#VeggieDag Thursday: Quick Links for February 2015.

VeggieDag Thursday is an occasional Thursday post
on an animal-free diet and ecological issues.

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Quick links for February 2015

• 28 February 2015:
  Nearly half of all fruits and vegetables produced in world end up as waste.
  —Via FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations).


• 12 February 2015:
  Marcellus Shale field pipeline threatens pristine forest in upstate New York.
  —Via New York Times.


• 4 February 2015:
  A pint of beer requires roughly 1.5 gallons of water solely for hop cultivation (and a total water requirement of between 8 and 24 gallons, per pint). By comparison, a glass of almond milk needs 23 gallons of water, and cow's milk requires 30 gallons.
  —Via Mother Jones.


• 29 January 2015:
  Choose blending over juicing for more nutrients in fruit (and veggies).Texas A&M study.
  —Via NPR Food.


• 26 January 2015:
  President Obama proposes setting aside more than 12 million acres in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, and thus off-limits to oil exploration.
  —A map, via Washington Post.


• 23 January 2015:
  Tomato 'Sushi:' "a dead ringer for Ahi tuna sashimi?" The plant-based faux-fish movement.
  —Via NPR Food.


• 22 January 2015:
  Biologists unexpectedly discover fish living deep under Antarctica’s ice shelf, under 2,428 feet of ice and 528 miles from the edge of the ice shelf, far from any hint of sunlight, the energy source that typically powers marine food webs.
  —Via Smithsonian Magazine.


• 21 January 2015:
  For the first time in over one hundred years, baby tortoises have been found on an island in the Galapagos.
  —Via The Dodo.




• 20 January 2015:
  Fracking now occurs in 22 U.S. states; could soon begin in 5 more.
  —A map, via Inside Climate News.


• 16 January 2015:
  2014 was the warmest year on record, since measurements began in 1880. Findings announced jointly by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The 10 hottest years in modern times have all come since 1997, NASA scientists said.
  —Via Washington Post.


• 15 January 2015:
  Pope Francis I on climate change: Man has "slapped nature in the face;" hopes his upcoming encyclical on the environment will encourage negotiators at a climate change meeting in Paris to make "courageous" decisions. Investor's Business Daily responds that the pope's climate change focus was "even more disturbing" than his "recent leftist statements," and that the Vatican "apparently now has been infiltrated by followers of a radical green movement."
  —Via Huffington Post Green.


• 15 January 2015:
  "The not-so-humane way ‘humanely raised’ chickens are being raised. [...] The physical toll the chickens endure as a result of their genetic make-up only appears to be exacerbated by the physical reality of circumstances in which they're being raised. The birds are confined to a space smaller than a square foot, and frequently spend their entire lives atop mounds of feces. The result is that many birds—more than 1,000 per 30,000 bird flock—die within the first six weeks."
  —Via Washington Post.


• 14 January 2015:
  New study: offshore wind power would create more jobs for mid-Atlantic than oil drilling.
  —Via Blue Virginia.


• 7 January 2015:
  Researchers discover a new form of possibly resistance-free antibiotic that grows only IN soil, not in laboratory conditions.
  —Via Boston Globe.


• 8 December 2014:
  The majority of streams in the Chesapeake Bay region are warming, and that increase appears to be driven largely by rising air temperatures. These findings are based on new U.S. Geological Survey research published in the journal Climatic Change. Air temperature has risen 1.1 C (1.98 F), and water temperature has risen 1.4 C (2.52 F) between 1960 and 2010 in the Chesapeake Bay region.
  —Via Science Daily.

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RECIPES

• Meatless 'Meatball' sub sandwich.
  —Via One Green Planet.


• Vegan 'Lobster' Rolls (with hearts of palm).
  —Via The Lusty Vegan.


• Seventeen recipes for plant-based Super Bowl snacks. (Valid for other occasions.)
  —Via YFGF.


• The science of pie crusts.
  —Video, via Post TV.


• Virginia Peanut Soup, but no peanut butter. Creamy, but no dairy.
  —Via Washington Post Food.


• The recipe for, and history of, the United States Senate's famous Navy Bean Soup.
  —Via WAMU Metro Connection.
  —Vegetarian recipe, via Slate.


• "Make 2015 the year of tempeh, [...] the cultured soybean cake with as much protein as beef. [...] Fermentation makes tempeh quite possibly the most nutritious, digestible form of soy around. It’s also one of the least-processed, using the whole bean (as opposed to tofu, made from soy milk)."
  —Via Joe Yonan (Editor, Washington Post Food).

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