Howdy! Welcome to the 67th issue of the Mad Cowboy Newsletter.

In this issue we're proud to present a Mad Cowboy 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." There's also three of his
recipes for you to try!

Moving on further, there's articles about Mutant Milk, how saturated fat enables
Altzheimer's, some surprising statistics on what we eat, Brainfood at the White
House, a great new position paper by the ADA on the Vegetarian Diet, and more
about that same diet reducing cancer risk.

Continuing in this edition, there's the intriguing proposal for a 50 year Farm
Bill, 70 pages of solutions to our agricultural woes, the real cost of food, the
new composting mandate in San Francisco, how animal abusers are losing, AETA is
winning, new math contrasting a vegan diet with a carnivore's, and the Amazing
SpiderVeg!

Also, here's a "sneak peak" at the 2009 VegNews Awards:
http://www.ecorazzi.com/2009/10/16/2009-vegnews-veggie-awards-we-steal-a-sneak-p\
eek-at-12-winners/

... 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/>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Mad_Cow\
boy/

Here's hoping everyone is warm, and to quote Rip: "plant strong" this Winter!

Mark, MC editor/webmaster

[personal vegan blog:
<http://www.soulveggie.com>http://www.soulveggie.com


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

00: Quote(s) from Howard
01: A Mad Cowboy Interview with Rip Esselstyn
02: Three Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet"
03: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
05: Mutant Milk, Fat & Altzheimer's, US Fatter, What We're Eating
06: Brainfood, Veg Diet Reduces Cancer & Chronic Disease Risks
07: The Digital Vegan
08: 50 yr Farm Bill, Ag Solutions, Real Food Cost, Composting SF
09: Animal Abusers Lose, AETA Wins, Veg Math, Spider Veg!
10: Howard's Schedule
11: Quick Bytes
12: Closing Thoughts

************************************************
*00: Quote(s) from Howard
************************************************
"When your health is a five alarm disaster the Engine 2 diet could turn you into
a survivor. Fire fighter Rip Esselstyn is a real hero when it comes to learning
how to eat a healthy diet. Read Engine 2 before it's too late to postpone a date
with the undertaker."

---- Howard Lyman, and author of: "No More Bull!" and "The Mad Cowboy"


************************************************
*01: A Mad Cowboy Interview with Rip Esselstyn
************************************************
[Excerpts from the 2 part Mad Cowboy Interview with Rip Esselstyn, Vegan
Firefighter, and author, "The Engine 2 Diet."

R: "With my Dad [Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn], that message is perfect. Depending
upon whom I'm speaking to, I'll hit the moderation. I was speaking to a group
of firefighters the other day, and a guy asked me: "How much red meat can I have
a week? Isn't everything in moderation fine?" I'm like, no... and you know
what? The whole phrase "everything in moderation" is why we're in such dire
straits right now in this country.

One of the things about "Engine 2 Diet" is that what Howard is doing, my
father's doing, and McDougall, Ornish and Fuhrman are doing, is we're trying to
create a whole new paradigm in health and weight loss. To me, every other diet
program out there concentrates solely on the outside of your body instead of
what's inside your body. To me, we're creating beauty from the inside out."

R: "... there's almost nothing as gratifying in life as helping somebody out.
And I've been helping people out with this diet, literally since 1988, when
after a year, I just knew that this was the truth and the right thing. I
started sharing the message and people would come to me. I've been helping
people, on and off... athletes to firefighters to friends and neighbors, family
members, for a long time, so when the opportunity presented itself to write this
book, and the fact that I could get out there and in one fell swoop, by writing
a book, and help potentially thousands and thousands of Americans without having
to wear my fireman's boots, it was just a dream come true."

[Full interview:
http://www.madcowboy.com/02_MCIview07.000.html


************************************************
*02: Three Recipes from "The Engine 2 Diet"
************************************************
BARBECUE PIZZA

4 ounces tomato paste
1 cup barbecue sauce (see E2-Approved Foods)
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 Kabuli crusts [prepared pizza crusts]
1 small red onion, sliced
1 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced
2 handfuls fresh spinach
1 jar pineapple chunks, drained
1/4 cup finely ground cashews

1. Preheat oven to 425º.
2. Mix the tomato paste, barbecue sauce, and oregano together in a bowl.
3. Generously spread the sauce on the crusts, and layer with the vegetables and
pineapple.
4. Top with the cashews.
5. Bake on a sprayed cooking sheet or pizza stone for 15 minutes.

