I hope you’re not one of those people who squirms when a mother breastfeeds her baby in public, because I’m one of those publicly breastfeeding mothers. If that makes you uncomfortable, well, talk to the breast!

There is no better food for babies than breast milk, of course, so it’s a great decision for mothers who are able to do it. And when it comes to social graces, I’m just not sorry to say that I won’t run off to nurse in a bathroom or tote bottles around to preserve a faux Victorian modesty (ahem, Facebook). We see more breast online and at Fox news than I could possibly compete with.

Besides, the breast is the ultimate eco-friendly feeding option. Formula is made from either cow’s milk or soy, and both come with problematic environmental implications. Then there are the bottles, usually made of plastic, which even when BPA-free, still need petroleum to be made.

What’s with our shyness? I say it’s high time to get rational and respect the breast. There’s no need to look away in embarrassment or frown disapprovingly if you see my baby noshing on my nipple. After all, what could be more sane, healthy and normal than using breasts the way nature intended? Sure, the world might be sex-crazed over boobies, but for my baby, it’s what’s for dinner. Nomnomnomnom.

Image: Raphael Goetter

When farmers in Mato Grosso, the top soy-producing state in Brazil, were introduced to GMO soy varieties, they jumped at the chance to plant them, even though the country’s government hadn’t yet approved their use. It was a foolish risk to take; the GM soy these farmers planted has consistently provided lower yields than conventional soy varieties.

About half of the soy grown in Mato Grosso is genetically modified, but because of the lower yields – and the fact that many distributors are shunning GMO – quite a few farmers are turning back to conventional crops. However, so much research has been done on GM crops in the past decade that it may be difficult, at least initially, for conventional-minded farmers to compete. Concerned consumers and environmental scientists alike hope they can act quickly enough to preserve the seed base of non-genetically modified soy.

Image: tabithahawk

Take a look through your cupboards. Read the ingredient labels on your organic and natural food products (and your conventional ones). You’ll likely see soy lecithin on a large proportion of labels. You probably don’t know that the soy lecithin in your organic food is most likely from non-organic genetically modified soybeans.

Doesn’t the National Organic Rule prohibit the use of both non-organic ingredients and GMOs?

It does, but there is one important thing to know about this rule….foods can be labeled organic if they contain at least 95% organic ingredients. The other 5% can be non-organic. Furthermore, if a product is not available in organic form, it might be on a list of exceptions to the rule. Organic soy lecithin was not available when the National Organic Rule was written, so it made the list. Organic soy lecithin is available now, but manufacturers have no incentive to switch as long as it is still allowed under the organic rule (and it’s cheaper). The USDA is currently considering comments on a proposed change to the rule. A decision is expected in the spring.

Why is it in my food?

In industrial applications soy lecithin acts like egg yolks and has similar emulsification properties. In fact, egg yolks also contain lecithin, but now that soy lecithin is available it is rarely used. Soy lecithin is what makes margarine and peanut butter spreadable, chocolate coatings smooth, batters pourable, ice cream creamy. It also facilitates mixing and prevents spattering during cooking, and extends the shelf life of foods.

How is it made?

It’s a byproduct of soybean oil that is extracted during processing. We’ve already talked about the heavy processing soy protein goes through before it ends up in countless foods. Soy lecithin is extracted from soy oil in a similarly industrial manner. First, water is added to the oil and put in a centrifuge to separate the lecithin from the oil, then it is generally bleached with hydrogen peroxide. The product is then dried and sometimes it is further refined with acetone.

Add to this the fact that nearly 90% of the soy grown in the U.S. is genetically modified and heavily sprayed with pesticides, and you have to wonder if you should be eating it.

What can I do?

Eat unprocessed, whole foods for the most part, and seek out food manufacturers who are doing the right thing and switching over to organic soy lecithin without being forced by a rule change. This is unconfirmed, but there a few chocolate brands I’ve read about on the internets that use organic soy lecithin, but you still need to read the labels because they may not use it in all of their products. These include Lake Champlain, Dagoba, Endangered Species Sjaaks, Sweet Earth, and Green and Black’s.

Please comment if you know of other food companies/products using organic soy lecithin.

