"Green living" is one of the fastest growing trends today. Sustainability is the goal of choosing "green" practices which will help our environment to endure and be alive for future generations to enjoy.
Choices should be a balance of your social, environmental, and economic values. Being conscious of what you eat, how you live, and what you buy can be a start to living in a more ecologically responsible manner.
As consumers, we make daily decisions about food and many of these decisions also affect the environment. Healthy choices improve quality of life and reduce the negative impact on the environment.
When it comes to making mealtime decisions, families make choices for many reasons. Some choices are made to save money, other choices are made to save energy and some look at ways to save time.
Planning meals will allow you to make the best use of food purchased. With planning you will be more likely to buy the amounts and ingredients you will use, so less is wasted. Planning can also reduce the number of trips to the grocery store, thus saving fuel and time as well.
Shop weekly grocery ads and plan meals around the sales of the week. Also look at seasonal food buys. Shop locally whenever possible. Buying foods close to where you live not only provides fresher products, but reduces the amount of transportation needed to ship the food, thus lowering food costs and fuel use to transport.
When it is the growing season, farmers markets provide the opportunity to for you to meet the producer and learn how the food was produced. Fresh produce has a longer shelf life and can be more nutritious and taste great. Locally produced bread, meat, and dairy products are often available year-round.
When making food purchases also take into considerations the amount of packaging for the product. If there is more packaging than product, make another choice. Choose products with minimal or no packaging.
Buying in bulk can often be more cost effective as well as save on excessive packaging. Food in large containers can be repackaged into smaller containers at home. Resist buying packaged single-serving items which are expensive and waste a lot of packaging.
Read the package labels to determine if the packaging is used from recycled materials and or if the packaging can be recycled.
Minimize the use of disposable wares such as paper products like paper plates, towels and napkins, and Styrofoam or paper cups.
Look at how you are preparing meals in your home. Are you using the most energy efficient methods of cooking and are your appliances the most energy-efficient models? Teach family members ways to save energy and water around the home.
The "slow food" movement encourages people to enjoy food prepared and served in a less hurried manner and enjoyed for the experience. You'll also save fuel and money by not driving to a fast-food restaurant.
After the meal, look at how much your family may be wasting. The average kitchen contributes more than 200 pounds of waste each year. Think about how you can reduce that amount.
Planning ahead helps you prepare first of all for purchasing just the amount you can wisely use. Then look at "planned-overs" as ways you can plan ahead to have leftovers which can be planned for another dish for another meal. For example, preparing a large roast for Sunday dinner, which will then be used for barbecue sandwiches or used in soup for evening meals through the week.
The "green" decisions we make about food -from the trip to the store, to our kitchens, to how we prepare and serve the food, and how we handle the leftovers -can have many benefits.
As consumers we can become more conscious of the choices we make with food purchases and how these choices affect our nutritional well-being, our environmental well-being, and our economic well-being.
K-State Research & Extension has two new publications related to making "green-friendly" choices -"Green Choices for Selecting, Preparing and Serving Meals" (MF2883) and "It's Easy To Be Green" (MF2886). Contact our Crawford County Extension office at 620-724- 8233 to receive a copy of these publications or visit the K-State Research & Extension Web site at: www.ksre.ksu.edu.
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"Green living" is one of the fastest growing trends today. Sustainability is the goal of choosing "green" practices which will help our environment to endure and be alive for future generations to enjoy.
Choices should be a balance of your social, environmental, and economic values. Being conscious of what you eat, how you live, and what you buy can be a start to living in a more ecologically responsible manner.
As consumers, we make daily decisions about food and many of these decisions also affect the environment. Healthy choices improve quality of life and reduce the negative impact on the environment.
When it comes to making mealtime decisions, families make choices for many reasons. Some choices are made to save money, other choices are made to save energy and some look at ways to save time.
Planning meals will allow you to make the best use of food purchased. With planning you will be more likely to buy the amounts and ingredients you will use, so less is wasted. Planning can also reduce the number of trips to the grocery store, thus saving fuel and time as well.
Shop weekly grocery ads and plan meals around the sales of the week. Also look at seasonal food buys. Shop locally whenever possible. Buying foods close to where you live not only provides fresher products, but reduces the amount of transportation needed to ship the food, thus lowering food costs and fuel use to transport.
When it is the growing season, farmers markets provide the opportunity to for you to meet the producer and learn how the food was produced. Fresh produce has a longer shelf life and can be more nutritious and taste great. Locally produced bread, meat, and dairy products are often available year-round.
When making food purchases also take into considerations the amount of packaging for the product. If there is more packaging than product, make another choice. Choose products with minimal or no packaging.
Buying in bulk can often be more cost effective as well as save on excessive packaging. Food in large containers can be repackaged into smaller containers at home. Resist buying packaged single-serving items which are expensive and waste a lot of packaging.
Read the package labels to determine if the packaging is used from recycled materials and or if the packaging can be recycled.
Minimize the use of disposable wares such as paper products like paper plates, towels and napkins, and Styrofoam or paper cups.
Look at how you are preparing meals in your home. Are you using the most energy efficient methods of cooking and are your appliances the most energy-efficient models? Teach family members ways to save energy and water around the home.
The "slow food" movement encourages people to enjoy food prepared and served in a less hurried manner and enjoyed for the experience. You'll also save fuel and money by not driving to a fast-food restaurant.
After the meal, look at how much your family may be wasting. The average kitchen contributes more than 200 pounds of waste each year. Think about how you can reduce that amount.
Planning ahead helps you prepare first of all for purchasing just the amount you can wisely use. Then look at "planned-overs" as ways you can plan ahead to have leftovers which can be planned for another dish for another meal. For example, preparing a large roast for Sunday dinner, which will then be used for barbecue sandwiches or used in soup for evening meals through the week.
The "green" decisions we make about food -from the trip to the store, to our kitchens, to how we prepare and serve the food, and how we handle the leftovers -can have many benefits.
As consumers we can become more conscious of the choices we make with food purchases and how these choices affect our nutritional well-being, our environmental well-being, and our economic well-being.
K-State Research & Extension has two new publications related to making "green-friendly" choices -"Green Choices for Selecting, Preparing and Serving Meals" (MF2883) and "It's Easy To Be Green" (MF2886). Contact our Crawford County Extension office at 620-724- 8233 to receive a copy of these publications or visit the K-State Research & Extension Web site at: www.ksre.ksu.edu.
