A Peaceful Halloween

Happy Halloween to everyone and safe trick-or-treating to all the kiddos out there!

I read, think, and write regularly about the treatment of animals within our food system. We know huge corporations wield their power over cows, chickens, and pigs, but there is another species whose mistreatment deserves some attention: humans.  It is people who harvest fruits, nuts, and vegetables, and unfortunately those same corporations are guilty of taking advantage of their workers in the form of low wages and miserable conditions.

Cashews
I love cashews.  They are a yummy topping in stir-frys.  They can be turned into a delicious dessert. But have you noticed cashews are one of the only nuts you can't buy in the shell? Cashews are a cousin to poison ivy, and between the shell and nut lie the same pesky oils that cause severe rashes in many of us.  It is the job of human workers, mainly in subtropical countries like Vietnam and parts of Africa, to remove the shell and toxins from these nuts.

Cashew workers are typically not given gloves or masks, so the oils cause burning and rashes on their hands and eyes.  In May of this year, several hundred workers went on strike in Mozambique because of their low wages (about 56 USD per month) and no access to toilets during their workday. What can we, the consumers, do?  Try peanuts, pecans, or almonds.

Cocoa
The vast majority of candy bars being tricked-and-treated every year are likely to have been made with cocoa beans picked by children. In fact, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture estimates there are 284,000 children working on cocoa farms along the Ivory Coast of Africa in hazardous conditions.

What companies buy these beans?  Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and the U.S. division of Cadbury.  They claim the treatment and age of workers on foreign farms is beyond their control. Could it also be related to this equation: cheaper labor = cheaper cocoa beans? Certainly. 

As any woman knows, giving up chocolate is not an option, but alternatives do exist in the form of "fair trade" products.  Fair trade items are more expensive for the consumer, but they protect the farmer and the workers by making sure more money goes into their pockets. While fair trade food may be a bit harder to find, most specialty stores carry a lot of it and it is quickly becoming more mainstream. Those of us who can find it and can afford it should absolutely be purchasing fair trade when possible.

Ode to the Pig

I've seen several articles trumpeting the resurgence of the McRib sandwich on major news websites this week. These are websites that typically report on political happenings and environmental crises - so kudos to the McDonald's marketing team for a job well done.  The sandwich gets "released" every so often which generates interest and excitement among many consumers.

At this point, I must confess that I intended to search for #McRib chatter and post snippets of people's excitement over the sandwich. I did do the search, and I found a lot of happy remarks, but I was incredibly surprised at how much of what I read was anti-McRib. I've chosen to post those remarks instead:

Either Twitter is a haven for opinionated, yuppie foodies or it's a truly representative sample of Americans who have some sense. I hope the latter!

One must assume that McRib pork comes from factory farmed pigs based on the sheer quantity required to meet the demands of millions of customers . Everything I've read about the factory farming of animals makes me sad.  Sad for the animals who cannot speak up for themselves and angry at huge companies for taking advantage.  I'm not a vegetarian, and I understand that the eventual fate of any for-food animal is the same, but I believe also that the type of life they get to live matters. Every living thing will die one day, however, a life spent meandering outside, rooting around in the earth should be unanimously accepted as better than a life spent confined in a pen, sickly, and presumably unhappy.

Ode To The Pig

A factory pig's days

are no roll in the mud.

Dirty and crowded and stale.

So much potential for them,

with a toddler's intelligence

and social as a wagging dog.

But owners Smithfield and Tyson

need to keep expenses low.

Living among filth and disease,

the hogs grow too large for their bones

because of antibiotics.

Now Americans can devour
pork sandwiches

for a few bucks.

A Humble Plate

Henry, our adopted dog, will eat anything.  I've caught him with chunks of lint he's theived from the laundry room trash. Rocks and mulch from the back yard are prized, crunchy treats. A dirty paper towel or a decorative silk flower arrangement?  He'll take both. Presented with an expanse of freshly mowed grass, Henry goes into "whale mouth" by dropping his bottom jaw and running it along the ground to fill it with clumps of the loose pasture as if he were a large ocean mammal gathering krill. He's most excited to go outside in the Fall because he knows a delightful temptation awaits in unlimited quantity: LEAVES. As with most dogs, Henry cannot be reasoned with.  Arguments such as "Rocks are not for eating," and "Here's a handful of your real food," fall on deaf (but cute) ears.

Not So Different

I was reminded of Henry's love of non-food substances when reading an article on artificial sweeteners at Food Renegade, and I realized that we humans are also guilty of an affinity for non-food.  It's not our fault, really.  Non-food is scattered among real food at the grocery store. It sits at eye-level, calling out to us from colorful, ergonomic packaging.  It says "I'll make you skinny!" and "I'll prevent heart disease and cancer and you'll live forever!"

