SVS Viewpoint archives

April 2008 – Disremembering

The other day I tried to recall what I was doing during the Live Earth concerts. I don't recall in exactly the same way I recall waiting for Katrina to strike the Gulf Coast, or when I learned the death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunami. But I do recall some serious music. Could this be disremembering?

One of the first things I did when I got my first computer – the first one that was Internet accessible, that is – was to navigate my way to the Merriam-Webster dictionary site to sign up for their daily newsletter. This, to me, was the true power of the Internet. I’m an English major. What can I say?

The next day, I began receiving M-W’s Word of the Day newsletter in my inbox. While I can’t say I’ve read every newsletter diligently since then, it’s nice to know they still arrive daily, waiting, if I should ever get the urge to build upon my word knowledge, without having to reach for a dictionary.

The Word of the Day for March 28, 2008, was “disremember.” The newsletter that arrived read:

“English has been depending upon the word "forget" since before the 12th century, but in 1805 a new rival appeared in print - "disremember." A critic in 1869 called "disremember" both "obsolete" and "a low vulgarism," and later grammarians agreed. It has been labeled "provincial and archaic," and in 1970 Harry Shaw wrote that "disremember" was "an illiteracy," adding, "never use this word in standard English.”

By 1975, Shaw amended his opinion to "this word is dialectal rather than illiterate." Forget is obviously a vastly more popular word, but "disremember" still turns up occasionally, in dialectal or humorous contexts. For instance, in E.L. Doctorow’s Loon Lake: "'It was the British who did it,' I said quickly. 'I disremember the place and time....'"

Margaret Salinger’s NPR Interview

I remember a few years ago, one hot summer afternoon, sitting on an Amtrak commuter rail train from Salem to Boston, on my way to work. Leaving Salem, I found myself listening intently to a National Public Radio interview with Margaret Salinger, daughter of reclusive 50s author J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey). Salinger was discussing her recently published memoir of her parents, Dream Catcher, published in the year 2000 by Washington Square Press.

At a certain point, about midway into the interview, the interviewer asked Salinger if she followed news and biographical data about her father on the Internet. Salinger barely paused before informing the interviewer, very emphatically, that she used her computer for one thing only, as a word processor, and that she was not familiar with the Internet. This was rather surprising to hear, since by 2000 the Internet was already ubiquitous, and very popular as an information source.

Toward the end of the interview, in a truly unforgettable moment, the interviewer had asked Salinger about her father’s well-known self-isolation and reclusiveness from the press since 1965. The interview grew quieter and Salinger’s responses grew more serious and thoughtful. After pausing for a moment, the interviewer asked Salinger, “Has your father written at all during these years of isolation?” Surprisingly, following this unforgettable question, Salinger didn’t pause for even a moment, but responded in a carefree, matter-of-fact way, “Oh, every day. He’s written every day.”

I’m not sure what anyone else’s reaction to Salinger’s response was at that moment. I only recall that I myself – as the train approached North Station – was crying like a damned fool, uncontrollably, wiping my face on the back of my arm, wondering if any of the passengers near me were noticing. I recall reading Franny and Zooey and Salinger's Nine Stories in college, in a course called Eastern Thought in Western Literature. Franny and Zooey remains one of my favorite stories.

The thought of Salinger, in utter seclusion for the past four decades, diligently writing, filled me with joy and excitement. The tears that sprang from me following Margaret Salinger’s response, I realize now, came with a huge sigh of relief. I can see now, in retrospect, that my reaction was simply the reaction of a very good person, who had suddenly learned some very good news about another very good person, a friend if you will – if a reader can claim this relationship with a writer they’ve never met. This justified, for me, the recollection of my tears following Salinger's response.

Earth Hour 2008

I’m sure that no one reading these words will ever “disremember” – forget – the moment of Earth Hour 2008. The first images that emerged on the Internet of the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in darkness – approximately 15 hours before Chicago, Atlanta, Phoenix, and San Francisco would begin to extinguish the lights on their own landmarks between 8 and 9 pm on Tuesday, March 29 – were true magic.

When I first heard about Earth Hour this year, I felt sad and embarrassed that I hadn’t heard about this event until about a day or so prior to March 29. I usually follow these things, so I wondered how news of this event had escaped me. I learned from reading a synopsis of the brief history to date of Earth Hour that it began as a single event in Sydney, Australia, in 2007, and had in a year’s time grown into a global movement, involving hundreds of cities around the world.

To briefly recap, the World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour’s founding organization, states: “Earth Hour is a global event created to symbolize that each one of us, working together, can make a positive impact on climate change – no matter who we are or where we live.” According to WWF, more than 35 US cities participated in Earth Hour 2008, including the major cities mentioned above, but also including Concord and Northampton, Massachusetts; Arlington, Virginia; Charlotte, North Carolina; Miami, Florida; Homer Glen, Illinois; Columbia, Missouri; and Denver, Colorado.

Two hundred cities around the world participated this year. And I have no doubt that this number will grow dramatically for the 2009 event. I find that even though I, as one individual, have only known about this event for a few days, I am seductively drawn to it again and again. I’ve signed on to the movement as an individual via the Earth Hour website. I’ve read the follow-up news stories about this event. And I find that even now, only a few weeks following Earth Hour 2008, I’m looking forward to the 2009 event with eagerness and anticipation.

I found it fascinating to read Lynette Evans’ article, “Lessons Learned from Earth Hour,” in the San Francisco Chronicle on Saturday, April 5. Evans describes what she and her husband experienced the evening of March 29, 8 pm, at their farmhouse near San Francisco. Evans writes that they used the hour to simply turn off the lights in their home and to sit quietly in the backyard chatting over a glass of wine. The computer was shut off, completely. The fine art of conversation was restored.

Evans admits she couldn’t resist using her cell phone to remind a few friends to turn out their lights. She was glad she did when she discovered that her friends had forgotten about Earth Hour. She wondered in awe at the stars overhead. She’d read recently that an estimated 900 million migratory birds are killed each year due to nighttime run-ins with buildings, whose lights the birds confuse with evening stars, which they use to navigate by – that is when they can discern them from city lights. Evans paid silent tribute to these birds as she sat in the early evening darkness and observed the millions of stars overhead.

Something Great

One disappointment I experienced surrounding Earth Hour 2008, probably one that I shared with many in the Boston area, came not from the event itself, which I found completely satisfying, but from the city of Boston’s decision not to participate. On March 30, on page four of the Boston Sunday Globe, next to a story about Earth Hour, and directly beneath two before-and-after images of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge, was printed the unforgettable and disappointing headline, “Boston leaves the lights on”.

The story mentioned that although the Massachusetts towns of Concord, Falmouth, Martha’s Vineyard, and Northampton chose to participate in Earth Hour 2008, Boston did not. According to the Globe, a spokesperson for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, Jennifer Mehigan, stated that she did not have an answer as to why Boston did not participate. She stated that Menino and the city encourage Earth Hour-style thinking all year.

According to the Globe, Mehigan stated: “Throughout the year, 365 days a year, the mayor and the city urge the citizens of Boston to do green things, to conserve energy, to use public transportation, to increase their recycling, to unplug their appliances. Everything under the sun. It’s a constant effort for us."

Pardon me. But I can’t help wondering: If energy conservation and doing “green things” is a constant with Mayor Menino and the city of Boston, then wouldn’t it seem likely that Boston would have elected to participate in Earth Hour? Earth Hour is a “green” event, on a massive, global scale. March 29, 2008, was included among those 365 days during which the mayor and the city supposedly urge citizens to “do green things.” So wouldn’t Boston’s participation in Earth Hour have been a logical addition to the mayor’s and to the city’s 365-day-a-year, green agenda?

This is for greater minds than mine to ponder in the coming years. In the meantime, I’m left to ponder still more baffling issues. For instance, whatever happened to Earth Day? Actually, this isn’t too difficult to surmise. Earth Day became Earth Hour in 2008. And I like the change. I always liked Earth Day. But I also like Earth Hour. I’m easy to please then it comes to events for the planet. And what about Al Gore’s Live Earth concerts of 7.7.07? No comment. Suffice to say, I liked them, too. Yet I can’t help thinking that Earth Hour contains something great – perhaps something greater than Earth Day and Live Earth.

The Internet has helped Earth Hour. More precisely, an Internet genius has helped Earth Hour. Take a glance at the Earth Hour website. Now take a look at the official Earth Day site. At the same time, the major newspapers chose to focus on Earth Hour this year, whereas they no longer tend to help Earth Day, or Live Earth. Or perhaps it’s simply us, collectively, disremembering – forgetting. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if someday, spokespersons for Earth Day, Live Earth, and Earth Hour – someone similar to Margaret Salinger during her NPR interview – would come along someday 40 years from now, to say simply, regarding our participation in these events, “Oh, every day.”

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Bob and Lisa Bouley had planned to open the first vegan grocery store on the North Shore of Boston, perhaps the first vegan grocery in Massachusetts. During months of research in preparing for a completely vegan market, Lisa discovered something in the soil of organic farms. What she found is not vegan – yet.

As I began to research purely vegan products for a vegan, organic market my husband and I plan to open soon, I came upon a shocking realization. My husband had asked me, ”How far back in the process are we going to take our standards?

