Vert-à-Go

I confess that I do struggle against climate dread. Any new news about the environment is very seldom good news, and it is demoralising beyond belief to walk home from the farmers’ market with a bag of locally-grown organic food, only to be blown past by someone chucking a McDonald’s wrapper out of the window of their Hummer.

But we can’t sit around and do nothing, even if somewhere out there our evil twin is itching to replace every ounce of carbon that we struggle not to emit. And the food that we choose to eat can make a real and instant difference to our ecological impact. It’s important to educate yourself about what is in the food you eat, where it comes from, how it is produced, and what impact it has on your health, the people who grow it, the animals who provide it, and the environment. As Wendell Barry puts it, “Eating is an agricultural act.” We need to pay attention to our food, not just be mindless consumers.

Here are a dozen things you can do right now to radically reduce your food footprint. Most of them will save you money and improve your health, too!

1. Eat less meat

2. Grow some food to eat this year

3. Eat seasonal, locally-produced food

4. Eat organic food, preferably locally-produced

5. Choose fair trade food products

6. Only eat fish and seafood from safe and sustainable fisheries

8. Reduce your consumption of industrially-produced/processed/fast food

7. Walk, bike, bus or carpool to the store, market, or restaurant

9. Plan your meals ahead and keep track of leftovers to avoid food waste

10. Drink tap water, not bottled water, and don’t forget the carbon/water footprint of other drinks too

11. Compost your food waste

12. Use more energy-efficient ways to cook your food

…and check out Reiko’s Bento Lab–-just because I guarantee it will make you smile!

(this post is mostly a rerun–but it still says everything that I want to say. Happy Earth Day!)

The very first meeting of the parliamentary sub-committee dealing with food safety in Canada has ground to a halt because of a Conservative filibuster.

The Conservatives on the committee objected to an NDP amendment, which proposed adding more meetings to the committee’s schedule and which would also limit it to examining last summer’s deadly listeriosis outbreak. Tory MP David Anderson then got up and spoke for over half of this Wednesday’s meeting, while Conservative committee chair Larry Miller denied repeated opposition requests for Anderson to sit down:

Anderson defended his tactic after the meeting: “We wanted to work with these folks. This is a very serious issue. It seems like they’re playing games with this, and we’re not prepared to do that.”

But New Democrat MP Malcolm Allen, who proposed the amendment, scoffed at that.

“If we wanted to do the work, Mr. Anderson wouldn’t have filibustered for the last hour and fifteen minutes,” Allen said.

Opposition MPs noted there are already 47 names on the proposed witness list, and they argued there isn’t enough time to hear them all unless more meetings are scheduled.

Miller said it’s doubtful Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz–who is expected to face tough questions over his handling of the outbreak–will appear as scheduled next Tuesday.

Miller added it’s not clear when Ritz’s schedule will next allow him to be there. (Canadian Press)

Canadians need to tell Stephen Harper to put a stop to the political game-playing and let the committee get on with the vital work of ensuring a safe food supply. Food Safety First (the action campaign started by Canada’s food inspectors) has a sample email that you can send:

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

Perhaps you don’t know that your MPs on the food safety committee hijacked the very first meeting and prevented the committee from getting anything done.

I hope you agree that playing politics with food safety – as your MPs have done – is despicable.  I urge you to order the Conservative MPs to allow the committee to do its work, and quickly.

Please get back to assure me that you do not condone the behaviour of the Conservative MPs that prevented the committee from getting on with the job of making our food system safer.  I’d also like to know what you have done to ensure the committee can get on with its work.

Yours sincerely,

YOUR NAME HERE

Let Prime Minister Harper know that you care about ensuring a safe food supply and the 21 people who died from eating contaminated meat last year.

