Is Monsanto Behind An Effort To KEEP You From Eating Healthy Food?

Since I first heard about this move by some states, in an effort supposedly underwritten and spurred by Monsanto (the makers of genetically modified seed and people who, even more than Dow Chemicals, espousing the belief of "better living through dangerous chemicals") to get some states to underwrite a national law that would BAN companies who choose NOT to put chemically-adulterated natural food like cream into their products from NOTING ON THE LABEL their decision, I have been roaring mad.

I say this not just as someone involved in another ice cream company that chooses NOT to use milk from cows treated with bovine growth hormone (rBST, sometimes also called BGH) but as a citizen who WANTS products NOT adulterated, who reads labels to determine what I prefer to buy.

I'm not natural-food-nik; sadly, like everyone else, I eat my share of chemicals. But in various areas, I prefer NOT to provide certain chemicals to my family when I can choose another product that DOES NOT possess them.

To force yet another law down our throats that would PURPOSELY deceive us in labeling is just WRONG.

Name Your Best Films/Documentaries/Books of 2007?

(And yes, if you have WORSTies, you can cite those, too.)

While Time Magazine and CNN and all the usual suspects rush to TELL US what films, books, and yes, even scandals were the best and worst of 2007, we're all thinking people here who don't need to be told what we can reason for ourselves.

With this in mind, what films/documentaries and books did YOU find to be the best of 2007?

Some of my big favorite books (and they would go on a big favorites list that spans more than just this year, btw) also happened to find their way onto my Christmas wish list, and I've already devoured two. These are:

* "Touch and Go" - Studs Terkel's excellent memoirs (he's a national treasure!)
* "The Omnivore's Dilemma" - Michael Pollan, an excellent follow-up to his mind-opening botany book that discusses how Americans really ARE what we eat
* "Deep Economy" - a must-read by Bill McKibben, a Vermont neighbor, that gives us a real eye-opener of an understanding of how the economy, much of which escapes our attention, drives our lives and politics and the future of this planet

But I can't fail to note the late, forever great Kurt Vonnegut's last book that I literally inhaled, "A Man Without A Country".

As for films and documentaries, I would rank "An Unreasonable Man" (about Ralph Nader), Michael Moore's "Sicko", and "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" among a slew of excellent works that I saw this year.

What about your favorites?

In The "Insanity Doesn't Run In My Household, It Races!" Department

[Note: Please do NOT refer to me as the "Good Humor" gal. I'm distinctly a Bad Humor sorta salesperson.]

Part of the reason you're seeing more "blurt" types of posts here is preparation to move again (while I have not found the right place to go) and find a new job strangely interferes with my ability to sleep, eat, and cope with the ongoing bedlam that comes with starting an "old-fashioned" premium ice cream business here in Ben & Jerry's backyard (literally).

The ice cream business isn't mine, but it might as well be. I'm the one who decided to try to develop my own from-scratch ice cream just for friends and family and quickly found everyone saying, "I'm not kidding; you could have a hit if you can produce this commercially."

As my partner John said endlessly, "You must sell this!", I kept saying, "Look, I hate ice cream so I only make it when you and/or guests want it. But hey, if you're so sure, then take my recipe and figure out a way to produce it." Uh... for once, he listened (awww....) and the rest will live on in infamy. It's been eye-opening; you can't believe how hard the government makes it for humans to have anything natural in their diet!

Then, with the news we had to find a new place quickly, suddenly the Vermont Milk Company (the producer of various dairy items) called up and said, "We're making the ice cream in the morning." Unfortunately, however, no one mentioned that the "pasteurized" eggs they were including in this recipe (a custard style ice cream like in the old days) had more salt than anything I've ever tasted. Mouth-burning kind of salt.

Once salt goes in, you can't really compensate elsewhere to effectively cure the sodium overdose. Thus we sadly had to torpedo the first batch (all 500 pints) and miss out on Memorial Day weekend sales. VMC has been quite good about working out a solution.

So here we are, in the same 2-3 days in which we need to get moved, with hundreds of pints of ice cream from milk ONLY produced in Vermont, and only from dairy farmers who do not use bovine growth hormone or any of that other yucky stuff. (Fantastic paired with apple pie, cake, root beer for floats, high end milkshakes, atop Belgian waffles with/without blueberries, strawberries, melted chocolate, or whatever your fancy.)

Suddenly, the Suzuki has a freezer installed and we're staying up late in the night, in "clean room" apparel, labeling containers, while we debate the other flavors we may want to add (white chocolate? white chocolate with Rainier cherries? The tasty maple variations with or without nuts? holiday eggnog version or "Dangerously Dark Chocolate"? and with/without roasted pear or apple... or ...?

Hey, at least I'm involved with a product where - thank you my lactose intolerantbelligerent digestive system! - I do not need to worry about eating the profits. Talk about getting one's just dessert.