Green is the New Red: Interview with an Undercover Investigator

I’ve always been curious about undercover investigators: the kind of people who devote their daily lives to working in factory farms while filming and photographing conditions. Photos and video documenting factory farms are so easily accessible and important for the public to be able to witness where our food comes from. Without the courageous work of undercover investigators, we would have no evidence. I can’t begin to imagine how difficult it must be for anyone to work inside a factory farm or slaughterhouse whether the person is undercover or a genuine worker simply trying to provide for her family.

This interview from Green is the New Red answers many questions that I’ve had about undercover investigating. In particular, the investigators response about the people that work in the factory farms is enlightening:

The people we are employing to grow and slaughter animals in this country have been told at every turn that they are not in control of how or when they will participate in our society. As activists, I believe we can be doing more to reach out to the people who are struggling for their own rights within these power structures. We really are more alike these workers than we are different, and it’s time to address that within our movement.

Should workers be blamed for the cruelty that they participate in? Should workers worry about their own personal safety? How does anyone who works in a factory farm (undercover or not) handle the stress that is directly exploiting and causing pain to farm animals?

The article is especially timely with many “Ag Gag” bills currently passing around the country. These Ag Gag bills such as this one that passed a couple months ago in Iowa which make it a crime to film inside a factory farm. What do you think about the criminalization of undercover investigations?

Pink Slime?

So, if you’ve watched/read the news in the past few weeks, you’ve undoubtably heard about pink slime. In case you’ve been living under a rock, here’s a little background info from The New York Times’ Mark Bittman.

Vegans, including myself, find it self affirming that we don’t eat this media monster of pink slime.Is helping popularize this media frenzy actually what we should be spending our time on? Why are vegans so obsessed with pink slime? Its all over blogs that I love and read religiously, twitter, reddit, Facebook and even good ol’ listserves. Yeah, it’s gross, but only because our society doesn’t eat animal ears, tongues etc. on a regular basis. Taboo “pink slime” is not unlike eating bugs (other cultures do) or eating tasteless spongy white protein made from beans. It grosses us out because its not our normal food. But for vegans who choose not to eat animals based on sentience-based ethical concerns, why should the ass of a cow be any less gross than the neck/legs/whatever they actually do make lean texturized beef out of (“by-products”).

What makes pink slime legitimately unappetizing for me is the fact that it is parts of animals who lived and died for my consumption. Eating the once living muscles and tissues of an animal that had blood pumping through its veins to its organs: this, makes me feel slimy.

Chipotle’s Commercial: “Humanewashing” or a Step in the Right Direction?

Greenwashing can be defined as the “phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty” (corpwatch.org).

From the first time I saw Chipotle‘s commercial about factory farming, I couldn’t get the idea of greenwashing out of my head. I thought, “It’s ‘humanewashing’! They’re boosting their business under the guise that they are a humane corporation. I wasn’t the first to think up this term, though. In a 2010 blog post for the Humane Society, Wayne Pacelle writes about a major egg producer in the United States:

“Rose Acre is hardly alone among factory farming producters in fostering deception. It’s the animal welfare equivalent of “greenwashing”—a corporate interest slapping a “humane” sticker on their same old products and hoping consumers won’t know the difference.”

 This TV commercial is not new, but ever since it was played during the Grammys last night, it has been a hot topic all over social media. The commercial depicts the transformation of the meat industry from the days where most meat (and there was a lot less) came from family farms, to today, where most meat comes from large, industrial operations known as factory farms. Willie Nelson’s cover of the Coldplay song, “The Scientist” suggests that Chipotle is going back to the way animals used to be raised and killed: “Back to the start”.

Here’s the video of the ad:

Back To The Start – Chipotle Commercial from Letter Eye Media on Vimeo.

As more people who feel that they care about the treatment of animals will go to Chipotle, (let us not forget, this is the goal of an advertisement), will they choose meatless options at Chipotle? I tend to think not. If the animals are raised in the same way that we see the cute little 3D illustrations, then what’s the problem? There is no cognitive dissonance. In fact, we should probably eat more meat from Chipotle and other “humane” restaurants and companies because the animals are happy.

It’s interesting how the depiction of the factory farms shows the slaughter (if you can call pink ovals being processed through imaginary machines to turn into pink spheres slaughter), yet the animals on the “humane” farm that sources Chipotle are shown only eating in the sunny pasture. What about their slaughter? Chipotle is comparing two things that are not mutually exclusive—animals that are killed in a slaughterhouse and animals raised with enough space to move around on a farm. Besides the fact that “free range” meat and eggs more than often come from crowded, dirty and most definitely inhumane feeding and slaughtering operations that just meet already minimal free range standards, free range animals, like those depicted in the advertisement, do not have a happy ending if they are to end up on our plates. They are often sent to slaughterhouses that are just as inhumane as those that factory farms utilize. (I am going to check on this, but I remember learning that in France, even family farmers who wish to sell their meat legally are forced to send their animals to state-controlled slaughterhouses).

Perhaps I am getting carried away. I do think that Chipotle is moving in the right direction by eschewing factory farms. Many vegans on Facebook and Twitter are cheering for the burrito chain. Still, the company is also falsely leading consumers to believe that the meat that they eat at their restaurant chains came from animals who do not have to suffer and is therefore guilt-free. Thanks Chipotle for giving us all a clean conscience!

I tend to believe that it is a good idea to buy from the big businesses that do offer vegan options to encourage the mainstreaming of animal-free products, but is this advertisement no more than false nostalgia of a humane past?

So is this a case of humanewashing? Or, is Chipotle’s ad a step in the right direction?

What do you think?

Vegan Treats and some vegan treats

Anxiety runs high as I am beginning my last semester as a college student. The FUTURE looms ahead! I wouldn’t like to admit to being a stress eater. I’d rather think of myself more as person who’d likely respond positively to, “Hey kid, the prospect of the unknown getting you down? Here, eat some vegan treats!” 

And so that’s what I’ve been doing. Over the holidays I baked recipes from my favorite trio of cupcake, cookie and pie cookbooks including the new Vegan Pie in the Sky by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero.

Last week my boyfriend and I made oreo truffles and chocolate dipped strawberries to accompany a Sunday football afternoon– I know, we’re fancy. We originally planned to make the truffles, inspired from a recipe that someone posted on a vegan subreddit but we bought strawberries as a back up plan in case they turned out bad. Luckily, they both were DELICIOUS.

We ended up basing it off of a non-vegan version of these popular oreo-truffles, but we replaced the cream cheese with tofutti and used vegan chocolate chips instead of the bakers chocolate, just because it was cheaper! I don’t like tofutti on its own usually, but in recipes I really can’t tell the difference. My boyfriend’s dad had no idea they were vegan until three days later when we told him. Some of the chocolate on the truffles got all clumpy, but using a double boiler or even just keeping a closer eye to make sure the chocolate doesn’t burn would fix that problem. They still tasted just as good! Of course, we ate up the chocolate strawberries too.

This weekend, in continuation of my anxious eating, I headed to nearby Vegan Treats in Bethlehem, PA with two of my good friends from Farm Sanctuary.

I love love love Vegan Treats and have never had anything that I haven’t adored. This time, I indulged in a Cowboy cookie (I’ve tried to figure out what’s in it– so far I’ve discovered chocolate chips, oats, raisins and coconut?) and shared a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake.

The cheesecake was absolutely fantastic, (this coming from a cheesecake lover in my vegetarian days), and I’m now inspired to try out baking a vegan cheesecake on my own. I could always use some more sweets to make and eat, right?

YUM.

Also, recent Accidentally Vegan discovery: While certainly not healthy, Pillsbury Crescent Rolls are vegan! AND I found this awesome/kinda hilarious blog, So Fake It’s Vegan, when just googling for the ingredients to post.

So there you go. A junk food post. Now it’s time to use the energy from all these vegan treats to write applications!

Martha Stewart

It seems as if vegan is the new “green” in the celebrity world. It’s cool to be vegan, or at least, it’s cool to say you eat a mostly plant-based diet, reject animal testing on cosmetics or speak out against factory farming. All the cool kids are doing it. Vegan bakers are even impressing the world with their delicious cupcakes by winning Food Network shows. They are beating out conventional bakers and their non-vegan desserts. So why is there still so much animosity towards vegans and vegan food if it’s becoming more and more mainstream?