Sources:

United Soybean Board

Treehugger

Weston A Price Foundation

Soy info Center

Image: jessicafm

According to Consumers Union, 95% of consumers in the U.S. want products containing genetically modified organisms to be labeled. Yet, in 1996 the FDA ruled that genetically modified foods were not substantially different from others and need not be labeled. Then, in January 2009 as the Bush administration headed out the door, the outgoing FDA ruled that it wouldn’t require the labeling of genetically modified meat or fish.

What’s going on here? We’re told that the free market works because of the rational behavior of informed consumers. How can consumers make intelligent choices when the information they need is deliberately held back by government influenced by powerful corporations?

We’ve talked about the power seed giant Monsanto exerts on our government before. Did you know that Monsanto’s hydra-like tentacles of influence extend across the globe? Let’s explore how the company was able to introduce its GM soybean technology to Brazil.

There was a point in the early part of this century when Monsanto wasn’t doing too well. It couldn’t sell its products in Europe. Nobody wanted them. Americans were getting anxious about consuming foods made from GM seeds. Monsanto needed a new market. A big new market. We’ve already talked about how the soy industry in Brazil has led to slavery and deforestation. The soy industry in Brazil has also had a big impact on Monsanto, essentially saving the company from ruin.

According to a policy brief from Food First, and other sources, Monsanto used illegal tactics to push their GM technology on Brazilian farmers and then strong-armed the Brazilian legislature to make the technology legal.

Brazil had a ban on planting of GM seeds in effect since 1998, but it was one of the only holdouts in South America. Brazil’s neighbor, Argentina, was a large producer of GM soy. Monsanto encouraged farmers in Brazil to plant its “roundup ready” GM soybeans that were illegally imported from Argentina in defiance of the ban. Monsanto knew that once its seeds were in the ground they would be able to make a case for intellectual property rights. Armed with their patents, the company’s lawyers went to the courts to solidify its new Brazilian market.

By arguing that Brazil was impeding its legal right to collect royalties on its intellectual property (the seeds), Monsanto made its case and GM soy was legalized in Brazil in 2003. Still, the essential companion to Monsanto’s Roundup-ready GM soy, the herbicide Roundup, was not legal yet. In 2004, a congressman from southern Brazil pushed through a series of federal amendments legalizing the herbicide. This same congressman purchased a large farm from Monsanto for one-third of the market price. The Brazilian government is investigating the congressman for corruption.

You may be thinking that you’re not eating GM soy because you buy organic. But if you eat organic food that contains soy lecithin (and you probably do since its in everything) check back in two weeks when we wrap up our soy series with a piece about soy lecithin. We’ll explore why the organic rule allows small amounts of non-organic ingredients in organic products and learn that it’s not that simple.

Want to learn more about the drama behind GM foods? Check out this link to news articles from different sources that will give you a good idea of Monsanto’s trials, successes, machinations, and manipulations over the past few years.

Image: Mike138

The topic of soy can create a big debate among healthy folks, and the viewpoints can be extreme. Who knew a humble green bean could be so controversial? Some tout soy products as a panacea for health and wellness, while others swear that soy is a sure ticket to infertility and “man boobs”. What are the facts?

Aren’t Asian cultures particularly healthy because of consumption of soy?

Asians don’t actually eat as much soy as we think – only about 10-36 grams per day. In contrast, a cup of tofu or soy milk contains over 200 grams of soy. Besides, the most common soy foods in Asia are fermented products such as tempeh, miso and shoyu (soy sauce), while most Westerners eat unfermented, highly processed versions of soy. Unfermented soy contains enzyme inhibitors that block protein digestion (among other things we’ll get to below).

Isn’t soy healthy because it’s a natural plant product?

Most soy foods are highly processed and bear very little resemblance to the natural soybean (think soy hotdogs or TVP – textured vegetable protein). Just because something is touted as a “health” food, doesn’t really make it healthy. Whole foods are always the best way to get your food nutrition – the more processed a food is, the less natural and ultimately less healthy it is.

What’s so wrong with soy hotdogs and TVP anyway? Aren’t they good, protein-rich, meat substitutes?

Soy is more filler than food. For many years, the protein left over from the extraction of soy oil was sold to farms as animal feed. After some time, the food industry figured out how to make this highly processed soy protein palatable to the human tongue and began to aggressively market it in foods like soy dogs, soy meat substitutes and the like. Sure, there’s protein, but it also takes quite a bit of sugar, salt or MSG to make soy protein actually taste good. The healthiest foods are whole foods, not processed ones.

