Anna Getty's Easy Green Organic - Anna Getty [2]
I believe we can initiate change in myriad ways, including through our purchasing power, which we exercise when choosing the food we eat and the products we use. We can choose to be conscientious and responsible consumers. If we demand organic food and goods, over time the supply will expand to meet our demand. We can make positive changes in the food industry and for the environment simply by the way we choose to live our day-today lives.
It is our responsibility to continue educating ourselves in ways that enhance healthful diets, fit bodies, and a healthy planet. And I mean that we must do this actively through the Internet and reading books, through getting to know the managers at our local grocery stores or the farmers at our local farmers’ markets. Another really great way to learn more about organic food is to grow some. A small organic garden, a kitchen herb box, or even one small pot of basil or rosemary helps improve your food awareness by affirming your connection to the natural growing process. I believe these simple actions can help create a ripple effect in our collective awareness of food and nutrition. At the very least, they will benefit us individually, which is reason enough to participate.
I’m reminded of a quote by Carl Jung: “Every person needs to have a piece of garden, however small, to keep them in touch with the earth and therefore with something deeper in themselves.”
Reconnect to food and its power to nourish your mind, body, and spirit. Empower yourself through your kitchen and the food you prepare. And most important, take baby steps. I realize the idea of going green and organic may seem daunting, but know you have the resources to guide you along the way. To kick-start this organic education, I have asked the Organic Center to contribute their expertise to this book. I cannot extend my gratitude enough to them for their support of this project. Please enjoy the fun fact boxes, which contain some of the Organic Center’s data, I have scattered throughout the book.
I love to cook and have learned over the years to develop a close and conscious relationship to food and where it comes from. It is my goal to share this love and enthusiasm with you. Most of the recipes are quick and uncomplicated, but more important, they are delicious. Like the title says, they are easy, green, and organic. Welcome to my kitchen!
introduction
why green, why organic?
“It is vitally important that we can continue to say, with absolute conviction, that organic farming delivers the highest quality, best-tasting food, produced without artificial chemicals or genetic modification, and with respect for animal welfare and the environment, while helping to maintain the landscape and rural communities.”—Prince Charles
Never have the topics of green, organic, and sustainable agriculture been more popular in the modern Western world than they are now. With the realities of global warming and the stark depletion of the earth’s resources, such as water, coal, oil, and natural gas, people are beginning to realize that we must make a change; our planet’s survival depends on it. We must not only educate ourselves about what it means to live sustainably, but also expand our awareness of the consequences of our current course. Consider, for instance, that almost every other species would benefit from the extinction of ours. Can we humans release ourselves from our narcissistic assumption that we are more important than all other life forms, so that we might see ourselves as one species among many? Ought we not to at least try to exchange some of our control over nature and recognize our interdependence with it?
Don’t worry, I’m not going to jump up on an (organic) apple crate and go off on some kind of eco-maniacal rant. None of us responds well to lectures, however well