Proper Pizza Preparedness

Posted by & filed under delivery, News, Passione Pizza.

I got waylaid on the way home from work the other night. I stopped at a neighbor’s house to ask a quick question, but they cheerfully invited me inside and before I knew it I was kicking back, chatting about weekend plans with a drink in my hand. One margarita became two, and I eventually headed home about an hour and a half past my dogs’ dinnertime — and my own.

Once I filled the kibble bowls and reassured my worried beasts that they had not been woefully abandoned or cruelly starved by their human, I turned to consider what to do about my own dubious situation of two drinks on a mostly empty stomach.

Since that condition generally means absolutely no desire to cook despite the urgent need to eat something substantial, I did what most people do on such occasions: I opened the freezer to see if maybe there was a quick frozen thing that I could simply pop in the microwave.

What I found was even better.

I hadn’t been home on Friday when the Golden Gate Organics box arrived, so I was thrilled and actually said “oh hell yeah!” out loud to my dogs when I discovered the bonus pizza from Passione in the freezer.

That’s pretty out of character for me because I’m generally not much of a frozen pizza person. I typically buy fresh pizza dough at Trader Joe’s or the Berkeley Bowl and make my own pizza-like creations on a cookie sheet. A recent favorite is roasted yellow beets, scallions, feta and honey. Super yum!

If I do buy a frozen pizza, it is always a simple thin-crust model with plain cheese, and I doctor it extensively with things like artichoke hearts, kalamata olives and sundried tomatoes, or maybe some fresh spinach, basil and goat cheese.

This one didn’t seem to need much doctoring though; it looked like it had generous slices of tomato and zucchini and — oh! — feta. I preheated the oven to 500 and put the pizza directly on the wire rack.

When I pulled it out all golden brown and bubbly six minutes later, the crust did not droop as I used a spatula to transfer it to the cutting board, a most excellent sign.

Reaching for my Ulu, a rocker-shaped knife that a friend brought me from a recent Alaska trip, I cut the pie into quarters. The Inuit and Aluet people use Ulus for skinning and cleaning animals; mine is used exclusively for pizza cutting.

I’m mildly embarrassed to admit that I didn’t even sit down to eat; I stood right there at the kitchen counter and devoured half the pizza straightaway, adding only red chili flakes for a bit of a kick.

Despite my general bias against frozen pizzas, I can report that this was a perfectly respectable pizza that was quite thankfully missing that certain je ne sais quoi that comes from something being mass produced. The toppings were well proportioned and the flavor was good; the crust itself was excellent, although the edge was rather too dense for my liking.

That edge was perfect, though, to leave out overnight to make hard, crunchy “pizza bones” for my pups. My dogs go nuts for them, and really they are a decent treat if you think about it— nothing but flour, yeast, water and maybe a little bit of baked-on cheese.

My only real quibble with this pizza is that there was no label of any kind. That means no ingredient list, heating instructions, expiration date or calorie count (although on second thought, perhaps I should be grateful not to know how many calories I consumed.)

All in all, though, the Passione Pizza did its job quite well, satisfying both human and beast. I’ll be getting another one in my next GGO box — because it’s clearly prudent to keep one of these on hand for those unexpected pizza emergencies.

PS: Corey is also considering carrying fresh pizza dough from Passione, which I think is an excellent idea. Tell him you think so too!

Of Baguettes and Business Models

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

When it comes to starch, everybody has their go-to thing. Some people are pasta people, some people are potato people, some people are bread people, and some people are rice people.

Me, I’m most definitely a bread person. Not much in the food world makes me happier than noshing on a piece of good crusty bread smeared with a little butter.

Here in the Bay Area, we’re pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to artisan bakeries — we have Acme, Grace and Semifreddi’s, just to name a few. Indeed, each of those is responsible for a particular favorite of mine. Acme’s cinnamon walnut currant bread is a more-than-guilty pleasure; Grace’s black olive pugliese brings ballast to any plate; and Semifreddi’s seeded baguette adds interest to salad night.

But when it gets down to the bare-bones basics, to the daily staple of a good, honest bread that goes with anything and everything, a sourdough baguette from Arizmendi is the hands-down winner.

While breads from the other local bakeries can be found in area grocery stores, that isn’t the case for Arizmendi, which sells its breads, muffins, scones, pizzas and other items pretty much exclusively through its five bakeries. And there’s usually a line. A long one.

That’s why, when Golden Gate Organics started delivering Arizmendi demi-baguettes and English muffins in the weekly boxes, I jumped at the chance to add a demi to my standing order.

