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18 consumers with specific diets. "Taste has come a really long way," he said. "It might not be perfect yet, but it's finally at the point where people don't feel like they're making a huge sacrifice in order to eat what they think is better for them. That makes the difference. Taste rules at the end of the day." "The innovation that has taken place in the last three years alone has been tremendous," said O'Malley. "Beyond Meat and Impossible were the innovators. They broke the glass ceiling when it came to products perceived as either vegan or vegetarian, and now they're viewed as great products for anybody -- not just vegans and vegetarians but for meat-eaters as well. These products continue to get better and better, where the line that's perceived between animal-based meat and plant- based meat has been blurred already." "They're really good. This is comfort food," he added. "It doesn't matter if it's plant-based or animal-based, it's really good food, and that's the key." Caulipower, a brand in Boulder Food Group's portfolio, makes a chicken tender f rom cauliflower with an almost identical taste and texture to the real thing. A brand called Ocean Hugger Foods has an ahi tuna alternative made f rom shaved tomato that, wrapped in seaweed paper and rice, is said to taste just like a f resh piece of sushi. Through its $150 million Tyson Ventures Fund, Tyson has investments in a variety of alternative protein ventures, including mushroom-based technology and cell-cultured meat. O'Malley says that's going to change grocery stores for good. His own brand is among the first plant-based meat alternatives to be featured in the deli department, out of the package. "Our products are designated and geared to be in the protein department, which most would call the meat department today, but we like to call it the protein department," O'Malley said. "In a few years, that's what it will be -- retailers are opening up space for plant-based proteins, and I know in the next year or two most retailers will have a section in the meat department for plant- based proteins." KN BIG MEAT MUSCLES Cont. from page 17 f rom about 250 million bushels during the period of 1869–1871 to more than 750 million bushels during the period of 1919– 1921. Then came the Great Depression and the collapse of agricultural markets that led to the paradox of huge national grain surpluses and widespread hunger. The New Deal followed, with the Roosevelt Administration's Agricultural Adjustment Act, which paid farmers to fallow some of their acreage when the nation had a grain surplus. New Deal agricultural policies that controlled national grain supplies and stabilized markets remained in force until 1971, the beginning of Earl Butz's tenure as Secretary of Agriculture. Butz's policies, encapsulated in his decree that farmers needed to "Get big or get out," reversed the New Deal's protections for family farmers in favor of industrial agriculture, bigger equipment, more acreage. That was the farming economy that Oien returned to in 1976. His father had resisted that temptation to get big even as neighbors around him were deciding that, presented with a choice that wasn't really a choice, they were getting out and putting their farms up for sale. "One of the pieces of wisdom he left me was that he'd rather have the neighbors than the neighbors' land," Oien said. "That meant we needed to make our small farm viable in a different way." Inspired by Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," Frances Moore Lappe's "Diet for a Small Planet " and the connection between Earth and humanity explicated in "Black Elk Speaks," Oien set to work to convert the family farm to organic production just at the time Lappe and others were helping Americans understand that there might be a connection between what they were eating and their own health as well as the planet's. "My approach has always been, 'Get better and you can stay in.' For me, getting better meant converting the farm to organic production," he said. "Our farm is 260 cultivated acres, while the average farm in Montana is about 2,400 acres, nearly 10 times larger. There are some farms in my county that are 20,000 acres, so our farm is not only small – in a sense, it's obsolete. But on the other hand, converting it to organic and developing the inf rastructure to process our crops has allowed the farm to survive another generation." Practicing organic agriculture meant finding a means of replenishing soil depleted by nitrogen-hungry wheat crops without the use of synthetic chemicals. " The challenge with monocropping, monoculture within a given field, is that it makes those crops more susceptible to disease, to insects, and also requires input of chemical fertilizers. The crops that we grow, such as lentils, chickpeas and peas, are soil-building crops by their ver y nature," Oien said. "They're legumes that have the power to capture the atmospheric nitrogen and convert it into nitrogen in the soil that's accessible to crops." In 1987, Oien joined three fellow organic farmers: Bud Barta, Jim Barngrover and Tom Hastings, in a company called Timeless Seeds to introduce those leguminous crops to other farmers in the northern Great Plains and spread the gospel of organic production. Their experiments with pulses, the edible seeds of legumes like peas and lentils, coincided with the growth of the natural food industry in the early 1990s that created a demand for organic grains and seeds, and Timeless Seeds capitalized on that demand to grow the inf rastructure they needed to turn their raw crops into marketable organic food products. In 2001, the company created its Timeless Natural Food retail line of premium lentils, peas, chickpeas and heirloom grain. To supply that line, the company now works with about 50 certified organic family farms, primarily across Montana with a few in neighboring states as well. "We provide them the opportunity to grow crops that diversify the cropping rotation and to grow crops that are higher value," Oien said. "I think one of the things that's most promising is that we are not only supporting these farms, but we're also having a greater and greater environmental impact across the northern Great Plains. As the market for high-quality plant-based protein grows, farmers can convert some or all of their land to certified organic production, and Timeless is part of the inf rastructure to find or create high-value markets for family farms by distributing to food retailers, restaurants and chefs, institutional food ser vice and food manufacturers." Visit www.timelessfood.com for more information about Timeless Seeds and the company's Timeless Natural Food retail product line. KN DRYLAND FARMERS Cont. from page 17 manufacturing ser vices to other companies that have a granola formula but not a facility. "Even after all this time, baking is still my greatest passion," she said. "I don't get to do it that often any more, that that's what I love working with most in the business." Crazy Monkey Baking is now offered in Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip and Dark Chocolate Chip, Mint Chocolate Chip and Cranberry Almond flavors in 1.25- ounce bags that are smart-snack approved for schools. They retail for 99 cents to $1.49. Those four flavors plus White Chocolate Cranberr y are also offered in 7.5-ounce bags along with a rotation of seasonal flavors that includes Cinnamon Pecan in the winter, Lemon Coconut in summer and Pumpkin Seed & Spice in the fall. Additional special-edition flavors also appear occasionally. "We have a variety of flavors, so there's some variety to appeal to the kids and adults alike," Humrichouser said. All of the products are wheat f ree and made with 100 percent whole grains. Oats are naturally gluten f ree, and the products are sweetened with honey, molasses and evaporated cane sugar. A serving of the Dark Chocolate Chip flavor Granola Cookie Crunch contains 8 grams of added sugars and 6 grams of fat along with 3 grams of protein and 150 calories. "There is fat in oats and in whole grain cornmeal and in flax seeds, but it's all healthy fat," Humrichouser said. "When you have the real ingredients without the fats stripped f rom them, you're going to get those good, healthy calories in the fat." For more information, visit www.crazymonkeybaking.com. KN CRUNCHY GRANOLA Cont. from page 17 KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW • JANUARY 2020 • www.kitchenwarenews.com

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