Sustainable Food Blog

Sustainable Food Weekly Updates - Justmeans

2010-10-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

Sharing the Harvest Supports Sustainable Food - Ellen Sabina

In recent years efforts to share the harvest of fresh, sustainable foods with those who are otherwise unable to afford them have really taken off. All over the country, in cities and rural areas alike, communities are banding together to find ways to get fresh fruits and vegetables to neighbors in need. While such initiatives have been building for a while now, they are becoming increasingly organized, efficient, and effective.

Gleaning programs work under the idea that healthy, sustainable food shouldn't be limited to those who have enough money to pay for it, and that there really is enough out there to go around. Organized troupes of gleaners can make quick work of a field or orchard and deliver the results to local food banks, soup kitchens, schools, and nursing homes, something that a busy farmer just doesn't have time to do, but is often more than happy to contribute. Not all produce is worth selling.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Sharing-Harvest-Supports-Sustainable-Food/33803.html

US Food Security - Through Cooking Classes for Kids? - Tricia Edgar

A cooking class and food security? Cooking classes might seem to be a frou-frou addition to an upscale household. But take a closer look, and you will realize that food preparation is an essential life skill, and definitely not a frill. Those who don't cook depend on the nutritional content of takeout, pre-made and restaurant food. It's a loss of food autonomy, which is a loss of food security. Something as basic as baking bread or cooking up a fall soup is a powerful contribution to a family's ability to sustain itself in a healthy manner.

North Americans are gradually losing our ability to cook. More specifically, we're losing our ability to preserve foods, because we haven't grown up watching our parents can, freeze, ferment, and dry the harvest for the winter season. We're also losing our interest in cooking.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/US-Food-Security-Through-Cooking-Classes-for-Kids/33593.html

Environmental Sustainability, Gas & Food - Keri Marion

Environmental sustainability is a balancing act. It balances nature with nurture, time and space, nutrient to erosion.

Organic food and sustainable agriculture can go hand in hand. Using sustainable practices like mulching, crop rotation and animals instead of gas-powered trucks, a farmer could literally work on an almost net-zero carbon emission. And yes, it might cost us a little more for that ear of corn, but as I'll explain, it's totally worth it.

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Environmental-Sustainability-Gas-Food/33470.html

Spreading the Organic Food Gospel: Generation Organic - Ellen Sabina

Organic Valley is the largest organic food cooperative in the U.S., encompassing dairy farmers in every region of the country and partnering with major organizations such as Heifer International, the Rodale Institute, and Farm Aid. While the cooperative has come under some scrutiny given its size, it has become one of the most successful and sustainable large scale models of its kind, and make a strong case for the cooperative versus corporation. Organic Valley is also working to ensure that organic food (particularly dairy) production continues to gain strength in the coming era. The most visible and just plain fun way they're raising awareness for the future of organic food is via their Generation Organic bus tour, which is set to get rolling in just a few days

Post continues: http://www.justmeans.com/Spreading-Organic-Food-Gospel-Generation-Organic/33547.html

Spuds in Tubs: Simple and Sustainable Urban Agriculture for Schools

2010-04-30T06:40:00.000-07:00

If you have a potato, some soil, and a big plastic tub, you too can be an urban farmer. So goes the thinking behind Spuds in Tubs, a program with a completely catchy title and a very simple mission: to get children thinking about how to grow food. In one of the classrooms where I volunteer, big blue bins line the windows, adorned with the names like “Potato Crusaders.”

Spuds in tubs is beautiful in its simplicity. It is a project of BC Agriculture in the Classroom, although I am sure that echoes of this sustainable urban gardening project can be found elsewhere around the world. Teachers receive portable tubs, compost, and Warba potatoes, an early variety of potato that is ready before the children are finished school. Teachers use the plants to teach about sustainable food, but they can also use the potato plants across the curriculum. Observations can become Language Arts studies. The growth and change of a plant can work into the science curriculum. Plant growth can become a math lesson, and potatoes are certainly a lesson in multiplication.

Why Spuds in Tubs? It’s a small and sustainable program that is easy for teachers to implement. Teachers apply over the winter, receive kits in February, and the class has new potatoes by the middle of June. The program is much different from creating a large school garden, an outcome that is delightful but can involve a heavy dose of school politics. Creating an outdoor community garden on school grounds can seem like a big project, especially for overworked teachers. There is also the question of summer maintenance. Unfortunately, vegetable gardens do not really follow the school season, and planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall still leaves a long, dry summer for teachers and parents to coordinate. Urban agriculture is a healthy and beautiful thing, but it does require coordination to be sustainable.

This year, over one hundred and fifty schools are participating in the Spuds in Tubs project. Each classroom will receive five tubs with soil and with potatoes to plant. That’s nearly four thousand seed potatoes going into the ground, with a result of thousands upon thousands of little new potatoes for the children to eat. The Spuds in Tubs program is an urban agriculture program that works: it’s small, it’s simple, and it’s sustainable.

Have you been involved in classroom urban gardening? What are your simple strategies for success?

Intensive Cultivation: Sustainable Farming on a Single Urban Lot

2010-04-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

Hey, urbanites – do you grow your own food? As cities move into this century where the international basis of our food becomes less certain, people are working to relocalize our food sources. Peak oil? Reducing your carbon footprint? Sustainable food? With saving seeds and growing in urban and community gardens, no problem, right? Well, for many the reality is a lot more challenging. Yes, it is possible to grow food in a community garden, and it is possible to grow food on a deck. But the reality is that for most of the urban population, this is a small supplement to grocery store food. How can we shift from dabbling to urban and suburban food production that can make a significant contribution to our daily meals?

Like any up and coming urban activity, there are the early adopters, the superstars of urban farming. These superstars grow bushels of produce on a corner of an urban lot, or help feed the neighborhood with their abundant produce. While it takes over an acre of land to feed the average American, many people do well with much less, a fraction of an acre. These produce-growing stars include Jim Kovaleski in New Port Richey, who has covered his back and front yards (and sides too) with produce. He sells the greens he produces in his suburban yard. While the rest of us grow a few heads of drooping lettuce, how do these urban and suburban superstars do it?

You don’t need to tell an urbanite that space is at a premium in a small urban garden. This is where space-saving gardening comes in. The food forest idea comes from a permaculture background and focuses on developing a self-sustaining garden that integrates vertical layers, like fruit trees with greens growing underneath and kiwi fruit growing up the tree. Square foot gardening is an intensive rotation system that encourages people to grow just what they need, with the right quantity of plants in a single square. Trellising of larger plants like zucchini is also a feature of the square foot garden. When you’re gardening in an urban setting, viewing every space as a potential growing space is one of the keys to high yields and sustainable yields.

Intensive cultivation requires a strong garden ecology, especially if you want to sustain this cultivation for a long period of time. Encourage bees, butterflies, birds and all sorts of bugs to come and visit the garden. Beneficial, pollinating and predator insects are important to the health of a garden. So is the garden soil. Amending the soil with kelp, compost, and other natural products will help keep it growing. Soil is the basis of the food that sustains us, and without healthy soil our gardens do not thrive.

Experimentation is also key to a sustainable urban farm. When you plant, do it in the right places and experiment to find out where those places might be. If lettuce fails in one location, pull it and begin again in another location. Instead of forcing a plant to be happy with artificial fertilizers and pesticides, allow each plant to find its niche and thrive there. Gardening will be much, much easier.

Have you gotten high yields of produce from an urban or suburban farm? How have you done it?

Celebrate a Sustainable Earth with Sustainable Food!

2010-04-22T03:54:00.000-07:00

It’s mid-April, which means spring is in full swing and Earth Day is upon us. Communities all over will be celebrating this Thursday, demonstrating their hope for and commitment to a more sustainable planet. There will be Earth Day parades and fairs and festivals, tree plantings and garden workshops. But there are many ways to acknowledge Earth Day, and I encourage you to do so regardless of whether or not you are able to participate in an organized community activity, and perhaps the best is with a celebration of sustainable, earth-friendly food.

Here are a few ideas:

In my observation, many Earth Day activities are geared towards children, with music and puppet shows and seedlings to help plant the seed of Earth consciousness in young minds. For a more sophisticated celebration, why not invite some friends over for a sustainable, seasonal dinner party? Choose local, sustainably grown and produced spring vegetables, meat, cheese, and wine or beer. This could be as casual as a potluck or finger food, but make sure your guests know why you’re sticking to strictly sustainable foods and spark some good conversation.

If you’re looking for something fun to do with the kids, arrange to take a family day trip to a local, organic farm. Pack a picnic and spend the day outside, enjoying the fresh air and the farm animals. Talk to the farmers about why they choose to farm sustainably and what being stewards of the planet means to them. You may even be able to help out on the farm and get your hands dirty!

Share Earth Day with a special someone and go on a date! Split a locally-raised, grass-fed steak and a bottle of local red wine. Tour your area vineyards or breweries, or try to catch a screening of Fresh for dinner and a movie. Turn off the electricity and serve dinner while sharing your inner thoughts on sustainable food by candlelight. Really, the options are endless.

Whatever you choose to do this Earth Day, the important thing is to focus on more Earth-conscious eating, not just that day, but every day. Make a small commitment to eat more locally, seasonally, or organically. Reconnect with the Earth through your food choices and embark on a mission to help save the planet, one bite at a time. It really does add up, and it’s pretty tasty.

Producing Sustainable Soil: Does Large-Scale Composting Work?

2010-04-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

A friend was visiting from Toronto, a large urban center in Canada. She ate an apple, then looked curiously under my counter. “Where’s your green waste recycling bucket?” she asked. By that I assumed that she meant the compost bin. We’ve experimented with several kinds of composting in our home, from backyard bins to bokashi to worm bins. Our goal is to reduce the food waste that we produce, but our ulterior motive is to create sustainable soil for the garden. It can be hard to find good organic soil for a vegetable garden, and it seems sensible to make our own.

Green waste recycling was a new concept to me, however. What she was looking for was similar to a recycling bin, a recycling bin for compost. In her city, the city government sends trucks around to pick up the yard waste, fruit and vegetable peelings, and even the Halloween pumpkins. The compost is trucked to main composting facilities where it is turned into soil. The public then buys this soil for their gardens, should they so desire.

Does this composting concept really work? Yes, the city is producing sustainable soil, but the process seems a little ridiculous. Trucks burning fossil fuels move through neighborhoods, causing air pollution. Then trucks carrying people from the suburbs head over to the local composting center and pick up a load of soil. Municipal composting can also be a large expense for cities, adding to the tax burden on already-drained citizens.

Municipal composting is convenient, but is it logical? Yes and no. Municipal composting programs do create a huge opportunity for reducing green waste, and they create soil from materials that would otherwise produce methane in landfills for years. While it makes the most sense for individuals to produce their own soil at home, composting is an activity that has a lot of barriers. It might not seem difficult to collect fruit and vegetable peels and move them into a bin, but many perceive it to be too time-consuming. There’s also a cultural barrier connected with the formation of soil: some perceive it to be dirty and smelly. Oddly enough, many people also view composting as a socially-responsible effort rather than a common sense one, since they do not use the resulting soil in a garden.

As a municipal composting program begins to move into my city, I alternately rejoice and despair. I am pleased because there have been times when I have been unable to compost, and I want an opportunity to reduce my waste. I am sad because it will become easier to throw peels into the recycling than to use them in the garden, and many people will lose a valuable way to support locally-grown food.

What do you think? Is municipal composting a good idea?

Corntainers: Sustainable Food Packaging

2010-04-12T02:33:00.000-07:00

We live for takeout. When I talk about we, I mean North American culture in particular, although many cultures around the world offer delicious takeout options. In North America, the grab and go meal is standard. Brown bag lunches? No way. For many, restaurant fair is an almost-daily occurrence. Americans eat out four to five times per week. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they have a sit-down meal. It may mean that they grab a sandwich or a salad from the nearest deli. All of this eating out has an ecological impact. The disposal of packaged takeout food is a very real environmental issue, and much of this packaging is not even recyclable.

In the eighties, the world was focused on Styrofoam. The substance was blamed for damaged to the ozone layer, the layer that protects people from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Today, there’s been a gradual phase-out of the CFCs in this packaging, but its production still uses precious petroleum resources and produces waste. Then there was plastic. Clear plastic takeout packaging is light and flexible, washable and recyclable. But plastic is a non-renewable resource, even if it is recycled. Finally, there is paper. Paper products seem to be a logical choice for takeout. This packaging is lightweight and recyclable. However, given that they are contaminated with our oily food waste, we haven’t quite mastered a way to recycle these paper products. They’re renewable, but they’re not ideal.

Into the muddy mix of takeout packaging comes the corntainer. No, that isn’t a typo. It’s a container made out of corn. Imagine waving fields of green corn. Imagine 54,000 bottles. The Corntainer Corporation can make that many bottles from a single acre of corn. Not bad, and definitely annually renewable. Corntainers are popular at our local Whole Foods, the site of many pilgrimages for those who wish to buy sustainable. They look like plastic, so you can see the food inside. However, they compost like corn, sort of.

