remember this?

Oh boy. Remember these pictures from the London Science Centre?

Turns out there's some activity on the meat-for-energy front! Check out this article about Tesco's new ideas about converting meat to electricity. Warning: not safe for vegetarians... but better for the environment than wasting meat meant for eating, right?

On another note, Tesco really seems to be doing some cutting-edge (for a grocery store) things so I'd hate for squeamishness about this particular issue to take away from the good. Although they are a UK chain, they have opened a string of markets in California, Nevada, and Arizona (Fresh & Easy, anyone?) in borderline/low-income areas that sell inexpensive produce and "whole" foods for those of us on a tight budget. What they sell isn't always "organic," but is sure a heck-of-a-lot better and more well-intentioned than other chains that love the low-income neighborhoods.

Just sayin'.

quick, get some good meat now

if you can afford to, eat some good meat now! prices on higher-quality cuts of meat have dropped, as demand has fallen. in this fun economic downturn, many people are turning to cheaper ground meat or lower quality cuts.

so, why not opt to spend a few more dollars on a tastier cut of meat and just eat a little less of it? then everyone wins-- those people who want you to eat less meat, and you, the lucky one with the yummier steak!

also, if you want an insider look into the world of meat, check out this fact-filled site--

cattlefax

bizarre to see statistics like "daily livestock slaughter" and "national direct hog price comparison."

sustainability: the carnivore vs. the veggie

regarding the fois gras controversy:
(perhaps this is old news, but i don't know much about it, so maybe you don't either!)

"Food morality is not as black and white as we like to believe: it's possible to raise animals sustainably and it's possible to raise vegetables unsustainably. Neither side has a monopoly."

"Working to ban something that 99% of people never eat is not an act requiring great moral or physical courage...it's a confidence game in which participating meat-eaters, by agreeing to condemn something that they don't care about, receive the equivalent of a get-out-of-jail card, i.e., the right to feel slightly less guilty as they bite into that factory-farmed McNugget. Guilt and moral superiority are tradable currencies; the anti-foie gras camp exploits this to the hilt."

"If someone really wants to make a difference in the world...start with the fact that more than 12 million children here in the United States live in households where there is risk of hunger or malnutrition every day."

i think that the above-referenced essay makes some very valid points, but i tend to steer away from the moral relativism camp (in theory, at least!). just because mcchickens are grown by the millions and by comparison, very, very few ducks are subjected to gavage* doesn't make the process any less questionable. but questionable is what it is. when any animal is raised and slaughtered for food, there is pain involved. it is just the cycle of life. eat or die!


*gavage refers the use of a funnel inserted into the duck's esophagus to force-feed grain to the duck over the final 15-21 days of its life. those who oppose gavage assert that the ducks choke, vomit, and suffer greatly because of this process.


and here's some sad duck clip art, just to add some, er, red eye to your day.

"stop that, i'm allergic to grain!!"

lady butcher vs. soy protein

alternate title: keep soy out of my meat!

you can get adequate nutrition while on a vegetarian diet by eating the right combinations of grains, legumes, and dairy products, which is why i had to revert back to my carnivorous ways when i began developing and discoving my food allergies. my conclusion is that fermented soy (tempeh, miso, etc.) on occasion isn't a bad addition to any diet, but a diet dependant on soy for protein is not ideal-- especially for women and children. if you are choosing vegetarianism, please don't be lazy about it. all of the processed, packaged vegetarian food options may look like a fun and easy way to eliminate meat from your diet and be "healthier," but think about these things--

• soy has one of the highest amounts of pesticides of any food we eat
• over 90% of soy is genetically modified
• soy may speed up the aging of brain cells
• increased soy consumption disrupts hormone balance, often disrupting women's menstrual cycles*
• babies on soy formula receive the estrogenic equivalent of at least 5 birth control pills per day
• soy has been linked to countless thyroid problems such as hypothyroidism in women, and in asian countries that eat large amounts of soy, rates of thyroid cancer are staggering
• soy is the primary ingredient in many processed foods
• and, since the government started subsidising soy farming in 1998 (nearly 70% of soy profits are from the government), soy production has raised 25%, resulting in soy being crammed in everything from hamburgers to bread

(sources: www.cnn.com, www.westonaprice.org/soy/birthcontrolbabies.html)

*refers to unfermented soy products

and for people like myself with allergies, it is quite bothersome that soy has found its way into the american diet just like corn has-- as an additive to nearly every processed food product, even many meats! in fact, there have been several reported allergy-related deaths linked to soy in unsuspecting meat products. so, think about that next time you order your late-night 2 for $1 tacos...

