diet for a small planet

welcome to food for thought. i’m colleen patrick-goudreau from compassionatecooks. i founded compassionate cooks to empower peopleto make informed food choices and to debunk myths about vegetarianism and animal rights. i do this through cooking classes, an onlinecookbook, lectures and workshops, articles

diet for a small planet, and essays, this podcast, and a cooking dvd. you can learn more about who we are and whatwe do by visiting www.compassionatecooks.com. if you are willing and able, i highly encourageyou to support this podcast. all of the sponsors have been enjoying a recipethat i send to them in return (just let me

know what type of recipe you’re lookingfor), so that’s one of the perks of becoming a sponsor. the other perk is just knowing that you’resupporting a very effective medium of communication – particularly about an issue you do nothear covered in the media with intelligence or honesty. a lot of people write to me and ask me wheni’m going to be on the food network and have i tried to get on. (well, actually i was on once – demonstratinga fantastic vegan bbq, but i’ll tell you about that in a little bit.)

anyway, the point is – i have very littlehope that the food network and other major media outlets are going to let someone comeon and talk openly and honestly about the politics of animal products. but through an open medium – such as podcasting– i can speak the truth. if you value this truth, if you value whatyou hear, if you value what’s left of free speech in this fine country of ours, thenyou might want to consider sponsoring this podcast. as far as the food network goes, it’s madeup of a number of production companies that produce one or several shows, and a few yearsago, one such production company came to my

house and filmed our vegan bbq. well, i had two days to put together thisthing, and 15 of our closest friends came through and showed up so we could film a bbq. tell the rest of the story. so – they get to frame it however they like. i’ve also had people write to me or sayto me in my classes that i really ought to get on oprah – that oprah would love me. people are like oprah would love you – ijust know you just gotta get yourself on oprah. and that’s very sweet and all, but oprahwon’t touch vegetarianism.

not after being sued for food disparagementafter she had on the national cattlemen’s beef association and howard lyman on her show. you know the story, right? howard said that the meat industry was allowingpeople to feed ground up animals to cattle. and oprah said something like “but they’revegetarians – you mean they’re feeding meat to vegetarian animals? basically making cannibals out of them?” she asked the representative from the ncbaif that were true, and he said it was. at that moment, she said something like, wellyou just stopped me from ever having another

hamburger again. and the next day, beef sales plummeted. now, many of you probably don’t know in13 u.s. states, there are laws called “food disparagement laws” or “veggie libel laws”that make it possible for the food industry to sue their critics for libel. these laws vary from state to state, but theytypically allow a food manufacturer or processor to sue a person or group who makes disparagingcomments about their food products. this is what happened with oprah winfrey andhoward lyman. the effect of the lawsuit: oprah will neverspeak about this issue again – she just

won’t. on the other hand, it prompted howard lymanto write about his experiences as a former cattle rancher gone vegan, and he’s inspiredmany, many people to rethink their eating habits. at a conference several years ago, francesmoore lappe was there talking about her new book, which was a follow-up to her best-sellerdiet for a small planet, written in the 1970s. anyway, she told the story about being readyto go on oprah’s show to promote her book and at the last minute, the producer saidsomething like “ok great – we’re ready to go, it’s gonna be great, but oh you knowyou can’t talk about vegetarianism at all.”

she couldn’t even talk about it, and yeteating a plant-based diet was what lappe had written about in diet for a small planet – inthat she found that if everyone ate a plant-based diet, we could do away with world hunger. as she told it, she declined to go on theshow. so, in short, i just don’t think you’regonna see me on oprah anytime soon, and it’s maddening, because she has so much power. all she’d have to do is tell the countrythat she’s going vegetarian and millions would follow. i just know it.

you know, but despite her larger than lifeimage, she too is human and though she talks about her dogs as her children, she’s notmaking the connection about our need to protect all animals. instead, she’s bringing great fame to celebritychef rachael ray, who doesn’t exactly cook up vegetarian fare on her many food networkshows. i’m not surprised by any of this, but whati am surprised at is the shared public notion that eating meat is neutral and that not eatingmeat is political. do you know what i’m talking about? the human consumption of meat has become soingrained in our collective psyches that anyone

who strays outside of the animal-consumingstatus quo is seen as making a political statement. as if eating meat is not a political statement. of course it is. it’s a position – it’s not neutral. and what gets out to the public about vegetarianismor the consumption of animals is all done through media personalities whose own positionsand eating habits inform their decisions. like the way my segment on the food networkwas framed. here’s one for ya. i’ve contributed several essays to my localnpr station – kqed to their show perspectives

in particular. the producer is a great guy, and we’ve hadsome respectful and even playful words about vegetarianism. (he consumes animals – in fact he told mehe’s had four angioplasties but it had nothing to do with his diet; he then proceeded totell me about his favorite ribs place, where they had the most divine coconut cream pie.) anyway, whenever i get an essay accepted (keepyour fingers crossed – i’m actually waiting to hear from him about another one), it’salmost like i’m supposed to be grateful to him for allowing for an animal-friendlyvoice on the air.

and i am grateful, because he’s the gatekeeper– he gets to decide if animal-friendly pieces get on the air. he’s rejected a couple, and his reasoningjust makes no sense. i submitted a piece about the ethical problemswith chicken’s eggs during easter time – to encourage people to think more deeply aboutthe use and abuse of hens during a time when they’re supposed to be celebrating life,birth, and rebirth. the producer declined because he said somethinglike “people resent having their traditions questioned when they’re in the middle ofcelebrating them.” ya know – i wrote back and told him i disagreed,but of course, it never aired.

