From Ma’amoul to Couscous, why not try a new vegetarian dish from the Middle East and North Africa region this Ramadan?

There are some dishes that evoke such strong memories of a festive occasion, that eating them any other time of the year feels wrong. For me, Qatayf (mini nut pancakes) and Mamoul (date cookies) are two things I only ever eat during Ramadan and so just seeing them gets me in the Ramadan spirit. Another great thing about these two succulent sweet pastries is that they are vegetarian and with enough sugar and calories to give you a post-fast energy boost.

Indeed there is an amazing array of special Ramadan dishes from around the Muslim world that are suitable for vegetarians. In an effort to encourage more Muslims (and non-Muslims!) to reduce their meat intake during this holy month, I have collated a list of delectable dishes and pastries that would make the perfect Vegetarian iftar.

After a long day of fasting, the last thing I want to eat is heavy, greasy food. It’s too demanding for your stomach and means you end up feeling very uncomfortable and lethargic. Vegetarian food is the answer. As long as you go easy on the pastries and sweets, vegetarian dishes tend to be fresher, healthier and lighter on the stomach. 

I think soups are an absolute must during Ramadan. After a long day of fasting, nothing helps ease your thirst and hunger like a bowl of hot soup. I was lucky enough to try some tasty Moroccan Harira Soup when I was in Tangiers and I highly recommend it. It’s a lovely mix of lentils, chickpeas and vermicelli which is a particular Ramadan favourite.  You could also try our Moroccan wheat soup recipe here which promises a hearty and warming bowl of goodness.

Salads are another must have and you can’t wrong with Tabbouleh and Fattoush. Check out this recipe for Quinoa Tabbouleh Salad for a modern twist on the traditional Tabbouleh by our resident cook Miriam Kresh.

You could also give Fattoush a try – made from leftover pitta bread, tomato, cucumber, mint and lots of other things you should have lying about in your kitchen, it makes a lovely starter. Here’s a great recipe for the traditional Lebanese dish and you could also throw in some avocado to give it a bit more weight.

For main dishes, give couscous a whirl this Ramadan with our very own lemon-scented vegetarian couscous. We even have a special vegan-friendly couscous recipe that you can try out.

Freekah, an ancient grain makes a lovely, hearty soup but could also be cooked as a main and stuffed in a Kobocha squash as you can see below.

Another great vegetarian dish which is a firm favourite even amongst the non-veggies is Imjadarra/Mujaddara. A very traditional Middle Eastern dish, Imjadarra it is made using either rice or bulgar wheat with green lentils, onions and some basic herbs and spices.

Finally to finish off any meal, something sweet. Arabic sweets in my personal opinion are quite tricky to pull off (but I find all pastries and cakes a conundrum to make…) but this recipe for Baklava looks simply enough.

You could also try to make the traditional Ramadan date cookie called Ma’amoul which would really impress your friends. Or even better, you could make the ultimate half-moon shaped Qatayef for a real taste of Ramadan.

For more on going green this Ramadan see:

Go Green This Ramadan (6 Steps)

The Eco-Mosque Checklist – 7 Steps to a Greener Mosque

Feasting on Fairtrade this Ramadan

The post Vegetarian Ramadan Recipes From the Middle East appeared first on Green Prophet.

DairyX is successfully crafting next-gen teasty casein micelles using precision fermentation

DairyX Foods Ltd. announces a major advancement in creating authentic milk proteins without cows, using precision fermentation. The food-tech start-up has developed a method to produce casein proteins that can self-assemble into micelles. Micelles are the primary building blocks of dairy products, such as cheese and yogurt.  

DairyX has also refined a complementary technology to enhance the gelation of its casein micelles, considered the holy grail of the industry. DairyX’s gelating micelles enable manufacturers to produce firm, stretchy and creamy products using their traditional dairy-making processes.

Creating a smarter casein with precision fermentation 

Consumers can’t resist dairy’s taste and robust health benefits. Casein micelles are key to the appealing sensory profile of dairy products. 

