Let's Eat! A Brief Guide for the Kansas City Vegetarian

There’s a new guy in town, A.G. Sulzberger, a reporter for the New York Times. And he’s dissed my town. OK, he hasn’t totally condemned the place, just pointed out how difficult it is to be a vegetarian in the stretch of land I live in. He’s right of course. The coasts are hospitable. Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, not so much. We are home to cattle sperm suppliers (yes, we are; I knew someone who made their livelihood at that), corn, feedlots and meat packers. Declining to eat barbecue borders on a capital offense. But the ranks of vegetarians here are growing, just like everywhere else. Or maybe we’re just “outing” ourselves more. That doesn’t mean you’ll have an easy time of it at a group-sponsored meal (or the company cafeteria). As A.G. noted, you are wise to eat first, bring your own stuff, or just prepare to be hungry. Working in health care makes things easier for me than for most. They are used to special diets. I suspect it’s harder for teachers and cops (but maybe fire fighters are more veg friendly with the advent of the Engine 2 diet).

With all the difficulty getting fed here, especially in high-end restaurants, things have still markedly improved over the last 5 years. The Times named some restaurants that are vegetarian-friendly, but the writer seems to stick pretty close to the Kansas City, Missouri core. So as a public service, I’m going to start a list of places where I’ve had some wonderful vegetarian food. None of these restaurants is exclusively vegetarian. All my family and friends are omnivores and I don’t want to insist that they eat where they can’t find something to enjoy. Some are vegan-friendly too. Yes, the majority are ethnic restaurants but that almost guarantees that they are locally owned, which is important to me.

I invite you to add to the list. These are in no particular order, by the way.

1. Ingredient: There are several of these located throughout the metro area and in Lawrence. They have a great veggie burger, pizza, and wonderful salads. They will make whatever you’d like using ingredients on the menu. Casual dining. They support local farms. Their motto: “formulate satisfaction.”
2. Blue Koi: Absolutely at the top of my favorite restaurant list. Their “tofu in black bean garlic sauce” is to-die for. Many an omni prefers this to some of their meat-based offerings. Great owners, always friendly. The one in Leawood offers brown rice for an up-charge. Sit at the bar; it’s terrific entertainment!
3. BRGR Kitchen & Bar: Tucked away in Corinth Shopping Center in Prairie Village, this burger joint has marvelous sweet potato fries, onion rings, and a darn good VRGR (veggie burger, made with lentils). Appeals to all ages. Try the homemade condiments. They’re yummy!
4. Spin! Neopolitan Pizza: Many options for both vegan and vegetarian diners, all offered with a whole wheat crust. If you like fancy beer, they have that too. The patio in summer is a treat, even if there isn’t much to look at but your companions. They are a local endeavor and support cycling, which is another plus.
5. Thai Place (Overland Park): In 2011 there were changes in ownership here but the food remained as delicious as ever. They have a large, separate vegetarian menu and always ask if you are vegan so they can modify the recipe to suit you. The wait staff is professional and the atmosphere is quiet and well-appointed.
6. Duo (Ethiopian): Located at 3415 Main St on the Missouri side, this hole-in-the-wall had the best Ethiopian greens I’ve eaten anywhere in the city. Service is slow but if you aren’t in a hurry, the food is good and the price is low. Chat up the owner, she’s a friendly, attentive woman. They are not well-located unfortunately so I hope they survive. Their vegetarian options are sumptious and provide plenty to eat for two.
7. Swagat Indian Restaurant: Thanks to a former beau, I discovered Swagat, which is located in Zona Rosa, of all places. If you want to take a day trip and explore points north, this is the place to plan lunch or dinner. Indian food is my hands-down favorite cuisine and for my tastes, this is the best Indian restaurant in Kansas City. I rarely make the schlep to go here, but I encourage you to give it a try if you live south and have the time to visit them. The lunch buffet is great. They have patio seating when weather permits.

Sadly, another favorite vegetarian resource, Paradise India, just closed its doors. In the era of Groupon, they couldn’t sustain their model of cooked to order, fresh, natural meals and satisfy the demand for a deeply discounted price. I loved that place; they will be missed.

If you want to explore more options for eating vegetarian in the metro area, check out VegKC's web site too.

I want one!

Check this out. In the land of Whole Foods, no less. Can I have one here?

I need some new glasses

Systemic glasses. Like 3-D, only better. Something to help me "see the forest for the trees". If I only knew how to invent them, I'd patent them and call them Pandora Glasses, after the planet in Avatar. They would be soooo cool, because for the first time ever, we'd be able to see the connections between things, like the Na'vi do. They could be a handy way to reveal how our individual actions and small projects impact the gargantuan engine at the heart of a system, say for example, the "the food system".

Being a generous person, I'd give the first pair to our president. He could be a beta tester. I'm thinkin' he could really, really use these gizmos. It's clear that he's having a very hard time with the forest-seeing thing. I have to believe that his eyesight is the problem, or I'd have to impute some really ugly qualities to him, and I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. So, operating on the assumption that his vision is poor, maybe my glasses will help.

I'll stop beating around the bush, or in this case, the field. Let's begin with a post I wrote right after the election (the site referenced is dead -- which says something ). This post was part of a national grass-roots effort to get the Obama's to install an organic garden on the White House lawn. Check. Done. Most of us who care about food, were also hoping the USDA would get deep reform. A highly credible Kathleen Merrigan, a veteran of the sustainable agriculture movement, was named deputy secretary. She oversees the National Organic Program at the USDA among other initiatives, and under her guidance the agency is beginning to flex its muscles. Check. Another victory. There are more gains to catalogue, but let's take a moment to put on those sexy new glasses I just invented (mine are purple, in case you're wondering).

Hey, look at that! The Big Picture! The connections, if you will, that are well-laid out in the cover story of the latest issue of The American Prospect -- Slowed Food Revolution. You can read it online here (but you'll need to take off your new glasses). With the help of Heather Rogers, who must have her own cool glasses, you'll see a USDA that is a revolving door for Big Ag, much as Goldman Sachs is for the government's economic advisors and the Interior Department has been for the gas, oil and mining industries. Big surprise, though we voted for "Change We Can Believe In", U.S. ag policy, the engine that drives what food we get and what it costs, is still being deeply influenced by industrial agriculture interests, especially Monsanto. Obama has done almost nothing to change that. If fact, the Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, epitomizes the Big Ag man. So we find him proselytizing for biotech and biofuels. He encourages greater subsidies for commodity crops headed for export while neglecting the needs of small American farmers, who are continuing to go broke. Our policies still encourage farmers to plow land for biofuel crops that earn them less in the long run and yield a fuel that is more polluting. So not only is food/ag policy impacting what we eat, but it's distorting our energy policy too.

Yes, there are a few trees here and there that are growing and looking good. But that sickly forest is going to soak up all the resources, leaving nothing of value in the end. If you can't see that forest -- the connections between the policy, the greed, and the absence of resources for real farmers and eaters -- you will continue to congratulate our government for doing too little, too late. Putting on those glasses will at least force you to see what is and not just what you hope for.

As for me, I'm switching from rose-colored glasses to Pandora glasses ...and I'm going to stop accepting cosmetic change as if it matters. What about you?

Just Put Down Your Fork! Obesity and the Health Care Debate

I like Bill Maher. I do. He supports PETA. He encourages vegetarian diets. He's rich. OK, so the last one is no reason to like him, but it's important to this post.

Recently on "Real Time", he got into a rant with Arianna Huffington about the role of personal responsibility in fueling health care costs. I'm sympathetic to the argument. It goes something like this: Obesity is creating an alarming rise in health care costs. Where there is obesity, there is diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease among others. We can lower health care costs by lowering our forks, giving up junk food, and using some old-fashioned will power to control our eating. The underlying premise is that obesity is primarily the result of overeating. As a health care practitioner, I like the simple elegance of that solution. A lot.

But there's more here than meets the eye. Really.

We're flooded with obesity statistics every day, usually accompanied by photos of fat people with their eyes conveniently covered by black bars. Or we get only their backsides. But if you want to see how large we're all getting, you don't need the media to tell you. Stroll through your workplace, the mall, your local grocery store. Look around at your fellow movie-goers. We are surrounded by fat people. What's worse, we don't even know who is fat any more. May I direct you to Match.com? Check out people's descriptions of their body type. Pay special attention to those who self-identify as "about average" or a "few extra pounds". Now look at the pictures. Often they are substantially overweight ("average") or morbidly obese ("a few extra pounds"). Uhhh, I thought average meant that they were not fat, not "toned", not "thin" ...just kinda in the middle, you know? Average. Then again, recall your stroll through your familiar haunts. What do most people look like? Yup. Big. Bigger than they used to be. Obesity is the new "average".

I'm biased. A "weight-ist", if you will. You probably are too, but won't own up to it. I absorbed a distaste for overweight people from my mother who had strong opinions about such things. I'm in my 60s. I remember when significantly overweight people stuck out in a crowd. The Conventional Wisdom of the time was that "those people" had no self-control. They were the poster children for the Deadly Sin of Gluttony. We felt little guilt for deriding them.

More than 50 years later, the belief still sticks: you're fat because you can't control yourself. Like every belief, this one is partly true. I overeat. Sometimes, I'm compelled ...like many people, I can slip into "emotional/stress eating". But is the secret to conquering obesity just exercising more willpower? Getting a grip? Perhaps, for some of us. But I don't think an epidemic emerged from a sudden inability to put down our forks. Especially among the poor, minorities, and the middle class.

Which leads me to three broader food-related issues that undermine our health and cost us money: 1) the poor quality of our food supply, 2) the near absence of people's ability to cook from scratch, and 3) the unavailability in most families (especially elderly and one-person families) of someone who has the time and/or energy to make a fresh, healthy meal. If we can't address these three, complex systemic issues we won't get very far trying to impose incentives for "healthy behavior" or for providing more efficient care to large numbers of people who have chronic conditions.

"Food, Inc.", a documentary on how our food is raised, concocted and engineered, is currently playing in our area. Go see it. It presents a visually compelling link between our consumption of food-like substances and the cost and quality of our health. I came to tears watching a lower middle class working Hispanic family shop for food. Two bottles of soda were cheaper that a bunch of broccoli. They had two children to fill up and with the cost of the father's medications, not enough money to buy the food that would avert further deterioration. One young daughter was perilously close to a diabetes diagnosis. The mother knew what she should be eating, but she couldn't afford it. They all worked 16 hour days, with no time or energy left for cooking at the end of the day. Three out of four of them were overweight or obese. This is not their fault. They want to do the right thing. The system conspires against them.

If you think this is a problem of poverty alone, you're wrong. While obesity declines as income and education climb, it remains higher than we can afford. And all those lovely kitchens in McMansions, are for show, not daily use. Those families eat out. A large proportion of adults my age are on multiple medications for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression (which is linked to poor cardiac health). Most of these illnesses are partially fueled by the hidden, unhealthy ingredients in food, the things we didn't eat 50+ years ago because they didn't exist. As an example, this week a study was released that revealed that the average American woman eats 22 teaspoons of sugar a day, almost all of it "hidden". Her healthy limit should be, at most, 6 teaspoons -- half that if she is sedentary. Flavored fat-free yogurt, a common health and weight loss food, contains the entire sugar budget for the day. Yogurt, for crying out loud.

So as you ponder your position on the health care reform debate, perhaps you need to challenge your biases. That's hard. For me, for you, for Bill Maher, who unlike most of us can afford to play the food game by "New Rules". But think about that Hispanic family, your co-workers, maybe your own family members ...and how difficult it is for all of them to buy, prepare or eat a high quality diet. Think about the cost of our heralded cheap food. Face the dirty secret that the decline in food costs almost directly mirrors the increase in health care costs. Then ask yourself who's to blame. Not so simple, is it?

