Sustainable Meat Through Genetic Engineering?

            It is pretty well known that meat production, especially on the factory scale, is horrible for our environment. Raising livestock produces lots of waste, which contains methane gas that, when released into the atmosphere, adds to global climate change. There are more sustainable alternatives for raising livestock. However, most of the meat in today’s markets come from the large factories that do lots of harm to the environment.

            While browsing the internet I came across an article on pigs that I found very interesting, while at the same time it kind of bugged me. I wasn’t really sure what to think of it, except that it was odd and kind of sick. Apparently, there are scientists in Canada who have created a species of pig that is “greener” with genetic engineering. They called it the “EnviroPig”, and it is engineered to be the same quality of meat as a normal Yorkshire pig. The difference is that it is genetically enhanced to produce less toxic manure. Doing so should release fewer pollutants into the atmosphere, making it a more sustainable pig option for farmers. The kind of things people invent or discover never in today's society never ceases to amaze me. The whole thing seems pretty ridiculous!

            
           While the first EnviroPig was created back in 1999, the FDA still hasn’t approved it and made it legal for consumption, along with various other genetically enhanced foods. And this is probably for the best. Whether or not we should be eating genetically altered foods brings up lots of controversial issues among people, and it would probably just be better to avoid it. While these scientific discoveries may seem like a good idea that could be helpful, it would probably be better to try and improve sustainability by just changing our habits, like was initially planned, instead of changing genetics. Having the FDA put genetically altered meats on hold is good. In the meantime, food organizations, farmers, and environmental advocates can get support on being sustainable in other ways.

Here's the article if you want to read more! :
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/31j1PJ/:1yrzY-7$3:XiGhE14y/www.enn.com/agriculture/article/41873/
Video on the Piggy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o5GzC-SwO4

Practice What You Preach

I have been noticing more and more media attention being given to the eating sustainably, praising companies that promote these efforts. But then I started to question bigger companies, wondering if there efforts are actually legit? Along with myself, many other Americans are also starting to become more interested in the good food movement (you know the one the president wanted to see?) Americans are interested in eating more sustainably, even if that means eating less meat, and people don’t just want to know where their food comes from – they want to know who produced it, and how. Noticing this trend, industrial food giants like Walmart, McDonald’s, Dominos and Frito Lay Corp have sought to capitalize on it.
The nation’s largest and most powerful retailer has been communicating to the public that they are committed to sustainability. In 2006, Walmart pledged to double sales of organic food when they were already the number one retailer of organic milk. In 2008, a company press release proclaimed that “Walmart Commits to American Framers, as Produce Aisle Go Local” promising that nine percent of its U.S. fruits and veggies would be local by the end of 2015. But Walmart’s definition of “local” is that the product is sold in the state in which it is produce, which means it can fill its promise just by having lots of stores in large states like in California, Texas and Florida, which have large populations and grow a lot of produce.

And Walmart is bad news for local economies and food systems in general. Its superstores take away customers from small, local retailers, which tend to be rooted in the community and therefore more committed to sustainable practices. In addition, the corporation’s stronghold on our food supply has caused both grocery prices to rise and wages for farmers to decrease. The retail giant is also currently renewing its efforts to get into big cities, and last July, standing side-by-side with Michelle Obama, pledged to open or expand 300 stores to in or near food deserts.

Though Walmart is an excellent case study, lots of other large corporations take part in the practice. Be conscience consumer and research corporations that you purchase your food from, many of them claim to be supporting buying local but in reality it is not the whole truth. Every time you buy something is a vote to support local and environmentally friendly practices.

Foods Effect On Deforestation

      

As we have all learned, food consumption is one of the number one contributers to environmental damage. I have written numerous blogs and read various articles on the packaging, processing, and transportation of food, but what about the land itself. We have touched on the negative effects of over consumption of meat in our country, but I want to focus on a different aspect of it. In order to have a cattle (or any meat) farm, you must have land. Therefore, the more meat consumed, the more land is needed, which is leading to deforestation. Clearing land for agriculture is a major cause of wilderness loss and habitat destruction in the United States. Also, in the tropical areas of Asia and South and Central America, the clearing and burning of rainforests is caused mainly by cattle production. It has been estimated that “about 260 million acres of forests in the U.S. have been cleared to create cropland for cattle, and many millions more have been cleared, and are cleared every day, in forests around the world.”

This topic interested me because just yesterday in class we watched a documentary on deforestation and the terrible long lasting damage it can cause a country. One of the many issues of deforestation is the amount of carbon in the air. Trees serve as carbon sinks and absorb the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. So, if we are removing mass amounts of trees, it will leave more carbon in the air, causing and expediting global warming. It’s said that “the carbon footprint created by four years of deforestation is equal to the carbon footprint of every single air flight in the history of aviation up to the year of 2025.” That is a lot of carbon in just four short years.

So, essentially the production of meat is causing deforestation , which is causing global warming. I know that this has been said before, but I cannot stress enough how important it is to reduce the amount of meat you consume. It can help our environment enormously in so many different ways!

                 

http://www.sierraclub.org/sustainable_consumption/food_factsheet.asp

Is beef good or bad for you and the environment? You Decide!

While surfing around the web, I came across and interesting article in COSMO magazine regarding red meat consumption. Most humans’ diet is based around meat consumption, especially here in the U.S. According the USDA in 2011, the United States beef cattle industry had a retail equivalent value of $79 BILLIONS. Moreover the consumption of 25.6 BILLIONS pounds of beef, all in the same year. Livestock products provide one third of humanity’s protein intake.  This modern form of agriculture contributes to 18% of the global greenhouse emissions, as well as 8% of the total global water that is used for feeding and watering the cattle. As any business, the beef industry claims that meat provides good nutrients to the humans’ diet, such as: protein, iron, zinc, vitamins such as B-12, and omega-3 fatty acids. It might be true that meat is rich in these good nutrients; but veggies, grains and diary products also contain the nutrients previously mentioned and more. The National Health and Medical Research guidelines suggest that the necessary intake of meat a day should not exceed 100 grams. This is the equivalent to a really small portion. Currently people eat two or four times the amount recommended.

Vegetarians tend to be healthier than meat eaters, mainly because they have less risk of suffering from high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, bowel cancer, type 2 diabetes, etc. Meat is not only bad for you, but to the environment as well. Beef requires more resources, because livestock’ animals need to be fed huge amounts of grains in order to be ready for slaughtering.  For instance, it takes 8 pounds of grains to produce one pound of beef. On the other hand, chicken and fish require less amount of resources. In my wellness class, my professor mentioned that the best and healthiest choices of protein are those with no feet at all. Making fish not just the healthier, but best protein substitute for meat. Fish only consume a pound and half of grain. The most sustainable choice of fish is those plant eating fish, such as: catfish, tilapia and trout. Also wild-caught salmon and Pollack from the Pacific Ocean contain high amounts of omega-3 and healthy antioxidants. My role here is not to change the way you eat, because in the end I LOVE MEAT too! But just make you ponder on what we consume daily and the impact that it’s causing in our environment. 

Read more about this in the following links:       http://nutrition.about.com/od/changeyourdiet/a/green_diet_tips.htm
http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/features/online/2965/reducing-your-red-meat-footprint

http://www.ers.usda.gov/news/BSECoverage.htm

Food Dyes :(

       We obviously all know at this point that sustainable food is grown naturally and doesn’t contain all the harmful chemicals and ingredients that other foods do. Well, I know we’ve shoved this information down our throats a lot already, but I came across an article on food dye that I thought I would share with you guys. Food dye is a good example of why processed foods are the worst kinds of foods.

    

        According to an article I found while browsing stumbleupon, many factories use petroleum-based chemical food dyes that present a “rainbow of risks” to the consumer. These risks include things such as cancer, which was observed in animal studies, allergic reactions, and hyperactivity in children. The link to the article which I will provide below lists specific types of food dye that you should be sure to stay away from due to their harmful chemicals, and it lists their effects. There are multiple reasons as to why companies decide to use food dyes on their foods, but the main reason is because of looks. We tend to naturally want to buy foods that *look* good, when in reality they may not be good at all. The irony in this is that factories add the dyes so that the fruits/vegetables will *look* healthy to the consumer, when in fact they are better off without the dyes. Looks can be deceiving.

            There are lots of other natural and significantly healthier alternatives to food dyes, but they far more expensive, so companies will continue to use the dyes unless the consumer demands otherwise. One good way for us to change things would be to make use of farmer’s markets and locally grown items. Stop buying all the processed stuff. If you need to buy things with a label, make sure the ingredients listed are limited, and that they are ones that you know of personally. If people could start changing their habits, maybe we could even start a reform of our food industry. Our current industry does nothing but put society’s health at risk.

Link to the article: http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2oDRRN/:zv4Cq$M5:Xl+_!VN7/www.justmeans.com/Food-Dye-For-There-Are-Sustainable-Options/21282.html/

Here’s a child talking about what’s wrong with our food system:

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8Nebc7/:1K5!DJE-D:V0jVkulN/www.ted.com/talks/birke_baehr_what_s_wrong_with_our_food_system.html/

GLOWING MUSHROOMS! (just because):

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8qCXAL/:1K5!DJ0Dq:Tj@o3YxV/www.mnn.com/earth-matters/wilderness-resources/stories/glow-in-the-dark-mushroom-rediscovered-after-170-years/

Yes To... Sustainability!

          Recently while in my local Rite Aid, I found a very unique and surprising product. I had never heard of it before and I wanted to do some investigating. I discovered a line of products all made with natural ingredients and organic fruits and veggies! How cool is that?! The Yes To brand is truly amazing! 

          There are many different products from this brand, including chapsticks, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, moisturizers, face washes, cleansers, and much, much more all made with natural components! The Yes To company is proud to stand by their claim to have developed a product that is guilt-free, uses REAL fruit and vegetables, "is all about positivity," and really works!

          There are four different "branch" brands in the Yes To collection: Yes To Carrots, Yes To Tomatoes, Yes To Cucumbers, and Yes To Blueberries.  Each one doing a different job (example: Yes To Tomatoes helps treat acne with tomatoes using salicylic acid). The difference in using these products rather than the other ones you're used to is that the Yes To brand refuses to use parabens, SLS, phthalates and petroleum. Parabens, SLS, phthalates, and petroleum, for those who don't know (I didn't!), are chemicals used in cosmetics, shampoos and soaps and have been connected to cancer and can be very dangerous to your skin and health in general. This is why the Yes To Team decided to cut them out of their clean and natural products! 

          Yes To products are also recyclable friendly! Adding onto that, there is ZERO animal testing. All in all, Yes To is a great company that delivers and also gives back to the community! They donate a percent of their proceeds go to Yes To Seed Fund (an organization committed to funding organic school gardens, educate children and provide lunches!) Recently, the Yes To Seed Fund teamed up with Mama Hope (Yes To Hope) to have organic gardens in Africa hoping to provide 10,000 kids with all organic lunches! This will work through video chat and email from U.S. schools to African schools to help maintain gardens and teach children the importance of sustainability all of the world! 

Yes To Website! Check it out!!

Why is petroleum in my shampoo?

What are parabens?

Fresh Produce Out of a box

Inspired by Patrick’s recent termite solution, I decided myself to try stubleupon to see if I could find any out of the box ideas to promote sustainable eating. After clicking through numerous pages of junk I finally “stubleupon” an interesting yet intriguing way to grow your own produce. Two green entrepreneurs have come up with a surprisingly easy kit to grow your own fresh sustainable mushrooms at home. Granted it is only one to grow one specific vegetable. Anything can help right?

            Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Arora came up with the idea of growing your own mushrooms during their final semester at UC Berkeley and have now turned into a full-fledged sustainable business. Using the recycled coffee grounds from Peet’s Coffee and Tea houses around the San Francisco bay area as a growing medium, they came up with a full circle pearl oyster mushroom growing kit. Providing a way to grow your own fresh produce in the home while utilizing a waste product, they further complete the circle by selling their mushroom/coffee ground compost ‘waste product’ as a premium soil amendment.

The Grow-Your-Own Mushroom Garden kits are sold in Whole Food Markets nationwide, or can be purchased directly on their website for $19.95 and produce up to 1.5 pounds of fresh pearl oyster mushrooms right in the box. Additionally, if you post a picture with your kit fully grown on their Facebook page, they will donate a kit to an elementary classroom of your choice to support youth sustainability education.

            I thought this was so cool! The mushroom kit also sparked another idea, what if we took this one step further and tired to grow a variety of produce ourselves and continue to use the premium soil in our own gardens? People are doing little things around the country everyday to support sustainable living we just need to open our eyes and take action.

To read more about Alejandro Velez and Nikhil Aroar and buy your own mushroom kit click here! http://backtotheroots.com/

Home grown foods

Has Your Food Traveled More Than You?

         Like most college students, one of the hardest parts about coming to college was leaving my home cooked meals every night. Unlike most students however, I was leaving actual fresh produce that was grown in my backyard. For as long as I can remember, we have had a garden full of fruits and vegetables in our backyard. It wasn’t anything extravagant, just a simple garden big enough to supply food for our family, but small enough for my dad to tend to with help from my siblings and me. I remember my dad digging holes and me following behind him dropping in the seeds. It was always fun to watch the seed that you helped plant and tend to grow into something you could eat.

Every summer we grow onions, squash, zucchini, corn, potatoes, green beans, apples, and tomatoes. While in season, we never had a meal that didn’t have at least one food item that came from our garden, and it was also always the best tasting food on our plate. Our friends look forward to our freshly grown vegetables every year. Why is that? Because they are actually fresh and didn’t travel miles and miles in a storage truck before ending up on your plate. Some of the things we grow can even be stored and saved to eat throughout winter. Our potatoes, for example, will last us almost all year long. One of my favorite things about summer is being able to eat fresh food for dinner every night.

It wasn’t until global class when I realized the positive environmental impact of home grown food. I always enjoyed it because of the fresh taste and the fun of planting, tending to, and picking the fruits and vegetables. So why don’t more people plant their own garden? If not for the environment, why not for the taste? It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, its doesn’t even have to be more than one or two food items. I encourage each and every one of you to try to grow at least one vegetable at your home. If it is truly impossible, which I know for some it is, at the very least start shopping for groceries at a local farmers market. Buying locally is one of the key things to help improve our environment. Most of the foods you buy at grocery stores have traveled an average of 1,500 to 2,500 miles from farm to table. It is weird to think that the food you are eating has probably traveled more than you have. So next time you need to go stock up on food, think about all the energy that goes into the well-traveled food at the grocery store and head to your local market!

How fresh and tasty is the food you consumed?

The transition from your hometown, or in my case, country, to college is always difficult. Whenever I am asked what I miss the most about home, I always answer, without hesitation, food.  Back home in Panama, fruits are freshly served for breakfast each morning, especially coconuts, mandarin and mangoes. I can literally go out to my backyard and grab fruits from the trees. Since I was a little girl, my mom always made me eat a cup of fruit for breakfast with eggs, waffles or cereal. When I arrived at Elon it was a bit difficult getting used to the food because on campus it is hard to find mangoes, coconuts, mandarins, watermelon, etc. On campus, they offer a very limited variety of fruits. If you go to Harris Teeter, you may find all the delicious fruits previously mentioned; but sadly the taste is not the same. Why does it taste different if it is the same fruit, just in a different location?

            As most of you may know, oil, coal and natural gas are also known as fossil fuels. 85% of all the energy produced in the U.S. comes from burning these fuels. 23% of the energy used to produce food corresponds to processing and packing goods. The other 32% is burned in home refrigeration and cooking. I bet you didn’t know that reusing a glass jar five times at home could save about half the energy used to make five disposable containers. Approximately 95% of all the fresh vegetables that are consumed in the U.S. are produced in California. Shockingly, a typical carrot has to travel 1,838 miles to reach YOUR dinner table. That represents large quantities of fossil fuels to transport food products to consumers. $120 BILLION of agricultural products crossed borders as imports and exports. Average American food travels an estimate of 1,500 miles BEFORE being consumed.

As the author of Lilies Chickens said, her daughter does not need the toxins, preservatives and hormones that lace American food. Guess what? Neither do you! If I am able to eat fresh fruits and vegetables from the trees and the ground, you can do so as well. What can you do? Buy goods grown locally, like Farmer’s market or the nearest supermarket that leads you to consume the less fuel. Avoid purchasing processed foods, which take more energy and have less nutritional value. Choose foods with minimal packaging, like whole foods that reduce the energy spent on processing, packaging and storage. Cut out meat, I know meat is delicious, and personally, I am a huge meat eater, but reduce the amount you in ingest daily. Large quantities of this good require huge amounts of energy for cultivating, harvesting, shipping animal feeds, transportation and animal slaughtering. Even Lilies Chickens affirms that 1 cup of oil is used to make meat. The extensive travel of foods in the U.S. prevents consumers from actually experiencing the freshness and REAL taste of food.
The following links would provide you more information about this cool and interesting topic:
http://home.dejazzd.com/kgard/bcn/calories_in_gallon.html
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/energy/
http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/eatlocal/

Sustainability Hits the Dairy Market

The dairy industry is a powerful, multi-billion dollar business that lies in the grasp of only a handful of firms, most of which are European based. The United States sells eighty percent of the milk it produces to these firms and as a result, these firms  have great influence over the price of milk and the way it is made. Thus, the farmers who work to cultivate the milk have little to no say in how they make their milk and how much they are able to sell it for. Similarly, with America's craving for more dairy at lower prices, farmers are forced to use unconventional and unnatural means to maximize the output of milk and satiate their customer base. 

Enter the use of breeding, unnatural feed, and hormone injections into the dairy industry simply to meet the ever demanding, fast paced American society. The use of these unnatural techniques to increase dairy production has potentially severe consequences both for the animals and those who eat dairy products. First of all, unorthodox breeding and feeding methods have the potential to pass diseases into the animals which in turn, ends up in our dairy. Secondly, the injection of synthetic hormones into cows ultimately reflects on our dairy as well because really, does anybody want to be consuming dairy products that they know are tainted by synthetic hormones? 

I realize that simply going to a grocery store and purchasing the store brand gallon of milk or pint of ice cream is the easiest and cheapest way to get dairy products, however, there are still many small farms across the United States that are devoted to keeping their milk organic and free of the pesticides and hormones present in that store brand milk. Though it may be a bit more expensive and out of the way, it is important for us to keep these farms thriving because the milk they produce is high quality and does not have the potential to carry diseases. When attempting to live more sustainably, sacrifices must be made to obtain the most natural and high quality products available, and buying milk from a smaller local farm seems to be a small change that has a lasting impact. So, make a sacrifice for the cows, yourself, and the environment and research the local dairy farm nearest you because the quality of the product is well worth the time spent getting it. 

Local Food For Local People

          So, I know this topic has been touched on briefly before, but I wanted to share my experience as well! I stumbled upon our local market in Downtown Burlington last week while shopping with my mom. I was so surprised to find it! It was such a cute, hip place and only saw a few fellow students there having a delicious-looking lunch. I wondered why more students were not there and if this place was well know or not. It is an amazing little market selling organic and local foods! I took plenty of pictures to document my visit and to share with all of you!
          The aisle with all of the cleaning products were all eco-friendly and recyclable! There was toilet paper, paper towels, environmentally friendly dish soaps and detergents, tissues, and much more. Most products and the containers in which they come in are mostly (if not all) recyclable! In the frozen foods section, there is an entire section of "Sustainable Farming" products. Fruits, vegetables, ice cream, and cool whip can be found there. Totally awesome. In the meats section, all the meat is from local farms and completely delicious. There was even a section in the market for eco-friendly make-up! I was so happy to find all my favorite foods at this market and at the same time being able to support local farmers by buying them.
           There were seeds people could buy to plant their own organic gardens as well as t-shirts made of local cotton all made in North Carolina. This market is such a wonderful place to buy groceries or have a nice lunch. I am definitely going to be spreading the word about this to EVERYONE! BUY LOCAL.

Healthier Bodies, Healthier Planet: Eating Local

After visiting the farmers market on Thursday I was thinking that all the food I consume on a daily basis is not grown anywhere near Elon. My curiosity continued to grow and I was wondering about all the energy it took to get the food from the farm to my plate? I had never considered about how my food purchases might affect the food system.  The newly popular movement “eat local” has inspired conscientious consumers all over the country to reconsider how we can each improve the planet at meals. The issue has become so mainstream that TIME magazine published a cover story about it.

            I was naïve thinking that switching to an organic diet was just as effective as eating locally. Sadly, I was mistaken food that is produced organically still travels hundreds of miles to reach my plate. On the food’s journey to my plate it emits pollutants in the air and burnings copious amounts of fossil fuels. When starting to research consuming locally produced food I found a definition that pretty much sums up why one would eat locally. It comes from Columbia’s Gussow, a reporter for Time in the 1950s who eventually went on to become a local-eating pioneer. She has lectured on the environmental (and culinary) disadvantage of relying on a global food supply for 25 years. Her most famous statistic is that shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calorie of nutrition. I was SHOCKED by that alarming statistic and that’s only strawberries what about all the other food I consume. In her memoir, Gussow offers the meaning of local: “Within a day’s leisurely drive of our homes. [This] distance is entirely arbitrary. But then, so was the decision made by others long ago that we ought to have produce from all around the world.”

            We should want to eat locally not only for the environment but for our bodies and to support our community. Eating local is simple today there is information all over the internet with blogs telling where sells local produce and connects local eaters all over the world.  

To find local produce near you click on this link http://www.eatwellguide.org/i.php?pd=Home

How Can You Help?!

HOW CAN YOU HELP?!

            A couple of days ago my friend was telling me about how she went to the farmers market in Burlington. It made me wonder why I hadn’t thought to go there before. Most college students don’t think to go to a farmers market, especially when there are grocery stores so conveniently close. But why not? Students should take advantage of the local harvests right down the street. After hearing about it I was interested and wanted to know more, so I did some research. I found that it offers almost everything from honey to meat to fresh fruit and homemade preserves. I also looked into farmers markets near my hometown in Richmond, Va and found that there are several in my area. I’m sure that almost anyone reading this could find some in their area as well. It is an easy (and healthy) way to support locally grown goods and help the environment.

            After looking into farmers markets I started to realize there is a way each individual can help make a contribution to saving our environment. With this I wanted to know more ways I could contribute. After doing some digging around I found numerous articles on eating less meat to save the Earth. This grabbed my attention so I did some reading. In an article in “The Telegraph” Louise Gray made a good point saying “while the use of coal and oil could be gradually replaced by renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the world will always need to eat.” She continued to explain that as the population grows, food production will become the number one cause of climate change and “environmental degradation.”

The United Nations reported that in order to get a handle on the climate change is to switch to a more vegetarian diet. It is estimated by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization that “meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions.” That being said, the world definitely needs to cut back on their meat consumption. This doesn’t mean that everyone needs to cut meat out of their diet completely, but maybe just set aside one or two days out of the week to have all vegetarian meals. Just as little of an effort as that could make a huge difference in the worlds environmental problems. It is not a hard adjustment to make, so everyone should start trying to cut back!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/07/food.foodanddrink

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/7797594/Eat-less-meat-to-save-the-planet-UN.html

Don't Waste Food.

            While being healthy and environmentally friendly are definitely import indicators of your decisions of what foods you should being buying and eating, there is one thing about food consumption that many Americans seem to live on without noticing. Even those who are big believers in being environmentally friendly don’t consider it: food waste. Minimizing food waste is something that not many people do, and it can make a bigger difference than all of the smaller things such as recycling and buying the right light bulbs. What’s ironic is that minimizing your food waste is probably the easiest environmentally friendly thing a person could do, yet barely anyone does it! It’s easy, and all you have to do is EAT YOUR FOOD. If you have leftovers, put them away in the refrigerator and save them for later.

            I don’t know about you, but I always save food as if I was saving money. I’m not going to throw away something that is perfectly edible. Around 40% of the food produced in the United States isn’t even eaten. Especially with the way that some of our fast food restaurants operate, America is wasting 50% more food than we did in 1974. And it isn’t just food that we’re wasting. There’s the energy it takes to carry the discarded food to landfills. Once it’s at the landfills, it decomposes, creating methane gas, which contributes to the ever-declining health of our atmosphere, speeding up the process of global warming. There is also the ethical factor to keep in mind. There are people in the world who barely have enough food to survive, who are starving and aren’t getting what they need. Preventing food waste helps a hungry planet, and is an important step in how we can help to save the planet from itself. In a world with so many problems facing the future existence of society, we need to live smarter. Managing our food plays a part in this.

            Things that we could do to reduce our food waste is things like being sure to only buy what you know you will eat when you go to the grocery store, as well as cooking only as much food as you know you can eat. If there’s leftovers, you should put them in the fridge and eat them later. Don’t throw them out! Americans tend to have a habit of buying and cooking way more than they need to. You shouldn’t be doing these things based on what you WANT, but what you NEED.

Here’s some pages if you want to read more:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-bloom/how-avoiding-food-waste-a_b_775639.html
http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.nsw.gov.au/love-food/environmental-impacts.aspx

http://www.kstatecollegian.com/opinion/us-needs-to-decrease-food-waste-help-environment-1.2730736#.T5C1hLNrM1Q

Students' commitment towards their community. 

As all of you may know, Earth Day will be celebrated worldwide this Sunday. Earth Day should not just one day or one week; it should be every single day, because whether you like it or not, this is our home planet. Therefore, our commitment to it should be constant!

 Last Tuesday, our global class brainstormed about what should we do to celebrate Earth Day. At the moment, I didn’t realize it; but is not just what we should do on Earth day, but what we should do with our current planet where natural resources are gradually becoming scarce.

An article in Times Magazine claims that worldwide crops are soaring. Sadly this is a reality! Last Sunday, I went to the supermarket and bought some fruits, cheese, granolas, yogurts and cornflakes; those few things cost me more than $25. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization explained that in 2007, 50 million more people suffered from hunger than in 2006. Amazingly, this occurred at the same time the American fast food franchise widely spread beyond the U.S. borders. Katrina Heron, head of the Slow Food Nation in San Francisco, curiously asked, “How did we got to the place where it is considered elitist to have food that is healthy for you?” Bryan Walsh and Slow Food USA reach to the solution of shifting to a cuisine that is fresh, good, clean and fair, which is mostly organically produced by local farms; as mentioned in previous posts, as an eco-friendly option. According to Times Magazine, the U.S. alone needs at least 40 million farmers to feed the entire country. Slow Movement project is gradually introducing converting more forests into farmlands. Agribusiness is no longer a feasible option since their mission is more for profit that for being eco-friendly.

Once again, I encourage you to think locally! What can we do as a community to survive in this new earth? Humboldt Park in Chicago has already made some changes. In accordance with Slow Food USA, this area is known for its’ beautiful 207-acre park and Puerto Rican community. Ironically, this community is described as one who shares strong ties with cuisine, yet suffer food desert. The mayor Emanuel announced that the city lives under a 40% food desert, mostly due to the lack of access with healthy food and grocery stores. After such alarming reports, science teachers in the local school started a movement that encouraged students to research about food desert, obesity, and grocery stores nearby. After their research, students concluded that the best option is to grow their own vegetables. It took the students two years to raise money and acquire the legal permits to officially open an 800 square foot greenhouse, powered by solar panels and wind turbines, on the roof of their school’s cafeteria. Currently, they have produced 600 lbs. of tomatoes, cucumbers, green peppers and herbs. Since the students’ mission was to improve the whole community’s eating habits, most of them became entrepreneurs when they opened a produce market in their neighborhood. With the help of local farmers, they were able to display organic and fresh food for a lower price than supermarkets, proving wrong the theory that fresh food is too expensive. Something that started as an innocent science project became part of their life, their community and their future. If they were able to make a difference in their community, there is no excuse for all of you to do the same. 

Blogger Experience

Oddly enough, I had never created my own or even posted in a blog before the one you are currently reading. At this day in age of technology, even I found that hard to believe going into this project because I am constantly on the internet on such sites as Facebook posting and attempting to keep up with everything going on with my friends and family. From what I have experienced of the blogging process so far, I have enjoyed because the writing is much less analytical and more oriented towards providing people with informative information that they can read quickly and utilize to make changes in their lifestyles. That being said, deciding the subject matters of the posts we create has been a tough aspect of the blogging process because we are always trying to choose subjects that we feel best appeal to the audience or are contemporarily relevant.

The blogging experience has changed me because I have learned that blogs are a more personal way for people to communicate with other people in order to make lifestyle changes or just to obtain information about something they wish to learn about. In terms of our blog, teaching people about the small decisions they can make to change their diet and educate them more about the potential health risks of what they intake is not as lofty a task as it sounds. Of course, it is the duty of the readers to make the changes they desire to lead a more healthy and sustainable life, however, informing people on how to take the first steps in living healthy and sustainably is within our grasp. Seriously, it only takes a few steps to fit small changes into your life that will make a lasting impact on you and the environment!

Before the start of this project, I was ignorant to what types of food I was putting in my body because honestly, I am 19 and I figured I would not have to worry about my diet for another ten to twelve years. I could not have been more wrong, your diet is something you should always keep pace with and know what exactly is in the food your are eating and what potential effects it could have on your body both when you are eating it and further down the road. The point of this blog is to give readers advice on how to make healthy and sustainable food changes in their own life and in society. Hopefully it has served you, the reader, well in making these choices within your life because I can say that the experience of creating this blog has made me thing twice about how I can eat better and more sustainably.

My Blogging Experience

     My experience as a blogger started some time ago when I published my first blog with a good friend of mine. But, being a forgetful high schooler, my relationship with the blogging world did not last. However, this blog is completely different. I am always thinking about my next post for the following week, always looking for something to relate to food and sustainability. As much as I would like to say that I have made an impact on this blog/ the WORLD... this blog has really impacted me.
    This last weekend, when my mom was visited me at school, we decided to explore a local downtown area. Well, I discovered an incredible local food market and of course wanted to blog about it, tell my professor all about it, take field trips to it, and taste everything in it. Before diving into this topic of sustainability and the food world, I never would have noticed this quaint farmer's market and reveled in the awesomeness of finding it. Little things in my everyday life have been heightened by my awareness of the environment and it is all thanks to my global class and this amazing blog my classmates and I have put together. Nice work team!
     My eyes have been opened to this new world of organic, locally raised food that I had no idea existed. I have been made conscious of how my decisions impact the environment and the world surrounding me. I now try to buy the greener choice of products and eat healthier now that I have been made aware of all the chemicals being snuck into our food. This is not a phase I'm going through, but a life choice I've made to live greener and happier!

Stay tuned for some more awesome blog posts about food this week!!




   
   

Saving the World One Plate at a Time

Changing the environment through a food blog is a daunting task, and one that I thought was unattainable. When first hearing about this project I was immediately terrified. What initially popped into my head was there is no way that I can do this.  First off I had no idea how to blog or anything about the blogging world and second I was apprehensive about how a food blog could have any impact on the environment. But was I wrong, although our blog, "You Are Ahat You Eat", isn’t making the major headlines on CNN or MSNB, it is bringing awareness to classmates, families, friends and ourselves.  By making this information avaibale sustainable eating can gain more and more support.

Before making the leap into the blogging world, I knew the basics food and how it effected the environment from taking AP Environmental Science and watching documentaries like Food, Inc. From the moment I watched Food, Inc. I was captivated about how something so simple as choosing to eat foods that are grown close to you can make HUGE difference. This change in eating habits does not only benefit the environment but your body as well. How cool I thought, kill two birds with one stone right? I had that much more incentive to eat locally and sustainable foods because I am a self proclaimed health freak and eating locally was a lot better for my body. After watching Food, Inc. I was on a save the environment high when it came to eating. I even tried to make my whole family eat organic and have a compost pile, but that high only lasted for so long. I eventually feel back into my ways of not consciously watching the foods that I consumed.

Now that I started this blog, my awareness about what food I consume have gone back to what they were when I was on my Food, Inc. kick. Blogging is providing a daily reminder about how small choices when choosing to chow down can make all the difference. So no we aren’t trying to reverse global warming through our blog but we hope it provides incentive to eat right for both yourself and the environment and our effects can slow down the process of global warming and the destryoing of our precious planet.

Blog Experience (Entry 3)

Before getting assigned this blog project I ate whatever I wanted without any consideration of where it came from or its effect on the environment. I knew VERY little about the food industry and what impact it has on the environment. When Dr. Stasz first introduced the project I was a bit concerned about what I was going to write about. I didn’t think there could be something different written every day for the rest of the semester on food relating to the environment. It seemed impossible to me. I quickly learned that that was an ignorant thought, and it is in fact absolutely possible. There are SO many different aspect of preparing, producing, and shipping food that has a negative impact on our world and ourselves. Now, whenever I am eating, or deciding what to buy at the grocery store I immediately wonder where it has come from and how it has been produced. With just a week of blogging it has already made such an impact on me and my decisions when buying/consuming food.

            Beginning to blog has taught me more than the impact the food industry has on the environment. While being conscience of what I eat is important, teaching others what I have learned is even more important. Through this project I have learned to speak up and take a stand on something I believe in. Before this class, and more specifically this blog, I didn’t understand the fact that I, as an individual, could make a difference. I’ve always been a very passive, shy person and had trouble putting myself out there. I struggled enough with talking in class, so taking a stand on something and sharing it with the world, or even my peers, was out of the question. The thought of me being able to share my views and beliefs and have it make a difference never even crossed my mind. So, naturally, when we were assigned this blog I sort of freaked out. I had never done anything like this before and I didn’t know if I was even capable of it. Blogging is a powerful thing that most people don’t take advantage of. Even if you don’t have the time to create and keep up with a blog of your own, you should at least take the time to follow someone else’s. You can learn an enormous amount of information about almost anything that interests you.

Our “You Are What You Eat” blog has pushed me out of my comfort zone and taught me that I can speak my opinions in the world. There is still so much for me to learn about food impact on the environment, but I am excited to hopefully continue sharing what I learn through blogging or some form of social media. My advice to you would be to find something that interests you and create a blog of your own to share ideas and thoughts on the topic. You'd be surprised at what you can learn from it!