Consider This from NPR - Q & A: Home Cooking And Environmental Impact

Episode Date: May 9, 2020

Chef Samin Nosrat, author of 'Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,' answers listener cooking questions. NPR's science correspondent discusses the pandemic's environmental impact.These excerpts come from NPR's nightly radio show about the coronavirus crisis, 'The National Conversation with All Things Considered.' In this episode:- NPR Science Desk correspondent Lauren Sommer talks about the environmental impact of the economic slowdown- Samin Nosrat, author and host of the Netflix series 'Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,' offers inspiration to those who find themselves short on ingredients or cooking for oneIf you have a question, you can share it at npr.org/nationalconversation, or tweet with the hashtag, #NPRConversation.We'll return with a regular episode of Coronavirus Daily on Monday.This episode was recorded and published as part of this podcast's former 'Coronavirus Daily' format.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Coronavirus Daily from NPR. Today, we'll hear from chef and author of the bestselling book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, Samin Nosrat. She has ideas for home cooks who are looking for inspiration and who are working around shortages. Also, science correspondent Lauren Sommer answers listener questions about the environmental impact of the pandemic. These segments come from the radio show, The National Conversation with All Things Considered. Here's NPR's Ari Shapiro. Since the pandemic hit, air travel in the U.S. is down 95%.

The morning rush hour traffic report has become unnecessary. Many of you are asking what impact all this is having on the environment. So Lauren Sommer is with us. She covers climate change for NPR. And it's good to have impact all this is having on the environment. So Lauren Sommer is with us. She covers climate change for NPR, and it's good to have you back, Lauren. Hi, Ari. Let's start with a question that a lot of listeners have asked. This one comes from Walker in Ames, Iowa. The oil consumption due to no car travel and almost no air travel must be much less. Is this lack of carbon dioxide production low enough to meet the goals of the

Paris Accord? Is it more than enough? Just to remind listeners, the goals of the Paris Accord, that was to keep global temperatures from going up two degrees Celsius with an aim of less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. What's the impact of this slowdown of the global economy, Lauren? Yeah, so as you might expect, it is having an effect on global carbon emissions, largely because demand for oil and coal has really fallen. And this is all over, not just the U.S. So scientists are starting to put out studies projecting what would this look like by the end of the year if this activity continues, you know, we all stay locked down a little bit. And they're coming up with maybe an 8% drop in carbon emissions for this year. Now, okay, that would actually be unprecedented. I know it maybe sounds like a small number.

That's bigger than the drops during the last recession or during World War II. But here's the thing. That is about the level scientists say that the world needs to be cutting emissions every year until 2030 to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. That's, you know, that 1.5 degrees Celsius that you mentioned. And I think scientists are also pointing out shutting down the economy is not the way to reach those long-term emission cuts, right? Right. It's these bigger emissions changes like switching to renewable energy. Okay.

We got a lot of questions also about some of the short-term environmental impacts of the pandemic. This one comes from Lois in Raleigh, North Carolina. This is the most beautiful spring filled with crystal clear, low humidity days here in North Carolina. Does having fewer cars on the road or the factories closed affect the weather? What about the global shutdown of factories? Might that be affecting the weather here? I've heard a lot of people wondering about this. Is the sky actually clearer? It is, yes. In a lot of cities, it's gotten cleaner. People are driving less. In some cities, I mean, car traffic is down 40, 50 percent. Planes are not flying either. So that's actually helped improve local air quality. But it is very important to say the weather plays a huge role in your local air pollution.

So if it rains, you know, it clears the air. And the spring typically is not like the summer. It's not our worst season for air pollution. Other places actually, though, haven't really seen much of a drop because there are things like factories and refineries that are still emitting. And trucks are still on the roads. Goods are still being delivered to stores. Yeah, I understand you've been talking with some scientists who are studying the effect of having so few cars on the road.

What are they trying to understand exactly? Yeah, I mean, this is a particular interest in cities that have really problematic air. And in those cities, they have to try to figure out what can we change to improve air quality? I mean, this is actually kind of just a real-world test of that. One scientist told me that this would be like if in Los Angeles, for example, a third of the cars on the road were switched to all-electric cars. They don't burn gasoline. They get electricity.

And in California, a lot of that comes from solar and renewables, so it's cleaner. We have one listener who wants to know whether this pandemic could cause environmental damage. Here's Valerie in Arizona. We hear a lot about the air pollution being reduced, but not much about the increased plastics and styrofoam, especially in food service. What about the possible negative effects on the environment from the coronavirus? That's a good point. All of these restaurants that have switched to delivery or takeout, that's a lot of plastic. Yeah, I think people are seeing a lot more containers. People are also seeing, you know, masks and plastic gloves kind of thrown on the ground. The pandemic is affecting our efforts to reduce plastic waste. For example, California just put

a 60-day pause on its plastic bag ban. And that's out of concern for frontline workers, right? They're the ones that are handling people's reusable grocery bags when they bring them into the store. Starbucks also is not refilling those reusable coffee mugs for that same reason. It's about reducing exposure. Environmental groups, they've been largely supportive of these temporary measures because people's lives are on the line. But I think they're keeping a close eye to make sure that these are actually just temporary measures and these larger initiatives to reduce plastic waste come back at some point. And our next listener question comes from Laura in Talkeetna, Alaska. What effect is this virus having on wildlife?

I'm thinking of the fact that there's less people out and about, and that means there's more room for wildlife. I've seen some photos of a lot of ducks resting in a parking lot, wild boars and sheep walking down the street. There's a lot of this on social media. Is it just that we're home more, so we see the animals more, or are the animals actually coming out in places that they didn't ordinarily? Yeah, I mean, that's why it's hard to tell, right? A lot of us are kind of just looking out the window, maybe seeing things we didn't see before. But some of it is a hoax, right? On social media, maybe you saw those dolphins that were swimming. Yeah, in the canals of Venice. They weren't actually there. Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But there are actually real effects that scientists are trying to study. I spoke to one wildlife rescue center in California

that said right now it's seal and sea lion pupping season. You know, every year some pups are abandoned because of human interference, like people or maybe dogs getting too close. And so they're kind of hoping that this year they may be a reprieve for them because some beaches are closed. Another really good example is whales. There's just less shipping traffic right now, and so the oceans are less noisy noisy and whales are very sensitive to sound. It's actually something scientists saw after 9-11 because there was also a drop in shipping traffic and scientists could actually measure that stress hormones in right whales went down during that time period. Interesting. We got a question about what's happening to environmental regulations during the pandemic. Mike in Portland writes, did the EPA suspend environmental rules so companies

don't have to follow them any longer? Lauren, was there a policy change while everyone was focused on the disease? Yeah, in March, the EPA announced that it would not be fining companies if they fail to report their pollution data during the pandemic. So an example of this might be that a refinery is reporting its air emissions to make sure that they're complying with federal clean air laws. The agency said that this needed to happen because the pandemic is making it harder for staff to collect the safety data and do social distancing at the same time. Environmental groups really pushed back quite strongly. They felt this was too broad. It sent a message to industries that maybe they would have the freedom to break environmental laws if no one was really checking during this time period. Just in our final moments,

so many of the changes we're talking about depend on social distancing. When the economy returns to something like normal, are the gains we've seen going to be reversed? Right. So we all are starting to get back in our cars and fly, go back to work. Industry's ramping up, as you might expect. These kind of short-term gains are going to go away. I think there's some hope that behavior will change, though. Maybe we'll all work from home more. It's possible. NPR science correspondent Lauren Summer, thank you so much for answering these questions for us today. Thanks. I'm Michelle Martin.

It's been about two months since most people across the country started spending the vast majority of their time and eating most, if not all of their meals at home. And that comes with the new challenge of cooking every single meal. To answer your questions and offer some inspiration in the kitchen, I spoke to chef and author of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, and the host of the Netflix series by the same name, Samin Nasrat. Chef, welcome. Thank you so much for joining us.

Hi, Michelle. Thanks so much for having me. Well, you just dropped up a mini podcast series called Home Cooking to answer people's questions during this pandemic. What kinds of questions have you been getting? Well, because I started the promotion of the show with beans, we got a lot of bean questions. Lots of beans. But, you know, we've gotten all sorts of things from all sorts of different people all over the world.

It's been really amazing. Some of the most touching are from someone who had the coronavirus and now has lost her sense of smell. So she wanted to know what she could cook to sort of make things exciting for her. And we also had some relief workers who wanted to know what to bring for lunch that wouldn't go bad, you know, without a refrigerator. So there's been all sorts of good stuff. Well, you know, I know that many people, myself included, who am I kidding, wanted to join in with your idea to have like a big lasagna dinner this past weekend. I heard you made one. Yes, I did. But one of the ideas here was that not being able to share a meal or cook with others is

a big loss for a lot of people. And we have Debs from Seattle on the line to talk a little bit about that. Hi, Debs. How are you doing? So tell us about your experience at home and in the kitchen during this time. Sure. So I live alone and my experience has been mixed. You know, I love to cook. I love to share food. Food is a way of showing love for me. It's like, it's that intersection of connection and culture and health and everything. So normally I'll like save a special ingredient for when maybe somebody's going to come over and obviously it's different now. So some days I make really nice things for myself. Like yesterday was actually my birthday and I made this gorgeous meal. And some days it's more like just getting myself fed or I have less of an

appetite. I'm being more frugal. I hosted a Zoom Passover Seder this year, which was lovely, but was missing the part where I feed everyone this great meal. I thought about doing the lasagna project, but, you know, then I'd have this giant lasagna and I'm one person and I thought I'd make you sad. Well, first of all, we must say happy birthday. Happy birthday. Thank you. And your present is I'm not going to sing to you because you know, you don't want that,

but do you have a question for chef? Yeah, I do. So right now, even beyond sharing food, so much of the conversation and guidelines right now, I assume people live with other people and that can leave those who live alone,

feeling a little invisible. So for those of us who live alone and love the connected experience of sharing special food, what advice in general can you give us to make this easier? I live alone, so I fully feel you. I have been doing a lot of sharing with my neighbors at a distance. So I had some milk that was going bad last week, so I made like a huge double batch of chocolate and tapioca puddings. And I just put it out and I sent a little message to everyone and I said, bring your own bowl and spoon. And I just put the pudding out and then everybody came and took pudding and went back to

their houses. But a big part of it for me is like what you're saying is the act of sharing is so fulfilling and gratifying. And not being able to do that in my house has been really sad. So I think part of it is just honoring that sadness. And another part is just looking for people to feed. In my neighborhood, we have a shared document of people who need people to do shopping for them or they can't leave the house and they need food dropped off. So that's been also a little bit fulfilling is to share food with people who can really use it. So Debs, thanks so much for joining us and happy birthday once again.

Yeah, thank you. And thanks for your answer. You know, there's a related question, Chef, and this is from Sarah in Los Angeles. And here it is. I was wondering if you had any good ideas for cooking for one that doesn't include batch cooking. Oh, yeah. Story of my life. One thing that is sort of a, it's a little half hybrid answer, is to make batches of stuff that

are not seasoned in any direction. So like for example, to cook a pot of chickpeas and turn some of it into hummus and then another part of it can become like Italian chickpea and pasta soup. So you can have multiple flavors with a single ingredient. That's been helpful for me. But also I think just learning to make simpler stuff and can realize the egg on toast can be dinner. One of the first things I made that was really nice was I made these scrambled eggs that I grated a whole bunch of cheese into and ate them on toast with a pile of boiled asparagus. And I just had it that one meal and it was gone. So I wish I had some tidy answer for you. But I think it's just about using a fresh vegetable

and maybe an egg and sort of scaling down what your idea of dinner is. I want to go to a question from Ellie in Cleveland, Ohio. And I think this is a question I'm sure you're getting a lot, which is searching in the pantry for something new. Where do you go for food inspiration, especially right now when food is feeling pretty repetitive and a lot of people are in cooking rest? Oh, man, do I feel you. I'm like trawling the dregs of my cookbooks. I have quite a cookbook collection. There are so many books I've never opened.

