The Discerning Brute: fashion, food & etiquette for the ethically handsome man

• John Bartlett is having a Thank You Sale in celebration of his upcoming NYFW Eco-Fashion Collection and Presentation. I want this limited edition, cozy, eco-fleece, winter-themed sweatshirt or vintage ralgan with Tiny Tim on it!  Made with organic cotton/recycled poly/rayon blend

• The deadline is quickly approaching for researchers who are competing for a $1M prize in developing edible flesh that grows without the ethical consequences of being attached to a sentient being. According to The Guardian:

A small group of people will meet in Washington later this year for what they hope will be a lunch to change the world. The meal should consist of fried chicken and nothing else, but while it may look like chicken, have the texture of chicken and even taste like chicken, it will never have lived or breathed.

Five years ago Peta, the world’s largest animal welfare group, gave scientists until 30 June 2012 to prove they could make “cultured”, or laboratory meat, in commercial quantities. The first scientist to show that artificial chicken can be grown in quantity and be indistinguishable from “real” chicken flesh will be awarded $1m.

What do you think? Is in-vitro “chicken” flesh a solution to the ethical and environmental problems inherent in meat production? Would you eat it?

• Don Hlaydich of One Degree Organics is yet another farmer practicing veganic farming – farming without the use of pesticides, animal-based or animal-sourced fertilizers.

• According to In Defense of Animals, anti-whistle-blower an anti-journalist laws like the ones defeated in 2011 are cropping up all over:

Documenting any activity on an animal farming operation my soon be a criminal offense.  Last year, because of pressure from the animal agriculture lobby, four states tried to pass bills that would make it illegal to document farm activity without the owner’s consent. Although this legislative effort was defeated in all states, similar bills have cropped up in Florida, New York, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska so far in 2012, and more are expected. These bills are designed to undermine whistleblowers seeking to keep the public informed and to hold the industry accountable to basic levels of food safety and humane standards. These courageous individuals risk their personal safety to go undercover and document the egregious practices inside the closed doors of livestock facilities. But instead of being heralded as heroes, they could soon face criminal prosecution.

Read the full article here:

photo: Maggie Starbard/NPR

It’s more clear now than ever that food production weighs heavily on people, ecosystems and animals, as well as our collective conscience. Surely, we could all do better by starting a rooftop garden, a vegetable farm, or joining a CSA. With one in seven people (that’s 1 billion) currently hungry,  a radical food movement is crucial. What’s more, it’s become a cultural requirement for enthusiastic meat-lovers to justify their meat-eating to some extent, considering where 99% of meat comes from and the resources required to raise it. Tradition, taste and special nutrition requirements are typically the fail-safe rationales.

Many who choose seitan scaloppini over sirloin steak from an animal rights perspective balk at most attempts to vindicate killing animals for pleasure, when there are so many alternatives. But does a DIY approach to meat resolve the debate for those who subscribe to the notion that “if you couldn’t kill it yourself,  you shouldn’t eat it”? For a rising number of young butchsters (butcher-hipsters), as I like to call them, the task of killing, carving, and cooking a pig is easy to excuse when the result is ultimately based in accommodating pleasure, power and praxis. In other words, it’s easy to rationalize violence when the results are yummy and even easier when the victim’s perspective is invalidated.

In a recent NPR article by Kristofor Husted entitled ” How One Former Vegan Learned To Embrace Butchering“, Andrew Plotsky is profiled as just one of many young people who are taking the life and death of the animals they eat into their own hands, leaving their vegan naivete in the dust.  The press loves an ex-vegan who returns to bacon, as we’ve seen time and time again over the last few years. It’s become popular enough for butchers to be proud that they were once vegetarians or vegans – to the extent that I wonder if some make the claim just so their cleaver gleams in even sharper contrast to what they perceive as misled do-goodery. They wear their former vegetarianism like a boyscout patch. Others treat it like an awful condition from which they only barely managed to escape (they “got SO sick!“).  And now that veganism is more popular than ever, the lure of counter-culture street cred just doesn’t tempt the rebels like it used to. Your parents won’t freak out anymore – in fact, they might even be happy.

