Wildly cold Wednesday

It is SO cold here today. I am one of those stubborn fools who really hates winter hats (I do have a beautiful cloche but my head is a touch too large for it so it pops up like a whack-a-mole that won't die) despite their obvious utility, I much prefer to go sockless and tend to do so unless the temp drops below 35, and having been forced to wear a Michelin-tire-guy parka throughout college simply can't bear to don anything similar now. As you might imagine, I am often cold during winter. I like the season for about three weeks and then I simply lose patience. It's a good thing we no longer live in Boston. In any case, the sun was out this morning, and Percy was champing at the bit for a walk. I put on a long sleeve shirt, a sweater, a wind-proof yet unlined jacket, and gloves; really, that's an aggressive outfit for me. Not three minutes into the walk, I put my hood up. A minute later we picked up the pace. Fifteen minutes in found us hauling arse back home. It "feels like" 24 which is flipping cold. I think Percy agreed. As I told someone yesterday, "February is the poison thorn in the side of the year."

I'm now ensconced inside, warily eyeing the barren trees shivering in the breeze outside, happy to have a good deal of homework to do and two hours until I must head out once more. I think I'll make a pot of tea and a bit of a snack. I'm hungry, but for what?

Factoids re: food animal production, oh my!

Over the weekend, I completed weeks 2 and 3 of my U.S. Food System course. As did week 1, these lectures provided an abundance of troubling and/or grotesque tidbits regarding the ways in which food animals are raised and the by-products of that system. Rather than attempting to soften the blow by formulating these stats into flowing sentences, I'll just provide you with bullet points; the stark, unvarnished simplicity of that method seems the best way to share troubling knowledge of this ilk.

• The food production system has shifted away from a country-wide farm network to a vertically structured one. 90% of domestic poultry and swine production occurs within this new format which is essentially this: Integrators, the top of the vertical chain, own the animals and processing plants. They also own the "inputs" or animal feed and what goes into that, e.g. antibiotics, antimicrobials, reprocessed animals, etc. Growers constitute the second rung of the ladder and often refer to themselves as "babysitters". They operate under contract with the integrators and only own the waste from the animals they raise, not the animals themselves. The folks we think of when we conjure the image of "farmer" in our minds are few and far between.
• One of the primary issues with this structure is that because the integrators own such a large percentage of the processing plants, farmers/growers without contracts with integrators may not be able to process (slaughter) the animals they're raising.
• The U.S. produces nearly 9.1 BILLION animals for consumption each year, including 8.7 billion chickens and 245 million turkeys.
• Per annum, 6.9 million dry tons of human waste are generated. Of that amount, 3.9 million dry tons are treated and applied to the land. Contrast this with the 287 million dry tons of animal waste generated each year; more than 270 million dry tons of that are applied to the land UNTREATED.
• So, what's in animal waste: bacteria (many of which are antibiotic-resistant because cattle are treated so egregiously with unnecessary antibiotics); protozoa and other parasites; viruses; animal dander; pharmaceuticals; heavy metals; hormones (natural and synthetic); nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.
• This waste rarely stays where it's put. Manure lagoons rupture, incineration doesn't do a thing to heavy metals except release them into the air (if not scrubbed) or pass them on via ash fertilizer, run-off from manure piles pollutes our waterways and water systems, and some animal waste is fed right back to animals being raised for food production.
• Groundwater constitutes 40% of public water supplies and 97% of rural water supplies. You can easily imagine the very real and probable risk of human exposure to everything in animal waste.
• All antibiotic use contributes to antibiotic resistance. In 2010, the FDA estimated that 28.8 million pounds of antibiotics were administered to animals each year versus 7.3 million pounds to humans. It's hard to obtain good data here but it's likely that much of that given to animals were for non-therapeutic purposes.
• When used in this way, antibiotics are often administered at lower doses over much longer periods of time (many animals receive them throughout their entire lifespan). These drugs, the same ones given to humans, do not require veterinary oversight in most cases and are mixed in with the animals feed and water. This makes it hard to know how much each animal is ingesting.
• One major issue here is growing bacterial resistance to antibiotics. The FDA has been resistant to curtailing antibiotic use in animals but other countries have been more proactive and have seen increased animal health and well-being as well as huge drops in antibiotic consumption overall.

Sobering food for thought, eh? More tomorrow!

Ridiculously good Meatless Monday (or any day) dinner

Ohmygod, this was so good. Firstly, I would like to note just how great a nap can be. I got one today because, as it was President's Day which only means to me no-school-for-the-boys and Tom was leaving for Boston, I'd arranged for a fave babysitter to come for a few hours. During that time, I showered and then fell asleep reading. This was an insanely luxurious treat for anytime but especially the middle of the day. Unfortunately, per the usual, I awoke slightly nauseous- does this happen to you? It's far preferable to waking up as a pissy zombie which used to be my nap aftermath, but nausea sucks, particularly if you get it from attempting to catch up on sleep, for the love. Nonetheless, a bit of time and a nice snack alleviated all unpleasantness and I've been full of pep since.

Jack taught me to play chess, and in front of a fire and surrounded by hot chocolate (both of which I'd promised the boys), we embarked on a great game. He's not Bobby Fischer as far as I can tell, but he's damn good for having learned it three weeks ago, and he was a wonderful teacher. Kudos to J! Oliver, meanwhile, undressed in phases but with the definite goal of frolicking around the house naked which he ultimately did for quite some time. What a thrill.

After I tucked them in, I looked around the house with horror. Truly, you cannot fathom such a mess. I expended some of my pep during a frenzy of cleaning and then settled in to cook a good meal. I am so glad I did.

I heated up my cast iron skillet and in it seared cauliflower "steaks" a la Dan Barber (slice a whole cauliflower top to bottom, through the stem, into thick steaks): brushed with vegetable oil and seasoned generously with salt and fresh pepper. He hit the nail on the head when he cooked cauliflower this way; it is scrumptious. Concurrently, I roasted the rest of the cauliflower (which I'd separated into florets) with these gorgeous rainbow carrots, some garlic, olive oil, cumin and coriander. On a different sheet, I roasted chopped celery root tossed just with olive oil, salt and pepper.

When all was said and done, I took the five cloves of garlic I'd roasted and blended them with the juice of a blood orange, a knob of crème fraîche, some olive oil, salt and pepper. This was my dressing which I used to drizzle my veggies. Divine. Had I not, at that point, felt too lazy to top everything with some freshly sauteed bread crumbs, I'd have done so. But alas, lazy won, and still, all is well!