Sarah's Social Action Snapshot: 10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is second in a slew of holidays at this time of year that have become one extended caloric nightmare. Marketers have successfully driven consumers to celebrate these holidays in an atmosphere of frenzied food consumption, often from everyday pre-packaged products festooned with special holiday cheer. However, you can say no to the pre-packaged cheer and have a hearty, sustainable meal. Below are 10 tips to a healthier, humane, sustainable, "low carb(on)" and labor friendly Thanksgiving from some fantastic organizations, some of whom we're working with for the Social Action campaign for our film, Food, Inc.
1. Buy produce from your local farmers market. Rather than eating grapes from Mexico, apples from Argentina or potatoes from China, purchase as much of your holiday produce from a local farmer! takepart with the Eat Well Guide to find one near you.
2. Buy organic produce whenever possible. Organic produce is safer, tastes better than conventional produce and is readily available at farmers markets and supermarkets nationwide. Also, look for organic wines, beverages and condiments.
3. Support a farm worker. Thousands of migrant workers labor in dangerous, brutal conditions for little pay to bring food to our table every day. takepart to help to improve the lives of farm workers and their families through the United Farm Workers.
4.Adopt-a-turkey! Yes, you read this correctly. Millions of turkeys are raised in inhumane, industrial settings. takepart in Farm Sanctuary's program to rescue turkeys and you can enjoy a holiday free from animal cruelty.
5. Have a no-waste meal. Think about how much tinfoil, paper goods and leftover food are thrown away, to spend many, many years in a landfill. The average US family wastes $600 worth of food annually. Landfills are a significant source of global warming causing greenhouse gas emissions. Instead, use re-usable products and wash them, if possible in a dishwasher with eco-friendly detergent.
6. Get moving! The exhaustion you feel on Thanksgiving is from all of the fat, sugar and calories. takepart in a Turkey Trot running race in your community--you'll feel a lot better and perhaps have a bit more room for pie.
7. Skip turkey. I know it's bold of me to write this, but I've enjoyed turkey-free Thanksgivings for nearly 25 years and the meals are always delicious. Factory farming is inhumane to animals and an extremely dangerous workplace for its workers. You will also greatly reduce your carbon footprint by skipping meat. The livestock sector accounts for an astounding 1/5 of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
8. Drink delicious tap water. If you're concerned about your water quality, Food and Water Watch can help to find the right filtration system for you. Bottled water creates waste, often privatizes water sources and usually isn't safer or healthier than tap water (and it's frequently just over-priced tap water).
9. Eat endangered foods. I'm not talking about elephants or whales but foods such as the Capitol Reef Apple, Amish Deer Tongue Lettuce and the Gilfeather Turnip. takepart in Slow Food USA's program which encourages individuals to help save foods on the verge of extinction by eating them. It's a yummy way to help preserve local cuisines and foods and ensure they remain part of culinary traditions.
10. Share your tip for how to have a sustainable Thanksgiving! Click on the "comment" option at the top of this blog.
And, learn more from the organizations cited in this post: Eat Well Guide, United Farm Workers, Humane Society of the US, United Food and Commercial Workers, Farm Sanctuary, Cool Foods Campaign, Take a Bite Out of Climate Change, Food and Water Watch, Slow Food USA, and Organic Consumers Association.
(photo: Vicki's Nature)
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- Categories: Environment,Health
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Many of you are probably not aware that there are thousands of people around the world who keep and breed the hundreds of rare traditional varieties of chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys. If you have the space and inclination, please check out the poultry keeping websites. And yes, we do eat some very rare breeds, as every breeding season results in more males than we have space to keep, or females to put with them.
David Scrivener, Rare Poultry Society, UK
Just like all the ills brought about from discrimination and oppression throughout human history animal exploitation utilizes the sad "might makes right" doctrine that allows one group to dominate another group without ever acknowledging the wrongful aspects involved. Racism, sexism, child exploitation, anti-Semitism and homophobia all employed the same prejudicial hype that because one group can discriminate and hold power over another that somehow justifies the oppression and brutality involved. Animals are now subjects of horrible abuse due to economic reasons disguising itself behind the mask of entertainment, science, food and clothing. None of the industries mentioned here require the use of animals as necessary in these modern times. Every reason for killing animals is now done for either economic purposes or for the sheer pleasure their deaths (eating them included) gives to humans.
Lets truly begin to bring about CHANGE and allow our footsteps to continue toward the animals of the world. There are many reasons (human health, global warming, water pollution, grain shortages) to stop eating animals but ending the violence and ushering in a new era of compassion is the best reason.
