Hulu – The Future of Food

“The choices we make in the supermarket determine the future of food.”

Interview with Julie Clawson

Money has been one of my biggest concerns as I’ve started this process of trying to eat more locally, sustainably, and ethically. Often organic items carry higher price tags than conventionally grown produce. Money is important and we’re called to be good stewards of our resources. Personally, I’m beginning to place more value on the foods that I eat. It’s worth a little bit extra to me to know that my food was produced in an ethically responsible way. Americans spend less on food today than ever before in history. We want cheap food, often so we can buy more of other goods. It’s a problem of materialism. So part of the issue is that we just haven’t valued food enough to pay for high-quality and ethically grown food.

However, just because we decide that food is valuable doesn’t mean that we can’t find ways to be more frugal about how we purchase our organic food. The panel discussion I attended gave me some great tips on how to make eating organic a little more economically feasible.

• Buy Direct – There are lots of different ways of going about buying directly from local producers. One way is to participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). With a CSA, you pay a farmer a membership at the beginning of a growing season and then each week you receive a box of fresh produce from their farm. Prices, amounts, frequency of delivery/pick-up and duration of season vary between farms so do some homework before choosing one.  A great place to find CSAs is localharvest.org. Another way to buy direct is to attend local farmers markets. Both of these are fun ways to meet the people growing your food. Food co-ops are also great options, but often hard to find. The Dill Pickle Co-op is in Logan Square. Anyone can shop at the Dill Pickle but members get special discounts. Members can also volunteer time working to get even deeper discounts. If you know of other local co-ops, post a comment and let us know!
• Buy Bulk - Ok, this doesn’t mean what I thought it meant here. In this case “bulk” doesn’t mean buying a ton of the same thing, though that can be a good way to save money also. By bulk, the panelists meant shopping at the bulk (dry foods/”grocery”) section in Whole Foods (or other markets). Whole Foods has an incredibly impressive section of whole grains and flours, nuts and seeds, beans, lentils, herbs, etc. Buying beans in bulk, for example, can save a ton of money over buying canned beans (plus you avoid cans that have lining with dangerous BPA). So instead of buying packaged or canned foods, buy them dry and prepare them yourself. Buying bulk allows you to buy exactly how much you need (take a measuring cup!) with minimal packaging. Plus there are no weird preservatives and artificial colorings, sweeteners, etc.
• Avoid the Dirty Dozen - If you are unable to buy all organic produce, cut back on the worst offenders. Some fruits and vegetables absorb more pesticides than others. Peaches, apples, bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, kale, lettuce, grapes, carrots and pears are the worst, so buy these things organic. See the full list here at Food News. Other items to buy organic would include dairy and meat products.
• Find the Best Price for Your Six Most Used Items – Figure out what items you use the most and then shop around to find the best prices on them. Finding a great price on an item you use a couple times a year won’t do you much good but if you find the best prices for your most used items, it can add up to big-time savings.
• Learn to Cook and Choose Recipes Well - Cooking your own food can help you save money. You pay for convenience. I have found eating to be much more enjoyable since I’ve started making my own food. Choose budget-friendly recipes. If an ingredient is too expensive, don’t toss out the whole recipe, google substitutes.
• Preserve Your Food – Learn how to can or dry your food. Or freeze it. This allows you to buy a large quantity of food when it’s in season (and cheaper) and be able to enjoy it year-round.
• Use What You Have - Don’t let food go to waste or let it become “a science experiment in the back of the fridge,” as one panelist said. Use it up. One panelist said that after Thanksgiving her family stops buying food. They go through all their preserved and packaged food and use it all up through the rest of the year. It becomes a fun game for the family. And it allows them to have a fresh start at the beginning of each year. In any case, be mindful of expiration dates and try to use up food before it goes bad.
• Plan - Plan your eating around what’s available locally and in-season. You’ll get the freshest and best-priced food this way.
• Grow Your Own – Nothing could be cheaper, fresher, or more local than your own backyard! Start a gardening group with friends and share the harvest. Or plant just a couple of containers of your most-used produce. Start a window box of lettuce. Grow your own herbs. Gardening is a great way to spend some time outside being active and to get the freshest food!
• Shop at Stanley’s - Stanley’s is a discount produce store in Chicago (1558 N Elston Ave), so if you’re near it, shop there! The produce at Stanley’s is nearer the end of it’s shelf life than at a place like Whole Foods, so you have to use it more quickly, but the prices are amazing! So if you’re making alot of something (you can always freeze extras!), it’s definitely worth it to shop at Stanley’s.

