How To Find Your Local Farmers Market
We received an email message from one of our readers in Sparks, Nevada last night. She asked us if we could help her find a farmers market in her neighborhood. It occurred to us, that as spoiled Californians we take the farmers market for granted. Of course there's one close by... more likely, there are several, and they're not all on the same day of the week, so we have access to fresh produce any time, even in the dead of winter (when our day time highs may not even break 60°F).
Obviously, that's not going to be the case elsewhere in the country. So, here's a link to the USDA Farmers Market Database where you can search for a nearby market in your state, county, or city. It might be worth a look, even if you think you know all the markets in your area. You might just find a gem!
And, if you don't already shop at your local farmers market, you may want to give it a try. There's nothing like just-picked produce!
– We’ve had some renewed interest in our petition to Oprah, asking her to do a piece on factory farming. We will be sending this information to Oprah on Monday, 5/19. If you haven’t already signed, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
Japanese Dolphin Massacre
Just to prove I'm specifically picking on Canada... Here's a link to a story about the annual Japanese Dolphin Hunt. The dolphin hunt runs from September through April and results in the slaughter of thousands of dolphins annually. Thirteen fishing boats force the dolphins into a shallow cove in Taiji, where a number of them are selected to be sold into "swim with the dolphin" programs or to aquariums. The others are slaughtered and sold as food. However, most (if not all) dolphin meat has toxic levels of mercury, and is therefore inedible.
Here are some facts which might just relieve you of your sushi cravings permanently. They cured us:
- 70% of the human race relies on seafood as a major source of protein.
- Pollution of our seafood is now the greatest public health threat that humanity has ever faced.
- Mercury bio-accumulates in the food chain. Top ocean predators like sea mammals and tuna have high levels of mercury in their meat. These range from 5 to 3500 times the amount of mercury allowed by Japanese law. 0.3 parts per million (ppm) is the published safe limit. The highest concentrations of mercury are found in the animals’ organs.
- Mercury is a neurotoxin and is particularly damaging to fetuses and small children.
- All tuna, including canned is potentially harmful.
- High-grade sushi is the worst source of mercury and other pollutants. Since the best cuts of the meat are from the bigger, fattier fish, more pollutants have bio-accumulated in the meat.
source: Oceanic Preservation Society
In order to bring all of the above information to the attention of the public, the Oceanic Preservation Society has clandestinely filmed the Taiji Dolphin Hunt and created a documentary, entitled The Rising. This film is slated to be released this summer.
As I continue to read more about how we are poisoning ourselves and our planet, and as I read more about how badly we treat our fellow inhabitants of the planet, I am very happy to proclaim I am a vegan.
– If you haven’t signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
Vegan Eating Trumps Eating Locally
Happy Earth Day, a tiny bit early. In the interests of promoting green, I thought I 'd share with you this study I found. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University did a comprehensive study of the carbon footprint of food. Apparently the push to "eat local" isn't as impactful to the environment as eating lower on the food chain.
Food travelled an average of 1640 km in its final trip to the grocery store, out of total of 6760 km on the road for the raw ingredients. But some foods log more kilometres than others. Red meat averaged 20,400 km – just 1800 of those from final delivery.
Accounting for greenhouse gas emissions made those contrasts even starker. Final delivery "food-miles" make up just 1% of the greenhouse emissions of red meat, and 11% for fruits and vegetables.
To drive his point home, Weber calculated that a completely local diet would reduce a household's greenhouse emissions by an amount equivalent to driving a car 1600 km fewer per year. He assumed the car travels 10.6 km per litre of petrol (25 mpg). Switching from red meat to veggies just one day per week would spare 1860 km of driving.
Source: New Scientist Magazine
This is contrary to what a lot of people have been talking about lately. Jane's been reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
And while I agree with the concept of eating locally in general, the Carnegie Mellon study validates Jane's choice of sautéed tofu and veggies followed by a non-local dessert of cut up pineapple, mango, and blackberries for dinner tonight. The 11% of additional food miles added to the greenhouse emissions of these fruits, since they're not local, doesn't even compare to what I've saved by not eating meat!
-- If you haven't signed our petition to Oprah asking her to do a piece on factory farming, please consider doing so. We can all work together to make a difference.
Petition to Oprah – Revisited
Savia contacted us this morning and suggested a modification to our petition.
Oprah’s not the kind of person who is going to ask her viewers to be vegan. However, it is possible she would do a show about the horrors of the way animals that are raised and slaughtered for our food are treated. I wish you had focused on that instead. Because if you highlighted the abuses and encouraged her to do a show on that, then the natural implication is that people watching that show will come to their own conclusions on becoming vegetarian or seeking out more humaine food options.
I think this strategy would have reached more people and would have had a better chance of success (i.e. Oprah doing a show on livestock abuse/conditions).
And we agree. Since we've only had a few signatories so far, we went ahead with it. We changed the end request from asking Oprah to suggest that her audience consider becoming vegan to specifically asking her to do a story on what goes on in the factory farming industries. We feel that while the wording was changed here, we do not believe we have significantly altered the intent of this petition to Oprah.
Please note -- in the interest of fairness to those who have signed this petition we will not be making any further changes.
