What is local?

We need to start by defining the word local. It has different meanings to different people, but I define local as being as close to home as possible. With food, that would mean buying food raised or produced as close to your home as possible.

To purists, or locavores, local means buying food within a set radius, such as 50 or 100 miles. To others, local means as far as a day’s drive from where you live. Because geography and growing is different around the country (and world), I opt for a more flexible definition.

Technically, this means that any food you buy close to your home is local, even conventional or industrially produced food. So inherent within the local label is the concept of sustainable. Try to avoid food from a large industrial operation, no matter how close to your home it is. The best way to tell if a farm is industrial is to find out how big it is and how diverse its products are. A very large farm producing only one crop is most likely industrial – when you plant the same crop on many acres, you attract pests, which means you have to use pesticides. So focus on smaller farms, ones that have different types of crops, and find out what their growing practices are.

When you’re shopping for local food, look for local sustainable food from a small independent family farm. That means minimal chemical pesticides and fertilizers were used, the land and everything on it was treated with respect, and every effort was made to provide you with the most wholesome, nutritious food. In general, smaller farms are more sustainable because they tend to grow a variety of crops and undertake conservation practices such as crop rotation, so they usually have less problems with pests. But it’s always wise to find out exactly how your food was produced before you make the decision to buy and eat it.

Why buy local?

There are many reasons to buy local, including –

- Taste. Local sustainable food is most often picked when ripe because transport time to market is so small. It is also usually grown with minimal inputs such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This provides you with better tasting food.

- Better for you. Food raised close to home will not be shipped long distances so will be harvested when ripe, giving you optimal nutrition. Industrial food shipped long distances is harvested before ripe, shipped, and sometimes sprayed with chemicals to preserve or forcibly ripen it.

- Helps the environment. By not shipping food such long distances, less pollution is emitted and less waste is created. There is a debate over whether individual farms driving to markets pollutes more than shipping food in large containers on trains or ships. The key problem with long distance shipping is the processing and packaging necessary to transport the food such long distances – processing uses more energy than the shipping – so you’re still better off buying local.

- Supports family farms. 80 to 90 percent of the money you spend at a local farmers market goes to the farmer, thus helping to provide a fair wage. Most farmers now hold off-the-farm jobs in order to pay the bills – by supporting the farmer directly, you are helping to support one of our oldest American traditions.

- Helps local communities. Small family farms are much more likely to spend their money locally, both on feed and farming inputs, and also on regular services like restaurants and stores. Studies have shown that local farms help boost local communities. Industrial farms tend to get their farm inputs from outside the community with the owners often living off the property.

Be local

Below are ideas on what you can do to join the local revolution.

- Farmers markets. Farmers markets have sprung up all around the country. According to the USDA, farmers markets in the U.S. increased from 1,755 in 1994 to 5,274 in 2009. Between 2008 and 2009 alone, the number of farmers markets increased 13 percent. Check out the USDA’s site to find a farmers market near you.

- CSA’s. CSA stands for community supported agriculture. You purchase a share in a farmer’s crop before the season starts. This helps the farmer buy seeds and necessary supplies. You then reap a portion of the season’s bounty. Visit the Eat Well Guide to find a CSA near you.

- Buying Clubs. Less well known but increasing in popularity are buying clubs. These are simply a group of people – from a little as a few families to 100 people – who purchase food together in order to buy in bulk at wholesale prices. You can go through a distributor or with a little extra effort, work with local farmers to set up your own distribution network. Buying club members work together to purchase, pick up and distribute the food. How to Create a Neighborhood Food-Buying Club can give you some information on how to start one up. You can also ask at your nearest health food store to see if they are involved with or know of any local buying clubs in your area. It’s usually best to join an already existing club rather than start up your own because they can take some work.

- Farm stands. Farm stands range from a bench with tomatoes alongside the road to an enclosed structure that sells many types of produce, meats and even baked and processed foods. During the height of the summer when vegetables are abundant, you can still find small stands at the side of the road with vegetables and a cash jar, so customers can pay what they want. Some even leave signs encouraging people to take the food. Large farm stands can resemble stores and do not always sell local goods — check the labels or ask if you aren’t sure.

- “Pick your own” farms. Some farmers, especially berry and orchard growers, allow consumers to pick their own produce. Usually for a set price by the bushel or pint, families can go into the farmer’s fields and pick their own crops. This is good for individuals interested in freezing or canning. Some farms also allow consumers to come to the farm and choose which animal they would like, before slaughter.

- Grow your own. Probably the biggest trend today is growing your own food. From planters on window ledges to taking over a front lawn, gardens are springing up everywhere. I’ll be focusing on this in more detail in a future post, so stay tuned!

If you can’t buy local

If, for whatever reason, you can’t buy local, buy as close to your home as possible. If you live in Virginia and want to buy an orange, buy one from Florida, not California, or from anywhere in the US as opposed to overseas. Why would we buy an apple from New Zealand when most states can grow them also? Don’t feel pressured into labels and definitions – however you define local is fine. The point is not to deprive yourself – the point is to enjoy the freshest, best-tasting food possible, and eating local is the best way to do it.

If you’d like to learn more about the local movement, check out Sustainable Table’s Eat Local, Buy Local, Be Local section.

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 22nd installment in her series, Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

As you look for fruits and vegetables, especially now at the end of summer when stores will be overflowing with farm produce, look for the labels found on the food. For small items like mushrooms or green beans, look for the numbered label on signage or the container they’re placed in. These numbers are PLU (price look-up) codes and are used on food that’s sold loose, by bunch, by weight or individually.

