As the World Summit on Food Security convenes in Rome this week, world leaders will debate how best to combat worsening worldwide hunger and escalating food prices. Biotechnology will most certainly be on the table.

As a polarizing subject, biotechnology has no peer.

On the one hand, it has potential to raise crop yields, increase the nutrient value in food and speed up traditional plant breeding through marker-assisted selection, a biotechnology that does not mix genes of different species.

On the other hand, biotechnology is generally funded and controlled by large corporations. The corporations then patent the products produced through the technology and sell them to farmers to make a profit.

In the past, agricultural knowledge and seeds have been owned by everyone for the common good and shared freely among gardeners and farmers. This new system is a departure from how food has traditionally been raised. By turning knowledge into private property, it effectively removes the control over food production from the communities engaged in it.

There are many other problems with biotechnology, as well, including potential loss of biodiversity, environmental degradation caused by indiscriminate spraying of pesticides and herbicides on crops that have been bioengineered to withstand heavy doses of chemicals, and the unknown impacts on our health we may experience from consuming genetically modified organisms.

Another problem is with the companies that develop and promote this technology. Monsanto in particular is known for spying on farmers and suing them if Monsanto-patented crops are found in the farmers’ fields – whether or not the farmers planted these crops or they ended up their via “drift.” Further, Monsanto is known for using strong-armed tactics to gain new markets in countries around the world.

Monsanto has also been devoting significant resources to an advertising campaign aimed at thought leaders who read publications like The New Yorker, or listen to NPR stations. To influence a public that is wary of biotechnology, the campaign asserts that we need biotechnology to “feed the world.” The ads imply that if you care about starving people around the world, you’ll support biotechnology.

This advertising is disingenuous because most crops patented by Monsanto are engineered to withstand the pesticides and herbicides the company also sells. In reality, developing these crops and selling them to farmers is another way to sell more chemicals.

Furthermore, the most widely-planted GMO crops don’t feed the people in the countries where the crops are grown; they are export crops for the global marketplace. Most are not used for food at all.

Soybeans, the most-planted GMO-crop worldwide, go mostly to feed animals or for biofuel; GMO corn is used in animal feed and industrial products; rapeseed is used to make canola oil; cotton, of course, is not even a food crop.

All of these crops favor large landholders, not the people we think of when talking about hunger.

With GMO development being framed as the only way to combat hunger, let’s take a look at some of the global hotspots around the world.

Africa

The Bill and Melinda Gates and Rockefeller Foundations are currently funding what’s touted as a Second Green Revolution in Africa. Unlike the first Green Revolution in Asia and South Asia, which promoted a fossil-fuel dependent form of heavy input agriculture, this new, improved Green Revolution is supposed to benefit smallholders, use genetic engineering to reduce the need for pesticides and fertilizers and utilize the extensive knowledge of the farmers on the ground.

According to an article in Seed Magazine, seven out of every 10 Africans make their livelihoods through farming. They produce the majority of Africa’s food but with minimal resources and little support. Agriculture receives, on average, just 4 to 5 percent of national budgets.

This article asserts that the main problem is not lack of technology. It is that national governments have not invested enough in basic programs that will turn smallholder farming into a viable economic enterprise.

The Gates Foundation funding is being distributed to AGRA, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. According to AGRA’s website, AGRA “works to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.”

That all sounds good, but in an article in The Nation this past September, it was revealed that though the Gates Foundation appears to have learned something from the first Green Revolution, much of what is being funded looks like business as usual.

The Gates project is doing some work engaging small farmers and sharing technology with African scientists, but researchers at the Community Alliance for Global Justice have found that a hefty portion of the Gates money is going to organizations connected to Monsanto.

Some farmers that have been working on their own sustainable, ecologically based farming systems to increase yields say they have been ignored. For their part, The Gates Foundation responded to these charges in a letter to the editor in The Nation. That letter (and others) can be read here.

According to Africa Files, “a network of people committed to Africa through its promotion of human rights, economic justice, African perspectives and alternative analyses,” AGRA is a “hoax.”

Africa Files accuses AGRA of promoting monoculture type farming that relies on heavy irrigation and ignoring the possibilities of economic gains when smallholders engage in organic farming.

According to Annie Shattuck, Policy Analyst for Food First, The Institute for Food and Development Policy, and co-author of the article in The Nation cited above,

“The pattern of the Green Revolution is to reduce agriculture systems to a monoculture crop that responds well to a highly limited set of circumstances and inputs. Trying to engineer genetic resistance to one more circumstance is not going to cut it for the agriculture of the future. We need systems that provide resilience to multiple hazards, and to do that we need diverse sustainable systems that also provide a decent living for the people who work them.”

India

The first Green Revolution begun in the 1970s was touted as a success. But today, it looks more like a disaster in India. While yields did go up, hunger did not go down. The reason for this is the high input technologies promoted tended to favor large, already privileged landholders. What it really did was push a lot of rural people into cities to try their luck there.

Today, despite the Green Revolution, there are famine conditions in India caused by drought and extreme weather. Suicide among Indian farmers has been epidemic as farmers find themselves in crushing debt when technological farming fails. Recent stories profile Indian farmers going back to organic methods.

What’s clear from the stories in India is that technological solutions only work for so long. Whether you are talking about chemical fertilizers, or genetic modification, such solutions are a crude fix overlaid across nature’s elegant variability. Currently, the only GM crop grown in India is cotton, but the country recently approved the development of GM eggplant.

“The myth of “one gene, one solution” to complex problems like climate change and poverty, (the root cause of hunger), is a myopic way to look at what is a complex ecological and social problem”, says Annie Shattuck. “So far attempts to engineer drought tolerance have been a miserable failure. The crops do well in drought years, but not in a normal year. We know agriculture will have to use less water and less fossil fuel in the future. It will also have to deal with increasingly wild weather – delays in the rainy season, erratic frosts, more intense storms. Unpredictability is the name of the game.”

