Emily
toujoursjacques
Cam
Stefanie
mandarineFiled under: Uncategorized
Since making the decision to eat 80% local/organic, I don’t feel as though I’ve been deprived of too much, especially right now when farm stands are overflowing with cherries and blackberries and things like corn and cucumbers and tomatoes have begun to materialize (and I can see the peaches on the trees as I drive by the orchards, so I know they’re coming soon, as well). Here’s what I had for dinner last night: a local steak, slices of locally grown potato, tomato, and onion drizzled with organic olive oil and organic balsamic vinegar, and locally grown sweet white corn on the cob. For dessert, I had local Swedish fish. Yes, you read that right: local Swedish fish.
I’m so happy about that. In fact, I’m so happy, I think I’ll say it again: I had local Swedish fish. You see, one of the things I’ve been resigning to the 20% non-local/organic category has been candy and chocolate. I can get organic chocolate, so it’s really been the candy more than anything else. We do have this little place nearby called Hershey’s, where I could also get local chocolate, but I don’t happen to like Hershey’s chocolate, which is all just so much sugar and no cocoa to me. I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t just give up candy, since it has no nutritional benefits whatsoever, and I’ve never seen organic gummy bears. An argument can be made for buying something like bananas that have to be shipped long distances, because at least I’m getting something healthy. But Swedish fish and gummy bears?
Last week, though, the whole dilemma was resolved, and I’m now in 7th heaven. We have a little local candy manufacturer that I never bothered to visit, because I thought they were mostly just an ice cream parlor for Turkey Hill ice cream. It’s practically next door to me. They make all their own chocolates with chocolate not from Hershey’s but from another local chocolate manufacturer Wilbur. And it’s good. They also make their own Swedish fish and gummy bears. Who would have ever thought I’d be eating local Swedish fish and gummy bears? And I can walk to get them. Now, if I can just get the candy-makers to use organic sugar…
Filed under: Emily
So, during the first half of the first quarter of the ecojustice challenge, I’ve found myself having to learn to say, “It’s okay.” After all, I’m doing much more than most people in this country are doing at this point, and if I follow Mandarine’s original question of “What if 7 billion people did what I’m doing?” we’d be slowly but surely shifting the economy here (and doing quite a lot of damage to big business). If I hadn’t adopted this “it’s okay” attitude, being the high-strung, type A personality that I am, I think I’d be dead from a heart attack, despite eating almost-all natural and organic food.
At some point, I decided it’s okay only to choose two actions from my original list and to focus on them for now. Originally, I had chosen three, but we just were never getting around to the early blackout night once a week with all we’ve got going on here (our schedule is just way too unpredictable), and I decided it was okay to drop that one. I’m envious of those of you who can do it, as I think it probably goes a very long way in slowing down the pace of life. I can pretty much say I’ve replaced it with the no driving one day a week, as during the average week, I probably go at least two days without driving, but there have definitely been some weeks when I got in my car every single day.
Then my copy of Much Depends on Dinner arrived. To read the back cover copy, one would think this book was nothing but an amusing little history of food. I began to wonder if I’d been mislead by the colleague who’d recommended it to me years ago, telling me it would completely change the way I think about food. I kept telling myself, “Well, it’s okay if this book doesn’t really meet the challenge.” It really was okay, because when I started the challenge, I had just started Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, which I’ve now finished, and that book certainly made me think, as well as giving me ideas for this challenge. Anyway, I finally got into the introduction of Much Depends on Dinner to find that it is what I thought it was, but I haven’t yet gotten much past the introduction. Which is okay.
Finally, there’s the eat nothing but local and/or organic two days a week. I decided it’s okay to turn this one into buying 80% local and/or organic, which I have definitely been doing. I’m also adding buying seasonally. No longer will I buy strawberries except in May and June, not after picking them on a friend’s farm and discovering something that tastes like a strawberry, something that is small and juicy and oh-so-sweet. Forget those monstrous, dry things labeled “strawberries” in the grocery store (even if they’re organic). No longer will I buy those long, anorexic-little things in the grocery store labeled “scallions,” not even when the recipe I’ve got calls for them. Ditto the anorexic, floppy “asparagus.”
