The Red, White, and Green

I’ve worked hard to eliminate most plastics from my daily existence. Health concerns are a part of it; we really don’t know the cumulative effects of plastic packaging additives like bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. I also can’t reconcile using a material that is made from fossil fuels, or that takes thousands of years to break down in a landfill, or that pollutes Texas-sized swaths of the ocean — even if that material is recyclable. Thus, I’ve swapped plastic grocery bags for canvas totes, Tupperware for Pyrex, and the occasional bottle of water for my trusty Klean Kanteen. And at my next doctor’s appointment when I need blood drawn, I’m going to request glass collection tubes instead of the traditional plastic. (Kidding! There are some instances where plastic is still necessary.)

There is one plastic product, though, that I’ve recently started using, because I think the eco pluses far outweigh the eco negatives, and that’s Debbie Meyer Green Bags. I know they’ve been around for some time, but I never considered using them because: a) they’re made of plastic and b) I generally don’t trust anything sold via infomercial. But the last time I saw my stepmother-in-law, she showed me the still-crunchy two-week-old celery in her fridge courtesy of Green Bags, and I decided to give them a try.

What a difference they’ve made! How much money I’ve saved! I used to have to throw away half of my farmers market purchases. (The run-of-the-mill fridge that came with my apartment seems designed to turn carrots into rubber within hours, even in the “crisper” drawer.) Now, my produce lasts for weeks, and nothing ever gets wasted. I also find that I’m eating more fruits and veggies, since I can buy more and not worry about it all spoiling.

Yeah, Green Bags are plastic, but they are recyclable; you can also reuse each of them up to 10 times. And considering that 40 percent of all food in the United States is thrown out — making food waste one of the largest contributors to climate change (thanks to all that methane once it rots in the landfill) — I consider Green Bags a necessary trade-off.

Debbie Meyer, I don’t know who you are or why your name has to be on the box, but thank you.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Click here for more tips on how to stop wasting food.

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Photo via Flickr: Ivan Walsh

When it comes to eating clean for the planet, that glistening sashimi may seem more virtuous than a fast food burger, but here’s the ugly truth: As much environmental damage may have been waged to bring you that jalapeño hamachi as that Big Mac you guiltily stuffed in your mouth after hitting the drive-thru. But how can that be, you ask?

If you saw Food Inc., you’re probably familiar with the concept of factory farming (i.e., livestock pumped full of antibiotics and hormones and stuffed into crowded cages where they stew in their own excrement before being sent off to slaughter). Pretty disgusting, and pretty toxic for the environment: We’re talking mountains of pesticides used to grow feed corn for the animals; the emergence of antibiotic-resistant superbugs; and areas of the ocean that are completely devoid of life, thanks to all that nitrogen-rich waste runoff that finds its way into our waterways.

Unfortunately, the same scenario is now happening with fish, except the factory farms are at sea instead of on land (FYI: hamachi refers to the farm-raised version of yellowtail): Floating sea cages are crammed with fish that are fed unnatural diets like corn and soy and administered antibiotics and other drugs. Their untreated waste is released directly into the ocean, spreading disease and parasites to surrounding marine life.

Unlike with factory farming for cattle, though, we can actually can do something about this, at present: There is currently a bill in Congress that would expand factory fish farming, for which you can take action to help stop. The bill is entitled the National Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture Act, but I’ve read the text of the bill, and I’m not convinced that sufficient measures have been taken to ensure true sustainability.

Click here to sign the Food & Water Watch petition.

While it’s likely that because of dwindling fish populations, the majority of fish we eat in the next decade will have to be farm-raised and not wild-caught, we can at least take steps to make sure that our first priority is protecting our precious coastlines, not appeasing our appetite for cheap sushi.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Want to know which farmed and wild seafood is actually good for our oceans? Check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Super Green List.

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Photo: CowPots

It’s very rare to come across a perfect green product. In most cases, the inventions are an improvement on the original, but still have their own eco flaws: Compact fluorescent bulbs markedly reduce energy usage but contain mercury, a toxic chemical that pollutes the environment; canvas shopping totes cut down on paper and plastic usage but are often manufactured in China or India.

But once in a while, something comes around that is so sustainable, so ingenious, you have to wonder why no one thought of it before. I give you — CowPots.

You know those plastic pots that seedlings come in when you buy them at a nursery, that get thrown out (or sometimes recycled) right after you plant that seedling? Well, CowPots are made of composted cow manure, so you can just plant the whole thing — pot and all — right in the ground. Within four weeks, the pots biodegrade, nourishing the soil and the seedling at the same time.

Their brilliant design solves two environmental problems at once: What to do with all that waste on a farm that would otherwise pollute the water and land with excess nitrogen, and how to eliminate unnecessary fossil-fuel based plastic products that take thousands of years to break down in a landfill.