To know what kind of food you’re buying -

What this means
1. Conventionally grown – the produce was most likely grown on a large industrial farm that uses chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The food was most likely picked before it was ripe and shipped a long distance to get to the store. (The average conventionally-grown item travels 1500 miles to land on your dinner plate.) Farms such as these can contribute to ground and water pollution through chemical runoff.

2. Genetically modified – Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) are very controversial and are banned in many countries due to the lack of sufficient testing to determine their safety. A GMO is created by taking the traits, or genes, of one plant and inserting them into another. This is different than traditional cross breeding where two similar plants are combined to create a different variation of the food. The genes can come from completely different species – such as inserting flounder genes into a tomato – and not enough is known about the long-term ramifications of this gene manipulation on human health or the environment.

3. Organic – The food was raised without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides (though some natural pesticides can be used), it cannot be treated with sewage sludge, and is not genetically engineered or irradiated. The fruits and vegetables can still be shipped long distances so finding a sign that says both local and organic is an even better option.

Why this is good
Do you ever go shopping for organic produce and wonder if it really is organic? Searching for the 9 on the PLU label on the food will help you know that your apple wasn’t accidentally tossed in from the conventional side.

Also, if you’re on a budget and have to make choices, knowing which foods are genetically engineered and which are not may help you with your decision. Avoiding PLU codes that start with 8 means you are steering clear of GMOs.

With everything we need to remember in order to buy the healthiest food for ourselves and our families, this is a quick and easy tip to know what’s conventional, what’s organic and what’s genetically engineered. If you want to learn more about PLU Codes, you can read their Users Guide.

Thanks to Ideal Bite for getting this information out!

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 21st installment in her series, Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

Let’s say you’ve decided to cut out meat one day a week. Now what do you do? First, remember that this is enjoyable and fun. You’re not just improving your health or saving money or helping the environment, you also have the chance to experience delicious-tasting foods and to try exciting new recipes.

It’s important to note that meat is a complete protein, meaning that it provides all the essential amino acids. You can find complete meatless proteins with soy or tempeh (fermented soy), rice and beans combined, and nuts. If you’re choosing to only cut out meat and not all animal protein, eggs and dairy are also complete proteins.

What you don’t want is to be eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or frozen cheese pizzas as meals on your meatless days. So let’s assume you’re a carnivore and the thought of tofu or tempeh is a little too adventurous. What can you eat?

Some ideas for recipes include:

Beany Red Wine Chili – Recipe by Maria Comboy, Jefferson, LA, courtesy of MeatlessMonday.com. (Serve with rice for a complete protein.)

Crockpot Mexican Chili – Recipe by Sylvia Sivley – Schenectady, NY, courtesy of MeatlessMonday.com. (Serve with rice for a complete protein.)

Edgy Veggie Chili – Recipe by Ilene Courland – Valley Stream, NY, courtesy of MeatlessMonday.com. (Serve with rice for a complete protein.)

Fresh Fettucini with Hedgehog or Shiitake Mushrooms and Ricotta – Recipe by Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious.com, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Garbanzo Bean Burgers – Recipe by Healthy Monday, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Goat Cheese and Veggie Pizza – Recipe by Denise Hughes, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Grilled Pizza – Recipe by Laura Edwards-Orr, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Crab Cakes – Recipe by John Shields, Chef and Owner of Gertrude’s in Baltimore, Courtesy of Sustainable Table®. (I make these in the summer when there’s an overabundance of zucchini – they’re delicious!)

Oyster and Shiitake Mushroom Pie – Recipe by Tye Tilt, courtesy of Sustainable Table®. (A delicious recipe – and very filling.)

Porto Grilled Veggie Burger – Recipe by Vance Edwards-Orr, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Tagliatelle with Mushrooms – Recipe by MeatlessMonday.com

Three Bean-Cassoulet – Recipe by MeatlessMonday.com

Zucchini Boats – Recipe by MeatlessMonday.com

This is just a small sample of the many recipes you can eat on your meatless day. You’ll notice that they tend to be chili or pasta, which are simple to make and inexpensive. For any bean dish, try to serve your meal with rice so you’ll be eating a complete protein. And if you’re buying beans in a can, read the ingredients to make sure you recognize them. The Eden Organic brand is a good option because the cans are bisphenol A-free*, and the only other ingredients besides the beans are water and seaweed. Another option, especially if you’re on a budget and/or would like an even better choice than canned beans, is to buy dried beans and cook them yourself.

All the pasta recipes here include cheese, so you’ll be getting some complete protein, but don’t feel that you have to smother your food in dairy products to get the proper amount. Vegetables have far more nutrients and protein than you may think, and you can always add nuts to your dishes to get more protein, and a more filling meal. But remember that roasted nuts are not so good for you – you want to look for raw nuts, especially almonds, cashews, pecans and walnuts.

Be creative. If you know how to cook pasta, or put beans into a pot and simmer them, add in vegetables that are in season. Experiment with spices. Be daring – that’s the fun of trying something new. What if you try to make your own bean burgers? Or a pasta casserole – veggie lasagna?

If you’re cutting out meat but not eggs, look for eggs from chickens raised outdoors on pasture, not in a cage or confined inside. And remember that omelets, egg casseroles and any egg dish are just as tasty for dinner as they are for breakfast. Some example of egg dishes are:

Corn and Pepper Frittata with Salsa Verde – Recipe by Dawn Brighid, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Polenta with Eggs and Seasonal Vegetables – Recipe by Anne Dailey, courtesy of Sustainable Table®.

Other simple ideas are homemade macaroni and cheese with a green salad, chickpea curry with rice, any type of salad with nuts and possibly goat cheese, vegetable and bean soup with bread – the list could go on for pages. The key is to enjoy what you’re eating – don’t skimp and don’t feel like you’re being deprived. Look at your meatless day as a chance to explore new foods – brainstorm with your family or friends to come up with a list of ideas. You might also want to make your meatless dinner a weekly dinner or potluck with friends so you all can explore new dishes and new tastes.

