Info Graphic

Once again, I've disappeared from the blogosphere for an extended period of time - my apologies, dear readers! 

After my term papers and exams were completed in the beginning of May, I envisioned myself having much more free time to dedicate to blogging about food and the environment. But things have been in  full swing with my Masters dissertation since then, and I have been spending most of my time in the lab and behind a light microscope examining fossil pollen. For my project, I am reconstructing recent anthropogenic vegetation changes using detailed ultra-high resolution pollen analyses from the Portuguese Margin. I'm really enjoying it so far, but I must admit it's quite the learning curve with these biological proxies of environmental change! Below are a couple photos of some of the types of taxa I typically encounter under the microscope:

    

Figure 1. Light microscope and scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of fossil pollen grains. Left: Compositae tubuliflorae, middle: Pinus (SEM image), right: Tilia. Images courtesy of the University of Arizona.

But all things pollen aside, let's talk about food and our individual environmental footprints. As we touched on in previous posts (for instance here and here), I often think about the environmental footprint of the food I consume and cook with each day. Living in a big city like London, it's all too easy to fall into the "to go" and "disposable" mentality. With a busy schedule and constantly rushing from point A to point B, the thought of washing extra dishes or even cooking a simple meal can seem daunting - especially when all of your heart's culinary desires can be delivered to your doorstep within minutes.

Sometimes all that's needed is a gentle reminder and some simple ideas for more environmentally-friendly food habits. In the spirit of all this, I found this really interesting info-graphic created by Food Establishments Recycling Nutrients (FERN), a Lebanese non-governmental organisation that specialises in facilitating composting and recycling in restaurants (below). 

This info-graphic is filled with great tips and habits that can really improve our individual environmental footprints. My favourite aspects include: "first in, first out", "expiration dates aren't throw-away dates" and the focus on food waste. Personally, I find that making a grocery list and a meal plan and sticking to it is an excellent way to ensure that all the food you purchase is used. I also found the idea of keeping a list next to the garbage can for a week to monitor how much food is wasted is an excellent one - I may conduct the experiment and report my results on the blog, so stay tuned for that!

What are you favourite aspects of this info-graphic? Are there any wasteful habits you'd like to kick? What is your favourite tip on reducing food waste at home?

Until next time!

Sustainable Easter Eggs

Firstly, happy Easter to those of you celebrating! 

I was skimming the online news this afternoon and came across an interesting article in the Guardian titled "Easter eggs rated by palm oil use". Although it's too late for this year's Easter shopping, I will definitely be consulting these new rankings of chocolate brands based on their use of unsustainable palm oil next Easter. The results are from a survey created by Ethical Consumer magazine and the Rainforest Foundation UK (RF UK), one of a series aiming to raise awareness on the unsustainable use of palm oil in many supermarket products. Current EU regulations do not oblige companies to label products containing palm oil, however labelling laws are to change in December 2014.

Source: The Guardian (2014)

The best companies to buy chocolate from? Devine and Booja-Booja, followed by Traidcraft, Co-Operative Food, and Sainsburys. The bottom three were Lindt, Thorntons and Guylian (Cadbury also ranked very low). 

For more information on palm oil in food, personal care and cleaning products, check out the RF's Appetite for Destruction? The Product Guide for Palm Oil Content. They feature information on chocolate, bread, biscuits, skincare, hair products, make up, party food, and cleaning products.

Until next time!

In need of bean-spiration?

I have a confession to make: I've been in a bit of a cooking rut as of late. As a masters student with quite the busy schedule, meal planning is essential for me to maintain healthy eating habits. Normally, I plan a week's worth of meals and then cook big batches on the weekend. This way, I don't need to worry about preparing meals during the week so that I can focus on other things. I have some recipes that I come back to week after week, month after month. Although I do love my lentil soups and Moroccan-inspired stews, I've started to get bored and uninspired with the usual protagonists. 

Enter this beautiful 15-bean mix. Nothing like this kaleidoscope of colours to rekindle inspiration, eh?

My favourite thing to do with this mix is to cook up a big batch of soup (recipe below). Soups are a great way to use up old vegetables (reducing our food waste impact!), can be prepared in big batches and freeze very well for those busy months. Besides pretty colours to inspire me, I have a lineup of trusted blogs I like to visit when I need to spice things up in the kitchen. Here are some of my favourites:

-Oh She Glows (try this burrito recipe - you won't regret it!)
-101 Cookbooks (this carrot salad was simple and delicious)
-Green Kitchen Stories (these protein bars are great for busy mornings)
-Sprouted Kitchen (I'll be trying these sweet potatoes next)
-Scandi Home (we often make this split pea soup)

There are so many great websites for healthy cooking and eating out there, so if you ever find yourself in a cooking rut, I strongly recommend the above blogs. One thing that I particularly love about these sites is the bounty of gorgeous food photos each blogger features - if these don't inspire you to cook, then I don't know what will! Besides the internet, I also have a small collection of cookbooks that I use almost every week, but I'll save those for another post.

