For the meat-eaters...
Ammonia-Treated Burgers, Tainted With E. Coli!
Two-thirds of hamburgers consumed in the U.S. contain a filler made of scraps from the slaughterhouse floor, which are ground into a paste and washed with ammonia. (Mel's two cents - EWWWW!) If that sounds gross, get this: despite the chemical bath, the filler still often carries E. coli and other nasty pathogens. Read more...
Of course this is U.S.-based info, so hopefully in the great white north, we're a little safer. Maybe?
And now, for you veg heads...
Soybeans Threaten Amazon Rainforest
Some 3,000 years ago, farmers in Eastern China domesticated the soybean. In 1765, the first soybeans were planted in North America. Today the soybean occupies more U.S. cropland than wheat. And in Brazil where it spread even more rapidly, the soybean is invading the Amazon rainforest. Read more...
Actually, if you read the full article, you'll discover that this actually applies a lot to meat-eaters as well - so really, no one is immune to our growing footprint. To summarize:
* 1/10th of soybeans go into making tofu, meat-like products, and soy sauce
* 1/5th goes into making oil
* And then the remainder, roughly 70%, goes into making a soybean meal to be consumed by livestock and poultry, because it boosts the efficiency with which they convert grain into animal protein.
I guess it's like they say, the only real solution to reducing our ecological footprint is to do our best to maintain a local diet.
Maybe that should be another one of my goals for 2010.
That's on my list. I don't know how well I'll do with the 3 picky eaters I live with but I'm going to try!
ReplyDeleteYeah, that's the challenge with picky eaters - your resolutions become their resolutions. Not so easy, I'd imagine.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to contact Urban Harvest and *finally!* start getting my fruits n' veggies through them. Have you heard of them? (http://www.urbanharvest.ca/)
We used to use Urban Harvest but found it kind of disappointing in the winter, because it was generally a very limited (which makes sense since they are supplying local produce -- at least they were then, not sure if they still do that now, will have to look them up.) You might have better luck though since you don't have a ton of allergies to deal with either lol! It is a great concept though so wish you all the best with it!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I'll bet your laundry list of ever-evolving allergies would definitely pose a problem! Sigh (on your behalf. ;)
ReplyDelete