Features

There are ever so many reasons to change what you eat, ranging from the laughable to the admirable. We make eating choices for the sake of our weight, our wallet, our health, our image ... or sometimes (and perhaps less often) our beliefs. Animal rights crusaders have campaigned long and hard to convince the masses of the evils of meats, but these days there is another concern changing the tabletop spreads of some homes. Today, more and more people are choosing to base their diets on minimising their environmental impact. Susan Smirk delves into a few 'green' diet options, including vegetarianism, veganism, and the vibrant new 'locavores' movement.

 
Vegetarianism
   The New Zealand Vegetarian Society claims that animal farming is one of the most significant contributors to the planet’s most serious environmental problems. Their website is also full of health, ethical, and even anatomical reasons why the vegetarian lifestyle is the way, but they have a whole extra page dedicated to the environmental contribution of vegetarianism. The World Health Organisation backs them up and says that eating plant foods is both healthier and more efficient than feeding animals to produce meat.
   The most fashionable criticism of animal farming at the moment is its contribution to climate change. Cows produce nitrous oxide and methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Hence we have the 'fart tax' proposal, much controversy, and a field day for political cartoonists. Not surprising, New Zealand's agricultural sector is our biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally, the main cause of deforestation is animal farming. It also causes land degradation, erosion and sedimentation of waterways, and soil/water contamination. Even in New Zealand, water quality has declined in regions of intensive animal farming. Quite logically, biodiversity also tends to decrease as native land is converted into farmland.
   Then there's the less chic 'resource consumption' question. The ways the numbers stack up, there's no doubt that the flavour of flesh comes at a cost.
* It can use up to 1 million litres of water to produce 1kg of meat, but only 1-2 thousand litres to produce 1kg of wheat
* A plant-based diet requires 10–20 times less land than a meat-based diet. 
 
   Meatless Mondays
   Figures like this make it quite clear why so many people are beginning to see vegetarianism as the perfect way to make a difference to our planet, while enjoying some obvious health benefits. But lets face it, we are not all ready to take the plunge into a life of tofu and lentils. So, lessening our intake of meat is more realistic goal for most of us than simply trying to go 'cold turkey,' so to speak. Since it can be hard to adhere to the vague measure of 'less', you could try picking one day of the week, and not eating meat on that day, such as the famous 'Meatless Mondays'. Sure, it’s not quite so exciting as Naked Tuesday, but still a good challenge to take on.
 
 
   Veganism
 
   Vegans – now they are hard-core. Their 'no animal products' mantra cuts out not only meat but any food derived from living or dead animals, including milk, eggs, cheese, and many other tricksy common minor ingredients.
   Daniel Simpson Beck told Critic that he became vegan just one month ago, for both ethical and environmental reasons. “It is no coincidence that veganism is a positive choice both for ethical and environmental reasons. The animals and the environment are both intimately linked to the natural system.” He said that before he became a vegan his diet was 'terrible.' But after investigating the ethical arguments for and against veganism, he decided to abandon the takeaway regime and try the high road. 
 
 
   If you are planning to try a vegan diet:
* Make sure you are getting enough calcium from foods like broccoli and calcium-fortified soy milk.
* Take B12 supplements. Also, make sure you get vege-caps as most capsules are made of gelatin, which comes from animal hooves.
* Then there is the protein issue. This isn't really as much of a problem as it seems. It is actually fairly easy to get all your amino acids from a vegan diet. This site explains it well: http://bit.ly/38TCRE 
 
   Many of Beck's friends have become vegans in the last few years, he says, and many more are embracing a locavore diet. He says it is “hard to refute” the evidence for the benefits of such choices. “It should be plain to the conscious human what the right action to take is when presented with the facts. Then you can either choose to act right and make a positive impact on the world or choose the low path and continue the lifestyles that are tearing our natural system to pieces.”
 
