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March 17, 2009

What's in your fridge?

Posted by Melissa Wilson at 01:25 PM ET | Comments (0)

If you're living in the suburbs, it's easy to hop in your Prius and drive to the closest mall parking lot-turned farmers market during the summer to pick up some locally-grown produce, but if you're one of the 13 million (ish) Canadians living in a large city, finding organic, locally-grown, real food can pose a bit of a challenge.

The foils of the ever-faltering economy (even Big Bird is not immune to layoffs) compound the issue further. As much as I would love to stock my fridge with organic, locally-grown green apples, my rigid grocery budget keeps me gnashing on whatever is ninety-nine cents a pound.

We all make our own concessions when it comes to eating properly. Some make hamburgers from scratch instead of downing McDonalds while others give in to potato chips once a week but never twice and never more than one serving. We all try to avoid the baddies, but no one is perfect.

Michael Pollan, author of the best-selling In Defense of Food, has made a career out of challenging the way we Westerners think about food. His food rules can be boiled down to the simple mantra: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. But of course, it's not always that simple, and his books explore the rule in further detail.

In a recent New York Times blog post, Pollan has reached out to the masses for a world's worth of cultural food rules.

"Will you send me a food rule you try to live by? Something perhaps passed down by your parents or grandparents? Or something you've come up with to tell your children--or yourself?

I will post your suggestions on my Web site and plan to include the best in a collection of food rules I'm now compiling."

So now I'm curious, BlogThis readers: what rules do you impose on yourself when it comes to food?

Some of my own rules loose guidelines for healthy eating:
- Don't eat food that isn't food (If Family Guy and the Simpsons have sketches about a snack cake that can survive a nuclear holocaust, I'm not touching it)
- Don't spend money on packaged food that I can make myself
- Don't eat food that has more ingredients than it should
- Don't buy lunch/dinner unless I am out with someone (Cutting eating out altogether will never work, but this significantly limits my intake of restaurant salts/fats/oils/etc. and saves me a ton of money)
- Whenever possible, substitute vegetables for meat
- If I make poutine at home from scratch, I don't have to feel guilty about eating it.

Some of my favourite replies from the comments to Pollan's request:
- Don't eat anything that comes in a krinkly bag
- If it needs a label, it may not be food
- Slow down. Your food isn't going anywhere.

In other thoroughly terrifying news, here's an article that details how French fries will kill you.

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

March 04, 2009

Bring it on, Spring! Seedy saturday events gaining ground

Posted by Anna Bowen at 01:32 PM ET | Comments (0)

It occurred to me that this retro CBC special from 1987 on organic farming could just about have been broadcast yesterday. Methods of organic farming, including building up the soil using compost and covercropping, remain essentially the same, and so does the message: keep it simple and local.

If you're a gardener or farmer, checking out seed catalogs can make it feel like the spring is coming just a little sooner. Hundreds of Canadian are spending a Saturday this February, March, or April attending one of dozens of "seedy Saturday" events across the country loosely affiliated by their interest in organic gardening know-how, heritage seeds, and seed saving. Checking out this site is a good start (though not comprehensive) for finding out about events in your area. For a review of Toronto's overly successful Seedy Saturday event this past weekend, see this Toronto Food&Drink review by Sheryl Kirby.

An article from the Guardian from last Thursday by Jane Perrone suggested that more people are getting into gardening in order to beat the credit crunch, enjoy the outdoors, or to reduce their carbon footprint. The article features the community of Todmorden, West Yorkshire, that has decided to become veggie self-sufficient by 2018. The community is setting up what is sometimes called edible landscaping in order to make use of every bit of soil.

If you're not comfortable with guerilla gardening, which is about as naughty as gardeners get (otherwise known as'illicit cultivation'), other options for urban ag this spring could include joining a community garden, finding an allotment garden, or pulling up a few patio stones if you're lucky enough to have them.

happy planting.

