What I Choose to Buy at the Co-op... and Why

by Louise Frazier, Nutrition Committee
A series of monthly articles from members of the HWFC Nutrition committee

From an interview with Barbara Coughlin: “I know I can make a daily difference for climate change with my next meal”. When asked to elaborate on this, Barbara referred to three criteria she observes in choosing foods that Michael Pollan indicates in his book The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

1.The farm it comes from and how it is grown

2.The processing and packaging involved in getting the food to market

3.The amount of transportation used

She has to consider how many stops her food makes on its way to her kitchen table.

When interviewed about his book, Michael Pollan said “the most serious problem with our food system is its contribution to global warming—20% of fuel use is going to feed ourselves.” This confirmed the sense Barbara has developed regarding food choices, and she feels the conscious consumer definitely can make a difference in alleviating the build-up of global warming. In backing this up, she regards Andy Jones’s statistics in Eating Oil as compelling—“and he means petroleum, not olive,” says Barbara! Andy states: “Consider that in Britain a typical family of four generates 4.2 tons of CO2 from their house, 4.4 tons from their car, and 8 tons from the food they eat.” These facts could undoubtedly apply to an American family as well.

Taking into account the farm where her food originates, Barbara buys Hawthorne Valley Farm yogurt and quark because they come from a farm nearby in Columbia County, which uses organic and biodynamic practices in growing their crops and caring for their cows to produce a rich, quality dairy product. Thinking in terms of local and sustainable agriculture, her choice is food grown on smaller farms by farmers who use less and smaller equipment, thereby burning less fuel. Food such as that produced by Hawthorne Valley Farm requires no pesticides nor petro-chemical fertilizers—hence, less oil energy.

When buying meat, she makes sure it is locally, humanely and sustainably raised, which is the quality of meat—as well as eggs—the Co-op carries. She said that studies show it takes about three times more energy to raise animals on factory farms than animals who are grass fed and free-range grazed. As for cheese from the Co-op, which she noted has a nice array from small farms in our region, one of her favorites is Berle Farm goat cheese from Hoosick.

Keeping in mind the second criterion of less processing and packaging, Barbara prefers to shop in aisle 3. There the food has gone through little if any processing and is packaged by the shopper in a single, often recycled container. She especially finds her breakfast cereals and grains in the bulk section, where the oat flakes have only gone through a light steaming and rolling process still retaining their nutrients. Organic raisins, coconut, dried beans and nuts are also available in the bulk section to complete breakfast or main meal selections.

Barbara likes to top her cereal with the fresh bottled nonhomogenized milk from Evans Farm in Norwich. Sometimes for breakfast she will have spelt raisin bread from Berkshire Mountain Bakery, one of the closest bakeries to the Co-op, located in Housatonic (Mass.), which also uses only organic ingredients baked in traditional ways.

Considering the third criterion, transportation, at this time of the year Barbara confines herself to buying local apples, available in the co-op by the piece and priced by the pound from the produce section. She was startled to hear Bill McKibben, in a February speech at the College of St. Rose, give an example of a strawberry grown conventionally in California, then packaged and shipped for purchase in Albany, which provides only a tiny fraction of calories to someone eating it compared to the calories of energy it took to grow, package and transport it!

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