"Farm bill would kill California's pigpen law," reports Alexi Koseff, SF Chronicle staff writer in today's paper (May 2, 2026).  Thank goodness the Senate will have the chance to check the zeal of the House of Representatives when this bill reaches it because it would invalidate a state law (Prop 12)  approved by millions of us California voters in 2018.  Even the Supreme Court ruled (narrowly) that our state had the right to pass this bill.  It's not that this new standard is wonderful for the pigs.  It's not.  But at least it gives them room to turn around.  Most pork is produced outside of California (Iowa, for example), where sows are kept in 2-foot-by-7-foot "gestation crates" barely larger than their bodies.  (See photo.)   

Now more than a quarter of American hog farmers have already made investments to comply with California's regulations.  

Can we go forward instead of going backwards?  Rep. Lateefah Simon, the Oakland Democrat who helped organize a bipartisan defense of Prop 12 in the House, is right when she calls the conditions most animals live in (What a life) "cruel."  

https://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/farm-bill-california-prop-12-22234263.php

 
Good people work hard to plan and carry out the Asian Coalition dinner every year, but the menu stays pretty centered on dead animals, and last night, that's what they kept bringing on.  Since my volunteer work for animal welfare and the environment is to eat plant-based with every bite, I had to wait around--as did another person, who's a vegetarian, for quite a while before they brought anything that wasn't a dead animal of some sort.  The problem could have been easily avoided if they'd simply begun by serving something that everybody at every table could eat, something plant-based.  Then we could have all begun dinner together and those who wanted to eat dead animals could still get their fill.  

During a week-long stay with her and her husband, a good friend was supportive of my plant-based diet and made a delicious vegan tofu fajita dish from a recipe she'd found in Costco's newsletter!  

Then she provided the ingredients for me to make egg-free, dairy-free cookies including almond joys for a cookie party.
 

We also went to restaurants that provided a vegan "option."

I was impressed that the Basque Cultural Center, a restaurant I think of as specializing in dead animals, had some vegan items among its entrees.  But beware!  The server let us know that the so-called vegan risotto had cream in it.  They had a vegetable soup, but they put egg in it.  (Be sure to read what Deb Olin Unferth says about eggs in "Cage Wars" in Harper's:  https://harpers.org/archive/2014/11/cage-wars/

Funny that they have a dish called "Eggs in Purgatory."  Deb Olin Unferth's article is about hens in hell!

 

 

I love the people who invited me to this Lunar New Year dinner at Dim Sum King this past Sunday, and the hostess really made a special effort to be sure I had something to eat, which eventually I did.  (My plate is the one in the foreground.)  I'm on a diet anyway, and I managed not to say "Oh, look at all the dead animals!"  But I do remember decades ago when my son, who'd become a vegetarian after seeing dead animals hanging from hooks on Clement Street, very innocently said, when friends were served their paella with chorizo, chicken, and shrimp, "Wow!  That dish sure kills a lot of animals!"  I'll bet those kids have no idea what they're eating or all the suffering the animals have gone through.  I'm also pretty sure that the people at that table thought that I was the aberrant one, not eating meat or "even" eggs.  (I recently read Deb Olin Unferth's Barn 8 as well as her non-fiction Harper's piece "Cage Wars."  The treatment of egg-laying hens is horrific.)  

 

Golden Era on Golden Gate is a very good restaurant, but of course it was too noisy for a book discussion, which we undertook for a few minutes last night, February 19, 2026, between 5:45 and 7:30, when they close.  Our selection was Barn 8 by Deb Olin Unferth, which a couple of people dismissed but about five of us did our best to discuss between bites of really delicious dishes and 4 desserts.  More later.  

 

I've sent out invitations to a Day after Oscars gathering I'm having, where I'll have on hand dishes from scenes in the Oscar-nominated movies--and they'll all be plant-based.  Last year almost everyone brought wine as their "vegan" contribution.  (It's not officially vegan.)  So many people can't imagine what food item they can bring, and I thought of adding what I added a bit too late for the whole group.  I included it in two of my later invitations and in my response to someone who offered to bring a dish.

Dear Film-Fan Friends,

A small group of us had a very interesting discussion of the most recent "Wuthering Heights" movie even though it wasn't an Oscar nominee this year (or likely to be any other year).  I hope you can join us on March 16th, when we'll gather together from 5 to 7 to discuss the Oscars and the Oscar nominated films of 2025--and those we think should have been/not been nominated.  

I'll also have dishes (plant-based, of course.  Remember Joaquin Phoenix's Oscar acceptance speech?) based on scenes from the movies--like the scene in "Bugonia," where one of our anti-heroes is begging to leave the table to go to the bathroom while they're eating a spaghetti dinner.  (The way I find plant-based dishes  is to Google "Vegan meatballs" or whatever I want to make.  I find that easier than taking a recipe that's not vegan and substituting ingredients, and it's fun to see all the possibilities and not have to resort to processed food.)

And here's a link Nicole Wendel shared of  Wesley Morris telling the NYTimes readers "What I Love about This Year's Oscars."

https://www.nytimes.com/video/podcasts/100000010665474/cannonball-oscars.html?smid=url-share