Evolve Now...Go Vegan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBM0NULDYl8
Lots of great ideas but most importantly, to have a green Thanksgiving, think ahead. The culmination of thought and preparation when the meal hits the table makes it all the more special. We order a free-range organic turkey from a small local farmer months earlier. Late plantings of brussel sprouts will ripen just in time and during summer months, preserve fruits and berries for pies, vac-pac fresh veggies, process pumpkins into puree and store garden potatoes. Ends of bread and day olds can be frozen and cubed for stuffing, make cranberry from fresh cranberries, and create a centerpiece from the yard. The money saved in preparation more than makes up for the expensive bird. Happy Thanksgiving!
Reason to not eat turkey: Thou shalt not kill.
It's possible to have a healthy turkey that was raised in humane conditions. Our local health food store offers them. I've bought my veggies from that health food store: potatoes, sweet potatoes, and I'll prepare some frozen chard that I grew, picked and froze for winter dinners. Who buys plastic water bottles any more? I have a water purifier at my sink, and a stainless water bottle. In the preparation of my feast, I'll use more waxed paper and parchment paper than foil (which can be washed and recycled) and the used waxed paper will stored in the fridge and used again if barely soiled. There certainly will be leftover meals that will need that paper. We'll stay home rather than travel to some special destination. After dinner at noon (ish), we'll take a walk with the dog on the MTS trail by the Blue Ridge Parkway (trail only a 5 min. walk from our house). Our T.G. meal will be very GREEN, just like our everyday meals are. Just like millions of others daily meals are.
Just wanted to say I really liked your article, and I'm going to link to it in my blog, notanotheromnivore.blogspot.com, in hopes of shedding some light to my readers.
NAOmni
For more eco friendly thanksgiving tips and some discussion, this article at "the source" is short and to the point:
http://www.sustainlane.com/reviews/thanks-earth/3JUQRBKHVT28PYFBIJTCKRFW...
There is also a video version of it on CBS5, if you need a more lively interpretation (much longer to watch than read).
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=42174@kpix.dayport.com
I think if we want to have more eco friendly holidays, it's not about doing this small thing or that. It's about educating the next generation so that green living is taken for granted.
Eat healthy, drive safe and enjoy the companion of your family.
The problem with Tofurky is that which applies to most processed food, organic or otherwise: it is loaded with salt.
Did you know that plants are also living things? Studies show that plants can communicate and can fell. Yet you vegans have no compunction about eating them. We seem to be so far removed from nature these days that we have forgotten the web of life. Eating other animals is part of that web. Sure you can avoid meat (I do for health reasons) but you can't avoid that fact that eating other animals is part of Mother Nature's scheme.
Tofurky, need I say more?
Wow, everyone needs to just pop a Xanax or drink some chamomile tea or something The choice isn't limited to becoming a vegan versus eating an animal that was raised in horrible conditions on a factory farm in China where the workers keeping it alive were also in awful conditions. Some people will never become vegetarians, no matter how much you proselytize. Instead, perhaps suggest that meat eaters make meat into more of a special occasion food, which will likely save them enough money that on occasions like Thanksgiving, they can buy a local, organic, heritage turkey. It's more humane for the animals, better for the earth, and it tastes better. It's a win-win-win situation.
Gonzaga Bulldog - Glad to know you're eating turkey this Thanksgiving, and that you are so very proud of yourself for doing so. But the fact that you are so baffled as to why someone would go out of their way to give living, breathing turkeys a nice place to live is a little puzzling. I know it may come as a shock to you, but there are good people out there that genuinely care about the well-being of animals. It might behoove you to ponder that perhaps the measure of our humanity is how we treat those creatures among us that can't fend for themselves.
Mr Bike Riding Bulldog.
The real reason to go vegan is because you don't need to eat animals to live a healthy and happy life. As a matter of fact its actually much healthier (according to most mainstream health professionals now) not to eat dead animals but to consume a plant based diet. However, if you are opposed to violence and oppression and exploitation of those who can't defend themselves than going vegan is the best way to put those feelings into action. The best argument I can make is that since you need not eat animals to be healthy the only real reason you actually eat them is for the pleasure it brings you. If that is all you care about than what is the difference between eating animals who have been brutally killed and have lived miserable lives. How is eating meat for the pleasure any different than what Michael Vick did to dogs? Morally not legally it is the same thing. I'm opposed to unnecessary suffering and killing that is why I'm vegan. However if you are not moved for ethical reasons like I am personally than what about the fact that raising and killing almost 40 billion (with a B) animals for food every year is the number one cause of global warming (google it), number one cause of water pollution, number one cause of grain shortages and eating animals is pushing heart disease into the number one killer of american men.
