Wasting Food

A discussion board I frequent recently had this article up for discussion.

The lost art of leftovers

"We waste too much food and should return to the way we lived during the
war, says a new campaign. It would save us money and help save the
planet."

......

"A third of all the food we buy is now thrown into the bin and half of it is
still perfectly edible, according to the government's waste reduction agency,
Wrap. You're throwing away one bag of shopping in three, it says."

......

"This wanton wastage is not only costing us money - up to £400 a year - but is
hurting the environment: the methane released by decomposing food in landfills
is the most potent of greenhouse gases. Cutting it out would be the same as
taking one fifth of cars off the road, says Wrap."

......

MOST DUMPED FOODS

Bags of
salad
Fruit
Bread
Pasta
Cheese

I can't say that the Gaia household is blameless here. We do let more consumable food turn to non-consumables largely through laziness. We do compost it, though, so it's not fully wasted.

Water saving epiphany

We have a leaky faucet. It's one of the hazards of living in the valley - the water is so salty and so hard that it just destroys all metals including the ones that make the faucets. Seriously, our faucets disintegrate after about 5 years.

Clearly we need to replace it, but meanwhile, I've shoved a cup under it with the plan of using that water in the toilet. This has prompted me to make another change.

We've all heard to turn the water off while we brush. So most of us have stopped doing that.

Lately the news has been all about washing hands well and lathering them for the time it takes to sing the alphabet song through twice. With cold and flu season coming on, I've found that my kids really are washing their hands better. So I'm hearing the water running constantly. The cup overflows before it's time to flush the toilet. What a waste!

My epiphany? Turn the faucet on to wet your hands (keeping a little cupped in one hand) then turn it off. Lather your hands and scrub them for the requisite time, then turn the faucet back on to rinse your hands. Much less water used!

Buying organic is a social justice issue

Kids in agricultural areas or who have parents who work agricultural jobs face greater risks than kids in non-agricultural areas.

Source

In a San Francisco Bay Area study, children whose fathers were occupationally exposed to pesticides were found to be six times more likely than other children to develop Ewing's sarcoma, a rare bone tumor. Having fathers with agricultural occupations was found to increase a child's risk of contracting this cancer by ninefold.[49] A study of children diagnosed with cancer in the Denver area found a strong association between parents' application of pesticides in the yard and the development of soft tissue sarcomas. This same study found that children with lymphomas (cancer of the lymph system) were twice as likely to have been exposed to insecticides during household exterminations compared to healthy children.[50] In a study of Wilms' tumor (malignant tumor of the kidney) among children in Brazil, consistently elevated risks of Wilms' tumor were associated with parental exposure to pesticides through farm work.[51]

Source The Organic Manifesto of a Biologist Mother:

FARMERS have higher rates of certain cancers than the general population. So do farmers’ children.7 An emerging body of evidence suggests that exposure to pesticides on farms may be partof the reason.Other studies have revealed possible links between agricultural use of pesticides and birth defects. For example, according toa recent California study, living near agricultural fields where pesticides are sprayed raises the risk of stillbirths due to birth defects. Researchers found the largest risk among babies whose mothers lived within one mile of such areas during their first trimester of pregnancy. Similarly, a Minnesota study found that the children of farmers, as well as those born to families living in agricultural areas, have elevated rates of birth defects. Similar findings come from Iowa.8

Studies quoted -
7. Cancers found in excess among U.S. farmers include blood and nervous system cancers. Cancers found in excess among their children include brain cancers, leukemias, Wilms’ tumor, Ewing’s sarcoma, and germ cell tumors. L.E. Fleming et al., “National Health Interview Survey Mortality Among US Farmers and Pesticide Applicators,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 43(2003): 227-33; L.M. O’Leary et al., “Parental Occupational Exposures and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Review,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 20 (1991):17-35; J.L. Daniels et al., “Pesticides and Childhood Cancers,” Environmental Health Perspectives 105(1997): 1068-77.
8. E.M. Bell et al., “A Case-Control Study of Pesticides and Fetal Death Due to Congenital Anomalies,” Epidemiology 12(2001): 148-156; V.F. Garry et al,“Pesticide Appliers, Biocides, and Birth Defects in Rural Minnesota,” Environmental Health Perspectives 104(1996): 394-99; R. Munger et al., “Birth Defects and Pesticide-Contaminated Water Supplies in Iowa,” American Journal of Epidemiology136(1992): 959. Birth defects associated with pesticide exposure include cleft lip and palate, limb defects, heart malformations, spina bifida, hydocephaly, undescended testicles, and hypospadias. See also G. Solomon et al., Pesticides andHuman Health: A Resource for Health Care Professionals (San Francisco: Physicians forSocial Responsibility, 2000), pp. 40-42.

