Recommending "Eat for the Planet"

Here's what I've written on Amazon for a short review of Eat for the Planet:  Saving the World One Bite at a Time by Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone.

This book is a clear, concise, well-illustrated and well-documented guide to how our choice of food can better affect the world we live in.  Nil Zacharias is my hero because his podcast interviews bring so much hope of and for a changing world--a better, healthier, more compassionate world--and this book furthers that cause.  I'm buying multiple copies to give as gifts to people who really do care.

Eat for the Planet is a well-illustrated and well-documented must read

Showing Kitchens HOW to Make Vegan Food

More places want to include vegan options on their menus but don't know how.  Here's what Kristie Middleton and her Human Society are doing.  (Copied from the transcripts of her interview on One Green Planet, Nil Zacharia's podcast.

...we were very fortunate to bring on several food service professionals who had decades of experience in working within that field, who we could use to advise us on best practices, and then ultimately, what we decided to do was develop a culinary program. So, now we have several chefs on our team who go to institutions and do hands-on, in-the-kitchen training for culinarians, and that's really flipped the notion of plant-based food on its head for many people.

I mentioned the culinary training that we do. We have now three chefs on our team that travel across the country and deliver hands-on, in-the-kitchen training to chefs, and I'll just share that I feel like that's been one of our most popular and most important tools, because we have chefs who come into the kitchen with a real bad notion of what plant-based food is.

                They have some preconceived ideas, they're not excited to be there, and I've literally gotten feedback on one of our surveys that said, "I came in wondering what these jerks were going to teach me about eating vegetables, and I left having completely changed my mind," because we're showing them food that is really simple to make, that's just taking the techniques that they are used to using and using soy milk instead of milk, or Earth Balance instead of margarine. So, we're serving really decadent, delicious foods, but they happen to be vegan. 

Kristie Middleton Interviewed on Nil Zacharia's Eat for the Planet

I can best sum up how wonderful this podcast by sharing my e-letter to Kristie Middleton:

Dear Kristie,

I was listening to a podcast of Nil Zacharia's interview with a woman who sounded phenomenal in what she was doing and how she was doing it at institutions like hospitals, schools, and universities.

I kept listening for her name, and as you may know, it was YOU!

Is there any way that I could get the written transcripts of your talk?   I was interested in particular details like what happened in Colorado, where at first there was protest (from a meat-industry area) and then when some higher up asked the woman you were dealing with just how important the Meatless Monday was, she said--in spite of not being a vegetarian or vegan--that it was very important.  If I remember correctly, they continued with the program and it was a success.

When WeWork made the announcement that it wouldn't pay for any of its employees' meat meals, people were interviewed for CBS, and it was great to hear people who weren't vegetarians say, "Well, I'm not a vegetarian, but I  think it's a good idea from a carbon footprint perspective."  and "I like the planet too."  

The news show begins with an inaccurate statement that WeWork was "forcing everyone to go vegetarian" because of course they're not forcing anyone to do anything.  They just won't PAY for meat, so they're encouraging their employees not to eat it, but they're permitting people to bring whatever they would like from home.  

Anyway, you did a SUPER job in the interview, which of course was based on your work!  If you can't send me the transcripts, could you tell me where I could get the full report?

Many thanks!

Tina Martin (who got to meet you at the SF Public Library a few months ago)

For Goodness Seyks over "Dominion"

Here you see first name is Seyka (say-kuh) Mejeur and her husband Brian, a couple I met at the Wellness Center at Opera Plaza before seeing part of the documentary "Dominion," about how abused animals are before they  land on the plates of people who eat meat and dairy.

She has the start-up company you see the business card for below.

I wrote to her and got a nice response and good info.

Her blog pages can be found at www.forgoodnessseyks.com/blog    It  focuses on recipes, vegan travel, and vegan lifestyle.

Her restaurant advising webpage is at www.forgoodnessseyks.com  She says that having more of the same material on the website has search engines like Google recognize her as a worthwhile site!

The menu on this page has an "About Us" section which talks about her and Brian, and it discusses the offer they have for restaurants. 

