We live in an era where compute capability is ubiquitous, whether it be on a smart phone or mobile computer, and where “the cloud” can be accessed from anywhere.

In parallel, the ever-improving energy and carbon-efficiency of computers creates new opportunities to trade off atoms for bits, also known as de-materialization, and to substitute carbon-intensive activities, such as transportation, with tele-presence.

Here in Intel’s Eco-Technology group, we’re trying to learn precisely where these trade-offs exist, and under what conditions society can achieve net-positive outcomes, by harnessing technology in more environmentally beneficial ways. To that end, together with Microsoft’s sustainability group, we asked Dr. Jonathan Koomey, visiting professor at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and an expert in energy conservation technology, economics, policy and global climate change, to undertake a study of the environmental tradeoffs, between purchasing music in the traditional fashion (on CD from an online or brick and mortar store), versus purchasing and downloading the digital files.

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The first food security assessment ever carried out by a UK government has been published, and it says that the country needs to change the way food is produced and the way it is processed, to maintain a healthy and affordable food ‘base’ in the future.

Food security story has changed

While Winston Churchill’s government did undertake food security surveys during World War II, these encompassed food production across the ‘Commonwealth and dominions’ so this new food security assessment is a snapshot of what the UK has been doing well and badly since the early 1950s.

The Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) says that the UK has a strong food system, which is typified by diverse food supplies and a strong distribution network, but will be challenged when it comes to maintaining sustainability in this food supply. The challenge of a growing and aging population is complicated by the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, both of which will require changes to the location of crops and the kind of food grown.  Water is a key issue and the depletion of fish stocks around British territorial waters is a concern.

Food and health

Another key concern is the relationship between food and health and the report says that ‘diet-related illness’ costs the UK ‘billions’ of pounds a year.

The report also contains draft indicators for the sustainability of the food system – once agreed, these indicators will be used to measure future food security issues and are hoped to serve as an early warning system. They will include recognising hikes in oil prices that affect the cost of food production severely.

A final substantial challenge is ensuring that current food production methods doesn’t damage or limit the natural resources on which future food production may depend.

The UK strategy for future food security will be published later in 2009, building on this report and on a consultation process that follows the report’s launch.

Food shop courtesy of Nick Saltmarsh at Flickr under a creative commons licence

“Livestock production is one of the major causes of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity. Using a methodology that considers the entire commodity chain, it estimates that livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport.”

The things we choose to eat can obviously have an enormous impact on the planet and everything on it, including ourselves. Naturally then, our diet choices can say a lot about our ethics and beliefs. They can even be a political statement and a form of activism. I think that every choice we make has the potential to change the world, and certainly what I choose to eat has an impact.

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“The HDVG system grows plants in closely spaced pockets on clear, vertical panels that are moving on an overhead conveyor system. The system is designed to provide maximum sunlight and precisely correct nutrients to each plant. Ultraviolet light and filter systems exclude the need for herbicides and pesticides. Sophisticated control systems gain optimum growth performance through the correct misting of nutrients, the accurate balancing of PH and the delivery of the correct amount of heat, light and water“.

If you haven’t seen one of the many news stories on TV about Glenn’s system, you can visit the Valcent site and watch a video with Glenn on the High Density Vertical Growth System.

1

Rank of shrimp in popularity among all types of seafood Americans eat

4.4

Pounds of shrimp the average American consumed in 2006

10%

Share of shrimp sold in the U.S. that comes from the Southeast U.S. (Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean), where fisheries and farms are held to stricter standards

90%

Share of shrimp sold in the U.S. that comes largely from Southeast Asia and Latin America, where environmental regulations are sometimes lax and often not enforced

33%

Share of U.S. shrimp imports that come from Thailand, our largest single supplier

$4.1 billion

Value of U.S. shrimp imports in 2006, nearly one-third of all seafood imports, compared with coffee imports of $3.1 billion and fossil fuels worth $300 billion

44%

Percentage of worldwide shrimp production that came from farms in 2005

12,000%

Increase in farmed shrimp production between 1975 and 2005. Production ballooned from just over 22,000 tons to more than 2.6 million tons.

3.7 million

Acreage of tropical coastal mangroves estimated to have been converted to shrimp farms, destroying important habitat for fish, birds and people

2

Number of pounds of wild fish it generally takes to produce one pound of farmed shrimp

More on eco-friendly farmed shrimp.

As environmental stewards, we’re used to taking the path less traveled to make a difference: pulling out the canvas bag in the check-out aisle, installing solar thermal panels on our roof, driving a hybrid before they became hip in Hollywood. Same theory works for food: by embracing new seasonal flavors, harking back to a more agrarian, land-based diet that evolves with the seasons, we eat nutritionally-dense foods that readily grow locally.

Fall ushers in the perfect time of year to explore some of these unusual vegetables as they tend to be hardy crops that grow well past the first frost, and will still appear at farmers’ markets. Root crops such as rutabagas and turnips formed winter diet staples for centuries. In fact, rutabagas were among the first vegetables planted by colonists in America when they began farming, as the large and strong rutabaga roots helped break up poor soil. Some tips on experimenting with some unusual produce offerings:

• Start small. Focus on one new vegetable at a time. While it may be tempting to plunge overboard at the last farmers’ markets and buy anything fresh, start small and just try one. Well-intentioned ambitions tend to lead to excess produce wilting away, ending up in the compost pile.
• Try again. Remember that the strong flavors of these more unusual vegetables are new to your taste buds. Give your taste buds time to adjust. Try the dish again the next day in left-over form, which sometimes mellows pungent flavors a bit.
• Bring in other favorite flavors. Try dressing up unusual flavors with some of your tried and true favorite ingredients to make things more familiar and pleasing. Being from Wisconsin, we’re partial to flavorful cheeses.

This Rutabaga with Cheese Sauce recipe from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity, pairs rutabaga with a comforting cheese sauce, a dish similar in texture and flavor to a scalloped potato casserole.

Rutabaga with Cheese Sauce

Ingredients:
¼ c. butter (½ stick), melted
¼ c. all-purpose flour
2 c. milk
1 c. Cheddar cheese, shredded
Dash of salt and pepper
1 large rutabaga, diced and cooked until tender (4-5 c. diced)
½ c. bread crumbs tossed with 1 T. melted butter

Directions:

• Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat; stir in flour.
• Continue to cook and stir until smooth; gradually stir in milk. Cook, stirring constantly, until thickened.
• Add cheese and stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Place rutabaga in a shallow, lightly buttered baking dish; pour sauce over rutabaga. Sprinkle with buttered bread crumbs.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes.

Serves 6-8.

King Corn focuses on co-producers Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis as they move to Iowa, rent an plot of farmland, and attempt to grow an acre of corn using typical industrial methods: genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, powerful herbicides, and government subsidies. They show us exactly how industrial corn production works today, from seed to table, in the convoluted journey of a commodity. From Ian and Curt’s one acre, they harvest enough corn to make 57,348 sodas, 3,894 burgers, or 6,726 boxes of cornflakes. And yes, corn is a major ingredient in all of those foods.

The two major corn byproducts King Corn focuses on are high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and beef. The average American consumes 73.5 pounds of HFCS per year, mostly in the form of soda. Ian and Curt talk to a cab driver whose family is plagued by diabetes and who lost 100 pounds, just by cutting soda out of his diet. They also visit a beef feedlot: a large percentage of corn grown in the US goes to feed beef, even though cows’ bodies are not designed to eat corn and it can make them seriously sick and definitely uncomfortable. But, as the panoramic shot of a feedlot populated by 100,000 head of cattle shows, indigestion is the least of most cows’ worries — they barely have room to turn around on their way to the slaughterhouse.

Cheney and Ellis are fairly charming, but leave little impression on the viewers other than they seem like nice guys with whom to share a beer. The time spent on the backstory of their families’ connection to Iowa is unnecessary and detracts from more content Woolf could have included about the impact of corn: namely the environmental impacts of industrial corn production at the scale we’re at right now. Just when I felt the filmmakers were about to talk about the degradation of topsoil, the carbon impacts of CAFOs and corn-fed beef, or the externalities created from industrial agriculture, they skirted away and went in another direction. And although they do inform on the gross use of farm subsidies and how those subsides have changed over time, they neglect to mention the impact of government subsides to American corn farmers on corn farmers in other countries, namely our Mexican neighbors.

However, industrial agriculture is a wicked problem, and the filmmakers do note that they wanted to focus on the food system. In my mind, though, you can’t talk about the problems with the food system without talking about the condition of the land we use to grow our food. With the environment so prominent in current discourse, one would think they would have at least touched on that area.

Despite this, I was entertained and informed, and not just because I’m a born-and-raised Iowa Girl. The vast majority of Americans have no idea how their food is produced, and King Corn gives a general glimpse into what Old MacDonald’s farm has become. If you liked Super Size Me, Sicko, or The Future of Food, King Corn is a hybrid of the three, and well worth checking out. Just don’t expect green themes to be prevalent.