The Big Bugs Among Us

Yeah, I know, I've been silent a long time. But I'm gearing up again for a spurt of activity. Sooo much data is released every day that deeply worries me. I can't ignore it while I go about my mundane chores.

This blog is dedicated to health, broadly interpreted. I'm a health care professional. Since childhood I've been deeply influenced by the health care culture. Over the last year, I've switched to a primarily vegetarian diet which has had a profound impact on my health, my understanding of nutrition, and my opinion of American eaters and the dominant food culture. So I've become increasingly sensitive to emerging information on how our contaminated, processed, nutritionally vacant food chain compromises our health. I have grandchildren. And I'm scared shitless over the impact our food sources have on their long-term health.

A top story on MSNBC right now, just fueled my fear.

The story recounts investigative reporting from Prevention magazine: Concerns Growing Over Superbugs in Our Food. Bottom line: a growing proportion of the animal protein in our country is causing outbreaks of MRSA (an antibiotic resistant bacteria) and/or seeding our bodies for future eruptions of the disease. The incidence of workers in factory farms and processing plants with this illness in also increasing. And most worrisome, MRSA is recurrent -- once you get it, you are likely to have repeated outbreaks, each one more resistant to treatment than the last. MRSA can be lethal. It is unwise to dismiss it as 'just a skin infection'.

The story offers a list of ways to protect yourself. One of them is switching to organic meat. However, in my view, that's just trying to soothe meat-eaters into thinking that organic means "safe". But, if that organic meat is finished in a CAFO or processed in plants where contaminated meat was processed, or if it is butchered by workers who've been infected at other plants, then the organic label is less protection than people imagine. Regulation won't protect you: no one regulates the exposure to MRSA promulgated by the food industry.

The meaningful switch is another one suggested by the list: avoid or minimize your exposure by using non-animal sources of protein as much as possible. All the meat eaters I know will be jumping onto their soap boxes, throwing verbal epithets at me, and extolling the virtues of meat, insisting that they will eat what they damn well please, thank you very much. I support free will, OK? But informed eaters can't continue to ignore the increasing flood of information on the risks of eating 'food' supplied by the American industrial food complex -- and that includes the organic and natural food industry, which is increasingly being industrialized, with unanticipated consequences.

We need to eat lower on the food chain, period. We need to attempt to verify our food sources whenever possible, be deeply skeptical of food in restaurants, and take seriously the impact of food on health. The risk is highest for children. At the least, we need to feed our children differently than we eat. We must be vigilant about their exposure to contaminants, possible allergens in processed foods, and minimize their consumption of food that is low in nutrient value. Allergies are increasing in children and I have no doubt whatsoever that this is directly related to the amount of processed food they eat. If you wait for studies to identify the risks, it will be too late for your children. No one wants to fund those studies or take on the food industry, whose campaign contributions have bought them protection from deep scrutiny.

Read the article online. Consider the benefits of a conservative approach to your food choices. Your children will one day thank you!

Featuring Justus Drugstore!

Check it out. Our very own Smithville, MO restaurant will be featured in the New York Times Magazine tomorrow. Why? Because they are doing some really great food using the "farm to table" model. I know people who've eaten there and they were quite impressed. But the article also talked about Paradise Locker Meats, a processor of Heritage meats that ships to high end restaurants all over the country. Who knew?

While I rarely eat meat, it is heartening to know that restaurants like this one exist and offer locally sourced food in my neighborhood.

Purpose Past 60 -- Food and Our Future

OK, so I'm nearing my 61st birthday. I'm alternately somber and excited as I creep ever closer to the milestone of sixty-five. How did I get here? How much time is left? And maybe more importantly, how do I continue to pursue a life of passion and purpose?

