Happy Valentine’s Day! The big news this week was the Let’s Move campaign launched by the First Lady Mrs. Obama to fight the problem of childhood obesity in America. I think it is a worthwhile and timely initiative and I am glad that someone of her status is taking it on to give it the visibility it needs. While the cause is noble, the intentions are genuine and the star power is undeniable, I believe that the approach taken by her campaign is fundamentally flawed. I have serious doubts that it would create a change at the scale needed to make any real impact in the long term health of our nation.

I don’t normally consider myself a glass-half-empty-kinda guy. Yet, today I find myself compelled to give you 5 reasons why this initiative is destined to disappoint. I do sincerely hope I am wrong!

It will not change the demand for cheap fast food in any significant way

I admire Mrs. Obama’s candor in her acknowledgment that she found it hard to balance her family’s need for a healthful diet and demands of hers and Mr. Obama’s careers. Just too busy, not enough time…being unable to cook a good meal for my kids…going to fast food…ordering pizza. She certainly reflects the feelings of many Americans; however the ideas proposed under her first pillar, Healthy Choices, are simply too stale. Here is why:

• Empower customers by front-of-box labeling – interesting idea; already much talked about and being practiced, although not in a standardized way. I believe food marketers will eventually find a way around whatever regulations are introduced and customers will tune out the front-of-the-box information just the way they have tuned out the detailed and really informative nutrition facts label at the back.
• Prescription for healthier living – doctors and nurses will be encouraged to track body mass index and offer counseling for healthy eating early on. Nice thought – every time I go to the dentist, they tell me to floss daily. I don’t, even though I want to. I don’t even feel guilty about it anymore. I realize, they are just doing their job.
• Next generation food pyramid – Guess what, the USDA wants to revamp the food pyramid and online interactive tools! Great news for the academics. A busy parent is probably already overwhelmed; besides if they don’t find time to cook a good meal, do you really believe they will tinker around with online tools?
• Empowering change – very novel idea of a food atlas to show you food deserts around the country. If you live in one, watch out your property value may decline! Just kidding. Again, I think this is a gadget for the academic in us!
• Let’s move start up tools – so you need to stop watching TV and get out there and get some exercise! We all know that and no new tools are needed to convince us or help us out. There are plenty of them out there already.

The fundamentals remain unchanged – we live busy lives; we are always on-the-go; cheap fast food is readily available; it makes us feel good and solves a real problem. None of these ideas will change consumer habits in a fundamental way. At best, they will make people feel guilty, temporarily at least, but don’t expect them to change their habits.

It will not change how we farm and what we grow

What we grow is corn and beans – lots of them.  We practice industrial agriculture which is dependent on fertilizers, pesticides, genetic modifications and consumes an unbelievable amount of natural resources. If you have doubts, pick up a book by Michael Pollan. We process meat in feedlots virtually shut-off to the outside world and raise cattle on a diet of corn. Chickens are no better and quality of seafood is getting worse; what with mercury contamination and salmon being raised on corn! We are constantly battling risks with food safety because of loopholes in inspections.

The wheel of supply and demand turns day and night, getting faster with each turn as the population grows and our appetite explodes. If demand does not change in a fundamental way, how can we expect supply to change? The so called organic movement and sustainable farming are like toddlers in the face of industrial farming.

Granted that one should not expect the First Lady to address such political hot buttons. But one should also not get too enamored by the marketing of this campaign to forget that our problems really arise out of the farm driven by consumer demand.

It offers no incentives for the food industry to innovate

I was excited to read:

Let’s Move is building communities by bringing together families, schools, private industry and government to make healthy living easier

I kept looking for what is expected of the private industry and the only example I found was how the beverage industry is answering the FDA’s call to post calorie information on the bottle! This is no innovation, only a marketing gimmick to appear responsible. There are no real drivers for the industry to innovate to produce healthful products. And believe me, the so called soda tax or twinkie tax is unlikely to effect this desired behavior.

Now you could argue about the definition of a healthful product. Surely, reducing sodium, trans fat and sugar is a step in the right direction. But the fact remains that these products do nothing to reduce the share of processed food in a typical American diet. In fact, this notion is contrary to the business model – after all, the food industry stays in business by selling more of their products, not less. I would love to see food companies create products (and services) that actually increase the share of home-cooked food in an average family. That would be real innovation.

