Tuesday Hash

This will be a little of this and a little of that--oh, and pardon the photos. I just bought a new camera, and these are the first shots. I'm playing with manual settings, so they are not perfect--yet.

I was thinking today about Monsanto and GMO crops and pesticides (oh my!), and I was thinking about updating everyone on the garden. To the left, you'll see my beet babies. I am giddy with anticipation. Subbing has kept me busy and away from the computer, so I've not been doing my homework on what to plant AFTER I harvest and/or clean out space. The broccoli, I fear, will result in stir fried leaves and no more. It's just too warm in Alabama to try a spring crop.

Huffington Post had an interesting, though not earth-shattering piece on GMO foods. I did learn something new, though. Evidently there is another protein on the horizon that will be part of the patented GMO products: pork. Another reason to only eat from Randle Farms. The article listed the usual suspects: corn, soy, sugar beets, salmon (not yet approved), canola, golden rice, and tomatoes (which consumers said "NO" to).

During my meanderings on the web today, I found lists of foods that are high in pesticides, and therefore best purchased organic, and those low in pesticides--so save your money. Eating Well magazine had a list dubbed "the dirty dozen" foods that are heavily treated in pesticides; we've already talked about one: strawberries. I've long known that potatoes are one of the most heavily treated crops, which is why I decided to grow them this year. They are planted next to cosmos, which is supposed to attract beneficial insects to our garden. We'll see as summer heats up how effective this is. Others crops making the list are celery, peaches, nectarines, apples, blueberries, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, and grapes. If all goes well with the garden this year, we're planning to add muscadines/scuppernongs to the garden, and they will replace grapes for our diet. We already planted seven blueberry bushes, and it looks like there will be some fruit from them this year. Peppers will likely replace the broccoli this summer.

Eating Well also published a list of 15 foods that are low in pesticides and suggests you purchase conventionally grown veggies and fruits on this list to save money. Onion is one crop on the list, and even though I knew this, I had decided I wanted to grow them this year. Maybe I'll use the space for something different next year, but this year I just wanted to see if I could do it. Other pesticide-reduced crops are kiwi, avocado, sweet corn, pineapple, sweet potato, mango, sweet peas, asparagus, cabbage, eggplant, watermelon, grapefruit, and honeydew.

As a friend commented on an earlier post, though, we have to think about more than just pesticide use and organics when we think of our food. We really need to think about the carbon footprint, the fossil fuel it takes to get these foods to us, which is why Anthony and I would also like to expand the garden next year to include asparagus and kiwi (we already do eggplant). I can find local sources of watermelon, and I can live without grapefruit, but I love asparagus and kiwi. I'm hoping Alabama will be favorable for kiwi; I already know the South can grown asparagus, I just don't know why we don't.

I'm ending today's post with a before and after post of the garden. It's grown quite well in the past month or so. Mr. Wilson is in the photo on right. He wanted equal time since Beo has already been on the blog! Forgive the photo on the left--I don't know who took that or with what camera, but the brown dirt serves to make the comparison.

Now go grow something!

Yes,Tofu!

I've written before about Meatless Mondays when I posted one of my favorite egg recipes. In our house, it's usually meatless Monday (Anthony is out of town), Tuesday, and maybe Saturday or Sunday. While we wait for more suitable planting days, and while I read a bit more on the topic rolling around in my head, I wanted to share another meatless recipe from Cooking Light: Toasted Barley, Green Bean, and Shiitake Salad with Tofu, yes, tofu!

The tofu is marinated in a wonderful soy-brown-sugar-ginger concoction that gives it a nice crispy, caramelized texture when baked. If you've never cooked with tofu before, there is one very important step to avoid the chicken-fat consistency my poor girls suffered through as children one of the few times I cooked tofu as they were growing up. You must press the water out of the tofu by wrapping it in paper towels and setting a heavy pan or cutting board on top of the tofu block for about 45 minutes. (I keep a stash of recycled, unbleached paper towels hidden for such occasions, but don't tell anyone. I make everyone use old newspapers for sopping up spills.)

