Ever since the right to privacy went down on sheepskin, there’s been a cornucopia of confusion about whether or not American law should regulate personal choices, and what those “personal choices” are. As law makers get more and more worked up over “the epidemic of obesity”, and their constituents’ new interest in food, they look to legislate people’s eating habits from both the consumer (taxes on soft drinks, calorie counts in fast food) and the producer ends. As I listen to pizza makers bemoan the loss of transfats, community activists struggle to increase access to fruits and vegetables in poor neighborhoods, and local curb-sitters mark the price of a smoke in NYC, I get to wondering where all of this interest in our personal  habits comes from, and whether the government really has the right to legislate it in the first place.

I asked my brother, the recent law school grad (though not yet lawyer) to dispel some of the mists of obscurity surrounding civil rights in general. What follows is a highly simplified version of his explanation, as filtered through my not-too-legal mind.

My brother explains that the federal government has power only over those areas explicitely or implicitely controlled by the constitution, according to which, all Americans have certain fundamental rights. These include things like private property, free speech, and equal treatment regardless of race and religion, but conspicuously don’t include things like equal access to an education or a nutritious food supply.

Whatever rights are not referenced in the constitution are under the control of the states, which delegate further laws on down through counties, municipalities and so forth. This design makes national law more locally answerable and more flexible to needs and desires of individual people and communities. It also means that unless we can prove discrimination on the basis of race or religion, states and cities can make any personal behavior illegal – unless it violates those interest groups, or one of the other fundamental rights specified in the constitution. As an example, take soft drinks: the proposed NYC soft drink tax is perfectly legal unless the cola cult can prove that it impinges on their constitutional right to bathe in 400 gallons of coke during their high holy days. That’s not to say legislating food is always a good idea. I, for one, would not look kindly on any lawmaker who banned fried chicken.

So now that we’ve talked about why these laws are (generally speaking) legitimate, we can talk about why they’re effective, too.  It took decades of scientific studies and legal battles, and millions of dollars in ads to make cigarettes a public concern, yet it’s former NY Health Comissioner and new Director for the Center for disease control and prevention Thomas Friedan, who is credited for the enormous plunge in smokers in his city. Friedan led the charge to raise taxes on cigarettes to the point where, currently, a pack of Newport Lights sets you back ten bucks. Under Friedan, the city outlawed smoking in all bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Nowadays, if you want to so much as bum a smoke, you have to smoke outside like a bum. People crammed wet and shivering against the wall of a nightclub in a New York November no longer exuded that certain something the old Kools ads promised. Smoking in the city has decreased by 350,000, according to the White house, and teen smoking has gone down by half.

Can food regulations have the same effect? Friedan thought they might. He supported a tax on soda, a ban on trans fats, and introduced highly visible nutritional information in all chain restaurants in the city. Nowadays, a reduced fat blueberry muffin at Double D is the obvious choice for the calorie-conscious breakfast cake enthusiast. Subway ads give dire calorie assessments to the usual office-worker lunch. Finally, in a much envied move (by yours truly, who ate a hell of a lot of institutional fried chicken patties in her NYC public school days) all city institutions, from soup kitchens to prisons, to schools, hospitals and parks now serve only whole grains, at least two servings of vegetables, and 100% fruit juice, among other healthier foods (“ier” being an important suffix, and “where appropriate” being an important phrase in the guidelines themselves).

Of course, taxes, regulations and standards, even information, don’t force people to change their habits. My partner, a teacher, reports that her students regularly dismiss their still pretty nasty lunchroom fair and eat chips and soda instead. What would they do if there was a soda tax, you ask? Nicholas Kristoff at the NY Times thinks they’d ditch the bubbly (but then, he also thinks that ancient man never shook a coconut).

I disagree. While Friedan desrves credit for his accomplishments in curbing smoking, they didn’t occur in a vaccuum.The smoking taxes and bans came in conjunction with a massive effort to counter cigarette ads using new, anti-cigarette ads. These highly produced tv spots targeted the same populations, using the same marketing ploys. Simultaneously, restrictions on pro-cigarette advertising, both subtle and overt, effected pop culture on every front. The restrictions included smoking in movies and on tv, and a ban on cigarette ads  in many print publications.