Sometimes I wish I could free myself of that last question. Seriously. I contemplate just "being", the Zen master approach to life. But that really isn't me and though I respect and admire that approach to life, it just doesn't fit my energy and personality. I am a passionate person. I must have a purpose that extends beyond my own pedestrian interests. The work I do now, certainly contributes to both individuals and a community. I'm using many of my talents. It taps into some things near and dear to me -- sustaining health, aging with dignity, providing leadership and mentoring others. But in truth, I'm weary of the constraints I work within and I don't get any chance at all to promote, proselytize, or propel others to a deeper understanding of critical policy issues.

So I'm searching. The day will come, God willing, when I can leave my current venue and take on something new. What might that be? I've been reading two books by Dawna Markova -- Wide Open and I Will Not Die an Unlived Life -- as I sort my way to the next phase that awaits me. Digging deep, it is getting clearer what pulls me -- food activism. Food is essential to life. And in the United States, food policy directly influences the potential for improving both individual and planetary health. If we can successfully change the food system, we can alter the eating choices available to the community and to those close to me. Dedicated activists, community organizers and entrepreneurs around the country are demonstrating every day that there is another way to grow and eat food that results in greater pride and prosperity for the growers, better nutrition for the eaters, richer land, and more vibrant communities.


But is that happening here? In the Kansas City Metro Area? Yes, it is. Good old Google helped me find a not-for-profit that is doing amazing work. They've been at this for a couple of years. I'm astounded and encouraged by what they've already accomplished. Who are they?
The Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture. Their mission: "Promoting small-scale, community-based, entrepreneurial farming in the Kansas City metropolitan area". Here is their latest newletter, which leads with a story about the Urban Farms Tour 2009, to be held in June. The information in this thing is so intriguing! I had no idea this was happening in my own back yard. I'm not yet sure how my sense of purpose and my talents fit into their work. But my heart swells just to know there are people in my community who are working toward developing small, local, sustainable food systems in urban areas.

I'm sending them a check. And I'm going to subscribe to their newsletter. I'll definitely attend some upcoming events and I know my family will be interested as well. As a group, we are all searching for a possible business to develop, green initiatives to promote, and a path to a more sustainable lifestyle. We need to connect to this broader community. My mind and heart are engaged. Let's see what comes next.

Looking to Iowa

I remember driving through Iowa in mid-summer about a year ago. My son lives in Minnesota so I rush through Iowa farmland annually on the route to Minneapolis. But the last time I drove along I-35 North, I'd just finished Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan. What passes for American "farmland" looked very different after that drive. I realized that the farms of my Wisconsin childhood were nowhere to be seen. While there were vast fields of corn and some other green crop (was it soybeans? Who knows what that looks like in the ground?), there was no real sign of life. No livestock. No trees, or chickens, or vegetables. Just acres and acres of a single crop. Monotony, endless monotony.

I'd read in Pollan's book that if you closed the borders of Iowa, some of the richest farmland in the world (at least theoretically), the people there couldn't feed themselves. Why? Because their crops are all grown to feed cattle, pigs and chickens, not people. There is no crop diversity, no traditional permaculture that can actually sustain the nutritional needs of a population. When you read that, you suspect that Pollan is exaggerating to make a point. Then you take a cold hard look at Iowa, and realize it must be true.

But while Iowa has come to exemplify all that is wrong with our food system, it might also be starting to offer hope for the emergence of a new era in farming. Recent statistics from the 2007 Census of Agriculture revealed that Iowa gained 4000 new farms since 2002 ("Good News From Iowa", New York Times). More fascinating, these farms are smaller (many only 9 acres), grow diverse crops, and are run by much younger farmers, many of whom are women. Their target market is local populations, not large food processors. Better yet, nationwide, there have been 300,000 new farms established in that same period.

I live in another state with rich farmland, and I'm hoping that this is a trend, along with family kitchen gardens, that takes root and flourishes. We desperately need to source as much of our food as possible, close to home. One day, maybe my children and grandchildren will be able to experience the richness of local farms as an integral part of their suburban life.