Puzzled, I asked him what he meant. It was then I learned that organic farmers often use fertilizer containing a variety of combinations of animal feathers, blood, bone meal, or fish emulsion on their fields, as well as manure. At first, this was difficult for me to comprehend. I assumed that to be “organically grown” there were no animal by-products incorporated into the soil during the preparation, planting, or growing process. I also assumed that there must be farmers out there who currently grow their crops using “veganic” methods, without the use of manure or animal products. That’s the type of produce we want to promote and stock in our market.

The next day I called NOFA, the Northeast Organic Farming Association, to ask if they had a list of veganic farms in the area. They informed me that they had no such list, but that they would be interested in receiving such a list if I created one. I then began to ask the NOFA representative questions about the use of animal products on “organic” farms. Did these animal products need to be from organically-raised animals, so as to be appropriate for use on organic farms? I was informed that they didn't. I was told that I should speak to an organic certifier, and was given the name of the executive director of the Baystate Organic Certifiers, Don Franczyk. Don confirmed what I had learned up to that point.

I spent some time discussing the use of animal products in organic farming practices with Don. I wanted to understand why these products were included in the commonly used fertilizers, and why manure was used so often, instead of plant-based compost. My concerns were two-fold. First I was disturbed that the vegan foods I chose to eat were being raised in soil into which animal products were added by growers. And equally disturbing to me was the possibility of residues from antibiotics, hormones, pesticides, and genetically-modified ingredients making their way into the ground. Until this time, I had been under the impression that my vegan, organic diet had allowed me to avoid these substances.

I asked about the possibility of residues ending up in the soil, as we’re all aware that commercially raised animals are often given feed that contains genetically modified crops, as well as crops that have been sprayed, often heavily, with pesticides. These animals are also fed a mix of hormones and antibiotics to achieve the results desired by their "owners." Don explained that an animal’s digestive process breaks these substances down thoroughly and assured me that “negligible amounts,” if any at all, would make their way through that process intact. He also explained that plants would not take up the strands of DNA from GMO residue, even if it were found in the soil. These substances would most likely all be broken down to their constituent “natural” components.

Seeking vegan soil

I appreciated Don’s explanation, but didn't feel at ease with growing plants in this way. He suggested that I visit his organization's website – baystateorganic.org – and find the contact information for the local organic farms. I thought to myself, “Great. Surely I’ll find a few veganic farms if I call every farm in Massachusetts.”

And so I did call all 50 or so farms. Not all farms had voice mail options, and I wasn’t able to reach a human being in all cases. At those that did have voice mail, I left messages, explaining that I was doing research on organic farming practices and was seeking information about the use of fertilizers and manure on their land. Some farmers called me when they received my message. Others, I reached easily. In all, I spoke with about 30 farmers, and they confirmed the widespread use of animal products in current organic farming methods.

I found only one farmer who doesn’t use any animal products on his land. His name is Dan Kittredge. He farms a plot of land on his family’s farm in Barre, Mass. His parents raise animals and use the manure and fish emulsion fertilizer on their fields. But Dan has researched the topic and has concluded – and has proven – that you don’t need animal products to grow healthy plants. He stated to me, “My personal predilection is to maximize plant nutrition and nutrient density. This is what I’m working on, and the lack of animal products happens to be a coincidence.” He uses a combination of rock dust – see his group’s website remineralize.org – and good bacteria with which he “inoculates” the earth. The plants achieve the appropriate balance of minerals and are resistant to pests, all without the use of animal products.

I attempted to pass this information on to some of the farmers I spoke with, all of whom still used animal products on their land, in the days following my conversation with Dan. I was told repeatedly that Dan’s method is too expensive for large plots of land, and therefore not realistic for most farms. This feedback was confusing to me, as Dan has told me that this method is cost effective and being used by farmers around the world, often on huge plots of land. It appeared that getting Massachusetts farmers to look into and try different methods to those which they are accustomed might be a challenge!

I found a couple of farms that only used manure from organically raised animals as fertilizer. This generally meant that the farm was raising animals, directly or indirectly for slaughter, or had a farm down the road that raised animals. From a vegan standpoint, this is not a huge improvement, although it does mean that factory farmed animal remnants are not being added to the soil. But from the animal’s perspective, they’re still being raised and treated as a commodity. And so I continued to research.

On the last day of my research, I left a message at Heavens Harvest Farm, a certified organic farm in New Braintree. Owner Ashley Howard, who raises produce mainly for CSAs, Community Supported Agriculture, and sometimes for local stores, returned my call. He explained that he doesn’t currently raise animals, but occasionally, as needed, spreads manure from an organic chicken farm down the road, on his fields. Like many of the farmers with whom I spoke, Ashley was not aware of the ingredients in his fertilizer, but recognized that it might contain ingredients derived from animal sources. As we were speaking, an idea was born.

