First things first: I received a personal comment from a loyal follower noting that he was very disappointed in my previous post because I simply copy/pasted out of the Time article and did not add my own opinion. My intention was to show that reputable news sources are reporting on this problem and that it's not just something that I'm all wound up about because I have nothing better to do with my time. I apologize for any disappointment my previous post caused. You want my opinion, you get it!
Here are a few of the things I think about often:
1.) I went vegetarian thinking that I would still eat eggs and milk, but I quickly learned that egg laying hens are subject to the worst living conditions of all animals and that dairy cows live unhealthier lives than feedlot cows and are then slaughtered for ground beef. While I'd like to go vegan (no dairy, no eggs), it makes eating out difficult (even in a progressive city that accommodates vegetarians fairly easily). As author Michael Pollan said, "This is what can happen to you when you look. And what you see when you look is the cruelty - and the blindness to cruelty - required to produce eggs that can be sold for 79 cents per dozen." I no longer eat eggs and no longer buy cheese for my house, but I still eat cheese when I eat out and I feel guilty about it afterwards. I picture the cows and the abuse they endure and it makes me extremely sad that I am so selfish that I haven't been able to completely cut out cheese. I am trying, but I will try harder.
2.) More than one person has told me that they fear going vegetarian would upset their parents. I, personally, see no logic in this - a.) my parents support my choices, b.) I'm a grown-ass woman, and c.) why would anyone be so emotional about something as trivial as someone else's eating habits, especially when the eating habit they are adopting is a more responsible one?
However, I do understand that fear of being different or being considered difficult to accommodate is unfortunately a real obstacle to going vegetarian. I struggled with this initially, and even endured some very unexpected badgering from some of my closest friends. (Why people feel the need to defend eating meat, and condemn those who don't, baffles me. Maybe it's a defense mechanism to try to justify their own choice?) But rest assured, most people eventually realize that your eating habits have absolutely no effect on them and it becomes a non-issue.
PS, at family gatherings, either my family will make me a vegetarian option (a meatless lasagna or bean tamales) because they support my choices, or I'll simply eat the sides (Thanksgiving is just as delicious when your plate is loaded with mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, biscuits, and pumpkin pie).
3.) Vegetarianism is not an unreasonable response to the evils that exist in our current industrialized food operation. Yet, there are animals living on farms that contradict the nightmare ones. True, they are but needles in a haystack (literally, 1% humanely raised to 99% inhumanely raised), but their very existence suggests the possibility for change.
Yes, though these animals are raised humanely, they are killed, and as Matthew Scully (author of Dominion, a conservative Christian examination of the treatment of animals) said, "[predation is] the intrinsic evil in nature's design... among the hardest of all things to fathom." So, can I in good conscience eat a happy, sustainably raised chicken? (That's a rhetorical question... for now.)
What I find most wrong with eating meat is the current practice, not the general principle. People who care about animals should be working to ensure that the ones they eat don't suffer, that their deaths are swift and painless, and that they are eaten with the consciousness and respect they deserve.
____________________
Breakfast: Bagel with jelly
Lunch: Veggie sandwich from the deli downstairs: lettuce, tomato, avocado, sprouts, carrots
Diner: "Powerhouse" salad from Chop't, loaded with superfoods: spinach, edamame, broccoli, carrots, dried cranberries, walnuts, sunflower seeds, & a lemon vinaigrette dressing
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Miscellaneous. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
Growing Local Farm Movement
Last week, CNN reported on the growing local food movement, or Community Supported Agricurture (CSAs). From the article:
[The farmers] describe their farming technique as "beyond organic," saying they use no artificial fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics and don't keep their animals penned up.
Life on their property -- where cattle and sheep graze in open fields and chickens follow along to clean up after them -- looks much like the classic image of a family farm. [The Farmers] say they consider themselves healers to both their customers and, according to their Web site, a food system that "had become a machine with little regard for food safety, food taste and animal welfare."
"People are becoming very disconnected from the food system," Liz Young said. "Buying from a local CSA or just shopping at a local farm, you can see where it's coming from. You can talk to the farmers and figure out how the animals or the produce is raised.
...
Members of the nation's handful of meat CSAs, and the thousands of others, offer a list of reasons.
The food is healthier and tastes better, they say. They like supporting their local economy. Eliminating cross-country delivery is better for the environment, as are the sustainable farming techniques the farmers tend to use.
"Being part of a CSA means that I know the first names of the people who are raising the meat I eat," said Andrew Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri, a member of the Parker Farms meat CSA in Richmond, Missouri. "Whereas, with the meat I buy from the grocery store, I don't know where it came from or who raised it."
Others say they appreciate that animals from the usually small family farms don't spend their lives in processing plants, conditions that advocates call inhumane.
