The foods we eat

I've borrowed and watched the documentary Fresh: New Thinking About What We're Eating a couple of times. It features several pioneers in returning farms to the old fashioned model of mixing it up with different animals and crops that compliment each other. And it compares those results with several examples of monoculture. It also gets a little bit into the financial realities of corporate farming.

One of the most energetic farmers in the film is Joel Salatin, and I find he has written a half-dozen books about farming. So I checked one out.

I started with You Can Farm, and find him as entertaining and informative on the page as on film. His most important advice: Just do it! Start. Don't wait until you have the perfect plan/land/money/knowledge.

2wonderY, Joel Salatin is one of the most generous and informative sustainability writers around. Thanks for the book suggestion.

I just started my New Year's Day food prep ... started soaking dried black-eyed peas for my vegan version of Hoppin' John, since that is a traditional Western "good luck" food for New Year's Day. I start the soaking way early because the mineral water I use for cooking is very very hard so the soaking must take place slowly, the last part in the refrigerator to avoid fermentation bubbles.

Yes, I intend to read more of his books. My library system seems to have many of them. Salatin appears to have time (where does he get it, I wonder! Wholesale?) to guest speak at many functions. Have you seen him? Have you seen the video of his farm? The land is impressive - it can speak for him all by itself.

I must second the "just do it" message! Whether you know a lot or a little, just get out there (or use containers if you have no space to grow outside) and start growing things!

It doesn't take a masters' degree to grow some of your own food. Just start small and take on what you can manage. I did, and found that gardening is so addicting that I now MAKE time for it instead of wasting time with other frivolous things.

One book I have found to be an inspiration and a good general guide is Mini-Farming. It covers all you'll need to know to become a pretty good gardener. While I have many gardening books, this is one I go back to a lot, partly because of the high-quality photos that accompany the text.

This spring, get some seeds and plant! You can actually grow some food successfully with zero experience, I've found.

Has anyone read the May 2014 National Geographic? Cover story is The New Food Revolution. I thought it would be a story applauding GMOs and high technology, but it wasn't that at all. It introduced the concept of the ecological footprint of foods, including the inputs of water, oil (both in production and in transport to markets) and fertilizers to determine the true costs of food.

It's well balanced.

A fold out page has the simple statement:
"Industrial-size farms achieve high yields using fertilizer and pesticides to grow huge fields of one crop. Though small farms tend to lag behind industrial farms in yields, they often deliver more food that actually ends up feeding people."

>4 milotooberry: Just start small and take on what you can manage. I did, and found that gardening is so addicting that I now MAKE time for it instead of wasting time with other frivolous things.

I started with a couple of tomato plants and now half the back yard has been converted. The dogs are like, what the hell?

A couple of years ago we planted a lot of tomato plants and we got more than 100 kg when they ripened. We were giving them away to everybody. Now we're both travelling a lot, so all we're really growing is kale and cassava, plus herbs, which don't need much care.

One of my favorite gardening books from the past year was something called Deep-Rooted Wisdom. It's basically a collection of accounts of various gardeners around the American South -- my area -- but it isn't a straight how-to book. More of a "don't re-invent the wheel" and "learn from experience" book. The idea for it was born from a visit the author made to one of those big-box "garden centers, where he just got overwhelmed by the aisles and aisles of stuff that gardeners were enticed to buy. And he kept thinking "our grandparents didn't have to have all this to have a garden."

So that's what the book is about -- people who garden and "make do" instead of buying things. It isn't all organic (although it trends that way) or all sustainable, but it is about learning to use and see the potential in what you already have.

This winter I'm trying (once again!) to grow stuff in a south-facing, plexiglass-covered egress window well in our s. Michigan basement. In fall, I covered exposed sides (~6") with mulch.

This weeks' single digits (F) will be biggest thermal challenge yet, but so far with thermometer in there as low as 20F, surviving are some herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, cilantro) in a secondhand windowbox, plus a florist's cyclamen. Spinach seeds sprouted in a large pot just before Christmas, but so far, just two seed leaves. Surprising to me that tarragon and mint died back. Next up, I hope, will be some daffodils and snow glories (Chionodoxa), which I planted in the windowbox last fall.

A small potted spruce tree, its dormancy broken during its service as Christmas tree, will soon be relocated to the window well. (I'm waiting for a warmish spell, so it can acclimate.) Next year, I will look for sage and other hardy herbs. Depending on how well the spinach does, I may plant kale (already in outside garden) or corn salad (Valerianella locusta), if I can find seeds. I may try my sweet bay leaf tree (house plant, actually!) down there as well.

In spring, I'll need to pull back the mulch and find some way to ventilate, or else plant out during the warm months. (There are small spaces between exposed boards, but summer does get hot in there!)

I try not to block the window, but figure the pots and boxes may actually help in escape by serving as steps. (The window well is ~4' at its deepest.)

"Substantial Equivalence"

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/Substantial_Non-Equivalence.php

2wonderY:
That group has an unfortunate name, given recent events. I hope non of its visitors have the NSA pounding on their door any time soon. "It's nothing! We're just gardening!"

Coming up on the end of A Nation of Farmers. Whoosh! Hard slogging, but sometimes very rewarding. They mention a bakery in Massachusetts that asked its customers to plant wheat in small plots in their yards.

Googling it I found two stories, both interesting

http://www.onthecommons.org/magazine/commoner/two-bakers-enlist-customers-revive...

http://modernfarmer.com/2014/03/local-grain/

Kristin Ohlson in The Soil Will Save Us mentions Forrest Pritchard's book Gaining Ground and it sounded interesting. It is unlike most books on permaculture. In fact, it doesn't even mention the word, perhaps because he sells mostly animal products. But he describes the evolution of his family farm from current industrial standard (netting less than $20 growing corn and soybeans one year) to multi-pasturing a variety of meat animals and selling the products retail, primarily through farmers markets in the DC area. With a college degree in creative writing, he writes engagingly, and it is a fast read. I wish he had spent a little bit more time talking about his stewardship of the soil.

But his descriptions of the taste differential between his meats and grocery store fare made my mouth water.

In the United States, 400 gallons of oil equivalents are expended annually to feed each American* (as of data provided in 1994). Agricultural energy consumption is broken down as follows:


•31% for the manufacture of inorganic fertilizer
•19% for the operation of field machinery
•16% for transportation
•13% for irrigation
• 8% for raising livestock (not including livestock feed)
• 5% for crop drying
• 5% for pesticide production
• 8% miscellaneous



*Energy costs for packaging, refrigeration, transportation to retail outlets, and household cooking are not considered in these figures.

I watched a documentary called Fed Up, the one Katie Couric was involved in.

It profiles half a dozen families with children who are battling obesity. Each child has similar stories, but the way the issue is addressed varies. There is good information about fat and sugar contents of processed foods and some good basic discussion on how the body metabolizes various foods. It turns out that a calorie is not identical to another calorie. The body processes calories differently based on whether it comes with roughage or if it is in a full stream of sugar.

The only child who seemed to be making progress was the one whose family switched to a sugar detox diet. Both parents also lost a lot of weight and began to feel better.

Not much content in the film about what actually constitutes a detox diet, and no mention of fasting as a part of the strategies.

Here is a highly interesting article on sustainable 16 century fruit-growing methods that may replace today's greenhouse methods:

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2016-01-06/fruit-walls-urban-farming-in-the-16...

What great pictures in that article! Thanks for sharing it.

3 billion people depend on fish as a key source of protein, but over-fishing, climate, pollution, etc. threaten many stocks. See map for intersect of largest reliance and greatest decline, e.g., Africa, Asia.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/douglas-n-rader-phd/healthy-fish-healthy-folk_b_11...

(Jellyfish may inherit the seas? I've tasted it in Chinese restaurant--rubbery tasteless except for soy sauce--and I much prefer fish!)

I've just cancelled my email subscription for notices from Food Democracy Now! Their updates on GMO labeling legislation were timely, but their unrelenting crisis mongering and donation solicitations are tiresome:

"Help END Monsanto and Big Food's corruption today - Don't let them get away with stealing our democracy and our food supply!
Make a tax-deductible donation today and DOUBLE your impact to put an end to Monsanto's corruption in 2016!
Food Democracy Now! NEEDS YOUR HELP to Raise $25,000 BY MIDNIGHT Tomorrow Aug. 31 - Click here to make a tax-deductible donation to help End Monsanto and Big Food's corruption of our food and our democracy - Every bit helps..."

Instead, I've signed onto the Vermont Right to Know GMOs email list. They seem much less strident and organized to make a real difference.

