How do your food choices impact on the environment?

[retroHelen]

Quite a few towns and cities in UK have taken to urban planting where they grow their own vegetables on spare bits of green land or grow herbs in planters in railway stations and people that live locally can weed them when they can and help themselves to the produce.

 

Todmorden in the County of Lancashire UK led the way growing a variety of food in public spaces. This saved on the carbon footprint of bringing food into the town from far away via truck transport and there was no need to think in terms of industrial growing of anything. Growing what wanted to grow in the area, they found the harvests were abundant.

 

Things learned from the experiment is that a small town can make enough of it's own compost from domestic fruit and vegetable peelings/plain cardboard/leaf litter/soft bush clippings and grass cuttings to feed the local soil. Also, if the compost is done properly, it can bring in it's own varieties of worms. At the end of the compost maturing time - warmth and right mixture is key here - the whole heap was carefully scattered around the planting areas and left. What is being learned is that WORMS DO THE DIGGING they do amazing things digesting organic matter in soil and mixing it with good bacteria and excreting it and aerating the soil while they blindly tunnel about themselves.

 

Gardening and agriculture are now learning NOT TO DIG soil over/no tilling. Let worms do the digging. Unnecessary human digging releases too much carbon and breaks up and kills too much of the the soil microbiome. Hoeing around the surface is all that is needed to kill weeds and expose insect grubs for birds to eat. Deep digging only happens for planting and getting rid of invasive species, not endlessly turning a garden/farm fields over every year and having bare soil between plantings. Bare soil leeches out the minerals, farmers now grow cover crops even in winter  that serves as fodder for animals and keeps soil structure together.

 

Once we have learned to work with nature, know what grows best in our particular environment and eat to the seasons to the best of our ability it will reward us with good harvest and also save us much hard work fighting with soil and weather when we are growing wrong things in wrong places on wrong soil with wrong methods.It will save much carbon wasted transporting food to us and buying fake fertilizers that are made from manufacturing byproducts having to be shipped in and regularly dug in and sprayed on crops because we don't know how to let nature feed our soil naturally.

 

 

 

 

[Katty]

Anyone who buys food from a shop buys food from somewhere else, meaning that a large amount of fuel has been used in the distribution of our food. If there were more farmer's markets, it would mitigate the situation a little, but I know in America, so many people rely on foodstamps, and in many places, you can't buy from a farmer's market with foodstamps. You also can't buy seeds and gardening supplies with foodstamps either. Few people can afford to have the amount of land and resources needed to grow their own food. In the past, it was easier to do so, because the world was less densely populated, and the economy was different. More people ran farms, then. Now, however, more food is grown in fewer places, so we have little choice but to consume something that may have caused some harm to the environment, or starve.
 Only when Isaiah 65 is fulfilled and we can build our own houses and eat our own fruitage, will this problem be fully solved.

Edited March 22, 2019 by Katty

[Thesauron]

Anyone who buys food from a shop buys food from somewhere else, meaning that a large amount of fuel has been used in the distribution of our food. If there were more farmer's markets, it would mitigate the situation a little, but I know in America, so many people rely on foodstamps, and in many places, you can't buy from a farmer's market with foodstamps. You also can't buy seeds and gardening supplies with foodstamps either. Few people can afford to have the amount of land and resources needed to grow their own food. In the past, it was easier to do so, because the world was less densely populated, and the economy was different. More people ran farms, then. Now, however, more food is grown in fewer places, so we have little choice but to consume something that may have caused some harm to the environment, or starve.
 Only when Isaiah 65 is fulfilled and we can build our own houses and eat our own fruitage, will this problem be fully solved.

Most of us can do at least something little to show that we care and that the way the earth is abused moves our conscience. We might not need to eat red meat every day, and perhaps not as much when we do. We could, perhaps, try to look for fish that has been sustainably caught when cooking fish. And perhaps try to eat whatever vegetables are in season locally. Don’t feel bad if you can’t do everything. You might just want to try to do something.

[BenJepthah]

13 minutes ago, Thesauron said:

Most of us can do at least something little to show that we care and that the way the earth is abused moves our conscience. We might not need to eat red meat every day, and perhaps not as much when we do. We could, perhaps, try to look for fish that has been sustainably caught when cooking fish. And perhaps try to eat whatever vegetables are in season locally. Don’t feel bad if you can’t do everything. You might just want to try to do something.

