Living Local
Why are there so many campaigns against Monsanto?
- The Organic Consumers Association’s “Millions Against Monsanto” campaign
- “Occupy Monsanto”
- The most recent “March Against Monsanto”
Monsanto’s first product was the artificial sweetener, saccharin, later found to cause cancer in lab rats, yet is still sold today as Sweet’N Low (Kitchen Porch Catering refuses to serve this poison).
During World War II, Monsanto funded uranium research, leading to the development of the first atomic bomb. Monsanto also became a leading producer of synthetic fibers and plastics, including Styrofoam.
Monsanto created the “House of Future” at Disney’s Tomorrowland, which was made entirely of plastic and was eventually torn down. They went on to developed Astroturf (fake grass).
Remember the DDT trucks? The now-banned insecticide: DDT? How about the industrial coolants called PCBs, Agent Orange, the defoliant that was used during the Vietnam War, which harmed the health of the Vietnamese people and U.S. veterans? All Monsanto’s creations.
More recently, Monsanto has become the main producer of genetically engineered (GE) food products and seeds. It produced the GE artificial sweetener aspartame, sold under the trade names of NutraSweet and Equal, and recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH or rBST), a genetically engineered steroid injected into cows to increase milk production. More about this on my blog post GMO Breakdown.
Today, Monsanto is the main producer of genetically engineered seeds — seeds made to tolerate the treatment spraying of Roundup herbicide (which it also produces), seeds that have been engineered to produce their own pesticide (Bt crops), and seeds engineered to do both.
During the last election, Monsanto was the main donor behind the “No on Proposition 37” campaign, which would have required the labeling of GE foods in California. Monsanto’s GE seeds are patented, and Monsanto has sued hundreds of American family farmers who unknowingly have had these patented seeds growing on their farms due to cross-pollination, seeds blowing onto their property, or them being co-mingled with conventional seeds in grain elevators. Monsanto is responsible for the hundred of farmers in India who are committing suicide each month because it is the only way for them to get out of debt once they realize their fate with buying genetically modified seeds and chemicals from Monsanto.
Nothing is good about Monsanto and now is a time to do whatever you can to take a stand against them. Using any of the links above, you can find all the information you need to get involved!
Photo Credit: Steve Snodgrass
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Ramps or wild leeks, are the super foods of spring. They are one of the earliest wild edibles to show, and for many they are the prize Spring foraging. People have long depended on the Spring greens for their restorative qualities after long, hungry winters. Ramps are high vitamin C and have saved many from nutritional deficiencies.
These prized alliums, known as ramsoms in Europe are distant cousins of the Lily. They appear in forests from South Carolina to Canada and are usually found near water in shady areas of the woods. Ramps grow in sandy, rocky soil and are abundant along the spine of the Appalachian Trail on the East Coast.
I was first introduced to ramps twelve years ago when I catered a wedding for a chef from New York. He was getting married Memorial Day weekend and he wanted ramps in every dish. I remember being surprised and bewildered. Ramps? I wasn’t even sure what they were. He asked if I could get them and my familiarity has continued to grow with each April and May. In the past two weeks at least 12 people have asked me if I know where ramps grow. I have heard several folks claim to go ramp foraging. I know ramps do not grow on Martha’s Vineyard, but I am seeing them on menus and I saw them in our local grocery store (Cronig’s Market) last week for $24.99 per pound.
As ramps become a staple on Spring menus, more foragers are seeking them out. Talk of over-foraging and limited availability brings to question harvesting practices. In Quebec, foraging ramps is now illegal and in Western Massachusetts, there was rumblings that they are harder to find, but at the same time, I heard of a CSA that has planted and successfully grown a half an acre of ramps.
I was at my favorite Bed and Breakfast The Inn at Sweet Water Farm on Sunday night as we made a stop in Great Barrington to pick up two pigs. Lynda Fisher presented me with two large bags of blanched and frozen ramps from her freezer. I told her that ramps to do not grow on Martha’s Vineyard and she acknowledged ramps only grow on the spine of the Appalachian trail. I had never heard this before. I made a stop at the Berkshire Coop on my way out of town and bought 5 pounds of ramps as well as 3 pounds of fiddleheads. Guess what is on my menu tonight?
