ecoyear

The question arises, especially when you come down to these later steps, about what it means to make exceptions and exemptions.

The way I see it right now, it is better to do as much something as possible than to throw in the towel because you can't stay away from oranges, for example. It is kind of like dieting - so OK, you had ice cream today, but you don't give up on your diet entirely! You dust yourself off and pick up again tomorrow where you left off.

The difference between a 100-mile diet and a weight-loss diet is that unless you sustain your weight loss choices daily and for many weeks, the pounds won't come off. In contrast, each 100-mile choice you make, such as reaching for local potatoes at Whole Foods, for exammple, instead of the cheaper Idaho potatoes, has several repercussions: you vote for the item that has emitted less carbon, you support the local economy, you influence the buying patterns of Whole Foods, and you may even get a fresher product with more nutrition.

We don't know, at this time, what level of carbon emission would save the Earth. It is probably less than we think. We do all have to do more than we are doing. And we have to talk to each other about it, because there is nothing worse than that sense of futility that comes from depriving yourself for nothing.

So which exceptions should you choose?

I have a sense that (just as for health or weight loss) making stepwise changes in the right direction that you can sustain "forever" is the right way to go. Sure you could eat 100% local for a week. You'd get hungry, you'd think "this is for the birds!", you'd eat too much beef, and if you picked your month right, you wouldn't really miss anything crucial.

But if you make changes this month, such as eating only market vegetables, then keep it up next month because it was fun and delicious, and the month after that because you know the farmers depend on you, etc... then eventually the food system will change. And if then next month, you find a source of local oats, barley, millet and buckwheat, and cut back on rice by 80%, again you have changed Big Agriculture, and you have impacted the forces that would have us all eat genetically modified corn and soy in three hundred different forms.

This is what I am doing: I am using as exceptions the foods that allow me to drastically cut down on processed foods, out-of-season foods, and non-local foods. For example, peanut butter is how my picky 6 year old deals with the fact that he can't/won't fill up on asparagus, or quiche, or onion tart... The California-fruit-of-the-month (strawberries in May, cherries in June) is how we deal with the fact that I have cut back on boxed breakfast cereals drastically (75% or so). Then there are a host of non-local products I still buy because I don't have my act together (cooking oil, bread, sliced turkey, California leeks, yogurt, popsicles...). These are things I could learn to do without, get better at baking myself, spend more time cooking and slicing, grow myself, and make myself - it makes me dizzy just to think about it! Nevertheless, it is happening little by little.

But most importantly is what I do - each summer week, I give $50 to Cure Farm in vegetable and fruit shares, plus eggs, and another $50 to market vendors on Saturdays. That's easily the majority of our food dollars spent in Boulder County. This is so powerful that if everyone in Boulder made the same decision, we would simply run out of food. Hah! If that doesn't preserve farmland and help the local economy, I don't know what would!

There comes a time in August and September where it may be all you can do to freeze vegetables before they spoil. One trick, for example, is to freeze tomatoes whole until you can get to canning tomato sauce.

Another trick is to take some vacation one day per week - if you work outside the home - or otherwise planning to spend a good part of one day each week preserving food for the winter. The main advantage of this, other than preserving the tastes and memories of summer, and keeping your food local, is that you do "cook ahead", in a sense, canning or freezing foods in a way that will simplify your life in winter - pesto, tomato sauce, and in some cases whole dinners.

One disadvantage of spending time in the kitchen in August and September is that it gets really hot in there... I have heard of folks canning using an outdoor setup, and also people using a solar food dehydrator. I'm afraid this is a topic where I am getting ahead of myself, because I really haven't tried it. I still find it daunting, trying to get dinner on the table and actually trying to fit in food preservation simultaneously. However, I can see that it would get easier with practice - for example, I could can a small batch aa I am sauteing vegetables for dinner - it's just that canning is so new it requires my full attention at thie time. Meanwhile, the strawberry-rhubarb jam I did make sits in the refrigerator where it withstands daily assaults from the kids.

Since we have covered most of the main food groups, we turn our attention to what to do when we really need something that is not available fresh locally.

The Bon Appetit website does give some guidelines as to what to avoid in terms of carbon impact:
- food flown in
- food grown in a (local or not) heated greenhouse
- processed food
- packaged food

The answer may be to have a list of possible strategies:
- is there an acceptable substitute?
- does it exist in dried form?
- is there something I can do to atone for this moment? (just kididng!!)

And then:
- How do I plan for this in the future?

Here come the treats! See the journal post on a low carbon impact diet. In the winter one would be limited to fruit that is trucked in and to those local apples that keep for months, if not for canned peaches, apricots, cherries, etc...

According to the authors of "Putting Food By", you can safely preserve peaches, for example, without sugar in the syrup. You can use plain water, or juice, in whatever ratio you like. The fruit may taste better in light syrup, but the sweetener is not needed for preserving. There are still detailed steps to follow, including for keeping the fruit from turning unappetizing colors, but the process seems do-able, and apparently, many of the fruits keep better that way than frozen.

These two are great sources of protein that can often be overlooked.

If you enjoy beans, they can be a staple in your diet. They can be inexpensive, high-quality food, enhancing salads, soups, used as a dip or spread, or mixed with vegetables as chili. I unfortunately do not have that much experience with beans, but it appears they are best cooked a very long time. Following the average recipe for an hour or two of cooking time will often produce a dish that causes gas. Some sites claim that older beans will cause more gas. Here is a website that promises success with beans while minimizing gas - adding certain herbs also supposedly helps. Dried epazote (mentioned in the article) is available in Boulder from Jay Hill Farm. Dried beans are most plentiful at the Abbondanza Farmer's Market stand.

Local nuts and seeds can be hard to find. It is easy enough to grow your own sunflowers, though not all of course are suitable for seed production, and you will have to fight the birds for it. Coastalfields farm does sell sunflower seeds. Pumpkin seeds are also delicious and nutritious, and a pain in the neck to prepare... but they could be used as a snack for kids, for example. Just the fact that it is so hard to get them out will slow you down from eating too many! Almonds do grow in Colorado, and walnuts too, though I have not found a local producer.