SciAm.com / Reuters: New Yorker pushes limits of the "locavore" life

hiake · Sep 17, 2007

New Yorker pushes limits of the "locavore" life

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK (Reuters) - One of Manny Howard's discoveries during the month this summer he ate only the plants he grew and the animals he raised and slaughtered was that his tough-talking plumber was too squeamish to watch chickens be killed for supper.

"We've all lost touch with the sources of our food, but it really underscored the gap for me when a guy like that made me warn his dispatcher before I did the work," Howard said in an interview at his farm -- the 800-square-foot (74-square-meter) backyard and garage to his Brooklyn, New York, house.

Freelance food writer Howard knew about "locavores" -- people who try to eat only locally produced food. But seeing one locavore at a market squint at a map while asking a pig farmer where exactly he lived in New York state, gave Howard the idea to try out life as an extreme locavore -- in the biggest U.S. city.

The locavore movement is growing from San Francisco to New York. Green-leaning consumers seek ways to cut down on the oil and chemicals used in the growing and transporting of food and preserve small farm methods. Barbara Kingsolver's memoir "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle," and Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma," about modern food production, have fertilized the trend.

Howard figured his farm could provide him enough food for a month late in the summer and began preparing in March. He built a chicken coop, dug a drainage system to water his crops, spent thousands of dollars on topsoil to cover his yard's lead-rich, nutrient-poor clay and bought rabbits, ducks and 25 chicks.

He soon learned it was hard work -- seven days a week, six to 16 hours a day, tending his farm nearly every day until the experiment of eating his food began in mid-August.

LUCKY DUCKS

Howard wanted to use duck fat for cooking, but ran into a problem. "You can kill chickens, but don't kill any ducks," his 4-year-old daughter told him. He compromised on olive oil.

The ducks were the only lucky ones. He learned how to kill and pluck roosters -- several got their heads chopped off after neighbors complaints about the crowing. And some of the rabbits died from maggot infestations.

"I was not so much a farmer ... as an undertaker," he wrote about that experience in New York magazine, which partly funded the experiment.

And he suffered hardships. Howard nearly sawed off a finger building the chicken coop and went without alcohol because making a home distillery was too much work.

He sat longingly through meals of non-local food his family ate. In the month of reaping what he sowed, he lost 29 pounds, both from the work and sparse meals, mostly eggs, tomatoes, greens, and chicken stew.

And the first tornado to hit Brooklyn in nearly 120 years bashed his corn, eggplant and squash crops.

It was hard on his family, too. His two kids grew bored with him because he rarely left the farm. His wife grew distant, even more so after seeing the carnage left by a rabbit that had panicked and killed her newborns.

Howard said she only began to see his side of things after she banged her head in a dark corner of their basement on a slaughtered Flemish Giant rabbit.

"She asked me if she had hit her head on a dead chicken. When I told her it was a 20 pound (9 kg) freshly-skinned rabbit, I broke down and wept," he said. "I think that's when she realized I wasn't getting off on all the blood and gore, and it was beginning to wear me down."

Financially the farm was perhaps unsustainable. The costs rose to $11,000 -- or more than $120 per meal for the month.

But now his family has a greater appreciation for the business of food and the people who grow it, he said. And the toil made the food rewarding to eat, even if his kids didn't eat everything he grew.

"I don't know if anyone else liked the chickens I ate, but I just loved them," he said.

Still, it was nice to finish the month, Howard said on Friday, the day after the experiment ended. His eyes grew wide describing the white wine, short ribs and Washington State oysters he enjoyed in celebration.

Source: SciAm.com / Reuters
Click to expand...

It's tough being an exclusive locavore, I try to eat only as local as my grocery store permits... I wish there's some coop for local produces in my 'hood...

wind2000 · Sep 17, 2007

hiake said: ↑

It's tough being an exclusive locavore, I try to eat only as local as my grocery store permits... I wish there's some coop for local produces in my 'hood...
Click to expand...

In your hood, you talking ghetto now girl

Im not sure but i think in montreal you might just be able to find that.

hiake · Sep 17, 2007

wind2000 said: ↑

In your hood, you talking ghetto now girl

Im not sure but i think in montreal you might just be able to find that.
Click to expand...

