The green salad on your plate is a great low calorie, light lunch, with high fiber and water content. The bad news is that, depending on where you bought your vegetables from, your salad may not actually be as healthy and vitamin rich as you expect. At the store, if you selected tomatoes imported from the US, cucumbers from Lebanon, and lettuce from Spain, your salad veggies have probably lost a large amount of nutrients before they finally reached your table. The longer produce has to travel before it is consumed, the less likely it is to retain nutrients. Natural processes in fruits and vegetables cause the break-down of stored organic materials. The Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment notes that food transported long distances is not likely to be as nutritious as food grown and consumed locally. The enzymes in the fresh produce will continue to change the composition of the produce. That is why imported fruits and vegetables lose not only nutrients, but also taste and flavor. Foods that are not grown locally travel for days or even a week before it reaches your near-by store, losing valuable nutrients in the process. Spinach loses 50-90% of its Vitamin C content within 24 hours after it is picked. Fresh peas lose 50% of their nutrients after a week from harvest. Another problem with imported produce is that farmers have to pick the fruits earlier, before they have ripened on the plant to reduce spoilage that occurs when fruits are transported over long distances. Vitamin C content of tomatoes is much higher when the tomato is picked ripe from the vine, rather than picking it early, before ripening. As for food safety, the more steps that are between you and your food's source, like your juice red tomato, the more chances there are for contamination. For optimal health, Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment recommends choosing produce that is as fresh as possible, from local farms and growers.
An American Muslim environmentalist, Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, has even shown that eating locally can actually be a way of adhering to our faith as Muslims. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) has said in regards to eating, “Mention the name of Allah and eat with your right hand, and eat of the dish that is nearer to you.” “I am a Muslim with a deeply personal relationship to the Qur'an and the hadith (sayings of the Prophet). Like most people of faith, I have spent much time reflecting, reciting its words, seeking to understand its spirit and to live out its commandments. For example, a well-known hadith relates that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) ate from the dish closest to him. As I delved deeper, it occurred to me that the spirit of this hadith could also be used to encourage people to buy food from local sources,” wrote Ibrahim Abdul-Matin in his book, Green Deen. Imagine if you could grow at least some of your own food; say one or two vegetable plants and herbs like parsley, mint, and cilantro. Imagine eating food picked from your hands, directly from plant to plate. A tomato picked from your garden will taste better and have more nutrients than a tomato picked from the US and shipped all the way here. Food enthusiasts, health buffs, and people who love to connect with nature are growing their own food, and they do not live on farms. Even those living in small apartments in tall buildings in the middle of the city have managed to create for themselves a garden. Urban gardening is picking up in crowded, bustling cities like New York City, London, and Tokyo, and who knows, Riyadh could be next. “My mother in law created a garden of red and white onions and mint in the kitchen of our tiny Brooklyn apartment. Anyone can have a kitchen garden, no matter how small the kitchen is, even if it fits only on the window sill,” said Abdul-Matin. Tasleema, a mother of three, living in an apartment building in Brooklyn, is an urban gardener. She wanted to feed her family healthy and nutritious food, so she converted the rooftop of her building into a lush, green garden with fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs everywhere. On the rooftop, in plant pots of all shapes and sizes and in old dresser drawers and used bookshelves filled with soil, she has planted rows and rows of plants. She grows kale, green chard, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, spinach, lettuce, eggplants, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, and an assortment of herbs. “Many people erroneously think that cities don't have the space to plant and grow food, but urban rooftops are ideal places to have gardens. Planting and growing food takes a lot of work; it results in a new appreciation of food and where it comes from,” said Abdul-Matin. The creative urban gardener, Tasleema, says, “Imagine rooftop gardens cropping up all over the city. One result would be cleaner air as plants pump oxygen into the exhaust filled atmosphere. Some of the benefits are hidden, and Allah has dominion over the unseen. What we do know is that it is best to eat locally grown seasonal produce, and it is best to eat the food that comes from your own labor.”
