Farm to Table

Seafood Delight

scleaver — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 13:16:42 -0400

For those of us who love a good sushi dinner or fried seafood platter, sustainable fishing is high on the list of sustainable farming practices to watch. Over at the Chocolate & Zucchini blog, fish were a hot topic this week. Apparently, because of overfishing, unsustainable fishing, overconsumption, and pollution, some fish species (including those that we like to eat) may be extinct by 2050.

How to address this?

Chocolate & Zucchini suggests becoming a more informed consumer—pick up a pocket seafood guide that you can refer to next time you sit down to dinner or stand in front of the fish counter. Here’s a regional guide from The Monterey Bay Aquarium.

I like the services from the Blue Ocean Institute. Find your favorite species to see sustainability and health concerns, or download a fish guide.

When you are shopping or dining out, don’t be afraid to ask questions, like, is this farmed? How was it caught? Where did this come from?

And, of course, the number one defense is a good offense, become better informed: Read more RiverWired posts about seafood and the environment: Sustainable seafood gained traction earlier this year, The Monterey Bay Aquarium is working to address seafood sustainability, and, earlier this year, Salmon were in trouble.

Photo from The Sydney Morning Herald about a wholesale fish market.

One Seed At A Time

scleaver — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:00:38 -0400

If you were hoping to save grandma’s heirloom tomato seeds for the next generation, get your seed packets ready. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is preparing to store copies of crops and other plants in a tunnel deep in a permafrost mountain. So far, according to Scientific American, the vault has 268,000 samples and can hold up to 4.3 million more. They’ll start accepting donations in February 2009.

There are other seed banks around the world, but the Svalbard will out-store them all. In response to concerns over what global warming and monoculture farming practices will do to the variety of our seeds, the vault will be able to withstand any natural disaster, war, and temperature, and can store duplicates of seeds as well. Which seeds would you save, and why?

Photo from Kitchen Gardeners International.

A Real Hamburger Helper

scleaver — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:54:55 -0400

Figuring out your food miles will get easier by October.

As the Chicago Tribune reported, starting September 30, a new federal law will require meat labels that show the country of origin on beef, pork, chicken, lamb, as well as fruits, veggies, and some nuts.

Country of Origin Labels (also known as COOL) will tell you whether the animal was raised in the U.S. or another country so you can identify food that comes from countries with safety concerns, or so you can keep your food dollars in the U.S. But, some labels may be more complicated than you realize: ground beef labels may have more than one country listed, because the process to make a hamburger requires meat from more than one country.

As COOL starts up, some (the USDA, the Consumers Union) are against the law either because it doesn’t cover enough (the Consumers Union) or because they think consumers will know too much and are concerned about cost (the USDA). We’ll see how the COOL labels play out, but in the meantime, how much information do you want on your meat label?

Photo from the Dvorak Uncensored blog.

Become a Tuesday-Tarian

scleaver — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

In the spirit of Tuesday-Tarianism (or Wednesday or Thursday-tarianism, whichever day you prefer to go meat-less), here are five ways to reduce your meat intake without feeling like there’s a hole on your dinner plate.

Increase variety as you decrease meat: Eat.Drink.Better.’s Robin Shreeves suggests filling a dinner plate with two vegetables (choose two different colors of veggie to make the plate more appealing), beans, pasta, and more, instead of the typical potato, meat, and one vegetable combination.
Expand your options: Vegetarian options (even tofu) don’t have to be bland and mushy. Consider when you can take meat out of the equation (a spicy Thai curry might not really need chicken) and when you absolutely must have it (for the annual grill-off).
Buy healthy meat: If you do buy meat, make sure it’s the good stuff. Organic, grass fed, free-range, meat from cows or chickens that are raised the way nature intended. It's a win-win: they’re happier while they’re running around the farm producing less harm to the environment, and they’re healthier on your plate.
Consider food miles: One way to know you’re reducing your carbon footprint, and that of your dinner, is to get your meat locally. Check out Eat Wild or The Eat Well Guide to find meat in your area.
Rethink what meat means to you: If it’s a garnish or a side dish instead of the main event, you’ll use a lot less. For more tips, see this blog post on grilling.

Photo from the From Whence It Came art project at Carnegie Mellon University taken from Neatorama.

Save The World One Day A Week

scleaver — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Have you had meat yet today? If you have, you might want to rethink tomorrow’s menu. According to South Africa's The Star newspaper, meat eaters’ diets are responsible for double the amount of emissions than vegetarian diets. Eat meat, said the Institute for Ecological Economy Research, and you’re responsible for producing the same amount of greenhouse gas as a mid-sized car 4,758 kilometers; a vegetarian would only have driven that car 2,427 kilometers.

Meat is so costly in terms of greenhouse gases because of the production methods, the methane produced at huge feed lots, transportation and habitat destruction. But, even as we learn just how costly our daily burgers are, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization thinks that meat consumption will double by 2050.

In response to this, according to Citizen Sugar, the non-profit World Farming wants governments to start campaigning to reduce meat eating by 60 percent by 2020. And, as Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests, making the easy change of going meat-free one day a week would make a huge difference. The meat industry thinks that they’re being unfairly targeted, but what do you think? Could you go meat free for a day?

Image of a 1947 American Meat Council ad from Plan59.

GMO Update

scleaver — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 16:24:16 -0400

On Wednesday, genetically modified foods giant Monsanto announced that’s selling its dairy hormone business. Apparently the earlier campaigns to stop the sale of milk from cows that had been given rBGH hormone (that’s a bovine growth hormone) have finally paid off. (For more about those campaigns: see past blog posts about growth hormones in cows and the milk label battle).

A spokeswoman for Monsanto refuses to admit that consumers forced the shift in strategy and insists that the sale of the hormone, called Posilac, was strong, but with Wal-Mart, Kroger, Publix, and Dean Foods all selling milk from hormone-free cows, the market share for hormone-laden milk must have been affected.

Anyway, Monsanto is now shifting gears to focus on the genetically modified seed market. Anyone ready to take on another cause?

For more information, read the New York Times or The Ethicurean coverage of the topic.

Photo from a Seed to Plate article about drinking organic milk.

Skirt The Law With A Herdshare

scleaver — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Raw, unpasteurized local milk illegal in your state? Still want to get a frothy cup of local milk each morning?

There may be a way around the raw milk laws—a herdshare. When you own the cow getting your raw milk isn’t illegal.

For example, Valerie Taylor with Eat. Drink. Better. is part of a herdshare. She owns 3/25 of Cinnamon, a Jersey cow, who lives on a local dairy farmer’s land and pays $50 per share. Each week she drives to the farm and picks up 3 gallons of milk, at $5.08 per gallon its getting to be a bargain.

The benefits of herdsharing: knowing that your milk comes from cows raised on pasture (instead of in huge, corn-fed barns) and without rBGH (bovine growth hormone). And, for some people, the benefit of drinking raw milk.

To make sure your herdshare is safe, buy milk from farms that are set up to produce it and learn more:

RealMilk.com has information about how to set up a legal herdshare, and raw milk farmers around the U.S.

Photo from Raw Milk Facts.

Help Cut Emissions In Half

scleaver — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 09:47:34 -0400

You, consumer, are the best way to reduce energy emissions caused by food production. Science Daily reported recently that 19 percent of the energy we use is used to produce and supply food—most of this energy comes from non-renewable sources (no surprise there). But, according to a study by David Pimentel and colleagues at Cornell University in New York, we could reduce fossil fuel use by 50 percent by changing what we eat.

Here are ways to reduce energy with the added bonus of reducing processed foods in your diet and improving your health:

Eat less. Right now the average American eats 1,200 to 1,500 calories more than recommended and those calories come from foods that take energy to produce—more meat and processed foods than vegetables and potatoes.
Eat organic. If farmers used traditional, organic farming methods, with fewer pesticides, and more crop rotations and cover crops, we’d improve energy efficiency on the supply-end.
Eat raw: Eating fewer processed foods could also add to fuel savings, as Science Daily put it, “the most dramatic reduction in energy used for food processing would come about if consumers reduced their demand for highly processed foods” from lighting the processing plants to transportation.

All this energy-friendly eating will boost your health too, need more reasons to eat organic: here they are.

(Originally taken from Fit Sugar.)

Photo from McVitamins.com.

The Core Truth

scleaver — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0400

We know eating organic fruits and vegetables is good for us, but sometimes, with rising food prices and all, it seems a little out of reach, especially when I can’t pinpoint what, exactly makes them so much better. Well, a new book Core Truths: Serving up the Science Behind Organic Agriculture explains just what makes organic foods healthier.

Here are Core Truths’ five main reasons to buy organic foods (from Eat. Drink. Better):

A toast to your health: Organic produce 30 percent higher levels of antioxidants compared to produce grown on conventional farms. Antioxidants have been found to help combat age-related diseases, and reduce risk of cancer and heart disease (Functional Foods Fact Sheet: Antioxidants).
Avoid pesticides: When you eat a piece of the vast majority of conventional produce—75 to 80 percent—you’re eating one or more pesticides. That percent jumps to 90 percent for apples, pears, peaches, and strawberries.
Help kids grow up healthy: Pesticides and chemical exposure can affect kids’ development, especially considering that kids typically receive a higher dose of chemicals in their diets—they weigh less and eat a relatively narrow diet.
The Yum factor: Studies are showing that the Organoleptic Quality (the sensory properties of a food) of organics are better—meaning they taste better. Case and point: from the book, “43 percent of consumers choosing organic food do so because of ‘better taste.’”
The Green factor: Organic farming uses less energy: “By increasing U.S. organic food consumption to 10 percent by 2010 we will eliminate 2.9 billion barrels of imported oil annually.”

So there you have it, from health to taste to reducing oil use. What’s in your produce bin?

Photo from The Organic Center.

Heirloom Tomatoes: Check Out the Best -- and Safest -- Varieties

scleaver — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0400

Tomatoes have gotten quite a bad rap this summer, what with all the salmonella scares. So, as a tomato lover, I was pleased to read some good news about one of my favorite foods.

In New Jersey, the original Jersey heirloom tomato the “Ramapo” is making a dramatic come back. As the New York Times reported, the Ramapo was first released in 1968 but was discontinued when it didn’t ship well. That prompted protest and increasing dissatisfaction with New Jersey’s tomatoes in the 80s and 90s. So, after decades of Ramapo-less frustration, this year, the Ramapo is finally back.

Heirloom tomatoes range from the glamorous Green Zebras, Brandywines, and Russian Blacks, in comparison, the Ramapo is a Plain Jane. It’s described in the Times as “nondescript” in the best form of the word, and as “a perfect balance of sweet and acrid.” As a rule, however, a garden full of Ramapos does produce a lot of fruit, which means more tomato sauce.

There’s lots more about tomatoes, including the Ramapo, at the Rutgers Agricultural Extension Service. What’s your favorite variety?

Photo of heirloom tomatoes from Cornell University.