S5 Ep 1: What a Sanctuary Really Means for Animals and for Humans with Miyoko Schinner
“The animals need you… They want you-we need help!” — Miyoko Schinner
Series: Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival
Going plant-based is something that can make a massive impact on the world, and it's also something that we can do today. We don't have to wait for some significant change to happen—it's happening right now!
The Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival is one of the largest gatherings of people exploring the truth behind our food and animal agriculture systems. This fundraiser brings together changemakers, celebrities—and every one of us!
This event is produced by Rancho Compasión, Marin County’s only non-profit urban animal sanctuary, which was founded by Miyoko Schinner. Rancho Compasión’s Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival provide solid evidence of how to work together to create an informed world filled with compassion for animals and work together as a community to create a better world through our food choices. Learn the deepest secrets of the animal industry through thought-provoking documentaries, connect with like-minded changemakers, and be a part of humane programs geared to providing quality care to rescue animals. And all this is just scratching the surface!
In this episode, Justine and Miyoko talk about what to expect during the 3rd Annual Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival, what a sanctuary really means for both animals and humans, how animals connect with us, and how we may be indirectly contributing to the inhumane treatment of animals in factory farms. Miyoko also talks about her two passions— Rancho Compasión and Miyoko’s Creamery, the home of plant-based dairy alternatives she founded.
Connect with Miyoko
Miyoko Schinner is the fearless CEO/Founder of Miyoko’s, a food brand combining culinary traditions with food technology to revolutionize dairy by making cheese and butter without cows. Through an innovative proprietary process that merges food science with old-world creamery methods, Schinner has successfully scaled the production of fermented cheese and cultured butter made from plants. Under Schinner’s visionary leadership, Miyoko’s has replaced animal-dairy products on the shelves of more than 15,000 retailers nationwide and in Canada including Target, Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Kroger, and Safeway. The pioneer of the plant-based cheese revolution, Schinner is a passionate culinarian, former restaurateur, best-selling cookbook author, co-host of the national public television cooking show Vegan Mashup, and a founding board member of the Plant Based Foods Association. Schinner also co-founded Rancho Compasión, a farmed animal sanctuary in California that provides a home to over 70 farm animals. She lives with her husband and has 3 grown children, 2 dogs, and 4 cats.
Connect with Rancho Compasión:
Connect with Miyoko’s Creamery:
Episode Highlights:
01:22 What is a Sanctuary?
04:59 Human and Animal Connections
07:23 The Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival
13:46 Miyoko's Creamery
17:36 Be Involved with Rancho Compasión
Resources:
Events
The 3rd Annual Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival (August 6th and 7th, 2022)
Get your tickets here: https://bit.ly/3SeJ7RJ
Tweets:
The 3rd Annual Mindful Eating Film and Food Festival is fast approaching! Learn how we can build a better world for animals and us with @jreichman and @MiyokoSchinner, the founder of @compasionrancho and @MiyokosCreamery. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenPurpose #EssentialIngredients #MEFF2022 #MindfulEatingFilm&FoodFestival #factoryfarms #savetheanimals #animalsanctuary #plantbaseddairy #dairyalternatives
Inspirational Quotes:
02:21 "This is the beginning of a compassionate food system and a compassionate lifestyle, where we can enjoy great foods without causing harm to animals— This is really the meaning of a sanctuary. It's not just about rescuing animals… I realized that I had rescued myself." -Miyoko Schinner
06:38 "Animals react to humans the way they're treated. So if you show them love, they return love to you." -Miyoko Schinner
06:48 "We think of them (pets) as our children, our family."-Justine Reichman
15:40 "Many people are compassionate at heart. People say 'I love animals', but they don't understand that they're causing harm to animals in so many different ways with our current factory farms." -Miyoko Schinner
17:41 "The animals need you… They want you-we need help! -Miyoko Schinner
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Welcome to Essential Ingredients, I'm your host, Justine. Today with me is Miyoko, and we are here to talk about the Mindful Eating Film Festival and Rancho Compasion and Miyoko.
Welcome, Miyoko.
Miyoko Schinner: Thank you Justine. Thanks for having me. You said my name three times in a sentence, so that's great. Thank you
Justine Reichman: See, there we go. And now, everybody will remember who we're talking about, and what we're talking about.
Miyoko Schinner: Absolutely.
Justine Reichman: So I'm so pleased to have you here. And for those that are not familiar with Miyoko's Creamery and Rancho Compasion, and the Mindful Eating Film Festival, we have a lot to cover. I'd love for you to maybe just start with Rancho Compasion because I think that is one of the things that we're here to talk about. It's coming up, and it's important, and I'd love for you to just share a little bit about it.
