March 2008

GREETINGS

I mentioned in the last issue my efforts to have MARV involved in some way at a Focus the Nation event on global warming, which was held at UWM on Jan. 31^st. I can now report that, despite some frustration and confusion, MARV (i.e., Jody Johnson) was able to be there, at a tabling that was held during the lunch hour; she reports that there were not tons of people generally, but MARV had as much traffic as anyone and she had some good conversations about livestock and greenhouse gas.

Next on the agenda is the Great American Meat-Out, coming right up on the week of March 20. I contacted the Urban Ecology Center but was told that planning for March takes place there in January at the latest, so we won’t be able to do a Meat-Out thing there this year. At this writing, it looks like we’ll probably go back to Alverno College, where we’ve had good Meat-Out tablings in the past. We’re aiming for Tuesday, March 18 from 11:30 to 1:30. I’ll be there for all that time, Jean Groshek will be there for some of it, and if anyone else wants to come help, call me at (414) 962-2703.

By the way, my email, as noted on the mast-head, is now: chuckgyver@aceweb.com.

M.A.R.V. ACTIVITIES

Sunday, Mar. 2, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Pl. in Riverwest (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks to the parking lot). Theme will be “eating of the greens.”

Subsequent regular potlucks will be on April 6, May 4, June 1, and probably July 6.

Tuesday, Mar. 18, Meat-Out tabling at Alverno College, 11:30 AM-1:30 PM (tentative)

Other veg-friendly meetings

It looks like there will not be a macrobiotic potluck in March.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“The amount of grain it takes to fill an average gas tank with ethanol would be enough to feed a person for a year.” – Foreign Affairs, as quoted by Organic Consumers Association

NEWS

Speaking of bad beef, the biggest beef recall in history hit in February after an undercover cameraperson from the Humane Society of the US made a video of downer cattle being mistreated into a slaughterhouse, and sent the video to major news outlets. It hit the front pages and resulted in 143 million pounds of meat being recalled – some of it after being eaten, and some of it having been used for school lunches. Perhaps the scariest thing is that the slaughterhouse involved was selected purely at random, provoking the question of whether the horrors captured there on film were unusual, or industry standard… A NY Times lead editorial called on Congress to overhaul the entire food inspection program, while an unknown number of ordinary people were shocked into rethinking eating beef (or maybe even meat!) at all. In related news, university studies now show that feeding cattle a byproduct of ethanol production may increase their levels of e. coli (leading to other recalls); and 12 groups representing the livestock and meat industry opposed publication of the FDA’s final rule on feeding cattle with products that could increase the risk of mad cow disease.

Other bad animal food news involved the mysterious outbreak of some sort of crippling nerve or brain disease in a dozen people who worked at a Minnesota Hormel meat plant processing pig brains. Bird flu is still showing up: three more Indonesian humans and uncounted chickens have died of it, while Saudi Arabia reported having culled 158,000 (?!) chickens after bird flu showed up at a farm there. And the last two Long Island duck farms (organic, free-range) are being hassled by authorities who blame them for polluting local waters.

Weird news this month involves a NY Times op-ed piece, whose author suggests that pestiferous (and ecologically dangerous) invasive fish species such as Asian carp should be controlled by making them common food items. Someone predictably sent in a letter suggesting that what people should really do is drop down an additional notch on the food chain by avoiding eating fish at all – which the Times actually printed even though it completely missed the first writer’s point.

A new effort to save honeybees involves feeding them with a nutritive concoction that they can eat on days too cold or inclement to go out foraging for pollen; preliminary studies suggest that it may help.

Water news comes from the drought in the southeastern US. Georgia lost a court battle to Alabama and Florida when a federal court said that it could not withdraw as much water as it wanted from a reservoir which also serves those downstream states. The Georgia legislature’s next move was to challenge a centuries’-old border with Tennessee in the hope of gaining access to the Tennessee River. It isn’t really funny. Scarcity is also starting to be felt in wheat: between increasing world-wide demand and a lower supply as a result of drought, prices are fluctuating wildly. And then there’s the ethanol thing.

Fortunately, plant foods are still good for you. A study published in the Journal of Ophthalmology identified two antioxidents as helping prevent cataracts: vitamin E (found in vegetable oils, nuts, leafy green vegetables and whole grains); and lutein (found in yellow and green fruits and vegetables, especially the green leafies). And the Whole Foods magazine ran an article on “Super Foods,” featuring mangosteen juice and pomegranates (both high in antioxidents), sour cherries (a natural anti-inflammatory as well as full of the antioxident anthocyanin), sesame seeds (high in lignans, a kind of beneficial fiber), and yerba mate tea (antioxidents again). A third item discussing antioxident-rich foods pointed out that kitchen herbs like parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme are all full of them; furthermore, sage seems to help improve mood and mental function, while parsley (like any dark green leafy veggie) is full of vitamin C, beta-carotene, fiber, calcium, iron, magnesium, potassium, and riboflavin.

