Food is Life!

I had noble goals this year to join my neighborhood community garden and plant perfect lines of vegetables that I could harvest, pickle and can in the fall. Now all of a sudden fall is well upon us (what happened to spring and summer?) and I’ve not so much as lifted a shovel in the meantime. Well, it’s never too early to learn about gardening and plan your garden, right?

In that spirit I invite you to an entire weekend of food and nutrition programming at the Central Library this fall in a series called Food is Life. Thirteen programs on a variety of food related topics will be held Friday October 3^rd and Saturday October 4^th.

The Calgary Horticultural Society will present two programs: Grow Your Own Vegetables and Organic and Sustainable Gardening. Staff from Community Natural Foods will be on hand to discuss the organic food industry, food certification and why organics are important to you and the environment in a session called Why Organics?

Perhaps you know a pint-sized picky eater. Julie Van Rosendaal, CBC’s “queen of cuisine” will host Healthy Food, Healthy Kids discussing healthy and appealing food for all ages from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. on Sunday.

Sharon Gafka will also share her story of dramatic weight loss in a program called Losing Myself, Finding Myself on Sunday from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Sharon lost over 160 pounds through sensible nutrition and regular exercise.

Local author Dee Hobsbawn-Smith will explore the philosophy, ethics and challenges of slow living and eating locally in The Garden of Eatin’.

The idea for Food is Life came to Patrick Mealey, one of the Central Library’s Adult Programming Officers and the weekend’s creator, because “Everyone around me is a foodie—at work and at home.” I can vouch for the work part.

If you too delight in food, gardening and all that goes with it, sign up with your library card for these free programs by clicking here.

Food Is Life!

John Dutton Theatre, Central Library

Saturday October 3rd

Grow Your Own Vegetables 9-10 a.m.

Organic and Sustainable Gardening 10-11 a.m.

Why Organics? 11-12 a.m.

The Garden of Eatin' 1-2 p.m.

Slow Taste 2-3 p.m.

Eating Healthy Without Breaking the Bank! 3-4 p.m.

Aging Well With Optimal Nutrition 4-5 p.m.

Sunday October 4th

Making Sense of Food Labels 10-11 p.m.

When Food is the Enemy 11-12 p.m.

Eating Well in Today's Fast Paced Society 12-1 p.m.

Healthy Food, Healthy Kids 1-2 p.m.

Recreational and Competitive Sports Nutrition 2-3 p.m.

Losing Myself, Finding Myself 3-4 p.m.

Idle Chatter - Part 2

In my last post I touched on ways to save money by reducing gasoline waste. Continuing on this same topic, as a general rule simply keeping your vehicle in good operating condition goes a long way to reducing how much gas it uses. Great tips on ways to maintain your vehicle to maximize fuel efficiency can be found on the Auto Repair Reference Center database that is part of the Calgary Public Library's E-Library.

How to get there: From the CPL homepage, click on the E-Library tab. In the following screen, choose Auto, Home & Consumer in the Subject Find Menu. Auto Repair Reference Center is the second database down the list, clicking on it and then entering your library card number and PIN (the last four digits of your phone number) gains you access to repair information on 25,000 vehicles and lots of other information, such as gas saving tips. Click on the Repair & Care Tips, and in the following screen there is a Ways to Save Fuel heading that leads to 23 separate maintenance methods you can do to reduce your car's gas consumption. A separate Driving Habits tab reveals that how you drive can also have significant impact on your fuel economy - accelerating and braking quickly, for example, will use a lot more fuel than driving smoothly will. Also you should be careful not to carry unnecessary wieght, such as leaving sandbags in your trunk, as each additional 100 pounds in cargo will cost you an additional 1% in fuel consumption.

Another great place to find similar information is the Natural Resources Canada's Office of Energy Efficiency (whew!). This site offers lots of great fuel saving information and even has a fuel consumption calculator to help you accurately track your fuel savings.

The more I investigate this topic, the more I wonder if I could live without a car entirely. An earlier Eco-Action post explores this very topic. I would also draw your attention to Calgary's Carsharing Coop, which you can link to from our Sites We Like. However if you, like me, are not quite ready to make this step, then the least we can do is find ways reduce the gas we burn. Your planet and your wallet will thank you.

Idle Chatter - Part 1

 This weekend my wife and I drove up to a wedding north of Red Deer. I checked my tire pressure and found that all four of my tires were below the recommended pressure, so I pumped them all up before we left. For a self-proclaimed Eco-Miser, I'm ashamed to admit it, but this was the first time I'd taken this very simple step to reduce my fuel consumption. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that finding ways to reduce the amount of gasoline we use has got to be one of the most financially beneficial and environmentally responsible actions we can take. So let me share a few gas/money saving tips with you:

• Keep your tires properly inflated: A tire that is under-inflated by just two psi can reduce fuel efficiency by as much as 2% and reduce the tire’s life by about 6,500 kilometres.* My tires were all at least two psi below where they should have been. 
• Make sure your gas cap is always on securely: Fuel will evaporate when exposed to air. In fact every time you open your gas cap some fuel will evaporate so it is also a good idea to avoid frequent small fill-ups, and when you do refuel make sure to put the cap back on as quickly as possible.
• Avoid unnecessary idling: This is a big one. According to AMA Alberta, if every Albertan motorist avoided idling their vehicle for just 5 minutes per day, more than 300,000 tonnes per year of CO2 emissions would be spared from entering the atmosphere. Any time you idle for more than ten seconds you are burning more gasoline than restarting your engine**. You may already know to avoid the drive-thru, but a small action like training yourself to buckle your seat belt before starting your car will save a couple of seconds of idling from every trip you take.  
• Use your block heater: Many of us idle our cars for ten minutes or more on cold winter mornings to warm up the engines. A better idea would be to turn on your block heater about two hours before you plan to leave in the morning. This is easy enough to do with a simple timer. With the engine warmed by the block heater, you don't have to let your car idle for more than thirty seconds!**
• Drive less: This is obviously the best thing you can do - a tank of gas costs about as much as a monthly bus pass after all. Although for many of us giving up the family car is not a practical option, almost all of us can find ways to make fewer trips.
  

Keeping Up With the Joneses...or the Greens

Is the grass (and the water consumption and energy use and recycling) always greener on the other side of the fence? Is being green with envy actually a good thing?

Imagine this: the people who live next to you are good neighbours and seem like decent people, but you lead a busy life and don’t pay much attention to them. Then you notice that in addition to regularly putting out their recycling for pickup, they only put out one (ONE!) small bag of garbage each week. They spend a bit of money and some hard work creating a new front yard that requires little water or other attention. They purchase a nice new vehicle—a hybrid.

What do you do?

According to a study done by Robert Cialdini, a professor at Arizona State University and author of the book: Influence: Science and Practice, you would start making more of an effort to make ecological choices. That’s right—we’d all be a little greener with envy.

Cialdini has done extensive studies into why we do what we do. One of his theories of influence is social proof—essentially that we are more likely to do things that we see others doing. Bonnie Tsui, in her Atlantic article Greening with Envy, quotes Cialdini as saying that: “people are mostly oblivious to the impact of the decisions of those around them, but they are powerfully affected, without recognizing what it is that is influencing them.”

So while our mothers may have warned us not to give in to peer pressure (“If Johnny jumps off of a bridge would you jump off a bridge?”), there is both good and bad peer pressure. Environmentally speaking, this emphasizes the importance of the green movement and the ecologically sound choices we make—both big and small.

If you’re already setting a great example by living lightly on the planet, you now have something else to feel good about: you’re influencing others to make change, whether they realize it or not. And perhaps we all may want to open our eyes and be a little more aware of what our neighbours are doing—and give in to a little green peer pressure.

Need Some Positive Green News?

If you’re tired of hearing and reading about all of the bad things that we humans do to the environment, you should consider coming to the Calgary Public Library’s screening of the movie Fresh. From a family run grocery store chain that focuses on providing locally grown and raised food on their shelves to Bill Salatin, a farmer that proves that you can farm naturally, raise animals humanely and still create a profit, Fresh: The Movie highlights some shining examples of those who work to make the earth a better place.

Fresh: The Movie

Sustainable Living Book Club

If you like reading books about the environment, and would enjoy getting together with other readers to discuss eco books, then here's a wonderful opportunity.

The Sustainable Living Book Club meets once a month on a Wednesday evening from 6 to 7:30 p.m., at the downtown Calgary Public Library (616 Macleod Trail S.E., 4th floor meeting room) 

Organized by Sustainable Calgary, this book club is now in its third season, and provides a forum for lively, thoughtful discussion.

The fall 2009 schedule for meetings and topics/books is as follows:

Wednesday, Sept. 16: Drive by Tim Falconer

Wednesday, Oct. 21: The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer

Wednesday, Nov. 18: Economics for Everyone by Jim Stanford

 Everyone is welcome at this free event.

Leave No Child Inside

When I was young and summers were long, one of my favourite things was to spend the days getting lost -- in forest and fields and in rich, imaginary worlds. By the time I returned to school, nut brown and half wild, I knew where the badgers lived, where prairie chickens danced, and the best sites for picking saskatoons and chokecherries.

Today, it is estimated that the typical child spends 5 – 7 hours every day in front of a screen (indoors), and can recognize thousands of corporate logos, but fewer than ten names of animal species in his/her local community.

American author, Richard Louv, has called this disconnect between children and the outdoors, nature deficit disorder. His book, Last Child in the Woods, is a compelling testimony as to why children need nature as much as nature needs children. Louv directly links the lack of nature in the lives of today's wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends, including obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

Here in Canada,  renowned artist Robert Bateman, has also taken up the cause to reconnect children and nature, as he believes appreciation of the wild is one of the single most important issues. His program, Get to Know is focused on encouraging youth to get outdoors and get to know their wild neighbours.

Outdoor activities stimulate health, nutritional habits and improve schoolwork. Exposure to nature develops cognitive abilities and builds self confidence.

After a difficult day at school, one of the most healing actions may be to encourage children to go into the backyard or explore Calgary’s parks and pathways, and find a separate peace that does not exist within four walls or on an electronic screen. Here a child finds freedom, privacy and a fantasy world more rich and unique than any video game or TV program.

Raw Food Recipes