I guiltily confess to looking forward to that baguette more than anything else in the box. There’s usually a crispy piece of golden baguette popping out of the toaster even before I get my fruits and veggies washed and put away.

With just the right texture and tang, the Arizmendi demi-(half) baguette is the perfect size to eat before going stale and is, in my opinion (and that of many others), quite simply the best baguette in the Bay Area. And probably California. Or maybe even outside of France for that matter.

But while the baguette itself is a thing of wonder, so too are the circumstances of its making.

Like many folks in the Bay Area, I’ve long been aware that Arizmendi is a worker-owned cooperative that is affiliated with the beloved Cheese Board in Berkeley, but I never really knew the company’s history or had any understanding of how it works or fits into the bigger picture of the democratic workplace movement.

That all changed when I had happened to see a screening of a documentary called Shift Change at the Santa Cruz Independent Film Festive a while back. The documentary focused on the Mondragon Cooperatives, which I had never heard of before.

Started in the Basque Country of Spain in the 1950s, Mondragon has flourished and attracted worldwide attention as a highly successful incubator for worker-owned and operated workplaces — Arizmendi being among them.

Arizmendi is actually named after Maria Arizmendiarrieta, the young priest who inspired and helped found Mondragon, which, as Arizmendi’s website describes it, “started as one firm and roughly 25 people in 1956 [and] is now a major international business with a work force of over 100,000, employed in some 250+ worker-owned enterprises and affiliated organizations” in countries worldwide.

The film was fascinating and I learned a lot, not just about Mondragon’s model of collective ownership and long track record of success, but about our local Arizmendi bakeries as well. After learning about the worker-owner business model that Arizmendi has nurtured here in the Bay Area, I feel even better about buying their products.

As if I needed a reason besides the fabulous baguette itself.

Note: Shift Change will air on KQED television at 2 pm on August 2.

A Winner for Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner

Posted by & filed under tips & tricks, Uncategorized, weekly update.

chakchoucka 3I had lunch the other day with my friend Claude, who is French and grew up in Algeria. She’s a fantastic cook, to say the least, and one amazing smell or other is always wafting from her kitchen.

Claude has taught me to make some of my favorite dishes (Afghan meatballs! Marengo cavour! ), so when she said we were having chakchouka for lunch and I had no idea what it was, I suspected I would once again be reaching for a recipe card.

Boy, was I right.

As I learned by nosing my way into the kitchen before our meal, chakchouka (also often called shakshouka) is a sort of tomato ratatouille cooked in a cast iron skillet with onions, bell peppers, garlic and cumin. Once that simple mixture is cooked down, you make little nests in it, crack a few eggs, and cover the pan to poach them.

Some fresh crusty bread is the traditional companion to mop up the savory goodness.

Claude tells me her mom often made chakchouka for breakfast when she was growing up but that it’s also widely eaten for both lunch and dinner in Mediterranean countries, either as a main dish itself or as a side to grilled meat.

Turns out that there are endless versions of chakchouka not only in Algeria but in neighboring Morocco, Tunisia and Libya, and it’s become a staple in Israel as well. Turkey has a dish called menemen that sounds suspiciously similar, and the tried and true Mexican hangover cure known as huevos rancheros is also a recognizable cousin.

Besides tasting absolutely fantastic any time of day, one of the best things about chakchouka is that it is entirely flexible, both ingredient-wise and cooking-wise.

Tomatoes, onions, olive oil and cumin are all you really need for the most basic chakchouka, and from there the other ingredients — like bell peppers and garlic — just give it more personality. You can make chakchouka in as little as fifteen minutes or let it slowly stew and reduce for an hour or more.

You can poach eggs in the sauce or scramble them in, skip the eggs entirely, or add spicy sausage or roasted chicken instead. If you prefer veggies, add zucchini, eggplant, chickpeas, spinach or whatever else suits your fancy. Some versions of chakchouka even include goat cheese or feta.

Here is the recipe that Claude gave me. It’s a great starting point for experimenting to find your own favorite combination:

Chakchouka — makes 4 servings

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/3 cups chopped onion

1 cup chopped bell peppers, any color

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 1/2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon salt

1 hot chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped

4 eggs

Directions

1. In a cast iron skillet, sautee the onion, bell pepper and garlic in olive oil until the vegetables soften and the onion turns translucent, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the tomatoes, cumin, paprika, salt and chili pepper. Simmer uncovered until the tomato juices have cooked off, about 10 minutes. Add a little water if needed to prevent scorching before the veggies are cooked to your liking.

