When you think about it…support healthy living, not dumpster waste.

Millions of pounds of animal products are thrown away each year. By supporting a healthier lifestyle, our society could greatly reduce the amount of waste generated.

We are a wasteful society. We throw more things in the landfill, and, hopefully, the recycling bin, than most cultures. Some of those things, however, were once living, breathing, sentient beings who were raised only to be slaughtered for our taste buds. Of course, not all food waste comes from the slaughtered remains of pigs, cows, chickens, fish, etc. We throw away vegetables and fruits; we throw away grains; we throw away food, in general.

However, if we want to cut down on the suffering of farmed animals in this country, we need to focus on reducing the amount of animal food purchased but never eaten that winds up in the dumpster. If we could cut in half our animal wastefulness, we “would spare the lives of over 500 million chickens used for their meat, over 35 million egg-laying hens, over 15 million pigs and over 3 million cows each year .”

Along with being less wasteful, we can also turn our sights to eating fewer animals. A vegan/vegetarian lifestyle supports your health and the planet’s health. And, it automatically cuts down on the number of animals being farmed for food who may eventually wind up in the trash bin.

When you think about it…by supporting healthy living, fewer animals’ remains will wind up in the dumpster.

Feeding Children, Teaching Compassion

The LA Unified School District has decided to implement vegetarian choices through their “Meatless Mondays” lunch menu. Visit our Plant-Based Eating page to find recipes such as this West African-Style Peanut Stew.

Paws Up!
To the Los Angeles Unified School District for instituting Meatless Mondays in school cafeterias.

According to a news story, the Los Angeles Unified School District has instituted Meatless Mondays in all school cafeterias. What a great way to introduce students, and faculty, to the delights of vegetarian eating. Students can bring from home any food they want; but on Mondays, the cafeteria food service will be meat-free.

“Los Angeles has the second-largest public school district in the country. It should be a model for enterprising school menus, and going meatless is a smart move.”

Take Action: Los Angeles residents, let your superintendent know you applaud the decision to make Mondays meatless in school cafeterias. For the rest of our readers, contact your school district leaders and urge them to follow Los Angeles’s lead.

Dr. John E. Deasy
Superintendent, Los Angeles Unified School District
333 S Beaudry Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90017
Tele. No.: 213-241-1000
Fax: 213-241-8442

When you think about it…vegetarian/vegan eating is healthy, easy, and fun no matter who you are or where you live!

NHES advocates a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle for both humane and health considerations. Click here to view our own recipes!

Recently, the oldest runner ever to complete a marathon (that’s 26 miles of running) is ending his racing career—at nearly 102 years of age. He began running marathons after the age of 89. He’s vegetarian.

If Fauja Singh chooses to fly instead of run any place in the world, he’ll find many airlines accommodating his dietary needs. In fact, Turkish Airlines now offers seven different in-flight vegetarian options. If you’re planning a long distance trip by air, check with the airlines to see if they offer vegetarian/vegan meals. A quick review of a number of airlines indicates you shouldn’t have too much difficulty finding the right meal for you.

If your desire is to add some vegetarian/vegan dishes to your own menu, check out one of the most respected cookbook authorities, Betty Crocker, now in vegan form. Betty Goes Vegan: 500 Classic Recipes for the Modern Family .

When you think about it… vegetarian/vegan eating is healthy, easy, and fun no matter who you are or where you live!

 

When you think about it…celebrating abuse should not be a Thanksgiving tradition.

Turkeys are very social animals, and roost in trees with their companions.

This Thanksgiving, millions of Americans will sit down at tables ladened with food. Will a dead bird be one of the items, maybe even the centerpiece, on those tables? Sadly, the answer is yes. How can we celebrate a day that bids us give thanks when we are systematically killing millions of animals, many of whom suffered inordinate pain and trauma during their short, factory-farmed lives?

