If you're wondering what sustainable food is, you've come to the right place. This page will provide you with a wealth of clear and accessible information on what constitutes "eating well" and how it relates to the sustainable food movement. Yet, rather than have us tell you what it means to eat well, we think it best that you hear it from sustainable producers themselves - the very people that work in the fields, behind the counter, and in the kitchens to make sustainable food available to you, the consumer.

We've asked farmers, natural food store owners and employees, and chefs to give their perspective on what it really means to "eat well" and how that ties into what they do and why. Below are their responses.

Wende Elliott, Wholesome Harvest Organic Meats

I believe I was destined to be an Iowa farmer.

I wasn’t always one. I left the small Midwestern town I grew up in and moved to metropolitan NYC, worked in business, and expanded my palette with yuppie gourmet food. I was set up on a blind date with my future husband, another Midwesterner, and then three kids came. The more my husband and I learned about food, the more we asked questions about the environment, and what was healthy.  We went over the edge. We decided we wanted to grow our own food. We packed up and moved to Iowa, near extended family, and started converting land to organic certification in 1999.

I believe that my daughter and two sons should eat nothing but safe food. After I had kids, I became uncomfortable buying food at the supermarket with ingredients that I couldn’t recognize or pronounce. I still wasn’t satisfied. I am concerned about the lack of independent food choices in the USA, especially in meat, so I created a coalition of small family farms that would voluntarily offer transparency and traceability systems.  Even if food legislation is mired by lobbyists in Congress, I didn’t see anything would prevent the farmers from voluntarily offering higher standards, and creating pathways direct to consumers. Read all of Wende's response...

Nikki & David Goldbeck, Co-authors, Healthy Highways

In the 1970s, when we started writing about consumer issues, nutrition and food, we thought the battles were straightforward – better labeling, a concern for additives, pesticides, antibiotics and hormones in the food supply, reducing packaging, more organics, and an appreciation of the benefits and joys of wholefoods. Gee, if everyone just ate brown rice everything would be OK.

For a while we thought we were winning – labels were more complete, the public was getting the message about decreasing pollutants in their food, organic food was becoming more available (and reasonably priced). We felt that our 1970s unexpected bestseller, The Supermarket Handbook, had actually had an affect. We could even mention yogurt and tofu on a TV without getting a laugh.

But as we now know, for the food industry these were just small battles in their war to makeover human food. Read all of Nikki & David's response...

David Heininger, Black Mesa Ranch

I think of "Eating Well" as a conceptual ideal - a model of good-eating practices one works towards and strives to achieve. Despite the seemingly simple precept, the ability to actually eat well on a daily basis is more difficult than one might imagine.

My definition of "Eating Well" is eating foods that embody or represent the fullest combination possible of four key elements. I offer these elements in this order of importance: Quantity, Health, Quality, and Responsibility. Read all of David's response...

More Featured Producers:

• M.J. Adams, Corn Exchange Restaurant & Bistro -- Rapid City, South Dakota
• John Caveny, Caveny Farm
• Tony Daranyi, Indian Ridge Farm & Bakery -- Norwood, Colorado
• David Fogle, Spring Hill Farms -- Newark, Ohio
• Liz Montgomery, Lucky Lizard Ranch -- Conroe, Texas
• Jeff and Jamie Lindauer, Lindauer Family Farms -- Brule, Nebraska
• Steven McCarthy, Prather Ranch Meat Co. -- San Francisco, California
• Tamar Adler & Olivia Sargeant, farm 255 -- Athens, Georgia
  

Why Buy Sustainable?
Along with the producer perspectives offered above, we've provided a detailed listing of reasons why eating well and buying sustainable are so important, not only for your health, but also for the well-being of your community and the environment. To view them all, click here.

You can find many more reasons to eat well throughout the Eat Well Guide's parent site, Sustainable Table, and IATP's Food and Health Program. Remember, every dollar you spend sends a message to business -- the more you spend on sustainable food, the more sustainable food will be produced. So the choice is yours.