Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria: From Farms to Forks and Beyond

David Wallinga, M.D. Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy We live in a world where drug-resistant “superbugs” are getting meaner and more common. These superbugs used to be found almost exclusively in hospitals in the form of life-threatening infections. They are now popping up in communities among healthy children and …

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Backyard Chickens

Britt Carlson Homestead Chicken Farmer In 2005, my neighbor ordered twelve small, light brown and blue chicken eggs from an online auction. Each day she and her son diligently turned the eggs, with as much care as a mother hen. After 21 days, the chicks hatched from the bantam-sized eggs. …

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Backyard Composting

Robert Mugaas University of Minnesota Extension Educator, Environmental Horticulture Composting is the microbial process whereby organic yard wastes are converted into to a highly desirable, organic, soil-like material. Gardeners have used compost for centuries to increase soil organic matter, improve soil physical properties, and supply some of the essential nutrients …

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Bees Come Home

Elise Kyllo Self Employed Gardener and Artist If you are reading this you must be curious about Apis mellifera (Latin for bee carrying honey). Maybe you intellectually know how important bees are as pollinators and in keeping us humans fed. Maybe you are a gardener and simply love bees buzzing …

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Being Green Means Eating a Green Diet, Too

Nicholette Zeliadt PhD candidate in Environmental Health Sciences, University of Minnesota School of Public Health You’re ‘green’—you recycle, take cooler and shorter showers, turn off lights, turn down thermostats, drive less, fly less, buy less stuff. But have you considered the profound impact that your dietary choices have on the …

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Changes in Food Preparation

Sally Schakel RD, LD Home cooking today is far different from what I remember as a child. Food technology has brought us an abundance of modified ingredients and prepared foods. Food transportation systems that deliver fruits and vegetables from all over the world mean produce is “in season” year round. …

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Connecting Farms, Distributors & Restaurants

Mike Mitchelson Editor, Food Service News You’ve seen the trucks: Sysco, Reinhart, U.S. Foodservice and others, transporting food to restaurants across the country. And, yes, it’s true. Even here in the Midwest, your food travels on average from 1,200 to 1,500 miles to get to your plate, depending on which …

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Connecting to the Source – CSAs

Andrea Yoder Harmony Valley Farm Did you ever consider what it takes to get food to your table? Many things happen in the life of your food before it ever gets to you. Do you know who is making these decisions and handling your food? More people are becoming interested …

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Cooking Locally in Minnesota

Jenny Breen Local Chef/Educator I take great pleasure in cooking and feeding people, and I love to teach others how to use simple, delicious ingredients to find that joy. One of the deepest sources of that pleasure is knowing that the food I am using has been raised and tended …

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Culinary Diversity in the Obesity Age

Aaron Vehling Writer America has become the land of the unhealthy. About two-thirds of the nation is considered overweight or obese, according the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Some lay blame at the hands of food conglomerates that bioengineer our food for higher profit margins. Others scapegoat our …

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Deciphering Product Labels

Liz McMann Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op Free Range? Cruelty Free? Natural? It’s tough to keep track of all the labels and claims on food and personal care products these days. Some labels require rigorous certifications, while others are completely meaningless! One way to get around this issue is to …

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Diet For a Healthy and Peaceful World

Gabriele F. Kushi, BFA, MEA, macrobiotic nutritional consultant/chef/educator The goals of macrobiotics are the realization of planetary health and happiness, world peace and human evolution. Macrobiotic, derived from the Greek word macrobios (large life), is associated worldwide with living and eating in harmony with the season. Macrobiotics embraces the 5,000-year-old …

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Dont Be Chicken about Chickens

Dan Lynch Reprinted from Camden Community News August 2009 With the census just around the corner, an inventory of just who lives where is in order—and animals come into the picture. Many of us have childhood memories of experiences with farm animals, including chickens. Most of our fowl memories are …

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Eat and Play to Support Sustainable Agriculture

Beth Munnich Renewing the Countryside As consumers, every dollar we spend is effectively a vote in favor of a company’s way of doing business. Since the beginning of the organic movement, concerned consumers have voted with their dollars for foods grown without pesticides, herbicides, hormones, or antibiotics, often combining their …

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Eating Green to $ave Green

Melinda Feucht Do It Green! Minnesota As food costs soar and people become more conscious about their food decisions, it’s time to rethink the way we shop for food. Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, advises, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” This …

