Rice cakes are great, but let’s face it: They’re completely impractical. Somebody somewhere at some point thought it would be a good idea to attempt to force a food with no inherent qualities into a cake shape and market it as edible. Every time I see rice cakes in the store, I think “Hey! Great idea!”, and I buy them, take them home, open the package, and attempt to take out one whole, intact cake. Of every 10 attempts, at least nine cakes fall apart before they have been extracted from the packaging. And that last one falls to bits as soon as I attempt to eat it or put anything on it. Having just returned from a week of hiking, climbing, and other outdoorsy shenanigans in Utah, let me tell you what does not

make sense as a backpacking food: rice cakes. Horrible idea, and I’m not sure why I thought of it. Years ago, I used to occasionally look after a little girl with Celiac disease, and her mom kept puffed-rice snack bars from “EnviroKidz” on hand for her snacks. I’d never tried any of them, but after rice cakes failed me (again) last weekend, I picked up a little box of snack bars with a koala and a “gluten-free” stamp on it, and decided to give them a try. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. And honestly, I was quite pleasantly surprised! Let’s be clear that EnviroKidz’ Crispy Rice snack bars are not health food, nor are they in keeping with any kind of low-glycemic diet, regardless of how much you may bend, stretch, or mold the rules of that diet. Nope, the Crispy Rice snack bars are basically Rice Krispie treats for the gluten-intolerant and organic devotee. As such, they can survive being packed through a boulder field when nestled among 40 pounds of climbing gear, and they survive riding in a giant purse/laptop bag through hasty airport-security unpacking and repacking. Like a Rice Krispie treat, they never fall apart; they just get squished into different shapes. The interesting thing about EnviroKidz is that they belong to Nature’s Path, and the interesting thing about Nature’s Path is that they are a “fiercely independent,” family-owned company. Initially, this didn’t strike me as being too out of the ordinary, but then I saw this chart:For larger image, check out: https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/OrganicT30AcqJuly08.pdfThis makes a place like Whole Foods look a little different to me, and definitely supplies food for thought. As far as food for other things goes, though, Nature’s Path offers a number of gluten-free products, and publishes their gluten-free processing practices on their website for those concerned about cross-contamination or who need to know about gluten “parts per million”. They also re-invest a percentage of sales in philanthropic and environmental efforts, and publish information about those partnerships and programs online as well. Nature’s Path is particularly committed to sustainable growing practices and wildlife-conservation efforts, so EnviroKidz purchases support habitat and wildlife conservation and environmental-education programs for kids. Recommendation for unhealthy “healthy” eating this week? EnviroKidz Crispy Rice bars, in chocolate. Mmmmm. Follow Voracious on Twitter and Facebook.