Soleil Ho Blithely Reaches for a Cheese-Burger

Dear Soleil,

I hate to be whiny, but I'm disappointed that the Food and Wine section has dropped Plant-Based options for Meat-Free Options.  It's so easy in most restaurants to find meat-free dishes.  It's the ones free of meat and dairy that are more difficult to find in restaurants still denying climate change.

You, too, with your pictures of the cheese-filled burgers seem to be in denial.  I fell asleep reading Jonathan Safran Foer's We Are the Weather, but here's something he says in that book:

“We cannot keep the kind of meals we have known and also keep the planet we have known. We must either let some eating habits go or let the planet go. It is as straightforward and as fraught as that.”

Here's what the Guardian says:

First, a warning: this is a life-changing book and will alter your relationship to food for ever. I can’t imagine anyone reading Safran Foer’s lucid, heartfelt, deeply compassionate prose and then reaching blithely for a cheeseburger.

And yet....you've blithely reached.

Tina 

A Southerner Sets San Francisco a Good Example

How refreshing to read about a different Harvey—Gordon Harvey-- in Heather Knight’s column “The ghost of legendary SF columnist Herb Caen has arrived — from Alabama” February 25.

It was also refreshing to find out that this huge fan of San Francisco is a vegan because as much as I appreciate Heather Knight’s column and her and Peter Hartlaub’s Total SF, I’m startled at the disconnect between the many articles in the SF Chronicle warning us of climate change and the Food and Wine section, so heavy on meat, and even the 49-Mile Anything But Drive Route focusing on burgers at Red’s Java House. 

Dana's Visit Lingers in Long, Lucious Noodles

The Song that Bryant Terry Quoted Yesterday at the Ferry Building

Beef

Boogie Down Productions

Beef what a relief
When will this poisonous product cease?
This is another public service announcement
You can believe it or you can doubt it
Let us begin now with the cow
The way it gets to your plate and how
The cow doesn't grow fast enough for man

So through his greed he makes a faster plan
He has drugs to make the cow grow quicker
Through the stress the cow gets sicker
Twenty one different drugs are pumped
Into the cow in one big lump
So just before it dies, it cries

In the slaughterhouse full of germs and flies
Off with the head, they pack it, drain it, and cart it
And there it is, in your local supermarket
Red and bloody, a corpse, neatly packed
And you wonder about heart attacks?
Come on now man let's be for real
You are what you…

Source: LyricFind

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfNxM_T9q0I

Letter to the editor: Connecting the Dots

Here’s what I submitted at about 1:06 PM on Sunday, February 9, 2020

Reading Joan Diaz’s alert about the 65 degrees temperature on Antarctica’s Trinity Peninsula and his admonition “wake up, world” (February 8) made me particularly grateful for Joaquin Phoenix’s Best Performance as an Environmentalist (as well as animal welfare advocate) in getting both the Golden Globes and the Oscars to go vegan.   (Not reported in the Chronicle)

Let’s hope Miyoko Schinner wins her suit against the California Department of Food & Agriculture ( sf Chronicle February 7) so that free speech isn't censored and more plant-based products get the support the dairy industry has gotten from the government for so long. 

 Tomorrow a small group of friends will be joining my sister and me for  a post-Oscar discussion and dinner with plant-based versions of the dishes in the Oscar-nominated movies—the ramen in "Parasite," the pecan pie in "Marriage Story," the ice cream sundaes in "The Irishman," etc.    I’m grateful that we have food and film loving friends who understand what Joaquin Phoenix has made clear:  vegan dishes aren’t just for the vegans.  They’re for the environment and for the welfare of all the animals on this warming planet.

  I left this out:

I notice that  Janelle Bitker, who reported on this and is the “food enterprise reporter,” ordered the vegan peanut stew” form Old Skool Café”  at the Chase Center, and Bernadette Fay chose the veggie x’ian and garlic Brussels sprouts,” showing that there’s not a total disconnect between the Chronicle’s warnings and many articles on climate change and the Food and Wine Section of the Chronicle.   

Tomorrow we’re hosting a post-Oscar discussion and dinner with plant-based versions of the dishes in the Oscar-nominated movies—ramen in Parasite, the pecan pie in Marriage Story, the ice cream sundaes in Irishman, etc.    I’m grateful that I have food and film loving friends who understand that vegan dishes aren’t just for the vegans.  They’re for the environment as well as for animal welfare.

The Complete Text of Joaquin Phoenix's Acceptance Speech

I’m full of so much gratitude now. I do not feel elevated above any of my fellow nominees or anyone in this room, because we share the same love – that’s the love of film. And this form of expression has given me the most extraordinary life. I don’t know where I’d be without it.

But I think the greatest gift that it’s given me, and many people in [this industry] is the opportunity to use our voice for the voiceless. I’ve been thinking about some of the distressing issues that we’ve been facing collectively.

I think at times we feel or are made to feel that we champion different causes. But for me, I see commonality. I think, whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice.

We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender, one species, has the right to dominate, use and control another with impunity.

I think we’ve become very disconnected from the natural world. Many of us are guilty of an egocentric world view, and we believe that we’re the centre of the universe. We go into the natural world and we plunder it for its resources. We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow and steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then we take her milk that’s intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal.

We fear the idea of personal change, because we think we need to sacrifice something; to give something up. But human beings at our best are so creative and inventive, and we can create, develop and implement systems of change that are beneficial to all sentient beings and the environment.

I have been a scoundrel all my life, I’ve been selfish. I’ve been cruel at times, hard to work with, and I’m grateful that so many of you in this room have given me a second chance. I think that’s when we’re at our best: when we support each other. Not when we cancel each other out for our past mistakes, but when we help each other to grow. When we educate each other; when we guide each other to redemption.

When he was 17, my brother [River] wrote this lyric. He said: “run to the rescue with love and peace will follow.”

Joaquin Phoenix Got Golden Globes to Go Vegan!

https://variety.com/2020/film/news/joaquin-phoenix-golden-globes-vegan-1203457761/

https://www.nydailynews.com/snyde/ny-joaquin-phoenix-applauds-golden-globes-for-vegan-men-20200106-3eabk32thzhkdbh7ycr5zz55d4-story.html