Time To Say Goodbye

So the time has come too quickly to say farewell - I'm reminded of the scene in the movie Dead Poet's Society, when Robin Williams says goodbye to all of his students for the last time, and you can tell by the glances between all of them that there is a bittersweet feeling they all have - this is kind of how I feel about this blog but perhaps not quite as dramatic or heart-wrenchingly. Since the end of the semester at UT is looming, our professor is no longer going to require us to write blog posts as a graded assignment. On one end I'm really happy because this means I'm not going to have to come up with something to post every week or worry about the quality of my writing - but on the other hand, I'm kind of sad because this blog has served as a way for me to both stay informed and tell the world about sustainability and food issues. I've actually quite enjoyed searching different news websites for the latest stories or browsing search engines for cool new online sources.
So as a result, I've decided that I'll try to keep up my blogging - don't expect a bunch of posts all the time - but I will try to update it occasionally (maybe like once a month?)...

Anyways, even if my attempt to continue blogging falls flat on its face, I hope the time that I have spent writing on here has conveyed the importance of sustainability, not just in food, but in all aspects of our lives. In this new and changing modern world that we're all living in, issues that many of us are not aware of are becoming ever increasingly important - population numbers, climate change, food availability, and new sources of energy are just a few. Apathy is a trait commonly found in our society; people think "if it's not affecting us right now then why does it matter?". But it does matter - just doing your own small part to try to be sustainable, whether as I've suggested throughout my blogs, it's something as small as looking for sustainable and local companies to purchase food from or eat food at (Jones Soda, Ben & Jerry's, Chipotle), utilizing composting to reduce waste, or watching documentaries and reading the news to stay aware, every small act and every person doing that small act can make a difference. You just have to make your mind up to do it.

Since my future blog posts will probably be few, far between, and largely dependent on the amount of class work I may be encountering next semester, here's some other websites and blogs you can follow in the meantime in order to keep updated on food sustainability issues:

http://www.wastedfood.com/
An awesome blog by food waste expert, Jonathan Bloom, about food waste and how we can prevent it

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/
NPR's food blog, The Salt, is a great source for reading about food in general, but many of the posts deal with sustainability issues as well (if you read my post within the next day or two just look at the first article posted on the blog page - all about food waste!)

http://www.grist.org/food
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/food
Grist's and The Guardian's section of their news websites devoted to food will definitely keep you updated on current issues

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/
Though this blog doesn't always feature food related items - it definitely is a valuable resource about energy and environmental issues

http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/Default.aspx?type=default
Last but not least, when you need a laugh (just watch one of their videos or read through their website) or plain just need a delicious burrito and guacamole - come here and all of your needs will be met. Mmm.

So for now, goodbye, (or at least until after finals)... Keep stayin' sustainable.  :)

Buy Nothing Day (aka the Festivus version of Black Friday)

I'm not sure how many of you may have watched Seinfeld back in the day, but even though it's a little before my time I love watching random episodes that replay on TV - one of them being the one about how George Castanza and his family celebrated a made-up holiday around Christmastime called Festivus. George's father hated the commercialism involved with Christmas so he created this holiday that involved having an unadorned pole, called the Festivus pole, and participating in other rituals such as the "Airing of Grievances" (telling other family members how much they've disappointed you the whole year) and the "Feats of Strength" (someone wrestling the head of the house). Now of course with Jerry, Elaine, Kramer, and George's boss all invited to celebrate Festivus at George's house, hilarity and chaos ensues. So when I heard about "Occupy Black Friday" or "Buy Nothing Day" it reminded me a little bit of Festivus, though a bit less ridiculous of course. Buy Nothing Day is basically the anti-Black Friday day, and its goal is to "wean ourselves off of mega corporations, put our money back into the local independent economy, and live for a different kind of future." Now it might be a little late to post this seeing as Black Friday is going to be over in T-minus 2 hours, but this article from grist.org shows how next year, maybe instead of spending our time fighting the crowds just to find halfway decent deals (and thus in a way supporting commercialism), we could think about doing some other activity such as watching movies with our family or decorating the christmas tree. Seems like a pretty sustainable idea to me (and a lot better than celebrating Festivus)... 

P.S. Don't forget to be sustainable with your Thanksgiving leftovers by remaking them into some other delicious meal! http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/what-can-i-make-with-leftover-turkey-besides-sandwiches/?hpw

#secretfarmbill #2

After researching a little more about the farm bill I found some pretty cool websites from different groups and some articles that give more info... plus I found an awesome video by who other than the food expert himself, Michael Pollan?