Their website is
http://www.vtrighttoknowgmos.org/

>1 2wonderY: One of the most energetic farmers in the film is Joel Salatin, and I find he has written a half-dozen books about farming. So I checked one out.

Ah, I saw him on Food, Inc, and was so impressed! I hadn't realized he wrote books, too!

I forgot to mention a cookbook I read this spring.

The Nourished Kitchen by Jennifer McGruther

my review:

What a lovely book! McGruther operates an ideal kitchen. She celebrates local foods and healthy eating. Simple but thoughtful recipes, covering all aspects of food groups, with tips and helpful photos. This is the antithesis of several other cookbooks I’ve examined recently.

She also advocates some very old-fashioned kitchen ideas. She uses the meat bones to make her own broths. She praises lard. Like all the grannies, she finds delicious uses for all the parts. There is a section on offal meats (what I know as organ meats.)

Using meat bones to make homemade broth? Yes, that's a traditional approach, but the human environment has changed a lot in the last 70+ years, with skyrocketing contamination problems. If you use animal bones in cooking, be meticulous in checking the sourcing of those animal products. The list of contaminants to avoid is a long one, such as US military toxic waste in the Colorado river and numerous US watersheds, ionizing radiation releases in a surprising number of US and especially Canadian jurisdictions, water contamination from pharmaceutical waste and factory farms ... these issues and much more are well documented in a variety of media. The greatest radiation contamination problems in animal bones, however, are not from land animals but from the bones of freshwater fish, according to the US National Academies of Science.

A related problem for omnivores is that traditional food animals are near the top of the food chain, where food contamination risks are increased. The technical words here are bio-concentration and bio-accumulation.

In recent years, with the publication of definitive climate change reversal statistics from Project Drawdown and similar sources, my family and I have adopted a vegetarian diet. According to its editor, Paul Hawken, Project Drawdown indicates that widespread or global adoption of a "plant-rich diet" is the number four most effective method of reversing climate change. In Germany alone, for instance, their heavily meat-oriented eating patterns are radically changing: In the past, less than 1% of Germans were vegetarians ... now those numbers are up to 10% and still climbing. If meat-loving Germany can do this, anyone can.

The book mentioned above, The Nourished Kitchen, is based on previous books by Sally Fallon. Sally works very closely with the Weston A. Price foundation, which receives huge financial subsidies from the US meat and dairy industry. That very troubling financial conflict of interest is why I do not recommend Sally Fallon's writings, nor those from writers using her methods. That's why "The Nourished Kitchen" is not a book I plan to recommend.

Here is a 2017 update from US writer Jim Hightower on the US agricultural scene. I didn't realize, for example, that it has been 16 years since US agricultural policy has been even mentioned in a US presidential election. Link:

https://hightowerlowdown.org/article/2017-state-plate/

Due to climate change, many Americans will be starting to eat lower on the food chain:

https://grist.org/article/lone-star-ticks-are-a-carnivores-nightmare-and-theyre-...

A big analysis of environmental data strengthens the case for plant-based diets
Susan Milius | June 6, 2018

...Agricultural data from 38,700 farms plus details of processing and retailing in 119 countries show wide differences in environmental impacts — from greenhouse gas emissions to water used — even between producers of the same product, says environmental scientist Joseph Poore of the University of Oxford. The amount of climate-warming gases released in the making of a pint of beer, for example, can more than double under high-impact production scenarios. For dairy and beef cattle combined, high-impact providers released about 12 times as many greenhouse gases as low-impact producers, Poore and colleague Thomas Nemecek report in the June 1 Science.

Those disparities mean that there is room for high-impact producers to tread more lightly, Poore says. If consumers could track such differences, he argues, purchasing power could push for change.

The greatest changes in the effect of a person’s diet on the planet, however, would still come from choosing certain kinds of food over others. On average, producing 100 grams of protein from beef leads to the release of 50 kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions, which the researchers calculated as a carbon-dioxide equivalent. By comparison, 100 grams of protein from cheese releases 11 kg in production, from poultry 5.7 kg and from tofu 2 kg.

...Producing food overall accounts for 26 percent of global climate-warming emissions, and takes up about 43 percent of the land that’s not desert or covered in ice, the researchers found. Out of the total carbon footprint from food, 57 percent comes from field agriculture, livestock and farmed fish. Clearing land for agriculture accounts for 24 percent and transporting food accounts for another 6 percent...

Citations

J. Poore and T. Nemecek. Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science. Vol. 360, June 1, 1018, p. 987. doi: 10.1126/science.aaq0216...

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/plant-based-diets-greenhouse-gases-environme...

>24 margd:
Another take on the same study, from the Guardian newspaper:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-s...

Ditch the almond milk: why everything you know about sustainable eating is probably wrong
Tony Naylor | Wed 5 Sep 2018

...of the dairy alternatives, oat milk is the most sustainable option
...to make 1 litre of almond milk, it takes 1,611 US gallons

...Avoid Brazilian tofu.
In South America, soy farming (mostly for animal feed), is driving deforestation and the destruction of Brazil’s Cerrado grasslands. “Both release huge amounts of carbon dioxide and are a biodiversity disaster,” says Dr John Kazer, footprint certification manager at the Carbon Trust. Usually 90% less, tofu originating from deforested Brazilian pastures has a carbon footprint twice that of chicken.
...choose tofu brands (eg Taifun) that source super low-carbon European or US soy.

...Tinned chickpeas should not be a cause for concern. (except if BPA in lining of can?)
Cooking in industrial food manufacturing is more efficient than cooking at home, which makes using pre-cooked rice or tinned chickpeas over dried an energy saver. (Don’t worry about the can: there is healthy demand for recycled steel.) Think about using a microwave, too, advises Kazer: “For smaller portions for one or two, compared to the hob, the energy use is a lot lower.”

...Get a cotton tote bag and use it, often.
...you need to use your bag-for-life eight times before its carbon footprint is lower than an ordinary carrier bag. An organic cotton tote must be used 149 times to be in credit. Keep them handy. Use them often.

...Eat New Zealand lamb
Imported New Zealand lamb has a lower carbon footprint than British lamb, concluded a 2009 report for Defra. Kiwi lamb is reared at such a low intensity that, even after shipping, it uses less energy. Of course, there are other issues around sustainability that mean you may still want to support British sheep farmers, but that starkly illustrates how “food miles” are no measure of a product’s green credentials, and that there are no easy answers to global warming.

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2018/sep/05/ditch-the-almond-milk-why-everythin...

Marco Springmann et al. 2018. Options for Keeping the Food System within Environmental Limits. Nature. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0594-0.epdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0594-0

Abstract

The food system is a major driver of climate change, changes in land use, depletion of freshwater resources, and pollution of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems through excessive nitrogen and phosphorus inputs. Here we show that between 2010 and 2050, as a result of expected changes in population and income levels, the environmental effects of the food system could increase by 50–90% in the absence of technological changes and dedicated mitigation measures, reaching levels that are beyond the planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity. We analyse several options for reducing the environmental effects of the food system, including dietary changes towards healthier, more plant-based diets, improvements in technologies and management, and reductions in food loss and waste. We find that no single measure is enough to keep these effects within all planetary boundaries simultaneously, and that a synergistic combination of measures will be needed to sufficiently mitigate the projected increase in environmental pressures.

______________________________________________________________________________

'Flexitarian' diets key to feeding people in a warming world
Matt McGrath | 11 October 2018

If the world wants to limit climate change, water scarcity and pollution, then we all need to embrace "flexitarian" diets...

This means eating mainly plant-based foods, and is one of three key steps towards a sustainable future for all in 2050...

Food waste will need to be halved and farming practices will also have to improve...

Without action, the impacts of the food system could increase by up to 90%.

Dr Marco Springmann from the University of Oxford..."You can go from a diet that has small amounts of animal products, some might call it a Mediterranean based diet, we call it a flexitarian diet, over to a pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan diet - we tried to stay with the most conservative one of these which in our view is the flexitarian one, but even this has only one serving of red meat per week."

...as well as altering diets...farming practices need to change significantly. This involves boosting yields from existing cropland, improving water management and restricting and recycling fertiliser use.

...halving the amount of food lost to waste would reduce the environmental impacts of agriculture by 16%.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45814659

Reply on flexitarian/pescatarian/vegetarian/vegan diet recommendations above: 1) The flexitarian diet has no science so far to show that it is associated with human health improvement. 2) The new term of pescatarian actually describes the 100+ year old macrobiotic diet ... numerous books are available that document health improvements in human individuals and groups using macrobiotics. One medical example is William Castelli, MD, who has found improvement among macrobiotic groups on cardiovascular disease resistance; Dr. Castelli is the first principal investigator of the famous ongoing Framingham (Massachusetts) human health studies. PS: There is also a 21st century trend toward a vegan macrobiotic diet. 3) Flexitarian as a conservative diet? ... based on what?

Reply on The Guardian article above on food: Everyone, so far I find The Guardian's coverage of environmental issues to often be poorly fact-checked. Examples from the above article: 1) Is oat milk more sustainable than almond milk? First, the press reports on the water footprint of almond trees are based on data from the US meat and dairy industries, which have an immensely greater water footprint than does the growing of almond trees. Second, I have made both oat milk and almond milk at home, since commercial grain and nut milks have many low quality additives; oat milk tastes great, but it becomes horribly gummy when heated; almond milk works well in both raw and cooked recipes, so I find the "more sustainable" nature of oat milk a non-issue in cooking at home. PS: Disease-resistant chestnut trees are now being planted by California nut tree commercial growers ... so will chestnuts become the next victim of food disinformation campaigns? ... ridiculous. 2) Canned chickpeas are discussed next. They are called garbanzo beans in North America. These legumes are now widely available in non-BPA cans. When you have time, however, dried garbanzos that you soak and cook have more flavor than the canned products. That article's unsupported endorsement of microwave cooking is highly controversial and not helpful. 3) New Zealand lamb is a much better food value than other lamb, but the environmental cost of any meat source over vegetarian foods is enormous, according to Project Drawdown and other independent science-based evaluations.

>28 MaureenRoy:

The Nature article is recommending diets that benefit the environment, not necessarily human health.

"Conservative" description of flexitarian diet refers to smallest possible shift from SAD, Standard American Diet, to plant-based.

Flexitarian: "no science".
Pescatarian/macrobiotic: "numerous books".
Hmm.

ETA: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30157978
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1613502

Don't think I could choke them down, but the freeze-dried mealworms I bought for my bluebirds DO smell toasty good...
Hopefully, insects will always be sustainably sourced--wild ones aren't doing so well.

Sustainable pet food – are insects the answer?
Catherine Early | 10th January 2019

Dog food containing grubs mixed with oats and potato has been launched today, in the latest development in the trend to lower the environmental impact of food.

The insects in the pet food by Yora are reared in the Netherlands, and contain protein, fats, minerals and amino acids. They live on vegetable matter that would otherwise go uneaten, reaching full size in 14 days, removing the need for growth hormones or antibiotics often found in meat, according to Yora.

Dog and cat food contributes around 25-30% of the environmental impacts from animal production, in terms of the use of land, water, fossil fuel, phosphate and biocides, and releases significant amounts of the greenhouse gases methane and nitrous oxide, according to a study by professor Gregory Okin from the University of California...

https://theecologist.org/2019/jan/10/sustainable-pet-food-are-insects-answer

>30 margd:

Lots of people eat insects. In Kenya and South Sudan termites are considered very tasty, and I couldn't agree more. In Uganda I have eaten stewed grasshoppers. In South Africa I have eaten mopani worms, a variety of large caterpillar - they look and taste a bit like burnt sausages, not my favourite meal but no worse than, er, a burnt sausage. In Thailand I've tasted a variety of fried insects including grubs and giant cockroaches. I really can't understand why people are so fussy about this source of protein.

>31 John5918: Just can't get my head around insects as food... Maybe if I were starving--I've heard there's a palatable cricket flour?

(There are a couple more traditional protein sources I also can't handle due to 1. a slaughterhouse story, 2. a parasitology lab, 3...
Wish I could put associations out of mind, so I won't spoil others' dinner by sharing the details! Reservations are esthetics, not safety.
I'm privileged, I know, to have options.)

Now I'm curious--wonder if my little dog would eat the bluebirds' freeze-dried mealworms. (Freeze-dried mealworms are not cheap, BTW, but bluebirds can look so dingy and sad this time of year... Apparently male scouts cram into nestbox overnight, so I try to weatherproof it a bit, adding a handful of mealworms. Put out a birdbath nearby...)

You could grow your own mealworms in a bin.

>32 margd:

I suppose there are a lot of arbitrary and usually senseless food prejudices. In my native UK people are horrified at the continental habit of eating horse meat, snails and frog legs (all of which I enjoy). When I was growing up offal was a common meal, but nowadays most British people seem to spurn it (except the Scots who eat haggis, but then most other peope seem to spurn haggis). In much of Africa offal stew is a popular dish. The chicken gizzard and fish head are considered delicacies, offered to elders - fortunately I am now in that sort of age group! In Sudan a delicacy prepared for 'Id al Adha is the lungs, intestines and stomach of the goat chopped up, mixed with onions, lime juice and hot pepper, and served raw. Luckily it is often offered to one's neighbours in a spirit of hospitality, so I was able to get my fair share of it once a year - the taste is overwhelmed by the hot pepper, but the texture is wonderful. My wife is disgusted by sushi - she can't imagine eating raw fish (or meat). I think I can say that I have been able to eat (and usually enjoy) every food that has ever been offered to me in every culture I have been in. In the developed world we waste so much of each animal we kill; here people tend to try to make use of almost all of it (as our own ancestors did not so long ago, before industrialisation and urbanisation).

>33 2wonderY: I remember a fellow fish fancier growing mealworms--I should look into it. Tx for reminder.

>34 John5918: You've got me beat. Here I thought I was brave preparing venison liver for my guys...

A fox, a vulture, and a lawnmower nearly put me off fish this past summer--and I love fish. When there'a big blow, "morts" wash in. I understand vultures have strong stomach acids, but I wonder how fox survived his dinner. I read somewhere that there are extra B vitamins in Inuit's fermented fish recipe, but that even Kabloona couldn't develop a taste for it.

New plant-focused diet would ‘transform’ planet’s future, say scientists (Guardian)

Globally, the diet requires red meat and sugar consumption to be cut by half, while vegetables, fruit, pulses and nuts must double. But in specific places the changes are stark. North Americans need to eat 84% less red meat but six times more beans and lentils. For Europeans, eating 77% less red meat and 15 times more nuts and seeds meets the guidelines...

The diet to save lives, the planet and feed us all? (BBC)

Make Your Grocery Game Zero-Waste
Mukta Patil | Feb 4 2019

...the zero-waste grocery store.

These small-but-budding enterprises are increasingly popping up, and they're promising plastic-free, packaging-free products ranging from grains and produce to detergent and shampoo.

...All you need is an army of cloth bags, jars, bottles, and cans. After all, this is a war against packaging and food waste, and you’re in it to win it. As you march toward the grocery store front lines, keep these five pointers in mind.

1. Take a close look at your trash... https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/food-recovery-challenge-frc ...

2. Make Lists... https://www.choosemyplate.gov/budget-create-grocery-game-plan ...

3. Buy in Bulk... https://www.litterless.com/bulk-food-guide ...

4. Refill and Reuse... https://www.fillgood.co/...https://therefillshoppe.com/ ...

5. Be mindful of date labels on food... https://www.foodsafety.gov/keep/foodkeeperapp/index.html ...

Talk to Your Grocer About Food Waste

...Does your local store house a suggestion box? Because here are three ways grocery stores can reduce food waste:

1. Embrace technology. From monitoring the state of fruit and vegetables as they are being transported to helping grocers stock the optimal number of lettuce heads, technology has a lot to offer grocery stores. For example, Zest Labs can reveal the shelf life of a product by monitoring certain metrics like temperature and harvest conditions. Afresh is another service that uses artificial intelligence to optimize the availability of fresh food and reduce waste.

2. Use donation-matching software. These apps connect food sellers and restaurants with donation receivers such as pantries and community kitchens that’ll gladly take excess food off their hands. Some existing platforms include Spoiler Alert, Copia, Food Rescue US, and Food Cowboy.

3. Buy and sell imperfect produce. Too much importance is placed on “good-looking” produce, which leads grocers to weed out misshapen fruits and vegetables. But by moving beyond cosmetic bias, grocers can boost their revenues by marketing discounted “imperfect” produce. So tell yours that you like edible ugly ducklings! After all, popular subscription services like Imperfect Produce, Full Harvest, and Misfits Market have already proven that there’s a market for them.

https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/make-your-grocery-game-zero-waste

ETA: Better, I hope.

>37 margd: Can you please edit your post to show the entire links you've posted? And perhaps they are not showing as links because you need a space at the front of the address. I came back today wanting to explore them.

