SoulVeggie

Video "Mockumentary:" The Majestic Plastic Bag

A four minute stunning parody of a BBC nature film: the plastic bag as a successful organism, accompanied by serious "English-accented" voice, describing it's life cycle.  The video is for a really important activist cause in California, and it's points are made in a very sly and clever fashion.  Enjoy!

Video: "Dirt: The Movie"

"DIRT! The Movie, tells the amazing and little known story of the relationship between humans and living dirt.  Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth's climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.  Yet most humans ignore, abuse, and destroy our most precious living natural resource.Consider the results of such behavior: mass starvation, drought, floods, and global warming, and wars. If we continue on our current path, Dirt might find another use for humans, as compost for future life forms.

It doesn't have to be that way. Another world, in which we treat dirt with the respect it deserves, is possible and we'll show you how.  The film offers a vision of a sustainable relationship between Humans and Dirt through profiles of the global visionaries who are determined to repair the damage we've done before it's too late. There are many ways we can preserve the living skin of the earth for future generations. If you care about your food, water, the air you breathe, your  health and happiness..."

Excerpted from the movie's website.  Check it out!

New Film Trailer: "What's "Organic" About Organic?"

"[This film]... rings the alarm for the need to develop an ecological consciousness.  The film illustrates that the organic food debate extends well beyond personal choice and into the realm of social responsibility.

Each of the film’s characters is intimately connected to the organic world; they’re farmers, activists, and scientists.  While many folks can easily endorse “organic,” the characters in the film take the discussion beyond just shopping for another eco-label. As we glimpse into each of their lives, we see how organic agriculture has the potential to solve many of our environmental and health problems.  The film will explore how organic farming can be used as a soil and air protection system, a healthy solution to toxic pollution, and an innovative means to combat global warming.

WHAT’S ORGANIC ABOUT “ORGANIC?” delves into the debates that arise when a grassroots agricultural movement evolves into a booming international market.  As the film moves from farm fields to government meetings to industry trade shows, we see the hidden costs of conventional agriculture.  We also see how our health, the health of our planet, and the agricultural needs of our society are all intimately connected.  The film compels us to look forward, towards a new vision for our culture and encourages us to ask, “What should our future food system look like?”

[Love the phrase: "conscientious consumption" from the trailer.  The "about" excerpt above is from the really kewl and resource-full website here.  Check it out and pass the URL around. Oh, and go low-fat vegan... been too busy harvesting, preserving, planting, watering to do much else than this quickie post... still slow in typing with finger recovering...]

Independence from the US Food Supply

 

(All images ©2009 by Mark Sutton - Respectively:  currants, gooseberries, raspberries, lettuces from the garden - Click on image to get larger version in new window)

"True freedom requires food independence... I am now celebrating my food independence from the greedy, poisonous food corporations of North America. No more Dean Foods [Silk Products] or PepsiCo in my life. No more being enslaved by Monsanto or ADM. No genetically-modified foods, pesticides, herbicides or terminator seeds are found around here. No long-distance food imports, no waiting in line at the grocery store with a stupid discount card and no more packing my groceries home in toxic plastic bags made from petrochemicals.

My food acquisition process has become ridiculously simple:

Step 1: Walk to the garden (60 seconds).
Step 2: Pick what I want to eat (5-10 enjoyable minutes).
Step 3: Prepare it (juice it, boil it or whatever).
Step 4: Eat it.

This process requires no financial transactions, no taxes, no transportation, no plastic wrappers and no coupons. It does not involve finding a parking spot, going into a building, carrying cash or inhaling the toxic vapors of detergent products that permeate all the aisles of modern grocery stores. There is no need to check a price, enter a UPC bar code or banter with grocery store clerks. Instead, I simply walk to the garden, harvest the food and eat it.

That this simple act is so astonishingly rare is, all by itself, a disturbing commentary about the state of the food supply in America today."