Dig It!

OK, I know ...it's been forever since I posted. Life has gotten away from me. The election, holidays, work ...you know how it is. But I'm home sick so it seemed like a good time to post something that I discovered on Facebook today. Yup, Facebook. I was badgered into getting a page there by one of my sons.

So, I'm checking out "Causes". The younger generation seems to have invented a way to proselytize one another about favorite charitable causes and other activist attention-grabbers. I found one that resonated and signed a petition, which I'd like you all to consider as well. This particular initiative is one that has been pushed by Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, two people I respect immensely.

Here it is: Eat The View!




The goal is to get President Obama to dedicate a portion of the White House grounds to growing an organic garden. It would feed the White House and any leftover produce would go to food pantries in the Washington, D.C. area. Seems that Eleanor Roosevelt insisted on a Victory Garden during WWII ...which became a model for all Americans. Given the current economy, people could certainly save money by growing some of their own food ...and they would likely be healthier as well.

So if you have the time and inclination, please sign the petition and push for this great idea. Spring is nearly here. Let's push for full employment for gardeners!

From the '50s to the Future

It's been a demanding month and I've been unable to spend any time blogging, but hopefully I'll be able to make at least a couple of posts this month. There are so many issues and events dominating my consciousness that it will be hard to pick only a few to write about. Increasingly though, I'm deeply concerned about the planet's future and about the ability of the generation I helped raise to adapt quickly enough to what's ahead. More on that in the coming weeks.

As I sit here this morning, looking out the window at the budding trees and the welcome sunshine, memories sweep over me. They are the memories of a childhood and adolescence that I have been trying to forget or at least overcome for the last 40+ years. Growing your own food; using rain water from a cistern to wash clothes and hair; hanging clothes outdoors (or in the basement in winter) because the clothes dryer was the sun and air; walking to schools and stores or taking the bus because we couldn't afford a car, and when we did get one, only one person could even drive; making bed linens attractive with needlework; canning summer vegetables and making pickles and jam; cutting the grass with a reel mower; pulling all the shades and curtains in the summer to cool the house in the age of no air conditioning. All of these things are the memories of a more self-sufficient time, a time when things were 'local', smaller, more manageable, less dependent on fossil fuel ...but also more labor intensive. And for me, these are the memories of a family who was barely middle-class, one generation off the farm, poorly educated, surviving on the edge -- a world I wanted to leave behind as quickly as possible.

It's the 21st century now, more than 50 years later. Those memories suddenly feel like gems that were given to me long ago, now in my memory vault but still easily accessible with the right code, making it possible to take them out, buff them up, and appreciate their beauty and utility. For unlike my children, I know how to live more simply, though I have chosen not to. Like most Americans, I've been swept up in consumption, in buying stuff, in trying to become part of the 'American Dream'. Am I happier with all my stuff? That's debatable. Bill McKibben's book, Deep Economy, suggests I'm not ...that few of us are. We work harder than ever, mostly to pay for more stuff we could live without. The work we are trying not to do -- household work, subsistence tasks -- was in some ways more satisfying than working to pay Bank of America for the privilege of filling our homes and freezers with goods crafted by people on the far side of the world.

Not to be delusional ...there was a downside to the past that can't be dismissed. There was little 'free time', limited food choices, it took all day to wash a week's clothes and the whole next day to iron them. Women stayed home and worked from sun up to sun down to feed their families and just maintain the family home. There were no luxuries. None. We could not afford books -- it was the library or nothing -- though we had a bookmobile that would bring them to your neighborhood on request each week. Movies were a rarity. Summer heat could be murderous. Diversity -- in food, people, ideas -- was non-existent. We lived insular, often bigoted lives.

