It’s that time for (what’s in it?) burgers again

So here we are, back in the season of “fire up the grill!” with more talk than ever about hamburgers, hot dogs and ribs. (sigh!) What’s a poor animal-loving vegan or vegetarian to do?  Any point hoping for bona fide alternative and delicious happy-time food  (in other words, fake meat)?

“Mmm, mmm good” -- or not?  Consider the “Impossible Burger,” made of wheat, coconut oil and potatoes with “heme,” a special ingredient contained in blood that makes it taste, smell and sizzle like a beefburger. Will this eco-vegetarian meat-free invention satisfy traditional meat-eaters?  Its creator, who wants to reduce meat consumption for the sake of global ecosystems, hopes so.

Former Stanford biochemist Patrick Brown, who founded “Impossible Foods” to “disrupt the multibillion-dollar market for ground beef without killing cows,” asserts that “You can have uncompromisingly delicious meat without using animals.” A taste-test of his “Impossible Burger” was reported on last January, and with the formula always being improved, the product is moving forward.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/13/business/veggie-burger-impossible-burger.html,

That’s only the latest burger substitute (think the Superiority Burger and the Beyond Burger) as other seekers after meat-free meat already know. My first notion of such a possibility came with Michael Specter’s 2011 New Yorker article, “Test-Tube Burgers,” about meat made in a lab.  For some time after that, I stuck to “veggie (heavy on the black beans) burgers” as recognizable, at least. But “garden burgers” can often sound better than they taste. e belieHe

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/23/test-tube-burgers 

Meanwhile, still other efforts are underway to end animal slaughter for the world’s sake -- if not for the more basic humane principle that animals’ lives count too, and animals do not live to die for our eating pleasure. One idea that seems lame and tame to me is the “meatless Monday” campaign. Probably the hope is that it will expand to more meat-free meal days, but at this point, chickens, cows and pigs could well say, “Thanks for almost nothing” to the concept.

              Jason Henry, NYTimes, 1-17

Pigs in particular need a respite, in the face of rising demand for pig products, starting with the bacon everyone seems to want to bring home. In response, farmers will simply raise more pigs to slaughter, people with "meat mindsets" will happily pay more and the warped view of animals’ purpose will be nurtured.  

something completely different 

And now comes a blog-content exception for Wally, an exceptional dog in need. I couldn’t begin to cover all the animals who need rescue here, thereby turning this blog into a bulletin board. But I have a wild hope someone will read about him here -- and go get him! (He’s in Ardsley, NY, only 50-some miles north of NYC.)

From The Dodo, here’s the story of Wally, known formally as “Walrus”: 

https://www.thedodo.com/close-to-home/walrus-tiny-pit-bull?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=61017&utm_content=61017+CID_6b88a9d368ceabfcef204d1bbd4052a4&utm_source=Campaign%20Monitor

From a spokesperson for Wally, I learned he stands around a foot off the ground and weighs about 50 pounds.  Besides other dogs, he gets along fine with her adult cat and seemed only intrigued by a kitten he met recently, not aggressive.

Wally

Wally’s looking. Are you?

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