World's food supply under 'severe threat' from loss of biodiversity (Guardian)

Plants, insects and organisms crucial to food production in steep decline, says UN

There are different schools of thought on edible "ugly duckling" produce. Be aware, for example, that there was an increased appearance of strange looking produce in Japan after the onset of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. So, for example, know the location where any such produce was grown. I very rarely see ugly duckling produce at various California organic farmers markets.

From 2019 forward, new ways to find fresh produce are popping up:

http://healthylifediet.net/pop-up-produce-swap-spotlights-need-for-healthy-food-...

Vox interviews three researchers who just published a book on food inequalities, Pressure Cooker: Why Home Cooking Won't Solve Our Problems and What We Can Do About It


https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/3/5/18250471/home-cooking-moral-pressure-cook...

Kale joins the ranks of the 'Dirty Dozen' pesticide list

according to the Environmental Working Group:

In order of pesticide concentration, 2019's Dirty Dozen list is: strawberries, spinach, kale, nectarines, apples, grapes, peaches, cherries, pears, tomatoes, celery and potatoes. Among these, kale and spinach contained 1.1 to 1.8 times more pesticide residue in weight than other batches of produce.

Produce that are among the top of the list for reducing the exposure of consumers to pesticides include avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, frozen sweet peas and onions. In contrast to the Dirty Dozen, there was no detection of pesticide residues in 70% of these foods. Less than 1% of avocados and sweet corn tested positive for pesticides and were considered the cleanest of the list.

the Clean Fifteen™

Pesticide residues found in 70% of produce sold in US even after washing

>43 2wonderY:

In Kenya kale is part of the staple diet, especially for poorer households. Locally it is known as 'sukuma wiki', literally 'pushing the week', meaning it is cheap food that you can buy towards the end of the week when you have little money left. While Kenya makes heavy use of pesticides and other chemicals on the vegetables and flowers which it exports to Europe and the USA, much of the locally-consumed kale is grown by small-scale and subsistence farmers and is probably fairly chemical free.

>44 John5918: Good! Yeah, these statistics are primarily US-centric. I despair the chemical burdens we are placing on our grandchildren.

Throwing Away Food is Like Throwing Away People, Pope Says (Catholic News Service)

Study finds residue of pesticides, antibiotics and growth hormone in non-organic milk

The study, conducted by Emory University in Atlanta was funded by Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization The Organic Center and looked at a total of 69 samples of conventional and organic milks pulled from retail stores around the U.S., which were then shipped overnight to Georgia to be analyzed. The results have been published online June 26 by peer-reviewed journal Public Health Nutrition.

According to the study, antibiotic residue was detected in 60% of conventional milk samples but not in the organic samples. Among the antibiotics detected in the conventional milk samples were sulfamethazine and sulfathiazole, according to the study. Both have been outlawed for use in milk-producing cattle.

One conventional sample also contained levels of amoxicillin that were slightly higher than the FDA tolerance levels.

Bovine growth hormones, or bGH, residue levels were found in the conventional samples at an average of 9.8 ng/mL, or 20 times more than in the organic.

Pesticide residues were found in up to 60% of conventional samples and none of the organic samples. Those included atrazine (26%), chlorpyrifos (59%), cypermethrin (49%), diazinon (60%), and permethrin (46%).

> 47Think what large intake of this stuff does to growing kids with their smaller bodies--and their microbiomes!

Vindicates my Canadian sister-in-law (farm background) in at least part of her rationale against import of US milk via NFATA 2.0/USMCA.

Plan to sell 50m meals made from electricity, water and air (Guardian)

A Finnish company that makes food from electricity, water and air has said it plans to have 50m meals’ worth of its product sold in supermarkets within two years...

It is produced through a process similar to brewing beer. Living microbes are put in liquid and fed with carbon dioxide and hydrogen bubbles, which have been released from water through the application of electricity. The microbes create protein, which is then dried to make the powder...

July 2019: Where food is grown in North America may have to take a big shift:

https://phys.org/news/2019-07-analysis-ecosystems-shifting-hundreds-miles.html?f...

Well, "Blow me to Bermuda," as Merlin says in the animated film The Sword in the Stone: Here is a book excerpt that features an astounding photo of the ancient grain kernza, which has more grain nutrition than modern wheat, and a seed that is similar to low-gluten wheat:

https://books.google.com/books?id=3UJUCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT257&lpg=PT257&dq...

This perennial ancient grain also sequesters a vast amount of carbon as it grows. It could be one of the keys to regenerative agriculture.
Please scroll down quite a bit in that book excerpt to see the kernza photo ... on the left is kernza, on the right is modern wheat.

Kernza crops are under development, but here is a link where it is for sale now:

https://blog.generalmills.com/2019/04/a-cereal-thats-deeply-rooted-for-good/

The World Wastes Tons of Food. A Grocery ‘Happy Hour’ Is One Answer.

Food that is nearly unsellable goes on sale at every one of S-market’s 900 stores in Finland, with prices that are already reduced by 30 percent slashed to 60 percent off at exactly 9 p.m. It’s part of a two-year campaign to reduce food waste that company executives in this famously bibulous country decided to call “happy hour” in the hopes of drawing in regulars, like any decent bar.
…
In Finland, reducing food waste has yet to become a political issue, but it is a selling point for at least one restaurant. Every dish on the menu of Loop, which is housed in a former mental hospital in Helsinki, is made from past-due ingredients donated by grocery stores and bakeries. Donations vary, so Loop’s chefs have no idea what they’ll be making until they walk into the restaurant’s kitchen.

“It’s like an episode of ‘Master Chef’ every day,” said Johanna Kohvakka, founder of the nonprofit From Waste to Taste, which operates Loop. “But we try to make every dish look great so that people can share images online and say, ‘This was about to be wasted.’”

The real cost of cheap US chicken? Chlorination is just the start (Guardian)

Concerns about the safety of post-Brexit imports mask a bigger issue: the hyper-intensive American farming model...

In reading and interpreting published science or medical reports or books that focus on human nutrition, I draw on my graduate degree coursework in public health (biostatistics, epidemiology, and the like), my training and experience as a management analyst, professional conference attendance, and my work experience in the entire range of US health care settings. In these 21st century days of industry-funded dietary interventions, "study" findings are often especially problematic. For example, it's important to know whether any cited magazine or journal references even discuss whether the principal investigators have any financial conflicts of interest to declare. That's one reason why I prefer to rely on book sources of data on human nutrition, because book publishers provide a lot more information on their authors than is available from publishers of magazines and journals.

On the subject of human nutrition, everyone has an opinion, and people often have helpful lifetime experiences to offer after improving their diets and lifestyles. Safe and effective advice, however, is that which has been verified. Some clinical studies on diet and lifestyle are more equal than others. There aren't many long term studies (2-10 years), because such studies are very expensive to do, and very technically challenging.

September 17, 2019: Seen today on a product label for organic bananas -- a number that corresponds to the farm location in Central or South America where the product was grown. Here's our farm location for the bananas we bought today:

https://www.doleorganic.com/farms/index.php/caleras-farm

>53 John5918: I already had cut my family's pork consumption after hearing one particularly unpleasant story from the "processing line". Here's more reason for discomfort with the hyper-intensive American farming model :

Trump administration allows pork slaughterhouses to have fewer USDA inspectors
Suzy Khimm | Sept. 17, 2019

The new rule also allows plants to run their processing lines as fast as they like...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-administration-allows-pork-sl...

Similarly, if meat-eaters don't farm, hunt, fish, or at least raise chickens in the backyard--throwing wrapped package in a shopping cart minimizes the connection?

Uprooted: Plant Blindness Is a Dangerous Phenomenon
October 7, 2019

In our modern world, we have lost the connection between the foods we eat and the crops that provide them. It is called “plant blindness” and it is a dangerous thing.

...“Plant blindness” refers to the fact that many humans don’t recognize that we depend on plants for survival.
~Alanna Mitchell...

http://blog.cwf-fcf.org/index.php/en/uprooted-plant-blindness-is-a-dangerous-phe...

'Banana on steroids': A potential life saver for warming world (Al Jazeera)

Described as "a banana on steroids", enset may be the superfood you've never heard of, let alone tasted, but scientists say it could be a lifesaver for a warming world.

The plant, which grows up to 10 metres (39 feet), is a staple for 20 million people in the Ethiopian highlands who turn it into bread and porridge, construction materials, packaging, cattle feed, and medicine...

"It's amazingly resilient. It's said to be very drought tolerant and we're trying to test that"...

Although a close relative of the banana, enset's orange fruit is full of bullet-like seeds and inedible.

