Food Cycle

The eternal food loop—harvest, prepare, savor, cleanup—has never been healthier, and better tasting, than it is right now.

Even in tough times, everyone has to eat. Indeed, the one place where we could be tempted to make some small allowances is our food. Sure, we might feel a little guilty about indulging ourselves, but what if that dark, delectable chocolate bar you devoured at lunch actually did the earth a little good, or that cheese on your cracker helped protect a 200-acre farm and a variety of bird species, while keeping a family afloat. Maybe that delicious bread you bought was made from corn genetically engineered to need less water, those heirloom tomatoes from the grocery store lowered the cost of toxin-free food for all, and the rice in your sushi provided critical habitat for long-billed curlews. Far from being a health food fantasy, this menu is now, or soon will be, an everyday reality. So raise a fork (and a glass of wine made from grapes grown without pesticides) to eating well while doing great things for birds, wildlife, the planet鈥攁nd you.

HARVEST

Meals on Wheels
On a clear, brisk November day in Stamford, New York, three beef cows and 11 pigs await slaughter. They鈥檝e been trucked here to meet their end in the Northeast鈥檚 first mobile slaughterhouse, docked today at Jim Eklund鈥檚 organic dairy farm. Under the watchful eye of a USDA inspector, Eklund stuns, kills, bleeds, skins, and eviscerates each animal in the 53-foot-long kill trailer. The organs are moved to an inedible-parts trailer, then Eklund quarters or halves the carcass and places it in a chilling compartment until it鈥檚 driven to a butcher or a cut-and-wrap facility. 鈥淭he meat goes to farmers鈥 markets in New York City, to restaurants that want local, all-natural grass-fed beef,鈥 says Eklund, who鈥檚 building an on-site cut-and-wrap operation so he鈥檒l have the capacity to process 50 cattle a day. 鈥淵ou know exactly which animal the steak or burger is coming from. Larger facilities take hundreds of animals, mix it all up.鈥 The Modular Harvest System (MHS) processes lambs, goats, hogs, beef cows, and veal calves. Farmers like it because it鈥檚 closer than industrial facilities, and they can make appointments a month, rather than half a year, in advance. 鈥淯ltimately, we鈥檇 like to see a system of docking sites throughout the region, so the MHS can be moved around to serve more farmers,鈥 says Judith LaBelle, president of Glynwood, the nonprofit that created it. 鈥淚t鈥檚 ecologically sound鈥攖he animals graze in pastures rather than eating energy-intensive grains, the waste is properly disposed of. It鈥檚 good for animals, people, and the planet.鈥鈥擜lisa Opar

Walk on the Wild Side
A parade of notebook-toting, camera-wearing students follow their leader, Leda Meredith, into Brooklyn鈥檚 Prospect Park. Stopping at a shrub, she pulls off a clump of leaves and holds it to her nose. 鈥淚鈥檓 big on scratch-and-sniff foraging,鈥 she says. Its pungent odor gives the mugwort away. This invasive plant, which beer brewers once used to flavor their ales, is a natural muscle relaxer, Meredith says, and grows throughout the park. 

Her foraging class is one of many springing up around the country, from Los Angeles to Denver to Boston, demonstrating the growing public interest in finding tasty greens among the weeds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 exploded in the last few years,鈥 says Meredith, an ethnobotanist and author who foraged with her grandmother and great-grandmother in Golden Gate Park near her childhood home in San Francisco.

Fond du Lac County 探花精选 in Wisconsin, for instance, hosts an annual potluck where participants bring a course concocted with a wild ingredient鈥攍ast year鈥檚 event boasted a menu of savory burdock patties and mustard-greens pesto. Chefs are also digging the idea. At Noma, his Copenhagen restaurant, Danish chef Ren茅 Redzepi serves dishes replete with local ingredients from nearby fields, like sorrel and wild herbs. Noma topped the S. Pellegrino World鈥檚 50 Best Restaurants poll last year, and Redzepi鈥檚 foraging-infused cookbook, one of several that highlight wild foods, hit bookstores last fall.

A multitude of factors鈥攆rom an increasing distrust of the industrial food system to foraging鈥檚 zero cost鈥攁re accelerating the trend. On top of that, wild finds like maitake mushrooms (right) or mugwort may add a little zest to your meals. Says Meredith, 鈥淥ne of the great things about foraging for me is getting to play with ingredients that you can鈥檛 buy.鈥鈥擲usan Cosier

 

PREPARE

Oyster Bar
Go ahead鈥攕lurp those farmed oysters, without the guilt. The mollusks are symbols for sustainable aquaculture. 鈥淸They鈥檙e] environmentally, ecologically beneficial as well as economically beneficial,鈥 says Michael Oesterling, a fisheries and aquaculture specialist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. As filter feeders, the bivalves simultaneously eat and clarify water by sucking up algae that thrives on nutrient runoff. Also, cages and other aquaculture containment gear placed on sandy bottoms in coastal waters can provide habitat for other species. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an automatic oyster reef,鈥 says Doug McMinn, founder of the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Company, a leading aquaculturist in the bay region.

