My grandparents use disposable utensils every time they have company over, since both are almost 90 and can’t physically clean multiple plates, cups and cutlery. Therefore seeing all the disposable plastic utensils, they use almost every week, has gotten me really worried and thinking of what can be done.

At class when thinking about environmental innovation I came up with the idea of making cups, plates and cutlery out of food. Which in my defense had no idea was a concept already invented and in process of improving.

Recently Andrea Duarte, sent us a video of the discussion we had and I was so happy to see entrepreneurs making edible utensils real.

I’ll link the video right here, which I do suggest you watch.

Narayan Peesapathy founded Bakeys Food in 2010, and it’s responsible of the innovative product. The cutlery is made out of millet, rice and wheat. They come in different flavors and decompose within 4 to 5 days if people don’t feel like eating them. I am so happy innovation such as this is actually being made. The part that really got me excited is the fact that 100 of these cost only four dollars. Even if plastic are less expensive, the green mainstream nowadays, might be enough to change consumer preference. In addition, Narayan wants to improve the process and make it less expensive which is also a great way to think and market this product m.king it great first with a low price, and green second.

Personally I love the idea and will send the video to my grandparents so they can switch to these when they become available. We desperately need this product.

What do you think about edible cutlery? Is it a threat to disposable plastic cutlery? Do you see a future where everyone uses this instead of the others?

Just in case you haven’t hear specifically of GMOs, it basically means organisms that have been genetically modified by humans. Which I have noticed have developed a bad reputation over the years. People actively try to purchase groceries that claim to be GMO free, however do they really know why?

Since GMO means genetically modified organism, selective breeding is a type of GMO. The domestication of different fruits and vegetables over the years, for example was through selective breeding hence they are GMOs.

Business Insider released a video showing the evolution of different fruits and vegetables before and after humans intervened through selective breeding. Which you might guess by watching the video, today’s fruits and vegetables are much more convenient.

“Here’s what fruits and vegetables looked like before we domesticated them”

Other types of GMOs can be found in multiple types of dog breeds. Among these; French bulldogs, Bull terriers, Boxers, German Shepherd and Pugs.

Yes, cute little pugs are GMOs. However, dog breeds are not the best example of how great GMOs are. The selective breeding benefits humans, making dogs more convenient to take care of, however is not the best for dogs . For example, French bulldogs can’t mate or give birth naturally, their hips are too slim for both activities. French bulldogs are made in a laboratory through artificial insemination, and all females have a cesareans.

However don’t let dog breeds give GMOs a bad rep. Humans actively love, and demand these breeds.

Finally, the last GMO example I really wanted to discuss is golden rice. Deficiency in Vitamin A is estimated to kill 670,000 children under the age of 5 each year. The Golden Rice projected created a GMO of of white rice, whose purpose is to feed low income families who were being affected by this problem. Golden rice has significantly more Vitamin A. Rice is a common food low income families eat everyday, by replacing rice with golden rice, this GMO is estimate to aid nutritional problems all over the world.

Consequently, are GMOs really to be avoided? Is the problem with GMOs the use humans give them?

Mexico City has a really nice weather on average. The weather is calm, it rarely rains, the temperature is always between 5 °C in the early morning, and 25 °C in the afternoon.

Two weeks ago the weather went bonkers. The wind became so strong that it caused windows to break, trees and billboards to fall. They canceled classes in most of the schools in fear things could fall on people. The picture below is an image of a broken window, the wind caused, at the University I’m exchanging from.

Not only that, but it snowed in the country! I had never seen snow until I came to Canada, because it never snows there. The weather caused records of cold and snow in parts of central and northern Mexico and more than a foot of rain in the Southeast.

The crazy weather is affecting species in the country. For example, monarch butterflies, who in the winter fly to Mexico for the warm weather, and in the summer fly to Canada. The snow froze some of them and a huge investment is being made to save the ones that remain.

In addition, this week, for the first time in 14 years Mexico city has declared a state of emergency as a result of the air contamination. Phase 1 of Atmospheric Environmental Contingency was activated in the Valley of Mexico, where temporary tactics were put into place. In Mexico, 9300 deaths a year are associated with air contamination. From January 2010 to 2013, poor air quality caused 19 242 premature deaths, 53 191 hospitalizations and more than 3 million medical consultations.

Air contamination is causing people to miss school, work, and worst of all, people and species are dying. The crazy thing though, is that somehow some people don’t attribute this drastic change in weather to global warming. All the evidence is there, we are actually living through a change in weather that is scary and dangerous.

The weather change is having an economical impact on the country. Investment in sustainability can actually profit the city on the long run to a great extent. However the initial investment would be difficult to obtain. Issues such as income inequality, the distribution of education, among others, will have to be addressed first in order to make a sustainable change in the country. I just hope we can do it before it’s too late.

We live in a binary culture where you are either all in or all out, a man or a woman, eating well or eating bad, gay or straight, green or khaki; and anything in-between is hard to understand and to validate by society.

