VEGAN OF THE MONTH

"She is given to bursting out with such statements as: 'Any woman who isn't a feminist is an idiot!'" reports this newspaper article on Susan Powter, of "Stop the Insanity" fame. (I don't see why we should limit that statement to women, but that's a subject for another blog.) No more shaved head, but she "still has the muscles, the machine-gun delivery and the righteous anger that has endeared her to millions of women." A vegan, Powter says of the meat and dairy industries, "I'm just pissy enough to tell the truth," she says. "I'm not afraid of rage." If only we could Stop the Insanity of institutionalized animal abuse.

'DEFEND YOUR CHICKEN'... FROM WHOM?

I almost never watch TV, but the Olympics were on last month, and I couldn't help but see a couple of new "Defend Your Chicken" commercials from McDonald's. I forgot to blog about it at the time, but was reminded when a "These Are Mine, so Keep on Drivin'" billboard went up near my workplace.

As blogger Sam notes, the idea seems to be to make the latest retread chicken-style-meat-product sound appealing by assuring you that you're at risk of thievery from everybody else. To someone who doesn't spend enough time (I guess) steeped in consumerist mass communications, this seems like the height of cynical desperation: An appeal to the most basic us-vs-them attitudes fostered by rampant capitalism. But then I realized the paranoia represented in these ads also strikes a chord with meat eaters who are nervous that their delicious chicken "tenders" will someday be taken away by a shift in cultural mores. Poor folks. What you don't realize is, the worst part of the whole thing is, when the time comes, you're gonna voluntarily take the chicken away from yourself. The horror!

SAFER FISH OFFER NO HEART HEALTH BENEFIT

In an article headlined "Study Raises Concern on Benefits of Fish," the AP reports that the constantly-cited "heart health benefits" from fish like salmon and mackerel are "weakened" when the fish are fed vegetable oil instead of fish oil. Thing is, feeding them fish oil increases the levels of pollutants. "It's yet another fish conundrum for consumers, like the debate about whether the mercury in some fish offsets their health benefits." Yeah, it is like that debate, because both are based on the inescapable fact that animal fat stores and concentrates pollutants just as it does vitamins. But the key difference is that this time, it's not just that the benefits are offset by the new findings, it's that they may be nonexistent. "Norwegian scientists showed that people who ate salmon fed on pure vegetable oil or on 50 percent fish oil and 50 percent vegetable oil did not get any meaningful improvement in the relevant blood tests." (My emphasis.) So to put it simply, unless you want to guzzle dangerous levels of flame retardant, dioxins and PCBs, these fish offer ZERO heart-health benefit. And of course the AP fails to note that there's only a "conundrum" if you're stuck on trying to get your Omega-3s from an animal source rather than an inherently healthful plant-based one.

BIRDS SMARTER THAN WE THOUGHT

Once again, the better humans get at studying animal behavior, the clearer it is that our biases, not facts, account for the notion of "dumb beasts." This article in the Christian Science Monitor even riffs on that in its opening sentence: "Bird brains seem to be smarter these days." It continues: "Scientists are finding hints of a higher level of intelligence than expected as they look more closely at our avian friends. The findings raise anew questions of what we consider to be thinking and how thinking works."

A researcher says one new bird study "suggests for the first time that a nonprimate may be able to assess the social relationships between other animals of its own species, an ability thought to be a mark of intelligence." And a second study finds that some jays "can sort out social status in a group without fighting. To figure out who is who by watching how individuals behave toward each other is a high-level skill. Psychologists call it transitive reasoning. Scientists did not expect the birds to be that bright." The jays' behavior "implies a more complex set of cognitive skills" than does even the first study mentioned. Sorting things out without fighting? Sounds like if we look close enough, we may find "a more complex set of cognitive skills" than we have ourselves.

ONCE AGAIN: ATKINS PLAN DUBIOUS, DANGEROUS

"The pounds may fall off in the first few months but the Atkins diet does not help people lose weight in the long term and it may be dangerous," says a scientific review of research appearing in the latest Lancet. While the diet may be safe to use in the short term - up to six months - scientists found side-effects more worrying in the long term. "[After a year, dieters] start to suffer headaches, muscle cramps and diarrhoea. This is consistent with a carbohydrate deficiency. They simply do not get enough carbohydrate to supply the tissues with blood sugar. That is why the organs start to malfunction."

RAW FOOD CATCHING ON

...At least according to "raw food evangelist" David "Avocado" Wolfe. In this article he says that when he started speaking tours seven years ago, he knew of two raw restaurants nationwide. The Web site Raw Food Info now lists more than 60.

