Save Money, Be Social and Eat!
ECO-LOCALS.COM
Our food is a primordial connection to all things. It is one of our biggest expenses and can be a huge stress on our health, environment and quality of life.
Let's use these insights to build stronger and greener communities.
Here's how it works.
Find a few friends, the more the better.
The keys to sustainability here are,
LEARNING: Each friend focuses on making ONE healthy and simple unique dish.
LOCAL: Each dish is >50% local by ingredient count - down to local spices!
SHARING: Each friend brings >DOUBLE servings of their food (>2 servings/attendee).
SAVING: Everyone eats together, shares stories and departs with containers full of leftovers.
The goal is to bring home enough left-overs to have 1-2 meals a day for a week!
While hunting down local foods - don't be shy to check out Eco-Locals.com - we don't have many listings yet but we hope that our rating system and tools will be used more and more as time moves forward.
Check Out an Example Ad We Made Here
We’re free to use AND manufacturers need to meet minimum sustainability requirements to get listed! We let you link to whatever online store you want and you have no obligation to donate or fund us at all! (Unless you see what we're doing and want to :D)
Now For Some Inspiration!
We want to inspire you with some great creations from around the web. Please share your ideas in the comments or make a post #Eco-potluck
Make Veggies Taste Like Meat!
It's almost like vegans and meat-eaters share tastebuds or something...
Imagine: Eliminating all of the shipping, exploitation and waste associated with conventional meat and grocery industries. Now stop imagining! You can make these at home and they're just as good! No MSG, less salt and no preservatives - you are in control.
Pro Tip: It's not really the 'meat' taste most people are addicted to - it's the spices and texture! Recipes heavy in PAPRIKA, CAJUN, LEMON PEPPER SALTS, CUMIN and PEPPER will give you that meat-like umami flavor you might be missing in your veggie dishes. Mimicking meat preparations like pulling, smoking or grilling helps to capture the texture.
Discussion: What recipes do you find REALLY hit the spot when it comes to getting that smokey and thick flavor most meat products are famous for? What local spices can you grow in cold climates that mimic or improve these flavors?
Potato Chips, baked or fried
Deep-fried potato chips - try experimenting with less oil AND/OR local oils!
Baked potato chips -
Imagine: Eliminating all of the shipping, exploitation and waste associated with conventional potato chips. Now stop imagining! You can make these at home and they're just as good! No MSG, less salt and no preservatives you are in control. Fall in love with "junk" food again. Let's call it "knuj food" when we do it right because we've flipped it around and "nudged" it back into a healthy direction!
Pro Tip: You can make fries from carrots, sweet potatoes - you can even bread an onion and deepfry it, it's called a 'bloomin' onion' in the south. If you don't have a slicer, double check your 4-sided cheese grater or you can make one out of a knife, wood block and jig-skills.
Discussion: What local alternatives do you use to olive oil or canola oil? Is sunflower oil working for you? Do you see an opportunity in your local market to grow potatoes at home or trade oil with friends? What are your favorite local seasonings?
Kombucha (Self-Carbonated Sweet Tea)
Imagine: Eliminating all of the shipping, exploitation and waste associated with conventional soda. Now stop imagining! You can make kombucha at home. Now it's a unique taste but virtually completely customizable. WAY less sugar, no mystery syrups, no preservatives - you are in control. Fall in love with "carbonated beverages" again. Let's call it "ados drinks" when we do it right because we've flipped it around!
Pro Tip: You can usually find someone making kombucha locally. If you are so inclined, you can almost always find someone who will help get you set up with making kombucha at-home for basically at-cost.
Discussion: What local alternatives do you use to replace carbonated beverages? Do you find water and milk are good enough or do you hanker for something you can't get locally? Do you brew beer or know of other carbonation techniques? Can you make kombucha with only honey and juice and ignore all added sugars?
Spaghattisize Your Life with Zoodles
You can use potatoes, zucchini or carrots to replace conventional pasta!
Spiralize other veggies for unique textures!
Imagine: Eliminating all of the shipping, exploitation and waste associated with conventional farming and distribution of dried goods. Now stop imagining! You can make pasta at home from local and sustainable ingredients. WAY less embodied energy, more nutrients and more taste - you are in control. Fall in love with pasta again and make it as low-carb as you want!
Pro Tip: Keep the ends of your veggies in the freezer for soup stock!
Discussion: What other conventional high-resource use products can we replace by using unique tools or cooking processes? What are you favorite tricks for unique flavors and sauces?
But Be Careful!
Individual sustainability claims are great. But... Without a holistic overview, it’s nearly impossible to determine if a product is responsibly made. We cover more information in our post Why Do We Need Sustainability Rating Systems and Marketplaces? For example,
• "Low carbon products": Any product can be low carbon and still ruin the environment and use appalling amount of energy.
• “100% renewable energy products”: There isn't enough renewable energy for the entire planet so 100% renewable energy isn't going to save us if products are inefficient.
• “Organic Certified products”: These can still use tons of excess pesticides.
We just want to be THE place to find environmentally friendly products/meals and document sustainability holistically.
We also provide a portal for low-carbon couriers to respond to your requests for deliveries from anywhere anytime! We'll go into more detail about the Green Commitments and Environmental Product Declarations here.
Our minimum requirements are covered in another post, Is Carbon Management or Vague Labeling Ever Going To Be Enough? But, for the sake of saving you a minute, the three min reqs are:
- Over 50% extracted and harvested within 1,000 km from the final manufacturing point
- Over 50% recycled, re-used or upcycled if applicable
- Cannot contain environmentally or biologically harmful chemicals (e.g. palm oil, corn syrup, msg, artificial dyes, etc.)
Our unique sustainability reporting tools are also covered in another post, Holistic Sustainability Reporting for Consumer Product and Meals But, for the sake of saving you a minute, the two types of voluntary labels are:
A. Environmental Product Declarations: Based on ISO Standardized (or equivalent) reporting of:
-Energy use (in kwh) per unit or kg – exempt if 100% rain and sunshine grown
-Blue, grey and black water use per unit or kg – exempt if 100% rain and sunshine grown
-Recycled content percentage per unit or kg
-Renewable energy percentage per unit or kg
-Regional content percentage per unit or kg
-CO2 equivalent per unit or kg
-Company diversion rate
B. Green Commitments: Proprietary sustainability labels developed by our team which cover sustainability topics that are often forgotten. Such as: waste diversion, rapidly renewable material use, container recycling, renewable energy use, etc. There are ~three promises per category ranging across:
-Beauty Products
-Chemicals
-Electronics
-Produce Farming
-Animal Farming
-Manufacturing
-Restaurants.
-(Businesses and Services coming soon!)
These are dynamic and updated to reflect community feedback and needs.
*Disclaimer: All data must be based on Environmental Product Declarations, Health Product Declarations, or self-declared based on accurate and publicly available information. Email us for more info @ admin@eco-locals.com
Lean about Environmental Product Declarations (Fees)
Learn about Health Product Declarations (Fees)*
ISO 14024:2018 - Environmental labels and declarations -- Type I environmental labeling -- Principles and procedures
ISO 14021:2016 - Environmental labels and declarations -- Type II Self-declared environmental claims
ISO 14025:2006 - Environmental labels and declarations -- Type III environmental declarations -- Principles and procedures
Manufacturers provide their own data and manage their own listings. This way they can rely on their own consultants to provide transparent data and are required by law to tell the truth!
Users can comment, report and review products to point out any potentially dishonest behavior!
Keep an eye out for a future post on sauces, spices and teas you can make at home!