E2 SALSA

1 can tomatoes
1 large jalapeño pepper, diced (remove seeds to reduce heat)
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 cup cilantro
2 green onions, coarsely chopped
Juice of 1 lime

1. Blend the ingredients together to achieve the desired consistency.


DUMPSTER BLUE BERRY COBBLER

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup milk substitute
3 tablespoons agave nectar or maple syrup
2 cups blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 350º.
2. Combine the flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
3. Combine the vanilla, milk substitute, and nectar or syrup in a bowl.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.
5. The batter will be runny. Pour the batter into a nonstick 8-inch-square pan.
6. Sprinkle the blueberries over the batter. Bake for 45 minutes or until
browned.


[Engine 2 Diet Website:
http://www.theengine2diet.com/


************************************************
*03: The Vegan Mind-Bender Contest Winner/Challenge!
************************************************
LAST ISSUE'S MAD COWBOY VEGAN MIND-BENDER:
Each year, the United States suffers from diet-related health issues (heart
disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure) that end up costing roughing
how much?"

(a) around $90 billion (b) more than $120 billion (c) near $200 billion
(d) just under $300 billion

The correct answer is (b).

["Obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure are all diet-related
health issues that cost this country more than $120 billion each year. That's a
lot of money.." 1st Lady Michelle Obama, from:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-First-Lady-at-the-Whit\
e-House-Garden-Harvest-Party/

Congratulations to BeBe Daeffler (aka "Moondancer") of Daytona Beach,FL She was
the only person to guess the correct answer (a Contest First!) and as such, will
receive both the VegNews subscription and the Ethical Planet shopping bag!


THIS WEEK'S VEGAN MIND-BENDER:
"In a kitchen with normal air temperature, how fast will E. coli cells double in
amount?"

(a) every 45 min. (b) every 30 min. (c) every 15 min. (d) every 5 min.
(e) Eww, that's gross...

Please e-mail guesses to: webmaster@... with the word "contest" in
your subject line by NLT November. 10th, 2009. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME AND
ADDRESS (U.S. domestic only). It will not be sold nor given out to anyone but
VegNews and Ethical Planet for the freebies only.

[Many thanks to Joe Connelly, Editor, VegNews, who has offered a FREE one-year
subscription to a winner chosen at random those submitting the correct answer to
each MC Newsletter's Contest. Our thanks to Joe, and you can learn more about
VegNews at:

http://www.vegnews.com or e-mail: editor@... or call 1.415.665.6397]

[Many thanks, also, to Fran Horvath, of Ethical Planet for offering a FREE
organic cotton shopping bag to the 2nd place winner. You can learn more about
her online (and offline) stores at:

http://www.ethicalplanet.com


************************************************
*04: Mad Cow Info Round-Up
************************************************
"380,000 LBS. OF BEEF RECALLED:" (06/28/09): " JBS Swift Beef Company, a
Greeley, Colo., establishment is voluntarily expanding its June 24 recall to
include approximately 380,000 pounds of assorted beef primal products that may
be contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food
Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_034_2009_Expanded/index.asp


"COOKIE DOUGH AT NESTLÉ PLANT YIELDS POSITIVE TEST FOR E. COLI :" (06/30/09):
""The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that a sample of raw cookie dough
collected at a Nestlé USA manufacturing plant last week had tested positive for
E. coli. Nestlé voluntarily recalled all Toll House refrigerated cookie dough
products made at the Danville, Va., factory earlier this month after the F.D.A.
told Nestlé that it suspected consumers might have been exposed to E. coli
bacteria after eating the dough raw. The agency and the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention have been investigating whether the dough was the source
of the E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to
the latest C.D.C. data. E. coli is a potentially deadly germ that can cause
bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure."

[Edited from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/health/30cookie.html?_r=1


"MCDONALD'S HEPATITIS SCARE: INFECT EMPLOYEE EXPOSED THOUSANDS:" (07/20/09):
"Authorities in northwestern Illinois are trying to figure out why a case of
hepatitis A in a McDonald's food handler went unreported for more than three
weeks. An estimated 10,000 people who ate at a McDonald's in Milan are being
urged to get preventive treatment for the virus, which can cause fever and
abdominal pain. At least 20 cases of hepatitis A have been confirmed in five
Illinois counties, said Rock Island County Health Department spokeswoman Theresa
Foes. An infected McDonald's employee came to work on seven days in July,
possibly spreading the virus to patrons. Another McDonald's worker was diagnosed
June 17, but health officials didn't know about that case until July 13, said
Illinois Department of Public Health spokeswoman Melaney Arnold.
In a written statement forwarded by McDonald's corporate office, franchisee
Kevin Murphy said the restaurant learned of the case from health officials on
July 13. Murphy operates the Milan restaurant... The hepatitis A virus can cause
liver swelling but rarely causes lasting damage. Symptoms include fatigue,
abdominal pain, vomiting and fever and can appear from 15 to 50 days after
exposure..."

