Argentina has halted export of a main dietary staple, beef, to keep local prices down. This has led to a beef shortage worldwide, along with an increase in price.   How will that affect us here in the Middle East? And what can we do about it?

According to Ynet, beef prices in Israel are set to rise by about 20%. And make no mistake: Chicken, fish, egg and dairy prices will follow, because of demand. If you’re already a vegetarian or vegan, you’ll feel it less. But if meat is an important part of your diet, current market forces could give you the incentive  you need to switch to a vegetarian, or a “vegawarian”, diet.

Learning to cook without meat requires a change in outlook, and most important, planning ahead. Otherwise you could end up eating processed, expensive and fattening foods from vegetable sources. Eating vegetarian is not just a green thing to do—it can be frugal and healthy as well.

To help you get started, I’ve collected some tips for eating less meat whether your goal is a vegetarian, vegawarian or vegan diet.

1. Analyze the situation. When did you eat meat and chicken during the last week? Resolve to cut back on the amount of meat meals this coming week. Talk to your family and friends to get them on board.
2. Find vegetarian options for the meat meals you’ve decided to give up. You may already cook some vegetarian meals, so start by making them more often. If you need recipes, why not try Butternut Squash Stuffed with Quinoa, or Majadra (Lentils and Rice)?
3. Get creative with substitutes. Use rich and flavorful portobello mushrooms as the basis for your meal. Incorporate garlic, hot pepper, spices, and fresh herbs as seasoning. Instead of rice and potatoes think quinoa, oatmeal, buckwheat, bulgur, wild rice, or barley . And add legumes, nuts and seeds wherever you can—in soups, stews, spreads, and salads. Keep in mind that some items, like quinoa or tree nuts, can be expensive.
4. Plan ahead. Wash, peel and chop vegetables in advance and store in the refrigerator for a quick meal later in the week. Soak beans in advance, although smaller legumes like dried peas, black-eyed peas and lentils don’t need it.
5. Use the right equipment. Some legumes, like dried kidney beans and chickpeas, take a long time to cook. Save time and money by cooking a large batch in the pressure cooker or slow cooker and storingin small portions for future meals.

What techniques have you used to cut back on the amount of meat you eat? Let us know in the comments.

For recipes, you may also like:

Where Macrobiotic Meets Makluba in Jerusalem

More Posts by Hannah Katsman:
Five Edible Wild Plants You Can Pick Yourself
Israeli Parents Organize Walking Bus to Transport Schoolchildren
Twelve Tips for Getting Kids Used to Healthy Food
Photo credit: meaduva

New testing regulations may end small-scale meat production — and keep the market safe for the big boys

By Sara Breselor

That wailing you hear in the distance is the sound of small meat processors begging the USDA for mercy. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety Inspection Service recently proposed a set of new regulations that will require all meat processors to submit their products to a new series of tests, a procedure that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for even a modestly scaled operation, enough to cripple many small processors.

What worries fans of small farms and locally produced food is that the closing of small processors will mean the closing of small farms. Slaughter and processing is the biggest challenge for small-scale meat; they’re operations simply too costly and complex for farms to handle themselves. As it is, farmers have few options for meat processing without selling their animals to massive feedlot-meat operations, and without that piece of the puzzle, many farmers may quit. Why is the USDA considering the new testing regime? Some producers wonder if the machinations of Big Food are in play.

“The new testing would just ensure that the current processes, which are based on scientific consensus, are working,” according to Dustin VandeHoer of the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship. But, he adds that it’s not clear why they’re being mandated: “It doesn’t appear that it’s in response to any specific situation. They’re just kind of reinterpreting the existing rules.’” And he’s unsure that the new tests are necessary. “We haven’t had problems with food safety, especially with the smaller plants,” he says. “We should never become complacent, but I think we can reach a point where [small meat processors] can still be allowed to operate and food can be safe. I don’t know that we need to be taking this path that’s going to put small plants out of business.” (Repeated attempts by Salon to solicit comments from the USDA were unsuccessful.)

To read the entire article CLICK HERE

Click here to view the embedded video.

A totally redundant and ungreen invention automates Middle East meat cutting.

We were fooled by Grist yesterday and the news that McDonald’s meals won’t compost for 1,000 years, but this meat-cutting robot, a donor-robo looks like no joke. Designed by Turkish engineers, your Middle East street meat will never be the same, boast developers of the product now being sold at a German expo. Seriously folks?

A robot that cuts donor meat? We laud inventions that automate the cleaning of solar panels, or that make our power consumption more efficient, but this invention, reported by PopSci is up there in the annals of the ungreen, unnecessary and completely random. Street meat cutting is a job done best by humans. No added machines necessary. Agreed?

