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Remarkable statement from food industry insider

In Recommended Company, Recommended Reads,
  • Posted on March 7, 2013
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hands plant

Greg Christian was a chef and caterer, using the conventional foods and methods we all learned once upon a time. As he describes it now,

“In the foodservice industry, we are faced with a current reality where our foods are highly-processed with chemicals, transported long distances, produced with pesticides and fertilizers that are harming people and the environment, and packed with sugars and fats that are causing illness and disease around the world. The farmers, distributors, and cooks are struggling to survive, let alone flourish, in this system where they are paid little to provide the food that the world relies on for its survival.”

That’s the depressing picture that has dominated America’s food system for too long. But then his daughter’s illness stumped doctors and specialists, and his wife’s decision to give her local organic food led to her recovery. Eventually he was inspired to share this revelation with others. He started a zero-waste kitchen, created a school lunch program that was integrated into a garden and classrooms, and finally became a consultant to help other food service business make the same transformation. Christian envisions a major transformation:

“The ideal foodservice industry of the future will be based on local economies, where food is grown near where it is consumed, in ways that use little or no chemicals, and are then cooked with love and care from scratch, by workers who are treated fairly and respectfully for the great service they provide each of us. All people will have food, will know where their food comes from, and know that the food is real food that restores the soul—not just our bodies.”

Now Christian has put his vision for transforming food organizations into print and pixels – you can download his Manifesto here. After acknowledging that this transformation will require major changes, he gives (for free) his blueprint for change. This heartfelt manifesto for health and sustainability is about food, but the systems perspective it conveys (and the author’s candid admission of past mistakes and the obstacles change-makers face) could apply to many areas of life, and many businesses — maybe yours.


You don’t have to be poor to dumpster dive for food

In Take Action,
  • Posted on March 4, 2013
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food waste

Last year in this space, I mentioned that “we waste millions of tons of food a year — 29% of all we produce – at many points, from farm, to packer, to store, to table… the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the average American family of four loses up to $175 a month in wasted food.” It’s not only this country – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that the global total of food waste is $1 trillion.

Recently I learned that some young German people are doing something about this. According to reporter Stephen Brown, these food entrepreneurs, if I may use the term, raid supermarket trash cans for food that has been thrown away even though it is perfectly good. Turns out that (if I can read the German website accurately) over twelve thousand people in Germany have registered on a website to share food found this way. Baked goods one day old, tomatoes that weren’t red enough, canned food one day past its “use by” date.

We, too,  can do something about this waste.

At an Earth Day event several years ago, I spoke to some women who displayed a table full of food they had collected from their children’s school trash. The lunches they had so carefully prepared were often just tossed in the bin. The display included packages of cookies, whole pieces of fruit, sandwiches, bottled drinks….. And that was one day in one school in one city!

What you can do: Serve yourself only what you want. Save the rest for later. Accept imperfect-looking produce. Make stews and desserts out of leftovers. Put really discardable scraps into the compost, creating new soil to form the basis for the next generation of life.


You don’t have to be poor to dumpster dive for food

In Take Action,
  • Posted on March 4, 2013
  • Author: ,
  • Comments: Comments Off on You don’t have to be poor to dumpster dive for food


food waste

Last year in this space, I mentioned that “we waste millions of tons of food a year — 29% of all we produce – at many points, from farm, to packer, to store, to table… the Natural Resources Defense Council found that the average American family of four loses up to $175 a month in wasted food.” It’s not only this country – the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations estimates that the global total of food waste is $1 trillion.

Recently I learned that some young German people are doing something about this. According to reporter Stephen Brown, these food entrepreneurs, if I may use the term, raid supermarket trash cans for food that has been thrown away even though it is perfectly good. Turns out that (if I can read the German website accurately) over twelve thousand people in Germany have registered on a website to share food found this way. Baked goods one day old, tomatoes that weren’t red enough, canned food one day past its “use by” date.

We, too,  can do something about this waste.

At an Earth Day event several years ago, I spoke to some women who displayed a table full of food they had collected from their children’s school trash. The lunches they had so carefully prepared were often just tossed in the bin. The display included packages of cookies, whole pieces of fruit, sandwiches, bottled drinks….. And that was one day in one school in one city!

What you can do: Serve yourself only what you want. Save the rest for later. Accept imperfect-looking produce. Make stews and desserts out of leftovers. Put really discardable scraps into the compost, creating new soil to form the basis for the next generation of life.