For those of us trying to eat both healthy and earth-friendly, stereotypical "processed" food can be a double-edged sword: we may not want the additives, the packaging, the lack of nutrition, but we’re still lured by the fact that we crave easy-to-serve-up comfort food like mac and cheese or pizza. Instead of trying to rationalize your guilty purchases with "it was on sale," or "this is the only stuff my kids will eat," think out of the expected blue box and take an un-processed approach to processed food. Some tips to get started:

• Focus on your favorite. What’s the processed food you eat the most? Focus on creating healthy alternatives to that one dish. For us, mac and cheese motivated our out-of-the-Kraft box thinking as Liam kept requesting it on a daily basis. That is what led to our recipe below, now in our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity. Surprisingly, healthy unprocessed alternatives to processed foods are simple to make and don’t have nearly the long ingredient list as you’ll find on the back of the blue box — and you can identify all of them.
• Cook in bulk. Part of the lure of processed foods is the heat and eat convenience. Sure, most recipes for healthy processed food equivalents make a big batch, like this casserole-sized dish of mac and cheese, but that lends itself to easy meals of leftovers that can be quickly reheated in the microwave.
• Use "grown up" ingredients. Processed foods are designed for the mainstream palette, catering to the expected same old, same old. But when you’re making your own homemade versions, feel free to experiment with the ingredients for your grown-up, more mature tastes. We like to sometimes substitute smoked cheese for the cheddar cheese in our mac and cheese recipe.

This Macaroni and Cheese recipe from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity, takes the most kid-friendly recipe around and makes it "gourmet" enough for grown-ups.

Ingredients:
1 package (10 - 12 ounces) elbow macaroni
6 T. butter, divided
3 T. all-purpose flour
2 c. milk
1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, cubed
2 c. Cheddar cheese, shredded
2 t. Dijon mustard
½ t. salt
¾ c. dry bread crumbs
2 T. minced fresh parsley or 2 t. dried

Directions:

• Cook macaroni according to directions on package.
• Meanwhile, melt 4 T. butter in a large saucepan. Stir in
  flour until smooth. Gradually add milk. Bring to a boil;
  cook and stir for 2 minutes. Reduce heat; add cheeses, mustard,
  salt and pepper. Stir until cheese is melted and sauce is smooth.
• Drain macaroni; add to the cheese sauce and stir to coat.
• Transfer to a greased shallow 3-quart baking dish. Melt
  the remaining butter; toss with bread crumbs and parsley.
  Sprinkle over macaroni.
• Bake, uncovered, at 400 for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown.

Serves 8-10.

Interested in diversifying your seasonal diet? Give leeks a try for the following reasons:

• Mild, sweet flavor. Classified as alliums, leeks prove to be the milder, sweeter version of their more popular poignant counterparts, garlic and onions. A delicate, graceful vegetable with broad, flat green leaves around a contrasting white base, leeks produce a pleasing aroma and sweeten as they cook. Trying using leeks wherever you typically use onions and notice the subtle flavor changes. Experiment with adding cooked leeks to mashed potatoes or lightly sauté chopped leeks alone or with another sautéed vegetable
• Health Benefits. Leeks deliver all the healthy benefits associated with garlic: reducing the risk of prostate and colon cancer and reducing the "bad" LDL cholesterol while pumping up the "good" HDL cholesterol.
• Fun to clean. Leeks let you get your hands a little dirty and feel like you just harvested them yourself. To clean, first cut the green tops to about 3 inches from the white section. Peel off the outside layer. Cut the leek in half lengthwise and wash thoroughly to remove the soil that accumulates between the layers. Store unwashed leeks dry with roots attached in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.

Our love affair with leeks started with this Potato Leek soup recipe, a dish common on Danish dinner tables. From our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity, this soup is the perfect warming, Fall comfort food.

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:
4 large leeks (2 to 2 ½ pounds total)
2 T. butter
1 T. fresh dill weed or 1 t. dried
4 large potatoes (2 ½ to 3 pounds total), peeled and sliced
About ½ t. salt
2 c. broth (2 c. hot water with 3 vegetable bouillon cubes, dissolved)
2 c. milk
Sour cream

Directions:

• Trim and discard root ends and tough green tops of leeks; remove all coarse outer leaves.
• Cut leeks in half lengthwise, then hold each one under cold running water, separating layers to rinse our dirt. Cut into thin slices.
• Melt butter in a large kettle over medium heat. Add leeks and dill; cook, stirring often, until leeks are soft.
• Add potatoes, salt and broth. Bring to a boil over high heat; cover, reduce heat and simmer for 30 to 40 minutes until potatoes are tender.
• Purée in batches in food processor. Return to pot and stir in milk.
• Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until soup is steaming. Add more salt, if needed. Top each serving with a dollop of sour cream.

Serves 6.

Kudos to Edutopia; this issue ain’t no puff piece. Every teacher looking to go green, or those already greening their classroom, can find something of use to them in this jam-packed issue. The editor’s note in the issue is penned by guest editor Bill McKibben of Step It Up fame, who skillfully explains why all teachers should and can incorporate sustainability into their curriculum.

Edutopia listens to McKibben’s advice by provided several ideas for sustainability lesson plans and projects for all ages. Not only are there many useful ideas in the magazine, but there are more on the magazine’s website. There are also tips for teachers, by teachers, about how to green up their own classroom practices: some helpful, some fairly obvious.

Sara Bernard highlights Clackamas High School in Clackamas, Oregon, one of the first LEED-certified schools in the country. Not only is their building green, but their curriculum highlights sustainability, and students all participate in experiential learning. In teacher Rod Shroufe’s sustainable systems class, students do nothing but focus on making their school more sustainable. They run their own recycling center, investigate energy use and waste disposal, and analyze food waste. Shroufe then offers his own tips for making schools more eco-friendly.

Richard Rapaport reports on school gardens and playgrounds. I’ve written about schoolyard gardens before, but the nature-based "alternative playgrounds" highlighted here were new to me — and quite fascinating. For example, at the San Francisco School in the Bernal Heights District of San Francisco, the alternative playground has a dirt plot with a water pump that creates mud with the perfect consistency for mud castles and pies.

There are also articles on student environmental research, experiential learning, and environmental defense efforts. It struck me how much students can accomplish when they become passionate about something. These articles paired nicely with two pieces on the nuances of talking to kids about something as urgent and pressing as global warming. Edutopia also has Ann Cooper’s opinion on local eating, something often avoided in green magazine issues in favor of more benign lifestyle changes (like the ubiquitous CFL). Cooper not only explains the benefits of local eating, but provides the laundry list of local eating books for those looking for more information. And, of course, what green magazine issue would be complete without the seemingly-requisite interview with Ed Begley, Jr?

Edutopia’s green issue is legitimate and will hopefully bring the message of sustainability to a greater crowd who may just have more influence on the future than our politicians: our teachers. Of course, I’m biased, but climate change and environmental destruction will impact future generations more than they will impact us. Our children deserve to hear the message and feel empowered to make positive changes.

It would appear that I am not alone in my passion for the heavenly food. Hundreds of people attended the Chocolate Show here in Paris this weekend. They went to watch the experts prepare chocolate delicacies, to hear lectures on the latest in chocolate-making machinery, or to see the latest chocolate-inspired fashion. But most of all they went to sample an astounding variety of the fine food. Although they did not steal the show, organic and Fair Trade chocolate featured prominently throughout the weekend.

I spoke to Emilie Guerin, a member of Ethiquable, a French Fair Trade company that has a partnership with a cooperative of cocoa producers in the Dominican Republic. Ethiquable, a combination of the words "éthique" and "équitable," French for ethical and fair, was founded in 2003. "Four years ago we started with 8 products," Emilie said. "Now we have 120." They began with coffee and now work with a range of products from orange juice to rice, and, of course, chocolate. But their goals remain the same from one foodstuff to the next: Ethiquable is dedicated to ensuring Fair Trade with farmers in the developing world and respect for the environment.

Emilie explained how the Fair Trade labeling process works. "In conjunction with the FairTtrade Labeling Organization (FLO), Max Havelaar evaluates the costs of production for a given foodstuff," in this case cocoa beans, "and the cost of living for the producers." A minimum price for the beans is determined based on that evaluation. "We as an importer must respect that price at the very least," Emilie said, "but we are free to propose a higher price to the producer if we want." What is more, the minimum price does not vary with the often highly volatile market prices, and so Ethiquable guarantees fair and steady revenues to producers in exchange for their produce.

This system of Fair Trade functions thanks to the reduction of intermediaries and margins. "The price that we offer to the consumer is the same and sometimes less than that of other brands," Emilie said, "because we as importers have smaller margins, and in addition we limit the number of intermediaries." Whenever possible, the full production and packaging processes are completed within the country of origin. Ethiquable transports the finished product to France where it is directly distributed to supermarkets and shops throughout the country.

At Ethiquable, Fair Trade goes hand-in-hand with a deep respect for the environment. For example, in the Dominican Republic they work "with families that have maintained a strong tradition of agriculture, families that cultivate small plots of land." Indeed the cocoa from the cooperative is in the process of being certified as 100% organic. "We are not interested in an industrial model that is impersonal and ultimately unsustainable," said Emilie. "Ours is based on human contact and care for the environment."

With some 30 partnerships in 21 countries, Ethiquable is growing quickly. May they continue to expand, leading the way with other fairtrade groups, to a humane and sustainable system of world trade and consumption.

The Chocolate Show

Ethiquable

Recent energy policies, combined with pre-existing crop subsidies, tax policies, global market conditions and trade barriers all provide economic incentives for conversion of retired and other cropland to corn production for use in ethanol production. Such conversions could lead to corn production on an additional 16 million acres…

The Dead Zone, an area in which there isn’t enough dissolved oxygen to support aquatic life, has been measured in the Gulf of Mexico since 1985. It’s caused by agricultural runoff overenriching the waters at the end of the Mississippi River - the downstream effect of millions of acres of intensely fertilized crops. Nitrogen and phosphorous, intended for corn but ending up in the river, make their way to the Gulf causing excessive phytoplankton production. In the process, all available oxygen is used up (hypoxia), and marine life has to move out or suffocate.

It turns out that the greater Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (MARB) drains a grand total of 40% of the contiguous United States. The cumulative effect of all this runnoff creates a Dead Zone approximatly 20,500 sq. km. - roughly the size of the state of New Jersey.

To address this issue, the Science Advisory board recommends a 45% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorous fluxes from farmland. Unfortunately, recent trends pushing corn-based biofuels are not exactly aligned with this strategy:

Certain aspects of the nation’s current agricultural and energy policies are at odds with the goals of hypoxia reduction and improving water quality. . .[A]n emerging national strategy on renewable fuels has granted economic incentives to corn-based ethanol production.

Without some change to the current structure of economic incentives favoring corn-based ethanol, N[itrogen] loadings to the MARB from increased corn production could increase dramatically in coming years, rather than decreasing, as needed…

The alternative is cellulosic ethanol and avoiding corn-based fuels altogether:

Alternatively, the use of perennial crops and other feedstocks for cellulosic ethanol requires a more complex refining process that produces more net energy and results in lower fertilization and thus less nutrient runoff than corn-based ethanol.

The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is a symptom our farming practices, and converting cropland to grow fuel will only exacerbate the problem. This is just another chapter in the corn-based ethanol saga. The EPA’s Science Advisory Board will vote on approval of the draft report in December.

Green Car Congress: EPA Science Advisory Board Suggests Revisions to Ethanol Incentives Necessary to Reduce Gulf of Mexico “Dead Zone”
Science Advisory Board (SAB) Hypoxia Panel Draft Advisory Report

Photo Credit

One way to curb restaurant bills is go back to the perception of a “restaurant meal” from a generation ago: something special, a celebratory occasion, a meal to be savored, a treat. Eating out wasn’t daily fare but an anticipated, relished experience. In our world today, where everything flaunts 24/7 access, sometimes it helps to step back and set some parameters on ourselves. By using less, we appreciate more. And in the case of restaurants, save a bundle in the process.

Some tips on savoring restaurants as treats:

* Replace gifts with celebratory meals. For all of us trying to break the expected “gift in a box” rap during birthdays and other holidays, take that person out for a meal instead. Don’t wrap a restaurant gift certificate, make a date with that person, share the experience and pick up the tab. Consider this a triple win: No more gifty stuff piling up, relationships grow closer from time spent together, and you’ll undoubtedly remember such a restaurant outing much longer.

* Dine unique. One of our cardinal rules of eating out: The food must be something we can’t make at home. This often leads us to ethnic restaurants where the ingredient list alone proves a good value in eating out. There’s a local Indian restaurant, Maharaja, in Madison, Wisconsin, that we frequent when we venture off our farm to the big city. This $7.99 lunch buffet offers over a dozen freshly-cooked Indian dishes, a frugal eating paradise for us and a great way to introduce our six year old son to new tastes and flavors. He dives into the mouth-watering tandori chicken and ends with a bowl of pistachio ice cream and honey balls.

* Eat local. When you do eat out, nix the expected restaurant franchise and seek out the locally-owned, family-run spot. Not only will more of your money stay local, such small business restaurants are more likely to use area-grown, seasonal foods that whatever fell off the distributor truck. For a listing of locally-owned restaurants with a local food flavor, see www.chefscollaborative.org

Restaurant dining can inspire new dishes to try to make at home. This Oven Roasted Garlic recipe from Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity came about after enjoying such flavors at a favorite French bistro café. We have an enclosed terra cotta baking dish we use for roasted garlic, but any shallow casserole dish will work.

Ingredients:
4 medium garlic heads
2 T. olive oil
1 ½ c. water

Directions:
* Using a sharp knife, cut the top of the garlic head to expose the inner cloves.
* Brush heads with olive oil and place in a shallow casserole dish. Fill dish with 1 inch of water and cover.
* Bake at 350 for 45-60 minutes until garlic is very soft and light brown. Smell! Check garlic for softness since oven temperatures may vary. Serve with French baguette slices. To eat, remove the garlic from its skin with a knife and spread onto baguette rounds with butter.

Serves: 4.

When it’s apple season here in New York and the green markets are overflowing, for a store to ship in apples from Washington State or New Zealand burns fuel for no good reason. Local food is fresher, tastes better, and supports the community. And locally produced food often results in lower greenhouse gas emissions - but not always. The greenhouse gas calculation is complicated, and you can’t assume that if a crop is produced locally, greenhouse gas emissions are lower.

For starters, the term "food mile" is itself problematic. A mile travelled by a large truck full of groceries is not the same as a mile travelled by a mini-van carrying a crate of carrots. A report published by DEFRA [PDF], Britain’s environment and farming ministry, says it’s more useful to think in terms of "food-vehicle miles" (the miles travelled by vehicles carrying food) and food-tonne miles (which considers the tonnage being carried).

The DEFRA report contains several counterintuitive findings:

• Trucking in tomatoes from Spain during the winter produces less greenhouse gas emissions than growing them in heated greenhouses in Britain.
• A shift towards local food systems might actually increase the number of food-vehicle miles travelled. This is because supermarket-based food systems have central distribution depots, short supply chains, and big full trucks. In local food systems, food is distributed in a larger number of smaller, less efficiently packed vehicles.

But the DEFRA report is not the last word on the subject. The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture found different results in its 2001 study "Food, Fuel and Freeways." They reported that conventional food systems used 4 to 17 times more fuel and emitted 5 to 17 times more CO2 than local and regional food systems, depending on the system and truck type.

A Lincoln University study [PDF] included elements they called "factor inputs and externalities" in analyzing the impact of food miles - for example, the amount of water and fertilizer used, harvesting and storage techniques, means of transport, and dozens of other aspects of cultivation. They found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s lush pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of CO2 per ton, while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds. The reason? British pastures provide poorer grazing, forcing farmers to use feed. They found similar results for dairy products and fruit.

There’s a push for "food miles" labeling in both the U.S. and Europe. North Carolina State University’s Center for Environmental Farming Systems is working with FoodLogiQ to develop a pilot program in North Carolina with an eye towards national implementation. Local food is fresher and supports the community, so a locale label can tell you that much. But "local" doesn’t necessarily mean lower greenhouse gas emissions. That depends largely on how the food is produced and transported. Just knowing where the food was produced doesn’t tell you that.

Read more posts on Environmental Defense’s Climate 411 blog.

For most parts of the country living in four-season climates, these last weeks of October mark the final farmers’ markets of the year. For the local, seasonal food groupies, this marks a bittersweet time, reminiscent of the last days of summer camp: while we promise to see each other next year, we desperately hug each other for a long goodbye, trying to hang to the fleeting magic of summer.

So rather than mourn over the loss of fresh abundance, celebrate the Fall abundance and stock up on autumn produce. If carefully stored, these goodies can tide you over into the new year — when Spring asparagus and spinach greens will be abundant once again.

Some tips on celebrating the last farmers’ market:

• Thank the farmers. For the farmers’ sake, there really should be a champagne toast and award ceremony at the last market. The last market represents the culmination of months of labor and love for their crops, and the advent of some seasonal downtime to come to reenergize for the next growing season. Take this situation in your own hands and give a simple "thank you" to your favorite vendors, and promise you’ll be first in line next Spring. Farmers deeply appreciate such words of support and appreciation from the people who enjoy their wares.
• Stock up on hard squashes. Pick up some hard-skinned winter squash for long term storage; make sure they are unblemished by soft spots, cuts or breaks. Most winter squash benefits from a "curing stage" – simply keeping the squash first at room temperature(about 70 degrees) for 10 to 20 days, then transferring to a cool (45 to 50 degree) dry place such as a basement for long-term storage. Keep an eye on the temperature and don’t let them freeze. Large, hard rind squash can be stored four to six months under such conditions. Acorn or butternut squash do not store as well: typically only up to three months. Store squash in a single layer with a little breathing room between them to allow air circulation.
• Buy a bushel of apples. Almost any kind of apple will keep for up to four months or even longer if stored properly. The key is to sort through your apples and save the "perfect" ones without any damage for long term storage. Eat the ones with any bruise, dent or rotten spot first, since these are the main causes of apple spoilage. Some apple varietals keep better than others. Thick-skinned apples like Jonathans generally keep longer than sweet or thin-skinned ones like Delicious. Firm flesh apples generally keep better.

