Mama’s Monday Favorite: Cabernet Sauvignon Organic Wine
Last night, the legendary rock band U2 performed at the Rose Bowl. Early Sunday morning, as I tinkered in my backyard garden, I could hear the Sound Technicians testing their instruments. I had a hunch that I’d be able to hear the concert later that night and looked forward to a fantastic experience. I invited a few friends to come over to join the festivities.
As the sounds of No Line on the Horizon, and With or Without You filled our ears, we opened a special bottle of wine to celebrate. Cabernet Sauvignon by Frey Vineyards was our wine of the night. We choose this wine because it is certified organic and fermented with yeast that has not been genetically engineered. The taste was fantastic. My only regret is that we only had one bottle.
Frey Vineyards is a third generation family owned winery. Their vineyards and winery are nestled on the slopes of the Redwood Valley A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area) in Mendocino County, California, at the headwaters of the Russian River. All of their wines are made with no added sulfites.
Enjoy responsibly!
- Mama
**Mama’s Monday Favorite is the sole opinion of Mama. No monetary compensation was received for the feature. If you have a product that Mama might absolutely love, send Mama one of your products. If she likes it, she might list it as a Mama’s Monday Favorite.
November giveaway: Stonyfield prize package
We love Stonyfield organic yogurt and milk so much that we want to share the love with you. We are giving away 3 Stonyfield prize packages during the month of November. Stay tuned….you could be using Stonyfield coupons, wearing a Stonyfield organic cotton t-shirt, cooking with a wood handled spatula, using the reusable shopping bag, and reading the “Going Greener Guidebook” really soon.
- Mama
Chimps go Apes over organic bananas
Monkeys and Chimpanzees at Copenhagen’s Zoo in Denmark choose organic bananas over conventionally grown bananas when given the choice.
When given the organic bananas, the chimps eat the entire banana, including the peel. When given a conventionally grown banana, the chimps eat it, but take the peel off first. It seems like the chimps are able to tell the difference between organic and the regular fruit just by looking and smelling it. I bet animals can smell the pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables. I wonder if we (humans) would switch to organic food and sustainable food if we could smell the chemicals and pesticides, and other “things” that are put into our food.
Copenhagen Zoo began feeding its animals at least 10 percent organic products in 2003.
- Mama
Mama’s Monday Favorite: Stonyfield organic strawberry yogurt
I love Stonyfield organic strawberry yogurt. Not only does the yogurt tastes good alone, with granola, or inside a smoothie, it is also organic. Which means that it’s ingredients are produced without the use of antibiotics, synthetic growth hormones, genetically modified organisms (GMO’s), artificial flavors, artificial colors, and toxic pesticides and fertilizers. Also, the milk used to make Stonyfield organic strawberry yogurt is from cows not treated with rBST.
Stonyfield is also committed to battling climate change and reducing their carbon footprint. The solar array on the roof of Yogurt Works (the building where yogurt is made), produces clean renewable energy that helps power the machines used to make the yogurt.
Try Stonyfield’s yogurt. There are several flavors to choose from, including: Apple Pie, Blueberry, Just Peachy, Luscious Lemon, Mocha Latte, Plain, Pumpkin, Raspberry, Strawberry, Vanilla, Strawberries and cream, Chocolate Underground, and French Vanilla.
- Mama
**Mama’s Monday Favorite is the sole opinion of Mama. No monetary compensation was received for the feature. If you have a product that Mama might absolutely love, send Mama one of your products. If she likes it, she might list it as a Mama’s Monday Favorite.
Serena The Wanna-Be Vegetarian – Fast Food Strikes Again!
Throughout this change my family is making, my husband has been the most flexible. Usually men are pretty fickle about what goes on their table and into their stomachs. We talked about not eating meat before we brought it to the kids, and he was pretty agreeable and thought that it would be better for the family’s over all health too.
