Exactly what are sustainable farming and/or sustainable food, and what is organic agriculture? Those are questions I hear quite often. A general concept of organic has been seeping into the mainstream, but many people are still confused by both terms. And to make it even more confusing, organic can be sustainable and sustainable can be organic, but they don’t have to be. What?

To start with, sustainable farming is more of a concept or a philosophy than a literal definition. With sustainable farming, food is raised that’s healthy for consumers, does not harm the environment, is humane for workers, respects animals, provides a fair wage to the farmer, and supports and enhances rural communities. At Sustainable Table, we also believe that sustainable food should be grown as close to home as possible.

Yes, that is a bit of a mouthful – a shorter answer would be to say that sustainable farming provides food that’s healthy for consumers, farmers, the environment, animals, and local communities.

The challenge with sustainable is that there isn’t a government approved label or certification system, so you need to educate yourself and ask questions before you buy. Also, there is no standard for what’s healthy for consumers or humane for workers. There is no chart saying when the environment begins to be harmed, and so on. That means that each of us has to learn as much as we can about the issues and decide what we think is best. We’re not here to tell you what to do – we’re here to give you information, encouragement and perhaps advice; but it’s up to you to decide what you think is best for yourself.

Since 2002, organic food has been regulated by the government. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines organic agriculture as “an ecological production management system that promotes and enhances biodiversity, biological cycles and soil biological activity. It is based on minimal use of off-farm inputs and on management practices that restore, maintain and enhance ecological harmony.”

Another mouthful. To put it more simply, with organic farming
• most synthetic (and petroleum derived) pesticides and fertilizers are prohibited;
• all antibiotics, genetic engineering, irradiation and sewage sludge are prohibited;
• all organically produced animals must have access to outdoors and be fed organic feed; and
• all processed products labeled organic must have 95% organic ingredients.

They look rather similar, don’t they? But there are differences…. Let’s do a comparison.

Certification. Organic farms must be independently certified every year and approved by the USDA. Sustainable farms are not certified.

Animal Welfare. Though most organic farmers raise their animals in a sustainable manner, the organic standards only require “access” to outdoors. This means that an organic farmer could have an open door leading to a cement patio and not actually let their animals out on pasture. In a sustainable system, animals are allowed to carry out their natural behaviors and are given ample room to move around naturally. So even with organic food, it helps to know your farmer and to ask questions about how the food was raised or produced.

Antibiotics. Organic farmers cannot use any antibiotics on their animals. Sustainable farmers can choose not to use antibiotics at all, or they can use them if the animal gets sick.

Artificial hormones. Neither organic nor sustainable farmers can give artificial or added hormones to their animals.

Corporate involvement. Organic food can be raised by large companies, whereas sustainable food is raised by small family farmers.

Farm size. With organic agriculture, the farm can be any size. Sustainable farmers plant crops in relatively small, mixed plots.

Food miles. Organic food can travel thousands of miles before reaching your dinner plate. Sustainable food is grown as close to home as possible.

An important point to remember is that many organic farmers are also sustainable. In the past several years, as organic has become more popular, large industrial farms have started raising organic food, which is not sustainable.

How do you know if something is organic or sustainable?

That’s a good question. Consumers must educate themselves if they want to eat the best food possible. We do research when we shop for cars and computers, so shouldn’t we also do some research when buying our food?

In a supermarket or health food store, you will find the USDA certified organic label on packaged organic food. In addition, most produce will also be labeled organic. At a farmers’ market, organic farmers will have a sign saying they’re organic, which you can generally trust because most, if not all, farmers markets will research and approve farmers before letting them sell at the market. If you’re wondering if the organic food you want to buy is sustainable or not, ask your store manager if the food was raised locally on a small family farm. You can also look at any labels on the food to see where it came from.