Actually I think you’ll find that most already do these things to some degree. Most ( about 60 %)  of my meat consumption is deer. And I wildcraft mushrooms , certain native greens, and eat the occasional insects when plentiful. But I have the trade off of living in a rural setting, the result being a long commute to work. So one one end of the spectrum is me , on the other end is the person lives by within walking distance of the organic food market that has to ship their produce more than 100 miles. The realities of this system. 

[Katty]

Look, I've been down this rabbit hole, before, either due to wanting to take care of my own health better or not wanting to contribute to the suffering of animals, and I believe it is a noble effort. I would research any food company available down here, trying to only buy food that I believed was humanely grown from eggs to grass fed beef (which is like $8 a pound here btw). It became a near obsession, and every time I thought I've found something that I thought would be great for the animals and the environment, there was nearly always something wrong with it. Maybe the "range free" chickens were actually stampeding on each other. Maybe the "humanely grown" turkeys actually faced a torturous death. Maybe the company abused the labor of illegal immigrants (not necessarily harmful to the environment but still bad). When it came to vegetables there was always a hitch too. "Organic" farms actually often use more pesticide than non organic. Look it up, it's because a farm doesn't have to be pesticide free for the USDA to classify it as organic, but the pesticides they're allowed to use are weaker than non organic farms. If anyone buys anything soybased, as well as some of the other grains almost guaranteed to be genetically modified to be "roundup ready", you're buying into a chemical whose residue actually ends up in other nearby farms, so even if you're buying non gmo food, you can't guarantee it's 100% non gmo. In short,  all of this obsessing over how my food is impacting the earth because one of the most depressing projects of my life, and nearly drove me insane. Plus, it costs so much money to buy food that claims to be humane and better for the environment, we'd probably starve for half the month, and for what, some claim that some corporate entity can end up lying about in the end anyway?

I'm not saying don't even try. I'm just saying, making decisions that sometimes harm the environment is not a reason to feel bad, because it's not our fault. I mean the only way I can visit my boyfriend is to take a gas guzzling airplane. I wish there were a better way, but it's the only way that's economically feasible. If I end up feeling bad for all things that I end up doing that's harmful to the environment I would either be feeling extraordinarily guilty all the time or not live my life. We're not CEO's of large companies. All we are are people who, for now, have no choice but to be consumers, and the bad part is, we don't have access to all the information when we purchase the things we purchase.

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by Katty

[Old]

1 hour ago, Katty said:

Look, I've been down this rabbit hole, before, either due to wanting to take care of my own health better or not wanting to contribute to the suffering of animals, and I believe it is a noble effort. I would research any food company available down here, trying to only buy food that I believed was humanely grown from eggs to grass fed beef (which is like $8 a pound here btw). It became a near obsession, and every time I thought I've found something that I thought would be great for the animals and the environment, there was nearly always something wrong with it. Maybe the "range free" chickens were actually stampeding on each other. Maybe the "humanely grown" turkeys actually faced a torturous death. Maybe the company abused the labor of illegal immigrants (not necessarily harmful to the environment but still bad). When it came to vegetables there was always a hitch too. "Organic" farms actually often use more pesticide than non organic. Look it up, it's because a farm doesn't have to be pesticide free for the USDA to classify it as organic, but the pesticides they're allowed to use are weaker than non organic farms. If anyone buys anything soybased, as well as some of the other grains almost guaranteed to be genetically modified to be "roundup ready", you're buying into a chemical whose residue actually ends up in other nearby farms, so even if you're buying non gmo food, you can't guarantee it's 100% non gmo. In short,  all of this obsessing over how my food is impacting the earth because one of the most depressing projects of my life, and nearly drove me insane. Plus, it costs so much money to buy food that claims to be humane and better for the environment, we'd probably starve for half the month, and for what, some claim that some corporate entity can end up lying about in the end anyway?

I'm not saying don't even try. I'm just saying, making decisions that sometimes harm the environment is not a reason to feel bad, because it's not our fault. I mean the only way I can visit my boyfriend is to take a gas guzzling airplane. I wish there were a better way, but it's the only way that's economically feasible. If I end up feeling bad for all things that I end up doing that's harmful to the environment I would either be feeling extraordinarily guilty all the time or not live my life. We're not CEO's of large companies. All we are are people who, for now, have no choice but to be consumers, and the bad part is, we don't have access to all the information when we purchase the things we purchase.