Birth of a veganic CSA

I asked Ashley if he would consider farming a veganic CSA, if there were enough support for the project. He said if at least 50 people were looking for such a CSA, he would commit to farming veganically, and seek alternatives to his usual fertilizer and manure for all his CSA crops. And so the search for enough interested members has begun. Posters have gone up, e-mails have gone out, and postings on websites, all with the goal of attracting enough members to make it financially worthwhile for Ashley to spend a bit more money, to do a bit more research, and to, in the end, provide truly vegan produce.

As I embark on this venture, some questions still remain: If rock dust and inoculating with the right bacteria and fungi are perceived as too expensive by many local farmers, what would be other replacements for manure and animal product containing fertilizers? First we have to understand why farmers are using feather, bone, blood, and fish emulsion. The main reason is for the wealth of minerals and nutrients contained within them. In particular, blood and fish emulsion are very high in nitrogen. Many farmers I spoke with, as well as Don Franczyk, noted the importance of nitrogen to plant growth. Nitrogen is found in the amino acids that make up protein, so it makes sense that animal products would contain a higher proportion of nitrogen than plants, as they are often higher in protein. But what are current veganic gardeners using as nitrogen sources?

Veganic fertilizers

In the days following my conversation with Ashley, I spoke with a cranberry farmer, Edward DeNike, owner of DeNike Bog, in South Plymouth. He informed me that cranberry leaves are very high in nitrogen, and this was a good lead. If someone had access to cranberry leaves, this could be one source, added to a plant-based compost, to increase nitrogen. But not all of us are near a cranberry bog, so I continued to research.

Helen and Steve Rayshick, of Massachusetts Animal Rights Coalition (MARC), have gardened a plot of land veganically for many years. Their comments, when asked, were as follows:

"We use compost, grass clippings, hay mulch, lime, rock phosphate, and liquid seaweed fertilizer from Johnny's Seed in Maine. Johnny's liquid seaweed fertilizer is great for providing micronutrients but not nitrogen.

"We’re currently researching two veganic natural fertilizers: seaweed and cottonseed meal. Our research indicates that at least one red seaweed, Chondrus crispus, which is harvested in New England, is high in nitrogen. It was used in the past as a fertilizer and would make a great veganic fertilizer for most crops except for beans.

"Cottonseed meal fertilizer is second to blood meal in nitrogen. However, one needs to add extra lime because cottonseed meal is an acidifier. Nine pounds of lime is needed to neutralize the acidity caused by 100 pounds of cottonseed meal. Some combination of these would be great and a farmer or gardener would want to use compost and any local source of green matter one can get cheaply. For example, grass clipping are fairly high in nitrogen.

"We’re currently seeking a local source of Chondrus crispus and an organic source of cottonseed meal."

I decided to conduct my own Internet search. I found a variety of useful sites and links on veganic farming methods. An informative site on veganic gardening that lists veganic fertilizer options is the Vegan Organic section on The Vegetarian Site. I learned that neem cakes, from the neem seed, are rich in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.

I found a site that sold single ingredient fertilizers, some animal derived, and others vegan, such as alfalfa meal, relatively high in nitrogen, as compared to other vegan options. They also sold a multi-ingredient vegan fertilizer, Vegan Mix 3-2-2. However, soybean is the prime ingredient, in this vegan mix, which concerns me because most soy is genetically modified and laden with pesticides.

GMO soy is allowed as an ingredient in “organic” fertilizers. Don explained, “If the genetically modified part of the plant is expressed in the plant residue, then it’s not allowed for use in organic production. If the genetically modified part of the plant is not expressed in the final product then it is allowed.” According to Don, in the case of soy, the GMO part of the plant is not “expressed” in the meal, whereas in corn or cottonseed it is.

Finding the right balance

In the following days, I contacted Dan Kittredge again. Of all the farmers I’d spoken with, he was the most knowledgeable regarding the needs of the plants and how one might accomplish this goal of growing produce without any animal products. I mentioned the various responses to his methods that I’d received from the other farmers. Dan explained, “I do disagree with farmers who argue that using rock dust is too expensive. I have data and numerous farmers to back that up, and would argue that these farmers do not know the facts.”

“You need a variety of rock dusts. Often two of the most valuable required by volume for typical farms in this region are calcium lime and soft rock phosphate. And you need the right balance of soil microbes, achieved through soil ‘inoculation’ to achieve a more natural, ideal balance of beneficial bacteria and fungi. Nitrogen-fixing fungi and bacteria have a relationship with legumes, such as beans, peas, and clover. Legumes have nitrogen-fixing nodules in their roots, designed to feed sugar to the bacteria that draw nitrogen from the air and put it into the soil, thus feeding the legumes in a mutually beneficial relationship. I would argue that the techniques recommended are much more cost effective that others, because the increase in quality and quantity of yield makes following a biological vitality producing protocol much more lucrative than other processes.”

