Small Ways To Make The Food System Better
A conversation with Alexina Cather, Director of Policy Advocacy and Sustainability at the James Beard Foundation.
The scent of a red meaty pasta sauce simmering on the stove always takes me back to the busy weeknights of my childhood. My mom would have a pot going all day, and whoever was home from their various afterschool activities would scoop some onto cooked pasta eating at a table that was also covered with someone else's homework.
Food is comfort. It's why so many of us turned to baking and cooking in the early days of the pandemic. Why the lovely Abby Rasminsky has been dropping off baked goods to friends in her L.A. neighborhood. Why obituaries often reference a favorite dish. Food is how so many of us show love.
On afternoons when I've somehow managed to get most of my required work done or when we simply need a break, I'll pull a chair over to the kitchen counter for my toddler to stand on. She'll help me make cookies or watch while I make dinner. If her attention holds, I'll casually mention different ingredients and how we got them. Because food is such a part of our daily lives, it's the perfect way to teach kids about so many things, from budgeting to nutrition to household responsibility to making the planet better.
Food accounts for anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of a household's total carbon footprint. For most people, food represents the most significant opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint. In this edited and condensed interview, I spoke with Alexina Cather, Director of Policy Advocacy and Sustainability at the James Beard Foundation and the Parent-ing newsletter, about food policy, getting kids involved in making small and big changes and more.
Tell me a bit about your background.
Alexina: It was a bit of a circuitous background. I went to the University of California, Berkeley was interested in science, and I thought I would be pre-med. But while at school, I worked in restaurants and really gained a love and appreciation of food. After I graduated, I volunteered at a children's hospital and ended up getting a job at that hospital. I worked there for a long time and started to pay attention to the food they were serving and the cafeterias and how it felt very counterintuitive and not right, frankly, to serve sick children lousy food.
And then it was also the parents. I worked a lot in the oncology department, and I'd see many of the parents gain so much weight during their children's hospitalizations because the affordable food in the cafeteria was unhealthy. Whereas the salad bar was like Whole Food prices and people who are not working and spending months of their life in a hospital caring for their child can't afford to pay $30 a day at a cafeteria. So it was all backward. And made me very upset, but it forced me into a career where I'm trying to do something about all that. So during that time, I decided I would go back and get a Master of Public Health, and I focused on food systems and environmental health.
What are some of the benefits of getting kids involved in understanding food's role in the climate crisis?
Alexina: Food is something that impacts all of us, at home, at work and at school. And when we are talking to kids who will be leading the next generation, talking to them about what they eat and how it's grown and how that will impact the world that they live in is a no-brainer.
Kids are so inquisitive. Depending on where they live, they may not necessarily see the immediate impact of climate change on a daily basis; however, food immediately impacts them. But it's really up to us to make sure that we're giving them the correct information and not only giving that information to them but also giving them tools for little things they can do in their daily life to make changes.
OK, so let's talk about those changes in daily life. What are a couple of tips you have for parents and caregivers that want to instill food practices that are better for the planet in their own lives and their kids' lives?
Alexina: My kids really like meat, but we know that not all meat is created equally. So, we talk about the impact of meat production on climate change. We've decided we would rather eat less meat in our family but make sure that we know that the animals are grown as humanely as possible for their care and the planet. Right now, we're in Vermont, next to a farm where we get our eggs and our beef from. We see how the animals are treated. And yes, the food often is more expensive. It's also more delicious.
We try to eat plant-based food as much as possible. It's not always easy with kids, but when I talk to my kids about why we're doing this, they're much more invested in making those changes than if I just say, oh, we're not going to have a hamburger. They're empathetic people, and they can understand that I'm making this choice both because it's nutritionally healthy for us and because it's healthy for the planet.
What about policy changes? Why are those important, and how can parents help make policy changes and get their kids involved?
Alexina: It's a mixed bag because there is a lot that you or I, or our kids or friends of our kids, can do to make meaningful, incremental changes. But I also want us to be careful about putting all of the onus around climate change on the individual because we need more accountability from businesses, corporations, and policy makers. That's where our policy advocacy can come into play and where we can push everything from businesses at a community level and schools to make policy changes that are more climate-friendly to state policymakers, and ultimately, our federal government.
Some things kids can do is push for their schools to do more composting or figure out ways to reduce food waste both in their homes and in the communities that they interact with daily.
Parents and kids can also get together with a group of kids and parents or caregivers who are like-minded and figure out ways to push the school district or your school to make small incremental changes, like getting rid of plastic straws or paper plates. At my kids' school, they've phased out paper plates so that you have a reusable plate. Not every school has the infrastructure to do that, but many do and just aren't doing it. You could also see about reducing meat consumption. In New York City, one day a week where school lunch is plant-based.
What's giving you hope right now?
Alexina: On a local level in New York City, I'm really excited that we have a mayor that's even talking about food policy. Boston also elected a mayor who is interested in food issues. And while this is at the local municipality level, these are big cities, and cities are often driving change even when the federal government is not.
New York City has also adopted policies around universal free breakfast and lunch for kids, which is great. It's ensuring that every school kid has access to two free meals a day. And we're seeing other school districts adopting similar policies, or at least they have through the pandemic. Hopefully, that's something that will stay, thereby reducing the stigma around free and reduced lunch and ensuring children have access to food. That's something that I'm really optimistic about.
I'm also optimistic that I saw so many young people at the COP26 this year. Seeing kids as young as elementary school age who are active in their community and getting their peers to be active around climate change and food access is so inspiring.
And then at the end of the day, it's little things that make me hopeful: cooking with my kids, teaching them how important it is to connect to our food and talking about issues around who has access to food, who has access to land and why that is and why that should change.
Until next time,
~ Bridget
Published: “The Great Outdoors” and “7 Things Pediatricians Want You to Know About Kids” for the January issue of The Day Magazine. “Over 5,000 Foods Are at Risk of Going Extinct—Here's Why That Matters” for Martha Stewart and “Five Incubators Creating the Next Generation of Winemakers” for Wine Enthusiast.
Read + Do: Be gentle with yourself and others. This winter feels like such a struggle. If you want to feel seen Jessica Grose's I See Signs of Despair From Parents of Kids Under 5 in the New York Times and Amil Niazi's Omicron Means Parents Are Doing It All Again, Except Dead Inside are both worth a read.
A fun yet messy activity with kids is to do a waste audit of your trash. The brilliant Kate Brasksir talks about this in her book A Pocket Guide to Sustainable Food Shopping: How to Navigate the Grocery Store, Read Labels, and Help Save the Planet. You want to look at everything with the eye of how you can reduce the waste involved - maybe it means buying bigger containers of yogurt or marking your own, or not buying as many bananas if you find yourself always tossing them out.
Working: On a piece for Insider on the climatologists choosing to have kids, an update to this Healthline piece on having a chronic illness during the pandemic, and a story for The Day Magazine on things grandparents did that parents should bring back to parenting today. (Send me your ideas).