What's wrong with our Western style diet, in a fiery and funny talk, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman weighs in on what's wrong with the way we eat now (too much meat, too few plants; too much fast food, too little home cooking), and why it's putting the entire planet at risk.
My diet has long perturbed me, and from this excellent Ted Talk, with Mark Bittman, it does put it into perspective how much meat I (and probably the rest of the world) eat. Not only is it beneficial for our bodies and the environment but no doubt for the health service of the nation who as even Jamie Oliver has said is crippling under the pressure of dietary related illness (or something similar to these words.
I'm going to attempt to change my diet, over the next few weeks and months which in itself is pretty difficult, as I work in the food industry, where there is an abundance of meat related products. My attempt is to reduce meat consumption to half a pound a week. Wish me luck.
The Waste & Resource Action Plan (WRAP), has hailed a food waste recycling scheme in which 4,272 tonnes of food waste were diverted from landfill a success. The efforts also averted 1,967 tonnes of CO2.
Nineteen English local authorities experimented with ways of collecting food waste from 94,000 households. In the majority of areas, more than 70% of people agreed to separate their food waste for composting. The average food waste collection was between 0.3 and 2.2 kilos.
"We are delighted by the results of these trials, which show that if consumers are given the right tools and are provided with a good service, they will participate in initiatives to cut waste sent to landfill." Phillip Ward, Director for Local Government Services, WRAP
The organisers believe that a survey of people in the pilot areas identified a gap between perception and reality.
Of the non-participants interviewed, a common reason for not taking part was that residents felt that they did not produce enough food waste to make it worthwhile.
However, WRAP research in the recent "The Food We Waste" report shows that even households claiming that they generate no food waste at all produce, on average, 2.9kg per week.
Concerns about potential odour, hygiene issues or attracting vermin were the reasons given by 24% of non-participants - but for those who did participate, the majority claimed not to have had a problem with any of these issues.
A highly positive note from this announcement is that these schemes work when implemented, people are willing to carry out the task of waste separation and will do. If similar schemes were implemented across the UK's approximate 21m households, we could see 954 383 tonnes of food diverted from landfill and 439 436 tonnes of CO2 emissions. However even more importantly, by volume, food waste is the largest contributor to methane gas production, and sending this to landfill releases these gases. The EU Landfill Directive and Waste Regulations, like regulations in other countries, encourage diverting organic wastes away from landfill disposal for these reasons.
Lisburn City Council have called on the Environment Minister to hold a public inquiry into the construction of the proposed agricultural biomass incinerator by Rose Energy, in Glenavy.
Representives from Rose Energy and Communities Against Lough Neagh Incinerator were at at the Lisburn City Council Planning Commitee meeting on Wednesday evening, held at the council offices headquarters at Lagan Valley Island.
The decision has now been deferred to the Department of the Environment, who should ensure the proposal is rigorously assessed.
Northern Ireland often exports its chicken litter to mainland Britain as a way to efficiently reduce waste and reuse the energy stored in the bedding as no facility exisits in the country. The 1.8m chickens produced each week, create 250 000t of chicken litter annually. Hence the decision by major chicken producers O'Kane Poultry, Glenfarm Holdings and Moy Park, who have been supplying poultry bedding for use as a biofuel to power stations in England and Scotland for a number of years, to join together as a consortium, known as Rose Energy, to propose the first energy plant which will convert agricultural biomass into electricity in Northern Ireland.
The proposed site in Glenavy, near Lisburn, is in an ideal location between the two major poultry processing areas in NI. It is also located next to Ulster Farm By-Products, which will be a major supplier to the plant of one of the fuel sources – meat and bone meal. Furthermore, the plant will serve to reinforce the electricity infrastructure in an area which is currently deficient.
The £100m power plant will have a capacity of 30MW, and could effectively power 25 000 homes, assisting up to a third of the Northern Ireland obligation to source 6.3% of its energy from renewable sources by 2012. The government intends to exceed this figure and achieve 12% and is providing a funding package for suitable green energy initiatives to help develop viable projects.
This development is a viable solution to address the disposal of agricultural biomass, which is now included under an EU directive, whilst also providing an additional source of renewable energy. It will also assist in reducing emissions produced from exporting chicken litter, via road and sea,to mainland Britain.
After our article on Kangaroo meat the other Saturday, I thought I would go hunt for some, not literally, as the only place I know kangaroos live is in Belfast Zoo. The obvious choice was to begin my search on the Internet, there I found some online stores that stock and supply Kangaroo meat in various forms, however these have to be delivered by courier, and living in Northern Ireland, there is additional premiums as the meat is packaged with ice packs to ensure it is delivered fresh the next day. Whilst I had found some, it wasn't the simplest option, so I felt I needed to find a local deli or company to purchase the meat from, because you wouldn't want a warm roo burger would you.
