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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.
This last weekend my window garden took a turn for the worse. I had to be out of town to finalize some post graduation plans in Chicago, where I am moving to, and while I was out of town my garden did not get watered. The red lettuce and chives both are not looking so well, but I believe that they will pull through. I have always had plants growing in my room and have seen them look worse then this before and they have always came back. I am hoping that this happens this time as well.
This does bring up a problem with my design of a window garden. The amount of soil in each bottle is small and therefore the amount of water it can hold is small as well. This means that I have to keep up with the watering or the plants will quickly die. I have been watering every other day or so, but over the weekend they went four days with out water. Just these four days made the plants look sick.
The window farming website does have some plans for building an automated watering system for those who are to busy to water everyday.
Also my last post I talked about a new question that I had come up with. I wanted to know how many trees would I have to plant to cancel out my CO2 emissions. That way I could eliminate all my CO2 emissions and be carbon neutral. Here is what I have found from reliable sources.
The average person in the United States emits 10,185lb of CO2 per year. (International Energy Agency 2009) And a tree absorbs on average 48lb of CO2 per year. (U. S. Department of Energy 2008) Which means I would have to plant 212.2 trees, a huge number but doable at the same time. Please note: This is rough average calculation with many variables not taken in to account and this is also for only one green house gas. With that said this still shows an interesting solution.
I find this to be a fun idea to play with in my head, trying to figure out if this is truly doable.
One last thing, last week I had an unexpected surprise come out of my garden. In with my red lettuce I had a foreign plant start to grow. After it got large enough I was able to identify it as a sunflower. A seed must have gotten mixed in with the potting soil. A sunflower is way to big to grow in a bottle, so I am trying to decide what to do with it. This is one of the things that I love about gardening. You never know what is going to happen.
When I started this project I never realized how much I would re-learn. When I mean re-learn I just realize just a couple of days ago that I actually had forgotten some things I used to do before I came to college and somehow I lost along the way. Then re-learn because I had to learn how to brush my teeth and turning of the water, or take shorter showers. This also helped me spread the word to other people such as friends and family regarding what I was going and why I was doing it. I also think that just because the project is over does not mean I will stop and go back to my old ways. At least I want to believe and try that I will continue to be cautious regarding my usage as well knowing that I can live without eating meat 2-4 days out of a week, plus greens are good!
As far as the ovo-lacto vegetarian goes, I am please to say that it brought me back to what I used to do before I got to college. What I mean is that before college, I would not eat so many process foods or even can foods, i would normally eat fresh food. When I say fresh not always organic but not canned. I would also not eat out as much if I did it would be on the weekends on Sundays as a treat and only 1 meal. How did being an ovo-lacto vegetarian help me do that? Well to start of I wanted to eat healthier than what I had been, and I knew that most of the foods I had were meat related microwaveable meals. Excuse was no time to cook, or too tired to cook. As well as the cheap the better since I am poor. So when meat was cut off from my diet 3 days out of the week I had to re-invent my meals. I found it a bit hard to find microwaveable meals that did not contain meat, or in other words that were fresh and healthy. So I actually had plan my meals, and most of the recipes where ones I learn from home and they all require fresh ingredients, even if some people substitute it with other non fresh ingredients. That forced me in a way to buy only what I needed for that particular dish and probably 10 time healthier than a Banquet TV dinner plus I had left overs!
As far as dinero ($) having a plan of my week meals helped me not to buy out of the list items like chips, juice, cookies and well junk food saving me money! plus having left overs helps because I would not always have to cook the next day unless I wanted something different then I would just save the left overs for another day.
Another perk is that I have lost some weight, and that’s because I actually get full with a meal instead of having to eat 2 TV dinners. I also feel healthier even if I have been getting sick lately… I think is for the lack of sleep not nutrients though… but Its the end of the semester and I am always sick toward the end… but over all I have also worked out, and when I walk I don’t feel like I am about to die! So Woohoo!! Plus when I don’t buy my TV dinner is less cardboard
Water usage… I have cut down a lot of my water usage, my showers have been cut down to 12 minutes and if i’m not too dirty 9! If I don’t shave then 5 minutes. Over all m usage of water has lowererd and I’m happy for that. I no longer wash my dishes by hand since my roommate prefferse to do it plus according to this article a dishwasher is better than hand-washing: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/08/dishwasher_vs_h.php
Electricity usage: This last bill was $65.52! so if you remember from $138.65 to $81.03 and now to $65.52 15.51 was saved from the last bill to this new one. Over all savings have been $73.13 so I think that says pretty much everything. I won’t deny it’s been hard at times, because unplugging everything can be frustrating in the beginning but after a while its just part of your daily routine.