DairyX’s precision fermentation technology uses microorganisms (specifically yeast) to produce smart casein proteins. “Not all caseins produced using precision fermentation are alike,” explains Maya Bar-Zeev, PhD, Head of Product Development and Downstream Processing. “We trained yeast to produce the next generation of casein. DairyX’s patent-pending casein is an advanced form created to precisely and effectively organize into micelles.” 

“The industry knows quite well that caseins are extremely hard to produce using precision fermentation, so our initial goal was to solve this problem. Once we successfully crafted caseins, the next major challenge was to upgrade caseins so they could self-assemble into gelating micelles to produce the dairy properties manufacturers are seeking,” explains DairyX CEO and founder Arik Ryvkin, PhD. 

Currently, manufacturers of animal-free dairy products use additives, like stabilizers, emulsifiers and thickeners, which don’t perform as well as cow’s milk and can add unpleasant aftertastes. These fail to satisfy consumer cravings for a real dairy experience.

“DairyX caseins have amino acid sequences identical to those of their animal counterparts, making them, in fact, non-genetically modified,” explains Galit Kuznets, Head of Strain Development and Fermentation. “Our casein also eliminates the need for hormones and antibiotics applied in dairy farms. 

For consumers, taste and price are dairy’s two most important features. DairyX addresses taste with its innovative caseins while also making non-animal dairy affordable. The company is creating yeast strains that produce exceptionally high casein yields in short timeframes. This approach ensures that DairyX’s ingredients are cost-effective – a crucial factor for adoption by dairy manufacturers. 

One of the reasons BeyondMeat hasn’t taken off widely with consumers and its sales sluggish is the price point – the vegan burgers are 3 or 4 times the cost of real beef. That and the burgers leave an awful lot of coconut aftertaste and a bit of havoc on the stomach.

“Another significant challenge that dairy companies face is adapting their production facilities to use new ingredients,” Bar-Zeev explains. “This is why we created a drop-in replacement for milk that does not require process changes or retooling.”

Worldwide, 270 million cows spend their lives in the production of dairy products. Not only does this impact the cows, it also harms the environment. Dairy production is responsible for over 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and uses excessive farmland and water. Totally eliminating cow’s milk as a food source is not practical, so DairyX is devoted to lowering the dairy industry’s dependence on traditional milk as a raw ingredient. Doing so promotes sustainability, improved animal welfare, and the use of precious land and water for better causes.

Founded in 2022, DairyX investors include: Peregrine Ventures, Jesselson, Phibro Animal Health Corporation, the Israel Innovation Authority and Incentive – Peregrine’s Incubator. The company has signed a letter of intent with CSM Ingredients and several other dairy partners.

Israel is the biggest consumer of vegan food by capita. And one of the world centers for cultivating meat and dairy alternatives. Read more here.

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Call it a tajine if you own one of those lovely clay pots. Or simply regard this dish as a hearty winter stew. Either way, you’ll be enchanted with the spicy fragrance and deep colors of this Middle Eastern way with winter vegetables. Don’t hesitate to substitute canned tomatoes or frozen green beans if fresh aren’t available. And the truth is, you can cook up almost any other veg you want here: carrots, sweet potatoes, sliced red cabbage, for example.

For a tangy fresh side dish, try Ottolenghi’s Kohlrabi salad.

No lack of variety here on Green Prophet. We also offer you ten winter soups to choose from.

Keep the dish vegan and serve as is, or have each diner top their dish with a spoonful or two of yogurt.

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The quinoa craze turned what was once a cheap, nourishing staple diet for Bolivians and Peruvians into an unaffordable grain for many of the poor locally. Read here about the dirty secret of quinoa. The appetite of western culture, and fanatic vegetarianism has increased demand for quinoa stratospherically: in 2013 the price of quinoa tripled from 2006 prices.

Prices have risen to such an extent that the poorer populations of Peru and Bolivia can no longer afford it and instead substitute for cheaper imported junk food. In Lima, quinoa now costs more than chicken and outside the cities land is increasingly being turned into quinoa monocultures.