So imagine my surprise as I’m running errands and see Mr. This-is-so-easy-I-could-do-it-seven-days-a-week-standing-on-my-head standing in front of Meaty Meat Ribs and Bar-be-que chomping on a beef rib with this buddies. Mmm-hmmm. I slowed my car and tooted the horn and made a “peace” sign and pointed to my eyes and then at him. I mouthed the words, “I see you.”
I’m not the only one falling off the wagon.
“I just don’t feel full,” he said when we finally talked about it.
“Organic food tastes like it has bird poop in it.”
At this point the only one that has stayed true is my daughter, the burgeoning PETA member, unless she has a deal with the Hamburglar.
So do I dive into the fake beef products to transition my family over? I look at the Boca products (burgers, sausage) and the Morning Star products (‘meat’ crumbles to nuggets). How healthy are they? Are they worth the extra cost? To be honest they’re pretty expensive, be it what it may, but the cow is cheaper. Not only is it expensive, I’ve found that trying to eat healthy, means I’m in the kitchen a lot more.
I did find this that I’ll talk to my family about. Since they can’t stay away from fast food, let’s talk about what our options are. Right?
- Serena
Sustainable Eating: You Are What Your Animals Eat
by Jo Robinson
In my investigation into pasture-based farming, I’ve stumbled upon an alarming state of affairs: few animal scientists see any link between animal feed and human food. “Feed animals anything you want,” say the experts, “and it makes no difference to their meat, milk, or eggs.” Because of this mindset, our animals are being fed just about anything that enhances the bottom line, including chicken feathers, sawdust, chicken manure, stale pizza dough, potato chips, and candy bars.
Here’s a glaring example. A 1996 study explored the desirability of feeding stale chewing gum to cattle.(1) Amazingly, the gum was still in its aluminum foil wrappers. Wonder of wonders, the experts concluded that bubblegum diet was a net benefit—at least for the producers. I quote: “Results of both experiments suggest that [gum and packaging material] may be fed to safely replace up to 30% of corn-alfalfa hay diets for growing steers with advantages in improving dry matter intake and digestibility.” In other words, feed a steer a diet that is 30 percent bubblegum and aluminum foil wrappers, and it will be a more efficient eater. With a nod to public safety, the researchers did check to see how much aluminum was deposited in the various organs of the cattle. Not to worry. The aluminum content was “within normal expected ranges.” As always, there was no mention of the nutritional content of the resulting meat.
When I first read the bubblegum studies, I assumed that no one would actually feed bubblegum to their animals, despite the “positive outcome” of the research.. Then a professor of animal science drove me by a Beechnut gum factory in upstate New York where dairy farmers bought truckloads of bubble gum to feed to their cows.
The view from the other side of the fence is just as sobering. Most experts in human nutrition are equally blind to the feed/food connection. To them, beef is beef, eggs are eggs, and milk is milk. Thus, when the USDA says “eat less red meat,” the edict applies to all red meat, whether it’s a fatty steak from a grainfed cow, or a lean steak from a grassfed cow with its invisible bounty of omega-3s, vitamin E, beta-carotene, and CLA.
I’ve spent the past four years trying to forge the missing link between animal and human nutrition. It’s been tough going, especially when it comes pasture-raised animals because virtually all the studies focus on feedlot animals. To fill in the gap, I’ve searched through yellowing journals published before the advent of factory farming, pieced together small studies financed by farmers, and combed through the research from Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand—parts of the world where animals are still kept home on the range.
Finding the amount of vitamin E in grassfed meat has been one of my biggest challenges. I began the search when I learned that grass has 20 times more vitamin E than corn or soy. Given the magnitude of this difference, I reasoned that meat from grassfed animals must have an extra helping of vitamin E.
At long last, I located one American study that broached the subject. The impetus for the study came from disgruntled Japanese buyers who complained that American beef spoiled more quickly than Australian free-range beef. Knowing that vitamin E helped prolong shelf life, the American researchers investigated the amount of vitamin E in the two types of meat. Lo and behold, they discovered that the meat from grassfed cattle had three to four times more vitamin E than feedlot beef, thanks to all that vitamin E-rich grass.
