How’s that burger taste now?

When people ask me why I’m a vegetarian I tell them it’s for a host of reasons but you don’t need more than this to convince you that meat should not but industrialized. I’m convinced that there’s no way to insure that meat is safe when the animals are raised and processed this way.

I also think that it’s impossible for most people to work in situations like this without becoming damaged on an psychological level. I just don’t see a lot of difference from these guys and the guards an concentration camps that ‘processed’ people into the ovens or created ‘games’ to dehumanize, torture and kill. It’s all about establishing emotional distance from the thing you are killing and treating it like a thing.

Unfortunately, we in the West have distanced ourselves from our food. We don’t recognize where it came from or how it got into that patty shape. Personally, I think it’s important, even on a symbolic level for people to take part in the collecting their food, at least occasionally. I still eat fish and so it’s important to me that a couple times a year I catch and prepare fish to eat. It may not seem like a big deal but I think I am going to something that was, at one point alive, I shouldn’t shy away from having to kill it. On some level it gives me respect for where my food came from.

I think there can be a good argument made for eating meat from organic, diversified farms like the one described in Michael Pollen’s book “The Omnivore’s Dilemma“. Cherry Grove Farm is one such place in New Jersey (although I couldn’t seem to find where they actually process their meat.) I know the USDA makes it very difficult for small farmers to do their own processing on site and so forces many to use the big industrial plants but at raising and feeding farm animals properly that eventually get to the table is not small task and anyone who does that is making huge strides in both animal welfare and public safety.

I still don’t know if I could eat beef, pork, lamb or chicken. Even when faced with free range, grass fed, organic and humanely raised meat products I couldn’t cross over to the dark side to buy any. I don’t think I have any moral issues about hunting particular animals for food (particularly if human activity has resulted in them over populating an area and causing ecological damage - like white tail deer in the Northeast) but that may just be because I haven’t had a piece of venison on a plate in front of me.

Methinks it’s time for some moral searching…

What do you want to eat?

I just finished The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan which formed the third in an (unintentional) trilogy of food related media that I’ve read watched listened to absorbed over the past year or so. The first was the film Super-Size Me and the second was the audio version of Fast Food Nation. Taken together they give a pretty shocking view of where much of our food comes from and the effects on our bodies and our society.

I’ve been a pescetarian since 1997 so perhaps I was impressed with these works because they generally reinforced my preexisting notions about food. Even so, it was stunning how little I knew about the industry that feeds us and how apparently ‘green’ choices about food aren’t always as good or sustainable as you might thing.

Super-Size Me (you can see the whole movie here) will convince you (if you actually needed convincing) that ‘fast food’ not only tastes terrible but the toll it takes on your health far outweighs any ‘convenience’ value that could justify in any but the most extreme circumstances. It becomes even more clear when you find out how many people eat that crap on a regular basis (one in three children eat fast food every single day - remember that when you see a long line of obese kids huffing and puffing their way to the school bus). In fact, I’ve heard that the current generation of young people is the first in our country’s history that has a poorer health prognosis than the one before it.

Fast Food Nation (read extensive excerpts here) begins with an explanation of how fast food came to dominate the American culinary landscape (admittedly the least interesting part of the book for me but it does put the rest of the book into perspective). It then goes on to discuss the process in which the food (particularly the meat) ends up in that burger you ate the other day. That process involves illegal labor practices, contaminated food and unethical behavior on the part of companies processing that food. Not just food destined for the local McJoint either. That beef, chicken and pork you get at your local supermarket is pretty bad as well, loaded with chemicals, assorted detritus and, yes, fecal matter. That, of course, leads to all sorts of bad health effects. Don’t worry though, the industry has a plan. They want to irradiate the food to kill any contaminating microbes and make the food safe to eat. You’ll still be eating fecal matter but it’ll be sterile fecal matter.

Mmmmmmmmm…….that’s a spicy meatball!

Omnivore’s Dilemma begins where Fast Food Nation leaves off and looks at three different meals (even though the subtitle is “A natural history of four meals” he really focuses on three):

1. Fast food
2. Organic
3. Hunter/Gatherer

The organic section was particularly fascinating in that it discussed how the organic movement is split into two camps. Industrial organic attempts to mimic the regular food industry in size and scale and just takes out the pesticides and pastoral organic (I’m not sure that is its official name) rejects large scale production and huge distribution networks as inherently destructive counter to the basic premises of the organic movement. Instead they favor local producers growing and raising food in ecologically sustainable ways for local consumers.

Pollan also gives one of the best summaries of the basic tenets for vegetarianism I’ve seen as well as some serious counterpoints that any vegetarian (or pescetarian) should consider. Is it more responsible to eat a chicken from a nearby farm where it was raised free-range, free from chemicals and antibiotics and fits into an ecosystem which is mutually supportive with few additional inputs or get eat a vegetable (organic or not) that was raised in a mono-culture setting, transported across continents and sold for prices that make it impossible to buy by the very people who were responsible for harvesting it?

He doesn’t advocate any particular food style for people to follow (except perhaps less of the fast food) but rather thinks that if we understand where our food comes from and how it gets to our table, we’ll be much more inclined to make the right food decisions.

I recommend any of the three but all three together (particularly in the order I described here) create an environment in which each author can support and riff off of each other.

Thanksgiving Day preview…

Tomorrow I follow my annual ritual of breaking my vegetarian lifestyle for a day to eat a traditional Thanksgiving Day meal. The turkey will be the only meat product at the table however (until Tofurky comes out with something that tastes remotely like food I will have to engage in this one sin a year).

The proposed menu for the day:

• Turkey (of course)
• Wild rice with chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms
• Mashed Potatoes
• Vegetarian gravy
• Cranberry sauce
• Corn
• Fresh baked bread
• Green beans
• Roasted root vegetables
• Cherry pie

The weekend will be spent catching up on movies and reading that I haven’t gotten to recently and (hopefully) getting some posts together for this little corner of heaven.

Have a great holiday!

 

It really does taste just like chicken!

This weekend we were taking a little walk in the woods and came across this little number (actually 2 of them):

Laetiporus Cincinnatus (or possibly Laetiporus Sulphureus but I don’t think so) AKA: Chicken of the Woods.

I’ve been a sort-of vegetarian (I still eat seafood) since 1997 (except for my time in Afghanistan - it just wasn’t practical) and the one meat item I really miss is fried chicken (good fried chicken, not that KFC crap). So, taking the mushroom books I’ve got at their word that this mushroom tastes remarkably like chicken I cleaned, cut (the flesh of this fungi looks almost identical to chicken breast meat), dipped it in some fried chicken coating and fried it up.

I was amazed at how close the taste and texture was to chicken meat. The first sample I cooked up was just turning a bit old so it actually reminded me of slightly dry chicken breast but it was still very good. Most of what I’ve read about this mushroom says that the older mushrooms or parts closer to the center are too tough to eat but I must have lucked out. Virtually all of the mushroom I harvested was good to eat (I left some so that I could look forward to a harvest next year as well).

A couple days later we stumbled upon another, younger version of the Chicken of the Woods and harvested that as well. This was much softer and a quick saute of a piece in butter revealed a taste that reminded me very much of eggs!

I sauteed the stuff we couldn’t eat fresh (these mushrooms are pretty big) and put it in the freezer (the guides say it holds up well to freezing). It’ll be great for Thanksgiving! Do I hear Chicken of the Woods pot pie?

Update: The Chicken of the Woods stood up very well to freezing and defrosting. Both the color and texture were maintained although I think it may have lost some flavor in the process. I mixed some with some risotto and stuffing and both dishes came out great.