Because CSA members deal with the farmers directly, they are able to visit the farms and see exactly how their food is produced. The transparency, they say, creates an incentive for farmers to raise their animals as naturally as possible.
...
"Is it as cheap as the lowest-price chicken in the grocery store? Absolutely not," Tim Young said. "But with our prices and the prices of any sustainable farmer, you've got everything baked in: the cost to the environment, the cost to the health care system, the cost of producing that animal [in a humane way]."
"I don't think it is significant, but if it does end up costing a bit more, it is still important to us to make this a priority," he said. "There are other expenses I am willing to give up rather than give up a safe, trusted food source."
____________________
Breakfast: Bagel with "better than cream cheese" (a non-dairy cream cheese subsitute)
Lunch: Veggie sub with avocado, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, shredded carrots, vinegar & oil
Diner: Burrito with beans, rice, zucchini, squash, peppers & salsa
[The farmers] describe their farming technique as "beyond organic," saying they use no artificial fertilizers, growth hormones or antibiotics and don't keep their animals penned up.
Life on their property -- where cattle and sheep graze in open fields and chickens follow along to clean up after them -- looks much like the classic image of a family farm. [The Farmers] say they consider themselves healers to both their customers and, according to their Web site, a food system that "had become a machine with little regard for food safety, food taste and animal welfare."
"People are becoming very disconnected from the food system," Liz Young said. "Buying from a local CSA or just shopping at a local farm, you can see where it's coming from. You can talk to the farmers and figure out how the animals or the produce is raised.
...
Members of the nation's handful of meat CSAs, and the thousands of others, offer a list of reasons.
The food is healthier and tastes better, they say. They like supporting their local economy. Eliminating cross-country delivery is better for the environment, as are the sustainable farming techniques the farmers tend to use.
"Being part of a CSA means that I know the first names of the people who are raising the meat I eat," said Andrew Johnson of Kansas City, Missouri, a member of the Parker Farms meat CSA in Richmond, Missouri. "Whereas, with the meat I buy from the grocery store, I don't know where it came from or who raised it."
Others say they appreciate that animals from the usually small family farms don't spend their lives in processing plants, conditions that advocates call inhumane.
Because CSA members deal with the farmers directly, they are able to visit the farms and see exactly how their food is produced. The transparency, they say, creates an incentive for farmers to raise their animals as naturally as possible.
...
"Is it as cheap as the lowest-price chicken in the grocery store? Absolutely not," Tim Young said. "But with our prices and the prices of any sustainable farmer, you've got everything baked in: the cost to the environment, the cost to the health care system, the cost of producing that animal [in a humane way]."
"I don't think it is significant, but if it does end up costing a bit more, it is still important to us to make this a priority," he said. "There are other expenses I am willing to give up rather than give up a safe, trusted food source."
____________________
Breakfast: Bagel with "better than cream cheese" (a non-dairy cream cheese subsitute)
Lunch: Veggie sub with avocado, lettuce, tomato, sprouts, shredded carrots, vinegar & oil
Diner: Burrito with beans, rice, zucchini, squash, peppers & salsa
Monday, July 27, 2009
The Most Dangerous Job in America
Sorry for the slow down in posts lately. My life got hectic with a business trip, moving apartments, then vacation, all back to back. But I'm back on track now & hope to pick up the pace on the blog again!
Just last week, the headlines read "Woman Found Dead at McDonald's Food Processing Plant." Although this is a single headline, this is not an isolated incident. Meatpacking is now the most dangerous job in the United States. The injury rate in slaughterhouses is three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory. Every year, more than one-quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country (roughly 40,000 men & women) suffer an injury or work-related illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid. And, there is evidence that the official numbers, reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are an underestimate and that thousands of injuries go unreported.
Lacerations are the most common injury, but meatpacking workers also suffer from tendinitis, back problems, shoulder problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and trigger finger (a finger becomes frozen in a curled position). The rate of these cumulative trauma injuries is much higher in the meatpacking industry than in any other industry. It is thirty-three times higher than the national average. Slaughterhouse workers make a knife cut every 2 or 3 seconds, adding up to about 10,000 cuts during an 8 hour shift, and placing repetitive pressure on the workers' joints, tendons, and nerves.
The speed of the assembly line is an accurate determinant for the number of injuries at a slaughterhouse. The original meatpacking plants slaughtered about 50 cows an hour. Twenty years ago, plants slaughtered about 175 cows an hour. Today, meatpacking plants slaughter about 400 cows an hour. One former nurse in a meatpacking plant said, "I could always tell the line speed by the number of people with lacerations coming into my office."
Workers desperate not to fall behind (and risk losing their job), are encouraged to take methamphetamine (often sold to them by their supervisors). The widespread use of "crank" in the meatpacking industry only makes an already very dangerous job even riskier.
