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On Valentine's Day, people celebrate all kinds of love. And chefs and foodies around the globe are showing how indulgence can often be both healthy for people and the planet. These innovators are making the case that flavorful, locally sourced plant-inspired dishes are perfect for special occasions — and also versatile for everyday mealtimes.
<p>While not all their dishes are vegetarian or vegan, their recipes showcase diverse ingredients with powerful and traditional flavors. They bring vegetables front and center — and leave meat as a side dish, a condiment, or even off the plate.<em></em></p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/02/20-plant-forward-chefs-loving-vegetables-this-valentines-day/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Food Tank</a>.</em><a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/02/20-plant-forward-chefs-loving-vegetables-this-valentines-day/" rel="noopener noreferrer"></a></p>
<p>"The sustainability reasons [to eat vegetable-centered] are evident because the production of non-plant based food is taking a clear toll on the environment," says plant-forward chef Hari Pulapaka.</p><p>Food Tank is highlighting 20 chefs proving plants are some of the most versatile ingredients for both everyday meals and special occasions.</p>
1. Alice Waters
<p>Waters is a chef, author, and food advocate, and the founder and owner of Chez Panisse Restaurant in Berkeley, California. Waters is the author of 15 books, including New York Times bestsellers The Art of Simple Food I & II, and the memoir, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook. With the belief that chefs should pay attention to the wholesomeness of food — including how ingredients are sourced — Waters is credited with providing the foundation for the plant-forward movement. Waters' recipes and menus offer occasional lapses into indulgence perfect for Valentine's Day including sweet corn soup and winter squash tortellini.</p>2. Ana Sortun
<p>Ana Sortun is the chef at Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where her menu focuses on Turkish and Middle Eastern classics distilled down to their traditional elements. She is also the owner of Sofra Bakery in Cambridge and Sarma Restaurant in Somerville, Mass. Many of the vegetables used at Sortun's restaurants are grown locally — on her husband's farm. Sortun is well-regarded for her mastery of Mediterranean spices — her 2006 cookbook, simply called "Spice," is a bestseller. In her recipes for <a href="https://www.saveur.com/turkish-stuffed-eggplant-imam-bayildi-recipe/" target="_blank">imam bayildi (Turkish stuffed eggplant)</a> and <a href="https://oldwayspt.org/blog/chef-ana-sortun-oleana-shares-kitchen-secrets-and-new-cookbook" target="_blank">Syrian-style lentils with chard</a>, she homes in the one or two warming spices that will elevate the star vegetable without overpowering its natural flavor.</p>3. Chloe Coscarelli
<p>Vegan chef Chloe Coscarelli believes that vegetable-forward dishes can still be mouthwatering, rich, and playful. Now with four cookbooks and nearly a dozen television appearances, Coscarelli has become a prominent figure making the most of plants and their natural flavors. With recipes like <a href="https://chefchloe.com/recipes" target="_blank">chocolate layer cake</a>, <a href="https://chefchloe.com/recipes" target="_blank">blueberry cinnamon french toast</a>, and maple bacon benedict, home chefs can satisfy their sweet tooth and their savory cravings this holiday.</p>4. Christina Arokiasamy
<p>Chef Christina Arokiasamy, who was raised in Malaysia and now lives in Washington State, served as the first Malaysian food ambassador to the United States. Her family members have been spice merchants for five generations, and her show on the Cooking Channel, The Malaysian Kitchen, focused on traditional Malaysian flavors. Arokiasamy's recipes for <a href="https://themalaysiankitchen.com/2019/10/08/vegetarian-pineapple-fried-rice/" target="_blank">pineapple fried rice</a> and <a href="https://themalaysiankitchen.com/2019/10/08/goan-coconut-curry/" target="_blank">goan coconut curry</a> both highlight plant-based ingredients commonly found in Malaysia and blend sweet and savory elements.</p>5. Daisuke Nomura
<p>Chef Nomura is internationally praised for plant-forward takes on creative Japanese style cuisine. Having earned two Michelin stars, Nomura's recipes are sure to impress any loved one with plant-forward innovation, including his spin on an American Valentine's classic: instead of a beef steak, Nomura's recipe suggests an <a href="https://www.plantforward50.com/chefs/daisuke-nomura#recipe" target="_blank">onion steak</a> as a new way to embrace the overlooked ingredient's flavor using new and modern styles of cooking.</p>6. Dan Barber
<p>Dan Barber, Chef and Co-Owner of <a href="https://www.bluehillfarm.com/" target="_blank">Blue Hill</a> and <a href="https://www.bluehillfarm.com/dine/stone-barns" target="_blank">Blue Hill at Stone Barn</a> and the author of The Third Plate, was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve on the President's Council on Physical Fitness, Sports and Nutrition and has received multiple James Beard awards including Best Chef. In 2009 he was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world. Barber is hailed for his plant-forward initiatives including his Row 7 seed company that breeds seeds for better flavor. Barber's plant-forward <a href="https://www.plantforward50.com/chefs/dan-barber#recipe" target="_blank">celery root recipes</a> open up new possibilities for the vegetable a rich broth, cozy tea, or even a hearty braised dish.</p>7. Deborah Madison
<p>Chef, cooking teacher, and author of 14 widely-recognized cookbooks Deborah Madison specializes in seasonal vegetable recipes. Through these recipes, Madison — recognized as the originator of the plant-forward trend — hopes to highlight farmers market produce and heritage varieties of vegetables. Having cooked at restaurants like Greens in San Francisco, Madison has surprised many non-vegetarian and non-vegan diners with bold flavors and filling meals. Dive into Madison's cozy <a href="https://www.latimes.com/food/recipes/la-fo-deborah-madison-in-my-kitchen-cookbook-20170206-story.html" target="_blank">lentil soup with berbere</a> or <a href="https://www.marthastewart.com/316404/beet-risotto" target="_blank">risotto with beets</a>, which add depth and color to a normally luxurious dish.</p>8. Derek and Chad Sarno
<p>Derek Sarno is Executive Chef and Director of Plant-Based Innovation at Tesco and co-founder of Wicked Healthy, a plant-forward blog founded with his brother Chad Sarno. The co-founders develop recipes that allow eaters to indulge with smokey, deep, and nearly guilt-causing flavors — all while maintaining a plant-forward diet and mission. Their recipes like <a href="https://wickedhealthyfood.com/2019/12/27/wicked-herby-crusted-roasted-butternut-squash-tenderloin/" target="_blank">roasted and herb-crusted butternut squash tenderloin</a> and coconut tartlets with <a href="https://wickedhealthyfood.com/2016/09/11/coconut-tartlet-with-clementine-sorbet-and-lavender-syrup/" target="_blank">clementine sorbet and lavender syrup</a> embrace the flavor of plants and their potential in classic Valentine's Day preparations.</p>9. Erik Oberholtzer
<p>Erik Oberholtzer is a chef, social entrepreneur, and food activist whose restaurant chain Tender Greens makes it easier for anyone to enjoy seasonal, plant-forward home cooking at affordable prices. And as a board member for The Rodale Institute and a Food Forever Champion, Oberholtzer supports regeneratively grown and biodiverse crops in diets around the world. His recipes for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2BK-eGryp0" target="_blank">gazpacho</a> and <a href="https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/poached-salmon-salad-with-lettuce-and-asparagus-50185996" target="_blank">poached salmon salad</a> offer lighter takes on romantic meals.</p>10. Hari Pulapaka
<p>Hari Pulapaka is the Executive Chef and Owner of the acclaimed Cress Restaurant in DeLand, Florida, and is a tenured professor at Stetson University. Pulapaka's self-described cuisine is "globally inspired" and "vegetarian focused" and is intended to showcase food that "nourishes the body and frees the soul." In his forthcoming book Sinfully Vegetarian, Pulapaka will feature plant-forward recipes that leave eaters feeling spoiled and craving for more. Inspired by Pulapaka's menus and recipes, eaters can indulge in <a href="http://sinfullyvegetarian.com/" target="_blank">savory vegetable bread pudding</a>, beet-radish terrine with lentil-sesame hummus, or a Mediterranean and Middle East-inspired <a href="https://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/meyer-lemon-ricotta-and-spinach-gnudi-with-green-garbanzo-bean-hummus-tomato-jam-and-spiced-almonds" target="_blank">ricotta and spinach gnudi</a>.</p>11. Jody Adams
<p>Jody Adams, a James Beard Foundation award-winning chef, highlights local vegetables at her restaurants in Boston, where her menus feature housemade pastas, roasted beets, and spanakopita. Adams — who holds a degree in anthropology from Brown University — put it best when she said, "It's the beautiful, raw ingredients that determine what food tastes like — not how fancy the kitchen is." Try something new in the kitchen this Valentine's Day, like making your own pasta: Adams' comforting recipes for <a href="https://www.bostonchefs.com/recipe/jody-adams-floppy-tomato-lasagna/" target="_blank">floppy tomato lasagna</a> and <a href="https://www.starchefs.com/chefs/JAdams/html/recipe_03.shtml" target="_blank">potato gnocchi gratin with wild mushrooms</a> guide you through the process.</p>12. Joe Yonan
<p>Joe Yonan, the Washington Post's food and dining editor, thinks we should all eat more beans. In his new book, Cool Beans, Yonan shares 125 recipes that highlight the versatility of the wide world of protein-packed legumes. Many of the recipes, like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vegetarian-recipes-hummus-ratatouille-margaritas-and-more-from-washington-posts-joe-yonan/" target="_blank">fusilli with white beans, cherry tomatoes, and corn sauce</a> or <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2020/02/cook-this-cool-beans-by-joe-yonan/" target="_blank">falafel fattoush</a>, use ingredients you might already have canned in your pantry. Right in time for Valentine's Day, Yonan even serves dessert and drinks, with recipes like <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vegetarian-recipes-hummus-ratatouille-margaritas-and-more-from-washington-posts-joe-yonan/" target="_blank">chocolate, red bean, and rose brownies</a> and a <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vegetarian-recipes-hummus-ratatouille-margaritas-and-more-from-washington-posts-joe-yonan/" target="_blank">salty margarita sour</a>, topped with whipped chickpea aquafaba.</p>13. John Fraser
<p>Eating vegetarian or vegan, <a href="http://www.nixny.com/" target="_blank">according to chef John Fraser</a>, "should feel more celebration than sacrifice." That's why he opened Nix, which is now New York City's only Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant. There, he serves dishes ranging from cauliflower tempura (<a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-dish-chef-john-fraser/" target="_blank">here's the recipe</a>) to kabocha squash dumplings, but his menu changes depending on what's seasonally available. Fraser shows that plant-forward dishes can be fun — he describes his <a href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qkn9aw/potato-fry-bread-with-sour-cream-and-cucumbers" target="_blank">potato fry bread recipe</a> as "a zeppoli made love to a French fry and then got slathered in sour cream and vegetables."</p>14. José Andrés
<p>José Andrés is often credited with bringing the tapas-style dining concept to America. The founder of 31 restaurants and World Central Kitchen, which provides meals to those affected by natural disasters, wants to bring vegetables forward in American diets. By making vegetables the center of dishes, and relegating meat to side dishes or condiments, Andrés hopes to give plants the recognition they deserve for their role in eaters' health and happiness. Andrés's recent cookbook Vegetables Unleashed includes cozy, luxurious recipes like potatoes cooked in compost, vegetable paella, and fennel bouillabaisse.</p>15. Makini Howell
<p>Chef Makini Howell from Plum Bistro Seattle designs innovative dishes that reflect upon her experience being raised in a vegan family. With powerful flavors, Howell works hard to make plant-forward synonymous with delicious. Howell's recipes offer adventurous eaters an opportunity to integrate more spice into their Valentine's Day meal plans with a <a href="https://recipes.oregonlive.com/recipes/habanero-yam-soup" target="_blank">habanero yam soup</a> and <a href="https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/home-and-family/recipes/makini-howells-spicy-peach-tofu-and-tempeh-with-charred-purple-beans" target="_blank">spicy peach tofu and tempeh with charred purple beans</a>.</p>16. Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby
<p>Chefs Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby opened and operate a small restaurant group of vegan establishments in Philadelphia — including Vedge, V Street, and Wiz Kid — and Washington D.C.'s Fancy Radish. As James Beard-nominated chefs, Landau and Jacoby's passion for veganism injects love into their cooking; and similar plant lovers can feel inspired by their menus and recipes that explore rutabaga fondue, eggplant braciole, and even <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwExuSgTJ5M" target="_blank">potato scallops</a>.</p>17. Romy Gill
<p>When chef Romy Gill was growing up in India, meat was reserved for celebrations and special occasions — and even when she did eat meat, it was a side dish at most. So every recipe in her recent debut cookbook, Zaika, is vegan. "I wanted to show that in India, plant-based cuisine is something people don't do just for the sake of it—it's a way of life," <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel/2019/12/warming-dhals-zingy-salads-interview-romy-gill" target="_blank">she said</a>. Gill, who now lives in the U.K., cooks lighter fare with Indian flavors, like <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/red-cabbage-pomegranate-salad-romy-gill-cooking-instructions-a9008271.html" target="_blank">red cabbage and pomegranate salad</a> and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/romy-gill-recipe-courgette-sabzi-indian-vegetarian-a8361056.html" target="_blank">courgette (zucchini) sabzi</a>, a childhood favorite.</p>18. Selassie Atadika
<p>Midunu, the name of chef Selassie Atadika's restaurant in Accra, Ghana, means "let us eat" in the Ewe language. Midunu represents "nomadic" dining, meaning meals are served pop-up style at a new location each time. Atadika said she is reminded that plant-forward cooking is healthier for humans and the planet when she looks at the traditional foodways of nomadic African groups. Now, at Midunu, Atadika sources much of her produce and grain from local farmers living off the land. Recipes like her <a href="https://www.plantforward50.com/chefs/selassie-atadika#recipe" target="_blank">gari foto</a> celebrate African ingredients like gari (made from dried cassava) and the spice prekese.</p>19. Stéphanie Audet
<p>Before Stéphanie Audet became a restaurant chef, she was a vegetarian food consultant, creating plant-based recipes and menus for restaurants. These skills have come in handy in her kitchens: A restaurant she opened in Hawaii was devoted entirely to raw indigenous ingredients. When she became the executive chef at LOV, in Montreal, Canada, in 2016, she created an entirely vegan menu that featured creative but approachable recipes like <a href="https://quench.me/mavericks/stephanie-audet-lov-maverick-chefs-2018/" target="_blank">coconut ceviche</a>. Recently, she moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where she opened Senhor Uva. At the natural food and wine bar, her small plates focus on seasonal and local vegetables.</p>20. Tal Ronnen
<p>The plant-based chef to the stars, Tal Ronnen earned his fame while cooking for Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, Arianna Huffington, and for the first-ever vegan dinner at the United States Senate. Ronnen's cookbook Crossroads is based on recipes from his Los Angeles restaurant of the same name, which opened in 2013 to showcase high-end vegan dining with Mediterranean flavors. With an inventive recipe for <a href="https://www.plantforward50.com/chefs/tal-ronnen#recipe" target="_blank">artichoke "oysters" with tomato bearnaise and kelp caviar</a>, Ronnen offers eaters a plant-forward alternative to the well-known seafood aphrodisiac this Valentine's Day.</p>From Your Site Articles
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Wild rice flatbread is one of many Native recipes found in Indigikitchen. Indigikitchen
The online cooking show Indigikitchen is providing a platform to help disseminate Indigenous food recipes — while helping eaters recognize their impact on the planet and Native communities.
