While we're all very familiar with the sustainable agriculture and farm-to-table movements, sustainable seafood has gotten lost in the shuffle. With all the sushi Americans consume each year, you'd think there would be more concern for the history of how sashimi gets to your table and what's done to the environment in the process. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, "Sustainable seafood is from sources, either fished or farmed, that can maintain or increase production into the long-term without jeopardizing the affected ecosystems." It's easy to go uninformed about your fish if you don't ask questions. Most sushi restaurants don't provide specific origins, and asking a chef can be intimidating but might be the only way...
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This past week the New York Times had an interesting interview with a local Ohio grocer who offered his tips on buying high-quality food on the cheap. His tips tended toward the obvious, the silly, and the self-serving: Buying prewashed and premade food because we'll waste less doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. But in these days of shrinking buying power, rapidly rising food prices, and economic insecurity, which we've all felt in one way or another, it does make sense for all of us to think about saving money while eating right and doing right. I write this knowing full well that absolute costs of food are pretty difficult to figure out, but we've...
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The Seattle Post-Intelligencer's Hsiao-Ching Chou talks to Greg Conner, the founder of Eat Local, an area company dedicated to providing frozen microwavable meals made with organic, sustainably-raised seasonal produce and meats that all come from within a few hundred mile radius of the city, cooked in small batches every day for maximum freshness. "The cost runs from about $7 for a single portion to $55 for an eight-person entree. "We're not the cheapest," Conner acknowledges. "But we know the provenance of the food. You pay for the safety in your food and you're having less impact on the environment." [via The Food Section]...
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A couple in Manhattan is living "No Impact" for a year, which means eating only organic food grown within a 250-mile radius of Manhattan, composting in their apartment, and no carbon-fueled transportation. Oh, and did I mention no paper, and that includes the toilet variety? They've been making vinegar at home from fruit scraps, and shopping at the Union Square Greenmarket. On one hand, Manhattan seems like a great place to do attempt this experiment. You can walk to so many places, or use a scooter or skateboard or roller blades. On the other hand, eschewing elevators means walking 115 flights of stairs in one day, which is what one participate estimates he did! The idealist in me loves to...
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Meg Wilcox of the Boston Globe, on what makes a green restaurant green: "To qualify for green certification, a restaurant must recycle waste, be styrofoam-free, complete four environmental steps, and commit to four additional steps each year, says Michael Oshman, founder and director of the nonprofit Green Restaurant Association. "The key is completing additional steps each year," he says, "which could include energy or water conservation measures, elimination of toxic cleaners, sustainable food choices, using clean power, and others." More than 300 restaurants nationally have been certified -- bakeries, pizzerias, and luxurious dining rooms." Eight Boston restaurants are certified, most are upscale and no, they don't have to be vegan or even vegetarian to qualify, just committed to the cause;...
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