[Full article here and below.  I could not identify with it more... this morning's breakfast was a big handful (each) of homegrown raspberries (black and red), currants, and gooseberries.  Lunch was mixed salad greens salad (from the garden, 'natch).  Dinner will be roasted mixed vegetables from the garden, sauteed garlic with mixed chard (all homegrown), balsamic vinegar, minced dried hot peppers (from last year), some cheap white wine (for cooking), and local steamed corn (local is from the farm a mile up the road).  Well worth all the effort... (better daily workout than in a gym), but... I still haven't sourced an olive oil plant yet... maybe it's not real whole food?]

Latest Issue of Mad Cowboy Newsletter Now Available

Title:  06_23_09:  Rip's Recipes, Ask a Vegan, & Largest Red Meat Study.

Direct link to online issue.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/87

Howdy!  Welcome to the 66th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue we're delighted to provide a preview of our upcoming interview with the amazing vegan firefighter/author, Rip Esselstyn, in the form of two of his favorite recipes.  Rip's the son of Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn and has built upon his father's remarkable research via some very practical and easy-to-do ways in his diet/exercise/lifestyle book, "The Engine 2 Diet."

Moving on further, we'll note a study indicating that fish oil doesn't help your heart via Omega-3, some new finds about the benefits of broccoli, results of the largest study of red meat eaters in history, and more indications that high-fat food inflames your circulatory system.  You'll learn about the "Ask a Vegan" booth in New York, some vegan survival tips, resources for learning about animal rights/issues, and the consequences off going veg for just one day.

Continuing in this edition, we've got some gourmet viewing experiences in our Vegan Digital Theater, some details stats and studies showing that our industry-produced produce is definitely less nutritious than it used to be, some great links about the White House Garden (including remarks by Michelle last week during the first major harvest), and a list of 8 ways to eat locally...  some new resource links have been added to "Quick Bytes" and don't miss some of the articles during the "Mad Cow Info Round-Up."

... as always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers:  y'all can browse past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives.

Best wishes for this start of a new summer and may your gardens be bountiful, healthy, and inspiring!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: A Mad Cowboy Invite to AR2009
02: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
03: Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn
04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
05: Fish Oil No Help, Brocc Talk, Largest Meat Study, Fat Inflames
06: Ask a Vegan, Vegan Survival Tips, Learning AR, 1 Day Veg
07: Vegan Digital Theater
08: Food Less Healthy, White House Veggies,  8 Ways to go Local
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts

Latest Mad Cowboy Newsletter Available

Here's the intro, table of contents, and a direct link to the 64th issue:

Howdy!  Welcome to the 64th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

Direct Link:  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/message/85

We've a special treat in this edition:  a personal letter from the Big Guy himself:  Enjoy!

Reading further, there's the usual Mad Cow Info Round-Up, new studies tying the consumption of eggs to diabetes and meat to pancreatic cancer, a new analysis of the prevalence of corn in our food, and a fine essay by Dr. McDougall about answering the question:  "Why do you avoid adding additional oil/fat in your diet?

There's also a disturbing breakdown of what's really in Downey Fabric Softner (hint: it ain't vegan), the debate over elephant's health in zoos, and an range of interesting facts about animals.  Moving forward, you'll have access to links to some very interesting (and funny) video and audio, as well as read about a body spray with a rather unique odor.

We also have a very cool article about issues of "soil not oil," cutting greenhouse gases through less meat consumption globally, how Coca-Cola is stoking the 'water wars' with propaganda, and some thoughts about the new USDA Secretary Nomineee, Vilsack.  Plus:  don't miss the Vegan Recipe from a new fat-free vegan cookbook (Pudgy-Free Holidays) that's available as a PDF via the Internet.

As always, a tip of the hat to our new subscribers:  y'all can browse past issues at the Mad Cowboy Newsletter Archives:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cowboy/

...and best wishes for a Happy Vegan Holidaze, keeping warm with family and friends, and a Great New Year!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

***********************************************
TABLE OF CONTENTS:

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
02: Vegan Recipe from Online Cookbook:  "Pudgy-Free Holidays"
03: Mad Cow Info Round-up
04: Eggs/Diabetes, Meat/Cancer, Corn in Fast Food, Avoid Fats?
05: Fabric Softener Fat, Elephant Debate, AR Spies, Animal Facts
06: Vegan Digital Theater Showcase
07: Soil Not Oil, Cut Meat/Emissions, Cola Scam, USDA Nominee Vilsack
08: Howard's Schedule
09: Quick Bytes
10: Closing Thoughts

Happy Earth Day!

Yeah, I know I usually send out something from satellites viewing the Earth on this day (having done work for NASA and knowing where the data is accessible), but this photo I shot yesterday struck me as something special.

It's a rose... still in it's pot ready to be planted when weather/time permits (click on to see larger version).  Reminded me of the Sun... you can envision the sunspots/core, the trails of coronal flares and the petals as magnetic fields.  An interesting vision and possibly indicative of a very very old saying "as is above, is below."  A fascinating time in the year when nature is kicking in big time and accelerating this far North as fast as it can.  Earth reborn.

Of course, it could also be the drugs are kicking in (yes Dad, I'm kidding).

For the more metaphysical and whimsical out there...

Happy Earth Day to all... let's hope we survive the upcoming year intact.

Best, Mark... Oh, and help save a planet and the life therein:  Go Vegan!

"Edible Estates" & Growing Your Own

"......By the end of World War II, over 80 percent of American households were growing some of their own food. Within months after Victory Day this activity quickly subsided. With its demise went the widespread knowledge among most Americans of how to grow their own food... the introduction of the leisure weekend, the abundance of fresh water, the production of industrial pesticides, the availability of the lawn mower and cheap gas, and the rise of home ownership with the explosion of new suburban housing developments in the 1940s and '50s all set the stage for the unfurling of the great American lawn as we know it today. Its puritanical aspects seem suited to the Eisenhower years of good manners. Is there a connection between landscape and hairstyles?... [yikes!]

...In the United States we plant more grass than any other crop: currently lawns cover more than thirty million acres. Given the way we lavish precious resources on it and put it everywhere that humans go, aliens landing in any American city today would assume that grass must be the most precious earthly substance of all.  Yet the lawn devours resources while it pollutes. It is maniacally groomed with mowers and trimmers powered by the two-stroke motors that are responsible for much of our greenhouse gas emissions... To eradicate invading plants the lawn is drugged with pesticides and herbicides, which are then washed into our water supply with sprinklers and hoses, dumping our increasingly rare fresh drinking resource down the gutter. [more water and pesticides on our lawns than used by the entire US agricultural industry.]

Meanwhile, at the grocery store we confront our food. Engineered fruits and vegetables wrapped in plastic and Styrofoam are cultivated not for taste but for appearance, uniformity, and ease of transport, then sprayed with chemicals to inhibit the diseases and pests that thrive in an unbalanced ecosystem. The produce in the average American dinner is trucked 1,500 miles to reach our plates. We don't know where our fruits and vegetables came from or who grew them. Perhaps we have even forgotten that plants were responsible for the mass-produced meal we are consuming. This detachment from the source of our food breeds a careless attitude toward our role as custodians of the land that feeds us. Perhaps we would reconsider what we put down the drain, on the ground, and in the air if there was more direct evidence that we will ultimately ingest it...

The Edible Estates project proposes the replacement of the domestic front lawn with a highly productive edible landscape. Food grown in our front yards will connect us to the seasons, the organic cycles of the earth, and our neighbors. The banal lifeless space of uniform grass in front of the house will be replaced with the chaotic abundance of biodiversity. In becoming gardeners we will reconsider our connection to the land, what we take from it, and what we put in it. Each yard will be a unique expression of its location and of the inhabitant and his or her desires..."

[The full, spot-on, literate, history-referencing and thought-provoking "excerpt" from the book is here and below. Here's a sub-3min. "TreeHugger Video on 'Edible Estates.'" For me, this all helped conceptually soothe the tight muscles from digging in the veggie garden yesterday. If you're vegan or vegetarian and not growing some of your own food, even on an apartment balcony, you're missing out on something important.  Go grow your own & Go Vegan.]

