Hurrah for Vermont!

Vermont legislators have voted into law a bill that will make

labeling of foods produced with GMOs mandatory in the state, starting in 2016. It is thus the first state in the US to enact such a law, as passage of such bills in California and Washington failed after major food producers poured millions of dollars into campaigns against them. The Green Mountain State is not resting on its laurels, however, as it expects to be sued by major food producers.

Worry about the safety of eating GMOs is understandable, given that studies done on their effect on our health are done mostly by the major producers of these organisms and may or may not be reported to federal regulatory agencies. In addition, no long-term studies have been done.

The issues of the health and safety of GMOs are only the tip of the iceberg in this historic situation. Many lawmakers have said they are concerned about transparency and the consumer’s right to know what is in the food they buy. While these two considerations are the most often mentioned, one feels that the fact that over three-quarters of Vermonters favored the bill, and a vast majority of Americans in general want labeling of the GMOs in their food, reveals other reasons for such widespread unease. One has only to look at the details of GMO production in the States to note a number of disquieting facts:

Very few GMOs are engineered for extra nutritional value or

even resistance to disease; the vast majority are engineered to be impervious to herbicides or insecticides made by the companies creating the GMOs. Such herbicides end up contaminating the crops themselves, leach into the soil or show up in run-off water. This situation can only get worse, as resistant weeds and insects develop over time, with the result that more herbicides or insecticides are sprayed.

Many experts worry about pollination – GMO pollen does not

respect the borders of fields, after all. The fact that nearly 90% of all the corn grown in the US are GMOs is partly due to cross pollination of GMO crops with non-GMO plants. Extrapolating, we can see that at this rate there will eventually be no GMO-free corn.

GMOs are expensive to produce and are thus engineered by vast

agribusinesses that also own the seed companies that sell the seeds. The seeds are patented and farmers are forbidden to plant seeds from the resulting crop the following year. This flies in the face of centuries-old farming practice.

One of the most common GMOs in the US is corn. As it is estimated that corn is found in 3 out of 4 supermarket products, and the corn is nearly all genetically modified, the number of products found in the supermarket that contain GMOs is huge.

Agribusinesses are some of the largest in the country, and can

call up huge sums for campaigns against labeling and, of course, for legal fees. If Vermont is sued, the case will become a landmark case in corporations vs the people litigation.

All this makes one realize that more is at stake in the passage of the Vermont law than meets the eye. Projecting into the future, one can ask a number of questions:

Once the law goes into effect, will Vermonters who do not want to eat GMOs change their diets or order food on the Internet? Will such ordering be legal? Or will there be an inpouring of GMO-free food on the market, so that GMO-averse residents of surrounding states will flock to Vermont shops? Will major food producers put out lines of GMO-free products? Or will they simply ignore Vermont, which has the lowest population of any state except Wyoming?

Such idle speculation lightens a serious situation that is sure to strike an enormous blow to one side or the other. Vermont is a beacon, and it is hoped that other states will shortly follow suit in requiring labeling of foods containing GMOs. In the meantime, let’s give a cheer for this courageous state!

Good for you!

Food for thought, the planet and you

It’s spring! Just the time to celebrate a most hopeful fact: where food is concerned, what’s good for you is good for the planet. One can hardly have a clearer affirmation that we are a part of the natural world, and in this article we will look at the practical application of this happy situation. We’ll point out certain principles to guide you as we go along. And lest you think that “good for you” is measured only in many vitamins and few chemicals, we also mean that healthy, properly raised, really fresh food tastes better.

Let’s start with breakfast. Swiss Muesli can hardly be beat as a healthy way to start the day, and the fact that it has a long history

hints at the first principle: become a locavore.  Locavores eat locally grown food in so far as possible, and traditional food is generally that of local provenance. The oats, milk or yogurt and the raisins in Muesli are usually local products, in Switzerland as in the US. By eating locally grown food, you are avoiding the emission of tons of CO2 and doing your bit for global warming.

