Sustainable Food in 2011

This weekend's NY Times launched 2011 with a series on sustainable living which included two great pieces on America's evolving diet.

The first is a jeremiad by Mark Bitmann about cooking simply at home (and a satisfying response to a September article which suggested preparing vegetables was too arduous and specialized for junk-food-addicted Americans). While he doesn't talk about waterless cooking techniques, Bitmann does sing the praises of increased nutrition and economy that attend home cooking:

"By becoming a cook, you can leave processed foods behind, creating more healthful, less expensive and better-tasting food that requires less energy, water and land per calorie and reduces our carbon footprint. Not a bad result for us — or the planet."

James Gorman's piece describes a new foodie movement, invasivores: radical eaters inventing palatable ways to cook invasive species. If anyone catches some wild carp, we'd love to grill it up on the Guardian Service Griddle...

A Happy New Year to our readers and wishes for Good Health, Pleasure and Profit for all in 2011!

PS Guardian Service Santa was able to hunt down a Guardian Service Pressure–Oven with which we'll experiment in the coming months. I'm poring over the original pressure cooker guide, but it's uncharted territory... let's hope we're not scraping pot roast shrapnel off the ceiling. Wish us luck!

The Food Movement, Rising - Michael Pollan, NY Review of Books

We were foodies long before we became fans of Guardian Service Ware or "waterless cooking" techniques, but much of what attracted us to the heirloom cookware line was the reduced energy consumption of food production and increased retention of nutrition and flavor, topics explored in a recent essay by Michael Pollan (The Food Movement, Rising, New York Review of Books, June 10, 2010).

Pollan presents an excellent overview of the Food Movement from the 1970s to the present and addresses the ways in which the industrialization of food has effected our health, culture, politics and environment and have given rise to a variety of food movements from organic, sustainable and urban farming to slow food, local food, animal welfare, etc.:

"Food is invisible no longer and, in light of the mounting costs we’ve incurred by ignoring it, it is likely to demand much more of our attention in the future, as eaters, parents, and citizens."

Getty Images

Michelle Obama at a farmers’ market near the White House, September 17, 2009