[Edited from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/20/mcdonalds-hepatitis-scare_n_241335.html


"FEDERAL STUDY SHOWS MERCURY IN FISH WIDESPREAD, INESCAPABLE:" (08/20/09):
"No fish can escape mercury pollution. That's the take-home message from a
federal study of mercury contamination released Wednesday that tested fish from
nearly 300 streams across the country. The toxic substance was found in every
fish sampled, a finding that underscores how widespread mercury pollution has
become. But while all fish had traces of contamination, only about a quarter
had mercury levels exceeding what the Environmental Protection Agency says is
safe for people eating average amounts of fish... Mercury consumed by eating
fish can damage the nervous system and cause learning disabilities in developing
fetuses and young children. The main source of mercury to most of the streams
tested, according to the researchers, is emissions from coal-fired power plants.
The mercury released from smokestacks here and abroad rains down into waterways,
where natural processes convert it into methylmercury – a form that allows the
toxin to wind its way up the food chain into fish..."

U.S. Geological Survey: http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/mercury/

[Edited from:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/20/federal-study-shows-mercu_n_263741.html


"TROUBLING SOURCE OF RESISTANT PATHOGENS: THE AMERICAN FARM:" (06/2009):
"...several researchers at Johns Hopkins and around the world [are] assembling
evidence that the industrial farming of chickens, pigs, and cattle is
cultivating more than poultry and livestock — it's cultivating bacteria that
medicine is losing the ability to fight. Antimicrobial drugs, including
antibiotics like penicillin, ciprofloxacin, and methicillin, kill pathogenic
bacteria. But they simultaneously drive the resistance that is bacteria's
defense, especially when administered in low, subtherapeutic doses. Scientists
estimate that 50 percent to 80 percent of all antimicrobials in the United
States are not used by doctors to treat sick people or animals but are added to
farm animal feed, mostly in such subtherapeutic dosages... If they are right,
industrial agriculture is fostering and dispersing drug-resistant bacteria that
impair medicine's ability to protect the public from them.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that livestock and
poultry produce 335 million tons of manure per year, which is one way resistant
pathogens get out of animals and into the environment. That's 40 times as much
fecal waste as humans produce annually. Farms use it for fertilizer and collect
it in sheds and manure lagoons, but those containment measures do not prevent
infectious microbes from getting into the air, soil, and water. They can be
transported off the farms by the animals themselves, houseflies, farm trucks,
and farm workers, and by spreading manure on other fields. Out in the
environment, they form a sort of bank of genetic material that enables the
spread of resistance..."

[Very edited from the long, comprehensive, and depressing article at:
http://www.jhu.edu/jhumag/0609web/farm.html


"CORONERS RELUCTANT TO TEST FOR VCJD, UK NEWS:" (08/19/09): "According to BBC
News, coroners in England and Wales are reluctant to carry out tests for vCJD
because it is outside their scope of their job and might undermine their
neutrality, despite pleas from scientists and the government that this might be
the only effective way to determine how many people might be infected.
Professor John Collinge, a member of the government appointed Spongiform
Encepalopathy Advisory Committee (SEAC), told the BBC that he hoped the coroners
would be able to do the tests because he couldn't see "any other way for us to
get this information at the moment". vCJD is short for variant
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a brain-wasting disease that humans get from eating
beef from cattle infected with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). There is
also an unknown risk of cross infection from blood transfusions and surgery.
The prion proteins that cause the disease are found mainly in the brain and
spinal cord, although lower levels may be found in the spleen, tonsils and other
lymph tissue.

... But, while the numbers of deaths from vCJD may suggest the prevalence is low
and thus the risk of person to person transmission is also low (eg via blood
transfusions, surgical operations and dental procedures), we can't rely on this
evidence alone to tell us how many people could be carrying the disease without
realizing it... A study published in the Journal of Pathology in 2004 that
surveyed appendix tissue samples suggested that there could be considerably more
people infected with vCJD than predictions that rely on clinical cases alone
would imply..."