"This is the beginning of a compassionate food system and a compassionate lifestyle, where we can enjoy great foods without causing harm to animals— This is really the meaning of a sanctuary. It's not just about rescuing animals… I realized that I had rescued myself." -Miyoko Schinner
Miyoko Schinner: Sure. Thank you so much. Rancho Compasion is a farmed animal sanctuary located in West Marin in the little town of Nicasio. And when we talk about sanctuaries where we save animals, one of the things we talk about is really, what is the meaning of a sanctuary? Obviously, you're rescuing animals that would have been slaughtered, or they're being exploited or abandoned, and you're giving them a forever home, taking care of them. Not just with food and medicine, but with lots and lots of love. But also, one of the things that's most important to remember is that it's a sanctuary for us, for we, humans. Because when we become introduced and we come in contact with these gorgeous creatures, and learn about their individual natures, and their personalities, and the lives that they are living, and the personalities they express, we find peace within ourselves because this is the beginning of a compassionate food system, compassionate lifestyle where we can enjoy great foods without causing harm to animals. And this is really the meaning of sanctuary. It's not just about rescuing animals, these poor animals. But when I started the sanctuary six years ago, I realized that I had rescued myself.
Justine Reichman: Wow. So that's amazing, an amazing message. And I think it talks to the root of so many of the things that you're working on. So I'm curious, what inspired you to start Rancho Compasion?
Miyoko Schinner: I'm a longtime vegan. I've been vegan since the 1980's, and I've been on my own food journey trying to figure out how to use the culinary arts to show people that they can eat this wonderful food, have an elevated lifestyle and not cause harm. And I've always used the culinary arts to do that. But a few years ago, we moved out to the country. I had a barn and someone called me up and said that these two goats, these baby goats need rescuing, and you have a barn and you just take care of them. I fell in love with them. They follow me around. They were like dogs with horns. We went on hikes with the dogs and the goats, and oh, my God. And then these three little pigs arrived. And then it was another goat and a sheep. And then it was a cow. And it just sort of snowballed. And finally, we were like, okay, we just need to make this official. Create a 501C3 nonprofit. And during this whole process of doing so, what I already said is that I realized that this was a place of peace. I found that getting up early in the morning to go down and feed the animals and shovel manure was not something that I detested. It sounded like a lot of work, but it was something that brought me so much peace and joy. And you could see the appreciation in the animals as you cared for them. It changed my life, and it changed the lives of so many volunteers and visitors that we have every single day.
Justine Reichman: Wow. So I'm curious, because that is so far removed from anything I've experienced. I mean, as a volunteer, maybe once in a while, I might experience something like that as a one off thing, but I can't imagine myself in that environment. I love the message, and I love what you're doing, and I'd love to participate and be involved. So I'm wondering, what in your experience in the last years brought you to be in that environment? Does that make sense?
Miyoko Schinner: Not sure. But okay, Justine, you have a dog, I saw your cute little dog moments before the podcast started. It's obvious you love your dog, and it's really just a continuum of that. We can have these interspecies relationships, but most human beings don't have an opportunity to come into contact with species other than domestic dogs or cats. And so we don't imagine that they are just as capable of love and have connection as our dogs and cats are. And that's a remarkable thing. And so when we kind of break free from the ideas that we have that livestock or these animals that are in some field over there, they're herd animals and they don't want to have anything to do with you, just like, I don't know. Did you remember 50 years ago that we used to put dogs in the backyard ia a dog house or tie them up on a chain and we thought that was normal 50, 60 years ago?
Justine Reichman: I've heard of this.
Miyoko Schinner: I mean, I'm actually old enough to have seen it. And today, that would be unimaginable today.
Justine Reichman: Awful. That would be awful. Animal protection.
"Animals react to humans the way they're treated. So if you show them love, they return love to you." -Miyoko Schinner
Miyoko Schinner: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And when you come into contact with a goose that loves you and wants to jump into your arms at any time,follow you around, or a goat that would put his head in your lap when you sit down, when you caress the belly of a pig that flops over. As soon as you start touching, they flop over and they want you to rub their belly. Then all of a sudden, you realize that they are no different. Animals react to humans the way they're treated. So if you show them love, they return love to you. It's just like dogs and cats.
"We think of them (pets) as our children, our family."-Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: We think of them as our children, our family. The same thing. And without that experience though, and I love hearing it from you, I can now imagine myself there having that experience. I want to come and experience it.
Miyoko Schinner: Yes. We'll love to have you. You're just down the street, you should come.
