Finished?

Not quite.  For the last month or so I have been waiting to post my final blog in order to get some things in order.  Mostly, it gave me a chance to propose these ideas to different communities I am involved in and reflect on their reaction.  Statistically speaking, Over the past three months I have saved about $45.  There are two different ways I was able to save this money. 

1 – Reduction in use of water bottles (only using one) = $25. 
2 – Avoidance of buying plastic items (mostly drinks) = $20.

Before this project, I would have at least one water everyday from packages that cost about $6 for every 24 bottles.  More often than not, I would buy other bottles for convenience in the price range of $1 to $1.25.  So, $25 is a rough estimate.

Also during this project, anytime I would be purchasing an item that was contained in plastic, I would avoid it and wait until I could make another choice.  For the amount of coffe, tea, other drinks, or food that I refused to buy, I estimate I saved at least $20. 

Both of these estimates are not very precise, and would vary for each person.  I’m not a large coffee drinker, in fact, I drink water most of the time.  So, for someone else who doesn’t drink water much but enjoys sodas and other flavored/caffeinated drinks – the result would be different.  However, there is no doubt that money would be saved here. 

Although I attempted to g out how this project looked for me financially, I reflect more on how much I did not consume when I could have made the simple and easy choice to do so.  My financial stats do not contain all of the to-go cartons I never used, the daily newspaper I put back on the rack (except for the crossword..), and it does not contain all of the efforts I made to make environmentally conscious decisions rather than ones for my own convenience.

In my communities I gained much more of a perspective of where my peers thoughts were.  Up until my last blog all my feedback had been from people who had never thought twice about recycling or their consumption levels.  When they heard what I had to say, I usually realized they had stopped listening as soon as I said the word, “recycle” or “reduce”.  I was plesantly suprised!  In my English class for example, I teamed up with another girl from my class to present ways to recycle on campus.  We did a presentation of all of the local opportunities here, and of all the ways you can reduce your consumption on a daily basis.  On the day of our presentation, out of all 6 groups that presented THREE were about environmental topics!  One even said that hybrid cars were just a capitalist ploy to get money, because in the longevity of their life they have 25% more emissions than normal cars.  WHAT?!  I have no idea where he got his information, but wow.  Is this true?  I haven’t gotten the opportunity to check around.  But my point is – I totally underestimated my classmates motives and ideas.  Needless to say, I was glad to know other people were at least thinking about their choices, and attempting to educate others. 

Another plesant suprise I had was finding out information that related so closely to this topic in the most unusual places.  I was coming out of one of the residence hall dining centers, and they were handing out bags.  They were reusable shopping bags.  And sure, we’ve all seen these before.  But it had some interesting information on it.  Zero paper bags can biodegrade in landfills because of the lack of oxygen.  Fourteen of the plastic bags contain enough petroleum to drive a care ONE MILE.  There website has other sorts of information and resources at www.onebagatatime.com. 

In the end, I have hope.  I have hope that we can turn this around, and do what is best for each other and the world that we live in.  Ultimately, we have to reduce.  That is the only thing that will help solve the problem.  Without it, we will always be searching for some sort of unknown solution with energy, recycling, and many other obstacles.  People will definitely say they support these actions, and even that they believe it is necessary.  But they must act.  Action is crucial if we want anything and everything that needs to happen become a reality. 

To summarize (but never finish), there is no such thing as “Out of sight, Out of mind” so let’s get rid of this idea.  We do affect what is going on in our waters like the collection of plastic waste in a plastic garbage patch.  We must act NOW.  We are never in this alone.

RALLY CRY: ONE PERSON CAN DO IT!

This is the End, my friends. And a New Beginning.

I loved this project. I hated this project. It was such a developmental, uplifting and rough time for me. I had to learn not only about sustainbility in eating but also sustainability in keeping myself accountable for the things I do in my life.

For instance, I told alot of people at my presentation today that I re-conceptualized my body as a battle ground, as a cite of protest and a starting point for sustainability. Before this project, when I thought about people hurting the environment with their actions I thought about people littering, not recycling. Now I know that eating, the very act of consuming is in itself a choice to be environmentally stable-or not.  Reducing your carbon footprint is as easy as reducing the amount of meat you eat. This doesn’t mean you have to be a hardcore (hXc) vegan or even a vegetarian 100% of the time (although I think it’s completely awesome when people choose those paths.)  It means you choose a meat-free dish once a day. Or you only eat meat three out of the four days a week.  These efforts alone can cut your carbon footprint by 25%, reducing several tons of C02 the average American would usually eat.

Vegetarianism was easy, veganism was more difficult, and local produce was nigh impossible for me, mostly because of travel and scheduling that week before spring produce was available. And although nature.org thinks that vegans produce 72% less carbon that meat eaters, I learned that the statistic might be flawed. For instance, vegans might rely on tofu, or tempeh, or veggie burgers for their main sources of protein. These have nearly as high a carbon footprint than does anything else–they require process, packaging, shipping, refrigeration, and are sent from a location to a central warehouse and then to your local supermarket.  The simple fact might be that if you’re only concerned about meat eating and C02 emissions, eating locally grown meat is the better and more sustainable choice. But as we pointed out–there are a multitude of reasons for eating or not eating meat. Some people cannot stand the cruelty done to animals. some people are worried about health. it’s all about balancing and making choice.

Those choices, however are important. To restate some statistics from an early blog post–there’s a lot at stake. 1/3 of C02 emissions comes from the food industry.  91 percent comes from methane and carbon production in farm management–this is largely factory farms and CAFOs. So yes, even eating vegetarian food cannot escape this statistic. However I am more aware of my body and my environment and how they interact with each other. I have gained a new sort of spirituality that helps me realize just how much control I have over myself and how I treat the world around me. I eat less meat, and sort of just see the world differently. It’s like a new lens in life. And I’m supremely grateful for this project and the new beginnings it’s provided me.

Gardening The Future.

I have now presented my poster to the class about my window farm. Thanks to everyone that stopped by to learn about window farming. Showing my window farm to people gives me an opportunity to educate others about creative gardening and producing/buying local organic food.

I was asked many times today about what I was going to do with window garden now that the class project is over. My garden will live on so do not worry. My window farm will be moving with me to a Boy Scout summer camp that I run. There it will hang in a window in the dinning hall. With this prime location I will have around 1500 people walk by it during the summer and I am sure that many of them will stop to take a look.

The possibility of having 1500 people learn about local food is an exciting idea that I cannot turn down. Exceptionally sense most of that 1500 will be middle school kids. Teaching kids at a young age is the easiest way to make meaning life changes.

And after camp the garden is moving with me to Chicago where I hope to expand it.

I hope that many of you are think about making your own window garden, and if you do please let me know. Here are a few things that I have learned from making my own can could help you.

First, herbs are the best to plant in a window garden because many of them do not grow to big. This style of gardening is not good for large plants. Also herbs allow you to continually harvest them without completely killing the plant.

Second, do forget to water them. The bottles themselves are not very big and with that they cannot store a lot of water. I have to water my garden every two days or it will quickly dry out. I learned this the hard way and my lettuce has not fully recovered from it yet.

Last, come up with a design of your own. You could simply build one close to mine or you could be creative. Being creative with your garden makes this project such a fun to do. A good friend of mine is now making one out of old sections of plastic plumbing of different sizes. Some of the pipes even have right angles in them so he can be even more creative with the design. He is planting wild flowers in his.

Over all this has been a fantastic project. I have truly enjoyed designing and building my garden and learning about environmental issues at the same time in class.

Don’t be an art fuddy duddy, straight lines are for chumps ;)

When you think of found object art, what do you envision? Well from my project it might be that you visualize trash and junk, recyclables and other unwanted items being turned into something that may or may not look cool. I believe anyone can be an artist, not a potential artist but a full-fledged badass creator that can produce pieces that move people…if you create them with your heart and without profit in mind. Building the captain had transformed my project, I think that I originally wanted to link this to the cartoon and how having more shows like this around would create a new wave of eco-friendly citizens that got their foundational green loving ways from an inspiring cartoon. Captain Planet was a very inspirational cartoon and looking back, I think I can find more facets of how much it affected my life. The simple fact that love was considered an element just as important as the other tangible ones proves that they were sharing a deep deep message. It takes more than just jumping on the green bandwagon to share your love for our planet, it actually takes love. Art is a tool of love, a labor of love and a force of love when executed as such. Innovation doesn’t have to come from the most abstract thinkers but can be the genius of someone trying to show the art world that they need to remove that stick from their ass. Marcel Duchamp was one such artist. Despite being skilled in painting and other medias, Duchamp was also known for pieces that he created out of everyday objects. His Fountain piece was created from an unmodified urinal as stated above, and the piece with the wheel, yeah thats just a bicycle wheel…he knew how to work it, but one of the most intriguing things about him was that he was a rebel. He wasn’t making fun of the art world, but he was making statements and strides to loosen up the atmosphere. I don’t understand art that is boring, that takes a trained mind to understand. I want children to be able to look at what I’ve built and be interested, ask me questions and take something from the interaction. This is what activism is all about, showcasing your passion and sharing it with others. Although, I won’t get to have an exhibit featuring this piece of work, there are pictures on this blog. Outside people have seen this work, I can post pictures on any of the social networking sites that I am a part of and use the interweb to really bump up the captains street cred. Through this project I have accepted that I’m not a refined kind of person, I don’t pride myself on perfection but on the lack there of. I like rough edges, rips and tears, splotches and gaps. And everything in between. Staying within the lines makes you a minion, so I say STAND UP, SHOUT, BUILD, BREAK….do what it is that shows love and do it in your own way. I love the planet so I saved some waste and built something out of it. Lets show future generations examples that are not about more overconsumption but about sustainability, environmental justice and LOVE <3

—————————————————————————————————————————————————

Artist: Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968)

Nationality: French

Movement: Dadaism

Media: Painting, Sculpture

Biography:

Marcel Duchamp studied in Paris, where he acquired the stimulus of Cézanne and the Fauves. He later combined the properties of Cubism and Futurism, to create a revolutionary piece entitled Nude Descending a Staircase. Duchamp was also the creator of the ready-made in 1913 , an everyday object transformed by its context. For example, in Duchamp’s 1917 piece, Fountain, he exhibited a unmodified urinal as his sculpture. In 1915, he moved to New York and became an influential figure in American Dadaism. His later works were intending to be playful and humorous, but also rebellions against the stiff nature of the art world.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Why is the shortest path the most difficult journey?

…and by that I mean why is there a much higher level of convenience in finding processed foods that have traveled hundred and hundreds of miles instead of locating the local produce, grown within 50 miles?

and why do my tastebuds reject that which it knows is best for them?

I wondered these things as I drove the 10 hours down to see my boyfriend in Waco, TX. Traveling and eating fresh produce is difficult enough, traveling and eating fresh local produce is ridiculously difficult.  My local food diet was in shambles eating m&ms, pretzels and whatever food I could find on the road. When I ate a burger it wasn’t native buffalo, the cheese wasn’t fresh made in a creamery down the road. It was produced somewhere foreign, shipped to a distribution center, shipped around the country, and somehow it made itself into my hand, driving 70 miles an hour down I-70. It’s also difficult to find out what plants grow natively and how to find them in different states.

Originally, the game plan was to eat organic only for my final week.  However, further research showed that organic certification didn’t mean that the plants were local, and organic plants (while not processed) may still have the same economic footprint as non-processed foods. Next came eating local produce. I figured that local produce would have a lower carbon footprint, for the transportation section alone. Readers, I did not fair very well.  Call Hall provided some on-campus locality, but coldness, Kansas, and a picky eater do not bode well together when trying to only eat locally. And, I love me some Panda orange chicken from the Union.

However, I have learned from this project that there is local produce available to me. There are even local diary and meat products. I feel fortunate to live in the breadbasket of America, I am still to this day working on appreciating the delicous splendor of my local land.

The Bigger Idea

My last post I talked about how unrealistic this project is when it comes to providing food. It is impossible to grow enough food from so few bottles and the amount it would take is huge. Some people did not like this idea that I was claiming that this was not realistic. I would like to clear up a few things.

While the amount of food this system can grow is very little it has allowed me to educate others on the idea of local food. Just before the start of this class I was learning for myself about the importance of local food but did not have a way to share it. This project has allowed me to educate others about this movement will showing them my project. The real value of this project is the education and not in production.

On another note Window Farms have showed up on Weekend Edition on National Public Radio a few weeks ago. I have posted the link to the story at the bottom of this post. A key thing that they talk about in this story is how much fun it is to build and take care of a window farm. In my opinion this plays as equally important role as education. If it were not fun then no one would take the time to build one.

While trying to find out exactly how much this project helps the environment I have came across a bigger idea. I want to know how many trees I would have to plant in order to cancel out my carbon footprint. This way I can sleep at night knowing that I am not making things worst. Worst as in green house gases. I am going to look into this and will blog about what I have found soon.

Talking about a revolution…

This is my farewell blog. Earlier in the year, I talked about an elderly woman who lived behind me, who I had met because she saw me over in my yard planting plants. Well the other day I was outside getting something out of my car and she stopped me and said she had a paper of mine that had blown out of my yard and in to hers, she had seen my name on it and remembered me from the day we had spoken. We got to talking and soon enough I learned that she was taking care of her son who is going to die any day of pancreatic cancer. I told her if she needed anything to let me know and we parted ways. I’ve had a lot of people who have been close to me die from cancer, including my Grandma Jeanie, who I was unbelievably close to. I know the helpless feeling and to watch your son go has to be nearly unbearable. I got home and decided to cook some dinner for her and her son. My father had been doing this since I was a child, if someone had a problem he always brought them his famous rigatonis.

So I looked through my cabinets and decided to make some potatoes, give her a vegetable tray my Grandma had given me that was left over from Easter, a loaf of fresh bread, and some bow tie pasta with homeade red sauce. I cooked everything and carried it across the alley over to her yard. Needless to say, it was an emotional visit to her house. As an elderly woman on the college side of town, she doesn’t get a lot of respect from the people around her. She just kept thanking me and we ended the visit with a hug.

This is a prime example of why I love gardening and farming. I would have never met our neighbor if I would have been inside all day watching TV. Instead I got a chance to not only meet her but help her, this is something that a numeric value can never be placed upon. My plants might be dead (with the exception of the tomatoes) but I think that I’ve learned some really great lessons from this project regardless. Simple things are the most valuable. Watching the food that you eat grow from a seed, putting time and effort in to your basic needs, and a simple supper for a neighbor in need are all things that NEED to make their way back in to societal norms. Maybe that is why I am partial to communal living as an alternative living style. The thought of people working to help each other survive in a simple form is, for lack of a better word, absolutely beautiful.

Community Intent More Than Action

Ever since I began this blog, I’ve been very vocal about my project and findings that have come along with it.  My friends are constantly noticing the millions of facts I continue to rattle off about waste.  I’ve  been explaining these findings to my communities and most people have been very responsive.

First I started by simply asking people what they thought about recycling. I asked people from my residence hall, classes, and even over the internet chatting.  Most people refer to this ‘being green’ as something they supported.  Statements were continually made about how recycling was “good” and that we needed more of it.  Some people however, said that they didn’t recycle and they really never thought much of it.  Global warming was something that they had no affect on, and people just needed to keep on living their life.  But, many general statements were made about how we are running out of resources and we need to do something about it!  That’s about where the conversation ended.  The final statements were general and there was no more discussion.  For the majority of people that I talked to they supported recycling and the efforts surrounding it.  But only with intention.  There was no action, no discussion of solutions, and no discussion of how we, the consumer, play a role with our waste. 

Particularly when I was saying the facts that I learned in class or from my project, I had emotionally engaged responses.  This is also when I found out the most about the actual actions of the people in my community and campus of K-State.  I heard from a girl in my English class that she was in a newly formed group that collected recycling after three of the football games this year when everyone left the stadium.  Now, remember, the local recycling plant only recycles plastics #1, and #2, reducing the amount that can actually be recycled.  In the three games they picked up after, they recycled more than 8 times the amount that our campus recycled in the last year.  WHAT?!  That’s unbelievable.  And no, I don’t know the exact figures because this is only word of mouth, but that number is astonishing.  Just think of how much waste that has been in the past and continues to be at athletic events?  And think of how many athletic events there are around the WORLD.  I wonder how much of that waste has ended up in the pacific. 

