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Earth Day will be celebrated next Tuesday, April 22. I thought it would be a good time to ask some of the other ChefsLine team to suggest some steps we could take in our home kitchens to have a positive impact on the environment… or at least to tread a little lighter. WOW, they came up with some really great ideas! The cool thing is that these adjustments are simple enough that you can put them into action immediately.
ChefsLine’s Suggestions for Earth Day (…and every day!)And here are a few ideas that I’d like to contribute:
- Chef Richard: Prepare a One-Pot meal. You’ll conserve energy by using only one burner on the stove, and save water because you have to wash only one pot that night.
- Chef Robyn: Treat yourself and support healthier cows with a milkshake or smoothie made with organic milk, or even better, yogurt and local fruit! Your body and taste buds will feel like a million bucks.
- Chef Adrienne: Be certain that your used plastic bags from the grocery store are in a place where you can grab and go so you can reuse them. Even better, bring your own bag to the market.
- Melissa: If you wash dishes by hand, do it right away and you’ll use less water. If you use the dishwasher, make sure that it’s completely filled up before running it, and use an environmentally friendly detergent.
Sometimes it just takes looking at an idea from someone else’s perspective to see how easy it is to make a few small changes to your day-to-day life, and it’s empowering to see how subtle adjustments to how you get things done can make an impact on being “green”.
- Buy fresh, local produce. Not only does it taste better, but you might not realize that frozen food requires a lot of energy to keep it frozen, and usually travels futher, which uses gasoline and creates carbon emissions.
- Consider purchasing your staples in bulk. (rice, beans, flour, etc.) buying food in packages requires the use of paper, cardboard and plastic and other materials that need to be recycled. Recycling’s great but it still takes energy!
- If you eat meat, you don’t have to go vegetarian to be environmentally friendly. Just eat less of it. It takes about 4 pounds of grain to raise 1 pound of beef, plus something like 2500 gallons of water! So if you’re used to eating an 8 oz portion, eat 4 oz instead, and eat more vegetables. A good book you can read about this is The Omnivore’s Delimma.
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7 Responses for "One Kitchen Can-Do"
I use bar towels for all my kitchen jobs instead of using paper towels. The amount of paper towels I save each week is about 4-5 rolls. I think that’s alot of trees that are saved. You can buy them in bulk at Sams.
As a beef producer, we work daily for our environment to help deliver nutritious, tasty beef to our consumers. Everyday is earth day for us, whether it is moving our cattle to new pastures in our conservation method of pasture rotation or ensuring that all our water tanks are working properly to help use less water, the environment is our main concern. Also, as a beef ambassador we recommend a 3oz serving of beef which fits in to your daily diet to provide you with all the goods of nutrition that beef has to offer while still being concious of the environment. happy earth day!
You mention that you could do a lot for the environment by reducing the amount of red meat we intake. The reality is, beef producers do a lot to improve the environment. About 85% of the land that our cattle is land that would otherwise not be used. This means that if we were to reduce cattle production, this land would go to waste. Our cattle help reduce the amount of waste on the land, which will ultimately reduce fire hazards and increase the quality of wildlife habbitat. In addition to this, we work to conserve and manage our pasture lands. No one cares more for the land that our cattle graze than those of us who share that land with them. For more information, please visit beeffrompasturetoplate.org
I also disagree with your recommendation to limit meat consumption, from both environmental and nutritional standpoints. I grew up on a farm raising cattle in Pennsylvania and my family takes many measures to limit the use of our resources while preserving the land, water and air on our farm. By buying American beef, you are investing in the producers that care for our nation’s land and preserve our open spaces. I also caution people about limiting beef in their diets, because it is a great source of protein, iron, zinc, selenium, phosphorus, and B-vitamins. In fact, animal products are the only natural source for vitamin B12 in our diets.
Well, it looks like my little Earth day post got picked up somewhere, and evidently passed around among beef fans. I certainly encourage the sharing of information, but only if that information is accurate and can be backed up by research, not anecdotes.
I suggested the first book The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but I have two other books you should know about. The second is Diet for a Small Planet, in which F. M. Lappé tells that it takes 16 lbs. of grain & soy, and 2500 gallons of water to produce a 1 lb. steak. She also states that 90% of the grain grown in the US is used to feed livestock. These aren’t numbers I pulled out of the air, it’s researched, albeit not by me. I’m a chef, I have other things on my plate.
Finally, the third book, I have right here, The Ethical Gourmet, that drives the point home (on page 141, to be exact): “The biggest single contribution individuals can make to the environment, family planning aside, is to reduce the amount of meat they consume”
So let’s not get ahead of ourselves here…I didn’t say you shouldn’t eat beef. I eat beef too! I’m happy with all kinds of barnyard animals on my plate.
Caitlin, if only all the people who raise animals for food were as conscious as you are! That is one of the reasons I drive out of my way to buy meat & poultry from a store that sells organic & humanely raised animals. Because it matters. It’s the large-scale industrial farms that frighten me, and that’s precisely why those are the ones that the Humane Society targets. P.S. What, exactly is a Beef Ambassador? Do you get to wear a sash and a tiara? If so, sign me up! I don’t look so good in red, tho. I’ll stick to the white chef’s coat.
Leticia, I see you’re also a Beef Ambassador. I also read your website… but unless you give sources for your numbers, all that comes to mind is a certain quote attributed to Mark Twain, involving lies, damned lies, and statistics.
Jennifer, Aside from your other points, i need to come right out and tell you: getting enough B12 is not a beef issue, it’s never an issue for a lacto- or ovo- vegetarians. Only vegans… and even then, the body stores it for 3 years. A quick google search reveals this article - http://www.vegansociety.com/html/food/nutrition/b12/ - which states “Vitamin B12 comes from micro-organisms. Most vegans consume enough B12 to avoid clinical deficiency. Two subgroups of vegans are at particular risk of B12 deficiency: long-term vegans who avoid common fortified foods (such as raw food vegans or macrobiotic vegans) and breastfed infants of vegan mothers whose own intake of B12 is low.” That’s a direct copy-paste, so it’s straight from the horse’s mouth.
So, to quell future “hey it’s Earth day so let’s go find out who’s dissing beef” responses (Carol, Lyn, Tosha, Michelle and the other Beef Ambassadors), let me say to you on both a personal and professional level that we should give thought to all that we consume, enjoy the variety of choices, and be knowledgeable about their implications. I feel 100% certain that my own desire to eating relatively less meat in general does weigh in the balance of favor for the environment. (I in no way intend to deny a job to anyone, just a diminished environment for the planet)
I’m not suggesting we all go vegan and hold hands and sing kumbaya. I am just sensible citizen who happens to also be a chef, so I make it a point to keep myself up to date with topics regarding food.
Let me leave you with what i hope is another brain-filler. There’s a podcast I listen to, “Deconstructing Dinner” which has blown my mind. They’re an hour long, so it’s a commitment, and I think there’s at least a year of them recorded. If you ever wanted to know more about what you’re putting on your table and in your mouth, invest the time.
LINK: http://www.kootenaycoopradio.com/deconstructingdinner/
To start off with I don’t know where you got the information that it takes 16 pounds of grain and 2500 gallons of water to produce 1 pound of steak, that isn’t even a reasonable statement so F.M. Lappe must not be your best source of information. Dr. Rick Rasby from the University of Nebraska has done research on the matter of water consumption by cattle and he states- “As a rule of thumb, consumption will range from 1 gallon per 100 pounds of body weight during cold weather to nearly 2 gallons per 100 pounds of body during the hottest weather”.
The fact is that not all beef is fed grain! There are other ways to produce beef; like grass fed. As for the water issue; I ask you how much water do you drink in a day and how much do you use in your kitchen. My parents own a restaurant and I promise you that even with the strictest water conservation plan more water is used there than any steer could drink in a life time! According to http://www.farnellfamily.com/cfarnell/why/uses.html; the average home kitchen sink uses roughly 20 gallons of water per day for preparing food and washing dishes; what does that average out to when the math is done over eighteen months? In one year that is 7300 gallons. Since a steer is fed for an average of 18 months that would equal 10,800 gallons of water from one household sink. The average steer finishes our (or goes to market) at 1200 pounds. Based on Dr. Rasby’s research one steer would require 24 gallons of water a day during the hottest weather. The cutability (or amount of meat) of the average 1,150 lbs steer has the average yield of 62.2%, the typical steer will produce a 715 lb. (dressed weight) carcass stated http://www.askthemeatman.com/yield_on_beef_carcass.htm . This site also stated that-“The dressed beef (or carcass) will yield approximately 569 lbs. (further details below) of red meat and trim (take home meat - which includes the average weight of 27 lbs of variety meat: liver, heart, tongue, tripe, sweetbreads and brains) and 146 lbs of fat, bone and loss. This is roughly a yield of 80% from the dressed or hanging weight - this is for a VERY LEAN Beef. A High Quality, USDA Choice Beef will yield approximately 70% of the Hanging or Dressed Weight. The yield on the take home meat weight from the live weight of the (VERY LEAN) steer is approximately 50%.”
Based on all the information I gave you one pound of beef (any cut of beef) requires 22.7 gallons of water to be produced. If you want factual information you have to be willing to hear the “facts”. As Beef Ambassadors we also promote a healthy diet one that is well varied. We promote the mypyramid which means we encourage people to eat 5oz of protein everyday in addition to the recommended amounts of vegetables, fruits, grains, and milk or dairy. For more information about mypyramid go to http://teamnutrition.usda.gov . Beef is nutrient dense, and contains heme iron; which is the kind of iron that is more readily absorbed by the human body. I could and would quote you nutrition facts all day, but the http://www.beeffrompasturetoplate.com website tells you strait from the expert’s mouth.
Well, since we have met an impass, you stick to your kitchen and I’ll stick to my ranch. I have traveled all over this country to some of the largest beef producing farms, packing houses and everything in between, and one thing I can tell you is those who raise or are involved with cattle, CARE for the animal. I would ask how many of these places you have actually been to on a day to day basis. These so called large industrial farms you speak of are no different when it comes to the care of cattle, the only difference is there is more cattle in numbers. I encourage you to do more research on beef, how it is really raised, the nutritional benefits of it and the taste quality and tenderness it has to offer, afterall as a chef you should be aware of providing those you cook for the best meal possible from all stand points. visit this site and maybe you will gain some insight to the real side of the story: http://www.beeffrompasturetoplate.
By the way we are not beef fans-we are producers of beef - we produce the beef you eat. Secondly, we are spokespersons as ambassadors for the beef industry we love and believe wholeheartedly in because we live, eat, sleep and breathe it everyday. We work in the industry and work for the consumers!
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