Five Eco-Diets Get Put to the Test

I am your run-of-the mill vegetarian. I started up after a college cafeteria gave me dry Salisbury steak with a side of food poisoning, kept it going for a girl, then firmed up a deepening veggie philosophy with some essential reading. I stuck with it from there because I’m healthy as hell, think there is little more appealing than fresh arugula salad, and, really, who would doubt a diet promoted by Einstein?

But these days, regular old vegetarianism -- which 10 percent of Americans claim to be, by the way -- is just one jumping point for molding a healthy dietary conscience. As meals today come complete with a carbon footprint, more of us are eating with the health of the watershed, soil and sustainable farming in mind. Everyone’s favorite (albeit omnivorous) food guru Michael Pollan said it best with his sage advice for healthy eating: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

Still, like any new dietary trend, sustainable diets are subject to extremes, as well as their own fair share of loopholes and problems (think Atkins and a bunless triple-cheeseburger with bacon). I decided to see for myself what’s on the menu for the vegan, for the 100-mile-dieter, for the raw foodist, the slow food advocate, and the strictly organic consumer, noting how these diets hold up beyond theory and in surreptitious practice (i.e. is that really organic?). To aid my assessment of each diet’s feasibility, sustainability, health and strain on the wallet, I attempted to practice each method for one week.

Don’t Panic, It’s Organic

Since J.I. Rodale began promoting organic farming in the 1940s, “organic” has come to mean opposition to the practices of industrial farming. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has now officially defined “organic” as, in short, food grown without pesticides, chemical fertilizers or sewage sludge, free from irradiation, genetic modification or -- for animal-products -- growth hormones or antibiotics. A USDA organic seal has been in existence under five years, but the time-consuming process of certification has limited the amount of farmers whose products carry the seal -- even if many (often smaller) farmers are practicing organic methods. This is bad news for me since I’m limiting my diet to USDA approved organics. Let the search begin…

Price: Quite pricey. Add $0.50 to $1.00 per item if you want to upgrade to organic. My grocery bill for the week went up a whopping $30.00.

Prep Time: Factor in conscientious label-reading, asking questions and spending quality time with a Sharpie, crossing off bogus terms like “all natural” from labels. Here’s a cheat sheet: “USDA Organic” is made with 100 percent organic ingredients, just “Organic” means ingredients are 95 percent organic and “made with organic ingredients” must be over 70 percent organic. “All natural” means absolutely nothing.

Health: Organics guarantee no pesticides or harsh, petrol-based fertilizers, with a growing finding of health benefits.

Sustainability: When farmers are held to organic standards, the surrounding environment benefits. Still, a simple meal could log a hefty carbon footprint. My organic enchilada recipe went on one heck of Spring Break before arriving on my plate -- including Mexico, Chile and Argentina. When local farmers nearby have fresh tomatoes, it’s going to be hard to argue that those hundreds of gallons of jet fuel are worth the guarantee of a pesticide-free salsa.

In the Garden of Vegan

The sustainable vegan diet focuses a critical eye on the conventional raising of livestock, a practice that is unsustainable and, many vegans believe, antiquated and cruel. The ecological problems stem from animal feedlot operations (AFOs). “By definition,” reads a passage on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, “AFOs produce large amounts of waste in small areas. For example, a single dairy cow produces approximately 120 pounds of wet manure per day. The waste produced per day by one dairy cow is equal to that of 20-40 people.” Meat and other animal products require gads of energy and water to produce. Mass-production of these products includes antibiotics and questionable feed practices, and leaves us with a whole lot of waste to contaminate the rest of our food chain. The vegan’s answer? Cut out the animal products.