Looking at all this food has gotten me hungry – now which recipe should I try?

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 20th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

*Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical produced in large quantities to make polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins, including food and drink packaging, food containers including the coating on the inside of cans, plastic water bottles, and plastic baby bottles. Concerns over BPA continue to grow so it’s best to avoid products containing this type of plastic. Read the Smart Plastics Guide from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy for more information on what you should avoid and what you can do. And, remember, never cook or microwave in plastic!

Curbs climate change
In 2006, a United Nations study reported that the livestock industry contributed 18 percent to greenhouse-gas emissions – more than emissions from every single car, train and plane on the planet. Livestock production contributes 9 percent of carbon dioxide, 37 percent of methane and 65 percent of nitrous oxide. The total food system contributes 33 percent of the total climate change effect with 12 percent from methane and nitrous oxide emissions, 18 percent from deforestation and land use changes, and 1.5 to 2 percent from fertilizer production and distribution. Information on transportation, waste and manufacturing were unavailable.

To sum up, emissions from factory farms – including carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide – contribute a great deal to climate change, so when you cut back on the amount of meat you eat, you are also cutting back on the emissions that contribute to global warming.

Want to learn more about the effect of meat production and agriculture on climate change? Check out Anna Lappe’s Take a Bite Out of Climate Change for more on the connection between global warming, the food on your plate, and the choices you make every day. And watch for Lappe’s book, Diet for a Hot Planet, to be released next spring.

Wondering what all the hoopla is about climate change and why you should care? Check out the movie An Inconvenient Truth or Al Gore’s program The Climate Project.

Helps save the environment
Industrial meat production not only contributes to climate change but also pollutes our air, land and water. The huge amount of manure factory farms create cannot be absorbed by the land. The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that more than 335 million tons of manure is produced each year on U.S. farms. This waste sits in open air lagoons, emitting hundreds of kinds of gases, including hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, carbon dioxide and methane. The North Carolina hog industry alone produces 300 tons of ammonia per day.

The manure is then often over applied to land or leaks from storage areas, polluting the land and water. One dairy farm with 2500 cows can produce as much waste as a city with around 411,000 people – and the manure does not have to be treated! In 2000, the Environmental Protection Agency identified agricultural activity as a source of pollution for 48 percent of stream and river water.

Manure also contains high levels of disease-causing microorganisms, called pathogens, which can find their way into the soil and water. In every disease outbreak from water in the United States from 1986 to 1998 where the pathogen could be identified, the Centers for Disease Control concluded it most likely originated in livestock.

In addition, large amounts of water are needed to raise livestock, partly for the animals direct needs, such as drinking water, but mostly for cleaning out the sheds and irrigating the crops used as feed.

Another effect meat has on the environment is habitat destruction and deforestation. Vast amounts of land have been cleared and cultivated in order to raise animals or the feed they eat. Over the course of 40 years, 40 percent of all the rainforests in Central America have been cleared, often by burning, mainly to create cattle pasture. Most corn and soy grown in the world is fed to cows, pigs and chickens. And though figures vary, approximately 7 pounds of grain are needed to produce one pound of beef. Wouldn’t it be simpler, healthier, and better for the environment for us to eat the grain directly?

I could go on for pages about the environmental impact of factory farms and meat production on the environment, but I think you get the point. If you’d like to read more, please click on the links in this post. And be sure to check out the Meatless Monday video, which outlines the issues raised here.

Lessens our dependence on foreign oil
Industrial meat production uses large quantities of oil. Some is used for transporting food across the country – food travels an average of 1,500 miles to reach your dinner plate. More oil is used to fuel farm machinery. But the vast amount of fossil fuels is actually used in the production of fertilizers and pesticides. A University of Michigan report found that up to 40 percent of the energy used in the food system goes toward the production of artificial fertilizers and chemical pesticides, used in industrial or conventional food production. In addition, approximately 23 percent of the energy used in food production is from processing and packaging food, mainly in order to ship it long distances.

Beef also uses large amounts of energy. A 2002 study from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health estimated that our current system of food production needs 3 calories of energy to create 1 calorie of food. But those figures are an average. According to the Hopkins study, grain-fed beef requires 35 calories of energy for each calorie of beef produced.

So, if you worry about your health, the environment, climate change, energy consumption and also want to save money, don’t get overwhelmed. All you have to do is reduce your meat consumption, even one day a week, to make a difference. It’s that simple!

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 19th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

To start, if we cut out red meat, fish and/or poultry one day a week without changing any other part of our diet, we would reduce animal protein consumption approximately 8.4 ounces a week, the daily amount the average U.S. citizen eats. That comes out to 27.3 pounds a year. Multiply that by the 304 million people in this country (as of July 2008) and collectively we would reduce our meat, fish and poultry consumption over 8 billion pounds!

That’s a lot of meat and would have an enormous positive impact because reducing your meat consumption saves you money, is better for your health, curbs climate change, helps save the environment, and lessens our dependence on foreign oil. Really. All that from cutting back on the amount of meat you eat. To help even more, make sure the meat you do eat is from local sustainable farms.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these reasons.

Saves you money.
Meat can be expensive, oftentimes the most expensive item in the grocery store, so it can take a big dent out of your weekly food budget. A good way around this is to simply cut back on the amount of meat you eat. The 8.4 ounces of red meat, poultry and fish Americans consume per day comes to almost 192 pounds per year.