How will a diet heavy in soy impact my health?

Unfermented soy can inhibit protein absorption, cause flatulence and increase the chance of developing kidney stones. The processing of soy may remove some of these problems. Soy also inhibits growth. Even within the animal feed industry, the amount of soy protein that can be fed to animals has to be limited or the animals themselves will suffer problems with growth and fertility.

What’s up with genetically modified soy?

Most soy grown in the world is genetically modified (GM) – with 87% of American soy being GM. And what’s the big deal about that? Not a lot of research has been done on the effects of GM foods, but one particular study on rats showed that unborn babies and young infants were particularly harmed by the effects of genetically modified soy.

But aren’t a lot of infants fed soy-based formulas?

Soy infant formula, a common alternative to cow’s milk for lactose-intolerant babies, contains endocrine disruptors and phytoestrogens, plant hormones which have been shown to cause premature puberty in young girls and delayed puberty in adolescent boys. It’s a bit like giving a baby birth control pills. Soy infant formula also contributes to soy allergies. (Breast milk is undoubtedly the best food for babies, and if that’s not an option, goat’s milk is the next best thing to try.)

Speaking of allergies…

Soy is among the 8 most common food allergens, with reactions being particularly common among children.

Would this have anything to do with pesticides?

That remains uncertain. However, unless you buy strictly organic, you can bet your soy products are heavily contaminated with pesticides. As a matter of fact, soy is the most contaminated crop we grow in the United States. And don’t forget, non-organic soy is almost certainly genetically modified as well.

How has the demand for soy affected the Amazon rainforest?

The huge global demand for soy (for use in processed foods, animal feed and biofuels) is eating up the rainforest, because farmers have been financially motivated to clear more rainforest land in order to plant this export crop. More deforestation, more global warming.

But still, aren’t soy farms providing jobs?

Actually, for many, soy farming is less like employment and more like slavery. Although slavery was officially outlawed in Brazil over 130 years ago, debt bondage for over 25,000 people continues on Brazilian soy plantations. This is not the kind of farming industry I want to support.

Bottom line: soy is not the magical health food that many tout it to be. Let’s be clear, however, that fermented soy products don’t carry the same negative consequences as unfermented, highly processed soy foods. So if you’re shopping for miso or tempeh, make sure to choose brands that are organic and not genetically modified. And if you’ve been depending on tofu (an unfermented food) for vegetarian protein, try out some of these other vegetarian proteins instead.

Image: Umeboshi Panda

If that’s the case, you owe it to yourself to try this recipe. Developing this recipe was my first attempt at cooking it and it succeeded beyond my wildest imaginings.

A couple tips: Tempeh must be sliced thinly and then pan-fried until a golden crispy crust forms. The caramelization improves the texture and adds to the cake’s savoriness. The easy sauce for this recipe can be whisked together in moments. Add it to the pan after the tempeh becomes golden brown, where it creates an addictive sweet-tart-savory glaze. Serve this dish with brown rice and sautéed greens, such as bok choy, Chinese broccoli, or pea shoots, and you’ll be happy you tried tempeh. I sure was.

Tempeh is one of the healthiest forms of soy. The fermentation process makes the bean more digestible and creates active cultures that are good for keeping the friendly bacteria in your gut healthy. Make sure you buy organic tempeh because most conventional soybeans are made from GM (genetically modified) soybeans and are heavily sprayed with pesticides. If you can find the Kecap Manis in the ingredient list, give it a try. Look for an Asian grocery that carries items from Southeast Asia. If you strike out you may substitute a mild flavored molasses. It has a similar, though not identical, flavor profile.

Tempeh originated in Indonesia and is made by drying partially cooked soybeans and then adding yeast and letting the beans ferment. The process creates a firm cake that has a full nutty flavor when cooked properly. High in protein, vitamins, and minerals tempeh makes a good meat substitute.

Pan-Fried Tempeh with Lemongrass, Garlic, and Ginger

Serves 3

You’ll need:

1 tablespoon very finely chopped lemongrass
2 garlic cloves, minced
1-1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated on a microplane or small grater
4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
A couple shakes of your favorite chili sauce
8 ounces plain, unflavored organic tempeh (sliced into 1/4-inch-thick slices at an angle so you get wide slices)
2-3 tablespoons vegetable oil

To make:

Whisk together the lemongrass, garlic, ginger, lemon juice, Kecap Manis, soy sauce and chili sauce.

