meansoybean

Sigh. I thought I’d never have to hear about this guy again. The culprit in question is one Manny Howard who I first read about through a New York Mag article called “My Empire of Dirt“, found over at You Grow Girl several years ago (go read the comments on that post). And now this week, watching the July 1st Colbert Report, I see this oaf pawning a book on the show, trying to get an undeserved Colbert Bump.

My problem? He has a clear disrespect for animals. After reading the article back in 2007, and learning how he carelessly let his kid kill a baby duck, I shook my head in disgust and forgot his name. But when I saw a guy on TV telling the story about how he beat a rabbit that lunged at him growling, paralyzed it, found out it was pregnant and then ate her, I immediately thought of the author of that article. As the interview progressed, I was convinced it was him — and I was right, it was Manny Howard.

I don’t really talk about this angle of veganism very much, even though I have respect for animals, but this guy makes me angry. Furious, in fact. He really didn’t seem to put a lot of thought or foresight into the raising and care of his animals. Nuff said.

See the Colbert interview here if you live in Canada. Live elsewhere? Try this link.

This makes an interesting breakfast: I veganized the Frozen Banana-Peanut Butter-Chocolate Chip Milkshake recipe from The Kitchn (not at all rocket science, but whatever). Just change out the milk for soy milk and, obviously, use non-dairy chocolate chips. If you want to use something light like skim milk you should try rice milk.

But seriously, let’s talk about bananas. Long story short, I don’t think this fruit should be such a staple in our diets. But we’re so used to expecting them to be there when we get to the grocery store. We seriously take bananas, and other exotic fruits, for granted. More on the dilemma here.

After a long hiatus from bananas, I will admit that I’m buying fair trade ones occasionally. Anyone who’s familiar with vegan baking will know that they’re a favourite egg substitute, but that’s not why I started again — c’mon there are plenty of other egg subs out there. Google it!

With a lot of other things, I’ll get into a “fuck this, what’s difference, we’re all fucked any way” kinda mood. And that’s how I honestly feel about it right now. I think that I need to enjoy every olive, avocado, coconut, etc, that comes across my plate. In fact, every time I’m making a meal that contains an über-imported exotic I think of the day I won’t be able to easily reach for it on the grocery store shelf.

It’s sad, especially for a foodie, but also a really unsustainable way of eating (on many levels).
Think about it.