Blog Reflection 7

Food Intake....

Foods that I found I ate regularly was rye/multi grain toast, peanut butter and jam, milk, chicken (breasts, sliced deli meat), coffee, crackers, salad. Those would be some "consistent" items. Concerns with even those alone would be safety (especially after some class discussions on GMOs). For the chicken that I am eating...are they GMO? Are they being pumped with roids? Milk is a concern as well. Are the animals in proper living areas and what are they eating to produce the milk that I am drinking? What sort of wastes are coming from cows that are eating unnatural foods to them? How far away is this milk coming from? I know there are local dairy farmers around Manitoba, but if our milk is still being shipped in long distances, transportation and carbon emissions go up, as does energy used in keeping the milk cold enough that it won't spoil.
Salads that I am eating can be concerning as well. If I had the "works" on my salad, any or all of those ingredients could have been sprayed with chemicals to enhance shelf time. Also, if they are not grown locally they will be getting shipped in from long distances and carbon emissions increase from transportation alone. What kind of chemical ARE being used, not to mention if they are being used properly or being cleaned properly. Generally salad makings come in plastic packaging which is a whole other danger to the environment. Milk cartons and jugs are easily disposed of, but plastic wrapping isn't easily recyclable, and if it were, many recycling facilities don't always accept all forms of plastic.
For general health, I am trying to reduce red meat that I am eating, but I did have some steak tonight. It was locally raised and butchered, so I believe that environmentally this particular steak was some what "ok". Too much red meat isn't really healthy for people anyway, so if we go by a philosophy to reduce our intake in general we can reap many benefits. Increased health, possible decrease in weight, less GHGs emitted by cows, less cows slaughtered, and even less cows needed to be grazing on fields etc.
Any sort of Tim Hortons muffin or cheese sticks from the grocery store are items of question as well. I'm sure the ingredients in the muffin are not too healthy or fresh, not to mention the batter/mixture probably comes from a "head office" somewhere. Cheese sticks from the store that are "peelable" are probably not manufactured organically and probably use a lot of technology and mechanics in production and is likely not a food item that's freshly made or locally produced. They also come individually wrapped and then again packaged as a whole.

I don't find the foods I have eaten over the past 48 hours to be horrible but they do have an impact on the environment whether be directly or indirectly. Again, the message is to try and buy organic or locally so as to reduce all the unseen big-wig production plants. My work did order Olive Garden for lunch today, which could be an entirely different story in itself. We only used one vehicle to pick it up, but a lot of plastic cutlery and paper plates were used, and the food was all in aluminum containers which I didn't check to make sure they are recyclable. I am unsure if the chicken or vegetables were locally grown, but likely they were not. It was delicious, but in most "take out" cases people aren't usually consciencious of their recycling skills.