Question: Can I feed my family of four all grass-fed meat and stay within my weekly food budget?

Answer: TBD. Today's tip: prioritize SOLE* meat, dairy, and eggs over organic produce and grains.

My friend Lynn recently asked me how she could buy all grass-fed meat for her family of four and still stay within her grocery budget. I was really honest: "I'm not sure you can," I said. Then, "let's find out! We'll test this theory!"

Lynn paled slightly in the face of my enthusiasm, but she agreed to play along for a week for the sake of "science." (Plus, she knew the jig was up the second she asked for advice.)

The rules: we'll replace her regular meat purchases with sustainable, organic, local, ethical (SOLE) meat for one week and stay within her family's budget. The big trick? We're not significantly decreasing the amount of meat in her family's diet for this experiment.

There's a lot of anecdotal evidence online about how to shop organic and stay within a budget, and much of it recommends buying significantly less meat and dairy overall. Lynn feels that realistically, her family can take the Meatless Monday pledge and go vegetarian one day a week. This will help cut costs, but we'll need to get creative in other ways if we're going to make this happen.

The simple fact is that the combined costs of SOLE meat and dairy production, slaughter, and distribution is just higher than the cost of doing this conventionally, and we pay for it. As there's more demand, there will be more supply at lower costs and this is a quickly growing business, but right now the organic hamburger I buy is $6.99/lb. while the conventional is a third of that cost.

Interestingly, some of the newer recommendations for how to buy organic on a budget suggest you make buying SOLE meat, dairy and eggs a priority, and save money buying non-organic grain and produce purchases. The argument is that it's better for your overall health.

Why? Simple science: If you eat a conventional head of lettuce that has pesticide residues, then the residue from one head of lettuce could end up inside you. If you eat a pig who's eaten 2,000 conventional heads of lettuce in its lifetime (FYI, I have no idea if pigs are fed salad greens), then residues from all those veggies may be more highly concentrated in its muscles, meaning ounce-per-ounce, pork may have a higher chemical load than lettuce.

It's also important to remember than humans aren't as good at digesting the green stuff as herbivorous animals, meaning we get a lot more out of whatever conventional produce they're ingesting than we are.

In addition to residues, conventionally (industrially) raised animals also are fed all kinds of antibiotics, hormones, and additives in their feed. (Side note: top consumers of baking soda in the United States are meat animals. It's put into their feed to help their general indigestion, poor things.) There are food safety issues we're all well aware of: e. coli and other nasties. The only article you will even need to read to convince you to opt for organic is "The Burger that Shattered Her Life," published in The New York Times in 2009.

Finally, it's helpful to remember that if you're concerned about the unknown health impact of eating genetically modified foods - especially corn - that conventional animals eat a lot of that. A lot.

So to get started, Lynn and I will not only switch up meat and dairy, we'll also want to check out where she might feel ok cutting costs on organic produce and grains to come up with a wholly revised shopping list.

Next up: The Cutting Edge - Saving Money at the Organic Butcher Counter

Dip Deeper

Save Money on Organic Foods, Prevention Magazine

Real Food Tips: 12 Ways to Keep it Cheap, 100daysofrealfood.com

Sources for this Blog Post

"The Burger that Shattered Her Life" by Michael Moss, The New York Times, 10/3/09

Slaugterhouses and Processing, Sustainabletable.org

"Buying Organic Food on A Budget", by Leanne Beattie, Sparkpeople.com

* The tidy acronym SOLE, which stands for "sustainable, organic, local, and ethical," was coined by The Ehticurian blog author, Bonnie Azab Powell.

Question: Can Jim Gerritsen save the American food system?

Answer: TBD

There's some exciting, and in my opinion audacious, goings on in the world of food politics.

Anyone who follows news about Monsanto (or anyone who saw Food, Inc. for that matter), knows that Monsanto has a reputation for suing farmers who infringe on their patents by growing genetically modified (gm) crops without paying for the privilege to do so.