I hope these tips are helpful! If you have any to add please comment! Also, I haven’t forgotten about reviews for The Borrowed Earth Cafe or The Bleeding Heart Bakery. I have some pictures I wanted to post with them and I can’t find my computer cord to get the pictures! Anyways, those will be coming soon, pictures or not!

Don’t forget about the FamilyFarmed Food EXPO this weekend at UIC. Tickets are $15 advance and $20 at the door. For more information visit www.familyfarmedexpo.com.

If you’re attempting to eat more ethically, this is a great place to start! I can’t wait to learn more about eating locally! More information for the Expo is available at http://www.FamilyFarmedEXPO.com/home.html.

Preheat the oven to 350 and cut the bread into cubes. Put it into a tupperware container and drizzle with melted butter or olive oil so the bread is lightly coated. Add italian herbs/spices, garlic salt and parmesan cheese. Then put the lid on the container and shake it up. Once the cubes are coated evenly dump them on a cookie sheet and stick in the oven for about 10 minutes. Now you have croutons for snacking and salads. Hooray for extending the life of bread!

Better World Shopper – $1.99 – Some coworkers at IVP recommended this app and it’s one of my most-used. Adapted from the website betterworldshopper.com, this app has been one of my go-to’s, not only for ethical eating, but for ethical consumer choices in general. It grades companies/brands/etc based on five categories: human rights, the environment, animal protection, community involvement and social justice. The app is really convenient when I’m at the grocery store. Want to know what kind of peanut butter is most ethical while you’re standing there staring at an intimidating array of choices? Just look up the category “peanut butter & jelly” and find the grades of different brands. From cars to banks to pizza or coffee, this app/website is incredibly helpful in making ethical consumer choices. Check it out!

Whole Foods Market Recipes – FREE – This app is great for shopping at Whole Foods Market. Put in what kind of recipe you’re looking for (for example: main dish, quick and easy, low-fat) and then it shows you what meets those categories. Plus you can add recipes to a shopping list so you know exactly what you need at the store. And you can save recipes as favorites. My favorite recipe so far is the super easy “Quick Pizza Margherita.” Preheat the oven to 400 and put in a cookie sheet to heat up. Lightly coat both sides of a pita with olive oil. Slice some tomatoes (you can use sauce in addition to tomatoes or in place of them) and put them on top and then bake for 5 minutes. Take it out and add whatever else you want: cheese, basil pesto, spices, onion, vegetables, whatever! Then stick it back in the oven for 5 more minutes. And you’re done! It’s really yummy, plus it looks beautiful! My bible study makes dinner together every Sunday and this was really fun to do together. Plus it’s really versatile, just change up the ingredients.

Seafood Watch – FREE – This app, based on the website from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, shows you which seafood is most sustainable and whether to buy farmed or wild, etc. This is great to use at restaurants (I did this the other day) or at the grocery store. It’s a pretty comprehensive list. There’s also a guide for sushi!

Know of any other iPhone apps that help make good ethical eating choices? Leave a comment and share!

Another challenge I faced was going out to Starbucks with coworkers a couple days ago. Unfortunately they weren’t brewing any fair-trade coffee at the time so I ended up buying some Tazo organic iced green tea, which is actually quite good (I had it again tonight at Starbucks with some friends, it’s sweeter than most teas). It saved me a couple bucks too.

I am only one. But still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. And because I cannot do everything I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.

-Edward Everett Hale

Four months ago when I started working at InterVarsity Press, I was allowed to choose a couple of complimentary books as a new employee. There was one book in particular that I had had my eye on during my internship there. That book was Everyday Justice by Julie Clawson. Social justice had become incredibly important to me during my time as a student at Wheaton College. But in many respects I felt largely separated from it. I knew of ministries domestic and abroad that were doing incredible works of good: freeing slaves, feeding the hungry, educating the neglected. I wanted to support these ministries, and financially I did. But, as important and good and worthy of our time and donations as these ministries are–living justly as God calls us to involves a lot more than sending a check overseas a couple times a year or volunteering once a week tutoring or serving food (please don’t misunderstand me, these are important and worthy things, but God calls us to even more!). One of my favorite Old Testament verses is Micah 6:8: “He has told you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” Jesus echoes the same sentiment when asked which is the most important of the commandments: to love God and to love our neighbors. Loving God and loving others are the most important things we do as followers of Jesus. And like Micah said, acting justly is one of the ways we go about doing that. What intrigued me about Julie’s book was that it made justice practical in everyday life. It showed me that I was a part of unjust systems without even realizing it, and that I had the power to alter my habits to act in more just ways.

