Food and resources

avantra

In the last five years we are growing our own veg and fruit from May to December and try to put as little pressure on the planet as we can.

This year I am afraid I will have very little time to grow our own (new job etc').
However I want keep my principle that food should have a relatively small foot print as far as resources goes.

We like ethnic food but find that there usually a lot of meat involved (Chinese,Indian etc') so it's coming off the menu, which diet use the smallest amount of resources? (considering we are going to buy 80% of our food in the coming year).

laurel7172

Meat has a high footprint. So do exotic veg. So Chinese and Indian, even vegi, need a bit of thought.

You can certainly make yummy Indian style food with British veg-and the only thing that needs be shipped across the world is the spices. Lentils need less cooking time than other pulses, and you can do a lot with a slow cooker too.

Fire_Fox

Smallest footprint is vegan with fruit and vegetables in season and locally grown. Not sure I could cope with vegan so you could add in local free-range eggs and local organic dairy products? If your veg patch is redundant you could have your own chicken coop and run?

Much Asian food is actually vegetarian due to the cost of meat, it's only when these culture comes to the west they are corrupted! Chinese replace a lot of meat with soya and black beans and Indian/ Pakistani use a lot of lentils. I believe kidney beans, chick peas, yellow and green split peas can be grown in Britain and these make great curries.