Progressive Wednesday

An organic eye-opener

Yesterday we asked you to buy one piece of organic produce each time you visit the grocery store. The reasons are fourfold; you can read them here. But any shopper who has meandered into the next aisle over has probably noticed that the world of organic sustenance has grown beyond cucumbers and spinach leaves. Yes, we now can (and should) buy our eggs, flour, and even cookies with a certified organic label on them.

But what about an organic cup of the “nectar of life,– that which most of us need desperately after hitting the snooze bar three times. I speak, of course, about coffee. There's no shortage of availability; a quick Goodsearch for “organic coffee– will give you 66,136 hits. But the importance of organic coffee goes beyond the aforementioned bullet points.

Coffee trees naturally grow in the shade, usually in the dense rainforest. But now, according to urthcaffe.com:

The coffee industry has developed sun-resistant coffee tree hybrids that have come to comprise approximately 70% of the world’s coffee production. As a result, rainforest is being cleared at alarming rates to make room for new, sun resistant coffee trees.

So by buying organic coffee, you are supporting an environmentally friendly crop and those who grow it. Plus, you can rest assured that each gulp is free of synthetic petroleum based fertilizers, the most frequently used chemical in the non-organic junk. Avoiding that has got to be a good thing. So get it at the store or online, then fill your cup with something that's good for you and the environment. Oh, and look for that fair trade label as well to support disadvantaged farmers.

Thanks to this organically caffeinated picture taker.

Organics for one, organics for all.

One of the lingering problems with organic food is cost. While prices have fallen on many products (I do find some organic produce costs about the same as the artificially fertilized counterparts), many of the more processed foods or staples, like milk and eggs, can come with a pretty hefty price tag. This, of course, means that the poorest among us miss out on the goodness and healthfulness of organic foodstuffs.

So, along comes a progressive idea to help fuel our larger progressive revolution:

At the One World Café in Salt Lake City, customers set the price for their organic, fair-trade meals. Urbanite reports that One World provides options for all customers, from homeless patrons to business folks on their lunch breaks. A daily free entrée is always on the menu and the restaurant offers a “hand-up, not a hand-out” option by exchanging meal coupons for every hour of volunteer service. At the end of the day, says founder Denise Cerreta, the restaurant ends up with a fair price for the staff’s work.

Even though most of us don’t live in Salt Lake City, we can still be glad that such wonderful efforts are being made. And there are things we can do to help those suffering in poverty feed themselves better. Amongst many charities we could lend hand or buck is America’s Second Harvest. And what is America’s Second Harvest, pray tell? Here goes:

America’s Second Harvest– ”The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the nation’s largest charitable hunger-relief organization:

• A network of more than 200 member food banks and food-rescue organizations
• Serving all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

The America’s Second Harvest Network secures and distributes more than 2 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually. Each year, the America’s Second Harvest Network provides food assistance to more than 25 million low-income hungry people in the United States, including more than 9 million children and nearly 3 million seniors.

There’s not enough props we can give this organization. So here’s the deal — just give five. (All you’ve got to do is click this sentence.) Five bucks to most of us is next to nothing–a McMeal or a summer blockbuster we wish, afterwards, that we’d skipped. To an organization that feeds those with next to nothing, five bucks is nothing they’ll sneeze at (though, I imagine 100 dollars wouldn’t make them sneeze either… really I doubt any amount of would make them sneeze, so don’t worry about the infinitesimally small chance that you might make someone sneeze).

So, here’s to good food (and tissues) for all.

Organic v. Local – head to head

Progressivism is a big tent. The catalyst that moves someone to progressivism can be race, religion, social or economic status, the environment, civil liberties, or antiauthoritarianism, just to name some. True progressives have a concern about all of these issues.

But what happens when two of these collide? How do we decide what positions to support and what to do about it? When the United Auto Workers union expresses its concern about increasing fuel economy while climatologists warn us of the consequences of inaction, how do we decide?

Of course, we prioritize. We weigh the consequences against the potential benefit, and then determine the best course of action. While I sympathize with the UAW (though I think that better fuel economy would lead to a huge increase in production and jobs in the long run), I feel that the consequences facing the planet due to global warming far outweigh the short-term consequences raising fuel efficiency to the UAW.

I frequently find two sides of my progressivism playing tug-of-war with my conscience when I'm at the local grocery store. As I stand there surveying the produce one side wants me to buy the locally grown tomatoes while the other tells me to put those with the “certified organic– label in my basket. Fortunately, organic produce is frequently homegrown, allowing my two sides to come to a truce and making my decision easy, but not always. Since I came across this article from Terrapass.com, I have started to listen more to the organic angel.

Food miles are actually a minor portion of the total ecological footprint of food. In the study of a basket of foods in Cardiff, transport amounted to only 2% of the total environmental cost. Growing conditions, packaging and processing made up the bulk of the impact. In fact– ¦ local food systems actually have slightly higher carbon emissions!

This doesn't push me completely over to the “organic side of the farm,– nor do I think it should for you. But I don't want to make decisions without knowing as many facts as possible; I don't want to be that kind of progressive.

This photographer buys local, but this one goes organic.

…and nothing but the organic truth.

During the past five months, we’ve covered organic cookies, organic coffee, organic pizza, organic gardening, organic pants, the rise of collegiate degrees in organic farming, the vast and increasing benefits of choosing organic food, the ways organic farming might help fight hunger in the third world, and the fact that processed organic food contains less corn ingredients. We’ve even delved into a bit of organic humor. Most recently, we wrote about organic wine.

So, when I came across this new information about organic foodstuffs, I knew that I had to pass the info along to you, dear readers. First, here’s refresher–a definition of organic food:

For plants, organic means grown on certified organic land without synthetic fertilizers or chemicals (like pesticides). Genetic modification and irradiation are also off-limits. For animals, organic means access to the outdoors, only organic feed for at least a year, and no antibiotics or growth hormones.

So, if you’re concerned about food grown with vast amounts of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, genetic modification, antibiotics and hormones, which organic foods should you really focus on purchasing?

Apples, cherries, grapes (especially if they’re imported), nectarines, peaches, pears, raspberries, strawberries, bell peppers, celery, potatoes, and spinach. Why? Because these fruits and veggies have been found to contain the most pesticide residue, even after being washed. If you want to go the extra mile, also buy your beef, poultry, and dairy organic. Organic meats and dairy are much more expensive than nonorganic, but they’ll also reduce your exposure to toxins.

And which items do you need to fret over a little less?

You don’t need to worry about buying these organic: bananas, kiwi, mangoes, papaya, pineapple, asparagus, avocado, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, onion, sweet peas, and seafood. Why? Because these fruits and veggies tend not to carry pesticide residue, and seafood has no USDA organic certification standards (so “organic seafood” doesn’t mean much).

So, since we all have limited budgets, consider tweaking your organic purchases to save a bit of money, so you can spend the rest where it matters most.

Photo by this hungry and healthy picture-clicker.

Progressive gardening

Yesterday evening I spent three grueling hours outside with a 30-year-old rotor-tiller, loosening the soil in our backyard so that my wife and I could plant our first garden as a married couple. It was after I had already started the relic tiller (I think it was on my 467th try) that my grandfather told me that you burn more calories using a rotor-tiller than any other outdoor activity. I looked this up and couldn’t exactly confirm it, but after dropping about four pounds in three hours, I don’t really doubt it. While we were a bit late in getting our garden planted (and by “we,” I mean, my wife), I was a week early for National Gardening Exercise Day. That’s June 6. Seriously. I couldn’t make that up.

But why am I writing about gardening on a website about progressive social activism? Well, I believe that most progressives are “green” people, even if they don’t consider themselves to be environmentalists. We respect the earth and the fruit it gives us, even if we don’t spend a great deal of time working with it.

In that light, as I was staring at my freshly tilled earth last night, the beads of sweat hanging from my eyelashes making the garden look like some abstract painting, I decided that I wasn’t going to fill that soil with chemicals to help our plants grow; mine would be an organic garden.

So into the house I went to look up the easiest ways to do this, and I found OrganicGardening.com. They’re advice on the easiest way to keep a garden organically? Compost. Here it is in their own words:

Decaying plant wastes, such as grass clippings, fall leaves and vegetable scraps from your kitchen, are the building blocks of compost, the ideal organic matter for your garden soil. If you add compost to your soil, you’re already well on your way to raising a beautiful, healthy garden organically.

Luckily my wife and I had decided to start a compost pile a few weeks ago, and I can tell you with absolute certainty, it’s as easy as A-B-C, 1-2-3, or even Do-Re-Me. I won’t go into it in full detail, but if you want an easy way to turn that garbage into luscious tomatoes, eggplant, and spaghetti squash, check out this website. Then get that organic garden going. The late cool weather this year means a garden started today will catch up by mid-June to a garden started in early may. Better yet, wait until June 6th and start it on National Gardening Exercise Day. It’s my favorite holiday.

Picture courtesy of this tomato lover.

Organics for the poor (w/seven-second action).

Right now, organic food seems, at times, like a pricey luxury. Thankfully, more and more the price of this produce is coming down (thanks to increased demand, and therefore, production), and processed organic food is often similarly priced, and at times, cheaper than their genetically-modified and potentially pesticide-coated counterparts (I find this particularly true with foodstuffs like cereals, mac and cheese, and salsa).

But a new United Nations study plainly states that a shift to organic farming could, besides helping that not-so-little thing called the “environment,” also help curb world hunger. The previously held knock on such an idea was that organic farming can reduce crop yields significantly, but over time this levels off.

And according to the Associated Press:

Researchers in Denmark found… that food security for sub-Saharan Africa would not be seriously harmed if 50 percent of agricultural land in the food exporting regions of Europe and North America were converted to organic by 2020.

While total food production would fall, the amount per crop would be much smaller than previously assumed, and the resulting rise in world food prices could be mitigated by improvements in the land and other benefits, the study found.

But here’s the real perk: if farmers in sub-Saharan Africa made the switch, “it could reduce their need to import foods.” And here’s another plus: these farmers would save precious money by not needing to purchase chemicals, and earn money by exporting any extras.

Another study conducted by the University of Michigan found that:

A global shift to organic agriculture would yield at least 2,641 kilocalories per person per day, just under the world’s current production of 2,786, and as many as 4,381 kilocalories per person per day.

So why are these new findings so significant? Well, here are the facts, Jack:

• 850 million people are chronically undernourished. That’s nearly three times the population of the United States.
• Since 1996, the number of undernourished people in the developing world has gone up by 20 million. But here’s the more upsetting fact: the number of undernourished people is continuing to rise by four million per year.
• 30% of the world’s population suffers from malnutrition.
• Nearly 24,000 people die each day as a direct result of hunger. And here’s a chilling statistic: 18,000 of those daily deaths are of children under the age of five.

So while you might not be able to start an organic farm in Africa, there is something incredibly simple you can do. Just click this sentence to be taken to The Hunger Site. Then click the button on that page labeled “HELP FEED THE HUNGRY.” There — you’ve just helped feed someone.

If you have any doubts about the legitimacy of this, you needn’t: just click here or here or here. The second link includes a citation from The New York Times.

If you just give a few clicks, you can help feed the hungry, and we know you can easily spend 7 seconds every day doing this. So give a little with your mouse button, baby, give a little.

Produce photo by this food lover.

Corn, from Ascorbates to Zein: Eat

We won't tell you to stop eating food with corn or corn derivatives in it; that wouldn't be reasonable. But a few changes in our eating habits would certainly lower the need for corn. This site has a list of additives, preservatives, etc. that are made from corn. There are about 600, and the list is not exhaustive. It would be tough to cut these out completely (imagine being allergic to corn), but just knowing how much corn is in your ice cream might make you think differently the next time you're at the grocery store.

This horse is so dead that it's totally decomposed, but we're gonna beat its bones anyway. Buy organic food. Being organic doesn't necessarily mean that there is no corn in it (corn can be grown organically), but generally there is much less corn used to process organic food. Plus, organic food tends to have ingredients spelled out more fully, making it easier to sidestep corn products. For more info on the benefits of organics, click here.

There are 38 ingredients in McDonald's Chicken McNuggets. That's scary enough, but 13 of them are directly derived from corn, and a dozen or so more are processed with corn products. A Big Mac contains corn-fed beef and has high fructose corn syrup in the bun and sauce. And that large Coke has 310 calories from corn. Another reason to stay away from fast food.

Finally, consider buying grass-fed meat. It's leaner, free of antibiotics and hormones, and much less likely to contain E. Coli, fungus, or other contaminants. Here is a list of suppliers in your state, or you can have it shipped to your home. Supporting businesses that go against the grain (pardon the pun) to provide a product that is ethically superior is a big part of progressivism.