Part of the fun of a bushel of apples is sharing the bounty. This Apple Bread recipe from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity, makes two loaves, perfect for sharing. We’ve learned the hard way that greasing and flour-dusting the pans are crucial steps to ensure the loaf smoothly pops out of the pan.

Apple Bread

Ingredients:
3 c. all-purpose flour
3 c. peeled, sliced apples
4 eggs
2 c. sugar
1 c. vegetable oil
1 t. salt
1 t. vanilla
1 t. baking soda

Directions:

• Prepare two loaf pans by greasing and then dusting the inside with flour.
• Combine the flour, apples, eggs, sugar, oil, salt, vanilla and baking soda and mix well.
• Pour into prepared loaf pans. Bake at 300 degrees for 1½ hours or until a toothpick inserted into the centers comes out clean.
• Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to wire racks.

Yield: 2 loaves.

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What’s unique about the vocabulary-building game at Freerice.com — and the reason we think you should give it a gander — is that as you play you’re donating rice to feed hungry people through international aid agencies. A sister site of Poverty.com, Freerice.com is a fun way to help humanity while you improve your language prowess.

It’s the perfect scheme: hook students and aspiring socialites on a vocabulary-building game so captivating that advertisers will pay big bucks to market on the site, then use the marketing profits to feed hungry people around the world through international aid agencies. Excellent…

The word generator used in the game matches your skill level. Thus, whether you’re a scholarly lexical wizard or a sixth-grader with some savoir faire, the game will give you words appropriate to challenge you at your current vocabulary level. This makes the game is a good tool for people of all ages — from the young student to the college grad studying for the GRE to the person simply looking to beef up her or his vocabulary.

Here’s how it works. For each word, you get four possible multiple-choice definitions. For every word you get right, Freerice.com donates ten grains of rice and raises your vocabulary level slightly. If you get a word wrong, the correct definition appears and the game offers you a slightly easier word.

And remember, helping to alleviate hunger helps the environment and other species as well. As we mentioned in 7 Unorthodox Ways to Help Save Gorillas from Extinction, the threat of hunger often forces people to adopt unsustainable methods of survival, like poaching, exhaustively depleting natural resources, encroaching on new land in search of further resources, and relying on IMF loans to buy pesticides and genetically copyright seeds.

So fire up your vocabulary and give the game at Freerice.com a shot. It’s a fun way to tickle the gray cells, build your vocabulary, and better the world while you’re at it — one grain of rice at a time.

Photo Source:

A bowl of boiled rice | Flickr

imagine… | Flickr

Potluck gatherings

Here are some tips on what to do when the host says "bring a dish to pass":

• Non-cooks think fresh. Don’t panic if you’re not a cook. Instead, think of yourself as the fresh and seasonal produce provider. A simple bowl of fresh, plain produce – from apples to baby carrots – adds a nice touch to any buffet. This strategy also works well if you’re riding a bike or taking public transportation to a potluck: fresh and raw food are easier to transport.
• Educate on ingredients. Add a note card by your dish explaining where your ingredients came from. This not only helps guests with food allergies, but it educates on sources of local food sources. "Easy Oat Apple Pie" takes on deeper flavor and meaning when folks know the apples came from Turkey Ridge Organic Apple Orchard in Gays Mills, Wisconsin (which just happens to be cooperatively run), and the butter from Organic Valley Family of Farms, another cooperatively run, farmer-owned business based in Wisconsin.
• Keep food safe. No matter what the season, make sure hot food stays hot and cold food keeps cold because food at unsafe temperatures promotes bacteria growth. Depending on how far you need to travel, wrap hot food in foil and layers of clean towels. Place inside a large box in your car trunk for easy transport. Cold food needs to stay below 40 degrees F. Pack food in a well-insulated cooler with plenty of ice blocks, particularly during hot summer months.
• Label serving items. Make it easy for your serving gear to get returned by labeling them with a permanent marker.
• Minimize last-minute prep. Try to keep out of the host’s kitchen by doing as much of your prep work as possible at home. Slice vegetables for a salad ahead of time, and transport ingredients in containers, tossing together ingredients tableside right before serving.
• Know your audience. Bring a dish that suits the majority of your audience. If your friends lean toward the gourmet, by all means experiment with your latest exotic culinary efforts. If the gathering has kids, basic bread or hearty macaroni and cheese is always appreciated. A staple, yummy dessert goes over well, like Easy Oat Apple pie that showcases Fall seasonal apples.

