Cooked: Netflix Documentary Series with Michael Pollan

I recently watched all four episodes of Cooked, a Netflix documentary series based on Michael Pollan's book of the same name. I didn't expect to be as completely enthralled in it as I was, and I watched all four episodes in one day -- and I started taking notes because I found so much of the subject matter interesting.

Episode 1: Fire

The four episodes are based around four breakthroughs in cooking, and they also align with the four elements. Fire represents -- you guessed it -- cooking with fire, and with the application of heat more generally.

This episode set the stage for how vital cooking is to human survival. We are the only species that cooks, but unlike a lot of things that humans do, cooking is natural for us, and necessary for our survival. We co-evolved with cooking: We have small jaws, small teeth, a relatively weak digestive system. And big brains. Cooking means that we don't have to spend all day chewing fibrous plant matter, and therefore expend most of energy eating. The energy saved was used up by the growing brain, and the time saved means humans could explore other pursuits.

This episode focused a lot on meat. I have been a vegetarian for over a year, but the slow-cooked Southern barbecue looked pretty good.

Michael Pollan made a statement in defense of meat, saying that he doesn't think the environment would be better off if everyone became a vegetarian because most of the most sustainable agriculture systems involve both animals and plants.

Of course, this is not referring to how the majority of agriculture, especially animal agriculture, is done today.

There is indeed a natural symbiosis between animals and plants that can be captured on a farm: The animals eat the plants, the animals' waste fertilizes the plants. However, in order to have a food system that resembles this, we would have to severely cut back on the amount of meat that everyone eats. Many farms do use animal waste as fertilizer, especially organic farms, but there's simply too much animal waste and too few crops. Animals raised in industrial settings are also prone to diseases, and their waste can transfer diseases like e. coli to crops.

So I'm not sure if I agree with Pollan that not everyone should be a vegetarian. But that's kind of a ridiculously hypothetical way to think about it: Not everyone is a vegetarian, and the majority of people are only going to keep eating more and more meat no matter what happens to the planet or their own health. So really it's the least I can do to try to offset that trend a little by eating no meat at all.

Episode 2: Water

This episode went into pot cooking and how specific flavors and cuisines developed around the world. Cooking in water binds flavors together in a unique way.

One chef in particular made some comments that really spoke to me. She said that she thinks of cooking as a "mindful" task, and that in modern life we try to get away from these small tasks so we have more time for life -- "but this is life." Any time spent creating something is valuable time.

Pollan expressed a hope that this may be a "cooking renaissance" where we cook not because we have to, but because we want to -- for our health and happiness.

Episode 3: Air

This episode was all about bread making, and it was fascinating. Bread represents civilization and has certainly fueled most major civilizations. There's something about bread that makes it more nutritious than its parts: water and flour.

This something is when you add microbes and yeast from the air. For a long time, there was no instant yeast, so water and flour were left out to be exposed to airborne yeast. Then the dough was fermented over a period of a few days: this breaks down the flour and gluten to become more easily digestible. This method of making bread using "wild" yeast and long fermentation is called sourdough. (Turns out it's not just a flavor!)

This type of bread is particularly nutritious. All bread used to be "sourdough." One doctor raised an interesting question: Could instant yeast be the reason for so much gluten sensitivity today? Not people with an allergy (Celiac disease, about 1% of the population) but people who just report a sensitivity to gluten?

It seems plausible.

Episode 4: Earth

While the air episode dealt with fermentation, this episode focused on it completely. One-third of the foods in our diet are fermented and we may not know it at all. Alcohol, chocolate, cheese, ketchup, soy sauce.

Fermented foods are often the most culturally distinct and "weird." Such as 1,000 year old egg and fermented Icelandic shark. They are certainly an acquired taste.

This episode touched on the anti-bacterial craze, and how this kills many good bacteria in our environment and in our own bodies, making digestion more difficult. The pasteurization of milk is also unnecessary if cows are raised in clean enough conditions. The episode featured a microbiologist/nun who makes French cheese from raw milk. She's incredible.

My first week with the Diva Cup

For the past year or so, I've been taking slow and steady steps toward reducing the waste I produce. The Diva Cup, a brand of menstrual cup, had been on my radar for a while since it had received some attention earlier in the year. I read some articles about women's experiences using it -- many spoke about getting up close and personal with their body and menstruation. This product is supposed to be healthier and safer than tampons, and will save you money over time as you no longer need to buy disposable tampons and pads.

I was mostly interested in the cup as a way to reduce waste; tampons and pads had become a significant chunk of the waste I still produce, and this was one way to cut that out once and for all. I intended to order one online, but came across it in Target when I was going to buy more tampons. Instead of the tampons, I made the investment in the Diva Cup.

After a week of using it, I'm glad I started using it sooner rather than later. There is a little bit of a learning curve with putting it in and taking it out, but it was easy to get the hang out. I've had no problems with leaks and very little discomfort (comparable discomfort to tampons, but mostly you can't feel it).