<p>"Not only do Indigenous diets provide us with nutritionally balanced, seasonal <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/local-food" rel="noopener noreferrer">local food</a>, but they help us recognize the connection to our physical place in the world, as well as the wisdom of those who have come before," says <a href="https://www.indigikitchen.com/about/" target="_blank">Mariah Gladstone</a> (Blackfeet, Cherokee), founder of Indigikitchen. "This helps us care for ourselves, the land, and each other."<em></em></p>
<p>Indigikitchen gives viewers in Native communities the tools and guidance they may need to prepare nutritious food on their own reservations with familiar and innovative recipes — even including crosses with cuisines from other cultures, like Thai and Italian meals. Recent recipes include elderberry barbeque sauce, bison sweet potato poblano stew, wild rice omelets, Idigikitchen pad thai, and peanut butter cookies. Indigikitchen also offers educational programs for in-school learning.</p><p>Gladstone notes that taking this guidance to the internet was an obvious choice. "Given that most of us get a majority of our information from the internet, I consider it important to make sure that Indigenous food recipes can also be found in the same place," says Gladstone. "Since people are already excited about eating Indigenous foods, removing barriers to information is one of my top priorities."</p><p>With this information, Gladstone hopes that Native communities will become equipped with innovative ways to avoid processed foods and preservatives, which replaced wild game, berries, corn, squash, and rice once colonizing people took the lands used to cultivate these crops. "Our food systems were targeted by colonial powers, though that manifested in different ways across the continent. Dependence on subsidized food systems meant land theft without recourse," says Gladstone. "Regaining the ability to feed ourselves would allow us to function as the sovereign governments we are: producing, processing, and harvesting local foods while exercising control over the policies that govern those systems."</p>
<p>For Indigikitchen, helping native communities harness opportunities for healthy and nutritious food on their reservations is a form of resistance against colonization, with the benefit of revitalizing cultures and pre-contact foods. The online platform also offers people without a Native American background the opportunity to learn about Indigenous food systems in the past and a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability" rel="noopener noreferrer">sustainable</a> future.</p><p>"The ways that Indigenous food systems were structured helps us better understand the world around us in our present locations. Not only does this help us relate better to our natural environment and the nourishment that it provides, but it helps us better understand the changes that are occurring, both seasonally and climatically," says Gladstone. "Learning history can guide us towards a better future for all," says Gladstone. Gladstone will speak at Food Tank's summit "<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-wisdom-of-indigenous-foodways-food-tank-summit-w-asu-u-of-hawaii-tickets-86838491265" target="_blank">The Wisdom of Indigenous Foodways</a>" in partnership with the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University on Jan. 22.</p><p>Learning about Indigenous foodways requires non-Native American allies to confront the ways their ancestors have contributed to oppression against Native communities and knowledge. "The role that Native people have played in our daily lives is often minimized or entirely erased. While much of the world's food comes from thousands of years of Native cultivation of corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, chilies, and potatoes, but it is rarely recognized. And by identifying the agricultural genius behind our favorite foods, we also must reckon with genocide," says Gladstone.</p><p>But once allies take this important step, Gladstone says there is still work that must be done in supporting Native communities and Indigenous foodways. "Food system change must happen on every level," says Gladstone. "Allies can work on restoring access; especially ensuring Native people are able to hunt and harvest on public lands and that grocery store foods are affordable. Finally, families, both Native and non-Native alike, can learn how to cook foods that are local and sustainable," says Gladstone.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/01/indigikitchen-is-bringing-native-food-sovereignty-online/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Food Tank</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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<p>It's the question emblazoned on the back of a van that has ferried me across 34 states to visit 128 consumer-owned grocery stores (food co-ops) and another 20 in development.</p><p>I spent 13 years investigating every facet of the food supply. It led me to the conclusion that the grocery store is, hands down, the most influential force shaping food, the planet and our health. So I wrote a book about it, bought a tour van and took the book on the road. The message I'm sharing is that it's time to pay a lot more attention to who owns the grocery stores we shop at and what those answers mean to the future of food and the future of our communities.</p><p>We have invested considerable energy over the past decade into deepening our understanding of how and where food is grown and who grows it. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/organic-food">Organic food</a> has exploded into a $50 billion industry in the U.S. Farm-to-table restaurants are plentiful. Farmers markets are thriving and community supported agriculture models are enabling new generations of farmers to usher in a new food paradigm. But there remains a cavernous gap in the effort — where we buy our groceries. If 10 percent of our weekly food budget is at a farmers market, what about the other 90 percent? It's almost certainly being invested in a grocery store. So what are we investing in?</p><p>If it's The Fresh Market, you're investing in Apollo Global Management — a firm that includes the former Blackwater in its portfolio. If it's Trader Joe's, you're investing in Aldi Nord — a German multinational grocer. If it's Whole Foods, you're investing in Amazon and lining the pockets of the wealthiest person on the planet. And what of the smaller chains? The trajectory of grocery consolidation suggests you're investing in what will likely become an acquisition by one of a handful of hungry grocery giants.</p><p>Look at Canada and the U.K., where market concentration in grocery retail is remarkably high. In Canada, two companies alone receive over half of Canadians' grocery dollars. Combined with the next three largest grocers, those five companies command 80 percent of the market. The numbers are similar in the U.K.</p><p>What happens when a market becomes this concentrated? Take Loblaw Co. Ltd., the largest of Canada's grocers commanding 30% of the market. Dec. 14, 2017: Loblaw admits to the Canadian public that they've been cheating their customers for 14 years – alleging they had colluded with four of their most notable competitors to fix the price of bread. It's understood Canadians were spending $1 more per loaf of bread than general rates of food inflation would have predicted. Back in 2007, over in the highly concentrated U.K. grocery market, Asda and Sainsbury's admitted to fixing the price of dairy between 2002 and 2003. The scheme was said to have cost consumers the equivalent today of $438 million.</p>
<p>As a Canadian, I'm particularly interested in what will come of the investigation into bread price fixing, but despite the ongoing investigation it appears we have already moved on. On April 9, 2019, Canada's Environment and Climate Change Minister announced Loblaw would receive a $12 million subsidy to upgrade refrigeration units at 370 of their stores. Company admits to cheating Canadians. Canadians gift them $12 million. Incredible.</p><p>Are Canadians outraged? Are they switching grocery stores? Absolutely not. Loblaw is doing just fine. Granted, there aren't a whole lot of alternatives. Four other grocery giants are alleged to have participated in the scheme. In many areas of the country, those five grocers are the only options available.</p><p>Similar levels of market concentration are also emerging across the U.S. After Walmart's explosion into grocery in the late 1990s and early 2000s, waves of grocery mergers and acquisitions followed, leaving only a handful of grocery giants operating in any one geographic area. As I traveled through the eastern states this past spring, it became clear how few people are aware of the companies behind the banners. The once regional chains are no longer so regional. Hannaford, Food Lion, Giant, Stop & Shop, all are now subsidiaries of Ahold Delhaize (Netherlands.) Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter, Ralphs — now Kroger banners. Safeway, Shaw's, Star Market and Vons — all now part of Albertsons.</p><p>With the exception of some areas of the country where fierce grocery store battles are playing out, we eaters are generally at the mercy of one of a few giants. In rural communities and many urban neighborhoods, there might be just one single option available — textbook monopolies.</p><p>"Well, that's capitalism for ya," some will say. No doubt. But this is different. This is about food. Grocery stores are not, in any way, just some other "business." These buildings operating in our neighborhoods bear tremendous social and economic responsibilities.</p><p>Take human health. The connection between food and health is now well understood. Studies show that the common cold, diabetes and heart disease can be prevented, curtailed or managed through the foods we eat. Food is medicine. So what responsibilities have we placed upon these grocers that are proportional to the vital health services they're providing? What have we done to ensure all people, regardless of income, race or geography, are provided access to healthy, wholesome and risk-free food at the grocery stores in their neighborhoods? Not much. We've left the health implications of our grocery stores entirely in the hands of market forces.</p><p>A grocer's economic role is also deserving of scrutiny. Ten years ago, it was nearly impossible for local/regional food producers to get their products on the shelves of a major national chain operating nearby. Whereas some progress has been made in this regard, there remain many producers who continue to come up against substantial barriers when trying to access the shelves of their local/regional grocers. These barriers effectively throttle local economic development and diminish the wider social benefits that extend from the presence and growth of a diversity of local businesses.</p><p>For the past 100 years, grocers have also been shaping the entirety of the food system. With only a handful of grocers dominating any one region or nation, they have effectively acted as bottlenecks within the system — gatekeepers to the foods that will and won't make it to market. It's the grocers who are determining the how, where, and who of food production both locally and globally. Grocers are determining the future of food.</p><p>As there is no regulatory oversight of grocery store behaviors and practices in these three key areas of influence, where can we eaters find modest assurance that grocers have our interests at heart? And how might a grocer's commitment to our community be sustained for generations to come? I believe it comes down to who owns your grocery store. It should come as no surprise that the most locally owned grocer is most likely to be the most accountable and responsive to the community it serves. After all, the owner(s) and senior management are often residents of the town/city/neighborhood in which the store is located. As long as our neighborhood grocer is privately owned, any assurances of long-term commitment are precarious. No question there are many independent grocers out there who are in it for the long haul and dedicating themselves to their customers, but it's risky for any of us to place the future of our neighborhood grocer entirely in the hands of a single individual or family. Just as closures of chain stores are commonplace, so too are closures of independent locally owned grocers, particularly in today's hyper-challenging climate of grocery retail. Acquisitions are also a risk to the future of the grocery stores in our neighborhoods. In both cases, community consultations are not required despite the enormous repercussions a closure or acquisition may have on food access, health, community and economy. If it's merely a change in ownership, the unique characteristics that may have set a store or chain apart often erode into the culture of the acquiring chain. The accountability and commitment to the community often goes with it.</p>
