“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact.

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Let’s start with a few definitions so that we are all on the same page. According to Offal Good, chef Chris Cosentino’s educational and inspirational website for those who are interested in learning and cooking with offals:

OFFAL those parts of a meat animal which are used as food but which are not skeletal muscle. The term literally means “off fall”, or the pieces which fall from a carcase when it is butchered. Originally the word applied principally to the entrails. It now covers insides including the HEART, LIVER, and LUNGS (collectively known as the pluck), all abdominal organs and extremities: TAILS, FEET, and HEAD including BRAINS and TONGUE. In the USA the expressions “organ meats”, “giblets” or “variety meats” are used instead.

Bibliography: Davidson, Alan. The Oxford Companion to Food. Oxford University Press, 1999. pp. 548-49

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As Albert Einstein said, “Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.”

The big issue today is global climate change. It is likely to dwarf any environmental issues we faced in the past. As reported by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:

[T]he livestock sector is a major stressor on many ecosystems and on the planet as a whole. Globally it is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gases…. It currently amounts to about 18 percent of the global warming effect — an even larger contribution than the transportation sector worldwide.

This is a critical issue. This is more critical than our power plants, our industries, the energy efficiency of our homes and appliances, or even transportation.

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So I suppose it’s not surprising that some people are looking for meat alternatives, and I’m not talking about Tofurkey. I’m talking about real meat, but minus the animal.

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I call this story “How to Successfully Undermine Good Ideas” thanks to a recent article written over at LiveScience.com entitled “Top 10 Craziest Environmental Ideas.” And, in short, several of their “zany ideas” are possible chances for survival.

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Every Spring, thousands of activists and educators get together at events all over the world to raise awareness of vegetarian diets. Despite the event’s name, it has in fact grown into an international phenomenon. You can find a calendar of events here to see what’s going on near you. This is certainly a great place to start in terms of resources, and I plan to address that further in my next post.

For today I want to look at Mark’s question, “Should we be eating animals in the first place?” Here’s my take…

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Food and food production was the first topic I tackled. I haven’t read it yet, but Michael Pollan’s new book, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, sounds excellent. I enjoyed listening to a recent interview with him on Talk of the Nation and have it on hold at my local library. Michael Pollan also did a fantastic job with An Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Many people are familiar with Pollan’s writing, but I wanted to make you aware of some titles you may have missed.

I believe I stumbled up Fat Land by Greg Critser first. Being a health and wellness consultant, the subtitle, “How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World,” is what caught my eye.

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The Humane Society of the United States just released a new video documenting the horrible truths behind America’s factory farming industry and our incessant hunger for meat (I know, only some of us). The video, narrated by James Cromwell, is certainly an eye-opener.

The video begins with some dissonant piano notes backing up images of pigs, cows and chickens with no room to move inside of their cages, side by side with thousands of other animals who will live the same horrible lives and find the same horrible deaths. Cromwell’s voice, all scratchy and wise, is the perfect pitch for this narration. The realization is immediate that the video will be a bit coarse, but nonetheless moving.

I eat meat. I always have. I think I always will. Yet this doesn’t change my disgust for the cruelty and disregard of the Factory Farming Industry. I didn’t really learn about industrialized farming until my Junior year in college. I had never really thought much about it. When I was growing up, my father raised cattle on my grandparent’s farm in rural Virginia—so a lot of the meat in our freezer was raised just down the road and if it wasn’t I always assumed it was raised somewhere else in a similar fashion— ahhh, the beauty of naivete.

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I often talk about being a joyful vegan, because it reflects the truth of my experience. In my opinion, to advocate for animals and veganism is to advocate for nonviolence and peace. And, not surprisingly, peace is the byproduct of a vegan lifestyle. It is what you give, create and get back. It is an unexpected gift.

There’s a very deep peace of mind that comes from disconnecting yourself with the inherent violence of turning beautiful, living, feeling beings into butchered bodies. To say "no" to that—to remove yourself from the horror, from the slaughter that many of us turn away from releases you from that burden of guilt that so many of us experience — that low, constant, underlying hum that causes us to make every excuse in the book to justify our actions, in order to release us from our complicity. To be released from that is nothing short of liberating - and joy-inducing.

Several years ago, I came across an essay that reflected this very perception. It’s written by Robert Bass, Ph.D., a philosophy professor who has given me his permission to reprint his essay. Everything below is his words, but I celebrate them as if they were my own. There are so many misconceptions about what it means to "be vegan," and I think this essay so eloquently debunks some myths.