On top of that, the anti-smoking message is pretty simple: don’t smoke. I can tell you as an ex-adolescent female that the “don’t eat” line has been tried before, and it doesn’t work so well. In the good foods movement, we’re asking people to, as Michael Pollan famously said, “eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Yet that admirably simplified message is also quite incomplete, particularly the “mostly plants” part – for example, by mostly plants we do not mean mostly corn, nor GMO plants, nor conventionally grown plants, nor even organic plants imported from thousands of miles away on an airplane, nor plants grown or sold by underpaid labor. It takes some explaining to convey the message in it’s entirety. To make matters worse, the simpler the message, the more open it is to attack, as the buy-local and organic backlash continues to show us.

Soda’s a little more straight forward, it’s one thing you can ‘just say no’ to.  But what would kids do with a soft drink tax right now? Maybe pay more, since hundreds of shiny advertisements tell them to, and maybe ditch the chips to makelunch more affordable. Maybe they’d go to hundreds of non-carbonated, but just as nasty corn-syrup and food coloring concoctions. Clearly, one answer is to combine legislation with marketing, thereby influencing people economically and culturally to make more sound nutritional and environmental choices. Something like that is happening in the US right now, but it’s not working out quite as smashingly as the anti-smoking push. With greenwashing, and the difficulty of prioritizing one’s daily food choices, we’re still not getting our complex message across.

It’s been a crazy few weeks for milk in the US. Earlier this month, dairy prices officially tanked, collapsing over $5 between last February and this one. It’s the worst drop in prices since the Great Depression, when the government asked dairy farmers to pour off millions of gallons of milk. The drastic losses have prompted 35 senators to send  a letter to Vilsack and the new administration asking the government to support the dairy industry.

In somewhat more unconventional milk news, the first pharmaceutical goats were approved by the FDA (big surprise there) as was the drug that they produce in their milk. The goats produce ATryn,  a drug approved to prevent blood clots.  ATryn is a human protein, and the gene for its production is implanted in the goat embryo, while the protein itself is extracted from the milk.

The demand for ATryn is relatively small, which is why it can be produced in this way. Imagine how many goat we’d need for GMO-produced prozac, for instance. It’s not the only game in town, however, according to the New York Times other companies are working on similar drugs using the same “technology”. For example,  a company in the Netherlands called Pharming (isn’t that cute?) is developing a protein-based drug in rabbit milk to treat hereditary angioedema. Also according to the Times, “PharmAthene, is developing a treatment for nerve gas poisoning in the milk of transgenic goats.”

The goats were approved “under guidelines the agency adopted only last month to regulate the use of transgenic animals in the nation’s drug and food supply” according to the NYTimes.

Lest those guidelines make you feel secure, the FDA admitted at the end of January that meat and milk from cloned animals might have already entered the food supply. After the FDA declared such foods safe in December, the U.S.D.A. asked corporations to voluntarily ban the use of cloned animals (but not their offspring) in their products. Companies participating in the ban include Smithfield Foods, General Mills, Campbell Soup, Nestle, California Pizza Kitchen, Supervalu, Kraft Foods and Tyson Foods. Now I don’t know about you, when I see those names listed, I think honesty, transparency, and customer-responsibility.

In more uplifting milk politics, Ron Paul, former presidential candidate and current congressman, has introduced HR 778, a bill that would allow interstate traffic of unpasteurized dairy products and milk packaged for human consumption. It’s a huge step, since at the moment, while it’s not illegal to drink raw milk anywhere, it’s illegal to buy it in some states. This bill wouldn’t make raw milk legal in all states, but it would let a consumer in New York, say, where raw milk is illegal, purchase the stuff from Connecticut, where raw milk sale is legal with a license, without being a criminal. Check out the link above to see how you can monitor this exciting piece of legislation.

In the meantime, I seem to have gotten some raw milk from somewhere, and being that I am the only raw milk drinker in my household, and that my eyes are bigger than my stomach (only figuratively, with eyes like mine, your stomach gets big pretty quickly). I was left with almost half a gallon of milk when it went bad after four days (the downside of raw). After a thorough fridge inspection, I discovered an almost full carton of Hawthorn Valley Farm yogurt that had been sitting in my fridge since October (I’m twenty-five and I still don’t clean my fridge, what can I say). Combined with some other nearly empty, slightly putrid dairy products gleaned from my search, I had about two quarts of off material. So I made cheese. It’s probably old hat for most of our readers, but just in case anyone is wondering, it took a minute amount of my time and attention, and it turned out fantastic. This is how I did it (and what I did with the whey afterwards).