I don't use Instagram, but her instagram pages have content and postings every day.  She says, "The more awareness I can build around my brand, the more able I am to make an impact and save more animals!"

Her lifestyle instagram is at www.instagram.com/forgoodnessseyks and her food-focused instagram is www.instagram.com/forgoodnessseyks_foodie.

She says she would love to connect on Instagram.

President of NYC's biggest borough goes vegan

Here's something showing right on our computers--and it's only a few minutes long. Is this true, or is it junk science? I'm sure a plant-based diet is kinder to animals and to the environment, but I wonder sometimes about the claims of a miraculous cure. Still, I'm sure it's healthy if not miraculous.

https://www.forksoverknives.com/adams/#gs.TMnsGGI

The Prompt and Encouraging Response from the Food Editor

This prompt and respectful response gives me hope!

Hi Ms. Martin,

Thank you for your very thoughtful and considerate note. You make some great points about the importance of vegetarian/vegan cuisine in the Bay Area. While I agree that it’d be difficult to solely focus on such restaurants and issues, I certainly can say that we should – and can – make it more of a priority. For example, I very much like the idea of listing vegetarian friendly options along with every review. Such tidbits are important to readers like you, and that’s what matters to us.

Thanks for the feedback! And for taking the time.

All the best,

Paolo

Paolo Lucchesi

Food Editor, San Francisco Chronicle

o: 415.777.7670 | c: 650.201.4202

plucchesi@sfchronicle.com | @lucchesi

An Open Letter to the Food Editor of the San Francisco Chronicle

Dear Paolo Lucchesi,

Thank you for saying that you want to hear from your readers.

It's my hope that whoever is the chief reviewer of restaurants after Michael Bauer will make the connect between what we read in the SF Chronicle about livestock and the environment and what we eat.

Far from encouraging vegan restaurants and vegan-friendly restaurants, Michael Bauer didn't list ONE vegan or vegetarian restaurant in his 100 Best, and then he based subsequent reviews on the 100 Best--as in Best Burgers--so he couldn't possibly include those from vegan or vegetarian restaurants.

We read of the suffering of factory-farmed animals in the Chronicle, and then we read praise for  meat-heavy restaurants.

We read of  WeWork's stand, for the good of the environment,  against meals including meat, and then we read more praise for  meat-heavy restaurants.

Jonathan Kaufmann often reports on vegetarian restaurants, and that's a step in the right direction.  After all, a couple of years ago, the National Restaurant Association recommended that all restaurants have at least one vegetarian entree --in order to meet diners' demands.  

In 2017 The National Restaurant Association said that vegan and vegetarian dishes  are "gaining momentum as permanent features on restaurant menus. Simultaneously, veggie-centric cuisine continues to heat up, indicating that plant-focused diets are increasingly embraced by both chefs and consumers."  You can see that this is just about meeting demands, not about taking a stand to protect animals and the environment.

This is my plea:  Hire someone who will regularly report on a vegan entree. (I mean those free of eggs and dairy as well as meat and seafood.)   I know there aren't enough vegan restaurants for you to go exclusively to those, and I'm sure you want to continue reviewing restaurants of all kinds.

But the SF Chronicle could make a practice of ALWAYS asking about the warm vegan entree as well as the other courses.  That would encourage every restaurant to include at least one.  Then every review of a restaurant could describe other dishes as well as the vegan one.  If there is no vegan entree, the reviewer can state that.

Another thing the SF Food Section can do is always include recipes free of meat, egg, and dairy.  There are thousands out there.

There are delicious dishes that are completely vegan.

You could do profiles on vegan chefs.

Here's a quote from this Sunday's Food Section:

"I want the opposite of what usually happens.  We're in the Bay Area, the center for innovation..."  Skenes

Justin Phillips article about Saquib Keval is called "Rise of the revolutionaries."   Making ethical choices in what we eat is certainly a form of social justice.  ALL people benefit.

It's really time that the restaurant section of the SF Chronicle caught up with the reporting in other sections of the newspaper.

You can be wonderfully, deliciously pro-active.

Your hopeful reader,

Tina Martin