How to eat in the most sustainable and healthy way?
The secret is a local and seasonal agriculture. The most ecological way of nutrition is the self-sufficiency (being capable of providing for one’s own needs) . And that is also what Sieben Linden tries to implement as much as possible, without losing a significant amount of comfort and wellbeing.
In data that means the village is 70% self-sufficient when it comes to vegetables, potatoes and fruits. In total at least 30% of all consumed food is grown by us locally. In our own garden everything is cultivated under highest organic standards. Probably our tomatoes are the tastiest in whole Germany, even though they still can´t be compared with Macedonian ones. ; )
But also the rest of the food supply is 100% organic and as local. The village gets only 20% of its food from outside of Germany! Furthermore, it strengthens the local economy, what is especially affordable for economical weaker regions and countries.
The food supply in Sieben Linden is organized and guarantied, by a so-called food cooperative. That means every adult pays a daily contribution into a community fund and can take as much food as he/she wants and whenever he/she wants in return. But that only applies for “basic foods.” For more luxury/expensive foods, like sweets and snacks but also avocado or bananas you have to go into the local organic store and pay like everywhere else.
What you won’t find anywhere, neither in the food co-op nor in the store, is meat. It is not forbidden to eat meat but the simple fact that you can´t get it anywhere in the village
reduces the inhabitants meat consume drastically. Only 1 kg meat is in average eaten by one person/year, what is admittedly also caused by the large amount of vegans and vegetarians. For comparison, an average Macedonian eats 38 kg meat per year, a German even 85 kg!
Some people think being vegan or vegetarian is just an ethical matter. But that’s far from it!
Consuming to much meat is, depending on the meats background, one of the biggest environmental sins. There are multiple reasons: First of all, the meat often travels a very long way before it reaches the consumer. The biggest meat exporters are the U.S., Brasilia, Australia and Argentina. Obviously all quite far from Europe.
Even worse for the environment is, that agriculture is estimated to be the direct driver for around 80% of deforestation worldwide. Just for the huge amounts of soy and maize eaten by livestock, annually 4.856 km2 of rainforest are cleared.
In short, reducing our meat consumption is an important step towards a sustainable lifestyle. It is not said, that everybody should become vegan or vegetarian, but just a more mindful approach to meat can change a lot. You will see that there are a lot of good alternatives and that meat is even tastier, if you eat it more rarely!