16th May, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This is a really interesting article about there being drastically fewer fish now than there were 100 years ago. The article raises several good points, such as 1) we don’t notice the decline in the fish population as much because we don’t see them 2) Many of the smaller fish are extinct or near extinction, but larger fish that we tend to like to eat are mostly not extinct 3) Perhaps we unconsciously reset our appetites from generation to generation to eat less of a less plentiful food. Read the whole article here, but the below photo from the article is pretty startling. I personally don’t think we unconsciously adjust our eating habits to eat things that are less plentiful, I think it’s a very conscious decision driven by economics and/or increased regulation as a species nears extinction, and that causes these protein forms to be more or less popular. For example, I’m pretty sure the Prairie Chicken is a endangered species now, and probably other animals from the 1886 banquet example.
1st May, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
KUT had a article today about an interview with Andrew Zimmern that linked to a longer interview from State Impact. He was recently in Austin for the Austin Food and Wine Festival, and there made some unique points about the benefits of eating donkey, invasive species like feral pigs, and wild game. I don’t completely agree with eveything he says but it’s interesting to think about. Check out the whole article, but here’s an excerpt:
We could start with my favorite food that isn’t eaten here, which is donkey. This is an animal that grows to maturity quickly, is a very forgiving eater, easy to raise, a disease-resistant species, and it’s delicious….
We live in a day and age where we need to expand our food choices out of necessity, because we are strangling the systems that are producing chicken, pork and beef and we are only eating salmon shrimp and halibut and tuna. We know we need to eat more little fish with the heads on them, we know we need to eat game. We know we need to go meatless a few days. If everyone went meatless two days per month, ate venison once a month, rabbit once a month and pick your own alternative protein once a month, fish with the head on it – whatever – the food world would instantaneously self-correct in about fourteen months. It’s staggering to me. We could put away all this argument about grass-fed, corn-fed, food deserts/not food deserts and all that kind of stuff. So, I’m more concerned with us changing the world one plate at a time and we really can do it by voting with our forks…
20th April, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Earth Day is this Sunday! If you are looking for a way to celebrate it, check out the Austin Earth Day Festival at the Mueller development. Here’s more info from their website:
The Historic Browning Hangar at Mueller, 4550 Mueller Blvd., Austin, TX 78723
Speakers Featuring Informative & Inspirational Topics Relevant to the Austin Community:
Jim Hightower, America’s #1 Populist!
Fritz Steiner, Dean of the UT School of Architecture and author of “Design for a Vulnerable Planet”
Lucia Athens, Chief Sustainability Officer of the City of Austin
Brandi Clark Burton, Founder of Austin EcoNetwork “Re-Everything”
and Many More!
Exhibits Featuring
Innovative Green Businesses • Environmental Organizations
Community Organizations • Local Government & More
Kids Area Featuring
Petting Zoo • Puppet Show
Face Painting • Green Art & Crafts
An Interactive Prius • Music & More!
Local Food Trailers Featuring
Hot Dogs • Sub Sandwiches • Asian
Juices & Smoothies • Empanadas • Ice Cream & More
Plus…
Za Boom Ba! an interactive drumming experience that 1,000 festival attendees will be able to participate in!
Hourly Bus Tours of Mueller, Austin’s Sustainable Mixed-Use Urban Village
Raffle Prizes from sponsors & Exhibitors Throughout the Day
& Much More
20th April, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Have you ever made it to the City-Wide Garage Sale? I still haven’t, but really want to check it out. It’s this weekend at the Palmer Events Center. Check out more info here.
22nd February, 2012 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Last weekend I ran my second Austin Marathon. The only other marathon/ half marathons I’ve run are the Austin 3M half, the Columbus Marathon, and the San Antonio Rock and Roll Half Marathon, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but I was impressed with the continued efforts to make the Austin Marathon as green as possible. Some of the (green) highlights:
- SWAG bags didn’t contain a bunch of useless coupons and advertisements, just a bib number, some safety bins, a t-shirt, a program, and a arm pouch for carrying keys/money while you run. This is so much better than what you usually get, which is a bag full of stuff you throw away. The San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon in particular I remember had about 20-30 different papers/coupons in the SWAG bag, including fast food coupons which most marathoners probably aren’t going to make use of. Instead or providing all those coupons and ads, the Austin Marathon homepage said if you were interested in coupons, you could browse through a page from their website and print out what you wanted at home.
- The trash cans that permanently line Congress had signs on them telling people to look for recycling bins instead.
- Recycling bins were everywhere at the start/finish of the race.
- There were signs along the course telling you to throw wrappers into trash cans at the water stops, rather than littering.
- Snack bags (containing a banana and some chips) at the end of the race were small cloth baggies that you can use again, rather than plastic bags.
- There were large water towers at the start and finish you could use to fill up your water bottle.
