I’ve been grappling with the ins and outs of food for some years now, and my current concerns about how we should be eating for the health of the planet and ourselves have led me into some interesting places.
Recently I’ve been trying to understand who to believe in this “studies have shown” game. I thought Ben Goldacre cracked it for me in his TED talk about publication bias. There is another skeleton in the cupboard of health research though, and that of course is the question of vested interests.
A recent study on high protein diets and aging suggests (well, actually shouts) that high protein diets (especially animal foods) in middle age are dangerous, but as soon as you turn the corner to 65, they are necessary. In the interesting detail found in the paper’s funding, we can see that one of the named authors, Valter D. Longo, has equity interest in L-Nutra, a company that develops “medical food”. This medical food, it should not surprise us to learn, is a plant-based meal substitute, so there is a whiff of “follow the money” in the study’s conclusions. He appears to be the study’s designer (most? of the co-authors are his students)
Zoë Harcombe has analyzed this study and given a thoughtful assessment of its strengths and weaknesses. It’s a headline grabbing concept, she says, but the study doesn’t actually prove its case. She’s going to run the mortality numbers herself and see what they show.
It was a fairly technical talk: Post explained the constraints of working with stem cells to create food. For example, the most popular cell culture medium in labs nowadays is derived from mouse tumours, and this would not sound, well, appetizing for food production. Instead he’s going to try using the protein fraction left over from algae-based biofuel production. Ultimately he’s aiming for a source of stem cells that doesn’t require bovine input – since he is trying to make cattle extinct, and he’s keen on sustainability. He seemed genuinely hurt that his work has been dubbed “frankenfood” and “lab burger”.
Because his aim in doing this work, he felt, was in the greater good. He wanted to raise awareness and offer solutions to the problems of food security in a time of mushrooming population growth. Humans, he said, have a taste for meat; in order to provide it, we must rethink our unsustainable methods of growing it, so that we can devote more of our dwindling arable land to growing fruits and vegetables.
There is so much wrong with his thinking I hardly know where to start. Firstly and most importantly (one might think), the nutritional value of cells grown in a medium consisting of amino acids, vitamins and sugar will never be comparable to that of food from animals raised on plants, water and sunshine. But his talk never touched on nutritional concerns.
Have humans learned nothing from our extensive attempts to mimic nature? Think margarine. Think beta-carotene supplements. Think high fructose corn syrup. Still, we’re facing a generation of humans who have lost their ability to cook, to identify foods, to taste the difference between real and artificial food flavours, or to take responsibility for their food choices. He cited a survey of Dutch people, 75% of whom had said they might be willing to give stem burgers a go. To those people, artificially grown meat might be an acceptable thing to put in their mouths, but it won’t properly nourish their brains and bodies: we will have to wait to see what the deficiencies do to our species.
Secondly, while current methods of intensive livestock production are certainly wrong and unsustainable, using arable land for industrial fruit and vegetable production has been shown repeatedly to be the least sustainable method of feeding a growing world. Post did not appear to be aware of the damage wrought to topsoil, ecosystems or microbial life by monocropping and large-scale agriculture. Nor did he give any sense he knew of better alternatives like permaculture or grasslands management.
But it is not in Post’s interests to know these things. A vascular biologist, his job is obtaining grants to do lab research. And he has been successful in doing this, with two years’ worth of funds in hand to try to eliminate animal-based cells from “meat” production; to improve the taste, smell and texture of stem cell “meat”; to bring down production costs; and to work on the regulatory path needed to approve this as a novel food.
The best and final question of the session came from a chef in the audience, who wondered if this substance from stem cells was going to be to meat as infant formula is to breast milk. Post did not seem to understand the question and with spectacular hubris said in fact he hoped they could make this product better than meat by isolating and removing the harmful qualities of it which cause, for example, colon cancer — once they figure out what those qualities are.
I love the random and unusual places my food interests take me. But then, as we learned at food school, gastronomy touches every aspect of life; and food being life-giving, its universal reach should not surprise us.
So last week I returned from beautiful Bellingham and stopped briefly in vivacious Vancouver, where I was whistled off for a delectable Palestinian lunch at Tamam on East Hastings. All the food is made from scratch, and tastes fresh and Tamam's hummusauthentic. We had a selection of treats, opting for the vegetarian menu – hummus, mutabbal (the Palestinian version of baba ganoush), mujadarah Tamam's Kunafah (rice & lentils with caramelized onion) with a lemony red cabbage salad, some house-made flatbread with za’atar and another with yogurt, followed by the very pretty kunafah dessert – spun pastry enfolding a couple of different kinds of cheese. I took away an order of Palestinian cabbage rolls (the cabbage is fermented, and stuffed with rice and vegetables) with a side of green salad, fuel for the ferry ride home. And it was a welcome respite from the indignities of BC Ferries’ franchised fast food offerings.
