Let’s “Occupy” our local foods

The year 2012 has arrived, continuing with the unsettling weather patterns of 2011. It seems to me that food security should be a priority for the year that is unfolding.

This January, a friend and I ordered some local beef for our families. It brings you up close when you have to consider which meat cuts come from which part of the cow. This is a lot different than picking up a package of generic meat at the supermarket.

What’s ironic is that I consider myself a vegetarian. The local beef purchase was to provide some healthier alternatives for family members who have expressed concern about all the antibiotics and hormones in the commercial meat supply. The experience also became an opportunity to raise our awareness of using local options as part of our diets.

I personally began focusing on a vegetarian diet for a number of reasons, a primary one being the way animals are treated as part of industrial food production. When a friend introduced me to the book, “Eat for Your Type,” the prescribed diet for my blood type A matched up really well with the diet that I had experientially found made me feel the best. Type A’s are natural vegetarians. However, other blood types may need more protein, and meat, eggs, and dairy provide a concentrated source.

Yet if one looks at traditional

diets, meat has been supplemental, depending on availability. Consider the corn and beans of Mexican cuisine, the rice and beans of the Orient, chick peas and pita bread as a staple of the Middle East, the lentils and rice of India, or the whole grains and fresh vegetables and greens of the Mediterranean region. The indigenous people of our own area used wild rice as a staple, along with fish and wild game. (Is anybody questioning what is happening to our sources of wild rice and our local fish populations?) Native populations were knowledgeable about herbs and wild plants, which were dried and used as added nutrients. Our society labels many of these valuable plants as weeds.

Consider the lack of refrigeration in earlier times. Many cultures followed a seasonal diet. Animals were butchered in the fall, with meat preserved by smoking, salting, and drying. In the winter, one ate root vegetables and warming soups. Greens were summer fare, while fruits and berries were preserved or canned for winter use.

We, on the other hand, expect to have all foods available at all times, despite the costs of refrigeration and shipping. The commercial food industry claims that it’s cheaper to transport foods around the world than to engage in local food distribution. Even if these statistics could be proved, they fail to acknowledge a very important point: much of the food transported around the world is lacking in nutrition and/

or contaminated with pesticides, herbicides, or other chemicals.

Winter tomatoes, for example, are picked green, sprayed to keep them from ripening enroute, and then sprayed again to induce ripening in the grocery store. Besides lacking in sun-ripened nutrition, they are also lacking in taste. Fresh greens lose nutrients during transportation and storage. It would be far better to figure out ways to grow greens for our own winter use. As nano-solar technology becomes more efficient so that solar cells can be embedded in window glass, solar greenhouses might become economical. As of now, some tomatoes and greens are grown hydroponically.

A garden has been a favorite part of my life. While not many people might want to get involved with raising animals or hunting them for food, just about everyone can grow something. Gardening ideas have proliferated during the past 10 years or so, including square foot gardening, raised beds, intensive planting by digging deep so the roots go down and planting seeds closer, trellis gardening for those whose main garden space would be growing up a wall, no-till gardening, and planting in containers. People are also exploring ways to extend the season through cold frames and plant covers. Others use warming pads and grow lights to start plants indoors ahead of weather conditions outdoors. Then there are rain barrels and watering systems. And don’t forget the compost!

In the past, farming completed its own cycle. Manure from the animals was used to feed the soil. Without a source of animal waste, an early spring plant cover such as oats can be plowed under to return nutrients to the soil and provide “green

manure.” Compost piles and bins can include leaves, grass clippings, and any kind of plant waste from the kitchen. Once broken down, compost is used to return organic compounds to the soil.

The problem with commercial growing of crops is the dependence on chemical fertilizers, and the use of genetically modified seeds. The seeds are engineered to be used with the herbicide Round-up. The use of herbicides and pesticides leaves the soil devoid of life, thus requiring continuing applications of artificial fertilizers. How can nutritious food be grown from dead soil? Within a balanced soil system, bacteria, fungi, and micro-organisms help break down nutrients and transfer them to plant roots. Flowering plants attract pollinators, birds, and wildlife. Industrial type farming has destroyed the entire balance of nature.

There are other solutions to weed and insect problems, but most of them work best on a smaller scale. Ideas include rotating crops from year to year, mixed planting within rows or beds, companion planting where one plant might repel an insect attracted to the other plant, or lightly spraying insect infestations with a mixture of water and liquid dish soap. Mulching or intensive planting can reduce the number of weeds. And sometimes the weeds actually serve as companion plants. They can also help anchor rainwater or keep soil from drying out.

The large food industries are not likely to change their ways. They make too much money raising animals under industrially controlled conditions, growing crops using petro-chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, and manufacturing food items that are fatty, salty, and sweet. These tastes produce cravings, and people find it difficult to adapt

to other diets.

Yet food that is locally grown for freshness and taste, much like is done in the European market, has its own taste attractions. It’s up to us, the local citizens of this area, to make a commitment to eating healthier and to eating and growing or raising more food locally.

We don’t need to “Occupy” Main Street or Wall Street or petition our Congressmen, Governor, or President. Unless we come with a pile of money, no one is listening anyhow. The most effective thing we can do is to “Occupy” our own kitchens and our own gardens. If changing one’s eating habits seems difficult, then make just one change at a

time. Eat something local—even if it’s just a jar of jam that you bought at the local church bazaar. Or you could go outside right now, gather some pine needles, steep them in hot water, and have a cup of local tea that’s high in Vitamin C.

We are in control of our own health, and our own food security. No one else can do it for us. The time to start is now, if not for ourselves, then for the sake of our children.

Elanne Palcich is a retired school teacher and lives and writes in Chisholm, MN.