Dan also explained that the soil’s mineral balance determines what bacteria and fungi can exist in the soil. So if the mineral balance is not correct, you have to add nitrogen to the soil. Thus farmers who need these high nitrogen sources in their fertilizer have less than ideally mineralized and colonized soil. He suggested that the first step for a farmer who wishes to farm veganically is to have the soil tested, by a company such as International Ag Labs. For $25, Ag Labs will test the soil, and for an additional $25, they’ll suggest what to use on your soil, though not necessarily organic or vegan products. However, if the farmer specifies that he or she is farming organically and does not want to use animal derived ingredients, the recommendations provided will meet vegan and organic standards.

I asked Dan his feelings regarding the possibility of GMO residues making their way from animal products into the soil. He agreed that there was reason for concern, as he had seen research noting that genetically modified DNA has been found incorporated into the stomach lining of animals. This raises concern about whether it is also incorporated into the blood or bone.

Dan agreed with Don that the digestive system is impressive, if operating at full capacity, but noted that if an organism – plant, animal, human, or other – is demineralized, not getting the ideal mineral balance for health, then it likely is not functioning in the ideal manner. So theoretically, pesticide, hormone, antibiotic, and GMO residues may still be present in manure and the soil. How this could potentially affect the plants growing in the soils, and ultimately us is the fuel for future research.

In conclusion

I’ve learned that the vegan food that I cherish is for the most part currently grown using products that I’ve avoided for most of my adult life. From my research, I’ve developed new concerns, beyond the simple addition of animal based ingredients. I’ve found a link in the organic farming industry that leads directly to the factory farms that I’ve despised for years. I see that the “renderings” from such farms are making their way back into “organic” gardens and farms. But I also see an opportunity. The opportunity is to educate ourselves and the so-called farming “experts.” Most won’t change their standards based on animal suffering. Unless someone is vegan or hugely compassionate, they don’t connect this use of animal products to animal cruelty.

But if we can shed some light on possible plant uptake of DNA that is still “changed” or any lingering effect of pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics originally fed to the animals who now grace our fields in fractionated form, then we may have a Pandora’s Box on our hands. If we open it carefully, perhaps we can change the organic farming industry. But we won’t know what we're missing until we try.

For more information, or to join a Boston/Cambridge/North Shore area veganic CSA, contact Lisa Bouley, owner of Vej Natural Market and Café in Lynn at Lisa@vejnaturals.com 

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Green is the New Greed

The countdown to Super Tuesday, the Super Bowl, and Trader Joe's radio commercials captured the media's attention in early February. Now, as March approaches, one media star remains to fill the void: Green. Who can deny Green's alluring sexiness? It's Green or heat. But greed has taken reign.

I guess it’s possible to live in the past, if you try hard enough. But I imagine it’s a very difficult thing to achieve and to maintain – and would eventually become unsustainable. Living in the past, as far as I know, has never proven successful. Eventually society, progress, and the simplest aspects of daily life wake us from our memories and pull us into the present. Still, I’ve observed so many people lately desperately clinging to the past. I’m caught up in it myself at times.

Lately, Saturday mornings, I’ve taken to borrowing a friend’s car and driving over to the Swampscott Whole Foods for breakfast. I like to get there just after the store opens. Its aisles are virtually empty except for a few staff stocking shelves. The sound system is already piping in some excellent 80’s music, Madonna or Bruce Springsteen. The coffee is freshly made, and the vegan scones are still warm in their glass case.

I stand in the front of the store for a moment and wonder where everyone is. It looks and feels like a ghost town. No early risers. Aside from borrowing the car, I don’t feel guilty. I don’t particularly like it here, but it’s all I have at the moment, so I try to make the best of it. I rationalize that it’s not really that bad, that it has its good points. I remind myself that this isn't the past, as I find a table by the windows. I bite into a chocolate chip scone and flip through Spirit of Change magazine.

Vegan Initiation

Northampton 1993. There was no friend with a car to borrow. Whole Foods was Bread & Circus, in the town next to Northampton – Hadley. A quiet farming community, settled in 1659, incorporated in 1661, current population 5,000. Not much has changed in Hadley. Its small library, Town Hall, and the few houses that dot the cornfields are brightly lit now when you pass through at night – but not much else has changed.