Today, 22 March, is the United Nations’ World Water Day. This year’s theme deals with transboundary water–the lakes and rivers that cross political and geographical borders. This theme is a timely reminder that when it comes to water, we’re all in the same boat. We all need it every day, and we’re all vulnerable to the same problems that can affect our water supply: drought (as climate change reduces snowpack and rainfall) and contamination (by factories, transportation, agriculture, and individuals). We may live on a large and  (for now) seemingly abundant river here in Saskatoon, but that water has to travel a long way to get to us. What happens if and when something happens to the water supply upstream? Forget oil–it’s a water shortage that’s the real concern.

Most Canadians take clean and easily accessible drinking water for granted. But worldwide, 1 in 7 people do not have access to safe drinking water, and a child dies every 8 seconds from drinking contaminated water. It’s not just a problem in developing countries, however. No one is immune from the dangers of unclean water, as the deaths and illnesses in Walkerton and North Battleford tragically demonstrated. Last April there were nearly 1,900 “boil water” advisories in place in small communities across Canada. First Nations communities in particular are vulnerable to contaminated water supplies, due to environmental pollution and lack of proper treatment facilities.

Water supplies are also a giant concern. Although the earth is covered water, most of it is salty and only 1% of it is fit for drinking. Canada has a large share of the world’s fresh water, but we are also gluttons when it comes to water usage. The average Canadian uses an average of 329 litres of water per person per day, which is twice as much as Europeans. In Mozambique, the average person uses 1.3 litres of water per day–that’s less than one flush from a low-flow toilet. We seem to think that we can simply go on using as much as we like of it while dumping whatever we like into it (chemicals, fertilisers, animal waste, and other pollutants) and that it will just keep flowing, clean and pure, from the tap indefinitely. This is a profoundly deluded viewpoint, and it will come back to haunt future generations unless we smarten up and start treating water as the incredibly precious resource that it is.

Here are some links/petitions/events to help you learn more about the ‘hidden water’ you’re consuming, and which can also help you to reduce your water consumption:

• GOOD magazine’s illuminating table of typical daily water usage can show you exactly how you can cut your water footprint. Hint: pick chicken much more often than beef, and grains and vegetables much more often than meat.
• Waterfootprint.org can help you calculate your personal water footprint, and also features a product gallery showing how much water goes into what, complete with case studies.
• Inside The Bottle, a campaign against bottled water, is asking you to sign a petition today supporting public water systems in Canada and around the world. Pour yourself a glass and count yourself in as one of the many people who are choosing tap water over bottled, which is more expensive and uses far more energy and resources to produce.
• Core Neighbourhood Youth Co-op sells rain barrels–catching rain water for your garden can make a really satisfying dent in your summer water bill.
• Rethink that trip to Las Vegas–Lake Mead could be within a few years of going dry, which could literally leave Las Vegas high and dry (and Los Angeles too).
• Oxfam Saskatoon is showing two films on Tuesday, 24 March in honour of World Water Day–Sisters of the Planet and Refugees of the Blue Planet. These films will be shown from 2-4pm at the Neatby-Timlin Theatre (Arts 241) at the University of Saskatchewan.

“Do you know where I could find pork products that are natural…from happy pigs, etc?”

- Rachel, Saskatoon

I am not a fan of the way most pigs are treated to provide grocery stores with quantities of pork. Permanently confined in a windowless smelly building on hard bare floors in cramped conditions, large-scale pig barns certainly do not allow pigs to express their “pigness”, as Joel Salatin would say. It is a cruel way to raise these animals, who would spend their time foraging and rooting if left to their own devices. I also found, when I used to buy it years ago, that grocery store pork often had a nasty backtaste to it–to me, it sometimes smelled (and seemed to taste) like a pig barn! I now buy my pork from Pine View Farms. It has a wonderful flavour with none of that taste. They don’t raise the pigs themselves on their own farm, but sub-contract out to another farmer near Hague, who raises them in small numbers on straw:

“Our hogs are raised according our All Natural protocol. No antibiotics, growth hormones or animal byproducts are fed or administered. We do not use gestation crates, sows roam free and farrow in birthing pens on straw. The feeder pigs can roam around outside and root in deep straw to satisfy their natural instincts.” –Pine View Farms web site

