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My latest newsletter is out and it features Nau.com and Wingnut Confections.

Shawn Linehan Green Adventures #007 - Be Here Nau

In my July newsletter I featured three cooperatives that all share the goal of sustainability. Writing the newsletter brought up more questions than answers: What is the link between cooperatives and sustainability? How do co-ops work? What makes them successful? Why aren’t they more popular?  I think my first step to answering those questions will be to join one of the food co-ops in town and go to a few board meetings. I’ve already begun frequenting the local food co-ops - since you don’t have to be a member to buy from them - and I love them.  They remind me a bit of walking into a Chinese food specialty store. They are typically small, have strange, wonderful smells, and sell items I don’t see at supermarkets.
Like most people, I have bought from supermarkets all of my life typically choosing food based on taste. Now that I’m learning about the many hidden dangers of processed food, I’m finding I have to be very diligent about reading labels and making smart choices when I go to the supermarket. Frankly, it’s a lot more work to buy food now.  In contrast, when I shop at food co-ops I can trust that someone has already read the labels for me and shopping is easier. Also, food co-ops have a lot of organic and local food choices that the supermarkets don’t carry.

Andrew McLeod recently gave a lecture on co-ops at People’s Food Co-op. His research suggests that cooperatives work when all the co-op members are working towards a higher purpose, like sustainability in the case of a food co-op. Andrew was full of facts and ideas about co-ops during his lecture. One particular item that I found curious came out when someone asked about the link between co-ops and communism. He said that co-ops were very popular before World War II, but fell out of favor when they were linked to communism during the McCarthy years.  These rumors happened to work in favor of the big box supermarkets which were just opening in the U.S.

You can find more information about cooperatives on Andrew’s blog, the Organic Valley co-op page and the People’s Food Co-op page.  I’ve also been seeing more information about cooperatives in the news lately.  Yes! Magazine has an article focusing on worker-owned cooperatives and the NY TIMES has an article on a Health Co-op in Seattle.  Here are a few official sites: The National Cooperative Business Association, the International Cooperative Alliance, the US Federation of Worker Cooperatives, and the NW Cooperative Development Center.

I was amazed to learn that eggs are the result of hens ovulating. Unlike humans, they ovulate almost every day which results in a delicious egg. If a rooster is around then the egg gets fertilized but the chickens lay the eggs regardless. I don’t think they mind us taking their eggs. I learned these facts while photographing chickens which I featured in my April newsletter.

Along with my wonder at nature’s bounty I also learned some rather gruesome facts about conventional eggs. Each backyard chickener I met talked about the horrible living conditions of chickens in the “factory farms” which provide conventional eggs.  I did a little research online and found that our huge appetite for big profits and cheap food has driven the current model of the commercial chicken factory farm. The goal of the factory farm is to get the most egg out of the each chicken. This has lead to the widespread practice of raising chickens in battery cages. Battery cages are small wire mesh cages where the chickens live. With no room to walk or to spread their wings the chicken’s energy is used for the sole purpose of laying eggs. By limiting their movement and feeding them hormones, the factory farms realized they could get more eggs out of each chicken.

Not surprisingly, these conditions make the chickens sick and aggressive. Like other livestock factory farms, antibiotics are used regularly on factory chickens. This habit of feeding chickens and other livestock antibiotics is causing stronger strains of pathogens in humans and it is having deadly consequences.  I also heard that they cut the tips off the chickens beaks so they can’t peck each other. I guess they don’t need their beaks anyway since they are never allowed outside!

I did not visit a factory farm so I cannot say I saw these things with my own eyes.  But this brings up the question of trust. Like many, I’m having trouble trusting big food corporations. I have lived most of my life assuming that the food available to me in the grocery store is good for me. But recent research into the widespread use of ingredients like hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup have changed my assumptions. Now I question everything and trust my own experiences.

My experience with true, free-range eggs is that they taste eggier, the yolks are darker, and I feel more connected to my community. I call them “true” because apparently loose guidelines exist for the term free-range and some egg companies call their eggs free-range even though they only allow the hens access to the outdoors through a small door for one hour a day – not what I would call free-range. Alternately, organic eggs must conform to the more stringent rules and are probably the safest bet for buying in the stores.

