Lucid Food_ Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life - Louisa Shafia [4]
Every season offers us unique edible treats, such as persimmons in fall, red kuri squash in winter, morel mushrooms in spring, and berries in summer, and Lucid Food allows each season its turn at center stage. Supermarkets only sell summer foods in the dead of winter because we buy them. But as we begin to understand that there are uniquely delicious, easy-to-prepare seasonal foods available to us all year-round, we can change our shopping habits and, ultimately, alter the very fabric of food commerce.
Now, you will see a few tropical items in the following recipes, including bananas, chocolate, vanilla, cashews, tamarind, and galangal. We are a diverse country with a worldly palate, and humans have a natural yen for tastes and textures that aren’t native to their own land. After all, the ancient network of trade routes known as the Silk Road facilitated the exchange of goods between the East and West for thousands of years.
Fortunately, when it comes to exotic foods, a little goes a long way, so our appetite for imported delicacies doesn’t need to have a strong negative impact on the environment. But we should make an effort to think of these long-distance foods as special treats, and we shouldn’t be surprised if we have to pay a high price for them. It’s my belief that by understanding the real costs in energy expenditure and environmental degradation linked to eating exotic foods, we will treasure them even more.
The recipes throughout Lucid Food are made from whole, unprocessed ingredients. For the most part, the dishes are quite healthful—human health, after all, corresponds directly to the health of the planet. The more we foster biodiversity and support the preservation of small farms, woodlands, clean waterways, and an environment free from pollution, the healthier we’ll be as a population, both in body and in mind.
Several of the recipes do call for animal products. I considered including only vegetarian recipes, as first-hand experience has taught me that a vegetable-based diet can be enormously satisfying and healthful. Still, I wanted to include recipes with animal products because many of my favorite vendors at the farmers’ market are suppliers of eggs, chicken, fish, cheese, and meat. Preparing a home-cooked meal with the most flavorful meat or the freshest fish is an important way to stay emotionally connected to our food, and these farmers are helping shoppers make the connection between buying locally and eating the best food possible. Moreover, it is vital to support small, ethical suppliers of animal products so that there remains a viable alternative to factory farms.
Paying to eat your ideals
Some will argue that eating local, sustainable, and organic food is simply too expensive—or, worse, exclusive or elitist—and that families on fixed incomes can’t afford to eat this way. I would like to challenge that misconception right off the bat. First, the health and environmental costs of the traditional American diet are almost too numerous to mention. Cheap and processed foods carry a catastrophic price tag in epidemic health problems like obesity, attention deficit disorder, decreased immunity, heart disease, and diabetes, conditions for which each of us pays handsomely in taxes and skyrocketing health-care premiums. Inferior foods flown in from distant countries also carry massive hidden costs in the form of the petroleum and electricity required to transport and store them.
The fact is that there are many ways to “green” your diet affordably, and the benefits are myriad. Surely, every child deserves to eat fresh, nutritious food, and instilling healthy dietary habits in young children is a gift that will pay dividends throughout their