I'm going to take each pledge (1 a day or so) of my Economic Crisis Diet and break them down with supporting articles and resources.
1. I pledge to buy local and regional foods. If not local, then organic. If not local or organic, then the option with the least packaging.
Why?
YOU: Studies have shown that ingesting pesticides, herbicides and fungicides is detrimental to overall long-term health.
WALLET: You should be able to attain local foods a bit cheaper because extensive transportation costs are not folded in. The price of organics will come down as the demand increases.
PLANET: Less transportation, chemical and waste pollution ending up in the air, water, landfills and living creatures.
If you need convincing at this point that organic food is superior in nutrition and safety to conventionally grown or produced food, please spend the next week reading the Organic Consumers Association's website. Seriously, organic food is (usually) void of toxic chemicals and is not genetically modified.
However, remember that eating conventional produce is better than eating no produce at all. Don't skip on the apples and lettuce if conventional is all you can find. Just be sure to wash and/or soak to try to remove as much surface chemical as possible. If you need to make a hard-fast choice rule, buy organic for produce with peels you will eat (apples, berries, peppers, etc.) and conventional produce for skins you normally toss (avocado, oranges, bananas, etc.). Here's a great list of guidelines.
Here's how to find what's seasonally local where you live: NRDC's Eat Local database.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.
I find it so frustrating that some of the yummiest organic produce is often sold in plastic containers: baby greens, tomatoes, etc. One would think that a company that "values" the healthful benefits of their product would also value the health of the planet. Apparently not. They truly just value your dollar in their pocket. I skip over them, mournfully.
If you can't purchase your heart-set choice of organic produce without a plastic cage, choose one that looks sturdy and can be reused for organizing your nuts and bolts or spools and ribbons or crayons and stickers. When finally it has lived a long useful life, recycle it assuming your local center accepts that type of plastic.
Living near a fabulous farmers' market - which I don't - has got to be the life. So many issues dodged for you: local, often organic, minimal packaging. Going to the grocery store used to be such an easy, mindless event being lead by the taste buds and stomach. Now we must come armed with a flow chart of best practices! Arrrrgh!
Be informed. Be aware. Please care. All these choices affect the future of everything.
Live Light, xo-C.
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