Food Politics

Time Magazine Gets Real about food

“Niman Ranch raises its livestock traditionally, humanely and sustainably to deliver the finest tasting meat in the world.”
This week’s Time Magazine cover story, Getting Real about the High Price of Cheap Food, is an eye opener about the industry we know and love. We have been plugging Niman Ranch for 7 years, and have been happy to explain over and over what makes them different and why it matters. (To be honest, we have felt like the slightly crazy guy standing on the box on the corner, yelling and waving his arms as people hurry by.) We watched the company grow and go through painful but necessary changes to be what it is today. So it was with great pleasure to see the only meat company mentioned as a viable alternative to commodity pork and beef is, drum roll please, Niman Ranch! (In Time freaking Magazine no less!) Congratulations to them!

Gluten Free in the Land of the Free

Our customers have been asking for GF foods more in the last 6 months than in the last 6 years. We wonder why—especially when one of our favorite customers can eat the bread in Europe, but not here?
Here’s some anecdotal thoughts:
I wonder if, what appears to be, the recent spate of gluten intolerance comes from the now widespread use of GMO foodstuffs in the US. GMO stands for genetically modified organism—like Roundup™ (a non-selective herbicide) resistant corn (both Roundup™ and the seeds for corn which is Roundup™ resistant are manufactured by Monsanto). While hybrids are a form of genetic engineering, the essential genome of the plants are not changed as in genetic modification - like the insertion of a fish gene in tomatoes to keep them firmer longer (FLAVR SAVR? Christ, they can’t even use the real words!).
The real issue is unintended cross-pollination. Now this is serious. Currently there is no way for GM pollen and non-GM plants to prevent cross pollination, and GM traits are being found in plants which came from non-GMO seed stock. Really a big deal in soy and rapeseed.
Across the ocean, the EU does not allow GMO crops to be grown or sold. This is a real sticking point with the US, as we cannot export many of our products there. The EU also does not allow for the use of hormones in beef production—which is why we can’t export our beef there either. (The use of six growth-promoting hormones in beef production was prohibited across Europe in the 1980s on the grounds that they posed a significant risk to human health. Imports of meat treated with these hormones were also banned. Canada and the US successfully challenged the import embargo as not being based on an adequate risk assessment as required by the WTO Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - SPS Agreement). Both countries subsequently imposed retaliatory tariffs on a range of European agricultural exports worth US $116.8 million for the US and C $11.3 million for Canada.
Anyway, I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who know more about Gluten free than I. Let us hear from you! Thanks, Pete.

The Land of the Free?

In the U.S. 500,000 people die from smoking each year, 250,000 die from alcohol related causes; the FDA estimates 1 person every 9 years dies from raw milk related causes.  Soft raw-milk cheese is illegal.  Is this really the land of the free?