WTF: The Tapeworm Diet

“Darling, you look fabulous! What’s your secret?””

“Well, I’ll tell you… I swallowed a tapeworm and I’ve never been thinner!”

Allowing a disgusting parasite that can reach up to 25 feet long to grow inside your intestines isn’t exactly a reasonable way to lose weight. Yet, the Tapeworm Diet exists, and who else but Tyra Banks featured it on her circus of a talk show on Monday, exposing this vomitous idea to millions of people across the country.

From Ecorazzi:

According to Diet Review, “[The Tapeworm] secretes proteins in our intestinal tract that make our digestion of food much less efficient. A less efficient digestive systems means that you can consume more calories through your food since your “body guest” is also noshing on them for his own growth purposes. Some scientists estimate that those infected with a single tapeworm can lose up to one or two pounds each week.”

Healthy eating? Blah. Exercise? Who needs it! Just swallow a parasite and continue hitting KFC for lunch and dinner. Tyra even had a guy on that sells the worms over the Internet; despite an FDA ban on the practice. Said one woman on Twitter, “I’m still undecided on Tyra Banks’ Tapeworm diet. I don’t know if its a great or just plain ridiculous.” Undecided? What the hell is wrong with people?

And Tyra actually found two women who said they were willing to ingest a tapeworm to lose weight, despite the risks. You might ask, “Who are these people?” But, hey, this is America.

It might sound like some kind of hoax, but it’s for real – check out the comments at Diets in Review. Some of them are clearly tongue-in-cheek (and the diet has an unlikely 52% approval rating), but there are also commenters asking for information on where to get a tapeworm they can swallow. Amazing.

Link [Ecorazzi]

Support OrganicNation.tv’s Bid for NAU’s Grant for Change

Exciting news – OrganicNation.tv has been nominated for NAU’s Grant for Change! The $10,000 award will highlight the efforts of people who move in the spirit of the Nau Collective and support those who instigate lasting, positive change in their communities – and there’s no doubt that the Organic Nation team accomplishes that goal.

Support OrganicNation.tv by heading over to the NAU Grant for Change site and voting! Here’s why:

As obesity and diabetes rates climb and farming techniques continue to pollute the air and water, it is crucial to educate young Americans about their food options. This fall, OrganicNation.tv will continue building awareness on and offline to empower young people about issues of food safety, nutrition and sustainable farming.

On the heels of their successful West Coast KickOff Tour, Dorothee Royal-Hedinger and Mark Andrew Boyer will embark on journey across the U.S. Traveling from California to Maine, they will gather and share stories from farmers, urban gardeners, activists and chefs and address issues like: “How can farming be sustainable?” “Is organic food more nutritious than conventional food?” “Can organic food feed the world?” This project will be formed into a free educational toolkit for use in 8th and 9th grade classrooms, empowering the next generation to build a sustainable nation.

Here’s how to vote:

1) Go to: https://www.nau.com/za/NAU?PAGE=register&nextpage=grant-for-change and register
2) Sign in with email address and password you registered with in step 1 here: https://www.nau.com/za/NAU?PAGE=login&nextpage=grant-for-change
3) Vote for us by giving us 5 stars (or however many you want) here: http://www.nau.com/collective/grant-for-change/dorothee-royal-hedinger-and-mark-andrew-boyer-482.html

You’ve got to drop by OrganicNation.tv to check out all the awesome video content and blog entries, including photos of America’s first certified-organic rooftop farm and an interview with an organic brewmaster. OrganicNation.tv’s hard work brings the everyday wonders of sustainable food into sharp focus, giving us all an inside view of how sustainable food systems are created across the country.

Link [NAU Grant for Change] + [OrganicNation.tv]

Green Upgrader Takes on Monsanto ‘Facts’

The documentary ‘Food Inc.’ is taking the world by storm, unveiling the truth about industrial food production in America. Filmmaker Robert Kenner actually set out to tell the story from the points of view of both organic farmers and industrial food growers, but the big companies like Perdue, Tyson and of course Monsanto wouldn’t talk to him or let their production practices be filmed.

Ironically, Monsanto is now railing against the ‘biased, one-sided’ nature of the documentary with a list of supposed ‘facts’ on their website.

From Monsanto via Green Upgrader:

“Food, Inc. is a one-sided, biased film that the creators claim will “lift the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that’s been hidden from the American consumer.” Unfortunately, Food, Inc. is counter-productive to the serious dialogue surrounding the critical topic of our nation’s food supply.

