Bottled Water vs. Tap Water: The Facts

What can we do?

It’s no secret these days that animal products, including meat and dairy, have large carbon footprints in comparison to vegetables and other food products. However, what never ceases to amaze me is how much meat Americans consume. Americans have one of the highest rates of meat consumption in the world. It is not uncommon for many of us to eat meat with every meal.

This past week Santa Clara University’s dining commons, which are run by Bon Appetit Management Company, decided to do a low carbon diet day to help bring awareness to their future plans of decreasing meals with meat on Fridays. Oddly every single main dish or special had meat in it. What carbon calculator were they using?

Shockingly, if Americans went vegetarian for one day, the US would prevent 1.2 million tons of carbon emissions according the New York University Polytechnic Institute.

Decreasing our consumption of carbon heavy foods can massively affect our carbon emissions. Switching to a vegetarian diet can save more carbon emissions than driving a hybrid vehicle! A vegetarian diet saves 5040 pounds of CO2 per year and a hybrid saves 5000 pounds of CO2 per year according to PlanetGreen.com.

As Earth Day approaches I am not demanding all humans go vegan, or even vegetarian. Instead, I ask that we consider what we eat and take the challenge of reducing meat to one meal a day, meatless Mondays, meatless weekdays, meatless May, or meatless everyday.

This week instead of doing the piles of homework that was assigned to me, I ended up watching Wasteland, which is a documentary about the world’s largest landfill in Rio de Janeiro. Artist Vik Muniz spent two years working with the local garbage pickers who live off the little money they make sorting through mountains of waste to remove the recyclable objects. Muniz hired the pickers to help create stunning portraits of themselves out the materials they work with every day, trash. This film was an incredible look into how much of the world lives. It also made me consider where my garbage goes when I put it out on the curb every week.

every time i go to the grocery store or the farmers market i have an internal battle over which is worse- wasting a plastic bag to protect my groceries on the way home and in the fridge or risking contracting some weird disease from the basket or check out counter. when i do choose to use a plastic bag i try to keep it for as long as possible and reuse it. i have looked around online for good reusable produce bags a few times, but i have never found anything i like. i need bags that i can keep fruit and vegetables in the fridge with so they do not get dried out, and most bags are either cotton or mesh which do not keep in moisture.

my brother has been lusting after scones for months now. i see him at least once a week and each time he brings up scones more than once. the problem with this is that i did not start out wanting scones, but the more he mentioned them, the more i wanted them too. i finally gave in and made us some scones.

on this blog you will be able to find interesting ideas about living sustainably, hear important news about the environment, try a few recipes, and hang out with a college student on her way to be being greener and independent. i will share with you my thoughts or musings, cool tips and tricks, and my journey learning to cook. enjoy!