The instructions with the box are very useful and will answer just about any concerns you may have.

If you are interested in buying a menstrual cup, read around for other women's reviews to see some of the pros and cons.

One con definitely would be using it in a public restroom. It is definitely possible, but not quite as easy as using pads and tampons. If you have a heavy period this might be a barrier. However, since you can wear the Diva Cup for longer periods of time than a tampon, you should be able to wait until you get home to take it out.

If you are committed to a reason why you want to do this, you'll be happy you did!

Bojack Horseman is really good

This animated Netflix original series might have flown under your radar completely. I assumed it was just another animated show for adults, with weird anthropomorphic animals and off-color jokes. Oh, man, I was wrong.

So I started watching because Aaron Paul (of Breaking Bad) voices Todd, one of the main characters. The first few episodes are widely considered a little slow, and unspectacular. But they’re not bad, by any means, and the episodes are short. Once you get 4 or 5 episodes into season 1, the show really blossoms. It took me a few episodes to get into the show. 

The jokes are funny — or, more accurately, clever. Many jokes rely on the audience’s knowledge of pop culture. The gags are often subtle and more ironic than laugh-out-loud. But I have laughed out loud at this show. (Although irony is definitely my sense of humor). 

The strongest part of Bojack, however, is the characters and the story. I think that this show portrays relationships with a nuance that is rarely seen even in traditional dramas. Some characters may seem annoying or flat in season 1 (Mr. Peanutbutter, Princess Carolyn…) but by the third season you will love them. 

The impeccable continuity in the show becomes a running gag in the third season: “The pay-off is going to be huge!” — The continuity is worth mentioning because it demonstrates the amount of care and precision that goes into Bojack. 

Be prepared: This show might appear like a comedy at first, but it’s actually incredibly sad at times. I cried at the end of season 3 (you’ll see when you get there). It goes to some very dark places, and handles these emotions so well you’ll forgot you’re looking at talking animals. The show is often heralded as one of the most realistic portrayals of depression and substance abuse, and I think this is true. 

Personally, I love the existential nihilism in the show. What better way to distract you from your own existential nihilism than to watch an animated horse grapple with the meaningless of existence? 

If you're a fan of dry, ironic humor, you like good storytelling and characters, or you just like being sad -- give Bojack Horseman a try. 

Harvesting and using my vermicompost

I started vermicomposting with 1,000 red worms in an indoor bin a little over a month ago. My last post was about them trying to escape when I first added them... Luckily that ended completely after several days! They have adjusted well to the bin, and not a single worm has crawled out in weeks. They've stayed in the bin, and have been working non-stop to break down all that food. After only a month I've been able to collect a fair amount of rich soil and worm castings.

But first, here's a few things I've learned:

1. Adding food adds most of the moisture you need. Since the ideal moisture level is about that of a wrung-out sponge, you probably won't have to spray down your worm bin with water if you're adding food to it regularly. As plant matter breaks down, it gets wet. Really wet. This also means you have to add some dry stuff to soak it up. By doing this, you'll be able to balance the carbon and nitrogen in your bin without even really thinking about it. If it's too wet or smelly, add some dry stuff like newspaper -- that's the carbon.

2. Some foods break down really fast, and some take a lot longer. I added some watermelon (not the rind but the inside) that went bad and it had disappeared in the span of two days. It's mostly water! Other things that are fibrous take a lot longer to break down, even with the worm's help. The stem of banana peels are one that will still be visible in the bin for over a month. Even when these things are no longer recognizable, you may notice some fibers in your vermicompost. There's nothing wrong with this, you'll notice the same thing in all types of soil!

3. Freezing food waste is a good way to store excess waste in a way that doesn't stink. For instance, if you produce a lot of food waste at once, like say, you carved up a watermelon, you don't want to put all that in at once. So chop it up into little pieces and freeze it. Then take out small amounts at a time, thaw overnight, and feed it to your worms. This has the added benefit of preventing fruit flies and other pests that could be living in your food scraps.

Another thing I've learned is that harvesting is easier than you think! I've harvested in two ways so far, so I'll talk about both of these.

The first is a very quick way to get pure worm castings. This is the most nutrient-dense part of vermicompost -- it's the worm's poop. My worms like to crawl along the sides and inside lid of my bin, so the castings collect along there. When there's a lot, I scrape out the sides and inside of the lid and I end up with maybe a couple tablespoons of pure worm castings. It's not much, but you can do it every few weeks and put a pinch on each of your indoor plants. Then water them to wash the nutrients down into the soil.

Just today, about a month into the life of my bin, I did a more complete harvest and collected about three cups of vermicompost. This was easier than I thought it would be. I put the lid across the bin sideways so half was shaded and then I shoved most of the bin's contents to the shaded side. This left only the bottom layer that was mostly decomposed and very dark in color. The worms will leave this part after a while because of the light, and then you can scoop out the rich, dark soil.