<p>In August 2019, Musser's Markets, with three locations in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, was acquired by Giant (a subsidiary of the Dutch multinational Ahold Delhaize.) This followed Giant's single store acquisition in May of Ferguson & Hassler in Quarryville and prior to that, Darrenkamp's in Willow Valley in September 2018.</p><p>In January 2019, the Long Island-based King Kullen (c. 1930) with 32 locations and its independent subsidiary Wild by Nature with five locations were acquired by Stop & Shop (also a subsidiary of Ahold Delhaize.)</p><p>In 2015, Chicago's Mariano's, with 44 locations, was acquired by Kroger. The culture change at Mariano's is not going unnoticed. An August 2019 article in Crain's Chicago Business magazine reads, "Is Kroger ruining Mariano's?"</p><p>So where can eaters find greater assurance in the future of their grocery stores? My research and experience within the food system leads me to only one model. That is the consumer cooperative — food co-ops — full-service grocery stores collectively owned by their customers.</p><p>Here's why:</p><p>There have been zero instances of a food co-op in America being acquired by a chain grocer. Why not? It would first require a vote by the co-op's thousands of shareholders who would be asked to decide on whether or not to sell the store. It's true that there are examples of food co-ops closing, but any decision to change the ownership of a cooperatively owned grocery store is a democratic one, made by the people who would be most affected by the decision: eaters and workers — us! Community consultations on the future of neighborhood grocery stores are built directly into the cooperative model of ownership.</p><p>What defines a consumer food co-op? Rather than any one individual or company owning the grocery store, consumer food co-ops spread ownership out to however many people want to become a shareholder. There are no limits to who can become a shareholder nor how many shareholders can co-own the store. Better yet, no one shareholder has any more voting power than another. Each share in the co-op is equal to one vote and each shareholder is limited to one voting share. Once a year, shareholders in a food co-op will vote for their board of directors to govern the co-op. Co-ops democratize the economy. </p><p>We've generally placed any business or service that a community deems 'essential' into an entirely different category of oversight, scrutiny and expectations. Public transit, public libraries, community centers, drinking water, roads and first responders are generally stewarded by public agencies and institutions. They're simply far too important to leave entirely in the hands of the private sector. Is food deserving of the same attention? Co-ops, particularly consumer co-ops, are effectively public institutions. They build accountability to the community directly into the ownership model. They allow the public to steward the food system from the primary point of convergence between eaters and the system — at the grocery store.</p><p>While a food co-op may in practice be a for-profit business, by virtue of their ownership model, they operate far more along the lines of a nonprofit businesses. Every dollar of profit generated at a co-op is channeled into one of two directions — back into improving the business or returned to shareholders in the form of dividends proportional to the level of purchases a shareholder made over the previous year. As a shareholder of a food co-op, I've received checks as low as $10 to as high as $50 at the end of the year. These dividends are essentially the grocer saying to its customers, "sorry, we charged you too much this year, here's how much we overcharged you." </p><p>The recirculating effect of a food dollar spent at a food co-op doesn't end with the distribution of profits. At a cooperatively owned grocer, the head office is not only in the community served by the co-op, it's almost always located directly inside the store itself. With the head office located inside the store, the co-op grocery store becomes home to more jobs, including more full-time positions. Marketing managers, human resources, finance, outreach, any positions that would otherwise be located at a distant head office are instead located within the community. More than 180 people are employed at my food co-op, almost 100 of them full time. The largest chain grocer operating in my city claims 150 employees. Then there are the third-party services a cooperatively owned grocer will utilize. This translates into more of our grocery dollars circulating into local businesses that in turn re-circulate those dollars locally.</p><p>Today, 230 co-ops operate over 300 locations in the U.S. Another 100 are in various stages of development. The food co-op movement is expanding and evolving. Of the 144 new food co-ops that have opened in the past 11 years, 72 percent of them have weathered the challenging grocery retail climate and have remained open. Nationwide, interest in food co-ops is spreading beyond consumers of organic and local foods. All types of communities, including those in designated food deserts, are turning to this model of grocery store ownership to secure a more promising future for their communities.</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/opinion/2019/12/06/grocery-store-own/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2641669059#/" target="_self"></a></em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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By Alex Robinson
Youngstown, Ohio probably doesn't strike most people as a destination for foodies. But Mark Winne begs to differ.
<p>Over the last decade, the food activist and writer has witnessed an explosion of farm-to-table restaurants, brewpubs and independent coffee shops in America. Many might think this food renaissance is only happening in large coastal cities. But through his travels, Winne has found something much more expansive is going on.</p><p>Winne's new book, <a href="https://islandpress.org/books/food-town-usa" target="_blank"><em>Food Town, USA</em></a>, follows his journey through seven unlikely food towns to show the presence of good food is becoming a new normal across the country.</p><p>"Good food was available increasingly around the country in all kinds of places, and people were paying much more attention to locally produced food," Winne said.</p>
<p>He met with farmers, local politicians and brew masters in places like Sitka, Alaska and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. What these places had in common was an unexpectedly thriving food scene. Many of these places didn't have farmers' markets a decade ago, let alone farm-to-table restaurants and brewpubs. But the shifting population and demographics of these areas during that ten years created a greater demand for good food.</p><p>"They didn't want to eat at Denny's. They wanted to have the real thing," Winne said.</p><p>In addition to caring more about where their food came from, Winne said, people were also starting to care about tackling problems like food insecurity. One of the overarching concerns he heard everywhere was whether there would be enough new farmers to meet the emerging demand for good food.</p><p>In many of the places he went, Winne found new establishments had been started by young people who had grown up in these towns, left to learn their craft in big cities and then returned home to start their own businesses. Winne said some of these people knew their hometowns didn't necessarily have the same opportunities as the larger cities, but they felt a draw or homing instinct.</p>
<p>Chefs from Portland, Oregon were also moving to places like Boise, Idaho, because the culinary scene in the former was oversaturated and crowded. It also didn't hurt that real estate was cheaper.</p><p>One of the big questions Winne has wrestled with is whether economic development has brought good restaurants to these places, or if food was playing a part in bringing new businesses to town.</p><p>"It's a little bit of the chicken and egg deal. I saw a little bit of both," he said. In some places, Winne said, food has been seen as an economic engine that can jumpstart development. If these places were going to try to attract new businesses, the employees they would bring would want a quality of life similar to where they came from. So these towns needed to have nice coffee shops, good local brewpubs and a farmers' market.</p><p>Winne said he also saw the emergence of an entrepreneurial class. "They were looking at the marketplace and wondering is this place ready for good food, or do I need to make them ready by opening up a place and hoping they will come?" he added.</p><p>For Winne, this has all illustrated a new national consciousness that has taken hold across the country, and it is apparent in these new food towns.<br></p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2019/10/a-food-activists-journey-through-unlikely-food-towns/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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This Boston Hospital Is Feeding Patients Through Its Rooftop Farm
09 September 2019
Health + Wellness
Boston Medical Center Rooftop Farm - Featured Project
Carrie Golden believes the only reason she's diabetes free is because she has access to fresh, locally grown food.
A few years after the Boston resident was diagnosed with prediabetes, she was referred to Boston Medical Center's Preventative Food Pantry as someone who is food insecure. The food pantry is a free food resource for low-income patients.
<p>"You become diabetic because when you don't have good food to eat, you eat whatever you can to survive," Golden says. "Because of the healthy food I get from the pantry… I've learned how to eat."</p><p>Three years ago, the hospital launched a rooftop farm to grow fresh produce for the pantry. The farm has produced 6,000 pounds of food a year, with 3,500 pounds slated for the pantry. The rest of its produce goes to the hospital's cafeteria, patients, a teaching kitchen and an in-house portable farmers market.</p><p>The hospital joined a handful of medical facilities across the country that have started growing food on their roofs. The initiative is the first hospital-based farm in Massachusetts and the largest rooftop farm in Boston. The facility's 2,658-square-foot garden houses more than 25 crops, organically grown in a milk crate system.</p><p>"Food is medicine. That's why we're doing what we're doing," says David Maffeo, the hospital's senior director of support services. "Most urban environments are food deserts. It's hard to get <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/local-food" rel="noopener noreferrer">locally grown food</a> and I think it's something that we owe to our patients and our community."</p><p>Lindsay Allen, a farmer who has been managing the rooftop oasis since its inception, says her farm's produce is being used for preventative care as well as in reactive care. She says 72 percent of the hospital's patients are considered underserved, and likely don't have access to healthy, local <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/organic" rel="noopener noreferrer">organic</a> food.</p><p>What people put in their bodies has a direct link to their health she says, adding that hospitals have a responsibility to give their patients better food.</p><p>"I generally feel that hospital food is pretty terrible and gross, which I always find ironic since that's where we are sick and at our most vulnerable and we need to be nourished," she says.</p><p>In addition to running the farm, Allen teaches a number of farming workshops to educate patients, employees and their families on how to grow their own food. The hospital's teaching kitchen employs a number of food technicians and dieticians who offer their expertise to patients on how they can make meals with the local produce they're given.</p><p>This is part of the medical center's objective to not only give patients good food, but also provide them the tools to lead a healthy life.</p><p>Golden, who has used the pantry for the last three years, says the experience has changed the way she looks at food.</p><p>"I've gone many days with nothing to eat, so I know what that feels like when you get something like the food pantry that gives you what you need to stay healthy," she says. "I appreciate all the people that put their heart into working in the garden. If only they knew how we really need them."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2019/09/how-one-boston-hospital-is-feeding-patients-through-its-rooftop-farm/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em></p>
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A field of crops grows in Brawley, California. Florence Low / California Department of Water Resources
By Tara Lohan
Despite the warning signs — climate change, biodiversity loss, depleted soils and a shrinking supply of cheap energy — we continue to push along with an economy fueled by perpetual growth on a finite planet.
<p>We'll need to reckon with this discrepancy.</p><p><span></span>Much has been written about when and how that should be done. One of the organizations looking for solutions is the nonprofit <a href="https://www.postcarbon.org/" target="_blank">Post Carbon Institute</a>, which for years has talked about <em>better</em>, instead of <em>bigger </em>growth, and what a transition to a less carbon-intensive energy system could look like.</p><p>Its latest effort is a report by board president <a href="https://www.postcarbon.org/our-people/jason-bradford/" target="_blank">Jason Bradford</a> called <a href="https://www.postcarbon.org/publications/the-future-is-rural/" target="_blank"><em>The Future Is Rural: Food System Adaptations to the Great Simplification</em></a>.</p><p>The report contains a premise that many may find surprising: New technologies and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/renewable-energy">renewable energy</a> will not be able to fully replace <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" rel="noopener noreferrer">fossil fuels</a> — or not as quickly as we will need them to. While some kinds of energy are more easily substituted by renewables, like solar and wind standing in for fossil-fueled electricity, others are not. Running heavy equipment, tractors and massive cargo ships that have relied on liquid fuels is a much more challenging task. As a result, the reasoning goes, we'll need to learn how to use less energy and use it differently.</p><p>If true this would have major impacts on every facet of our lives, including our food system —which today, in the U.S., relies on fossil fuels and long trade networks.</p><p>"We must face the prospect that many of us will need to be more responsible for food security," Bradford writes in the report. "People in highly urbanized and globally integrated countries like the U.S. will need to re-ruralize and re-localize human settlement and subsistence patterns over the coming decades to adapt to both the end of cheaply available fossil fuels and climate change."</p><p>We talked to Bradford, who has worked for years in sustainable agriculture, about what changes he thinks are ahead and what we can do to prepare for them.</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://therevelator.org/local-food-bradford/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>
You refer to the age you see coming up when there’s less cheap energy available as the “Great Simplification.” Where does that term come from and what does it mean?
