Food to Avoid | The Green Foodprint

Why we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows

In Author Event, Food to Avoid, Recommended Reads,

Posted on August 17, 2011
Author: Linda,
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Mainstream American culture embraces meat as healthful and even natural. Well, we’ve learned that industrially produced meat is not safe for us or the planet, but can’t we still believe that meat eating is natural?

Not according to Melanie Joy, Ph.D., who received her doctorate in psychology for researching the beliefs that we engage in when we tuck into a steak or a drumstick. Turns out that a concerted campaign keeps us ignorant of what goes on in factory farms and slaughterhouses. Recently, several states almost passed laws making it a crime to take pictures at such places. Undercover videos have revealed ghastly conditions and practices there. Not so secret any more! And big meatpackers tried to keep us in ignorance.

Enter Melanie Joy. She focuses on us, the consumers, and what makes us vulnerable to the ad campaigns (happy cows in green pastures…. not!) and cultural habits (barbecuing in the summer) that keep the meat industry going.

Full disclosure: I was one of Melanie’s dissertation advisors, so I’ve seen the research and her analysis in all its detail. Since graduating, Melanie has continued her work and published a really cool book, “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows.” Contrary to what you might think, it’s not a shock-filled expose but a very gentle, kind guide to awakening to our thinking habits. What we do after that is up to us.

Melanie Joy will be speaking next Tuesday, August 23, at 6.30 pm at the Unitarian Universalist Center at 1187 Franklin St (at Geary Blvd) in San Francisco. Personally, I can’t wait!

A great contribution

Are sustainable fish really sustainable?

In Food to Avoid,

Posted on August 3, 2011
Author: Linda,
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At Whole Foods, you’ll see fish coded by color: green for “sustainable,” yellow for “not-so-sustainable,” and red for “you really shouldn’t be buying this, but we’ll sell it to you anyway.” While sockeye salmon might make you feel virtuous, knowing you’ve chosen responsibly using the color codes, there are some factors that aren’t on the codes.

The International Program on the State of the Ocean released a report that over-fishing and pollution from aquaculture have triggered a “phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.” The solution goes beyond consulting your Seafood Watch card. since these cards and color-coded systems don’t take into consideration the carbon impacts fisheries create while their fleets are chasing down fish species the whole Earth over. For instance, Seafood Watch classifies salmon caught in Alaska, which is over 2,200 miles away from the Bay Area, as the best choice you could make on your next grocery run. Tilapia caught somewhere in South America, which could mean anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 miles of one-way travel, is listed as “a good alternative.”

So simply following the guides will not solve the over-fishing crisis. These guides help, but they should be improved. The world’s governments should create more marine conservation areas, with small organic fisheries located near the coast of most countries. Other solutions are being enacted. Will all this happen in time? Let’s hope so, as something needs to be done, soon.

The best thing you can do is to stop eating fish and other seafood. If you feel you must have them, buy small quantities of sustainable fish from a trusted source, as you never know how much of the information provided (such as how the fish were caught – one hook per line, or in a mile-long net that scoops up everything in its path?) is true.

Grist has a good story about this, and a great graphic.

Note: Mina Arasteh contributed to this story

Meat, health, and planet

In Animal Cruelty, Food to Avoid, Toxins and Pesticides, Uncategorized,

Posted on July 21, 2011
Author: Linda,
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The Environmental Working Group has released a new report. Working with CleanMetrics, they assessed the rates of greenhouse gases emitted by 20 types of proteins (meat, fish, dairy, and vegetable sources). Here’s the take-home message : “Lamb, beef, pork and cheese generate the most greenhouse gases. They also tend to be high in fat and have the worst environmental impacts.”

I love it when experts not only give you the worrisome news, they show you practical steps you can take to respond. From EWG’s exhortation to “Eat ‘greener’ meat when you do eat it,” I’ve condensed some key recommendations:

For your health:
Avoid highly processed meats like lunchmeats, hot dogs, and smoked meats.
Choose leaner cuts, which may have fewer toxins than fatty ones

For the animals:
Choose certified humanely raised. You don’t want to participate in the torture perpetrated by factory farms! Niman Ranch, which began forty years ago north of San Francisco, has grown to partner with over 650 independent ranchers and states that all its animals are raised humanely.

For the environment:
Avoid farmed and airfreighted fish. Well, we in the Bay Area have access to local fish, so the air freight has less relevance here. But what about endangered species? What about. Monterey Bay Aquarium has a list here.

And of course, the most powerful recommendation of all is, “Eat less meat and dairy.”

This report and its website version are goldmines of information. For instance, you can find out which part of the life cycle of a given product made the heaviest environmental impact. Weird fact: “Roughly 20 percent of all meat sold in the U.S. winds up in the trash. That makes the pesticides, fertilizer, fuel and water used to produce and process it, as well as the resulting greenhouse gases and environmental damage, unnecessary and preventable.”

For the full report, go here.

Attack of the Frankenfoods

In Food to Avoid, GMO's, Uncategorized,

Posted on July 5, 2011
Author: Linda,
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You may be conscientious about choosing foods that are good for the earth as well as for yourself – organic, local, minimally processed – but you may still be buying foods that are not earth-friendly. Or people-friendly. Yes, we’re talking about GMO – genetically modified organisms.

What is a genetically modified organism, and what does it mean to you? A GMO is typically a plant into which scientists have inserted altered DNA, which causes resistance to a pesticide, hardiness, or superior growth. This allows farmers to drench the growing plants in pesticides, or it causes the plants to create their own pesticides as they grow. So unless you’re eating USDA Organic Certified corn, soy, meat, and a myriad of other foods, you may be ingesting pesticides.

Doesn’t sound healthy to us!

Even wise shoppers in the aisles of stores such as Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, who wince at the very thought of genetically modified frankenfoods, may consume them unknowingly. 90% of corn and soybeans raised in the U.S. are GMO’s. 20% of Trader Joe’s products contain GMO’s. Whole Foods has some, too.

So what can you do? If you buy products such as soy, cotton, corn, canola, sugar from sugar beets, Hawaiian papaya, some zucchini, and crookneck squash, make sure they’re USDA Certified Organic. Join the Millions against Monsanto Campaign, and let companies like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s know that they need to clearly label GMO foods, or else go 100% GMO-free.

Contributed by Mina Arasteh

Compassion in Action

In Animal Cruelty, Food to Avoid, In the News, Take Action,

Posted on October 5, 2010
Author: Linda,
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Nine survivors of shark attacks are now campaigning to save the species that terrify most people. But the truth is that humans are a greater danger to sharks than they are to us – we kill 100 million of them a year, while the Florida Museum of Natural History estimates that fewer than a dozen people a year are killed by sharks (see statistics here). Many shark species are threatened with extinction, partly due to human beings’ appetite for them. Asians, for instance, consider shark fin soup a delicacy. To get the main ingredient, 73 million sharks a year are killed for this dish. After their fins are cut off, they are dumped back into the ocean to drown or bleed to death.

This is unacceptable to many people – including these nine survivors. Twenty-nine-year-old Achmat Hassiem was attacked during practice for his lifeguard duties – but even though he lost his foot, he hopes to save sharks. Australian navy diver Paul de Gelder, who lost his right hand and lower leg to a shark, agrees. “Regardless of what an animal does according to its basic instincts of survival, it has its place in our world.” (See news story here)

Peter Benchley, the author of the novel Jaws,belatedly realized this and later in life became a protector of sharks, campaigning to educate people about them. An annual award is given in his name by the Shark Research Institute to the person or group that makes outstanding contributions to shark conservation.

What can you do to help? Don’t order shark fin soup.

*This story is also found on the Examiner.com

There are Plenty of (Other) Fish in the Sea! – GMO Salmon

In Food, Food to Avoid, GMO's, Take Action,

Posted on September 23, 2010
Author: Linda,
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Recently there has been a debate on genetically modified salmon since there are supposedly not enough fish in the ocean to feed everyone. According to this Opinion article on CNN.com, there is only one modified gene in the salmon. It will help benefit the farming of salmon because they eat less and will produce more fish faster, and the added hormone has not effect to humans. (That we know of yet!) One of the biggest concerns is that some of these farmed salmon will escape into the wild and contaminate the other fish by breeding and endangering the environment in a way that we can no longer control or reverse.

In my opinion although these instant benefits seem wonderful and easy, the long run results may turn out detrimental to other fish as well as us. There are plenty of other fish in the ocean. We can cut back on our consumption on salmon. Honestly I’d rather not eat salmon then eat anything genetically modified. To tell the FDA you won’t eat GMO Salmon, please sign this petition by FoodDemocracyNow!!!! There are only 48 hours left to sign!

What are your concerns with this? What are your thoughts on GMO salmon?

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