How big is a portion?

In Food to Avoid, Take Action,
  • Posted on February 23, 2013
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burger eater 1078574XSmall

Dining out can be a restful break from routine, but it can also be an unfortunate opportunity to indulge in salty, fatty foods (even at sit-down and fine dining establishments). Apart from what they serve, we should think about how much. A dozen years ago, when I first began writing about food, health, and the environment, I wrote:

“We eat too much. In the 1990s, Americans consumed several hundred more calories a day than we did in the 1950s. Restaurant portion sizes have increased, in some cases by 100%. More restaurants are serving gigantic portions. One restaurant in Texas offers a meal of a 72-ounce steak (yes, four and a half pounds) plus shrimp cocktail, potato, salad, and bread.”

The obesity epidemic has many causes (such as government policies that make junk food cheaper than healthy food), as I’ve written in a professional health journal, but surely sheer quantity of food consumed is one of them. Restaurant portions have been part of the problem, especially in fast food places, because big chains can “supersize” a meal and charge much more for the upgrade than the actual ingredients cost. I think the habit of big portions just percolated through the industry, even to good restaurants. When is the last time you dined out and were able to eat everything on your plate? I thought so.

Could there be a change coming? New York Times reporter Stephanie Strom has found numerous chain restaurants are now offering lighter, healthier fare. Not just lettuce salad, either; they’re reworking some of their standard offerings – and giving smaller servings.

I think this is a good idea. Unless you bring your own doggie bag, taking food home from a restaurant uses packaging (paper, foil, plastic, or all three). Not earth-friendly!

So next time you go to your favorite restaurant, consider praising the staff for offering smaller servings – or ask for them.


GMO labeling might be on the way

In Food Politics, GMO's, In the News,
  • Posted on February 17, 2013
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gmo-protest
I thought that last November’s defeat of California’s Proposition 37 (mandatory labeling of Genetically Modified Organisms in our food), which I campaigned for, was a bad sign. I presumed the power of Big Food’s $40+million disinformation campaign signaled that lies and public relations would win for the next generation or more.

But a few weeks ago a New York Times article explained the bright side of this turn of events. Reporter Stephanie Strom wrote, “Instead of quelling the demand for labeling, the defeat of the California measure has spawned a ballot initiative in Washington State and legislative proposals in Connecticut, Vermont, New Mexico and Missouri, and a swelling consumer boycott of some organic or ‘natural’ brands owned by major food companies.”

She went on to quote Charles Benbrook, a professor at Washington State University and a brilliant advocate of sustainable agriculture: “The big food companies found themselves in an uncomfortable position after Prop. 37, and they’re talking among themselves about alternatives to merely replaying that fight over and over again… They spent a lot of money, got a lot of bad press that propelled the issue into the national debate and alienated some of their customer base, as well as raising issues with some trading partners.”

This public reaction against Big Food got the attention of some major food executives, who met in January to discuss what to do. Imagine this: some of them actually favor labeling. I’m not holding my breath that they’ll become virtuous – they are, after all, the people who made terms like “natural” and ”cage-free” almost meaningless.

Still, it may be a start.


Quinoa in the news

In Food to Try, In the News,
  • Posted on February 12, 2013
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quinoa

Surely you’ve discovered quinoa by now –you know to pronounce it keen-wa and that it’s a grain. You may even know that technically it’s not really a grain, but let’s not get caught up in nomenclature. It looks like a grain, it cooks like a grain (only faster), but it does have an advantage: more protein, amino acids, and other nutrients than most actual grains.

Quinoa garnered some headlines last month when an article in Britain’s paper The Guardian claimed that our appetite for it has driven up the price in its home countries of Peru and Bolivia. Junk food is now cheaper there, the author claimed. We’re shocked, shocked, to learn that junk food is cheaper than healthier food – that surely couldn’t happen here, could it?

This article called attention to a real problem (rich countries benefiting from the foodstuffs of poor countries) but the headline was, in my opinion, just a cheap shot at vegans. As Tom Philpott of Mother Jones points out, carnivores eat quinoa, too. And it can be grown in other places, including in the U.S. Check out his article here for the rest of the rebuttal. Let me just add that the production and export of foods from poor countries unfortunately affects a wide range of foods, including meat and seafood.


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