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The increasing awareness of the fact that people around the world are starving, and its partly our fault, is leading more and more of us to recognise that we need to change our eating habits.
Most of the publicity at the moment is going towards the demonisation of bio fuels, which we already know are in danger of being described as a crime against humanity.
That is good, we have to acknowledge that switching from petroleum to bio fuels isnt enough, we must cut our consumption instead.
But we also can no longer ignore the issue of meat. My opinions on the future of meat eating are already clear, and I feel there is a growing ground swell of opinion which is supporting this view. George Monbiot writes today about the need to cut our meat consumption - he tried veganism for 18 months apparently, and turned grey… I’ve never been a vegan, but I’ve been a vegetarian for many years now, and am full of health!
Monbiot advocates what I call the ‘meat as treat’ solution: “The only reasonable answer to the question of how much meat we should eat is as little as possible. Let’s reserve it - as most societies have done until recently - for special occasions.”
Amen brother.
Meat production is hugely damaging to the environment, and continuing to over consume it is just not a viable option. It is not true to say that all cattle are grazed on grass land and so they arent harming grain stocks, which is an excuse I have heard some give. Apart from the methane emissions alone, which are huge, cattle account for a vast amount of grain and water consumption per kilo of beef.
Even for those who can write of environmental concerns as less important than human concerns, this has got to be a big issue - all over the world people are starving and food riots are happening. We need urgent action on this, if you eat meat, please consider your posistion. If you are a Christian and you eat meat, then that’s doubly true.
The UN has admitted what looks like defeat in the battle to keep global malnutrition at bay. Essentially the organisation has said that it just does not have the funds to feed the many starving people who require its help.
The reason? Commodity prices, which are sky-rocketing. People who were just outside of the hunger gap, are now unable to afford the basic foodstuffs they need.
“We will have a problem in coming months,” said Josette Sheeran, the head of the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP). “We will have a significant gap if commodity prices remain this high, and we will need an extra half billion dollars just to meet existing assessed needs.”
“This is the new face of hunger,” Sheeran said. “There is food on shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas we have not seen before. There are food riots in countries where we have not seen them before.”
WFP officials say the extraordinary increases in the global price of basic foods were caused by a “perfect storm” of factors: a rise in demand for animal feed from increasingly prosperous populations in India and China, the use of more land and agricultural produce for biofuels, and climate change. (The Guardian)
Two of the big villains in all this - are meat and bio fuels. So its a stark reminder that simply switching to bio fuel for our cars, (or airlines) is no magic trick to save the world.
Its also a spur for those of us who claim that we must all eat less meat. The fact that to produce a kilo of beef requires many kilos of grain doesnt need a great deal of explanation, and it simply requires us all to cut back our meat consumption.
The upshot of all this is that the UN’s World Food Programme may well have to cut back food aid now, this in an era when we’re putting grain into our cars…
“the World Bank reports that the US has used 20 per cent of its maize production for biofuels and the European Union 68 per cent of its vegetable oil production. This change in usage has boosted prices, reduced the supply of these crops available for food and encouraged the substitution of other agricultural land from food to biofuel production.” The Financial Times.
Sobering.
In lots of cultures, bread is revered. In our culture we tend to spoil it by pumping it full of fat and chemicals… mmm. So here, dear reader, is my tried and tested to destruction, recipe for hand made bread, which is not only delicious, but also nourishing and great to slice, freeze and whatever else you can think of. Most importantly, it doesnt need fat!! Give your breadmaker away, stop buying supermarket loaves, and get hand baking baby…
Bread recipe - makes four good loaves, or three loaves and about a dozen bagels.
3 Tbs Yeast (I use the Allinson stuff, which you get in little orange tins)
3 Tsp sugar, or honey
2 pints tepid water (you may need a little more or slightly less depending upon your flour)
2 kg’s strong flour (I use half wholemeal, half white for a healthy, tasty, good slicing loaf)
1 1/2 Oz salt (worth trying slightly less, or slightly more, depending upon your taste.)
Bit of extra flour for dusting, kneading etc.
1) Dissolve the yeast and sugar/honey in 1 pint of warm water.
2) Put all the flour in a big bowl, if it is a mixture, or you’re putting oats in, make sure its well mixed. Mix in your salt too. Make a well in the centre. When your yeast mixture has risen so there’s a good inch or two of foam, mix it into your flour. I use a plastic spoon for this stage - give it a good mix. It can be quite hard work. When its all soaked up, add in your second pint of warm water, bit by bit, mixing it in.