Gaga for agar-agar

A similar story is happening in Morocco, El Jadida, with “red gold” a mineral rich seaweed used to produce agar- agar a natural gelling agent popular with cooks and professional chefs, used in pharmacology and cosmetics and an alternative to animal-sourced gelatins for vegetarians and religious groups that ban pork.

Over in Japan, agar is used for sauces, soups, jellies, and desserts. In the Western world, it is used as a gelling and stabilizing agent by meat and fish canneries, and in baked goods, dairy products, and candies as well.

In 2010 over exploitation pushed the fishing ministry to place quotas restricting its harvest, and today rising demand and falling supply has resulted in increasing export prices.

Agar-agar is an important gelling agent for people who cannot consume pork products, like Jews and Muslims. But it is also a staple for vegans.

Yet fishermen and are not seeing the economic benefits from these rising prices, research has shown that fishermen often sell the produce half the price pre-established by the quota  and are forced to dive deeper, with dangerous consequences  in the hope of finding this increasingly scarce, expensive “gold” (which by the way, currently sells at 0.4 USD per Kg- so not really gold) .

Killing Morocco’s ecosystem and society

Aside from the negative social consequences, overharvesting seaweed also has obvious negative to the local marine ecosystem.  Seaweed plays a major role in marine ecosystems , in fact they are considered “keystone species” since they are one of the first organism in marine food chains.

They provide nutrients and energy for animals, either directly when fronds are eaten, or indirectly when decomposing parts break down into fine particles and are taken up by filter-feeding animals. Seaweeds also act as filters by taking up nutrients and carbon dioxide from seawater reducing local coastal eutrophication and ocean acidification.

What was once ordinary red algae, has now become “red gold” with negative consequences on the fishermen and the environment.

We have to remember that nowadays crazes have a more significant impact than in the past. Globalization, increasing communication streams, increasing population, and rising incomes and the concomitant increase in purchasing power means that the decisions we make today have a larger ripple on effect on populations and environments that are far from our sight.

Using exotic foods, supplements and medicine to fulfill health habits, or becoming fanatic about not using certain produce may not be the answer to a more sustainable, global economy.

Looking at your own country’s tradition, local crop and seed wealth and medicinal herbs is just as efficient at supporting health and has a marginal and sustainable impact on local economies.  Like always, balance is the key and the solution lies right next to you.

Image of Red gold seaweed harvest in Morocco by Fadel Senna; image of agar red seaweed from Shutterstock

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Israel is showing more proof that it is the vegan capital of the world: an Israeli prisoner has just won the right to eat vegan meals in an Israeli jail, amid protests that he could not eat a regular vegetarian diet that contained animal protein like cheese and eggs.

The prisoner, Amos Dov Silver, 30, according to the local newspaper Haaretz, is doing jail time for selling cannabis. While it is legal to consume cannabis in Israel if you own a medical licence, recreationally it is illegal.

In prison, Silver complained that he wasn’t getting enough food. Now since Monday the Israel Prison Service have agreed to supply him vegetables, fruits and grains at every meal. 

Silver is a lobbyist for cannabis use in Israel told the judge why vegetarian diets alone don’t work for him: “I don’t eat eggs or milk because I don’t want to cause suffering to anyone,” Silver, pictured below with cannabis plants and a pet pooch, said. 

Veganism is a growing trend in Israel, and in Tel Aviv in particular where restaurants and bakeries now boast symbols on their doors if they offer vegan options. The Neve Zedek landmark watering hole and bistro called Nanuchka has also gone from a meat heavy meaty Georgian menu to a strictly vegan one. It’s even possible to order a vegan Dominos pizza in Israel.

Some people are eating all vegan diets for the animal rights angle. Others for the benefits of an all vegetable diet.  Whatever the reason we know that veganism is tightly linked with environmental conservation. The less animals and their byproducts consumed by people means less methane gas and suffering for planet earth.

