Who Says....

New York City is all hot dog stands. Fruit stands are all around the city in springtime.


Having a soy cappuccino, $3.75, at Macaron Cafe while flipping through their French magazine collection can't be considered an educational outing in my studies of the language?


You should be fraught with worry over the state of your thighs, stomach, or other part of your body if you will be pool-side, lake-side, or beach-side in a month or two.

When have you EVER heard a man utter, "Sorry, I can't eat that cookie. Swimsuit season is almost here, you know!" I've heard the dreaded swimsuit comment three times in one week from women.


You can't be a vegetarian or vegan and still adore food films like Babette's Feast, Julie & Julia and the woman herself, Julia Child. My Life in France was with me all over Italy. I found her enthusiasm for life contagious, and her love story with Paul endearing. How many romances survive that long?

I could so relate in Julie & Julia when Julia (a la Meryl Streep) declared, "All I think about all day is food and then I dream about it all night."


You can't support Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, just because he is not promoting veganism or vegetarianism. I've been disappointed at the animal rights community's utter silence about this show, and their refusal to acknowledge his ground-breaking shows on factory farmed chickens and pigs in the UK.

I think of Natalie Merchant's observation in her Leave Your Sleep liner notes about the "timeless truth that we fail to understand the entirety of anything because of our limited perspective." Many vegans only seem to want to hear or discuss people promoting vegan only. That's a mistake, in my opinion.

We need a massive shift in our food culture, and Jamie Oliver promotes many of the same ideals. More organics. More local food. More cooking from scratch as often as possible. For many, learning how to cook. Revamping a broken school food system. Improving brown bagged lunches. I couldn't agree more when he said in his closing show that if parents fed children the junk he witnessed every day, it's child abuse.

"You can have anything that you want in food, but just in moderation," he assures us. Moderation is one of my favorite words. I tire of the food police declaring you shouldn't have any sugar, white pasta, and such ever. He's not saying that either.

Sign Jamie's petition, which simply declares, "I support the Food Revolution. America's kids need better food at school and better health prospects. We need to keep cooking skills alive."

Doing Jamie Proud

Where was I Friday between 8 and 10 PM? Glued to my television watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. If you missed it, you can watch full episodes online.

I cringed when the lunch lady demanded Jamie supply her with documentation British school children use forks and knives. My blood boiled at that hostile dj's protest that they're not all going to sit around and eat lettuce. But the Edwards family stuck with me the most. I'll be rooting for them to turn things around.

I cannot imagine a life without fresh fruits and vegetables. I visit a local, organic farm, Old Hook Farm, every week. I rarely have a plan, I just go and get inspired. The breakdown this week:

For snacking: blood oranges and pears. Celery with peanut butter for a protein boost is a snack I learned about in the third grade. I'm still eating it.
For roasted cauliflower soup: cauliflower, a potato and shallot. I'll add vegetable stock, herbs and nutmeg.
For a classic French bistro-inspired salad: radicchio and endive. Just add walnuts and grapes or walnuts and vinaigrette. Serve with bread (I love the rosemary focaccia from Trader Joe's).

My sweetheart's mother was in town visiting. In honor of her birthday and upcoming trip to Spain, he made paella. While everyone else had seafood and chicken, my own Jamie Oliver chef made me a very special vegan one, complete with shitake mushrooms, navy beans and peas. Vegetarian paella is so comforting. Make some sangria if you'd like to make it festive.


To start: a spinach salad. I topped mine with yellow peppers, roasted red peppers and tomatoes. He made a lemony vinaigrette with fresh thyme.

Making your own dressing is so easy. Check out Tyler Florence's Arugala Salad and Ultimate Vinaigrette. Leave off the honey if you want to veganize.

Jamie Oliver's Everyday Green Chopped Salad is on my recipe "to do" list.


Spanish clementines for snacking.

Okay, it wasn't all healthy! For dessert, warm sweet bread drizzled with honey. Very similar to French toast, but with no cinnamon. I admit it: I had a slice. Delicious.


The next episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution is Friday, April 2nd at 9 EST.

It Takes a British Chef...

to step up to the plate to reverse and revolutionize horrendous American eating habits. "This is the first generation of kids expected to live a shorter life than their parents," Jamie Oliver bemoans. Shame on us is right, Jamie.



“Immediately you get a really clear sense of do the kids know anything about where food comes from,” he observes. I don't think some adults know much more.



Learn more about Jamie's Food Revolution, debuting Friday, March 26th on ABC. You can sign his petition he plans to take to the White House.

