Raoul and I included several recipes in our book Tomorrow’s Table. Amazon posted one of these on the product page for the book. I would attach it here, if I only knew how.

Instead, here I append an excerpt from the book that describes how we prepare this recipe and explains why some of the ingredients are GE and some are certified organic.

First, we generally eat as much as possible from the farm basket Raoul brings home every few days. We like the variety, freshness, and ease that comes from eating off the farm. At home on weekdays, we like to prepare the food quickly, and we want it to be colorful (we figure if there are a variety of colors on the plates, then we are getting enough vitamins) and tasty.

The tofu is made from certified organic soybeans that are processed into the familiar white square blocks in a factory a few miles away. After I finish preparing the tofu, I turn on the stove to high and pour in a few tablespoons of olive oil. The oil is not certified organic but it was on sale and locally made. The low cost appeals to me and so does eating locally grown foods because it supports our neighboring farmers. The olive oil is definitely not GE because there are no GE olives on the market. Despite this fact, the label on the bottle says “GE-free.”

It is a hopeful marketing ploy that is often seen at our local food co-op where many consumers associate GE with massive farms, pesticide runoff, and high fertilizer use.

Yet genetic engineering is not the cause of these types of farms. The industrialization of agriculture, with the associated high inputs of pesticides and fertilizers, proceeded quite contentedly for years before the advent of GE, fueled mainly by governmental agricultural policies that do not put high priority on social and environmental costs. Ironically, much of the food labeled “GE-free” may have been imported from afar, grown with toxic pesticides, or be less nutritious than the local fare. In contrast, food that is GE may be locally grown without pesticides, and someday, be more nutritious than crops grown from non-GE seed.

I pull out another pan, turn a burner to high, pour in some more oil and plop down two of Micaela’s corn tortillas, made in a factory ten miles north of here. The ingredients are simple: corn, water, and salt. The corn is not certified organic and the tortillas likely contain trace amounts of Bt protein. We choose them because these are the best tasting tortillas around and they are produced close by our home.

It seems to me that these tortillas made from corn from Bt-corn plants fit well within the ecological farming framework we try to support. First, the global environment is being spared more than a hundred million pounds of much more toxic pesticides each year. Second, the tortillas likely contain reduced amounts of mycotoxins as compared to tortillas made from conventional or organic corn.

In California’s Central Valley, food is abundant, and it is fairly easy to figure out what to eat, especially if you are not overly concerned about the presence of GE ingredients. If there is meaning to be found in each meal, it is not about how the food was genetically modified, but in the freshness of ingredients, the health of the farm workers, the impact on the environment, and the mood and gratitude of the diners.

We hope you enjoy the recipe.