Now, what did the researchers do with this finding? True to form, they began studying how much synthetic vitamin E to add to synthetic feedlot diets. I doubt that it even occurred to them to investigate pasture-based ranching.
Why this lack of interest in the natural model? Much of our animal research is funded by commercial interests—specifically the grain, chemical, pharmaceutical, farm equipment, and meat-packing companies. Together, these vertically integrated behemoths have a multi-billion dollar stake in perpetuating factory farming. The USDA, meanwhile, aids and abets the feedlot industry by focusing virtually all of its efforts—and our tax dollars!—on tweaking the system. For example, the USDA Meat and Animal Research Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, is more willing to spend $100,000 researching how quickly feedlot manure seeps into the water table than to spend a similar amount of money investigating pasture-based ranching, the holistic model that keeps the contamination from happening in the first place.
What will it take to draw more scientific attention to pasture-based ranching? Pressure from an enlightened public. And what will it take to enlighten the public? The national media.
I have a fantasy how this might happen. First, a prominent media source such as “60 minutes” or The New York Times will decide to spotlight pasture-based farming. Building on this ground-breaking work, an award-winning TV producer will create a documentary that deepens the discussion. The program will conclude—as it must—-that raising animals on pasture is better for consumers, the animals, the environment, and small farmers. Before long, dozens of news shows, newspapers, and magazines will follow suit.
As the momentum builds, grassfarming will become the talk of the town. Serving organic meat won’t win points in Los Angeles anymore unless it’s grassfed as well. Meanwhile, Ted Turner will stop sending all of his bison to feedlots to be fattened like cattle, and by 2005, his “Turner Reserve Grassfed Bison” will be the thing to serve at celebrity gatherings. Propelled by this groundswell of interest, private and government institutions will finally devote more time, money and energy to exploring pasture-based farming.
Will grassfarming ever become the darling of the media? Only time will tell. But even if the media misses the boat, the good news about grassfarming will keep spreading on the grassroots level, one satisfied customer at a time!
**************************************
Jo Robinson is a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author or coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, which is a comprehensive overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals, and The Omega Diet (with Dr. Artemis Simopoulos) that describes an omega-3 enriched Mediterranean diet that may be the healthiest eating program of all. To order her books or learn more about grassfed products, visit http://www.eatwild.com.
**************************************
1) Wolf, B. W., L. L. Berger, et al. (1996). “Effects of feeding a return chewing gum/packaging material mixture on performance and carcass characteristics of feedlot cattle.” J Anim Sci 74(11): 2559-65.
Note: I wrote this article in 2000. Since then, pasture-based farming has been featured in:
- The Smithsonian
- The New York Times
- The Washington Post
- The Wall Street Journal
- The Dallas Morning News
- Mother Earth News
- Wine Spectator
- The Oregonian
- The LA Times
- The San Francisco Chronicle
- CBC News Marketplace
- Delicious Living
- House and Garden
- The Atlantic Monthly
- The National Review
- National Public Radio
Beyond Organic: Grass, Grass, and more Grass
By Jo Robinson
Organically certified meat, poultry, and dairy products are now available at your local supermarket. When you see the green USDA organic label, you know the food is going to be free of pesticide residues, synthetic hormones, antibiotics, and genetically-modified grain. Compared with ordinary meat, this is a step in the right direction.
But the USDA organic beef regulations fall short of many people’s expectations—especially when it comes to cattle. Specifically, the USDA rules allow cattle to be fed a high-grain diet—not their native diet of grass—and permit cattle to be confined much of the time. That expensive, USDA-certified organic steak at your grocery store is likely to come from a cow that spent most of its time in a feedlot eating far too much grain.