Yet, those days also brought many rewards that are often missing today: a sense of accomplishment, of connecting to the world more directly, of knowing the shopkeepers, farmers, butchers, and your neighbors more intimately than we do now. We walked more (and were thinner!) because essential services were closer and walking was what you did to get around. Everyone had a garden; I still remember helping plant seeds in spring and the joy of seeing them grow into food we could eat, some of which were foods we only had in summer -- tomatoes, leaf lettuce, fresh green beans, sweet scallions, cucumbers and peppers. The taste of sun ripened red raspberries was one I lived for each year. I knew they would soon turn into glistening jars of my grandmother's jam. I vividly recall the section of her basement where all the beautiful jars of vegetables, pickles and jams were stored and the root cellar where she kept potatoes and onions harvested that year.

We didn't have farmer's markets. We had road-side stands. Sundays were the day for a ride in the 'country'. We could buy from local farmers advertising their weekly harvest or just watch the animals grazing in their pastures. My grandmother would sit at my side and identify the different breeds of cows and the strengths they each had, important information she thought a little girl should master.

In a curious twist, those memories are now a resource for re-learning how to live more self-sufficiently. I feel certain that we are going to need to master these fundamental life skills again. The earth cannot sustain our pillage much longer. Living locally means learning to do for ourselves much more. I wonder, will we begin to value the earth more if we connect intimately to it as the source for individual sustenance? There is enough time in our days to care for ourselves more sustainably if we forgo some of the other things that soak up our time -- like cable TV. We have exchanged doing things for watching others do things instead. We watch cooking shows rather than cook. We watch Jamie grow his own food rather than growing our own.

My kids make fun of me because over the last few years, I've begun to wait to turn on my a/c until I can endure the heat no longer. I've gone back to pulling the shades and waiting to open the windows until nightfall. When it's hot, I try to make food that doesn't require heating up the house ...these are things we all did when I was a child. We survived quite well using these strategies to cope with nature. But my children have never lived without 24/7/365 climate control. Suddenly, those years of 'deprivation' I've been running from, feel like a treasure to return to. As I reach my 60th birthday, I realize that I can reclaim the past in a positive way, teach my children and grandchildren how to live well with less. I can prepare them for a future that is not likely to look like today but may more closely resemble the past I come from. This is not the impact I expected to have, the possibility of being a resource and a memory bank for living in a simpler time. Life takes interesting turns. I'm getting ready for the ones ahead. Are you?

If We Are What We Eat, God Help Us

WARNING: this video is not for the faint of heart. It isn't bloody. It attacks your heart and soul. From: http://www.humanesociety.org/. By way of Ruhlman and Chris Cosentino.

Beef. It's what's for lunch. Your kid's lunch. And if you think this isn't making its way into your daily MacD or other cheap meat, you're deluding yourself.

I'm not one of those folks who objects, on principle, to killing things for food. Human beings are omnivores, though we have historically found it difficult to be gluttons about it since meat was hard to find (when we hunted) and expensive to raise. Interestingly, our populations were also smaller as a result. We couldn't grow larger than the natural habitat could support. I know, a lot of us starved, or died of disease ...but some days I wonder if our intelligence at manipulating the food chain hasn't just postponed the inevitable. Given the environmental pressures and our now-ingrained meat gluttony, somewhere along the line we are going to pay a huge, if not catastrophic price.

But I digress. I've been posting lately about the need to pull back on our consumption of meat protein -- smaller servings, fewer meals centered around meat. Now I'm discovering another reason for examining our meat consumption: to have more impact over how animals are treated as they approach their deaths. We have the most control over what we buy for home cooking. So I suppose that's a start -- cook more at home with meat that you can determine has been raised and slaughtered with a focus on health and humane practices. There are several sources for meat in our area. Here's one family farm that provides a CSA as well as other types of meat purchasing (not organic or totally pasture raised). Here's another CSA that serves many local restaurants; it includes many purveyors with whom you might already be familiar. They provide locally grown and raised organic food for 50 weeks a year (they also have smaller subscriptions). Contact information for a number of locally grown/raised food is on the KC Food Circle web site.

None of these farmers states whether or not they support humane slaughter but I suspect they will respond if locavores start asking.