{top photograph by dapan}
I'm kicking off Green Swap today with an issue I struggle with: making dinner at home. It's so easy to cheat dinner in New York with many take-out places ready to instantly deliver food to your door. I've never successfully made it through one week of working off my pantry list. And I'm not the home cook who can masterfully create dishes out of leftovers — a gift my mom has that seems to have passed me over. I'm working on it.
I reached out to Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA, to talk about why it's important to make homemade meals a part of your routine. I didn't grow up in a household where we canned vegetables or ate organic. And after talking to Josh, I don't think I can ever look at winter tomatoes the same way. I love the name of the organization — Slow Food. Half the time, I'm eating as I'm walking down subway stairs or running out the door. But on the days when we sit down and enjoy a homecooked meal, I feel like my evening slows down in the most delicious way.
What is Slow Food USA?
Slow Food is an organization that's made up of members in 200 local chapters, with 18,000 members across the country, with a mission that good, clean food is a right. We're doing work locally to change food systems, add gardens in public schools, and connect farmers to market. When the time comes, we can advocate nationally as we have a ready-made network of members.
How is making homecooked meals a greener choice?
The big environmental problems we have cannot be solved without dealing with food. Questions of climate change can’t be dealt with without looking at food and agriculture. When you cook for yourself, for your family, you do it where you live without a buying a TV dinner, and you're doing a few things. You’re reducing your carbon footprint. You’re not buying pre-processed foods. There's a raw ecological impact, particularly if you’re sharing a meal. If you cook with your kids, you help make eating consciously an everyday thing. You’re teaching that the everyday act has a story behind it. You’re helping to create a new generation of people who can be stewards through their everyday act, and that will create a new personal politics that will make it easier to overcome challenges in the environment. Share a meal at the table. If you start with a trip to the farmer's market, you can talk to your kid and show how ingredients are connected to a place, and your dollars are supporting a person that’s doing hard physical work to put your food on the table.
A common complaint about making "healthy" meals is that produce can be expensive — especially buying organic. Is it possible to eat fresh, healthy meals on a tight budget?
It is absolutely possible to eat affordable, healthy meals, but the structure needs to change. Access is an issue. Some neighborhoods don't have access to good foods. We have a structure where some foods that are good for us are expensive and foods that are bad for us are cheap — it's a structural classism that needs to change to make good food accessible. Really beautiful food has a season and at the peak of the season, there’s an abundance of that fruit or vegetable. Tomatoes are affordable in their peak summer season. If you eat in the flow of seasons, that’s when prices are low so you can eat more of it and can some of it for later. A lot of times there’s the misconception that prepared foods are cheaper than homemade meals. KFC had a commercial about it recently. The idea was you couldn’t possibly make a family meal cheaper than KFC's $10 chicken bucket. That’s just bunk. [And a blogger proved KFC wrong.] If you buy a whole chicken and a bag of flour, you'll have dinner and you’ll have leftovers.
Is it greener to choose food that's local or organic?
It’s often not a direct choice where one is labeled local and one is labeled organic. I’m always looking for local and organic. When I go to the farmer’s market, I'll see who’s selling what. If their food is just local, I’ll still often buy it, but I'll ask questions of the seller, like “do you spray your berries?”. If I’m in a supermarket and can’t talk to the farmer, I’ll make sure it’s organic. Try to be in a place where you can talk to the person and connect to who's behind the food.
Many of us struggle with meal planning. What works for you?
We’ll often make a big pot of shell beans on the weekend, roast a chicken on Monday night, make some chicken stock after, and work through the week where leftovers becomes an integral part of the next meal. A lot of produce this time of year keeps well, like parsnips which can hang in the refrigerator for weeks. Greens or fish we use right away. In the summertime, we put up a lot for produce, and we’ll get extra blueberries to toss in the freezer and take ripe peaches to make canned peaches and peach jam. The bump up in the summer budget buys our groceries for winter. The agriculture that grows tomatoes in winter is based on human suffering. [a must-read story] When you're eating those tomatoes, you're eating that whole story. In August, we can them and support the local economy. So we're supporting farmers and it's an ecologically better choice.
What pairs perfectly with talking about homecooked meals: this 60 Minutes piece on Chez Panisse founder Alice Waters, a major voice in the Slow Food movement:
Slow Food president Josh Viertel also shared his own green ways:
1. three simple ways you've gone greener in your life
+ grow some of my food (grow dry beans because I like to eat them all winter)
+ don’t drive to work
+ in the summer, I take some extra time canning and freezing foods that last me through the winter
2. one green initiative you'd like to see enacted in your community
I’d
love to see edible public gardens the norm rather than the
exception. I’d also to see churches, synagogues, and fire departments open up their doors to host public meals as a way to do business and outreach. Any business
that serves the community should reach out in that way.
3. three ways you want to be greener this year
I’d like to fly less. I’d like to eat fish I catch. I’d like to spend more time cooking and eating with friends.
A big thank you to Josh + Slow Food USA! Find out more about Slow Food here.
{world of tomatoes photo print by woz art studio}
{green swap photograph by charlotte jenks lewis}
what's green swap? find out more here
