Who are the Koch brothers?

On a different topic than I usually write about...

Hi. My name is Emily, and I have been living under a rock.

Up until a few weeks ago, I did not know who the Koch brothers were. I had heard their names of course, but I -- like many people -- assumed they were part of the Coca-Cola (Coke) family. I first found out the truth about them at a rally I went to with Alex and Winston in solidarity with Wisconsin public workers.

The Koch brothers were behind Gov. Walker's successful ploy to ban the right for public employees to collectively bargain, effectively undermining unions. Their company, Koch Industries, was one of the largest contributors to Gov. Walker's campaign, and they have grown Americans for Prosperity(AFP)'s -- a conservative group that has opposed progressive causes from health care reform to cap-and-trade legislation -- budget from $7 million to $40 million. It is AFP that has been the public face for the anti-union legislation in Wisconsin, and other states that have taken up the politically motivated fight against unions.

So, who are the Koch brothers? David and Charles Koch head Koch Industries, the second-largest privately owned company in the U.S., an energy company. Koch is credited with supporting some of the leading conservative think tanks, in addition to AFP, such as the Heritage Foundation and the Cato Institute.

Right, so these guys are big. Like multi-billionaire big. And you really didn't hear about them until they started donating their big money to support conservative causes.

I had my first direct experience with the Koch brothers' far-reaching money today at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History when we went to the Hall of Human Origins. As soon as I saw the description of the exhibit, I knew something was up:



Travel back 6 million years to discover how our ancestors struggled to survive dramatic climate changes, and, in the process, evolved the traits that make us human..?!?!?! (punctuation mine)

You have got to be kidding me! An anti-climate science exhibit on human origins??? Oh, but it got better as we walked through the propaganda, mouths agape. Here's a snapshot of what we saw, as described by the online interactive floor plan:

A 2-minute climate video shows how Earth’s climate has shifted between periods that were warm and cool, and periods that were moist and dry. These shifts became more extreme over time. Human traits such as toolmaking and large brains emerged during times of extreme climate shifts.

An area on how modern humans changed the world, and how our human traits help us imagine our future.

A computer game asking people to think about what humans might look like millions of years from now as Earth continues to change and humans continue to evolve.

A graph explaining that climate fluctuations have been increasing in the last 6 million years. ***This graph was not featured in the interactive floor plan, but remains vivid in my memory ***

Alex told me that he had heard that it was subtle, and it was. After all, who would think it was egregious to say that climate change has been happening for the past 6 million years, unless they knew that was a talking point devised by climate deniers, like the Koch brothers?

If people aren't pretty familiar with climate science and the politics around it, they might leave thinking, "Okay, so humans and the Earth have evolved through many changing climates and ages, and we have all done fine."

But that is not the case, despite Mr. Koch's spin. Of course, our climate is warming at a dangerous rate that is threatening our coastal communities in many countries, our water supplies and sources, and land- and water-stabilizing ecosystems.

This is not the first time the Smithsonian Institution has crossed the line, but they should return the roughly $21 million Mr. Koch donated to create this propaganda exhibit, and stick to exhibits based on science, not the donor's political agenda.

Are all animals created equal?

Today, Mark Bittman wrote in the New York Times' Opinionator column, Some Farm Animals Are More Equal Than Others, a piece looking at the injustice that goes one everyday in the factory farming industry.



The piece addresses the disparity between our treatment of our beloved pets and farm animals. For example, a woman went to jail for killing a hamster, but the people who kill and torture 10 billion animals every year in the U.S. are not accountable for their actions.



I encourage you to read Mark's piece here to learn about Common Farming Exemptions and how the Factory Farming industry is trying to cover up their "work."


Check it out here!

Requesting Vegan

I have been going to A LOT of conferences, meetings and what-have-yous these past few months, and it has been increasingly hard to maintain my "humane living."

It's not that there are not enough vegetarian options -- requesting vegetarian is easy. When I was a kid, I certainly not alone in my vegetarianism, but it was not the norm. There were not the options that there are today, but I got by just fine. As I recall, there was just the lone Boca Burger, without its comrade of fake-meats standing beside it in the frozen Organic food section, or other fake meats in the refrigerated tofu section wedged in the produce aisle.

And my mom always made a vegetarian option for me at dinner. (I am not sure she knows how grateful and thankful I am for that, so thanks mom!). If she was making meat lasagna, she would make a pan without the meat. And there were always plenty of delicious sides that would have filled up my tummy, but she always went the extra mile to make sure I had a main portion.

