Sustainability - Food

There is a lot about the food system in the US that is not sustainable but what can individuals do to nudge the system toward sustainability through our purchasing power?

For the items I buy from grocery store chains I

• Buy organic. It is becoming more affordable all the time.
• Avoid plastic bags and packaging when I can - and when I can’t I make sure they get into the recycling system rather than the trash. If the packaging is not recyclable - I think very hard about whether I need to buy the product at all.
• Buy local when possible. I want to minimize the transport of my food when I can so the Community Supported Agriculture farm that is less than a mile from my house is a good option for produce during the summer and fall.

Another dimension of the way we eat is when we are away from home.

• When I can - I take my own food from home and I try to package it in reusable containers rather than plastic bags.
• Eating out is not a good option from a sustainability standpoint. Very few restaurants provide meals that are sourced or prepared sustainably. It is not important enough to their customers. I have to admit that culturally, I think of ‘going out to eat’ as something that is special (for a birthday or anniversary) or convenient (but is it really faster than a meal at home if the food is already in the kitchen?) or a treat of a more complex meal that I would normally take the time to prepare. My husband and I eat out much less frequently now that we don’t go to work every day - a positive trend but still not sustainable.

And what about ‘food’ that is nutritionally ‘empty’? There is an environment cost to everything we eat - so eating more sustainability should probably include minimalizing or eliminating foods that are not food like soft drinks and candy.

Last but not least - never waste food. Eat all the food that you buy before it spoils. It is a simple concept but not always easy. It takes some thought. In the US - many households don’t think about it enough since the stats always show we have tremendous food waste in this country. We need to care more about the future of food…and embrace sustainability.

Sustainability - Choosing Organic Food

Foods that are labelled ‘organic’ are produced to a USDA standard…and that labelling is the best proxy we have for ‘sustainably produced’ so I choose to buy organic food when I can.

Organic products are often more expensive although there is not as much cost delta as there was a few years ago and there seem to be more organic products available in the stores. More farmers are turning to organic methods if they are in the business for the long term because it is the most sustainable way of farming.

So I buy organic to avoid contributing my purchasing power to non-sustainable farming practices:

• Pesticides and fertilizers may temporarily increase crop yields but they degrade soil (by killing soil organisms and encouraging poor soil maintenance practices, with less organic matter in the soil there is faster runoff of moisture) and pollute water (the runoff carries the pesticides and fertilizers into streams and rivers causing algae blooms, changing reproductive capacity of fish, and dead zones as the mouths of rivers).
• Factory farms (dairy cows, pigs, chickens) cluster animals into tight quarters creating waste disposal issues (terrible smells and high potential for polluting water) and requiring the use of antibiotics (which causes antibiotic resistant bacteria, which can make people sick too).

Buying organic is a good step toward living more sustainably!