Edible Portland

Zoë Bradbury suggested we join her on-line to continue the conversation she began with her article "Organic, local, and everything else: Finding your way through the modern food fray." I have a burning question to get the conversation started….

Our recent issue of Edible Portland featured Coconut Bliss, a non-dairy ice cream produced by a locally owned company in Eugene, Oregon. It is darn delicious, though the coconut milk base and exotic flavors leave little room for local sourcing.

Let's compare Coconut Bliss to Breyers ice cream. I don’t know where Breyers is based; it isn’t clear from their website. I do know Breyers is owned by Unilever, a mammoth food industry giant. But I’m told that many an Oregon strawberry ends up in those pints of Breyers. If true, which scoop makes for the better choice?

Here is Zoë's response:

Your tough question inspired me to do a Google search on Breyers and Coconut Bliss both. An innocent little query about ice cream quickly turned into an hour-long research project! It drove home the point that being an informed food consumer in this day and age really does require 1,000 questions.

This is what I learned about Breyers to help lend some insight to your “which is better” question:

Who: As you said, Breyers is owned by Unilever and is the world’s largest ice cream company.

Where: Corporate headquarters is in Wisconsin, but Breyers has regional plants around the country and world.

How: Breyers uses rBGH milk to make their non-organic ice cream. That’s a genetically engineered hormone injected into dairy cows to make them produce more milk, which is known to cause cancer and is banned in Europe.

Fishiest of all: Breyers is now using a genetically engineered (GE) protein derivative of an eel-like Arctic Ocean fish, known as the Arctic pout fish, to make “creamier” low-fat ice cream varieties. (I’d be pouting, too, if someone were genetically engineering my proteins and putting them in tubs of Rocky Road!).

The protein is a natural anti-freeze that keeps the pout fish’s blood from freezing in sub-zero water, and as it so happens, the GE version (made by altering the genetic structure of a baker’s yeast) works to reduce ice crystal formation in ice cream. (Read more here.) The jokes about “van-eel-a” ice cream abound, as you can imagine…

Nothing about strawberries, but my best guess is that the Breyers ice cream we eat here in the Northwest is made in a regional plant. Assuming that the plant sources Oregon strawberries and Northwest milk, it could be that the food miles and carbon footprint that ring up when you buy a half gallon of strawberry ice cream aren’t as bad as that of Coconut Bliss, whose website indicated that they source their organic coconut milk from Thailand (8,594 miles away).

Then again, that might be a lot of assumptions. Like you said, it’s awfully hard to talk to someone at Breyers to find out – especially someone who knows where all the ingredients come from. (I once tried to get to the bottom of where the strawberries in Smucker’s jam are sourced from, and the answer over the phone was “all over.”)

To be fair, I checked out Coconut Bliss and sketched their profile:

Who: Owned by Larry and Luna, who started their business at home with a $1.50 hand-crank ice cream maker from Goodwill (not all that different from William A. Breyer of Philadelphia, who made his first gallon of hand-cranked ice cream in 1866 with what could only have been local cream and fresh fruit).

Where: Headquartered in Eugene

How: Sources organic ingredients. The coconuts appear to be from Thailand, but I emailed them to find out more: Where does your coconut milk come from? Who owns/works on the farms? Do you buy canned coconut milk, and where is it canned?

I’ll let you know what I hear back from Larry and Luna. I’m curious.

I’ll admit that after my little on-line adventure into ice cream land, I was leaning pretty hard toward Coconut Bliss. Shipping coconut milk and other tropical ingredients over the Pacific Ocean certainly doesn’t strike me as sustainable, but the rBGH, the fish genes, and the multinational corporate impenetrability of Breyers – not to mention the long list of polysyllabic ingredients on the carton – was making me lose my appetite for strawberry ice cream pretty darn fast.

An alternative:

There’s another option for you during these long summer evenings: your own ice cream maker on the back porch, along with a basket of Oregon strawberries from the farmers' market (or your garden) and a pint of Organic Valley cream. (Or keep it dairy free by making sorbet.) You won’t ever look back.

Comments

I personally am tired of questions about comparative evils or best practice tips: local vs organic, fish eating vs mercury poisoning, coconuts vs nuts who use hormone additives. These 'us vs them' comparisons, although catchy, are not the only options. A consumer can choose to purchase both local and organic. They can choose the health benefits of eating fish and choose fish who are low in mercury and sustainably harvested. And if you can't find a guilt-free dessert (socially speaking not calorie wise) in the freezer aisle, buy the local stawberries and local organic milk and make a smoothie yourself. Your body, family, local economy and environment will thank you.

Posted by: Sara Leverette | June 13, 2007 3:10 PM

I'm the one who wrote the article in the summer issue about Coconut Bliss. While interviewing Luna, she told me that their coconut milk comes from a small organic farm in Thailand that is run in a "family", if not co-opertative, manner. Ditto the agave syrup used in their product. They recently visited the coconut farm in Thailand, in fact, in order to ensure that it was being run in a humane and non-exploitive manner.

Posted by: joanna | July 6, 2007 6:53 PM

Thanks for this review! I was going online to find out about the dairy in Breyers and you told me exactly what I wanted to know and more! As for Luna&larry's I looooove it! I just wish it came in bigger packages and was at a store near me :( You inspired me to get off my butt and make my own ice cream! Yum!!

Thanks alot
:)

Posted by: Avani | March 8, 2008 10:45 PM

Another factor to consider is that Coconut palms are major carbon reservoirs and ecologically sound organic coconut farm helps offset those transit miles.

Posted by: andy | June 28, 2008 12:31 PM

Thank so much for the info. I came across your site after goggling breyers ice cream (my moms favorite) and rBGH. I had been warning her about dairy and wanted to show her some info on her ice cream and try to convince her to switch brands. This did it so thanks!!!! :) I am supporting Ben & Jerry which not only DOESN'T use rBGH milk, but is actively fighting the company which has been trying to prevent other companies from truthfully labeling if they do not use rBGH to consumers. Awesome Job!!!

Posted by: F. West | August 14, 2008 5:57 PM