3. Make four indentations in the tomato mixture and crack the eggs into them. Cover the skillet and let the eggs cook until the whites are firm, about 5 minutes.

4. Serve with fresh crusty bread (Arizmendi’s demi-baguette is perfect)

 

Since chakchouka is made from common ingredients that are frequently kept on hand, it’s the perfect fast and simple answer to the eternal question of what to have for breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner.

 

chakchoucka 2

 

 

 

 

Growing a Movement

Posted by & filed under Food Philosophy, Uncategorized.

A couple days ago, I got an email from some folks I hadn’t heard from — or about — in quite a while, the Oakland Food Policy Council. The email asked me to sign a petition to the Oakland City Council encouraging them to act on reducing the barriers and restrictions on urban agriculture activities in Oakland.

Back in 2011, I went to a large meeting that explored community interest in urban farming and sought feedback on how the city should develop and/or update its guidelines to permit and regulate a variety of urban farming activities.

Hosted by the city’s Community and Economic Development Agency and the Oakland Food Policy Council, the main areas of focus were on establishing standards, practices and conditions for urban farm management; developing clear regulations for animal husbandry, apiaries and aquaponics; setting rules for the sale of fruits, vegetables and animal products in residential and other zoning areas; addressing concerns such as noise, odor and pesticide use; and exploring how the city could best promote urban agriculture.

There was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm in the crowd that night. People walked around wearing chartreuse “I (heart) Urban Ag” stickers, there were samples of locally grown fruits and vegetables, and someone even brought a goat indoors on a leash.

The crowd of 100-plus thoughtfully perused the numerous information stations, gathering flyers about urban ag topics and writing their feedback and concerns on big flip boards with multicolor pens. Speakers from the city seemed engaged on the issues and enthusiastic to work with the community and advocates from the FPC to craft new forward-looking urban ag policies for Oakland.

It felt like a movement was afoot.

And then: nothing.

In the four years since that meeting, the city has still not moved forward on the urban ag issue. And for four years I didn’t hear a peep from the city or from the Food Policy Council either, not even a status update on the results of the original meeting.

This week’s FPC email seeking support on the petition and asking folks to attend a Planning Commission meeting arrived out of the blue, a mere 48 hours before the meeting, which is scheduled for tonight.

Oaklanders have been at the forefront of the urban farming movement for many years now, so I have no doubt there is still strong interest in policy reform around this issue.

Whether supporters will turn out at a moment’s notice after being out of the loop for several years is another matter entirely, however.

If you can to go, the meeting is tonight, Wednesday, June 4, at 6 pm at City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza Oakland, CA 94612, Sgnt Mark Dunakin Hearing Room 1.

 

Sticky Business and Tomato Tattoos

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

When my GGO box arrives and I perform the weekly ritual of putting away the produce, the first thing I do is peel all the little sticky labels off the fruits and vegetables. Bar codes in the fruit bowl are not my idea of a pleasing still life, and it reminds me just how industrialized our food system is, even when we eat organic.

Known as PLU labels (for “price look-up”), these sticky little tags have appeared on individual pieces of produce since about 1990. PLU labels aren’t actually required by any government agency, but they’ve become ubiquitous because they help produce handlers and store clerks quickly identify and sort items.

The labels actually contain a lot of information for consumers too: a four-digit PLU code means the item is conventionally grown; five digits starting with the number nine means it’s organic; and five digits starting with eight means it’s genetically modified, though since the labels aren’t mandatory you won’t likely see many eights floating around.

Aside from the PLU number, the labels also specify the country of origin and the name of the grower, and they frequently include a bar code or brand logo as well. While the information they contain can help us make more informed choices about what we eat, the labels themselves are problematic for a variety of reasons.

Many people complain that removing the labels tears skin off the produce, which is especially true with delicate items like pears, peaches, or eggplants. Others folks object to the adhesives, which can leave residue behind when the stickers are removed. The FDA regulates PLU label adhesives as indirect food additives, but it’s a good idea to wash even organic produce if it came with a sticker.

The main problem with the sticky tags, though, is that most PLU labels are not biodegradable. Although some are made from paper, many more are made from plastic or vinyl that won’t break down in water or a compost pile.

Municipal waste handlers nationwide cite them as one of the top plastic contaminants of their green-waste composting programs, and water agencies say they gum up their works as well.