Another important factor to consider when purchasing soy-based products like tofu is to be sure it is made with non-genetically modified organisms. Why avoid GMO's? An article from 2010 by Natural News.com lists the five major crops that are GMO's and why you should avoid them, including this statement by the American Academy of Environmental Medicine:

"Genetically Modified foods have not been properly tested and pose a serious health risk. There is more than a casual association between GM foods and adverse health effects. There is causation."

As 91% of American fields are planted with Monsanto's GMO soy, that may be difficult to do. This figure is quoted in a Huffington Post article from April 2010, but I've seen similar figures from other sources corroborating the fact that the vast majority of soy is genetically modified. So, when shopping for soy-based products, look for "No GMO's" or "No genetically engineered ingredients" on the label.

As I've said before, going meatless doesn't mean you have to sacrifice flavor or nutrition. My carnivorous husband has become accustomed to meatless meals and is even enthusiastic about them, which I credit to my favorite vegetarian chef, Deborah Madison. If you're ready to venture into meatless meals, look for one of her many titles on eBay or Amazon. There is a nice collection of meatless meals on Epicurious.com, too.

Say "NO" to the King of GMO

I've been stuck inside for two days because of work and rain, so there is no planting news to report (is that a collective sigh across the Internet I'm hearing?). The good news is that in the world of food, one is never lacking a topic. Today I opened a small weekly, The Auburn Villager and found a column by Bita Bullet (a pseudonym) talking about rising food prices and the crisis that continued increases pose for America. Food crisis. This is a common thread in articles and discussions these past few days.

My husband and I were looking at news photos after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, and one of the photographs showed empty shelves at the market. Whether snowstorm or tsunami, natural disasters seem to trigger a similar response: everyone heads to the store so they can stock up on essentials. Food crisis.

I open my inbox today and see a newsletter from the Organic Consumers Association, and inside this newsletter, I read more about food crises, or perhaps how to avert crisis. The first article contained an excerpt and link to a United Nations report titled "Agroecology and the Right to Food." If you follow the link, you can read the full report for yourself, but let me give you a few of the findings. Implementing agroecological techniques, or environmentally sustainable techniques, in developing countries increased food production by as much as 79 percent. According to the report, such practice "also puts agriculture on the path of sustainability by delinking food production from the reliance on fossil energy (oil and gas)" (page 13) and allows food producers to better respond to challenges brought about by climate change.

This brings me to the next article and the reason for the post. There are also two articles about Monsanto and genetically modified crops in the OCA newsletter. The first article is urging readers to go a Month without Monsanto, and it continues by saying how difficult a task this may be, particularly if you don't already eat organic foods. GMO crops, of which Monsanto is one of the largest producers, if not the largest, proliferate in corn, soy, cotton, sugar beets, and alfalfa. OCA is urging people to contact their U.S. representatives to fight for truth in labeling so that consumers know when they are getting GMO foods, which is expanding into animal products if a company called AquaBounty is approved for the first GMO animal destined for our dinner tables.

What's the harm? Well, the truth is, no one really knows because independent scientific studies are few and far between. There is a suggestion that GMO's contribute to food allergens, but we don't really know. We do know that GMO products are hard to control, infecting organic crops, and sending small farmers into court if a renegade Monsanto seed winds up in their fields. Hmmm. What's wrong with that picture.

OCA is asking everyone to join in the fight and create a Million Against Monsanto Chapter for his or her Congressional District. Follow the link for more information.

It's easy to get discouraged when fighting against multi-billion dollar, multi-national corporations, but take heart with this example from Fast Food Nation: "In the Spring of 2000, McDonad's informed Lamb Weston and the J.R. Simplot Company that it would no longer purchase frozen french fries made from genetically engineered potatoes. As a result, the two large processors told their growers to stop planting genetically engineered potatoes--and sales of Monsanto's New Leaf, the nation's only biotech potato, instantly plummeted." (Schlosser 269)

That's because Americans said "No to GMO."