Some of the feats the donor robo can perform:

Non-stop working 7 days a week, 24 hours

Ability to cut in front of the high-temperature without getting bored

Eliminates the negative human factors (sneezing, cough, perspiration, breath, touch, etc.) and guarantees hygiene (what will happen to the authentic taste of street meat? Isn’t sneezing the essential ingredient?_

Anybody with no experience at all, can both cook and slice by these robots

Doner Robot slices the doner by using its digital camera

::PopSci

Not satisfied? More on greening your meat:
Are you a vegewarian?
Daniella Sees Sheep Slaughter and Gets Close to Her Meat
Classic Middle East Cooking – A Recipe for Kibbeh

“Earlier this month I ventured down to the nation’s capital to attend Meeting the Demand: Growing Markets for Sustainable Meat and Dairy Production, a conference organized by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR).  Turned out to be well worth the epic all-in-one-day roundtrip subway/train ride; ICCR managed to cram the schedule full of speakers, panels, and workshops like pork in the farm bill.  Lots of big ideas; lots of inspiring solutions.

Rather than burden you with a whole lot of extra words, I have compiled a list of 31 facts/thoughts/themes from the conference.  Why 31?  Because it’s a prime number, silly.  This should satisfy your sound-bite appetite – but if you hunger for the hearty stew of detailed description, leave questions in the comments section and I’ll write more.”

To read the entire article go to: http://blog.eatwellguide.org/2010/03/dispatches-from-the-beltway-meeting-the-demand/

“For farmers, the sales are alluring; they make more money per animal when they sell direct, even if these channels represent less than 2 percent of all meat sales. It’s also a way to escape the conventional system of meat production, since Virginia cattle typically are raised in-state for a year before being shipped to feedlots in Nebraska, Kansas and Texas to be fattened up and slaughtered — and then shipped back as meat.”

HARRISONBURG, VA. — Huddled in a small pen in the slaughterhouse, the four sheep and two goats were quiet and still. A few men nearby in thick rubber aprons cut away at still-warm carcasses hanging on hooks. “They don’t seem to know what’s going on,” a visitor remarked. “Oh, they know,” one of the butchers replied. “They know.”

Maybe it was that awareness that led the men to work quietly and efficiently, dispatching each animal with a bolt shot to the head, until the last sheep, perhaps realizing that the flock was gone, began to bleat. Then she too fell silent.

So began the hard work of turning the animals into meat. The process is usually hidden from view, so that all consumers see is a steak or chop in a shrink-wrapped package. But at True & Essential Meats, one of about a dozen small slaughterhouses in the state that work with local farms, even school classes have visited the kill floor.

Co-owner and manager Joe Cloud, a 52-year-old former landscape architect from Seattle who bought the plant in mid-2008, welcomes visitors so they can see what’s at stake, for the eater and the eaten. “It is a slaughterhouse, but I’m not going to shrink from showing who we are and what we do,” Cloud said. “The industry has walled it off and is in a defensive crouch. I want to be different.”

Cloud is riding a wave of consumer demand for meat from local farms, which has burgeoned along with the rash of deadly E. coli food poisoning incidents, hamburger recalls and undercover videos about grossly inhumane practices at a few large plants. Prominent chefs, who work with farmers and processors like T&E to get high-quality meat, have also championed the products.

Contact: USDA Office of Communications (202) 720-4623

USDA ANNOUNCES NEW FRAMEWORK FOR ANIMAL DISEASE TRACEABILITY

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5, 2010-Agriculture Secretary Vilsack announced today that USDA will develop a new, flexible framework for animal disease traceability in the United States, and undertake several other actions to further strengthen its disease prevention and response capabilities.

“After concluding our listening tour on the National Animal Identification System in 15 cities across the country, receiving thousands of comments from the public and input from States, Tribal Nations, industry groups, and representatives for small and organic farmers, it is apparent that a new strategy for animal disease traceability is needed,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “I’ve decided to revise the prior policy and offer a new approach to animal disease traceability with changes that respond directly to the feedback we heard.”

The framework, announced today at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Mid-Year meeting, provides the basic tenets of an improved animal disease traceability capability in the United States. USDA’s efforts will:

* Only apply to animals moved in interstate commerce;

* Be administered by the States and Tribal Nations to provide more flexibility;

* Encourage the use of lower-cost technology; and

* Be implemented transparently through federal regulations and the full rulemaking process.

“One of my main goals for this new approach is to build a collaborative process for shaping and implementing our framework for animal disease traceability,” said Vilsack. “We are committed to working in partnership with States, Tribal Nations and industry in the coming months to address many of the details of this framework, and giving ample opportunity for farmers and ranchers and the public to provide us with continued input through this process.”

One of USDA’s first steps will be to convene a forum with animal health leaders for the States and Tribal Nations to initiate a dialogue about the possible ways of achieving the flexible, coordinated approach to animal disease traceability we envision. Additionally, USDA will be revamping the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health to address specific issues, such as confidentiality and liability.

Although USDA has a robust system in place to protect U.S. agriculture, with today’s announcement, the Department will also be taking several additional actions to further strengthen protections against the entry and spread of disease. These steps will include accelerating actions to lessen the risk from diseases–such as tuberculosis–posed by imported animals, initiating and updating analyses on how animal diseases travel into the country, improving response capabilities, and focusing on greater collaboration and analyses with States and industry on potential disease risk overall.

More information on USDA’s new direction on animal traceability and the steps to improve disease prevention and control is available at: http://www.aphis.usda.gov/traceability.