And no, CowPots don’t smell. The patent-pending manufacturing process eliminates all odors, as well as any harmful pathogens. They’re also super reasonable: A 12-pack of 3-inch pots will set you back about $6.99. Click here to buy.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: With spring right around the corner, now’s the perfect time to start off a summer of sustainable eating by planting a vegetable garden. Click here to find out what to plant in March.

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Photo via Flickr: Common Vision

Kind of hippy, but super cool: A veggie oil–powered caravan packed with tree-planting do-gooders is now touring the state of California, planting orchards at underserved public schools and performing a green theater extravaganza for the students. Started seven years ago by Common Vision, a nonprofit that brings environmental education programs to needy urban and rural communities, the Fruit Tree Tour now has some serious muscle behind it, thanks to an Emmy Award win in 2008 and a recent sponsorship by organic foods powerhouse Organic Valley.

WATCH:

[Watch video on YouTube]

The 70-day, 20-city tour will visit areas with some pretty staggering rates of childhood obesity: In Fresno County, for instance, where the group will be stopping, over 35 percent of children are overweight. The problem, for many, is simply gaining access to healthy eating options. These are regions packed with cheap fast food, where there aren’t weekly farmers markets and a local Whole Foods at which to shop for fresh fruits and vegetables. (Nor would it be economically feasible for most of the residents to shop at WF, even if there was one.)

Thanks to the work of the Fruit Tree Tour, though, schools will be left with orchards that can provide fresh fruit for their cafeterias and even their surrounding communities; to date, over 3,500 fruit trees have been planted, transforming more than 150 low-income schools into models of healthy eating and hope.

Click here to see some amazing photos from the tour.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Inspired by Common Vision’s message? Donate to this year’s Fruit Tree Tour.

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Photo via Flickr: Putneypics

This article was originally posted on Jan. 19. But with today being the last day to speak up about GM alfalfa to the USDA, I thought I’d republish.

While the United States has no labeling requirements for genetically modified (GM) foods, it should be moderately comforting that for now, there’s a lot the individual shopper can do to avoid them. I say for now, because all that could change very soon: The Department of Agriculture may be on the verge of approving Monsanto’s genetically engineered alfalfa.

Why is alfalfa such a concern? Well, one of the biggest fears about GM crops is the risk of contamination: Once a farmer plants a crop of GM alfalfa, who’s to prevent the wind from blowing pollen to a nearby organic alfalfa crop, or some hardworking honeybees from doing the same? For those who argue (read: Monsanto) that special precautions are taken by farmers to avoid this type of contamination, I would say that nature is not a controlled environment: Canada’s organic canola market was destroyed after being tainted by Monsanto’s GM canola crop.

The situation is getting complicated: In 2006, the Center for Food Safety sued the USDA for its approval of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready alfalfa, and won; the federal district court banned all GM alfalfa until the USDA conducted an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIS) evaluating the potential risks of the crop to the environment and farmers. Now, the 60-day comment period for the EIS draft (which was finally released in December) is open until Feb. 16 has been extended until March 3. But in the meantime, Monsanto has pushed the appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court, which decided last Friday on Jan. 15 to hear the case.

You may not care for alfalfa, but organic dairy cows do — it’s their lunch of choice. If we allow the USDA to approve Monsanto’s GM alfalfa, and the forage for those cows becomes contaminated, then we’ll never again be able to trust a carton of organic milk. Or even worse, organic milk may cease to exist altogether.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Protect the future of organic food! Click here to tell the USDA to reject GM alfalfa.

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Tomato soup grilled cheese: Two childhood faves in one (the soup is in the sandwich!). Click on photo for recipe. Photo via Flickr: Maggie Hoffmann

Now, normally I don’t like to associate the word fun with food — of course, the act of eating should involve a certain amount of pleasure — but healthy, real food is delicious enough in its own right that it doesn’t need to be shaped like a Disney character or dyed a fluorescent color to convince someone to eat it.

But once in a while, even I (a broccoli raab-craving health nut) get a nostalgic craving for a little comfort food, a scrumptious — dare I say fun — meal from my childhood. I was reminiscing about this the other day: The Celentano stuffed shells or the Stouffer’s macaroni and cheese I was allowed to have on the rare occasion my parents went out and left me with a babysitter; the peanut butter and jellies my mom packed for my school lunches; and the buttery grilled cheeses that I would devour at The Lunch Box when we lived in Weston, CT.

