Gigabiting

Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.

Oh, if only it were that easy.

Even Michael Pollan, author of those oft-repeated seven words, felt the need to refine the edict with an entire book of rules.

After he exposed us to the ills of the American diet and the inherent dangers in our uber-capitalistic food industry, Michael Pollan left millions of readers wondering what to eat. He began to compile a list of rules to eat by. A mention of the project on his blog resulted in a flood of reader-submitted suggestions— more than 2,500 of them. Read entire article.

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Howdy neighbor.

Multinational conglomerates— especially those best known for corporate steamrolling— are touting their locavore cred:

Lay’s potato chips is running a series of television commercials featuring five of the farmers/suppliers who bring the simple happiness of farm life to big cities across America— including one whose ‘local farm’ covers 17,000 acres in 11 states.

McDonalds billboards trumpet locally-sourced french fries that are from here, for you; although the company admits that it hasn’t actually changed its buying practices and, of course, “participation and duration may vary.” Read entire article.

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You drink too much soda.

Last year Americans consumed 50 billion liters of soda. That comes to 216 liters for every man, woman, and child. Not you? Someone is drinking all that soda.

This is not like pineapples from Hawaii or lobsters from Maine—it’s water and flavoring and some CO2 for carbonation—the stuff could come from anywhere. And sparkling water? We haul San Pellegrino from Italy like it’s Prosciutto di Parma. Oceans of corn syrup, mountains of glass and plastic waste, money, fossil fuels; this is wrong on so many levels I don’t know where to begin. Read entire article.

It’s been nearly two months since the BP oil drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico killing 11 workers and resulting in the largest oil spill in U.S. history. As we witness the devastating impact on health, livelihoods, habitats, and wildlife, we have to ask ourselves what we could be doing to help.

The answer is plenty, even for those of us who don’t live close enough to volunteer. And some of the ways to help will surprise you. Read entire article.

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Forget about the 100-mile diet. How about the 100-yard diet?

Sunset Magazine has taken local foods to a whole new level with its One-Block Diet. With a long history of expertise in cooking, gardening, and DIY, and utilizing just the open space on their Menlo Park, California campus, the magazine staff is attempting to grow, cultivate, brew, ferment, breed, and distill everything needed for a complete diet. Read entire article.

Do I dare to eat a peach?

– T.S. Eliot, from the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

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There’s no two ways about it: we pay dearly for our organics. The premium is usually 20% – 100% of the price of conventional counterparts.

The Dirty Dozen

You just have to bite the bullet with these twelve fruits and vegetables. Pesticide levels are so high that even with careful washing and peeling there is no way to avoid ingesting a good-sized dose. It’s estimated that you can reduce your total pesticide exposure by 80% if you stick with organic varieties of just this dozen. Read entire article.