Saturday night I had a couple of pieces of toast and Sunday was my first full day of normal eating. As I started eating what was a fairly typical meal for me I was rather taken aback to realize that with the exception of a tablespoon of mustard all of it either was or could be local, easily.
Hastily I ran through all of my standard meals that I tend to make for myself and thought about the ingredients. Without exception they were easy to make using local products with the exception of 1 to 4 tablespoons of various spices or falvourings.
What about some of my more special meals? How about a nice Indian dinner? Dahl? use local lentils. Aloo Gosht? easy. Rice? use soft wheat, the nutty flavour will go very nicely. Nann, piece of nann. Curried eggplant, spiced potatos, spinach ... hundreds of possible dishes, and with the exception of a few teaspoons of spices, all easy to get locally.
Chinese? Garlic and blackbean eggplant? spicey salty tofu? spring noodles? la jiao? easy easy easy.
My Haitian Goat Curry (vegan version)? which I have like what? twice a year? substitute pears and peaches from Kitchener for the mango and other fruit, used powdered coconut milk, and the carbon cost is like 20% of the typical North American meal.
Japanese, Chinese, Latin American, African ... most of the cuisines I have grown to love are all still perfectly possible with a few substitutions here and there.
In fact, even allowing for the spices and special flavourings, if I make sure the source of the substance of the meal, the actual vegies, grains, etc are local, I can bring my diets carbon cost down to something like 6% or 7% of the avg North American's - EVEN if I include some olives, mirin, figs, curry, etc.
So what was I so worked up about these past few weeks?
I guess two things. First, it is too easy to get focused on a few things like bananas and chocolate that are banished forever and see the whole diet as being one of deprivation and loss. This is totally the wrong mind set, but reinforced when everyone you talk to is saying "My God, what will you eat?"
Second, in looking at my own kitchen I was overwhelmed by the bulk of things like the vinegars, curries and sauces. What I was ignoring was the fact that these turn over very slowly. A tiny jar of mole lasts me months. In that same time huge amounts of vegies and grains flow through my kitchen.
eg Sugar is heavy, and I use it for baking bread ... a Tblsp per loaf, and I can use honey instead. Also one tsp salt. The rest of the loaf can all be local ... it is the flour that is the real weight of the bread.
The weight, and hence the carbon cost, is in the vegies and grains. If I get them locally the remaining 5% of every meal is fairly trivial.
So it turns out that my diet does NOT need to change much at all, My habits do ... everything must be prepared at home from ingredients produced locally, but the difference this is going to make in what I actually eat is minimal. Wow - epiphany!
So I give me an 'A' for a diet that will be over 90% local at a carbon cost of about 7% of the North American avg, and go right on enjoying a diet that is more varied, interesting, and nutritious than that North American average. Nothing to be afraid of at all ....
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Happy Valentines Day
OK, no chocolate for Valentine's Day, or anything else as this flu persists (or returns). In fact again nothing at all since Monday, sigh.
Stumbling around in a fever there was not a lot of energy to devote to researching for this either, so instead I will share a modified version of what I already posted in a comment on an earlier post.
Rice. Definitely a problem if it is a significant part of your diet and appreciate Asian cuisine (as I do). I know rice it is a major crop in Louisiana but that's probably about as close as it gets.
One partial solution is that when prepared in the same way (boil etc) soft wheat grain works in a lot of situations where you would eat rice. No, it doesn't taste exactly the same, but surprisingly close to brown rice or wehani (compared to what you'd expect).
The same is true for a lot of whole grains, ie they can be substituted into pilafs, casseroles, stuffed tomatoes and what have you. The faux rice does have flavour and does not offer the same blank canvas that white rice does, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I haven't tried this for sushi yet, but now I think I will. The question is what grain has the right stickiness? Don't know yet, but when I figure it out you can bet it will feature at a potluck.
As for flours, I have not come close to exhausting my current stocks so it has not been a priority yet, but:
"Mountain Path" is 35 miles (50 km? ) south of Ottawa and they are i) organic, and ii) use local as much as possible. http://www.mountainpath.com . They offer grains, flours, and a variety of other products, some local and some not. I have just requested their e-catalogue and I will report on what else they offer when I get it.
Thier site includes a "store locator", but it does not seem to be working. You used to be able to get their flour at the Wheat Berry and probably still can, and other health food stores as well I assume.
Stumbling around in a fever there was not a lot of energy to devote to researching for this either, so instead I will share a modified version of what I already posted in a comment on an earlier post.
