Eating Green for Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

The old adage "Reduce-Reuse-Recycle" is still as important as ever, but more and more people are considering the powerful effects our food choices have on the earth as well.

Ten Things You Can Do To Eat Green

1. Eat Local. Local foods are high in flavor as well as "low carb"- low in carbon emissions.
   
2. Buy Organic. Not just for the birds and the bees; our entire ecosystem (ourselves included) benefits from responsible agriculture.
3. Grow your own food. In your garden you can plant heirloom seeds, grow them organically, and eat them quite locally in your own backyard.
   
4. Eat less meat. Feed lot meat is carbon-intensive. Go grass fed or vegetarian.
   
5. Cook more often. Make more time to be in the kitchen. Highly processed and packaged foods take a lot of energy to make and transport.
   
6. Compost. Take your food scraps out of the landfill and turn them into "black gold" for your garden.
   
7. Bag it yourself. Instant karma. Bring bags with you when you shop.
   
8. Pay more, eat less. Consider paying a higher percentage of your income on food. Food insecurity is a real issue in many households in this country and the world beyond. However, we spend less time working to get food on our plates than ever before in history. (Is that cable t.v more important than the organic milk?)
9. Plan ahead. From packing a lunch to preserving apples, planning ahead can help you avoid buying energy intensive convenience foods that you don't really want.
   
10. Educate. Share meals and ideas. Request local, organic, and sustainable foods at your favorite restaurants and grocery stores.

Rediscover Real Food

Local eating offers many choices for sustainable nutrition. The following is from an article I contributed to Milwaukee's Live Local campaign newsletter, Vol 1...

As we unfurl from our wintry hibernation, our senses take in the sights and sounds of spring: birds singing, ice melting, trees budding, sap flowing... life is asserting itself. The awakening season provides us inspiration to reflect on the source of our food. Do we enjoy regional cuisine, grown by people we know, or are we eating anonymous, industrialized food?

There are so many reasons to eat local: smaller carbon footprint, support of the local economy, and strong community to name a few. But also important is the unavoidably intimate truth that we become what we eat. Thus our relationship with food and its origins deserves attention.

Spring is a time of new beginnings. Fiddleheads, wild ramps, violets, asparagus, spring greens, morels all make their emergence in the hills and waysides. Streams run high with trout, wild turkey season opens... and for those of us who hunt or gather for our food in supermarkets, we can certainly enjoy some local flavors while we wait for the season to unfold and plan our local eating for the year ahead. As demand grows, local markets stock more and more Wisconsin products, such as cheeses and preserves, so they are available year round. The local food movement is growing by leaps and bounds in Milwaukee and beyond.

Bottom Line:
Learning about local eating in your area can benefit your health and your community. For more information, visit the websites EatLocalMilwaukee and LiveLocalMilwaukee. For national information, try the 100-mile Diet, Food Routes, the Sustainable Table, Slow Food USA, or Local Harvest.

Finding Sustainable Seafood

Chinook salmon are joining the increasingly long list of fish at risk for extinction. The article Chinook Salmon Vanish without a Trace explores why the Pacific Salmon season is likely to be closed for this year.

Due to several colliding factors, salmon can not keep up with the high demand for one of the most often recommended sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

It's a familiar scenario; throughout the world many fish stocks are being depleted at an alarming rate. And much of our available fish contain unsafe levels of toxins. For much of the population, it is unsafe to regularly eat old standbys like tunafish anymore.

Farmed fish are not necessarily the answer. These fish have varying levels of omega 3’s depending on what they are fed as well as varying toxins depending on where & how they are raised. Farmed fisheries are also suspect for putting the wild fish population in danger when they escape; introducing weaknesses into the gene pool.

Obviously we need to do our part to preserve this precious resource, but how do we make sustainable seafood choices?

Luckily, others have done much of the work for us. The Environmental Defense Fund has created a free, online resource and printable pocket brochure that is available here to help us navigate some of these very issues. (I've used the brochures in cooking classes and with clients and have gotten good responses.)

Other options exist. Fish get there omega-3’s from algae, and though our bodies are not efficient at converting the shorter chained omega-3’s (like the ALA found in plants) into the longer chain omega 3's (like the DHA found in fish), we can also get omega 3's from plant foods. Flax, walnuts, pumpkin seeds and thier respective oils are all good sources of omega 3 fatty acids. Also consider that eating grass fed animal products (like grass fed meat, milk, eggs, and dairy) can be an important source of dietary omega 3's. The animals naturally convert the grass into healthful nutrients. Eatwild.com is a great resource for sourcing grass fed animal products.

Bottom Line
Choose your fish wisely to preserve fish-stocks for generations to come and to avoid eating too much mercury or PCBs. And look for other sources of omega 3 fatty acids to include in your diet as often as possible.