We usually buy a side of pork from them at a time, but there are a number of retailers in town who sell their products. Steep Hill Co-op usually has chops, bacon, and ground pork. Their bacon and chops are available at Dad’s Nutrition Centre, as well as their mild Italian and chorizo sausage. Greystone and Attridge Co-ops also stock Pine View pork (cuts will vary). It is cheaper to buy directly from Pine View Farms, however. You can go out to the farm store, or they will also deliver to your house for a flat fee of $18/order. I have combined an order for friends in the past, which saves on time and gas for everybody.

There will soon be another option for pork raised to ‘beyond organic’ standards in the Saskatoon area: Lori Walldner, a former organic producer of pastured livestock, is now marketing a variety of food products by organic fellow-farmers ranging from meat and eggs to grains and (coming this summer) vegetables. She expects to have pork available in March–I’ll post again on her other products when I have more information (I’m also double-checking a longer list of Saskatchewan producers and suppliers and will add it when it’s done).

Naturally and/or organically-raised pork (Saskatoon area)

Pine View Farms ph: (306) 239-4763

Lori Walldner ph:(306) 955-8402

photo by Speshul Ted

With only 13 days to go, most of the turkeys destined for the Christmas dinner table have already been dispatched and are in the freezer (or have been presold as fresh and will be butchered a few days before the 25th). Their time on earth is done–but you can help ensure that future turkeys will enjoy a better quality of life by buying a bird that was raised in a humane fashion this Christmas.

Just as with other factory farm-produced livestock, turkeys generally suffer crowded and extremely unpleasant living conditions. Most will have no more than 2sq feet of standing room, and they are usually kept in virtual darkness to reduce aggression. Turkeys are debeaked to reduce cannibalism caused by crowded quarters or improper food rations, but also often have their snoods (the upper part of the wattle that lies across the beak) removed, which is an extremely painful procedure. Despite this, pecking is still a problem and many are blinded. Their litter is often not changed during their time in the barns, and because they do not scratch like chickens do, it quickly becomes fouled and can cause respiratory problems and foot ulcerations. These ulcers often result in lameness, which is further exacerbated because they have been bred and fed to grow so quickly that their immature joints and muscles cannot support their own weight. Slaughter conditions are also usually far from ideal. For more information, see the Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals turkey factsheet.

So how can you help? Try taking the Turkey Challenge–buy a turkey that has been raised organically (or naturally), and that has had as much time free-range as possible. This year, I got our turkey from Mason’s Family Farm near Kenaston. Their main emphasis is still their fantastic U-cut Christmas trees, but they have started selling a few locally-produced food products too (including Petrofka Bridge Orchard’s yummy apple cider and sour cherry chocolates). Their frozen turkeys, which are $3/lb and weigh in at about 16-20lbs, were raised for them by neighbours and enjoyed a lot of time outdoors as well as a nicely varied diet (they particularly liked sprouts and watermelon!). Supplies are limited, so call (306-544-2734) or email Bob or Cora to check availability before you head out.

Pine View Farms has already pre-sold all of its fresh farm-gate turkeys, but will be providing Prairie Meats, the Co-Op, Dad’s Nutrition Centre, and Bulk Cheese Warehouse with frozen birds (you may want to call ahead to check when and what is available).

Steep Hill Co-Op also passed along details of a woman who is selling organic turkeys for $50–call Crystal on 306-246-2100.

Please let me know if you know of any other sources!

Today was Stop Climate Chaos Day–a day of action coinciding with the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland. Events took place across the country and across the world, spearheaded by an umbrella group of organisations ranging from the Sierra Club, Oxfam, the World Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace, and Unicef. But it wasn’t all about marches and speeches. Organisers also urged supporters to hold potlucks and write letters to the editor to show solidarity and get the word out about the need for action to decrease the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to 350 parts per million. Because the personal is also political, I cooked one of our favourite vegetarian dinners in honour of the day. In September, the UN declared that people living in the west could make a big contribution toward fighting climate change by eating less meat. It has been estimated that halving the average person’s meat consumption would make a bigger difference to CO2 emissions than cutting their car use in half.