Sustainable is another issue. Because it’s more of a philosophy, we might have slightly different definitions of sustainable. And this is why learning about our food is so important. We’ll go through some of the major issues in future posts, but for now, know that you need to learn where your food came from in order to know what’s best for you. Were pesticides used? (You might be surprised to learn that some sustainable farmers use zero pesticides, whereas organic farmers are permitted to use a certain class of pesticides.) What kind of fertilizer was applied? What were animals fed? How were they raised? We’ll give you tips on the right questions to ask in a few weeks. For now, just know that you do need to commit a little time to learning about the difference between sustainable and organic, as well as what industrial agriculture is.

How should I start?

There are different ways to start on the road to eating sustainably, but, for me, it was easiest to start with organic food. I didn’t understand local, sustainable, industrial organic or any of the other terms you’ll quickly become familiar with, so to start, just looking for an organic label was easiest for me. I knew that if it was labeled, I was getting a certain type of food (that we explained above). I also shopped at a large supermarket then, and there was no such thing as local or sustainable in the store, but I could find some organic items. So organic was easiest to begin with.

I quickly realized that organic can get very expensive, and not having that kind of budget, I knew I had to figure something else out. So as I started incorporating some organic food into my diet, I also found a couple of farmers’ markets (not realizing that by doing this I was shopping locally and eating seasonally). At the same time, I also started researching sustainable food and started asking questions. That gave me enough knowledge so that I was able to decide whether I wanted sustainable, organic or sustainable organic. (Industrial food is not an option for me when I’m shopping in a grocery store.)

Don’t worry about having all this figured out yet. If you’re looking for somewhere to start and are unsure, try to incorporate one or two organic items into your food purchases. Don’t worry about trying to change everything overnight – one or two items are a great start. And if you’re wondering what you should shift to organic, remember, it really is up to you; but if you have no idea, I would suggest milk or dairy products.

We have a lot of information to cover over the course of this series, so, for now, I hope you have some understanding of what sustainable and organic food is. Next week, I’ll explain what industrial agriculture or factory farming is. And please let me know if you have any questions.

Here’s to healthy eating!

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide.)

I plan to break down the series into 10 simple steps (outlined below). I’ll go slow and try to be thorough while not being overwhelming – some of the steps might take a few months to get through; others might take only a week. If you get confused or have any questions along the way, please let us know. I’m hoping to eventually turn this into a guide or book that you’ll be able to download for your own reference and to share with others.

The Ten Steps to Eating Sustainable are:

1. Educate yourself
2. Shop sustainable
3. Ask questions
4. Reduce your meat consumption
5. Eat seasonal
6. Grow your own
7. Cook
8. Take back the tap
9. Spread the word
10. Enjoy!

The first step “educate yourself” is probably the one that will take the longest. There is quite a bit to learn, but, if you’re like me, you’ll not only find the material informative, you’ll find it quite interesting and might find you want to learn even more about the issues than we’ll cover here. As I always say when I speak – when we are looking to buy a car or a computer, we do a lot of research. Why don’t we do that with our food?

So what do you need to know? I’ll be breaking this section down into the following categories (though subject to change somewhat as we start getting feedback from you):

• What is sustainable and what is organic?
• What is industrial agriculture or factory farming?
• Why buy sustainable?
• Major issues – there are many problems with our food system today, but we’ll be covering the main problems. You can always get more detailed information on Sustainable Table’s Issues pages.
o Additives
o Antibiotics
o Environment
o Food Safety
o Genetic Engineering
o Health
o rBGH

Next week I’ll jump in and start with an explanation of what sustainable food and farming is, what organic is, and how they are both similar and different.

For now, if you are excited to start learning and are looking for some books to pick up, we recommend the following:

Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan. This is considered by many to be “the” book to read if you’re interested in sustainable food and factory farming. Michael Pollan is one of the leading figures in the sustainable food world, and the book is a must read. Pollan has also published a number of other excellent books, including In Defense of Food.

Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlossser. Schlosser investigates the fast food industry and its effects on our society, including the parallel rise in industrial agriculture. Fast Food Nation was also made into a movie and is available on DVD. (And as an extra added bonus, The Meatrix videos are on the DVD!)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver. Author Barbara Kingsolver and her family spent a year eating locally, either growing food themselves or buying locally from farmers, and proved that it can be done. An easy and interesting read for someone new to the issue of eating locally.