You'll know it's ready because it looks just like soil. You can't recognize anything that went into it, including bedding and food. I had to pick out a couple bits of banana peel and some newspaper strips -- and a lot of worms. It's a little time-consuming to do it this way. If you want to collect a lot more in less time, you can leave in a few worms and bits of stuff that's not completely decomposed. This doesn't really matter if you're putting it on your garden for instance.

But I was planning to use this to pot a plant so I wanted purer compost, and it really didn't take too long to get enough. Here's what it looks like:

Vermicompost in a jar.

As you can see, it looks just like soil. It's also moist -- about the same moisture as a wrung-out sponge, again. If you're not using it immediately, you should try to keep it at this moisture level. If it dries out completely, the microbes will die and it won't be as valuable.

I used about half vermicompost and half potting soil to pot this plant, so if something goes terribly wrong I'll let you know -- but I think the plant, a dracaena marginata, seems happy.

My new plant! Only 2 dollars at IKEA. 

You can see above the difference in color between the potting soil and vermicompost: The vermicompost at the bottom is much darker than the potting soil.

Vermicomposting is definitely like a hobby for me now and I understand why so many people enjoy it. I feed the worms every few days, and I could probably feed them more than I'm currently feeding them, but I'm also sending off some stuff for composting at a different facility -- which means I get to be picky about what I feed them!

The importance of organics composting

People have been composting at home for ages, but city-wide organics collection is a fairly new part of waste management. The concept is pretty new to me too, but I've been learning a lot about it; I've been working toward introducing organics collection at my university for the past few months, and I have a summer internship focused on community outreach about recycling and composting.

And I've realized that composting is not just a new trend, but an essential part of waste management that can combat climate change and bring us toward zero-waste.

Composting is how we can keep organic materials (anything that comes from a plant or animal) from going into a landfill or the ocean, or being burned in an incinerator and polluting the air. This covers all food waste (preventable table scraps as well as non-preventable waste like apples cores, banana peels, etc) and non-recyclable paper products like napkins and paper towels.

You might notice that these are things that break down quickly-- a lot quicker than plastic waste, for instance. So why is it important that organics don't end up in a landfill?

When a bunch of organic matter is in a landfill, it's been compacted together and buried under tons of other waste, and usually sealed with plastic above and below. This is a lot different than just throwing an apple core into the woods.

When organics decompose in a landfill, they decompose anaerobically -- without oxygen. Whereas all decomposition produces carbon dioxide, anaerobic decomposition also produces methane: a greenhouse gas that's actually 20 times more potent than CO2.

And it's not an insignificant amount of methane: Landfills are the number one anthropogenic source of methane emissions.

Additionally, anaerobic conditions can produce leachate, a toxic sludge, that can leak into the groundwater and soil from a landfill. It's bad stuff.

Okay, so what about when food gets into the rivers and oceans, such as through a garbage disposal? (That's where it goes when you wash it down the drain by the way!) Well, that just adds phosphorous and nitrogen to water, which cause algal blooms and dead-zones.

While burning organic waste isn't as bad as these other options, it's still a pollutant and incinerators are usually located in poor neighborhoods, leading to asthma and other respiratory ailments. And I'll remind you, food scraps and paper are not the only things being burned here.

The bottom line is: This stuff shouldn't be waste! We can turn it into a useful and valuable product to use to grow more food. Of course, the value of the compost depends on inputs and the process: compost consisting mostly of food scraps is more nutrient-dense than compost consisting mostly of napkins for instance -- vermicomposting (using worms) produces the most valuable compost out there.

City-collected compost may not yield the most valuable end result, but it still creates a usable product -- and most of all, it reduces waste, combats climate change and pollution. Whether or not there's a ton of economic value in this should be secondary to that.

Re: The vegetarian/vegan versus meat-eater debate

I decided to become a vegetarian last year because of the environmental impacts of animal agriculture, but as time goes on I've become more committed to the animal welfare and human health arguments as well. Recently, I'm trying to eat a mostly vegan diet except for when it's not possible due to not wanting to turn down my mom's cooking, and having to eat at restaurants. When I became a vegetarian I didn't want to become one of those annoying, preachy ones. And yet, here we are today. If you don't die a hero you live long enough to see yourself become a villain, or something like that.

So, today I want to respond to a few of the really annoying things meat eaters say and do.

(Just a warning, this is incredibly bitter because I am a militant vegetarian.)

Also, these are all things I've actually seen and heard people say, to me or to others! I am not fighting a straw-man here!


