What Matters Most

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What Matters Most    You might say Sara Snow is a natural.

Her parents, Tim and Pattie Redmond, pioneers in the organic food industry, are the founders of Eden Foods.  Sara grew up in a home focused on conserving natural resources, reducing the impact on the environment and providing the family with the healthiest foods possible.

The Redmond family lived in an idyllic setting in the sticks of northern Michigan where their home was equipped with solar panels and stocked with food harvested from their own garden.

Sara was lucky enough to be raised around a dinner table that hosted guests who would soon become the leaders in the natural and organic food industry.  From her earliest childhood, she’s been inspired by their leadership as well as other like them and in her new book, Fresh Living, she shares her wealth of knowledge with us.

Green Diva: Robyn O’Brien

Sara introduces us to green diva, Robyn O’Brien who is the founder of the Allergy Kids Foundation.  Robyn, a mother of four kids, launched AllergyKids on Mothers Day 2006 after her fourth child was diagnosed with food allergies.  As a result of her daughter’s severe allergic reaction to scrambled eggs, Robyn began reading food labels, discovering the unhealthy truth about our food supply.

As a long-time conservative Republican, Robyn’s experiences in motherhood led her on an unexpected journey into the food industry revealing how the processed food corporations, chemical corporations and the federal government allow toxic proteins and allergens to enter into the American food supply.

O’Brien never considered herself to be an environmentalist or tree-hugger.  She describes herself as a “kid hugger” and it was O’Brien’s love of her children that led to her shocking discoveries.

As explained at her website, “AllergyKids directly impacts the well-being and livelihood of children and their families by creating universal awareness of food allergies, educating the population about the severity of food allergies and the important role that diet can play in healing these children.”

Overwhelmed by the knowledge of the ingredients of what her kids were eating, O’Brien started waging her personal campaign against the conventional wisdom of what we usually considered “good” food and started changing the foods she was feeding her family by providing them with fresh, natural products.  This is why Robyn O’Brien is one of Sara Snow’s Fresh Living heroes.

Heart of the Home: Your Kitchen

Sara Snow explains, “In the kitchen, food is, of course, paramount.  In my opinion, food is one of the first steps, the most important step someone can take when they’re trying to live that healthier life.  It’s such an important part of who we are.

“We make countless food decisions every single day-at least three involving three square meals-and probably twenty different food choices every single day.  It’s a real opportunity to affect your body for the better or sadly for the worse.”

Sara continues, “In the kitchen, there are choices you can make to have a healthier family and a healthier home by infusing more organics into your diet, organically grown foods, not only fruits and vegetables but also things like cereal, milk and cheese.

“[You can] buy more locally grown foods, too.  So, that means shopping at a farmer’s market or belonging to a CSA.  CSA means “Community Supported Agriculture.”  It’s a system by which you actually become a member of a farm.  So, in exchange for a membership fee, you get a weekly share of that farm’s crop.  That’s two good ways to get fresh, local food, which is so important.

“Our foods travel so far in this country.  On the average, they travel about 1,600 miles so when you look down at your plate of chicken, broccoli and potatoes, those foods travel over a thousand miles just to get there.  So, it wastes a lot of freshness but it also wastes a lot of petroleum and other natural resources in the transportation of those foods.  This is why buying local foods is so important.

“It supports your local economy.  It supports your local farmers.  Often times, it’s the small family farms that absolutely need our support and so important to the vibrant nature of our country.  It’s so important that you support them.  And then, you’re getting the freshest food possible so that should also correlate into the healthiest food.”

Fair Trade in Your Kitchen

Another decision we can make when buying products for our kitchen and throughout our home is to be sure imported goods obtain a Fair Trade Certification.  “It means the farmers or the producers of that product were paid a fair wage, that they were given fair working conditions,” Snow elaborates.

“Often what happens is that a community can really be changed as a result of your purchasing those fair trade products because those families are able to purchase better food for their families, afford better health care, invest back into their farms, into their communities and into whatever product they’re producing for you.

“It’s a tremendous way to affect some real change just by choosing those food items or other items around the house that have the fair trade logo on them.  So, in the kitchen you’ll most often see fair trade tea, coffee, chocolate; a lot of time, people see fair trade bananas.  But, it also extends into baskets, blankets and jewelry pieces.”

Fair trade practices add another dimension to what we mean by sustainable.  It means that just not the product is sustainable but also that the community is sustainable.

Sara adds, “It’s not only about sustaining ourselves.  I think that, especially in this country, we focus a lot on how can I be healthier, how can I be wealthier, how can I be more comfortable, how can I be more sustaining.  And, it’s really not just about ourselves.

“We have to step back and look and see we all share this planet, we’re all in this together, and really it’s about how can we sustain not only ourselves but our communities, our state, our country, our world, our planet as a whole.  That also means reaching across and sustaining communities who may be half way across the globe.”

Sara Snow grew up in this life of healthier, greener, fresher living.  She understands that it is a possibility to live this life and embrace these values.  Maybe it requires some sacrifices and it may not be easy but it’s important we make changes today.

As in the case of Robyn O’Brien’s family, Sara knows people suffer health issues.  Sara believes that if we can all decide to make one or two small changes, if we can all group together and take small steps toward healthier, sustainable living, this is how we will collectively affect some big positive changes.