<p>The idea for this report first came from a series of guest lectures I did for a class at the University of Minnesota taught by [energy and systems expert] <a href="https://www.postcarbon.org/our-people/nate-hagens/" target="_blank">Nate Hagens</a> [a Post Carbon Institute board member]. Great Simplification is the term he was using in his class, but it ties well to anthropological work looking at social complexity in relationship to energy.</p><p><span></span>Societies that have less energy available organize themselves differently, and so the Great Simplification is this idea that as energy becomes more dear we'll need to use less of it. And our highly complex and globally integrated societies will begin take on forms that are simpler over time. That means less complex trade networks, less specialization in jobs, less bureaucratic hierarchies.</p>When I try to envision what this Great Simplification would look like, I think of either preindustrial society or at least pre-World War II. What does it look like to you?
<p>I remember traveling through Europe and seeing the contrast between a modern European city and someplace like a World Heritage site that is still a living city, but it was built centuries ago and there never was a suburban expansion around it. And so you basically see this countryside that you can walk to from the city center.</p><p>That's how people lived prior to the industrial revolution in most parts of the world. And if you go to somewhere such as rural Bolivia, that's what it still looks like. I think that's maybe what the long-term consequences of fossil fuel depletion will look like. But what happens in the messy middle is much harder to figure out.</p><p>To think about that, the report looks at places that have already started getting abandoned in the upper Midwest because they lost the industrial clout they used to have from the steel industry and the auto industry. So you can sort of see this process unfolding already. You may have a partial abandonment of some areas and then maybe also reclaiming of them partly for food production. Big suburban houses may instead have more people living together to share expenses and share work.</p>It seems like today in the United States very few people know much about farming or producing food in general. How do we start to close that knowledge gap?
<p>I feel like we have two kinds of threads going right now. On the one hand, there are a lot of school gardens and farms taking off and there's more being done for horticulture programs, shop programs and home economics. There's a bit of a skills revival happening. But on the other hand, there's also a big focus on teaching every kid how to code, or kids being on their personal entertainment devices all the time instead of getting outside in nature.</p><p>Part of what I hope the report does is to make people aware of this skills gap and try to prioritize learning not just about self-sufficiency but how communities can work together.</p><p>I don't expect the people reading the report will suddenly perform voluntary simplicity and try to find a commune to live on somewhere. But what I do hope is to inspire people to become change agents — to be ready for when the energy system forces a transition and start setting up systems that are pre-adapted to an energy-scarce world.</p>What are some of the ways that people can support this kind of transition work and re-localization without being an actual farmer or food producer?
<p>If you're a rural landowner there's a big opportunity. Farmers on average own only half the land they use. So, if you own that land, who do you choose to lease to? Are you actively trying to find a farmer who's oriented towards more regenerative, more organic, more local and regional systems?</p><p>If you have money there are also lending clubs that can help support local food systems and entrepreneurs. Then there might be people who are politically connected and know folks on the city council or in the planning department and can push for changes in codes or policies, like for instance, if there's a local law that doesn't allow you to capture rainwater or have a front yard garden.</p><p>Maybe you can support the local soil and water conservation district or the local conservation group that's trying put biodiversity back on farmlands. Farms are full of amazing habitats that can be great places to rebuild ecosystem services, protect watersheds, get insect, bat and bird populations back up — that will serve food production in the long run.</p>It seems like these kinds of changes that you’re talking about could seem scary to a lot of people. What are the parts that inspire you the most or you think will be most exciting about re-localization?
<p>I think that these coming times of great challenge and stress will force people to work together in ways where they have a shared sense of purpose, [like the veterans] at the American Legion Hall who had some experience together 40 years ago when they were in their 20s that bonded them and they know deep down that this person sitting next to them is someone they can trust.</p><p>Even though it's going to be difficult, we will find tremendous meaning in our shared experience that could be wonderful. And that's something people are missing right now.</p>
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Bjorn Quenemoen and Jamie O'Shea (wearing the hat) were once college roommates but are now popcorn makers. Chris Panetta
By Alexandra Zissu
When Bjorn Quenemoen was a student at Bard College, he would host monthly popcorn parties. He would put up posters around campus, inviting everyone to his parties. At 10 p.m., on the appointed date, he would turn the lights down and put on some music.
<p>Quenemoen would sell a handful of items, including Claussen pickles, Lucky Strike cigarettes and beer, but the real draw was his popcorn. He would pop it live, wearing a uniform (orange pants that his sister bought in Thailand, a maroon muscle shirt and a yellow headband). The recipe, heavy on nutritional yeast, comes from his family, who grew corn, among other crops, in Minnesota.</p>
<p>"Quenemoen, now 38, never stopped making popcorn. "Before I graduated, I got the idea that I could turn this recipe into a business," he said. And he did. The business — no longer a live event — is BjornQorn. The idea is so simple, it makes you kick yourself for not launching it first: non-GMO popcorn, solar popped and seasoned. Nothing more.</p><p>BjornQorn's enormous solar kettles were designed by Quenemoen's former college roommate, Jamie O'Shea. "We looked for a place where a farmer would let us build a crazy contraption," said O'Shea. Thanks to a family connection, we've installed them on Kelder's Farm in Kerhonkson, New York, across the street from the BjornQorn office — and not far from their old college campus.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTYyNzYxMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzODU1Mjg3Mn0.tFyOgtSyog_r7WW9m7nrOzbqbebvqm4meG1llgK0l7M/img.png?width=980" id="f19c0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d2460f9f62c216c77c2299b7a391a40a" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>About 20 percent of their corn is grown on Kelder's Farm, and the other 80 percent comes from Quenemoen's family farm. When demand is high, they supplement with organic kernels. "When we don't know the farmers, we buy organic," said Quenemoen. "When we do, we work with noncertified lands." He goes home to Minnesota to personally hand-sort the corn — the machinery available doesn't meet his needs. "There isn't a small-scale solution," he said. "All of the grain needs to be sorted. There can be foreign materials, like husks and rocks, in there."</p><p>Regardless of its origin, all of their corn is popped in the Hudson Valley kettles. Recently, the duo added a solar-electric facility to increase their production capacity. They also added two primary flavors to their product line: cloudy and spicy. Cloudy is the kernels that pop on non-sunny days, while spicy is quite hot.</p><p>On a rainy spring afternoon in their popcorn-scented office, Quenemoen and O'Shea reflect on their growth and try to imagine their future. It's been a few years since O'Shea was able to work at BjornQorn full-time. And they're past the point where Quenemoen has to stand on a ladder to work machinery and hand-deliver orders.</p><p>BjornQorn has made appearances in skits on <em>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</em> and <em>Saturday Night Live,</em> and their popcorn is stocked in the staff pantries of both shows. Etsy staff members have even dressed up as bags of BjornQorn for Halloween. "They're so crafty," said Quenemoen.</p><p>They're just as proud of selling at Hudson Valley stores and breweries as they are of their demand at Eataly in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles. And they're embarking on a trial run at Whole Foods Market. "We aren't sure yet about our quest for world domination," joked Quenemoen.</p><p>"There is still a lot of America left," he said. "We'll see how mainstream we can get this quirky popcorn to go."</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2019/06/this-local-solar-popped-popcorn-was-a-decade-in-the-making/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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A busy street produce market in Hong Kong, China. RichLegg / E+ / Getty Images
By Sarah Treleaven
Farmers are starting to re-emerge, supported by a restaurant scene that is wise to the benefits of a fresh local food system and a network of farmers' markets.
<p>In many ways, the scene at Hong Kong's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/tongchongstreetmarket/" target="_blank">Tong Chong Street Market</a> on Sunday mornings is almost identical to the brazenly bourgeois gourmet food markets that are popping up around the world. There are half a dozen stands selling upscale espressos and cold brews, including Ralph's Coffee by Ralph Lauren. There are prepared foods and natural wines. And there are food stalls that serve up black-truffle-infused spinach cream soup and banh mi sandwiches stuffed with foie gras.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTE4NDIxMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MTc0MzUyNH0.ObA2XpcOVrJu_fYN2G3PVhepDnkoCfzx5EdTpcnlYUY/img.jpg?width=980" id="ec9f5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1494aa077542216664be5ea270ab099d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Tong Chong Street Market</small></p><p>But there was something at this particular market that I had never seen before in nearly a dozen visits to this megacity: vendors selling fresh, organic vegetables grown locally. There were beautiful just-picked bunches of bok choy and romaine lettuce. There were small brown mushrooms, potatoes, rutabagas, Chinese cabbage and white radishes. Every vegetable had that undersized, flawless look I've come to expect when producers charge at least twice the average supermarket price. But they also had the look of painstakingly cultivated flavor—the kind of vegetables with the potential to steal the whole culinary show.<br></p><p>Over the course of several days, I came to realize that Tong Chong is just one symbol of a surprising yet growing phenomenon in Hong Kong: the niche emergence of farm-to-table sensibilities in a place that imports more than 90 percent of its food.</p><p>Until the 1950s, almost all of the food consumed in Hong Kong was produced in the surrounding area. But rapid industrialization swallowed up much of the land available for agriculture and the workforce available for manual labor, and it soon became easier—and often cheaper—to import produce from China and the surrounding area.</p><p>Now, slowly and on a smaller scale, farmers are starting to re-emerge in Hong Kong, supported by a restaurant scene that's wise to the benefits of a fresh local food system, a network of farmers' markets popping up across the city and a generation interested in food footprints and safety.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image">
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Tong Chong Street Market</small></p><p>Janice Leung founded Tong Chong (which started out under the name "Island East Markets") in 2012. Her primary concern was environmental, but she finds that most of the Hongkongers who buy local, organic produce are concerned about the safety of produce imported from China amidst a series of scandals involving tainted products. Most of the farms are in the New Territories, the series of islands and parts of Kowloon attached to Mainland China that were claimed by the British in the late 19th century as part of a massive expansion. "I wanted to bring the farms to the people," says Leung. There are now about 40 vendors at the market every Sunday morning, including three or four farmers' stalls.<br></p><p>For Todd Darling, an American restaurateur who has lived in Hong Kong for nearly two decades, sourcing flavorful local and organic food is all about gaining an advantage over competitors, all of whom import vegetables from the same two or three massive suppliers in China. "These local ingredients are the cornerstones of our restaurants," he says. "When there's a dish where the vegetable is the star of the show, it's almost always from a local farm."</p><p>Initially, Darling would get up early and drive out to the New Territories to bring back vegetables for his Italian American restaurants, which now include <a href="https://www.postopubblico.com/" target="_blank">Posto Pubblico</a> and <a href="https://www.linguinifini.com/" target="_blank">Linguini Fini</a>. But once they started displaying their bounties on restaurant counters and name-checking local farmers on their menus, customers would come in and ask to buy the produce, including kale, peppers, lemons and multiple varieties of tomatoes. "They would say 'My kids never get cherry tomatoes at home,'" he says.</p><p>Darling decided to start a new business, <a href="http://www.homegrownfoods.com.hk/" target="_blank">Homegrown Foods</a>, that serves as a subscription-based service for local produce and provides a box of seasonal goods once a week. Though the area is temperate year round, its hot and humid summers are typically a low growing season. Darling says he is able to source from about 10 farms during the high season and three farms during the low season.</p><p>While a small locavore movement is catching on with consumers, it's been a tough sell to other restaurants. "Local, organic vegetables are twice the price, and in a place where property is so expensive, you look to cut corners anywhere you can," says Darling. Since Hong Kong is perennially ranked as one of the world's most expensive places to buy property, the high price of property also means that using agriculturally zoned land for farming can be much less cost-effective than sitting on it and hoping that developers will scoop it up. That might be why some of the newest initiatives in Hong Kong, such as <a href="https://www.rooftoprepublic.com/" target="_blank">Rooftop Republic</a>, are transforming underutilized spaces like rooftops into green, mostly edible oases.</p><p>Local farming initiatives are just one aspect of a more sustainable dining movement that's taking hold in this megacity. On a recent night in Hong Kong, I stopped in at <a href="https://www.grassrootspantry.com/" target="_blank">Grassroots Pantry</a>, a fashionable plant-based restaurant, to attend a tribute to Vietnamese cuisine. Chef Peter Cuong Franklin, who was visiting from his restaurant, <a href="http://anansaigon.com/" target="_blank">Anan Saigon</a>, was casually ambling around the dining room with a glass of white wine in his hand. I sipped a funky biodynamic rosé and sampled hedgehog mushrooms fried in soy and accompanied by fresh herbs that he had grown and then carried in his luggage from Ho Chi Minh City.</p><p>Leung says that grassroots education is becoming essential and more than just a passing fashion. Increasingly, Hongkongers are visiting farms in the New Territories with their children, which she hopes will lead to more informed food choices and policies for the next generation of Hongkongers. "People need to know that food grows out of the ground," she says. "I've seen kids point at taro and they don't know what it is, even though it's served here all the time. It doesn't seem healthy for a city to import nearly 100 percent of their food."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2019/02/hong-kong-imports-over-90-percent-of-its-food-but-thats-about-to-change/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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Kangaroo Island Spirits / Facebook
By Sarah Treleaven
On an expansive property on the gloriously wild Kangaroo Island, near the western shore of the island's Eastern Cove, I stood in the middle of a large garden and practically inhaled a clipping of olearia (also known as wild rosemary). The scent was unmistakable: freshly split, perfectly ripe passion fruit.