“Throughout this film, Food, Inc.:

• Demonizes American farmers and the agriculture system responsible for feeding over 300 million people in the United States.
• Presents an unrealistic view of how to feed a growing nation while ignoring the practical demands of the American consumer and the fundamental needs of consumers around the world.
• Disregards the fact that multiple agriculture systems should – and do – coexist.  ”

GreenUpgrader takes issue with these claims:

“Food, Inc. demonizes American farmers.”  Not once in the movie do they vilify, demonize or wag their finger at a single farmer.  They interview a number of famers and illustrate how corperations like Monsanto, Perdue and Cargill have systematically victimized and bullied farmers large and small.  They go on to say “The film, Food. Inc, suggests the food supply is dominated by corporate farms.”  Also not true, the film suggests that corperations, like Monsanto dominate the food supply, in a large part becasue of the dominion they hold over family farms.

“Food, Inc. presents an unrealistic view of how to feed a growing nation.”  Monsanto would like everyone to believe that there is a shortage of food but that simply isn’t the case.  In fact we produce enough food to put it in our car’s gas tanks, have the most obese people in the world and be one of the largest agricultural exporters in the world.  Furthermore, sustainable agriculture does not mean every farm has to be a tiny backyard garden.  Large commercial farms can farm sustainably and efficiently.

Read the rest over at GreenUpgrader.

Food, Inc. is now playing in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Link [GreenUpgrader]

Should We Adapt Our Diets to Eat Overpopulated Species?

We’ve heard it before: eat squirrels, kangaroo or [insert overpopulated species here] to aid ecological balance and reduce our reliance on harmful factory farming. Now, Grist is asking whether we should add jellyfish to our diet as well. The stinging ocean creatures are showing up in larger numbers, earlier in the year and in more places than ever before.

Warmer waters help jellyfish grow faster and reproduce better, and overfishing leaves jellyfish with fewer predators and fewer competitors. That means tons of jellyfish out there, prime for your dinner plate.

From Grist:

If we don’t start building back the health of our marine ecosystems, we may need to start fishing for things that we never imagined. A jellyfish burger and fries may not seem so appetizing to your average American seafood lover, but the notion isn’t too far off. The Chinese have eaten jellyfish for over a thousand years. In Asia, these slippery snacks can fetch ten to twelve dollars a pound wholesale.

Culinary preferences aside, the increase of jellyfish in our ocean is indicative of a much larger problem. Our ocean is sick, and struggling to keep up with the ever-increasing demands for seafood.

It does make sense that, in these times of climate change and threatened food shortages, we humans become more adaptive and eat what is plentiful instead of continuing to rely on foods that diminish marine life diversity and cause further climate change.

Westerners in particular have gotten far too accustomed to getting whatever we prefer to eat, regardless of the impact on wildlife and the earth. Americans practically consider it their birthright to enjoy an endless supply of burgers, chicken and fish, no matter the cost.

Of course, it wouldn’t be too surprising to see people get attached to a certain overpopulated species and continue to seek it out after numbers have gotten under control, creating a potentially bigger problem. We Americans, always causing trouble one way or another.

Link [Grist]
Photo credit: The Guardian via Treehugger

Book Review: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto

Anyone interested in learning about the impact that our food choices have on the environment has probably read and enjoyed The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. It’s the kind of life-altering read that has the power to inspire people to make drastic, permanent changes to their habits for their own health and for the greater good. So, it’s no surprise that Pollan’s latest book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto is also poised to be highly influential on public attitudes about what we consume.

As American citizens in particular have gotten fatter and less healthy, marketers have picked up on a huge money machine: the diet food industry. We’ve had it pounded into our heads that carbs are bad, fats make you fat and even fruit should be shunned because of the sugar content. Instead, we’re told, we should eat processed, pre-packaged ‘food’ that is conveniently devoid of all of these so-called ‘bad’ substances – but also lacking nutrition.

It’s easy to get confused about which foods are healthy and which aren’t. The conventional wisdom leads people to seek out low-carb specialty items and fat-free dairy. But, consuming all of these processed ‘health foods’ isn’t making us any healthier. Instead of enjoying healthy whole foods like eggs, olive oil, full-fat yogurt and fresh fruits, far too many of us are filling our grocery carts with boxes of crap packed with artificial ingredients.

