We are what we eat

Yes, you may eat a spare rib, but that pig ate, mostly, oilseed product, of which soybeans are 90 percent of all oilseed crops in the USA (sunflower, canola, flax and peanuts make up the rest). Same feedstuffs for cows. Same with sheep (lamb). And, somewhat sadly, farmed fish. And then there are those who love tofu — made entirely of soybeans.

To grow soybeans, worldwide called soya crops, you need tons of water and the planting season is seasonal up north, awaiting the soil temperature to reach 50 degrees. All along the Mississippi River — water needs — you can grow soya almost year-round but there is a huge problem. Soya need tons and tons of fertilizer — nitrogen especially. Besides the runoff issue into the Mississippi and other rivers promoting algae blooms and dead fish all the way to the Gulf — the agribusiness folks love soya because it sells and so they get lobbying support from the oil industries who — you guessed it — make all the fertilizer. To farm soya you first go to the bank and raise money and also buy crop insurance (more $ for those businesses). Then you finance your tractor, fuel, and equipment. Don’t forget the mortgage on your farm…oh, and you have to buy guaranteed expensive seed (or else the bank won’t lend you money) from Monsanto which genetically modified the soya to allow RoundUp to be used to suppress all vegetation except soya. It’s all a closed financial loop and the public relations’ machine will always refer to soya and soybeans as healthy and economic because there is, in fact, no other food stuffs crop that is nearly as cheap or plentiful.

Interestingly, the vegetarian crowd always promote soybeans tofu over meat because it is “natural” and “sustainable.” Their argument is that cows fart and are wasteful for the environment. The day I see vegetarians never buying leather shoes, crayons, insecticide, shaving cream, protein shampoo, bone china, emery boards, polished medical instruments, most make-up, antifreeze, unique life-saving medicines, most soaps…and on and on…then I’ll believe their commitment to their “plant” diet. Oh, and the argument that non-meat people only buy plastic shoes doesn’t work either because most plastics need some of the by-product from cattle as well as the millions of insects, bees, and underground fungi that die with the pollution from plastics’ chemical refineries and waste.

Okay, some good news. In the UK and India they have found a totally tasteless pea plant. So tasteless is this plant that it has never been cultivated anywhere commercially. Why is a pea plant interesting? Pea plants hardly ever need nitrogen. Never. Pea plants get nitrogen from the air. And these tasteless pea plants get 60% more nitrogen from the air than soybeans do. There is a downside to this new crop, you have to rotate crops every other year. There is an upside: pea plants can be sown when the ground is 35 degrees, months earlier than soybeans, especially up north. And pea plants need 30% less water as well. And pea plant seeds, especially these tasteless ones, make perfect tasteless tofu while the pea greenery is very healthy for cattle, pigs, sheep, and chickens. They love it.

Two small problems. It’ll take 5 years for there to be enough new pea seeds for industrial scale planting and, of course, the agribusiness folks will have to wean off their dependence on the petrochemical industry, just a little. Monsanto will want a foothold, you can be sure, especially their relationship with the crop insurers and banks. Europe and India are, so far, resisting any genetic modification to accommodate their RoundUp business model.

One small plus to add here: the new pea plant can be grown in 65% more farms in the U.S. and Europe grown early, harvested, and some farms can plant a second crop of, say, rape seed — which will cause prices to fall and decrease the need for Brazil to cut down more rainforest to plant soya. And India is seeing the pea crops as a way to decrease RoundUp’s hold on small farmers there too.

Peter Riva, a former resident of Amenia Union, now lives in New Mexico.