An Australian study suggested that older women who drank about 3 cups of tea per day had stronger bones than those who didn’t. And a new study finally shows that it’s the calcium that helps with weight loss, whether you get it from skim milk or calcium-fortified soy milk.

Prevention magazine praised seasonal citrus fruits (again), pointing out that their vitamin C does help fight off colds and flu; a different item explained that even common white button mushrooms are helpful in warding off viruses and tumors (at least in mice), and full of anti-oxidents as well.

Prevention also ran a whole article on a new discovery: it seems that when certain whole-food carbohydrates, such as those in potatoes, grains, and beans, are cooked and then cooled, some of the starch in them turns into a type of dietary fiber that resists digestion – and therefore allows you to eat your fill while actually helping with a weight loss program; the buzz suggests it may even help protect against colon cancer. The trick is to eat cooked foods cold, not reheated: think potato salad, hummus and other bean spreads, cold cooked beans added to a salad, brown-rice pudding, cooked corn in a taco salad or burrito…

One amusing Q-and-A came from a reader who wondered, now that she’s avoiding trans-fats, whether she should avoid saturated fats too. The Prevention “nutrition expert’s” answer was that cutting down would be a good idea; completely eliminating them would not be feasible, since apparently even healthy olive oil has a little bit, but decreasing intake of the top sources of saturated fat – high-fat meat and dairy products – was suggested.

Another Q-and-A item, this time in AARP’s magazine, looked at dietary factors in arthritis pain. Recommendations were to eat an anti-inflammatory diet in which refined, processed, and manufactured foods – and animal protein – are avoided, while olive oil and omega-3 fatty acid sources are eaten, as well as plenty of fruits and vegetables; it was also suggested that whole foods which keep blood sugar steady are better than foods (like sugar and refined flour) that cause it to spike and then drop.

A Prevention item on dietary tips for maintaining good brain function included eating blueberries and other fruits, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acid foods (dark green leafies, walnuts, and flax and hemp seeds and oils for those of us who avoid fatty fish), as well as avoiding saturated fat (i.e., animal foods) and replacing refined grains with whole ones.

Another whole article on eating so as to keep one’s metabolism burning fat all day included tips to eat a good breakfast, eat plenty of fiber (i.e., whole grains, beans, and fresh fruit and vegetables), go organic to avoid organochlorine residues, eat a bit of protein at each meal or snack, eat iron-rich foods such as beans and dark green leaves, and get your calcium foods (dairy if you use it, fortified soymilk and orange juice, almonds, and dark green leafies).

THE VEGGIE TABLE

Oh, wow! Thank you, Barb Eisenberg, for telling me about a new restaurant in town that just opened on Feb. 18 and is entirely vegetarian, and out on the west side (Brookfield Rd.) to boot!

Café Manna is decidedly upscale, with a bright, modern décor, all the wine organic, carry-out containers biodegradeable, etc. It also has a menu which is about half vegan, all vegetarian, and they have clearly thought ahead about how to alter each of the dairy-containing dishes so as to make them vegan: when we let our server know that Chuck is vegan, she made sure to alert us to any nonvegan items and ingredients.

Offerings include 6 starters, 2 soups, 6 different salads, 5 sandwiches, 6 additional hot entrees, 6 side-dishes, 4 desserts, and a variety of drinks including teas, waters, juices, almond milk, organic wines. The cuisine borrows from a variety of ethnic styles. Serving sizes were refreshingly reasonable: I was actually able to share a starter, eat an entrée, and still have room for dessert, which is rare indeed these days. And everything was very tasty, each in its own way. We definitely plan on going back, even though the prices were somewhat higher than at our usual hangouts (okay, we usually go for el cheapo). s

DIALOG

For those whose interest in vegetarianism arose from concerns about social justice and world hunger, and/or about ecological issues, things are getting a lot more complicated.

Just a couple of years ago, the only ecological issues around meat-eating were air and water pollution, and cutting down rainforest for cattle grazing; the only way in which hunger/justice issues connected with vegetarianism was that more people could be well fed if so much grain weren’t being fed to livestock. Now we have global warming as well, and the greenhouse gases produced by cattle, plus the petroleum burned to serve the meat industry. And suddenly grain availability is being squeezed – and prices raised beyond what poor people and nations can pay – by the idea of using crops to produce fuel for cars.

In one way, things are as clear as they were before: raising and eating animal foods is environmentally bad; only now we know it’s even worse than we thought. But the ethanol business shows that policies about what foods and crops are raised and how they’re used impacts not just food availability for people, but market prices and the world economy. Thus national policy choices about global warming and oil dependence, while clearly about food issues, are not only about food issues.