Another terrific lecture on food and agriculture

This one comes courtesy of the Terry Talks at UBC. I'm impressed with the articulate arguments presented by these students. Here is one on, what else, urban agriculture :)


Redefining boundaries: Urban Agriculture: Tiffany Tong from terrytalks on Vimeo.

Little green steps

At the beginning of the year, I pledged to take one action a week to reduce my environmental impact. I haven't exactly been able to keep up that pace, but I have been working away at it.

1) I have started freezing food in repurposed milk and OJ cartons. My logic is that the waxed cardboard is the cheapest, lightest, and safest alternative to freezing in plastic or glass (one cracked bottle of veggie stock was enough for me to give up on glass). And I can recycle them when they have worn out. Although, odds are it's petroleum based wax. Sigh.

2) I have decided to purchase only local beer from now on, and to look for sources for local spirits. Oh the sacrifices I make.

3) I bought a good stainless steel stove top espresso maker, so that I stop spending money, fuel, and self-respect on cappuccinos at Starbucks.

4) I am phasing out bath soap in plastic bottles. I started with a bar of shampoo.

Next book to read

Reading this interview of local foodie Dee Hobsbawn-Smith led me to my next book to read: The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry. Michael Pollan also mentioned it his book, so my interest is piqued..

Homemade veggie stock concentrate

In my ongoing quest to reduce the number of prefab foods I use, I've given some thought to the prepackaged items I use a lot. One of them is vegetable stock for soups - the options are make your own giant pot and freeze it (time consuming and freezer consuming.. also I rarely plan far enough ahead to defrost a litre of stock in advance..), or buy it premade. I've found the powders and cubes to be lacking in taste and it feels like a silly thing to spend money on. So I'm trying Just Bento's recipe for making your own veggie soup concentrate. I pureed the concentrate to use it for stock, and plan to freeze it in a silicone ice cube trays to avoid having to use plastic wrap.
I'm not sure that I trust silicone, but seems marginally safer than hard plastic for freezing. Are there any ideas out there for freezing without using plastic? It seems to be my biggest food storage conundrum..

Mark Bittman at TED2007

Mark Bittman, a food writer for the New York Times who writes 'The Minimalist' series (a great source of simple, fresh recipes), sums up the current threats to the world, created in part by the way we approach food.