By cutting out meat just one day a week, you’ll be cutting out 27.3 pounds of meat per person each year. The amount of money you save will vary greatly between where you live and the type of meat, but if you buy ribeye steak on Long Island, NY, you’d pay around $7.99 a pound, so if you ate the 8.4 ounces an average American eats, you would save over $218 a year. Cutting back on a pound of meat a week would save you over $415.00 a year. And if you’re a family of four and you buy 2 ½ pounds of steak, that’s a savings of $20 per week or over $1000 a year!

Better for your health
Diets high in red meat like hamburgers and steaks and processed meats like cold cuts, bacon and hot dogs have been linked to an increased risk of death from heart disease and cancer. (The risk from fish and poultry is less.)

The National Cancer Institute studied over 545,000 people from 50 to 71 years old and followed their eating habits for 10 years. There were more than 70,000 deaths during that time. The report, released in March of this year, states that middle aged to older Americans who ate only a quarter-pound hamburger (that’s 4 ounces) a day were 22 percent more likely to die from cancer and 27 percent more likely to die of heart disease, in comparison to individuals who ate only 5 ounces of meat a week. Women had a 20 percent higher risk of dying of cancer and a 50 percent higher risk of dying of heart disease than women who ate less.

In addition, the American Cancer Society undertook a 20-year study of 150,000 men and women from 1982 to 2001 and also found that people who ate a large amount of red and processed meat had a 30 to 40 percent higher chance of developing colon cancer. Those who favored processed meat like sausages, hot dogs and cold cuts increased their colon cancer risk by 50 percent. And to make matters even worse, “high meat consumption” was considered to be 3 ounces a day for men and 2 ounces a day for women. The lowest risk for colon cancer was found when men ate less than 1.5 ounces a day of red or processed meat and less than 1 ounce a day for women.

Adding to this, the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Veterinary Measures relating to Public Health (SCVPH) confirmed in 2002 that the use of hormones in beef and dairy cattle poses a health risk for consumers.

With regard to fish, today there are concerns about high levels of mercury so fish consumption should be limited, and industrially-raised poultry have shown problems with high levels of arsenic.

There is no doubt that Americans would benefit from reducing their meat consumption, but it must also be pointed out that in these studies no difference was made between industrially raised, factory farm meat and grass-fed sustainable meat. Grass fed sustainable meat is lower in saturated fat, lower in cholesterol (both which contribute to heart disease), lower in calories and will not have any added hormones – so it will always be a better option than factory farmed meat.

Healthcare costs in 2007 were 2 trillion dollars with 75 percent of that amount (1.5 trillion dollars) going toward the treatment of chronic preventable diseases, so reducing your meat consumption can also help lower your healthcare bills down the road.

The message here isn’t to necessarily cut out meat, but if you care about yourself and your health, you might want to limit your intake. And an easy way to do that is to simply cut it out one day a week. And when you do decide to eat it, look for meat from animals that were raised in a sustainable way. Your health depends on it.

Start by pledging to go meatless on Monday.

Use the Eat Well Guide to find sustainable meat in your area.

To be continued….

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 18th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

Stores
Because the vast majority of stores buy their food from distributors, they’ll be less likely to know as much about the food as the farmer does. But don’t let that stop you! Don’t forget that your questions are sending a message up the supply and distribution line. If we all start asking for something, we will greatly increase our chances of getting it.

I often use my mother as an example when I’m speaking. She’s not an activist or a foodie, but she wants what she wants. She happens to know the owners of a dairy in Lewes, Delaware, which is very close to where she lives in Rehoboth Beach, and she loves their milk. She went into her usual grocery store and asked the manager if he would start selling some of their products. He said no. She went back a week later and asked again. He agreed to sell a couple of containers of milk, which quickly sold out. I was just down visiting and went to buy milk for my parents and saw that Lewes Dairy now has several shelves of milk on display in the milk section, and people were literally grabbing it up while I was there.

When my mother told the dairy owners what she’d done, they said they’d been trying for years to get their milk sold locally. And it only took one customer asking two questions to change the milk supply in the Rehoboth Beach area.

So if you have a favorite local sustainable food item that you don’t see in your grocery store, ask the manager to stock it. You could even go so far as to find a suitable farmer to supply the product to the store. A word of advice, though – if you are going to get a store to stock a particular item, please make sure you purchase it. Grocery stores work on slim profit margins and shelf space is limited, so make sure you really want what you’re asking them to stock.

If you’re unsure about meat, poultry and dairy items sold in the store, download Sustainable Table’s Questions for a Store Manager, Meat Manager and/or Butcher (which includes answers also). It supplies questions like, “Do you know how the animals were raised?” You can also download Questions for a Farmer and see if the store is able to answer them.

If the store manager or butcher doesn’t know the answers to your questions, ask them to ask the distributor. The same applies to vegetables – talk with the produce manager about where the fruits and vegetables come from. Ask if any are grown locally. I was pleasantly surprised when shopping in Decherd, Tennessee, last year. I asked the very young produce employee if any of the food was raised locally, and he went through the whole produce section and pointed out which was grown close by, which was from Tennessee, and which was from other nearby states like Georgia. If the employees at your store can’t answer these questions, just keep asking until they find out. You may be surprised, though, at the depth of knowledge store employees have these days.

If you can’t get answers to your questions, ask for the name of the farm the food comes from, or at least for the distributor. Call the farm or distributor directly and ask them how the food was produced.

Encourage the store managers to label local food with the name of the farm, so you don’t always have to ask questions. (That’s a good incentive for them to put up signs!) If you’re really feeling bold, see if your store will also list the farm’s growing practices, to make it easier for other customers. And if you have trouble finding the store manager or don’t have time to really speak with him or her, leave behind an “I Care Notecard” to let them know what you are looking for.

