Day 9: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

     I decided to check out the popular TV show “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” after someone told me, that after they watched the first episode of the season, they could never look at a hamburger the same way again. I must say I was intrigued by their change in heart and decided to check it out for myself.

     

     The second season of “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution” first aired in April and is set in, surprisingly enough, Los Angeles. Jamie Oliver is here in LA trying to get the public school board to let him into their school so he can properly evaluate the junk food we have letting the school district feed the children of Los Angeles. In his first episode of the season he took a group of parents from the LA school district and showed them what was in their children’s hamburgers; and most of our hamburgers for that matter. If you ever want to eat a hamburger without total disgust I would suggest you stop reading now.

     

    Jamie Oliver brought out a live cow and showed the audience what parts of the cow you often buy at the store and how much it costs by spray painting the sections as well as price points on the cow (don’t worry the cow was not harmed in any way). He also brought out each hunk of meat and put it on the table until all that was left was the cows internal organs, fat, and other left over tissues. He then went on to explain that while this by product use to be only used in dog food or fed to the other cows and pigs on our farms, 15% of it is now being used in our hamburgers.

      

     It gets worse. Jamie Oliver then went on to describe the process companies go through to rid the left over scraps from the bacteria that coats the inner organs such as E. coli, and salmonella. These companies put the scraps in a machine almost like a drying machine which spins the meat and separates the fat from the leftover meat. They then kill the bacteria by adding ammonia. Ammonia! Our government knowingly allowing companies to feed us food with poison in it! This is our minced meat…..which almost reminds me of Sweeny Todd and the meat pies for you never know what your going to get. If you take anything away from this it would be; be careful of what you eat if you haven’t seen it made yourself.

   

The first three episodes are currently still available for free on Hulu. So check it out.

     On a happier note here is the quick delicious vegan meal I had for dinner tonight....with no ammonia. My dinner tonight consisted of butternut squash soup with a variety of roasted vegetables on the side. 

     This meal took only about ten to fifteen minutes to throw together. All I did was roast various lightly oiled vegetables in the oven at 350 for about ten minutes, reheat the butternut soup I got from Trader Joe's and voila a well balanced delicious vegan meal!