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When I moved to Toronto from Syria as a refugee in late 2016, my sponsors showed me how to sort my waste. I was surprised to learn there are three separate bins for garbage, organic waste, and recyclables—and each with a colour of its own.
\n\n\n\nBack home, my family and I sorted and recycled our waste. We composted food scraps for our plants and gathered paper waste for a small non-profit organization that sold it to paper manufacturers. But these practices are cultural, rather than supported by the government. Consequently, many people simply toss everything together, and my mother lamented about the growing sources of garbage.
\n\n\n\nIn my new home in Canada, I sought to fully immerse myself in Canadian culture. Embracing every new idea became a guiding principle, and amidst the multitude of concepts, the words “sustainability” and “environment” stood out. While I hadn’t encountered scientific phrases about the environment in my formal education in Syria, our cultural heritage emphasized a sustainable lifestyle and identity, and a commitment to health. To my surprise, what some considered a novel concept was an integral part of my ancestors’ lives.
\n\n\n\nAs I settled into life in Toronto, I learned about local sustainability practices from my sponsors and environmental activists. I began repurposing morning coffee grounds to nourish plants and cutting orange peels into tiny pieces to add to soil, as I’d learned back home. I started thinking of how we could convert used cooking oil into soap. Now, in my building in Canada, we’ve established a partnership with an environmental organization to collect used cooking oil to be repurposed into boat fuel. Awesome!
\n\n\n\nOur cultural heritage emphasized a sustainable lifestyle and identity, and a commitment to health.
I began to educate myself about climate change and our responsibilities to preserve the planet. Soon, I discovered parallels between my Syrian heritage and the environmental principles I was encountering. These days, people go to thrift shops to be more sustainable. But my ancestors have long seen value in recycling clothes. One pair of pyjamas might serve four children, passed down between siblings. Cousins shared dresses, maximizing wear before disposal, and women repurposed garments into skirts or other attire, extending their lifespan.
\n\n\n\nEven so, capitalism left its mark in Syria. I recall my grandmother’s concerns about the young generation’s shift in lifestyle before the war. She scrutinized everything, noting that modern breakfast cereal was laden with carbs and sugar compared to a traditional fibre-rich Syrian breakfast and that wearing polyester instead of cotton was akin to wrapping oneself in plastic.
\n\n\n\nToday, I aim to integrate my heritage with environmentally friendly practices from diverse Canadian communities, seeking a sustainable balance in my lifestyle. Canada’s multiculturalism and openness to new customs offer advantages. At the same time, Canada’s fast-paced, consumption-based lifestyle contrasts with my experience growing up in a culture where traditions are passed down from generation to generation.
\n\n\n\nAs a Syrian, I’ve inherited a culture shaped by many civilizations that have inhabited the region throughout history. While Western culture promotes individualism, Syrian culture focuses on the collective nature of society: individuals work together to navigate environmental challenges and conflicts. Central to this ethos is the practice of sharing resources within families or among close relatives.
\n\n\n\nMy mother passed this mindset on to me. The first lesson: when you protect God’s blessings, God protects you in return. Simple yet profound practices like not wasting water even when near a river and incorporating leftovers into the next meal were instilled in me by my mother. Her mindset was reflected in practices in my community. Many bulk stores provided paper bags instead of plastic ones. Dried peach seeds were turned into snacks and olive seeds were burned for heat.
\n\n\n\nSyrian culture focuses on the collective nature of society. Central to this ethos is the practice of sharing resources within families or among close relatives.
In heartfelt conversations with my mother, we hit upon the enduring legacy of resilient women who devised, preserved, and passed down practices to safeguard the environment through generations. Considering their historically limited access to education compared to men, I am all the more amazed at how they navigated and thrived through all four seasons.
\n\n\n\nIn Toronto, I began seeking recipes that eschew eggs and dairy, opting for plant-based alternatives that align with each season. This pursuit led me to a treasure trove of culinary delights that I feel compelled to share.
\n\n\n\nSyrian cuisine, renowned for its diversity and vegetable-centric foundation, boasts an array of vegan dishes. I am eager to share and adapt these offerings to the rich cultural tapestry of Canada, emphasizing the importance of embracing diversity in culinary practices.
\n\n\n\nIn Syrian cuisine, pomegranate molasses takes centre stage, enhancing dishes with its deep red hue, thick texture, and sour flavour. You can buy it from stores that stock Middle Eastern goods or make your own!
\n\n\n\nYou’ll need 5 kg of pomegranates. Timing is key, as pomegranate season begins in fall. It’s crucial to select sour pomegranates over sweet ones. To extract the molasses, peel the pomegranates and pull out the arils. Blend the arils until they form a pulp and strain the mixture to separate the juice. Throw the residue in your compost bin.
\n\n\n\nBoil the juice until it thickens and a white foam forms on top (remove the foam as best you can) and it thickens. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and let it simmer for 15 minutes. It’s ready when a spoon dipped into the molasses is coated with syrup. Allow the mixture to cool and pour it into a bottle. Store in the refrigerator for up to one year.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Gus-Social-Media-1.jpg\")
Folia is a tasty traditional stew of chard and beans.
\n\n\n\nServings: 4-5
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Gus-Social-Media-Green-Bean.jpg\")
This green bean stew is a light, easy-to-prepare summer meal.
\n\n\n\nServings: 4-6
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Gus-Social-Media-Pomegranate.jpg\")
Harrak bi isbaou is a traditional vegan delight from Damascus, boasting a perfect blend of sweet and sour flavours. Rich in iron, fibre, and protein, it exemplifies the region’s culinary finesse.
\n\n\n\nServings: 3-4
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Gus-Social-Media-Cauliflower.jpg\")
Manzala bi zahra with mahoas sauce is a Syrian variation of a zahra bi laban, a common Middle Eastern stew of tender cauliflower and beef typically accompanied by yogurt. It is served in the winter as a comfort food. To make this recipe vegetarian, omit the beef, use a plant-based alternative, or replace it with some boiled potato.
\n\n\n\nServings: 4-5
\n\n\n\nFood touches a nerve. How we see it depends on a host of factors like culture, social class, and economics. Food is hardly ever just food. It’s loaded with meaning and emotion. Generational differences—even notions of morality—colour how we perceive it. Rising food prices, our truly staggering level of food waste, and its equally staggering environmental footprint mean we need to recalibrate our approach.
\n\n\n\nMy capital-B Boomer husband calls waste a capital-S sin. Trespassing onto my turf seeking evidence of my wastefulness, he’ll grab an open tub of yogurt coated with gray-green fluff, or maniacally wave around a half-empty can of tomato paste.
\n\n\n\nToday it’s me, vintage Gen-Xer, foraging for culinary treasures for an upcoming dinner. I discover a 2-kg package of frozen halal chicken wings marked with a best-before date (BBD) of July 23, 2023. Preening like rubies in my crisper drawer are a dozen tomatoes grown in Mexico but packaged four weeks ago nearly 3,800 km away in Kingsville, ON.
\n\n\n\nBest-before dates are everywhere and they’re baffling. Divorced from the messy reality of how field crops and mooing farm animals morph into tidy units of retail nutrition, shoppers frequently confuse “best before” with “bad after.” But BBDs merely indicate peak freshness of say, a carton of eggs, not that swallowing those eggs past the stroke of midnight confers sickness. BBDs denote quality, not safety.
\n\n\n\nThe Canadian Food Inspection Agency mandates BBDs on products with a shelf life of 90 days or less. But industry players stamp BBDs or packaged-on dates on a host of staples, including dried pasta. Expiration dates apply to only five products: infant formula, liquid diets for tube-feeding, supplements, meal replacements and medically prescribed very low energy diets. Their nutritional value dwindles past the expiry date.
\n\n\n\nLori Nikkel, a self-described former low-income single mother who is now CEO of Second Harvest—Canada’s largest food rescue non-profit—says we simply don’t value food. She laments, “Food has grown too far away from us. We don’t care about it.” Instead of a precious resource that keeps us alive, we’ve degraded food to an aesthetically pleasing commodity.
\n\n\n\nConsider planned obsolescence. This business strategy—whereby products engineered to break down within fixed terms force consumers to upgrade to new models—was once reserved for bikes, cars, and electronics. Now we apply it to the food we eat. Agri-industry regulates this practice via often arbitrary BBDs, which means that as consumers we’ve been conditioned to toss out perfectly edible food.
\n\n\n\nAgriculture is big business. Each player needs to turn a profit. Nikkel says our supply chain produces too much food in a year, enough excess to feed every Canadian for five months. Manufacturers downstream ship packaged food to retailers who slap on BBDs. Retailers often discount prices close to the BBD; they don’t want stale products taking up shelf space. They need to move that inventory down the food chain.
\n\n\n\nEnter Joe Shopper. Joe wants to eat fresh affordable food without getting sick. He stores his perishables, say a bag of greens, in a fridge optimally set to 4°C. A few days later, Joe decides to whip up a salad. The leaves look crisp, not slimy, but the bag is past its BBD. Joe’s not taking chances; he chucks it out. Next week, he buys another bag. Joe spends more grocery dollars, retailers move in fresh stock, manufacturers sell more product, and farmers grow more lettuce.
\n\n\n\nAs consumers, we’ve been conditioned to toss out perfectly edible food.
In a land of plenty, where everyone can afford to eat, this is a nearly win-win scenario. But 6.9 million Canadians are food-insecure, which is a fancy way of admitting that a sizable chunk of our population goes hungry. In 2022, the Consumer Price Index measured retail food price increases of 11.4%, exceeding the average 6.9% inflation rate.
\n\n\n\nThis February, Second Harvest published new research showing that food charities anticipate an 18% rise in demand for food aid in 2024. In Toronto alone, demand is projected to increase by a whopping 30%. That’s 1 million additional Canadians—many of whom are housed and employed—who’ll seek food charity this year.
\n\n\n\nAccording to Second Harvest, nearly 60% of food produced in Canada gets wasted annually. Of those 35.5 million metric tonnes, 11.2 million are good to eat. The edible waste gets dumped in thousands of landfills. As that mountain of food rots, it produces methane, a powerful greenhouse gas. According to the UN Environment Programme, methane’s unique chemical structure retains more atmospheric heat than carbon dioxide and is over 80 times more potent.
\n\n\n\nAgainst this backdrop, a June 2023 report by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food recommended the federal government investigate how eliminating BBDs would impact Canadians. Last October, a private member’s bill that aims to reduce food waste and re-visit problematic food labeling passed first reading in the House.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/BestBeforeCollage-for-web.jpg\")
Sylvain Charlebois, director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab, says that BBDs originally helped retailers rotate stock. It’s essentially inventory management. He admits that we’ve “gone overboard” when even salt and honey are dated. Although he believes BBDs are overused, he thinks scrapping them is unwise. Shifting the balance of power could disincentivize retailers to offer discounts on stale stock, hurting consumers.
\n\n\n\n“People grab milk at the end of the shelf, not the one next to them. They’re also buying freshness and time. Without dates, you can’t empower consumers to pick and choose what’s fresh.” Instead of eliminating BBDs, he advises educating consumers that “best before” doesn’t mean “bad after.”
\n\n\n\nHe makes a case for the industry. “It’s not criminal [for companies] to make money.” If a disgruntled customer eats non-perishable food months or even years later and complains on social media that it tastes bad, that complaint damages the brand. “There are tremendous risks for the industry to operate without dates.”
\n\n\n\nNearly 60% of food produced in Canada is wasted every year.
He cites a 2022 report his lab collaborated on with pollster Angus Reid, which found only 27% of Canadians wanted to eliminate BBDs. The report showed that the category of food matters, too. Nearly three quarters of those polled checked BBDs on dairy products; only 32% checked dates on non-perishables. And 65% threw out unopened food past its BBD. Charlebois concludes Canadians see value in those dates because they prioritize food safety over the environment.
\n\n\n\nTesco, Britain’s largest grocer, scrapped BBDs on more than 180 types of fresh produce back in 2018. Charlebois doubts such a move would be popular here.
\n\n\n\nKeith Warriner, former chef, now University of Guelph microbiologist, explained to me how grocers determine BBDs. The manufacturer asks the retailer, “what shelf life do we expect for this product?” Manufacturers then formulate products to delay spoilage by adjusting the pH or packing them in oxygen-poor conditions. That’s when the clock starts ticking. Take deli meat. After being preserved with sodium nitrate, its shelf life extends to 60-70 days, long enough to travel to the distributor—Canada’s a big place—then to the grocer who hopes it sells soon, because no one wants to sell spoiled meat.
\n\n\n\nCompanies set up in-house studies where they set the product in the refrigerator and wait, using sensory analysis—looking, sniffing, and tasting—to gauge when it’s spoiled. Sometimes, for extra wiggle room, they dial up the temperature to 10°C, when food spoils faster. The BBD could be five, 15, or 30 days onward, depending on whether we’re discussing soft cheeses or yogurt.
\n\n\n\nA more rigorous but less common approach identifies the growth of specific spoilage organisms. For instance, yogurt supports the growth of fungus which appears as mold. Mold looks nasty and makes yogurt taste funky, but it isn’t necessarily harmful.
\n\n\n\n“Best before” doesn’t necessarily mean “bad after.”
Meanwhile deli meat, seafood, and lettuce support Listeria, a hardy bacteria that’s undetectable by sensory analysis and can cause sepsis or meningitis—especially in newborns, according to the Mayo Clinic—and fetal demise in pregnant women. Lab technicians inoculate a product with a particular bug, hold it at the standard 4°C (or higher for extra caution) then note when microbial growth exceeds a certain count. The safety cut-off for Listeria is 100 colony-forming units (CFU)/gram, far below its infectious dose, which for healthy people ranges from 10-100 million CFU/gram, depending on the bacterial strain.
\n\n\n\nThe trouble with eliminating BBDs, microbiologist Warriner says, is having to trust retailers. Only they know how long that product’s languished on their shelf. By the time deli meat reaches day 60, will retailers discount it, divert it to food banks, or trash it? He suggests developing a hybrid system, so consumers who want BBDs can download an app to scan the product, while others simply bypass this step.
\n\n\n\nBack to our family dinner. I thawed last summer’s frozen wings, seasoned them well and baked them in a hot oven to smash reviews. But I didn’t tell my son-in-law the BBD was eight months ago.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2280,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,48,8,10,34,22],"tags":[557,128,145,556,425,60],"class_list":["post-2277","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-health","category-living","category-magazine","category-monetary-values","category-voices","tag-affordability","tag-business","tag-family","tag-ferrukh-faruqui","tag-food-waste","tag-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nWhen Justice Moore says “I wouldn’t be here if Tea Creek weren’t here,” you can tell he means it.
\n\n\n\nTea Creek—a family farm turned award-winning Indigenous food sovereignty training centre—is the subject of a new eponymous documentary directed by Ryan Dickie. Tea Creek the film is having its world premiere at this year’s DOXA Documentary Film Festival.
\n\n\n\nMoore started out as one of many trainees spending a growing season at Tea Creek Farm, and is now a landscape horticulture apprentice there. The farm is in Gitxsan territory, colonially known as northwestern British Columbia. Jacob Beaton co-owns the farm with his partner Jessica Ouellette and says in the film that as Tea Creek grew, they found themselves unexpectedly leading a movement for Indigenous food sovereignty.
\n\n\n\nThe land they’re on is particularly fitting for what Tea Creek has blossomed into. Beaton explains that he was told by a hereditary chief that the valley has long been “what we’d now call farm and ranch land.” But colonization disrupted Indigenous food systems, and has largely erased Indigenous agricultural history with them. According to Beaton—who has Haida, Heiltsuk, Tsimshian, and British ancestry—Canadian society largely brushes over the fact that Indigenous peoples intentionally stewarded their lands for agricultural use. Beaton says the myth that Indigenous societies depended only on hunting and gathering is so pervasive because it makes it easier to justify the theft of their lands.
\n\n\n\nAgainst this historical backdrop—and the intergenerational trauma, food insecurity, and climate change it has wrought—the film follows Beaton through Tea Creek’s successes and financial challenges. Highlighting human stories like Moore’s within this context was the shared vision of director Dickie (who has Dene and Kwakwaka’wakw ancestry) and producer Ben Cox.
\n\n\n\n“There are so many stories like Justice’s at Tea Creek,” Cox told me over the phone. The filmmakers knew they wanted to focus on a junior farmer to help tell the story, but at the beginning of production, they didn’t know who that would be. “It turned out that person was Justice—and Justice is incredible.”
\n\n\n\nMoore—who is Gitxsan and Tsimshian from Gitwangak village (also known as Kitwanga) south of Tea Creek—says in the film that he’s benefitted from the consistent support at the farm. “You’re always appreciated, you’re always valued, you’re always respected.” Explaining that he was in a “dark place” before getting involved with Tea Creek, Moore credits his new environment with keeping him sober and making him more confident.
\n\n\n\nThe farming activities of Tea Creek are in lockstep with its service as a healing space for Indigenous community members.
Running Tea Creek has been a transformative experience for Beaton, too. “I’ve always struggled with my identity as an Indigenous person, being white as well,” he says in the film. He sought out therapy to disrupt “the multigenerational mechanism” of trauma that was passed down from his grandfather—a residential school survivor—and affected Beaton’s life as a young man.
\n\n\n\n“In the last few years, with Tea Creek, I’ve definitely become more comfortable,” he says, “because I have a heart-to-heart connection with so many of our participants and staff.”
\n\n\n\nMany of the participants depicted throughout the film echo similar sentiments of healing and transformation. The farming activities of Tea Creek are in lockstep with its service as a healing space for Indigenous community members.
\n\n\n\nBeaton says the “Tea Creek Model” is “a natural evolution of being a good community member.” This includes simple, neighbourly acts like picking up people who don’t have a ride to the farm and feeding someone if they’re hungry. In the documentary, Beaton expresses surprise at how rare this kind of approach was among other trades training programs.
\n\n\n\nTea Creek’s multifaceted approach to community resilience—including social, environmental, and economic elements—is what makes it special. Beaton says median incomes for Indigenous people in the valley where Tea Creek sits range “between $13,000 and $20,000 a year,” which makes it hard for families to maintain food security with limited resources. Beaton calls the farm’s style of agriculture “Indigenous-inspired modern agricultural food production, where you can easily feed your family in your front yard or backyard with very basic tools.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-body.jpg\")
Local food production like Tea Creek’s has environmental benefits and helps build food-system resilience. Beaton points out in the film that more than half of the produce consumed in Canada is imported. The risk of system breakdown—which could be induced by anything from a pandemic to climate disasters—is high when we rely so heavily on our current fragile systems.
\n\n\n\nBut despite the important niche Tea Creek fills, finding funding has been a consistent challenge. For Beaton, this precarity descends directly from the food-system destruction that Canadian public policy wrought on Indigenous nations. He says action to repair that damage is missing from official efforts at reconciliation. Producer Cox says he believes that, for Beaton, “public policy created this problem, and therefore, public policy and government should fund Tea Creek.”
\n\n\n\nTea Creek’s precarity descends directly from the food-system destruction that Canadian public policy wrought on Indigenous nations.
A cycle of excitement, opportunity, and dashed hopes have plagued Beaton’s efforts. In one scene, Beaton shares an update after a call with a company initially interested in providing funding: “It’s just… there’s no money.”
\n\n\n\n“It was heartbreaking to see their ups and downs,” Cox told me. “We followed them for two, three years, and the funding problem that we captured in the final scene… that happened like every second week.”
\n\n\n\nThe costs of running the program are high for Beaton, but the costs of not running it are higher. In one dramatic scene, he explains that over the winter—when funding ran out and the farm was forced to shut down—the farm lost four community members who had relied on Tea Creek as a healing space. “People die because Tea Creek isn’t operating,” Beaton says.
\n\n\n\nTea Creek staff have asked Beaton to emphasize this during fundraising efforts to communicate how essential Tea Creek is to the wider Indigenous community. Viewers of the film can feel the urgent need for the support Tea Creek provides, but it remains to be seen whether funders will feel that pull, too.
At the beginning of Tea Creek, Indigenous food sovereignty is defined as “the right for Indigenous people to produce, distribute, and consume their own food.” By the end, however, it’s clear that it’s also a radical embrace of hope and a commitment to healing in the face of traumatic history.
Tea Creek (73 min) screens May 4 at 4:15 pm (at The VIFF Centre) and May 9 at 8:45 pm (at the SFU Cinema). Tickets are available on the DOXA website.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2146,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[13,42,14,50,8,7,9],"tags":[30,81,55,110,460,214,339,432,550,283,514],"class_list":["post-2142","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-design","category-bc","category-food","category-indigenous","category-living","category-society","category-west-coast","tag-agriculture","tag-canada","tag-colonization","tag-documentary","tag-doxa","tag-food-security","tag-gitxsan","tag-local-food","tag-stewardship","tag-sun-woo-baik","tag-tsimshian"],"yoast_head":"\nJustice Moore harvests kale in a film still from Tea Creek.
\n"},"alt_text":"Justice Moore, a young Gitxsan/Tsimshian man wearing a cap and hi-vis vest harvests kale at Tea Creek.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2024/05/tea-creek-header.jpg","filesize":199596,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"tea-creek-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":17339,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"tea-creek-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":116610,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"tea-creek-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":7478,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"tea-creek-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":74980,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"tea-creek-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/tea-creek-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/2146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=2146"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":13,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/art-design/","name":"Art & Design","slug":"art-design","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nFounded in 2015, Nada was one of the first zero-waste grocery purveyors in Vancouver. From pop-up beginnings, it grew to a brick-and-mortar store and delivery service. But at the end of May, the business closed its doors. For Emily Sproule, the year leading up to the closure was one of impeccably bad timing.
\n\n\n\nIn 2020, Sproule had launched Jarr, a package-free grocery delivery service also operating in and around Vancouver. She sold the company to Nada last year and intended to stay on staff—but a new cancer diagnosis made that difficult. She ended up stepping back almost entirely.
\n\n\n\nJust as Sproule was coming out the other side of treatment, Nada was closing. But it only took 10 days from Nada’s end for Sproule to find a new beginning: she renamed Jarr’s Instagram account to @jarr_mvmnt and started posting about where and how to reduce packaging waste while shopping in her East Van neighbourhood.
\n\n\n\nFor Sproule, revamping Jarr’s Instagram was about opening up possibilities for the future. “I wanted to continue to support our community if these stores didn’t exist anymore,” she explains. “It feels like a second chance to still have the mission that I always had with Jarr. While I’m starting this way with the community-building aspect through Instagram, I’m very open to see where that leads.”
\n\n\n\nInspiration came from her own experience of finding safe, supportive spaces during cancer treatment. She enjoyed an Instagram account that shared “very humourous posts” about cancer. “They were getting community members to engage with each other,” she explains. “I’d love to offer a space where people can feel supported, especially when it comes to eco-anxiety.”
\n\n\n\nSproule eventually wants to grow the Jarr community to create a network of zero-waste knowledge across the city. “Right now, I can document around my neighbourhood where the plastic-free produce is, but I’d love to do that in all the neighbourhoods of Vancouver,” she says. “What we really need is a group of people working together to create these posts, who already live in these communities.”
\n\n\n\nOne of her first shopping-centred posts featured a trip to the Soap Dispensary on Main Street, which Sproule calls “an easy, quick switch-out for Jarr and Nada.” Founded in 2011 as Vancouver’s first soap refill shop, the Soap Dispensary started selling food in 2015. The store offers body care products like deodorants, soaps, and lotions; cleaning products for the bathroom, kitchen, and laundry; and pantry staples like flour, cocoa powder, and the dried fruit and nuts featured in Sproule’s video.
\n\n\n\nShoppers can buy items packaged in paper bags or containers that can be returned for a deposit, bring their own containers, or fill donated containers available at the shop. With an empty container, you start by weighing it, attach a smart tag that remembers that weight, then refill to your heart’s content! A cashier will then process the item for checkout.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-spices.jpg\")
Another option Sproule has highlighted is organic grocer and café Eternal Abundance on Commercial Drive, whose spices come in jars that can be returned to the store for a deposit. About 10 blocks south on the Drive, City Avenue Market sometimes stocks package-free gems like cauliflower wrapped only in its own leaves.
\n\n\n\nIn an Instagram Reel, Sproule shouted out a strategy some Jarr community members are using: buying in bulk and splitting it with friends. “You can control a lot of your household waste by getting larger amounts, especially for shelf-stable items,” she says. For example, Sproule mentions that grocery distributor Horizon has a buying club program for groups to purchase large quantities directly instead of going through a grocery store.
\n\n\n\nSometimes, though, zero-waste is as easy as picking the right stuff in your usual grocery store. “If something’s double-wrapped in plastic, don’t buy it,” Sproule suggests. You can also find waste-reducing options like bulk dry ingredients and loose produce at “small places that maybe don’t classify themselves as a zero-waste store—places like Santa Barbara Market and Persia Foods.”
\n\n\n\nWhen you try to make something look like plastic and act like plastic, it’s going to do just that in the landfill.
Beyond shopping, some cafés and restaurants in Vancouver such as Matchstick, JJ Bean, and Jamjar are partnering with Reusables, which allows members to pick up drinks and food in reusable metal cups, bowls, and rectangular containers they rinse after using and return to a washing centre. And since June, an Uber Eats pilot program lets users order food packed in Reusables’ metal containers from participating merchants across Vancouver.
\n\n\n\nSproule also mentions ShareWares, another Vancouver-based reusable container program. Beyond cafés and restaurants, ShareWares partners with event producers like Bard on the Beach and the Vogue Theatre to offer reusable cups labeled with QR codes that tell attendees where to return them for a refund.
\n\n\n\nFor Sproule, shopping intentionally makes a difference. When we’re shopping, she says, “We feel like we have to have everything.” Sproule tries to fight that impulse, though she’s not always successful. Still, it’s been helpful for her to take a moment to decide when something isn’t needed, to notice when something is packed excessively, and to let go when something that comes with too much packaging can be omitted from a recipe. These strategies can also be more accessible ways to reduce waste for those who can’t afford the premium that often comes with shopping at dedicated zero-waste stores, Sproule says.
\n\n\n\nAs simple as her tips might seem, that’s kind of Sproule’s whole thing. “I spent a lot of time trying to think of really sexy solutions. We all want the tech and we all want that miracle composting bag,” she says. But Sproule has found it’s most effective to go “back to basics, to what our grandparents did. It’s being more connected to our food and actually just doing the unsexy thing.”
\n\n\n\nSproule believes a culture of reuse can help change the world. And the point is to change. The search for perfectly recyclable, compostable, miracle materials is so attractive, Sproule thinks, because it means we don’t have to change our habits.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-cauli.jpg\")
“I remember researching compostable packaging 15 years ago,” she says. “And being like, ‘I want this to be the answer, but it’s not.’ When you try to make something look like plastic and act like plastic, it’s going to do just that in the landfill.”
\n\n\n\nShe recognizes that change can be uncomfortable. It takes a toll, and to make our choices sustainable, Sproule says, we need a balance between having conviction in our own capacity to act, and compassion for ourselves when we’re overwhelmed.
\n\n\n\n“I think true self-love and self-care is really an extension of wanting to care for everything around us,” she explains. “Being able to care for ourselves and know when we have the capacity to move forward and when we don’t—that internal perspective is what will help us.”
\n\n\n\nThis article is second in a series about reducing plastic in our lives. The series was made possible by a Vancity Community Branch Grant. Read the third story: “Shoes: The Pollutants Beneath Our Feet.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2070,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,6,39,51,9],"tags":[283,93],"class_list":["post-2068","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-plastic-pollution","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-sun-woo-baik","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nJarr founder Emily Sproule peruses plastic-free produce at Persia Foods on Commercial Drive
\n"},"alt_text":"Emily Sproule puts her hand into a box of green beans in a grocery store, near boxes of rhubarb, eggplant, bananas, tomatoes.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2023/08/Sproule-header.jpg","filesize":301129,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Sproule-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":23578,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Sproule-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":162654,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Sproule-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":11158,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Sproule-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":103744,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Sproule-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"@T.C.XPRO","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Sproule-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/2070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=2070"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nEleanor Boyle is not the first person to compare the fight against climate change to a war. Or even the first to write a book comparing it specifically to World War II. Seth Klein’s 2020 bestseller, A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, explicitly used WWII-era public policy as a guide for the changes we need to make to ward off the climate crisis.
\n\n\n\nBut while she may not be the first, the Vancouver-based food policy writer is uniquely qualified to make the argument laid out in her 2022 book, Mobilize Food! Wartime Inspiration for Environmental Victory Today. Boyle was captivated by the story of how Britain transformed its national food system in service of the war effort. With her backgrounds in journalism, sustainable food policy, and psychology, she’s ideally situated to recount the story of how citizens were convinced to enthusiastically accept the restrictions placed upon them, and connect that history to the possibility of climate-conscious food policy today.
\n\n\n\nBoyle spoke with Asparagus editor Jessie Johnston about Victory Gardens, inspirational leadership, and the not-at-all radical policy of rationing. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
\n\n\n\nJessie Johnston: What inspired you to write this book?
Eleanor Boyle: I had been writing about food—especially animal agriculture—and its impact on climate, and coming to feel that climate of our “war.” And discovered the story of how Britain prepared for WWII, in part, by completely redoing its food system in ways that would feed everybody, make the country more self-sufficient, and would help it in winning the war. It was just the most amazing story. And what it told me is that systems can change.
When most people in 2023 think of WWII food policies, they might be familiar with rationing and maybe Victory Gardens. But I know from your book that those were only part of a much larger package of policies. Can you share some of the other changes to the food system that were employed?
One of the thrusts of the programs was Victory Gardens: growing a lot of your own, relocalizing the food system. In terms of the entire country’s agriculture, it was revamped. In the 1930s, Britain’s agriculture was not very productive and was too much oriented to livestock and meat production. And so is ours. It is not a very efficient way of producing food. Animals eat a lot to produce a mere kilogram of meat.
So the government said, “OK. You’re going to plough up a whole bunch of pasture. You’re going to cut down on your livestock numbers. People will still be able to eat meat, but there won’t be quite as much. And we’re going to share it fairly, and we are going to devote more cropland to food for people.” Grains, vegetables, legumes, all those good things.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Mobilize-Food.jpg\")
And one of the themes that comes up a lot is that the changes were mandatory. I know Seth Klein talks about this [in A Good War]. In a crisis, you can’t just ask people politely to please consider wasting less food. Wasting food became illegal. And people were a little ticked off at first at the number of rules that had to be followed. But ultimately, the vast majority were super on board. Basically everybody got fed, which was way better than pre-war, when in Britain half the country had been either undernourished or malnourished.
\n\n\n\nI’m a huge fan of rationing. I think that for climate, we, Canada, whatever jurisdiction, should consider limiting or giving limited allocations to all of us: of how much we can drive, how much we can fly, and how much meat we can eat. Especially beef. It would be an amazingly effective way of lowering emissions.
\n\n\n\nWhat was done to make people accept and even feel enthusiastic about these measures?
How do we effect behaviour change? How do we inspire? How do we rally people to be part of this great project, which is to beat the climate crisis? To change behaviour, you need reasons and you need strategies. Reasons, that’s the education piece. And we all know that that is not enough. Average human beings can hear about things we need to do—that doesn’t necessarily make us do them.
You need strategies that are very specific: “This is what you should do.” I don’t hear much of this from the government. [For example], “Everybody should go three days a week without driving.” We need specifics. We need strategies for how we actually effect behaviour change. That’s number one.
\n\n\n\nIn a crisis, you can’t just ask people politely to please consider wasting less food.
Number two, We need leadership that we can get behind. People who tell us tough realities, but we can tell that they’re being absolutely honest and that they are right. Britain, luckily, had a few of those. They had the Minister of Food, who was amazing. The number one best-known nutritionist in Britain at the time, Marguerite Patten—people loved her. They would flock to the community centres and church basements and people’s homes to hear her talk about how to cook on rations. She was just so likable and so knowledgeable. We need people like that.
\n\n\n\nYou’ve got to have leadership to rally people, to let them what needs to be done, to be honest with them. And then you need specifics that the society can assign to people so that everybody’s involved. Little kids would be out in the garden with their parents and grandparents digging. People need meaningful tasks that really assist in the great project that everyone sees needs to be done.
\n\n\n\nYou touched briefly on Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food. Tell me a little more about him.
Lord Woolton, he was not an elected official; he was plucked from industry and asked if he would please do this. And he was the best kind of leader, which is a reluctant leader. He was a guy who was accustomed to administering huge businesses, but who also had a real heart. He had been a social worker in his youth.
He’d go to soup kitchens and talk to people. He also was a great negotiator. Britain was still importing some foods internationally. The money they had to spend to prosecute the war was unbelievable, and so Lord Woolton had very small budgets to bring in enormous amounts of whatever it was. And he was a tough negotiator.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/food-posters.jpg\")
The climate crisis doesn’t feel as immediately life-threatening to many people as war did. And the things we’re trying to achieve are different. Which of the policies that you learned about do you think really would translate to making progress on the climate crisis?
My focus is on food. Although it’s not our primary creator of greenhouse gasses today—burning of fossil fuels is—food is up there. Food produces between a quarter and a third of anthropogenic greenhouse gasses.
I think we need more government oversight of food production and also consumption. We have relegated food policy, to a large degree, to corporations. There are—in key sectors like livestock and meat—just a few big owners of mega production facilities, and they have enough power to really set a lot of goals. For example, all the science says, “We can’t eat meat every day anymore.” We don’t have enough planet to produce that. But the big beef companies are on both the defense and the offense to convince people that beef [is] not a climate problem. I think we need to seriously consider breaking up some of those monopolies.
\n\n\n\n[Haarlem] in the Netherlands, has banned meat advertising in the city centre. The gutsy Netherlands has decided to lower the number of livestock animals in the entire country. Again, you want to eat meat, fine. But we can’t give that much land to animals and that much control to a small number of companies.
\n\n\n\nWe ration things all the time, by price: if you can pay for it you can get it.
And I like the idea of some mandatory measures. I think it could be effective to limit the amounts of meat that people are allowed to eat so that it is within sustainable levels. And I always say there is nothing radical about rationing. We ration things all the time, by price: if you can pay for it you can get it. Which is not the best way to ration goods that produce a lot of greenhouse gasses. Another quick example of rationing: to walk the West Coast Trail, you can’t just go and start walking—you’ve got to apply for a permit. That is a kind of rationing. Because they are protecting the ecosystem.
\n\n\n\nBehaviour change is tough. There is nothing easy about the shifts that we need to make to beat back the climate crisis. But I think that we will find, if our societies can boldly do the things that need to be done, that it will be more than worth the effort.
\n\n\n\nIf I just look to this small case study, there were benefits that nobody predicted. Nobody thought that health would get better in Britain during the war. But because people were eating less sugar, less processed foods, less meat and more plants, people got healthier. There was less heart disease, there was less diabetes, etc. When you take on a challenge that needs to be taken on, it’s going to be really hard. But it’s also going to produce benefits beyond what we can even see.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1998,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[13,11,14,8,6,7],"tags":[30,69,71,83,505,236,383,506,535,503],"class_list":["post-1956","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-design","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-society","tag-agriculture","tag-books","tag-climate-crisis","tag-europe","tag-food-policy","tag-gardening","tag-jessie-johnston","tag-united-kingdom","tag-war","tag-wwii"],"yoast_head":"\nIllustration—A white man with brown hair, holding greens and a pitchfork in his right hand, with a cigar in his mouth.The words “Dig on for victory” are printed in red across the blue sky.
\n"},"alt_text":"Key text: \"Dig on for victory\"","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header.jpg","filesize":280263,"sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Dig-for-victory-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":18006,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Dig-for-victory-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":126462,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Dig-for-victory-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":10148,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Dig-for-victory-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":75312,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Dig-for-victory-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0","keywords":[]}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Dig-for-victory-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1998"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":13,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/art-design/","name":"Art & Design","slug":"art-design","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nHave you checked out your local home-goods store’s baking section lately? You may have noticed a rainbow of cooking utensils—baking molds, cupcake liners, baby bottles, you name it—lining the shelves. Made from the soft, rubber-like material we know as silicone, these items are easy to use, easy to clean, and easy on the eyes. And they’re made from an element that comes straight from the earth: silicon.
\n\n\n\nSilicon (pronounced SIH-la-kun) is the 14th element on the periodic table. It’s also the building block of that mixing spoon you’re holding. Despite being the second most abundant element on Earth (it makes up about 27% of the Earth’s crust), silicon is never found on its own. It’s usually bound to oxygen as a compound we call silica.
\n\n\n\nWhat we think of as sand is usually silica. It’s extracted from the earth by quarrying (or open-pit mining)—a process that disrupts natural features and habitats, like lakes, rivers, and shorelines.
\n\n\n\nThen, there are some ancillary environmental effects. Moving silica to a silicone manufacturing plant requires some form of transportation, which releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. And the furnace that heats the raw silica in order to separate out the silicon requires a lot of energy input. As with all materials, the production process is cleaner if that energy comes from a renewable source.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Lochaline_Sand_mine_yard_-_geograph.org_.uk_-_1303644.jpg\")
To understand how sandy silicon becomes rubbery silicones, we have to briefly go back to chemistry class. When making silicone (rhymes with “bone”), scientists have to isolate the silicon from silica by melting it with carbon in a very hot (upwards of 1700oC) furnace. The carbon and oxygen combine to produce carbon dioxide, separating out the silicon. This means that a greenhouse gas is a byproduct in the isolation of silicon. But whether it’s released into the atmosphere or captured in the process depends on the manufacturer.
\n\n\n\nTo make the silicone we use at home, raw silicon is combined with oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon, explains Michael Brook, who holds the chair in sustainable silicone polymers at McMaster University’s faculty of science in Hamilton, ON. To integrate the four elements, silicon is combined with a chemical called methyl chloride—which itself is created through a reaction of methanol and hydrochloric acid—in a reaction known as the Rochow Process. The product is a liquid form of silicone, also known as a “silicone oil.” Next, cool liquid silicone is either injected under pressure into heated molds or poured into hot compression molds. The heat cures the silicone into the final product—like your kitchen spoon.
\n\n\n\nScientists have been experimenting with silicone for decades. Though the term was coined in the late 1920s, it gained popularity during World War II, when scientists began looking for alternatives to natural rubber as supplies were cut off during the war. By the 1960s, silicones were used in baby bottle nipples, which, Brook says, was transformational for the material. People started to think, “If it’s safe enough for my kid to suck on, it might be safe for a consumer product,” he says.
\n\n\n\nThe first silicone spatula showed up around the 1990s. This food-grade silicone—meaning it has to adhere to health and safety regulations—gained popularity for its many useful properties in cooking. It’s durable, flexible, liquid-proof, resistant to high temperatures and stains, and free of harmful fillers like bisphenol A (BPA), which are often added to plastics to enhance their properties and reduce costs, but can have devastating health effects.
\n\n\n\nBrook says he doesn’t see any human safety issues with food-grade silicone. “I think that silicones offer a lot of advantages,” he says. “One of them is that they’ve been around for a long time. And food-contact silicones are not the same as the silicones you would use in your bathtub to seal it to the tile, for example.”
\n\n\n\nExperts at Health Canada agree. They note: “There are no known health hazards associated with use of silicone cookware. Silicone rubber does not react with food or beverages, or produce any hazardous fumes.”
\n\n\n\nTo check whether silicone has harmful fillers in it, give it a twist. If the colour changes, it’s likely got something else in there.
One thing Brook says to watch out for is the dyes used in cookware products. “Silicones are clear,” he says. So if you’ve got pastel-coloured cupcake molds, or a bright red spatula, that means something’s been added to the product—not necessarily something harmful, but something you might not know the properties of.
\n\n\n\nHe adds that silicone oil, which is part of the manufacturing process, can sometimes leach out of silicone products over time, though it happens in such small quantities that you’re unlikely to notice, and it’s perceived to be safe for human consumption at those levels.
\n\n\n\nSilicone culinary tools like molds or utensils are meant to replace items made from plastic and metal. “As someone who has tried to clean rusty bread tins and basically given up in disgust because you can never get them clean,” Brook thinks silicone in the kitchen is a worthwhile investment.
\n\n\n\nHe also mentions that silicones are more thermally stable than most plastics, especially the cheap plastics we sometimes find in the kitchen, which means silicone products will ultimately last longer with regular use.
\n\n\n\nBut not all silicones are created equal. Look for products that are marked food-grade or GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe). And, to check whether the silicone in your shopping cart has harmful fillers in it, give it a twist. If the colour changes, it’s likely got something else in there. Pure silicone doesn’t change its colour, even when twisted.
\n\n\n\nWhen it comes to disposal, silicone can be recycled, but not in your everyday blue bin—it needs to be sent to a recycling facility that can handle silicone, like commercial recycler TerraCycle, which accepts hard-to-recycle materials mailed in by individuals. And even then, it’s usually downcycled into a lower-grade product. Recycling facilities mechanically break down used silicone before mixing it with fresh silicone to make products such as recycled silicone molds, playground mulch, or building insulation.
\n\n\n\nBut since the recycling process isn’t available on doorsteps, many people toss old silicone products into their garbage cans, where they could potentially become an issue, because silicone rubber isn’t biodegradable.
\n\n\n\nThe best way to keep your kitchen green is by asking yourself whether you really need a new product, and buying secondhand when you do. If you ultimately do go with silicone, give it another life by finding a recycling facility when you’re done with it.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1679,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,39,23,35],"tags":[435,330,436,179,125,94,437],"class_list":["post-1493","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plastic-pollution","category-start-small","category-story-of","tag-cooking","tag-erin-flegg","tag-housewares","tag-mining","tag-plastic","tag-recycling","tag-tina-knezevic"],"yoast_head":"\nWhether in the form of jiggling blocks, savoury sauces, or cool drinks, the humble soybean is as much a part of our diets today as it was back in ancient China. It wouldn’t be until the 1950s, however, that soy started ballooning into the mammoth industry it is now. In turn, soy cultivation has led to widespread deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the displacement of people around the world.
\n\n\n\nSome have deemed the soybean “king of beans,” and for good reason. The legume, native to East Asia, is one of few vegetables containing all nine essential amino acids. Soybeans are 35–38% protein — double the protein proportion of pork and triple that of eggs — and produce more protein per hectare than any other crop, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Soy numbers among the most profitable crops out there.
\n\n\n\nSoy is the main source of protein in our global supply chain today. That’s because 85% of the global soybean crop is used as animal feed. Roughly 13% is made into valuable oil; soy is the second most used cooking oil in the world after palm. Only about 7% of the global crop goes into non-oil food for humans.
\n\n\n\n85% of the global soybean crop is used as animal feed.
After the fall harvest, the majority of soybeans are crushed and processed to separate the oils from the solids (soybean meal). The protein-rich meal is destined for animal feed and human food. Aside from use in cooking and biofuels, soy oil is processed for lecithin, an emulsifier used in pharmaceuticals and many other products.
\n\n\n\nSince the 1950s, global soy production has increased 15 times over. As our population grows, the appetite for meat around the world is climbing. To satisfy the soaring demand, more fertile land has to be converted into soy fields.
\n\n\n\nRoughly 80% of global soy production takes place in just three countries — Brazil, Argentina, and the US — with Brazil being the biggest exporter. South America is especially at risk of agriculture-motivated deforestation, with the area dedicated to soy cultivation more than doubling from 2000 to 2019.
\n\n\n\n“There’s nothing intrinsic in the soy crop that makes it a problem for the environment,” says Devlin Kuyek, a Montreal-based member of international non-profit Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN). Based in Spain, GRAIN is a think tank supporting small farmers fighting for community-controlled and biodiversity-based food systems around the world. “It’s the widespread monoculture use in the industrial food system that’s the problem,” Kuyek says.
\n\n\n\nMonoculture farming means planting only one type of crop on a field at a time — a practice that, while increasing yield and profits, can also lead to soil degradation and heightened pesticide use. Most soy produced today comes from monocultures grown on massive industrial plantations, says Kuyek.
\n\n\n\nWhen we’re losing species, we’re losing water. We’re losing our climate regulation ability.
These plantations need fertile land and plenty of it. Enter Brazil’s Cerrado, a vast tropical savannah containing 5% of all species on Earth. It is also the nation’s most productive agricultural land; today, roughly half the vast biome has been converted to farmland, most of it soy. In 2021, 8,531 square kilometres of the Cerrado was lost to mostly agriculture-driven deforestation, an area slightly smaller than Corsica.
