BACK FROM THE BALLOT BOX

I was completely consumed with the election, as you might have noticed. But I'm back now. I'll be catching up and filing some items that are older than usual, though the immediately following one is wayyyy older. Thank you for your patience.

Let's all note one thing, though, before we move on: John Kerry's pathetic pandering to Ohio voters by shooting a goose while dressed up as a hunter did not succeed in swinging that state to him. He could've stayed home that day with the same electoral result, and the goose would still be alive.

VEGAN OF THE MONTH

Norm Mason is a telephone company CEO who has instituted a free vegan cafeteria for his employees. "Soy steaks and soy sloppy joes, veggie burgers, nachos and other meatless, eggless, butter-free delicacies are cooked daily." Mason an "animal lover," is hoping to get his workers used to meat-free tastes, so he's "giving them all the fresh vegetables, meat substitutes, cakes and drinks they could ever want."

SICKENED BY MAD COW BEEF IN IRELAND

"A man has been hospitalized in Dublin with what was believed to be the first human case of mad cow disease to originate in Ireland. The man probably contracted the illness -- variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or vCJD -- by eating contaminated beef in Ireland, the Sunday Times of London reported. Health officials confirmed Saturday that the patient had never had a blood transfusion or surgery, meaning infected meat is the likely source." This next quote from "Professor William Hall" is interesting, because it sounds like something we're gonna hear one of our US experts say here soon: "This is a difficult time and I don't want to sound glib," Hall said. "However, we were expecting at least one case of vCJD based on calculated estimates."

MAINSTREAM VEGANISM

Not there yet, but getting ever closer: Here's two types of articles I've started skipping over as they're too plentiful and repetitive, but I'll stop to remark that that's a good sign of how common this is becoming: Here's one of a growing number of big-city upscale vegan restaurants, this one in Atlanta: "Lush is all-vegan and uses no animal products whatsoever. But owners Isaac Adelenge and Charlotte Macbagito create a savory menu and a relaxed, romantic atmosphere that will delight many non-vegetarians as well as strict vegans." Take note of the "but" joining those two sentences. I give that construction another three years, tops. And with new chichi cookbooks out all the time that serve veganism even if they don't go by that name (demonstrating our overlap with other emerging groups), there will be too many books like Elegant Dairy-Free Entertaining to mention individually. But they'll be out there, more and more.

GAO: US RECALL SYSTEM FULL OF HOLES

The Government Accountability Office released a blistering report saying the USDA and FDA are failing to properly track meat recalls or enforcing them to the extent that unsafe meat doesn't get eaten. Less than 40 percent of recalled food is returned to stores or distributors. Here's an abstract, with links to full versions. Plenty of interesting stuff, including the FDA's mysteriously divergent public and private recall databases, but as far as I can tell, no in-depth examination of the "Friday Recall" syndrome.

Meanwhile, there's now a criminal probe under way in the 2002 Pilgrim's Pride recall for listeria in processed poultry. Remember how freakily that thing unfolded? I hope some heads will roll this time for a change, but I'm not holding my breath - except when I'm around one of their processing plants. "The inspector general audited 582 forms the Food Safety and Inspection Service used to monitor the recall, and found discrepancies on 389 of them - a 66 percent failure rate." That's a failure on the part of the USDA, in case the FSIS-talk obscures it. And as if to drive home the GAO's point, "the inspector general determined that only 5.5 million pounds [20%] of recalled poultry products were actually recovered by Pilgrim's Pride. 'The rest of the recalled product, almost 21.9 million pounds, was consumed in the marketplace or otherwise disposed of.'" Similarly, echoing the GAO concerns, "in many cases, the service [FSIS] didn't determine how much poultry Pilgrim's Pride customers purchased, and failed to document whether tainted poultry was located and destroyed, according to the reports. In some cases, the FSIS checked businesses that didn't purchase any of the tainted poultry products because inspectors 'didn't have a process for selecting customers.' The reports also determined FSIS failed to check up on the recall in a timely manner."

