Eating Green Can be Cheaper than Fast Food

Thought for the green eaters:

It's not so hard to pick the good choices even on the budget of a college student. It takes more prep time and a bit of know-how. It also requires shopping sense! I've never seen Morning Star burgers that cheap. Still, a little planning and the ability to turn raw ingredients into dinner can go a long way. All that's needed in this picture is showing the little incidentals (oil, spices, bread) that can make this into a series of delicious meals.

A Bicycling Challenge

I've been biking for more than a month now. It's definitely getting easier as I go along, but I've been pushing myself lately to bike further before catching the bus, or bike the hill outside my apartment once a week - it's a doozy and half the reason I ride the bus.

What's caught my attention is that Saturday is Moving Planet's Rally to Move Beyond Fossil Fuels. They challenge us to bike, skate, or walk to work or school, to do our errands, or in a rally march to various renewable energy sources.

There isn't a rally planned for my area, and with midterms approaching I'm not sure I could organize one this quickly. So, instead, I'm putting forth a challenge to myself and to you. Do one errand that seems "a bit too far" by a non-fossil fuel method.

My plan is to bike to the Farmer's Market. It's four miles each direction. Since planning this, I've had a mechanical problem with my bike and will be trying to get it fixed in time to participate. It will probably take me 45 minutes each way, but I'm willing to try; plus, I need the exercise. If you can, join me in seeing how fossil fuel-less transit can be an option.

Edit: My bike is out of commission for three days, until the pedal bearings can be replaced. So...I guess I'm experimenting with fossil fuel-less transit by walking to the bus for the next few days. I'll try to repeat this next week, when the bike is functional.

Book Review: Urban Farmer

I've recently read a fantastic book about urban farming by Lorraine Johnson. While I hoped for a how-to book about gardening (and thus avoid further Fred-like disasters), I found instead a manifesto and argument for urban farming which is quite persuasive.

Johnson's argument for urban growing focuses on several points:

1. That land suitable for agriculture in cities is actually more prevalent than imagined.
    Johnson believes that, should lawns, boulevard strips, vacant lots, and even roofs be farmed, many cities could supply their own produce needs. The author is from Canada, so many of her statistics focus on cities there, but one of the studies she cited calculated that, if half of lawns and vacant lots, as well as one tenth of boulevard easements were cultivated, Montreal could provide more than enough to meet the needs of all its citizens using the most conservative estimate of produce needed for the average 4-person family. This still assumes some imports of things such as bananas, coffee, and other exotic imports, but basic needs can be easily met. The author herself maintains a community garden plot, tomatoes on her roof, and a fully-planted backyard; gleans from "ornamental" hawthorn trees, and farms her back patio. In her youth, she planted container gardens on balconies and radishes in cat-litter trays. She has seen beans planted on fire escapes and lettuce in pipes wrapped around balcony rails. Her point: it's doable to garden, no matter what sort of space you have.
   
2. That small-scale plots can be effective in agricultural production, at least on the local level. Her statistic was of a demonstration farm that, in a single year on less than an acre of land, produced $65,000 in produce. During World War II, Victory Gardens and backyard cultivation produced 40% of the vegetables in the USA. It is possible to support much of a populace on urban food, though she admits that some places will find it more economical and environmentally efficient to import, based on local weather and resources.
   
3. That the production of food can solve many social ills. Children who grow their own food, or participate in the process, are more likely to eat nutrient-rich vegetables and be less picky of eaters. Homegrown food often tastes better because growers need not worry about equal size and ripening time, hardiness, and ability to ship long distances like industrial complexes. Furthermore, many urban communities live in what has been termed as a "food desert" - where access to fresh produce is limited by few grocery stores or lack of transportation to those which exist. Many people are forced to shop at convenience stores, which are not the healthiest places to eat. Because urban farming is often quite cheap, it would also solve the problem of vegetables being too expensive for poverty-stricken families.
   
