Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Oprah goes vegan

Oprah Winfrey is one of the most influential media figures in the country, so it’s exciting to learn that she is trying a cleansing diet that eliminates all animal products (as well as caffeine, alcohol, sugar and gluten) for three weeks.

Oprah is blogging about her experiences on the diet. As she writes in one entry, “Wow, wow, wow! I never imagined meatless meals could be so satisfying. I had been focused on what I had to give up…. ‘What’s left?’ I thought. Apparently a lot. I can honestly say every meal was a surprise and a delight….”

This could open a lot - a lot - of people’s minds to veganism.

And it can give current vegetarians some great ideas.The site about the diet includes menu plans and a few recipes. Black-bean cakes with Lime Peppered “Mayo” is on my must-make list.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Test-tube steak?

By now you may have heard about PETA’s offer of a $1 million prize to the first scientist able to successfully grow and market lab-grown chicken.

“In-vitro” meat is grown in a laboratory rather than in an animal. The idea has been around a long time. Winston Churchill predicted in 1932 that in the future “we shall escape the absurdity of growing a whole chicken in order to eat the breast or wing by growing these parts separately under a suitable medium,” according to an article in Satya magazine. But it has been getting more attention lately as the technology becomes closer to reality, and with PETA’s announcement.

Response has been all over the spectrum, ranging from enthusiasm about the possibility for in-vitro meat to substantially reduce the suffering of farmed animals, to disgust at the thought of eating flesh even if no animals were killed. Even within PETA, the idea sparked a “near civil war,” according to a New York Times article.

There’s not a lot new that I can add to the discussion, except for one small angle that I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere else. That is the possibility of using lab-grown meat in pet foods. Because cats are carnivorous by nature, the possibility of feeding them a vegetarian or vegan diet is quite controversial. I would love to feed my three cats a cruelty-free diet, but am not willing to risk their health. So I continue to feed them animal-based pet foods despite my qualms. I would welcome the day that lab-grown meat could solve that problem.

Readers, do you see any way that lab-grown meat might improve your future?

Friday, May 16, 2008

Greek Festival ‘08, Veggie Times survey

This weekend is the annual Greek Festival, one of my favorite events in Winston-Salem. What I wrote about it last year still stands, except the veggie plate is now $8—you can read the post here. I’ve been happy to see it become more friendly to vegetarians over the many years I’ve been to it. I remember having to negotiate a vegetable plate for a few years—the people were friendly but slightly flummoxed with the request and unsure what to charge. Then they progressed to having a number to put on your tray to show you were getting a veggie plate. And the past few years, they’ve actually posted the veggie plate on the menu. Progress! It’s my dream to one year go and be presented with the glory of a vegetarian moussaka.

------

Vegetarian Times recently released a survey about Vegetarianism in America. Among the findings:

*3.2 percent of U.S. adults, or 7.3 million people, follow a vegetarian-based diet. Approximately 0.5 percent, or 1 million, of those are vegan.

*59 percent of vegetarians are female; 41 percent are male.

*42.0 percent are age 18 to 34 years old; 40.7 percent are 35 to 54; and 17.4 percent are over 55. 

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

No taste for cruelty

May is National Egg Month; so the group Compassion Over Killing decided that it would be a good idea “to put a compassionate spin on this month-long industry-declared holiday.” So it is conducting a ”Crack the Cruelty” campaign to urge people to choose egg-free foods.

Even people who understand why vegetarians would avoid meat because it involves killing animals often wonder why vegans also avoid eggs and dairy, which don’t require killing the animals.
The sad truth is that the “factory farm” style production of any animal product involves an almost incomprehensible level of cruelty to the animals while they are alive. And then their lives end in the slaughterhouse anyway.

More than 95 percent of the eggs sold in the United States are laid by hens crowded into battery cages so small that they cannot even stretch their wings. According to Compassion Over Killing’s report on ”Animal Suffering in the Egg Industry” these cages give each hen an average of 59 square inches of living space — an area little larger than half a sheet of typing paper. I could go on, but there are many Web sites that tell the story better than I can.

For example United Poultry Concerns has a wealth of information on Battery Hens. Its page on the “Life of one Battery Hen” begins with a touching poem that I will use as an ending:

“Sound of a Battery Hen”

You can tell me: if you come by the
North door, I am in the twelfth cage
On the left-hand side of the third row
From the floor; and in that cage
I am usually the middle one of eight or six or three.
But even without directions, you’d
Discover me. We have the same pale
Comb, clipped yellow beak and white or auburn
Feathers, but as the door opens and you
Hear above the electric fan a kind of
One-word wail, I am the one
Who sounds loudest in my head.

Friday, May 09, 2008

Sage Vegetarian Cafe

I finally got the opportunity last week to eat at Sage Vegetarian Cafe in Chapel Hill. It’s a place I’ve long wanted to try but hadn’t had a chance to. I’m happy to report that it was excellent! It’s always a thrill to be able to order anything on the menu. I might not always want to order everything, but I could. Sage’s menu isn’t expansive, but it has a nice variety.

We started with a mezze platter, which changes daily but always includes hummus and pitas. We also got stuffed grape leaves (I’m not usually a big fan, but these were excellent), pasta salad and a Persian potato dish that was unusual and yummy, with flavors of the Middle East.

And the sweet iced tea! We all agreed that it was some of the best we’ve ever had, infused with jasmine and cardamom for an exotic, refreshing treat that the waiter kept having to refill and refill and refill for us.

All three of us ended up ordering the same entree, Fesen-Joon, which the menu described as “A Persian classic. Sweet and sour flavors of pomegranate juice, ground walnuts and herbs blended with grilled tempeh, served with basmati-saffron rice [you could substitute brown rice, which I did] and a side of shirazi [a tomato-cucumber salad].” It was a bit of a shame that we didn’t each try different things so we could share, but we all agreed that the Fesen-Joon was so fabulous, if only one of us had gotten it, the others would have had excruciating food envy. It was rich and filling, and the flavors of the walnuts and pomegranate shone through.

There are other delicious-sounding items on the menu—Bud-m-Joon ("eggplant paradise with tomato, split peas, saffron, sauteed onions, hint of cinnamon and other spices"), a vegetable kabob and soy chicken cutlets in a mild coconut curry and mushroom sauce—but I’m not sure I could NOT order the Fesen-Joon the next time I visit. It was that good and different.

There are also sandwiches and wraps available for lunch, and the menu clearly marks which items are vegan or have vegan options available. Sage is at the Timberlyne Shopping Center on Weaver Dairy Road.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Burger ratings

In its June 2008 issue, Consumer Reports taste-tests veggie burgers, and the news is good: “Our trained testers tried 12 leading veggie burgers, discovering 10 that are very good and two with flavor and texture issues.”

Although the complete ratings are available only in the magazine or to subscribers online, an overview of what Consumer Reports found is available online here.

The top pick is Morningstar Farms Garden Veggie Patties. However, vegans should note that this burger contains egg whites. Happily, my usual vegan burger, Boca’s Original, ranked among the 10 “very good” burgers

Bizarro World

Cartoonist Dan Piraro, the creator of the comic strip Bizarro, is also a vegan and a humor columnist for VegNews magazine. One section of his Web site is devoted to Animal Stuff, such as “Why I’m Vegan” and a “Talking Pig Video” that illustrates the physical differences between carnivorous and herbivorous animals…. Altogether, it’s an interesting world to explore.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Taking on Anthony Bourdain

I should hate Anthony Bourdain. He hates me—or would, if I ever met him and the subject of my eating habits came up. In his book Kitchen Confidential, Bourdain writes that “Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, and an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.” He also calls vegans a “Hezbollah-like splinter faction.”

So, yeah, we’re not exactly on the same wave-length when it comes to food, to put it mildly. Yet I still find myself somewhat amused by his persistent bad attitude, chain-smoking crankiness and penchant for oh-so-witty insults. (He once told a contestant on Bravo’s Top Chef that his lobster had “the consistency of doll head.") Of course, this amusement is no doubt helped because I only see him occasionally on television. I’m sure continued exposure would wear away my amused tolerance quite quickly.

A new vegan blog has sprung up in response to Bourdain’s remarks about vegans: Hezbollah Tofu. Its purpose, besides snarking about Bourdain, is to veganize the very unvegan recipes from his Les Halles Cookbook, then sell the compiled recipes and donate the profits to vegan outreach organizations and farm sanctuaries in Bourdain’s name. They’ve already tackled some of the mainstays of French cooking, such as french onion soup and creme brulee. No starting out with the easy stuff!

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Eating for the Earth

Today is Earth Day, so it’s a good time to consider again just how very environmentally friendly it is to go veg. FARM (the Farm Animal Rights Movement) has a campaign called “Stop Global Warming … One Bite at a Time” with a Web site at www.coolyourdiet.org that provides a convenient place to learn such facts as:
* “Animal agriculture produces more greenhouse gas emissions than automobiles”;
* “Animal waste and feed cropland dump more pollutants into our waterways than all other human activities combined”;
* “Meat-based diets require 10-20 times as much land as plant-based diets.”

In addition to pointing out the problem, FARM makes the solution easy by providing starter kits and other information that make it simple and healthy to go veg. Most vegetarian groups make such information readily available. But, puzzlingly, many environmental groups do not. PETA takes a humorous approach to this by urging people to “Offset Al Gore’s Eco-Unfriendly Diet” by taking a pledge: “I want to eat better, feel better, and help offset the damage that Al Gore is doing to the environment by eating meat. By signing my name, I pledge to explore a vegetarian diet for at least 30 days, which will prevent more than 270 pounds of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the Earth’s atmosphere.”

Friday, April 18, 2008

Green gatherings

Saturday is the Piedmont Environmental Alliance’s third Earth Day Fair. There will be talks, tastings, merchants, demonstrations and a lot of other good stuff. I went last year and enjoyed it immensely. You can read more about the day’s lineup here. Among the guests will be Wanda Urbanska of PBS TV’s Simple Living and singer Martha Bassett. Right now they’re calling for showers on Saturday—I hope they hold off!

The actual Earth Day is Tuesday. If you’d like to do something special to mark the day, Earth911.org has a list of suggestions, as does Durham’s city page. You can also get an evironmental tip of the day via e-mail from the EPA.

This handy site lets you search for Earth Day events within 5 to 250 miles of your home. (The link will show you events within 100 miles of Winston-Salem—hover over the bottom for links to subsequent pages.)

Earth Day also marks the day when Whole Foods is aiming to rid all its checkout lanes of plastic bags.

*If you’re looking for a more vegetarian-focused event, Vegetarian Summerfest, the North American Vegetarian Society’s annual conference, will be held June 18-22 in Johnstown, Penn. It will feature lots of speakers and educational sessions. You can find out more at the conference’s Web site.