July 1, 2009
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Yesterday’s blog post by HSUS chief Wayne Pacelle might be the most informative piece he’s written about farmed animal policy this year. It deals with the political clout of agribusiness, and the lengths to which the industry will go to derail even the most basic oversight.
Pacelle first looks at what’s going on in Ohio, where the legislature has rubber stamped a ballot measure that, if passed by voters this November, would amend the state’s constitution to make Prop 2-style initiatives impossible:
Mind you, the Legislature passed this resolution to amend the constitution in two days—faster, in legislative terms, than a greased pig could slip through your hands. There were hearings and votes in the House and Senate agriculture committees on the same day—suggesting that the hearings were just a pro forma exercise. And both chambers passed the bills the day after they came out of committees. It was as if the resolutions were a pile of particularly foul-smelling manure and they wanted them out of the building as fast as possible. Lest you think they’re just quick workers there in Columbus, this is the same legislative body that has for years been sitting on and not acting on legislation to strengthen one of the five weakest anti-cockfighting laws in the country, to crack down on rampant puppy mills, and to halt the private ownership of dangerous wild animals as pets. When it comes to stopping cruelty, they really take their time, but when it comes to the wishes of agribusiness, they get the job done with war-time efficiency.
And, on a national level, Pacelle recaps agribusiness’ success at excluding itself from forthcoming greenhouse gas regulations.
Altogether, it’s an essential read about an industry that is rapidly earning the contempt of its customers. Link.
June 30, 2009
Quarrygirl.com just published an investigative report exploring the ingredient purity of purportedly vegan restaurants in Los Angeles. The website spent something like $1000 on fancy test gear and then purchased various dishes at seventeen restaurants. One Quarrygirl reader left this comment on the piece: “you guys are incredible. seriously. everyone needs to BOW THE FUCK DOWN.”
I think that’s pretty much on the mark. This is by far the most impressive investigation I’ve ever seen carried out by a vegan blog, and this sort of thing gives me hope that the vegan blog community will be producing some incredibly worthwhile resources in the years ahead.
I’d have done a couple things differently had I been the person to write this article up. The piece contains all sorts of wonkish info detailing the elaborate procedures used to maintain purity of samples, and to provide meaningful test results. I’d have shortened the main article’s text by burying these details in footnotes.
Second, I think the piece could have provided more useful conclusions. I think a good starting point for analyzing this study’s results is to draw a clear distinction between an ingredient and a contaminant.
In most cases where a vegan meal tested positive for animal products, the amount present was truly miniscule. And it appears the contamination comes, not from the restaurant, but from the factory that produces the mock meats or processed food ingredients.
How much blame does a restaurant deserve if it purchases foods labeled with all-vegan ingredients, that have been cross-contaminated during production with traces of animal products? Is it realistic to expect such restaurants to regularly spend hundreds of dollars on advanced testing gear in order to verify the purity of processed foods from their supplier?
In the end, the heart of the issue doesn’t really involve animal exploitation, since the amount of animal ingredients present is so trivial. It’s more a matter of trust — trust both in the restaurants you patronize and their suppliers. Do you want to patronize a place that may not be taking adequate care when it comes to sourcing their food from vegan suppliers?
The cause of this contamination appears to be that there are several mock meat suppliers in Asia that aren’t sufficiently careful about keeping contaminants out of their products. If having traces of milk or shellfish show up in your mock meats turns your stomach, there’s an easy solution — just avoid mock meat offerings at Asian-style vegan restaurants unless it’s clear the establishment bends over backwards to verify their suppliers’ integrity.
But finally, let’s not allow this issue to tear our attention away from what’s most important. There’s something about this topic that pushes everyone’s buttons, that provokes anger and worry and disgust. Even this blog entry is getting up past 500 words, so I’m as guilty as anyone about writing at length about a side issue. When was the last time I spent 500 words blogging about leafletting colleges, or using Twitter or Facebook effectively to spread the activist message? I fail, we fail, every time we take our eyes of the prize.