Instead, starchy tissue from the trunk and giant underground corm - the bulbs can weigh up to 100kg (220 pounds) - is turned into a pulp and buried in a pit to ferment before being made into a chewy flatbread called "kocho"...

the plant was a "really exciting part of the mix" for food security under climate change because it grows in a huge range of conditions - "from baking to foggy and freezing cold" - and can be harvested any time...

johnthefireman and everyone, thanks for the news article on enset. After that plant ferments, it might be possible to turn its product into flour. Very interesting.

Today is January 1, 2020, so happy new year and happy new decade! In the USA, a popular New Year's dish eaten on New Year's Day to bring luck throughout that year for its diners is Hoppin' John. Its prime ingredient, like enset, comes from Africa -- black-eyed peas.

I made a big pot of black-eyed peas today and shared some with our neighbors, a young Swedish family. They promised to do a taste test and let us know what they think of that dish. The vegan ingredients I used:

2 super-large brown onions, chopped and boiled in a gallon of spring water; let it cook down for about 90 minutes or so to boil off the excess water and pre-cook the onions without oil. Then add:
2 cans of Eden Foods' organically grown black-eyed peas
1 tsp sea salt (we use New Zealand sea salt)

When cooking is almost done, add 1/2 tsp plus 1/4 tsp of ground organic cardamom. Mix well, and ideally cook no longer than 5 minutes more to avoid denaturing the flavor of the spice. It's then ready to serve.

Note: The purpose of the cardamom is to sweeten the black-eyed peas, which otherwise taste very dry and bland.

>59 MaureenRoy:

Thanks, Maureen, and a peaceful and blessed 2020 to you and everyone.

I'm always excited when the wider world discovers some of the riches of Africa, and of course it's a good argument for preserving species as there are so many riches in food, medicine and other uses which we have not even discovered yet in the more remote parts of Africa and elsewhere, although usually they are known locally.

However there are also dangers when the rich Global North embarks on a new fad. Avocados are a good example. Many African farmers are switching to avocado production as there is now a vibrant market for them amongst yuppies (or millennials, or whatever they are called these days) in the Global North and even in China. In the short term it's good for the farmers, but at the same time land which was being used to feed Africans is now being used to grow export crops. The other danger is that the fad will pass (maybe because the fickle Global North discovers enset!) and farmers will suddenly find themselves bankrupt with huge stocks of rotting avocados that they can't sell. Africa is no stranger to this dynamic, which was started by the colonialists encouraging the growth of things like sisal and cotton for export, but these markets collapsed when synthetic products appeared. And of course the move towards biofuels led to huge areas of food-producing land in the Global South turned over to producing crops to make biofuel, once again mainly to satsify the appetite of the Global North. I don't know what the solution is, but it's a huge and complex issue.

Re African foods, vegan MD Michael Greger frequently cites articles comparing diets with Africa's fiber-rich diets apparently protecting the people from a lot of western ills. (Nutrition facts.org, I think: I like that he works off studies published in science journals. Though if he's had anything good go say about animal foods, I've missed it. He seems, however to have corrected error of one of his staff when it came to contaminants in farm v wild salmon, i.e., former as contaminated, sometimes moreso.)

Belching in a good way: How livestock could learn from Orkney sheep (BBC)

The northernmost Orkney island, North Ronaldsay, is home to just 50 people and 2,000 sheep. Since the 19th Century, when islanders built a stone wall to confine the flock to the shoreline, it has survived on seaweed alone - and it now seems that this special diet could hold the key to greener, more climate-friendly livestock farming... Short-tailed, small and coloured white, grey or chocolate brown, the sheep are descendants of the most primitive breeds of ruminants, Kevin says, and have been living on the island for thousands of years... They are one of only two groups of animals on Earth that exist on purely on seaweed; the other is a marine iguana which lives in the Galapagos Islands...

Studies from the US, New Zealand and Australia have shown that livestock that have some seaweed in their diets belch far less methane than animals fed on grass or general feed. And since methane is a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect almost 30 times as powerful as that of carbon dioxide, the solely seaweed-eating North Ronaldsay sheep could provide an answer to greener farming...

In a year, a cow produces about the same greenhouse effect as a car that burns 1,000 litres of petrol, so it's fairly evident how beneficial it would be to reduce livestock's carbon hoof-print simply by altering their diet. David's experiments have shown that carbon dioxide as well as methane emissions are lowered when seaweed is introduced into feed...

Interesting. Remember the starving reindeer unable to paw through ice to graze, turning instead to seaweed. Natural selection will be rough...

How vegetarianism is going back to its roots in Africa (Guardian)

Health and climate concerns are behind the growth of plant-based diets which were once prevalent on the continent...

And, for many poorer Africans, cost - meat is expensive.

In 2020, an update on total climate costs of foods, by geographic source, in a bar graph:

https://ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local

Climate change: 'Eat locally produced meat to save planet' (BBC)

Consumers do not need to give up meat to help combat climate change, the founder of Extinction Rebellion Farmers group has said. Instead shoppers should choose local, sustainably-produced food over imports...

A lot of the meat I eat is running around eating grass within a few kms of our home until a couple of hours before we slaughter it and put it in the freezer. We often barter a solar powered lamp in exchange for a sheep or goat.

Why the vegan diet is not always green (BBC)

“But it’s essential to be mindful about everything we consume: air-transported fruit and veg can create more greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram than poultry meat, for example"...

Avocadoes can be an important source of protein, vitamins and fatty acids for people cutting out meat from their diet. But they also guzzle up huge amounts of water... To grow a single avocado it has been estimated to take anything from 140 litres (30 gallons) to 272 litres (60 gallons) of water – or about 834 litres (183 gallons) per kilogram of fruit. In some areas, like Peru and Chile, the growing demand for the crop has led to illegal extraction from rivers and has been blamed for an increasing water-shortage crisis... After harvesting, however, avocadoes and mangoes are also bathed in hot water for over an hour to prevent insect infestations and control decay. Their highly delicate flesh and rapid ripening also means that much of the fruit imported to Europe and the US is flown there by air. Together with the amount of waste, special storage conditions and packaging needed for avocados, this helps to give the fruit a hefty carbon footprint...

Mushrooms... for a crop that flourishes without light by feeding on rotting organic waste, they can have a surprising impact... Most of the emissions come from the energy needed to keep the rooms where mushrooms are cultivated warm...

cocoa and raw cacao products have a dark side when it comes to the environment. “Cocoa is also a major driver of tropical deforestation and one of the biggest contributors to global biodiversity loss after beef, pork, and poultry meat”... But the crop still accounts for only a tiny proportion of the areas of forest being cut down globally each year – palm oil and soy account for far more...

Tree nuts in general are perhaps the anti-heroes of the vegan diet. They are packed with valuable nutrients and proteins, yet they arguably take more than their fair share of environmental resources. Cashew nuts, almonds and walnuts are some of the most water-intensive large-scale crops grown on the planet...

On "Why the vegan diet is not always green" from the BBC: In the 21st century, the BBC has had so much of its budget removed that it can't do much original reporting anymore. To me, the biggest problem with the growing of cacao is its long, sad history of worker exploitation, particularly of children. In recent years I found a cocoa product (Dagoba) that is organically grown in areas of Latin America and Tanzania. On the product label, they state that the cacao is sustainably grown on small family-owned farms and co-ops. They also sponsor other product-related non-profit efforts. So that's one cacao product. Regarding the water-intensive requirements of tree nuts, that unfortunately is propaganda created by the global meat and dairy industry. It's much cheaper for the BBC to pass that "information" on to its viewers than to investigate the entire story of water-intensive agriculture around the world. The global meat and dairy industries consume by far the largest percentage of water resources of any agricultural efforts. The enormous water usage requirements of the global meat and dairy industry dwarfs the water usage data for any non-animal-based agricultural products, be those tree nuts or not.

On the website and books of Michael Greger, MD: Dr. Greger is one of the few physicians who has taken the time to investigate global medical research on the human health effects of diets based on traditional, relatively unprocessed foods. Many of those research findings are based on studies conducted in 20th century Africa and England by the English surgeon Denis Burkitt, MD. Burkitt demonstrated that many of the most common diseases of the 20th and 21st centuries (heart disease, many digestive system diseases, and some vascular diseases like varicose veins) have very close to a cause and effect relationship with the consumption of modern processed foods -- perilously low in fiber -- in the last 300 years. A few years ago, after Burkitt's death was announced, the NYTimes printed his obituary, giving grudging acknowledgement that most of Burkitt's health research findings have been confirmed after they were first published. I have read a few of Greger's books so far, and they are accurate. PS: The profits if any from the Greger website and books go to charities. Greger does not make a cent of profit from his public education efforts.

