Food to Fork

The journey your food entails to land on your plate

Ideally, you grow your food in your own backyard. It starts as a seed and months later sprouts into a vibrant plant that you can pick from your garden then cook with that night. Or, you raise chickens or cows which you tend to every day. When you want an egg, you go gather one that’s been freshly laid by one. Once a year you butcher a cow to provide meat for an entire year.

But, let’s be real. How many of us actually do this? Our connection to our food is driving to the local Whole Foods and seeing what produce and meat is on sale that week. Maybe the store is highlighting organic strawberries from Mexico or 100% grass-fed beef from New Zealand cows, making us add it to our carts.

We are eating organic. We are eating 100% grass-fed and pasture-raised animals. We feel like we are doing everything right yet something is still lacking. Our meat is still wrapped in plastic… hmmm that doesn’t seem right. I live in New Jersey yet my produce is coming from Mexico… hmmm that also doesn’t seem right.

We are doing the best we can. If you eat like this you are doing better than the majority of people who only eat food that comes from a box and hasn’t even seen a vegetable on their plate in the last few months (a slice of tomato or iceberg lettuce on your burger does not count). In fact, 70% of the American diet is made up of processed foods.

However, I’m here to expose the truth of what happens to the food you buy at the grocery store. And, I’m here exposing it to myself too. I’m not perfect. I go to the farmer’s market every week but do I buy food from the grocery store too? Of course, I do. I like my organic white rice, canned beans, coffee creamer, and coconut yogurt. These are all things I can’t find locally.

But, I still want to be educated on where our food comes from so I can make better choices going forward. Everything starts with education. If you don’t know then how are you ever supposed to do better?

The Truth About Big-Box Organic

In his talk at the Real Organic Project Symposium, Alan Lewis of Natural Grocers discusses how large chain organic stores value large-scale corporations that produce year-round large quantities of produce. You don’t ever see small, local organic farms in stores like Whole Foods because stores only want to sell the cheapest, high-volume products. The products you see on shelves are the ones with the highest profit margins.

Not to mention, there have also been issues in recent years with incorrect labeling of organic produce. Because many manufacturers and distributors sell both organic and inorganic produce, this is a common mistake. When you have no idea where your produce is coming from, you can’t confirm whether your fruits and vegetables were sprayed or not. However, when you shop locally, chances are you drive by the farm yourself and see how they treat the land and its crops. With large companies, you have no way to confirm whether their word is truthful or not.

Is this produce even fresh?

I’ve always been extremely curious when produce is actually picked. We see an expiration date on the bags of veggies at the store, but when were they harvested? Think about all of the steps that need to happen for a vegetable to end up at the store and in your cart… It needs to be picked, cleaned, examined, manufactured, distributed, and transported. It’s just like any other product that ends up in a store.

One article claims that the storage time (time from harvest to sale) can be up to 24 weeks (yes, 6 MONTHS) for citrus such as oranges, lemons, and limes. This long time frame is due to citrus being transported on cargo ships rather than airplanes. In fact, each food item in your typical meal has traveled an average of 1,500 miles just to end up on your plate. Yes, your lemon may have made it across seas before you ever did and your broccoli has probably been on a longer cross-country road trip than you ever have.

On average, produce spends half of its shelf life in transit. This always makes me wonder, what are they even doing to our “fresh” food to make it last so long? The romaine and tomatoes I know can barely stay alive in my fridge for a few days after picking them from the garden.

How nutrient-dense is this produce?

If you aren’t familiar with the term regenerative agriculture, this is a method of farming that focuses on rebuilding topsoil, increasing the biodiversity of the land, and restoring the water cycle. It works with the land rather than against it. It has also been shown to reduce carbon in the atmosphere, reversing global farming.

Traditional farming works quite the opposite way. They continue to use the land over and over again, depleting the topsoil of key nutrients. Because of this, our produce is much less nutrient dense than it once was.

What used to contain all of our essential vitamins and minerals now only contains a small portion of them. Hence why supplementation has become so popular. It’s nearly impossible to get all of our needed nutrients from food alone! At least from fruits and vegetables.

Eating local

In the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver (which is mind-blowing in the best way possible), she discusses the idea of food culture. She defines this as, “..not something that gets sold to people. It rises out of a place, a soil, a climate, a history, a temperament, a collective sense of belonging”. Food cultures are about the wisdom and love that goes into working with the Earth and using its bounty to nourish our bodies. Shopping at grocery stores is destroying the idea of food culture.

Now, you may be wondering what the solution is. I get it, the grocery store is convenient. However, whenever possible, we should all be making an effort to support our local, organic farmers. If every person in the United States were to eat just one meal per week that is comprised of local ingredients, we would save 1.1 million barrels of oil each week. You don’t have to be extreme to make a difference.

By eating seasonally and only purchasing our food from produce stands and farmer’s markets, we are also getting more nutrients for a smaller price. You are buying food grown with love, in your neighborhood. Not food grown in South America or Mexico.

You can physically see what the farm looks like and assess if that is something you feel comfortable supporting. You can be confident that the produce you are eating was picked in the last few days, not the last few months. It may not be grown regeneratively, but you can at least ask the farmer about the practices they use, something you wouldn’t be able to assess otherwise.

I began buying all of my produce locally this summer as I was close to a lot of organic farms. I can see the chickens who are laying the eggs I eat for breakfast every morning. I can see the pigs playing in the mud that will eventually become my bacon. I watch the farmers snipping the herb plants that they then bring to the farm stand. I see where my food is coming from and I appreciate the love that went into it. I’m building a connection with the local ecosystem.

Creating seasonal sauces

I’ve also embarked on using fresh seasonal produce to create sauces that I can then freeze for the rest of the year. With Sebastian recently buying a freezer to store meat from his hunts, we now have extra room to take on projects like this. I want to buy local herbs, vegetables, and fruits that I can use to create pestos, sauces, and jams for when that produce is no longer in season. This way, I can depend on my own stash made with high-quality ingredients instead of depending on a food store to provide them for me.

Last night I made some pesto with locally grown basil, high-quality extra virgin olive oil from Spain, and local pinenuts. It only ended up yielding me two small cans, which makes me appreciate all of the basil I used even more! I’ll continue buying basil until it is out of season, making pesto to freeze during the fall and winter.

My next project is to make some homemade fig jam using local raw honey, local figs, and lemon juice. I will let you know how this goes!

Take action: Find a local organic farm in your area using Local Harvest and make an effort to purchase your eggs, raw honey, produce, and meat from them. Or, better yet, start your own garden!

Also, read the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to learn even more about our food supply and to feel connected to the food production process.

Look out for next week’s newsletter on why you should be talking about politics at the dinner table. This is one you don’t want to miss!

Go outside and get some sun this weekend ☀️,

Madison