So I have switched to buying eggs from local farmers. Humane aspects aside, eating pastured eggs seems healthier.  If we are what we eat, I’d rather eat an egg from a healthy, happy free-range chicken than a sick, depraved factory chicken. Ultimately, I’m responsible for my health and for the food that I put into my body. I recommend doing a quick search on localharvest.org to find a local egg farmer in your area or do some online research on the eggs available to you in the grocery store.  Call up the egg farm and see if you can visit, even if you don’t plan to go. I find that the reputable farmers are open to visitors and I’m suspicious of the one’s who don’t.

I also want to mention a DVD that Frank of Crippled Crow Farm gave me.  It’s called Wegman’s Cruelty and it is a 30 minute documentary on factory farm eggs. It is not easy to watch, but it’s proof that these farms exist.  Also, my friend Christie gave me an article on a study Mother Earth News sponsored comparing the nutrients in true, free-range eggs to conventional eggs that you can see here.

And what happens to the chickens when they are done laying? A lot of the backyard chickens let them live and have a natural death. Others have them “processed” at small chicken processing plants to be used as “stew” chickens. Many ethnic families, still knowledgeable in the old ways, will buy your chickens and prepare and cook them. Bok-Bok!

I don’t know that I’ll ever eat white grits again. Being from the Carolinas, Ken and I were brought up on white grits and have loved them dearly. But recently we tried some of Bob’s Red Mill stone milled corn grits, which are yellow. Yellow grits include the whole kernel where white grits use hulled kernels. We were amazed to find that yellow grits taste better, are easier to cook, and are more nutritional than white grits. Plus, we can fry up the leftovers to make some lovely polenta. I know the South loves it traditions, but I think they need to try yellow grits.

Anyhow, I promised in my February newsletter that I’d give more information from my tour of Bob’s Red Mill. Stone milling was the method used for thousands of years until the introduction of roller mill machines in the 1880’s. Roller mill machines became popular because they produced a fine, white, fluffy grain that did not quickly turn rancid or attract bugs. Unfortunately, white flour has less nutritional value. It’s widespread use increased the instances of nutritional deficiencies, so mills began to enrich the flour with vitamins and minerals in the 1940’s. Another reason stone milled grains are more nutritious is because stone milling is considered a slow cool milling method.  This slow cool method allows the natural enzymes to live in the grains, where the roller mill machines kill the enzymes because of the heat generated by the rollers.

Here is a small gallery of photos from my tour of Bob’s Red Mill. Since 97% of their products are shipped to grocery stores around the world, you may be able to find Bob’s grains at your local grocer or food co-op. Bob’s Red Mill has a big reputation for the many types of gluten free products he produces which include gluten free pizza dough mix and gluten free brownie mix. On the tour I learned that gluten free grains have to be ground in a completely separate facility from wheat grains because of cross contamination issues.

I found a few quotes from Bob online that sum up the stone milling process: “With all the sophisticated knowledge of recent times, no machinery has yet been developed that grinds grains into flour quite as well as our flint-hard quartz millstones quarried in France and used by discriminating millers since early Roman times.” “Our well-dressed (sharpened) sets of millstones turn the highest quality wheat into a finer, better baking bread flour than all the hammer mills, steel roller mills, steel mills, or pulverizers ever built! These slow turning millstones grind the bran, endosperm, and germ (containing its nutritious wheat germ oil) into flour in a cool natural way, creating a more assimilable food.”

I also discovered that hemp seeds are more nutritious than flax seeds.  They are high in protein, omega-3, and omega-6 fatty acids.  Unlike flax seeds, our bodies can digest the hulls and they don’t need grinding before being eaten.  The sad news is they are about 2 to 3 times more expensive than flax seed. Bob’s Red Mill buys their hemp seed from Canada because hemp is not allowed to be grown in the United States. A system that illegalizes the farming of a food that is obviously healthy for us has confused its priorities.