EDIT: If you’re at all interested in this issue, please refer to this article that explains this case in a nutshell (and does a much better job than I did).

A couple of days ago, I posted two news articles about the same Supreme Court decision.  You can find that post here and read both of the stories.  It seemed that different groups, each with an interested in the case, were spinning the news about the decision in their favor.  I just wanted to know the facts and what the court decided, not the story swayed to fit a certain agenda, so I read the court’s decision myself.  I hope I got it right.  If I didn’t, please feel free to correct me.

The Background

The Devil (Monsanto), who makes the popular herbicide Roundup, together with Forage Genetics International (FGI) developed a seed of alfalfa that is resistant to glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup.  So a farmer can plant this alfalfa seed (called Roundup Resistant Alfalfa or RRA) and use Roundup to control any weeds without killing the RRA.  In 2004, Monsanto sought nonregulated status for this RRA.  This nonregulated status refers to a section of the Plant Protection Act (PPA) that presumes genetically engineered plants to be
“plant pests” and are thus considered “regulated articles” until the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) determines otherwise.  Monsanto feels that their product is not a plant pest risk and therefore not subject to the applicable regulations, so they petition APHIS to grant nonregulated status to their RRA.

In order to make such a determination, the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) requires federal agencies (that would be APHIS) to conduct an environmental impact statement (EIS).  An EIS need not be completed if the agency (again, APHIS in this case) determines based on a shorter statement known as an environmental assessment (EA) that the proposed action presents no significant environmental impact.  APHIS only completed an EA and decided to approve the unconditional deregulation of RRA.  No EIS is ever conducted and RRA seeds began to be sold and planted.

Conventional alfalfa farmers and environmental groups banded together and sued challenging APHIS’ decision on the grounds that it violated NEPA by not conducting the EIS.  The District Court in that case sided with these alfalfa farmers and environmental groups and agreed that, indeed, APHIS violated NEPA by deregulating RRA before conducting a detailed EIS.  The District Court asked each side what remedy should be imposed.  In the final judgment, the District Court rejected the remedies presented by both sides and sort of split the difference down the middle so that both sides sort of got what they were asking for.  Ordinarily, the remedy for failure to conduct an EIS is to vacate the permit that was unlawfully given (as in revoke the permit).  In this case, that would mean that any use of RRA would be prohibited.  But because Monsanto had already begun selling these RRA seeds, farmers had already begun planting them and some farmers had already purchased the RRA seeds and had intended to plant them, the District Court was going to allow those seeds to be planted and used.  Essentially, the Court decided that whatever was out there already could be used, but put a stop to the sale and use of any new RRA until the EIS could be completed, in effect partially deregulating RRA.

Here We Are

Monsanto didn’t like that decision and appealed, which brings us to this case now.  The Supreme Court reviewed everything and has found that the District Court erred in partially deregulating the RRA because the law states that in order to deregulate in whole or in part, the EIS must first be done.  The Supreme Court felt that the District Court abused its discretion here and decided to reverse the decision of the District Court.

Now, the USDA must decide whether or not to allow the GM seeds to be planted.

I came across this video and found it pretty interesting. I’d also like to check out the documentary when it comes out in Fall 2010. What do you all think? Is it nonsense or a threat to our environment/human health?

Remember, the easiest thing you can do to help protect our Earth is to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

My dad’s favorite dessert is peach pie. I didn’t have it in me to make pie dough and roll it out, so I decided to make a peach cobbler instead. And man it was good!

I used the peach pie filling recipe from The Joy of Vegan Baking, then used the biscuit topping recipe from the Blueberry Cobbler recipe. It turned out really delicious, but next time I will use more peaches and let them defrost before putting into the recipe (I used frozen organic peach slices). As delicious as it was by itself, it was even better a la mode:

I picked up a pint of soy ice cream– this flavor was cinnamon caramel– and it was SO YUMMY! The perfect summertime dessert for Father’s Day weekend.

Once again, the only person concerned about your well-being is yourself:

Monsanto Wins Supreme Court Case: Genetically Modified Alfalfa Ban Lifted

WASHINGTON (AP)– The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a nationwide ban on the planting of genetically engineered alfalfa seeds, despite claims they might harm the environment.

[Read full article and court's decision here.]

Why this is a problem:

Alfalfa is grown on over 21 million acres, and is worth $8 billion per year (not including the value of final products, such as dairy), making it the country’s third most valuable and fourth most widely grown crop. Alfalfa is primarily used in feed for dairy cows and beef cattle, and also contributes to pork, lamb, sheep, and honey production. Consumers also eat alfalfa sprouts.

