Episode 7 Reconnecting the food cycle
Hello and welcome to flourishing within planetary boundaries, I am your host, Dr. Tara Naylor.
On today’s episode I want to talk about reconnecting the food cycle. When it comes to food, we spend so much time talking about what food we eat, and how that food is grown, that we miss the bigger picture connections. But, the fact is that if you want to eat food that is nutritious and tasty, then the whole food cycle matters. If you want to solve problems like food waste, energy and resource use in our food systems, then the whole food cycle matters.
In case you are wondering what I am talking about, let me tell you a story to explain. This is a story about two apricots. Apricots are one of my favourite fruits, and I would love to have my own apricot tree, but I can’t find the right place for one at the moment. As I live in Ontario, most years I can buy apricots from Niagara Region, either at the farmer’s market, or the grocery store. The farmer’s market in the town where I live is on a Thursday, so depending on where I am working, it can be a challenge to get to the market.
A few years ago, I bought some Ontario grown apricots from the grocery store. These apricots were sold in a plastic clamshell package. Once I got them home I found that they were extremely tart, unripe and even when I left them on the counter, they never ripened properly or sweetened up. So, what did I do with these apricots?
I did eat most of them, but I had to add sugar to make them palatable, I also gave a few to my chickens as a treat.
Another week, I bought some from a farmer’s market from a grower that travels from Niagara Region for the market. The apricots he was selling were sweet and delicious and sold in a cardboard basket.
So, as it was first thing in the morning and he was not yet busy, I told him about my apricot experience. This farmer, told me that the tart and unripe fruit, and the sweet delicious fruit could be from the same farm grown the same way. They could both come from his farm. But the grocery stores had different requirements, because of the longer supply chain and longer storage times, they did not want ripe fruit.
So here we are, the same type of fruit, that could have been grown the same way on the same farm, BUT where you collect, or buy it from, affects the taste, pleasure, and nutrition you get from the fruit. Where you buy it from affects the packaging, your relationship with the grower, and the end-product.
This simple example shows so many connections between different parts of the life-cycle of our food. From a nutrition point of view, the fruit picked close to the peak of ripeness, is sweeter and nutritionally superior. Due to its beautiful taste and flavour, I am happy to eat them whole or chopped into a meal, there was no added sugar needed. From a packaging point of view, the farmer’s market apricots were packaged in cardboard, that I can re-use, recycle, compost or burn. From a food waste point of view, at least at a consumer level, there was no waste as long as I consume or store them before they go rotten. From an energy point of view, both products travelled from Niagara to my local town. The farmer’s market example went from farm to the market and was not refrigerated. The fruit that was destined for the grocery store went from farm to refrigerated storage, to a refrigerated transport before reaching the refrigerated storage at the grocery store. The refrigerated chain reduces waste and losses but increases energy use.
In this example, where you buy your food from, not where and how it was grown, affects taste, flavour, nutrition, food waste and packaging.
So, what I am illustrating is that where and how we interact with our food or food systems, through buying, collecting, trading, foraging for example ultimately affects things like the nutrition profile of your food, the relationship you have with growers, the packaging, the taste, flavour and waste generated. Each part is connected to the others in different ways.
Another much simpler example is buying meat from some of the small local farms, for example small-scale grass fed beef, pork, lamb or poultry. I know from experience that this meat looks and tastes different from meat from factory farms. The only places where I live that you can buy the local meats is from the local processor, direct from the farmer, on-farm or at the farmer’s market, or at the local food co-op. Where you buy your food, affects what growing system you are buying from.
If you expand this a bit, you can say that the system you are interacting with, affects so many aspects of our food, from food availability, taste and nutrition, resilience of the system, how people and animals are treated, and ultimately the affect on Earth’s biosphere or planetary health.
A few years ago, I embodied this idea into a framework that I call Dr. Tara’s Food for Flourishing Framework or Dr Tara’s Regenerative Food Framework. It is a visual framework for creating healthy food systems within planetary boundaries. The framework is two rings around an inner circle, but it all started with the food cycle. I will put a diagram in the transcript of the show.
The ring that shows the food cycle, simply shows the common processes we do with our food. These are growing, collecting, which can be shopping, foraging, trading; processing and preserving, storing, cooking, eating, composting and waste. The order of these may change, we may not do all the processes every time or we may do some things like storing our food in multiple different stages in different ways. But ultimately the point is that this is a circular system not a linear chain.
The other point I want to emphasize is that this is a system which means that everything affects everything else, as I illustrated with the apricot example.
| Dr Tara’s Food for Flourishing Framework aka Dr Tara’s Regenerative Food Framework
When I was developing my framework, I looked at how to structure a system that provides an abundant supply of food, that is nutrient rich and tasty, that is also reliable and resilient so that we all have access to food at all times AND that operates within the regenerative and safety limits of Earth’s biosphere.
And unlike the systems we have now that are structured as a linear supply chain. We need to think in circles and cycles, just like nature. After all nature’s energy cycles are ultimately solar powered, cycle matter in a circular and perpetual way. Just look around you to any ecosystem.
I get to see this the most clearly when I go walking in the woods where I live, you can see the cycle at work, plants and trees growing, being eaten, dying, and breaking down again. You can see from the moose, bear, and fox poop what the animals have eaten and over time see it break down again on the forest floor. You can the stumps of long dead trees, covered in moss and fungi, full of animal habitat and you can even see younger trees growing from and up and around the old tree stump.
This is the ideal way to structure our food system, everything is recycled around the system and everything is powered by the sun. Now when it comes to ideal systems, they are not always attainable but they are a model of how to structure a system.
One of the key principles here is that everything is connected to everything else.
Now, you might be thinking right now that you don’t want to go back to the days of growing and foraging for your own food, you don’t have the time or inclination. And that is totally fine, you don’t have to. In nature there are examples of animals that have a communal approach to food.
What I find fascinating when I look to nature, is that we humans are not the only ones that do more than forage, eat and poop. You can see so many examples of animals that do so much more with their food and still stay in this perpetual, solar powered cycle.
Let’s look at a few examples..
· There are insects that do some forms of agriculture (e.g. some ants raise fungi).
· In animals that live in colonies (communities), not everyone is a forager, different members of have different roles, just like humans. Honeybees, termites and ants are examples of this.
· Some animals process and preserve their food ready for storage. Bees turning nectar into honey is one example. Some animals leave food out to dry or ripen after harvesting.
· Many animals store (cache) their food for lean times. Many of us will have seen animals and birds store food, for example chickadees, squirrels, chipmunks and other rodents.
When you start looking around to see the different food activities which animals do, we can see that humans are not so different. The one food process that humans do, that other animals do not do, is cooking.
Now let’s jump back to we modern humans. Most of us rely on other people, machines, equipment and resources to do most of our food processes. But almost all of us collect food, as in buy and share food, we all eat and we all waste some food, especially inedible parts of our food.
And, if you want to change the system, so that we ultimately have access to enough nutrient rich and tasty food at all times that comes from a system that is ultimately solar powered and perpetually recycles matter. Then we have to change how we interact with our food system and what we expect from it.
Let’s briefly go around the different parts of the cycle to explain.
We will start off with growing:
The starting point of our food cycle are plants taking sunlight and chemicals from the air, soil and water. All of our food originates from plants whether on land or sea.
The way plants and animals are grown, the types of plants and animals that are grown affect the taste, nutrition, resilience, the amount of space needed, as well as the energy and chemical inputs used.
If you have grown any of your own food or eaten wild foods you will have noticed the differences in the taste, texture and flavour of your food from what you buy in most stores.
The growing and food collecting (shopping) methods are connected. Products from small farms, or specialty products are often sold through outlets that allow farmers to take bigger parts of the earning for example farmers’ markets, cooperative, direct to customer. Customers can enjoy the local distinctiveness of food.
Collecting: This is the part of the food cycle in which we nearly all take part in. We have to get our food from somewhere. The food collecting activities include foraging, hunting, trading & bartering and shopping. There are too many options for food shopping to list but some of the common ones are: markets, community supported agriculture, food cooperatives, food festivals, specialty food shops.
As I explained in the apricot example, we tend to get really hung up on how we grow our food. Yes, this really does matter when it comes to the nutrition in our food but it is only part of the story. I have also found that how and where you buy your food from affects how your food tastes and its nutrition.
