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Spotlight is on Chickens
August 30, 2010
Some good stuff coming out of PETA’s Vice President for Policy, Bruce Friedrich. His piece in the Huffington Post highlights the plight of chickens, due to the recent egg recalls in the U.S.
Friedrich points out that the chicken and her plight is gaining media attention she hasn’t seen before. The public has become more aware now of how the chicken is mistreated in the human quest for cheap food. Friedrich takes this opportunity to tell us some things we might not know about this marvelous being.
Chickens are ’social, intelligent creatures complete with Machiavellian tendencies to adjust what they say according to who is listening.’
Chickens ‘can anticipate the future and demonstrate self-control, something previously attributed only to humans and other primates.’
Chickens know that something they can’t see still exists- something that is ‘beyond the capacity of small children.’
Despite these scientific facts (Friedrich’s article is cited with sources), he discovered that most people tend to put the chicken, as well as cows, pigs, and other “farmed” animals, in a different moral category than, say, a dog or cat.
After all, these animals are made of flesh, blood, and bone–just like dogs and cats. They experience the exact same five physiological senses (i.e., they see, hear, smell, taste, and feel). And they feel pain — just like dogs, cats, and we do.
Recently, while taking part in the “why vegan” conservation, I was asked quite earnestly, “Then why are they (animals) here (if not to eat them)?” Obviously, this question is based on the assumption that all things on Earth must be here for some reason that we, as humans, can fathom or take advantage of. I think it’s difficult for some to comprehend the answer, “they are here for themselves.” They certainly aren’t here for enslavement in CAFOs so that we can get a dollar sandwich at Chick-fil-A.
It’s 2010. Humans have no need, nor moral right, to eat the eggs of other animals. Wise up people.
It’s all up to you…
August 30, 2010
It’s Monday again and that means that there is a slew of “Meatless Monday” recipes flying all over the internet. All of us over here at YDV roll our eyes at the concept of Meatless Mondays (for every day should be animal-free) but lately I’ve been thinking that it couldn’t hurt to throw out an animal-free recipe for ya’ll every week. It’s always a good idea to build a great recipe database, particularly when one is first learning to cook vegan. This past weekend I made some stellar food and can’t decide which recipe ya’ll would like best. So, I’m going to leave it up to you. You decide.
Contender A: A Lemon Genoise Cake w/fresh Blueberry and Lemon Buttercream filling, coated in a rich Vanilla Butter Cream frosting and topped with toasted coconut. This cake is not for the faint of heart. Genoise is a classic, fine-crumbed French sponge cake. It is different than American sponge cakes in that it has less sugar in it. It’s a sturdy cake and is fantastic for layering. I added fresh blueberries and lemon buttercream in the middle of mine and served it with a side of blueberry/acai compote and it was divine. I may have to add a bit of time onto my trail running this week, but it’s well worth the extra calories.
Contender B: Homemade Seitan Skewers with a homemade Blueberry BBQ Sauce. I find that packaged seitan tends to be pretty pricey if I’m trying to feed a bunch of folks. I can save some serious loot if I just make it myself, so I do. I love that I have control over the firmness of my seitan, something I’ll never get from a prepackaged brand. These skewers were made with marinated seitan, yellow peppers, green peppers, home-grown tomatoes, pineapple and onions all slathered in a rich and spicy BBQ sauce, which was also homemade- of course. These lasted all of 5 minutes in my house before they were gobbled up by my meat-loving family.
So, what’s it gonna be? Sweet or Savory? Cast your vote now!
I’m not a horse, Tofurky.
August 9, 2010
I don’t need that much salt. Neither do you, really. The US RDA for sodium is about 2,000 mg., on the average. Health experts say it should be half that. And most consumers of the fiendishly evil and nasty Western diet, consume twice the RDA. Here’s where Tofurky comes in. Most of the sodium consumed in the Western diet comes from processed foods- and vegan foods are not immune to this phenomenon.
If you’re not reading the nutrition labels and ingredient lists on food, still, then, well, that’s just stupid.
One Tofurky Kielbasa log is 660 mg. So, if you eat it, you’re half-way to the healthy limit of sodium intake. The internets be chock full of infos regarding what too much sodium does to a body, so I’m not going into here. But for the sake of my health insurance premiums, can you please cut down on your salt?
Regardless of the very real dangers of salt in processed, ready-to-eat foods, these Tofurky kielbasas, and the other varieties as well, taste too damn salty. They have good flavor, but my mouth is shriveled from dehydration after chewing this stuff. Who are the taste testers at Tofurky? Horses?
I did find these cool S&P shakers while writing this review. Cool.
Tofurky Sausages get only two goatz because due to the extreme salt, I can only eat half of one at any one time, and it has to be chopped into small pieces and distributed amongst large amounts of other salt-free food stuffs, thereby giving me only half the protein in the thing.
