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People aren’t black and white, and the environmentalism movement isn’t all or nothing

One day there was no internet at work, so there was nothing much for the people in our office to do.  Somehow, the topic of vegetarianism came up, and I said to one of the Sergeants in our office that I understood the draw of vegetarianism.

“What is it?” He asked, skeptical.

“Its healthier, it has a lower carbon footprint, its cheaper,” I replied, but he cut me off.

“Lower carbon foot print?” he scoffed.

“Yeah,” I replied, preparing myself to explain to him why it was better for the environment than meat eating.  But that wasn’t where his next line of questions were leading.

“So, do you have a problem with motorcycles?” he asked.

I was a little confused by the question.  “No.  Why would I?”

“Because motorcycles are the most polluting vehicles on the road,” he said, explaining that motorcycles do not have the same efficiency standards as cars, and adding some things about the motorcycle engine I did not understand.  I was a little surprised, I had always assumed motorcycles had less emissions than cars, because their fuel efficiency is so much better than cars (I’m still going to have to look up his claim, because I want to know this fact for sure), but I still didn’t understand what that would have to do with the carbon footprint of a vegetarian lifestyle.

I questioned him further.  He gave me a slew of ideas.  That giving up meat made no difference if people are still doing things like riding motorcycles.  That lots of things, like motorcycles, should be more important to people than their food (I corrected him on that one, the livestock industry puts more greenhouse gasses into our environment than motorcycles do, it puts more into the atmosphere than all vehicles do!).  That one person wouldn’t make a difference just by changing their diet.  What it all came down to was this; going vegetarian isn’t going to fix everything, it may not even be the biggest impact you can make, so why bother?

I tried comparing it to going on a diet.  When you go on a diet, you evaluate the foods you eat and decide where you can and where you want to make changes.  You may be able to give up drinking sodas with each meal, but you can’t give up your morning coffee.  Maybe you’re willing to go exercise every morning in order to have a few hundred more calories to eat each day.

He said that was just jumping on the “green” bandwagon and doing as little as possible to be trendy.

So then I explained to him that people who give up meat because of environmental reasons usually do lots of other things to be environmentally friendly too.  At that point, I think he was done with the conversation.

I wish I could have gotten across to him that people can’t be expected to do everything, and the environmental movement doesn’t expect that of people either.  Everyone’s got different lifestyles and different needs as a result.  It would be unreasonable to expect a person in an apartment in the heart of a city to be able to grow most of their own food.  It is unreasonable to expect someone with an hour long commute and a kid to drop off at daycare, like me, to take the bus to work in a city with so-so public transportation.  It is unreasonable to expect a single mother living off of minimum wage and WIC to buy everything organic.  The environmentalist movement doesn’t expect it all from us.  It gives us a series of suggestions, and hopes that we’ll do the things that work best for us, as many of them as we can.

Environmentalism understands that people are not black and white, and doesn’t expect that we should be able to do it all or do nothing at all.  Perhaps what keeps people like the Sergeant in my office from considering the environmental movement is the impression he has that environmentalism requires everything from us.  It does not.

Now of course I understand that as a culture, we’re going to have to make some drastic changes pretty quickly here, but we’re never going to get the people like the Sergeant in my office to make a big leap if they can’t even understand the little leaps.  I’m all about showing people options.  Eating meat, for this guy, is something he could never, ever give up.  Okay, fine, what else can he do?  Well, he could start by eating locally sourced meat.  Meat that wasn’t shipped here from across the country.  That would lower his carbon foot print quite a bit.  He could switch to only organic, free range and grass fed meats.  Not only would that lower the carbon footprint of his diet, but it would mean he’d be eating healthier, tastier meat as well.  Maybe he can’t find local meat, and can’t afford organic meat, maybe then he should just try to eat less meat.  Maybe to one meat free meal a day, or one meat free day a week.  There are lots of options for lowering the carbon footprint of your meat consumption, and no one’s saying he has to be perfect all the time.

Even if he finds none of this fits his needs, that doesn’t mean he can’t do other things to lower his impact.  Its not like if his diet isn’t perfect, he can’t use CFLs, or drive a fuel efficient vehicle.

People aren’t black and white, and the environmentalism movement isn’t all or nothing.  The more people doing little things, the bigger the impact becomes.

Book Review: In Defense of Food

Disclaimer:  After seeing him on the Colbert Report a few months ago, I totally have a crush on Michael Pollan.  He is not a bad looking older dude.  And his environmental values are right in line with mine.  SWOON.  Yes, I know he’s married and has a 16 year old son.  It’s not going to happen anyhow.  But my crush is not biasing my book review.  His books bias my crush.

 

Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

These are the first words of Michael Pollan’s brilliant book, In Defense of Food.  I got it on audio book from the library and it was so good, I listened to it twice.  

This book is sort of a sequel to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which I haven’t read yet.  I don’t think you need to read it to appreciate this book.  Pollan starts out the book talking about the history of nutrition science and what its results have been for our health as a nation.  Of course everybody knows that we have massive health issues in our country, not the least of which are obesity and diabetes epidemics, but I guess I never put two and two together before.  For decades, we’ve been receiving advice about how to eat from nutritionists, food manufacturers and the government, and it hasn’t made us any healthier.  In fact, in almost every respect, we are less healthy than we were before the nutrition scientists started advising us.

The part that blew my mind entirely was when he criticized the official dietary sanction put out in the 70’s to eat a low fat diet.  Apparently, there was little to no scientific evidence linking dietary fat to heart disease, obesity, or any of the other diseases of civilization.  What there is evidence of is that in cultures where the people lived on a traditional diet that was low in animal products, diseases of civilization (as they are called) are almost non existent.  That doesn’t necessarily mean that the fat in animal products were causing the problem.  Perhaps, as Pollan points out, the problem is something else in the animal products, or perhaps its that in diets heavy in animal products, we tend to eat less plants, and plants prevent the diseases of civilization.  We simply don’t know.  But what we do know is that the advice to replace animal fat with hydrogenated fat (trans fats) is perhaps the worst piece of health advice anyone could ever follow, because hydrogenated fat is the only fat that has been scientifically proven to cause heart disease.  We also are relatively sure that the advice to cut out fat led to adding more refined carbohydrates to our diet, which is very likely at the root of rising obesity and diabetes rates, and to a nation wide deficiency in Omega 3 fatty acids, which can have a disastrous effect on brain and nervous system function, in addition to lots of other health problems.

When I stopped to think about the period after having Elijah, I remembered that as soon as my milk production was well established, about six weeks after his birth, I proceeded to go on a low fat diet.  I lost a minimal amount of weight, almost had to quit nursing because my milk supply went way down (and never fully came back), and I suffered from post partum depression and something I could only describe as brain problems.  I could not remember anything (seriously, there was a time I had to call my mom to ask her how old I am), I couldn’t concentrate on anything, I couldn’t figure out how to do new things, and I often would be listening to someone speak to me, but be unable to process what they were saying.  It basically felt like the connections in my brain had been cut, and even more than a year since I had pretty much abandoned the diet, I was still feeling that way.  Pollan proposed something in the book that made it all make sense to me.  The brain is 60% fat.  The greatest concentration of Omega 3s in the body are in the brain. If I was deficient in fat, it seems reasonable to assume that it might have had a negative effect on my brain, an organ that is primarily fat.  I immediately went out and bought some almond butter and flax seed oil, and then I set to researching the links between fat intake and PPD (in between spoonfuls of almond butter and flax seed oil laced fruit smoothies).  Apparently, there is much talk about this subject out there, but I was only able to find two actual studies, one confirming a potential link between Omega 3 deficiency and PPD, and one that found that increased fish consumption (fish is high in Omega 3s) did not seem to have any kind of affect on PPD.  Some of the doulas I knew emailed me siting other studies that confirmed a link between healthy fat intake and PPD, along with a slew of personal experiences.

But Pollan cautions against following any food trend in which one nutrient is demonized (low-fat, low-carb, etc.) and one is glorified (protein, Omega 3s, etc.).  The whole point of the book is that the value of food cannot be measured by amounts of known nutrients.  Food is complex, and there is always some new nutrient being discovered and hailed as a miracle nutrient, or a toxin.  Often, the nutrients go in and out of vogue with nutrition scientists so quickly that we don’t even know what’s supposed to be healthy and what’s not (the history of the egg is a perfect example).  Instead, Pollan says that we should consider foods over nutrients, and eat a well balanced diet without worrying about the nutritional content.

Thus the rule, eat food, not too much, mostly plants.

There are some sub rules, to make the primary rule more clear.  For example, don’t eat anything your grandmother (or great-grandmother, or great-great-grandmother, depending on how old you are) wouldn’t recognize as food.  He targets GoGurt while explaining this rule, which made me smile, because GoGurt is a product that grossed me out from the minute I first saw a commercial for it.

Other rules include don’t eat anything with unpronounceable words or things that you don’t know what they are in the ingredient list, especially high fructose corn syrup (I would add aspartame and hydrogenated oil of any kind to that list).  Cook your own meals from scratch, always eat at a table, of the plants you eat, most of them should be leaves/fruits/vegetables (as opposed to grains), and eat slower.  That’s not all the rules, but it gives you an idea of where he’s going.  I don’t think he says a damn thing that any doctor could really argue with (who can argue with a varied diet based primarily on fruits and veggies, then whole grains and nuts, then animal products?), although nutrition scientists and government officials might take offense at his review of the work they do.

I have not eaten the same since reading his book. I have found it easy to abstain from I Can’t Believe Its Not Butter Spray and Skinny Cow Ice Cream.  I have been eating a lot more veggies throughout the day (I can’t give up snacking, like he suggests, but I don’t think it’s so bad if you snack on fruits and veggies, right?).  He has convinced me to try anchovies (as soon as I find a good recipe for them that might make them seem more palatable).  The changes I made to my diet haven’t been that dramatic, but I’m hoping that I can report a positive difference once I’ve been doing them long enough.  I’ll keep you all posted.

Results of used Christmas

I promised I’d post them, then I didn’t.  But here they are now!

Elijah examines his Christmas haul

 See that fire truck behind the stockings, the toy train in front of that red and white striped package, and the bench with Elmo on it?  All of that was Freecycle haul (in fact, they were all from one stop!).  That boat toy just barely visible behind Elijah there, along with a few other toys in his stocking and scattered around were used toys my mom picked up from a friend at work.  That rocking chair is the one I got on Craigslist for $25.  That little white car with the red spot on top of the silver package is a wooden ambulance toy I found at Thornton Winterfest.  It was hand carved by a local craftsman, I fell in love with it on the spot, and bought it even though I vowed no new toys.

Here’s what went well:

• I spent far less than previous years.  Actually, I spent very little on Elijah, about $100 total.
• What I bought new for Elijah was organic, handmade, local and/or natural, with the exception of some Tonka cars.
• My home made spa products were a big hit with my mom and sister.
• Elijah was totally overwhelmed with all his toys, and is still thrilled with all of them and plays with them regularly.  He particularly loves the train.
• What I bought new for my mom was pretty inexpensive, and mostly useful (I got her a cutting board – useful – and a box of petifours – not useful, but yummy).

Here’s what didn’t go so great:

• I still feel like I spent too much.  Total spending for Christmas was a little over $120.
• I should have started looking on Freecycle and Craigslist sooner.  On Freecycle, you pretty much have to take what you can get.  Did I go out looking for a fire truck, train, Sesame Street tool bench and a Bumble Ball?  No, I just got lucky and found them there.  Will I always be so lucky?  Who’s to say.  That’s why I should start looking earlier next year.  This year I started looking in November.  Next year, I might start looking as early as October.
• I turned down offers on Freecycle because they were too far away to pick up in a reasonable amount of time.  Everything I ended up getting off of Freecycle was close to home or on my way to work, so I didn’t do too much driving out of the way, but I can see how driving could quickly cancel out all the savings you’re doing by using Freecycle if you’re not careful.
• Speaking of a lot of driving, I drove for an hour and a half in the snow to get that rocking chair, and got stuck in a ditch at one point along the way.  Was it worth it?  Yes.  But I should evaluate that better in the future.  On the bright side, the guy who stopped to pull me out of the ditch was kind of cute.  That’s one reason why I’m glad some people still drive gas guzzling trucks.
• The toys I got off of Freecycle were a little dusty.  Not a big deal, but cleaning time should be factored into the convenience.
• I wanted to do more crafting for the holiday season, but I just didn’t have enough time, because I wasn’t thinking about Christmas early enough.
• My mom still bought a lot of new presents.  I’m glad I got An Inconvenient Truth, and I think all of Elijah’s new toys are pretty cool, but with some more planning next year, I think we can all do better with buying used.  We just didn’t plan enough (and my mom’s broken ankle threw a big wrench in things).

Non Consumerist Christmas Plans, DASHED!

Its been a rough few weeks for my family.  First, my mom got an infection in a broken tooth she had been unable to get fixed for a while.  It made, her terribly sick.  Then, I got tonsillitis, and my mom and Elijah both caught what I had, and we were sick for weeks.  Then my mom got her tooth pulled.  Three days later, last Monday, was the final blow (knock on wood).  While leaving work, my mom slipped on the ice and severely broke her ankle.  I mean SEVERELY.  Her foot was turned around backwards.

So now she’s basically bed bound.  We had plans to go check out a traditional German Christmas festival down town (its somewhere on 16th Street mall, if you’re interested in going).  We wanted to go to the Georgetown Christmas festival.  We wanted to go to Zoo Lights at the Denver Zoo.  We wanted to go to all the Advent services at church, and Sunday services, and Christmas Eve candle light services, and Christmas morning services.  We wanted to do a lot of things, to appreciate the spirit of the season through activity more than gifts.  But we can’t do any of those things now, because my mom can’t walk.

She has crutches, but its hard work doing those things on crutches, if not impossible.   We might still do Zoo Lights next week, because the zoo has wheel chairs you can check out, and we’re still going to try and get to Christmas Eve and morning services at church, but beside that, all of our Christmas plans are dashed.  To top things off, my mom had not done one bit of shopping for me and had only gotten one gift for Elijah (she wanted to do more), and now she is unable to do it.  I understand why and don’t mind not getting gifts on Christmas morning, and Elijah won’t know the difference if he gets one gift from Grammy or a thousand, but my mom is pretty upset about it.  She loves to give just as much as any mom or grandma, and this year she won’t be able to.

I have felt a great urge to make up for all of this, and have spent more than I wanted to on stocking stuffers for all of us and a “gift” for myself (a Deepak Chopra book), just so that we all have something on Christmas morning, and it will still feel like Christmas for my poor mom. 

I am however pleased because I had decided my big gift for her would be the same thing I was doing for my sister, home made spa products.  She knows I did that for my sister, and as I was showing her my sisters gifts, she said “I wish you had done that for me”.  Ha ha ha ha ha!  I did!  So at least I know she will like her gift.

What’s bothering me most of all is how hard it is to take care of my mom, my son and the house.  I just can’t seem to keep up!  The house is a mess, and I’m going to be spending a lot of time over the next two days making sure that its at least clean for Christmas.  When my mom scoots downstairs on her butt (because our stairs are too narrow to get down on crutches) on Christmas morning, I don’t want her to be distracted by a dirty house.

Tomorrow, I will post all about my successes and failures with my Christmas shopping goal to do everything off of Freecycle, Craigslist or homemade.  I will make sure to include pictures.  This is, in essence, the first Christmas I’ve put together entirely by myself, so I think a few failures are normal.  I’m working out the kinks.  Next year, my economical, green Christmas will go much more smoothly.  I learned a lot of valuable lessons this year.

EWG’s tips for a healthy home

Want to make sure your home is the healthiest possible environment for your kids?  Here’s a great list, for those who aren’t up on this.

I was telling a friend the other day about how parabens and pthaylates can wreak havoc on a developing boys reproductive system, and told her “I want my son to have a big wang and a high sperm count one day.”  I don’t think it had much of an impact on her, because her son’s penis is bigger than my son’s and she uses products with parabens and pthaylates.  He just has lucky genes.  I’ll bet my son grows up to have more sperm though.  Ha!

No Christmas Gifts This Year

In my effort to have a greener, less consumerist Christmas, I am scaling back on presents.  I’m not eliminating presents, but I’m scaling back quite a bit.  I mentioned my digital cook book idea (its a Word document with a collection of recipes in it, Breakfast, Appetizers, Entrees, Desserts, etc) which I’ll be emailing out to friends near and far as a free but thoughtful gift.  But maybe I want to do a little something more for them?  Maybe I want to give a gift of experience.

Enter No Christmas Gifts This Year, an e-card service that gives you the opportunity to give a friend or loved one a gift of experience of their choosing, for free.  The recipient gets the ecard and chooses from a variety of activites listed in the card.  What they choose is what you’re obligated to give them for a present.  Activites listed include “Learn a new skill”, “Play at the park” and “Cook a meal”.

I think I’ll be adding this to my gift arsenal this year.

Finding Local Food and products

I’m a big fan of buying local.  Part of it is because I believe I live in the best place in the world, and therefore all products that come from my local area must also be the best.  I also believe that everyone should believe this about the place where they live.  Unless you live in Newark, NJ.  (Okay, that’s probably only funny to me, and maybe a few of the dudes I was deployed with who were from Newark.  Its just a joke though, seriously.)

But not everyone knows where the nearest farmers market or u-pick farm is, so here are a couple of resources to help you find them.

Local Harvest

Farm Fresh

Pick Your Own

Lets review about local products, if you aren’t familiar with the benefits.

There is a lot of debate about whether its best to buy local or organic, as far as health and environment are concerned.  I think every one can agree, however, that if you can find and afford products that are both local and organic, that would be ideal.  I don’t know which is better, they both have their pros and cons.  It might actually end up being a wash, organic has just as many benefits as local does, the benefits are just different.  What I do know is that local is most often cheaper than produce that was shipped from far away, whether its organic or not, so local is a really great option for me, and probably is for every single mom.

Here are the other benefits of buying local foods and other goods:

• Local products are not shipped very far, thus reducing the amount of fossil fuels burned getting from where it’s produced/farmed to you.
• Local produce and food tastes better, because its picked closer to perfect ripeness and is fresher when you buy it.  Shipped produce is picked well before it is ripe, so that it will ripen (instead of rotting) while it ships, and therefore has less flavor than ripe produce has.
• Local produce and food has higher nutritional value, because its picked closer to perfect ripeness and is fresher when you buy it.  Fresher, riper food has the highest nutritional value.
• Buying local keeps more money in your community, where it is more likely to come back to you either as money, improved local economy, or improved infrastructure within your local community.
• Buying local does more to rescue the national economy than bying stuff that has been shipped a long distance at big box retailers, because most of that money spent at big box retailers actually ends up going to the countries where the products were manufactured (think China).
• Buying local is a great way to immerse yourself and your family in your local community, providing tons of opportunity to meet new people, make new friends, and get a lot of networking done.
• Buying local is a great way to educate your self and your family about where the things you use come from and where the things you use end up.  It helps you to see and really feel part of the big web of life in which we are all entwined.  Its a real eye opener, helps to expand the mind, makes you feel like you’re part of something bigger than yourself, etc., etc.

My ambitious Christmas goal

I, like No Impact Man, consider buying used to be the superior green shopping choice over buying organic or something like that. He and I think so (as if we sat down together to come to this conclusion) because a) buying an unwanted item keeps it out of the landfill, b) buying an already made item keeps resources from being used to produce new items, c) buying used items greatly reduces or eliminates all pollution production, emissions, and energy usage associated with manufacturing and shipping new products, and d) buying used contributes directly to your local economy (unless you’re buying over a long distance through ebay or something, in which case you’re contributing directly to another local economy) by putting money in the pocket of one of your community members or a local non profit organization. Buying used is an even better green option for single moms, because it also happens to be the cheapest green shopping option.

