TAP WATER -  .02 cents  per GALLON

IF YOU  PAY $1  PER  16  OUNCE  CONTAINER,  BOTTLED WATER ADDS UP TO APPROX. $8 PER GALLON.

Turn on the tap instead and save big money … and the environment.

“…..if you’re a moderate water drinker who downs just one 16-ounce bottle a day, you’ll spend about $80 for just a three months’ supply, or 11 gallons worth, of bottled water.

Meanwhile, that $80 will get you at least a year’s worth of filtered tap water……”

The Story of Bottled Water

“……….1.5 million barrels of oil per year, which is enough to fuel 100,000 cars for that same year, are required to satisfy Americans’ demand for bottled water.

Many of these disposable plastic bottles sit forever in a landfill…….

Why You Should Stop Drinking Bottled Water, PLEASE

One example of the incredible journey we’ve witnessed is that of the Internet and attendant technologies.  As recently as 1992 there were only 50 websites.

Our policies on farming,  food production, distribution, and health systems need to focus on the future.

FoodDeclaration.org is working toward doing just that.

.”………a healthy food system is necessary to meet the urgent challenges of our time. Behind us stands a half-century of industrial food production, underwritten by cheap fossil fuels, abundant land and water resources, and a drive to maximize the global harvest of cheap calories. Ahead lie rising energy and food costs, a changing climate, declining water supplies, a growing population, and the paradox of widespread hunger and obesity.”

Here is their state of origin:

Origins

The concept for the declaration began with Michael R. Dimock, the President of Roots of Change (ROC). He was the primary author of Slow Food USA’s first national statute and the founding Chairman of Slow Food USA. Mr. Dimock believed that it would serve the good food movement to collaborate with others on a declaration that could be used to spark the public’s action on national policy. In late 2007, he proposed to Anya Fernald, Executive Director of Slow Food Nation, that ROC could spawn a national effort to develop a declaration related to the farm bill and other food policies that would provide policy content for the Slow Food Nation event. He then proposed the project to ROC’s governing body, the Stewardship Council, in February 2008. With approval from both entities, the project began.

You can read more and endorse the effort here.

A bit further down on the same page you will find Food Democracy Now.

Their efforts toward sustainability are summed up below.  Please take the time to think about this.

Four specific problems to overcome

1. Current policy is mired in a 20th century industrial paradigm, where the primary goals are limited to production volume, efficiency of feeding, and ensured profits for commodity producers and those they supply, thereby, benefiting too few.
2. People, ecosystems, and rural economies are becoming less healthy as a direct result of current American policy.
3. The efforts to solve food and agriculture challenges are not being addressed to the degree required by the scale of the problems.
4. The last farm bill cycle confirmed that too few control the debate and they are focused on protecting the status quo rather than aiding the broader population of the nation.
   
5. 
   

I recently received a gift box of some of my favorite noshes, a fantastic collection of bar chocolates and a big bag of pistachios.  The chocolates now decorate my waistline, but the pistachios……………………..they sit on my counter, untouched.   I adore pistachios but they now fill me with terror.

There have been so many outbreaks of food poisoning that prudence demands that I dump them.  Food poisoning is a problem not only for the suffering consumer, but for the food service industry, too.

Produce-related illness incidents are on the rise, with cantaloupes, nuts, tomatoes, and hot peppers being cited as the most recent outbreaks.

An MSNBC article on food safety reports that 87 million cases of illness were reported last year.

The Mayo Clinic offers a chart on food poisoning causes and the time frame for the onset of symptoms.

eMedicine also has an extensive list in an article by  Roberto M Gamarra, MD. ( scroll down about half way).

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There doesn’t seem to be any consensus on the causality of the problem. Indeed, there is plenty of speculation and finger pointing.

The bottom line is that food service operators, and retail food suppliers, are on the front line in the battle against food-borne illness as the last stop before consumption and are responding to the problem with increased ServSafe(r) training for their staff.

If you aren’t familiar with Ecoworldly, it’s a part of GO Media,  better known as Green Options,  a site you should spend some time on.  They have  clear and very helpful discussions about sustainability.

Over the last four years photographer Paul Mobley traveled the United States and met more than 300 farmers.  You can see a few of them here.  Paging through the book,  American Farmer,  one feels the warm, gritty soil and the sun, hard on your neck.

The book shows us the heart of the U. S. of A.

‘Nuff said.

photograph© 2008 Paul Mobley

I understand the use of bottled beverages, it’s convenient.  But stop and think for a second.  You can buy your own bottle and fill it at the sink. Municipal water systems are tightly regulated and purity is mandated.  However, if you have a concern over that issue, purification filters,  (check out the cost per gallon), are available at your local home supply store.  “Scientific studies even show that bottled water is no safer than tap water, and can sometimes be less safe, containing elevated levels of arsenic, bacteria and other contaminants”.

Think Outside The Bottle,  and CarbonRally,  urges us to rethink our addiction to this wasteful and expensive habit, and puts the facts and figures at your fingertips.  Spend a few minutes, drink in the data, and TAKE THE PLEDGE !

Plastic water bottles and waste management article discusses the issues.

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“I am sorry, Evian and San Pellegrino and Dasani and all the other bottled waters out there—Aqua Velva, Wells Fargo, Muddy Waters, Joan Rivers, Jerry Springer, whatever—but the current campaign against paying good money for bottled water when tap water is perfectly good (and very likely purer) is so sensible on the face of it that I am now done with you……” (read more)

Garrison Keillor in a Sept. 29, 2007 in the Salt Lake Tribune

I ran across this post which made me realize that I need to first attain PhDs in Biodiversity, Chemical Engineering, Ecological  Economics, and Reconciliation Ecology with an accent on Word Construction and minor in Mental Health. A few classes on graphic art and hieroglyphics will come in handy to understand recycling symbolism.

Back in the Dark Ages, prior to my matriculation from grade school, one of my chores was to take the garbage out to the can behind the garage and deposit it so the dinosaurs could come during the night and eat it. Everything went into that can and we felt pretty civilized by not just pitching our chicken bones out the window to lie on the pile of coffee grounds and eggshells,  (dogs might choke on them, you know).

As we moved along into the 21st century we became more sophisticated and adopted attitudes of political correctness,  ( a topic I’m itching to address),  and developed an environmental conscience.   Recycling gradually became the thing to do and we began to feel civilized again.

NO!!!  NO!!! NO!!! NO!!!!

That’s just not gonna do it.  If you’re going to do this properly you need to find out where the stuff was manufactured,  the process used to produce it, who the employees are and if they’re treated well,  how far it’s been shipped, what kind of fuel the truck used and if it’s tires had the proper air pressure, how much it’s going to cost to recycle it, and what kind of smoke goes up the chimney when they incinerate it.

After figuring all this out and paying your therapist to help you overcome a serious problem with anxiety, don’t forget to stop on the way home to pick up a six pack of Smuttynose, and a bucket of chicken.

Once you get relaxed you can use these carbon footprint calculators,( earthlab) and (Berkley) to begin the anxiety process again.

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We live in a disposable society. It’s easier to throw things out than to fix them. We even give it a name – we call it recycling.
Neil LaBute