Local Delicious

There are many ways to support an Eat Local habit.

If you really want to go crazy, you can try a zero mile diet, a backyard garden. Or in some cases, the two block diet or the 5 ½ block diet (my choice, since that’s how far my community garden plot is).

More likely — and a lot less work — feeding your Eat Local addiction could be buying produce or preserves at a farmers market or craft fair. It might be supporting a local food retailer or buying via a CSA program (community supported agriculture) or food co-op.

Or even more simply, it could be as effortless as checking the label at the supermarket, and choosing products with a tell-tale red, Made in Canada maple leaf on the package.

Announcing the Look at the Label Campaign

Really, it’s not a big deal. You don’t have to sign a placard or worse, carry a placard. To be part of the Look at the Label Campaign, you just have to, well…look at the label. Find out how far your food has traveled to reach you, and choose options that are produced nearer to home. While you’re at it, you can look for additional benefits.

• Look at the labels in the produce section to find out where your fruit and veggies come from, then choose the ones from closest by and grown with the best farming practices. Choosing items that are currently in season will help support your local farmers year round.
• Read the labels in the bakery to find out which goods were made locally and which were shipped a great distance. If they’ve come a long way and have a long shelf life they’ll have had to be pumped full of preservatives. Real food, the kind with nutritional value, will rot. Pseudo food, does not.
• Examine the labels in the sauces and canned goods aisles. I’ll bet you can find the lots of local sources for your favourite flavours amidst the dizzying array of options.
• Check out the labels in the coffee and tea aisles. I can’t find coffee that’s grown nearby, but that doesn’t mean I’m giving it up! I can, however, choose locally roasted and/or fair trade beans that give farmers a living wage.
• Definitely look at the label in the meat department. Nearby sources are good, organic and grain fed are even better. Meat and poultry are prime sources of secondhand pesticides, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Face it, eventually, we eat what they’ve eaten.
• Be sure to check the label of eggs and dairy products both to ensure the animals have been raised humanely, and to be sure you know what you’re eating. For example, “frozen dessert” instead of “ice cream” on a label is code for “made with petroleum by-products,” which is just gross.

Michael Pollan said it best when he described his rules for buying food. If the ingredients are not something you would find in your grandmother’s pantry, don’t put it in your mouth.

When I wrote about my preference for organic, grass-fed meat, Jo Robinson from the US sent along the link to a directory of producers. At first glance, I thought Eat Wild listed strictly US companies, but on closer examination, I discovered it also lists Canadian producers. That’s great news!

The directory uses a map to help users identify producers who live nearby. It’s not immediately apparent, but scroll down on the home page and you can click the word “Canada” above the map of the US, which will take you to the Canadian directory.

In addition to helping you find local producers, Eat Wild is a wealth of information on everything from the basics of grass-fed to detailed information on the environmental and food safety benefits, along with the science behind the claims.

After seeing one too many documentaries showing the cruel treatment of animals who are raised on factory farms, I’m also pleased to see that proper care of the animals is a big part of what goes into running a grass-fed farm operation.

It might seem like it’s all about the animals, but there are benefits to farmers, too. Taking a more balanced approach to farming makes for animals that are healthier and require less medication. They also need less purchased feed, increasing the likelihood of profitability for farmers. And farmers directly benefit from a reduction their own illness due to exposure to hazardous chemicals and high concentrations of animal waste products.

For successful gardeners, the question of how to store one’s harvest always comes up eventually. (For the likes of the rather improbable gardener such as myself, it is somewhat less of an issue.)

Most climates aren’t blessed with a year round growing season so one must make hay while the sun shines, then save for a rainy day. In this climate, literally. That means finding ways to preserve your bounty for the winter months.

This past year I’ve noticed a huge resurgence of interest in canning, pickling and other time honoured methods of “putting up” the harvest. So it’s no surprise that folks are looking back a generation or two for additional traditional solutions, calling up distant memories of how parents and grandparents fed themselves between growing seasons.

Enter, the root cellar. Cheap to make and maintain, naturally cool, highly effective, the perfect DIY project (no electrical wiring required).

Enter, a new generation of children sent down to dark, damp, spider-infested rooms to bring up the ingredients for dinner. Not to worry, we survived the trauma, so will they.

How To Do It Yourself

Want to be all trendy and get your own root cellar, but you’re not sure where to start? Here is an assortment of resources, in no particular order (but I saved the best for last):

• BC Agricultural Building Systems Handbook: Small Root Cellar – Long-winded name, thorough small root cellar building plan complete with measurements, and list of optimal temperatures for vegetable storage.
• The Return of the Root Cellars – Survivalist manifesto on storing food in the event of calamity, trials and/or tribulation. Whatever the reasoning, the content is quite informative.
• Garbage Can Root Cellar – This must be the most basic of root cellar concepts, but doesn’t allow for much in the way of temperature control.
• What to Store in a Root Cellar – Vegetable storage chart including optimal temperature, humidity and storage duration.
• Storage of Home-Grown Vegetables – Colorado State University tips on harvesting and storage, as well as a description of various root cellar types.
• Home Storage of Fruits and Vegetables in Root Cellars – As the name suggests, a very precise list of conditions required for specific produce, courtesy of University of Michigan. Just the facts, ma’am.
• Root Cellar Capital of the World: Elliston, Newfoundland – Not sure what to say here. Truly, stumped. Note: the misleading link “Root Cellars and Puffins” does not in fact show puffins stacked tidily amongst the potatoes in one of Elliston’s world famous root cellars. I checked.