According to an article in EBMUD’s customer newsletter, Pipeline, “Who knew those little plastic stickers on fruits and vegetables could cause a big problem? Surprisingly, those little stickers … are washed down home drains all too frequently. They can end up in a variety of places – stuck in your drain, or stuck on wastewater treatment plant pumps and hoses, or caught in screens and filters. … Unfortunately, they can end up where no one wants them – in the bay and the ocean.”

EBMUD recommends “always removing plastic stickers and wrappers, placing them in the garbage before you wash and peel your fruits and vegetables,” and making sure the stickers never go down the drain.

The labels I pulled off my produce today ran about 50:50 — paper labels on the bananas and apples, plastic (or vinyl?) on the nectarines and peaches. I’ve gotten into the habit of tearing the labels to see which ones can go in the paper recycling bin and which in the trash, but I’m sure I miss a few that ultimately do wind up in my kitchen compost.

While there are a few folks out there who are exploring ways to make the labels more eco-friendly (I especially like the idea of labels that melt into a fruit soap when wet), there is unfortunately no real momentum in that direction.

As problematic as the PLU labels are, though, at least they can be removed. Not so with their emerging replacement. In April 2013, the FDA approved the use of a low-energy carbon dioxide laser to etch PLU codes, brands, and other information directly onto the surface of citrus fruits.

The Federal Code of Regulations, Title 21, Volume 3, Part 179, reassuringly categorizes C02 laser etching under the heading “Irradiation in the Production, Processing and Handling of Food, Subpart B — Radiation and Radiation Sources.” Section 179.143 specifically addresses the requirements for the C02 laser etching of food.

So far, the laser etching technique has only been approved for use on citrus fruits in the United States, but testing is also being done on tomatoes, avocados, garlic, and other produce items. The European Union, usually quite conservative in such matters, has gone further, already allowing it on citrus, melons, and pomegranates. It is also permitted on various produce in New Zealand, Australia, Asia, South Africa, Central and South America, Japan, and Canada.

Online, there are a gazillion photos of etched cucumbers, squashes, tomatoes, kiwis, apples and bananas, and it is clearly only a matter of time before the permission widely expands to all fresh produce that can withstand the process.

The FDA says C02 etching doesn’t harm produce or make it more likely to spoil, and since laser etching can’t be removed or altered, they believe it will help officials quickly trace produce back to its origin in the event of a food-borne illness outbreak.

Whether such laser-etched produce can actually be certified as “organic” — here or in other countries — is unclear. I couldn’t find anything at all addressing this issue.

It’s true that etching produce would eliminate many of the problems associated with PLU labels and could improve food safety, but it’s even more likely that it will turn into a rampant branding and marketing tool. I can just see it now: sports team logos or the Trix Rabbit etched into the sides of watermelons and apples.

I started seeing citrus fruit with the laser tattoos more than a year ago, but I didn’t realize what I was looking at. I thought it was just ink; now I know better. It seems like there must be a better answer than tattooing our food with lasers and dyes like iron oxides and hydroxides, which are also often used in the etching process.

Sticky labels are clearly not ideal, but to me they are still better than a tomato or apple that has been hanging out at the tattoo parlor. One day soon, though, there may be no way to remove bar codes from the fruit-bowl still life — except by turning the fruit around.

Spring Has Sprung … Right Into My Salad Bowl!

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

             sorrel and fennel      nasturtiums and dandilionSpring has definitely sprung here in the Bay Area, and birds, bees and beasts alike are all atwitter over the booming odors and blooming colors.

In my yard, the nasturtiums have started their annual stealth campaign to overtake the vegetable beds, while the stubborn dandelions that I’ve pulled up a dozen times are again sprouting from cracks in the concrete path. (God bless the grass…)

Across the street, the wood sorrel that passes as my neighbor’s front lawn has exploded in a blanket of yellow as it does every year until he mows it down, concerned that his yard will attract a blight complaint for being unkempt. The fragrant fennel bush that grows shoulder-high alongside the vacant lot is going nuts this year too, and on walks around the block my dogs are clearly celebrating its return.

These familiar plants are a ubiquitous part of the landscape, so we usually overlook them as weeds, or more kindly call them “volunteers,” but there is more to these hardy urban perennials than meets the eye.

When I first got my house, nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus) had gone feral and literally covered everything in the backyard. The progeny of those original plants are still thriving sixteen years later, although I have greatly restricted their territory. Also known as Indian cress or monk’s cress, nasturtium originated in the Andes and has since become naturalized in countries around the world, clearly one of Darwin’s favored children.

