On a trip to the high desert community of Joshua Tree, Calif., I was happy to see a Saturday morning farmers’ market in the middle of town, where there hadn’t been one on my last visit a few years before.

As I perused the well-stocked stalls of apricots, strawberries, cherries, greens, potatoes, eggs, and all the other goodies that are in season here in Northern California as well, I wondered how far the farmers had driven. I talked to a few and found that most farm less than an hour away. Turns out there are farms in the valleys between mountain ranges even in these dry desert communities. And, in places called Banning, Victorville, and Lucerne Valley they grow truly luscious stone fruits (including the hard-to-find Blenheim Apricots).

Here in Northern California, local is our mantra, and it’s a pretty effortless one. While I recognize that it’s not so easy for everyone in the country to eat locally, thankfully, it’s getting easier. An informative article in Business Week details how the local food movement has taken off in recent years. According to figures from the US Agriculture Department, sales from farmers’ markets reached 1 billion in 2006 and the number of markets increased by 50% over 5 years. These impressive numbers signal better times ahead for both eaters and those who hope to make their living farming.

It’s a great idea to support our local food systems. Not only is the food better, but the dollars you spend stay in the community and support real families directly. So try to make the extra effort to do some shopping each week at your local farmers’ market.

Image: enfad

My boss has hypertension. And about two years ago, he nearly died. He was hundreds of pounds overweight, but because of a disciplined diet and exercise regimen, he’s lost 150 pounds (with more to go) and is feeling much better.

One of his newly found secrets? He eats a banana a day. The potassium helps him lower his blood pressure.

Hypertension, the clinical name for chronic high blood pressure, is caused by a variety of factors, namely stress, obesity, high sodium intake and low potassium. So eating a diet high in potassium can help lower blood pressure. Potassium helps your body excrete sodium more effectively, thereby getting all that extra salt out of your system.

If high blood pressure is something you struggle with, minimize your sodium intake and add more potassium to your diet. High potassium foods include:

Milk and yogurt
Fruits like apricot, avocado, banana, cantaloupe, dates, nectarines, prunes and raisins
Fresh (not canned) veggies like carrots, celery, baked potatoes, spinach, winter squash and tomatoes.
Fish and poultry
Molasses and unsalted nuts

Image: House of Sims

Here’s a gorgeous and tasty salad that’s packed with super foods to keep your immune system in top form. Enjoy it for a light lunch or dinner or serve it to guests. It’s sure to perk up the winter doldrums and inspire your palate.

Beet, Orange and Spinach Superfood Salad

Serves 4

4 small-medium red beets, scrubbed trimmed and drizzled with a little olive oil.
4 small handfuls of baby spinach
2 juicy navel or blood oranges
2 tablespoons juice from the oranges
2 tablespoons white wine or champagne vinegar
7 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
Salt & pepper to taste
Toasted Walnuts for garnish
Avocado slices for garnish

Note: use organic, local ingredients when possible.

Wrap the beets in heavy-duty foil and place in a preheated 400 degree oven until they are tender when pierced with a sharp knife (45 minutes to 1 hour).

Wash and dry the spinach leaves and place them in a large bowl. Cut the ends off the oranges, just so they can sit flat. With a sharp knife, following the curve of the fruit, remove all the peel and white pith. Then, holding the fruit in one hand over a bowl, slip the blade of a small paring knife between the segments, separating them into individual segments and releasing them from the white membrane. Catch the juice in the bowl. Place the segments in the bowl with the spinach.

Combine the reserved orange juice and vinegar in a small bowl. Slowly pour in the vegetable oil while whisking until the dressing is well blended. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

When the beets are cool enough to handle, slip their skins off with your fingertips and then cut them into quarters and then eighths. Add them to the bowl with the greens and oranges. Toss the salad with the desired amount of dressing. Adjust seasonings. Garnish each salad with toasted walnuts and avocado. Extra dressing can be refrigerated for up to one week.

Recipe Copyright 2008 Vanessa Barrington

Image: Darwin Bell

Food, water, shelter – the most basic requirements to sustain human life. Thanks to catastrophic global agflation, one of these is in widespread turmoil. Lack of food is causing terrible suffering. Meanwhile in the developed world, good food is ending up in landfills. The world is out of balance.

WHAT CAN I DO? Buy only the food you use. Keep a shopping list, and aim to process all your fresh food within a week of buying it.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? At least a quarter of American groceries go to waste. In Britain it’s an estimated one in three bags of edible food – some $20 billion of groceries each year. If you buy only the food you use, you save money and someone else gets that food. If you’re sceptical about the food reaching the people who really need it, then look at what you’ve saved in grocery bills at the end of the month, and donate a portion of that money directly to a charity or micro-loan provider.

 

It clogs our rivers and seas. It suffocates wildlife and lingers in landfills. It’s a modern scourge- and it’s become known as urban tumbleweed.

WHAT CAN I DO? There’s two things to do with plastic supermarket bags – work around them and work against them. The former is as simple as remembering to carry a tote bag when you go shopping. In the latte case, don’t ever use the plastic bags provided by your local supermarket. Drop them a note (perhaps in their suggestion box) asking why they’re still using them when they’ve been banned for over a sixth of the world’s population. There’s no need to be strident: politeness sinks the message deeper.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Katharine Mieszkowski’s article at Salon covers it nicely.

Getting into the car seems a matter of instinct for much of the modern world, and particularly in the U.S. – in 2001, 90% of Americans were using their car to get to work. The US auto industry relies heavily on subsidies and bailouts when things aren’t going well…and with the state of global oil reserves, things are unlikely to improve. Domestic American ethanol production couldn’t even meet a tenth of the ravenous fuel demands of cars currently on the road. The only way forward is to kick the auto habit ““ and every little helps.

WHAT CAN I DO? Here’s a good way to start. Whenever it’s practical to do so – walk. (Or cycle). Particularly for short journeys. Factor in an extra ten minutes travel time, and use your legs.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Last year, How to Live a Low-Carbon Life author Chris Goodall calculated that driving to the shops uses less carbon that walking. This statement is well-argued, logical, and completely useless to anyone but advocates of the automobile industry (it’s a damning statement on food prices, not the eco-friendliness of driving, as Goodall himself notes). Driving very short distances is fuel-inefficient: starting your car is around as much energy as idling it for one minute. Anything that reduces American consumption from a whopping 21 million barrels of oil a day is good for the economy and for the environment. And what about your own health?

When the sun falls below the horizon, modern society fights the dark. In keeping our cities and roads illuminated, we squander our precious energy reserves skywards in a blaze of candlepower we simply can’t afford. Light pollution is bad for the environment in ways we’re only just beginning to understand.

WHAT CAN I DO? At night, dim the lights and rediscover the dark.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? By dimming their lights for Earth Hour 2008, Toronto residents saved an estimated 434 Megawatts (MW) of electricity – for comparison, standard nuclear power stations generate from 500 to 1000 MW.

Going green is about communing with Nature, leaving the modern world behind and harking back to a happier, more eco-friendly era when humans lived in perfect harmony with the landscape – right? Except it’s not that simple. Take the “wild” moors of Britain – many of them result from deliberate deforestation during prehistoric times. We’ve always made our mark on the planet with technology – yet recently it’s reached a scale where our ecosystem can’t adapt itself fast enough. So now it’s up to us to make amends. Should we throw away the best tools we have to do this?

WHAT CAN I DO? Buy a programmable thermostat and save 10% on your heating bills. Buy CFLs for now and LEDs later, and save energy when lighting your house. Upgrade your home, 21st Century style. Spend quality time with a crank or two! Buy and use your gadgets wisely, and keep a constant eye on the technological cutting edge of green.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Take renewable energy – it’s all about using the best technology science can provide. And look at the results of doing so.

Contrary to what some would have you believe, a sustainable lifestyle is not about vowing to never buy anything “non-essential” ever again. Shopping is green ““ but only if it’s done right.

WHAT CAN I DO? Eco-artisans and fair-traded products deserve your custom, from the beads of Project Have Hope to the fresh produce of the Milkweed Mercantile. By buying products that have an unambiguously eco-friendly component to them, and by closing your ears to the greenwashers (and their twins, the greenscourers), you can prevent profits triumphing over ethics.

HOW WILL THAT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? The Fair Trade movement, for all that it should be called “Fairer Trade”, gives producers a better deal without compromising on social and environmental standards. It’s a success because shoppers often choose to buy Fair Trade over cheaper, more readily available items. It’s a great start.

Next month, the United States has a new president. He’s already been unprecedentedly vocal about his commitment to the environment – and, like all politicians, it’s his job to listen to what people want. He needs feedback to do his job well.

WHAT CAN I DO? A green lifestyle is a politicized one. You don’t have to march in endless rallies or pore over The Economist every week – but you should have a read around the most pressing issues facing your governments, federal and local. Your voice deserves to be heard – if you’re doing everything possible to live in the real world. Sustainability is pragmatic: there’s no room for unthinking dogma in today’s eco-political climate, and the best way to approach green issues is with open ears, open eyes and an open mind.

HOW WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? Because, more than ever, Washington listens.

Remember when you were a child? Your optimism and determination knew no bounds (I’ve fallen over? Well, I’ll get up again). Everything was endlessly fascinating, and nothing wasn’t worth learning about. You had more energy than you knew what to do with. Wouldn’t it be great to experience the world like that again?

WHAT CAN I DO? A thriving green lifestyle is: optimism about the effects of your personal choices, determination in the face of contrary commercial pressures, fascination in scientific innovations that will clean up our environmental impact, a willingness to learn new skills and relearn old ones, and applied energy and enthusiasm in adapting to an ever-changing modern world. Sound familiar?

HOW WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE? By giving our children the future they deserve. 

Main image: Wrap

A few months back I discovered the most fabulous treat. But they’re also a healthy snack. Or even breakfast. I’m so addicted to LARABARs that I’m eating one right now, justifying it for research and inspiration.

Those with knowledge of the Raw Food Movement are aware of the health benefits of consuming uncooked fruits and nuts, which my lovely LARABARS contain. But even if you prefer beef over beans, there’s bound to be a flavor that moves you. At the moment I’m nibbling away at an Apple Pie LARABAR. Perfect balance of sweet and tart, with a hint of cinnamon. The bar is firm and moist and filled with small nuts.

Ingredients: Dates, almonds, unsweetened apples, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon. That’s it. No preservatives, additives, nothing. Each bar is a blend of 100% whole food and contains no more than six ingredients (like my apple pie above).

LARABARS were founded in 2000 by Lara Merriken of Colorado.

“After scouring the aisles of grocery stores and noting popular flavors of ice cream and cookies, I delved into my own product development,” says Merriken on her website. “I tinkered with recipes until a consensus on yummi-ness was reached.”

She started with Cherry Pie (one of my favorites with super tart cherries), Apple Pie, Cashew Cookie, Banana Cookie, and Chocolate Coconut Chew. The first batch of 500 bars produced for retail, she said, had to be sealed by hand.

Next flavors to come were Peanut Butter Cookie, Pistachio, Ginger Snap, Chocolate Coconut Chew, Pecan Pie, Chocolate Mole, Cinnamon Roll, Lemon Bar, and Key Lime Pie.

Banana Cookie, for example, contains one whole banana and enough dates to meet 12% of the daily recommended allowance of potassium. Almonds provide Vitamin E, antioxidants and 2.7 grams of heart-healthy Omega-6 fatty acids.

There is no added sugar, all are unprocessed, non-GMO, gluten free, dairy free, soy free, vegan and kosher. LARABAR was recently purchased by General Mills, so let’s hope that things stay pure. Buy them online from LARABAR or find them at markets including Whole Foods.

Remember that recent melamine scare in China? You know, the chemical that was found in milk and killed a few Chinese infants and harmed at least 10,000? Yes, the very same chemical that was responsible for many animal deaths from tainted pet food. Unfortunately, we’re not over the melamine problem yet.

Recently, melamine was found in high levels in Chinese eggs too, because of chickens fed on melamine-laden wheat gluten. If you’re thinking, “Oh, but that’s in China, I eat American eggs,” remember the wheat trade is global. Wheat gluten from China could very easily end up feeding the chickens right in your home state. Grain-fed cattle may end up eating this wheat, as well.

How does this happen? Melamine is a common additive in industrial fertilizers (and there’s no government regulation on it) because it controls the release rate of nitrogen. The melamine builds up in the soil and, because plants absorb all nutrients in the soil, eventually becomes part of our food supply. You literally are what you eat.

This is yet another reason for everyone to go organic.

Image: Kerri 2008

Corn is everywhere, it’s undeniable. Most American cows are corn-fed (even though their grass-digesting stomachs suffer greatly when fed with grain), high fructose corn syrup seems to taint every processed food and drink, and many American rural areas are covered with acre upon acre of corn fields. It’s a romantic vision, those beautiful cornstalks with their pretty tassels sprinkling pollen in the breeze.

Before industrial agriculture, corn was grown with companion plants that would help nourish the soil, and crops were rotated so living soil could regenerate itself, but in commercial monocrop agriculture those days are no more.

Corn is very nitrogen-hungry and depletes the soil and when grown industrially, requiring more fertilizers and pesticides than any other food crop. These industrial chemicals are made from oil and natural gas, thereby locking us deeper into oil dependence. And all those agricultural byproducts pollute the local air and water.

Plus, keep in mind that most industrially grown corn in the United States comes from genetically modified strains, and new risks from GM foods are always being discovered.

So, if corn is used to feed cows, sweeten foods, and even provide ethanol for fuel, what does that say about the state of agricultural land in this country? Are we walking right into a landscape of GM monocrops laden with poisonous byproducts? That’s what it looks like, and trust me, it’s not in our best interest.

Image: Kables

Corn ““ it’s an American favorite. We love it popped, roasted, processed into chips, baked into corn muffins, liquified into soda, hydrogenated into crackers ““ the list goes on and on. And what would a great American picnic be without hot buttered corn on the cob?

And really, what would Mexico be without the tortilla, tamale or atole? Maize (corn’s original name) was domesticated from a wild grass thousands of years ago in southern Mexico and soon became a staple of the Americas, from North to South. But if corn was such an important and nutritious food for the first people of these continents, why is it the bane of our modern diet today?

It’s because ancient maize has little in common with today’s plump-kernelled sweet corn. Maize came in multi-colors, with small, hard kernels of blue and red. Traditionally, maize was grown and hand-processed in ways that made it more nutritious than our modern, genetically modified varieties. Back in “the day”, maize was often grown with companion plants that would enrich each other’s nutrition, but today, most American corn is grown with pesticides and fertilizers, completely depleting and destroying the soil (not to mention polluting nearby waterways). Finally, genetic modification (thanks, Monsanto) has altered this once-revered grain into something that’s not quite what nature intended.

Editor’s note: We’re exploring the environmental, ethical, public health and economic realities of corn this week at EcoSalon. Here are some articles you may have missed.

Birth control on the cob?
Corn – it’s what’s for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
How corn changed the cattle industry

Image: Images of Anthropology

Once upon a time, cows lived in pastures and grazed on grass, living a life that was as quiet and peaceful as their bovine nature. But then, somebody discovered that feeding cattle cheap, subsidized corn would fatten them up two to three times as fast as grass and that you could raise hundreds of cattle in the same pastoral space that would only support a few. Thus began the era of modern feedlot cattle.

The truth is, a cow’s stomach is made to eat grass ““ and only grass. Corn is a grain (not a vegetable, as many think) and is harmful to a cow’s health and digestion. Corn-fed cows raised on a feedlot are kept in cramped, dirty conditions and because of their grain diet become sick so quickly that they need to be given frequent doses of antibiotics just to keep them alive long enough to make it to slaughter. (Here’s one heart-breaking image you won’t soon forget.)

That sounds pretty awful, but for an industry focused on profit, the equation of corn plus growth hormones makes for fast-fattening cattle (a high-corn diet will fatten a person up pretty quickly too, by the way). But this fat isn’t exactly what you want more of in your food ““ corn-fed beef is much higher in saturated fat and lower in Omega-3’s than the grass-fed variety.

Then there are the ethics involved: grass-fed cattle have a dramatically better life than their crowded, corn-fed, feedlot cousins. The corn that they’re fed is pesticide-laden, genetically modified and only cheaply available because of government subsidies.

Keep in mind that industrially-grown corn requires a great deal of petroleum (for the machinery and fertilizers) to grow. Supporting corn-fed cattle maintains our addiction and support of the petroleum industry. You could say that in comparison, grass-fed cows are solar powered.

Now think about it ““ what kind of meat do you want to be eating?

Image: Kansas.com

For those of you who are culinary artists (and I’m quick to admit that I’m not one of them), feast your eyes on this: the G Living Network’s entire section devoted to the “Organic Gourmet Food Lifestyle” including featured chefs, videos, recipes and articles.

Maybe you’re thinking “So what. There are websites like that everywhere.” But trust me, this one is gorgeous and totally geared to the epicurean fanatic with an exquisite sense of style. I went straight to an article by Sarma Melngailis (you know, that raw Goddess who’s got the glow) about her obsession with Dunkin’ Donuts (and no, it’s not a glowing review!). I also drooled over a recipe for a raw beetroot ravioli stuffed with cashew-chive bourson cheese and sprinkled with green garlic oil and aged balsamic.

Now, I’m an impatient, artless ogre in the kitchen, so I won’t even make the attempt, but are there any readers out there willing to whip up such a tasty delight and invite this hungry writer over for dinner?