I am taking a business trip to LA soon and I can not wait to try out her favorite vegan restaurant picks. I will be there for a week, so I have time to try them all!

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I recently wrote a letter to my two state Senators as well as my Congresswoman concerning the affects that US food production has on energy and agriculture. In summary, the key is to “grow local, go local,” meaning grow your crops for the local community and shop within the community. This philosophy, if supported by the communities around the United States, can have a large impact on the direction our environment is headed in. If you’d like, feel free to copy my letter and address if to your representative. It is also easy to copy and paste the letter into the “Written Contact Form” found on your Representatives personal website, which saves you paper and a stamp! Thanks for your support; let’s keep working to educate our community about the importance of growing locally (and organically!).

Dear Honorable [Representative's Full Name]:

I have travelled the world choking on exhaust fumes on the island of Curacao and fighting my way through thick layers of pollution in Mexico City and each time my trip is over, I appreciate so much the fact that I can come home to a clean environment, the United States; much of this is thanks to you and lawmakers alike for continuously striving to raise our standards of practice. I am writing today to inform you of the environmental concerns that I have for the food production industry in our country and how we can change the destructive fate of our beautiful environment for generations to come.

In statics, most would agree that 50% can make a tremendous difference, so in order to make a noticeable difference in our environment, for simplicity’s sake, we are going to reduce our country’s energy output by 50% in this example. Let’s assume that some variables are out of our control, such as individual’s daily caloric intake, which on average is 3,800 (if we lower that number to 2,500 we can cut energy output from food production by 30%). Also, the consumption of junk food can only be controlled by the individual so we have little control unless new legislature slows the production and marketing of it; it is commonly agreed upon that consuming products like such should be reduced at least 80%. These shifts in reducing caloric intake and junk food consumption would greatly reduce our food production, processing and packaging, and transportation costs and energy that is quickly destroying our country, and our planet’s, beautiful environment that I appreciate every time that I return back home. Since these are variable we can control, production, processing and packaging, and transportation, these are the variables I would like to discuss.

“What does it mean, to cut energy by 30%, by 50%, by 80%, what is this energy you are talking about?” This was my first question when entering into a higher-level education about the affects that food production has on our environment. Production is the piece of the puzzle, in which we aim to reduce by 50%. This can be done if we allow U.S. subsidies to encourage farmer’s to grow more than one crop, including livestock (for this example). Livestock alone produces over forty five million tons of nitrogen from manure and when they are kept together at feed houses, their manure goes to waste, leaving our country with the second best option, to manufacture chemical fertilizers. Introducing legislation that encourages and supports farmer’s to grow and distribute locally can drastically reduce the energy created from the manufacturing of chemical fertilizers, in addition to the energy used in transportation because farmers are encouraged to only produce one crop (the average energy output from the distance a crop travels before it is processed is 400x the amount of calories the crop and packaging contains).

Processing and packaging is also a variable we can control and is directly related to the way farmer’s produce their crops. If we could encourage and support U.S. farmer’s to grow multiple crops and distribute them locally, we can cut down on transportation and packaging costs and energy dramatically, because everything would be done in-house, or at least close to home. When we package and preserve our crop in steel cans, there is about as many calories of energy used to make the steel can as there are calories in the crop being contained (about 320 calories for a 16 oz. can). If we sell our crops locally, there is no need to preserve and can our food items because there is no worry about spoilage since the crops are not travelling to another part of the country, or world. Processing and packaging in addition to transportation is a variable that we can reduce also by 50% in supporting local farming alone.