In a large sauté pan over medium-high heat, warm the vegetable oil. Start with 2 tablespoons and add more as needed. You may need to cook the tempeh in batches because it won’t crisp up properly if it’s crowded in the pan. Add the tempeh slices and let sizzle on one side, without turning, for 3-5 minutes, or until deep, golden brown. Turn and cook on the other side until brown. Remove to a paper towel lined plate if cooking in batches. After all the tempeh slices are browned, turn off the heat, pour off excess oil, if any remains, and return the slices to the pan. While the pan is still hot, add the sauce and shake the pan to make sure the sauce coats all the tempeh slices. It should sizzle and make a thick, dark glaze. Serve immediately.

Recipe Copyright 2009 Vanessa Barrington

Note: use organic ingredients whenever possible.

Image: I Love Butter

Soy: It’s everywhere. It’s eaten in copious amounts by bodybuilders, as a meat substitute by vegans and vegetarians, and unwittingly in a wide variety of processed foods by most people.

We’ve been told that soy is good for us and the fact of lower incidences of cancer and heart disease in Asian populations is cited as proof. The truth is there is no historical precedent for the amount of soy we consume in modern processed foods. Though soy did originate in Asia, it is used sparingly in Asian cuisines and more often in its traditional forms, like miso, tofu, natto, and tempeh.

According to the United Soybean Board’s own website, soy protein (processed soy) serves as a functional ingredient in the following foods and for the following applications:

Baked Goods – used to hold moisture, extend shelf life, improve texture and mouthfeel, and improve manufacturing, handling, and machine ability.

Breakfast Cereals – used to boost protein value and quantity.

Pasta – to boost nutritive value, especially in school lunches.

Beverages and Toppings – to whiten coffee creamers, emulsify, provide texture, and add protein content.

Meat, Poultry and Fish Products – to enhance moisture holding, texture, cohesion, yield, shelf life, and nutrition.

Dairy-Type Products (scary in itself) – soy protein lowers cost, improves nutrition and reduces allergenic response.

Here’s a quote from the Soybean Board website: “Processed and whole meat products can be improved by adding soy protein, which provides the product flexibility and cost stability consumers demand.”

Now, from the list of uses above and this quote, it looks to me like soy protein is a mighty functional food for the food processing industry. How did so many consumers become convinced that soy protein is a functional food for them?

Nearly 60 percent of the foods sold in supermarkets and natural food stores contain soy. Much of this is disguised in cookies, crackers, burgers and other meat products. It’s also a main ingredient in protein bars, meat substitutes, and any number of other foods.

Why is the food industry putting soy in everything?

If we look at how soy protein is made, it might give you some idea.

After soy vegetable oil is made, there is a lot of soybean meal left over. This defatted soybean meal is mixed with an alkaline solution to remove the fiber, and then washed in an acid solution to separate out the protein. The protein curds are then dipped into another alkaline solution and spray-dried at extremely high temperatures. Then it is spun into protein fibers using textile industry technology.

The food industry has figured out a way to utilize a highly processed industrial byproduct by putting it in food to extend shelf life, yield, and nutritional content. And then they’ve funded a lot of studies and spent a lot of advertising dollars to convince us that this substance is good for us.

You’ve seen some of the conflicting research (summarized below). You’ll have to decide for yourself which studies you believe and what dietary decisions are right for you.

Personally, I’m sticking to real food as close to its natural state as possible and avoiding processed foods of all types. And when I eat soy, it will be in small quantities in its traditional forms. Check back on Friday for a recipe using tempeh, a fermented soy product that originated in Indonesia.

Here is a brief summary of the claims made on either side of the bean pod along with some links to help you do your own research. The truth usually lies somewhere in between.

The “Soy is good!” camp: Soy contains isoflavones that prevent cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis and more. Soy’s phytochemicals protect against heart disease. Men who drink two servings of soymilk every day are 70% less likely to develop prostate cancer. Soy is a low fat form of protein. Soy lowers bad cholesterol. Soy prevents breast cancer. Soy builds strong bones.

The “Soy is bad!” camp: Soy doesn’t lower cholesterol as much as we first thought. The estrogens in soy can lead to breast cancer. Soy can decrease sperm count and libido. Soy can prevent ovulation. Soy can cause thyroid problems, constipation and other digestive problems. Soy is a common food allergy.