I heard something on our local NPR (Negative Public Radio) station, which seems to be jumping with joy to report every other minute how food costs are on the rise due to oil costs (I know, I should be happy about this, but I do wish the station could be a little more optimistic about things) that got my blood boiling. It was another one of these “food is so expensive” reports in which they were interviewing different people at different grocery stores. (Sometimes NPR really does seem to be a parody of itself. You couldn’t have picked more typecast people if you’d had tryouts with thousands of wannabes). Anyway, when they got to the “I –guess-you’d-call-me-upper-middle-class” woman, who owns two homes (one for which they paid cash) and some “building” (also paid for with cash) who had decided she could no longer shop at Whole Foods, because she realized she had over $300 worth of food in her cart and didn’t even have three meals’ worth of food for her family, I found myself wishing I could call in and give them a piece of my mind.
Where had they found her? Why standing in front of a rotisserie chicken at some grocery store that wasn’t Whole Foods, but where such things are much cheaper. Well, yes, if you’re going to buy fully-cooked rotisserie chickens instead of spending ten minutes to prep an uncooked bird to stick in the oven, I suppose maybe you do have to decide that “the first thing to go is organic food.” I was so mad. She’s doing exactly what the big food companies want her to do: she’s decided organic is what’s expensive, not buying already-prepared foods. Meanwhile, is she even bothering to check out her local farms and farm markets? I get free-range eggs for $1.50 a dozen (that’s not a typo). I get beautiful heads of just-picked lettuce (not certified organic, but I’ve asked and know that the farmer is using no pesticides) for $1.00 (nor is that a typo) a head. I can get fresh-baked bread for $2.00 a loaf. Fresh-picked strawberries are $2.00 a quart. Organic does not have to be more expensive, and buying locally is certainly cheaper than any grocery store I’ve ever used.
Still, I’m driving all the way to the nearest Trader Joe’s (a forty-minute, one-way trek) on occasion to indulge my Greek yogurt cravings. Trader Joe’s is not the only thing that’s out that direction. I do tag my visits there on to other expeditions, and at least I’m driving a Prius, but still, that is not okay. I think I’m going to have to learn how to make my own yogurt.
Filed under: Emily
We’re about halfway through the first quarter of the challenge, so this is a call for all participants to try to post this week, either here or on your own blog, to let us know how it’s going, if you can. I will be posting this week as well. I think my post is going to be entitled something like “It’s Okay.” (That should give you an indication of how it’s been for me so far.) Can’t wait to hear from those of you who feel like posting.
All right, so I have two confessions to make now that we’ve finished two weeks of the ecojustice ’08 challenge. The first is that, although when I first chose the eat local/organic option, I had fears of days spent fasting on nothing but water and milk, underneath, I knew that I probably live in one of the best areas of the country when it comes to eating locally and organic, especially now we’re into spring and will soon be into summer, and that doing so probably wasn’t going to be extremely tough. For instance, right now it’s asparagus season. Here’s what we’ll be having for dinner: fresh asparagus bought from the cutest little Amish kids, racing to sell it to me as soon as they saw me come up the drive, topped with poached eggs right off the farm (love that orange – not yellow — yolk) and grated raw cheddar cheese. I bought the asparagus and eggs off farms that are within a four-mile round trip distance from my home, which could easily be turned into stops along an afternoon “commute” home from work. (For those of you who don’t know this, when I began telecommuting full-time, I built exercise into every morning and evening by instituting a walk on both ends of my workday (thus, my “commute”). Since the ecojustice challenge began, we’ve had friends give us two tomato plants, one asparagus plant (they must be hoping we’re going to stay here for a while, since asparagus takes a few growing seasons to be ready), and fresh-baked bread. So, that’s what happens when one lives in farm country.
My second confession is that the food is all fine and dandy, but I forgot all about drinks when I made this choice. Specifically, I forgot that I’m not a big fruit juice drinker, and that I am a huge flavored seltzer water drinker, as well as a huge tea drinker. And then there’s alcohol. Last time I was in New Hampshire, where alcohol practically flows from sink faucets, I seem to recall having seen some organic gin, which I wish now I’d bought. Here in PA, where liquor is practically still hidden way back in the hills in stills (come to think of it, that’s local, isn’t it?) somewhere, I doubt I’m going to be finding any. Thus, I was patting myself on the back for three successful days of organic/local eating the other day, when I realized the martini Bob had just fixed me was anything but local/organic, which then made me realize that, with the exception of tap water, I hadn’t really been drinking much of anything that was local/organic. I do buy organic coffee (and fair trade when I’m at the grocery store that offers that), but none of my tea is organic. And the seltzer water is a huge problem, because not only is it shipped from a distance, but it comes in plastic bottles. I’m thinking now that I might get a soda making machine. After about a year, not only will I be reducing all that plastic bottle waste, but I will recoup my costs and begin to save quite a bit of money. Now, I’ve just got to find some organic tea.
One thing that’s happening, though, is that I’m becoming far more conscious of what I buy and from where it comes. Right now, I’m defining “local” as “made in PA.” I know that isn’t really a fair definition. Most define “local” as being within a less-than-50 mile radius. And something shipped here from Pittsburgh is coming much farther than something from Wilmington, DE. However, I have to start somewhere, and this seemed like the easiest distinction to make (especially for someone who does not yet know the names of every little town that’s less than 50 miles from here). I’m pausing now, though, when I buy strawberries, because they aren’t in season yet around here. That means any strawberries I buy (organic or not) are coming from California. That’s a long way just to satisfy my own desire to top my (local) yogurt with strawberries. Still, I bought them. I wouldn’t have if they hadn’t been organic, but they were. It’s easy to be all romantic about eating in season and farming your own food when you’re sitting around reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It’s even easier, once you start trying to change your own eating habits and are dying for some strawberries to exclaim, “Barbara Kingsolver and her family are all nuts!” Awareness is key, though, and I am sure I will start reading more about eating seasonally and locally and will stop buying those strawberries from California (probably right around the time strawberry season arrives here).
Now, let’s take a look at blackout night. It hasn’t happened yet in this household. Here’s why. This week is sort of a typical week for us:
Sunday evening – hymn sing at the old church
Monday evening – dinner at friends’ house
Tuesday evening – Bob has Presbytery meeting
Wednesday evening – Emily has mother/daughter banquet
Thursday evening – Emily is helping lead youth group (a black out with them might be fun)
Friday evening – Emily will be in NYC
Saturday evening – cookout with friends
In other words, we very often aren’t home in the evening. I’m rationalizing that we’re out of the house so much, and the house is blacked out when we’re gone, so maybe all that time equals one black out evening. Lame excuse, I know. What we’ve decided is that we need to sit down, take a look at our calendars, and plan some nights, which may differ from week to week, although we think we’d most like to try making Saturday nights a regular black out night. That will provide us with a little calm before the storm of Sunday. (Have I just made everyone glad not to be ministers/married to ministers?)
Finally, the book I chose to read seems to be on a slow boat from Amazon. However, the package tracker tells me it should be here by this weekend. I’m eager to get going on that one, so once it arrives, it won’t be a problem.
All this is to say that if you’ve gotten off to a bit of a rocky start with the ecojustice challenge, don’t despair. Your fearless leader is right there with you. However, we’ve all made a start. I’m assuming we will learn and grow. And that’s really all that matters. I’d love to hear how everyone else is doing.
