We think fast food is equivalent to pornography,

nutritionally speaking. ~Steve Elbert

It's quick, it's easy, it's always there, but never as satisfying as it could be, if done naturally.

Friday I told you how we reduce our energy consumption, today food waste. In case you forgot, it is still low impact week. Also Crunchy Chicken is holding a contest and the winner receives a low impact goody basket.

There is an interesting study about man and agriculture. Some claim that it is the problem with us today, that it was the worst mistake we ever made. Without agriculture and domestication, we wouldn't have stayed in one place building homes, villages, cities. Our population wouldn't have exploded, and we wouldn't have the environmental problems of today. But the grass is always greener, things would be different if we were still hunter gathers, we would just have a whole set of other problems. Here is where I should place this, I am writing to more people and some of you do not know my history. I was a vegan for many, many years. When I became pregnant breakfast sausage became my favorite friend.

It isn't the meat itself I found that I had a problem with, it is the factory farms, the wastefulness and the way they keep and butcher animals. Waste and flavor are my biggest problems, while disease and quality are my biggest concerns. And now with NAIS looming over us, and the FDA approving cloned meat, I want to run further from my local grocery store. And in a way, I am doing just that. We raise our own organic chickens, for both eggs and meat, we also grow our own fruits and vegetables. This is the biggest way that our homestead reduces our food waste.

I know that not every one can do this. It's a matter of time and space, and by no means am I saying that this is the right and only way to do it. I can not completely rely on our own food stuff to survive. I also shop at my locally owned grocer and the farmers market, as well as a local dealer of cow juice. For the store and the dealer I shop for two weeks. this forces me to plan out a menu before hand, while I shop at the farmers market once a week, until seasons end.

Meals that are planned out carefully will still lead to leftovers and waste, especially when you have children. If leftovers are not advisable for various reasons, our chickens will get them everything but chicken meat which our dogs get to eat. Chickens are not vegans, they will eat rotten meat and fresh insects. {grasshopper feed chicken eggs are incredible tasting}. We opted to do this rather than send it to the compost pile.

Eating out happens once in a great while. My husband and I will take my mother to her favorite restaurant as a thank you for watching our active boys for an entire weekend. Or when we lose power, and I have had a long day in the mud, saving animals and farm. Or as a special treat. The places we tend to patronize are small, locally owned restaurants. Our favorite is ran buy the owners of a local U-Pick-it peach farm.

I know that the above says little about our food waste. We tend to not eat out, we buy our meat from local vendors, or butcher our own. Reducing, here, means a carefully planed 2 weeks worth of food items more than anything else.

Tonight? well some pulled pork. These make great sandwiches for lunch the next few days. What's for dinner at your place?