Following the simple recipe for farmer cheese from Wild Fermentation by Sandor Katz, I brought my milk products slowly to a boil, with the heat about as low as it could be without the burner going out. I stirred it very frequently, and when it reached a boil, I poured in about a quarter-cup of mixed saurkraut juice (the pink, acidic liquid left from fermenting red and white cabbage together) and white vinegar while stirring. Then I turned the heat off and let the liquid sit for about forty-five minutes.

After 45 minutes, curds had developed, and I placed a colander lined with cheese cloth over a bowl and strained the curds through it.  I added herbs (but no salt, since the kraut juice is incredibly salty) and then tied the cheese cloth in a ball and hung it from the hood over my stove with a couple of fridge magnets (I was kind of proud of that, since there aren’t any hooks or nails or handles in my kitchen). I squeezed some of the whey out, until the cheese was spreading consistency, and then scooped the whole mess into a one-cup mason jar.

I was left with a little over a quart of whey. It smelled and looked wonderful and I went digging around on the internet for different ways to use it. That night I ended up freezing half to make soup later on, using a cup of it in biscuits and keeping the rest in my fridge for pancakes on the weekend. There’s a lot more you can do with it, particularly if you subscribe to Sally Fallon’s fermentation methods. Here’s one recipe for garlic pickled with whey, and people even make infant formula with it.

Hazon’s Executive Director, Nigel, likes to quote Reb Shlomo Carlebach with the idea that the Jewish holidays come around to remind us of the things we should be doing all year. For example – in theory, we should always work to clear out the spiritual “chametz” from our lives, but if we don’t then Passover arrives to remind us. And we should always remember to connect to the land and the seasons, but if we forget then Sukkot’s lulav and etrog jog our memories.

Tomorrow night, Rosh Hashanah begins – ushering in with it the reminder to reflect and find ways to return to the best possible version of ourselves. To welcome in such a special time, we’ve rounded up a number of great Rosh Hashanah stories, ideas, and recipes from the Jewish food blogosphere. The creativity coming out of these bloggers minds and kitchens is truly inspiring – feel free to share more resources below.

Rosh Hashanah round up below the jump…

Mock Gefilte Fish: Heeb n’ Vegan features a guest post with faw foods cookbook writer, Robin Silverman. Robin shares a few recipes including one for mock gefilte fish that uses kelp and a mixture of soaked almonds and pine nuts to create a raw version of the holiday classic.

Honey Cake: Two wonderful blogs, Elana’s Pantry and The Parve Baker feature honey cake recipes. EP’s version is gluten free, and The PB shares her philosophy about honey cake: “Bake it once a year and make it really good.”

All Apple Menu. Is it possible to create a Rosh Hashanah meal where apples are the star of every course? I took on this bold challenge, and you can find the delicious (if I do say so myself) results over at Beliefnet.

Last Minute Gifts: Trying to figure out the perfect gift to bring to your Rosh Hashanah hosts? Check out the array of creative ideas (from aprons to Jewish fortune cookies) at Someone Spoil Me.

Apple Bread: Ari over at Baking and Books baked a gorgeous loaf of apple bread and serves it up alongside some fascinating apple lore.

Good Advice. Joan Nathan answers readers’ Rosh Hashanah questions over at The New York Times’ Diners Journal.

• PETA lodges official complaint in New York about kapporot, the ceremony where swinging a chicken around your head will rid one of his or her sins. (Hat tip to JTA.)
• Jewschool reports that Israeli-style schnitzel is now available in the States!
• Hat tip to Jewschool again on a NY Times article on the bagel getting attention from Chinese food purveyors.
• What happens according to Jewish law if you want to be buried beside your best friend — a bottle of vodka?(Hat tip to Danya Ruttenberg.)
• Did we miss this? Giraffe milk is now kosher.
• For our Baltimore/DC readers: the Baltimore Sun discusses ethical kashrut, local-style.

Judging from some recent food journalism, using spurious logic to rationalize the choice not to eat ethically is as easy as slathering a mound of Jif Creamy onto a slice of Wonder Bread.

For example, Portland, Oregon is a great city for green living. Maybe that’s why the Oregonian, our newspaper, recently started a weekly green living column — although with dubious results. The inaugural piece was about how to not feel guilty when you *don’t* buy organic. The gist of the article was that as long as you avoid the “Dirty Dozen” – the twelve foods most contaminated with pesticides — you’re a-okay. As columnist Shelby Wood giddily reported:

With the Dirty Dozen in mind, I paid the $1 premium for organic spinach (No. 11 on the Environmental Working Group’s list) at the grocery last week. But I saved $1 on conventional broccoli (No. 35) and 20 cents a pound on bananas (No. 37). After all, I’ve been eating those for 34 years. And I’m not dead yet.

Great job, Shelby. Perhaps you’d like to celebrate by investing that $1.20 you saved on some low-tar cigarettes.

Personally, I’m thrilled that when I buy organic produce, I’m lowering my exposure to toxic pesticides. But that’s not why I buy organic produce. I buy it because somebody plants, tends, and harvests the crops I eat. Somebody whose potential exposure to toxic chemicals sprayed on those crops is far higher than mine. Somebody whose kid’s potential exposure is also far higher than mine.

In other words: consumers aren’t the only ones in the food chain.

That might seem obvious to anyone who understands that “chain” implies multiple links. But apparently, the Oregonian doesn’t. And it isn’t the only media outlet oblivious to that fact. Which you may have noticed if you’ve been following the spate of articles allegedly exposing the drawbacks of buying locally-raised produce.

I haven’t seen a backlash like this since the last time I watched that scene from The Ten Commandments where Vincent Price as Baka disciplines John Derek as Joshua.

And we all know how that turned out.

I confess, I grew up eating the same garbage as most Americans (my zayde may have been a Kosher butcher, but by the time I came along, my mother was gleefully unwrapping Kraft singles to put on our family’s processed-ham sandwiches). As an adult, though, I’ve gone from being Cuckoo for Coco-Puffs to being Loco for Locavore. What could be wrong with that?

Plenty, according to a number of news outlets.

Adam Platt, restaurant critic for New York magazine, seems to believe that if we eat local, the terrorists have won. Here’s his description of the increasing emphasis on the benefits of locally-grown food: “the mullahs are out barking the message from every rooftop.”

Homegrown, meet Homeland Security!

I do have to give Platt kudos for the creative phrasing. How often can you bash an entire religious group and a bunch of concerned food consumers in a single sentence?

Platt’s real beef — or rather, his real lobster, crab, and oysters (a veritable trifecta of treyf) — is that even on his annual summer pilgrimage to a small island in Maine, the quaint, hard-voweled locals were, horror of horrors, eating local. Complaining that the whole charm of Maine “is that it’s irredeemably behind the times,” Platt expresses the misapprehension that the denizens of a fishing community are only just now starting to eat fish, as a result of some pernicious proliferation of mullah-like missionaries extolling eating locally raised foods. Picture New England of yore as Platt imagines it: Ahab lolling about the docks downing Oreos and Triscuits, until he got that goofball white whale notion into his head and took to the high seas.

Less over-the-top, though perhaps more insidious than Platt’s paean to mass-produced junk food are a series of articles claiming economic and ecological imperatives against eating local. All of which hold together about as well as matzah under a butter knife, once you scrutinize the authors’ assumptions.

According to an article by Tim Harford in Forbes, most food isn’t shipped by air (at least not most food in England, the only country in the research to which the article vaguely alludes). And it doesn’t cost that much to send what does go by air. Ipso Forbeso, there’s no compelling reason to eat local food. As if that weren’t reason enough to order up a gallon of Tibetan yak milk, Harford sternly reminds readers that such locavore approaches as freezing homegrown berries for consumption during winter uses energy.

Of course it does. Although in fact a full freezer keeps food cold with less energy than one that isn’t full. So pardon me while I stuff four more blueberries in the Frigidaire.

Andrew Martin, writing in the New York Times, takes Harford’s hare-brained logic even further. He cites a claim that when mass producers of strawberries ship large quantities of food across the U.S. by freight truck, the fuel cost of transportation per carton must be lower than when an individual farmer delivers a small quantity of strawberries to a local market in a pickup.

Martin admits that his source for this information may be more riddled with pits than that truckload of berries: “a strawberry distributor did the math on the back of an envelope,” then reported his self-serving conclusions to the person who in turn shared the theory with Martin.

