Well, there it is at last, the silver lining to climate change. Turns out it's so hot in Australia, you can totally roast a delicious hunk of meat on top of your car. Read the rest

Does cooking a Impossible Burger on the same surface used to cook normal burgers "contaminate" them with meat by-products? Is Burger King doing this? A vegan diner makes these claims in a lawsuit filed Monday against the fast-food chain. Reuters:

The lawsuit filed in Miami federal court seeks damages for all U.S. purchasers of the Impossible Whopper, and an injunction requiring Burger King to “plainly disclose” that Impossible Whoppers and regular burgers are cooked on the same grills. [Burger King] describes the Impossible Burger as “100% Whopper, 0% Beef,” and adds that “for guests looking for a meat-free option, a non-broiler method of preparation is available upon request.”

Some vegans have filed a lawsuit against Burger King because they cook the Impossible Burger Whoppers on the same grill as their meat burgers. According to the suit, the Impossible Whopper is not a vegan option and the restaurant doesn't disclose the meat contamination on their menu. Of course, vegans and vegetarians have been quite vocal about this issue since the Impossible Whopper's introduction.

According to TMZ, plaintiff Philip Williams "not only wants damages ... he wants the judge to order Burger King to stop cooking Impossible Burgers and the OG burgers on the same grill. Read the rest

Yes, really.

Although we're deep in the heat of summer, Hormel Foods is busy promoting their new fall pork product: Pumpkin Spice Spam. That's (sp)iced h(am) spiced with cinnamon, clove, allspice, and nutmeg.

For a limited time, you'll be able to get cans of it at Walmart and the Spam online store come September 23.

CNN reports that "Spam recommends topping waffles with it, adding it to a fall vegetable hash or baking it into a cornbread muffin." (No, thank you.) Read the rest

I have been making some amazing meals on a compact bullet smoker.

After my first try with the super cheap bullet smoker, I decided to go for a Santa Maria tri-tip. It worked out beautifully.

I loaded up the fire ring of the Dynoglo smoker I was using with lots of wood chunks and charcoal, essentially using the same 'Minion' Method of leaving the center of the ring empty, and filling it with hot coals. The coals slowly burn their way out to the center, while also smoldering the wood. Smoke ensues, food cooks.

I read a ton of online forum advice and went for a 90 minute smoke at around 225. I had gone to Trader Joe's and picked up a marinated chunk of meat. It went straight from the bag on to the top grill.

At the end of the 90 minutes, I took the center portion of the smoker off and moved one of the cooking grills directly above the fire ring. I seared the tri-tip on the super high heat for a couple of minutes. Less time down there is more, and I would have gone with 60 seconds less per side than I thought I needed.

The DynoGlo smoker, however, completely came apart during this smoke. Previously the paint would heat up, run a little, and stick to stuff. This time the paint totally bubbled and started to peel, crack and break. The metal looked a bit fatigued on the inside of the smoker as well. Read the rest

Rick Wiles, host of the racist and anti-semitic "Christian" media outlet TruNews, reveals that meatless burgers are “plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy products, is part of a satanic plot to alter human DNA so that people can no longer worship God.” Listen up:

When you go to your favorite fast food restaurant, you are going to be eating a fake hamburger. You’re going to go to the grocery store and buy a pound of fake hamburger or a fake steak, and you won’t know that it was grown in some big corporation’s laboratory. This is the nightmare world that they are taking us into. They’re changing God’s creation. Why? Because they want to be God....

God is an environmentalist. He takes this very seriously. He created this planet, he created the universe and he’s watching these Luciferians destroy this planet, destroy the animal kingdom, destroy the plant kingdom, change human DNA. Why? They want to change human DNA so that you can’t be born again. That’s where they’re going with this, to change the DNA of humans so it will be impossible for a human to be born again. They want to create a race of soulless creatures on this planet.

(Patheos via Daily Grail)

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Next year, New York City public schools will initiate "Meatless Mondays" as part of their lunch program. Students will be served all vegetarian food for breakfast and lunch. (Note: photo above for illustrative purposes only. Not representative of actual school cafeteria menu.) From CNN:

"Cutting back on meat a little will improve New Yorkers' health and reduce greenhouse gas emissions," de Blasio said at a news conference. "We're expanding Meatless Mondays to all public schools to keep our lunch and planet green for generations to come..."

School leaders in New York said doing this just makes good sense.

"For those who scoff at this notion, I have some simple advice: Look at the science," Staten Island Borough President James Oddo said. "Look at the data. Look at the childhood obesity. Look at pre-diabetes diagnoses. Look at the fact that 65% of American kids age 12 to14 shows signs of early cholesterol disease. Then, perhaps you will embrace the fact that we can't keep doing things the same way, including welcoming the idea of Meatless Mondays."