The novelty of reviving a “lost art” like slaughter and butchery has it’s place on the shelf right next to the typewriter and a vintage Davy Crockett hat. Aesthetically alluring in it’s homage to simpler times, to pre-industrial working-class values, to the agrarian golden era – slaughtering also has the lure of something quite distinct that a mere fruit and vegetable farm might not: domination over beings that comes with an arsenal. Tools used to kill and chop up bodies are glamorized in images of Butchsters. They stand, in a blood-stained apron, arms crossed, in one fist a cleaver, in the other a boning knife. They look dangerous. They could kill you, and it can’t be denied that the lure of that power; being the feared killer and the visual metaphor it creates, plays a large part in the fascination with this trend. If I see one more photo of people wearing a pigs face like a mask, I’m going to… yawn.

The NPR article suggests that, “By killing the animal himself, Plotsky says he strengthens his bond to that animal.” In other words, by committing a violent act… you don’t actually harm your victim (just ignore their perspective), you instead strengthen your bond with them! Phew, I was worried that harming was harmful, but if it’s good for the perpetrator, then it must be good for all parties involved. Who really cares what an intelligent animal like a pig might want, anyway, like to get away from someone who’s trying to slit their throat or shoot them in the head. Bonding, for Plotsky, is a monologue, not a dialogue. And if “killing the animal weighs heavy on Plotsky’s heart”, why not “harvest” something else and get said bonding done as an animal sanctuary? Perhaps it’s the simple answer; growing kale makes a much less exciting video for Plotsky’s media production company than killing a pig.

The agrarian renaissance is crucial if we’re ever to escape from the clutches of Big Ag like Monsanto et al, and I fully support the notion of growing our own food and having a relationship with the soil, but it seems that all the media hype is about the bloody killing. The saying, If it bleeds it leads holds true for the Farm to Table movement, maximizing on the macabre.

When ecologist Garret Hardin wrote “The Tragedy of the Commons”, was it a coincidence that he used cows on graze-land to represent “a dilemma arising from the situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource, even when it is clear that it is not in anyone’s long-term interest for this to happen” (Hardin (1968)) ?

I acknowledge that small-scale meat slaughterers and butchsters like Plotsky are not responsible for the ethical and ecological crises of CFAs, but all I can think is that history will repeat itself. The growing demands for meat continue to increase at a rate that small-scale farmers can not accommodate while maintaining sustainable and welfare-based approaches. When money is to be be made, corners will always be cut.

What I’d like to see is more of the vegetable, grain and fruit farmers also celebrated, and not just the high-drama of slaughter. In fact, another small-farm revolution is happening. In Veganic farming, instead of using chemical fertilizers or animal products like farmed animal manure, plants are grown using plants and minerals.

 Here is a list of veganic farms in The United States and Canada
(source: http://www.goveganic.net):

• Victoria Farm
60 fruit and nut trees, which will act as a canopy for a future forest garden. Details of their forest garden establishment can be read online.

• Hesperides Organica
The farm is located in the Black Dirt region of Orange County, an area with extremely fertile soil. The black dirt is left over from an ancient glacial lake, and has a high degree of organic matter (50%).

• Unexpected Farm
They have used veganic practices since they began farming in 2001. On a separate part of their holding live two rescued animals, a cow and a goat, who enjoy 4 acres of fenced pasture.

• Huguenot Street Farm
77 acres in New Paltz, New York. Growing over 125 varieties of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, including heirloom varieties, Huguenot Street Farm runs a 21-week CSA for 200 families in the region. CSA members can also take advantage of a large U-Pick garden.

• Honey Brook Organic Farm
A veganic CSA in Pennington, New Jersey, and was profiled in the Winter 2008 edition of the American Vegan newsletter. With 2,200 CSA memberships, feeding between 3000 and 4000 people in total, Honey Brook Organic Farm is called the largest organic CSA in the United States.

• Santa Cruz Farm
Santa Cruz Farm is an example of year-round veganic growing in a region with little water and wide temperature variance. The temperature can fluctuate significantly, changing by upwards of 25°C or 40°F from daytime to nighttime

• Reverence Gardens
Located in Round Lake, Illinois, about an hour north of Chicago. Reverence Gardens was run as a commercial veganic farm through a customer subscription program in 2007 and 2008, and was Certified Naturally Grown in 2008.

• Sunizona Family Farms
Specializes in greenhouse tomatoes, herbs, and salad greens, and they have recently started growing field crops. In 2008 they began to transition their farm to veganic agriculture, and now the main greenhouse and fields are completely veganic

• Spirit of the Earth
The centre includes herb gardens, vegetable gardens, forest gardens, orchards, a cherry grove, and an edible medicine trail, all grown veganically.

• Glascott Farm
Formerly using pigs as part of their biodynamic farming, Glascott Farm in Ontario is in the transition process to veganic agriculture.

