More like Local, Seasonal, and Farmers’ Markets. I promised myself that in college I would not give in to the pizza and beer diet; the only thing that I would gain from that is the “freshman 15” anyways. I want to focus on eating locally, seasonally and organically. But will that even be possible with a busy college life? Especially once exams come around, will I still have time to go to a nearby farmers’ market or organic supermarkets, or will I just have to resort to Chinese take-out that will deliver greasy, processed food right to my doorstep? But most importantly: what about Starbucks?? Will I have to sacrifice my beloved lattes in order to stick to my new plan?
Going to college is not necessarily associated with a conscious effort of eating sustainably; not at all actually. College is more associated with alcohol, parties and walks of shame. Instead of doing the walk of shame on a Sunday morning, I want to be walking to the farmers’ market that is within a 10-minute walk of my dorm. Don’t I have a dining hall to go to? Yes, but what if the only fruit they offer during the winter are apples from China, bananas from Chile and oranges from California? That wouldn’t really fit into eating sustainably when going to a college on the East Coast. But even if that is the case, colleges are usually very willing to change that situation if enough people take the initiative to ask for sustainable food. You don’t know where the food at your college is coming from? Just ask! Asking does not cost anything. And if you’re too shy, ask a friend to do it for you. You can even bribe them with cookies, though of course, they should be produced sustainably.
In India, while studying sustainable agriculture, I started realizing the full extent of our destructive industrial agricultural practices. Not only do they deplete our soils and rob our foods of precious nutrition, the runoff from the fields polluted with chemical fertilizers and pesticides also poisons our water, kills off animal species, and ruins our environment. It is no coincidence that ever since genetically modified crops and chemical fertilizers have been introduced to our system the cancer rates of our population have soared. It scares me to think that because of eating unsustainably grown produce and processed foods I could be setting myself up for a terminal illness and/or outrageously expensive hospital bills later in life.
Is it actually that hard to eat in a sustainable matter?
In my opinion, with all the resources at our fingertips today, eating sustainably can actually be quite easy. We have something lovely at our hands these days, called the World Wide Web, where you can even find out about the obstacles of having a unicorn as your pet. There are many ways to inform yourself about farmers’ markets in your area, as well as stores that sell produce from regional farmers that is not genetically engineered, pumped full of antibiotics or has an inch of chemicals slapped on top of it. So should I do all my shopping at Whole Foods if my college dining hall does not fulfill my new requirements of eating sustainably? Not necessarily. Whole Foods is what is called industrial organic. Due to the vary vague description of organic by the USDA, organic beef is not necessarily grass-fed, nor does the natural flavor in your favorite raspberry drink come from actual raspberries, and the “free-range” chicken is not roaming around in an idyllic open space, as you might envision. It saddens and angers me that industrial organic has people fooled so well. With the $ 11 billion industry it has built without any help from the government it is now the fastest growing sector of our food economy.
So no, I will neither be buying my apples at Whole Foods that have been imported from China, nor the organic salmon that has been caught by Native Americans in Yakutat, Alaska, nor the really yummy ginger cookies they sell. They might fulfill the USDA’s regulations on organic but I sure do not want to eat an apple that has traveled 7, 000 miles and been preserved with some kind of additive to arrive on my plate still being reasonably fresh.
I will try my best instead to get my college dining hall to buy their foods from local farms and regard the seasons of vegetables and fruits when planning their menus. But I might have to give up my Starbucks lattes for a while. Even though they are practicing fair trade with Africa, where they get their coffee from, the milk in the lattes is everything but sustainable. Until Starbucks uses milk bought from local farmers that keep their cows on pastures and allow them to live like a cow should, I will be avoiding Starbucks lattes and future health risks. If you do not care about that detail, please at least get your own portable mug instead of getting the paper to-go cups every time. Little changes like these will improve the health of the planet, our planet.
If you feel inspired by this, tell a friend, your mom, dad, shrink, anyone! Help raise awareness about the environmental constraints we are causing our planet and how easy it is to switch from a destructive to a sustainable way of eating. I sure know that I don’t want to be moving to Mars in a couple of years because our planet is refusing to pop out all that yummy food that is necessary to our survival. It is not that far off in the future until our planet will do exactly that: refuse to produce. We cannot keep on poisoning our planet and expect it to continue generating what keeps us alive: whole, healthy food.
Going to college is not necessarily associated with a conscious effort of eating sustainably; not at all actually. College is more associated with alcohol, parties and walks of shame. Instead of doing the walk of shame on a Sunday morning, I want to be walking to the farmers’ market that is within a 10-minute walk of my dorm. Don’t I have a dining hall to go to? Yes, but what if the only fruit they offer during the winter are apples from China, bananas from Chile and oranges from California? That wouldn’t really fit into eating sustainably when going to a college on the East Coast. But even if that is the case, colleges are usually very willing to change that situation if enough people take the initiative to ask for sustainable food. You don’t know where the food at your college is coming from? Just ask! Asking does not cost anything. And if you’re too shy, ask a friend to do it for you. You can even bribe them with cookies, though of course, they should be produced sustainably.
In India, while studying sustainable agriculture, I started realizing the full extent of our destructive industrial agricultural practices. Not only do they deplete our soils and rob our foods of precious nutrition, the runoff from the fields polluted with chemical fertilizers and pesticides also poisons our water, kills off animal species, and ruins our environment. It is no coincidence that ever since genetically modified crops and chemical fertilizers have been introduced to our system the cancer rates of our population have soared. It scares me to think that because of eating unsustainably grown produce and processed foods I could be setting myself up for a terminal illness and/or outrageously expensive hospital bills later in life.
Is it actually that hard to eat in a sustainable matter?
In my opinion, with all the resources at our fingertips today, eating sustainably can actually be quite easy. We have something lovely at our hands these days, called the World Wide Web, where you can even find out about the obstacles of having a unicorn as your pet. There are many ways to inform yourself about farmers’ markets in your area, as well as stores that sell produce from regional farmers that is not genetically engineered, pumped full of antibiotics or has an inch of chemicals slapped on top of it. So should I do all my shopping at Whole Foods if my college dining hall does not fulfill my new requirements of eating sustainably? Not necessarily. Whole Foods is what is called industrial organic. Due to the vary vague description of organic by the USDA, organic beef is not necessarily grass-fed, nor does the natural flavor in your favorite raspberry drink come from actual raspberries, and the “free-range” chicken is not roaming around in an idyllic open space, as you might envision. It saddens and angers me that industrial organic has people fooled so well. With the $ 11 billion industry it has built without any help from the government it is now the fastest growing sector of our food economy.
So no, I will neither be buying my apples at Whole Foods that have been imported from China, nor the organic salmon that has been caught by Native Americans in Yakutat, Alaska, nor the really yummy ginger cookies they sell. They might fulfill the USDA’s regulations on organic but I sure do not want to eat an apple that has traveled 7, 000 miles and been preserved with some kind of additive to arrive on my plate still being reasonably fresh.
I will try my best instead to get my college dining hall to buy their foods from local farms and regard the seasons of vegetables and fruits when planning their menus. But I might have to give up my Starbucks lattes for a while. Even though they are practicing fair trade with Africa, where they get their coffee from, the milk in the lattes is everything but sustainable. Until Starbucks uses milk bought from local farmers that keep their cows on pastures and allow them to live like a cow should, I will be avoiding Starbucks lattes and future health risks. If you do not care about that detail, please at least get your own portable mug instead of getting the paper to-go cups every time. Little changes like these will improve the health of the planet, our planet.
If you feel inspired by this, tell a friend, your mom, dad, shrink, anyone! Help raise awareness about the environmental constraints we are causing our planet and how easy it is to switch from a destructive to a sustainable way of eating. I sure know that I don’t want to be moving to Mars in a couple of years because our planet is refusing to pop out all that yummy food that is necessary to our survival. It is not that far off in the future until our planet will do exactly that: refuse to produce. We cannot keep on poisoning our planet and expect it to continue generating what keeps us alive: whole, healthy food.
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