<p>The garden belongs to <a href="http://kispirits.com.au/" target="_blank">Kangaroo Island Spirits</a>. Sara Lark, one of the distillery's co-owners, also held the clipping to her nose as we stood under the hot midday sun and I half-listened to her explain that the wild bush grows in sandy dunes while I was scanning the hardscrabble horizon for mobs of wallabies. "For those of us who live in Australia, this is the smell of going to the beach in the summer," she said.</p>
<div id="a2a54" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8ZDY4P1576662523"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Blt7T_YgHOE/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Kangaroo Island Spirits on Instagram: “Saying you don't like gin is like saying you don't like sauce. All gin uses juniper as it's main ingredient. After that, however, it's up…”</a></p>
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<p>Olearia is just one of the fresh, native botanicals used by Kangaroo Island Spirits, a tiny distillery that is riding the massive craft spirits boom that's sweeping the globe. The first boutique gin producer in Australia, Kangaroo Island Spirits uses indigenous juniper and boobialla berries, along with indigenous plants like aniseed myrtle, in its spirits. The distillery's gins are now being sold at fancy cocktail bars and restaurants in Sydney and Melbourne—and they're not the only ones. All across the country, native plants are being used in a unique and growing range of boutique farm-to-table spirits, but mostly gins.<br></p><p>A collaboration between Adelaide Hills Distillery and the Indigenous-owned food supplier Something Wild, <a href="https://adelaidehillsdistillery.com.au/" target="_blank">Australian Green Ant Gin</a> incorporates the surprisingly citrusy notes of the ants, balanced with native juniper and other botanicals, including strawberry gum. <a href="http://joadjadistillery.com.au/" target="_blank">Joadja Distillery</a>, near Sydney, is making a Crossbones Freebooter Cane Spirit with a mix of 100 percent native botanicals.</p>
<div id="0ccb7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="32K1F91576662523"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd_dlnThjFO/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Adelaide Hills Distillery on Instagram: “Masterclass.... hello #sydney... #shadypines @somethingwildbev @somethingwildaus can’t wait to share our passion and knowledge...…”</a></p>
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<p>In the Yarra Valley, <a href="http://fourpillarsgin.com.au/" target="_blank">Four Pillars Gin</a> is adding the leaf of the Tasmanian pepperberry to its blends. Cameron MacKenzie, the cofounder and distiller at Four Pillars Gin, describes the pepperberry as a particularly powerful botanical. "It has an aromatic similar to dried herbs—think pesto—as well as green tea and white pepper," he said. "In our gin, we found that it adds lovely warmth to the spirit without being hot. The flavors are savory and textural and integrate beautifully with our citrus notes."<br></p>
<div id="eacde" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="QHT1XT1576662524"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Br9W8RvIaZB/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">Four Pillars Gin on Instagram: “Think pink drinks today! If you're a #BloodyShirazGin fan, and you haven't tried it with @lovestrangelove bitter lemon you must have been…”</a></p>
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<p>Australia's boutique spirit makers are embracing farm-to-table consumerism and developing a growing interest in unique spirits, but they're also cultivating a broad Australian sense of terroir. As Australians grapple with building some sort of definitive, unified cuisine (beyond meat pies and kangaroo burgers), a sort of consensus has emerged that the answer is less in technique and national traditions and more in the sea and soil—those factors that are largely native to the land.<br></p><p>There's also something immensely special about a boutique spirit that reflects a local environment that is rich in native foods that are still unfamiliar to many people around the world. One night in Adelaide, I settled into my chair at <a href="http://restaurantorana.com/" target="_blank">Orana</a> and awaited a spectacle. Jock Zonfrillo's award-winning restaurant is renowned for both his superb food and an educational mandate regarding indigenous ingredients and the culinary practices of indigenous Australians. Just before the soft damper bread with rich macadamia butter arrived, I was offered an Applewood gin and tonic infused with lemon myrtle and slices of small, tart finger limes—which are exactly what they sound like.</p><p>Jon Lark, the co-owner and director of Kangaroo Island Spirits, described this as a now-quintessential Australian experience. "If you've been to Australia, you will likely have experienced a gin and tonic garnished with small, pink 'caviar-like pearls' of lime that burst in your mouth," he said. "These sorts of experiences and a careful use of botanicals in spirits and garnishes mean that matching spirits with local ingredients is an essential element in the Australian food genre. We can create Australian indigenous spirits that reflect the landscapes we live in."</p><p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://modernfarmer.com/2019/01/across-southern-australia-farmers-are-finding-new-outlets-for-their-native-plants/" target="_blank">Modern Farmer</a>.</em></p>
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By Helena Norberg-Hodge
If you're seeking some good news during these troubled times, look at the ecologically sound ways of producing food that have percolated up from the grassroots in recent years. Small farmers, environmentalists, academic researchers and food and farming activists have given us agroecology, holistic resource management, permaculture, regenerative agriculture and other methods that can alleviate or perhaps even eliminate the global food system's worst impacts: biodiversity loss, energy depletion, toxic pollution, food insecurity and massive carbon emissions.
<p>These inspiring testaments to human ingenuity and goodwill have two things in common: They involve smaller-scale farms adapted to local conditions, and they depend more on human attention and care than on energy and technology. In other words, they are the opposite of industrial monocultures—huge farms that grow just one crop.</p><p>But to significantly reduce the many negative impacts of the food system, these small-scale initiatives need to spread all over the world. Unfortunately, this has not happened, because the transformation of farming requires shifting not just how food is produced, but also how it is marketed and distributed. The food system is inextricably linked to an economic system that, for decades, has been fundamentally biased against the kinds of changes we need.</p><p>Put simply, economic policies almost everywhere have systematically promoted ever-larger scale and monocultural production. Those policies include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>Massive subsidies for globally traded commodities. Most farm subsidies in the U.S., for example, <a href="https://farm.ewg.org/subsidyprimer.php" target="_blank">go to just five commodities</a>—corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice—that are the centerpieces of global food trade. At the same time, government programs—like the U.S. <a href="https://www.fas.usda.gov/programs/market-access-program-map" target="_blank">Market Access Program</a>—provide hundreds of millions of dollars to expand international markets for agriculture products.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>Direct and hidden subsidies for global transport infrastructures and fossil fuels. The IMF estimates these subsidies and ignored environmental costs at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/18/fossil-fuel-companies-getting-10m-a-minute-in-subsidies-says-imf" target="_blank">$5.3 trillion per year</a>—the equivalent of $10 million every minute.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>"Free trade" policies that open up food markets in virtually every country to global agribusinesses. The 1994 NAFTA agreement, for example, forced <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/07/541671747/nafta-s-broken-promises-these-farmers-say-they-got-the-raw-end-of-trade-deal" target="_blank">Mexico's small corn producers to compete with heavily-subsidized large-scale farms</a> in the U.S.; the recent <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-trade-nafta/canada-ready-to-allow-u-s-dairy-access-in-nafta-talks-sources-idUSKCN1LR21E" target="_blank">re-negotiation of NAFTA</a> will do the same to Canadian dairy farmers.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Health and safety regulations. Most of these have been made necessary by large-scale production and distribution—but they make it impossible for smaller-scale producers and marketers to compete and survive. In France, for example, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/29/french-cheesemakers-crippled-eu-health-measures-266799.html" target="_blank">the number of small producers of cheese has shrunk by 90%</a> thanks in large measure to EU food safety laws.</li></ul><p>These policies provide a huge competitive advantage to large monocultural producers and corporate processors and marketers, which is why industrially produced food that has been shipped from the other side of the world is often less expensive than food from the farm next door.</p><p>The environmental costs of this bias are huge. Monocultures rely heavily on chemical inputs—fertilizers, herbicides, fungicides and pesticides—which pollute the immediate environment, put wildlife at risk and—through nutrient runoff—create "<a href="https://truthout.org/articles/corporate-food-brands-driving-the-massive-dead-zone-in-gulf-of-mexico/" target="_blank">dead zones" in waters hundreds or thousands of miles away</a>. Monocultures are also heavily dependent on fossil fuels to run large-scale equipment and to transport raw and processed foods across the world, making them a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, scientists estimate the greenhouse gas toll of the global food system at <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/one-third-of-our-greenhouse-gas-emissions-come-from-agriculture-1.11708" target="_blank">one-third of total emissions</a>.</p><p>There are social and economic costs as well. In the industrialized world, smaller producers can't survive, their land amalgamated into the <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/big-farms-are-getting-bigger-and-most-small-farms-arent-really-farms-at-all/" target="_blank">holdings of ever larger farms</a>—in the process <a href="https://sraproject.org/factory-farms-destroy-communities/" target="_blank">decimating rural and small town economies and threatening public health</a>. In the Global South, the same forces pull people off the land <a href="https://libcom.org/library/global-industrial-working-class" target="_blank">by the hundreds of millions</a>, <a href="https://orionmagazine.org/article/slum-ecology/" target="_blank">leading to poverty</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-cities/worlds-slums-grow-despite-rapid-economy-growth-u-n-idUSTRE62I46020100319?sp=true" target="_blank">rapidly swelling urban slums</a> and <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yalcfwv2" target="_blank">waves of economic refugees</a>. In both North and South, uprooted small farmers easily spiral into unemployment, poverty, resentment and anger.</p><p>There are also risks to food security. With global economic policies homogenizing the world's food supply, the 7,000 species of plants used as food crops in the past have been <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y8ak9hj8" target="_blank">reduced to 150 commercially important crops</a>, with rice, wheat and maize accounting for 60 percent of the global food supply. Varieties within those few crops have been chosen for their responsiveness to chemical fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water—and for their ability to withstand long-distance transport. A similar calculus is applied to livestock and poultry breeds, which are <a href="https://tinyurl.com/y8rufksr" target="_blank">skewed toward those that can grow rapidly</a> with inputs of grain and antibiotics in confined animal feeding operations. The loss of diversity even extends to the size and shape of food products: harvesting machinery, transport systems and supermarket chains all require standardization. The end result is that more than <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2011/07/food-ark/" target="_blank">half of the world's food varieties have been lost</a> over the past century; in countries like the U.S., the loss is <a href="https://rafiusa.org/blog/protecting-the-food-ark/" target="_blank">more than 90 percent</a>. The global food system rests on a dangerously narrow base: without the genetic variety that can supply resilience, the food system is vulnerable to catastrophic losses from disease and the disruptions of a changing climate. </p><p><strong>The Benefits of Local Food</strong></p><p>The solution to these problems involves more than a commitment to ecological models of food production: it also requires a commitment to local food economies. Localization systematically alleviates a number of environmental problems inherent in the global food system, by:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>reducing the distance that food travels, thereby lessening the energy needed for transport, as well as the attendant greenhouse gas emissions;</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>reducing the need for packaging, processing and refrigeration (which all but disappears when producers sell direct to consumers, thus reducing waste and energy use);</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>reducing monoculture, as farms producing for local or regional markets have an incentive to diversify their production, which makes organic production more feasible, in turn reducing the toxic load on surrounding ecosystems;</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>providing more niches for wildlife to occupy through diversified organic farms;</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"><li>and supporting the principle of diversity on which ecological farming—and life itself—is based, by favoring production methods that are best suited to particular climates, soils and resources.