Is local food always better?

Local food has become a new trend, and probably not a bad one. But unlike all the positive press for it, I assume it isn't always better. So I started looking to see if I could find more details about when local food is better and when it isn't. I did find this article by The Sunday Times. Except for this article and a few tidbits here and there, could not find much beyond the same mantra we hear over and over again that local food benefits local economies and uses less energy in transportation. And if all else is equal, then local food should be better. Actually, supporting local businesses of all sorts, not just food, should help the local economy. But I guess I am more interested in whether local food is greener.

Reasons local food should be greener:
-Less energy transporting food from growers to people
-If you have a backyard and are using rainwater (or are watering your garden instead of grass), then most of the energy is your own sweat and there aren't transportation costs beyond the initial supplies
-Possibly less packaging when bought at the farmers market

Reasons local food may not be greener:
-Foods grown may not be adapted to local climate and take more resources to be produced locally (e.g. shorter growing seasons may require more fertilizers, greenhouses)
-Where you live may be environmentally sensitive, so growing certain foods could take away precious resources (e.g. water)
-If local growers are smaller scale, they may actually be less energy efficient at producing and transporting food (and eliminate any potential energy benefit of growing locally)
-The details of meat: if it's local, are they transporting the feed for the animals? This might be more energy than just transporting the animals (though from what I understand most meat is not produced where the feed is, so maybe free range grazing animals are best, and better than worrying about the meat being produced locally, or of course, being vegetarian)
-If you are choosing conventionally produced local foods over other organic foods, then the food uses more energy because of the energy costs from producing the fertilizer and pesticides
-You need to factor in the energy associated with getting smaller amounts of food to the farmers market, and getting yourself to the farmer's market (I am assuming it is an extra trip since I know I still have to go to the grocery store)

One reason I was interested in this topic is that local food has been catching on in Austin, and I wonder with Austin being drought-prone and already strapped for resources, what the local food movement is going to do. I would like to see the city require water harvesting systems so that they aren't taking water from the aquifers. I would like this required for everyone watering their lawns too. It's not that the area couldn't sustain any local food, there has always been local, but the population of the Austin area is probably already unsustainable for the amount of resources we consume. From what I understand (although I couldn't find a link for this) the water laws in Texas were written based on years of above average rainfall, which means municipalities use unrealistic numbers when calculating what kind of water pressures the city can sustain.

To sum up my opinion on this, I think the local food trend overall is good. I think there are a lot of other things we also have to consider, and if we want to eat locally we need to be willing to change the way we eat to fit the foods that grow in that region as opposed to trying to grow everything everywhere. I also think that choosing to support a local economy that is a local green economy will lead to a local economy that is more sustainable-both in the economic and ecologic sense.

Last June

One ago year today, I was in Pirenopolis, Brazil giving a talk at the Animal Behavior Conference. Brazil was an amazing experience, it was one of the places I had always wanted to go since I am so interested biodiversity. Since I went for the conference, the plane ticket was paid for! And bonus! The plenary speaker at the conference was Richard Dawkins. One of the ultimate experiences for a green graduate student like myself. I got to meet him and he was very nice.

After the meeting, I went with my former labmate from Texas State, Kristen, to a jungle lodge in the Amazon. Here are a few choice pictures from the jungle lodge.

 On a ferry crossing the Amazon River from Manaus.

 Canoeing through the flooded jungle.

We got to feed the river dolphins.

An "authenic" village. Interesting to see, but they definitely had some powertools there.

Traveling to Brazil was such a great experience, but it was also the most planning I ever did for a trip. Three vaccinations and a visa had to be obtained in advance, for a total of about $600 of additional expenses, as well as figuring out what exactly to do and doing it while not speaking any Portuguese! Brazil is one of the largest countries and it has tons to offer, more than you can possibly see in one trip. We decided to go to the Amazon, but there other natural places that are great to go, including the Pantanal (great for seeing wildlife), Iguacu Falls, and the Atlantic Forest. And of course for the beach bums and city goers you probably can't beat Rio de Janeiro.

