September 2011

GREETINGS

Jody and I did do a tabling as planned at a Wellness Fair in Pewaukee on Aug. 27. It was not crammed with people, but there were a few who visited our table and a few who signed up on our For Further Contact sheet and who are therefore receiving this newsletter. Welcome to you all; hopefully we will indeed have further and mutually fruitful contact.

Responses to our call for more volunteers in order to hold our PreThanksgiving Feast have continued to trickle in, to the point where we think we can pull it off. It will not be at North Shore Presbyterian, though, since they are still rehabbing their beautiful dining hall after last year’s floods and may or may not be available in November. We can’t wait until the last minute to make our decision, so we’re looking at going back to the Wauwatosa Wil-O-Way. And we do still need additional volunteers! Come to the September potluck to sign up, or phone Jody and David at 414-764-7262 or me (Louise) and Chuck at 414-962-2703 or email us at chuckgyver@aceweb.com.

I am also continuing with the project of contacting former subscribers who thought they would view the newsletter on the website, to see if they would like to have it emailed to them. The first attempt to email it to a couple of people seems to have worked. If anyone reading this would rather have it emailed to you, let us know at chuckgyver@aceweb.com

Also, Oct. 1 is World Vegetarian Day, and I would still like to have our group do some sort of outreach activity for that. Does anyone have any ideas about what such an activity might be?

M.A.R.V ACTIVITIES

Sun., Sept. 4, 5 PM, regular potluck at the Friends’ Meeting House, 3224 N. Gordon Pl. in the Riverwest area (from Humboldt Blvd., go east on Auer a few short blocks to the parking lot). Food theme, thanks to Rebecca and Jeremy Embar, is vegan cupcakes. As always, feel free to bring some vegan cupcakes and/OR something else.

Subsequent regular potlucks will be on Oct. 2 and Nov. 6.

Other veg-friendly potlucks

The September macrobiotic potluck will be on Sun. Sept. 25 at Emily and Bill Keelty’s near Harrington Beach, 6505 Silver Beach Rd. NE, at noon (note the time). Phone 262-285-3331 for directions.

The Urban Ecology Center’s vegetarian potluck will be Thurs., Sept. 15 at 6:30 PM at 1500 E. Park Pl., 414-964-8505. Bring plate and fork as well as your meatless dish.

Vegan Meetup: to find out about possible events, check the Vegan Meetup website.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

“More people are interested in plant-based eating; it goes along with the movement to eat more locally grown vegetables and fruits and the availability of plant-based cookbooks.” – Dr. Reed Mangels

“If you’re eating more whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, seeds, and nuts, you’re getting more health-promoting nutrients such as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients.”

blurbs from Modern Health and Living article

NEWS

Animal foods and livestock raising are still bad.

A recent study found that eating a single daily serving of red meat, and especially processed foods like bacon and hot dogs, significantly raises your risk of developing type two diabetes, but that eating nuts or low-fat dairy instead can decrease that risk. So it’s not good news that, according to the Wisconsin State Farmer, commercial red meat production is up.

It was also not good that an Iowa fish kill was traced to a leak from a manure structure at a hog factory farm.

And there was a recall of chopped beef due to e. coli contamination, mostly in the southeast U.S. (although some of the tainted beef could have been redistributed elsewhere). And a different e. coli outbreak, from strawberries, has been tentatively traced to deer droppings. At least animal waste is finally being noticed as the root of this problem; unfortunately this finding is likelier to lead to attacking deer than attacking factory farming…

Speaking of recalls and food safety, it is unfortunate to note that the Food and Drug Administration, which is supposed to be doing something about this, is hamstrung by budgetary constraints, as reported by the NY Times. Yet the FDA was able to work with Los Angeles police to raid a raw foods co-op that purveyed raw milk to its members, none of whom had ever gotten sick from it.

On a different note, bees are still disappearing, and this now includes native bumble bees as well as honey bees. Whether you use honey or not, bees are needed to pollinate many of our food crops, so this is a concern for all of us. In this case, the problem seems to involve specific populations used in greenhouses (where fertilizers and pesticides are likely to be used). The good news here is that more and more people are keeping bees in cities – and these more naturally managed hives are thriving. Milwaukee’s own Growing Power is pioneering a new hive structure that is said to be especially safe for the bees, and many of these new beekeepers follow a policy of leaving the bees enough honey for the winter, and only harvesting anything extra.

Then there are the invasive Asian carp: while there is serious worry about them getting into the Great Lakes, fishermen who can catch them can actually make money selling them to China where they’re in great demand. And the Texas drought is now leading to ranchers selling off herds they can no longer keep, meaning shorter lives for some of those cattle but possibly less ranching in future. So are these things good or bad?

It was definitely good news, though, that a proposed 5,000-hog confinement facility was denied a permit in Iowa. And I heard a lengthy report on NPR’s Morning Edition about factory farms, triggered by controversy over the licensing of a proposed 4,000 head dairy operation, which accurately covered factory farming’s problems for the environment and survival of small (and usually more humane and environmentally sound) farms.