The amount of animal products involved in this story is so minimal that just twenty minutes devoted to leafletting outweighs the effects of a lifetime of eating at questionably vegan restaurants. So let’s focus on what’s important: keeping as many animals from harm and working toward the day when animal agribusiness no longer exists. The topic of impure mock meats at vegan restaurants is an irksome side issue, and something to be expected in a world as screwed up as ours.
Having said all this, major props to Quarrygirl.com for an outstanding piece, one that deserves a Pulitzer for vegan investigative reporting. Link.
June 29, 2009
A bull trampled a 12-year-old boy competing in a rodeo, stepping on his chest and causing a ventricle to burst.
The boy’s mother, Angie Hamar, says her son loved riding bulls and that no one should be blamed for his death. She says he was wearing a helmet and a vest during the competition.
I can think of someone to blame. Link.
June 29, 2009
Gosh darn, by golly, we missed it: the 23rd annual Long Island Gelatin Slide. Here’s the sales pitch:
Imagine sliding into 1,500 gallons of frozen gelatin and then getting hosed off by the fire department!
Imagine.
The event benefitted the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Sounds like participating could give you leukemia and lymphoma.
I wonder how successful this event would be if the majority of people knew where gelatin comes from.
Link includes full photo goodness. (Thanks, Jjj-jj-jjjj) Link.
June 29, 2009
I didn’t bother blogging about the Nestlé cookie dough outbreak last week because there wasn’t anything about the story I found of great interest. At this point, you sort of expect E. Coli to be showing up in all sorts of processed foods.
But now the Wall Street Journal [subscription required] is writing that Nestlé was withholding information from the government:
The Nestlé USA plant at the center of a federal probe into an E. coli outbreak involving cookie dough refused to give inspectors access to pest-control records, environmental-testing programs and other information, according to newly released inspection reports covering the past five years…
A year earlier, officials at the Nestlé plant presented another FDA inspector with a list of things it wouldn’t do. “Among these are the refusal to review the firm’s consumer complaint file, refusal to permit photography, refusal to sign affidavits or receipts and refusal to provide specific information on interstate commerce,” the inspector wrote.
The crazy thing is that Nestlé apparently didn’t break any laws: they aren’t legally obligated to hand over all the information they have that touches on food safety.
Additionally, Food Poison Journal published a long piece today about the regulatory loopholes that existed at the plant.
June 29, 2009
A prestigious study published by the Journal of the National Cancer Institute has linked red meat and dairy consumption to pancreatic cancer. The article states:
We observed positive associations between pancreatic cancer and intakes of total, saturated, and monounsaturated fat overall, particularly from red meat and dairy food sources….Altogether, these results suggest a role for animal fat in pancreatic carcinogenesis.
Given that this study had half a million participants, the results are a severe blow to the beef, pork, and dairy industries. Link.
June 29, 2009
This and some black pepper and olive oil would make for some amazing home fries.
June 29, 2009
The Senior Director of HSUS’ Factory Farming Campaign writes:
National fast food chain Red Robin committed this past week to get rid of battery eggs. Feel free to take a quick second to thank the company.
In worse news, the Big Agribusiness lobby in Ohio got a sad handout last week when the legislature referred a measure to the voters this November that, if passed, would amend the state constitution by creating an industry-dominated council that would oversee farm animal welfare. Both the Columbus Dispatch and Akron Beacon Journal editorialized against the measure. The Michigan legislature is trying to do something similar right now. If you live there, please take action to stop it.
June 26, 2009
Another big jump in America’s bacon flu cases: the CDC says the number has climbed from 21,449 cases a week ago to 27,717 today. Deaths since last Friday have increased from 87 to 127. Link.
It’s long been apparent that the CDC’s official numbers dramatically undercount actual cases. Yesterday, the Associated Press reported that a CDC flu surveillance official estimates that the virus may have infected a million Americans. Link.
June 26, 2009
Pink food is never healthy. But how often do you get to see a vegan donut?
