After going through this assignment, I am more conscious about my intake food and the amount of energy that is consumed to prepare my food. I believe buying local products can reduce energy consumption through the production substantially. It should be noted that living “green” is not only about using recycled products but it requires awareness about the diet as well.
Source:
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Boiled Eggs and Fresh Bread:
The eggs were boiled on the boiling water on the stove for about fifteen minutes. The stove runs on LPG gas, as the source of the energy.
Ingredient: 2 eggs and 1 whole wheat bread bun
Production: I usually try to purchase the eggs that come with the organic and carefree labels. I got the Rabbit River Farms eggs which is a local company located in Richmond BC. According to the company website, the hens are fed three times a day with their special food that is also processed. The humidity and temperature of the farm must be monitored regularly. The maintenance process of egg farms requires burning a lot of fossil fuels. The eggs also need to be kept in a low temperature before arriving the super markets. Organic egg production involves less fossil fuel since the chickens are able to run and roam freely and fewer machines are used in the farms. The most important step in egg production is candling in which the eggs pass over a high intensity light that would reveal imperfections of the eggs. This process also requires a lot of power.
Packaging: The eggs are placed on recycled cardboard packaging, which saves burning a lot of fossil fuels over time.
Delivery: The eggs are shipped from Richmond BC where there is a local egg farm. According to the google maps, the distance from the farm to Vancouver is approximately 15km. Comparing to the eggs that are not produced locally, local egg farms can help saving fossil fuels for during this stage. However, the truck has to remain cold in order to keep the eggs fresh.
Below is a link where BC egg producers talk about their farms:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQnQT8GLs3Q
Whole wheat bread:
Ingredients: Wheat flour, yeast, olive oil, water, salt
Production: I buy the homemade bread buns from the bakery section at Urban Fare supermarket. Their oven runs on the electricity, and it is used for about an hour to bake 30 buns.
Packaging: The buns come in paper bags that are made in the factories and brought to the store. Although the amount of required energy for making the bags is not too high, we should still consider the consumed fossil fuels for production and transportation from the factory to the store.
Delivery: The bread is baked in the store so I usually walk to the store to buy the bread. The store and local suppliers provide the bakery with ingredients.
Sources:
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/aboutind/products/livestck/eggs.htm
http://rabbitriverfarms.com/about/quality_assurance.html
http://www.gourmetfury.com/2011/01/cook-perfect-soft-boiled-eggs-in-an-electric-kettle/
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Strawberries:
I usually have some fruits between my lunch and dinner time. Strawberries are one of my favourite fruits. I bought Driscoll’s organic strawberries from Urban Fare supermarket.
Production: According to Driscoll’s website, the strawberries are planted and harvested throughout an organic processes that “emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations”. The company’s focus on producing an organic product by using renewable energy sources led them to save a significant amount of fossil fuels.
Packaging: The strawberries are sold in plastic packages which is not sustainable and requires special machinery to be made.
Delivery: The strawberries that I purchased were shipped from California which is 1800km away from Vancouver.
Source:
http://www.driscolls.com/berries/organic-berries/what-is-organic
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Grilled Chicken Breast and Salad:
To prepare my lunch, I bought the chicken from Safeway and I had it grilled using my oven at home. Similar to the microwave, the oven runs on electricity. I also bought lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers to prepare the side salad. The vegetable was purchased from a local supermarket.
Ingredient: Chicken breast, canola oil, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber
Grilled Chicken:
Production: Safeway claims that the birds are raised in a soft bed of rice hulls and are settled in a space that is bigger than those for growing conventional chickens. They are fed with high quality nutritionally balanced ingredients. Safeway calls the chickens’ diet, the vegetable diet because all their intake nutrition, such as corn soybean, has vegetable origin. Safeway strongly suggests that there is no animal by-products or animal fats used in the chicken feed. Moreover, The grain requires a lot of energy, such as sunlight, water and soil, to produce as a plant. Planting, protecting, watering, and harvesting are also some of the processes that require energy in order to maintain the growth.
Packaging: The frozen chicken breast was purchased from Safeway in a warehouse package.
Delivery: The information at Safeway website declares that the chicken comes from California, Oregon, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
Salad:
Production: The salad was made of the lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers that were grown in the lower mainland on Vancouver Island. Like grains and other vegetables, these plants need a lot of energy for growing and maintenance. The vegetables require low temperature and humid climate to remain fresh. Therefore the supermarket staff has to ensure that the vegetable section is cool and humid the whole time. Stores need to use special machines in order to control the temperature and humidity and these machines require energy in order to operate.
Packaging: Vegetables are delivered to stores in cardboard boxes. However, the vegetables were brought home in plastic bags which needs energy to be made. You can find a video on plastic bag production below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CfL5xl2N1Q
Delivery: The amount of fossil fuels used for delivery is not too much since lettuce and tomatoes are grown locally.
Sources:
http://www.safeway.com/ShopStores/Open-Nature-FAQ-Meat.page#answer_9
http://www.agf.gov.bc.ca/aboutind/products/plant/lettuce.htm
http://www.penzeys.com/images/recipes/SpicyChickenSalad.jpg
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Oatmeal:
To prepare my breakfast, I mixed a pack of Quaker oatmeal with a cup of water in a bowl and I placed the bowl in microwave for 30 seconds. The Microwave is powered by electricity which is a the source of energy.
Ingredients: Whole grain rolled oats and wheat, sugar, canola oil
Production: Oatmeal manufacture consists harvesting, washing, steaming, and hulling the oats. Standard oats are steel-cut, one the other hand, quick-cooking oats get rolled between cylinders to produce a flatter flake. The oats are roasted and packaged after being flaked. Ventilation systems to reduce the spoilage, escalators, and conveyer belts to move the product to and from warehouse are the main stages of oatmeal production and fossil fuels are used to provide the required energy for mentioned processes.
Packaging: According to the Quaker, the products come in recycled paper boxes. Cans were used previously for packaging.
Delivery: Quaker oats, which is an American based company, has a factory in Ontario that is in charge of distributing the Quaker products throughout Canada in delivery trucks. According to the google maps, the distance from Peterborough Ontario to Vancouver is approximately 4500km.
Sources:
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In this blog, I’m recording my food consumption for 24 hours. Here I look at the role of oil in my food through from the production level to the consumption level.
Below, I have outlined my food intake on July 4th:
Breakfast: Quaker Oatmeal
Lunch: Grilled Chicken Breast and Salad
Snack: Driscoll’s Strawberries
Dinner: Boiled Eggs and Fresh Bread
Source:
http://www.honestlyhealthy.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/food_is_good_by_sprits-d492iza.png
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