This is because alfalfa is cross pollinated by bees, and pollen will travel easily from GM alfalfa to non-GMO and organic alfalfa. “Even with the best isolation methods, you can’t control bees; they can travel several miles,” Scheele says.

[Source.]

So, all that “organic” beef and dairy won’t be so organic anymore, will it?!  And who knows what health effects this will have on people who consume those products.  We already know the dangers of other GM foods…

Monsanto has too much power and it totally infuriates me that they can get away with this stuff.

The World According to Monsanto:

EDIT:  Here’s another article.  Is it about the same court decision?  A different spin on the same topic?

EDIT #2:  Please refer to this post for further information on this case.

Both my husband and I have family that live in various parts of Oregon.  We were hoping to get a chance for a road trip in July so that we could go visit everyone, but he’s swamped right now with work and so our plans have been ditched.  I was really disappointed because not only will we not get to visit our family, but I had wanted to detour a little to Farm Sanctuary during our drive north.  Well, the other morning I was laying in bed thinking that this week would have actually been perfect for a trip to Farm Sanctuary because (1) Emma starts swim lessons next week and will be swimming pretty much every morning for the rest of the summer (except for two weeks in July when we were planning to take our Oregon trip) and (2) even though June is pretty hot for the area where Farm Sanctuary is located (Orland, CA– about 100 miles north of Sacramento), July and August are way hotter.  So, it was decided then… I packed up that day and drove to my parents’ house in Sacramento and all four of us made the trek to Farm Sanctuary yesterday.

About Farm Sanctuary

Farm Sanctuary, located in Orland, CA rescues and rehabilitates abused and neglected farm animals from factory farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses.  Most of the animals at the sanctuary were born to be “food animals,” but are now free to live their lives comfortably and safely at Farm Sanctuary’s 300-acre farm.  The California farm is home to lots of cows, a few donkeys, geese and ducks, pigs, turkeys and chickens, rabbits, and goats and sheep.

While public tours are given only on Saturdays from 11 am to 3 pm, from May 8 to October 31, members are invited to visit between 8 am and 4pm every day of the year.  Becoming a member is very easy– all it takes (at a minimum) is a yearly pledge of $20.  Members also receive Farm Sanctuary’s quarterly newsletter and a discounted rate at their cabin.

I was really interested in visiting because it’s important for Emma to understand why we don’t eat animals.  She does have dairy on occasion, but is mostly vegan and my hope is that it will soon be her choice to avoid dairy (which would make her totally vegan) once she is old enough to understand what is involved in producing dairy and that it’s not really all that great for our body.  Likewise, I want her to be educated about where meat comes from in the event that she chooses to eat meat later in life.  I grew up thinking chicken came from the grocery store and asking questions like “are we eating the muscle of the animal?” without really getting a detailed answer.  Knowing her personality, I don’t think she would ever regularly consume meat– and you can’t miss or crave something that you’ve never had– so I don’t think this will ever be an issue, but I would like her to be educated nonetheless.  At this stage, everything is kept very basic and I only tell her what she needs to know in terms that are easy for her to understand.  Besides that, she’s out of school for the summer and fun little educational trips like this are enjoyable for her.

Road Trip

We left Sacramento around 9 am and made it to Orland around 11am.  It was quite windy yesterday, which I was thankful for because that meant it wouldn’t be so hot.  I’ll take wind over heat any day when we’re farm-bound.  Since there is no place to eat at the farm, we decided to first have lunch in town and then make our way to the farm.  I always get nervous about traveling to small towns in the middle of nowhere surrounded by food-animal farms because I’m concerned that finding something vegetarian (let alone vegan) will be quite challenging.  Thanks to Farm Sanctuary’s website, I was armed with a list of veg-friendly restaurants in Orland and I hit the jackpot with the one we stumbled upon.

The first one on the list, Alta Marie’s Bakery, was the place I chose to visit because the Farm Sanctuary description indicated that they carried vegan pastries on a regular basis.  I was hoping to score some… and I liked that they were described as offering vegan items instead of “things can be made vegan upon request.”  I get tired of going places where I can really only order a salad and even then I have to request that it be made without the cheese or meat that normally comes on it.  It gets old.

