Made in Kitchen Blog

When it comes to eating healthy or eco-friendly, it can be hard to understand what all of those labels mean. Just taking the time to inform ourselves of what they mean can help us next time we are choosing our food when  shopping.

Organic is cultivation term used for many types of food. If a food is organically grown, it doesn’t involve the use of chemicals for fertilizing, pesticides, or antibiotics/growth hormones. Instead they use natural fertilizers like manure and compost, insects and birds that keep away unwanted pests and feed livestock organic foods.

Local foods are foods that have been grown within 400 miles (according to the USDA’s definition) of where you are buying it. It can also mean food that has been grown in your own backyard. This keeps your food from having to travel from far away, thus reducing the amount of energy that is needed to get it from farm to table. This doesn’t mean it’s grown in a sustainable way, so make sure to speak with the supplier about how the food is produced.

This brings us to sustainable agriculture. When looking to sustainable food, you need to consider how the food is produced, how those that produce the food are treated, and everything in between. Food must be organically produced, animals must be treated humanely with their ecosystems kept together. All of it also must be done as safely as possible.

Greenhouse gases that are emitted into the atmosphere by humans is usually referred to as our carbon footprint. This includes what is produced when growing food, transportation of food, and consuming less meat.

Grass-fed is all about livestock. It usually refers to cows, but also includes other animals that eat grass. These bovines are given a diet of only grass instead of grains, soy, corn and other processed foods. This keeps the cow more healthy while alive, making the food it produces weather it be milk or meat, more healthy for you with a higher amount of omega-3s in the dairy products and less fatty meat.

When it comes to poultry, looking for free-range or cage-free means that you’ll usually find eggs and chickens that lead a happier life thanks to being allow to roam freely. The USDA however doesn’t regulate how much room they get to move around or how long they are allowed outside.

Unless you grow your food yourself, it can be difficult to make sure your food is produced the way you want it. The best way is to educate yourself, get to know your butcher, fish monger, or farmer in order to find the very best food for you and your family!

Photo by Tim Psych

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