Third Edition E-Magazine | April 2013 | www ... - Oshwal Centre

~ Modern Food Ethics ~
lower environmental footprint.
TIP 6: Avoid air freighted foods.
TIP 7: If, like me, you are unable to resist the urges to
consume perishable exotic fruits like mango and papaya -
try and go for the dried versions which can be shipped
and thus are a lot less damaging for the environment.
Palm oil products destroy rainforests…
destruction. But I believe soya should be less of a
concern for Jains in the West. Globally, the biggest
producer of soya is the US. And a vast majority of soya is
used to feed animals (including dairy cows), not humans.
Moreover, soya is generally very clearly labelled as an
ingredient, and in the UK it is easy to find soya products
that have been produced in a sustainable, nondestructive
way.
TIP 8: Avoiding processed foods with a high saturated fat
content is a healthy and easy way to avoid destructive
palm oil products.
TIP 9: Avoid animal products and highly processed foods
containing soya. If you choose to consume soya, go for
lightly processed products (e.g. soya milk, tofu) that are
specifically labelled as being produced in a sustainable
way.
Palm oil is common ingredient in many processed foods.
The oil is affordable, incredibly efficient to produce, and
has many useful culinary and industrial properties.
Unfortunately, palm oil is also associated with the
destruction of primary rainforest in Malaysia and
Indonesia – the habitat of Orang-utans.
It is a big challenge to identify and avoid foods that
contain palm oil. Most companies simply label palm oil as
“vegetable oil” or “vegetable fat”. Some companies claim
to use “sustainable palm oil”, but there is wide recognition
among environmental groups that the certification
process is deeply flawed. One helpful rule of thumb is to
look at fat content. If “vegetable fat” is an ingredient, and
the percentage of saturated fat (of total fat content) is
higher than 30%, destructive palm oil is probably an
ingredient.
Soya is another food commonly associated with rainforest
Waste less food…
In the UK, we waste about 25% of the edible food that we
buy, mainly because we buy too much! One of the
easiest ways to reduce the himsa arising from our dietary
choices is to simply reduce
the amount of food that we
waste.
TIP 10: Some waste can be
reduced by making more of
the food we do eat (for
example, eating bread crusts
and fruit peel).
TIP 11: Following a
traditional Jain diet which
involves lots of beans, lentils,
pulses and grains is a great
way to reduce food waste.
These items can be bought
Oshwal News E-magazine of the O.A.U.K. 11 April 2013 Edition