I sometimes have difficulty balancing a vegetarian meal so that I don’t feel like I need to eat a bowl of pasta as big as my head to feel full. In my opinion, the true star of the vegetarian world is the humble lentil. Lentils are not only high in protein and fibre–they are also an excellent source of iron (80% of your daily dose in just one cup), magnesium, tryptophan, and folate. When you serve them wiith rice, they become a complete source of protein. They are therefore an excellent meat-free main dish that will leave everyone satisfied.

Monastery lentils have become my go-to dish on busy weeknights and I probably make it once a week. As you might infer from the recipe’s name, it has the added bonus of being incredibly easy to prepare as well as being extremely economical, hearty, and yummy (I think you could easily feed 4 people for about a dollar apiece). You can also easily substitute dried local lentils, homemade stock, or frozen tomatoes for the canned variety, thereby reducing both the sodium content (and its food miles/climate impact) even further.

Monastery Lentils (with thanks to Sam)

• 1 - 14oz can lentils
• 1 - 14oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 can (or 1 cup) vegetable/chicken stock
• splash of cooking sherry
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 celery sticks (if large), sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 2 carrots (if large), sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Italian seasoning (I used dried oregano, parsley, and thyme)
• 1 Tb olive oil

In a large pot, saute the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, and dried seasonings in a tablespoon (or thereabouts) of olive oil until softened. In the meantime, add the lentils, tomatoes, chicken stock, and sherry to a medium-sized pot and bring to a simmer. Add the lentil mixture to the vegetables, bring to a boil, and simmer for about half an hour. Check whether you need to add salt and pepper, then serve on boiled/steamed rice. A small sprinkling of shredded white cheddar cheese is nice on top. I also like a dill pickle on the side.

Serves 4

For more great lentil (and other pulse) recipes, including some by celebrity chefs, check out the Saskatchewan Pulse Growers web site–you can also sign up there to get onto a monthly email recipe mailing list, or buy a copy of their excellent cookbook The Amazing Legume. Saskatchewan farmers grow a lot of lentils, and it would be terrific if everyone in the province ate them at least once a week!

“We still (sometimes) remember that we cannot be free if our minds and voices are controlled by someone else. But we have neglected to understand that we cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free.”

- Wendell Berry, “The Pleasures of Eating” from What Are People For?

One of the main reasons I decided to grow tomatillos for the first time this spring was because of the incredible tomatillo corn chowder I tried at my sister’s house last year. I simply could not get it out of my head! It is the finest soup I have ever tasted–spicy and profoundly satisfying. It is hearty enough to enjoy on its own for supper with bread, but unusual and sophisticated enough that you could happily serve it at a winter dinner party.

I harvested about 8lbs of tomatillos from my two plants this autumn, so I decided to make a double batch of this soup and stick some away in the freezer. I have to admit that it was a bit of a production–between making a huge cauldron of stock from scratch, assembling the mountain of ingredients, and preparing and roasting the vegetables, it definitely turned into an on-and-off weekend project. But don’t let that scare you off! It is *so* worth the effort in the end.

While my hands were busy gathering and preparing the ingredients (you’d be surprised how long it takes to remove the husks from 8lbs of tomatillos), I had quite a lot of free time to think about what I was making. And it struck me that this soup is actually a pretty accurate microcosm of the modern-day food production and distribution system. The ingredients came from all over the world, via a wide variety of sources, and I found that each and every one prompted a thorny question or decision. What kind of food should I buy? Where should I buy it and how much should I pay? What about growing my own? What impact do my choices have on the environment, and my health, and even the well-being of farm workers living halfway around the world? It’s important to ask these questions and consider these issues so that we don’t simply remain passive consumers of whatever some multinational corporation decides to dish out to us. We must take responsibility for what we eat.

