The Red, White, and Green

Photo via Flickr: MillionsAgainstMonsanto

Happy New Year! Or not: I had every intention of starting off 2012 with a bucket of rainbows, but first, some important — though lamentable — news that can’t be ignored (although most everyone else seem to have done just that; this news came out last week). Props to The San Francisco Chronicle for not letting what had seemed like a much-anticipated decision about whether to allow the planting of genetically modified alfalfa slip under the radar:

A federal judge has upheld the government’s decision to let the nation’s alfalfa growers plant the genetically engineered, herbicide-resistant strain manufactured by Monsanto Co., saying the alleged risk of contaminating other crops does not require regulators to impose buffer zones.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the use of Roundup Ready alfalfa — so named because it is designed to withstand Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide — in January 2011, ending a nationwide ban that another judge had imposed in March 2007.

The action was challenged by a group of alfalfa farmers who said they feared that the Monsanto product, spread by winds and bees, would pollinate their crops and take over their fields. Thursday, however, U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti of San Francisco said the USDA had acted within its authority.

Federal law does not require the department to “account for the effects of cross-pollination on other commercial crops” in assessing the risks posed by a new crop, Conti said.

Translation? GM alfalfa is free to blow around and contaminate (“cross-pollinate”) the fields of organic alfalfa (“other commercial crops”) that feed our nation’s organic dairy cows. USDA doesn’t have to worry about it. But you do: As Gaius Publius has reported over at Americablog, this could mean the end of organic, at least as we know it.

As of now, there are plans to appeal. I’ll keep you posted.

–Jennifer Grayson

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[Watch video on YouTube]

Since discovering Robyn O’Brien’s book about the link between genetically modified food and children’s food allergies, I’ve made it my mission to avoid feeding GMOs to my 13-month-old daughter. I’ve written before about how this isn’t easy to do, though, because while every other developed nation in the world has either banned genetically modified foods or mandated their labeling, there are currently no labeling laws for GM products in the US.

This is insane. The federal government has no problem slapping graphic warning labels on a pack of cigarettes; so why, when it comes to something that affects all of us — the food we eat every day — are we left dining in the dark?

So asks the video above from the new Just Label It campaign, launched with Environmental Working Group, O’Brien, The Center for Food Safety and more than 300 organizations. With this kind of momentum, we have a real shot at changing this.

Watch it, and then tell FDA that we Americans have the right to know we’re eating genetically engineered food. Click here.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Dinner in suburbia. Photo via Flickr: Makelessnoise

There was a brilliant op-ed by Mark Bittman in yesterday’s New York Times, debunking the claim that junk food is cheaper than real food. That excuse as to why US obesity is epidemic is one I hear all the time in response to my own work, like when I wrote this column about whether one could eat organic on a food stamp budget (you can, as I later show here). One commenter wrote:

It is a sad reality that if you’re poor you can’t afford to eat healthy. Sometimes its [sic] the 1 dollar menu vs a 2.50 a lb head of broccoli (forgive me if my price is off). But its just the sad truth.

But as Bittman points out, the real problem isn’t that most Americans aren’t eating organic. The real problem is that most Americans aren’t eating real food:

…But food choices are not black and white; the alternative to fast food is not necessarily organic food, any more than the alternative to soda is Bordeaux. The alternative to soda is water, and the alternative to junk food is not grass-fed beef and greens from a trendy farmers’ market, but anything other than junk food: rice, grains, pasta, beans, fresh vegetables, canned vegetables, frozen vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, bread, peanut butter, a thousand other things cooked at home — in almost every case a far superior alternative.

He’s so right. The fight for organic of course is important (especially with regard to GMOs), but I think we in the environmental community lose a lot of our audience if we make the conversation just about organic. Organic alone isn’t going to save us; there is an intermediary step, and it’s about getting Americans to return to the way we used to cook and eat, before fast food companies convinced us we didn’t have enough time or energy or money to feed our families a wholesome, decent meal.

There’s pride in preparing real food for yourself, for your family, and we Americans certainly have pride in abundance. Let’s tap into that.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Photo via Facebook: Good Food Festival & Conference

This past weekend, I stopped by the Good Food Festival & Conference. The 5-day event featured locally and sustainably produced food, of course, and included cooking demos by some of the Golden State’s top chefs (love you, Suzanne Goin). There were also a number of stimulating speaker panels; RWG favorite Erik Knutzen spoke about backyard chickens and shared other fun urban homesteading tips.

I was going to post photos, but my toddler seems to have absconded with my camera cable, so let me instead share something a bit more profound. It’s a statistic that Food Inc. director and producer Robert Kenner threw out during the ‘Food and Its Environmental Impact’ panel, and it blew my mind:

In the 1950s, we Americans spent, on average, about 20 percent of our income on food. Today, we spend about 10 percent.

That statistic may sound like a good thing in these tough economic times, but as Kenner went on to say, we pay the price for it down the line, both in rising healthcare and environmental costs — it takes a lot of pesticides, artificial fertilizer and genetic modification to grow all that cheap food, after all.

Good food takes time, both to raise and prepare. It costs money, as well it should; cost, after all, is a representation of what we choose to value, of the effort that went into creating something. I’d rather never again buy another handbag or iPod if it meant turning to a package of Velveeta.

The old adage is true: You are what you eat. Why would you want to eat cheap food?

–Jennifer Grayson

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Photo via Flickr: ShutterBugChef

Since learning about the possible link between genetically modified food and children’s food allergies, I’ve been especially vigilant about avoiding GMOs at the grocery store. This isn’t easy to do, of course, because there are currently no mandatory labeling laws for GM products in the US.

I know enough to always look for organic (i.e., non-GM) versions of the big four — corn, canola, cotton, and soy — but for everything else, I’m left either looking up ingredients one by one via the Non-GMO Shoppers’ Guide or making my own best educated guess.

Now, the GMO guessing game is about to get a lot more difficult, thanks to a new crop of GM crops — including sugar beets, cabbage, wheat, and alfalfa — coming to market, reports Tom Webb of The St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The next GM generation [says Syngenta's David Morgan], will focus more broadly — growing crops that require less water, or enhancing certain flavors, or delivering health benefits to consumers.

One example: Golden Rice, engineered to contain vitamin A, designed to prevent blindness in poor nations where rice is a staple.

“There are some (added genetic) traits out there that, if they work the way they’re dreamed to be, will change things dramatically,” said Bruce Tiffany, a Redwood Falls farmer who serves on the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, an economic development group. “From a human health standpoint, if they work and if they are accepted, it’ll be huge.”

Longtime skeptics have doubts. They recall hearing similar talk when biotech crops were first introduced.

Add me to that list of skeptics. I’ve already written about how GM alfalfa could end organic as we know it. Could someone please tell me why we need genetically modified coleslaw? And what will GM wheat mean to the already increasing population of people with gluten intolerance (four times more common today than in the 1950s)? That we are unleashing these products on the world without any kind of long-term testing is a travesty.

–Jennifer Grayson

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Photo via Flickr: Oculator

Last week, the House passed an amendment to the agriculture appropriations bill that would ban genetically modified salmon. Score one for the no-GMO crusaders, though it still has to be passed by the Senate to prevent Filet-o-Frankenfish from coming to a drive-thru window near you. (Though if you’re eating fast food fish sandwiches on a regular basis, GMOs are probably the least of your concerns.)

I’m elated, of course; but I’m also wondering: Why can’t we drum up this kind of support in Congress to ban not just Frankenfish, but Frankenfood? Eighty-six percent of all corn in the US, after all, is already genetically modified; as is 93 percent of all soy. Both have been linked to the increasing incidence of life-threatening food allergies, as Robyn O’Brien illuminates in her book The Unhealthy Truth. And most of that GM corn and soy is fed to livestock — including farmed salmon. Are corn and soy seemingly more benign because they don’t have a face?

–Jennifer Grayson

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[Watch video on YouTube]

When did you first decide to start eating organic? When my friends at Stonyfield Farm asked me if I would answer that question for their Organic Moment campaign, for which folks can upload personal videos about what organic means to them, I had to think way back. I mean, like way way back. One of my earliest memories, after all, is of my mom offering me samples of Oatios from the bulk bin at the health food store.

Were they organic, per se? I don’t know. But my early awareness of eating “natural” foods certainly set the stage for me to wholeheartedly embrace those first containers of organic milk and yogurt when they popped up in my supermarket circa 1993.

It’s a great idea, this (from a marketing perspective for Stonyfield, of course, but on a larger level as well); to get people talking about that light bulb moment when they stopped tossing packages in the shopping cart and suddenly started wondering, Hey! Where does my food come from? By listening to these stories, we can figure out how to best reach others who haven’t yet made the leap.

–Jennifer Grayson

p.s. Looks like my “organic moment” made the Stonyfield homepage! Check it out here.

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Will this alfalfa field be contaminated with GM seed? Photo via Flickr: Sam Beebe

We Americans are consumers. Despite being a mere 5 percent of the world’s population, we eat up about 30 percent of its resources. Yet with that consumption also comes tremendous power: We can change truly change the world by the products we choose to buy — or not buy.

The organic market is the perfect example of this. US sales of organic food and beverages have grown from $1 billion a year in 1990 to nearly $25 billion in 2009, meaning that we are literally changing the face of agriculture for the better — removing toxic pesticides and fertilizers from the environment — with every carton of organic milk or grass-fed steak we buy.

But — and here’s the big but — as Gaius Publius over at Americablog reported last week, our power of choice is about to be destroyed forever, thanks to the recent decision by the Obama administration to allow the planting of genetically modified alfalfa. (The gist of it is this: Cows graze on alfalfa, so if GM alfalfa is allowed to be planted, it will likely spread and contaminate other farmers’ fields — including the farmers who raise organic dairy cows and grass-fed beef. Without an organic food source for these livestock, organic as we know it will cease to exist.)

So where does that leave the future of organic farming? Well, in the hands of our last stop in checks and balances: our legal system. On March 18, Center for Food Safety and Earthjustice filed suit against USDA, arguing that the agency’s deregulation of GM alfalfa was unlawful.

For those wondering about the status of the lawsuit, it is still pending; but according to True Food Network (CFS’ grassroots arm) Director Heather Whitehead, it is “progressing a pace.” Here’s hoping that a winning decision comes down soon, before those first soiled seeds are sown.

Click here to donate to Center for Food Safety’s legal fund.

–Jennifer Grayson

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In my real life, I’m not on food stamps (that was an experiment for last week’s Eco Etiquette column on HuffPost), but I do regularly cook up a big batch of the “kitchen sink stew” I feature in this video. It’s pretty much perfection in a pot, and it’s virtually idiot-proof: You throw in whatever combo of veggies/dried beans/meat you have on hand (preferably organic); toss in water and a can of tomato paste; stick a lid on it and turn the heat to low; and magic! Three hours later, you have the most magnificently beautiful and tasty stew you could ever imagine.

As long as you stick to the basic outline, the possibilities are endless. One of my favorite combos to date used white beans, chicken sausage, butternut squash, and rosemary (no tomato paste). It can also easily be made vegetarian — perfect for Meatless Monday.

Kitchen Sink Stew

Makes 8 servings

Swirl of extra virgin olive oil
3 carrots, peeled and diced
3 stalks celery, peeled and diced
1 large onion
1 pound meat or vegetarian substitute (ground turkey, stew beef, sausage removed from casing, crumbled extra firm tofu — it all works!)
1 pound dried beans, any variety, rinsed and sorted (no need to soak)
Assorted chopped veggies (cabbage, spinach, zucchini, mushrooms, squash — whatever!), enough to come near the top of a large pot or French oven
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
8 cups water
Assorted spices, plus salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrots, onion, and celery and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add meat and brown on all sides (if using ground meat, stir until cooked through). Add dried beans, assorted chopped veggies, can of tomato paste, water and spices, and stir. Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Cook three hours, or until beans are plump yet firm and the whole thing has melded into a proper stew, stirring occasionally and adding more water if necessary. Serve with a side of rice, pasta, or crusty bread.

–Jennifer Grayson

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There’s something so quintessentially American about cast-iron cookware. It actually originated in China over 2,500 years ago, but I always picture cowboys cooking a big ol’ Dutch oven (the real kind) of beans over a nice toasty campfire.

I love cast iron because when well seasoned, it’s naturally nonstick (no yucky PFOA). And in our throwaway culture, it’s nice to know a Lodge pan will last long enough to hand down to your grandchildren.

I knew chili would be served at the Super Bowl party I attended yesterday, so I busted out the cast iron corn stick pans and baked up a double batch.

Cast iron pans, brushed with butter/oil and preheated

In goes the batter, already sizzling

Corn sticks!

Cast Iron Corn Sticks

Makes 28

1 1/2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill stone ground cornmeal (medium or coarse grind)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tbsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In a bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. Add eggs, milk, and vegetable oil. Whisk together until ingredients are just mixed.

Brush cast-iron corn stick pan with oil or melted butter and heat in oven until fat smokes. Fill molds and bake for 15 minutes. Serve with plenty of butter.

I’ll be eating the leftovers for today’s Meatless Monday breakfast.

–Jennifer Grayson

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