WORD OUT! The Blog to Build a New Society

A storm of controversy has erupted over a Mother Jones article referencing a Cornucopia study exposing the use of a potentially dangerous toxin used in manufacturing many soy foods, including veggie burgers.

From the report:

Hexane is strictly prohibited in organic food processing, but is used to make “natural” soy foods and even some that are “made with organic ingredients,” such as Clif Bars®. Hexane is a neurotoxic petrochemical solvent that is listed as a hazardous air pollutant with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The article was featured on the information clearinghouse Boing Boing, one of the most popular sites on the internet, where it was briefly discredited as being funded by an anti-vegetarian, pro-meat group. That turned out not to be true. The comments on both Boing Boing and Mother Jones (and there are hundreds) do however highlight how volatile and emotional the issue of vegetarianism remains for many people in both the for and against camps. Fortunately there are many cooler heads that point out that the adoption of a primarily local diet low in processed foods neatly sidesteps the whole issue of corporate-produced hexane patties.

Other interesting takeaways from the comments included the issue of whether hexane can actually remain in a food that was processed with it, since it is apparently a volatile substance and evaporates practically instantly, and also what OTHER foods are processed with hexane. For example, a little Google research showed me that most canola oil is extracted using hexane, which would seem to be more worrying when you think about it. I suspect a lot more people have canola oil on their shelf than have veggie burgers in their fridge.

Personally, I would choose to apply the precautionary principle and avoid the hexane if possible, but I suspect that I am still far better off with the occasional veggie burger than with a hormone-and-chemical-laden Big Mac. And of course the best solution, as always, is to make my own.

And now, since it's Friday, here's my all time favourite veggie video, the brilliant Cows with Guns by Dana Lyons. (Facebook readers click here).

In the heat of last summer, I surveyed our extremely prodigious dandelion crop and was possessed with the urge to turn weeds into wine. A little time on the internet yielded a recipe that would take care of the dregs of our rhubarb as well, and a mission was born. A couple of hot, sunny summer afternoons were whiled away plucking and collecting scores (and I do mean scores) of fluffy, yellow heads. Then a few sessions of boiling and mashing and racking, all in happy anticipation of turning these rampant weeds into cool crisp wine to be enjoyed in the spring.

Well spring has sprung, and last night was the night. With all due ceremony the wine was chilled, decanted, sniffed, and savoured - yech! Total failure. It turns out that my precious dandelion wine tastes, in fact, like a mouthful of dandelions. Quelle disappointment! My partner and I ceremonially dumped our glasses down the sink. Oh well.

So why am I writing about this? Who cares? It's easy to see what this story would have to do with sustainability if the wine had been a success - it would have been a great use of plentiful resources and an excellent exercise in food (or at least beverage) security. But it wasn't a success. It was a failure.

I think though, that in our personal search for sustainability, it is just as important to think about our failures as it is to celebrate our successes. Because let's face it, if you're like most of us, you will have many, many failures (and hopefully a few successes too). How do you react to your failure? Do you let it stop you in your tracks? Or do you accept it and carry on? Do you take a lesson from each defeat that you can apply to the next time you try, in order to increase your chance of success? How about coming up with a creative use for the product of your initial botched effort? At the very least, do you make a good story out of it? How do you celebrate your failure?

Thinking about this, and about my dandelion rhubarb wine, I decided on a new project. Coming up in three months, just in time for summer salad season, my very own dandelion rhubarb vinegar! And if it tastes awful on my salads, them maybe I can use it to clean my windows...

Scientists at Holland's Eindhoven University have successfully cultured meat for the first time. According to The Sunday Times, cells extracted from a live pig were incubated and grown in a laboratory into a sticky muscle mass. From the article:

“You could take the meat from one animal and create the volume of meat previously provided by a million animals,” said Mark Post, professor of physiology at Eindhoven University, who is leading the Dutch government-funded research.

Post and his colleagues have so far managed to develop a soggy form of pork and are seeking to improve its texture. “What we have at the moment is rather like wasted muscle tissue,” Post said.

“We need to find ways of improving it by training it and stretching it, but we will get there. This product will be good for the environment and will reduce animal suffering. If it feels and tastes like meat, people will buy it.”

The scientists predict that their breakthrough could lead to the availability of laboratory meat within five years. While some embrace the development, others are skeptical.

Citing Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat will Change Our Lives, H+Magazine foresees the success of Frankenburgers, but the comments section of the article tells a different story - readers are concerned about the unnaturalness of "trans ham", the potential unintended health impacts of eating artificial meat, economic repercussions for ranchers, taste issues, and more.

Of course this recent development could cost PETA a cool one million dollars - that's the amount of the prize the controversial animal rights group is offering to the first successful company to bring in-vitro meat to market by June 30, 2012.

We'd like to know what you think. Would you put Frankenmeat on your fork? Or would you rather leave it in the lab? Tell us how you feel in the comments section below.

For less drastic methods of improving animal welfare, check out Building an Ark: 101 Solutions to Animal Suffering.

FarmFolk/CityFolk is a non-profit society that works with farm and city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system. They develop and operate projects that provide access to and protection of foodlands; that support local, small scale growers and producers; and that educate, communicate and celebrate with local food communities.

FarmFolk/CityFolk Heroes is a 6 minute video homage to 27 sustainable farmers and city growers featuring photography by Brian Harris and music by Liona Boyd.

New Society Publishers is a sponsor of the 2010 FarmFolk/CityFolk Calendar - consider buying a copy to support this organization's great work!

To learn more about food security and sustainable, local agriculture check out Independence Days and A Nation of Farmers

    

Today is World Food Day, as declared by the United Nations. This year's focus is Achieving Food Security in Times of Crisis.

From the UN website:

At a time when the global economic crisis dominates the news, the world needs to be reminded that not everyone works in offices and factories. The crisis is stalking the small-scale farms and rural areas of the world, where 70 percent of the world's hungry live and work.

With an estimated increase of 105 million hungry people in 2009, there are now 1.02 billion malnourished people in the world, meaning that almost one sixth of all humanity is suffering from hunger.

On the occasion of World Food Week and World Food Day 2009, let us reflect on those numbers and the human suffering behind them. Crisis or no crisis, we have the know-how to do something about hunger. We also have the ability to find money to solve problems when we consider them important. Let us work together to make sure hunger is recognized as a critical problem, and solve it.

Sharon Astyk, author of Independence Days: A Guide to Sustainable Food Storage and Preservation just posted an excellent quiz entitled How Food Secure Are You? - an opportunity for you to evaluate your food security and your basic preparedness for an emergency in the areas of Water, Food Storage, Evacuation Plans, Health, Family and Community.

Did your score on the quiz leave something to be desired? (I know mine did.) Check out Independence Days for a comprehensive guide to becoming increasingly self-reliant and food secure in uncertain times.