•Ark Gardens
An off-grid farm, deriving their power from wind and solar, and they are focused on growing fruits that are high in phytonutrients.

• Janlau Farm
Began as a dairy farm in 1973, they decided to stop farming animals in 1997 and concentrate exclusively on field crops. With their fields Certified Organic since the 1980’s, they soon gave up animal-based fertilizer and used field rotation.

• Groleau Garden
The garden produces a wide variety of vegetables, and also herbs and berries. It is currently non-commercial, although some of the produce is exchanged with friends and family during the growing season. Much of the harvest is placed in cold storage to be eaten during the winter months, or preserved by canning, freezing, and dehydrating.

Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed. Please watch the video below to learn how this legislation will affect internet freedom, then scroll down to take action.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge

• This unbleached, organic cotton, Japanese SunRise crew neck sweatshirt is a keeper. The contrast stitching, the simple construction and the panels of darker cotton all add up to a shirt that is masculine, functional and timeless.

The ‘R44′ Rogan Standard Issue line for Nordstrom combines organic cotton with military and work-wear design. The collection is made in America and features this fantastic organic cotton “Uniform Jacket” (now 50% off), and “Echo Defense” organic cotton plaid shirt. Not everything is suitable for animal-defenders (watch out for the leather tabs on the pants as well as some “yak down”) but most of the tops are.

• Dr. Neal Barnard of The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine appeared on the daytime talk show The Doctors a couple weeks ago. He presents a pretty compelling case for a plant based diet, but is met by skepticism and opinion-based responses form the pane of experperts. Strangely, sisters Kelly and Kaitlin – who got all dressed up and came out the show, didn’t even get a chance to speak!

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• Matt & Nat was commissioned by Apple Europe to create some exclusive bags that are only available on the Apple Europe webstore, and the Matt & Nat webstore. The three below are my personal picks: the crinkled, waxy black ‘Creed’, the stark white and black ‘Phoenix’, and the preppy, professorial ‘Fujiya’. As always, Matt & Nat accessories are totally vegan and lined with microfiber suede made from recycled plastic bottles.

photo:   Robert Rausch for The New York Times

Guys, we have arrived. And the pale, frail stereotype might finally be getting kicked-to-the-curb by some seriously strong warriors. The New York Times today gave Jimi Sitko and a slew of other “antibeef beefcakes”  like Robert Cheeke, Lisa Koehn, Giacomo Marchese, Dani Taylor, and Kenneth G. Williams a cover story. 

His apartment is filled with medals and trophies from bodybuilding competitions, snapshots of his tanned, rippled physique in full flex. His uniform is an assortment of sweat pants and hoodies, which he occasionally lifts when his abs look particularly fierce.

But most surprising is what is inside Sitko’s stomach: tofu, fresh greens and plant-based protein powder….

“I’m no longer an athlete”, [Williams] said, “I’m a warrior now. There’s a big difference. The athletes are just out to get paid. Warriors stand for something.”

Read the full story here

NYT video: http://video.nytimes.com/video/2012/01/04/multimedia/100000001232617/the-competitive-vegan-bodybuilder.html

Remember that time we had a business meeting in our union suits? The union suit is a great way to stay warm in the colder months. The name union suit comes from the fact that the tops and bottoms of the garment are united (not because of any association with unionized workers). Here are a few union suits made ethically:

• These striped classics from American Essentials, in organic cotton:

• Artist and Indigenous American activist Nicholas Galanin combined two pre-taxidermied wolves for his piece Inert Wolf. “Inert deserves to be seen in person; it generates a strong emotional response, viewers have cried,” he said in a profile on My Modern Met. It was made for a traveling group exhibition that deals with humanity’s impact on the environment.

“I look at this piece in cultural terms,” he says. “Mainstream society often looks at Indigenous or Native American art through a romantic lens, not allowing a culture like my Tlingit community room for creative sovereign growth. The back half of this piece is contained, a captured trophy or rug to bring into the home, while the front continues to move. It is sad and the struggle is evident.”

