Lifestyle Update: Eating local and organic foods for five days straight

Which is better for the environment and for me local or organic?  Through research, I’ve found that my question is just too simple to be answered.  The complexities involved with food production and its effects on the economy, society, and environment require my question to be rephrased—“What should I consider when purchasing my food?”  To make responsible decisions when purchasing food, one must consider:

-Where is my food coming from (amount of fossil fuels used to get it to me)

-How is my food being produced?

            -Large industry?  Local farmer?

            -Do they use sustainable production practices?

            -Do they use chemicals?

These are very broad questions and get more and more detailed based on the type of food, e.g., corn, beef, etc.  The grocery store, local farmer, or restaurant selling these foods should be asked these questions.  The answers I’d want to hear would be:

“We’re local, we don’t use chemicals, we treat our animals humanely, we respect and treat our employees well, and we enjoy what we do.“

For detailed information about sustainable food choices:

http://www.sustainabletable.org/home.php

 http://www.slowfood.com/

Through a week of research and testing my own sustainable food choices, I’ve learned quite a bit.  Simply buying organic and/or local wasn’t enough—to be truly “sustainable” I must making well-informed decisions by asking questions to various sellers (farmers and grocery stores). Over the last five days, I’ve been experimenting with purchasing organic and local foods to make lifestyle changes to reduce my carbon and ecological footprints and ease my guilt. This week was a learning experience to say the least.  While I learned about the questions I should ask, I was only able to talk to the gentleman working meat counter at Whole Foods, and no local farmers due to time constraints.  My week went something like this… 

After getting out of work on Friday, I was exhausted, recovering from a cold, and as usual, HUNGRY.  I was in no mood to go food shopping for my experimental lifestyle change, so my boyfriend and I decided to eat sushi at Red Curry in Alexandria.  It was my last non-sustainable meal for the next four days, or so I thought… (I’ll talk about this later in the blog). We ate dinner then headed to Whole Foods.  I set the following rules for myself:
1.  Buy food items typically found on my weekly shopping list
2.  The food items should be organic and locally grown

a.   If no such food items are available, the purchase of organic OR locally grown food is permitted

b.   Locally is defined as within 250 miles

c.   Organic is defined as USDA certified organic

d.   If information on the packaging or signage ask an employee

Simple enough, right? 

I was able to find all of the food items I was looking for, but I only purchased two items that was both USDA certified organic and locally grown—packaged uncured ham slices and yellow squash.  I bought beef that was locally raised, grass-fed and no hormones or antibiotics were used.  Other than those two items, everything else was pretty straightforward:

Local & Organic	Local	Organic
Yellow squash	Lettuce (hydro)	Wine (Malbec)
Ham	Gala apples	Frozen blueberries
	Chicken breast	Frozen strawberries
	Beef	Baby spinach
	Eggs	Bananas
		Zucchini
		Red pepper

When I arrived home, I totaled the cost of these items and compared them to conventional food items from my usual grocery store, Harris Teeter.  I spent almost exactly 20 dollars more at Whole Foods!  For the amount of items I purchased, this was quite a difference.  If I look at these prices over the span of a year, I would probably change my buying habits, but as a one-time experiment I’m actually  a little relieved.  Relieved that I’m actually trying to eat healthily, both for the environment and my long-term health.

On Saturday morning, I started the day off right with two eggs, an apple, half a red pepper and a cup of coffee.  The coffee was organic and fair trade certified. When lunch rolled around, I was at work and munched on organic nuts, berries, and a peach I had previously purchased.  After eight hours of work, I made steak salad with the beef, greens, and yellow squash.  I used a raspberry vinaigrette for dressing which was neither organic nor local.  It was in my refrigerator and I couldn’t let it go to waste!  For the remainder of the night I snacked on a banana.

What a day, what a day.  I woke up Sunday morning planning to go to the Farmer’s Market, but didn’t quite make it…I had to take my boyfriend to an emergency chiropractic appointment.  Lucky for my boyfriend, one of my best friends, Dr. Rose, is a chiropractor.  And actually lucky for me, she also adjusted me while we were there.  My morning was thrown off and I just had to accept the fact that I wasn’t going to the Farmer’s Market.  My brunch consisted of leftover steak salad, an apple, and blueberries.  I didn’t get very creative due to time constraints (homework), so for dinner I had grilled chicken and a salad.

By Monday, I just about had it with the salad, so I didn’t pack a lunch and hoped that somehow I would come across a free lunch at work that was made of sustainable food…I had my regular breakfast of two eggs, red pepper, and coffee.  At lunch I ended up eating chicken and dumplings that a friend had made.  None of the ingredients met my criteria, but I was too hungry to care.  I was swamped with homework the previous day and overloaded with work on Monday, I just didn’t have time to be picky.

On Tuesday, I had my usual for breakfast and headed off to D.C. for a conference.  I drank my organic, fair trade coffee and snacked on organic nuts and berries until lunchtime.  Once again, I failed to meet my criteria for lunch…I only had a 30-minute break and ate at the George Washington University’s dining hall.  Tuesday night I ate chicken breasts and salad again. 

The last five days were challenging, not just because I had a restricted diet, but also because I was so short on time, working 40+ hours and taking 6 credit hours really cut into my food planning and preparation. This is something I need to add into the equation when considering what it will take to make lifestyle changes.  Yes, I’m relieving guilty feelings, but I’m creating a different kind of stress in my life—rushing to complete other things like studying, spending time with friends, laundry, and cleaning. Since I do rely heavily on buying already prepared meals, I need to do patronize restaurants in the area <check out this cool finder tool> , that offer sustainable food selections.  The ones I most often frequent are Chipotle, Le Pain, and Busboys and Poets but their menus are limited.

 I will continue to strive to make responsible eating decisions—I want to maximize the amount of sustainable food I consume while not spending too much money.  I also need to keep in mind the added time of preparing every meal and when that is not possible going to a restaurant that meet’s my criteria.  As I continue to adjust my schedule and learn to fit in more cooking, I will update the page listed at the bottom of the blog “Eating sustainable foods.”

Next week, I’ll be blogging about my experiment to reduce energy consumption, and I’ll have updated footprint and ecological footprint calculations to include my new food purchasing habits!