[Edited from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/161140.php


"GAO: FEDS FAILED TO TELL SCHOOLS OF SUSPECT FOOD:" (10/09/09): "Federal
authorities failed to tell schools about recalls of potentially tainted peanut
products and canned vegetables, and cafeterias may have unknowingly served them
to children, the Government Accountability Office reported Sept. 22. A GAO
investigation found the U.S. Department of Agriculture didn't always make sure
states and schools were notified promptly about recalled food distributed
through the federal school lunch and breakfast programs, which serve 30 million
students. GAO reported Sept. 22 that it took as long as a week for states to
figure out which products were recalled, and that schools may have served the
suspect food to kids during that time.
"This report underscores the need for comprehensive reform of our food safety
structures,'' Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said in a statement. "The
30 million students in the national school lunch program, their parents, and the
country at large, deserve to know that the food they eat is safe and free of
contaminants...''
[Edited from:
http://www.hpj.com/archives/2009/oct09/oct5/0924Fedsfailedsuspectfoodsc.cfm


"E.COLI PATH SHOWS FLAWS IN BEEF INSPECTION:" (10/04/09): "Stephanie Smith, a
children's dance instructor, thought she had a stomach virus. The aches and
cramping were tolerable that first day, and she finished her classes. Then her
diarrhea turned bloody. Her kidneys shut down. Seizures knocked her unconscious.
The convulsions grew so relentless that doctors had to put her in a coma for
nine weeks. When she emerged, she could no longer walk. The affliction had
ravaged her nervous system and left her paralyzed. Ms. Smith, 22, was found to
have a severe form of food-borne illness caused by E. coli, which Minnesota
officials traced to the hamburger that her mother had grilled for their Sunday
dinner in early fall 2007...

Meat companies and grocers have been barred from selling ground beef tainted by
the virulent strain of E. coli known as O157:H7 since 1994, after an outbreak at
Jack in the Box restaurants left four children dead. Yet tens of thousands of
people are still sickened annually by this pathogen, federal health officials
estimate, with hamburger being the biggest culprit. Ground beef has been blamed
for 16 outbreaks in the last three years alone, including the one that left Ms.
Smith paralyzed from the waist down. This summer, contamination led to the
recall of beef from nearly 3,000 grocers in 41 states...

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder.
Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is
often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even
from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable
to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is
no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the
pathogen..."

[Very edited from the long and comprehensive article below. Howard also pointed
out that this article was on the "top fold" of the NY Times, which gave it
considerable prominence and exposure:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/health/04meat.html?_r=1


"H1N1 JABS POSE HEALTH CHALLENGE:" (10/18/09): "The US government's $6.4bn
swine flu vaccination programme is likely to put the American public health
sector under unprecedented strain and expose serious shortcomings, experts
say... with the US struggling to recover from an economic recession, staffing
could be an issue. Local health departments eliminated 8,000 positions in the
first half of this year, after 7,000 job cuts in 2008, according to the National
Association of County and City Health Officials. Another 12,000 employees have
been subjected to reduced hours or mandatory furloughs this year. The
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials says three-quarters of
states have cut public health funding this year, while 61% expect smaller
budgets in 2010. Seven states have cut back specifically on immunisation.
Layoffs have targeted people needed for the H1N1 programme - nurses, nurse's
aides and switchboard operators and receptionists who would help field public
queries..."

[Edited from:

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=320964&version\
=1&template_id=46&parent_id=26

ONE-STOP WEBSITE FOR INFO ABOUT H1N1 (SWINE FLU):
http://www.flu.gov/


************************************************
*05: Mutant Milk, Fat & Altzheimer's, US Fatter, What We're Eating
************************************************
"US OBESITY PROGLEM "INTENSIFIES:"" (07/01/09): "Obesity rates in the US have
surged over the last year, a report shows. The Trust for America's Health (TFAH)
and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found adult obesity rates rose in 23 of
the 50 states, but fell in none. In addition, the percentage of obese and
overweight children is at or above 30% in 30 states. The report warns widespread
obesity is fuelling rates of chronic disease, and is responsible for a large,
and growing chunk of domestic healthcare costs. Obesity is linked to a range of
health problems, including heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes... For the
fifth year in a row, Mississippi had the highest rate of adult obesity at 32.5%.
Three other states - West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee - also had adult
obesity rates in excess of 30%. In just one state - Colorado - was the adult
obesity rate below 20%...

[Edited from:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/8129184.stm


"STUDY EXPLAINS LINK BETWEEN FAT INTAKE AND ALZHEIMER'S:" (09/04/09): "In one
of the first studies of its kind, Curtin Alzheimer's expert Professor John Mamo
has explained why foods high in saturated fat can increase the likelihood of a
person developing Alzheimer's disease. "Before now, there has been no dietary
driven approach to the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease," said
Professor Mamo, National Director of the Australian Technology Network's Centre
for Metabolic Fitness at Curtin. "Our study found that some dietary fats
damaged the `blood-brain-barrier.' The blood-brain-barrier is an important
membrane that regulates what is normally allowed in and out of the brain, like
important nutrients..." Professor Mamo's Curtin research team found that
saturated fats, like those found in poor quality processed meats, caused an
increase in amyloid delivery from the blood to the brain, resulting in a "brain
overload" of amyloid..."

[Edited from:
http://news.curtin.edu.au/curtin-news

[Plant and non-plant sources of saturated fat:
http://lowfatcooking.about.com/od/lowfatbasics/a/saturatedfats.htm


"MILK MAY ENDANGER YOUR HEALTH, AND THE DAIRY INDUSTRY KNOWS IT: "A mutant
protein has invaded the world's dairy supply, including, most likely, the milk
in your fridge. The protein, called A1 beta-casein, is well known in the
scientific community. While most dairy companies, trade groups and government
agencies consider it harmless, a growing body of research implicates A1
beta-casein in diabetes, heart disease, autism and schizophrenia...

Today, the average vessel of milk contains milk from many cows, with a mixture
of both A1 and A2 beta-casein. Keith Woodford, a professor of farm management
and agribusiness at Lincoln University in Christchurch, New Zealand, is
spreading the word about what he believes to be the dangers of milk containing
A1 beta-casein. His book, Devil in the Milk, builds on more than 100
peer-reviewed studies to present a compelling case that A1 milk poses
substantial health risks. The book is a technical read, and conspiracy theorists
will find it gripping, as Woodford details the extent to which corporations and
government bodies with entrenched interests in maintaining A1 milk's reputation
have disputed, ignored and silenced evidence suggesting there might be a
problem..."

[Very edited from a fascinating read at:
http://www.alternet.org/healthwellness/142377/milk_may_endanger_your_health%2C_a\
nd_the_dairy_industry_knows_it/?page=entire


"WHAT WE'RE EATING:" (10/16/09): "These are the top 10 items sod at grocery
stores for the 52 weeks ending June 14, 2009. They are ranked by dollar sales.
1. Carbonated beverages
2. Milk
3. Fresh bread and rolls
4. Beer/Ale/Hard cider
5. Salty snacks
6. Natural cheese
7. Frozen dinners/entrees
8. Cold cereal
9. Wine
10. Cigarettes

[Edited from below. There's also a link to the chart with $ figures:
http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/tag/grocery/


************************************************
*06: Brainfood, Veg Diet Reduces Cancer & Chronic Disease Risks
************************************************
"VEGETARIAN DIETS CAN HELP PREVENT CHRONIC DISEASES: ADA:" (07/03/09):ADA's
position, published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic
Association, represents the Association's official stance on vegetarian diets:
"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately
planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are
healthful, nutritionally adequate and may provide health benefits in the
prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are
appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life-cycle including
pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence and for athletes."

... The revised position paper incorporates new topics and additional
information on key nutrients for vegetarians, vegetarian diets in the life cycle
and the use of vegetarian diets in prevention and treatment of chronic diseases.
"Vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle," according
to ADA's position. "There are many reasons for the rising interest in vegetarian
diets. The number of vegetarians in the United States is expected to increase
over the next decade." ... A section in ADA's paper on vegetarian diets and
cancer has been significantly expanded to provide details on cancer-protective
factors in vegetarian diets. An expanded section on osteoporosis includes roles
of fruits, vegetables, soy products, protein, calcium, vitamins D and K and
potassium in bone health..."

[Edited from:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090701103002.htm

[ADA's Position Paper:
http://www.adajournal.org/article/S0002-8223(09)00700-7/abstract


"VEGETARIAN DIET "CUT RISK CANCER BY 45 PER CENT:" (07/01/09): "Eating a
vegetarian diet can almost halve the risk of developing cancer, research
suggests. A study of more than 61,000 individuals aged between 20 and 89 found
those who did not eat meat reduced overall incidence of the disease by 12 per
cent. But the most striking difference was in cancers of the blood, including
leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma with 45 per cent fewer cases among the
vegetarians. 
[Edited from:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1196661/Vegetarian-diet-cut-risk-cance\
r-45-cent.html


"BRAINFOOD AT THE WHITE HOUSE:" (07/01/09): "Brainfood is a program where high
school aged youth can learn about food, nutrition, cooking, and jobs in the food
industry through activities, games, restaurant visits, cooking in our kitchen,
and working with guest chefs. Brainfood uses food as a tool to build life skills
with youth in a fun and creative setting. Through culinary-related activities,
we promote active learning, self-reliance and healthy living to empower youth as
resources in their own community."

[Lotsa photos at this link:
http://brain-food.org/category/image-galleries/brainfood-at-the-white-house

[Washington Post article about the event:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/all-we-can-eat/food-politics/white-house-kitche\
n-welcomes-b.html#more

************************************************
*07: The Digital Vegan
************************************************
VIDEO/AUDIO: Animal Rights Activist (AETA) & Interviewed on "DEMOCRACY NOW:"
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/25/exclusive_animal_rights_activist_jailed_at

VIDEO: "Water Crisis:" Jon Stewart Inteview:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/83493/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-robert-glennon#s\
-p1-sr-i1

AUDIO/VIDEO/TEXT: On the Media: "Covering Big Food:"
http://onthemedia.org/transcripts/2009/07/17/07

RESOURCE: "What is Vegan?"
http://vegan.fm/isitvegan/doku.php

VIDEO: "Earth Days"
http://www.earthdaysmovie.com/EarthDays.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsdKxew6FM8
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/film.php?directoryname=earthdays&mode=synopsis

VIDEO: "What's Organic?"
http://whatsorganicmovie.org/

Audio: "Chemicals in Our Water:" On Point:
http://www.onpointradio.org/2009/07/chemicals-in-our-water

VIDEO: "What's on Your Plate?
http://whatsonyourplateproject.org/


************************************************
*08: 50 yr Farm Bill, Ag Solutions, Real Food Cost, Composting SF
************************************************
"RECIPE FOR AMERICA:" (07/16/09): "Americans are more obese than ever, our
current agriculture system is dependent on oil and other limited resources, our
waterways and air are polluted by factory-like farming operations, and still
opponents try to push sustainable agriculture to the margins. But change is
possible, as Jill Richardson writes in her new book, "Recipe for America: Why
Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It", which breaks down many
of the issues facing the food system and provides approximately 70 pages of
solutions..."

[Very edited from:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/16-7

[Jill Richardson's Blog:
http://www.lavidalocavore.org/

"THE HIGH COST OF CHEAP FOOD:" (07/19/09): "For awhile, you can ignore poverty
in schools, outbreaks of cookie dough E. coli, and the fact that 27 percent of
our country's children are obese. But they're all connected — and these layers
of bad news will eventually weigh one down. I found this statistic a little
harder to overlook: For the first time in 200 years, today's children have a
lower life expectancy than their parents. Unhealthy school lunches are
certainly one reason. Here's another: Most of our food comes from huge factory
farms that are government-subsidized to produce food products quickly but not
nutritiously...

... According to Vandana Shiva, an Indian crop ecologist quoted in Barbara
Kingsolver's book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," over the course of history,
humans have consumed over 80,000 plant species. That number has now been reduced
to eight species, with a continuous honing in on modified canola, corn and soy.
When Kingsolver wrote the book in 2007, only six companies controlled 98 percent
of the world's seed sales (Monsanto, Syngenta, DuPont, Mitsui, Aventis, and
Dow), and they continue to desecrate land. Juggernauts like Monsanto send 330
small farm operators off their land a week. In a nutshell, government
regulations will soon favor genetically modified (or GMO) seeds over organic
seeds, and organic seeds might eventually become illegal..."

[Very edited from:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12856620


"3 WISE MEN, PLANTING IDEAS WHERE IT COUNTS:" (07/22/09): ""Eating is an
agricultural act," essayist Wendell Berry famously wrote. It's also a political
one. Which is why last week Berry, geneticist Wes Jackson and
sustainable-agriculture advocate Fred Kirschenmann made a pilgrimage to
Washington to make a case for a new kind of food policy... The three met with
administration officials and senators to promote a 50-year-farm bill, a proposal
for gradual, systemic change in American farming... Staff writer Jane Black
talked with them about the future of agriculture, urban "food citizens" and
whether genetically modified food can save the world. Excerpts follow:

..Berry: The inevitable aim of industrial agri-investors is the big universal
solution. They want a big product that can be marketed everywhere. And the kind
of agriculture we're talking about that leads to food security and land
conservation is locally adapted agriculture. And they can't do that. Industrial
agriculture plants cornfields in Arizona; locally adapted agriculture says, what
can we fit in this place that will not destroy it? Or what can nature help us to
do here? That's the critical issue. Washington doesn't think in 50-year
increments. How do you sell this?..."