Further reading:

Mothering

Soybean Board

Woman to Woman

Steady Health

Images: Obesityhelp

Princess Isabella of Spain outlawed slavery in Brazil on May 13, 1888. And that would seem to be that. But it’s not. Raj Patel, in his book Stuffed and Starved, writes that there are somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 people enslaved in Brazil.

Though sugarcane and cattle ranches are known culprits, slavery happens on soy plantations, too. In 2003, the last year for which figures are cited, 4,932 slaves were freed from farms in Brazil – and that’s just the farms that were inspected.

As we saw in our last piece on soy, deforestation for biofuels, soy, sugar cane, cattle ranches, and other uses ruins the land that indigenous people once lived on. Combine that with massive inequalities in land ownership, and you have a recipe for slavery. As the rural poor are left with few options to make a living, they are vulnerable to promises of good jobs with decent wages on faraway plantations. What they find instead once they arrive is that they owe money for meals and transportation as well as their housing and clothing. The good wages they were promised never materialize and pretty soon they find themselves in debt bondage – stuck with no way home.

This article details some of the conditions workers endure on Brazil’s soy plantations. Workers often toil 7 days a week for more than 12 hours a day, without adequate shelter, toilets, or drinking water. They are exposed to pesticides and beaten if they try to leave. (Here’s a graphic that illustrates the problem geographically.)

This is tragic, but there is hope:

Brazil’s Landless Rural Worker’s Movement, or MST after its Portuguese name (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), is a huge and successful social movement comprised of rural farm laborers and peasant farmers ousted from land they once farmed. According to Patel’s book, in 2002 there were 5 million landless families in Brazil, with 150,000 camped out on the side of the road. The MST secures land for these families – land that they can live on, work, and begin to build a functional society upon.

Here’s how MST works: A group of people occupies unused land and works to build a society from scratch complete with farms, schools and clinics, while petitioning the government to win title to the land. After years of struggle, often violent, these groups sometimes do win title to the land.

Though some of the settlements are farmed collectively, the movement is built on democratic ideals with a highly egalitarian structure. Importantly, there is also a strong foundation in sustainable agriculture. One key tenet assures the rights of farmers to save their own seeds, which preserves biological diversity and ensures that the farmers don’t become dependent on companies like Monsanto.

Farmers on the settlements grow a variety of crops for local, human consumption and eschew the IMF and World Bank encouraged model of primarily growing cash crops for export, a practice that has led to food insecurity and famine in other developing countries. (Climate change is likely to reduce the demand for soy, incidentally.)

From the website of MST: Since 1985 the MST has won land titles for more than 350,000 families in 2,000 settlements. As a result of MST actions, and 180,000 encamped families currently await government recognition. Land occupations are rooted in the Brazilian Constitution, which says land that remains unproductive should be used for a “larger social function.”

Forget the smoothie. Put down that soy protein powder and look for Friday’s recipe using miso, one of the traditional, fermented soy products that are good for your heath.

Note: Slavery figures come from the International Labor Organization.

Image: Peter from Wellington

We’re talking about soy this month – its environmental and social impact as a monoculture crop as well as its nutritional profile. Traditional soy products, both fermented and non (tofu, miso, and tempeh) are nutritious and tasty and can be used in so many ways. It’s the processed soy products that aren’t so good for our bodies. As part of our soy series, you’ll be seeing recipes using traditional, minimally-processed soy foods.

This first recipe is easy to put together, flavorful, light, and fun to eat. Try it as an appetizer or serve it as part of a Southeast Asian meal presented family style.

Southeast Asian Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Serves 6 for an appetizer

You will need:

Dressing:
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped finely
1/3 cup fish sauce
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon Thai chili sauce

Garnish:
Peeled and finely chopped cucumber
Finely diced red onion
Finely chopped cilantro
Finely chopped mint
Finely chopped Serrano chilies, with seeds (mixed red and green is good)
Chopped roasted peanuts

Filling:
1 tablespoon peanut oil
12 ounces firm tofu, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce

Whole iceberg or large leaf lettuce leaves, washed and dried

To make:

Prepare the ingredients for the dressing and whisk together in a small serving bowl until sugar dissolves. Set aside. (Note: use organic ingredients whenever possible.)

Chop the ingredients for the garnish and place on a large platter in little piles or in individual bowls.

Heat the peanut oil in a heavy skillet over medium high heat. Add the tofu and let it cook, stirring occasionally to keep it from breaking up too much until it is warmed through and beginning to brown. Add the soy sauce, sugar and fish sauce. Cook, stirring for a few minutes, until the flavorings fully coat the tofu.

To serve:

Place the tofu filling in a bowl and serve with the garnishes and the dressing on the side, with the lettuce leaves on a separate platter.

Let each guest fill their lettuce leaves with tofu and vegetables, spooning the dressing over each portion. Roll and eat

Recipe copyright Vanessa Barrington 2009

Image: マユミ

(Note: image also depicts grilled eggplant)

You may have seen or read exposés on corn monoculture – notably, the series here at EcoSalon back in November. But there’s another crop that is just as pervasive and potentially problematic. It’s soy, which we will be exploring in a series of articles over the next few weeks.

Soybeans were first cultivated in China at least 3,000 years ago and are now an important worldwide crop for use in cooking oil, animal feed, processed food, and bio-fuels.

The U.S., Brazil, Argentina, and China produce close to 90% of the world’s soybeans. Brazil is now the world’s largest exporter of soybeans, producing about one-quarter of all soybeans, and exporting a large percentage to Europe where most of the beans are processed and used for animal feed.

The soy industry in Brazil started growing in earnest in the 1970s and has been accelerating since the early part of this century. (Between 1995 and 2004 soy output increased by 77%.)

Soybeans, like all beans, nourish the soil by fixing nitrogen, so they are not congenitally bad. But explosive growth of any monoculture crop puts pressure on the environment and the people and other creatures that depend on it.

The soy industry has been blamed for deforestation in the Amazon, and the resulting increase in greenhouse gas emissions. But that is a bit simplistic. In some ways, soy is a result of deforestation, not a cause. Illegal logging has been going on in the Amazon for a long time because the wood fetches such high prices. Once the forests are cleared, the cattle ranchers move in. After the cattle deplete the soil, the land is no longer useful for pasture. Soybeans are then planted because that’s the only thing the soil is useful for at that point, which sounds like a good fix for a bad situation.

Not so fast.

Soy is now having its own effect on accelerating the deforestation. National Geographic details how soy brings with it big infrastructure, like the highway, BR-163, that runs through the Mato Grosso, the center of soy, north to the port in Santarém. The road provides access to the forest that didn’t exist before, fueling illegal logging.

The government has tried to control the logging, but with limited resources, rampant corruption by local officials, and disputed land titles, they’ve had minimal success. Recent high demand for soy as animal feed for a burgeoning world population and for use in biofuels have caused the price of soy to skyrocket, meaning that farmers of soy plantations that abut forest are beginning to clear forest land themselves to plant more soy.

Government restrictions and the heroic efforts of indigenous people and activists slowed deforestation for a time in 2003. In 2005 Greenpeace pressured major industrial purchasers of soy to sign onto a 2-year moratorium of soy purchases from newly deforested lands, partially bolstered by the publicity generated by the murder of nun Dorothy Stang, at the hands of criminal land grabbers. The moratorium, which was set to expire in the summer of 2008, was extended for another year last summer.

However, these efforts haven’t been enough. Recently released figures from Brazil show a 3.8% increase in deforestation between August 2007 and July 2008, a period during which 3 million acres of forests were cut.

Added to the American multinationals and rich Brazilian landowners are new players in a new foreign land grab. According to The Guardian, the world food crisis is fueling a new rush to purchase Brazilian land by foreign governments like Saudi Arabia and China.

As the land becomes even more profitable, this new land rush doesn’t bode well for the forest or for the indigenous people who understand how to sustainably manage its resources.

What can we do? The first thing is to begin to question the dominance of processed soy in our food system and vote with our dollars whenever we can. The easiest way is to banish processed food, fast food, and animals fattened on soy. Cook your own fresh, local vegetables, grains and beans from scratch, and look for animal products that are organic, local and have not been produced with soy.

We’ll also be providing recipes using healthy, traditional soy products in the upcoming weeks. In the next article in this series we’ll learn about the hopeful efforts of social movements in Brazil and other countries in Latin America that work for land reform policies that serve the people, not the multinational grain, seed, pesticide, and fertilizer companies.

Image: Clearly Ambiguous