Anyways, today it is even easier to be a vegetarian. There is always at least one vegetarian option at restaurants, and meat-free sandwiches at conferences (usually not enough, but always some).

Essentially, being vegetarian is now part of the norm. People are used it. In fact, three percent or 6-8 million people living in the United States are vegetarians. To give some perspective, Jewish people make up only two percent of the population.

Now, I will bet my bottom dollar that the cheese and dairy used in these sandwiches is not humane, and I have yet to find a readily-available vegan option. So, I have just been sucking it up and eating the vegetarian wrap or sandwich. But I want to change that.

Vegans, like vegetarians, are in the minority of eaters. Vegans make up roughly one percent of the population -- although there are questions as to their overlap with the vegetarian figures. Well, after breaking my humane standards these past three days at a conference, I am going to start making an effort to request vegan options now.

I don't think it will be too difficult. I saw an attendee at the conference receive a gluten-free meal everyday, so why should vegan be so difficult?

The Wedding Dress

One of the things a woman (or a man) needs to take into consideration when getting married is the wedding dress.

Now, it used to be that the bride would wear her favorite dress she owned. Some wealthy women would go out and buy as much fabric and fur (clearly, I am not doing that!) as they could afford, and drape themselves in that. But then Queen Victoria decided to go and change the world and wear white at her wedding to her cousin Albert in 1840.

Given the hemophilia in the royal line, it was probably not a great idea for these nuptials to go forward. But it did (for better or worse) set the stage for one of the most lucrative industries in Western civilization: the white wedding dress.

The wedding dress was something I was not super excited about. I didn't like the idea of wearing something once, and, on top of that, spending so much money on it. And let's face it, what bride don't you see futzing over her dress, hassled by the train, keeping her boobs in the now-trendy strapless dress, and other clothing woes?

So, I decided I would not spend money on a new dress. My first choice was to wear my favorite American Apparel dress. Comfy, versatile (I could style it however I was feeling the morning of the wedding), and made in the USA. But pretty much every woman in my family put the kabosh on that pretty quickly, including my mom.

But then I had another idea: Why not wear my mom's wedding dress? She wore it when she married my dad, and my grandmother had preserved it in her basement. My grandma Audrey mailed it me, and I could not have tried it on at a more perfect time: my friend Amanda was visiting from St. Louis, and she took a picture of me:


It definitely needed altering, as wedding dress styles have changed a bit since 1971. Plus, my mom was 19 when she got married, and let's face it: as I am pushing 30, I am seeing some differences in my body from when I was 19.

Just as we magically found our amazing local, sustainable and humane caterer, Eat & Smile, a friend recommended two women who just opened a re-purposing store. The idea is to have vintage or out-dated clothes altered so as not to buy new stuff.

Ginger Root Design seemed to fit in perfectly with how we live our lives and how we want our wedding to be. A big celebration without the waste and new traditions that can define weddings.

The dress is going to be altered in several fittings. They are first going to create a scoop-neck (see the safety pin outline below).



And they have some other great ideas too: using the fabric from the sleeves to make a sash, lowering the waistline, and taking some of the buttons from the sleeve and putting them down the back.

My mom and I can't wait to go through this fun process together!

If these walls were glass, they would come tumbling down...

For me, being a vegetarian has not always easy.

Because I used to eat meat and I associated a lot of fun memories with it, I used to crave it. I associated chicken wings with watching the White Sox (good games, and bad). I associated eating lobster with my summers spent at my grandparents' house in Massachusetts. But now I can't actually say I miss any of it.

The challenge for me today is the dairy and the eggs. It is the Alfredo sauce at an Italian restaurant. It is the cheesy goodness at a Mexican restaurant.

But then I watch this video from Mercy for Animals, "From Farm to Fridge" and ask myself, "Do I want to eat that cheesy goodness if it comes from this? Do I want my dollars to support this suffering?"




In The Omnivore's Dilemma, Michael Pollan wrote,

"The industrialization - and brutalization - of animals in America is a relatively new, evitable, and local phenomenon: No other country raises and slaughters its food animals quite as intensively or as brutally as we do. No other people in history has lived at quite so great a remove from the animals they eat. Were all the walls of our meat industry to become transparent, literally or even figuratively, we would not long continue to raise, kill, and eat animals the way we do. Tail docking and sow crates and beak clipping would disappear overnight, and the days of slaughtering four hundred head of cattle an hour would promptly come to an end - for who could stand the sight?"