To get to the Hadley Bread & Circus from Northampton, if you didn’t own car (which I didn’t), you could walk the bike trail, if you had a good part of the day to kill. The trail winds through some of the most stunning farmlands I’ve ever seen – outside of the sweeping savannahs that open up along Amtrak’s South Carolina run. You could bike the bike trail. Or you could catch the PVTA bus from
in front of Thorne’s Market on Main Street. Either way it would take a while. But that was the experience, as they say.

Bread & Circus was solely a Massachusetts entity until it was bought out by Whole Foods, out of Austin, Texas, in 2003. Whole Foods, in my opinion, has sapped the lifeblood out of what was once Bread & Circus. Some of the best memories I have from my time in Northampton are of heading out on the bike trail by mid-day on Saturdays during the summer, for a vegan lunch and shopping at Bread & Circus. I’d take my bike occasionally, but most often I walked, mesmerized by the farmlands along the way.

The Hadley store had this awesome pinewood bar, with about twenty or so barstools, in the front of the store. Behind the counter were wall-sized menu boards with about 15 or 20 vegetable and fruit juice combinations, ordered fresh from the juicer. Hot pizza with melted vegan mozzarella and tomato sauce was fresh out of the oven. Plastic shakers of nutritional yeast on the bar hinted that the café wasn’t exactly catering to anyone less than vegan. The overstuffed tofu, alfalfa sprout, and green pepper sandwiches on whole grain bread confirmed this.

The 21st Century

Early Saturday morning, 2008. The trip to Whole Foods in Swampscott, the town next to Salem to the south, is very different. I hop into the borrowed car and head up Loring Ave. Along the way, I pass by the college, and several thickly-settled neighborhoods. These eventually lead to the tract malls in Swampscott, Store 24, Staples, KFC – usually busy, next to Dunkin’ Donuts. Eventually you come to Whole Foods – at the end of the business district, right before some sparse woods and a few less thickly-settled homes begin to appear.

If I arrive early enough, I can almost forget that I no longer arrive along a bike trail, and that the pace along the way is too quick now. Too quick for pedestrians anyway. Inside, the front of the store looks like the set of a Broadway musical. Elegant and staged. No pinewood bar, no shots of wheat grass. I walk to the back of store, past rows of whole chickens turning around endlessly on rotisserie spits inside a glass case. I grab a green plastic bowl, fill it with a few potatoes from the hot bar, a few strawberries from the yogurt section, and a vegan scone from the bakery case.

In Hadley, I used to have a copy of Shambhala Sun or the Utne Reader at the bar with my carrot juice. Today, I have a copy of VegNews to complete my Whole Foods breakfast. I scan through page after page of state-of-the-art veganism. “Natural, vegan, organic, European cosmetics.” An image of an exotic rain forest monkey stares back at me from the page and invites me to “Savor chocolate. Save our planet.” The Windstar Cruise Line’s “Ultimate Vegetarian Vacation” awaits me.

VegNews has responded to the 90’s US transition from vegetarianism to veganism in a very, very big way. It’s done so by showcasing the best of the best, issue after glamorous issue. I don’t think this is necessarily a bad thing. We need magazines like VegNews to show us what’s possible. The February issue maps out a vegan vacation in Tokyo, and reminds us that for a mere $2,400 to $6,300 per week, we can munch on Thai Papaya Salad poolside, at an organic, raw, vegan spa in West Palm Beach. I’ll probably never need to know where the best vegan sushi bars in Tokyo are, but it’s nice to know they exist.

Green is the New Greed

I wouldn’t include Whole Foods or VegNews into the green-is-the-new-greed category. Though they do seem to come very, very close at times. Yet both companies, as grand as they are, do far too many things that place them into the green, vegan, animal rights categories to ever be mentioned in the same breath with the g-word. Whole Foods may sell Alaskan salmon and organic beef by the ton every day, but they also sell vegan cupcakes. VegNews might appear to require a lot of jet fuel for flights to vegan Tokyo and to West Palm Beach, but they also promote hybrids.

In his definitive 2007 work, Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning, author George Monbiot, a global leader in carbon-emission reduction theory and advocacy, makes a bold and ironic declaration in his introduction: Not only, he states, do we need to cut our carbon emissions by an astounding 90 percent by 2030 in order to prevent catastrophic climate change, but he believes that we should also do so in such a way that will not dramatically alter our current, comfortable existence. In other words, explains Monbiot, most of us currently enjoy stepping out of a warm shower and into a freshly laundered terry robe or towel, and this habit shouldn’t have to end in order to achieve a carbon-neutral existence.

I agree with Monbiot – even if I find some of his recommendations to governments and corporations to be highly specious at best. I also think it’s interesting to note here – whereas Monbiot does not, but only implies this in some of his figures – that restrictions and limits will ultimately have to be issued by governments, removing the responsibility for the new carbon quotas from corporations, businesses, and individuals. Monbiot largely discounts the greed factor – an ever-present reality today, always lurking close at hand, always ready to manifest itself again and again.

