oy vey it's the end of feb

oy vey it's already the end of february. oy vey another newsletter. oy vey more projects by kay.

“oh shit, another newsletter” that’s probably what you’re thinking but i’m over here thinking, “oh shit, another project??” kayla please no… but here we are i’m typing and you’re scrolling through.

really it’s not a new project it’s a newer format for the same project i’ve been exploring on patreon for a few months. I put together resources of what i’ve been reading, watching, or listening to with some brief* commentary and try to get myself to write at least one longer article per month. selfish but it’s been working to keep myself semi-consistent over time.
*I really do try to keep it brief!

pssst if you scroll all the way to the bottom you’ll get my favorite recent picture of ginny 👀

what i’ve read

• Poor food in prison and jails can cause or worsen eating and health problems. And the effects can linger long after release.  

  (CW: incarceration, disordered eating)
  over the last few years I have begun learning more about food and nutrition in prisons, mostly inspired by the Ear Hustle podcast, which in its recent season did a few episodes about food for incarcerated folks and has a few food focused episode - the idea of "trauma informed nutrition education" is new to me but absolutely makes sense and I'm glad to be more aware of it  

• California assembly passes “first of its kind” regulation bill, giving fast food workers the ability to negotiate for better pay and working conditions
  this is cool, cautiously optimistic about how this could be a platform for worker's rights on a national scale but the article already states the disapproval of franchise owners and threats to replace human workers with technology because of the increase in cost without a direct increase in sales (how original)

• Meat and masculinity: why do some men react so strongly to meat alternatives? I was laughing at every sentence honestly, I fully believe it but it's so outside my everyday bubble of people.

• Who’s Labeling What: Examining How Companies are Disclosing Bioengineered Ingredients
  knew this wasn't going to elevate consumer understanding, it's so unhelpful to see a general statement and not educate people or even identify which ingredient is BE. It will give more fuel to the clean eating gospel.

• THE SOCIALIST FEMINIST CASE FOR ANIMAL LIBERATION (~30 minute read)
  this connects to other sociological information I've been reading about the roots of feminism in veganism and I'm just mad it has taken me almost 8 years of being vegan to get to this point! it's illuminating, truly. - I learned a new word (zoophilpsychosis) - this pull quote feels important  "WE ARE SOLD A SANITIZED AND IDEALIZED IMAGE OF FARM LIFE. AS IS THE CASE WITH HUMAN LABOR, THE REPRODUCTIVE DIMENSIONS OF MEAT, MILK, AND EGG PRODUCTION TOO OFTEN GO IGNORED."

• How Clean-Eating Rhetoric Is Shaping the Anti-Vax Movement
  further solidifies my distaste for Michael Pollan - TLDR; industrialized food & medicine industries do very bad things but the products they produce aren't inherently evil. though from the bottom of my heart, FUCK Big Pharma and Big Food/Ag and every fear-mongering #clean eating influencer.

• Did Eric Adams, an Avowed Vegan, Eat Fish? (Yes, and It Was No Fluke.)
  NYT article, if you want I can email you the text - Eric Adams is problematic, though this article could truly be about many many people who embody this same veganism-as-a-diet approach - Just LOL at every person who thinks celebrity veganism isn't always this flawed & counterproductive - this last quote kills me though "If I choose to say I want to put cream in my tea, I don't beat myself up for that" because it is peak plant-based IMHO

• Why Is Food Insecurity So Widespread In The Grocery Industry?
  food insecurity is not a perfect metric, though I do appreciate that Errol included quotes from grocery employees with lived experience to balance statistics - TLDR; food charity is bullshit, the reasons Walmart/Kroger/etc partner with Feeding America is to distract from the fact that keeping their employees below a living wage and forcing them to use government assistance is literally a return on their own investment. most SNAP $ are spent in their stores and they get to look nice from Feeding America's annual report. (hint: Feeding America measures their success in growth metrics but if they were succeeding at eradicating hunger wouldn't success look like...oh idk....decreases in growth as people subsist without charity? (that got me academically booed at a conference once lol) "Over 80% of SNAP benefits are spent in supermarkets such as Kroger and Walmart, contributing $64 Billion in revenue annually, and growing. Researchers have estimated that up to 4% of annual Walmart revenues are derived from SNAP." 

• Food marketing exposure and power and their associations with food-related attitudes, beliefs and behaviours: a narrative review - a report from the WHO - summary by Marion Nestle here 

• In Labels We Trust: How Food Certification Labels Can Help Consumers Make Better Choices
  a decent overview of how third party certifications work, examples of a couple areas to explore, and a pretty fair assessment of the limitations of certifications (plus a podcast version to listen to)
  

• Executive greed is driving the labor shortage, says 93-year-old leader whose workers own 100% of the company
  I learned what an "Employee Stock Ownership Plan" is and this has doubled my support of loving Bob's Red Mill products!

• Do you care if your meat came from the United States? The USDA wants your feedback. - US ranchers, farmers, and advocacy groups want stricter regulation over animal meat labeling but surprise surprise Big Animal Ag conglomerates like the loopholes
  The FSIS has issued a request for comments before April so if you have something to say here is your chance - Article gives a decent overview of the nuance around the labeling and why it's complicated and also probably not super important compared to issues like anti-trust enforcement and limiting the power of large animal ag conglomerates

what i’m excited about

• hosting a discussion on VeganZine about what it means to “go vegan”, a question that seems simple enough but the more i think about it the less sure i am that i know what it means.

theveganzine_

A post shared by VeganZine (@theveganzine_)

• traveling for fun. as long as ~things~ hold constant I will be taking an extended weekend to eat my way through a city I haven’t visited since I was a kid.

• continuing a video series with @beetsbybrooke breaking down food marketing

kvetch sesh

*gestures wildly to the world, then to the dumpster fire of the internet, and back to the world*

ginny!

as promised