Se Hace Camino Al Andar

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that last year, I joined a CSA and enjoyed a bounty of organic, locally-grown fruits and vegetables last summer through this winter. As a result of my CSA participation, I’ve become increasingly interested in issues around food and the environment. I’m not alone in this emerging consciousness, for sure. I’m at a stage in my personal development where I’ve recognized that the actions I take and the choices I make become part of a larger impact on the environment and the food industry. I started buying organic a couple of years ago, whenever possible. Back then, anything organic was better than conventional. Then, localism entered the picture. Suddenly, it became a choice between organic and local, because they didn’t always go hand in hand. Soon after, Big Brother started infringing on the organic label and that complicated matters further, requiring a little research into what was behind any given “organic” label. I didn’t mind–it was all interesting to me, and for mostly selfish reasons, of course. Selfishness is as good as any starting point when making changes that will eventually impact society, if everyone gets on the bandwagon.

When I was at NYBG last week, I hit up the gift shop and browsed their extensive book collection. Lots of cookbooks about cooking with vegetables, gardening books, and so on. One book caught my eye and my interest.

Marion Nestle, everyone’s favorite nutritionist, wrote this book about the choices we make when we buy the food we eat. Rather than tell us what to eat and when to eat, Nestle tells us the information we need to be informed consumers, especially when faced with all these “good and good for you” claims on food packaging. I was hooked from the introduction, especially her message is basically one of moderation–eat your fruits and veggies, get exercise and keep junk food to a minimum. I appreciate her whole “forest for the trees” approach to things, in which she talks about our diet as a whole, not broken down into the individual items that make up our daily food intake. Basically, if you do right by yourself most of the time, you’ll be fine and healthy in the end. All this I got from the introduction! I haven’t even read the first chapter yet.

So, I’ll be back with updates as I make my way through the book. In the meantime, have you seen King Corn yet? Add it to your Netflix queue or check your local PBS listings.

Here are some other resources to check out:

Grist.org’s Victual Reality column about organic milk

The Cornucopia Institute’s study on the integrity of organic milk

Wikipedia’s entry on Locavores

Technorati Tags: food, marion nestle, what to eat