Read 'n' Seed #3

This week I read chapters 4-6 of Do One Green Thing: Saving the Earth Through Simple, Everyday Choices, pages 54-89.

This week's reading started with chapter four, "Meat, Dairy, Poultry, and Eggs".  This chapter started off by talking about the Greenhouse Gas emissions that are correlated with eating meat.  Livestock production is responsible for 18% of GHG emissions worldwide, and on average, red meat and dairy is around 150% more GHG-intensive than chicken or fish (p.57).  After last week's Eye Opener I'm kind of over thinking about the way my meat consumption effects the environment, but I did try out the calculator that the book suggested to see what my footprint is with what I eat, and I found the frequently asked questions part of this website was pretty informative.  Something I really liked about this chapter was the "Chose it or Lose it" section.  It gave me this list, which I put on a piece of paper in my wallet so I can remember what to look for when I'm at the grocery store, each thing is linked to the website so you can look at what each name means:
-American Grassfed Association
-Animal Welfare Approved
-Certified Humane
-Demeter
-Food Alliance Certified

Chapter five, "Food Storage and Cookware", talked a lot about safe containers for storage and microwaving.  From this chapter I got that it is okay to store foods in plastic containers, but never put them in the microwave.  You never should put plastic in a microwave because even "microwave safe" containers can release BPA.  BPA is not good for our health, and plastics are not good for the environment, so going with glass containers is always going to be the better decision, since they don't release toxic chemicals and they are infinitely recyclable.  I already use glass containers for leftovers and food storage around the house, but I am more than guilty of putting everything I pack in my lunch in little plastic baggies.  To change this I am going to get reusable bags to pack in my lunchbox.

http://www.energystar.gov/

Chapter six, "Appliances", "one green thing" was to wash most of your laundry in cold water.  Cold water uses about 90% less energy than hot, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.  If every household in the United States washed four out of five loads in cold water instead of hot, we'd prevent almost 50 million tons of carbon emissions a year - which would have the same effect as taking 10 million cars off the road (p.81).  I do this already, but I use my dryer for everything except jeans.  I could start hanging most things, using the dryer is definitely just me being lazy.  When I have my own house and need to think about the appliances in my house and stuff I hope to be able to afford Energy Star appliances.  "In 2007 alone, by purchasing Energy Star products and otherwise using energy efficiently, Americans saved more than $16 billion on their utility bills while reducing greenhouse gas emissions equal to those from 27 million vehicles" (p.88).  In some states you can get tax breaks for using Energy Star appliances, too look up which states participate visit energy.gov/savings (p.89).

I also noticed that at the beginning of every chapter there is a "Do One Green Thing" tip.  I sort of touched on them last week, and in each chapter description, but I thought it'd be nice if you could see them in a list, which I will add on at the end of each Read 'n' Seed post.

Chapter One: Free yourself from the bottled water habit (p. 3).

Chapter Two: Chose organic and locally grown produce (p.16).

Chapter Three: Eat small fry like sardines, rather than big hunks, like bluefin tuna (p.35).

Chapter Four: Skip red meat at least one day a week (p.56).

Chapter Five: Never microwave food in plastics.  Use tempered glass or ceramic instead (p.65).

Chapter Six: Wash most of your laundry in cold water (p.81).

Eye Opener: CSPI

After visiting the Eating Green Calculator I have calculated what my environmental burden is, based on the amount of animal products I eat in one year. According to the calculator, I am currently using 0.8 acres of grain and grass needed for animal feed, 44.9 pounds of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, 0.4 pounds of pesticides used to grow animal feed, and there is 5,692 pounds of manure created by the animals I eat. After recalculating my "Eating Green Calculator" I cut the amount of yogurt, cheese, and eggs that I eat a week in half, this lowered my impact to 0.6 acres of grain and grass needed for animal feed, 37.7 pounds of fertilizer used to grow animal feed, 0.3 pounds of pesticides used to grow animal feed, and there was 4,864 pounds of manure created by the animals I eat. This is pretty hard for me to put into perspective how bad this really is, and if changing my diet would really make that much of a difference.

I will not be taking the pledge provided by the Eating Green Calculator website. I won't be taking the pledge because I have been working pretty hard on keeping with a healthy, well-balanced diet. I think my numbers probably change every week on the amount of everything that I eat, this was just my rough estimate. Something that I will do is try to eat more locally grown foods, which will benefit the environment by reducing shipping pollution.