As mentioned in our goals, we’ve got certain criteria when it comes to food. Most of those are not a problem to follow, such as eating as little meat as possible. Having said that, I have actually had some reindeer meat a few days ago. However, I don’t see a problem having limited amounts of this kind of meat. The reason for this is that even “domesticated” reindeer spend most of the year outdoors. This means that they need less feeding besides what they eat outdoors, compare to for example cows. Still, having a bit of reindeer meat every few months should suffice for me. Not that it’s a particularly easy meat to get hold of anyway, not even in Norway. Anyway, the point is that I don’t think we have to completely stop eating for example meat in order to live sustainably, but a significant cut-down may well be a good idea for most of us, bearing our health as well as the environment in mind.
There’s a discussion about meat here (in Norwgian) and an article (in English) about livestock impacts on the environment
Another thing I’ve discovered is that it’s really hard to get hold of organic food in normal supermarkets here in Trondheim (and I would guess it’s the same all over Norway). I know the Norwegian Coop is quite good at stocking organic fruit and vegetables, but the shops around me certainly aren’t. Because of this, I went to a shop in town that only sells organic stuff. The problem is that everything is at least double the price, and on a student budget that either means I have to eat half as much (like that would happen), or simply not buy the organic version of all the food I eat even if it’s available. I mean, a packet of apricots which normally costs about 15 NOK (including that dodgy stuff which makes the dried apricots orange when they should be brown), cost about 40 NOK for the organic version. There’s also been disputes about to what extent growing organic food actually makes a difference. Personally, I do think it matters, but writing this I realise how little I actually know about these kind of things…
I suppose part of this challenge is to learn more about for example organic food and meat production in order to make informed decisions. Thus – as mentioned before, any links, tips or opinions are welcome!
greener2010
Elisabeth
Alex
Posted by Karianne on January 15, 2010 at 1:30 PM
shortly summarized, concerning the money-issue:
http://www.rsc.org/Chemsoc/Chembytes/HotTopics/Organic/Consumercosts.asp
Posted by Reducing energy consumption in technology at home « Greener2010 on January 26, 2010 at 11:55 PM
[...] by Alex in Uncategorized. Leave a Comment While Elisabeth has been blogging away, I have yet to post on our joint blog, so my first post will be on how there are [...]
Posted by em on January 27, 2010 at 7:16 PM
Well, but the apricots from kram-krem-krom (that danish company, I don’t remember the real name) are really good. And paying 15 kroner for conventional apricots is a price that does not reflect the REAL costs of producing them, conventially, in a country like, Israel, USA or Turkey. This can be said about most agricultural commodities – they require a lot of water. Apricots are no exeption, they are grown in large fields with 100s, if not 1000s of apricot trees stand in row after row after row. They are irrigated by irrigation systems (admittedly many places new technology has made the spillage / evaporation much smaller than only few years back). They use pesticides, in particular fungicides on most fruit and nuts. Without going into too much detail, this goes into the eco-system and subsequently accumulates in the food chain, and contaminates water, before it is flushed to the sea.
Well, that’s a little, quite basic, info about the behind (haha) of the apricot industry.
It is for sure worth paying 37 NOK for a bag for me, anyway, although, yes, it is pricey. But I know I pay a price that recognises the energy it takes to grow, pick, package and post that particular packet of apricots.
URTEKRAM, that’s the name of the Danish organic food company.
YUMYUM!! Besides – I want apricots free from sulphites!