Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day I wanted to write about reducing our carbon footprint through our food choices. I suppose in reality I'm always wanting to write about mindful food choices, but Earth Day provides an occasion.

I've been hearing and reading a lot lately about a "low carbon diet" and find myself wondering in which sense do they mean "diet". A diet can be defined as a selection and limitation of what a person eats - diet as in weight loss plan. Or a diet can be defined as the whole of a person or group's food choices and habits- diet as in food culture.

I've been considering whether the "low carbon diet" is being perceived as merely a new set of limitations, which will inevitably have its nay-sayers. Or will it become the next fad diet to sweep the nation, which wouldn't be so bad, except that fads fade, coming and going without much longevity. And that would be unfortunate.

I am hopeful that the "low carbon diet" is a sign of the changing times, and a change in our food culture.

I'm no stranger to dieting, in the "selections and limitations" sense. Although I dislike the connotations of the word, mostly because it implies something that is temporary, short lived, and not sustainable. As someone who has struggled with my weight since puberty, I am always hyper-aware of my food choices with a mind towards not gaining- not too many calories, not too much fat, not too much sugar. Likewise, as a runner I find myself concerned with an appropriate amount of protein and carbohydrates to fuel my runs, and I make food choices based on my weekly mileage and training schedule. And as someone who is concerned with the state of our environment and committed to reducing my personal impact on the earth, I've made food choices based on good stewardship. What all this means is I don't do diets. But I am mindful of my food choices and I do my best to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Now, as I said earlier, I've been hearing a lot about the "low carbon diet", which I believe isn't really a diet at all, but rather a change in lifestyle, a set of choices, and a way of eating that can be embraced and committed to for the long haul. Turns out, I've been living the "low carbon diet" for some time now. And I can say this - whether your goal is to shed a few pounds, or to fuel your athleticism, or to reduce your carbon footprint, the following choices are good ones.

Eat less meat and cheese - Livestock operations account for 18% of carbon emissions. That's more than transportation. I love cheese and I honestly couldn't imagine a world without cheese. This is where making "better" choices comes into play. Eating less is not the same as eating none. We don't need meat at every meal, nor even every day. When you do have meat and cheese on your plate why not make it local, and grass-fed. Visit your local farmer's market and buy your meats from a farmer you can get to know and trust. Small farms with pastured animals have much less effect on the environment than the giant feed lots. Buying local also reduces trucking and its negative effects.

Eat what's in season - out of season, tropical, and exotic fruits and vegetables are often transported thousands of miles. Consider also the mode of transportation, highly perishable foods like fruits and fish are often transported by aircraft which has a much larger carbon footprint than ground transport. Eating seasonally goes hand in hand with eating locally.

Waste less food - 3% of the energy used in this country is used to produce food we waste. Not food we eat, food we throw away. How to waste less - eat your left overs- pack them in your lunch, or cook them in new foods, left over veggies make a great addition to a fritatta. Preparing smaller portions will also reduce your waste. And finally compost what you don't eat. Those peels and cores aren't really wasted if they are later used to feed your garden.

Cook at home - restaurant portions are most often over-sized meaning we either over-eat which is bad for us, or we waste the food which is also bad for us. Eating out also means you are no longer in control of your food choices, have they trucked in the produce? Are they buying factory raised beef? Do they even recycle?

Eat real food - whole foods are always best, they are the healthiest choices, packing the most nutritional bang for the caloric buck. Avoid overly processed and overly packaged foods.

These five simple choices can have a significant impact on both your waistline and your carbon footprint. They are choices that anyone can make, and constitute principles that are easy to stick with.

And just as everyday can be Earth Day, so too can we all be living a "low carbon diet" and making food choices that lead to better health for ourselves and our planet.

Happy Earth Day! Eat Well!

Greenling - Organic Food Delivery

I have a new love in my life. I recently signed up for a grocery delivery service —Greenling.com. They bill themselves as “a home delivery service of local and organic food”. While it is not an exclusive arrangement, I am pleased to say I have made a firm commitment to this new grocer in my life. What follows is our story, thus far.

I have been increasingly dissatisfied and desired something new in my grocery life. Because I eat almost exclusively sustainable, organic, and/or local foods I shop at the local high-end natural food market. When I lived in Minneapolis that meant Whole Foods. Now that I’m in Austin, TX it means Central Market. Ironic I suppose since Whole Foods is an Austin based company, but Central Market is closer to home. I like Central Market. It has nice selection, and the people are friendly. But it’s also expensive and huge, and they make my meat buying difficult. I sought change.