An estimated 2.5% of all Israelis have gone vegan in latest reports.

Now the Big Question: will going vegan get Mr. Silver out of jail early for good behavior? Silver: when you get out of jail give us a rung and let us know!

More on veganism in Israel:

• 268life Activists Brand Themselves Like Cows
• Veganism Goes Viral In Israel
• 10 Animal-Free Foods That Are NOT Vegetarian

Pictures of Amos Dov Silver from his Facebook page

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Umm…remind me, what’s vegewarian again? It’s enjoying plenty of  sustainable, local, and delicious vegetarian foods, with meat dishes only once in a while.

As summer climbs towards its peak hot weather, hefty eggplants and tomatoes make a natural partnership in savory dishes like this one. Using the blender, the sauce takes little effort, and the eggplant almost cooks itself. Just assemble everything and pop it in the oven a few minutes, and you have a satisfying vegetarian main dish that needs only fresh bread and a leafy salad to make a complete meal.

Baked Eggplant Slices In Tomato Sauce

Ingredients for tomato sauce:

1 medium onion, chopped
3 large, juicy tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper to taste
100 grams – 3 tablespoons – tomato paste
1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh oregano herb or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

Ingredients for eggplant:

1 large eggplant
1/2 cup flour seasoned with 1/4 teaspoon salt, for coating
Olive oil to drizzle

Slices of halumi or mozzarella cheese, 1 per slice of eggplant.
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or other sharp cheese

Prepare the sauce:

Blend the onions, tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and salt and pepper in a blender or food processor until only slightly chunky.
Pour into a medium pan. Add the tomato paste, water, bay leaf and oregano. Stir well.
Cook, covered, over medium heat until the mixture simmers. Lower the heat and continue cooking, uncovered, until the sauce is thick and savory; about 1/2 hour.
Adjust salt and pepper if desired.

In the meantime, slice the eggplant thickly. Rinse the slices and drain.
Drag the eggplant slices through the seasoned flour and place them on a baking pan.
Drizzle a little olive oil over each eggplant slice.
Bake at 190 degrees C –  375 degrees F – for 15 minutes or until tender and getting crisp at the edges. Don’t turn the oven off yet.

Remove the bay leaf from the sauce.

Place a slice of cheese over each eggplant slice. Cover with a dollop of tomato sauce. Sprinkle grated Parmesan over all.

Bake the slices 5-10 minutes, or until the halumi or mozzarella is melting.

Serve immediately, and enjoy!

More irresistible recipes with eggplant and tomatoes on Green Prophet:

• Eggplant with Tahini/Labneh Sauce
• Eggplant Stuffed With Bulgur and Fruit
• Tomato Confit

Image of baked eggplant and tomato via Shutterstock.

The post Baked Eggplant Slices in Tomato Sauce, Vegewarian RECIPE appeared first on Green Prophet.

The European Commission (EC) approved a pork-based feedstock for farm-raised fish.  Next year, your mullet and trout might contain chicken and pork:

Horsemeat in burgers, meatballs and frozen lasagna is startling, but while these products include a “secret ingredient”, they remain as advertised: meat-based foods.  But what happens when the fish on your dish also contains meat?

Wild salmon won’t be tucking in to a pork roast, but their farmed cousins will soon be dining on ground up pig parts.  A variety of animal byproducts are processed into an animal protein powder, also called meat meal, which is now approved as an additive to fish food.  Byproducts include pork-sourced cartilage (from ears, tails), hooves and organs, and it’s not particularly clear that those parts come from perfectly healthy piggies either.

The Middle East is a large importer of European seafood

Seafood labeling is widely a slipshod business: in a study last year, non-profit Oceana performed DNA testing on seafood sold at 74 retail outlets in Los Angeles. Results showed that 55% of 119 fish samples were misidentified. If California can’t get species properly sorted, what’s the likelihood that the Middle East can take it a step further and also identify each fish’s diet?

How’s this swim with Jews and Muslims and pescatarians?

