The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good:
Oprah and staff are going vegan for a week (or more, we'll see)!  Show airs Tuesday, Feb. 1st, 2011.
http://www.oprah.com/showinfo/Oprah-and-378-Staffers-Go-Vegan-The-One-Week-Challenge 
Her choice of Michael Pollan as a panelist sort of makes me think she is looking for validation to keep eating animal products.  He isn't vegan friendly and has never been vegan (to my knowledge) so it doesn't make much sense why he is featured on her "going vegan" show unless she still wants to eat meat.  There are SO many other much better choices for cool vegan friendly guests: Jonathan Safran Foer, Dr. Neil Barnard, Erik Marcus, Bryanna Clark Grogan, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, the list is a long one. Oh well, at least Kathy Freston will be there, too.  Still goes in the "good" category.  As a side note, I'd like to see a pay-per-view cage match between Erik Marcus and Michael Pollan. Really.

The Bad:
     The USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture) allows Monsanto (THE DEVIL) total deregulation of the use of GE (genetically engineered) alfalfa seeds. Our favorite organics, Organic Valley and Stonyfield as well as Whole Foods Market totally cave, openly supporting this policy.
     These are corporations who spent years creating a trustworthy image among organic consumers.  Actually, I don't buy Organic Valley or Stonyfield products since they are all animal based (anymore, I did when I was an omni, and I'm sure some of you do, too) and I don't shop WFM because it is so expensive and Wegmans is superior. However, I know many of us still trust these organic, coporate giants to do the right thing.  And they are NOT.  They are in bed with the USDA (WFM and OV's CEOs are personal friends with USDA Secretary, Tom Vilsak, apparently) and none of them are willing to do battle with the giant of the seed industry, Monsanto.
     The GE "Roundup Ready" alfalfa, for example, is "guaranteed to spread its mutant genes and seeds across the nation; guaranteed to contaminate the alfalfa fed to organic animals; guaranteed to lead to massive poisoning of farm workers and destruction of the essential soil food web by the toxic herbicide, Roundup; and guaranteed to produce Roundup-resistant superweeds that will require even more deadly herbicides such as 2,4 D to be sprayed on millions of acres of alfalfa across the U.S. [organic consumers article below]"  OMG.  If you haven't heard of how horrendous Monsanto is, check out the film Food, Inc..

Articles:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_22449.cfm  I wasn't aware of this organization until now (thanks, cuz!).  Check out their home page for more articles on Monsanto and other pertinent organic food related issues.  Subscribe to their e-newsletter if you are interested.

http://www.cornucopia.org/2011/01/breaking-news-usda-to-fully-deregulate-monsantos-genetically-engineer-alfalfa-gene-contamination-of-feed-milk-meat-and-other-products-to-follow/  Erik Marcus posted this article today. 

The Ugly:
I didn't get to attend any fun Vegan Pizza Day events (long story) but I did make this Ugly Vegan Pizza to show you! It is just a whole wheat pita with marinara sauce, nutritional yeast, dried basil, roasted peppers & onions and Daiya mozzarella.  It was really tasty.  I am feelin' the Daiya now, ya know?  I wasn't really feelin' it before, but something about it now, it was really really good.

            Have a great week!  Let me know if any of you catch the Oprah show, email John Mackey (the CEO of Whole Foods) or make a vegan pizza.