Posts Tagged ‘free range’

Food Fight – The LA Premiere

OZU Restaurant Japanese Kosher Natural Food
566 Amsterdam Avenue
( Between 87th and 88th Streets )
New York, NY

This macrobiotic restaurant on the Upper West Side of Manhattan is a favorite for locals in the neighborhood who visit daily for the lunch special. The lunch specials start at are $13.00 and include a hearty bowl of soup, your choice of miso, carrot ginger or a daily bean soup medley and your choice of a main dish. Another crowd pleaser is the “Almost Perfect” which consists of a magnificent greens selection with tofu, seaweed and carrots. It comes in an adorable bento box and also includes your choice of soup and you can also choose two appetizers from the menu. The restaurant serves no dairy products, no meat, no refined sugar, no sushi, no shellfish, no soft drinks, and no hard booze. What they do, however, they do very, very well. Vegan entrées like Asian-oriented grains, noodles, and flavorful vegetables, such as shredded carrots inside a dumpling wrapper, are prefaced by spring rolls stuffed with basil, julienned cucumber, and soft tofu, with a peanut dipping sauce on the side. Cooked fish, like buttery sea bass or wild or farmed salmon, also makes the Ozu list. Kabocha, tender steamed Hokkaido pumpkin, fragrant with sesame seeds, is particularly simple and good. Another great find are coconut curries, Korean nabe pots—heated stone bowls filled with vegetables, rice, or soup—and, in a welcome twist, decidedly un-Asian pastas like kabocha gnocchi. All in all lunch at Ozu is always filling so go on an empty stomach and wear comfortable fitting pants: But to fill up here is not a guilty pleasure because all of the food is healthy, nutritious and most of all delicious!

Josie’s Restaurant has been a longtime favorite of mine for casual vegetarian dining, although their menu includes fish and poultry as well.  They have two locations, one on the upper west side of Manhattan and one in midtown.  I recommend the sushi appetizer, which is vegetarian, and absolutely scrumptious.  They offer free range meats and all organic produce from local vendors.  They also have a quite impressive juice bar selection and the freshness of their fruits is undeniable!  Both locations offer ambient, aesthetically pleasing  settings and the service is wonderful.  Josie’s is the perfect place to take a first date or a group of friends.  I have included a rave review from NY Magazine:

In these uncertain agricultural times, people question where their food comes from, and Louis Lanza, chef-owner of both Josie’s on the Upper West Side and its Murray Hill outpost, is full of reassuring answers, most of them printed right on the menu. The sleek design shatters every health-food-restaurant cliche. All appetizers and main dishes are dairy free but not necessarily meat free, so vegans can enjoy a veggie “meatloaf ” while meat eaters wolf down a natural, free-range meat dish. A mixed-eating-habit couple can put together a nice, inexpensive meal by ordering one entrée each and splitting an order of steamed dumplings in a creamy red pepper coulis or a side of mashed sweet potatoes with cranberries. — Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld

For the last ten years I have tried to eat organically as often as possible.  There were times when the financial expense of eating only organic foods was too much.  Now the problem is that my local supermarket doesn’t carry much in the way of organic produce and because I work full time I find myself limited when it comes to where I shop for food.  Organic.com is a great resource that I turn to for information on reasons to eat organically as well as a tool for finding local farmers markets.  Here are their top 10 reasons to eat organically:

1. Reduce The Toxic Load: Keep Chemicals Out of the Air, Water, Soil and our Bodies
Buying organic food promotes a less toxic environment for all living things. With only 0.5 percent of crop and pasture land in organic, according to USDA that leaves 99.5 percent of farm acres in the U.S. at risk of exposure to noxious agricultural chemicals.

Our bodies are the environment so supporting organic agriculture doesn’t just benefit your family, it helps all families live less toxically.

2. Reduce if Not Eliminate Off Farm Pollution
Industrial agriculture doesn’t singularly pollute farmland and farm workers; it also wreaks havoc on the environment downstream. Pesticide drift affects non-farm communities with odorless and invisible poisons. Synthetic fertilizer drifting downstream is the main culprit for dead zones in delicate ocean environments, such as the Gulf of Mexico, where its dead zone is now larger than 22,000 square kilometers, an area larger than New Jersey, according to Science magazine, August, 2002.

3. Protect Future Generations
Before a mother first nurses her newborn, the toxic risk from pesticides has already begun. Studies show that infants are exposed to hundreds of harmful chemicals in utero. In fact, our nation is now reaping the results of four generations of exposure to agricultural and industrial chemicals, whose safety was deemed on adult tolerance levels, not on children’s. According to the National Academy of Science, “neurologic and behavioral effects may result from low-level exposure to pesticides.” Numerous studies show that pesticides can adversely affect the nervous system, increase the risk of cancer, and decrease fertility.