\n\n\n\nMeanwhile, in the Amazon rainforest, soybean cropland has grown tenfold from 2000 to 2019, from 4,000 to 46,000 square kilometres. Due to recent regulations like the soy moratorium in the Amazon — an agreement among grain traders not to buy soy grown on recently deforested land — expansion in the region has slowed of late, according to Dr. Mariana Napolitano, head of science at WWF Brazil.
\n\n\n\n“In the Amazon, we have at least 50% of the biome protected by either protected areas or Indigenous lands,” she says. “In the Cerrado, this number falls to 12%.”
\n\n\n\nAccording to the Union of Concerned Scientists, regions like the Amazon and Cerrado have sucked billions of tonnes of heat-trapping gasses like carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere since data collection began in the 1990s.
\n\n\n\nWhen woodlands are cut down, some of the carbon they’ve been storing is released back into the atmosphere, according to Shane Moffatt, a spokesperson for Greenpeace. This could prove catastrophic in regions like the Cerrado, which stores an estimated 13.7 billion metric tonnes of carbon underground.
\n\n\n\nWWF’s Napolitano says tropical deforestation also leads to a rise in local extreme heat and decreased rainfall. Brazil — already suffering from its worst drought in nearly a century — could lose over US$4.6 billion worth of soy every year due to poor weather conditions if deforestation continues at its current clip, scientists estimate.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-Is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebBody-1024x512.jpg\")
That’s not to mention the biodiversity loss. In a recent study, Napolitano, WWF Brazil, and partners found most species in the Amazon and Cerrado lost 25–65% of their original habitat by 2019, with the Cerrado most affected.
\n\n\n\n“What’s important is how species are indicators,” says Napolitano. “So when we’re losing species, we’re probably losing water. We’re losing our climate regulation ability.”
\n\n\n\nAccording to GRAIN’s Kuyek, most soybeans grown today are genetically modified to be resistant to an herbicide called glyphosate — sold commercially as Roundup. This resistance means farmers can use more glyphosate to kill weeds without hurting their crops.
\n\n\n\nEvery year, farms in the US, Brazil, and Argentina spray soy with an estimated 2,500–10,000 metric tonnes of glyphosate — and more herbicide residue is detected each year on harvested soybeans. Much of the poison makes its way into surface water and soil, which can then impact the wildlife and local communities who drink from it, says WWF’s Napolitano.
\n\n\n\nIn 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Unfortunately, there has been a documented lack of research into the exact consequences of glyphosate exposure.
\n\n\n\n“The production of soy has huge implications on the survival of many Indigenous peoples in Brazil,” says GRAIN’s Kuyek. “In the Cerrado, you have local ‘businessmen’ who specialize in the fraudulent acquisition of land titles and certificates. They’ll also use intimidation and violence to try to push local people out.”
\n\n\n\nIn 2021, 8,531 square kilometres of the Cerrado was lost to mostly agriculture-driven deforestation
After accumulating or forging enough land titles, these brokers sell them onwards to larger groups, said Kuyek. Often, these larger groups are backed by multinational corporations. For example, in late 2021, American companies Cargill and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. were found to have sourced soy from Brazilian producers actively trying to force Indigenous people from their homes in the Cerrado, according to Thompson-Reuters.
\n\n\n\nWith all this in mind, is it time to give up tofu?
\n\n\n\n“There’s no need to give up your soya products if you enjoy them,” says Francine Jordan, a spokesperson for the Vegan Society, a UK-based registered charity. “But try to avoid South American soya, which is widely linked to deforestation. And choose certified organic soya milk wherever possible.”
\n\n\n\nThe charity also recommends buying locally produced soy products or those marked with the logos of sustainable soy certifiers like the Round Table on Responsible Soy, and ProTerra. These companies track sustainable practices in the supply chain, and certify companies that are up to their standards.
\n\n\n\nThe best solution, according to Greenpeace’s Moffatt, is to reduce or cut out meat-eating: “We’re consuming way more than the planet can sustain.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1301,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,8,10,6,23,35],"tags":[30,108,77,285,283],"class_list":["post-732","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-start-small","category-story-of","tag-agriculture","tag-amazon-rainforest","tag-animals","tag-kevin-jiang","tag-sun-woo-baik"],"yoast_head":"\nThere’s nothing intrinsic in soybean plants that causes environmental problems. But large scale soy cultivation has led to deforestation, biodiversity loss, and the displacement of people around the world.
\n"},"alt_text":"6 soybean pods hang from their leafy stems in a golden sun-lit field.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader.jpg","filesize":"169427","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"18658","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"132569","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8164","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"83842","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Soys-Rise-is-Causing-Ecological-Downfall_WebHeader.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1301"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":11,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/planet/climate-change/","name":"Climate Change","slug":"climate-change","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nIn Nyalenda Village, Kisumu County, Kenya, Millicent Odera grows maize (what North Americans call “corn”), beans, leafy vegetables, butternut squash, pumpkins, and onions on 1 hectare of land. She’s been at it for 20 years. But, six years into her small agribusiness, she noticed the productivity of her farm dwindling.
\n\n\n\n“I used to harvest up to 20 sacks of maize, when I started, which reduced to just eight over time,” recalls Odera. Continuous application of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides had depleted soil nutrients. Meanwhile, shifting rainfall patterns had dented the ability of farmers to accurately predict planting seasons. Increased floods and droughts due to climate change often resulted in farm losses due to death of crops. As a response, Odera moved away from conventional farming methods and tools, including pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and slash-and-burn agriculture.
\n\n\n\nShe’s among a group of smallholder farmers across Kenya who are reacting to environmental changes spurred by climate change by adopting new techniques to sustain their livelihoods, often with environmental benefits. These farmers are shifting away from traditional rain-fed agriculture by employing irrigation, using compost manure to add nutrients and minimize dependence on synthetic fertilizers, and growing crops that mature more quickly and require less rainfall.
\n\n\n\nIn most areas, farmers are battling with more clear signs of climate change.
The farmers also learn about drought-tolerant species, proper seed storage, tree selection for agroforestry, and water management from government agricultural extension personnel. Some are also taking up poultry farming instead of rearing livestock, motivated by the smaller amount of water, feed, and land required by birds.
\n\n\n\nThe impact of such changes can be significant. A 2020 study published in World Development Perspectives found that uptake of stress-tolerant crops in Kenya’s Nyando basin improved household income by 83%. Even so, many farmers struggle to improve productivity, with many lacking knowledge of how to confront the rising challenges posed by climate change.
\n\n\n\nIn the quest to improve her farm, Odero began rearing chickens, practicing vertical gardening, and growing vegetables in vessels that could retain moisture during dry seasons. She also undertook rainwater harvesting and storage to irrigate her vegetable garden during dry seasons and planted fruit trees, which provide mulching materials, additional food, and fuel wood.
\n\n\n\n“Changing climatic conditions forced me to shift from traditional to modern farming methods,” says Odero. The changes also cut back on her farm’s carbon emissions, she adds.
\n\n\n\nAcross Kenya, smallholder farmers — who produce over 70% of the country’s food and largely rely on rainfed agriculture — are contending with the impacts of climate change. Rainfall and sun patterns are becoming harder to predict, and droughts and floods are becoming more extreme. Since early 2020, the country has been coping with what is said to be the worst desert locust invasion in 70 years. Induced by heavy and widespread rainfall in East Africa, swarms of locusts have devastated entire fields. Climate change will continue to adversely affect Kenyan food security, with a decline in yields of up to 69% by the year 2100, according to a 2016 paper published by Environment for Development, a global network of research centres.
\n\n\n\n“In most areas, farmers are battling with what seems to be more clear signs of climate change,” says Esther Maina, an associate environmental consultant at Lead Securities Limited, a consultancy that undertakes environmental and social impact assessments of farming ventures in Kenya. “And this could have more grave impacts on our overall food security if innovative approaches are not quickly adopted.”
\n\n\n\nMilicent Akoth, another smallholder farmer from Kisumu County, says she believes the secret to climate-smart farming lies in healthy soils. Starting in 2004, Akoth recorded dwindling yields — a challenge she attributes to poor soil nutrient and moisture balance.
\n\n\n\n“In 2010, I sought the services of an agricultural extension officer from whom I learnt that besides poor moisture retention, my soil was highly acidic. This meant the soils could not support many of the crop varieties that we grow in this region,” she says. Akoth began using organic manure to reduce soil acidity, and introduced crops — such as sweet potatoes and chilis — that perform well in acidic soil.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Kisumu-web-body.jpeg\")
“With proper soil management, you do not need huge tracts of land,” says Akoth. Through proceeds from the farm, she can comfortably feed her family with a variety of fresh nutritious foods including sweet potatoes, peas, leafy vegetables, maize, cabbages, onions, and tomatoes.
\n\n\n\nAkoth uses part of the farm as a demonstration plot to train other women on soil and farm water management techniques. “I am confident that when this knowledge is passed on — especially to women who are the key custodians of our diets — the region will be food-sufficient,” she says.
\n\n\n\nHer trainings help fill a dire gap. Even though smallholder farmers grow most of Kenya’s fruits and vegetables, they lack information about emerging climate challenges and how to respond to them.
\n\n\n\nIn Nyalenda B Village, Kisumu County, about a hundred chickens cluck around Abigael Malanda’s 1,000 square metre farm. Malanda used to keep cattle, but due to climate change and the resultant dwindling water supply, she found it hard to maintain a sizable herd that could guarantee good returns.
\n\n\n\nIn 2010, she shifted to poultry-keeping, after training herself online to raise chickens. Birds generally require smaller spaces and consume less water and feed compared to livestock, and raising them results in fewer carbon emissions, she says. She also maintains an egg incubation unit and 20 ornamental birds on her farm.
\n\n\n\nWhen this knowledge is passed on, the region will be food-sufficient.
Malanda says she keeps her farm’s ecological footprint low by keeping the flock number small and sourcing almost all of her inputs locally. She also enjoys a ready market, since poultry farming is not widespread in the area. “Most of our customers collect their orders for eggs, meat, and live birds directly from the farm,” she says.
\n\n\n\nShe’s keen to share her knowledge and help others conserve resources. Since 2018, Malanda has taught poultry husbandry to over 500 farmers from the area with a focus on helping other women.
\n\n\n\nShe tells them about the economic and environmental benefits of raising poultry, she says. “I find happiness in seeing other women improve their income and mitigate climate change.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1511,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,46,14,8,6,7],"tags":[82,30,214,319,563],"class_list":["post-1198","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-economy","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-society","tag-africa","tag-agriculture","tag-food-security","tag-kevin-lunzalu","tag-soil"],"yoast_head":"\nEster Chebet is a farmer in the Kisumu region of Kenya.
\n"},"alt_text":"Kenyan farmer Ester Chebet walks through a field. She has dark skin, black hair, and wears a yellow skirt and blue shirt.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":994,"file":"2022/10/kisumu-header.jpg","filesize":"281956","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"kisumu-header-300x199.jpg","width":300,"height":199,"filesize":"21500","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header-300x199.jpg"},"large":{"file":"kisumu-header-1024x679.jpg","width":1024,"height":679,"filesize":"158886","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header-1024x679.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"kisumu-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8598","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"kisumu-header-768x509.jpg","width":768,"height":509,"filesize":"101637","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header-768x509.jpg"},"full":{"file":"kisumu-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":994,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/kisumu-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1511"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":11,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/planet/climate-change/","name":"Climate Change","slug":"climate-change","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWhen you think of ordering a healthy meal, what do you think of? Growing up, I was taught that healthy meals mean no carbs and lean protein, so I’d probably say grilled chicken or a salad. But even if your idea of a healthy meal looks different, takeout from the South Asian eatery around the corner probably wasn’t a contender, was it?
\n\n\n\nYou wouldn’t be alone in leaving curries and parathas off your healthy-eating list. Maha Naz Jamil is a 33-year-old Pakistani entrepreneur and writer who goes by the pen name Mia Rose. She grew up between the UK and Saudi Arabia and is now based in Lahore, and describes the South Asian food she’s eaten at restaurants outside of Pakistan as “heavy.” She says in the UK and Saudi Arabia, familiar dishes felt unhealthier than the versions she cooks at home.
\n\n\n\nUK-based medical doctor, personal trainer, and weight-loss coach Dr. Aishah Iqbal helps women understand nutrition and meet their health goals, and says she hears similar concerns from patients.
\n\n\n\nSouth Asian cuisine has many dishes that include the exact nutrition a healthy diet should include.
“I’ve worked with a number of women from South Asian backgrounds who have struggled to ‘eat healthy,’” she says, “because they feel that South Asian cuisine is neither healthy, nor can it be made healthy.” But, she told me, this idea is a misconception, “as the cuisine has many dishes that include the exact nutrition that a healthy diet should include: complex carbohydrates from rice and flatbreads; protein from lentils, beans, and chicken; healthy fats from oils.”
\n\n\n\nThis misconception isn’t just a problem outside South Asia. Today’s globalized culture means that ideas about food from North America and Europe not only impact South Asians who live in those places (like Iqbal’s patients), but also spread around the world where they can alter perceptions and eating habits in ways that are harmful to local food systems.
\n\n\n\nI grew up in Karachi, Pakistan, surrounded by a community obsessed with weight loss. I often heard that South Asian food is unhealthy. Someone I knew was always on a diet, and when they were, they would eat special diet food that never matched the food we usually ate. From an early age, I knew the differences between “normal” food and “diet” food. The former would be a typical home-cooked dinner like pulao — a dish of rice cooked in a meat broth — and the latter would probably be lean meat with some vegetables.
\n\n\n\nFor a long time this mentality coloured my own perceptions of what a healthy lifestyle was. I saw only very specific meals like grilled chicken or sautéed vegetables as being “healthy.” During times when I tried to be healthy, the pressure to limit myself to those foods — and guilt when I “cheated” — was overwhelming.
\n\n\n\nSomeone I knew was always on a diet, eating special diet food that never matched the food we ate.
This exporting of diet trends ignores the fact that cuisines don’t evolve in a vacuum, but in response to local circumstances. For instance, Karachi-based fitness coach Mahwish Shahkil points out that, “when you look at rural workers who still follow traditional [agricultural] lifestyles, South Asian cuisine is great for them because they burn that energy off.”
\n\n\n\nNonetheless, among my own family and friends working with nutritionists or paying for diet plans that send you pre-prepared meals — both increasingly popular in my circles — most of the “healthy” food being promoted in Pakistan leans toward Mediterranean recipes or East Asian stir-frys. My father is currently following such a meal plan, and receives meals like grilled chicken, open-faced sandwiches, or stir-fries of chicken and vegetables.
\n\n\n\nAlisha Haque-Burns is the co-owner of Lahore’s School of Culinary and Finishing Arts, and says the popularity of these diets does impact the way we view local foods. “[Popular diet trends] do take away from South Asian cuisine,” she says, “as the fats and cooking methods are very different to how most South Asian meals are made.” According to her, they make us give less value to the food we cook in our own homes, and force us to look to outside sources to feel healthier.
\n\n\n\nPakistan has historically thrived on local produce including wheat, pulses, and seasonal fruits. But as more and more restaurants introduce outside cuisines to local palates, tastes are changing. Zain Aziz founded Lahore’s FRED, a space that hosts pop-up restaurants (the name stands for “food, research, experience, and design”). In his time in the food business, he’s noted a mindset that considers imported food and foreign cuisines better than our local ones, and believes it could have a major impact on our food communities.
\n\n\n\n“Pakistani food has never been allowed to evolve,” he says. He believes the lack of change resulted from the feeling after Pakistan’s 1947 partition from India that staying true to our heritage required sticking to what we knew. In our increasingly globalised world, Pakistanis who want something new are looking beyond our borders — at least, they are if they can afford to.
\n\n\n\n“We travel to other places and eat their food and want to bring it back with us,” Aziz shares. I often hear people around me ask where they can get imported items like avocados and coffee, or complaining that they’re out of stock. Despite rising prices, and tariffs created to curb purchases of foreign food, the percentage of food imports to Pakistan is currently on the rise, after dropping steadily from 1998 to 2007. The reasons for this increase in imports are complex, but I can’t help thinking the view that foreign food is better is a factor.
\n\n\n\nStaying true to our heritage required sticking to what we knew. In our increasingly globalised world, Pakistanis are looking beyond our borders.
The team at FRED is trying to cater to these developing palates while supporting local food producers. Pop-ups at FRED may have featured ramen or Persian slow-cooked lamb, but wherever its menus originate, Aziz and his team try to source everything locally.
\n\n\n\n“[We] are working with local suppliers to form something of a supply chain,” says Nadira Amir, FRED’s head of operations. “We recently sourced oysters from Karachi, which was very exciting — these normally don’t even sell within Pakistan! We’re also working with local farmers to grow herbs, raise cattle, and poultry.”
\n\n\n\nWhere years worth of diet trends had people around me convinced that local food wasn’t desirable, a high-end restaurant like FRED supporting the local food industry can change attitudes. I remember discussions I’ve had with friends about the lack of different kinds of cheese in Pakistan. Eating at FRED and finding that they source cheese locally encouraged me to explore local options instead of assuming what I wanted wasn’t made here.
\n\n\n\nImported ideas about food can cause South Asians to question their diets, but can also have the opposite effect. In 2016, American reality TV star Kourtney Kardashian posted on her blog about starting her day with a teaspoonful of ghee (clarified butter) before eating anything else. Ghee is a South Asian staple, used as an alternative to cooking oil and butter. Kardashian didn’t use her ghee for cooking, though, she drank it from a cup. Suddenly, diet-trend followers, and South Asians who’d never thought much about ghee began to see it in a whole new light.
\n\n\n\nAs a Pakistani, seeing this hype was funny to me — after all ghee wasn’t exciting at home. But one celebrity endorsement had all kinds of media talking about it. As a kid I’d heard that “oily” South Asian foods were unhealthy.
\n\n\n\nWhenever I gained weight, the first thing people advised me to do was stop eating samosas. But when Kourtney Kardashian endorsed ghee, people around me changed their minds. When my family members used to go on a diet, they’d stock their kitchens with cooking sprays and air fryers. Women I knew would dab off oily snacks with a tissue. Now people tell me that “fat-first” is the way to go, and ketogenic diets — which cut out carbs but are high in fat to put the body in a fat-burning metabolic state called “ketosis” — have become popular here.
\n\n\n\nWhenever I gained weight, the first thing people advised me to do was stop eating samosas.
These constant changes in what’s perceived as “healthy” made me realise it’s more important to listen to my own body than to what others are talking about. A healthy lifestyle for me today is eating as much as my body needs, making sure I eat a good mix of vegetables and meat, and trying to eat at home a majority of the time. I no longer see the traditional foods I grew up with as the opposite of “healthy.”
\n\n\n\nI believe there’s a long way to go before Pakistani food culture truly honours local ingredients and flavours. I still feel like I have years worth of unlearning to do, and there’s so much that we, as Pakistanis, need to learn about regional food and how it can be a part of healthy eating. In the long run, I hope that people around me shift their focus toward local food for sustainable, healthy meals instead of jumping back and forth between imported diets and “normal” eating. Despite how globalisation and outside influences shape our own food choices, it’s important to realise that no matter what diet trends we’re following, the food we should rely on is the food we call home.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":917,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,22],"tags":[431,86,432,60,434,433],"class_list":["post-126","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-voices","tag-anmol-irfan","tag-asia","tag-local-food","tag-opinion","tag-pop-culture","tag-south-asia"],"yoast_head":"\nPooris fresh from the fryer
\n"},"alt_text":"A woman scoops pooris, disks of puffed, fried dough, from a pot of oil with a steel ladle.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1117,"file":"2022/09/food-culture.jpg","filesize":"263037","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"food-culture-300x223.jpg","width":300,"height":223,"filesize":"17564","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture-300x223.jpg"},"large":{"file":"food-culture-1024x763.jpg","width":1024,"height":763,"filesize":"111695","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture-1024x763.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"food-culture-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"7972","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"food-culture-768x572.jpg","width":768,"height":572,"filesize":"71983","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture-768x572.jpg"},"full":{"file":"food-culture.jpg","width":1500,"height":1117,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/food-culture.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=917"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWhen I first moved into my apartment, the wait time for a plot in the nearby community gardens was longer than I expected to stay in the area, so I didn’t bother applying. Three years later, I am still there, but the wait list has gotten much longer. Fortunately, I have a large patio and have been able to grow a variety of plants in containers. Though my harvest is limited by lack of sunlight, it gives me a great deal of pleasure and satisfaction to grow food for my family and see the insects, birds, and tree frogs who visit my garden every day.
\n\n\n\nThat said, container gardening in an environmentally responsible way can be challenging. Unlike in community gardens — where certain resources are provided for shared use — balcony and patio gardeners are on their own. Experts recommend partially or completely replacing potting soil every year to replenish nutrients and minimize disease. If you have to do this using bagged soil, it quickly becomes expensive and generates a lot of plastic waste.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebBody1.jpg\")
This past spring though, I had an idea: what if I could refresh the soil in my pots by paying for a share of the compost that would be delivered to the community garden around the corner from me? This would be more convenient, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly.
\n\n\n\nI sent an email to the community centre coordinating the compost delivery, asking whether they could order extra so nearby balcony and patio gardeners like me could benefit from the bulk purchase. I emphasized that I was ready to pay for my share, and that it would decrease the amount of plastic waste generated in our neighbourhood.
\n\n\n\nThis was not the first time I had identified a collective problem and proposed a simple collective solution, only to have it reframed as an individual problem.
I was disappointed but not surprised when the community gardens coordinator said this would not be possible. She suggested I drive 30 kilometres to our regional landfill and composting centre to fill my buckets. This was not the first time I had identified a collective problem and proposed a simple collective solution, only to have it reframed as an individual problem. Putting aside the question of how to choose between reducing my plastic waste or avoiding the emissions associated with driving, what if I didn’t own a car? The coordinator was trying to help, but such “solutions” gloss over the inequities experienced by gardeners living in apartments and condos with no access to collective resources.
\n\n\n\nMy friend Mel Cookson started gardening on her small balcony last summer. She is an artist and herbalist living with multiple chronic health conditions, and her garden is a model of waste-free growing. It consists mainly of cherry tomatoes grown from seeds she saved from last year’s harvest, and herbs and flowers she rescued on their way to the compost at her local garden centre.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebBody2.jpg\")
Her 40 tomato plants grow in square, 2-litre yogurt containers she has been saving since the pandemic began. They are packed closely together in rows the length of her balcony. Earlier in the season, she had emptied the soil from last year’s pots and painstakingly mixed it with new soil and compost, bought in plastic bags.
\n\n\n\nMel’s art practice often makes use of recycled textiles, and she approaches her garden with the same creativity and environmental ethos. Packaging is not garbage, she says, but a resource that, if treated with care, may be useful in the future. The plastic bags that once held the potting soil are neatly stacked on a shelf with her other gardening supplies, ready to serve as vessels for future soil mixing.
\n\n\n\nIt may be too much to expect all balcony gardeners to go to the lengths that Mel does to reduce waste. At least, it is if communities don’t provide them with support. The tools that allow gardeners to make their own soil and fertilizer, and start their own plants — composters, greenhouses, cold frames, etc. — all take up space container gardeners don’t have. At the same time, because limited space often corresponds with limited sunlight, balcony and patio gardeners tend to get a smaller harvest. Collective solutions to these difficulties could increase the number of people gardening in an environmentally beneficial way, and help build a culture of environmental awareness and connection to nature.
\n\n\n\nWhen soil is brought home in plastic bags and cannot be renewed through natural processes, gardeners miss an opportunity to learn how micro-organisms sustain soil health. When I can’t bear to let any of my spinach or kale plants flower and go to seed because my harvest is already small, I miss witnessing the insects and birds that might otherwise visit my blooming greens.
\n\n\n\nAnd when I buy vegetable starts from a garden centre, instead of growing my own from seed, it’s easy to ignore the agricultural workers who cared for the seedlings but were likely underpaid to keep prices low.
\n\n\n\nMel tells me that — particularly during the pandemic, when she has had to spend more time at home — her garden has been a sanctuary. It provides her with physical and emotional sustenance, a chance to reconnect with her love of plants, which is what she feels originally enabled her healing after years of struggling with addiction. I am happy that she has the creativity and energy to do this for herself. But imagine if the responsibility she takes for her own well-being was answered by an equitable distribution of gardening amenities? In other words, what if individual health and environmental health were part of the same collective project?
\n\n\n\nI ask Mel what she thinks of the idea that balcony and patio gardeners should have the opportunity to share bulk deliveries of soil or compost. “That would make a lot of sense,” she says. “It would be the sign of a healthy city if everyone had access to that.”
\n\n\n\nImagine how different our cities would be if more of us saw ourselves as active participants in the environment, rather than mere occupants?
Fortunately, we are not starting from zero with this kind of thing. Community gardens are a good example of how people living in condos and apartments can take part in larger, environmentally beneficial processes. These plots provide gardeners with precious space for cultivation as well as the opportunity to share bulk soil deliveries, make compost, and exchange plants and materials with other gardeners.
\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, we need many, many more community gardens — not only in parks, but also in innovative forms and settings, such as on rooftops, or using vertical gardening structures.
\n\n\n\nOther collective amenities could potentially be provided to container gardeners using spaces smaller than those required for community gardens. For example, in south Montreal, there is a community greenhouse that grows seedlings and provides educational programming to residents in the surrounding neighbourhoods who want to grow their own food. When I lived in Glasgow, Scotland, we took our food waste across the street to a community space that included several composters. We helped with their upkeep and when we needed compost for our small garden, we helped ourselves.
\n\n\n\nInvesting in these kinds of shared amenities would make gardening more accessible and encourage people to connect with their neighbours — something that can be daunting for those of us who don’t have a fence to chat over.
\n\n\n\nPropagating plants, saving seeds, and making compost are activities that take time and effort, but they have broader social and cultural impacts. Imagine how different our cities would be if more of us saw ourselves as active participants in the environment, rather than mere occupants? Every gardener willing to put in a bit of extra effort deserves to experience this — to feel that what they are doing is part of something bigger, and that how they do it matters.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1406,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[45,14,21,8,7],"tags":[427,109,33,397,236,141,60,563,161],"class_list":["post-1527","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","category-food","category-home-garden","category-living","category-society","tag-apartment-living","tag-community","tag-composting","tag-erin-despard","tag-gardening","tag-nature","tag-opinion","tag-soil","tag-sustainability"],"yoast_head":"\nA balcony garden in Hanoi, Vietnam.
\n"},"alt_text":"A vine with bright pink flowers and small green leaves hangs from the balcony of an apartment building in Hanoi, Vietnam.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader.jpg","filesize":"293785","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"25292","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"228313","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"9867","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"139708","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/When-it-comes-to-tiny-gardens-we-need-to-think-big_WebHeader.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1406"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":45,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/cities/","name":"Cities","slug":"cities","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nChances are, if you walk into your local coffee shop and order a latte, you’ll be asked what kind of milk you want—and the options will be endless. A 2018 University of Oxford study showed that producing a litre of dairy milk results in almost three times more greenhouse gas emissions than a litre of any other plant-based milk. As more people try to reduce their carbon footprint, plant-based options (sometimes called “mylk”) are becoming more commonplace.
\n\n\n\nIf you’ve ditched dairy in favour of plant-based milk, you’re already making a positive impact, according to Dr. Lenore Newman, Canada Research Chair in Food Security and the Environment at University of the Fraser Valley (UFV).
\n\n\n\n“Dairy has one of the biggest footprints of the major food groups,” explains Newman. “We’re diverting a lot of crops to feed cows.” When you switch away from dairy to an alternative, you make significant savings on greenhouse gas emissions.
\n\n\n\nDairy milk produces almost three times more greenhouse gases than any plant-based milk.
Sounds simple, right? As usual when trying to make the most eco-friendly decision, it’s nuanced. Some crops (like soy) are monocultures, meaning they’re repeatedly grown on a large scale on the same land (and that land has to be cleared to produce it). Too many of the same plant species in one area robs the soil of its nutrients.
\n\n\n\nBut while we want to make the most environmentally conscious choice, we also want the food we choose to be delicious and nourishing. Luckily, plant-based products have come a long way in terms of taste. Here’s how the most popular plant-based milks stack up in terms of environmental impact and nutrition.
\n\n\n\nAlmond milk is much better than dairy milk on greenhouse gasses, but it still has some major issues. It uses the most water by far compared to other crops grown for milks, according to a 2010 report from the Water Footprint Network. And it’s mostly grown in California (which is in a major drought).
\n\n\n\n“It uses a lot of water, it’s a monoculture and it’s really hard on pollinators,” Newman says. “Because almonds have to be pollinated, they bring almost all the bees in the western part of the continent to the almond farms in California. All this moving around isn’t good for bees.”
\n\n\n\nA Guardian investigation compared it to “sending bees to war,” as commercial beekeepers transporting their hives to almond farms see them die in record numbers.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebBody.jpg\")
Despite its downfalls, almond milk has a much smaller impact on global warming than most US dairy milk and about half the freshwater consumption, according to a study in The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment.
\n\n\n\nNutritionally, “almond milk lacks much protein, but does offer some fat,” says Jennifer Anderson, the registered dietitian behind the popular Instagram account Kids Eat in Color. Almonds themselves are a nutritional powerhouse, offering protein, healthy fats, and fibre. But almond milk consists mostly of filtered water. Levels of fortification vary across brands.
\n\n\n\nEthically, it’s not the best option either. “The labour force that harvest the almonds don’t have it really easy,” says Newman. And that’s putting it mildly. According to the July 2020 Covid-19 Farmworker Study led by the California Institute for Rural Studies, an estimated 90% of California farmworkers were born in Mexico, and approximately 60% are unauthorized to work in the US. Their undocumented status means they don’t have access to health care services, and they don’t get sick leave if exposed to Covid-19.
\n\n\n\nVerdict: Skip the almond milk if other plant-based options are available.
\n\n\n\n“Soy is a monoculture, so there is some clearing of land to produce it,” says UFV’s Newman. Soy’s water footprint is also larger than peas’, oats’, coconut’s and hemp’s, though it’s nowhere near as high as almond’s. Studies show soy’s greenhouse gas emissions are about equal to almonds’ and peas’, but much lower than dairy’s.
\n\n\n\nAnother issue is that a large percentage of the world’s soy is “Roundup Ready” — genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide glyphosate (Roundup), which the World Health Organization has linked to cancer.
\n\n\n\nAccording to a 2013 study in Food Chemistry, genetically modified soybeans contain high residues of glyphosate. Organic soybeans, on the other hand, have a more healthy nutritional profile than other soybeans and come with the major bonus of not being treated with chemical pesticides or herbicides.
\n\n\n\nBecause almonds have to be pollinated, almond farms bring almost all the bees in the western North America to California.
In short, if there are only certain foods you can afford to buy organic, soy should definitely be on that list.
\n\n\n\nDespite its pitfalls, soy does have a few party tricks. First off, because it’s a legume, it fixes nitrogen in the soil, which reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. Second, according to a McGill University study, soy milk is the best plant-based milk nutritionally, offering the closest nutritional profile to cow’s milk. That makes it a good option for families with young kids.
\n\n\n\n“If you are using plant-based beverages with a toddler, it must be high in fat and protein, otherwise it is not nutrient-dense enough for a toddler,” says Anderson.
\n\n\n\nVerdict: Soy is a great high-protein option, but it’s best to choose organic when possible.
\n\n\n\n“The big winner, and my favourite, is oat milk,” says Newman. “Oat milk is one of the best-tasting options,” she says. And it’s also homegrown. Canada is a top producer of oats and canola.
\n\n\n\nEuropean brand Oatly generates 80% lower greenhouse emissions than cow’s milk, according to their sustainability report. Land-use is also about 80% lower than cow’s milk, and oats typically use less water to grow than all other milk crops.
\n\n\n\nBut oat milk is likely the least nutrient-dense, according to Anderson. “You need to look at the nutrition facts and compare the brands in your local store,” she says.
\n\n\n\nThe negatives of oat milk: Popular oat products like instant oatmeal, breakfast cereal and snack bars were tested for glyphosate in an Environmental Working Group study. Roundup was present in almost all the products made with conventionally grown oats, and almost 93% of those samples had glyphosate levels higher than what EWG scientists consider safe for children.
\n\n\n\nOrganically grown oats fared better, with only about 30% of the samples containing glyphosate, all at much lower levels. Oats, while a monoculture “are usually grown on previously farmed land, so the issue is subtle,” says Newman.
\n\n\n\nVerdict: Oat milk is a great heart-healthy option, especially if you choose organic.
\n\n\n\nPea milk has a lot in common with soy. It’s high in protein (and often has added fat), making it another good dairy alternative for toddlers. Because they’re also legumes, peas replenish nitrogen in the soil. Unlike soy, peas are less likely to be genetically modified to be Roundup Ready. Pea is one of the more expensive options on the market, though, so for families who drink a lot of plant-based milk it might be a better occasional purchase.
\n\n\n\nAs for coconut, it is a good option, says Newman “because it is usually farmed in mixed plantations with other species, and it brings money into parts of the world that really need small industry.” The downside is, “you have to bring it halfway around the world, so there is a bit of a carbon footprint.” Also, when you’re picking out a coconut milk, look for one that’s Fair Trade (and therefore produced more equitably).
\n\n\n\n“The real truth is that dairy is rising in popularity around the world on average,” says Newman. “It’s weird because North Americans are moving away from it. What happens if everyone else uses as much dairy as North Americans? The answer is: You just can’t do that.”
\n\n\n\nCan we single-handedly save the planet by choosing plant-based milk? Or save the bees by avoiding almond milk? Probably not. But at least our morning coffees don’t need to be part of the problem.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1319,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,23,28],"tags":[286,449,123],"class_list":["post-741","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-start-small","category-decider","tag-katharine-reid","tag-milk","tag-vegan"],"yoast_head":"\nA person straining almond milk through cheesecloth. Almond milk is one alternative with a smaller environmental impact than conventional dairy.
\n"},"alt_text":"A person strains almond milk through a cloth into a glass bowl next to a jar of almonds, a metal bowl, & a mortar & pestle.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader.jpg","filesize":"163917","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"10362","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"69232","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"5238","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"43204","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-Decider-Plant-based-Milks_WebHeader.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1319"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nThis morning as I watched 6-year old Little Grey Lamb lick the peanut butter and jam off his toast, I knew the fate of that bread: although I consume many kid leftovers, there was no way I’d put that slobbery mess in my mouth or in soup stock, and we’re choosy about what goes into our backyard compost. It was landfill-bound.
\n\n\n\nWhile some food waste is just the collateral damage of having kids, there is so, so much more we can prevent or divert. According to a 2019 report by Toronto-based food rescue organization Second Harvest, over half of Canada’s food is wasted every year, which is more than the global average of one third, and higher even than in the US, where between 30% and 40% of food is wasted. And 14% of that Canadian waste comes from households just like mine.
\n\n\n\nIt’s tempting to close our eyes to what we put in our trash cans, but the facts are hard to ignore. Wasted food is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Meanwhile, almost one in seven Canadians is food-insecure. That number goes up to one in five when there are children in the home.
\n\n\n\nWasted food is responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Fixing food waste doesn’t automatically solve hunger, at home or abroad. But in lower-income countries, helping farmers avoid food loss and spoilage can make more food available to those who need it. In higher income countries, reducing food waste along the supply chain means retail costs can go down.
\n\n\n\nAddressing food waste feels overwhelming, because it is. It’s hugely complex, but I’m choosing to start in my kitchen and work my way out.
\n\n\n\nThe term “farm to table” is popular on restaurant menus and grocery store placards, but it can be hard to wrap our heads around the costs of that journey. Author and advocate Tristram Stuart said in a 2019 interview that “wasting a third of the world’s food supply represents a colossal amount of completely needless deforestation, carbon emissions, soil erosion, fresh water use and species extinction.”
\n\n\n\nGlobal emissions from wasted and lost food are around three times the amount produced by aviation. While agricultural practices, land use, and supply chains are the biggest GHG culprits, I’ve come to appreciate that any household scraps I can’t compost will soon be releasing methane in a landfill — without helping anyone’s garden grow.
\n\n\n\nSome environmental costs of food production are inevitable, but food waste is by definition avoidable.
The food system guzzles up our water as well, so wasted food means wasted water. The American National Resources Defense Council estimates that throwing out one hamburger wastes as much water as a 90-minute shower, and an egg uses the equivalent of an 11-minute shower. Some environmental costs of food production are inevitable, but food waste is by definition avoidable. These are unnecessary impacts.
\n\n\n\nWhile it’s impossible to create a one-size-fits-all solution to manage these impacts, Stuart has no problem coming up with one word to describe the food system: “Ecocidal.” It’s a decidedly glum term, but it contains a (very tiny) glimmer of hope. We got ourselves into this mess because our actions are powerful. We need to remember that power to effect change as we look for solutions.
\n\n\n\nIt’s been difficult to focus on food waste over the course of the pandemic. When my childcare went from part-time to zero-time, it was a struggle to even make dinner, let alone make plans for those poblano peppers I purchased on a whim. But a recent article I wrote on global food waste reminded me of everything we already do in my family — and also that I’d better use my privilege to do more.
\n\n\n\nWhile many families are tossing less due to meal plans and less-frequent shopping trips, both were pre-pandemic normal for us. We have a backyard composter (OK, three) and garden boxes ready to receive their output. Our freezer is full of veggie scraps for “someday soup.” I pack leftovers for lunches, and make breadcrumbs from stale crusts. I scan the quick-sale section of No Frills, looking for discounts on soon-to-expire tins, and cereal in damaged boxes.
\n\n\n\nI also lose track of mystery meals at the back of the fridge. I lament liquified lettuce in the crisper.
But I also lose track of mystery meals at the back of the fridge. We toss things based on expiration dates (which I know are woefully unregulated and misleading for consumers, but until a better system comes along, I often err on the side of caution). I lament liquified lettuce in the crisper. And the lamenting intensifies as I consider that Canada’s National Zero Waste Council says the amount of vegetables this country wastes every day is equivalent to 470,000 heads of lettuce.
\n\n\n\nI’m far from perfect, so I asked my savvy group of parent friends for their tips. Here’s a selection:
\n\n\n\nVanesa’s one word struck me as important, so I asked her for more. Vanesa is originally from Mexico, where the mothers and grandmothers say “la comida es bendita” and “la comida es sagrada” (meaning “food is blessed” and “food is sacred”). Food is sacred and wasting it is akin to sin. Luckily, “all leftovers can be tacos.” Vanesa has made tacos for me, and I assure you this is a delicious solution.
\n\n\n\nI’ve gotten so lost in statistics on food recovery and tips to prevent loss, I’ve forgotten our relationship with food is a contract. In taking care of our bodies, we are obliged to also take care of our planet and community.
\n\n\n\nI want to be part of food rescue efforts in my community, so I reached out to a local non-profit, the Cochrane Food Connection. It turns out there is a tonne of work being done. Most grocery stores and restaurants are diverting waste by giving to food banks or community outreach programs, though a couple are not. It was disheartening to discover not everyone is on board, but I’m stoked there are people out there inviting companies to participate, even if they’re not always getting the answers they want.
\n\n\n\nIn taking care of our bodies, we are obliged to also take care of our planet and community.
I found out that a community pantry is being launched this month; I’m sure my kids would like to become volunteers (a.k.a. food rescue adventurers) if we can. I also learned some retailers are donating food they can’t sell to a program that will help young parents learn to cook for their families. News like this makes the tough truths of food waste go down a bit easier.
\n\n\n\nEating our food before it goes bad won’t fix the food system, nor will it magically mean the end of hunger. But 63% of Canada’s household food waste is avoidable, so each bit we prevent puts less pressure on the planet. Ultimately, I want my children to know that preventing food waste isn’t only a set of habits we perform, but a sacred responsibility we uphold.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":305,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[18,43,14,20,8,10],"tags":[249,109,33,145,214,425,60,94,93],"class_list":["post-310","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-black-sheep-parent","category-food","category-kids-parenting","category-living","category-magazine","tag-brianna-sharpe","tag-community","tag-composting","tag-family","tag-food-security","tag-food-waste","tag-opinion","tag-recycling","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nWhile some food waste is just the collateral damage of having kids, there is so, so much more we can prevent or divert.
\n"},"alt_text":"Image of a variety of food waste","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1004,"file":"2022/08/Food-waste-1.jpg","filesize":"305736","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Food-waste-1-300x201.jpg","width":300,"height":201,"filesize":"22831","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1-300x201.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Food-waste-1-1024x685.jpg","width":1024,"height":685,"filesize":"157413","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1-1024x685.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Food-waste-1-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10205","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Food-waste-1-768x514.jpg","width":768,"height":514,"filesize":"98495","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1-768x514.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Food-waste-1.jpg","width":1500,"height":1004,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Food-waste-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=305"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":18,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/awards/","name":"Awards","slug":"awards","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nTeluisi Rebecca. I am a member of the Mi’kmaq Nation — the People of the Dawn. Our name for ourselves is L’nu. It is important that I state who claims me and my roots, so you understand what this land means to me, and my connection to it. I live in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki. Readers may know it as Halifax, Nova Scotia.
\n\n\n\nFar away as I am from the climate needed to grow avocados, I have a weekly ritual of buying one and letting it rot on my countertop before I use it. I don’t ever think about the waste it creates; I am disconnected from where that fruit comes from. And it only costs a buck fifty a week. You can’t even buy a coffee for that much anymore!
\n\n\n\nI understand and respect my relationship to the land when I am working it. I take care when weeding my garden in the summer. I plan my meals so as not to waste any of my homegrown produce. When I harvest wild berries, I use them before they mold, and I offer tobacco when I do any gathering or fishing. I never take too much when picking sacred plants, always leaving more than half of what I find.
\n\n\n\nAnd yet, I let that avocado rot week after week. Knowing there will always be a supply of mass-grown avocados has divorced me from the impact and effort that goes into growing that food.
\n\n\n\nMy name is Katy. I’m an American woman of European ancestry — a disjointed identity that includes a Norwegian last name, Irish skin, and German ankles. After years of studying and writing about food systems, I’ve become ardently interested in Indigenous agriculture and worldviews. Recognizing my shortcomings as I work to decolonize my own mind, I study these traditions and tell these stories with respect and humility.
\n\n\n\nIn writing this piece, Rebecca and I spent hours over Zoom discussing the definition of “sustainability” — and what it means to interact sustainably with our food system. A turning point in my own understanding of this idea was the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, a member of the Potawatomi nation, which I read while living in coastal Maine last summer.
\n\n\n\nUnder blankets of kelp, mussels and sea snails clustered in the crevices between rocks along the shore. When the tide receded, I’d harvest mussels for dinner. My instinct was to take every mussel I found, but Kimmerer told me to ask permission. That’s the first step of what she calls the “honorable harvest.” When foraging or hunting, introduce yourself to the plant or animal you’re harvesting, ask permission, then “abide by the answer.” If the mussels didn’t easily come off the rocks when I pulled them, I took it as a “no.”
\n\n\n\nNever take the first ones you see, Kimmerer writes, in case there aren’t any more. And never take more than half. So I left some mussels for the green crabs and the birds, and enough so the mussels could reproduce. The honorable harvest is about paying attention to the ecosystem as a whole. Asking for permission requires us to slow down, assess what we’re harvesting, and see it as a life and a gift.
\n\n\n\nKimmerer describes the difference between colonial capitalism’s market economy and many Indigenous societies’ gift economies, which consider land and the food that grows from it a gift to all. When we commodify food, we become disconnected from it and it loses its worth. But a gift comes with responsibility: to share with others, offer appreciation, and nurture the source of the gift.
\n\n\n\nIn the hopes of learning a different way of relating to food, we spoke to a number of Indigenous people who farm, hunt, and gather about Indigenous wisdom, lifeways, and agricultural practices in use today. Sewn through the ideas of everyone we spoke to was a worldview that informs a reciprocal approach to agriculture and nature as a whole, one that values intergenerational knowledge and work, reverence and respect.
\n\n\n\n“The nucleus of our sustainability ethic is in how we look at the world, not in specific planting or husbandry techniques,” writes Chris Newman, a Black and Indigenous farmer, in his 2020 essay “Indigenous Agriculture: It’s Not The How, It’s the Why.” Newman is an enrolled member of the Chopitco band of the Piscataway Indians.
\n\n\n\nHe founded Sylvanaqua Farms in Virginia’s Northern Neck peninsula, south of the Potomac River, where he raises grass-fed cattle, chicken, laying hens, and pork on about 15 hectares of pasture. But what he produces and how he produces it, he said, is less important than the why.