Filed under: Emily
So, if you’ve been following the comments that have been popping up in the comments widget, you’ll see that TJ raised some concerns about identifying who has posted what. I added a categories widget and have added the names of all those of you who have asked to be authors for the blog (you’ll also note the “authors” widget. Ian, you didn’t come up for some reason. We’ll have to figure that out at some point). When you post, please check your name off as a category for the post, so we’ll know you posted.
Here’s some advice from TJ’s comment:
By the way, when participants are ready to post their message and check the category box by their name they may not see it. The list only shows the four or five most recently used categories. But just to the left is a link that says “show all categories” which, when clicked on, will do so.
Oh, and I will continue to add anyone who wants to be an author to the blog, so just let me know. All I need is your email address.
Finally, I am absolutely blown away by how this blog has taken off and how many are supporting it. I promise a real post on my foray into the challenge soon. (Those of you who know me will know that when I set out to do something like this, there is no way it can possibly be anything but funny, so if you were expecting some serious, insightful, truly inspiring posts from me, you may be disappointed. Maybe someone else will post those for you.) Gotta go on the road tomorrow evening, though, so it will probably have to wait till next week.
Welcome to Emily’s Ecojustice 2008 challenge. Those of you who are book bloggers are familiar with the concept of a challenge. Typically, you are asked to read a certain number of books from some sort of category and to write blog posts on those books. This challenge will be somewhat different in that it will be asking you to choose from among a number of environmentally-friendly actions and to post on your experiences implementing them.
Mandarine once posed the question to all of us, “What if seven billion people did what I’m about to do?” This challenge has grown from that question. My immediate answer to it was, “Well, I’m not one of the seven billion people going out there and buying a Ford Excessive just because the company has told me it’s the cool vehicle I must have,” and “I’m not one of the seven billion people who drinks expensive water from plastic bottles when I’ve got perfectly good tap water to drink,” and “I’m certainly not one of the seven billion people jumping all over the chance to own a McMansion.” All right, so there are those of us who pat ourselves on the back, because we gave up the notion of “keeping up with the Joneses” or flaunting our wealth, oh, around the same time we graduated from high school, most especially if doing so is contributing to the degradation of our planet and all who live here.
However, the question is far too clever to keep us patting ourselves on the back for long if we think about these examples instead: what if seven billion people got all their food from factory farms? What if seven billion people drove their cars to and from work 20+ miles every day? What if seven billion people threw out all their junk mail without recycling it?
I was beginning to get depressed. Then I began to think in a different way: what if seven billion people all decided they weren’t going to buy a car that didn’t get at least 40 mpg? What if seven billion people decided they weren’t going to buy anything other than energy efficient light bulbs? What if seven billion people decided that rather than eating half a pound of meat a day, they were only going to eat half a pound of meat per week? What if seven billion people decided they weren’t going to buy anything that didn’t come in a recyclable container? Businesses might begin squirming…and then scrambling. After all, it’s merely a matter of supply and demand. If we live based on the premise that we don’t want companies dictating to us what we can and can’t buy, and if we start demanding what we want instead of letting corporations create demand for us via advertising, we might be better able to save this planet.
Thus, this challenge began brewing in my mind. Maybe through this wonderful resource the internet, an international group of us could band together to challenge ourselves to live our lives just a little bit differently. Maybe some of us would be willing to make some choices that might not be the most convenient or the most comfortable but that wouldn’t be completely inconvenient or uncomfortable, because we care more about saving the planet than we do about our own conveniences and comfort. Maybe each of us would tell at least five friends about the challenge, who would then pass it onto others. Eventually, maybe, we could begin to change things for the better. Maybe future generations, then, won’t have to clean up such a big mess.
Before I get started on the actual challenge, I want to explain why this is an ecojustice challenge and not an environmental one. The term “ecojustice” encompasses justice for all of creation (plant, other animal, and human alike). It does not assume any one species (i.e. human) is better than any other species. It assumes that within the human race, those who are most negatively affected by the rape of the earth are the poor (e.g. N.I.M.B.Y. campaigns are very successful in middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods, not so much in poor, inner-city neighborhoods) and that by making this planet a safer and better place to live, all will benefit. It assumes that every living being on this planet deserves its rightful, ecological place (whether certain species want others here or not). It also assumes that we humans are the ones doing the most damage with the most means to stop what we are doing.
So, here is how this challenge will work. The first step is for anyone who wants to participate to pass the link onto at least five other people (or even if you don’t plan to participate, if you like the idea, please pass it on). If you have a blog of your own, this can easily be accomplished merely by linking to this site in a post on your own blog. Below is a list of things you can choose to do. Once every quarter between now and April 21, 2009, I will add to this list. Your challenge is to choose something from this list, to experiment with it, and to post about it here. Or, if you’d rather not post, that’s fine. You can just choose what you want and leave comments on this blog. You can choose to implement as many or as few from the list as you would like. You can choose to stick with one (or more) for an entire quarter, or you can mix and match (one — or more — this month, a different one next month, etc.). My hope is that by the end of the year, at least one item from the whole list will have become a way of life for you and your family. And if you’re already doing some or all of these things, come up with others you want to do, share them with us, and post on them instead.
To join the blog as a posting member, please send an email to: ecojustice08 AT gmail DOT com with your user name and the email address you’d like to use for the purposes of this blog. I will add you to the list of users. Also, please post on your own blog, if you have one. That’s it. And now, here are your choices for this quarter:
1. Choose one day a week in which you will not use your car at all (barring a major emergency, like having to drive your spouse/child to the hospital for stitches). Before you immediately dismiss this one, because you have to drive to and from work every day, please think about it. Is there no one with whom you could carpool two days a week? If so, the day you’re not driving would be the perfect day not to use your car at all.
2. Choose one “black out night” per week. All lights and all electrical appliances are off by 7:30 p.m. and don’t go on again until the next morning. What will you do without lights, television, your computer? Well, the weather’s getting nice where many of us live. Sit out on the porch/deck and tell stories. Read by candle light. Write letters by candle light. Play games by candle light. You know, people did this sort of thing for thousands of years. My guess is that if you have kids, this will be an exciting and fun challenge for them.
3. Choose two days a week in which you are only going to eat organic and/or locally-grown food. Do you know that inorganic farming is one of the best examples of evolution that we’ve got going these days? All the pesticides that have been used to grow our food have helped to create “super bugs” who are becoming more and more resistant to our chemicals. We’re definitely losing this battle in more ways than one. Talk to the people at your local farmer’s markets. Many of them are growing their food organically anyway; they just aren’t certified, because it’s a difficult and expensive process to be so. Buying locally, of course, cuts down on the oil used to transport food long distances.
4. If you need to go anywhere that’s within a 2-mile round trip radius of your home, walk or bike. Where might this be? The first place that springs to mind for me is your children’s school bus stop. Perhaps the post office is close to your home. The library? For me, it’s both the post office and the bank. If you’re super lucky, maybe you have a farmer’s market that’s close by. Or maybe you don’t live close enough to anything, but you do work close by to that deli, say, where you always drive to pick up lunch.
5. Read that challenging book about the environment that you’ve been putting off reading, you know the one you don’t want to read, because it might make you a little uncomfortable (e.g. The World without Us, Diet for a Small Planet, Affluenza). Read it. Post about it. Maybe implement an idea or two based on what you’ve read.
6. Buy only those things sold in recyclable packaging and make sure you recycle that packaging.
I’ve made my choices for this first quarter, and they are: 2, 3, and (those who know me, know I’d have to choose this one) 5 (which book? Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal by Margaret Visser) Stay tuned for my future posts, and I hope to hear from you soon. (Oh, and suggestions for future items to add to the list are very welcome.)
This is the beginning of what I hope will be something big: the Ecojustice 2008 Challenge. This blog challenge will begin on Earth Day 2008 and run until Earth Day Eve 2009. Please come back on Earth Day to see what it’s all about, to join the challenge with your fellow bloggers, and to spread the word.
