Eco-Friendly Eating

I have touched on a lot of important points on my blog, but I haven't said much about how to greenify your diet. To be honest, "greenify" just about sums it up-- local, organic, and vegetarian foods!
I'll begin with some stats:

• A 2006 UN report describes the meat industry as "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems." *
• The same amount of greenhouse gases are emitted by eating a pound of meat as are emitted from driving an SUV for 40 miles! *
• The meat industry is the leading factor to anthropogenic methane emissions. *
• 53 different carcinogenic chemicals are used in increasingly great quantities on crops in North America. **
• 1600 L of oil per year is used for each American who eats industrially-produced food ("regular" food). **
• The World Cancer Research Fund states that the maximum amount of meat that can be safely ingested per year is 30 kg. The average Canadian consumes 101 kg of meat per year! **
• 1/3 of all the world's grain harvest is fed to livestock! Meat production is the largest user of land in the world, when you include the grain required to grow it. **
• Each vegetarian in North America saves 1 acre of trees and 4.4 million litres of water each year, and uses half as much water as a meat-eater does.**
• The average distance that our food travels to get to us is 2000 km! **
• 1/3 of waste in landfills in Canada could have been composted. **
• The average vegetarian saves 50 animals per year***, but every vegan saves the lives of 100-200 animals every year, simply by not eating animals or their "products". ****
• When we cook our food, not only do we waste precious resources, but we also destroy its "living" quality (killing the cells). Raw foodists argue that since humans are living beings, we should eat living food.*****
• The production of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) has gone up from 1.7 million hectares worldwide in 1996 to 102 million hectares in 2006!****** GMOs are dangerous because they can have untold effects on local ecosystems and human health. **

* National Capital Vegetarian Association
** The Otesha Book: From Junk to Funk!
*** http://www.chooseveg.com/vegetarians-save-lives.asp
**** http://www.peta.org/b/thepetafiles/archive/2010/12/13/vegans-save-185-animals-a-year.aspx
***** http://www.stickam.com/viewMedia.do?mId=193124761
****** http://www.gmo-compass.org/eng/agri_biotechnology/gmo_planting/145.gmo_cultivation_trait_statistics.html

Wow-- it seems like eating local, organic, and vegan is a lot more crucial than most people may have thought!

It's really quite easy, although it will obviously take a few days/weeks to get used to. Many foods at the grocery store are already vegan (chips, rice cakes, bread, cereals), and organic produce is often sold there, too. Here are a few things to make it even easier for you.

• Farmer's Markets! Buy your fresh fruits and vegetables here, straight from the producers. You can ask them whether they use organic and GMO-free seed and growing practices.
• Health Food Stores: Although you don't ever have to set foot into a health food store to be an environmentally-concious eater, they certainly can provide a lot more variety than the typical grocery store.
• Health food sections at your grocery store: Many major chain grocery stores now have health food sections. If not, you may be able to find specialty products intermingled with the other "foods". It is always best to support small retailers first, however.
• Amazing companies: Lydia's Organics, Amy's Kitchen, Larabar (for an entire list of vegan/natural food producers, please visit: http://www.vegparadise.com/foodmakers.html)

I am a vegan who tries to eat as many organic, local, and GMO-free foods as I can, but seeing that I still live with my parents, I have to compromise on how much of the food is eco-friendly (no compromises on my vegan diet, though). I haven't really gotten into the raw food diet thing, but I still advocate it for anyone looking to take their eco-friendly diet one step further! I've taken a picture of some of the eco-friendly foods currently at my house, many of which are also raw and gluten-free:

There are so many more products out there, however-- never stop searching! I forgot to add my oatmeal and quinoa companies... oh well, there's no point in re-assembling the whole thing now.

If anyone tries to tell you that your eco-friendly diet is nonsense, don't let them get away without you telling them what you think of the "normal" modern diet. I mean it. If there's one thing that gets me riled up, it's ignorance!