Restaurants
Restaurants are a little trickier, unless you’re eating at one that specializes in local sustainable food, but don’t let that stop you. Ask if any of the food is local, sustainable and/or organic. You may be surprised. I’ve eaten in several restaurants that use organic eggs but only if you ask for them (and they charge more). Just know that the waiters and chefs may be overworked, so if the establishment is busy, you may want to keep your questions casual. Questions you can ask include:

Is any of your food local or organic?
Do you know if the animals were raised on pasture or come from local farms?

You can take handy wallet-sized cards along to help you remember a couple of questions to ask.

Another option is to leave a note behind with your bill or at the front desk. You could leave a card like the one Curt Ellis from Wicked Delicate production company and King Corn filmmaker, has created to let restaurants know he won’t eat meat from their establishment until they source from local sustainable farms. Feel free to adapt his card for your use. (Copy below.) You can simply type this up in a Word document and print these out on your home printer or send them off and print up hundreds so you can always keep a couple in your wallet.

The bottom line is simply to speak up. Ask where your food came from and how it was produced. Once you start, you’ll find it’s quite enjoyable to get to know your local farmers, store managers and restaurant employees. And you may be surprised at how much people know or how willing they are to get you the information you’re looking for.

So let’s eat!

(Please feel free to adapt this to say what you want to say. Or you can simply copy this into a document, format as you like, and print out.)

THANK YOU FOR THE DELICIOUS MEAL!

You may have noticed that I didn’t order any meat today. It’s not that I’m a vegetarian – I’m an eager carnivore – but I’ve made a commitment to only eat animal products from humane, sustainable, family farms.

I hope you’ll consider offering local, free-range, pasture-fed, and hormone- and antibiotic-free protein here soon. If you have trouble finding it, you might ask at the farmers’ market about wholesale buying, or visit www.EatWellGuide.org.

I look forward to coming back again soon – and thanks for listening!

Respectfully,

(your name)

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 17th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

To start, know that it’s okay to ask questions. When I first started eating sustainable food, I tended to look for organic because I was hesitant to ask farmers questions about how they raised their meat, dairy and produce, and I knew what I was getting with organic (or so I thought). My biggest concern was that I wouldn’t like something about the way the farmer produced the food and would have to walk away. It seemed a bit rude.

So, first off, understand that you are not rude or inappropriate for asking questions. If you buy a car, you ask questions, and odds are you won’t buy the first one you look at. You shop around – and you don’t feel guilty for doing so. You do the same for any large purchase – appliances, computers, electronics – so why would any of us feel uncomfortable asking questions about our food? It’s your money and your choice.

Also, asking questions sends a clear message to farmers and businesses. If all of us asked for pesticide-free or pasture-raised food and shopped around until we found it, farmers would find a way to start producing food that was completely pesticide free or from animals raised on pasture. Many consumers may not understand that even organic food is permitted to be produced with a certain class of “natural” pesticide. This is much better than the chemical pesticides sprayed on industrial food, but if you want to go a step further and you make some inquiries, you may find farmers who use no pesticides at all, and yet their produce may not be labeled organic. So it’s important that we learn the issues and then go out and start asking questions.

Farm Direct/Farmers’ Market
If you’re shopping at a farm stand or a farmers’ market, odds are you’ll be speaking with one of the farmers who works the land. Ask them general questions about their farm so you can get to know them better – remember, they’re your neighbor. Questions you could ask include:

Where is your farm?
How long have you been farming?
What type of farming do you do?
What do you raise?
What are your favorite crops?
What’s your favorite way of cooking (kale, chicken, squash, any product they produce)?

You can also ask about their growing practices. Sustainable Table has wonderful handouts that give you both questions and answers for meat, dairy and poultry, so you can find out such things as -

How are the animals raised?
Are they fed anything besides grass (if a cow)?
How are they finished?
Were antibiotics ever given?
Were any added hormones used?
Were feed additives used?
If they say their animals are free range – are your animals raised on pasture or are they confined?

You can print out Sustainable Table’s questions and answers and take them with you when you go shopping at a farm or farmers market. They include:

Questions for a Farmer – Beef
Questions for a Farmer – Dairy
Questions for a Farmer – Eggs
Questions for a Farmer – Hogs
Questions for a Farmer – Poultry

When you’re looking to buy fruits and vegetables, the two key questions are:

1. What type of fertilizer was used? Fertilizers are applied to provide nutrients to the soil. Compost and manure are good as fertilizers when used appropriately. Compost is what you get from the decomposition of organic matter such as vegetables, leftover food, manure, straw, leaves, etc. Manure is fine and will add nutrients to the soil, as long as it’s not over-applied to the land. Over-application could lead to runoff and pollution and can actually damage the soil, so you want to find a farm that uses manure and/or compost in amounts the land can handle. The proper use of manure and/or compost is called organic fertilization and adds nutrients to the soil that encourage healthy plant growth, so you want to look for farms that use organic fertilizer applied appropriately.

You might want to try avoiding food treated with chemical fertilizers, which are made synthetically from inorganic material such as ammonium sulfate, potassium chloride and calcium nitrate. I wasn’t able to find studies that concluded eating food treated with chemical fertilizers was harmful to our health, but I also didn’t find any saying they weren’t. The main problem with these types of fertilizers is that they can pollute the surrounding environment and ground water, and can also harm individuals who live near application sites. The over-application of nitrogen and subsequent run off into waterways has created a huge 5,800 square mile dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, creating an area where fish and other aquatic life cannot live.