Besides creating a sprawling riot of color, nasturtiums are edible and are a terrific way to dress up a salad. The round leaves add wonderful variety to a greens mix, and the flowers themselves are surprisingly peppery, quite a bit like a radish. Make sure to inspect and/or rinse flowers before eating them, though, or an ant or two might contribute some extra protein!

When I’m out picking nasturtiums, I always eye the determined dandelions (Taraxacum officinale) to see if there are any young leaves that I can pinch from them as well. The best time to pick dandelion leaves is when they are small and light colored, generally before there is a yellow flower on the plant and certainly before there is a puffball to make a wish on.

Once dandelions start to mature, the leaves get thicker, more bitter and a little prickly. Young leaves are a great addition to a salad mix, and they are also fantastic sautéed with onions and garlic or mixed in with whatever cooked greens you are making.

If I want to fill out my salad bowl even more, I head across the street and poach a couple handfuls of wood sorrel from my neighbor’s “lawn.” Also known as Bermuda buttercup, sourgrass or soursop, Oxalis pes-capraehas a distinct tangy flavor that is sort of lemony. It’s great in salads, and the leaves, stems and flowers are all edible. You shouldn’t eat too much raw sorrel because it contains oxalic acid that can be hard on some folks’ kidneys, but adding it raw to salads now and then is fine, and cooking it eliminates the issue entirely.

If my salad still needs a little extra something, I take the dogs for a walk and go visit their favorite fennel bush (Foeniculum vulgare) to snip some feathery new growth from the top of the plant. And that brings us to some rules of thumb for gathering greens or flowers of any kind from urban areas:

  • * Avoid roadsides where plants are contaminated by vehicle exhaust.
  • * Be mindful of where animals relieve themselves.
  • * Don’t pick in an area that could possibly have been treated with weedkillers.
  • * Don’t eat anything you can’t identify with 100 percent certainty – a toxic plant can be as dangerous as a toxic mushroom. Stick to what you know.

With everything around us growing and blooming right now, it’s a great time to create your very own Spring mix. And who knows, the neighbors might even thank you for helping out with their weeding.

nasturtiums

 

 

 

 

Take Time to Stop and Smell the Coffee

Posted by & filed under Food Philosophy, organic produce, tips & tricks, Uncategorized.

 photo-6                              photo-11

Here in the US, most people treat coffee as a commodity. We drink it on the go, whether quickly making it ourselves in the morning before rushing out the door, travel mug in hand, or hitting Starbucks or Peet’s to have jittery baristas prepare it in true assembly-line fashion that keeps the long lines moving.

In other parts of the world, though, coffee is not something you drink out of a paper cup while walking or driving or even working. It is something you sit down — and slow down –to properly savor and enjoy.

Especially in Europe, the ritual of appreciating fine coffee is reason in and of itself to linger for hours in a café (rather than free Wi-Fi). For them, coffee represents a respite from a busy day rather than the fuel for one.

That whole slow-joe philosophy starts with the attention and care that typically go into roasting, grinding and brewing European coffees, and it is something you can taste in every cup.

What got me thinking about all this was that Corey sent me a bag of the new Kenyan organic whole bean coffee that Golden Gate Organics is offering from Sunrise Coffee Roasters in San Leandro.

The folks at Sunrise buy green coffee beans from all around the world and create unique blends for each client, roasting each batch to order for individual customers (like GGO!). Their roasting machine handles about 400 pounds per hour, a very small batch compared to the typical industrial roaster that roasts ten times that much per hour.

One sniff of the Sunrise Kenyan and it was clear to me that these folks are giving their beans a lot of love and attention to make them special, so I wanted to put as much care into preparing their coffee as they put into crafting it.

I started by grinding the beans in an old-school Italian burr grinder and was going to use a Melita cone to do a pour-over, but that’s how I usually make my coffee and it didn’t seem very special at all. Instead, I decided to break out my grandma’s 1947 Pyrex vacuum brewer, which I’d only used once before.

Looking like something out a high-school science lab, the clear glass contraption actually consists of two pots, one sitting on top of the other. The center of the top pot has a glass tube (the siphon) that extends down nearly to the bottom of the lower one, and the two pots stack snugly together with a gasket.

You insert a nifty glass rod into the siphon hole in the top pot to act as a filter, and then add the grounds on top of that. The bottom pot is filled with water and the whole mad science apparatus gets set on the stove to boil.

According to Wikipedia’s explanation of the physics involved, “as the water heats, it is forced by the increasing vapor pressure up the siphon and into the bowl where it mixes with the grounds. When all the water possible has been forced into the bowl the infusion is allowed to sit for some time before the brewer is removed from the heat. As the water vapor in the lower pot cools, it contracts, forming a partial vacuum and drawing the coffee down through the filter.”

