“sustainability guilt” and re-centering joy: interview with juliette escande, sustainable food aficionado

Aspen: So, tell me about your history with food and sustainability.

Juliette: I became vegetarian for weird reasons. I started living by myself from a young age and I was worried about how I’d ensure I stayed healthy. So I decided to make a change in my diet. I knew that if I focused on that with a goal in mind I could stay motivated, learn new recipes, and eat less takeout.

Later on, when I came to McGill, I initially wanted to focus my degree just on business. But when I found out about the Fair Trade Corner (a volunteer-run, by-donation coffee stand on campus) I got excited about food and sustainability. That’s what pushed me to change my degree to Managing for Sustainability and make it more than just my daily life. I loved my classes; for one of them we even came up with a venture idea to reduce food waste. I then found a job at Lufa Farms as Community Coordinator, through which I educated folks about sustainable foods and their importance.

Aspen: I relate to what you said about making vegetarianism a project. I learned so much about cooking and creativity, plus ate out way less, during my time as a vegetarian. Could you tell me more about what specifically sustainable food means to you?

Juliette: Working at Lufa made me realize that the most important thing is eating locally -- it’s not only good for the environment, but also accessible and beneficial to the economy. It checks all the boxes. Local usually means less packaging and less food miles. In order to buy with as little packaging as possible, I go to the farmers’ market, which is super cheap and you can bring your own bags. To me, that’s the most sustainable you can be.

Aspen: I agree. For me, when I started out, I thought eating zero meat was peak sustainability, but I later realized it wasn’t for many people for many reasons, including myself. Also, meat isn’t inherently bad for the environment, it’s just how we produce it. 

Juliette: I was once told that sustainability isn’t about vegetarianism, it’s about mindfulness. The moment you become conscious of your choices, you start making a difference. The idea of just one day cutting out all meat is so discouraging and overwhelming. So if I eat meat, am I mindful of where it came from? Being mindful also means not just replacing your meat with vegetarian substitutes, which aren’t necessarily great for the environment either!

Aspen: I agree and I like that. Being mindful is super important. When people feel like if they’re not doing it perfectly it’s not worth it at all, that’s discouraging and gatekeeping. In reality, eating meat once a week is not much worse than not eating it at all. It’s important to shift into that mindset.

With that said, how do you balance taking care of both yourself and the planet?

Juliette: I find that sometimes, even if you’re not doing something by the “textbook definition” of sustainability, there’s always another way to adjust. It’s not about specific rules that need to be followed; we don’t need to be so strict on ourselves. Putting all this pressure on yourself is not worth it. For me, it’s more about asking myself “what’s the best thing I can do to reduce this waste”. It’s a matter of adjusting to the situation and not telling yourself there’s a right-and-wrong way. The other week, I ordered from GoodFood because I got a great promotion, and when it arrived the packaging made me feel sick. But at the same time, if I’m broke, I shouldn’t feel guilty of taking advantage of an offer to get $80 off my groceries. However, feeling guilty also means something -- I understand the consequences of my actions. I can weigh the decisions and adapt accordingly.

Aspen: Completely agree. I wrote a recent article about how HelloFresh helped me. Although I feel awful about the packaging and not cooking from scratch or local, I’ve been eating healthy meals and I’ve been more satisfied with myself.

Juliette: And you actually end up wasting less food! 

Aspen: Yes, exactly! And I feel like we don’t talk enough about the mental health impact of all this sustainability guilt. If you’re feeling guilty about how your individual decisions are destroying the environment all the time, that’s really unhealthy. Ensuring all our purchases are sustainable is an unfair expectation. It’s important to balance what sorts of pressures we’re putting on ourselves, and whether they’re actually productive.

What’s a main tip you’d give to someone looking to make their diet more sustainable?

Juliette: Go to the farmers’ market! It’s hard to stay connected to our food. For me, sometimes food is just like brushing my teeth - something I need to do today. It can be hard to find excitement about cooking, and on top of that I also need to be sustainable? There’s no joy left. Finding pleasure in food is what makes it so much fun. With my roommate, we go every Saturday to Jean Talon and make it a fun activity. Food is at the basis of changing everything, and the moment you eat sustainably, it’s going to taste and feel better. It’s finding a way to make sustainability fun; in the long run it will make you happier.

Aspen: Wow. For me too. Food and cooking changed my life. Discovering that as a hobby, something to look forward to and build a routine around. Finding pleasure in my food, sustainability, doing right by the planet, feeling connected to food and purchases in general is a radical act. Our current systems have divided us from who makes our products. Reclaiming those connections is a beautiful thing. 

