October Conservation Tip

October is Vegetarian Awareness Month

Wow, I wasn't even aware that we have an awareness month....;-)
So I thought I should seize the opportunity to answer the question all vegetarians get asked quite frequently: Why are you Vegetarian? Early on this question was quickly answered, I feel sorry for the animals. During my education to become a veterinarian in Germany I had to work at a slaughterhouse, it was part of the education since a graduated veterinarian is automatically a meat inspector. Being passionate about animals before, the time working at the slaughterhouse did the rest. Nowadays the answer is much longer. "Ethical" reasons are still one of the strongest.
And it's not only the slaughtering that bothers me, it's the whole way of how animals are kept and treated throughout their odyssey. Studies have proven that pigs are smarter than dogs, science finally has attested that animals are able of cognitive thinking and have emotions....would you keep your dog his or her whole life in a crate that hardly allows your dog to turn? Never see daylight, never run or play? Would you?? Let's not even talk about how chicken, turkeys or cows are kept and treated.

Ethical reasons are just my personal thing, but environmental reasons should concern everybody.
If you google "factory farming environment" you get about 1,290,000 results in 0.47 seconds....I didn't read all of them but a fair bit and it's scary! There are a lot of different interpretations but most state the same facts, I tried to put together the ten most important:

1. About 10 billion animals, not including fish farms, in the United States are raised for dairy, meat and eggs each year.
2. More than 250 million acres of US forests have been clear-cut to create land for producing feed for livestock.
3. Globally, deforestation for animal grazing and feed crops is estimated to emit 2.4 billion tons of CO2 every year. The cut forests are badly missed in the negation of CO2
4. 70% of the grain that is produced in the US is fed to farm animals
5. The Smithsonian Institution has stated that the equivalent of SEVEN football fields of land is bulldozed every single minute to create more land for farming animals.
6. The use of fossil fuels on farms to grow feed and to intensively raise land animals for food emits 90 million tons of CO2 worldwide every year.
7. Almost half of all water used in the US goes into the meat, dairy and egg production. Between 1,800 and 2,400 gallons of water is needed to produce 1 lb of meat, only 25 to 39 gallons are needed to produce 1 lb of wheat. In other words one would save more water by not showering for 6 months than one would save by not eating a pound of meat!
8. The waste lagoons of factory farms aka Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations or in short CAFOs not only pollute our groundwater, but deplete it as well. Many of the farms use the groundwater for cleaning, cooling, and drinking.
9. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) reports that roughly 80 % of ammonia emissions in the US come from animal waste. Atmospheric ammonia can disrupt aquatic ecosystems, ruin soil quality, damage crops, and jeopardize human health.
10. Factory farming accounts for 37 percent of methane (CH4) emissions. Methane has more than 20 times the global warming potential of CO2. (2,3,4)

To get a real visual understanding of the environmental impact, please have a look at these photos:

GRAIN- Factory Food From Above

Unfortunately, that's not it. To ethics and environment now also comes the topic of health.
With health I'm not addressing issues as too much saturated fats, cholesterol or else, as this is in everybody's own hand. No, I'm more thinking of what a "carnivores" eat with their meat that they are not aware of:

• Dairy cows can be given growth hormones, recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), in order to increase their milk production. But often this increased milk production leads to mastitis (infection of the udder) which then is treated with antibiotics...Eventually the cows productivity declines, and they are slaughtered for beef. Beef cattle may also be treated with hormones, estradiol, testosterone, and progesterone, to increase and expedite growth. The use of these hormons in dairy cows and cattle  has been shown to significantly increase the risk of breast, prostate, and colon cancer in beef consumers. Producers are not required to list the use of hormones on product labels. 
• Some zoonotic diseases (diseases that can spread from animals to humans and vice versa)  like BSE/ Creutzfeld Jacob Disease could only cause that much havoc, because someone down the factory farm aisle got the idea to feed dairy cows and cattle animal meal. Not only are bovines strict herbivores, the animal meal was from sheep that had to be put down because of Scrapie ( the sheep form of BSE). At that point nobody knew that the pathogen can jump between species, but just the idea of feeding cows animal meal is simply revolting
• Now to the antibiotics, since the 1950s, antibiotics have been used at factory farms to increase the rate of growth in animals. Today, an estimated 70 % of the antibiotics used in the U.S. are given to farm animals for non-therapeutic purposes. Since the antibiotic are long out of the body once the animal gets slaughtered all is fine, right? Unfortunately not: It is not the antibiotics directly that are posing the problem but using antibiotics in this way can lead to drug-resistant bacteria; as a result, certain bacterial infections have already become or are on their way to becoming untreatable in humans. Antibiotic resistant infections kill 90,000 Americans every year.

Do I propose everybody should stop eating meat? No, but maybe consume it a bit more consciously.
If possible, choose meat from a farmer you know and who raises the animals properly and without antibiotics. Try buying organic. How about following the "Meatless Monday" rule.
The Environmental Working Group (EWG) published a very informative statistic:
 Over a one year period,
-if you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your clothes half the time.
-if your four-person family skips meat and cheese one day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks – or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3 minutes.
-if your four-person family skips steak once a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three months.
-if everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.(7)

Small adjustments can help a lot! And thank you for reading the blog, it means a lot to me...

