Forks Over Knives Revisited

So as well as going to the Vegetarian Food Festival last weekend, Christina and I were also able to make the opening night of the "Forks Over Knives" documentary here in London. It was excellent and I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the benefits of cutting back on how much meat and dairy we consume. The evidence for this is the main talking point of the film. The reason the presentation of these ideas is so effective here is that they intersperse the personal stories of many individuals as they go through changing their diets and sharing the results with the usual expert medical and scientific testimonies. Too much of either would start to drag, but it moves right along because of the great interplay between the two points of view.

One great little factoid from the film was the observation that we currently raise, feed, water, then slaughter and eat about 50 billion animals per year globally - 10 billion per year in the U.S. alone. At the same time, our global population is set to hit 7 billion people on or around October 31st (Happy Hallowe'en!), and many of us die of starvation every year. The population has grown by 2 billion since 1987 and doubled since way back in 1968, the year I was born. A mere 200 years ago there were only 1 billion people on the whole planet. That's a scary statistic. It took us 10,000 years to get to 1 billion and just the last 200 to add another 6 billion? Talk about a baby boom. The wheat, corn and soybeans we feed to cows alone would feed 8.2 billion people per year. Hello, Obvious Solution. You're looking sassy. Where have you been all our lives?

I first mentioned this film back in May, when it was just coming out in the U.S. and I wasn't sure it would even come to London. This is why we're so thankful for a small independent theatre like the Hyland which brings in these non-mainstream offerings. The film must have done well last week, because it has been held over for an additional week for those who didn't catch it. The film is making its way to all the major cities in North America and the video version is streaming on Netflix (U.S. only) and can also be ordered from the website. You might find that the video is available for free - in your local library, for instance. It is on the shelf in the hometowns of some loyal readers, such as London, Ottawa, and Ann Arbor, and the companion book is available in Toronto. Check it out, look it up or go see it today!

The film makes no mention of today's recipe, which is their loss, quite frankly. I got the idea from my brother who is a great cook but never writes down a recipe (thanks for nothing). He explained the basics to me over a Skype call and I took it from there. I have included a photo of this dish cooking on the stove. It was delicious and I hope you'll think so, too. Best part of this dish: you can eat it with just a fork... no knives required.