How Did You Get Here?

I had some fun watching a few videos and reading a few blogs/articles so I thought I would share my fun:

-An eye-opening YouTube playlist about Canadian farmers and sustainability.

–Sculptures by Beth Cavener depicting animal cruelty

-an interesting diagram about what kind of energy goes into animal protein vs. soy protein

– the world’s coal consumption from 1980-2010

–The Human Cost of Energy

Enjoy!

Usually I just want to relax for dinner. And so, I either pre-cook all of my meals to be re-heated or I pick up something that was made in the kitchen of Valoroso. I mean.. how can you ignore all of this awesome-ness? (Scroll down for pictures.)

Valoroso from the outside.

Where I wait for my lasagna.

Where I stand in line to order my lasagna.

The lasagna itself is made in their kitchen with authentic Italian ingredients. Which essentially means they come from Italy. I normally bring my own pyrex dish and ask for 5 or 6 servings. (Depending on how busy I will be for the week.)

So where are fossil fuels being used up in this process?
Essentially- in the distribution and manufacturing processes as these products come from Italy to Canada. (Or Kelowna, to be more specific.)
Also, in the making of my pyrex dish which is a glass casing and a plastic lid. The glass itself is infused with chemicals made by a German scientist way back when. However, it has since joined forces with the U.S.
The process of making these probably uses up a lot of energy especially with how much they are manufacturing to be able to cater to the entire world. (As it is listed on their website.)

But alas, all good things come to an end. Dinner marks the end of my 24 hours of food consumption.
For now, here’s a little fun poster on fossil fuels.

Lunch, a seen in the title, is my least favourite meal of the day for a number of reasons:

• it ends up being RIGHT in the middle of my day, so it’s more of a nuisance
• it is the only meal I eat on-the-go
• I’m normally never hungry

So today, I had carrots and creamer potatoes roasted with some rosemary and thyme.

The carrots are from the “bulk” produce in Save-On-Foods and the potatoes were also from Save-On. I roasted these with extra virgin olive oil, home grown rosemary, and home grown thyme. The olive oil was purchased from Valoroso (my favourite market in Kelowna) and the herb plants were purchased from Save-On.

It was nice to see that my potatoes and carrots came from here– a family farm in Cloverdale. Once you click on the link, you see how much heavy-machinery they use to gather, harvest, and produce their crops. And so, I automatically wonder how much gas is needed to run these huge beasts. My produce would also have to make the trip up to Kelowna from Cloverdale via trucks. Again, more fossil fuels used up.

Also, how about those plastic bags that keep the produce from touching whatever else is in your basket. When I went into Cooper’s Foods today (a branch of Save-On-Foods) and asked where their plastic bags come from- they asked their manager. The store manager (who was in today, luckily) said that they would give me their card and I could send in an email of inquiry. So, no luck there.
My herb plants were from Save-On-Foods as well… and came without a label as they were on clearance. These are the plants that have been around for a while and look close to dying. I proved them wrong and brought them back to life. Here they are:

From left to right: Mint, Rosemary, and Basil.
And not seen in picture: pea sprouts and thyme.

My olive oil is from a store called Valoroso. This family actually travels to Italy to hand-pick which products they want to bring back to Canada. Some of the products come to Canada via plane, some via ship, and some via trucks or some sort of combination of any of these methods. The olive oil I bought is shipped and then delivered via truck. There will be more on Valoroso in my next post as I buy my lasagna from there. (They make all of their ready to eat food in their kitchen!) The packaging is a tin container with a plastic cup. The tin probably comes from a tin mine and the plastic from a factory. The emissions out-put is probably sky-high. *pun intended* And so, I researched the tin mining industry and couldn’t find much for Italian products aside from the fact that most of their tin comes from China or Russia. This is where my research stopped.. because have you seen theAi Weiwei documentary? To extract (or demand)  information about their tin-mining practices isn’t exactly a walk in the park. Looks like the information still needs to get out there!

Turns out lunch isn’t so boring after all.
Especially when you eat while you watch this Ted Talk.

This is what I have on an almost-daily basis (if I’m not running late, that is.)

Some Krema Greek Yogurt (about half a cup and I will opt for vanilla or “honeylicious”.)

A slice of coconut swirl bread… pre-made and bought from an “oriental express” store in Kelowna.

And a vanilla latte! (Home-made.)

So what is the break-down?

The Krema Greek Yogurt is:

• GMO Free
• certified organic
• sugar cane as a sweetener
• facility=meets and exceeds CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency) standards

So how does the packaging work? THIS and THIS is what I could find.
So how is it being transported? More consciously than anything else I eat.

All in all, it seems as though Olympic Dairy is doing a great job in being more aware and careful of how their product is made and how it gets to your refrigerators. I perused the cyber-sphere to see if there was any information that says otherwise but failed to uncover any. Looks like this company is committed to sustaining our environment and are even open to suggestions! I tried e-mailing them today to see what kind of reply I would get and whether or not they would respond… I only e-mailed this morning so I’m still waiting on a response.