Alta Marie’s is pretty much right off the freeway and easy to find.  We strolled inside and perused the menu and I was nervous that perhaps they weren’t so vegan friendly after all.  Everything on the menu was meat, meat and more meat.  So I asked the person at the counter what was vegan and she consulted with the owner/baker to figure out what vegan dish could be whipped up based on what they had on hand in their kitchen.  I really liked that they were so accommodating and went the extra mile to make me something as special as the rest of the dishes.  They even knew enough to ask if honey was okay for me since one of their salad dressings did contain honey.  I was very impressed with their knowledge of what vegans eat and don’t eat and really thrilled that they had 3 turnovers in their pastry case that were all vegan (2 pineapple and 1 cherry).

Even though the list was pretty extensive, I settled on their house salad with dried cranberries, fresh strawberries and walnuts added.  I opted for the balsamic vinaigrette (the one that had honey in it because I thought it would be more appealing to my kiddo and I hoped she might want to share my salad), but they do have a raspberry vinaigrette that is all vegan.  I know honey isn’t vegan and I do avoid it whenever possible, but one little cheat won’t get the vegan police after me, I hope.  After lunch, I snagged all three of the turnovers– they were SO GOOD!!!

Alta Marie’s makes vegan cakes and pies if you give them a little notice.  They even make vegan wedding cakes!

We Arrive At Last

The farm is located about 10 minutes outside of Orland and was really easy to find.  Once we got there, I got my membership and we set off to see the animals.  When I was signing up for my membership and the Farm Sanctuary gal was going over the map with me, she said something like “over here are the turkeys and chickens…” while pointing at the map.  Emma then chimes in (rather loudly, as she has no volume control):  “Chickens and turkeys!!  We don’t eat those!!!!!!!!”  It was cute.  The Farm Sanctuary gal responded: “You’re in the right place then because neither do we.  We just love them!”  It was cute.

(Click on each image to see a larger version.)

Excited to see the cows... or happy to be out of the car?

Happy California cows. No, they aren't found on dairy farms, contrary to what the cheese commercial says.

Noisy geese!

Sleepy chicken... I interrupted her nap to take this photo.

Friendly sheep. He came right up to the gate to greet us. I think he was hoping for a treat.

Turkey. You can see that s/he's been debeaked, which means s/he probably came from a factory farm.

Turkey toes, or lack thereof. Further evidence that s/he came from a factory farm.

And here’s some video of the hungry pig who came over to say hi!  Emma had a full conversation with her, but you can’t really hear anything because of the wind:

The folks at POM Wonderful contacted me about trying their product.  We like juice here, so I took them up on their generous offer… on one condition…

Before going any further, I have to address the elephant in the room.  Some of you probably know that POM used to test on animals, but most of you are probably unaware.  I happened to know that they did and I would only accept their product if they could guarantee that they do not test on animals for any of their products, not just for the pomegranate juice that they were offering to send me.  I was told that they have stopped their animal testing and have not resumed.  If you’re interested in learning about some of the cruel tests they used to perform on animals so that they could assert certain claims about their product (pomegranate juice… not like a cure for cancer or anything), you can read about that here, here and here.  And, for the record, I won’t support a company that tests on animals, but I also won’t necessarily continue my boycott of that company once it has stopped.  This doesn’t mean that I go out of my way to buy their products, though.

Back to the juice.  We received several bottles of it (an entire case). The ingredients list is pretty simple:  100% pomegranate juice from concentrate.  No sugar or other additives, but the “from concentrate” part threw me for a loop.  When a juice concentrate is made, it’s basically cooked to death into a syrup before being reconstituted back into a juice.  And then the bottle is pasteurized (more heat).  How this retains any nutritive properties of the pomegranate is anybody’s guess.

Emma enjoyed hers mixed with apple juice.  In fact, she now requests it that way since we have a few bottles of it leftover in the fridge.  We also used a bottle to make a refreshing smoothie of POM juice, banana, cherries and strawberries.  This was Emma’s concoction and it turned out pretty good.  She made it by herself with some supervision from me.  I think it would also make a good spritzer if mixed with some soda water or sparking wine.

The million dollar question:  would I buy this?  Sorry, POM Wonderful, but probably not.  I checked it out and the small, 8 oz. bottle of this at the store is $5.  No joke.  $5!!  I understand that it takes A LOT of pomegranates to fill that little 8 oz. bottle with juice, but $5 is more than I’m willing and/or able to spend on 8 oz of juice on a regular basis.  Also, I’m not sure that I buy all of their claims of the health benefits of concentrated/reconsituted/pastuerized juice.  If I really want the health benefits of pomegranate, I’m probably going to spend that $5 on whole, fresh pomegranates.

