A Food Movement for Everyone

The September issue of National Geographic ran a small section entitled “Eco-Living: Food” describing 4 food movements. As I could not find links online, I took excerpts and listed them below. The food movements listed are not completely distinct and some are more restrictive than others, but for someone interested in reducing America’s dependence on oil, eating healthier, reducing the unnecessary chemicals introduced to our foods, or simply to appreciate food better, there is a movement or combination of movements for everyone (and it's not just for city slickers).

Eating Green
"What does eating green mean? It’s choosing organics when possible, emphasizing vegetables, fruits, and grains over meats, and striving to find locally produced foods that travel fewer miles from field to market to kitchen. These can help cut down a meal’s carbon footprint, or 'foodprint,' according to Cornell University nutrition researcher Jennifer Wilkins. Shoppers who walk, bicycle, or take public transportation to nearby farmers markets will reduce it even further. Maintaining a small foodprint minimizes the amount of natural resources used, but it doesn’t have to mean depriving the palate. Consumers, Wilkins says, can eat a seasonal selection that 'celebrates what your local farmers grow, week by week.' Such flavorful ingredients might be reward enough for saving the world – one meal at a time." –Diane Cole

Slow Food
Because it takes time to savor each of the courses that make up a traditional Italian meal, it seems fitting that the Slow Food movement – fast food’s antithesis – was founded in Italy. Created by gastronome Carlo Petrini in the late 1980s, the now international organization does not advocate spending endless hours in the kitchen, however. It promotes a style of eating and cooking based on taste, freshness, and quality of local ingredients. Equally important to its mission is the preservation of individual regional specialties, the cultivation of local plants, and the rediscovery of artisanal food-production techniques.

Organic Farming
More than 76.6 million acres of land around the world now carry organic certification, a boom fueled by a $40 billion international demand for organic foods. As a 2007 study from the University of Michigan challenges old assumptions that yields from organic farms can’t compete with those from conventional agriculture, an even greener map appears likely.

The Fife Diet
Food’s a subject close to home for Mike Small. In November 2007 the Fife, Scotland, man convinced local people to dine for a year solely on foods produced in their 40-by-30 mile area. Air-freighted goods – not from Scotland – are off-limits. Permitted in the Fife Diet are produce, eggs, and meat from nearby farms, as well as home-brewed beer. “It’s liberating, discovering what your region can and can’t produce,” says Small. Even for those outside Fife, eating what’s grown close by has benefits. Buying local food just three times a week “would make an enormous impact,” says New York University food studies professor Marion Nestle, by increasing demand and supporting farmers.

The major thread through three of these movements is "local," but don't think it's just a big city fad. There are many places in Western Montana to buy produce and meat grown and harvested locally. For example, farmers markets in Hamilton (Saturdays 9-12:30), Stevensville (Saturdays 9-1:00), and Darby (Tuesdays 4-8pm) offer a good selection of local goods throughout the summer and fall. And the Missoula farmers market just a few miles farther North, offers a slightly larger selection and runs Saturday 9-noon. If you want beef, Maki Farms, located outside of Corvallis, specializes in "beef bred, born, raised, fed, and finished... with homegrown food supply." And if it's organic dairy products you crave, check out the Lifeline Farm in Victor. So whatever your food movement, whatever your reasoning, there are local options available to meet your needs (and save the world - one meal at a time).

Other informative links: Our Good Earth – the future rests on the soil beneath our feet (pic above); Green Guide – learn more about green living