Eye Opener: CSPI

     I took a tour of the food supply on http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/tour.html and learned a lot of incredible statistics about the food we eat in the U.S. and how it affects our economy.  Did you know that 22 billion pounds of fertilizer is consumed each year from producing feed for U.S. livestock?  The energy used to manufacture the fertilizer could provide one year's worth of power for one million Americans! This is a statistic we hardly think about, and yet it is affecting us.  
     Less than one quarter of adults eat the recommended number of fruits and vegetables each day.  This means that a lot of packaged and processed food are getting eaten instead.  Not only does this problem point to poor use of things in the environment (plastic, paper, etc.), but it also shows the reason why people are less healthy and overweight.  
     Americans eat a lot of meat.  In order to keep up, feedlots for cattle are packed full with as many cattle as can fit.  These cattle are fed high energy grains which is not part of their natural diet.  Because of this, they accumulate a lot of fat and people who eat the meat are consuming a lot of fat as well.  It is a domino affect because the cattle eat grain which causes them to be less healthy, then the consumer eats the meat which can lead to health problems.  
     Thinking about how the food supply in America is linked to a lot of other issues in our environment is unreal.  For instance, people eat meat high in fat because that is how it was manufactured.  This often leads to obesity, heart problems, diabetes, and other things which makes medical and related costs very high.  I learned a lot from this website on how one thing affects another.  If we want to change one problem, many other problems must change along with it. The point of these statistics are to encourage people to eat 'green'.  This means seeking out foods that are un-processed and produced locally.  Hopefully we can start to see some positive changes! 

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 2: Weekly Update

http://fray.slate.com/id/2164143/

     The SMART goal I have committed to is making a conscious effort to use less electricity in my home.  I definately made some changes this week, small ones but it was a good start.  I focused on using less lights.  What helped me the most was to assess a room I was going to hang out in.  I would ask myself if the lights being used were necessary or not. Then I would make sure all of the lights throughout the rest of house were not in use.  A challenge I faced was laziness, if I sat down before turning off unnecessary lights it was hard to motivate myself to get back up and do so.  I kept having feelings that my efforts would not make any difference at all.  But then I did the assignment we were given on finding our ecological footprint and it definately gave me more motivation.
     This week I learned that everything each of us does in our daily lives totally makes a difference on the environment.  Even small changes that people don't usually think of.  It is awesome to know we can make a difference in this way.
     For this next week, I plan to make more changes than just turning off lights.  My goal is to use less water.  I will go about this by timing my showers, cutting down on laundry, and soaking dishes by using only one sink of water rather than letting it run to wash them all.  Water is not something I usually think about using too much of, but our monthly water bill shows proof that it does, in fact, affect our environment.  Bring it on week 2!!!
    

Eye Opener 1: Ecological Footprint

This assignment was very eye opening! I took a quiz on how much C02 and greenhouse gases are emitted into the air because of my lifestyle.  The quiz is found at http://www.carbonindependent.org/index.htm.  My Carbon footprint came out to be 10.9.  The highest contributor to this list was the food I eat.  I am a healthy eater but did not realize how much of a difference it can make to eat organic.  After learning how much I influence the environment, my goal is to make small changes at first.  It is important to develop habits, not just a little fad.  Even if it is not convenient to make changes, I will because of what I just read. We need to try and keep global warming from happening so rapidly.  My goal is to eat less packaged food and buy fair trade and tell more people to do the same.  Every little bit helps!