As Michael Pollan mentions in Food Rules: Avoid food products that make health claims. This is great advice because health claims made by processed food manufacturers are rarely what they seem. In reality, what we find is: (1) The claims often have minimal scientific basis or are grossly exaggerated; (2) The claims are often justified not because the actual primary product has the healthy nutrients but instead because nutrients are added during processing, which can mean the nutrients are not absorbed by your body as effectively as if those same nutrients are delivered from fresh fruits/vegetables in their natural state; and (3) The claims fail to mention that while the product may have some sort of healthy vitamins or antioxidants, any benefit is usually outweighed by the fact that the same product is also loaded with unhealthy amounts of sugar, fat and/or salt. The best course for your health is to simply eat an apple or some broccoli rather than relying on some sugary cereal or fat-laden salty snack that claims to deliver the same nutrients. The LA Times recently ran an interesting editorial regarding this situation and two very common products, Frosted Mini Wheats and Pom Wonderful. Check it out here and get the real story.
the Grow Biointensive System of growing food
John Jeavons has carried on the French biointensive system of agriculture that we love. I came across an expert trainer from Willits back in 2008 who gave me two of his books and a dvd that shaped how I look at growing food. I am not as big a proponent of double digging – it’s hard and disruptive to the soil biology, but if you need some food fast it may be a great first pass. Here are 13 great videos from the man himself.
When I was starting I wish someone had pointed me to Jeavons free text [here] and pointers to his videos: Have fun
Session 1: GROW BIOINTENSIVE: A Beginner’s Guide — Introduction – YouTube.
4. Bed prep 2
10. Saving Seeds
11. Choosing your crops part 1
Thinking Globally about Food
It is often challenging enough to think about our local food systems. Unfortunately, Globalization has occurred. Our food system is a web of connections that have provided lots of unhealthy food being pushed on everyone from poor children to rich sports fans. While any meaningful analysis of this situation is beyond the scope of our project it is still important that we become aware of food issues on the national and international level. Fortunately we have many great digital storytellers out there. A good place to start is with the BBC documentary on the Future of Food. [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
In the future we’ll provide links to other vaulable resources (films, books, articles, and websites).
Examples:
Food Inc.
Botany of Desire
The Economics of Happiness
Please contribute your favorites which we may share with the community.
New tool developed by UCLA to track urban agriculture
UCLA presented their report and an on-line tool at the August 2013 LA Food Policy meeting. The report tacks regulations across the 82 cities in LA County. Their on-line tool allows us to track School and Community Gardens, Farms and Nurseries in town.
The really cool thing about this is that the client is the UC Cooperative Extension, which includes us Master Gardeners, and we can distribute the burden of fleshing out the database and finding ways to plug this tool into the exciting and essential discussion of Urban Ag in Los Angeles County.
Parkway Edibles in LA? Will it ever happen?
It seems like this keeps going on forever. While some City Council members say they support parkway vegetable gardens, an actual ordinance change continues to elude us for two years now. And all the while city workers are going after those who plant edibles in their parkways with cease and desist orders and fines. Check out the July 30 LA Times story by Steve Lopez.
Leasing Abandoned City Lots, Six Young Farmers Cobble Together a Sustainable Urban Farming Enterprise
OK, so our amazing insight into distributed neighborhood farms is not exactly unique. It’s good to know we’re all pushing for a solution – hope you enjoy this story…
UC Berkeley’s Edible Education Lecture Series
I found this info on the resources page at EdibleSchoolyard.org – a site, a garden, a community that is very cool. I just wanted to share this to get everyone going…
This album contains lectures from the UC Berkeley Fall 2012 course Edible Education 103: Telling Stories About Food and Agriculture and Fall 2011 course Edible Education 101: The Rise and Future of the Food Movement, co-sponsored by the Edible Schoolyard Project.
The lecture series were held at UC Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism and College of Letters and Science in the Fall of 2011 and 2012.
The Fall 2011 course was co-instructed by Nikki Henderson, Executive Director, People’s Grocery, and Michael Pollan, Knight Journalism Professor, UC Berkeley. The 2012 course was instructed by Michael Pollan.
Lectures were led by experts in their field, who relate their discipline to the food system movement from a variety of perspectives.
Navigating the Supermarket Aisles With Michael Pollan and Michael Moss – YouTube
Exercise is not enough! It’s what we eat!
A new study published yesterday cites the fact that even with increased physical activity across the US, the obesity rate continues to rise. The key factor driving the obesity rise is poor diet and nutrition. (Like we didn’t already know that.) Not to say that we shouldn’t exercise more because there are many health benefits to physical activity. But if we want to lose weight in this country, we need to focus much more on diet. Read an overview of Population Health Metrics’ findings in this article from the Los Angeles Times: “We’re Exercising More But Still Fighting Obesity.”
Communities arising to address situation
Obviously we are big fans of our local food exchange Ripe Altadena which is a community and a technology platform to support the community and like minded commmunities. Cool idea…
Here is another similar community for farmers…
Dangerous Chemicals In Our Food – Banned In Other Countries
If the lack of nutritional value and the overabundance of salt, sugar and fat found in most of our processed foods aren’t enough to convince you to buy fresh unprocessed foods, then maybe this will be. Several chemicals found in many processed foods in the U.S. are actually banned in other countries because of significant health risks involved. BuzzFeed, in an article titled “8 Foods We Eat In The U.S. That Are Banned In Other Countries,” highlights the rampant use of toxic chemicals in food processing, including various food colorings, brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, azodicarbonamide and arsenic, among others. Scary names, scarier health impacts, including birth defects, cancer, organ damage, asthma, inhibition of nerve cell development and much more. Not only are many of these chemicals banned in other countries but in some cases you can actually go to prison for using them in food processing. For example, if you use azodicarbonamide as a food ingredient in Singapore, you could face up to 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Given that this chemical, found in most frozen foods, is used to make bleach and rubber yoga mats, I don’t think it really belongs in our food anyway. Nor does bromine, a chemical used to prevent carpets from catching on fire, or any of these other dangerous ingredients. BuzzFeed points to the recently published book “Rich Food Poor Food: The Ultimate Grocery Purchasing System” by Dr. Jayson Calton and nutritionist Mira Calton, for the original list.
Another very interesting green tv show “Growing a Greener World”
http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/episode201/ This episode recounts the most interesting people they met in season 1 and you can get to all the episodes and their related links… Cool.
Here is an interesting blog at Ning.com, about building a community by providing a series of lectures and other resources on building community.
Why We Eat What We Eat – And How We Got Here
Curiously almost no one in the US or the western world just eats what he or she needs. Most of us eat to address needs far beyond the requirements of our body; we even search out and consume stuff we know to be unhealthy.
It seems that back in the days when generations of people stayed close to home, that microorganisms in the soil that facilitate nutrient uptake in plants, the plants themselves, and the microorganisms in animals and us, co-evolved in a way that created a system that worked amazingly well – turning solar power and carbon dioxide into the energy that feeds life, and that we’ve found hundreds of ways to break this system and still continue in this way.
For thousands of generations humans grazed and ate off the land. Things began to change long ago with the advent of agriculture and animal husbandry. More food was easily and regularly available. Ultimately, the delicacies of sweet and fat, which previously had been consumed very lightly by humans simply because of their rarity, were now being consumed at greater rates.
More recently, things got much worse for several reasons. First, advances in agriculture dramatically increased the food supply, driven mostly by chemical fertilizers. After World War II, the chemical industry put to work its vast nitrogen production capacity making fertilizer, yielding much more food than we really needed.
Michael Pollan notes that around the same time our main source of food and nutritional direction, our culture (a.k.a. mom), started to lose control of the kitchen. The basic diet from most cultures, which seemed to work pretty well, consisted primarily of locally produced, fresh and non- or lightly processed foods. But processed food manufacturers, promising more and tastier food at lower prices, took over, bringing us the Western Diet, with its heavy consumption of processed and chemically laced food. Along with it came an unacceptable increase in many of the biggest health issues we face today. As Pollan contends, we don’t know enough about how our body uses the complex combinations of food each of us chooses to consume, and traditional diets, regardless of being protein, fat, or carbohydrate dominated, do not lead to many of these health issues.
Michael Moss, author of Salt Sugar Fat, points out that post WWII, more women in the workforce meant less time to prepare traditional healthy and nutritious meals at home. The processed food industry and fast food restaurants were there to help by providing greater convenience.
In the 1960s and 1970s, counter-productive federal government farm policies created a boon in many commodity crops including corn, wheat and soybeans. Subsidies on several key ingredients resulted in ridiculously low commodity prices. Food manufacturers found that by tinkering with formulations by adding ever-increasing amounts of inexpensive sweeteners, fats and salt, they could pump sales and profits. Most importantly, they could achieve the “bliss point” in their products, the point at which optimal levels of these low cost, nutritionally devoid ingredients could create addiction.
It’s also important to note that there are many sociological and psychological reasons we eat unwisely. HealthPages.org – Why We Eat What We Eat describes six major influencers of our food choices: social situations; economic situation; ethnic background; emotional state; eating from habit; and physical health. By becoming more aware of these influences, you can begin to control them.
All in all, this is not a pretty picture. We’re now faced with a massive public health crisis unlike anything the world has ever seen with the potential to bankrupt our economy. There’s much more to this story. Check out Michael Pollan and Michael Moss for fascinating reading on this subject.
Prince Charles attacks food industry in Langenburg Forum speech
Prince Charles was the inspiration for my use of Comfrey which has led to it’s appearing in gardens all over Pasadena. I’m a fan of his book “the elements of organic gardening” and now he is stepping up his critique of our unsustainable industrial food system – right on…
Prince Charles attacks food industry in Langenburg Forum speech.
Mediterranean Diet Wins Again
Yet another study is out confirming what most of us already know: The Mediterranean Diet is great for heart health. The study participants were given olive oil and tree nut mixtures as a primary focus. They were also given training on how to eat with generous amounts of olive, fruits, nuts, vegetables and cereals, a moderate amount of fish and poultry, and very little dairy, red meats, processed meats and sweets. The results: A 30% reduction in cardiac events versus the control group, who was only given advice on eating a low-fat diet.
Important to note is that the Mediterranean Diet is not low-fat. It’s actually moderate to high fat but it promotes consumption healthy fats and discourages consumption of unhealthy saturated fats like those found in meat. Additionally, the Mediterranean Diet is about more than just what we eat; it’s about “how we eat.” Instead of “forcing” our meals down in front of the TV, we should be sitting at the table for a relaxed meal with family or friends and no electronic devices. This allows you to eat mindfully, actually experiencing how great the food tastes and to know when you are full. And keep in mind that this diet is not about losing weight. It’s about better heart health. Check out more on the study here. Mediterranean Diet for Hearth Health Gains Momentum.
We are not alone – getting to know your inner Microbiome
As everyone who has attended one of my soil classes knows, I am enchanted by microorganisms and through understanding the relationship between them and plants I’ve reexamined my thoughts about them and me… Then comes my guy Michael Pollan ready to share the model that we are not alone. We are superorganisms… Here’s his article from the New York Times Magazine…
Say Hello to the 100 Trillion Bacteria That Make Up Your Microbiome – NYTimes.com.
Adventures in Eating Well Affordably
I made a very important life decision a couple of years ago. I wanted to eat better. Although my diet was okay, there were still too many industrially produced and ultra-processed food-like substances, too many added engineered sweeteners (HFCS and other sugars seem to be in almost everything even when they shouldn’t be – just check out your pasta sauce or bread), too much non-organic produce, too much tainted animal product, and most certainly too much nutritionally degraded long-distance produce from South America, Australia and points unknown. So I decided to gradually transition as much as I could toward healthier, more sustainably produced and locally grown foods. Sounds great, doesn’t it?
Well, that was all fine and good until I really started digging in. It was at that point I realized this was going to be expensive. How was I going to be able to afford all this? I first took a look at my overall monthly spending across everything. Wow! Shocking! When I finally recovered from that seizure, I found a lot of easy ways to save a bunch – e.g. dropping the land-line, renegotiating cable TV, Internet and newspaper subscription rates, etc.
But we’re more concerned here about how to get good food more affordably. So my mission over the next year will be to figure this all out. I’m a little nervous about this. It will be a lot of experimenting, trial and error, maybe even a mild case food poisoning. I’ll be documenting my adventures here on the Pasadena Learning Gardens website so you guys can benefit from what I’m doing, learn from my mistakes, and hopefully improve your health and your pocketbook at the same time.
My plan will involve three main strategies:
- Finding the right source – Good quality food at a good price.
- Buying in a collective.
- Producing food myself.
So for starters, I want to talk about store-bought foods that may seem healthy and cheap but really aren’t. I first looked at some of the stuff I was buying regularly at the store and calculated how much it was costing me per serving. That’s when I realized how expensive a lot of it actually is. Case in point: Iced Green Tea. I love iced tea, especially green iced tea. I used to buy about four 33.8 oz. bottles of Trader Joe’s Unsweetened Green Iced Tea per week, preservatives and all, for $1.49 each. (Don’t get me wrong – this TJ’s tea is pretty good from a health and cost perspective versus most of the competition, but I can do better.) I typically get about three servings per bottle and I drink at least two servings per day. So at $0.50 per serving, I was spending $1 per day or $30 per month on green iced tea.
Iced Green Tea
On a trip to 99 Ranch Market, I took a look at the basic green tea in bags like the kind you get at Chinese restaurants. They had regular green and Jasmine green for $3.29 for 100 bags (I think there was one that was even cheaper). After tasting a few kinds, I settled on the Jasmine green, which tastes great and I don’t need to use any sweetener. I brew about one gallon each week (slightly less than the amount in the four bottles per week I used of the TJ’s stuff, which was my weekly addiction) using eight tea bags per gallon. And I do it directly in the refrigerator so no need for hot water. (I let it brew overnight and it tastes great.) The tea bags alone cost about $0.28 per gallon while LA DWP charges me about half a cent for the water. The water filter on my faucet maybe runs another penny or so per gallon in terms of cartridge costs. Total Cost: somewhere around $0.30 per gallon for my green tea, or less than $0.03 per serving – versus $0.50 with the premade stuff. So I turned a $30 per month habit into one that runs less than $2 per month. And I avoid the preservatives.
Some additional thoughts if you’re going to do this on a regular basis:
- Avoid sun-brewed tea. It can easily harbor bacteria and you really only can store it a day or two.
- For regular brewed tea, I’ve read it can last in the refrigerator in an airtight container as long as two weeks but more often I read that it lasts 4 – 5 days before turning and starting to taste stale. Note that this is if the tea is unsweetened. If it’s sweetened, much shorter, maybe a day or two at the most. If you put a sprig of fresh mint into the water while it’s brewing, it can last a day or two longer. And it will also keep longer if you put it in the fridge immediately after making it. The less time any food spends at room temperature, the better.
- I actually brew it in the refrigerator thus no hot water. I brew it overnight. I’ve read that it can last about 3 – 4 days so I brew about 2/3 of a gallon at a time.
- Make sure to clean your tea jug or bottle regularly with soap and hot water – or run it through the dishwasher.
- There are many great ways to flavor or sweeten your tea. Check out www.theyummylife.com/Flavored_Iced_Tea_Recipes for some great ideas. But remember, when you sweeten it the shelf life will be shorter.
So try out green iced tea for starters. It’s really easy. And check back next week. It will be even more ambitious. We’re going to try fermenting.
Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World Is a Seed by Abby Quillen — YES! Magazine
Another great article on the deep benefits of seed saving. It’s time for us to have a seed bank…
The Seed Underground: A Growing Revolution to Save Food
via Why the Most Powerful Thing in the World Is a Seed by Abby Quillen — YES! Magazine.
My Medicine Cabinet
via My Medicine Cabinet.
Pasadena Learning Gardens 