In the News | The Green Foodprint

It’s National Farmers’ Market week

In Food to Try, In the News, Take Action,
Tags: Healthy Habits, Take Action, Try It

Posted on August 8, 2013
Author: Linda,
Comments: Comments Off on It’s National Farmers’ Market week

Did you know there are over 8,000 farmers’ markets in the U.S.? That’s according to the USDA and that number represents over 3,000 new ones since 2008, when there were about 5,000. There are over 750 just in California – no surprise, really, since we have such great weather for growing — but New York is not far behind. You can search the directory here farmersmarkets.usda.gov and search by location, what they sell, and what kinds of payment are accepted.

That’s 8,000 reasons to have a week dedicated to the farmers who feed us.

In the East Bay, you can find farmers’ markets in Walnut Creek, Orinda, Moraga, Lafayette, Rossmoor, Pleasant Hill, Concord, and two Kaiser locations – and that’s just within a ten-mile radius.

So grab your cloth bags, sunglasses, and sunscreen, and head out to the nearest market to get ready for the coming week.

To learn more about what groups are working to heal our food system, check out the following groups at their websites:

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition,

Environmental Working Group,

National Farm-to-School Network,

National Young Farmers Coalition,

Sustainable Table,

and the USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education program.

Want arsenic with that? Banned chemicals added to our food

In Food Politics, Food to Avoid, Health,
Tags: ALERT, Avoid, Take Action

Posted on August 2, 2013
Author: Linda,
Comments: Comments Off on Want arsenic with that? Banned chemicals added to our food

Did you know that over three thousand (3,000+) non-food substances are legally added to food in the U.S.? Manufacturers can add chemicals that preserve, color, sweeten, and flavor your food, as well as “improve” its texture or other quality deemed desirable by marketing departments. Oh yes, and add artificial vitamins and minerals that processing removed.

We’ve bought this stuff for decades. I shudder to think of the cake mixes I learned to use as a child. And a huge ratio of our food is still processed.

So why are chemicals used in our food banned in other countries? Dyes, brominated vegetable oil (which I wrote about in January), growth hormones given to animals, arsenic, and more, are banned in Europe. See this article from Dr. Mercola.

We’ve reached some kind of dystopia when Russia bans American food, in this case, meat, because of a feed ingredient called ractopamine. Since we export half a billion dollars worth of beef and pork to Russia, this is not a small item. The USDA asked Russia to postpone the requirement, and the New York Times suggested it was retaliation for American actions on Russian human rights violations.

Michale Pollan’s recent book Cooked urges us to prepare our own food. Pollan is a shameless, enthusiastic promoter of meat, speaking and writing cheerily about slaughtering and butchering, but he does have a point: we should be preparing more of our own food. That’s one way to get us out of some dangers posed by industrial food.

PS. Don’t you wonder if the manufacturers eat their own products?

Another brave move by New York Mayor – food composting

In Excerpt from Book, In the News,
Tags: Community, environment, RECYCLE, The Green Foodprint

Posted on June 16, 2013
Author: Linda,
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Today, the New York Times reported that outgoing mayor Michael Bloomberg will follow up on his February comment deploring food waste by establishing a program to allow (and some day require) households to recycle it through city-collected bins.

This is good news to everyone who knows that food waste is one of our most unnecessary losses. San Francisco, of course, required food recycling starting in 2009. The East Bay city of Lafayette has been collecting food waste for years.

As I wrote in The Green Foodprint, “There is no waste in nature. Every plant, animal, rock, and drop of water is broken down and reused. Fallen trees, leaves, the shells left by a nut-eating squirrel, and the fur or feathers left by a predator are recycled in the ecosystem, decaying and becoming soil in which new plants and animals can live and grow.” Yet 30% of food produced, worth billions of dollars, is wasted every year.

The mayor’s administration, we are told, is about to hire a composting plant to receive and process 100,000 tons of food scraps a year. According to reporter Mireya Navarro, that’s still only one tenth of the waste generated by city’s residents, but that this measure could save $100 million a year. Not to mention the topsoil or energy that can be generated by skillfully recycling it.

Some day we’ll look back and be amazed at what people used to throw away.

Monsanto – evil, or just obscenely successful?

In Food Politics, GMO's, Toxins and Pesticides,
Tags: GMO

Posted on June 13, 2013
Author: Linda,
Comments: Comments Off on Monsanto – evil, or just obscenely successful?

