I have a confession, food and eating are dear to my heart (and stomach), not to mention, somewhat of an obsession. Perhaps it all started with my mother's homemade whole wheat bread back in the fifties. We never, I mean never, bought bread when I was a child. On special occasions Mom would make white bread or sticky-buns much to everyone's delight. All this home-baked business had a somewhat surprising effect on my older sister. It made store-bought bread, especially that white, squishy, air-filled stuff seem exotic. She frequently got other kids to trade one of her wholesome, home-baked bread sandwiches for ones made with the store-bought stuff!
Anyway I didn't fall far from the tree, except that when I was 45 I discovered that I was mildly wheat intolerant, so I no longer eat wheat or anything made with wheat flour, whole or white. Plus, these days, you can get such great whole grain breads of many sorts, that who bakes anything anymore?! Well, I do, whenever I get the chance, which isn't that often, because you can't get great non-wheat baked goods, though even that is changing.
My kids have grown up on home cooked food, which over the last 10 years has been increasingly organic and now local. But, just in the interests of complete disclosure, we do love to eat out or order out and we happen to have some great moderately priced restaurants within two blocks of our house! But it hasn't always been easy to get my husbands approval of this particularly because of the expense involved.
Fortunately along with being a cheapskate or frugal, my husband also likes to be well informed and loves to read; Consumer Reports is OK by him. Several years ago I read their take on organic produce. Although they recommended buying organic whenever possible because of its positive effect on the environment, not too mention that it tastes better and is better for you. However, because, organic food was not that easy to get and expensive they did some research and found that pesticides could be washed off virtually all fruits and vegetables with just soap and water. Just taking the time to wash them reduced the pesticide by up to 99%.
So, back to the footprint thing. Think oil; not cooking oil, but the black stuff that currently cost $200 a barrel. Although fertilizer is not made from petroleum as is commonly thought (its made from petroleum's twin, natural gas.) Even so, all the machines used in large scale farming production use diesel petroleum: plows, planters, harvesters, and also the enormous amount of water used is pumped by machines that use diesel. Then there are the trucks and the refrigeration needed to bring it all to us, both use lots of petroleum as well.[2]
Now, on top of that, all food prices are soaring because of the commodities speculators(who are making a killing while poverty stricken populations are starving and rioting over food prices). As far as I can tell this is due to the rush to use food- mostly corn- for fuel! Its all really too much to think about- but I can't help myself!
Here's what I recommend: "Eat Food. Not to much. Mostly plants." This is deceptively simple. First of all much of what gets packaged and sold to us isn't really food. Its chemicals and food additives. Its better for your health and the health of the planet to avoid all those non-foods. This unfortunately means not buying and eating much that is processed. Not too much is just what it says. Mostly plants, of course, means mostly fruits, vegetables and grains. But it doesn't say only plants, so that leaves room for meat and fish, eggs and dairy.
One thing that I have found helpful is to imagine that there is a line dividing my plate in half. The top half is for fruits and/or vegetables. Then the bottom half is divided in half again making fourths. One fourth is for protein, e.g. meat, fish, eggs or beans/tofu, and the other is for starch e.g. potatoes, rice, pasta or bread (whole grain, of course). If you are trying to lose weight or maintain it (especially after the age of 45) some good rules are, no seconds of protein or starch allowed, seconds of veggies and fruits OK, especially salad and decide before hand whether to have a starch or dessert- not both.
I would also recommend buying local and organic if you can. Our local farmers market has great things at a variety of prices, and most venders accept food stamps. Also several of the farms have CSAs. What this means is that you can pay upfront at the beginning of the season and then you get fresh produce all season long at a decent price. A full share in the Philadelphia region is between $500-600. But you can get a half share or two families or small households could go in together.
Community gardening is another great way to get really local and organic produce. Although time consuming, many people find that it is time well spent. You get to know neighbors and you get to experience the miracle of tiny little seeds growing into big beautiful vegetables and fruits- plus they taste so much better when you've grown them yourself! Plus there is almost no carbon footprint at all!!!
Footnotes
1. "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Michael Pollan Unhappy Meals, NYTimes magazine, January 28, 2007
2. "...behind the great success story lies a dark, foreboding fact: almost every component of our food production and distribution system is dependent on low cost petroleum. Fertilizer, in the form of ammonia, is made from natural gas; which has recently tripled in price. The various machines used to plant, till and harvest crops all run on diesel fuel. Pesticides, herbicides and fungicides are almost entirely produced by plants that use petroleum as the primary feedstock. Fresh vegetables and meat are transported to our local markets by diesel fueled trucks, and these products are kept cold in transit by diesel fueled refrigeration units. Much of the water used to irrigate crops today is ground water that needs to be pumped out of the ground by large diesel motors. Our entire food supply chain is critically dependent on petroleum," (Oil on the Plate <riograndeorganics.com>)