Animals in the news

The SPCA recently seized 100 starving Arabian horses from a ranch northeast of Edmonton, AB in Canada. Public complaints led to the seizure, which came too late for 27 horses found dead. Neglected ducks, rabbits, chickens, goats and sheep were also found on the ranch owned by Hinz-Schleuter Arabians.

The Canadian government is apparently imposing new rules for seal hunters. According to Reuters: ''From now on, hunters will have to follow a three-step process recommended by an independent panel of veterinarians. After clubbing or shooting the seal, a hunter must check its eyes to ensure it is dead and if not, the animal's main arteries have to be cut.'' Previously, all that was required if seals were found to be alive after an initial clubbing was that they be bonked on the head a second time. These new rules are supposedly going to make the process more -- er --''humane''.

J.D. Irving Ltd. is launching a constitutional challenge of Canada's Migratory Birds Convention Acts, which protects migratory birds, as well as their eggs and nests. February of 2007, the company had been charged with disrupting a Great Blue Heron nesting colony the previous summer by building a logging road through the middle of it and completely destroying 12-20 nests. At the time, they entered a plea of not guilty, claiming they'd exercised ''care and diligence'' to protect the Great Blue Herons' habitat.

Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff

Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff examines -- in a clever, clear and concise manner -- the cycle of consumerism that was kick-started around the end of WWII in the United States (although the same could be said for Canada or other Western countries). For a better version of it, as well as for more information on the video, go to the Story of Stuff website.

Recent book purchases

For a whopping total of $4.50 taxes in (and in like-new condition, although they're used):

Marcia Nozick's No Place Like Home: Building Sustainable Communities

From the back: "A book which challenges the conventional wisdom on social and economic development. No Place Like Home provides an alternative vision of how we can develop sustainable communities. Both critical and constructive, and written in language which everyone can understand, this book draws together five major themes, each a component of sustainable communities: economic self-reliance,; ecological development; getting community control over resources; meeting individual human needs; and, building a community culture. How these five themes interact and reinforce each other in practice is illustrated with examples drawn from communities across North America. The result is a book which cannot fail to inspire community workers everywhere and give researchers and urban planners much to think about."

Roy Genders' Money From Mushrooms: Supplement Your Income (which was published in 1969 and seems to be off Google's radar completely)

Charles Long's How to Survive Without a Salary: Learning to Live the Conserver Lifestyle

In a nutshell, this book seems to be all about how to avoid the trap of consumerism and learn to budget and make due with less -- while thriving -- so that you can leave the 5-day-a-week rat race and focus on enjoying living a more meaningful life.

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut, which in German means "sour cabbage", is this food that people either seem to love or loathe. Long regarded as a digestive aid, sauerkraut is quite nutritious, containing Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, folate, iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium and copper, as well as probiotics. It also contains isothiocyanates, which have been found in some studies to have anti-carcinogenic properties. A friend of mine who got me thinking about the stuff recently swears by Bubbies sauerkraut.

On the other hand, sauerkraut is also quite high in sodium (according to a the nutritional information on a jar of it, a cup contains around 23-25% of the maximum amount of sodium one should consume daily). There are other health risks to consider that stem from sauerkraut's content of potentially carcinogenic nitrosamines, which are commonly found in salted, preserved foods. A couple of Google searches will show you that nitrosamines are frequently injected into lab rats to induce tumors for cancer studies. Vitamin C prevents the creation of nitrosamines, however, and there seems to be a lot more information circulating about sauerkraut's cancer-fighting abilities than there is about its being a potential trigger.

YouTube has a couple of videos on how to make sauerkraut. This one pretty much illustrates the basic no-frills method. I've never tried to make it myself, but intend to do so over the next few days. A small batch, anyway.

People have all kinds of variations on it. Many involve adding caraway seed or sour apples (or both). Some add fennel or celery seed, minced dill, scallions or shredded carrot. Red (or purple) cabbage makes a particularly attractive sauerkraut. I think that my first (or second) experiment may very well involve red cabbage, shredded carrot and some caraway seed.