1. The plants die too! They can feel pain.

This is ridiculous for a lot of reasons. First of all, no. Plants do not feel pain. They don't have a nervous system. The animals you eat, however can feel pain. Not to mention, the animals you eat eat plants (and other animals who also ate plants and other animals, and so on). Plus, I really, really hope that you've been eating plants as well. If not, I'm really concerned and you should definitely stop worrying about dead plants and start eating some goddamn vegetables.


2. It's better for us to eat the animals then for them to suffer and die in the wild.

I have really, truthfully seen this argument made. And I think this person is very confused because they think that if we weren't eating cows and chickens and pigs that they would still be on this earth, but living in the wild. If the entire earth were to stop eating animal products, we would phase out all of our livestock, and then there wouldn't be any left, or more likely a small population to feed our carnivore pets, like dogs and cats, and zoo animals.

Right now at any given moment there are 70 billion animals raised for human consumption on the planet. This is absolutely nuts, and they do not need to be here, using up our precious resources that humans and wild animals need to survive.

However, I will say that hunting deer and other overpopulated wild animals for human consumption is totally fine, and actually does help the population as a whole. As long as hunting is actually managed, and doesn't harm the species. Wolf hunting, for instance, should never be legal. But it is legal thanks to (guess who!) the animal agriculture industry! If we didn't have cows, wolves would not be a problem, and they could be allowed to thrive, and our ecosystems would return to balance.


3. I guess you care more about animals than the migrant farm workers who pick your vegetables.

This one ticks me off like nothing else. Actually, I do care about migrant farm workers more than animals. Which is why I try to buy tomatoes such as Bushel Boy, grown in Minnesota, or produce from a farm that I know uses ethical labor, such as a CSA farm.

Also, I have to say: when people say this I get very concerned for their health because I take this to mean that they are practicing what they preach and are not eating any vegetables or fruit that are handpicked. Please, sir. Eat some vegetables.

And last, but definitely not least, it's pretty transparent that you are only concerned about the plight of migrant farm workers when you want to make yourself feel better for eating meat. I could come right back and ask you if you care about the terribly mistreated workers in slaughterhouses, who aren't even allowed to leave the floor for a bathroom break and work in filthy, incredibly dangerous conditions. But I won't ask because I know you don't care about people's wellbeing at all. Thank you for your time.


4. You won't get any protein.

Yes, and neither do elephants or rhinos, some of the largest and strongest animals who -- surprise! --only eat plants (sarcasm if you didn't notice). There's tons of protein in all leafy greens, a lot of grains, beans, etc. There's actually protein in virtually everything. It's not difficult to get the amount of protein you need.

Protein deficiency, called kwashiorkor, is not very common. Hence why you have never heard of it, and are inventing it as a problem to harass vegetarians. Kwashiorkor has only been seen in cases where people are starving (it causes the protruding bellies of starving children), or people who are anorexic-- who are also starving. Since protein is in virtually all foods, the only way to not get enough protein is to not eat enough food. In which case, you have a lot more problems than not building muscle.

I'll say this again: Protein deficiency doesn't exist in people who eat enough food.

Period. Stop talking to me about this.

Most people actually eat way more protein than they actually need. And these people aren't just the strong body building type. The average American consumes about twice as much protein as they need, and as we all know, the average American isn't exactly a poster-child for good health.

Eating a varied, plant-based diet provides all the necessary protein without the additional fat and cholesterol. It's really not that difficult to get all the needed nutrients as a vegetarian. Not to mention, just because you're eating meat doesn't mean you automatically have a more balanced diet. So many people seem to think this is true, and it drives me crazy.

Another point: Meat is not a more "complete" or "high-quality" protein than plants. 

You don't have to pair rice and beans for instance, to create a "complete" protein. This is a myth. The person who originally wrote this was not a nutritionist. Frances Moore Lappé wrote this in her book Diet For A Small World, because, being indoctrinated in American nutrition ideas, she believed it must be true that plants are not "high-quality" proteins. She has since stated that she had no evidence for this claim, but it was too late-- it has caught on, not only among omnivores, but even sometimes in the vegetarian/vegan community.

If we follow the logic that animal meat is more complete because it more closely resembles our own muscle structure and omega-3 balance, then maybe we should eat human meat. That would be the most complete, high-quality protein out there.

Of course, it doesn't hurt to eat a wide variety of plant foods, but it's not necessary to "complement" your proteins as a vegetarian. This is not even a real thing, and all it does is convince people that being a vegetarian or vegan is too hard and takes too much thought-- and that it's easy to mess up and end up protein-deficient or iron-deficient or anything like tha.

It doesn't. It's pretty simple, I promise.


5. Humans evolved to eat meat (and dairy).

This is true! However, it's always presented as a "gotcha" argument. Just because we evolved to be able to do something doesn't mean we should. Besides, we evolved to eat meat sparingly, and usually after great physical exertion from hunting. Not after sitting in a drive through. Human's ability to eat meat has been most beneficial in extreme climates, such as the Arctic and deserts, where plant life is not available much of the year. This is not the case for most people on earth anymore. It's true that we are able to eat small amounts of meat as part of a healthy diet, but factory-farmed, processed meat is not a part of our evolutionary heritage.