Jamie's Fowl Dinners show enlightened the British public about the real cost behind their cheap eggs and chicken. Watch the show here.

I am a great admirer of Mr. Oliver. I've blogged about his efforts to educate about the horrors of the pork industry, and my disillusionment over why no major American chefs are as outraged over the source of their "ingredients."

Gene & Jamie

Two men, very different diets. Gene Baur, a vegan, and one of the leaders in the American movement to improve the lives of farm animals. Jamie Oliver, a British chef and meat eater, working, surprisingly for the same cause: a better life for the animals consumed each year (in the U.S. alone, that's 10 billion).

On Gene
"You know what's missing today on the farm?" a swine unit manger asked Gene Baur, President and Co-Founder of Farm Sanctuary, after failing to justify the egregious conditions on modern day pig farms. "Pigmanship," the manager said.

Gene recalled that very conversation in his packed discussion at the New York Public Library. In his best-selling book, Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food, he provides a window to the horrors of life on factory farms. The pork industry would rather keep the shades pulled down.

No pigmanship here
In the book, Gene documents that "Each of the roughly six million breeding sows in the United States is expected to give birth to two litters a year, or a total of about twenty piglets. Over the course of their lives, breeding sows are fed the barest minimum, only about half of what they would normally eat, and are chronically hungry."

He remarks on the "the connection between the farmers and the animals" being lost, and that "each sow is merely a production unit." Farming doesn't even seem to be a fitting word at all for what goes on, for there is no nourishment, no cultivation, no respect for life. Only profit.

He writes of gestation crates, 2 x 7 foot enclosures scarcely larger than the sows' own bodies. These sows serve a jail sentence, but they committed no crime. They are just the victims of our greed for cheap pork.

Thanks to the efforts in part of Farm Sanctuary, gestation crates in Florida and Arizona were banned by voters. When put on the ballot, voters, the majority of whom want to consume meat, reject such egregious cruelty.

I can't help think about how far removed the treatment of farm animals is compared to Georgeanne Brennan's memoir of her years in France. In A Pig in Provence, she writes of the notion of the pig being the farmer's friend, and of their highly-sensitive noses, used for hunting prized truffles. When it came time for the slaughter, she writes, "They spoke quietly, not wanting to upset the pig. They understood an agitated animal would not bleed well, and if it didn't bleed well, the meat would be tainted, the hams wouldn't cure, and it would be a big loss to the family." There must be a lot of tainted meat considering today's practices, as well as a lot of tainted ethics.

On Jamie
On Giada De Laurentiis' web site, you can buy not only her cookbooks, but you can also pick up Giada's Sicilian Sea Salt/Tuscan Herb Mix and Giada's Sicilian Sea Salt/Tuscan Herb Mix Extra Virgin Olive Oil. You won't read about how her Veal Stew with Cipollini Onions is produced. Rachael Ray's web site? I spotted a $1 off coupon for Perdue Chicken, and the most popular recipe was Teriyaki Chicken Lettuce Cups. Paula Deen? The animals won't find any southern comfort on her site. She even has her own line of pork made by Smithfield Foods. Not a peep about animal welfare (pun intended).

Why are American chefs so unconcerned about the welfare of the animals they recommend millions of people eat? The Brits, and the animals, thankfully have Jamie Oliver in their camp. To his credit are two shows exposing the horrors of the chicken and pig industries, and his web site devotes a section to pig welfare, where he notes 65% of British pigs spend their whole lives indoors.

"The sow stall is where pigs live for probably 90% of their lives for four or five years," he told the Radio Times. While banned in the UK, they're not banned in Europe, Jamie bemoaned.

A recent Taco Bell ad asks the consumer, "why pay more?" Jamie has been a tireless advocate of paying more for meat so that animals can have a better quality of life.

The labeling game
Gene Baur talked about being a "conscious consumer." For those who don't wish to go veg and are trying to purchase more humanly raised meat, milk and eggs, that can be a challenge, especially when it comes to confusing labeling guidelines, combined with bad behavior sanctioned by organizations and our very own government.

Farm Sanctuary's "The Truth Behind The Labels: Farm Animal Welfare Standards and Labeling Practices" report took a look at this very issue. For instance, under the Certified Humane program, which is administered by Humane Farm Animal Care and endorsed by some animal advocacy organizations, confinement of pregnant sows to gestation crates is prohibited, and bedding is required. However, there is no requirement that pigs be provided access to the outdoors, and tail docking pigs is allowed under some circumstances. Neither of those seem particularly humane to most caring individuals.