4. Build Healthy Soil
Mono-cropping and chemical fertilizer dependency has taken a toll with a loss of top soil estimated at a cost of $40 billion per year in the U.S., according to David Pimental of Cornell University. Add to this an equally disturbing loss of micro nutrients and minerals in fruits and vegetables. Feeding the soil with organic matter instead of ammonia and other synthetic fertilizers has proven to increase nutrients in produce, with higher levels of vitamins and minerals found in organic food, according to the 2005 study, “Elevating Antioxidant levels in food through organic farming and food processing,” Organic Center State of Science Review (1.05)

5. Taste Better and Truer Flavor
Scientists now know what we eaters have known all along: organic food often tastes better. It makes sense that strawberries taste yummier when raised in harmony with nature, but researchers at Washington State University just proved this as fact in lab taste trials where the organic berries were consistently judged as sweeter. Plus, new research verifies that some organic produce is often lower in nitrates and higher in antioxidants than conventional food. Let the organic feasting begin!

6. Assist Family Farmers of all Sizes
According to Organic Farming Research Foundation, as of 2006 there are approximately 10,000 certified organic producers in the U.S. compared to 2500 to 3,000 tracked in 1994. Measured against the two million farms estimated in the U.S. today, organic is still tiny. Family farms that are certified organic farms have a double economic benefit: they are profitable and they farm in harmony with their surrounding environment. Whether the farm is a 4-acre orchard or a 4,000-acre wheat farm, organic is a beneficial practice that is genuinely family-friendly.

7. Avoid Hasty and Poor Science in Your Food
Cloned food. GMOs and rBGH. Oh my! Interesting how swiftly these food technologies were rushed to market, when organic fought for 13 years to become federal law. Eleven years ago, genetically modified food was not part of our food supply; today an astounding 30 percent of our cropland is planted in GMOs. Organic is the only de facto seal of reassurance against these and other modern, lab-produced additions to our food supply, and the only food term with built in inspections and federal regulatory teeth.

8. Eating with a Sense of Place
Whether it is local fruit, imported coffee or artisan cheese, organic can demonstrate a reverence for the land and its people. No matter the zip code, organic has proven to use less energy (on average, about 30 percent less), is beneficial to soil, water and local habitat, and is safer for the people who harvest our food. Eat more seasonably by supporting your local farmers market while also supporting a global organic economy year round. It will make your taste buds happy.

9. Promote Biodiversity
Visit an organic farm and you’ll notice something: a buzz of animal, bird and insect activity. These organic oases are thriving, diverse habitats. Native plants, birds and hawks return usually after the first season of organic practices; beneficial insects allow for a greater balance, and indigenous animals find these farms a safe haven. As best said by Aldo Leopold, “A good farm must be one where the native flora and fauna have lost acreage without losing their existence.” An organic farm is the equivalent of reforestation. Industrial farms are the equivalent of clear cutting of native habitat with a focus on high farm yields.

10. Celebrate the Culture of Agriculture
Food is a ‘language’ spoken in every culture. Making this language organic allows for an important cultural revolution whereby diversity and biodiversity are embraced and chemical toxins and environmental harm are radically reduced, if not eliminated. The simple act of saving one heirloom seed from extinction, for example, is an act of biological and cultural conservation. Organic is not necessarily the most efficient farming system in the short run. It is slower, harder, more complex and more labor-intensive. But for the sake of culture everywhere, from permaculture to human culture, organic should be celebrated at every table.

A large part of green living, and helping our planet, is where we eat, what we buy, and where it all comes from. I have gone back and forth from being vegetarian to omnivore and I always have tried to eat organic and free range meats. So I wanted more information on the source of what the real definition of this term is and the actual qualifications that need to be met for something to be called free range. It turns out the the term “free range” can be rather loosely applied in some countries. The birds may still be de-beaked and while not in cages, only have a very limited area to move around in. They may be crammed into sheds in the thousands and although the birds have access to the outside, it’s only the chickens close to the door that can get out. This close quarters living can cause all sorts of health problems for the chickens. I remember a colleague from years ago who worked on one of these farms telling me his first job of the day was to wander through the barn, picking up all the dead birds, of which there were quite a few, and parts of birds – wings or legs that had fallen off. On some farms, even if the birds do have external access, it’s often to enclosures that are covered in gravel with no plant material or worse still, just mudbaths mixed with old droppings. For free range egg laying birds, they are often still subject to malnutrition to increase profitability and live in eternal daylight in order to stimulate egg formation. The massive amounts of calcium needed to produce eggs can cause bone weaknesses in these birds. Before you pay out extra money for your free range chicken and eggs, learn more about the farm they come from. You may be in for a bit of a shock. Criteria that your free range chicken and eggs should meet: • Clean housing and shelter from the elements • Protection from predators • No antibiotic use • No growth hormones • Natural foods + addition of vitamins and minerals only as required • The land must have shade, shelter and palatable, sustainable vegetation • No mutilation of beaks and claws Section fom www.greenlivingtips.com found in the food tips section on free range chicken.