Living Without Meat

Everyone has strong opinions about food, especially about produce with organic fruits and vegetables being more popular than ever. Some people look primarily for an organic sticker. Others are more concerned with their food being locally produces. But then there are those of us who care about it all. We want a little SOLE in our food choices: sustainable (sometimes written as seasonal), organic, local, ethical.

Apparently SOLE food is not a new concept - I can find references online to it more than a year back - but I just read about it today (even though I have been practicing it for much longer than this) in SELF Magazine while running on the treadmill at my gym.

All four are very important to me, with ethical being the top concern. How about you? Do you care about your food having SOLE? Do you look for food that is sustainable, organic, local, and ethical?

Baby carrots - Americans have all eaten them, sure, but how many of us know what it is that we are eating?

The original term for these bite-sized, peeled carrots was baby-cut carrots. They were created in the early 1980s when one farmer was trying to use produce that was normally thrown out. When full-sized carrots are deformed, starting to rot, or otherwise deemed unsellable, he began slicing them down using an industrial potato peeler and green bean cutter. This farmer’s new produce was sold as Bunny-Luv, a brand we still have today.

Baby carrots have also come to be harvested earlier than regular carrots, which helps thin out the plants and allow those left to have more room to grow. Some claim that early harvesting also gives carrots a sweeter flavor, smoother texture, and more tender bite. Many today are no longer whittled down ones, but are bred to be smaller, sweeter, and brighter orange. You can tell which style you are buying but whether they are labeled “baby” or “baby-cut.”

Without their skin, the carrots need a little something extra to help them stay fresh. All brands are washed in a chlorinated water that is similar to tap water. But some brands are given a second, stronger chlorine bath. Rumor says that the white film that baby carrots get after sitting in your fridge is a result of the chlorine, but this is not so. Any carrot will start to get this after being cut, baby ones are just more susceptible because they have been shaved all over.

As for the chlorine, it seems that baby carrots are getting unfair attention for their chlorine dip because they are not alone. Regular carrots and other fresh produce are also often washed in a chlorinated water. The concentrations are small compared to cleaning products, and are obviously approved for safe human consumption. This process is usually done by the manufacturer, so if you want to ensure that your veggies are chlorine free you should buy from local farmers, produce stands, and farmers’ markets.

This photo shown here is just one off the many reasons that I chose to ditch my gallon-a-week milk drinking habit about four years ago, just months after I first gave up eating meat. The calves in this photo are dead. They are rotting along side of the road and are covered in flies and other insects. These baby cows are not a rare occurrence. This happens daily in the dairy industry.

Calves are an inconvenient necessity in the milk production process, especially males. Any females born on a dairy farm may replace their mother, who is slaughtered when her productivity drops. They may also be shipped off and slaughtered for the rennet in their stomachs, a by-product that is used for cheese. Males have traditionally been shoved into veal crates and slaughtered for meat at a young age. In fact, the veal industry was born out of the dairy industry. But today, it often costs too much for farmers to crate and ship male calves and so alternatives are sought.

Calves are dumped “to avoid rendering costs or hauling them to auction”

But my reasons for switching from cow’s milk to soy don’t stop there. Hearing that cow’s milk contains pus and that it is bad for my health was enough to make sure that I am never tempted to return to my milk chugging days.

According to Milk Sucks, dairy products “contain no fiber or complex carbohydrates and are laden with saturated fat and cholesterol. They are contaminated with cow’s blood and pus and are frequently contaminated with pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics.” They have also been “linked to allergies, constipation, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.”

Soy milk doesn’t immediately take the place of cow’s milk on your taste buds, but eventually you will become accustomed to the flavor and will wonder how you ever drank such a think cream that is bad for you, cows, and the environment.

I am in week three of my training for a half marathon. I haven’t chosen a race yet: there is the ING Philadelphia run in September or the Philadelphia Marathon in November. Either way, my total goal is 13.1 miles and so far I am up to between four and five miles - a pretty good point to be at this early on.

But I have been running in cheap sneakers, which will certainly not help me reach my goal injury- and pain-free. So yesterday I splurged on new running gear (with a little monetary help from my dad).

I went to a local specialty store, Philadelphia Runner, and had a sales guy watch me walk and analyze my feet to recommend a few pairs. “Oh, and I’m vegan,” I added when he brought me six pairs, “so they need to be leather-free.”