Is it great that celebrities are publicity supporting veganism even if they may likely drop it once the even newer “green” part of pop-culture appears? Celebrities have already started to drop veganism, enforcing the idea that our bodies crave and therefore “need” animal protein. Will their seemingly imminent public rejections of veganism and the following rationalizations negatively outweigh the positive aspects of initial celebrity support? 

Here’s a new Farm Sanctuary video of Martha Stewart speaking out against the horrors of factory farming. Of course, she still does promote using meat, dairy and eggs in her recipes. Apart from concerns of hypocrisy and the promotion of “humane”, “happy” meat, I wonder if, in the end, Martha Stewart’s initial support will help our movement.

Right now, in the very present, it seems great to me that celebrities like Martha are willing to take a step in the right direction. We can only hope that this is just one step of many towards a permanent change for herself and The Martha Stewart Show.

Get Vegucated

I’m so excited! I have been waiting for what seems like forever to get a chance to see this movie, Vegucated, and it’s finally out on DVD.

Here’s the trailer:

VEGUCATED trailer from Marisa Miller Wolfson on Vimeo.

The filmmakers describe the documentary as, ”a feature-length documentary that follows three meat- and cheese-loving New Yorkers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks.”

It looks entertaining and eye-opening. I’ve heard great things, but I can’t wait to see for myself!

Life Alive Cafe & Urban Oasis

Happy New Year Friends!

Today I headed to Life Alive Cafe & Urban Oasis with some friends for lunch. Life Alive in Lowell, MA is one of my favorite restaurant cafes. I love how the vibe is so hippie crunchy (just look at the cafe’s name) and the people who work there are nice and give great recommendations and add-on suggestions. Most importantly, the food is delicious!

Everything on the menu is vegan or vegetarian and everything vegetarian can easily be made vegan. Dishes range from bowls of various grains with different sauces and tons of different vegetables, to inventive tortilla wraps, salads, homemade vegan soups and fresh squeezed juices. Almost any dish can be made as a Filling Bowl, a Handy Wrap or a Demi (which is a half sized bowl). Seriously, what could be better.

I ordered the Soup of the Day which was Mushroom with a sesame seed breadstick. I got the last bit left in the pot of soup and my cup was an inch short of being full, so the guy working so kindly offered me a free juice or latte. I ended up ordering the “Thrive Alive” juice, which included carrot, apple and ginger. There’s just something about fresh juices brings me to my knees. I also ordered a demi bowl of “The Innocent” which included quinoa and brown rice with sweet corn, shredded carrots, broccoli, almonds and avocado.

If you live in the Boston/Lowell area, I definitely recommend trying this place out! Check out the bathroom too–trust me, it’s an experience in itself.

Hot Buttered Rum Follow-up

Hello! I am back with an update on the success of the Vegan Hot Buttered Rum that I was intent on whipping up on New Years Eve.

It turned out well–just not quite right for the celebrating occasion. Perhaps it would be better on a cold wintery night to sip by the fire, snuggled up on a couch. Give it a try though! I think it might need a BIT more of the sugary-buttery batter per cup than the recipe instructs.

A Hot Buttery Drink for New Years

Here’s a recipe for Hot Buttered Rum. I found it in Chickpea Magazine, a new online veg magazine from Vancouver. The link to the entire winter issue is here.

I’m making these tonight for a New Year’s Party with my friends. I’ll let you know how it goes!

If you guys have any other vegan drink ideas, post them below in the comments!

Happy New Year!

A Very Vegan Beginning

Hello Everyone!

I’m Mademoiselle Vegan. I’m here to share the latest in vegan culture and highlight news and some of my opinions. I will cover food and restaurants, politics, clothing and whatever else I find and think is interesting.

I feel that animals should be treated with respect and never exposed to unnecessary suffering and I think that the best way for me to do this is to lead a vegan lifestyle. I don’t eat or wear any animals or their by-products. I started out as a little kid who decided that she would be a vegetarian at age 11–only to eat chicken that day, and decide to cut out only “red” meat. Eventually I ended up a vegan who does the best she can. I am totally imperfect and I just try to live as compassionately as I can. I hope to share some of the cool vegan things that I come across in everyday life, as well as highlight some events and recipes that I try out and think are worth sharing.

I’m looking forward to comments and messages from anyone and everyone. I’d love to hear y’all’s opinions about things that are posted– so let me know what you think!

Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more~