The bottom line is: we don't have to eat meat, and since it's hurting our planet, we shouldn't. There are really too many people on this earth to take an "in-moderation" approach anyway. 7 billion people eating meat in moderation, in a healthy way, is still too much for the planet to handle.

As for dairy-- the majority of people on earth (75%) never got that gene. Basically, only people of European and northern African descent are not "lactose intolerant" because they lived in cold climates or deserts where milk was necessary to survival.


6. Dairy is a good source of calcium. 

I get very worked up when people claim that dairy is an essential food group and the best way (or even a good way) to get calcium. It is not a good way to get calcium, if you want to help your bones. Dairy (and meat) is acidic so it actually leaches your bones*. Calcium, an alkaline mineral, ends up in cow's milk because they eat grass (or corn and soy supplemented with calcium powder by farmers), and calcium, like all minerals, is found in the earth. You know, where grass, and other plants come from. Go right to the source and eat some dark green things. Those have tons of calcium in them.

*More on leaching bones: This happens because in the body's attempt to balance out the acidity from meat and dairy, calcium, an alkaline substance, is drawn out of the bones, and then it exits the body through urination. At best, you can maybe offset the calcium loss through milk, but isn't a net gain better? Places (such as the U.S., Australia, and Scandinavia) where dairy is a big part of the diet are the same places where we see high rates of osteoporosis.

Besides, the majority of people on earth (75%) can't consume dairy once they're adults, and they're just fine. Obviously, dairy is not essential, or even beneficial, to our health.

The fact that milk is the only included beverage option in a lot of school cafeterias (at mine, you had to pay extra for water-- but sugar-filled chocolate milk was free!) speaks to the power of the USDA and Dairy industry. Our school cafeteria was lined with "Got Milk?" posters. They really had me fooled.


7. Growing vegetables uses and harms the land, too.

Yes, this is true. All farming has an impact on the land, most of it very negative. However, as we stand, the majority of our crops go to feeding animals. If we were directly eating crops, instead of eating what eats our crops, we would need far less land to satisfy the world's need for food. Some estimates say that it takes less than an acre to feed someone a vegan diet. (It takes about three times that to feed someone a vegetarian diet, and 20 times that to feed someone a standard American diet with high meat and dairy consumption.) This right here has a huge impact: less deforestation, less water use, less pollution.

Besides eating land- and water-intensive crops, animals also pollute a lot more than crops. They produce a, well, shit-ton of waste, that is not treated and allowed to soak into the ground (and ground water) or flow into the rivers and oceans, creating nitrogen dead zones. This waste also contributes to global warming, because it produces carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrogen oxides, which are all greenhouses gases, the next only more harmful and potent than the last.


8. You think you're better than me!

If you are concerned about the environment, about your own health, about animal cruelty, about the oceans, about wildlife, about global warming, about human starvation, about public and childhood health problems --

If you are concerned about any of these issues, and you are aware about the impacts of animal agriculture, then you can choose to ignore what you know and live in willful ignorance -- or you can practice some restraint and live up to your values. Food tastes so much better when it represents what you really believe in and care about.


9. Do you only eat salads?

I eat basically anything you eat, except without or replacing the meat. You eat vegetarian meals more often than you think, I promise. It's not hard.


10. Don't tell me, I don't wanna know about animal cruelty :(

If you can't handle the truth of what happens on factory farms and slaughterhouses, if you don't think you could kill an animal to eat, then honestly... I don't think you deserve to eat meat. Don't be a hypocrite, and don't be willfully ignorant.

If you truly don't care about animal welfare, well, no judgement but I don't totally want to hang out with you. And I'm not talking about animals getting killed. I understand that animals get killed, and it doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that the slaughterhouses are running at such overcapacity that these deaths are absolutely barbaric.

It's standard procedure to render an animal unconscious first, then hook it up to the conveyor belt thing, then kill it, then start skinning it and dismembering it as it moves through the line.

However, things go wrong far too often. Countless slaughterhouse workers can testified that animals often regain consciousness somewhere along that line, and are killed while conscious. Or worse, they aren't killed, and are skinned and dismembered while alive and conscious.

I hope some part of you might not want a sentient being going through this.

If you want to hunt and kill a wild animal, if you want to quickly kill an animal yourself on a farm-- I have no moral dilemmas. The industrialization is the problem. There is no way to humanely kill about 10 billion animals per year in the United States alone. There just isn't. Many of these animals will suffer unspeakably before they end up on your plate. (And that's just the slaughterhouses, we're not even talking about factory farm conditions here.)