 

I resolved that problem years ago, the See Food Diet, see food, eat it!

[Thesauron]

Look, I've been down this rabbit hole, before, either due to wanting to take care of my own health better or not wanting to contribute to the suffering of animals, and I believe it is a noble effort. I would research any food company available down here, trying to only buy food that I believed was humanely grown from eggs to grass fed beef (which is like $8 a pound here btw). It became a near obsession, and every time I thought I've found something that I thought would be great for the animals and the environment, there was nearly always something wrong with it. Maybe the "range free" chickens were actually stampeding on each other. Maybe the "humanely grown" turkeys actually faced a torturous death. Maybe the company abused the labor of illegal immigrants (not necessarily harmful to the environment but still bad). When it came to vegetables there was always a hitch too. "Organic" farms actually often use more pesticide than non organic. Look it up, it's because a farm doesn't have to be pesticide free for the USDA to classify it as organic, but the pesticides they're allowed to use are weaker than non organic farms. If anyone buys anything soybased, as well as some of the other grains almost guaranteed to be genetically modified to be "roundup ready", you're buying into a chemical whose residue actually ends up in other nearby farms, so even if you're buying non gmo food, you can't guarantee it's 100% non gmo. In short,  all of this obsessing over how my food is impacting the earth because one of the most depressing projects of my life, and nearly drove me insane. Plus, it costs so much money to buy food that claims to be humane and better for the environment, we'd probably starve for half the month, and for what, some claim that some corporate entity can end up lying about in the end anyway?

I'm not saying don't even try. I'm just saying, making decisions that sometimes harm the environment is not a reason to feel bad, because it's not our fault. I mean the only way I can visit my boyfriend is to take a gas guzzling airplane. I wish there were a better way, but it's the only way that's economically feasible. If I end up feeling bad for all things that I end up doing that's harmful to the environment I would either be feeling extraordinarily guilty all the time or not live my life. We're not CEO's of large companies. All we are are people who, for now, have no choice but to be consumers, and the bad part is, we don't have access to all the information when we purchase the things we purchase.
 

Yes, well, we cannot solve the puzzle entirely. But everyone of us can do something little instead of completely resigning to the idea that nothing we do matters. Doing your best really is good enough. But do something. That’s not impossible.

[retroHelen]

I agree. We each can do a little to show Jehovah we want to live in a paradise, even if it's just keeping our own home/yard/car tidy and recycling what we can and not being wasteful and leave the rest until the New World. In the meantime keep our own 'helping the planet' balanced with our need to tell people of what will really resolve all the planet's issues.

 

This reminds me of when some missionaries were sent to a very poor country. They were warned that they would see some terrible sights caused by poverty, but to remember that God's New World is the only answer, so don't get too involved in trying to change the system or trying to help every person they come across. If they did then Satan will fill all their time with charitable works and leave no time for telling people the important message  that would ultimately solve it all. Our important promises from God could also possibly help some individuals change their priorities for a better outlook on their poor lives and not wasting time on anything that would be going nowhere for them like false religion or politics or protest movements.

[Old]

"How do your food choices impact on the environment?"

 

We live next the Pacific Ocean. It is sad to see the amount of palstic washed up on the beach. Much of it is hard to avoid, such as fishing bouys, net floats, sometimes damages and torn nets. Styrfoam dock floats that wash out to sea when rivers flood and break up in to fragments are likewise not totally avoidable. But the most obscene are the number of styrene cups , plastic straws, eating utensils, plastic water bottles, plastic bags, tires and now K-cups. One would think that short of a picnic in a high wind that most of this trash could be kept out of the ocean. Who throws trash into the ocean on purpose. I am sure we don't. Short of getting involved in the Save the Earth groups, I hope it is the little things that count.

We make every effort to recycle all we can. Where we live Recycle is limited due to isolation from major recycling centers. We can recycle clean paper, clean cans and only one type of plastc container, we have to read the little number stamped in to the bottom of every plastic container we recycle, and no glass. We can recycle plastic bags through our local market. The local deposit on beverage container is high enough that about 90% get returned for their $0.10 deposit. 

