Did You Know?
Free-range Eggs:
A Meaningless Term
Free-range" is not a legal industry term; it is essentially meaningless. Farmers use the term to imply that they practice a more humane standard of production but, in reality, there is no regulation regarding how the word is interpreted or used. Although most consumers imagine free-range hens have access to the outdoors with plenty of sunlight, vegetation, and normal social interaction, to most egg producers, the "range" is simply a bigger cage than those in which battery-caged hens are kept.
As an article in Consumer Reports stated, "USDA requires only that growers sign an affidavit that they will provide free-range chickens with access to the outdoors, and submit drawings or photographs with arrows pointing to the coops' doors...If the door was open only one day...or maybe even for an hour or 15 minutes, and no bird chose to go outside, it's still free-range as far as the USDA is concerned."
Just because living conditions might be marginally better doesn't make the industry acceptable — or worthy of support. Free-range egg farming is, above all else, a business. Profit surpasses concern for the animals' comfort, welfare, or behavioral needs. It is common for free-range layers to be debeaked just like battery-caged layers.
But even if free-range hens were treated with kindness and given all the space they could use, they would still be killed for meat when their egg production wanes, usually after one or two years, even though in a natural environment a hen could live 15 years. And, like all other animals raised for food, they will be subjected to the abuses of transportation, handling, and slaughter.
An inherent problem with all egg production, whether free-range or battery-caged, is the disposal of unwanted male chicks at the hatchery. Because male chicks don't lay eggs and don't grow fast enough to be raised profitably for meat, they are considered a financial liability, except for the few used as rooster studs. On average, one rooster is used to service 10 hens. Thus, 9 out of 10 male chicks are considered virtually useless and will be killed by the cheapest means available, including suffocation and being ground up alive (macerated).
Milk: It does NOT do a Body Good
Isn't it kind of strange that humans are the only species on earth that drinks the milk of another animal and continues to drink milk past childhood and throughout its lifetime. Milk and other dairy products are full of unnatural hormones and other chemicals Click here to read interesting information that has surfaced recently about milk and its link to certain types of cancer.
Harvard School of Public Health, on the Consumption of Dairy Products
(2005):
“The recommendation to drink three glasses of low-fat milk or eat
three servings of other dairy products per day to prevent osteoporosis
is another step in the wrong direction. … Three glasses of low-fat
milk add more than 300 calories a day. This is a real issue for the millions
of Americans who are trying to control their weight. What's more, millions
of Americans are lactose intolerant, and even small amounts of milk or
dairy products give them stomachaches, gas, or other problems. This recommendation
ignores the lack of evidence for a link between consumption of dairy products
and prevention of osteoporosis. It also ignores the possible increases
in risk of ovarian cancer and prostate cancer associated with dairy products.
Yummy
Vegan Recipes
Best Banana Bread
From How it all Vegan! by Tanya Barnard and Sarah Kramer
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp. lemon juice
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup sugar
¾ cup chopped dates or apricots
½ cup chopped nuts, if desired
1 ½ cups flour
½ cup wheat germ
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, mash the bananas with a
fork until very mushy. Add lemon juice, oil, sugar, dates or apricots,
and nuts and stir together. In a separate large bowl, stir together the
flour, wheat germ, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Add the banana
mixture to the flour mixture and mix together gently until "just
mixed." Spoon into a lightly oiled loaf pan and bake for 40 to 50
minutes. Test with a knife to see if done. Makes 1 loaf.
Cherry "Cheese" Cake
If you don’t like cherry pie filling, top this vegan cheesecake with
fresh pitted sweet cherries.
2 8-oz. containers plain, nondairy cream cheese, softened (try Tofutti
brand)
1 cup sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
Dash of vanilla
1 graham cracker crust
1 can cherry pie filling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the nondairy cream cheese, sugar,
lemon juice, and vanilla until smooth and pour into the graham cracker
crust. Bake for 60 minutes, or until the top is golden. Chill overnight.
Cover with the cherry pie filling. Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.