When I talked to my friend about this, I got to go a little more in depth about it.  Her intention is great - I mean, she really supports reducing and recycling (even though I still have to pull things out of the trash sometimes).  And I asked what she thought about the Pacific “Garbage Patch” or “Trash Island”.  She told me that when she first heard about it, it made her sick.  With more explaining, she told me she wished more people knew about it.  Yes, I totally agree.  I wish more people knew about it!  But would that change anything?  I mean, she still knows, but that doesn’t keep her from putting cardboard/plastic cups in the trash.  And it doesn’t stop other people from buying more and more things continuing the cycle of consumption to waste.  So would this knowledge of the Garbage Patch change anything?  A professor here teaching one of the most popular classes at K-State always mentions this topic (which is how I found out about it).  How many of those people are moved to reduce, reuse, and then recycle?  If we’re going off of the ratio of my friends who took that class and found out, the answer would be not many. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that most of the commuties here, or at least the one’s I’m involved in, have big intent to make changes and reduce the waste of plastic.  However, the actions are lacking and it’s leaving a large impact on our world.  This is what has to change.  Action is needed. 

Action is NECESSARY. 

Question of the day: What’s your trash bin made out of?  Plastic?

I should have informational pamphlets.

On Tuesday, we had a speaker come in to talk about different environmental issues.  In his handouts it had the statistics that we throw away 40 million water bottles in the US per day. WHAT?!   That’s 14,600,000,000 a year.  Imagine how many of those are floating in the Pacific Ocean (let alone our own landfills and waterways).  Well this certainly encouraged me to continue with this personal change I’ve implemented.  Such as not using water bottles!  In the last week I have given up the usage of water bottles.  I live in the Residence Halls, so at first I thought this might be a large feat.  But I’ve started using one cup to keep fresh water in from the water fountain down the hall.  I’ve also stopped getting drinks to go, to reduce my consumption of plastic.  That was a huge way I was consuming – using plastic cups getting drinks wherever I went.

Recycling isn’t really the best option here, because it takes so much energy to do so!  This is why I believe reducing the use and consumption is crucial.  Recycling is important once the plastic needs to be disposed of, but with the reduction in how much we use then there won’t be as much plastic that exists!  It reminds me of the supply and demand theories.  Without the demand, companies will not supply.  Without the demand, companies know that they won’t make money on a product – in the end, they do not produce it.  Hence, reducing consumption is key.

Yesterday was the first day that I bought any type of container in about a week, and yes, it was a water bottle.  Not getting as many as I used to (which was about one a day) has saved me loads financially.  Although I know my project isn’t about my financial gain, this has still been a definite part of the aftermath of my reduction in use of these plastics.

I’ve also stopped getting food to-go unless I undoubtedly have to, which can usually be avoided by good time management.  There are many ways to get paper covers on food to-go (that you can recycle) and you can also take your own containers to restaurants.  Both of these options reduce the use of plastic.  In the remaining time of this project I plan on implementing many personal changes in reduction of my use as I’ve done in the examples above.    The list consists of:

- NO USING WATER BOTTLES
- Always eat food on dishes I can wash
- Avoid purchasing plastic items at all costs

My mode of attack: Reduse and reuse, and in the end, RECYCLE.

There are so many options, that it shocks me when talk of the difficulties of this task arises.  YES, it is definitely not as simple as just dumping it in the trash, but with so many options (especially to reduce…), why not make the change?!

Whew!  I may or may not have done a ton of repeating myself in this entry.  But all for clarifications sake – right?

I’ll keep you updated on how the personal change continues!