By supporting legislation that encourages and supports farmer’s to grow more than one crop as well as distribute their product locally can and will greatly affect the energy output of our country. This will keep our country as beautiful as you and I remember it every time we step outside and can see clearly for miles and jog on trails without having car exhaust completely engulf our lungs. Thank you for taking the time to care for our environment and show your support via legislation for the bettering of the future of our environment.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

I recently watched the Oscar award winning documentary, “The Cove,” which documents the slaughtering and shipment of beautiful bottle-nose dolphins in what’s referred to as, the cove, in Taiji, Japan. Richard O’Barry, the dolphin trainer for the once popular TV show, Flipper, demonstrates a massive amount of courage in his gripping documentation of the fate of these dolphins in Japan. Each year in Taiji, the Japanese “fishermen” slaughter 23,000 dolphins in one cove alone! These dolphins, which are extremely high in mercury (toxic levels) are either sold to places like SeaWorld to live in captivity for the remainder of their lives, or they’re slaughtered among their brothers and sisters and intentionally mislabeled as a high quality fish in the markets including being fed to children in the school lunch programs.

I often encounter people that choose to not eat “meat” which they categorize as coming from land animals; “The Cove,” presents a totally new perspective on our fishing industry and how healthy seafood actually is for humans due to the high mercury levels that fish consume through their food chain (which humans in turn consume). The FDA should require that the tender cuts of meat that we see nicely packaged in the store be required to have an attached DVD on fishing and farming practices throughout the world; because so much killing happens behind closed doors, we must spread the word and expose to the people around the world just what they are consuming and supporting when they choose to consume what was once living, breathing, playing, and loving.

Documentaries like, “The Cove,” are always a great reminder that we all share this planet and even though we are all from different countries, this Earth belongs to all of us. I highly recommend watching this documentary and supporting the dissemination of this critical information to all of the people you love and care about.

This documentary is available for rent on Netflix, and the website is available here: The Cove

Other important websites to visit are:

Save Japan Dolphins

Dolphin Slaughtering in Taiji (Ocean Preservation Society)

Contact Authorities, the Japanese Consulate, local dolphinariums, and SeaWorld

Thank you for being so caring!

Miami’s vegan food truck, Mac’n, is owned and operated by the sweet, Francesca. With an entirely vegan menu, including gluten free options,  I bought one of everything that was gluten free on the menu. Between my boyfriend and I, we enjoyed a very cheesy macaroni and cheese, a barbeque sandwich, watermelon and basil salad, fried green tomatoes, and sweet potato fries; a whole lot of food! I have to say, the fried green tomatoes were definitely my favorite. They were super hot a crispy and Francesca drizzled a delicious white sauce over top of them…yum!

If you want to follow Francesca on twitter, her handle is @macnfoodtruck. She posts where you can find her truck throughout the day; and if you’re lucky like I was, it will be parked outside your building one day!

Thanks for servicing the community with kind food options, Francesca! I’ll certainly be back for more!

This is my new favorite t-shirt. It says, “Animals are my friends.”

Sunflower Restaurant in Vienna, VA had an amazingly delicious vegan booth.

Grow your own mushrooms in 7 days! Love. Food for thought: What do you call a 12 inch mushroom? …A ‘fungi’ to be with!

Vegan dessert. My weakness! Good thing the line was outrageously long and I have no patience.

All you need is a bunch of bananas and chocolate (I like Enjoy Life chocolate chips–vegan and gluten free). Pre-freeze thin slices of the banana (freezing banana takes no time at all), double boil the chocolate chips and dip the frozen banana slices into the melted chocolate. And Boom. You’re done.

The chocolate will harden within seconds and you can serve immediately–or pack them away in the freezer for all the, “I’m crazing chocolate moments!” …which seems to happen more often than not in this household!

I love to freeze a bunch of them and let them sit out for 10 minutes before I serve them. THIS is a DIY party HIT! Good thing the NFL made it past the lock-out this year: this is definitely a recipe I’ll be serving up in the fourth quarter. …there is a fourth quarter, right?

Dip these bad boys in a hot cafe au lait or cortadito, and enjoy your sinfully sweet and crispy few minutes in heaven.

God Bless America.

Admittedly so, I had to think for a while about where on earth my local firehouse was. With the help of this handy website, I found it in a snap: http://www.localfirehouse.com/departments

Join me in celebrating and remembering the lives our American heroes this Sunday.

God Bless America!

Here’s a few teasers so you can see what I’ve been up to: