Eating Sustainably

There are many ways to make our food choices more sustainable, from eating organic to buying local to embracing the values of the Slow Food Movement. More information can be found at the following:

  • USDA organic certification guidelines: usda.gov/organic.certification
  • Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser, Perennial, New York, 2001
  • Organic Manifesto: How Organic Farming Can Heal Our Planet, Feed the World, and Keep Us Safe, Maria Rodale, Rodale, 2010
  • The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture, Wendell Berry, Sierra Club Books, 1977 (with subsequent editions)
  • Food Inc., documentary on the industrial agriculture/food system, produced by Robert Kenner, 2008
  • The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, Michael Pollan, Penguin Books, 2007
  • Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) tools: National Tap Water Database; Updated Water Filter Buying Guide; Farm Subsidy Data Base; Farming and the Environment; and Shoppers’ Guide to Pesticides in Produce (includes the “Dirty Dozen” list)
  • localharvest.org helps users locate local and organic food sources.
  • nrdc.org/eatlocal is a local food guide.
  • https://www.nrdc.org/issues/local-food-systems provides information about the importance of local and organic food production and advocates for positive change.
  • slowfoodusa.org is the official site of the U.S. Slow Food Movement.
  • Edible Wild Plants: Eastern/Central North America (Peterson Field Guides), Lee Allen Peterson and Roger Tory Peterson, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1999
  • The Garden Primer: The Completely Revised Gardener’s Bible, Barbara Damrosch, guide to organic gardening, Workman Publishing Company, New York, 2008
  • Well-Preserved: Recipes and Techniques for Putting Up Small Batches of Seasonal Foods, Eugenia Bone, Clarkson Potter, 2009
  • The Rodale Book of Composting: Easy Methods for Every Gardener, Grace Gershuny, Rodale Books, 1992
  • Introduction to Permaculture, 2nd revised edition, Bill Mollison, Ten Speed Press, 1997
  • Permaculture One: A Perennial Agriculture for Human Settlements, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, International Tree Crop Institute, USA, 1981
  • Fallen Fruit, fallenfruit.org, plants fruit trees in public spaces (commons) to provide free food and encourage people to reimagine the idea of community.
  • sharedearth.com connects gardeners with and without a plot of land.
  • grocer.coop and www.fci.coop (the Food Co-Op Initiative) provide information on starting a food coop.
  • The Seafood Watch app, seafoodwatch.org, from Monterey Bay Aquarium, provides updates on safe, sustainable seafood.
  • https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water provides information about the safety of drinking water.
  • ampleharvest.com helps us locate opportunities to donate extra food from our gardens.

Prepared Meals

Herbs

Organizations that support sustainable agriculture

Sustainable agriculture volunteer opportunities

  • Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms, www.wwoofusa.org, a San Francisco-based non-profit that connects volunteers interested in learning about sustainable agriculture with organic farms in the U.S. and 50 other countries.

 

Do you know of other great resources ? Let me know and I’ll be glad to add them.