>68 MaureenRoy:

Thnks for that addition to the conversation. I don't tend to think in terms of "the global meat and dairy industry" as most of the meat we eat is locally produced, grazing on land which is not very viable for crop production, and not consuming vast amounts of water or indeed any other resources except naturally growing grass and other plants. Maasai goats are renowned for tasting sweeter than goats from the city as they eat natural herbs in their diet. The last live sheep we bought, at Christmas time, we got by bartering a solar lamp with a neighbouring herder. We still have some of that meat in our (solar-powered) freezer.

I think a simple rule of thumb for personal, social justice and environmental health is that whether you are omnivorous, vegetarian or vegan, eat as much locally grown food as possible (eliminating transport issues) and eat food produced as naturally as possible, both in the way it is grown or farmed and in the way it is handled after it has been harvested or slaughtered. That may mean choosing to abstain from certain favourite delicacies which are grown halfway across the world and transported by carbon-emitting ships or aircraft, and it may also mean eating fruit and vegetables in season (like we used to do when we were kids) rather than wanting strawberries or lettuce all year round.

Incidentally, since you mention research done in Africa (where those diseases are now becoming common amongst the city people, unfortunately, as many see supermarkets and processed food as a sign of "progress" and simple rural food as being substandard or backwards), we eat a lot of a common wild vegetable, locally called managu but we think its English name is African nightshade (not the same as the deadly variety!) which grows like a weed. There are several related varieties, but all are apparently very healthy. When cooked it is dark green, looks a bit like spinach and has a slightly bitter taste. We've never had to plant or nurture it, we just find it growing wild all around our property.

>69 John5918: That may mean choosing to abstain from certain favourite delicacies which are grown halfway across the world and transported by carbon-emitting ships or aircraft

Will Americans give up coffee? Will the British give up tea? :)

When I buy food I have a set of priorities that end up being juggled, rather than all 100% adhered to:

Local / In Season / Organic / Fair Trade / Recyclable Packaging / Price / Dietary need...etc etc

Nothing ticks all those boxes except the stuff in my garden, but I try to be conscious of all of them even if, say, I need some lemons and ginger for my favorite hot and sour soup.

I do think that since humans do migrate so frequently, and bring their cultures and cuisines with them and introduce them into new places and communities, that there is something positive about shared meals between people of different cultures even if not everything on the table is locally produced. I have this idea that sharing food instills trust and acceptance like almost no other ritual we have.

>70 southernbooklady:

Thanks, Nicki. I couldn't agree more. It's about balancing a number of different priorities, and not being obsessive about one or the other. Tea and coffee are good examples, although I'm fortunate to live where both are grown locally.

And I also agree entirely about the importance of sharing food together as a ritual. It's still a very intentional practice in much of Africa.

John, did you see >65 MaureenRoy:? Maybe it doesn't apply to your circumstance but it argues that where the food comes from has far less impact on global warming then how much carbon comes from producing it.

>72 jjwilson61:

Thanks. I hadn't noticed that one. It's a complicated balancing act, I think, trying to find the best equation.

>70 southernbooklady: And for me, the hardest to give up would be chocolate.

>67 John5918: I reread what you posted. It mentions palm oil and soy for cutting down forests. I try so hard to buy things that don't contain palm oil. I do not like to cook. It is so so difficult to find items in the grocery store that don't have palm oil, though I've been trying for years. I do my best on that one.

There is another view of tree-nuts, which is that as a protein source, they are actually carbon-negative, at least when those trees are grown on farmland:

https://ourworldindata.org/less-meat-or-sustainable-meat

That chart does not mention other vegetarian protein sources, such as tempeh. So I'm going to assume that the carbon footprint of tempeh is equivalent to that for tofu. Probably that's also true for natto, another vegetarian protein source. Some enjoy natto, others avoid it; natto is one of only four traditionally fermented foods, those others being miso, tempeh, and soy sauce (also called shoyu).

The teaching about four main naturally fermented protein-rich foods being the most nutritious fermented foods for human beings originated with macrobiotic teachers like George Ohsawa, starting 100 years ago in Japan before he began living and teaching in France and then New York City. I also enjoy fermented black bean sauce, which unfortunately is currently unavailable as an organically grown item; Lee Kum Kee brand sells black bean garlic sauce in glass jars at many natural food stores, and in Chinatowns and Japantowns in Western countries...perhaps in Africa as well? -- those "black beans" are actually soybeans, if I understand that recipe correctly. Just be careful to be sparing in using that sauce, because 1 TBSP of black bean sauce contains 1120 mg of sodium ... salt is the medium in which those black beans are fermented, that's why their sodium content is so high.

When I make a batch of seasoned tofu, I use 2 chopped yellow onions and 2 chopped carrots, boiled in water in a frying pan (start with water level just about at the top of the frying pan), about 30-45 minutes (in order to fully cook the onions without added oils). Then add 1 box of tofu (Trader Joe red box of organic low-fat tofu, cubed) and 2 rounded TBSP of black bean sauce, dissolved in some water first to remove any bean sauce lumps. Cook the mixture down until the water is boiled off ... it's then ready to serve. Sounds humble, but it's our favorite homemade dinner.

We only consume seasoned tofu about once a month, since tofu is a heavily processed and unfermented form of soybeans. Wildwood and other vendors sell a sprouted form of tofu, so you might want to be aware of that product.

Avocado: the 'green gold' causing environment havoc (World Economic Forum)

• The avocado boom means 11 billion pounds are consumed annually worldwide.

• Intensive production in Michoacán state, Mexico has caused environment damage on multiple fronts.

• The avocado supply chain desperately needs international monitoring and standards...

US nutritionist and author Marion Nestle has a new blog post on whether it is safe to consume fresh produce during a pandemic:

https://www.foodpolitics.com/2020/03/is-it-safe-to-eat-fresh-produce-yes-with-ca...

Edible insects set to be approved by EU in 'breakthrough moment' (Guardian)

It is being billed as the long-awaited breakthrough moment in European gastronomy for mealworm burgers, locust aperitifs and cricket granola.

Within weeks the EU’s European Food Safety Authority is expected by the insect industry to endorse whole or ground mealworms, lesser mealworms, locusts, crickets and grasshoppers as being safe for human consumption.

The ruling is likely to lead to the final authorisation of their sale across the EU as a “novel food” by as soon as the autumn, opening up opportunities for mass production of a range of insect dishes to be sold across Europe for the first time...

Brits cut food waste with 'lockdown larders' during coronavirus pandemic (Guardian)

It is a snapshot of a more abstemious nation, as staying at home and being unable to eat out means Britons are making their food go further and throwing less away.

Consumers are rising to the challenge of a “lockdown larder” as a result of the pandemic, and ignoring recommendations on best-before and use-by labels and piling less food on to their plates, new research has revealed...

One of the small positive side effects of the pandemic...

Thank you, John5918, for this article on "lockdown larders." Starting in the 1960s, macrobiotic teachers around the world have taught about not only the need for in-home food pantries, but also best practices. Examples include keeping stored dry goods in air-tight glass or ceramic containers, adding 1-2 bay laurel leaves to the top level in each container to discourage insect activity, keeping stored dry goods away from heat and *light*, etc.

John5918, if you are in the British Isles, here is a link for a macrobiotic teacher in London who is knowledgeable about "larders," lockdown or not. I have no financial connection with him, but he often gives free lectures:

http://chienergy.co.uk/

What about duration? That's controversial. Recently, some writers have begun to criticize more than a two-week supply of any food as "hoarding." So far, that seems an extreme view, or at any rate subjective. Alternatively, the Mormon church has always recommended that Mormon families, as an article of faith, keep on hand a 7-year supply of dry goods (grains, beans, and the like). The outlier view seems to be certain psychic predictions that COVID-19 will make its last Earthly appearance in 2030, so that argues for a 10-year supply of dried foods. I have never had much luck keeping long-grain rice over the long term, though: It turns stale (or worse) in considerably less than one year; your mileage may vary.

Be aware of the following news article by Michael Pollan on the US food industry and human health risk factors in the age of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the upside, Mr. Pollan includes an impressive set of references at the end of that article. See especially that last reference, a medical study so new that it is still awaiting peer review and formal publication; it finds a strong correlation between the clinical laboratory test C-reactive protein (a marker for generalized inflammation in the human body) and increased healing difficulties for COVID-19 patients.

https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2020/06/11/covid-19-sickness-food-supply/

In general US food news, a considerable price spike is now being seen in US grocery stores. Not affected, however, are food prices at US farmers' markets. So keep that in mind when you decide where to do your food shopping. In addition, some emerging evidence on air transmission of COVID-19 suggests that open-air environments (like farmers' markets) may be safer places to shop than enclosed grocery stores.