Pollan’s message is simple: go back to nature. Forget that entire low carb aisle in the grocery store, and choose whole foods instead. In fact, avoid the entire center part of the store and shop the perimeter only for the healthiest selection.

In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto lays out the history of nutrition in America, the vicious cycle of food-related disease we’ve gotten caught up in and how you can shop and prepare meals to avoid ending up with diabetes, heart disease or other health problems yourself.

Pollan’s latest offering will give you the motivation you need to kick the traditional Western diet that’s making us all sick and go back to the kind of food we were meant to eat. You’ll want to clear out your pantry and start fresh armed with the information and advice you’ve gained after reading it.

Link [In Defense of Food]

Michael Pollan: Don’t Buy Food You’ve Seen Advertised

What’s the best way to come home from the grocery store with food that’s actually good for you? Don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised. That’s the advice offered by Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Pollan was interviewed last week by Democracy Now, where he covered this issue along with Michelle Obama’s organic garden, Frito Lays’ claim that they’re local food, school lunch programs and more. Watch the 2-part video below:

Via [MNN.com]
Photo credit: Edible Portland

Enjoy Pothole Possum Stew at the RoadKill Cook-Off

Weird food festivals are gaining popularity among Americans, who are generally more known for enjoying a rather limited diet than for being gastronomic adventurers.  There’s Honolulu’s Spam Jam, Raleigh’s BugFest and Gilroy’s Garlic Festival, but perhaps most interesting of all is the RoadKill Cook-Off held in the small town of Marlinton, West Virginia every year.

From CNN.com:

It’s RoadKill Cook-Off time, where past years’ crowds have sampled dishes like Pothole Possum Stew, Fricasseed Wabbit Gumbo and Smeared Hog with Groundhog Gravy.

The RoadKill Cook-Off is so popular that it fills all the motels and hotels in the county when it takes place on the last Saturday in September, said David Cain, who runs the event and samples all the dishes.

“There are some that are better than others, but I’ve never really had anything that I really didn’t like,” Cain said. “But there was one year they cooked a rattlesnake in some kind of stew, and … there was no way I could taste that one.”

The RoadKill Cook-Off began in 1991, when organizers thought it might boost attendance at the main event: the Pocahontas County Autumn Harvest Festival.
Did it ever.

About 10,000 people from all over the country came to last year’s gathering, Cain said. All dishes featured in the festival must have animals commonly found dead on the side of the road — such as deer, squirrels and snakes — as their main ingredient. But the meat doesn’t have to be actual roadkill.

“Judges will deduct points for every chipped tooth resulting from gravel not removed from the RoadKill,” the official rules warn. “All judges have been tested for cast-iron stomachs and have sworn under oath to have no vegetarian tendencies.”

It could be argued that eating roadkill is the ultimate green way to be a meat eater. And it’s not just rural folks living in extreme poverty that will peel a recently-dead raccoon off the road and make it dinner. Some environmentalists see it as equivalent to foraging or dumpster diving.

Fergus Drennan, star of the BBC program The Roadkill Chef, explains:

Drennan describes himself as a vegetarian, saying he’s got “issues” with animal husbandry, and won’t eat creatures that are raised for slaughter. Ones killed by accident on our roads, though, are “just another resource”.

“One of the few things that I tend to avoid are cats and dogs,” he explains. “In theory, I’d have no problem with eating them. But they’ve always got name tags on their collars, and since I have two cats, it’s a step too far.

It makes sense – it’s all about using what’s available. Eating roadkill has an even lower environmental footprint than being a conventional vegetarian who buys groceries at the market, plus, it’s free.

So, do the popularity of festivals like the RoadKill Cook-Off mean more Americans will become open to the idea of foraging for food? Probably not – it’s all about the novelty factor for most. But it’s an intriguing idea.

Link [CNN] +[The Independent]

Who’s Who in Green: Vandana Shiva

Physicist, ecologist, activist and author Vandana Shiva is often called one of the world’s top environmental leaders and thinkers. The Indian food-sovereignty activist is an outspoken critic of industrialized globalized agriculture and has dedicated much of her life’s work to uncovering the devastating human and environmental impacts of corporate international trade agreements. Her books include Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit, Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply and Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis.

Shiva was one of the most influential figures of India’s environmental movement and has played a major role in the international ‘ecofeminism’ movement. Shiva believes that a more sustainable and productive approach to agriculture can be achieved by reinstating a system of farming in India that is more centered around women. She was a co-chair of the 1991 World Congress on Women and the Environment and more recently launched a global movement called Diverse Women for Diversity.