These shortcomings matter a great deal, not just to animal and nature lovers, but to all consumers concerned about basic human nutrition and food safety. The problems begin with the grain. When calves are taken off pasture and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened for market, they are switched from grass to a high-energy grain diet to speed their growth and marble their flesh. But grain does not agree with cattle and other ruminants such as bison and sheep. Ruminants are highly specialized animals with multi-compartmented stomachs that allow them to thrive on a diet of high-fiber, bulky grasses—food that we humans cannot digest. Feeding grain to these grass guzzlers is like running a Prius on furnace oil; it fouls up the works. The “fuel” problem for cattle is that grain makes their digestive tract more acid, giving the animals chronic belly aches. Feedlot calves respond to this acid indigestion by pawing at their bellies, hanging their heads, drooling, or eating dirt. Untreated, the calves can develop a more serious condition called “acidosis.” If acidosis goes unchecked, lesions that can be fatal will form in the animals’ livers. Corn-fed beef comes with a cost.
By contrast, when cattle are raised from birth to market on grass, they remain in excellent health. Routine vaccination is the only medication they require. A vet told me that the only time he goes to grass-based ranches is to do pregnancy tests. The rest of his time is spent helping feedlot managers control the many diseases caused by excessive grain-feeding and the stress of shipping and confinement.
What is good for the cattle turns out to be good for our health as well. Dozens of studies now show that meat and dairy products from grass-fed animals have a bounty of added nutrients. Compared with grain-fed cattle—organic or otherwise—the meat and milk of grass-fed cattle have more antioxidants, including vitamin E, beta-carotene, and vitamin C. The meat is also lower in overall fat and higher in healthy omega-3s and another healthy fat called “conjugated linoleic acid” or CLA (http://www.eatwild.com/cla.html).
Eating products from grass-fed animals also gives you an added measure of food safety. Since the 1990s, we’ve gotten used to meat being recalled for possible E. coli contamination. In 2008, one such recall involved a staggering 135 million pounds of beef. Eating grass-fed meat may reduce your risk of being sickened by these potentially lethal bacteria. The main reason is that grass-fed cattle and other ruminants that live outdoors on pasture arrive at the slaughterhouse with relatively clean hides. Cattle that live in the mud and manure of feedlots tend to arrive coated with feces that may harbor E. coli bacteria. The USDA has determined that the cleaner the hides, the lower the risk that the bacteria will find its way into the meat supply.
Although organic grain-fed meat has advantages over conventional grain-fed meat, it does not measure up to the benefits that come from eating 100-percent grass-fed meat. Raising ruminants on grass is better for animals and consumers. Go grass!
_____________________________________________________________________________
Jo Robinson is an investigative journalist and a New York Times bestselling writer. She is the author/coauthor of 11 nationally published books including Pasture Perfect, an overview of the benefits of choosing products from pasture-raised animals. More than three million copies of her books have been sold. Jo is also the founder and director of www.eatwild.com, the Internet’s most comprehensive site on the benefits of taking animals out of feedlots and raising them on pasture.
Eat good food. No one wants to hear that, right?
Yesterday I had a bad day. I went out for a drive, ordered a large bucket o’ french fries, had a martini infused with Patron with my dinner, and almost ordered the ice cream sundae that I so desperately wanted.
Why did I crave all types of bad food when this stuff only makes me feel worst? The greasy fat from the genetically modified french fries got into a heated argument with my tummy. The Patron infused martini kept me from enjoying my favorite book.
Today I redeemed myself. This morning I ate organic baby food for breakfast. (My morning breakfast of organic oatmeal blended with organic green apples and flax seed isn’t quite baby food, but it looks and smells like something I’d feed a little one). I drank a few glasses of Cranberry Juice (not from concentrate), drank another bottle of Cell-nique Super Green Drink (organic of course), and had organic chicken with rice and garden veggies for lunch.
Not bad eh?
I went a step further and armed myself with a list of restaurants that serve organic and sustainable food. I found a nifty little website called Eat Well Guide. It contains a list of restaurants, Farmer’s markets, grocery stores, CSAs, farms, and personal chefs who serve/grow/prepare organic and sustainable food.
What do you do after having a bad day?
- Mama