>81 MaureenRoy: if you are in the British Isles

No, I'm from the British Isles but left there over 40 years ago. Currently I'm living on our own land in rural Kenya. We grow many of our own vegetables, harvest wild greens that grow like weeds, buy meat on the hoof from our neighbours, and last week also started buying milk straight from the cow from another neighbour. We're not self-sufficient, and we still buy a variety of stuff, but we could last a while (far more than 2 weeks but probably not seven years!) on our own resources and what we have stored in our basement.

How to rid East Africa of locusts? Serve them in a kebab... (The East African)

Scientists at ICIPE are experimenting with biopesticides and the use of locusts as human and animal food as they look for environmentally-friendly extermination methods. The protein-rich insects can then be cooked or crushed into meal or oil suitable for animal feed or human consumption. ICIPE organizes regular events to normalize the consumption of insects...

>84 John5918: That's a wonderful attitude; and necessary. The best way to control a population of items is to create a market for them. I read about a bamboo gardener who was asked how they control it in it's bed. The answer was neighbors harvest the edges for food.

In stores on August 11, 2020, Perilous Bounty by Tom Philpott (Bloomsbury Pub.) examines increasing problems in US agriculture. If each family were to buy and store a few pounds of grains, beans, and smaller quantities of sprouting seeds, plus buying regularly from farmers' markets and growing a home vegetable garden, eating lower on the food chain, and asking for more organic produce at grocery stores, a lot of these pressures on the US agriculture industry could be mitigated.

>86 MaureenRoy: plus buying regularly from farmers' markets and growing a home vegetable garden

Not an easy prospect for people who live in an urban environment. City planners need to start factoring space for community gardens and open-air markets into their renovation projects. And CSAs need to be more accessible to people who don't have access to a garden or a farmer's market.

SouthernBookLady, understood. In my younger years, I lived in a number of tiny apartments and dorms ... only one of those even had a balcony. Some companies now sell planter boxes for families without much plant growing space, so that's a partial workaround solution. I'm not a fan of hydroponics ... there's got to be significant plastic transfer from container --> water --> plant.

Another problem with farmers' markets is that the adequacy of their management varies hugely. In southeast Los Angeles county, in several majority-Latino neighborhoods, the farmers' markets have zero organic food.

You spoke above about buying lemons and ginger for your favorite hot-and-sour soup. Could you share that recipe with us? Thanks.

>88 MaureenRoy: I'm lucky enough to have a garden. I have a goal of being able to eat something out of it every month of the year. It took me a while to find a rhythm that would allow that, but now I am mostly successful. (This month I'm eating lots of tomatoes, peppers, and figs). I've become interested in the rise of Black farming initiatives, (Ira Wallace is the driving force behind my favorite seed company), which are often focused on adapting community gardens to urban settings. One of my personal heroines, Leah Penniman, was just on CNN:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/25/business/young-black-farmers/index.html

As for the hot and sour soup recipe, it originally came from Steve Alder:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/56358/thai-hot-and-sour-soup/

But I'm vegetarian and don't have access to good international markets for ingredients, do the way I do it is a little different. I replaced the chicken stock with vegetable stock, the chicken with tofu. Tom Yum paste can't be found in my supermarket and has fish sauce, so I don't use it. Instead, add a little sambal or other chili paste. I have a vegetarian substitute for fish sauce that involves soy sauce and shitake mushrooms simmered down to a strong sauce.

And I added ginger, because it is my favorite flavor in the world, with the possible exception of black pepper.

so the way I make that soup is in my wok: I chop the ginger and garlic together into a fine mix, then sautee them in the wok in a little oil until they are soft and golden. Then I stir in the sambal or red chili paste, and turn up the heat a bit and add the tofu (I like to have it cubed). When the tofu starts to turn golden, I add the broth, bring the soup to a simmer, and stir in the lemon grass and kaffir lime leaves and let that simmer about five minutes. Then I add the mushrooms, "fish sauce", and lime juice and anything else I have decided to put in -- green chili peppers sometimes, scallions, etc. When those are cooked through, it's ready to serve, topped with basil/cilantro

Thank you very much for the recipe. We will check it out.

Here are some tools that encourage a planetary shift away from animal products. Their calculator is interesting, at the bottom of the page:

https://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/press_releases/?944291/WWF-Launches-Planet-Based-...

Here is a deep look at how the global consumption of bananas came about. In our SoCal grocery stores, we used to be able to buy bananas from Ecuador and Costa Rica, as well as Mexico. But starting in the last half of 2020, only bananas from Mexico are still being sold in our region. After reading the following analysis, now I know why:

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/bananas-have-died-out-once-before?

From the international science journal Nature comes a proposal for a more sustainable human diet:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03443-6

The health and climate consequences of the American food system cost three times as much as the food itself
A new report provides a roadmap to creating a post-pandemic food system with greater fairness, fewer adverse climate impacts and better health outcomes.
Laura Reiley | July 16, 2021

...if U.S. rates of diet-related diseases were reduced to similar rates in countries like Canada, health care costs could be reduced by $250 billion per year.

This would require the food industry to focus on creating healthier foods and adhering to more rigorous regulations for the marketing of unhealthy foods...

Separately, the report also suggests that if the U.S. could reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions to keep the global temperature increase below 1.5°C of preindustrial levels, then some $100 billion could be saved in additional environmental costs.

...Melissa Ho, a senior vice president at the World Wildlife Fund and also an adviser on the report, said ...people ...have trouble understanding the connection between the food system and environmental damage. She would like to see more performance-based metrics and tools to assess things like how much carbon a farmer or rancher is returning to the soil.

“We must shift our farming practices and systems to be more regenerative and resilient. We can do this if we realign and shift our public policies and programs to support producers and drive this transition from the ground up,” she said. Based on the way the system is set up right now, she added, it’s not easy or lucrative for farmers to transition to less harmful agriculture practices, such as not tilling or using cover crops that help build soil and prevent erosion...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/16/true-cost-of-american-food-sy...
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True Cost of Food
Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System (38 p)
The Rockefeller Foundation | July 21, 2021

...As a country, we spend a total of $1.1 trillion a year on food. But when the impacts of the food system on different parts of our society—including rising health care costs, climate change, and biodiversity loss—are factored in, the bill grows. Accounting for these costs, the true cost of food is at least $3.2 trillion a year, more than three times the current expenditure on food...

https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/True-Cost-of-Fo...

Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, soil scientist in New Zealand:

Opinion: In no case will a vegan diet be better for the planet than a moderate omnivorous diet

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/dr-jacqueline-rowarth-why-veganism-w...

“ Researchers from Oklahoma State University have gathered the data, done the calculations, and state that "Regardless of the type of beef production system, the majority of beef cattle's nutrient requirements over a lifetime are met with human inedible feeds. Only 7 per cent of beef cattle's lifetime feed intake is corn grain."

The other 93 per cent of the animal's lifetime diet is generally inedible to humans, and not in direct competition with the human food supply.
In fact, by digesting fibre and converting previously human-inedible feeds into nutritious, human-edible foods, ruminants increase the land available for human food production.

In the US, a considerable proportion of cattle diet is distiller's grains, which is a by-product of alcohol production from corn (either for fuel or human consumption).

The amount of distiller's grains fed to beef cattle has increased rapidly this century as the production of fuel from corn has increased.

The Oklahoma State University researchers suggested that improvements in corn productivity (yield per unit of input, including land) would do more to help the sustainability of land use than tinkering with cattle diets.

Improvements suggested include no-till or conservation tillage practices to reduce soil erosion and increase soil organic carbon, the use of winter cover crops to reduce nutrient run-off and using precision agriculture techniques to apply fertiliser at variable rates across field to minimize nutrient emissions to the environment while improving corn yields. These are practices already in common use in New Zealand.

The argument then becomes human edible crops instead of grass, but that change requires more fertiliser, including nitrogen, per hectare, plus fossil fuels for machines.“

Canterbury-based nutrition scientist, Dr. Graeme Coles and Dr. Jacqueline Rowarth

Examine the complexities of the costs and benefits of a vegan diet.

Comment: In their efforts to protect animal welfare do vegans run the risk of damaging the planet?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/dr-jacqueline-rowarth-the-moral-dile...

And in Africa much of the livestock grazes on natural grass and shrubs which are inedible to humans, often in habitats which are not easily usable for growing crops for humans.