BRAIN DISEASES ON THE RISE

"The numbers of sufferers of brain diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and motor neurone disease, have soared across the West in less than 20 years, scientists have discovered." While the article doesn't explicitly mention the known connection between high meat consumption and brain-degenerative disease, it does at least offer: "Food is also a major concern because it provides the most obvious explanation for the exclusion of Japan from many of these trends. Only when Japanese people move to the other countries do their disease rates increase."

GOT GUILT?

That's the actual headline of this Salon "expose" on the systematic oppression of dairy farm workers. But of course the guilt only extends that far, since there's no problem with what happens to the cows and their offspring. A good read, but as usual, a glaring disconnect.

BBB: INVESTIGATE UNITED EGG PRODUCERS

"The Better Business Bureau is asking federal regulators to investigate the egg industry over a labeling campaign the organization contends misleads consumers into thinking hens are treated humanely. The bureau said Wednesday that it has asked the Federal Trade Commission to probe United Egg Producers, the industry's largest trade group, over its "Animal Care Certified" logo. The logo adorns cartons containing eggs from hens that are confined in tiny cages, have their beaks clipped and are forcibly starved, the bureau said in a statement."

FOIE GRAS BAN PROGRESSES... BUT...

"To the delight of animal lovers and dismay of gourmands," the California state Assembly last week approved a bill that would ban the sale and production of foie gras. Seems like "delight"ful news. But keep reading: "To win support and appease the state's only foie gras producer, Sonoma Foie Gras, Senate President Pro Tem John Burton, D-San Francisco, agreed to delay the force-feeding ban until 2012." Oh...kay. But at least it will go into law, right? "The measure returns to the Senate before heading to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Although the governor has not said whether he favors the duck dish, Schwarzenegger has poked fun at the bill in interviews about his quest for a part-time Legislature." Oh boy.

HEAVY METAL CHICKEN

85,600 pounds of Chicken Breast Strips have been recalled because they may be contaminated with pieces of metal. Just including this to remind y'all that there are plenty of examples of meat being contaminated by exterior agents - just as is any produce that carries E.Coli or salmonella. What's unique to meat products is the frequency with which it needs to be recalled for stuff that is an integral part of the base product - i.e. fecal matter - that has not been sufficiently eradicated from it.

UK VEGAN SOCIETY EXPECTS MEMBERSHIP TO DOUBLE THIS YEAR

Well, they can expect whatever they want, but that sounds like a tall order. "The Vegan Society, which was established in 1944 as the world's first vegan organisation, estimates there were 250,000 vegans in the UK at the start of the year but predict after the jubilee celebrations over the coming weeks [actually starting in October] there will be more than 500,000." OK... if you say so. Of course I'm dubious, but there are a couple eye-openers here: "UK sales of foods free from meat and dairy products have risen by 165% in the past two years (2000-2002), with dairy-free products alone rising 125%." And: "When the Vegan Society was created, its founder Donald Watson, who is now 94-years-old and spends his spare time climbing mountains, was restricted to eating just fruit and vegetables. However, vegans today can choose from meat and dairy versions of almost anything, from ice cream to bacon and fish-less fish fingers." Uh huh. We'll ignore that "fish fingers" business, but Jesus! Donald Watson is 94 years old and climbing mountains? I really had no idea. And of course the cynic in me can't help but imagine a Weekend-at-Bernies-type scenario where, as the original "vegan," he's not allowed to be publicly dead, and fellow vegans are, you, know, helping him up the mountain and all. But no, this is great, and I wish a very happy 60th birthday to our British comrades-in-arms and a hearty how-d'ye-do to Donald Watson!

I'D RATHER BE FISHING KNITTING

Now that the EPA has officially reported that more than 1/3 of our lakes and 1/4 of our rivers have fish contaminated with mercury, dioxin, PCB and pesticide pollution, and now that the entire world is acknowledging the dangerous levels of industrial-strength fire retardant in wild and farm-raised salmon worldwide (and now that Harry Shearer contributed his own self-produced radio ad offering a possible spin - "Sammy, The Salmon That Won't Burst into Flames"), you'd think we've hit bottom on this constant drumbeat of bad fish news.

But no, because researchers who analyzed 22 years of government catch records say Recreational fishing seriously harms threatened species - recreational fishing accounts for 64 per cent of the reported catch of overfished species along the Gulf of Mexico and 59 per cent along the Pacific Coast (and way worse for some species, e.g. "93 per cent of the catch of red drum from North Carolina to Florida and 87 per cent of the bocaccio catch in the Pacific"). You'd think guys out in boats catching a fish or two here or there couldn't possibly compare with the numbers of fish caught by commercial outfits, "but with 10.5 million amateurs fishing in US marine waters, the amateur catch adds up." There's quite a bit of interesting stuff here straight from the researchers' mouths, including the fact that "a large percentage of small fish die from the trauma" of catch-and-release fishing, and the point-blank statements "Too many people are fishing" and "Recreational fishing should no longer be seen as benign." If you're "hooked" on fishing, maybe you should start "casting about" for another hobby.

USDA PLAYED FOR CHUMPS BY ANIMAL EXPLOITERS

"The company that produced the Siegfried & Roy magic show has refused to give federal investigators a video of the tiger attack that badly injured illusionist Roy Horn. The U.S. Department of Agriculture attempted to obtain the video through two subpoenas, but Vienna, Va.-based Feld Entertainment would not hand over the footage, a USDA source familiar with the case said Tuesday, speaking on condition of anonymity." Gosh, I wonder why these producers would be so attached to this video that they'd defy the USDA.

Feld Entertainment. Hmmmmm. Why does that name sound familiar? Oh yeah, that's who runs RIngling Bros., who are having their own problems with the USDA. Remember Clyde the dead lion from last week? You may recall that one of the disputes there between Ringling and the ex-employee was what the company called "false allegations that our company and employees were withholding information from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.''

BIRD FLU + PIGS = PANDEMIC?

"The United Nations health agency is seeking further details from China about the first-ever reported natural infection of pigs with a highly infectious strain of bird flu, a development that could be of particular concern as it would increase opportunities for the emergence of a new human influenza virus with pandemic potential." For now, though, China is saying the current strain is not in pigs, it was all just a big, you know, misunderstanding.. Let's hope so - this was the pattern, after all, of the 1918 pandemic.
UPDATE 8/26: Even worse: "A key weapon in the medical arsenal that will combat any future pandemic of killer flu may be worryingly at risk to resistance by the influenza virus, according to an early Japanese study published in Saturday's issue of The Lancet."

ANOTHER MASSIVE FRIDAY RECALL

It's been, like, months since we've had an honest-to-God Friday Recall, but it's also been a while since we've had a 20-ton beef recall for E.Coli. The most interesting thing here is the lede in the story from this Iowa paper (rewritten from an AP story): "In an announcement that will have dire consequences for both consumers and producers, an Illinois firm recalled more than 400,000 pounds of beef on Saturday." (My emphasis). But don't be fooled by that last word - USDA says this was in fact a Friday Recall.

One other item of note: "Some of the steaks in the recall were packaged under the Applebee's brand name." Heh. Applebee's. What losers. We made the mistake of going to an Applebee's recently, thinking they'd have A vegetarian option, maybe even, you know, an appetizer, a gardenburger at triple the price, whatever, but no such luck. They lost the entire six-person party due to their utter cluelessness. As far as real veggie options, Mc-Frickin'-Donald's puts their menu to shame. At a restaurant named after APPLES. So when I see this I can't help saying... enjoy your steak, patrons!

UPDATE 8/27: Frank Ybarra, spokesman Applebee's, said the company's best initial estimate "is that only about 80,000 pounds of this involved Applebee's." Ybarra said it was not likely that Applebee's still has any of the suspect meat because "this is the kind of inventory we would burn through pretty quickly." Well, that's reassuring. So only 40 tons of Applebee's meat was potentially contaminated with a deadly pathogen... and was served to, and eaten by, customers. I feel safer already!

USDA LIES AGAIN: 500 'TESTED' COWS WEREN'T

Steve Mitchell keeps plugging away at the USDA's web of deceit surrounding BSE testing. His latest find is that they failed to test, or ineptly tested, nearly 500 suspect cows over the past two years -- including some in categories considered most likely to be infected. As he points out, this means "it may never be known with certainty whether these animals were infected with the deadly disease." And as for the lies, "Department officials said these animals were not included in the agency's final tally of mad cow tests, but the records, obtained by UPI under the Freedom of Information Act, indicate at least some of them were counted." More specifically, USDA spokeswoman Julie Quick told UPI, "None of those (untested animals or ones with the wrong portion of the brain collected) were counted in official sampling." However, Mitchell notes, it would have been necessary to include some of the untested animals in order to arrive at the USDA's final tally of 19,990 animals tested in fiscal year 2002, as stated in a Jan. 15, 2003, news release.

It's become clear that the whole strategy is simply to paper over the unsettling truth until after Election Day, as every move by the USDA is another foot-dragging, smoke-and-mirrors exercise, sometimes carried to absurd lengths. "Although UPI initially received the testing records last January, the USDA refused to release a key that would help decipher the meaning of several obscure codes and acronyms. After several more months of requests to obtain the key from both the Freedom of Information Office and the agency's Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service, the USDA finally released the key in late May, but insisted it was not legally required to do so." All of this would be hilarious if people's lives weren't at stake - people, perhaps, like the unnamed person with a mysterious disease that looks like Mad Cow, but experts are assuring us isn't. "Experts who are studying the strain, discovered at Harborview Medical Center this summer, are awaiting blood tests being conducted at Cleveland's National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center, the Seattle Times said. Those tests should be completed in September. 'The disease is clearly not the human form of mad-cow, nor does it appear to be Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, a closely related condition,' said Dr. Pierluigi Gambetti, director of the center. 'We really are puzzled at this time,' he said. 'This is unusual.' Let's hope it stays that way - but with the USDA in charge, hope may be our last resort.

