It’s official – I now work for food, literally. A couple of months ago, I started working with an organization here called Ooooby doing grant research and now some writing. Ooooby does produce box delivery in the Sydney area. As a thank you, I’m now getting free deliveries for my effort. Jason’s joked that I should change my picture on LinkedIn to me holding a sign that says “will work for food”.
I’ve made a promise to myself to buy fruits and vegetables that I’ve never heard of before, or have never tried when I find them at a market or store. The idea behind this is that if more people buy these things than more market producers will grown them and the diversity of food that we find in our stores will continue to grow. There’s so much more food out there than what we are given in a grocery store. With that in mind, we went to a market recently that had a number of things I’ve never seen before.
I decided to try out this cauliflower curry that I found a couple of weeks ago. I love all things curry so I figured it would be delicious, and it was! We had just a bit of rice left in our pantry so I decided to add it, and I adjusted the spices a tad. I also adjusted the lentils, but I don’t think it was necessary. I made a lentil shepherds pie earlier in the week and had some left over (roughly 1.5 cups), so that’s what I used. If you’re cooking them for this recipe, I would use the original amount of 2.5 cups. I’m one who loved a crunchy texture, so I served this with two pieces of toasted sourdough (naan would have been ideal). I forgot to take a picture of it once it was finished. So here’s my leftovers and empty bowl. Whoops!
Something that I’ve thought about recently is how much water was used to produce the food that I eat. One of the reasons why I eat almost no animal protein anymore is because of the statistics that I read about how much grain and water went into the production of various animal proteins (see the reason’s why page). But animal protein isn’t the only thing on our plate that’s water intensive. I’ve read a number of articles about how much water goes into the production of rice, almond milk, and avocados – but there’s not often a comparison to alternatives. For example, does rice use more milk than pasta? And, are all rice varieties the same? What about farro or some other ancient grain? Anyway, this is something I’ve always wondered about and I’m actually working on an article right now that highlights milk alternatives and how much water goes into the production of each one.
I didn’t take this picture, it’s from The Black Ant’s twitter page. When I first read about entomophagy (the practice of eating insects), it was through an NPR article (The Joys and Ethics of Insect Eating) that was introducing the reader to the company Little Herds. One thing that Robert Nathan Allen, the founder of Little Herds, mentioned was the greatest barrier to Americans eating insects what the “ick factor”. The article, as a whole, was very compelling. After reading it, I promptly went to the Little Herds website and bought the chocolate chip cookie mix and some of the cricket flour. Since buying these, I’ve made chocolate chip cookies, bread, and a potpie with cricket flour. At first, Jason was not a fan of this. To be fair, I started off with the cookies which was a mistake. The cookies were good. But Jason might be obsessed with chocolate chip cookies and didn’t appreciate the change in flavor (even though it’s slight). The bread and potpie were much easier to get by him. Read …
I read an article (How Organic ‘Micro-Farms’ Are Changing Our Food Supply) recently in which Christina Sarich made the case for small organic farms, urban farms, and even micro farms (smaller scale farming) importance within the food system. In the article, she lists a number of issues that come along with big, corporate farms that I’d like to share here.
In 2008, CA voters passed an initiative (with 60% of the vote) which now (starting yesterday, January 1, 2015) requires all eggs sold in the state to meet new measures. The regulation, Proposition 2, requires that all eggs come from chickens who have enough room to fully extend their wings and to turn around freely. According to animal scientists at UC Davis, this means that each chicken is entitled to 116 square inches of floor space (I believe that’s at least double the amount they had). Obviously, egg produces are less than thrilled. Even though they’ve had 6 years to prepare for the regulation, some producers have decided to fight the rules rather than adapt to them. There are currently two lawsuits being appealed and there are two that have already been struck down. Read more here.
Yesterday, my husband and I spent the last hours of Christmas doing parallel play (where the two of you spend time together, but are doing different things). He played video games, while I re-introduced myself to the world of twitter (that’s right!) and began reading a new book entitled “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of our Food”, just in the prologue I read some things that are frightening, and I have to admit – something that I’ve never thought about before. When considering meat production and then the breakdown of farm animals, I’ve never thought of the employees and these factories that produce packaged meat. It’s embarrassing, but that’s never been a focus of mine, until now. Read more here.
The group of appointed nutritionist (appointed by the government) to draft new guidelines for the nation’s diet had decided to utilize data collected on the environmental implication of different food choices. Sounds great, right? And, if you think about it, makes a lot of sense. The guidelines would help individuals to move towards healthier and environmentally friendly diets. Read more here.
One of the increasingly difficult aspects about trying to lead a socially and environmentally conscious lifestyle is discovering articles like NPR’s “Mexican Megafarms Supply U.S. Market Are Rife with Labor Abuses” and the LA times “Product of Mexico” investigative series. After a while, it starts to feel like no foods are safe. What can one person do about the living conditions of farms in a different country? Well, I don’t know if it’ll help – but I plan to write letters to all of the companies names in this report and tell them that as a customer I demand more oversight of the companies from which they receive their produce. Read more here.
one-quarter vegan 