Our first wedding of the season is June 8th and I will be making ramp butter today which will keep if it is well packaged and frozen. Here are a few recipes if you find yourself with a handful or two of ramps:
Ramp Compound Butter
1 lb softened unsalted butter
2 cups ramp greens, blanched and chopped
2 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
Combine all ingredients in a food processor until smooth and pack in small containers. Use just as you would garlic butter.
Ramp Pesto
2 cups washed and coarsely chopped ramps greens, blanched and patted dry
4 Tablespoons pine nuts
1/4 cup grated hard cheese, like Parmesan
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Place all the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil until a thick paste forms. You will have about a half cup of pesto.
Spring Super Food Green Soup
This is really just an expansion of the watercress or nettle soup, but what a powerhouse of nutrients!
½ cup xtra virgin olive oil
4 cups whole ramps, bulbs and leaves blanched
2 celery diced
1 lb stinging nettles
4 cups chopped watercress
2 teaspoons salt
1 head cauliflower steamed and chopped small
2 quarts vegetable or chicken stock
zest of one lemon
Heat Olive oil in large pot. Add celery and cook until soft. Add ramps and cauliflower and mix through cooking for another minute. Add stock and bring to simmer. Drop the nettles in until just wilted. Add chopped watercress and immediately remove from heat and mix with immersion blender or good blender.
Note: If you do not have a powerful blender, steam the nettles in broth until wilted, hand chop fine, then add to soup mixture and blend.
Serves 8-10
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I am working on some recipes for Kombucha and beer for this Sunday’s Heavy Nettles Fest Potluck brunch which is sponsored by Slow Food MV and Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary. This Sunday, 10-2pm, we’ll have cooking demos and lectures happening. I promise you’ll learn loads about Nettles and how to grow them and eat them!
I’m bringing soup and Nettle Frittata. What will you bring? Call me if you need Nettles! 508 360 4491
The Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica) is a great plant in the garden. It is host to the larvae of many butterflies and can also be used to make liquid fertilizer. They contain formic acid which helps to repel pests. On April 30th in Ireland there is a tradition to run around and sting unknown bystanders and then, throughout May, the Irish eat Nettles 3 times to cleanse the blood, as the plant is high in vitamins and minerals. They can also be cooked like Spinach or added to soups. They even make a good fizzy beer.
Nettle Soup
½ cup xtra virgin olive oil
2 sweet onions diced
2 celery diced
4 tablespoons garlic minced
1 # stinging nettles
2 teaspoons salt
1 head cauliflower steamed and chopped small
2 quarts vegetable or chicken stock
zest of one lemon
Heat olive oil in large pot. Add onions, and celery and cook until soft. Add garlic and cauliflower and mix through cooking for another minute. Add stock and bring to simmer. Drop the nettles in until just wilted. Remove from heat and mix with immersion blender or good blender.
Note: If you do not have a powerful blender, steam the nettles in broth until wilted and hand chop fine. Then add to soup mixture and blend.
Serves 8-10
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The most dangerous threat facing our food supply is Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). GMOs are the result when scientists take the DNA of one species and force it into the DNA of another. Food is taken from its most natural whole state and turned into a science experiment. Scientists have created many genes that they believe make our food supply more efficient and less costly. Studies show that genes that produce a toxic insecticide inserted into crops, can transfer into the DNA of bacteria living inside us.
GMO Breakdown: Genes are created that produce their own pesticides. These pesticides are “designed” to kill the insect when it eats the crop with these genes. We eat that same pesticide when we eat that genetically modified crop.
Safe? Hardly!
The biotech companies run their own studies and insist that these are safe practices and insist that this is the answer to feeding more of our population. But professionals, concerned citizens, and other governments are taking stands against the industry that produces GMOs. More than 400 scientists, 58 governments and 1000 professionals across the planet are saying “no” to this scientific catastrophe.
The American Public Health Association and American Nurses Association are among many medical groups that condemn the use of GMOs. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM) urges doctors to prescribe non-GMO diets for all patients.
Opponents (makers of GMOs) will have you believe that GMOs increase yields and that is the only way to feed our planet.
