Guest guest Posted July 1, 2008 Report Share Posted July 1, 2008 http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/TheLomaPrietan.asp?q=2008070801 The Loma Prietan - July/August 2008 Cooking Green Experts Extol Ethical Eating story and photos by Kay Bushnell This issue's recipe: Vegan Lasagna Crowds arrived at the Stanford auditorium expecting to hear journalist Michael Pollan talk about food. To the surprise of many, all seats in the auditorium and even standing room were taken early. Hundreds of disappointed individuals, myself included, milled about in the lobby and peered through the windows at the seats, aisles, and windowsills completely covered with humanity. Stanford's series of films and lectures on The Ethics of Food and the Environment, held January through April, was a resounding success. The guest speakers in the series, Michael Pollan, Marion Nestle, and Peter Singer, challenged their audiences to think about the food they eat and the role that popular culture and habit play in their food choices. All speakers cast a wary eye on the mechanized mass production and processing of most food today. Become informed about your food, they urge. Ask yourself and others where it comes from, how it is produced, and at what environmental cost. Is it healthy for you and other forms of life? Is unwarranted animal suffering involved? Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, participated in a public meeting with Stanford Dining representatives before delivering his main address. He emphasized the role of institutions in reforming America's food habits and their potential to make an impact in the larger world. Institutions must be willing to pay more, says Pollan. " The tipping point will come when institutions such as universities vote with their money " and when healthful food has the support of the " highest levels at the university. " Eric Montell of Stanford Dining described Stanford's " education through information " program about food. The program invites farmers to campus to talk about the food they grow, and dining halls feature a new, regionally grown item each month. Pollan feels that learning about food and its carbon footprint is as important as other kinds of learning at a university. Marion Nestle, a professor at New York University and author of What to Eat, cautions us to enter supermarkets fully aware that junk food beckons in the center aisles. " Shop the perimeter, " she counsels. " Don't buy anything found in the center aisles, or anything with more than five ingredients, with health claims, or with cartoons on the package. " While organizers of the Stanford series may have been surprised by the high attendance and enthusiasm generated by the events, Nestle was not. She sees food as part of a social movement directly related to contemporary issues such as childhood obesity and the global marketing of junk foods. The final speaker in the series was Peter Singer, Professor of Bioethics at Princeton and author of The Way We Eat: Why Our Food Choices Matter. Singer argues that ethical consideration of animals should affect our food choices. In addition to the evidence for animal consciousness, says Singer, the rationale for preventing animal suffering by our food choices is that " pain is pain, no matter what being experiences it. " Singer has been a vegetarian since the early 1970s when he was at Oxford University. He was eating meat and asked a colleague why he wasn't eating it. His friend's response convinced Singer of the merit of plant-based food. Today, Singer remembers his own moral awakening on that occasion and advises others to " explain when you are asked [why you are vegetarian]... don't be shy about setting an example...and remember, factory farming is a wasteful form of production that requires a lot of fossil fuel, so eating fewer-or no-animal products will cut the amount of emissions for which you are responsible. " Singer mentioned that on their ballots this coming November Californians will have a chance to ban factory farms from confining hens, pregnant sows, and calves in cages that are so restrictive the animals cannot turn around or extend their limbs. At the end of Singer's presentation students sprang into lines to ask him questions. Many of the questions were personal and practical, such as how to keep to a plant-based diet while living in a culture dominated by animal-based foods. One student posed his question bluntly: " Professor Singer, do you ever cave? " Singer advised him to hold to his ethical standards as much as possible but not to be fanatical about it. His closing message to his audience: " Living an ethical life gives you purpose and meaning. One's beliefs and practices are in harmony, which yields satisfaction in life. " Loma Prieta Chapter member Kay Bushnell has taught plant-based cooking and appeared as the Garden Gourmet in a community-access television cooking series. cooking green recipe collection http://lomaprieta.sierraclub.org/newsletter_collections.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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