2. Were pesticides used and, if so, what type? Ideally, you would like the farmer to say no pesticides were ever used. These types of growers exist but may be a little hard to find. Second to that, you want to find a farmer who uses a natural pest control, such as Integrated Pest Management, where every effort is made to get rid of pests using natural methods, including introducing bugs that eat pests, planting specific pest-discouraging plants around more vulnerable plants, and growing small batches of different crops that are rotated regularly. In these cases, pesticides are used very sparingly and only when necessary. These could be organic or sustainable farmers. Also, if pesticides are used, you want to look for a natural pesticide, and steer clear of any food sprayed with a class of chemical called organophosphates, which includes parathion, malathion, methyl parathion, chlorpyrifos, diazinon, dichlorvos, phosmet, tetrachlorvinphos, and azinphos methyl. If you’re confused, certified organic food is still a good option.

To be frank, the pesticide issue is more complicated than it might first seem. As the Guide to Good Food is developed into a book, I’ll look more deeply into the pesticide issue and try to come up with easy-to-understand information so you can know exactly what to look for when buying fruits and vegetables.

Now that summer is here, farmers’ markets are overflowing with delicious, wholesome food. Visit one today – and take your questions with you!

Next week we’ll continue with Part 2 of Asking Questions and what to ask for in stores and restaurants.

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 16th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

Books
Deeply Rooted, Lisa Hamilton
In this narrative nonfiction book, Hamilton tells three stories – of an African-American dairyman in Texas who plays David to the Goliath of agribusiness corporations; a tenth-generation rancher in New Mexico struggling to restore agriculture as a pillar of his community; and a modern pioneer family in North Dakota breeding new varieties of plants to face the future’s double threat of climate change and the patenting of life forms.

Food Inc., Edited by Karl Weber
Most of you have probably heard about Food, Inc., the movie, but did you also know there’s a companion book to the film? The book explores the challenges raised by the movie in fascinating depth through 13 essays, most of them written especially for this book, and many by experts featured in the film. Highlights include chapters by Michael Pollan (Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food), Anna Lappe (Hope’s Edge and Grub), Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation and film co-producer), Robert Kenner (film director), and a chapter on asking the right questions from Sustainable Table! The book is so popular it’s already in its fourth printing.

Food Matters, Mark Bittman
Food Matters explores the links among food, global warming and other environmental challenges, obesity and the so-called lifestyle diseases, and the overproduction and overconsumption of meat, simple carbohydrates, and junk food. Includes over 75 recipes.

The Righteous Porkchop, Nicolette Hahn Niman
Righteous Porkchop is a thoughtful, and surprisingly lighthearted, memoir about a most serious topic: poop…and the animals that make it. Porkchop guides readers through the ills of industrial farming, the faces and lives of the people most affected by it, a hopeful exploration of sustainable meat production and, surprisingly, a little romance.

Movies
Food, Inc., Robert Kenner
Food, Inc., is the summer movie everyone’s talking about. The film has received fantastic reviews from all over and is currently playing in select cities. Food, Inc., reveals surprising, and often shocking, truths about what we eat, how it’s produced, and who we have become as a nation. Don’t miss this one!

Fresh, Ana Sofia Joanes
Fresh celebrates the farmers, thinkers and business people across America who are re-inventing our food system. Each has witnessed the transformation of agriculture into an industrial model, and confronted the consequences: food contamination, environmental pollution, depletion of natural resources and morbid obesity. Forging healthier, sustainable alternatives, they offer a practical vision for a future of our food and our planet. Fresh is not being shown in theatres – visit the site for information on how to attend a screening or host your own.

Good Food, Mark Dworkin, Melissa Young
An intimate look at the farmers, ranchers, and businesses that are creating a more sustainable food system in the Pacific Northwest. Copies are available for rent or purchase.

The Meatrix, Louis Fox, Diane Hatz
If you haven’t seen it yet, now’s the time to join Moopheus and the 20 million plus who have taken the red pill. This award-winning, four-minute animation uses humor and pop culture to explain what factory farming is. Online now!

What’s on Your Plate?, Catherine Gund
Filmed over the course of a year, the film follows two eleven-year-old African-American city kids as they explore their place in the food chain. With the camera as their companion, the girl guides talk to each other, food activists, farmers, new friends, storekeepers, their families, and the viewer, in their quest to understand what’s on all of our plates.

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 15th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

A gene is a small section of DNA in the nucleus of a cell that carries specific instructions which determine how a plant or animal grows, develops, looks and lives. Genetic engineering is the process of transferring specific traits, or genes, from one plant or animal to another. The resulting organism is called transgenic or a GMO (genetically modified organism). Seventy percent of processed foods on American grocery shelves have genetically modified ingredients.

This process of transferring genes is different from traditional cross breeding, which can only be done with members of the same species (such as different breeds of cattle). Cross breeding has been done over the centuries to strengthen breeds by focusing on specific traits such as the ability to survive outdoors in cold or produce more offspring. It is done through mating or artificial insemination, not through gene manipulation.

With genetic engineering, genes can be transferred not just across species but from one species to another – that is, among plants and animals that are unable to breed. For example, genes from an animal can be inserted into a plant, as when genes from a flounder were inserted into tomato plants to try to make them resistant to frost. In Taiwan, scientists have successfully inserted jellyfish genes into pigs to make them glow in the dark. (Who knows why.)

There are many concerns about genetically engineered crops and animals, including the fact that inadequate testing has been done to determine the effects on humans and the environment.

GE Crops
According to the Economic Research Service at the USDA, in 2008 over 90 percent of soybeans, more than 55 percent of corn, and over 60 percent of cotton grown in the United States was from genetically engineered (GE) seeds. Most GE crops were created to withstand pesticide or herbicide application, allowing farmers to heavily spray their fields and kill pests, but not the GE plants.

