Vegetarian Star

Mario Batali "Molto Gusto"

Mario Batali‘s latest cookbook, Molto Gusto, is being highlighted by Food Examiner Dara Bunjon for its colorful photographs, pasta cooking and pizza making tips and variety of recipes based on culinary expertise.

She also adds that there is a “large mouthwatering selection” of vegetarian recipes that “carnivores will love.”

Now we’re talking!

Has Mario picked up on Italian where Giada de Laurentiis left off?

The chef who recently said protein is “over represented on the plate” and recommended everyone fill their dishes with more foods from the garden, lost over 40 pounds by eating more vegetarian meals, presumably like those from the “Vegetable Antipasti” “Insalata” and “Pasta” sections of Molto Gusto versus the “Seafood and Meat Antipasti” one.

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Gwyneth Paltrow has a couple of tykes of her own, so she knows firsthand the joy of reading children’s books, both classic and modern.

In a recent edition of her online newsletter, Goop.com, Paltrow has included several of her favorite children’s books and for parents who wish to combine bed time stories with education, Hubert the Pudge: A Vegetarian Tale by Henrik Drescher, is one she recommends picking up during your next trip to the library or bookstore.

Hubert is a pig-elephant hybrid with horns (could this be a result of some terrible big farm GMO project?) who narrowly escapes his fate as bacon and ham when he slides through a hole at Farmer Jake’s Processing Plant.

After meeting up with some other animals with freedom, the team devise a plan to rescue the others and persuade the farmer to open a tofu dog factory instead.

“This book is a great way to teach kids about vegetarianism plus the brightly colored ink illustrations make each page fun to get lost in,” writes Gwyneth.

For more of Gwyneth’s book recommendations, visit Goop.

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Animal Factory by David Kirby

Investigative journalist David Kirby has published a book on the effects of factory farming on communities, Animal Factory.

Kirby details the lives of three individuals, using their experiences to illustrate how big business in the food system affects small people: a North Carolina fisherman who’s river is polluted by a nearby pig farm, a mother in Illinois affected by a dairy farm, and a grandmother who’s home is covered in soot and water supply is compromised from cattle waste runoff.

The book is gaining praise from reviewers across the nation. Here are just a few comments.

“Good journalists know that the key to hooking their audience on a complex social problem is to put a human face on it. And David Kirby is a good journalist. In his new book Animal Factory Kirby puts a human face on the threat of industrial meat production to humans and environmental health.” —-FRANK STASIO, WUNC-FM, NPR Affiliate, North Carolina

“Animal Factory is a valuable addition to the growing number of works like Food Inc. and The Omnivore’s Dilemma exposing the ills of mass-produced meat and dairy. Kirby uses the stories of the three families, as they move from their local fights to the national scene, to draw readers into the morass of government regulations and lawsuits that surround the CAFO issue.”
–EUGENE WEEKLY

“If you want to know about the worst practices of our food system, David Kirby is your man. Kirby has the inside track on all things factory farm, which is why Washington Post’s “On Leadership” column recently invited him to write a guest post about President Obama’s record on reform in this area.”–Change.org

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Gristle

“Unless one treats their kitchen like a biohazard lab, there can be cross-contamination of contagion. In meat-eating households, researchers have found more fecal bacteria in the kitchen–on sponges, dish towels, the sink, and counter surfaces–than they found swabbing the rim of the toilet. We shouldn’t have to cook the crap out of food.”

—-Dr. Michael Greger, director of public health and animal agriculture at the Humane Society of the United States. Dr. Greger writes in Chapter 9 of “Gristle,” edited by Moby and Miyun Park, as he discusses possible zoonotic diseases linked to animal agriculture.

Dr. Greger suggests that many human infectious diseases, measles, smallpox, avian influenza and SARS came from animals.

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Miyun Park and Moby

Together at last!

Well, not really, but the editors of Gristle, Moby and Miyun Park answered a few short questions via email and their publicist to Washington City Paper.

While many previous interviews in the media have been made with only Moby, Miyun offers an additional perspective, one that hints her goal is to get everyone thinking about factory farming but not necessarily going vegetarian.

Take for example, the creatively worded question of “Gustatory preferences aside, is there any good reason for wealthy urbanites in industrialized nations to eat meat?”

Moby’s Answer:
Objectively, I cannot think of a good reason to eat meat — wealthy urbanite or not. It is an inefficient use of resources and more often than not, it leads to obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Miyun’s Answer:
There is certainly no reason for anyone to support industrialized animal production and there is no reason for farmers themselves to support these intrusive systems. I encourage everyone to make informed choices at every meal.

Similarly, while Miyun applauds the work of Temple Grandin for easing the stress of slaughter animals, Moby considers the question “tricky” because although less suffering is desirable, a world where animals aren’t used for food period is his ultimate dream.

Read more at Washington City Paper.

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In The Green Kitchen: Techniques To Learn By Heart. Author: Alice Waters.

Local and sustainable food champion Alice Waters has gathered 30 different chefs to contribute to her latest book, In The Green Kitchen: Techniques To Learn By Heart.

You’ll recognize some of the vegetarian contributors, such as Vegan Soul Kitchen author Bryant Terry, which may explain why Waters, although not vegetarian, has compiled a collection of recipes and techniques helpful to the mixed eating household or individual.

As Treehugger states in their Weekday Vegetarian Feature, “This is also a terrific book if you are eating less meat. There are recipes for meat and fish here, but there are many more recipes featuring beautiful produce, beans, eggs, breads and pastas.”

The theme for In The Green Kitchen is simplicity, both in recipes and technique, so there’ll be no need to stock items for a 30 ingredient dish.

Besides Terry, other contributing authors include Anna Lappé.

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The book edited by Moby and Miyun Park on factory farming, Gristle, isn’t meant to be a vegetarian or vegan converting source.

As co-editor Park said, “This book isn’t about veganism, and it isn’t about bringing down the animal agriculture industry.”

In fact, some contributors are even part of the meat industry.

So why would Moby, a vegan for two decades, decide to partake in something that doesn’t outright condem using animals as food?

Moby answered to Philly.com:

“The book is about presenting people with the facts and ramifications of factory farming and large-scale industrial animal production. What people do with the information is up to them. There are so many different types of animal agriculture, from the pernicious to the relatively benign, so it’s hard for me to make any huge blanket statements.”

Bottom line is, Moby isn’t using Gristle to tell you if consuming or using animals to produce food is okay.

That’s a decision you’ll have to come to on your own.

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500 Vegan Recipes

Alanis Morissette has put a photo of her latest favorite cookbook on Twitter.

500 Vegan Recipes: An Amazing Variety of Delicious Recipes, from Chilis and Casseroles to Crumbles, Crisps, and Cookies is just of the vegan books that have changed Alanis’ life.

It was a copy of Dr. Joel Fuhrman‘s Eat to Live that prompted her to go vegan.

Not wanting another fad diet, she was motivated by preventing disease and loss weight was an added consequence.

She now fills her plate with foods like fruit, nuts, collards, kale, and spinach.

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