Discussion:
Reclaiming Thanksgiving
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n***@blogg.ogg
2008-11-28 18:49:53 UTC
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Reclaiming Thanksgiving

Posted by Nathan Havey, Meet the Bloggers at 3:45 PM on November 25,
2008.

Celebrating local, sustainable food this holiday.

As we all make plans for Thanksgiving, I want to put some food for
thought on your table. As you probably know, what we consider to be
the first Thanksgiving occurred round about 1621 as the newly arrived
pilgrims sat down with some Wampanoag Indians for a feast to celebrate
a plentiful harvest. For the record, this harvest celebration was not
new but has equivalents in cultures around the world stretching back
to the limits of recorded time, but, at any rate, the menu on that
festive New England day likely included, cod, eel, swan, partridge,
eagles, seal, flour, Indian corn, chestnuts, acorns, radishes, plums,
dried currants, parsnips and of course, wild turkey. Notably, that
menu did not include such thanksgiving staples as: ham, sweet potatoes
- or not sweet potatoes - pumpkin pie, milk, eggs, and, believe it or
not, cranberry sauce. They had cranberries, but no sugar.

Interesting as that was, my point is, they had what was local. They
celebrated what was produced in their neck of the woods so to speak.
In fact all the harvest festivals of all the people going back to the
beginning of time did the same thing. Because that is all there was.

Now, in modern times a number of technological advancements help us,
not just by adding sugar to the cranberries - and thank God for that -
but by making it possible for us to have anything, from anywhere on
our tables, and not just after the harvest but anytime. Fertilizers
and irrigation make bad soil farmable, pesticides and herbicides
increase yields, and preservatives and refrigeration make food last
forever - think frozen peas and spam. And while I'm not knocking
having it all, all the time, the fact of the matter is, if we keep
doing what we are doing, the harvest festival is an endangered species
- and so are we.

There is a cost to planting miles of the same crop year after year
(coughing: corn). It destroys the soil. All of the chemicals used in
pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers soak into the foods we eat, or
run-off and pollute waterways, and there are real costs in terms of
the nutritional value of food that is shipped from afar - not to
mention the huge carbon footprint of it all. Bottom line: it isn't
sustainable.

Look - I know there are a lot of different opinions about this stuff
and the science isn't conclusive, different sides of this debate feel
passionately, and I'm not just talking about the epic Thanksgiving
battle between tofurkey and turducken - if you don't know, don't ask.
But surely we can agree that buying local, sustainable food is a good
thing - whether you do it to increase freshness, reduce energy use and
CO2 emissions, or just support your local farmers. So this year, if
you really want to celebrate Thanksgiving, I want to challenge you to
enjoy feasting on what is fresh and local.

AND it has never been easier. There is a sweet website called
sustainabletable.org that is your one-stop-shop for sustainable eats.
There you can learn about what foods are in season at what times of
year in your area and they even have a zip code search so you can find
places to buy sustainable food to cook, and even restaurants that
serve local, sustainable food. That website again is
sustainabletable.org and I know you are online right now so I'm going
to sign off so you can check it out.
g***@amusenet.com
2008-11-28 19:11:55 UTC
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Post by n***@blogg.ogg
Reclaiming Thanksgiving
Posted by Nathan Havey, Meet the Bloggers at 3:45 PM on November 25,
2008.
Celebrating local, sustainable food this holiday.
Growing your own is a fine first step.

Buying local is an excellent second step.

In Oregon, it's quite easy and simple to do that sort of thing. The
food tastes better and is occasionally less expensive.

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