What is Del Monte Smoking?

The lunch room at my new place of employment is populated by a few magazines including one back issue of Good Housekeeping. I personally am not a huge fan of this magazine, but it passes the time while waiting for the eye doctor when my only other choices are Cosmo or Southern Living. The former I don’t want to be and the latter I don’t want to do. Anyway . . . I was flipping through this five-month-old issue when I came across an ad for canned peaches. Now I don’t eat canned fruit. I can’t imagine why anyone would want to eat canned fruit. But I understand that it has been around for a long time and a lot of people like it. What I don’t understand is this ad.

Perhaps you’ve seen it? There is a picture of a large fresh peach and the copy basically reads (I’ll have to paraphrase here because I couldn’t tear the ad out of the magazine), “Why buy fresh fruit and throw money away when you can buy canned?” Ummm. So to Del Monte buying fresh fruit equals throwing money away? Well sure it does if you don’t actually eat the stuff and let it go bad. I occasionally can’t make it through all of the spinach in the bag and have to throw a couple of handfuls out, but that doesn’t mean I consider it a waste of money to buy it in the first place. It just means the next time I buy it I make more of a concerted effort to actually eat it all before it turns to green goo.

We all know that Del Monte needs to sell the fruit they’ve canned, but an ad campaign extolling the virtues of canned fruit makes more sense than bashing the idea of fresh. Are there really consumers who will read the ad and say, “Hey! You know what? They’re right. No more fresh peaches for me. I’m going to buy canned. Thanks, Del Monte!” Come to think of it, judging by all the fast food lunches that go walking past my desk everyday, they might be more attuned to the average American eater than I am.

What if I Can’t Turn Down a Doughnut?

Last week I started a new job at a bank. And this is an old, local, family-owned bank, the kind that has customers going back decades. The kind where the customer walks in the door and everyone yells, “Norm!” On day five at this job an old customer came in, a sweet elderly man, and we chatted for a bit. Finally he asked me if I like doughnuts. I answered, truthfully, that I do. Not more than 15 minutes later he came back with three boxes of Dunkin’ Donuts for the tellers, the call center, and me.

Now, in case you didn’t realize it, glazed doughnuts are not vegan. (This is where my readers all roll their eyes and say, “Duh!”). Under normal circumstances I would never go to Dunkin’ Donuts and buy, well, a doughnut. BUT, in my first week on a new job, with an old, beloved customer in front of me holding out a box of the rings of delight, and having just told him that I like them, I couldn’t very well turn one down. If I had been quicker thinking on my feet earlier I might have said that I like doughnuts but don’t eat them. But alas, it was not so. And there he was smiling and holding out a doughnut. There was really only one option available.

So I took it and I ate it and I liked it.

A Few Ways to Ease the Transition to a Vegetarian Diet

Frequently when I tell someone I am a vegetarian I get a response that is something like, “Oh, I could never give up meat.” Nonsense! Even the most ardent omnivore eats meals without meat occasionally. With a few easy steps you can change the “occasionally” to “frequently” and then “always” with very little effort. Try this:

1. Remove meat from a few favorite recipes. Spaghetti and lasagna are just as tasty without the Italian sausage. Think you can’t enjoy your chili without ground beef? Try this great recipe from Whole Foods.

2. Try Mark Bittman’s “Vegan Before 6” plan. New York Times food writer Mark Bittman (author of How to Cook Everything and the new How to Cook Everything Vegetarian) only eats animal products after 6:00 p.m. He still enjoys a steak with a buttery baked potato for dinner as long as his breakfast, lunch and snacks are dairy and meat free. You can read the details in this Seattle Times article.

3. Replace meat in some of your favorite recipes with a plant food. Substitute black beans for ground beef in your next taco or enchilada. Try roasted vegetables on your pizza instead of pepperoni. Substantial veggies such as eggplant work especially well.

4. Try meat substitutes. I will admit right now that I love a good burger and fries. If anyone was to say the words “five” and “guys” in the same sentence my mouth would begin watering instantly. To satisfy my craving for the juicy stuff I eat Boca Original Vegan. Warm it up and throw it on a bun with onions and lettuce and it tastes amazingly like a burger, but it’s made with soy and wheat gluten instead of beef. Yum! I know that soy does have its detractors. Not being a registered nutritionist I can’t say for certain whether they are full of it or not, but I do make a point not to build my diet around soy products or meat substitutes (or any other manufactured food).

So give it a try. You might be surprised at how easy going vegetarian can actually be.

Question: Have you tried reducing the amount of meat you eat? If so, what works for you?

