Ten Reasons Not to Buy Factory-Farmed

I could say that I've been a conscientious vegetarian for 25 years, but really, I've eaten at least two dozen fish during that time and I've bought many leather products too (leather shoes, couch, chair etc.). What I have done is not eat red meat or poultry during the last 25 years (bacon hasn't tempted me one bit). However, I haven't thought deeply enough about why I'm vegetarian and what choices I can make that will be more in line with my values.

Eating Animals is such a persuasive book about the choice not to buy / eat animal products because of Safran Foer's personal ethical evolution as well as the way he frames the issue around factory farming as a destructive environmental force. Of course big agriculture is destructive too. If you have the resources, the best solution is to abandon grocery stores for farmer's markets or ethical local sources of produce. If you must eat meat, eggs or dairy, carefully consider the source.
 
Here are 10 reasons not to buy factory-farmed meat, poultry, or fish. The quotations are from Eating Animals:
Factory farms …
1. Use antibiotics to raise sick genetic mutants in crowded, filthy conditions

In the typical cage for egg-laying hens, each bird has 67 square inches of [floor] space [or less than ¾ the size of a sheet of typing paper]. Nearly all cage-free birds have approximately the same amount of space. (p 79)

2. Send animals to slaughterhouses where cruelty and even sadism are routine

Animals are bled, skinned, and dismembered while conscious. It happens all the time, and the industry and the government know it. Several plants cited for bleeding or skinning or dismembering live animals have defended their actions as common in the industry and asked, perhaps rightly, why they were being singled out. (p 230)

3. Produce highly infected animals

Scientific studies and government records suggest that virtually all (upwards of 95 percent of) chickens become infected with E. coli (an indicator of fecal contamination) and between 39 and 75 percent of chickens in retail stores are still infected. Around 8 percent of birds become infected with salmonella…. Seventy to 90 percent are infected with another potentially deadly pathogen, campylobacter. Chlorine baths are commonly used to remove slime, odor, and bacteria. (p 131)

4. Contribute to the creation and spread of new viruses (think influenza)

Breeding genetically uniform and sickness-prone birds in the overcrowded, stressful, feces-infested, and artificially lit conditions of factory farms promotes the growth and mutation of pathogens. The “cost of increased efficiency,” the report [by the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, which brought together industry experts and experts from the WHO, OIE, and USDA] concludes, is increased global risk for diseases. (p 142)

5. Contribute to antibiotic resistance (think MRSA)

In the United States, about 3 million pounds of antibiotics are given to humans each year, but a whopping 17.8 million pounds are fed to livestock—at least that is what the industry claims. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has shown that the industry underreported its antibiotic use by at least 40 percent…. Study after study has shown that antimicrobial resistance follows quickly on the heels of the introduction of new drugs on factory farms.  (p 140)

6. Destroy species

For every ten tuna, sharks, and other large predatory fish that were in our oceans fifty to a hundred years ago, only one is left. (p 33)
[Shrimp] trawlers sweep up fish, sharks, rays, crabs, squid, scallops—typically about a hundred different fish and other species. Virtually all die…. The average trawling operation throws 80 to 90 percent of the sea animals it captures as bycatch overboard. (p 191)

7. Pollute

Farmed animals in the United States produce 130 times as much waste as the human population—roughly 87,000 pounds of shit per second. The polluting strength of this shit is 160 times greater than raw municipal sewage. And yet there is almost no waste-treatment infrastructure for farmed animals. 174
Conservative estimates by the EPA indicate that chicken, hog, and cattle excrement has already polluted 35,000 miles of rivers in twenty-two states. (p 179)

8. Contribute to climate change

According to the UN, the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, around 40 percent more than the entire transport sector—cars, trucks, planes, trains, and ships—combined. (p 58)

9. Violate the human rights of their employees

[Undocumented immigrants] are often preferred, but poor recent immigrants who do not speak English are also desirable employees. By the standards of the international human rights community, the typical working conditions in America’s slaughterhouses constitute human rights violations. (p 131-32)

10. Change or ignore regulations in order to make more money

High-speed machines commonly rip open intestines, releasing feces into the birds’ body cavities. Once upon a time, USDA inspectors had to condemn any bird with such fecal contamination. But about thirty years ago, the poultry industry convinced the USDA to reclassify feces so that it could continue to use these automatic eviscerators. Once a dangerous contaminant, feces are now classified as a “cosmetic blemish.” As a result inspectors condemn half the number of birds. (p 134)