</li></ul><p>Local food provides many other benefits. The smaller-scale farms that produce for local and regional markets require more human intelligence, care and work than monocultures, thus providing more employment opportunities. In the Global South, in particular, a commitment to local food would stem the pressures that are driving millions of farmers off the land.</p><p>Local food is also good for rural and small-town economies, providing not only more on-farm employment, but supporting the many local businesses on which farmers depend.</p><p>Food security is also strengthened because varieties are chosen based on their suitability to diverse locales, not the demands of supermarket chains or the requirements of long-distance transport. This strengthens agricultural biodiversity.</p><p>Local food is also healthier. Since it doesn't need to travel so far, local food is far fresher than global food; and since it doesn't rely on monocultural production, it can be produced without toxic chemicals that can contaminate food.</p><p><strong>Countering the Myths</strong></p><p>Although local food is an incredibly effective solution-multiplier, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agribusiness">agribusiness</a> has gone to great lengths to convince the public that large-scale industrial food production is the only way to feed the world. But the fact is that the global food economy is massively inefficient.</p><p>The global system's need for standardized products means that tons of edible food are destroyed or left to rot. This is one reason why more than one-third of the global food supply is wasted or lost; for the US, the figure is <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/american-food-waste/491513/" target="_blank">closer to one-half</a>.</p><p>The logic of global trade results in massive quantities of identical products being simultaneously imported <em>and</em> exported—a needless waste of fossil fuels and a huge addition to greenhouse gas emissions. In a typical year, for example, the U.S. imports <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-and-meat-international-trade-data/" target="_blank">more than </a><a href="https://data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?programArea=veg&groupName=Vegetables&commodityName=Potatoes&ID=17858#Pb63812f352e3419792c39497a2ee20d4_2_292" target="_blank">400,000 tons of potatoes</a> and <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/livestock-and-meat-international-trade-data/" target="_blank">1 million tons of beef</a>, while exporting almost the same tonnage of each. The same is true of many other food commodities, and many other countries.</p><p>The same logic leads to shipping foods across the world simply to reduce labor costs for processing. Shrimp harvested off the coast of Scotland, for example, are shipped 6,000 miles to Thailand to be peeled, then <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1534286/12000-mile-trip-to-have-seafood-shelled.html" target="_blank">shipped 6,000 miles back to the UK to be sold to consumers</a>.</p><p>The supposed efficiency of monocultural production is based on output per unit of labor, which is maximized by replacing jobs with chemical- and energy-intensive technology. Measured by output per acre, however—a far more relevant metric—smaller-scale farms are typically <a href="https://foodfirst.org/publication/on-the-benefits-of-small-farms/" target="_blank">8-20 times more productive</a>. This is partly because monocultures, by definition, produce just one crop on a given plot of land, while smaller, diversified farms allow <a href="https://foodfirst.org/publication/on-the-benefits-of-small-farms/" target="_blank">intercropping</a>—using the spaces between rows of one crop to grow another. What's more, the labor 'efficiencies' of monocultural production are linked to the use of large-scale equipment, which limit <a href="https://www.localfutures.org/7-billion-for-dinner-heres-how-to-feed-them/" target="_blank">the farmer's ability to tend to or harvest small portions of a crop</a> and thereby increase yields. </p><p><strong>Making the Shift</strong></p><p>For more than a generation, now, the message to farmers has been to "get big or get out" of farming, and a great number of the farmers who remain have tailored their methods to what makes short-term economic sense within a deeply flawed system. To avoid bankrupting those farmers, the shift from global to local would need to take place with care, providing incentives for farmers to diversify their production, reduce their reliance on chemical inputs and fossil fuel energy, and to seek markets closer to home. Those incentives would go hand-in-hand with reductions in subsidies for the industrial food system.</p><p>After decades of policy bias toward global food, some steps in this direction are being taken by local and regional governments. In the U.S., for example, most states have enacted "cottage food laws" that relax the restrictions on the small-scale production of jams, pickles and other preserved foods, allowing them to be <a href="https://www.chlpi.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/FINAL_Cottage-Food-Laws-Report_2013.pdf" target="_blank">processed and sold locally without the need for expensive commercial kitchens</a>.</p><p>Several towns in the state of Maine have gone even further. Seeking to bypass the restrictive regulations that make it difficult to market local foods, they have declared "food sovereignty" by passing ordinances that give their citizens the right "<a href="https://localfoodrules.org/ordinance-template/" target="_blank">to produce, process, sell, purchase, and consume local foods of their choosing</a>."</p><p>In 2013, the government of Ontario, Canada, <a href="https://news.ontario.ca/omafra/en/2013/11/bill-to-promote-local-food-passes-final-vote.html" target="_blank">passed a Local Food Act</a> aimed at increasing access to local food, improving local food literacy and providing tax credits for farmers who donate a portion of their produce to nearby food banks.</p><p>Even bolder action is needed if there is to be any hope of eliminating the damage done by the global food system. A crucial first step is to raise awareness of the costs of the current system, and the multiple benefits of local food. No matter how many studies demonstrate the virtues of alternative ways of producing and distributing food, the destructive global food system is unlikely to change unless there is heavy pressure from the grassroots to change the entire system. That needs to start now.</p><p><em>Helena Norberg-Hodge is the founder and director of <a href="https://www.localfutures.org/" target="_blank">Local Futures</a>. She is the author of the book <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Futures" target="_blank">Ancient Futures</a> (Chelsea Green, 2016) and the producer and director of the award-winning 2011 documentary <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economics_of_Happiness" target="_blank">The Economics of Happiness</a>.</em><em> Helena is the recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the Goi Peace Prize and the Arthur Morgan Award.</em></p><p><em></em><em>This article was produced by <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/unlike-a-globalized-food-system-local-food-wont-destroy-the-environment/" target="_blank">Truthout</a></em><em>.</em></p>
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Háifoss waterfall in the south of Iceland. FEBRUARY / Getty Images
By Meredith Rosenberg
Between gas-guzzling flights, high-pollution cruise ships and energy-consuming hotels, travel takes a huge toll on the environment. Whether for business or vacation, for many people it's not realistic to simply stop traveling. So what's the solution? There are actually numerous ways to become more eco-conscious while traveling, which can be implemented with these expert tips.
<h3>Transportation<a href="#_msocom_2" target="_blank"></a></h3><p><strong>Buy Carbon Credits<br></strong><a href="https://www.weareneutral.com/" target="_blank">We Are Neutral</a> is a Florida-based non-profit that works with organizations to reduce their carbon footprint. Geared toward businesses, the site offers a helpful carbon footprint <a href="http://calculator.weareneutral.com/" target="_blank">calculator</a> for flights, cars and even hotels. Just enter a few basic details, and the handy tool estimates the amount of carbon your trip produces. It even suggests how much you should donate to offset that amount, and allows you to donate directly to We Are Neutral, which uses the funds to plant trees.</p><p><strong>Fly Environmentally Friendly Airlines<br></strong>Kelley Louise, the executive director of <a href="https://www.impacttravelalliance.org/" target="_blank">Impact Travel Alliance</a>, says that <a href="http://mediaroom.jetblue.com/investor-relations/press-releases/2018/09-19-2018-171436162" target="_blank">JetBlue has started using a sustainable jet fuel blend</a>, while the <a href="https://www.theicct.org/" target="_blank">International Council on Clean Transportation</a> has named <a href="https://www.theicct.org/publications/transatlantic-airline-fuel-efficiency-ranking-2017" target="_blank">Norwegian Air the most fuel-efficient transatlantic airline</a>. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.atmosfair.de/en/air_travel_and_climate/atmosfair_airline_index/" target="_blank">Atmosfair Airline Index 2017</a> is a helpful tool for discovering the most fuel-efficient airlines, plus it offers a carbon footprint calculator and the ability to donate through its site. Also useful, the <a href="https://www.iata.org/whatwedo/environment/Pages/carbon-offset.aspx" target="_blank">International Air Transport Association counts more than 30 airlines with carbon offset programs</a>, like Delta, United and Emirates.</p><p><strong>Book Non-Stop Flights<br></strong>Bret Love and Mary Gabbett of <a href="http://greenglobaltravel.com/" target="_blank">Green Global Travel</a> recommend flying non-stop: "It's the takeoffs and landings that create most of an airplane's carbon emissions."</p><p><strong>Consider Trains Over Planes<br></strong>Steve Long, co-founder of <a href="https://www.thetravelbrief.com" target="_blank">The Travel Brief</a>, advises using trains whenever possible. "From London to Paris, trains emit almost 90 percent less carbon than a flight," he says, based on using a <a href="http://www.ecopassenger.org/bin/query.exe/en?ld=uic-eco&L=vs_uic&OK#focus" target="_blank">carbon calculator from EcoPassenger</a>. Long adds, "Excellent railway infrastructure makes trains a viable alternative to flights, including most of Europe and East Asia, and some countries in Southeast Asia." And rail lines like <a href="https://www.eurostar.com/us-en/about-eurostar/community-environment/treadlightly" target="_blank">Eurostar have a dedicated eco-friendly program</a> to reduce carbon emissions, <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics">plastic</a> and more.</p><p><strong>Use Public Transportation<br></strong>Long says that many major cities around the world offer easy downtown train access. "The historic city centers in Europe and Asia tend to be compact and pedestrian friendly (unlike North American cities), and their metro systems are extremely developed, making it very easy to get to anywhere in the cities quickly."</p><h3>Lodging<a href="#_msocom_3" target="_blank"></a></h3><p><strong>Stay in Eco-Friendly Hotels<br></strong>Green Global Travel suggests checking if U.S. hotels hold a LEED Certification from the <a href="https://new.usgbc.org/" target="_blank">U.S. Green Building Council</a>. "The program judges hotels on sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, material selection, indoor environmental quality and innovation in design." For international hotels, Green Global Travel adds, "Look for seals of approval from other certification programs, such as <a href="https://earthcheck.org/" target="_blank">EarthCheck</a> (Australia), <a href="https://greenglobe.com/" target="_blank">Green Globe</a>, <a href="https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/" target="_blank">Rainforest Alliance</a> (Latin America, Caribbean) and <a href="https://www.green-tourism.com/" target="_blank">Green Tourism</a> (UK). Some countries, including Costa Rica, have their own certification programs to rate <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainability</a> initiatives."</p><p>If your heart is set on a hotel that doesn't hold one of those designations, consider booking it through <a href="https://bedandtree.com/" target="_blank">B'n'Tree.</a> The site will plant a tree whenever you book a stay via one of their partners, including popular hotel booking sites like <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.com/" target="_blank">TripAdvisor</a>, <a href="https://www.booking.com/" target="_blank">Booking.com</a> and <a href="https://www.hotels.com/" target="_blank">Hotels.com</a>. </p><p><strong>Opt Out of Housekeeping<br></strong>Steve Long of <a href="https://www.thetravelbrief.com/" target="_blank">The Travel Brief</a> notes that many <a href="https://www.marriott.com/default.mi" target="_blank">Marriott brands</a> (Westin, Sheraton) are among the hotels offering incentives to guests who decline housekeeping services. For example, Marriott will credit accounts up to <a href="https://www.marriott.com/marriott-rewards/earn-marriott-rewards-points.mi" target="_blank">500 bonus points a day</a>. "Skipping housekeeping services means less energy used, less water used, and less waste generated," says Long. "Even if a hotel doesn't offer incentives, you can always request to skip housekeeping."</p><h3>Food</h3><p><strong>Eat Locally<br></strong>Margot Peppers, editor of <a href="https://lazytrips.com/" target="_blank">LazyTrips</a>, cautions against dining at familiar restaurants while abroad. "Often these global chains import food from far away, which translates to more carbon emissions," she says. "Instead, seek out local businesses that use native ingredients. Even better, choose places that grow their own produce or head to a <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/local-food">local farmers market</a>."