4. That urban farming can have extended benefits beyond simple food production.
   This is a huge part of her book. Johnson argues that cultivation of land, especially vacant land, will help with community-building. It makes "abandoned" land into something valued and for which the community cares, instead of an eyesore. Urban gardeners have also been shown in studies to participate more actively in their community events, take part in beautification projects and trash clean-ups, and give produce away (beyond the bags upon bags of excess zuchinni!). Gardening helps build stronger communities, something which is often lacking in urban society. 

That's only the tip of the iceberg for Johnson's ideas. She also devotes time to guerrilla gardening and urban chicken-keeping. While a bit beyond the average person's abilities and space, they are none the less interesting ideas. The point of her book is that growing food need not be relegated to rural areas and ignored by city-dwellers. Urban residents often have the tools at hand to grow food, even if it's just herbs on a windowsill, and doing so will have definite benefits. 

I highly urge you to read the whole book - it's quite well-written and addresses more problems and concerns than I have space to go into here. If this doesn't inspire you to go plant something, I don't know what will!

Now all I have to do is figure out how not to kill my plants... :)

Air Conditioning Myths

Ahh, summer. It's lovely, isn't it? Well, at least until the heat waves and sunburns start to kick in. Then you can find me on my bed wishing I lived about 30 degrees of latitude north.

What can I say? I'm a rainy-weather girl at heart. I also didn't grow up with air conditioning, so I'm no stranger to having to crash out in the cool room underneath a fan. I just had air conditioning installed for the first time, so I decided to take a look around and see what ways existed to keep the C02 footprint down.

The first one was the biggest, really: don't leave the AC on if you're not home. It won't save you any energy, C02, or anything to re-cool your house when you get home.

The second involved no AC unit at all. Don't leave a fan on if you're not in the room, since the cooling effect comes from people feeling the draft. And be sure to switch it in the summer so it turns counter-clockwise, pushing air down instead of pulling it up.

Third wasn't mentioned, but is common sense: don't turn the AC up higher than you need to. Keep it low, and for one of those days where it tops 90 or 100 and you can barely move for the heat. If you can, attic fans will drastically drop the temperature of a house, and they can be solar powered, too. Then you might not even need AC except occasionally.

Stay cool!

The Gulf Oil Spill

There aren't any words with enough hyperbole to describe the scope of the spill in the Gulf of Mexico right now. It's a sad day when corporate money takes precedent over the lives of its workers and the safety of the environment. Sure, BP has agreed to provide for the workers whose livelihood has been shattered by pollution, but what of the ecosystems and fauna?

We can't undo the damage, but we can take steps to fix the problem. The National Parks Foundation is taking text donations. Just text "parks" to 90999 before July 1st to donate $10. If you live in the area, Deepwater Horizon Response is looking for volunteers, as is the National Wildlife Federation. These jobs range from clerical work to trying to spot endangered species and new oil slicks. Also, don't boycott Gulf seafood: it's been certified safe by the National Fisheries Institute and it supports many of the small businesspeople.

Part of spill is everyone's fault, because we all use petroleum. We all drive cars, we all use plastics. We can decrease our use, but that's going to be tough. While we can clean up after the disaster, the best way to prevent more disasters is to reduce our oil consumption.

If it's feasible, please consider using mass transit when you can, or even a bike if you live in places where that can work. Check out Google Maps to plan your route with local transit. I've ridden the bus to school for more than a year, and I can guarantee that it's not as bad as it seems. Yes, there are occasionally weird people, but there are bad drivers on the roads so it evens out.

Powering the Earth - CNN.com

It's scary how much C02 we use each year. While we know greenhouse gases have an extremely negative impact on the environment, it's definitely interesting to see how this has changed over time.

Look at how small the populations are compared to the footprints, too.

Powering the Earth - CNN.com

I'll be having a post coming up soon as I'm not freaking out about midterms about climate change, its impacts, and why you should care about changing how you live even if you don't believe that it's actually happening (as, sadly, 30% of Americans do).

For now - try MyFootprint to get an idea of exactly how much C02 your lifestyle creates, as well as how many planet Earths it would take to sustain humanity at your level.
Embarassingly, mine is over 4 planets, and I feel like I really work to reduce my footprint. Guess even I have a lot of things work on.