So now I am down to one tiny thing more I can do, that involves K-cups, a needless but convienient way to enjoy coffee. K-cups are almost indestructable. Only one company in the US markets biodegradable K-cups. In my opinion the coffee brewed with this product is not quite as good as the major K-cup providers, but I sacrifice a little bit of flavor for a little clearer conscience. My wife uses the other brand therefore I increase my coffee intake to balance her K-cup abuse.  

 

[Pjdriver]

Quote

How do your food choices impact on the environment?

Eating beans every night doesn’t help. 

[Naturale]

1 hour ago, Pjdriver said:

Eating beans every night doesn’t help. 

A few years ago a man died by his own gas.  His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage and he died in a room with no ventilation.  An autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system.  It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. If his windows had been opened it wouldn't have been fatal, but the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom.  Apparently he was a big man with a huge capacity for creating this deadly gas.  Three of the rescuers got sick and one was hospitalized.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Naturale

[retroHelen]

When we were in Israel and went to the beach early in the morning when the military helicopters weren't so frequent, it was so peaceful and quiet. The sea looked lovely and blue and the sand was pale and clean. Then a bit of a wind whipped up and as we sat there a small tide came in and we had our feet and ankles battered with plastic sunscreen bottles; soft drink bottles; straws; flip-flops and sandals. An old gentleman commented that Israel's lovely beaches get covered with all the detritus from the holiday beaches all across the Mediterranean. The sea seems to funnel it all back to them. True enough the bottles were written in Greek and Spanish an Italian. So sad.

 

This junk was left in heaps on the beach so small diggers had to come and scrape it all up before the tourists came down from the sea-front hotels with their towels and their plastic junk!

 

He also said that some cruise ships were illegally dumping their rubbish out at sea an it was being washed up there as well.This sometimes included nasty tar that was a struggle to remove from clothes and sandals.

 

Many humans are so mucky and plastic muck is indestructable.

 

Another bugbear of mine isn't food related. but disposable nappies/daipers. It's like a 'sign of the times' burying the Western world in them in the last 40 years. It's reckoned that most of these horrors outlive the wearers for centuries and are mostly so unnecessary and expensive. Individual babies, then infants, go through scores of them until they are toilet-trained.

 

Fitted colourful washables with optional cheap biodegradable liners are so easy to buy online now.Only need to buy a few of different sizes for the years a baby needs them and they will last many washes. Many areas here also offer a washing service that still works out cheaper than buying large bags of the indestructable daipers/nappies every week. These things should be kept for just when families are away from home, not all the time. I know plenty of Witness families who only use disposables for conventions and holidays. Washables, cleaned according to instructions at the right temperature, with the right safe cleaners, are perfectly hygienic for baby and have been for centuries before 1970s and still in other countries around the globe.

 

In the New World children will have better health and better diets and less stress, so they will be easier to train to not need such things for so long a time as well.

[Old]

1 hour ago, Naturale said:

A few years ago a man died by his own gas.  His diet had consisted primarily of beans and cabbage and he died in a room with no ventilation.  An autopsy showed large amounts of methane gas in his system.  It appears that the man died in his sleep from breathing the poisonous cloud that was hanging over his bed. If his windows had been opened it wouldn't have been fatal, but the man was shut up in his near airtight bedroom.  Apparently he was a big man with a huge capacity for creating this deadly gas.  Three of the rescuers got sick and one was hospitalized.

Snopes debunks this one:

"Disabuse yourself of any notion that such a death occurred. Not only don’t any bona fide news accounts detailing this bucket-kicking exist, but it isn’t even really plausible that someone would die in such a situation — gas expelled from the body may be noisome, but it isn’t “poisonous.”  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gas-chamber/

If this was true my old pioneer partner would not have survived to this day. 

[Naturale]

16 minutes ago, Old said:

Snopes debunks this one:

"Disabuse yourself of any notion that such a death occurred. Not only don’t any bona fide news accounts detailing this bucket-kicking exist, but it isn’t even really plausible that someone would die in such a situation — gas expelled from the body may be noisome, but it isn’t “poisonous.”  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gas-chamber/

If this was true my old pioneer partner would not have survived to this day. 

I watched it on tv a few years ago.  It was because there was no ventilation at all and methane, which is odorless and non-toxic, causes death because it prevents a person from breathing sufficient oxygen.

Edited March 26, 2019 by Naturale

[Thesauron]

I watched it on tv a few years ago.  It was because there was no ventilation at all and methane, which is odorless and non-toxic, causes death because it prevents a person from breathing sufficient oxygen.