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Effects of a Plant-Based Diet

Professor Gidon Eshel Dept. of Geophysical Sciences, University of Chicago Strengthening evidence exists to prove that global warming is primarily due to rising atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations from human activities. This effect makes personal voluntary choices a leading edge in the battle to preserve our threatened global habitat. While one …

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Environmental Illness

Sraddha Helfrich University Of Minnesota Medical Student What do carpets, meat, paint, household cleaners, perfumes, cigarette smoke, building materials, milk and traffic fumes have in common? They all contain toxic compounds that could be making you and your family sick. Environmental Illness (EI) is a term for diseases caused by …

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Food in Its Natural State

Eva Lewandowski Recently I was enjoying some dried organic apricots, when I noticed that the package stated that the fruit appeared somewhat brown in color because it did not contain any dyes or other ingredients to preserve color.  Indeed, the apricots were a somewhat dull orange-brown color, rather than the lurid orange that …

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Green Your Child’s School Lunch

Katrina Edenfeld Do It Green! Minnesota Home-packed lunches can be fun, healthy, and green, with very little time or money required. I calculated that my child’s lunch, including organic fruit, required less than five minutes on average and $1.00 per day last year-compared to over $2.25 for school lunch. Try …

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Greening Your Diet in the Twin Cities

Gil Schwartz Compassionate Action for Animals Campaign Coordinator Interested in exploring veganism or vegetarianism? There has never been a better time for environmentalists to go veggie with so many compelling ethical, ecological, and health reasons for eating lower on the food chain. Recently the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization …

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Grown On Campus

Olivia Bailey St. Olaf College A liberal arts education implies many things; given our unchecked American consumerism and boom in obesity, students seek to understand the question of our human relationship to the earth. St. Olaf College of Northfield, Minnesota, assigns its students a responsibility for stewardship of the land, …

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Healthy Choices

Jennette Turner Natural Foods Educator The choices that we make about food — where to buy it, from whom, what to buy — matter. Here in the US, we vote with our dollars by buying or not buying. And what and whom we choose to support makes a big difference, …

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Home Food Preservation

Jane Grimsbo Jewett Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture, University of Minnesota (www.misa.umn.edu) Preserving fresh vegetables and fruits at home is a great way to save money and create a healthy diet for your family. Good quality fruits and vegetables, canned or frozen shortly after picking, retain nutrients and good flavor. …

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How to Be a Locavore

Liz McMann Mississippi Market Co-op Eating locally isn’t just a fad diet or a trend. On the contrary, global, mega-farm sourcing for nearly all of our foods is a relatively new practice. It wasn’t long ago that citrus, coffee and avocados were treats to be savored rather than kitchen staples. …

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Living the Simple Life

Ellen Telander Winsted Organics Farm My husband and I decided years ago that we did not want to wake up one day and wonder “what if?” We did our research and planned for our escape to a small farm in western Minnesota. Neither one of us farmed, but we always …

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Living the Simple Life II

Ellen Telander Winsted Organics Farm I’m beginning to realize that I titled this series incorrectly. Not only does it remind me of a notorious TV show with a blond, rich girl (Of which I am neither) it also somehow implies that this life is simple. Well, it’s not meant to …

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Living the Simple Life III

Ellen Telander Winsted Organics Farm I call this year “I’m so glad I own a farm” year. We’ve all noticed the price increases of food and gas. I’ve been asking other farmers to learn the scoop. My buddy, Steve Nowak, an organic farmer that grows wheat and barley, says it’s …

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Living the Simple Life IV

Ellen Telander Winsted Organics Farm I LOVE FALL! It’s the time to harvest hay, can your precious goods from your hard working garden and getting the goat meat in the freezer. Canning is a process, if done correctly, to preserve food for a year or more on a shelf without …

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Living the Simple Life V

Ellen Telander Winsted Organics Farm There are so many new things on the farm this year, and I can only talk about a few for this article. I call this year “Reduce my workload please!” I am trying to make time for more play in my farm life. I sold …

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Local and Organic on a Budget

Liz McMann Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op It isn’t easy to balance a commitment to local, organic and natural foods with a tight grocery budget. Americans have become accustomed to cheap food, rather than food that is a good value, meaning rich in nutrients, beneficial to the environment and supportive …

