Ethical Eating – Food and Environmental Justice

I have been watching movies & reading so many diet & health books lately – trying to get my head around the deeper ethics of diet. Beyond eating for best health – what are the other issues? For one – Food Ethics – finding a worldview that incorporates the rights of humans to choose their food with the rights of all Beings to live successfully in harmony on this finite planet. That sounds simple enough – yet, why the raging controversy? You’d think we are discussing religion or politics! Well, maybe we are…

While studying for the endocrine nutrition classes I recently taught, it became very clear that references & resources are now legion in any one camp of belief, especially with Internet resources, multiple books promoting any one theory, and very few of us capable of reading actual peer-reviewed studies. In fact – my own history of study using peer-reviews in technical journals, is that the studies themselves seem to be funded by a well-off corporation who managed to get some academics to perform the study with an intended result. Am I being cruel? Is there no way out of this entanglement of beliefs & truth?

I can only reach deep inside myself & feel my way out when this happens. The heart “knows” more than the brain when it comes to first perception. I choose from there.

Have I lost you yet?
If not – back to my topic in mind – food ethics – determining what foods humans should choose with full consideration of planetary balance & the rights of all living beings. (Let’s say all of those still alive & those who have died due to our lack of eco-ethics)

Let’s say also that… we need to BE healthy instead of BELIEVE healthy.

What food choices really work for YOU? Can you know now what to eat – in advance of the probably years it will take to see the results… once your health is compromised – or worse – wrecked?

Simple thoughts:
Whenever I can – I choose to eat locally & organically, a variety of foods produced with minimal impact on water use, soil degradation & while also recycling maximum nutrient back into an almost closed loop system. Can we artfully achieve this noble goal in our daily life – replete as it is with the temptations & delights – indeed – the wondrous tastes of foreign foods- rich roasted coffee drinks, creamy chocolate desserts, bananas, blueberries in winter, fish from foreign shores, the entire range at Trader Joes for Gods sake! In order to eat ethically you have to stay home & garden, or shop quickly with a list & get out before your eyes linger on the specialties waiting to grab your attention at checkout. The demons of imported foods are all around us.

Oh, now where was I? (as she eats cute small tangerine & handful of almonds -where were they grown? – during mini-break) I was hoping to at least give you a list of ethical discussions now in print…recommended by me in my own slanted style of current favorites…reader warning – they don’t all agree!
Viola! Finally you come to it….(forget cultural bias, availability, health theory or practice when considering this aspect of food choice)

(a partial list of “Ethical Eating” resources)

BOOKS:

Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon, Mary G. Enig PhD (A full-spectrum nutritional cookbook with a startling message–animal fats and cholesterol are vital factors in the human diet, necessary for reproduction and normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease and optimum energy levels. Includes information on how to prepare grains, health benefits of bone broths and enzyme-rich lacto-fermented foods.)

The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice, and Sustainability - Lierre Keith (discusses alternatives to industrial farming, reveals the risks of a vegan diet, and explains why animals belong on ecologically sound farms.)

Full Moon Feast – Jessica Prentice (Jessica Prentice champions locally grown, humanely raised, nutrient-rich foods and traditional cooking methods as she recounts her relationships with local farmers alongside ancient harvest legends and methods of food preparation from indigenous cultures around the world.)

Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating by Jane Goodall (Goodall focuses more on the product of “factory farming” techniques: mountains of waste, nutritionally depleted soil, polluted water, displaced organic farmers, and severely compromised food.)

The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution by Alice Waters (the Waters mantra: eat locally and sustainably; eat seasonally; shop at farmers markets)

Hope’s Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe (eating lower on the food chain -i.e. more grains and vegetables- is crucial the key to ending worldwide hunger, author’s theory is that non-meat proteins are much more efficient and sustainable to produce)

The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan (In a journey that takes us from an “organic” California chicken farm to Vermont, Pollan asks basic questions about the moral and ecological consequences of our food)

How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits (and Fruits, Nuts, Berries, Grains, and Other Crops) Than You Ever Thought Possible on Less Land Than You Can Imagine by John Jeavons (Jeavons lays out a comprehensive guide to growing the most food you can on the least amount of land in the most sustainable way – on an ongoing basis into perpetuity, most healthy both for your family, your land, and the wider world.)

MOVIES:

I am happy to see more and more “good food” documentaries coming out. While I think movies like “Food, Inc.” are important to educate us on food issues, I appreciate the solution based films even more.

DIRT! The Movie, tells the amazing and little known story of the relationship between humans and living dirt. Why Dirt?

Dirt feeds us and gives us shelter. Dirt holds and cleans our water. Dirt heals us and makes us beautiful. Dirt regulates the earth’s climate. Dirt is the ultimate natural resource for all life on earth.

Edible City: A new (more grassroots) film prides itself in showing what people are doing in their own backyards in an urban environment, and with their own resources. It shows the movers and shakers in sustainable ag in the SF Bay Area.

FRESH - Ana Joanes (“FRESH brings more of the solutions and ideas for positive change to the table while Food Inc. focuses on the overwhelming power of industrial ag, its problems and challenges, leaving the viewer very troubled.”) I really enjoyed seeing the film “Fresh” recently on the shift towards sustainable food. It was great to see Will Allen’s Growing Power. He was growing sooo much food on a small urban plot, and loves his composting worms! And I loved finally meeting farmer Joel Salatin.

Botany of Desire: Michael Pollan (takes viewers on an eye-opening exploration of the human relationship with the plant world – seen from the plants’ point of view – the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato – evolved to satisfy our yearnings for sweetness, beauty, intoxication and control)

Nourish: Food + Community: (With beautiful visuals and inspiring stories, Nourish traces our relationship to food from a global perspective and suggests the steps individuals can take to create a more sustainable food system and live more healthful lives.)

Want more?
Read some great thoughts…

Lia Huber about Nourish -

Further interesting discussion threads form on this vegan web page – a China Study critique. Vegan insights – yet of course – in support of my current theme of moderate eating of all healthy foods, animal or vegetable – locally grown with closed loop inputs….plus a questioning of the results of our last 10,000 years of agricultural practices & the future of food…

Invite response? Yes! I may be impatient & a poor scientist, but am an eater of food therefore deserve an opinion. Also – as avid debater in the realms of art – in which I have always thought that nutrition & food belonged – I get to enjoy my own my “taste”.

How should we eat? Damned if I truly know…yet. Can we even afford to debate this matter of ethics & choice considering the spiraling descent of food availability planetary -wide? Best to debate it while we work in the garden & rest a moment on our shovels – just in case the narrowing gap between the starving & the well-fed continues to affect more & more eaters, mainly those of us in the USA blessed with choice & variety of nutrient & taste. The debate continues even while the deserts enlarge & the waters are poisoned.

PS For those who are still concerned with the effects of diet on personal health – and I am one of them….the important discussion on health & community should remind us that it doesn’t matter how much conviction these various authorities have on their own theories, if it doesn’t work for you it’s worthless. We’ve each got to find out on our own what we should include in our own diets using the advice of others merely as a framework. Wholeness & Health? Cancer? Perfect energy? Endocrine disruption? Arthritis? Athletic prowess? It’s all around us, let’s perceive with our hearts & choose with our deepest feelings before we say grace over that next meal.

URBAN PEASANTS

More chickens, this time in an upscale neighborhood overlooking Lake Washington in Seattle…a beautiful setting for a small coop of clean & well managed chickens…Eric says he has been keeping chickens since 1974 when he was named an “Urban Peasant” by a major publication…I like the term, let’s take back – both the urban chicken & the term Peasant – it is very close to pleasant…a word that pleases me…

JASON’S GARDEN

The Backyard Homestead is coming of age!  40 years after the “Back to the Land” Movement took us all out onto our remote 20 acre parcel…

The newest generation to begin farming is making their wave on front lawns, in backyards across America.  It is now very hip to keep chickens in town, and the movable mini-coop (Chicken tractor) that can clean up & fertilize a garden bed is a wonderful invention being built just about anywhere!

Jason Bradford – localization spark plug & recently of my hometown – Willits, CA – has moved to Corvallis, OR –  in search of a wide & fertile valley to farm organically.  His dream is to organize Organic farming for thousands of prime farmland – revolutionize the future of our basic grain crops.  As that bigger dream unfolds, he is making a cozy home with wife – Kristin Bradford – a full time MD & very good baker of scratch German Chocolate cakes, beautiful young mother of 2 extraordinary boys, a Tai Kuan Do student, ballet dancer extraordinaire, and – well – you get it – these are not your ordinary backyard gardeners….but, wait – they are extra ordinary just as are we all, each in our own way.

So find your extra-out-of-the-ordinary time & dig a patch in your front yard, your side patio, your balcony pot of soil…plant a tomato & savor the goodness of the connection to your food.  Meanwhile, you can get inspired & informed by books such as The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan.  

I have learned something new on every page!

CUTE COMPOST IN A RAISED BED

Last week we found some free give away windows & french doors just down the street!

I took it as a ‘sign’ & we brought them all home.

I am now preparing a space to build my long awaited

greenhouse/playhouse/tea house/shed  (final result is not actually pictured yet:)

which will be right on top of my former compost pile location.  Once the building is finished – the compost bins will be reorganized near its back wall, but right now it is not possible to have my working compost at the west side of the garden.

Just taking a moment to breathe deeply & offer gratitude for the beautifully rich soil we made this year from our kitchen waste!  Here is a picture of a tidy pile of last year’s magically transformed garbage (rich humus)  – now being placed around our small fruit trees, veggie beds, rose bushes & grape vines as we put them to bed for a long winter’s nap.  We are putting a generous shovel full (or 2) around each plant, then adding a layer of leaves on top to seal the warmth & goodness in.

So – how am I making my winter compost?

I am  starting to throw kitchen scraps into the empty northwest bed, and yesterday – on a whim, made a cute “frontage” for it – as it is seen constantly from the street by each curious passerby. This is due to my interest in edible landscaping, and desire to be surrounded by beauty & grace.  How can we make our practical kitchen gardens look fun & beautiful too – so that our neighbors appreciate the good looks as well as the practicality of the harvest?  I like to challenge my self with this thought as I recreate my garden space over the seasons.

Check out the picture of the frontage on this cute compost pile.  The lattice fence, flowering planters, glass globe & cabbages are seen by my neighbors.  Why bother?  I want us all to think about making things that we use daily as fun & beautiful as we can, while also being practical & time saving.  it offers everyone a moment of happiness & peace of mind.

This cute compost pile should be matured by mid spring, when I plan on using the area for successive plantings of “cool crops” such as spinach, lettuce & other greens.  I will turn the bed over in late winter, let it rest, spread straw over it, and after a few months – will plant it with early peas if possible, then greens over the summer.  it is shaded by the western tree line, a perfect place for leafy green crops.

Anyone can make a cool garden bed that doubles as a compost pile…just build yourself a raised bed, use it during the summer, and then – after you have harvested your yummy annual crop of veggies, you can clean up by piling all the tomato cuttings, cuke vines, squash leaves & tree leaves, straw & other dry carbon sources onto your chosen bed & begin to add your kitchen waste over the next few months.

I keep a shovel or better yet a pitchfork nearby in order to dig easily into the pile.  I also start in a corner & work my way around the bed clockwise adding fresh garbage into a new place each time.  That way the pile gets a chance to begin to heat up & compost nicely, and each fresh waste garbage addition finds a home with no other garbage surprise, but instead – is sandwiched & layered with carbon rich dry matter.

Now – if I add some worms, it will be an awesome worm bin!!!  Walk on by, and admire my cute compost pile…be sure and mention it to me too…

Keeping warm in these early winter frosts,

-Annie dirty jeans

PS I found a picture of this cute mini-greenhouse – isn’t it just adorable? And useful too…Creative projects with used windows…now that is another blog post for the future.

PLANTING edible LANDSCAPES & GARDENS

The RED WAGON REVIEW

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PLANTING edible LANDSCAPES & GARDENS

It was a beautiful Saturday morning on April Fourth!

Four teams of Little Red Wagons left the Willits Little Lake Grange ready to plant veggies in neighborhood garden plots. We were loaded with cuttings from an easy to grow staple vegetable – the “Tree Collard” & lettuce donated by Brookside Farm, also broccoli & chard starts donated by Emandal Farm. Potatoes from Michael Stewart’s garden were also offered as a planting option. Thanks to all of our wonderful sponsors, donors and hardy volunteers!

Why were we walking the streets with vegetables? The future of healthy food begins at home – local, fresh – best when harvested daily. We can segue into larger kitchen gardens by creating an Edible Landscape – beginning with the introduction of 1 or more food plants into an existing flower bed, or large container of perennials or any landscaped, watered & tended area.

On Saturday, We planted over 15 different locations with an assortment of veggies, with grateful household recipients standing by, or helping to shovel the holes out! Who didn’t want a free plant? Some renters or older residents declined, they couldn’t care for it or didn’t like to eat those foods, but – mostly – anyone who was home, wanted us to help them get started! I found that meeting a number of my neighbors was a very great thing, not to be underrated. I encourage anyone to take on this simple and fun opportunity – share a garden with your neighbors, especially the ones you haven’t met yet! It could change you, the community, the world.

-Submitted by Anne Waters Weller

LITTLE RED WAGON edible GARDEN PROJECT

LITTLE RED WAGON

edible GARDEN PROJECT

Lets Get gardening for FOOD!!! Like – Creating an Edible Landscape in your neighborhood; take a walk with a Red Wagon, a stroller, some kids, a few collard cuttings, a trowel…and visit someone on your street who has a rose bed, a container of perennials, any location  they are already watering  and tending…It is an easy beginning, with the introduction of 1 or more food plants (perennials) into an existing flower bed, or large container of perennials or any landscaped, watered & tended area.  We suggest an easy to grow staple vegetable such as the “Tree Collard” – or a ground cover such as strawberries
What is a Tree Collard?
Tree collards are a very easy to grow perennial green, similar to chard.  Just stick a branch into the ground in early spring & water well. They like a lot of water, and do best if watered deeply & then mulched, especially in the summer months. Cut and prune in summer when the plant is dormant.  If you cut the top off, you will get side growth and more leaves to each plant…it begins to develop into a shrub.

Preparation & Recipes:
Best and sweetest taste arrives after the first frost, this is a great winter green when all else in the garden has slowed down or frosted out.

Cut the greens from the bottom of the plant first, and work your way upwards. Use the tender, smaller leaves for your dinner, large ones for mulch or compost. If they get a lot of purple in the larger leaves they are old and a little tough and take longer to cook.
Start by getting all the grit off the leaves, easiest way to clean them is in the sink or a very large pot filled with cold water. After cutting the tough stems and heavy ribs out, place the leaves in the cold water. Let them soak for a few minutes then swish around to loosen grit and sand; drain. Repeat the process two or three times, depending on how gritty the leaves are.  If you add some salt or Bronner’s soap to the soak water, you will also remove any bugs.

Eat them raw or cooked.
Raw Smaller leaves can be very thinly sliced and used in a cole slaw or green salad.
Cooked Collard greens taste great if cooked for about an hour with smoked turkey leg or a ham hock, southern style…also in a black eyed  pea soup.
How to Cook Collard Greens / Southern Collard Greens Recipe
To cook collard greens, first see the washing ritual above. Put your washed leaves together in a bunch and cut or twist into manageable smaller pieces. Put your greens into a large pot and fill with water to the tops of the collard greens. Generally, it takes 45 minutes to one hour to boil them to a tender state. They’re usually cooked with some type of seasoning meat and they taste great with pickled pepper vinegar as a condiment. Drain your collards before serving, but don’t throw away your juice. The collard juice contains a large portion of the vegetable’s vitamins and minerals, so save it to use as a soup base or drink it! Southerners call collard juice “pot likker.” It’s a personal choice whether to boil or steam the whole leaf or to chop them up before serving. In the South, they’re generally chopped. You may freeze leftover collard greens too – many people put the frozen collards into a frying pan on medium heat to thaw them and call them fried collards.

Classic Southern Style Greens
Ingredients:
·    ·    2 pounds fresh greens
·    1 1/2 gallons water
·    1 or 2 ham hocks or smoked turkey leg (Willy Bird)
·    1 tablespoon salt
·    1 or 2 dried peppers or  cayenne, to taste
·    1/2 cup chopped onion

Stove Top Preparation:
In a large kettle, boil the water with the ham hocks and salt, plus seasonings. Clean greens thoroughly with several changes of water. Cut away tough stems and cut large leaves in strips. Add the greens to boiling water a little at a time. Cover and boil for about 1 hour. Serve with cider vinegar or pepper sauce.
Crock Pot:
Prepare as above, then transfer to a crock pot and cook for at least an hour on high, or for 2-3 hours on low, until very soft and texture that you like.  They are ready to eat!  Cook  enough for 2-3 days at one time and reheat.
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Garlic Greens (Vegetarian & Low Fat)
Ingredients:
·    1 1/2 to 2 pounds collard greens or turnip greens, boiled or steamed until tender
·    3 to 4 tablespoons vegetable oil
·    2 to 3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 4 large cloves)
·    salt and black pepper, to taste
·    hot pepper sauce
Preparation:
Drain greens well.
In a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat, cook garlic in the vegetable oil until it just begins to brown. Add the drained greens; season to taste with salt and pepper then add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce.
Serves 4 to 6.

SPICY BLACK EYED PEAS AND COLLARD GREENS

[Gluten-Free / Dairy-Free / Pareve / Vegan / Soy-Free]

5 cups collard greens, rinsed and chopped or shredded
2 15-oz. cans of black eyed peas, rinsed and drained or 4 c. cooked (from bulk storage)  beans
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 bay leaves
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt
1 large poblano or anaheim chili pepper, seeds removed, minced
1/3 cup wine (red or white)
2/3 cups tomato sauce
1/2 cup water or vegetable broth

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot or deep frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and sautee until translucent. Add the garlic and pepper and all of the herbs and spices except the salt. Stirring frequently, cook the spices in the oil for several minutes. Add the collard greens and saute, coating the greens thoroughly in the spices and oil. Sautee for 5 minutes or until the greens begin to wilt. Add all of the remaining ingredients and cover. Turn heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 minutes or until the greens are tender. Stir regularly to make sure ingredients don’t stick to the bottom of the pan. Serve hot, as a main dish or a side dish. Can be topped with sour cream.

Nutrients Per ½ Cup Cooked Collard Greens
(an excellent source of calcium & Vit A)
Antioxidants and phytochemicals are abundant in collard greens,
just as in other cabbage family vegetables. (Brassica Family)
Calories 56
Protein 1 gram
Dietary fiber 2.9 grams
Carbohydrates 2.5 mg
Dietary fiber 0.4 mg
Calcium 74 mg
Vitamin A 2,109 IU
Vitamin C 9 mg