How can you know if your fish purchases are kosher, or halal, or just pure fish? Will the absence of dietary surety mean an exodus of shoppers from the seafood aisle? It could be that the EC is cutting off it’s own metaphorical body part in a misguided attempt to help its aquaculture industry.

In 1997, a similar fish feed was banned for its connection to Mad Cow Disease.  Debate raged over the global food network.  Was it ethical to feed cow products to cows?  Was it safe?  But time passed and rules softened, and in 2008 fish meal was reintroduced to pig and poultry feeds. This latest step flips the food chain, now feeding pork and poultry meat meal to fish.

The news is muffled.  Food Navigator gave it a few paragraphs, as did EurActiv.  But what’s the reaction in Israel and Jordan? Why no squeals from the Gulf states or snorts from Egypt?

Global web mover and shaker Avaaz is raising a stink (appropriate for a subject that combines fish and pigs).

They’ve got a petition in play to pressure governments to stop porkfish from entering our markets. Avaaz has incited over 1 million people to petition against genetically modified food in Europe, and another million to take action against mutant salmon “frankenfish”. Want to join the movement?  Click this link and sign, share with everyone interested in controlling what they eat.

More comfortable sitting back, allowing governments to meddle with your menu?  Then perhaps you should memorize a new take on an old rhyme:

This little cod went to market; this little salmon stayed home, this little tuna ate roast beef, and little tilapia had none. And this little porkfish ran all the way home!

Browse more on this in our archives: aquaculture, Genetically Modified Food, global foodchain, halal, kosher, Mad Cow Disease

The post Are Pork-fed “Porkfish” Kosher and Halal? appeared first on Green Prophet.

There are always arguments for and against going vegan, and they are many, but for many in today’s world, going vegan is all about the ethical decision not to harm animals, at any level, from eating them to wearing their skins. Those of us out there who have taken meat off our plate have done so for a variety of reasons, reducing factory farming only one of the myriad factors in our choice. Also on the list of reasons why people turn away from flesh consumption is the environment and health concerns. 

No matter how one looks at animal production, the rule for even the small farms is that animals are machines, born and bred for our consumption. To “live” and die for our gastrointestinal desires.

This, for the vast majority of herbivores, is the number one cause behind our vegetarianism. Look at the numbers of people who have turned vegetarian in recent years and the statistics are optimistic. In Germany, nearly 10 percent of the population is plant-eaters, in the UK it’s around 7 percent and the numbers are growing in almost all industrialized nations.

Factory farming is a great concern for millions of us, but it is also the so-called “sustainable farms” talked up by “experts” that we are also campaigning against. The factory farm industry is horrific and well documented by animal rights groups worldwide.

In the Middle East, it is too-often assumed that factory farming doesn’t exist, at least in the excess it does in the West, but this is far from the reality. With the abundance of fast-food, factory farming has taken hold in Egypt and across the region, where companies have massive facilities located throughout countries. It is away from the gaze of many observers, and thus is not receiving the attention it should, but it exists and is costing us, both health wise and environmentally.

One need not be an expert to refuse to eat from these institutions. However, the smaller farms should not be seen as an altruistic alternative to the factory farm. On numerous small farms, including here in the region, animals are still branded, debeaked, castrated and ultimately slaughtered without the opportunity to live a full and social life – animals are social beings much like us “higher” beings.

To say that vegetarianism is not having a direct impact on meat production whether factory farm or small farm is wrong. Ending meat eating helps show and push an agenda where we will not accept the killing of beings who want and deserve a pain-free existence where they are able to form communities, be merry and interact with one another without fear of meeting a cleaver.

Maybe we vegetarians are not making as much of dent in meat-eating as we would hope, but we are making a difference. Wal-mart, America’s largest retailer, has in the past few years, has begun selling a number of vegan alternatives. If this isn’t proof that we are making a difference with our pocket book then what else is needed to convince ardent meat-eaters?