China

Due to concerns about food security while agricultural land is being lost to rapid industrialization, China has been engaged in state-sponsored GMO research since the early part of this century. Details of the Chinese program are sketchy but the most interesting aspect of the program is that it is owned by the Chinese government rather than being funded by Monsanto, BayerCropScience, Syngenta or any of the other large agricultural biotech companies.

According to an article in Reuters, a large budget was approved in 2008 for GMO research with a huge portion of that budget earmarked for safety research. A good thing, because unauthorized GM rice has been found in processed foods imported into the EU from China.

With consumers in Europe among the least accepting of GM foods, China would do well to be cautious.

According to Chinese officials, the Chinese program “aims to obtain genes with great potential commercial value whose intellectual property rights belong to China, and to develop high-quality, high-yield and pest-resistant genetically modified new species.” Currently China grows large amounts of transgenic cotton. Rice, wheat, corn, soybeans, and a few food crops like peppers and papaya are in the development phase.

Mexico

In October, Mexico issued the first permits to grow GM corn. Despite assurances that the corn will not be planted in the same areas as native corn, native corn in Mexico is already contaminated. In a study published in the journal Nature, in 2001, scientists reported that corn in remote fields in Oaxaca was contaminated with GM genes.

This report set off an ugly industry effort to discredit the scientists who published the study. But in spring 2009, the controversy was finally put to rest when another study confirmed the findings of the first study. At any rate, according to the story in Reuters, some Mexican farmers in the north have been planting GM corn illegally.

Turkey

In a surprising and controversial move in October, Turkey (which doesn’t grow any GM crops) put restrictions on the import of GM foods into the country. Some say the move did not go far enough toward an outright ban and will endanger Turkey’s chances in its bid to join the EU. The regulation does not restrict or ban the import or use of GMOs but rather introduced some criteria for their import. Because Turkey does not yet set rules and regulations for GMOs, the government sees this as a stopgap measure until a comprehensive law comes into effect.

Ireland

Also in October, Ireland joined a growing number of countries with an outright ban on growing GM crops or using GM feed for livestock.

The battle lines are sharply drawn.

As Europe, Japan, and some Middle Eastern countries increasingly reject GM foods, look for more action in developing countries as agricultural biotech companies muscle in. Just last week, President Obama nominated Dr. Rajiv Shah as Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Most recently, Dr. Shah served as undersecretary and Chief Scientist at the Department of Agriculture under Tom Vilsack and before that was the Director for Agricultural Development at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, where he promoted the technological farming solutions of the organization.

As we debate how to feed the world, we would do well to remember that the problem is not so much lack of food. The problem is lack of food sovereignty. When control of the food system is in corporate hands rather than local ones, people who have no money to buy food on the open market starve.

For more information on the GMOs in the developing world, and other battles for food sovereignty, sign up for the Food First newsletter or check out their publications section. If you want to help, donations are always welcome.

Image: Untitled blue

Tired of hearing about global warming? I don’t think you’re alone. According to a Pew survey taken this fall, fewer Americans (35%) see global warming as a very serious problem (down from 44% in April 2008). Only 57% think there is solid evidence of warming (71% did in April 2008).

My hunch is that people are feeling fatigue from the daily dire environmental news and the fact that all the proposals on the table for CO2 emission reductions are nowhere near where we need to be to begin to halt (let alone reverse) environmental catastrophe. The U.N.-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says developed countries would have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid runaway climate change. Lots of people think that binding agreements for those targets are unlikely.

The climate disaster we’re told is coming is just too much to think about, perhaps. It’s much easier to convince ourselves that it’s really not as bad as we think, hence those numbers in the Pew survey. (Add to that the immediate pressures of a recession and it’s even less of a surprise.)

But here’s another major reason we should stop burning dinosaurs:

This reason is even less disputed than global warming, and it is more rapidly approaching: Ocean Acidification. Scientists have only begun to uncover the full implications of ocean acidification for the past five years or so, and it’s only been in the news with any prominence this year. Most people still don’t know about it.

The oceans of the world act like a giant, watery carbon sponge, soaking up about one-fourth of all the carbon dioxide emitted by our fossil-fuel burning. As reported by The Guardian, that’s something like six million tons a day.

The carbon in the oceans causes the pH of the water to drop and the normally alkaline ocean becomes less so – in short, it becomes more acidic. Studies show that the pH of the world’s ocean has dropped about 0.1 pH units over the past several decades. If emissions continue at their present rate, scientists estimate that the pH will drop another 0.3 to 0.5 pH units by the year 2100.

What happens when the ocean pH decreases? It makes it more difficult for animals with hard outer shells like mollusks, corals, sea urchins and other tinier organisms to form their skeletal structures. It may also change the way these organisms breathe and reproduce. The chemical changes in sea water that accompany acidification can prevent their shells from forming and extremely altered water can actually eat away at already-formed shells.

This is a devastating situation for the entire food web. And I’m not just talking about oyster and scallop shortages. Higher predators like whales and salmon eat tiny shelled creatures called pteropods. If the pteropods can’t survive acidification, we can add starvation to the list of troubles that our fish stocks face, including overfishing, destructive fishing methods and good old-fashioned pollution.

All right, so it’s so long, fish – setting aside the ocean’s place in our ecosystem for a minute and thinking of it only as a source of food. We’ll still survive, right? We can just eat other things, but a great many people will not be so lucky. The very places where famine is already a problem are the places where people depend most heavily on seafood for their protein needs.

“Small island nations, already threatened by climate change via sea level rise, often depend entirely on seafood for their protein,” says Sarah Cooley, a Postdoctoral Investigator at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

According to some sources, more than 1.5 billion people depend on fish for 20 percent of their average per capita intake of animal protein. Nearly 3.0 billion additional people depend on seafood for 15 percent their protein. In developing nations such as Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Ghana, people depend on fish for as much as 50 percent of total animal protein. These are the places that are already poised to be the most affected by the rising sea levels, drought and extreme weather patterns caused by climate change, so it’s likely that fish could become an even more important part of diets in these places as agricultural crop yields fall even further.