Rice. Definitely a problem if it is a significant part of your diet and appreciate Asian cuisine (as I do). I know rice it is a major crop in Louisiana but that's probably about as close as it gets.
One partial solution is that when prepared in the same way (boil etc) soft wheat grain works in a lot of situations where you would eat rice. No, it doesn't taste exactly the same, but surprisingly close to brown rice or wehani (compared to what you'd expect).
The same is true for a lot of whole grains, ie they can be substituted into pilafs, casseroles, stuffed tomatoes and what have you. The faux rice does have flavour and does not offer the same blank canvas that white rice does, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.
I haven't tried this for sushi yet, but now I think I will. The question is what grain has the right stickiness? Don't know yet, but when I figure it out you can bet it will feature at a potluck.
As for flours, I have not come close to exhausting my current stocks so it has not been a priority yet, but:
"Mountain Path" is 35 miles (50 km? ) south of Ottawa and they are i) organic, and ii) use local as much as possible. http://www.mountainpath.com . They offer grains, flours, and a variety of other products, some local and some not. I have just requested their e-catalogue and I will report on what else they offer when I get it.
Thier site includes a "store locator", but it does not seem to be working. You used to be able to get their flour at the Wheat Berry and probably still can, and other health food stores as well I assume.
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Warts, Imperfections and All
Well, I managed almost 3 full days without eating anything that was outside of the 100 km range!! The bad news is that it was because I had flu and actually I ate nothing at all in that period, so that's not really much of an achievement 8-(.
OK, imperfection ... in trying to maximize the portion of my diet that is grown within 100 km of my home I am trying just that, to maximize rather than make it 100%, at least for the forseeable future.
In the first place 100% may well be impossible, if not profoundly unhealthy. For example, while La Soyarie is a local tofu producer I have yet to confirm that their source of soy beans is local. Assuming that they are, do I also insist that their precipitating salts used in production are also produced locally? and if they are not do I exclude this from my diet?
For me the answer is "no", the tofu would still be 99%+ local and hence meet the criteria for me. So I will never be 100%, but I am going to do my best.
How am I approaching this? Well, for a start I have NOT tossed out 2/3rds of my kitchen and started fresh ... that would sort of defeat the whole "not waste resources" aspect of the exercise.
1) I am not purchasing any new fruit or veg that do not meet the 100 km criteria, or close to it. At the moment the best I have managed for apples are from about 130 Km, but close enough. I am also not buying any prepared foods for myself (bye bye lunch time samosas, damn).
2) As I go along I note what I use to cook with and classify things as "gone forever", "need" or "other".
For the "need" group I am trying to find local sources and am in the process of creating a resource base to share that information with people who would like to try to get more of their diet locally.
For the "gone forever" group the name pretty much says it all. I might have some chocolate at Christmas and olives on my birthday, but for the most part this group is banished.
For the "other" group I am also seeking local suppliers, but if they cannot be found I will have to do some serious thinking. There are some things I am hanging on to regardless, like coffee.
Some things I may continue to consume if enough of my diet is under 100 km and the product in question is of minimal weight. For eg raisens from southern Ontario may stay as I do not consume that many and St Catherines is not that far. Dates and figs however, are heavier and travel a lot farther. Almonds? I do not eat that many, but most come from California. Can I find a closer source? Georgia?
Speaking of which, I am NOT just going with "buy Canadian". The fact is that Florida is closer than Kenora, and that is still in Ontario. As such BC apples would have a much greater carbon cost than Florida oranges.
There are still a lot of issues to work out, such as dried fruit. If it is dried using generated heat then it may not have much less carbon cost than if it was shipped fresh. And what about my frozen garden veggies? and my canned eggplants and peppers? Did I use more energy freezing and canning than if I simply ate fresh shipped from Florida or Louisiana? I am working on answering these questions.
At the end of the day what I am looking for is a diet that is healthy, varied, interesting, and has as low a carbon cost as I can manage. I will be sharing what I learn so that others who would like to reduce their environmental footprint are able to do it with rather less effort than I am currently putting into it.
But I am also not going to give up simply because I cannot reach 100%, 90% or some other arbitrary figure. If I can significantly bring down my dietary cost by 80%, 60% or even only 40% it is still a significant improvement, and I hope some of you will try to do the same.
Until next time ...
OK, imperfection ... in trying to maximize the portion of my diet that is grown within 100 km of my home I am trying just that, to maximize rather than make it 100%, at least for the forseeable future.
In the first place 100% may well be impossible, if not profoundly unhealthy. For example, while La Soyarie is a local tofu producer I have yet to confirm that their source of soy beans is local. Assuming that they are, do I also insist that their precipitating salts used in production are also produced locally? and if they are not do I exclude this from my diet?
For me the answer is "no", the tofu would still be 99%+ local and hence meet the criteria for me. So I will never be 100%, but I am going to do my best.
How am I approaching this? Well, for a start I have NOT tossed out 2/3rds of my kitchen and started fresh ... that would sort of defeat the whole "not waste resources" aspect of the exercise.
1) I am not purchasing any new fruit or veg that do not meet the 100 km criteria, or close to it. At the moment the best I have managed for apples are from about 130 Km, but close enough. I am also not buying any prepared foods for myself (bye bye lunch time samosas, damn).
2) As I go along I note what I use to cook with and classify things as "gone forever", "need" or "other".
For the "need" group I am trying to find local sources and am in the process of creating a resource base to share that information with people who would like to try to get more of their diet locally.
For the "gone forever" group the name pretty much says it all. I might have some chocolate at Christmas and olives on my birthday, but for the most part this group is banished.
For the "other" group I am also seeking local suppliers, but if they cannot be found I will have to do some serious thinking. There are some things I am hanging on to regardless, like coffee.
Some things I may continue to consume if enough of my diet is under 100 km and the product in question is of minimal weight. For eg raisens from southern Ontario may stay as I do not consume that many and St Catherines is not that far. Dates and figs however, are heavier and travel a lot farther. Almonds? I do not eat that many, but most come from California. Can I find a closer source? Georgia?
Speaking of which, I am NOT just going with "buy Canadian". The fact is that Florida is closer than Kenora, and that is still in Ontario. As such BC apples would have a much greater carbon cost than Florida oranges.
There are still a lot of issues to work out, such as dried fruit. If it is dried using generated heat then it may not have much less carbon cost than if it was shipped fresh. And what about my frozen garden veggies? and my canned eggplants and peppers? Did I use more energy freezing and canning than if I simply ate fresh shipped from Florida or Louisiana? I am working on answering these questions.
At the end of the day what I am looking for is a diet that is healthy, varied, interesting, and has as low a carbon cost as I can manage. I will be sharing what I learn so that others who would like to reduce their environmental footprint are able to do it with rather less effort than I am currently putting into it.
But I am also not going to give up simply because I cannot reach 100%, 90% or some other arbitrary figure. If I can significantly bring down my dietary cost by 80%, 60% or even only 40% it is still a significant improvement, and I hope some of you will try to do the same.
Until next time ...
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Brand Names and Early Adopters
The 100 km Diet means you can pretty much forget about brand names. For the most part brand names get their raw ingredients from huge geographic areas and ship them to a single or limited number of central processing plants. From there the product is shipped all over regions, continents, or the world.
The subsidies we pour into the fossil fuel industry means it is more profitable to centralize processing and ship rather than to disperse production and reduce shipping costs. This subsidy reverberates through the food system as wholesalers stock only a limited number of subsidised brand names, so in turn most retailers offer only the same limited selection.
In practice this means that early adopters, people who are first to try something new, have a very tough time. A tour of the mustards in my kitchen shows they come from Germany, France, Finland, England. Ok, so I buy local mustards like, like, like ... are there even any?
Maybe not, and even if there is it is unlikely that I could get the range of flavours that I currently enjoy, and there is no reason for it. I accept that mangos and chocolate are forever banished from my diet, but mustard seed grows just fine in the Ottawa area.
At the moment this diet means I am probably going to have to become a tea totaller. I don't drink much anyway, but the ocassional beer, glass of wine, or scotch is enjoyable to me. Here again there is no reason why Ottawa could not produce beers, vodka, liquers, pear brandy, cider, calvados, whiskey, etc. There is even the possibility of spruce beer and birch wine, thereby supporting natual areas as well as bioregional economies.
Just as every small baker will offer a variety of breads and baked goods, all produced on site, there is no reason someone could not set up a condiment shoppe that offers a wide range of mustards all made on site with locally grown mustard seed.
OK, one reason ... we would be unwilling to support it. Enough people have come to value a good, fresh olive bread or dark rye that they are willing to pay the extra cost to support a business that is not taking as much advantage of the oil industry subsidies. We are, as yet, not willing to support all of the other potential small businesses that could be producing local products from local materials.
The innovators who fight this trend must do it as a cottage industry, motivated by love. Thanks to John Lubrun who created Chamomile Desjardins I am able to enjoy a range of really excellent hot sauces, all locally produced from largely locally grown ingredients
http://www.ottawafarmersmarket.ca/vendors.html.
