Year-Round Local Food on Campus: It Can be Done

Recently, the Farm-To-College initiative was launched at Vassar College by creating partnerships to offer sauce, salsa, side dishes, and produce from locally-grown ingredients. Through a combination of canning and freezing, meals from the Hudson Valley foodshed (NY) will satisfy the cravings of "locavores" year-round. Sponsorship from a renowned chef and the "big sauce challenge", an hour-long competition a la the Iron Chef, helped spread the word to students. Read more here.

Eating Faithfully for the Climate

Who knew that eating local and organic foods could be so good for the climate? Here is a list of local and organic food providers and a report outlining the climate impacts of industrial agriculture, namely from long-distance transportation. Fortunately, the solutions are both simple and delicious -- buying local and organic foods that are better for the climate, our health, and the local economy. Bon appetite!


1) Places to buy local and organic foods in Ann Arbor:

Do we really need to buy apples from Washington when there are orchards in our backyard? If you look carefully, most grocery stores have a growing selection of natural, organic, and in some cases, local foods. Kroger, Bush's, and many other supermarkets offer some choices. If you don't find what you're looking for, speaking to a manager or customer service representative could make a big difference. The places listed below specialize in local and organic food. Prices are competitive or sometimes cheaper if you buy produce that's in season or take advantage of bulk food items.

Ann Arbor Farmer's Market
Ann Arbor People's Food Co-op
Arbor Farms Market
Trader Joe's (chain)
Whole Foods Market (chain)

Michigan Daily article reviewing local food options


2) Food, Fuel, and Freeways, Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, 2006.

This report shows that buying just 10% more of our food from local sources can make a big difference in our carbon footprints. It is about our cornhusker neighbor state, but the findings should be similar here in our Great Lakes home.

From the executive summary:
"A food mile is the distance food travels from where it is grown or raised to where it is ultimately purchased by the consumer or end-user. A Weighted Average Source Distance (WASD) can be used to calculate a single distance figure that combines information on the distances from producers to consumers and amount of food product transported. U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service produce arrival data from the Chicago, Illinois terminal market were examined for 1981, 1989, and 1998, and a WASD was calculated for arrivals by truck within the continental United States for each year. Produce arriving by truck traveled an average distance of 1,518 miles to reach Chicago in 1998, a 22 percent increase over the 1,245 miles traveled in 1981.

A WASD was calculated for a sampling of data from three Iowa local food projects where farmers sold to institutional markets such as hospitals, restaurants, and conference centers. The food traveled an average of 44.6 miles to reach its destination, compared with an estimated 1,546 miles if these food items had arrived from conventional national sources.

Would there be transportation fuel savings and reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions if more food were produced and distributed in local and regional food systems? To answer this question, we calculated fuel use and CO2 emissions to transport 10 percent of the estimated total Iowa per capita consumption of 28 fresh produce items for three different food systems. A number of assumptions were used regarding production origin, distance traveled, load capacity, and fuel economy to make the calculations. The goal was for each of the three systems to transport 10 percent by weight of the estimated Iowa per capita consumption of these produce items from farm to point of sale.

The conventional system represented an integrated retail/wholesale buying system where national sources supply Iowa with produce using large semitrailer trucks. The Iowa-based regional system involved a scenario modeled after an existing Iowa-based distribution infrastructure. In this scenario a cooperating network of Iowa farmers would supply produce to Iowa retailers and wholesalers using large semitrailer and midsize trucks. The local system represented farmers who market directly to consumers through community supported agriculture (CSA) enterprises and farmers markets, or through institutional markets such as restaurants, hospitals, and conference centers. This system used small light trucks.

The conventional system used 4 to 17 times more fuel than the Iowa-based regional and local systems, depending on the system and truck type. The same conventional system released from 5 to 17 times more CO2 from the burning of this fuel than the Iowa-based regional and local systems.

Growing and transporting 10 percent more of the produce for Iowa consumption in an Iowa-based regional or local food system would result in an annual savings ranging from 280 to 346 thousand gallons of fuel, depending on the system and truck type. The high end of this fuel reduction would be equivalent to the average annual diesel fuel use of 108 Iowa farms. Growing and transporting 10 percent more of the produce for Iowa consumption in an Iowa-based regional or local food system would result in an annual reduction in CO2 emissions ranging from 6.7 to 7.9 million pounds, depending on the system and truck type."

Event

I gleaned this event advertisement from the ever-handy arborweb.com:

7:30 p.m.
"Nurturing a Local Living Economy in an Era of Globalization": Crazy Wisdom Bookstore & Tea Room Salon. Panel discussion with Zingerman's cofounder Paul Saginaw, Crazy Wisdom Bookstore owner Bill Zirinsky, and Think Local First executive director Lisa Dugdale. Facilitated by Lucinda Kurtz. Crazy Wisdom, 114 S. Main. Free. 665-2757, 665-9160.

Same Outcomes, Different Values

Two interesting articles in the past two days as the UN continues to hold meetings on Climate Change. The first is about the Pope's first address to the UN slated for April, in which he is expected to address climate change as a moral issue (http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article2987811.ece). This after the Vatican become the first carbon-neutral country in the world -- from offsets from funding a Hungarian reforestation site and putting solar panels on St. Peter's Basilica (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6725109.stm).

The second is from the BBC, which reports on a study done by the survey organization Globescan and the University of Maryland on attitudes towards climate change (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7010522.stm). The report notes the global consensus (amongst countries the 21 countries surveyed) that human actions have caused climate change and that a majority of countries believe we need to act immediately to thwart ill effects. I found the following excerpt especially interesting:

Globescan President Doug Miller said growing awareness of global warming had awoken people's self-interest.

"The impacts of erratic weather on their property, on their person, on their country is tangible and real to people across the world."

The contrasts are striking. Miller's comments demonstrates climate change becoming a NIMBY ("Not in my back yard") issue of self-preservation; whereas, the Pope addresses climate change as a moral imperative to protect the "poorest people" and "creation."

MiPL Building Assessments

I received word from Peggy today that we can have our building assessed whenever we wish since they have trained a number of people to do such assessments. I figure we'll wait for the temperature to cool again before contacting him. I'll include here what she had to say about the assessment itself:

"Just a reminder that the assessments we offer through MiIPL give suggestions for short-term (3 yr or shorter payback), easy-to-do projects -- like CFL and other energy efficient lights, weatherstripping, appliances. It will not be a full energy audit. It will not do a lot with heating, cooling, insulation kinds of issues, or major projects. It is generally about a one-hour walk-through of the building."

Because it is on a much smaller scale, I will contact Paul Dannels, who was there for the first meeting, and see if he's been able to make a connection with someone who could give us a more full building assessment.

Carbon Offset Providers

from Ecobusinesslinks.com


1) AtmosClear Climate Club, $3.56a - $25.00; Methane

2) Carbonfund.org, $4.30b - 5.50; Renewables, Efficiency, Reforestation

3) e-BlueHorizons, $5.00, Renewables; Reforestation

4) DriveNeutral.org, $6.93 & up; Efficiency

5) Terrapass, $7.35c - 11.00; Renewables, Efficiency

6) Native Energy $13.20; Renewables

7) The CarbonNeutral Company, $14.00-18.00; Renewables, Efficiency, Reforestation,Methane

8) Sustainable travel International, $18.00; Renewables

9) Solar Electric Light Fund, $10.00; Renewables

10) Carbon Clear, $17.00, Reforestation

Carbon Footprint Calculators

Here's a list of what I could find. I found 5) to be the best for household energy use, 6) is good for total footprint including travel, and 3) is cool for showing how one ton of CO2 stacks up in gallons of gasoline, trees planted, pounds of coal burned, etc.

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1) Energy Depot: http://www.energydepot.com
I did the audit and didn’t find it terribly accurate (heating was supposedly $4,000 a year, even though we were only at $191 in the cold February we had). Electric estimates were low -- $300 for the year. They do have a good calculator and library that are worth checking out.


2) Pollution and Electricity use Calculator:
http://www.cleanerandgreener.org/resources/pollutioncalculator.htm


3) Greenhouse gas equivalencies calculator:
http://www.usctcgateway.net/tool/


4) EPA (shows sector percentages and gains from different actions):
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/ResourceCenterToolsGHGCalculator.html


5) Home Energy Saver: http://hes.lbl.gov/
Super-detailed, accounts for MI climate, the best one I’ve seen for household energy use.


6) BP Carbon Calculator: http://www.bp.com/extendedsectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9008204&contentId=7015209
My favorite all-inclusive calculator.

7) Redefining Progress Ecological Footprint:
http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp#
Shows how much land use you're responsible for; includes diet and consumption habits. Very little detail, though.

8) Safe Climate: http://www.safeclimate.net/calculator/
Not great but popular.