Take Part is a division of Slate Media, who brought us some of the award winning documentaries such as Food, Inc, An Inconvenient Truth, Waiting for Superman, and The Cove. Their website is designed to provide interesting and thought-provoking articles to encourage people to get involved!
http://www.takepart.com/article/2011/11/09/2012-farm-bill-to-be-decided-behind-closed-doors

This Farm Bill Budget Visualizer was made by John Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. They made it to help people understand where exactly the federal funding has been allocated in different areas.
http://www.jhsph.edu/clf/programs/visualizer/

Farmrun, self proclaimed as "media for a farmrun America" is published by Andrew Plotsky, a journalist of sorts, who writes and posts pictures about "his explorations into responsible, substituent agricultural lifestyles". Plus his most recent blogpost shows a really cool picture of different farmers who are voicing what they want the Farm Bill to contain.
http://farmrun.com/actionize

"The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) is an alliance of grassroots organizations that advocates for federal policy reform to advance the sustainability of agriculture, food systems, natural resources, and rural communities." This article talks about exactly where money is being cut in the current farm bill.
http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/fy-2012-ag-appropriations/

These two articles from Grist, an environmental news website documents the secrecy stuff that's going on with the farm bill and also the opposition from different grassroots organizations.
http://www.grist.org/factory-farms/2011-10-31-will-a-secret-farm-bill-be-passed-this-week
http://www.grist.org/farm-bill/2011-11-15-the-farm-bill-the-view-from-the-grassroots

This is the actual website for the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. They have links to the hearings that have taken place about the Farm Bill.
http://ag.senate.gov/issues/farm-bill

And of course, this list wouldn't be complete without an article from the New York Times. Mark Bittman, a food columnist for the New York Times, gives his take on the Farm Bill.
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/the-secret-farm-bill/

#secretfarmbill

The Farm Bill, a piece of legislation that comes up for reauthorization about every 5 years, is up for reauthorization in 2012. It looks like the government is going to try to keep the mechanizations and proposals for the Farm Bill a secret, by making the decisions in a supercommittee instead of in Congress, with everyone's participation. Usually the compiling together of decisions about program cuts and what the bill will look like take a lot of time to come together, but a committee of four leaders from farming states is attempting to get everything done by November 23rd, and submit it to the supercommittee before they even enjoy their Thanksgiving dinners. The committee of four leaders from Oklahoma, Michigan, Kansas, and Minnesota are faced with making cuts in the money spent - why am I not surprised? Unfortunately, the areas they are aiming to make cuts in are commidity subsidizing, conservation, and nutrition (ex: food stamps) programs. In the area of conservation, programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), The Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Additionally, energy programs such as the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCP) and the Renewable Energy for America (REAP) are being made to cut money as well. Though I haven't had time to look up all of these programs and what exactly they do to help our country, just from the names themselves they sound like they are programs that seem to be critically important to our country's agricultural future. And I'm not the only one upset about this, and about the secrecy of the committee who's making these proposed cuts. There is a large amount of opposition from the American people (atleast the ones who know that this is actually going on), food advocacy groups, and the farmers themselves. And rightly so - these group's voices should be heard and taken into account, especially the farmers, because after all they are the ones who are providing the food for us. Additionally, I think the committee of four and the supercommitte should be crystal clear with the American people in the process of making and implementing the farm bill. This bill is something that is going to affect our food production system for the next 5 years, come on leaders, let's try to not mess it up.

Movie Time!

Documentaries. 

A lot of people think they're boring but I love them. They always make me aware of an issue that I was not aware of before. Here's some that I've found relating to food, sustainability, and our crazy changing world. You can bet that I added these to my Netflix queue. 

Dirt! The Movie

Narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis, this documentary takes a look at one of our most important but least thought about resources, dirt.  The loss of nutrients in our topsoil, or as they term it, "the war against dirt" is getting increasingly worse and will greatly affect our futures.  http://www.dirtthemovie.org/

The End of the Line

The End of the Line premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to great applaud. Charles Clover, an investigative reporter looks at the effects of overfishing, and how if things don't change we may soon face an ocean without any fish. http://endoftheline.com/

Food, Inc. 

This is the only documentary of the three that I've actually watched yet. It really opened my eyes to the shady (and disgusting) practices of the food industry and how we as Americans are relatively ignorant about where our food comes from. It's downright terrifying sometimes as to the things we don't know. And of course it also focuses on what we can do to make our food situation better.  http://www.foodincmovie.com/

Roadkill... A Viable Option?

Growing up around my Uncle Allen, I was used to the idea of stopping on the side of the road when you saw an injured or possibly dead animal. If the animal was just injured then Uncle Allen would either take it home and nurse it back to health or drop it off at a veterinary center. But if the animal was dead - and looked like it had been killed fairly recently then he would a lot of the time take it home and roast it up. Mmm. Free food - what could be better? An article from NPR believes the same - as long as you know your roadkill. They say you should know how to "check the blood, hair, and eyes of the animal for signs to make sure the meat is safe to eat". Experts say that in reality roadkill is just as likely as hunted animals to be susceptible to foodborne illnesses. Just be sure you know your animals - and be careful of road traffic! Though there may not be an obvious connection to sustainability here, if you think about it, it's pretty sustainable to eat something that would otherwise just take forever to decompose on the side of the road. Plus it makes people not have to shop for as much meat when they go to the store.