"If you look at a photographic negative, the colors are reversed, nothing seems quite as it should, and the image may be unrecognizable. Once you see the picture developed, you recognize the face of your best friend.

That’s a bit like a common impression of vegans. We don’t eat dead animals. Or their products. Pork and beef, seafood and fowl are out. So are milk and cheese, eggs and caviar. And it doesn’t stop with what we don’t eat. We try to avoid leather and wool and fur. We don’t use them to cover our bodies or our furniture or our floors. It sounds like a long list of negatives, of don’ts: Thou shalt not this; thou shalt not that. Why would anybody want that?

You get a better picture by reversing the colors, developing the negative. The incomprehensible prohibitions turn out to be the boundaries of something positive, visible in its true colors and proper proportions. Instead of a list of don’ts, we see an abundance of healthy, delicious foods, with plenty of options for home and clothes and personal care. We do not grudgingly practice a creed of self-denial. We select from an embarassment of riches.

But that is still just a flat, two-dimensional picture instead of the solid, three-dimensional reality. At the heart of being vegan is a kind of compassionate awareness. We share this planet not only with billions of fellow human beings, but also with uncounted billions upon billions of other creatures, with lives, wants, enjoyment and suffering as real as our own. Humans have had and used the power to crowd them out, push them aside, sometimes driving them to extinction, and often, making them into tools for our use, servitors of our desires, food for our tables, clothes for our backs.

As vegans, we look, we pay attention, we see the unnecessary suffering imposed on our fellow creatures. We respond in compassion, refusing to pretend that might makes right, refusing to turn away and ignore what we know. The vegan message is ultimately very simple:

Look. Pay attention. See the unnecessary death and suffering. We don’t have to contribute or help to keep it going. We can stop being a part of this. And so, that’s what we try to do."

It reminds me of B.R. Myers’ fantastic review ("Hard to Swallow") of Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dillemma, in which he asks the question, "If it is so natural to kill and eat animals, and so sentimental to think otherwise, why is the vegetarian the only one who can stomach the details?" I would rather have my eyes wide open than return to the sleep of my meat-eating days."

Editor's note: We're pleased to welcome Colleen Patrick-Goudreau to the Green Options writing team! Colleen has taught vegan cooking classes in Oakland, California, for seven years, and is a columnist for VegNews magazine, and a contributing writer for KQED radio's Perspectives program. Her first cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Recipes for Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets, will be published in October. Colleen has a real knack for making vegan cooking and eating accessible to those of us who may be a bit mystified by the idea of taking animal products out of our diets, and we're very happy to have her on board.

In my work as a vegan educator, advocate, and cooking instructor, one of my goals is to take "vegan food" out of the box. There tends to be a notion that “vegan food” exists in a food group separate from “normal food” or reserved only for those who label themselves “vegan.” But the fact is that even non-vegans eat “vegan” food every day — they just don’t call it “vegan.” Plant-based cuisine is simply made up of the foods we already eat and love: vegetables, fruit, legumes, grains, nuts, beans, seeds, mushrooms, herbs, and spices. When we recognize that “vegan” food is already part of our meals, we take the mystery out of the label.

Plant foods contain all the flavors, textures, and colors that satisfy our palates and our senses. In fact, it is flavor, texture, and familiarity we crave whenever we eat, and all of these elements are found in the rich array of plant foods available to us. The Holy Triumvirate of meat, dairy, and eggs has become so dominant in our daily diets that they have replaced what was once the foundation of the human diet: plant foods. Even when we do eat vegetables, we tend to drown them in fat-laden cheeses, oily butters, and heavy cream sauces – forgetting that the vegetables themselves contain all the flavor we crave.

I’m always surprised when people declare that “vegan food” is bland and boring. I usually remind them that the herbs and spices we flavor our food with are all plant-based – they’re all “vegan.” Considering the fact that we’re the only animal who has to cook and flavor meat before we eat it, it’s not surprising that the things with which we typically serve our hamburgers, hot dogs, and steaks are plant-based: ketchup, mustard, relish, sauerkraut, pickles, tomatoes, lettuce, BBQ sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tabasco sauce, chili sauce, horseradish, liquid smoke, vinegars, lime and lemon juices, and, of course, salt and pepper. You also have your capers, wasabi, tahini, soy sauce, chutneys, and a variety of other condiments to provide flavor, heat, and texture.

A backyard barbecue is the perfect occasion to showcase delicious, nutritious, animal-free foods that will satisfy bellies and arouse taste buds.

**GRILL IT UP**

Every summer, I’m dismayed by the “safety tips” about grilling meat that give people the false impression that they can actually prevent the carcinogenic (cancer-causing) compounds (heterocyclic amines) from forming when they cook meat (including chicken, beef, pork, and fish) at high temperatures. There is no magic formula that people can follow to ensure that these compounds do not form – whether you’re grilling or pan-frying. Undercook your meat, and you risk consuming dangerous food-borne pathogens; heat your meat at high temperatures, and you risk cancer. But what happens when you cook vegetables? They get hot! These cancer-causing substances are not present when plant-based foods, including meatless burgers and hot dogs, are cooked. Period. So, heat up your grill and enjoy these fantastically delicious grilled fiber-rich foods:

*Seasoned eggplant slices
*Marinated Portobello mushrooms
*Skewers of bell peppers, red onions, and summer squash
*Corn on the cob (grilled in their husks)
*Polenta squares (cooked with red onions, garlic, and sundried tomatoes) topped with dairy-free pesto
*Yellow and sweet potatoes or yams
*Tempeh marinated in barbecue sauce
*Tofu flavored with a ginger, citrus marinade

**TOSS IT UP**

A huge array of summer salads can be made from beans, pasta, potatoes, tofu, tempeh, or grains. The options are endless. I’ve included a couple recipes and suggestions below, and many more can be found in my online cookbook.

*Toss pasta (penne, fusilli, et. al.) with chopped raw veggies, lightly toasted pine nuts, fresh basil, balsamic vinegar, and a little extra-virgin olive oil.
*Combine spinach leaves with fresh raspberries, sunflower seeds, brazil or macadamia nuts, and mandarin orange slices in advance, and toss with seasoned rice vinegar just before serving.
*Spread Focaccia bread with dairy-free pesto, and add grilled veggies (eggplant, zucchini squash), thinly sliced tofu, roasted red peppers, fresh tomatoes, and basil. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Tantalizing Thai Slaw a.k.a. Holy Slaw
I call this “Holy Slaw” because it tastes so darn good. This really is filling enough for a meal, but it’s a great side with a veggie burger. Serves 4 as a complete meal; serves 6 as a side

INGREDIENTS

1 small head green cabbage, shredded
½-1 whole head red cabbage, shredded
1 cup shredded carrot
1 red onion, sliced thinly
1 cup roasted, unsalted, peanuts
1 block (about 1 pound) firm or extra firm tofu
½ cup chopped green onion
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1-2 teaspoons toasted or raw sesame seeds (black seeds add beautiful color!)
½ cup chopped parsley or cilantro (optional)
Sesame oil (optional)
Orange Ginger Vinaigrette (see below)

DIRECTIONS

The tofu is optional, as this delicious salad is perfect on its own. Adding sautéed tofu will add some more flavor and texture. If adding the tofu, fry it up with a little sesame oil to make it nice and crispy. Let it cool and then add to the other ingredients. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Voila!

*Oil-free version with tofu: if using a non-stick pan, you can just add the cubed tofu directly to a non-stick skillet. Just let it get golden brown and crispy before turning it over. Don’t fuss with it; let it get brown, and then turn it. Delicious!

Orange Ginger Vinaigrette
¼ cup orange juice
¼-½ cup seasoned rice vinegar
3 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons grated ginger
2 teaspoons garlic, minced

Copyright © 2006 Compassionate Cooks, LLC – All rights reserved

Cannellini Beans with Tomatoes & Herbs
This light, fresh salad is perfect for a picnic or BBQ. The lemon zest is an especially nice addition and adds beautiful color to this delicious, healthful dish. Makes 4-6 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 cans of Cannellini beans (or other white beans, such as Great Northern or Navy), drained and rinsed
3 or 4 tomatoes (cherry, heirloom, or any tomatoes in season)
½ medium size red onion, diced
1 cup fresh, frozen (thawed), or canned corn kernels
2 red, yellow, orange, or green bell pepper, finely diced
1 ripe avocado, diced
Assortment of fresh herbs: marjoram, basil, thyme, sage, minced
3 tablespoons vinegar, your choice (red, white wine vinegar, seasoned rice vinegar)
Juice from 1 lemon
Zest of 2 lemons
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and set aside for 15 minutes or more to allow the flavors to develop. Add salt and serve at room temperature.

