Vert-à-Go

I confess that I do struggle against climate dread. Any new news about the environment is very seldom good news, and it is demoralising beyond belief to walk home from the farmers’ market with a bag of locally-grown organic food, only to be blown past by someone chucking a McDonald’s wrapper out of the window of their Hummer.

But we can’t sit around and do nothing, even if somewhere out there our evil twin is itching to replace every ounce of carbon that we struggle not to emit. And the food that we choose to eat can make a real and instant difference to our ecological impact. It’s important to educate yourself about what is in the food you eat, where it comes from, how it is produced, and what impact it has on your health, the people who grow it, the animals who provide it, and the environment. As Wendell Barry puts it, “Eating is an agricultural act.” We need to pay attention to our food, not just be mindless consumers.

Here are a dozen things you can do right now to radically reduce your food footprint. Most of them will save you money and improve your health, too!

1. Eat less meat

2. Grow some food to eat this year

3. Eat seasonal, locally-produced food

4. Eat organic food, preferably locally-produced

5. Choose fair trade food products

6. Only eat fish and seafood from safe and sustainable fisheries

8. Reduce your consumption of industrially-produced/processed/fast food

7. Walk, bike, bus or carpool to the store, market, or restaurant

9. Plan your meals ahead and keep track of leftovers to avoid food waste

10. Drink tap water, not bottled water, and don’t forget the carbon/water footprint of other drinks too

11. Compost your food waste

12. Use more energy-efficient ways to cook your food

…and check out Reiko’s Bento Lab–-just because I guarantee it will make you smile!

(this post is mostly a rerun–but it still says everything that I want to say. Happy Earth Day!)

Members of the Saskatoon Co-op are invited to attend the Annual General Meeting, which will be held Tuesday 21 April at 7pm.

The March newsletter addressed a number of environmental issues, outlining the Co-op’s green policies and initiatives. At the upcoming AGM, We Are Many Festival (WAM) organisers will be putting forth several environmentally-friendly resolutions. You will have the opportunity to vote  on LEED-standard building for all new Co-op edifices, independent energy audits of all existing buildings, and local food procurement (aka the perennial problem of pork, pickles, and potatoes).

If you’re a Co-op member (if you’re not, you can sign up at any Co-op store), come vote for these changes–they can have a dramatic impact on our city because the Co-op is one of our biggest companies.

When: Tuesday, 21 April, 6:30 registration, 7pm call to order

Where: Commonwealth Ballroom, Hilton Garden Inn, 90 22nd St E, Saskatoon (Google map)

For more information: Saskatoon Co-op web site, WAM Facebook group

The Saskatchewan Eco-Network will host the 4th Annual Saskatchewan Environmental Film Festival (”See the Change, Be the Change”) this weekend at the University of Saskatchewan.

The 10th annual Seedy Saturday seed exchange & eco-fair is today! Seedy Saturday is a fun and informative event promoting heirloom seed-saving, biodiversity, and sustainable living. Come along for lunch (soup, salad and bannock!), check out the many interesting information booths, and join in on the free presentations on several topics of interest. There will also be children’s activities running throughout the day.

See you there!

10th Annual Seedy Saturday

When: Saturday 14 March, 12-5pm

Where: Princess Alexandra School, 210 Ave H South, Saskatoon, SK (Google map)

Admission: $2. Lunch $2 or whatever you can pay

For more information: Seedy Saturday events (Seeds of Diversity), Dana (dana@chep.org or 655-5322)

(photo: Canadian Design Resources)

The Saskatchewan Party has posted a request for ideas on how to spend the government’s oil and gas windfall on their party web site.

This is a great opportunity for voters to tell them exactly what their priorities are and how they want them to spend the money. For starters, how about restoring a tiny fraction of it to Station 20 West and invest in sustainable energy and food production?

Here’s my wish list:

• make a serious investment in non-polluting alternative energy sources (think solar, wind, NOT tar sands development) and encourage energy conservation. Invest in carbon capture for coal stations. This is our chance to take the lead and massively reduce our CO2 emissions.
• invest in public transport and promote efficient vehicle use, NOT roads. People have to be encouraged to get out of their private cars whenever possible and into affordable, convenient alternative modes of transport. Take the lead! Make Saskatchewan a showcase for the rest of the country! We have unique challenges but they can be solved.
• invest in local, sustainable food production, rural communities and help young people to become farmers. We need more small farm holdings to increase food safety and security. Help cities invest in local food production (i.e. creating community gardens).
• help cities invest in safe, affordable public housing to assist people adversely affected by the property boom
• help residents of Saskatoon and Regina’s core neighbourhoods gain access to nutritious food, proactive healthcare, and career/job training. Food banks are important, but they should be unnecessary. Solve the underlying social problems and give people the help they need to live full and productive lives, not just emergency handouts. Show them that you care! The initial proposal for Station 20 West would go a long way towards achieving these aims; I want to see this funding restored.

We are at a crossroads here and have such an opportunity to make a difference in the province’s future. We need to spend this money wisely and preserve the ecosystem to ensure that today’s children not only have a means of supporting themselves, but also a safe and stable environment in which to live.

The environment is my number one voting issue. We have to make serious progress in the next decade. If we don’t prevent catastrophic climate change, nothing else will matter.

Go tell them what you want!

Public Talk: After Peak Oil

Date: 11 June 2008

Time: 7 PM

Place: J S Wood Library

Join guest speakers Rob Dumont, Ph.D. and Ewen Coxworth, Ph.D., as they discuss the implications of peak oil. Many studies are concluding that sometime in the next 10 to 25 years, world oil production will reach a peak and then decline.

Ewen and Rob will survey the search for alternatives for fuelling the world’s transportation systems. In addition to greatly improved vehicle energy efficiency and increased use of public and active transportation modes, alternative energy sources are needed. These may include biofuels based on urban wastes and forest products, and renewably-generated electricity to power plug-in hybrids. A vision of a possible Canadian energy system in 2058 will be described.

Hosted by the Saskatchewan Environmental Society (SES)

(right: photo from Solar Freedom International)

Solar Freedom International is holding a solar oven building workshop.

Come and assemble your very own family-sized solar oven and learn about other solar applications through slides and discussion! With clear skies, your solar oven can reach temperatures of around 400F. You can cook roasts, casseroles, cookies and more all year round without using energy and heating up your kitchen.

This oven is portable and ideal for camping. Its low-impact, high-performance design makes it the perfect choice for anyone looking to lower their environmental footprint while enjoying quite possibly the best tasting meals ever.

WHEN: Saturday 31 May, 9am -4pm

WHERE: Sunset Estates Community Hall. Located 10 minutes east of Saskatoon on Highway 5. Front of town, East of store.

COST: $325 (cheque or Visa), includes user’s manual

Pre-registration is required by 22 May to ensure a spot (contact Craig on 652-1442 or Grant on 280-0689)

BRING: a bagged lunch and basic small hand tools (i.e. utility knife, multi-screwdriver and pliers)

A solar lunch will be cooked for sampling, clear skies pending!

Solar Freedom International began in 1994 as an organization dedicated to the research, design and dissemination of solar ovens and solar cooking world wide. It has placed thousands of family-sized solar cookers in over 38 countries, including Cuba, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Fiji, Northern India, Haiti, the USA and Canada. To learn more, see the Solar Freedom site.

Face the Fear is a series about a dozen things that you can do right now to feel better about what and how you eat.

(photo by Amanda Kelso)

Here’s a fact you might find surprising: how much meat you eat can have the biggest single impact on your personal carbon emissions. That’s right–not your car, not your trip to Mexico, not your house–but your steak.

Meat is one of the most energy-intensive and resource-guzzling foods around. It takes about 2kg of grain to produce 1kg of chicken, 4kg of grain to produce 1kg of pork, and 7kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef. At a time when grain is in short supply around the world, it is very hard to justify continuing to eat the Canadian average of just over 6oz of meat per day.

Here’s a quick indicator of meat’s impact: if Americans, who eat about 8oz meat/day, were to reduce their consumption by a mere 20% (less than one meat-based meal per week), it would have the same impact on carbon emissions as if every car-owner in the States switched from a standard sedan to a Prius.

Industrially-farmed meat–that is, what you usually find in the grocery store–is particularly hard on the environment:

• It takes 8 times as much fossil-fuel energy to produce animal protein as plant protein.
• It takes 3,900 litres of water to produce 1kg of chicken, 4,800 litres of water to produce 1kg of pork, and 15,500 litres of water to produce 1kg of beef.
• 40kg of water- and air-polluting animal waste is created for every 1kg of industrially-produced beef.

By eschewing meat altogether, eating smaller quantities of meat less often, or choosing chicken, lamb, or pork more often than beef, you can cut your carbon emissions dramatically. It will also conserve massive quantities of water, reduce environmental pollution, and free up acreage to grow food for people, not animals. Obviously, some land and some plants/grains are suited only for supporting animals, but I’m not talking about getting rid of livestock full stop–just reducing the excessive and unnecessary consumption of meat that puts huge stresses on the planet and the majority of its poorer inhabitants. Most of our grandparents certainly thought of meat as a treat, and we should too.

You can further improve the environmental impact of your chicken breast or pork chop by avoiding factory-farmed meat and choosing high-quality meat from small-scale local farmers which has been naturally or organically-raised. These animals are raised in much more humane conditions and it shows in the taste. This meat may be more expensive than the dirt-cheap grocery store option, but we have seen again and again that we simply cannot afford to cut corners with meat production. When rock bottom prices become the chief priority for food manufacturers and consumers, can we really be suprised when they start selling us garbage?

I must confess that I just like meat, and I used to eat it pretty much every day. But I stopped buying it at the grocery store quite some time ago after having not just one, but two, bulk packages of hamburger recalled because of suspected e.coli contamination. I had also read Fast Food Nation and was completely horrified to learn how animals were raised, slaughtered, and processed in the industrial meat system. Furthermore, I was living in England during the BSE crisis. As a consequence, I can’t donate blood in Canada and have a small but persistent fear about how long the incubation period for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) might turn out to be. I now buy meat solely from local farmers and ranchers, and it tastes how the chicken and the beef we used to raise on the farm used to taste.

In the past year I have tried to stick to a meat/vegetarian daily meal rotation, which has reduced my consumption by 50%. I’d like to reduce it even further–although I vividly remember the time that I decided to give up meat entirely when living in London, and by day 3, thought I was going completely insane. Despite huge quantities of plant protein and nuts, I was completely irritable, tearful, and felt utterly on the verge of collapse. Finally, in exasperation, one of my co-workers said to me, ‘For god’s sake, Sue, just go out and get a bacon sandwich!!’ I’m rather sorry to say that it completely did the trick and I have not attempted to go that long without some kind of animal protein again.

Further reading:

• Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
• How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bitten

I confess that I do struggle against climate dread. Any new news about the environment is very seldom good news, and it is demoralising beyond belief to walk home from the farmers’ market with a bag of locally grown organic food, only to be blown past by someone chucking a McDonald’s wrapper out of the window of their Hummer.

But we can’t sit around and do nothing, even if somewhere out there our evil twin is itching to replace every ounce of carbon that we struggle not to emit. And the food that we choose to eat can make a real and instant difference to our ecological impact. Here are a dozen things you can do right now to radically reduce your food footprint. Most of them will save you money and improve your health, too! I’ll be putting up detailed posts about each item in the series soon.

1. Eat less meat

2. Grow some food to eat this year

3. Eat seasonal, locally-produced food

4. Eat organic food, preferably locally-produced

5. Choose fair trade food products

6. Only eat fish and seafood from safe and sustainable fisheries

8. Reduce your consumption of industrially-produced/processed/fast food

7. Walk, bike, bus or carpool to the store, market, or restaurant

9. Plan your meals ahead and keep track of leftovers to avoid food waste

10. Drink tap water, not bottled water, and don’t forget the carbon/water footprint of other drinks too

11. Compost your food waste

12. Use more energy-efficient ways to cook your food

…and check out Reiko’s Bento Lab–just because I guarantee it will make you smile!