Across the pond, no legal definition of 'free-range pork' exists in the UK. The RSPCA believes that the label 'free-range' should only be used where the pig (and the sow that bred the pig) is kept outside for its entire life, in paddocks with ample space to move around and soil to root in, Jamie's web site noted.

Clarity is needed. "How many people outside of the industry know the difference between outdoor-bred and outdoor-reared, for example? Not many," Jamie remarked in a guardian article.

Learn more about the RSPCA campaign, Rooting for Pigs.

24 hours
How would humans fare in crates that sows endure their entire lives in? Jamie puts a few to the test. Unfortunately, the animals don't get to volunteer where they live, nor do they get a reprieve after 24 hours and a treat to follow.


Flashback to Jamie's exposed on factory farmed chickens, Jamie's Fowl Dinners, and my entry on Jamie Saves Our Bacon.

Check out Jamie's vegetarian recipes.

See more clips of Jamie Saves Our Bacon from Eat Me Daily.

Pigs enjoying life at Farm Sanctuary's Waktins Glen, NY shelter.

The Way We Eat: A Look at the Real Costs of What's in Your Cart

People watching. Some people like to do it at a sidewalk cafe or a park bench, but my venue of choice: the supermarket. If you're intrigued as I am as to what people are filling up their carts with and why, some insight into their decisions is revealed in "The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter," by Peter Singer and Jim Mason.

The authors follow three American families. One shops heavily at Wal-Mart and eats the traditional meat and animal by-products centric diet. Another, more conscious consumers, who spend more to purchase sustainable seafood and free range eggs and meats. The third are the vegans. The authors interview each family, then trace the origins of their diet, examining every angle, including the impact on animal welfare, the environment, workers rights, and the local food movement.

Are vegans perfect? Of course not. Case in point: Yellowtail wine. I hear this Australian wine recommended all the time in our vegan community. But does it not matter that this is a non-organic wine that comes from across the globe? Are we cancelling out the impact to the animals' and our environment of all those food miles to transport it to our table, just so we can pat ourselves on the back for drinking a vegan wine, vs. a non-vegan wine grown locally?

Why farm animals?
The authors pose an interesting moral issue, noting that animal movement has focused on animals used in research, for fur and in circus. In the U.S., about 20 to 40 million birds and mammals are killed annually for research, but even the higher end estimate of 40 million represents less than two days' production in America's slaughterhouses each year. Perhaps many in our animal movement think fur and circuses are so frivolous and easier targets than getting people to shun their hamburgers for good. As an animal advocate, the amount of exploitation is overwhelming...clothes, entertainment, food, experimentation, and since they cannot defend themselves, the burden on us to stand up for them is heavy.

On low prices at any cost
"The cult of low prices has become so ingrained in the consumer culture that deep discounts are no longer novelties, they are entitlements," John Dicker writes in his book, The United States of Wal-Mart, the authors noted. I thought of this as I passed a Boston Market and saw a large sign advertising a whole chicken for $1.99. As UK chef Jamie Oliver has remarked, "A chicken is a living thing, an animal with a life cycle, and we shouldn't expect it will cost less than a pint of beer in a pub."

The loss of morality
One of the sentiments that stuck with me most was expressed by Jake, the mother who shops heavily at Wal-Mart, even though she could shop at a store where everything is organically grown and the meats are free range. "Laziness is a part of it," she remarked, as the store is about a 30 minute drive away. The prices are also two to three times higher than at Wal-Mart. "Isn't it a sad thing when our morals become so disposable?" This, to me, is one of the takeaway points of the book and one of the great dilemmas of our time. I've walked into many a household filled with multi-thousand dollar entertainment systems, vast DVD and clothing collections, and more "stuff" so to speak. But when it comes to our food choices, people often put little thought into what they put into their body, and where it came from, and just look for the cheapest choice available, especially now. People are trained to not think of the hidden costs to the animals, workers, environment, or the health care system, and just 'consume.' A shift in values that respects the animals, the land, our fellow humans and ourselves is sorely needed...and the winds of change begin with us.

Will an American Jamie Oliver Please Stand Up?

"Those barricades can only hold for so long." - R.E.M., Belong


Our American animal movement hasn't paid much attention to the broadcast of "Jamie Saves our Bacon," Jamie Oliver's latest expose on factory farming conditions which aired in the UK last week. Perhaps because he is an unapologetic carnivore. But he is the only celebrity chef carnivore who exposes his countrymen to the connection of low-cost food and animal welfare. Thank you, Jamie! I think the fact that he is a meat-eater makes his case for raising the humane standards of farm animals even more credible. Even if that means paying more.

