Green Options

Too early to be thinking about Thanksgiving? I don’t think so. It’s heirloom turkey time. Order now before you miss out.

Factory farms have been producing most of the meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products in the United States for decades. Although the food is cheap and convenient, this method can create a host of problems, including the loss of small family farms, pollution and animal stress.

Numerous varieties of livestock—Bourbon Red turkeys as well as Red Wattle pigs, Tunis sheep and Barred Plymouth Rock chickens—are endangered and disappearing from our farms and more importantly, from our dinner tables. What’s a localist like myself supposed to do?

It’s been all over the food blogosphere and several wire services, but in case you’ve missed what Eater SF calls the Death of Society:

The Food Network is getting into the competitive eating genre with a new series, tentatively titled “Eat the Clock.”

The show is described as a cross between an eating competition and “The Amazing Race.” Two teams of contestants rush to various Los Angeles eateries and gorge themselves in face-stuffing challenges.

Reuters, Monday, August 18, 2008

Interesting timing if you ask me with only 11 days until the ultimate celebration of the appreciation of food, Slow Food Nation ‘08.

What Has Food Become?

“Food in America is cheap and abundant, yet the vast majority of it is diminished in terms of flavor and nutrition, anonymous and mysterious after being shipped thousands of miles and passing through inscrutable supply chains, and controlled by multinational corporations. In our system of globalized food commodities, convenience replaces quality and a connection to the source of our food. Most of us know almost nothing about how our food is grown or produced, where it comes from, and what health value it really has. It is food as pure corporate commodity. We all deserve much better than that.”

- Sandor Ellix Katz, author of The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved: Inside America’s Underground Food Movements

Green is the new black!

So much has been written yet so much is misunderstood. Everything from culinary publications, to monthly magazines, to daily newspapers, to blogs are hoping on the Green Cuisine bandwagon. I’m not saying this bad and not saying this is good. I am saying that in general, the more people that are exposed to sustainable, eco-friendly, green cuisine (or whatever you what to call it), is good.

Not knowing what it means, too many labels, confusing names, so called “experts” and even worse, “Green Washing“, is bad.

Ok, so what is Sustainable Cuisine? What does it mean to be sustainable? My definition of sustainability is “a way of growing, shipping, processing preparing and eating foodstuff that doesn’t deplete the natural systems that create that product.”