LOL, I was lazy, is all.

In fact, even in Montreal you can't quite find exclusively locavore meals unless you visit Jean-Talon everyday at 6am... Which I don't think I can handle...

wind2000 · Sep 17, 2007

hiake said: ↑

LOL, I was lazy, is all.

In fact, even in Montreal you can't quite find exclusively locavore meals unless you visit Jean-Talon everyday at 6am... Which I don't think I can handle...
Click to expand...

Less PA, then im sure you can do it.

hiake · Sep 17, 2007

No amount of non PA can get me to leave my warm bed at 5:30... <_<

Taxloss · Sep 17, 2007

I will never succed in trying to be a 'locavore' as I always prefer the international products. Thai fruits, Japanese sashimi, German sausages and asparagus etcetc. And I'll be too squeemish too for chopping animals like a Flemish Giant rabbit or some chickens. Can't even eat it when I once saw how one of my grandma's killed a chicken for dinner.

hiake · Sep 17, 2007

Taxloss said: ↑

I will never succed in trying to be a 'locavore' as I always prefer the international products. Thai fruits, Japanese sashimi, German sausages and asparagus etcetc. And I'll be too squeemish too for chopping animals like a Flemish Giant rabbit or some chickens. Can't even eat it when I once saw how one of my grandma's killed a chicken for dinner.
Click to expand...

Thus my notion of "I try"... I would buy Canadian (Quebec/Ontario to be exact) berries over those from US, but if certain produces simply CANNOT be grown elsewhere, I still buy and eat them, though definitely at a lower frequency...

Taxloss · Sep 17, 2007

^would you even buy the Canadian ones even if there are more expensive or less tasty than the ones from outside Canada (or Quebec/Ontario)

hiake · Sep 17, 2007

Taxloss said: ↑

^would you even buy the Canadian ones even if there are more expensive or less tasty than the ones from outside Canada (or Quebec/Ontario)
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, so far that hadn't happened, since the local ones are in fact fresher... But I get what you mean by the whole more expensive drill. I would say... it depends. -sweat

I don't mind paying up to 20% more for local produce... But if it's extreme cases like $2 pint of blueberry vs. $6 pint of blueberry, I got to say I must shamefully deny being a locavore for a while... -^_^

wind2000 · Sep 18, 2007

Taxloss said: ↑

I will never succed in trying to be a 'locavore' as I always prefer the international products. Thai fruits, Japanese sashimi, German sausages and asparagus etcetc. And I'll be too squeemish too for chopping animals like a Flemish Giant rabbit or some chickens. Can't even eat it when I once saw how one of my grandma's killed a chicken for dinner.
Click to expand...

Lemme guess, you never went grocery shopping in HK outside of supermarket?

hiake said: ↑

Thus my notion of "I try"... I would buy Canadian (Quebec/Ontario to be exact) berries over those from US, but if certain produces simply CANNOT be grown elsewhere, I still buy and eat them, though definitely at a lower frequency...
Click to expand...

You betrayed Canadian products. -shock

hiake · Sep 18, 2007

wind2000 said: ↑

You betrayed Canadian products. -shock
Click to expand...

Well, I am as true to Canadian products as the next broke student. And I think the 20% margin of preference I give Canadian products is very generous already... -unsure

hiake · Sep 18, 2007

Reuters.com said:

More than organic

By Terri Coles

TORONTO (Reuters) - Consumers who are keen to know if the food they're buying has been grown without synthetic pesticides and fertilizers have more information at their fingertips than they may realize, although it may not be official.

Food certified by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as grown without synthetic pesticides or fertilizers carries the "USDA Organic" label. Some producers, however, choose to indicate that organic growing practices are being used but the requirements for organic certification haven't yet been met. Others have no intention of gaining USDA Organic certification, but still want to label their products in a way that highlights the natural farming methods used to grow them.

"There are a variety of terms that are popular as an alternative to organic, but they cannot mean organic," said Kathy Means of the Produce Marketing Association. Products cannot be labeled as organic unless they are certified through the USDA. To receive certification, crops must be grown without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides for three years.

