What's For Dinner?

No, this isn't going to be one of my foodie rants!

Last night we went to a panel discussion at Winthrop that had to do with the environmental impact of our food choices. Boy is it complex. There are so many levels to study: the farms themselves, their growing philosophies, transportation of food products, refrigeration of food, etc.. (((I will sneak in the fact that on every chart the guest speaker showed, vegetarian and vegan diets are by far better for the environment. In the pie chart breaking down the carbon footprint of food production, meat, dairy and eggs have a carbon footprint over 50% greater than all other aspects of food production put together. And just in case you think otherwise, the speaker is in no way a vegetarian activist; he is a researcher from Iowa, farm country.)))

Although there's is a big push for eating locally grown food and generally this is accepted as the preferred choice, it's not that easy. If potatoes are brought from Idaho to RH by train the carbon footprint is much smaller than if potatoes are driven from Raleigh to RH by truck. The many graphs shown throughout the evening clearly indicate that our food industry needs much more study and much revamping. The one issue that can clearly be put to rest is organics: at every level organic foods are better for the environment.

I am encouraged by the whole thing. I'm happy to see this topic on Winthrop's list of important issues. I'm happy to learn that Winthrop's food service has changed so many of their methods to be more green (example: they compost all leftover food stuffs to be used at Winthrop Farm!) And I'm happy that Earth Fare is a presence in our town.