Translation: When it boils, most of the water gets sucked from the bottom pot into the upper one, where it then boils with the grounds. When you turn it off and let it sit for a bit, the coffee goes back down into the lower pot and the grounds stay behind up top.

My gram’s antique vacuum pot was just the right thing to bring this artisan-roasted Kenyan from Sunrise to life. The result was a wonderful pot of coffee with a mellow and nutty flavor and surprisingly few grounds or sediment at the bottom.

It took me the better part of an hour to drink my cup out on my sunlit deck, doing nothing but listening to the birds and slowly savoring every sip.

There’s just no way commodity coffee in a paper cup can even come close.

 

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March Against Madness

Posted by & filed under Food Philosophy, News, organic, organic produce, Uncategorized.

monsanto strip

Many of us know intuitively that genetically modified foods are unsafe to eat and that they are harmful to the environment and other living beings, but there could be a much bigger concern: they may actually threaten the stability of the world’s food supply.

Most Americans don’t realize that they probably eat GM foods every day, but it’s generally agreed that about 80 percent of the US food supply contains some form of GMOs. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that 90 percent of US soybeans, sugar beets and corn is genetically modified, and food ingredients made from those crops – like high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, soy lecithin and corn starch – are found in most processed and packaged foods, sodas, and cereals.  Corn is also a staple animal feed, so most US-grown meat is raised on a diet of GM grain as well.

According to the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA), an international nonprofit that promotes biotechnology, the US is the largest global producer of GM crops, accounting for 40 percent of the GM acres planted worldwide. Much of that land is planted with crops developed by biotech giant Monsanto, which owns 1,676 patents for seeds, plants, herbicides and other agricultural products.

The numbers from ISAAA left me with my jaw hanging open:

Monsanto controls 80 percent of GM corn and 93 percent of GM soy in the US; that translates to 72 percent and 84 percent of the nation’s total output of corn and soy, respectively. Forty percent of total US cropland (over 151 million acres) was planted with Monsanto seed in 2013. Worldwide, 433 million acres of GM crops were grown in 2013 by 18 million farmers, and a staggering 282 million of those acres – sixty-five percent! — were planted with Monsanto seed.

Many people are coming to believe that such widespread dependence on Monsanto gives the company far too much power not just over US agriculture, but the global food supply as well. That concern is underscored because many of the seeds Monsanto sells are engineered with “terminator” genes that produce plants that are sterile. That means new seeds must be repurchased each year from Monsanto rather than being saved by farmers, an ancient practice that farmers worldwide depend on for the next year’s planting.

The growing fear is that restricting access to the means of food production via sterile seeds could threaten the ability of the world to feed itself, especially in poor, developing countries that are now rapidly switching over to GM crops. According to ISAAA, in 2013 developing countries grew more GM crops than industrial countries did for the second year in a row.  In Latin America, Asia and Africa, farmers collectively grew 54 percent of the GM crops worldwide.

With global influence like that, it’s no wonder that up to two million protesters in 436 cities and 52 countries took to the streets in May 2013 for the first global “March Against Monsanto.” Although people in European countries have turned out by the hundreds of thousands to protest GMOs for decades, it was the largest anti-GMO protest in US history.  But hopefully that was just the beginning.

Another global March Against Monsanto is scheduled for this coming May 24, and this time there’s even greater urgency and consequences for American consumers. Later this year, the US Food and Drug Administration is widely expected to approve the commercial sale of a genetically modified fish, the AquAdvantage salmon, which has been engineered to grow twice as fast as a regular salmon. It is likely to become the first transgenic food animal approved for human consumption.

Environmental groups say it could literally wipe out the world’s native salmon populations if it escapes from fish farms into the wild.  And oh, it won’t have to be labeled so you won’t even know you’re eating a frankenfish.

Sixty-four countries – including the European Union, Brazil, Australia, Japan and China — require foods containing GMOs to be specifically labeled, but not the United States. The FDA doesn’t recognize any difference between GM and non-GM plants or animals, and it maintains that labeling is not necessary because GM foods have the same essential characteristics of nutrition and composition as their non-GM counterparts.

Even though legislation to require labeling in California and Washington narrowly failed in 2012 and 2013 respectively (thanks to $70 million in ads from the biotech and processed food industries), a 2013 poll by The New York Times showed that an overwhelming 93 percent of Americans want GMO foods to be labeled.