Makes 8 servings
Really Good Fudgy Brownies
(Note: our recipe
tester skipped the chocolate chips, nuts, and coconut listed in the recipe
below and it was still a great brownie.)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for flouring the pan
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine, plus extra for greasing the pan
16 oz. (1 box) light brown sugar
Egg
Replacer equivalent to 3 large eggs
1 12-oz. bag chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup flake coconut, optional
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 9”x 13” glass baking dish. Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Melt the margarine in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and combine with the brown sugar in a bowl. Mix in the egg replacer, 1/3 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the sifted flour mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips and the nuts and coconut, if desired. Spread the dough into the prepared baking dish. Bake until golden brown, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, usually 30 to 35 minutes, but start testing at 20 minutes. Place on a rack to cool for about 20 minutes. Makes 18 bars.
Vegan Pumpkin Custard Pie
From Food for
Life by Neal D. Barnard, M.D.
1 1/2 cups soymilk
4 T. cornstarch
1 1/2 cups cooked pumpkin
1/2 cup raw sugar or other sweetener
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, whisk together the soymilk and cornstarch until smooth, then blend in remaining ingredients. Pour into pie shell and bake for 45 minutes, or until firm. Cool before cutting. Serves 6-8.
Vegan Chocolate Cake
As served at the
ARC Holiday Open House
Cake
2 1/2 cups unbleached white flour
2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
2 cups sugar
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
6 T. vegetable oil
2 1/4 cups + 2 T. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 T. cider, white, or rice vinegar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, combine
liquid ingredients. Stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients only
until blended. Pour mixture into an oiled bundt pan. Bake until firm to
the touch, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely.
Icing
1 1/3 cups unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted
1 1/2 cups sugar
2/3 cup cornstarch
2 cups soymilk
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
In a medium saucepan, whisk
together the cocoa and sugar. In a bowl, combine the cornstarch and soymilk
until no lumps remain. Whisk cornstarch mixture into cocoa-sugar mixture.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and scraping bottom and sides
of pan with rubber spatula until mixture is glossy, about 7 minutes. Remove
from heat and add vanilla. Beat to remove any lumps (strain through sieve
if necessary).
Cool completely, stirring occasionally. Spread on cooled cake.
Un-Tuna Salad
1
(15 oz.) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and mashed
2 scallions or green onions, chopped
2 tbsp. vegan mayonnaise
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
salt and pepper to taste
In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients thoroughly and adjust seasoning to taste. Serve on lettuce leaves or in sandwiches.
Rhymes
With Vegan
Watch for Rhymes With Vegan - a new vegan cooking show coming soon that's all about grubbin, food, and creating a sense of community. Click here to see the opening to the show.
Recipe Web Sites
The
Vegan Chef
Compassionate
Cooks
Compassion Over Killing Easy Vegan Recipes
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine Recipe Archive
Where Can I Find
Vegan Food?
Being vegan doesn't mean you have to eat wheatgrass and alfalfa sprouts. Most grocery stores carry an array of great-tasting vegan options. Many products, including fantastic faux franks, veggie burgers, chicken-free chicken patties, flavored soy milks, nondairy ice creams, and other sensational soy-based snacks, are available. There's also chips, dips, cookies, candies, frozen pies, soups, and other mouth-watering items by mainstream food manufacturers that are vegan.
Click here to see vegan options for everything from soups to snacks.
We recommend that you shop at your local co-operative grocery store (called a co-op) whenever possible. Co-ops are owned and controlled by members to provide sustainable, healthy food to the communities they serve (although you don't have to be a member to shop at local co-ops). Most food from co-ops is organic, although some is "natural" -- produced with minimal processing and little or no additives or preservatives.
Unfortunately, many co-ops that were once were vegetarian now have meat departments and try to rationalize them by proclaiming their products to be "free-range" and "humanely raised." They conveniently forget that regardless of how these animals are raised, they are all killed as the end point in the process.
Chains like Fresh & Natural Foods, Whole Foods, Kowalski's, Lunds, Byerly's, Rainbow, Cub, and even Target and Wal-Mart also carry vegan food products, although the selection may be more limited than in a co-op.
The following are links to most local co-ops.
Eastside Food
Co-op (Mpls)
Lakewinds Natural
Foods Co-op (Minnetonka, Anoka, Chanhassen)
Linden Hills Co-op
(Mpls)
Mississippi Market
(St. Paul)
River Market Community
Co-op (Stillwater)
Seward Co-op (Mpls)
Valley Natural
Foods (Burnsville)
Wedge Co-op (Mpls)
City
Center Market (Cambridge)
Just Food Co-op
(Northfield)
St. Peter Food
Co-op (St. Peter)