Navigating the eco-diet seas can be challenging. There are so many conflicting opinions out there on what makes up the greenest diet. Do you go vegan? Vegetarian? Limit yourself to sustainably raised meat and seafood from Seafood Watch’s green list? Do you buy everything organic? Or ignore the certification and adopt a 100 Mile Diet?

Thinking about everything we put in our mouths and evaluating it from an eco-perspective can be downright exhausting and take the joy out of eating. Yet, we all eat at least three times a day and the choices at the end of our forks matter a lot. It is the one area of our lives where we do have a lot of control over our impact on the environment.

By comparison, look at our driving habits. Driving burns non-renewable resources and pollutes the air, and it would be better if we did a lot less of it. Yet because many jobs are located far from residential areas and public transportation is often inadequate or nonexistent, it’s not such an easy thing for many people to choose not to drive.

Yet with food, we all have a choice about what we buy, prepare and put in our mouths. But how do we know which choices are best from an environmental point of view and how do we modify our lifestyles to make them?

If anyone has a sure-fire, no nonsense way to eat green without agonizing over it, it’s got to be the Lazy Environmentalist.

Josh Dorfman is executive producer and host of Sundance Channel’s The Lazy Environmentalist. He is also the author of two books on cutting-edge green products, companies, and trends: The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living, and the follow-up The Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget.

The Green Plate caught up with Josh and to get his thoughts on greening your diet:

Q: On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is diet in greening one’s lifestyle? Why?

A: First, we make food consumption choices everyday. So diet provides us with the most opportunities to make personal decisions that are healthier for the planet. Second, choosing a green diet almost always equates to making healthier choices for ourselves. We forget that we’re mammals, which is to say that we’re part of nature. Nature doesn’t just exist “out there” where the trees grow, the snow falls, and the rivers run. The choices we make about what we put in our bodies have huge implications for our health and the health of the planet. We cannot be stewards of the planet to the greatest extent of our capabilities if we’re not simultaneously stewards of our own bodies and personal health.

Q: Cooking fresh foods is greener than eating packaged processed foods or takeout, but many people are too lazy (or busy) to cook. Do you have any time-saving, streamlining tips for home cooks?

A: I’m ridiculously lazy in the kitchen. Sad as it may seem, my advice is to have someone else do the cooking. That will save you a lot of time.

Q: Studies have shown that animal agriculture is a huge contributor to climate change. What’s your personal position on meat?  Are you vegan, vegetarian, conscious omnivore or something else?

A: I like meat, and I eat meat. However, I’ve made a conscious decision to eat meat less often in order to reduce my environmental impact and lead a healthier lifestyle. I also prefer to consume meat that comes from local farms where healthier agricultural and livestock practices are in place. I’m wary of labels like vegan or vegetarian, etc. because I think those words are so charged with ideological and political meaning that they alienate more than they attract. I talk about a lot about Meatless Monday, which in essence is saying that we could all commit to eating less meat, say, one day per week. That’s not really a life altering, difficult change to implement. It’s just a simple step that probably will save you some money and make you healthier. MeatlessMonday.org is a great organization that supports this agenda.

Q: Given the choice between organic food shipped from far away or local, conventional food, which is best?

A: I think you’re asking the wrong question. I have no idea which is best, nor do I care. Both choices are better than the typical choice most of us make most often, which is to buy non-organic food shipped from far away. My philosophy is to just focus on making a better choice than you typically make and move on with your life. Getting hung up on the best choice is frequently counterproductive and emotionally draining. We are so far away from living in a perfect world, so it’s not time yet to worry about making perfect decisions. It’s really a time to focus on making progress. Both local and organic are about making progress, so both are good.

Q: You’re big on going green on a budget. Can you tell readers how a green diet can also be a cheapskate diet?

