EarthBeat Weekly: Time for a veggie Thanksgiving

But the time seems right for a holiday celebration that goes all veg. 

There appear to be plenty of recipe options out there, but I’m also looking for personal stories of vegetarian holidays -- and how they played out family-wise as well as food-wise, especially among families of mixed palates. I hope you’ll share your stories with me, and I’ll pass some of them along in next week’s newsletter. 

At lunch last week with NCR President and CEO Tom Fox and Executive Editor Tom Roberts, we all tried the Impossible Burger at the Burger King down the street from NCR headquarters in Kansas City. 

“If you’re going to eat at Burger King,” said Roberts, “(the Impossible Burger) is an interesting option.” He went on to say that he’d rather not know exactly what goes into the burger he ate, a question the makers Impossible Burger address here. 

Fox was less impressed: “Perhaps because I’ve tasted some very good veggie burgers over the years. Next time I want to go meatless, I won’t try to pretend I’m eating meat.”

Point taken. One recipe I’m not looking for is an Impossible Turkey. 

A look at some of what’s new on EarthBeat this week:

• The students at Jesuit-run Creighton University in Omaha urged the school’s administration to divest its endowment from fossil fuel investments, a request the administration rejected. You’ll find EarthBeat reporter Brian Roewe’s reports here and here. And if you can spare five minutes, check out the students’ video appeal. 
• We dispatched Bertelsen intern Jesse Remedios to Baltimore to explore the emerging roles of local churches in the aftermath of climate disasters, in this case the 2018 Memorial Day flood that devastated the Beechfield neighborhood. 
• See also the three lessons that Jesse extracted from his reporting that may be useful for faith groups of all sorts interested in being helpful in such circumstances. 
• Sara Wiercinski, NCR's director of audience engagement and a key member of the EarthBeat team, has assembled a resources page we hope you'll find useful in your work addressing climate change.
• In response to this week’s Burning Question, Brian Roewe explains and links to the global indices tracking the progress -- or lack thereof -- on the measures established by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. 
• In the latest Soul Seeing column, Patricia Bergen explains why hope for creation never runs dry.
• Our new Small Earth Story, meanwhile, was written from the same household discussed above and is also all about food: The only cupcakes I ever bake (or crave).

Key climate-related headlines from other publications this week:

• With the support of Pope Francis, international experts meeting at the Vatican called on world leaders to cut food waste in half by 2030, calling the waste “morally, economically and environmentally unacceptable.” (Reuters)
• Luke Hansen, S.J. focuses on five takeaways from the Amazon synod. (America Magazine)
• The women who produce the “Mothers of Invention” podcast tell stories aimed at battling climate change, with a little humor thrown in. (New York Times)
• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, long an opponent of climate friendly legislation and regulation, has reconsidered its opposition to the Paris Climate Agreement and now supports it. (Grist)

Last week, I asked what encourages you on the climate front these days. Among the responses: Erin Lothes, PhD., author of Inspired Sustainability: Planting Seeds for Action, told me in an email: “I'm encouraged by trends in electric vehicles and predictions for their rapid increase on our roads.” And Fintan Hurley wrote from Scotland to report the launch of what he described as “a detailed plan for a Green New Deal in Scotland.” 

Thanks for reading.

Bill Mitchell

NCR Climate Editor

bmitchell@ncronline.org