Background
With
every meal Maine households can help to build environmentally and
economically sustainable communities, guaranteeing access for every Mainer
to affordable and healthy, fresh food from regional sources. As consumers we
can reduce our carbon footprint and contributions to global warming if we
follow, in order, these sensible food purchasing guidelines: buy foods that
are
in
season,
grown
locally within or as
close to our community as possible, and
produced
organically without
pesticides or petroleum-based fertilizers (SLO eating). Additionally, by
reducing our meat consumption and
adding
more plants to our diet,
we can have a positive impact on the health of our environment and global
warming. Developing a vibrant local foods system contributes to economic
well-being in a community by keeping its farmers in business and ensuring
that more money circulates locally.
Eat Seasonal
Most food
preservation, and especially refrigeration, requires substantial amounts of
energy that is primarily generated by fossil fuel power plants, which emit
greenhouse gases contributing to global warming and air pollutants affecting
environmental and human health. Likewise, foods grown out of season in
greenhouses, such as “hothouse tomatoes,” require more heat than the sun can
provide in cold weather or climates; most heaters are powered by fossil
fuels at the site or at an electricity generating station. In Maine, root
cellars can provide energy-free storage for fall crops such as carrots,
winter squash, potatoes, onions, turnips, rutabagas, etc. Maine farmers and
home gardeners also extend the “in season” time for crops such as broccoli,
kale, spinach, endive, etc. by using insulated cold frames within
greenhouses in the early spring and late fall.
|
Eat Local
Food production,
processing, and shipping play a role in global warming. Between 15 and 25%
of all greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to food production and
distribution. Food at the conventional supermarket in Maine has traveled an
average of 1800 to 3500 miles from where it was picked or produced. Nationally
the distance distribution of food shipments is: 12% less than 250 miles, 16%
between 250 and 599 miles, 16% between 500 and 750, 19% between 750 and
1000, 23% between 1000 and 1500, and 13% more than 1500 miles. In the U.S.
food represents 22% of the rail shipments, 27% of the truck shipments, and
45% of the water shipments. Approximately half of the trucks coming into
Maine are carrying food.
Eating locally and
seasonally reduces transportation, packaging, and processing. Foods are
fresher, more flavorful and more nutritious.
Eat Organic
In the
U.S. one billion pounds of toxic pesticides are used each year — about three
pounds per person. Petroleum-based fertilizers used in conventional
agricultural practices contribute to global warming. Chemical pesticides
sprayed in the air leach into the food and soil and kill “beneficial”
insects as well as the insects targeted for control. Foods produced without
toxic pesticides or herbicides preserve biodiversity. Small diverse farms in
Maine, even those producing foods without organic certification, generally
use less pesticides and commercial fertilizers than mono-crop industrial
farms elsewhere. |
Eat More Plants
Animal
agriculture takes up 70% of all agricultural land, and 30% of the total land
surface of the planet. Deforestation and grassland damage in the Americas is
caused in large part by industrial-size cattle-raising operations. Waste
from animals raised in confined spaces pollutes nearby air, soil, and water.
A UN report on livestock and the environment published in December 2006
concluded: “The livestock sector emerges as one of the top two or three most
significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems from
local to global.” Researchers from the University of Chicago, studying the
effects of animals production on the environment, found that when all of the
factors are added together…feed production, transportation, refrigeration,
and waste… that the average American could do more to reduce global warming
emissions by going vegetarian than by switching to a Prius hybrid vehicle.
Accessing
Maine Foods
Shop at a local farmers’ market. Guide to Maine
Farmers Markets and Seasonal Foods (Maine Department of Agriculture)
www.getrealmaine.com
Purchase a food share in a neighboring farm.
Directory to Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms (Maine Organic
Farmers and Gardeners Assn.) www.mofga.org.
Host a harvest party at your home or organization
featuring in-season and local foods and a film and/or speaker. Films (The
True Cost of Food,
The Global Banquet,
and others) and speakers, contact Maine Council of Churches’ Environmental
Justice Program at adburt@gwi.net or
772-1918, or Sierra Club — Maine Chapter at 761-5616.
Get seasonal recipes and find out about local
foods initiatives in your community. Go to Maine’s Eat Local Foods Coalition
website www.eatmainefoods.org;
Food for Maine’s Future website
www.foodformainesfuture.org; Maine Food Network (MOFGA, Hancock County
Locally Grown Foods Project and Farm Fresh Connection) website
www.mainefoods.net
|
