Summer is the perfect time of year to branch out of your normal eating routine and try new, local, fresh ingredients. With summer vegetables and fruits ripening on the vine, the tastes of summer are all around us.
In the past few decades, the way that farmers grow and we then come to eat these vegetables and fruits have changed. In the rush to produce more and more crops to satisfy growing demand producers have had to resort to using a cocktail of pesticides to control disease and insect attack.
Did you know that if you consumed an average (non organic) apple you would be eating over 30 pesticides, even after you have washed it?
The quality of food has definitely gone down since the second world war. For instance, the levels of vitamin C in today's fruit bear no resemblance to the levels found in wartime fruit.
Organic food is known to contain 50% more nutrients, minerals and vitamins than produce that has been intensively farmed.
Also don't forget about the cocktail of antibiotics and hormones that cattle and poultry are force fed.
What are the options for those of us.
Great books to read further on this topic are: Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan, Animal, Vegetable,Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.
One online resource for finding more about organic and local food is SlowFood.org, a non-profit educational organization “dedicated to supporting and celebrating the food traditions of North America through programs and activities dedicated to the regenerative cultural, social and economic benefits of a sustainable food system, regional food traditions, the pleasures of the table, and a slower and more harmonious rhythm of life.”
Slowfood.org offers links to local chapters in all communities (including Santa Barbara) and information on where to purchase organic, local groceries.
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