Guess what all of these meals have in common? They’re vegetarian! So this Meatless Monday, why not revisit one of these old favorites and feel like a kid again? I’m not suggesting you should eat like this every day of the week, but if you use wholesome ingredients, even these meals can be a healthy, meat-free addition to your diet. A few faves to try:

English muffin pizzas. Loved this brilliant suggestion by loyal RWG reader Andrea Duwel, who eats vegetarian the majority of the time (and has the slim figure to prove it). She loves to make these for an easy veg-head snack. For a healthier version, use whole-grain english muffins and top them off with organic tomato sauce, buffalo mozzarella, and fresh basil.

Peanut butter and jelly. The PB&J Campaign is working to reduce greenhouse gases by promoting this protein-packed sandwich powerhouse. I say make yours with whole wheat bread, all-natural peanut butter, fruit-juice sweetened jam, and enjoy it guilt-free.

Mac and cheese. Sure, it’s a bit more labor-intensive than a PB&J, but macaroni and cheese made from scratch is arguably one of the world’s best comfort foods. Any time-tested recipe that doesn’t come from a box is top-notch in my book; for a slimmed-down version, try this recipe that uses butternut squash to cut the fat.

Grilled cheese. While we’re on the subject of cheese… Obviously, there’s nothing more delectable than a grilled cheese griddle-fried in butter (like the ones from my Lunch Box past), but I’ve found that making a less artery-clogging open-face version in the broiler is just as tasty: Add sharp cheddar to two pieces of whole-grain bread, top each with a few tomato slices, add a dash of oregano, and pop under a preheated broiler for a couple minutes until the cheese is bubbling and brown at the edges. Don’t forget to serve with a piping hot bowl of tomato soup (or try the recipe in the photo, above).

And the best way to feel like a kid again when you enjoy these Meatless Monday treats: Eat them with your own kids, too!

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: Click here to take the Meatless Monday pledge.

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Middle Eastern kofta, a centuries-old (and delicious) way to stretch those meat dollars; Photo via Flickr: SauceSupreme

This post was originally published on Aug. 17, 2009.

My husband was willing to give Meatless Monday a fair shot when we signed on to the cause last May, and fairly amenable to the cooking experimentation that has ensued. Tofu stir-fry has become a new weekday dinner favorite (who knew my al pastor–craving hubby would find it so satisfying?), and I’ve discovered that eggplant parmigiana never fails to disappoint guests who find themselves dining chez nous on a Monday.

But as much as he’s tried, my husband has a hard time sticking to meatless eating for an entire day — he can’t do beans (no need for further explanation), and he feels sluggish when his diet gets a bit carb-heavy. You, reader, can criticize, but the fact remains that you can’t really force someone to eat a certain way if he doesn’t want to.

So, while I continue to eat meatless on Mondays (I quite like the “whole world gathering together once a week for a cause” spirit of it all), I’ve implemented a different plan for family meals that actually ends up reducing our meat consumption way more than if we both stuck to meatless eating on Monday alone. 

Buy less meat. Americans eat twice as much protein as the rest of the world (and twice as much as the USDA recommends), and a serving of meat has come to approximate nearly half a pound. I’ve found that by reducing that amount just a little — buying, say, two-thirds of a pound of chicken for dinner for the two of us whereas I used to buy an entire pound — I save money (on average, $15 a week), and no one even notices. The trick is to fill up that missing space with a fresh salad, veggies, and a bit more complex carbohydrate — brown rice or quinoa, for example. 

Make meat portions look larger than they are. It sounds silly, but visual perception has a profound effect on appetite and consumption. A Cornell study a few years back found that even nutrition experts given a larger bowl in which to serve themselves ice cream dished up 31 percent more than colleagues given a smaller size bowl. The lesson here? People feel satisfied when they see a portion that appears plentiful. I like to take smaller chicken breasts, pound them into a very thin paillard, and then top them with a mound of crispy salad. It’s more satisfying than serving a regular chicken breast that actually weighs more, but looks half the size.

Stretch out your meat supply. Ever wonder how meatloaf originated? Well for centuries, cultures around the world have been making versions of the dish — Italian meatballs, Middle Eastern kofta, and the classic American ketchup-crusted comfort food — as a way to “fatten up” scarce meat supplies and use up lower quality scraps of meat. A handful of breadcrumbs, some chopped onions, a couple of eggs, a dash of spices, and voilà: You’ve got a hearty meal that no carnivore would complain about.

Little changes like these really add up. Let’s say you, like the average American, consume 200 pounds of meat a year. Trim that number by a quarter — which would work out to a mere 2.3 ounces of meat a day, or two slices of turkey — and the environmental payoff would be notable: You’d reduce your carbon footprint by 950 pounds a year, which would be like not driving your car for a whole two months.

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: This week at the supermarket, try going for the slighter smaller package of meat.

