Ethical Eating: How to Make Food Choices That Won’t Cost the Earth by Angela Crocombe
Food isn’t always as it seems. Take fish, for example. It’s healthy, right? A good choice for the family. Not necessarily. In fact, a good deal of the fish we eat contains high levels of mercury and dioxins, courtesy of emissions from coal-fired power stations and manufacturing. Then there’s myriad species we simply shouldn’t consume at all because we’re fishing them out of existence. Suddenly that healthy choice doesn’t look so good.
The point, however, is that we do have a choice and, as Angela Crocombe (A Lighter Footprint) argues so persuasively in her new book, Ethical Eating, we need to exercise that choice wisely every time we head out to buy food. Why? Because by making better, more ethical choices, not only are we providing healthier food for our families, we’re doing the right thing by the planet that ultimately sustains us.
Drawing on extensive research (the book has an impressive list of footnotes), the author has put together a very accessible guide to making good decisions. She gives an overview of what’s happened to Mother Earth (and our health) courtesy of our reliance on conventional farming methods and consumption of highly marketed and processed “foods”. She then breaks the story down into food types – dairy, meat, chicken, fruit and vegetables, even drinks. There are also chapters on organic farming, genetically modified food, processed food and irradiation.
It makes illuminating if not always comfortable reading. The chapters on chicken and livestock, in particular, will make you at least rethink your intake, and source, of meat. And I, for one, will be taking a closer look at the canned fish I buy so regularly (and, no, not just whether or not it has that little dolphin friendly symbol on it).
This is not a depressing read, however, because it enables you to take action. Angela arms the reader with the tools to head to the shops confident about what can be brought home for a healthy, ethical dinner. ”While the issues of ethical eating are complicated, the answers are often quite simple,” she writes. “The more unprocessed, seasonal, organic foods you can consume, the better for the environment and your health.”