UPDATE 8/23: Still more USDA prevarication: A USDA document from 1990 obtained by UPI acknowledges British cows as young as 22 months were infected with mad cow. USDA officials, in the wake of the December case of mad cow disease, have insisted it would be unlikely to find the deadly disease in cows under 30 months of age, but the 1990 document, entitled "Emergency Programs Alert" and issued May 1990, describes the outbreak of mad cow disease in the United Kingdom and states: "Age of affected cattle at onset ranged from 1 year 10 months to 15 years." The document urges USDA veterinarians to collect a brain sample from any U.S. cattle showing signs of the disease and does not specify any limitations on age.

WORLD EXPERTS: CUT MEAT DOWN/OUT, EAT FRUITS, VEGETABLES

Even if it weren't for the clear fact that there will not be enough water in the world for our descendants to enjoy a Western meat-centered diet (as World Water Week experts declared), there's still a clear imperative to move toward plant-based eating. A federal panel has just upped the recommended daily servings of fruits and vegetables from 5 - 9 previously to 5 - 13 now. And as USA Today points out, the more plant foods you consume, the more they help each other to fight disease: "A growing body of research shows that, once inside the body, fruits and vegetables spring into the role of superheroes, fighting cancer and other diseases in at least eight simultaneous ways. And, like the Superfriends, they seem to work better as a team." And again, "[M]ost experts agree that the body needs a variety of these phytochemicals - there are more than 25,000 of them - to stay in top form. That's why so many nutritionists no longer stress individual 'power foods,' but instead promote a 'plant-based' diet of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans and nuts. Preliminary research indicates these foods bring out the best in each other and magnify their protective effects." Additionally, a six-year study found that adults who ate more fruit put on less weight and body fat than those who ate less of it. The Reuters article points out that "Although high-fat, Atkins-style diets have been advocated for weight loss, the new study provides evidence that over the long-term, relatively high fat intake promotes weight gain." And to promote eating plant foods, you might want to enter Dole's "Meatless Mondays" Recipe Contest. The recipes must, according to the Web site, "1) use at least two DOLE products (proof of purchase is not required), 2) contain no meat or meat products" but then again... wait for it... "(fish and seafood are acceptable ingredients)" because they're not meat, of course. Still, it would be great if a vegan recipe wins, so get yours in by November First!

UPDATE 8/23: Study: Americans don't eat enough produce - "More than 85 percent of consumers are not eating the federally recommended minimum of five servings of produce a day, according to an AC Nielsen poll of 2,472 people. And nearly 60 percent think eating one to four servings is enough for a healthy diet; 20 percent said one or two servings is enough."

ALSO:"Meat-eaters soak up the world's water: Governments may have to persuade people to eat less meat because of increasing demands on water supplies."

USDA INVESTIGATING CIRCUS LION'S DEATH

The Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus is facing a federal investigation amid allegations that it allowed a young lion to die in a sweltering animal train crossing the Mojave Desert and then tried to keep key information from the government. Frank Hagan, a veteran Ringling Brothers employee, said that circus lawyers told him and others familiar with the incident not to talk with USDA officials who were coming to the circus train to ask questions. And the Barnum & Bailey deaths continue to mount: "On Friday, Ringling spokesman Johnson contacted The Washington Post to report that an 8-month-old elephant named Ricardo was euthanized at the center last week (8/7) after falling off a low platform and fracturing its two hind legs." Despite this clear pattern of abuse, contrary to the predictions in the article, the news seemingly had no effect in Denver, whose residents went for the "tradition" argument over the "humanity and common sense" argument on August 10th.

BACK IN THE SADDLE

OK, that weekend was nice & long, wasn't it? But now I'm back for a while, and I'll warn you that the next few posts will be a little out-of-date, as I'm still catching up. Here's one that was leftover from before I left: The kidney function of people with type 2 diabetes seems to be improved by dietary soy protein, with the added benefit that their levels of "good" cholesterol also go up a bit. It's an interesting study, because here we can't just assume the soy protein was displacing the bad effects of animal protein: "The goal, Erdman explained, was to have the men replace part of their usual protein intake with the soy or milk protein; however, the patients failed to follow the diet instructions and instead added the protein powders to their normal routine."