Also, just so you guys know, UT students have recently started a new program called "Fruved". Their goal is to get students to do small things every day to help themselves eat healthier and become more physically active. Sounds pretty cool to me.
Check it out! http://fruved.com/

Climate Change May Threaten Your Cabernet

Wine! As an article from NPR points out, in California's grape vineyards, such as the oh so famous Napa Valley, climate change may be altering temperatures relatively soon. With rising temperatures will also come the possibility that many of the grapes used for the wines people frequently drink will not be able to be grown anymore. Many of these grapes' acidity, color, and smell will be changed by extreme heat. There is the option of starting to grow grapes that can grow in Spain or Italy, or breeding grapes so that the varieties can adapt to the changing weather. But the problem is that if these grapes are changed at all they can no longer be advertised as "pinot noir", "chardonnay" or "sauvignon blancs" - and these are the names that have been effectively marketed and are the ones consumers are demanding. Wine growers have not come up with a solution yet, but they will have to eventually, especially since by 2040, thirty to forty percent of California's prime wine growing land could be reduced by a 2 degree temperature increase. This unfortunate situation is an example of how if climate change and carbon levels in our atmosphere continue without much effort to change anything, many things we take for granted now, such as wine, may have to be adapted or altogether changed in the future.

An Admirable Example

Emory University. When you think of it you probably think of Atlanta, GA, the color blue, and the fact that it's an excellent university (thus a pretty hard school to get into). Plus I have a couple of friends who go there so thats what I think of too. But many may not know of their excellent sustainability initiatives. Recently, in the class I have to write this blog for, our professor made us come up with different ways in several categories to improve our sustainability efforts on the UT campus. Suggestions ranged from harnessing energy from workout machines to simply requiring the changing of lightbulbs in residence halls. But at Emory, they are really getting the job done, in all areas but especially in their food efforts. They have set an amazing goal that by 2015 they want their cafeterias and hospital to use 75 percent local or sustainably grown food. As of 2007, when a Sustainable Food Committee was formed to lead the sustainable food efforts many new programs and initiatives have been put into place. Besides the goal of using a lot more local and sustainably grown food, Emory also has a farmer's market right on campus every Tuesday that features fresh, organic, and locally grown food. UT does have a farmer's market on campus through parts of the spring, summer, and fall but due to the fact that it is located down by the Ag campus, I think it makes it less accessible to students. Emory also has nine educational food gardens sprinkled throughout its campus, that are meant to educate people about food, where it comes from, and how eating locally can reduce fossil fuel use. The gardens contain many different fruits and vegetables and are maintained by volunteers ranging from students, faculty, and even community members. "Eating Sustainably: An Introduction to Sustainable Food" information sheets are available around campus to educate students about the benefits of sustainable eating. In 2008 a Sustainability Food Summit was hosted where students debated and looked at the different options for their campus food. Also, every fall a Sustainable Food Fair is held and hosted by students of an anthropology course: "Fast Food/Slow Food" where local businesses and farmers come and show off their sustainable products, and of course offer free samples. Emory also has a goal of creating an organic farm that is student-run and located within the university campus. Many students have expressed an interest in being a part of this awesome opportunity. In addition to all of these innovative implementations, Emory is also being sustainable in other areas: almost half of the campus is green space, a large number of the buildings meet LEED standards, and they have a huge recycling program. This is so awesome. Let's hope that UT can take a few notes from Emory and put in some similar initiatives as well.

If you want to read about Emory's efforts for yourself:
http://sustainability.emory.edu/page/1008/Sustainable-Food
http://www.emory.edu/home/life/sustainability.html

Feeding the 7 Billion

As of yesterday (as you should know if you read my previous blog post) the world currently holds 7 billion people - a new record. Though a seemingly large and intimidating task, feeding the 7 billion people on our Earth can be done - but it must be done better than the methods we're using now. An article from the news website Grist illustrates just how simply this can be accomplished. First of all, we cannot continue the unsustainable methods of farming that we are using right now. Increasing use of fertilization and increasing pressure for larger and larger yields cannot continue - it is depleting our soil, misusing our resources, and increasing the carbon footprint of agriculture. Tom Laskawy, the author of the article outlines the changes we must make:

• "Close agricultural "yield gaps" -- the difference between the most and least productive regions -- while minimizing farming's environmental footprint"
• "Stop agricultural expansion into sensitive areas, such as rainforests"
• "Stop wasting so much food"
• "Eat less meat and put less food (i.e. ethanol) into our gas tanks"

Sounds easy, right? Just following these four sustainable suggestions will greatly reduce the carbon impact of agriculture and help our environment. But of course, as the article mentions the main obstacle is political. People don't want to change until they will be forced to. Let's hope they decide to not wait that long. 

7 Billion!!!

Sometime today, somewhere in the world, the 7 billionth person will  be born, and the world's population size will be larger than it has ever been before! An awesome video and article from NPR lets us visualize just how much our population has grown from 1000 C.E. to 2011 C.E.  Using tubes that look eerily similar to medical drip bags, dripping liquid for each continent (and the countries of Asia and India) denotes the population size, birth rate, and death rate. By patching holes in the tubes with a health sticker and food sticker, Adam Cole and Maggie Starbard, the producers of the video illustrate some of the reasons why our population has grown, resulting in fewer deaths but still large numbers of births. People's life expectancy has grown. The article continues on to say how before much of the population growth was occurring in India and China but now it has shifted to sub-Saharan Africa. Better health care programs and higher standards of living in many areas of the world has reduced population growth, but the population is still going to continue growing into the unforseeable future. With this in mind, there is no doubt that we are going to have to be very practical and cautious in the use of many of our resources (such as food!) to ensure that future generations will be able to live and have as high (or higher) standard of living as we have today.

Another Spotlight on Insect Cuisine

Recently, I went to an actual gathering where insects were being served as food. It was put on by one of UT's first year study classes whose topic was "A Bug's Life". As I ventured down to the room where everyone was gathered to begin their entomological feast, I promised myself I would try atleast one thing with a bug in it. After all, I had blogged about this exact thing not too long ago and what kind of true blogger would I be if couldn't live up to my claim that eating insects is healthy and good for the environment too? Well, after perusing all of my options, (here's just a sampling: mealworm apple pie, grub stew, and veggies with some other kind of insect thrown in) I focused in on the one option I thought I might be able to choke down: chocolate chirp cookies. A lone cricket fixed to the chocolate cookie by a dab of frosting - I mean, there's just so much chocolate that I won't even be able to taste it, right? Wrong. Well wrong in the sense that I'll never know the answer to that question because I just couldn't make myself bite down on that cricket. He just looked so sad. And crunchy. So unfortunately I cannot tell you guys first hand about my own entomophagic experience. But I can tell you more about how it's a new craze that just may become a more viable option in the future (if I can just get over my squeamishness). A recent article from San Francisco Weekly's website talks about how in San Francisco there is quite a movement towards the consumption of insects. Don Bugito, a new mobile street food vendor manned by Monica Martinez features insects being cooked in a Hispanic style. Her signature dish is waxworm larvae tacos! Danielle Martin, an entomophagist from the San Mateo district loves cooking bugs and aspires to host her own insect cooking show. Besides the claims that these insect dishes are delicious, there's also the fact that eating insects really may be better for our environment. A large amount of insects can be reared on the same amount of plant matter as one cow; they also don't release methane or consume large amounts of water. Plus keeping a bug farm would be relatively clean and efficient compared to meat farms. Some of the problems with eating bugs on a regular basis are that buying bugs can be pretty expensive (though if there were a higher demand for them then it makes sense that the price would start to lower), some exoskeletons of bugs can be very susceptible to accumulating biohazardous material such as lead or some other contamination. But the article points out, that the biggest obstacle may be with our own culture's deep seated revulsion to eating insects... and we're back to my inability to eat one chocolate chirp cookie. Until we conquer this idea that insects are nasty and gross to eat, then unfortunately they are not going to become a viable option anytime soon. :(

P.S. And if somehow my article miraculously managed to make you want to cook and eat your own insects then check out this awesome bug cookbook. I'm buying one (maybe, if I get up the courage)..

WASTE

Hello again blogosphere! I've been out of commission for two weeks due to an abnormally large amount of schoolwork and tests (I hate you Organic Chemistry)... but back to business.  This picture isn't just me trying to be artsy by showing a clear object against a dark background - it's about waste. This blog post is just a short preclude to my book review (which is coming soon!) about the massive amounts of waste we humans clog the Earth with. In this article from the NY Times a native New Yorker talks about the plastic food containers she sees other New Yorkers eating out of every day and the waste they must accumulate. These containers are going to have to sit in landfills for forever before they break down. She also goes on to talk about the bad recycling situation in New York! Unlike Knoxville where a plastic container or bottle with any number on the bottom can be recycled, New York only recycles jugs and bottles. Only 15% of the waste collected by the Sanitation Department is recycled. And due to the high amount of pedestrian traffic in the streets, there isn't alot of room (or money) to put in recycling bins. Lack of recyling bins is also a serious problem in the subway stations. No food scraps from residential homes or commercial food businesses is collected for compost either.  It's sad that New York City, one of the biggest and the most famous cities in the U.S., instead of leading the recycling movement has fallen behind. Hopefully some new initiatives such as building a new recycling plant in the South Brooklyn Marine Terminal, placing more recycling bins in the streets, and incorporating recycling and other sustainable practices in restaurants will make a difference. A cool restaurant called "Just Salad" in Manhattan charges people $1 for a reusable plastic bowl that once bought they can bring in and get free two toppings for their salad every time they use it! Maybe they can also take some tips from San Francisco where "everyone, including people in charge of restaurants and offices, must separate refuse among three bins: recyclables (paper, glass, metal and most plastics), compostables (food scraps, paper food wrappers and yard waste) and trash". And maybe Knoxville could take some composting tips as well...

Promotion of Biofuels Affects World Hunger

Indian corn. Corn mazes. Haunted Corn Mazes. Corn on the cob. All of these corn items make me think of fall. Besides these uses, corn is also used to make syrup, cereal, and even ethanol. According to the article I read today in the Guardian, a new 2011 Global Hunger Index report was released today that stated the U.S. needs to stop promoting the use of corn ethanol because it is raising the price of corn, and thus the availability of corn for people around the world. In 20 years, undernourishment and malnutrition conditions have improved somewhat but 26 countries around the world are still facing hunger issues; most of these countries are in sub-saharan Africa. The possibility of curtailing this world hunger is being affected by the rising prices of corn. The United States dominates the global production of corn, so they also have dominion over the price they charge for countries that have to import the corn. Since more and more corn is being used to produce ethanol, less corn is available for consumption and so the price rises.  Maximo Torero, co-author of the Global Hunger Index report said that biofuel mandates should be removed because they are increasing the volatility and price of corn. And if more biofuel policies and mandates are put into place in the future (as seems likely to happen) then this vicious cycle will continue. Overall it's hard to take a stance on this issue - corn ethanol is a biofuel that can help with environmental initiatives and cleaning up our atmosphere, but contributing to an increase in world hunger is very important too. I think a possible solution would be to try to increase the production of ethanol from other products such as switchgrass, (which we don't eat) or even algae. If we balance the production of these biofuels with the fact that we still need to keep food prices stable to aid hunger around the world, then hopefully we can benefit both sides.   

McDonald's being Mcethical?

For many UT students the recent opening of the renovated McDonald's on Cumberland Avenue was a big deal. I know several of my friends who stood in line for a really long time (one told me 6 hours!) just so they could get a year's supply of coupons that gave them one free value meal a week. While I admire my friends' stamina, I just feel a little surprised. Every time I venture into McDonald's to grab a chicken sandwich or a milkshake I feel a little bit on the grosser side when I walk out. Don't get me wrong, I think their food is pretty good if you're in the mood for that kind of thing - but McDonald's is not the food restaurant we think of when we think of healthy, or for that matter sustainable eating. Hopefully a new initiative by McDonald's chains in Europe will help us change that. As of this month, the McDonald's are putting a Marine Stewardship Council label on their Filet-o-Fish sandwiches. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is a "British environmental watchdog" organization and their label means that the fish being used are caught in sustainable ways - ways that won't contribute to overfishing or harm the ocean. The problem with this is that the MSC can certify fisheries or other fishing organizations that may have some unsustainable practices such as bottom trawling. But, the MSC spokeswoman says that in order for the fishery or fishing industry to be certified they have to have an impact on the marine ecosystem that is sustainable. And she says there is hard evidence that the MSC's system works in preserving these ecosystems. Either way, it seems like knowing exactly where the fish for McDonald's sandwiches comes from will be a good move both environmentally and economically for McDonald's. And hopefully, it's something that can move to the United States as well.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15181350

Sustainable Soda

Have you ever tried a Jones soda? If not, you should - their flavors are delicious! And the Jones Soda Company uses sustainable practices in producing their sodas. Those two combinations are all you could ask for in a food product. Jones soda started as a distribution company and then transitioned into a manufacturing company who specialized in making soda with some unique flavors. Blue Bubblegum, Green Apple, Strawberry Lime, Pomegranate, and Vanilla Bean are just a few. Personally, Fufu Berry is my favorite. And of course their goal is to make their products as environmentally friendly as possible! The glass used for the bottles is 100% recyclable and 15%-20% recycled glass is used in the manufacturing. The glass is also domestically manufactured and shipped by rail. Additionally, they have decreased their cardboard usage by implementing a new lower profile design on the cardboard carrying cases and even in some shipments, using a shrink wrap carrying case. These shrink wrap carrying cases save over 40 lbs of carboard for each pallet shipped. Jones also is working on reducing their fuel and carbon emissions by reducing their truck miles driven annually and moving their co-packing network to certain strategic locations around the country. And as far as the employees of the Jones Soda headquarters in Seattle go, they are encouraged to not drive to work - anyone who does not receives a free monthly Seattle bus pass. Efforts to reduce waste in the workplace are also being encouraged. All of these changes and other similar changes are simple initiatives that other companies could put into place quite simply. Each small change anyone does, whether it is an individual or a business, can help our environment enormously.
Check out the Jones Soda Socially Responsible statement for yourself!

Less peanut butter sandwiches in the future? And watermelon ethanol??

Little may you know that there is a peanut shortage in the U.S. currently. But if you're not unlike many of the college students out there, a large part of your sustenance depends upon peanut butter. According to NPR's article it is likely we're going to see quite an increase in the regular price of peanut butter.  The causes of this shortage are drought conditions and the price of cotton. Alot of farmers planted less peanut plants because the price of cotton was higher and they would make more of a profit off of the cotton than the peanut butter. And the peanut plants that did get planted are having trouble thriving with the drought conditions of the southeast and southwest. For 2011 the projected amount of U.S. peanut supply is 5.1 billion pounds - which is the lowest it's been since 2003. This peanut butter shortage has arrived at an unfortunate time; since the economy has been in a recession the amount of peanut butter consumption has increased. People use it because it's high in protein and a cheap alternative to meat. Hopefully we'll all still be able to have our own peanut butter and jelly time in the future.

Also, an interesting article I read in National Geographic recently talked about making ethanol out of watermelon juice. What? When I was in Ecuador this summer, one of my favorite juices they served us was watermelon juice - it was delicious and it was pink! So the article talked about when farmers plant watermelons there are some that grow and are deformed or scarred - farmers don't want to sell these so they just leave them on the vine. When researchers were experimenting with different methods of extracting antioxidants from the watermelons they discovered that the waste sugary fluid could possibly be used as a biofuel. They moved their research to a laboratory and discovered that it could definitely serve as ethanol. Farmers could produce it and then use it to run things on their farm. Or they could try to sell it. The main researcher, Wayne Fish, who worked on the project said that he thought it would make the most economic sense to have a mobile brewery that traveled from farm to farm to make the ethanol. Either way, sounds like a sweet source of fuel to me.