The health factors are well-documented. Vegans live longer, have less disease, lower cholesterol, and as the world’s largest animal rights organization the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has said, have better sex. All the above seem to be worthy in themselves of going vegetarian.

The China Study – conducted over 20 years by Oxford University, Cornell University and The Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine – has shown that meat consumption has put Americans on, literally, a deadly path. The study details the connection between nutrition, heart disease, diabetes and cancer.

With 6 of the top 10 most obese countries located in the Middle East, maybe it is time to look at reducing our meat intake. For many this cannot be an immediate move, but over time, it could help continue the green push that has erupted in the region to help reduce obesity levels and greenhouse gases caused by animal production.

“People who ate the most animal based foods got the most chronic diseases … people who ate the most plant-based foods were the healthiest and tended to avoid chronic diseases. These results could not be ignored,” said Dr. T. Colin Campbell, an author of the study and a respected nutritionist.

Environmentally, going vegan and not participating in animal production is the number one thing we, as individuals can, immediately and on our own, help reduce the effects of climate change. Seems to be vegetarians are doing a lot. It is more than a political statement, it is an economic one in the same way abolitionists against slavery were two hundred years ago.

We believe, as animal rights supporters, that it is morally wrong to exploit animals in any manner.

Reducing the idea of vegetarianism to whether or not it is having a direct impact on meat production and meat consumption misses the point entirely. We are not avoiding animal products because we want to see less meat eating – although this is a major factor in the long run – instead it is about not participating in the wholesale slaughter of intelligent animals who feel pain and suffering as acutely as humans do.

Professor Jeffrey Masson tells of how elephants can feel grief for the death of a fellow elephant as deeply as a human does for another human.

At the end of the day, one cannot persist on small farming without also participating in factory farming and causing the unnecessary suffering of animals at our expense. Do people like Woginrich refuse to eat meat when they go out if they do not know where it comes from? Doubtful. The only way one can, without worry, know that they have not participated in the killing of animals is to go vegan.

The post Vegetarianism Can Save the Middle East appeared first on Green Prophet.

Now there’s Zööba, a “hip” new restaurant in Zamalek that takes the heart-stopping edge off street food while maintaining both the tradition and the fun. Using mostly seasonal produce and only the freshest ingredients and spices, this tiny concept eatery founded by Chris Khalifa and Moustafa El Refaie offers up wholesome dishes that come with a side of Egyptian pride.

“Zööba is redefining Egyptian street food by producing it with the freshest ingredients available, taking old staid recipes and reworking them to incorporate spices or flavourings that are locally inspired but have never been paired together,” wrote Brownbook magazine.

“Such is the case with the areesh – a kind of cottage cheese – made into a sandwich with cumin, orange zest and honey. The bread comes in its regular form as well as pink or green varieties that have been hand-flavoured with beetroot or spinach and that nestle comfortably in small basket frames of latticed wood.”

A tiny space decorated with colorful tiles, black boards with scribbled notes and menus, welcoming blue doors, and rows of handmade pickled beets, artichokes, tomatoes and other goodness that caters to vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters, the restaurant features only one large table that encourages a sense of camaraderie and community.

Founded by a reformed banker and a chef who had never previously cooked Egyptian food, the place has soared to success already and the duo have employed an army of selective chefs to scout out new locations for more branches.

Potential new dishes are on the horizon too, including an artichoke salad adorned with hibiscus flower and desert wraps with tehina.

Khalifa told Brownbook that part of the challenge so far has been identifying those foods that are authentically Egyptian, but they have incorporated foods that are considered standards in the country. Of course, this varies regionally, which is what allows the team to experiment with such a diverse menu.

There’s hope that this new concept will create a cultural revival, or at the very least divert the attention of Egyptians from imported cuisine to what they can produce with their own, exciting palette of spices, vegetables, salted breads and other drool-inducing morsels.

We’re convinced. How about you?

:: Brownbook Magazine

All photos via Zööba Facebook Page

The post Zööba: Egyptian Street Food Goes Inside appeared first on Green Prophet.