It creates another food bureaucracy

A new Healthy Food Financing Initiative through a partnership between the departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health & Human Services will invest $400 million each year to provide innovative financing to bring grocery stores to underserved areas. The idea is to increase access to healthy food, fruits and vegetables and to get rid of food deserts across the country. To me it smells like a new bureaucracy, unsustainable in the long run and at the risk of another budget cut. It addresses the issue of supply assuming that the demand will naturally be there. Really? Why not utilize the network of food banks and offer incentives to buy healthful products on food stamps? Do we really need a new system?

It will encourage schools to game the system

School administrators now have a new goal to accomplish – try to fit the mold of a healthier school with the Healthier Schools Challenge. The scorecard is simple – reduce salt, fat and sugar and increase whole grains. This is nutritionism at its best. It is probably not difficult to meet the standards – whatever they might be – over the 5-10 year-long time frame of the program. Does it mean that kids will start eating healthy? Maybe, but not a guarantee. With no real carrots and no sticks, my guess is that schools will simply game the system to generate a hype of healthfulness. And maybe they will figure out a way to correlate small drops in average body mass index with their efforts in the cafeteria! That will make it look really convincing – yeah, right!

I know, you are probably thinking that it is easy to be critical without offering an alternative. I agree – that is why I plan to write about a few out-of-the box ideas in future and invite a discussion on them. Stay tuned!

Enjoy and let me know what is on your mind.

Photo Source: baronsquirrel via flickr
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings! Here are 5 nutrition related articles that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Vitamin D is big business these days

According to the Nutrition Business Journal quoted in a recent New York Times article, consumers gobbled up $235 million worth of vitamin D supplements in 2008 compared to a mere $41 million in 2001! Also, more physicians are ordering vitamin D tests for their patients and prescribing supplements to correct for low vitamin D levels.

This is incredible! Clearly, there is a buzz about vitamin D these days. Screaming headlines about low levels in children and adults followed by all kinds of studies claiming a “role” of vitamin D in diabetes, heart disease and cancer are creating a mass hysteria. The message is – pay attention to your vitamin D level and start loading up on it just in case because otherwise you will have a high risk of getting these terrible diseases. This is quite misleading in my opinion.

I am not against taking a vitamin D supplement. But there are  few things you should consider before you take that step.

There is a reason why the current recommendation of 400 IU per day of vitamin D has not been revised. A lot of people believe that this amount is too low. Still, there are no clinical studies which show a prevention or treatment effect of vitamin D for these diseases. Taking high doses of vitamin D (like 1000 or 2000 IU per day) is no guarantee of good health and prevention of diseases if the overall nutrition and lifestyle is poor. Supplements are not a drug folks, even though some people may try to sell them to you like that.

Bottom line – rely on food sources for your vitamin needs first, not on supplements. And if you do have a medical condition, talk to your doctor and ask for a pharmaceutical grade vitamin supplement. Here are 5 ways to tell if our child may have a vitamin D problem.

Tax soda like cigarettes – here we go again

The state of New York is on a mission to tackle the problem of obesity. While it is a worthwhile goal, which will surely have a positive impact on long term public health and healthcare costs, their approach to solving this problem is not smart at all. In fact, I think it is driven purely by politics and motivated by their deficit problem.

Tax sugar sweetened beverages (SSB) including soda they say, because that will cause people to drink less of it, which means they will not become overweight or obese since SSB’s are known to cause obesity. They have released a sugar sweetened beverage tax toolkit to provide a rationale for this tax, which in my opinion is a lot of mumbo-jumbo and twisted logic. Still, it makes an interesting read and gives you an insight into the limited range of creativity among public health officials and regulators.

I no fan of soda. But I am totally against another tax in the name of trying to improve public health when the real motivation is to fix the deficit problem. I continue to believe that soda tax will do nothing to reduce its consumption, at least not in any significant way. There are many other ways to discourage soda makers to produce healthier products or encourage the public to limit their soda consumption. But then they are not as easy as slapping another tax!

Manage salt for better health

Salt is something we can’t live without. It is also something we consume too much of and – if we continue this way – there is little doubt that most of us will not live long enough to enjoy it for long. Dr Ayala has a nice article this week on her blog about how too much of (cheap) processed food in our diets is causing us to consume way too much than just a pinch of salt we need for good health. It is a great reminder because this week is world salt awareness week.

The food industry is taking notice. Many companies are quietly working on reducing the sodium content of their products while preserving taste and texture. New salt reduction technologies are being developed and deployed in these products. Some may still have an issue with it; but I have a more pragmatic approach. There is a reason why processed food sells – it offers convenience at a reasonable price. There is no reason to completely eliminate it, just balance it with more cooking at home, read the nutrition facts labels and select the right products. Try to limit daily sodium to less than 2300 mg (1 tsp of salt) and avoid products where a single serving has any more than 15 – 20% of this daily value. Another thing you can do is to reduce the portion size of these foods both at home and in restaurants.

5 out-of-the box ideas for helping your kids eat well

Jenna of KidAppeal has a great blog post this week with a few out-of-the box ideas for you if you need help getting your kids to eat well (who doesn’t!). I really liked her idea of “making food relevant” and “having fun”, because you do need to be able to engage them at the table. We have recently discovered that story telling works with our twins in capturing their attention long enough for them to try the food at the table. Talking about diesel food for a diesel engine does not make sense to an adult, but it captures my son’s attention! You can also play a game, read from their favorite book, solve a puzzle or simply have a conversation about what they did at school or daycare. It will help if the TV is off so they can focus on you and the food.

By the way, Jenna has a weekly feature Big Words Little Foodies every Tuesday where she invites parents to share funny things their kids say about food. Check it out and share your funny stories!

Food rules from Michael Pollan

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants”. This is the essence of Mr. Pollan’s message in his new book Food Rules – An Eater’s Manual which gets a nice review in this week’s New York Times. I think this is sound advice, one that was commonly practiced as late as just a few generations ago prior to the modern day (processed) food revolution. But it also requires not only a change in your mindset about food but also a change in lifestyle. Giving up the western diet (meat, refined sugars, fat and salt via processed food) may sound simple in a book, but difficult to accomplish and sustain unless you make significant changes in your lifestyle.

What food rules do you live by these days? What changes, if any, do you plan on making in the near future?

Enjoy and let me know what is on your mind.

Photo Source: adactio on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2010 Littlestomaks.com

It is great to see orange everywhere in the neighborhood these days! Some people have already put up their Halloween decorations. We don’t get to enjoy the Fall colors as much in Florida. So these decorations – along with the cool evening air – remind us of the changing season. It is great to be outdoors these days!

It seemed like a busy week for nutrition related news. Probably because I discovered a great website which aggregates news from different sources and organizes them in different categories. It is called Alltop and it is created by none other than the Marketing Guru Guy Kawasaki. I was delighted to see my blog listed on Alltop’s Top Nutrition News page. Check it out!

Here are the 5 nutrition related news that caught my eye this week. Enjoy and drop me a comment to share your thoughts.

Watch out, eating hamburgers can paralyze you

I was shocked beyond belief to read the unfortunate story of 22 years old Stephanie Smith, who got really sick after eating a hamburger contaminated with E. coli. She was so sick that doctors had to put her in a coma for nine weeks, after which she could no longer walk because she was paralyzed from the waist down. A very heavy price to pay for a cheap hamburger all of us assume safe for eating without much thought.

Turns out there are serious gaps in the food inspection system which is supposed to test packaged meat for E. coli contamination. Ground beef is produced by processors from beef trimmings and other parts which they buy from many different suppliers. Not all of these incoming supplies are tested for contamination before grinding. The result is that  contaminated cow parts can sometime enter the ground beef supply undetected. Does not happen very frequently, but it does happen often enough to make the news. 8000 people have become sick from 16 E. coli outbreaks in the last 3 years.

No matter how many regulations and inspections are put in place, there is no way to be 100% safe because of the way meat is processed in modern plants. My advice – cut down on beef in the first place – it has been shown to increase the risk of various types of cancer. And if you do want to enjoy a burger, make sure you follow the safe handling procedures and cook it thoroughly so that the inside of the hamburger reaches 165 °F.

Food insecurity increases the risk of childhood obesity

Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it? Food insecurity is defined as lack of access to food, or nutritionally adequate food. So it is surprising that new research from the American Dietetic Association concludes that there is a link between food insecurity and childhood obesity. In particular, girls from households facing food insecurity are more likely to be overweight or obese. Girls 2-5 years old from household with food insecurity were 47% more likely to be overweight compared to those from food secure households. Boys of the same age did not show this correlation.

What could be the cause of this? Researchers are not sure yet, but suggests that food insecurity creates stress which affects behavior including food choices. Add to that the availability of cheap, energy dense, nutrient-poor foods and binge eating and you can see why this could happen.