I'LL JUST SWITCH TO FISH MCMLXXVII

Once again, there's "new evidence linking high fish consumption to potentially unsafe levels of mercury" - this from scientists at the University of North Carolina at Asheville who tested hair samples from 1,449 people nationwide. The more store-bought fish, locally caught fish and canned tuna a person consumes, the higher his or her hair mercury level tends to be, according to the study.

No real surprises here, except perhaps in what now constitutes a "heavy fish consumer": "The study found nearly 50 percent of the people who described themselves as heavy fish consumers exceeded that [dangerous mercury] level. Heavy fish consumers were defined in the study as people who eat five or more servings of fish a month." So in case you weren't aware, if you eat more than one serving of fish a week, you're a heavy fish consumer, with a 50-50 chance that you're packing the mercury to toxic levels.

ARAMARK: COLLEGE STUDENTS WANT VEGAN MEALS

This is pretty stunning: Nationwide food supplier Aramark did a survey of over 100,000 college students and found that "nearly a quarter said finding vegan meals on campus was important to them." That doesn't mean 25% of college students are vegans, of course, but it does mean food companies are increasingly going to have to take us seriously - and Aramark is doing so. They've added new menu items like "Sweet Thai Tofu Stir-Fry, Broccoli Teriyaki, Chili Garlic Stir-Fry, Vegan Cheese Quesadillas, Vegan 'Chicken' Burritos, Eggless 'Egg' Salad, 'Turkey' Subs, and Vegan 'Cheese' Burgers. Of course actual vegans don't need to have every meal revolve around meat/cheese substitutes, but these are good transitional choices for young people who are willing to try new things.

For anyone who thinks this is just Aramark patting themselves on the back, vegetarian/vegan options in school cafeterias are becoming a major issue, so far only chronicled on a case-by-case basis. For example, this story from the Flint Journal about high-school students' protest that all six pre-packaged specialty salads at their salad bar include meat, or this one from Lehigh University, where they just opened a vegan section of their dining hall due to students' pushing for more and better options. There are plenty more of these; someone with time on their hands should do a big wrap-up.

MEAT IS MURDER

At long last, after many twists and turns in a truly bizarre case, the "Sausage King," Stuart Alexander, has been found guilty of murder. This is the meat-plant operator who shot and killed three USDA inspectors (and attempted to kill a fourth) who he felt were being too strict with him in insisting he adhere to basic foodborne-illness rules. The killings were captured on videotape, yet he tried to mount a defense to the effect that it was the inspectors' unreasonable demands that had driven him out of his mind.

Actually, it may have been the meat: After his lawyers called an expert to testify that Alexander's brain was too small to stop him from shooting federal inspectors in cold blood, the expert said no, his brain was "about normal for his age and gender, though it did appear a bit banged up and atrophied." Hmmmm. Excessive meat consumption is a known cause of brain degeneration - coincidence? To sum up, we have a man steeped in an industry of death, whose consumption of dead food may have made him brain-dead to the point he thought people's deaths were warranted to protect his own death-based business. And now it's up to the jury to decide whether he should be put to death. It's almost redundant now, isn't it?

ATKINS ATTACKS - DR. GREGER STRIKES BACK

That's "attacks" as a verb, not the "Atkins attacks" that afflict people whose arteries are clogged with delicious saturated fat. You may recall that Dr. Michael Greger earlier this year launched a site whose name was doubtless inspired by this one - Atkins Facts. The Atkins folks were none too pleased and have threatened a lawsuit over the painful truths documented on Dr. Greger's site, as well as the watering down of the brand. Ever the gentleman, Dr. Greger changed the name to Atkins Exposed, and has now posted an exhaustive rebuttal of the low-carb corporation's claims. It's a must-read.

ANOTHER CJD CLUSTER?

Of course CJD "clusters" will occur randomly in a given geographic area just by statistical probability, but that's small comfort when it's your area. People in the Hudson Valley may now be wondering if something's up after a local woman who may be the fifth in recent months died of CJD. Now officials are saying preliminary tests show some of the suspected cases were not
CJD, but they declined to say how many cases, citing the need to keep everything related to brain-wasting diseases super-secret and mysterious in order to bolster public confidence.

