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| Food Choices & Suggestions |
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Understanding your food
People today are facing many more complex issues associated with foods choices than there were just a generation ago. Decades of use of fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics and farm consolidation, have greatly changed the landscape for food shoppers. Pollution, its impacts on natural habitats and its accumulation in the food chain, add yet more layers of concern. The industrialization of basic food into "food products" that crowd supermarket shelves (now estimated to hold over 45,000 items), further complicates a shopper's job. On top of all of this, it is clear that our food choices affect not only our own health but that of the environment as well. As author Michael Pollan writes: "The way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world." We can't say it better than that, so for those who care to gain a better appreciation of these complex issues, we recommend the following fairly recent books:
- Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, by Michael Pollan. The New York Times named The Omnivore's Dilemma one of the five best nonfiction books of 2006. The book also won the James Beard Foundation's 2007 Award for the best food writing. He traces "direct line between the industrialization of our food
 supply and the degradation of the environment." (Publishers Weekly)
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A year of Food Life, by Barbara Kingsolver. "For teens who grew up on supermarket offerings, the notion not only of growing one's own produce but also of harvesting one's own poultry was as foreign as the concept that different foods relate to different seasons. While the volume begins as an environmental treatise–the oil consumption related to transporting foodstuffs around the world is enormous–it ends, as the year ends, in a celebration of the food that physically nourishes even as the recipes and the memories of cooks and gardeners past nourish our hearts and souls" (from a School Library Journal review).
- In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto, by Michale Pollan. Picks up where Omnivore leaves off, examining the question of what to eat from the perspective of health. While the answer is deceptively simple: eat food, not too much, mostly plants, when our food choices are driven by a thirty-two billion-dollar marketing machine, doing so is not always easy.
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Eat Locally
This does not mean stop at the local burger joint. This means you should shop at your local farmers' market, where what's available has come from those farms closest to your area. This food is invariably fresher and more tasty than that which has been processed to be shipped long distances. Plus, by virtue of not needing to be shipped, it is not wrapped in plastic and very little in the way of petroleum fuels have been expended in its transport, thereby making it less polluting to the environment. Supporting the farmers' market is the best way of supporting local farmers against the forces that would make it less economical to run smaller farms. We have a great farmer's market every Sunday in Menlo Park. There are also farmers' markets in Palo Alto and other surrounding towns, which are worth sampling for their variety. |
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Support Organic and Sustainable Farming Methods
The basic reason to purchase organic is to reduce the amount of pesticides and other artificial chemicals that you eat with your food. However, in addition to this, a UC Davsd study found a dramatic difference in the nutritional levels in organic food (see Greenchefs article). Third, organic farming is also better for the environment, the soil, the water table, and the creatures in and around farms. You should choose organic whenever possible! Sources to check out about the benefits of organic are:
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Support Food Diversity
With the alarming news that corn and corn derivatives now account for somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of our food source (and even more of our food's food sources), it is time to revisit the idea of food diversity in our own diets and its importance to our survival as a species. Not only have many natural types of foods disappeared from our tables but, more threateningly, the plant gene pool is being eroded by loss of cultivation of diverse plant species. "In the United States alone, 63% of native American crop varieties have disappeared from cultivation since European arrival on this continent." (RAFT) Lack of genetic diversity within our major crops means that one pest or disease could wipe out a wignificant proportion of food overnight (see NYT article below). Thus, crop diversification is an important social goal whose pursuit is still primarily in the hands of small farmers. Support them! More information can be found at:
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Page in Process: More Suggestions Soon! |
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