So yeah, you didn't want to hear about animal cruelty to upset your delicate sensibilities, but if you're making the choice to eat meat I think you should know the full extent of what that means.


11. I'm a vegetarian, I only eat fish and chicken, and sometimes red meat.

What? No! Do you even know what "vegetarian" means? Pescatarians make me mad, too, because fishing is far more destructive than land agriculture. For every pound of fish caught, 5 pounds of bycatch (non-target sea life, including sea turtles, dolphins, sharks and other fish) are caught and killed by nets or suffocation. For shrimp trawling, the ratio is 1 to 20.

Farming fish and shrimp is not the answer either. This simply concentrates the amount of pollution, in the same way that land farming does, and this pollution often harms wild populations. Also, farmed fish need to eat. They usually eat grains, requiring a lot of land and water and energy input, or they eat wildcaught fish. Wildcaught fish are fed to our farmed animals, including fish, chickens, and pigs, in greater quantities than they are fed to humans.

As far as land animals, cows use the most land between grazing and their feed crops. They eat the most, and produce the most waste, including methane gases. Even if they graze on land that is not suitable for mass agriculture, they still degrade the land by overgrazing. Chickens comprise the majority of farmed animals and we can't underestimate their impact. Chickens and pigs are fed solely feed crops that use a lot of resources to produce, and are grown on land that could be used to feed humans.

However, I'm doing some research to validate what I've heard about mussel and clam farming as being highly sustainable. If it checks out, I will eat these myself and encourage others to do the same! These critters don't require many inputs, and don't pollute the water. Quite the opposite, in fact. Again, I want to do more research before I start eating these again. But I always was a big fan of shellfish!


12. But meat just tastes so good.

This is true. And I do cry a little when I think about chicken tenders, and grilled brats. I wasn't the biggest fan of meat, though, so it's not as hard for me as it might be for others. However, there are great alternative for almost any meat product you can think of.

Besides, I will argue that what you miss about meat isn't really the meat itself but the texture and flavor of how it was cooked. (This sounds like a "duh" moment but let me explain!) There are ways to replicate these flavors and textures pretty easily! Use the same marination and spices you use on meat on your veggies or tofu. Grill them, deep-fry them, char them up. Whatever your vice is, you can beat it.

For me, I really missed sausages and salami. But what I miss, really, is the spices. So, just put those same spices in your veggies.

Okay, but cheese.

The reasons why I'm not a vegan yet are:
1) it's been inconvenient as someone who largely doesn't cook for themselves -- a college student, living on campus or at home
2) dairy and eggs are in all kinds of processed foods that are hard to avoid sometimes
3) CHEESE

Dairy has opiates in it, so that's why giving up cheese seems like such an insurmountable task. Someday, I will atone for my sins, but at this point (where I've been a vegetarian for less than a year) I'm just not quite ready to stop eating all dairy.

When I gave up meat, however, I was surprised how quickly I stopped craving it. I would say, after a month, eating meat became unthinkable. I'm sure the same thing would happen with cheese if I just quit cold-turkey.


13. Meat is a big part of my culture. 

Meat is a part of everyone's culture. I get that. How about we compromise? Is eating turkey on Thanksgiving a really important thing to you and your family? Then go for it. But no culture is built upon eating meat every day, even three times a day. Settle for eating meat maybe two or three times year on special holidays. It will make those holidays even more special, and you won't have to give up a type of food that is important to you completely.

No matter how angry I seem in this post, I'm not advocating for everyone to suffer and make huge sacrifices. In fact, I think that people view vegetarianism/veganism as a huge sacrifice until they do it themselves, and they realize it's pretty easy. That's all I want from people-- to give it a shot.


Some resources:

Forks Over Knives (documentary)

The Sustainability Secret (book by Kip Anderson and Keegan Kuhn) 

Vermicomposting: Getting Started

One of my goals for this year was to start a vermicomposting bin. This is the technical term for composting with worms. I have been researching this for a while, after seeing a classmate's worm bin in the fall. Last week, I got the bins and started collecting food waste. This week, my worms arrived in the mail! I've only been doing this for a couple days, but I've already managed to make several mistakes!

If you haven't started vermicomposting, read this to avoid my mistakes. If you have a lot of experience, please read this anyway, and maybe let me know any helpful tips or tricks!

My bin set up is a medium-sized bin inside of a larger bin (to catch drainage). The worm bin has holes drilled in the sides, bottom, and lid. They are dark gray so they don't let in light. About a week before my worms arrived, I started collecting food waste and adding it to bin, between layers of damp newspaper for bedding.

The two-bin, lidded system -- with tons of ventilation holes.

The problem I believe is that I added too much food waste, and it was too compacted and dry when the worms arrived.

As soon as I added the worms, instead of burrowing into the bin, they all started crawling up and out of the bin. This was obviously a problem since my bin is indoors, and I had about 1,000 worms. Yikes.