It should also be noted that Monbiot doesn’t address the vegan intellect or motive in his writings. Yet it would benefit us all if he would. Most vegans today are highly interested in and eager to bring about the very existence that Monbiot describes. Vegans act with care and sympathy for all living things, from so-called “food” animals, to our neighbors, to the rest of the global community. This care is extended to all aspects of our lives. Not all vegans may have abandoned our cars for bikes and public transportation yet, but the vegan literature and Internet blogs I’ve read suggest that this is how most vegans tend to think today. I don’t think you’d find many vegans at your average Super Bowl party or Trader Joe's tailgate. Our parties tend to be vegan potlucks – and the discussion is usually cogent, often including the “green” topics and agendas of Monbiot and his peers.

The Root of the Problem

I don’t like to blame individuals or companies these days – and I don't think most vegans do either. I do miss companies like Bread & Circus, and the Health Hut restaurant on Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, where I first learned about veganism during my school vacations to Florida. These places were, to me, where it’s really at. Not on some stage, with chickens roasting on a spit next door to the vegan cupcakes. When I spend my money, I’d like to think that it’s going to support veganism, not animal cruelty. And those places just aren’t around much anymore.

I think that’s a real shame. I think that’s what’s really wrong here today. The presidential candidates who won’t – or can’t – even mention animal rights in their speeches or on their websites, when that’s what the real issue is today. The race for oil exploration, ethanol production, and electric car manufacture, while advocacy of public transportation, alternative transportation, and alternative communities are hardly addressed today. Companies like Stonyfield Farm and Starbucks, which claim to be leaders in implementing the best environmental practices, while they use countless innocent cows against their will, to produce milk for humans 365 days a year.

At the root of all of these problems is a virtually hidden problem, that even most vegans don’t address today, and that Monbiot alludes to, but doesn’t focus upon – human population. In the year 1927, the world’s human population reached the 2 billion mark. It reached the 3 billion mark in 1961. After 1961, something very interesting begins to happen. Four billion in 1974, 5 billion in 1987, 6 billion in 1999. At the current rate of population growth, it will reach the 7 billion mark in the year 2011. This is a dramatic, exponential rise in the last 40 years. If green is the new greed, human population is surely its fuel.

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5 am, Friday morning. I search the white space beside my pillow with my right hand for the wire and the round shapes of my ear buds. My eyes are still closed, my head still underneath the covers. It’s frigid out, and the temperature in the pitch-dark of my room isn’t much warmer.

I grasp one of the buds and push it into my right ear, then follow the wire like a blind man to locate the left one, and place that gently but firmly into my left ear. The first words I hear in the darkness come from the familiar voice of a WBZ meteorologist with the morning Ski Report.

He quickly but meticulously runs through the morning report, detailing the snow and weather conditions at most of the major mountains and ski trails. He notes whether the runs have had night grooming, the condition of the snow itself, whether it’s “packed” or “powder” or a bit of both, and what skiers can expect for weather on the slopes for the weekend.

I don’t ski, but I love to listen to the Ski Report, especially when it’s sub-zero outside, and I know I have about one hour to float peacefully beneath the covers before my feet have to hit the floor. I live vicariously through the announcer’s descriptions of the trails, and imagine myself, perhaps, casually weaving my way down a mountainside at dawn, effortlessly slicing through the cold, white powder as I make my way toward the bottom.

This morning’s report is not quite so pleasurable for me however. I recall suddenly – my eyes blinking once or twice in an inquisitive way in the darkness, the report still filling my head in soothing stereo – some Internet news item I’d read the night before about a Vermont Ski Burger. I shut my eyes in acquiescence, and lay listening, quiet, motionless, as the Ski Report ends.

The Ski Vermont Burger

It’s not a dream. It’s an actual burger. Meat, skewered on a wooden stake (also made in Vermont), and presented neatly on a bun. This “burger” is in reality a half-pound or so of cow meat, cut from a cow who's been raised on a Vermont farm. As we all know by now, the cow has been raised, slaughtered, processed, ground into ground beef on industrial machinery, and transported on trucks to the local store or restaurant, or in this case, to the local Vermont ski resort restaurant.

The Ski Vermont Burger – as ridiculous, and as sad, as this sounds to me – is the invention of Ski Vermont, aka The Vermont Ski Areas Association, the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, the Vermont Beef Producers Association, and several Vermont ski resorts, including Bolton Valley, Jay Peak, Mount Snow, Okemo Mountain, and Stowe Mountain Resort. All of whom hope to make lots of money, from tourists and Vermonters alike.