I do hope one day the walls of factory come tumbling down. Because while this video is so difficult to watch, it is the reality that is served to us on our plates everyday, and it is optional. Even the most voracious veal eaters prefer that their food not have been tortured.

This kind of suffering does not exist on farms that are certified humane or that are small enough that farmers can plausibly care about the health and welfare of their animals. The meat, egg and dairy industry go to great lengths to ensure that we don't see what is in this video, because if we did, we would only support the farmers who treat animals with dignity.

FDA Recall of the Week: Frozen Yellow Fin Tuna Steaks

A few weeks ago I signed-up for FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals & Safety Awards. Therefore, I have decided to start sharing a favorite once a week. The FDA typically releases these puppies on Friday afternoons... and that is no surprise given that Friday is the slowest news day. A reporter (no matter their integrity and passion) probably isn't going to stay late on Friday for a small Recall story --- especially when they happen all the time.

So, step right up, ladies and gents, for your first-ever Recall of the Week!!

On Friday February 4th, the FDA issued the following recall: Rouses Markets Voluntarily Recalls Frozen Yellow Fin Tuna Steaks Due to Possible Health Risks.



First of all, where is Rouses Market and what is the health risk? Listen up, my fish-eating, Mardi-Gras loving friends: Rouses Market is a supermarket with chains located in Louisiana and Mississippi.

And they are recalling wild-caught tuna steaks from the Gulf of Mexico due to histamine poisoning (also called Scrombroid food poisoning). Histamine or scrombroid poisoning occurs after someone eats spoiled or decayed fish, meaning that the tuna steaks were spoiled or decaying. Yuck.

And the effects are similar to an allergic reaction: facial flushing, burning/peppery sensations in the mouth and throat, dizziness, nausea, headache, cold-like symptoms.

This is not so bad, you say. It's not like they were recalled for e-coli or salmonella poisoning. True, I counter, but there is one thing I would like to point out:

Scrombroid/histamine/whateveryouwanttocallit poisoning comes from fish that are decaying or spoiled. So how long were these fish sitting in trucks being transported to the supermarket? How long were they waiting to be harvested and shipped that allowed them to decay? In short, these fish represent a larger problem with the industrial food complex.

After researching this, it seems to be a common problem, and one that has plenty of research to address the causes and solutions. But let's face it: in a system as vast, unregulated and corrupt as our industrial food complex, how can we expect these incidents not to happen?

Humane Ginger Butternut Squash Soup

The other night, I had my friends Doug and Rob over for dinner. Doug has been a dear friend since high school, and Rob is his lovely partner. They are in town performing in Candide, so we were having a late-night dinner after the theater.

They are both foodies, so I wanted to make something local and sustainable. I decided to go with kale chips, ginger butternut squash soup, and organic valley eggnog, with just a touch of the hard stuff.

Now, whenever I want to try out a new recipe, the first place I look is my telephone... I call my brother, a talented and amazing chef.

So, when I wanted to make butternut squash soup, I called him and asked him for a good recipe.

"I don't use recipes," my brother said in his usual confident,
sarcastic tone.

"Okay... well can you give me instructions?" I asked, humoring his
light braggadocio.

"Sure. Here is what you do:"

INGREDIENTS

- 1 medium to large butternut squash (or 2 small ones)

- 2-3 carrots

- Ginger root to taste (I like my soup very gingery)

- 4 cloves of garlic

- 1 small yellow onion

- enough vegetable broth to cover vegetables

- 1/2 - 1/2 cup of cream (or half-and-half)

INSTRUCTIONS (not recipe)

- Peel and cut butternut squash into small cubes

- Slice carrots and set aside with butternut squash

- chop garlic, ginger, and onion and saute in butter until soft

- Simmer chopped ingredients, butternut squash and carrots in pot with enough vegetable broth to cover the mixture.

- Simmer until you can easily pierce the butternut squash with a fork

- Blend (either in blender or with an immersion blender--- I just bought one and am SO excited to use it!!!)

- Transfer back to pot and add salt/pepper to taste and cream until it has reached desired thickness and spiciness

- EAT! YUM!

We had a great evening eating and catching up!