Blog for all health-conscious: Fooducate Blog - Four Food Things to Do on Earth Day

Sunday, 22 April 2012

Fooducate Blog - Four Food Things to Do on Earth Day

Posted: 22 Apr 2012 04:09 AM PDT

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Today is Earth Day. Our battered planet celebrates a day of appreciation. The ravaging pillager known as mankind has designated a day of reflection and hope…

While some extremists knock all progress that causes pollution or global warming, nobody can deny that the industrialization of the world has improved our lives tremendously over the past centuries. It’s just that we want this progress to be sustainable for centuries to come. Thus, we must figure out how to put back lots of things we’ve taken out. And to minimize future damage as much as we can. Much of this has to do with governmental policies, but individuals can also contribute their share, if not to move the needle, at least to teach our children.

So what are three simple, food related activities each and every one of us can do today, preferably with our family?

1. Drink tap water. Just as safe if not safer than bottled water. And certainly much healthier than soda pop or sugary juice drinks. Having a hard time swallowing? Think of billions of plastic bottles are in landfills and floating in our oceans, never to decompose.

2. Save a cow. Or a pig. or a chicken. Go vegetarian for one day. It won’t kill you. Raising livestock or poultry requires an order of magnitude more water and land than vegetable proteins. Emissions from animals contaminate the soil and atmosphere. Vegetarians save 9 times as much carbon as a driver switching to a hybrid car. Not that we are saying everyone should become a vegetarian, but who said we need to eat meat twice a day, 7 days a week?

3. Plant a plant. Be it a herb in a little pot by your window sill. Two or three tomato plants in your backyard or on your roof. Or perhaps a fruit tree on your front lawn. There’s no better connection with the earth than witnessing the growth of a tiny sapling, or the sprouting of a seed that later becomes a food bearing vehicle. You will have a new appreciation for farmers.

4. Get Involved. As we mentioned above, government policies and regulations of industry can have substantially far more overreaching effects on our planet’s health. But government officials are in many cases blinded by their relationship with and the support they receive from lobbies representing the worst environmental offenders. Luckily in this age of twitter and facebook, grassroots movements have the power to change the balance of power back in our favor. So what are you waiting for…

More Earth Day ideas on our Pinterest Board.

What are your plans for Earth Day?

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