Defining a Healthy, Sustainable Food System

Happy New Year! 

This is a time of renewal.

I like to soak up the sunrise, appreciate the sunset, and spend dark nights in peaceful reflection. 

As part of my personal and professional goals for this year, I would like to hear more from you.

What is your definition of a healthy, sustainable food system?

Here is mine.

Health is a changing state of balance.

A healthy food system is a living network, non-hierarchical and springing from mutual agreements to cultivate health, diversity, equity, and economic balance.

Because everyone must eat to live, it must adapt to environmental, social, and political changes while stewarding the well-being of land, workers, production, and eaters. This food system is grounded in gastronomic traditions, small-scale farming practices, and the need to provide for future generations. Its respect for diversity of people, eco-systems, and choices ensures the best practices for cultivation and production in accordance with local need and capacity. Connected enough to sustain local bio-diversity, cultural identity, nourishment, and sense of purpose, this system provides equal access to whole, simple, contaminant-free ingredients.

When change occurs, the community-minded system, where everyone has a voice, can collaborate to make decisions based on the health of people and planet. 

Here is the definition created by 

Mother Earth News

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1. Focus on community empowerment to grow food and seek out natural remedies to heal friends and family;

2. Promote research in the field of agro-ecology in order to influence congressional farm policy;

3. Sell publications and subscriptions to educate privileged members of the food system about gardening, natural health, and consumption.

These are the strategies they use to bring it about:

1. Research: They request donations to support non-profits such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, whose research and reports model sustainable farming practices. They promote farm policy by encouraging reader to write letters to congress on behalf of farmers, sound farming practices, and research.

2. Education: They inform readers about conferences to learn more about sustainable farming practices. This invitation comes with mention of the conferences’ corporate sponsors such as Clif Bar, Nutiva and Driscoll’s.

3. Access: They work to build community food security by inspiring readers to create the conditions in their lives for equitable food access in their communities through blog posts about personal stories.

What is your definition of a healthy, sustainable food system?

What do you need to participate in the regional food system, cook meals from scratch with whole ingredients, and include more fruit and vegetables in your diet?

Women in Food

March is Women's History Month, and I invite you to honor the role of women in food. How do you see this role in your life, family, and community?

Here are some accounts of women in food history from historian Alice Ross.

It has been suggested that the division of food responsibility was a consequence of women's limited mobility, resulting from childbearing and extended periods of childcare. In any case, their familiarity with plants and their own identification with creating new life (the male role having been as yet unrecognized) were undoubtedly factors in their monumental innovation, the formation of the first organized agriculture (c. 8000 B.C.E.). Women often cooked grains and vegetables, singing songs about the food as they prepared it as a way to bind family and community as well as pass on food preparation methods to children.

Evidence of the high regard women earned is reflected cross culturally in the stories of universal origin even up to and including subsequent patriarchal systems. For example, in ancient Greco-Roman mythology, the story of Demeter (Ceres), the goddess of agriculture and fertility, and her daughter Persephone (Proserpina) acknowledge women's responsibility for developing agriculture, the origin of growing seasons, and the agrarian skills that they taught people. In distant Mexico people worshipped Ceres' counterpart, the pre-Aztec Great Corn Mother known as Chicomecoatl; variants of her story abound. She is Earth Goddess who teaches how to grow food from her body. Often her body was sacrificed, as she demanded, so that her children could grow food on it. This is a constant reminder to her descendants to treat the land as their Mother.

Clean 15 & Dirty Dozen

Because we must eat to live, it is important to recognize that nourishment is a basic way to be well and prevent disease. Tools exist to help shoppers choose healthy, affordable food.  The Environmental Protection Agency has conducted extensive research proving that pesticides in our food and water have health and environmental risks. Consumption of certain pesticides is linked to cancer and neural toxicity.

To read more, click here

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In response to public concern, the Environmental Working Group started publishing a ‘Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce’ eight years ago.  Researchers update the list annually, analyzing pesticide testing data from the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration to determine which foods retain detectable pesticides after being washed or peeled.  

The guide targets commercially grown food, separating it into two categories. It lists the ‘dirty dozen’: fruits and vegetables that transfer pesticide residues to the human body. It also itemizes the ‘clean fifteen’: produce that does not store pesticides and can be purchased conventionally. This resource strives to help shoppers consume as many fruits and vegetables as possible in an affordable way. For details,

click this link

. 

The "Dirty Dozen Plus"

Buy these organically whenever possible.

1. Apples

2. Celery

3. Cherry tomatoes

4. Cucumbers

5. Grapes

6. Hot peppers

7. Imported nectarines

8. Peaches

9. Potatoes

10. Spinach

11. Strawberries

12. Sweet bell peppers

+ Kale and collard greens

+ Summer squash

Kale, collard greens, and summer squash were added to the "avoid" list because they were contaminated with organophosphates, pesticides that pose a particularly high risk to the children's IQ and brain development even at low doses, and organochlorines, pesticides linked to stunted growth in kids.

The "Clean 15"

These are ok to buy conventionally.

1. Asparagus

2. Avocados

3. Cabbage

4. Cantaloupe

5. Sweet corn

6. Eggplant

7. Grapefruit

8. Kiwi

9. Mangos

10. Mushrooms

11. Onions

12. Papayas

13. Pineapples

14. Frozen sweet peas

15. Sweet potatoes

Pesticide residues aside, there are other reasons it's important to support organic 100 percent of the time, if you can, including protecting farm workers and local waterways from toxic pesticides that don't typically wind up in our food.

Celebrate Workers and Local Food!

Happy International Workers Day! 

Migrant March May 2011

Demonstration in Dhaka

Today, it's more important than ever to recognize the challenges facing farmers and workers across the food system.

 

Farmers and farm workers, cooks, servers, cashiers, slaughterhouse workers, food factory workers, baristas, fast food employees, and many other groups are fighting for bettering working conditions, including fair wages and better prices for their crops, healthcare, gender equality, better safety conditions, and other basic human rights.Recognizing the challenges farmers and workers face--as well as the innovations they're developing--is critical for true food system sustainability.

You can start by eating more local food and asking your local farms to support their workers with fair wages.



Eating more local and seasonal foods can be easy, inexpensive and delicious!  

Here are 10 ways to eat more local food.  Thanks to Food Tank for this information.

Join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program. CSA members pay for a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly subscription, and get in return a box of vegetables and other locally-produced foods such as cheese, eggs, and breads or other food items. The CSA benefits farmers because they receive payment early in the season, and benefits consumers by giving them a box of fresh, local produce. You can search for local CSAs through Local Harvest’s website.

Plant your own garden. It doesn’t get more local than your own back yard! Michele Owens’ book Grow the Good Life offers advice to beginner and experienced gardeners alike.

Learn what is in season. Buying seasonal local produce ensures that you are supporting your area’s farmers, as well as providing your family with the freshest food possible. Organizations like Pennsylvania’s Buy Fresh Buy Local help consumers see what is seasonal in their state.

Shop the local farmers markets. One of the oldest forms of direct marketing for famers, local farmers markets are gatherings where local growers can sell their fresh produce and value-added products. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has set up a search engine for consumers to find information about their nearest markets.

Visit "Pick-Your-Own" farms. Pick-Your-Own Farms are farms that allow customers to come in and pick their own produce, sometimes for a small fee. Similarly, gleaning programs have been established where consumers volunteer their services to pick produce that would have otherwise been wasted and donate it to local food banks for distribution.

Research your restaurants. Farm-to-table cooking has become one of the hottest restaurant trends in recent years and, often, chefs will include the origin of their product on their menus. Organizations like Clean Plates have started compiling locavore restaurants into databases to make it easier and more enjoyable for consumers to eat healthily and sustainably in their local restaurants.

Check your food labels of origin. Country of Origin Labeling Regulations require retailers to label the places of origin of their seafood, meats, produce, and nuts.

Join a local food co-op. Food cooperatives are customer-and-worker-owned businesses where the customer pays a nominal annual fee and is, in turn, provided with high-quality, local food products.

Freeze, can and preserve. During the bountiful summers, abundant fruits and vegetables can be frozen, canned and preserved for fresh, local produce later in the year.

Buy Fair Trade. Search for Fair Trade certified products if local is not an option. Fair Trade USA uses a market-based approach to empower farmers to get a fair price for their work and harvest and contribute to their local economies.

For details, visit www.foodtank.org