Eating Green

One easy way to improve your health, the health of your family, and the health of the planet is to EAT GREEN!

I LOVE FOOD! Who doesn't?!?! Our love for food has contributed to increased rates of obesity and many other health issues. Unfortunately, it has also made a HUGE impact on our planet!

Food is so much more that the fuel that keeps us going. It involves choosing, cooking, eating and sharing with the family and friends. Over the centuries we have gone from being primitive and foraging to only a handful of us being farmers and the rest of us getting our food at a supermarket. This is where things get a little sticky....something that was meant to be simple and stressfree has become a health concern.

Most of what we buy, cook, and eat has been tainted with synthetic chemicals at almost every stage of its existence. There are chemicals to kills things (pesticides), Chemicals to make things grow faster (fertilizers, growth hormones, anitbiobtics), and chemicals that make things look better than they would and last longer than they should.

Yes, the government does set limits on just how much of each chemical is used, and they claim that the levels they approve are safe. Yet, they do not conduct rigorous testing to make sure that none of those limits are exceeded.

How can we know that we are not putting these chemicals into our bodies? Buy organic!
Not even 100 years ago, all farming was organic!
The organic food market has grown drastically over the past decade. It used to be that you could only find organic foods in specialty stores, but it is now available almost everywhere. Even Wal-Mart is getting on the trend. Organic foods are even becoming an important part of restaurants and school cafeterias!

So what stops everyone from buying organic? Habit and cost. It really is not ignorance anymore. Shoppers understand that organic foods are better for them and their families. And yes, organic is a tad bit pricier than conventionally grown foods. But I have to ask, what is more important, buying more less expensive food or getting used to eating just a little less and eating organic healthier food?

Let me break down the reasons why organically grown food is more expensive. The first reason is because it's more expensive for farmers to produce. Organic seeds cost more money. Then, there is also a lot of manual labor involved without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. People cost much more than chemicals. There are also stricter requirements and inspections, which obviously cost more. And because of the labor and laws, most organic farms aren't as big as conventional farms. Organic farmers do not achieve what economists call "economies of scale," which means the more you produce, the lower the cost of each item.

Aside from mentioning what isn't in organic foods, I should also mention what IS in them. Researchers have found that organic foods contain higher levels of essential nutrients and more cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods. Here's an example, organic ketchup was found to have 5 times the amount of the antioxidant lycopene than conventional ketchup. This fact makes it even more worth the price!

Now here's a tip, YOU CAN BE ORGANIC ON A BUDGET!
Be smart about what you buy. The FDA found you can reduce your pesticide intake by 90% if you ate only organic versions of 12 produce items.

peaches

apples

sweet bell peppers

celery

nectarines

strawberries

cherries

pears

imported grapes

spinach

lettuce

potatoes

To top it off, if you buy Organic items when they are IN SEASON, they will be priced slightly lower and produced more locally, which contributes to lowering your carbon footprint!

You can also shop around. With the increasing popularity of organic foods, you can bet that every grocery store wants your buisness, therefore they are more inclined to try and compete through everyday values and sales. And when you do find a deal, buy lots of it if you can freeze it or if it isn't perishable.

BUY LOCAL!!!! Buying locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats has become easier. Many supermarkets feature them in season and there is always your local farmers market. If you buy foods in season they will be cheaper because they are abundant. Fuel costs (part of your carbon footprint) are not incorporated into the price. And I can pretty much guarantee that locally grown food will taste better.

Being that the major chains in supermarkets have caught on, there's a pretty good chance that the stores own brand will offer you organic choices cheaper than the big-name brands. Choose it!

There is always the option of growing your own produce! This is something to seriously consider. You'd be surprised at how much you can grow in a small amount of space. Don't have a garden or a back yard? Consider container gardening! With roughly two square feet, you can grow greens that will keep you satisfied for months!

There is also the meat factor. There are various reasons beyond concern for the environment to change the way we look at meat. The qaulity of life for livestock can be an influential factor. It has caused many people to become vegetarian. Instead of allowing cows and other animals to graze and roam naturally, they are confined and fed grain and corn grown using pesticides. Simply reducing meat consumption would make a HUGE impact in lowering you carbon footprint. And health wise, lowering meat consumption can help with lowering cholesterol and limit the intake of unnecessary chemicals such as hormones and antibiotics.