The visual is so important. On Oliver's show, two million viewers saw a baby pig having its tail docked, being castrated with no anaesthetic, and stunned, chained, and slaughtered with a knife, according to the Guardian. They are denied all their natural instincts...rooting, nesting, socializing...all so we humans can consume cheap meat.

Britain introduced welfare rules in 1999 that the rest of the EU has until 2013 to adopt, the Guardian noted, so this show was meant to enlighten Brits about animal welfare standards in the neighboring EU, where more and more of their cheaper pork is coming from, and encourage them to support British pig farmers. A report by Compassion in World Farming showed that 100% of farms it surveyed in Spain, and nearly 90% in Germany and the Netherlands provided no straw for their pigs at all, compared to about a third of British farms. Some 40% of breeding sows in Britain are kept outdoors, compared to less than 1% in the Netherlands.

Ina? Tyler? Giada? I would love to get into the heads of our Food Network stars. Do they give any thought to the lives of the animals they advocate the masses eat? Perhaps we animal activists should attend their book events and ask them these hard questions. In my pre-vegan days, I used to admire Giada De Laurentiis. I thought she had the most amazing life...traveling, cooking, attending culinary school in Paris, a handsome husband. But not anymore. She, like most of the Food Network chefs, cook their pigs, cows, chickens and fish and animal by-products on their fancy sets, where animal ethics sit on the back-burner. A life of ignorance is not a life I want to emulate. "Give me a bloodless road," Tori Amos signs in Sweet Sangria, which is now one of my life mottos.

Read the Guardian's full review of the special here.
Learn more about the Compassion in World Farming report.
RSPCA's 'Rooting for pigs' campaign.

One of the special's more G-rated fare. I apologize in advance if the video gets taken down, as Jamie's three videos on the special keep getting removed and put back up.

Jamie's Fowl Dinners: The Unseen Price to Cheap Eggs and Chicken

British chef Jamie Oliver is not as big a name as Rachael Ray or Emeril Lagasse in the United States, which is a shame. While our celebrity chefs seem self-obsessed and always looking for the next marketing deal (Rachael Ray-branded garbage bowls anyone?) Jamie does what no American chef has the courage to do - enlighten the masses to where their food actually comes from. His "Jamie's Fowl Dinners" special exposed the truth to how Britain's chickens and eggs are produced, very much in factory farm conditions widespread in the U.S.

On the egg and chicken business, he bemoans, "the industries behind which I believe have been pushed, pushed, and even bullied at times, to produce cheaper and cheaper food. I believe if we give you, the great British public, the credit and show you where your cheap eggs and where your cheap meat comes from, next time you go shopping you'll make better choices."



"You're talking about a living machine when it comes to modern chickens. It's not a real bird at all," naturalist Bill Oddie observes. Jungle fowl lays 5-10 eggs a year. Industrial hens lay 300 eggs a year.



"There's 20 million battery hens in sheds in the UK alone. And in my view, they are out of site and out of mind," says Jane Howorth of Battery Hen Welfare Trust, whose group has rescued 60,000 hens in four years and relocated them in homes.



Enriched cages, or "small bird colonies," will still be allowed in 2012 when battery cages will be banned in the UK. Astroturf is their nest. When Oliver asks Andrew Joret of the British Egg Industry Council "What would you say to people that felt there shouldn't be any caged birds at all?" The reply, "The question is what do customers want. It is all about price."

"It's simple. You get what you pay for. Cheap eggs means lower welfare and worse conditions for the hens. In the end, it's your choice," Oliver remarks.



What happens to spent chickens? Pass the MRM (Mechanically reclaimed meat)


"Roughly around one third of a grown man's body weight a year we eat in chicken," Oliver says of the Brits' consumption.


From birth to slaughter? A shocking 5 1/2 weeks. Part of the problem, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall notes, is that "the supermarkets are fighting a price war on chicken."



The slaughter. Unlikely this quick and humane.


When an audience member prefers the tastes of the caged chicken, Oliver seems to agree with the opinion the man's palate is too used to junk food. "I can picture what you showed me earlier," another woman remarks. Precisely the point of this special.



The pork industry is Jamie's next target, as "Jamie Saves Our Bacon" debuts in the UK on January 29.

Resources:
Jamie's Fowl Dinners
Battery Hen Welfare Trust
Compassion in World Farming
RSPCA: Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals