3 minute read
Sodium as Sustainability
from Going Green
The Local Food Movement: Sodium as Sustainability
by Violet Filer
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Since 542 CE, the Adriatic Region, comprising Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro, has undergone centuries of foreign rulers, regime changes, unpredictable trade agreements, and border disputes that have led to serious problems of unemployment, emigration, and economic instability.
Salt is one of the most common ingredients in our pantry, used not only for its flavor enhancement but also its preserving qualities. For the countries surrounding the saltrich Adriatic Sea, salt is known as “white gold” because it is considered the best salt in Europe and throughout the world. The salt in this region has a high concentration of natural iodine due to the local algae and petula which improve both the taste and longevity of salt’s use as a preserving agent.
With tensions rising between these countries, all three governments have had to turn their efforts internally to create agricultural systems that function independently of other nations, which includes self-sufficient salt mining operations. In the past few decades, Montenegro has begun producing salt from the Solana Ulcinj, which is one of the biggest salt salines in the Mediterranean and has a unique sweetness because the salt water evaporates on a higher plateau. Furthermore, Bosnia and Herzegovina has also managed to develop a localized system of producing salt by utilizing the “European Salt Lakes City” of Tuzla, located in the north-eastern region of the country. Known as “the cradle of salt,” Tuzla has extensive saline deposits resulting from the ancient sea of Pannonian. More than 20 million years ago, this sea dried up and left millions of tons of rock salt in this region that have unparalleled taste when added to food. In the 17th century, Luis XIV refused to consume salt that wasn’t from Tuzla. Today, each of the countries in the Adriatic Region employs individualized resources to provide their citizens with salt, which has led to a local food movement in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. Coined “locavores” for eating food produced within a 100-mile radius of one’s home, eating local foods and herbs lowers food miles, preserves small-scale farming and encourages farmers to seek sustainable agricultural practices. Instead of shipping salt from Croatia to Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, each country produces their own salt and therefore has reduced food miles, which is the distance that food travels from the producer to the consumer. A higher amount of food miles correlates to a higher amount of fossil fuel consumption, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Furthermore, eating local food and herbs, such as salt, increases genetic diversity because larger farms typically employ modern technology to genetically alter foods. Having local farms is also associated with protecting farmland, as these small businesses save the land from being used for industrial or commercial production, increasing and preserving biodiversity. Small farms also grow non-commercial varieties of food, using minimal pesticides and frequent crop rotation to create the most natural forms of various plants and herbs. Finally, farmers who have to sell their own produce are more likely to use environmentally friendly production practices. Consumer awareness of local farms encourages farmers to use safe ecological methods of farming, like not using pesticides in the growth of their produce.
Today, large-scale farming is the number one cause of pollution in lakes and rivers, as these massive farming companies are not held accountable by local populations for using environmentally-friendly methods of practice. In conclusion, the regional conflict between Croatia, Bosnia and Herbeznegovia and Montenegro has led to the localized production of salt and therefore more sustainable practices of agriculture.