Questionable as the math may be, there are still more reasons to object to Martin’s argument. Anyone who has ever tasted a freshly picked, locally grown strawberry and then one that was mass-produced and trucked a couple thousand miles can easily observe that cost can be measured in more ways than one. Many of us buy (or grow! — the best strawberries I had this year were planted fifty feet away from my kitchen, and the only fuel it took to get them to me came from the rambunctious three year-old neighbor who carried them over, burning only his own berry-begotten energy on the way) local because the food is fresher, tastier, and more nutritious. And because we’re happy to be links in a food chain that supports local businesses and small growers.

If we can expect anyone to be attuned to true costs, shouldn’t it be celebrated Freakonomist (or perhaps Freakonome) Stephen Dubner? But in his recent article about locavores, he dismisses the idea that locally grown food is “more delicious” and “more nutritious” with the observation, “no one person can grow or produce all the things she would like to eat.” True enough, but as my neighbor’s strawberries — not to mention my crisper full of greens fresh from the farmer’s market — prove, you can eat locally without having to yank your inner Gabor out to Green Acres.

It seems especially freakanomical not to consider local purchasing as a means for acquiring local food. But Dubner has yet another dubious assault to make on locavores. Citing a recently published study that examines the green house gas emissions generated in the commercial raising of red beef, he cites the researchers’ conclusion that reducing red meat consumption can result in greater reductions in green house gases than buying locally.

This may be true — but since when does the efficiency of one environmentalist effort negate the need for any other environmentalist effort? Surely if skipping red meat one or two days a week is good, then buying the food you consume in place of the beef from local sources is even better.

It’s true that eating locally, and seasonally, limits one’s choices in a way that might seem disturbing to a free market freakonomicist. But I’m not sure that it’s really a problem. After I took my first bite of a locally-grown heirloom tomato, I knew I’d never buy another hot-housed raised, out-of-season, shipped in from who’s-knows-where globe of tasteless pinkish-white flesh again. Shouldn’t eating out of season produce always seem as unpalatable as serving your Hannukah latkes with a side of watermelon?

Let’s hear it for being logical — and locavoracious.

Change is in the air at The Jew & The Carrot. It’s summer and we have some spiffy new duds to show off. So drop by, stay a while, and check out our new features.

Keeping Tabs. Find out more about The Jew & The Carrot, browse through our Green Resources (sustainable kiddush or a kosher organic cheese list anyone?), meet the contributors, and more by clicking on one of the tabs on the top right of the page.

Recipe Archive – Coming Soon! The Recipe Archive will feature all the healthy, sustainable recipes from past posts. Looking for breakfast dishes? dairy/vegetarian recipes? snacks for a party? You got it.

Chosen Bites – Food News From the Web. This regularly updated feature (found on the left hand column of the page) will bring you our vetted list of the best Jewish and foodie news and ideas from around the blogosphere. If you have links or stories that you would like us to consider for “Chosen Bites,” please email tips at jcarrot dot org.

More new features, below the jump…

Share Nicely. The Jew & The Carrot now offers many ways to share your favorite posts with friends and family. Click on the share button below each post to email, Digg, Facebook, or Bookmark (and many more – who knew there were so many options?) to spread the love.

Featured Posts. Browse through some of our favorite old posts on the right column: interviews, posts that made us laugh out loud, posts that caused a stir and ones that inspired us. Whether you are new to the blog, or simply want to re-read some of your old favorites, you will find them here.

File under the good news heading: According to this article in Crains New York Business (I read it online – as in standing on line for my take out lunch. It beat reading about Jenna Bush’s wedding…),

New York City is one of the largest players in the burgeoning green restaurant industry. According to Boston-based non-profit Green Restaurant Association, 25% of all American restaurants that it has certified as “green” are in NYC! The article also mentions the specific efforts of Tavern on the Green, who are nervous about not being up to sustainable-snuff when ownership of the site reverts to the Parks & Rec dept., and New York’s first certified organic restaurant, Gusto Grilled Organics. Now New Yorkers can have their cake and eat it, too.

Welcome back to the land of bread! I had a realization on Sunday night, around 6:30 (i.e. T-minus 2 hours to carb consumption, when I was locked in a state of restless self-pity) that Passover would be a perfect time to try a cleanse. After the original spirit and kavannah (intention) of the seder wore off, you could at least still congratulate yourself for detoxing. Perhaps – but I digress.

Two days after Passover, however, is definitely a great time to wipe off the final matzah crumbs and get your finger back on the pulse of what else that’s going on in the world of food. Check out these tasty ideas from around the blogosphere. B’tai Avon!