Let’s have a look at the ingredients in detail:

• Chicken stock: I made this myself, from a local free-range bird (using mainly local vegetables, but the organic grocery store celery was imported from California). Free-range/naturally-raised animals generally have a happier existence than their factory farm counterparts, and their environmental impact is lower. But a vegetarian meal usually has a far smaller carbon footprint than a meat-based meal and should be our first choice.

• Anaheim chilies: I got the last 3 of Grandora’s Christmas bell peppers at the farmers’ market, and that  was it for their fresh hot peppers for the year–so I had to buy another 7 conventionally-grown Mexican Anaheims from the grocery store. If I’d gotten organised to make the soup earlier in the autumn, I could have used all seasonal local ingredients instead of 70% imported.

• Tomatillos: I grew these myself in the back garden, picked them and put them into a cool room in the basement. Sadly, I didn’t deal with them fast enough and wound up losing about half of them to spoilage. I was so annoyed with myself. Expending all that energy to grow them, only to throw half on the compost pile? It was such an unnecessary waste of food–something that I’ve otherwise worked really hard to avoid over the past year. But have a look in a supermarket or restaurant’s dumpster and you’ll see that this kind of waste is part and parcel of our profligate food production and distribution system. This waste meant a lot more to me personally because I was the one who had grown it in the first place, and I’ve vowed it won’t happen again.

• Vegetable oil: I used canola oil here. But canola is a huge can of worms–83% of canola now grown on the Canadian prairies is genetically modified. Its proponents say it gives them better yields and helps them use fewer herbicides. But these GM crop varieties are also completely controlled by Monsanto, which is hyper-protective of its babies. Regardless of any benefits from a particular GM variety, I feel incredibly uneasy about the advisability of handing over such a huge amount of control over food production to a corporation: “an entity whose legally-defined mandate is to pursue relentlessly and without exception its own economic self-interest, regardless of the harmful consequences it might cause to others”–especially when their market dominance virtually crowds out any other non-GM variety from being grown.

• Onion: I used the last local onion I had, and one that the grocery store advertises as local, but which comes from at least 300 miles away. A supermarket’s definition of ‘local’ (or ‘organic’) is likely quite a bit different than yours.

• Garlic: I used one local bulb that I had on hand, and the remainder came from a jar of minced roasted garlic that I bought earlier this year because it said ‘Product of Canada’. I only later discovered that this likely means the garlic itself was grown in China (like most fresh bulbs in the grocery store) and then imported to Canada for bottling. Food origin labels don’t always tell the whole story about where something came from.

• Salt: I generally use Sifto salt, which comes from the mine in Unity, Saskatchewan. I must say I felt a tiny (if not entirely commendable) twinge of schadenfreude while reading The 100 Mile Diet, where BC-dwelling locavores Alisa Smith and J B MacKinnon bemoan the lack of proper flour and salt during their year-long experiment with local-only eating. We might not have peaches in Saskatchewan, but at least I’m not eating weevil-infested wheat! We should be aware of (and be grateful for) our local food specialties.

• Ground coriander: I’m working on a bag I bought at the supermarket many moons ago. Mysteriously, large quantities of bagged spices in the international food section often cost *way* less money than the tiny bottles found in the spice aisle. You can also often find superior quality rice at a specialty Asian market, or a get a much better deal on locally-produced organic flax seed at the SaskMade Marketplace. Despite their boasts, supermarkets don’t always offer the best value and it pays to shop around to get the most out of your food budget.

• Oregano: If I had made the soup earlier in the autumn, I could have got fresh local oregano at the market, but it was now finished. Usually I would use dried in this situation, but the recipe said the fresh herb was essential, so I bought organic oregano sealed in a plastic box and imported from California. The plastic packaging (which can only go in the garbage here unless you pay for curbside recycling services), as well as the amount of energy required to ship such a highly perishable food all the way here without it rotting in transit, really made me shudder (as did the fact that part of it was already dark and withering and I had to end up composting half of it).