The sort of is the catch. Corntainers do need to be returned to the store for processing in a commercial compost. While it makes sense to save your packaging until your next takeout purchase, this does make the corntainer less convenient than other recyclable packaging options. Grab and go meals, wash and drop recycling are easier than making a special trip to the store to compost your container. Corntainers strive to be ethical and sustainable. The company was designed to reduce the use of petroleum. Although corntainers are an odd variation on the cash crop, the company does donate to organic farming associations, supporting local agriculture.

What do you think? Are corntainers the next generation of sustainable packaging, or are they a passing trend?

Sustainable Food Markets: Do Origin Labels Help People Purchase Local Organic Food?

2010-04-05T01:25:00.000-07:00

It used to be that you could go to your local food market and stroll down the aisles, surrounded by an abundance of food that hailed from all corners of the globe. You could be oblivious to the actual origins of those products, purchasing goodies from all parts of the world with great abandon. Grapes from Chile, salad mix from China, who knew, really? As of March 2009, mandatory Country of Origin labels came into effect in the US, and this was supposed to give those purchasing this food a clue as to where it hailed from.

Yet many times companies seem to be skirting the labeling requirements. You often need to read the really, really small print to discover where your fruit and vegetables have been grown. And are the organic vegetables flown in from China really all that sustainable? Is it really good food labeling if these organic vegetables are labeled California Mix, even when they hail from places far from California?

Why should we care where our food comes from? Recent interest has moved from organic everything into local food. Sustainable food purchasing is not only about low levels of pesticides, it’s also about the carbon footprint of your food: how far has your food flown or been trucked? Food can easily have a carbon footprint that outweighs the food itself. Out-of-season strawberries are a good example. For the health-conscious, it’s important to know where your food comes from because that changes what is invisible but present on your food. If you’re not buying organic, this is especially important. Food grown in other places might contain pesticides that are not permitted in your country.

For example, in the US twenty-five percent of fresh and frozen produce is imported, and half of this comes from the US’s warm neighbor, Mexico. Want fresh fruit that is out of season? Those strawberries don’t come from Washington. But there’s a quirky and unhealthy circle going on in the realm of food purchasing. The US exports pesticides to other countries. These countries spray those pesticides on their food crops. Then companies turn around and import these pesticide-laden crops to sell to consumers at US-based markets. Pesticides that might be banned in one country are exported to another, sprayed on crops, imported by companies, and ingested by unwitting residents. This is yet another reason to support local food and to buy organic. Buying organic reduces your pesticide consumption, and buying local at least ensures that you are not purchasing foods with large quantities of banned pesticides.

There’s a market for sustainable local food. Is it being served by US-based food labeling laws? While these laws are a start, companies have a long way to go before they can truly say that fruits and vegetables for sale in stores are safe and sustainable.

One Organic Chicken: Thinking Thrifty, Thinking Sustainable

2010-03-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

When I was a teenager, I became a vegetarian. I was also an avid foodie and cook. This meant that I learned how to cook as a vegetarian. When I moved into my own house, I cooked vegetarian meals. When I decided to reintegrate minimal amounts of meat into my diet, I still had no idea how to cook most meat.

To this day, I don’t know how to cook and carve a chicken. It’s a confession that shocks my British mother-in-law, but it’s a fact. My neighbors invited me over to dinner a couple of weeks ago, and they asked me to carve the chicken. I did, but it wasn’t pretty, not at all.

We purchase a limited amount of meat every week, generally one package of free range beef. I’ve had a hard time sourcing local free range and organic chickens, so we don’t eat all that much chicken. However, a conversation the other day may have steered me in the direction of a local farmer who raises chickens in an ethical and environmentally-friendly way, and I’m excited.

My beef is from far away, relatively speaking. Yes, it’s from within my province, but the province where I live is a fairly large area, and the beef is from way, way beyond any scope of 100 kilometers. There’s one local beef producer that I’d like to buy from and do upon occasion, but he requires a very large order and we really don’t want to eat and store that much meat.

The part of the conversation that excited me wasn’t necessarily about a source of chicken, however. The part that excited me was the reminder that a small chicken can feed a family for the week. You can have chicken one night, a meal with pieces of chicken another night, and then you can use the bones for soup. I like the idea of using the entire chicken. If I am going to eat meat, I want to be thrifty about it, and this is something that we don’t do in our beef consumption.

It looks like we may be entering into the world of cooking and carving whole chickens. It’s been twenty years since I learned how to cook, and it’s been a decade and a half of cooking for myself. My British mother-in-law would be pleased.

If you eat meat, do you purchase it with multiple and thrifty uses in mind?

When is a Weed Not a Weed? Sustainable and Holistic Gardening

2010-03-22T03:23:00.000-07:00

Last week I wrote about our concept of weeds. Weeds are plants that we don’t want. However, many of our weeds are quite useful plants. We may not want them in our farms and gardens, but many so-called weeds are not inherently bad. They’re just a little naughty and enjoy traipsing around where they’re not wanted.

Permaculture is a gardening concept that is about far more than gardening. It’s the idea that a gardener can create an ecological system that sustains itself, much like a forest would. Except that this ecological system is a garden. Many of those who practice permaculture approach weeds very differently than the average gardener.

In the permaculture method of gardening, you listen to your weeds. Weeds are telling you something. If your garden only grows weeds and your desired plants look sickly, those weeds are sending you a clear message. In fact, they’re being extremely useful and you should thank them. Perhaps they’re telling you that your soil is low on nutrients so that only tough plants can grow there. They might be telling you that you’re tilling the soil an awful lot and that all of the weed seeds are coming to the surface and growing with vigorous delight. They may also be telling you that the location of your garden is not ideal for the plants that you’re growing, and that your garden receives too little light, too much heat, or too much wind. Listen to the weeds. They have wisdom too.

Permaculture gardeners also work to create a diverse ecology in which weeds play only a small role. It’s not that the weeds are not in the garden, it’s just that they are surrounded by the vigorous growth of other plants. By creating a diverse garden with plant species suited to the conditions in which they grow, a gardener can develop a garden system that discourages weeds. By mulching and practicing low-till agriculture, a gardener can discourage weeds even more.

And after this, if there are still weeds, that’s all right. You use them. Use it and lose it. Permaculture’s approach towards weeds is one that I love, especially for those edibles that love to take over the garden, like borage, comfrey, dandelions, and mint. The ethic is this: plants that grow in abundance should be used in abundance. Use your dandelions and your comfrey and your borage and you will control their populations. Pick them and dig them and get angry with them, and they will spread their seeds and little pieces of themselves around the garden. Work with what’s there, and if you can’t figure out a way to use those plants that we may call invasive or weedy, look again.

The permaculture approach to weeds is much more than spray and run. It’s a holistic view of weeds that promotes the development of a healthy garden ecosystem.

Crop Mobs Lend a Helping Hand to Small Sustainable Farms

2010-03-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

A lot of us, myself included, tend to hold a romanticized vision of farming. We imagine ourselves as farmers, working the land, in harmony with nature, fill our bellies and the bellies of our communities with beautiful, fresh food. In reality, it’s one thing to garden; it’s another to farm. Running a successful and profitable farm is tough work. You have to really love it to do it, and even then it’s still hard.

Which is why most farmers will never turn down a helping hand, and why those of us who are dreamy farmer wannabes, should offer one. There are lots of opportunities to do this, and it can be as simple and as informal as walking down to your local farm and pulling up some weeds. But there are also more organized ways of helping farmers farm, and they’re a bit more impactful.

Recently, National Public Radio and, subsequently, the New York Times, both featured a story on crop mobs. Crop mobs are usually composed of aspiring farmers, food activists, and community members who, with the assistance of blogs and Facebook, coordinate their efforts and “mob” a local farm. The mob descends upon the farm full of energy and with the intention of putting a big dent in the farm owner’s to-do list. Plant some trees? Lay a fence? Clear a field? Repair the barn? All of that is easily accomplished in a matter of hours by a group of 20 or more eager, and often knowledgeable, helpers. Crop mobs have been likened to a modern version of the barn raising, and the recent national exposure has incited similar organized movements all over the U.S.

If you can’t hook up with a crop mob in your area, you can still be a big help on your local farm. Becoming a CSA member at a nearby farm is a big help in and of itself because the money you pay at the beginning of the season enables the farmer to buy seeds and supplies. But at many farms you can also participate in CSA member work days, when community members who have a share are encouraged to come out to the farm and dig in and experience the work that goes in to the bag of food they receive each week. Many farms also offer work shares, for which the shareholder agrees to work a certain number of hours each week in exchange for a bag of seasonal veggies.

If you are really serious about learning more about farming, or just want to be a more integrated part of your favorite local farm, you might consider doing a farm apprenticeship. And apprenticeship is usually a full-time, full-season commitment that benefits both the farmer and the apprentice. The farmer gets an extra hand and the apprentice gains knowledge about all aspects of the farm. Apprenticeships usually provide a small stipend, or room and board, plus all the veggies you can eat.

Whichever way you are able to help, I encourage you to become more invested in your local farms, and to really get your hands dirty, in order to better appreciate all the hard work your farmers are putting in to providing their communities with good food.

What’s in a Weed? Pesticides and Rethinking Methods of Gardening

2010-03-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

It’s nearly spring, and quite soon I will have many little weeds flourishing in my garden.

Some of my weeds will have cheery, fuzzy yellow faces. They will grow vigorously on my lawn if I let them. Their flowers are sweet and good for wine and fritters, their leaves are edible in salads, and their roots have healing properties. I’m talking about the dandelion, the beloved and despised weed that grows in our gardens.

What is a weed, and why do we dislike them so much? In essence, a weed is an unwanted plant. A rose can be a weed if you are attempting to grow corn. We tend to be rather brutal towards weeds. They assault our sensibilities, challenge our dominion over our gardens, and call for intense scrutiny followed up with a chemical assault. They aren’t necessarily dangerous, and they are often useful. Weeds are simply not useful in the way that we want them to be. They’re not the right plant, meaning the one that we planted.

Some weeds are plants that we plant, but they love it so much that they will eagerly invite themselves to stay everywhere in the garden. Mint, borage, and comfrey are a few of these. They’re ultimately useful, but boy, do they spread. Luckily, they can also ingratiate me into their good graces with their usefulness in teas, in salads, and in healing. I do watch where I place plants like these, because sometimes they outgrow their welcome. However, I like the permaculture concept of how to deal with overly useful plants: eat them, use them, use more of them until they are under control.

I’m not saying that there is no such thing as a weed. I am especially concerned about weeds when they move into areas that are not under intensive human control. Species like purple loosestrife bother me because they dominate wetlands. Many invasive species are notoriously hard to remove because they reproduce through vegetative reproduction. Often, the only option seems to be the use of pesticides. But the use of pesticides in our wetlands and on our crops scares me more than weeds do, because I know that pesticides wreak damage that is far beyond what I can see.

Plants are easy to see. They remind us easily about what we do and do not want in our gardens. On the other hand, pesticides are not so easy to see. At least their effects are not all that visible. They come in handy packages, are applied and then move into the soil, air, and water. They kill off soil life, embed themselves in the groundwater, and move into the food chains of animals, both wildlife and farm animals.

What’s in a weed? Our desire to control, particularly through chemical means.

Next week I’ll explore gardening and farming methods that see weeds a little differently.

What is a weed to you?

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn…and Edinburgh…and All Over!: The Rise of Sustainable Urban Orchards

2010-03-09T02:39:00.001-08:00

There’s a kind of vertical farming bearing fruit in cities all over the world, and it’s a little more grounded than proposals for skyscraper greenhouses. I’m talking about the original vertical farm: the urban orchard. Many cities strive to incorporate green space and trees, and orchards provide a one-two punch when it comes to greening-up urban environments.

Over the past 20 years or so, urban orchards have been cropping up in empty lots, schoolyards, parks, and public sidewalks. Like urban gardens, urban orchards create an edible landscape and promote community. In successful scenarios, urban orchard organizations provide the plants and the expertise to local community-based organizations that eventually manage the fruit and nut trees. This passing of the baton is a sustainable model, extending knowledge of growing and maintaining fruit trees while drawing diverse groups of people to a shared purpose and sense of ownership.

Some of the most successful examples of urban orchards are within the U.S., in cities like Boston, L.A., Austin, and Philadelphia. But this is really a global trend. The success of a recent apple orchard pilot project in a low-income neighborhood in Edinburgh, Scotland has inspired the development of similar orchards throughout the city. An urban orchard project in Southern Australia manifests as a patchwork of households that each manage a few fruit trees in limited yard space and swap fruits through a cooperative. But orchards can also be part of a school garden project, providing cafeterias with fresh, ultra-local apples or peaches or whatever else happens to be native to or productive in a given region.

Orchards can help round out all kinds of urban food security and other community needs. I really can’t think of one reason why we shouldn’t opt to plant fruit and nut bearing trees and shrubs in public spaces, and I think all those rooftop bees that are so eager to pollinate would agree!

