Sustainable eating series
March 5, 2010 | Filed Under EnvironmentOne of my best friends, Daniel Klein, who you may have seen on this blog from when we went campaigning for Obama, left the city last year and moved to Minnesota to start up his own local food project. Though I was super sad he left, I was really excited for him to do what he loves. Just like I combined my love for fashion, sustainability and feminism through this store, Danny’s combining his activism and ability to make things delicious in his new documentary series about eating local, sustainable food: The Perennial Plate. I’ll let him explain it, but I can’t stress enough: watch the trailer, you’ll see him kill his own turkey for Thanksgiving.
In Danny’s words:
“I’m very excited to announce my new project: The Perennial Plate, a weekly documentary series about sustainable and adventurous eating in Minnesota. Imagine if Michael Pollan, that guy from Man vs. Wild, and Mario Batalli teamed up to make a show — they would create something like The Perennial Plate.
What we eat is becoming more and more important and The Perennial Plate offers a free and entertaining source of alternatives to the factory farm.
The project combines my three passions… food, film and creating positive change in this world, and as I now live in the Midwest, I’ve decided to make a show about the way I would like to eat here. The episodes follow the culinary, agricultural and hunting explorations that I embark on weekly. Taking place over a calendar year in Minnesota, as well as the surrounding food source destinations, this show explores where good food comes from and how to enjoy it.
There’s a lot going on in Central Time Land — great people doing great things, carrots waiting to be planted, deer hoping not to get shot, and miles and miles of corn. So check out the site, become a friend, or twittererer, forward this to anyone who might be interested… but most importantly, come back every week to watch a new short documentary about real food.
In addition to my website, check out KICKSTARTER to hear more about the project.”
I’m incredibly happy for him and excited to follow this project, and I hope you will too. Eating and living as sustainably as possible is really important to me, especially when it comes to meat. I rarely eat meat since it’s so hard on the environment. Some statistics you’ve probably heard:
-Of all raw materials and fossil fuels currently used in the U.S., more than one-third goes to raising animals for food.
-The world’s cattle alone consume a quantity of food equal to the caloric needs of 8.7 billion people—more than the entire human population on Earth.
-It takes 5,000 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of meat, while growing 1 pound of wheat only requires 25 gallons. A totally vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day. You save more water by not eating a pound of beef than you do by not showering for an entire year.
Though eating meat that was locally raised and killed is a different story. I can get on board with that. And I AM. You should be too! Check out Danny’s site and watch the trailer, and check back for new episodes every week.
And donate to his KICKSTARTER if you can, it’s a free series and needs funding somehow!