 
   Locavores: “doing their darnedest to eat delicious local in-season produce”
   ‘Locavore’ was the 2007 word of the year in the Oxford American Dictionary. It might be a new term to you, but the locavore ethos is gathering a stalwart Dunedin following and a significant local presence. Sian Hannagan, who started the Dunedin Locavores Facebook page, says you can be a locavore without having to make big changes. “You don't even have to alter your diet in terms of what kind of food groups you are eating.” This is because being a locavore (or 'localvore') is not so much about what you eat, as it is about where you food comes from, with a focus on eating locally-grown food. The Dunedin Locavores group is not about a hardcore dietary regime, but instead, simply spreading consciousness about how little lifestyle changes around eating can affect the environment.
   Hannagan, originally from Nelson, has been in Dunedin about four years, and has “really started to like the place.” She caught the locavore fever after reading a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which is about a family's attempt to live off the land. Hannagan freely admits that it can be tricky to pick out foods that are healthy, natural, and produced locally. “You have to be really smart, and I guess that’s why I got the locavore group going, to start making people aware of the brands they can buy, so they know that choice is there.” Her main advice is to eat as simply as possible: "the less ingredients an item has, the less food miles and additives it will have. Go for whole foods. And make your own meals rather than getting ready made.” She also suggest you get as close to the growers as possible: “avoid supermarkets if at all possible!... I mean I go to the supermarket, don't get me wrong, but even if you just quit getting your produce from the supermarket, and get it from the farmers’ market, and local growers.”
   Hannagan personally laments how difficult it is to obtain locally-grown mushrooms at a reasonable price. Mostly, however, she says a bounty of vegetables is available locally-grown. Getting fruit out of season can be tricky, and she says in this case “sometimes it’s worth considering changing what you eat.” She also compliments the quality of poultry, pork, and beef available locally. Hannagan has never been a vegetarian, because she doesn't believe it is ethically wrong to eat animals. In fact, she argues convincingly that large monocultures of grain, for example, can be just as ecologically damaging as animal farming. Local, organic, and ethical is the way to go. “For me it’s not saying animal versus vegetable, it’s saying conscious choices rather than unconscious.”
 
 
   Fair Trade 
   Fair trade, you say, is about poor people, not the planet – so why does it deserve a mention here? It's because the guidelines that govern the fair trade system (ensuring that six-year olds aren't wielding machetes to cut down your cocoa beans) also ensure that the producers who grow the products are doing it in a sustainable, eco-friendly way. Since most producers with which not-for-profit companies like Trade Aid work are pretty small-scale, they won't be using big dirty machines, genetic engineering, copious noxious chemical, or other mass production techniques. In other words, Trade Aid's food and hand-craft partners have a very low carbon footprint. Trade Aid Dunedin's Education Coordinator Dave Butler-Peck explains that Trade Aid “has built some amazing relationships with so many fair trade co-operatives around the world, almost all of which use organic production methods, which is a really important part of what Trade Aid does.”
 
 
   GROW-IT-YOURSELF IN DUNEDIN (could be a side-box if you want)
   There's no doubt that growing your own food is a good thing. But with the constant game of musical flats that most students play, it can be tricky to put down roots in any one location. Planting a garden by the sweat of your brow, and then having to abandon it when you move, is not the most productive experience. But growing a few things is still possible. Lots of plants can be grown in pot or planter boxes: lettuce, tomatoes, strawberries, and all sorts of herbs, just to name a few. And it's going to be a lot cheaper than buying the finished product in the supermarket. Sian Hannagan suggests that “having just five lettuce plants would save you whatever you spent on lettuce every week for three months.”
   Dunedin has a few community gardens, although there is yet to be one specifically for students. The food-growing ethos is, well, growing. They even plant edible crops outside the Railway Station at this time of year, although the council claims that the silverbeet and parsley outside this landmark are simply for the pleasing colour and coverage. The Polytech, too, has started a growing spree, with spring onions, parsley, broccoli chard, and spinach growing around their campus.
 
 
 The Locavore’s Guide to Consuming with a Conscience
   Whenever considering what to eat, use the steps below as a guideline!
   1. Grow/farm your own using organic methods
   or
   2. Buy locally and ethically grown organic in-season produce
   or
   3. Buy New Zealand-grown or farmed food, ethically and organically produced and in-season if possible.
   or
   4. Buy locally processed or imported seasonal food from small local businesses,
   Or if none of these are available:
   5. Buy ethically grown or produced products imported from overseas.
   Limit rubbish and waste, limit pollutants, limit carbon footprints and support local businesses! 
    Otago Farmers’ market
   Every Saturday morning the Railway Station parking lot fills with food, colour, flavour, music, and people. It’s a cornucopia of locally-grown fruit and veg, meats, plants, bread, pastries, jams, cheese nuts, crepes, berries, sweets, and all sorts of other exciting extras (mmm falafal!). Have a chat to the growers themselves, and get the healthiest lot of groceries you could find anywhere. Just remember your re-usable bag ... you'll want to fill it!