Become A Locavore

In the final part of our three-part series on the most significant personal changes you can make to help the environment, we help you make eco-friendly food choices

The Calgary Herald, Emma Gilchrist
Published January 25, 2008

Three years ago, Sandra and Keith Moon experienced a food "awakening." At the time, the couple lived in Vancouver where they heard a lot about the health effects of pesticides and fertilizers used to grow conventional food. A seed of doubt was planted and from it grew a conscious transition. "We were really having a hard time walking into a grocery story and buying those products," Sandra says. They started buying local, organic and fair trade products whenever they could afford to, and chose to cut down on their meat consumption. "We found the more we bought organic, the better we felt," Sandra says. Then, when Sandra, who is a nurse, became pregnant, she ramped up her efforts to be as healthy as possible. In November, Sandra, 39, and Keith, 43, moved to Calgary with their 15-month-old son Benjamin. "I don't even like the thought of giving him anything that's not organic," Sandra says of her toddler. "It's definitely a little bit more expensive, but for our health we're going to pay it." The Moons say leading healthier lives goes hand in hand with an environmentally friendly lifestyle that supports a local economy. Before changing their diet, Sandra says they were operating on blind faith. "We weren't as conscious about the foods out there. A lot of the times we thought we were eating healthy, we probably weren't," she says. Now the picture is much different. The family eats meat only once or twice a week, never eats beef and chooses organic whenever possible. "Our goal is to keep on this path. We're just doing our part for our health and the environment," Sandra says. Buy Local First Since moving to Calgary from the garden basket that is Vancouver, Sandra finds it more difficult to locate local produce. And sourcing local food is the single most important environmental criteria when buying food, according to Randi Cruz, a community relations specialist for the David Suzuki Foundation. "Consumers are often faced with the choice of organic or local. When faced with that dilemma, choose local first," Cruz says. With the typical Canadian meal travelling 2,400 kilometres to get from field to fork, selecting products from close to home is one of the simplest steps consumers can take. "Always choose a B.C. apple instead of a New Zealand apple," Cruz explains. Opt for carrots grown in Innisfail, Alta., over organic ones shipped from California. Buying locally also means you'll be eating healthier produce, Cruz says, noting that when fruit has to travel vast distances, it's harvested long before it's ripe, making it less nutritious. Produce is also often laced with chemicals to prevent the growth of mould and fungus during shipping. In fact, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science-based non-profit that works toward a healthy environment, has pegged food second only to transportation as a source of environmental problems. "People need to understand that all the steps in moving the banana from Ecuador to your fruit bowl are affecting global warming," Cruz says."But we don't want to come across as the Birkenstock zealots, and it's not all about eating kale and cranberry all year round. There are really good options if you start to look for them." Sometimes looking for good local options is complicated by ambiguous labelling like "Product of Canada/U.S." "The more people who ask 'Where does this come from?' the more they're going to recognize it's a consumer priority," Cruz says. Eat Less Meat After choosing local foods, the David Suzuki Foundation suggests eating less meat, due to the vast amount of water meat production requires. Knowing the "eat less meat" advice is hard to swallow in Alberta, Cruz says, "Before you even start to talk about eating less meat, start looking for local meat and dairy products. "Meat consumption isn't a bad thing. It's about how it's produced. And think about the amount of meat you are eating." The average Canadian eats three times the 80 grams of meat per day recommended by the World Cancer Research Fund. You don't have to give up eating steak forever to start making a positive difference for the environment -- and for your health. Cruz suggests making a committment to one day a week without meat or fish, say a meatless Monday. "When you look back in history, people didn't eat as much meat. . . . Even our grandparents weren't eating as much meat as we are now." When you do eat fish, the foundation says to avoid farmed salmon because, like red meat production, salmon feedlots consume vast amounts of energy in the form of feed, while releasing antibiotics into marine environments. You'll also want to make sure you aren't buying endangered species of fish from areas where harvesting causes other environmental problems. Get Sustainable Seafood Canada's handy wallet card, which tells you which seafoods are your best choice, which have some concerns and which you should avoid, by visiting seachoice.org. It also helps you ask the right questions about whether the seafood is fished or farmed and how it was caught. Take Action The very act of buying locally farmed products, be they meat, produce, eggs or milk, helps conserve precious farmlands and wildlife habitats. Calgary's Lauren Maris, who wrote Live Green, Calgary! (EarthWise Solutions, $19.95), says plenty of local options are available. "You can often find tomatoes and cucumbers and lettuce that are Alberta hot-house grown," Maris says, adding local eggs and dairy products are also readily available. The key is for consumers to be aware of the importance of buying locally and then to seek out the products, Maris says. "Sometimes I have to go to the organic section or health food section in the supermarket to find the local products," she says. Even in winter, Maris visits the Calgary Farmers' Market. "That's where I find a lot of my local stuff like my eggs and milk," she says. The market has a vision to develop a system of farmers' markets in Calgary so that by 2020, 30 per cent of the fresh food sold to Calgarians will be produced within 200 kilometres of the city. As an approved Alberta farmers' market, 80 per cent of all products are made, baked or grown by local vendors. There are also six other farmers' markets in the city, some of which are seasonal. To find one close to you, check out our full listing at calgaryherald.com/greenguide. Maris, who lives in a townhouse, also notes that even a small garden can produce a substantial amount of food. "You can actually grow a lot of stuff in a small bed and not be overwhelmed." If you're already buying local foods and want to take the next step in the battle, the David Suzuki Foundation's Cruz suggests writing to your local MLA. "Ask what they're doing to protect local farm areas around where you live. Once the farm land has been paved over it will never come back. . . . Your local farmer will thank you." The Green Guide run every Friday in Real Life. Check out the evergrowing guide at calgaryherald.com/greenguide. egilchrist@theherald.canwest.com - - - The Dirty Dozen Not ready to start buying organic everything? Don't worry. Analysts at the U.S. not-for-profit Environmental Working Group have rated fruits and vegetables based on the results of nearly 43,000 tests for pesticides so you know which ones to buy organic and which conventionally grown ones are OK. The group determined that people can lower their pesticide exposure by almost 90 per cent by avoiding the top 12 most contaminated fruits and vegetables (the dirty dozen) and eating the least contaminated instead. Eating the dirty dozen will expose a person to about 14 pesticides per day, while eating the 12 least contaminated will expose a person to less than two pesticides per day. View our photo gallery of the dirty dozen at calgaryherald.com/greenguide and download your free wallet guide to the 12 cleanest and dirtiest fruits and vegetables at foodnews.org/walletguide. Local Resources This information is excerpted from Lauren Maris' book Live Green, Calgary! (EarthWise Solution,s $19.95). Find local, organic and fair trade goods at these markets: - Community Natural Foods at 1304 10th Ave. S.W. and 202 61st Ave. S.W. - Planet Organic at 10233 Elbow Dr. S.W. and #110 4625 Varsity Dr. N.W. - Amaranth Whole Foods at 7 Arbour Lake Dr. N.W. - Sunnyside Market at 302 10th St. N.W. - The Calgary Farmers' Market offers plenty of fresh, local and organic produce year-round in the Currie Barracks. For a listing of all farmers' markets and their opening times, visit calgaryherald.com/greenguide. - Want to start a community garden to grow your own local, organic produce? The Calgary Horticultural Society (calhort.org) runs a community gardening resource group. There are presently 15 community gardens in Calgary, with several groups in the process of developing gardens for the next growing season. Shared garden plots are perfect if you live in an apartment or just don't have the space in your yard. To learn more, call 287-3469 or e-mail office@calhort.org - The Slow Food movement supports local food producers by connecting them with consumers. The idea is to support local, organic and sustainable agricultural products. Check out slowfoodcalgary.ca for upcoming events. - If you pick it yourself you can be sure it's fresh. Find a pick-your-own farm near you at albertafarmfresh.com or call 1-800-661-2642. Tracking the Organic Trend With organic food sales increasing by about 20 per cent a year in Canada, consumer consciousness is a growing trend. Organic crops are grown without synthetic pesticides, fertilizer doesn't contain sewage sludge or artificial ingredients and the crops are processed without food additives. Organic meat is reared without the routine use of antibiotics and growth hormones. From 2005 to 2006, supermarkets in Alberta showed the highest growth in organic sales in the country, with a 44 per cent jump, topping the national average of 28 per cent, according to a study conducted by the Nielsen Company for the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada. Nielsen also identified an estimated $175 million in organic sales through smaller grocery stores and specialty stores, and $50 million in direct sales at farmers' markets and at the farm gate. The study noted a steady increase in the proportion of sales through mainstream supermarkets and a corresponding decrease through the traditional organic channels, such as natural food stores. Still, certified organic products accounted for only 0.9 per cent of the total sales in supermarkets. Online Features For a listing of farmers' market, plus more eco resources, check out calgaryherald.com/greenguide Join our Facebook group by searching "Calgary Herald Green Guide" Check out our gallery of the most important foods to buy organic at calgaryherald.com/greenguide