Gardein & Field Roast Comment on GMOs in Their Products

Just last week (or so) I wrote about my concern for GMOs and wondered if they were being used to make a few of my favorite meat alternatives - Gardein and Field Roast. I emailed both of the companies to find out and they both responded. Below are the emails they sent me:

From Laurel at Gardein -

"Thanks for your email and your inquiry about our gardein™ products. Our products are non-gmo as we only use 'identity-preserved' soy protein (which basically means, it helps to ensure that our soy protein is not genetically modified)."

From Jennifer at Field Roast -

"We are not certified by any body that we can make claims with. But we do not use GMOs by conscious decision of what we buy!"

Do these emails set your mind at ease?

Smell The Roses Documentary

Smell The Roses from zack mctee on Vimeo.

I want to make sure I drum up as much interest as possible in my husband's worth while and entertaining adventure. So watch the teaser above. Go to his website. Read his blog. And follow him on twitter - @hroddd. He is anything but boring.

What's A Vegetarian/Vegan To Do?

{Via}

I've read enough to know that Monsanto ranks in the top five most evil companies in history. For those who may not know they are a biotech corporation that makes herbicides - like the Roundup people use to kill weeds. The super heinous part is how they also own the genetically engineered seeds that are the only thing that can survive their chemicals. So they basically have strong armed the American farmers into only using their seeds; poisoned all of our food with their chemicals and...well just watch Food, Inc. It does a great job at explaining it.

So I was already really turned off GMOs (genetically modified organisms) when a friend of mine sent me this article from the Huffington Post about how Monsanto's GMO corn is damaging rat organs. Ugh. (double ugh for animal testing) I mean who ever thought that manipulating an organisms genes to gain fortune or fame would be a good idea? Hasn't anyone ever read a science fiction book? It never ends well.

Because of this culmination of information I've been ingesting as of late, I've been taking a closer look at my vegetarianism. In the fifteen years I've been off meat a lot has changed. Vegetarian options abound. Not only in grocery stores, but in restaurants and I'm not talking about a grilled veggie plate or a Caesar salad, hold the dressing. I'm talking about "meat alternatives."

There are so many faux meat options at Whole Foods these days it's hard for a girl to choose. Most of it is really good. But lately I've been wondering - what's it made of? The short answer is - soy.

And that brings me to this article by Jennifer Grayson where she informs that 91% of soy is GMO. Yes, 91%! That means all the tofu, the veggie burgers, the Facon (fake bacon) I consume is most likely from Monsanto GMO seed. I don't want to support that! Nor do I want to ingest it.

According to Grayson there isn't much we can do about supporting it. GMO cotton grown in the US is at 87%. And cotton is nearly everywhere. The answer is buy organic, of course. Buy organic cotton clothes where you can and buy food that is 100% organic.

Oh, what's that you say? It's not that easy to find things that say 100% organic on the package? Well you're right. In fact two very popular vegan meat options Field Roast and Gardein, don't say anything about using organic veggies or non-GMO grains in their products. (I emailed both of them and hope to share the responses soon.)

Morningstar Farms, a company owned by Kellogg - cereal giant, does have a line of organic soy products. They aren't vegan, however. I also found Soyboy - organic tofu and tempeh - that even sports a non-GMO logo. So that's good news. I can give up the fake meat, but tofu too? That would be unfair. Their website does not list a location for purchase, only a generic health food store near you, but I'll be keeping a lookout.

I am a little depressed and also angry about all this. My goal in abstaining from eating meat was to make my little mark against the way this country produces and process its meat. And it's clear the way it produces its crops is no better. I try to remember though, that being a conscious consumer is the only way things will change.

Adventures in Bus Riding

This is a picture-less post, guess my words will have to paint it for you.

I took the bus home from work today. Sometimes I do this. It's common in most cities, but it's "weird" in LA. I just like not driving occasionally. Iron Butterfly's Inn-A-Gadda-Da-Vida happened to be playing over my head phones when a young guy took the seat next to me on a mostly empty bus. He pulled a bible from his backpack and began reading it.

He was clean and dressed like kids dress, with layered saggy pants, a too small t-shirts and a hoodie. It's dark out, so I can see in the reflection of the glass window I'm trying to gaze out of that he is nodding his head slightly, as if agreeing with someone who is speaking to him. The nod grows to a full on head bob and he begins gesturing with his hands as if he is now speaking to whoever was just talking to him. He glances up and down from his bible and gestures more broadly now, as if he is giving a sermon to the entire bus.

Los Angeles seems to be riddled with people with mental disabilities, it's sad and I feel bad for him, so I try to look harder out the window to not make him feel self conscious. AC/DC's If You Want Blood comes on and I drift off into thoughts about how awesome it would have been to see Bon Scott perform live and then I feel a tap on my shoulder.

The guy next to me is looking me straight in the eye, no sign of whatever form of crazy was tormenting him before. He asks me if I believe in Jesus Christ.

Without getting into my religious beliefs, I can say that I believe there was, at one point, a man named Jesus Christ who existed. So I say yes.

He goes on to tell me, at a very high speed, that the LA Christian churches are coming together this Christmas season to recruit people to spread the word of Jesus Christ. Would I please spread the word to 10 people before Christmas day? And at the end of his spiel he lets out a huge sigh and smashes his fingers into his eyes like he couldn't BE more relieved that it was over.

Then he looked up at me expectantly with huge eyes. Now, I don't have any clue what the 'word' even is and are there really 10 people that don't already know about Jesus Christ? I mean we're not talking about a local band here. I'm not even remotely pro trying to influence anyone's religious beliefs. But I looked at this kid, so hopefully and nervous and there was no way I could say that I wouldn't tell 10 people. Dashing his hopes and hard work would have been too heartbreaking. So I said yes, that I would tell 10 people. I lied to the nice religious kid at Christmas time. Yay me.

He gave me a big smile, said Merry Christmas, faced forward in his seat and immediately started to fist bump with, who I am assuming, was the person he was speaking to earlier. He was happy and I was happy I made him happy.

Then a large rent-a-cop who had been listening locked eyes with me, smiled and started shaking his head as if him and I were going to share a 'check out the crazy' moment. But he was in full view of the kid and so I scowled at him for trying to collapse my pretty house of cards.

About 15 minutes later the kid tapped me on the shoulder, asked if I "stay around here," which I really didn't know how to answer since we were on a moving bus. Turns out he didn't really care and moved on to his next question, which was if I have a cell phone number. So I guess that's what I get for lying.