Guide to Buying Sustainable Food

Yale University composed a fairly comprehensive guide about how to find and purchase sustainable food.  The guide breaks down the information into sections based on the type of food such as dairy, fruits and vegetables, eggs, poultry, etc... Questions to consider include the location and size of the farm, the types of food the animal in question eats, the farming practices used, as well as many other specifically tailored questions. Click on the link to see the guide, and maybe try it out the next time you go grocery shopping.

Yale Sustainable Food Purchasing Guide

Below is an overview provided by the Yale Sustainable Food Project about how to decide what dairy products to purchase.

Best:
"Cows are grazing animals, and their stomachs are made to digest grass. Their diets can be supplemented with grain but should not be primarily composed of it. They should never be given rBST or other growth hormones. Animals should be outdoors year round, and their pasture should be free from chemical sprays. Any additional feed they receive should be organic. In the ideal system, cow manure is used as a resource to fertilize pasture."

Avoid:
"Animals raised in CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) are crowded in and fed a grain (usually corn-based) diet, and they are routinely given growth hormones. Their diets might also include animal by-products (the remains of other animals). In this system, manure is a waste product, and it collects in lagoons or is dumped."

Work Cited:

 Sustainable Food Purchasing Guide. Yale Sustainable Food Project, n.d. Web 13 Apr. 2013