Erica Stark / Much Ado About Nothing

About Me

Hi. I’m Erica Stark. I’m wife to Thom Stark and mother to Gabriela Madeline. Aside from starting up and running a home-based business, I have the privilege of being at home with Ela. We play and learn every day. I have recently discovered that I care enough about the planet to label myself an environmentalist. Much of what I post here will probably have to do with my discoveries and challenges in that area. I've also become quite concerned about world poverty and even more concerned with how my lifestyle helps perpetuate it. In short, I guess I'm just a person on a journey. This journey requires me to break old destructive habits and form new productive ones before God can even begin to show me where in this world he will take me.

Step One

Reduce your meat consumption: Meat, and beef in particular, is the most resource-intensive food you can eat, and eating less of it can greatly reduce your individual impact on the environment. Meat production requires a lot of water, land and potentially harmful ingredients such as hormones and antibiotics, and leads to pollution of soil, air and water. For comparison, a pound of beef requires around 12,000 gallons of water to produce, while a pound of potatoes only requires 60 gallons. If you’re a meat eater, try switching from beef to chicken or, better still, a wisely-chosen fish (production of some fish varieties is harmful to the environment while others greatly improve environmental conditions). Substitute meaty servings with beans, tofu and nuts starting with one meal per week. If you must eat animal products, buy the organic varieties; they cost a little more but are much better for you, the animals and the earth.

Step Two

Eat organic foods: Organic food isn’t just better for your body; it’s also healthier for the land, water, air, wildlife and the workers who produce it. Nearly everything also comes organic: vegetables, fruits, grains, beverages, dairy, eggs and meat. If you can only find or afford some organic produce, chose strategically; not all fruits and vegetables are equal. For example, strawberries, sweet bell peppers, apples, celery and spinach require and retain higher pesticide levels, whereas pineapple, corn, onions, sweet potatoes and broccoli are better.

Step Three

Buy locally-produced foods: Buying local foods that are in-season is good for the environment for many reasons. Food travels on average 1,500 miles to get to your table. Buying from local sellers cuts back on emissions, fuel consumption and unnecessary traffic. Locally-produced food is generally fresher, uses less packaging and offers a wider selection. Buying anything produced locally supports your local economy and saves businesses money on packing, processing, refrigeration, marketing and shipping. The best source for locally-produced food are farmers markets or community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscription programs (where you get a box of produce every week – some deliver to your home or workplace). If you don’t have a farmers market or local food co-op in your town, you may be able to start one. Buy large quantities of locally-produced foods when they are in season and dry and can them for the rest of the year.

Step Four

Buy fair-trade-certified foods: If you must buy imported food, check for fair-trade certification. It ensures proper wages and working conditions for the people who harvest and handle your food. TransFair, the only fair trade certifier in the US, also includes environmental standards in its certification process, protecting watersheds and virgin forests, helping to prevent erosion, promoting natural soil fertility and water conservation, and prohibiting GMOs and many synthetic chemicals. TransFair claims that their standards are the most rigorous in the industry, second only to USDA organic standards.

Step Five

Reduce or eliminate food packaging: Try to find foods with minimal packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastic) and try bringing your own containers and buying in bulk. Pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. When you must buy food in a new container, reuse the packaging you take home. Recycle packaging you can’t reuse or have reused to death.

Step Six

Reduce or eliminate waste: Plan your meals carefully to cut back on waste. If the dish will spoil quickly, avoid making more than your household can eat. Cook meals that will freeze, and store them in serving-size containers; you can take the frozen meals to your office and heat them up/defrost them in the microwave. If you’ve still got extra, share it with friends and neighbors. If there’s a lot left over, give it to folks who have fallen on hard times like the homeless.

Step Seven

Treat trash responsibly: Feeding yourself and your family impacts the environment at every stage of the process: where your food comes from and then where the scraps go after you’ve eaten. Composting leftovers lessens the impact on the landfill, generates great soil for your garden, and keeps your kitchen wastebasket from smelling. You don’t even need a lot of space: people who live in apartments or just don’t have a yard can do it too. Once your trash has turned to rich soil, use it in your (potted) garden or take it to your nearest public park. Consider a composting toilet! Composting, along with reducing, reusing and recycling, will greatly reduce the amount of trash you produce.

Step Eight

Grow a vegetable garden: You don’t need much space to grow food–just a few flower pots or window boxes. Fresh-grown herbs and greens are delicious, and anyone who’s ever tasted a home-grown tomato knows that the store-bought variety doesn’t hold a candle to its taste-sensation home-grown cousin. Important questions to look up or ask about at your local nursery are how much light and soil a plant needs (relative to what you can offer it) and what the plant’s tolerance for cold weather is (you can grow a lot of things indoors in a sunny room even during freezing winters). Various gadgets like hydroponics and aeroponics make it possible to grown more in less space. Growing your own food reduces environmental impacts of transportation and chemicals (like pesticides).

Step Nine

Reduce your cooking fuel use: The raw-food movement has swept the nation, and many people swear they feel better eating raw. Regardless of the health advantages, preparing raw food consumes less energy, and, because raw food is usually fresh by definition, it is likely not to have traveled as far as processed food to get to your table. Try using a solar oven. They can cook a wide variety of dishes and require only fuel from our local stellar nuclear reactor (the sun, of course!). They are simple to design and build–if you’re handy at all you can probably make one for yourself.

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I don't know that I'm at the point to be able to do everything suggested by the article but I'm already doing some of them and am very interested in some others. Building a solar oven? It sounds wonderful but unrealistic for me right now. I'd love to grow a vegetable garden someday. It's a matter of commitment. Another thing that's in the works for the future is having a compost. I've looked in to an indoor fermenter that decomposes kitchen scraps much faster than a compost pile (no need to run outside everyday and be flipping the thing).

I'll have everyone know that I'm loving being a vegetarian. Anyone who knows me knows I was hesitant. Not because I didn't believe in the value of it but because I didn't think I'd be able to get the protein and other nutrients I needed if I wasn't eating meat. So for a long time I was a meat eating vegetarian in the making. I continued to eat meat until I had taught myself how to get all the nutrition I need in my diet. These days I'm learning to cook more and more vegetarian meals. I try about one new recipe per week. Some are wonderful and some are ok. Our latest favorite is vegetarian chili that no one can tell is vegetarian. Thom loves it and he loves me for it.

I've also begun doing some research on how to raise a vegetarian child. If anyone has any experience in this area or is learning about it now I'd like to hear from you. I found this article on vegetarian babies. Along the same line is the research I've been doing on preparing meals at home for baby instead of buying the canned stuff. So if anyone knows anything about that please share. I found this kit I'd love to buy (when I can afford it). It claims to help you prepare meals at home in about 30 min. per week by keeping in frozen. That sounds like what I'll need to do. There's no way I'll fix baby food every day.

Labels: baby food, compost, environmentalist, vegetarian, vegetarian baby

1 comments

Shame On Me

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I haven't purchased my reusable grocery bags! I was reminded of this by Meghan Breeze who just bought her own. I guess I haven't done it because I don't know where. Meghan, were did you buy your bags? I suppose I could just get some canvas bags or even make them. That would work.

Just a reminder, if there's anything you're doing or plan to do to be more environmentally friendly, please share. It's encouraging to hear what others are doing and in some cases (like the one mentioned above) it pushes me to do what I've already committed to but haven't gotten around to.

By the way, the new cloth diapers are fantastic. I'm so excited about them and Ela seems to really like them. Here's to cloth!

Labels: cloth diapers, environmentalist, green, grocery bags, Meghan Breeze

4 comments

More Ado About Ecology

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

My friend Ceri gave me a good pointer. She informed me that using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide disinfects just as well as any other disinfectant but without the harmful chemicals. You simply put the white vinegar in a spray bottle, put a spray bottle top on the hydrogen peroxide bottle (it needs to remain in the dark container), spray one, spray the other, wipe down, voila.

Another thing that Thom and I want to invest in is a compost bin. We can't do it right now but we eventually hope to invest in an indoor kitchen composter. This little container takes care of almost any kitchen scrap. Our reasoning for buying an indoor one is that we aren't very likely to keep up an outdoor one and just end up with a mess. But who knows, maybe someday we'll have an outdoor compost.

One thing we're really excited about is Thom's new scooter. He has to go pick it up from Springfield tomorrow. It's a Sicilian 150. It gets 80+ miles p/gallon so not only is it less harmful to the environment, it will also save us a lot of money in fuel (plus we won't be giving as much money to the big mean oil companies). Thom calculated that the scooter would pay for itself in about 8 months just in fuel savings. It makes sense for us since he goes more places than me (school, work). We eventually hope to buy a good diesel car and convert it to vegetable oil. This idea comes from James and Lacey Bell. Kudos to them for being ahead of the game (at least my game).

Thanks to Ceri, James and Lace for inspiration and ideas.

Labels: Ceri Otero, compost, environmentalist, James Bell, Lacey Bell, scooter

2 comments

Guilty as Charged and Convicted

Saturday, August 11, 2007

I've denied it so far and I still hate to admit it: I've gone through my life as a consumer, without giving so much as a thought to what my wasteful habits have done to the environment. I now stand convicted. Seriously, I feel convicted and now I have to take responsibility for the damage I've done and start looking for active ways to put a stop to it (I doubt I can undo what's already been done).

So, in a desperate attempt to redeem myself I hereby declare myself a tree hugger. Think it's extreme? I used to think it was, but I've come to see I have to go all the way if I'm going to change my daily wasteful routines and habits. Here are just a couple of steps I've taken in an effort to create a new, more environmentally friendly routine:

- Cloth diapers. Yes, I know, this sounds kind of extreme. But it's not so bad as it sounds. Nowadays you can buy cloth diapers that work just as well or better than disposable ones. And yes, it will be a little more work for me to wash them, but it helps to think of the ton of waste (yes, literally one ton per child) that won't be dumped in a landfill to finally decompose about 500 years later.

- Recycling. This is one that I was already doing but I've decided I need to be more dedicated.

- Reusable grocery bags. No more paper or plastic for me. Cloth is the new coolest grocery bag.

- No more Wal-Mart. This one isn't just about the environment but about fair trade and even American and world economy. I've been meaning to cut this one out of my daily routine for quite some time now but hadn't taken the time to find a new place to shop. My new stores: Food4 Less and Dillons (both under Kroger). Go here to find out why I will be shopping at these places. Also, local shops such as Fox Farms and Suzanne's.

If anyone has any suggestions of what else I can do, please comment. Maybe there's something you've been doing, please share. I'm very excited about the changes I'm making and I'm hoping to find others who feel the same way so we can feed each others enthusiasm.

Labels: cloth diapers, environmentalist, fair trade, green, recycling