Breakfast.

What a lovely looking plate of food, right? Organic Cage-free eggs with goat cheese... Organic vine-ripened tomatoes... Organic 100% whole wheat toast... Yum.

BUT, after shopping at Trader Joe's last week for all organic produce and free-range meat options, I couldnt help but wonder WHERE does Trader Joe's get this stuff? Where is it REALLY coming from?

IS Trader Joe's a smart option when trying to eat responsibly and sustainably?

New blog topic in the works...

Glossary Of Terms

Cage-free hens aren’t confined to crowded pens in the coop. The USDA doesn’t regulate the term, but the United Egg Producers and American Humane Association labels help ensure producers meet strict standards for pecking space and ventilation.
Carbon footprint is "the total set of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused by an organization, event, product or person". For simplicity of reporting, it is often expressed in terms of the amount of carbon dioxide, or its equivalent of other GHGs, emitted.
An individual's, nation's, or organization's carbon footprint can be measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it, e.g. by technological developments, better process and product management, changed Green Public or Private Procurement (GPP), carbon capture, consumption strategies, and others.
The mitigation of carbon footprints through the development of alternative projects, such as solar or wind energy or reforestation, represents one way of reducing a carbon footprint and is often known as Carbon offsetting.

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSA’s usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.

Compost is plant matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost is a key ingredient in organic farming. At its most essential, the process of composting requires simply piling up waste outdoors and waiting a year or more. Modern, methodical composting is a multi-step, closely monitored process with measured inputs of water, air and carbon- and nitrogen-rich materials. The decomposition process is aided by shredding the plant matter, adding water and ensuring proper aeration by regularly turning the mixture. Worms and fungi further break up the material. Aerobic bacteria manage the chemical process by converting the inputs into heat, carbon dioxide and ammonium. The ammonium is further refined by bacteria into plant-nourishing nitrites and nitrates.
Compost can be rich in nutrients. It is used in gardens, landscaping, horticulture, and agriculture. The compost itself is beneficial for the land in many ways, including as a soil conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or humic acids, and as a natural pesticide for soil. In ecosystems, compost is useful for erosion control, land and stream reclamation, wetland construction, and as landfill cover.

Cooperative (or co-operative or co-op) is a business organization owned and operated by a group of individuals for their mutual benefit. Cooperatives are defined by the International Cooperative Alliance's Statement on the Cooperative Identity as autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs and aspirations through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises. A cooperative may also be defined as a business owned and controlled equally by the people who use its services or by the people who work there. Co-ops often offer membership discounts and benefits for a flat rate. The stores themselves are usually staffed by volunteers who are members of that particular co-op. Most co-ops are open to non-members as well.

Free range is a term which outside of the United States denotes a method of farming husbandry where the animals are allowed to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner. In the United States, USDA regulations apply only to poultry and indicate that the animal has been allowed access to the outside. The USDA regulations do not specify the quality or size of the outside range nor the duration of time an animal must have access to the outside.
The term is used in two senses that do not overlap completely: as a farmer-centric description of husbandry methods, and as a consumer-centric description of them. Farmers practice free range to achieve free-range or humane certification, to reduce feed costs, to produce a higher-quality product, and as a method of raising multiple crops on the same land.
Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.
In ranching, free-range livestock are permitted to roam without being fenced in, as opposed to fenced-in pastures. In many of the agriculture-based economies, free-range livestock are quite common.
Free-range eggs are eggs produced using birds that are permitted to roam freely within a farmyard, a shed or a chicken coop. This is different from factory-farmed birds that are typically enclosed in battery cages. The term "free-range" may be used differently depending on the country and its laws.
Genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) in food are concern for a number of consumers who are worried about the impact that GMO’s may have on their health. As a result, many companies in the late 1990s began to apply the GMO free label, indicating that their food does not contain genetically modified organisms. A number of nations legislate labeling, and in Europe, food must be labeled to indicate whether or not it contains GMO’s. In the United States, however, GMO free labeling is purely voluntary and not regulated by any governmental body or organization.
Grass fed or pasture-fed cattle, grass and other forage compose most all or at least the great majority of the grass fed diet. The debate is whether cattle should be raised on diets primarily composed of pasture (grass) or a concentrated diet of grain, soy and other supplements. The issue is often complicated by the political interests and confusion between labels such as "free range", "organic", or "natural". Cattle raised on a primarily forage diet are termed grass-fed or pasture-raised; for example meat or milk may be called grass-fed beef or pasture-raised dairy. However, the term "pasture-raised" can lead to confusion with the term "free range", which does not describe exactly what the animals eat. Another term is "grass-finished" which may mean either cattle fed exclusively, including finishing, on grass alone or cattle that have been fed grain up until finishing - at which time they're switched to grass.
Local food (also regional food or food patriotism) or the local food movement is a collaborative effort to build more locally based, self-reliant food economies - one in which sustainable food production, processing, distribution, and consumption is integrated to enhance the economic, environmental and social health of a particular place and is considered to be a part of the broader sustainability movement. It is part of the concept of local purchasing and local economies, a preference to buy locally produced goods and services. Those who prefer to eat locally grown/produced food sometimes call themselves locavores or localvores.
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm. Organic farming excludes or strictly limits the use of manufactured fertilizers, pesticides (which include herbicides, insecticides and fungicides), plant growth regulators such as hormones, livestock antibiotics, food additives, and genetically modified organisms.