I went into troubleshooting mode. I drilled some more ventilation holes in the lid, added a lot more bedding, sprayed it until all layers were damp, and fluffed the old, compacted layers with some tongs. This allowed the food waste to get aerated, and it also reduced the smell after some time. Win-win.

One of the luckier escapees being rescued from the floor.

However, even with these changes, every time I checked there were always between 10 and 20 worms crawling up the sides. We lost about 30 worms on the garage floor during the first night. Not nearly as many escape attempts as there were during the first few hours however!

I think at this point, since they are new to their environment they are restless and just wandering about. The majority of worms have burrowed to the bottom happily, and have started working on the food scraps.

So far, I have added several banana peels, an apple core, some bags and coffee grounds, mushroom stems, lots of strawberry tops, and a couple kale stems. I added a tiny bit of an orange peel, probably about one square inch. I doubt this is causing a problem, but I might try fishing it out if the worms don't calm down since I've heard citrus can be really bad in high quantity.

For bedding, I'm using shredded newspaper and paper towels rolls, and a few shredded wet/food-stained napkins and paper towels.

In order to encourage the worms to burrow down, I sprayed down the bin again, shoved all the crawlers back down the sides, and put a bunch of dry shredded newspaper on top. I'm going to leave the lid off for a while, which I've heard is okay as long as there is protection from light in the form of a layer of bedding. The whole deal is probably about a foot deep at this point so they should be able to get out of the light.

The lidless system has successfully discouraged escape attempts.

Damp bedding (and worms!) underneath the dry layer.

Then I will try to leave them alone for a while so they can situated now that I think I've troubleshooted well enough. I've collected quite a bit more food waste, but I popped it in the freezer so I can store it for later. I don't want to overwhelm them, especially since I'm sure I added too much food to begin with. Plus, freezing will aid in the break down of the food, and kill any pests in the food. I don't want a fruit fly infestation!

(I'm already worried about flies, since I've left the bin outside for a few hours and there were some flies buzzing around when I checked on it.)

If there are any experienced vermicomposters out there with suggestions, or you've noticed something I'm doing is seriously wrong, please let me know! I've done a lot of research on this over the past several months, but doing something firsthand is always a lot different than just reading about it or watching YouTube videos.

My dream house

This semester, one of my classes is called Energy, the Environment and the Economy. One of our projects is to conduct a simplified energy audit of a home or apartment. Because of that, we've been talking about energy-efficient design for homes, and I have a new definition of dream house.

Yes, a house built into either a natural or excavated hillside.

Besides the unique look, it's a very environmentally friendly way to built a home. If all the windows are facing south, you would get a lot of solar gain and very little heat loss since the rest of the home is covered in earth. Underground, the temperature stays about the same (50 degrees F) no matter the temperature above ground. In Minnesota, this means a cooler home in the summer, and a warmer home in the winter.

Think about how low your heating bill would be! And you could have a little garden on your roof.

Smart design that incorporates nature is a great thing, and I hope it's a trend that will take off.

Oscars 2016 reaction and reflection

In my pre-Oscar post, I lied. I watched one more movie before Oscar night and that was The Big Short. And I really liked it! Now onto the main points:


Best Picture: Spotlight

I was very surprised. I thought it was going to either be The Revenant or The Big Short. I would have been perfectly happy with the latter, but I was equally happy to see Spotlight take the win. It was a great movie about a very important topic.


Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio

This was not a surprise, but I'm glad he won. He's a fantastic actor, even if I didn't enjoy this particular role. What's more, he devoted his acceptance speech to talking about climate change. He won my heart.


Best Actress: Brie Larson

I was absolutely delighted to see her win. She deserved it. I can't wait to see her career take off now. In the mean time, I'll watch Room again.


Best Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu

This was not a surprising win, and The Revenant clearly had fantastic direction. However, I would have loved to see Room's director or George Miller of Mad Max take home the win.


Speaking of Mad Max...

It was so fun to see this movie sweep a lot of the technical awards. In number of trophies, this movie was the big winner.

Oscars 2016: thoughts, feelings, and predictions

At this point, I've seen 6 out of the 8 nominees for Best Picture. I don't think I will see any more before the Oscars, so here are some of my predictions and feelings toward a few of the categories.

Best picture

Might as well start at the top. Out of the 8 nominees, I've seen: Spotlight, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant, Room, Brooklyn, and The Martian. I haven't seen Bridge of Spies or The Big Short.

Very briefly, I like Spotlight and Brooklyn and The Martian. I liked Mad Max, but I'm not sure why it's nominated. I loved Room and think that this is the movie that deserves to win. I read the book a few years ago and this is a fantastic adaptation.