“Usually, the most vulnerable human communities are the ones that contributed least to climate change,” says Cooley. “This is true for ocean acidification also. Populations in tropical developing nations will swell in the next 50 years, but at the same time, ocean acidification plus global temperature rise will likely alter the coral reef ecosystems that provide subsistence fishermen with their dinners. Where will these people find their protein? This doesn’t even include the fact that as countries become wealthier, they eat more protein.”

Studies that predict increases in hunger due to overfishing do not even take into account the likely effects of ocean acidification because scientists are still determining how the problem will affect entire marine food chains. Other studies warn of devastating effects.

For the audio-visual learners among us, this 20 minute video narrated by Sigourney Weaver explains the whole process very well.

If the news alone weren’t troubling enough, you should also know that it’s impossible to reverse the existing acidification.

We must stop emitting so much CO2 now to avoid further damage.

The effects of acidification are already being seen. Knowing all we have at stake, it makes me sick to watch some of our lawmakers in action. Resisting climate change legislation over the worry that it will hurt coal state economies is completely irrelevant when we’re talking about the collapse of an entire ecosystem, possibly in our own lifetimes.

What can you do about it?

Pressure companies like Toyota to stop lobbying against clean energy and support those companies, like Apple Computers, that quit The Chamber of Commerce in protest of its retrograde climate legislation policies. When the final bill comes up for a vote, pressure your representatives to do the right thing. It may seem hopeless, but hopeless is not an option.

Image: Wonderlane

I recently read somewhere that chocolate chip cookies are the top cookies in America. Now, I used to be in the “It’s not a cookie unless it’s a chocolate chip cookie” camp, but I’ve come around.

Oatmeal cookies are so much healthier and they have such a nice combination of chewiness and crunchiness. You can substitute any type of dried fruit you like in the quantities given below. (If you’re using large pieces, chop first and then measure.) And if you just can’t help yourself, you could even throw in some chocolate chips.

Oatmeal Harvest Cookies

Makes about 2 dozen cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 sticks butter (3/4 cup)
3/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup currents
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, soda and salt. Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars together until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla until just combined.

With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the butter-sugar mixture until just combined. Fold in the almonds, oats, raisins, currents and cranberries.

Drop by heaping tablespoons onto an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.

Image: indigotimbre

The other day, I pulled my bicycle up to one of those nouvelle food trucks that are all the rage in these parts and ordered myself a delicious, healthy, organic falafel. While a group of us was standing on the sidewalk devouring our lunches, impromptu conversations among strangers just naturally started. I ended up talking to the guy who ordered just after me. We chatted throughout our lunches before sharing a cordial goodbye.

I thought later: “That was revolutionary. This is not something that happens in a restaurant, or the sandwich line at the Subway down the street. This is special. This is what community looks like.” And all because we found ourselves sharing the public space of a city sidewalk.

But it wasn’t just the fact that we shared a conversation. It was the substance, as well. Our talk had turned to the man’s co-op childcare group, which I was fascinated to hear about (and I don’t even have kids!). He was telling me how it worked and how great it was. That it’s a totally democratic process. That it takes a lot of time – the host family cooks for all the kids every day, and there are a lot of meetings – but the rewards are well worth it.

It got me thinking about the grocery co-op I belong to. How the meetings are really long, and sometimes difficult, but strangely rewarding, too, because of the valuable relationships you end up building with the people in the group through having to sit in a room together and hash out differences.

According to lawyer-authors Janelle Orsi and Emily Doskow of The Sharing Solution: How to Save Money, Simplify your Life, and Build Community (Nolo Press 2009), “Some people worry that sharing will end in the loss of friendly relationships if something goes wrong. We believe that the process of working through the potential problems in advance, and communicating openly about concerns when they arise, actually strengthens bonds between friends, neighbors, and fellow sharers of all kinds.”

In our highly individualistic society, in which selfishness is a kind of virtue, and anything, from our coffee drinks to our RSS feeds can be customized to meet our specific, personal, quirky needs, there’s an opposite sort of revolution going on.

This revolution requires us to talk to, negotiate with and accommodate others, as well as sometimes to state and defend unpopular opinions, while compromising in the end. This is called sharing and cooperation. It’s something we all learned in preschool and it’s hard work. It’s so much easier just to meet our own needs. But that’s not going to work much longer.

If we are going to continue to live on this increasingly crowded, hot planet, we’re going to have to learn to share. It’s not just nice. It’s necessary.

Once I started thinking about sharing, I started seeing it everywhere. It’s the central theme to both the bartering and the Urban Foraging movements. And it’s nothing new. After all, there have always been co-ops, swap meets, and carpools, but there also seems to have been an explosion this past year. And the rise of social networking is making it easier than ever to share.

I think this trend is sparked partly by us coming up against the wall of our economic system’s vast limitations and partly by the realization that we can’t just keep consuming and growing the economy and not consume and grow ourselves right out of existence.

Maybe we can look at the economic and environmental problems we are in the midst of as an opportunity to redirect selfishness and as an impetus for turning our individualistic society around.

To that end, here’s a rundown of 15 of the coolest sharing concepts and resources I’ve found to inspire you:

Recently launched is Shareable, a network of people committed to making life shareable. From the about page: “We cover the people, places, and projects that are bringing a shareable world to life. And share tools and tips to help you make a shareable world real in your life.”

Coworking: In which a group of people share an office space and all the amenities like printers, tea, tables, chairs, but have their own workspace. Some are permanent and some are drop-in based. Here’s a sort of coworking clearinghouse and The Coworking Institute.

Software: From Linux to open office, open source electronic resources are created by users for users.

Yard sharing: Don’t have time to garden but would like the benefits? Share your yard with a neighbor or neighbors. Hyperlocavore and Sharing Backyards are both sites that help people find and link up with others who want to start yard sharing in their communities.

Childcare: From organized co-op preschools to informal neighborhood babysitting co-ops, people all over are sharing the responsibilities of raising children. Because after all, it does take a village. Here’s a site to help you get started.