Recycling: I never thought that most of our trash was made up of cardboard, paper, and plastic. As I mention before before we took out 4 trash bags of more if we had extra people over, but now since we recycle we only take out 1 trash bag a week or 2 if other people are over, or my roommate eats out then we have extra trash… Eating out and having left overs make a lot of trash… never thought about it before but they just take so much room… and most of the containers can’t really be recycled… but over all thanks to recycling our trash has been cut down more than 50%. This I should have known because I used to do this all the time in California, but when I moved to KS in 2002 somehow it just diapered… or in other words its easier to be lazy and just do one movement instead of two… that should not be so!
Over all this project made me happy, it made me realized what I was missing and it makes me crave healthy food! I will be going to the farmers makerket this saturday!! I can’t wait I love food, and when its fresh and good for you even more!
I have to give thanks to Dr. Carroll for giving us this opportunity because I believe we all learned so much not only new information but we learn new things about ourself, and I know we will all take something with us from this projects. I am not looking forward to having my own garden of fruits and vegis, and just eating more healthy and in hopes that some people might also get motivated to be more green and diminish their foot print on earth.
Also Fox has some good ideas that we can all try, please take a look:
Also if you are intresting in doing something good this can help you start that project:
http://www.dosomething.org/dosomething101/home
Also you can enter to win the Green home from HGTV, the car you can sell since its an SUV. But how cool is it to have such a green home, and be close to shops and all you need in walking distance! At least thats what they said.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv-green-home-2010-giveaway-enter/package/index.html
P.S
As I said this is the end to a new beginning! I hope its the same to all of you. 
Here is my presentation board.
It pretty much has the information that is provided here in my blog, just more colorful:
Okay so I am sorry for the delay but I could not start my next part of the project due to my roommate not wanting to have the recyclable within site and that is hard to do since well I can’t really put them outside our apartment door or we would probably get into trouble. So I waited for her to head out for spring break so I could do it!
When I started to recycle I really thought i would be getting lots of plastic things, why? I really don’t know, I just really thought that would be the main waste. To my biggest astonishment it was not… It was actually paper? It seems that most of the containers or things I would have or buy would be in a box, or some kind of package that is made out of paper and it just seem it was paper this paper that it’s crazy totally Loco . It’s not exaggeration when I recycle it was mostly boxes(cereal boxes, hot coco boxes, pancake boxes, yogurt container boxes etec), paper, some plastic not much technically one, no aluminum, and no plastic bags since I am using tote for bags.
I hate that use so much paper, I know someone won’t say the name but I feel they waste so much paper, but I know they are trying to do and are doing something good, but I hate the fact of the use of so much paper!
Do you use a lot of paper? what Ideas can you give me for using less paper
Also I now know where Howies recycling center is located! (I know, I know, I should have known this but I did not, and thanks to this I know do! So I feel happy )
I wanted to say that recycling was the easiest things to do because it brought me back when I lived in California, so i guess its like riding a bike, you never forget! The only sucky part was having to wait to do when my roommate was not home. Plus the only thing I did do while she was here was the paper recycling and I kinda got a bit upset not mat just a bit upset because she would trash cardboard boxes into the trash and I would take them out, and separate them at the side and in the end she started doing that as well, but when it was her turn to take out the trash she would mix them with the trash! I was like :O wow… I asked if she had done so with the rest of the times and she said yes… so that was a big bummer…So I told her that I had been recycling it and she just said Oh, I forget we have a cardboard recyclable outside… so yeah..
Also I wanted to recommend the movie No Impact Man: The Documentary, I watched it during spring break and I think he brings up really good ideas and perspectives. Now whether I do what he did, I probably would not be able to go without toilet paper, the fridge and electricity.
So my fastest shower time is________ is___________is_________ 5 minutes!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!! Amazing in my book! Now I don’ think I will always be able to do 5 minute showers but! I can def do 10 minute showers. So that’s not too horrible is it?
I am also very excited because we get our electricity bill sometime this week so I will know how much I have save! I do have to say that I did slip I fell asleep with the lights on Saturday night, but for good reason! While I was in the kitchen someone try to open my front door, that freaked me out so I thought that perhaps leaving the lights on would scare them off or something.
Ovo-Vegan is going well, I am amazed on how I do not miss the meat. I have to say that cheese is my biggest savior!
I am excited because I hope that by Friday I can compare all the bills and let you guys see what’s been going on money wise. I also saved some receipts when i bought food and what not, so we shall see how that goes. Also how my body feels by eating more fruits and greens than meat, eating out and what not.
Well sorry for the delay! Will write as soon as I get all my bills!
Thanks for reading! Hope you guys had a great spring break!
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?