I find that a very easy flour to use is Dove’s Farm organic flour, I use half wholemeal and half strong white. Allinsons also make pretty decent bread flour - its easy to get organic flours from supermarkets. When you’re confident - you can get specialist flours from small mills by mail order, or from small shops.
3) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and get kneading. If you do this right, it becomes a kind of meditiative activity, quite soothing and cathartic at the same time. Pressing down with the heel of your hands, squashing and folding your dough over and over again, a good kneed will take at least 10 minutes. This is when the gluten gets developed - and is vital to the end result. if your dough is too sticky, and is making a mess on your hands or the work top, dust it with flour, and rub it off.
4) Get the dough into a big ball, and put it back into the bowl. Leave it in a warm, place, away from draughts - I like a sunny windowsill, or above a warmish radiator. Cover the bowl with a dampish tea towel. You need to leave this for its FIRST PROVE which will take up to about an hour. During this time, the dough will rise, and you can expect it to double in size if its been made properly. If its a very warm place - the prove will be quicker - so keep an eye on it.
5) After the dough has proved, knead it again. This is the stage when you can add other ingredients or shape it (see below). Give it a good kneading - another ten minutes or so, maybe slightly less - the key is to knock all the air out. Then divide it up - you can just chop it into four pieces, then knead it into oblong shapes. Place the dough into greased loaf tins (if you are making standard loaves) or onto a greased baking sheet, if you are making bagels, rolls, or fancy shaped loaves. This should then be left for the SECOND PROVE during which time you must be careful not to knock the loaves. Leave it to prove for maybe another 40 mins - 1 hour.
6) Preheat your oven to 200 C. Gently transfer your loaves to the oven. If you’ve got a fan oven, you could get them all in ok. If it’s an old fashioned oven, cook two a time - in the centre of the oven. A good oven will cook the loaves well in 20 minutes, if your oven is older, you may need longer.
Look at the top of your loaf - if it looks nicely brown, take the loaf out. Remove it from the tin, and look at the bottom. If the bottom is pale, it may need more cooking. Bakers will tell you to tap the bottom, and if it sounds hollow - then its ready. Personally I cant tell if it sounds hollow, so I say that if its pale, put the loaf back in, out of its tin, upside down. Leave it for 5 to 10 more minutes, check it after five, after 10, I think it should definitely be ok.
7) Take the loaf out, and place it on a rack to cool. If you want a real soft crust, then wrap the loaf up in a tea towel as it cools. When it is cool, you can slice it up. You can either freeze your loaves whole, or presliced - either works. Use good quality polythene bags to freeze your loaves in.
This bread is really good stuff - the problem you will have is wanting to eat the stuff all the time.
To make multigrain bread, you need to add your extra seeds after the first prove. When you knead your proved dough, just add in the seeds you want to have in your bread, just keep chucking them in until you like the look of your dough. If you want to do something multigrain without it tasting to seedy - use sunflower seeds. They are very inoffensive - make sure you’ve got sunflower kernels though, and not seeds with shells on!
To make bread using oats, you can simply substitute oats for about 1/3 of your flour. It will make the dough a bit drier though, so you may need to use more water. I know it seems a bit odd, but the oats will simply blend right into your dough, and feel just like normal bread. Use porridge oats. They are good for you!!
To make bread which will get your kids interested, try plaiting three cylinders of dough together, or making a round, coil shape. Then simply bake on a flat baking sheet rather than in a loaf tin. You can also make bread rolls in interesting shapes - my daughter used to love heart shaped bread rolls.
To make bagels, use the recipe above, but after the first prove, cut the dough into rounds (like making scones). Then turn the rounds into balls, and stick your finger through the middle of the ball, making a doughnut shape.
Stretch it out until it looks like a bagel. Leave your dough bagels to prove for a second time. Once they’ve had a good prove, bring a pan of water to a rolling boil. Boil your dough bagels for about three minutes, turning them in the pan, so they get cooked on both sides. I do about two at a time in a normal pan.
Put them back on your baking tray and once they’ve all been boiled, cook them at about 200 for 15 minutes, or until they look a good colour.