Organic agricultural methods are internationally regulated and legally enforced by many nations, based in large part on the standards set by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), an international umbrella organization for organic farming organizations established in 1972. IFOAM defines the overarching goal of organic farming as:

"Organic agriculture is a production system that sustains the health of soils, ecosystems and people. It relies on ecological processes, biodiversity and cycles adapted to local conditions, rather than the use of inputs with adverse effects. Organic agriculture combines tradition, innovation and science to benefit the shared environment and promote fair relationships and a good quality of life for all involved…"

Since 1990, the market for organic products has grown from nothing, reaching $51 billion in 2008. This demand has driven a similar increase in organically managed farmland. Approximately 31,000,000 hectares (77,000,000 acres) worldwide are now farmed organically, representing approximately 0.7 percent of total world farmland (2007). In addition, as of 2007 organic wild products are harvested on approximately 62 million hectares.

Sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. For humans, sustainability is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

For this post, I am beginning a Glossary of Terms. One thing about this whole food project is that there are so many terms flying around out there.  I think one of the first and most important things to do in this endeavor is to actually understand what these labels mean so I can know I am making the best decisions possible. I may continue to add to this list as I see fit in the future.

Glossary of Terms

Welcome!

Welcome to Fresh & Frugal. I am so excited about this new endeavor, though also a little nervous. I am putting a lot of pressure on myself about this, mostly because I think it is so important. I really hope to be able to share some valuable information with all of you, in a light-hearted and easy-to-read forum.

In this blog, I will share with you my family’s experience as we begin the transition to a healthy and sustainable diet consisting primarily of fresh and organic food, and ultimately food that is local as well. As I research and experiment in the world of sustainable food, I will share my experiences in various markets, local farms, new recipes, and more.

The food choices we are making today as Americans are misguided, I believe, and I hope to inspire change in my friends, family, and strangers alike. I want to prove not only to YOU, but to MYSELF, that this change can be achieved with only a little more effort than one already puts into grocery shopping, and also on a budget. (A modest budget, at that.)

So let me tell you what sparked this whole venture in the first place. Have you seen the documentary “Food, Inc.”? Well if you haven’t, you should. That’s all I have to say about that. What a great film. I’m generally a sucker for a good documentary anyways, but this one was so relevant to our everyday lives, I think it should be required viewing for anyone who purchases groceries. I was pregnant at the time I saw it, so I was even crazier than I am normally. I went on a serious rant to my mother after watching it vowing that I was going to make all these changes and purchase organic/free range/local everything from there on out. That was about 9 months ago. Well, needless to say, that hasn’t happened. I am sorry to report that to this day, I march into the grocery store, list in hand, and each product I buy, I glance at the organic option, and my eyes nearly bug out of my head at the price tag. Then I proceed to purchase the cheapest store brand option available. “What a hypocrite!!!” you say? Well that’s the point of this blog my friends. This is it. This is the beginning. This is the showdown. I’m going to do the research, the shopping, clip the coupons, visit the farms, the markets – the farmer’s markets – and all in the name of trying to make a difference. I’m doing this for my daughter, Maycee. I’m doing this for my family’s health. I’m doing this for all the other frugal foodies out there who LOVE food, but also LOVE healthy food at a bargain. This is a decision that can and will impact our communities, our families, our local and regional economies and even the country as a whole.

“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Gandhi