Sustainable Food Choices

What are sustainable food choices? Here's my definition: buying food that is whole and healthy, from a farm that treats animals humanely and farm workers with dignity, and produces food in a manner that restores the earth.

Farming methods that create sustainable foods use compost, cover crops, mulching, plant diversity and heirloom seeds.

In contrast, big agribusiness uses machines, fertilizers, monocultures, and pesticides. They are not creating sustainable food choices.

I see three problems with big agriculture. They are not building the soil, they use too many fossil fuels, and they are probably harming the bee population.

When you buy sustainable food, you support a new agricultural system! This is powerful. When enough of us buy sustainable food, the system will change.

Here's my nephew Elias in my summer garden. My sister is raising Elias with garden produce, and he actually likes kale! He is one reason I make sustainable food choices, to protect his future.

Here are some ideas for making Sustainable Food Choices

--Buy organic foods. Chemical fertilizers don't nourish the soil and so our produce has less nutrition. Pesticides are linked to cancers and nervous disorders. I like to vote for a clean environment and I want the farm workers handling compost, not dangerous pesticides.

And when you buy organic foods, you help to save the bee population.

--Choose grass fed, free range, cage free and local animal foods. There's a movie called Food Inc. that is really eye opening about the factory farms.

The factory farms are called "Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations".(CAFO) They are inhumane. Animals are fed an unnatural diet of grains, when they are meant to eat grass. These CAFO operations are full of wastes which hurt the animals and pollute the waters.

I have seen these cow farms in rural Colorado. They stink! Conventional factory meats are not sustainable food choices.

-- Buy local food. The food is fresher, in season, and less fossil fuel is used to transport it. It's been shown that the fewer people who handle the food and the less distance the food travels, the safer it is from e.coli and other bacteria.

--Use cloth bags for groceries, to cut down on packaging that ends up in landfills. Put the bags in your car so you don't forget them.

---Ask your grocer to carry local and organic foods. When I check out at the grocery, the clerk often asks if I found everything I was looking for. I say that I want to see more organics, or I thank them for carrying organics. I may request a certain organic product. This is voting with your dollars and your voice.

--Join a community supported agriculture farm, or CSA. You will be directly supporting a farmer and may be able to visit the farm. And you will enjoy seasonal food.

--Learn to cook real, whole foods. In a world of restaurants and fast foods, cooking at home is a revolutionary act. Be an activist in an apron!

--Use less chemicals in your home. Chemicals from household cleaners, paints, medicines and body care products eventually end up in the water and soil, and can harm plants. I's amazing how all of life is connected by water. Household chemicals don't just disappear, they end up in the environment.

--"Pay the farmer, not the doctor" is an old Italian saying. People say organics is expensive, but when we eat well, our medical bills are lower. It's even been proven that when food is cheap and poor quality, our health bills rise. I would rather enjoy good quality food than go to the doctor for pills or surgery any day!

--Buy packaged food in glass bottles rather than cans. You can reuse the bottles. Canned foods have been shown to contain a chemical called Bisphenol-A, (BPA) that is an endocrine disruptor and affects reproductive health. It is in most canned foods. Acidic foods like tomatoes can leech out the BPA from the cans into the food. Not good! Look for tomato sauce and salsa in a glass jar.

--Choose organic cotton clothes and linens. Conventional cotton uses more pesticides than any other crop. Also try hemp and bamboo, two new fabrics that use no chemicals to grow. I've seen organic cotton in bedding offered at Target.

-- Grow some of your own food You'll have a sense of self-sufficiency. Herbs and greens are the easiest to grow. Try red radish, they come up quickly. Learn about permaculture, a sustainable growing method.

Food for Thought:

"You can't have a healthy population without a healthy diet. You can't have a healthy diet without healthy agriculture" --Michael Pollen

"Living in Italy, the tomatoes second home, I'd say about 80% of the tomato products (puree, pulp, peeled) on the shelves are in glass bottles and it's only the very cheapest tomato products that come in cans. The Italians evidently know that flavor is better out of a glass."

--Comment on Mercola.com forum

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