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

February 13, 2009

NYC goes for the 100 mile diet

Posted by Elaisha Stokes at 12:03 PM ET | Comments (0)

In a working paper published last week, Manhattan President Scott M. Stringer and a coalition of food activists called for the city to take further measure to ensure that New Yorkers have a economical, reliable and local food source during the current recession.

The Food in the Public Interest report [PDF link] called for the creation of a New York City Foodshed, in which farms located within a 100-200 mile radius of the city would receive preference and incentive from government food purchasers.

Borough President Stringer said, "Our food system in New York City needs a radical overhaul. Our stores are full of apples that come thousands of miles from New Zealand and Washington State, rather than hundreds of miles from New Paltz in Ulster County or Whitehall in Washington County, New York. Hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers live in 'food deserts' where there isn't enough fresh food; meanwhile, food prices are going through the roof, and yet thousands of eligible families cannot get food stamps."

New Yorkers spend an estimated $1 billion on groceries annually.

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

February 12, 2009

Food Freedom Day

Posted by Anna Bowen at 11:24 AM ET | Comments (0)

Today is "Food Freedom Day," February 12th, which marks the day of the year in 2009 on which the average Canadian will have earned enough dough to pay their grocery bill for the year. The day is certainly one of celebration and gratitude for the affordable and safe food that we can access across the country. It's also a day to mark the awareness that Canadians pay substantially less for their food than many other nations and that farmers take home a measly portion of the money that their products earn. The Canadian Federation of Agriculture writes, "Member countries within the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), on average, spend 8.3% more of their disposable income on food than Canadians." They also say, for example that "in 2005, a grain farmer received $0.07 for the corn in a box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes and $0.11 for the wheat in a loaf of bread."

One way to ensure that more money goes into the pockets of local farmers to buy seeds and tools for next season is to buy from your local farmer's market. Alternatively, joining a Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) group means that your pre-paid groceries are helping farmers with their start-up costs. This kind of arrangement can also have the added benefit of getting more connected to your food system by helping out with the harvest.

Image: THE SAVVY SOURCE

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

January 29, 2009

Reuse and Recall - thoughts on the food industry

Posted by Anna Bowen at 10:14 AM ET | Comments (0)

As an aspiring organic gardener/farmer, and a lover of good eats, I'm always taken in by news about food. I just want to explore three things here: biodiesel, peanuts, and corn syrup.

This morning it was reported that Calgary is thinking about manufacturing biodiesel for city busses out of beef tallow. The idea is that if the fuel is coming from cows, it's not coming from the fields -- a critique of much of the biodiesel innovations these days. Just the fact that there is enough beef tallow lying around is enough to make you look twice at your burger, but I suppose using all the parts of the animal is something I can get behind. Still other companies are using chicken fat and other leftover animal junk for fuel.

I am totally into alternative sources of fuel, but when we're resorting to the use of cows, the blubber from barnyard foul, and corn to fuel our transportation needs, it's always good to point out that we need to balance reducing our dependency on fuel with looking for alternative sources.

Yesterday, the US recalled masses of peanuts in a salmonella scare, after reports say that eight people have died of salmonella poisoning related to the nutbutter. Authorities have traced the scare back to The Peanut Corporation of America plant in Georgia. Apparently, this is one of the largest food recalls in American history.

If you're wondering how peanuts get salmonella (wait isn't salmonella just in raw chicken juice?) you're not alone. Patty Lovera, Assistant Director of Food & Water Watch, reports that salmonella sometimes gets into plants by leaking through roofs or from animal products being applied to fields (ok, manure, that's organic, isn't it?)

More interesting still, Democracy Now reports today that high fructose corn syrup, used to sweeten everything from jellyrolls to chocolate sauce, has been found to contain traces of mercury. I'm not suggesting that we need to stop buying fruit cups and cocopuffs, but the way that our food industry is streamlined amazes me. To get a grip on the proliferation of corn in our diets, I've heard nothing but praise for Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma

More entries on: Food Security and Agriculture

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