In the last years I've gone back and forth between being a farmers' market fed Toronto vegetarian and sitting in front of a long wooden table in Argentina sampling every single part of the cow (skip the intestines, as they are just plain yuckie), while drinking copious amounts of red wine. These days I'm back to my Toronto farmers' market ways with the understanding that Ontario produces some darn decent wines at good prices.
So what about the soy products (I type this, pause, and take a sip of my soy latte)? Folks, the more I learn about industrial farming and food processing in general, the harder it is to eat food products - that is, if you have a choice (and I know how fortunate I am to have choices). Just the other day, I came across a soy scorecard that lays out which brands and products are, um, poisoning me with HEXANE, and which really do have my health and well-being and that of the larger ecosystem in mind and practice.
The scorecard and report come from The Cornucopia Institute in the U.S., but scores products in the U.S. and Canada. Below is the happy part of the scorecard - the folks who are getting it right. The criteria is pretty comprehensive, as it looks so far as ownership structure and sourcing and farmer relations. I was excited to see Eden Foods at the top of the list, as I've been known to use their veggie crumble in my gourmet shepherd's pie. Yummy.
My solution to the complexity that is the soy product industry? Make as much of my own food as I can from raw, whole ingredients (sourced locally and organically where possible). And trust me, folks, if you aren't already living this way, I can tell you that it takes a lot of time and dedication, but it's very satisfying and can be a heck of a lot cheaper. However, I encourage you to involve the whole family (especially if you're a woman), as sometimes you start to feel like a 1950's housewife and that throws us back to essential questions about division of labour, compensation, etc. (See this fantastic piece in Grist about "femivores," which wonders if we're radicals or merely frontier throwbacks.) Now I'm off to see what brand of soy milk is in my latte.
Hi Katie. Your comment reminded me of my visit to the Green Living Show this last Friday. I wanted to go through the 400 + exhibits with a great big cane and drag the "greenwashers" off the stage (complete with laugh and applause tracks playing in the back ground). Similarly, just because something is made with soy, or uses the terms "natural" or "organic," in its literature doesn't make it automatically good for us or the environment. This shit is complex and takes a lot of thought and planning. I would love to eat frozen, organic, veggie entrees every night and save myself the work, but that just isn't sustainable for my body or the planet.