Thank you so much for suggesting that people give up the dead animals this thanksgiving. Not only is it a great idea for the animals but its a great way to get vegans to come over for dinner.
I've been vegan for 20 years and this is always a horrible time of year for me.
Thanks for making it a bit....better.
I am eating turkey this Thanksgiving.
And honestly, I think adopting a turkey so they enjoy a meal on a cozy farm is a funny idea. They really have "farms" that are like hotels for farm animals- to avoid ever being eaten? Really? Who are these people?
I know these comments may elicit strong angry comments aimed at me on a website like this.
If you really want to convince me- a normal regular guy who is very receptive to new ideas and bikes and recycles and eats less meat in general-- but still iikes Thanksgiving turkey- if you really want me to change- what are the arguments, the real arguments- not the "preaching to the choir" arguments- for why it is a good idea to send turkeys to a turkey vacation hotel?
Oh wow Sarah this is fascinating! I won't drink bottled water anymore, and will tell my roommates and friends who do, to STOP and look at the website you posted!
Thank you for this interesting and helpful info. It will definitely have an impact on my Thanksgiving!
Thank you thank you thank you! At last someone making the connections between the inhumane treatment of animals, greenhouse gases, and our health! Go Veg!!!
Go veg for thanksgiving! The meat industry is the second greatest cause of global warming. Let's give thanks for our planet!
When I was about five years old, my dad told me that every grain of rice was a drop of a farmer's blood. Not that we were a family of vampires (though that would be awesome in its own way) but it definitely taught me to not waste food and respect the people that work so hard to produce it. It's something to think about not only on Thanksgiving, but every time you enjoy food (=
Hey all, learn more about how you can help out America's hungry this holiday season at:
http://feedingamerica.org/take-action/donate.aspx
You can either donate online, over the phone, or learn about your food drives in your area!
Get picky, and then GET CREATIVE! If you can buy it at your local farmer's market or Co-Op, do. I'm buying everything from the pecans for my pumpkin pie to the apple cider for my butternut squash soup to the loaf of fluffy bread that precedes my meal from our local FM.
If that special produce you just HAVE TO HAVE is out of season, make an exception. Buy a nice winter squash or some delicious rhubarb. One of the impressive aspects of Thanksgiving is that foods associated with it are actually based in our CONTINENT and IN SEASON at the time of its celebration. This is thanks to the fact that Thanksgiving is a celebration of the harvest. Giving thanks for another year of PLENTY. So let's not deviate from this time honored custom. Let's make this the occasion to support the FARMERS and EARTH that grew the food which sustains us!
Remember we go to the polls intermittently, but we vote every day with our dollar!
With all the food we're buying for the holiday, there's got to be a way to reuse some of the packaging, while still enjoying thanksgiving craft projects with our kids! Here are some links to fun crafts projects using objects around the house (that you might normally throw away.)
http://www.alphamom.com/holiday/2008/11/thanksgiving_crafts_using_recycl...
http://homeparents.about.com/library/weekly/ucamanda2.htm
http://www.familycorner.com/family/kids/crafts/cardboard_tube_pilgrim_in...
And this one isn't thanksgiving-specific, but it's fun and will stick around a while!
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/feature/famf87project/fam...
Give thanks by giving back! Support such organizations as Heifer Int'l, which trains underprivileged, third world families to raise environmentally sustainable livestock that can provide food and a source of income. This practice enables self reliance and allows families to give back to their own communities!
Don't forget your furry friends at your local animal shelter this Thanksgiving. Many depend on donations from the public for things like food and dog/cat treats. You can even contact local food banks to see if they take donations for pets (again food and treats) whose owners are homeless and are doing their best to care for their animals.
Wow, #7 really makes a lot of sense. I had no idea that the livestock sector accounted for 1/5 of the world's greenhouse gas emissions! I'm definitely following a strict vegetarian diet from now on. This blog has officially changed my life!
Oh, and here's my tip: save those leftovers! Don't throw them in the trash - portion them out for your departing guests. Trust me - your friends and family will thank you for saving them the trouble of having to cook for the next couple days!
Don't forget the vegetarians!
Hey Sarah! Thanks for the tips. I'm definitely planning on making the rounds to a few of the Saint Louis farmers markets, and buying organic for my family's Thanksgiving meal. Happy Holidays!!
We never do store bought pies for Thanksgiving, we always make our own. It can be a great new family tradition and you can use locally grown produce!.