\n\n\n\nThe first white folks to show up here — like John Smith — did not recognize it as a food-producing landscape. He thought he’d died and gone to the Garden of Eden.
“Us being Indigenous and people of color, we look at ourselves more as land and water protectors who happen to produce food,” Newman told Katy last summer. When asked why he raises cattle specifically, he said that cows play a role in restoring the landscape. The meat itself is less important than the role the animal plays in the restorative process. “What role does this animal and this plant have in protecting this landscape and protecting the water that runs through that landscape?”
\n\n\n\nAt Sylvanaqua, he combines intensive agriculture — like producing pastured meat and eggs — with Indigenous agroforestry, the practice of planting a beneficial combination of native trees, shrubs, and other food plants. His goal is to restore the landscape while feeding large communities of people in the area. He’s building a large-scale collective farming operation modeled after the expansive foodsheds managed by the region’s Piscataway people before colonization.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/3sisters-225x300.jpg\")
“If you were to come into my neck of the woods back in… [the] early 1500s maybe, you would not have found a farm,” Newman said in his keynote speech at the Young Farmers Leadership Convergence last year. “You would have found a gigantic, diverse, beautiful, food-producing agroecology centered around the rivers, that was so big, so grand, so productive, that the first white folks to show up here—like John Smith—did not recognize it as a food-producing landscape. He thought he’d died and gone to the Garden of Eden.”
\n\n\n\nMany Indigenous populations around the world use agricultural systems that protect biodiversity while producing and harvesting food, he notes. “Protecting the environment always comes first. A protected environment will always provide.”
\n\n\n\nFor example, the Heiltsuk Nation in Bella Bella, BC, have long hand-planted and managed kelp forests on shorelines to expand spawning grounds for herring. The fish are not forced into living there, but invited. Not controlled, but encouraged. These kelp forests protect biodiversity in the area by feeding an entire ecosystem: salmon, wolves, bears, and orca whales, in addition to humans.
\n\n\n\n“How do we feed people from the landscape? One way is to say ‘the market wants X’ so we are going to grow these commodities…, subdue this land, tame the wilderness and force it to feed us,” Newman said. “Or there is the Indian way, which is acknowledging what likes to grow here and grow there, and massaging the landscape to help it do its job.”
\n\n\n\nThrough a sometimes spotty internet connection, Lonnie Yazzie told Rebecca stories tucked in stories — about his life, history, and language. He explained that when there isn’t a pandemic, he’s a cook in a restaurant in a casino. Yazzie is two-spirit and Diné (a member of the Navajo Nation) from Leupp, AZ.
\n\n\n\nLike most people in their twenties, he’s a savvy social-media user with a beautiful Instagram grid. Scrolling through, we saw sweeping desert landscapes and sunsets, and close-ups of husked corn in a rainbow of colours. Photos showed several generations of his family working together to grind the kernels and make “kneeldown bread.” He documents the process of clearing the fields and prepping them for next season. It’s all part of a cycle. Every person and plant has a place and role.
\n\n\n\nThe Diné have cultivated this land for centuries. They’re one of many Indigenous nations in North America who grow the Three Sisters: an interplanted garden of corn, beans, and squash. The corn provides a stalk for the legumes to climb, and the squash plant’s broad leaves keep the ground moist while shading out weeds. Meanwhile, beans and peas bring symbiotic bacteria that fix atmospheric nitrogen in the soil, fertilizing all three.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Lonnie-225x300.jpg\")
Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous science confirm that a Three Sisters garden produces more food per area planted than if corn, squash, or beans are grown alone. And the sisters complement each other in the human diet as well as they do in the soil. Dried corn’s starchy carbohydrates provide energy through the colder seasons; legumes are rich in protein and dietary fiber; and squash supplies a host of vitamins and minerals.
\n\n\n\nAlthough Yazzie and his family come from a tradition of agriculturalists, they only began farming in earnest in 2012, as a way to supplement their own diet.
\n\n\n\n“We had to find a way to make what we had work,” he said, alluding to both his family’s farm and his people’s history with colonization, including the Long Walk — the forced relocation of thousands of Diné in the 1860s. This resilience in the face of attempted genocide is a point of solidarity for Indigenous peoples across North America.
\n\n\n\nThe Native American Boarding Schools and Canadian Residential Schools of the 19th and 20th centuries were another attempt at genocide, intentionally erasing Indigenous languages and cultural traditions in the name of Eurocentric cultural assimilation. Languages of relationship and ceremony were forcibly replaced by English and Christianity: a noun-heavy language and worldview that describes non-human plant and animal species with the pronoun “it.”
\n\n\n\n“It robs a person of selfhood and kinship, reducing a person to a mere thing,” writes Kimerrer. “[In Potawatomi] and most other Indigenous languages, we use the same words to address the living world as we use for our family.” If we see the land as “it” instead of kin, it lessens the responsibility to maintain a reciprocal relationship.
\n\n\n\nLanguage can and does impact worldview. For Yazzie, this could mean he sees the world through both a Diné lens and an English one. He was raised traditionally, learning and speaking Diné bizaad, and would sometimes pause in conversation because there wasn’t an English word that conveyed the concept he was trying to explain. Many Indigenous languages contain what Kimmerer refers to as “the grammar of animacy.” She uses the example of puhpowee, an Anishinaabe word that translates to “the force which causes mushrooms to push up from the earth overnight.”
\n\n\n\nYou treat plants like children. You take care of them, and then one day they will take care of you.
This past year, Yazzie and his family planted and grew all different colours of corn, squash, and melons. Yazzie explains the Diné farming philosophy: “You treat plants like children. You take care of them, and then one day they will take care of you.”
\n\n\n\nThis philosophy is reflective of what James Skeet, a Diné man who runs Spirit Farm in Vanderwagen, NM, calls “Indigenous regenerative intelligence.” The term “regenerative agriculture” refers to practices that seek to restore soil health through small-scale diversified farming, in contrast to the large-scale monocultures that dominate our food system. The term is relatively new, but many regenerative agriculture principles have been passed down by Indigenous people for generations (an intellectual debt the movement often fails to acknowledge).
\n\n\n\nAt Spirit Farm, Skeet uses Indigenous tradition to guide regenerative practices like microbiological composting that will heal the soil on his land. “Indigenous people have always had this organic mindset that all things are sacred,” he said in a podcast with Duke Sanford World Food Policy Center. “Nature is to be respected and copied. Time is not linear but circular.”
\n\n\n\nYazzie recounted one of his favourite memories from the last season. The irrigation setup on his family’s farm came apart, soaking the earth and creating a mud pit that he had to wade into to fix the system. The failing of this system could have meant the loss of his family’s supplemental food, and yet Yazzie was able to laugh about it. Everyone was there and he volunteered to jump in. As with all the ways his community and family make it work, he captured it through a cell phone camera. According to Yazzie, “you’ve got to be modern to be traditional.”
\n\n\n\nHannah Martin grew up picking sweetgrass in her traditional territory of Taqamiju’jk, Mi’kma’ki (also known as Tatamagouche, NS). Sweetgrass is one of several sacred medicines that grow in brackish soil; it’s used for a variety of ceremonies. This single act of ceremony was one of the only land-based activities she took part in regularly, but it helped shape a deep understanding of stewardship and the responsibility she had to the land.
\n\n\n\nShe speaks passionately about who she is descendant from, where her grandparents lived, how they learned to work a trapline. As a full-time student, Martin learned about land stewardship in the classroom, but had very little hands-on experience until recently. She and her brother now own a woodlot. She spends time walking through the forest, getting to know the land and her relations: from the trees, to the deer, to the rabbits. She walks, listens, and learns. “Your relationship to food is sacred,” she said. “Eating food is a spiritual relationship.”
\n\n\n\nEverything is intentional, she told us. Whether you’re gathering sweetgrass or hunting, it is an intentional act—you are taking it from where it is supposed to be. The process fosters a strong sense of humility. That humility keeps you in check, she said, and makes a person aware of their impact on the land. Martin thinks people are disconnected from where their food comes from, like Rebecca and her avocados.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Hannah-Martin-225x300.jpg\")
This past year, Martin harvested her first lentuk, a deer. She walked us through the process of shooting the animal and sitting with it after it died: the emotions she experienced and the tears she cried; the profound respect she felt for the deer; the lock of her hair she offered as a “thank you” to the animal for its life. Her brother talked her through the steps of cleaning it: where to cut, what to leave for animals like ravens to eat. Nothing went to waste. She carried the deer out of the woods and saved the hide — she intends to learn how to cure it — and butchered the animal herself. She shared the meat with friends and family.
\n\n\n\n“It felt like coming home,” she said. “The source of all of our traditions comes from the land.”
\n\n\n\nIn many ways, Martin follows the principles of the honorable harvest. The story of harvesting a deer may read as violent and gruesome to some, but according to Martin, it put the impact of “taking” at the forefront of her mind. Whether she is picking mushrooms, harvesting medicines, or hunting lentuk, she is reverent of — and in relationship with — nature’s gifts at each step.
\n\n\n\nHunting lentuk requires more time, attention, and observation than purchasing an avocado from the supermarket. We often don’t know whose hands planted the pit, pruned the tree, harvested the fruit, or washed, packaged, shipped, and stocked it on the shelf. The transactional nature of purchasing food through a convoluted supply chain ends the relationship before we even consume it. Is that why we don’t mind letting the avocado rot? After all, it’s only worth a buck fifty. Being more connected to our food creates a more respectful and reciprocal relationship with the natural world — we waste less when we care.
\n\n\n\n“When there is no gratitude in return — that food may not satisfy,” Kimmerer writes. “It may leave the spirit hungry while the belly is full. Something is broken when the food comes on a Styrofoam tray wrapped in slippery plastic, a carcass of a being whose only chance at life was a cramped cage. That is not a gift of life; it is a theft.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":681,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,50,8,10,7],"tags":[30,54,56,81,55,440,551,253,432,210,254,550,53],"class_list":["post-397","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-indigenous","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","tag-agriculture","tag-atlantic-region","tag-braiding-sweetgrass","tag-canada","tag-colonization","tag-dene","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-katy-severson","tag-local-food","tag-mikmaq","tag-rebecca-thomas","tag-stewardship","tag-us"],"yoast_head":"\nThree Sisters crops harvested by Native Food & Farming students at Vermont’s Sterling College
\n"},"alt_text":"Corn, beans, and squash of various shapes in shades of yellow, orange and green in a circular pile on grass-covered ground.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/Indigenous-food-header.jpg","filesize":"284194","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Indigenous-food-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"23477","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Indigenous-food-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"165397","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Indigenous-food-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10033","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Indigenous-food-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"106322","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Indigenous-food-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Indigenous-food-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=681"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nPersonally, I’ve always wanted to compost. However, the combination of living abroad for many years, moving around a lot, and living in small apartments made it hard to find a workable solution for me.
\n\n\n\nAnd I’m not the only one. For people living in small apartments, composting is definitely not straightforward. And in some cities it’s becoming harder instead of easier; the Covid-19 pandemic cancelled New York City’s 7-year-old curbside composting program, and it’s not expected back until October of this year.
\n\n\n\nLuckily, there are ways to overcome barriers to urban composting. When I expressed my desire to compost, my friend Jessica Panicola was able to help, sharing information about apartment composting systems including the one she designed herself, called Compottery.
\n\n\n\nThere are urban composters to suit all kinds of apartment-dwellers. Here are six options that match a range of lifestyles.
\n\n\n\nCompottery is the solution for urbanites with little-to-no composting experience who have limited time and space. The system uses modular, stackable ceramic pots for tray vermicomposting, which double as planters where you can grow your own microgreens. Like me, Panicola found it difficult to compost in her home in Union City, NJ. But she also couldn’t stand throwing her scraps in the trash.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody1.jpg\")
After some trial and error, Panicola found a worm bin that worked for her. “I was able to compost most of my food scraps and therefore divert it from the landfill,” she said. “The designer in me began to see opportunities to make a decentralized method for other urban dwellers to compost, and also reap the benefits of composting from limited, indoor space.”
\n\n\n\nCompottery is a functional composter that will look great on any counter, desk, or in a corner, blending in beautifully with other decor.
Price: US$130+
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody2.jpg\")
The challenge of creating apartment composters is designing something that’s functional, odorless, and looks more interesting than traditional worm farms. Living Composter — sold by Uncommon Goods — meets all these challenges. It’s a classy-looking composter made of cork and recycled plastic, which fits in the coziest of apartments. The worms inside can process over a kilogram of food scraps a week, which is enough for you and your roommates, kids, spouse…whatever. When the composting process is complete, it’s easy to remove the compost and give it to your house plants, which will surely look great next to this baby.
Price: US$199
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody3.jpg\")
Akil Mesiwala has been vermicomposting kitchen scraps in his apartment for the last five years. He wanted more people to know about the process of transforming food waste into healthy, living soil, so he quit his corporate job to found a composting company called The Box of Life. Mesiwala designed the Worm Studio, a vertical migration vermiculture system with a minimalist aesthetic that makes composting intuitive and hassle-free to enable mass adoption.
\n\n\n\nA few things set the Canadian-made Worm Studio apart from other composters: the boxes are made of rot-resistant cedar, and their rope handles make the bins more accessible for use by all ages because they’re easy to lift and move when harvesting the castings. Mesiwala says his company prioritizes zero-waste manufacturing, sustainable sourcing, ethical practices, and customer support. “My goal is to build a life-long habit of composting,” he says.
Price: about US$165 (currently only ships in Canada)
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody4.jpg\")
If the list entries so far seem too dainty for your composting needs, Gardeners Supply Company’s Worm Farm Composter could be right for your not-so-small apartment situation. It uses the tray system, and can comfortably process food scraps from a family of four (about 1.5 kg/week). Unlike the other tray systems in this list, it produces nutrient rich “compost tea” that needs to be drained periodically, but can be used to fertilize plants.
Price: US$179
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody5.jpeg\")
Urban Composter USA uses a spin on the Bokashi method. Creator Luke Gregory found Bokashi bran hard to manage and likely to attract bugs and rodents. According to the Urban Composter website, Gregory believes that “People won’t compost if it’s difficult,” but they will if it’s convenient.
\n\n\n\nSo, he researched a different anaerobic composting method that didn’t require Bokashi bran, but instead uses a citrus-based spray to start the fermentation process. All you have to do is throw in your scraps, spray them, and drain the “tea” every few days. Once the bucket is full, it needs to ferment for a week or two before the resulting pulp is ready to be dumped out. However, it then needs another 4–8 weeks buried in soil before you can plant into it, so this option is best if you have an outdoor space where you can keep a large planter.
Price: US$59.95 + cost of spray and refills
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/The-gus-list-apartment-composters_WebBody6.jpg\")
Let’s be honest: for some homes in some cities, even an apartment composter might take up too much space. This is where the US-made Envirocycle Mini comes in. Marketed as “the cutest composter in the world,” it does best on a balcony or in a small garden. Load the composter with green and brown compost, and rotate the drum three times every three days. You’ll have mature compost every four to eight weeks. You can use worms to speed up the process, but it’s not required. The Envirocycle Mini can be shipped all over the world.
Price: US$189.99
When I moved back to the US, I knew I had no excuses left not to compost. Jessica gave me a Compottery set as a housewarming present, and composting has become second nature. My wormies have become like pets! Based on my experience, I believe even those whose apartments are “too small” or who “don’t have the time,” can find a compost set-up that will do the trick.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1420,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,21,8],"tags":[427,33,118,425,401,563],"class_list":["post-1530","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-home-garden","category-living","tag-apartment-living","tag-composting","tag-design","tag-food-waste","tag-hana-larock","tag-soil"],"yoast_head":"\nFood placed in any of Toronto’s community fridges seldom sits on the shelf for more than two hours. The fridges—there are at least seven—appeared on sidewalks in 2020 and are stocked full of food for the taking, no questions asked. Toronto’s community fridges are all in different neighbourhoods, and are located outdoors at street level, many right on the sidewalk.
\n\n\n\nThe idea behind them is simple: walk up to a fridge any time of the day, take only what you need and leave the rest for others.
\n\n\n\nFor many households, access to safe and nutritious food has been increasingly difficult since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. In fact, food insecurity in Canada spiked by 39%, according to Community Food Centres Canada, a non-profit improving low-income populations’ access to healthful food. Insecurity rates are highest among racialized and Indigenous communities.
\n\n\n\n“A lot of the people who fit the criteria of being insecure might not feel comfortable accessing charity resources because of red tape or stigma,” says Jalil Bokhari, who co-founded Community Fridges Toronto (CFTO) in 2020 with chef Julian Bentivegna. “We don’t have criteria for who can use it, and how often they can use it, because it’s anonymous. Food is a right, and no one person is more deserving of food than anyone else.”
\n\n\n\nBokhari and Bentivegna know each other through their work in Toronto’s restaurant industry (Bohkari works as a bartender). The idea to establish the first community fridge outside Bentivegna’s restaurant, Ten, was partly born of the chef’s desire to reduce the amount of food waste produced by his kitchen. (Perfectly good food, to be clear: one of the network’s main tenets is that people should only donate food they would eat themselves.)
\n\n\n\nFood donations need to be new, unopened, and fresh. The fridges accept produce, dairy, bread, and proteins, as well as pantry staples, grab-and-go food, pet food, and personal care items (including personal protective equipment and menstrual products). No expired food, home-cooked food, or leftovers are accepted.
\n\n\n\nFood is a right, and no one person is more deserving of food than anyone else.
Bokhari was inspired to open a community fridge after a friend of his in New York City had success opening one outside of her Brooklyn café, Playground Coffee Shop. The first fridge was set up in July 2020 outside of Ten in Toronto’s Brockton Village neighbourhood. Bokhari and Bentivegna have since set up six more fridges, and amassed a volunteer network of hundreds, including local residents, business owners, and hospitality industry workers.
\n\n\n\nThe community-fridge concept is not new — nor is it unique to Toronto. The first well-known community fridges were set up in 2012, in Germany. Since then, fridges have been set up around the world, from the Netherlands to New Zealand. But their proliferation accelerated in 2020, as the financial insecurity wrought by Covid-19 increased food insecurity. Since the launch of CFTO, similar initiatives have popped up in Calgary, Vancouver, Montreal, New York City, and Seattle, among other cities.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF.jpeg\")
CFTO, like the other fridge projects, is a mutual aid program. Mutual aid organizations, which have flourished during Covid, are organizations that depend on the voluntary exchange of time and resources, meant to build solidarity among participants through a framework of community and cooperation.
\n\n\n\nProject volunteers split the work of stocking and cleaning fridges, or facilitating the delivery of large donations from local restaurants or other organizations, while community members fill in the gaps by making small, individual donations. According to Bokhari, there’s no set schedule for cleaning or donations, but he and Bentivegna help ensure things are running smoothly by monitoring communications in a group Signal chat, and sending call-outs and updates via Instagram.
\n\n\n\nWhile volunteers are frequent donors, Bentivegna says upwards of 80% of the fridges’ stock comes from other members of the community, including local restaurants and food banks.
\n\n\n\nThe idea that you need money to help people encourages a kind of backseat mentality.
Some local organizations — such as volunteer group Bike Brigade, which coordinates medium-scale food deliveries to the network of fridges — have signed up as unofficial partners. But since CFTO is completely decentralized and volunteer-run, there is no drop-off centre or headquarters. Instead, all items are placed directly into the fridges by donors, and everything involved, from food to fridges, has been donated.
\n\n\n\n“We push away from the idea that you need money to help people, because it encourages a kind of backseat mentality; this idea that if you throw money at something, it will work itself out,” Bokhari says. “We’re empowering people to pitch in… Sometimes means they’ll buy food. But sometimes it means they’ll clean a fridge.”
\n\n\n\nEach fridge is located outside a private business that has donated space. Sierra Leedham is a volunteer whose clothing store, Black Diamond Vintage, previously hosted a fridge in front of its main doors. (It was removed due to a City of Toronto bylaw that does not allow “abandoned” appliances on public property; the fridge has since been moved into an accessible private space.) The Parkdale shop owner says she regularly fills, cleans, and delivers large donations to fridges around the city, a commitment that she says is typical of CFTO’s dedicated team of volunteers.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Kelowna-Community-Fridge-body.jpg\")
She says the largest challenge facing the network is quality control: “trying to communicate to people that, if you wouldn’t want to eat it yourself, don’t put it in the fridge.”
\n\n\n\n“It’s about solidarity and care and respect and love for the community,” adds Leedham, “and not just thinking that people should be thankful for what they get.”
\n\n\n\nPaul Taylor, executive director of food justice non-profit FoodShare in Toronto, is supportive of mutual aid efforts such as community fridges. But he worries that politicians will use the enthusiasm for mutual aid as a reason to take the implementation of anti-poverty and food insecurity policy measures off the table.
\n\n\n\n“Communities and individuals are responding to a moral imperative to support folks in their neighbourhoods that don’t have enough food,” he says. “A lot of [community] interventions [understand] that it’s racialized folks and Indigenous folks that are most affected by food insecurity … whereas our government is not addressing the issue adequately.”
\n\n\n\nTaylor worries politicians will use enthusiasm for mutual aid as a reason to take anti-poverty and food insecurity measures off the table.
When he looks at organizations like CFTO, Taylor is heartened that today’s community-based interventions “not only recognize race-based inequities, but they also recognize systemic and structural inequities.” He adds that it gives him hope because this action could address structural issues leading to food insecurity in these communities.
\n\n\n\nIn the meantime, CFTO plans to continue to fine-tune its programming. Bohkari and Bentivegna both say their main focus is on ensuring their existing fridges are serving their communities as best they can, rather than on expansion.
\n\n\n\n“Since we’re not an actual organization, we can’t just will things into existence,” Bokhari says. “Expansion has to be something that the communities themselves are willing to come together and support.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1666,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[42,45,14,8,10,7,23,9],"tags":[109,58,214,143,402,162,93],"class_list":["post-1532","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bc","category-cities","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","category-start-small","category-west-coast","tag-community","tag-covid-19","tag-food-security","tag-ontario","tag-rebecca-tucker","tag-waste","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nA new community fridge and pantry, recently opened in Kelowna, BC.
\n"},"alt_text":"A small outdoor pantry with doors opened to show to a fridge and a shelf of canned goods.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/11/KCF_72.jpg","filesize":"246135","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"KCF_72-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"15023","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"KCF_72-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"104076","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"KCF_72-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"7226","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"KCF_72-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"65434","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"KCF_72.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/KCF_72.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1666"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":42,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/west-coast/bc/","name":"BC","slug":"bc","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nVancouver’s Downtown Eastside seems like an unlikely place for anything green to thrive. Boarded-up storefronts line the crowded streets, where people camped in doorways try to protect themselves against the dampness and disorder. Yet for the past eight years, a Vancouver-based non-profit organization has built an inventive program to bring new life to this urban district, long considered one of Canada’s poorest postal codes. And it all started with bees.
\n\n\n\nSarah Common and her mother Julia launched Hives for Humanity in 2012 to offer new opportunities to traditionally marginalized people in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). Their idea? Train local residents to work with bees.
\n\n\n\n“We’re trying to connect to people through nature, by working the land together,” explains Sarah Common, who was a community worker in the DTES at the time.
\n\n\n\nA community of beekeepers and gardeners flourishes amid the challenges of poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction.
She had been volunteering in a DTES urban garden, when she began offering beekeeping instruction to local residents with her mother — a beekeeper — in 2012. The interest they received from the community inspired them to create an organization to expand this beekeeping training and build flower-filled gardens where bees could thrive.
\n\n\n\nToday, Hives manages over two dozen green spaces, including apiaries and “pollinator gardens” with flowers that nourish bees, at different locations throughout the region, including supportive housing sites, parks, and community centres. They have also launched a business that sells bee-based products, including producing and selling honey and beeswax candles, to help fund Hives.
\n\n\n\nBy providing green space, a scarce resource in the disadvantaged district, along with opportunities for residents to learn new skills, Hives for Humanity has helped build a flourishing community of beekeepers and gardeners amid the challenges of poverty, homelessness, and drug addiction.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/beeeatinghoneyfromfinger.jpg\")
Learning to work with bees wasn’t easy, says Horace, a long-time Hives community member who asked to be identified only by his first name. “I’m still afraid a little bit,” he laughs.
\n\n\n\nBut the organization has helped him learn new skills, from beekeeping to candle-making, and he now appreciates many of the bees’ unique traits. He says, “The best time to see the bees is when they’re getting born. It’s amazing. They fly right away and go to work. They don’t mess around!”
\n\n\n\nPerhaps more importantly, Horace, who grew up in Alberta, says that working with Hives for Humanity has kept him out of trouble — and out of jail. “I was in trouble all the time,” he recounts, “but all the time since I’ve been involved in this, I’ve been doing so good.”
\n\n\n\nThe best time to see the bees is when they’re getting born. They fly right away and go to work.
Hives’ 2019 annual report describes their programming as “no-barrier,” meaning that people can join activities directly from the street. Although Hives has had to scale back its programs this past year due to the pandemic, in 2019, they offered 99 community beekeeping and related workshops serving more than 1,400 participants.
\n\n\n\n“We aren’t connected to where our food comes from, what it takes to plant a seed, to grow and care for that seed, to see that seed become a plant and flower and feed the bees,” says Common.
\n\n\n\nAli, another member of the Hives community who also asked to use only her first name, says she appreciates how the honeys that bees in various neighbourhoods produce have distinct flavours, colours, and textures due to the different plants in each location.
\n\n\n\nAli has positive memories, too, of her first time working in a community garden, even though “that’s when I had little sense of what it was like to learn about planting vegetables.” Not only did she begin gaining gardening skills, she says, she started to form what became long-lasting friendships with the people she was working with.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/project-hives-for-humanity.jpg\")
Hives has also partnered with organizations like the Vancouver Convention Centre and the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel to provide bees for the buildings’ rooftop hives. These relationships offer work opportunities for their program participants and help educate the public about Hives’ beekeeping work. For example, before the pandemic, the Fairmont offered tours of its “Chef’s Garden,” where guests learned about the herbs and other plants that the Fairmont chef uses in the hotel restaurant, as well as Hives’ honey-making operations.
\n\n\n\nTara Taylor, who’s responsible for community engagement and development at Vancouver’s SpencerCreo Foundation — which supports social enterprises in the region — has worked with a number of local community organizations, including Hives for Humanity. She says that one of its strengths is the organization’s ability to provide a diverse range of training and experiences for its members.
\n\n\n\nPeople show up for the bees and for the connection.
“It’s kind of like honeycombs, which are all connected,” says Taylor. “Sarah and Hives have created these tranquil gardens and spaces where the rest of the world can be put on pause.” These oases are especially important in areas like the DTES where life for many residents can feel chaotic, she stresses. In Hives’ gardens, “people show up for the bees and for the connection.”
\n\n\n\nBut maybe Horace sums it up best, when he explains that, through his work with Hives, he’s found a caring community that’s helped him in many different ways. As with people, he says, “If you love the bees and take care of the bees, they’ll love you back.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1653,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,38,23,51,9],"tags":[404,109,403,61],"class_list":["post-1533","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-start-small","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-carolyn-b-heller","tag-community","tag-downtown-eastside","tag-social-justice"],"yoast_head":"\nIn 2015, Laura Gustafson quit her job selling surgical equipment for a major health-care company to start a food business. Her work had exposed her to the consequences of poor diets. As she spoke to doctors and observed surgeries in operating rooms, she kept hearing about people with obesity, diabetes, and high cholesterol who had had heart attacks that landed them on the operating table.
\n\n\n\nSurely, Gustafson thought, there were better preventative measures people could take. She began dropping into nutrition classes at the University of Saskatchewan and soon found a way she could help solve the problem — with nutrient-rich pulses like lentils, chickpeas, field peas, and beans. (The term “pulse” usually refers to the dried seeds of legumes grown for food.) In 2017, Gustafson launched her company, Ulivit, and started selling pulse protein bars that sourced their key ingredients from local farms.
\n\n\n\nToday, Gustafson is among a growing number of Canadians building a stake in the Prairie provinces’ thriving pulse industry. Over the past 20 years, Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have together emerged as the world’s largest producer and exporter of pulses. Today, leaning into the growing plant-based food industry could help the Prairies recover from the current recession while reducing their carbon footprint and dependence on oil. “The humble pea could well turn into Canada’s next new gold,” declares a headline in Food Industry Executive, which publishes food industry news.
\n\n\n\nAlberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan have together emerged as the world’s largest producer and exporter of pulses.
“Western Canadian provinces are sitting on 1.7 million acres of agricultural land that is ideally suited for the agriculture of protein-based pulses, such as lentils, chickpeas, peas, fava beans, soy, and canola,” writes Robert Fernandez, director of economic diversification at Parkland County, Alberta. He describes the growing interest in plant-based proteins as a boon for farmers in Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan.
\n\n\n\nIn 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Global Economy of Pulses report noted that Canada had emerged as a leading player in pulse production. In 2014 — the most recent year for which FAO data is available — Canada was responsible for 40% of global lentil production and the world’s largest producer of field peas. Canada is also the largest exporter of pulses in the world, with 77% of pulse crops being shipped abroad.
\n\n\n\nIntroducing Canadians to pulses in a new way is what first encouraged Gustafson to start Ulivit. Though she grew up in Saskatchewan — the heart of pulse production in Canada — and practiced veganism for a decade after high school, she was first introduced to pulses in her 20s by her best friend from India. But, it wasn’t until her nutrition classes 15 years later that Gustafson learnt about local pulse production.
\n\n\n\n“We’re growing this crazy produce right here in our backyard, but we just export all of it,” she says.
\n\n\n\nThrough her products, she wants to create awareness about the versatility and nutrition benefits of pulses. Her company has shifted from protein bars to a tofu alternative made of chickpeas and fava beans for people allergic to soy and gluten.
\n\n\n\nIn North America, sales of plant-based food to replace animal products have increased by 29% in the past two years.
Gustafson plans to tap into a growing plant-based food market worth US$5 billion. Sales of plant-based food and drink intended to replace animal products are on the rise, growing five times faster than other food products, according to point of sale data collected by natural food analytics company SPINS. In North America, grocery sales of plant-based food to replace animal products have increased by 29% in the past two years. Currently, the plant-based meat sector alone is worth US$939 million. By 2027, the entire plant-based food market is expected to be valued at US$74 billion.
\n\n\n\nMany meat alternatives use pulses as a core ingredient. Beyond Meat — one of the more popular meat substitutes in the market — uses peas, and mung and fava beans (among other ingredients) to create its patty. Tempeh, another meat analogue, uses soybeans or other pulses as its core ingredient.
\n\n\n\nThere’s a lot of “scope” for the pulse industry to grow in this market, says Julianne Curran, vice president of market innovation at Pulses Canada. “[But], we need to diversify,” she adds, explaining that Canadian pulse producers are currently too dependent on traditional markets of India and Turkey for exports. Pulses Canada wants exports to the US to make up 25% of industry growth by 2025.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Lentils-Could-be-Part-of-Canadas-Green-Recovery_WebBody.jpg\")
The Canadian government is also vying to increase Canada’s stake in the plant-based protein industry. In 2018, it committed up to C$153 million (about US$120 million) in funding over five years to the Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, as part of the country’s Innovation Superclusters Initiative, which funds five promising economic sectors including the plant protein industry. Protein Industries Canada (PIC, the non-profit organization administering the funds) says this collaboration with the government will create more than 4,500 jobs in the next decade and add over C$4.5 billion to the economy.
\n\n\n\nOne of PIC’s goals is to increase Canada’s food processing capacity. In remarks to Canada’s parliamentary agricultural committee, PIC CEO Bill Greuel said that processing an additional 20% of Canadian crops in-country would add C$12 billion to the national economy annually.
\n\n\n\nIn August 2020, as part of its Covid-19 relief program, the federal government allocated C$2.6 million for the Alberta government-owned Food Processing Development Centre to support companies developing plant-based food. “[P]lant-based foods represent a significant economic opportunity for western Canadian firms seeking to meet growing global and consumer demands for protein-rich foods that are healthy and environmentally sustainable,” the federal government’s press release said.
\n\n\n\nThe pulses industry offers the Prairies an opportunity to diversify their economies away from oil and gas. For more than three decades, the federal government’s Western Economic Diversification program has worked to reduce the Prairies’ dependency on oil and gas and encourage an economy based on more stable industries.
\n\n\n\nStill, the region remains vulnerable to the volatility of oil and gas prices — a challenge that’s worsened with the pandemic. With the worldwide shutdown in March 2020, the price of oil plummeted to its lowest point in 18 years, placing Alberta and Saskatchewan — Canada’s largest oil producers — in a vulnerable situation.
\n\n\n\nWhile the future is uncertain for Canada’s fossil fuel industries, the pulse industry seems set to thrive.
Manitoba — where mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction make up only 2.5% of the economy — hasn’t suffered as big an economic blow as Alberta and Saskatchewan, where those sectors represent about 16% of GDP. Throughout the pandemic, Manitoba managed to keep its unemployment rates below the national average. Alan Freeman, a columnist at iPolitics who routinely writes on economics, said in an interview that this is because Manitoba’s economy is more diverse compared to Alberta and Saskatchewan, and not overly dependent on one resource.
\n\n\n\nWhile the future is uncertain for Canada’s fossil fuel industries, the pulse industry seems set to thrive. In its 2019 report, the FAO predicts that Canada’s pulse exports will grow at 3% a year, rising to 7 million metric tonnes of pulses annually by 2025.
\n\n\n\nProponents say that boosting the pulses industry is a winning move for the environment because pulses are less carbon intensive than other crops. “The government really needs to look at utilizing this industry as a tool towards helping Canada achieve its climate change goals,” says Greuel of PIC.
\n\n\n\nConventional agriculture is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, particularly from livestock farming and the production of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. These fertilizers are created using the Haber process, which produces ammonia by extracting nitrogen from air. But this process comes at huge environmental costs: It accounts for 1–2% of the world’s energy consumption, and is responsible for 1.4% of all carbon emissions. In 2018, nitrogen fertilizers accounted for 23% of emissions from Canadian agriculture.
\n\n\n\nGrowing pulses reduces the need for nitrogen fertilizers.
Growing pulses, however, reduces the need for nitrogen fertilizers and the Haber process. All legume plants have symbiotic relationships with microbes that fix nitrogen in the soil, reducing or even eliminating the need for fertilizers. If grown in rotation, pulses can leave the soil enriched for other crops and reduce their need for fertilizers, too.
\n\n\n\nA unique combination of environmental and economic circumstances, plus a shift in consumer habits, have presented the Prairie provinces with a unique opportunity. If they can leverage their strength in the production and exports of pulses, western Canada — and consequently, the country as a whole—could become a leader in the up-and-coming plant-based food industry, boosting the country’s post-pandemic economy in the process.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1106,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,46,14,8,6,7],"tags":[30,81,214,216,266],"class_list":["post-595","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-economy","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-society","tag-agriculture","tag-canada","tag-food-security","tag-green-recovery","tag-shreya-kalra"],"yoast_head":"\nAs sci-fi as feeding your cat kibble grown in a laboratory may once have seemed, it’s closer than many realize. Because Animals — an American company that aspires to create pet food without harming animals or the environment — is working to bring the world’s first batch of lab-grown cat food to market as early as 2021.
\n\n\n\n“We’ve basically pioneered cultured meat in pet food,” said Dr. Shannon Falconer, chief executive officer and co-founder of Because Animals. “[Our product] is just as nutritious as traditionally grown meat, but it does not contain antibiotics. [It’s] without the steroids and growth promoters typically used in animal agriculture.”
\n\n\n\nIn recent years, labs across the world have produced burgers, steaks, seafood, and more, without directly slaughtering a single animal. These products — called lab-grown meat, in vitro meat, cultured meat — are exactly what they claim to be: real meat. Instead of raising animals for slaughter, however, muscle or fat cells are grown in a nutrient-rich broth.
\n\n\n\nSupporters say cultured meat could help solve a crucial problem: animal agriculture devastates the environment. From soaking up 2,422 cubic giga-metres of water (or 29% of the water used by humanity) every year, to generating 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually, to fostering antibiotic resistant microbes.
\n\n\n\n25–30% of animal farming’s environmental impact comes from producing pet food.
Pet food production contributes significantly to these figures. A 2017 paper published in PLOS ONE, a peer-reviewed science journal, found that 25–30% of animal farming’s environmental impact — in terms of land use, water consumption, pesticides, phosphates, and greenhouse gas emissions — comes from producing pet food.
\n\n\n\n“This isn’t something we can ignore any longer,” said Dr. Ernie Ward, a veterinarian, author, and co-founder of plant-based pet food company Wild Earth. According to Ward, the total greenhouse gas emissions from feeding our pets meat “equals about 14 million car exhausts over a period of a year…[or] 64 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.”
\n\n\n\nAnd, because pet food has shifted towards more animal protein in recent years, he continued, this figure is growing.
\n\n\n\nIn contrast, research has shown that, by growing meat in the lab, we could reduce animal suffering while lowering the meat industry’s land use, water consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions by over 95% each.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Lab-Grown-Meat-is-Coming-to-the-Pet-Food-Aisle_WebBody1.png\")
On the front lines of lab-grown meat, Because Animals is taking an unorthodox approach by focusing exclusively on pets. In 2019, the company succeeded in creating the world’s first cultured-meat cat treat out of mouse cells, “without harming or hurting a single animal,” said Falconer.
\n\n\n\nBecause Animals sourced the cells from the ears of three mice rescued from a lab and used an anesthetic so the mice would not feel any pain. (The mice now live with one of their research team members.) Then, the team grew these cells in cell medium — a broth rich in nutrients, hormones, and other materials necessary for cell growth.
\n\n\n\nTraditional cell media controversially source nutrients, minerals, and growth factors from the blood of fetal calves. However, Falconer’s company invented a recipe without any animal products, she said.
\n\n\n\nAfter enough cells have grown, the starter batch is moved into a “bioreactor” — a sterile, temperature-controlled vat similar to those used in breweries.
\n\n\n\nThe message we’re trying to convey is that cultured meat is meat, not a meat alternative.
At this step, cells are typically grown on a “scaffold,” so the final product resembles a cut of animal-sourced meat. However, Because Animals works without scaffolds because pets are less picky about their food’s shape. This makes the process faster and cheaper, said Falconer.
\n\n\n\nFinally, the meat is harvested and mixed with other ingredients. Then, it’s on to the food bowl.
\n\n\n\n“It will begin to familiarize people, the general customer, with this idea of cultured meat,” said Falconer, who aims to make a first batch of a few hundred cultured cat treats commercially available by the end of 2021. “The message we’re really trying to convey to customers is that cultured meat is meat — it is not a meat alternative.”
\n\n\n\nWard agrees. Cultured meat not only presents a timely solution to the pet food problem, it might also quell the cultural “ick factor” associated with lab-grown meat, he said. Some people are distrustful of lab-grown meat, he explained. However, they might feed it to their dog. Then, when cultured meat hits the market for people to consume, it’s more likely to be accepted.
\n\n\n\nJacy Reese Anthis, author of The End of Animal Farming and co-founder of the Sentience Institute, a US-based think tank working to prevent the suffering of all sentient beings, including livestock, isn’t so sure.
\n\n\n\n“In the long run, I think we’ll need cultured pet food. But if I had the option, I would not make it the first one to market,” he said, explaining that introducing cultured meat to consumers as pet food could create negative connotations. People might see it as a lesser alternative to animal meat — a food for pets, not humans.
\n\n\n\n“I’m much less worried about ending factory farming a few days or weeks earlier than I am about just making sure it’s ended in general, and making sure that there’s not some negative issue with public perception that lasts for decades,” said Anthis. Instead, he argued, cultured meat should be introduced as a high-end product. Once it’s established as a luxury food, it could trickle into more general markets.
\n\n\n\nIntroducing cultured meat to consumers as pet food could create negative connotations.
Ward disagrees. When cultured meat is on the market for both humans and animals, he said, people aren’t going to avoid eating it because it’s in pet food.
\n\n\n\n“Most pet foods are using beef and poultry,” he said. “And yet, last time I checked, hamburgers and chicken McNuggets are two of the most popular dishes.”
\n\n\n\nFor now, Falconer and her team are working hard to scale up production and optimize their process as they prepare to hit the market. In just a few years, it’s possible your pets will get to enjoy all the meat they can handle — without harming a single animal.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1316,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,38,40,23],"tags":[30,77,285,357],"class_list":["post-734","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-science-tech","category-start-small","tag-agriculture","tag-animals","tag-kevin-jiang","tag-pets"],"yoast_head":"\nOn a birch tree in northern Ontario, a black, charred lump bulges from the flaky white bark. This lump is a chaga mushroom, and there’s a bounty on its life.
\n\n\n\nChaga doesn’t look like a mushroom at all: it has no cap, no stem. It’s just a smoky, crusted ball, hardly distinguishable from a blackened burl or charred branch stub. A few strikes with an axe, a couple of back-and-forths with a hacksaw, or even a good whack with a stick can dislodge the main body of a chaga — also known as the conk — from its host tree. Breaking the conk open reveals an umber interior reminiscent of ’70s corduroy. It gives off a faint scent of sap and earth, and, when boiled, produces a tea that tastes like vanilla and wet dog.
\n\n\n\nThe fungus grows mainly across Russia, Canada, and northern parts of the US, Europe, and Asia, and foragers in these regions comb forests for chaga every winter. Someone harvesting for themselves might pry off a nugget, leaving the rest of the conk to continue growing, while foragers looking for profits can hack whole masses off the tree, tossing them into the backs of pickup trucks to sell to retailers.
\n\n\n\nChaga gives off a faint scent of sap and earth, and produces a tea that tastes like vanilla and wet dog.
Chaga is big business. The mushroom is powdered into pills, boiled for tea, distilled in alcohols, and blended in lotions and soaps for its purported health benefits. Proponents believe chaga’s cocktail of betulinic acid, phytosterols, polysaccharides, and beta-D-glucans can aid those suffering from cancer, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, immune deficiencies, viral infections, and even the aging process.
\n\n\n\nNikki Standinghorn — owner of NeepSee Herbs, an Indigenous traditional medicine business in Saskatchewan — has sold and harvested chaga for years after learning about it from family members and acquaintances. Her customers purchase chaga tea: “Number one, for cancer. Number two, for diabetes. Number three, for arthritis.” Standinghorn uses chaga herself, and insists she hasn’t been sick once since she started. “I cannot brag enough about this stuff.”
\n\n\n\nKevin McAuslan, former president of the Toronto Mycological Society, has made chaga “coffee” for years by boiling a nugget, running the softened chunk through a Vitamix, and then boiling the resulting mixture again.
\n\n\n\n“Anecdotally, in my family, we believe it helps in immune function,” McAuslan says. “If I have chaga before I go on a plane, I don’t get sick.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Can-Canada-Keep-its-Chaga-Boom-from-Going-Bust_WebBody.png\")
It’s easy to dismiss chaga-hype as marketing buzz, but the fungus is medically interesting. While no large-scale studies have looked at chaga’s effects on humans, animal studies suggest benefits including immunity boosting, improved blood sugar and cholesterol, and reduced chronic inflammation.
\n\n\n\nResidents of Siberia and Indigenous people in North America have foraged chaga for centuries. The name “chaga” is derived from Russian, but the fungus has many names, including posahkan (Cree), shkitaagan (Anishinaabemowin), and mii’hlw and tiiuxw (Gitskan). Indigenous medicinal traditions have used the tea to relieve viral infections, and chaga smoke to treat aches and pains. In a Facebook Live video, Wikiwemikong herbal medicine expert Joseph Pitawanakwat recommends burning the inner part of the conk for migraine relief.
\n\n\n\nThe fungus caught the wider world’s attention after the publication of health food writer David Wolfe’s 2012 book Chaga: King of the Medicinal Mushrooms. Wolfe’s book promoted chaga as an anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, cardio-protective, liver-purifying superfood. As interest has grown, a cottage industry quickly developed to forage for, process, and sell the fungus — some would say too quickly.
\n\n\n\nWild-harvesting mushrooms is nothing new; professional foragers around the world supply restaurants and herbalists with the freshest and rarest fungi the forest has to offer. But when some of these foragers transitioned to chaga, they hit a snag: unlike most quick-growing culinary and medicinal fungi, chaga can take 15 years to reach harvestable size. And because it grows only on living trees, it can’t be farmed like conventional mushrooms.