There are many other books you can read, but these three are a good start.

Until next week, eat healthy and stay happy!

(Diane Hatz is the Founder of Sustainable Table, Executive Producer of The Meatrix movies and co-Founder of the Eat Well Guide.)

Today we are featuring Anna Lappé, “bestselling author and sought-after public speaker, respected for her work on sustainability, food politics, globalization, and social change.”

What’s your definition of local?

I like non-rigid definitions of local. For me, local is the spirit of the food, more than an exact number of feet from my kitchen to the field where the food was grown. With that said, I try to support the farmers in what sociologist Jack Kloppenburg calls my local food shed. I shop at farmers markets when I can and look for tri-state food in the supermarket.

The real spirit of “local” doesn’t mean just measuring your food miles, especially for those items that my community can’t grow locally. For instance, my morning cup of coffee may not be “local,” but when I buy fair-trade certified coffee I know that my food dollar supported communities and didn’t just line the pockets of a CEO.

What’s your definition of sustainable?

I used to have a chip on my shoulder about the word “sustainable.” Most people on this planet don’t want to sustain where they are. They’re struggling; they want change, not the status quo. But I’ve come to see that the term sustainable can be aspirational, too. It doesn’t mean resigning ourselves to what is; it means working toward a vision of a world in which the values of fairness, community, and environmental stewardship are all respected. In this way, I think of sustainability as a process not a place. It’s not easy to achieve, but is a powerful goal to reach toward.

Sustainability takes on special meaning in an era of global warming. Sustainability is no longer optional; the fate of our planet depends on it. And food will play a huge role in either helping us move toward sustainability and lower greenhouse gas emissions, or by making our crisis worse. [You can learn more about the connection between our food system and climate change at this special primer page I've created with Sustainable Table.]

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

I often hear a version of this question, when I’m speaking to audiences and they ask: “Okay, so which is it: should we choose organic or local?”

In an ideal word, we wouldn’t have to make this choice. In an ideal world, our elected officials wouldn’t sanction the use on our nation’s farmland of man-made chemicals that are known endocrine disrupters, neurotoxins, or carcinogens.

But, well, we don’t live in an ideal world.

Given that reality, when posed with the hypothetical local-vs-organic head-to-head, I encourage people to choose local food from family farms. Those farms may not be organic now, but they may soon transition, particularly with customer support and encouragement.

But I can guarantee you that if those farms disappear–as many thousands do every year–we’ll lose that farmland forever, and never have a chance to have local or organic food at all.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

There is so much we can do, I hate to boil it down to one thing, so I’ll cheat and give you two ideas: one that’s really specific and one that’s big picture!

First, if you don’t already, go to your local farmers market or become a member of a community support agriculture farm. (This site has lots of resources to make these choices). This is one of your best ways to connect with farm-fresh food and get to know the people behind your local food system.

The second suggestion is much more vague and really quite simple: Follow your passion. There is so much work that needs to be done on the path toward sustainability. Whether it’s starting community gardens, working with schools to bring in healthy foods, fighting for farmer-friendly policy, educating yourself about genetically modified foods, learning about the connections between the food system and climate change, or simply cooking more, whatever specific act you choose to do, you will be aligning yourself with the millions across the globe walking on the path of sustainability.
Anna Lappé is a great friend of Sustainable Table! Please read on to find out more about her:

Anna Lappé is a national bestselling author and sought-after public speaker, respected for her work on sustainability, food politics, globalization, and social change. Named one of TIME’s “Eco-Who’s Who,” Anna has been featured in The New York Times, Gourmet, O-The Oprah Magazine, Domino, Food & Wine, Body+Soul, and Vibe, among many other outlets. In 2007, she was honored, along with New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, by The Missing Peace Project and was featured with Karenna Schiff Gore and Amanda Hearst in Contribute Magazine’s “21 Under 40 Making a Difference.”

