The
Year of the Bean
Beans
are our legacy. They could also be our ticket to surviving the 21st
century.
By
SYD BAUMEL
Beans,
lentils, legumes, pulses – call these protein-rich, pod-enclosed
seeds whatever you like – are our legacy. Most of us come from
cultures where cheap beans, not costly meats, were – and in some
cases still are – a staple protein. But most of us have strayed
from that traditional cuisine. We have abandoned the rich variety of
leguminous flavours, shapes and colours for the
flashy cheap date of factory-farmed meat, milk, cheese and eggs.
We
need to do a one-eighty. Why? Because it's 2016.
Beans
and other pulses, together with their partner in cheap, plant-based
protein, cereal grains, are the greenest, most sustainable way to
feed the world.
In
a report
several years ago, the United Nations Environmental Programme
cautioned that as we hurtle toward a collision between mounting
overpopulation, diminishing agricultural capacity and accelerating
climate change, “a substantial reduction of impacts [will] only be
possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal
products.”
Last
year, the nutritional
scientists tasked with
advising
the U.S. government on its Dietary
Guidelines for Americans (commonly
known as the Food Pyramid or MyPlate)
wrote
to the decisionmakers in Washington:
“A
dietary pattern higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables,
fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in
animal-based foods is more health promoting and is associated with
lesser environmental impact than is the current average U.S. diet.
The U.S. population should be encouraged to move towards the dietary
pattern noted above while decreasing overall total calories.”
So
when the UN dedicates a year to the bean, it's not just pumping a
commodity.