I will be honest, I love meat! But I do not need to have meat at every meal to survive! I try to limit my meat intake to a small portion at dinner time. I also have the family eat a vegetrian meal one night a week. My kids look foward to "veggie night" weekly.

Eating green alone is not the answer, it is a cummulative effort. And that has been the point to my blog. To present tons of small steps we can take to slowly become greener and live more in harmony with nature. We only have one planet Earth, lets try to preserve it for our current health and the health of future generations.

Green Gardening.....

With the gardening season approaching I thought I would touch on "green" gardening, specifically composting.

For our garden this year I picked up some organic seeds so that we can grow organic vegetables. Organic seeds are harvested from their organic parent. No chemicals are used to grow the fruits/vegetables yeilding organic seeds.

What better way to feed my garden then to do it in an organic and environmentally friendly way. Not to mention it also stretches your hard earned, already spent dollar.

Creating a compost at home is an excellent thing for both you and the environment! Alot of people know this, but do not know why or if they are into this whole GREEN thing sweeping the nation.

There are TONS of resources out there for composting. Everything from books to articles and even free videos on the internet. I'm here to serve as a helping hand, as someone who is doing it for herself. So for starters....

WHY COMPOST?

I am sure many people out there wonder why they should even bother composting. Whether you have a grand garden in your yard or if you have a container garden, anything that grows in soil will LOVE fresh compost. It is natures best food for growing plants. Plus, composting cuts down on the amount of trash you are contributing to your local dump. On average for the person that eats at home on a regular basis, one third of the garbage you put out each week could be used for composting.

SETTING UP A COMPOST:

When I speak of composting to friends, at first they are quick to talk about how they don't want a big stinky pile in their yard or that they can not afford one of those big compsot bins that are "needed." Well let me tell you that you neither have to have one of those specialty compost bins nor a big stinky pile.

With a compost you are providing a nice muddy place for bacteria to live and thrive. You dump in your scraps and the bacteria decomposes the material. And the heat needed for the bacteria to thrive is not based on the temperature outside, the heat builds from the microorganisms inside. You can even compost in winter if you chose to.

The two basic ingredients to any compost pile are wet stuff and dry stuff. That's it!

First you need to chose where you will have your compost. If you really want or need one of those compost bins that accelarate the process, go ahead, but you don't need to spend tons of money. The other way to build a compost is to literally have a pile in your yard. You can build a box for your pile with anything from wooden pallets to cinder blocks. I keep mine in a rubbermaid type container right outside my kitchen door.

You can start your compsot with a layer of dry leaves or straw. Then you dump your kitchen scraps and cover it with a dry layer. The dry layer is what will keep your pile from stinking!


WET AND DRY

Wet materials are your kitchen scraps from your fruit and vegetables. Banana peels, egg shells, coffee grounds, broccoli stalks, etc. Pretty much anything except for meat, fish and dairy are fair game. Just be sure to chop up larger pieces so that they can decompose easier and break down faster.

The dry stuff can be leaves that have fallen from trees. So the next time you are raking and bagging piles of dead leaves, save a couple of those bags and you'll have a good supply for your dry layers. If you live in a state where you don't have to rake leaves, you can buy a bale of straw at your local garden store or nursery.

LETTING GO

The final part of composting is knowing when to let go of your pile. Basically after you have built several layers of wet and dry you need to let go. Top everything with a layer of dry leaves or straw. NEVER end with a layer of scraps, it is what will create a not so pleasant odor and attract raccoons. Cover it tightly and protect it from the rain and leave it alone. Nothing more than the occassional monhly jab with a pitch fork is needed. The pile should do it's job in about a year or so.

In the meantime you can start another pile and before you know it, you will have the best fertilizer you didn't even have to buy (talk about stretching money already spent). On top of helping your garden by feeding it the best thing you possibly can, you have reduced your waste, and helped the earth and humanity.

If you have any questions, comments, or would like more information on this post please either add a comment or email me at betterlivingenterprises@gmail.com.