Some resources to help you
maintain a sustainable table and eat responsibly!
Check out my attempt in sustainable eating through these recipes and posts! Also look at Slow Food and Sustainable Table for a ton of responsible eating tips.
Go S.O.L.E (Seasonal, Organic, Local and
Ethical)!
Eat
fruits and veggies that are in season. Not only are they cheap, available in abundance and fresh. Eating
seasonally eliminates the emissions created from growing and transporting
off-season produce. It’s also an opportunity to explore new recipes. In recent
months, I’ve discovered and experimented with fresh artichokes and kale, which
I never cooked in Australia. Laughing Lemon (a cooking school in Zurich) and WEACT (an initiative from ETH
Zurich to encourage sustainable living) provides information of produce by
seasonality. Laughing Lemon also offers classes in seasonal cooking and wine
matching. BBC Food offers lots
of good seasonal recipes.
Choose
produce that are organic and sustainably grown where possible. Pretty common sense. Chemical pesticide
laden lettuce is not exactly what you want in your Caesar salad.
Source
your food locally. Support
your local farmers by visiting farmers markets. If you live abroad like me, use
the opportunity to practice your newly adopted language! In Europe,
produce-origin labelling has become a standard, which helps out the responsible
shoppers. For origins information of seafood products check out Fish Online and Australian Sustainable Seafood Guide
(download the iPhoneApp for handy supermarket reference).
Go
vego once a week. Reduce
your food emission by 70% by going vegetarian, at least once a week. MeatlessMondays are a great idea to start off on the vegetarian plan. Check out the
vegetarian recipes here. A favourite of vegetarian recipe resource of mine is Green Kitchen Stories (foodporn
pics warning!).
Use
sustainable cooking methods. Brighter Planet offers several good
sustainable cooking tips. Reduce the energy consumption during cooking by
considering things like:
- defrosting food in the fridge instead of microwave
- not-pre heating the oven too long in advance prior to cooking
- put a cover over your grill pan so the heat loss is minimised and your food cooks quicker
Use the double food pyramid to determine what and how much to eat. Eat mostly fruits, veggies and grains, which have the least environmental impact. Eat chickens and fish before red meats, which you should eat the least as it has the biggest environmental impact.
