Lettuce Turnip the Beet

For the Fourth of July!

Hi friends!

Hope your summer is off to a great start, you're remaining COVID-free, and flights haven’t been delayed or canceled. We're looking forward to the long weekend, the one where we have fond memories of watching fireworks, barbecues, chilling outdoors, and spending time with family and friends. 

Something we've been thinking about is how we can help make gatherings more sustainable…and healthy? We did some research and are excited to share our findings with you. We'd also love to hear your favorite traditions and if you have any tips on how to celebrate sustainably.

P.S. July is Plastic Free July! We'll be participating, are you in?? To learn more check out their website here. 

Our Eating Culture Damage the Planet 

Our eating habits have changed drastically over the centuries that humans have existed. Maitri finished "Breath" by James Nestor recently and one thing that stuck was that homo sapiens had larger mouths, stronger and straighter teeth, and a more defined facial structure (all of which impact breathing and the way we breathe). 

Why was that the case? Our ancestors didn't indulge in all processed and soft foods. While processed foods have their health implications, we'll be focusing more on the environmental implications in this piece. Every additional step of processing will add energy and manufacturing steps to our food system and create more environmental impact. 

Yet we know that eating is a powerful symbolic act. Food is an essential part of our need to belong, bringing people together — what was once a requirement, slowly began to grow as special occasions and festivities.

Meat

Meat used to be incredibly difficult to obtain. It acted as a delicacy in some, while proving appalling in others. Being able to eat meat would sometimes link you to your social status, while also representing masculinity and gender identities. 

The U.S. produces over 100 billion lbs of meat a year, with the production rate growing 2-3% each year. Because of the $38 billion of government subsidies, Americans are able to cheaply purchase meat, with an average consumption of over 243 pounds per person. The beef production, alone, creates around 40% of the global greenhouse gasses.

The main tl;dr is that reducing meat consumption in general can be a big help in reducing overall greenhouse gasses and resource consumption.

Read our piece — Our Beef with Beef — for more detail.

Dairy

Cow's milk requires 9 times as much land (⅔ of the agricultural land in the U.S. is used to raise animals for food or to grow grain to feed them) and has 3x as much carbon emission as any other non-dairy milk alternative. 

Cows also release methane — and are responsible for 62% of greenhouse gas emissions produced by the food industry and emit 14% of global greenhouse gasses. 

Finding other ways to get the similar resources from milk, such as Soy or Oat can be a big help. Desserts that call for milk often have similar recipes for these milk alternatives.

Fun fact there's a number of startups getting into the space of "making cows burp less": Alga biosciences, Symbrosia, and Volta Greentech are a few. 

Read our piece — Got Milk? — for more details.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

HFCS is found in lots of processed foods, and is one of the most damaging ingredients. Because corn is grown as a monoculture and isn't rotated, it depletes the soil of its nutrients and contributes to erosion. In order to continue growing corn in this soil, chemicals are required and overextending chemical usage leads to dead zones.

This overall chemical usage can lead to damaging ocean acidification, overall impacting the total oxygen level in our oceans which will come back to affect us — both in our food ecosystem and our swimming near coral reefs.

Taking a step to avoid foods that contain HFCS is a way to help reduce damage to the ocean, with many healthier options out there including honey, cane syrup, and more.

Read our piece — Revitalizing the Ocean — for more details.

Packaged Foods

Finding the right way to package your food to the BBQ will help reduce the amount of waste and trash we throw out. There are many opportunities for using reusable goods to keep your food warm and ready to eat.

Take the time to bring over reusable plastic bags or glass containers, or beeswax food wraps. There are many reusable cloths, baking sheets, or silicone mats that can be used instead of aluminum tin foil when cooking.

Read our piece  — Putting Waste in the Right Place — for more details.

What We're Consuming This Week

• ☁️ The Supreme Court ruled that Congress did not grant the EPA authority to regulate emissions, challenging the government’s ability to combat climate change.

• 🌲 Read into the curious world of tree poaching up in California and how it proves to be a challenge for National Parks.

• 🍷 The climate crisis continues to cause a food shortage, including things like chili peppers, coffee, wine and more.

• 😰 Have you been feeling the heat of the past week? You're not alone - ⅛ of the American population has been sweltering. 

Things You Can Do

• 🥩 Purchase and grill less meat. Try to buy locally grown fruits/veggies that are in season for snacking.

• ♻️ Recycle all empty bottles, cans, paper and cardboard, while keeping plastic bags, food, and liquids out of your recycling at your party.

• ♨️ We're drooling over how yummy these plant based bbq recipes look from Minimalist Baker that you can whip up instead.

• ☀️ Looking for tips for plastic free July? We found this resource helpful.