• Jalapeno peppers: fresh from my garden. I picked them in late September or early October, and they kept for a month and a half in the fridge. I’d like to see a grocery store pepper beat the refrigerator shelf life of home-grown produce!

• Potatoes: I bought local organically-grown potatoes. Potatoes rank number 12 in a list of of fruits and vegetables that are most often treated with pesticides/fungicides during commercial production. Pesticide/fungicide residue on food is common, and many of these chemicals are extremely harmful to human health and contaminate the environment. We can and should grow food using more sustainable methods and reduce chemical use wherever possible.

• Corn: I used frozen corn from the grocery store. I generally prefer frozen corn to canned, partly because most canned food comes in tins lined with bisphenol A. If I had been more on the ball, I might have frozen my own corn kernels from cobs from the farmers’ market to use later on, but it’s quite a lot of work. Sometimes you really just want someone else to do the processing work for you.

• Cream: I generally buy all my milk from Dairyland, which is processed here in Saskatoon (Beatrice and Lucerne products likely come from their milk processing plants in Edmonton). Why ship milk from local dairies hundreds of miles away, put it in cartons, and then ship it all the way back here again? I’m sure Dairyland is bringing in milk from far away as well, but I still don’t think it hurts to support local food producers and processing facilities.

• Black pepper: I buy my peppercorns from the Orchard del Sol farm in Costa Rica, which emphasises ethical and ecologically sustainable farming methods (including fair worker wages). Many luxury crops such as coffee, cocoa, and spices give huge profits to landowners and corporations at a terrible cost to workers and the local environment. Fair trade, organic, shade-grown products are the most responsible consumer choice–buying them wherever possible creates pressure on ‘conventional’ growers to smarten up and improve their farming methods.

Round the world and home again for tomatillo soup

• 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 5 Anaheim chilies (or whatever chili/pepper you have on hand)
• 1.5 lbs tomatillos
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 yellow onion (diced)
• 10 garlic cloves (minced)
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 3 Tbsp minced oregano (important that it’s fresh! This makes the soup)
• 4 jalapeno peppers (seeded and minced)
• 2 medium Yukon Gold potatoes (diced)
• 3 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
• 1 cup cream or half and half
• 1 tsp cracked black pepper
• Garnish: chopped cilantro and sliced green onion (optional)

Heat the stock and keep it warm while assembling the soup. Preheat oven to 400F.

Halve and seed chiles. Remove husks from tomatillos, rinse, and dry. In a large bowl, toss the tomatillos and chilies with a little olive oil so they are lightly coated. Place on a baking sheet and roast until the tomatillo and chili skins are slightly charred (15-20 minutes). Dice the chilies and roughly chop the tomatillos. Set aside.

In a soup pot over medium-high heat, heat the oil and sauté onion until translucent. Stir in garlic, 1 tsp salt, coriander, minced oregano and sauté until golden-ish.

Add the jalapenos, potato, and remaining salt (1 tsp) and stir to combine. Sauté for several minutes, then pour in warm stock to cover. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer until the potatoes are tender.

Add the corn, chilies, and tomatillos; simmer 10 minutes. Slowly add cream and more stock to thin if necessary (don’t let it boil). Simmer and season with salt and cracked pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro and green onions just before serving.

*This soup freezes well, but reheat it slowly so cream doesn’t separate.*

Serves 8-10

Face the Fear is a series about a dozen things that you can do right now to feel better about what and how you eat.

(photo by Amanda Kelso)

Here’s a fact you might find surprising: how much meat you eat can have the biggest single impact on your personal carbon emissions. That’s right–not your car, not your trip to Mexico, not your house–but your steak.

Meat is one of the most energy-intensive and resource-guzzling foods around. It takes about 2kg of grain to produce 1kg of chicken, 4kg of grain to produce 1kg of pork, and 7kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef. At a time when grain is in short supply around the world, it is very hard to justify continuing to eat the Canadian average of just over 6oz of meat per day.