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Local Produce Right Outside Your Door

Patty Brands St. Paul Farmers’ Market Where is the next best place to get “fresh” produce besides your own garden? The Farmers’ Markets, of course! This is where growers sell directly to the consumer and take great pride in their products. With over 100 markets in Minnesota to choose from, …

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Local, Sustainable and Organic

Ami Voeltz Do It Green! Minnesota Eat locally. Buy organic. Support sustainable agriculture. Some of us hear these terms all the time. It used to be ‘buy organic’, end of story. Now, we are having conversations about supporting local farmers (even if they are not growing organic) and seeking farms …

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Macrobiotics: Diet for a Healthy and Peaceful World

Gabriele F. Kushi, BFA, MEA, CHC, AADP Board certified Holistic Health Practitioner, macrobiotic nutritional consultant, cooking teacher, and director of Kushi’s Kitchen The goals of macrobiotics are the realization of planetary health and happiness, world peace and human evolution. Macrobiotic, derived from the Greek word macrobios (large life), is associated …

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Natural Remedies to Ailments

Jennifer Hawkins Graduate student at the University of Minnesota “Take two of these and call me in the morning” is an adage we have all heard dozens of times. Meanwhile, drug and pharmaceutical advertisements promoting their new “wonder drugs” clutter the pages of our reading material. Listening to the quiet …

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Non-Animal Derived Substitutes for Baking and Cooking

Erika Rood Do It Green! Minnesota EGGS Figuring out how to replace eggs in any recipe can be tricky. Basically, eggs function as leavening, binding, and thickening agents. In some recipes, eggs perform all three functions, like quick breads, but all recipes need the moisture from the eggs. Don’t be …

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Oily Food

Steven L. Hopp Americans put almost as much fossil fuel into our refrigerators as our cars. We’re consuming about 400 gallons of oil a year per citizen-about 17% of our nation’s energy use-for agriculture, a close second to our vehicular use. Tractors, combines, harvesters, irrigation, sprayers, tillers, balers, and other …

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Organic Beers!

Eric Haugee Capitol Brew-haha (capitolbrewhaha.blogspot.com) Like every other food and beverage category, organic beer has exploded onto the market, more than doubling in the past few years. Similar to the craft brewery revolution in the 1980s, breweries on the coasts paved the path for organic beer, and now even Anheuser-Busch …

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Organic Food

Joel T. Helfrich Do It Green! Minnesota According to Roots & Fruits Cooperative Produce, “Organically-grown food is produced without the use of synthetic pesticides and/or fertilizers.” No wonder more Americans purchase organic food each year! The organic movement is indeed large and growing. Michael Pollan, author of Botany of Desire, …

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Organic Food in Schools

Jen Ortendahl Do It Green! Minnesota As Americans have realized the health and environmental benefits of eating food without pesticides, organic food has increasingly made its way into more homes and schools. Organic foods sales have increased 17 to 21% since 1997. Various campuses at the University of Minnesota are …

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Organic Labeling

Kerrie Saunders MS, LLP, PhD VegNews Magazine Have you ever wondered if your produce is truly organic? The information below will help you to read and understand the organic labeling system. There are three main coding systems you’ll find in your local grocery store: The 12-digit Universal Product Codes (UPC), …

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Pack and Eat a No Waste Lunch

Compiled from REDUCE.ORG and DOITGREEN.ORG. Pack a No Waste Lunch A ‘no-waste lunch’ is a meal that does not end up in the trash. You can buy food items in bulk, then put them in reusable containers to carry to school or work. Packing your food in reusables is typically …

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Raising Urban Chickens: Understanding the Legal Basics

Jennifer Harmening Urban Gardener Urban chicken laws vary from city to city in Minnesota. Recent laws have made it easier for residents to raise backyard chickens in the Twin Cities and many neighbors are taking advantage of the opportunity for fresh eggs and a closer connection to their food supply. …

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Restaurants: Eating without Waste

Nick Murray Zoo School of Environmental Studies Estimates are that one fourth of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste. This wasted food costs $31 billion annually. The restaurant business, one of the fastest growing industries in the world, is a major contributor to food waste. There are …

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Sports Nutrition for a Healthy Planet

Erika Rood Do It Green! Minnesota Scott Jurek, Murray Rose, Tony Gonzalez, Carl Lewis, Paavo Nurmi, Prince Fielder, Brendan Brazier, and Pat Neshek. What do these elite athletes have in common? They are committed to reducing their carbon footprint through their diet. They eat plant-based diets and maintain professional and/or …

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Strengthening our Local Food Systems

Liz McMann Mississippi Market Co-op In a country where rivers of high fructose corn syrup flow through our food system and the food recalls never seem to stop, something really miraculous is happening. In the shadows of genetically modified corn fields and pre-made frozen peanut butter sandwiches, people are starting …

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Taste the Rainbow

After harvesting veggies from our gardening earlier this week, I peeked in my bag and thought, wow, it’s like a picture perfect rainbow – bet it tastes just as good. This thought then led me to think, it’s like you can ”Taste the rainbow”… mmmm. Sure, maybe I borrowed the …

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The Benefits of Raw Foods

Alyson Ostenaa Owner, Ecopolitan restaurant I first heard about raw foods two years ago from a friend. He had attended dinner parties in Colorado that served entire meals of fresh, raw, vegan foods. He told me about delicious appetizers, entrees, sauces, salads and desserts prepared without cooking. The chef used …

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The Unnatural Side of Natural

Jessica Houlihan Do It Green! Magazine When natural foods and green products were first created, a select niche market of consumers bought them. Due to increased public awareness and the resulting rise of demand for these products, more companies are choosing to create organic foods or adapt some of their …

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Top 10 Foods to Buy Organic

Do It Green! Minnesota According to the Organic Consumers Association website, these foods retain the highest levels of harmful pesticide residue when grown conventionally. Strawberries Bell Peppers Spinach Cherries (grown in the U.S.) Peaches Cantaloupe (grown in Mexico) Celery Apples Apricots Green Beans

Top 10 Veg Cities

VegNews Magazine AustinWhy? Veg oasis in the land of cowboy boots, beef and hunting. Don’t miss: Casa de Luz for scrumptious vegan macrobiotic fare. Washington DCWhy? Home of advocacy powerhouses including HSUS, Compassion Over Killing and FARM. Don’t miss: Java Green for a bowl of steaming noodle soup and a …

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Twin Cities Free and Cheap Food Guide!

Kristine Volovsek Compassionate Action 4 Animals Adapted from Vegan Cooking on a Shoestring Budget, By Lylee Heart From grocery stores and dumpsters, to foraging and volunteering, there are many ways to get free, cheap and healthy food in the Twin Cities. The options are as limitless and expansive as your own …

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Understanding Organics

Jennifer Harmening Since the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Organic Program went into effect in October 2002, organic foods have become available at an increasing number of locations, and more people are intentionally choosing to buy, grow, and eat organic foods. Why? Weighing your food options today isn’t just about …

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Using the Food Label

Sally Schakel RD, LD Nearly every packaged food must be labeled with information about its nutrient and ingredient content. The food label can become your source of information for choosing foods that fit your health and lifestyle needs. Nutrition facts The % Daily Value on a food label shows how …

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What is a Vegan?

Unny Nambudiripad, Kara Fancy and Ami Voeltz Veganism is a lifestyle which avoids using animals for food, clothing, or other purposes. Vegans try to minimize suffering and cruelty by not purchasing products that are derived from animals. Vegetarians do not eat meat, fish, or poultry. Vegans, in addition to being …

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What is Slow Food?

Jerusha Klemperer Slow Food USA People often ask us, “What do you sell? Is it about cooking slowly? Oh wait; – it’s the opposite of Fast Food! … Right?” Sort of. Slow Food is hard to explain in a nutshell, and with good reason: it is a complex concept, intertwined …

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Where Do Do It Green!ers Eat?

Do It Green! Minnesota Here is a short list of our favorites: Brasa, Minneapolis Common Roots Café, Minneapolis Ecopolitan, Minneapolis: Sara says, “When I really want to indulge, I invite friends for some wine and raw food at Ecopolitan…divine.” Emily’s Lebanese Deli, Minneapolis: Mike says, “I love the home recipe …

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Wild Jewels

Kristin Thiel Do It Green! Magazine I grew up in urban suburbia, where food is known as that stuff that appears to sprout wrapped in plastic right on grocery store shelves. Interestingly, because this is how urbanites so often find their food, it makes the occasional encounter in the wild …

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