*not vegetarian as sometimes speculated, soy is actually the third ingredient in a j-box taco, behind beef and water.

so, do your research. here are a couple of places to start.
is soy healthy?
the whole soy story

further thoughts on post-vegetatianism

"...I can't claim I felt emotionally neutral as I took these creatures in my hands, my fingers registering downy softness and a vulnerable heartbeat. I felt maternal, while at the same time looking straight down the pipe toward the purpose of this enterprise. These babies were not pets. I know this is a controversial point, but in our family we'd decided if we meant to eat anything, meat included, we'd be more responsible tenants of our food chain if we could participate in the steps that bring it to the table. We already knew a lot of dying went into our living: the animals, the plants in our garden, the beetles we pull off our bean vines and crunch underfoot, the weeds we rip off the potato hills. Plants have the karmic advantage of creating their own food out of pure air and sunlight, whereas we animals, lacking green chlorophyll in our skin, must eat something some formerly living things every single day. You can leave the killing to others and pretend it never happened, or you can look it in the eye and know it. I would never presume to make that call for anyone else, but for ourselves we'd settled on a strategy of giving our food a good life until it was good on the table..."

-barbara kingsolver in animal, vegetable, miracle

now everything can taste like bacon

now, if this was really about bacon, you know i'd be for it.
but no, this is bacon salt, a bacon-free, kosher, vegetarian way to make everything taste like bacon. i'd like to say that i'm happy for all of the diet-restricted bacon lovers out there, but really, why not just eat the bacon? i'll let you investigate the ingredients for yourself- they are a bit tricky to find.
and yes, they are also the proud makers of baconnaise.

therapy: a backstory.

i always thought it was a scam; some sort of excuse for being picky or weak or just plain scared. i still don't have it figured out, but i guess that's why i'm working through it now.

when i was young, i ate whatever i wanted. i will clarify-- i ate whatever my parents made. they made everything from scratch and shopped at co-ops and farmers' markets-- not exclusively, but often. my dad ran the sound system for ethnic festivals at hart plaza in detroit when i was young and at the end of the festivals, vendors would toss cases of food. my wonderfully resourceful dad saw it as a great opportunity and would bring home ethiopian food, indian, thai and greek before it was available on every corner, enough to feed an army! some of my most vivid childhood memories were grudgingly eating curried eggs behind the door in the corner of the living room... and the day my dad came home with a case of brussel sprouts and turned them into soup. vats of the lumpy green stuff seemed to fill the freezer for months. i can still taste it! i was made fun of for my pesto pizza in elementry school, a result of a case of wilting basil and several smoking blenders.

so how did i get here? eating an organic banana and brown rice cake (ingredients: brown rice, salt. gluten- and wheat-free.) and looking forward to my plain buffalo burger i'm planning for lunch? i decided to stop eating meat my junior year of college while studying abroad in ireland. it was my first time living on my own and since i didn't eat much meat and honestly, raw chicken is just icky, i thought, why not? i'll cut out meat for a while and see how i feel. i knew how to make complete proteins with whole grains, beans, and dairy. i grew up eating tofu, drinking chai with soy milk. i woundn't live off of pasta and potato chips or fake vegetarian bacon, i would be healthy. i looked into the big brown eyes of the cow that lived across the street and promised it i would not eat it or its family members anymore. and so it went, for six years.

