Green event promotes healthy eating habits

Bloomington Eats Green is a weekend full of learning how to eat better. Not just eating healthy, but eating in a way that is good for the environment – and a way that involves the least amount of pain for animals and benefits local farmers as well.

The weekend event kicks off Friday with speaker Gary Nabhan, a conservationist and ethnobotanist from the University of Arizona, speaking about “Renewing American’s Food Traditions.”

The second speaker, Joel Salatin, a farmer from Virginia, is coming to talk about “Holy Cows and Hog Heaven.”

“The speakers showcase the importance of food sustainability in the wider context of the U.S. and help people in Bloomington to see what is going on with food leaders,” professor of informatics Peter Todd said.

The event ends Sunday with “Hog Heaven: A Celebration of Local Pork from Snout to Tail,” including local food and music.

“‘Hog Heaven’ will show the community the creative things that we can do with food,” Todd said, “and the creative resources we have among the chefs in our community.”

Some of the dishes being prepared at “Hog Heaven” include pork loin, Boston Butt, pork shoulder, pork belly, bacon and lard.

“We want to show students how good locally grown food can be,” political science professor Christine Barbour said.

At the event there will be 14 local chefs who are each given a part of one pig and have to create a dish out of the part they receive.

The chefs will then display their dishes and people will be able to walk around and sample the food. The chefs will even be using chocolate with their pig creations.

“Candy bacon is really good,” Barbour said. “A real eclectic bunch of stuff.”

This is the first time  for the Bloomington Eats Green event.

“If this event goes well, it will be the first of many,” Barbour said.

Bloomington eats green events

Renewing American’s Food Traditions
WHEN 6 to 7:30 p.m. Friday
WHERE Woodburn Hall Room 100
MORE INFO The event is free and open to the public.

Holy Cows and Hog Heaven
WHEN 6 to 7:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE Woodburn Hall Room 100
MORE INFO The event is free and open to the public.

Hog Heaven: A Celebration of Local Pork from Snout to Tail
WHEN 3 to 6 p.m. Sunday
WHERE Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall
MORE INFO Tickets cost $20 in advance at Bloomingfoods, $25 at the door.