We have to support these people so that more local options become available to a broader population, thereby making it easier for them to reduce their ecological footprint by consuming locally.
The subsidies we pour into the fossil fuel industry means it is more profitable to centralize processing and ship rather than to disperse production and reduce shipping costs. This subsidy reverberates through the food system as wholesalers stock only a limited number of subsidised brand names, so in turn most retailers offer only the same limited selection.
In practice this means that early adopters, people who are first to try something new, have a very tough time. A tour of the mustards in my kitchen shows they come from Germany, France, Finland, England. Ok, so I buy local mustards like, like, like ... are there even any?
Maybe not, and even if there is it is unlikely that I could get the range of flavours that I currently enjoy, and there is no reason for it. I accept that mangos and chocolate are forever banished from my diet, but mustard seed grows just fine in the Ottawa area.
At the moment this diet means I am probably going to have to become a tea totaller. I don't drink much anyway, but the ocassional beer, glass of wine, or scotch is enjoyable to me. Here again there is no reason why Ottawa could not produce beers, vodka, liquers, pear brandy, cider, calvados, whiskey, etc. There is even the possibility of spruce beer and birch wine, thereby supporting natual areas as well as bioregional economies.
Just as every small baker will offer a variety of breads and baked goods, all produced on site, there is no reason someone could not set up a condiment shoppe that offers a wide range of mustards all made on site with locally grown mustard seed.
OK, one reason ... we would be unwilling to support it. Enough people have come to value a good, fresh olive bread or dark rye that they are willing to pay the extra cost to support a business that is not taking as much advantage of the oil industry subsidies. We are, as yet, not willing to support all of the other potential small businesses that could be producing local products from local materials.
The innovators who fight this trend must do it as a cottage industry, motivated by love. Thanks to John Lubrun who created Chamomile Desjardins I am able to enjoy a range of really excellent hot sauces, all locally produced from largely locally grown ingredients
http://www.ottawafarmersmarket.ca/vendors.html.
We have to support these people so that more local options become available to a broader population, thereby making it easier for them to reduce their ecological footprint by consuming locally.
Saturday, February 3, 2007
Day 3: Working it Out
OK, the whole point to trying to go with the 100 km diet is to reduce my ecological footprint, particularly the Green House Gas production. As a result my particular concern with this challenge is the weight and volume issue ... how heavy is the food and how often do I eat it.
For example, dried spices I am not going to get in a snit over - the 100 gm of cardamon I consume every year or two is no big deal. On the other hand non-local tomatoes, oranges, bananas, juices are all definitely OUT.
As a rough guideline I have been looking at eliminating non-local wet things: fruit and veg, sauces, jams, etc. Anything that is wet is heavy, particularly in terms of the portion of the weight that is nutrition vs water. We burn huge amounts of fuel and subsequently generate billions of tonnes of Green House Gases moving water around in the form of tomatoes, juices, etc.
Not so tough: In Ottawa there is an abundance of vegetables that keep in storage like just about all roots (potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, etc) and squashes of all kinds. Additionally I have a freezer full of greens and other vegetables that were grown in my own garden, and jars of pickles (eggplant, peppers, onions, beets) that were canned using local produce. For fruits there are apples of course, and my freezer has locally grown pears as well.
For fresh greens the first lettuces are available in May, and kale will grow right into December. For living healthy greens in mid-winter I am growing sprouts on the top of my fridge. I am not sure about the source of the seeds, but even if they are not local they are relatively light compared to the volume of shipped produce that they replace.
Tough: Basically all processed and prepared foods are OUT; for the most part all of the ingredients are not locally grown. No more grabbing a sandwich or soup when I forgot to bring supper. Goodbye eating out for pizza, falafels, chinese, etc except on very special occasions (Christmas?).
Really tough: It is clear that I am going to have prioritize certain things and kiss some things goodbye. While I may find local sources for things like cooking oils and flour, there are other things that are simply not going to be found locally. For some I consume so little by weight that I will not worry too much, but there are other things that I consume enough that it has a significant environmental impact.
I am thinking of things like olive oil, dark sesame oil, tahini, shoyu, rice, raisins, etc as well as the variety of sauces, jams, curries, and various spices that make up my kitchen. Not that I consume huge amounts of any one of these, but taken together it amounts to quite a bit. For example I go through perhaps one jar each of mole, kashmiri masala, adobo, lao gama, wood apple jam, mango pickle, guilin, lime pickle etc per year. Individually they do not amount to much, but taken together it's quite a bit, never mind decent mustard. Sigh ...
