This week I'd thought I'd share a website that I actually stumbled across freshman year, when writing my research paper. The website is called Slow Food. Slow Food is a non-profit organization started in 1989 when 15 countries signed the Slow Food Manifesto, to counter fast food and fast life. The vision of slow food is: "We envision a world in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it and good for the planet." Their mission is to promote good, clean, and fair food for all. Their definition for their mission, taken from their website, is:
"Slow Food's approach to agriculture, food production and gastronomy is based on a concept of food quality defined by three interconnected principles:
GOOD a fresh and flavorsome seasonal diet that satisfies the senses and is part of our local culture;
CLEAN food production and consumption that does not harm the environment, animal welfare or our health;
FAIR accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for small-scale producers."
You can read all about the different projects,activities, and events that Slow Food holds around the world. Here is a link to the USA national chapter of Slow Food, for more close to home events. I looked up the local chapters in Minnesota and there's a chapter in Minneapolis,Fergus Falls,Rochester, and DULUTH!
I recommend looking at the first link at the top of the page because that one takes you to the Slow Food International website; it's interesting to look at how big this association is,their philosophy,and what they do. But if you have time, check out the other links too!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Read'n'Seed 5: Fourth quarter and Final Review of "Paper or Plastic: Searching for Solutions to an Overpackaged World
For the last quarter of my book I covered eleven chapters, pages 108-157. The main topics of this quarter were on bioplastics, Ideas of Global reviving on the economy and tips for what individuals can do. I'm going to break it up into 3 sections based on the main topics.
Bioplastics:
Bioplastics are plastic packaging made out of plant materials that can decompose. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been promoting biofineries as a national renewable resource strategy. Biofineries are mills that produce fuels, power, heat, etc from biomass. There are 3 categories of bioplastic engineering in the U.S.:converting plant starches and sugars into plastics, producing plastics inside microorganisms via fermentation, and genetically modifying crops such as corn and rapeseed so that they actually GROW PLASTIC! I'm not sure how I feel about that one. Bioplastics look like a good solution on the surface but we would need a lot of corn to produce the 30 million tons of plastic polymers consumed in the U.S. every year. Agriculture will have to change radically from how it is now. The author doesn't believe that bioplastics will fix the packaging problem. He writes, "rather than changing the core of our convenience-oriented society by offering deep systemic solutions, bioplastics seem to offer a plant based techno-fix to our existing consumption habits."
Global Revival of Local Economies:
This part of the book was about the consumers role in packaging. Getting coffee consumes up to 100 million throwaway cups, lids, and sleeves in a day in the U.S. alone. Just by using a reusable cup, you can reduce the amount of energy, water use, air emissions, water pollution and solid waste by 85-99%! People can also help their economies just by the food they buy.
Farm-in-a-box or Community-supported-agriculture, is a movement that unites consumers with nearby farmers with the concept of locally grown, seasonal produce. People pay an advanced agreed upon fee to farmers before the season begins, and in return, during the season, those who pay receive fruits and vegetables each week. It is a good approach to food distribution, consumption and packaging. Another way to look at food is through something called Food Miles. This Measures the distance an item has traveled between the field and dinner table. Today, the average a food item travels in the U.S. is 2,000 miles. The next solution is called The Buy local Campaign. This is an organized national coalition in the U.S. These campaigns address the issues surrounding faraway food production. One campaign challenged people to buy $10 worth of produce from their state farmers each week because this could pump $100 million into the regional farm economy.
What can you do?
Though we can't limit how much packaging companies use, we can do some things to minimize damage on a daily basis. We can support local farmers, carry reusable mugs and water bottles, take time to eat rather than take out, have cloth shopping bags,and write letters to companies to reduce. You can minimize take out packaging by staying at a restaurant instead of eating on the go. Establish a reusable packaging policy in your home, and last but not least, be clear about your ecological footprint.
This book goes over how much packaging waste we have. It discusses the waste not only from the packaging itself, but the costs in energy and resources that we use to make this packaging. The author gives solutions to improve upon the packaging problem and discusses not only how companies can save packaging, but how we as consumers can also save packaging and thus resources.
The three most significant things I learned from this book were:
Bioplastics:
Bioplastics are plastic packaging made out of plant materials that can decompose. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been promoting biofineries as a national renewable resource strategy. Biofineries are mills that produce fuels, power, heat, etc from biomass. There are 3 categories of bioplastic engineering in the U.S.:converting plant starches and sugars into plastics, producing plastics inside microorganisms via fermentation, and genetically modifying crops such as corn and rapeseed so that they actually GROW PLASTIC! I'm not sure how I feel about that one. Bioplastics look like a good solution on the surface but we would need a lot of corn to produce the 30 million tons of plastic polymers consumed in the U.S. every year. Agriculture will have to change radically from how it is now. The author doesn't believe that bioplastics will fix the packaging problem. He writes, "rather than changing the core of our convenience-oriented society by offering deep systemic solutions, bioplastics seem to offer a plant based techno-fix to our existing consumption habits."
Global Revival of Local Economies:
This part of the book was about the consumers role in packaging. Getting coffee consumes up to 100 million throwaway cups, lids, and sleeves in a day in the U.S. alone. Just by using a reusable cup, you can reduce the amount of energy, water use, air emissions, water pollution and solid waste by 85-99%! People can also help their economies just by the food they buy.
Farm-in-a-box or Community-supported-agriculture, is a movement that unites consumers with nearby farmers with the concept of locally grown, seasonal produce. People pay an advanced agreed upon fee to farmers before the season begins, and in return, during the season, those who pay receive fruits and vegetables each week. It is a good approach to food distribution, consumption and packaging. Another way to look at food is through something called Food Miles. This Measures the distance an item has traveled between the field and dinner table. Today, the average a food item travels in the U.S. is 2,000 miles. The next solution is called The Buy local Campaign. This is an organized national coalition in the U.S. These campaigns address the issues surrounding faraway food production. One campaign challenged people to buy $10 worth of produce from their state farmers each week because this could pump $100 million into the regional farm economy.
What can you do?
Though we can't limit how much packaging companies use, we can do some things to minimize damage on a daily basis. We can support local farmers, carry reusable mugs and water bottles, take time to eat rather than take out, have cloth shopping bags,and write letters to companies to reduce. You can minimize take out packaging by staying at a restaurant instead of eating on the go. Establish a reusable packaging policy in your home, and last but not least, be clear about your ecological footprint.
This book goes over how much packaging waste we have. It discusses the waste not only from the packaging itself, but the costs in energy and resources that we use to make this packaging. The author gives solutions to improve upon the packaging problem and discusses not only how companies can save packaging, but how we as consumers can also save packaging and thus resources.
The three most significant things I learned from this book were:
- How much plastic the U.S. alone wastes.
- The U.S. seems to care the least about environmental impacts of packaging compared to other countries.
- There are some packaging reforms out there, we just need to improve and implement them.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group
I went to the Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database and searched their database for a makeup product I use. It was really interesting to see what different products were rated at. The rating scale was 0-2 low hazard, 3-6 moderate hazard, and 7-10 high hazard.
The product I looked up was bareMinerals Foundation Fair. The rating for this was a 7! I was very surprised by this because I thought this companies products wouldn't be so bad. It said that ingredients in this product are linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies, and a few other hazards. The ingredients in it that seem to cause the most hazards are Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide.
After seeing these results, I'm glad that I don't actually use that foundation very much. It was interesting to look up products and see what rating it has. Some brands had lower hazards overall than others. Products always have the ingredients on the back, but I usually don't really know what any of them are. It is nice but a little scary to find out what the ingredients actually are and what harm they could potentially cause.
The product I looked up was bareMinerals Foundation Fair. The rating for this was a 7! I was very surprised by this because I thought this companies products wouldn't be so bad. It said that ingredients in this product are linked to cancer, developmental/reproductive toxicity, allergies, and a few other hazards. The ingredients in it that seem to cause the most hazards are Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide.
After seeing these results, I'm glad that I don't actually use that foundation very much. It was interesting to look up products and see what rating it has. Some brands had lower hazards overall than others. Products always have the ingredients on the back, but I usually don't really know what any of them are. It is nice but a little scary to find out what the ingredients actually are and what harm they could potentially cause.
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