I had fantasies of saving money on my monthly grocery bill. Let’s be honest shopping at a high-end natural food mega-mart isn’t cheap. I admit that some items on Greenling are also expensive, and perhaps slightly more expensive. However, I theorized that by limiting my choices to those available at Greenling, and staying away from the store I could avoid the temptation, which is sometimes strong, to buy the impulse items — the plethora goodies that aren’t on the list, but look delicious nonetheless. I could avoid the prepared foods as well, which while convenient are both very expensive and not all that good for a person.

My more-than-once-weekly trips to the giant grocery store take a ton of time, time that I covet, and never seem to have enough of. In the past I didn’t think about it much, I would just begrudgingly cruise every aisle of the market. Then I started paying attention to just how much time it was really taking me to shop, and was stunned to discover I was spending on average 3-5 hours grocery shopping every week. That’s practically a part-time job. And it wasn’t a fun part-time job. These grocery errands were repetitive and getting rather dull — trip after trip of the same old staples, aisle after aisle of the same old same old. A change of scenery was what I needed and I was hopeful that Greenling could be just such a change. I also believed that by leaving my grocery runs behind I would be reducing my carbon footprint. Although I admit I have not done the necessary research to determine by exactly how much, though I assume that every bit helps.

Finally, I sought new kind of meat — cleaner, greener meat. While I abstain from eating meat, and have for 20 plus years, I cook meat, and I serve meat to my loved ones. I was seeking a source of local, organic, and most importantly pastured animal products. Not just “grass-fed”. All animals are “grass-fed” until sent to the feedlot. Not just “free-range” which requires only that the hens have access to the outdoors, but does nothing to enforce how much time they spend there. (I’ve always pictured something like a doggie door on the side of the hen house and the hens having no real idea of how to use it.) No I wanted animal products that were truly pastured and local. Animals that were being humanely raised and eating the diets they had evolved to eat.

These were the things my current market left me wanting. I had to face facts, Central Market just couldn’t satisfy me, just couldn’t be everything I wanted it to be.

Then I met Greenling. We met on the Internet, and at first glance it seemed to be just the thing I was looking for. I flirted with the idea of making a change for several months before I made my move. I was reticent. I approached with caution. I admit I feared that something would be missing from my grocery life; there was something sensual about the time I spent at Central Market. For all it’s faults shopping at Central Market was a sensory experience. There seemed to be something very impersonal and detached about shopping on-line. Would I miss the opportunity to weigh pomegranates in my hand, as if able to tell which will taste best by its heft in my hand? Would I miss pinching the grapes? Would I yearn to smell each hunk of plastic wrapped cheese, deciding which to buy based on a stinky-ness scale I had invented for my self and developed to a finely tuned sixth sense? If you can’t smell the cheese through the plastic, it won’t taste good.

And besides I don’t do well with change, neurotically clinging to the familiar.

But alas, I was smitten. Greenling had caught my eye. I was attracted by the time saving convenience, and the hope of saving a few pennies, and the meat. The thrill seeker in me was also attracted to the element of surprise. Greenling offered a certain sense of mystery and the unknown that I found thrilling and knew could be satisfying. I would replace the thrill of smelling cheese with the thrill of mystery and intrigue.

Ultimately I decided it would be worth it, I was ready to make my move. I created an account; I set my log in and my password, and filled my first virtual basket. I even included the “Surprise Me” item, which promised to be “…super fresh…and impressive”. I set the delivery date.

Then came the anticipation, a close second to mystery and intrigue on the thrilling scale in my world. I found myself looking forward to my delivery, like I look forward to the mail everyday. I was like a schoolgirl, waiting for the prom. I anxiously, and with enthusiasm, waited for the goods to arrive.

And when they did I could not have been more pleased. There on my doorstep, left by the friendly delivery guy, were my Greenling Tubs. And what they held within was beautiful. Inside my tubs was a bounty of organic, and local foodstuffs that I could feel good about spending money on, and even better about eating. It was more than I had hoped for.

The cheese arrived wrapped in paper instead of plastic. It was a sharp, fragrant, and crumbly cheddar made from the raw milk of pastured cows on a local farm by artisan cheese makers. It swept me off my feet.

The local, and organic mushrooms were packed in a paper bag, which is how it should be, allowing the fungi to breath keeps them fresher longer. As a bonus the bag was printed with recipes, a little quaint yes, but I appreciated the gesture. I found it charming.

The eggs were also a real treat. Some were tiny, and some were huge, and they ranged in color from a deep terra cotta to a light latte and just a few were the soft bluish green of turquoise. I haven’t seen eggs like these since I visited my Auntie’s farm as a kid.

I’d have my sensory experience after all.

I also had the smallest grocery bill I have had in some time. And I didn’t even have to leave the house.

I knew right off this wasn’t just any grocer. This was special. I wanted to make it a steady thing, and signed up for delivery dates on a weekly basis. I’m still friendly with my other market, and I’ll still visit for my frozen fruit, and my bulk dry goods. After all, I still need the stability of a well-stocked pantry. But I have traded the temptation of prepared foods for something more wholesome. I now have full access to cleaner, happier meat. I have left behind the daunting hours of cruising aisle after aisle for something fresh and new. I look forward to a long, loving relationship with my new local and organic grocery delivery service.

Living Green(er)

I've lately been making more of an effort than ever before to live a little greener. Maybe it's having recently read Al Gore's book, or maybe it's noticing the changes in weather patterns, or maybe it's just maturity. I'm not sure, but when I hear people complain about how "it's getting hotter every summer", I reply "that's global warming my friend". And when I hear my people back in Minnesota talk about how "it never snows anymore", my reply is again "that's global warming my friend". And the more I say it, the more I am reminded to live a little greener.

I've been a vegetarian for almost 20 years, mostly because I have long been aware of the huge negative impact a meat based diet has on the environment. The livestock industry is a huge offender in terms of water usage, water pollution, and energy consumption. I recently read in the Austin Environmental Directory 2006 that scientist David Pimental calculated that it takes 1/2 as much energy to produced a vegetarian diet as a meat based one, the difference is enough to drive every passenger car in the US for 3,300 miles. Some other interesting facts - the energy to produce one hamburger is enough to run a 100watt light bulb for 18 hours, and the energy for one hamburger each day for a year is enough to power a refrigerator for 18 months.

Lately in addition to making meat-free choices, I've also been making an effort to prioritize some other considerations while at the grocery store. Priority number one - buy local whenever I can, most of our food travels some 1500 miles before we consume it, and that's just too far. Priority number two -buy organic, food that's grown clean means cleaner soil and cleaner water. Priority number three - buy in bulk, and minimize packaging. This includes reusing bags, and containers. After all, all that packaging uses energy to produce and increases the amount of waste we produce.

I'm also biking more. Now that I have moved from Minnesota to Texas I can ride my bike year round. And I'm lucky enough to live in Austin, a city that's very bicycle friendly providing bike lanes, and places to park. I recently got a more practical bike for these purposes, I had a little racing bike, I now have more of a hybrid that I outfitted with a rack and a trunk pack which makes it possible for me to take the bike to yoga, the food co-op, the post office, and more. In fact the only thing I can't figure out how to do is the dog food run, the mutts eat a lot of food. The boyfriend has even started commuting to work via bicycle.

So what does all this have to do with a blog about crafting and knitting? Well, for starters becoming increasingly more aware of the things I can do to be less of a burden on my world makes for some creative decision making: what route can I take to make it to my destination on the bike? What substitutions can I make to a recipe in order to buy local and organic? How can I consume less packaging? You get the idea, and the more you use your creative muscle the stronger it becomes.

I also knit green as much as I can. I use natural fibers pretty much exclusively, and natural fibers are renewable resources. Yep, even the animal based ones. One a my favorite fibers recently is bamboo, a plant that grows especially fast, making it especially environmentally sustainable. There are also organic cottons, and organic wools available on the market. And again, supporting organic agriculture supports a more earth friendly economy.

I also use recycled fibers. A few posts back I talked about 2nd Time Cotton, a yarn made from the recycled waste from the textiles industry. And there's lots of other choices for recycled fibers on the market including, wool, silk, and cotton. On a smaller scale of recycling (but no less important) there's reclaimed yarn from old sweaters, and reclaimed felting from old wool.

And finally there's buying from your LYS, buying locally when it comes to yarn is just as important as buying locally grown food. I admit I don't do it all the time, there are some great deals to be had on the Internet, and some really beautiful hand-spun and hand-dyed yarns I buy from craftspeople via Etsy. But I've resolved to make an effort to visit my LYS more often, and shop the Internet less. It reduces the trips the UPS truck makes, it supports a local independent business woman, which is also a good thing, and it definitely reduces packaging.

It may seem like an insignificant effort, but I don't believe it is. We all know the world of knitters is a powerful force, capable of real change and real impact. Think of the knitting for peace movements, and the Charity knitting movements. Powerful indeed. What if those efforts included being kinder to our planet?

We can all find ways, small simple ways, to reduce our impact on the planet, and craft a little greener, knit a little greener, and live a little greener. Think about it, and post your ideas, I for one would love to hear them.

Peace!