Sigh because my intent is to continue after the 40 days and adopt this diet as best I can from now on ...
For example, dried spices I am not going to get in a snit over - the 100 gm of cardamon I consume every year or two is no big deal. On the other hand non-local tomatoes, oranges, bananas, juices are all definitely OUT.
As a rough guideline I have been looking at eliminating non-local wet things: fruit and veg, sauces, jams, etc. Anything that is wet is heavy, particularly in terms of the portion of the weight that is nutrition vs water. We burn huge amounts of fuel and subsequently generate billions of tonnes of Green House Gases moving water around in the form of tomatoes, juices, etc.
Not so tough: In Ottawa there is an abundance of vegetables that keep in storage like just about all roots (potatoes, carrots, onions, beets, etc) and squashes of all kinds. Additionally I have a freezer full of greens and other vegetables that were grown in my own garden, and jars of pickles (eggplant, peppers, onions, beets) that were canned using local produce. For fruits there are apples of course, and my freezer has locally grown pears as well.
For fresh greens the first lettuces are available in May, and kale will grow right into December. For living healthy greens in mid-winter I am growing sprouts on the top of my fridge. I am not sure about the source of the seeds, but even if they are not local they are relatively light compared to the volume of shipped produce that they replace.
Tough: Basically all processed and prepared foods are OUT; for the most part all of the ingredients are not locally grown. No more grabbing a sandwich or soup when I forgot to bring supper. Goodbye eating out for pizza, falafels, chinese, etc except on very special occasions (Christmas?).
Really tough: It is clear that I am going to have prioritize certain things and kiss some things goodbye. While I may find local sources for things like cooking oils and flour, there are other things that are simply not going to be found locally. For some I consume so little by weight that I will not worry too much, but there are other things that I consume enough that it has a significant environmental impact.
I am thinking of things like olive oil, dark sesame oil, tahini, shoyu, rice, raisins, etc as well as the variety of sauces, jams, curries, and various spices that make up my kitchen. Not that I consume huge amounts of any one of these, but taken together it amounts to quite a bit. For example I go through perhaps one jar each of mole, kashmiri masala, adobo, lao gama, wood apple jam, mango pickle, guilin, lime pickle etc per year. Individually they do not amount to much, but taken together it's quite a bit, never mind decent mustard. Sigh ...
Sigh because my intent is to continue after the 40 days and adopt this diet as best I can from now on ...
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Day One of the Challenge
Just so we're clear I'll state right off that I have adapted the the Challenge. The original concept was to get people to go vegetarian for 40 days http://www.veggiechallenge.blogspot.com/ , but different folks have been tweaking it and so am I.
The problem for me is that I am already Veg, so that's not much of a challenge. I am also already 95% vegan, and for various reasons the last 5% is problematical as well as not likely to make much of a difference for the environment, so I decided against trying that.
Instead I have decided to try for the 100 Km diet, ie consume only food that was grown within 100 km of where I live. I have resisted doing this for quite a while because I knew it would be very difficult.
Then it occurred to me that if I applied the same 'rule' to the 100 Km as I do to my Veganism it would be both achievable and very beneficial in terms of cutting down my ecological footprint, especially Green House Gas production.
So there's my self challenge, to get 95% of my diet (by weight) to fit the 100 km limit.
And the reason to blog is to share both the challenges and solutions I discover as I try to do this. "Discover" being the operative word since the idea only occurred to me the other day so I didn't plan this out at all.
Day One: Cheating already. OK, not really, just finishing off 3 oranges that I had forgotten about. After they are gone that will be it for non-local fruit and vegies ...
The problem for me is that I am already Veg, so that's not much of a challenge. I am also already 95% vegan, and for various reasons the last 5% is problematical as well as not likely to make much of a difference for the environment, so I decided against trying that.
Instead I have decided to try for the 100 Km diet, ie consume only food that was grown within 100 km of where I live. I have resisted doing this for quite a while because I knew it would be very difficult.
Then it occurred to me that if I applied the same 'rule' to the 100 Km as I do to my Veganism it would be both achievable and very beneficial in terms of cutting down my ecological footprint, especially Green House Gas production.
So there's my self challenge, to get 95% of my diet (by weight) to fit the 100 km limit.
And the reason to blog is to share both the challenges and solutions I discover as I try to do this. "Discover" being the operative word since the idea only occurred to me the other day so I didn't plan this out at all.
Day One: Cheating already. OK, not really, just finishing off 3 oranges that I had forgotten about. After they are gone that will be it for non-local fruit and vegies ...
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