I believe that hunger and obesity are two sides of the same coin. In poor countries, food insecurity is real and energy-dense foods are not affordable. There you see severe malnutrition and low weights. In developed countries, food insecurity causes malnutrition on the other end – that is energy dense foods leading to overweight and obesity. The common factors are distribution, quality and cost of food. This is where organizations like Share Our Strength are so critical. I have supported them by writing blog posts and will continue to do so in future.

Soy isoflavones reduce risk of diabetes and heart disease

I was quite excited to read about new research from UMass (my alma mater!) which attempts to explain how isoflavones from soy rich foods work with fat cells to regulate glucose uptake and increased insulin sensitivity. This mechanism is similar to how anti-diabetic drugs work in the body. This is a very important discovery because soy rich foods have been known to lower diabetes risk, increase insulin sensitivity and reduce cardiovascular disease risk, but the cellular mechanism was not well understood.

Isoflavones are plant-based antioxidants found almost exclusively in beans such as soybeans. They are also known as polyphenols because of their chemical structure. Many of these isoflavones act as dietary estrogens. Some studies have shown a reduced risk of breast cancer especially if the soy-rich diet is given in early childhood.

Although much research still remains to be done, particularly in humans, these results are quite promising.

Michael Pollan considers rules to eat by

What are your rules of thumb that affect your food choices? Do you follow the advice of your Mom or Grandma, or do you make these choices by nutritional labels, diet trends or advertisements? Michael Pollan, the highly acclaimed author of The Omnivores Dilemma is compiling genuinely useful, nutritionally sound examples of popular wisdom about eating via the Well blog on the New York Times. He is writing  a book Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual based on these responses due to be published in January.

Pollan is known for his skepticism about modern nutrition science and food marketing claims. At the core, he believes that how we eat has been, and should be, influenced by culture based on our collective wisdom accumulated over generations. In short, have more faith in what your Mama told you and skip the advice based on nutrition science.

I have a little bit of a problem with this. What is culture? How do we know that the wisdom of culture is still relevant today? I agree, that culture strongly drives our behavior, but culture is constantly changing. More so than ever now because we live in the age of the Internet. I say, listen to your Mama, but also learn the science so you can make your own decisions. If you leave the decision making to others, even if they are scientists, you are really giving up responsibility for your own health. Science and culture are not mutually exclusive; use the power of information to make your own decisions. I would love to hear Michael’s thoughts on this.

What do you think? What are your favorite rules?

Preservative-free doesn’t make salty processed foods any healthier

Annie of PhD In Parenting wrote a very nice post this week about how Nestle responded to her question on high sodium content in Stouffer’s frozen foods. This was precipitated by Nestle’s claim on Twitter that Stouffer’s meals contained no preservatives.

The No Preservative claim on processed foods is getting quite common these days because customers are getting more sensitive to chemical additives in foods. What they don’t realize is that just because a certain processed food claims to contain no preservatives, it doesn’t mean that it is healthy for them. Most of them still contain loads of salt, fat and sugar.

Nestle’s response to Annie’s question based on their expert opinion is quite ridiculous! They want you to control your toddler’s salt intake by managing the portion size – that is don’t give the adult size serving to your toddler! As if your child is a robot that you can dial in a serving size to manage their salt intake. The right thing to do is to reduce the sodium content in the food.

Instead of hiding behind the numbers in their so called “expert” response, I would have liked to see them take ownership of the sodium problem and announce specific goals to reduce them to a certain level in their products ahead of regulations. That would have shown true leadership and concern for the consumer.

What do you think?

Photo source -Barbara L. Hanson on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

Greetings!This week is the World Breastfeeding Week. Organized by the World Alliance for Breastfeeding Action (WABA), the focus this year is In Emergencies, Breastfeeding is a Lifeline. I never thought about breastfeeding this way, but it makes sense. Children and infants are most vulnerable during a catastrophic emergency – whether natural or man-made. According to WABA estimates, child mortality can be 2 to 70 times higher than normal under these conditions due to diarrhea, malnutrition and respiratory illness. They believe that by supporting breastfeeding in non-emergency situations, we can be better prepared to save the lives of young children during emergencies. Here is a great post by my blogger friend Annie on this subject by Annie on PhdInParenting.

Here again are 5 interesting nutrition stories of the week that caught my eye. Enjoy and drop a comment to let me know what’s on your mind.

Millions of kids vitamin D deficient – here we go again!