We stopped in at the Woodland Smokehouse & Commissary after that, and emerged with assorted house-smoked sausages, a salad of potato, bacon and mushrooms, and a long and wistful memory of the freezer cabinet and its load of Earnest Ice Cream, which is sold in reusable glass jars.
Once home I unpacked and readied myself for a trip to Salt Spring Island, where the CRFAIR roundtable meeting was treated to a tour of the newly/nearly finished community abattoir. Our guide and president of the abattoir society, Jean Brouard, made clear he was not the only vegetarian on the committee, and added that there were several vegans aboard as well.
After all, he told us, the foremost aim of this facility was to improve animal welfare. The draconian changes to farmgate meat processing several years ago had made it illegal for farmers to slaughter their own animals. Aimed at making large scale meat processing safer, the changes were devastating to small farm operations, particularly ones in remote locations. The financial and logistical repercussions of taking a small flock of chickens or a couple of lambs on the ferry for slaughter meant that meat production on Salt Spring dropped by nearly 50%. Local farmers and food activists were worried by the island’s corresponding drop in food security: having to import so much of the island’s protein put them at the mercy of steadily increasing ferry fares and put the few animals under production under considerable stress. Fundraising ensued and the island put plans together to build Canada’s first dual (red and white meat) abattoir.
Poultry cones
The community decided it wanted the facility to be a mobile abattoir, to share services with nearby Pender Island, and raised enough money in cash and grants to start building in January last year. Unfortunately, in the process of meeting the multiple and often contradictory requirements of the regulating agencies (municipal and provincial health authorities, CCDC and CFIA as well as building standards) the mobility dropped out of the picture. So did the first building inspector they’d worked with and his successor deemed it necessary that the building meet stringent seismic standards, adding nearly a third again to the not inconsiderable building costs. A new round of fundraising will soon begin to clear the debts incurred. The abattoir opened for bird business in late September, just in time for Canadian thanksgiving, and recently processed its first lambs. Adjustments and adaptations were in progress with carpenters and electricians fine-tuning reinforced boards and the new chiller equipment.
The abattoir is, like all those large and small, subject to rigorous inspection, with every animal checked by a federal meat inspector. It’s anyone’s guess what will happen if the federal government makes good on its promise to hand inspection over to the provinces – a move slowed by the recent Excel Meats disaster in Alberta, which showed that even the current system is fatally flawed.
The last few days at the SWG writers and artists colony are shooting past. The nuthatches returned last week, in fighting form, shooing away chickadees and picking all the largest peanuts to stash in nearby tree trunks.
Meanwhile my inbox has been attracting distractions. Stan has been sending me some meaty articles so I am sharing them with the rest of you as you prepare to tuck into your Sunday roasts.
The Guardian has just posted an article about the £200,000 burger that’s been whipped up in a test tube, in a well-intentioned move to cut greenhouse gas emissions linked to intensive cattle farming. Fair enough, sez I: if people really don’t care to know where their food comes from, and few seem to, why not? Could it taste any worse than TVP, or a frozen supermarket soyburger? It might even be healthier than a school cafeteria burger or frozen hamburger patty, since it wouldn’t be walking around in its own contaminants. Gwynne Dyer had been talking about cultured meat earlier this week, and some months ago we learned about the amazing progress Japanese scientists had made in recycling.. erm.. certain waste products into meat-like substances.
We are eating, I hope, closer to the source of our food at the abbey, although there were some niggling questions in my mind about the historical accuracy of the menu for last week’s Medieval Feast, which featured breaded fried chicken and macaroni and cheese served on locally-made bread trenchers. Try it yourself next time you don’t feel like doing dishes and your meal leaves your guests hungry enough to eat their plates!
After seeing Forks Over Knives, I tracked down an audio copy of The China Study, which was excellent listening material while I peeled and juiced a zillion apples earlier this month. And then I had occasion to watch the film again last weekend. Food for thought, as they say. Vegan food.
I’m always a little skeptical of dogmatists, and the book and film are very dogmatic in their condemnation of casein (milk, cheese, yogurt, butter.. ) and other animal proteins. They do present facts and figures to back up their assertions; and the case does seem overwhelming even on a superficial comparison between Western and Eastern diets, for example. Obesity and food-related illnesses are unquestionably out of control in countries that have adopted the Western diet, and rare in those that have stuck to simpler, vegetable-based fare.