On my continued search I found a site dedicated to saving the kangaroo from extinction through its alledged brutal slaughter. It made me think back to Belfast zoo (I was there to observe, not to kill) when I recall on the information board the declining numbers of red kangaroos. Could I eat a kangaroo, in full knowledge that it could be sourced from such conditions? Even Wolverhampton Council enacted a council wide ban. I'm sure no matter what meat I eat, it has got to be killed, I would prefer if it was done humanely. The licensed Kangaroo harvesters have to undergo rigorous assessment and accreditation by two government departments and a report by the RSPCA into the harvesting of the Kangaroo stated that 96% of the kills were humane and instant.
Most of the main supermarkets several years ago did stock roo burgers and the like until organisations like Viva and Save the Kangaroo got involved and protested in every way possible to get them removed, and I doubt the number in sales warranted the extra efforts involved for supermarkets in having demonstrations decrying the product. Whilst I'm now weary in where my roo is from, how it was "farmed" and killed, it won't stop me in my search for some kangaroo meat, I'm a man on a mission, after all, look at how many people still buy intensive farmed chickens (not that is right, at least the kangaroos aren't all housed in a shed with feed to fatten them in six weeks).
Kangaroo meat is low fat (under 2%), most of which is polyunsaturated and only has 98 calories per 100 gram serving. Kangaroo meat is also free from chemicals, hormones and pesticides. So healthy as well as green.
My Internet searches had proved fruitless in the search for roo, but I knew I could find some, so I went onto the street in search of the illustrious meat.
A small coffee shop near my home once had roo on the menu, but they roomoved it (did you like that), clearly it wasn't as popular as they had hoped.
How about a friendly local butchers? The only local surviving one, that I am aware of ... no kangaroo available.
I had given up hope at this stage as well, if you can't find it on Google, with keywords like ""kangaroo meat" Belfast", what hope was there for me of finding anywhere. Until I came across a website for a family run delicatessen and a member of the Guild of Fine Food Retailers stocking 1000's of different products from around the world. Surely they would have roo meat?
After searching through their list of pretty appetising products from Caviar to Kosher, I was feeling a little disappointed, until I clicked on "rare foods" .... and low and behold ... some roo and croc. I decided to give them a call, and to my surprise they have kangaroo meat in stock all year around.
I decided on Monday to pop down to the deli called Sawers, which is in Fountain Street in Belfast, they sell kangaroo medallions from frozen. The shop is an eclectic mix of fresh and quality produce from all around the world. It's the kind of shop that is floor to ceiling of products you just want to try, they have a fresh fish counter with an amazing array of produce. And several chill counters displaying sliced meats, sun dried tomatoes and olives.
Now well, buying kangaroo meat, you think would have been the difficult part, however that's where your wrong. How the hell am I meant to cook kangaroo meat, I find it difficult enough to cook pasta let alone a meat which I have never had the opportunity to even taste before, that's where I enlisted the advice of Benjamin Christie (yeah I'd never heard of him either, but he is big in Australia);
One of the most popular Australian ingredients I am asked to include in cooking demonstrations or receive email requests on cooking kangaroo meat. I think the reasons for this are twofold; there is an increasing popularity in this healthy game meat as well as a growing appreciation of the environmental benefits of managing the animal over beef and sheep; and people are now trying to understand how to cook kangaroo meat to perfection. I have demonstrated how to cook kangaroo in over 12 countries including Russia, Germany, Japan and the USA, all of which are the leading importers of kangaroo. There are persistent rumours that kangaroo is being farmed in Germany but since the animals tend to die of fright if herded, this is probably no more than wishful thinking.
The kangaroo meat available commercially differs from the East Coast States to the West. NSW and Southern Queensland hunters harvest eastern grey kangaroos which are smaller and are generally regarded as inferior in meat quality to the Western Red which has been the mainstay of the South Australian industry for over 35 years. A new comer to the scene has been the Tasmanian harvest of wallabies for their meat and a new cut, wallaby shanks, can give their equivalent from sheep a run for the money in flavor and texture. From here on, I’ll group all three macropods (the kangaroo genus) to discuss the cooking, as it is the same for all of them.
The primary kangaroo cuts include strip loin, (long) fillet and rump which are all ideally suited to pan frying, barbecuing and stir frying and are suggested to be served medium rare. Secondary cuts are generally sold as diced meat or mince and these are best used as processing meats in sausages and preserved products or prepared using slow cooking techniques such as braising or slow roasting for pies or casseroles. One point worth noting is that roo mince is best salted with soy sauce rather than inorganic salt as soy helps retain more moisture in the mince.
Cook any game meat, including kangaroo from rare to medium rare, no more. Kangaroo is a very lean meat easily trimmed to be less than 2% fat. This basically means that if it’s overcooked, not rested or improperly carved, the meat is more likely to be dry and tough. I always recommend medium rare as the preferred doneness so if you like your meat well done, I’d suggest you avoid kangaroo and stick to high fat meats.
In case your thinking ... wow .... that looks pretty amazing, these are pictures from Benjamin Christie's website, my attempts were not worthy of an apperance on here.
After procrastinating a little as whether I could stomach the roo, I decided I have to try. Well the first thing I noticed was that defrosting kangaroo, there seemed to be so much juices and blood. Placing them into a pan at medium temperature with some olive oil, they quickly gave off kangaroo meat aroma, the blood and juices were clearly present (I don't often cook red meat). With this I was a little squeamish, and did what the professionals said not to do an overcooked the meat. After asking my sister and mother would they like to taste some they seemed to reluctantly decline (more so from the fact it was kangaroo, than it being well done). After toying with the meat for a little while and cutting it I was almost feeling guilty about eating kangaroo. I eventually took a small piece, it tasted very similar to beef, a little of a matured flavour, it was nice, but tough from my over cooking. Would I cook it again, most likely not, maybe as roo burgers, as I clearly am incapable of cooking it to perfection in any other form, but I would order it at a restaurant, where it can be cooked professionally, and in a dish suited to its game flavour. If your thinking you might like kangaroo, try it you might like it.
In December we reported on the scientists who were trying to find a way to reduce the methane produced by cows. Kangaroo flatulence contains no methane, thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, and scientists wanted to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.
In addition to the environmental benefits, if successful the scientists believe that the new efficient digestive system would reduce the food intake of the livestock. Reducing feed costs for farmers. This project is ongoing, it will take at least two to three years to isolate the bacteria that gives kangaroos green farts, whilst others believe we should simply move to eating more kangaroos.
"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep, and if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 percent" Athol Klieve, Senior Research Scientist, Queensland State Government
One such person is, Dr George Wilson, of the Australian Wildlife Services, and he believes that the answer is more about eating more kangaroo and less cow and sheep. The country already produces 30 million kilograms of kangaroo meat farmed by landholders in the outback. But Dr Wilson is keen to see that population dramatically increased to produce the same amount of kangaroo meat as that currently produced by conventional livestock.
"It tastes excellent, not unlike venison - only a different flavour." Dr George Wilson, Australian Wildlife Services
So this summer get a kangaroo burger on the BBQ ... Yummy. It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions, and we might see it coming back to the menu in the UK too.
If I can source some kangaroo meat, I'll let you know how it tastes.
12,000 homes in the Axe valley area of Devon, are recycling their kitchen waste, through weekly collections, the collected material is then used to produce a gas, by mixing them with animal slurry, which is then used to generate electricity for the National Grid. The scheme is part of East Devon Council's aim to recycle 50% of all waste by 2010. Towns taking place in the scheme are Axminster, Beer, Colyton, Musbury, Seaton and Uplyme. Other areas in councils remit will be included in 2009.
The waste is collected on a weekly basis, residents simply place any food waste, with the exception of liquids into special containers provided by the council. It is then taken to a biogas plant at Holsworthy. There through a process of anaerobic digestion, a gas is produced, which is then burned to create electricity.
"The waste food will be mixed with animal slurry. The bacteria in the mixture will then heat itself to 70C and it will go through a digestion process, producing gas." Paul Deakin, Waste Manager, East Devon District Council
Whilst there is no certainty in the amount of waste that will be collected, the resulting reduction of biodegradable waste going to landfill will not only help the environment, but also reduce the ever increasing landfill fees, however these will most likely be offset through the collection. In the long-term it is likely other council areas will implement similar schemes across the country, as the fees on each tonne of waste landfilled is rising by approximately £8 per year. But one other exciting bit of news released this week is that over one-third of homes in England are composting waste.
Turning animal faeces into a fuel source could generate enough electricity to meet up to three per cent of North America's entire energy needs, scientists claim.
A study in the Institute of Physics' journal Environmental Research Letters says that fuel from livestock manure could also help to bring about a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
The research is the first attempt to quantify how much electricity can be generated by livestock manure. Left to decompose naturally, livestock manure emits two particularly potent GHGs – nitrous oxide and methane. Through anaerobic digestion, similar to the process by which compost is created, manure can be turned into energy-rich biogas, which standard microturbines can use to produce electricity. The hundreds of millions of livestock inhabiting the US could produce approximately 100 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, enough to power millions of homes and offices.
"In light of the criticism that has been levelled against biofuels, biogas production from manure has the less controversial benefit of re-using an existing waste source and has the potential to improve the environment." Dr Michael Webber and Amanda Cuellar, University of Texas, Austin
In breaking news from Australia today (no pun intended), scientist are working on a viable solution to the methane emissions from cows and sheep. In recent years cows have be one of those blamed for Global Warming. And in 1989 a New Scientist article accused cows of being responsible for 100m tonnes of methane released into the atmostphere annually. Methane like carbon dioxide, traps infrared radiation that would otherwise escape into space. Indeed, molecule for molecule, it traps 25 times as much of the Sun's heat in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. Hence the concern about the methane in the farts of cattle, whose world population has doubled in the past 40 years. There is roughly one head of cattle for every four human beings.
"Fourteen percent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep, and if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 percent" Athol Klieve, Senior Research Scientist, Queensland State Government
Kangaroo flatulence contains no methane, thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas. In addition to the environmental benefits, if successful the scientists believe that the new efficient digestive system would reduce the food intake of the livestock. Reducing feed costs for farmers.
Scientist believe it will take at least three years to isolate the bacteria that gives kangaroos green farts, whilst others believe we should simply move to eating more kangaroos. It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.
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