Because most of the workers in slaughterhouses are recent immigrants, many illegal, they can be fired at any moment, without warning. They may have traveled long distances for this job, could have families to support, and are earning more than they could back home, so there is huge pressure not to complain, and not to report injuries. The annual bonuses for plant supervisors is often based on injury rates.
From a purely economic point of view, injured workers are a drain. They are less productive, so getting rid of them makes sense when there are plenty of available replacements. Injured workers are often given easy, yet unpleasant tasks, their wages are cut, and they are encouraged to quit. This causes non-visible injuries (hand pain, back pain) to go unreported and untreated.
____________________
Breakfast: Lots of cherries!
Lunch: Spinach burrito from California Tortilla (Spinach, black beans, rice, tomato, onion, cilantro)
Dinner: Tom Yum Veggie soup (Thai lemongrass soup full of veggies, including broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, those mini corn things, cilantro, and noodles)
Just last week, the headlines read "Woman Found Dead at McDonald's Food Processing Plant." Although this is a single headline, this is not an isolated incident. Meatpacking is now the most dangerous job in the United States. The injury rate in slaughterhouses is three times higher than the rate in a typical American factory. Every year, more than one-quarter of the meatpacking workers in this country (roughly 40,000 men & women) suffer an injury or work-related illness that requires medical attention beyond first aid. And, there is evidence that the official numbers, reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are an underestimate and that thousands of injuries go unreported.
Lacerations are the most common injury, but meatpacking workers also suffer from tendinitis, back problems, shoulder problems, carpal tunnel syndrome, and trigger finger (a finger becomes frozen in a curled position). The rate of these cumulative trauma injuries is much higher in the meatpacking industry than in any other industry. It is thirty-three times higher than the national average. Slaughterhouse workers make a knife cut every 2 or 3 seconds, adding up to about 10,000 cuts during an 8 hour shift, and placing repetitive pressure on the workers' joints, tendons, and nerves.
The speed of the assembly line is an accurate determinant for the number of injuries at a slaughterhouse. The original meatpacking plants slaughtered about 50 cows an hour. Twenty years ago, plants slaughtered about 175 cows an hour. Today, meatpacking plants slaughter about 400 cows an hour. One former nurse in a meatpacking plant said, "I could always tell the line speed by the number of people with lacerations coming into my office."
Workers desperate not to fall behind (and risk losing their job), are encouraged to take methamphetamine (often sold to them by their supervisors). The widespread use of "crank" in the meatpacking industry only makes an already very dangerous job even riskier.
Because most of the workers in slaughterhouses are recent immigrants, many illegal, they can be fired at any moment, without warning. They may have traveled long distances for this job, could have families to support, and are earning more than they could back home, so there is huge pressure not to complain, and not to report injuries. The annual bonuses for plant supervisors is often based on injury rates.
From a purely economic point of view, injured workers are a drain. They are less productive, so getting rid of them makes sense when there are plenty of available replacements. Injured workers are often given easy, yet unpleasant tasks, their wages are cut, and they are encouraged to quit. This causes non-visible injuries (hand pain, back pain) to go unreported and untreated.
____________________
Breakfast: Lots of cherries!
Lunch: Spinach burrito from California Tortilla (Spinach, black beans, rice, tomato, onion, cilantro)
Dinner: Tom Yum Veggie soup (Thai lemongrass soup full of veggies, including broccoli, carrots, cabbage, mushrooms, bean sprouts, those mini corn things, cilantro, and noodles)
Monday, May 18, 2009
Tweet Me!
It was suggested by multiple people that I post my blog updates to twitter for easier following. I've never tweeted before, but I'm going to try it out. All you twitterers can subscribe to me here: http://twitter.com/angiechappell.
Also, I keep getting asked, "If you don't eat meat, then what do you eat?" Well, I eat EVERYTHING ELSE! Our culture teaches us that meat must be the main dish at every meal, so it is hard for us to even conceive of an alternative. There are many other cultures around the world that eat heavily vegetarian diets and they seem to find plenty of options. To help give us Americans some ideas for meatless meals, I will begin to list what I ate (or plan to eat) that day at the bottom of each post. Just don't judge me for not eating breakfast.
____________________
Breakfast: A few pieces of cantaloupe
Lunch: Leftover gnocchi (it's like pasta, but made from potato) from Maggiano's... mmm.
Dinner: Tacos made with either black beans or meatless crumbles (found in your frozen aisle), topped with all the fixin's (lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, salsa verde, cheese). Lucky for me, I have some authentic hand-made tortillas from San Antonio (HEB Central Market) stockpiled in my freezer :)
Also, I keep getting asked, "If you don't eat meat, then what do you eat?" Well, I eat EVERYTHING ELSE! Our culture teaches us that meat must be the main dish at every meal, so it is hard for us to even conceive of an alternative. There are many other cultures around the world that eat heavily vegetarian diets and they seem to find plenty of options. To help give us Americans some ideas for meatless meals, I will begin to list what I ate (or plan to eat) that day at the bottom of each post. Just don't judge me for not eating breakfast.
