JENKINTOWN >> As the country digs into turkey for Thanksgiving and who knows what other meats around the upcoming holiday season, Jenkintown is able to offer something new and different for Jenkintown at least.

Flora, a vegan restaurant featuring all manner of ingredients not produced by animals, opened at 307 Old York Road Nov. 11. The restaurant has four owners, led by, well, nobody, really. The husband and wife team of Jose Vargas and Jennifer Brennan have owned several restaurants over the past few years, including Leilas Bistro and Forcella, both in Jenkintown.

The group got to know each other in Mayfair, where man of many hats Dan Brightcliffe (hes co-owner, greeter and waiter among other things at Flora) and friend Pat Durison, another co-owner, were busboys for Vargas and Brennan. Its safe to say the restaurant bug has bitten them all.

Jen and Jose approached us and asked if we wanted to get involved in something of our own, Brightcliffe said. We floated around a few ideas before settling in on a vegan restaurant.

The idea of opening a vegan place was not the driving force behind Brightcliffes decision to make it that way. He was looking to fill a local void, he said.

We had so many people calling the Bistro asking if there were vegetarian or vegan options, said Brightcliffe, 25. We felt there as a need. There arent a whole lot of places for people to eat vegetarian or vegan without driving all the way into the city.

Brightcliffe is not a vegetarian, though his girlfriend is, he said.

I eat vegetarian about 80 percent of the time, Brightcliffe said, his comments echoed by Chef Max Hosey.

Despite not committing to a vegan lifestyle, Brightcliffe recognizes that the vegan menu is a growing part of the culinary landscape.

Since weve opened, the people who have come in, weve had a good number of meat eaters come in and theyre interested in trying something new, Brightcliffe said. Its worked out well so far. Continued...

Link:
Jenkintown's Flora restaurant offers vegan fare

A vegetarian New Zealand is seen as contradictory to our national identity but may create a kinder society, according to Victoria University of Wellington research.

Maddie Judge, who will graduate next week with a PhD in Psychology, examined mind-sets surrounding vegetarianism and veganism, including one study that asked participants to imagine a meat-free society in 2050.

A large proportion of those surveyed viewed this future as conflicting with our interests as an agricultural nation and inconsistent with New Zealands perceived national identity.

The predicted negative outcomes include economic decline (due to the loss of animal-related industries), environmental degradation (as a result of an increase in animal populations) and a malnourished population (due to the perceived inadequacy of plant-based diets).

Although many viewed plant-based future societies negatively, Maddie was surprised by the large number of positive views that it would reduce dysfunction and increase warmth in society.

"People also referred to more individual changes as a result of widespread plant-based diets-seeing a utopian society where people are peaceful, caring and communal. Its quite interesting to see these variations."

The study also focused on the language used to describe vegetarians and vegans in social interaction, and attitudes toward non-meat eaters.

Maddie found that vegans who described their veganism as simply a personal choice in online discussions were described in positive terms, but vegans who discussed moral reasons were portrayed as militant or extreme.

The research also found that women tended to be more positive towards vegetarians and vegans than men, and attitudes toward vegetarians tended to be more positive than those toward vegans.

"This might be due to the advocacy-often vegetarianism is framed in dietary terms, whereas veganism is framed more as something to do with values and a concern for nonhuman animals. This may make veganism a little more challenging to the dominant perspective," says Maddie.

Link:
Visions of a vegetarian New Zealand

Among the many competitors trying to get close to America's biggest organic food retailer, Whole Foods Market , the most formidable is Wal-Mart . The world's largest retailer plans to go full throttle into the organic retail market and drive down prices significantly to create a huge customer base. And this isn't the first time Wal-Mart's made such a move. Should this get Whole Foods worried?

Chocolates stacked on shelves of a Whole Foods outlet. Source: Motley Fool

Wal-Mart aggressively expanding the organic food arena In April, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart renewed its terms of partnership with Wild Oats, a leading provider of organic food items, to offer 100 or so organic food items for around 25% less than similar offerings. These 100 will add to the roughly 1,600 organic items that Wal-Mart already sells.

Wild Oats was Whole Foods' main competitor at one time. Whole Foods even acquired the company in 2007, only to forgo its stake because of antitrust issues in 2009. Through its Wild Oats tie-up, Wal-Mart is trying to change the traditional notion that organic food is expensive. According to Jack Sinclair, Wal-Mart Executive VP, "We are ... creating a new price position for organic groceries that increases access. This is part of our ongoing effort to use our scale to deliver quality, affordable groceries to our customers."

This isn't the first time If we go back a few years, 2006 will give us a strong sense of de ja vu. In that year, Wal-Mart had expanded its organic offerings, and said it wanted to widen the category's reach by lowering prices. The media rhetoric back then was quite similar to what we are seeing now.

If the year is not mentioned, it would be hard to tell the following two statements were made eight years apart:

2006: "I don't see Wal-Mart as a great threat to Whole Foods right now. There's a lot of market share up for grabs in organics. The disparity of their customer base is too great." Customer Growth Partners' Craig Johnson said in a CNN Money article.

2014: " ... Wal-Mart's competitive threat, while formidable, will take some time to affect Whole Foods' business significantly, and there are many caveats along the way."fellow Fool Asit Sharma wrote in June.

In the years between those statements, Whole Foods has grown its revenue by a staggering 132% -- from $5.6 billion in fiscal year 2006 to $13 billion in fiscal year 2013. During the period, Whole Foods' store count went from 186 to 362. There are now 403 Whole Foods stores and the company is looking to increase its number of stores and enter new markets. In fiscal year 2014, it opened a record 38 new stores and plans to cross the 500-store mark in fiscal year 2017.

Things that shield Whole Foods The Wild Oats items available at thousands of Wal-Mart stores, as well as on its website, consist of canned and packaged foods, a category in which it's comparatively easier to reduce prices as cost is lower compared with perishables. For Wal-Mart to reduce organic food prices beyond these packaged goods and include vegetables, meat, and fish, would mean bringing in economies of scale.

Read more from the original source:
Wal-Mart's Organic Push Shouldn't Worry Whole Foods