The Earth Day 2009 graphic above was created by Dana Gray .
This weekend we are celebrating life with the season of Spring in full bloom, Easter, and Earth day. Today I am sharing with you a few food related choices you can make that will be beneficial to the earth any day of the year.
buy organic when you can
Regardless of what you think about the label of “organic” or “conventional”, foods that are grown meeting the requirements to be deemed organic have been grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. When something is more natural, it impacts the world much less than it’s synthetic counterparts.
Here is Environmental Working Group’s list of produce to buy organic vs conventional, and Organic.org’s top 10 reasons to support organic.
buy local
In some cases, your local farmer mightn’t be certified organic, but they may grow their food without the use of synthetic (and in some cases any) chemicals. You won’t have any label to tell you that though, so the only way to know for sure is also a benefit to local food. Because a local farm is local, you can see exactly where your food comes from. You don’t have to rely on any type of label to tell you how the food is grown or harvested, and in a lot of cases you can even contribute to the work, helping to weed and plant.
In so many ways, local food is a good choice. It comes to you fresher (shorter distance to travel), it utilizes less energy to get to you, you can always get it in season, the service and connection between real people is established (you may even have a few farmer’s phone numbers on your contact list), and in every instance that I’ve experienced (including conventional produce), the taste of local food beats out anything from the grocer every day of the week.
Localfirst.org is a great source for local businesses in Utah, and Localharvest.org and Localdirt.org are great resources to find local farmers, and the locavore app is free today especially for Earth day.
use reusable bags
You know, those generally green in color bags that are often made from canvas or sturdy fabric? The bags that are probably sitting in the back of your trunk and make it into the store with you 80% of the time? When you remember those reusable bags, you are doing a lot to help the planet and even save you money, however indirectly.
Plastic bags take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to decompose and the average American goes through 300-500 a year. In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person would reduce waste by 5 million pounds and save $250,000 in disposal costs. More of these facts and information on reusable bags can be found at reusethisbag.com. Check out tipnut.com’s list of 50 reusable grocery bag patterns if you want to design and make your own.
grow a garden
When you grow your own food, you utilize significantly less amounts of the materials needed to grow, harvest, package and ship food on a commercial level. And if you choose to garden chemical free, you are taking a further step towards protecting and revitalizing your patch of earth, promoting life in the soil rather than sterility by harsh chemicals, pesticides and herbicides. You also learn a lot about seasonal foods, cooking simply and there is a lot of satisfaction in eating something you grew yourself.
There is a lot of information about gardening (every type) on the internet, your local library and even people you know. There is also some helpful information about organic gardening at organicgardening.com.
make your own compost
Compost is organic material broken down into a dark soil with high levels of nutrients and living organisms that are super food for plants. It’s cheap to make on your own (see: free), all you need is organic material, a bit of moisture, air, and time.
The scraps you may usually throw away can break down to create compost; ends and peels of certain vegetables and fruit from the kitchen, yard waste like leaves, grass and hay, egg shells, newspaper, the list is long. Check out this webpage for a list of compostable (and non-compostable materials or this list of 163 things you can compost.
happy earth day!!
Have earth friendly things you’d like to share? Tell us in the comments!