Like I said above, while I won’t continue my boycott of a company that previously tested on animals, I won’t necessarily go out of my way to buy their products either.  I’m not trying to bash their product or their company, but I do have to give my honest opinion here.  The juice was good, but I didn’t do back flips for it and the fact that they used to torture animals just doesn’t sit well with me, even if they don’t do it anymore.  They boast that they’ve spent $34 million on “medical research” and it is a big selling point for this product, so in a way, they are still benefiting from their previous animal experiments, right?

Rainbow Grocery, located at 1745 Folsom Street in San Francisco is the only place to shop for groceries.  I wish I lived closer (or maybe they would consider expanding and opening another location down the peninsula… say in Redwood City?) so that I could shop there all the time.  I have a very sad confession to make:  in the 3 years that I lived in SF, probably less than a mile away from Rainbow, I never shopped there once.  Why?  Because the line of cars waiting to pull into their teeny tiny parking garage was such a turnoff!  Rainbow now validates parking for some of the garages in the area (or maybe it did the whole time and I never knew).  Anyway, the point is that this place is awesome and you really should make a point to stop by whether you are visiting San Francisco or whether you live there/nearby.

Why is this place so great?  First off, they are a worker-owned co-op, meaning that the people who work there are the owners.  Pretty cool, right?  Secondly, they are very vegan friendly.  There is a huge selection of vegan baked stuff (from local bakeries) like cupcakes, cakes, cookies, scones, etc.  They are also very Raw friendly.  Third, they have the most insane bulk foods section you’ve ever seen in your life.  I did happen to take my camera with me so that I could post some photos of it, but I chickened out at the last second.  I didn’t want to look like a weirdo taking photos of dried beans and rice, so I used my iPhone instead so that I could look as if I were texting/emailing/Facebooking all the while casually snapping photos.  Why I was concerned about looking like a weirdo in SF is anybody’s guess– the town is full of ‘em!!

Most of my pictures are blurry, but you can read some of the bin labels if you zoom in and look closely.  None of these are repeats (photos of the same thing).  I’m not joking when I say that the bulk section is HUGE:  bulk spices, teas/coffee, beans/legumes, rice, pasta, cereals, flours, sugars, candy (lots of vegan ones too), nuts and nut butters, olives, dried fruits, oil, soy sauce…. seriously, if you can think of it, it’s probably in the bulk section.

Above:  bulk candies… notice how many are vegan!  Vegan gummy bear things, peanut butter cups, nut cluster things.

Above: granolas galore!

Above: more cereals

Above: any kind of flour you could ever need

Above: more flours

Above: cereals… notice how many are Raw!  How cool is it that you can get raw granola in the bulk section?!

Above: Rice, rice…

Above: …and more rice!

Aside from the bulk section, Rainbow also carries lots of hard-to-find vegan goodies like Dandies marshmallows.  They stock them all the time!  They also have all kinds of vegan cheeses, even those soft ones that can be spread on crackers.  I’ve never tried them, but I’m impressed that they carry it.  The fruit/veggies section is all organic and mostly locally grown.  The peaches smelled so delicious when I walked by, but I just couldn’t bring myself to shell out $3.50 per pound for them.  Likewise with the plums.  We did, however, stock up on bananas and in addition to being fair trade, they were so sweet and yummy (and comparable in price to my local store or Whole Foods).

The vitamin section is also out of this world, but I didn’t take the time to look through it.  We had been there long enough and my kiddo was hungry and ready to leave.  I could seriously waste hours in this store just looking through everything.

The price of most items was comparable to or maybe a little bit more expensive than Whole Foods.  By that, I mean like the loaves of bread, boxes of cereal, etc. were comparable in price to WF.  The prices on the bulk items is very reasonable, the most expensive items being the Raw cereals at $8 per pound. I know that sounds like quite a bit, but for the Raw stuff that sounds like it’s probably the going rate.

Anyway, the bottom line is– if you’re looking for something and can’t find it at any other store, chances are good that Rainbow has it.  I just wish it was closer!

One word:  DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was sent a coupon to try the new line of Tofurky frozen pizzas.  The problem– it’s not that widely available in stores and I was growing impatient waiting for it to show up locally, so I had to make a trip up to Rainbow Grocery in SF to snag one (review of that store coming soon… oh how I miss SF!).  Yesterday was my day.  I loaded up my kiddo and we drove the 25 miles to SF to get our pizza and some other things.