While chatting about trends in organic food, my friend Sandra boldly declared, “I don’t care if it’s grass fed or spoon fed. I just want to know if it tastes good.”

She has a point. If it doesn’t taste good, the discussion ends there. However, organic meat does taste good, very good. So if that’s all you need to know, consider the issue resolved. If you still aren’t sure why you’d want to pay more to get the good stuff, you may want to know a bit more about what you’re actually eating when you sit down to that nice, juicy steak.

As I’ve become more aware of what’s involved in meat production, I’ve also become much more keen to source organic, grass fed beef for the occasions I choose to eat it.

Organic

On the organic side of the equation it boils down to this: the last thing I want entering my body is genetically modified corn, pesticides (sprayed on the corn), hormones and antibiotics, passed down to me in the form of beef.

• Cows in the industrialized meat industry are fed GMO corn.
• Corn is a grain, which cow stomachs are not designed to digest.
• Mass-produced cattle are also fed animal by-products. Note: cows are herbivores. Feeding them their kin is messed up on many levels. Remember “mad cow” disease…
• Cows are ruminants, they chew their cud. In the industrialized food process, cows are kept closely packed together and cannot lie down to chew their cud.
• Cows are kept in such close quarters and in such great numbers that disease is easily spread, hence the heavy dosing of antibiotics.
• The only priority in commercial farming is profit, so cows need to fatten up quick. That’s where the growth hormones come into play.

Cutting out the carcinogenic chemicals and going organic was a no-brainer, especially when I learned that all the nasty stuff collects in the fat of the animal. Fat is also what gives food its flavour so if you want tasty meat, you are eating fat.

Grass Fed

Then there’s the “grass fed” part of the equation. Why  not choose beef that’s organic and be done with it? Or choose “naturally raised” beef?

Well, if you’ve never seen how mass-produced cattle are raised, just wonder for a moment why it’s called “factory farming.” Really, it’s just like that. No pastoral scene of mother and calf, this.

• Grass fed cows eat grass. Not grain and not other cows. That’s more healthy.
• Grass fed means a cow has had access to grass. In a field. At liberty. With other cows, doing what cows do.
• Cows need to chew their cud to digest their food. It’s what nature intended. In a field, there’s room for a little ruminating.
• Stockyards used to be where cowboys drove their cattle after life on the open range. Now, they may live almost their entire short life there. To me, that is inhumane.
• Cows are animals, not machines. The research is very clear — they have feelings, they need to socialize, they develop bonds. Providing them an opportunity to live without undo stress seems the least we can do.

If you are still one of the few who believe the treatment of animals is no big deal, you can hold to that opinion and still recognize the value of grass fed beef. When I thought that way, I still couldn’t believe there was much nutritional value in a cow eating food it was never meant to eat, in an unnatural environment.

The Final Word

Don’t take my word for it that. You need to know enough to decide what matters to you. Just don’t stay in the dark about where your food really comes from.

The resources are endless, but here are a few to get you started:

Our Daily Bread the Movie
FRESH the Movie
King Corn the Movie
Food, Inc. the Movie
The Food Revolution by John Robbins
The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
Ecoholic by Adria Vasil

Readers, I welcome your comments on books, movies or other resources you’ve found helpful in understanding all that goes into choosing healthy food. Please leave a comment and share…

Most of us believe that if we’re buying organic eggs, they are automatically going to be better. Better for us because the chickens are given good quality feed and not dosed up on hormones and drugs. And better for the chickens because they are treated more humanely. After all, that’s what “organic” stands for, right?

Sadly, not always. Yet again, making the choice for artisan farming over industrialized farming means making the better quality choice.

The Cornucopia Institute has just released it’s organic egg report and scorecard, Scrambled Eggs: Separating Factory Farm Egg Production From Authentic Organic Agriculture. It’s an eye-opening revelation for those of us who thought we could avoid the downsides of corporate agri-business — a.k.a. industrialized or factory farming — by choosing food based on an organic label alone.

There truly is no substitute for knowing the farmer you buy from.

When I first landed a plot in my community garden I loved the idea that I could meet and learn from others with a common interest and more experience than I. What I’ve come to realize is that we have more than a community within the garden, we are a community outside of the garden too. When I see those folks in other parts of the neighbourhood or about town, my community has extended. And that just makes me happy.

Then I started learning about all kinds of cool organizations that people in my community are involved with. Groups doing cool things to address facets of the interwoven issues around food security and food quality (it’s pretty hard to find a pressing issue that isn’t in some way related). And then I started seeing them collaborate and share ideas, share information. You know, creating all kinds of networks.

If you care about local food and the many issues that are interconnected and entwined within it, there’s bound to be an organization who cares about the same things you do. I encourage you to consider putting a few drops of whatever resources you have into the bucket of making the world a better place, whatever your pet project.

Soil, water, air, animals, poverty…you name it, there’s a food connection.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke