Why Soy?

During my trips up and down to feed my pigs things go through my mind.  I suppose in some respect I am evaluating my relationship with food and beginning to question more and more where it comes from and how it's produced.

I made a decision a long time ago to stop buying eggs.  I have my own hens and ducks and if they don't lay then I do without.  I then decided to stop buying layers mash (meal for laying hens) as it is produced using GM ingredients.  What was the point having delicious free range eggs polluted with GMs?

I am raising pigs for my own GM-free pork and bacon.

Limousin herd on lane

But as I walk down the lane to feed the pigs I am surrounded by beef, dairy and sheep farmers.  I got to thinking about meat and milk.  What GM feed is given to cattle and sheep?  Okay we are lucky here in Ireland to have quality grass for a good proportion of the year and then sileage for the rest.  But what about supplemental feed?  During winter when "nuts" are fed, chances are they are full of genetically modified maize and soy.  So for at least a proportion of the year unless you are buying certified organic you are consuming beef, lamb, milk and milk products produced from genetically modified feed ingredients.

Then a friend put a notice up on Facebook that she had an unused tin of Wysoy infant formula if anyone wanted it.  Out of interest I asked her to check the tin and see if it specified produced from GM-free soy.  No mention of it.  Now surely if it was, the manufacturer would plaster it all over the tin?? Out of curiosity I e-mailed SMA Nutrition to ask them. To be fair they answered the next day saying that the soy beans are in fact non-GM.

Then I wondered was the "normal" baby milk formula produced from cows fed a non-GM diet.  I e-mailed again and received an answer that all their ingredients were GM-free.  This was not the question I had asked, so I asked it again and received the following response "We receive skim milk in powder form. This milk is tested as part of the Supplier Contaminants programme and testing has confirmed that this is non-GM".  

 As far as I am concerned this is not a satisfactory answer as I do not have any idea what the Supplier Contaminants programme is and also what they are actually testing for?  At no point have they confirmed that the milk they use is from cows fed a GM-free diet so I can't see how they can say the milk is GM-free. 


So why are we so reliant on soy?  Why do we need so many tonnes of it to feed animals?  We can grow fields of barley, wheat, oats, rape seed all more than adequate for feeding any animal.  Before the sugar industry in this country was shut down, beet pulp was produced cheaply as a by-product for animal feed.  Why are we importing soy and maize from the US which is virtually all GM?

Why do so few consumers care about what they eat or what they feed their children?  Organic and GM-free is more expensive and people are struggling to balance budgets but there are many who complain about the cost of food and then go out and buy their kids the latest game console.  The same consumers who get a take away as they can't be bothered cooking.  The parents who give their kids money to buy junk at lunchtime instead of sandwiches.  If all of the people who could actually afford to upgrade to better quality food did so, then the increase in demand would decrease the price - benefiting all.

Why soy?

Wysoy  GM Soy  Free Range Pigs  GM Free Food  Free Range Eggs

Foraging in my Day

Ripe blackberries in hedgerow

When we were kids my father used to drive us up into fields near the Dublin Mountains to pick blackberries.  We did it every year and my memory is once we had stuffed our faces and our hands were black we started moaning we were bored and wanted to go home.  Of course we were never let and we had to at the very least fill the bowl we had been given.  When we got home my mother made jam and apple and blackberry tarts.  She used to freeze them as well and I remember trays in the freezer with fruit spread out until it could be picked off and bagged.

I continued on the tradition when my kids were small.  We used to head off with my son on his bike and my daughter in her buggy and Simba the dog in tow.  The kids had buckets and did all the usual moaning while Simba had a great time sniffing out rabbits.

I always remember getting the "funny looks" from passing cars.  At least I thought they were looking at me strangely but maybe they were just curious as to what we were doing.  You always got the odd one who stopped, rolled down the window and gave some sort of advice re: maggots, bugs, pollution etc.

Blackberry jam is up there with the greats and by the greats I mean raspberry and apricot - my favourites.

Blackberry and apple crumble is sublime served with big dollops of whipped cream.  Pure comfort food.

Blackberries also freeze really well and you don't have to go to the trouble my mother did trying to freeze the berries separately.  Unlike softer fruit they don't go into a mush when they defrost and they keep their flavour. 

Plus and it's a very big plus - they are free; they are full of vitamins and anti-oxidants and they have not been flown half way around the globe having been sprayed with pesticides en route. 

Blackberry and apple tart and blackberry muffin

So get back to your roots and go blackberry picking.  Make a day out. Pack a picnic.  Take the dog and the kids.  Then when you get home make a big blackberry and apple tart and enjoy!

Muffin recipe here
Basic tart recipe here

Meaningless

For a long time now I have steered clear of anything packaged that describes itself as "artisan".  It has fast become the most overused, meaningless word.  Describing everything from genuinely craft-made to processed ham that came from the "oink" of a pig.

The true definition of artisan is an object or item made by a craftsman as opposed to a machine.

An "artisan" food made in an intensive production plant is not artisan; rather it may have been made to an artisan recipe but more than likely was not.

Another overused word is "gourmet".

Gourmet cat food

I saw a comment on Twitter recently that since gourmet is now used to describe cat and dog food it really has become ridiculous.

Farmers' Market to my mind conjures up images of a market where farmers wheel up and sell their excess produce. Not the markets we have, where everything from jars of imported Italian pesto and Tapanade are sold alongside car-boot-style junk and cupcakes.

Or a friend who recently described a lifestyle store as selling "boom-time tat".  It actually sold grossly overpriced lifestyle goods including a range of outrageously expensive "gourmet/artisan" foods.

Free range another meaningless description.  Apparently Bord Bia have written a new definition of this. I can't wait to see chickens sold in supermarkets when this new definition becomes law.  Will the ones currently described as free range now be described as "almost" free range?

It really is a refreshing to see a product well-presented and described for what it is.  No overblown claims - relying on the quality and taste to make a repeat sale.  If a product does not rely on eye-catching packaging, extravagant claims or even lies then the chances are it is worth a try.