Getting better (food) mileage
An interesting and hopeful thing has happened in the past year without many people realizing it: "food miles" entered the public lexicon, and not as some hair-brained concept coming from hairy-headed hippies, but as a serious way of thinking about the social and environmental impacts of what we eat.
"Food-miles are a great metaphor for looking at the localness of food, the contrast between local and global food, a way people can get an idea of where their food is coming from," said Rich Pirog, associate director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University.
Pirog should know. He's Mr. Food Miles. Pirog carried out the research that found that foods travel on average "1500 miles from field to fork". In fact, it's even farther if you consider that his study was focussing on the average distance produce travels from the point of production to midwestern markets. For the East Coast, the distance is closer to 2500 miles.
Pirog is careful to point out that food miles are just one indicator of food's environmental impact and other things need to be plugged into the calculation, for example, how the food was produced before it hit the road. Still, food mileage is a concept that people can get their head around. With gas at $3/gallon, we know that getting good mileage is important and that some cars are better than others. Tuning into our food mileage is not just about ruling out the bad options - the infamous 3000 mile Caesar salad - but discovering the many good options out there, including some just down the street from us. Heck, we might even make a new neighbor.
If a metaphor can do that, it's a very powerful one indeed.
continue reading...
Added on: Oct 31, 2007 in
Category:
From the Garden
Comment This Article
Refer it to Friend
Copycat Recipes Cookbook - DivineRecipes. Over 750 Secret Copycat Recipes From Your Favorite Restaurants.
Click Here!
|
Other News in the From the Garden category |
| 1. |
Perfect Pesto
|
|
|
The recent teasers of chilly days have sent me scampering to
use up what’s left in my garden before nature decides...
|
| 4. |
Eat-out Nation
|
|
|
Each year, the US Department of Agriculture compiles and publishes data about America's food habits and purchases. 2005 represented a turning point in the way Americans eat: for the first time since statistics were kept in this area (i.e. 1953), we ate more foods prepared outside our homes than ones we cooked ourselves at home. While the US has been famously dubbed "Fast Food Nation", it seems like "Eat-Out Nation" might be a more accurate term.
For those interested in seeing the raw data, you can find it here
|
| 5. |
Is your garden looking good? Then show it off!
|
|
|
Our Grow-Off Show-Off contest, like many of your gardens, is entering peak season. Here's the little ad we put up on YouTube.
You can of course enter things other than an online video. But if you do have a video camera, why not not have a little fun with it? Tell us why your pesto is the best-o. Entertain us with a garden joke. Juggle a few tomatillos for us.
If we don't "advertise" kitchen gardens, who will?
|
|
|
Other News |
My Favorite Fourth of July Menu
Do you have your July 4th menu planned? If not, just borrow mine! A classic juicy, tender, flavorful hamburger really is a must for this most American of...
|
|
Everyday Menus: No Cook Recipes
