Lucid Food_ Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life - Louisa Shafia [2]
As we watch our economy—one based largely on cheap energy—reach its breaking point and we begin to reexamine the foundation of the so-called “American way of life,” our habits will have to change. Although many of the luxuries we’ve come to take for granted in the past fifty years have been wonderful, there has also been a downside—namely, the ease with which we’re now able to isolate ourselves in our individual homes, and to insulate ourselves from friends and neighbors, through the use of air-conditioning, television, and the Internet. While such modern conveniences certainly provide us with many benefits, one could argue that an overreliance on technological advances may actually be making our lives less fulfilling, not more.
There are those who will counter that the act of “going green”—cutting back sharply on cheap fossil fuels and taking serious steps to conserve in our daily lives—will require a joyless rejection of the twenty-first-century good life, but that’s not supported by what many of us experienced when the lights went off in New York City. Quite the opposite: By practicing conservation, returning to a “waste not, want not” mindset, and savoring both our food and our free time, we enrich our lives through a greater sense of connection and responsibility to other people.
Besides, we may have no choice. Making these kinds of lifestyle changes seems increasingly imperative in order to protect our planet and revitalize our economy. What’s more, we’ve been made painfully aware of the tragic health consequences of the American diet here and in other countries that have adopted our eating habits. Large portions of meat, fried foods, and a lack of fresh produce have led to obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and stroke. We are being challenged to change our lifestyles and our diets because of mounting problems that have resulted from our overconsumption and waste, and the prospect of “going green”—once seemingly trendy—is now more of a necessity than a curiosity.
Still, whether by reducing our use of electricity, driving less, entertaining in a “waste-free” fashion, or buying locally grown foods, we’ll find plenty of advantages and rediscover many long-forgotten joys through making some simple, life-affirming changes.
Growing up green
I grew up in a house where we nearly always ate healthy, fresh food and were “eco-friendly” long before it occurred to anyone to use that term. It wasn’t that we were especially ahead of our time; rather, my parents didn’t quite realize that the Depression had ended, so absolutely nothing went to waste. My father grew up in Iran during World War II. He told me stories of eating government rations like bread that came with little surprises like shoelaces and buttons—baked right in!
When he first came to this country, my father couldn’t believe the abundance of every kind of food—not to mention the ready availability of meat—and so, during my parents’ first years of marriage, he ate a dinner of steak and white rice every single night, just because he could. At some point, however, his family history of high cholesterol and heart disease started to catch up with him, and our family reverted to eating much the same way he had when he was growing up (minus the shoelaces, thankfully). Our standard dinner was rice cooked with lentils, fresh herbs, and onions (the inspiration for the Green Rice recipe), a big salad with oil-and-vinegar dressing, and seared chicken or fish. For dessert—oh, how I hated it—we ate fresh fruit.
My mom grew up in Philadelphia with a victory garden that my grandfather still lovingly tended when I was little. She was always