It does seem that the word is getting out about the problems of raising and eating animal foods and the benefits of plants. The article I took this month’s quotes from first came out in Environmental Nutrition and sang the praises of eating mostly plant foods, using animal foods for flavoring (if at all); it pointed out the consensus among health experts that plant-based diets improve health and fight obesity, and encouraged readers to think in terms of expanding their diets rather than depriving themselves. Another article in the same Modern Health and Living issue discussed nutrition for sports performance; it stated that people need less protein than they think, and that carbohydrates and iron foods and antioxidents are needed for muscle-building work-outs as well as protein foods; plant food sources for all these nutrients were given. And former President Bill Clinton is still making news promoting his new (mostly) vegan diet.

Another interesting article in the NY Times looked at a brand-new phenomenon: people who notice that the yards and gardens of fore-closed homes are often full of abandoned fruits and vegetables, and take it on themselves to harvest and eat what would otherwise go unused. Some people use their gleanings for themselves, others donate to food pantries; some people go onto foreclosed properties while others just harvest what they find on public areas. But it’s all about people realizing that fruits and vegetables are good, and should not be allowed to go to waste.

A similar note was struck by a Prevention magazine article profiling several families where the parents are making a concerted effort to cook with lots of fresh vegetables and fruits, both for their own health and to create good eating habits for their children.

For, obviously, plant foods are good for you.

An AARP magazine article on eyesight included a box on Foods That Could Save Your Sight – and they were almost all plant foods: spinach (and other dark leafy greens) contain lutein that can help prevent cataracts and macular degeneration; blackberries (and other dark purple fruits) have anthocyanins while orange bell peppers contain zeaxanthin, which also both protect the retina; and soy isoflavones can improve tear production and thus protect against dry eyes.

Prevention did a rather strange article on foods that can improve one’s beauty both as food and as topical treatments, and again these were all vegetarian and mostly vegan. Avocados as food are rich in protective anti-oxidents and essential fatty acids, for example, and can be used on the skin to keep it looking young. Tea has skin-protecting antioxidents if you drink it (especially white and green teas), and can also be used as a rinse to bring out highlights in hair. Almonds may help keep

hair from going gray, and can be used in a skin-softening mixture. Cocoa’s antioxidents can help protect the skin from sun damage, both as food as a bath soak. Yogurt’s calcium and phosphorus are good for teeth, and full-fat plain yogurt can be rubbed on the face as a cleanser due to its lactic acid. Strawberries’ vitamin C and elagic acid are good for the skin either eaten or applied. And coffee’s antioxidents protect skin when drunk, and can decrease eyelid puffiness and be used on brown hair to enrich its hue.

Prevention also featured tomatoes, pointing out that however you eat them, they’re good for you (as well as delicious when bought fresh and vine-ripened and local at this time of year). Eaten fresh and uncooked, they’re full of vitamin C, plus beta-carotene (which becomes vitamin A) and vitamin K and potassium. When cooked, their lycopene becomes more bioavailable; this is a carotenoid which strengthens the immune system. And the article pointed out that tomatoes taste best when never refrigerated (so eat them soon after picking).

In fact, this is a great time of year to be vegetarian, when melons, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, new potatoes, green beans, carrots, and peppers (both sweet and hot) are among the produce that is ripe here right now. Enjoy!

DIS-CONNECTIONS

To my great dismay, I must report that Café Tarragon, which I favorably reviewed just last month in our The Veggie Table column, has closed its doors this month. We are bummed.

DIALOG

September is the month of the Eat Local Challenge, which encourages people to see how much of their food they can get from local sources. And since it falls at the peak season for much produce in our area, this does mean it focuses on eating plant foods.

There are many good reasons to adopt some level of “locavore-ism,” that is, eating as much of one’s food as possible grown at a relatively short distance from one’s home. This may be 50 miles or 100 miles or even 500 – but would exclude food shipped from thousands of miles away. First of all, eating locally means far less money spent and petroleum burned in shipping, which benefits both the economy and the environment. Second, eating locally benefits the local economy by spending your food dollars to support your neighbors instead of some other state or megacorporation. Third, eating locally helps build up self-suffiency of each bioregion, which enhances food security for everyone living in it. So the idea is worth considering.

On the other hand, there are other factors involved in choosing food besides where it was grown, some of which are at least sometimes in opposition to eating locally. For myself, being an organic gardener, I place a high priority on eating organically grown food. So if there’s a choice between local non-organic apples and organic ones from Oregon, which is better? Similarly, as a nonvegan vegetarian, should I buy local honey from stressed bees or honey from more naturally-kept hives, which better ensure the bees’ welfare, but which are further away? Then there’s the fact that coffee and tea and chocolate and most wine grapes just cannot be grown in Wisconsin’s climate: to what extent should I sacrifice such items in the interest of locavore-ism? And if you don’t have a great big freezer plus the time to spend putting up a lot of produce in the summer and fall, eating only locally raised food when it’s locally available might get a lot more restrictive in our climate than most of us would be happy with.

I have in fact used the Eat Local Challenge in the past to get familiar with more local brands that I am just as happy with as imported foods. But I have not gone purist about it. While I do consider it ridiculous to buy Californian broccoli when you can grow broccoli just fine in Wisconsin – and I do spend time freezing the broccoli we get from our local Community Supported Agriculture farm – I don’t deprive myself of my Fair Trade organic coffee. In other words, I eat locally – and also seasonally – to the extent that I can do it without giving up good foods that don’t grow here.

It’s September, and therefore a good time to make a game of seeing how much good eating you can enjoy by buying as locally as reasonably possible. Yet there’s a balance to be found between doing the ecologically and economically right thing and being a martyr.