While I appreciate the message that the artist is sending out, I wonder if there is a bit of unintentional irony in this work? The struggle of this wolf is the obvious, literal interpretation – perhaps due to the demonization of wolves, hunting, habitat loss, fur trapping or other plights directly inflicted upon wolves. When the artist uses the wolf only as a metaphor for his social justice struggle, does the wolf become a victim once again to human desire? Galnin does not comment on the wolf’s plight in and of itself in this particular interview. In my previous piece, Contemporary Animals, I wrote about the use of animals in art as mere vessels for a human message:

… these animals serve the more simple function as vessels injected with anthropocentric symbolism and superstition. Biographies, personal stories, and valid individualism of animals is structurally neglected in mainstream contemporary art. One obvious reason is that we fail to validate animals as individuals who lead distinct, complex social and emotional lives. Another reason is that many of us, in our social rearing, have been warned not to anthropomorphize animals or nature for fear of projecting our own feelings and desires onto them (who are often seen as too dumb to possibly carry such complexities). And, while we share a closely-knit physical and psychological genetic lineage with other animals, it seems more popular to assume these creatures are blank than to allow the more accurate possibility, as Darwin and most of modern science has showcased, that in having well-organized central nervous systems, they might share characteristics like empathy, fear, anticipation of pain, and joy.

… In a gallery, which frames and heightens the aesthetic experience, the animal finally might be seen as an individual, and that percieved personality might conflict with the artist’s intention. It becomes only natural to ask, who was this animal? Where did the artist get this animal? Was there an injustice done to this animal?

• Chicago Lions rugby player and coach at the University of Chicago, Alex Holguin, was profiled in Time Out Chicago after losing 50 lbs of unwanted weight after adopting a plant-based diet.

” It’s amazing how much my strength has stayed intact. When people hear I’m a vegan, I sometimes get cross-eyed looks. The stereotype is Birkenstocks and unwashed hair. A few of my teammates gave me grief, but after the season was over, a few of them started changing their diets. Of course, some of them asked me not to tell anyone.”

As 2012 approaches, I’ve been thinking a lot about the idea of The Future; a utopia that always seems to be just beyond the horizon, but never actually arrives. Can all of history really be a linear unfolding, heading towards an apex? If so, then what? Stasis? Perpetuity? Is this mirage some form of religious faith – or perhaps it’s simply a psychological defense against a less polished, omnidirectional reality.

Images featuring the perfectly controlled, crystal-domed habitats and flying cars against immaculate landscapes of the Atomic Age stir up a strange mixture of nostalgia and hope. These blueprints, laid out by our grandparents, haven’t come to pass. The physical limits of our planet, an economic system based on the illusion of infinite resources, the many untold and ongoing histories of silenced peoples, and the fear and hatred of wild, untamed nature all clamor in opposition to this western narrative. But something outside of our individual realizations keeps luring us down this path.

In the fashion industry, the perpetual changing seasons of collections mimic the natural cycles of our planet circling the sun: autumn, winter, spring, summer. This helps make fashion seem larger than life; beyond-human. This mimicry also naturalizes “fast-fashion”, over-production, and rewards people who spend their money with the feeling that their purchasing of each new item is a direct participation in working towards something. Many industries lead us on in this way; each new advancement brings the hope of finally achieving, or at least providing the next big step toward an ultimate advancement that will save us. But can any of us even articulate what that destination would be? If not, who are we allowing to lead the charge, and do we have to keep working toward an impossible and failed utopia?

In 2012,  take some time to articulate simple, realistic, radical ideals based in justice and ecology; and ask yourself how you can work toward them.

Photo by Michael Beauplet

• The Discerning Brute’s very own Joshua Katcher was featured in the new, ‘Visionaries’ issue of The Wild Magazine. You can read the article, “J.K. To The Rescue” by Mia Kim, here. You can also purchase a copy of the magazine here or at various retailers in New York City. You can also purchase the shoes featured in the article at BraveGentleMan.com.

“Katcher is a modern day hero in the making. Sporting faux leather boots and two armfuls of tattoos (paying homage to extinct species of birds), he makes his way through New York City… campaigning for a more conscious world, particularly that within the fashion industry.”

The Wild was founded on the premise that fashion, design, and style are not mutually exclusive from the social and cultural issues that impact our world.

source: http://www.vegan-fighter.com

• On Dec 15th, The National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine (IOM) released results of their nine-month long study, called for by the NIH, to investigate  the current and future need for chimpanzees in research. The IOM concluded that ‘most current biomedical research use of chimpanzees is not necessary.’ This is groundbreaking news – that perhaps there truly is hope for animals experimented upon in laboratories.

” …the IOM report — along with other scientific, public and legislator support— as instrumental to passage of the Great Ape Protection and Cost Savings Act (H.R. 1513/S.810), the bill now before Congress that will end the use of all great apes in invasive research and retire federally owned chimpanzees to sanctuary.”

Read the full article here.