One of Vandana Shiva’s most ardent causes is the introduction of genetically modified crops to Indian farmers by big corporations like Monsanto, which have led to thousands of farmers committing suicide when the experimental crops failed. The seeds are engineered not to reproduce, so the farmers have to continually buy more every year, putting new financial strain on people who are already struggling.

Shiva believes that corporate seeds aren’t about increasing productivity, they’re about increasing debt. That’s why she set up the Navdanya movement to counter corporate seed control in 1991. Navdanya distributed seeds to farmers and taught them how to go organic, creating what she calls “an alternative to corporate destruction”.

Opposing monoculture in the fields is far from Shiva’s only cause. She helped build the Movement for Retail Democracy to oppose monopolies in the commercial distribution of food, fighting to keep Wal-Mart out of India. She also heads up the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, an independent research institute that she founded in 1982 and has argued on behalf of the wisdom of many traditional practices as a superior alternative to a life ruled by corporate money-mongering.

Yes Magazine interviewed Shiva in 2003, asking her what keeps her so energized and alive.

Well, it’s always a mystery, because you don’t know why you get depleted or recharged. But, this much I know. I do not allow myself to be overcome by hopelessness, no matter how tough the situation. I believe that if you just do your little bit without thinking of the bigness of what you stand against, if you turn to the enlargement of your own capacities, just that in itself creates new potential.

And I’ve learned from the Bhagavad Gita and other teachings of our culture to detach myself from the results of what I do, because those are not in my hands. The context is not in your control, but your commitment is yours to make, and you can make the deepest commitment with a total detachment about where it will take you. You want it to lead to a better world, and you shape your actions and take full responsibility for them, but then you have detachment. And that combination of deep passion and deep detachment allows me always to take on the next challenge because I don’t cripple myself, I don’t tie myself in knots. I function like a free being. I think getting that freedom is a social duty because I think we owe it to each other not to burden each other with prescription and demands. I think what we owe each other is a celebration of life and to replace fear and hopelessness with fearlessness and joy.

Vandana Shiva’s Green Score: 85,689

Photo credit: Benjamin Root via Treehugger

Bugs: The Next Sustainable Food Source?

In North America and most of Western Europe, eating bugs isn’t exactly commonplace – at least, eating bugs on purpose (we ingest plenty without realizing it on a daily basis due to lax food processing standards). But in many parts of the world, entomophagy is normal and insects are considered an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals.

With a rapidly growing human population and shrinking farmland – due to global warming, overgrazing, desertification and other problems – food is getting harder to come by. Experts warn that in the years to come, things will get even harder as we deal with the effects of climate change. This may lead to a cosmic shift in how we view food; not just how it is grown and processed but the things we choose to eat.

In the face of a growing food crisis, could insects be the next sustainable food source? Last year, a group of experts proclaimed that we could all help the environment by eating insects. We wrote about the gag-inducing descriptions that adventurous gastronomes use to illustrate the flavor of things like giant water bugs – some people say the meat is “perfumey, tastes like salty apples”.

From Discover Magazine:

Gracer wants people to move away from getting their protein from traditional livestock such as cows, pigs, and chickens because raising livestock has a huge negative impact on the environment, regardless of whether the animals belong to subsistence farmers in developing countries or a Western industrial conglomerate (see “Warning: Contains Pork By-Products,” page 40).

A United Nations report released in 2006 calls the livestock sector “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global.” The report notes that, among other adverse impacts, livestock production is responsible for 18 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. (That’s more than what is produced by transportation worldwide.) And the problem is only going to grow, with global production of meat reaching 465 million tons by 2050, double the amount produced in 2000.

Raising insects has a low impact on the environment, and there are plenty of them out there in the world already. Consumption of insects is common in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia and has become somewhat of a novelty in North America and Europe with offerings like chocolate-covered ants and salt-and-vinegar crickets.

A website called Food-Insects.com, edited by entomologist Gene DeFoliart, is packed full of information about eating insects, including recipes and a list of bug cookbooks. At Manataka.org, you can find instructions for acquiring and preparing insects for cooking as well as recipes like “mealworm chocolate cookies” and “ant brood tacos”. You can even learn how to raise your own mealworms and crickets for consumption.

Eating bugs for the environmental benefits may not become a popular habit any time soon – but in the future, who knows what we’ll be forced to do. So, you might want to get used to the idea just in case.