Stores and Farms: Here’s a directory of cooperative stores and buying clubs. CSAs have been around for a while and they are a form of sharing. Many of the earlier ones required members to work some hours on the farm. Then there’s cowpooling, in which you buy a whole cow with your neighbor. It’s green because the whole animal gets used, not just the prime cuts you find in the grocery store.

Cohousing: Cohousing is often like other housing, where everyone has their own private space, but the residents all consciously choose to share public space, meals, childcare, activities, or whatever they decide. This cohousing website is for people who are in cohousing or want to be in cohousing to help them share information and resources.

Cars: Having a car when you need it and not having it when you don’t is the beauty of car sharing. There are many types of car shares from informal, free and community- or neighborhood-based to businesses like Zipcar and City Car Share. Here’s a page with listings in each city.

Bikes: Popular in Europe, the idea is catching on here with varying levels of success. Shocker! Sometimes the bikes get stolen. The Bike Sharing Blog compiles information on bike sharing from everywhere.

Travel: Like to travel, but lack the money for a hotel? Or have the money, but would rather see the “real country”? Try Couchsurfing.org.

Seeds: Preserving biological diversity and making friends are two benefits of seed swapping. You could easily save seeds among friends and neighbors. There’s an informal neighborhood seed swap that sometimes sets up at my local farmers’ market.

Homesharing: Different from cohousing, this concept is for seniors to connect with one another and share houses, resources and companies. Kind of like roommates for the older set.

Skill Sharing: Brooklyn Skill Share is a network of people sharing knowledge. Another knowledge sharing organization, Bike Kitchens are places where people can go to learn to fix their own bikes and share tools.

Dinner: Frugal Foodies are loosely organized, rotating groups of people that cook dinner together once a week.

Borrowing: Neighborrow facilitates borrowing of tools, books and other household items among neighbors.

We do this in an informal way, since we share a lawnmower with our friends. We got the lawn with the house and didn’t want it and we got the lawnmower for free from a relative. Why buy a lawnmower for a lawn we don’t want and why make our friends do the same? So we share (at least until we can transform it all into an edible landscape).

We also share a car in our household among two and we belong to a grocery co-op that requires us to work 2 1/2 hours per month.

What kind of sharing are you involved in? What’s out there in your neck of the woods that I missed? Please share your information in the comments below.

For more ideas on how you can make your life more communitarian, check out the Sharing Solution Blog and book.

Image: a4gpa

It’s soup weather again. High protein, tasty lentils make an eco-friendly and satisfying meatless meal. Plenty of vegetables make this soup balanced. And lentils don’t take long to cook, so this can even work as a weeknight dinner. The lemon and spinach give this soup a bit of a Mediterranean flair. If you like, it’s nice garnished with a sprinkle of feta or other Greek cheese.

This recipe makes a pretty large batch of soup so you can take the leftovers to work the following day. If you like the lentils to remain intact without breaking down, use French green lentils. If you don’t mind a less defined lentil, brown lentils are more common and more economical. Both make a great soup.

Lentil Soup with Spinach and Lemon

Serves 6

8 cups water, chicken or vegetable broth
2 cups green or brown lentils, picked through and rinsed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 cup diced celery
1/2 cup diced carrot
1 sweet red pepper, seeded and diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 pinch dried oregano
1 bunch spinach, washed and stemmed
3-4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine the water or broth and lentils in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer until mostly tender, but still whole, about 20 minutes. Salt to taste.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil until warm. Add the onion, celery, carrot and pepper, along with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until soft and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one to two minutes. Add the herbs and some freshly ground pepper and stir. Remove from heat, and add to the soup pot with the lentils and broth. Bring to a simmer and add the spinach. Simmer for 15 minutes to blend flavors. Stir in the lemon juice and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Use organic ingredients and organic and local vegetables whenever possible.

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

Image: Maggie Hoffman

I’ll never forget the time I first tried an Odwalla tangerine juice. It was back when tangerine juice was a seasonal offering, during a short window of time in January and February.

I’d just finished a long uphill walk on an unusually warm winter day in San Francisco, and that bottle of juice was manna for my thirsty body.

Then Coke bought Odwalla and seasonality went out the window, along with the pure natural taste of unadulterated juice. Now, if you could find a plain Odwalla tangerine juice not all dolled up with some “functional” additive, you’d be hard-pressed to distinguish it from generic orange juice.

It’s no secret that there’s been consolidation in the organic and natural foods industry over the past decade or so. And clearly, consolidation can be bad for standards and quality.

These Who Owns Organics? charts have been passed around The Internet for years. Most people are shocked the first time they see them (Hershey’s owns Dagoba?).

Organics have always been big money, even in a recession. This attracts well-capitalized companies who want to invest, and who can blame them?

Mega packaged food companies and investor groups buy successful organic brands that were started by visionaries who began the companies with a commitment to the organic ideal of family farms, a clean environment, and simple food without additives. But often, when the big companies buy in, this ideal flies out the window.

I’ve chosen ten of the more prominent organic and natural brands to survey. I’m comparing the stories they tell their customers to the  likely (and often proven) reality, based on who owns them. Most of the company websites don’t clearly state that a huge global conglomerate runs them, but that’s when the chart above comes in handy.

I purposely put all of the prominent, still-independent brands in this list because I want to tell their stories. But this isn’t a story about small vs. big, small being good and big being bad.

All the independents listed below are big companies, but they have the ability to uphold higher standards and work within their missions because they aren’t beholden to the intense scrutiny of the money managers.

Just for fun, can you guess which ones they are?

Amy’s
Amy’s Kitchen is the real deal. Named after the actual daughter of the company’s founders, Amy’s mission was to create a line of vegetarian food products for busy families that would be healthier than typical convenience, frozen, and packaged foods. Started in Petaluma, Ca., the company remains an independent, family-run business to this day and Amy herself blogs about her life as a college student (including her organic agriculture classes at Stanford!). The company headquarters is still in Petaluma where the founders live. All Amy’s foods are vegetarian, but not all are organic. I get a kick out of looking at the old photos of the early days on the company website. I try to cook everything from scratch, but if I’m going to eat a frozen meal, make mine Amy’s!