I Never Saw a Purple Cow: The Precautionary Principle and Transgenic GMO Foods

2010-03-08T11:09:00.000-08:00

I am leery of genetically modified foods. Yes, I realize that GMO foods may have properties that allow them to resist diseases, thereby reducing the use of pesticides. I also realize that some of them may be engineered to survive during drought, heat, or other severe weather. Perhaps they deter pests. Yet they also deter me. I think that the attributes that are inherent in genetically-modified crops are also present in heritage breeds of seeds. These heritage seeds are adaptive to their environment, and long after those who discovered the heritage seed stain are gone, these seeds will continue to adapt or perish.

Not so with genetically-modified seeds. These seeds are designed to be a commodity, and they are designed to have constant human improvements, input, and modifications. People are meddling, adding, and subtracting. Without those people, will genetically-modified crops be vigorous and adaptive? I think not.

However, the thing that concerns me the most about genetic modification of our crops is not the creation of a need for intervention. It’s cross-species genetic modification. I’m quite please to let my beans meet other beans, get along, and make new beans that are both a little similar to and a little different from their parents. But how about a bean that falls in love with a potato or a strawberry in the lab and is engineered to make little bean babies, with a little gene of potato or strawberry added?

Some argue that genetic modification is just changing the way plants grow and thrive, just like creating a new plant or animal variety through breeding. These transgenic organisms are something that could never be achieved in nature or through selective breeding of plants. Yes, people have created new varieties of plants for many years by breeding for desired characteristics. And yes, some of these plants are weird: think of all of the oddball squash plants that you can create simply by cross-pollination. They’re still squash, though.

Transgenic crops have the potential for changing the landscape of plants and animals, and quickly. When it comes to environmental change, I am all in favor of the precautionary principle. Do we know how these crops and animals might change ecosystems? Do we know how the human body will respond to these plants and animals over time? No.

Would I be in favor of a transgenic crop that could replenish deserts, grow easily-accessible non-carbon fuel, or cure cancer? Perhaps. But I would also be cautious. The conditions that created the climate and health crises today were ones of uncontrolled enthusiasm for technologies and chemicals. While change can be transformative, it can transform in ways that we do not foresee. At every juncture, we must pause and consider: caution is required.

Protect Farmland, Protect Sustainable Food

2010-03-03T03:43:00.000-08:00

There’s no wiggle room here: farmers need farmland. I know, that’s not strictly true. Creative urban and vertical gardeners have proven that you don’t really need that much land to grow fresh vegetables. Nevertheless by and large the fact remains that farmers need access to land. This is a global issue. It is happening in the US just as it is happening in Mali or Nicaragua. And, not surprisingly, the people that often get squeezed off the land to make way for big development projects are small, traditional farmers. The loss of traditional and productive farmland is a multifaceted issue and can have disastrous affects on the environment as well as on communities and entire countries.

In many parts of the world, traditional small farmers use sustainable agricultural practices. They work with the land, and have developed farming techniques that are tailored to their specific environment. They don’t use heavy-duty pesticides or synthetic fertilizers. Farmers are stewards of the land, a role that is often lost on land developers and big agriculture. Well-managed farmland helps preserve watersheds, control flooding, and protects groundwater, in addition to providing space for wildlife. Farmers work within the confines of preexisting natural systems and rows of plants are much better for the health for the health of the land than rows of houses or pavement.

The loss of farmland is also very disruptive to community health and structure. Not only does it mean the loss of local food sources, but it also means a loss of livelihood. In many places, farming is a way of life, rooted deeply in place and culture. The inability to maintain a traditional way of life is devastating for many communities. In the U.S., small farms play an important role in communities, though perhaps not as entirely vital as they do in more traditional farming areas around the world. Nevertheless, productive farmland means local jobs and businesses, and may also provide a place for recreation and educational activities.

The preservation of farmland for small farmers ought to be a priority for our local and national governments, as small sustainable farms are an important piece of food security, an increasingly worrisome issue. Many non-profit organizations recognize the importance of preserving land for farming and are devoted to protecting traditional, productive farmland all over the world. Farmland trusts or other types of land trusts often help new or expanding farmers to secure land as long as they comply with sustainable stewardship practices. Organizations with political voice and influence, like the international powerhouse La Via Campesina spread awareness about land loss and work towards change on the policy level. We need to reclaim land for farming, and specifically for farming that is healthy and sustainable for our land and our communities.

Eating Like Our Ancestors: Fresh, Raw and Sustainable Food

2010-03-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

As we grunt along, happily enjoying our dinners, we all sound a little Paleolithic at times. The Paleolithic Diet is a raw food diet that has been growing in popularity. The idea behind the Paleo Diet is remarkably similar to that espoused in The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” Add the word “raw” to that sentence, and you have the diet that many of our ancestors might have eaten: fresh leaves and berries gathered from the bushes, nuts and seeds, complemented by preserved or foraged roots and animal products when we could get them.

People are omnivores. In some places in the world, like the Arctic, these omnivores have historically eaten a lot of raw meat. In other parts of the world, humans have eaten a diet that occasionally involved a lot of raw or dried meat. However, in general the human diet has relied on fresh, raw vegetables and fruit in the seasons when food is plentiful, accompanied by fresh or smoked meat and eggs when they were available. Some cultures also had systems of farming to grow grain crops in abundance, and some nomadic and herding people had animals that they would use for milk as well.

Eating like our ancestors means that we cook very little and preserve using root cellars, fermentation, and processes like yogurt-making that involve very small amounts of heat to process food. This keeps the micronutrients intact and the fiber still present in the food. Cooking like a caveman involves eating foods that are processed as little as possible. While people have always processed items like manioc into edibility, in most cases it is easiest to eat foods as they come. Eating fresh berries, leaves, and the occasional raw egg or milk product is part of the Paleolithic diet.

Is the Paleolithic Diet a sensible one for the body? Eating whole, unprocessed foods and living foods like sprouts is certainly a sensible nutritional choice. The Paleolithic Diet also reduces the amount of grains and animal products that many people eat. In wealthy countries where grains and animal products are found in cheap abundance, many people eat far too many carbohydrates that are often fried in processed animal or vegetable oils.

Is the Paleolithic Diet a sustainable one for the earth? It may reduce the consumption of animal products. Raw eggs, raw dairy, and raw meat may be less palatable or available to some and may become a smaller part of the diet. The focus on unprocessed, unpackaged, and uncooked fruits and vegetables is certainly a lower-impact choice. However, for northerners eating raw and vegetarian in the winter time, finding local food can be challenging, since many fresh fruits and vegetables are flown in from far away. Like other raw food diets, the Paleolithic Diet is a concept that holds the promise of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, but it can be a hard sell in these days of packaged and processed foods.

Consuming Raw Milk: Illegal and Toxic, or Healthy and Sustainable Food?

2010-02-22T02:52:00.000-08:00

They’re sitting in the corner, whispering about milk. That’s dangerous stuff, milk. It’s raw, it’s off-white, it’s from cows. Is raw milk dangerous, or is it one of the most healthy and sustainable foods to consume?

I must confess to drinking raw milk from time to time. I don’t buy any myself, but friends buy it. Raw milk tastes good, and I haven’t had any health problems. Recently, there was a rally in my city to support a local raw milk dairy that many of my friends frequent. Officially, it is a cow share and not a dairy, since raw milk is not legal where I live. Unofficially, the business provides a steady supply of milk and yogurt to many people who believe in the worth of raw milk, ferried through a network that is underground yet visible if you know where to look and who to ask.

What’s the concern about raw milk? Well, since raw milk has not been pasteurized there are worries that it may contain e. coli bacteria that cause disease. Governments post warnings about the dangers of raw milk. Our local petting farm milks their dairy cows by hand and must toss out the milk that those cows produce. Food-borne illnesses can be nasty things, damaging your liver and your gut and leading to all sorts of public health problems. Health departments prefer to avoid these diseases and have set standards in place to make food safer. However, some people feel that these standards interfere with public choice, in this case the choice to choose a superior and healthy food product.

Those who advocate drinking raw milk say that pasteurization kills off the living milk. Milk has antibodies in it, albeit antibodies for baby cows. Raw milk advocates say that the milk boosts their immune systems. The Weston A. Price Foundation is one of the biggest raw milk advocates, saying that drinking raw milk means that the nutrients in the milk are more available to the human body and can truly build and rebuild bones and teeth, bone structures that may be in a state of disrepair from the standard American diet. Raw milk advocates are willing to bet that healthy cows from a clean farm will produce milk whose health benefits outweigh the possible risks.

Is raw milk a public health hazard, or is it an immensely beneficial substance that we are ignoring out of fear? I have no firm answers. Like all decisions that go against the grain, it’s a matter of weighing the risks in your own mind. I suspect that it could be both, depending on the circumstances. While I happily drink raw milk upon occasion, thoughts about making it a regular part of my diet are swayed by concerns about safety. Mostly, though, the dilemmas in my mind are moved aside by the fact that I am too lazy to head to a milk drop-off point every week to pick up my share. And so it goes: we drink water and eat raw cheese instead, legal and lazy as can be.

Top Food Films

2010-02-22T02:35:00.000-08:00

Food-focused films have made it big over the past few years. Riveting food documentaries have taken America by storm, riding on the coattails of books and reaching a wider audience. But hiding in the shadow of feature film productions are some very exciting documentaries that explore smaller, less mainstream sides of food and agriculture today.

Eric Schlosser’s primary film, Fast Food Nation, which was made several years after his book of the same title, was along with the hit Supersize Me foundational in beginning the food dialogue through film. These films both appeared on the big screen in the earlier 2000s and were really effective in stripping the fast food industry bare, and revealing the myriad of health and agricultural detriments brought about by fast food.

King Corn, put together by two recent college graduates who attempt to grow an acre of America’s most popular and most tragic crop, extends the story presented in Supersize me and Fast Food Nation, exploring fast and processed food through its main ingredient: corn. This revelation was first really presented to the national audience in Michael Pollan’s infamous book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but becomes somewhat more poignant when put to the test in front of the camera.

The latest, and perhaps the film that has made the biggest splash thus far, Food Inc., combines the forces of food prophets Michael Pollan and Eric Schlosser as they expose the realities of our food system. This is a must-see for everyone, but packaged in a way that appeals to the popular audience. If you’ve already been reading and learning about sustainable food, then you’ve probably heard a lot of what is presented in Food Inc., but it’s a great introduction to the basic problems that exist within our food system for those who are not yet aware of the situation.

Chances are you’ve heard of or seen some of these films, but there are numerous and insightful films that examine smaller sections and stories about food and farming. The one that I am most excited to see is The Greenhorns, a documentary featuring new sustainable farmers all over the U.S. who are swept up in the revival of farming and producing real food. The film is presented by a small non-profit of the same name and aims to promote and inspire young famers.

Focusing on a vibrant urban farming community, The Garden delves in to the story of the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles and their fight to protect the fourteen-acre garden that is the lifeblood of their community. Although the documentary was appropriately nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, it hasn’t been nationally distributed.

More and more Web documentaries about food are cropping up. They are usually low budget but very much on the pulse of real, grassroots issues in sustainable food and agriculture. The best one I’ve seen lately is Fair Food: From Farm to Table. The film is a short, 3-part dissection of the development of fair and sustainable agriculture. The filmmaker, who is also the head of the California Institute for Rural Studies, presents the story from the perspectives of the farm workers, farmers, and the advocates, which adds up to a well rounded story.

As the silver screen hits have demonstrated, film has become a really effective way to expose and explore food and agricultural systems. Keep your eyes peeled for screenings and new documentaries!

Spreading the Love: Creating a Buying Club for Local Produce

2010-02-14T23:56:00.000-08:00

You’re a student, or perhaps you’re on a limited income. You might be a parent of small children. If you know that you want to buy organic, sustainable and local produce but you’re put off by the cost of such an endeavor, where can you begin? You can start by investigating the possibility of sharing the cost by buying in bulk.

Imagine that you are a farmer. You have a crop that produces several thousand pounds a day of fruit or vegetables. If farmers sell all of this produce at the farm gate, they sell it bit by bit, piece by piece. It can take a long time and a lot of negotiation to sell all of that produce, but some farmers like the interaction this gives them with the neighbors and the lack of coordination required to open a farm gate stand.

However, those who make a large investment in a crop stand to lose a lot of money and time if that crop doesn’t sell. Farmers start to move into the farmers’ markets and seek larger markets that will move more produce more quickly, but still in a local manner. For the producers of a time-sensitive product, nothing is more important than moving this produce into the hands of the consumer quickly.

A buying club can be a blessing for farmers. A buying club is what you get when you gather buyers together to order a large amount of produce at a time. This can occur every day, every week, every month, or just once a year. I coordinate an annual buying club for blueberries. I connect with our blueberry farmer, put in an order, and take orders from friends and neighbours. All together, we order just over a thousand pounds of blueberries every year. These blueberries go to freezers and smoothies and pies across our city.