With her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, Anna leads the Cambridge-based Small Planet Institute, a collaborative network for research and popular education, and the Small Planet Fund, which has raised nearly half-a-million dollars for democratic social movements worldwide, two of which have won the Nobel Peace Prize since the Fund’s founding in 2002.

Anna is a co-host of the public television series, The Endless Feast, and has appeared on more than one hundred radio and television shows. She can be seen on Sundance Channel’s Big Ideas for a Small Planet as well on Fox, NBC, PBS, and the CBC in Canada. She has also appeared on dozens of nationally syndicated radio programs, including National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition, The Diane Rehm Show, Talk to America, and WYNC’s Leonard Lopate Show with Ruth Reichl.

Anna is a frequent lecturer and has spoken at dozens of universities and colleges across the country, including Allegheny College, Boston College, Brown University, Columbia University, New York University, University of California at Berkeley, Wesleyan, and Yale University.

Anna’s first book, Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet, (Tarcher/Penguin 2002), co-written with her mother, Frances Moore Lappé, chronicles courageous social movements around the world addressing the root causes of hunger and poverty. Winner of the Nautilus Award for Social Change, Hope’s Edge has been published in several languages and is used in classrooms across the country.

Called “ingenious” by The New York Times, Anna’s second book, Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen (Tarcher/Penguin 2006), combines an exposé on industrial agriculture with chef Bryant Terry’s seasonal menus. For the Grub speaking tour, Anna traveled to fifty-five cities and participated in more than two hundred events.

Anna’s writing has been widely published in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, and Canada’s Globe and Mail. Anna has also been a contributing author to a number of books, including We Got Issues!: A Young Women’s Guide to a Bold, Courageous and Empowered Life (Inner Ocean: September 2006), WorldChanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century (Abrams 2006), and Feeding the Future: How the Battle Over Food Will Change Your Life (Realize Media 2004).

Anna serves as a consultant to foundations, media projects, and non-profit organizations and served as a consulting editor for a Nation special issue on food. She is an active board member of the Center for Media and Democracy and the Community Food Security Coalition, the nation’s leading network of food justice and sustainable agriculture organizations.

Anna holds an M.A. in Economic and Political Development from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and graduated with honors from Brown University. From 2004 to 2006 she was a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a national program of the WK Kellogg Foundation.

Anna has worked in South Africa, England, and France. She currently lives in Brooklyn, New York where she is at work on her third book for adults and a children’s book series.

Today we are featuring Mary Cleaver of The Cleaver Co. and The Green Table both in NYC.

What’s your definition of local?

From New York City I define local as somewhere you can travel to and from in a day.

What’s your definition of sustainable?

Sustainable means to practice an integrated system of production that enhances environmental quality and economic viability while supporting cultural integrity and quality of life.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

I don’t think you can put one before the other. Sustainable implies local and community.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Be conscious of directing each dollar you spend to a source you want to be supporting.

Mary Cleaver’s The Cleaver Co. and The Green Table are all about local, sustainable and organic. Located in NYC, Mary has been dedicated to sustainability for over 30 years. “The handmade quality and sumptuous presentation of Mary Cleaver’s cuisine, both of which have become hallmarks of The Cleaver Co., directly result from her passion for and meticulous selection of local and organic ingredients. Cleaver’s dedication to supporting local farmers and sustainable agriculture is evident in every facet of her business, and she is regarded as a pioneer of the growing trend towards awareness of the benefits of sourcing natural foods.”

Today we are featuring Lisa Markley- dietitian and food educator.

What’s your definition of local?

For me, local is defined by the nourishing relationships that I have been able to develop with the growers in my community. I rely on them to grow clean, healthy, and delicious food using ecologically sound growing practices, and they in turn rely on me to provide them a fair price for their products (and sometimes a little help with the harvest). Local is also the sense of community that I have grown to love by going to the farmers markets and sharing local food with others interested in this movement.

What’s your definition of sustainable?