Unlike "organic", terms like "natural" don't have any regulatory meaning. Unless they are going through an independent certification body, producers can market their product as "natural" or "naturally grown" without backing it up.

Like "local" - another produce buzzword often tied to taste- "natural" means something to consumers, but lacks a widely understood definition. "I think there's a sense that the word 'natural' carries some sort of emotional attachment," said Means. "Natural just seems better, even though it doesn't mean anything."

Stemilt Growers, a leading national apple producer, is in the second year of a process to certify its cherries, peaches and nectarines as organic, but the company is already seeing a difference in the crops due to the natural growing methods that must be used during the transitional period, said Roger Pepperl, Stemilt's marketing director.

To highlight the qualities of these naturally grown fruits, and to market them as a premium product, the company has developed a new label, "Artisan Naturals", which will appear on the packaging along with the USDA's transitional label. The label will change to "Artisan Organics" once Stemilt has achieved USDA Organic certification.

"The reason why we came up with the 'Artisan Natural' label is because we wanted to start marketing the food for the qualities of organic farming right now," said Pepperl. "Because we're organically farming those peaches and nectarines, we're getting fantastic complexities and flavors because of the low-nitrated trees."

Surveys have shown that flavor remains the primary concern for consumers when purchasing produce. Any labels highlighting qualities that are tied to produce flavor, like"fresh" or "natural", will have to back that up in the product, said Means. "The word has to be backed up by what the consumer is seeing. They're going to trust their five senses as well as what they're seeing on the packaging."

While some growers use alternative labeling as a way to distinguish their produce while they wait for USDA certification, others are not aiming to use an organic label even if their growing methods are in line with the USDA Organic program. For smaller farmers using natural growing methods, the cost and work involved can put USDA certification out of reach, said Alice Varon of Certified Naturally Grown, a non-profit grassroots alternative certification program.

"The USDA program is better designed for larger agribusiness, and requires a good deal of paperwork and record-keeping that is necessary for the larger operations that are selling through distributors," Varon said. "But for the smaller diverse farms that are selling at local markets, all that paperwork is superfluous."

Other farmers may not want to be associated with what they see as the USDA's insufficient standards for organic farming, or just want to avoid government interference in their business.

Consumers still look for a way to purchase food grown using natural methods, and smaller producers often get questions about their farming techniques at local markets, Varon said.

Certified Naturally Grown's standards start with those mandated under the USDA program, and then add to those in certain areas, particularly around livestock. Working with the certification program allows farmers to use the "Certified Naturally Grown" label and gives smaller producers a way to reassure consumers about their growing practices, even if they can't use the word "organic".

"I think customers really appreciate that those farmers who are growing organically, but not going the official government route, have an alternative that can give them some reassurance that the process is verified," Varon said. "Farmers are using the practices that they say they use, and it's clearly defined what those are."

Means of the Produce Marketing Association sees no need to add regulations for produce grown with natural methods, among other labels. It would be difficult to decide on a nationwide definition for terms like "natural" or "local", she said, because they mean different things to different consumers.

"I would get concerned about having too many regulations about what every single word means on every single package."

Alternative labeling gives something back to farmers who found themselves unable to use the word "organic" after the USDA regulations came in, even if it described their growing methods and the produce that resulted, Varon said.

"Farmers really appreciate that they once again have an option to market their produce in a way that really describes it."

Regulating a term like "naturally grown" would cause the same problems for those farmers as previous regulations have, Varon added. "That would be annoying in the same way that it was annoying when organic was regulated."

Source: Reuters.com
Click to expand...

So "local" and/or "naturally grown" doesn't necessary means organic... What a shame... :(

wind2000 · Sep 18, 2007

Everything is a play of words these days. >.<

SciAm.com / Reuters: New Yorker pushes limits of the "locavore" life

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

wind2000 Self Schemata

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

wind2000 Self Schemata

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

Taxloss Stripper Vicar

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

Taxloss Stripper Vicar

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

wind2000 Self Schemata

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

hiake Vardøgr of da E.Twin

wind2000 Self Schemata