Cafe UHC and food for thought
February 11, 2007
Blurry-but-yummy Tamale Pie with corn, chiles, tomatos, kidney beans and corn- flour (left). It’s BokShitak! Garlic and Ginger Bok Choy with Shitake Mushrooms (right)
Dinner at Cafe UHC is always interesting, rather yummy and, for the most part, it is vegetarian.
During the normal growing season, dinners are prepared from food that was grown by, and harvested by UHC. The 2007 growing season will hopefully produce an abundance to last until it’s time to harvest again.
Carrots with Dill and Celery (left). Roasted Potatoes with Carrots, Onions and Fresh Parsley (right)
Why vegetarian?
Eating vegetarian even once a week can make a significant difference in one’s resource consumption and resultant global impact.
Animal products that are grown in the normal abnormal way utilize products that could be used to provide humans with nutrient resources.
Animals are produced with regard to a feed to food ratio. Simply put - how much feed is required to produce human food. Cattle requires 10-20 pounds of grain to produce 1 pound of beef. Therefore the feed to food ratio is 10:1 or 20:1. Normal non-abnormal ways of producing cattle use pasture land for the animals. The cattle along with their methanogenic tummy buddies, convert grass and other plant leaf and stems into cattle flesh. Our moo-moo friends need water and produce greenhouse gas that is unfortunately endangering our planetary thermal balance. In many parts of the world, rainforest is being burned to make way for new cattle grazing space.
Tilapia (a resourceful fish) has a feed to food ratio of about 1.5:1. Far more efficient and if you feel really motivated, you can feed you tilapia algae - green water and still produce fish for the grill.
In the middle would be turkeys and chicken (that make chick-a-doo-doo), they have a feed to food ratio of about 4:1.
Eat like a cow
Feed humans grain for a feed to food ratio of 1:1. Wow, imagine that - feeding humans…
How about -1:1? Algae for dinner soon.
Leaf juice anyone?? Another strategy would be to embrace our inner cow and place plants into blenders. Leaf juice extract can provide humans with protein while keeping crop roots intact.
‘Waste’ (note the quote-unquote)
Cafe UHC dinners produce food waste an that is converted into compost for growing more food. When things heat up this summer, we’ll have to make sure to take photos of oyster mushrooms sprouting from paper napkins, plates and chopsticks. Food from waste is even more efficient.
Food for thought requires thought for food.
-Mike Repkin