every day, every moment – whether it’sthrough radio commercials, television commercials, magazines advertisements, billboards, or celebrityendorsements, we’re told what to eat. we're told that real men eat beef, that humansare supposed to consume the milk of another animal, that chickens eggs are nature’sperfect food. you absolutely don’t escape this. i mean – i don’t have television or commuteto a work or work in an office where people are talking about the latest tv shows, andyet i know things – ya know things and people that i try avoid – like who won this season’samerican idol or that rosie o’donnell and donald trump are having some kind of spat.

i mean i try reeeeally hard not to know thesethings, and yet, they’re unavoidable. unless you live in a hole in the ground, youare just not immune to all of the messages in our society that say you are supposed toeat meat. ever see that movie – on a clear day youcan see forever with barbara streisand and yves montand? ok – like two of you know what i’m talkingabout right? there’s a part in the movie where he’sin her head (she’s kinda psychic) and he’s singing this song – come back to me. anyway, she can’t get him out of her head.

he’s always there, when she’s trying tosleep, when she wakes up, when she’s in the shower, when she walks through the city. lol – that’s what it’s like – we’rebombarded by messages – eat me, eat animals, eat meat, drink my milk - that finally weagree. and this is why, i’ll say again, it’ssooo important to have a support system of like-minded people, because if you don’t,you may feel really tempted all the time and not feel strong enough to ignore the messages. even barbara streisand’s character finallysuccumbed, but that’s okay – because it was yves montand, and he rocks.

lolbut seriously, one thing i find really funny is that you hear things like oh those damnvegetarians/vegans – it’s fine if you want to eat that way, but don’t tell mehow to eat. don’t tell me how to eat. don’t impose your opinions on me. and yet, people are tellin’ them how toeat all the time. it’s not like they’re making their ownindependent decisions– we’ve all been totally influenced by the meat, dairy, andegg industries. they’re telling us what to eat all the time.

but they actually make us that we’re makingour own independent food choices. i don’t think they’re doing that lastpart on purpose, but i think it’s brilliant that though they spend billions of dollarsto convince people to eat animal flesh and secretions, they actually make people thinkthey’ve come up with the idea themselves. so we walk around thinking nobody is tellingus what to eat – until the vegans come along. it’s a joke. -in 1999 mcdonald’s spent $627 million inadvertising; burger king spent $403 million; taco bell spent $206.5 million. in the same year, the national dairy councilspent $190 million on their celebrity milk

mustache ads. and keep in mind that the government’s budgetfor their fruit and vegetable program – their five a day program – is $5 million. it doesn’t even begin to compete (and itdoesn’t really want to) with the budgets of the animal exploitation industries. and that’s just advertising. consider congressional contributions, whichinvariably effect government food policies. in the 1990’s, the meat and poultry industrycombined made over $9 million in congressional contributions.

the national restaurant association: over$3.1 million; the national cattlemen's beef association: over $1.4 million; and the mcdonald'scorporation: close to $1.7 million. and that doesn’t even cover the governmentsubsidies that animal exploitation industries receive, particularly the dairy industry. as if cow’s milk is some necessary food. cow’s milk is as much of a product as sodais; but it’s been surrounded by a halo for so many years that people actually think it’ssacrilegious to suggest not drinking it. do you really think the dairy industry caresabout you? they care about the bottom line – makinga lot of money off of you.

if you want to read more about the politicsof the food industries and the marketing tactics, particularly targeting children, i encourageyou to check out michele simon’s new book called appetite for profit. it’s not about the meat, dairy, and eggindustries per se, but it offers really helpful insight into why the food industries createthe problems, but despite all their public relations attempts, they’re not going tobe the solution. also check out marion nestle’s book foodpolitics for more on these issues. now this is not to say that we shouldn’tencourage the food network to have a vegetarian show or tell oprah that she’d really likeme lol or write letters to local radio/tv

stations asking them to air or thanking themfor airing animal-friendly coverage. i’ve been trying to get michael krasny – thehost of a popular morning show on kqed radio – to do a show on animal activists in thesf bay area for years. everytime i talk to him, he sounds like he’sreally interested. he tells me he cares about this issue verymuch. he asks me to recommend some people for theshow. i recommend myself and some fantastic, well-spokenactivists. nothing ever happens. for years.

he’s the gatekeeper. he continually gives voice to the non-vegetarians(he’s one himself) and has the power to veto anyone who doesn’t reflect his ownworld view. but in the case that you’d like to remindmichael krasny (don’t worry if you don’t live in the sf bay area – he doesn’t needto know that), his email address is mkrasny@kqed.org. just urge him to do a show on animal advocacyand sure – drop my name while you’re at it! if you want to keep listening, i’ve recordeda story which i think exemplifies the power of manipulation and the power of suggestion.

it reminds me of what i said earlier – howthe meat, dairy, and egg industries are so prevalent in our individual and collectiveconsciousness and how they become so settled in our brains that we think we came up withit ourselves and how we just can’t see it for what it is. they’re very, very clever – just likethe tramp in the following story. so, feel free to listen on; if not, you canstop here. so again, if you value the information onthis podcast, please consider supporting it. if every subscriber to this podcast contributed just $30 – even if you do just $10/month, that would be just.03% of

the dairy industry’s marketing budget, buthey – it’s a start. imagine how much good we can do – how manypeople we can reach with that. so please visit www.compassionatecooks.comand click on support our podcast, and just let me know what kind of recipe you like,and i’ll send you one right away. also again, thank you rae and jim. check out rae’s organization simply enoughat www.simplyenough.com. and remember, when you’re told to believesomething as fact, always ask who is the source, what are they trying to sell, and what do

they have to gain. subtitles by the amara.org community