Category — Vegan/Raw Food in the News

The Meat of the Problem Is Meat

By Ezra Klein
The Washington Post, July 29, 2009 
Click Here to Go Straight to the Orginal Article 

[Cecilia's Note:  I was a bit dissapointed when I watched an "Inconvenient Truth" and did not see a mention of how diet can help fight global warming, so glad the mainstream media decided to reveal an even more "inconveniet truth" for most people.]

The debate over climate change has reached a rarefied level of policy abstraction in recent months. Carbon tax or cap-and-trade? Upstream or downstream? Should we auction permits? Head-scratching is, at this point, permitted. But at base, these policies aim to do a simple thing, in a simple way: persuade us to undertake fewer activities that are bad for the atmosphere by making those activities more expensive. Driving an SUV would become pricier. So would heating a giant house with coal and buying electricity from an inefficient power plant. But there’s one activity that’s not on the list and should be: eating a hamburger.

If it’s any consolation, I didn’t like writing that sentence any more than you liked reading it. But the evidence is strong. It’s not simply that meat is a contributor to global warming; it’s that it is a huge contributor. Larger, by a significant margin, than the global transportation sector.

According to a 2006 United Nations report, livestock accounts for 18 percent of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Some of meat’s contribution to climate change is intuitive. It’s more energy efficient to grow grain and feed it to people than it is to grow grain and turn it into feed that we give to calves until they become adults that we then slaughter to feed to people. Some of the contribution is gross. “Manure lagoons,” for instance, is the oddly evocative name for the acres of animal excrement that sit in the sun steaming nitrous oxide into the atmosphere. And some of it would make Bart Simpson chuckle. Cow gas — interestingly, it’s mainly burps, not farts — is a real player.

But the result isn’t funny at all: Two researchers at the University of Chicago estimated that switching to a vegan diet would have a bigger impact than trading in your gas guzzler for a Prius (PDF). A study out of Carnegie Mellon University found that the average American would do less for the planet by switching to a totally local diet than by going vegetarian one day a week. That prompted Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to recommend that people give up meat one day a week to take pressure off the atmosphere. The response was quick and vicious. “How convenient for him,” was the inexplicable reply from a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune Review. “He’s a vegetarian.”

The visceral reaction against anyone questioning our God-given right to bathe in bacon has been enough to scare many in the environmental movement away from this issue. The National Resources Defense Council has a long page of suggestions for how you, too, can “fight global warming.” As you’d expect, “Drive Less” is in bold letters. There’s also an endorsement for “high-mileage cars such as hybrids and plug-in hybrids.” They advise that you weatherize your home, upgrade to more efficient appliances and even buy carbon offsets. The word “meat” is nowhere to be found.

That’s not an oversight. Telling people to give up burgers doesn’t poll well. Ben Adler, an urban policy writer, explored that in a December 2008 article for the American Prospect. He called environmental groups and asked them for their policy on meat consumption. “The Sierra Club isn’t opposed to eating meat,” was the clipped reply from a Sierra Club spokesman. “So that’s sort of the long and short of it.” And without pressure to address the costs of meat, politicians predictably are whiffing on the issue. The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, for instance, does nothing to address the emissions from livestock.

Picture Courtesy of Bravo

As someone who loves everything food, being primarily a dietary vegan for the last 7 and half years has not stopped me from enjoying the array of wonderful food T.V. shows out there. I think I’ve watched every Japanese Iron Chef ever filmed; my favorite episode was when a Japanese monastery chef won with a completely vegan menu! Only in Japan, I thought.

But last night my prayers were answered, my love of health promoting vegan cuisine was finally showcased on a cable network show called Top Chef Masters.

It was just the other day I was day dreaming about what would happen if one of the elimination challenges on Top Chef Masters were to ask five of the countries top chefs to prepare a completely vegan meal. Last night the beautiful actress/singer songwriter Zooey Deschanel  asked 5 chef’s including Rick Bayless, Art Smith, Anita Lo, Hubert Keller, and Michael Chiarello to create a completely vegan meal with no eggs, meat, or dairy, plus no gluten or soy! I really liked Zooey in Yes Man with Jim Carey, and now I like her even more!

What surprised me a little was the attitudes of most of the chefs when they found out they had to make a vegan meal. Most of them seemed shocked, afraid, and even frustrated. Chef Michael Chiarello commented that veganism is off putting because it’s all about saying no. I feel like for me, pure vegetarianism is about saying yes to healthy, vibrant, alive, varied, fresh, organic amazing food! It’s also about saying yes to energy, wellness, beauty, happiness, and longevity. I guess it’s just a different mind set, but I really do wish that more top chefs would wake up to the idea of vegetarian/vegan cuisine. One, you’d see a lot less overweight chefs (okay, that was a little stab) and I also believe it would help to introduce more people to the fact that health promoting fruits and vegetables can be prepared deliciously.

Despite their initial complaining, the dishes the chefs came up with looked great.

 Hubert  Keller did the first course: a white gazpacho of grapes, almond flour, cucumbers and vanilla oil, a timbale of asparagus and avocado, and a beet salad.

The gazapacho recipe could easily be modified to be a raw recipe.

Gael Greene, food critic, said that guests were bowled over by the first course. “The vegans seemed so surprised,” she said. “God knows what they get to eat.” I thought Gael’s comment was a little misguided. I thoroughly enjoy my food probably more so than most people I know. I think it’s a misconception that vegan’s are miserable and always thinking about what they “can’t” eat.  Truth is, I never envy other’s cuisine, I completely love love love being vegan. I also feel like what I eat now is so much more varied than before. I have discovered so many different fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, sprouts . . . that I had never even heard of before going vegan. Anyways I digress.

 Some of the other courses were:

Anita Lo made grilled spicy eggplant with lentil salad cashew sauce and crispy shallot.

Michael Chiarello made quinoa pasta which he topped with salsa verde, pine nut gremolata, and heirloom tomatoes.

Rick Bayless made fresh sweet corn tamales with chili-braised beans and glazed mushrooms.

Art Smith made strawberry-champagne soup with strawberry rice milk ice cream .

 For the complete list of vegan dishes and their recipes go here:*

 * On the website some of the recipes are no longer vegan, but on the show they were.

The winner was Michael Chiarello with his Quinoa Pasta with Salsa Verde, Gremolata and Tomatoes.

With a little creativity I bet this recipe could be converted to a raw recipe with zucchini noodles.

 The loser was the Strawberry Champagne Soup that was made with rice milk ice cream.

Even Zooey commented that coconut milk ice cream would’ve been a much better choice for the ice cream. (Any vegan worth their salt, knows that!) If only Art had known a few raw food dessert recipes he would have surely won! A luscious raw coconut crème pie or raw cashew cheesecake and everyone would’ve been singing his praises:)

 In the end, Zooey commented that the food was delicious and that she usually just eats a lot of raw vegetables. High raw perhaps? Thanks Zooey for the making of a wonderful episode of Top Chef, if only more food shows showcased vegan food! One can only dream . . .

♥,
C