I am the Vegan MASTER

Okay, okay so my title may be a little cocky; however, I did just go to Cold Stone and order a completely vegan, completely delicious dessert. To me, that speaks volumes about the ability for someone with a vegan diet to be able to find ways around the carnivore dominant society without having to give up all scrumptious treats. So, how exactly was I able to accomplish this? Well, thanks to my handy dandy google search engine, it was easy. By checking out this website: http://www.coldstonecreamery.com/assets/pdf/nutrition/Ingredients_Ice_Cream_Sorbet_01_04_10.pdf ,one can easily access all the ingredients Cold Stone puts into their ice cream, sorbet, and yogurt, so I scanned this list and found that some, but not all, of the sorbets are made without the use of any animal products. BINGO.
STRAWBERRY MANGO
BANANA SORBET
SORBET BASE (Water, Sugar, Dextrose, Citric Acid, Mono & Diglycerides, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Pectin), STRAWBERRIES, STRAWBERRY PUREE (Strawberries, Water, Sugar, Natural Flavors, Modified Food Starch, Citric Acid, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Red 40), MANGO PUREE (Water, Mango Puree, Sugar, Natural Mango Flavor, Citric Acid, Malic Acid), BANANAS
Next, I needed to investigate my vegan mix-in options. Thanks to Heather’s previous blog about the vegan qualities of Oreo’s. I was happy to choose this as my mix-in, but just to be on the safe side, I still decided to look up the ingredients before I ruin what could potentially be the only dessert I have had since I started this project.
Regular Oreos Ingredients:
Sugar, flour, hydrogenated soybean oil, cocoa, high fructose corn syrup, whey, corn starch, baking soda, salt, soy lecithin, vanillin, chocolatehttp://www.vegsoc.org.au/product_list.asp?ProductID=55
So, to say the least, these discoveries meant business.
However, despite my latest and greatest vegan discovery, I have been able to create some quite tasty vegan meals at my house.
For instance: vegan sloppy joe’s.
Ingredients:
wheat hamburger buns not containing any animal products in the ingredients
1 bag of soy crumbles
1 can of manwhich
1/2 of a yellow onion
1/2 of a yellow pepper
1/2 of a green pepper
3-5 mushrooms (depending on size and how much you want them)
1/2 a zucchini
1 teaspoon of olive oil
First Step: cut up all the veggies into small, bite size bites
Second Step: place olive oil in a skillet on the stove to cook the veggies in it
(Helpful Hint: the veggies will not be done caramelizing until the onions are see through. When the onions are done, the rest of the veggies will be ready.)
Third Step: warm up the soy crumbles in a second skillet
Fourth Step: when the soy crumbles are done, add the manwhich
(Helpful hint: cook the manwhich and soy crumbles until the sauce bubbles.)
Fifth Step: put a the manwhich soy mix onto the bun and then on top of that apply the veggies.
Sixth Step: ENJOY

Also: vegan chicken parmesan for two
Ingredients:
1/2 of a yellow onion
1/2 of a green pepper
1/2 of a yellow pepper
3-5 mushrooms
1/2 of a zucchini
1/2 a can of pasta sauce
wheat noodles without any animal products
2 boca soy chicken patties
1 teaspoon of olive oil
First Step: boil water then add noodles
Second Step: chop up veggies into small, bite size pieces
Third Step: put olive oil and veggies into a skillet
(Helpful Hint: the veggies will not be done caramelizing until the onions are see through. When the onions are done, the rest of the veggies will be ready.)
Fourth Step: when the noodles and veggies are done, place the two soy chicken patties onto a plate in the microwave for 2 minutes.
Fifth Step: put the noodles on the bottom, sauce next, and then the chicken on top
Sixth Step: ENJOY

In addition: veggie lovers pizza for two
Ingredients:
1/2 of a yellow onion
1/2 of a green pepper
1/2 of a yellow pepper
3-5 mushrooms
1/2 of a zucchini
2 whole wheat tortillas containing no animal products
soy crumbles
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 teaspoon of olive oil
First Step: cut up all of the veggies into small, bite size pieces
(Helpful Hint: the veggies will not be done caramelizing until the onions are see through. When the onions are done, the rest of the veggies will be ready.)
Second Step: preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Third Step: cook soy crumbles in a separate skillet
Fourth Step: put just the tortillas onto a baking pan to warm up in the oven for five minutes
Fifth Step: place desired amount of tomato sauce onto the warm tortilla, then soy crumbles, then veggies
Sixth Step: place pizzas back into the oven for about ten minutes
Seventh Step: Enjoy

Bottom Line: I am not suffering being a vegan. Granted some of my blogs have been pessimistic, that was obvious by my tone, but I feel like after this last week I have gotten a grasp. I just needed to find new, creative ways to use vegetables in a creative way. I am a firm believer in left overs, so those three recipes were my dinner for all of last week. To say the least, I have a new appreciation for meals. Those recipes are really simple and only took about thirty minutes to make. Also, my fiance and I have started eating dinners together at our dinner table. That way, we actually pay attention to what food we are eating and we talk. What a concept, it’s so nice. In my previous blogs, I discussed my grown resentment for meals, but now I look forward to them. I love eating healthy and responsibly. No animals suffered to provide any of my meals. Now, for the rest of my project, my aim is to eat only organic foods. That way, I can use my consumer powers to make a stand against the dominant produce corporations who drench their crops with nasty chemicals. I plan on researching this type of food production, so I will have substantial facts for my next blog. I’m doing it! It’s working, and to top it off, I feel great! I feel so healthy and energized. I am literally making a difference with every bite I eat. .