If you want to do even more for your health and that of the planet,

choose spelt (Dinkel in German) instead of oats. This 9000 year old nutty-flavored grain used to be farmed widely in central Europe and is now being brought back. Higher in nutrition than wheat, it is available as flakes in the Swiss Coop and health food stores. Googling “spelt” brought up a host of purchasing opportunities in the US as well. And now we get to the second guiding principle: by buying a reintroduced food type you are supporting biodiversity. Depending on just a few varieties, as modern agribusiness does, is exceedingly dangerous. The Irish potato famine was basically the result of an attack by a disease called “late blight” on the one type of potato grown at that time. By growing many varieties of crops, such disaster can be avoided.

You prefer eggs for breakfast? You guessed it: buying organic free-range (Freiland) eggs is a good choice for you, the chickens, and the environment. These eggs have been laid by hens allowed to roam freely, which is what chickens are meant to do. And here is principle no. three: choose food from animals that have been treated well. Aside from the ethical considerations, such food is better for you: free range eggs contain higher levels of nutrients and the mineral content of free-range eggs is usually higher, as the chickens pick up bits of minerals in the dirt on which they forage.

Well-fortified by your healthy breakfast, you may choose a salad

for lunch. Even in winter locally grown produce is available, as you can see by looking for the “regional” label in the Swiss Migros and Coop. For info on local winter foodstuffs in the US, go to http://localfoods.about.com/od/whatsinseason/a/WinterFruitVeg.htm. This brings us to the 3^rd principle: buy food in season. It has not been shipped from halfway around the world and of course it is fresher, is cheaper and tastes better. Informative for those of us in Switzerland are the Saisontabelle für Gemüse and Saisontabelle für Früchte, downloadable from www.wwf.ch>Tipps für den Alltag>Essen und Trinken> Downloads. At the Swiss Coop you can find pro specie rara “heirloom” varieties of such common produce as tomatoes, carrots, parsnips and potatoes – the latter available in a blue
variety! Even better is a visit to a farm market – and now we get to what Switzerland and the US have in common – great farm markets. I well

remember visiting one in Montpelier VT, and admiring the blue, pink, yellow re and white potatoes on sale. For info on heirloom produce in the States, google “heirloom seeds” for a plethora of companies selling these sometimes difficult to find seeds. The heirloom varieties being brought back enable you to enjoy a taste sensation and do your bit for biodiversity at the same time.

Back at the grocery store, you can exercise the 4th guiding

principle: choose organic and fair-trade food. To know which labels are top quality in Switzerland : go to www.wwf.ch> Service>Publications>Ratgeber Lebensmittel Label. By choosing organic food you are getting more nutrition with fewer chemicals and protecting the environment as well. By choosing fair-trade (usually the Max Havelaar brand in Europe) products you are ensuring better treatment of the farmers who produced the food, and this is the way to go when buying exotic items not produced locally or even regionally: bananas, coffee, chocolate, rice etc. For a list of purveyors of Fair Trade goods in the US, go to http://173.231.134.176/products-partners#tabset-tab-2s. In between the exotic and the locally grown are items like citrus fruits (local if you live in Florida or California) – these are at least regional and generally transported by train in Europe, truck in the US – better for the world than air transport.

 Thinking about supper? Many of us avoid beef since hearing that it is full of unhealthy fatty acids. But meat from cattle fed on grass, their natural diet, instead of the corn beloved by agribusiness, apparently has a higher proportion of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. In Switzerland, ook for the Migros Swiss Premium Rindfleisch (not organic, but largely grass fed), or Coop Naturafarm labels. Or ask your butcher. If you are in the US, you can read an exhaustive fount of information on grass-fed beef at http://foodrevolution.org/blog/the-truth-about-grassfed-beef/ and get purchasing info for your state at http://www.eatwild.com/PRODUCTS/index.html.

Perhaps you will choose fish instead, and here again, the varieties

of saltwater fish that are not over-fished are just the ones with the high omega-3 content your heart needs: Pacific salmon, herring, mackerel. You can find out more about what fish to buy in Switzerland from the WWF booklet Einkaufsführer Fisch: www.wwf.ch > Tipps für den Alltag>Essen und Trinken. In the States, the Marine Stewardship Council has a staggering amount of info at http://www.msc.org/where-to-buy/product-finder. Once you get acquainted with the MSC-approved brands, you can look for them or for the distinctive MSC logo when you shop.

So take good care of yourself when it comes to choosing your food. Your body and the environment will thank you!

