Sustainable's the Name of the Game

What you put on your plate could mean a greener future for you and your children

By Karina L. Arrue

There is an ancient native american proverb that comes to mind when I think about the environmental hurdles our generation and those to come will have to face: We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.

The saying resonates today more than ever. We’ve all heard about various ways to reduce our personal impact on the environment, but perhaps it is time to seriously ask ourselves, how much damage do we do with what we choose to eat everyday?And by damage, I don’t just mean to our own health, but to the environment. Slow Food USA, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving the food traditions of North America, puts it like this: we must see “the connection between the plate and the planet.”

Food is a basic need, and a topic we engage in rather regularly, if not excessively here in America; so it would behoove us to think about sustainable food practices.

According to the Regional Farm & Food Project, sustainable agriculture is “the process of staying in sustained balance with nature: replacing and refreshing the natural resources—air, water and soil—consumed in the process of producing food.” Sustainable farms, adds SustainableTable.org, “do not damage the environment, are humane for workers and animals, provide a fair wage to the farmer, and support and enhance rural life.” Sustainable farmers use less fossil fuel (which lessens the impact on global warming) and no synthetic pesticides, artificial hormones or antibiotics, as opposed to factory farming, which is completely mechanized.

Factory farm animals are raised in confined spaces for efficiency's sake, which in the end means more profit for big companies. It also means excessive animal waste, air pollution and soil contamination, among other things. Animals often get sick because of the poor conditions, so they are often treated with antibiotics. This solves one problem, but in turn creates another: because of their overuse, antibiotics are losing their effectiveness when treating infectious diseases in humans. Another issue to consider is the use of hormones—some animals, such as dairy cows, are treated with hormones such as rBGH to make them grow faster and increase milk production, which has adverse affects on cow and human health.

If you want to know more about factory farming versus sustainable farming, there is a plethora of print and online literature available. Slow Food USA also recently published a book called Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continent’s Most Endangered Foods. It’s based on The Ark of Taste, a catalog of foods that helps to preserve species and varieties of regional foods that are in danger.

Hopefully we’ll all pay more attention to what we put on our dinner plates: it might help save the earth, not to mention our lives. Below are a few practical ways to begin eating in a sustainable fashion:

BUY LOCAL

Buy food that is produced, grown, or raised as close to your home as possible. According to information provided by the Food Routes’ Buy Local Campaign, in the US the average item of food has traveled an estimated 1,500 to 2,500 miles before it reaches your dinner plate. This robs food of freshness, not to mention nutrients. It also requires costly transportation and packaging. Visit your local farmers market as often as you can. If you don’t know where the nearest one is, check out the National Directory of Farmers Markets at www.farmersmarkets.com. Depending on your region, there could also be an abundance of local food artisans, especially in the realm of bread, cheese and wine. Check out the Eat Well Guide for local listings: www.eatwellguide.org. Eating local is better for you because it tends to be fresh and free of hormones and pesticide-free. It’s also better for your local economy—money stays within your community and you support family farms.

invest in community supported agriculture.

This is another option for buying local that is especially convenient for urban dwellers. Members of a CSA essentially purchase a share of a farmer’s crop before it’s planted, thus providing substantial financial help to the small farmer. When harvest season comes around (typically June through October), the farmer delivers part of their crop to CSA members each week to a few pick-up spots in the city. Oftentimes, consumers get to try fruits and vegetables that they wouldn’t normally get at the supermarket. Since they are generally picked within 24 hours of being distributed, the produce is always fresh. This is a great way to eat local and sustain the environment. For a listing of CSAs near you, visit www.localharvest.org/csa.

eat in season.

As the National Resources Defense Council states, “When we shop at the grocery store today, we don’t bat an eye at the sight of strawberries in the winter or perfect tomatoes from Holland. In the space of a generation, we’ve become accustomed to eating food that’s never grown roots in local soil. Trucking, shipping and flying in food from around the country and the globe takes a toll on the environment and on public health.” The nrdc cites as an example the nearly 270 million pounds of grapes, shipped mostly from Chile to California each year (that’s a distance of 5,900 miles) as the source of nearly 7,000 tons of global warming pollution a year. Eating locally and in season as Sustainable Table mentions, decreases transportation and thus reduces America’s reliance on foreign oil. For a listing of what’s in season in your region right now, check out the nrdc’s website at www.nrdc.org.

ask questions.

Inquire at your local grocery store about the origins of the food you are buying. Chances are store managers won’t have the faintest idea, but if you’re persistent, they just may get back to you. See Sustainable Table’s website for specific questions.

join a local group.

Chances are there are likeminded people in your neighborhood. Slow Food usa’s local chapters (called “convivia”) for instance, get together to taste, celebrate, and champion the foods and food traditions that are important in their own communities. “In our Orange County convivium, members organized farmer’s market tours with local restaurants. They spoke in-depth to the local farmers and purchased ingredients from them, which were then made into a meal,” cites Kate Evanishyn, communications manager at Slow Food, as an example of community involvement.

grow your own.

There’s nothing better than eating food that you’ve grown in your own garden. I live in a major metropolitan area, but my family still manages to maintain our own little patch from late spring to early fall. There are plenty of options for space-efficient gardening, so no excuses! For more information on how to start your own garden, visit www.treehugger.com.