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

ETHICAL EXPLOITS: Holiday Therapy

by contributor, Matt Lara

Tips and ideas for a truly caring season.

Hark the herald angels shop…

I am packed in a department store dodging the usual giant shopping backs full to the brim, and eagerly browsing customers searching for the perfect deal. Normally I would panic seeing as I thoroughly loath any store during the holidays. This year is different, however, as I have risen and shipped out early on the final day of Divine Design—the annual charity shopping event created by Project Angel Food. The group truly is divine, as they provide food and care to those unable to provide for themselves due to HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases. So, today’s shopping spree is more of a joy. How nice to actually shop in Beverly Hills without having to incur serious debt. You see, the deals are fantastic with each item marked down 50% off on the first day, then down another 10% for each succeeding shopping day. And this isn’t discount crap either — the merchandise consists of brand new packaged goods donated by retailers and most are quite a steal. Today, I’m wandering through apparel, shoes, a large selection of Barbies (I don’t know), and spend most of my time plucking home goodies and gifts for my family. I walk away with happy to have supported such an amazing organization.

With every Christmas card I trash…

I must admit that I am in the spirit, although I’m just as likely to be a big Scrooge among the hassle, traffic, and cost of it all. I pull out my Christmas box full of old holiday cards wondering if I should keep them. I have card conflict—someone took a moment and spent a few dollars on that little piece of plastic-coated card stock. (Are these even recyclable?) I decide not to throw them away, but turn on yet another one of my very manly talents: crafting. You just watch out for my glue gun…

Every crafter knows where to look… let’s just call her Mother Martha. She’s one of the most successful, and more notorious, craft queens ever. And her website has the perfect craft for that stack of cards as thick as a two-by-four. My new family heirloom:

Handsome, right? Basically, you’re going to need to cut about 20 circles out of holiday cards, and be really savvy with the scissors and glue. It’seasier than it looks. By the way, I buckled and purchased a box of simple greetings from Quotable

Cards. Each one is made from recycled paper, soy-based ink, and manufactured using wind power. I think an elf must have guided me to these smart little cards. Another holiday tradition I have conflicts with: wrapping paper. It’s so sleek, and I love a well-wrapped gift, but I can only imagine a landfill piled high with that lawnbag-full of discarded paper city after city has thrown out (not to mention the mountains of cardboard and plastic packaging). This year, I’m turning to my late Grandfather—a cowboy, veteran, and rough-and-tumble S.O.B. when he needed to be—for inspiration. He was notorious for wrapping gifts in newspaper. Too tacky? Fine, pop a sticky-bow on there if you want. I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t. I got some good ideas here and here.

Magazine pages work well too. If you really, really want those snowmen and candy canes all over your gifts, use holiday catalogs. Remember how much our junk mail is wreaking havoc on the environment? Take it from a Brute who loves to wrap gifts—reuse!

Oh Christmas beans, oh Christmas beans…

I feel like I’m in holiday therapy, what with me spouting off my conflicts and solutions and so on. I have yet one more to chew over. Holiday meals conjure visions of some old school cooking—can green beans drowned in canned mushroom sauce and crispy onions. How in the world did we come up with this dish with it’s odd, crunchy, salty comfort? (this is how, according to Wikipedia) This year, my family and I are perfecting our attempt at deconstructing Green Bean Casserole as inspired by VeganYumYum (where are you Lolo? We want you to update the blog!). We’ve since abandoned the deconstructed part, but let’s just say we are never going back to the canned crap. I never say never but…never. Another conflict solved! Make a holiday classic from scratch, and see just how good it gets.

Silent night, scandalous light…

I’m signing off until next year, but not after I tell you about some last minute shopping. If you’re in Los Angeles and surrounding areas, you have to check out Spork Foods. I went up to their Holiday Bazaar this year and ran into good friends Ari and Mikko from A Scent of Scandal and browsed the array of naughty aromatic candles. I want to be a good boy for Santa therefore I cannot say the names of scents without having to wash my mouth out with soap. All I can say is, there’s Scandal wafting through my holiday…

Have a happy and conscious holiday. We face a new year of both challenges and triumphs. I believe if you’re here reading this, you’re making an effort to do good in the world, and that is the greatest gift one could hope for this holiday.

-Matt Lara

2 Comments

joshuakatcher, December 13th 2010 | Tags: crafts, devine design, eco, green, holiday, matt lara, project angel food, quotable cards, scent of scandal, spork foods, sustainable, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in holiday, upcycled, vegan, vegetarian

No Thanks, Turkey Day.

For many of us, Thanksgiving is about indulgence. Around this time of year, I’m usually flying down to visit my parents in Florida, where we prepare a feast and eat much more than we typically would. Thanksgiving, not unlike the other major holidays, has become more about buying certain things assigned to that holiday and subscribing to a ritual that makes us feel good (indulging in the company of friends and family) under the guise of goodwill. And maybe that goodwill isn’t just a guise, but as we all try to act out that famous Norman Rockwell painting, accurate history just doesn’t seem to matter. Consider what historians have recently discovered – that Spanish-speaking, Catholic settlers dined on bean soup with the Timucua Indians almost a half-century prior to the famed 1621 Plymouth celebration (which incidentally did not have a single factory farmed Turkey at the table – and no cranberry or potatoes). So how is it that 500 years later, this holiday has become a showcase of nothing but Turkey? It is know as “Turkey Day”.