Publicity about the FDA’s pending GM salmon approval has ignited a fire under the anti-GMO movement here, and more than three dozen states are frantically working to get mandatory labeling initiatives on this year’s ballot in anticipation of the frankenfish’s arrival.

In the meantime though, with 80 percent of the American food supply containing GMOs the only way to be sure that your food is not genetically modified is to buy organic or look for certification labels from the Non-GMO Project.

The flyer for the March Against Monsanto on May 24 describes the event as, “a global call to action aimed at informing the public, calling into question long-term health risks of genetically modified foods and demanding that GMO products be labeled so that consumers can make informed decisions.”

It’s time to march against this madness.

 

monsanto flyer

Blood Sugar Pledge Magic

Posted by & filed under Uncategorized.

I was flipping channels on TV the other night when I ran across the annual public television pledge drive, featuring what was basically an hour-long infomercial for a new diet plan slash detox program that promises to “reset your health” in just ten days.

The very-excited-to-be-here host, Dr. Mark Hyman, seemed almost evangelical as he spoke about the wonders of his new health program and book, The Blood Sugar Solution 10-Day Detox Diet, which –surprise! – just came out this February.

“Most of us don’t realize that what we’re eating not only makes us fat but it makes us sick,” he told the live studio audience. “And when you get rid of the junk and you eat real food, you can take back your brain chemistry, your hormones. You activate your fat-burning genes and you get rid of a whole list of health problems that are connected to the very reason that you’re overweight.”

I figured it couldn’t hurt to listen for a bit.

Hyman went on to talk about how the American diet – with its refined sugars and flours — causes blood sugar to spike and become instable, which causes food cravings, weighs us down and makes us feel generally crappy. He ticked off a list of things that his detox diet can fix: diabetes, migraines, sinus troubles, allergies, irritable bowel, joint pain, insomnia, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety, and more.

His plan is pretty straightforward:

1) Never eat high fructose corn syrup, trans fat and hydrogenated oils, or MSG (No argument there.)

2) Eat only “whole, real, fresh foods” that your grandparents would recognize. Stop eating food that comes in jars, bottles, boxes and cans, unless it has five ingredients or less (Hmmm, this sounds incredibly familiar…)

3) Take a break from foods that promote inflammation, such as grains, dairy, coffee and all sugars, for 10 days in order to get rid of toxins, reset your system and break bad food habits (Well, yeah, that’s what a cleanse is FOR.)

4) Make 70 percent of your diet non-starchy vegetables, with protein and healthy fats making up the rest. (A good rule of thumb, detox week or not.)

5) Take a fiber supplement before every meal during detox to take the edge off hunger, increase your fiber and make you feel more full. (Pretty standard stuff.)

6) Drink his specially formulated whole-food protein smoothie – containing almond butter, chia seeds, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, berries, avocado, coconut butter, and almond milk — every morning. (Sure, why not?)

By that point, I realized there was nothing new here, really, just some shiny new packaging wrapped around an old idea, so I flipped the channel to catch the last bit of a “Big Bang Theory” rerun before heading off to bed.

Anyway, I got to thinking about the infomercial again today and wondered whether that interesting smoothie recipe was available online anywhere, so I went poking around to look for it. Indeed, I found the recipe on the webpage for the Dr. Oz television show, where Hyman recently appeared. This guy is definitely making the media rounds; he suddenly seems to be everywhere, even blogging over at Huffington Post.

I hadn’t heard of him before, so I did some more searches to see what the science and medicine folks have been saying about him. Overall their feedback about his detox diet is good, and the general consensus is that his emphasis on blood sugar is a legitimate approach. A lot of consumers, though, have grumbled about how expensive the program is because of all the supplements.  Huh?

That’s when I discovered that over at the good doctor’s personal website, he is selling 10-days-worth of special PGX fiber (made from konjac root , which purportedly helps regulate blood sugar) and other supplements for his program for $140 to $290 — depending on how thorough you want to be in getting trim and healthy. (The pricetag on KQED was $288, and it included a basic starter pack of PGX fiber and a variety of videos, workbooks and online interactive coaching etc.)

“A year ago, 600 people volunteered to try my 10-Day Detox Diet,” he writes on his website. “Their average blood pressure fell 10 points, blood sugar dropped 20 points, and all symptoms from all diseases were reduced by 62%. At the same time, they lost over 4,000 pounds. More than two tons! Just 10 days and get ready to meet a healthier, new you!”