UN summit on agricultural practices resulted in the report
In Cows We Trust

An article with links to the report:
https://hlovins.medium.com/in-cows-we-trust-5928830deaf6

Grasslands coevolved with vast herds of grazing animals over tens of millions of years. They require appropriate grazing impact to thrive. A growing body of evidence shows that when livestock — particularly ruminant ungulates (e.g., cows, sheep, and goats) — are managed in a way that replicates historical herd movements, soil carbon stocks increase rapidly. Other signs of ecological health, such as soil moisture, plant cover, and biodiversity also improve. There are doubters, but the science is clear.
A seminal 2016 journal article by range ecologist Dr. Richard Teague of Texas A&M University and colleagues, titled “The role of ruminants in reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint in North America,” shows that when cattle are managed in a fashion Teague calls “Adaptive Multi-paddock Grazing (or AMP Grazing)”, soil carbon stocks increase at a rate of 1.2 metric tons per acre per year. The total potential for North American rangeland to sequester carbon is estimated to be 800 million metric tons of carbon per year. For context, our Summit paper noted this amounts to “nearly half of all US GHG emissions.” Other research cited shows greater carbon sequestration rates resulting from properly managed grazing.

Farmers don’t have to contribute to the environmental crisis – we can solve it (Guardian)

As a farmer I produce meat and cheese from animals that graze in my orchard on diverse, carbon-sequestering grasslands...managed his farm, with its traditional orchards, hedgerows, and meadows, as an ecosystem... Our family-run farm in Dorset produces meat, cheese, vegetables and apple juice, using many of these same agroecological farming methods. Agroecological farming means we nurture the soil, insects, grassland, plants, animals and trees on our land to provide healthy affordable food for our local community. For us, farming isn’t just a business, and it isn’t just about feeding human beings – it’s about feeding all living things on the planet...

The regenerative revolution in food (BBC)

Low lying and layered with clay, the soils of Molescroft Farm in East Yorkshire have never been the easiest to cultivate. Driven by ever-dwindling productivity, the land was pushed to its limits for decades – more passes with machinery, more fertilisers, more pesticides. These intensive agricultural practices kept the farm afloat; but beneath the surface, the soil was dying. "The land had been farmed very conventionally, so the ground was overworked and had lost its organic matter," recalls managing director Tamara Hall, who joined the estate in 2003. "We had to change, for environmental reasons as well as profitability."

And so, bit by bit, Molescroft was reworked with sustainability in mind. The farm's main crops – wheat, peas, beans and barley – had their rotation widened, drainage was improved and fewer chemicals were sprayed. Cultivation was also dialled down, with far less ploughing and tilling to keep soil disturbance at a minimum. For the health of the land and its long-term yield potential, Hall believes her interventions have been resoundingly positive. But in the short-term, these regenerative practices were expensive as yields fell, carrying the risk of financial shortfall. The solution, Hall realised, was resting beneath her feet: soil carbon.

"We're planting a lot of {ground} cover plants like phacelia and black oats that capture carbon from air and trap it in the ground. Then, when we've built up enough, we'll sell that carbon as credits to companies trying to offset their emissions. It's called carbon farming"...

Assuming that the title of this thread, "The foods we eat" can also include "The booze we drink"...

Solar power is being harnessed to brew SA beer – fighting load shedding, reducing CO2 (Business Insider)

South African Breweries wants 100% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025. Castle Lite’s latest marketing campaign says this is to avoid the disruptive impact of load shedding. In the first eight months of 2021, the breweries generated more than 9.7GWh of renewable electricity, leading to a reduction of 9,443 tons of CO2 emissions...

Researchers reveal how to turn a global warming liability into a profitable food security solution (Phys Org)

Like a mirage on the horizon, an innovative process for converting a potent greenhouse gas into a food security solution has been stalled by economic uncertainty. Now, a first-of-its-kind Stanford University analysis evaluates the market potential of the approach, in which bacteria fed captured methane grow into protein-rich fishmeal. The study, published Nov. 22 in Nature Sustainability, finds production costs involving methane captured from certain sources in the U.S. are lower than the market price for conventional fishmeal. It also highlights feasible cost reductions that could make the approach profitable using other methane sources and capable of meeting all global fishmeal demand...

A full analysis of a vegan diet, prompted by “veganuary”:

https://www.zoeharcombe.com/2020/01/is-veganuary-healthy/

From a discussion on the Permies (Permaculture) discussion board concerning microwave ovens:

“ The wavelength of radiation generated in a microwave to heat food works by causing water molecules to spin rapidly, causing friction. This same wavelength of radiation has other effects, some of which are negative, and one is downright frightening. The radiation aside from making water molecules spin, breaks down delicate compounds like amino acids and certain vitamins, like some B-vitamins, into forms that can't be used by the body. The other frightening thing is how it acts on proteins. Protein molecules are complex and intricately folded in their natural state. Microwave radiation unfolds some proteins rendering some of them carcinogens which don't occur in nature. Microwaves partly destroy the nutritional value of food. Microwaving food in plastics is a great way to add toxic compounds to a meal.”

I should try to research these claims.

Why the ancient art of gleaning is making a comeback across England (Guardian)

Volunteers are picking leftover produce on farms to reduce waste and help food banks... “It’s like a vegetable treasure hunt,” says Jenni Duncan, 54, ankle deep in mud, looking at the rows of cauliflower plants stretching out in front of her as the Cornish drizzle gets heavier by the minute. This field near Hayle in west Cornwall has already been harvested, but not all the produce met supermarket standards and so some was left unpicked. This is where Duncan and her team of volunteers come in, working down the rows, peeling back the leaves of plants that have been left behind, hoping to find small but perfectly formed cauliflowers still tucked deep inside. They are resurrecting the ancient practice of gleaning – harvesting surplus crops to redistribute to those in need. It was common from biblical times up until the 18th century... The gleaners then give it to food banks, community kitchens and food projects, which distribute it as raw produce or cooked meals, soups, pickles and preserves...

Foraging takes hold in New Zealand’s wild places (Guardian)

In New Zealand, where inflation and price increases have sent food prices sky-high, increasing numbers of people are turning to foraging to supplement the contents of their pantries. Communities map out fruit and nut trees, alert one another to upcoming windfalls, develop a working knowledge of edible weeds, and teach themselves to distinguish a tasty birch bolete mushroom from a poisonous lookalike...

From Kenya to Zimbabwe, insects get onto plates as farmers reap (Daily Nation)

Charles Odira has kept crickets on part of his three-acre farm in Namthoe village, Kisumu County for the last seven years. In Harare, Blessing Mutedzi runs a mopane worms (Gonimbrasia belina) farm. The worms are a staple dish in the country... Demand for the insects has been growing steadily...

I've eaten and enjoyed various insects whenever the opportunity has arisen. Fried ants are delicious, as are grasshoppers. Mopani worms taste and look like burnt sausages, a bit dry and charred.

>106 John5918: Happy Halloweeeeen!

Halloween "treats", feta-stuffed date roaches -- reminds me of huge cockroaches that established themselves in basement of U biology bldg. They were about that size, too!

0:08 https://twitter.com/emmettdoog/status/1587191674295521281

How a mere 12% of Americans eat half the nation’s beef, creating significant health and environmental impacts
Andrew Yawn | August 30, 2023

Those 12% – most likely to be men or people between the ages of 50 and 65 – eat what researchers called a disproportionate amount of beef on a given day, based on the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans...

https://news.tulane.edu/pr/how-mere-12-americans-eat-half-nation%E2%80%99s-beef-...
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Amelia Willits-Smith et al. 2023. Demographic and Socioeconomic Correlates of Disproportionate Beef Consumption among US Adults in an Age of Global Warming. Nutrients 30 Aug 2023, 15(17), 3795; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15173795 https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/15/17/3795

Abstract
...Disproportionate beef diets were consumed by 12% of individuals, but accounted for half of all beef consumed. Males were more likely than females...to consume these diets. This relationship was seen in all bivariate and multivariable models. Older adults, college graduates, and those who looked up the MyPlate educational campaign online were less likely...to consume a disproportionate beef diet. While almost one-third of reported consumption came from cuts of beef (e.g., steak or brisket), six of the top ten beef sources were mixed dishes: burgers, meat mixed dishes, burritos and tacos, frankfurters, soups, and pasta. Efforts to address climate change through diet modification could benefit from targeting campaigns to the highest consumers of beef, as their consumption accounts for half of all beef consumed.

>108 margd: Wow!!! That’s an amazing statistic