Vegetarian Star

Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

A smart aleck by the name of Foster Kamer wrote a post for Gawker.com on some alternative ways to spend you time instead of reading Jonathan Safran Foer‘s latest book, Eating Animals.

Here are just a few things Kamer says you can do besides read Jonathan’s book:

6. Eat some tacos. Pork tacos.

7. Eat some bacon (but don’t be obnoxious about it).

8. Eat a bacon cheeseburger.

Number 11 on Kamer’s list is the taker–“STFU” (Shut The (Expletive) Up).

How nice.

Eating meat must hamper your creativity skills because “burger” is way overused on the list. C’mon. Kamer could have at least branched out and said something like, “Build a model White Castle restaurant from old newspaper, then recycle it.”

At least that would have made the part time, greenie vegetarians a little happier.

Seriously, if the only way to respond to an opinion that’s different than yours is with cutesy, junior high school retorts, you had better not use that “humans can eat meat because we’re superior to animals” argument.

The number one thing to do instead of writing a nasty column on why people shouldn’t read Foer’s book?

1. STFU and (tie)
2. Read the book. Then STFU.

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Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

“I spent the first 26 years of my life disliking animals. I thought of them as bothersome, dirty, unapproachably foreign, frighteningly unpredictable, and plain old unnecessary. I had a particular lack of enthusiasm for dogs—inspired, in large part, by a related fear that I inherited from my mother, which she inherited from my grandmother. As a child I would agree to go over to friends’ houses only if they confined their dogs in some other room. If a dog approached in the park, I’d become hysterical until my father hoisted me onto his shoulders. I didn’t like watching television shows that featured dogs. I didn’t understand—I disliked—people who got excited about dogs. It’s possible that I even developed a subtle prejudice against the blind. And then one day I became a person who loved dogs. I became a dog person.”

“The first full chapter of my book explores our divergent attitudes toward dogs and fish—fish being at the far end of the spectrum of our regard. I write about a simple trick that backyard astronomers use: If you are having trouble seeing something, look slightly away from it. The most light-sensitive parts of our eyes (those we need to see dim objects) are on the edges of the region we normally use for focusing. Eating animals has an invisible quality. Thinking about dogs and their relationship to the animals we eat is one way of looking askance and making something invisible visible.”

—-author Jonathan Safran Foer, during an interview about his latest book, Eating Animals.

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Author Jonathan Safran Foer was on The Ellen DeGeneres Show recently to talk about his latest book, Eating Animals.

Jonathan touched on the fact that most people aren’t aware of the conditions of factory farms.

“Unfortunately this image that we have of a farm has created a distance between our values and our actions,” Jonathan says.

“We continue to believe that the meat on our plate comes from these idealyc places. I wish that it did, but it doesn’t.”

Watch the entire video to feel the veg vibe as the two vegans chit chat.

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“School cafeterias serve chicken “McNuggets” and give kids 10 minutes to eat, educating them to be the next generation of fast-food eaters. We need to give kids good food and enough time to eat it, teach them where food comes from, and provide them with opportunities to grow the food in school gardens and cook it in school kitchens. Knowing how to cook is an essential skill. Parents can also get their kids involved in cooking. They need to take back control of their kids’ diets, which has been ceded to food marketers. [Parents] need to be the gatekeepers.”

—-Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food and The Omnnivore’s Dilemma, in an interview with Vegetarian Times.

Although Pollan isn’t vegetarian, he has recommended we eat less meat and begins In Defense of Food with the following statement: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

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Jonathan Safran Foer "Eating Animals" Interview

Best selling author Jonathan Safran Foer has a new book out, Eating Animals.

Foer had been an on again/off again vegetarian for years, but never really took the time to learn about the rational reasons for doing so. When his wife became pregnant, he decided it was time to educate himself so he could teach his child why going vegetarian is the best diet for humans, animals, and the planet.

In a recent interview with Vegnews, Jonathan elaborates on why people still find no fault in eating meat, especially factory farmed meat.

“Peoples’ responses to food, the reason they take it so emotionally and so many smart, informed people continue to eat this stuff—it’s not because they’re ignorant, it’s not because they’re evil. It’s because there’s a large component of our decision-making that isn’t reasonable. The challenge is to persuade people, or show people, even those parts that aren’t reasonable, things like cravings, are actually better satisfied by not eating them.”