</p><p><strong>Try Going Vegan<br></strong> Menghan Wang, co-founder of <a href="https://www.thetravelbrief.com/" target="_blank">TheTravelBrief.com</a>, notes that a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/meat-dairy-industry-greenhouse-gas-emissions-fossil-fuels-oil-pollution-iatp-grain-a8451871.html" target="_blank">recent study</a> found that the meat and dairy industry is predicted to contribute more greenhouse gas than the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> industry unless changes are made. Reducing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/meat-consumption">meat consumption</a> helps. Wang acknowledges that going <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/vegan">vegan</a> isn't an easy change, but traveling is a great time to experiment. And, she believes, "It gives you less risk of getting sick." (Food poisoning from improperly stored or prepared meat, fish and dairy is a risk you don't really need to take while traveling.)</p><h3>Tours</h3><p><strong>Join an Environmentally Responsible Tour Group<br></strong>Not all organized tour groups identify themselves as eco-friendly, so Green Global Travel says to consider the following when choosing: "Find out how the tour operator gives back to the local community. Do they lease the land from locals? Do they hire local guides? Do they take a leading role in preserving the area's natural resources? Community-based tourism is the most sustainable." They add, "And don't take any tour that promises hands-on encounters with <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife">wild animals</a>, such as riding elephants or walking with lions. If you do, you're supporting an industry that illegally captures, transports and abuses millions of animals each year."</p><p>That said, small tour groups tend to be more eco-conscious than large ones, and those affiliated with an environmental group like the <a href="https://www.rainforest-alliance.org/green-vacations" target="_blank">Rainforest Alliance</a> are good places to start. </p><p><strong>Reconsider Taking a Cruise<br></strong>In 2017, German environmental group <a href="https://en.nabu.de/news/2017/23046.html" target="_blank">NABU released a study</a> determining that the average cruise ship released the fuel emission equivalent to a million cars—a day. But lines like <a href="https://www.hurtigruten.com/" target="_blank">Hurtigruten</a> have taken steps to reduce emissions with hybrid ships. Hurtigruten has also eliminated single-use plastic, recycles its waste and uses local food suppliers, <a href="https://www.hurtigruten.com/about-hurtigruten/our-corporate-social-responsibility/environment/" target="_blank">detailed here.</a></p><h3>Souvenirs</h3><p><strong>Support Local Businesses<br></strong>Like food, imported souvenirs geared toward tourists carry a higher carbon footprint than locally made items. Plus, says Green Global Travel, "When you buy directly from an artist, you're not only helping them feed their family, but in many cases you're helping to preserve their culture."</p><p><strong>Seek Practical Gifts<br></strong>Especially when buying souvenirs for others, it makes more sense to return home with items that can be consumed, worn or otherwise used in daily life, as opposed to items that are likely to wind up in the back of someone's closet or in the trash.</p><p>Of course, don't feel bad if you return home empty-handed. Simply sharing your vacation photos and stories can prove more meaningful than a quick gift grabbed at the airport. Plus, putting the planet first is a valid reason.</p><p><em>Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly attributed a quote to Kelley Louise instead of Margot Peppers. The post has been updated.</em></p>
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Robert Mullan / Canopy / Getty Images
By Reynard Loki
Humans have been moving food around the world for thousands of years. Toward the end of the second century BC, merchants traveled along the Silk Road, transporting noodles from Xi'an, grapes from Dayuan and nutmeg from the Moluccas Islands to eager buyers along its 4,000-mile network. While it's possible to trace the evolution of food through that matrix of ancient caravan routes that linked China to the West, it's hard to measure its environmental impact. It's likely that, as with any road, wildlife corridors were disrupted. But greenhouse gas emissions were fairly low, consisting of the methane from the belches and farts of the horses, yaks and Bactrian camels, and the fires that humans burned along the way.
<p>Fast-forward to the 20th-century U.S. Modern transportation and the rise of post-World War II suburban life changed the agricultural trade—and the way we ate. A key driver in this post-war food system has been globalization, which Kym Anderson, an economist at the University of Adelaide, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2935114/" target="_blank">argued</a> "has been characterized by a rapid decline in the costs of cross-border trade in farm and other products, driven by declines in the costs of transporting bulky and perishable products long distances, the information and communication technology (ICT) revolution and major reductions in governmental distortions to agricultural trade."</p><p>After the war, planned communities like the Levittowns in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania—built by the real estate development company Levitt & Sons—sprang up across the country, welcoming returning veterans who were eligible for low-interest, government-backed mortgages. Meanwhile, the Federal Highway Act of 1956 authorized the construction of <a href="https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/publications/publicroads/96summer/p96su10.cfm" target="_blank">40,000 miles of interstate highways</a> to span the nation. Suburban life swelled. <a href="https://www.nreionline.com/mag/1950s-post-war-america-hitches-and-heads-burbs" target="_blank">According to National Real Estate Investor</a>:</p><blockquote>During the 1950s, land values in the suburbs increased rapidly—in some prime suburban neighborhoods as much as 3,000 percent—while population swelled by 45 percent. Nearly two-thirds of all industrial construction during the 1950s was taking place outside cities; residential construction in the suburbs accounted for an astonishing 75 percent of total construction.<br></blockquote><p>This new post-war suburban lifestyle was anchored by the supermarket. Stocked regularly by refrigerated trucks rolling into suburban towns, they made one-stop shopping just a short drive away. "After the war, the popularity of refrigerators and automobiles for nearly every household kept feeding the [supermarket] model, so much so that free parking became a necessity at every supermarket," <a href="http://time.com/4480303/supermarkets-history/" target="_blank">wrote</a> Ashley Ross in TIME Magazine, adding that the supermarket "was such a marvel that in 1957, during a visit with President Eisenhower, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip visited a Maryland grocery store for 15 minutes to see what it was all about."<br></p><p>Between 1948 and 1958, <a href="http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/ers/MTS/1960s/1962/MTS-02-28-1962.pdf" target="_blank">average sales per grocery store more than doubled</a>, even after adjusting for food price inflation, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Families moved away from buying locally produced foods and toward processed foods made in centralized plants. During the 1950s, the marketing charges for processing and shipping farm food products hit a new record every single year. By 1961, the "farm-to-retail price spread"—the difference between the retail price paid by the consumer and the payment to the farmer for equivalent farm products by food marketers and processors—was <a href="http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/ers/MTS/1960s/1962/MTS-02-28-1962.pdf" target="_blank">up 34 percent from 1950</a>. In other words, the market was steadily moving toward processed foods, and away from whole foods.</p><p>Today, some urban dwellers don't even need to drive to go food shopping. If I want fresh strawberries in the middle of winter, I can simply walk down the block to my local grocer and buy some that were grown in California, Florida or Mexico. But if I want one that's locally grown and in season, I'll have to wait until June, when farmers at my local greenmarket start selling <a href="http://www.pickyourown.org/NYharvestcalendar.htm" target="_blank">berries grown in New York state</a>. Transporting fresh berries across the country or from Mexico is certainly more carbon-intensive than bringing them in from Long Island or upstate. So, I have to ask myself: Do I really need a strawberry in winter?</p><p>That's the kind of question driving the local food movement. While more than half of the fresh fruit and nearly a third of fresh vegetables, wine and sugar purchased in the U.S. is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/13/dining/fruit-vegetables-imports.html" target="_blank">imported from other countries</a>, people are increasingly seeking out food grown near their homes. According to market research firm Statista, <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/294065/us-consumers--frequency-of-eating-locally-grown-foods/" target="_blank">14 percent of Americans</a> consumed locally grown food twice a week in 2013. But just a year later, that number grew to <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/2123/local-foods-statistics-and-facts/" target="_blank">more than 20 percent</a>. The increased demand has mirrored a surge in farmers' markets, which have grown more than 370 percent in two decades, from <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/253243/total-number-of-farmers-markets-in-the-united-states/" target="_blank">1,755 in 1994 to 8,268 in 2014</a>.</p><p>Farmers' markets are where people go to find food that is locally produced and in season. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2014 National Farmers Market Manager Survey, <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/2014%20Farmers%20Market%20Managers%20Survey%20Summary%20Report%20final%20July%2024%202015.pdf" target="_blank">virtually all farmers' markets (99 percent) sell locally grown fresh fruits or vegetables</a>. And about two-thirds (66 percent) offer USDA-certified organic produce. The agency's 2006 survey found that seasonal markets "remained the dominant type of farmers market in every part of the country … accounting for <a href="https://www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/FarmersMarketMangersSurvey.pdf" target="_blank">88 percent of all farmers market in operation</a>."</p><p>Between 2008 and 2014, local food sales in the U.S. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-demand-for-local-food-is-growing-2017-4" target="_blank">swelled from $5 billion to $12 billion</a>, according to Packaged Facts, a food industry research firm. They estimate that local foods will outpace the annual total sales of all foods and beverages, reaching almost <a href="https://www.packagedfacts.com/about/release.asp?id=3717" target="_blank">$20 billion by 2019</a>. Moreover, while "locavore"—one who eats locally produced food—is a relatively recent term (coined in 2005 and named "Word of the Year" by Oxford American Dictionary two years later), there was a time when all food was locally sourced—before Kobe beef from Japan or pineapples from Costa Rica were shipped to hungry eaters across the globe.</p><p>Today, advancements in technology and infrastructure have helped make exporting and importing foods and fresh produce big business. Improved roads and storage technologies have made shipping perishables easier, while international trade agreements have reduced tariffs on imports. In addition, low wages, lowered production costs due to increased scale of production and the monopoly of agribusiness has created cheap labor markets across the food system. Furthermore, in the U.S., many staple foods simply can't be domestically produced on a scale to satisfy the standard American diet. According to the USDA, more than <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/agricultural-trade/" target="_blank">95 percent</a> of coffee, cocoa, spices, fish and shellfish products that Americans consume is imported. The growth of personal wealth has also played a key role in the growing demand. "As high US incomes drive consumption," the agency notes, "the volume of US agricultural imports has <a href="https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/ag-and-food-statistics-charting-the-essentials/agricultural-trade/" target="_blank">increased by 4 percent</a> annually, on average, since 2000."</p><p>But how damaging to the environment is this modern convenience? All those trucks, trains, ships and planes are emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere while logging thousands of "food miles"—the distance a food product travels from the farmer or producer to the supermarket and finally, to your dinner table. Wouldn't it be more eco-friendly to only buy food that is seasonal and locally grown?</p><p>When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs), it might not make such a huge difference, particularly for certain foods. According the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, "Differences in agricultural production and the realities of transportation impacts <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/PEF-FoodTransportation-ExecutiveSummary.pdf" target="_blank">may favor sourcing from other regions</a> from an environmental impact perspective." The agency wrote:</p><blockquote>In general, the contribution of food transportation relative to the total greenhouse gas emissions of a given food product represents a small percentage of the carbon footprint for many foods. Fresh foods transported by air freight can have significant distribution-related carbon impacts, but on average, distribution of finished foods (from farm or factory to retail stores) contributes <a href="https://www.oregon.gov/deq/FilterDocs/PEF-FoodTransportation-ExecutiveSummary.pdf" target="_blank">less than 4 percent</a>, on average, of the greenhouse gas emissions of foods consumed in the US.<br></blockquote><p>Even if you wanted to reduce your food miles, it's difficult to know which kind of imported food is less GHG-intensive, since different transport options emit different levels of emissions and different foods travel different distances. "Shipping comes out with the lowest emissions, trains second, followed by road transport, and finally with fossil-fuel guzzling air freight having about 100 times the emissions per [metric ton kilometer] than shipping," reported <a href="http://the-ecotarian.com/stories/2016/2/26/environmental-impacts-of-food-2-transport" target="_blank">The Ecotarian</a>, which notes that the "global warming potential" of each mode of transport can be calculated in kilograms of CO2 per metric ton of food, per kilometer.