Over a year:
If you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your clothes half the time. ¹⁰
If your four-person family skips meat and cheese one day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks – or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3 minutes. ¹¹
If your four-person family skips steak once a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three months. ¹²
If everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road. ¹³
- See more at: http://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/reducing-your-footprint/#sthash.OUf3QAoE.dpuf

Sources and further reading:

Over a year:
If you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your clothes half the time. ¹⁰
If your four-person family skips meat and cheese one day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks – or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3 minutes. ¹¹
If your four-person family skips steak once a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three months. ¹²
If everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road. ¹³
- See more at: http://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/reducing-your-footprint/#sthash.OUf3QAoE.dpuf

Over a year:
If you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your clothes half the time. ¹⁰
If your four-person family skips meat and cheese one day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for five weeks – or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3 minutes. ¹¹
If your four-person family skips steak once a week, it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three months. ¹²
If everyone in the U.S. ate no meat or cheese just one day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road. ¹³
- See more at: http://www.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/reducing-your-footprint/#sthash.OUf3QAoE.dpuf

(1) Compassion over Killing
(2) Facts about factory farming
(3) Collective Evolution
(4) Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
(5) NYU Langone Medical Center
(6) Farm Sanctuary
(7) EWG Meat Eaters Guide

October Conservation Tip

TO IDLE OR NOT TO IDLE

Should be a no brainer one would think, but with the temperatures getting colder, at least here, I see more and more cars idling...in front of stores while the owner is shopping....at schools or at bus stops when parents wait for their children...in drive-through lanes....
After heated debates with friends and family about the topic, I thought a bit of research was in order...

I found four topics to be the most important in connection with idling:
Health, Environment, Money and Car Maintenance.

Let's see what I found in regards to idling and health:

The NRDC (Natural Resource Defense Commission) writes: "Exhaust from idling vehicles can accumulate and pose a health risk to employees, drivers, and the community at large. Exposure to exhaust can cause lung damage and respiratory problems. Exhaust also exacerbates asthma and existing allergies, and long-term exposure is thought to increase the risk of lung cancer"

The EDN (Earth Day Network )states in it's school kit: " Idling harms our health. Vehicle exhaust is harmful to everyone's health, but especially affects children who breathe more and at a faster rate than adults." and
"Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children and the cause of most school absences. Children's asthma symptoms increase from exposure to car exhaust. Children breathe, on average, 50% more air per pound of body weight than adults"

The California Energy Commission: "Idling is linked to increases in asthma, allergies, heart and lung disease and cancer."

Puh, that stinks....how about the environment?

Natural Resources Canada has a very good write up about all the effects of idling towards climate change, which I would highly recommend reading, but summed up they come to the following conclusion: "In fact, if Canadian motorists avoided idling for just three minutes every day of the year, carbon dioxide emissions could be reduced by 1.4 million tonnes annually. This would be equal to saving 630 million litres of fuel and equivalent to taking 320,000 cars off of the road for the entire year. Eliminating unnecessary idling is one easy action that Canadians can take to reduce their green house gas emissions that are contributing to climate change."
This is just for Canada, if one considers that California alone has more licensed drivers then Canada, just imagine the impact of idling cars in the US...

OK, what about money??

NRDC:" Less idling means less wasted fuel, which can save your company money. A six-cylinder diesel vehicle that idles for one hour a day wastes more than $1600 worth of fuel over the course of a year, with gas at $2.50/gallon." I hope nobody idles quite that long, but considering that gas price are way higher now then $ 2.50/gallon the amount of money wasted could come close.

EDN: "A popular misconception is that idling your car uses less gas than turning it off and restarting. The truth is, if you are going to be sitting more than 30 seconds, it is more fuel efficient to turn your engine off."

Natural Resources Canada: " In fact, one of the most powerful arguments in favour of reduced idling is an economic one. For the average vehicle with a 3-litre engine, every 10 minutes of idling costs 300 millilitres (over 1 cup) in wasted fuel – and one half of a litre (over 2 cups) if your vehicle has a 5-litre engine. Unnecessary idling wastes fuel – and wasted fuel is wasted money."

I see, I see, the car enthusiasts are raising their fingers.....what about the car when it's cold?? I need to idle to warm it up properly, right?

Hmmm, maybe not....let me again quote some authorities:

California Energy Commission: 

"Myth #1: The engine should be warmed up before driving. Reality: Idling is not an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to do this is to drive the vehicle. With today's modern engines, you need no more than 30 seconds of idling on winter days before driving away.
Myth #2: Idling is good for your engine. Reality: Excessive idling can actually damage your engine components, including cylinders, spark plugs, and exhaust systems. Fuel is only partially combusted when idling because an engine does not operate at its peak temperature. This leads to the build up of fuel residues on cylinder walls that can damage engine components and increase fuel consumption.
Myth #3: Shutting off and restarting your vehicle is hard on the engine and uses more gas than if you leave it running. Reality: Frequent restarting has little impact on engine components like the battery and the starter motor. Component wear caused by restarting the engine is estimated to add $10 per year to the cost of driving, money that will likely be recovered several times over in fuel savings from reduced idling. The bottom line is that more than ten seconds of idling uses more fuel than restarting the engine."

Natural Resources Canada again has a informative website about that, the short version being:
"Contrary to popular belief, excessive idling is not an effective way to warm up your vehicle, even in cold weather. The best way to warm it up is to drive it. [ ] What's often forgotten is that idling warms only the engine – not the wheel bearings, steering, suspension, transmission and tires. These parts also need to be warmed up, and the only way to do that is to drive the vehicle."

BTW, I also saw a lot of people idle here in summer, to keep the inside of their car cool...no car related excuse here...

Next time you are tempted to idle, think twice!