There are many things to do with an eye toward sustainability and in celebration of Mother’s Day. The way you choose to feed yourself has an impact. Here are some tips that are easy to adopt for the health of people and the planet.
1. Learn How to Cook (at least a few things)
It isn’t necessary to enroll in the Culinary Institute of America to know how to put a meal on the table, but you need to have a repertoire of a few go-to meals made from easy-to-find ingredients that you can pull together on short notice. These don’t need to be fancy or complicated. Maybe it’s Tuscan bean soup for Sunday supper, or an economical red bean and rice dish for a busy meatless Monday night. Think of items you enjoy eating and you might find you also like cooking them for your friends or family, too.
The way I cook was influenced in a big way by growing up in a household where my mom was a home economics teacher who cooked our meals from scratch, and I can count on one hand the times I’ve known her to throw away food. She has always believed it is more economical, sustainable, and healthful to prepare your own meals, and even today, in her late 80s, she still prefers home-cooked. I’m lucky I received my mom’s cooking (and repurposing leftovers) lessons starting in elementary school, and I continue to learn from her each time we cook together.
2. Plan your Purchases, Stock a Pantry, and Repurpose Your Leftovers
Juggling work and home is a challenge; however if you take a little time over the weekend to sketch out your menus for the week, you will enter the grocery store with a plan. Sure, those artichokes look great, but if you’re facing a week of late nights, will you have the time to prep and cook them? Having a pantry arsenal of canned beans, tomato sauce, fast-cooking lentils, grains and pastas puts you a couple of steps ahead when you’re pressed for time. Using pre-cut vegetables from the store is not cheating.
Use Sunday supper to riff your week’s meal plan. The chicken you roast on Sunday can be broken down for Taco Tuesday, and then use the carcass to make chicken soup or stock (or put it in a freezer bag for when you have more time). With lots of local produce making its way into our farmers’ markets, sauteed spring vegetables, such as asparagus, can be repurposed in a frittata or stir-fry with rice or a seasonal white bean stew.
When you plan, you minimize food waste. Less food ending up in the landfill means fewer greenhouse gases, and that’s better for the planet.
3. In-Season Cooking with Local Ingredients
My approach to cooking has been influenced by being an urban dweller. When I lived in either NYC or Washington, DC, I frequently visited farmers’ markets, where seasonal produce is brought to the city on a daily basis. It’s a lesson learned when it’s November and you don’t see asparagus.
When I was living in a rural agrarian town, I saw the seasonal changes in the colors and textures of the fields. There is a rhythm to the sow, grow and harvest. You look forward to the flavors of fresh vegetables and fruits that are being picked for consumption at the height of ripeness – and they’re typically lower in price at their harvest time, too.
The benefits to getting your food from a local or regional farmer, producer, and purveyor are numerous. First, when you purchase from a local grower, poultry farmer, or waterman, you’re supporting the regional food system, contributing to its resiliency. (We found out the importance of a strong and sustainable food system when supply chains broke down during the pandemic.) Those items didn’t travel as far to get to you, so not as much fossil fuel was used to transport them. And it’s more fun to shop when you get to know the vendors because you see them on a regular basis. They also know your preferences, give you cooking tips, and share favorite recipes.
4. Unprocessed is Best, and Don’t Forget Frozen and Canned Foods
The more ingredients you see listed on the panel with the nutrition information (or names of ingredients you can’t pronounce), chances are that you’re looking at an ultra-processed food. In addition to being low in fiber, these foods may contain high levels of sodium, sugar, and saturated fat.
Learn from Stacey Snelling, a professor of Health Studies at American University, who has been a big champion of frozen vegetables, “Frozen vegetables and fruits are an economical way to stock your freezer for reliably delicious (picked, harvested and frozen at their peak) ingredients. It’s also easy to take out only what you need, too – so you’ll have less food going to waste and having a negative impact on the environment.”
5. Grow Your own Herbs
You can add more flavor to your food or transform your sauteed vegetables from Asian to Mediterranean just by changing up the herbs you use to flavor them. Herbs can be expensive and often don’t get used up before they’re wilted in your refrigerator bin. But if you start a few seedlings – maybe cilantro, basil, and parsley – you can snip for your dinner while the rest of the plant continues to produce and provide flavor longer. Plus, what’s better than a little bit of green growing on your kitchen windowsill?
6. Eat Together
Gathering around a table to enjoy a meal is the best way to create community, and a way to reconnect with your family and friends. If done on a regular basis, it builds a good habit, one that encourages discussion about the day, ways to talk about healthy eating, and even an easy way to cut down on screen time. A win all around.
7. Keep Learning, Be Curious, and Pick up a Book
How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman is a cookbook I’ve given to dozens of graduating high school seniors since its debut in 1998. It’s a great way to have a go-to reference book for everything from equipment basics to making a great hollandaise sauce to recipes ready in under an hour.
This Organic Life: Confessions of a Suburban Homesteader by Joan Dye Gussow is an important book lauded by everyone from Michael Pollan to Alice Waters and Barbara Kingsolver. A great guide to living more thoughtfully on our planet, full of hope and wisdom.
Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappé, first published in 1971, is a groundbreaking book that was the first to teach us about the social and personal importance of a new way of eating through a more plant-forward diet, one that continues to find relevance for eating well in the twenty-first century.
Annette Nielsen is the former Executive Director of the Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center. She now lives in Washington, DC, serves as an advisor on food systems and engagement initiatives for academic institutions, writes on the topic of food and agriculture, and teaches food writing at The Writer’s Center.
