Vegetarian Star

"Best If Used By Freegans"

A film made by three journalism students at St. Michael’s College in Vermont about people who search through dumpsters for edible food, Best If Used By Freegans, highlights an important lesson in food and health.

According to BurlingtonFreePress, freegan Emily Rose said that despite conditions surrounding a garbage bin and expired food dates, the only freegans who got sick during their dumpster diving adventures were the ones who didn’t follow the prescribed formula.

A true “freegan” eats only free food that is vegan.

“Only one person we talked to said he got sick when he first started,” Rose said in an e-mail, “but he is the person who eats meat such as burgers or pizza that people have left in a food court. Everyone else we talked to, most of whom are vegetarians or vegan, said they’ve never gotten sick. The food they take is food that looks good. They take fruits or vegetables that are fine to eat, they might just have a dent or have soft spots, but it’s nothing that is going to harm you. They wash all the produce and then cook it, just like you’d do if you got it off a grocery store shelf.”

Poor pathetic carnivore can’t handle the leftovers.

The 50 minute film was created to highlight the amount of waste in the American food system, and some freegans ate…well…better than you might on any given week.

Some items consumed by the freegans included smoothies made from oranges and raspberries and green bean and hummus casserole.

Where is the dumpster they found these items from again?

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Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a stop by the Franz Josef Land, an island where scientists capture polar bears to collect data and tag them for surveillance before release back into the arctic.

While examining the giant creatures (a photograph of which can be found at The Guardian), Putin had this to say of the bear’s paws: “They’re heavy.”

Global warming has threatened several species on the island, including polar bears.

The tracking devices placed by researchers will allow them to monitor the extent the environmental change has had on the species.

According to Treehugger, the deputy director of Russia’s Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Vyacheslav Rozhnov said, “The reduction of the ice sheets, caused by climate change and human activities, is bringing about a global redistribution of polar bears, but no one knows how it is happening.”

Compounding this is barrels of discarded fuel left behind after the Cold War, a matter Putin says makes the arctic in need of a “general clean up.”

“From 40,000 to 60,000 tonnes of fuel and lubricants are being stored under inappropriate conditions, and the pollution exceeds maximum permissible levels by six times,” Putin said, according to The Guardian.

Rozhnov fears the pollutants from the leaking barrels of oil will threaten more animals, including whales and walruses.

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If you happen to be in New York City this afternoon and were walking past the PETA literature stand at 14th Street at Union Square, you may have thought you saw a Joan Jett lookalike.

Actually, it was the genuine real vegetarian rocker, helping the organization pass out vegetarian/vegan starter kits.

The kit, which contains facts about the intelligence and sentience of animals, the effects of meat on the environment, recipes and suggestions for frozen and convenience meals and more, is available online or you may order the print version.

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Previously we reported on the use of real animal parts in the zombie football movie about a team of dead players coming back for the championship title, Play Dead.

While we wouldn’t exactly call the post written, “angry,” the director of the film, Doug Sakmann, has since responded to the criticism on the film’s website.

“Real meat and guts were incorporated into the makeup FX—which elicited an angry post over at the Vegetarian Star website, which complained, “Completely disgusting and uncalled for, especially considering how easy it is to make fake flesh props for the screen.” Sakmann’s response: “They don’t know how much it costs to make fake parts. If they want to pay for them, by all means I’ll use them, but until then I’ll just go to the Asian market and buy them for $3. I think it looks better anyway. It’s not like I killed anything to make the movie; they were already dead!””

The clip above shows how the dead parts were put together to resemble a horse corpse.

Unlike meat used for food, dead animal props isn’t a common requirement for most films, so the industry probably isn’t spending millions of dollars on it.

What do you guys think?

Should we not make such a fuss of using real meat this way in movies and instead focus energy on ensuring live animals aren’t being abused or hurt in the entertainment industry?

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If you’re interested in making an impression on your guests worthy of a Top Chef Masters trophy, then you might want to listen to Kelly Choi‘s advice.

The host of the show tells everyone at OK! Magazine they should cater to the vegetarians cause not everyone wants to eat flesh at a get together!

“Prepare your protein, but also offer a vegetarian option for everyone, too. Not everyone will want to eat animal, and having this choice is always a good thing.”

This woman must put on a good dinner party!

Besides including tofu fingers and vegan pimento cheese sandwiches, Choi says it’s a good idea to balance the flavors of the taste buds–sweet, salty, and what she calls the “cooling sense”–and this can be done by offering several dips or sauces that represent these.

Vegetarian Star’s suggestion: Vegetarian falafel balls accompanied by cucumber yogurt dressing takes care of both the meatless and the cooling requirement.

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You’ve heard the arguments from the naysayers.

Organic food is an unrealistic utopia for the elite for live at Whole Foods and is unsustainable and impossible to feed a nation.

Anna Lappe, author and public speaker on sustainability and food politics, discusses this question, using a multi-year study by professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, Dr. Catherine Badgley, that showed organic crops can feed a substantial portion of the population while maintaining healthy soil.

It was the perfect counteraction to Robert Paarlberg’s defense of industrial agriculture in the  Attention Whole Foods Shoppers article in a recent issue of Foreign Policy.

“Unfortunately, you don’t hear about this study, or others with similar findings, in “Attention Whole Foods Shoppers,” Robert Paarlberg’s defense of industrial agriculture in the new issue of Foreign Policy,” writes Lappe. “Instead, organic agriculture, according to Paarlberg, is an “elite preoccupation,” a “trendy cause” for “purist circles.”

Read about Anna’s discussion of organic food being sustainable at Foreign Policy.

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Georges Laraque, former hockey player for the Montreal Canadiens, protested with the Concordia Animal Rights Association (CARA) and PETA outside the Fur and Fashion Exposition of Montréal (NAFFEM) to let every fashionista know that fur is not green.

Far from it. It’s red. And bloody.

While advocates of the fur industry have given their data on why they feel fur is environmentally healthy and sustainable, according to PETA’s blog, it takes 15 times as much energy to produce a fur coat from a farm that raises animals for fur than to make a fake.

There’s also the chemicals involved with the finishing process that have been linked to poor human and environmental health.

The only fur fit for a human is the five o’clock shadow look.

It’s time to get your fake on.

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Mario Batali has announced that he supports Meatless Mondays!

The chef who has given hints during interviews that people should focus more on plant based foods instead of meats, will have all of his 14 restaurants adhere to the veggie holiday as well.

Every Monday, there will be at least 2 vegetarian dishes served, such as pasta or pizza.

In addition, many of the restaurants will designate the items as Meatless Mondays options, with Mario’s “MM” logo.

“The fact is, most people in the U.S. eat way more meat than is good for them or the planet,” maintains Batali.

“Asking everyone to go vegetarian or vegan isn’t a realistic or attainable goal. But we can focus on a more plant-based diet. That’s why I’m such a big believer in the Meatless Monday movement!”

Visit the Meatless Mondays website, a project by the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, for more information on the meat-out day, including recipes.

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