Processing, preserving, and storing: When it comes to food processing, there are many ways of processing our food that help us to store food for use during lean times. There are also processing methods (for example cooking) that create wonderful meals for us to eat.
Unfortunately, the prevalent way of food processing is to take the high input commodity crops and with the addition of various chemicals turn them into something that resembles food. When you look at the ingredient lists there is a story attached to how each one of those is produced. At each stage of processing there are energy, chemical, transportation, and other inputs.
Unless you are eating food straight after harvesting, food storage and preservation are very important. In cool climates, food storage and preservation are important to see us through the season where we can grow very little. In warm and hot times of year food can spoil very quickly so food storage and preservation matters.
Ideally, we want to protect the appearance, flavour and nutritional value of our food. Traditional food storage and preservation methods generally prevent unwanted microorganisms from multiplying or spreading by keeping a low temperature, high acidity, low water content, high salt concentrations or by fermenting. The traditional methods also slow down oxidation by sealing food in containers, dark spaces, cool temperatures or by putting foods in sand or earth.
Let’s make this clear, we want food to be able to spoil. Our bodies rely on enzymes and microorganisms to break food down so we can get the nutrients we need from it. We also want food to decompose through composting so that the nutrients can be used in the growing cycle again.
The need for, and the preservation options are affected by the rest of the food cycle. I have found that buying fresh greens, strawberries and other soft fruits from famers’ markets both tastes better (more nutrient rich) and keep longer than store bought. This is likely because farmers’ market or farm stand fruit and vegetables are often picked the day they are sold. I have also found that some fruits stored in the fridge lost much of their flavour within the week. This then ties into the waste part of the cycle. If we do not consume our food before it spoils it gets thrown out.
Cooking: Cooking food is a uniquely human activity. Cooking and baking allow us to more easily extract nutrients from our food. It also saves an awful lot of chewing!
For some reason, home cooking has largely been “women’s work”. As more women have their own careers, eating out and eating pre-made meals has become more normal. The problem is that outsourcing our cooking and baking to large corporations is not great for our health. We have given up control over what is going into our bodies.
I have personally found that if I buy meals out very often my intestinal system quickly becomes upset. Even supposedly healthy meals have left my abdominal section puffed up and retaining water for days.
If you start with great tasting, nutrient rich foods, grown well, they can be prepared really simply, and make a fantastic meal.
Eating: Nourishing our bodies with food is really the point of all the steps we have gone through. But there are ways of eating that nourish our bodies and minds and there are ways that leave us miserable, alone and feeling rotten.
Food and eating done well gives us the opportunity to have feelings of pleasure and wellbeing every day, while nourishing our bodies. Our food and eating connects us to the people and the planet that help to bring us our food.
Composting:
In order to close the food cycle, we have to talk about composting and waste. Our modern food systems operate on a take, make and waste chain rather than in a circular manner. If you think about it, everything we eat ends up as waste at some point, but this is part of the natural cycle.
Composting and waste are really where you get to see the effects of the rest of the food system. The type and quantities of waste are connected with all the previous processes.
Remember that the ideal human system would be powered by the sun and the wastes produced would all be composted and returned back to the land to start the cycle again.
The current system of commodity foods moving all over the world, using large amounts of chemicals, materials and energy, processing in large factories, packaging, refrigeration, and retail is not and cannot be circular.
If we really want to virtually eliminate not only food waste, but all the other wastes I have listed above, we have to restructure the whole system and cycle. Each part of the cycle ultimately affects what and how much waste is produced and whether it can be cycled through the process again.
Now, I have probably totally overloaded you with information. So I want to summarize this up for you really simply. If you want to eat food that is nutritious and tasty, and you want to solve problems like food waste, energy and resource use in our food systems, then the whole food cycle matters. Instead of thinking of linear food chains we need to think in circles and cycles. We need to think of the system as a whole, not just its parts.
Trying to optimize isolated parts, as we do now, will not produce food that is abundant, nutrient rich and tasty, that is also reliable and resilient, that also operates within the regenerative and safety limits of Earth’s biosphere.
In the end, we need to see that every part of our food systems are interconnected, and ultimately we need to think in circles and cycles and reconnect the food cycle.
That is it for me Tara Naylor today, until next time…..