As a buying club, you need to act a bit like a store. You need to be organized. It’s not the farmer’s responsibility to decide how much of what sort of produce you want to order. Create a system to track orders and be prepared for orders to change over time. Develop a cap or a maximum order of produce for the buying club, and work to meet this cap. You need to follow through and follow up with the farmer to ensure that everything is going smoothly and that the order will be ready on time. Logistics can be challenging, but arranging transportation, payment methods, and drop off and pick up locations and times are all parts of hosting a buying club. As the organizer of a buying club, you also need to be willing to be flexible. Last summer, the weather was so hot in our part of the country that the berry-pickers were unable to pick for several days, and it was touch and go as to whether we were going to get our order.

Hosting a buying club is a very worthwhile experience that will connect you with local farmers who sell healthy local produce. While the organizing aspect is not for everyone, the nutritional rewards and the community-building aspect of a buying club is worth it.

War on Childhood Obesity: A Fated Fight?

2010-02-14T23:34:00.000-08:00

I know you’ve heard this already. Childhood obesity is a major problem in the U.S. The statistics are heart-stopping: one in every three children is overweight or obese, and one third of all the children born in the U.S. in 2000 or later will eventually deal with diabetes, not to mention the myriad of other diseases related to poor diet and lack of exercise. And even though every one reading this might be aware of these statistics or at least have seen the obesity epidemic headline splashed on newsstands and running across the bottom of the news channel for a the past few years, it remains a huge issue. Countless local initiatives and various children’s advocacy groups have been toiling against childhood obesity and yet the national numbers remain frighteningly steady. Enter Michelle Obama and her newly launched Let’s Move public policy campaign. Could the First Lady’s enthusiasm be just what the country needs to actually get moving on this issue?

Let’s Move seems like a really great plan, and it was certainly encouraging and inspiring this past week. It is comprehensive, addressing the issue from every angle. Not only does Let’s Move target school food, and food labeling, but it reaches deeper to acknowledge some of the roots of the problem, like the existence of food deserts and the need for better nutrition education for parents. This holistic approach is promising, especially when coupled with a community-oriented, taking the needs of specific areas into account and coordinating the efforts of government, education, community organizations, health, athletics, and business sectors. The cost of obesity and poor nutrition, after all, benefits almost no one, with the exception, perhaps, of health insurance companies.

The scope of this initiative is vast, so much so that it may seem a little too ambitious. On the other hand, some critics have denounced it as not addressing the real foundation of our food system, and thereby the foundation of obesity in America. The fact remains that as long as our nation’s heavily subsidized agriculture system is largely focused on producing cheap, basically unhealthy foods. The cream of the crop, and perhaps most detrimental to our food, as pointed out by Michael Pollan, is high fructose corn syrup. Corn is also the fuel behind cheap factory farmed meat, and shows up in almost everything we eat.

Is it possible to truly reform the way our children eat in the U.S. when our agricultural system is still so astray? Is it reasonable to expect that an effective nationwide effort can be made to put more healthy, whole, organic fruits and vegetables in schools while the government still so strongly supports the production of cheap, unhealthy food?

Sustainably Sweet: Top 5 Sustainable Sweeteners

2010-02-07T23:17:00.000-08:00

Sugar is in everything. We are practically addicted to it. But cane sugar is not always the most sustainable choice. However there are some exciting new (and not so new) forms of sugar out there to satisfy your sweet tooth while living sustainably.

Here’s the list:

Local Honey. If you want to be eating the most sustainable sweetener ever, get a beehive! A colony of bees can whip up a whole lot of honey collecting pollen from the flowers in your neighborhood. It’s hard to beat that! If you buy local honey, try to buy raw, unprocessed honey to get the best flavor and higher levels of antioxidants.
Pure Maple Syrup. This one is only applicable if you happen to live in a geographic area that produces maple syrup or have some maple sugar trees nearby. The process of boiling down maple sap into maple syrup is time consuming (and sticky) but the results are an environmentally friendly and hopefully local sugar source.
Sugar Beets. Sugar beets are easy to grow and very sweet. To extract the sugar, cut up the beets and boil in water until the consistency is that of a syrup. Let the syrup cool and evaporate leaving the beet sugar ready for use.
Stevia. This sweet herb has been used for centuries by native tribes in Brazil and Paraguay as a sweetener but is only just becoming popular here. There is particular interest in stevia because it is not actually a sugar and contains zero calories. But rest assured, it is all-natural. If you buy stevia, make sure the plants have been grown using organic and sustainable farming methods. You can also try to grow stevia in your own garden and use the leaves to sweeten your tea and coffee.
Coconut Palm Sugar. Coconut palm sugar is relegated to tropical climes, but the Food and Agriculture Organization has recognized palm sugar as the most sustainable sugar, due to the fact that coconut palms produce up to 75 percent more sugar per acre than sugar cane, and uses far fewer resources and inputs. Traditionally, coconut palms grow in areas like Indonesia and are an important part of the agro-ecosystem, needing little water and helping to restore soil quality.

If you do buy cane sugar, or any other sweetener, make sure it’s certified organic and as local as possible.

Growing Power: Sustainable Food Meets Community Development

2010-02-07T23:08:00.000-08:00

How can you grow community agriculture? We went for a walk in the forest yesterday with some friends who are members of the same community supported agriculture share that we are. They’re not going to get a share this year, mostly because it’s hard to cook with novel vegetables when time is pressing. In my opinion, one of the greatest barriers to local, sustainable cooking is our need for knowledge. We need to get to know kale, chard, and celery root, but who has the time, really? And if we don’t have the time, where do the vegetables go? To the compost, unfortunately.

I’ve long yearned for a sustainable food resource center, one that brings together gardening and cooking and community development. One of the founders of such a center is visiting our city in a couple of months. Will Allen is coming to our city. He’s a former basketball player turned farmer, and he’s created an amazing community food center called Growing Power.

Imagine that you’ve removed your local supermarket. Instead, you replace it with bee hives, goats, and a whole host of plants at all stages of development. There are composters of all types, and a store even sells compost to those who want to use it in their own gardens. You run seed-saving classes, cooking classes, and other programs out of the space as well. The whole building is powered by sustainable energy, and it not only provides a place where people can be employed and volunteer, it also shapes food policy. In fact, the center also helps distribute value-added products for a network of local farmers. People in rural areas get marketing assistance and a ready-made network, and people in urban areas who didn’t have access to land or the knowledge to farm it grow that knowledge. It’s like a library that focuses on food literacy, and it’s close by, right in your neighborhood.

I hope that we’re growing such a center in our community, too. There’s talk of an urban farm that will be a mere twenty minutes by bus from where I live, right in the center of the suburbs. If the farm vision is realized, it will be a thriving vegetable-producing endeavor that sells produce to local residents. Local people will also be able to visit the farm and learn how to grow produce. If we can add some bees, some chickens, and some cooking classes, we might have our own version of a community food center just around the corner.

To the Rescue! Food Recovery Programs mean Greater Food Security for Thousands

2010-02-01T12:01:00.000-08:00

I’m not sure we realize how much perfectly good food goes to waste everyday, in a world where so many are hungry and food security is a major issue. In the U.S., it is estimated that almost 30% of our food winds up in the landfill and we produce about twice the amount of food that is needed per person. The statistics are pretty shocking, which is why it is so exciting to hear about the growing number of food rescue programs working to reduce food waste, and feed people in the process.

Food rescue isn’t the same as dumpster diving. It simply means recovering food that is on its way to the dumpster, mostly from supermarkets and restaurants. The food is totally edible, but is no longer sellable, usually just past its sell-by date. As an incentive for participation, grocery stores and other businesses that are interested in donating food to rescue programs are eligible for tax benefits and are protected from liability lawsuits. It’s a win-win situation.

Farms can also give food to recovery programs. Farms will often allow volunteers to glean their fields after the harvest or pick up produce that is slightly bruised or didn’t sell at the market. Gleaning can be particularly worthwhile, as much produce is simply left in the field to be plowed under and make way for the next crop. Many food rescue programs are also beginning to “rescue” prepared food from institutions such as hospitals and hotels. The programs deliver the leftover meals to soup kitchens and other hunger-fighting projects for immediate consumption.

All rescued food plays a huge part in helping hunger organizations stay stocked and able to help those who are in need of immediate help. Refrigerated trucks zip from grocery store to restaurant to corporate kitchens all over a given city, and deliver the resulting rescued food to homeless shelters, food pantries, and soup kitchens. Like many non-profits, food rescue programs are often underfunded. Financial donations can help them continue to serve and grow. This is especially true considering today’s economic climate, which has meant that funds have been cut and more people than ever are in need of food.

Food rescue provides an inspiring model of redistribution and challenges the way we think about waste. What else can we do to turn what we cast off as unusable excess into something that fills an immediate need for many people?

But I Don’t Want to Be a Farmer: Sustainable Food Jobs

2010-02-01T11:48:00.000-08:00

So you love food. Great! You love sustainable, organic food. Wonderful! Do you want to grow it? No? You love sustainable food, but you don’t want to be a farmer. That’s just fine. There are plenty of career paths that revolve around sustainable food. Here are a few to consider.

Your job can help create communities that foster sustainable food. Perhaps you’re an urban planner, or perhaps you’re an advocate for developing community gardens. You might coordinate a local farmers’ market, providing people with valuable space and time to sell what they have produced. If organization is more of your forte than growing the food, that’s excellent. Those who produce the food are often too busy to throw their heart and soul into creating these communities, and you can be their advocate, whether that’s in government, as a business, or as part of a nonprofit endeavor.

If you have gardening skills and love to connect with people, but you don’t want to grow food for a living, then teaching and mentoring others in the garden field might be your place in the world of sustainable food. A horticulture program, a community organization with education programs, or even a local garden center all provide avenues to teach others how to become more self-sufficient and grow some of their own food.

You can also work on the infrastructure that supports farming. Perhaps you help distribute the food through a buying club, or you might help transport it to markets. You might test soil or provide soil remediation services. You could be a carpenter and create miniature garden boxes where people can grow food. Or you could work in a kitchen or open a restaurant, providing locally-grown meals to those who are eager to embrace local food and who just love good food.

Creating sustainable food systems is not only about farming. We do not all need to be rural farmers or even urban farmers, generating farms on the downtown rooftops. Not everyone is interested in growing food, but we all need to eat it. The relocalization of food systems means that local jobs need to happen to support these food systems, and you can be part of that, even if your thumb is browner than brown and you can’t grow a tomato to save your life.

Sustainable Pet Food: How Can Your Pet Eat Green?

2010-01-25T00:59:00.001-08:00

We love our pets. But what are we feeding them? While we might be feeding our human family organic, local, and sustainable food, the quality and the origins are the food that we feed our pets often leaves something to be desired. Pet food is food, and when we talk about sustainable food we want to consider the diets of all members of our family, including the non-human ones. In the US alone, there are more than 61 million pet dogs. That’s million, folks. That’s a lot of pet chow.

Now, there are a number of ways to green your pet’s eating. There’s even the hard-core option of seeking vegan-friendly foods for your carnivorous pets, an action that attracts a lot of controversy on both sides of the fence. If Fido and Fluffy are going to be carnivores, though, what can you do to make their impact less profound?

Even before we touch on what’s in the food, think about the packaging that your pet’s food comes in. Is it sustainable? If you’re using many miniature cans of cat food or very small packages of non-recyclable cat treats, it might be worth looking at bulk options. Even buying pet food in larger cans makes a difference. Make sure that you choose packaging that is recyclable, if at all possible.

Many people swear by homemade or raw food diets for their pets. When you’re feeding a pet raw or homemade food, it’s possible to look into all sorts of local, sustainable, and ethically-raised sources of meat. While you may not end up feeding your pet the prime cuts, you’ll know that the pet food you’re feeding your pets is raised in the same way as the rest of your food. You’ll also be supporting a local farmer and using up some of the less-choice cuts of meat.

If you’re looking at commercial pet foods, look for foods that incorporate organic and ethically-raised sources of meat. Many pet foods incorporate the leftovers from human foods like fish into the creation of food for pets. Now, it’s good to use the leftovers, but if the industry itself is depleting the oceans or damaging air and water, are its byproducts still sustainable?

Pets are very much an industry, with marketing and branding just like food for people. Yet for some reason, the pet food industry has avoided much of the push for sustainable food. Next time you visit the store to pick up some dinner, think about the origins and the packaging of what’s in the pet food aisle, just as you think about it in the other sections of the store.

Glass Half Full: Sustainable Wine

2010-01-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

All wines are not created equal, and as with most things, some are far more sustainably produced than others. I think we tend to imagine wine arriving at our table from some idyllic little vineyard in Italy or France. The truth, however, is that like almost any agricultural endeavor, viticulture has gone industrial and many giant vineyards depend heavily on the use of pesticides and herbicides to keep their vines productive. When choosing a sustainable wine, it is important to not only consider whether or not the wine is organic and if chemicals have been used in the growing period, but the rest of the production process as well. Every part of the system, from where the grapes are grown to the packaging and everything in between, affects the sustainability of the product.