This is an easy pie for pie-making newbies, as it doesn’t call for a rolled pie crust. Rather, the crust is pressed oatmeal dough, kind of like apples wrapped in a big, chewy oatmeal cookie. This recipe is from our cookbook, Edible Earth: Savoring the Good Life with Vegetarian Recipes from Inn Serendipity.

Easy Oat Apple Pie

Ingredients:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 c. brown sugar
¾ c. butter, melted
½ c. oats

Filling:
2/3 c. sugar
3 T. cornstarch
1 ¼ c. water
3 c. diced, peeled apples
1 t. vanilla extract

Directions:

• Combine the first four ingredients; set aside 1 c. for topping.
• Press remaining crumb mixture into an ungreased 9-in. pie plate, set aside.
• For the filling, combine sugar, cornstarch and water in a saucepan until smooth; bring to a boil. Cook and stir for 1 minute or until thickened. Remove from heat; stir in apples and vanilla.
• Pour into crust; top with reserved crumb mixture. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Serves 8.

Editor’s note: We’re pleased to welcome Sarah Lozanova to the Green Options writing team. A native of Chicago, Sarah holds an MBA in Sustainable Management from the Presidio School of Management, and also writes for Worldchanging Chicago. Along with fellow Windy City resident Jason Phillip, she’ll be covering green issues in Chicago, as well as the broader Midwest.

The average bite of food on our dinner plates tonight has traveled more than 1500 miles from where it was cultivated. This was not true, however, from September 10-16 for participants of the Chicago-based Localvore Challenge, who only ate foods grown in their region. The event sponsor, the Green City Market, created a list of restaurants that serve meals that are localvore-friendly and a blog site for support from fellow localvores. In addition to reducing their carbon footprint, many participants likely gained awareness of where their food comes from. Such a challenge did limit the food choices that were available to them, as they were not able to snack on mangos and sip on Chilean wine.

The United States imports food from more than 130 countries. The quantity of food has been increasing annually by about 15% since 1991, according to the FDA. Even though Illinois is covered largely by farms, it is estimated that the state imports more than 90% of its food. Corn and soybeans are the most widely grown crops in the state, but the majority of these harvests are not consumed by humans. For example, more than 80% of the corn grown in this country is used for cattle feed, while 1/6 of Illinois corn is utilized for ethanol production. Roughly 80% of the corn and soybeans grown in Illinois are genetically modified. Illinois is built on fertile farmland that is among the richest in the world thanks to glaciers, yet this natural resource is increasingly being developed and covered by concrete. Unfortunately, the rich Illinois soils rarely benefit the inhabitants of Illinois directly, as little of their food is cultivated here.

The demand for local foods in Illinois has grown considerably, and some are saying it is greater than the supply. As the price of fossil fuels increase, this trend may shift. In the meantime, some are voluntarily taking on the challenge of eating local foods. This is a concrete way to influence land use and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, while strengthening the local economy.

Personally, I think fake meat is just that — fake. It’s not a substitute for the real thing, but I do enjoy them. And I don’t need it in every meal — I love a fat plate of well-prepared in-season veggies, and I rely on the versatility of pasta for many of my meals. In fact, I only use protein alternatives once or twice a week because they are more processed (and more expensive) than I would like (save the versatile tofu). Some aren’t even suitable for vegans. But, I’ve found several "fake" meats that I whole-heartedly endorse on their own as lower-fat, lower-cholesterol, lower-calorie protein options, and some are good enough that my meat-loving husband doesn’t mind their presence.

My burger-of-choice is Morningstar Farms Grillers Prime, because (don’t judge!) they remind me of fast-food burgers, but I also like the Spicy Black Bean and Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers. I’m not a huge fan of Boca anything — mainly because I don’t like the taste, and they’re owned by Philip Morris/Altria. I also like their fake bacon, as does my carnivorous husband, because it gets crispy. I use Morningstar’s Recipe Crumbles in tacos, lasagne, and other pastas, and both my husband and I prefer it because it lightens up heavy dishes.

The other brand I’m a fan of is Quorn, which is a "fake" chicken made of mycoprotein. Harder to find and more expensive, I think it’s the best chicken replacement with the most realistic savory flavor. I use their cutlets in rice dishes, and their Chik’n Tenders in fettuccini alfredo. Finally, I like Gardenburger’s BBQ Riblets, which is odd, since I never liked real ribs, but my sister-in-law and I rely on these during summer family barbeques, and they’re a nice change from veggie/soy burgers.

Enough about what I like — what do you guys think about "fake" meat? Is it a part of your meat-free or less-meat diet? Why or why not? What are your favorites, and why? I didn’t even touch on soy dogs or "soy"sage, because I don’t like them, but I know many people swear by them. Your thoughts on the fake meat debate?