This Pretty Package of Paper is Gonna be Tedious...

And the process beings. I have been looking for recipes online and began formatting my project. Not going to lie, I am really excited about doing this project because when I went home I bought a bunch of pretty construction paper, stickers, and pretty paper for my front cover. I’m not going hard core for Brian or anything… Nope not at all! J

Looking for inspiration and recipes online actually is a VERY tedious job. I sat on my computer for a solid 2 hours and I only got though finding and organizing my recipes for spring. If this isn’t dedication in the name of Brian Ellis I don’t know what is. Secretly though, I am thoroughly enjoying it. I cannot wait to have a complete sustainable menu for spring, summer, fall, and winter. I am definitely going to try out some of these recipes this summer.

The more I research the more readily available I realize it is to find recipes that are applicable to a sustainable diet. We do not realize the amount of canned and processed foods that contribute to many recipes, but by substituting those out for fresh vegetables (such as canned tomatoes vs. fresh tomatoes) we can successfully cook sustainably. By focusing recipes around seasonal produce, one can easily find recipes which have more similar seasonal ingredients. I came to find that often times Italian or Mediterranean fused recipes call for a lot more fresh vegetables than those of the Asian culture for example. There are a lot more packaged sauces that are commonly used in Asian food ( I have definitely seen it in my mom’s cooking), in comparison to Mediterranean food which relies on the flavors of the fresh ingredients to give life to a recipe.

I was really enthusiastic about cooking before, but now I am even more excited about having the opportunity to cook. There are so many alternatives to eating unsustainably, and frankly I’m sure the food tastes and is A LOT better for you too.

My goal now that my cookbook recipes are basically all orderly, I can begin preparing what I am going to say for my presentation, and paste all the pages on the pretty paper I bought! Oh man, this brings me back to the days of arts and crafts. I’m excited! J

Omni-Dilemma for you, Brian

It’s sad. I went on Brian’s blog to see if he had left anything prior to the accident about what to write about on Omnivore’s dilemma, and it says “too be announced”….. I guess that just means I get to run rampant and wild about Pollan! Parttttayyyyyy.

I think what I enjoyed most about this book was how balanced Pollan’s argument was. I do not think the way in which we will make a change with citizens of the United States about their eating habits, is by criticizing and giving an ultimatum. Not everyone is willing to give up their meat, or become a vegan. That simply is an unrealistic goal. I feel like Pollan strives to address every side of the argument about the food industry making this book a good read for any person, of any view point.

I have to say my favorite concept of the book is how Salatin’s method for slaughtering chickens is seemed uncleanly by the Feds, but in reality Salatin is incredibly right: the clean air is the best means for slaughtering animals. The fact that Pollan was unable to even enter a slaughter floor goes to show how unethical and dirty it is. I can’t even imagine the stench or grotesque pictures one would encounter by going onto that floor.

Reading this book simply opened up my eyes to a new level of corruption within American society. While, and after reading OD, all I could say was how crappy the United States and how corrupt we are. However, I needed to remember and take a few steps back. Each society has their own issues and think of it this way: would you rather be starving because there is a lack of food availability like all those who suffer in places like Darfur, or would you rather live in this OBESE society? Think about that and don’t tell me there is something wrong with this picture, and some of the radical ideas of Americans. Don’t get me wrong, I am COMPLETELY acknowledge that yes there is an issue in the United States with our food industry, but thought I’d be like Brian and try to look at an argument from all sides. He was the one to always do that after all…

What is this? No fresh ingredients in my Chewy Bar? BLASPHEMY!

Most of the time when we look at the ingredients on the boxes of the food we eat, there are a bunch of words that you probably don’t even understand within the list of ingredients. All of these crazy names for what is put into our food just makes everything even more clear: if we simply use fresh ingredients in the foods we cook, we can achieve sustainable cooking.

I went home over Mother’s Day weekend, and was able to have access to another bookstore besides Ackerman. I went in there and sat down and basically got lost in the collection of Alice Waters cookbooks at the Borders in my hometown. As I was browsing through her cookbook of recipes for her restaurant Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, the reoccurring theme of the cookbook was fresh ingredients. Although I have many recipes in mind for my cookbook, one thing I constantly have to keep in mind is the aspect of fresh ingredients. We don’t realize the extensiveness of processed foods infiltrating classic recipes such as marshmallows on our yams during Thanksgiving, or graham crackers for our piecrusts. Therefore, all of the recipes I have been looking at for inspiration, I must take into consideration the aspect of almost ALL fresh ingredients, and surprisingly its a lot harder than it seems.

I also had the opportunity this weekend to go to the Mountain View Farmer’s Market. It is definitely a lot larger than the one in Westwood, and it was a lot of fun walking around. There was an array of fresh vegetables, meats, and nuts. I never realized that you could buy meat at farmers markets. I got there around 12 pm and by that time, all of the meat and eggs from the main stand were all sold out. The meat and eggs were grown on a purely grass fed, local farm, which was exactly what is discussed in Omnivore’s Dilemma as a sustainable source of meat. I realized that I want meat in my cookbook. I am not a vegetarian, and do not plan to be one. There are a lot of people, like me, who do not want to give up meat, but also recognized the importance of eating sustainably. Therefore, I think it would augment the number of people joining the sustainable movement, if they don’t feel like they need to change all that they eat by keeping meat as a constant.

Coincidentally enough, this week’s Omnivores Dilemma reading discussed the seasonality of meats. I never realized that meat also has a season. But you all will have to wait for my presentation to see how I incorporate Polan’s seasonality of meats into my cookbook.

At the beginning of my cookbook, I plan to include go into depth about the discussion of where to get sustainable ingredients. This is not completely clear cut because places like Whole Foods provide a significant amount of sustainable alternatives, but at the same time fails to provide complete sustainable products such as their shipping in of produce from all around the world.

My goal for the end of this next week is to confirm my recipes so I can get started on the concrete version of my cookbook. I even was able to run to Michael’s this weekend to gather art supplies like paper and stickers to make my seriously GREEN cookbook. (Pun intended) J

Project Update! Is Whole Foods actually sustainable?

Last week seen in my previous blog, I discussed the importance of taking into account seasonality of produce used in cooking products. I mentioned that I wanted to look into what types of produce was grown in California, and specifically organic produce, but I could not find a condensed list online about all of the types of produce grown in California.

Another probing question, which I had asked last week, was regarding what qualifies meat as sustainable. Pollan discusses in his writing this contradictory idea of “organic” from places like Whole Foods, so I thought I would dig into it a bit deeper. I went online and looked around their website to see if this idea of a capitalistic approach to “going green” really is contradictory toward the cause, and I was proven wrong. I learned from the website that Whole Foods is trying their best to maintain sustainable produce, and at least is providing the convenience to help us lazy Americans change our eating habits.

I learned that they supported sustainable seafood. Whole Foods understands that there are still some faults in their courses of action toward sustainability but they are slowly fixing them as they are discovered. There is a certification called Marine Stewardship Council certification which checks to make sure the fisheries follow the following criteria: 1) that the fishery is conducted in a way that the fish can be replenished naturally and does not kill other species in the farming practices 2) the fishery operates to ensure health and diversity of the marine ecosystem which it is in and 3) the fishery respects local, national, and international laws and regulations. Basically, if a seafood packaging has a Marine Stewardship Council sticker on it, it means it is harvested through sustainable practices. Whole Foods actually carries Alaskan Salmon with this sustainable sticker on it, which is the first and largest fishery to be certified in the United States.

Not only does Whole Foods provide sustainable fish, but also I learned that they buy a significant amount of their produce from local farms. For example, the Whole Foods I shop at in my hometown, has a significant amount of its produce brought in from the Santa Cruz county, one in particular Watsonville organic farms.