Recently, 2 million people in 436 cities in 52 countries (according to organizers) marched in public protests to show their opposition to the global seed and pesticide corporation Monsanto and everything it stands for. That would include: its development of GMO (genetically modified organisms) food crops, its intimidation of farmers who won’t go along, its history as developer or producer of things like DDT, agent orange, bovine growth hormone, aspartame, nuclear weapons, PCBs, its participation in the “revolving door” in Washington, where industry leaders become regulators or elected officials are given cushy industry jobs after they leave office. Not surprisingly, Monsanto is hugely profitable. According to its 2012 annual report, in the most recent year its net sales amounted to over $13 billion, with a B, 14% more than the previous year..

With the profits goes power. Industry has defeated almost every effort to require labeling of GMO foods (including last year’s Proposition 37 in California). The times may be changing. Connecticut this week actually passed a law requiring GMO labeling, though it’s a conditional one.

Some people don’t agree that there’s a problem. A heated debate recently occurred in the website Motley Fool, which is a commercial financial advice site. The original article, aptly titled “Why is Monsanto the Most Hated Company in the World?”, questioned the validity of claims on both sides, but concluded by saying,

“It seems that GMOs will inevitably become a larger part of our food supply, because the corporate motivator in the United States has proved to be stronger than the citizen motivator in recent years. A few protests won’t change that. It will take concerted, long-running national efforts to change diets and attitudes before Monsanto and its peers are forced to loosen their grip on American farmlands.”

The comments are as revealing as the article – check them out.

Roundup (the herbicide) is even worse than you think

In Toxins and Pesticides,

Posted on May 8, 2013
Author: Linda,
Comments: Comments Off on Roundup (the herbicide) is even worse than you think

What’s the opposite of panacea? (That word means a wonderful cure for everything, usually mythical). Panapathea? Could a single substance actually cause many diseases? According to a scary new scientific report, the herbicide Roundup (the most commonly used herbicide in the world) is plausibly linked to the following: inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, depression, ADHD, autism, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, multiple sclerosis, cancer, cachexia [general poor health], infertility, and developmental malformations.” (pages 1444-1445 of the report).

The authors of this report, which you can find in a pdf listed here www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews explain exactly how the key ingredient in R

oundup, glyphosate, causes all these horrible chronic illnesses.

The authors conclude: “It is imperative for more independent research to take place to validate the ideas presented here, and to take immediate action, if they are verified, to drastically curtail the use of glyphosate in agriculture.” In other words: “If we’re right, we must all fight back against Roundup.” They emphasize “independent” research because the biotech companies tightly control what outside scientists are allowed to study, and control what their in-house scientists are permitted to publish.

Take-home message: Pesticide corporations are not on our side. You and I can start protecting ourselves right now, by purchasing as much organic food as we can, not using Roundup in our gardens, and demanding that schools do the same.

You can read a good journalistic summary of the article here www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/25/roundup-health-study-idUSL2N0DC22F20130425

A great restaurant in San Jose

In Food to Try, GMO's, Good News, Recommended Company,

Posted on April 29, 2013
Author: Linda,
Comments: Comments Off on A great restaurant in San Jose

On Earth Day last week, some friends and I dined at The Vegetarian House, which is both vegan, non-GMO, and organic. Wait – don’t go yet! Vegan is delicious, and I just found out (again) how delicious!

As you may know, a vegetarian does not eat (dare we say, eschews) meat, fish, poultry – anything that was once a living animal. He or she may eat dairy and eggs. A vegan doesn’t eat these either. Just as carnivores wonder how one can live without meat and dairy, I used to wonder how one lived without cheese. But creative vegans have dreamed up incredibly delightful recipes and menus.

The six of us chose a variety of dishes and shared, so I got to sample a range of The Vegetarian House’s goodies. I’ll just list a few: Won ton soup (with shiitake mushrooms, bok choy, tofu, cilantro, and more), sweet and sour (pineapple, bell peppers, soy nuggets), clay pot (bean cakes wrapped in seaweed, with gravy and pepper), asparagus (with soy slices, bell pepper, mushrooms), curry masala (jicama, broccoli, shiitake, cauliflower, and more with coconut milk curry sauce) — well, you get the idea. Culinary influences are from China, Vietnam, Thailand, India, Middle East, Europe and the Americas

What other earth-friendly practices do they have? Solar panels on the roof, energy-efficient lighting and appliances, local sourcing of ingredients whenever possible.

We didn’t try the desserts but they look tempting (organic tiramisu, carrot cake, banana fritters, etc.). And even raw desserts – strawberry cheesecake, carob mousse pie, and more. Looks as if I’ll just have to go back there and try them all!

520 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose 95112 (408) 292 3798

info@vegetarianhouse.us

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