The Grazing Mind

Although the recommendations for soy in the diet of breast cancer patients have long been the source of considerable debate, current research and guidelines from the American Cancer Society[1] suggest that soy foods can be part of a healthy diet for breast cancer patients and survivors.

The confusion over the health effects of soy stems from concern over the theory that soy isoflavones, plant-based compounds found naturally in soyfoods, could potentially promote estrogen-dependent breast cancer growth. Human clinical trials have not supported this theory; rather they have found that soy isoflavones do not promote the growth of breast cells or increase breast tissue density, both of which are markers of breast cancer risk.[2]

Despite this, many women with breast cancer are told to avoid soy “just in case” there could be negative effects. The results of three major studies suggest that avoiding soy is unnecessary, and that soy may in fact have important health benefits.

The most recent study, presented this week at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting, showed that eating soy foods such as soymilk and tofu did not increase the risk of cancer recurrence in over 18,000 breast cancer survivors.[3] Lead researcher Xiao Shu, MD, PhD noted “our results indicate it may be beneficial for women to include soy food as part of a healthy diet, even if they have had breast cancer.”

These findings are consistent with other recent research, including a large study of over 5,000 breast cancer patients that found that soy food intake was associated with improved prognosis.⁴ In fact, patients with the highest intake of soy foods (about two servings of soy foods/day) had a reduced risk of tumor recurrence.[4] A third study of 2,000 breast cancer patients showed similar positive effects of soy.[5]

The latest data indicate whole soy foods (such as edamame, soymilk or tofu) can play a role in healthy diets for breast cancer patients and survivors. Recommendations in a recent editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association concurred, stating “Clinicians can advise their patients with breast cancer that soy foods are safe to eat and that these foods may offer some protective benefit for long-term health. Patients with breast cancer can be assured that enjoying a soy latte or indulging in pad thai with tofu causes no harm, and when consumed in plentiful amounts, may reduce the risk of disease recurrence.”[6]

For more information, please visit our SoyNutrition.com site, which contains links to these studies, a fact sheet summarizing the latest evidence around soy and breast cancer and an interactive Q&A with our panel of soy experts.

The biggest retailer in the world just announced it’s going to work to make food healthier, and make healthier food choices more affordable. Why is this important? Because the biggest retailer in the world, just may be the only retailer, or even organization, in the world that can make it happen.

Awhile back we touched on the topic of the American food system, and how it’d be really hard to change. Well, if Wal*Mart follows through, this is the thing that’s going to change everything.

Stay tuned…

Check it out – Our Silk brand’s Pure Almond milk was featured in the Wall Street Journal, no big deal…

Every time I have the opportunity to visit a family farm or a farmer’s market, I feel such an overwhelming sense of connection to my food, the environment and the good, hard-working people who help grow my food.

Generally speaking, as a society, we’ve become so disconnected from our food and the journey it takes from farm to shelf to table. The grocery store has become the perceived “source” of food to many.  Meat, for example, comes nicely trimmed and packaged from the butcher’s counter, with little to no reminder of the animal that gave its life. Lettuces have been uniformly chopped, tripled washed and sealed in a plastic bag with no connection back to the land from which it was pulled. When a fundamental connection and to and visibility into sources of our food is lost, so is, I believe, the demand for a better, more sustainable food system. What you don’t know won’t hurt you, right? Not so much.

But despite some very big obstacles in our food system as it is today, there is also a lot of important and meaningful work happening. Thought-leaders, farmers, law makers, nutritionists, and companies across the country are mobilizing, engaging and educating people in new ways, more than ever, to fight for ensuring more good food for more people. However, it is the farmers, especially, who make me feel proud to be part of the sustainable foods community.

Last month, I had the unforgettable opportunity to tour the farm of Paul Willis, in Thornton, Iowa. Paul is the founding Niman Ranch hog farmer and a true visionary in sustainable farming. When you visit farms like Paul’s it’s obvious why the pork tastes so good—you see the thoughtful care of the animals and the land working in perfect harmony. Those piggies couldn’t look happier, hanging out and socializing on beautiful, lush pasture—literally “frolicking” through the fields. It’s the sort of experience where you can’t imagine a hog farm being any other way, even though Paul’s farming practices are the exception rather than the rule.

Also as part of my visit to Iowa, I was able to attend a celebration honoring the network of Niman Farmers who uphold the values of sustainable farming. The Niman Ranch Farmer Appreciation Dinner in Des Moines brings together renowned chefs from across the country, who carry Niman Ranch at their restaurants, to serve an amazing, pork-inspired menu as a thank you to the farmers who make it all possible. It was a hogilicious experience.

I also feel lucky to work for a company that shares these same values and also applauds the farmers who help us bring organic dairy to the masses. WhiteWave’s Horizon Organic brand recently did some of our own farmer appreciatin’. A long-time supporter of Farm Aid and sustainable ag, Horizon sponsored Farm Aid’s 25^th anniversary concert in Milwaukee, Wis last weekend. At the event, we announced our annual Horizon Organic Producer Education (HOPE) Award, which honors those among our 500 family farmers who create positive change in their communities by practicing and serving as a model for organic agriculture. Harvey and Connie Frasier of Mohawk, N.Y., received this year’s award. The Frasier’s are fourth generation farmers, who transitioned from conventional to organic farming a decade ago and have never looked back thanks to the benefits they’ve seen for both their family and their cows. Today, in addition to running their organic farm, they have become vocal educators and advocates of organic, helping transitioning farmers with their certification paperwork or providing tours of their farm.

The Willis’ and Frasiers inspire me and are just two examples of the many, many family farmers that are making a difference and farming in a way that’s better for all of us. Plus, when you meet the good people who work so hard to farm in a more thoughtful way, not only does the food taste better but it “feels” better, knowing you have that connection to what’s on your plate.

In honor of Non-GMO day today, here are a few links to help you:

1. Find retailers who are participating near you

2. Hear what our Silk brand’s vice president thinks about the issues around GMOs

3. Hear what scientists recently found out about genetically modified corn (not good news)

Interesting piece in the NYTimes, shining a light on what some believe to be a soon to come crackdown on antibiotic usage in livestock farming operations. Though the new guidelines would not eliminate the use of antibiotics entirely - “The guidelines, which are voluntary and will not have the binding force of regulations, would end farm uses of the drugs simply to promote faster animal growth and call for tighter oversight by veterinarians.” if this does play out as expected, it could possibly clear the path for an overall ban, something that’s already taken place in Europe.

The bigger question here isn’t whether or not to eliminate antibiotic and growth hormone usage in livestock farming operations. WhiteWave is in complete support of this. In fact, we already do that. The question is how can an entire industry eliminate the use of antibiotics and growth hormones in livestock without seriously crippling itself? For all the flaws associated with the current infrastructure around food production, it’s still a really efficient and profitable system — a system that’s been developed over the course of a few decades. Changing it is going to be hard.

Aside from the antibiotic argument, some believe that large-scale operations should be eliminated all together. That’s just not possible if we want to feed everyone. However, large-scale operations do need to find ways to adopt small scale principles if  the current system is to become safer and more sustainable.

Our Horizon brand offers a good example of the possibilities. We partner with more than 500 farmers across the country who provide more than 90 percent of our milk, but we also own two of our own farms, one of which spans about 9,000 acres and milks nearly 2,400 cows a day. It’s big. And because we’re connected to a larger organization (Dean Foods), we have the ability to heavily invest in technologies and processes that have helped the farm operate efficiently and organically, on a large scale.

For example the dairy is able to grow more than 70 percent of the feed the cows eat, and with the help of Holistic Management International, has established an impressive grazing system to get our cows on pasture as much as possible. Even when the cows aren’t on pasture, the barn they inhabit is designed to keep them comfortable and healthy, equipped with mattresses for each cow and open access to free roam areas outside the barn.

The farm also gives us an opportunity to try new things. As we continue to learn new, sustainable ways to care for our cows, we pass what we learn on to our family-farmer partners, just as they pass what they learn back to us.

We of course aren’t all the way there, and can always get better, but the farm is in our opinion a really strong example of how big and small can come together to find a middle ground, and begin to reshape the system.

The three rules of dumpster diving:

1. Never take more than you need… unless you find it a good home

2. First ones to the dumpster have first dibs… but you always gotta share

3. Leave it cleaner than you found it

These rules were developed by the makers of Dive!; a documentary that follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles’ supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good, edible food. But after a while of feeding his own family, Jeremy begins to question why this food isn’t finding room on the plates of more people that need it. He underscores this important question with an overwhelming statistic:  “Every year in America we throw away 96 billion pounds of food. Which means we’re feeding our landfills as much we’re feeding our country”.

Since releasing the film, Jeremy and crew have been on a grassroots crusade to fix the problem. Their message is simple: Take the food we throw out – give it to people who can’t afford it. Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to do that.

Just about every grocery store in America is required by law to take food off the shelf after a certain amount of time. That doesn’t mean the food is rotten, though, or that grocery stores have to toss good food in the garbage bin.  Many retailers, in fact, have developed great programs to get this food to nearby food banks. But they can’t do it every day. To do so would be a massive undertaking requiring the support of all stakeholders: food companies, retailers, non-profits, consumers and government.