Juliette: It goes with the rules we talked about. If you put rules on your eating, you make it less fun. If you actually start enjoying what you eat, you naturally become more mindful of it. They go hand-in-hand. 

Aspen: yes - just trying to find ways to take the “chore” aspect out of it and make it more enjoyable. 

OK, last question: what are your favourite sustainable restaurants and stores?

Juliette: Here’s a list:

my case for meal kits: a realistic review of HelloFresh.

I take a lot of pride in considering myself something of an amateur chef (read: someone who watches a lot of cooking content on YouTube). So whenever I saw ads on social media for meal kit services like HelloFresh, I quickly scrolled past. I thought they were ridiculous. Overpriced, too much packaging, and a sad testament for how capitalism has made us too busy to even have time to grocery shop and cook. 

Me, getting ready to cook :)

Me, getting ready to cook :)

But a month or two ago, I read this article during a period when my anxiety was making it impossible to eat, let alone cook. It discusses how the pandemic and its mental health repercussions influenced the author to sign up for a meal kit service. A switch flipped in my mind and I did the same thing. Ever since, I’ve been using HelloFresh, and I’ve decided to write a review of my experience because I want to nuance the narrative surrounding these services a little bit. 

the service

If you aren’t familiar with HelloFresh or those like it, it’s a subscription service that allows you to pay a weekly fee and, in return, pick a few recipes and receive corresponding individually-portioned ingredients. You tell them what you want, and when you want it, and the box arrives at your door. You barely need anything other than salt, pepper, and oil to get cooking. 

the prices

Many folks’ main concern about these services is that they’re expensive. From my experience that all depends on you: what you normally pay for groceries every week, how many recipes you wish to receive, and whether you’re willing to pay a slight premium for the element of convenience. In any case, I pay roughly $75 per week for 3 recipe kits, totalling 6 meals. It’s more than I used to pay for groceries (about $50 per week) but if it means I’m actually eating, I don’t mind the extra $15. 

the quality

Source: this Insider article about using HelloFresh during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Source: this Insider article about using HelloFresh during the COVID-19 lockdown.

From my roughly four or five weeks using HelloFresh, I have found the ingredients and recipes to taste really good. The produce is usually quite fresh, but I’ve occasionally run into some wilted herbs. Some of the recipes have been somewhat unflavorful, but if you’ve got a well-stocked spice collection, you’ll be fine. And I like how healthy and balanced the meals always are. You know exactly what’s going into them, and you don’t have to worry that you’re getting all your food groups. 

the sustainability

HelloFresh advertises on its website that it’s a sustainable service. However, this piece is my main critique. Every week I’m dealing with tons of unnecessary cardboard and far more ice packs than I know what to do with. Each box also comes with corresponding recipe cards, and for each one they send along an English and a French version. These things should either be eliminated or at least optional. 

HelloFresh should also prioritize local ingredients. One week, I received fish all the way from Iceland! As someone originally from the Maritimes, I felt a little insulted; Canada has no shortage of local options and taking advantage of them is a sustainability must.

Source: Crippledscholar’s article “When Accessibility gets Labeled Wasteful”

Source: Crippledscholar’s article “When Accessibility gets Labeled Wasteful”

However, HelloFresh does appeal to some aspects of social sustainability, bringing up an important intersectional environmentalism issue. Some folks may remember the great plastic straw debate, wherein a bunch of environmentalists led the campaign to eliminate them altogether as an unnecessary, single-use utensil. But many disability rights activists, like Crippedscholar, critiqued this cause with much validity. They argued that sometimes, single-use plastics and packaging that might just seem “lazy” to able-bodied people can actually be empowering for disabled folks. This point is important when critiquing HelloFresh’s sustainability, because even though it’s easy to call them out for pre-cutting and individually-wrapping the veggies in their meal kits, doing so eliminates a barrier in cooking for many. And again, more broadly speaking, the service itself does that for a lot of people in general. 

conclusion

All of this is to say that while meal kit services might not be the right fit for everyone, they’re helpful for more folks than you might think, and a lot of people who use them aren’t just “lazy”. I’ve had a great experience using HelloFresh, and while I likely won’t be a lifetime customer, it’s certainly a helpful resource during these difficult times. 

I’ll leave you with a treat: an incredibly entertaining YouTube video (as I mentioned earlier that I enjoy greatly) from Sohla El-Waylly, one of my absolute favourite chefs. 

With love and sustainability,

Ethigirl.