For more information on achieving a healthy vegan/organic/local/waste-free/GMO-free diet, please visit the following websites. Keep in mind that you will have to do a bit of research into getting all the right nutrients-- but you should do that even if you aren't following a special diet. If you think that there are too many websites listed below to go to, just click on whichever one has the most interesting name :)

Vegetarian/vegan:

http://www.veganoutreach.org/

http://www.vegansociety.com/

http://www.ncva.ca/

https://www.vegsoc.org/

http://www.vrg.org/

http://www.veganhealth.org/

http://www.happycow.net/vegan_diet.html

Organic:

http://www.organicfoodinfo.net/

Raw Food:

http://www.happycow.net/raw/raw_living.html

http://www.vegansociety.com/lifestyle/nutrition/raw-food-diets.aspx

http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/

http://rawfoodhealthwatch.com/

There you have it. Everything you need to know to begin your journey into an eco-friendly diet! Have fun!

Get Set for Earth Day... How Will You be the Change?

Earth Day is on Sunday, April the 22nd. Personally, I feel like it is an extremely important day of the year. On Earth Day, all of your environmentally-friendly actions seem to really count. Of course, they count on all the other days of the year, too-- but there is so much more motivation to be green on Earth Day. It might surprise you that I, as an eco-blogger, sometimes run low on motivation to help save the planet, but believe me, I do. It happens to everyone. What really matters is overcoming that and doing great things anyway!

Anyway, here are some of my ideas for going even greener this Earth Day:

1. Start a new habit. Sometimes it only takes a little bit of time and energy to start up something that can last year round. For example...
1. Set up a clothes rack in your basement or clothesline in your backyard. This way, you can get into the habit of drying your clothes without the clothes dryer. By doing this, you will save $85 (US) per year and untold amounts of electricity!
2. If you aren't already a vegetarian, go out to a vegetarian restaurant to discover some delicious vegetarian foods (many of which will also be organic and vegan). You may be able to pick up a cookbook with great recipes. What would be a better time to start a new vegetarian lifestyle than on Earth Day?
3. Make some candles or start using rechargeable flashlights for use in the evening. Walking around your house at night can be an amazing experience with a candle in your hands!
4. Another good idea I found on the Internet is to get into the habit of reflecting. Reflect on your way of life and how it affects those around you (and those who are far away from you!). The more you think about it, the easier it will be to make necessary changes to your lifestyle.
2. Attend an Earth Day event in your community. For those of you who live in Ontario, you can participate in Ontario Nature's Our Special Spaces events that include tree-plantings etc. (I'll be going to the one at Lemoine Point in Kingston.) Otherwise, simply type in "[your city name] Earth Day events" on a search engine to find some. If you happen to be reading this on or after Earth Day, you might still be able to find "Earth Month" activities that last through April to take part in.
3. Sit down and plan out your eco-friendly goals for the next year. You can get started by reading my New Year's blog post, "Make Your New Year's Resolutions Sustainable", at http://hugatreetodayseriously.blogspot.ca/2011/12/make-your-new-years-resolutions.html.
4. Educate yourself! Simply read a book on environmental issues or eco-friendly tips. You can get one at the library. Many people have said that one of the best things you can do for the planet is to educate yourself. This is probably because knowledge inspires wisdom, and wisdom inspires good choices...





As Zachary Shahan said on planetsave.com, "Today should still be Earth Day, perhaps, but it should also be the beginning of Earth Week, Earth Month and Earth Year. And Earth Year should be an annual thing." (See http://planetsave.com/2010/04/22/what-to-do-on-earth-day/ for the rest of the article.)

Earth Day is all about really making a difference... So how will you be the change this year?

Yours Truly on the Everyday Heroes Festival Website :)

Hello everyone,
Today is the first day of the Everyday Heroes Festival! The Everyday Heroes Festival is a film festival/contest which young people can enter to have their videos shown in malls and bus stops across Canada.
And great news: My video, "Think Before You Drink", was selected as one of the finalists! So, from April 13-22, you can vote for my video online. Go on-- please give me a 5 star vote now: http://www.everydayheroesfestival.com/films/think-you-drink.
Although submissions are no longer being accepted for this year, you can always get filming for next year's contest. The entries will probably be due at the beginning of March 2013 (if the world doesn't end this December!). It took me quite a while to film mine with my aunt. I think we started filming in December 2011, actually. Anyway, it is a great way to make a statement for environmental awareness.
So that my post isn't completely consumed by personal celebration, I'll also give you a list of other environment-related contests that you can enter:

• Teen Ink Environment Contest: http://www.teenink.com/Contests/EnvironC.php
• Earth Day Canada Hometown Heroes Contest: http://www.earthday.ca/hometown/
• Earth Day Canada Community Environment Fund: http://www.earthday.ca/envirofund/
• Fair World Project Fair Trade Adventure for Two: http://www.fairworldproject.org/sweepstakes

Other contests that aren't strictly environment-related but that you can enter to help raise awareness for the environment:

• Photos Win Prizes: http://www.photoswinprizes.com/

I'll put more here if I learn of any!

