Should you choose local, organic, none or both? How do you make smart sustainable picks at the seafood counter and beyond? Like it or not, your food buys have an impact on the earth. Here, articles and recipes to help you eat with an “eco-clean” conscience.
Earth-Friendly Fare: 3 Ways to Eat Lower on the Food Chain
When I think of a food chain, I always picture a giant whale swimming through the ocean gobbling up smaller sea creatures in his path. But food chains are part of a broader ecosystem, and, as humans, our place at the top carries awesome responsibility. Sure, we could go through our lives eating whatever suits our fancy, but doing so without a thought to future generations would be reckless. Here on Nourish Network, there has been much written about sustainability, and at its core, that’s what eating lower on the food chain is intended to promote: sustainable food systems that take the long view rather than satisfying our immediate cravings. With Earth Day upon us, the time is right to consider how eating lower on the food chain benefits not only us, but the planet at large.
Continue reading » »USDA Steering Organics to the Center of the Plate
In a radical departure from no-questions-asked support of giant agribusiness, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announces a direction that will steer organics to the center of the plate. Here’s our say on the matter, by Kurt Michael Friese.
Continue reading » »Label Lingo: A Guide to Eggs
Buying eggs used to be so simple: Grab a carton off the shelf, open it to check for any cracked shells and go on your merry way. These days, however, you need to interpret a myriad of claims before deciding which carton goes into your cart. What do they all mean? Find out here.
Continue reading » »Distinguish Between Farmer and Food Producer
As I was working on the first installment of our Food Policy series (nothing like trying to wrap-up agricultural policy in 500 words when the Farm Bill itself is 1,770 pages), a clear distinction stood out between “farmers” and “food producers.”
Continue reading » »Understand Ecosystems
In this age of green, the term ecosystem gets tossed around quite a bit–from technology to tide pools. But it’s an important concept to grasp, as in really understand, when talking about creating a sustainable food system.
Continue reading » »Heritage Meat and Poultry: Eat it to Save it!
I dined on a Mulefoot pork chop at Cochon restaurant in New Orleans with a rush of pleasure, anxiety, and guilt. If this hog breed is endangered, should I be enjoying it so much? I thought. But in truth, the pork is what brought me to the restaurant. By eating the endangered breed, I might be helping to save it.
Continue reading » »Food Policy in Four Parts: An Introduction
For most, choosing what to eat seems as simple an affair as browsing the grocery store aisles. But in reality, there is an incredibly complex—and some might argue supremely ineffective—system governing what gets put before us and how it came to be.
Continue reading » »Slow Movement
The most profound benefit to joining Slow Food is becoming part of the growing movement that is actively leading the way in changing how America eats.
Continue reading » »The Humble Root
Three often overlooked winter vegetables: turnips, parsnips and rutabagas. Despite the fact that in our modern day they play second fiddle to carrots, these three are wonderful, hearty winter fare, delicious in a mash with other root vegetables, in soups and stews, or roasted in the oven until crisp and savory.
Continue reading » »Seasonal Salads: Winter
I realized something funny recently. Long after I started branching out into seasonal fruits and vegetables, my salads remained stuck in the rut of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions. Sure, the lettuce had morphed into “mesclun mix” and the tomatoes had turned into heirlooms, but it took some time before my insistence upon seasonal produce progressed into my salad bowl.
Continue reading » »ON THE MENU THIS WEEK
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