Organic is important. However many organic wines have developed a bad rap for taste because by USDA standards wine cannot be considered organic if any sulfites are added. Sulfites, although not the best additive for us to ingest, play an important role in the preservation of the wine, and therefore the taste, and have been used as a stabilizer in wine for centuries. While it is of utmost importance that grapes are grown organically, it is perhaps less important is low amounts of sulfites have been added.

While searching for wines made with organically grown grapes is great, as many of us know, organic does not necessarily equate to sustainable. Though you might have to do a little research, choosing wine that comes from vineyards that practice sustainable or biodynamic agriculture is ideal. Even better is if the winery relies on renewable energy for the wine production, like solar or wind power, and conserves and reuses water. A few of well known wine-producing areas such as California, Oregon, are adopting localized, third-party certification standards that vineyards must meet to be officially labeled Òsustainable.Ó These standards are based on a variety of factors, ranging from energy efficiency to local ecosystem preservation. The energy and resources put into bottling, labeling, and distribution should also be considered.

There are a few wineries and vineyards that really stand out as aiming to be as sustainable as possible. Perhaps the largest is Paducci, which is part of a larger wine operation in Mendocino, California. Paducci is completely carbon neutral, using both solar and wind power as well as biodiesel-powered tractors and are committed to organic farming and pest control. FrogÕs Leap of Napa Valley practices organic and dry farming techniques, conserving water and working with the local environment. They are also on their way to becoming LEEDS certified and use 100% solar energy. The Òtetra prismaÓ multi-layered, collapsible containers that French Rabbit ÒbottlesÓ its wine in are less traditional but much more environmentally friendly than glass, which is very heavy to ship. It is good to note, however, that tetrapak containers are not yet widely recycled in the US as they are in Europe.

While these wineries are certainly stellar, I can't help but put in a plug for all of the small wineries that are popping up everywhere. Local wines from small vineyards are often conscious practitioners of sustainable viticulture and in tune with the local environment. A huge benefit of drinking local wine is that the wine doesnÕt travel far to get to your glass. Scope out the vineyards in your area, and you just may find a local version of that idyllic, family-run vineyard of your imagination.

The Essentials of Life: Ensuring a Safe and Secure Water Supply in Haiti

2010-01-18T00:16:00.000-08:00

The recent earthquake in Haiti has people around the world reeling. On the news, there’s a constant flow of the sounds and pictures of a people devastated by poverty, then devastated again by a natural disaster. My thoughts go out to the young woman who we sponsored in Haiti until last year, when she graduated. I have no idea if she is all right, just as so many people have no idea if those they care for are all right.

The situation in Haiti is deeply troubling. When people live in an earthquake zone, it’s essential to build in places that are safe, with materials that can withstand a quake. Yet this is so out of reach in many places in the world, where people are struggling to create a daily life that is secure.

I think about my earthquake kit and my pantry. The earthquake kit is tucked under our front porch. It’s full of food and water for the seventy-two hours estimated before help reaches us. We’re lucky here. Unlike many people in Vancouver, we live on bedrock. Like many people in Vancouver, we also live in a wood-frame building. And like many, we have the extra few dollars available to secure a safe supply of water.

Water is life, and we cannot go without water for more than a few days. Unfortunately, tainted water is the reality for many people around the world. This water might be contaminated by animal and human waste, pesticides, or fertilizers. It’s not always economically feasible for people to make this water safe to drink, so the water is used anyway, in spite of the danger. Illnesses like diarrhea and cholera can ensue. While those in countries with safer drinking water might scoff at the idea that diarrhea is a danger, it is a disease that kills up to one and a half million children under the age of five every year.

In an emergency, the situation becomes even more difficult. Garbage and sewage line the streets and enter the water supply, and methods of water purification like boiling can be totally unavailable. Importing emergency water is expensive and bulky. There are a few promising solutions. Desalination, particularly if it is solar-powered, is a possibility, although it does require equipment. Water purification tablets are also readily available and much easier to ship than bottled water.

One of my favorite emerging technologies is the Lifestraw, a giant straw that is also a personal portable water filter. Each straw can be used for six months to a year and removes bacteria, viruses, and parasites – at least 99 percent of them. Although the Lifestraw is not a long-term solution because it does not improve overall water quality or reduce the trips to get water, it seems very promising for emergency applications like the situation in Haiti.

What are you doing to help in both the short term and long term in Haiti?

Rooftop Farms: New Urban Spaces for Sustainable Agriculture

2010-01-18T00:11:00.000-08:00

In urban areas around the world, new space is opening up for urban farming. No, it’s not because people are tearing down buildings and creating open spaces, although occasionally that is the case. No, it’s because people are finding innovative new urban places to farm. Rooftop Farms is a 6000 square foot farm in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, you ask? Isn’t that somewhat urban? Why yes, it is rather urban. In fact, the farm is actually located on the rooftop of an old building. Ben Flanner, the founder of the farm, shifted from the corporate world to an industrial rooftop, joining forces with the Bronx Botanical Gardens and Goode Green, a green roof designer. He brought in 200,000 pounds of soil to start the project.

The farm is traditional in many ways, but its location isn’t one of them. Although Rooftop Farms is not certified organic, the farm uses many well-honed organic practices. This urban farm uses non-toxic pest control methods and cover cropping. The farmers also intercrop, using complementary crops that provide each other with nutrients, a place to grow, and act as companion plants for natural pest control. The farm accepts compost from urban-dwellers, who can drop off appropriate compost at the farm.

New York is well-known for its abundance of restaurants that provide a selection of foods from around the world for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Rooftop Farms provides bicycle-based deliveries of its urban produce to local restaurants. The farm supplies a farmer’s market stall, and a Community Supported Agriculture project is going to start in the rooftop garden in the spring of this year.

Urban agriculture is an important part of the city environment for another reason. Many urbanites don’t have an opportunity to experience firsthand the techniques for soil-building, natural pest control, water-savvy irrigation, and more. Especially in densely-packed urban areas, it can be hard to eke out more than an urban balcony or window-box worth of produce, unless you’re part of a community garden. The farm provides volunteer opportunities for urban-dwellers, and it also features workshops for urban gardeners or would-be gardeners.

While urban food gardening and farming has its concerns, from spotty air quality to produce disappearing into the hands of passer-by, the fact is that an increasing percentage of the world’s population lives in urban areas. These urban areas spread their huge ecological footprint over a vast hinterland of rural areas, drawing resources to feed them masses. Relocalization challenges us to work with the difficulties and opportunities of growing produce in an urban environment.

Growing Young Farmers: Supporting the Next Generation

2010-01-17T22:42:00.000-08:00

Every year, thousands of small family farms in America bite the dust and farmland is eaten up by suburban sprawl. The future of farming looks grim when you take a peek at the majority of the statistics out there. Despite all of this, I’m really excited, and I think you should be too because contrary to what many statistics seem to foreshadow, there are a lot of aspiring young farmers ready to dig in and revive small-scale sustainable agriculture. Likewise, there are an increasing number of support systems in place for fledgling farmers who need guidance and experience. In order to grow more successful young farmers, we must establish more networks of assistance and collaboration between farmers.

One of the best ways to acquire practical farming skills is to pursue a farm apprenticeship. Many existing farms offer seasonal internships or apprenticeships for those interested in sustainable agriculture. Ideally, the apprentice is involved in all aspects of running a farm and small business. Apprenticeships can be found through contacting individual farms. However there are some organizations dedicated to informal agricultural education that will work to place you with a farm that is aligned with your specific interests and needs. An alternative way to gain experience and travel at the same time is to join WWOOF, an international network of organic farms that are looking for willing workers.

Once you’ve gleaned some experience and are ready to branch out on your own you’ll need to find land. Depending on your financial status, this may not be an easy task. If you can’t afford your own land, some large landowners will allow farmers to rent acres of their land to cultivate as do many land trusts. There are also a few incubator programs scattered across the country, like the Intervale in Burlington, Vermont. The Intervale Center is a non-profit that manages 350 acres of land at the edge of the city and leases acreage and facilities to small start-up farmers. Incubator programs also offer business model and technical assistance to new farmers to increase revenues and efficiency. Along those same lines, such programs also work to help connect farmers with new and local markets. Some agricultural education organizations set young farmers up with older mentors for a year or two, to offer advice and wisdom.

Starting any small business is tough, and a farm is certainly no exception. In order to capture the energy that many young people are bringing to sustainable agriculture today, more support systems are needed to ensure the viability of new farms and reverse the disappearance of small farms in America.

Common Ground: Community Building Through Farming

2010-01-17T22:37:00.000-08:00

Community building through farming can manifest in a variety of ways, be it forging new relationships between disparate groups of people, creating a safe environment and common ground, or reconnecting people to the earth. Sustainable agriculture projects often provide a unique forum for social integration. Several projects in various parts of the U.S. are particularly inspiring, and demonstrate without doubt that these farms aren’t just growing sustainable food; they’re growing community.

One of the most striking examples of sustainable agriculture fostering community has been taking place in a California prison since the early 1990s. The Garden Project in the San Francisco Bay area engages prisoners in growing produce for area markets and charity. Prisoners are given a greater sense of purpose and have the opportunity to learn all aspects of running a farm, from planting and maintenance to business skills. Through farming, the prisoners not only form a healthier community among themselves but also have the chance to reconnect with the outside community. By donating the food they grow to local seniors and low-income residents, prisoners make a positive connection with the greater community. Studies have shown that the prisoners involved in this project are less likely to return to jail than most, and leave the prison with more marketable skills.

In recent years, more new American farming projects have cropped up around the country, which help to integrate refugees and immigrants into their resettlement communities. Through initiatives like the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project in Maine, refugees and immigrants can learn how to farm in a new climate and environment and connect with a new land, as well as how to market and sell their produce at farmer’s markets and local businesses. For many new Americans who come from agricultural backgrounds, farming is a comfortable way of getting plugged in to a culturally foreign community and feel more independent and at home.

Garden projects have also been used as a way to reintegrate disenfranchised, homeless youth into a supportive community. Programs like Seattle’s Youth Garden Works help develop job and life skills, offer employment opportunities, and provide consistency for youth living on the streets. The kids are also involved in community service and food security awareness, endowing them with a greater sense of social responsibility and a connection to the larger community. This model of garden-based education is nurturing and productive, tangibly and sustainably helping kids to succeed when the odds are against them.

As these few examples indicate, healthy communities grow out of and can be supported by sustainable farming projects in all kinds of unexpected scenarios. Farming and the sharing of the food it produces can be an effective way to build or rebuild communities, linking people together in meaningful ways.

Five Reasons That Local Food Is Better For You

2010-01-11T00:17:00.000-08:00

It’s a new year, and you’re looking for ways to stay healthy. Well, eat already! Eat! While many people may be looking for ways to lose weight, healthy food full of nutrients is a great thing to put into your body.

When this food is local, it’s even better. Yes, I know that mangoes are delicious, but fresh local produce is a delight for your body too. Just keep a few mangoes and a little chocolate around. You’ll be fine.

Why is local food better for you than food that has been imported from far away?

1. You can more easily trace the history of local food. Food that comes from far away may have a dodgy history. Different countries have different rules about pesticide use, and pesticides that are banned in your country may be used in others.

2. Storage time. While there are clever ways to store and preserve food so that it maintains some of its nutritional value, if you’ve tasted a tomato fresh from the vine you know that it is so much better than a tomato that has been flown in from another country. That tomato has likely travelled more than you have. It’s been sitting in a plane, truck, and on a store shelf, gradually degrading.

3. Later picking. This is the inverse of storage time. Foods that are local can be picked at the peak of the harvest, because they have such a small way to travel. This means that the food is perfectly ripe or almost ripe. The fruit does not sit green on store shelves, its micronutrients degrading.

4. While food from far away needs to be transported using vehicles that burn fossil fuels, pollute the air, and lead to climate change, the transportation impacts of local food are much smaller. This means that local food leads to cleaner air and a healthier place to live.

5. Gardening is the ultimate in local food, and it’s exceptional for your health. Gardening gets you out in the fresh air, moving your body and doing a sneaky amount of exercise. Digging and lifting and planting and harvesting are all excellent ways to get exercise and to work up an appetite to eat some of the local food you’ve harvested.

I find that eating my share of our local community supported agriculture share means that I honor my produce by eating vast quantities of it. We also eat a diversity of local foods in the winter time, so eating local has added new flavors to our diet. Do you swear by the health benefits of local food?

Five Reasons That Organic Food Is Better for You

2010-01-11T00:13:00.000-08:00

Eat organic - it’s better for the environment, right? Is that really why you should eat organic food? Well, that’s one good reason, but it’s not the only one. While reducing the use of pesticides is beneficial for our soil, water and air, organic food is also better for your body. Why?

1. Organic food has fewer chemical residues than food produced using conventional agriculture. While some conventional crops use few pesticides, others like apples have many more. While the pesticide levels on conventionally-produced foods many not be enough to make you ill immediately, consider the potential long-term health impacts of eating small amounts of many different pesticides every day. If you eat meat and dairy products, the hormones and pesticides in these products can be even more concentrated.

2. Children and breastfeeding mothers in particular need to eat food that is pesticide-free, since children have a much smaller body mass and less ability to process toxins. A combination of household and ingested chemicals can lead to decreases in cognitive and physical abilities, according to a landmark study done by Elizabeth Gillette. In this study, published in 1998, she discovered that children in two Mexican villages had very different cognitive and physical characteristics, and the major difference between the villages was the use of pesticides.

3. Organic farming methods like the use of mulch and manure create rich humus and an abundance of soil life. Rich soil supports a healthy population of micro-organisms, and these micro-organisms make soil nutrients available to plants. We eat the plants, and we get the nutrients.

4. Organic food has more nutrients. The research is controversial, but overall, the research does seem to indicate that organic products have higher levels of vitamin C, trace minerals, and antioxidants. If you’re eating vegetables and fruit for the health benefits, why not choose those that are packed with nutrients?

5. Those who rely on surface or well water to drink know the importance of maintaining healthy watersheds and groundwater supplies. Organic farming reduces the amount of pesticides that move into our water supply.

I love my fruits and vegetables, but I love them more when I know that they are keeping my body as healthy as it can be. Choosing organic food makes me feel good about what I am eating, and I hope that it will increase my family’s overall feelings of health and reduce their chances of chronic illnesses caused by exposure to many small doses of pesticides.

Up on the Roof: Bees in the City

2010-01-10T23:42:00.000-08:00

You may have heard the buzz about the current honeybee crisis. In recent years millions of hives have fallen victim to the mysterious colony collapse disorder, which is basically a term for what happens when bees abandon the hive and die. The reasons for the collapse are unknown, and there are quite a few hypotheses floating around, from insect diseases to changes in the climate and pesticide use. Whatever the case may be, the fact is that the world is running low on honeybees, the implications of which could be far more serious than simply not being able to harvest honey. Honeybees are one of the most important pollinators, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that one third of the food we eat is at some point pollinated by insects, largely bees. An unlikely effort to reinforce bee populations has taken off around the world, but is it effective?

From Chicago to Paris, London to New York and Los Angeles, city rooftops and gardens are humming with busy honeybees. Urban beekeeping is beginning to take root, and is the perfect compliment to urban farming, opening up brave new world of urban agriculture. In some ways, this is agriculture on the edge; people often cringe at the thought of hives perched on roofs, and keeping bees is actually illegal in New York City. But in reality, small, independent beekeepers are doing urban gardens a huge favor. Urban honeybees help the growing urban gardening landscape, and the resulting honey gives urbanites another local food source. In Chicago’s West Side a honey co-operative has formed, providing training and jobs for under-employed residents. The honey and a few value-added products are sold at city farmer’s markets.

Small bee keeping operations are much more sustainable, and much less likely to experience colony collapse, than big colonies that are often transported from one giant farm to the next to pollinate crops. It is good to note, however, that although urban beekeeping is an exciting new trend with multiple benefits for the environment and local food, it doesn’t do a whole lot to solve the global bee shortage and the effects it could have on our current food sources. Bees do not go very far from the hive, and pollinate with a close radius of their home. In other words, bees from Chicago are not buzzing out to vegetable fields in Iowa, and big agriculture should still be concerned about potential repercussions of colony collapse. As long as we rely on agribusiness for the bulk of our food, we rely on lots of bees. Perhaps this is yet another sign urging us to stay local, and to think on a smaller scale. The honeybees upstairs on the roof support the garden in the empty lot next door, and so do I.

Cleaning Out the Pantry

2010-01-10T23:32:00.000-08:00

We have all felt the impact of the economic recession, some more so than others. Over the past year, food insecurity has become a pressing issue in the U.S. Simultaneously food pantries have experienced a 40 percent drop in annual donations, a troubling statistic in a time when 1 in 7 families struggle to put food on the table, despite help from the federal food stamp program. In an economic climate when all non-profits, including food banks and pantries, are in need of funds, it is imperative to make sure that food relief programs continue and are as effective as possible. Those of us who can give should do so often. But it is equally important to rethink what we give. Increasingly, food banks are hoping to ensure that those who are hungry have access to fresh, healthy food choices.

Food pantries look forward to a spike in donations every year during the holiday season. In my neighborhood, school kids go from door to door collecting boxes of food for the local food bank just before Thanksgiving and lots of people volunteer to cook and serve meals at the soup kitchen and shelter downtown. Unfortunately, after the New Year, our spirit of giving tends to taper off. In order to counteract reliance on the ebb and flow of community giving, some food banks have updated to a “virtual food bank” model. This means making donations by purchasing specified foods from a virtual grocery store of sorts, where the food bank lists items that they actually need. You can also make monetary donations online. Both of these donation models give the food bank more agency in choosing what to offer to their clients, eliminating the risk of ending up with whatever is left in the dusty corners of donor’s cupboards.

Online donations through a “virtual food bank” means purchasing specified foods from a virtual grocery store of sorts, which lists items that the food bank actually needs. You can also or can simply be a cash donation, letting those who run the food bank choose what to buy. This also enables food pantries to possibly choose healthier items to stock the shelves. Rather than getting canned fruit packed in sugary syrup they might choose a no-sugar added variety, low sodium vegetables and soups, and whole grain pastas. Despite lean economic times and limited budgets, many food banks and pantries are demanding fresher, healthier food in order to truly address the nutritional needs of their clientele.

It is clear that food banks are not the most sustainable way to fight hunger, but they certainly fill an immediate need in our communities. Until we find better ways to address the issues of hunger and food insecurity that affect so many of our neighbors, we must continue to give generously to our community food pantries year-round and support them as many try to offer healthier food choices.

New Management of The Commons Means More Sustainable Food

2010-01-03T23:17:00.000-08:00

Everyone knows that Obama won a Nobel Peace prize in 2009, but it was one of the Nobel laureates for Economic Sciences that really caught my attention. Elinor Ostrom, the first female recipient of the prize, was awarded based on her “analysis of economic governance, especially of the commons.” I know this may sound a bit far removed from the topic of sustainable food, but bear with me. As Ostrom discovered, the management of the commons is actually quite relevant when talking about sustainable food sources, and local food systems.

You may remember the idea of “the commons” from a high school science class, which is where I first bumped into it. Garrett Hardin’s essay, “The Tragedy of the Commons” has become a classic, describing the fate of common natural resources. Inevitably, common property resources, like grazing land, fisheries, forests, etc. are prone to overexploitation and eventual collapse if poorly managed. Ostrom’s research concludes that the best way to manage such resources is not to rely on government management regulations but for local stakeholders to create their own management systems, since they are the very ones who are so invested in the health of the resource.

So how does this apply to sustainable food? The easiest example, but certainly not the only one, is to look at this in the case of the world’s fisheries. Fish are a common resource; they are not privately owned (unless they are farmed.) Fish are also an important food source for about 20% of the world’s population, who rely on fish for high quality animal-based protein as part of their diet. The high demand for fish throughout time has led to the complete overexploitation of many, if not most, fish species and stocks. So far, the efforts of international coalitions, country and regional governments have shown little success in managing fish stocks in a sustainable way. Ostrom’s research uses a few select examples, such as the Maine lobster fishery in the 1920s, to show how small groups of stakeholders come together and create systems to manage a common resource effectively and ensure its sustainability. This takes the control out of the hands of the official experts and government, and transfers it to people who are intimately connected to a particular common resource.

Much of our food is linked to common property resources, be it fish, grazing livestock, or anything else. In order to create truly sustainable food systems we must take a cue from Ostrom’s findings and create better, more localized ways to manage the commons and sustain vital resources.

Cold Frame Farming: An Answer to Eating Local Through the Winter

2010-01-03T23:15:00.000-08:00

It’s cold up here in the Northeast this time of year. It was so cold today that ice lined the inside of the windowpanes in my bedroom, which is located a little too far from the heat radius of the downstairs woodstove. The man on the radio is forecasting the second big winter storm of the season and outside a few ominous flakes start to fly. Winter is upon us. It is time for wool socks and long underwear, never-ending cups of tea and pots of root vegetable soups. This is New England, after all, and one must learn to love the bitter, unpredictable winter weather or migrate elsewhere. I do not mind the cold, or the snow. I will say, however, that for the sustainable foodie and the localvore, winter in the North can be a trying time.

For all those winter has left tending a few sun deprived potted herbs and facing down yet another potato or butternut squash in the kitchen, I bring you a glimmer of green hope. It is possible, even in these northern climes, to keep growing hearty greens through most of the winter. A four season harvest, as outlined by organic gardening guru Eliot Coleman, really only requires a cold frame (unheated) greenhouse or similar structure to enable the harvesting of greens that can stand up to the frost, such as kale. As long as you keep the cold frame clear of snow and ice, the limited winter sunlight is plenty for the plants to grow without freezing, no electricity needed.

This isn’t anything new. Coleman has been using this method for decades, inspired by similar operations in Europe. Although Coleman has a dedicated following, especially in Maine where his farm is located, it surprises me that this method has yet to catch on at the commercial level. At my local food co-op I sighed to see the last of the local kale disappear from the shelves in late November, replaced by shipments from far-off California. If I ever start a farm perhaps it will be a winter harvest-only farm, and fill the need for local, un-wilted greens in the midwinter months. It seems like it could be quite the niche market as the number of consumers committed to sustainable, local food grows.

On a smaller scale, cold frame farming can easily be incorporated into kitchen gardens, as long as you don’t mind braving the elements to tend to your greens. It requires only a small investment and minimal inputs. Growing your own food is about as sustainable and local as you can get, and let me tell you, it feels so good to be able to breeze past that bagged spinach at the grocery store without giving it even a second look. Finding fresh local food in the winter can be really difficult, but perhaps the answer is to grow it yourself in a cold frame.

Supporting Young Farmers: Sustaining Food Farming

2010-01-03T23:08:00.001-08:00

Do you hear the quiet sigh of older farmers across the nations? Farming has been undervalued as a career option until quite recently. However, with the push towards local food, city kids are discovering food farming and rural kids are realizing that there may be something in this farming thing after all. Younger farmers are slowly, very slowly beginning to repopulate rural areas and create small farms that feed local and national communities. Along with the renewal of farming as a viable career option comes the emergence of programs to support these young farmers.

The Serve Your Country food map is one such effort. It’s an attempt to begin to map the young farmers across the United States. It has red dots for “journeyman” or apprentice farmers who have not yet settled down to farm on a particular piece of land. The map is just beginning but it looks promising. It’s a project of The Greenhorns, a documentary about young farmers.

In Canada, the Outstanding Young Farmers Program supports and recognizes young farmers like Greg and Tania MacKenzie, whose chance visit to a local produce farm resulted in a job, then a purchase of the farm. The couple’s 60 acre farm now produces broccoli, cabbage, and squash for the local market and Chinese food restaurants.

While young farmers may choose to invest in larger ventures, many of them are turning to smaller scale production as well, finding it more affordable. Community supported agriculture is a way for young and older farmers to cover their expenses before the season begins, guaranteeing shareholders a portion of the crop. Community members pay for their shares in advance and the farmer can use the money for annual farm start up costs.

Small market gardens on urban, suburban and rural land are also growing in popularity. Healing herbs, seeds, greens for upscale restaurants: whatever the crop, a young farmer is likely growing it for sale. Innovative farming models that make use of a network of privately-owned or vacant lands are a way for new, young and urban-dwelling farmers to make a living.

Whether young farmers decide to stay in their home communities, move from urban to rural areas, or become an urban farmer, they are changing the face of agriculture. Many young farmers are coming from a new and different place than previous generations of agriculturalists – they are coming from the environmental movement or from small urban plots. Inspired by the outdoors and the physical and community-building work of creating a farm, they are being transformed by the act of farming and transforming that act as they grow.

Sharing Backyards and the Hyperlocavore: Tools for Urban Farmers

2010-01-03T23:06:00.000-08:00

Got land? Not much, likely, if you live in an urban area. For years, I lived in rented suites. Then I moved to an apartment building. One of the reasons we chose that particular apartment was that it had an opportunity for growing food: not our tiny, shady deck, but a huge rooftop garden down the fall, sunny and perfect for growing tomatoes. An elderly neighbor also gardened on the rooftop. Concerned that I was moving into his domain, I chatted with him often about his gardening techniques, and over time I learned a lot about small space container gardening.

Now, most urban-dwellers do not live in wacky 1970s housing developments whose sales features include a sauna and a garden. If you don’t, never fear: web sites like Hyperlocavore and Sharing Backyards are here to help. The sites help people start yard-sharing groups and connect with urban and suburban dwellers with land, or farming skills, or a desire to have and learn how to grow food.

What is a yard share? Well, it’s whatever the gardener and the yard owner want it to become. Generally, a yard share begins when someone has land that they don’t want to garden and another person has no land and wants to grow food. The two meet through a group like a church or on a web site, and they decide that they are a good match. The yard owner may ask for a portion of the produce and may decide that there are certain times that are best for yard access.

These sites and many more like them across Europe and North America also promote the informal sharing of knowledge between people. As suburban and urban community members have become more distant from one another, informal sharing of knowledge has been lost. Reclaiming the knowledge of how to grow food in small, urban garden plots is a huge part of garden share projects.

These networks are all about sharing: sharing space, sharing food, sharing knowledge, sharing resources. If we’re going to thrive in lean times, we need to relearn how to share. It’s a skill that most of us learned a long time ago, when we were picking peas in our grandmother’s garden or on the swing at a local park. To ensure that we all have food security, it’s time to learn how to share again, so we can all have a taste of backyard bounty.

New Americans Shed New Light on Sustainable Urban Agriculture

2009-12-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

Every year, thousands of refugees and immigrants arrive in the U.S., in search of a new place to call home. Burlington, Vermont welcomes a significant number of refugee families for resettlement, many of who have lived in refugee camps for years. Among other major adjustments, refugee families often have a hard time getting used to American food, which is most often characterized by highly processed and full of sugar and trans fats, in forms completely foreign to many new Americans.

Years ago, when the first Somali Bantu families started arriving in Vermont, they refused to eat canned food and to this day remain wary of the preserved and the processed- and rightly so. It is unfortunate then that many recent refugees rely on charity programs, like food banks, to feed their families until they find jobs and simply can╒t afford to buy a lot of fresh food, let alone sustainable food. In Burlington, as in other cities all over the U.S., refugee communities in conjunction with non-profit organizations have begun to tackle this problem head on, creating jobs in the process.

The solution? Connecting new Americans to urban garden projects. Many refugees, like the Somali Bantus, come from agricultural traditions and are already accustomed to what we would consider sustainable growing practices. Giving them access to land provides them with the opportunity to grow their own food for their families, establishing a greater sense of self-sufficiency and independence. Many non-profits, like the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project in Lewiston, Maine, educate farmers about how to grow vegetables in a new climate that is very different from what they╒re used to. Through such organizations, the farmers, who are often women, can also get involved in local farmers markets or grocery stores where they can sell their produce and learn how to run their own small businesses.

Giving new Americans the opportunity to start small farms is also a good way for them to integrate into new communities, which can be a difficult process, while maintaining some of their cultural traditions. By the same token, those of us who have lived in the States for a while and are involved in urban gardening projects should see this as an opportunity to learn from those who come from traditional and sustainable farming backgrounds. This is really exciting. The injection of new and diverse farming experience sets the stage for the further development of vibrant and energetic urban farming communities all over the U.S.

“Sustainable” Salmon: A Slippery Selection

2009-12-27T22:51:00.000-08:00

It isn’t news that most of the world’s fisheries are in crisis, and yet market demand for fish as an important protein source remains high. Salmon is a particularly popular choice, hailed for it’s health benefits, but when it comes to choosing a sustainable fish for dinner, salmon is one of the toughest to justify serving at the table. The majority of salmon available at the grocery store comes from fish farms in Chile and Norway, and is raised in submerged pens in protected bays, fjords, and freshwater lakes. Although aquaculture seems like a good way to take the pressure off of wild fish stocks, it is often a less sustainable option than one might suspect.

On the surface, aquaculture presents the perfect alternative to relying on dwindling wild populations. However, this hasn’t proven to be the case. In fact, salmon farming can actually aid in crippling wild stocks, as it is common for farmed salmon to escape their submerged pens. In Chile, where salmon is a non-native species, its introduction to the local ecosystem can be harmful to existing species. Once in open water, farmed salmon can also interbreed with wild salmon, muddling natural genetics, as well as spread diseases and parasites. In recent years, Chilean farms (owned by the giant Norwegian company, Marine Harvest) have come under scrutiny due to an outbreak of an infectious fish virus. Farm-bred fish are particularly susceptible to disease, a consequence of crowded pens, and are given high doses of antibiotics to combat bacterial illness.

Salmon farms can also be harmful to the surrounding environment, contaminating local ecosystems with high concentrations of fish waste and excess feed. The increase of nutrients from fish waste depletes oxygen in the water and makes it difficult for other animals to survive in the area surrounding the farm. These issues exist regardless of whether salmon is raised organically or conventionally. Additionally the process of manufacturing fish feed, maintaining farms, and processing the fish, requires huge inputs of energy and resources.

When talking about sustainable seafood, it is important for us to pay attention the bigger picture. It is true that if I buy farmed salmon from Chile, I have not purchased a fish from a potentially at-risk population. However the impact fish farming can have on wild fish and on the environment, and the amount of antibiotics and effort it takes to keep farmed fish “healthy” makes me think twice about choosing salmon. Several non-profit marine protection groups, like the Blue Ocean Institute, have rating systems to help consumers navigate which type of salmon is the most “sustainable” choice, and increasingly these tools are showing up in grocery stores around the world. In the case of salmon, wild Alaskan is often a better pick than the internationally farm-raised version. It is important for us, as conscientious consumers, to make informed decisions when buying fish, but perhaps it is also time for us to take a more proactive approach to encourage fish farms to follow a more sustainable model.

Trees and Farms: How Forests Support Sustainable Agriculture

2009-12-27T22:35:00.000-08:00

Gimme a one! Gimme a two! Gimme a tree! Actually, I’ll take a tree any day. A few would be good, and a whole forest would be even better. Trees aren’t just what grows where there are no farms and no houses. They play a very important role as a support structure for sustainable agriculture. How is it that a tree can act as a steward to the plants that we eat?

Trees preserve the soil. Particularly if they’re native to the area, trees build the soil with their leaves when the leaves fall. Even in a climate that does not contain deciduous trees, leaves still fall on a continuous basis throughout the year, and this provides a consistent inflow of nutrients into the soil.

Trees also preserve the soil with their roots. They keep the soil from washing away during rain. This is especially important when farming takes place on steep slope. Farmers don’t want a huge landslide of mud raining down on the farm. Nor do they want the farm soil to escape further down into a watershed, taking with it the nutrients built up over the years. These nutrients sustain a healthy, vital farm – the soil isn’t just a place to put plants.

Trees also keep the water filtering into the soil and into the groundwater, rather than letting it flow rapidly over the surface of the ground. Those roots and those leaves slow down the water, forcing it to move downwards into the soil. Some of the water stays on the leaves and evaporates again, while other water stays on the leaves and dribbles down through the forest canopy over time, providing a source of moisture for epiphytes and eventually for the soil below.

Traditional agriculturalists have known that trees help sustain farms. Sacred groves of trees on terraces, special groves kept around oases – all of these are signs that people have always known that growing food for people involves more than just a farm, it involves all of the ecological support structures around that farm as well. And of course, in many cultures the forest is the food and the farm. Forest farming is gradually making a comeback in many countries such as the Philippines, as people recognize that the forest has always been a source of food and that preserving the trees and growing food under the forest canopy is a logical step that preserves the forest and agriculture at once.

Is preserving the environment part of preserving farmland? Of course. In many instances, the two work hand in hand, the natural spaces helping to sustain those that are cultivated by humans.

Playing With Water: Play Pumps Transform The Lives of Children

2009-12-27T22:32:00.000-08:00

Water is more important than food. Now, I’m not saying this to be controversial – it’s a biological fact. Most of your body is made up of water, and while people can live for weeks without food, we can only live for five days without water. In times of dramatic climate shifts and swings in the relative abundance and scarcity of water, it’s especially important to consider water when we think about our food supply. Yes, we can happily go along planting all of the seeds we want, but if we can’t grow the crops due to lack of water, can’t wash our food, and don’t have any clean water to drink, all of that is for naught. Did I mention that water is important?

I’m a parent, so of course I am a big proponent of working kids hard. Actually, strike that. I’m a big proponent of play. Of course, I want my daughter to work around the house and to learn how to do such work, but I also want her to spend a lot of time playing and using her imagination.

But what if a child’s play could transform a community? That is the concept behind the PlayPump. Water pumps are a deeply utilitarian object. In many parts of the world, there is no water pump and adults and children must walk for long distances to gather water from unsafe surface sources, an act that can take up much of a day. This makes it difficult for children to get an education, let alone play.

Like the bicycle-powered grain mill, the PlayPump takes an ordinary object and turns it into something extraordinary. A child’s merry-go-round becomes the active part in a large water pump that is designed to move water from groundwater sources into a 2500-liter water tank. This tank becomes a source of clean water for a nearby community, reducing the time and travel involved in collecting water for the home. The tank can also feature advertising on its sides, and the advertising pays for the maintenance of the pump. PlayPumps have been installed in communities in South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Zambia.

An ingenious idea? Yes! In many ways, the future of sustainable food and sustainable water rests on such ideas that take an arduous task and turn it into something that is fun and builds community. When we talk about technology to face an uncertain future, we may talk about nuclear, solar, and wave energy. We may talk about genetically-modified foods. We may talk about vast and often controversial ways to power and feed a growing population. However, it is often these small innovations that make a world of difference.

The Wisdom of Enough: Is Sustainability About Knowing When to Stop?

2009-12-21T02:09:00.000-08:00

As the holidays rush to a close, it’s a madhouse out there. I know that I will need to go to the mall next week to pick up some much-needed supplies, and I’m dreading the excursion. The noise, the mad dash to pick up last-minute Christmas gifts, the gluttony of chocolate and cheese and cookies and everything else delicious – it will call me as I try not to succumb to its siren sounds.

For respite, I visited The Center for a New American Dream today. The web site is always a calm oasis of buy nothing, buy local, and buy used in the midst of the shopping frenzy. As I debate joining The Compact and buying only used items for least January and February, I need some reassurance and some calm. One of the articles I read today struck a quiet chord. It was on the feeling of enough.

Eating vegetables is one of my four-year-old’s least favourite pastimes these days. I know that will change, and I’m trying not to push the issue. One of the reasons is that I want her to know her body. I want her to develop her own sense of how food can make you feel good and make you feel tired. I also try not to force food on my daughter, because even though she’s only eaten a few bites and I think that she should eat more, I want her to develop a sense of enough.

How many of us have lost touch with our body’s true needs for certain foods? What is enough when it comes to food? Our bodies are primed to crave and store a lot of fat, protein and carbohydrates for the winter season. In lean times, this is a good survival strategy. Just like a bear, we would pack on the pounds so that we could rely on these resources during a long winter with few fruits and vegetables. But now, so much of the food available is full of extra fat, protein, and carbohydrates. We can exist in a state of excess, and we can indulge in calories at the expense of our health and our waistlines. Feasting continues throughout the year as we supersize our meals and focus on fat and protein. This drive sustains the fast food industry, because we seek out fast food when we are hungry right now, and we’re hungry for carbohydrates and fat.

What does enough feel like when it comes to food? This coming year, I will be cultivating the attitude of enough. I will fill myself with fresh fruit and vegetables and then turn to bread, cheese, and meat. By doing this, I will support local farmers and reduce the amount of packaging that is involved in my food choices. I will also be wary of foods that feel like too much – pre-packaged and fast foods that are full of salt and too much fat and protein and focus on creating homemade meals with fresh foods.

What is enough to you, and how is it connected to sustainability?

Revising the Urban Landscape: Is Suburban Farming the Next Big Trend?

2009-12-21T02:05:00.000-08:00

Urban gardening is all the rage. From chickens in the city to beekeeping, from rooftop gardens to community garden plots on vacant lots, urban dwellers are getting into the swing of things when it comes to growing food. But what about those in the suburbs? There, the availability of land and the needs of the population are somewhat different. While urban residents often have stores close by, those in the suburbs may not have a store nearby, making food gardening an even more important way of reducing store trips and greenhouse gas emissions. Residents of the suburbs also have the luxury of land – parks and open spaces and front and back yards can all grow food, if we will let them.

The suburban backyard food garden is a comfortable first step. People in the suburbs have been growing small gardens for years, usually in the back yard where passers-by will not be offended by the sight of a tomato on the front lawn. Gradually, home gardens are creeping onto front lawns as well, as the interest in urban gardening grows and the idea of the new victory garden becomes more popular. Food gardens are gaining in popularity, and they’re becoming more social acceptable to suburban-dwellers.

What about food in public spaces, though? Sometimes public spaces play host to community gardens, it is true. But how about larger-scale food production. Can we farm the boulevards and grow fruit trees in public parks? Dare we do such a thing? The City of North Vancouver in Canada is considering such a thing. Namely, the city is examining options for a farm in a public park, Loutet Park. It’s a space that is long and narrow and not particularly well-used at the moment. The idea has met with substantial public support. If the plan comes to fruition, the city will contract a farmer to create and manage the farm. There will be public education workshops and a public market where people will be able to buy local vegetables – not local from the areas on the urban and suburban fringe, but local from the end of the block.