In 1998 they sued a Canadian farmer named Percy Schmeiser who claimed that he found RoundUp resistant plants growing on his land, saved the seeds and planted them the following year, just as he would save the seed of any plant growing on his land that seemed to possess a desirable trait. The case made it all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court with Schmeiser arguing that it's not legal to patent nature (which is true). The court ruled 5 to 4 that Monsanto has in fact changed the nature of plants enough that their patents are legitimate and remain valid. Schmeiser put up a good fight, but it wasn't enough.

Monsanto has continued to sue farmers, some of whom are organic farmers who want nothing to do with Monsanto's gm crops. An organic farmer can't legally sell gm produce as organic, so the contamination of their crops is not only a blow to their income, but it also opens them up to litigation. Monsanto claims that they don't sue farmers who have unintentionally grown gm crops through accidental pollination (such as corn or canola pollinated by wind which can carry pollen for miles), but in truth they have sued 144 farmers and settled over 700 cases out of court for undisclosed amounts. The fact is that most small farmers don't have the resources to sustain an extended battle in the courts. All Monsanto has to do is find gm crops on your land, and you're pretty much at their mercy. (Some people have even gone so far as to suggest that all Monsanto would have to do is drive by an organic farm and throw some gm seeds onto the land, sit back, wait until the plants grow, then call in the lawyers. While this would be an extremely easy way to demolish the organic farms that are Monsanto's competition in the open market, it seems too despicable to even imagine, and of course, there would be no proof.)

So for decades, that's how it's been.

Well last year, a group of organic and non-gm farmers decided they'd had enough. Jim Gerritsen is an organic farmer from Maine and the President of the Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA), and he is leading the charge against the status quo. With the help of lawyers from the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) they have filed suit against Monsanto in a bold new attempt to invalidate Monsanto's patents, and seek protection from Monsanto's legal team.

Here's where it gets interesting.

The lawyers from PUBPAT are citing precedent from 170 years ago. Back then there was a court case concerning a poison that was lethal to humans. The patent office refused to patent the poison because patents are meant to be for inventions that serve the public in some way, and it was determined that a deadly poison had no public utility. In OSGATA et al. v. Monsanto, Jim Gerritsen and his 300,000 fellow farmers, intend to make the case that gm crops are in fact poisonous and therefore should never have been given a patent. Genius! If they can pull it off.

And here's where it will get very tricky for them. See, one of the reasons that gm crops have done so well in the US is that we make no exceptions to our patent laws for research purposes. That is to say, in most countries (the countries where gm crops have had trouble getting approval), scientists are allowed to test inventions even if they are patented. But here in the good old US of A, Monsanto has the right to shut down scientists working with their patented material if they don't like the science being done. Therefore, the only studies being done on Monsanto's gm products are being done by Monsanto scientists.

So OSGATA has to find data that will be accepted into US courts, which prove that Monsanto's gm food products are not just questionably safe, but down right hazardous. Talk about ballsy.

Of course, to do any of this they have to convince the courts to hear their case. The first thing Monsanto did when OSGATA filed their suit was to ask for a dismissal of the case.

Fortunately a judge in New York has agreed to hear OSGATA out next Tuesday, to determine if the case should go to trial. OSGATA is calling for anyone in the area to join a peaceful show of support outside the building. Here are the details:

Southern District Court, New York City

Daniel Patrick Moynihan United States Courthouse

500 Pearl St.

New York, NY 10007-1312

For more info click here.

And if you can't make it, or you're nowhere near Manhattan, you can still lend your support by signing the Food Democracy Now petition here.

Maybe I'm just geeking out, but I think this is a very exciting development. The idea that these guys are trying to invalidate Monsanto's patent just blows me away. And they're doing this in self defense. They aren't suing for any money at all. All they want is protection from lawsuits when Monsanto's gm seeds end up on their land.

Of course if they prove, in a court of law, that Monsanto's gm food products are poisonous to humans, it will be a a whole new ball game. I, for one, will be keeping a close eye on this one.

Sources for this blog post:

Great interview on WICN.org with the PUBPAT lawyer representing OSGATA.

Food Democracy Now!