[Edited from the full interview/article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/21/AR2009072100645.\
html?referrer=emailarticle


"NO FLIES ON S.F.'S NEW COMPOSTING LAW:" (09/09/09): "San Franciscans have six
more weeks before they're required to toss their food scraps into green
composting bins or face a fine - but apparently all the trash talk coming out of
City Hall is already having an effect. Just a few months ago, the city
Department of the Environment was doling out five to 10 green composting bins a
day; now that number is up to 130. The amount of composted material coming out
of San Francisco is up 15 percent over the past few months - now totaling 480
tons every day. "There's a real sense of urgency now," said Jared Blumenfeld,
director of the Environment Department. "We never heard from these folks and,
suddenly, they're saying, 'How do you do it?' "

... Starting Oct. 21, every home and business in the city must have three
separate color-coded bins for waste: black for trash, blue for recycling - and
now green for composting. Failure to sort trash initially will result in several
warnings, but ultimately could lead to fines of up to $1,000 in egregious cases.
The city's requirement - first of its kind in the nation - is part of a larger
plan to have San Franciscans sending nothing to landfills or incinerators by
2020. City officials say the city currently diverts 72 percent of its waste..."

[Edited from:
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/09-6

************************************************
*09: Animal Abusers Lose, AETA Wins, Veg Math, Spider Veg!
************************************************
"GIVING FARMED-ANIMAL ABUSERS THEIR DUE:" (07/16/09): "With so many
high-profile stories in the news lately—the passing of Michael Jackson and
Farrah Fawcett, the Gov. Sanford scandal, post-election protests in Iran—you may
not have heard about the historic victories for animals that are taking place in
American courtrooms. It's worth noting that two of PETA's undercover
investigations of factory farms have just resulted in groundbreaking animal
abuse convictions—convictions that are both highly significant and long overdue.
All too often, the abuse of animals in the meat industry is shrugged off as just
the cost of doing business... And here's a warning for workers in the meat
industry: PETA's investigators (and the whistleblowers who tip us off) will
continue to watch for animal abusers.

[Edited from the sometimes graphic article at:
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/16-4


"VIRTUAL SIT-INS DOOM ONLINE ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISTS:" (10/16/09): "Setting
aside claims of vagueness, a divided federal appeals court is upholding the
constitutionality of the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, a statute that makes
it a crime to encourage "physical disruption" or "economic damage" against
animal-research centers. Thursday's decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals (.pdf) was the first time an appellate court has grappled with the free
speech issues raised by the law, reviewing the case of radical animal-rights
activists who were convicted in 2006 of using e-mail and websites to encourage
violence — including bombings — against a New Jersey animal-research center, its
shareholders, office holders, bankers and others affiliated with it.

The six ranking members of the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty group, some of
whom were sentenced to up to six years in prison, argued that the 2002 statute,
amended in 2006, has a chilling effect on speech because of its ambiguity...
While the bulk of the defendants' online postings and e-mails were protected
speech, the court said it was troubled with the dissemination of personal
information of individuals employed by Huntingdon and affiliated companies —
including some communications accompanied with threats to burn down their
houses. What's more, the appellate panel said the defendants' e-mails and online
postings that coordinated the denial of service attacks were clearly illegal..."

[Very edited from the article at:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/10/animals/


"THE MATHEMATICS OF DIETARY DEATH:" (10/17/09): "Artist and graphic designer
Mark Middleton recently calculated the true impact of food production on two
categories of animals: domestic species specifically slaughtered for human
consumption, and wild species killed as a consequence of agricultural
harvesting. What's more, he translated his findings into an easy-to-read graph*
that enables comparison of how different diets (i.e., plant vs. flesh foods)
impact animals' lives — both by the numbers and as an interactive (filterable)
visual representation of these otherwise abstract values...

Extrapolating from this diagram, we find that:

- Eating chicken flesh takes about 100 times the number of animals' lives as
eating the equivalent caloric content of vegetables.

- Subsisting on only grains for an entire year would likely cost fewer than two
animals (e.g., field mice) their lives.

- Contrary to Davis' central assertion, the number of wild animals who die as a
result of beef production is much greater than occurs in the harvesting of all
plant food varieties combined.