Preserving Indigenous Cultures to Preserve our Planet

I went on a trip to Ecuador this summer with my mom and brother. While touring around the different parts of Ecuador, we stopped at the city of Santo Domingo and stayed for a couple days. Once there we decided to go visit the Tsachala Indian reservation. Our Tsachala tour guide showed us around the reservation while also teaching us about their medicinal practices and food preparation (see picture above!). The Tsachalas are an indigenous people that have been living in Ecuador for many years and hopefully will continue to do so. But as the New York Times article I read today talked about, there is the problem of climate change affecting indigenous peoples too. Climate change is something that affects everyone but since indigenous peoples rely on certain animals and plants being available in ecosystems, any shift may affect their traditional subsistence method. Problems can be anything from rivers water levels lowering to weather becoming more unpredictable. As Dr. Baptiste, the director of the Colombian Environment Ministry’s Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute said, indigenous cultures adapt to changes over long periods of time, thus the reason their cultures have lasted so long - but climate change is occurring rapidly, and it can be hard to adapt quickly. Some of the young people in the tribes are leaving their communites because of this and the lure of better economic prospects. But losing this cultural diversity also means losing a "resilient knowledge base for adapting to and counteracting the effects of climate change". Many of these indigenous peoples have their own ways and technologies of dealing with nature, and to lose this would mean to lose new knowledge and methods that could help now and in the future. Efforts are being made in many countries to strengthen the indigenous cultures against the threat of climate change. Let's hope these efforts succeed.
 

Eating Insects to Save the World?

So how many insects have you ever eaten? Well, you answer, none. But you may be mistaken - you may have never actually put an insect into your mouth and willingly chewed on it, but you may have eaten one unbeknownst to you. I always think of one of the old Saturday cartoons where one of the characters would be sleeping and then a fly or some other insect would land on their mouth, and they would yawn suddenly and almost eat the insect. (Actually that might have just happened in Snow White, with Dopey...) I've read other articles before about how often insects are consumed when we sleep. But did you know that you could also be eating insects when you're eating other food products such as chocolate, corn, or broccoli? So how bad could eating insects be if you already eat them unknowingly? That is the premise of Fraser Lewry's blog post from the Guardian's website. He talks about many insect delicacies that are eaten around the world and how delicious they are. Some dishes you could encounter are fried crickets, weaver ants, waxworm larvae, and (Lewry's favorite) chocolate dipped scorpion. Insects are a viable option to (somewhat) replace meats - they produce more meat per kilogram of feed than other animals and more of their body mass is edible. Harvesting them would not cause as much greenhouse gases to be emitted and best of all, the insects themselves are so good for you. They have vitamins, minerals, and lots of protein - sometimes even more than beef. Since the world's population is rapidly growing and thus food demand is also, insects could be the answer to a possible looming food crisis, that is, if we can ever get over our squeamishness.
P.S. Lewry mentioned in his blog post how the "New Yorker had devoted 6500 words" to the eating of insects. Very cool article - you should check it out.Mmm grubs.  Also, check out Lewry's photos of insect dishes that accompany his blog post - mmm mmm even more grubs.

Big Orange is the New Green

UT's event "Make Orange Green" kick-offed yesterday in Presidential Courtyard. It was a display of UT's efforts to make our campus sustainable and it was also a celebration of these efforts. Initially walking through Presidential Court I was surprised to hear a DJ and a radio station playing music. There were tables set up in the middle of the courtyard with many different green clubs and organizations. Some of them included the UT Mug Project, Campus Beautification Committee, and UT Farmer's Market. The Adopt-A-Stream organization had a really cool table set up where you could observe the effects of things such as newspapers, oil, or dirt on water systems on a plastic board with farm animals, trees, etc. My poison of choice was pesticides (aka dry lemonade mix) which I poured into a stream on the farm - it spread a little bit but when it rained (or the table worker poured more water) the pesticides spread everywhere! The Adopt-A-Stream organization's name implies what they're all about - clubs on UT campus can adopt a stream and clean it up two times a year. The Cruze Dairy Farm table had delicious locally-made ice cream that they were handing out in mini-cones for free. I asked one of the girls scooping ice cream what the ice cream consisted of exactly, and she said it was made using the milk from their cows and organic eggs. Yum. I didn't actually get to try this delicious ice cream for myself because they ran out when I got there but I heard it was amazing. They also told me that they have a corn maze going on in October (anyone who's interested..). And they're located just off of Strawberry Plains, so not too far away from UT. Parked all around the courtyard were the latest cars from Nissan, Mitsubishi, and Chevrolet which all had zero emissions. And if thats not cool enough, I have to say the cars looked pretty snazzy, if I do say so myself.
But, my personal favorite part of the whole event was when the random flash mob burst into the Cupid shuffle in the middle of the courtyard. I had been warned of the flash mob beforehand so I wasn't too surprised, but it was fun to watch all of the students who were checking out all of the green tables and other stuff to stop and watch us 'walk it by ourself'. Plus it added a spontaneous atmosphere to the event! I also really liked the UT Mug Project table - I always feel bad every time I go to Starbucks and see a person in line who has brought their own cup to fill with coffee. If alot more people did that then there would be less paper waste in the world. I overheard the girl working the table saying that they were going to be giving away alot of reusable plastic coffee cups - sounds like I'll have to be on the lookout for them! Overall it was a very cool event and it did make me aware of some of UT's efforts to be green and motivated me to look up ways to get involved in this green effort. COME ON FELLOW UT STUDENTS,  LET'S MAKE ORANGE EVEN MORE GREEN. Wooohoo.   

FAMINE

Famine. Let me say it again. Famine. It seems like such a foreign concept to me. Something associated with ancient stories in the Bible and far away third world countries. As a U.S. citizen it's really hard for me to grasp the concept of people going hungry - so hungry that they possibly could die. But it's very real and it's happening in the world right now. In Somalia because of a drought that has persisted for awhile there are now thousands of people going hungry tonight and some of them will probably die. One of the most tragic parts about it is how a lot of people in the world don't even know it's happening - or the extremity of it (I didn't - but then again, many times I'm found guilty of being a college student wrapped in my own bubble).There may be a brief clip talking about famine on the nightly news, but I don't think people take it in and really absorb that other human beings are starving. They might look up at the screen for a moment and think "Oh, how sad" but then they go on with their daily lives and don't give it another thought. I'm not saying these are bad or selfish people, because I'm guilty of it too, but I'm saying that I think it's something we should try to be more aware of. According to an article from the BBC published 9 days ago - there are 12 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in Somalia. And there are 750,000 at risk of death in Somalia. And that was 9 days ago - the numbers may have increased by then. The UN also said that it is "East Africa's worst drought for 60 years". Somalia isn't the only country affected - it's just the one able to least efficiently deal with the problem. Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda are also under the same conditions.  And sadly there have been similar famines throughout Africa lasting for different time periods, from the 1970s until now, that were also caused by drought or sometimes political instability and conflict.

On a more sustainable note, a news article from treehugger.com that was published today talked about how the deforestation happening in Somalia contributed to the extremity of the famine. If more trees were present, it could be easier for the people to cope with the drought because the trees serve as shade, as a possible food source, etc. It's sad to think that if people had cut down less trees then perhaps not as many would be dying.

And finally on a happier note - experts say a way to more effectively deal with the drought is to transform dry and barren land into agroforests. To do this farmers will plant trees on their farms along with the crops and livestock their lands already sustain. When they did this in Niger and a drought occurred, agroforest farmers were better able to cope with the famine. Plus planting more trees = less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Win, win, situation.  

Weed... not so green

Everyone knows that drugs are bad for you. As college students we have been inundated with this information ever since we were in elementary school, (or maybe it started in middle school, I can't really remember). Regardless of when it started, we all have grown up with the facts that drugs can seriously harm your health. But who knew that drugs are also harming the environment, too? I definitely didn't. A recent National Geographic article highlights just how different recreational drugs are each harming the environment in their own ways. Indoor growers of marijuana in the U.S. and Canada have to use lights, dehumidifiers, and other appliances so they can grow the marijuana in conditions just like the outdoors. Crazy fact: Smoking a single joint is worth two pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. What??? The process of producing meth requires using many toxic ingredients, thus producing quite a bit of toxic waste for the environment, that can be present for years. Rainforests in Colombia and other countries are being cleared to make land for growing cocaine. Khat, a stimulant chewed by people in Yemen, is such a big cash crop that it is causing farmers to drain their aquifers in order to bring water to this plant. And they have to burn fossil fuels in order to bring the water all the way to fields where the plants are. In Afghanistan where opium poppies are grown (see picture above!), the poppies deplete the soil after having been grown in one field a couple of times - leaving the land fallow. Also, extracting sap from the poppies to make heroin requires alot of toxic substance use as well. Plus for all of the drugs you have to add in the amount of fossil fuels used to transport the drug to different places and/or smuggle it across the border. Who knew that such natural substances (excepting meth, of course) could be so bad for our environment?

Eatin' green

Yo green eaters,
So as I was blowing up the google search engine this afternoon I decided to do a little searching to see how easy it is to find sustainable or "eco-friendly" restaurants. Surprisingly there are a couple of really cool search engines that will help you out. The first I stumbled upon was The Green Restaurant Association's website. They are a non-profit organization that certifies restaurants as "green" based on a point system. The restaurants have to earn a certain number of points to get a two, three, or four star rating. The more sustainable the restaurant is, the higher it's rating. Seeing as the website had a search engine I looked at how many sustainable restaurants Tennessee has. Ready? Two. Yeah, thats right - two restaurants that are green certified. Now I know this website is probably not all encompassing - it is only showing the restaurants which have applied to the green restaurant certification process and been approved. I'm sure there are many other restaurants out there which don't even know of this association or don't want to bother with certification. (Btw, both of the restaurants were in Nashville - they look pretty delicious, called Tayst and The Mad Platter). But when searching just the New York Metro area for green restaurants it pulled up atleast 100 restaurants - pretty impressive.