Taking from the earth less than can be given back to it…leaving it better than we found it so that we don’t compromise the ability of future generations to thrive. In terms of agricultural practices, using growing methods that help build up the soils with organic matter and nutrients instead of depleting the nutrients and causing the soil to erode away. Sustainable agriculture promotes biodiversity, not monoculture. This is important to me as a nutritionist who understands the importance of eating a colorful diet for disease prevention. I am very concerned about the loss of diversity in our fields and on our plates and the grave consequences this is having on our health.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

These three words are intrinsically interconnected making it difficult to rank them linearly as one being more important than the other. But if I had to pick one that might have more driving force over the others it would have to be “sustainable”. If we are thinking in terms of sustainability, then we are working together in our community on a local level to create a system that provides us what is needed now without compromising resources for future generations to live healthy.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Vote with your fork. You have at least three opportunities a day to make a difference. Eating local foods enables you to make a statement that you support a food system based on nourishing relationships, wholesome foods, sustainable growing practices, less reliance on fossil fuels, and fair wages for our hard working farmers. We have a moral responsibility to be good citizens to each other and to future generations.

We met Lisa Markley last year on our Eat Well Guided Tour of America! She was a wonderful host for a whole day of amazing activities and farms from Kansas City to Lawrence, Kansas. We are excited to have her continue to be a part of Sustainable Table!

Lisa Markley is a registered dietitian and food educator who takes a holistic and ecological approach to nutrition and health. She holds an MS in Nutrition from Bastyr University. Her education was unique in that it was taught from a philosophy of natural healing that emphasized whole, natural, and organic foods as the basis for optimal health. She also holds a BS in Health Education from Northern Arizona University, where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

Markley is passionate about promoting food choices and lifestyle approaches that truly create wellness and prevent disease on an individual as well as a global level. She started her own consulting business, True Food Nutrition, to offer the following wellness services: whole foods cooking classes, nutrition counseling, menu planning, kitchen makeovers, grocery shopping tours, public speaking, and workshop/conference planning.

Markley is also an advocate for the development of a more sustainable food system. She helps to build awareness in her community about the links between agriculture, food, and health by teaching workshops and writing articles about the health, nutrition, and environmental benefits of foods that are grown by small family farmers using ecologically sound practices. She is involved with the Kansas City Food Circle, the Kansas City 100 Mile Diet Team, the Kansas City Center for Urban Agriculture, Growing Growers, the Kansas City Healthy Kids Healthy Food Policy Coalition, and the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group.

In her free time she enjoys cooking, yoga, gardening, and sharing meals with friends made from the most delicious local ingredients.

Today we are featuring Simran Sethi – the everything green & sustainable freelance journalist, host, writer, contributor and more!

What is your definition of local?

Local food is food that comes from your community. It may be your backyard, it may be someplace down the road, but the food that comes from that area is aligned with the season and the farmers who grew it/ raised it are also part of the community.

What is definition of sustainable?

Local, seasonal, biodynamic/ organic, and small-scale/ independent. I don’t think food is very sustainable when it is grown in monocultures, soaks up a lot of chemicals, and doesn’t keep money in the local community.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

See above, to me sustainable incorporates local and community. Otherwise, it isn’t sustainable.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Pay attention. Think about what goes in your body. It’s your temple! With each bite you take, you can support the things you care about.

We met Simran last summer during our Eat Well Guided Tour of America. She actually joined us on the bus for 3 educational days in Iowa and Minnesota. Simran is a wonderful wealth of everything sustainable and was a welcome addition to the road. Read below find out more about Simran!

Simran Sethi is a freelance journalist, focusing on issues of social and environmental sustainability. The award-winning journalist is a contributing environmental correspondent and expert for NBC News and the Lacy C. Haynes Visiting Professional Chair at the University of Kansas School of Journalism, where she currently teaches a course on Media and the Environment. Sethi is writing a book on the impacts of American consumption for Harper Collins and is the contributing author of Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy (Chelsea Green, 2007), the companion guide to the first PBS series on sustainable business Ethical Markets for which she served as host and writer. She was named an inaugural Goddard Fellow by New York University (September 2007) and is an Associate Fellow for the Asia Society (November, 2007).