The Union of Concerned Scientists’ 2009 report Failure to Yield is the definitive study to date on GM crops and yield. Scientist Doug Gurian-Sherman, PhD, concludes that genetically engineering herbicide-tolerant soybeans and herbicide-tolerant corn has not increased yields. Dr. Gurian-Sherman states, “Traditional breeding outperforms genetic engineering hands down.” The amount of chemicals needed to grow the GMO crops were detrimental to the health of our world.
We have become human lab rats.
We are talking about hundreds of millions of acres of crops, GMO crops, in the United States. Crops that we consume, mostly in packages and processed foods, that cause long-term problems including immune system disorders, organ damage, gastrointestinal issues, accelerated aging, and infertility.
We are seeing massive problems with the genetic contamination from neighboring farms with GM corn, soybeans and canola. Most of the soybean supply in the U.S. is already contaminated with genetically modified seeds. Many organic and conventional corn farmers are losing markets because their crops are testing positive for GM traits.
GM crops are eliminating habitats for monarch butterflies whose populations are down 50% in the US. Roundup herbicide has been shown to cause birth defects in amphibians, embryonic deaths and endocrine disruptions, and organ damage in animals even at very low doses.
Monsanto told us that Agent Orange, PCBs, and DDT were safe.
Independent scientists, however, have caught the spin-masters red-handed, demonstrating without doubt how most of the health and environmental risks of GMOs are ignored by governments’ superficial regulations. The safety assessments and industry-funded research is designed to avoid finding problems.
The reason this is largely political: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t require a single safety study because they have been duped by the makers of GMOs that they are safe and are the answer to feeding our world!
Labeling foods with GMOs is not required. The industry says the reason is simply because it would cost too much! Isn’t it ironic that junk foods are labeled “All Natural” and whole foods are labeled “Fat Free”? Cost isn’t considered, or the label itself questioned, when it comes to more marketing, and thus more sales.
Oh dear, I could go on and on about this…
Sue Hruby and I are initiating a movement on Martha’s Vineyard with Slow Food MV to educate and promote non-GMOS on Martha’s Vineyard. We are showing a movie that is powerful and informing on Sunday, April 28th at 4:00 at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. If you can, please join us. If you can’t, please ask yourself every time you are in the grocery store, if you are buying GMO foods.
By eating Genetically Modified Foods, we are gambling with our lives. We are the ones playing Genetic Roulette.
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My son and his girlfriend came into the house last night just as I was putting out a beautiful dinner of sweet potatoes, greens, asparagus and scallops. They turned down an offer to join us for dinner.
“What’s wrong with my dinner? Why can’t you join us???” was my complaint and whining expression of disappointment. For a few minutes my husband and I had a conversation about dinner standards, sitting down as a family together and ”blah blah blah” and Rich asked “Do you really think he wants to eat with us? He is 16, and no matter what you cook, he doesn’t want to sit at the table on a Saturday night.” Crushed! And defeated, I retreated.
We hadn’t even finished our dinner, when the percussion of pans banging and the symphony of dinner-making came from the kitchen. Then I started getting requests for tips and advice on how to cook the eggplant and was there any tomatoes and what kind of oil was there to use and I felt useful and all was right.
They had bought an eggplant and some parmesan cheese, but there weren’t any tomatoes…
What a gift to have them in the kitchen making their own dinner, vegetarian no less, and mostly healthy, and WOW! Their end-result was wildly delicious – jeez, life with teenagers!
Here is their recipe straight off the press:
Indian Style Eggplant
One eggplant, sliced into ½” rounds
2 cups coconut oil
one jar Seeds of Change,Jalfrezi simmer sauce (a medium hot tomato curry sauce)
1.5 cups shredded mozzarella
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Sprinkle the slices of eggplant with salt and allow the bitter juices to come out (20-30 minutes). Rinse slices and pat dry with a clean towel. Heat coconut oil to 350 and “fry “ the eggplant rounds in oil. As soon as the rounds are crispy, remove from the pan and set on a cookie sheet with parchment paper (easy clean up afterwards). Spoon a tablespoon of the simmer sauce on the top of each round and sprinkle each round with some cheese. Place in the oven until the cheese melts.
(Serve with already made asparagus and salad!)
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