“My freshman year in college I took a course offered by two local farmers,” Creswell recalls. “It changed my life. It became extremely clear that I wanted to be a farmer.”
Today the 24-year-old serves as the full-time coordinator of Bowdoin College’s two organic gardens in Brunswick. These gardens help the school source 20% of its food locally.
Even though her career choice may be unusual, it’s no surprise that Creswell is a big proponent of eating locally-grown and raised foods. She says this food preference is based on “personal philosophy, more than anything.”
Creswell goes on to add, “I’ve seen first hand and read scores of articles about how conventional food affects the environment.”
Conventional agriculture’s chemically-coated and industrially-produced food is not something Creswell cares to eat or support. To this end, she makes a point of buying locally-grown food and cultivates the gardens with as little fossil fuel as possible. She’s even gone as far as using bicycles to transport seedlings from the greenhouse to the garden, rather than using a pollution-spewing car or truck.
Eaters guided by ethics
Creswell is not alone in relying on her moral compass to guide what shows up on her plate. Glance around and you’ll see a food revolution everywhere you look. It shows up in the hordes of shoppers at the farmers’ markets, in the skyrocketing sales of organic food, in the grass-fed beef in the butcher’s case, in the fair-trade certified coffee at the corner roaster, in the free-range eggs at the supermarket and in the growing number of vegetarian options on restaurant menus.
It’s even there in the controversy over foie gras (delicious or cruel?) and the debates about how best to kill a lobster (should you boil the buggers or electrocute them to death?). Taken together these food trends point to the rising prominence of ethical eating, or dining that seeks to limit the harm inflicted on animals, people, communities and the planet.
“I think this is a big umbrella, a big tent movement,” says Russell Libby, the executive director of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association. “There are a lot of ways for people to do it. There’s no right way.”
Libby points to a number of signs showing ethical eating’s growing strength in Maine. MOFGA, which was founded in 1971, certified its first organic farm in 1972. By 1992 this number had risen to 90 farms, and last year 350 Maine farms were certified organic, which equals 5% of all agricultural operations in the state. (This statistic ignores the many farms that use organic practices but haven’t sought an official certification.)
During the same period, Maine farmers’ markets jumped from one in 1971 to roughly 75 today. Another barometer is attendance at MOFGA’s flagship festival, the Common Ground Country Fair. Those flocking to this celebration of the natural foodie lifestyle have ballooned from 10,000 at the first event in 1977 to 62,000 last year.
Old hippies, new hippies
While much of MOFGA’s appeal can be traced to the hippie ideals of the ‘60s and the back-to-the-land movement of the ‘70s, these baby boomers aren’t the only ones looking for morally-sound food. Both Bates and Bowdoin report an increased interest among their students in where food comes from.
“We hear from students that they’re supportive of our philosophy” of buying local food, says Christine Schwartz, the dining services director at Bates College, where 30% of the food comes from Maine. “We’re hearing about free-range chickens and free-range eggs. They want to see more meat-free options. I think the students are coming at it from an environmental point of view.”
Mary Lou Kennedy, the dining services director at Bowdoin, sees the same things on her campus, where fair-trade certified coffee and grass-fed beef are regular parts of the menu.
“We have two vegetarian and one vegan offering every day,” Kennedy says. “It’s a small percentage of students who are vegetarian, but everyone eats vegetarian nowadays. When Honolulu tofu is on the menu, people who come in from the outside would think 40% or 50% of our students are vegetarian.”
This desire to eat more plant-based meals is alive and well in Portland’s vibrant restaurant scene, where most eateries (particularly the ones catering to a youthful clientele) serve vegan and vegetarian meals. Next weekend, the cuisine will be celebrated for the fourth year in a row at the city’s Vegetarian Food Festival, put on by the Maine Animal Coalition.
Robin Watts, who chairs the planning committee hosting the festival, has witnessed a sea change in the availability of vegetarian food.
“When I first became a vegan about 20 years ago, you really had to go to the little basement health food stores to find vegetarian food,” Watts says. “Now you have Whole Foods and Hannaford and Shaw’s. And a lot of restaurants are developing vegetarian menus.”
One example of vegetarianism’s newfound status can be seen at the Green Elephant. This restaurant, which opened in the Arts District last October, is Portland’s first all-vegetarian lunch and dinner spot. The cozy eatery has become so popular it’s tough to get a table on a Friday or Saturday night.
“Every weekend we’re really busy,” says co-owner Dan Sriprasert. “Some nights we serve 100 people.”
4th Annual Vegetarian Food Festival
Saturday, June 21, 11 am-4 pm
Abromson Center, USM, Portland
Find free food samples, exhibitors and vegan product samples. At noon author Jessica Porter talks about “Macrobiotics for Vegetarians” and at 2:30 pm Paul Shapiro of the Human Society of the U.S. talks about “Advances for Farm Animals: How and Why We’re Winning.” Free.
FMI visit www.maineanimalcoalition.org
Ethical eating reading list
“The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” by Michael Pollan
This book explores where modern American food comes from, by looking at corn-fed beef, industrial-scale organic agriculture, small family farms and hunting and gathering.
“Slow Food Revolution,” by Carlo Petrini and Gigi Padovani
This book examines the shoddy quality and uniformity of mass marketed food, and offers a different way of eating that is tied to the seasons and each individual locale.
“Fast Food Nation,” by Eric Schlosser
This book investigates what it takes to make fast food, traveling from industrial potato farms to the kill floors at giant meatpacking plants.
“Diet for a New America,” by John Robbins
This book sheds a light on the secretive world of factory farmed livestock, while debunking nutritional myths perpetuated by the powerful meat and dairy industries.