What you may not know about me is I love everything food related. Way beyond a “hobby,” I have studied food and nutrition and the energetics and healing properties of food for decades. I have seen first-hand how food causes illness and, thankfully, how food contributes to wellbeing. As a student of the diverse cultures around us, I have had exquisite opportunities to learn how food traditions are handed down, generation to generation. A benefit to the travel I have been fortunate to do is eating all over the globe. Yum!
Living in Los Angeles, it is easy to take food for granted. My refrigerator and cupboards are well stocked. From my home, I can arrive at an “organic” market within five minutes driving in any direction. If I want to go to a Farmer’s Market where local growers sell recently picked carrots, broccoli, and artichokes, they are available seven days a week. And if I choose to skip cooking, restaurants are in abundance, with various price points. Sounds ideal. Except this picture is far from what is available in many parts of my city, state, country, and the world and it is not sustainable given what is happening with our planet.
So last night I made cookies. I don’t make cookies very often. I was inspired to make cashew butter cookies following the recipe on page 105 of Cool Food: Erasing Your Carbon Footprint One Bite at a Time by Robert Downey Jr. (yes, the actor) and Thomas Kostigen (Blackstone Publishing, 2024). I had seen postings about this book on Instagram and something compelled me to buy and then read these pages. What’s “cool food”? According to RDJ, “Cool food is really about lifestyle—transformational shifts from little actions, experiences, and different choices. It’ s a holistic approach to making the world a whole lot better by simply making more informed decisions about something that each and every one of us does anyway—eat.”
I suspect if you are reading this blog you also care about the planet, and how education can propel us to be better stewards of this swirling ball we live on. My concern is this caring doesn’t always translate into how we educate learners. Information about food and health benefits, how cooking changes what we eat, climate impact of how food is grown, how food travels extensively to be processed and served, and the intercultural connections we find just with what food is on our plate. Could a school have “food” as part of the studies from PreK to graduation? Seems to me this integration would have a range of benefits that could include taking action in our families, schools, and local community. It could mean talking to elders and finding out how food has changed (along with an increase in dis-ease), healing elements of foods and wisdom. We could partner with indigenous populations to learn and protect our habitats. This seems critical to take a bite out of climate impact wherever we are, and as you will see, we can even have reach in other places.
There are two parts to the books – What’s Cool to Eat, and How to Eat Cool.
A selection of personal highlights from Cool Food.
I acquired BIG knowledge of ancient grains and how I can incorporate them more into my daily diet. I already have amaranth and teff in my cupboard, but they rarely make it into the pot to make cereal or pancakes. I eat millet regularly but didn’t know all the varieties. These are all examples of “cool grains” that also tolerate extremes of heat and drought. And I must start using jackfruit (send recipes please!).
Are lentils in your diet? Highly recommend for the planet and for nutrition. And I go for seaweeds. Best minerals you can absorb. Tasty, some are a little salty, and with nori you can make a sushi wrap for an anytime meal or snack. My next purchase will be sea lettuce.
Wherever you are in the world, learn from native indigenous populations about food and cooking and striking balance with the planet.
I can plant macadamia trees in Malawi. Check out the Neno Macadamia Trust. Support small farmers in Malawi to plant and nurture macadamia trees while offsetting carbon emissions from flying or driving (I fly a lot). https://www.nenomacadamiatrust.org/home.html
Check out Plants for a Future https://pfaf.org/user/– a free-of-charge online database with a compilation of “hundreds of plants that can help mitigate problems associated with climate change.
How about some facts from the book? Did you know:
“If just 9 percent more seaweeds were grown in the ocean all the carbon dioxide emitted by humans could be stored underneath the sea.” P 61
“A single maple [tree] can sequester twenty-five thousand pounds of CO2 in its lifetime, or about 50 percent more than the average US home emits in a year.” P 109
“Animal products carry the biggest carbon footprints of anything we eat.” P 136
Be a “locavore” when possible “to help promote benefits of all things local.” P 138
“Taste buds get replaced about every two weeks.” 142
“The average full service restaurant wastes seventy-five thousand pounds of food per year.” P 171
“The United Nations is tackling [food waste] through its Sustainable Development Goals program . . . ‘Think, Eat, Save’ is how the UN is promoting its plan to reduce our ‘foodprint.’” P 174l
Food is 85 percent of our carbon footprint. P 187
“Climate change is poised to make extinct wine, coffee, chocolate, and other foods we love.” P 264
Good news! Sweet potato fries are planet friendly!
While the book has USA-centric information, it goes well beyond this descriptor. Global connections and examples are frequent, including MAX Burgers in Stockholm, a climate-neutral restaurant chain. There are myriad foods from around the world that may present better options than what many of us typically eat, and an entire chapter on International Markets, highlighting Fair-Trade Certified foods, grown with fair wages and social conditions. Now some companies are adding carbon footprint labels to food or a QR code where you can find out more.
I won’t get into the part about technologies used to grow food out of thin air, however this could spark curiosity in your science classes (have you heard of Solein?).
When home in Los Angeles, I often cook dinner for my two grandchildren, a balanced and fun meal with bean tacos, polenta pizza, lentils (they love lentils!), soup, little sushi rolls, rice and millet, banana muffins, mochi waffles, and vegetables – broccoli, corn, bok choy, cabbage, green beans are current favorites. I know the good fortune of having plentiful resources and I aim to be vigilant to protect this abundance for our collective future.
Food is always on my mind. What to buy, cook, store, reimagine. My personal struggle is reducing food waste; still at it. I have written about Meatless Monday for EarthEcho International so that’s another great resource found here. Most of all, I would like to know what innovation, progress and opportunities are in your school and community to be cool about food.
If food is on your mind let me know. Let’s do something cool.
Contact me, Cathryn Berger Kaye at cathy@cbkassociates.com