Some not so green things I saw along the marathon were hard to avoid in any race:
- The water stops all had paper cups, but unless you run with your own water and have friends along the course to fill your water bottle up, it’s hard to avoid using the paper cups. I have my own water bottle I run with that attaches to a nerdy belt I wear while running, and I drank from that for the first 10 miles, but then I switched to stopping at the water stops and getting a drink every mile, so I probably wasted between 16-20 paper cups (near the end I got 2 drinks at some stops).
- The program in the SWAG bag wasn’t really necessary for most people who have run the race before or who can just look the info up ahead of time on the internet.
- Also people were offered a bottle of water at the end of the race, but again, if you don’t run with your own reusable bottle, you need something to drink out of when the race ends. At least there was recycling provided for those bottles.
But overall, I thought they did a good job with continuing to make the marathon more eco-friendly!
16th November, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had this article that I saw yesterday but didn’t have time to post. It’s about a project approved by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality despite the objections of the Texas Railroad Commission and “every state and local official representing Montgomery County, and in spite of an administrative law judge’s recommendation to deny the permit because the well might pollute groundwater.” The article goes into a lot of detail about the backers of the project, who are Perry contributors, and what that may have had to do with approval of the project. The article states:
“These guys are used to getting what they want — you want a project to go through, you donate,” said Rebecca Kaiser, a Conroe-area homeowner opposed to the project. “It’s scary to think that this is going to end up doing something to our drinking water.”
Perry’s presidential campaign opponents have criticized him for “crony capitalism,” the appearance of a pay-to-play culture that gets favorable state government treatment for his campaign donors. Perry also has been criticized for state environmental regulation that appears to put business ahead of environmental quality and safety.
The article goes on to say:
The TexCom project became controversial not just because it was a waste injection well. It was an injection well in the old Conroe oil field where hundreds of oil wells had been drilled since the 1930s, potentially puncturing deep formations where the waste would be injected. Montgomery County homeowners and public officials are concerned that the injection well could pollute the aquifer that provides Conroe and the county with its drinking water.
Check out the whole thing!
13th June, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Earlier this year, Austin was a pilot city for the Chevy Volt, and now will be a pilot city for Ford’s first all electric car, the Focus Electric. The comments to this Statesman article about it are entertaining - some are just not very well invormed, but some are honest attempts to figure out the cost-efficiency of buying an electric car that are interesting to read. Check it out!
18th May, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The City of Austin has released a new map which shows the locations of a ton of places giving away free food this Friday to those who bike to work. The locations with free food are marked on the city’s map which show safety levels/quality of bike roads throughout the City of Austin, so it is a useful way to plan where you would like to hit up on Friday. KUT has also released their own google map, based on the info that the City of Austin provided, which is a little more user friendly. Check them both out here. Some exciting spots I hadn’t previously realized were on the list include It’s a Grind Coffee Shop, Halcyon, Dolce Vita, Thunderbird Coffee, Mi Madre, and Blue Dahlia Bistro (one of my favorite restaurants in Austin).
25th March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
This weekend is the Zilker Garden Festival – you can check out their website here
I’ve never been able to make it and won’t be able to again this year, but it sounds like it could be fun. There is a charge to get in, but they have A flower show, gardening talks (including one on organic veggie gardening), and plants for sale. At 12:30 on Sunday, the owner of the Natural Gardener will be talking about organic gardening, which I would have liked to see- check out the full schedule of talks here.
15th March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Yesterday, in an effort to use up some carrots from our Johnson’s Backyard Garden CSA box, I tried this recipe from the website of JBG:
* 4 large carrots, peeled
* Olive oil
* Kosher salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 F.
Cut the carrots into 2-3 chunks. Cut those chunks lengthwise into quarters (or even eighths if the carrot is particularly large).
Place the carrots on a cookie sheet. Drizzle liberally with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Place in the oven and bake, tossing about half way through, until the edges of the carrots start to caramelize, about 20-30 minutes. Keep an eye on them after 15 minutes to make sure they don’t burn.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on a pepper towel lined plate
I used about 10 carrots instead and they turned out great. I don’t normally like carrots that much but this was a nice way to prepare them that I will be sure to try again.
To use up the rainbow chard and scallions from the CSA box, I sautéed the scallions in 2 tablespoons of butter for about 4 minutes (until they got a little brown) and then added about 2 cups of rainbow chard with the stems removed, plus about 1/3 cup of cream. I cooked this on medium till the chard wilted down a little (about 2 minutes) and added 1/2 cup of mozzarella and some pepper, and then served this on some pasta. It was an easy quick way to use up the chard, and the scallion flavor was really nice.
pasta and carrot fries
10th March, 2011 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
I just saw this now – it’s Electric Vehicle Day today at the Capitol from 8:30-1:00. You can test drive the Volt, 2 Ford models, the Tesla Roadster, and the Prius. There will also be breakfast sandwiches and coffee from P. Terry’s till 10AM, what I assume will be free. Click on the link for more info.