The next website I encountered was the Eat Well Guide . When searching it I typed in the UT zip code and it came up with 40 listings within 20 miles of the zip code - now this was more of what I was looking for. The website broke down the results into categories such as bakers, farmers, restaurants, etc and showed the distance from your zip code to the place. What we had the most results for was farmer's markets though which isn't surprising. Here in Knoxville I know we have the Market Square Farmer's Market every Saturday morning and also UT hosts a farmer's market on the ag campus every Wednesday from 4 to 7, May through October. When I viewed all of the results together, it listed many places that I've been to many times in Knoxville: Tomato Head (yum pesto!), Golden Roast Cafe (so close to UT's campus), Coffee and Chocolate (so good), and Fresh Market (where I would grocery shop if I weren't a broke college student). The only thing was that there wasn't a criteria such as the other website had to help you determine just how eco-friendly these places are. The coolest feature about the website is that it has a search engine for traveling where if you type in your starting point and then your destination it will show you sustainable eating all the way on your trip. I typed in my house as the starting point and my cousin's house in Florida as the ending point. It had 195 results! And it even had a cool map showing all of the places along our route where we could stop to eat. Yum. So much good food. 

P.S. If you ever happen to be in London, Cornwall, or anywhere in the UK and want to find some good sustainable restaurants there, I came across The Sustainable Restaurant Association which lists sustainable restaurants for the UK!

Save the fishies

As you read in my previous blog post, Chipotle is a fast food chain restaurant with surprisingly sustainable food practices. They are the only ones of their kind to use organic foods which is pretty awesome. This article will tell you more about the new non profit organization they have established to help assist family farms and educate young people about sustainable farming!

Florida is one of my favorite places in the world. Actually, it is my favorite place in the world - though Tennessee fans will probably all hate my guts after reading this. I grew up in Florida for a good third of my life and it has thoroughly become a part of me. Every summer my family and I make our annual trip to the beach and stay with my aunt. She lives in a rural town with only one high school in the county and lots of men who make their living off of fishing. Being right on the gulf of Mexico, these men go out every morning and come back in the evening with their various catches: grouper, marlin, flounder and lots of others. I've even been out on a fishing expedition or two with my cousins. The kind of fishing we're doing is just with a hook, line, and sinker. If we catch something we don't want to eat we throw it back into the ocean, and it can still live a happy fish life. But unfortunately for the big fishing companies, they can't do the same. With their huge fishing nets they pull in all sorts of marine animals that aren't supposed to be eaten - the most well publicized example of this is of course dolphins being pulled in with tuna. But it happens to lots of other kinds of animals too. In a new effort by scientists and fishermen alike, fishing gear is being changed to help save some of the "bycatch". Changes involve a differnece in hook design and net design, putting noismakers on boats, and making fishing lines more visible. Overall hopefully these modifications will save some of the most important and endangered marine species! You can read the article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/science/23catch.html?pagewanted=1&ref=earth 

P.S. Just posted on the NY times a couple of hours ago: Obama is deciding not to take environmentalist's advice and enforce stricter ozone standards that he's been talking about enforcing through the course of his presidency. Smh. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/science/earth/04air.html?ref=earth

"Food With Integrity"

Hey! I’m Victoria and I’m a student at the University of Tennessee. Recently as I was washing dishes in the laboratory I work in, (it sounds cooler than it actually is - my job consists of taking care of bugs for a graduate student who is doing research on them and their effect on corn plants) I realized how much of an impact the work in the lab really must have on agriculture around the world.  UT’s Ag campus has all kinds of neat research going on that looks at the effects of various things on agriculture. This agriculture is the food we eat every day! So my goal for this blog is to look at agriculture and the different technologies, food sources, restaurants, and their connection to sustainability. Now what is sustainability exactly? I had trouble coming up with a definition for myself, it seemed like I had many different ideas swirling around in my head. According to one of my professors, it is “the social and environmental practices that protect and enhance the human and natural resources needed by future generations to enjoy a quality of life equal to or greater than our own”.  According to the random person I asked on the street it is “the ability to sustain”. According to Wikipedia the definition is elusive (just as I thought!) but they quote the United Nations definition from the Brundtland Commission in 1987 which states that “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Overall I think to phrase it simply that sustainability is really just what the world needs to do in order to keep us, the human race, alive. We need to drastically reduce our fossil fuel emissions, come up with new energy sources, reduce our levels of deforestation, and most of all ensure that our planet will still be around for the next generation.

So since I’m going to be looking at the connection between agriculture and sustainability I thought it would be fun to focus on a local restaurant that wholeheartedly supports being environmentally friendly and sustainable in their food production. Chipotle, a restaurant very near and dear to us UT students, is just that. The founder, Steve Ells, opened the first restaurant in Denver Colorado in 1993. As he learned of the bad practices that many farmers used to raise livestock in the US, he decided he wanted something different – he wanted to have “food with integrity”(FWI). With this FWI mission in mind, in 2000 they started using pork that came from naturally raised pigs. In 2002 they did the same thing with chickens. They’re working on beef as well. Chipotle also tries to use as much organic produce and products from local farmers as possible. AND they also are working on building more restaurants with sustainable design! With all of this cool info in front of me, I’m ashamed to admit that I have not actually been to Chipotle, though it opened up in Knoxville I think close to year or so ago. But I have heard rave reviews from all of my friends who have been there. Guess I’m going to have to go check out this “food with integrity” for myself. You should too.

P.S. Chipotle has an awesome website with lots of cool pictures and information about how they are doing their best to be as sustainable as possible. Check it out! http://www.chipotle.com/en-US/Default.aspx