Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Rome. There I will connect with five friends, take the shuttle to the train station and catch the train to Cortona. Thus begins a three week adventure through Italy, Greece and London! To say I’m excited is an understatement. And what makes it even more memorable for me, I arrive in Rome May 13th, the third anniversary of my life-saving surgery. I have so much to celebrate and I’m filled with gratitude and joy.
The last two days of my trip will be in London, where I will attend a tea party in my honor as well as in honor of the first anniversary of Little Pod, an English vanilla company owned by Janet Sawyer. We have become great online friends, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting her in person.
Tim Ecott, author of Vanilla, a British book that came out about the same time as my cultural history book, Vanilla will be joining us. I met Tim here in California when he was doing the research for his book and we became good friends and collaborated with one another on obscure details and information each of us unearthed. It seems fitting that Tim, who lives outside of London, should be there with us — three vanillaphiles for tea! Sounds rather like the title of a play.
I had big plans before I left to write another blog besides this one. I have been baking my way through Alice Medrich’s new book, Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, and I had hoped to tell you about some of the recipes and give them to you. However, time has gotten the best of me as it so often does given I’m working seven days a week, and so you will have to either run out and buy her book, which I recommend you do if you have a cookie addiction, or wait until I return, review her book and post pictures and recipes.
In the meantime, I’m providing you with several links that are pertinent for those of us who love food and are also concerned about the safety of our food supply, which you should be!
According to the Brand-Spark and Better Homes and Gardens American Shopper Study, 80 percent of consumers are looking for brands that are healthy. 70 percent of consumers are trying to reduce their consumption of processed foods. And 60 percent are looking for food products that can reduce the risks of major health issues.
Unfortunately, what the majority of people don’t know or don’t quite understand, is that we have a rapidly increasing number of foods that are genetically modified, and that spell great future danger for us all. I’ve written about this in several of my blogs because I’m very concerned about the future of food in America.
I invite you to check out the links I’m including here and to become more educated yourselves about what’s happening if you haven’t already done so, as we are facing the potential of losing control of our food supply and the option of organic foods.
This first link is a short talk on TED by Robyn O’Brien, a Wall Street broker turned food activist after one of her children developed a severe allergy due to genetically modified food. Robyn talks about genetically modified food and allergies here.
The next link is a short article on Care2.com that talks about toxic gene pollution. You should know about toxic gene spills in order to better understand how our organic foods can be destroyed by genetically modified crops.
I rather like this article. It’s about how Monsanto may end up destroying itself because they have not been testing their genetically modified crops and the crops aren’t producing as well as they should be. I’ve seen photos of some of their crops and they were not nearly as healthy as their unmodified counterparts. Read about it here.
This last article is only distantly related to the above three, but I’m posting it now as so many people are learning that they have a gluten sensitivity or have celiac. Working at New Leaf, I talk with people every day who have a gluten sensitivity. In fact, I have a wheat allergy and my son-in-law, grandson and sister-in-law have gluten sensitivities.
Until recently, most people with gluten sensitivities thought they had stomach problems, reflux disorder or irritable bowel syndrome. It is only within the last ten years that this common illness is being properly diagnosed. Unfortunately, the FDA has not come up with definitive guidelines for gluten-free products.
While it might seem like a no-brainer to avoid wheat, barley and rye, you would be astonished by how many “invisible ingredients” contain gluten. For that matter, you would be equally astonished at how many “invisible ingredients” contain genetically modified ingredients!
And herein lies the dilemma. Products containing gmo’s don’t need to be labeled as such in the U.S. Additionally, the FDA has not set standards to protect people who have gluten sensitivities. You can read about the FDA issue here.
If you are still wavering about whether any of this really matters, please watch The Future of Food. And if you already are concerned, watch it as hopefully you will then join those of us who are organizing to push back against the corruption and power of the big players in the food industry.
Rather than complete this blog on a low note, I will be gathering inspiration and recipes along my journey. I will have a computer at my disposal and if I feel so inclined, I might even post a blog or two along the way. And if not, I promise when I return to share all that I’ve learned with you!
Ciao for now,
The V.Q.
