US Agricultural Statistical Data – The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service is seeking public comments on the paperwork and regulatory burdens associated with the conduct of its ‘Agricultural Surveys Program’, which “… contains a series of surveys that obtains basic agricultural data from farmers, ranchers, and feedlots throughout the Nation for preparing agricultural estimates and forecasts of crop acreage, yield, and production; stocks of grains and soybeans; hog and pig numbers; sheep inventory and lamb crop; cattle inventory; cattle on feed; grazing fees; and land values …”

Comments Due By: March 27, 2017

Website: The January 25, 2017 USDA NASS Federal Register Notice is posted at
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-01-25/html/2017-01666.htm

VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE CHAIN RESTAURANT!

Go to:
http://www.vrg.org/vote/index.php

Here’s a list of some restaurants offering special vegan meals on Valentine’s Day. Make reservations as soon as possible!

Real Food Daily, West Hollywood and Pasadena, CA: http://www.realfood.com
Ravens at the Stanford Inn, Mendocino, CA: http://ravensrestaurant.com/valentines-day-menu-february-14-2017-ravens-restaurant/
Full Bloom Vegan, Miami Beach, FL: http://www.fullbloomvegan.com/
Ethos Vegan Kithchen, Winter Park, FL: http://www.ethosvegankitchen.com
Café Sunflower, Atlanta, GA: http://www.cafesunflower.com
Great Sage, Clarksville, MD: http://greatsage.com
True Bistro, Somerville, MA: http://truebistroboston.com/menus/holiday/
Hangawi, New York City, NY: http://www.hangawirestaurant.com/
Blossoming Lotus, Portland, OR: http://www.blpdx.com/home
Counter Culture, Austin, TX: http://countercultureaustin.com/events/6-course-prix-fixe-valentines-dinner/
Café Flora, Seattle, WA: http://cafeflora.com/

VRG’s complete online list of veggie restaurants in the USA and Canada can be seen here:
http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

Honeygrow is a chain with clearly marked vegan options on their menu. Locations are in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and Washington, DC. They will soon be opening up in Brooklyn, NY.

They offer stir-fry bowls including the Red Coconut Curry vegan option, which includes rice noodles, tofu, and veggies. You can easily substitute brown rice for the rice noodles, and alter the veggie choices in your bowl. Honeygrow also has a make-your-own stir-fry option where you can select Sour Cherry BBQ Sauce or Sesame Garlic Sauce, in addition to the Red Coconut Curry option. You then create your bowl with options including tofu, whole wheat noodles, brown rice, and a variety of veggies.

Additionally, Honeygrow offers a vegan kale salad made with mustard soy vinaigrette, green kale, organic roasted spicy tofu, apples, carrots, roasted beets, red onions, and radishes. There’s also a make-your-own salad option, which can easily be prepared vegan.

Finally, their Honeybar dessert option can be made vegan. It includes fresh fruit, maple syrup (instead of honey), three fruits, and two toppings.

For further information, see: http://www.honeygrow.com

Due to the generosity of an anonymous donor, The Vegetarian Resource Group each year will award $20,000 in college scholarship money to graduating U.S. high school students who have promoted veganism/vegetarianism in their schools and/or communities. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or fowl. Vegans are vegetarians who do not use other animal products such as dairy or eggs.

One award of $10,000 and two awards of $5,000 will be given. Entries may only be sent by students graduating from high school in spring 2017. Deadline is February 20, 2017. We will accept applications postmarked on or before February 20, 2017. Early submission is encouraged.

Applicants will be judged on having shown compassion, courage, and a strong commitment to promoting a peaceful world through a vegan/vegetarian diet/lifestyle. Payment will be made to the student’s college (U.S. based only). Winners of the scholarships give permission to release their names to the media. Applications and essays become property of The Vegetarian Resource Group. We may ask finalists for more information. Scholarship winners are contacted by e-mail or telephone. Please look at your e-mail.

For details on the contest, see: http://www.vrg.org/student/scholar.htm

About Bon Appétit Management Company

Bon Appétit Management Company is an on-site restaurant company operating 650-plus cafés in 31 states for corporations, universities, and museums as well as public restaurants.