Thanksgiving celebrations should be life-affirming and joyous. When giving thanks, we should reflect on our care and concern for the planet and all her inhabitants. Celebrating abuse and suffering just doesn’t seem festive. Few who follow a vegan/vegetarian lifestyle can rejoice when they see what is happening at factory farms around the country. Only when we embrace the true meaning of Thanksgiving, a time of fellowship and love—for all animals—will we be able to celebrate fully and completely.

Join many of us who will sit down to tables also ladened with food but not ladened with misery. Join the vegan/vegetarian movement. For when you think about, Thanksgiving should be about celebrating life, not devouring death.

When you think about it…what have bacteria done for us lately?

Antibiotics ingested by eating animals can throw off the balance of helpful bacteria working in our bodies.

When we hear the word “bacteria,” we think of “germs.” We don’t like germs. Germs cause infections and diseases. But are all germs bad? Scientists have found “100 trillion good bacteria that live in or on the human body.”

So, we need to make sure we’re keeping our good bacteria fit and ready for action. How can we do that? One way is to avoid the overuse of antibiotics. The more we ingest antibiotics, the more likely we are to kill off not only the bad bacteria causing us illness but also the good bacteria that help us maintain proper balances for good health. That case of the sniffles may not need an antibiotic to clear it up. The fewer prescriptions we get for antibiotics, the stronger our body may be.

But there is another source of antibiotics we may not be aware of—the antibiotics that are used to fatten livestock being raised for slaughter. The overuse of antibiotics in factory farming can lead to antibiotic-resistant germs—super bugs as they are sometimes called—that we will not be able to defend against. While this is a real problem and one that should be addressed by the Food and Drug Administration, we can make sure we’re taking care of our healthy bacteria by eliminating antibiotics in our diet. The less often we ingest meat that comes from animals who have been fed antibiotics, the less often we will be killing off our good bacteria.

If our good bacteria are healthy, active, and plentiful, we benefit. When you think about it, they’re one of the best defenses we have against infection.

When you think about it…shouldn’t cooking involve some creativity?

Chefs in California are trying to fight the foie gras ban that goes into effect July 1. They’ve had 7½ years since the law was passed to say anything about the ban. This 11th hour effort will not get the ban lifted.

Chefs are artists; they create culinary masterpieces. So, why can’t they create a substitute for foie gras, which by the way is French for fatty liver? Instead of wanting to continue using a product that is abusively produced, why not come up with a substitute that can please the palate of the most discerning diner and save the lives of ducks and geese?

Chefs are experimenters; culinary creators; magicians with pots, pans, ingredients, sauces. Instead of staying wedded to a particular food, the chefs who want to fight the foie gras ban could, instead, be creating cuisine that tempts the taste buds while at the same time saves lives.

In fact, every dish in any restaurant can become a cruelty-free dish if the chefs thought innovatively. Instead of relying on a handful of animal products, they could rely on the myriad plant products that grace the food stores across the country. For example, think of all the various grains that exist and how, with a bit of culinary magic, those same grains can be turned into dishes fit for the most discerning of tastes. When we focus our cooking on only a small sample of items in the supermarket, we lose out on the wide variety of foods that are economically sound, environmentally healthy, and animal and human friendly.

Check out the new plant-based eating section on the NHES website, and check back frequently for additional recipes. All have been prepared by an NHES staff member and taste tested by many pleased staff members.

When you think about it, shouldn’t cooking and eating be fun, creative, innovative, and free from misery. Plant-based eating is all that—and mighty tasty, too.

When you think about it…what does modern Thanksgiving really celebrate?

Photo by John Eckman/Flickr

Today, the Thanksgiving holiday can have different meanings to different people. For most of us, it is a time for celebrating family and friends (and football). For others, it is a time for volunteering in their community and helping the less fortunate. Somewhere among this is a varied remembrance of traditional harvest festivals, and all the imagery that entails. Most of all, modern Americans associate Thanksgiving with lots of food, particularly seasonal favorites that we think to with child-like nostalgia and excitement. Casseroles, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and bread dressing are all expected to be present, featuring a baked and basted bird as our holiday centerpiece. Ironically, few of these things were fare that the pilgrims  would have enjoyed, and even turkey didn’t become a mainstay of the American holiday table until after major advertising campaigns by the poultry industry following World War II.

Many are surprised to learn of Benjamin Franklin’s disapproval of our choice of the Bald Eagle as national bird, thinking it looked more like a turkey as it was originally drawn on the seal, and preferring the latter. In a 1784 letter to his daughter Sally, he stated:

“I am on this account not displeased that the Figure is not known as a Bald Eagle, but looks more like a Turkey. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.”

Its hard to imagine what Franklin’s reaction might be to learn that our main relationship to the turkey nowadays is as an object of over-consumption during the winter holidays. It isn’t hard to imagine his alarm at seeing the conditions of turkeys raised for food today: birds bred to grow so large so quickly that they cannot fly or even move much on their own (a Broad Breasted White will grow to 35 pounds in 19 weeks, and have been bred to grow 57% larger than they normally would). They are unable to reproduce naturally, and rely instead on artificial insemination methods by humans, without which they would die as a species in one generation. They have their toes and beaks cut off without the use of anesthesia in painful measures that serve to keep the birds from maiming each other in the dark, confined spaces they are kept in by the thousands. Over 46 million turkeys have been raised and killed just for consumption on Thanksgiving day, last year.

The historical legacy of Thanksgiving celebrates abundant harvests, but perhaps our modern celebration of abundance has this backwards. New research reveals that Americans end up wasting a staggering 50-60% of the food that we grow. Further, we use large amounts of grains to fatten Thanksgiving turkeys and other livestock on factory farms; grains that could be better utilized feeding needy humans rather than force-feeding it to animals who aren’t adapted for such foods in their diet anyway.

Turkeys have been shown to recognize each other through the unique qualities of their individual voices, and over twenty distinct turkey vocalizations have been identified. They have also been shown to communicate amongst each other by the way they change the colors of their skins and necks. When you think about it…perhaps the best way to give our thanks for the bounty of the Earth is to appreciate and respect its wonders.

Be an example of compassionate living to your family, friends, and loved ones this holiday by embracing both tradition and taste-buds! Check out these amazing sites below for a slew of vegan and vegetarian recipe ideas and menu plans. Have fun trying something new, or better yet take a conventional favorite and re-imagine it meat-free!

Vegan.com Thanksgiving Holiday Feature 2008 – An entire meal plan; check out the stuffed winter squash! This is a great introduction to  veganizing those mashed potatoes and gravy, etc.

Vegan.com Thanksgiving Holiday Feature 2009 – The Roasted Wheatmeat with Oyster Mushroom and “Sausage” Stuffing makes our mouths water (even if it does have a funny name)! Of course more traditional favorites are to be found.

Meatless Mondays: 15 Vegetarian Thanksgiving Recipes – We can’t wait to try the wild rice pilaf with butternut squash, cranberries, and pecans; the picture of the Seitan Roulade with Sage and Sweet Onion Stuffing blows us away!

VegKitchen Thanksgiving Recipes – A wide collection of recipes sorted by category for quick reference.

VegWeb.com Thanksgiving Category – This user-submitted recipe site is a great source for finding ideas for specific ingredients, or to take ideas from to make your own concoctions.

21 Day Kickstart India – Vegan Cooking Videos - Indian cooking videos galore, for those of you who want to bypass convention this year, or for the simply culinary curious.

Happy Thanksgiving from NHES!

When you think about it…do commercials affect our food choices?

Photo by clstal/flickr

We see commercials on television of cows, pigs, chickens, and turkeys out in the farmer’s yard, eating grass, scratching for grubs, wallowing in water holes. Sometimes these animals are portrayed as actually talking to us to let us know how happy they are to be members of the farmer’s family. They let us know how nutritious their products are. Sometimes they claim to give us strong bones and healthy teeth.

These commercials are intended to make eating meat more palatable to the viewing public. If these animals could really speak our language, or we theirs, they would be unlikely to tell us they want to be confined in small spaces while all their nutrients go toward creating a glass of milk, an omelet, a package of bacon, or a fast food hamburger. Their happy portrayals also leave out the hectic, crowded conditions when the animals are herded onto trucks bound for the slaughterhouse.

