Is the meat, poultry and fish you buy as fresh as you think?

I bet you can guess the answer to this Dateline question.

According to this report, some of the United States’ largest grocery chains are extending the sell-by dates on meat. “Pathmark says if the meat doesn’t sell [after the initial sell-by date but less 72 hours after being cut], they re-inspect the meat and re-date it. How are you supposed to know if the meat you’re buying has been re-dated? Pathmark admits, you can’t.” That’s comforting.

Even more comforting: it’s not against the law: “The dating of product is voluntary. Stores can legally, according to the 1972 Department of Agriculture law, rewrap and re-date meat.”

I haven’t watched the video of this yet, but after reading the transcript, I’m looking forward to it: there looks to be a lot of squirming and agitation of the people being questioned about this disturbing (but not at all surprising) practice.

One more post today…

I got an e-mail the other day from a new Veg Blog reader named Sanjeev Singhal and he passed along his thoughts about vegetarianism. What makes his perspective particularly interesting is that he was raised vegetarian, then ate meat for ten years, and has now given it up again. Below is his e-mail, edited slightly for readability.

I grew up without egg or meat. No animal, bird, fish or any thing that crawls, swim, walk or fly was ever going to be eaten in our house. That is still the rule. If anyone was to eat meat, [they] might as well leave our family. However, going to college changed that for me. As part of teenage revolt, I started eating meat. For about 10 years I ate it, ate everything that was served on my plate in restaurants. Then about 2 years ago I gave it up. Completely. I still occasionally eat eggs. I do drink milk. Where i grew up in india, drinking milk was not [an] issue of animal abuse. [The] guy who brought us milk kept his buffalo in his house. One might be stickler about such things, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. [The] problem here [is] that some animal groups talk about industrial abuse of animals in dairy industry … which wasn’t there in traditional culture where relationship with animals is much more symbiotic.

In terms of being able to turn into vegetarian in this country have only partly to do with giving up meat. It has more to do with COOKING or NOT COOKING habits then eating. Most people most of the time do not prepare food at home. What you get in restaurants in the name of vegetatrian is hard to swallow. That is [why] there [is] resistance in turning away from meats. For example there are more then 50 different ways of cooking potatoes, without much fat or without any meat or dairy at all. Tasting very different but people do not want to take time or FEEL they do not have time to prepare their food themselves … Vegetarian food is not only healthy, it tastes far better then any meat that I have ever had. And trust me I have had plenty.

A few days ago, Katherine pointed out Haught Cuisine to me and I was mighty impressed. It’s an attractive, well-written blog of vegetarian and vegan recipes that I will certainly make part of my daily rounds. And to top it off, it’s written by Veg Blog regular Christiane.

There need to be more vegetarian-focused blogs… some variety. I was starting to feel lonely. :)

Some good news from the NCAA: from now on, they’ll use non-leather basketballs made of synthetic materials, at the request of PeTA. “The production is much simpler and it doesn’t involve raising animals which is a very costly procedure,” said NCAA spokeswoman Jane Jankowski. Next stop: the NBA. (Vegan.com)

As you may have noticed, I don’t post many of the recipes that I discuss, mainly because I was concerned about copyright violation… turns out, I might not need to worry about it. Individual recipes cannot be copyrighted (because the list of ingredients how to prepare them are considered “ideas” which can’t be copyrighted), but a collection of them can. So, while reprinting a substantial portion of a cookbook isn’t acceptible, recipes can be. Taking this into consideration, I will likely start reprinting the recipes that I try here on the blog so I can share them with you all.

On an unrelated note: those of you that have expressed interest in the “one day a week” group I mentioned last week will be hearing from me within the next couple of days.

The other night, I tried another successful recipe from The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen. This time around, it was Saffron-Scented Risotto (Milanese). I’m a sucker for anything that includes saffron (despite it’s extreme costliness) and appreciate the effort and care that goes into properly preparing fluffy arborio rice. Moosewood Restaurant New Classics has a version of this recipe that includes dairy. But, this dairy-free version was good enough that I’m convinced dairy isn’t essential.

I was pleased with the taste: the saffron wasn’t overpowering and a delightful aftertaste and aroma stayed with me for hours. It got a thumbs up from my wife, as well. The Mediterranean Vegan Kitchen is quickly becoming a new favorite on my bookshelf.

If you want to never be tempted to eat sausage again, click here. The images containted therein are not for the squeamish. (Metafilter)

Teen Vegetarians Healthier Than Meat-Eaters -Study

Here’s a recent study worth showing to your parents if you’re one of those teens that can’t convince them that going vegetarian can be a good thing, if done right. (Vegan.com)

After the so-called “vegan” parents (who used cod liver oil) neglected their child, now the accused murderer of Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn is being identified as a vegan animal-rights activist, even though it doesn’t seem to have any relevancy to his motive. Interestingly, according to this AP article, he doesn’t sound like a super-hardliner and Fortuyn had “reasonable views on the bio-industry… Fortuyn believed that new agricultural policy needed to be animal friendly.”

I never really noticed it before, but there is a pretty disturbing media bias in reporting anything to do with veganism.

I’ve been thinking about doing it for a while now, and I think it’s about time to start…

As you may know, I’m a lacto-ovo vegetarian right now, though I’ve cut back heavily on the dairy and eggs. However, I see myself being vegan at some point in the future, and though I may not be ready quite yet to make the full transition, I’m ready to start doing it once a week, every week.

So, here’s what I was thinking—I’d like to make this sort of a group thing. Are there any non-vegans out there that would be willing to eat vegan once a week with me? If you don’t feel you have the discipline to do it yourself, a small group setting may be helpful. Or, what about my ominivorous audience—what would you say to going vegetarian for one day a week?

If this sounds the least bit interesting to you, drop me a line at one at vegblog.org and we’ll see what we can organize.