Here’s a quick indicator of meat’s impact: if Americans, who eat about 8oz meat/day, were to reduce their consumption by a mere 20% (less than one meat-based meal per week), it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as if every car-owner in the States switched from a standard sedan to a Prius.

Industrially-farmed meat–that is, what you usually find in the grocery store–is particularly hard on the environment:

• It takes 8 times as much fossil-fuel energy to produce animal protein as plant protein.
• It takes 3,900 litres of water to produce 1kg of chicken, 4,800 litres of water to produce 1kg of pork, and 15,500 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.
• 40kg of water- and air-polluting animal waste is created for every 1kg of industrially-produced beef.

By eschewing meat altogether, eating smaller quantities of meat less often, or choosing chicken, lamb, or pork more often than beef, you can cut your carbon emissions dramatically. It will also conserve massive quantities of water, reduce environmental pollution, and free up acreage to grow food for people, not animals. Obviously, some land and some plants/grains are suited only for supporting animals, but I’m not talking about getting rid of livestock full stop–just reducing the excessive and unnecessary consumption of meat that puts huge stresses on the planet and the majority of its poorer inhabitants. Most of our grandparents certainly thought of meat as a treat, and we should too.

You can further improve the environmental impact of your chicken breast or pork chop by avoiding factory-farmed meat and choosing high-quality meat from small-scale local farmers which has been naturally or organically-raised. These animals are raised in much more humane conditions and it shows in the taste. This meat may be more expensive than the dirt-cheap grocery store option, but we have seen again and again that we simply cannot afford to cut corners with meat production. When rock bottom prices become the chief priority for food manufacturers and consumers, can we really be suprised when they start selling us garbage?

I must confess that I just like meat, and I used to eat it pretty much every day. But I stopped buying it at the grocery store quite some time ago after having not just one, but two, bulk packages of hamburger recalled because of suspected e.coli contamination. I had also read Fast Food Nation and was completely horrified to learn how animals were raised, slaughtered, and processed in the industrial meat system. Furthermore, I was living in England during the BSE crisis. As a consequence, I can’t donate blood in Canada and have a small but persistent fear about how long the incubation period for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) might turn out to be. I now buy meat solely from local farmers and ranchers, and it tastes how the chicken and the beef we used to raise on the farm used to taste.

In the past year I have tried to stick to a meat/vegetarian daily meal rotation, which has reduced my consumption by 50%. I’d like to reduce it even further–although I vividly remember the time that I decided to give up meat entirely when living in London, and by day 3, thought I was going completely insane. Despite huge quantities of plant protein and nuts, I was completely irritable, tearful, and felt utterly on the verge of collapse. Finally, in exasperation, one of my co-workers said to me, ‘For god’s sake, Sue, just go out and get a bacon sandwich!!’ I’m rather sorry to say that it completely did the trick and I have not attempted to go that long without some kind of animal protein again.

Further reading:

• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bitten

(photo by Neil Wilkinson)

Here’s a quick round-up of five of the most fascinating food issue articles I’ve read lately:

Our personal actions to halt climate change can sometimes seem depressingly insignificant, says Michael Pollan in the New York Times. But the best way to start is to grow some–even just a little–of your own food. (registration required)

Genetically modified crops are not the solutions to world hunger that Monsanto claims they are, says The Independent. In fact, a major study has found that GM soyabeans produce 10% less food than their non-GM counterparts.

George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian, says never mind the credit crunch–the real crisis is global hunger. And if you care about it, eat less meat.

Forget carbon: you should be checking your water footprint, says Amol Rajan in The Independent. A new Dutch web site, waterfootprint.org, can help you work out how much water is used to grow, manufacture, and transport common foods and products.

Japan is a market pioneer again–it’s the first industrialised nation to run out of butter. This surprising shortage proves that even wealthy countries are not immune from the issues of self-sufficiency and food security, says Leo Lewis in the Times of London.