Share and Voice: 100 Ways to Save Environment!!

http://www.seql.org/100ways.cfm

Hey guys.  Since I am trying to live a more "greener" lifestyle, I found this sweet website that gives 100 ways how to save the environment.  The website (provided by SEQL) gave a few categories pertaining to where and how you can make the changes, which were listed as:

-in your home-conserve energy
-in your home-reduce toxicity
-in your yard
-in your office
-ways to protect our air
-ways to use less water
-how to create less trash.

One thing my household should work on is trying to remember to shut off the lights when we are not in the room.  I have mentioned this to my roomies before, but they always seem to forget!!  Also, it is important to really think if you need a light on or not, sometimes we turn on lights subconciously when we aren't even in need for extra light.  One way to avoid this is to put duck tape over your light switch so you can actually process the thought if you actually need it, and in most cases you don't even need to flip the switch.

Image From ABC

A second change I should make is to start printing off class assigned readings on both front and back of the paper.  This will cut my expenses in half and the amount of trees that are being cut down to make this paper.  I just always seem to forget to change the printing settings, but I should really  make this a priority.

One last change my roomies and I should make is to stop running the dishwasher when it is only half way full.  Sure we may not like messy kitchens, but it is much better for our environment to reduce the amount of times we run a machine that uses great amounts of water.  On the website there are 97 other ways to better our environment and I highly suggest you take a look!  Have a great weekend everyone!!

Share and Voice: Explore Minnesota

http://www.exploreminnesota.com/get-outdoors

Hey all!  Since my lifestyle change is to start getting outside more I found this great Minnesota website that shares what kind of outdoor activities are available in your zip code.  All you do is type in your zip code in the upper left hand of the screen and up pops places to go, things to do, and events that are going on.  This is a great way to become involved in your community if you want to become engaged in local festivities.  A festival that is coming up is the Gales of November, held at the DECC.  At this event people can tour the lighthouse, underwater exploration, learn about diving technology, shipwrecks and more.

This website also gives information on what type of outdoor activities are available up North during the different seasons.  Some winter activities consist of Snowflake Nordic Ski Center, Spirit Mountain, Superior National Forest and many more.  Once the snow starts coming, I am definitely going to come back to this website to get more ideas of outdoor activities!

The Lighthouse in Duluth

Read 'n' Seed 2: First quarter of "Plenty, Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet"

 I covered the first three chapters (March, April, May), which led me up to page 63.

Chapter 1:  March

-The Vancouver couple decided to start their 100 mile diet basically because of one night while on vacation in British Columbia.  They were at a cabin up in the mountains while there was very bad weather, so they had to dig around the cabin to figure out what they could make for dinner.  They only had one head of cabbage, butter, and a bottle of wine.  They ended up making a delicious salad and it got them thinking about what it would be like to live off foods like such for one year.
-While I was reading, the narrator actually brought up the fact of what an ecological footprint is.  I thought it was cool that I actually knew what this was because of last weeks eye opener assignment.  This book states that the average number of planets a person from America would need is nine!  That is insane! 
-During this chapter they also figure out their boundaries they have to stay within, made the rule that they were "off the hook" when they went to eat at friends/family's houses, and that they could use up any unlocal products left in the house.
-They made their first dinner consisting of spring salmon, free-range eggs, grated potatoes, and turnips covered in organic yogurt which were all local products, leaving the only unlocal product to be salt.  The meal costed them $128.87

Chapter 2:  April

-The narrator switches from the husband to the wife in this chapter.  Alisa (the narrator) goes in depth about how she never learned how to cook and always has relied on her husbands capabilities.  She brings her grandmother into the story, who was known to be the best cook ever, but was never willing to teach.  The grandmother ends up dying so her character is very short lived, and only was part of this chapter to give us readers more insight into who Alisa is.
-This chapter included many statistics, such as:
In Ontario the typical distance from farm to plate is 2,500 miles, as it states on page 30.  The narrators believe that food travels because oil is cheap and they can gain great profits even at far distances.  Some milk from Iowa "weighted total source distance" turned out to be 2,216 miles without taking into consideration the plastic container, foil, or box.  In 1970, Pirog noted only 21% of America's fresh fruit was imported.  And according to a 2001 study, shipping food nationally uses seventeen times more fuel than a regional food system.
-Near the end of the chapter, Alisa really wanted a sandwich that she usually gets from a coffee shop, but the bits of the sandwich itself are further than 100 miles away, so she had to improvise.  Her husband made a sandwich consisting of turnips instead of bread with locally bought cheese in the middle.  She said it was great.

