Green Calgary

Sustainable Food Choices

Interested in food, food security, gardening and/or farmers' markets? Check out the Food Choice worksheet for a comprehensive list of food related resources:

Healthy Home's Calgary Food Choice Worksheet


Food Guides (NEW!):

The Dirty Dozen List: the Environmental Working Group's wallet guide to choosing fruits and vegetables with few pesticides.

How To Avoid Genetically Engineered Food: a Canadian guide to selecting foods without genetically modified/engineered ingredients.

Ocean Friendly Sushi Guide: a sushi-lovers guide to eating sustainably harvested sea food.

Ocean Friendly Seafood Guide: a guide to help you avoid fish and other sea creatures that are either in serious decline, farmed in an unsustainable fashion, or have mercurcy contamination issues.

Slow Food Calgary's Local Food Directory: a listing of local farmers and producers in the Calgary area. Wanting organic milk, eggs, beef, chicken or cheese and not sure where to go, check it out here.

Get Active...Get Involved:

Calgary Food Policy Council:a local group working toward a just and sustainable food system for all Calgarians.

Canadians Biotechnology Action Network (CBAN): promoting food sovereignty and democratic decision-making on science and technology issues in order to protect the integrity of the environment, health, food, and the livelihoods of people in Canada and around the world by facilitating, informing and organizing civil society action, researching, and providing information to government for policy development.

CLUCK (Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub):a local group advocating for changes to the bylaw to allow the keeping of a small flock of egg-laying chickens within Calgary's city limits.

Food Declaration:support the movement to create a healty food and agriculture policy in the United States. And if you don't think this affects here in Canada, have a look to see where the bulk of your food is coming from.

Food Democracy Now!: a grassroots community dedicated to building a sustainable food system that protects our natural environment, sustains farmers and nourishes families.

Food Secure Canada: an organization working to develop a concrete food sovereignty policy for Canada – a policy framework that reflects our common values of health, justice and sustainability.

Links:

Alberta Farm Fresh Producers Association

Calgary Horticulture Society: their 'gardening resources' section has a link to Calgary's community gardens.

Eat Well Guide Alberta: An Alberta-based guide to eating well here at home.

Garden Path Society, Located in Inglewood, the community garden provides an all-inclusive organic garden to cultivate plants and community.

Seedy Saturday: learn to save seeds and share them. Purchase heirloom seed varieties and learn lots about seeds that grow in Calgary's local bioregion.

Slow Food Calgary: Calgary's slow food resource.

The Urban Farmer: The website has lots of great information about gardening in Alberta. The Plant Profiles section has an amazing list of fruit trees, berries, perennial edibles, tea plants, medicinal flowers, etc that grow well in Alberta. For more information visit: http://www.theurbanfarmer.ca/plant_profiles.html.

Podcasts:

Deconstructing Dinner reports on current issues throughout the world of food, with a primary focus on local, regional and provincial issues. The show is not restricted to only current affairs, but probes into the processes and actions to which we have all become so accustomed throughout our daily routine, and "deconstructs" them to achieve a more discriminating awareness.

http://www.cjly.net/deconstructingdinner/

Bucky Buckaw's Backyard Chicken Broadcast: a show dedicated to providing information on raising backyard chickens. Through this segment, Bucky Buckaw informs listeners about the downside of factory farming and what kinds of toxic chemicals you can expect to find in the resultant livestock. Bucky also promotes organic gardening and composting, and supporting local farmers. He shares fascinating chicken lore from the millennia that will fascinate even those with no interest in birds.

Reports:

Putting Meat on the Table

Resources for Vegetarians:

Compassionate Eating Guide: a web guide to compassionate eating.

Calgary Vegetarian Society:the Calgary Vegetarian Society is a registered non-profit organization formed in 1993 to promote the health, ethical, environmental, humanitarian, and spiritual benefits of a plant based diet bringing together vegetarians in the City of Calgary and surrounding area for a common cause.

Vegetarian Dining Guide: a guide to vegetarian dining around the world.

Video:

Dan Barber: How I fell in love with a fish (two big thumbs up!!!)

Food, Inc. Trailer (NOW ON VIDEO!)

"See it. Bring your kids if you have them. Bring someone else's kids if you don't."
- David Edelstein, New York Magazine

Mark Bittman on what's wrong with what we eat

Dan Barber's foie gras parable


r's foie gras parab

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Genetically Modified Foods

Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods from Jeffrey Smith on Vimeo.

Michael Pollan talks to Oprah about our modern food system