More Reasons to Buy Organic Produce

From the Shopper's Guide to Pesticides, presenting the Dirty Dozen:

1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes

Family Dinner Magic: Yet More Reasons to Eat Together

Ok, now I'm convinced. No more kid only meals while I wash dishes and Dan cooks our dinner while talking on the phone. We're all eating together. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

From the Slate article, The Mac and Cheese Effect: Why the family dinner is good for parents. The family dinner is ambrosia and nectar and manna, too, researchers have long told us. It helps prevent teenagers from abusing drugs and alcohol or smoking, and it protects them from stress, asthma, and eating disorders. It boosts kids' reading scores and grades. By the time all the virtues of dinner togetherness have been extolled, you can only feel that if you love your kids, you have to get home in time to sauté the stir fry. You might even cut back to working part time to force-feed them falafel, as law professor Cameron Stracher relates in a book he published last year.

Happily, according to a new study, family dinner appears to be good for parents, too. The research by lead author Jenet Jacob of Brigham Young University found that among 1,580 parents who worked at IBM, those who said their jobs interfered less with being home for dinner tended to feel greater personal success, and success in relationships with their spouses and their children. The working parents—both mothers and fathers—had all of these buoyant feelings if they made it home for dinner more regularly, even if they still worked long hours. They also felt more kindly toward their workplace. Parents who missed dinner at home because of work, on the other hand, felt gloomy about their professional futures. "It is noteworthy that although longer work hours predicted significantly greater perception of success in work life, work interference with dinnertime predicted lower perception of success in work life," Jacob and her co-author write.

Best Food Ever List by Elliot and Asher

Cheese Pizza
Satsuma Oranges ** very popular right now
Hot Dogs
Red Mill Hamburgers
Kiwi Fruit
Chocolate Milk
Turkey Ham
Cheetos
Turkey Baloney
Chicken
Apple Chicken Sausages
String Cheese
Golden Round Crackers
Ramen Noodle Soup
Tandori Chicken
Pho
Bean and Cheese Burritos
Cappellini with Parmesean
Baby Carrots
Broccoli
Salami
Apple Sauce
Apples
Macaroni and Cheese (Amy's)
Peanut Butter and Jelly
Yogurt

Bento Box Revolution

School is starting next week and while looking online for lunch boxes for Elliot I noticed that bento box blogs are all the rage. Bento is about reducing waste (no plastic or wax bags, certainly no Lunchables) and it's about making lunch so visually appealing that kids are tricked into eating it. Some bento lunch designs are so intricate, I can only stand back and admire. Bento is basically wacky food art that's nutritious.

Last year, Elliot barely ate at school. He'd have one bite of lunch and then run out to recess. I'll give bento a try, there are enough recipes online that something has to work. Lunch in a Box has tons of tips and recipes: Lunch in a Box: Mommy's Lunch Manifesto

Dallas Daily News: Bento-Style Boxes are Just Right For Kids' Lunches

Faux sushi: Cut the crust from a piece of bread, spread cream cheese on the bread, top with thinly sliced deli meat and roll tightly. Cut into ½ -inch slices to resemble a sushi roll. (From Shannon Carino.)

Fruit sushi: Cut the crust from a piece of bread, spread with pineapple cream cheese, add a banana, roll and slice.

Salad roll: Remove the thick rib from a romaine lettuce leaf. Top with favorite salad dressing, a thin slice of Muenster cheese, a thin slice of roast beef. Roll tightly and secure with a pick.

Sandwich on a stick: Alternate chunks of ham and cheese, separated by squares of bread. Finish with a strawberry.

Tortilla roll: Spread a tortilla with refried beans. Top with cooked chicken, shredded lettuce and grated cheese. Roll and slice. Use plastic skewers to secure.

Muffin cup: Layer the cup with shaved turkey, shredded lettuce and carrots.

Polenta pizza: Slice store-bought polenta, brown both sides in a skillet and top with tomato sauce, freshly chopped herbs and cheese; warm until cheese melts.

Alphabet pasta: Cook pasta according to package directions. Toss with freshly chopped vegetables and butter.

