Researchers at Northern Arizona University’s Center
for Sustainable Environments have some bad news about the average
American diet: A typical meal’s ingredients travel 2,000 miles from
farm to fork, amassing huge environmental and economic costs along
the way.
The costs are cultural, too, says NAU
professor and noted author Gary Nabhan. While Westerners can
instantly recall the taste of burgers or pasta, he says, the same
cannot be said for such backyard fare as prickly pear, churro,
pinon nuts, or Hopi piki bread.
Fortunately, some
local food producers are still marketing unique, exquisitely
flavorful foods that are grown in less destructive ways. A new
directory, Fresh, Organic and Native Foods of the Colorado
Plateau, provides an essential menu of such regional
cuisine.
Co-edited by Nabhan and Lauren
Rentenbach, the directory features wild-harvested, native and
historically important foods found at farmers’ markets and
restaurants throughout the Four Corners area.
The
authors implicitly question the Department of Agriculture’s
traditional “food pyramid,” pointing out that the familiar triangle
is most useful when it is surrounded with three points of concern:
human health, environmental integrity and soul
sustenance.
“When I’m traveling on the mesas and
I smell the smoke of the cook-fires, I know I’m on the Colorado
Plateau,” says Nabhan. “This directory is about educating our taste
buds and giving us a better sense of how our place
tastes.”
Fresh, Organic and Native Foods
of the Colorado Plateau is available free at
www.environment.nau.edu or by calling NAU’s Center for Sustainable
Environments at 520/523-0637.
Copyright © 2001 HCN and Renee Guillory
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Soul food on the range.
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative Commons license.
