CheekyMonkey

The Meat of the Matter

nobody@vox.com(cheekymonkey) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:44:30 -0700

I have been a vegetarian for the past 15 years. Giving up meat came easy for me, and I felt healthier for it. When I tell people that I'm a vegetarian, they often ask me why I went that route. Well, the answer is complicated, but in addition to the health aspect, I have serious issues with the treatment of animals who are raised conventionally for consumption. Not only do I feel for the animals, but I don't want to ingest meat that comes from an animal that has been fed a diet of animal parts or that has been raised in an unnatural manner, that has been loaded up with antibiotics, etc.

So, in eating and in feeding my family, I have considered myself to be fairly sensitive about food. Then, I read "The Omnivore's Dilemma," which was eye-opening indeed. In this book Michael Pollan examines 4 different meals, tracing them from the source to the table. The first meal analyzed comes from McDonald's and, even though I uniformly eschew fast food, I was nevertheless shocked when I read this:

But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

But, even though it was shocking that something so unnatural and potentially harmful was used to make food, that was okay because I don't consume fast food.

But then, last night, I grabbed our box of Morningstar Farms veggie bacon out of the freezer and started examining the ingredients. Imagine my horror when I saw TBHQ listed - - the same shite that's in Chicken McNuggets! This was especially disturbing because Maria really digs the veggie bacon. I typically pay close attention to ingredients, but with things like veggie items, I guess my vision was clouded. And, before reading "The Omnivore's Dilemma," I had no idea what TBHQ even is!

So, while I can't imagine a return to meat-eating, as far as my family is concerned, I'm starting to think that local, humanely raised meat might be the way to go.

For anyone curious about the issue of meat and animal welfare, Eat Wild is a very good source of information and links to where you can find local grass fed dairy and meat products.

Jeez! It's not easy being a conscientious consumer these days.

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Morford

nobody@vox.com(cheekymonkey) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:57:56 -0700

I really dig Mark Morford. I love his snarky attacks on pop culture, his cutting political commentary, his keen insights into current events. And now he has illuminated the case for an Obama candidacy and presidency like no other.

But I'll even take it a step further. Because the greatest thing about Obama isn't really about Obama at all, per se. It's actually about, well, us.
This is the great revelation: We still got it. The collective unconscious, the deep sense of inner wisdom, that intuitive knowing that borders on a kind of mystical proficiency, where millions of people can actually look beyond rhetoric and media spin and merely feel the presence of something great in the room? Yep, still there. Who knew?

Yes! Just the other day, I was struggling to express this same sentiment to G. I was feeling fairly emotional (damn my goblet of organic wine!) and I lapsed into utter corny-as-hell-ness and said something like "It's as if Obama set people's hearts aloft and Hillary is trying to shoot them down like balloons." [Note to Hallmark: Call me!]

It's this: People feel it. They hear an Obama speech or read the articles or talk to like-minded folk, and they squint their eyes and weigh everything and then dismiss all that surface crap and get that look on their face that says, you know what? This guy gets it. He feels right. It's not a trick of light. It's not complete bulls—. It's not the usual spin and manipulation and fakery. There is actual meat on this bone. What a thing.

Yes, Mark Morford! Yes, I say! And I don't even eat meat!

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Waiter, There's a Pig in My Soup!

nobody@vox.com(cheekymonkey) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 11:18:51 -0800

After spending way too much time with my friends at the Social Security Administration in order to appease our local state bureaucracy (whoops! I forgot to change my name with the Social Security Administration!) ... I sped into the building cafeteria and filled a to-go container with "Garden Vegetable" soup. This was important to me because, you see, I am a vegetarian, so ... I bypassed the Beef Chilli, said "no" to the Chicken Gumbo and went straight for the Garden Vegetable. Garden. Vegetable. You can imagine how shocked I was to discover a smoky, porcine ingredient: BACON!!! Ack! Why, pray tell, is there bacon in GARDEN VEGETABLE soup??!!!! It makes no sense. Except that some people apparently must view bacon as a spice. Sometime before Christmas, I dashed into this same cafeteria and hastily grabbed a "vegetable wrap" only to discover that it too was embellished with bacon. What is the deal, people!! Bacon is NOT a VEGETABLE!!!

Definitely NOT a Garden Vegetable

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