For us, buying organic is not just about protecting our children it's about protecting all the children of farm workers. We live in an area that is sprayed regularly. They'll tell you it won't hurt you, but I have a friend on disability as a direct result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time - she was in a field doing an inspection with US Customs when it was sprayed with pesticide (boll weevil killer, most likely) and her lungs - 3 years later - are still so damaged she can't lead a normal life. She was a marathon runner before the pesticides. Now most people are not going to breath in that much at one time, but it is constantly in the air in agricultural areas.

Further reading

Refashioning

Hyperion wants to be a king for halloween. I asked Mr. Gaia to check Target for a costume because I'm lazy - but no go.

So, off to the thrift stores I went. Looking for something red and silky that could be fashioned into a cape.

I've written about Wardrobe Refashion before and now I find myself in thrift stores looking at items figuring out how they could be reused. I spent a lot of time fingering the cotton sweaters, looking for extra large sweaters in a thick weight yarn, before deciding I needed to use up my stash before considering buying a sweater to frog for yarn. Besides, they were all white. Which has lead to me spending a ton of time searching out how to dye cotton yarn (too bad kool-aid doesn't work on plant fibers).

Anyway, back to the costume. I ended up with a red graduation robe. I figure I can take it apart and get a kids' sized cape out of it. I looked for some kind of fake fur, but didn't find anything, so I'm going to have to work on that one. Maybe some white felt? I have a red sash that I'll pin to a dress shirt for him, pin on a few medals (I have a few and I think I have trappings to fake a few others), put him in dress trousers and he's done. My only issue now is I'm not sure how to wash the acetate graduation gown.

Oceanus is going to be Harry Potter again. This is the 3rd year in a row. I can go along with it. It's easy and cheap and it's what he wants to be.

Halloween costumes has always been the only time my creativity has emerged. I once made a triceratops costume out of styrofoam cones, fun foam, a head band and glue. A bat costume was made from cheap black remnant fabric and a black sweatsuit. An incredible hulk costume from green knit pants and shirt with a pair of girl's knit purple pants (cut to look like they were torn - with the cut off ends pushed into the sleeves to make muscles). And a Link (from Zelda) costume made from an adult's long sleeved green shirt, white tights, felt and brown paper bags. No one knew who he was (everyone guessed Robin Hood) but he was happy. I'm hoping I can pull off a similar success this year.

I'm a mean mom

Oceanus is now old enough to join the Nature Club at his school. He's been a little lukewarm about the idea, while Mr. Gaia and I have been pushing him to get more information.

Well, he finally brought home the information and has to write an essay. The essay he wrote showed he clearly didn't want to be in the Club. Being the mean mom I am, I asked why. Apparently it's because it is after school on Friday and that would mean he would miss TV for a part of that time.

Oooh. Yeah. That brought on the TV lecture. "If TV is so important to you that you're giving up activities you would find interesting, then it's time for the TV to go away" (expand from there).

So, they all went to soccer practice and I took a much needed nap (my jaw stopped hurting for 2 full hours after my nap!!!). When I woke up, they were back and Oceanus had had a change of attitude and re-written his essay.

I don't know that he will get in, his essay still isn't as good as it could be (it's clearly half-hearted to anyone who knows how smart this kid is) but he did at least make an effort. I hope he gets in because I know he will really enjoy this club. The kid says he wants to be a scientist, after all.

But Mr. Gaia and I are going to have to have some long discussions with them and work on limiting TV time.

Party at my house!

Just kill me now. After dithering back and forth for over a year (since we moved into the house) Mr. Gaia came home on Saturday and told me that we are having a party this Saturday (I guess that's today).

OMG. My house wasn't even every day clean, much less having company over clean. So, I've been cleaning all week (which is why I've been so silent). I have 33 confirmed yes RSVPs, 5 maybes and 26 non-responders.

So, being environmentally minded, Mr. Gaia and I have been discussing our options for feeding people. We decided to buy the cheap, restaurant grade flatware at Sam's so that it can be reused. We've discussed plates ad infinitum and still haven't decided. I think we're going to go with Chinet that is made from recycled paper and then put it in our compost pile.

We've bought natural sodas, organic veggies, baked bread, brownies and mixed up dips.

I'll report back if I survive.

Children and Environmentalism

When I first met Mr. Gaia he introduced me to the idea of zero population growth (ZPG) and told me he never planned to have more than 2 kids. I had always thought 4 seemed like a good number, but I agreed with him that our planet was in crisis and we should have only 2 kids.

In my head in the stars view, I was sure that one of my children would be a girl. Ever since I was 7 I've dreamed of the day I'd have my own daughter (why yes, my childhood did suck, why do you ask?). I've planned and accumulated items based on the idea of passing them down to my daughter. I specifically had my mom make my wedding gown in such a way that it would be easily altered so that my future daughter could wear it in her wedding if she chose.

2 children later and I don't have my girl. I love my boys with all my heart, but my heart cries out for a girl. Hyperion has it figured out (he doesn't seem to feel that it in any way reflects on him, thank goodness) and has guessed that when I wish upon a star it's often to have a daughter.

This is where dreams and environmentalism butt heads. I agree intellectually with Mr. Gaia that ZPG is necessary and desireable. I know intellectually that even if we did have another child, it's just as likely to be a boy as a girl. But emotionally? Yeah, it's not so clear.

I would be open to adoption, but Mr. Gaia isn't. He's happy with our current family and feels that it is absolutely complete. I don't feel I can discuss it with him because I knew all along that he only wanted 2 kids. And, of course, with adoption it's still the same crapshoot. You can't say "I want to adopt a girl" and presto! you get a girl. You get what comes. Now there are things you can do to stack the odds in your favor - you can adopt from China, for instance. But adoption is expensive and international adoption is even more expensive, and even then you can't be assured you will have a girl. Plus, you get an older toddler and not a newborn - so formula would have to be used (I can easily relactate, if I spend time with babies I get the tingly let-down feelings and can easily express a few drops). My reluctance to use formula also prevents me from fostering a child (and really, I don't think I could take care of a newborn day and night and then give it back to its parents - which is another issue with domestic adoption).

So a few weeks ago when I was down? This is why. My period comes around and it's a reminder again that there will not be another baby. Ever.

Green TV

Okay, so watching TV isn't exactly green, but watching TV can help you become more green.

Living With Ed just started its second season on HGTV. Mr. Gaia and I love to watch Ed and Rachelle. We occasionally get good ideas for how to live more lightly on Earth from the show.

The Green on Sundance. Different shows every week. Including one that we especially like - It's Not Easy Being Green.

Of course, these shows help us to see just how far we have to go. It provides us with ideas and helps us to see that we aren't all that odd.

I'm happy to report the first day of school went well. Both kids seem to like their teachers and their classmates.

Walking School Bus

The Walking School Bus project is a national project designed to help communities develop a program for walking kids to school.

Around our school we are known as "that weird family that walks". Mr. Gaia walks them to school in the morning and I walk them home in the afternoon. On one occasion last year, I walked with some boys who were walking home.

This year, I want to see if I can spur some other families to start walking. Our neighborhood is actually pretty safe for crossing - the only issue is the occasional train. There are sidewalks (unusual these days) and crosswalks.

So, I'm going to print this information to give to the principal and the PTA president. If you've started or participated in a similar project, let me know!

Paper Beads

I saw a cool piece on Wardrobe Refashion. One of the contributor's used security envelopes to make paper beads. This is a great recycling project and if you look at the patterns on the paper you can see how lovely the beads will look.

So, today while I was at work and sitting on hold, I grabbed my scissors, a security envelope, a glue stick and a large paper clip. I stretched out the paper clip to use as my roller. Then I cut a long triangle out of the envelope. I coated the printed side of the paper with the glue stick and started rolling (this is different - most instructions say to do the backside, but I wanted to do the front and it worked out well). I then wrapped the paper around the paper clip, starting with the wide end. I left one end of the paper clip in a hook shape and made sure the other was bent at a 90 degree angle. I used the hook to hang it over my desk container to dry.

I still need to string them on waste string and figure out what to spray them with to preserve them. I doubt the glue will last long enough to make a wearable item.

When I came home I found some security envelopes with green insides. Yummy! I love green.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Sara has a great post on reducing consumption.

A few years ago someone I know ridiculed recycling as "not worth it environmentally". I agreed that recycling alone won't do it, you really do have to reduce and reuse to make a difference.

Mr. Gaia and I were talking this weekend about how low maintenance I am. I spend very little on clothes, makeup and shoes. I wear things until the wear out and then keep them around with the idea of someday doing something with them.

We're not perfect, but we are working on it. I doubt we'll ever be as minimalist as Sara, but I plan to use her as a role model.

Rani has been working on reducing the number of clothes she has in her possession. Passing clothes on to someone reduces their consumption as well. She's challenged her readers to post a list of clothing they own. I'm working on compiling my list, but I'm embarrassed by it. My only excuse is that a lot of my clothes are really old - like 20 years or more.

90% project

A while back I clicked through links from other blogs and found this project.

While I'm not ready to commit to 90%, I am ready to commit to reducing my consumption as much as possible.

So, Mr. Gaia and I have been talking about getting me an electric scooter to use to commute to work (less than 4 miles round trip). I, of course, thought of something along the lines of a vespa (yes I know a vespa is not electric) (image courtesy of vespa):

Mr. Gaia, bless him, thought of something more like this (image courtesy of Amazon):

Please tell me that I am not shallow for thinking that think looks ridiculous for a grown woman. In business clothes. I swear, it looks like a razer scooter with larger wheels, a motor and a seat.

Local Food

I'm still searching for local food in our area. I think I might have located a CSA, I've sent an email for more information.

Meanwhile, when we travel to Oklahoma, we're ordering food from the Oklahoma Food Coop. Technically it's only open to Oklahoma residents, but shhhh! Actually, they know we live here in Texas, but we were in the first wave of members and we have family in Oklahoma who are willing to pick up our stuff.

Recently we ordered 75 pounds of organic wheat berries. We bought a grain mill (the nutrimill) which is electric (I would have liked one that was manual, but Mr. Gaia wanted us to be sure we'd do this before we added an extra level of effort. We have the grain mill, but won't get the wheat berries for several more weeks. Meanwhile, we might just have to grind some rice for rice flour.

There's a perennial discussion as to which is better - organic or local. Since local doesn't appear to be much of an option here, I'm going with organic as much as possible.

No Border Wall

Mr. Gaia brought home a bumper sticker today. "No Border Wall".

For those of you who don't live along the border, this may seem like a no brainer. Why wouldn't people want a wall?

The main reason is that this will have a devastating impact on wildlife. Many endangered species rely on being able to get to the River and have migratory routes that cross the river. The current proposal for the wall is a 2 fence wall with ALL of the vegetation removed between the fences and between the fence and the river. People who have a basic understanding of river bank maintenance will immediately see the inherent harm in this.

I don't have the right words to describe my feelings/emotions/thoughts on this, so let me refer you to some people who do: The Mex Files, Land of Enchantment, OneWorld, Desert USA.

Of course the other reason is that it simply won't work. As long as you have the conditions that are currently in Mexico, people are going to want to cross. Even our homeless live better than a good portion of the population in Mexico.

What gets me is that most of the people who want this fence have never even been to a border area. They have no idea what it's like to live here. I don't feel unsafe living here. I feel safer living here (about 10 miles from the border as the crow flies) than I did living in Oklahoma City. The school my kids attend is miles ahead of the OKC school they would have attended (and we won't even discuss how much better it is than the school I attended). Even though each grade has at least one bilingual class (where the teacher literally teaches in Spanish and English) their test scores (not the be all, end all I grant you) are better than average in Texas. This is one of the poorest counties in the US, we have tons of immigrants and still our schools are better than average.

So how do I propose to control immigration? Well, honestly, I don't. It is a non-issue for me. But for those people who are bothered by it, I offer the following two part proposal: 1) Make the fine for hiring an undocumented worker so much that it will cause a business to go out of business. The fine that was levied against WalMart ended up being so little it didn't even cause a blip on their radar screen. This is typical. 2) Make it illegal and much harder to send money to Mexico. Put restrictions on the amount of money that can be wired out of the country by any person. Yes, people can still mail cash (most won't, I promise you) and they can carry it home with them when they travel home, but if you make it harder for people to get dollars out of the US, that will remove a huge incentive.

The radical liberal in me also suggest schools in border towns that actually pay the kids to attend school. Many kids are pulled out of school and put on the street corner to beg and sell trinkets because it is much harder to US tourists to refuse them than their parents. And because the whole family has to work in order to have a bare subsistence living. Getting the Catholic church to remove their restrictions on birth control would also help.

Solar oven cooking

Rani asked if cooking in a solar oven takes longer. The short answer is yes. The longer answer is "it depends". Generally, the oven I have (the Global Sun Oven)will not get hotter than about 350F and ours tends to hang out at about 250F (which is sufficient to cook meats and brownies). I'm thinking that if we would get it out during the hottest part of the day it would easily hit the 350F threshhold.

Mr. Gaia cooked the corn and salmon in 2 separate batches (it would have been big enough for both, but I don't think he thought of it) and it took about 2 hours long. So, probably he could have cooked both in about 1 hour.

The way the oven is made holds in the moisture (like a baking bag) and so even as food cooks for long periods of time, it doesn't dry out. We've had sausage and salmon cooked in it and they were both very tender and moist.