</p><p>But they also point out that ships usually travel longer distances than trucks, causing more emissions. Globally, <a href="http://the-ecotarian.com/stories/2016/2/26/environmental-impacts-of-food-2-transport" target="_blank">more than 50 percent of freight</a> shipped by air uses the bellies of passenger planes, a tactic that doesn't put more planes in the sky (though it burns more fuel). Since, as the researchers point out, "it's almost impossible to know which produce is shipped and which is flown," they advise consumers that "buying local and seasonal is still the safest option."</p><p>It's important to note that for many people living in developing countries, buying locally and in season simply isn't a realistic option. In fact, the dependence on staple agricultural imports like wheat, rice and corn could—if export bans were enacted by major producing regions—create a food crisis that, according to a 2016 study, "<a href="http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/11/3/035007/pdf" target="_blank">would put up to 200 million people below the poverty line at risk</a>." The study's lead author, Christopher Bren d'Amour, cited one example: "If Thailand, the biggest exporter of rice worldwide, were to halt its exports, <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/news/dependence-on-food-imports-threatens-developing-countries-report-finds/" target="_blank">136 million people from Mauritania to Nigeria would be affected</a>."</p><p>While the transportation of food does contribute to emissions, the production of that food is much more environmentally damaging and GHG-intensive. In their new book, <a href="https://www.alternet.org/books/our-appetite-meat-isnt-just-destroying-planets-ecosystems-its-changing-face-earth-itself" target="_blank">Eat for the Planet: Saving the World One Bite at a Time</a>, Nil Zacharias and Gene Stone point out that the majority of Earth's arable land is now dedicated to livestock and their feed. "Currently, 260 million acres (and counting) of US forests have been clear-cut to create land used to produce livestock feed, and 80 percent of the deforestation in the Amazon rainforest is attributed to beef production," they wrote. According to the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, "Cattle ranching is the largest driver of deforestation in every Amazon country, accounting for <a href="https://globalforestatlas.yale.edu/amazon/land-use/cattle-ranching" target="_blank">80 percent of current deforestation rates</a>."</p><p>In Indonesia, the production of palm oil—the most widely consumed vegetable oil, found in everything from breads, chips, cookies, ice cream, chocolate, instant noodles, margarine and pizza dough (and numerous common non-edibles like soap, shampoo, detergent and lipstick)—is "<a href="https://www.alternet.org/environment/how-instant-ramen-noodles-are-destroying-rainforests-killing-orangutans-and-promoting" target="_blank">directly linked to deforestation</a>, responsible for the deaths of endangered orangutans and the displacement of communities," said Kaytee Riek, campaigns director at the nonprofit advocacy group SumOfUs. In 2007, scientists from Wetlands International found that the draining and burning of peatland (a sponge-like type of wetland that stores massive amounts of carbon dioxide) to make room for palm oil plantations in Indonesia accounts for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/31/business/worldbusiness/31biofuel.html" target="_blank">8 percent</a> of all worldwide annual emissions from burning fossil fuels.</p><p>So, while eating locally and in season would help reduce your food miles (and thereby your carbon footprint), the more effective dietary change is to reduce the consumption of foods that require the devastation of carbon-storing forests and wetlands—meat and products containing palm oil being two of the biggest culprits. A 2008 <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es702969f" target="_blank">study</a> conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that by buying food locally, the average American could only reduce their greenhouse gas emissions a maximum of 4-5 percent. The researchers concluded that reducing your red meat intake "can be a more effective means of lowering an average household's food-related climate footprint than 'buying local.'"</p><p>Still, there are other reasons to eat locally besides reducing your carbon footprint and saving endangered orangutans. As the Ecotarian researchers <a href="http://the-ecotarian.com/stories/2016/2/26/environmental-impacts-of-food-2-transport" target="_blank">noted</a>:</p><blockquote>Eating locally has many more benefits than just the reduction in emissions, however. It's really rewarding to get to know local growers and producers, to learn more about the process that brings produce to your table, and elevates eating to an altogether more wholesome experience. It supports small-scale farmers, who often use more diversified and sustainable farming practices. It keeps money in the local economy rather than dissipating it out into the pockets of, ahem, tax-dodging/exploitative multinationals.<br></blockquote><p>In addition, produce that's in season and locally grown usually means that the health benefits of those fruits and vegetables are still high, as they haven't had time to lose their nutritional punch by sitting for days in refrigerated trucks or shipping containers traveling long distances. By contrast, foods that you buy out of season are usually picked before they have reached full flavor and optimum nutritional value, so that they can survive those long-distance trips. Plus, eating in season can help save you money, as you'll be buying produce that's at its peak supply, meaning that it's less costly for producers and distributors, who can then pass along the savings to you.<br></p><p>But the health benefits of fresh, seasonal produce are accessible only to those who can access and afford them, which is not always the case. One issue is the lack of healthy food options in "food deserts" across the country, most of them in poor neighborhoods, where the only options are unhealthy, processed foods and industrial farm produce coated in pesticides. And produce sold at farmers' markets can often be more expensive than the pesticide-covered fruits and vegetables that are shipped in from Mexico and Costa Rica, where <a href="https://spoonuniversity.com/lifestyle/why-you-should-eat-local-even-though-it-can-be-more-expensive" target="_blank">farming operations can lower their prices simply because of their massive scale</a>.</p><p>Low-income Americans enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) can use their monthly benefits to purchase food in farmers' markets in all 50 states. In 2017, program participants <a href="https://farmersmarketcoalition.org/advocacy/snap/" target="_blank">spent more than $22.4 million at farmers' markets</a>. But this crucial benefit is at risk on two fronts. First, a <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/people-on-food-stamps-may-no-longer-be-able-to-shop-at-farmers-markets-2018-07-16" target="_blank">dispute over a government technology contract</a> may prevent SNAP participants from using their Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards to buy food at farmers' markets. Second, the Trump administration has made a rule change that would <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/trump-admin-rule-would-deny-visas-green-cards-immigrants-who-n910791" target="_blank">deny green cards to immigrants who use food stamps</a>, forcing families to choose between food and family.</p><p>Another, less pressing issue, impacts the middle class and wealthy: the danger of too many options. In a 2014 lecture at Bowdoin College, Matt Booker, an associate professor of history at North Carolina State University, asked the question, "<a href="https://www.bowdoin.edu/environmental-studies/activity/2014/why-did-americans-stop-eating-locally.shtml" target="_blank">Why did Americans stop eating locally?</a>" Part of the problem, he said, is one of abundance, at least for those who can afford it: There's simply "too much food, too much of a 'muchness' in our food supply."</p><p>He said that big agriculture has imposed on Americans "a kind of hopelessness, an inevitability to the ecological collapse we associate with so many food systems and the economic power of these massive forces." One way to undo that feeling of hopelessness is to simply stop buying foods produced by industrial farms and start supporting local, small-scale growers and family farms. In addition to supporting local economies and cultivating relationships with farmers who are growing food sustainably, those who are able to make a choice about where their food comes from can reduce their personal environmental footprints.</p><p>Perhaps you're fortunate enough to afford a Mexican avocado (that may have <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-economist-explains/2016/10/14/the-link-between-avocados-and-crime" target="_blank">ties to organized crime</a>) whenever you crave avocado toast, or a burger made from beef produced on land that used to be Amazon rainforest, or chocolate containing palm oil from Indonesian plantations that were once the homes of orangutans, tigers, elephants and rhinos. But you have to ask yourself: Are these foods really worth it?</p><p>Food author Michael Pollan neatly summed up all he'd learned about food and health in seven words: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." Adding "local" and "in season" to that prescription wouldn't be a bad idea.</p><p><em>Reynard Loki is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute. He previously served as the environment, food and animal rights editor at AlterNet and as a reporter for Justmeans/3BL Media covering sustainability and corporate social responsibility. He was named one of FilterBuy's "Top 50 Health & Environmental Journalists to Follow" in 2016. His work has been published by Truthout, Salon, BillMoyers.com, EcoWatch and Truthdig, among others.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by <a href="http://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a>, a project of the Independent Media Institute, and originally published by <a href="https://truthout.org/articles/eating-locally-and-in-season-is-it-really-better-for-the-environment/" target="_blank">Truthout</a>.</em></p>
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Hannah Semler, founder of food system consulting, Whole Crops, and co-founder of online farmers market, FarmDrop, guides her work with a simple message: respect. "An equitable food system has to start with respect for people and respect for nature." Semler is trying to change the story of food from production to consumption through better integrating collaborative supply chains with "food education, sharing economies, and social impact opportunities" that will lead to no waste and less loss.
<p>Through Whole Crops, Semler "works with a diverse array of organizations, institutions, and partners who want to address the problem of food insecurity with increased food access and a reduction of on-farm food loss." Additionally, Semler works as a fellow with <a href="http://www.thefinkfamilyfoundation.org/" target="_blank">The Fink Family Foundation</a> to expand her work approaching food access in innovative ways with various organizations across different states. She is also co-facilitating a <a href="https://www.chlpi.org/food-law-and-policy/about/" target="_blank">Harvard Food Law and Policy Clinic</a>, "Farm Level Surplus Working Group." Finally, Semler is the interim <a href="https://www.mainegleaningnetwork.org/" target="_blank">Maine Gleaning Network</a> Coordinator and co-facilitates the Portland, ME <a href="https://www.mainegleaningnetwork.org/foodrecoverycoalition" target="_blank">Food Recovery Coalition</a>.</p><p>"Whole Crops is shifting the story of how food gets to people," says Semler. "Our goal is to increase access to sufficient, quality food through all channels. We are working with hundreds of local food producers, food businesses, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies with a food systems design approach that builds connectivity and reciprocity." Whole Crops has a mission to build a more collaborative, less wasteful food system within a vision of food production models that work together to feed communities.</p><p>Farmers need an advocate to ensure that they can sell their whole crop to buyers, instead of sorting crops for quality and letting "ugly-looking" crops rot in the field. To do this, Semler is trying "to prove to the farmers and the market that what is left in the field has economic and social value." She said, "both need to be considered simultaneously along with the ecological footprint of leaving good food in the field. Why on Earth aren't we eating what we grow?"</p><p>To advocate for farmers, Semler co-founded FarmDrop, an online farmers market to help producers secure a steady income, grow their businesses, and reduce post-harvest farm loss. With FarmDrop, producers only deliver what they have already sold online, but provide the variety and choice customers are looking for. In discussing the types of food systems to sustainably feed communities, Semler said, "FarmDrop is showcasing the power of local agro-ecological food producers that know best how to take care of the land on which they depend and can further support each other through the effects of climate change."</p><p>Ultimately, recovering lost crops in fields from small localized farms back into the food system can create an opportunity for local food to become more affordable and accessible to more people. Reducing the stresses of post-harvest handling and promoting a Whole Crops purchasing system can eliminate sorting for cosmetic standards, reduce the cost of production and make local food systems more viable. Educating volunteers and consumers about the work that each crop requires can influence food purchasing behavior to be more accepting of all produce regardless of appearance. After all, Semler said, "the fruits and vegetables available on our local farms are fresh, nutritious, and can fill the bellies of an ongoing conversation on how communities can take care of each other while impacting the national agenda on the future of food."</p>
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