____________________
Breakfast: A few pieces of cantaloupe
Lunch: Leftover gnocchi (it's like pasta, but made from potato) from Maggiano's... mmm.
Dinner: Tacos made with either black beans or meatless crumbles (found in your frozen aisle), topped with all the fixin's (lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, salsa verde, cheese). Lucky for me, I have some authentic hand-made tortillas from San Antonio (HEB Central Market) stockpiled in my freezer :)
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Food of the Pharaohs
I just got back from Egypt where the local cuisine was delicious! My favorite was Koshare which is a bowl of rice, noodles, lentils, carmelized onions, crushed tomatoes, and hot sauce.
I also enjoyed Fuul, which is a crushed up bean (similar to refried beans) served in a pita-like bread. And Fateer, which is a pastry-like dough stuffed with cheese and veggies (and/or meat), kind-of like an Egyptian pizza. 
Fresh-squeezed juices including mango, strawberry, and even banana juice, are available at all the restaurants and at juice shops, like the one below. 
In addition to the traditional Egyptian dishes mentioned above, the local cuisine had a heavy Mediterranean influence (after all, Egypt is on the Mediterranean sea), including hummus, babaganoush, yogurt, falafel, and other Mediterranean classics.
I also enjoyed Fuul, which is a crushed up bean (similar to refried beans) served in a pita-like bread. And Fateer, which is a pastry-like dough stuffed with cheese and veggies (and/or meat), kind-of like an Egyptian pizza. Fresh-squeezed juices including mango, strawberry, and even banana juice, are available at all the restaurants and at juice shops, like the one below. In addition to the traditional Egyptian dishes mentioned above, the local cuisine had a heavy Mediterranean influence (after all, Egypt is on the Mediterranean sea), including hummus, babaganoush, yogurt, falafel, and other Mediterranean classics.And of course, I could find all the basics I was used to, from pizzas and pastas to burgers and fries.
Friday, May 1, 2009
Chew On This
I'm going out of the country for 10 days and will not be posting while I'm gone, but stay tuned for the next edition!
In the meantime, chew on this:
The FDA allows 30 insect fragments and one rodent hair per 100 grams of peanut butter* (one jar is 400-500 grams).
Worcestershire sauce, the popular steak sauce, is made from dissolved anchovies. The anchovies are soaked in vinegar until they have completely melted. The sauce contains the bones and all.
In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.
Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton (sheep).
Celery has "negative calories". It takes more calories to digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
On average, it takes 345 squirts from a cow’s udder to yield one gallon of milk.
The diet now followed by the original actor who played Ronald McDonald in McDonald's child-oriented commercials: Vegetarian.
*For a full list of the amounts of rodent filth, insect filth, mold, and mammalian excreta allowed by the FDA, see http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dalbook.html.
In the meantime, chew on this:
The FDA allows 30 insect fragments and one rodent hair per 100 grams of peanut butter* (one jar is 400-500 grams).
Worcestershire sauce, the popular steak sauce, is made from dissolved anchovies. The anchovies are soaked in vinegar until they have completely melted. The sauce contains the bones and all.
In the United States, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes.
Since Hindus don't eat beef, the McDonald's in New Delhi makes its burgers with mutton (sheep).
Celery has "negative calories". It takes more calories to digest a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
On average, it takes 345 squirts from a cow’s udder to yield one gallon of milk.
The diet now followed by the original actor who played Ronald McDonald in McDonald's child-oriented commercials: Vegetarian.
*For a full list of the amounts of rodent filth, insect filth, mold, and mammalian excreta allowed by the FDA, see http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dalbook.html.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Knowledge Is Power
We live in a culture obsessed with food, yet we know so little about what we eat. We are so far removed from the source (the actual cows, or fields of grain) that of course we never consider where the Big Mac we're gobbling down came from, or what it contains.
My naive quest for the perfect diet led me into a world that had never before crossed my mind. As I learned more and more about where my food comes from, I became more and more fascinated with this process, of which consumers are so unaware.
I think it is important to know what you are putting into your body (and what your hard-earned money is paying for), so I am starting this blog to share information about the food we are consuming.
My naive quest for the perfect diet led me into a world that had never before crossed my mind. As I learned more and more about where my food comes from, I became more and more fascinated with this process, of which consumers are so unaware.
I think it is important to know what you are putting into your body (and what your hard-earned money is paying for), so I am starting this blog to share information about the food we are consuming.
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