Green Voyage II - The Hidden Green

In my research of organic food, I heard a lot of talk about how organic food is expensive and some of it is. However, a lot of it is not so expensive.

We live in the Arctic where produce is hard to get, so for two years we have been subscribed to a CSA farm which sends us a box a week by plane. So nearly all of our produce is organic. We have virtually eliminated processed food and have become more vegan since we moved to the Arctic, so even where food is VERY expensive our food budget for five is between the USDA Thrifty Plan and their Low-Cost Plan. (It really doesn't take that much work either, I spend about the same amount of time processing produce a week as I do making bread, sauces, and beans, etc.)

I did an extensive calculation of our monthly food usage by ingredients and weight and discovered that we can eat about 60% organic for less than 50 dollars more a month. Most of the other 40% is not even available organically. We are waiting to see if we will be able to switch to a closer CSA. If we do switch, we will probably save at least $50 a month, so it really will not cost us extra after all. Of course, if we could have more than a postage stamp garden...

Eating organic really doesn't have to be that expensive if you eat unprocessed, vegan food.

Saving the earth is not such a cut and dry issue. So it is comforting to me that Carnegie Mellon reported in 2008 that eating vegan one day a week has more impact than eating local every day since transportation only accounts for 10% of food's greenhouse gas emissions. What is good for your heart is good for the earth.

It bothers me that so little talk about being green includes thrift stores, yard sales, home canning, and not eating meat and dairy. These have a greater impact than things that satisfy people's love of spending, convenience, and gluttony. (Meat eating has always been a luxury until this last century.)

Yet the greatest issue to me is people. Though the Bible tells us God cares about how we treat the earth. He told the Jews to let the earth rest (Lev. 25) and castigated them for not doing so

(2 Chr. 36:21). He also says in Revelation 11:8 that he will destroy those who destroy the earth.

But God cares more about people, they are the ones he gave his life for and are the only ones who will be left when the earth is destroyed when he comes. So while, I am not going to ignore environmental issues, I need to devote my energy to my family and the people around us and just enjoy God's green earth and its bounty.

A Green Voyage

Since the beginning of this year I have become more and more concerned about improved our impact on the environment. The oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico only heightens my desire to be very green. But over the past few days, it has struck me that the average American who starts from the perspective of wanting to save the world often misses the boat.

Why do I say that? Because even though I have only recently become serious about being a good steward of the world God gave us, one of the carbon footprint tests I just took calculated our family's carbon emissions to be 33 tons a year. The average American by contrast gives off 130 tons of emissions, four times as much. The site stated that the world average is 27 tons, so we still have some work to do, but we have already done a lot with even trying.

How we did it was by trying to save money and eat more healthy. We have long bought most of our clothes used, in other words, recycled. So when I was researching organic cotton and finding it too expensive, I was happy to see that all of our used clothing makes a greater impact. I still hope that the price for earth-friendly underwear and socks will come down, but for now I will continue to buy recycled stuff. Our energy use is low as we try to walk more to be healthy and use less electricity to save money.

Where we live our own recycling options are limited, so fortunately our bulk buying and unprocessed food choices make it a minor issue. Our most processed foods are saltines, graham crackers, pasta and tortillas. I have ketchup, salsa, taco sauce, and spaghetti sauce recipes that I am going to be using as we eliminate those from our pantry. Take it from a lazy person, making your own breads, sauces, and spreads is not that hard.

I have been researching a switch to more organic foods over the last week. Nearly all our produce is already organic, thanks to a weekly CSA shipment and not having much produce available locally. In my research I discovered that much of the organic food industry food growth has been in over-packaged processed food, meat, dairy and poultry products. This does not help the problem and may be making things worse as some say it takes more land to farm organic animal products.

People need to save themselves from their debt-ridden, unhealthy lifestyles first before they try to save the earth. They will be far more effective and feel better if they do.

A Splashing Good Time

The girls are really enjoying the river this year. Even though we have riverfront, I never took them down to play by or in the water. I guess there were too many other things to do, traveling, berry-picking, bird-watching, gardening. The river level has been very low so we have a bit of beach this year (unlike last year's unusually high water). The girls have been making sand castles, finding snails, and pretending a driftwood log was a ship. I found them some "oars" and we had some fun with them.

I have seen kids playing in the water, but never took the girls because of the mosquitoes and the cold. I just don't relish exposing that much skin just to go in a cold river. Yet today was so hot that I didn't feel like holding the girls back. So we went and the girls really enjoyed splashing around with the other kids. I even got my feet a little wet which felt wonderful until my mosquito bites started to itch.