As a food company, we know we play an important role in creating a solution, which is why last week we invited the makers of Dive! and Congressman Jared Polis (who’s doing some great things in the realm of ending childhood hunger) to screen the film and discuss ideas around finding a solution. Some great ideas were presented, a healthy discussion ensued, and moving forward we’ve all committed to keep the dialogue going not just among the Dive! folks, WhiteWave and Congressman Polis, but with all our contacts across government, the retailers we work with and consumers who buy our products.

Stay tuned to TGM for more updates on how this project progresses, and in the meantime you should definitely check out Dive!. You should probably “Like” their Facebook page too…

Back in the ‘70s, when WhiteWave first started out, our mission was to bring soy to the masses. The biggest issue we faced then wasn’t competition, it was getting people to embrace soy as an alternative to dairy. None of that has changed. We are pioneers, who created and are now evolving and growing the category. But growth doesn’t come without growing pains. Don’t get me wrong, the more plant and soy-based products people consume, the more proud we are of our work. It means that we’ve succeeded in helping people make better, healthier choices. But it also means we now have to compete with other companies.

It’s always been our goal to grow the soymilk category, but it’s also our goal to maintain our leadership position in the category, something we set in motion over 30 years ago, and we’re going to protect it. But this does raise an important question – did we make the right decision adding all-natural options to our Silk Soymilk portfolio?

The answer is simple. Maintaining that leadership position depends on increasing the access people have to our products. This means putting Silk products on more shelves in more stores. It also means making our products affordable. Sourcing US-based all-organic beans would have required increasing our prices. And increasing our prices, especially in this economy, would have made it hard for people to buy our soymilk. Not all our consumers, but some. More importantly, making Silk difficult to purchase would have prevented new people from choosing our product or even entering the marketplace at all.

It’s important to note that the all-natural Silk options are an addition to our portfolio. What does that mean? Well, Natural to us means our beans are NON-gmo and have no artifical colors or flavors. We also wanted to keep Silk sustainable, so we only source our soybeans in the U.S. We still offer organic versions of three of our most popular flavors, with our unsweetened soymilk now exclusively organic. It’s also worth noting that we sell more organic soymilk than all of our competitors combined, three times as much actually. Every soybean we source comes from here in the US. In the coming year, our products will carry the Non-GMO Project-verified seal, and soon people will have the ability to track the sources of the soybeans in their Silk products on our website.

Stay tuned to The Grazing Mind, as we’ll be taking a closer look in the next few weeks at our Silk products, the sources we carefully choose and the partnerships that will help us continue to be the number one brand of soymilk in the U.S.

Check this out, from NAU’s The Thought Kitchen, who just announced their Grant for Change winner – Truck Farm

written by Luana Hancock

I work for WhiteWave and my husband for Chipotle Mexican Grill—two Colorado-based food companies that have missions aimed at changing the way people think about and eat food. This common ground inspires lots of lively conversations about food at our house (usually enjoyed over a delicious meal, of course). We talk about how our food choices impact our health, overall wellbeing/happiness, environment, world economies, cultures, and access. One question my husband and I continue to come back to, though, is whether or not big is bad.

Horizon, one of our brands at WhiteWave, is a great answer to this question. Horizion all started with a small cooperative of organic dairy farms in 1991. As the company grew, our bigger size didn’t prevent us from focusing on the health of families and our planet. In fact, it actually allowed us to help more people get access to more organic dairy products. It also provided more opportunities for farmers. Over the past 19 years or so, WhiteWave and Horizon have helped farms transition to organic practices through education, scholarships and financial support. We’ve converted hundreds of thousands of acres to organic farmland, which uses methods and materials that lower the impact to the environment. Today, we work with more than 500 organic family farms across the country.

Similarly, Chipotle recently opened its 1000^th restaurant, which totally blows my mind. The little burrito joint that CEO Steve Ells opened back in ’93 to fund the “real restaurant” that he—as a classically trained chef—aspired to have, struck a chord with diners that still drives Chipotle’s success today. In a nutshell, you get super tasty, flavorful food for not very much money. Add to that their commitment to sourcing sustainably produced ingredients and you’ve got quite a combo. For example, they were the first national restaurant company to commit to serving naturally raised meat. Today, Chipotle’s commitment to smart, healthy and sustainable practices translates to 75 million pounds of naturally raised meat this year alone. In other words, by virtue of its size, Chipotle, like WhiteWave’s Horizon brand, has provided more opportunities to more farmers to viably farm in a way that’s more sustainable.

Clearly these two companies are a part of my life. Not only is my livelihood tied to them, but they’ve also helped shape my own thoughts and beliefs on what food means to people and the role companies can play. This is not to say that any company, like any person for that matter, is perfect or without growing pains. But the concept that the size of a company, or its ability to grow, automatically determines its value to society is a limiting one. Big isn’t necessarily bad. In the case of WhiteWave and Chipotle, the ability to scale up good food can actually drive meaningful change. I’m proud to be part of that.