Link [Discover Magazine] + [Food-Insects.com] + [Manataka.org]
Photo credit: David Sacks via Outside Online

Maggots in Your Mushrooms: Contamination is Rampant in our Food Supply

Insect filth. Rodent filth. Parasites. Mildew. Cigarette butts. Mammalian excreta. These are just a handful of the revolting things that are currently named as “allowable defects” in an FDA booklet entitled “The Food Defect Action Levels: Levels of Natural or Unavoidable Defects in Foods That Present No Health Hazards for Humans”. The very booklet that food producers use to determine just how much they can let slide.

All of a sudden, after the news about the Georgia peanut plant that sickened thousands with salmonella – which was also home to mold and roaches – people are starting to pay attention to how our food is made and what’s in it. Better late than never, I guess – but the details of how much is actually passable by federal law will sicken you.

From The New York Times:

Tomato juice, for example, may average “10 or more fly eggs per 100 grams [the equivalent of a small juice glass] or five or more fly eggs and one or more maggots.” Tomato paste and other pizza sauces are allowed a denser infestation — 30 or more fly eggs per 100 grams or 15 or more fly eggs and one or more maggots per 100 grams.

Canned mushrooms may have “over 20 or more maggots of any size per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or “five or more maggots two millimeters or longer per 100 grams of drained mushrooms and proportionate liquid” or an “average of 75 mites” before provoking action by the F.D.A.

The sauerkraut on your hot dog may average up to 50 thrips. And when washing down those tiny, slender, winged bugs with a sip of beer, you might consider that just 10 grams of hops could have as many as 2,500 plant lice. Yum.

Giving new meaning to the idea of spicing up one’s food, curry powder is allowed 100 or more bug bits per 25 grams; ground thyme up to 925 insect fragments per 10 grams; ground pepper up to 475 insect parts per 50 grams. One small shaker of cinnamon could have more than 20 rodent hairs before being considered defective.

The New York Times estimates that every year, you’re probably ingesting one to two pounds of flies, maggots and mites without realizing it. The FDA permits all of this because, in their words, it is “impractical to grow, harvest or process raw products that are totally free of non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.”

If that doesn’t make you want to start growing produce and making your meals from scratch, nothing will. Of course, it’s still virtually impossible to avoid ingesting gross stuff every now and then, even if you do – we live in a world covered in bugs, germs, feces and animal dander. Still,  all of this really makes it clear how far removed we are from the production of the food we eat.

One thing is clear: you can’t trust the government to keep rodent hairs out of your cinnamon and insect guts out of your peanut butter. Our choice is basically to take total control over our own food in any way we can, or get used to the idea of eating nasty crap.

Link [The New York Times]
Photo credit: Flickr user jmichaeli

Meat-Eating Environmentalist: A Contradiction in Terms?

So, you’re an ardent environmentalist. You wear organic clothing, live in a small energy-efficient home, ride your bike to work and always remember your reusable bags when shopping. But for all of your efforts, your carbon footprint is still huge – thanks to your diet, which is full of hamburgers, steaks and ham sandwiches.

Nobody’s perfect – we’ve all got our little slip-ups and areas in our lives where we know we could improve. For some people it’s taking long hot showers in winter, or using paper towels. But, meat eating is a biggie. It has a much greater impact on the environment than using a little more energy than you should every now and then or occasionally wasting paper. Then there are the impacts on human health and animal welfare.

Consider these facts:

• The livestock sector is responsible for 18% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.  Cows emit vast amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere – and the impact of these emissions is greater than that of CO2 from cars.
• Animals raised for food in the U.S. produce 130 times more excrement than the human population.
• Each and every year, factory farms dump 220 billion gallons of hormone-, antibiotic- and bacteria-laden animal waste onto farmland and into waterways.
• Pfiesteria, a microscopic organism that feeds off the phosphorus and nitrogen found in manure, is a lethal toxin harmful to both humans and fish. In 1991 alone, 1,000,000,000,000 (one billion) fish were killed by pfiesteria in the Neuse River in North Carolina.
• Since 1995, an additional one billion fish have been killed from manure runoff in estuaries and coastal areas in North Carolina, and the Maryland and Virginia tributaries leading into the Chesapeake Bay.
• Overuse of antibiotics in animals is causing more strains of drug-resistant bacteria, which is affecting the treatment of various life-threatening diseases in humans.
• Raising animals for food consumes more than half of all the water used in the U.S. It takes 2,500 gallons of water to produce a pound of meat, but only 25 gallons for a pound of wheat.
• Raising animals for food is the number one cause of deforestation around the world, thanks to the huge amounts of land needed for grazing and growing animal feed.
• Animal feed is grown by intensive farming operations that use massive quantities of pesticides while producing problems such as pesticide resistance in insects and weeds, and pollution of nearby water supplies with toxic chemicals. Those pesticide residues also accumulate in animals’ fatty tissue.
• 20 times more land is required to feed a meat-eater than to feed a vegetarian.
• Overgrazing has turned a fifth of all pastures and ranges into desert.