Arrowhead Mills
Owned by Hain-Celestial, which also owns many other natural and organics brands. The good thing about Hain-owned brands is that they don’t generally try to fool their customers. They come right out and say it. The story on Arrowhead’s website is a folksy one about founder Fred Ford in the Texas panhandle, but it clearly states when the company was purchased by Hain. The other good thing about Hain is they specialize in natural and organic foods, so I feel a bit better about buying their brands. But Hain is also partially owned by Heinz, so that’s the reality.

I like Arrowhead because their product line is not processed. They sell mostly whole grains, beans, and nut butters (high quality ones at that). I do wonder where they source their raw ingredients, especially with this line: “bringing deliciously wholesome choices from America’s Heartland to your table.” Though it may not be, that line sounds like pure marketing to me. It’s true that many of these crops can be more cheaply grown in China and I’m not saying that Arrowhead sources from China. I can’t find any evidence of it (or that they buy from anywhere outside the US), but then again, their website and none of the product packages I surveyed for this article state country of origin information. Your guess is as good as mine.

Cascadian Farms
If they have to tell you it’s a real place, there’s something not quite right. Oh, and General Mills owns Cascadian Farms. Founder Gene Kahn was featured in the excellent book, Organic, Inc. defending himself against those who would say that he sold out. General Mills also owns Muir Glen and Small Planet Foods, both of which are mentioned on Cascadian Farms’ website, while General Mills is not. General Mills is one of the largest packaged food companies in the world and has a joint operating agreement with Nestle. In the fourth quarter of 2009, General Mills posted revenues of $3.646 billion. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but it sort of brings the pastoral image into question.

Eden
If you guessed Eden Foods as one of the independents, you guessed right. In this fantastic article the founder of the company tells his story about fending off the advances of multiple large corporations. Why? Because he wanted to run the company his way, with careful attention to the quality of the product and sustainability practices. Eden is probably my favorite organic food company, mostly for being pioneers in BPA-free cans. (Except for the tomatoes, for which they are looking for an option). According to the company’s website, they process their soybeans without toxic chemicals. All Eden soy products are made from multi-tested GEO free, USA family farm organically grown soybeans, with no refined sugar and no synthetic processing aids. They do not add isoflavone supplements or soy protein isolate. All of the above questionable additives and practices are routine in the industry. Plus, they employ people in Detroit, one of the country’s most economically distressed areas. What’s not to like?

Horizon
I’m not sure what the giggling children on the Horizon website have to do with organic milk, in fact, I’m not sure what Horizon has to do with organic milk either. The company is owned by Dean Foods, a huge conglomerate that is said to be in control up to 90% of the milk market in many states. The company has reported record profits this year as dairy farmers all over the country have gone under. The company is currently being sued by farmers and also being investigated by the Justice Department for monopolistic practices. In other news, Horizon has long been accused of selling “fake organic” milk by the Cornucopia Institute. Enough said.

Nature’s Path
I was surprised and delighted when I found out that this Canadian company is still family owned, because I like their products. The son of an ecologically-minded organic farmer, founder Arran Stephens believes in not expanding the company beyond the point where he can personally run it. The company does a lot to support organic farming, packages their products as sustainably as possible, and engages in many green business practices. While I don’t usually eat packaged cereal, if I were going to, I’d buy Nature’s Path over any other brand. There’s some interesting reading on their website about the family and company origins. At first glance the site looks like it was developed as a homey, “real” brand by a team of corporate image experts, but then you read the content and it’s too personal to be branding. So refreshing.

Newman’s Own Organics
Privately owned by Nell Newman, this company is an offshoot of the original Newman’s Own company, started by Paul Newman. They make tasty snack foods that are less bad for you than the chemical laden non-organic foods, but they are still snack foods and should be used sparingly in favor of real, cooked from scratch food. The company is very transparent about the ingredients in their products. Although the original Newman’s Own company gives tons of money to progressive charities, I don’t see this as part of the Newman’s Own Organics branding.

Organic Valley
Organic Valley is a true cooperative of family farms, meaning all farms that sign on share in the management and the profits. The company is involved in advancing the organic movement through organizations like Rodale Institute. Their website is very interactive. You’ll find various community pages and a cool little calculator that lets users figure out how many pounds of synthetic nitrogen, pesticides and fertilizers they’ve prevented from being released into the soil, air, and water through buying Organic Valley products. I buy my dairy products from local-regional suppliers, but if I’m in a big national grocery chain store and I have a choice between the store brand, Horizon, or Organic Valley, I’ll always choose Organic Valley.

Stonyfield
Depending on whom you ask, founder and CEO Gary Hirshberg of Stonyfield Farm is a sell out or a visionary. French company Groupe Danone bought a huge ownership stake in the company, but Hirshberg is still CEO. Critics charge that companies like Stonyfield dumb down organics by engaging in questionable sourcing. A few years ago when the demand for organic milk outstripped supply, Stonyfield was under fire for buying powdered milk from New Zealand and shipping it here to make yogurt. This year, Stonyfield got into trouble with organic farmers because when demand for organic milk went down and the big companies (like Hood, Stonyfield and Horizon) stopped buying or lowered the prices paid farmers, dairy farmers were left holding the bag.

White Wave – Silk
White Wave, the company that makes Silk Soymilk, was once thought of as one of the most exemplary companies in the organic business. When Dean Foods bought the company in 2002 things slowly started changing. They introduced new flavors made with non-organic soybeans, and this year they did something unforgivable to many. They sneakily changed all the Silk soymilk products to natural from organic. They didn’t change the packaging, UPC codes or prices and they didn’t inform consumers or their grocery customers. All they did was very, very quietly change the word “organic” to “natural” on the front of the package. But then what do you expect from Dean Foods? See above.

People buy organic and natural foods for many reasons: their own personal health, the health of the planet, matters of taste and the desire to support family farms. When faced with the dizzying array of choices on the shelves, it’s satisfying to look behind the marketing hoopla and choose the products that are most likely to align with your own personal values.

Image: stublog

In conjunction with a new report called State of Seafood, Monterey Bay Aquarium has issued a new “Super Green List” of seafood options that are good for both environmental and human health.

The “Super Eight”, as I’m calling them, are low in environmental toxins, high in Omega -3s and farmed or caught in ways that have a low impact on the environment.

Not long ago, here at EcoSalon, I listed my own personal list of 11 sustainable seafood options. It’s interesting to see the differences between my list and Monterey Bay’s.

Tuna is not on my list because it’s hard to get information on where and how tuna is caught, so I tend to avoid it. Some of my other choices are on Seafood Watch’s “almost as good list” and some others are more obscure or don’t contain as many Omega-3s. Other than that, we’re actually not that far off.

I’m glad the aquarium developed this super simplified list. I find the approach helpful for consumers. Instead of telling people what not to eat, it gives consumers a list of tasty options that are okay to eat. But consumers don’t always know where to find and how to prepare these items.

That’s where I come in, giving you the entire “Super Green” list with tips for sourcing, links to recipes or suggestions for preparing.

1. Albacore Tuna (troll- or pole-caught, from the U.S. or British Columbia)

This fish is difficult to find fresh in markets across the country because it is caught by small-scale fishermen. If you live on the West Coast near a harbor, you can sometimes buy it fresh, right off the boats during its season (July-October). Otherwise, you will find it canned year round and across the country in specialty stores. (And it’s not cheap) The can should be clearly marked as troll or pole caught Pacific Albacore, otherwise it’s not the right fish.

Use it to make a classic Niçoise salad with baby lettuces, olives, hard-cooked eggs, boiled small potatoes, and steamed green beans all topped off with a homemade vinaigrette.

2. Mussels (farmed)

Nearly all mussels found in the fish markets these days are farmed. Mussels are easy to prepare and quick cooking. Rinse them well to remove any sand and pull off their beards. Then, put them in a large covered pot over medium-high heat with a mixture of white wine, water and some combination of aromatics like fennel, onions, shallots, garlic, ginger, fresh herbs like parsley or cilantro, lemon, or orange. Steam them until they open (3 to 5 minutes). Finish with a pat of butter or a drizzle of olive oil and serve with salad and bread.

3. Oysters (farmed)

Make sure they are fresh and eat ‘em raw with a simple mignonette made of finely chopped shallots and Champagne vinegar, or just a squeeze of lemon. Don’t know how to shuck? Here’s a tutorial. Why are oysters sustainable? Here’s a piece on EcoSalon that lays it out.

4. Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)

My favorite fish hands-down! Small fish are lower in contaminants than larger, longer-lived fish. The sardine fishery is very healthy, and sardines are flavorful and stand up to robust preparations.  This article has more information and a recipe.

5. Pink Shrimp (wild-caught, from Oregon)

These are the classic shrimp for shrimp cocktail, but you could also use them in a ceviché or make a salad stuffed into an avocado, in a recipe like this one.

6. Rainbow Trout (farmed)

Widely available across the country, farmed trout is mild and versatile. It’s also easy to prepare. I like to stuff the fish with aromatics like fresh herbs and green onions, splash a little white wine or citrus juice on it and inside of it and then grill or bake it whole until the flesh flakes easily with a fork and is no longer translucent (about 15 minutes).

7. Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)

There are many species of Pacific salmon including King, Chinook, Chum, and Pink. Atlantic isn’t one of them. Atlantic salmon is code for “farmed.” Simple is best with this special fish. A quick marinade with herbs, chopped garlic, and lemon juice followed by a turn on the grill or under the broiler; or a simple treatment of salt and pepper followed by a sear in a very hot cast-iron pan always does the trick for me.

8. Spot Prawns (wild-caught, from British Columbia)

These are large prawns sold with the head on. They are available in small specialty fish markets on the West Coast, but I’m not sure how available they are in the East. They have a sweet flavor reminiscent of lobster. And if you should be so lucky as to find them, you should do nothing more than throw them on the grill as is and then peel, squeeze a little lemon juice on them, and eat. Or, you could dip them in butter. And yes, you are supposed to suck the heads. Which also (along with the leftover shells) make a great fish broth.

Image: koadmonkee

Wanna be happy and kick Prozac to the curb? Start eating your fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, beans, fish and olive oil. We’ve long known that a Mediterranean diet is good for the heart, but it turns out it’s also good for the mood.

In a study published earlier this month, Spanish researchers looked at the diets of 10,000 people and found those who mainly ate a Mediterranean diet had lower depression rates than those who did not. The study compiled data from Spanish people who reported their dietary intake on a questionnaire between 1999 and 2005.

After an average follow-up of 4.4 years, the overall incidence of depression for those who followed the diet was 30 percent lower than for those who mostly did not follow the diet. Even lower rates of depression were associated with intake of specific elements of the Mediterranean diet, such as fruits, vegetables and olive oil.

To be sure, specific foods contain components that make your body, nervous system and brain work better. From the dopamine in chocolate to the serotonin producing carbohydrates, to the healthy fats and antioxidants that can boost brainpower, there’s definitely something physiological going on here.

I’d like to see a study that includes sociological-cultural controls because I think there’s something else going on here as well.

Notice that all the foods listed are whole foods, meaning they require cooking and preparation. So the people in the study who followed the Mediterranean diet and experienced less depression were probably cooking.

If people take the time and energy to cook, it usually means they place some importance on cooking for others, sitting down in groups to eat and generally having unhurried, quality contact with friends and loved ones.

Of course, you can eat a Mediterranean meal in a restaurant, but you’d have to be frequenting restaurants that actually cook real food. These are the types of restaurants people go to with others to enjoy life and socialize. There it is again – human interaction over a meal.

What you cannot do is follow a Mediterranean diet eating fast food, eating in your car or heating up processed food in the microwave and scarfing it down in front of the television or computer. These eating behaviors are often engaged in while alone, when rushed or when stressed.