The Three Kinds of Activism

I think that there are three kinds of activism: public awareness, pushing for legislation, and direct action. Today I'm going to give an overview of each, so that you'll be able to decide which one you might be most interested in doing.

1. Public Awareness: By far the easiest form of activism, public awareness strives to teach people about the issue-- and persuade them to act differently-- in order to make the world a kinder, more sustainable place.
• Popular examples: Earth Hour, King Corn (documentary)
• Ways you can get involved: Start a blog, write an article, submit a letter to the editor, film a video, organize a litter clean-up, place posters on telephone poles, e-mail people and tell them about being eco-friendly
• My example (warning-- prepare to get a little motion sickness! I filmed too quickly. Also, if you plan to do this, don't use colour ink; the rain washed it away after only about a week!):
2. Legislation: This is all about pushing for the government to act differently. It is more difficult than public awareness, obviously!
• Example: Any group that gets you to sign petitions to the government.
• Ways you can get involved: Sign petitions, start petitions, write letters, sign letters. Don't spend all your time doing this, though. Public awareness is important, too.
• My example:
3. Direct Action: Direct action is all about physically getting up and changing things to be the way you want them to happen. This category includes mostly doing things without permission. If you take this route, make sure that all your actions are non-violent; that is, you don't hurt any human or animal by doing it. And direct action needs to be well-planned. Some people will go around blowing up (empty) cars, but that won't really help the environment, will it? I don't know where to draw the line, exactly, but I think that it can probably be useful at times.
• Example: Operation Bite Back
• If you want to learn more, go to http://www.ruckus.com/.

So, what do you want to do to help the environment? Remember as they say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
If you need help with any of your activism efforts, don't hesitate to e-mail me at
rabbit-catATvegemailDOTcom
Until next week...!

Which NGOs Are Worth Giving Donations To?

I used to donate a lot to NGOs (non-governmental organizations), but as I became more knowledgeable about environmental and animal rights issues, I started to wonder just how my money was being used.
This applies to all kinds of NGOs-- environmental, human rights, animal rights, and more. Here is my opinion on making donations each type of NGO:

• Environment: These NGOs are usually perfectly fine to donate to, because they care about animals, humans (usually, anyway), and the environment. But your money might also go towards more undesirable things, like cruel barbeque fundraisers, for example, or wind turbines, which kill birds (we just shouldn't use as much energy, that's all!). As long as you do a bit of research on the organization and you agree with all of their initiatives and their mission statement, however, it should be fine to donate to it.
• Human rights: Human rights is a fine cause, and it very often relates to environmental issues. Fair trade farming, for instance, relates to organic agriculture. Did you know that some people working in the United States are actually slaves to the big corporations? And when pesticides are sprayed all over the fields from above, the laborers don't even have time to run for cover, so their skin soaks up all those toxins. Other human rights groups don't really impact the environment either way-- look at diversity initiatives, for instance. Make sure that your human rights donation does not violate environmental ethic, though-- sometimes the "solutions" to human rights problems only cause more problems elsewhere (e.g. replacing a laborer's old job with an unsustainable forestry one, having one of those cruel barbeque fundraisers, etc.). I don't really have any suggestions of specific organizations, but that isn't to say that there aren't any good ones out there.
• Poverty and Homelessness Charities: These can be okay for environmentalists to donate to. It really depends on what they're doing. If they are doing something seriously detrimental to the environment or animals, then please don't donate to it. For example, some people who go to developing countries to try to give poor people a better life actually encourage the locals to exploit the natural environment, which will really just come back and take away their wealth in the end (see http://www.worldchanging.com/ for information on this and many other topics). And World Vision gives live animals to poor families so that they can breed them and then kill them, which is absolutely horrible. The best way to help impoverished people is to donate environmentally-friendly food and clothes to your local shelters and food bank. That way, no one will be able to go out and buy something unsustainable with your money-- you'll already have done the decision-making for them.
• Health and Research Associations: Ah, so controversial! People like to say, "So you think that we should throw away human lives just so that we don't have to test on animals?" But there are health research organizations that do not test on animals. Go to  http://www.humaneseal.org/search.cfm to search for organizations that have the PCRM's Humane Charity Seal of Approval.
• Animal Rights: Animal rights is very closely tied to environmental issues. Read my article at http://teenink.com/hot_topics/environment/article/403045/Helping-Animals-and-the-Environment/ for some information on how the two relate. My favourite animal rights charity:
• NCVA (National Capital Vegetarian Association-- http://www.ncva.ca/), located in Ottawa, or any other vegetarian/vegan association, such as the Vegan Society (http://www.vegansociety.com/).

