Consumption First Week Check-In

[Gil Ben-Meir]

Hello Everyone,

Our goal for this week was to analyze our consumption habits, food purchases in particular, and find out if there is anyway to make those purchases more eco-friendly.

Here is the summary of my analysis:

1. All CSA's and Farmer markets are available May-November and although their organic stuff is abit pricey, it is the best option to support our local agriculture.

2.This week I was looking at food purchases from "Back to Earth" (Nyack) and "Wholefood". In both markets it is very hard to get local (Northeast) produce. Accept for exotic fruits such as Bananas and Avocados, most produce is available from the U.S (mostly CA) in recycable packaging or recycable clear plasic bags.

3.dairy products are available from the northeast like: "Stonyfield" (NH), "Natural by Nature" Grass Fed Milk (PA), and "Alderber" eggs (PA), all organic.

4. Out of our total food purchases this week, 15% was local (produce at Stone Barns and organic dairy products), 15% was from Non-U.S producers (bananas from Columbia, Cheese from Israel, Crackers from China), and the ramaining 70% from U.S producers.

5. Our non-food purchases this week were eco-friendly products like "Seven Generations" cleaning products, "Tom's" toothpaste, and "PetGuard" natural wet cat food.

6. Found a great place for fair trade, eco-friendly coffee beans in Tarrytown called: "Coffee Labs".

7.This week we also made a long term purchase by replacing our broken digital camera. We selected a good brand (Sony) with an extended warrenty and a rechargable battery. These features should extend the product life and eliminate disposable batteries use.

Next week we should all work on converting maximum of our consumption to enviromental friendly local products that will reduce our impact on the enviroment.

As we discussed last week, food is our largest consumption category after housing. Most of us are spending about $50 per person per week on food poducts therefor food is our main focus. Energy, which we worked on last month is our third largest consumption category. By converting our electricity supplier to renewable energy supplier like ConEd Solutions, we can reduce our energy consumption impact by about 33% for an additional cost of about 10%. Furthermore, be continuing to monitor our waste and energy consumption to keep our impact to a minimum.

Try to remember to look at the label and go for more local products, buy packaged products in bulk quantities to reduce packaging, and go for more durable products. Remember the old and wise statement: "what costs less now will cost more later."

Next week Michal and I will start shopping at the "Hungry Hollow" co-op in Chestnut Ridge and hopefully will find more local produce there. Other consumption habits we changed in the last few months include:

1. Converted some of our media purchases to borrowing books and DVD's from the free library. They have great selection, can order special requested books for you from other libraries and it's free.

2. Experimentlng with growing some of our own food. After two growing seasons I must admit that it is very time consuming and you don't really get alot of produce but it is very rewarding and with time become more and more efficient.

3. Before we buy a new appliance, furniture or hardware tools, we try to borrow it from a friend or neighbour, repair an existing item,get it on freecycle, or buy it used online (ebay, craigslist). If we do end up buying stuff, we go for eco-friendly, durable products.

4. We reduced our meat consumption to twice a month and eat more fish, chicken and protein rich produce (Kinoa, Tachini, Raw Nuts, and Legumes). eating 7 lbs. less meat per year is equal to a household water consumption reduction of 33%! (Household Ecoteam Workbook, pg. 90)

Please respond with your progress notes, questions, suggestions and any other ideas you may have to reduce our groups consumption impact. Also, I am still waiting for responses regarding the date our next meeting. I suggested December 9, between 10am-12pm at my place.

[Daphna Stern]

Hey all,

1) GO SHOPPING LESS OFTEN-
So last week I went shopping for the first time in almost a month and a half (for food that is)...I don't know how it works out...but I guess we absolutely have no money and so unless something is very necessary we don't go. I think most of us tend to buy "more than we can chew"...downsizing on food+occasional "treats" could be a way to go.

2) EAT WITH COMPANY-
We try to eat together as much as possible. I think that it could be wise to eat together often as we usually tend to make more than we can eat so that we can share. This will reduce the # of times we go per month shopping for food.

3)BUY PRODUCTS THAT LAST LONGER-
We purchased at the last farmers market stuff that is still, believe it or not, good (squash, scallions, arugulla, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower...you get the picture), mind you, the farmers market hasn't been on since before thanksgiving.

4)BE CREATIVE WITH FOOD-
We also try to extend the life of the food I cook. For example:
-If I make chicken and we have leftovers that we don't feel like eating for a while instead of waiting to toss it... I'll try to reuse it in an inventive way...such as making it into chicken salad...
-Leftover rice...stuffed in tomatoes...or if it's not salty...pudding!
-Leftover cooked vegetables...an omlette....oh boy...it makes me hungry to think about it:-)

5)FIX-
Well, thank g-d we have mister handyman in the house...he can fix almost anything so that we get the most use out of ...anything really..

6)CREATE...CREATE...CREATE-
This category happens to be my favorite because it is fun and fulfills the creative soul (not to mention, helps save the planet).
-Who needs store bought channuka decoration when there's plenty of other resources readily available at home? (see pic. of something I did in no more than 10-15 min. with branches, old calendars, brown bags and string-whoever came over added and made a dreidel/ channukia!!!!).

another idea :(I can go on and on)
-Cover holiday presents with whatever is in the house(or in the garden)...magazines/shoeboxes/fabric(could be an old piece of clothing that is a bit torn)/glue leaves/buttons/etc... and opt out of taking readily made present covers/bags in stores. And if you're extra creative-make some presents yourself!!!
For further ideas/consultation on creativity call me at 353-3944(Daphy)

7)FREEZE/DRY-
We took most herbs we have in our garden and either dried them (like lavender-hang upside down-use flowers for tea...etc), or froze them (like lemon verbena-picked leaves off -put in ziploc bag-sucked air out-and stuck in freezer).
We also extend the life of some vegetables by cutting them up and freezing them for later use.