What are your favourite ways to use dried beans? Do you get bored with the usual dishes you prepare on a weekly basis? Where do you turn to for a good dose of culinary information?

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the recipe!

15-bean soup

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

-1tbsp olive oil

-1 large onion, diced

-1 head of celery, diced

-1.5 cups 15 bean mix, soaked in plenty of fresh water for 12 hours

-1 400g can diced tomatoes

-1 cube of vegetable stock

-8 cups water, or as much as needed

Procedure:

1. Heat olive oil in a large soup pot. Add onion and celery, and cook until tender (about 5 minutes).

2. Add soaked beans, diced tomatoes, as much water as desired water, and vegetable stock cube, and bring to the boil.

3. Reduce heat, and simmer for 1.5 hours, or until beans are thoroughly cooked.

4. Enjoy!

A plant's eye view

Dear readers,

Today I'd like to share a video with you that I found truly inspiring. As I'm sure you've gathered from some of my previous posts here at PP&P, I've always felt a strong connection with nature. Since moving to London and being relatively far away from my beloved Canadian wilderness, I find that sometimes I forget that we are part of a bigger thing: the biosphere. Listening to Michael Pollan talk about looking at the world from a "plant's eye view" really put things back into perspective for me on this grey British afternoon.

Two aspects of this talk particularly struck me. First, the notion that plants manipulate the animal species which rely on them for survival. Pollan (2008) argues that humans are lured and manipulated by plants just as a bee is lured by a colourful and sweet-scented flower blossom, allowing it to spread its genes while the bee gathers nectar from flower to flower. This example is extended to agriculture, with the suggestion that this technique of mass producing food arose as a "co-evolutionary development" in which edible grasses have and continue to exploit humans. Now that's something to think about!

The second most impressive aspect of his talk was his personal account of Joe Salatin's organic farm (Polyface Farms), in Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. Pollan (2008) describes this organic farm which symbiotically raises over five species of animals as well as some forestry products on a mere 100 hectares of land. What is unique about this farm is that it produces vast amount of food products by simply harnessing the desires of each species involved. In this way, the species perform a variety of ecological services for one another. For example, cows on this farm intensively graze fields. After the grazing is complete, Salatin waits three days before introducing chickens to the same fields. This way, the soils are rich with mature grubs for the chickens to feast on. These chickens fertilise and churn the soil, and remove the grubs, allowing for a quick regeneration of the grasses. Each species involved fulfills a specific purpose. 

To conclude his talk, Pollan (2008) leaves his audience with the idea that this form of food production completely contradicts the pre-conceived notion that nature must be diminished in order for humans to obtain their needs in resources. What would happen if we had a food production revolution, in which all farmers harnessed the desires of the species they harvest? I think the world could be a very different place!

What are your thoughts on looking at the world from a "plant's eye view"? Have you ever tried looking at the world in this way? Do you think a revolution in symbiotic food production could change the way we grow food in the future?

Thanks for reading! 

Sustainable Dining

It's been quite a while since my last post here - I admit, things have been quite hectic with school and deadlines, but I am now back from a much needed break. So, where did we leave things off? In short, we took a journey from the past to the present to see how global food production impacts the environment. We covered a really wide range of topics, but there is so much more to the story of how humans produce food. In the next set of posts, we will focus on present environmental issues surrounding food production. I'd like to explore some of the topics I didn't have time to cover in the fall, such as organic farming, pesticides and nutrient enrichment, composting, factory farming, biofuels... this list could go on forever, so please come visit regularly! 

Seeing as it's my first day back from my blog holidays, I'd like to keep things on the lighter side. So let's dig in! 

Salade Niçoise in Nice (you can find a great recipe here)

Have you ever heard of an organisation called the Sustainable Restaurant Association? If you haven't, don't worry - I hadn't either, but was certainly excited to learn that something like this existed. In a nutshell, the SRA is a not for profit membership organisation that seeks to assist dining establishments to transition towards sustainability. In addition, it also assists diners in selecting sustainable options when eating out. The organisation's definition of a sustainable restaurant comes in a lovely three course meal format: sourcing, environment, and society. These values are broken down into various compartments such as supply chain, fair treatment of people, and local and seasonal sourcing, among many others. The SRA's key focus areas can be seen in the diagram below.

SRA's 14 Key Focus Areas (source: SRA)

What's more? The SRA has compiled a guide for sustainable restaurants that is searchable by location! Quickly searing London has brought up something like 22 pages of results - I'm looking forward to combing through the list next time I go out for dinner. Sustainable dining at restaurants is something that has always interested me, but was not something that I have been actively making an effort to do, essentially because I found it challenging to know where to obtain information on the topic. The SRA has made this easy, so I no longer have an excuse! Recently, I visited a Mexican restaurant called Wahaca, which is a member of the SRA, and had a great sustainable dining experience.

What are your thoughts on the work that the SRA does?