Bible Study Part 5: Moses and the Law (Exodus through Deuteronomy)

Certainly the books Exodus through Deuteronomy are full of discussions pertaining to animals and even their consumption, and the majority has to do with animal sacrifices back to God. What animals are to be used for what particular kind of sacrifice, how they are to be slain, what is to be done with their bodies, etc. all are discussed in great detail.

There are four other events that I found especially interesting:

1. The Passover. This event from Exodus 12 includes the first recorded instance of God commanding the consumption of an animal, which I found to be interesting since it had been many years since the post-flood announcement that animals could be used for food. Yet sure enough Ex. 12:8-10 states, “And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.” I suppose I could say that there isn’t necessarily a command here. One could have technically left the entire animal until morning and then burned it total, but that feels like a stretch. The great detail in the kind of animal they were to choose (“without blemish, a male of the first year”), the use of the blood on the doorposts, the manner of cooking (“roast with fire; his head with his legs”), and the manner of eating (“And thus ye shall eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet” and “and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs they shall eat it”) serves to make the slaughter and eating of the Passover lamb much more like a sacrifice, an offering, than a meal.

2. Manna and Quail. In Exodus 16 the children of Israel begin to complain about provisions and claim that they ate better in captivity than they are in freedom. God then announces that he will provide manna (a wafer or bread-like food) for them in the morning and quail comes into the camp in the evening. However, it doesn’t appear that quail was provided every day or even regularly, because in Numbers 11 the multitude again complains about food, but now they are tired of manna. “There is nothing at all, besides this manna, before our eyes” (Numbers 11:6). The Lord tells Moses, “And say thou unto the people, Sanctify yourselves against tomorrow, and ye shall eat flesh: for ye have wept in the ears of the Lord, saying, Who shall give us flesh to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt: therefore the Lord will give you flesh and ye shall eat. Ye shall not eat one day, nor two days, nor five days, neither ten days, nor twenty days; but even a whole month, until it come out at your nostrils, and it be loathsome unto you: because that ye have despised the Lord which is among you, and have wept before him saying, Why came we forth out of Egypt?” (Numbers 11:18-20). And while the people were still eating the quail God struck them with a plague. God was providing for them nutritionally without the need for meat. They complained because they were bored.

3. Clean and Unclean Animals. Leviticus 11 describes in detail the kinds of animals the children of Israel were allowed to eat. Certain animals were “clean” and some were “unclean.” Israel could eat the clean animals, but not the unclean. Unclean animals included pork, fish without scales (such as shark), and shellfish. Interestingly, since this time we have learned a lot of these animals and their living and dietary habits and their dietary detriments to humans.

4. Balaam’s Donkey. Numbers 22 includes the first recorded instance of animal abuse in Scripture. The prophet Balaam’s donkey turns aside from the road when she sees the angel of Lord standing in the way. Balaam, angry with his “stubborn” donkey, strikes her three times. Then the Lord opens Balaam’s eyes so that he can see the angel of the Lord blocking his path. The angel asks Balaam why he struck his donkey, saying, “unless she had turned from me surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.” (Numbers 22:33). Balaam’s response? “I have sinned.” (Num. 22:34).

Get Educated: My Favorite Pro-Veg Websites

Those of you who are considering going vegetarian may have a lot of questions. How do I get started? What would I eat? What if I want to know more about why being a vegetarian/vegan is such a good idea? To help you out here is my list of favorite web sites:

1. GoVeg.com. This is a website of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). While I don’t agree with a lot of their tactics or ad campaigns they are a great resource if you want information on any reason to be a vegetarian (cruelty, health, environment, etc.).

2. The Vegetarian Times (www.VegetarianTimes.com.). For information on vegetarianism solely based on health issues their Vegetarian Starter Kit (see link to the right) is great. It’s also a wonderful resource for recipes.

3. Compassionate Cooks (www.CompassionateCooks.com). Colleen Patrick-Goudreau is the queen here and I love her podcasts.

4. Vegan Yum Yum (www.veganyumyum.com). This is a blog about cooking vegan and it’s full of great recipes (not all for beginners though). Lolo, the blogger, is also a great photographer. Just looking at the photos makes me hungry!

5. FatFree Vegan Kitchen (www.blog.fatfreevegan.com). This is my new “go to” web site for cooking vegan. The Fat Free Blueberry Vanilla Waffles recipe in the links list on the right is from this blog. So yummy!

Question: What websites do you go to for vegetarian information/help?

10 Things that Drove me to Vegetarianism, Part 3

Read Part 1 and Part 2

7. Male chicks hatched at layer hatcheries are tossed alive into trash bins or grinders at the rate of 150,000 per day. This video also highlights some of the other reasons I don’t buy any animal products. I’ll let it speak for itself.



8. The meat industry is the #1 contributor to the carbon emissions problem. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the meat industry is responsible for more carbon emissions than all of the cars, trains, planes, and ships on the planet combined. The report Livestock’s Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options (2006) states that the meat industry is “responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent. This is a higher share than transport.” (ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/a0701e/a0701e00.pdf). And in case you are wondering, the answer is no, Al Gore is NOT a vegetarian.

9. Broiler chickens are ready for butchering within 45 days of hatching. These chickens grow so quickly (as in putting on muscle) that their skeletal systems and vital organs cannot keep up with the growth frequently resulting in lameness and heart failure. Death loss on chicken farms is so high it is a common point of debate whether the losses absorbed outweigh the profits from the chickens that actually survive to make it to the processing plant. So far the industry has decided that the rapid growth is worth the risk the chicken will die before it can be sold. Tyson can tell you their package of chicken is all natural, but there is nothing natural about the ways these chickens grow.

10. Because “it tastes good” is not a sufficient reason to financially support an industry that causes physical suffering to God’s creatures, promotes poor health, harms the environment, and is dangerous to its employees.

Question: What would it take for you to go vegetarian?

(Please help me raise the profile of this blog by commenting below.)

10 Things that Drove me to Vegetarianism, Part 2

My last post (10 Things that Drove me to Vegetarianism Part 1) contained two of the reasons I began eating vegetarian (and cooking vegan) almost three months ago. Here are reasons 3 through 6.

3. Cattle are kept in feed lots prior to slaughter. While many cows are allowed to graze for their first few hundred pounds, all factory farmed beef cattle are kept in feedlots where their diets can be closely monitored and engineered to produce the fat marbling the industry prizes so highly. After a few months of standing in mud and feces in crowded pens they are sent to the slaughterhouse. Aside from the horrible life the cows lead for those few months, feedlots are breeding grounds for disease. The chances that a cow is healthy when it is slaughtered are very low. Does mad cow disease ring any bells?

4. Farmed turkeys have been so tampered with they can no longer reproduce. Because the American consumer prizes white breast meat, farmed turkeys are bread to reach butchering weight by the age of 6 months (if they don’t die of organ failure, heart attack or disease by then-and 10.4 million do every year). Their breasts are so large and their bodies so weak that it is common to find turkeys that can’t walk well, and flying is certainly out of the question (wild turkeys can fly up to 55 miles per hour). It is actually physically impossible for tom breeders to um . . . get together with the females. According Ann Donoghue of the Agricultural Research Service, "Essentially 100 percent of the nearly 300 million turkeys produced annually in the United States for consumption are the result of artificial insemination.” (http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/AR/archive/jul98/toms0798.htm). In short, there is no such thing as natural turkey no matter the labels say.


5. All the protein humans need to lead a healthy life can be found in plant foods. God made our plant foods to be rich in protein. Though the USDA might tell us we need up to 40 grams (or more) per day the fact is that most Americans get their protein from animal products and 60% of them are overweight. I shoot for between 20 grams and 50 grams per day. Some days I eat more and some days I eat less. Vegetarians can easily get enough protein by eating a wide variety of foods including beans, peas, lentils, whole grain breads, rice, quinoa, etc. As an added benefit these foods are cholesterol and cruelty free.

6. Injury and illness rates at beef slaughterhouses run up to 30%. According to the Department of Labor, this makes the meat packing industry the most hazardous for employees with non-fatal injuries (http://stats.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/os/ostb0754.pdf). Injuries range from repetitive stress disorders such as carpal tunnel to broken and severed limbs. Injury rates in meat packing plants are twice the national average, while illness rates are ten times the national average (remember the cows in the nasty feedlots?). (http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/processing/). America’s insatiable appetite for cheap meats has increased slaughter rates from 175 per hour to nearly 400 per hour. This enormous increase in production line speed is believed to be a top contributor to the increase in injury to employees and instances of food contamination. Try cutting open 400 beefs per hour without accidentally getting the innards everywhere and you’ll see what I mean.

10 Things that Drove me to Vegetarianism, Part 1

Friends and acquaintances frequently ask why I became a vegetarian (and cook vegan at home) and to be honest that can sometimes be a bit difficult to answer. There is no one reason I chose to give up eating animals, but rather it was a conclusion drawn after confronted with information about the realities of modern American factory farming as well as nutritional information about the benefits of eating a plant-based diet. Here follows ten bits of information (to be posted in three parts) that made my personal conclusion about vegetarianism inescapable. These items are not ranked in any particular order.