Serving Suggestions and Variations:
*You can use any bean you like for this salad. White beans are just one suggestion. You can use kidney, chick peas, black, pinto – or a combination of all them!
*You may add a tablespoon or two of extra virgin olive oil.
*Fresh tomatoes are best, and keep in mind that tomatoes don’t do well refrigerated. So, if you wanted to make this salad in advance, just eliminate the tomatoes, store in the fridge, and add the tomatoes just before serving.

Copyright © 2006 Compassionate Cooks, LLC – All rights reserved

**SWEETEN IT UP**
Don’t forget dessert! Another misconception about “vegan food” is that desserts are somehow inferior to those prepared with cow’s milk, dairy butter, and chicken’s eggs. These are unnecessary ingredients. What rich baked goods can’t do without, however, is fat, moisture, and leavening – all of which exist outside of animal products. Here are a couple treats to serve at your next summertime soiree. More can be found in the desserts section of our online cookbook as well as in our upcoming cookbook, The Joy of Vegan Baking: The Compassionate Cooks' Recipes for Traditional Treats and Sinful Sweets available for pre-order on Amazon.com and other online stores. (Ask your local bookstore to carry it!)

No-Bake Strawberry Pie with Chocolate Chunks
This amazingly delicious pie is perfect when strawberries are at their height in the summer. Get the sweetest, ripest strawberries you can find at your farmer’s market. It is best when served within an hour or two of preparing it, since it is at its most fresh then, but it holds up just fine in the fridge. Serves 8-12

INGREDIENTS

Crust:
2 cups raw almonds or pecans
¾ cup pitted dates, preferably Medjool

Filling:
5 cups sliced ripe organic strawberries
5 pitted dates, soaked 10 minutes in warm water and drained
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
Dark chocolate chunks, preferably from a good, organic, fair-trade bar (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the nuts in a food processor and grind until they’re a coarse meal. Add the ¾ cup of dates (for the crust) and process until thoroughly combined. Press the mixture into a non-stick or very lightly oiled pie plate or spring form pan.

2. Arrange 4 cups of the sliced strawberries on top of the crust and set aside.

3. In a food processor or blender, combine the remaining 1 cup of strawberries with the 5 soaked dates and lemon juice. Puree until smooth. Pour the sauce mixture over strawberries.

4. Arrange the chocolate chunks on the top of the sauce (optional), and refrigerate the pie for 1 hour before serving. This will help the pie set and will be perfect for slicing.

Copyright © 2006 Compassionate Cooks, LLC – All rights reserved

Decadent Chocolate Cake
This chocolate cake might be the easiest cake in the world to make – and is the most versatile as well. No eggs or dairy make it cholesterol- and cruelty-free, and it takes about 5 minutes to prepare. Makes one 9-inch cake or 8 cupcakes. Double it for a layer cake or a bundt cake

INGREDIENTS
1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup sugar (white or turbinado)
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon peppermint extract (optional)
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tablespoon white distilled vinegar
1 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl until mixed thoroughly. No need to sift.

2. Make a well in the center and add the wet ingredients. Stir until well mixed.

3. Pour into a 9×9-inch baking dish (or cupcake or bundt pan), and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

4. Cool completely, then frost with Chocolate Frosting (below).

Chocolate Frosting
Makes enough for one 9-inch cake or 8 cupcakes

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons softened non-dairy butter (Earth Balance is the best!)
1-1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1/3 cup cocoa, sifted
½ teaspoon vanilla or ½ teaspoon peppermint extract
2-4 tablespoons water or non-dairy milk (almond milk adds a subtle touch of special flavor)

DIRECTIONS
Cream the non-dairy butter in a small bowl then add the sugar, cocoa, vanilla, and enough liquid to make a thick but spreadable frosting.

Copyright © 2006 Compassionate Cooks, LLC – All rights reserved

ENJOY!

My heart is on the right place: I want to save the planet

I would love to eat only bio-meat (no, I am not going to be a vegetarian), eko-eggs and all that stuff, but seriously: how can you guys afford to do so?

When I am in the store, I can buy "conventional" food or eko, but the eko-stuff is always at least THREE times as expensive!

Sure, I wouldn't mind paying a bit more for "decent" food, but three times more… If I would pay that, I would need to take an extra job, and stop doing everything else I do: the money simply isn't there.

I found one shortcut for the vegetables: we now rent a 140 sq.metre patch of land on which we grow food, but that too isn't cheap (tools, seeds, all the other materials etc).

So, I am curious, how do others, who don't earn loads of money, do that?

Liam has suggested wholesale; I've mentioned farmer's markets. What other suggestions do you have about ways Jeroenla can eat green without breaking the budget? Let her know… others are probably interested, also…