January 2023
news, events, & more
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In this issue:
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NOW HIRING: Outreach, Event, and Volunteer Coordinator Needed
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ENVIRONMENT: A Potential Factory Farm Moratorium in Oregon - Holding Them Accountable Nationwide
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HEALTH: Is Fat Necessary?
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ANIMALS: OHSU Trains Surgeons on Pigs
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RECIPE: Orange Cranberry Cardamom Bars
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EVENT: Vancouver BYOF Picnic/Potluck, Jan 26
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EVENT: Westside Vegan Potluck, Feb 19
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Now Hiring!
Outreach, Event, and Volunteer Coordinator Needed
Northwest VEG is seeking a part-time employee to serve as our Outreach, Event, and Volunteer Coordinator. We are seeking an employee who is passionate about promoting a 100% plant-based diet for a healthy, sustainable, and compassionate world.
The part-time position will average about 20 hours per week but could vary during particularly busy times around major events. Northwest VEG does not have an office, so the employee must be able to work from his/her own home. Applications are due by Friday, February 24, 2023.
The Coordinator will work with the Northwest VEG Board and key volunteers to oversee events, projects, social media, and classes. The Coordinator will also recruit, motivate, train, supervise, and support volunteers for these Northwest VEG activities as much as possible rather than taking on the tasks themselves.
Applicant must be friendly and outgoing with good interpersonal skills, be well-organized, self-motivated, and be an effective communicator. Please go to the NW VEG Jobs Page for a full description of the position and its duties and to learn how to apply.
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A Potential Factory Farm Moratorium in Oregon -
Holding Them Accountable Nationwide
by Donna Reynolds & Linda Hendrickson
Two pieces of legislation involving factory farms have been in the news in the past few months and both would improve animal welfare if passed.
Factory farms are detrimental in a variety of ways, so environmental, public health, and animal welfare groups are working together to pass House Bill 2667 which would place a moratorium on the new construction or expansion of factory farms in Oregon.
Nationally, Cory Booker, the vegan Democratic senator from New Jersey, has introduced the Industrial Agriculture Accountability Act, that includes items such as making U.S. corporations and factory farms more responsible in a disaster, ending both line-speed increases and the meatpacker self-inspection programs for animal slaughter, and requiring better, more humane treatment of livestock while they’re being transported for long periods of time.
Factory farms emit harmful air pollutants that initially appear mostly invisible like hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, particulate pollution, volatile organic compounds, and greenhouse gases. But their damaging effects can be seen and felt and include acid rain, respiratory problems, asthma, heart attacks, headaches, nausea, increased risk of cancer, and the most critical—the dangerous warming of the planet. These mega farms also both consume and pollute great amounts of water, exploit their workers, contribute to the loss of family farms, and are cruel to the animals they raise by isolating and slaughtering male dairy calves and clipping chickens’ beaks, among other harmful acts. There are already 11 mega-dairies in Oregon that when combined, house more than 100,000 cows. Also, there are currently three more proposed mega-chicken factory farms in the fertile Willamette Valley southeast of Salem, and if they receive final approval, they would produce more than 10 million chickens annually here in Oregon, adding to the pollution that factory farms create.
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The short answer is “yes.” In fact, the whole of our body fat constitutes the largest endocrine organ in the body, sending all sorts of hormonal messages to other bodily parts. It also functions as padding, insulation, and notably as fuel when muscles run out of their normal fuel, glycogen, which is derived from carbohydrates.
Is ongoing dietary fat necessary, and if so, how much? Again, the answer to the first question is “yes,” as, among other things, it is needed in order to absorb vitamins A, D, E, and K, as well as a variety of carotenoids such as those in green, orange, and red vegetables.
How much do we actually need? Recommendations vary considerably, but a commonly accepted range is from 20-35% of calories. Ten percent is considered extremely low, but “very low-fat diets have provided effective therapeutic intervention to thousands of people with life-threatening conditions…. However, studies examining the health effects of eating higher-fat whole plant foods yield results that are overwhelmingly positive.” So the actual percentage isn’t as important as what kind of fat it is. In the end, “quality trumps quantity” except when intake is excessive.
What do we mean by “quality?” Fat comes naturally in three levels of saturation: monounsaturated, polyunsaturated, and saturated. The first two are generally considered healthy and predominate in plants, while the third is generally considered unhealthy and predominates in animal-based foods. Trans fats are not natural; they are artificially created by the process of hydrogenation (adding hydrogen atoms). Basically, they saturate unsaturated oils. Trans fats were originally thought to be healthier than saturated fats, but it is now known that they are even more unhealthy than naturally saturated fats.
High-fat whole plant foods include avocados, olives, nuts, and seeds. These are the primary and highest quality sources of fat in a whole-foods plant-based diet. (Be careful of the high sodium content of olives, though.) What about their oils? Oils are 100% fat. They have lost all of the protein, carbohydrates, and fiber, and many of the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients in the foods they are from, due to the refining process. Unrefined oils are better than highly refined oils, but have still had losses in the extraction process. Olive oil, which is predominately monounsaturated, is considered a “health food” in some cultures. That would be an overstatement. Oils can be useful in limited quantities, but are not a requirement for a healthy diet.
Where do Omega-3s fit in? Polyunsaturated fats contain essential fatty acids (LA and ALA) that are converted by the body into Omega-6 and Omega-3 fatty acids, respectively. The important factor for health is the relative amounts of these two. Ideally, the diet should contain two to four times as much Omega-6 as Omega-3. Vegan diets often contain 8-18 times as much Omega-6 compared to Omega-3 partly because vegans don’t eat fish, which contain a direct source of Omega-3s. Microalgae supplements are available to boost Omega-3s (DHA and EPA), but below is a guide to help balance it more naturally:
Walnuts and hemp seeds contain both Omegas in the desired proportions.
Almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts (actually a legume), pecans, pistachios, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds contain Omega-6 but little or no Omega-3.
Chia seeds and flax seeds have 3-4 times as much Omega-3 as Omega-6, so can balance the Omega-6s in the other nuts and seeds.
Avocados contain approximately 13 times as much Omega-6 as Omega-3, but a teaspoon of either flax seeds or chia seeds is enough to balance an entire avocado.
Olive oil also contains approximately 13 times as much Omega-6 as Omega-3, although the amounts are different from avocados. Raw spinach contains five times as much Omega-3 as Omega-6, but both quantities are very small. It would take six cups of raw spinach to balance one tablespoon of olive oil, or two cups to balance one teaspoon.
Source:
Brenda Davis and Vesanto Melina, Becoming Vegan, Comprehensive Edition, (Book Publishing Company, 2014), pp. 107-146.
"The Truth About Fat," NOVA series, 2020 WGBH Educational Foundation, rebroadcast December 28, 2022.
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OHSU Trains Surgeons
on Pigs
by Donna Reynolds
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Have you seen the billboards in Portland that were recently installed by PCRM (Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine) that ask “Does OHSU Think You're a Pig?” and that tell OHSU “Stop Killing Animals to Train Doctors”?
PCRM, as well as 79% of the surgery training programs in the U.S., believe that using lifelike simulators offer an overall better and more humane teaching experience than using pigs to practice their multiple surgeries on. And the simulators are not killed after the surgeries like the pigs are. The highly realistic simulators include layers of lifelike skin, muscle, and blood vessels and can bleed and provide physiological responses and don’t have the different anatomy that the pig has.
However, Oregon Health & Science University does not believe the simulators are adequate and remains the only surgery residence program in both Oregon and Washington that is still training surgeons on pigs.
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Orange Cranberry Cardamom Bars
by Linda Tyler
Don’t let the plain brown look of these bars fool you. They are bursting with flavor. And no sugar, butter, or other processed ingredients — a win-win. The cardamom, orange, and cranberry complement each other incredibly well. These would be especially good for a healthy holiday treat. No sacrifice here.
Makes an 8”x 8” pan of bars (a double recipe fits in a 13”x 9” pan)
Line an 8”x 8” baking pan with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Roast the quinoa, nuts, and seeds. Spread out the quinoa and pumpkin seeds in a 13”x 9” or 16”x 12” pan. Bake them in the oven for 7 minutes.
- 3/8 cup raw pumpkin seeds, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup quinoa
Remove from the oven and add the following ingredients. Bake for another 7 minutes. Everything should all be aromatic and starting to brown.
- 1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
- 1/4 cup raw pecans, walnuts, cashews, or macadamia nuts, chopped
- 1/8 cup hemp or sesame seeds
Make the date-flax paste. Blend the following ingredients in a small blender (I use my bullet blender) until as smooth as possible – it doesn’t have to be ultra-smooth. (Soak the dates and flaxseed for 5-10 minutes in the water beforehand if you have time.)
- 4-5 Medjool dates cut into a few pieces each, about 1/2 cup dates
- 2/3 cup warm water
- 1 Tablespoon flaxseed meal
Put it all together. In a medium bowl, stir together the following ingredients until smooth.
- the date/flax paste
- zest from one orange (large orange, if possible)
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3/4 cup almond butter (almond butter, not flour)
- 1/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (or 1-to-1 flour for gluten-free)
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon vital wheat gluten (or 1/4 teaspoon xanthan gum for gluten-free)
- 1 teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Add the following ingredients and stir again.
- the roasted quinoa, nuts, and seeds
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit of your choice)
Spread the mixture in the baking pan and bake in a 350°F oven for 22-28 minutes, until golden brown, with the sides turned a darker shade of brown. Allow them to cool completely before slicing so that they hold together better.
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Vancouver BYOF Picnic/Potluck
Bring Your Own Food
and something to share if you'd like
Thursday, January 26th from 5:30 - 7:30 PM (presentation begins at 6:00 PM)
NEW LOCATION (indoors):
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This month's presentation:
The Environmental Impacts of Food Choices
with Peter Spendelow
Humans negatively impact the environment in many ways, but many do not realize that agriculture - the growing of food - has larger impacts than almost anything else humans do. But not all foods are the same - some have negative impacts that have 10 to 50 times more negative impacts than other foods that can provide the same nutritional benefit. Peter Spendelow will give a presentation on how the foods we choose to grow and eat affect the environment, and the steps that all of us can do to reduce that impact.
Peter has a PhD in Zoology, specializing in Ecology and has worked for 37 years as an environmental scientist for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Peter also is the former President of Northwest VEG.
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Westside Vegan Potluck
- Sunday, February 19, 2023
- 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM
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West Hills Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (map)
- 8470 SW Oleson Road, Portland, OR, 97223
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Come for the potluck at 5:00 PM or the presentation at 6:15 PM, or both. Rowdy Keelor, well known presenter from nonprofit Factory Farming Awareness Coalition, will be the featured guest speaker by way of a live Zoom link. Rowdy has inspired many students to be the change they wish to see in the world by helping to spread the word about Factory Farming. Learn more about the presentation here. For the potluck, please bring a plant-based (no animal products, including honey) main dish, salad, or dessert; a card listing its ingredients; and plates and utensils for your use. If you come alone, figure the amount to serve 4-6; increase the amount 4 servings for each additional person in your party/family. A donation of $2-5 is suggested to help cover the cost of the venue rental.
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Northwest VEG
We appreciate your support!
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NORTHWEST VEG | nwveg.org |
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