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And you thought 2018 couldn't get more grimly, disgustingly, apocalyptically fucked up.

There are roughly 4,000 “hog-waste lagoons,” that is the official term folks, in North Carolina. In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality today says a number of these pork poo ponds are at risk of flooding and overflowing. Read the rest

Nibbling away over the eight years of her employment at a grocery store in Canton, Ohio, an employee munched through $9,200 worth of deli meat before being shown the door. From The Canton Repository:

The Giant Eagle loss prevention manager received a tip that the employee had been nibbling on the meat at the deli, eating about three to five slices of ham nearly every day over a space of eight years, Hale said. She occasionally ate salami.

No arrest was made. Read the rest

Applestone Meat Co. has installed meat vending machines at their Stone Ridge, NY shop with plans to deploy 24-hour meat machines in Hudson, Scarsdale, and Manhattan. From Bloomberg:

Each is filled with a different type of protein: beef, pork, lamb, and ground meat and sausage. He has to restock the machines constantly to keep up with demand. Later this year, Applestone is expanding to Hudson, where the store will have at least seven machines. By early next year the company will open in Scarsdale, where he’s planning for 10 machines, and later in 2019 he’ll open in Manhattan, with possibly even more.

Accessibility is key to this unlikely success; customers don’t have to get to the butcher shop by 7 p.m. or buy questionable leftover product from a late-night market. “We’re not in the 1950s anymore, where everyone works 9 to 5 and eats at the same time every night,” Applestone says of 24/7 accessibility to meat. “Life is chaotic. At best.”

"Your Next Steak Could Come From a Vending Machine" (via Uncrate)

Read the rest

Artist Marija Tiurina created this tasty backgammon set by repurposing a fancy Jaques London set to look like meat: Read the rest

Perhaps you've put food in a ziplok baggie. Perhaps you've tried to leave open just enough of a gap to push out almost enough air to consider it truly sealed. Perhaps, like me, you've even sucked out the last air through that gap, creating a genuine vacuum while filling your mouth with delicious, cold poultry slime. Here's how to do the same thing without risk of becoming a campylobacter campsite! All you need is a plastic tub or pot of water. Read the rest

It's $18 from Gamiss, perfect for your next BBQ. (via Crazy Abalone) Read the rest

Argyle, New York. The stench of death descended upon this small upstate village, about halfway between the Hudson and Vermont, earlier this fall. It took until now for locals to find the source: a cache of moose bits...

... strewn just off the road, some parts dragged to nearby parts of a field by predators.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation was called and the agency’s conservation officers were able to find clues that led them to a butcher in Vermont, officials said. That butcher provided information that led officers to an Argyle man

The culprit, Raymond F. Graham, was ticketed for unlawful disposal of solid waste. Read the rest

Touted as Earth's "first mobile kiss messenger," Kissenger is a rubbery-looking dock that humans put their phones in. It has a tactile surface they depress with their meat. The movements are then transmitted in realtime over the internet, so that a replica of them may be experienced by another human.

Plug in to your phone and give your loved ones a kiss over the Internet. Kissenger can sense your kiss and transmit realistic kissing sensations to your partner in real time. You can also feel the force on your lips when your partner kisses you back. Share an intimate moment with your friends and families while chatting with them on your phone.

The device comprises six sensors, corresponding actuators, and a meat-colored silicone sheath. There's an app that goes with it so the humans can interact on a audiovisual-discursive level at the same time. It's at the prototype stage with nothing to buy, yet, but obviously we should keep an eye on this. It should suffice to say that our previous recommendations with respect to establishing contact with this species have not changed.

High precision force sensors are embedded under the silicon lip to measure the dynamic forces at different parts of your lips during a kiss. The device sends this data to your phone, which transmits it to your partner over the Internet in real time. Miniature linear actuators are used to reproduce these forces on your partner's lips, creating a realistic kissing sensation. Kissenger provides a two-way interaction just like in a real kiss.

PETA and Morissey released This Beautiful Creature Must Die, an anti-meat game where the goal is to save animals from slaughter. Play it below. The soundtrack is a chiptune version of, you guessed it, The Smith's "Meat is Murder."

"This game is the biggest social crusade of all, as we safeguard the weak and helpless from violent human aggression," Moz said. "You don't get that from Pokémon Go."

(Rolling Stone)

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Today we go to a future where animal products are banned. It’s one that lots of listeners have asked for so here you go. We talk about what happens to the land, the animals and the humans in this equation.

Flash Forward: RSS | iTunes | Twitter | Facebook | Web | Patreon | Reddit

In this episode we discuss the arguments in favor and against banning meat. How does that impact culture? Why should we do it? Does it help or hurt the environment? Can you really grow meat in a lab? And is that meat vegan?

▹▹ Full show notes Read the rest