All of this leads to a simple question: can you be an environmentalist and still eat meat?

In response to facts about the meat industry’s impact on the earth, meat-eating greenies have responses that range from “it’s too tasty to give up” to the evasive “it’s my choice”. You’ve got to admit, these excuses sound an awful lot like the ones given by so many Americans to explain away their all of their environmentally harmful choices. You might scoff at a Hummer owner saying “it’s too fun and cool to give up” and “it’s my choice and I’m entitled to it”, but aren’t you effectively doing the same thing?

Eating meat isn’t inherently un-green or unnatural. Yes, humans have been eating meat for centuries, yadda yadda yadda. But it’s been a long time since we raised and slaughtered our own food animals on our own land, which had a far smaller carbon footprint. People in industrialized countries (especially the U.S.) eat way more meat than they used to, as well. Demand is growing, so the number of factory farms is growing, too. Does mean that free-range, grass-fed, organic meat is necessarily the answer to all of these pressing problems? Not exactly.

If you do raise and kill your food animals yourself, congratulations. That’s just about the greenest way you could possibly remain a meat eater. Purchasing meat from a nearby small farm that offers grass-fed meat that travels a mere handful of miles to your door is a close second. But that ‘free-range’ meat from the grocery store isn’t necessarily the same thing.

Part of the problem with ‘free-range’ meat is that these animals require even more land than conventionally raised livestock. As Friends of Animals explains, space for animal agribusiness doesn’t need to be expanded. It needs to be phased out. Deforestation and desertification is a major problem, as is taking up so much land that could be used to grow more efficient, calorie-dense food for more people. If demand for free-range meat increased, these problems would get even worse.

From Friends of Animals:

Already, most of the landmass of the contiguous United States is taken up by agriculture — primarily for resource-guzzling animal processing. Worldwide, the demand of six billion humans for physical space is vastly expanded as animals are bred into existence to be food commodities. These domestic animals now outnumber us by an estimated factor of three to one. There is nothing sustainable, let alone kind, about animal agribusiness.

Plus, never underestimate the greed of corporations eager to cash in on your concern.  The USDA doesn’t regulate “free-range” or “free-roaming” beef products (nor do they effectively regulate the quality of meat in general).  While you might want to believe that the expensive free-range steaks you’re buying from Whole Foods came from happy cows that spent their lives outdoors enjoying sunshine and fresh air, that’s not necessarily the case. The USDA does require “free-range” animals to have access to outdoor areas, but doesn’t specify how long they spend out there or how much room they get.

True grass-fed beef may be healthier, but the term ‘grass-fed’ isn’t regulated by the USDA, either. That means companies can claim that their animals are grass-fed even if grains still make up the majority of their diets.

Don’t confuse “free-range” and “organic” on meat labels. Certified organic meat must be free of antibiotics and growth hormones. And, if you’re concerned about the treatment of animals, be aware that animals raised organically aren’t necessarily treated any better than those raised at big conventional factory farms.

That leads us to the unpleasant reality of livestock mistreatment. Even if you’re not a bleeding heart, animal-rights kind of person, you can’t deny that locking animals into tiny crates to wallow in their own excrement, mutilating them and then slaughtering them in inhumane ways is shockingly cruel. PETA is oft maligned, and they certainly have their faults, but their videos don’t lie. Just because you choose to be ignorant of these things doesn’t mean they aren’t happening.

I can hear you already: “I’m not going to stop eating meat, no matter what you say.” When it comes down to it, whether or not you eat meat is still a personal choice. But, if you’re at all concerned about the environment, at least cut back on the amount of meat you eat – and buy it from a local source if you can (if that’s not possible, check out meat CSAs and delivery services). Seek out truly grass-fed, free-range and hormone-free meat and eat it only a few times a week, and you’ll at least be taking an important step forward.

Grass-Fed Beef Resources:

West Coast sources
East Coast sources
Midwest sources

Vegetarianism Resources:

Protein in the Vegan Diet
Go Veg: Vegetarian and Vegan Information
VegWeb.com: Vegan Recipes and Cooking Tips

Factory Farming Facts and Information:

OrganicConsumers.org Disturbing Facts on Factory Farming and Food Safety
Vegan Outreach: Animal Mistreatment at Factory Farms

Photo credit: Flickr user dogfrog + Cornucopia.org

“Our Daily Bread” Shows Where Food Really Comes From

Check out this disturbing clip from the Sundance Channel documentary film “Our Daily Bread” created by Nikolaus Geyrhalter. The film takes a look at animals, slaughterhouses and factories in order to clue consumers in to what goes on behind the scenes to make our pre-packaged foods.

As the Sundance channel website states,

With dispassionate objectivity, Austrian documentary filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter lifts the veil on modern industrial food production to present a glimpse of a world few of us have ever seen – or are willing to think about. Avoiding conventional narrative techniques, Geyrhalter lets the images speak for themselves. The result is a coldly beautiful and often disturbing visual essay illustrating what goes on in slaughterhouses, manufacturing plants and large dusty fields to process and package our food.

This Valentine’s Day, Plastic is Forever

Diamonds may be forever but this Valentine’s Day, remember that plastic is too.

A plastic fork takes over a 1000 years to decompose – yet we only use it once. So much unnecessary waste is created across the country when we order take out. We know that America produces 25 percent of the worlds garbage but how much of that is unnecessary food packaging?

A program called Eco-To-Go has now launched at participating restaurants in New York City so that when you order takeout, you can advise the restaurant that you want your order to be Eco-To-Go.

Restaurants will respond by delivering the food, with no extras, such as unnecessary napkins and plastic utensils, as you have all you need at home. The program also hopes to encourage restaurants to use greener packaging.

Britain Attempts to Give Cauliflower an Eco-Friendly Makeover

Cauliflower: it’s bland, has a less-than-appetizing appearance and doesn’t pack quite the same nutritional punch as its cousin broccoli. But, British farmers hope to help bring this vegetable into vogue in the UK by branding it as a homegrown, eco-friendly alternative to imported veggies. Vegetable production has fallen by almost a third in Britain over the last decade as consumers have turned to more ‘fashionable’ vegetables.

From The Telegraph:

The Brassica Growers Association point out that cauliflower grows all year round in Britain and is therefore a constant source of locally-produced, low carbon food.

The organisation are hoping to take advantage of recent campaigns led by celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver to get people eating less processed food and more fresh fruit and vegetables. Cauliflower is not only good in traditional dishes like cauliflower cheese but works well in more modern food like stir fries and curries.

Phillip Effingham, chairman of the BGA, said it was time to reinstate cauliflower to its rightful place in British cuisine.

He said: “Britain seems to have fallen out of love with the cauliflower over the last 10 years and sales have been declining steadily. We want to encourage people to rediscover this hugely versatile and healthy vegetable and help stop its decline.”

Poor, overlooked cauliflower. Will this campaign work? Maybe, if it’s marketed to consumers as a way to save money during the global recession. It probably won’t become the star of Britain’s best culinary dishes (do they even have any of those?) but perhaps the allure of eating local and fresh will give it a bit of a boost.

Link [The Telegraph]
Photo credit: Slash Food

Chewable Pampers Spoof – Smells Like Dinner Time!

Do you ever wish the products you use were so green, you could eat them? Be careful what you wish for… In this wacky SNL spoof, an “eco” mom uses diapers so biodegrable that they’re actually edible – for dinner!

Watch a Food Forest Grow In One Year

Check out this cool time-lapse video of a backyard garden in its first year. The owners of the plot dug up their concrete pool and grass lawn to create an abundant “food forest“.

Feeling inspired? Visit http://www.happyearth.com.au for more information about this sustainable living project.

The World According to Monsanto

If this trailer doesn’t creep you out about genetically modified food, I don’t know what will. “The World According to Monsanto” is a french documentary directed by Marie-Monique Robin that paints a grim picture of a company with a long track record of environmental crimes and health scandals.

According to the YouTube description,

Monsanto is the world leader in genetically modified organisms (GMOs), as well as one of the most controversial corporations in industrial history. This century-old empire has created some of the most toxic products ever sold, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and the herbicide Agent Orange. Based on a painstaking investigation, The World According to Monsanto puts together the pieces of the company’s history, calling on hitherto unpublished documents and numerous first-hand accounts.