It seems like our appetite for reporting vitamin D deficiency in kids is insatiable! In yet another study published recently in Pediatrics, researchers report an alarming prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in kids 1-21 years old. They find that 9% (about 7.6 million) children are deficient and 61% (about 50.8 million) have insufficient levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. This news got a lot of coverage this week, mainly because the numbers seem so high. Also, in the same article, these researchers highlight a link between low levels of vitamin D and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. This sounds really scary, and no doubt, makes a perfect headline for an attention-grabbing story.

I have a few problems with these types of studies. First, they rely mainly on the level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in blood. There is no consensus among experts when it comes to estimating deficiency or insufficiency in children. Second, the biochemistry and processing of vitamin D is very complex, something I don’t claim to understand at all. But I am certain of this – it cannot be as simple as just the blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D which relates to cardiovascular health or bone density. But the real reason why I get frustrated is that these studies do not answer the “so what?” question a parent might be concerned about. Drink milk and vitamin D fortified OJ, let your kids out to play, not watch too much TV – well, that is old advice and should be followed with our without such sensational news.  Should you ask your pediatrician for a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test? Should you take supplements? There is no real, practical and actionable advice from these “experts”.

My 2 cents – when you hear this type of news, take a deep breath and don’t panic. Take a quick look at what your child is getting on average – milk, OJ, cereals, fish, eggs, cod liver oil etc. How much outdoor activity in the sun he gets on average. Take a long term view on this but continue to watch the diet and activity level regularly. If you still have doubts, ask your pediatrician if a supplement is needed.

No one wants to hang out with overweight kids

Why are overweight kids so picked on? A very interesting post from Dr Joanna Dolgoff – one of our Ask the Expert contributors – provides some insight. Appears that kids have more sympathy for children with handicaps, and would rather be friends with them, than hang out with overweight or aggressive kids. Deep down, overweight kids are blamed for their condition. They should be able to change it by losing weight is a common belief. I wrote about this in my post on childhood obesity because this kind of negativity leads to low self-esteem and a downward spiral of physical and emotional health problems among overweight and obese kids. Stereotypes about obesity form early in life it seems.

FDA and USDA get a budget of $125 billion

That is a giant number! Extra funding is supposed to go for improving food safety and farm subsidies. What surprised me though is the estimate that almost half of the budget for the two agencies is set aside for food stamps and Government nutrition programs. What kind of a return on investment can we expect from this level of spending? I find it ironical that on one hand we spend extra on healthcare in managing obesity-related diseases, while on the other, we have to also budget a huge amount fighting hunger and poverty. These two problems are two sides of the same coin in my opinion, but I do not yet see a comprehensive policy (and budget) to address them. We know that there is poor communication and cooperation between different Government agencies – the right hand does not know what the left is doing, but both want to get bigger and fatter and demand more funding! And as far as food safety is concerned, the approach is to focus on compliance rather than prevention. This smells of more bureaucracy to me!

So many cooking shows, so little cooking

Michale Pollan wrote a very good – although very long – article in the New York Times magazine this week. Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch takes us through the history of cooking shows starting with Julia Child to the likes of present day Iron Chef and Rachel Ray. We watch the Prime Time food network for entertainment value these days, not to learn anything about cooking the food ourselves! Pollan makes two great points – one, that the food industry along with the Television has been quite successful in taking over the “cooking” part from us by providing us with relatively cheap, readily available, packaged nutrition (poor nutrition I must admit). And second, that we are now quite comfortable ordering fancy items at restaurants and our appetite and desire for an ever increasing array of foods seem never ending. The less we cook, the more we eat and the more weight we put on. So how can we get back to cooking? We don’t have time for cooking, but we have time to watch a cooking show. Seems to me it is a matter of priority and attitude. I think we need to invoke Nike’s Just Do It! for preparing our own food. Not necessarily from scratch, as a lot of purists might want you to, but enough so that you can control what goes inside your body.

Check out this cookbook review and giveaway

Here is a shout out for my blogger friend Jenna of Kidappeal. She has done a great review of Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment by Jill Nussinow (aka The Veggie Queen!), and she is giving away a copy of this book to one lucky winner selected from the comments on the post. It is very simple to enter – all you need to do is to leave a comment about your favorite vegetable and your favorite ways to prepare and eat it. Check it out, the contest ends on August 16th.

Enjoy your weekend! And let me know what you think.

Photo source -Raphael Goetter on Flickr via everystockphoto
©2009 Littlestomaks.com

In honor of the Earth Day (April 22) this week’s Five for Fridays is dedicated to news articles related to food sustainability. Enjoy and do let me know what you think.

More interesting ideas from Michael Pollan

Maybe the fact that I am currently reading Pollan’s highly acclaimed “The Omnivores Dilemma” got me interested in this post by him on The Huffington Post, written to coincide with the Earth Day. Think Global Eat Local seems to be his prescription for reducing the amount of fossil fuel it takes to grow our food these days. Turns out, the Agriculture sector is second to Transportation when it comes to fossil fuel consumption. When so many people are talking about electric, hybrid or flex fuel cars, it surprises me a little that we don’t really hear much about reducing our dependence on oil in the agriculture sector. Pollan advocates a decentralized food supply system where consumers would buy locally grown food directly from a farm or an year-around indoor farmers’ market. He proposes a flexible system of government regulations based on scale and marketplace. He suggests encouraging hospitals and universities that receive federal grants to supply their cafeterias with locally grown fresh produce. These are big ideas – nothing wrong with that – it would also be good to think “small” at the consumer level so we can create a true demand for sustainability. What do you think?

An organic garden on the White House lawn

Last month Michelle Obama joined 23 fifth graders to start the work on a 1,100 square foot vegetable garden at the White House. This post by Crunchy Domestic Goddess provides some interesting details like the fact that the entire Obama family, including the President, will work on the garden pulling weeds every so often! It will have a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and herbs. It will utilize organic seedlings, White House compost and natural pest control methods. The idea is to inspire everybody to consider growing a little bit of their own food in their own backyards. And looks like the momentum is building – some 43 million US households plan to grow their veggies and fruits this year, up 19% from 2008, according to the National Gardening Association. If you are interested, they have a very good articles and resources for starting your own garden. Check it out!

The economics of a home garden

This article in the Wall Street Journal provides a glimpse of the Dollars and Sense of a home vegetable garden. The National Gardening Association estimates that for an average family, about $70 worth of seeds and supplies each year can yield $600 worth of vegetables. That’s one huge return on investment! What people forget though is the start-up cost of setting up a garden (on a raised bed if needed) and tools, which could cost you over $100. Not to mention the back-breaking work each day watering, pulling weeds and fighting pests. It is not for everybody, but if you enjoy working outdoors then surely you can save some cash. It sure trumps mowing the lawn each weekend, which does not give you any real financial return.

One problem people may face is that most Homeowners Associations have rules that regulate what you can and cannot do in your own backyard. So be sure to check with them before you decide to take the plunge!

9 leaders who are making a difference for food sustainability

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is honoring farmers, business leaders and thought leaders through the Growing Green Awards to recognize their efforts for food sustainability:

1. Will Allen, Growing Power, Milwaukee, WI – sustainable aquaculture and organic vegetable production
2. Judith Redmond, Full Belly Farm, Guinda, CA – 250 acre organic farm
3. Joel Salatin, Polyface Farm, Swoope, VA – Pasture based “beyond organic” grass-fed beef, poultry, sustainable lumber
4. Fedele Bauccio, Bon Appetit Management Co., Palo Alto, CA – Low carbon diet initiative
5. Michael Rozyne, Red Tomato, Canton, MA – non-profit marketing and distribution for small farms and co-ops
6. Thaleon Tremain, Pachamama Coffee Coop, Davis, CA – Certified fair-trade coffee from 150,000 farmers in South America, Central America and Africa
7. Ann Cooper, Berkeley Unified School District, Berkeley, CA – Prchasing and menu changes to promote sustainable and healthy food, founder of Lunch Lessons LLC
8. James Harvie, Institute for a Sustainable Future, Duluth, MN – Healthy food in healthcare for hospitals, Healthcare without Harm
9. Sibella Kraus, SAGE, Berkely, CA – sustainable agriculture education

Behind each of these leaders, is a great story. Check out these links and get inspired!

Eating out? Pick a restaurant with an eye for food sustainability

Can a restaurant source its food ingredients from local producers, serve seasonal cuisine and still be in business? The answer is a big yes. I have not tried one yet, but I came across this online restaurant finder on LocalHarvest where you can search for a restaurant by zip code or state. I was disappointed to find only 6 restaurant in my state of Florida, and none in the city I live. Could be that their database needs updating; I sure hope that there will be more restaurants in this area soon who will support the core ideas of food sustainability by serving locally grown fresh, organic food. Have you been to one in your area? Drop a comment about the restaurant and your experience.

Enjoy your weekend!

Image source: Woodleywonderworks on Flickr
©2009 Littlestomaks.com