While those in favor of GE crops claim they require less pesticide use, weeds can develop resistance to the pesticides, leading farmers to spray more. This can lead to more pesticide residues on the food you eat. Increased pesticide use also increases profits for the biggest agribusinesses that sell not only GE seed but the pesticides used on them as well. It also increases water and air pollution as well as costs for the farmer.

One of the most controversial types of GMO is nicknamed the “Terminator Seed.” Terminator seeds have been genetically altered so that the seeds of their crops are sterile. This prevents farmers from saving seed to grow from year to year, a practice as old as agriculture itself. These seeds were designed to force farmers to purchase them each year, making even more money for business and less for farmers. Obviously, this increases costs for farmers and is particularly bad for farmers in poor nations where food is scarce and famine is common.

GE Animals
Scientists are currently working on ways to genetically engineer livestock animals and aquatic creatures. For example, salmon have been genetically altered to grow five times faster than wild breeds, and hens have been modified to lay low-cholesterol eggs. No GE animal has yet been approved for human consumption, but no safety precaution is foolproof. For example, in 2003, scientists at the University of Illinois were experimenting with inserting cow genes into female pigs to try to increase milk production. Almost 400 offspring of these experimental pigs were slaughtered and the meat sent to market.

Concerns about genetic engineering
Concerns about genetic engineering include the inadequate testing of the effects on the environment and human health, including potential long-term effects of eating GE food and eating meat or dairy from animals that were fed GE food.

Opponents of genetic engineering say that GMOs must be proven safe before they’re sold to the public and are specifically concerned about:

Allergic reactions. One question is whether, for example, people with allergies to nuts would have an allergic reaction to a GMO made with DNA from nuts. A second question is whether a GE product might create new allergies in people. The answers to these questions are not known.

Gene mutation. It is not known whether the forced insertion of one gene into another gene might cause an unforeseen change or mutation, creating a dangerous organism such as a new bacterium that might cause illness in crops, animals or people or have other unforeseeable results.

Antibiotic resistance. Almost all GMOs have markers genes that could increase antibiotic resistance, a growing and dangerous problem where the overuse and misuse of antibiotics is creating new strains of bacteria that are resistant to treatment.

Environmental damage. Gene pollution cannot be cleaned up. Once a GE organism is released into the environment, it cannot be taken out. This is particularly alarming with crops like corn, which are wind-pollinated, because pollen from GE plants can drift and possibly pollinate other plants, creating new unknown species.

Genetically engineered crops that have been approved for consumption in the United States include corn, cotton, papaya (Hawaiian), potato, rapeseed (canola), rice, soybean, sugar beet and tomato.

What can you do?
Food that is certified “USDA Organic” cannot be genetically engineered or made with GE ingredients, so if you’re concerned about genetically modified food, look for that label. Other organic certifications may have the same requirements, but it pays to find out. If you are buying from a local farmer ask them whether they use GE seeds or GE animal feed. If you’re buying processed food, look for the organic label or call the company that produces it and ask them if they use any GE ingredients. Don’t assume that food purchased in a health food store is GMO-free, unless the store has a no-GMO policy, you will likely find GE ingredients in some products sold there. Thousands of foods labeled “Natural” are made with GMOs, so look for labels that state the food is GMO free, question the company making the product, or buy organic.

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 14th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)

Today we’re going to show you that it is possible to eat healthier on a budget, and we’re also going to talk a bit about the reality behind our food system.

I recently saw the movie Food, Inc. which opens today, June 12th, in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco (Click here for movie and ticket info). In the film is a scene where a family of four buys a fast food meal for $11.38 but say they can’t afford broccoli for $1.29 a pound. That’s understandable, but what could a family of four eat for around $11.38 that might be a little healthier? Let’s look at a chart we created with current prices from Stop and Shop’s Peapod website:

(1) Based on Stop and Shop’s Peapod website (accessed 5/29/09)
(2) Based on Stop and Shop’s Peapod website (accessed 5/29/09)
(3) Based on OrganicDirect.com (NY and NJ area) (accessed 6/2/09)

The family of four could eat 2 pounds of conventional white rice and 2 pounds of black beans for $4.99, two foods that, when combined, meet our bodies’ need for high-quality protein. They could go organic and eat 2 pounds of organic brown (or white) rice and 2 pounds of organic black beans for $6.77. Add in a head of broccoli and the total is $7.88 for all conventional and $9.96 for all organic. Both well under the $11.38 the family spent at a fast food drive through, leaving extra money for herbs, spices, or another item.

If you would like to see a comparison of farmers’ market and grocery store prices, check out “Is it possible to shop locally on a budget?” from Farm Aid.

If you look at nutritional values –

1 cup black beans (boiled with salt) – 172g, 227 calories, 1g fat (0g saturated), 0g cholesterol, 408mg sodium, 60% fiber, 15g protein, 20% iron and a good source of thiamin, magnesium, phosphorous, manganese and folate.

1 cup brown rice (medium grain, cooked) – 195g, 218 calories, 2g fat (0g saturated), 0g cholesterol, 2mg sodium, 4g fiber, 5g protein, 6% iron.

1 stalk broccoli (boiled*, without salt) – 280g, 98 calories, 1g fat (0g saturated), 115mg sodium, 0g cholesterol, 9g fiber, 7g protein, 87% vitamin A, 303% vitamin C, 11% calcium, 10% iron. Also a good source of thiamin, pantothenic acid, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, fiber, vitamin E and K, riboflavin, vitamin B6, folate, potassium and manganese. (*Steaming vegetables is preferable to boiling – more nutrients will be retained. We could only find data for boiled broccoli.)