Mini stromboli: Slightly flatten canned biscuit dough. Spread with small amount of tomato sauce on half, top with chopped pepperoni, fold over and crimp edges with fork. Bake in a 350 F oven until golden

Macaroni and Cheese Taste Test

Our boys love macaroni and cheese like most kids. I recently read a Salon article about what a rip off "natural / gourmet" mac and cheese products are, how they're just as unhealthy as McDonalds and how Annie of Annie's Homegrown is an evil marketing genius. So we made our own version which took much longer than the prepared versions by the way. Pasta, cheese, butter and milk are really cheap, it's healthier than the prepackaged versions obviously. But our boys, who regularly eat penne or fusilli with salt, butter and grated romano or asiago, totally dissed it. Dan and I thought it was pretty good (but not worth the effort). Beecher's World's Best Mac and Cheese is my favorite, but it's also pricey.

Here's how the main contenders stacked up in our house:

Amy's Kitchen - Frozen. Calories: 410. Trans Fat: 0 Sodium: 590 Organic: 82% organic - milk, macaroni.
Asher, "It's good." Elliot, "This is the best. It's salty and cheesy." MK, "Good mouth feel. Nice cheddar flavor."

Annie's - From a box. We added milk. Calories: 280 (single serving) Trans Fat: 0 Sodium: 530 Organic: Certified organic by Oregon Tilth.
Asher says, "It's good." Elliot says, "I don't like it. It's boring."

Full Tank - Secret Agent Pasta Macaroni and Cheese - made by a local Seattle company. Frozen. Calories: 310 Trans Fat: 0 Sodium: 400 Organic: Certified O by Oregon Tilth. Asher says, "It's good." Elliot says, "Yuck. It's too sweet. Here you eat it Asher." MK says, "Not creamy enough, needs more salt or garlic." Designed by a chef and a pediatrician, Full Tank hides vegetables in the sauce which is why their mac and cheese is so sweet. Asher isn't that picky, but it didn't fool Elliot. The boys had carrots with dinner. So it wasn't really necessary to hide veggies for our guys.

Amy's Kitchen, the least healthy product won. But since we have a case of Annie's Mac and Cheese we'll continue to serve it regularly and buy Amy's on special occasions for Elliot. Maybe I'll buy Secret Agent Man for Asher on special occasions.

Rethinking the 5-Second Rule

Eating dropped pieces of food is fairly common in our house (depending on the type of food). If Asher fumbles his barely eaten burrito on the floor at dinnertime, we're more than likely say to him, "pick it up and eat it" in deference to the famous 5-second rule (also out of a desire to avert a tantrum and produce an alternative meal). I just read this NYT article, The Five-Second Rule Explored, or How Dirty Is That Bologna? and the answer is quick retrieval does mean fewer bacteria, but you should also consider which surface it touched.

Clemson University did several tests on floor to food contamination with E.coli and salmonella, and if the surfaces were contaminated, within 5 seconds food became contaminated. It only takes 10 salmonella and fewer than 100 E. coli to contaminate food. Those pesky salmonella can live up to 28 days. Fun fact: carpet retains tens of thousands more bacteria than wood or tile. Ewww gross.

Kid Food

Pre-foodie revolution, my childhood in the 70s and early 80s was filled with truly terrible food: American cheese toast, creamed chipped beef on toast (my dad's specialty), avocado with mayonnaise (another favorite of my dad's), canned peaches on cottage cheese, canned green beans, spaghetti with meat marinara, baked chicken, hamburgers, kosher hot dogs, mac and cheese with hot dogs, tuna sandwhiches, iceburg lettuce salads with mushy tomatoes and Italian dressing, chicken casseroles. Mostly home made. But high in fat and sodium.

Danny lucked out, Roberta was always health conscious and created a childhood food landscape that was much more evolved. Although Danny says that he didn't appreciate it at the time - a typical meal might include any or all of the following: chicken with panko bread crumbs and plum sauce, turkey burgers, brown rice and tofu.

When I started making my own food as a pre-teen, I was compelled to load garlic butter on everything I ate. Spaghetti with garlic butter and parmesean cheese. I made my own "party mix " with pretzels and chex cereral saturated in hot salty garlic butter. I microwaved garlic butter slathered bagels (this concoction required that I cover the bagel in plastic wrap which melted into the bread). I peeled off the melted plastic, but I'm sure this multiplied my risk of cancer 100x. Sally and I went through a phase where we cooked hamburger patties with a side of canned sliced potatoes (with butter and salt of course). I also ate loads of peanut butter mixed with ice cream or chocolate. It was a miracle I didn't become obese.

So now as a parent, how do I feed my kids? Have I cultivated a international, healthy gourmet palette in my kids? Well international yes, but healthy, no. When we eat out it's easier to feed them. They both like burritos. They like noodles -- udon, pad thai, pad see ew, pho -- that's all good. Elliot used to like aloo matar paneer, but now he'll only eat tandori chicken and naan. Asher loves rice and bread.

But at home we're really a mess. We're rarely on top of it enough to make more than two things for dinner. Trader Joes dominates our refrigerator - fake corn dogs, fake chicken nuggets, quesadillas, baby carrots, pasta and cheese, turkey dogs, chicken noodle soup, string cheese, yogurt. We occassionally make lasagne or enchiladas (which the kids won't eat - Asher claims that he wants to eat the lasagne but then it just sits there). We can't figure out what to feed Asher, he's off meat, off cheese, off eggs, off chicken noodle soup, off pasta (mac and cheese included). He'll eat any fruit, dried or fresh. He'll eat bread. But no protein.

Last night we had an especially ambitious meal: leftover chicken, homemade mac and cheese, french lentils, broccoli with cheddar cheese and bread. Asher ate the bread. Elliot ate the chicken and broccoli (after much coercion), but refused to eat the mac and cheese (it wasn't like Amy's frozen mac and cheese).

Danny thinks its time to go out to eat more. I agree.

Vegetarians Get the Last Laugh

I've been a vegetarian for 20 years (for health / environmental / ethical reasons) and I don't miss meat at all (my diet isn't all that veg and fruit rich however). I really don't like the taste of meat or poultry. I'm not a true vegetarian, I started eating fish while pregnant with Elliot because I was worried about getting enough iron and protein. Now I eat fish a few times a year in high end restaurants.

I made the decision to not raise the boys vegetarian because it's hard enough to feed kids. I say nothing about the fact that I don't eat meat because I don't want them to turn off from the whole food group. However it does seem strange that my 5 year old doesn't know anything about it. Danny gave up vegetarianism a few years ago and says he feels healthier, he's tried to get me to change my veg diet several times. Fish was my compromise, but I can take it or leave it. It seems like I'm always running into ex-vegetarians and ex-vegans (I can't see how anyone could stay vegan for long). I know only a handful of vegetarians. Well this British study gives us vegetarians vindication for any ridicule we may have endured over the years. Ha!

Study Finds Vegetarians Smarter
A study of thousands of men and women revealed that those who stick to a vegetarian diet have IQs that are around five points higher than those who regularly eat meat. Writing in the British Medical Journal, the researchers say it isn't clear why veggies are brainier - but admit the fruit and veg-rich vegetarian diet could somehow boost brain power.

The researchers, from the University of Southampton, tracked the fortunes of more than 8,000 volunteers for 20 years. At the age of ten, the boys and girls sat a series of tests designed to determine their IQ. When they reached the age of 30, they were asked whether they were vegetarian and their answers compared to their childhood IQ score.
Around four and a half per cent of the adults were vegetarian - a figure that is broadly in line with that found in the general population.

However, further analysis of the results showed those who were brainiest as children were more likely to have become vegetarian as adults, shunning both meat and fish. The typical adult veggie had a childhood IQ of around 105 - around five points higher than those who continued to eat meat as they grew up. The vegetarians were also more likely to have gained degrees and hold down high-powered jobs.

There was no difference in IQ between strict vegetarians and those who classed themselves as veggie but still ate fish or chicken. However, vegans - vegetarians who also avoid dairy products - scored significantly lower, averaging an IQ score of 95 at the age of 10.

Researcher Dr Catharine Gale said there could be several explanations for the findings, including intelligent people being more likely to consider both animal welfare issues and the possible health benefits of a vegetarian diet.

Previous work has shown that vegetarians tend to have lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol, cutting their risk of heart attacks. They are also less likely to be obese. Alternatively, a diet which is rich in fruit, vegetables and wholegrains may somehow boost brain power.

Dr Gale said: 'Although our results suggest that children who are more intelligent may be more likely to become vegetarian as adolescents or young adults, it does not rule out the possibility that such a diet might have some beneficial effect on subsequent cognitive performance.

'Might the nature of the vegetarians' diet have enhanced their apparently superior brain power? Was this the mechanism that helped them achieve the disproportionate nature of degrees?

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23378331-details/Vegetarians+are+more+intelligent%2C+says+study/article.do