It’s an innovative idea, and one that promises to spark debate about the future of urban agriculture. While public parks have valued sport, playgrounds and the enjoyment of native plants, aside from small community garden plots agriculture hasn’t really been a part of the concept of parks. Can we expect to see public tree plantings of apple trees on boulevards, the fringes of urban parks covered in broccoli for the soccer teams to snack on? Maybe not, but it would be an intriguing and lovely transformation.

Copenhagen, Climate Change, and Sustainable Food

2009-12-07T04:26:00.000-08:00

Everyone seems to be abuzz about the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change. The conference begins on December 7th and will last for eleven days. During that time, an ever-growing number of world leaders will make and shift commitments to reduce their country’s greenhouse gas emissions and will discuss issues such as how to plan for and model the potential impacts of climate change. Scary stuff, sometimes. What’s a sustainable foodie to do, aside from burying our heads in our organic chocolate as we sit at home, surfing the internet for Christmas goodies instead of causing greenhouse gas emissions?

Food choices actually have a large role to play in our greenhouse gas emissions. How does this connect to what’s going on at Copenhagen? Well, we live in a miraculous world where food can fly – in fact, it frequently flies longer distances than the people who eat it. All of this moving food around the planet causes greenhouse gas emissions. When there is an option, choose local food instead of imported food. We’ve made some interesting changes around our house. My daughter has grown up eating fruit frozen at the height of summer, complemented with apples and pears in the winter time. We eat oranges at Christmas, but otherwise, our produce choices are almost entirely local. Reframing what you eat to make imports a treat can be refreshing and make eating exciting again. We have started to enjoy many of the local and winter vegetables that grow here, and this is something that we wouldn’t have done had we continued to buy produce that has flown in from places that we’ve never even visited.

Growing your own food is the ultimate in local eating. Just be sensible about garden inputs. Pesticides and fertilizers use energy to create, and they impact the soil and water in other ways too, adding toxins and nutrients that aren’t meant to exist in the environment in such concentration. Growing food and growing it organically is easy on the earth, even if it’s a small step towards the broader greenhouse gas reduction goals being discussed in Copenhagen.

Food packaging is also a nest of embedded energy. Think of all of the energy that has been used to create the paper and plastic products that surround your food. When people talk about energy at the Copenhagen climate summit, they’ll likely talk about transportation, industry, and efficient homes. One of the many industries that creates greenhouse gas emissions is the packaging industry, and one of the many things that we package is food. Unlike other products that we create, food packaging is often discarded immediately upon purchase. Choose products without packaging, or choose packaging that is recycled and recyclable to reduce your use of embedded energy.

What are you doing to reduce your food-related greenhouse gas emissions? Have you ever considered food to be a climate issue?

Sustainable Soil: How Farming Practices Can Moderate Climate Change

2009-12-07T04:23:00.000-08:00

Everyone forgets about soil. Yes, we walk on it and we wash traces of it off of our food, but other than that we try to ignore it, sweeping it off of our floors with a look of disgust. Soil doesn’t get a lot of respect in most circles. But given the talks about climate change in Copenhagen, perhaps that is about to change. As leaders look at ways to reduce climate change and plan for its impacts, thinking about ways to reduce our carbon emissions and use them up, they may turn towards the rich soil of the world’s farms for answers.

Soil is a carbon sink. We’re all told to plant trees to soak up the nasty stuff in the atmosphere, but the world’s forests sequester only one-fifth the amount of carbon that soil sequesters. According to a study from the UK’s Soil Association, using organic methods of farming helps boost the soil’s ability to be a carbon sink, making it sequester nearly 30% more carbon. Worldwide, a switch to organic farming would help sequester 11% of greenhouse gas emissions, which is a stunningly large amount.

Humus? No, it’s not the chickpea-based spread. It’s the decaying organic matter found in soil. Organic farming uses green manure, animal manures, cover crops and other composting techniques to build soil humus. This is where a lot of the soil carbon is stored. That brown, rich soil is rich in carbon as well, and it keeps that carbon under wraps. Organic farming techniques also create soil that is very porous, allowing the soil to accommodate the water from storm events. This will also be useful as climate patterns change – if storms are going to become more frequent, having soil that can moderate the flow of water effectively will reduce flooding.

As we count down the last days to the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, we should give our soil some respect. Let’s make it one of the main players in the work to moderate our greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to asking children to go out and plant a tree on Earth Day, we should ask them to support local, organic farming practices and create their own garden with rich compost. The climate impacts of both actions are small but profound. Let’s raise our hands and speak out about good soil: the decaying brown stuff that may just have a large role to play not only in .growing healthy vegetables but in creating a healthier atmosphere as well.

Green Fast Food: Is it Even Possible?

2009-11-30T03:59:00.001-08:00

Green fast food? No, I’m not talking about fast food that will make you look and feel a little green. There’s plenty of that. I’m talking about fast food that is both quick and that is eco-friendly. Does it even exist?

Imagine this. You’re running between activities on a Thursday night, and you’re desperate for something to eat. If you’re a typical North American, you pull up at a drive-through or run into the closest restaurant for takeout. You return with a foam carton of food that is full of high fat and lots of carbohydrates – but it will keep you going. If you’re trying to be health-conscious, you might pick up a sandwich or a salad. You eat in the car or throw something onto the table for the kids when you get home, then head out to the next activity.

I often wish that there was a Fast Food Watch wallet card that would tell me what fast food is good for my health, for the environment, and for workers around the world. Maybe it’s because we haven’t invented such a food, but I just can’t seem to find such a card. So what can a dedicated sustainable foodie do in a mealtime bind?

Know what restaurants to frequent. Stop by the local coffee shops and check out their menus for fair trade and organic items. Support local businesses. Is there a mom-and-pop sandwich shop around the corner? Use it as a fast food joint. The money from this business likely flows right back into the local community, and perhaps the owners are even active on the local board of trade. For those who are in a rush to make dinner, getting fast food delivered is a better carbon choice that making a separate trip to the store to pick food up. On a busy night, delivery people will go to many houses on their route, reducing the carbon impact of the trip. Of course, delivery is also a good excuse to relax on the couch!

Know what products to buy. This is easier than knowing what products to avoid, because label-reading is not usually on the agenda when time is tight. Those concerned about fair labor practices will want to avoid fast-food dessert items that contain chocolate. Those who are concerned about the ethics of meat production can look on the vegetarian menu. Those who want to safeguard the oceans can look for sushi without tuna. Look for products with less packaging, and say no to that extra bag. Some restaurants allow people to bring in their own containers. Invest in a tiffin box or other segmented container that keeps different foods separate until meal time.

It’s also possible to create your own fast food. Cook double the amount at one meal and freeze the rest. Purchase products that are almost fast food, like pre-cut organic vegetables and dips. These are healthier and generally have less packaging than many fast food restaurants. They may even be organic or local.

In this busy life, it can be difficult to look for sustainable food on the run. Slow down, take a deep breath, and find a time to look around and source out good options in your community. That way, when you’re busy and looking for a quick meal, you will know where to go.

Seeds of Change: Why Choose Open-Pollinated Seeds?

2009-11-30T03:51:00.000-08:00

For those who are not gardeners, the idea that there is some sort of difference between seeds may be a bit obscure. Yes, there are bean seeds and corn seeds, and these grow beans and corn, respectively. But don’t you just head down to the store and buy seeds when you need them? What’s all the fuss about saving seeds? Adding the terms hybrid and open-pollinated seed stock can just confuse things even further, until the average non-gardener is a quivering mess of fear about planting anything in the ground, anywhere. Gardening is confusing, right?

Take heart. People have been cultivating crops for thousands of years. Before people cultivated crops, they were likely engineering environments to suit them too, helping specific native plants grow in more abundance. People are natural cultivators of the earth, and many people around the world have a great amount of knowledge about saving seeds and growing plants. Unfortunately, with the introduction of certain seed varieties, their useful and locally-specific knowledge is no longer quite as relevant or useful.

Open-pollinated seeds are our genetic heritage; or rather they are the genetic heritage of all of those beans, corn, and plants that you’ve never even heard of. When a seed is open-pollinated, it breeds generally true to type, although some plants may be more vigorous than others. By focusing on the individual plants that thrive and by collecting seeds from these plants, over time farmers and gardeners can create a seed stock that does exceptionally well in the local environment. Keeping these seeds means that local people have a greater ability to feed themselves well, using vigorous seed stock.

Hybrid plants are created from the artificial cross-pollinating two plants, both selected to create a new plant that will have desirable characteristics like large fruit or rot resistance. While this is a brilliant idea and can result in plants that have exceptional qualities, all too often the next generation of plants will not breed true. The plants will not be super-plants. In fact, they may be weak and poorly suited to the local environment. This means that saving the seeds of hybrid plants can be a waste of time. It’s better to buy them from the store next year. Of course, this also means that these plants do not become adapted to the local climate. They’re more hardy in the short term, but they’re not that durable in the long term.

Choosing seeds that can adapt to the local climate and that local gardeners can select and save is a profound but simple action that people can do to cultivate the local genetic diversity of our plants. Like many sustainable actions, it’s a small step, but it is one that maintains the diversity of the food that sustains our lives – and that’s an important change to make.

Seafood Watch: Stepping Stone To Sustainable Seafood

2009-11-18T01:58:00.001-08:00

I’ve got a little card in my wallet. It’s dwarfed by the sheer number of other little cards in my wallet, and it looks rather thin, small, and insignificant. But open it up, and you’ll find that it has information there that can change the way the world eats. It’s a Seafood Watch card, and it’s something that I wish everyone could have. It’s a simple way to cross-check that the seafood that you’re buying is good for you and for ocean life as well.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the plight of the tuna. This fish is not only used in tuna fish sandwiches, a different variety is also used in sushi. It’s this voracious market for sushi that is determining the fate of the tuna – that, and the way that this fish is caught. In fact, the fishing practices used to catch different fish are critically important, since they determine how selective the fishers can be and how many other fish species are caught by accident.

Seafood Watch is a program of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, but there are regional cards for seafood-lovers around North America. These cards are generally supported and promoted by aquariums and conservation organizations. Interestingly enough, seafood restaurants have also come on board, eager to rebrand their business as a green and ethical business and capture the consumer market that is interested in eating seafood, but only when it has been caught in an ethical manner.

What does it mean to catch fish in an ethical way? Well, seafood that is caught in a sustainable way is caught with methods that involve limited bycatch. This means that the fishery is selective and catches the type and number of fish that they can sell. For example, trolling for fish with a line is often preferable to trawling with a large net, because dragging a large net behind a boat is not particularly selective. Fish caught in traps, by troll and pole or by hook-and-line fishing are often on the “best seafood” list, while fish caught by trawling are often on the “avoid” list. However, the specifics vary by fish species and by area.

What’s on the Seafood Watch green list – the seafood it’s all right to eat? It’s best to download a seafood watch for your particular region, since species at risk and fishing practices vary. Seafood Watch takes many factors into account when creating its lists. These include the vigor of the wild stock, the sustainability of aquaculture practices, the toxins present in different fish, and the way the fish is caught. The sustainability of seafood can be a tricky business. Carry your Seafood Watch card, refer to it often, and update it annually to ensure that you’re eating seafood that’s been grown and caught in an ethical manner.

How a Fruit Tree Can Change the World: Sustainable Food, Sustainable Education

2009-11-18T01:52:00.000-08:00

How is sustainable food connected to education? The connections between food and learning run deep. Food is one of the first things that we grow to understand as children, and the cultural heritage of our food is an important learning that is passed down from parents and grandparents to children. Even before they are born, children taste the spices that their mothers eat, learning what the world tastes like. Food also sustains our learning – children who go to school without eating have a difficult time concentrating in school.

Years ago, I went for a walk with a volunteer in the Philippines, a man who was dedicated to planting trees to conserve the soil and water of the country’s watersheds. He took children to plant trees in his town’s watershed, but he was soon struck by a different problem. The children were beginning to understand how a tree could help conserve water and soil, but those same children were hungry. Could they be fed by the fruit of a tree as well? A small, grassroots movement began that saw children planting mango trees. As the children grew, their trees grew, and by the time a child was ready to go to school, that child’s trees would bear fruit. This fruit could feed the child and could be sold to pay for school essentials, ensuring that the child could continue her education.

A similar idea grows around the world: there’s nothing quite as tangible as planting a tree. While some may plant trees to absorb carbon or conserve soil, there’s a direct connection with a fruit tree that is unsurpassed. It’s a tree that sustains life. In Africa, Seeds for Africa works with schoolchildren to grow fruit trees in schoolyards. The fruit of these trees is available for the children to eat, and the tree provides shade and helps sustain healthy water and soil. The children also have a place to rest in the shade.

Planting a tree seems like such a simple act, but it’s an act that is full of hope for the future. The fruit of a tree provides a small but critical addition to the diets of children around the world. As children learn to care for trees and value them, forests grow in places where they have not grown for a long time. Planting these trees is not a token environmental act, it’s an essential part of survival, providing food and providing the ability for children to get an education. Slowly, quietly, and with delicious food, these trees are changing communities, and these communities are changing the world.