So I'm going through those. For example, because we did this lasagna project, I was making so much lasagna. My initial sort of comfort direction was very Italian-ish, like meatballs and pasta and pizza. And I realized I was so sick of that taste of my own cooking. And what I really missed was being able to just go get Korean food or Chinese food or Thai food. So I pulled down books from those different cultures. Mang Chi is this amazing YouTube star and cookbook author. And she just has the greatest Korean recipes. And so I've been making a lot of kimchi fried rice and kimchi

pancakes just to get into a different corner of the world. So I think if you're craving Mexican food, look for a Mexican author. And you don't even need the books now. We just have so much resources online. But I think the thing is, is just get out of your zone, get out of your zone. Because that's the beauty of this country is there's so much beautiful cooking from all over the world. So when we're forced back into our homes and just doing what we're used to, we're really missing out. This is going to be something that sadly is all too familiar for some people, but is really new for others in this country. And that's not being able to find something that you want. And we're just setting aside the question here, you know, losing income and not being able to afford some things that you want.

In some places, you just can't find it. This is from Amy in Chicago. So I've been out of basics like all-purpose flour and yeast for weeks now and haven't really had any luck finding either at the grocery store. Do you have any good suggestions on how to make a recipe work even when you're short on some of the ingredients? So I feel you on that. I mean, it's really, I feel like we're in some other time or some other place going to the store and seeing all those empty shelves. So I feel you and I definitely feel what it's like for cake flour. You won't get a great result. I mean, you might still eat the cake, but it probably won't be what you were hoping for. So instead, I think if you do have, say, whole wheat flour, but not all purpose, then I would search for a recipe that uses that ingredient that was developed for that ingredient. And a great place to look for those recipes is on the package, usually on the package of alternative flours.

There's recipes, you know, that were developed and tested using that very flour, and they're formulated to turn out well. This is from Andrea in Pomona, California. How do I prepare healthier meals for my family after making comfort foods for so long? These are things that have cheese and cream cheese and condensed soups. I would like to know how to make healthier meals that don't break the bank. Oh, yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I think for a lot of us, getting our hands on fresh vegetables is really difficult. Luckily, you're in California where there are so many farms, so you can sign up for a community-supported agriculture box, a CSA.

I actually just did that today because I was like sick of just having one head of lettuce every 10 days or whatever. Another thing that I did right at the beginning was I bought many different kinds of frozen vegetables, even canned vegetables, but frozen more like I got broccoli. I got at Trader Joe's, I got artichokes, peas. I have so many frozen peas. And that way I can work some vegetables into whatever I cook, which is always sort of my goal is to make sure every meal has at least half a vegetable. So I do eat still a lot of pasta and a lot of rice based stuff. I just bulk it up with vegetables. So I feel on the comfort food. I'm like, if I eat one more piece of cheese, I'm going to turn into a wheel of cheese. So

well, you know what? I feel confident in saying this, Chef. You're our comfort food right now. So thank you for cheering us up and making that lemonade when we have the lemon. I'm so happy to. That's Samin Nasret,

chef, author and host of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat and host of the podcast Home Cooking. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. That's it for today. You can join the National Conversation with all things considered weeknights on your NPR radio station. And if you have a question, go to npr.org slash national conversation or tweet with the hashtag NPR conversation. We will be back on Monday. I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Coronavirus Daily from NPR.