1 Burger King hamburger sandwich (as an example of a fast food burger) – 121g, 310 calories, 13g fat (5g saturated), 40mg cholesterol, 580mg sodium, 2g fiber, 17g protein, 2% vitamin A, 2% vitamin C, 8% calcium, 20% iron. (Note: Burger King supplied the information and most vitamin and mineral content was not provided.)

To compare the quantity of food (172g beans plus 195g rice and 280g broccoli), you’d need over 5 Burger King hamburger sandwiches (at 121g each) to equal the volume of the beans, rice and broccoli. That means 1550+ calories, 65g fat (25g saturated), 200mg cholesterol, and so on, compared with 502 calories, 4g fat (0g saturated), 0g cholesterol, etc. (Or, conversely, you could reduce the amount of beans, rice and broccoli, to an equivalent of one or two hamburgers, which would bring the price of the healthy meal down considerably.)

This shows that you can consume fewer and far more nutritious calories for less money by shopping and cooking, rather than resorting to fast food, so why do so many people continue to buy and eat fast food? One reason is convenience. We think food should be cheap and fast so pulling through a drive through and shoveling food quickly into our mouth is the way many of us eat. It’s a sign of our over-stressed, over-worked lives. And we’re used to it.

How convenient is it?
What if you cooked your own food, ate at home and took food with you from home to work? Clearly, you would save money and eat healthier food. But, I hear you saying, “I don’t have time” or “I’m always so tired when I get home that I don’t want to cook”. What can you do about that?

A good way to eat healthy with little fuss or mess is to use a rice cooker and a slow cooker (or crock pot). Or perhaps try a pressure cooker to cook beans faster. With the rice and slow cookers, you can find models with timers so you can cook food when you want to. The machines click over to a warm mode when food is done so it will be ready for you when you are. You can come home from work and have your dinner cooked and waiting for you. (We’ll have more about this in a future post on cooking sustainable food.)

Another suggestion is to get a cookbook for quick, healthy meals – or search for recipes online. A lot exist, so you can find recipes that use few ingredients and that can be prepared quickly. It is possible to come home and cook a healthy, delicious meal within 30 minutes. And if you live with roommates or family members, you can get everyone involved in making the meal as a way to spend time together. If you make a little extra food, you can also have it (or a modified version of it) for lunch the next day. For example, if you roast a chicken on Monday night, you can bring a chicken sandwich to work on Tuesday.

Having said all that, though, there is a shift you do have to make. You have to think about what to eat, when to shop, and how to prepare the food. There is no getting around the fact that it takes much less time to drive your car through a take out window than it does to plan menus, shop, and prepare food – but the rewards of these changes are huge, starting with the quality of the food you eating and ending with a healthier body and, very possibly, a longer healthier life.

So you have to want to eat healthier and be willing to make a few adjustments to your schedule to eat better. The best thing to do is to create menus and learn a few healthy meals that you can make quickly with ingredients you can keep around the house, for those days when you really can’t go shopping or you forgot to plan a menu. Once you start eating this way, you will find it’s much more satisfying than eating fast food, and it doesn’t take as much time as you might think.

It’s your choice. But if you do eat fast food, why not try cutting it out a couple times a week? You’ll spend less money and have great tasting, nutritious food that you made yourself. And if you have your own garden, you can harvest part of your meal each day before you eat. It doesn’t get any better than that.

If you’re interested in other ways to stretch your food dollar, check out Recipes & Tips for Healthy, Thrifty Meals that was created by Pennsylvania State University under contract to the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion. Four-person families with limited incomes prepared and evaluated these menus and recipes for taste and quality. The booklet also gives you tips on how to eat on a budget.

Buying sustainable and/or organic
So, hopefully, what I’ve been able to show you is that it’s not impossible to cook your own food, even if you’re on a budget. The most important thing is to start eating more fruits and vegetables, and to get into the habit of cooking your own meals. The next step is to look for the healthiest food around.

As we’ve shown you above, there are some organic items in the grocery store that are close in price to the industrial products. If you look for both sustainable and/or organic food, and try to buy as directly from the farm as possible – at a farmers market or farm stand at the farm, for example – you’ll find the prices for organic/sustainable will be even less than those posted above. Remember – eat in season and buy as close to the source as possible.

And understand that it’s almost impossible to change all your eating habits overnight, so start slow and change what you can. Read our post on which organic/sustainable foods you might want to try to incorporate into your diet first.

The reality of our food
There are experts who say that the industrial system of food production is broken. Not flawed, but broken. That means it’s starting to fall apart, and it’s only a matter of time before its effects on all of us become impossible to ignore. If you find that hard to believe, think of the recent banking and car industry failures – did we ever think that could happen? So when people start talking about the food system falling apart, or even expressing concern they think it’s falling apart, we might want to listen.

What does this mean for you? This probably means that, whether you like it or not, food prices will continue to increase, as oil prices and other costs of food production increase. As we mentioned in last week’s post, farmers will plant fewer acres of major crops this year, which means the price of corn will be higher, not just for you but also for farmers who feed it to their livestock. Not only will the price of corn potentially rise, so might meat products and all the other foods that corn is used to produce. If this trend continues, even cheap, industrial, nutrient-lacking, over-processed foods will cost more.

What can you do? Many people believe the solution is to change our food system to one that’s local and sustainable. Even large corporations know there’s a problem and are looking at how they can develop new models for the production and distribution of food.

So start now. Plant a garden or some herbs in your kitchen window, visit a farmers market, or take a cooking class. Make the transition to eating healthier something fun and enjoyable – and take it a step at a time.

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide. This is the 13th installment in her series Sustainable Table’s Guide to Good Food.)