That’s really great, but the thing is, just about any sincerely observed detox or cleanse regimen will do that for you. There’s really no need to buy expensive supplements to lower blood sugar or books that simply rehash what we already know.  All we have to do is stop eating heavy foods for a couple weeks and get back to basics. No meat, flour, sugar, dairy, caffeine or alcohol. Drink lots of water; eat lots of fruits and vegetables and whole grains to help your system clean itself out.

The most important thing, though, is to start being deliberate and conscious about every single thing we put in our bodies. That alone will do more to “reset your health” than all the supplements and diet books in the world.

 

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PS: As I searched the web for articles about Hyman and his detox diet, food-related ads and links kept appearing in my browser. Among them:  “Oscar Mayer Launches the First Smell-Emitting App for Bacon Lovers” (accompanied by a photo of sizzling bacon). And this: “Human Barbie Doll Subject of New Documentary.” While I was able to resist the bacon (Mmm…bacon), curiosity got the better of me, and I clicked on Barbie, only to immediately regret learning about Ukranian model Valeria Lukyanova’s extreme doll-like transformation to become be the perfect “Real Barbie.” I am not sure which creeps me out more – the story itself or the fact that it appeared while I was browsing healthy food topics.

 

Homemade Food and Hella Joy

Posted by & filed under Food Philosophy, News, Uncategorized.

It’s been a little more than a year since the enactment of Assembly Bill 1616, the California Homemade Food Act, which for the first time allows folks to make certain foods at home and then legally sell them to stores, restaurants and directly to the public.

By eliminating the decades-old requirement that foods for sale must be prepared in a commercial kitchen, the bill has dramatically decreased startup costs and has created a whole new world of opportunity for folks to make a decent living with a home-based food business in a locally supported economy.

According to the Oakland-based Sustainable Economies Law Center, which helped fight for the bill’s passage, the types of foods that a “cottage food operation” can sell are limited to those that are “non-potentially hazardous” and unlikely to spread bacteria – basically things that don’t require refrigeration.

The current list of approved cottage foods that can be made at home and sold includes:

* Baked goods without cream, custard, or meat fillings, such as breads, biscuits,

churros, cookies, pastries, and tortillas

* Candy

* Chocolate-covered nonperishable foods, such as nuts and dried fruit

* Dried fruit

* Dried pasta

* Dry baking mixes

* Fruit pies, fruit empanadas, and fruit tamales

* Granola, cereals, and trail mixes

* Herb blends and dried mole paste

* Honey and sweet sorghum syrup

* Jams, jellies, preserves, and fruit butters that comply with specific preparation

standards

* Nut mixes and nut butters

* Popcorn

* Vinegar and mustard

* Roasted coffee and dried tea

* Waffle cones and pizelles (traditional Italian waffle cookies)

* Other foods that the Director of the California Department of Public Health chooses to add to the approved list as food producers lobby for their inclusion

 

Even with the easing of the made-at-home rules, however, there are still plenty of hoops to jump through before going into the homemade cookie business.

Aside from registering with the state department of public health, getting a city business license, and paying a permit fee to the county, the law requires home food producers to complete a food processing course, label their goods, follow strict guidelines on sanitation and kitchen use, and, depending on who they’re selling to, undergo inspections and registrations with the local health department.

The Homemade Food Act is geared specifically for small businesses, only allowing up to $45,000 in sales per year, though that will increase to $50,000 in 2015. With the passage of California’s law, only eight states and Washington, DC now lack cottage food laws. Twenty states have no income limit for such businesses at all, and many folks want California to scrap the limit as well.

According to a January 29 article in Forbes, so far more than 1,200 people have registered and launched legal cottage food businesses statewide. “By liberalizing its food regulations, California has fostered a cottage industry of cottage food,” notes Forbes.

That’s great news for local economies and local eaters alike.  Here in the foodie haven of the Bay Area, it translates into dozens of unique local food purveyors who finally have an opportunity to contribute to our trend-setting regional food culture.

Highlighting those local food artisans is the monthly-ish Bay Area Homemade Market in Berkeley. Its December market event featured fifteen vendors sampling and selling everything from candies to cupcakes, breads to biscottis, mustards to vinegars, and everything in between.

The folks at Homemade Market say the event is a great way to strengthen the local food system and “connect Cottage Food Makers to the community in a market place setting with live music and hella joy.”  I say that’s a hella great idea.

The next Bay Area Homemade Market will be March 8 from 1-5pm at the Firehouse Art Collective Gallery in North Berkeley at 1790 Shattuck.

Time to check it out and see what our neighbors have been cooking up…