In order to green my holiday season as much as possible, and also to save money for more important things (like paying down debt), I am going to attempt to do all my Christmas shopping in the following locations (in order of preference)

• Freecycle
• Craigslist
• Thrift stores (Goodwill, Arc, Savers, The KGNU second hand shop, etc.)
• The Flea Market
• Higher end second hand and antique stores
• Local craft shows/stores
• Etsy
• Ebay
• Local organic product stores
• Online organic product stores

Okay, craft shows and Etsy isn’t used, but handmade is a good thing too. I put Ebay under Etsy because half the crap on Ebay is new anyhow, and I don’t want to have to ship things. I did put places to buy new, organic stuff on the list, but I highly doubt I’ll use them. In fact, I intend to stick primarily to my first two options on the list.

Thats right. I’m going to try and do all my Christmas shopping on Freecycle and Craigslist. If this turns out to be a success, I am going to make this a holiday tradition.

I should add, however, that there are two over all stores I might have to make a stop or two at to make my Christmas shopping goal really work. The craft store (stops there should be fairly minimal, I’m pretty sure I have all the craft supplies I could possibly need) and the grocery store (stops there will be somewhat more frequent, I do love to bake during the holidays).

I will keep you guys posted.

Buy Nothing Day 2008

I discovered Buy Nothing Day when I was 17 or 18, when I realized that reading Adbusters was about more than looking like a hipster.  I don’t buy Adbusters anymore, because I can’t afford them (its a freaking expensive magazine for being an anti consumerism publication!) and I don’t have time to read them (and their consistent use of little, messy fonts – a personal pet peeve of mine), but I’m still a loyal supporter of Buy Nothing Day, an event they sponsor every year.

Buy Nothing Day is the anti consumerism movement’s response to Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year).  In some places, people actually hold demonstrations in shopping malls and other shopping hubs, but it seems like everyone in Denver is just as lazy as I am and no one ever wants to actually organize an event, they just want to show up and participate in one.  The idea is to educate people about how massive consumerism is harmful to the environment, society and our personal physical and emotional health.

I think you’d have to be crazy to go out on Black Friday anyhow.  I don’t like going into crowded stores, and those who do are practically rabid on the day after Thanksgiving.  I am fond of my eyes, personally, and have no desire to risk getting them scratched out by an angry super shopper who’s been camping out on the side walk since she finished cleaning up Thanksgiving dinner the night before in a battle over the last 9.99 sweatshop manufactured sweater at Old Navy.  No thank you! But apparently the majority of the population is crazy, because if not, then the day after Thanksgiving would not be the biggest shopping day of the year.

Obviously, participating in Buy Nothing Day was not a big change in my lifestyle.  I pretty much have participated in it all my life, I just didn’t realize there was a name for it.  I try to take it to the farthest extreme I can.  I make sure that my gas tank is filled and that I’m stocked up on any personal care items I might need (diapers, toilet paper, etc.) the day before Thanksgiving.  If I forget something, I do without that day.  If at all possible, I try not to leave the house at all, although this year I am going to visit my grandmother in Boulder with my sister and our kids, and last year I was in the hospital delivering my son (which unfortunately resulted in my family members going out and buying things; flowers, It’s a Boy balloons, some fresh fruit for me to eat). 

Maybe one day, if enough people participated in Buy Nothing Day, it might actually be safe to go out on Black Friday, but since I am now such a big supporter of Buy Nothing Day, I still won’t go out.  To learn more about Buy Nothing Day, visit their website or look them up on Facebook (there’s a Buy Nothing Day group there, I am a member).  I encourage all single moms, and everyone else, to participate in Buy Nothing Day by staying home and spending some quality time with your kids, or going out and participating in a demonstration.  You can bring your kids along, an opportunity to both spend time with them, teach them about the anti consumerism movement, and about civil action.  Its also an opportunity to meet new people.  You can find an event in your area on the Adbusters Buy Nothing Day website.

Have fun, and Happy Buy Nothing Day!

(by the way, all the links in this post go to different blogs and pages about Buy Nothing Day)