[Edited from the very interesting article (with chart) at:
http://animalrighter.blogspot.com/2009/10/go-figure-mathematics-of-dietary-death\
.html


"A VEGETARIAN AMONG 1000s OF MEAT-EATING SPIDERS:" (10/14/09): "For years,
scientists were confident about one uniform trait of the world's 40,000 spider
species: They were meat-eaters. So you can imagine the eureka moment when
Brandeis senior lecturer Eric Olson realized a jumping spider he found in Costa
Rica was a vegetarian..."

[You can read about it here:
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/green/greenblog/2009/10/brandeis_researcher_disc\
overs.html

************************************************
*10: Howard's Schedule
************************************************
Oct 21st Boston, Mass. Northeastern University 7 PM C.RRosskam@...

Nov. 3rd Ellensburg, Washington Central Washington University 2 PM Dean Hall 104
 pearson@...

Nov 8th Seattle, Washington Yakima Convention Center 3 PM hlyman@...

Nov. 12th CWU 11AM TBA   


************************************************
*11: Quick Bytes
************************************************
AGRICULTURE:

[Useful resource and for networking:
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/

[SUPERB CSA (community supported agriculture) interactive resource:"
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa/

BLOGS/PODCASTS:

["Vegan Daily Blog:"
http://www.yourdailyvegan.com/

["Organic Consumers: Read, Blog & Meet-up!:"
http://organicconsumers.org/chat/index.php

[The Mad Cowboy Newsletter Editor's Vegan Blog:
http://www.soulveggie.com

[Podcasts, radio:
http://www.veganradio.com/

[Robin Robertston's "Vegan Planet:"
http://veganplanet.blogspot.com/

["The FatFreeVegan Blog:"
http://blog.fatfreevegan.com/

["The Vegan Lunch Box Blog (PETA & Bloggy Award-winning:"
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com

[Bryanna Clark Grogan's Blog:
http://veganfeastkitchen.blogspot.com/

["Raw Vegan Blog and Podcasts:"
http://www.rawveganradio.blogspot.com/

["Recommended Blogs & Websites for Food & Farming Information:"
http://www.organicconsumers.org/2006/article_563.cfm

[100 Useful Websites for Vegetarians and Vegans:
http://www.ultrasoundtechnicianschools.org/100-useful-websites-for-vegetarians-a\
nd-vegans/

NEWSLETTERS/GROUPS/LISTS/FORUMS:

[The FatFree Vegan Yahoo Group List:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fatfree_vegan/

[Farmed Animal Net:
http://www.farmedanimal.net/

[VegNews Monthly Newsletter:
http://www.vegnews.com

[FARMUSA's MeatOut Monday Newsletter:
http://meatoutmondays.org

[VegMichigan's PlantPeaceDaily Newsletter:
http://www.plantpeacedaily.org/newsletter.html

[PCRM Membership News and Info:
Send e-mail to: membership@...

[Vegetarians In Paradise Newsletter:
http://www.vegparadise.com

[International Vegetarian Union Newsletter:
http://www.ivu.org/news/index.html

["In a Vegetarian Kitchen: (Nava Atlas):"
http://www.vegkitchen.com

["International Organization for Animal Protection:"
http://www.oipa.org/

["VeggieBoards:"
http://www.veggieboards.com

RECIPES:

[Over 10,000 veg'n recipe links:
http://www.madcowboy.com/02_VegRecipes.html

["Over 1,000 International (regional) Vegetarian Recipes:"
http://www.ivu.org/recipes/regions.html

[PCRM Recipe Archives:
http://www.pcrm.org/health/recipes/recipe_archive.html

[Almost 2,000 searchable fat-free veg'n recipes:
http://www.fatfree.com

[Award-winning searchable veg'n recipe database:
http://vegweb.com/

[Constantly wonderful site of vegan recipes:
http://www.fatfreevegan.com/

[Some stunning recipes:
http://vegandad.blogspot.com

[Fine collection of McDougall Recipes:
http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10075

[Heart-healthy Vegan Recipes:
http://heart.kumu.org/recipes.html


************************************************
*12: Closing Thoughts
************************************************
M: "In your book, you also list a bunch of the myths of a plant strong diet.
What would you say is the biggest one amongst these myths?"

R: "I'd have to say the biggest one is protein. I get asked about that at
least twice a day. I just say that if your consuming enough calories you never
have to worry about getting enough protein."

--- (Rip Esselstyn, Vegan Firefighter, author, "The Engine 2 Diet")

************************************************