Mona Lisa vs. An Entire Species

I've seen Capt. Paul Watson (vegan) speak a few times, shared some drinks in a bar, and although I sometimes believe he's a bit far out, there are times when he really raises some interesting issues.  His recent comment about a vegan in an SUV consuming less resources than a carnivore on a bicycle is a classic.  Then there's his views that, from an ecological standpoint, earthworms are more important than humans and we're "a bunch of arrogant primates out-of-control."

The following extensive article in the New Yorker about him was well-written and researched. There's a statement in same that caused me to stop and think for several minutes:

"“People say, ‘You’re incredibly arrogant,’ ” Watson told me. “I say, when you’re dealing with a species that’s as arrogant as the human race you’ve got to be arrogant to believe that you can actually change it.” He regards civilization’s greatest artistic and cultural achievements—from architecture to music and film—as expressions of human vanity, “worthless to the earth.” He sometimes asks people to imagine the outrage that would occur if someone were to destroy, say, the Vatican or the “Mona Lisa,” and he compares that with the indifference that people exhibit toward the mass extinction of plants and animals. “In anthropocentric society, a harsh judgment is given to those that destroy or seek to destroy the creations of humanity,” he has written... yet if a human destroys the wonders of creation, the beauty of the natural world, then anthropocentric society calls such people loggers, miners, developers, engineers, and businessmen.”"

Extreme thoughts, but then again... how many "Mona Lisas" are we collectively destroying, needlessly, on a daily basis?  Which is more important?  An entire species, developed and evolved over billions of years, or a painting by Leonardo DaVinci?

I've spent a lot of time the past year and a half watching things grow from seed to maturity to death.  The dazzling complexity, ingenuity, resiliance, diversity, and dynamic aspects of the plant kingdom just continually amazes and astounds me.  "Modern" science and technology can't come close, in any aspect, to that which nature has accomplished (or is accomplishing).  Yet, we are destroying, through our consumerism and ignorance, untold numbers of species, and that number is increasing and rate accelerating. 

So, which is the greater crime, the destruction of a single work of genius, or mindless demolition of a complex interrelated "geniusness" that works?

[Full article here and below. Capt. Watson's website is here.]

Vegan in SUV vs Carnivore Cyclist

[Been really busy managing drought-time for huge vegetable/flower gardens and 60 new trees, and a major new gig... the following is excerpted from a thoughtful essay by Capt. Paul Watson, as noted by the always intriguing Robert Cohen in his superb "NotMilk" column earlier today.  My thanks to Paul and Robert.]

"The meat industry is one of the most destructive ecological industries on the planet. The raising and slaughtering of pigs, cows, sheep, turkeys and chickens not only utilizes vast areas of land and vast quantities of water, but it is a greater contributor to greenhouse gas emissions than the automobile industry.  The seafood industry is literally plundering the ocean of life and some fifty percent of fish caught from the oceans is fed to cows, pigs, sheep, chickens etc in the form of fish meal. It also takes about fifty fish caught from the sea to raise one farm raised salmon...

... [There] is a solid conservation connection between eating meat and the destruction of life in our oceans.  In a world fast losing resources of fresh water, it is sheer lunacy to have hundreds of millions of cows consuming over 1,000 gallons of water for every pound of beef produced... And the truth is that you can't practise solid and constructive conservation work without promoting veganism and/or vegetarianism as something that promotes the conservation of resources.

... our meat eating habits are more closely related to the vulture, the jackal or other carrion eaters. This means that we can't be described as carnivores. We are better described as necrovores or eaters of rotting flesh.  Consider that some of the beef that people eat has been dead for months and in some cases for years. Dead and hanging in freezers, full of uritic acid and bacteria. It's a corpse in a state of decomposition. Not much that can be said to be noble about eating a cadaver.

... The bottom line is that to be a conservationist and an environmentalist, you must practise and promote vegetarianism or better yet veganism.  It is the lifestyle that leaves the shallowest ecological footprint, uses fewer resources and produces less greenhouse gas emissions, it's healthier and it means you're not a hypocrite.  In fact a vegan driving a hummer would be contributing less greenhouse gas carbon emissions than a meat eater riding a bicycle."

[Full essay here and below. An excellent read.]