Biosphere 2

 

I suddenly remembered the biosphere 2 experiment this weekend. It was an experiment in the 1990s to try and sustain suitable living conditions in a completely sealed, self-sufficient environment. There were a few reasons it was important to do this, namely, to see if we could be self-sustaining. This would be useful if we were to ever colonize another planet for example. But the more important contribution in my opinion was learning more about our own planet. They had to do a lot of research just to get to the point of living in the dome, about what they would need to live. In terms of some goals of the experiments, it was a failure. The first time, the oxygen decreased and they had to pump more into the enclosure (on another world, or our world you could not get this rescue move). It turns out the concrete was partly responsible for the decline in oxygen, and this was fixed for the second experiment. In addition, the carbon dioxide levels fluctuated a lot and all of the insects that pollinate plants died. Huh, kind of sounds like now...The second experiment was more successful but ended early due to change in management and financial disputes. Now it is under control of the University of Arizona. In spite of not being an outright success, a lot of information was gained by the project. I hope we manage the world better, we won't be able to call in for extra oxygen anytime soon.

When I first looked up the biosphere 2, I had the name wrong and googled biodome! I guess the movie by Pauly Shore may be more memorable because I got the name wrong!  If you recall the Pauly Shore movie, the experiment of being self sufficient and enclosed for a year, is a success!

The Travel Bug

I've got it. The travel bug. Too many places to go, too little money and time. I've got big goals when it comes to travel too. Would absolutely love go to Madagascar. Italy, Australia, and Costa Rica are also on the wish list, as is seeing all 50 states (still 19 to go).

My last trip was to San Francisco to see some of my high school friends. The top picture is from a vineyard in Napa Valley, and the second picture is us by a secoya tree in Muir Woods. My friends and I moved away from Tennessee so we rarely get to see each other. We had been talking about a trip for years, and this year finally pulled it together! San Francisco was a blast and reminded me how much there is to see of this great country.

Of course, the second I got back to Ohio I was bummed the trip was over and wanted another trip to look forward to. So I started dreaming about the next trip, and dreaming turned into searching. Needless to say, steals were found, Charlie and I discussed it, and we have another trip planned for October. We are going where you say hello and goodbye the same. Have you guessed where?

Yay! Ok, it's kind of far away but I am so looking forward to the trip, and we will also be able to celebrate living in the same zip code again. I have been before on a family vacation in middle school, but it's not like you can get tired of Hawaii!

The travel in the closer future (besides moving back to Texas) is going to the Animal Behavior Conference in Williamsburg, VA at the end of July. I am excited since I went to college in Virginia and haven't been back since 2004. I am also hoping to go to Michigan before I leave Ohio. Four years here and I've never been. Summer in Michigan is supposed to be great, and it would get me down to 18 states to see.

Happiness

This post is partly to counter my bad day post so I think about all the great things!


The big things that make me happy:

 1) My hubby, Charlie.

2) Family and friends

 

3) The cats (Mac above and Cookie below)-bringing countless hours of sweetness and entertainment.

4) The great outdoors.

5) Warm weather, preferably near water.


6)Trying new things



It's also the little things:

1) Morning coffee

2) Dessert

3) Biking to school

4) Eating berries/tomatoes off the vine

5) Good music

6) Cooking
This picture is from our 1st anniversary in March. Charlie got the aprons as part of his gift (he will admit he shamelessly took the idea from my cousins Julie and Sean) and we subsequently went on to make the Italian Cream Cake since it was the flavor of our wedding cake.


7) Backyard

8) Having a great boss! And a flexible work schedule.

9) Fragrant flowers-because half the fun of flowers is smelling them!

10) Holidays-specifically, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and July 4

10) Travel

11) Yoga and running

One of Those Days

Today was one of those days where I tried to work, I really did try, but I accomplished little. Not for lack of trying, but because  the stars aligned against me today.

1) I have been dealing with contamination issues with my DNA reactions. Not only that, but it seems to be getting worse in spite of efforts to be super careful and switching out several things that could be issues. This makes me think there is fungus or mold growing in something I'm using. I've had to throw out the past couple days of work. Also, I will be autoclaving everything on Wednesday. Oh and learning how to use the autoclave.

2) I borrowed a copy of a dissertation which is past due by five days, so I decided I need to get off my butt and copy the monster. But no, this effort was also useless. The copier gave the message "Start not available at this time." I don't understand why this would not be available. It's a freaggin copier!

3) Tried to get reimbursed, but secretary was out of office for the day (not too big a deal though).

4) Spent lots of time yesterday and this morning scrambling to get DNA reactions together and ordered because someone had told me they'd be able to take them to Columbus on the way home today. Got a call around 3 that they would not be able to leave in time to make it before the facility closed at 5. Ahhh! I have a freezer full of reactions I've been saving up because it's been an especially warm el nino year. Warm weather means either shipping samples on dry ice (which has its own issues), or risking the tops popping off the samples (yes this has actually happened before). Driving the 3 hour roundtrip to Columbus is not super appealing either. Ultimately I decided to ship samples anyway because it was not as warm today, so both fingers crossed that I will not get an email tomorrow saying the samples can't be used. At least then I will have accomplished something today!