According to a press release issued by Ski Vermont on December 6, these agencies hope to “spice up the resorts’ menus with local beef.” To the participating agencies, this is all a part of the “Buy Local” movement, which is actually a part of the current so-called, ubiquitous “green movement.” The rationale is for customers, in this case skiers, to be provided with local “products,” to help the local economy, to obtain fresher food; food that has not been transported great distances, which, as we all know, uses vast quantities of precious and polluting diesel fuel.

Since we’re all “green” now, thanks to former Vice President and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, the real concern for all of us is to conserve fuel, and hopefully, eventually, to not use any fuel at all. Unless it happens to be “renewable,” of course – solar, ocean wave, geothermal – you get the drift. Therefore, by Ski Vermont and the Vermont Beef Producers providing all of this great local cow meat to ski resorts in Vermont, the “customers,” the skiers, will all be able to better participate in the current green movement. Note the logic: Less fuel, more green.

The skiers who travel to Vermont’s ski resorts all use lots of fuel to get to the trails. This is clearly not a green activity. And when they return home at the end of the day, or at the end of the weekend, will they continue to buy and consume “local” products whenever possible, having been filled with the “local, green” zeal, under the guise of the humble Ski Vermont Burger? Or will they continue to take their kids to McDonald’s and Burger King on Saturdays, having had that taste of beef at the end of their ski runs, but perhaps clinging to the chains out of simple tradition? I think the latter may be highly likely. Traditions die hard.

Ski Vermont’s Angle, or, How Things Actually Work

Ski Vermont’s somewhat lengthy but informative press release includes quotes from exactly four individuals: Bolton Valley’s Executive Chef Andrew LaHaye; Vermont Beef Producers Association President Guy Crosby; Okemo Mountain Resort Executive Chef Michael Breen; and Jay Peak President Bill Stenger.

All of these men, naturally, have very favorable things to say about the new Ski Vermont Burger collaboration between the agencies, the livestock farmers, and the ski resorts. They’re all either a part of the collaboration, or in the restaurant business. But that’s what press releases are designed for: an optimal, highly favorable presentation.

The release was picked up by two news sources: WCAX-TV News (“Vermont’s Own”), and by First Tracks!! Online Ski Magazine, published out of Salt Lake City, Utah. First Tracks!! uses the release verbatim on its Web site. WCAX assigns the story to reporter Kristin Carlson, who takes the opportunity to head out to Stowe Mountain Resort. Who does she encounter there? Why, no less than, you guessed it: Stowe’s Cliff House Chef Jeff Egan.

Carlson is no fool. She knows that in order to present the story that WCAX wants, that WCAX needs, she must present the news in its best possible light. God forbid she should seek out some animal rights activists or vegans for their side of the story. They would certainly spoil the story. Chef Egan provides: “It’s just a nice rich, juicy burger.” Carlson moves on to Bridgport Beef owner Chip Morgan, who states, “It helps make [Vermont farms] sustainable and it helps farms grow.” Alas, the key word: sustainable.

Carlson also includes a quote from Vermont’s Deputy Agriculture Secretary Anson Tebbetts, and rounds out her story with another infamous statement from Chef Egan, who states: “The burger is our single biggest selling item on the lunch menu. When people come to Vermont they want to eat Vermont. They want Vermont cheeses and Vermont beef.”

Being a chef, Egan does not need, but would benefit from, a simple course in logic. He’s presenting a highly refutable statement. Not all people who visit Vermont in fact want Vermont cheeses or Vermont beef. And what percentage of all Vermont tourists visit Stowe Mountain Resort, eat at the Cliff House, and order a Ski Vermont Burger? I presume it is a very, very small percent. Carlson neglects to point this out. But again, she’s just giving her employers what they want to print.

You want fries with that?

5:45 am, Friday morning. Five more minutes before my feet have to hit the floor. I roll over and face the window and stare out as the sun appears over the icy water. Like I said, the Ski Vermont Burger news has made my “floating” time this morning somewhat less enjoyable, somewhat less peaceful. The Ski Report on WBZ doesn’t have that same zing to it: Fading are the visions of cold white powder shushing almost silently, breathlessly beneath my skis in the early morning.

They’ve been replaced by visions of thousands of “local” cows preparing to be slaughtered, processed, ground into ground beef (hamburger), and transported to the various ski resorts who’ve opted in to the Ski Vermont Burger initiative. I lie under the covers for a few more minutes, thinking it all through again, a blanket of snow in the neighbor’s yard. Is “local” beef really, I mean really, any better than any other beef? Luckily, I have taken my simple course in logic. The answer that I’ve come up with, now that I can see the whole picture, is no, it’s not really any better.

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