Eating foods that are in season and grown locally and sustainably is the most sensible way to go. Food just tastes better when it is picked ripe and eaten quickly thereafter. A tomato plucked green in California's Central Valley, thrown into a gondola with 33,000 pounds of other rock-hard under ripe tomatoes, taken to the processing plant, run through a chlorine bath, waxed, gassed with ethylene (in order to regulate the ripening process) and trucked across the country just doesn't taste very good when it finally shows up in a chef salad in New Jersey. Buying in season is economical and buying organically grown products encourages environmentally responsible farming practices. It's a win-win-win.
So the best way to shop is at your local farmers market. Patronize those farmers who are growing their crops in a sustainable manner. Or join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. CSA provides you the opportunity to buy directly from local organic farms on a regular basis throughout the year. You get fresh locally, grown produce and the small farmer gets a steady source of income. Log on to www.prairienet.org for an informative discourse on the CSA concept. At www.greenpeople.org you can find farmers markets and CSA programs in your area.
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We are excited to feature selected articles by veteran food writer Patricia Unterman. For the last twenty-five years Patricia has been writing restaurant criticism and food essays for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. She is author of Food Lover's Guide to San Francisco (Chronicle Books, 1997), now in its second edition. Her new guide from 10 Speed Press is due out next year. She publishes a bi-monthly newsletter and has written for Gourmet, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit and Taste magazines. Since 1979 she has co-owned the Hayes Street Grill in San Francisco (which specializes in grilled fish and local, seasonal foods). She is also a founding board member of the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market in San Francisco.
So Patricia knows about food. Her tell-it-like-it-is style backed up by an educated palate and intense passion for food makes for insightful and substantive reading. You are what you eat. But do you know what you're eating? We hope you take time to read on and find out.
We are currently featuring the following articles:
Hog Heaven
What's in the Beef?
Bringing Ocean Conservation to the Table
A Tale of Two Tomatoes
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Check out Root, a seasonal journal produced by Andy & Julia of Mariquita Farm www.mariquita.com . The farm is an organic, family owned and operated business located in Watsonville, California. The journal comes from a farming point of view generally and Andy's unique point of view specifically. For example issue one of Root featured a straight ahead discourse on the practice of planting according to the phases of the moon. In the same issue Andy traces the greek origins of cornucopia, the horn of plenty, along with the corporate copyrighting of Broccolini. It is captivating, novel reading. Pick it up.
And here's a company that is reflective of Green Home's philosophy on organics, and might cause you to look for a similar company, or start your own, wherever you might live.
Planet Organics, located in the San Francisco Bay Area, provides customers with the best quality organic produce, at the best price, conveniently delivered to their home or office. Try their great fresh fruit or vegetable baskets for
yourself or as a gift. Or sign on for a regular delivery of great organic produce direct to your door. If you have ever sampled a ripe organic tomato, or a crunchy organic carrot, you know organic fruits and vegetables are more than healthful, they taste better than conventional produce. Planet Organics delivers fresh organic produce and groceries directly to your door. Just tell them what you like and what you don't like and delicious wholesome treats will appear at your home every week.
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Ever wonder how much of what you eat is genetically engineered? Since the FDA doesn't require the labeling of foods made with genetically engineered ingredients how could you? According to Greenpeace of the acreage in North America devoted to GE crops, ninety-nine percent are planted with corn, soy, cotton, and canola (rapeseed). It is no surprise then that over 60% of processed foods available in the United States contain genetically modified ingredients.
To help you avoid ingesting these altered foodstuffs Greenpeace has compiled the True Food Shopping List. It is organized like aisles of a supermarket and it shows side by side those brands that contain GE ingredients and those that don't. After quickly scrolling through the list one thing becomes readily apparent. With a few exceptions the list of products containing GE components is noticeably longer than the non-GE alternatives.
Also revealed is each manufacturer's vertical integration. For example on the GE side one learns that the Healthy Choice brand is a subsidiary of Con Agra. Kraft is a subsidiary of Philip Morris. Del Monte is a subsidiary of Nabisco which is a subsidiary of Philip Morris. And since when has Philip Morris shown great sensitivity for matters of public health?
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If you would like to read more about food issues, read Greenhome's research articles on Eating Well.
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