He thought that would be a problem. Ha! He didn’t know off hand what any of the shoes were made of, but after examining them I found that all six were vegan! I also learned that apparently the universal symbols of shoe materials are not common knowledge. So please, let me share with you a little secret about reading shoe labels …

Universal Shoe Material Symbols

A picture that looks much like an animal hide means just that; this drawing means that the shoes contain leather. If there were a diamond inside of this bearskin rug, it would mean coated leather.

This crosspatch design represents fabric or textile. This is a symbol that you want to look for.

Then there is also the all encompassing diamond by itself that stands for “other materials.”

No, the system is not perfect. There is certainly room for some animal products to get classified as “other,” I am sure. But I try not to drive myself insane with worry over labels.

I am studying to become a certified group fitness instructor. At this point, I am reading through Fitness: Theory & Practice, the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America’s (AFAA) text book. As I was reading chapter 2, “Energy Production During Exercise,” I came across something very exciting to me as a vegan.

The book was explaining how there are three main things that your body can use to make energy: carbs, fats and protein. There were several pages about the body’s breaking down of carbs into energy, and another few about the process of breaking down fat. Then it came to the section on protein. There was only one paragraph, and here is how it started:

“Finally, a brief word about the use of protein as fuel is in order. Protein usually does not provide more than 10 to 15 percent of the total energy requirement of an activity. As such, protein does not play as significant role as carbohydrate or fat as a fuel for exercise. … It is obviously not advantageous to use this source for fuel during exercise.”

The paragraph goes on the put the difference between the three components into perspective. It says that one unit of carbohydrate can produce 38 units used for energy; one unit of fat, 147 units; and one unit of protein, a measly 15 units.

That’s one point for vegans and vegetarians in the great protein debate.

I haven’t received my free sample of Bragg Liquid Aminos yet, but Allie of Allie’s Answers left a great comment telling us about aminos since I have never tried them.

“I use Bragg Aminos as a soy sauce substitute since soy sauce has wheat in it,” she wrote. “It has a similar flavor.”

I have also determined that it is similar to tamari in that they are both gluten-free alternatives to soy sauce, and since I do have tamari in my fridge - and use it regularly on salads and in stir-fries - I don’t need any Bragg Aminos just yet. (But I still want to try it and see what all the fuss is about!)

While trying to learn more about the Bragg brand in general, I scoped out my gigantic bottle of apple cider vinegar and noticed a Christian fish with nothing more on or around it than simply “3 John 2.” Intrigued by a verse that I didn’t recognize, I looked up 3 John 2 in the Bible, New International Version:

“Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well.”

There is no mention of the fish or Bible verse anywhere on the Bragg’s Web site, but the site does make it very clear that the Bragg family has always been big believers of health and nutrition - click on the picture here to learn more about this.

Whether or not you are religious, I leave you with the words of 3 John 2: “I pray that you may enjoy good health.”

One of the many illogical responses when the topic turns to the vegetables is, “I used to be vegetarian, but my doctor told me I should stop.”

I always assumed this was bogus and just a case of average medical doctors, with no nutritional training or education, trying to encourage people to conform to the “norm.” I imagine that most docs that profess the veggie diet to be an unhealthy one are just mistaken and ill-informed. I doubt that they have deviously planned intentions to turn all vegetarians back into meat-eaters.

Veggie diets can be healthy or unhealthy, just as meat-based ones can be either. Jack Norris RD recently asked, “Are There Medical Conditions Requiring Animal Foods?“ And he subsequently answered, “there are some conditions which might make it difficult to eat a normal vegan diet, such as having herpes, being allergic or intolerant of soy or wheat, and having trouble absorbing iron.”

So next time someone tells you that they cannot medically be a vegetarian, ask if they are allergic. If not, assume that they have herpes.

As you watch the kids hunt for eggs. While you bite the head off of your chocolate rabbit. After you attend church during one of the busiest Sunday services of the year. During your family dinner … please, think of the bunnies.

“I should be the poster child for animal rights. I am slaughtered for my fur. I am slaughtered for my meat. I am factory farmed in rabbit mills. I am tortured by vivisectors in their ‘labs.’ I am the third most commonly ‘euthanized’ companion animal. I am hunted and snared. I am the object of blood sports. I am often cruelly abused. I am given as a live animal prize. I languish in pet stores. Why aren’t I?”
— Poster from RabbitWise, Inc., a rabbit advocacy organization.

As this quote from RabbitWise details, the rabbit is one of the most sought after animals. We kill him for his fur, his meat, his ability to take tests. We experiment on him, catch him in traps, skin him alive. We give him as a cute, cuddly gift, then get rid of him a few months later when we realize how much care he needs.

We take our kids to the mall to take their photo with a man dressed like him in a giant furry suit. But we never allow ourselves to think of the truth, to think of what life is like on a day-to-day basis for a rabbit.

As you enjoy your Easter holiday, I sincerely hope that you will also take a moment to look at the picture below and see what a rabbit’s life is like … Exploited, abused, farmed. Treated as an disposable thing. Killed for our beauty, our vanity, our selfishness.

Learn more about rabbits at the Encyclopedia Britannica’s Advocacy for Animals blog post “The Rabbit: ‘Poster Child’ for Animal Rights.” The post was originally from August, 2008. Thanks to Eccentric Vegan for finding and re-posting it today on Vegan Soapbox.

Make sure you are not contributing! If your clothing label includes “angora,” you are wearing rabbit fur. Many sweaters include percentages of this cruel wool - check the tag!

Just last Thursday I asked my friend if there was a difference between the dandelion greens that you buy in the grocery store and the ones that grow wild alongside every sidewalk in Philly. Her response? “The ones in the store probably don’t have dog pee on them.”

It seemed a logical question to me, and, unfortunately, a logical answer. But still, I can’t bring myself to pay for something that I pass by everyday.

Apparently I’m not the only one on this train of thought as the weather warms and the tasty plants start growing all around: The Best of Raw Food just posted “Wild Edible Plants”, a look at which wild plants are okay to eat and what considerations need to be taken. Check it out to learn about wild strawberries, dandelions, lambsquarters, nettle, clover, garlic mustards, daisies, greater plantains, and grasses.

Plenty of “duh!” research study results presented in the medical and vegan news worlds lately.

First up, it has been confirmed that meat and mortality are in fact related. (Let me here the resounding “duh,” my veg friends.) After studying more than half a million people, the medical team determined that “high intakes of red or processed meat may increase the risk of mortality.” Read the full scientific study report by clicking here.

Next we move to the animal realm to learn from Ireland’s Queen’s University that … get ready for this mind-blowing announcement … “crabs not only suffer pain but retain a memory of it.” And again, “duh!” Click here to read the BBC News article.

Even though these results offer no new knowledge to most compassionate people, it is certainly helpful to have scientists backing us up. Now hopefully these studies were all performed without any animal testing.

Eccentric Vegan compiled a great resource post, called “Dear Non-Vegans,” all about why meat, eggs, all other animal products are not healthy, humane, or environmentally friendly on Vegan Soapbox. I don’t often cross-post someone else’s writings, but this a very good list of information. So check it out:

10 billion land animals die every year for your unhealthy habits. In the US alone, 10 billion land animals are raised and killed for meat, eggs, and milk every year. For comparison’s sake: In the US, 3 to 4 million companion animals (pets) are killed in shelters every year.

Meat, eggs, and dairy are NOT healthy foods.
Proof:

• http://www.cancerproject.org/diet_cancer/facts/meat.php
• http://www.thechinastudy.com/PDFs/ChinaStudy_Excerpt.pdf
• http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/foodborneinfections_g.htm#mostcommon
• http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/20/131453/95

Meat, eggs, and dairy are NOT sustainable foods.
Proof:

• http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/fast-food-anoth.html
• http://www.fao.org/docrep/010/a0701e/a0701e00.htm
• http://www.sustainabletable.com/issues/factoryfarming/
• http://www.veganoutreach.org/whyvegan/environment.html
• http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/31673/title/It%E2%80%99s_the_meat_not_the_miles
• http://www.humanemyth.org/faq/1127.htm

Meat, eggs, and dairy are NOT humane foods:
Proof:

• http://meat.org/
• http://www.humanemyth.org/
• http://www.vegansoapbox.com/8-disturbing-animal-videos/

PLEASE stop making animals suffer for your unhealthy, unsustainable, cruel habits.

AFP, an independent news network, published this article today. I think it speaks for itself, so here it is as it appeared online.

Hamburgers are the Hummers of food in global warming: scientists

CHICAGO (AFP) — When it comes to global warming, hamburgers are the Hummers of food, scientists say.

Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week.

That’s because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada.

Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate.

By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for slaughter to the emissions released by manure, they are getting a clearer idea of the true costs of food.

The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit.

Even though beef only accounts for 30 percent of meat consumption in the developed world it’s responsible for 78 percent of the emissions, Pelletier said Sunday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

That’s because a single kilogram of beef produces 16 kilograms carbon dioxide equivalent emissions: four times higher than pork and more than ten times as much as a kilogram of poultry, Pelletier said.

If people were to simply switch from beef to chicken, emissions would be cut by 70 percent, Pelletier said.

Another part of the problem is people are eating far more meat than they need to.

“Meat once was a luxury in our diet,” Pelletier said. “We used to eat it once a week. Now we eat it every day.”

If meat consumption in the developed world was cut from the current level of about 90 kilograms a year to the recommended level of 53 kilograms a year, livestock related emissions would fall by 44 percent.

“Given the projected doubling of (global) meat production by 2050, we’re going to have to cut our emissions by half just to maintain current levels,” Pelletier said.

“Technical improvements are not going to get us there.”

That’s why changing the kinds of food people eat is so important, said Chris Weber, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania.

Food is the third largest contributor to the average US household’s carbon footprint after driving and utilities, and in Europe - where people drive less and have smaller homes - it has an even greater impact.

“Food is of particular importance to a consumer’s impact because it’s a daily choice that is, at least in theory, easy to change,” Weber said.

“You make your choice every day about what to eat, but once you have a house and a car you’re locked into that for a while.”

The average US household contributes about five tons of carbon dioxide a year by driving and about 3.5 tons of equivalent emissions with what they eat, he said.

“Switching to no red meat and no dairy products is the equivalent of (cutting out) 8,100 miles driven in a car … that gets 25 miles to the gallon,” Weber said in an interview following the symposium.

Buying local meat and produce will not have nearly the same effect, he cautioned.

That’s because only five percent of the emissions related to food come from transporting food to market.

“You can have a much bigger impact by shifting just one day a week from meat and dairy to anything else than going local every day of the year,” Weber said.

For more information on how to eat a low carbon diet, visit www.eatlowcarbon.org

.

I strive to learn something new every day. Here’s what I learned today …

It’s becoming quite the trend nowadays for government officials, environment-related offices, and other departments striving to help make their community “green” to send out a public plea for people to eat less meat.

The Office of Environmental Quality in Cincinnati, Ohio, released a Green Cincinnati Action Plan that recommended encouraging reduced meat consumption among individuals and institutions. Read the full report.

Germany’s federal environment agency is strongly urging citizens to reduce their meat intake to only one meal per week, just as it was during the depression. The agency suggests having meat as a treat during Sunday dinner, as it was also once popular to do. Read more about Germany’s story.

The Chicago, Illinois, health commissioner, Dr. Terry Mason, is challenging his city to join in him in consuming a meat-free diet for the fourth consecutive year. Usually he suggests eating completely vegetarian for the month of January. This year, however, he plans to make it a personal health change for himself! Read an article about this.

The United Kingdom’s government, including the National Health Service, has pledged to reduce British greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050, and has reported that having a meat-free day each week is the biggest contribution people could make. In support of a more plant-based diet, hospitals are increasing their vegetarian options. Read about the U.K.’s suggestion.

Isn’t this fascinating? I love seeing such strong governmental support for vegetarianism! If you’d like to see a similar cause in your area, consider writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper urging your local government to do the same. Click on the picture to learn more about how meat negatively effects the environment.

One of my favorite pieces of animal rights campaign paraphernalia is a small white sheet of paper, measuring 8 1/2″ by 8″, that comes include in some Humane Society mailings. The page is almost completely blank, save a short statement printed in bold, red ink in the middle of one side:

“Imagine a full grown chicken being raised for an entire lifetime in a space even smaller than this piece of paper.

My friend, I am not exaggerating when I tell you factory farms overcrowd hens in battery cages too small for them to even spread their wings.”

I love that it is a tangible, non-gory visual that proves a point and makes you think without playing up the shock factor. You don’t always have to show someone a starving, sickly mess of chickens crammed into cages to help them understand what life is like on factory farms.