8)BRING YOUR OWN FOOD TO WORK-
We noticed that we spend a lot of money and car travel time when Ronen buys his lunch at work...so now I make it an effort to make him lunch to take with him almost every day (that way I can also insure where the products are coming from).

9)CHOOSE TRANSPORTATION WISELY-
If you are away during the holidays...consider more walking or biking (if weather permits). As a better consumer, instead of car, use train or bus (in that order) for cleaner air.

We will try to stick to as many suggestions that are mentioned in order to insure better consumption habits...it takes some getting used to...

P.S.-Meeting time works for us.

[Gil Ben-Meir]

Hey Daphy,

Thanks for your detailed reply. I am glad that you are able to use your resourcfull creativity to decrease consumption. Yes, it does help when you figure out how much money you spend on the junk you eat for lunch at work to decide to spend afew minutes aday preparing a healthy and enviromentaly lunchbox.

Thanks for the great advices, I will try to use so of them.

Gil

[dana]

Apologies to everyone for a late check in.

Wow. Daphy, that was a thorough report! Very inspiring. Thanks for sharing your ideas and your resourcefulness with all of us.

Since this first week was dedicated to paying attention to our patterns of consumption, let's look at where our household is at.

GROCERIES & OTHER FOOD
We didn't shop for groceries at all during the first week, and hadn't done a big shopping in what seemed like weeks. (Don't ask how we've been eating, I'm guessing that we may have removed a full meal per day out of our diet)

Generally, while the farmer's markets are thriving, we buy the bulk of our produce there, more specifically from Blooming Hill Farm's booth (owned by Guy Jones) which is 35 minutes away in Blooming Grove, NY. We've found that they offer the best produce and have the ethics and sustainable farming practices to back it up. We visited the farm over the summer and learned a great deal about what they do.

Blooming Hill Farm is also one of our areas largest CSA (community supported agriculture) member farms. What this means is that individuals, households, schools and restaurants can pay for a share of the harvest, which will be delivered to the local farmer's markets in crates with your name on it that you can pick up each week. We're seriously considering becoming members of the Blooming Hill CSA, and have also been talking to Daniel and Dorit about the possibility of the Art Cafe sourcing their produce from this farm.


But in the last week and a half, we shopped at both A&P and the Hungry Hollow Co-op in Chestnut Ridge.


At A&P:

We bought fruit (oranges, watermelon and melon) Dana said she scaled down her produce purchases there, knowing that we'd be going to the Hungry Hollow Co-op to get the bulk of our produce from their Biodynamic Farm.
We also picked up condiments like ketchup from A&P.

At Hungry Hollow Co-op:

Well, Sunday might not the be best day to shop for produce. Most everything was down to the things that no one else wanted. Granted, organic and biodynamic produce is not as *pretty* as the insanely perfect *looking* supermarket produce, but this was a bit much for us. It was literally the bottom of the barrel.

Even at the co-op though, a majority of the fruit is from anywhere but our area. There's a lot of produce from California which has to travel a great distance to reach the shelves which requires massive energy resources. But when the co-op is freshly stocked, there's a great deal of choice of produce from the fields surrounding the shop.

At home, we don't eat meat, but we do eat eggs and dairy products often. When I'm out for dinner, I no longer will order steak or hamburger. (Dana never needs to even think about it)

EATING OUT:
I've been eating lunch at work, which is something I avoided for a while. It's a vicious cycle. Busy with the kids at home, not sleeping much, become lazy and don't take the time to make sandwiches, and end up buying an overpriced sandwich at work filled with ingredients most likely from one of the food distributors like SYSCO, which sources its food from around the globe and has a terrible track record for promoting sustainable agricultural practices and instead focus on keeping prices low. The unfortunate trade-off for conveniently located lunches at work is losing control over what I'm eating. I know for sure you can't find anything organic in the town I work in.

Lately, while in a restaurant, I've been feeling guilty about my choices. I'm not ordering red meat or anything anymore, but I am still ordering chicken, which is most certainly not free range nor organic. I keep trying to envision the factory farm that the chicken was raised on at which the scene is one of constant hell. Fast production at the expense of humane treatment and sanitary conditions. Plus, the relentless outpouring of toxic bodily waste these factory farms generate that pollute the rivers and streams of the area surrounding them should be enough to stop in mid sentence and order something vegetarian.

One day soon I'll put all my money where my mouth is, or rather, I won't put my money where my mouth is as a grass roots vote against factory farming.

NON FOOD PURCHASES
We're not big shoppers, but we could be a lot more wiser in what we do purchase. I tend to wear the same clothes for a few days at a time, and keep them way past their expiration date. Some call that thrifty, and some call it dirty. Call it what you will.
Lately more than ever we second and third guess everything we buy, and are in the process of compiling a ton of research about non toxic childrens toys and products.

In her research, Dana discovered that our Tempurpedic mattress that is so amazing for our backs is way down on the bottom of the list of environmentally friendly products. The foam is a petrochemical, derived from petroleum which is bad for oil consumption and the nature of the material is such that it off-gases chemicals into the air. GREAT! just what you want to smoosh your face into for an eight hour sleep. That purchase was over a year ago, and if we knew what we know now, we would have either NOT purchased it at all, or instead would have chosen a safer product made of non toxic materials.

We have Noa on the gDiape so at least one of our kids stinky diapers won't outlive us all by 200 years.