Mexican Vegans - Rodrigo y Gabriela

I've just been to see Rodrigo y Gabriela play at the Enmore Theatre - a guitar duo from Mexico who play incredibly fast and rhythmic acoustic guitar. They create and sustain a level of energy that if harnessed could power the whole of Sydney - which is why I was really surprised to see from their web site that they are vegans.



So how the hell do they do it!? I've been as weak as a pea lately and a few days ago realised that my iron levels are getting low, so have been tucking into steaks and other iron-rich meat, and am beginning to feel much more energetic.

This is a statement from the duo:

Because land, water and other resources are limited, the world can support many more vegans than meat eaters. As a world wide demand for meat has grown, the net effect is that the worlds poor have become increasingly unable to afford food of any kind.
Did you know that 10 people would be fed with the grain that you would feed a cow?
Rod Gab

I've toyed with vegetarianism before but ended up anemic and have never tried veganism - the thought of life without eggs and cheese is just much to bear.

So how do you manage to keep up your energy when you're not eating animal products?

Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant - Marrickville

Photo: Lorraine Elliot 2009

Most people who think about eating Vietnamese in Marrickville think of the famous Bay Tinh Restaurant in Victoria Road - it's usually packed.

Next to the Bay Tinh is is the usually not packed Mui Huong Goat Meat Restaurant.

I've often wondered what it was like, but have not yet been brave enough to try. Why I would be coy about eating goat I don't know - I've eaten plenty of 'mystery' foods in my travels around the globe and it's really not that unusual. After all I could cheerfully eat Goat cheese and drink goat's milk until the goat's come home...

Yesterday I stumbled across a review of this restaurant on a Sydney food blog - Not Quite Nigella.

The reviewer and blogger, Lorraine Elliott, gives it the thumbs up.

My question for you all is this: should we be farming and eating more small livestock animals such as goats rather than cows?? (Do goats have less impact on the environment? Are they cost effective? Nutritional? What does Goat meat taste like with Diane Sauce?)

My next question is: does any body want to join me for some goat??

Turnbull attacks Abbott on climate change

If the battered and compromised ETS legislation wasn't such a serious issue all this drama in Federal politics at the moment would be down-right entertaining.

Malcom Turnbull has taken a very public swipe at Tony Abbot - calling the new leader of the opposition's stance on Climate Change "bullshit".

In a blog posting today, Turnbull has critisiced Abbot's statements that you can cut emmisions at no cost.

"First, let's get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.

To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.

Somebody has to pay.

So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, "bullshit." Moreover he knows it."

He goes on to deride the lack of policy on climate change, and says he will cross the floor to vote for the Government's ETS legislation.

"Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted."

Food Connect - From the Farm to the City

From February 2010 FoodConnect will be starting to deliver pre-ordered boxes of fruit and vegetables from local growers to Sydney households.

Food Connect was established in Brisbane in 2004 by Robert Pekin, a dairy farmer and developer of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) projects. Pekin had a vision for a community shared agriculture enterprise that could develop a local and regional food system for South East Queensland. Food comes from farmers living within a five hour radius of Brisbane who are 'encouraged' to farm using the most sustainable methods possible.

Now the successful model is in the process of being replicated in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Bellingen, Coffs Coast and Wollongong.

The Sydney franchise is looking for buyers and 'City Cousins' - who if I understand correctly are volunteers who act as area co-ordinators and distributors. (The web-site says there is a 'rewards system' for City Cousins but doesn't say what it is - they should get a free box of veggies for all that hard work if you ask me.....)

Time to start worrying about fish

From Australian Policy Online:

The global fishing industry is unsustainable, writes Sarah Burnside in Eureka Street

AS PETER SINGER and Jim Mason noted in their 2006 book The Ethics of What We Eat, even conscientious omnivores can find it difficult to concern themselves with animals who occupy remote underwater places and are, on the whole, decidedly not cute.

In the Australian context, fishing and aquaculture are the nation's fifth most valuable rural industry. The website for the Department for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry notes cautiously: 'The challenge is to develop the industry while ensuring the sustainability of Australia's marine ecosystem.'

There is a growing awareness that the scale of the global fishing industry is unsustainable. Fishing is second only to climate change as the greatest environmental threat to marine ecosystems...

Read the full article:

Junk food turns rats into addicts

A study about the addictive qualities of junk food found the affect it has on the the brain is similar to that of heroine.

I knew it! It's not MY fault - blame the chips!

After just five days on the junk food diet, rats showed “profound reductions” in the sensitivity of their brains’ pleasure centers, suggesting that the animals quickly became habituated to the food. As a result, the rats ate more food to get the same amount of pleasure. Just as heroin addicts require more and more of the drug to feel good, rats needed more and more of the junk food. “They lose control,” Kenny says. “This is the hallmark of addiction.”

New National Standard for Organic Produce

Australian Standard 6000 was the result of consultation between 22 bodies, including the main organic certifiers, consumer groups, the ACCC, the Food and Grocery Council and government.

Previously, the only benchmark we had for organic produce was the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service organic export standard. An article in the Australian yesterday quotes Chief Executive of Standards Australia John Tucker.

"We had the wrong body with the standard, we had the lack of a single agreed national standard, we had unsubstantiated and misleading claims, we had some court action."

So - now we have AS6000, which outlines the minimum requirements to be met by growers and manufacturers wishing to label their products ‘organic’ and ‘biodynamic’. It establishes an agreed set of procedures to be followed for the production, preparation, transportation, marketing and labelling of organic and biodynamic products, including food and processed food.