Tomorrow is another day...I did enjoy having a lovely coffee hour with the ladies (and former ladies) of my lab. Possibly the best use of my time today!

Health Conscience Toiletries

I have been on a slow and steady track to change over the products in the bathroom  to more health conscious products. The first thing I realized when I did this was how many products I use! The second thing I realized was how poorly many of them rate. And my third realization was how many products there are to choose from. Getting lower hazard products isn't necessarily more expensive, but it does take research and possibly some internet shopping if you don't have local stores that carry them.

I am going for products that are listed as lower hazards on the Cosmetics Safety Database. Products are rated on a scale of 0-10, and lower scores indicate lower hazards for the ingredients. A lot of the products have high data gaps (that is, there have not been studies on many of the ingredients/chemicals in the product), so ideally you would want a product also with a low data gap so the score is more reliable and indicative of the whole product. Here is a rundown of products I've investigated:


Hair dye-this was the first thing I looked at because I was pretty sure it was horrible. I was right!

-Past product: L'oreal Couleur Expert, a hazard rating of 9/10 and a 79% data gap
-Trying: Light Mountain, rated 1/10 and 62% data gap
-Other info: the only hair dye that you'll probably find at Target that's a moderate hazard is Garnier Dimensional Lightener and Loving Care by Clairol. All the others are high hazard.


Shampoo:

-Past product: Herbal Essences Moisturizing Shampoo: 5/10 hazard and 76% data gap
-Trying: BWC Lavender Highland 3/10 and 87% data gap. I got it because it was on sale for $5 on Amazon.com, but it smells like the shampoo I've washed my cats with. Probably will not buy again.
-Other info: Burt's Bees Outdoor Shampoo Bar and Pantene Pro-V Expressions are also low hazards. Other common shampoos (including other products by Burt's Bees and Pantene) are moderate-high.


Bug Spray:

-Past and present product: Cutter and Off! unscented repellant and wipes, 2-3/10 and 65% gap
-For comparison: Off Skintastic, 7/10 and 75% gap
-Other info.: According to this it seems like DEET isn't that bad (or maybe is in the data gap) but the fragrances and other ingredients are often not so great.


Toothpaste:

-Past product: Colgate Total Advanced Fresh, 6/10 and 73% gap
-Trying: Tom's of Maine Natural Whole Care, 3/10 and 70% gap
-Other info: Jason Natural Cosmetics toothpaste is low hazard, and the basic Colgate toothpaste has lower scores than the fancy ones.


Mouthwash:

-Current product: Listerine, a 3/10 and 68% data gap, though tartar control is rated 5/10
-Happy enough to keep with it, did not do additional research

Contact Solution:

-Current product: Opti-Free, 3/10 and 77% gap
-Other info: every all-in-one contact solution is listed as a moderate hazard, CVS Saline Solution is low hazard

Deoderant/Antiperspirant:

-Current product: Crystal, 0/10 and 29% data gap (this is a cheap product and I've been happy with it, doesn't stain!)
-Past product: Degree, 4-6/10 and 83% gap
-other info: the low hazard products don't contain fragrance. Crystal and Naturally Fresh also rate better because there are just so few ingredients. Aluminum in many antiperspirants has been implicated in Alzheimer's but is not ranked as high hazard in the database.

Still working on finding alternatives:

Sunscreen:
 Banana Boat Sports Sunscreen Spray, 7/10, 84% data gap
Banana Boat Sports Faces Lotion, 7/10, 86% data gap

Conditioner:
Bath and Body Works Moisturizing Conditioner, unlisted

Shower Gel:
Bath and Body Works, unlisted

Lotion: 
Suave, 7/10 and 79% data gap
Pacifica Body Butter, 3/10 and 81% data gap
I know that many moisturizers rate poorly because of petroleum/plastics in the ingredients.

I also need to investigate these but I think this is a long enough post!
Makeup
Hand Soap
Hand Sanitizer

For products that are unlisted, it is possible to get a tentative report if you are a registered user. Basically you can create your own report by entering all of the information on the label and the database weights it based on the ingredients listed. Of course, for those products that have 20 ingredients in all chemical sounding names this would be quite the task to enter correctly!