Author News
Famed Dallas vegan author puts the power in the kitchen in new book
One of the biggest names in the vegan world happens also to be a Dallas resident. Carol Adams, who authored the groundbreaking 1990 book The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory is back, along with co-author Virginia Messina, with a new book that combines recipes and advice for how to save the planet.
Protest Kitchen: The Vegan Anti-Regressive Politics Diet is a mouthful, but Adams' short version is that our food choices are more powerful than we realize.
"What we do in the kitchen has political impact," Adams says. "This thought struck me last year when Muslims were detained at DFW Airport. I was out there, and saw people passing around food, and I wondered how we can incorporate and recognize that what we're doing with our food is part of political crisis of our time."
Adams proposes the idea that our diet offers opportunities to impact some of the bigger issues of our time, including misogyny, racism, environmental destruction, hatred, and bullying.
Basically, she says, how we are to animals is how we are. "If we're championing traits like compassion, fairness, equity, equality, and kindness, we have to consider what's happening with other species," she says.
A good recent example were the floods in North Carolina, which affected thousands of people and killed millions of animals.
"If you care about people suffering during the floods in North Carolina, just look at the pig farms that dumped manure into the swamps, and those are always situated near low-income communities," she says.
Her primary audience is what she calls "the blue wave."
"It's people who care that we are living in a time of regressive politics that don't reflect the majority of this country, and people who want to protect the basic values we believed this country espoused," she says. "I'm trying to invite people to think about what’s happening at the end of their fork as being as important as the signs we carry in our protest and calls we make to our senators."
OK, but let's get to the food. The recipes are culled from her 30 years as a vegan — "they're definitely well tested," she says — along with recipes from fellow vegan experts such as Bryanna Clark Grogan.
"I have a popular feta cheese recipe that I've served all over Dallas," she says. "My nonvegan friends beg me for recipe and serve it themselves and no one knows it's vegan. There is a vegan mac and cheese I served every year at my annual vegan barbecue for the 4th of July."
They also have some fun with recipes such as the Trump Seitan a L'Orange; Tiny Chocolate Thumbprint Candies; and "Impeach" Cobbler.
"We want to help people connect their politics and their palate," she says.
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Carol Adams will do a book signing from 7-9 pm October 4 at Deep Vellum Books, 3000 Commerce St., Dallas. Check the Facebook event page for more details.