When you think about it…as consumers, we have the right to know how our food is produced. Do happy farmed animal commercials hinder our ability to know?

New Vegan Cooking Show Jazzes Up Conventional Cooking

Paws Up!

To the National Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), Oregon Public Broadcasting Service (OPB), and the National Educational Telecommunication Association (NETA) for supporting, promoting, and televising the new cooking show The Jazzy Vegetarian.

In an exciting new milestone for compassionate lifestyles, PBS has started airing the first nationally-broadcast, all-vegan cooking show, The Jazzy Vegetarian. Veteran radio personality and performing jazz singer Laura Theodore will host the 30 minute episodes on various PBS networks in 21 states. Following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, Theodore has tried to embrace conventional American cuisine in a way that makes it healthful and cruelty free, without sacrificing taste or tradition. In a recent interview, she says:

My mother and my grandmother both made lasagna, and when I became a vegetarian in 1981, there just weren’t any recipes (for that dish). I started taking all of these family recipes and started making them vegan. And then I started taking the recipes that I had collected as a cook and made them vegan. And then I just started coming up with my own new things that I felt reflected the taste of classic American food.

This show will illustrate to even more Americans that plant-based cooking can yield healthful dishes every bit as flavor-packed as their conventional counterparts. Potentially, it could inspire other vegan and vegetarian-themed cooking programs on other networks.

A list of networks that are broadcasting The Jazzy Vegetarian and the times it will be televised can be found on the PBS website.

Take Action: Join us in writing the NETA, OPB, and PBS to thank them for this new step in highlighting the health and taste benefits of plant-based eating. Let’s encourage them to expand their broadcast of this show, and promote other vegetarian-themed cooking programs in the future.

Gayle Loeber
Programming and Information
National Educational Telecommunication Association
PO Box 50008
Columbia, SC 29250
Email: gloeber@netaonline.org

Lynne Clendenin
Vice President of Programming
Oregon Public Broadcasting
7140 SW Macadam Avenue
Portland, OR 97219
Email: radiovp@opb.org

Mary Gardner
Director of TV Programming
Oregon Public Broadcasting
7140 SW Macadam Avenue
Portland, OR 97219
Email: tv@opb.org

John Wilson
Senior Vice President and Chief TV Programming Executive
Public Broadcasting Service
2100 Crystal Drive
Arlington, VA 22202

Sources:
Public Broadcasting Service
Oregon Live

When you think about…aren’t miracle drugs supposed to perform miracles?

When you think about…aren’t miracle drugs supposed to perform miracles?

According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, 80 percent of antibiotics used in the United States are administered to farmed animals to promote their growth and to reduce the risk of their contracting illnesses in the crowded living conditions of the factory farm.

Photo by Amanda Scheliga/Flickr

Weren’t antibiotics meant to save lives? Aren’t they supposed to attack nasty germs like salmonella, MRSA, e.coli, and other others? So, what are they doing being fed to supposedly healthy animals (after all these animals are going to be slaughtered for our consumption so one would hope they are healthy)? With such widespread use of antibiotics on the factory farm, it was bound to happen—this overuse of antibiotics created bacteria resistant to the very antibiotics were meant to destroy them.

A Center for Science in the Public Interest survey of foodborne illnesses indicates that contaminated foods were most often found in dairy products followed by ground beef, poultry, pork, seafood, and eggs.

While even vegetables have been linked with foodborne illnesses, they are less likely to be as contaminated as meat, fish, and fowl products coming from factory farms. Therefore, a vegan or vegetarian diet reduces our risk of contact with these bacteria and therefore our need for antibiotics to combat their attack on our bodies.

There is currently a bill before Congress, the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act—HR 965/S 1211). This bill will protect human health by limiting the use of antibiotics in livestock.

When you think about it…factory farming is contributing to an increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria which puts us at risk and definitely puts the animals at risk who are raised for the dinner table.