The Coconut Swirl Bread is:

• from T&T Supermarket in Vancouver (driven up to Kelowna)
• not organic
• packaged in cellophane

I couldn’t find much on the company’s practices apart from a wikipedia page and the “about us” tab on their website. From what I can tell, this is probably the least “environmentally aware” or the least sustainable food product I consume. Their breads are said to be made in their bakeries and their ingredients are not organic (which means they aren’t necessarily local either.) So not only is this loaf of bread being driven up to Kelowna from Vancouver, the ingredients that are being used to make it could possibly be shipped to Canada or flown over. Imagine how many different fossil fuels are being burned to get here! This reminds me of a video (one of my favourite summaries on fossil fuels) I had seen… and how I believe this company is definitely playing into an economy centred around the production of fossil fuels. (And this is why I’m switching over to bread products I know are made organically in Kelowna.) Also, this bread seems to be priced quite cheaply for how much travelling it has done. I wonder where these costs are being cut? If you read the wikipedia page on T&T, it discusses a legality issue it had with a worker that claimed they were being under-paid and over-worked. Having this issue raised (whether plausible or not) makes me question its’ practices. All in all, the company seems to be more focused on how quickly and efficiently they can have the dollars flowing in no matter what the cost.

And the packaging? Cellophane… not only are they putting toxic waste into the product, even more toxic waste is coming out via the factories and creating chemicals that have been synergistically intertwined. Now, THIS is the truly scary part.. the chemicals going into the products before manufacturing are tested and so are the different chemicals (for the most part) going in during manufacturing… these two sets of chemicals combined though…??? You guessed it, not being tested! There are large amounts of fossil fuels being burned to have this packaging produced and transported only to have it thrown into the garbage for it to be removed, transported, and dumped (as it can not be recycled- it actually says “Can not be recycled” on the packaging.) So even MORE fossil fuels are going into this bread after it has already been consumed.

The Vanilla Latte:

• home-made with my own espresso machine
• the syrup is from Starbucks
• the coffee beans are from Starbucks
• the milk is from Superstore (in Kelowna)

Finding any sort of information against Starbucks is, admittedly, difficult. I’m sure the corporation somehow regulates what information is out their about their business practices (maybe I’ll get an e-mail telling me to take down everything I am about to type… maybe not.) I will admit that they are clever in every aspect of marketing…
especially when I researched how they had successfully captured China.

However, this site was my gold mine for information. My coffee beans and my syrup are from all over the world in developing nations. Starbucks holds true to the “free market” mantra of “buy cheap, sell dearly,” which only means that not only am I spending a ton of money on these products but someone out there is being underpaid while the company is rolling in money.

It is probably safe to assume that Starbucks can afford to “spend big” on long-distance travels for their product whether it be via air or sea… which just means MORE fossil fuels! And more toxins being emitted into the atmosphere! They truly have made it difficult to find any sort of information on delivery, packaging, and manufacturing… this website even compares the Starbucks lack of transparency to trying to get the “Westboro Baptist Church members to show a glimmer of human decency.”

The milk itself is from “Foremost Dairies” which is owned by Loblaw. (Interestingly, so was T&T.. the supermarket that sells the coconut swirl bread.) And here is what I have found out… remember the Bangledash incident? (That was them.) Or how about the 200+ laid off workers? (That was them too.) Or the burger recall because of a threat of high E.coli levels? (Not Surprisingly…. them again.)

If THIS is what their business practices are. I can’t even imagine their manufacturing and delivery practices.

More specifically, the milk itself is from “Foremost Farms”- a large corporation in the U.S. This is the information that Foremost provides about their “Bulk Fluid Milk.”

Here is their write-up for where their farms are located:

“Who owns Foremost Farms? Foremost Farms is a dairy cooperative owned by about 2,000 dairy farmer-members in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. In 2011, they supplied 5.7 billion pounds of milk. We’re among the top 10 dairy cooperatives in the United States, and our annual sales were $1.7 billion in 2011.”

Here is where their manufacturing happens.

Interestingly, I found a video about their milk production in 1948. In this “picture,” they are already showing the “latest scientific technology.” If this is part of their beginnings- where are they now? My guess is- more “innovative” and “technologically” advanced than before. Which means… you guessed it, MORE fossil fuels being used. Not only is energy being used throughout the manufacturing and the delivery.. it is also going into the storage as it travels. Getting my milk from the U.S. seems unnecessary.. so why do I buy it? It is the cheapest milk out there. And again, costs are probably being cut somewhere (which means someone is suffering.) However, I failed to uncover where it is in the production line that makes this milk so cheap.

Being Food Smart (click for YouTube video) is a choice you need to make and own. After moving out of my parent’s house, this is exactly what I had intended to do! Making my own meals, buying less take-out and less fast-food.. this is where I started to get “food smart.” And I already started to feel so much better! 

It wasn’t until university, however, that I realized I was not being smart enough! This is where (through friends, colleagues, and professors) I learned about sustainability. And I am still in the process of making conscious choices by questioning where my food is coming from, how it’s getting here, how it’s being grown (or made or slaughtered *caution: graphic*), and why some of it is so cheap (in other words, where are the costs being cut from?).  If this eleven-year old can think so critically… I feel like we (the universal “we” for university students and those that have benefited from a post-secondary education) should be able to, too! 

This project encourages me to look closely and thoroughly assess these kinds of questions about my food. Each blog post will feature a meal that I have consumed and all of its’ information. I will do this for 24 hours! Enjoy!