Very Important Point: The more specific the cause and the donation, the better results will occur. (e.g. If you want to give dog beds to dogs in animal shelters, buy the dog bed yourself instead of giving your money to the animal shelter, who can do absolutely anything they want with it. And instead of donating to a general environmental group, give your money to an environmental group that focuses on a specific topic that matters a lot to you.) My point is that you never really know exactly how your money can be used, so be careful without being stingy.
I hope you can make the right choices when donating to NGOs!

Painlessly Parting from Plastic

Plastic is everywhere in society: wrapped around food and clothes, littering the streets, in everyone's homes, and stacked up on supermarket shelves in one form or another. But plastic, laced with toxins and almost unable to decompose, presents significant problems to the environment and our health. It is a very unnatural substance derived from oil, which also means that it uses up our precious little resources, only to satisfy fleeting human desires. Here are the best ways to avoid plastic and dispose of it responsibly:

1. Recycle the plastic that you have to reduce the production of more of it.
2. When moving or sending packages in the mail, use newspaper or Papernuts instead of styrofoam peanuts.
3. Bring cloth bags--preferably organic-- to the store and always use them instead of plastic bags. Many grocery stores sell them nowadays. You can buy the pre-made cloth bags or make your own out of old T-shirts (click for my other ideas on how to re-use T-shirts)!
4. Use reusable kitchenware, avoiding plastic plates and cutlery. (Even at parties! We don't want to degrade our resources for convenience, even once in a while! If you still aren't convinced of this urgency, please read this article: http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-bad-for-the-environment-can-throwing-away-one,2892/.)
5. Keep reusable containers to keep your food in. If you already have plastic containers, they will do. But if you now need to go out and buy some, buy either metal containers or special eco-friendly snack bags. The latter can be found at many grocery and health food stores, or at http://www.greentimebags.com/,  http://www.reusies.com/, http://www.reuseit.com/store/lunchskins-sandwich-p-1883.html, and http://www.snacktaxi.com/, to name a few.                                     
6. Buy food and necessities in bulk; this requires less packaging. Individually packaged foods should be avoided!
7. Don't allow plastic to fly away into the wind! It sounds obvious, but someone is obviously dumping their plastic all over the streets. Look outside if you don't believe me. :)

Those are all my tips for reducing plastic. Of course, there are definitely more ways to avoid plastic, depending on your lifestyle. If you would like to point out anything I've missed, feel free to comment below. Thanks!

Special Springtime Gardening Post!

Spring seems to finally be here! In spring, who doesn't love the chirping birds, small green shoots, blooming flowers, light soft rain, and sunny days? We can also use this season to help us be more environmentally friendly.

I haven't very much experience in gardening, but I'll share with you what I know:

1. If you're gardening for aesthetics, the best things to plant are wildflowers and wild grasses that are native to your region. They require very little attention and give a more natural, welcoming feel to your lawn.
2. For an extra sustainability punch, grow your own vegetables! This will reduce the strain on the food production system and make your lifestyle more resilient. So far, I have grown heirloom brandywine tomatoes, and I am now attempting to raise some heirloom pea plants. It isn't really very hard.
3. Even if you are growing your vegetables inside the house, bring them outdoors during mild rain or plentiful sun. It will help with their growth and health and spare you from having to water them with tap water.
4. Use a rain barrell (or a bucket, or a container, or a cup) when it rains. Then use this to water your plants. (It saves water.)
5. Don't go driving for miles just to find the right thing. If you need a container to pot your seedlings, use an old tupperware jar or ask a neighbour if you can use something of theirs.
6. Most of all, spend time outdoors this spring, away from the sucking electricity usage that most of us are far too accustomed to.



Black-Eyed Susans, native wildflowers to my region



Happy gardening!