Many of the oysters sold on the half-shell in this country come from the Chesapeake and northward, where more than 90 percent of farmers obtain stock from hatcheries to kick-start cultures. Shucked oysters, on the other hand, often come from Gulf of Mexico, where farmers  typically rely initially on wild seed鈥攁 more traditional method, according to McMinn. The practice doesn鈥檛 necessarily deplete native stocks or damage the environment. Still, consider this: Wild oysters can take up to five years to reach market size, while farmed mollusks need only about one. Like 鈥檈m briny? Sample the western Chesapeake Bay鈥檚 farm-raised variety. Prefer sweet and buttery? Try a Mobjack Bay aquaculturist鈥檚. 鈥淥ysters are like wine,鈥 says Oesterling. 鈥淓ach area has its own flavor.鈥鈥擩ulie Leibach

American Cheese
He was a businessman working for a computer company. She was a stay-at-home mom. Neither of them had ever separated curd from whey鈥攐r even milked a cow鈥攂ut that didn鈥檛 stop Steve and Karen Getz from selling their home in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in 2003 to buy a bucolic, 243-acre dairy farm in Bridport, Vermont, to make cheese. So began Dancing Cow Farm, named for the roughly two dozen bovines hoofing it in a pasture filled with sweet clover, dandelion, trefoil, and a mix of other grasses, all untouched by pesticide, herbicide, or petroleum-based fertilizer.

Dancing Cow Farm is a pasture-based dairy that emphasizes farming in harmony with the environment. Soil is untilled to sequester carbon. The cows spread seeds naturally with their manure. Hay is harvested late in the season to allow ground-nesting birds time to fledge their young without the threat of being squashed by tractors. And suburban sprawl will never sully these acres because the Getzes sold the farm鈥檚 development rights to the Vermont Land Trust. This holistic approach, says Steve, 鈥渋s good for the livestock, good for the family, good for the environment.鈥

The proof is in the cheese, which is known for a piquancy that evokes grassy pastures. As Steve does the milking each morning, warm, rich milk flows directly from the cows into the cheese vat, where Karen stands by to begin handcrafting different varieties. 鈥淲e only make cheese from a single milking,鈥 she says. 鈥淭ypically a cheese maker will store the milk and make cheese two to three days a week.鈥

Dancing Cow鈥檚 cheeses, which are named for baroque dances, including the bourr茅e (right) and the minuet, are winning accolades from the American Cheese Society and selling at Whole Foods and specialty stores, such as New York鈥檚 Murray鈥檚 Cheese Shop.鈥擱ene Ebersole

 

SAVOR 

How Sweet It Is
The aroma of fresh-roasted cacao beans spills out of an early 1900s trolley barn tucked in Seattle鈥檚 artsy Fremont neighborhood. Inside, modern-day oompa loompas, wearing blue hairnets, chocolate-brown T-shirts, jeans, and clogs, are hand-mixing flavorful inclusions like coconut curry and hazelnut crunch to stir into vats of velvety chocolate. Welcome to Theo Chocolate鈥檚 factory, named for Theobroma, the cacao tree genus. This factory鈥檚 golden ticket is making chocolates good for the taste buds as well as the environment and cacao farmers.

Back in the early 1990s Theo founder and owner Joseph Whinney hopped off a sailboat in Punta Gorda, Belize, and ended up working alongside local Mayans harvesting yellow, green, and red football-shaped cacao pods for their valuable beans. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe that鈥檚 where cocoa came from,鈥 says Whinney. He was hooked. In 1994, at age 25, he pioneered an effort to supply organic cacao beans to the United States, and in 2006 he began making his own organic chocolate. Theo prioritizes where, how, and by whom its cacao is grown, paying a premium to farmers who don鈥檛 rely on chemicals, child labor, or agricultural practices that destroy forests and biodiversity. 鈥淚 believe you can make a big impact by having integrity in your supply chain,鈥 Whinney says. The company even created bars whose proceeds support the Jane Goodall Institute, and it is preparing to launch a bar with National 探花精选 this spring.