Sing Taizé

I know, I know, this is supposed to be an environmental blog, but I just have to write about the Taizé church service in which I will be one member of an ad hoc choir singing the typical Taizé songs. This service takes place in a church nearby every year on the Saturday night before Easter. It begins outside the church door with a small bonfire, around which the congregation stands. After a short prayer, everyone sings one of the chosen Taizé songs as we all file into the dark church, picking up a candle on the way. The service itself consists mostly of singing, and it is these very special songs that make it a unique experience.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I need to explain a bit about Taizé, a community of some 100 monks both Catholic and Protestant located near Lyon, France. Founded by a Swiss monk in 1940, the community sheltered Jews and orphaned children during WWII and gradually developed into one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the world. The emphasis is ecumenical and simple, and the songs reflect these qualities. Short, very easy to sing and consisting of only a few phrases each, they are sung over and over again, rather like chanting. The experience is mesmerizing. The choir sings nothing alone, we simply lead the congregation. At the end, the last song is repeated as the congregation gradually files out, each person leaving when he or she chooses, until finally the choir also files out slowly. One year, a bass and I were the last to leave and continued singing outside the church for a bit.

This year we will sing songs in French, German, Latin and English.

Befitting for the day before Easter, they are hopeful and expectant: “Wait for the Lord, whose day is near. Wait for the Lord, keep watch, take heart”, joyful: “O jubilate Deo” or already expressing the Easter message “Surrexit Christus, alleluia!” Below the lyrics on the sheet music are written the translations into most of the continental European languages; sometimes including Russian and other Slavic languages as well. A foreign language speaker can simply sing in his or her language.

Because we are an ad hoc choir, the membership varies each year. One sees a few familiar faces and meets new people as well. The vivacious director is the same inspiring woman each year. It is an experience I would not want to miss. 

Spring green...

…and gold and red and pink and purple…

This is not going to be on an environmental topic. At least, not directly. This is going to be about spring, my favorite season. There is the long slow awakening of nature, daffodil spears pushing up out of the earth, snowdrops defying the snow cover, purple crocuses daring to show color after the white winter. On a more mundane note, as a forerunner of the season there are the tulips for sale in the grocery stores right after Christmas. White, red, yellow, pink, and one that is pink and yellow combined. Some sort of tulip is on sale every week, and I buy whatever it is. Last week it was a fabulous bunch of double tulips in red, yellow and pink, a veritable fiesta, which explodes slowly as the week goes on. The stems grow and the flowers get larger and begin to reach out sideways. I love that.

Then comes the day when the tulips on my balcony bloom. White and yellow they are, and when it is as warm and sunny as it has been this year, the petals of the white ones spread out into huge discs with yellow in the center and black stamens. The yellow blossoms are tinged with green when they first come into bud and then each petal is thinly outlined in red. Seeing them up close every day is to appreciate each nuance as they develop.

This year I had two pots of grape hyacinths, one of my favorite flowers. They were all the rage in the florists’ a couple of years ago, usually grown in gray baskets. Beautiful! I planted mine in a gray box planter that fits nicely on the windowsill.

The miracle of plenteous growth also takes place on my balcony when the clematis sends up tiny shoots from the dead-looking cut back stems. These shoots grow rapidly, and soon have to be tied up to keep them upright. They will reach up, up, up to the ceiling and will have to be trained on wires across the wall. The leaves make a carpet of green and then will come the small purple bells, perfect for the small setting of a balcony. Out in nature the tiny new leaves are now appearing on the trees as exquisite green lace. The contrast between this delicacy and the great spread of trees full of its magnificence is perhaps the very definition of spring and announces the coming of summer, when the trees will cast welcome shade.

Best of all, perhaps, is the warmth of the sun after a cold winter. The balcony is perfect at this time of year, being on the south side and protected from breezes. I have brought the rug up from the cellar and taken out the table where I eat and work on my computer. There is room for a comfortable chair so that I can read and look up from time to time to appreciate whatever is in bloom. It is this continuous change and the coming of new blossoms that makes it all so alive.

Alive and hopeful, for there is winter in all aspects of life as well. To trust that spring will come in a difficult situation, after a painful loss or when inspiration has gotten lost in dullness is to trust in life itself.