"Cowspiracy"

This is a shameless and somewhat urgent plug for the movie "Cowspiracy."

I am plugging this film because it's a totally worthwhile, thought-provoking, insightful movie that will inspire its audience to see the direction in which the human population must move if it is to avert the worst of climate change.

(WARNING)
I'm getting on my soapbox now:

What humanity needs to do, in order to prevent the worst of environmental destruction which will eventually lead to its own demise, is to evolve into a species that consumes zero animal products.  Zero.  That includes dairy:  milk, cheese, eggs, butter, buttermilk, yogurt.  And, by extension, leather.  Everything.  It won't come easily to many, myself included, but with the current rate of Amazonian and other rainforests' destruction for the sake of animal agriculture, it is incumbent upon our generation to lead our species into the next step in evolution.  We've left the caves and spears behind.  It's time to take another step forward...

I know this may be more difficult than expected, because there are certain foods for which I currently know of no substitutes.  The number one "insubstitutable" for me is eggs.  I continue to lean on ova (unfertilized) as a source of protein (and as leavening in some baked goods).  I know it is possible to bake without the use of eggs or milk (like ginger snaps - see below).  I've known people who've tried to live as vegans and have returned to ovo-lacto vegetarianism because it is, and I freely admit this, more difficult, in our society, centered as it is on an omnivorous diet, to consume the necessary nutrients required not merely to survive, but to thrive.

The film is currently on a nationwide tour, and I encourage everyone to look up the schedule and go to watch the movie when it comes through one's local venue.  The showing last night was a one-off affair:  they'll be off to other cities in the coming days.

Next week, it looks like "Cowspiracy" will be showing in Salt Lake City, Portland, Seattle, Albuquerque, Vancouver, and Denver.  Other cities will follow.  The filmmakers have already been contracted to create a version of the movie (without the graphic scenes of animal slaughter) for (hopefully public) schools to use in primary education, since it is of utmost importance to teach children, while they are young, that it is not only possible, but necessary to put aside the ingrained food "pyramid" (or even the food "circle" that has become popular of late).

When asked how they felt after having transformed their diet from an omnivore to that of a vegan, co-directors Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn reported that they felt absolutely great.  In fact, Keegan Kuhn (who appears in the film) stated that the biggest difference came when he gave up milk products. He could feel his energy level rise after giving up animal-based fats.

In the movie, another point was brought out:  in a discussion Kuhn had with a physician, who was vegan himself, about the health benefits (or rather, the lack of evidence to the contrary) of being on a wholly vegetarian diet, the doctor replied that he has seen, in his practice, healthy vegan women having healthy vegan pregnancies, giving birth to healthy babies, whom are raised into healthy vegan children and grow up into healthy vegan adults...

So it looks more and more like I'll be moving us (that is, K and myself, and, I'm hoping, Peter) to an all-vegetable diet.  As someone who is a conservationist as well as an aspiring environmentalist (they point out the half-assed environmentalism of anyone who claims to be an environmentalist and still consumes animal products), I will, of course, use up my remaining stock of what I have in terms of animal products (mostly in the form of cheese and eggs, though I will likely keep the eggs in my diet a while longer while I find a reasonable substitute), because, just as I still have an entire sack of sweet rice in my pantry, which I hope to use up in the coming months (for it lasts a L-O-N-G time in dry storage!), I plan to use up what I have, and then buy no more.

Actually, I think rice (brown/black/red) may make a return to my diet.  It won't occupy the huge proportion of my diet that it previously had, though.  While I was an architecture (and therefore,  hungry, if not starving) student, in the mid-1990's, I ate rice, seasoned with sesame oil and mirin and wrapped in nori, for lunch most days.  I was living on a mostly vegetarian diet for most of my twenties (making exceptions for balsamic-roasted rabbit, which I prepared at home, and fresh crabcakes that were prepared at my local grocery store), and shall now, in my forties, return to the earlier wisdom of veganism. 

I shall make use of my (admittedly limited, but constantly growing) dietary and nutritional knowledge and feel confident that I can raise K healthily (without deprivation).  I am ready to progress my diet, and I will share my journey through this blog.  I will continue to write, as I am wont to do, about other topics as they come into my mind and occupy me.  But, as I am sure any reader is aware, food has always occupied a relatively large part of my consciousness.  Now, it can serve, I hope, as a resource for others who wish to make the journey as well, or at least explore it secondhand...
(stepping down from soapbox now and putting on my baker/chef hat):

Ginger Snaps
(recipe adapted from one given me by Masada Disenhouse, a colleague and friend from SD350.org)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup vegetable shortening (like Crisco)
• 1 cup sugar (turbinado is best, though regular brown, which contains molasses, or white granulated, though more extensively processed, are acceptable)
• 3/4 cup molasses (blackstrap, unsulphored, or other are acceptable)
• 2.5-3 cups wheat flour (use the lower amount for whole wheat, the higher amount for A-P;  I'm going to try this recipe with coconut and/or almond flour to cut carbs while increasing fibre and protein - I'll write about this experiment in a future post)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1-1.5 tablespoons dried ginger
• 2 teaspoons cloves

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Cream shortening, sugar and molasses in mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and spices. With a stand mixer on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Once combined, increase mixing speed until cookie batter is smooth.  Remember to scrape the bowl after the addition of dry ingredients!

Scoop out batter (it'll be very dense), form into ball and roll in granulated sugar, if using. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Place baking sheets in center of oven.

While baking, the cookies will not spread much, so you can place them close to each other, leaving a clearance of about 1/2" (as opposed to most butter-based cookies, which need about twice that space for spreading). Continue scooping, forming and rolling cookies until baking sheet is full.  You can fit upwards of 24-30 snaps on an 12"x16"sheet.  When rolling these, K likes to make "ginger buttons" which, when baked, measure about 3/8" in diameter, and she can fit upwards of 32 on a sheet!

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes.  I typically bake them at times closer to the 8-minute mark because I like them soft. The cookies will harden as they cool. Recipe makes about 4 dozen (one tablespoon-sized) cookies, but like I said, Kat likes the ginger buttons, and so we end up with several dozen.