1. Buying milk supports the veal industry. In order to keep dairy cows producing milk they have to be impregnated once very year. Once the calf is born he or she is taken away from his or her mother within a day (lest it drink any of the milk that could be sold to American consumers). The females become dairy cows while the males are shackled in veal crates where they live their brief lives immobilized, usually by the neck, and fed an anemia-inducing diet to create the prized pale meat veal eaters want. Veal crates have been banned in Arizona, California, Colorado, Michigan, and Maine, but the first ban won’t go into effect until next year (Maine). In addition to the cruelties they suffer in life, veal calves don’t face a better slaughter than their full-grown counterparts.

This video is from the Humane Society. Please be warned that it does contain graphic and disturbing images and some coarse language (apparently people who drag infant calves to slaughter don't use delicate language).

Once a diary cow has been worn out (within 5 years) she is sent to slaughter and becomes canned soup or low-grade ground beef.

2. Slaughterhouse “stun” mechanisms for meat and poultry are woefully inaccurate resulting in the thousands of animals being scalded, skinned and/or butchered alive every day. Folks, beef slaughterhouses WANT the cows to be alive when their throats are slit so they bleed out completely before they are broken down. The point of the stunner is to render them unconscious, but it is temporary and even if it does its job as well as advertised the cows frequently regain consciousness before they bleed out completely. Chickens are dragged through water than has been electrically charged in order to knock them out before the automatic throat slitter does its job (if there is an automatic). Unfortunately it frequently happens that neither work properly and live chickens are fully conscious when scalded for easy feather removal.

To Be Continued . . .

Bible Study Part 4: The Time of the Patriarchs (Gen. 11-50)

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all tended flocks and herds: cattle, goats, sheep. All throughout these chapters of Scripture great numbers of animals are a sign of wealth and used even as gifts (when Jacob was meeting Esau again after their bad parting) and as wages (as in Laban’s agreement with Jacob that he take the speckled cattle and goats). Animals were clearly a very important part of everyday life. Increase in animals was also seen as blessing from God.

Three events from these chapters stand out to me:

1. In Genesis 22 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac, the very son that God promised to him in his old age. Abraham prepares to obey God and even has his knife ready to slay his son when the angel of the Lord stops him, commending him for his faith and obedience. A nearby ram caught in a thicket takes the place of Isaac as the sacrifice, a lovely picture of what Christ would do later as the spotless Lamb of God who would lay down His life as the sacrifice for sin in the place of all mankind.

2. In Genesis 37 Joseph’s brothers kill a young goat to deceive their father Jacob into thinking his favored son was attacked and killed by a wild animal rather than sold into slavery. This is the first recorded instance of man killing an animal for something other than food or a sacrifice back to God. The animal is killed in order to deceive.

3. In Genesis 41 Joseph interprets two dreams of Pharaoh both of which predict the same events. Egypt was to have seven years of plenty followed by seven years of extreme famine. During the seven years of famine the people of Egypt consume the stores of grain Joseph lays up during the seven years of plenty. The implication is (and we know this from the pre-flood years) that plant-based diets are perfectly capable of sustaining life and can do so more efficiently than animal-based diets (It takes up to 16 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of meat). In fact, by the end of the famine Egyptians were exchanging livestock for bread.

Question: What have you observed in Scripture about animals and eating?
(Please help me raise the profile of this blog by leaving your comments below.)

Joel Osteen Doesn't Eat Pork

Joel Osteen may have some facts correct when it comes to why pork and shellfish are not healthy eating choices, but I wouldn’t want him preaching about it in my church. Check out this video from You Tube:



“These are some of the things the Scripture tells us we should not eat.” Well, Mr. Osteen, if you want to get technical, these are some of the things God told the children of Israel not to eat when they were under Levitical law. As Paul wrote in Romans 14:14, “I know and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself.”

Osteen goes on to discuss some of the reasons that eating pork and shellfish are unhealthy, and there I agree with him totally, though his “facts” about while beef is healthier are wrong. The beef you buy in the grocery store is not fed on “fresh, clean vegetation,” they are fed processed, treated, synthetically-supplemented grain-based feeds which cows don’t digest well at all, while standing around in crowded, feces-filled feed lots.

My problem with Osteen’s teaching is not, however, that his meat facts miss the mark, but that he doesn’t seem to display a strong command of Scripture as a whole, including the New Testament in which we learn that Christ came to fulfill the law. Hey, don’t get me wrong, I would love for every Christian man, woman, and child to become a vegetarian or even just give up pork and shellfish, but the integrity of Scripture is far more important than any food choice.