The motivation to write this blog, was the interaction I had with my roommate a couple of days ago. She’s a vegetarian, and as she was going out wearing a leather jacket, I said she was looking very nice. Immediately after I highlighted her outfit, she had the necessity to assure me her jacket was fake leather, even though I didn’t asked or emphasis the leather like material she was wearing. I feel she had the need to say it was fake to maintain her reputation, or carry her title. As if society was policing her behaviour as a vegetarian, and even though she hasn’t eaten meat in 5 years, if she were to wear leather that one time, she could no longer carry that title. Which is ridiculous and made me reflect on this mentality because the overall concept might be hindering sustainability.

The problem with all-in-all-out mentality is that it demotivates people to be in anything “in-betweeen”. It is hard for people to see rewards in being just a little bit more sustainable, because the all in all out mentality dictates that just a little bit of change doesn’t count, you will still be in the same binary box unless you make a major change. In this world consuming less meat doesn’t mean you’re a vegetarian. This behaviour feels non recognizable, as if someone who eats meat and someone who rarely eats meat are the same, however not eating meat often, actually helps the environment a great deal more.

I’ve seen people ask, environmental engineers, vegans, vegetarians, basically anyone who cares about the environment, things like “If you care so much about the environment, why are you drinking from a plastic bottled?” “Why would you use a car or public transportation? That emits greenhouse gasses.” “How can you use the dishwasher? That uses energy and water”

Society, invalidates people’s major contribution to the environment if the overall behaviour is not a clear representation of perfect forest green.

How do you think we can overcome all or nothing mentality? Have you notice this behaviour before reading this blog? Are there any advantages to this binary culture?

All my life, I was educated to believe that milk was this cool healthy drink, that was good for your bones, and helped you grow. To my surprise, in recent years, milk has gotten some awful publicity. Which explains all the new milk like products on the market, such as almond or soy milk. Among this awful publicity, I repeatedly and recently saw this image in my social media, which I translated since it was originally in Spanish, and posted it below.

Other than the blood poured in the glass of milk, the image caught my attention for all the claims attached to it. For example, how can milk cause arthritis if it’s supposed to help your bones with calcium, not make them ill? Or how about milk causing breast and prostate cancer?

I honestly don’t care about the 135 million cells of pus in my milk, though.  The purpose of the claim is to gross you out, but there is no actual evidence that this is bad for you. Got Pus? …I mean Milk? I’ve been drinking milk for more than 20 years, the pus never bother me anyway.

So let’s assume milk sucks, it sucks for your body and for the environment, and there is a lot of evidence that suggests this to be true. What other options do we have?

Apparently, almond milk isn’t that great for the environment either. It takes 5 liters of water to grow 1 almond and more than 80% of the world’s almond crops are in California. Think about how they are getting water to crops, and how they import the almonds to all over the world. Places outside of the US normally get almond milk imported there, they don’t produce it in the country.

In addition, soybean plantations into forest are also having a horrible environmental impact. Deforestation is responsable for around 15% of greenhouse emissions caused by people. 

Maybe, the problem with all the milks is that we are drinking way too much. The problem is that we’re 7 billion people in this world who on average drink milk everyday.

Would you consider reducing or erasing milk from your diet, after knowing this facts? Is milk actually bad for your health and the environment, or is it the quantity we’re consuming? Is there a possibility to feed 7 billion people without destroying the earth? Wouldn’t we want to know.

Being a vegan, is  something that has been known to have less impact on the environment, on average. The word vegan has become something beyond not consuming animal products, it is a lifestyle and a title people carry with pride. For this reason some individuals have taken it very seriously, and even consuming leather, can make you skeptical about using that title on yourself.

As a former vegan, that’s how I discover some vegan brands.

Among these, there is KEEP, a shoe company that sells online. What is interesting about KEEP is that, even if they manufacture vegan, they don’t primarily advertise it as such.

For example, the description of KEEP on their website, never clearly mentions animal free. Throughout the first three paragraphs they never use the words, animal or vegan. The closest words that could connect their brand to something vegan  through this paragraphs are “Keep came into being through … the deep desire to make classic, clean shoes without the bulk and bother of other brands“. They use the word “clean” and “without bulk” implying light comfortable shoes, however it’s vague if they also want to infer their products are animal free through this wording.

They do mention their shoes are vegan and use it in different parts of their website, however they don’t highlight that as much. KEEP expands their target audience, by appealing to more segments, through this strategy. They are focusing on design and the experience consumers live through their products. That’s why you cannot find the words animal free in their description but you can find “… keeps is what you remember doing when wearing our shoes or clothes, the memories you have of your wanderings, the feelings you’ve experienced along the way.” Using words like “memories” or “experienced”, account for a completely different marketing strategy that doesn’t primarily appeal to true-blue greens or Greenback Greens.

As the sustainability trend evolves and green has become mainstream, I’m surprised even a small businesses, would incorporated a marketing strategy, that positions their product as great first and green second.

Do you like KEEP’s current marketing strategy ? Would you change it in order to mainly target True-blue Greens or Greenback Greens? Would you be interested to try KEEP even if you weren’t a vegan? I would love to hear what you think about KEEP.