Although Whole Foods is not perfect, it is the closes resource many of us have besides local farmer’s markets to buy produce. However, all 4 of the Santa Monica farmer’s markets are considered CFM’s, Certified Farmer’s Markets. This means that they:

1) must consist of farmers who posses a current Certified Producer’s Certificate issued to them by their county’s agricultural commissioner

2) must be non-profit entities, sponsored by the farmers themselves, a non-profit organization or a municipality

3) must be grown and made in California to ensure that CFMs continue to exist for the benefit of the communities they serve.

Finding sustainable meat however is a lot more difficult. Ultimately animals rose off of grass rather than the corn fed animals is the closest way we can eat sustainable meat. This means that the animals are not injected with additives or hormones to speed up the growth process, as wekk. I found a website http://www.eatwild.com/products/california.html that provides names of farms which have their meat, eggs, and dairy products all made from animals that “eat wild”. The downfall to this is because they are such small farms, one must have it shipped to the household, which ultimately still does not make it completely sustainable. However, eating “wild” meat products again leads us one step closer to eating sustainable. We can either choose this method of healthy grass fed animals with transport or we can continue contributing to unhealthy CAFOs that are also transported. You choose.

After this week, I feel that I have enough information to successfully say that I can provide insight into resources to buy sustainable products, and begin to formulate recipes with as many fresh ingredients as possible. I would like to go to one of the farmer’s markets again however and see what specific types of produce they may have. I know on Wednesday there is one in Westwood I would like to check out, and perhaps I can even make my way to Santa Monica that day too for their farmer’s market! The one in Westwood is Wednesday from 2 – 7 on Broxton. Everyone should go!

Put down the Blueberry Pie because GUESS WHAT? IT'S NOT SEASONAL RIGHT NOW

Earlier on this week, I ventured to the Ackerman bookstore trying to look for more information on sustainable eating and cooking. However sadly to my dismay, I found that the bookstore lacked books in that department, except for one. One little lonesome book on the shelf. Not going to lie, I was a bit disappointed especially since we are on a college campus with thousands of kids who actually have the time to care about things like this, and implement it into their lives unlike many working adults who look for efficiency and time in cooking. The least I can say about going to the bookstore is that I tried.

That one book that Ackerman provided however did give some inspiration. Instead of organizing my cookbook off of types of food (entrees, desserts, appetizers), I thought it would be more practical for a sustainable cookbook to be organized around seasonality. Knowing this now, I decided to switch and have each section based off seasons: having recipes that include ingredients that are from seasonal produce.

I looked up online different seasonal produce sites. Each had slightly different ways of tackling this. Seasonality all depends on where you are located. Much of our produce is not grown locally and there are even differences between northern and southern California. The difficulty I feel in this project is finding produce which is grown in California, so that it does not have to travel very far from farm to kitchen: this is key to sustainability. Finding the recipes will not be the difficult task, but for next week I want to research more about the types of produce we have in California and the types of organic farms that grow this produce, to scale down my ingredients even further. After all, features necessary for sustainable cooking are: organic, in season, not processed, locally grown, healthy, and minimal packaging. Implementing fresh ingredients from produce grown straight from California and buying that produce from local farmer’s markets or produce marts will drastically change the sustainability of cooking.

Already looking at the different seasons below and some seasonal fruits and vegetables from these seasons has put some delicious ideas for recipes in my head. I can’t wait too look up recipes soon, which are based around the produce such as berries for a pie in summer and an arugala salad in the spring.

P.s. Although I want to use as little meat and dairy as possible. When I figure out the types of recipes I want to use, I will need to incorporate how sustainable the meat and dairy is too, by looking at where it is from and how the animals are raised. Also, how sustainable is tofu? These are questions I will be researching into in weeks to come. Keep a look out! For now enjoy looking at seasonal produce! J

· Spring- Apricots, Artichokes, Arugala, Asparagus, Beets, Cardoons, Carrots, Chard and other greens, Cherries, Fava beans, Fennel, Fiddle heads, Garlic scrapes/ Green garlic, grapefruit, Green onions/Scallions, Greens, Kiwis, Kumquats, Leeks, Lemons, Lettuce, Mint, Morels Nettles, Navel Oranges, Parsley, Pea Greens, Peas, Radishes, Rhubarb, Spinach, Spring Onions, Strawberries, Sweet Onions, Strawberries, Sweet Onions, Turn-ups

· Summer- Apples, Apricots, Avocados, Basil, Bell Peppers/ Sweet Peppers, Beets, Blackberries, Blueberries, Boysenberries, Cantaloupes, Carrots, Chard, Cherries, Chiles, Cilantro, Corn, Cucumbers, Eggplant, Fennel, Figs, Garlic, Gooseberries, Grapes, Green beans, Green Onions, Herbs, Huckleberries, Lemongrass, Lettuce, Limes, Mangoes, Marionberries, Melons, Nectarines, Okra, Onions, Peaches, Peas, Peppers, Plums, Potatoes, Radicchio, Radishes, Raspberries, Rhubarb, Shlling beans, Spinach, Springs onions, Strawberries Sweet Onions, Tomatillos, Tomatoes, Watermelons, Zucchini & other Summer Squash, Zucchini Blossoms

· Fall – Apples, Artichokes, Arugala, Beets, Belgian Endive, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac/Celery root, Celery, Chard, Chicories, Chiles, Cranberries, Curly Endive, Edamame, Eggplant, Escarole, Fennel, Figs, Garlic, Grapes, Green beans, Green onions/ Scallions, Herbs, Horseradish, Jerusalem artichokes/Sunchokes, Kale, Kohirabi, Leeks, Lemongrass, Lettuce, Limes, Mushrooms, Okra, Onions, Parsnips, Pears, Peppers, Persimmons, Pomegranates, Potatoes, Pumpkins, Radishes, Shallots, Shelling beans, Spinach, Sweet potatoes, Tomatillos, Turnips, Winter squash

· Winter – Beets, Belgian Endive, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, Cardoons, Carrots, Cauliflower, Celeriac/Celery root, Celery, Chicories, Clementines, Curley Endive, Fennel, Grapefruit, Herbs, Horseradish, Kale, Kiwis, Kumquats, Leeks, Lemons, Mandarins, Onions (storage), Oranges, Parsnips, Pears, Persimmons, Pommelos, Potatoes, Radicchio, Radishes, Rutabagas (yellow turnips), Satsumas, Sweet potatoes, Tangerines, Treviso, Turnips, Winter squash.

· http://www.cuesa.org/seasonality/charts/vegetable.php

· http://www.seasonalchef.com/cropchart2.htm

http://localfoods.about.com/od/finduselocalfoods/a/natlseason.htm

So.... I'm basically kinda killing the planet....

In order to use the formulas given by Merkel in Radical Simplicity, I multiplied my numbers used by 4 to give me my approximate monthly totals. At first when I calculated my total, I had an extremely high number in comparison to the average, and I thought to myself, “Wow, and I thought I was green....” Not going to lie, it stabbed me right (according to Merkel) in my not so much, ecofriendly heart. But thankfully, after recalculating, I realized that my ecological footprint was actually 16.135 acres per person in comparison to the average US Ecological Footprint of 24 acres per person. This made a lot more sense, especially since here at UCLA, I basically don’t use any mode of transportation, don’t have control over almost any goods and services, and/or my stocks.

To my surprise the top two categories which have the highest ecological footprint are my food and stocks. (19,448.8 food monthly total, and 262,122.2 stocks monthly total) I feel that eating from the dining halls its difficult to have control over the types of food you ingest. This footprint calculation is also not taking into consideration the organic options that I eat from the dining halls, or any other sort of sustainable action the dining hall may try to implement into their services. However, even if I did take the most sustainable actions possible for a student eating from the dining hall, I still would have to realize that even the smallest items like beans or ice cream have significant ecological footprints. Some short term goals for the way I eat, are that I am going to try to steer away from packaged foods such as cereal, which must be transported long distances and therefore, have a significant ecological footprint. I eat way to many packaged goods, so by the end of the quarter I hope to cut out some of my current “staple” foods, like cereal and replace them with more sustainable products. Meat plays the largest part in my food footprint, so my medium goal is to slowly remove meat from my diet to only a couple times per week. By limiting my intake of meat, my food footprint will lower dramatically. Although I cannot completely convert to being a vegetarian (as much as I would like to), when I am out of the dorms and living on my own, I plan to buy from local produce markets (such as farmer’s markets), buy in season, and have my own personal garden in my backyard. Each of these measures will help me to lower my food footprint which is not supported by local grocery stores.

Until I did this project, I never even realized that items such as furniture and appliances have such dramatic affects on footprints. It makes you realize how there are so many things we take advantage of in our modern lifestyles. My clothing, computer, and even desk I am typing on as we speak, all drastically heightened my footprint. Items such as my computer or printer cannot be removed from my lifestyle simply because I am a student, and they are necessities. Therefore for a short term goal, I can try to lessen my amount of clothes, shop from used clothing shops and/or American Apparel which each tackle different aspects of what contributes to the square yards of the stocks footprint. As a medium goal, I would like to lessen even further plastic and paper’s usage in my life. I have cut out a lot of plastics and paper, but if I continuously pay attention to the amount of paper and plastic is being used in everyday products, I can slowly cut it out almost all together. When I am older, in my long term goals, I would like to invest in furniture and appliances that are eco-friendly in my house. I feel that is the only way to try to lower this footprint without becoming a forest fairy like Merkel and migrating to a hut out in the wilderness. That, however, is not going to happen for me, so in the mean time, I will wait until I am older and try to install technology that is as efficient as it gets.

Measuring my Ecological Footprint has definitely gave me insight into the type of damage my lifestyle is putting on the planet. According to Merkel, it would take 92.14 Earths, if everyone lived like me. I don’t know about you, but that’s A LOT of Earths. By the end of the quarter, I would like to alter the way I eat as much as possible in the confinements of the dining hall by limiting myself to cereal (which technically isn’t even healthy for you) and any sort of packaged food (like those little stupid candies that always tempt me as I walk out of the dining hall). Watching over my trash and recyclables will also greatly lower my footprint. I feel the best I can do right now, is control what I can about my life (my trash and somewhat my food), and until I am living on my own...that is the best I can do for you, Merkel.

Project Planning!

For my project, I thought it would be a great idea to do a sustainability cookbook. I don’t know if everyone has started reading Omnivores Dilemma, but Pollan addresses the great struggle in the American culture between making healthy, sustainable choices for our bodies versus the convenient, unsustainable fast food culture. Little do people realize that there are an array of resources available to us for which that many to do not take advantage of in food choices. To put it lightly, Americans are just lazy bums. We don’t want to take the initiative to find ways to integrate new, sustainable ways of cooking and eating, so instead we turn to the easy fast food restaurants always readily available at the palm of our hands. This is where I come in however: my cookbook’s purpose is to teach and inspire those who want to change their ways of eating to become more sustainable, but do not know where to begin.

This week I have had a planning week. I have basically been mapping out how the cookbook is going to be formated by gathering ideas and taking in considerations from Brian. Before I begin actually providing recipes in the cook book, I am going to give a little background info. Sustainable versus Non-sustainable cooking. What does that even mean? Well, that my friend, you will have to wait and read when you look at the first pages of my cookbook. What to eat and where to get it are two major questions to maintain a sustainable diet. Where to get the food will be provided in background info, and what to eat and how to prepare it falls under the category of the recipes.

Within the recipe section, there will be a variety of recipes from snacks, appetizers, main dishes, salads and desserts. On the back of each recipe, there will most likely be a more common recipe and show how the different ingredients of that common recipe are unsustainable compared to the parallel recipe on the front of the page. We never realize all the different ingredients that go into the food that we eat. Each individual ingredient however, can either be sustainable or unsustainable, so by recognizing the multilayered aspect of sustainable eating, we can begin to slowly change little ingredients on our diets to become more sustainable.

Truthfully, I am a bit of a health nut myself and am really excited to gather more information on how I can change the way I eat to strive toward sustainability. But, while were waiting for my sustainable cook book to be available and ready to present, I vote that everyone goes out and buys a reusable water bottle. :)