2011 November

• Wednesday Word Day

  537 days ago by greenqueen

  Today’s word is: flexitarian /ˈflɛksɪˈtɛərɪən)/

  • An individual who follows a mostly vegetarian diet but will eat meat/animal flesh/fish occasionally; sometimes known as a semi-vegetarian. There are no strict rules as to how often or how little a flexitarian will eat meat/animal flesh/fish. 
  • An individual who follows a mostly vegetarian on their own but who may consume meat/animal flesh/fish at social or business occasions with the aim of being flexible whilst being entertained/invited by others for a meal.   read more

• Waste Not Want Not – Great Ideas to Stop Wasting Food

  539 days ago by greenqueen

  Millions of human beings still don’t have enough to eat and famines continue to be a serious risk in many parts of the world. And yet, the wastage of food is a massive problem in developed countries. Buying too many groceries, forgetting what’s in the pantry and buying the same ingredients twice, going out to eat or ordering takeout at the last minute instead of cooking with what’s in the refrigerator, cooking too much and not finishing what we serve on our own plate, purchasing an ingredient that a special recipe calls for and using it only once, leaving it to waste until its expiration date—the scenarios are endless, the problem is always the same: we waste food constantly. On a daily basis. Without thinking about it.

  Most of us are too young to have lived through the big wars when food was scarce all across the globe and rationing was a daily concern. Our supermarkets of plenty, our instant-gratification society, our ever-increasing portion sizes, our fast food nation—all of these phenomena have made us forget that access to food is not a given for everyone on the planet. read more

• Wednesday Word Day

  544 days ago by greenqueen

  Today’s word is: brownfield /braʊn)fiːld/

  • Abandoned, idle and/or unused land that is untouched because of perceived or real environmental toxicity and pollution; often previously used for commercial and/or industrial use for example land used for a dry-cleaning business, or toxic waste disposal or a gas station.

  The term was first coined in the early 1990s at a Congressional field hearing in the Northeastern US. It was further popularized in 1993 when the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) launched its pilot brownfields project in an Ohio county, which involved investigating the sites and converting them into a useful contributing parcel for the surrounding community.

    

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• 5 Ways to Have a Green Thanksgiving

  546 days ago by greenqueen

  Turkey Day is Coming Soon!! Images of golden roast turkeys filled with moist, savoury stuffing and sweet potato mash…Not to mention pecan AND pumpkin pie! Food bliss! Sadly Thanksgiving is also a time of extraordinary waste and what Green Queen calls a TOO MUCH holiday. We cook too much, eat too much, drink too much, throw away too much, and use WAY too much packaging, paper, plastics and other non-renewable resources. Nobody wants their holiday parade rained upon but there are ways to make the holiday a little friendly on the environment and on our bodies!

    

  • More Vegetable Dishes – The environmental cost of producing meat can be anywhere from 25 to 250 times the cost of producing plant-based food. Other than the turkey, which is a staple for most on this special occasion, make all the rest of your dishes vegetarian and limit the dairy as much as possible! Use olive and coconut oil instead of butter, substitute nut milks/coconut milk/soy milk for cow’s milk and use nuts, spices and herbs to give your dishes flavour instead of relying on butter, bacon or cheese.  read more

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