This Class

 I am sure that we all have benefited from this class in some way.  I have thoroughly enjoyed learning about the indiscretions of the American food industry and the extravagance that we live in.  I had known for quite some time that the way we eat is different from others but I did not realize the expanse of poor decisions that we as a society make.  I think that if more classes like this existed then more Americans would try to change the way we farm, process and eat food.  I know that seeing Zach farm and reading about authors that had taken steps to change their own life style was very inspirational.  I always wanted to have an herb garden but now I wish for a vegetable garden (let me get a house first).  Still, despite the constant hammering we have done at undermining the way Americans eat I still have to be hopeful that the going green movement will expand.  My mother has started a garden and constantly discusses the fact that subsidies are causing the "corn syrup sin."  Today on our hamburgers we had ketchup with a "no corn syrup" sign on it and ingredients I understood in it.  I have been constantly on the search for healthier granola bars and I found one with no chemicals at all. even Oprah has started to think green in the kitchen by getting her viewers to buy recycled kitchen utensils. I think if we can get more famous people or more people in general listening the green disease will spread like wild fire until then good luck Zach, I'll think of you when I start my own garden and maybe I'll get some neighbors to start one too.
 

Oprah's kitchen tools aren't these hilarious

...Cars greener than people?

I recently read an article in scientific american that was quite interesting. Hybrid cars have become so eco-friendly they now trump at least one form of human locomotion. Alberto E. Minetti, professor of physiology at the University of Milan, along with his master’s student Gaspare Pavei, compared the CO₂ emissions of four men walking, running and biking with the emissions of a hybrid vehicle carrying those same four men. The scientists found that four men would release more CO₂ by jogging than if they boarded a hybrid car. (On average, four women jogging would release less CO₂ than if they rode in a car because of their lower body mass.) Maybe next time I will take a cab home instead of running?

Real Food Fellowship

http://realfoodfellowship.weebly.com/index.html

Meet Your Meat

Here's that video (or at least part of it) that I was talking about in class last week entitled "Meet your Meat"

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7276091529608936316&hl=en#

After watching this deeply moving video there's no way you'll ever want to go back to eating meat. Every day, millions of animals are brutally killed for food in the United States. Their lives are cut short as they are crammed into factory farms, forced to live in their own filth, never to feel the sun of their back or grass beneath their feet. As they are drugged to grow so fast in such a short period of time, many animals will die before they even reach the slaughterhouse, the victims of their own misfortune.

Alec Baldwin narrates this piece and shows such cruelties of our world today. After coming face to face with such horrors, you'll want to know more about the true tragedies of factory farming. So, the next time you sit down to eat dinner, take a good look at what's on your plate. Is it comforting to know your dinner may have once had a face?

No Noodle Turkey Lasagna

I made this recipe when I went home earlier this semester and wanted to share it with everyone because it is amazing.

Ingredients

Mozzarella cheese

2 Medium Zucchinis

1 Large Eggplant

1lb Extra lean ground turkey

1 jar of garlic and basil tomato sauce

1 onion diced

1 1/2 cups of low fat ricotta cheese

1/2 cup parmesan

1 tsp Italian seasoning

olive oil

salt and pepper for seasoning

First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Put some olive oil in a large skillet and cook the turkey meet and diced onions until it browns. Continue by adding your tomato sauce and Italian seasoning. Cut the eggplants into long stripped pieces and add olive oil, salt, and pepper over them. Cook these while in the oven till browned while turkey is cooking in your skillet.

From here its just like traditional lasagna. Line the bottom with the ground turkey, layer of zuchinni and eggplant, ricotta layer, mozzarella. You keep doing this until you are out of stuff. Cover top with mozzarella and parmesan and let it cook about 20 minutes.

This is a healthier alternative to your traditional lasagna dish that tastes amazing.

Ocean Drilling- Effects on Corals and Sea Life

There is a current dilemma going on in our government about drilling in the ocean for oil in the Atlantic Ocean off of our coast (This does not include BP spill, currently it is still banned from the Obama administration) . Do the benefits outweigh the losses? Exactly like ocean drilling projects in the past, there will always be severe negative side effects to drilling again. Oil spills and leaks have been one of the main killers of local fish and life in drilling areas. Not to mention the damage to the deep sea coral reefs is detrimental. These deep sea coral reefs have provided habitats for many deep water dwelling species for longer then we have been drilling for oil. Destroying the coral reefs will have a domino effect in the food webs of these deep sea organisms, and in the end it will hit humans. It will start by killing the living coral reefs, and this will cause algae to die off slowly. The urchins and jellyfish who feed on these algae will slow begin to disappear, and this will leave their predators with no source of nutrition (they now die). It will be possible to map the eventual death of all organisms that depended on these reefs for feeding in these particular areas. In turn as humans, we will see a steep decline in the economics of the fishing industry. If we continue to drill, over years there will not be any notable sea life left in these areas, and we will lose a major source of nutrition. Deep sea drilling may be positive to some by keeping money in our pockets, but ecological the effects can be devastating. Don’t Drill!!!

The Bt Potato

In an effort reduce the use of chemical pesticides while still controlling the pests, the EPA allowed the introduction of a gene that produces the protein endotoxin of soil bacteria known as Bt protein. Researchers at the UC Vegetable Research and Information Center made a thorough report on the introduction of the protein for human consumption, toxin resistance, and other such implications.
One of the big opposing arguments is that we do not yet know wheat the consequences of eating Bt protein will be on humans. However, the EPA has been allowing the protein to be acceptable for human consumption since the 1960's because it does not cause us any harm, and does not act like an allergen. Since the introduction, there have been no reported illnesses or allergies due to the Bt protein.
The biggest concern is the possible and effectively demonstrated fast adaptation to resist the Bt toxin by insects. One species of worm that fed on the protein were found to have a 1 in 350 resistance rate. Not to mention, the transfer of any of these genes between crops (especially organic) could ruin the neighboring farmers crops as they would like them.
The question is; is messing with our foods genetics worth a few years of no pests? Also, what will come next if we allow this to continue to happen?

http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/filelibrary/5283/2196.pdf