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Note: This was originally published on Nov. 30, 2009. I thought it’d be helpful to re-post, in light of my HuffPost Eco Etiquette column today on how to avoid sneaky sources of BPA.

Now that Meatless Monday has morphed into most-of-the-week meatless for me, soup has become my go-to lunch. It’s easy, it’s cheap, and, paired with a bit of cheese, some Ryvita crackers, and a piece of fruit, keeps me going until dinner. I try to make a big, hot pot of something veggie every Sunday (enough lentil soup for an entire week costs about $3 if you make it from dried beans), but inevitably, my to-do list gets overly ambitious and I find myself hustling by Whole Foods on my Monday morning walk to pick up a couple of canned soups at $1.99 a pop.

That’s still a relatively cheap lunch, but there are two problems with this: a) I’m supposed to be boycotting Whole Foods (I know, I know; I’m now doing the majority of my shopping at farmers markets and Trader Joe’s, but if I’m in a pinch and the choice is between buying organic at Whole Foods or conventional elsewhere, you can bet I’m doing the former); and b) it turns out that a lot of canned food is loaded with toxic chemical BPA.

So I was thrilled to discover Dr. McDougall’s, a fabulous line of vegan soups that come in BPA-free cartons manufactured from Forest Stewardship Council–certified paper. And the best part is, they’re are sold at dozens of conventional grocery stores (read: buh-bye, WF!). I’ve tried the lentil, black bean, and vegetable so far, and I’ve got to say, while they aren’t as soul-satisfying as the home-cooked version, they’re the best packaged soup I’ve ever tasted. The ingredients, too, are darn-near spartan: The lentil soup contains lentils, organic vegetables, organic brown rice, potato starch, and spices.

You can also order the soups by the case online, which will be great backup for me the next time my coconut mung bean soup plans get sidelined.

Do this now: Didn’t go meatless for all your meals this past Monday? Swap out two regular lunches this week for a vegetarian soup.

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When your Meatless Monday meals start to get a bit predictable, there’s no better place to spark kitchen creativity than your local farmers market. Of course, with nearly 100 certified farmers markets in Los Angeles County every week, I’m never short on inspiration. Check out the Meatless Monday lunch I put together during a recent trip to the grandaddy of all farmers markets, the Hollywood Farmers Market (there’s nothing you can’t find there: heirloom green zebra tomatoes, organic quail eggs, raw milk butter from grass-fed cows, fresh-shucked oysters — yum!).

[Watch video on Vimeo]

Farmers Market Frisée Salad

Serves 2

One small head frisée lettuce, washed and torn into large pieces
2 eggs
½ tablespoon butter
¼ cup candied walnuts
¼ cup goat cheese, crumbled
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Place frisée in a large bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, salt, and pepper until dressing is emulsified. Toss lettuce gently with dressing and divide between two plates. Sprinkle equal amounts of goat cheese and candied walnuts onto each salad.

In the meantime, heat butter in skillet over medium-high heat. When pan is hot, crack both eggs in pan and fry until yolk is just firm but not hard. Place one egg on the center of each salad and serve immediately.

Enjoy!

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: For more recipe ideas, check out this Monday’s menu on the Meatless Monday website.

More Meatless Monday posts:
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My friend is up for one of the coveted internships at Polyface Farm, that near-utopian model of sustainable agriculture of The Omnivore’s Dilemma fame. He just returned from his interview at the farm in Virginia’s verdant Shenandoah Valley (he finds out about the internship in January — fingers crossed!), and forwarded me a couple photos from the hoop houses that are home to the chickens and rabbits in the wintertime.

He writes:

Here is a picture of one of the hoop houses with chickens and rabbits stacked together. The rabbit droppings fall through the floor and the chickens love to scratch through them so they are composted into the soil. Also, since their urine goes through the cage and into the soil it is not strongly ammonia and burning the rabbits’ lungs. Did you know industrially raised rabbits are the most heavily medicated of all CAFO animals?

Here’s a zoomed-in look at this closed-loop hoop house in action:

I was surprised to hear that about rabbits, since I didn’t even know there was a market for rabbit meat large enough to justify industrial production. I thought it could possibly be for their fur, since mukluks will be hot as long as Kate Moss is sporting one of her many pairs, but my friend informed me that there was, indeed, a year-long wait list at Polyface for rabbit meat before the farm stopped bothering with the list altogether. 

Could sustainably raised bunnies, cute as that sounds, be an abundant source of organic meat for the world? Think about it — they’re relatively easy to care for, are pretty darn tasty (I’ve been told), and reproduce like, well, rabbits. 

–Jennifer Grayson

Do this now: In the spirit of Polyface Farm, find your local meat producers and patronize them. Click here to read how.

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