“I think the better way to talk about it is like a series of these choices. Like how can one try to make the best choice as often as possible? The “best” meaning the choice that is in line with their values. Despite the array of values that Americans have, if everyone ate his values, nobody would eat factory farmed meat. And I think, frankly, very few people would eat any kind of meat. Nobody’s values lead them there. It’s only forgetfulness.”

Read Jonathan’s entire interview at vegnews.com.

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Deirdre Imus launched her own line of green cleaning products, Cleaning the Greening, for households and hospitals years ago.

Now she’s ready to green clean the world as the products are set to enter the global marketplace.

The wife of radio host Don Imus has been a vegan for 25 years and says its was quite natural to combine her passion for health and green living into a business.

A few excerpts from a recent interview with Anna Clark of Greenbiz.com:

AC: Why are toxin-free cleaning products critical to safeguarding our health?
DI: Cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease in children. And cancer isn’t the only epidemic. One in six kids is obese. One of six kids has asthma. One in eight children is born premature. One out of 60 boys is diagnosed with autism. We’ve seen rapid growth in Tourette syndrome and diabetes. Another chronic disease growing among children is arthritis.

AC: How did you execute your vision?
DI: I approached Hackensack University Medical Center to do a pilot program. In 2000, the word green wasn’t even on the map, so I didn’t expect it to be an easy sell. I walked into the CEO John Ferguson’s office with a stack of research. He stopped me in my tracks and told me to go do it. That is literally how I got started ‘greening the cleaning.’

AC: How can someone become a distributor?
DI: Interested distributors can get information at www.DIenviro.com or call and speak to Jim Ronchi or Don O’Hagan.

Read the entire interview with Deirdre.

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The Kind Diet

Alicia Silverstone has cancelled the remaining stops on her tour to promote her book, The Kind Diet, according to St. Louis Today.

The Kind Diet is currently ranked #130 on the Amazon book seller list and #244 at Barnes and Noble.

The reason for the tour cancellation is unknown.

We’ve been looking through our copy and it’s nothing less than beautiful!

Bummer that Alicia’s fans might not get their copies signed now.

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Chef Tal Ronnen is the author of The Conscious Cook, a hot new cookbook being snatched off the bookshelves by vegetarians, vegans and food lovers in general. Tal is the chef who helped design Oprah Winfrey‘s meal plans when she went vegan for 21 days and has worked with Chrissie Hynde‘s restaurant, The Vegiterranean. He’s been a vegetarian for 19 years and a vegan for 11 years. Tal took a few moments away from braising tempeh to give Vegetarian Star an exclusive interview.

Tofu, Tempeh, or Seitan:
It depends on the application. I think my personal preference for home is definitely tempeh. It’s a less processed product. It’s fermented so it’s got nutritional benefits from the fermentation process. With that said, it has to be cooked properly. People will just cut tempeh up and sauté it or stir fry it or something like that. [But] Because it’s so dense, it’s hard to get any flavor to penetrate. Tofu just acts like a sponge, it just sucks up all the marinade. [With] Tempeh, the best way to get the flavor in there is to braise it. So cook it in a flavorful liquid and the flavors can change based on the dish that you cook. So if you’re doing something like Tex Mex or South of the Border you can braise it in a stock that’s got chilies and peppers. If you’re doing something like Asian, it can have soy sauce or ginger. When you’re cooking it in a broth, you’re able to penetrate tempeh. After it’s cooked in a broth, you start cooking with it. So I can grill it or sauté it, but the first step for me whenever I work with tempeh is to braise it.

On Guest Chefs in The Conscious Cook:
We wanted to have a really broad view of what professional vegetarian cooking looks like. And [we did this] by bringing in people who have influenced me or I’ve influenced throughout the years. All the chefs that are highlighted in the book are people who’ve been a big influence in my culinary career or someone that I’ve worked with very closely. And by doing that we’re able to really show different perspectives in the book, not just my perspective with vegetarian cooking.

Favorite recipes from The Conscious Cook:
I love the celery root soup. I love the Gardein scaloppini with the shiitake sauce. And the banana  rum cheesecake I think is really great.

Learn how Tal got a school district in southern California to put veggie burgers on the menu after the jump… (more…)

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