I headed for the frozen food section and scoped things out.  They were well stocked on all three flavors:  Cheese, Pepperoni and Sausage.  Now, I only had one coupon, so I ended up buying a second pizza.  One pizza is a good amount to feed two people if you are also having a side salad or something, otherwise one hungry person might be able to eat a whole one.  One pizza definitely wasn’t going to be enough to feed all three of us and besides that, I couldn’t resist trying out two flavors.  I got the pepperoni for Matt and I and the plain cheese for Emma.

Like any other frozen pizza, these stay in the freezer until ready to cook.  You simply preheat your oven and slide it on in.  Cooking time according to the box is 10-12 minutes, but I think mine took about 20.  I’ve noticed that the Daiya cheese (which tops these guys) doesn’t melt very well when you try to use it frozen, so don’t expect the cheese to get super melty.  It melts somewhat, but not like the picture on the box.  That’s not super important or anything, but definitely worth mentioning since that’s the sign some people look for to judge whether or not the pizza is done.  If you waited for that to happen, your crust would be black.

Emma ate almost the entire cheese pizza by herself.  I’m not kidding… and this kid is only lukewarm for vegan cheese.  She digs Daiya more than any other brand, but I have never seen her chow down on something like she did last night (and she also ate a green salad and some pasta salad with it– it’s not like the pizza was the only thing on her plate).  Truly unbelievable!  I did get one taste of the cheese pizza and it was really good– no funky vegan cheese taste at all.  Some vegan cheese is pretty funky, but this Daiya is good stuff and it’s delicious on these pizzas.

The pepperoni pizza was also really good.  The pepperoni pieces themselves tasted exactly how I remember pepperoni tasting (but I haven’t had it in probably 10 years) and they are really plentiful on top of the pizza.  All in all, I found both pizzas to be the right combination of crust, sauce, cheese and toppings where one didn’t overwhelm the other.  If given the choice, I would choose the Tofuky frozen pizza over an Amici’s pizza any day; although, my husband disagrees with me on that point.  And, the leftovers were really good today just heated a few seconds in the microwave.

One thing that I haven’t mentioned is the price.  Yes, these are a little expensive at almost $8 each, but still cheaper than take-out pizza, especially at any restaurant that offers vegan cheese. I really can’t wait for them to become available in more stores.  Hello, Whole Foods… you need to start stocking these ASAP!

And, hey Tofurky… thanks for the pizza.  If you want anything else taste tested, I’m your gal!

Dinner time rolled around last night and I had no idea what to make.  We were also pretty low on stuff in the house, so I had to raid my pantry and freezer for something.  Here’s what I came up with, feel free to make substitutions.  Literally, I just kept adding stuff as I found it and made this up as I went along.  It turned out pretty good too.

Kitchen Sink Salad

1 cup quinoa, dry

1 cup green lentils, dry

1 carrot, peeled and grated

1 cup frozen/canned artichoke hearts, chopped

1/4 medium onion, chopped (I used white, feel free to use any color you have)

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen green beans

1/4 cup frozen corn

1/4 cup raisins

1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted

1/4 cup chopped basil

Dressing:

Juice from 2 limes

Juice from 2 tangerines

2 TB apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

S & P to taste

In two separate pots, bring 2 cups water to a boil (2 cups per pot).  Add quinoa to one, lentils to the other, cover, reduce heat and simmer until done.  The quinoa will be done in 10-15 minutes; the lentils will take about 20.

Meanwhile, combine all of the dressing ingredients together in the bottom of a large bowl.  Add the rest of the salad ingredients and the quinoa and lentils when they are done cooking.  Toss to combine and taste for seasoning.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.

(I served ours over some romaine lettuce.  Once I made the dressing, I reserved some of it to toss the lettuce in.)

My little one requested waffles for breakfast this morning.  What she meant was frozen waffles, but since we didn’t have any, she had to settle for homemade, from scratch, fresh waffles out of the waffle iron.  She has a tough life. 

I followed this recipe here, but used rice milk in place of soy.  Because rice milk doesn’t have the fat that soy does (and because I find it to be not the best thing to make baked goods with), I increased the oil to 4 TB or 1/4 cup.  These turned out crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, just the way waffles are supposed to be.  To some of them, I added some chopped up fresh, organic blueberries.  I make blueberry pancakes all the time, but have never made blueberry waffles and I think I have a new favorite!  They were super yummy.