Sethi is the co-host/ writer of Sundance Channel’s environmental programming The Green, and a featured commentator and former story consultant for the original series Big Ideas for a Small Planet, the 2007 winner of the Environmental Media Award for Best Documentary. She is the creator of the upcoming Sundance web series The Good Fight, highlighting global environmental justice efforts, and the anchor of the Sundance interstitial business series EcoBiz. Sethi is a member of NBC Universal’s internal environmental initiative Green is Universal.

Sethi co-created, hosted, and oversaw all video and audio content for TreeHugger.com, the largest environmental website on the Internet. Under her management, TreeHugger won the 2006 Vloggie for Best Green Vlog. Lauded in Vanity Fair’s green issue (April 2007) as the environmental “messenger,” Sethi hosted a forum on global warming with Nobel Laureate Al Gore for MSN.com and created an audio podcast series for Gore’s non-profit, The Alliance for Climate Protection. She has been identified as a Variety magazine Woman of Impact (August 2007), and named one of the top Eco-Heroes of the Planet by the UK’s Independent (July 2007).

Sethi has contributed environmental segments to the Oprah Winfrey Show and has been featured on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, Today Show, and Martha Stewart Show, highlighting ways we can become more environmentally friendly. She is the “eco-expert” on the syndicated green home makeover show The EcoZone Project and recent host of Voom HD Network’s social and environmental series Keep It Green on Equator HD. Sethi has lectured on corporate social responsibility and sustainability in media at: the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies Conference, the Green Business Conference, the CERES Conference, Cornell University’s Johnson School of Business, M.I.T., Smith College, NYU’s Stern School of Business, Beth Haverim Temple, Bioneers by the Bay, and the democratic think tank Demos.

Sethi produced and anchored the news for MTV Asia, created and oversaw the MTV India news division, and developed programming for the BBC and others through her own production company SHE TV. She holds an MBA in sustainable management from the Presidio School of Management and graduated cum laude with a BA in Sociology and Women’s Studies from Smith College.

Today we are featuring Victoria Everman- Writer, Model, Environmentalist, Crafter, Yogi, Co-op America Approved Green Business, U.S. Spokesperson for Twice Shy Clothing and Founder of the SF Craft Mafia.

What’s your definition of local?

I tend to follow the “traditional”/widely accepted usage of anything grown and made within 100 miles of my home. Of course, when it comes to things like clothing, that can be very hard to accomplish, especially since over 60% of all organic cotton is grown overseas. In relation to food, I personally enjoy going out to visit local farms often – it is a great way to get exercise, spend time outdoors, and get a chance to meet those who work so hard to keep us truly nourished.

What’s your definition of sustainable?

This day and age, it can be much more difficult to define “sustainable” compared to “local.” Sustainability is a closed cycle – never take more than you can return to the soil. We are all connected and it is so easy to forget that, even with all of our social websites and cell phones. Unhealthy diets and questionable chemicals that our ancestors wouldn’t recognize have come to lead us into a black hole of diseases and famine, despite our surplus of food. Sustainable isn’t just about being good to the planet, it is about being good to its people in both social and spiritual ways that not only heals our bodies but our hearts and souls as well. All this can come from nourishing the soil and using only what we need, not just what society says we should want.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

Community trumps them all – if you have community, you can have local and sustainable foods and development. Growing up in Indiana, I remember running into countless people I knew at the grocery store, while riding my bike, at local football games … what happened to that? Since when is sitting behind a monitor a replacement for going outdoors? Farmers markets are a beautiful place that is helping many citizens all over the country, and the world, to reconnect with those who grow their food and are the link to local, sustainable living. It is all connected, but without community, you can’t have local of sustainable anything.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Visit LocalHarvest.org, use the “All” search function, and find local places in your area that are dedicated to sustainability. From farms and restaurants to grocery stores and CSAs, I’ve found this site to be the most comprehensive guide to local and sustainable living, especially in relation to our food systems. Take the time to go to these places, check them out, see how they are different from your fast foods joints and massive grocery chains. This is what sustainable, local living is all about – connecting on a more personal level that those “big boys” just can’t afford to accomplish.

