Posts tagged ‘crops’
Tobacco: an alternative perspective.
I think this advertisement (I presume it’s a mock-up, not real) speaks for itself. I guess I never really thought about smoking that way… even so, I’m sure not going to take it up!
Well, that's another way of looking at things.
Fibres: Natural vs Synthetic
Wool vs acrylic? Cotton vs polyester? Hemp vs nylon? I know the natural fibres are typically more comfortable to wear, but what’s better for the environment?
Cotton, wool, hemp, acrylic, polyester...?
You might think it’s a simple question – surely the natural stuff is better, right? But when you consider the impact of sheep on the environment or the amount of water required to sustain cotton crops, it does get you starting to wonder… especially when you factor in recycled (and sometimes recyclable) synthetic fabrics, like polyester made from old PET bottles.
But then again… maybe all the hoo-haa about recycled fabrics is just a bunch of greenwash. Check out this article on O Ecotextiles for more information.
Ultimately, I don’t know. I think I need to explore O Ecotextiles a little more and hope to be enlightened. At the moment, though, I’m leaning towards natural, especially when you look at the energy required to produce fabrics, the actual content of the fabric (oil in the synthetic fabrics is kinda off-putting) and the life of the fabrics after we’re finished using them (natural fibres will biodegrade, whereas synthetic ones won’t). Based almost purely on personal opinion, I think probably the best choice would be yarns produced from the by-products of some other industry (like soy yarns, which are made from soy fibres left over from making tofu), or yarn that is removed in a mutually beneficial way (alpaca removed by brushing, shearing pet sheep in summer etc).
Anyone know more and care to share?
Spotlight: Crop Diversity and Buckwheat
I’m trying to eat less wheat. Primarily this is for my health, but I’m learning that this is also good for the environment. Currently, wheat is one of the top three plant foods eaten in the world. You can imagine how much is produced. This is leading to decreased crop diversity. As the climate changes, we need this crop diversity so our farming practices can change too. You can read more about all that here.
So the other day Yankee Elv made pancakes (yes again, we like pancakes). She made some buckwheat pancakes for me. (Note: buckwheat comes from an entirely different plant than wheat.) You can just go buy them from the supermarket these days – the pancake mix is marketed towards people with gluten intolerance, but of course anyone can eat it.
Woolworth's buckwheat pancake mix.
I didn’t really like them. They tasted like I was eating a musty plant with the texture of a thick, dense, crumbly pancake. Some people say they taste kind of like mushrooms. I’m also not the biggest fan of mushrooms, which makes life hard as a vegetarian when you’re at a catered event, because apparently that’s all we eat. Right.
Anyway, not my favourite. Loodle likes them though. I ate a plateful, but there were still lots left as no-one else really liked them either, so the dog has been having a pancake-y snack every couple of days. I don’t want to just throw them out, because that’s a bit too wasteful for my sensibilities. Today I ate the last two just to get them out of the fridge (ok, the last two of three… the dog got the last one, technically). They’re ok if you smother – and I really mean smother – them in jam and add some honey and cinnamon yoghurt. I try not to eat too much dairy yoghurt either (in fact, I went years without eating it at all, but these days I occasionally have a tiny spoonful of Yankee Elv’s just for the taste, as long as it doesn’t have gelatine), but these things needed all the help they could get. I mean, it’s good that they’re there for people who shouldn’t eat wheat, and if I’m really craving a lot of pancakes, maybe I’d eat them again to avoid the wheat. However, I think I add so much sugar-y jam that it actually makes the avoidance of high glycemic index carbs redundant, so maybe not.
Of course, now I’ve done some more research on buckwheat and found that the grain isn’t even commonly grown in Australia (heck, none of the 20 top foods eaten worldwide are Australian natives). How are you supposed to eat local in a country like this!? I wonder if the buckwheat used in the pancake mix is Australian grown? I don’t think I’ll bother to email to find out… it’s doubtful we’ll be buying it again. I guess we could just try making much thinner pancakes though. It’s not like I dislike buckwheat in all forms. I eat soba noodles. That reminds me, we have some noodles in the cupboard we have to use up. I’ve never been rich enough to waste food in the past, but now there’s an environmental reason driving that too.
Things on my food to-do list:
- Increase diversity in the food we eat (I must post this awesome quinoa recipe I created the other day).
- Reduce food waste (read more about why food waste is bad for the environment from No Impact Man and at the Wasted Food blog).
- Compost food scraps (we just need to finish the compost bin - we have a lid now. It’s a work in progress).
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