Ideaplants

This blog post is about meat, fish and veggies and how you can easily make better choices.

Meat
Am not going to go into the environmental effects of meat production (especially red meat), but rest assured it takes a lot more energy and causes more pollution to produce. For more info, you can start reading here or here.
Against what you may expect I am not going to advertise going all vegetarian. Why? Because I believe that everybody’s body works differently and that sustainable solutions mean that they have to be a free choice.
Take me for example, I consider myself 95% vegetarian (sorry if you are a 100% vegetarian and this offended you), but this is my sustainable approach (I don’t care if my food has touched meat (makes it way easier to be invited for dinner), I eat fish (whilst recently paying attention to MSC..) and I will have duck for Christmas!)
Somebody once told me rather than buying the cheapest meat to eat every day, he now buys quality meat to eat once a week and I thought that was a great approach. As a side effect he discovered his creativity in the kitchen (and his taste butts )

Fish
According to Greenpeace “More than 70 percent of the world’s fisheries are ‘fully exploited’, ‘over exploited’ or ‘significantly depleted’ (click here for more info), but there are still fish that can be consumed with a good conscience. The Marine Stewards Council is labelling them with their MSC logo, so keep your eye out for that! But even outside the labelled items there are better and worse choices, click here for a printable overview (which by the way fits conveniently into any wallet).

Vegetables
The less vegetables (or any food for that matter) travel to get onto our plate, the better – not just because of the transport costs, chances are they will be fresher (vitamins!) as well. Here two charts (pdf, html) for which vegetables are in season (paying attention to low prices in supermarkets and Belgian product logo gives you a pretty good idea as well ). You can even order a calendar for 2011 with this info at info@bruxellesenvironnement.be (pdf version here). Alternatively there are the deliveries of organic and seasonal fruit right to your doorstep.

Bon appetit,
Sylvia

Links:
Organic food deliveries in Brussels (of course there are more.. but I don’t know them :-S):
http://www.vevyweron.be
http://www.reason2.be

One of our contacts from EUROPEN recommended this video which reflects in a viral – web friendly way the purpose of packaging.


When it comes to discussing sustainability and product development, packaging is often seen as an easy target for policy makers. There’s a public perception that packaging equals waste. So the more packaging, the more waste is being created. Only few people take into account that packaging also prevents waste and keeps the product safe in a purposeful way (if designed smartly).


Have a look at the video clip below developed by Elipso (the French plastic & flexible packaging association) that addresses this topic.

So, what’s the matter with this SUSTAINABILITY gibberish anyway?

How about this: sustainability is the issue which sets apart man and animal.

Animals DON’T CARE about sustainability above the level where they sustain their individual genes.

Ecological- or resource-sustainability issues don’t matter to them – as far as they are concerned, these issues don’t even exist.

Not even consciousness itself distinguishes us from animals in a comparable way. I think it is accepted fact in the science community that capacities for suffering and awareness are gradual effects, which emerge with growing complexity of the nervous system and brain. Thus, consciousness is not a black and white kind of thing: a cat, dog or pig may have less of it than a human, but they do have a lot more than zero.

So, animals don’t care about sustainability. That’s why animal species DIE OUT. Always.

As it appears, there’s a fork ahead in the road for mankind. Man and Woman will decide to care about sustainability – or else. Sustainability is just a POTENTIAL after all, not a given.

To be human means to CARE about that potential not being wasted. To strive to rise awareness of the human condition to the level where sustainablility of the species is recognized as a central and critical issue. To pursue focus-shifting from throw-away baubles to goals and products worth being CARED about by beings sporting a human brain with a pulse.

Sorry to spoil the idyll, but that Prius we bought for peace of mind and the compost heap at the back of the garden where we always deposit those soaked and delicious tea leaves which had been flown in from India for us, they are surely nice and impress the neighbors to boot, but they’re also mostly show business, reinforcing cosiness in PRESENT HABITS.

FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES are great inspirators, though. So let’s get a little dreamy about this for a while: man as a species has the POTENTIAL TO LIVE and not die off like every other worm which ever existed. Hmmm!

Pouring a little more of that nice warm tea.

What’s this RUCKUS now? Doesn’t anybody on this rotten planet respect a dreaming philosopher any more?

The irritated mob’s screaming at me, furiously red-faced: I’m no stinkin’ worm you headblock, I’m the pride of creation and there’s a nice pie up there in the sky which will cuddle and save me, if I make goo-goo eyes at it long enough!!! Me and my friends we are telling this to each other all the time, so it is true!!!

Ah yes. The stuff in the sky allright.

Let’s take a look: stuff in the sky

Yesterday I got to attend a mobility debate organized by Jong Groen & Ecoloj, the two green parties in Brussels.

Besides representatives of both parties, Pascal Smet, Minister of Mobility in Brussels (Sp.a) were in the discussion panel.

I found it quite interesting to join the debate – not only to see that it is actual possible to organize a debate that is completely bilingual but also since I personally never realized the complexity of the mobility issue in bigger cities.

It is quite interesting to realize that the current transport system is built for for cars although it acually compromizes only a smaller percentage of the population that is commuting day in day out in our city.

Car-free sundays, awareness work, more encouraged bikers on the roads… compared to other big cities like London and Berlin, Brussels still has a long way to go in creating an efficient and sustainable transport system.

Brave new world, or reality in a few year’s time?

Have a look at this presentation on how to be sustainable – every day:

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Saving the economy versus creditors. How a government turns a democracy into an interest-driven monopoly. I wonder how solution driven Michael Hudson’s comments really are. But its certainly worth watching.

For those of you who are interested in more economy focussed commentary and who’d like to listen into more conceptions on this topic: visit the Renegade Economist Youtube channel.
Thanks for the link, Hans

The Teekampagne (tea campaign) is quite a simple concept. Günther Faltin (professor for entrepreneurship in Germany & founder of the tea campaign) asked himself: why is tea affordable in China but so expensive in Europe?
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A Water Roller is a tool designed for water tranportation. Instead of carrying big buckets, one can simply ‘roll’ the water. Anyone can buy or distribute these rollers. › Continue reading

Gardening can be very, very simple:

For more info, visit Aztext’s website