World's 25 Weirdest Animals

Gotta have a little bit of downtime on a Saturday morning, no? This little guy from Madagascar is one of my favourites, up there with the star-nosed mole and blobfish.

See the rest of them here.

Sharon Astyk's list of 100 Things You Can Do To Prepare Yourself for Peak Oil

Sharon Astyk is a writer and subsistence farmer in rural upstate New York. I've been seeing her name pop up on various Peak Oil and organic farming websites, discussing everything from relocalisation and self-sufficiency, to the future of agriculture in a post-carbon world. I recently found a list she created of 100 things a person can do to prepare themselves for life after the crash on The Organic Consumers Association's website. Her original list is broken down according to seasons on her own website. The Organic Consumers Association, however, featured it broken down into general areas of interest (e.g. home, garden, clothing, etc.) in two separate articles, here and here. Some of the tips are things that could be incorporated into the daily lives of anyone just wanting to lighten their load on the environment, or lower their cost of living. Some of the tips take it further and bring up scenarios that you'd never think of having to deal with, but that will definitely become issues as oil becomes scarce. They're worth a read.

Cheap Eats: TVP (and a recipe for TVP Gyros)

TVP is textured vegetable protein made from defatted flour. It's ridiculously inexpensive bought in bulk in supermarkets or health food stores (e.g. I pay around $1.00 for 2-3 cups of the chunks from the local health food store's bulk bin). It's quick to cook and is usually used as a meat substitute. It comes in granular form or a variety of chunk-like shapes. Usually tasteless by itself, it will readily absorb the flavour of whatever liquids and seasonings are used to rehydrate it.

It's loved and used by vegans, as well as by people interested in frugal living. It's light and stores well, and is also sometimes used by campers and backpackers because of this.

The granular form is fantastic in chili, Sloppy Joes, tacos, cabbage rolls -- anywhere you'd use crumbly hamburger in that sort of way. The chunks are great in stews and casseroles. A quick Google search will bring up all kinds of recipe ideas. For example, you can find a bunch here, including instructions on ratios to follow to substitute the granular form of it for hamburger. One of my favourites is is a recipe adapted from Dorothy R. Bates' TVP Cookbook. I've made it for omnivorous friends and they've liked it as much as I have.

Gyros

Soak for 10 minutes:

1 cup TVP chunks or slices
1 Tbs ketchup
1 cup boiling water

Cover tightly and nuke in a microwave on high for 5 minutes. Check to see if tender and then chill in refrigerator.

Mix the following ingredients for the marinade / dressing:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbs red or white wine vinegar
1 tsp each basil and oregano
1/2 tsp of salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Mix marinade with the cooked, drained and chilled TVP for a few hours. You can also increase the amount of marinade and let the TVP marinate overnight.

Get the veggies ready:

1 large tomato, diced
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
1/4 cup kalamata olives, sliced
2 Tbs fresh mint leaves, chopped or 1-2 tsp dried mint (fresh is better)
3 cups lettuce, shredded

You'll need:

Six (6) pita breads, cut in half (you can warm these in the oven in advance if you prefer). Toss the veggies w/ the TVP and fill the pita pockets. I usually opt to cut a pita bread and tuck one half inside the other to make a stronger bread. Alteratively, I also like to take a whole pita bread and treat it like a wrap (i.e. the way pita is usually wrapped around donair meat in the Maritimes), securing it with aluminum foil or waxed paper to hold it together and to keep it from dripping. If you fill half-pockets, you'll get 12 gyros, and if you use either of the other two methods, you'll get 6.

Vegan recipes in the news, redux.

I think that, just for kicks, I may turn this into a daily post. Or at least do a summary every other day. The concern with newspaper websites is that links change and that content sometimes disappears, otherwise I'd consider doing it weekly. I'm not even sure if anybody's actually checking these out, so any feedback is welcome.