Unfortunately, a lot of the products making these claims are working very hard to compensate for what they lack: real food.  Let's take an example. Dannon's Light & Fit Vanilla Yogurt sounds like something that would be very good for you. I want to be "Light & Fit" and I would bet a lot of other consumers do, too. Yogurt is well-known for providing calcium, protein, and those active cultures that placate our digestive systems.  However, Dannon's contains the following non-yogurt ingredients:  modified food starch, fructose, kosher gelatin, natural vanilla flavor, aspartame, citric acid, potassium sorbate, caramel color, acesulfame potassium, sucralose, annatto extract, and sodium citrate. Blech.

Go Humble
Have you ever heard an apple announce that it's good for your heart?  Or heard a carrot rant and rave about how little fat and sugar it has? Old-fashioned oats don't feel the need to boast "100% whole grain", although that's exactly what they are. It doesn't get much lower-carb than broccoli, but you won't see weight-loss companies advertising the flowery green.

We need to forget about labels and their claims and eat as much "humble food" as we can.

Humble food is something your great-grandmother would have recognized as food. It probably contains ingredients that you can picture in their natural form. A good rule of thumb is that humble food is something you could make. Whether you choose to is a different story. You might have a paralyzing fear of bees (guilty!), so bee-keeping is not for you but you could make honey. You could press your own olives, juice your own grapes, and deep-fry your own potatoes.

Some things you probably couldn't make:

• High Fructose Corn Syrup
• Chemical sweeteners - e.g. Splenda, Aspartame, Saccharine, Stevia powder
• White Flour, Rice, or Pasta - i.e. wheat in which the bran and germ (the nutrient-and-fiber-rich parts) have been removed.
• Artificial colors
• Deli meat
• Feedlot beef - sure, you could raise a few cows given enough land, but confining them in a small concrete pen and pumping them full of corn, soy, and antibiotics would be hard for even the meanest among us.

Keep in mind that most real food is not found in the middle aisles of a grocery store.  It's found in the front as sustainably-farmed produce and in the back as pasture-raised meat and dairy.  Naturally, the shortest path from the front to the back of the store is straight through the middle where those boastful processed items are. Hug the perimeter, read the ingredient lists to look for things you could have made, and remember that rocks are not for eating!

The Plate of the Future

The New York Times Food & Drink issue came out this week.  It is a great and informative read that I would recommend to others interested in food or it's impacts on the environment.  My favorite section of articles are those by Michael Pollan, author of "Food Rules" and "The Omnivore's Dilemma", which I will be adding to my reading list shortly.  One of his blurbs in Food & Drink questions what our food system will be like in 100 years.  He guesses, and I agree:

"...the present one is — in the precise sense of the word — unsustainable. It depends on fossil fuels that we can't depend on and exacts a steeper price in human and environmental health than we can afford."

 I have a few more specific predictions of my own:

• There will be significantly less meat on our plates. That's not to say we all have to become vegetarians, but, as Pollan notes, 9-plus ounces of meat per American per day is unsustainable.  It seems that we haven't evolved beyond the mindsets of our medieval ancestors - whoever has the most meat is the richest and most likely to survive.  Today, it's quite the opposite. People must become conscious about just how much meat they are consuming and how the farming practices used to support their meat habits negatively impact the environment.  
• Individuals will grow more of the food they eat.  I see this happening already among some friends. It can also be seen, however, in the surge in popularity of farmer's markets up 1000 this year over 2010.  People are developing a desire to be informed about where their food comes from and how it was grown or treated.
• The government, if government gets involved at all, will begin to start subsidizing organic food rather than feedlot meat, processed foods, and soda.  European governments have already made the switch.  Perhaps a a fat tax, as Denmark has instituted, will help buyers change their habits.

• While I think our food system needs to become simpler - "simpler" referring to a simpler time and eliminating feedlots and hauling food across the world - it also seemed destined that technology will play an increased role.  One company is already labeling their meat with QR codes so a simple scan via smartphone app will tell you where it came from.  Refrigerators are online. Software can help sustainable farmers use their land and water most effectively. I hope that technology is not used to manufacture or genetically modify more foods that could and should be grown naturally.

In the same way that we cannot rely on gasoline to power our automobiles forever, we cannot continue to use farming methods which demand finite resources.  Farmers and farming methods will adapt if consumers change their habits and preferences.  It is up to the consumer, whether via government regulation or self control, to eat responsibly, to be educated about the treatment of food both animal and vegetable, and to translate that education into conscientious purchases.

The Week in Food News (and a NIBBLE Update)!

This week I've come across some nuggets in the news and learned something interesting in Real Life.   News: if you have a bigger shopping cart you are very likely going to buy more stuff.  Maybe that's intuitive, but less so is that the larger your fork at a restaurant, the less you eat.  Real Life Discovery: While there is always a line to the door at Chipotle at 9:45pm, there is not one person there at 5pm.  Does that mean older people (early-bird special types) don't enjoy cilantro-infused rice?  Below are a few other recent tidbits in food news.


Favorite Quote So Far
The author of a New York Times article about a farm in Iowa humanely raising pigs was captivated by the farm, the health of the animals, and the fabulous taste of the pork they produced.  He wrote that it was easily the best he had ever eaten.  Lucky for us non-Iowans, Chipotle is doing it's part by buying all of the pork shoulder this farm offers them.  My new favorite quote comes from this article:

“Food isn't just a pile of stuff to be measured by weight and volume, and there’s a reason industrially produced meat is just a little more expensive than garbage."

Meat Eater's Guide To Climate Change + Health
The Meat Eater's Guide is really well done.  They studied the complete life cycle of many animals and vegetables that we eat and evaluated their contribution to greenhouse gasses in the environment.  If everyone in the U.S. followed "Meatless Mondays", it would be the equivalent of driving 91 billion fewer miles, or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.  They found that 20% of the greenhouse gas emissions from raising and producing cattle come from meat that just gets thrown out, so when you do buy it make sure you only buy what you can realistically use. Oh, and lentils are awesome.


It's important to know that the study only looked at farming using conventional methods (feedlots, antibiotics, etc), and not traditionally farmed, grass-fed animals.   People's biggest complaint about the humanely raised animals is that their meat is more expensive, but the guide addresses this by noting if you eat less of it you can afford to buy meat of a higher quality.  In Howard County, Clarkland Farm is my favorite place to buy grass-fed beef.     


Gojee
I was going to do a whole post on food websites and technology, but that's taking too long so here's my favorite new recipe website.  Gojee let's you put in an ingredient that you already have and suggests recipes that use it.  It's a visually stunning site, and the creators have personally reviewed all the recipes. Recipes have come from some of the best food bloggers, so you're definitely going to find something special.  While sites like AllRecipes have 5000 different recipes for chocolate chip cookies, Gojee has about 5000 unique and inspiring recipes in total.  

In NIBBLE News...

I cheated.  Once.  It was Tuesday, and I was starving (blame the marathon training). I had been thinking about candy for 4 or 5 days and I caved.  I didn't overindulge, and I haven't gone back so I'm still claiming success overall.

Running Free

Dan and I are training for the Baltimore Marathon this October.  Marathon training involves a LOT of running.  There is a science behind it and some workouts should be shorter/faster/longer/hillier than others, but the gist is that you are running.  Today was a particularly beautiful summer morning for a run in Maryland - sunny, cool, and not humid - and I enjoyed every minute of my short three-miler.

When I finish a run, I like to eat something with a lot of protein to help rebuild muscles and aid in recovery.  Dan goes for a protein drink; he mixes water with a vegetarian protein powder (pea-potato-spirulina which tastes about as good as it sounds).  I typically enjoy a plate of scrambled eggs, by which I mean one egg and some egg whites mixed together.   I'm very careful about what type of eggs I buy, making sure the packaging says "Cage Free" and that the eggs are organic, meaning no antibiotics or hormones were used.  I thought that these labels meant the hens enjoyed a lovely life full of sunshine and space to roam.  According to a 2010 graphic published by the New York Times I was very wrong.

I'm including the graphic here, too.  Even though it's not to scale, I think it's really important to see.  The red dotted lines are how much hens raised in battery cages get (97% of laying hens) and how much space cage-free hens get (2% of laying hens).  Even the 1% of hens that are raised "free range" may not be as free to roam as it sounds.  They usually have limited hours of access to the outside world.

What Is Being Done?

Some recent good news is that the Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers, representing 80% of laying hens, are pushing Congress to pass a bill which dictates how much space these hens should have.  The recommendation is 144 square inches per hen, more than twice as much as they currently get and even more than the cage-free birds!  This would actually be the first federal law related to the treatment of farm animals and could set a great precedent for future legislation.

What Can You Do?
Short of raising your own hens, which actually isn't a bad idea if you have some outdoor space and a little free time, this is a difficult question.  Some small, family-run farms will let you buy eggs directly.  This has an advantage in that you may be able to see how the hens are raised, or at least talk to someone knowledgeable of their treatment. Disadvantages include an extra trip outside of your normal grocery store run, and the fact that there aren't going to be small family-run farms within driving distance of everyone in the country.

Some larger farmer's markets sell eggs as well.  These farmers might come from slightly farther than you are willing to drive, so that is a good option to still get localish eggs and to be able to talk to the farmers about the living conditions of their hens.  The disadvantage with farmer's markets is that they typically do not run all year long.

For my part, I will continue to buy the "cage free" eggs I see in stores because that seems the most humane of the commercially available options.  I will investigate what is being sold at my local farmer's market.  I also plan to keep an eye on the legislation as it goes to Congress, although even if it passes it will take 18 years for the new rules to be fully phased in.  And of course, I will keep running.