i don't know what to blame it on-- overconsumption of processed soy products and nuts, stress, not enough variety in my diet (hey, i was single and making $11/hour!), or simply a cycle my body went through, but two years ago, i just started rejecting all sorts of foods. i began to cough to the point of choking after meals; my breathing was strained and my throat tight. then one night, after a dinner of almonds, cashews, cheese, and dried papaya, my body had had enough. my stomach wretched and throat tightened. i took a handful of benedryl and had my roommate drive me to urgent care. but having no medical insurance,we just sat in the waiting room for a couple of hours, finally deciding that if i didn't get worse, i would just pay $90 to go to a clinic in the morning instead of $500 for the emergency room.

after that, i stopped eating nuts, but the mild-to-moderate symptoms didn't subside. most days, i would cough, feel my throat tightening, my tongue buzzing, aching, and going numb. i thought i was going crazy. i didn't want to be alone. i remember one night my roommate and my boyfriend were both out of town, so i drove to a 24-hour store at midnight and wandered around for hours because i wanted someone to find me if i keeled over.

a few months later, my boyfriend fudged some paperwork and added me to his health insurance so i could have allergy testing. at the point of my first appointment, i had lost about fifteen pounds and was completely confused. my doctor wanted to put me on anxiety medication, but that seemed wrong. he did a blood test and called me at 7am the next day. "well, it looks like you have some allergies," he said. then he proceeded to list off nuts, peanuts, beans (yes, that means coffee! chocolate! vanilla!), wheat, soy, corn, oats, eggs, trees, flowers.. you know, food! air! life! "you had asthma as a child, right?" he asked. no! i didn't!!! then he hung up.

i immediately made an appointment with an allergist for more extensive testing and for the next few weeks, at spinach, tomatoes and cheese. the prick test from the allergist confirmed everything that my first doctor found, and that i also should stay away from pineapple, grapefruit, and spinach! now, i was really at a loss. i immediately started eating meat again, starting with chicken and beef broth and slowly adding more, but my weight kept falling. i went to my regular doctor every week for the next month, but he was unconcerned as he watched my weight drop to 114 (i'm five-foot-eight) and told me that i could survive on cheese. my throat was feeling a bit better, but i barely had the energy to get out of bed! i saw ear, nose, and throat specialists and the allergist a few more times, but the solution seemed to be to take a daily allergy pill, carry and epi-pen, and avoid what bothered me.

at that time, eating meat again was not a choice, it was a matter of survival. but in the following months, i started to question my relationship with food. maybe vegetarianism wasn't as healthy as i had thought. maybe i didn't enter into it for the right reasons (laziness? fear of cooking it improperly and getting sick? sadness for cows?). all i knew was that if i ate even a few bites of meat, i immediately felt strong and healthy. what i was questioning was the quality of the meats available to the average american. lunch meat was not an option. everything had fillers that i was avoiding-- various starches, corn syrup, etc. products containing nitrates just seemed wrong. i never wanted to be in a bag about food, but i became an obsessive label-reader and never ate out. it has taken a long time for me to enjoy food again, and i'm finding new excitement in bacon, lamb, really good steaks, and pots of soup with homemade stocks, vegetables, and rice. maybe these are the foods i should have been eating in the first place!

needless to say, i love food. i love cooking and baking and i want my food to be the best. i need you to tell me my cookies are better than the rest, to ask me for my recipes so i can tilt my head and say "hmm..? i just.. made it," with faux modesty. but i've always known that the secret to good food is good ingredients. margerine, processed white sugar, and imitation vanilla will not make good cookies. i cook for others all of the time, even though i can't eat much of what i make. it isn't accurate for me to think that i'd be entering into the butchering world as a masochist-- just the opposite, really. i want to provide people with healthy, happy meats, foods that i can have a hand in preparing and consume myself! i wouldn't be a trustworthy baker if i'd never tasted my breads, i'd be a mediocre dessert chef without sampling my pies! but i can learn how good meat looks, feels, and smells, how the animals are raised and slaughtered, the best way to butcher the meat, and innovative methods of preparation-- and i can participate in the feast that results! perhaps the best way to take care of animals is to feed them well, let them roam free, and then responsibly use them for meat.

i know my story is not unique, but perhaps it provides an unexpected backstory to my inspiration. i will try not to be so long winded and humorless in the future.