Groxie

For a few days there, all I read about on any of the environmental news sites was Michael Pollan, the author of Omnivore’s Dilemma. I bought into the hype and bought the book—my first new hardcover book purchase in years.

When I started reading OD, I was already well convinced of the benefits of eating locally and organically. I was eating mostly a vegetarian diet comprised of non-processed food. I didn’t eat much junk food, and I ate plenty of fruits and veggies. I was buying organic when I could afford it, and I was avoiding buying items that contained high fructose corn syrup. Basically, I was under the impression that I was doing a pretty fine job of being good to myself and the planet. I was wrong.

What Pollan taught me

Where your food comes from is just as important as what your food is. For me in Virginia this means I can’t just pat myself on the back for having a cart full of lovely fruits and veggies if they all came from Chile, Argentina, and California. If your food travels a great distance to get to you, you should consider its cost not only in dollars, but in natural non-renewable resources. Not only do the trucks need gas, but think about the packaging and what kind of energy it takes to refrigerate your produce on its journey. Plus, those “fresh” fruits and veggies aren’t really when they’ve been traveling for days.

How was your food was grown or raised matters. I was already in step with this, but Pollan opened my eyes to the idea of the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) and the industrial organic farm. I never would have imagined that organic milk could come from cows who never see, much less eat, grass! Although I don’t eat meat right now, I appreciated Pollan’s perspective on the differences between eating animals that have lived as they were meant to and animals that are shoved into pens, force—fed antibiotics, and treated like machinery until they are killed.

How you choose to eat is meaningful. We’ve always known that a nice long dinner with friends is vastly superior to a pack of fries scarfed down on the road. But I hadn’t given enough thought to how marginalized daily food consumption had become. I know we are working longer hours so convenience and speed are important, but this is what we put into our bodies to sustain ourselves, not to mention that it has the capacity to give enormous pleasure. It’s ok for us to spend more time thinking about, preparing, and enjoying our food!

How I’ve changed the way I do things

I’ve been checking labels for a long time, but now I check up on produce, too. It’s not always easy to find the information, but some grocery stores like Whole Foods do a pretty good job of providing that info. Also, if you head to a local farmer’s market they can tell you exactly where everything comes from.

I know the companies I can trust. Check out Organic Consumers. It’s a great place to get started. I am constantly learning about who to trust from their site—it’s full of research, news, and ways to take action. I always buy Organic Valley over Horizon or Aurora because Organic Valley is a collective of small farms. Even when I’m not buying locally I can still support the family farm somewhere else.

The main thing Pollan accomplished is this: everything that enters my body does so only with thought as to what it is and where it came from. Sometimes I decide I want the tasty organic chocolate so much that I don’t care that it is shipped from Belize. Other times I decide that I can make some homemade tea rather than pick up a soda at the store with packaging that I would only have to recycle or throw away later.

If you’re sorta intrigued but not ready to commit, you can read the first chapter of the book online. Pollan’s a lot more eloquent than I am.