What is Sustainable Food Anyway?

Have you ever noticed that once a discussion goes on long enough, certain phrases start to lose meaning? Everybody merrily tosses terminology around, rarely stopping to think what each term really means. Some phrases seem to balloon, taking on connotations they weren’t designed to carry, and other phrases get pared down into a specific meaning until they are slivers of their former robust selves.

Such confusion is present in the food-obsessed corners of the Internet; with so many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak, the sustainable food conversation is getting a bit muddled. I was tipped off to this fact when fellow change.org blogger Amanda Kloer posted the following comment to a recent post of mine:

Perhaps this is a dumb question (I'm no expert on food), but to me it seems like people often use the terms “sustainable" and "healthy" as synonyms. Are they? Is sustainable food really about getting more leafy greens into people or is it really about creating a food system that keeps the environment healthy and doesn't abuse animals or workers? If it's the former, why don't we call it the "healthy food movement"? If it's the latter, then can we have sustainable burgers and fries with sustainable milkshakes?

It’s about time, I thought, to ask ourselves some basic questions about the ideas we are discussing here. What does “sustainable food” really mean? In search of answers, I turned to the Sustainable Food Laboratory, an organization in Vermont that describes itself as “a consortium of 70 businesses and social organizations from three continents,” which aim “to accelerate the shift of sustainable food from niche to mainstream in order to ensure a healthy future for the planet and its people."

I can tell these are people who have a weight of expertise on their side. So, what have they got to say?

We define a sustainable food system as one in which resources (including natural resources such as soil and water, as well as human resources such as labor) are used at their rate of recovery. We define a sustainable food and agriculture system as one in which the fertility of our soil is maintained and improved; the availability and quality of water are protected and enhanced; our biodiversity is protected; farmers, farm workers, and all other actors in value chains have livable incomes; the food we eat is affordable and promotes our health; sustainable businesses can thrive; and the flow of energy and the discharge of waste, including greenhouse gas emissions, are within the capacity of the earth to absorb forever.

Wow, tall order. I am beginning to wonder about our tendency to liberally sprinkle the word “sustainable” around our conversation like a pinch of salt added to every dish. Each time we use it, are we really talking about all of that? However, if we were set on being as specific as the Food Lab is, I wonder if we’d ever say anything at all.

At least this gives us a point from which to start thinking about what is sustainable vs. healthy vs. local vs. organic vs. whatever else.

For instance, to Amanda’s question about a sustainable hamburger and milkshake, there is nothing in the Lab’s definition to preclude us from eating meat or dairy. The cows in question, however, must have been raised in systems that did not use more resources than could be replaced naturally. This means, for example, that the cows ate grass from a field, which could then be re-grown using the energy of the sun and manure, instead of corn grown in a massive monoculture dependent on fossil-fuel-based fertilizers that can only be replaced by further extraction, expenditure and pollution.

Notice, however, that there is nothing in the Lab’s definition to require sustainable food to be healthy, though healthfulness is often a by-product of the non-processed comestibles grown in a farm system run on the sun’s energy. And the low-resource-use requirements of a properly sustainable diet necessitate heavy dependence on plants and minimal consumption of meat and dairy, which also quickly nudges eaters into healthy habits.

As for the difference between “sustainable” and “local” and “organic,” we are entering a maze — hey, it’s a fall, let’s make that a corn-maze — of overlapping meanings and further fuzzy thinking.

If we were to be really serious about the Lab’s requirement that “the flow of energy and the discharge of waste, including greenhouse gas emissions, are within the capacity of the earth to absorb forever,” we'd admit that properly sustainable food must be so local we could get it without stepping into a car. But how many locavores never eat a single thing that hasn’t been transported? Some, I’m sure, but Barbara Kingsolver in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle makes a convincing (albeit entertaining) case for how difficult that is.

And while “local” is often taken to mean “locally produced on small family farms where even the lettuces are smiling,” if you live in many places West of the Mississippi, “local” could mean you got your steak from the industrial factory farm down the street. How sustainable would that be?

“Organic” is another tricky term. The definition, according to Merriam Webster, is “of, relating to, or derived from living organisms.” So technically, every apple you’ve ever seen is organic, even those ones labeled “conventional” at Whole Foods. Any batch of corn syrup, likewise, is technically organic, since it is derived from corn, a living organism.

But when we talk about “organic food,” we’re usually talking about something else entirely, though I think no one is sure exactly what. The USDA has one opinion, but food-writer Michael Pollan tells us how strangely these definitions get twisted, finally asking “Is the word ‘organic’ being emptied of its meaning?”

So as you can see, one reason we may be wishy-washy in using these terms is because some of them hardly have any clear meaning to begin with. The meaning of “sustainable,” luckily, thanks in part to such thorough thinkers as those at the Lab, can be pinned down with fair accuracy.

Accuracy, unfortunately, does not imply simplicity, so we are left with a complex task in discussing sustainable food. But at least we now know what we’re talking about, so let’s keep talking 'til the cows come home.

Image courtesy of Tigerlily 09 on flickr