Medeiros - The Vermont Non-GMO cookbook: 125 organic and farm-to-fork recipes from the Green Mountain State

Copyright 2017 by Tracey Medeiros

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Cover design by Jane Sheppard

Cover photo credits: top row left and right by Brent Harrewyn, Hoverfly Photography; top row center, courtesy Woods Market Garden; bottom row center, courtesy Evi Abeler; all other images by Oliver Parini

Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-2272-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-2273-6

Printed in China

I dedicate this book to my mother, Sheridan, for your guidance and intuition, which are always spot-on. Everything that has inspired my culinary journey started at home. Thank you for giving me the strength to reach for the stars and follow my dreams.

Contents

Acknowledgments

I t is my hope that those folks who read The Vermont Non-GMO Cookbook will not only enjoy its mouthwatering recipes, interesting profiles, and beautiful photographs, but also gain a new awareness and respect for those who toil long and hard to give us a product that benefits both the land and consumer. A wholehearted thank-you to all of the organic farmers and the chefs, as well as the non-GMO food producers for their strong sense of community and unshakable love for Vermonts land and its bounty.

Thank you to the entire team at Skyhorse Publishing that helped me to put this book together, particularly editorial director Abigail Gehring and my editor, Brooke Rockwell, for giving me the wonderful opportunity to bring the vision for this book to fruition. A special thank-you to Tony Lyons, president and publisher of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

A huge well done to Oliver Parini and all of the other very talented photographers whose stunning work graces these pages. Food stylist Natalie Wise for making the food look delectable. To my enthusiastic recipe tester, Sarah Strauss, who had such an important job and did it well. My beloved husband, Peter, for your supportive spirit as well as your invaluable taste testing feedback. Finally, my amazing son, Peter, who inspires me every day. It is a joy to see the world through your eyes. Always remember that I love you to the moon and back!

A portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Rural Vermont.

Rural Vermont

Rural Vermont is a nonprofit, grassroots, membership organization founded in 1985. One of our primary goals is to ensure that farmers and the people they feed, which is pretty much all of us, have a voice in the creation of public policies that affect our lives.

Rural Vermont was one of the first organizations in the U.S. to raise concerns about the introduction of genetically engineered crops into our food system back in the early 1990s. We were vocal advocates for requiring labels on milk produced from cows treated with genetically engineered bovine growth hormone. Although the labeling law Vermont passed then was overturned by the courts, it launched a consumer movement that led to voluntary labeling by much of the dairy industry in the northeast.

In 2012, Rural Vermont was a founding member of the Vermont Right to Know GMOs Coalition, which included the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Vermont (NOFA-VT), the Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG), and Cedar Circle Farm, and led a huge, statewide grassroots effort that resulted in the passage of Vermonts historic GMO Food Labeling law in 2014. This statewide campaign also collaborated with the then growing national effort to pass labeling laws in many states. Only Vermont was successful in passing a no-strings-attached food labeling law, which went into effect on July 1, 2016.

Just a few weeks later, Congress passed a national GMO labeling bill that would nullify Vermonts Labeling law. However, Vermonts successful campaign, and dozens of other state-based, citizen-led labeling campaigns have created a national movement that has forever changed what Americans know about their food. The fight for true transparency in our food system continues!

Andrea Stander, Executive Director, Rural Vermont

Foreword

D o you love making delicious, healthy food for your family and friends? Does it make your heart sing when your food choices also help your community, its local farmers, and this beautiful planet that we all share? Then you have chosen the cookbook that is just right for you!

Tracey Medeiros shines when it comes to cookbooks that highlight recipes that feature healthy, locally grown foods. With this exciting new book, she is adding to her delicious body of work by spotlighting the benefits of choosing non-GMO food. Travel with her throughout the state of Vermont to visit the people who are working to make non-GMO products a part of our everyday lives.

Why is the theme of this book so important? Why do so many people care enough to insist that non-GMOs be part of a healthy diet focused on natural foods? Throughout time, humans have bred new strengths into plants through the natural process of developing hybrids from cross-pollination. With genetic engineering, technicians in labs insert genes from other organisms into the DNA of seeds. Those modifications then show up in every cell of the plant, from its roots and flowers to the fruit and grains we eat. The majority of the genetic modifications either add Bt ( Bacillus thuringiensis ) toxin, which acts as an insecticide into plant DNA, or gives the plant the ability to resist herbicides such as glyphosate, and in some cases both can occur.

As a safeguard, a growing number of people in the United States want to know what is in their food so they can make their own decisions about what foods to buy. Meanwhile, other countries are also taking a precautionary approach to GMOs. More than sixty countries ban or severely restrict the use of GMOs, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, Australia, China, Russia, India, Greece, and Mexico.

If you are from Vermont or, like me, love the Green Mountain State, you can take special pride in the fact that Vermont passed the first U.S. mandatory GMO labeling law. Unfortunately, it was preempted by a much weaker federal law, which leaves us all waiting to see what kind of regulations will be created to implement that law. We have to wonder, with no U.S. regulations yet in place to address the labeling of GMOs, which would allow people to know whats in their food, what exactly is the extent of the GMOs in the foods we eat? The Grocery Manufacturers Association estimates that 7080 percent of the packaged foods you can buy on grocery store shelves today contain GMOs. Why? Because about 90 percent of the most common ingredients used in processed foods are GMO corn, including high fructose corn syrup; soy, including soy lecithin; sugar beets, the most common form of sugar after corn syrup; canola, a common oil used in packaged foods; and cottonseed oil.