Okay, now that that's covered: I saw The Revenant because of all the hype. And I didn't like it. Really the cinematography is its only redeeming feature. It was actually rather dull (and long), punctuated with scenes of extreme violence. This made the whole experience kind of tortuous. I wasn't very impressed with Leonardo DiCaprio either; actually, I think Tom Hardy had the better performance. The movie worked toward a predictable and unfulfilling end. Tom Hardy's role brought a little intrigue, as did brief glimpses into the main character's past. For the majority of the movie, however, I was in almost as much pain as DiCaprio's character.

I think The Revenant will probably win Best Picture, but I don't think it deserves to.

Actor in a leading role

This is probably Leonardo DiCaprio's year-- and I think he is a great actor who deserves an Oscar. Preferably not for The Revenant, though. I don't know most of these movies, but Matt Damon was fantastic in The Martian.

Actress in a leading role

Hands down, I think that Brie Larson should win for her showstopping performance in Room. And I am confident that she will win! I will be kind of upset if Jennifer Lawrence wins again. She's too young to have three Oscars.

And then skipping all the other categories... Animated short film

I've only seen one of the five, and that is: World of Tomorrow. I only saw it because it was featured on Netflix, but I have seen it three times now and I really enjoy it. The animation style is simple and creative, and the story is funny yet affecting. I highly recommend it.

Some of my favorite cover songs

In no particular order...

(Click on the artists' names to hear the original and the cover.)

Hold On We're Going Home - Originally by Drake, covered by Lights

I love her sweet voice singing this song, with the chill acoustic guitar. A very different feel from the original. And it's gay!

Unfinished Business - Originally by White Lies, covered by Mumford and Sons

This is one of my favorite Mumford and Sons songs now. I jam pretty hard. I didn't know it was a cover when I first found it. It sounds like something they would write.

Riptide - Originally by Vance Joy, covered by Taylor Swift

The original is great, but Taylor Swift's version highlights her voice perfectly. And it's gay!

Wrecking Ball - Originally by Miley Cyrus, covered by Milky Chance

I think everyone knows the original... No matter your feelings about Miley Cyrus, check out this cover. It's a lot of fun and has a great sound.

Anaconda - Originally by Nicki Minaj, covered by Pekoe

Again, regardless of your opinion on the original, please listen to the cover. I love acoustic covers of raunchy rap songs in general (it's a thing, I promise) and this one is my jam. I learned all the words to Anaconda because of this cover. Oops.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Originally by Tears for Fears, covered by Lorde

I like the original-- I also love how different Lorde's cover is from the original. It brings out some intensity that works well with the lyrics.

Love Is Blindness - Originally by U2, covered by Jack White

This cover gained a lot of fame from the Great Gatsby movie. You might not know the original-- Jack White's cover is lot more intense. I love both versions, and they bring out different aspects of the song.

16 things to do in 2016

My 6th year going, and it keeps getting a little harder to come up with so many goals!

In no particular order, and open to slight modification as the year gets going:

1. Publish 2 posts per month on this blog (24 total). I'm scaling back a bit -- my busier schedule in 2015 made 48 a little unreasonable. Plus, this blog is supposed to be fun and casual, not burdensome.

2. Go on a camping trip to Glacier National Park. I've been planning this trip for May with my friends and I really hope it works out!

3. Get an internship. Since I'll be starting my junior year, I've got to start thinking about this sort of thing -- well not thinking, actually doing.

4. Live in an apartment. My plan right now is to live in a campus apartment next year. Should be fun!

5. Do the 30-day vegan challenge. I became a vegetarian in 2015, and would like to eventually be a vegan. I think this challenge would be a good way to begin.

6. Get good grades. This is always sort of a vague one, but we'll say making the Dean's List is the specific goal.

7. Vote in the 2016 Presidential election. It's hard to believe it's happening next year, and I don't have any predictions, but I will be voting.

8. Make an artwork.  Probably just another bottle-cap poster-- but I always like aiming to create something cool.

9. Start working out regularly! So many people try to do this in the new year. All I'm really expecting of myself is to use the work out app I downloaded a few times a week. Please.

10. Go out on my 21st birthday -- and go out for my friends' birthdays! I and several of my friends will be turning 21 in 2016.

11. Read, like, at least 3 books.  My previous goals have been 10 or higher but-- let's be real. I would be proud if I just read 3 this year. I've already started a couple so it shouldn't be too hard, but you'd be surprised.

12. Start vermicomposting. After finding out about this composting method last year, I've been wanting to try it myself. It's a great way to use food scraps to make soil amendments!

13. Travel to another country. At this point I'm not sure which one. Even if it ends up just being Canada that would be fun. Or the Bahamas. Or somewhere in Europe.... We'll see!

14. Keep up with local news, especially environmental news! I'm realizing I have to be more educated about what's going on in my state, particularly in the fields I want to work in.

15. Get involved in local politics and environmental advocacy. I have a few contacts for cool stuff to do over the summer, and I hope it turns into a good experience.

One more blank:

16.