A: It depends on your goals. I want to eat a healthy diet that’s also a green diet. So I’m committed to drinking more water and cutting down on sugary drinks. That saves me money. I’m spokesperson for Brita’s FilterForGood campaign to reduce bottled waste. I take my FilterForGood reusable water bottle with me most everywhere. I stay hydrated, save money, and eliminate the waste created from one-use, disposable plastic water bottles. In general, I think it would be misleading to assert that choosing a green diet can be done a tighter budget than choosing a conventional diet. By definition, green foods are usually better, higher quality foods. Naturally, a better, higher quality product is going to cost more than an inferior, less nutritional, more chemically laden, conventional product.

Q: What are the five greenest things in your fridge?

A:

1. 1. Organic lemons. I squeeze them into my water, which I find boosts my energy level throughout the day.
2. Organic milk. I eat a lot of cereal, so this is a big one for me.
3. Organic vegetables. They’re definitely expensive, but I prefer to keep pesticides and insecticides out of my body and out of the environment.
4. Organic peanut butter & organic strawberry preserves. I still love a good PB & J, just like when I was a kid.
5. Locally baked, all-natural multigrain bread. We’ve got some great bakeries here in Asheville, N.C., and I love to support them because their breads are delicious. This is key because if their breads weren’t delicious, I wouldn’t buy them just to support the local economy. Quality and taste matter.

Q: I know you understand the importance of buying local foods. What are your non-negotiable imported foods?

A: Chinese food. No wait, that’s cooked here. Honestly, I’m not so committed to any one particular food that I have non-negotiables. Except for smoked salmon. I just love it.

Q: You’re throwing a dinner party for some of your most admired environmental heroes (past or present). Who do you invite and what do you cook for them?

A: I’d invite Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and Jack Johnson. We’d go into the woods and have a cookout. We’d eat grilled skewers of local, organically grown vegetables like red, green, and yellow peppers mixed with spiced chicken and turkey sausage sourced locally from farms that grass-feed their animals and avoid pumping them with hormones. I’d pack along a couple of boxes of Newman’s Own organic fig newtons for dessert. So delicious. We’d talk at length about humanity’s relationship with nature. We talk about strategies for cultivating greater consciousness and connectedness to all that is. We talk about the paradigm shift that lies ahead in which humans come to understand on an experiential level what science is already discovering, which is that at the deepest levels of existence we are all one energy field, we are all one with nature. Then we’d sing along while Jack played some kick-ass music late into the night.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: MarkWSutton

The post The Green Plate Interviews Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist appeared first on EcoSalon.

An obstacle people often face when trying to eat a healthy, green, reasonably priced diet is a lack of cooking skills. Cookbooks don’t always help. Most food authors attempt to teach people how to cook real food (as opposed to opening packages, dumping and stirring) and assume the reader already knows something about cooking.

Other cookbooks are written as if people who don’t already know how to cook must not really want to know how to cook. These cookbooks seem to think that people should just be happy to combine processed foods in innumerable ways to create “quick and easy meals”.

That’s where this new book comes in. Cook Food – which is earning rave reviews – can teach people how to cook simple, tasty, nourishing, whole foods quickly, cheaply, and above all, intelligently. If you know someone who cares about the environment, their body, animals, and taste, yet nobody has ever taught them to cook, give them this book.

Lisa Jervis, who is perhaps best known for being the Founding Editor and Publisher of the magazine Bitch: A Feminist Response to Pop Culture, has written a slim, no nonsense book with a can-do attitude. Don’t expect glossy photos. This isn’t aspirational food porn. This is a manualfesto!

Vegan Approach to Sensitive Cooking and Eating

Jervis’s  book is entirely vegan, with very occasional suggestions for adding dairy products if desired, but that’s not really the point, so don’t stop reading just because you don’t happen to be vegan. The book’s main message is that cooking for oneself shouldn’t be challenging, expensive, or time-consuming.

Jervis stresses cooking and eating consciously for your health and the planet. Whether we are meat eaters or not, we all need to eat our vegetables. And most of us could lower our meat consumption for the sake of both our bodies and the planet. Knowing how to prepare tasty veg-centric meals and getting in the habit of eating more of them is a great skill to have.

A Look at Our Food System

By way of introduction as to why the recipes in the book are vegan and almost always seasonal and unprocessed, the author gives a succinct primer on what’s wrong with our food system with many nods to authors like Michael Pollan and Raj Patel.

She touches on complex issues such as why processed soy products aren’t as good for the environment as some people think, and how affordability is relative, and why we shouldn’t worry too much about micronutrients, or (gasp!) salt – all of which serve to get the reader thinking deeply about food.

But Jervis doesn’t want us to think so deeply that we become paralyzed about our food choices, so she ends with a very smart bit of advice: “In the end, we can all only do the best we can, which actually means a lot.”

A Well Stocked Kitchen

Before getting down to cooking, Jervis wants you to have the right supplies. The entire first section of the book talks about what tools, spices and pantry items you absolutely need and which ones you can actually do without. There are different tiers from “must haves” to “nice to haves” to “splurges,” and as a cook, I can say the advice is solid.

Just as solid are her explanations of cooking techniques. Using a friendly, approachable style, Jervis sets out to teach you how to cook. I mean really cook. She defines and describes sautéing, blanching, roasting. She tells why to salt early in the process, how caramelization builds flavor, and how dried herbs behave more like spices and therefore should be added at the beginning, while fresh herbs lose flavor if cooked to long.

The tone is matter-of-fact rather than pedantic, and none of the techniques are dumbed down in the least. Simplified, not stupid. Rather than just imparting recipes, she teaches how to build flavor in a dish, merrily dispensing variation suggestions throughout in order to coax cooks into trusting their own instincts.

Roasting Veggies

My favorite part of the book is the section on roasting vegetables. People are always shocked by how good roasted vegetables done properly with olive oil, salt, and high heat can taste. It’s such a simple thing, yet there is a lot of technique involved that most experienced cooks just do unconsciously, and most cookbooks don’t even attempt to explain.

Jervis’ mini-treatise tells why not to crowd the vegetables (they steam) why you should use a dark pan (they brown better), how to cut (so as to have lots of surfaces to brown) and why to toss them in olive oil with your hands (so the oil penetrates into all the cracks and crevices), and more. Next time someone asks me how I get my roasted vegetables to taste so good, I’m just going to hand them that section of Cook Food.

What You Will Learn From the Book

In the end, the reader gets simple food prepared with solid techniques that can be used for a lifetime of cooking.

Even experienced cooks might learn something from Cook Food. In the recipe for Ginger-Garlic-Sesame Tofu with Spinach, I learned why my tofu doesn’t ever taste all that great when I marinate it and sauté it – because I’ve never pressed it. Turns out that removing all the excess liquid lets the tofu absorb the marinade better and leads to more efficient caramelizing.

I also love the three recipes for Beans n’ Greens (Italian style, Indian style, and Chili style) because such recipes are a great way to eat. Filling, healthy, streamlined, green, efficient. You can feed a lot of people or just yourself all week long with one dish.

My only quibble: I think both the flavor and texture of dried beans from scratch are so superior to canned that it would be a service to readers to tell them that it’s mostly the planning that hangs people up, not the actually process. You don’t have to do anything to the beans while they are cooking, other than to stir and check them occasionally, and you can use a crockpot, making it even easier. And then you have the beans around to use for quick meals. But then, as the author of a cookbook devoted entirely to dried beans, I would say that!

I’d like people to cook more dried beans so they can experience how good they are, but at the risk of making the perfect the enemy of the good, I’ll agree with Jervis. If the best you can do on any given night is open a can of beans, that’s okay, “because it actually means a lot.”

Main Image: Amazon

Image One: East Bay Express

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

The post Lisa Jervis’s New Cookbook: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating appeared first on EcoSalon.