BREAST-CANCER RISK FOR MILK-DRINKING GIRLS

Tall, thin teenage girls who put on a growth spurt at puberty are at highest risk of breast cancer - and milk may be the culprit, researchers suggest today. The New England Journal of Medicine has called for more research into the consumption of milk as a possible dietary factor behind two connected phenomena: Taller, thinner pubescent girls who go on to get breast cancer. "An increase in milk drinking has been suggested as a factor behind the large increase in average heights in Japan. As the Japanese adopted a more Western diet in the two decades after the Second World War, 12-year-old girls gained 15cm in height on average. That gain has been paralleled 30 years later by an increase in breast cancer in the same generation of women; the incidence has doubled from 40 to 80 cases per 100,000 of population." (Via Vegan Porn)

BIG DAIRIES PLAY TAXPAYERS FOR CHUMPS... AGAIN

"Nearly $70 million in state bond money earmarked for reducing pollution was used by California dairies to expand their operations, which resulted in more air pollution, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The result, the newspaper said, is that the air in California's dairy-rich San Joaquin Valley is now among the dirtiest in the nation, recording more eight-hour ozone level violations than Los Angeles. The dairies qualified for the money through tax-exempt, low-interest loan programs by stating in their applications that expanding operations would provide an 'environmentally sound method of disposing of animal waste' by spreading cow manure across a greater area and thus decreasing its impact on groundwater supplies." Gosh, but it turns out that assurance just another generous helping of stinking manure, and the dairies have fouled the air even further than before. Who'da thunk?

BULLETIN: CHIMPS HAVE OWN CUSTOM-SIZED SOCKET WRENCHES, SCREWDRIVERS

As part of the ongoing narrative of human ignorance of non-human sentience, we have some more episodes where "what separates us from the animals" turns out not to: Remember how we finally came to grips with the fact that we weren't the only animals who used, or made, tools? Now it turns out that some chimps have not just tools but entire tool kits: "Using infrared, motion-triggered video cameras, researchers have documented how chimpanzees in the Republic of Congo use a variety of tools to extract termites from their nests. The 'tool kits' are among the most complex ever observed in wild chimp populations." The caption on the page describes how "Using her foot to press a stick into the ground, much as a farmer would a shovel, an adult female chimpanzee makes a hole into an underground termite nest. She will then take another type of stick, carried in her mouth, and use it to fish for the insects."

Meanwhile, in the non-mammal world, it turns out that fish - contrary to conventional wisdom - "are fast learners, carry mental maps around in their heads - and can retain memories for months. Tests on fish in aquaria at Oxford University have shown that despite their tiny brains, they possess cognitive abilities outstripping those of some small mammals." Dr Culum Brown at the University of Edinburgh "found that Australian crimson spotted rainbowfish, which learnt to escape from a net in their tank, remembered how they did it 11 months later. This is equivalent to a human recalling a lesson learnt 40 years ago." (Both via Vegan Porn). Boy, what's next? Betty the Crow getting her own blog?

THE ELEPHANT IN THE LIVING ROOM

Don't look now, but the tide is turning on the issue of circus elephants. The common sense notion that these large, sentient, noble animals do not belong in metropolitan "entertainment" venues has gained enough traction that Ringling chief Kenneth Feld had to pay off Massachusetts legislators to keep an "exotic animal ban" from passing in that state. But the ban has been proposed again, and it will eventually pass, as the basic information about the cruelty elephants suffer at the hands of circuses gets out to more and more people. Meanwhile, Clyde Beatty Cole Bros. Circus seems to have quietly ditched their elephant acts completely - at least for now: "That seems to be the flashpoint of the animal rights movement. So we decided to go on tour this year without them and see how the public accepts it." Yes, let's see.

NO SUCH THING AS TOO MUCH SALAD

It's already a cliche - "It's not what you eat, but how much." Well, certainly eating one hamburger a day is better than eating ten hamburgers a day. But to a great extent, yes, it is what you eat, as a NYT article from a couple days ago explains. And guess what: If you base your eating around sensible plant foods, you can eat more food without adding calories! "People tend to eat a consistent weight of food," says Dr. Barbara J. Rolls, a professor of behavioral health at Penn State. The article continues: "When consuming a calorie-dense food high in fat, people are likely to eat more calories just to get in a satisfying amount of food. What increases food volume without adding calories? You guessed it. Water. And what foods naturally contain the most water? You got that right too. Fruits and vegetables. 'People given the message to eat more fruits and vegetables lost significantly more weight than those told to eat less fat,' Dr. Rolls said." So go ahead and eat MORE, not less, as long as you're eating good food instead of crap.

PLANT FATS PREVENT GALLSTONES

That's overstating the correlation a little - there are some animal fats (some fish, for example) that are unsaturated, and a couple plant fats (tropical oils) that are saturated, but let's be realistic: If you want to reduce your gallstone risk on a day-to-day basis, replace your animal fats with plant fats. That's certainly a valid reading of this 14-year study of more than 45,000 men. It found that "those who ate the most unsaturated fats -- the kind generally found in vegetables, rather than meat -- were 18 percent less likely to develop gallstones than men with the lowest unsaturated fat intake, according to the report, published in the Oct. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine."

JACK LALANNE'S 90 NOW

The Jack LaLanne story seems to be older than even he is, but that's just because we've seen it so often, every year on his birthday as he gets older and older and is still seemingly fit. Now that he's hit ninety, remember two of his key fitness tips: #6 - Don't eat at McDonalds (paraphrased), and especially #7 -"You've got to get at least five or six raw vegetables every day of your life. You've got to get at least four or five pieces of fresh fruit every day of your life. And you've got to eat whole grains."

MEAT DOESN'T PAY

I love it when breaking political news intersects with our Meat Facts mission. The man chosen as Executive Director of the CIA has now pulled his name from consideration after a Washington Post report that "in late 1981, [Michael] Kostiw was caught shoplifting a $2.13 package of bacon from a supermarket in Langley, according to two former CIA officials familiar with the incident." At the time, the Post notes, Kostiw had been a CIA case officer for 10 years. And while we're on this story, what the heck does this mean: "In a CIA polygraph test, Kostiw's responses to questions about the incident and his past tours abroad led agency officials to place him on administrative leave for several weeks..." Um, am I the only one who finds that phrase "and his past tours abroad" intriguing? He was lying about the CIA work he'd been doing? I guess anything's possible if you're hooked on meat.

OOPS, VOL. 23: MAD COW GROUND INTO FEED

CBC News is reporting that the Canada's May 2003 mad cow "was turned into feed and may have been mistakenly fed to other cows." The Canadian Food Inspection Agency discovered that cattle at a number of farms were eating feed intended only for pigs and chickens - feed that may contain the rendered remains of the diseased cow. Fortunately, "in response to the CBC report, the federal agriculture minister said rules banning the use of cow brain, eyes and backbone in all animal feed would soon be published." Whew. Does all this sound familiar? Does anyone seriously believe our own USDA is somehow more on the ball than this? And do we have any assurance that the Mad Cow feed, or a cow that had eaten it, didn't cross the border?

McVEGETARIAN?

OK, this is over in England, but it's still a pretty stunning development: McDonald's is hooking up with the Vegetarian Society in Britain, adding "Quorn burgers, yogurt, bagels and fruit toast to McDonald's menus" in an attempt to forestall its economic tailspin. The Vegetarian Society "is said to have gone to great lengths to ensure the production of the new options did not involve meat in any way." Good, but unless that's soy yogurt (doubtful), they didn't pres to make 'em all vegan. Baby steps, baby steps... right?

UPDATE 10/11: It's not just over in England any more: "In a nod to the growing number of vegetarians - and sensing a moneymaking opportunity," McDonald's has introduced the McVeggie Burger at 50 locations in New York City. The chain has previously test-marketed the McVeggie in smaller markets and in California, but Manhattan is a big step. If it can make it there, it'll make it anywhere, or so they say.