Bon Appétit Management Company says they were born in the San Francisco Bay Area, and “as a result we’ve always been ahead of the curve when it comes to offering plentiful vegetarian and vegan options at our cafés. Our chefs love the challenge of serving up plentiful interesting offerings … We’ve long conducted “vegan culinary boot camps” across the country to train our chefs to think beyond the salad bar and take inspiration internationally. (Thai pesto, anyone?) Multiple Bon Appétit university cafés are fully vegan or vegetarian, with unique and ever-changing menus. All of our cafés use color-coded stickers to identify items that are vegetarian and/or vegan.” If your foodservice uses Bon Appetit, ask them about their vegan options and training.

Here’s a couscous recipe on their blog. http://www.bamco.com/blog/cinnamon-spiced-whole-grain-couscous-citrus-sunflower-seeds/

And a Lentil Salad http://www.bamco.com/blog/bistro-lentil-salad-carrots-dijon/

For more foodservice ideas, visit http://www.vrg.org/fsupdate/index.htm

What better way to celebrate the Chinese New Year on January 28th then by preparing a vegan Chinese dish. Here’s some recipes from Vegetarian Journal to help you out:

http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2005issue4/2005_issue4_chinese_cooking.php

Boiled Rice and Mushroom Congee
T’ang Dynasty Cold Fruit Soup
Cabbage Salad
Citrus Snow Peas
Street Side Tofu and Mushrooms
Stir-fried Noodles
Sweet Walnuts

http://www.vrg.org/journal/vj2013issue3/2013_issue3_chinese_cooking.php

Fried Lotus with Black Rice
Sesame Kale
B&B Stir-fry with Udon Noodles

To subscribe to Vegetarian Journal, visit:
http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

By Jeanne Yacoubou, MS

In July 2016 The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ruled that vitamin D2 could be added as a nutrient supplement to plant-based beverages intended for use as milk alternatives as well as to non-dairy yogurt alternatives. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2016/07/18/2016-16738/food-additives-permitted-for-direct-addition-to-food-for-human-consumption-vitamin-d2

[VRG Note: Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) is derived from fungal or plant sources. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is most often derived from sheep’s wool (lanolin) although a vegan vitamin D3 form is available http://vitashine-d3.com/. Vitamin D3 is frequently added to cow’s milk and orange juice.]

The VRG wondered if vitamin D2 was permitted by the FDA to be added to orange juice since nothing in the recent ruling specifically addressed this issue.
We searched Title 21 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and located the status of both forms of vitamin D as a food additive.

Here it states that vitamin D3 may be added to juice; Vitamin D2 is not mentioned.
https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=172.380

By contrast, vitamin D2 may be added to certain foods:
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=172.379

On this page it states that “Vitamin D2 may be used safely in foods as a nutrient supplement defined under 170.3(o)(20) of this chapter…” but there is no mention of juice. Under that section, the CFR states the definition: “Nutrient supplements: Substances which are necessary for the body’s nutritional and metabolic processes.”

Here’s where the CFR states that it’s admissible in certain foods/beverages to use either form of vitamin D as “vitamin D.” Again, orange juice is not specifically identified in relation to vitamin D2 supplementation.
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/cfrsearch.cfm?fr=184.1950

Searching for more information about FDA’s position on vitamin D2 in orange juice, we contacted a few government scientists who conduct nutrition research.

Dr. Bess Dawson-Hughes, MD at the USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University sent us a link to a pertinent article on vitamin D titled Vitamin D fortification in the United States and Canada: current status and data needs http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/80/6/1710S.full.pdf+html

A footnote in Table 1 Lawful addition of vitamin D to foods in the United States of this article specifies that vitamin D3 is permitted in juices. It appears that Table 1’s “vitamin D” for the other foods/beverages can be either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3.

We asked Dr. Dawson-Hughes: Do you know if FDA’s position is that since D2 is defined as a dietary supplement and it is NOT expressly prohibited from being added to juice, then companies may add it to juice?

She replied:
Since milk can be fortified with D2 or D3 (see statement below from the Calvo article), I would think that D2 can be used to fortify other foods.
This is the statement from the article linked above on which Dr. Dawson-Hughes based her conclusion:

…Vitamin D, which includes crystalline vitamin D2 and
D3 and vitamin D2 and D3 resin formed from the irradiation of ergocalciferol and cholecalciferol, can be added as the sole source of added vitamin in the food categories shown in Table 1 and must not exceed the specified limitations …

The VRG also contacted FDA by email and phone for confirmation. Here is our question posed in January 2017 to FDA’s Food and Cosmetics Information Center and Technical Assistance Network (FCIC/TAN) followed by their reply:

Q: … [In the CFR] D2 is permitted in plant-based milks but I see only D3 as allowable in fruit juice.
Are companies in the US permitted to add vitamin D2 to orange juice?