I met Victoria Everman through The Daily Table and quickly became interested in her sustainable adventures on the west coast. She is the editor and head writer at Crafting a Green World… sustainable crafting, just one of her many talents! She also has her own blog and too many other sustainable activities for me to mention! Here’s a bit about Victoria in her own words:

“Perpetually looking for fresh ways to share my unquenchable green knowledge, I blog about everything eco on my own website, as well as for All Green Magazine and select others. Additionally, I am the editor/head writer of Crafting a Green World (part of the Green Options blog network) and a writer/web editor for Building Green TV. My diverse articles have been published in variety of reputable magazines, such as: Yoga Journal, Venus, CRAFT, Yogi Times, Recovery Solutions, M+F, and Office Solutions.

In my spare time, you can find me knitting, reading, singing, taking pictures, practicing yoga, taking long walks, and working on my first non-fiction book. Other random facts about me: I’m a Buddhist, latex fan, have four tattoos, and an attempting locavore.”

Today we are featuring Jayni Carey from “Janyi’s Kitchen.”

What is your definition of local?

Local foods grown or raised within 100 miles or less of where we live. Foods are fresher, tastier and likely, healthier, when they don’t have to travel long distances to the consumer. Shopping at farmers’ markets and natural foods stores makes it easy to find and purchase foods that are grown locally.

What is definition of sustainable?

Sustainable refers to a food system which supports local farmers and locally grown foods. Our foods should be produced with the highest standards, always striving for fresh, organic, chemical free and minimal processing. It means fair trade between the producers, retailers and consumers, humane treatment of animals and careful handling of fruits and vegetables. Sustainable practices include taking care of the land and supporting the rural economy and culture.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

Local, sustainable and community are tied together. If we get to know the farmers in our community, it gives us comfort in knowing where our food is coming from and how it’s grown or raised, while supporting the local economy.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Buy local and seasonal! Support your local farmers’ market. Shop at your local natural foods store and purchase local, organic, and fair trade products whenever possible. Plant a small backyard garden and experience the joy of growing some of your own foods.

We met Janyi this summer during our Eat Well Guided Tour of America and appeared on her show! I even gave my special recipes up for Janyi. We had a great time and hope to make it back to Lawrence sometime soon.

Jayni Carey is a cookbook author and the host of “Jayni’s Kitchen,” a weekly cooking show which originates in Lawrence, Kansas and airs across the state. Jayni also writes a monthly food column, “From Jayni’s Kitchen” for Boomergirl.

Today we are featuring Wendimere Reilly of The Health Chic:

What’s your definition of local?

Local means goods and services produced and sold by folks in my community. Here in Florida we tend to extend the definition of community to include our entire state.

What’s your definition of sustainable?

Sustainability is all about reduction. Reduce, reduce, reduce then reuse and if all else fails then recycle. Renewable, and biodegradable have their merits but learning to consume less is the real answer.

When you think of local, sustainable, and community, how would you rank the three (from most important to least) and why?

If we feel connected to our community then we would probably naturally want to support our local friends, neighbors, farmers and small businesses. I think one of the root causes of our endless desire to consume is to fill a void or emptiness that comes from a lack of connectivity. Give a group of kids a ball and they can entertain themselves for days. Put a kid in a room by himself in a room full of toys and he’s eventually going to become bored, lonely and frustrated.

What’s one thing people can do to be more local and sustainable?

Pick one thing and do it. Shop at a small business, go to the farmers market, eat at a family owned restaurant. Encourage the businesses that you patronize to buy local and “green” up their own operations. Vote with your dollar, consider the consequences of your spending. Buy less.

Wendimere Reilly is a good friend of Sustainable Table, has The Health Chic house (in Florida) and website, drives The Health Chic mobile , works with kids and wrote the wonderful book- The Health Chic Guide: Hip, Fun & Delicious Living. Find out all about her on The Health Chic website!