Footprint Shmootprint, I Want to Eat

By
Amy Outlaw
on April 25, 2008 6:19 PM | | Comments (0)
There has been a debate going on among the food conscious lately about organic vs local and  the size of our food footprint.  Footprint here meaning how much fossil fuel is used and how much carbon dioxide is produced in the growing, transporting and preparing of the food we eat.  Although this is a debate which engages me and I enjoy arguing about, I want to cut to the chase before I go on and on, so that, if anyone reads this, they can get the information up front (Much as Michael Pollen did in The New York Times Magazine article he wrote debunking nutritional science by starting with the advice, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."[1])

If you want to have a significant impact on the footprint mentioned above, my advice is, Get informed. Find others who agree. Take action. (Action that will effect local, national and international policies governing agriculture and food production and transport.)

I am not saying that what you do, personally is not important, either to your own health and well being or to creating change in this area.  In fact, I agree with whoever the wise person is who said, its easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking than to think yourself into a new way of acting.  This agreement, however, will not stop me from attempting to talk you into, at least, thinking about all this.  So, we humans, need to start where we are.  Most of us want to eat, want to enjoy eating, want to not have to pay too much for it. We also wish that someone else would prepare it for us. Is that asking too much?  (I'm not going to answer that just yet.)

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>)

    

 

 

 

 

Water & the Demise of Largeness; for Earth Day, everyday

By
Amy Outlaw
on April 21, 2008 10:41 AM | | Comments (0)
The history of water on this planet has an interesting place in our lives. My understanding of how things went down is as follows.  The sun and all the planets of this particular solar system were quite hot upon birth.  After a billion or so years as the earth cooled water was formed.  All the water that exists now was formed then. Water is a critical ingredient in all life on this planet. Research has shown that it takes a molecule of water  approximately 3 years to circulate the entire globe. Circulate the entire globe means, that a particular molecule of water travels and exists in every location where water is, every place!

It is a well known fact that we humans are about 75%-80% water; the cells in our body consist primarily of water. (That is why the eight glasses of water/liquid a day is a good idea!) So... the water in my body, and yours, has been everywhere; in every stream and ocean, up in the sky as clouds and in birds, in the blood and tears of mothers and soldiers, flushed down the toilet, bubbled up through clear mountain springs, in animals, insects, fishes, in loved ones and those we deem enemies...

Water truly connects us all.




The Demise of Largeness

 

All things evolve or perish

Dinosaurs seemed to vanish

in some cataclysmic event

Until someone noticed a similarity to birds

Large, seemingly cumbersome bodies

A few so heavy their feet shook the ground

Yet somehow elegant, beautiful

Showing beyond a doubt

the physical parameters of life on earth

A natural grandiosity

doomed to failure

If, indeed, it was

 

Consider the birds

Diminutive descendants of thunder lizards

They fly at what expense?

Hollow, breakable bones

Allowing them to soar in godlike fashion

Cavorting with rainbows

and hurricanes

 

Now the whole earth trembles with our weight

What massive global event

portends the demise of our largeness?

 

Perhaps some new creature will evolve

from our unduly dense bones

to soar beyond imagining

On wings of spirit

so light

No footprint will be seen

or felt

at all

 

 

White Shoes

By
Amy Outlaw
on April 18, 2008 3:54 PM | | Comments (0)

One spring Marie-Louie brought Janine to this country with help from a charitable organization that arranges medical care for children in desperate straits.  They were placed with a neighbor family through a local group called Hosts for Hospitals.  Barely 18 months old, Janine was small and frightened, sick with a rare form of cancer in her eye.  Neither she nor her mother spoke English since they were from Haiti, in fact, Janine had not yet started to speak at all.  She clung to her mother, rarely daring to peek out with her good eye, her body language clearly expressing the pain and fear she was forced to endure.

              What a change good medical care brought about.  Within 48 hours she was alert, looking around and occasionally even smiled, though she still stayed very close to Mom.  Within a few days she had recovered from the other ailments enough to begin the chemotherapy.  Janine's recovery seemed miraculous.  Soon she was running around, playing peek-a-boo and even beginning to talk!  However, the treatment was going to take much longer than anticipated.  This was more than one family could manage, since Marie-Louie and Janine had no source of income. 

              A group of neighbors decided they could do it if they all took turns.  Four families took on the responsibility- all within the same block.  Janine soon had 4 sisters and 3 brothers, not to mention the 4 aunties and various uncles in the mix.  She danced into the heart of each of them, and just about anyone else who got to know her.  Janine loved shoes, her own especially, but everyone else's, too.  She would often insist that other people notice and comment admiringly on her shoes.  Afterwards she would insist on admiring theirs as well.  Much of this was done in an elaborate sign language with a few English and French words thrown in. 

              Janine continued to be treated for the cancer.  French was learned or brought back to life after long neglect.  The two only-children in the bunch began to experience what it was like to have a sibling.  The four families drew closer and better connected.  Life was good despite the normal ups and downs and extra stress of a 'family' member undergoing treatment for cancer.  Hope blossomed and looked to bare fruit.

              Five months in, the bad news came; the cancer was back.  The doctors explained that there was nothing more they could do, other than make her death as comfortable as possible when it came.  After the initial shock wore off and tears dried, the families pulled together.  Comforting Marie as best they could, they vowed to see that Janine had a good, and as normal as possible, last bit of time here on earth.  She died  peacefully, a month later at the hospital, in the arms of one of the aunties.

              Although, this story doesn't have a happy ending, Janine did.  She came to this country a small sick, stranger, in pain and afraid.  She left this life surrounded by people who loved her, having touched the hearts of many more than most ever do.  She laughed and danced and showed off her shoes.  Though she endured much, ultimately, Janine experienced happiness, growth and many good days. 

Neatly placed by the front door of one of the houses where she lived is a small pair of white patent leather shoes, a fitting shrine for one who still dances joyfully in our hearts.

 

     

 

     

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