The film showed a very dramatic chart from Norway before, during and after the Nazi occupation, which marked a dramatic drop in fatal heart attacks during the war and a steep climb afterwards, and we were told this was due to the population’s having been deprived of animal protein during this time. But that’s not all they were deprived of: cigarettes were also unavailable. The authors of a study reported last March took a more well-rounded view, observing instead that during the Occupation, “Norwegians ate less fat, smoked less and were more physically active.” (The study compared recent improvements in Norway’s fatal heart attack figures with numbers last seen during the Occupation.)
Veganism is certainly not going to hurt you, which is more than can be said for the Western diet. But is it going to take off? I’m guessing not. Firstly, as a lifestyle it has a bad reputation (see how Anthony Bourdain shat upon it for example) for attracting dogmatists, animal rights extremists, and nutritional puritans. It can be hard for moderate, health-oriented eaters to self-identify with the term (although Bill Clinton’s entry into the fold has probably helped ease the way for others). And, as many of us have witnessed first-hand with vegan dining companions, it becomes really hard to eat [well] in restaurants – or in the homes of nonbelievers.
Secondly, it takes a lot longer to cook vegan food. Unless you plan to live entirely on salads or steamed vegetables, it can take a lot more planning. Whole foods (I’m assuming we’re talking whole food veganism rather than junk food veganism) take longer to cook (think brown rice vs white); dried beans or the seeds and nuts that raw food vegans use need hours of soaking. Fresh fruit and vegetables take chopping, paring and preparation. And we live in the age of convenience when half an hour’s cooking per day is fairly typical. Per day! (Statistics Canada’s 2005 census said .7 to 1.1 hours, including washing up)
Thirdly it’s just mostly not very interesting food. How I wish the film-makers had sprung for a food stylist instead of trotting out grey platters of rice and beans and less than vivid salads, and then showing the eaters oohing and ahhing over them. The book and film say this food is delicious as well as healthful. But I’m sorry, it’s just not inherently better tasting, or even anywhere as good in most cases. The China Study‘s directions are no added oil; whole grains only; no meat proteins. But oil is what carries flavours and lets them wallow in your tastebuds. Chefs and cooks of all nationalities have spent centuries developing recipes to please the human palate (not talking Western diet here, of course, although that has been developed to create a kind of addiction that can be mistaken for pleasure). And that food was designed for pleasure, for flavour, for texture and appearance. Not for health-giving benefits alone. As Bourdain also says, his body is not a temple, but a playground.
So we have a fundamental division of purpose. I don’t mind being pointed towards a healthier diet, but I do mind being told it’s delicious when it looks horrible, and too often tastes awful. I know that’s a sweeping generalization. And I also know there are some delicious foods in the vegan repertoire (kale chips! Green Cuisine‘s lasagna! Ottolenghi’s green bean salad!) and more to discover and experiment with, which I’m happy to do after a lifetime of meat-based cooking. I know it’s possible to eat really delicious Indian food that is vegan – but very far from fat-free.
And I also know there are lots of good reasons not to eat meat, and certainly not every day. Just in time, the Meatless Monday campaign has a new video:
A day late will perhaps be better than none, by the time you read this. Thanks to Meatless Monday for passing along this Meat Eaters Guide which includes a quiz that lets you test your knowledge about protein sources and find out where yours sits along the sustainability scale.
Actually although I applaud the idea, I think the quiz as written is terrible, and not a lot of fun – unless you happen to have memorized a lot of figures on American meat production, greenhouse gas emissions and cropland usage. I also think it’s far too long at 18 questions; very few people will make it to the end of the quiz and check the answers.
I have encountered a lot of this sort of thing in recent years, as well-intentioned organizations search for new ways of catching the notice of consumers who’ve heard it all before and really don’t want to change their lifestyles.
The fact is that if you design a quiz for a public website, you have to give your public – which has a wide, wide range of knowledge about your subject, and the slimmest of attention spans – a fighting chance to answer the questions. Asking a lot of multiple choice questions about trade figures and crop statistics is not fair play, and most sane participants will give up after the first or second such question.
And with that I will go back to reflecting on the delicious meatless meal we enjoyed tonight: after a starter of kale chips (tossed in tahini dressing and then dehydrated for a couple of hours) and freshly picked snow peas with garlic tahini dip, we had Spaghetti al Vino Rosso (much like this recipe, but also including parsley and some chopped toasted walnuts). Followed by a handful of freshly picked trailing blackberries in (sorry) cream and sugar, and a few organic cherries.
The rest of which are bound for the freezer and/or dehydrator and/or canner tomorrow. What fun we will have with my new cherry pitter!
I’ve been grappling with the ins and outs of food for some years now, and my current concerns about how we should be eating for the health of the planet and ourselves have led me into some interesting places.
