I don't know much about the future...none of us do. But I am fairly certain of one thing: I will be growing my own food.
Whether it's for recreation, my livelihood or pure survival, being self-sufficient is an aspiration I'm coming to take very seriously. The building hype surrounding locally grown, sustainable agriculture, urban gardening, free-range pasture-finished, make your own yogurt/cheese/vinegar/alcohol (etc)...makes it hip to think about raising chickens in your background and generally just making conscious choices about where food comes from. For me, this return to the earth and an understanding of our connection to what's on my dinner plate goes a bit further back. It's in my blood. The ironic thing is we all come from farming lineages; hunter-gather lines. It's not far enough back to have been bred out of us, though it feels that way. The egg of knowledge is slipping toward the edge, but it hasn't yet shattered.
Reading Tuesday's FOODday in the Oregonian compelled me to reflect a little on why I would choose farming as a profession (if I should be so lucky) or more simply, how I can make the most of the bits of earth I can till and what I can do to shrink my own "ecological footprint." "Nurturing the next crop of farmers" by Leslie Cole follows a couple approaching retirement who built up their 17 acre land into a functioning food producing farm. They sell at the Hollywood Farmers' Market and to many restaurants in the Portland Area (and beyond?). They have hired 5 full time employees, all twentysomething graduates with an interest to start their own farms or at least gain experience. A statistic that strikes me is the average age of American farmers is 57 "and few young people with farming experience are waiting in the wings to replace them." This is a serious problem to the future of our country and our food security!
While the average American cannot pack our bags and move to some abandoned tillable land and begin anew, there is much we can do to impact the food economy. I'm starting with growing seeds.
Here are a few things I realize I do (or am thinking about doing) when I go to a grocery store or in need of food:
1. I ask myself "where did item this come from?" If it's not from the States neighboring mine, I try to avoid it (luckily California is one of those States).
2. Is it in season where I live? (If so, chances are it's local, though not a guarantee).
3. I try to avoid lots of packaging. It's wasteful and required extra energy on the processing end.
4. I love buying bulk items.
5. I take my own containers and bags to put grains, oils, peanut butter, EVERYTHing in.
6. I go to as many farmers' markets as I can. Different markets are priced differently. Some areas have cheaper markets than others (for example, Downtown Portland is much more expensive than some suburbs). Do some investigation.
7. I like to support restaurants that have local, organic foods on the menu. I try to pick items that are in season (sadly, no asparagus in December).
8. Now I'm starting to grow my own lettuce and other veggies. I will take advantage of any fruit trees or other edible herbs and plants in my garden.
9. Finally, I am interested in how to preserve in season foods so they can be enjoyed out of season (if this means canning tomatoes, making pickled vegetables, or drying fruits I'm going to try!).
Many of these suggestions involve sacrifice. It is hard to resist bananas or other tropical fruits. I love crackers, chips and granola bars. However, my food choices do matter. Just because the item is in the store already, doesn't mean you don't impact the system when you choose not to buy it. If less people in the Montana decide to buy avocados from Mexico, the store will stock less of the product and cut down on the fossil fuels used to transport it. On average, most of the food in a typical American diet has traveled something like 1,500 miles to reach their mouths. That's each item and some come from much farther (those New Zealand apples flew at least 6000 miles to get to the USA+what it took to get to your market).
After reading Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" I am a convert. 100-mile diet, Locavore, whatever you call it, eating responsibly is one important way to save our planet for the future generations. There are many complexities, but I'm going to do what I can, the best I can. I hope you will too. There are lots of resources, check http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Resources2.html and go from there.
No comments:
Post a Comment