It probably didn’t happen, though.

[Old]

7 hours ago, Naturale said:

I watched it on tv a few years ago.  It was because there was no ventilation at all and methane, which is odorless and non-toxic, causes death because it prevents a person from breathing sufficient oxygen.

If you watched it TV it must be true. 

[dove]

39 minutes ago, Thesauron said:

It probably didn’t happen, though.

What about spontaneous combustion..is that true

[Thesauron]

What about spontaneous combustion..is that true

Hm... Live Science puts it this way: “No one has ever been seen, filmed or videotaped (for example, on a surveillance camera) suddenly bursting into flames.”

https://www.livescience.com/42080-spontaneous-human-combustion.html

[Pjdriver]

8 hours ago, Old said:

Snopes debunks this one:

"Disabuse yourself of any notion that such a death occurred. Not only don’t any bona fide news accounts detailing this bucket-kicking exist, but it isn’t even really plausible that someone would die in such a situation — gas expelled from the body may be noisome, but it isn’t “poisonous.”  https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/gas-chamber/

If this was true my old pioneer partner would not have survived to this day. 

Jerry,  don’t be such a party pooper. 

[Pjdriver]

44 minutes ago, Thesauron said:

Hm... Live Science puts it this way: “No one has ever been seen, filmed or videotaped (for example, on a surveillance camera) suddenly bursting into flames.”

https://www.livescience.com/42080-spontaneous-human-combustion.html

I seen it with my own two eyes in Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. 

[Old]

 

55 minutes ago, Dove said:

What about spontaneous combustion..is that true

I read about this years ago in (now defunked) TRUE magazine, so it must be true.

[dove]

20 minutes ago, Old said:

 

I read about this years ago in (now defunked) TRUE magazine, so it must be true.

I've only ever seen it on programs like 48 Hrs, 60 Minutes, 20/20 etc. showing the person after the combustion..

[BenJepthah]

On 3/25/2019 at 6:56 PM, Old said:

"How do your food choices impact on the environment?"

 

We live next the Pacific Ocean. It is sad to see the amount of palstic washed up on the beach. Much of it is hard to avoid, such as fishing bouys, net floats, sometimes damages and torn nets. Styrfoam dock floats that wash out to sea when rivers flood and break up in to fragments are likewise not totally avoidable. But the most obscene are the number of styrene cups , plastic straws, eating utensils, plastic water bottles, plastic bags, tires and now K-cups. One would think that short of a picnic in a high wind that most of this trash could be kept out of the ocean. Who throws trash into the ocean on purpose. I am sure we don't. Short of getting involved in the Save the Earth groups, I hope it is the little things that count.

We make every effort to recycle all we can. Where we live Recycle is limited due to isolation from major recycling centers. We can recycle clean paper, clean cans and only one type of plastc container, we have to read the little number stamped in to the bottom of every plastic container we recycle, and no glass. We can recycle plastic bags through our local market. The local deposit on beverage container is high enough that about 90% get returned for their $0.10 deposit. 

So now I am down to one tiny thing more I can do, that involves K-cups, a needless but convienient way to enjoy coffee. K-cups are almost indestructable. Only one company in the US markets biodegradable K-cups. In my opinion the coffee brewed with this product is not quite as good as the major K-cup providers, but I sacrifice a little bit of flavor for a little clearer conscience. My wife uses the other brand therefore I increase my coffee intake to balance her K-cup abuse.  

 

Plastics are my personal bugaboo. Lately  a more pronounced movement is taking form to eliminate straws. As a  coffee lover I’d like to see a stronger movement to biodegradable styrene ( saw this in Florida this week as more cups which degrade by 94% ( or something similar ) in under four years are being adopted . 

        I have long thought that some kind of biodegradable or even edible form of straw or swizzle stick could easily be invented.( maybe a new form of candy cane??) perhaps we have an inventive Brother or Sister with a talent for confection could take up the challenge . Even give us the edible coffee cup!

[BenJepthah]

On 3/26/2019 at 11:20 AM, Naturale said:

I watched it on tv a few years ago.  It was because there was no ventilation at all and methane, which is odorless and non-toxic, causes death because it prevents a person from breathing sufficient oxygen.

I recall this story . But cannot attest it’s truth.