Chapter 3: May

-In this chapter the couple becomes a bit more hopeful since the winter months are fading away.  They decide to plant a garden in the community garden (since they reside in an apartment complex).  They end up planting beets, broccoli, carrots, cilantro, fennel, leeks, lettuce, onions, parsley, peas, spinich and turnips.
-The local farmer's market finally opened after the long summer months, so they finally can have more of a variety to their meals again.
-They highlight some facts, such as that 300,000 Americans are hospitilized each year because of food they eat and even certified organic food now can not be wholly trusted because many include factory farmed meat and dairy products and artificial flavors.
-The main point of this chapter is that it is important to be able to relate each item you eat to a place or face.

*Why should we care about all of this??
I believe that there is a bunch of valuable information in these three chapters, whether it being the facts/statistics or the real life experiences of the narrators.  The most profound thing that I have taken away from these three chapters would have to be the idea that it is important to be able to relate each item you eat to a place or face.  Obviously if people are consuming their foods from big corporations such as Cub, one does not know the exact place where that bag of salad came from or who grew the tomatoes.  That is why it is ideal for people to eat their foods from a farmer's market, so the consumer knows how exactly the food is grown.  I feel that it is very important for this type of information to be made aware to the public, because before I read this book or was in this class I knew slim to none about organic vs processed foods.  If the public knows about it, then they have the choice to do something about it!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

My SMART goal was to start getting outside 2-3 times a week.  Thus far, I have been achieving my goal, so I am happy about that.  I first started off writing a list of things that I can do outside, then I decided at the beginning of each week I am going to pick 2-3 days (depending on how busy my week looks) a week to engage in an outdoor activity.  I feel like this has helped me become successful, because by setting time aside to enjoy the outdoors I feel more accountable if I see that I missed a specific day rather than just saying "I didn't have time this week", when really I had 30 minutes here but was just unmotivated to do so.

Some challenges I could face are:
*Heavy school load and work hours
*Weather conditions
*Pure laziness/unmotivated
*Sick/Injuries

Strategies for facing challenges:
*When the school load and work hours seem to be overwhelming one week, I feel that it is still important to get outside and be active, but rather to lessen the outdoors time.  For an example, go for a walk for twenty minutes instead of forty minutes.
*We all know that winter will be here shortly, so I feel that it is important for me to change my activities as the weather changes.  Such as I can go sledding, skiing, snow shoeing and maybe hiking in the snow.  If it is extremely poor weather conditions I can reschedule for a different day or else exercise indoors.
*Some days I will probably just want to be a couch potato when I know I should be outside, but I feel if I found a "buddy" who could come and exercise with me would get me in a better frame of mind.  I could also offer myself a small reward after exercising outdoors, such as renting a movie or eating a favorite food.
*If I become sick I should not strain my body to exercise if it does not feel healthy enough to do so.  Although, sometimes fresh air will make people feel better if they have a headache or such, so I should keep that in mind.

So far, I have gone for a bike ride around my boyfriend's neighborhood, walked to Cold Stone (5 miles round trip) with my boyfriend, and played tennis with my roomie.  After doing each activity I feel so refreshed!! And I feel that on the days that I exercise I seem to fall asleep better at night.  It's fun, but sometimes it is hard to get off my butt and actually get outside.

I feel that my plans, as of now, are going pretty good.  I have been getting outside and sticking to my lifestyle change.  I don't think any modifications are needed as of now.  Hope you all are having a good week!!

Eye Opener: CSPI

For this eye opener I decided to visit the webside where a person can Tour the Food Supply.  I read about several specific topics dealing with the supply of food, such as: the feed lot, slaughter house, factory farm, irrigation, pesticides, supermarket and a couple others.

I couldn't believe that the feed lot itself polluted the air with harmful gases and the water with manure.  I always thought these places were stinky but I guess I didn't take into consideration that these awful smells could actually do some harm to the environment.  I also wasn't aware that these cattle in the feed lots are fed high energized grains which messes with their diets and cause health problems.  Feeding cattle these type of grains also raise the fat content in their meat supply.

After I read about slaughter houses it made me second guess the type of meat I buy at the grocery store.  I guess it is known that poor sanitary practices mixed with the dangerous bacteria from the left over animal pieces can be life threatening if a consumer handles the meat improperly or if it is not cooked at a high enough temperature.  It is also so sad that cattle, pigs, sheet, and chickens are being killed inhumanley and are jammed into trucks with inconsiderable amounts of food and water.  It just makes me sick to think about it, since I am a semi-big animal lover.

One last topic that has a connection with food supplies is pesticides.  I read that in 2001, 181 million pounds of pesticides were used in farming.  That is over 1/3 of all the pesticides being used!  They used these pesticides with feed grains, hay, and pastures.  Sure, pesticides kill weeds, but they also kill important insects that nourish the environment.

Overall, this website brought to my attention how the United States food supply is hurting our environment.  After reading these facts I feel that the government should put some effort forth to better the way our food supply is ran and take into consideration the benefits for our environment if changes are made.