing kids are eating a well balanced diet.

The Winters like a good steak, but their 12-year old son Dean is not interested. When mom and dad eat steak, he has a protein substitute.

Dean has been a vegetarian since he was in first grade.

"I love animals a whole lot, and I really don't care for meat that much,” he said.

The Winters, like many parents of vegetarian kids, worried at first that their son wouldn't get enough nutrients without that piece of meat on his plate.

"At first, I kind of fought it and tried to get him to eat meat. But he was pretty solid about his convictions,” said Dean’s dad, Harold Winters.

According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian kids can be just as healthy as other children.

"There is no need for concern. People can be very healthy eating a vegetarian lifestyle,” said Dawn Jackson Blatner a registered dietician and American Dietetic Association spokesperson.

The key to remember: if you or your child is going to be a vegetarian, there are healthy ways to go about it.

"There are three major steps to do this vegetarian thing right. The first step is to replace the meats with plant proteins, so that would be eating things like beans nuts, seeds. Step 2 is eat lots more fruits and vegetables and then step 3 is replacing your grains with more whole grains,” Blatner said.

Having a vegetarian kid can be an adjustment, but with all the protein substitutes out there, it's not that hard for Dean.

“I really don't feel like I'm missing out on anything,” he said.

The A.D.A. said the number of kids who are choosing vegetarianism is growing and many children may experiment with a partial vegetarian diet.

It is a good idea to consider how you'll add healthy meat-free meals to your child's diet, whether or not he or she is a full-time vegetarian.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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Almost There

DNS is being updated so veggieboards.com should soon point to the new server. Some of you will see it real soon, for others it may be 24 hours.

Update

I'm upgrading the forum software now. Still not sure when the site will be up.

Update

Home on my lunch break and thought I'd post an update. Just looked around the site on the new server and all looks good. We should be able to get things switched over in the morning so the site should be back within the next 4-6 hours. Like I said in an earlier post, some will see the site right away but for some it may take up to 24 hours.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Update

Things are still moving along nicely. We'll try to have the site up tonight but there's a distinct possibility it may be down until morning. Not due to any problems, well, unless you consider having to go to work a problem. Either way this will be the last update for tonight.

Update

For those of you following along at home... Files are still being copied over. That part of it should be done soon. After that some more needs to be done with the server and then I'll test things out. Unfortunately I need to get a nap and then go to work. I won't be able to get to it until at least midnight tonight so don't count on the site being up until at least 1 or 2 AM central time.

Plans

Ok, as I've mentioned there will be two basic phases to improving the site. The first phase, which is underway now, should be completed by the weekend. Here's how it will go:



  • Turn off board (done).
  • Move files to the new server (currently under way, may take 3-4 hours).
  • Test everything.
  • Turn the board back on. Once the board is on some of you will see it within 10-20 minutes, for others it may take up to 24 hours.
  • On Thursday or Friday I will take the site down for a few hours. I will install a new copy of the forum software and link it to our existing database. Using clean code (and the new server) should eliminate most of the bugs and database errors we've been experiencing.
  • I will then upgrade the forum software to the newest version. Then I'll need to make a few changes. When I turn the board back on you will be posting on the new copy of the forum software (all of the previos data should be there).


So phase one is mainly backend/performance. Phase two will add a new website design, blog, and a few other features. I'm not sure when that'll be. I sent an e-mail to the guy who's designing the new website this morning asking for an update. I'll let you know when I hear something.

Server Move Begins Soon

Not sure how many people bookmarked this site like I advised but this is where I'll post updates on the server move. The site will be going down in the next 60-20 minutes. Once the move begins the site will probably be unavailable for about 3 hours. Once the move is complete some will have access to the site within 10-15 minutes, for others it may be up to 24 hours. I'll post more as I get it.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Newspaper tries to praise vegetarianism

The Guardian newspaper the other day had an article in its leader column headlined In praise of vegetarianism. While it was nice to see a piece setting out to extol the virtues of a practice dear to my heart, I don't think it was done very well.

While I'm quoting slightly selectively, I know, the juxtapositions of the lines "[we] have come a long way since the days of textured vegetable protein. Humane meat is now more popular than ever" is hardly convincing in its "praise". Great, we have humane meat (I guess that's non-factory farmed meat) - it's hardly the bastion of a great argument for vegetarianism, is it now?

The best the piece can do is say "vegetarians still look elsewhere". It doesn't say where. Maybe the writer doesn't know [what he's talking about]. The piece then goes on about the environmental benefits of vegetarianism, which, while worthy, I suspect are not the main reason most vegetarians eschew meat.

The piece goes on to say: "vegetarianism confronts ethical questions that a lot of us prefer to ignore", but the writer fails even to suggest what these are and moves quickly on, completely missing the whole point of vegetarianism in the process. Basically, the piece would have been better called "A little bit of pointless and obvious information about vegetarianism".

By the way, don't bother reading the immense deluge of comments attached to the piece unless you want to hear the "meat-eaters are cruel vs. we have sharp teeth and are meant to eat meat" arguments going round and round in endless cycles of nothingness. Yes, we know you have sharp teeth, you animals.