Organic Seed Growers and Trade Association (OSGATA)

Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT)

The Daily Meal just released it's "50 Most Powerful People in Food List for 2012." It's a helpful big-picture snapshot of who's who in the industry, from agribusiness to politics to chefs to activists. Here's what the editors said about their process choosing the group:

Any catalogue of powerful people — and certainly any ranking of them in order of clout — is bound to be highly subjective, of course. That doesn't mean that it has to be arbitrary. We collaborated to assemble an initial list, then added and subtracted, fine-tuned and developed. We did extensive research and had endless discussions and occasionally strenuous debates. One thing that was clear from the beginning was that the most influential figures in the field weren't always the best-known, and that CEOs could wield more might than culinary celebrities.

Our ultimate criterion was simply this: Is each person on our list capable, whether by dint of corporate station, media access, moral authority, or sheer personality, of substantially changing, improving, and/or degrading the quality and variety of the American diet or the way we think about it? If so, how absolute is the power he or she can bring to bear?

Do you love food?

If not, then how did you even find yourself on this site? You must be lost.

If you DO love food, you should consider joining us as an official Digging Deep blogger.

As many of you know, the Digging Deep Campaign is a new site, dedicated to investigating the truth about food. We like to think of ourselves as the Myth Busters of the foodie world. We do this by asking questions and “experimenting” on ourselves. We cover topics ranging from the political to the personal. Recent questions have been:

Can organic farming save the world?

How do I get what I want in the 2012 Farm Bill (and why do I care)?

How do I eat locally grown fruits and veggies in the dead of winter?

Can a working mother of two maintain a productive garden?

As we build our site, we want to find more people like us to help unearth fact and fiction about the food on our plates.

Think you have what it takes to be a Digger? We’re looking for someone who:

Loves food

Has experience blogging (on any topic)

Can consistently and reliably blog once a week

Has a fun voice, but is ultimately interested in bringing the facts

Rejects uninformed rhetoric (our "science-first-innocent-until-proven-guilty" position gets us a lot of hate mail, but we believe it's important to report on arguments from both sides of an issue)

We are particularly interested in hearing from people living outside of California

We welcome bloggers with a variety of backgrounds, personal, and professional experiences. We're not industry experts ourselves, just curious.

As freelancers, we understand that it sucks to do work for free, but this is a passion project, and as such is unpaid (we’re in it for the love, baby). If you’re interested, please use the Contact Us form to tell us a little about yourself. Include links to any blogs you write/have written for, and list at least three questions you would like to investigate.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

April & Cassie

Yesterday I picked up my girl from school and had to run a few errands. As is usually the case, the bank and the supermarket were both on my list, and as usual, I was feeling annoyed that the nearest bank is in Atwater, where there are NO options for groceries.

But then, as I aproached the corner of Glendale and Larga, I realized that the Atwater Village Farm is finally open. Hazaaa!

The Atwater Village Farm is one woman's answer to the urban food desert that is this region of Los Angeles. Until now families could either go to Chevy's, hit up the gas station for highly processed snacks, or get in their car and drive a good distance to get decent groceries.

Well, Piper Goldstein had had just about enough of those options. She raised money through a Kickstarter campaign (check out the video here) and opened her own market, selling local, organic and sustainable foods.

Needless to say I brought the car to a screeching halt and went in immediately. At first glance you might think that the place is low on inventory because it doesn't look like your average quik-e-mart with junk piled high to the ceiling, but then you realize that the reason it's not all cluttered up is because the shelves are stocked quite thoughtfully. She has an amazing array of goods to sell, from oils to baked yumminess, to super fresh produce.

Piper herself was there and we got to talking and she pointed out me some baby broccoli they just got in. She showed a delicate branch to my daughter (beause the little flower ends are really pretty) and my girl made a little growling noise and then bit the top off the stalk. Let me just repeat - my girl ate raw broccoli out of the produce case and loved it. I tried a bit myself and found it so much more tender than I expected. It must have been really fresh.

It was an excellent shopping experience. Oh, and they get extra special props for offering shopping bags made of old t-shirts. They're $2, or you can bring in two of your own old shirts to trade for one of the bags. How cool is that?

Anyhow - just wanted to give a big plug to this new business. If you're anywhere in the area it's definitely worth checking out. Personally I can't wait to go back.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled programing.