Last Thanksgiving I warned, “It’s Me or the Turkey,” vowing to never again sit at a table where the body of an individual whose existence was thankless is set out on display. A bird whose morbidly engineered body: painfully detoed and debeaked without anesthesia, forced to live in one sq-foot of space, pumped full of drugs and hormones – is somehow turned into the centerpiece of gratitude. An individual whose life is not considered valid. How is it that this abstinence I have asserted is seen as “radical”, yet the processes by which this dead body arrived is not? How is it that talking about the truth of turkey farming is avoided like the plague, yet putting the product of that truth in our mouths is so enthusiastically embraced?

Every year almost 300 million turkeys are slaughtered in the US. Of that, 46 million are specifically killed for Thanksgiving. Having been bred to grow at alarming rates (twice as fast and twice as large as their ancestors, often causing heart attacks), commercial turkeys are slaughtered after only 14-18 weeks. Many of them die of exposure during transport to the slaughterhouse, and when they arrive, many are not properly stunned prior to slaughter. Turkeys and other poultry are specifically excluded from the Humane Slaughter Act, which requires that animals be stunned prior to slaughter. Finally, as the birds who have not been stunned avoid the automated blades slitting their throats, they are often boiled alive in scalding tanks. Even “free-range” turkeys are no better off. In an industry where maximum output and profit are king, it is no surprise that suffering by individuals who fall between the cracks is so easily overlooked. As much as we’d like them to be true, our delusions of these birds having come from peaceful, Utopian farms must be shattered.

Please take a look at these undercover investigations in turkey facilities from our friends at Compassion Over Killing and Peta.

As Johnathan Safran Foer says in his new book, “We can not plead ignorance, only indifference”.
Given what we now know about food production and factory farms, where 99% of animal products come from, it’s difficult to rationalize eating turkeys in a symbolic gesture of thankfulness. The scientific community recently re-wrote the book on bird-brains, revealing how incredibly intelligent turkeys and chickens actually are, shaming the community that capitalized on their perceived stupidity. We also know that the environmental consequences of raising animals for food is greater than the entire transportation sector. We know that we don’t need to eat a Turkey any more than a Twinkie, yet the sentimentality of tradition persists, and so many of us purchase the anonymous, plastic-wrapped, frozen body of a creature and gather with our families around it like some sort of shrine that we are entitled to, never giving a second thought to who he or she was, and what his or her perception and experience of this world was like.

Please take a moment to watch the short video I produced for Farm Sanctuary featuring actress Ginnifer Goodwin as she considers this “tradition based on cruelty” while hanging out with some rescued Turkeys at the sanctuary in Orlan, California.

So what’s the alternative? Can Thanksgiving be Thanksgiving without turkey? Here are some tips on a conscientious celebration and ideas for a truly thankful holiday:
• Sponsor a Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary Turkey, or a Farm Sanctuary Turkey (or both!)

• Check out my recipe for Pumpkin Pockets with Smoky Seitan, Mushroom Mousse, & Braised Apple, or check out my recipe page for other ideas!

• Try Celebration Roast, Tofurky, or Unturkey as the new centerpiece!

• More compassionate and delicious Thanksgiving recipes from VegCooking.com:

4 Comments

joshuakatcher, November 20th 2009 | Tags: celebration roast, farm sanctuary, ginnifer goodwin, holiday, jonathan safran foer, recipe, thanksgiving, tofurky, turkey, undercover investigation, unturkey, vegan, vegetarian, woodstock farm animal sanctuary
Posted in activism, animal rights, celebrity, food, green, Health, holiday, news, philosophy, vegan, vegetarian, video

Giving Thanks, and Leftovers

Marisa and David's Outrageous Kitchen. photo: lordjdavis.com

Last night was such an overwhelming food frenzy! There were more amazing dishes than I had room for on my plate or in my stomach. Last night was also a true testament to the fact that I really don’t miss any non-vegan foods! I’ll be posting the recipes for my two dishes, in a couple of days: Smokey Seitan w/ Mushroom Mousse & Braised Apples in a Pumkin Butter Shell, & Pumpkin Pie Cookies!

photo: lordjdavis.com

I am really blessed to have such an amazing group of people in my life. I can’t tell you how revolutionary it is to be at an event overflowing with amazing drinks and food and conversation, and never have to worry once about the ingredients of anything, defending my choice to be an animal advocate, or losing interest in any conversation. From shoe designers, comic artists, TV personalities, and food-science artists – to organizers, fund-raising powerhouses, filmmakers, lifestyle experts, full-time animal rescuers, lawyers, wellness therapists and fashionistas – there was so much good karma in the room that I was high on it.

Pablo & Veronica brought their finest creations: raw, vegan, aged cheeses. Cashew Blue Cheese, Macadamia, Brazil Nut, Fennel Pollen, and 1 Year Aged Cashew Cheese were more than any cheese-lover could ask for.