you might see a slew of posts from me today--we shall see. I am entering Maria's contest (you should too!) but I also have been saving up a lot of posts, too!
so, not to sound all high and mighty (I'm not, pinkie swear!) but I feel like I'm pretty well informed about all things environmental. I read, I learn, I'm an environmental engineer for a living. It's not often that someone can tell me about an idea or concept that's totally new to me unless it's, well, totally new to everyone.
that said: for our wedding we registered for this book. In the PREFACE--yes, within the first like 3 pages of the book--it made me aware of something I had never considered. you ready for it?well, you might've heard me (or someone else) tell you the importance of eating local. carbon emissions, local economy and whatnot.
and then that is always quickly followed with the suggestion of eating organic. local first, then organic. there's like a 90% chance your local food is essentially organic anyway (and by that I mean they only use pesticides if their crops are actually threatened--and even then it's generally one that is natural or less scary for people. but I digress.)
so, new factoid I had never considered:
cook your food as quickly as possible.
huh?
okay, let's say you have two recipes--both call for identical ingredients. chicken, some veggies, some seasoning, a little bit of oil. something like that. one requires 10 minutes to cook. one requires 45 minutes to cook. perhaps it's the difference between a sauteed dish and a baked dish.
well, guess what? that extra 35 minutes of energy required to cook meal #2? yep--not as eco friendly.
now, take this with a grain of salt. obviously if it's winter and you're using the oven and you leave it open afterward to release the heat into your house and warm it up, you're re-purposing that energy and then it's not the same thing. but it's just something to keep in mind!
that's earth day tip #1. I'm hoping to get to share more with you today, we'll see how it goes :D