Oregon's The Register Guard spotlights the raw food diet by offering up recipes for Zucchini Linguine, Parsnip Veggie Dip, Pecan Pie, Raw Bloody Mary and a Groovy Green Garden Dip.

And yet again, more vegan recipes in the ''news''

Hungry?

The Welland Tribune offers up Vegetarian Chili Pie (easily veganized if the cheese is switched to a dairy-free soy cheese).

The Orillia Packet & Times has a recipe for a dill-seasoned Tofu ''Egg'' Salad (Nayonaise or Vegenaise can be used instead of the real stuff).

The Atlantic's Megan McArdle features recipes for Mushroom Crostini and decadent Chocolate Pancakes w/ Berry Sauce.

The Daily Dispatch has recipes for Nearly Instant Thai Coconut Corn Soup, Tortilla Casserole from Nava Atlas' Vegan Express, as well as Macaroni and Four ''Cheeses'' from Skinny Bitch in the Kitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin.

The Killeen Daily Herald has a great article on vegan nutrition that features a recipe bonanza: Smokey Curry Veggies and Basmati Rice, Mediterranean Vegetable Pizza for starters, then Penne Vodka from Veganomicon, (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero) and a Scrambled Tofu recipe from Vegan With a Vengenace (by Isa Chandra Moskowitz).

Earthlings - Part 1 of 3

Earthlings is a multi-award winning 2005 documentary by writer/director Shaun Monson, which took around five years to put together. Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix, it examines, in a frank and often jarring manner through the use of facts and footage, how humans have come to completely rely on non-human animals, using them for food, clothing, entertainment and experimentation. We breed and exploit them for profit. As sad and awful as some of the images are in this documentary, they're an accurate portrayal of what goes on "out of sight". There's no sensationalism in this film -- just reality.

Part 1, as presented in this YouTube video, features animals raised to become our pets, as well as animals raised to become our food.

Earthlings - Part 2 of 3

Part 2 continues to examine how we raise animals for food. It also focuses on the seafood industry, including the health issues surrounding it. It goes even further to examine the whaling industry and Japanese dolphin hunts. I won't pretend otherwise -- these images are some of the most difficult things I've seen myself in a long time.

Part 2 also examines animals we use for clothing -- for their skin or fur. It also starts looking at animals used for entertainment by featuring images from rodeos and it takes a glimpse at hunting and fishing at the very end.

Earthlings - Part 3 of 3

The final third of the documentary focuses on the gruesome lives of circus animals, on the rigging and cruelty of bullfighting, and then, finally, on animal experimentation.

US factory farming to be exempt from Clean Air Standards?

A friend over at a vegetarian forum posted a link to a story on the Organic Consumers' Association (OCA) website that sounds ludicrous enough that it may as well be straight out of The Onion. It seems that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States is proposing to eliminate the requirement that factory farms report (i.e. to local, state or federal agencies) hazardous substances they are releasing into the atmosphere that come from animal waste, except in emergency situations. Basically, according to the OCA, the government is proposing this because current legislation is a joke. It's seen by the EPA as a ''burden'' on the factory farms, and, it seems that the government isn't really doing anything to violators anyway, so imposing the regulations at all is just a lot of posturing. To quote the EPA, ''these reports are unnecessary because there is no reasonable expectation that Federal, state or local emergency responders would respond to such report(s)''.

The Sierra Club responded to news of this proposal back in December, pointing out the existing public health hazzard posed by factory farms and the toxins they release into the air and how illogical it would be to suddenly exempt them from having to continue to report what it is which they're releasing. According the the Natural Resources Defence Council (NRDC), lack of regulation and enforcement has already proven to be disastrous in terms of what factory farms in the United States are currently permitted to do to the water and to the air.

The US government is accepting public feedback on this until March 27. The general docket info is available here and you can submit comments to them directly here.