Justine Reichman: So tell me, you started this six years ago, I think you said. I'm curious, this is part of what you're talking about now with the Mindful Eating Film Festival. Can you tell me how this all connects and what you've created here?
Miyoko Schinner: Absolutely. Absolutely. My life's purpose is to help people make a connection between what they put on their plates and the impact it has on other living beings, the ecosystem, planet and ultimately themselves. Most nonprofits, we have all kinds of fundraisers. We've had hold downs and festivals at the Rancho Compasion. We thought a few years ago, there's a lot of movies that are coming out about connecting food choices with the environment, or with health, or with animals, and films are a very, very effective way to communicate that. I mean, there's so many people that have seen the movie Game Changers on Netflix for example, or Cowspiracy. And we thought, what if we actually put together an entire day, actually two days of films, food vendors, speakers and just did it at the Marin Civic Center right here where people in Marin, Sonoma, San Francisco, we're all foodies. We're very passionate about food, and we all care about where our food comes from. I mean, there's a huge locavore movement here, or farm to table, or organic movement. I mean, this is where the organic movement started. So people are thinking about their food choices. And we thought, why don't we have an entire festival dedicated to that show? These great films have the writers and the filmmakers come and be on a panel afterwards to speak about it. Invite all kinds of vendors that are selling what we call mindful foods or foods that don't harm planet or animals. So plant based vegan, whatever you want to call it.
And so we have a huge festival in the fairgrounds. We have over 30 vendors, I think it might be up to 40. We're kicking it off on Saturday night with a screening, a West Coast premiere of a movie called The Smell of Money, which is about the pork industry in North Carolina, and the impact it's having on the communities there, and the high rates of cancer predominantly in African American communities that are around these pig farms. This was produced by Kate Morrow, the actress who was actually going to be there herself. But unfortunately, she got a gig in London so she has to go there. But we have the filmmaker and the writer that will be on a panel after that. We're going to have a gala before a reception. So we've got a beautifully catered event that will be leading up to that. This is at Dominican University in San Rafael. And then all day Sunday at the Marin County fairgrounds, the Martin Civic Center. We've got a fair going on, we got a big speakers tent with all kinds of talks.We'll be showing four feature length films all with panels afterwards. We have a smaller room that will be running a loop of shorts all day long that will be free. And then we'll have vendors, or we even have dog adoption there.
Justine Reichman: Oh, that's amazing, I love that.
Miyoko Schinner: So it's going to be really exciting. We're just hoping that we can get people to start thinking about, okay, how can I live more, eat more consciously in a way that doesn't take into account just my own health, but the health of others, the lives of others, the ecosystem.
Justine Reichman: It's so important. I mean, I had one of the co-founder of JUST here a while ago.
Miyoko Schinner: Josh Tetrick or Josh Falk. There's two Josh's that I know.
Justine Reichman: There's two Josh's. It's the one that actually works for the humane society.
Miyoko Schinner: Josh Falk.
Justine Reichman: Josh Falk. Yeah. He was telling me about the first time that he went, he was living in Washington, DC. I don't want to get all into this whole thing, but it was about the chickens and how they live, and the lack of experience they get, and how they're treated. And that's how he got his whole story about how he got into what he does now. I don't know if you know the story, but it was so moving to me. It changed the way that I think about things, and I was so happy to amplify that message on this podcast for people to hear.
Miyoko Schinner: Well, thank you so much, Justine. I mean, that's such an important message to share with people. It really is.
Justine Reichman: It really was so pivotal for me, because I did not know this. And really, I'm not an expert here, but this really is a place for people to share those stories so that people can make more informed choices.
Miyoko Schinner: That's right.
Justine Reichman: I'm happy to be able to share your story here and how you started Rancho Compasion and this film festival. How long has it been going on now?
Miyoko Schinner: The film festival started in 2019, and we actually had it in Point Reyes at the Dance Palace. And it was kind of thrown together. We had like a month to put it together. We really didn't think anyone was going to come, and about 600 people came and jammed this little downtown Point Reyes and we were like blown away. Then we did it. It shifted to online, obviously, during the pandemic. And so this will be the first time since then if we're going to be in person and we're just blowing it up. And we're hoping everyone's going to come out.
Justine Reichman: Well, I'm very excited for you. So people watching, I mean, I love for you to just share a little bit about Miyoko's Creamery because I think that's a lot about what you do as well. I think it's important to share.
"Many people are compassionate at heart. People say 'I love animals', but they don't understand that they're causing harm to animals in so many different ways with our current factory farms." -Miyoko Schinner
Miyoko Schinner: Yeah. So Miyoko's Creamery is a company I started eight years ago. I'm a serial entrepreneur. I've been into food for a long time. But as they say, people say I go vegan but for the cheese, and I was one of those because cheese was my great love. It really was for most of my life until I went vegan, and then I learned to live without it for a long time. And finally, in the 2000's, I was like, I'm not getting younger and I still don't have that damn cheese platter. Where is it? So I got in the kitchen, and I had to figure out how to make cheese out of plant milk. And so what I did was I took some cheese making courses, I read books, watch videos, I started playing around with soy milk, cashew milk and almond milk and trying to figure out how can I replicate the cheese making process using that traditional artistry, but applying maybe some new techniques and using these plant milks. It culminated in a book that I wrote called Artisan Vegan Cheese which was the first book written on this subject about making cheese using natural fermentation. There's a whole bunch of books out now, but it was the first. And two years later, I started the company in Fairfax, California. I thought it was going to be a little tiny cheese shop, but it kind of blew up and we moved to Petaluma in 2017. We've been there since.
We're in about 30,000 stores across Canada. I do a little bit of export. Our butter, our European style cultured vegan butter is in Costco, Japan, for example. And so it's kind of random, but they wanted it so small feat. But for me, it's not just about selling products. As I mentioned before, I consider myself an epicurean activist. This has been my life's mission to make great food that doesn't cause harm to animals or the environment. And so how can that be done? So many people are compassionate in heart. People say I love animals, but they don't understand that they're causing harm to animals in so many different ways with our current factory farms and all of this stuff. And so, if we can create a way for people to have an elevated lifestyle where they can have the dolce vita in a compassionate way, we call it the compassionate dolce vita, it's a win win for everybody, for us, for the animals, for the environment. And that's the purpose of this company. It's an activism driven company. We make great cheese and butter out of plant milks, whole foods organic. We're not GMO, we don't use a bunch of flavors, and it's just made the traditional way like cheese makers have been making cheese for centuries.
Justine Reichman: Well, that's inspiring because my mission has always been to build a business that can do good and make money. Equally important to me. And so that's really inspiring and something to drive for in my mind. So you've got the animals, the planet's health, you've got a lot going into that.
Miyoko Schinner: To me, the most important thing is the animals and that's how it ties into Rancho Compasion. And if people are wondering, it's ranchocompasion.org, you can go there to find out about the Mindful Eating Film Festival.
Justine Reichman: I was gonna ask you, how would people get tickets if they wanted to or find out about getting involved in Rancho Compasion?
Miyoko Schinner: My god. I'll repeat this a couple times. So if you want to get tickets, you can go to ranchocompasion.org or just Google Mindful Eating Film Festival. You can go to the Marin Center and get tickets for the movies.
Justine Reichman: Don't worry, we will put a link as well. For those watching, we will add all of this to our website.
"The animals need you… They want you-we need help! -Miyoko Schinner
Miyoko Schinner: How do you get involved in Rancho Compasion? We always need volunteers, and the animals need you. They love volunteers. They will come up to you if you're shoveling manure, or I don't know. Putting straw down in stalls, the goats will be right there waiting to be petted. A big 800 pound pig might come up to you and rub her snout in your legs so that you give him or her a pet. So they're so loving. They want you, we need help. We are a small staff. We're largely a volunteer run. So if you want to get involved in Rancho Compasion, you can go to our website and there's a volunteer information page there.
Justine Reichman: And the one thing we did not get as a date on this Mindful Eating Film Festival.
Miyoko Schinner: Oh, my gosh, it's August 6th and 7th. August 6th is at the reception at Dominican University Angelico Hall. August 7th is at the Marin County Fairgrounds in San Rafael.
Justine Reichman: Okay, wonderful. And so if anybody wants to buy milk goats cream or Miyoko's Creamery or butter, where will they find that?
Miyoko Schinner: So you can go to Whole Foods, Sprouts, Target, Walmart, Costco, natural food stores, Mollie Stones, pretty much everywhere.
Justine Reichman: We've got it covered. Now we covered the Mindful Eating Film Festival, we covered Rancho Compasion, and we covered Miyoko's Creamery. Did I miss anything else?
Miyoko Schinner: I think that's it.
Justine Reichman: Okay. Well, I'm so glad that we were able to catch up just in time for us to let everybody know about the film festival coming up and get tickets and participate, and even volunteer if they should choose. And thank you again for joining us.
Miyoko Schinner: Thank you, Justine. I really appreciate it.
Justine Reichman: It was wonderful. Thank you so much. And thank you to our guests for joining us. As always, we want to hear from you. Let us know if there's anything else we can bring to you on these podcasts. Please rate, review, and leave us a note.