What I’m getting at is this:

The way you eat and how much you enjoy mealtimes might have just as much to do with mood as what you eat.

Whether or not depression causes social isolation, or vice versa, there is a strong correlation between the two.

One study showed that children who have regular family mealtimes are less likely to get in trouble as teens. Troubled teens are often depressed. Another researcher found that family mealtimes strengthen relationships. People with strong relationships are less likely to be depressed.

So here’s my Rx for depression prevention:

Invite some good friends or family members into the kitchen and prepare a meal of healthy, whole foods from scratch and then sit down and eat it together. Enjoy the following recipe with a moderate glass of red wine and some fresh, seasonal fruit for dessert and you should feel better by morning.

Depression Busting Mediterranean Grain Bowl

Serves 6

4 small to medium beets
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) walnut halves, coarsely chopped
1 cup brown rice
Salt
1 bunch Lacinato or green or red kale
1 can sardines, drained, skin and bones removed and separated into filets
2/3 cup cooked and drained (or canned) chickpeas
2/3 cup homemade vinaigrette made with olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Trim the beets and wrap them in 1 or 2 foil packets, depending on their size, keeping like-sized beets with like-sized beets. Roast until tender and fragrant, 35 to 40 minutes. Use a small paring knife or skewer to check for doneness. Set the beets aside to steam in their foil packets. When they are cool enough to handle, peel them by rubbing the skins off with your fingertips, and cut the beets into bite-sized wedges.

Lower the oven to 300 degrees F.

Arrange the walnuts in a single layer in a small baking dish. Toast until brown and fragrant, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool.

While the beets are roasting and the walnuts are toasting, cook the rice according to package instructions. Set aside until you are ready to mix the salad.

Meanwhile, trim, stem, and wash the kale and put it in a vegetable steamer set over boiling water. Steam until tender, wilted, but still bright green, about 5 minutes. Remove immediately to a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and squeeze out excess moisture. Chop coarsely and set aside.

When all the rice, beets, walnuts and greens are ready, transfer them to a large bowl. Add the chickpeas and dressing and toss thoroughly. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper. Present each serving with a filet or two of sardines on top.

Image: ToastyKen

It’s already blustery and rainy in Northern California so it’s time to break out the cold weather recipes. Here’s a healthy, easy, customizable vegetarian or vegan minestrone that allows you to use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Beans make it a stick-to-your-ribs and healthy winter meal.

The beans can cook unattended, leaving you free for other tasks. You can cook the beans ahead and refrigerate them in their cooking liquid for up to 4 days. The soup can be finished quickly and easily on the day you plan to serve it. You can also make extra beans. (Cook a whole pound!) and use them throughout the week in salads and other dishes. To assure the “freshest” dry beans buy them from a farmer at your farmers’ market or from the bulk bins in a busy grocery store.

Serves 4

For the Beans:
1 cup dried Cannellini Beans, soaked overnight or for several hours (time allowing)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
1 to 2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped (optional)
Salt

Heat the oil in a large pot and add the onion, garlic, and celery (if using). Sauté until the vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Drain the beans of their soaking water and add them to the pot. Cover the beans with cold, filtered water by 1 inch. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Lower the heat to a bare simmer, cover partially and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, from 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Cooking time can vary wildly depending on the age of the beans.

Add salt to taste when the beans are nearly soft.

For the Soup:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 of a medium onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 to 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 to 6 cups bean broth, vegetable broth, water or combination
1 bay leaf
2 to 3 cups diced or chopped vegetables (can include carrots, fennel, green beans, zucchini, greens like kale or spinach, potatoes, etc.)
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
Parsley pesto for serving (recipe below)
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and garlic. Sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Drain the previously cooked beans, reserving the broth. Measure the bean broth and add water or vegetable broth to come up to 4 to 6 cups total (depending on how many cups of vegetables you are adding and how thick you like your soup). You can always start with 4 cups of liquid and add more if you like. Add the liquid to the pot with the cooked vegetables and then add the bay leaf and a little salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then lower to a steady simmer.

Add the cut up vegetables, starting with the firmest ones first like carrots, potatoes, and fennel. Cook these until nearly soft, then add green beans, zucchini or other medium-firm vegetables. When those are nearly soft add the greens and tomatoes, or other short-cooking vegetables, along with the reserved beans. Cook until all the vegetables are tender and the flavors are blended, adding more liquid if you want, for a total cooking time of around 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pounded parsley pesto. You’ll need a mortar and pestle, or if you prefer, you may use a food processor.

1 garlic clove
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley leaves
Olive oil to taste

Put the garlic clove in the mortar and add a pinch of salt. Pound it to a smooth paste and add the parsley little by little, pounding it down until it is finely chopped. Add the olive oil to your desired consistency. Alternatively, grind the garlic in the bowl of a food processor and add the salt and parsley. Process until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the food processor bowl with a spatula. Drizzle in the olive oil while running until you have a smooth paste.

Check the soup for seasoning and serve in warmed bowls topped with a drizzle of parsley pesto and freshly grated Parmesan cheese (if desired)

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

Buy local and organic ingredients whenever possible.

Image: foodistablog

On the heels of the devastating article in the New York Times about a young woman who paid dearly for the horrifying practices and lack of oversight in the meat industry, the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a list of the top 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Some of your favorite foods are on this list, including ice cream, berries and leafy greens, with tuna being the most surprising culprit. Though meat contains some of the most virulent contaminants, like the strain of E. coli that almost killed Stephanie Smith, it’s missing from the list, because it isn’t regulated by the FDA. It’s regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Confused yet?

Thousands of people are dying every year from food-borne illness and we have a confusing morass of regulations and agencies charged with enforcing them. Clearly we need a better system, but how to sort out the mess?

There’s a lot of action happening now in the realm of food safety. We can only hope that despite the tangled web of Congressional bills, consumer and industry lobbying, cooperation agreements between the FDA and the USDA and crazy-making sideshows like the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, we will actually end up with safer food, and hopefully not to the detriment of small-scale organic farmers.