A: Thanks for your inquiry! Yes, vitamin D (2 & 3) can be added to orange juice.

Thank you for contacting FDA’s FCIC/TAN.

The VRG followed up with a phone call to FCIC to inquire about the specific reference in CFR’s Title 21 on which FCIC based its answer.
We began the phone call by asking whether a juice company could add vitamin D2 to orange juice. The immediate response was “If a company has approval.” Wondering which CFR regulation supports this reply, we continued by asking for the CFR reference. We received this answer after being put on hold for a few minutes: “If vitamin D2 is not expressly written as prohibited [in the CFR] it may be used [as a dietary supplement defined in 21CFR170.3] in orange juice.” The call was disconnected while we repeated our request for the CFR reference for this statement.

Related Information:
• http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/77/6/1478.abstract?ijkey=d73961b7bcd1c655998db2664e6d31f2bf51d074&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha
• https://www.ars.usda.gov/ARSUserFiles/80400525/Articles/AJCN87_1092S-1096s.pdf
• http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Suppliers2/Lichen-based-vegan-vitamin-D3-gains-momentum-as-Nordic-Naturals-introduces-new-product

The contents of this posting, our website and our other publications, including Vegetarian Journal, are not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. We often depend on product and ingredient information from company statements. It is impossible to be 100% sure about a statement, info can change, people have different views, and mistakes can be made. Please use your best judgement about whether a product is suitable for you. To be sure, do further research or confirmation on your own

For information on other ingredients, see http://www.vrg.org/ingredients/index.php
To support The Vegetarian Resource Group research, donate at www.vrg.org/donate
Or join at http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php

Feb. 17-19, 2017

We’re writing because once again, we [Baltimore Vegan Drinks] are co-producing the Vegan Mac N’ Cheese Smackdown, but this year, it’s in the middle of Baltimore Vegan Weekend – spanning Friday Feb. 17 to Sunday Feb. 19. There’s a vegan foods crawl all over Baltimore Friday night, the Mac Smackdown and an afterparty on Saturday, and Vegan Brunch, plus a Vegan Pizza Party on Sunday.

In 2016 just over 1000 guests attended and we had 28 chefs. Our event was covered by the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post, plus it inspired spin-off events in Philly and Asheville. We have a bigger space with parking lots this time and we want to do even BETTER, really pushing the awesome-ness of vegan mac and cheese out into the world.

Here are links to the event pages –

mac and cheese smackdown – http://www.pepfoodsinc.com/fundraisers/

And the Facebook page for the vegan weekend – https://www.facebook.com/events/1863829463831721/

Thanks and take care, Rissa
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/BaltimoreVeganDrinks
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BmoreVegan
Instagram: http://www.oninstagram.com/profile/bmorevegan

By Heather Francis, VRG Volunteer

Over winter break I traveled to Charleston to visit a friend who goes to the College of Charleston. There were four of us going. The person we were visiting, Leah, is a vegetarian. I’m a vegan, and my girlfriend, Emily came who is also vegan. Our other friend, Mia, isn’t veggie but loves trying vegan food. I was semi-worried about the food choices there, but I didn’t need to be, AT ALL! To share with you all the delicious places I went in Charleston, I’ll go day by day.

Thursday: 
When we landed in Charleston the first thought that came to our mind was of food. We were starving. Our friend Leah picked us up from the airport and from there we went to her apartment to drop off our bags. Following that we went to this rad place called Brown Dog Deli. This deli is in downtown Charleston on Broad Street. Now don’t be fooled, this place is not necessarily a deli. They do sell sandwiches, which is their entire menu; however, they don’t sell any cheeses or meats by the slice. They have an outdoor seating area in the very back and we seated ourselves in a booth and were given menus by our waitress. 

They have an entirely vegan/vegetarian section on the menu. It includes seitan, tempeh, veggie burgers, and veggie sandwiches. There are options for a vegan cheese and mayonnaise. I was going to get the grilled “chicken” sandwich made from seitan but they were out of it. Instead I got a sloppy joe on sourdough bread made with seitan. I do have to say it was good. 

Later Leah took us to Folly beach where we explored the beach for a bit, and for dinner she took us to Taco Boy-a Mexican restaurant located on Center St. in Charleston. We ordered and demolished a bowl of guacamole. I got rice & beans and devoured a super spicy cauliflower taco. There was no dessert because I was stuffed from dinner. 

Friday:
We had fruit for breakfast and then traveled to see this super old tree: Angel Oak in Charleston. If there is one thing I recommend anyone doing when they go to Charleston it would be going to spend time with Angel Oak. It’s s tree that is approximately 400 years old. 

Following Angel Oak, we went to King Street in downtown Charleston where we went shopping and looked in different stores. For lunch, we found this awesome place called Beech. This place sells Poké bowls, wraps, acai bowls, smoothies, and juices. I ordered a Poké bowl made with zucchini noodles, marinated tofu, wakami (seaweed), avocado, ginger, and pickled cucumber, then topped with a sesame ginger sauce. I enjoyed the bowl but I regretted not getting brown rice because the entire meal was cold and I would have enjoyed the warmth of brown rice. I also drank a local kombucha: One Love, which was super tasty.

Instead of eating out again, that night we went to Trader Joe’s and made an Indian curry with frozen veggies, potatoes and fried tofu over a bed of brown rice. We mixed in Trader Joe’s coconut beverage (next time I’ll use coconut cream/milk to create a creamier consistency). The meal was delicious. 

Saturday: 
On Saturday, we drove to Savannah, Georgia to run away from the coldness in Charleston and tour the old town. It took us approximately two hours to get from Leah’s house to Savannah. We were hoping to not spend a ton of money on food that day and just have snacks with us. It didn’t necessarily workout as planned because we found this bakery right on Jefferson St. called the British Pie Company. Walking into the bakery my girlfriend and I didn’t think we’d be ordering anything, but we’re pleasantly surprised to find a spicy Moroccan pastry labeled Vegan!!! When checking out the cashier explained that the pastry was recently introduced to their bakery and they also occasionally had chili pies for sale. Emily and I split a pastry-it was delicious. This place is a must go, if you’re visiting Savannah. 

Sunday:
Ate fruit for breakfast. After eating fruit, we went to World Market where we spent maybe an hour looking at an entire store of merchandise from different places of the world. My girlfriend and I found a delicious French kombucha-which has been by far one of the best brands I’ve tried ever (the Asian Pear is the best one).

After going to World market, we drove to Daniel’s Island and ate at a Mediterranean café: Ali Babe on Daniel’s Island. We found over a dozen different vegan options in the display case. I ordered a falafel and hummus wrap and grape leaves. Emily got an orzo salad, leek stew, cauliflower, and a rice salad. We split the meals and it was AMAZING!! 

Monday:
We went to Nana’s donuts-a vegan donut shop in Charleston, South Carolina and on Monday all donuts were half priced. The donuts are palm oil free, organic, and made with vegan ingredients. I tried a maple donut, strawberry, and key lime pie donut. I highly urge anyone to go here when they visit Charleston. These are some of the best donuts I’ve had. They are fluffy and the flavors of the donuts aren’t extremely powerful, but a perfect kick.

After Nana’s we drove to Gnome Cafe-a completely vegan restraint in Charleston where I got a chickpea “tuna” salad, and a cheddar scallion biscuit. The Café is open for breakfast and lunch, and they have an awesome menu with salads, sandwiches, breakfast foods, and baked goods. My girlfriend tried the Buffalo fried setain sandwich, which I’d say is the best item on the menu. Leah got a plate of Southern Grits topped with a tofu scramble and kale. Our other friend tried the veggie burger. All of it was awesome. We met the owner of the Café, and she was extremely sweet, and took our picture. I know I’d go here again, and again, and again.

This was our last stop of the trip. As for my experience of eating in Charleston, I must say I was impressed. Charleston has many options for vegans. There were other places that catered to the vegan diet that we didn’t even get a chance to try. So, don’t worry about eating vegan in Charleston, South Carolina because there are a ton of places to try and devour the cuisine.

For information on vegetarian and vegan restaurants in the USA and Canada, see http://www.vrg.org/restaurant/index.php

To join The Vegetarian Resource Group, visit http://www.vrg.org/member/2013sv.php