Wednesday is supposed to be sunny and hot (hitting 100F) so I'm going to mix up a batch of bread dough tomorrow night which Mr. Gaia will put out to bake at noon. That will mean it will cook for 4-5 hours, but the cookbooks we've looked at say that in the sun oven, this will be okay.

I'll report more after I've tried it. So far, our experiments have been successful - we've done roasted corn, sausage, salmon, roasted almonds and brownies.

Best laid plans and all that ...

So we didn't bike today. It was cloudy and looked like rain. Instead, I used the chance to take some more items to the recycling center (the party was very near the center). We say we recycle but the reality is that we have a pile of recyclables under our carport. So, I'm working at taking the chance to take a couple of bags every chance I get. Today it was a bag of bimetal cans and a bag of plastic bottles.

I still have a ton of cardboard, but we'll use some of that around the house. We'll lay it down over the grass, wet it heavily and then pour mulch over it. This will kill the grass in areas we want for flower/vegetable beds. Of course, it attracts cockroaches, but everything does here.

Gas!!

Our previously "cheap" gas has spiked in prices. It's now $3.09/gallon (making a driving trip into Mexico to buy gas an attractive proposition).

We've been changing our lifestyle over the last year, but I've seen us fall into a pattern of driving more than we should. Mr. Gaia's bike developed a tendency to actually slit tire tubes (making patching an impossibility) and soccer got in the way of our training/conditioning/maintenance rides. We still walked but found ourselves driving places we had originally planned as "biking distance".

The prices are spurring us to reevaluate. We have an extra bike, we should be able to swap out the rim that is apparently slitting the tires (and maybe finally figure out the issue). We will still have a problem we've had all along - no good places to park and lock a bike (bike racks are almost nonexistant), but we figure we can always use a tree or convenient ice machine (as much we hate doing anything that might damage a tree).

One of Hyperion's classmates has a party tomorrow, and not being ones to ease into things we plan to bike to the party. We figure we should be able to find someplace to lock the bikes and the party isn't until noon, so Mr. Gaia should be able to replace the tire.

I once read a poster who had "no gas days". That's where we want to go. Clearly we will always have to use some gas (well, at least in the foreseeable future). Mr. Gaia's job requires him to drive 40 miles roundtrip and my job, while relatively close, is not really bike friendly, but there's no reason we can't make our weekends gas-free.

Sun Oven Report

We got it yesterday, but didn't have time to try it out then (and it was a little overcast).

Tonight, we cooked bratwurst in it. Within 30 minutes it was 310F (the outside temp was 89F). This was at 4:30, so not at the sun's full strength.

One mistake we made is that we didn't use a covered pan. The moisture from the bratwurst condensed on the glass lens and blocked some of the sun's rays. The temp dropped to about 210F. They cooked for 1-2 hours (I'll admit it, I took a nap) reaching an internal temp of 150F. The final temp of the oven at 6:30 was 150F.

This was a great success. The brats were moist and well cooked. The next experiment will probably be cornbread. I'm not sure how to handle the covered pan issue, maybe cornbread won't be as big of a deal. Cast-iron isn't the most suitable for a solar-oven, but I'm thinking heating the pan to melt the butter won't use that much energy and once the pan is heated, it will work fine in the solar oven.

Johnsongrass!

I've been trying to get rid of johnsongrass. I swear I had it gone last year, but it's back and stronger than ever this year. I suspect I missed a bunch because I just didn't want to see it. And now I'm paying the price.

I'm organic (and making every day Earth Day), so I don't want to spray anyway. Plus, I won't use a Monsanto product even if they paid me, so that leaves out round-up and many other common herbicides. But I started doing some research on how to control and eradicate it and found that it is rapidly becoming resistant to many common herbicides. So even if I wanted to spray, and didn't mind that it might kill all my plants, it might not do much good anyway.

My legs and hands are so sore. Even with gloves, I'm getting friction spots on my hands. My calves are cramping all night long and yet I've only cleared about 1/4 of what I have to clear. Sooo frustrating.

The good part of all this is that I feel like I'm burning some extra calories.

Towards Energy Self-sufficiency

We did it. We ordered our Global Sun Oven tonight. This is - officially - our anniversary gift to each other. The hope is that when summer and 90+F temps come, we'll continue to bake bread. The fear, as always, is that we will feel the major heat and say "I don't want to make the house even hotter!"

Plus! This means we will use less energy to cool our house. Less energy to bake bread and less energy to cool the house? Maybe our summer electric bills won't be sky-high this summer.

This is part of our effort to "make every day Earth Day". I know it's a very trite phrase, but it's one my kids can understand and internalize. They did a very good job of explaning Earth Day yesterday and knew exactly why we were planting a tree and a rose bush. They were even able to list some of the benefits of green plants.