My garden is slowly beginning to look worse and worse, I know that it isn’t getting enough light. I think now that the weather is getting better, I am going to start putting all of my plants outside during the day so they can get light until I find an affordable way to get light to them while they’re inside. I feel like they not only are they not growing as fast as they should, but they are just very long and weak. One thing that is a positive side of that they aren’t doing well is that they are still alive and green. That is one thing I love about nature and plants, when you mess up they give you a little leeway and let you have the option to keep them going and make them healthy again. I find plants very comforting, they allow you to screw up and redeem yourself constantly. You can let them get a little too big for their pots or you can forget to water them right when they need it sometimes, but once you give them what they need, they spring right back to life. This project has really reminded me of how much I love growing things, something I’d sort of forgotten. So the more I thought about how much I was enjoying myself, something I’d been wanting to do for about a year now kept popping in to my head and finally I made the decision that had already been in the back of my mind for a while now, I changed my major to horticulture. I had been scared to do it for the normal reasons. I’ve already switched three times and I am only a sophomore and when it comes to science, not a fan. But the more this semester goes on and the more I look at my garden in my window and think of when the time comes when I don’t live in Manhattan when I have classes, southeast Kansas about one weekend a month, and Florida for Christmas Break, Spring Break and Summer, and I actually have somewhere where I could start a huge garden, the more I want that to be my way of life, not just a hobby. So, I finally did it.
If you remember my first blog at all, I wrote a little bit about how I really like that community feel of farming communities and that is something that I feel a commune provides. Well, I got reminded the other day of how gardening can bring people together. This little old lady lives across the alley from me and prior to Thursday, we’d never spoken before. I was out transplanting my garlic on Thursday and planting some flowers for my mom’s garden that I could give her on Mother’s Day in May and I saw my neighbor come outside to take her trash can. She literally stopped at her tracks and stared at me. I waved and said “Hello” and she half heartidly waved back and continued to stare at me. Then she began to walk my way, when she got in to my yard she began to ask all about what I was planting. We had a nice talk and I told her if she needed any help starting her garden in the spring, I’d be more than happy to help and she told me to stop by anytime. Needless to say, I was smiling ear to ear the rest of the time I was transplanting.
For the rest of this blog, I thought it would be really informative to take you through a hypothetical day on a commune from information I’ve gathered from various websites. On my last blog someone commented they had rather negative thoughts about communes and I definitely want that to change! There are communes and ecovillages that are bad and there are ones that are good, just like everything else.
Dancing Rabbit EcoVillage – this is a link to Dancing Rabbit’s newspaper which keeps everyone updated on daily happenings. Online Tour of Dancing Rabbit
Just for a quick disclaimer, I have tried to post this a million times and I’m pretty sure its to no avail. If it has already been posted I’m sorry .
Before this class I have honestly never thought about what it is to truly be environmentally friendly. In all actuality I never even took the time to consider what it meant to be environmentally friendly. However the readings we have done made me realize that the reason that most people are not more environmentally responsible is because they are not environmentally conscious.
As of now it seems we are all stuck in the mentality that what matters is the fact that we make it to work on time, get the house clean, make it to class, put on our socially acceptable attire and pick up our under-paid paycheck with a smile. I believe that we are not conscious to the damage we are doing to the earth because we simply are not conscious.
I know that I for one have been in this lifestyle for years. I go through the motions of my day as opposed to experiencing my day. If I were to take the time to focus on who I am, where I came from, where what I’m eating came from maybe I would begin to enjoy what I do on this earth instead of taking it as a chore. I believe that if I were to meditate for an hour or two a day I would have time to reflect on my life thus far, and perhaps even have better hope for the future.
I researched exactly how to go about meditating and throughout the various websites I browsed I found that no one really has that answer. Several insist that prayer is the way to go, others find serenity in nature, some use cd’s but the way that intrigued me the most was from the people who said that they can meditate at work, over lunch break or even while driving. Of course I am not going to attempt to reach a meditation zone-out while driving, but that is the level I hope to get to. I am willing to try ever technique possible to achieve this peaceful state.
I am going to attack this in at least four stages. First I am going to try to become more in-tune with my body. So far I have found sites that say Yoga will bring on a more self-aware meditative state, but I’m hoping to find something a little less mainstream. My second focus will be becoming more aware of the natural environment. So far I found several ways to do this, some say just focusing for a few minutes on where what you’re eating comes from and others go out and meditate in the elements. I may try them both. My third project will be meditating to better understand my own mind. Sounds weird to me still but most of the articles that I’ve read about the subject says that I need almost have a conversation with myself after reaching a meditative state, and I think that will be interesting. My fourth and last focus (for now at least) will be the soul. I am honestly nothing near religious (although I was in a Catholic school for most of my life) but I think it’s important to realize that there is more to us then just flesh just as I believe there has to be more to the earth than oil.
I believe that my greatest difficulty to achieving my goal will be being able to clear my mind, let alone find the time to do so. I can’t remember the last time I was able to sit and just be. I’m very excited for the opportunity that maybe one day I will be able to do so. I believe that by meditating I will open myself up to realize what I could do for the earth as opposed to what I can achieve economically while I am here, or at least that is my goal.
