Green Paige

When my husband and I sat down and looked at how we could make our lives healthier and more sustainable, we realized that the most important change we could make and the biggest challenge for us would be to transform our relationship with food. 

We wanted to eat more sustainably for many reasons – health, the environment, our budget and education.  We wanted to teach our daughter about the connection between what we eat and the Earth.  Truthfully, we needed a refresher course ourselves. To accomplish these goals we created a plan, a sustainable eating plan. 

Our Sustainable Eating Plan

1. Eat Locally  - For us this means shopping at farmer’s markets, being members of a CSA (community supported agriculture) and a local food buying co-op.  Although we haven’t taken the 100 Mile Diet challenge, we try to eat foods grown or raised within a 100-mile radius. 

2. Grow Our Own - With very little space available to plant a garden, we created mini organic gardens throughout our front yard as highlighted in the book “Food Not Lawns” by Heather Coburn Flores.  Neither my husband nor I could ever be considered green-thumb gardeners but each year our gardens yield more tomatoes and pumpkins which in turn saves us money, improves our health and helps us teach our daughter about the food cycle.

3. Eat Organic - Our first priority is to eat both locally and organically.  If we can’t do that, we choose foods from our local region. Using fossil fuels to ship foods cross-country contributes to pollution, global warming and other damaging environmental conditions. 

4. Apply the 3/4 Rule - We try to limit our meat consumption to 3 days a week and have vegetarian meals the other 4 days.  When we do eat meat, our goal is to eat free-range, organically-fed meat with no hormones or antibiotics.

5. Be Involved - In order to teach our daughter and re-educate ourselves about where our food comes from, we visit local farms and talk to the people who grow and raise the food we eat.  We also attend classes from time to time at local garden centers.  Topics have ranged from the 100-Mile Diet  to the joys of composting. 

6. Plan Ahead - We have found that the best way to get our daughter interested in what she eats is to plan meals as a family.  Plenty of child-friendly cookbooks are available at the public library including our favorite “Pretend Soup and Other Real Recipes” by Molly Katzen. 

7. Get Cooking - Before we created our sustainable eating plan, my husband decided to perform a little experiment.  For one month, he recorded in a notebook how often we ate out versus how often we cooked and ate at home.  At the end of the month, we were shocked to find that we ate out twice as much as we cooked.  Now, we cook more and have fun doing it. 

8. Slow Down - Even though our mornings are rushed and lunch might be eaten on the run, we try to make sure that dinner is a relaxing and enjoyable experience.  We have found that not only do we enjoy spending time together but our food tastes better too. 

9. Have Fun  - We try to make shopping for food a fun experience for our daughter by walking or biking to the farmer’s market.  We encourage her to plan family picnics at the park or lunch play dates in our back yard where she is in charge of the menu.

10. Beware of Faux Food - Our mantra is Processed Food is Processed Food whether it is labeled organic or not.  Our goal is to eat whole, real foods as much as possible.  If we don’t recognize the ingredients on the label, we don’t buy it.