To make cinamon and raisin bagels, after the first prove, add some cinamon, raisins, and a smidgeon of sugar to your dough. I have never made a full batch of cinamon and raisin, so I am not sure what amount you’d want for a full batch of dough. Best to experiment with a small batch, and multiply upwards afterwards.
If you want to do multiseed - add whatever seeds you like at that stage (after 1st prove) too. (I like pumpkin, sunflower and poppy seeds… mmm.)
Happy baking!
According to some new research the best way to eat, or the greenest at any rate, is to incorporate a small amount of meat into your diet - not to be an out and out veggie.
The treehugger article I just read says: “The recommended ‘dose’ for a sustainable small foodprint is to eat only about 2 oz cooked meat or eggs a day. A single serving of meat is often estimated to be about 3 oz, or the size of a deck of cards. (insert quick math calculation here) This, leaves you with eating about 2 servings of meat every 3 days.”
It adds the caveat: “Naturally, your specific foodprint depends on where you live, and the availability of such resources as soil, water, and sunlight. But, this work points out the benefit of having a diverse system of agriculture that takes advantage of your local area’s resources, tradition, and taste.”
So I think this backs up those who go for the ‘meat as treat’ diets, and also supports the suggestion that a diet that is not too heavily meat based is better than one which includes meat based meals every day.
My personal preference is to stick with vegetarianism, and I am concerned that this allows wriggle room for determined meat eaters, who like nothing better than scarfing a nasty bit of beef that’s been flown all the way from a brazilian rainforest… Welsh lamb is pretty good though (so I’m told).
I heard from a friend who works stacking shelves in Tesco, about a crafty little move the supermarket giant like to pull during the festive season.
Last night a merchandising man was wondering up and down the rows putting up prices of every day items, by a few pence here and there.
Apparently Tesco have noticed that during the Christmas hols people pay less attention to the prices of their usual shopping items, they are far too concerned with finding extra supplies of mince pies and the like.
Then before it’s been noticed, at the end of Christmas, Tesco take their prices back down, so we all wonder ‘how come I spent so much at Christmas?’
A few pence here, a few pence there, spread over millions of purchases, must make them an absolute fortune to add to their already inflated Christmas takings.
Every little helps? Yeah right.
an interesting post on treehugger goes some way towards explaining why meat is relatively cheap - although strictly speaking the stats they look at are applicable to the US not the UK, it is still worth looking at ways of cutting meat consumption here… I think I may have mentioned this before…
A strongly worded attack on Bio Fuels by Jean Ziegler (U.N.’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food) is reported on Treehugger, he has called for a five year moratorium on the use of bio fuels, something which George Monbiot also suggested some time ago.
But as far as I know Monbiot has never claimed that bio fuels are a crime against humanity! The idea is based on the fact that poorer people spend a higher proportion of their income on food, so food price rises hit them harder…
I wrote a few thoughts about bio fuels as part of a longer post on transport in the Green My World blog recently. Whatcha think?
a good article to be found on the guardian website today - for all those of us with ‘lil uns’ who like to eat fish fingers… never had much taste for fish fingers myself, never even seen a fish with fingers!
But the whole thing of sustainably sourced fish is an important issue - its good to eat fish, even for non meat eaters like me, but vital that we source our fish from sustainable stocks.. or else we’ll run out!
So the ask Leo article about fish fingers makes interesting reading…
I have finally begun posting stuff on the green my world blog.
After setting it up, I had a crisis of confidence about how to approach the whole issue - whether to advocate small scale personal lifestyle changes, which have little effect in isolation, or to go for larger societal issues.
I opted for the former, as this was my original intention, and so I have now posted an article about something which has been described as ‘the single most effective thing that the average person can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions‘ - I have blogged around this subject before particularly after a post on Steve Taylor’s site. If you are interested to read more, my original post is here, and my follow up to Steve’s post is here.
I see Howies have been taking Doh Boy out on the road, they’re always good for a laugh those lot, but I am well up for the no fat in bread thing! If you want something satisfying to do, for goodness sake make some bread. Not in a bread machine, those kind of loaves need fat, but the old way, by hand, just using some yeast, sugar (or honey), water, flour, elbow grease and a pinch of salt, I think Howies have a recipe somewhere, I’ll post mine up sometime, or you can probably find Jamie Oliver’s one if you have a look.
I was brought up on home made bread, and although I dont manage to make it every week, I try to make sure my children get good home made bread too - my problem is though, I like it too much!
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