Join me for a quick rundown on the most important recent developments in the world of food safety and their possible risks to small farmers.

Congressional Bills:

The House has already passed HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act, and the Senate is considering Senate Bill 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act.

But funny things sometimes happen on the way to a bill becoming law – compromises and deal brokering and exemptions and loopholes. The people and industries in power usually get more say than small farmers or consumers.

Both bills only deal with the FDA’s sphere of authority, giving meat and some other fresh agricultural products a pass for now, with the exception of some foods that are processed on site on smaller farms.

Value added products, like pickles, jams and preserves will be required to comply with some FDA regulations. This has small farm and good food activists picking up their pitchforks.

Thankfully, this administration’s appointees within the USDA and FDA, like Deputy Secretary of the USDA, Kathleen Merrigan, seem more inclined to listen to the concerns of consumers and small farmers. The final House bill included language to protect small producers from onerous regulations and we ended up with an ok bill.

With food borne illness victims testifying in Congress and demanding a final bill before the holidays, things are sure to heat up. Let’s hope victim testimony and articles like the one in the New York Times that put faces to the tragedy of tainted food, will influence Congress to attempt real reform in the final bill.

Cooperation Agreement Between USDA and FDA:

Also this week, it was announced that the FDA would begin working in concert with the USDA to regulate the safety of our food system. At first glance, it seems like a good thing for two food related departments within the government to work together to increase food safety.

Not necessarily. The FDA is charged with inspecting the food supply for safety (among other things), and the USDA is charged with helping farmers market their products (among other things). Can two agencies with very different mandates work together to protect consumers?

We’ve talked about the shenanigans and overlapping jurisdictions of the FDA and the USDA before here on EcoSalon, but prior to delving even deeper into the question of these agencies regulating food safety, it’s important to understand what the two agencies were designed to do.

The FDA was created in 1906 to administer The Pure Food, Drinks and Drug Act. The act was a legislative reaction to the horrors uncovered by Upton Sinclair in his expose of the meat industry, The Jungle, as well as discoveries about common practices in the food industry at the time, such as the use of heavy metals to color and preserve foods. It worked for awhile, but now we are in the midst of our own Jungle-like horror.

The FDA is responsible for food safety as it relates to processed food products (ironically excluding meat) pet and animal feed and imports. This agency is also responsible for regulating drugs, vaccines, cosmetics and dietary supplements. Its labeling jurisdiction extends to nutrition and health claims, nutrition information, and ingredient labeling.

President Lincoln created the USDA at the height of the Civil War. The stated purpose of the department was to serve the people that were involved in agriculture at the time – more than half the population. It inspired legislation like The Morrill Land-Grant College Act, authorizing public land grants to create agricultural colleges. The Act required the establishment of such colleges in all U.S. states and territories and the District of Columbia.

The USDA is responsible for regulating, inspecting and recalling raw agricultural products like meat (including processed and packaged meat products, like hot dogs) poultry and eggs. This gives the USDA jurisdiction over labeling claims about farming and production practices (marketing language) while the FDA regulates labeling claims that relate to ingredients. The USDA created and administers The National Organic Program (NOP). The USDA also administers the Farm Bill and its programs.

For a good rundown on why the dual role of the USDA in regulating raw agricultural products and helping to market them is problematic, look to this article in Grist.

This dual role is one of the reasons experts like Marion Nestle advocate for a single agency whose sole responsibility is regulating the safety of the food supply.

The Leafy Green Marketing Agreement:

Bear with me here if this doesn’t sound like a food safety measure. Recall the spinach debacle of 2006? The one in which E. coli was found in bagged spinach? This article talks about why small, independent farmers weren’t affected (which is why I wasn’t afraid to eat the spinach that came in my CSA box the week of the outbreak). The article also hints at the future Leafy Green Marketing agreement in the following passage.

“Next week, the FDA will also be reviewing voluntary guidelines offered by the produce industry to ensure agricultural and processing practices with spinach – and other leafy greens.”

The proposed guidelines would cover “the three Ws” of potential contamination – water, workforce and wildlife, says Thomas Nassif, president of Western Growers, which represents some 3,000 farmers and shippers in California and Arizona. These farmers produce about half of all the fresh produce in the country.

His group wants to keep the guidelines voluntary. “Obviously, the industry and most of the regulators would like to see us handle it,” Nassif said.

These voluntary guidelines are in effect now in California and Arizona, which is bad news for those very small farmers who weren’t part of the problem.

The reason the Leafy Green Marketing Agreement is in the news again is because the industry now wants to take the agreement national. The proposed marketing agreement would allow leafy green handlers to attach a USDA-backed “food safety seal” to lettuce, spinach, cabbage and other vegetables. The agreement would be voluntary for handlers, but since the big handlers control the industry, any small farmers who want to have the chance to expand their markets would have to comply.

Complying with the regulations requires excluding wildlife from the farm ecosystem (never mind that E. Coli comes from cows), leading to sterile farms devoid of wildlife, hedgerows, cover crops and all those other characteristics that make up a biologically diverse, ecologically sound farming system. So smaller farmers would have the choice of either sterilizing their farms, scaling up and becoming just like industrial growers, or staying small and appealing to a niche audience.

A marketing agreement does not a food safety regulation make. I don’t think consumers want to have to look for a seal on their food to assure themselves it’s safe to eat. I think most people would agree that food safety is careful handling practices, inspection, enforcement – you know, food safety, not marketing.

For a truly chilling, eyewitness account of what it actually looks like when industry writes its own rules with the help of the USDA, check out Elanor Starmer’s posts on the Ethicurean. She sat in the hearing rooms for three days straight so this is truly eyewitness. Day One, Day Two, Day three.

The president has said he’s committed to safer food. With all of the other issues on the agenda, it’s hard to tell where food safety on the urgency scale, but articles like that one in the New York Times definitely force momentum. If you want to keep up with breaking news in the realm of food safety there are two good resources, The President’s Food Safety Working Group and Food Safety News. Stay informed and whenever possible, buy whole foods from farmers you know.

Image: qmnonic