A Petition To Oprah — Treat Livestock Humanely
To Our Readers:
Jane and I have spent a significant portion of the last two weeks putting together a petition to Oprah Winfrey. On April 4th, Oprah did a show in memory of her companion dog, Sophie, who passed away on March 10th. The show was inspired by a billboard she saw on her way in to work, asking her to investigate puppy mills. During this show, Oprah exposed some of the horrors inherent in the nature of this business. However, she made, what we consider to be, a blunder when she defended the breeders by saying that they thought of these dogs as livestock. The implication here, which was hopefully unintended, is that livestock can be abysmally treated by their owners.
Oprah Winfrey is one of the most influential people in this country, if not the world. Her reach is far. If enough of us get together and sign a petition, perhaps we can get her to present to her audience the inhumane nature of the treatment of livestock.
We need your help. We're asking you to please sign our petition, and to pass this along to everyone you know. We can work together to change the world!
Thank you -- Lane & Jane Wright
Go Green Expo in NYC
I'm pretty excited... I stumbled across the "Go Green Expo" which will be taking place in New York and Los Angeles this year. Unfortunately for me, the site only has information on the New York Go Green Expo, and I live on the other coast! But, they are asking visitors to their site to check back for updated info on Los Angeles. The dates for the New York expo are April 26-27 at the NY Hilton.
Anyway, what is the Go Green Expo? It's basically a trade show which provides information on how you can leave a smaller environmental footprint.
Go Green Expo will feature hundreds of companies showcasing the latest earth friendly products & services, dozens of interactive seminars & speeches, an eco-film festival, an eco-fashion show and a variety of hands on demonstrations.
The expo will be divided into separate eco-pavilions including transportation, energy alternatives, home, green investing, organic food & wine, green office, health & beauty and a children's learning center.
It sounds like a wonderful idea, but in all this going green, I didn't notice anything about eating meatless. We know that a vegan/vegetarian diet has a significant positive impact on the environment; eating lower on the food chain requires less resources to produce food. Perhaps the veg*n aspect will be touched upon in the segment on organic foods, or perhaps I missed it when I skimmed through the program. Regardless, in my mind going green seems to go hand-in-hand with being vegan, so even if they don't touch on veganism at the Expo, it's probably still worth attending!
Farmer’s Market Produce
It's great to live in Southern California. This is a photograph of our local farmer's market taken December 29th! Jane and I often comment on how spoiled we are. We have access to a Farmer's Market every day of the week; four of them are within 5 miles of our home!
Being regulars at our farmer's market affords us the sensation of living in a small town. Our local merchants know us. They know what we typically buy, they suggest things we might like to try, and offer tips on how to select and prepare things. They even talk to us about their families. It's a little bit of polite society here in the big city.
And, it's an environmentally sound practice. They say you're supposed to eat locally. (Less fuel consumption to get the produce to you = fewer emissions = less greenhouse gasses...) We're happy to do our share, but really, our motives are purely selfish. The produce is SOOOO much better here than what we get at the supermarket. Just think about it, wouldn't you rather eat a tangerine that was growing on a tree the day before you ate it, as opposed to being in transit for at least a week?
Eat Green – Literally and Figuratively
As I've mentioned in previous posts, once you tell someone you're doing something a little out of ordinary they tend to challenge you. Yesterday we were chatting with our cousins who think we are insane for restricting our diet so severely. Tom wanted to know why, exactly, we were doing this, but somehow the conversation transitioned to something else before I finished my answer. So this post's for you Tom!
1) Health: Vegetarian, and more specifically, vegan diets are credited with reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a whole host of other chronic conditions.
2) Environment: Eating lower on the food chain is much better for our environment; it takes fewer resources to grow vegetables than it does to grow cattle! The production of animal based foodstuff is a major source of environmental pollution and consumes vast quantities of resources from water to pesticides to petroleum, not to mention the fact that the grain used to feed cattle could be used to feed humans.
3) Humanity: Factory farming is inhumane. Hens are kept in overcrowded conditions and debeaked to prevent them from pecking each other to death. Pigs are kept in wire cages that are large enough so they are not pressed up against the bars, but not so large as to allow them to turn around. The cows, well they aren't so happy (reference to the "happy cows" dairy campaign here in California). Ducks and geese are force fed to the point of bursting to make liver pate. I could go on, but I find it particularly bothersome to think about any of this.
For more detailed facts and information try the following sites:
- Vegan Outreach for information on all three topics above;
- Peta, for information on cruelty to animals in farming;
- EarthSave, for information on environmental issues and concerns.
- And finally, here's the link to the United Nation's comprehensive report entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, which details the environmental impact of farming on the planet.
Bottom line: We're cutting back our consumption of animal products significantly, and hopefully reducing our chances of heart attack and other so-called lifestyle diseases. We're also reducing our carbon footprint (our impact on global warming).
If any of these arguments have swayed you and you're interested in trying a vegetarian or vegan diet, sign up to take the Veg Pledge here.
Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving to all those turkeys who have been spared thanks to the Tofurky.
Because…
Any time Jane and I mention that we are now vegan, the invariable question we get is "why?" I stumbled upon this segment from a book I have yet to read. But really, this says it all.
"It is increasingly obvious that environmentally sustainable solutions to world hunger can only emerge as people eat more plant foods and fewer animal products. To me it is deeply moving that the same food choices that give us the best chance to eliminate world hunger are also those that take the least toll on the environment, contribute the most to our long-term health, are the safest, and are also, far and away, the most compassionate towards our fellow creatures."
John Robbins, author of Diet for a New America