We’re all going to die!  Only a lot later and with healthier arteries according to political satirist Stephen Colbert’s side-splitting riff on recent reports that the global bacon supply is “cooked”.

Britain’s National Pig Association released data recently showing that European pig herds are declining “at a significant rate” in a trend mirrored around the world.  Nothing sinister at play here, it’s chalked up to conscious decision-making by individual farmers as they react to rising feed prices.  Those price spikes, in turn, can be pinned on global warming and growing competition for corn and soybeans from processed foods and biofuels. Think this doesn’t matter to pork-eschewing folks in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Gulf states? 

Think again, too, my vegetarian friends.  America’s Corn Belt suffered its worst drought in 56 years. Devastated corn and soybean crops in that nation translate into less feed for the rest of the world: America’s the top supplier.  So, operating costs rise for commercial pig farms across the European Union (EU), who react by reducing herds.  It’s a trend that’s “being mirrored around the world,”  according to the Financial Times.  Other types of animal ranching are also feeling the pinch.

Pigs may seem an unlikely economic indicator, but in China, as example,  the food price cycle is driven largely by pork, China’s staple meat.  In the next 6 months, Chinese farmers are also expected to stage sell-offs to cut steep overheads.  The resultant reduction in animal stocks will cause prices to surge. Increased food prices bump up inflation, but rising prices will also fuel social unrest.  China imports 60% of the global soybeans commodity and is the sixth-biggest corn importer.

Next year, the number of  pigs slaughtered throughout the EU could drop 10%, doubling European pork prices.  The US Department of Agriculture reported that last month America’s warehoused pork soared to record highs, rising 31% to over 580 million pounds. This supply bulge becomes problematic when hog stocks are not replenished.  Grab those chops while you can, America, because when this batch goes the next shipment will be smaller and costlier.

And here, Patient Reader, is where the story comes back to Middle Eastern pantries.

What do you think pork-eaters will turn to when it’s priced beyond their means? Potentially, if this trend continues, beef and chicken farmers (also dependant upon vegetable-based feedstock) will drop production.  Our food streams are interlinked, it’s the perfectly named “foodchain”.

No pork?  It’ll stress chicken, beef and fish producers.  People in lower economic brackets will depend more on grains and vegetables. The global shopping cart gets filled in new patterns.

Green Prophet’s reported on Iranians who are  moving towards vegetarianism since meat is no longer in the budget.  Tafline’s written about how Iranian films may be banned if chicken meals play a cameo role due to concerns it would incite the poor to rebel. Last July, the World Bank reported world food prices jumped 10% higher than June figures.   Soybeans rose 17%, while corn and wheat skyrocketed 25%.

The Guardian stirred the pot, reporting that we may need to switch to a near-vegetarian diet over the next four decades “to avoid catastrophic food shortages.”  This warning stems from concerns that water-dependent meat production for a predicted 9 billion people is unsustainable. It takes tenfold as much water to sustain a meat-based diet as it does to support a vegetarian one.

“There will not be enough water available to produce food for the expected 9 billion population in 2050 if we follow current trends and changes towards diets in western nations,” the report by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) said.

Reduce one food source and increase pressure on others.  This is serious stuff.  Even the International Federation of Competitive Eating has reacted announcing it will suspend all bacon eating contests.  In a news release to the Huffington Post, Richard Shea said calling off the competitions “was the right thing to do.  We cannot, in good conscience, allow [top ranked eater] Joey Chestnut to eat bacon during a global pork shortage,” said Shea.  “We estimate that Joey alone could eat 20 pounds of bacon in 10 minutes of competition.”

But perhaps think of it this way.  The supply chain and transportation of meat and dairy and their by-products create over half the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Less meat-eating means less agricultural water consumption and a steep cutback in global methane production.  So this could be the start of a paradigm switch, an after-effect of global warming that may actually force more sustainable behaviors on us. Just don’t hog my hummus.

Picture of happy pigs from Shutterstock 

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