Sacred Foods. Aleph: The Alliance for Jewish Renewal published a compendium of resources to help Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious leaders educate about sustainable food and eating and make responsible food purchasing decisions in their congregations. The resource guide was created as part of Aleph’s Sacred Foods project. Find them here.

Carbon Side Dish. The New York Times reported this weekend on the strange-but-true phenomenon that it is not only possible but actually cost-effective to catch a fish in Norway, ship it to China to be processed into filets, and then shipped back to Norway for sale. oof – somehow, I’m not feeling all that hungry. Read it here.

Still Veggie After All These Years. Lilith Magazine talked with vegetarian guru, Mollie Katzen about the 30th anniversary of The New Moosewood Cookbook. (Unfortunately, the full story isn’t online, but you can purchase a copy the mag here.)

Drink Your (Raw) Milk. Harpers jumped on the raw milk bandwagon with a fabulous article on unpasturized dairy, its naysayers, and the converts who claim straight from the udder is the only way to go. Check it out here.

Sticker Shock. Grist offers a clear, concise analysis of the complicated issue of rising food costs. Read about it here.

The most exciting news (for us anyway!) is The Daily Green’s sustainable Passover story, which features tips from The Jew & The Carrot’s Healthy Sustainable Passover Resources. Check out their (gorgeous) feature here.

Below the jump, we’ve rounded up a number of other great Passover stories, ideas, and recipes from the Jewish food blogosphere. The creativity coming out of these bloggers minds and kitchens is truly inspiring – feel free to share more resources below.Also keep your eyes peeled for a chance to win Arthur Schwartz’s new cookbook Jewish Home Cooking - early next week.

Elana’s Pantry dedicates several posts to the seder plate, whipping up homemade horseradish maror and a decadent recipe for currant-studded charoset.

Green Prophet shares the news about an eco-camp for kids in Israel this Passover.

Heeb n’ Vegan offers a vegan-friendly guest post from Jenny Goldberg of Spork Foods.

The Kitchn sweetens up the seder with a recipe for chocolate-caramel matzah crunch. Covered with melted chocolate and caramel and dusted with crystallized ginger, smashed pistachios, or sea salt, it’s easy to understand why it’s been lovingly dubbed “matzah crack.”

The Parve Baker shares the scene in her kitchen as she lassos up her chametz: “four open bags of flour, parve graham cracker crumbs, organic breakfast cereal, matzah meal, challah rolls, multi-color couscous, high protein granola, and two small packages of peanut butter crackers” – whew.

Serious Eats features a tasty cheesecake recipe by baking-guru Dorie Greenspan that swings both ways – macaroon crust for Passover – graham crackers for the rest of the year.

Stirrup Queens gives us a truly unique and touching take on the orange on the seder plate.

Are Passover snacks the new bees? Chametz-free noshes seem to be disappearing everywhere without a trace. First, TamTams disappear from the shelves, and now, the NYTimes reports about a historic New York social club that recently lost its source for the perfect macaroon.

It seems that the bakery which supplied the Century club with macaroons for over half a century has gone out of business, and this article describes the remarkable search by its members for a suitable replacement. I have to say, even as someone who disdainfully associates macaroons with those awful, sticky, cloying, calorie-laden chunks that come in the vacuum-sealed can, I can’t help but admire the passion and discernment by which Century Club members are conducting their search. Here’s how they lovingly describe the perfect macaroon:

“They had just the right amount of texture. They weren’t too crispy. They weren’t too gooey. You know, they didn’t flake or break. They kind of pulled apart. I would say they sort of had a nice elasticity. They displayed a particular combination of crustiness and tensile strength.”

Mmmm…tensile strength. Good luck with that. So much for Macaroons. The cheese(cake) half of this post is after the jump…

The ongoing saga of those edgy vegans continues with yet another NYTimes article (accompanying pic is slightly NSFW), this time about the odd confluence of vegans and strip clubs…

It seems that there is an ongoing tension between some feminists and some vegans/animal rights advocates, about whether Vegan-themed strip clubs, provocative PETA ads, and performance groups like the “Vegan Vixens” are a useful tool to inform an otherwise ignorant demographic about the benefits of cruelty-free eating, or whether their simply another example of the exploitation of women’s bodies for profit. I’m not touching this one with a ten-foot pleather pole, but if you have any thoughts, feel free to share them in the comments below.

Photo credit: The New York Times.