Everyday Justice focuses on 7 issues pertaining to justice in everyday life: coffee, chocolate, cars, food, clothes, waste and debt. While every chapter is relevant and practical, the issue of food is particularly relevant to me right now. At Wheaton I had the luxury of a meal plan (Bon Appetit is one of the more justice-conscientious of food services, not to mention the food is amazing!) but after graduation I had to start cooking and buying food for myself. There are three main things that I have found myself spending money on: rent, gas, and food. Even for just one person, it’s easy to spend a couple hundred dollars a month at the grocery store. As I read Julie’s book I realized how deep issues of justice run in all of our consumer choices (even choices like deciding what kind of peanut butter to buy!). I’ve always asked myself questions about the food I buy: Is this nutritious? Is it easy and convenient? Can I cook it in the microwave? How many calories are in it? What’s the balance of protein and carbs? Is it cheaper than the other brands? We spend a ton of time thinking about and consuming food. But I never asked questions like: Where is this food even from? Is it in-season locally? Did the workers who harvested the food receive fair pay for their labor? Was the earth treated with dignity in the production of this food? Were animals treated humanely? There are so many issues wrapped up in what we eat: human rights, environmental ethics, social justice, the humane treatment of animals, the amount of resources used, the effects on local and global communities, and the list goes on.

One of the most convicting parts of the chapter is when Julie explains the true cost of food.

The sticker price in the grocery store on an organic item is usually (but not always) higher than a conventionally grown item. But that sticker price never tells the whole story. Outside of the factory-farm system–with its safety hazards, its subsidies and its oppression of workers–food does cost more. But the cost of food that is grown sustainably without chemicals, and in ways that treat workers fairly, simply reflects the full cost of the food we eat. Conventional food ultimately costs the same (or more); it’s just that the average consumer isn’t paying those costs himself in the checkout line. These costs, instead, get passed on to taxpayers or field workers or the environment. . . . The choice becomes not just whether to buy “cheaper” food but deciding who will pay the cost of the food we buy.

WHAM! That’s how it felt when I first read that statement. Every time I purchased conventionally grown food I was letting someone else pay for part of the cost. When explained that way, it’s easy to see the problem. Mother Theresa once said, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” I know that sounds extreme but every purchase we make has consequences and effects. It could support the local community, respect the earth and humankind, or it could have devastating and global effects. Often ethical foods have higher price tags, yes. I’ve definitely experienced that. But even on my modest income, I can afford to make changes in my diet. It may take sacrifice. It may take more careful planning and budgeting. It might mean cutting back on certain expensive foods and snacks (and expenses other than food). But instead of mindlessly wandering the grocery store aisles choosing any item that suits my fancy at that particular moment, I can be intentional about choosing to buy from farms and companies that care about issues of justice.

I know that not every purchase I make will be entirely ethical. But I can commit to being more conscientious about the foods that I buy. I may not be able to eat ethically 100% of the time. But I can’t let the overwhelming enormity of this issue crush me into doing nothing. Like Hale said. . . we can do something. Even if it’s just switching the grocery store we shop at, or what brands we buy.

So following Julie’s example, I’ve decided that this year for Lent I will begin the process of sorting through what it looks like to eat ethically. Part of this commitment is sharing the information that I find in this blog. I’m also hoping that those more knowledgeable than me will contribute so that I can learn more and more about eating ethically.

So far I’ve established the following (and I’m sure, imperfect) guidelines for myself:

1. I will seek to buy produce that is organic, locally grown, and/or in-season.
2. I will reduce my consumption of meat. If/when I do buy meat, I will buy grass-fed beef or free-range chicken, locally if possible. I will be intentional about learning all that I can about the treatment of animals from the companies I buy from.
3. I will learn more about the brands that I buy and seek to buy only from ethically-conscientious brands.
4. I will buy from grocery stores with commitments to ethical and sustainable standards.
5. I will buy directly from local farmers when possible through farmers’ markets, CSAs, and co-ops.
6. I will be conscientious about the amount of food I consume and will seek to not overconsume.
7. I will be conscientious about using food before it goes bad, reducing waste.
8. If I eat out I will seek to eat at restaurants that support local and sustainable products.
9. I may consume food that was purchased prior to my commitment (but all new purchases during Lent must be ethically-conscientious).
10. I will happily eat with and receive food from those I am invited to share a meal with.
11. And finally. . . I will share my findings with you!

In this blog I will share recipes, tips, restaurant and grocery store recommendations, articles, book recommendations, and local resources, among other things. I will also share my experiences and the obstacles I run into as I seek to follow Jesus in the way I eat. Hopefully I’ll learn from you as well, and by the end of Lent I will have learned eating habits that will continue far beyond the Lenten season.