Today, Monsanto likes to style itself as a “life sciences” company. The leader in genetically modified seeds, engineered to resist its herbicide Roundup, claims it wants to solve world hunger while protecting the environment.

In the light of its troubling past, can we really believe these noble intentions? Misleading reports, collusion, pressure tactics and attempts at corruption: the history of Monsanto is filled with disturbing episodes. Behind its clean, green image, Monsanto is tightening its grasp on the world seed market, striving for market supremacy to the detriment of food security and the global environment.

Are Frogs Being Eaten to Extinction?

Put down that fried frog leg! Demand for the delicacy is depleting regional populations to the point of no return, according to conservationists. Culinary use is even more of a threat to amphibians than climate change, disease and habitat degradation.

The National University of Singapore is calling for more regulation and monitoring to prevent frogs from being eaten into extinction.

From New Scientist:

Statistics on imports and exports of frog legs are sparse as few countries keep track of the amount of meat harvested and consumed domestically.

According to UN figures, global trade has increased in the past 20 years. France – not surprisingly – and the US are the two largest importers; with France importing between 2500 and 4000 tonnes of frog meat each year since 1995.

But although frog legs are often thought of in the West as a quintessentially French dish, they are also very popular in Asia.

Bickford estimates that between 180 million to over a billion frogs are harvested each year. “That is based on both sound data and an estimate of local consumption for just Indonesia and China,” he says. “The actual number I suspect is quite a bit larger and my 180 million bare minimum is almost laughably conservative.”

According to David Bickford of the National University of Singapore, European kitchens used to source frog meat locally, but the fact that they’re now importing it from Indonesia suggests that local populations have been overharvested. As many frogs as Indonesia sends to other countries, some studies suggest the amount of frog meat consumed within the country’s borders could be between two and seven times what is exported.

I am disgusted to admit (especially as a vegetarian) that my grandmother fed me frog legs as a child and didn’t tell me what they were. Innocent that I was, it never crossed my mind that the little wing-looking things on my plate were actually frogs – I didn’t find out until my father told me years later. And yes, they do in fact taste like chicken.

Link [New Scientist]
Photo credit: Flickr user jmagnusphoto

The Need to Fundamentally Rethink Food

A sustainable global food system is absolutely essential to a healthy future for humans and the environment, according to expert Tim Lang of the UK government’s newly formed Food Council. Lang warns that the current system is showing “structural failures” and is taking an “astronomic toll” on the environment.

From BBC News:

Professor Lang lists a series of “new fundamentals”, which he outlined during a speech he made as the president-elect of charity Garden Organic, which will shape future food production, including:

Oil and energy: “We have an entirely oil-based food economy, and yet oil is running out. The impact of that on agriculture is one of the drivers of the volatility in the world food commodity markets.”
Water scarcity: “One of the key things that I have been pushing is to get the UK government to start auditing food by water,” Professor Lang said, adding that 50% of the UK’s vegetables are imported, many from water-stressed nations.
Biodiversity: “Biodiversity must not just be protected, it must be replaced and enhanced; but that is going to require a very different way growing food and using the land.”
Urbanisation: “Probably the most important thing within the social sphere. More people now live in towns than in the countryside. In which case, where do they get their food?”

Professor Lang said that in order to feed a projected nine billion people by 2050, policymakers and scientists face a fundamental challenge: how can food systems work with the planet and biodiversity, rather than raiding and pillaging it?

Lang is suggesting that we get biodiversity into gardens and fields as soon as possible. Chef and food campaigner Raymond Blanc agrees, saying people must reconnect with their food by growing their own gardens and becoming more mindful of food waste.

Higher food prices have pushed an additional 40 million people into hunger in 2008, bringing the overall figure of undernourished people in the world to 963 million. The ongoing economic crisis could add millions more to that figure in 2009.

It’s absolutely essential that we all begin thinking of food in a new way, asking ourselves where it came from, how it was grown, how many resources were required to grow and transport it. Reconnecting with food will improve our health and help redistribute agriculture to ensure that large groups of people don’t depend upon food from a single region. We must use land more wisely so that we can feed more people with a larger variety of food.

Urban farming is becoming more popular for those who don’t have yard space to start a garden, and buying food from local farmer’s markets is also a good choice.

Link [BBC News]
Photo credit: Steve Patterson

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