The OCA has initiated a letter writing campaign by which they'll also forward your comments to the EPA. Take a few minutes to write in and express why compromising people's health and compromising the environment shouldn't be allowed to happen just because various levels of government are unwilling or unable to enforce existing legislation.

Eliot Coleman and The New Organic Grower

I first heard of Eliot Coleman when a friend of mine -- an enthusiastic hands-on student of organic farming practices -- mentioned a book of Coleman's that he'd just picked up a while back. He insisted that it was a must-read for anyone serious about organic gardening or farming. The book was The New Organic Grower: A Master's Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener (A Gardener's Supply Book). I've since picked up my own copy, and not only has it left me looking forward to spring when I can get my backyard garden going again, but it's made me excited about the prospect of someday obtaining my own parcel of land and getting out of the city for good.

First published in 1989, then revised in 1995, the book discusses the various methods and techniques which Coleman has gradually developed during his own (more than a) quarter of a century of smallish-scale organic farming on his own land, on others' farms, as well as in more experimental / educational settings. The information in the book is geared towards maximizing productivity and efficiency (e.g. through techniques such as effective crop rotation), without compromising quality or sustainability. Coleman focuses on ways to ''build'' the soil to improve its fertility, and by extension, to improve plant health without falling back on commercial fertilizers (which ultimately ruin the soil) and toxic pesticides. Of particular interest to me (as I gaze out the window at the fresh heap of snow dumped on my small city these past days) is how Coleman, whose small farm is located in Maine, has learned to extend short growing seasons using unheated and (or mostly unheated) mobile greenhouses (amongst other things) so that even an organic farm exposed to harsh New England winters can operate year-round, and do so with with little or no reliance on fossil fuels or expensive machinery.

His book is regarded as the organic farming guide and the information in it is as useful to the urban backyard gardener as it is to the homesteading market farmer with a 1-5 acre farm. He has a ''small is better'' attitude, asserting that 2.5 acres per person is more than enough land to handle and that those 2.5 acres are sufficient to grow a plentiful variety of vegetables capable of feeding up to 100 people for a year! Throughout the book, he describes a farmer's most valuable tools as those of observation and common sense -- to take notice of what works or what doesn't, and while not being afraid to think outside the box, to always, always learn from your mistakes and then use those mistakes to improve your methods. While farming, Coleman would document everything from seeding and harvesting dates to the daily weather and refer to those notes in later years, for instance. For a sneak peak at the book, here's the table of contents (with links to some excerpts) that he features on his Four Season Farm website.

So I've been curious about what led Eliot Coleman to become the organic farmer's organic farmer. Wikipedia offers up some data about him. Other internet explorations led me to find out that it was reading Scott and Helen Nearing's back-to-the-land homesteading classic Living the Good Life in his mid-twenties that triggered his initial interest in growing food. In 1968, he purchased 60 acres of land from them in Harborside, Maine (then selling 20 of those acres at the same price he'd paid for it them). He and his first wife Sue settled in to a simple life of homesteading, clearing the land and using the Nearings' methods as a starting point. The typical daily routine of their first few years there with their young daughter are discussed in this 1971 Mother Earth News article.

The rest of Coleman's life up until the 1990s involved a lot of travel and a variety of pursuits, mostly centered around the practice and politics of organic farming, and some of which I'll likely write about at a later date. For now, I'm looking forward to finishing up this amazing book and putting in a seed order so that I can start planning my own little garden, incorporating some of his methods.

Richard Heinberg on the future of agriculture

In this 2006 address to the E. F. Schumacher Society, Richard Heinberg talked about peak oil's impact on agriculture (an incredibly highly fossil fuel reliant and mechanized system right now) and on the food supply. We live in an age of abundance -- of ridiculous excess, thanks to the oil age. As the cost of oil continues to rise as its quantities diminish, the effects will go well beyond how frequently we choose to visit the gas pump.

Folks like these have the right idea.