Birds and farmers alike can benefit when consumers satisfy their sweet tooth with organic, fair-trade chocolate grown beneath a natural forest canopy. Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center biologist Bob Reitsma says that, relative to other land uses, cacao plantations provide 鈥渓ots and lots of habitat for forest birds,鈥 including species like the violaceous trogon, the purple-throated fruitcrow, the white-collared manakin, and the Montezuma鈥檚 oropendola.鈥擱ene Ebersole

Oldie But Goodie
A splatter of yellow stands out against a dark-green rind on the moon & stars watermelon, a variety named for its night-sky-like appearance. Unlike its commercial cousin, this melon is grown from heirloom seeds, or those taken from a non-hybridized plant pollinated in the open, collected, and planted, year after year, often for centuries. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e similar to a piece of jewelry or a piece of furniture that has been passed down from one generation to another,鈥 says Diane Ott Whealy, cofounder of Seed Savers Exchange, a nonprofit that stores and safeguards heirloom seeds.

Most vegetables in the grocery store are the result of F1 hybrids, plants bred by agricultural companies for desirable traits. These grow quickly and are strong and uniform鈥攓ualities described as 鈥渉ybrid vigor.鈥 But if someone sows the seeds from these vegetables, the plants won鈥檛 exhibit the same characteristics as their parents, forcing farmers and gardeners alike to buy new seeds annually. Heirloom seeds, however, sprout and bear more or less the same odd-looking and delicious fruits and vegetables鈥攚ith names like bumble bee bean and Hubbard squash (right)鈥攅very growing season. Generally, they鈥檙e more resistant to disease and adaptable to their environments. Plus they contribute to the diversity of the gene pool. Says Ott Whealy, 鈥淲hat a shame it would be if we lost any color or any trait from these older varieties that have been surviving all these years.鈥鈥擲usan Cosier

 

CLEANUP 

Kick the Can
Thanks to Atlanta鈥檚 Zero Waste Zone, more than 3,000 tons of food and organic scraps so far have been transformed into energy and nutrient-rich soil rather than rotting in landfills next to nonbiodegradable or slow-to-decay trash. The movement鈥攕tarted to divert waste and attract conferences seeking green venues to the city鈥攏ow has some serious momentum. And just in time. 鈥淥ur soil is in dire straits,鈥 says Holly Elmore, ZWZ Atlanta founder. 鈥淭hat waste is actually an asset that can be used to rejuvenate our soil and our water supply.鈥

To succeed, the initiative needed support鈥攁nd scraps鈥攆rom Atlanta鈥檚 food-industry bigwigs. Elmore tagged higher-ups at the Georgia World Congress Center, Philips Arena, the Westin Peachtree Plaza and Hyatt Regency hotels, the World of Coca-Cola, the Georgia Aquarium, and Ted鈥檚 Montana Grill (owned by Ted Turner). 鈥淚f every one of these large facilities does it,鈥 she says, 鈥渨e make a huge difference.鈥

More than half of the participating facilities already recycled, but the ZWZ mission goes further, keeping food residuals and spent grease out of landfills, too, as well as conserving energy and creating toxin-free environments. Learning the finer points of composting took training, Elmore says. Take, for instance, twist ties. They seem like a harmless way to secure bags, but if they get into compost that鈥檚 spread on fields, they might harm cattle that ingest them.

No-waste zones are catching on around downtown Atlanta, and cities across the country are abuzz about the concept. Restaurants, food courts, caterers, and colleges are also adopting the practice. The message is clear鈥攕pread the word, not the waste.鈥擬ichele Wilson

Trim Your Waste

From farm to fork, Americans waste 40 percent of their food. In addition to the economic and ethical ramifications, our widespread squandering has far-reaching environmental impact. Since each person creates roughly a half-pound of food waste per day, we can play a significant role in reducing it. Here are five tips.

1. Shop Smartly: Plan a week鈥檚 worth of dinners and make a detailed shopping list to prevent overbuying. Leave a few nights free for leftovers or changing plans. Stick to your list and be honest with yourself鈥攄on鈥檛 buy produce that often goes unused.

2. In Sight, All Right: Keeping food visible works wonders. That means avoiding the cluttered fridge and cabinets where items get pushed to the back. Take a tip from supermarkets: Put the newer groceries behind the older ones.

3. Avoid Portion Distortion: Don鈥檛 dish out too much. It鈥檚 easy to take seconds, but we don鈥檛 often save what鈥檚 left on the plate. And beware鈥攖oday鈥檚 massive plates make a reasonable amount look tiny. If you鈥檙e out to eat, know that you鈥檒l likely get more food than you need or want. If leftovers leave you cold, halve recipes and order differently at restaurants.

4. Love Your Leftovers: Eat your leftovers. It鈥檚 easy to keep the remains of your dinner, but that鈥檚 no help if you don鈥檛 eat them. They鈥檙e ideal lunches, and they鈥檒l save you time and money.

5. Expiration Exasperation: Trust your senses before you rely on the package date. Sell-by dates are aimed at retailers and leave about a week to enjoy an item at home. And best-by is less stringent than use-by.鈥擩onathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland