Local, Sustainable, Organic. Could We Please Just Eat?

I referred in my original post to the word "sustainable" and promised I would come back to it. For those who wish to get to them recipes, skip this post and wait for the next one. I promise it will involve pork.

The concept of sustainability is the subject of much discussion, and by folks far more learned than I. Diane Hatz of Sustainable Table is one of these learned individuals, and I encourage you to wander over to Sustainable Table for her discussion of sustainability. Borrowing poorly from Ms. Hatz, I sum up as follows: Eating sustainably means eating food that is healthy for you and for the environment, and that provides for fair prices for the farmers and humane treatment of animals.

The concept of sustainability is closely connected to the concept of eating locally. It's more sustainable to eat a tomato grown on a local, non-certified-organic farm, by a farmer who doesn't use any type of pesticides, than to purchase a certified organic tomato trucked up from Mexico. Some locavores have pledged to eat food produced only within a 100-mile radius of home. Of course, the locavores I'm referencing live in the Bay Area, a spectacularly rich foodshed. Pledging locavorism in northern Wisconsin, on the other hand, might be a great way to drop a third of your body weight.

Organic is good, but the definition is subject to federal regulation and all the gerrymandering that the legislative process implies. For example, food may be lawfully certified as "organic" but may be treated with some pesticides. I could go on, and many have, but I fear it may be discouraging to those who want to do the right thing and eat the right thing without getting bogged down in the details.

Here's my advice. Start small, if you're just starting out. Go to your local farmers' market, and ask questions. Is the farm certified organic? Regardless of whether you receive a yes or no, does the farm use pesticides? If buying meat, ask whether the animals are allowed to follow their natural habits. What do the animals eat? Are they ever given antibiotics? Also, ask for recipes. Most farmers I know love to share their food knowledge and recipes. You may not know what to do with fava greens, and I certainly didn't until the gentleman at Tairwa-Knoll Farms shared his favorite ways to prepare and enjoy.

If you can't make it to a farmers' market, start at your supermarket. If you can't find organic poultry, look for kosher (it's probably cleaner, if nothing else). If you can't afford to purchase organic everything, start with the important organic items like milk and dairy products. Check out this list for the most important items to purchase organic: http://www.thedailygreen.com/healthy-eating/eat-safe/Dirty-Dozen-Foods.

I'll tell you what we do at our house, and I'll share the recipes and techniques as the season brings them. A few caveats: We live in SF (food paradise) and we are fortunate enough to have a relatively generous food budget. Also, as is probably obvious, we choose to devote a considerable amount of our time as a family to preparing, preserving, and enjoying food. You and your family may choose to spend your time in different ways. Take what's useful from this blog, and don't feel that you have to do everything.

Here's what we do: (1) buy meat (usually whole animals) directly from the ranch or farm that raised them; (2) buy everything locally that we can (bread, pastured eggs, fruits, vegetables, cheeses, olive oil, vinegars, flour, beans, rice); (3) put up jams, pickles, and relishes, including by using up fruits and vegetables a bit past their prime; (4) regularly make our own stock from left-over bones and meat scraps; and (5) toss all stale bread, buns and biscuits into the food processor for bread crumbs. We also grow wonderfully tender lettuces in our garden, as well as leeks, chard, and all manner of herbs. (Spouse is the gardener, not me. I kill air plants.)

Next up, PIG.