Week 1 Summary: Jen

How did our first week of "born again" food enlightenment go?

Let's face it. The first week is the easy week. We've just seen Food, Inc. and are in the middle of reading three supporting books. The story and images are still fresh in our minds.

While the underlying theory of changing the way we purchase, and subsequently eat, food is simple, execution has proven a hair more difficult. I am working with a core belief as to why I need to make this lifestyle change. So naturally, my decisions need to reflect this belief else I become a hypocrite.

If we, as a nation, do not change the way we create, process and distribute food we will do irreparable damage to our world ecology--my secondary driver is health, but that's it own post. The Omnivore's Dilemma (read it!) covers it all, so I won't preach, but I am determined to change my habits so the world is more sustainable and our children (and species) can continue to thrive. Michael will be doing his own update post and he can explain his motivation which is very different than mine.

With an eye towards the environment, I was hit in the face with my first challenge of eating organic. At it's simplest: if you eat an organic asparagus stalk shipped in from Peru, you've done as much environmental harm as eating asparagus grown in chemically altered fertilizer.

So organic isn't enough. 1 week into this ordeal and I'm already changing my approach. I'm not an organic eater, I'm an organic, local eater. I can already predict the future, but it'll take a lot more education to get there: organic, local, sustainable eater.

There is an upside: eating organic local is WAY cheaper than simply eating organic. The downside: it took us two hours to go food shopping on Sunday. If you shop at Whole Foods, you know every item has a little story about it. Turns out, the "book list" to create a simple pasta dish is as lengthy as "A Tale of Two Cities." Ultimately, we were able to buy about 65% of our groceries under the heading of organic local--sometimes you really want pineapple and I don't recall passing any pineapple farms on the highway in Atlanta.

While challenging, ultimately the first week has been super-rewarding. A few highlights:

• Going veggie (a couple of days a week) is simple. It helps if you like Asian, Indian, etc. food as their diets do not typically focus on a protein and side dishes.
• Bison is delicious (I know, I can't believe it either).
• Farm-raised pork from the local farm makes the most awesome bacon ever. Turns out the old bacon I thought was already awesome has NOTHING on this stuff.

We'll be checking out CSA's, sustainable foods and how to make vegetarianism appealing to kids (or fiancés who only like three vegetables—two of those being potato varieties). Send us your thoughts!