Checking out sustainable food: Sustainable Table
Sustainable Table is a helpful website for those curious about the sustainable food movement. Sustainable Table promotes healthy eating by offering up information on everything from finding the closest farmers’ market to revamping school lunches. The website has many news articles on sustainable food along with an introduction page that explains what sustainable food is and why the organization feels it is important shift. The introduction page is comprehensive but if you want to know more, check out “the issues” tab or any of the subcategories in the introduction. If you decide you want give sustainable food a try, Sustainable Table provides an Eat Well Guide search engine on the front page.
The Eat Well Guide search allows you to find for organic, local and sustainable food in your city. It is a fun application, particularly if you are visiting or new in town. Eat Well Guide shows farmers’ markets, restaurants, cafes, co-ops, chefs, catering companies, bakers, organizations, farmers, etc that are involved with sustainable food in any city. A great example is their SXSW Sustainable Food Guide of Austin, TX for attendees to the city’s film and music festival. The free PDF map provides a list of restaurants and cafés near the action.
After you have your food, what do you do with it? Sometimes new foods call for new recipes and Sustainable Table has those too. The recipes and tips page is particularly helpful if you have decided to try and eat sustainable and/or local where the available food changes with the seasons. The introduction page for the recipes section has lots of information: recipes, cookbook reviews, video podcasts, and even sustainable food culinary school listings. The recipes are divided by both meal type and specialty to help you make meals for the right season. Summer is on its way, are you ready to grill? Try the Grilled Pizza recipe which can be found in “main dishes” and “summer.” Want something sweet for those chilly nights in October? Well, the recipe for Baked Maple Popcorn would fit the bill and can be found under both “fall” and “deserts.”
Sustainable Table is not a website that is going to aggressively push its ideals in your face. It does advocate for sustainable food changes in farming and schools, but this website is more about information than it is persuasion. There are some poignant sections, but for the most part, Sustainable Table’s goal is to provide resources and explanations. So if you are just curious about the movement and what it means, Sustainable Table is an interesting and relaxed place to start.