For me, there are three tenants at the heart of this growing movement.  The first is to put our food dollars back into farmers’ pockets, as opposed to the pockets of the corporate giants of industrial agriculture (Monsanto, Cargill, Archer-Daniels-Midland).  The second is to stop the inefficiency of using more energy (fossil fuel) calories in the production of our food than actual food calories created, and to stop dousing our farmland with synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.  The third is to treat the animals that we eat with a certain measure of respect and humaneness, which includes letting these animals live the way they were evolved to live.  This includes the apparently difficult-to-understand notion of letting a cow graze on grass, rather than pumping it full of corn.

A large consequence of ensuring the above is that, yes, your food will cost more, though now you will actually be paying a price for your food proportional to the costs it took to produce it.

Often, farmers are getting paid less per bushel of corn than it cost to grow it.  Another example is that for every $1 of corn sweetener produced, the farmer only gets $0.04.  Our food dollars are flowing to the “producers” of value-added products like the chicken nugget, instead of to the growers (the farmers).

The farmers that I have met and whose farms I have also visited are the hardest working people you will ever come across.  To complain about paying a FAIR price for your eggs, produce, poultry, beef, etc., and then turning and blowing $60 on a night of drinking, or even more on the newest iPhone/other gadget is the height of chutzpah.

Naturally there are families out there for whom the increased cost of local/organic/sustainable food represents quite the burden, but I would argue that most of the people I have spoken to on this topic do not fall into this category.

The problem as I see it is a lack of basic knowledge of where one’s food comes from.  I challenge anyone to take this first step of tracking or at least trying to track the food they eat on a daily basis, and to examine the consequences of eating meat and produce grown using industrial methods.

Just start there.  And then please tell me what’s elitist about local/organic/sustainable.

http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.aspx

Our oceans are in turmoil and anything we as consumers can do to make sustainable choices at restaurants and at the grocery store can help.  Please do your part!

http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Strategically positioned throughout the financial district the abundant flower stands are impossible to miss.  And Fridays are “dollar-a-stem” days, so there is really no excuse not to buy.

Or so I thought.

As part of my quest to live a sustainable and sensible life my goal is to examine each area of my life, to make changes one-step at a time, and to simply do the best that I can.  I have come to realize that sustainable living is much more a process than a single choice.  And I am the first to admit that it isn’t easy (look for my “sustainable living” guide soon!).

A while back I happened to think about an article I had read about the flower industry and how especially bad it was for the environment.  In order to maximize growth, the inevitable (over)use of fertilizers and insecticides follows.

I realized that I had been buying flowers without asking myself what the ultimate cost was, both to the environment and to the people growing the flowers.  This was something I had done in other aspects of my life so I decided to do so in the flower-realm as well.

I knew that the flowers from these stands certainly weren’t organic, but I wondered where they were from.  Upon asking I was told they were from such faraway countries as New Zealand, Australia, and Holland.  REALLY?!  I couldn’t believe it.  I just couldn’t!  I hadn’t expected all of the flowers to be sourced locally, but to think that the cheapest and most efficient way to get flowers is to grow them across the world and then ship them thousands of miles to San Francisco was incredible to me.

Back to “dollar-a-stem” Fridays.  Is the true cost for a few flowers really only a few dollars?  Personally I think it absolutely is not.  The cost to the environment (chemicals used in the growing process and oil used for transport) alone is much more.

My decision was an easy one.  I was done buying flowers from the financial district stalls.  In fact, I was done buying non-organic, non-local flowers. Period.

The cost (not the price) did not equal the few days of enjoyment my girlfriend and I received from the flowers.

Luckily, I quickly realized that the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market in San Francisco provides me with an option to buy locally grown, organic flowers directly from those that grow them.  So my girlfriend still gets flowers (she would argue not frequently enough!), and I feel good about where my dollars are going; who my dollars are supporting.

I leave the choice up to you, but I urge you to begin looking at all areas of your life, especially the consumer side.  Ask yourself if the “buying as cheap as possible” mantra is the right one to have for the long-term health of our incredible planet.

Maybe a better mantra is “buy less, but buy right”.

I recently made the jump back to a car-free life. It feels absolutely great! I must admit that financial ramifications played a large role in my decision (car insurance here is ridiculous), but a long-term goal of mine while living in Arlington, Virginia had been to reduce my carbon footprint. This is a huge step in that direction.

Beyond fossil fuels, I think an area of the utmost importance is sustainability in regards to food. Not only is it good for the environment to eat sustainably grown foods and sustainably caught seafood, it is better for our bodies. While it is of course not feasible for all of us to eat only organic foods, we can pick and choose in certain areas. It’s all about thinking about what we put into our bodies. Before I took a class on nutrition and food in college, I ate anything I wanted to and I didn’t think twice. Once I started to think about the food, I was eating, though, it became hard to stop!

I subscribe to a few environmental newsletters via my Google Reader, and I thought I would share some of the more interesting information I have come across as of late. Among fruits and veggies, there are many with high pesticide loads, even after washing. That certainly doesn’t sound too appetizing to me. How about yourself? Here is a link to a list of the best and worst fruits and veggies in terms of pesticides (there is even a handy wallet guide). It may very well be worth it to go organic with some of the worst culprits.

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

I happen to love seafood. I mean I LOVE SEAFOOD! Unfortunately, the way in which most seafood is caught is completely detrimental to the long-term survival of many species. It might be nice to enjoy that fresh seafood dinner tonight, but what about in 20 years? What about our kids, and grandkids, and then their kids? Do we want them to be able to experience the amazing taste of seafood?

The first link I have to share here is a regional seafood pocket guide corresponding to where you live and it can help you make sustainable decisions when you are at the grocery store or when you are out to eat.

http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch/download.asp

Finally, the last thing I would like to share with you concerns a specific type of seafood- tuna. Many of us think tuna tastes great, and it’s a very healthy source of protein. There is always the question of mercury, though, so depending on the expert you listen to, we are recommended to watch our intake of tuna. The way in which most tuna is caught is terrible for our oceans. The tuna at our grocery stores may be “dolphin safe”, but it certainly isn’t safe for the tons of by-catch that come along with the longlining method of fishing. See the two links below for more information on sustainable seafood, and an example of a company that fishes for tuna the right way. As soon as I run out of tuna, I will be making the move to the sustainably caught variety. It may be a little more expensive, but I will certainly feel better come meal time.

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/8/14/93128/6887/?source=most_popular_rss

http://www.pelicanpackers.com/index.html