I like to think of myself as a pretty healthy person. I excercise fairly regularly, and try to eat a healthy diet. When I was a kid in school we were taught about nutrition and the five basic food groups. We were told to eat various portions of each type of food: meat , milk and milk products, breads and cereals, fruits and vegetables, and other i.e. junk food. The pyramid lesson was a good one. Whether consiously or sub-consciously I always tried to eat according to the plan, and when I didn't I could always somehow picture the pyramid in my head. The picture of the pyramid hasn't changed much in 30 years but the nature of the food inside the pyramid has.
I love to eat and I also love to cook. When cooking for other people I am always mindful of what I'm serving. I think about what to cook, how it should be prepared, and what ingredients to use, and I hope that the food I prepare tastes good and is healthy. Sometimes I lean more to one interest than the other, but mostly I try to aim for equal parts of both.
Now that I'm older I have many friends who have kids. I like to think about the different strategies they apply to monitor and teach their kids how to eat healthy. I sometimes wonder what those kids will be eating 30 years from now. I also think about what I'm eating now.
Knowing that my personal choices effect me as well as my personal impact on the environment, I'm now trying to make concious decisions about what I eat and how I live. In this process I've discovered that making these decisions while balancing my various concerns is not simple. How do I really know the impact of the choices that I'm making? How do I balance my interests in local, organic, and sustainable food production, fair trade, and the environment? Perhaps eating an organic banana grown in Mexico might be good for my health but what about the environmental cost of shipping it to me? Maybe I can choose to drink organic coffee, but what is the cost to the local community that produced it?
Whatever the intention, I want to be able to make sound judgements that are not clouded by special interests, big business, or even just the sheer bulk of information that is available through Google or my local public library. I'm not an expert, and I can be a hypocrite, but hopefully, with a little knowledge, I can begin to make sensible, conscious decisions that I can live with.
2 comments:
Your quest to live a more environmentally conscientious life is commendable. It certainly is not easy. Despite the popularity of organic produce and foods, which can now be found at local supermarkets, it seems that for many, the matter of convenience, over conscious, has determined our choices for the next meal. Like you said, I'm no expert either, and I am most definitely a hypocrite (particularly during those late nights at the office where processed fast food is the only thing deliverable) however, I'm tired of using convenience as an excuse for making knowingly poor decisions. We may not know everything there is to know about how the food we eat is grown, processed, and even what communities it came from and how they were and are effected; but due diligence is a start and your thoughts and adventures have got me thinking…
Perhaps the next time I feel “inconvenienced” by the notion to have organic and environmentally responsible foods, I will recall your journey to the Stone Barn Center, which I am sure, given your schedule and busy life, was not as convenient as a trip to your local grocery store – but worth so much more.
JO
Hey Jack,
Great blog. I totally agree that we have to make informed decisions in our everday lives. They are decisions that are very personal, but as you know from your readings, what we eat and how it is produced is very much affected by government decisions. Part of our efforts must also be to affect change in governmental 'food' politics.
Contact your senators and representatives and tell them you don't agree with government support for industrial farming practices. Funding should be given to sustainable, not unsustainable practices.
It's great to make informed personal decisions, but change will not happen on a broader scale when unhealthful and environmentally destructive farming practices have the full support of government agencies. Not only do we have the power to make our own choices, but we also have the power, as an active body politic, to push for change on a more global scale.
See www.congress.org to find your representatives and write to them.
Here's a nice forum I came across a little while ago:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060911/forum/2
Alex
Post a Comment