\n\n\n\nMost fungi, including chaga, begin life as a spore. The chaga spore latches onto a wound on a birch tree, such as the site of a torn-off branch. The growing conk feeds off the heartwood inside the trunk, and extrudes out of the bark as a crusted fungal mass. Like a highly selective vampire, the chaga feeds on the living tree, and only completes its life cycle after its host dies, by forming a fruiting body that disperses spores. The tree’s death also triggers the decay of the conk.
\n\n\n\nBecause it requires a living host, chaga can’t be farmed on dead logs as is common with culinary mushrooms like oyster and shitake. As chaga-enthusiasm grew, the industry was left with two options to meet demand. One option was to cultivate lab-grown chaga (likely by sprinkling spores on cooked grains like rye, wheat, or rice, and harvesting the resulting fungal tissue). While lab-grown chaga is highly scalable, the health food world alleges it contains fewer beneficial compounds. That left option two: scale up foraging.
\n\n\n\nLike a highly selective vampire, the chaga feeds on the living tree, and only completes its life cycle after its host dies.
A resource industry conducted without regulation on public land — like most Canadian chaga foraging — is not a recipe for sustainability. Foragers pick all the fungus they can find to sell to anyone who will buy. This approach can clear large areas of commercially viable chaga stocks.
\n\n\n\nSustainability concerns for forest products in general — and chaga in particular — have been discussed for years in the press. However, with more chaga experts claiming that accessible chaga stocks are starting to fall, the industry is now at a crossroads: buyers can either rework their supply chains and foraging practises to retain a continuous stream of chaga, or opt for larger short-term profits, hastening an end to the wild-foraged chaga industry.
\n\n\n\nThis is the picture painted by Dwight Thornton. Thornton is a chaga consumer, forager, and seller based in New Brunswick. To his knowledge, he was the first North American to sell chaga online; after taking it for his own health, and sharing it with family and friends, Thornton started selling chaga in 2007.
\n\n\n\n“When I put chaga on the first website, it wasn’t for resellers and marketers. It was for people like myself who needed it,” Thornton says. He believes his chaga tea habit — around 1.5 litres a day — cured him of a debilitating liver illness, and that others can benefit from the mushroom.
\n\n\n\nThornton now buys chaga from other harvesters to sell on his website. According to Thornton, “If sustainability is going to happen, it has to happen with us buyers.”
\n\n\n\nProfessional foragers are naturally inclined to sell whatever they can. That’s why Thornton requires his suppliers to adhere to a code of conduct aimed at maximizing sustainability and medicinal value.
\n\n\n\nSome especially reckless harvesters even cut down trees to access high-growing chaga infections.
Unsustainable harvesting comes from short-term thinking; because chaga grows inside the tree as well as outside, a harvester can net extra income by chiselling out the whole fungus from the tree. This provides a short-term profit boost for that individual forager. But it ultimately harms the chaga population of the forest: removing a whole chaga from a tree prevents it from one day completing its life cycle and dispersing more spores. It also damages the inside of the tree, leaving it vulnerable to infection and eventually death. According to both Thornton and Standinghorn, some especially reckless harvesters even cut down trees to access high-growing chaga infections, further impacting the forest.
\n\n\n\nIf a forager only takes part of the conk, not only will the remainder form a fruiting body when the tree eventually dies, but the conk will also continue to grow as long as its host tree lives, producing extra fungus for the harvester in coming years.
\n\n\n\nThornton asks his foragers to only bring him whole, mature mushrooms, with a clean cut to show they did not cut inside the tree. He insists that the chaga he buys be harvested in winter, when the host tree’s sap stops running and the chaga’s store of nutrients should be highest. While buyer policies like Thornton’s could ensure a sustainable supply, he’s aware they only currently apply to his harvesters. “Other buyers, they’re not so picky,” he says. “They don’t care.”
\n\n\n\nStandinghorn also realized the importance of buyer responsibility early on in her chaga-selling career. “When I realized how much I could sell to the public, I was worried about the sustainability,” she says. So she released a series of videos explaining chaga’s benefits and how to sustainably harvest it.
\n\n\n\nStandinghorn’s method is to only take half the external conk, rather than the whole thing. She believes that this harvesting ratio optimizes the mushroom’s ability to regenerate. She has harvested chaga from the same three spots, year after year, without any dip in supply.
\n\n\n\n“This is an amazing medicine.” Standinghorn says. “It’ll be there forever for us if we sustain it properly.”
\n\n\n\nNew Brunswick’s yellow birch forests are especially brittle, and therefore more susceptible to chaga infections, according to Thornton. In the fall of 2019, foragers he works with found a cube van sporting Québec plates in the woods, loaded with bags of chaga. The New Brunswickers asked the van’s owners to leave; for mushroom hunters, territory is sacrosanct.
\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, this territory-crossing is emblematic of the cut-and-run mentality that, according to Grant Lauzon, is putting commercial chaga supplies at risk. Lauzon runs Greenfoot.ca, a chaga sustainability website. He describes large health food companies buying all the chaga their harvesters can provide, while foragers moving from one area to another give the appearance of an unlimited supply. Meanwhile, in the background, whole forests are depleted of mature chaga.
\n\n\n\nTo spark a new business model, Lauzon developed a scaled-down device for producing chaga extract. Using this device, an individual forager could create their own extract for sale, bypassing larger companies and giving them an economic incentive to keep the chaga populations in their area healthy. Next, Lauzon looked into protecting chaga populations from human overharvesting.
\n\n\n\nTaking only part of the conk is wise foraging, Lauzon says. However, in his view, it’s not enough for a forager to do no harm by harvesting properly. Instead, that harvester must also protect the chaga population from others’ unsustainable practices.
\n\n\n\nManaged well, chaga-seeding could form the foundation of a sustainable wildcraft industry.
Observing the life cycle of chaga, Lauzon discovered that it’s possible to “plant” freshly harvested chaga back onto a tree. Using a drill, a forager can bore into a tree, place a thumbnail-sized chunk of freshly harvested chaga inside, and seal the hole with wax to protect the fungus from the elements. In time, the chaga chunk infects the tree and, eventually, bursts out as a new conk.
\n\n\n\nOn private land, this seeding method could lead to chaga farming: a harvester could work out an agreement with the landowner and seed the chaga for a reliable supply. This approach was developed simultaneously in Europe, where one Estonian company offers professional chaga seeding to land owners.
\n\n\n\nOn public land, where intentionally spreading a tree fungus is ethically questionable, a forager could re-infect a tree after harvesting to counter unsustainable harvesting. If a second harvester digs out the remaining conk from the tree, the newly introduced infection still has a chance of growing and forming a conk in coming years. While not a great outcome for the perpetually infected tree, it’s good news for the forager who knows the chaga will have a chance to spore and produce more conks in the future.
\n\n\n\nBased on chaga’s growth requirements, Lauzon estimates that Ontario foragers could sustainably harvest 15 metric tonnes of chaga per year from easily accessible forests, while Québec harvesters could bring in as much as 25 tonnes. Managed well, this could form the foundation of a sustainable wildcrafted chaga industry, and generate jobs in rural communities.
\n\n\n\nThis is key, because the demand for chaga is unlikely to go away. Approximately 71% of Canadians have consumed some form of natural health product. Demand for these products is generally driven by increased diet consciousness, rising health care costs, and an older population. These factors are unlikely to diminish anytime soon, and the marketing around chaga’s health benefits fits neatly with consumer desires.
\n\n\n\nIn Lauzon’s view, natural chaga production peaked years ago, and human interventions are the only viable path forward. A sustainable chaga future is not necessarily a given, though, and Lauzon foresees a few possible scenarios. Chaga harvesting could increase until demand is so high and supply so low that the fungus becomes a luxury good. Alternatively, companies may resort to vat-grown chaga, with a smaller amount of wild chaga mixed in, or to multi-mushroom blends that mask a shrinking chaga supply.
\n\n\n\nWhile pessimism is well-founded, there’s also reason for hope: managing forest resources is an ancient practice. The Canadian maple syrup industry is an example of disciplined forest resource management. Sugar maple tapping — which requires draining the right amount of sap from a specific type of tree — might offer a model for chaga sellers. Managed correctly, chaga in Canada could become as sustainable as this sweet national delicacy.
\n\n\n\nLauzon believes — based on interest in the methods he’s developed — that sustainability isn’t far off. Over the last two years, he’s seen foragers embracing locally managed operations aimed at balancing chaga stocks with consumer demand. “It really has shifted into the care of the harvesters,” he says. “My pleasant surprise is: the tide is turning, and it’s all of us working together to make that happen.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1261,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,48,8,10,6,38],"tags":[273,128,81,32,98,116,338,143,31,144],"class_list":["post-603","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-health","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","tag-amir-aziz","tag-business","tag-canada","tag-conservation","tag-ecology","tag-forests","tag-lucinda-calder","tag-ontario","tag-plants","tag-wildlife"],"yoast_head":"\nThese days, the word “Amazon” brings ecommerce to mind more often than the world’s largest tropical rainforest, which is under threat once again from raging fires driven by record levels of forest clearing for cattle ranching and soy production. Unlikely though it sounds, however, commerce could actually be a way to save the Amazon.
\n\n\n\nWe tend to think of the Amazon rainforest as one thing: an impossibly large expanse of green. But what best defines it is diversity. Its 7.8 million hectares spread across nine countries are home to more than 30 million people, who between them speak over 300 languages. The flora and fauna comprise 10% of the world’s known species, and there are plenty we don’t yet know. Its economies are diverse, too, from the large-scale logging, cattle ranching, soy cultivation, and mining that have already destroyed a fifth of the forest, to traditional agricultural systems that integrate with the Amazon’s ecosystems.
\n\n\n\nAs Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro strips environmental protections and Indigenous rights, and encourages illegal loggers and miners to invade protected lands, people outside Brazil wonder how they can help. Those unable to vote Bolsonaro out at the polls can vote for forest conservation with our wallets, whether by investing in funds divested from deforestation, or demanding that local retailers boycott beef and soy linked to forest clearing — Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of both.
\n\n\n\nThe more we can support traditional agricultural systems, the more we’re stabilizing the forest frontier.
We can also buy foods whose production protects the Amazon. “The more we can support local communities to maintain their traditional agricultural systems, the more we’re stabilizing the forest frontier,” explains Jacob Olander, who founded Canopy Bridge, a crowd-buying mechanism connecting small producers in the Amazon with global markets. It’s among a growing number of companies and NGOs working to preserve the forest by realizing the economic potential of sustainable industries within it.
\n\n\n\nConsumers around the world can be part of that equation by buying sustainably harvested forest products, from foods to cosmetics. “If you condemn Amazon communities to only selling their products locally, then you’re losing a huge opportunity to do good,” says Olander, who believes the climate benefit of supporting forest-protecting industries far outweighs the emissions of shipping abroad.
\n\n\n\n“If you think about conserving the forest,” says Fernanda Carvalho Stefani, “you have to think about biodiversity.” Stefani’s trading company, 100% Amazonia, exports 25 sustainably sourced Amazonian ingredients to 60 countries as oils, butters, pulps, and powders. She argues that if Amazon supporters focus on only one product, growers are incentivized to replace natural ecosystems with monoculture.
\n\n\n\n“Having a global audience… can help support more diverse production systems,” says Olander from Canopy Bridge. “But it’s a big challenge, as those traditional systems are based on diversity and flexibility, and markets tend to demand predictability.”
\n\n\n\nIf Amazon supporters focus on only one product, growers are incentivized to replace natural ecosystems with monoculture.
Another challenge is knowing whether products are truly sustainable, as supply chains in the Amazon tend to be long and complex. Environmental and social responsibility certifications such as FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and Rainforest Alliance can be prohibitively expensive for remote communities, though they are a good starting point when buying from larger brands. Local certifications such as Origens Brasil — an initiative that connects companies to sustainable producers in conservation areas — also help consumers make informed, ethical choices.
\n\n\n\nAnd it’s worth the effort, as there’s a world of interesting flavours waiting to be discovered. The five foods below only scratch the surface, but are a great place to start.
\n\n\n\nWhen guaraná berries ripen, their white-coated seeds burst out of orangey-red skins. Around 2,500 metric tonnes of the caffeine-rich fruit are harvested each year, hundreds of which are made into Brazil’s answer to Coke, Guaraná Antartica. Drinks company Ambev’s middlemen are among the fruit’s main buyers, but often pay growers the bare minimum.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/guarana.jpeg\")
Indigenous groups in the Amazon were trading guaraná centuries before Ambev, however. The Sateré-Mawé people are credited with domesticating the wild vine, and creating a method for preserving the seeds that’s still used today. For the Sateré-Mawé, guaraná is so much more than a livelihood. It’s their mythology, their identity, and also a beverage they make by roasting and grinding guaraná seeds into a powder that gets formed into sticks, then grated into water.
\n\n\n\nGlobal interest in guaraná is growing due to its reputation as a stimulant, digestion aid, and aphrodisiac. The Sateré-Mawé and other Indigenous growers have formed associations to seek organic certifications and negotiate more equitable prices.
\n\n\n\n“You’re supporting and enjoying a traditional culture,” says Stefani from 100% Amazonia, who travels deep into the forest to buy guaraná from an Indigenous cooperative for US health brand Alovitox.
\n\n\n\nA more familiar Amazon product is cacau, or cocoa, the raw ingredient for chocolate. Cocoa has been cultivated there for millennia, and there are thousands of wild Amazonian cocoa varieties.
\n\n\n\nIn the past five years, the single-origin chocolate boom has given rise to brands producing premium Amazonian chocolates through direct relationships with farmers. Na’Kau started working with wild Amazonian cocoa in 2013. The company says it now sources cocoa from thousands of harvesters across the Amazon, providing community training to improve the cocoa quality. Check the Culinary Culture Connections website for their dark chocolate bars studded with Amazonian chilies, fruits, and nuts.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-27-at-1.45.15-PM.png\")
A number of other Amazonian chocolate brands are available for purchase in North America. Brazilian bean-to-bar chocolate maker Luisa Abram works closely with riverside communities in the Amazon, teaching cocoa growers fermentation techniques that add value to their beans. Chocolate maker César de Mendes used similar strategies to launch a bar last year made from cocoa grown and processed by the persecuted Ye’kwana and Yanomami Indigenous peoples. The intense 69% cacau bar sold out at its launch event in São Paulo late last year.
\n\n\n\nConservation is a key ingredient in the chocolate made by Original Beans. Their team journeys to remote African and South American tropical forests to source rare cocoa varieties, and helps protect them through replanting initiatives. For a taste of unique Amazonian cocoa, look for their Beni Wild Harvest bar from Bolivia and the Cusco Chuncho bar from Peru’s Sacred Valley.
\n\n\n\nA Simpsons episode set in Brazil was so heavy on mixed-up stereotypes even the Brazilian president at the time rebuked it. However, one line about Brazil nuts — “We just call them nuts here” — gave Brazilians something to aspire to. Because there’s actually an ongoing debate about whether to call them castanha-do-Pará , castanha-da-Amazônia, or castanha-do-Brasil (nut from Pará State, the Amazon, or Brazil, respectively).
\n\n\n\nPeople do agree, though, that consuming them helps conserve the Amazon, thanks to the way they’re grown and harvested. Coconut-sized seed pods take up to a year to mature, then fall to the forest floor where they’re gathered by hand and cracked to reveal a puzzle of stacked seeds. This wild harvesting is done largely by forest communities living in rare ecosystems that are vulnerable to the lucrative lure of turning forest into pasture. Generating income from a sustainably managed activity that prevents deforestation is a win-win for these communities and the forest.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-27-at-1.45.30-PM.png\")
Recent initiatives have helped implement harvesting practices that better protect the trees’ natural regeneration cycle, while improved storage, drying, and transportation methods have raised the quality of nuts for export. Cooperatives have also formed to help regulate prices, providing a higher income for the harvesters. Brazil’s Acre state, for example, is still 88% Amazonian rainforest, and the creation of rural producer cooperatives generates income for thousands of families without harming the environment.
\n\n\n\nJust a small pinch of Baniwa chili powder packs a powerful punch. The spice mix is made by the Baniwa people, who have lived around the upper Rio Negro near Brazil’s border with Colombia for as long as 3,000 years. Domesticating chilies has been part of their culture for millennia, too, with over 70 varieties growing in the region.
\n\n\n\nBrazil’s Instituto Socioambiental — an NGO promoting Indigenous cultures — started working with the Baniwa in 2005 to commercialize the spice mix as an income source for Baniwa women. The potent blend is made with dozens of different peppers that are dried and ground with salt, and sold online by Culinary Culture Connections.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-27-at-1.45.44-PM.png\")
Brazilian celebrity chef Alex Atala has also been a champion of Baniwa chili, which featured in an episode of the Netflix series Chef’s Table. After watching the episode, the founders of Irish microbrewery Hopfully Brewing Co were inspired to launch a series of brews using Baniwa chili, from a spicy farmhouse ale to a weiss beer with white chocolate and coconut. In an email, they said they gave 10% of the chili beer sales back to the Baniwa community.
\n\n\n\nLeticia and Peter Feddersen created Soul Brasil in 2018 to bottle Brazilian biodiversity in a range of hot sauces and jellies. “Everywhere we travel, we see foods from all around the world — except from Brazil,” says Leticia. Soul Brasil blends Baniwa chili with organic açaí to make a hot sauce with all-Amazonian flavours.
\n\n\n\nSpeaking of açaí, these berries are arguably the Amazon’s most famous product, generating around US$95 million per year in revenue for Brazil, the world’s largest grower. Native to the Amazon, açaí palms in season are laden with dark purple berries that hang from fronds like a mop of knotted hair. Brazil produces more than a million metric tonnes of the fruit pulp per year, and its “superfood” health credentials have conquered the world.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Screen-Shot-2022-10-27-at-1.45.53-PM.png\")
The global açaí craze has been a mixed blessing for the Amazon, though. On the positive side, demand for the fruit has made forest where it grows more valuable standing than cut down for palm-heart farming or pasture. But it has also given rise to monoculture, damaging not just the forest ecosystem, but farmers’ revenues — as less ecosystem diversity hurts pollinator populations, which leads to lower fruit yields, a recent study showed.
\n\n\n\n“Açaí monoculture is of course not as bad as deforestation for pasture,” says Fernanda Stefani from 100% Amazonia. “But native açaí has the potential to preserve the forest when there is agroforestry management in place.” Agroforestry systems protect biodiversity through small-scale farming that works in harmony with the forest ecosystem.
\n\n\n\nCertifications by the Rainforest Alliance or FSC can also indicate the açaí is more sustainable, though they can also give a false impression. “Greenwashing is very common in the large açaí companies, because of the volume they buy,” explains Stefani, who worked as an açaí exporter for 14 years. “Certifying all of it requires more resources than they make available.” So companies with certifications may not only be selling certified berries.
\n\n\n\nThere are few açaí brands with transparent and sustainable supply chains. Leaders in this realm include Awi Superfoods, 100% Amazonia, and Amazonbai, the first açaí brand to receive FSC certification. Botanica Origins is set to launch in the USA in late 2020, selling sustainably sourced açaí among other forest ingredients. Perhaps more will follow, if consumers are willing to demand — and pay a premium for — sustainability.
\n\n\n\nBrazilians cannot conserve the Amazon alone, especially while Bolsonaro is in power. We can all help protect the forest’s vital role in limiting climate change, but doing so needn’t be driven by guilt. To put Amazonian foods on our plates is to taste the forest’s biodiversity — a whole world of ancient flavours. And to demand those foods be sustainably sourced means boosting Amazonian economies while protecting the forest.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1557,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,8,6,38],"tags":[108,276,137,32,116,75],"class_list":["post-644","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-plants-animals","tag-amazon-rainforest","tag-catherine-balston","tag-chocolate","tag-conservation","tag-forests","tag-health"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Amazon’s best-known export, açaí berries are in demand around the world.
\n"},"alt_text":"A pair of hands stained with purple berry juice cupped together holding a handful of small, dark blue berries.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1280,"height":853,"file":"2022/10/Brazil-header.jpeg","filesize":"233568","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Brazil-header-300x200.jpeg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"15711","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header-300x200.jpeg"},"large":{"file":"Brazil-header-1024x682.jpeg","width":1024,"height":682,"filesize":"96893","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header-1024x682.jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Brazil-header-150x150.jpeg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8274","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header-150x150.jpeg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Brazil-header-768x512.jpeg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"62716","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header-768x512.jpeg"},"full":{"file":"Brazil-header.jpeg","width":1280,"height":853,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header.jpeg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Brazil-header.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1557"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":11,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/planet/climate-change/","name":"Climate Change","slug":"climate-change","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nI was sitting at my auntie’s kitchen table with a stomachache, when she gave me my first glass of homemade ginger kombucha two years ago. She doted on me as if I were a child. Even though I was almost 30, I relished this care. I finished the glass and lay on her couch. She tucked me in and packed me a kombucha-making starter kit: a scoby in a glass jar, some Red Rose tea bags, and four bottles (three empty, one full of kombucha).
\n\n\n\nI was unsure how my baby scoby — a weird, discy blob — would make fermented tea, so I used my aunt’s texted instructions and did research to start my first batch. As I steeped the tea, added sugar, and observed it fermenting over two weeks, I thought how akin to the treaty process kombucha-making was.
\n\n\n\nThough most Canadians know treaties as the Numbered Treaties, or Post-Confederation Treaties, between First Nations people and the Crown (after which Canada perpetually and intentionally eroded them), self-governing Indigenous peoples had made treaties for millennia before contact with European colonizers. “Inter-Indigenous treaties were highly sophisticated oral agreements between sovereign peoples,” explains Métis writer and lawyer Chelsea Vowel in Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues in Canada. “They covered everything from trade arrangements to the settlement of conflicts, with specific consequences for their breach, and specific ways in which these treaties would be renewed.”
\n\n\n\nGrowing up in a large family, I saw treaty ethics modelled by my relatives, especially my aunties.
Treaty, as a relationality framework, is a way of understanding how we tend to relationships. As a Nehiyaw-English-Irish person from Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta, treaty is something I feel I’ve understood in my body my whole life. Growing up in a large family, I saw treaty ethics modelled by my relatives, especially my aunties. I watched how they considered one another while they navigated conflicts and how involved they were with the greater community.
\n\n\n\nDue to colonization, genocide, and the government’s attempt to eradicate Nehiyaw knowledge systems, I wasn’t explicitly taught about the history of treaty-making or the significance of treaty relationships to Nehiyaw people. I’ve only recently begun thinking about treaty as a framework for my relationships with people, living things, and the lands I occupy.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/small-jess-johns.jpg\")
It’s no surprise, then, that I started thinking about how making kombucha is like a treaty relationship. I nourish the scoby, whose name comes from “Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast” (a.k.a. the weird, discy blob); in return, it produces probiotic bacteria and antioxidants, which improve my digestion and health. I care for my kombucha and scoby, and they care for me.
\n\n\n\nEmily Riddle, a Nehiyaw writer from Treaty 6, once tweeted “treaty-making is kin-making.” As my kombucha-making practice grew, so did my kinship-making. I gave at least one bottle from every batch to a friend or kin — to care for them, their gut health, as my auntie did for me. Just as my auntie enabled me to care for myself and my gut flora, I started giving away my scobys as they replicated.
\n\n\n\n“Treaties are like any other sort of relationship: you do not enter into a relationship and then ignore the person afterwards,” writes Vowel. Relationships are complicated, which is why revisiting treaties (and relationships) is integral. Kombucha changes from brewer to brewer, from batch to batch. Kombucha and scobys are, at the end of the day, alive.
\n\n\n\nTreaties are like any other sort of relationship: you do not enter into a relationship and then ignore the person afterwards.
During the pandemic, my family began weekly cooking classes. Every Saturday, a different relative leads us in a chaotic class on Zoom. For my week, I started us all on making kombucha, sending my aunties, parents, and sister scobys through the mail. (My cousin in Edmonton got one from a friend who got her first scoby from me. The exchange made my heart sing.)
\n\n\n\nMy lesson began with a detailed PowerPoint. Then, we made batches together virtually. A week later, my dad’s batch formed mould, necessitating a few calls to reassess what his kombucha and scoby needed. My aunties called with questions throughout the fermentation process. Revisiting and renewing relationships is core to treaties. So too, kombucha-making. Spreading my resources and knowledge about kombucha is important for my relationships. Treaty is knowledge-sharing, too.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/small-grass-bottle.jpg\")
While I make kombucha, I think about treaty ethics as a Nehiyaw person living on the unceded, ancestral territory of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. I shouldn’t take from these lands without living in reciprocity. Dispersing scobys all over Metro “Vancouver” (and now into Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 territories) isn’t enough. I need to think about how I’m actively supporting these communities and their right to self-determination, which is also important for you to reflect on, dear reader. Ask yourself: How are you working toward land reparations and returns, and supporting Indigenous sovereignty on lands you occupy?
\n\n\n\nPerhaps this question seems like a big jump — from my relationship to kombucha-making to my relationship with family to my relationship with the land’s original stewards. But this is the depth of treaty relationships: the interconnectivity between our bodies, our kinship networks, and the world. Treaty is a web, not a straight line. Like replicating scobys, treaties grow in all directions. Every relationship layer that develops is important, necessitates revisiting, and deserves attention and care.
\n\n\n\nNote: An earlier version of this essay first appeared in the zine Critical Booch in 2019.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1466,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[37,14,50,8,10,7,22],"tags":[55,109,145,551,305,170,60,166,171],"class_list":["post-791","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-first-voice","category-food","category-indigenous","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","category-voices","tag-colonization","tag-community","tag-family","tag-indigenous-rights","tag-jessica-johns","tag-nehiyaw","tag-opinion","tag-treaty","tag-treaty-8"],"yoast_head":"\nA collection of the author’s home-brewed kombucha flavours
\n"},"alt_text":"Five clear glass bottles of golden kombucha with paper labels, sitting on a wooden surface surrounded by big green leaves.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles.jpg","filesize":"305247","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"smallkombucha-bottles-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"15367","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"smallkombucha-bottles-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"141306","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"smallkombucha-bottles-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"6281","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"smallkombucha-bottles-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"84602","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"smallkombucha-bottles.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/smallkombucha-bottles.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1466"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":37,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/magazine/voices/first-voice/","name":"First Voice","slug":"first-voice","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nIf you’ve ever planned a Mexican-themed dinner only to find your avocados aren’t quite ripe, you know there’s no substitute for this rich, creamy fruit. A long list of dishes just aren’t the same without it — from poké bowl, to burger, to wrap.
\n\n\n\nSo how did a semi-tropical fruit achieve the status of international staple? Fuelled by free trade and food trends, worldwide demand has grown at an average annual rate of 14% since 1990. In Canada, we now consume over 10 times as many avocados as we did in the early ’90s. In mere decades, annual avocado production has increased to almost 6 billion kgs worldwide, a whopping seven times the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge.
\n\n\n\nAnd they’re not only everywhere, they’re cheap. When you can pick up a mesh bag for a dollar or less per avocado, it’s easy to imagine their footprint is as small as their price. Unfortunately, it’s not.
\n\n\n\nArchaeologists believe ancestors of the Maya and Olmec first ate avocados in Central America between 8000 and 7000 BCE. They’ve been domesticated for so long, it’s hard for scientists to know what the originals looked like, but they likely weren’t the uniform, small-pitted Hass variety we know and love.
\n\n\n\nThanks to the mountainous microclimates of Michoacán, avocados can be harvested year-round, although peak production is August through April.
Today, evergreen avocado trees grow in subtropical regions from Africa to Australia. They come in many shapes and sizes, but most grow between 5 and 20 metres high. If planted from seed, a Hass tree will take up to 13 years to fruit, but can keep producing for centuries. The average tree puts out around 1 million yellow-green flowers, and of those, a few hundred will set fruit after pollination by insects. Thanks to the ample sunlight, rainwater and mountainous microclimates of Michoacán — Mexico’s top avocado-producing region — they can be harvested year-round, although peak production is August through April.
\n\n\n\nSince Mexico is the world’s leading avocado exporter, let’s consider the environmental effects there. Avocado “demand has important environmental impacts in Mexico,” says Dr. Humberto González — who studies the socio-environmental impacts of Mexican export agriculture. For a start, avocados require a lot of land, since the ever-popular Hass variety should be spaced around 13 m apart. A kilo of avocados requires up to four times as much land as the same weight of bananas, according to a 2014 life-cycle comparison by sustainability students in Germany.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Avocado-tree.jpeg\")
In some areas of Mexico, the value of avocado-producing land has quadrupled over the last decade, encouraging farmers to replace forests with orchards. Michoacán loses 6,000–8,000 hectares of forest to avocado production each year — at least the size of Manhattan. This sudden loss of natural forest can trigger drought and erosion, and drive carbon emissions. Local officials believe avocado-related deforestation was a factor in 2019 floods that killed five people in the state of Jalisco.
\n\n\n\nAvocados are also especially thirsty, though the amount of water they need depends on the location. Growing a metric tonne of watermelon typically takes about 235 cubic metres of water. Bananas take just shy of 800 cubic metres per tonne. Avocados? Nearly 2,000 cubic metres of water per tonne of fruit (other crops in that same range include plums and mangos). In many places, that water must be added through irrigation, and one calculation has found that the average avocado needs around 70 litres of added water, more if the environment is dry. Think of the impact this has on water-stressed avocado-producing countries like Chile and Mexico.
\n\n\n\nLocal officials believe avocado-related deforestation was a factor in floods that killed five people in the state of Jalisco.
Avocados generally travel by road or sea rather than air, so their transport emissions aren’t as high as they could be. But they’re still carbon-intensive to produce, since high demand drives the use of fossil fuel-heavy machinery and fertilizers. The above-mentioned 2014 analysis shows that — from farm to packaging — every kilo of avocado emits one and a half times as much CO2 as the same quantity of that other smoothie staple, bananas.
\n\n\n\nOn top of all this, our desire for avocado toast at any cost encourages monoculture, which enables producers to specialize labour and farming practices for maximum yields. Though efficient, technologies like chemical pesticides come at a steep price, harming pollinators, contaminating subsoils, and leaching into waterways.
\n\n\n\nHow does all this impact people in avocado country? Today, González says, descendants of the original consumers, producers, and lovers of avocado can no longer enjoy them. Avocados may be relatively cheap in North America, but global demand is so strong Mexican producers can’t keep up, triggering high prices locals can’t afford. These prices have encouraged some taquerías in Mexico City to do the unthinkable: substitute squash for avocado to make “fake guacamole.”
\n\n\n\nAlthough farmers in avocado-producing states do earn relatively more than many other Mexican farmers, it’s still not a fair wage or salary, says González. And they have to shoulder environmental costs. His recent research found cancer-linked pesticides in the bodies of virtually every child under 15 tested in two avocado-producing regions. Ironically, the superfood celebrated for its cancer-fighting properties may cause cancer among its producers. Lucrative farming operations also attract drug cartels, who Mexican officials say extort farmers and truckers for cash — in some cases violently — prompting international headlines about “blood avocados.”
\n\n\n\nIronically, the superfood celebrated for its cancer-fighting properties may cause cancer among its producers.
Sociologist Angela Serrano of the University of Wisconsin-Madison researches the effects of skyrocketing “green gold” exports in Colombia, fast becoming a top exporter. Rather than providing opportunities for existing farmers to cash in, avocado-farming practices marginalize them, she says. Sustainable, small-scale farms just can’t compete against large-scale monocrop operations, with their expensive irrigation systems and fertilizers.
\n\n\n\nSo where do we go from here? Right now, people and ecosystems in Mexico, Colombia, and other producing regions pay a high price for the avocados we consume, as a handful of major exporting corporations profit. But in the context of globalization, producers will do whatever it takes to fill supermarket shelves in service of demand.
\n\n\n\nWhich brings us to the consumer. A boycott would be disastrous, experts warn, considering how entire regions of people now depend on this crop. González recommends buying organic, since it’s more friendly to local environments and people, and only about 10% of avocados are currently grown that way. But, he points out, organic methods on an industrial scale won’t eliminate deforestation, soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions or high water consumption.
\n\n\n\nNeither does organic certification guarantee the rights of farm workers. Fair Trade labels like Fair Trade USA and Equitable Food Initiative hold promise, Serrano and González agree, pointing to coffee as a success story. But Serrano cautions that these labels require investments that are challenging for small-scale farmers to afford.
\n\n\n\nOrganic methods on an industrial scale won’t eliminate deforestation, soil degradation, greenhouse gas emissions, or high water consumption.
Activism by consumer organizations, like Mexico’s Vía Orgánica, can spur change. Gonzáles points to the example of tuna, where global attention on dolphin casualties led to “dolphin safe” labelling in the 1990s, transforming the tuna fishery. “The big organizations of growers of avocados, they are very sensitive when they perceive changes in the habits of the consumers and change in the actions of consumers organizations,” says Gonzáles.
\n\n\n\nSerrano also has a simple suggestion: Buy ugly fruit. “Support shops where avocados or other fruits are of different shapes,” she says. Demand for perfectly round and plump avocados favours long-term contracts between producers and supermarkets. Buying small, mis-shaped, and speckled avocados helps open up markets to farmers who are not industrialized, she says.
\n\n\n\nAlso, Serrano says, be wary of food trends. The craze for low-carb, high-fat diets like keto and paleo — as well as trendy menu items like avocado toast — can fuel unsustainable spikes in demand. “Consumption booms tend to create a lot of disruptions in places of production,” she says.
\n\n\n\nFinally, we can diversify our shopping lists. By stocking our pantries with a variety of local, imported, and even ugly foods, we encourage groceries to stock — and farmers to grow — diverse crops that can be grown sustainably. Squash guacamole, anyone?
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":993,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,23,35],"tags":[30,221,330,214,116,75,262,515],"class_list":["post-561","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-start-small","category-story-of","tag-agriculture","tag-deforestation","tag-erin-flegg","tag-food-security","tag-forests","tag-health","tag-lauren-kaljur","tag-mexico"],"yoast_head":"\nThe cows call the shots on Morningstar Farm. At this Vancouver Island dairy, cows are milked when they feel like it. Raymond Gourlay — who runs Morningstar with his mother, Nancy Gourlay — says the 47-head herd of Holsteins and Brown-Swiss/Holstein-crosses eats and rests more, and lines up less, than at a conventional farm.
\n\n\n\nAny time she wants — and as often as she likes — a Morningstar cow steps into the farm’s automated DeLaval Voluntary Milking System. A computer chip in her collar signals the system’s robot to clean her udder and attach an automatic milker to each teat, standing in for the worker who would once have attached a vacuum milker for twice-daily milkings. The chip also monitors her health and tracks output as she’s milked. “It’s a win for the animals,” Gourlay says.
\n\n\n\nWhen Gourlay’s own son was born five years ago, he realized the problem with milking twice a day. Just like for nursing humans, frequent milkings are better for cows’ comfort and health. So the dairy went robotic. “They’re on their own schedule and they can express more of their natural behaviour when we cater to individual needs,” Gourlay says.
\n\n\n\nThe milk is used quickly, pumped across the farmyard to Morningstar’s dairy business, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks. It’s made into a variety of raw-milk hard cheeses, while soft cheeses like brie are made from heated milk. Old Smoky is the newest product, a smoked hard cheese launched in spring 2020.
\n\n\n\nAll robotic milking systems are voluntary for the cow. But the technology is also good for humans.
The first robotic milker in North America was used on an Ontario dairy farm in 1999. But they’re still far from commonplace. They’re expensive: A typical machine costs in the range of $200,000. About 25% of British Columbia’s 70,000 dairy cows are milked by robotic systems, says Brian Rodenburg, owner of West Coast Robotics in Agassiz, BC. The company sells the Lely Astronaut Milking System, used by BC dairy operations ranging from a single machine serving 25 cows, up to 31 milkers on a Chilliwack operation with a herd numbering 1,700.
\n\n\n\nAll robotic milking systems are voluntary for the cow. But the technology is also good for humans, freeing up farm staff to focus on monitoring the herd for problems, rather than spending time milking at 5 am and 5 pm. “It’s a tool that makes good farmers better,” Gourlay says. With the robotic milker, Morningstar’s average per-cow production went from about 32 litres a day to 40 L, increasing output without growing the herd.
\n\n\n\nMorningstar cows also get some pampering from two automatic “massage” stations at either end of the barn. Large car-wash-style brushes spin when a cow leans into them, scratching all her hard-to-reach spots. They’re busy throughout the day.
\n\n\n\nThe 36-hectare farm just outside Parksville — about two hours north of Victoria — supports life beyond its domesticated residents, in fields, ponds, streams, and forest. Migratory trumpeter swans winter there. Waterfowl nest by the ponds and swallows stay part of the year. Deer are regular visitors; even elk pass through occasionally.
\n\n\n\nStreams are fenced off so cows can’t drink from them, preserving water health by keeping the area free of their urine and feces. Grass grown year-round — instead of the seasonal corn often cultivated as feed by dairy farms — avoids nutrient runoff (when spring thaw and rain washes fertilizers and soil from bare winter fields into streams and ponds). And permanent pasture “is an excellent carbon sink,” Gourlay says.
\n\n\n\nPlus, he adds, the result is “just a better-tasting milk.”
\n\n\n\nThe farm-as-habitat approach was championed by Gourlay’s late father, Clarke, who established Morningstar with Nancy in 2004. Gourlay calls it the “philosophy of abundance.” “There is enough for everyone,” he says. “The wild animals, farm animals, people who live here, and the visitors who come to experience the farm.”
\n\n\n\nThere is enough for everyone: the wild animals, farm animals, people who live here, and the visitors.
Those people include Raymond’s wife, Rebecca, five-year-old Kieran and two-year-old Dahlia, his mother, and his brother John, who works as a herdsman. Morningstar’s human population also includes 18 employees at the farm, cheeseworks, and retail areas. In summer, as many as 400 visitors a day take free, self-guided tours of the barns and dairy farm museum.
\n\n\n\nAs with everywhere else, the Covid-19 pandemic changed life and work at Morningstar. Public access and retail areas closed in March. “This is people’s lives and livelihood,” says Gourlay. “We wanted to keep operating as much as is safe and reasonable, without putting staff at risk.” The cheeseworks continued making cheese for sale by retailers across BC. The dairy began home delivery of about 200 L of milk twice a week, and the farm store switched to online sales. Gourlay estimates business dropped by 80%.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-machine.jpeg\")
The farm’s beloved milk vending machine was also temporarily shut down. It has since re-opened. The automatic milk growler-filler — or should that be “moo-ler”? — usually dispenses a litre of fresh, pasteurized, cream-top milk for a toonie. Gourlay says it was Canada’s first when it was installed in 2017. Others have come on board since, in Saskatchewan and Ontario.
\n\n\n\nGuests will get to see farming up close again once Covid-19 distancing eases. It’s a transparent operation, says Gourlay. There are no hidden areas and nothing is off-limits aside from family and employee living areas and the cheeseworks, which can’t be toured for health reasons. Visitors can watch cheesemaking through a window, though.
\n\n\n\nEven before the pandemic, it had been a challenging year at Morningstar. Clarke Gourlay died in a hiking accident in Strathcona Provincial Park in June 2019, prompting a series of changes. “Losing my dad was a massive part of that,” says Raymond. “He was our general manager. I’ve taken over the role, sharing it with my mom… It’s been a steep learning curve to cover the responsibilities, all he was doing.”
\n\n\n\nThey decided to permanently close MooBerry Winery after fruit became difficult to source. And then Covid-19 struck, requiring yet more adaptations.
\n\n\n\nGourlay re-opened retail with limited hours in May, and was looking forward to getting visitors back. His plans to start making ice cream with Morningstar milk are off the table for now.
\n\n\n\nGourlay says the goal for the moment is to “hold on and get through the year.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1739,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,38,23,15,9],"tags":[30,96,448,449],"class_list":["post-1748","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-start-small","category-the-island","category-west-coast","tag-agriculture","tag-cows","tag-linda-barnard","tag-milk"],"yoast_head":"\nCows grazing on Morningstar Farm’s pasture
\n"},"alt_text":"Two brown cows graze on a vast grassy field.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1000,"height":600,"file":"2022/12/Morningstar-cows.jpg","filesize":"156965","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Morningstar-cows-300x180.jpg","width":300,"height":180,"filesize":"14416","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-cows-300x180.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Morningstar-cows-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"6724","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-cows-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Morningstar-cows-768x461.jpg","width":768,"height":461,"filesize":"77205","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-cows-768x461.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Morningstar-cows.jpg","width":1000,"height":600,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-cows.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Morningstar-cows.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1739"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nAre you a glass bottle half-full or aluminum can half-empty person? We’ve set up a head-to-head battle to learn which container is better for the planet. So grab your soda or beer, and let’s see which serves up the most environmental pints, er, points.
\n\n\n\nAluminum comes from a red sedimentary rock called bauxite. No bauxite is mined in North America, so we import it from open-pit mining operations in countries like Brazil, Jamaica, and Guinea. In 2018, Human Rights Watch warned that bauxite mining in Guinea has had “profound human rights consequences,” as some mining companies take ancestral land from rural farmers, damage local water sources, and pollute the air.
\n\n\n\n“Mining bauxite requires substantial — not just land-scarring — but also a significant amount of energy,” says Nemkumar Banthia, a University of British Columbia professor and senior Canada research chair in infrastructure, rehabilitation, and sustainability. Banthia echoed the findings of a 2008 Slate article, which found that “manufacturing a 12-ounce aluminum can is twice as energy-intensive as making a similarly sized glass bottle.”
\n\n\n\nAfter mining, a chemical process extracts aluminum oxide from the rock in powder form. That powder is smelted into metal using electricity and heat, and then factories convert aluminum sheets into products from car parts to beer cans. Making a can from recycled aluminum requires only 8–10% of the energy needed for new aluminum.
\n\n\n\nGlass, on the other hand, is made by melting down widely available materials like silica, sand, soda ash, and limestone in high-temperature furnaces. Silica is everywhere, says Banthia: “It’s one of the most abundant materials of the Earth’s crust.”
\n\n\n\nManufacturing a 12-ounce aluminum can is twice as energy-intensive as making a similarly sized glass bottle.
According to the US Energy Information Administration, glass manufacturing is also one of the “most energy-intensive industries.” Bottles made from recycled glass take about 70% of the energy needed to make new glass, as glass melts at a lower temperature than its raw materials.
\n\n\n\nDespite the energy needed to make glass, new aluminum requires even more when you consider bauxite mining’s impact. This round, we’re pouring points into glass.
\n\n\n\nBoth aluminum and glass are infinitely recyclable, meaning they can be broken down and remade repeatedly without losing strength. And because aluminum is practically unbreakable, the number of times it can be recycled really is infinite; broken bottles unfortunately end up in the landfill.
\n\n\n\nIt’s hard to know how much is actually recycled, though, says Clarissa Morawski, whose Barcelona-based company CM Consulting does waste-reduction and recycling analysis for industry and government. Not all jurisdictions publish data, and each has different recycling and reporting systems, says Morawski, who has studied waste-reduction policies for over 20 years. For 2019, Morawski says CM’s best estimate for aluminum can recycling in Canada was 70%. Estimates for what percentage of the average new can is made from recycled aluminum range from 40% to 70%.
\n\n\n\nAcross Canada, non-refillable glass beverage recycling rates range from 66% in Newfoundland and close to 90% or higher in BC, Alberta, and Nova Scotia, according to a 2018 analysis by CM Consulting. In the US, states with beverage deposit programs have an average glass container recycling rate of 60%, while non-deposit states only reach about 24%, according to the Container Recycling Institute.
\n\n\n\nUnlike cans, some glass bottles have another possible fate: reuse. In Canada, refillable beer bottles are used by big breweries with infrastructure to sanitize them, like Sleemans, Molson, and Labatt. Canadians could be drinking out of the same bottle they returned as little as 30 days ago, thanks to programs that collect beer bottles brought to depots and return them to beer companies. “With a national collection rate of approximately 95%, the refillable beer bottle is Canada’s most recovered beverage container,” according to CM Consulting’s 2018 report.
\n\n\n\nIn Germany, glass bottles are reused up to 50 times.
In Canada, refillable beer bottles are typically used up to 15 times before they’re recycled. But other places do way better. In Germany, glass bottles are reused up to 50 times. “Germany has probably the highest market share for refillable bottles for beer in the world,” says Morawski. She says many life-cycle assessments have found that the refillable glass bottle is, “the most ecologically friendly” container for beer.
\n\n\n\nOregonians are closing in on Germany’s re-use rate. Founded in 2018, the Oregon Beverage Recycling Cooperative (OBRC) is the first state-wide refillable glass bottle program in the US. The OBRC handles bottle collection, washing, and re-distribution among ten different breweries. In 2019, they had over 400,000 bottles in circulation that can be refilled up to 40 times.
\n\n\n\nHenry Pedro at Nova Scotia’s Boxing Rock Brewing has blogged about why his craft brewery uses them: “refillable 341 mL bottles are durable, practical and reusable and that’s important to us.” At the beer store, he says, look for ratty bottles, which have gone through the system a few times.
\n\n\n\nThink of those dusty-looking scratches as an “environmental halo,” jokes Morawski.
\n\n\n\nSince Pedro’s 2017 post, Boxing Rock has started filling some aluminum cans to please consumers and retailers who find them more convenient. In line with their values, they use cans with logos printed on them rather than plastic sleeves, and buy from a manufacturer that says they use about 60% recycled aluminum.
\n\n\n\nBut perhaps the ultimate refillable beer container is the growler — a glass jug that some craft breweries will fill directly from their taps. Made of thick glass, well-cared-for growlers can survive many, many refills.
\n\n\n\nFor this round, both cans and bottles get points for being infinitely recyclable, but glass gets a few extra points for its potential reusability.
\n\n\n\nSix-pack rings have become a symbol of plastic waste and harm to wildlife. Some companies are experimenting with biodegradable and compostable alternatives — and even glue — but plastic rings still turn up in our oceans and landfills.
\n\n\n\nIn Vancouver, Humblebee Meadery co-founder Pierre Vacheresse calls them “turtle-killing rings.” Instead, Humblebee uses reusable harder plastic can-carriers made out of recycled materials for its secondary packaging. Vacheresse collects them for reuse from liquor stores once they’ve removed cans for individual sale.
\n\n\n\nMulti-packs of glass bottles are usually transported in cardboard boxes. While paper is recyclable, it’s important to remember that making paper is also a water-, energy-, and chemical-intensive process. As a whole it accounts for 4% of global energy use.
\n\n\n\nWhat about branding? Aluminum cans and glass bottles sometimes come with labels or sleeves, which can contaminate the recycling stream. Logos or designs painted directly on the surface make recycling easier.
\n\n\n\nWith the historic and ongoing plastic pollution from a can’s six-pack rings, we’re giving this round to the glass bottle.
\n\n\n\nAluminum and raw materials for glass are transported to factories that make containers, which go on to breweries that fill them, businesses that sell them, and (hopefully) recycling facilities and back again — in trucks and vans that spew carbon the whole way. Aluminum wins this round for being light-weight and easy to stack, making it easier to transport more with fewer trips.
\n\n\n\nOverall, the refillable glass bottle wins, with an aluminum can made of mostly recycled aluminum as the runner-up. The challenge is, it’s extremely difficult to find out what percentage of a can is made of recycled aluminum.
\n\n\n\nYour best option? Bike to a nearby micro-brewery or kombucha bar and fill up your growler: the ultimate refillable glass bottle.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":999,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,39,23,28],"tags":[330,258,104,94,93],"class_list":["post-540","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plastic-pollution","category-start-small","category-decider","tag-erin-flegg","tag-francesca-fionda","tag-pollution","tag-recycling","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nI hate single-use items. I despise disposable coffee cups, plastic water bottles, to-go containers, and throwaway cleaning products. But yikes, this pandemic has me throwing out everything I touch like everyone else. I now use tissues to open doors, then toss them. I’m hoarding Lysol wipes like they’re gold. When I think about going out, I ask, “Is this trip wipe-worthy?” like Elaine from Seinfeld requiring her boyfriend to prove he was contraceptive “sponge-worthy.”
\n\n\n\nSingle-use items have made a comeback since the pandemic was declared. New York State postponed enforcement of its long-planned plastic bag ban from April 1 to May 15. The US Department of Homeland Security declared producers of plastic and other single-use packaging “essential critical infrastructure.” Uggghhh! This all hurts my environmentalist heart like plastic straws hurt the noses of sea turtles.
\n\n\n\nSingle-use items making a comeback hurts my heart like plastic straws hurt the noses of sea turtles.
Especially because on May 22 the US Centers for Disease Control clarified that “it may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it… but this isn’t thought to be the main way the virus spreads.” Now, of course we all want to be as safe as possible; I’m not suggesting people stop being careful. But it does seem like we could safely get back to some zero-waste habits.
\n\n\n\nI hoped I was done writing about single-use items, but this pandemic’s got me back on that hobby horse. How can we create less garbage and still keep ourselves safe? Here are some thoughts:
\n\n\n\nOh, how I miss sitting at a little table, drinking from a ceramic mug, and watching the world go by. Honestly, I haven’t had coffee in months, because self-isolation intensified my insomnia, and I figure the last thing I need is a habit that keeps me awake.
\n\n\n\nWhat I’ve heard from friends who are going to coffee shops is they’re not allowed to bring their own cups. Disposable is the rule. Of course we don’t want staff getting infected, but here’s a thought: could they pour a drink into one of the store’s ceramic mugs, and then have the customer transfer it into their reusable mug? Could we do that?
\n\n\n\nIf grocery clerks — who are already underpaid and overwhelmed right now — don’t want to touch our reusable bags, couldn’t we just bag our own groceries? After you’d bagged your purchase, staff would only have to wipe down the counter as they’re already doing.
\n\n\n\nI wonder if people even thought reusable bags were an issue before Big Plastic got involved. The American Plastics Industry Association (PIA) wrote a letter to the US Department of Health and Human Services asking them to “make a public statement on the health and safety benefits seen in single-use plastics… [and to] speak out against bans on these products as a public safety risk.” Ok, but where’s the evidence of this risk, Big Plastic?
\n\n\n\nMiriam Gordon from Upstream Solutions — a non-profit dedicated to reducing plastic pollution — wrote a blog post about the letter, noting that it’s full of misinformation. The letter references a study funded by a trade association for chemical companies, which found reusable bags contain high levels of bacteria because users don’t wash them frequently. But Gordon points out the study “didn’t state that there were any health-related threats posed by the types and levels of bacteria in the reusable bags.”
\n\n\n\nThe current coronavirus only remains viable on plastic for up to three days, and the amounts of viable virus go down dramatically even earlier.
Some think since many people don’t wash their reusable bags, they could be bringing virus into stores with them. But a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that the current coronavirus only remains viable on stainless steel and plastic for up to three days, and on cardboard for one day (and the amounts of viable virus go down dramatically even earlier). So if we’re getting groceries weekly, any virus from the last time you were out wouldn’t be on a reusable plastic bag anymore. Because if you have the virus yourself, you’re staying home, right? RIGHT?!?
\n\n\n\nWhat about cloth bags? I wasn’t able to find anything about them specifically, but clothing is a good equivalent. Dr. Michael Gardam, an infectious disease physician and chief of staff at Toronto’s Humber River Hospital, told Global News that clothes aren’t super risky: “I don’t think the clothing you’re walking around with on a regular basis is going to be a big cause of concern.”
\n\n\n\nIf you’re getting takeout from restaurants, hopefully you’re supporting a local business that uses compostable containers, or plastics you can reuse at home or recycle. It’s important to support these small businesses, which are suffering so much already. But, if you can, give that boost to those who are working to keep things sustainable.
\n\n\n\nWhat if you’re a superstar who doesn’t buy packaged goods and shops at a bring-your-own container store? How can you shop without transmitting the virus? Two zero-waste grocers here in Vancouver, BC — Nada and the Soap Dispensary — have introduced online ordering, with staffers packaging goods up in paper bags and jars you can return for a deposit. Hopefully your local bulk store is doing something equivalent. If not, why not share these strategies with them so you can get back to your lower-waste ways?
\n\n\n\nOk, I know books aren’t single-use items. But some people seem to think they should be. There are Little Free Libraries all over my neighbourhood — large birdhouse-like structures filled with books passers-by are encouraged to take home — and they’ve been shuttered to prevent the spread of Covid-19. They don’t need to be!
\n\n\n\nScientists are not concerned at all about paper-based materials like books being a transmission route.
Dr. David Berendes from the US Centers for Disease Control made a presentation to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and stated: “We are not concerned at all about paper-based materials like books being a transmission route.” Hallelujah!!! If you manage a Little Free Library, here’s some information about how to keep it safe.
\n\n\n\nI’m grateful that during summer 2019’s awful forest fire season I bought two N99 masks, which filter out even more particles than N95s. These are reusable and can be cleaned. I wear them whenever I go into any store, for everyone’s safety. Of course, the cloth masks people are making are not N95-classified, but they still help slow the spread of the virus. And the good news is, they’re washable and reusable! If you snag one in a cute print, they’re fashionable, too.
\n\n\n\nGloves are controversial. Reusable cloth gloves don’t offer good protection and plastic gloves won’t protect you if you touch your face with them. Instead of making plastic waste, just wash your hands — or use hand sanitizer if soap and water isn’t available — and refrain from touching your face with unclean hands.
\n\n\n\nThe upside to the pandemic is we’re making less garbage and pollution these days. Thankfully, polluting industries like air travel, cruise ships, and oil and gas have massively slowed down. Let’s use the extra time on our hands to write to our governments about demanding more environmentally sound practices from those industries, and not providing them with the no-strings-attached bailouts they’re hoping for.
\n\n\n\nWe can still maintain our zero-waste values, by supporting stores and organizations taking a stand against disposable culture. And I hope you’re able to enjoy the slower pace of life. Take your reusable items to a park and have a picnic at an appropriate distance from others. Wash your hands. Don’t touch your face. And as BC’s public health officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, says: “Be calm. Be kind. Be safe.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":916,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[27,14,8,10,6,39,22],"tags":[330,94,251,93],"class_list":["post-469","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmentalist-from-hell","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plastic-pollution","category-voices","tag-erin-flegg","tag-recycling","tag-sara-bynoe","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nCovid-19 has scared many people out of their zero-waste habits. But the science says we don’t need to give up on reusable items and sharing-economy joys like Little Free Libraries.
\n"},"alt_text":"A little free library: a small, house-shaped box usually full of books. A sign on its door says it’s closed due to Covid-19.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1169,"file":"2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic.jpg","filesize":"300922","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"zero-waste-pandemic-300x234.jpg","width":300,"height":234,"filesize":"25786","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic-300x234.jpg"},"large":{"file":"zero-waste-pandemic-1024x798.jpg","width":1024,"height":798,"filesize":"186118","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic-1024x798.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"zero-waste-pandemic-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"9489","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"zero-waste-pandemic-768x599.jpg","width":768,"height":599,"filesize":"118606","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic-768x599.jpg"},"full":{"file":"zero-waste-pandemic.jpg","width":1500,"height":1169,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/zero-waste-pandemic.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=916"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":27,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/magazine/voices/environmentalist-from-hell/","name":"Environmentalist from Hell","slug":"environmentalist-from-hell","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nIn the midst of a suburban neighbourhood hides an agricultural oasis: bees buzz, raised beds overflow with herbs, greens, and rhubarb; fields brim with rows of garlic, potatoes, melons, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beets, and squash. It’s not uncommon to find farms in the Vancouver, BC, suburb of Delta — about a quarter of which is zoned for agricultural use — but this isn’t your standard Delta farm. Here at Farm Roots Mini School, the farmers are teens and their teachers, and the fields, beds, and beehives are one giant classroom.
\n\n\n\nFor two dozen students, the school provides an opportunity to learn about agriculture in a hands-on way — from managing a small orchard of a couple dozen trees to starting seeds, planting crops, and weeding. The program is run by the Delta School District on 3 hectares of land a few blocks away from the waters of Boundary Bay, within several hundred metres of the US border.
\n\n\n\n“It’s different than a typical classroom. It’s very open. We have a different schedule but we’re still getting all of our academics in a unique way,” says Denzel Chand, a grade 12 student in his second year of the program. He plans to pursue post-secondary studies in agriculture and business — an area he wasn’t aware of before attending the school.
\n\n\n\nHis career goals have been shaped by the curriculum at Farm Roots, where students connect not only to the land, but also the food system. The curriculum exposes students to agricultural careers and teaches them how to produce their own food.
\n\n\n\nIt’s an approach to education with the potential to fill gaps in the agricultural sector. According to the last agricultural census, farming is an aging field, with the average Canadian farmer aged 55 years old. In 2011, less than half of farmers (48%) were over 50. Five years later, that percentage was up to 55%. Although, the percentage of farmers under the age of 35 increased from 8% to 9% in that time. (The middle bracket of farmers aged 35 to 54 decreased from 45% to 36%.) Even in agricultural communities like Delta, some people worry that youth are growing disconnected from the production of their food.
\n\n\n\n“There was something definitely missing in the bricks-and-mortar aspect of our schools,” said Paige Hansen, the district vice principal of special programs with the Delta School District. “And farming was a sort of a way to connect, away from the industrial school model, and actually connect to the community that had been built on agriculture.”
\n\n\n\nEven in agricultural communities, people worry that youth are disconnected from the production of their food.
Farm Roots Mini School is open to students from Grade 10 to 12, from both within and outside Delta. Students spend half their time at the mini-school — where courses include environmental sciences, entrepreneurship, land and food systems, and English — and half of their time at their regular home high schools. Now in its fourth year, the program has grown from eight to 24 students.
\n\n\n\nAccording to Cody Forbes, a teacher and coordinator for the school, the coursework incorporates agriculture and farming as much as possible. For example, in chemistry class, students learn about common chemicals used in agriculture and their environmental impact. The students also learn from local experts and visit agricultural facilities — such as dairy farms and greenhouses — that can’t be offered on site.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-body-1024x418.jpg\")
“What we can’t learn about firsthand on our farm, we have the very generous community within Delta that allows us to go into their space and do a little bit of learning there as well,” said Forbes.
\n\n\n\nTheir school days all look different, depending on the time of year. In the winter, students spend more time inside the classroom. In the spring, there is more outdoor work, including starting seeds, planting crops, weeding, watering, tending to the bees, and caring for trees in the orchard. The program reflects the range of crops and animal production in BC, allowing the students to learn about the diversity of the province’s agricultural industry firsthand.
\n\n\n\n“When more kids are engaged in hands-on learning, such as food systems and gardening and farming, they’re learning a really useful skill,” Hansen adds. “Particularly in light of this latest pandemic, the idea of having food security and knowing how to plant your own food is more relevant than ever.”
\n\n\n\nMany Farm Roots students have been able to continue outdoor work on the farm since the Covid-19 pandemic began, and the school is going ahead with six weeks of student programming this summer. However, because of the ongoing need for physical distancing, the program will go on hiatus for the 2020–21 school year.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1727,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,20,8,51,9],"tags":[30,127,465],"class_list":["post-1781","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-kids-parenting","category-living","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-agriculture","tag-education","tag-shelley-tomlinson"],"yoast_head":"\nStudents from Farm Roots Mini School in Delta, BC, help out in the fields at Schoolhouse Farm, also in Delta.
\n"},"alt_text":"A group of students tend to the soil in the middle of a sunflower field, under a blue sky with clouds.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/12/farmroots-header-1.jpg","filesize":"296476","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"farmroots-header-1-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"16963","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"farmroots-header-1-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"150885","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"farmroots-header-1-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"7071","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"farmroots-header-1-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"90264","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"farmroots-header-1.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/farmroots-header-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1727"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nBefore they were ranchers, Tristan and Aubyn Banwell were vegans. Then, an experience homesteading led them to appreciate the importance of livestock in small-scale farming: while converting an overgrown lot into cropland, they enlisted pigs to uproot shrubs and trees, ducks to control the slugs, and chickens to recycle plant material into the soil as manure. The Banwells subsequently founded Spray Creek Ranch in 2014, where they currently raise cattle, pigs, chickens, and turkeys on 100 hectares near Lillooet, British Columbia.
\n\n\n\nTristan sees their transition from vegans to livestock farmers as a natural result of uncovering the complexities of the food system: “I think it’s actually a really common story — there are a lot of people who follow a vegetarian or vegan diet for a period of time, and then eventually find that their concerns can be addressed by some other products. Things are a lot more complex in the food system than we realize at first blush.”
\n\n\n\nAt Spray Creek, the Banwells employ the principles of regenerative agriculture — a growing movement aimed at restoring soil health and fertility through farming practices that mimic natural ecosystems. Regenerative agriculture seeks to move away from the extractive industrial model that dominates our food system, to a holistic approach that gives back to the soil as much as it takes. By employing the natural benefits of grazing animals, regenerative farmers see livestock as a solution to the climate crisis, not a cause.
\n\n\n\nRegenerative agriculture seeks to move away from the extractive industrial model that dominates our food system.
“We are inundated with reports that animal agriculture, and particularly cows, are destroying the Earth. But that is simply not true,” says Will Harris, a regenerative farmer at White Oak Pastures in Bluffton, Georgia. “What is true is that high-input industrial agriculture is rapidly destroying the land and the environment. Cows can be a part of that if they’re industrialized. But cows, sheep, and other animals in a natural grazing system can literally be the answer to climate change.”
\n\n\n\nThe vast majority of meat comes from factory farms, where animals are kept in tight confinement and fed crops like corn and soy. Monocrop farms (like those growing feed) control weeds and pests through intensive tillage, plowing, and agrochemicals that destroy ecosystems’ life-giving biodiversity. And industrial agriculture isn’t restricted to the meat industry: most grains, fruits, and vegetables also come from factory farms.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Spray-creek.jpg\")
“The use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides has radically changed the microbial populations in the soil, and turned the living biological medium… known as ‘soil,’ into dirt,” says Harris.
\n\n\n\nAnd the damage can have compounding effects. The overuse of synthetic fertilizers disrupts soil’s natural carbon cycles, meaning farms require stronger fertilizer doses to maintain yields. “It’s a downward spiral,” says Harris, “we’re increasingly dependent on chemical fertilizer.”
\n\n\n\nThe same is true for herbicides like glyphosate (Roundup); as weeds become resistant, farmers apply more, which further degrades the soil. These industrial farming practices contribute to Earth’s staggering rate of soil degradation: 24 billion tonnes per year.
\n\n\n\nWhen grazing animals are moved from feedlots to grassland, they’re capable of restoring healthy soil, while helping to sequester carbon dioxide (CO₂) from the atmosphere. Cows and sheep are ruminants — in the same family as bison, buffalo, and wildebeest — which evolved alongside grasslands in a mutually beneficial relationship. Their digestive systems developed to break down grass, and in doing so, they help recycle nutrients back into the soil through dropping manure.
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAnimals in a natural grazing system can literally be the answer to climate change.
\n
These processes rebuild soil organic matter: the fertile mixture of earth, root systems, fungal networks, and beneficial microbial populations necessary for growing nutritious food. And the world certainly needs fertile soil. Five years ago, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization released a report estimating we’d only have soil fit for growing food for 60 more years.
\n\n\n\nThe act of grazing likewise stimulates grass to photosynthesize — the process of pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and converting it into carbohydrates — according to Tom Tolputt, a regenerative farm consultant in Cornwall, UK.
\n\n\n\n“After a period of grazing,” he explains, “the plant re-concentrates its effort into reproducing biomass.”
\n\n\n\nAnd perennial grasslands are particularly beneficial carbon sinks: they grow deep root systems that exude carbon into the soil, feeding underground bacterial populations that help pull nutrients back into the plant. “Animals are very important because they work with perennial crops,” says Tolputt. “And perennial crops have a much greater opportunity to sequester carbon versus annual crops like soy, corn, and wheat.”
\n\n\n\nA 2016 study from Michigan State University found that if regenerative grazing practices were applied to 25% of crop and grassland in America, the carbon sequestered could fully offset the emissions of American agriculture.
\n\n\n\n“The clock is ticking,” says Bobby Gill, communications director at The Savory Institute in Boulder, Colorado. “If we want a planet to live on, we need to activate our global grasslands and regenerate them so they can be operating as efficiently as possible, pumping carbon out of the atmosphere back into the soil where it belongs.”
\n\n\n\nThe Savory Institute was founded in 2009 by Alan Savory, who’s considered a pioneer of regenerative agriculture. In the 1970s, he coined the term “holistic planned grazing,” an agricultural model that mimics natural ecosystems like the Serengeti or the North American plains, where wild ruminants were moved across the land by apex predators. This built up some of the Earth’s most fertile soil — and Gill says the same can be done with domesticated livestock in a rotational system that simulates natural migration.
\n\n\n\nThe institute works to establish regenerative practices on the land of a global network of farmers, ranchers, and pastoral communities, including. Will Harris’ White Oak Pastures. In the two decades since Harris began converting his 152-year-old family farm from conventional meat production to regenerative grazing, he’s increased his soil’s organic matter tenfold: from a critically low .5% to 5%. His soil now has a water-holding capacity of over 935,000 litres per hectare (about 10 centimeters of rain), and on average, sequesters about 20 tonnes of CO₂ per hectare per year.
\n\n\n\nThe food industry has created a wonderful sleight-of-hand with these convenient sound bites of plant versus animal.
A study earlier this year by Quantis, a sustainability-focused research firm, found that White Oak Pastures sequesters more greenhouse gases than it emits. Their calculation analyzed all aspects of the farm — including slaughter, transport, manure, and methane emissions from the cows themselves — and found that, per kilogram of beef, White Oak sequesters 3.5 kg of CO₂, making it a net carbon sink.
\n\n\n\nThat’s an emission-level 111% lower than conventional beef’s (a kilo of which results in 33 kg of CO₂ emitted). Perhaps more surprisingly, it’s also lower than that of vegan meat substitutes like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat. In an independent life-cycle analysis, Quantis found that the Impossible Burger emits 3.5kg of CO₂ per kilogram of vegan meat, while White Oak Pastures sequesters that same amount. This is in part because genetically modified soy — the primary ingredient in the Impossible Burger — is an industrially grown monocrop, also commonly grown for animal feed. (Incidentally, the production and transport of feed accounts for 45% of animal agriculture’s carbon footprint.)
\n\n\n\n“The food industry has created a wonderful sleight-of-hand with these convenient sound bites of plant versus animal,” says the Savory Institute’s Gill. “They’re blaming feedlot animals, and then offering an ultra-processed Impossible Burger as an alternative — substituting one industrially produced food for another. The real enemy at play here is factory farming, and that’s what we need to pay attention to.”
\n\n\n\nWhat about feeding the world? Can regenerative agriculture feed all 7.5 billion of us? “There’s a myth that’s been fostered by big agriculture companies and meat’s opponents that we cannot feed the world without these [confinement] facilities, but that’s simply not true,” says Nicolette Hahn Niman, an environmental-lawyer-turned-cattle-rancher. “You produce a lot more meat off of land when you graze in an intentional way.”
\n\n\n\nInterestingly, Niman is a vegetarian — but still sees livestock, and particularly cows, as an “invaluable piece of the human food system.” In her 2014 book Defending Beef, Niman argues that properly managed livestock are not only a promising solution to climate change — but an efficient way to feed a growing world. Nearly one-third of our agricultural land is dedicated to growing animal feed; moving livestock to pasture would free it up for edible crops. Plus, nearly 50% of the land in North America is considered rangeland that can’t be used for crop cultivation; ruminants can make use of the shrubs, trees, and grasses that grow there and convert them into high-quality protein for humans — all while improving the soil that they feed from.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/turkeys.jpg\")
“You always have an oversimplification of an issue — people don’t have the time to delve deeply into it,” says Niman. “Going from ‘factory farmed meat is bad’ to ‘the solution is no meat’ is kind of a natural tendency.”
\n\n\n\nShifting our purchasing dollars from conventional meat to regeneratively farmed meat from small farmers, Niman believes, will have a far greater effect on the market than quitting beef altogether. Spray Creek’s Tristan Banwell agrees. Their customers’ support, he notes, is the reason they can improve their farm management practices. When consumers purchase industrially farmed commodities, their dollars have to work their way through a much more complex supply chain before they can influence farming methods.
\n\n\n\nShifting purchasing dollars from conventional meat to regeneratively farmed meat will have a greater effect on the market than quitting beef altogether.
“When you look at the reality of the industry, what do you think the Tyson [Foods] of the world are going to do? They’re going to continue slaughtering beef and chickens by the hundreds of millions, and at the same time, they’ll start producing plant-based protein sources because it’s a new market base that’s growing, and they’re going to capitalize on that,” says Banwell.
\n\n\n\nThat said, Banwell doesn’t believe small-scale farms are inherently better than large-scale ones, so long as a farm’s practices are beneficial to the Earth: “I would say that the most important thing consumers can do is have their eyes open to the supply chain of their dietary choices.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":674,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[42,44,11,14,8,10,6,38,9],"tags":[30,77,79,80,81,71,96,330,253,53],"class_list":["post-395","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bc","category-california","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-west-coast","tag-agriculture","tag-animals","tag-bc","tag-california","tag-canada","tag-climate-crisis","tag-cows","tag-erin-flegg","tag-katy-severson","tag-us"],"yoast_head":"\nCows and calves graze in the pastures at California’s Bolinas Ranch, the regenerative agriculture operation of vegetarian environmental-lawyer-turned-cattle-rancher Nicolette Hahn Niman.
\n"},"alt_text":"3 cows and 3 calves grazing on a pasture covered in dry-looking golden grass.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/cows-featured.jpg","filesize":"274598","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"cows-featured-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"15350","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"cows-featured-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"138464","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"cows-featured-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"6288","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"cows-featured-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"82960","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"cows-featured.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/cows-featured.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=674"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":42,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/west-coast/bc/","name":"BC","slug":"bc","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nJay Wilde, 62, has lived on a farm his whole life. He started helping out on his family’s beef and dairy farm in Derbyshire, UK, when he was three, readying cows to be milked and feeding young calves. But, as he grew older, he became disillusioned with the industry. In 2017, at the age of 60, he sent his herd to an animal sanctuary and converted the family farm into an organic-vegan farm.
\n\n\n\nThe decision is Wilde’s response to the huge dilemma facing meat and dairy farmers: Many of the industry’s common practices, like intensive farming and mass-importing animal feed, contribute massively to deforestation and the climate crisis. In the face of these challenges, as well as concerns about animal abuse, almost a third of farms across the world are adopting more environmentally friendly practices. Some — like Wilde and his wife — have even gone vegan.
\n\n\n\n“Globally, about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions come from the way we produce food,” explains Richard George, head of forests at Greenpeace UK. The way farmers raise animals is a big part of the problem: Animal agriculture, including both livestock and feed production, is responsible for 60% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions, in part through the destruction of forests. Soya production is the second largest driver of deforestation worldwide, as farmers clear trees in South America to make way for the beans, 90% of which are used for animal feed. While the UK imports little beef from the area, it consumes 3.8 million metric tonnes of soya a year, mostly imported from Brazil and Argentina.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/From-cattle-farmer-to-vegan_WebBody1.jpg\")
In response to the climate crisis, a growing number of people are turning to plant-based diets. Plant-based foods are a booming business. Veganuary — the challenge of eating a plant-based diet for the month of January — reported over 250,000 participants worldwide in 2019. In the UK, 3.5 million Brits identified as vegan in 2018, up sevenfold from two years earlier, when just over half-a-million Brits said they ate a vegan diet.
\n\n\n\n“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use,” Joseph Poore — a doctoral student at the University of Oxford — told the Guardian. He led a 2018 study on the environmental impact of food that was published in the journal Science. The research found that meat and dairy farming provides 18% of calories and 37% of protein worldwide, but uses 83% of global farmland. The United Nations, Greenpeace, the World Wildlife Fund, and British think tank Chatham House are all calling for a global shift toward plant-based diets.
\n\n\n\n“It’s up to all of us to do what we can to prevent climate breakdown, and that includes eating less meat,” says Greenpeace’s Richard George. But, he argues, far-reaching changes in the food industry are also needed.
\n\n\n\nMeat and dairy farming provides 18% of calories and 37% of protein worldwide, but uses 83% of global farmland.
Wilde began coming to terms with the environmental hazards of beef and dairy farming at 18, when his interest in natural history and science led him to New Scientist magazine. In its pages, he discovered the environmental impact of the family business.
\n\n\n\n“I began to read about mounting problems with the environment, including the first discussions about climate change, in particular pollution from burning fossil fuels, ammonia, and nitrate run-off due to agriculture,” Wilde recalls.
\n\n\n\nAlarmed, Wilde implemented organic principles to reduce the farm’s impact on the environment. As the years passed, Wilde also grew concerned about animal welfare, worrying about cows that seemed distressed in confined winter housing. By 35, he was a vegetarian, although he kept his personal life separate from his dairy farming work.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/From-cattle-farmer-to-vegan_WebBody2.jpg\")
It was only when Wilde’s father died in 2011, and he took over the family farm, that he felt he had the latitude to make more significant changes. Even then, he struggled to find a clear path forward until 2017, when he had a chance encounter with a volunteer from the Vegan Society, a non-profit that advocates for vegan lifestyles in the UK. The volunteer handed him a copy of the society’s Grow Green report, which discusses how the agriculture and livestock industry can reduce greenhouse emissions and help combat global warming.
\n\n\n\n“A lot of farmers are born into these situations: they inherit farms, are forced to continue the family business and see no way out of this tough industry,” says Dominika Piasecka, spokesperson for the Vegan Society. “Farming animals is a job around the clock, 365 days a year — it’s physically and mentally exhausting.”
\n\n\n\nWilde heaps praise on the Vegan Society, which connected him with people and resources to help him figure out the best way to convert his farm. The Society also helped him find a new home for his 90-strong herd; he kept 17 of the neediest cows, but sent the rest to a sanctuary. The remaining cattle help maintain the ecological value of the farmland by controlling aggressive plant species through grazing. Now, Wilde is planning to build poly-tunnels, greenhouse-like structures that retain heat to extend the growing season and aid the growth of produce.
\n\n\n\nWilde isn’t the only dairy farmer to go vegan, though farmers’ reasons vary. An ocean and half a continent away, Andrea Davis turned her dairy-producing goat farm in Colorado into an animal sanctuary. Even though she is a vegetarian, she joined the industry as an intern at a goat dairy in 2009 because of her love of animals. However, she was shocked when she saw mother goats being separated from their kids, as well as when horns were painfully removed from baby goats to make them easier to handle.
\n\n\n\nThe experience inspired Davis to open a “cruelty-free” dairy farm called Broken Shovels Farm. In an effort to treat the animals with love and care, her farm kept non-milking goats as part of the herd, rather than sending them for slaughter as other farms would have done to their “surplus” animals. She also eliminated artificial insemination and the separation of mothers from kids, and provided more comprehensive veterinary care than she’d seen on other farms.
\n\n\n\nA lot of farmers are born into these situations and see no way out of this tough industry.
Despite the improved conditions, Davis found dairy farming did not align with her views on animal welfare. Perpetually breeding goats to produce milk left them vulnerable to mastitis, a painful disease that infects animals’ udders.
\n\n\n\n“We had started getting a lot of requests to rescue animals, and I realized it didn’t make sense to breed more when so many needed rescue,” Davis recalls. So, in 2014, Davis and her staff embraced veganism and repurposed the dairy farm as an animal sanctuary. Broken Shovels Farm Sanctuary rescues, rehabilitates and cares for animals, and runs educational programs about non-violent ways of life.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Screen-Shot-2022-11-24-at-2.02.28-PM-1024x254.png\")
Back in Derbyshire, Wilde plans to showcase the benefits of vegan produce by converting his cow sheds into a restaurant with a cookery school. Both he and Davis are looking to push the food industry forward by educating farmers and consumers alike.
\n\n\n\nBut farmers need support in order to make changes. “The individual changes need to happen,” says Clare Oxborrow, senior food and farming campaigner at the UK branch of Friends of the Earth. “But we need the government and food industry to set up the right framework that will encourage people, and farmers, to eat and farm in the most sustainable way.”
\n\n\n\nWe need the government and food industry to encourage people, and farmers, to eat and farm in the most sustainable way.
With Oxborrow’s comments in mind, Asparagus reached out to the UK’s National Farmers Union with questions about how they’re supporting farmers who want to make their farms more environmentally sustainable. No comment was provided for this article.
\n\n\n\n“Most farmers would regard [the Vegan Society] as a dangerous enemy,” says Wilde. But he wants to change how veganism is perceived within the industry, and by the general public, in order to protect animals and the environment. Will other farmers follow suit?
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1436,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,8,10,6,38],"tags":[30,393,71,330,123],"class_list":["post-1522","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","tag-agriculture","tag-ben-sledge","tag-climate-crisis","tag-erin-flegg","tag-vegan"],"yoast_head":"\nFive hundred years ago, Newfoundland and Labrador’s coastal waters teemed with cod, drawing fishing boats from England, Normandy, Portugal, and Spain. But by 1992, the region’s cod stocks were pushed to near extinction, and the Canadian government decided to shut down the industry. Over 30,000 fishers and fish-plant workers across the province were forced to give up a way of life that had been part of their communities for generations.
\n\n\n\nThe cod collapse in Newfoundland highlighted growing problems with overfishing worldwide, and inspired environmentalists and industry to come together to find a solution. In 1996, conservationists from the World Wildlife Fund and consumer goods giant Unilever initiated a project that grew into the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC).
\n\n\n\nIn 1997, MSC became an independent, non-profit organisation, and by 2000 MSC’s little fish logo began appearing on seafood products from certified wild fisheries. Today, it’s one of the most well-recognized international certifications for sustainable seafood. But, two decades on, does it still hold water?
\n\n\n\nWhen you see the MSC logo on a can of tuna or clam chowder, it means the seafood inside was caught sustainably according to MSC standards. The standards look at three main areas. First, they aim to ensure fisheries leave fish stocks at a level at which fishing can continue “indefinitely,” and the fish population remains “productive and healthy.” Second, the standards check whether the fisheries’ practices minimize their negative impact on habitats and other ocean life. Third, the standards look at overall management, and whether fisheries follow local environmental laws.
\n\n\n\nFisheries are evaluated on 28 performance indicators related to the three main principles, and given a score out of 100 for each indicator. For example, one indicator checks whether fishing gear is being used in ways that minimize damage to the ocean floor and ecosystem. A fishery needs a minimum score of 60 and an average of 80 on all the indicators to display the MSC logo on their products. To get the logo, fisheries pay to be assessed by independent certification bodies against MSC standards.
\n\n\n\nA 2019 investigation found 47% of seafood tested across Canada was mislabeled.
The MSC logo also means the seafood you’re buying is the same species as advertised, because MSC tracks the entire journey of that specific seafood — from when it was caught to store shelves. Mislabeled fish and seafood fraud are huge problems across North America. A 2019 investigation by advocacy group Oceana found 47% of seafood they tested across Canada was mislabeled with either false or misleading information.
\n\n\n\n“We have found farmed fish served up as wild-caught, cheaper species substituted for more expensive ones and fish banned in many countries because of health risks masquerading as another species,” said Josh Laughren, executive director of Oceana Canada, in a press release.
\n\n\n\nOver 40,000 different seafood products and 360 certified fisheries around the world bear the logo. In Canada, you can find MSC-certified food in casinos, university lunch rooms, and grocery stores.
\n\n\n\nMost of MSC’s income comes from handing out their logo. In the 2019 fiscal year, 80% of the global organization’s income, or about US $27 million, came from logo-licensing fees paid by brands, retailers, and food service organizations. The rest of MSC’s income comes from donors, trading, and investments.
\n\n\n\nThe MSC logo is a helpful certification, but not all products that bear it are equally sustainable, says Shannon Arnold, marine program senior coordinator at the Nova-Scotia-based Ecology Action Centre. Some certified fisheries have more sustainable practices than others, but that discrepancy isn’t obvious to shoppers, she explains.
\n\n\n\nFor example, some fisheries with the MSC certification were given the logo too early, and had injured or killed sea life other than what they intended to catch, including sea turtles and sharks, according to a 2017 study for SeaChoice, a coalition of Canadian sustainable seafood advocacy organizations.
\n\n\n\nMSC’s logo licensing model puts “pressure on them to continue to bring fisheries into the program who might not quite be ready,” explains Arnold, who co-authored the report. “MSC makes their money on logo licensing, and so the more products that are on the shelves that have that blue logo, the more money MSC is going to be making.”
\n\n\n\nIndependent third-party decision-making is a hallmark of all credible eco-labels.
But Jay Lugar, program director for MSC Canada, says MSC doesn’t have any influence over whether or not a fishery or product receives the logo, because MSC doesn’t do certifications itself. Instead, certification bodies — independent organizations approved to conduct a range of assessments, like MSC and other eco-certifications — measure fisheries against MSC’s standards. “Independent third-party decision-making is [a] hallmark of all credible eco-labels,” says Lugar.
\n\n\n\nIn addition, MSC disputes the claims in SeaChoice’s 2017 report, saying it over-simplified and misinterpreted data, and that most of the fisheries with room for improvement ultimately got better. According to Lugar, every fishery in the MSC program is sustainable according to industry standards, with its progress — and setbacks — monitored regularly. Fisheries that qualify for the MSC label are subject to annual audits and a full reassessment every five years, he explains. “[Fisheries] have to meet those milestones in order to stay.”
\n\n\n\nWhile Lugar acknowledges that standards need to be constantly evolving — and some fisheries have room for improvement — he says that MSC protects ocean habitats, and endangered and threatened animals.
\n\n\n\n“Fisheries must demonstrate that any interactions with by-catch species — including sharks and turtles — are not harming the health of these populations, vulnerable or not,” added Céline Rouzaud, a spokesperson for MSC Canada, in an email. “If any species (sharks and sea turtles included) are listed as ETP (Endangered, Threatened or Protected) then they are subject to additional, even more rigorous protection measures.”
\n\n\n\nIn spite of the critiques, the MSC logo, “is the best logo that’s out there,” says Arnold of the Ecology Action Centre. “So we still say to consumers, the right thing to do is to look for that label.”
\n\n\n\nArnold recommends using MSC alongside other programs like OceanWise and Seafood Watch to get the bigger picture. For example, OceanWise provides information on restaurants and stores that sell sustainable seafood, while Seafood Watch can give you more information about specific fish species. Both programs look at the impact of wild and farm fisheries on the ecosystem and overall fish stocks. However, they don’t track the entire journey of that specific seafood — from when it was caught to store shelves — like MSC does.
\n\n\n\nUse MSC alongside programs like OceanWise and Seafood Watch to get the bigger picture.
The MSC’s standard is currently undergoing a five-year review that could go until 2021. As a watchdog, the Ecology Action Centre intends to keep pushing the standard to improve. “We want to make sure that these certification programs and what they’re saying to consumers about, ‘This is a fishery that is actually better on the water’ is true,” Arnold says.
\n\n\n\nLegit. A splash in the right direction, with room for improvement.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1012,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,29,8,10,23],"tags":[117,98,258,103],"class_list":["post-541","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-know-logo","category-living","category-magazine","category-start-small","tag-certification","tag-ecology","tag-francesca-fionda","tag-oceans"],"yoast_head":"\nDescription needed.
\n"},"alt_text":"Stacked cans of Gold Seal wild sockeye salmon. Each can has a blue MSC label bearing a small white emblem of a fish.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1125,"file":"2022/09/MSC-header.jpg","filesize":"303265","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"MSC-header-300x225.jpg","width":300,"height":225,"filesize":"26940","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header-300x225.jpg"},"large":{"file":"MSC-header-1024x768.jpg","width":1024,"height":768,"filesize":"184293","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header-1024x768.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"MSC-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10524","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"MSC-header-768x576.jpg","width":768,"height":576,"filesize":"120876","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header-768x576.jpg"},"full":{"file":"MSC-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1125,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/MSC-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1012"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWhether you’re popping open some champagne at a holiday party or enjoying a glass of red while wrapping presents, for many, wine is an integral part of the holiday season. But, as booze flows at festive get-togethers, thinking about your ecological footprint can fall by the wayside. In fact, finding sustainable wine can be difficult at any time of year, because there are no standardized, global regulations or certifications for wine sustainability. However, there are small ways you can make wine shopping greener. Asparagus did the research to bring you six tips for buying wine sustainably this holiday season and beyond.
\n\n\n\nWhile there is no one global standard or label for wine sustainability, you can look out for regional certifications. Sustainable wine labels exist all over the world. We recommend researching regional labels and certifications to identify ones that set high standards on issues you care about.
\n\n\n\nFor example, Sustainable Winemaking Ontario certifies winemakers and grape growers that adopt environmentally sound practices, in addition to meeting standards around workplace safety and equity. Similarly, the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance’s Certified Sustainable label helps consumers identify wine from California wineries that have adopted environmentally friendly practices, and met standards related to social issues (like workplace safety), and grape quality.
\n\n\n\nFurther North, Sustainable Winegrowing BC helps winemakers in British Columbia prevent pollution, minimize waste, and reduce their use of water, energy, fertilizers, and pesticides. They don’t currently offer a label, but plan to launch a certification in 2020. Those buying wine from the Pacific Northwest can also look for the Salmon Safe certification, which certifies farms that implement practices to preserve rivers and watersheds used by salmon.
\n\n\n\nUp until 150 years ago, what is now seen as organic was conventional.
Buying organic wine — that is, wine made from grapes grown without the use of synthetic chemicals — is a great way to green your wine consumption. Though synthetic fertilizers and pesticides help prevent grapes from contracting diseases or attracting pests, they often have a negative effect on the environment. They can contaminate the soil and water, and inadvertently harm birds, fish, insects, or helpful plants.
\n\n\n\n“Up until 150 years ago, probably since 1889, what is now seen as organic was conventional,” says Bill Redelmeier, owner of Southbrook Organic Vineyards in Ontario. “Grapes are a domesticated product. It requires a lot of pruning, cultivation, management. It’s either a high-chemical or a high-labour crop.” Redelmeier sprays his grapes with herbal tea that acts as a natural fertilizer.
\n\n\n\nTwo of the most common organic certifications are USDA Organic and EU Organic, meaning they’re made with 100% organic grapes. Wines can also be labelled as “made with organically grown grapes,” which is a less stringent label than an organic certification, and means different things depending on your location. In the US, this label indicates the wine is made of 100% organic grapes. In Canada, it means the wine is made of at least 70% organic grapes.
\n\n\n\nLess common than organic, the grapes in biodynamic wines are grown with a set of farming practises that view the whole vineyard as one organism, and aim to create a self-sustaining system. Farmers use natural soils, compost, and helpful animals like ducks and horses who fertilize the soil, to create a rich, naturally fertile environment for wine grapes. The use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers are strictly forbidden in biodynamic farming, which aims to leave the land in as good or better condition than before it was farmed.
\n\n\n\nThere is only one major international certification for biodynamic wines: Demeter. This label is managed by a non-profit organization of the same name that certifies a variety of products made with biodynamic agriculture.
\n\n\n\nIn North America, transportation accounts for over half of wine’s carbon footprint.
In North America, transportation accounts for over half of wine’s carbon footprint, according to a 2007 study by the American Association of Wine Economists, which estimated that transporting wine from vineyard to retailers accounts for 50–70% of wine’s carbon emissions.
\n\n\n\nIf you’re lucky enough to live close to a winery, you can cut down on your wine’s carbon footprint by buying your wine directly to avoid emissions from transportation and shipment. Plus, supporting local businesses benefits your entire community!
\n\n\n\nIf buying local isn’t an option, you can still decrease your wine’s impact by choosing wines made closer to you. Generally, the less distance wine has to travel, the lower its carbon footprint. However, the mode of transport matters too. Shipping generates fewer carbon emissions than trucking, which generates fewer carbon emissions than air freight.
\n\n\n\nGrowing and harvesting natural cork has a relatively low impact on the environment because cork trees don’t have to be cut down to produce cork. Instead, farmers strip the trees of their bark, which they use to make cork, every nine years. In the interim, the bark grows back — all without damaging the tree. Plus, natural cork is biodegradable, so you can toss it into the green bin when you’re done with your wine.
\n\n\n\nOn the other hand, screw caps, which are made from aluminum, often have plastic lining that cannot be easily removed. This makes the whole cap unrecyclable, even if the exterior is recyclable aluminum. Even pure aluminum screw caps can end up in the trash, depending on the policies and capacity of your municipal recycling system.
\n\n\n\nSynthetic corks, which are made of petroleum-based plastics or plant-based materials, pose a similar problem — they may be hard to recycle or compost, depending on whether the type of plastic used for the cork is accepted by your local recycling or compost facilities.
\n\n\n\nEven though boxed wines have a low-market reputation, winemakers are making increasingly better ones.
Boxed wines beat out those in glass bottles on a couple of counts when it comes to sustainability. For one, it takes less energy to make cardboard boxes than glass bottles. In addition, boxes are lighter than glass bottles, so less fuel is needed to transport them. According to The New York Times, a standard bottle of wine holds 750 mL of wine and generates about 2.4 kg of carbon emissions when transported from a vineyard in California to a store in New York. Conversely, a standard 3-litre box of wine generates about half the emissions per 750 mL.
\n\n\n\nBoxed wine can also help reduce food waste, since boxes keep wine fresh for several weeks after opening — much longer than a glass bottle’s couple of days. And even though boxed wines have a low-market reputation, winemakers are making increasingly better ones.
\n\n\n\nOn the flip side, wine boxes typically contain a plastic pouch that holds the wine. While it’s easy to recycle the cardboard box from the package, whether or not you can recycle the plastic pouch depends on whether your local recycling facility accepts it. Glass bottles, in contrast, are widely recycled.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1582,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,8,6,38],"tags":[126,281,94],"class_list":["post-710","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-plants-animals","tag-beer-wine","tag-rebecca-gao","tag-recycling"],"yoast_head":"\nOne of Seattle’s newest farm-to-table restaurants, Archipelago, pays tribute to the owners’ Filipino roots — but with a Pacific Northwest spin. Sustainability is such a priority that married founders Amber Manuguid and Aaron Verzosa eschew the use of non-local ingredients like rice and soy sauce. Instead, the team get inventive, finding regional stand-ins that allow them to uphold Filipino traditions.
\n\n\n\nEach meal begins with a serving of pandesal, a semi-sweet bread roll common in Manila — but Archipelago’s version comes with a smear of butter flavoured with salmon or shallots, and Idaho sturgeon caviar. From there, the dishes change with the seasons: One might sample a raw-fish dish called kinilaw, which is made with verjus from pressed green Washington grapes instead of the traditional vinegar. The dish is also paired with slices of local apples and served in a sardine tin to symbolize the cannery jobs many Filipinos worked in Washington State in the early 1900s. In its version of a sour soup called sinigang, Archipelago turns to Washington-grown cranberries instead of tamarind. In place of rice-based miki noodles, Verzosa makes noodles from red wheat flour and house-milled rye berries.
\n\n\n\nVerzosa and Manuguid sat down with Asparagus to talk about Archipelago and their commitment to sustainability. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
\n\n\n\nMegan Hill: How have diners received the restaurant since you opened last December?
Aaron: We’ve had a great diversity of folks come through the restaurant, both Filipino and not. What’s cool is to see people come out from all over the city and throughout the West Coast, and people from the Philippines. And from different generations as well, whether they’ve just come to the United States or have been here a long time. It’s been great to see how our narrative and what we’re trying to share is resonating with a lot of Filipinos from all over. It’s been fascinating to engage with people that are a little familiar with Filipino culture, plus people that don’t know anything about it. There’s been such a spectrum of people that have come from all over and that’s been a joy for us to share.
![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-body.jpeg\")
How did the restaurant come about?
Amber: Aaron has been cooking for years and I always wanted him to share his creativity. We met at the University of Washington, where we both studied Filipino American studies. We’ve been able to share a lot of the passions we had in college, and bring those things to fruition with Archipelago.
Aaron: We’re both from the Northwest, and our parents are from the Philippines. We straddle the US and the Philippines in an interesting way. We wanted to work hard for the culture we grew up in, and to respect the ancestors that built our cuisine long before us.
\n\n\n\nWe wanted to work hard for the culture we grew up in, and respect the ancestors that built our cuisine long before us.
What can people expect when they come to Archipelago?
Amber: We used to do these small R&D dinners when we were trying to figure out what we wanted to do and we learned what resonates with people. It turned into this thing where we were interacting with people and providing context and history. So yes, people come in and they sit down and we feed them, but it’s a communal table that we open up for conversation. We joke with our guests, we learn about each other, and we take them on a journey, dish-by-dish, that tells the history of Filipinos in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
Aaron: There’s an open kitchen, so you get to see everything that happens. We only seat eight at a time so every guest has a direct connection to us. We wanted this to feel like you’re at our parents’ house or our house. The heart of our culture has to do with sustaining that hospitality and the idea of something being cooked out of the home. We chose that format so we could sink our teeth into dishes that we know and dishes that might be more obscure.
\n\n\n\nWe take our guests on a journey, dish-by-dish, that tells the history of Filipinos in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest.
Where do you source your ingredients from?
Aaron: Archipelago is working toward sourcing as much, if not everything, from the greater Northwest. We use things from Oregon, Washington, southern British Columbia, and Alaska. The majority of things on the plate might come from me going to a neighborhood grocery and sourcing something from this region, or going to our local farms. Filipino cuisine has been built on a lot of fermentation, from fish sauce to condiments, and that adds layers of flavor.
The Northwest has an amazing growing season, even in winter, so we try to preserve as much of that as we can, using techniques that were [created by]our ancestors, like fermenting and salting. We’re also excited to work with [Filipino] farmers in Eastern Washington who grow Filipino greens you won’t see in major grocery stores, like chili leaves, chayote, okra, and bitter melon that you won’t see in major grocery stores. Those are instant building blocks of Filipino flavor.
\n\n\n\nIt’s important that we shop from people-of-color business owners, people in our neighborhood, and Filipino American farmers.
Amber: Overall, environmental sustainability is incredibly important to us, but also sustainability of people. It’s important that we shop from people-of-color business owners, people in our neighborhood, and Filipino American farmers. We want to bring business back to the rest of our community.
\n\n\n\nWhat else are you doing to further sustainability in your restaurant?
Amber: The reservation system helps us know about ingredient volume ahead of time so we can reduce food waste. Often, we get to end of dinner and have almost nothing in the garbage can. It’s so gratifying.
Aaron: This is where we were born, so it’s important to us to take care of this beautiful region that so many of us share. We’re trying to be the best stewards we can, and that’s the heart of it.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1721,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,23,52,9],"tags":[466,468,467,363],"class_list":["post-1782","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-start-small","category-wa-or","category-west-coast","tag-megan-hill","tag-philippines","tag-seattle","tag-small-business"],"yoast_head":"\nGuests at Archipelago are served by the owners at a long communal table.
\n"},"alt_text":"Three people sit at bar seating in a dimly-lit , modern restaurant.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/12/archipelago-header.jpg","filesize":"260411","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"archipelago-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"14164","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"archipelago-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"106006","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"archipelago-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"6457","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"archipelago-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"65124","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"archipelago-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/archipelago-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1721"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWe cook with it. We bathe with it. We use it for mood lighting. Palm oil is an ingredient in processed foods, cosmetics, hygiene products, biofuels, and candles; experts estimate it’s found in 50% of the items on grocery store shelves. Inexpensive to produce, palm oil contains no trans fats, and has a high melting point, making it versatile and easy to spread. The result: increasing demand. In 1996, global production totaled 16 million metric tons. By 2017, it was 60.7 million.
\n\n\n\nBut there’s a problem. Palm oil may not cost much to produce, but it exacts a high price on the environment. And thanks to this often-invisible ingredient’s complex international supply chain, efforts to reduce that impact are proving challenging.
\n\n\n\nThe story of palm oil begins with clearing tropical rainforests and peatlands for plantations of oil palm trees, which thrive on warmth, sunlight, and copious rainfall. The trees — native to West Africa — produce clusters of orange-red fruit year-round, and can be harvested every 10–14 days when mature. For the most part, oil palms don’t need much help, but some farms do use herbicides and insecticides. Oil palms produce 3.8 metric tons of oil per hectare annually — eight times as much as soybeans (.5 t/ha), and almost five times the yield of canola (.8 t/ha).
\n\n\n\nPalm fruit contains oil in its flesh (palm oil), and its seed (palm kernel oil). At diesel-powered mills, fruit and kernels are pressed to extract oil. The next stop is often a refinery, where bleaching improves the oil’s color, deodorization reduces its smell, and “fractionation” can create different oils suited for different purposes. Then, the oil is shipped all over the world.
\n\n\n\nPalm oil is the most consumed oil in the world.
The US Department of Agriculture says palm oil is the most consumed oil in the world, and its non-food uses are also increasing. India, China, Europe, and Pakistan are the top importers, collectively using more than half of the global supply. In Asia, it’s used in home cooking. In Europe and the US, most demand comes from manufacturers for everything from Oreos to toothpaste. You can find it in Silk soy milk, Secret deodorant, Nutella, Jergens lotion, instant noodles, and Girl Scout cookies.
\n\n\n\nMalaysian and Indonesian plantations make up about 85% of the industry, with Guatemala, Benin, and Thailand among the other top producers. Areas with low wages and abundant labor often welcome palm plantations — despite the industry’s history of slavery, child labor, and land-theft — because of their potential to lift workers out of poverty.
\n\n\n\nAround the world, the business of palm oil harms the environment. During conventional cultivation, forests are cleared for plantations, bringing biodiversity loss, human-wildlife conflict, and habitat destruction affecting many species, notably the orangutan. A recent International Union for Conservation of Nature report notes that 50% of all deforestation on Borneo between 2005 and 2015 was driven by palm oil development.
\n\n\n\nThis deforestation also contributes to climate change; the conversion of forests to palm oil plantations releases carbon dioxide that had been absorbed by old-growth forests. The Union of Concerned Scientists estimated in 2013 that 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from tropical deforestation.
\n\n\n\nGiven all the chemicals, sugars, fats, and allergens shoppers are already trying to avoid, palm oil is low on the list, if it’s even on the list.
These impacts have proven hard to combat, in part because palm oil is rarely the end commodity. Richard Zimmerman, executive director of New York-based non-profit Orangutan Outreach, calls it a “pervasive yet hidden” problem. Given all the chemicals, sugars, fats, and allergens shoppers are already trying to avoid, he says, “Palm oil is low on the list, if it’s even on the list.”
\n\n\n\nPalm oil and its derivatives appear under a multitude of monikers, from “palm kernel oil” and “partially hydrogenated palm oil” to “sodium lauryl sulfate” and “glyceryl stearate.” Other names, according to the Rainforest Action Network, include “stearic acid,” anything that includes “palmitate,” and “elaesis guineensis” (the oil palm’s Latin name). Try finding products in your grocery store without these. Not that all these terms always mean palm oil — some are occasionally derived from other oils. But companies likely can’t guarantee that, and there’s no way of knowing from reading a package.
\n\n\n\nSo how do we change things? One group trying to answer that question is the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a 4,000-member-strong industry non-profit. Its approach includes offering financial incentives to stakeholders along the supply chain in return for implementing best practices.
\n\n\n\nRSPO members must demonstrate that plantation land was purchased, not stolen, and that they offer safe conditions for workers. The RSPO prohibits clearing primary (never-logged) forests and imposes requirements like: obtaining free, prior, and informed consent from locals for new plantings; analyzing and protecting fragile soils and areas of high-conservation value; and mitigating carbon impacts in place.
\n\n\n\nBut right now, only about 20% of palm oil is RSPO-certified, and critics think the group’s approach still doesn’t go far enough. Greenpeace’s Senior Palm Oil Campaigner Diana Ruiz says investigations show that brands shift responsibility for palm oil sourcing problems onto traders, and traders don’t enforce on their end. “Once you get … all the way to the grower, there is no monitoring being done,” she says — and no good way to address violations.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Screen-Shot-2022-09-21-at-8.49.37-PM-1024x358.png\")
Palm oil has a long supply chain, which makes reducing its use complex. “Historically, companies have not paid attention to what happens at the farm level, because [palm oil] is a secondary ingredient,” says Neil Blomquist, a spokesperson for the education and advocacy group Palm Done Right.
\n\n\n\nThat may be changing, as palm oil gets more publicity. Still, places where palm grows see a clear economic boom from the industry, and there’s always a market for cheap consumables.
\n\n\n\n“It’s a difficult industry to regulate for that reason,” Blomquist says. “There’s been a growing demand for palm oil, the lowest-cost oil that can be produced. So, increasing demand with an increasing population in the world is really what’s driving the problems… with more and more rainforest being destroyed.”
\n\n\n\nHistorically, companies have not paid attention to what happens at the farm level, because palm oil is a secondary ingredient.
Ending the use of palm oil may not be the answer. “Going to a boycott could cause more problems,” says Dan Strechay, the RSPO’s US outreach and engagement representative. “Because if we don’t buy palm oil — or ingredients that contain palm oil — it’s not like we snap our fingers and we have additional materials to put in. Something else has to be grown to replace it, and other oil seeds may require more land.”
\n\n\n\nBut continuing as we are means ignoring the true costs of palm oil: to the environment and people living in palm-oil-producing areas. Says Zimmerman,“If the humans aren’t doing well, the orangutans are not going to do well.”
\n\n\n\nSo, what do we do now? Eating fewer processed foods, buying locally, and otherwise voting with your dollars is a start. Keeping companies accountable for meeting their stated deadlines around sourcing sustainable palm oil is also key.
\n\n\n\nEating fewer processed foods, buying locally, and otherwise voting with your dollars is a start.
Ruiz says the next step is asking suppliers and traders to create more transparency around their reporting, and the public can help. “We have huge influence over these brands,” she says. “The key here is to use that buying power we have as consumers and demand that companies do better.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1013,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,6,38,23,35],"tags":[77,221,330,116,260,99],"class_list":["post-552","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-start-small","category-story-of","tag-animals","tag-deforestation","tag-erin-flegg","tag-forests","tag-helen-lee","tag-human-rights"],"yoast_head":"\nOrange-red oil palm fruit produces two kinds of oil: “palm oil” from the flesh, “palm kernel oil” from the seed
\n"},"alt_text":"5 palm fruits. They’re oval with a red-to-black gradient peel. One is cut, showing a orange flesh with a waxy white core.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/palm-oil-header.jpg","filesize":"167144","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"palm-oil-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"10694","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"palm-oil-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"70234","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"palm-oil-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"5757","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"palm-oil-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"44622","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"palm-oil-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/palm-oil-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1013"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWhile putting together “Asparagus Magazine’s Guide to the Farmers Market,” we reached out to five savvy farmers market vendors and asked: “What is your favourite question asked by visitors to your stall?” We share their fresh-picked answers with you below!
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThe question that pops to mind is “Do you spray?” Most people don’t know how to get the answers they want. For example, a conventional blueberry farmer might respond, “No, we don’t spray the blueberries.” But then ask how they deal with weeds at the base of the bushes, and they MIGHT reveal they spray those with Roundup, a famously toxic chemical. Ask more questions!
\n
— Kevin Klippenstein, Klippers Organics, Cawston, BC (regularly at most weekend Vancouver Farmers Markets)
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-carrots.jpeg\")
\n\n\n\n\nThese days my favourite question is “Can I pay with debit/credit/Apple pay/Google pay?” I can say yes to this question. Finally.
\n
— Anna Helmer, Helmer’s Organic Farm, Pemberton, BC (regularly at Trout Lake and Kitsilano Farmers Markets in Vancouver)
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/temp-one-arrow-photo.jpeg\"){kind=icon}
\n\n\n\n\n“How do you make your product?” I can tell them the start-to-finish process so the customer can see how much love goes into making bacon, as it’s labour intensive. Also the local ingredients that are used is key. It supports the local BC food system to buy local and support other farmers market vendors (I use Maples Sugar Shack maple syrup for my bacon).
\n
—Heat Laliberte, One Arrow Meats, Vancouver, BC, (regularly at Riley Park and Kitsilano Farmers Markets in Vancouver)
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nMy favorite question is either “Can you tell me a bit about how this vegetable is grown?” or “What is in peak season right now?”
\n
—Clayton Burrows, Growing Washington, Everson, WA (regularly at Seattle Neighborhood Farmers Markets and Pike Place Market)
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-Shorba.jpeg\")
\n\n\n\n\nMy favourite question is when visitors ask about the spices I use in my broths (they are displayed whole on the table so they attract attention). This gives me the opportunity to talk about the medicinal Ayurvedic aspects of them and how they compliment the nutrients of the broth, as well as the integrity of the quality — they’re certified organic and fair-trade from well researched sources.
\n
—Mithalee Rawat, Shorba Bone Broth, Vancouver, BC (regularly at Riley Park, Mount Pleasant and West End Farmers Markets in Vancouver)
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1736,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[45,14,8,10,7,51,52,9],"tags":[30,457,330,491,490,432],"class_list":["post-1795","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","category-vancouver-area","category-wa-or","category-west-coast","tag-agriculture","tag-andre-lariviere","tag-erin-flegg","tag-fair-trade","tag-farmers-markets","tag-local-food"],"yoast_head":"\nOne Arrow Meats’ chef Heat Laliberte
\n"},"alt_text":"Headshot of Heat Laliberte. He has light skin and wears a black cap backwards, a grey t-shirt and black apron.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":709,"height":422,"file":"2022/12/Market-heat.jpeg","filesize":"51876","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Market-heat-300x179.jpeg","width":300,"height":179,"filesize":"10785","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-heat-300x179.jpeg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Market-heat-150x150.jpeg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"5737","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-heat-150x150.jpeg"},"full":{"file":"Market-heat.jpeg","width":709,"height":422,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-heat.jpeg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Market-heat.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1736"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":45,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/cities/","name":"Cities","slug":"cities","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nTechnology changes down on the farm may not rival those in our phones or cars, but modern agri-food systems are constantly innovating to improve what we eat and how it reaches our plates. And while the farmers market may be rooted in the timeless tradition of neighbours feeding neighbours, it too has evolved.
\n\n\n\nIn addition to the expected seasonal produce, markets now often offer many foods with a face — whether bovine, ovine, fish, or fowl — and an ever-increasing number of small-batch products, from home-style to leading-edge. (Artisanal kombucha, anyone?) All told, a successful trip to the farmers market now demands many more informed choices.
\n\n\n\nAsparagus is all about rooting daily decisions in expert knowledge, so we’ve assembled this guide in time for summer market season. In it you’ll find:
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/wild-foraged.jpeg\")
In essence, it’s a marketplace where buyers can speak directly to a grower and purchase their freshly harvested produce. And — per the Washington State Farmers Market Association — it’s also the small-scale farmer’s best opportunity to profit from and sustain their acreage.
\n\n\n\nIn Asparagus’ home province of British Columbia, the type of farmers market recognized by municipal governments (with supportive permits) and regional market associations is exclusive to vendors who “grow, make, bake, raise or wild harvest” the products they sell, all of which must also be grown and/or processed in the province.
\n\n\n\nWhat truly distinguishes a farmers market is its across-the-board commitment to quality of life.
A true farmers market prioritizes local farmers and food vendors, though it may not be as strict as those in BC. This definition holds most everywhere, though Washington State markets do allow resellers who sell other farmers’ or processors’ products, they just must represent themselves as doing so.
\n\n\n\nWhat truly distinguishes a farmers market is its across-the-board commitment to quality of life: for its customers, certainly, and for the growers and producers, animals and birds, fruit on the trees, and vegetables in the ground. Fresh and tasty products aside, this commitment is at the core of markets’ value to communities’ health and sustainability.
\n\n\n\nThat’s simply a true reflection of the cost of good food. Heritage seeds and diverse species, fair wages and ethical business practices, handcrafted products and personal attention all require substantial investment. Remember, too, that along with gas for their truck, the grower/producer has also paid to secure their spot, and likely hired helpers to assist with set-up/load-out and sales.
\n\n\n\nNo one shopping at a farmers market is being gouged, and farmers selling at them aren’t getting rich. Sustainability, quality, and flavour are what you’re paying for.
\n\n\n\nPlease don’t. Well-managed farmers markets typically have rules against bargaining and bartering. In her self-published A Farmer’s Guide to Farmers Markets, Anna Helmer — purveyor of chefs’ favourite Pemberton Valley potatoes — highlights the value of price parity to her colleagues: “If you choose to undercut, not only will you make fewer friends but you probably make less money.”
\n\n\n\nThe best opportunities for discounts and deals come at events celebrating seasonal abundance — like a peak-tomato festival — or via the many community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs offered by single or multiple vendors. (In a CSA, a pre-season investment entitles you to pick up a weekly share of what’s freshest from the fields and orchards.)
\n\n\n\nNo one shopping at a farmers market is being gouged, and farmers selling at them aren’t getting rich.
Another core value of farmers markets is accessibility: all members of the community are welcomed, including those living on low or fixed incomes. The majority of state and provincial market associations up and down the West Coast — often in partnership with governments and public health authorities — offer programs to help ensure fair access to farm-fresh products for those struggling economically.
\n\n\n\nBC offers “nutrition coupons” to low-income families, and Washington, Oregon, and California all have arrangements that let recipients of food benefits use those funds at markets. California also has a special market program for seniors. A visit to your market’s website or onsite manager’s table will typically provide details on these programs.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Klippers-pickles.jpg\")
Go for it! It may seem like a loaded question, but it’s the simplest, most direct way to get to know growers and their farms. Most won’t bat an eye at the inquiry, and if they do, well, you’ve already learned something.
\n\n\n\nThe answer should offer useful tidbits on the farm’s size, distance from the market, type of field labour employed (family, locals, volunteers), and indicate how much attention is paid to flavour and freshness. Follow up by asking the grower how they judge ripeness and quality. You’ll likely learn something else of real value.
\n\n\n\nUsually a good idea. Driven by decades of steady growth in popularity across all food sectors, certified organic production is the rule, not the exception, at most regional markets. Both Canada and the US have well-established and regularly updated national standards*, which have been adopted by provincial and state certification authorities.
\n\n\n\nAs a rule, the majority of markets only permit vendors with third-party-verified organic certification on file to describe, on signage or verbally, their products as organic. The value of certification is genuine, though not all growers want to deal with the added expense and bureaucracy involved in obtaining and sustaining an organic label.
\n\n\n\nYou can ask if a vendor is open to a post-market deal, though be prepared to buy enough to do them a favour.
Some farmers prefer to apply their own time-tested expertise in growing their products organically, which then becomes a question of trust for their buyers. Given this, market managers typically do their due diligence in reviewing grower production methods (via the application process) to ensure consistency in quality.
\n\n\n\n*You can review the finer points of organic certification at these sites: Organic Trade Association, Choose Canada Organic, and Certified Organic Associations of BC.
\n\n\n\nThe short answer is no. It should come as no surprise that there’s plenty of fake news feeding the “organics are just as toxic” story, much of it generated by commodity marketing groups looking to discredit and devalue organic produce. However, as growing conditions change more quickly — thanks to climate change, among other factors — the demand for innovative and safe pest-control solutions is burgeoning.
\n\n\n\nThe Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) is a private, non-profit organization that determines (and regularly reviews) whether or not a product qualifies as organic. Both the US and Canadian organics programs recognize OMRI standards, though each applies them slightly differently.
\n\n\n\nThe upshot is that you shouldn’t expect busy local farmers to be aware of every emerging concern about specific substances. If you have questions about whether they use certain products, just ask. Most growers will happily tell you about their processes.
\n\n\n\nThe key thing to know is that only about 100 synthetic substances — most of those naturally derived — are approved for organic farming (to control pests and treat sick livestock); conventional agriculture uses close to 1,500, according to the US Organic Trade Association. The other important thing to realize is that certified organic growers may only use the allowed substances as a last resort, if their go-to methods like fighting pests with natural predators are ineffective.
\n\n\n\nThe important thing to realize is that certified organic growers may only use synthetic substances as a last resort.
Certified organic production has its detractors and boosters, as well as those who don’t think it goes far enough in ensuring truly regenerative, sustainable agriculture. After World War I, Austrian philosopher and social reformer Rudolf Steiner — who also created the Waldorf education system — developed a growing method he dubbed “biodynamic.” It advocates a holistic, ecological approach, bringing environmental, social, and economic considerations into balance.
\n\n\n\nBiodynamic farms operate in alignment with natural cycles (seasons, phases of the moon), and supplement their soil and crops with “preparations” made from herbs like chamomile and stinging nettle, and more esoteric practices like burying manure inside a hollow cow horn over the winter.
\n\n\n\nIf you’re interested in products that go beyond organic, biodynamic growers are the folks to talk to. And if you pick their brains for ten minutes on a busy market day, be sure to buy some of their products on the way out.
\n\n\n\nFirst, a not-so-fun fact: according to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, roughly only nine plant species accounted for 66 percent of total crop production in 2014. The risks inherent in this fading biodiversity not only affect future food supplies, but also limit our access to flavour and, more often than not, nutrition.
\n\n\n\nThe antidote to fading biodiversity may well be growing on a local farm.
However, the antidote may well be deposited in a secluded seed bank, or growing on a local farm. Heirloom and heritage plants are essentially the same thing: open-pollinated — as opposed to artificially hybridized — seed varieties, grown and passed down through a farming family (as an heirloom) or by a company. Most often, these varieties are selected for both their unique taste and ability to thrive in local conditions. In either case, discovering the surprising range of flavours, colours and textures available from heirloom and heritage produce is one of the best perks of exploring local farmers markets.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/One-Arrow-Meats.jpeg\"){kind=icon}
Farm-fresh eggs have been a staple of local markets for decades, but in recent years the interest in healthier, tastier non-commodity meats — particularly poultry, beef and pork — has led to more stalls allotted to local small-scale producers.
\n\n\n\nThere are three factors that distinguish organic (or artisan) meat and dairy production from commercial systems: lots of room to roam, access to a natural diet, and humane treatment — especially at the end of life. All three contribute to the animals’ quality of life, as well as the flavour and nutrition of the end product.
\n\n\n\nOrganic standards demand that all livestock have free access to graze outdoors (supplemented with organic feed), except in the case of extreme bad weather or health issues. Some non-organic chickens are “pastured” using mobile coops, which are intended to be regularly rotated onto fresh and tasty grass. For non-organic beef or dairy cattle, a single cow per acre of grassy pasture is best. Ask growers about their methods.
\n\n\n\nNo, though the principle is the same. Hogs — particularly heritage breeds such as Berkshire and Tamworth — are often pasture-raised with a wide range of plants to snack on. Ask what the producer feeds them off-pasture.
\n\n\n\nLarge flocks of non-organic, cage-free, “free-range” chickens and turkeys typically roam around barns pecking at supplied feed with little-to-no access to pasture. Not that there’s anything horribly wrong with this, but regular yard time — as required by organic standards — can add a lot to the flavour and quality of both their eggs and meat.
\n\n\n\nRegular yard time can add a lot to the flavour and quality of both eggs and meat.
Beef cattle, sheep, and goats are natural grass-eaters; they’re healthiest and happiest when that’s all they eat, but some producers alter that diet for a variety of reasons (mostly economic).
\n\n\n\nGrass-fed animals might spend the bulk of their lives grazing, but can still be fed grain or corn to bulk up their weight before heading to market. However, this often affects the quality of the meat, with the animal losing the majority of the benefits an all-grass diet would have provided to their eventual eaters. That said, animals raised on grain who finish their lives on an all-grass diet (“grass-finished”) can receive a healthy boost in quality.
\n\n\n\nFor maximum flavour and health, look for 100% grass-fed or grass-finished meats for optimum ratios of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/shorba.jpeg\")
At the majority of markets, the people behind the table had a hand in crafting the freshly-baked loaves, pots of fruit jellies, bags of granola, and bottles of beer on display. Market managers will have screened these vendors through the selection process to ensure their small-batch production methods and facilities meet standards for quality and food safety.
\n\n\n\nThe market is often a terrific place to discover products with a fresh spin on flavour or a rare and deep nod to tradition. Start any visit to a prepared food/beverage vendor with a request for their product’s origin story to get the gist of what it means to them. A taste test is also a must.
\n\n\n\nManagers at farmers-first markets — like those in BC — give priority access to prepared food and craft vendors that use regional sources for ingredients and materials. However, the local content can legitimately consist of an authentic cultural or family tradition in the preparation of foods, whether homegrown or not. Sharing traditional and locally popular dishes within a neighbourhood or region sustains the community’s cultural (and flavour) diversity.
\n\n\n\nEach dollar spent in direct purchases from farmers adds about $3 in regional spending.
The short answer is yes. The folks making sweet or savoury preserves from local organic fruits and vegetables are supporting a sustainable food system, particularly if their raw ingredients are culls otherwise destined for compost. And the multiplier effect of buying local food is good for the whole economy: one 2009 study in Ontario found each dollar spent in direct purchases from farmers added about $3 in regional spending.
\n\n\n\nBut even those crafting decorative items or providing a tool-sharpening service make a difference, by preserving artisanal skills that contribute to community resilience. Safe to say we’re all going to need more of that moving forward…no matter where you live and what you eat.
\n\n\n\nGenetic engineering may be anathema to many card-carrying environmentalists, who typically favour organic farming over other forms of agriculture. But to overcome the threat posed by climate change — while continuing to feed 7.7 billion mouths (and counting) — many scientists say it’s time to fully embrace the three most controversial letters in the food industry: GMO.
\n\n\n\nTheir goal is to radically shrink the carbon footprint of global crop cultivation by doing away with the need for synthetic fertilizers, which account for about 5% of humanity’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Through extensive DNA manipulations, scientists are optimistic they can engineer a self-fertilizing relationship between crop species and root-dwelling microbes, obviating the need for artificial fertilizer.
\n\n\n\nThis kind of mutually beneficial symbiosis already exists in nature: Soybeans, chickpeas, and other legumes form intimate relationships with rod-shaped bacteria called rhizobia. These bacteria transform nitrogen from the air into a form plants can use, through a process known as nitrogen fixation. In return, the legumes feed the nitrogen-nabbing microbes a steady diet of plant sugars, and the lives of the two partners become intimately intertwined.
\n\n\n\nNo comparable interdependence exists between bacteria and corn, wheat, rice, or any other cereal crop critical to modern diets and livestock feeds. Responsible for around two-thirds of all farmland worldwide, these agricultural staples are so widespread that a global landmass the size of Canada gets doused with synthetic fertilizers just to raise their yields. This chemical treatment would be superfluous, however, if scientists could build a legume-like symbiosis into the crops.
\n\n\n\n“We need to use the tools of synthetic biology to manipulate interactions between beneficial microbes and plants,” says Jean-Michel Ané, an agronomist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who studies plant-microbe interactions. “It’s not a problem that’s going to be solved without genetic engineering.”
\n\n\n\nTo overcome the threat posed by climate change, many scientists say it’s time to embrace the three most controversial letters in the food industry: GMO.
Plants need nitrogen to make two important building blocks of life: amino acids, which are stitched together to form proteins, and chlorophyll, which traps the sun’s energy to power photosynthesis. For millennia, farmers met their crops’ nitrogen demands either by spreading nutrient-rich manure on their fields or by rotating their crops, alternatively planting legume crops that were plowed under the soil to help fertilize the cereal crops that followed.
\n\n\n\nThe arrival of synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield crop varieties during the Green Revolution of the mid-20th century largely replaced these practices, ushering in a new era of bountiful food production — but at a high environmental cost.
\n\n\n\nEach year, farmers scatter more than 100 million metric tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer created through an industrial process that burns copious amounts of fossil fuel. According to the International Fertilizer Association, fertilizer production consumes an estimated 1.2% of the world’s total energy. Complicating matters for the planet: Fertilizer runoff often ends up in groundwater, rivers, and streams, where it contaminates aquatic ecosystems and threatens biodiversity. Or it evaporates into the air in the form of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that’s nearly 300 times more heat-trapping than carbon dioxide.
\n\n\n\nTo wean agriculture off its dependence on synthetic fertilizers, many environmentalists advocate a return to organic farming practices. “We already have the solutions that we need,” says Dana Perls, senior food and technology policy campaigner with Friends of the Earth, an environmental advocacy organization based in Berkeley, California. “The most sustainable, least risky, and healthiest way to provide food for people across the world is using organic, regenerative, and ecological agricultural systems.”
\n\n\n\nYet, organic farming tends to produce lower yields than conventional agriculture and might never feed the whole planet without extensive deforestation to make room for more farmland. Such deforestation would not only negate the climate benefits of forgoing fertilizer, but boost overall emissions owing to the loss of the forests’ carbon storage capacity, according to a December 2018 analysis published in the journal Nature.
\n\n\n\n“We have this tradeoff,” says Adrian Müller, an environmental policy expert at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Switzerland. The only way for organic farming not to encroach on forests, Müller’s research has shown, is through a massive conversion to plant-based diets and a 50% reduction in global food waste to make up for lower yields.
\n\n\n\nThe only way for organic farming not to encroach on forests is through a massive conversion to plant-based diets and a 50% reduction in global food waste.
That herculean global shift in consumer behaviours and eating habits is unlikely to ever happen. However, several companies have started offering biological alternatives to synthetic fertilizer to reduce the carbon footprint of farming. For example, last year an agricultural startup called Pivot Bio began selling a natural plant probiotic for corn that farmers can add in-furrow. The company claims the bugs can deliver nitrogen to the roots of corn plants to reduce their need for fertilizer.
\n\n\n\nAnother firm called Indigo offers seed varieties of wheat, corn, soy, and rice that are laced with microbes purported to help the crops handle environmental stresses, such as extreme temperatures and water scarcity. By increasing yields, the bacteria help limit how much fertilizer farmers would otherwise need to lavish onto their fields to match the same output.
\n\n\n\nBut the fertilizer savings from these probiotic products are minor — maybe 10–20%, say executives of both companies. At least twice that amount of fertilizer would need to be displaced to make a “significant impact” on global emissions, according to David Kanter, an environmental scientist at New York University who studies nitrogen pollution. The bigger the displacement, the bigger the environmental benefit.
\n\n\n\nThat’s where genetic engineering could come in.
\n\n\n\nTransgenic crops often get a bad rap for being more about corporate profits than about benefits to humanity and the environment — and for good reason. Technologies such as Roundup Ready ultimately only spurred the rise of superweeds that required even more toxic pest control, and decimated populations of frogs, insects, and other wildlife, all while making billions of dollars for Monsanto.
\n\n\n\nBut those criticisms may speak more to particular applications of the technology than to the potential of the technology itself. Other genetically modified crops are nowhere near as controversial. The laboratory creation of disease-resistant Rainbow papaya is credited with saving Hawaii’s papaya industry after it was nearly decimated by the ringspot virus in the ’90s. And the introduction of vitamin A-fortified Golden Rice later this year in Bangladesh could help address micronutrient deficiencies in one of the poorest countries of Asia.
\n\n\n\nWhat’s more, genetic engineering technologies have seen dramatic advances in recent years. Scientists are now pushing the limits of crop development in ways that were previously impossible — including in the realm of biological nitrogen fixation.
\n\n\n\nFor some scientists, the ultimate goal is to create self-fertilizing crops that can fix nitrogen themselves — but that’s a tall order. The DNA for the task can be extracted from microbes, but it doesn’t function the same way when spliced into plants. It’s such an extreme cross-species conversion, in fact, that it’s only worked in Baker’s yeast, a single-celled fungus that, while not a bacterium, is also not a plant.
\n\n\n\nIt may be easier to keep nitrogen fixation under the purview of microbes and instead genetically recreate the interaction found in legumes within the roots of cereal crops. No scientist has yet succeeded in making this dream a reality, but researchers around the world are pushing forward on several of the required steps.
\n\n\n\nFor example, independent teams in the United States and China have discovered ways to pull the genes needed for nitrogen fixation from one microbe, strip out all the non-essential DNA, and insert the simplified — but still functional — gene cluster into a different bacterial species. A similar bioengineering strategy could conceivably grant fertilizer-making capabilities to microbes that already colonize corn or other crops.
\n\n\n\nWithout a reciprocal contribution from the plant, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria would rapidly be supplanted by more selfish bugs. That’s why scientists want to build this dyadic gift-giving into the plant’s DNA.
Alternatively, researchers could take advantage of rare nitrogen-fixing bacteria that already colonize some cereal crops — just not the ones routinely planted on conventional farms. For example, a variety of ancient corn, which grows in the nitrogen-depleted soils of the Sierra Mixe region of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, doesn’t need any fertilizer to flourish. The corn’s secret? Unusual, finger-like aerial roots, each dripping with globs of a sugar-rich gel that teems with nitrogen-fixing microbes, according to a 2018 study led by Alan Bennett, a crop geneticist from the University of California, Davis.
\n\n\n\nThis Oaxacan corn grows just fine with minimal fertilizer further north, both in California and Wisconsin, but the low natural yield of this cultivar makes it unsuitable for mass food or feed production. Within the plant’s goo, however, Bennett and his colleagues discovered a bacterial strain that promotes the growth of conventional corn and potatoes, at least a little bit. And Bennett says the bug’s DNA contains “several clusters” of nitrogen fixation-related genes.
\n\n\n\nThese Oaxacan microbes (or their genes) could, in theory, be harnessed to help fertilize conventional crops. The problem is that the microbe would quickly vanish from the soil unless it gets something in return for its nitrogenous offering to the plant. As Charles Darwin pointed out, truly altruistic acts between species cannot be maintained by natural selection — and, unlike the ancient corn from Mexico, most crops don’t produce an energy source for their microbes.
\n\n\n\nWithout a syrupy gel or some other reciprocal contribution from the plant, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria would rapidly be supplanted by other, more selfish bugs. That’s why scientists want to build this dyadic gift-giving into the plant’s DNA.
\n\n\n\nResearchers have successfully engineered plant roots to exude an energy supply for soil bacteria in the laboratory working with thale cress, an easy-to-genetically-manipulate weed. Scientists hope to replicate that same strategy in corn, but that still wouldn’t solve the cross-species altruism problem. To engineer a true symbiosis — one in which the plant provides fuel for bacteria and the microbes supply fertilizer in a tit-for-tat fashion — requires designing something akin to a molecular handshake: The two partners must share in the other’s biochemical bounty and only thrive when both parties are present.
\n\n\n\nThis kind of “synthetic symbiosis” would obviate the need for synthetic fertilizers, notes Philip Poole, a plant microbiologist at the University of Oxford. It would also have the added bonus of mitigating the concerns around genetically modified plants escaping fields and contaminating other crops, he adds. Since any pollen that blew into a neighbouring field would not carry with it the bacteria from its roots, any resulting corn plants would be at a major competitive disadvantage, since they’d be making food for their new root bugs and getting nothing in return. As such, non-modified crops should quickly overtake any intruders.
\n\n\n\n“What we’re talking about having is a control system,” says Poole. Thanks to scientific advances in recent years, “we certainly have the tools now for the first time to build the control systems to do this,” he adds.
\n\n\n\nOthers remain circumspect. “These technologies are going to be way trickier than people think,” warns Allen Good, a plant scientist at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “It’s a very complex relationship that you have to build.”
\n\n\n\nYou can get some reasonable results in the lab, but you don’t necessarily get them in the field.
Even what may seem to work initially in greenhouse testing could be hard to scale for industrial applications, says Ray Dixon, a molecular microbiologist at the John Innes Centre in the United Kingdom. He has studied nitrogen fixation for 50 years. “You can get some reasonable results in the lab, but you don’t necessarily get them in the field,” he explains.
\n\n\n\nDoug Gurian-Sherman, an independent agricultural science and policy consultant, offers a more philosophical and ecological argument against mitigating fertilizer consumption — a problem created by the scientific advances of the Green Revolution — with yet another technological fix. It only further “entrenches the current kind of monoculture, industrial system we have” and perpetuates a “farming landscape that overall is bad for the environment,” he says, noting how intensive single-crop farming has been linked to soil erosion, biodiversity loss and other forms of ecological damage. “The more you go down a path, the more you’re locked into it.”
\n\n\n\nYet, rather than adopt the “no agrichemicals, no GMO” absolutism of organic advocates, Gurian-Sherman — who spent over a decade working for non-profit advocacy groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Center for Food Safety — prefers a middle way known as agroecology, which aims to minimize chemical inputs without necessarily eliminating them altogether. Based on scientific principles and best-practices in sustainable farming, agroecology aims to deploy traditional systems of crop rotations and livestock integration, with manure used as compost or fertilizer and crop by-products recycled as animal feed.
\n\n\n\nSociety can’t continue to wait for a hypothetical solution to an urgent problem.
A decade-long experiment led by agronomist Matt Liebman at Iowa State University best captures the promise of this approach. As Liebman has chronicled, diversifying conventional corn-soybean systems with the addition of small grains (oats), other legumes (alfalfa or clover), and cattle, ended up boosting corn yields by a few percentage points while lowering fertilizer use by about 90% — all with no differences in profitability and huge upsides for the surrounding soil and freshwater ecologies.
\n\n\n\nGurian-Sherman concedes that genetically engineered crops could eventually play some role in sustainable agriculture. But the technology is still nowhere near ready for prime time, he notes, and society can’t continue to wait for a hypothetical solution to an urgent problem. “Meanwhile, we know that these agroecology systems work,” he says, “and the main barriers are our policies.”
\n\n\n\n“The issue, ironically, is not that we have not enough technology,” Gurian-Sherman adds. “It’s almost that we have too much.”
\n\n\n\nCorrection: This article originally included the claim that a complete conversion to organic farming would encroach on forests unless there was “a worldwide conversion to vegetarianism.” It has been updated to the more accurate: “a massive conversion to plant-based diets.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":876,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[11,14,8,10,6,40],"tags":[30,71,32,259,214],"class_list":["post-544","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-science-tech","tag-agriculture","tag-climate-crisis","tag-conservation","tag-elie-dolgin","tag-food-security"],"yoast_head":"\nA home garden yields simple pleasures: time spent outdoors, the gratification of watching something you planted grow, delicious food to eat… and independence from the agricultural giants that dominate our food system. Gardeners across North America are starting their spring planting, and some are using seeds sporting an “Open Source” label. Riding the coattails of consumer preferences for the organic and locally grown, the burgeoning open-source seed movement helps gardeners resist corporate efforts to prevent seed-saving.
\n\n\n\nThe practice of saving and sharing seeds dates from the dawn of agriculture. Only in recent decades has the expansion of intellectual property rights over plant genetic material (also called germplasm) altered plants’ status as a public good. Prohibitions on saving seeds via intellectual property law — known as “bag tag” restrictions because they’re often printed on tags attached to bags of seed — are familiar to farmers, especially those growing corn, soybeans, and cotton. But home gardeners may assume they have the right to save and share seeds, while in fact large biotech companies have patents on many of the seeds marketed to them.
\n\n\n\nCarol Deppe — a plant breeder, author, and owner of Fertile Valley Seeds in Oregon — argues that the principle behind seed-saving matters to most ordinary gardeners, even if they don’t save seeds themselves. “People like the independence of gardening,” she said in an interview. “It matters in principle if a seed is savable, whether or not they choose to [save seed] … If you do not have the right to save a seed, your emotional feeling about gardening as an act of independence changes.”
\n\n\n\nIt matters in principle if a seed is savable, whether or not gardeners choose to save seed.
A group of plant breeders, farmers, seed companies, and sustainability advocates came together at a 2012 academic conference to discuss a response to this corporate encroachment. Inspired by open-source software — which permits users to freely access, modify and distribute source code — they founded the nonprofit Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI). OSSI co-founder Dr. Claire Luby said in an interview, “the idea for an open-source seed license had been popping up in different places,” from academia, to social justice groups and plant breeders.
\n\n\n\nThe group’s first public action was to release 37 cultivars of 14 species under an open-source seed pledge written by Luby and two fellow University of Wisconsin professors:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nYou have the freedom to use these OSSI-Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.
\n
If you have a home garden, you’re in good company. According to the National Gardening Association (NGA), 1 in 3 American households grow food, and participation in community gardens increased 200% from 2008 to 2013. This increase was enough for NGA president Mike Metallo to declare the arrival of a “food revolution.” But corporate control of the genetic resources fueling that revolution has also expanded to historic proportions.
\n\n\n\nWhile we tend to think of seeds as a starting point, they have a supply chain, and the average gardener depends on multinational corporations to a greater degree than most would prefer. Thanks to the consolidation of the seed industry, even organic and heirloom seeds may be purchased from subsidiaries of the Big 4 chemical companies: Bayer (owner of Monsanto), Corteva (born from the merger of Dow and Dupont), ChemChina (which acquired Syngenta), and BASF.
\n\n\n\nThese corporations control almost 70% of seeds and their germplasm, not just for farm crops, but for home-garden varieties of vegetables, fruits, shrubs, and flowers. “This is not just a corn, soybean, commodity crop issue,” said Luby. Big companies’ intellectual property rights (IPRs) over plant varieties prohibit food growers from saving, replanting, or sharing seeds.
\n\n\n\nFewer companies controlling new seed varieties means fewer options that might work for the region you live in.
Luby sees other impacts of seed IPRs on home gardeners, too: “Do you like having options in your seed catalogue when you buy seed?” she asked. “Those options are created by plant breeders, and if there’s fewer and fewer companies controlling new seed varieties, it means there are fewer options that might work for the region you live in or the flavors you like. ”
\n\n\n\nBy restricting the sharing of plant germplasm, intellectual property laws stifle seed diversity and threaten the development of novel traits that benefit society — like adaptation to climate change, disease resilience, and performance under conditions with low inputs of fertilizers, pesticides, and even water.
\n\n\n\nNonetheless, it isn’t surprising that fighting plant patents hasn’t become a priority within the food movement. In addition to legal complexity, the concept of owning varieties of living beings is counterintuitive. In his essay “Civil Disobedience in the Garden,” plant breeder Frank Morton crystalizes how patents on plants are so confounding: “Isn’t any living being a sum of its own evolutionary history? Who can own that?”
\n\n\n\nBoth Luby and Oregon plant breeder Deppe — who serves on the OSSI board — have noticed an increase in intellectual property notices in seed catalogues. “More and more people are labeling seeds,” said Luby.
\n\n\n\nAccording to Deppe, these notices inform potential customers, “Hey, you are just renting these seeds for a year.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/OSSI_Seeds-1024x427.jpg\")
Open-source seed pledging is a powerful tool of resistance against corporations’ shoring up of plant genetic resources. Aiming to “preserve the rights of farmers, gardeners, and breeders to freely use, save, replant, and improve seed,” OSSI’s vision also addresses challenges in plant breeding and research, including plant diversity and biological resilience. Since its founding, OSSI has succeeded in its objective to “enlarge the pool of crop varieties that are ‘OSSI-Pledged,’ and so are freely available for use and improvement.”
\n\n\n\nOSSI partners with plant breeders who pledge novel varieties as open-source. By using unrestricted plant germplasm, breeders create novel varieties, then release the seeds to the public under the OSSI Pledge. Pledged seed guarantees a range of freedoms to potential users:
\n\n\n\nAdditionally, plant breeders are able to preserve the availability of plant germplasm by protecting it from being patented. Perhaps the most ingenious aspect of the OSSI Pledge is its viral quality — derivatives of any open-source seed cannot restrict access to, or use of, a pledged variety.
\n\n\n\nThere are currently 475 varieties of open-source seeds available for purchase through OSSI’s 63 seed company partners in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe. OSSI-pledged seeds include Deppe’s Candystick Dessert delicata squash and Goldini Zucchini — both of which reportedly flew off the shelves at the Berkeley Bowl grocery when a local farmer cultivated them — and a panoply of tomato, pepper, squash, bean, carrot, kale, corn, and even quinoa varieties.
\n\n\n\nOSSI’s mission of maintaining “fair and open access to plant genetic resources worldwide” has inspired people across the globe to add to the pool of OSSI-pledged seed varieties. The second phase of the open-source seed movement will be achieving widespread use of pledged seeds by consumers in their home, school, or community gardens.
\n\n\n\nDeppe believes open-source principles fit with the values of her customers, who prioritize flavorful organic food, grown from locally adapted seed varieties, sold by a small company. She said they’ve responded enthusiastically to the open-source seeds already in her catalogue: “The people who heard us talking about OSSI and saw OSSI on [seed] packets, they got it… instantaneously.”
\n\n\n\nIt wasn’t mega-farmers who led the way with organic varieties, it was the home gardeners.
“Home gardeners are often the leaders and the conscience of the food movement,” she said. “It wasn’t mega-farmers who led the way with organic varieties, it was the home gardeners who wanted them. And with heirloom tomatoes, it’s home gardeners who remind everyone that commercial varieties taste like crap.” In her experience at Fertile Valley Seeds, engaging gardeners in dialogue about open-source seeds was less about changing minds, and more about providing opportunities to those who already believe seeds are part of humanity’s common heritage.
\n\n\n\nOver the past decade, consumer backlash to market institutions’ control over agricultural production has transformed the food economy via increased demand for ethically sourced products. More and more people are asking the kinds of questions Dr. Luby says are central to open-source gardening: “Who or what is behind the seeds in my seed catalogue? Does this company share my values?”
\n\n\n\nFor home gardeners seeking liberation from the tethers of Big Ag, OSSI and its seed partners are a useful resource. While OSSI has not yet found an efficient way to track sales of OSSI-pledged seeds across companies, Claire Luby is optimistic that the open-source ethic is picking up steam among regular home gardeners: “Anecdotally, I think people are recognizing [the value of open-source seeds], especially in the organic seed world.”
\n\n\n\nEvery OSSI-pledged seed purchase reinforces the idea of seed-saving as an inherent right.
Every OSSI-pledged seed purchase reinforces the idea of seed-saving as an inherent right. And that idea, Deppe believes, is just as crucial as whether the food we’re eating is delicious, homegrown, and organic.
\n\n\n\n“Do you have a right to grow food?” asked Deppe. “You can’t grow food if you don’t have a right to use the seed. And if you don’t have the right to grow food, what is there left?”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1763,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,21,8,6,38,52],"tags":[30,236,473],"class_list":["post-1786","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-home-garden","category-living","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-wa-or","tag-agriculture","tag-gardening","tag-marian-weidner"],"yoast_head":"\nA colorful collection of carrots grown from open-source pledged seeds
\n"},"alt_text":"A beautiful mix of carrots, with colors ranging from deep purples to earthy yellow, is grown from open-source pledged seeds.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1120,"file":"2023/01/OSSI-Carrots.jpg","filesize":"262977","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"OSSI-Carrots-300x224.jpg","width":300,"height":224,"filesize":"20363","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots-300x224.jpg"},"large":{"file":"OSSI-Carrots-1024x765.jpg","width":1024,"height":765,"filesize":"143005","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots-1024x765.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"OSSI-Carrots-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8421","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"OSSI-Carrots-768x573.jpg","width":768,"height":573,"filesize":"89556","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots-768x573.jpg"},"full":{"file":"OSSI-Carrots.jpg","width":1500,"height":1120,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/OSSI-Carrots.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1763"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nAhh, chocolate. It’s silky, rich and melts in your mouth. But the process of getting that deliciousness to your mouth is decidedly less smooth. Cocoa production is linked to child labour, slavery, deforestation, and low wages.
\n\n\n\nIn Ivory Coast and Ghana — where most cocoa is grown — smallholder farmers struggle with extreme poverty in the face of large price fluctuations, and 2.1 million children help tend the crops. These issues are highlighted in the 2018 Cocoa Barometer, a report produced by a consortium of not-for-profits. Meanwhile, palm oil and soy, two common ingredients in chocolate bars, are key drivers of global deforestation.
\n\n\n\nEven though major chocolate companies have taken steps to clean up their supply chains over the past decade, and pledged to source 100% certified ethical and sustainable cocoa by 2020, the Cocoa Barometer says the industry has a long way to go.
\n\n\n\nCocoa production is linked to child labour, slavery, deforestation, and low wages.
“If business as usual continues, it will be decades — if ever — before human rights will be respected and environmental protection will be a basis for sustainability in the cocoa sector,” the report says.
\n\n\n\nSo, with the onslaught of holiday treats upon us, how can concerned chocolate lovers make the most sustainable and ethical purchases? Asparagus Magazine spoke to experts on chocolate sustainability to find out. Whether you’re looking for a gift or a treat for yourself, we present five tips for choosing more sustainable chocolate.
\n\n\n\nTo start, you can learn about your chocolate by examining the label. But beware of “unsubstantiated” claims, says Hamish Van Der Ven, a professor at McGill University whose book on greenwashing comes out in 2019. Some companies describe their chocolate as “sustainable,” “green,” or “forest-friendly,” but that shouldn’t be considered equivalent to third-party certification, he explains. “Not all eco-labels are created equal.”
\n\n\n\nInstead, Van Der Ven and other experts recommend chocolate buyers seek out products with Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, or UTZ certifications. To receive these certifications, a company has to apply to a third party that sets standards and conducts audits to make sure that company’s ingredients actually meet those standards, explains Van Der Wen.
\n\n\n\nEach certification takes a different approach, but they all aim to decrease the environmental impact of cocoa production and improve the lives of farmers.
Cocoa is typically “grown by millions of farmers that have really small plots of land. So it’s difficult for individual companies — especially smaller companies and smaller brands — to keep track of sustainability practices all through their supply chain,” says Kerry Scanlon, senior associate at the Rainforest Alliance.
\n\n\n\nEach certification takes a different approach, but they all aim to decrease the negative environmental impact of cocoa production and improve the lives of farmers. Fairtrade emphasizes labour standards and poverty alleviation, including a guaranteed minimum price for farmers. In contrast, UTZ and Rainforest Alliance — which are merging and creating a new certification standard — originally emphasized environmental protection. Though they set no minimum price, they focus on increasing farmers’ incomes by helping them improve productivity and quality.
\n\n\n\nConsumers can choose based on their preferences, says Dietmar Stoian, senior scientist at Bioversity International. He prefers chocolates with both a Fairtrade and organic certification, because of the social and ecological standards the combination promises.
\n\n\n\nUnfortunately, certifications are far from a panacea for problems in the chocolate supply chain. Eating Fairtrade chocolate bars won’t “dramatically improve” the lives of cocoa farmers, says Stoian. Part of the problem is that only about a quarter of all cocoa is certified as either Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ or organic, and farmers who do have certifications are able to sell only a portion of their cocoa as certified, leaving the rest to the regular market. In addition, certifications do little to alleviate the crushing poverty cocoa farmers face. In 2016, Stoian contributed to a study that found that Fairtrade-certified cocoa farmers in Ghana earned only US $36 more than non-certified ones. “That’s not much more than 1% of their overall income,” he explains.
\n\n\n\nDark chocolate contains more cocoa, which means more money per bar goes to cocoa farmers.
Poverty in cocoa-growing communities is complex, and Fairtrade is just one part of the solution, according to Fairtrade America spokesperson Kyle Freund. Companies and non-governmental organizations need to collaborate on more solutions to tackle poverty, he says.
\n\n\n\nOne way to put more money in the hands of cocoa farmers is buying dark chocolate. Dark chocolate contains more cocoa, which means more money per bar goes to cocoa farmers. Stoian recommends 70% cocoa content or higher, which is roughly double what you find in milk chocolate. “By that token, you give more or less double the price to the [cocoa] producer, irrespective of any kind of certification,” he explains.
\n\n\n\nAnother option for sourcing more ethical chocolate is buying from a chocolate vendor with a direct relationship to the farmers who grow their cocoa, as a growing number of small-scale producers have. Such producers take a “bean-to-bar” approach, working with farmers to produce a more sustainable product, and often paying higher prices for cocoa than the going market rate.
\n\n\n\nThere are no set standards or certification for vetting this approach, but it has the potential to be more sustainable than conventional chocolate. One Asparagus favourite is local bean-to-bar producer East Van Roasters. Google “bean-to-bar” and your hometown to find direct-trade chocolate shops near you.
\n\n\n\nFirst-hand knowledge of how cocoa is produced can be as effective or more effective than a third-party certification.
“That first-hand knowledge of how cocoa is produced can be as effective or more effective than a third-party certification,” says McGill’s Van Der Ven. Third-party certifications have loopholes that can be circumvented by unethical companies, he explains. “It’s much easier to keep an eye on what’s happening at a single production area than it is over millions of hectares.”
\n\n\n\nWhen it comes down to it, the chocolate trade is unfair, says Johan Six, professor of sustainable agrosystems at Zurich’s technical university. Farmers, who get just 5–10% of the value of cocoa, need a bigger slice of the pie to climb out of poverty, he explains. Direct trade is one way of increasing that percentage.
\n\n\n\nAnother option is to look at how companies you buy chocolate from report their impact on social issues and the environment, says Kate England, a Vancouver-based ecologist and sustainability consultant who has analyzed cocoa supply chains.
\n\n\n\nAs an analyst, a chocolate enthusiast, and an ecologist, I want to be able to see the company is working towards definitive goals.
Check whether the company publishes an impact report on its website. Next, see whether they’ve set sustainability goals, and if they target issues you’re concerned about. Finally, look at who wrote the report. A third-party analyst is likely more objective, says England, but companies can do a good job in-house, especially if they partner with academics and employ a range of experts like ecologists and anthropologists.
\n\n\n\nIdeally, a company should “have a holistic perspective” that accounts for a range of issues, including gender equality, labour practices, poverty, and the environment, she adds. “As an analyst, a chocolate enthusiast, and an ecologist, I want to be able to see the company is working towards definitive goals, that they have a vision for what they’re trying to do for the communities they work with and environment that they’re working in.”
\n\n\n\nAt the end of the day, voting at the cash register has its limits. McGill’s Van Der Ven recommends donating to environmental organizations that “police big cocoa producers.” Groups he recommends include Greenpeace, Conservation International, the World Wildlife Fund, and Friends of the Earth. In addition, if you invest in a company that produces chocolate, he recommends making sure they have sustainable production measures.
\n\n\n\nOne way companies could tackle poverty is by producing chocolate in countries where cocoa is cultivated, says agrosystem professor Six. “The biggest problem we have in the whole cocoa value chain is basically all the added value is not made in Africa.”
\n\n\n\nVoting at the cash register has its limits.
You can also make a difference by letting chocolate companies know sustainability matters to you, says Ivy Schlegel, a senior specialist at Greenpeace USA who focuses on palm oil. Major brands that made pledges to reduce palm-oil-related deforestation — like Hershey, Nestlé, Mondelēz (Cadbury’s parent company), and Ferrero — haven’t met their targets, she says.
\n\n\n\n“These consumer brands sell chocolate and snacks to everybody all over the planet. If they’re not going to be meeting their promises… it really leaves consumers and everyday people shorthanded,” explains Schlegel.
\n\n\n\nContact them and “make it personal,” she advises. “If they think that people will boycott and will buy less, they will change it.”
\n\n\n\nClarification: This article has been edited to clarify that the quarter of all cocoa that is certified globally falls under one of four certifications (Fairtrade, Rainforest Alliance, UTZ or organic) and that farmers who do have certifications are able to sell only a portion of their product under that label.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":864,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,10,23,28],"tags":[256,117,137,214],"class_list":["post-515","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-start-small","category-decider","tag-alia-dharssi","tag-certification","tag-chocolate","tag-food-security"],"yoast_head":"\nMany people enjoy the taste of cooked dead animal. I am not one of them. Even though the number of vegetarians and vegans in the world is increasing, many folk say they love the taste of real meat too much to make the switch, despite the evidence that eating less meat is good for the planet and their health.
\n\n\n\nSome people think the solution to this problem is to create convincing substitutes. The first commercial fake meat in North America, Nuttose, was sold in 1896. It was the creation of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg — yes, of snap-crackle-pop breakfast-cereal fame.
\n\n\n\nThis 19th-century alternative meat was made of peanuts and starch and tasted, apparently… like peanuts and starch. Let’s just say it wasn’t a huge hit, and vegetarianism didn’t really take off in North America until the hippies reigned with all their groovy peace, love, and Boca Burgers (ok, Boca Burgers came out in the late 70s, but you get the idea).
\n\n\n\nVegetarianism didn’t really take off in North America until the hippies reigned with all their groovy peace, love, and Boca Burgers.
Recently, there’s been an upheaval in the fake meat scene. A new product, the Beyond Burger, has been making big claims that it “looks, cooks, and satisfies like beef.” Wha?! Looks like beef? Cooks like beef? How can that be? And does it live up to those claims?
\n\n\n\nThe Beyond Burger has been getting a lot of media attention since its launch in May 2016. One Buzzfeed reporter wrote, “The burgers tasted so much like meat that I had to go back and double-check the box to make sure these were, in fact, vegan.”
\n\n\n\nApparently, people are into the fakery, or at least they’re into taste-testing.
It took a while for the product to get approval in Canada, hitting our market earlier this year. Last month, A&W Canada reported shortages of the Beyond Burger only months after adding it to their menu. Apparently, people are into the fakery, or at least they’re into taste-testing this highly promoted new food.
\n\n\n\nAs a long-time vegetarian, I wasn’t so sure I wanted a burger to taste like meat, but I was interested enough to give it a try. I convinced a meat-eating friend to taste-test the Beyond Burger with me. However, since A&W cooks their burgers on the same grill they cook beef on — making the chances of contamination more likely and icky for me — we went to Meet on Main, a vegetarian restaurant in Vancouver that also serves it.
\n\n\n\nThe last time I ate meat was a bite of a boyfriend’s steak in 2012. I remember thinking, “Yup, still tastes like dead flesh to me.” It would be hard to rewire my brain into accepting that as tasty, but I tried to keep an open mind.
\n\n\n\nWe sat down after the lunch rush at Meet, and noticed that the Beyond patty is a $3.75 upgrade to any of their burgers — a pretty hefty upsell on a regular $12 veggie burger. After enjoying 90s dance hits of the Spice Girls and Whitney Houston, we welcomed our meals. I was nervous — would it be gross? Would I realize that I want the taste of meat again? My meat-eater friend mostly remained skeptical that it would live up to its hype.
\n\n\n\nMeat-eater friend: I can tell it’s a veggie patty because the shape is too consistent. It looks like a veggie patty.
\n\n\n\nMe: It does look more pink than most veggie burgers.
\n\n\n\nMe: Something tastes different. It’s smokey. I know it’s not meat, but it’s meaty. I think if I was at a party and someone gave this to me I would be suspicious that it was real meat.
\n\n\n\nMeat-eater friend: It’s not bad. It’s not as dry as other veggie burgers I’ve had.
\n\n\n\nAfter several bites, we came to the conclusion that it did have a sort of bloody, iron-ish taste. It was chewy, in a good way. It didn’t fall apart like some veggie patties do. But the ultimate question is: given the option, would I go for a Beyond Burger again?
\n\n\n\nAs someone who thinks a lot about the environment and my own health, I try to avoid processed food because it’s often packed with salt and sugar. When I got home, I looked into the stats to see if the Beyond Burger could be a good addition to a healthy diet.
\n\n\n\nAccording to Beyond Meat’s website, the Beyond Burger has 20 g of plant-based protein and contains no GMOs, soy, or gluten. The primary source of protein in the Beyond Burger comes from peas. The ingredients are: water, pea protein, canola oil, coconut oil, and 2% or less of a bunch of things, notably beet juice extract for color. It’s what makes the burger look like it’s bleeding! Neat, huh?
\n\n\n\nThese burgers contain 380 mg of sodium. That seemed like a lot of salt.
The one thing that stood out from the nutritional information was that these burgers contain 380 mg of sodium. That seemed like a lot of salt. But what do I know? I went to A&W Canada’s website for full nutritional information to gain some perspective. The Beyond Meat burger with bun and toppings is 500 calories, with 22 g of protein and 1110 mg of sodium. Yikes!
\n\n\n\nTheir popular Teen Burger is also 500 calories. It has 25g of protein, and 910 mg of sodium. Wha?! 200 mg less than the veggie burger?! Oy vey. For perspective on this salt issue, Health Canada recommends adults get 1500 mg — and no more than 2300 mg — of sodium a day. Really it’s no surprise that burgers and fast food aren’t that nutritionally good for you.
\n\n\n\nWhile I wasn’t wowed by the Beyond Burger, I was intrigued by it. I looked for it the next time I went grocery shopping, just to see. Unfortunately it’s only sold in the meat department, so I had to look at hunks of beef, lamb, chicken, and pork before I found out that my closest store didn’t sell it. I looked at dead animal flesh for nothing!
\n\n\n\nClearly, I’m not the target market for the Beyond Burger, but my meat-eating friend is. I asked, if she was at a backyard BBQ and given the choice of a regular beef burger or a Beyond Burger, which would she choose? Beef, she said, because it’s “juicier.” She’s already accustomed to its taste, and if they’ve already been purchased, she wouldn’t feel guilty about eating one. If she had to bring burgers to a party with a lot of vegetarians, and the price point was the same, she’d consider the Beyond Burger.
\n\n\n\nIf the Beyond Burger takes over the fast food industry, I’m all for it.
For others intrigued by these developments, there’s another meat alternative on the horizon. Scientists have been working to create a meat that’s both cruelty-free and less harmful to the environment. They’ve been able to grow meat in a lab since 2013, but it’s not commercially available — yet. The thought is that commercial “clean beef” could be available to the mass market in a few years.
\n\n\n\nIn the meantime, if the Beyond Burger takes over the fast food industry, I’m all for it. The less meat humans consume, the better. Is it likely that I’ll become more confused and suspicious when eating a veggie burger? Probably. But if that’s the price I have to pay for fewer meat-eaters in the world, so be it.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":673,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[27,14,8,10,6,38,22],"tags":[87,251,53,123,89],"class_list":["post-463","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmentalist-from-hell","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-voices","tag-pacific-northwest","tag-sara-bynoe","tag-us","tag-vegan","tag-vegetarian"],"yoast_head":"\nBeyond Burger
\n"},"alt_text":"A burger made with a Beyond Meat plant-based patty cut in half to show a cross section with tomato, onion, and lettuce.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/Beyond-Burger.jpg","filesize":"300499","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Beyond-Burger-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"16954","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Beyond-Burger-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"126619","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Beyond-Burger-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8199","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Beyond-Burger-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"79585","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Beyond-Burger.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Beyond-Burger.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=673"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":27,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/magazine/voices/environmentalist-from-hell/","name":"Environmentalist from Hell","slug":"environmentalist-from-hell","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nWith new-normal summer memories of glowing orange skies and pervasive woodsmoke still fresh in our noses, it’s an excellent time to talk about fire. Specifically its use in kitchens, at home and beyond.
\n\n\n\nOver centuries, we’ve devised all manner of tools and techniques to apply flame to foods — both directly and indirectly — and with good reason. But at this point in time, the idea of burning anything that emits carbon dioxide and pollutants into our shared atmosphere ought to be extinguished, and as quickly as we can manage it.
\n\n\n\nSo should we break up the marriage of flame and food? It’s sure to be a messy divorce, fraught with plenty of conflict and cost. For your consideration, here are the main arguments for and against saving this millennia-old union.
\n\n\n\nTake the romance of fire out of the equation, and cooking is essentially a question of energy — with efficient transfer being the goal, and waste an increasingly unacceptable by-product.
\n\n\n\nThere are no global statistics on this, but in my experience (as a pro cook and restaurant consultant) about 90% of all cooking with fire is indirect, in that flames heat something — a pot or pan on a range top, air in an oven, or both the air and cooking surface in a wood-fired pizza oven — which then transfers that heat energy to the solid or liquid being cooked. The other 10% includes hot-smoked foods, and those cooked directly by flame-roasting over charcoal or other solid fuel.
\n\n\n\nApplying the laws of thermodynamics to burgers and fries is the daily specialty at the Food Service Technology Center (FSTC) in San Ramon, CA. An independent testing lab, FSTC evaluates the performance and efficiency of commercial food-service equipment on behalf of both public utilities and their many high-volume customers in the restaurant industry. FSTC test-methods and results also underpin many ENERGY STAR ratings. These have boosted manufacturing standards, and generated incentives for companies and customers seeking energy-efficient options.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/EfficiencyIndex.jpg\")
FSTC colleagues and I co-developed this efficiency index for my book about the future of restaurant innovation. It illustrates, from low to high, the cooking efficiency of professional kitchen equipment. As you might expect, wood-fired ovens anchor the low end (max. 10% efficiency), while induction — the best electric technology we currently have — tops the scale at more than 90%.
\n\n\n\nIt’s an uncomfortable realization for waste-conscious chefs that, on average, 70% of the energy put out by their professional gas ranges does no work other than sustaining the kitchen’s can’t-stand-the-heat environment. Given that open gas-burner technology hasn’t improved much in the past 100 years — primarily, I believe, because few chefs have asked — it may never exceed its average 30% efficiency.
\n\n\n\nWe are chefs. If a new and more sustainable way of doing things is what’s needed, we’ll figure out how to cook with it.
However, just as automakers and drivers are counting the internal combustion engine’s numbered days, more equipment manufacturers and professional cooks need to embrace induction. Introduced in the early 1900s, induction’s oscillating magnetic fields efficiently “induce” heat directly in cast-iron and steel (not copper or aluminum) pans. Unlike a gas range or conventional electric element, an induction cooktop hardly radiates any waste heat, so more than 95% of the applied energy can be precisely controlled and directed to most any food. For example, many pastry chefs rely on that accuracy in working with chocolate and other temperature-sensitive products.
\n\n\n\nRob Feenie — the award-winning executive chef of Canada’s Cactus Club chain — likes induction cooking’s efficiency enough to install it in his home kitchen, and doesn’t fear a flame-free fate. “Gas happens to be what’s commonly used right now, but it doesn’t have to be part of the future,” he says. “We are chefs. If a new and more sustainable way of doing things is what’s needed, we’ll figure out how to cook with it. We adapt.”
\n\n\n\nChris Whittaker, former executive chef of Forage and Timber on Vancouver’s Robson Street, plans to specify an all-electric and induction setup for any new kitchen coming his way. “That technology works for my style of cooking, but what about Asian wok cooks who rely on expertly timed blasts of searing heat to create particular flavours?” he says. “Not having an effective equivalent, that’s changing a cuisine.”
\n\n\n\nUnlike the car analogy — where the type of motor under the hood doesn’t necessarily affect the quality of the driving experience — taking flame entirely out of the cooking equation would impact flavours across global cuisines. If you’ve ever seen a traditional Chinese restaurant kitchen — with its wall of flaming, running-water-cooled woks — you’d be hard-pressed to imagine an electric equivalent. High-powered induction woks are an available alternative, though not without some compromise.
\n\n\n\nWhat about Asian wok cooks who rely on expertly timed blasts of searing heat to create particular flavours?
When the City of Vancouver recently proposed restricting natural gas consumption to help its Greenest City 2020 goals, the response from the local restaurant industry was heated. Noted Vancouver chef David Hawksworth makes a case for fire. “Instead of gas, I’d like to burn compressed coconut husks… a renewable, sustainable resource,” he says, inspired by a visit to Kiln in London’s Soho district. “They do all their cooking with this compressed material, and there is fire management, of course, but cooking with flame is the goal. And it works. In London!”
\n\n\n\nHawksworth does concur with many of his peers that high-efficiency induction ranges are perfectly suited to many kitchen applications, from boiling water quickly to simmering sauces. Most also agree that ovens, fryers and other appliances — whether electric or gas — are pretty much the same. However, sacrificing the ability to apply flame-generated flavours to certain foods and dishes still seems like a lot to ask…both in the commercial and residential kitchen.
\n\n\n\nGiven my line of work, I often get asked for recommendations on “the ultimate range” for home kitchens. While I typically make a strong case for an induction range atop an electric convection oven, it’s often impossible to get past the same core challenge faced by pro chefs.
\n\n\n\nThat challenge was evident in a recent Labour Day sale flyer from a major appliance retailer: within a single line of ranges, the stock electric version cost $1,499, the gas model bumped up to $1,999 and the induction option topped out at $2,499. While the induction cooktop can outperform the gas model in terms of speed, efficiency, temperature accuracy, and even safety, it typically comes at a premium price. And if you’re the average non-professional cook committed to reducing your fossil fuel use, you’ll likely need a compelling reason to spend $1,000 more on induction over standard electric.
\n\n\n\nThe price/value gap gets even wider in the professional realm. Standard gas ranges are generally inexpensive, especially in the pre-owned market (where few induction ranges are found, and many start-up restaurants buy their gear). While volume deals can be had, the average price on a comparably equipped new induction range is typically 100–150% more than the natural-gas version. Furthermore, to match the power and reliability (if not efficiency) of gas equipment, commercial-grade induction ranges need 3000W-5000W elements — up to 8000W for induction wok stations — which can be a problem unto itself.
\n\n\n\nInduction is fast, clean, efficient… but we still need something better.
Chef-owner Andrea Carlson found out just how power-hungry induction can be when she was sorting out her kitchen at Vancouver’s Burdock & Co: “The utility told us our building wasn’t wired in a way that allowed us to install as much induction as we wanted [at a reasonable cost],” she says. “Induction is fast, clean, efficient… but we still need something better.”
\n\n\n\nIn the predominantly bottom-line driven restaurant business, monthly energy costs for induction ranges can be 75–100% more than their gas-powered equivalents, even in BC where electricity is inexpensive. Winnipeg-based freelance chef/caterer Ben Kramer would like to see better and leaner induction: “It’s efficient and precise, but not cheap to buy or use. And, as with many energy-efficient solutions — like heat pumps and solar panels — in order to save $3,000 over 5 years, I have to spend $20,000. If they want to encourage a fuel switch from gas, the electric utilities and city governments will need to offer some very healthy incentives.” Given the rapidly evolving changes to every other cost of urban living, the investment needed to flip that switch is unlikely to be a priority in most city halls or kitchens.
\n\n\n\nTo summarize, the cases for and against cooking with fire include issues of inefficiency and waste versus authentic flavours and tradition, laid over business-as-usual economics. In the absence of some other disruptive element, the prospect of a win-win resolution is still on the back burner.
\n\n\n\nVancouver celebrity-chef/restaurateur Vikram Vij is optimistic by nature, and fully expects a high-efficiency, low-cost cooking technology will someday allow the sustainability of his kitchen to match that of a local organic menu. “I think we ought to have solar panels on rooftops to energize our kitchens, and technologies to recover heat from water and air and redirect it to growing produce,” says Vij. “It may take another Elon Musk, though, to build the next-generation range that has zero-waste heat and energy.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1664,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[12,14,21,8,6,51,9],"tags":[457,545,435,455,353,369],"class_list":["post-1776","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-food","category-home-garden","category-living","category-planet","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-andre-lariviere","tag-appliances","tag-cooking","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-home-renovation"],"yoast_head":"\nIs an open flame really the be-all and end-all of quality cooking?
\n"},"alt_text":"A huge flame rises from a frying pan held above a gas stove inside a restaurant kitchen.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/11/flaming-out-header.jpg","filesize":"250395","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"flaming-out-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"16564","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"flaming-out-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"104080","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"flaming-out-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8295","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"flaming-out-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"66652","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"flaming-out-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"Rawpixel Ltd.","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/flaming-out-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1664"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":12,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/planet/energy/","name":"Energy","slug":"energy","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nI recently got into an awkward situation while grocery shopping, and found myself trying to arm wrestle a friend for the last available red onion. I’m not usually a veggie-wrestler, but we were both excited: it was my friend’s first time shopping at a mobile market, and I was thrilled there was a new one in an area that sorely needed it.
\n\n\n\nI consoled myself with strawberries, pineapple, avocado, ginger, rhubarb, a gorgeous English cucumber, and a pleasingly low grocery bill of C$10.15, while my friend clutched a C$1 loaf of artisanal bread, a bag of organic salad greens, a bunch of celery, and my red onion.
\n\n\n\nThe MarketMobile where we were shopping sets up in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Vanier every other week, and has a regular schedule touring the food deserts of Canada’s capital. As grocery stores abandon downtowns for suburbs — and those suburbs are themselves transformed from car-owning, middle-class enclaves to the homes of recent immigrants dependent on public transit — food deserts are proliferating throughout North America.
\n\n\n\nAs grocery stores abandon downtowns for suburbs, food deserts are proliferating throughout North America.
There are many definitions of food desert, but most emphasize distance from grocery stores where fresh fruits and vegetables are available. One definition is an area where residents live more than a 1 km walk from a grocery store; at least 31,000 Toronto households are in such locations. Urbanist Richard Florida wrote in 2010:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nThese neighbourhoods are often… characterized by low average household incomes. If policy makers wish to improve the health, productivity and general prosperity of communities within their jurisdictions, addressing the existence of food deserts is an important first step forward.
\n
Mobile markets that visit food deserts at regularly scheduled times are cropping up in North American cities, aiming to transform those deserts into oases where residents have ready access to healthy, reasonably priced, and culturally appropriate food. They consist of buses — or trailers towed by vans — converted to display food on shelves or in bins. Some require shoppers to enter the bus or trailer, while others feature customized shelving that folds out of the side wall for an alfresco shopping experience.
\n\n\n\nAwareness of mobile markets remains low outside the neighbourhoods they serve.
Oakland, CA, pioneered the first North American mobile market in 2003, and the concept has spread throughout the US as a response to grocery store closures in low-income neighbourhoods. Some of the American markets further support low-income shoppers by participating in the SNAP program (formerly known as food stamps). In Canada, mobile markets have been slower to take off, though beyond Ottawa there are currently examples in six other cities, from Halifax to Vancouver. The most well-established are in Ontario — but even here, awareness remains low outside the neighbourhoods they serve.
\n\n\n\nIn Toronto, local non-profit FoodShare began a Good Food Markets pilot program in 2012, and by 2013 was operating six mobile food markets. By 2017, they were supporting 45 markets, and delivered more than 250,000 pounds of fresh fruit and vegetables to food deserts throughout the Greater Toronto Area. FoodShare claims that 79% of its customers attend each and every Good Food Market in their community.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-body-1.jpg\")
Following a successful 14-week pilot program in 2014, Ottawa’s MarketMobile used a grant from the Ottawa Community Foundation’s New Leaf Challenge to buy its own truck and trailer. It originally operated out of a borrowed local bus; market organizers had to remove all the seats, and install and stock their own shelving prior to every market, adding several hours to the process.
\n\n\n\nThe road to trailer ownership was bumpy. The organization was awaiting delivery when they learned the trailer would be delayed: the Wisconsin factory’s Amish workforce commuted by bike, and had missed several days’ work due to freak snowstorms. Then, just as the trailer was ready, the company noticed an axle problem. At that point MarketMobile cancelled its order and sourced a truck and trailer from a local supplier.
\n\n\n\n“Ottawa Community Housing was actually kind enough to donate the person-hours to build the inside of the trailer,” says MarketMobile Project Officer Shannon Szkurhan. “The shelving and flooring and our cash table… is all a donation from Ottawa Community Housing.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-body-2.jpg\")
Produce — bought wholesale from a Loblaws supermarket and a non-profit social enterprise called the Food Hub — is marked up only 20–25% (compared with the 50–100% grocery stores mark up perishable goods to compensate for spoilage). Over four years of operation, MarketMobile has added non-perishable items, including oatmeal, dried pulses, and, this year, coffee from local Poppa Bean Coffee Roastery. At July’s inaugural Vanier MarketMobile, coffee beans sold for $5 per half pound. That week, the same quantity retailed at Ottawa’s Whole Foods for $8.
\n\n\n\nSzkurhan explains that grant funding can be capricious: “The first two years, [the New Leaf Challenge grant] was focused on food security projects, and then in the last two years, I believe it’s been focused on youth employment.” Happily, MarketMobile has become a permanent program of the Rideau Rockcliffe Community Resource Centre. That means staff salaries — a full time coordinator and two part-time drivers — are covered by the centre.
\n\n\n\n“We are marking up our produce a little bit and we have coffee that we sell on the trailer as a for-profit item as well,” says Szkurhan, explaining that funds generated from food and coffee profits pay for gas, insurance and supplies. “So we’re in a unique position… we’re sustainable.” MarketMobiles now serve 10 different Ottawa locations year-round.
\n\n\n\nModelled on the successful programs in Toronto and Ottawa, Halifax began its own Mobile Food Market pilot program in 2016, and is now operating at 12 locations in seven communities. Montreal also launched a mobile market in 2016, while Calgary began a pilot program in May 2018. In Edmonton, a local entrepreneur has launched a mobile farmers’ market that travels to seniors’ homes.
\n\n\n\nThe Vancouver Food Bank’s Curbside Fresh Market received a financial boost from Whole Foods for its fifth season this year. BC has also approached access to fresh fruit and vegetables from a different angle. Starting in 2007, the BC government introduced the Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program, making coupons available to individuals and families enrolled in nutrition and skills-building programs. Participants receive $21 worth of coupons per week, 16 weeks a year. The coupons can be used at any of 57 participating farmers’ markets.
\n\n\n\nThe capital economy is broken. It’s cheaper to get red peppers from Mexico than one grown down the street.
Asked about the coupon program, Szkurhan says, “Well, I think it’s good in that it’s giving people choice and access to fresh local food.” But one of her concerns is the cost at farmers’ markets: “The capital economy is broken. You know that it’s cheaper to get red peppers from Mexico than it is to get a red pepper that’s grown from down the street.”
\n\n\n\nThis is the compromise mobile food markets have had to make: while they stock some organic and local produce, the prohibitive price of organic food and the short Canadian growing season make it challenging for them to apply “buy local, buy organic” policies.
\n\n\n\nDo consumers care? Judging from the enthusiastic response to the MarketMobile opening in Vanier, probably not. In 2014, Ottawa Public Health estimated that 1 in 10 local households didn’t have easy access to healthy food. That number was down to 1 in 15 in 2016. Slowly but surely, mobile markets are making a difference, transforming food deserts into oases.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1749,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[45,14,49,8,7],"tags":[54,214,143,488,487],"class_list":["post-1794","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cities","category-food","category-human-rights","category-living","category-society","tag-atlantic-region","tag-food-security","tag-ontario","tag-ottawa","tag-ruth-seeley"],"yoast_head":"\nA converted bus operating as a mobile Good Food Market caters to shoppers on the campus of Toronto’s Ryerson University.
\n"},"alt_text":"An inside view of a bus turned into a mobile market, with shelves filled with ginger, broccoli, and onions.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/12/Mobile-Market.jpg","filesize":"304802","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Mobile-Market-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"24158","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Mobile-Market-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"185105","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Mobile-Market-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10501","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Mobile-Market-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"116141","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Mobile-Market.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"© Laura Berman","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Mobile-Market.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1749"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":45,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/cities/","name":"Cities","slug":"cities","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nI recently enjoyed “The True Price of Bread,” an Asparagus essay by baker Jessica Carpinone about her struggles trying to run her business in line with her values. As Carpinone outlined the unfair choices, tough decisions, and personal sacrifice a conscientious business-owner must endure, I experienced that “I know! I know!” feeling I’d get at school when my arm shot up to answer a teacher’s question. The idea I wanted to offer Carpinone was this: convert the bakery to a co-operative.
\n\n\n\nIn researching my book on the future of restaurants (The Next Course), I was introduced to several co-op models that have successfully addressed all the product-sourcing, staff-compensation, and community-building goals on Carpinone’s wish list. In fact, a leading example is San Francisco’s Arizmendi Bakery, a group of employee-owned bakery/pizza-shop co-ops.
\n\n\n\nThe employee-owned co-op model could be a real game-changer in the fast-casual restaurant segment.
“This model seems to work well when there’s a relatively even level of skills across the board,” says Paul Cabaj, Manager of Co-operative Development for Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC), the co-op sector’s equivalent of a national trade association. “The head bakers might earn a bit more, but the interesting thing is the average worker’s wage is $80K/year for a workload comparable to any regular chain restaurant job.”
\n\n\n\nAs anyone who’s worked in the food-service industry knows, that’s more than double its typical salary. As such, the employee-owned co-op model could be a real game-changer in the limited-service, fast-casual restaurant segment (think Nando’s or Noodlebox) where most market growth is expected in coming years.
\n\n\n\nEven though they’ve been part of our landscape for centuries, co-ops are still generally underrepresented and misunderstood. According CMC’s What is a Co-op? page, a co-operative
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nis an organization owned by the members who use its services (a consumer co-op or credit union), or by people who work there (a worker co-op), or by those who live there (a housing co-operative).
\n
The other fundamental difference from standard business models is that a co-op board and its members use profits to bring value to themselves and their community stakeholders, rather than simply enrich shareholders. With its prosperity truly shared by everybody with a stake in it, a co-op enterprise can, optimally, react more swiftly and fairly to rapid or unexpected changes in the market, which essentially defines future-proofing.
\n\n\n\nHow many of MEC’s card-carrying shoppers truly understand the difference between their co-op membership and the annual fee they pay Costco?
Co-operative models are hidden under the hoods of many popular brands, from Best Western Hotels and Home Hardware, to Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) and its American counterpart REI. But how many of MEC’s card-carrying shoppers truly understand the difference between their co-op membership and the annual fee they pay Costco?
\n\n\n\nThat lack of understanding is about to change, says Cabaj, at least in Canada. “Raising awareness of co-ops — both in the bureaucracy and with the general public — is central to our work [at CMC] right now. We’ve instituted a national Co-op Investment Fund that will create more opportunities for all kinds of new initiatives — including more co-op food businesses — but our major focus in the next two years will be a nationwide public awareness campaign.” Recognizing that the collaborative, sharing, and community-minded values expressed by Millennials and Generation Z seem to align with those of co-ops, Cabaj adds that much of the awareness campaign will be aimed at colleges and universities.
\n\n\n\nThe future-proof value of the co-op may not (yet) be generally evident, but the model is relevant in two particular scenarios. “The negative is rooted in market failure, where things aren’t working and people are pissed off enough that they’ll work together — even with neighbours and colleagues they don’t like — in response to monopolies and unfair business practices,” he says. “For example, there’s been lots of research recently into a co-op solution to [costly] mobile phone services in Canada.”
\n\n\n\nThe positive flip side leaves anger at the door, but aims for similar outcomes. “Co-ops often work best around needs, not wants…such as affordable housing, farmers’ access to markets, or equitable insurance,” says Cabaj. “They do take time, commitment and some sacrifice compared to the entrepreneurial model, and work best where the need is a moral one, not a convenient one. Everyone needs to agree on the benefits of sharing.”
\n\n\n\nCo-ops work best where the need is a moral one, not a convenient one. Everyone needs to agree on the benefits of sharing.
Some of the most fertile ground for next-generation co-ops is online (where those coveted younger demographics live). Enter the “platform co-operative,” exemplified by Victoria-based Stocksy, a stock photography co-op offering fair prices and sustainable careers for contributing artists that Cabaj describes as “one of the best new models in the world.”
\n\n\n\n“There are also co-op alternatives to Uber and Airbnb in the works, because we know co-ops also work best where markets are being disrupted,” he adds. Other emerging and ripe-for-disruption markets include two that are timely and massive: renewable energy and health care.
\n\n\n\nThe more well-established food market, though, is “ready for a second phase,” according to Cabaj. He expects food co-ops in all their forms — from neighbourhood markets and community-supported agriculture (CSA), to restaurant supply and warehousing — will continue to play a significant role in nurturing sustainable food systems, though not their original groundbreaking one.
\n\n\n\n“In the past year or two, we’ve watched too many food co-ops — started a decade ago to open new markets for local farmers — close down,” he says. “Those needs have not only been fulfilled, but the rest of the food chain has adapted as well, even if only slightly. Whether it’s some local, organic protein and produce at Walmart or at a mainstream grocery store, in capturing the ‘softer’ part of the local-food market, they’ve undermined the core value of the fully dedicated local-food co-op.”
\n\n\n\nThe next generation of local-food co-ops have to be more resilient and responsive, and compete on service, not price.
As a result, Cabaj is recommending some future-proofing upgrades to all co-op start-ups. “To be responsive to their members, most new food co-ops still plan to keep their profit margins low and not keep cash reserves, which makes them susceptible to any upset in the market or shift in competition,” he says. “However, the next generation of local-food co-ops have to be more resilient and responsive, and compete on service, not price. Higher profits and cash reserves will help them ride out competition while they develop new services to retain and attract members.”
\n\n\n\nThis is exactly the type of advice Cabaj and his colleagues recently offered Vancouver’s East End Food Co-op, which sought help to solve a financial crisis. A fixture on Commercial Drive for over 40 years, the organization was facing a $100,000 operating shortfall this year, citing increased competition from the recently expanded Choices Market across the street for its declining revenues. Local co-op Vancity Credit Union (of which both Asparagus and I are members) has provided $50,000 in financial aid, leaving the Food Co-op to raise the balance.
\n\n\n\nThe situation has prompted its fair share of debate in the media and among the tightly knit local food community. Matt Johnstone — a restaurant professional currently working as administrative director of Sole Food Street Farms — is a long-time advocate of co-ops in the food sector. But he can’t muster much sympathy for the East End Food Co-op’s plight. “I hate to dump on an organization like that, but I’m going to. It’s been around over 40 years and, from what I know and have seen, it hasn’t changed much in all that time,” says Johnstone. “For all the great work they do, they’ve made a mistake by not embracing change and growth.”
\n\n\n\n“Food co-ops need to operate in the mainstream,” says Johnstone, “attracting mainstream consumers by offering many of the same products and services as other grocery stores, but differentiating themselves with their commitment to social and community values shared by every co-op.”
\n\n\n\nFood co-ops need to operate in the mainstream, but differentiate themselves with their commitment to social and community values.
As a keen follower of co-ops’ evolution, Johnstone has, like Cabaj, noted the passing of several food co-ops in recent years. “I think it’s clear now that consumer-owned co-ops could, or perhaps should, have a limited lifespan or shelf life,” he says. “Once they’ve fulfilled the need and growth attracts competition that nibbles away at their market — especially in food which is cut-throat competitive — maybe that’s time to close up, or better yet, convert to a different model.”
\n\n\n\nBC boasts a large and diverse local/sustainable food community, and has pioneered some novel and successful hybrid models. A viable option for the East End Food Co-op could be to adopt a multi-stakeholder model: an employee-owned co-op could manage the store, and a platform co-op could provide innovative, competitive services to consumer members. They could borrow a page from successful local platform retailer SPUD which, while not a co-op, shares many co-op values as a B Corp — while leveraging technology to attract and retain today’s time-squeezed customers.
\n\n\n\n“I do feel for the people at the East End Food Co-op in this very stressful time,” says Johnstone. “Their vision has been sustained, but it’s unfortunate that after 40 years of operation they need $100K just to stay afloat.”
\n\n\n\nThis episode hasn’t shaken Johnstone’s belief in the benefits of co-operative business practices, though. “If co-ops are ever to become a force in the local and global economy, they need to compete seamlessly in the marketplace,” he says. “There’s no reason why a food co-op can’t have the look and feel of an Urban Fare, Whole Foods, or other value-added stores. You can see great examples in Seattle (PCC, Central Co-Op) and other places in BC (Kootenay Co-op), doing a great job catering to the modern consumer’s sensibility.”
\n\n\n\nWhich brings us back to Jessica Carpinone and her neighbourhood artisan bakery in Ottawa. She clearly has the modern sensibility part sorted out. It’s safe to assume Carpinone didn’t write her Asparagus essay to solicit business advice, but I hope she’ll consider the co-operative model for Bread by Us. After all, there isn’t any better way (yet) to both promote and truly sustain the ‘us’ part of that formula.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1671,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[46,14,8,7,51,22,9],"tags":[457,458,60,363],"class_list":["post-1777","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-food","category-living","category-society","category-vancouver-area","category-voices","category-west-coast","tag-andre-lariviere","tag-co-ops","tag-opinion","tag-small-business"],"yoast_head":"\nCan a group of like-minded people build a prosperous life for themselves by making bread? Five years ago, my partner and I attempted to answer that question by opening a modest-sized bakery in Ottawa: Bread by Us. From day one, we’ve been dedicated to challenging the hierarchical and exploitative aspects of our industry, while also serving the community in our rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood. The bakery has been a fascinating social and financial microcosm, allowing me to test my ideals and see if they hold up to the pressures of the capitalist system we live in.
\n\n\n\nSince opening the shop, I’ve struggled to understand the conditions that enable the undervaluing of food workers. Early on, I thought blame lay squarely on employers, which meant I could resolve poverty at my own shop as long as I made it a priority. However, over the years, I’ve begun to understand the systemic devaluation of our work, and the complexity of rectifying it.
\n\n\n\nSo much of what plagues our industry stems from employer greed and neglect — sometimes out of malicious intent, other times from woeful ignorance. So many of my peers in the food business perpetuate a culture of exploitation and disrespect. They really are the ones accountable for the harm done to workers: from rampant sexual harassment and normalized aggressive behaviour, to unrealistic expectations, unfair scheduling practices, wage theft, and blatant disregard for labour law. However, pressure to keep wages low and conditions poor in our industry so often comes from the broader society.
\n\n\n\nGiven how much labour, training, dedication, and sacrifice it takes to produce nourishing food, I often wonder how people arrive at their assessment of what a particular product is worth. People seem to have an acute awareness of what a loaf of bread “should” cost; I suppose it’s rooted in the idea that bread is a staple and shouldn’t exceed a certain price. I respect that sentiment, but it’s difficult to accept when I look at the arbitrary ways people rank what foods and beverages are worth.
\n\n\n\nWe sell coffee at our store, and it always amazes me what “market value” is on a cup of coffee versus a loaf of bread. Imagine an $8 pint of beer in a restaurant and contrast that with a $6 loaf of bread. Both are made using similar ingredients, processes, and labour, but one nourishes us for half an hour, and the other for close to a week. Canadians spend less on food than most of the world (14% of our annual income, on average, according to Statistics Canada). Some serious soul-searching is warranted to find out who bears the brunt of this luxury.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-body.jpeg\")
Answer: food workers. For a sobering glimpse into the fate of so many, see the Toronto Star’s “Undercover in Temp Nation,” which describes sweatshop conditions in one of Canada’s largest bakeries. I want my team to live with basic comforts: a home that suits their needs, good quality food, access to medical, dental, and mental health resources, and maybe even a little left over for pleasure. How can I build this future for myself and my staff in a society that undervalues our labour? How can we continue to make the food we love to make, and serve and support our community, but also live a financially stable life?
\n\n\n\nEmployers managing to pay their employees the new minimum wage should resist patting ourselves on the back.
The recently mandated $15/hour minimum wage in Ontario is a good start, but it’s not nearly enough. Even with the existing legislation — which is under threat by the newly elected conservative government lead by Doug Ford — our team (including ownership) lives hovering around the poverty line. Poverty wages are even more punishing in cities with astronomical housing costs, like Toronto and Vancouver. Employers managing to pay their employees the new minimum wage should resist patting ourselves on the back.
\n\n\n\nWe make a type of bread that had been seriously threatened by industrialized bread-making, and we’ve shared that endangered knowledge with hundreds of people through workshops. My team and I are motivated by our love of bread and community, and hopefully in it for the long haul, so future generations can know what it feels and tastes like to consume a nourishing loaf of bread. To achieve the quality and consistency we do — and to train a full-time permanent staff to execute it day-to-day — is a massive undertaking. The people who make and serve our bread are masters of their craft. They’ve trained for months, sometimes years, and in many cases paid a lot of money to learn the craft. They are the best in the business, and they can’t break the poverty barrier.
\n\n\n\nThe choices that conscientious business owners have to make are unfair. To produce the best food I can using the most ethically sourced ingredients, and compensate my staff and myself adequately without placing my products out of range for the people that live around my shop, I have to prioritize a dizzying number of considerations. I’ve learned that, in order to run a business that produces high-quality food and respects the needs of workers and the community, shop owners and workers must absorb a personal financial sacrifice.
\n\n\n\nI am proud of the balance we’ve struck. Some people are baffled that we haven’t adopted a 100% organic, or local, or GMO-free approach. We use roughly 50% organic flour in our breads, and 100% organic in our pastries, and buy from a lot of local producers. We fall short of “perfection” because of a conscious decision to keep our food affordable. Even then, our prices are still out of reach for some, which is something we grapple with.
\n\n\n\n(One of the ways we try to give back to the neighbourhood is a pay-it-forward program modelled on the “suspended coffee” concept. Although we don’t keep a perfectly precise count, we’ve tallied over 4,000 pre-purchased items since opening. We receive contributions daily, and at least 20 to 30 people in the neighbourhood enjoy our products free of charge on a regular or semi-regular basis.)
\n\n\n\nA system built on crushing expectation and little compensation is at risk of not living up to its full potential (at best) and impending doom/falling apart (at worst).
The commodification and devaluation of food production adds a human cost that undermines our food system as a whole. Occupational injuries stemming from chronic strain are one example. The physicality of the work means that we all develop “wear and tear” injuries over the years. We experience unchecked mental and physical health issues because we lack access to health care available to people with more resources. One of the biggest issues facing bakers and cooks is that they succumb to their occupational strains so young. Even if they love the work, they can’t afford to wear themselves down forever without adequate compensation and time to recover.
\n\n\n\nHow are issues like chronic financial stress, unchecked physical and mental health issues, and a general sense of being undervalued affecting our food system? I would venture to guess that a system built on crushing expectation and little compensation is at risk of not living up to its full potential (at best) and impending doom/falling apart (at worst). (The CBC broadcast an in-depth discussion on why we need to radically change thinking about food production for the sake of our health and well-being, which I highly recommend: “The Hidden Power of Food: Finding Value in What we Eat.”)
\n\n\n\nThis struggle is far from monolithic. The stakes are high for all of us, but even higher for some.
Though it’s beyond the scope of this article, I would be remiss not to mention the ways struggle and poverty are compounded for so many people in our industry — by factors like gender, race, and immigration status. I’m painting a picture of general struggle, but I want to acknowledge that this struggle is far from monolithic. The stakes are high for all of us, but even higher for some.
\n\n\n\nHow can we begin to compensate service professionals and food-makers so they feel respected in their work, without jacking up the price of a staple like bread? How can we empower them to leave abusive workplaces? How can we ensure that those who make and serve our food do not burn out and “expire” before they should? How can we ensure that the most vulnerable in society are cared for and stand a chance?
\n\n\n\nIn the lead-up to Ontario’s recent provincial election, I heard serious conversations about a guaranteed basic income, and began to think about the ways that policy could begin to alleviate some of the challenges faced by food workers.
\n\n\n\nA guaranteed basic income seems to resolve at least a few problems in our industry:
\n\n\n\nBasic income is meant to be a complementary income, not a primary wage. I recognize the need for employers to continue to pay their fair share of wages, and not lean on basic income as an excuse to fill their pockets; minimum wage laws would need to remain strong and enforced. Basic income can be a tool to support workers and independent businesses, and should not be used to unfairly benefit the richest corporations. Given the basic income projects being discussed in Canada propose a funding model based on taxation of the wealthiest corporations, they stand to help those in most dire need while tackling the issue of income inequality.
\n\n\n\nWe already exist in a balance between capitalism and socialism — though the balance seems off, judging by the income disparity between the richest and the working poor.
In Canada, we already exist in a balance between capitalism and socialism — though the balance seems off, judging by the income disparity between the richest Canadians and the working poor. Before the now-threatened minimum wage legislation was put in place, one third of Ontarians were making less than $15/hour in their jobs. They were working to remain poor.
\n\n\n\nI am by no means satisfied with basic income as a cure for income disparity and inequity, but I do think it could help sustain traditionally low-wage workers across several industries. In the basic income pilots that have been done, results show that people are not disincentivized to work, and the administrative burden of running the system is much less than the various current systems of welfare and unemployment payments.
\n\n\n\nOur food system is at once enjoyed and needed by all, yet heavily strained and undervalued. I approached opening a business not just as a craftsperson who wanted to pursue my dream of baking bread for my community, but as someone who wholeheartedly opposed a system that relies heavily on an underclass of underpaid (and sometimes unpaid) workers. I spend a lot of time thinking about alternative workplace models, but some problems are too systemic for individuals to tackle alone.
\n\n\n\nOne of the greatest tools for personal emancipation is a financial safety net. Impoverished people can’t leave an abusive workplace, or assert their legal rights: labour law can usually only be exercised by people who have resources. Implementing a basic income could be a crucial first step in addressing the toxicity that permeates our industry. A workforce that has options is a workforce that can assert itself. A workforce that has resources is also a workforce that can contribute to society economically and socially.
\n\n\n\nIt’s time to advance the conversation about food beyond what we feel we’re entitled to as consumers, to the justice that should permeate the food system.
It has become commonplace for consumers to demand to know where their food came from, how it was raised or grown, and how it was prepared. I urge people to take another step, and think about the people who work tirelessly to put that food on the table; we are an important and often overlooked piece of the food-system puzzle. As much as you need our skills, we desperately need your support in the face of a system that restricts our economic mobility and prosperity.
\n\n\n\nIt’s time to advance the conversation about food beyond what we feel we’re entitled to as consumers, to the justice that should permeate all facets of the food system. Next time you think about where your food comes from, remember the ways you can support the economic struggle of food workers. Support businesses with fair labour practices and political parties dedicated to implementing a basic income. And reflect on the true cost of your food, rather than what you’re accustomed to paying.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1559,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[46,14,8,10,7,22],"tags":[278,60,363,61,279],"class_list":["post-697","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","category-voices","tag-jessica-carpinone","tag-opinion","tag-small-business","tag-social-justice","tag-universal-basic-income"],"yoast_head":"\nA stack of freshly baked loaves at the author’s Ottawa bakery, Bread by Us
\n"},"alt_text":"A stack of golden, oval-shaped, crusty sourdough bread dusted with flour at Bread by Us bakery.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1003,"file":"2022/10/bread-header.jpg","filesize":"306152","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"bread-header-300x201.jpg","width":300,"height":201,"filesize":"25607","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header-300x201.jpg"},"large":{"file":"bread-header-1024x685.jpg","width":1024,"height":685,"filesize":"220975","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header-1024x685.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"bread-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10190","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"bread-header-768x514.jpg","width":768,"height":514,"filesize":"137239","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header-768x514.jpg"},"full":{"file":"bread-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1003,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/bread-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1559"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":46,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/economy/","name":"Economy","slug":"economy","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nThe Arabic word tayybeh is the feminine construction of a term that means both “kind” and “delicious.” It is also the chosen name of a group of Syrian women who — outfitted with a punchy pink logo — have launched an impressively enterprising culinary collective. As refugees recently arrived in Vancouver, these women are sharing a cuisine that’s still relatively unknown to North Americans, introducing locals to food as diverse and ambitious as the women creating it.
\n\n\n\nOrganized by Nihal Elwan, a Cairo-born international development consultant, Tayybeh started in October 2016 with the help of a small grant from the Vancouver Foundation. Initially, Elwan planned to host a single dinner featuring the cooking of several newly arrived Syrian women. Despite having no budget for marketing, the dinner sold out quickly. Its overwhelming success spawned a monthly pop-up series hosted in churches and community centres around Metro Vancouver.
\n\n\n\nIn addition to Elwan, the core Tayybeh membership now includes: Hasne Shekh and Heba Najib, a mother and daughter from Aleppo; Raghda Hassan and Majida Hamdo from Latakia; and Maha Almaarabani from Damascus. Each of Tayybeh’s chefs brings her own region’s traditions to the table, so the repertoire the collective has to pull from is vast and colourful. As Elwan puts it, Tayybeh is a chance for the women to “run wild in the kitchen and flex their culinary muscles.”
\n\n\n\nEven if unfamiliar, Syrian cuisine is instantly comforting: a culinary canon refined over millennia that only continues to evolve.
The food of Syria is storied and diverse, influenced by its location along the Silk Road as well as centuries of conquest by various empires, including the Persians, Byzantines, and Ottomans. Regionally distinct, it has swapped culinary customs with many of its neighbours — most notably Lebanon, as demonstrated by the popularity of dishes like kibbeh and tabbouleh in both countries. Syrian food is tangy and bright, with contrasting smooth and crunchy textures, warm spices, cool yogurts, sour flavours, fresh herbs, and syrupy sweet desserts. Even if unfamiliar, it is instantly comforting: a culinary canon refined over millennia that only continues to evolve.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Tayybehbody.jpeg\")
The women of Tayybeh learned to cook from scratch from their mothers, mothers-in-law, and sisters, and they are very good at what they do. Dishes like their tart and zesty malfoof (a sumac-laden salad — recipe below) and shakriya (fork-tender slow-cooked beef in yogurt sauce) are perfection. Tayybeh’s food is also beautifully presented, garnished with finely curled lemon peel or tomato roses, patterns of chopped fresh parsley, and handfuls of glittering pomegranate seeds.
\n\n\n\nIn the past six months, the collective has expanded beyond their sell-out monthly dinners into catering, and at a pop-up dinner in March surveyed diners about which Tayybeh products they might purchase from a grocery store. This, despite the fact that the core members (excepting Elwan) have been in Vancouver for only two years or less, and are still learning English.
\n\n\n\nTheir culinary ambition is notable, not least because it’s as new as the venture. Elwan says the women of Tayybeh didn’t think of their cooking skills as marketable before that first dinner. They weren’t chefs; they were mothers, daughters, and sisters cooking for their families. Tayybeh was the first opportunity any of them had to cook outside the home and earn money for it.
\n\n\n\nTheir families have embraced this update of traditional gender roles. At a recent Tayybeh dinner, Elwan asked the crowd, “You know the phrase: ‘Behind every great man is a great woman’? Well, behind every one of these great women is a great man.”
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Tayybeh-Heba-Najib.jpg\")
Tayybeh’s English-speaking team members make sure to draw attention to the individual strengths of their chefs. At the end of the recent Senses and Serenity dinner — Tayybeh’s largest and most elaborate pop-up to-date — Elwan introduced each woman to the guests. She began by bringing Hasne Shekh, their matriarch, to the front.
\n\n\n\nAlso known as Om Omar (“Mother of Omar”), Shekh is small and shy, the group’s resident kibbeh expert from Aleppo. “Tender, loving, and sensitive,” Elwan said, “she possesses the unique ability to make us cry and laugh at the same time.” She was joined at the podium, as she is in the kitchen, by daughter Heba Najib — one of three of Shekh’s adult children here in Canada (the other four remain in Syria or Turkey). Recently married, Najib is considering scaling back her role with the collective.
\n\n\n\nNext up was Raghda Hassan from the coastal city of Latakia. In Vancouver for only the last year and a half, she’s known as the “Queen of Diplomacy.” She loves cooking Latakian mloukheya, a dish made from the dried leaves of tossa jute, which, when boiled, produce a texture similar to okra. “Thank you so much,” she said in Arabic, translated by Elwan. “We hope to be better and better every time with you supporting us.”
\n\n\n\nAfter Hassan came Maha Almaarabani, tall with dimples and a mischievous smile. She left Damascus for Egypt when the war started, and came to Canada four years later. Elwan described her “wicked sense of humour” and told guests Almaarabani is “impeccably organized. Nobody messes around with her in the kitchen.” Almaarabani specializes in harra’ esbaou, a winter lentil dish. The name translates to “burned finger” because, the story goes, peasants were so eager to eat it, they wouldn’t let it cool down before digging in.
\n\n\n\nLast came the youngest and newest member of the group — Majida Hamdo — affectionately referred to as “The Diva” for her beauty. Also from Latakia, she is “intuitive, feisty, and takes on some of the most complicated tasks in the kitchen,” according to Elwan. Out of five siblings, she is the only one who came here with her parents. Despite having been in Vancouver for less than two years, Elwan says she “hit the ground running.”
\n\n\n\nHamdo is responsible for Tayybeh’s famous “beehives”: beautiful trays of pull-apart buns filled with fresh white cheese and topped with black sesame seeds. She also thanked the guests: “Every time you come and see us we become happier and happier.”
\n\n\n\nAt the end of the Senses and Serenity dinner, a short film was screened, following a group of Syrian refugee kids looking for a public pool in their new hometown. The film ended with the revelation that the brother of two of the kids — himself still in Syria — had been shot, and may have died.
\n\n\n\nElwan reminded the audience that this is a daily reality for the Tayybeh chefs and their families. Three of the women are mothers, and collectively the five Syrians have plenty of grown children, siblings, relatives, and friends back home whose wellbeing is a constant cause for concern. These women know a type of hardship unfathomable to most of their guests.
\n\n\n\nThey also know how to cook. Despite the stress of starting anew while still emotionally connected to war, their resilience has allowed them to thrive through their work. These women are ambitious. These women are kind. And the food they make is delicious.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Tayybeh-Malfoof-Salad.jpg\")
(Vegan, gluten-free)
\n\n\n\nThis salad is citrusy, tangy, and fresh, and works well as a complement to roasted meats or other rich mains.
\n\n\n\nMix all the ingredients together in a large bowl, and let rest for about 10 minutes. Taste, and season further with more mint, oil, lemon juice, sumac, and/or salt, as needed.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1052,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,49,8,7,51,9],"tags":[264,107,101],"class_list":["post-565","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-human-rights","category-living","category-society","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-lindsay-anderson","tag-vancouver","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nA jarjeer salad of watercress, cheese, onion and pomegranate, served at Tayybeh’s Senses and Serenity pop-up dinner.
\n"},"alt_text":"Jarjeer salad—made with watercress topped with onion, cubes of cheese, and pomegranate.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1000,"height":425,"file":"2022/09/tayybeh-header.jpg","filesize":"213213","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"tayybeh-header-300x128.jpg","width":300,"height":128,"filesize":"12529","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tayybeh-header-300x128.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"tayybeh-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"7706","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tayybeh-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"tayybeh-header-768x326.jpg","width":768,"height":326,"filesize":"48314","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tayybeh-header-768x326.jpg"},"full":{"file":"tayybeh-header.jpg","width":1000,"height":425,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tayybeh-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/tayybeh-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1052"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nI was particularly pleased with myself a few months ago, when an idea for an Asparagus department popped into my head: Know Logo would be a regular examination of the meanings of individual ecolabels and their reliability, making supermarket trips easier for green-minded shoppers, one logo at a time. The idea still brings a smile to my face (not least because the name is both a pun and a Naomi Klein reference), but a couple of recent articles made me question the validity of the entire exercise.
\n\n\n\nThe first was Raina Delisle’s “The Ecolabel Fable” for Hakai Magazine, examining problems specifically with the Ocean Wise sustainable seafood program, and also delving into issues affecting other sustainable seafood certification schemes. The second was Richard Conniff’s “Greenwashed Timber: How Sustainable Forest Certification Has Failed,” a deep dive into criticisms of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and its certification program.
\n\n\n\nAs someone who has put stock in both the Ocean Wise and FSC labels, these articles were sobering. While the issues affecting the two programs aren’t identical, there are certainly areas of overlap:
\n\n\n\nBoth articles are exhaustively researched and well written, so I’m not going to summarize and rehash them here; I hope you’ll find a few minutes to read them yourself. I will share one of Delisle’s paragraphs with you, though, as I had similar feelings after reading her piece and Conniff’s:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nOver the months of investigating the real meaning behind ecolabels, I’ve lost faith in them. I appreciate how all those eye-catching fish stamps have created a huge amount of awareness about sustainable seafood, which we need now more than ever as climate change, pollution, and overfishing threaten our oceans and our bouillabaisse. Ecolabels have helped engage consumers in sustainable seafood by giving us the opportunity to vote with our wallets. The irony is that in doing so, they have branded and commodified sustainability, creating competition in the ecolabel market and driving down standards as programs seek to capture more market share.
\n
So what do we do if we can’t rely on ecolabels? If all my hypothetical Know Logo columns can be summarized as “you can’t judge a book by its FSC-certified cover”? Both Delisle and Conniff write about government regulations, and how ultimately the impacts companies are allowed to have on our environment need to be determined by them, rather than by voluntary, market-driven labelling schemes. In the age of Trump and Pruitt’s toothless EPA — and, for that matter, greenwasher-in-chief Trudeau’s administration — it’s important for the eco-minded to keep pressuring governments to take the lead in protecting our planet; time and again industry shows itself incapable of self-policing in the public interest.
\n\n\n\nAnd while this strategy won’t help for products that have lengthy supply chains like timber, at least in the case of seafood, buying from local, small-scale producers can be a way of personally checking that a source is meeting the recommendations of programs like Ocean Wise, without relying on a logo to do the work for you. Or, like Delisle, maybe more of us should look into catching our own.
\n\n\n\nDo the issues raised by these two articles mean that sustainability certification programs are utterly useless? I don’t think so. For one thing, the sustainability standards that they have defined (at least in the case of standards created through collaboration among multiple stakeholders, and not by industry alone), can help consumers and governments understand what sustainability should look like within a given industry. In the case of Ocean Wise, for instance, I might not put much stock in seeing their logo on a menu after reading Delisle’s article, but the information available on their website or app can still help me make decisions about what local seafood to buy or avoid.
\n\n\n\nFor another, the failures of these programs, such as they are, really do drive home the point that voluntary certification programs alone can’t be relied upon to guide industry toward sustainability. I don’t think it was a mistake for activists, scientists, and businesses to work together and attempt to solve problems through eco-certification schemes. But I do think it’s time to stop believing they provide anywhere near sufficient protection for precious natural resources like our forests and oceans. It will take more than ecolabels to turn industry’s ship around.
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1425,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,6,38,22],"tags":[117,71,116,383,103,60],"class_list":["post-1515","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-plants-animals","category-voices","tag-certification","tag-climate-crisis","tag-forests","tag-jessie-johnston","tag-oceans","tag-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nIn 2010, the United Nations issued a report advocating worldwide veganism as a solution to climate change. A succinct way of putting it might go something like: “Everyone should go vegan because consuming animals is KILLING OUR PLANET.” Instead, they put out this wordy statement:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nImpacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products.
\n
When I first read this in the news, I was like, “DUH! I’ve known this forever.” I’d learned the environmental impacts of meat-eating from a mixtape my best friend made me in 1995, of songs she recorded off the University of Calgary radio station. My vegetarian awakening came in the form of a punk rock rap song by a band called MDC, alias “Millions of Dead Cops.”
\n\n\n\nOn weekends in the mid-90s, I’d take the C-train downtown to the Carpenters Union Hall and listen to local punk, indie, and screamo bands taking on “the man” in song. It’s where I saw a band who played a video of a cow being slaughtered, which got me thinking more seriously about vegetarianism.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebBody.jpg\")
I was already an animal rights activist. I bought all my clear mascara, fuzzy peach perfume, and silver eyeliner from The Body Shop. I was so obsessed with recycling that my classmates nicknamed me “The Environmentalist from Hell.” My best friend and boyfriend were dabbling with veganism, so it felt like time for me to get on board the vegetarian train.
\n\n\n\nThen I heard MDC’s “Real Food, Real People, Real Bullets,” and the truth about meat got real for me. Finally the arguments were delivered in a way my teenage mind could consume: in catchy rhymes with a heavy bassline.
\n\n\n\nWhile walking the halls of my suburban high school, walkman clipped on my thrifted camouflage cargo pants, I heard:
\n\n\n\nYou’re ruining the world with your addiction
To dead animals,
I will bust non-fiction:
For example, 25 gallons of H20
Makes a pound of wheat. But did you know,
It takes a hundred times that much to make a pound of beef?
So from our water shortage, we get no relief.
When over half of our water goes to produce meat…
A light bulb appeared above my head — DING! Meat production is hella wasteful. If I cared about the environment enough to hoard paper in my desk for a week because my classroom didn’t have a recycling bin, then I should step up and live a lifestyle aligned with my ethics.
\n\n\n\nThe simple language of MDC’s rap perfectly summarizes the water conservation argument for eating veg. I’ve read countless articles since then explaining ecosystems and meat production, and when I do, MDC’s line “over half of our water goes to produce meat,” always rings in my head. The stats might have shifted over time, but the message is the same: factory farming meat is a waste of one of our most precious resources. Want to skool yourself with science? This New Republic article is a good place to start.
\n\n\n\nIf I cared about the environment enough to hoard paper in my desk because my classroom didn’t have a recycling bin, I should step up and live a lifestyle aligned with my ethics.
Back in my teenage bedroom — which I wanted to paint black but couldn’t because my parents cared about the house’s resale value — I put the mixtape on and heard:
\n\n\n\nAnd cattle eat up all the grain that we could eat.
But we don’t, cuz we won’t understand the demand
To make better use of our food and our land.
90% of our corn and oats feed livestock…
My Manic-Panic-orange hair nearly stood on end from shock — 90%?!!!! Aren’t people starving on this planet? If human beings could get over their selfishness and learn how to share, everyone could eat. I know what you’re thinking and yes, I was and am a socialist.
\n\n\n\nPolitics aside, I understand that people still want to eat meat. Being a vegan is hard. I know, I could only do it for a year. And that was a year in the 90s, in redneck-ish, rodeo-lovin’, beef-eatin’ Calgary. (That’s as hard as five years in this vegan-friendly decade.) Since then, I’ve cut back on my dairy consumption and you can too. Another step in the right direction is to give up eating cow flesh. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Beef requires 28 times more land, six times more fertilizer and 11 times more water compared to those other food sources. That adds up to about five times more greenhouse gas emissions.”
\n\n\n\nWhen I was listening to that mixtape, I was a teenager. I was personally young and healthy. But my aunt was diagnosed with breast cancer around that time, and my grandfather had a heart attack before I was born. Cases of cancer and heart disease were rising in North America. To a teenager concerned about her future health, MDC — whose aliases also included Millions of Dead Children and Mega Death Corporation — threw down some ill communication about meat consumption:
\n\n\n\nCancer’s not the only choice if you please,
You can have liver, kidney, and heart disease.
Ulcers, constipation, salmonellosis,
Hypoglycemia, multiple sclerosis.
Yes, these diseases are funky and fresh,
And all can be yours when you eat dead flesh.
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’,
Tumours in your colon.
Blood pressure is growin’, RAW HIDE!
And just think of all the homies who’ve died.
WORD! All these diseases can be painful AF, but you can reduce your risk of them by eating more plant proteins. A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey concluded that:
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPeople under 65 who eat a lot of meat, eggs and dairy are four times as likely to die from cancer or diabetes… The overall harmful effects seen in the study were almost completely wiped out when the protein came from plant sources, such as beans and legumes.
\n
One of the easiest arguments for teenage me to get behind was around animal rights. Of course, MDC, covered that angle too.
\n\n\n\nAnd I didn’t even mention yet about the pain
That the animals live in,
Before they are given
The bullet or the mallet
To satisfy your palate.
They didn’t have to get into the nitty gritty details of animal cruelty. The facts have been known for a while. Part of the problem of factory farming is that our connection to the slaughter of animals for meat is so far removed. It’s gory, and people don’t like talking about debeaking chickens so they won’t peck each other to death in their tiny cages, but it’s all I can think of when I see someone by cramming chicken nuggets into their mouth.
\n\n\n\nThere’s one argument I think MDC left out of their rap: the horrible conditions for human beings working in slaughterhouses. If you’ll indulge me, here’s my attempt to update “Real Food, Real People…”:
\n\n\n\nInside the slaughterhouses where they prep your meat
It ain’t no treat.
Workers stand on their feet
For 12 hours a day, making minimum pay,
Breathing harmful gases, risking their asses,
Slicing the meat, for you to eat.
Migrant workers in dangerous conditions,
And F-no they can’t afford to go and see physicians.
After listening to this song ad nauseam, I jumped on the vegetarian chuckwagon and have never looked back. MDC’s message was simple, clear, political and comedic, with a catchy tune that has been stuck in my head forever.
\n\n\n\nIt’s been more than 30 years since “Real Food, Real People, Real Bullets” was released. The message got to me 20 years ago. What took the UN so long to catch up?
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":849,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[13,27,14,8,10,7,22],"tags":[91,90,88,60,251,89],"class_list":["post-476","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-art-design","category-environmentalist-from-hell","category-food","category-living","category-magazine","category-society","category-voices","tag-humour","tag-memoir","tag-music","tag-opinion","tag-sara-bynoe","tag-vegetarian"],"yoast_head":"\nThe punk band MDC, two decades after converting the author to vegetarianism via mixtape.
\n"},"alt_text":"A 4-member punk band wearing dark clothes perform on a stage lit by three orange spotlights. A big speaker hangs from above.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader.jpg","filesize":"273132","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"13789","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"106217","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"6911","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"63810","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/How-a-Punk-Rap-Turned-me-Veg_WebHeader.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=849"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":13,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/society/art-design/","name":"Art & Design","slug":"art-design","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nCindy Quinonez grew up in a family that loved fishing, everywhere from the Sierra Nevada to Baja California. She occasionally tagged along, but didn’t fish: “I was more into books,” she remembers.
\n\n\n\nAs an adult who wears many hats — mother, grandmother, food services manager at Paradise Valley Hospital near San Diego — Quinonez has been drawn back into the world of fish by an awareness that today’s children are increasingly disconnected from their food. “Kids don’t connect with food or know where it comes from,” she says. “Look at the number of kids who are diabetic, pre-diabetic, or obese. Prevention is so much better than dealing with the ravages of disease.” Prevention, she thinks, should start with local, sustainable food. With her fishing roots, she’s particularly partial to seafood.
\n\n\n\nWhile the movement to eat more local meat and produce gathers steam throughout North America, more than 80% of seafood consumed in the U.S. is still imported. A study found that even in coastal San Diego — once known as the “tuna capital of the world” — only 8% of 86 seafood markets carried one or more local seafood products throughout an average year. Moreover, Theresa Sinicrope Talley, the study’s lead author, said over email that these markets tended to be small. She found several possible explanations for the limited supply, including low public awareness of local fisheries, the mismatch between seafood species San Diegans prefer and the species caught in San Diego, and limited waterfront infrastructure needed to process and distribute local seafood.
\n\n\n\nSan Diego hospitals, nonprofits, schools and other organizations have banded together to increase awareness of, and demand for, local seafood. In their work to support policies that ensure sufficient infrastructure for local seafood, one name comes up repeatedly: “Cindy’s at the eye of the storm,” says Elly Brown, director of the San Diego Food System Alliance.
\n\n\n\nIn April 2017, the Alliance convened a panel of stakeholders involved in discussions about Seaport, a $1.2 billion waterfront development project. Local fishers are concerned that the project could reduce the infrastructure they need to provide seafood locally.
\n\n\n\nQuinonez, co-chair of the Alliance’s sustainable seafood working group, managed event logistics and organized a demo of two tuna pâtés, made from locally sourced and non-local canned tunas, respectively. “People could taste the difference. It’s night and day,” she says.
\n\n\n\nIn addition to advancing dialogue, the event expanded the community invested in the conversation about Seaport. “If it’s only fishermen involved, the developer will get its way. If people in the community support the fishermen, the fishermen can win,” says Quinonez’ working-group co-chair Pete Halmay, who has fished the waters off San Diego for 44 years.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Cindy-Q.jpg\")
Beyond representing the health-care perspective at meetings about Seaport, Quinonez’ efforts on behalf of San Diego fishers include regularly creating recipes using local seafood. She provides free samples of her creations at monthly Seafood Saturdays events, held by Slow Food Urban San Diego at the open-air Tuna Harbor Dockside Market. Those who’ve tried her recipes — including almond-flax-seared ono and sweet-and-sour rockfish — say they’re healthy and delicious.
\n\n\n\n“You don’t have to buy salmon from Alaska. At the last Seafood Saturday, Cindy made mackerel,” says Halmay. “She’s the catalyzer. You have to lead people into trying different things.”
\n\n\n\nLike many people who care deeply about the environment, but don’t have ‘sustainability’ in their job titles, Quinonez says that while some of her work is “on the clock,” much of it is done in her personal time (see also, Dr. Seema Gandhi in the first story in this series). Quinonez volunteers for events like Seafood Saturdays in part because of evidence that events like this can drive sustainable food purchases.
\n\n\n\nFor instance, at last September’s Good Food Showcase, a few dozen local farmers and fishers showcased their products to 200 food services professionals. Collectively, attendees spent $120,000 on sustainable food after the event, according to Prem Durairaj, director of food systems and research at event host Community Health Improvement Partners, a San Diego public health organization.
\n\n\n\nBut Quinonez says she’s also motivated by relationships. “Getting to know them, understanding their struggles and talking about how we can help each other has been one of the best parts of this work,” she says of the fishers. “We’re best friends now.”
\n\n\n\nI didn’t have a huge commitment to sustainability until I got to San Diego. Cindy was the main driver.
She also raves about other hospital food-service leaders who support local seafood, and they reciprocate. Chris McCracken, director of nutrition services at University of California San Diego Health, credits Cindy with igniting his interest in sustainable seafood. “I didn’t have a huge commitment to sustainability until I got to San Diego. Cindy was the main driver. She was passionate about this,” he says.
\n\n\n\nMcCracken and Quinonez say that serving local seafood to patients at hospitals is hard to do at scale, given strict regulations, but changing cafeteria food for employees and patients’ families is lower hanging fruit. “We made fish tacos at our cafeterias, but we used local rockfish instead of tilapia. It was great-tasting and people didn’t even realize it was a different fish,” says McCracken.
\n\n\n\nWhether through serving local seafood in the cafeteria, or advocating for sustainable food policies, Quinonez believes health-care organizations have a unique opportunity to improve the health of both the environment and their communities. “We’re part of organizations that are here to improve health in our communities,” says Quinonez. “You can’t get to health and wellness for the community with a broken food system.”
\n\n\n\nPreviously in the series “A Greener Bill of Health”: “UCSF’s Dr Seema Gandhi Tackles Sleeper Pollutants in the Operating Room” and “Dignity Health’s Environmental Evangelist”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1673,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[44,14,48,8,9],"tags":[452,450,405,406],"class_list":["post-1534","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-food","category-health","category-living","category-west-coast","tag-fish","tag-health-care","tag-san-diego","tag-sarah-kwon"],"yoast_head":"\nLocally caught bigeye tuna on ice at San Diego’s Tuna Harbor Dockside Market.
\n"},"alt_text":"A pile of several fish with shiny blue skin and yellow fins resting on ice inside a wooden crate.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":960,"height":606,"file":"2022/11/sdcaughtcover.jpg","filesize":"301400","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"sdcaughtcover-300x189.jpg","width":300,"height":189,"filesize":"22553","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sdcaughtcover-300x189.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"sdcaughtcover-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"10325","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sdcaughtcover-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"sdcaughtcover-768x485.jpg","width":768,"height":485,"filesize":"107852","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sdcaughtcover-768x485.jpg"},"full":{"file":"sdcaughtcover.jpg","width":960,"height":606,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sdcaughtcover.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/sdcaughtcover.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1673"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":44,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/west-coast/california/","name":"California","slug":"california","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\nEach year, metro Vancouver residents throw out enough garbage to fill the local football stadium almost twice; that’s nearly 700,000 metric tonnes packed into landfills annually. The region has launched initiatives to reduce this figure, but fundamental problems still need to be addressed, including the way we shop for food. This is where Brianne Miller and Alison Carr come in: as grocers, they’re working to reconcile their industry’s past, present, and future in a bid to bring about serious waste reduction.
\n\n\n\nMiller and Carr are the co-owners of Nada, a zero-waste grocery store set to open this spring in Vancouver. Their business began in 2015 as Zero Waste Market, a pop-up shop first held regularly at the local Patagonia store. Since December, they’ve been hosting pop-ups in the brick and mortar location on East Broadway that will be Nada’s permanent home once renovations are complete (they received their building permits at the beginning of February). With their new space, they feel they are “definitely participating in a worldwide movement of grocery stores,” says Carr, with local examples like The Soap Dispensary to draw on for inspiration. (Models further afield include Germany’s Original Unverpackt, France’s Day By Day chain, Ottawa’s NU Grocery, and Denver’s Zero Market.)
\n\n\n\nNada’s format will be unique to Vancouver in many ways, though. For both their pop-ups and store, Miller and Carr’s concept is simple: instead of buying food off the shelf in single-use packages, customers bring in their own bags and containers (or purchase reusable carriers from brands like Onyx on site). Shoppers’ containers are weighed before being filled from larger bulk bins. That weight is then deducted from the overall cost, and customers walk away with as much or as little of the product as they need. This reduces both food waste and the amount of packaging headed to the landfill.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Brianne-Miller-Alison-Carr.jpg\")
Waste-reduction has not historically been the focus of grocery industry innovation. For the most part, companies have sought to increase efficiency and find alternative ways of shopping, like online ordering and home delivery. There is movement toward reducing food waste within stores, a problem connected to overstocked product displays, expiration dates, and the expectation of perfect-looking fruit and vegetables. Considering that $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada alone — around 40% of the food produced annually in the country — there is still a long way to go.
\n\n\n\nWith Nada, Miller and Carr are looking to address these issues by building a new kind of system, and be an example of what Carr says a “grocery store practicing better business practices can look like.” That requires some innovative thinking, and the past is a good place to start. In reimagining the future of grocery shopping, they’re drawing on both twentieth and twenty-first century models for inspiration.
\n\n\n\nWhile the way we buy food has evolved over the decades, the most impactful shift took place early in the twentieth century. Before 1915, shopping fit the butcher-baker-candlestick-maker mold, with people visiting different stores for different products. Most shops were operated by clerks standing behind a counter, serving customers one at a time. At dry goods shops, clerks portioned out food into reusable containers from bulk bins, giving customers the amount they requested. It wasn’t efficient, though, and lines could get long.
\n\n\n\nIn 1916, the opening of Memphis, Tennessee’s Piggly Wiggly store signalled change. Rather than having a large number of clerks portioning out products, the store instead asked customers to pick up baskets, wander through aisles, and personally select the food they wanted off shelves. While this both increased efficiency and shoppers’ sense of autonomy, it also required that food be sold in individually packaged containers of standardized portions.
\n\n\n\nWhile Piggly Wiggly ushered in the era of self-service, it wasn’t until the 1950s that the concept of the modern supermarket became fully entrenched. Stores were bright, product displays were elaborate, and packaging became a powerful way to advertise products. Cellophane became popular for its ability to protect food while allowing shoppers to see what they were buying. Conveniently packaged food had truly arrived.
\n\n\n\nIn creating Nada, Miller and Carr don’t wish to return to the pre-Piggly-Wiggly past, but they do want to create a system that takes the best of both older and modern grocery styles.
\n\n\n\nFirst, Carr says, they’re “trying to utilize tech, especially in [a] city where it’s so prominent,” and develop new tools that create an efficient but waste-conscious store. The self-service model will persist, but it won’t consist of reaching for a package from the shelf. Nada will have custom-designed scales that allow customers to weigh their own containers before filling them. This will go for all types of groceries, not just the ones traditionally found in a bulk aisle. Nada is “looking [to create] a system where it makes refilling easier, quicker, more efficient, and more streamlined,” says Carr.
\n\n\n\nNada will also have a snack bar, and with it Carr says they hope to “close the loop… [by] offering smoothies and snacks that use imperfect ingredients from the store.”
\n\n\n\nWith the exception of a meat department — the logistics of which still need to be sorted out — Nada will carry the same products a traditional grocery store would, setting it apart from the majority of zero-waste stores already in existence. This include items package-free shops tend to avoid due to shorter expiration periods, like fresh hummus and pasta sauce. Across the store, products will be mindfully sourced, with everything from organic and fair-trade standards, to local production and labour ethics in mind. They’ll arrive in bulk from suppliers, with an emphasis on reusable packaging at every point in the chain.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-PopUp-L09-1024x682.jpg\")
Miller and Carr are innovating in another realm as well: they hope to cultivate a sense of community surrounding Nada, not a common supermarket goal. They plan to host film screenings and workshops, with topics like reducing kitchen waste and using food scraps in cooking. Miller and Carr’s community-based philosophy has served them well so far: their crowdfunding campaign to cover startup costs raised $55,555, more than twice their initial goal.
\n\n\n\nNada’s owners are aware that the waste-conscious lifestyle can be cost-prohibitive. Prominent zero-waste blogger Béa Johnson, for example, is a white, upper-class woman living in a sleek California home. Her lifestyle, and the time she dedicates to her zero-waste habits, are out of reach for most people. Miller and Carr want to lower the barriers to zero-waste living. Says Carr, “We’re really trying to keep this movement in our city as accessible and inviting as possible.”
\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1047,"template":"","meta":[],"categories":[14,8,6,39,51,9],"tags":[264,93],"class_list":["post-564","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","category-living","category-planet","category-plastic-pollution","category-vancouver-area","category-west-coast","tag-lindsay-anderson","tag-zero-waste"],"yoast_head":"\nVaried containers of dry goods await zero-waste shoppers at a pop-up prior to the opening of their brick-and-mortar store.
\n"},"alt_text":"Two rows of glass jars containing dried fruit, nuts, chocolate, and grains on a red checkered tablecloth.","media_type":"image","mime_type":"image/jpeg","media_details":{"width":1500,"height":1000,"file":"2022/09/Nada-header.jpg","filesize":"371892","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Nada-header-300x200.jpg","width":300,"height":200,"filesize":"19868","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header-300x200.jpg"},"large":{"file":"Nada-header-1024x683.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"filesize":"150585","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header-1024x683.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Nada-header-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"filesize":"8498","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"Nada-header-768x512.jpg","width":768,"height":512,"filesize":"94538","mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header-768x512.jpg"},"full":{"file":"Nada-header.jpg","width":1500,"height":1000,"mime_type":"image/jpeg","source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"0"}},"source_url":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Nada-header.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media/1047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/media"}],"about":[{"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/types/attachment"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/users/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/wp-json/wp/v2/comments?post=1047"}]}}],"wp:term":[[{"id":14,"link":"https://files.asparagusmagazine.com/category/living/food/","name":"Food","slug":"food","taxonomy":"category","yoast_head":"\n