Q: How do I eat locally grown fruits and vegetables in the dead of winter?

Last week's front page New York Times article, "Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals" notes that,

"...as more Americans buy foods with the organic label, the products are increasingly removed from the traditional organic ideal: produce that is not only free of chemicals and pesticides but also grown locally on small farms in a way that protects the environment."

I'd just like to say that making fresh fruits and vegetables grown without pesticides or chemicals an affordable and widely available alternative to fruits and vegetables grown WITH harmful chemicals and GMOs (whose health and environmental affects are mostly untested) is not the problem. It is actually the first step towards healthier eating for more of us. Think about all the nasties that could be avoided if "we, the market," demanded that big-ag and big-corporations veered away from GMOs and chemicals to grow our food. Well, we're demanding. And they're veering.

As a result, there's maybe a bit of an implication that people eating organic tomatoes in the dead of winter are morally bankrupt. This is not helpful if you consider the fact that you can walk into any American supermarket at this moment and find conventional tomaotes grown in South America right there in the produce isle. It's sad, really. Their story must not be compelling enough to garner New York Time infamy. But hey, I'm personally so accustomed to walking into any store and seeing bananas for sale that you'd think that year-round access to yellow tropical fruit is an American birthright.

So let's focus: what the article doesn't offer is helpful suggestions for consumers who want to lead the pack in taking the next step towards eating responsibly: bring on the local/seasonal winter eating challenge.

1) Get innovative. Grow indoors. Presenting Windowfarms: a way to grow food plants in your windows that has been experimentally developed by an "open source community" - a group of people who, through trial and error, have developed a process for growing food plants in your windows that's cheap, easy to do, and effective. It's relatively new and hyper-local: your seasonal, local greens are grown by you, for you.

2) Learn what's in season outdoors and feature it in your meal planning. The Epicurious seasonal ingredient map is easy: just click on your state and see what's in season and links you to cooking tips and recipes for each fruit and vegetable. You might be surprised by what's in season in your state right now.

3) Get a little crazy with what you've got: try a new recipe for one food in season each week. There's also a good chance that you will not be surprised at all because you already knew that in your state, winter = snow. The aforementioned helpful seasonal ingredient map will tell you: "The growing season is currently dormant now; opt for items from storage, such as apples, pears, and root vegetables."

Instead of abondoning ship, go ahead and opt for them...once a week. It's resolution time, baby! You know how catchy "Meatless Monday" is? Well, "Seasonal Sunday" isn't nearly as catchy, but that's besides the point. Supporting local agriculture one day a week is the point.

4) Frozen food is your friend. There are a lot of "plan ahead" options, like canning and pickling but not all of us are confident enough to have fully released our inner homesteader. If you WANT to, then I recommend Homegrown.org as a place to get started. But if you're craving fresh peaches right now, then buy frozen: you can find organic options that were picked and frozen in the United States at the peak of the season.

I'm pretty excited, because this fall I finally realized my personal goal of buying a flat of organic tomatoes in September, cutting them up, and freezing them to use in my cooking this winter. I made fresh salsa this week. Totally worth the time and effort and cost in September. Plus I get to avoid that whole morally bankrupt trap. Plus I get to publically admit that one of my goals in life is to have a deep freezer in the garage. But I digress.

5) Support local in general. Don't know where to start? Ask for help. If you're worried about the "industrialization of organic" away from the original ideals and want to do more local and seasonal in the wintertime, then join your local Slow Food chapter. "Slow Food" as a concept supports a beyond organic model and there are local chapters everywhere. Chapters host meet-and-greet events and chapter members are good folks to ask about local resources, like restaurants that feature local, seasonal foods.

Photo: New York City Union Square Farmers Market, February 2011

Dig Deeper

About.com has its own list of 5 tips for seasonal eating and includes links to a bunch of recipes. In fact, you can go down a rabbit hole on their site if you follow all the links, but I want to include it because it's a nice place to jumpstart your cooking adventures.

Winter Farm-to-Table Eating and Cooking, Epicurious.com

10 Ways to Eat Local, Seasonal Food All Year, EatDrinkBetter.com