4th November, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
Today City Council voted to expand recycling requirements that will require roughly 4,000 more properties to recycle by 2015. The Statesman has this story about the vote, and here is an excerpt:
The City Council just unanimously passed new rules that will require about 4,000 more properties to recycle by 2015.
As we explained in a story this morning, the city currently requires large apartment complexes and offices to recycle four materials and two materials, respectively.
The new rules will require all apartment complexes, condos, private dorms, offices and institutions, including hospitals, nonprofits and day care facilities, to recycle six materials by 2015. The materials are mixed paper, cardboard, plastics #1 and #2, aluminum cans and glass.
The rules will be phased in, with bigger multi-family and commercial properties having to comply in 2012 and 2013 and smaller properties having to comply in 2014 and 2015.
You can read a past post about me complaining about Austin’s poor apartment recycling here, and a post about how much better Portland’s apartment recycling is here.
8th October, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 3 Comments
This article on the research states that:
The amount of food wasted each year by Americans represents the energy equivalent of 350 million barrels of oil, or about 2 percent of the nation’s annual energy consumption, according to a new study. Researchers at the University of Texas say it takes the equivalent of about 1.4 billion barrels of oil to produce, process, package, and transport a year’s worth of food in the United States – between 8 and 16 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption.
Sad that we are using so much energy to produce/package/transport food we don’t end up using!
29th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Austin Business Journal has an article today about Car2go, which states that:
The Austin Smart car rental program has reached 10,000 registered members, the company announced this week, saying it had reached a major milestone four months since launching.
Since the start of the Car2go operations, more than 80,000 rentals have been completed throughout the greater downtown Austin area with average use between 30 and 60 minutes per rental. The customers range in age from college students to retirees, with about 50 percent between 18 and 35 years old
Read more from the ABJ here: Austin’s Car2go reaches 10,000 members – Austin Business Journal
If you are interested in the Austin car2go program, check out
this link.
23rd September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Austin Chronicle has a few articles this week about updates on the Austin Climate Protection Program. The article notes that the Director of ACPP, Ester Matthews, had hoped to accomplish more this year toward reaching the 2020 goal, but the department lost some employees and also didn’t have as big of a response to its new carbon footprint calculator as expected. However, the article notes the following accomplishments for the 2009-2010 year:
- Municipal Plan: About 23% of city energy use now comes from renewable sources, primarily through Austin Energy’s GreenChoice program.
- Utility Plan: Pending AE generation plan puts city on track to reach 30-35% renewable energy by 2020.
- Homes and Buildings Plan: The city adopted stricter efficiency building codes for new construction
- Community Plan: Community outreach began; plans for summit in spring 2011 are in progress.
- “Go Neutral” Plan: The city introduced the carbon footprint calculator
Check out the Austin Chronicle for more details
20th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 2 Comments
There’s not a lot of local environmental news that I’ve been able to find today, but I did hear this interesting story on NPR this morning: “Biotech Battle: Are Genetically Engineered Fish Safe?” The article notes that today the FDA is having a meeting in Washington about whether to approve the ”first genetically engineered animal for human consumption — a fast-growing Atlantic salmon.” The article explains that one environmental issue raised is:
[W]hat will happen if these salmon escape from fish farms into the wild. People are concerned about whether they would mate with wild fish, out-compete them for food or irreversibly change their habitats.
There’s also a debate on what labeling would be required:
[Jeff Black, the chef and owner of BlackSalt seafood market and restaurant in Washington, D.C.] prides himself on knowing his fish purveyors well, and where their products come from and how they’re raised. He sells both farmed and wild fish, but he’s not a big fan of farmed fish. He says many fish farms dump their waste into the ocean.
“I would love it if we didn’t sell any [farmed salmon] but the reality is that salmon is the No. 1 selling fish,” he says. He couldn’t keep up with demand otherwise, he says.
Black is concerned that he doesn’t have enough information about genetically engineered salmon and that the FDA seems to be rushing forward.
He’s also worried that consumers won’t have a choice.
“It should absolutely be labeled, and the public should be allowed to make their own decision. In the restaurant industry, we have what’s called truth in menu. And truth in menu requires me to tell the truth about the things I’m serving,” he says. AquaBounty should be held to the same standard, he says.
In the documents it released before the meetings, the FDA says because the flesh of the genetically engineered salmon is essentially the same as traditionally raised salmon, a new label is not required. However, the agency is planning a hearing Tuesday to hear from the public regarding the labeling.
Check out the story to see a crazy picture of how much bigger the genetically engineered salmon is compared to the wild salmon.
16th September, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
The Statesman had an article yesterday stating that TCEQ and the EPA were meeting yesterday for negotiations over Texas’ air pollution permit program. Here is an excerpt:
In a meeting scheduled for this afternoon at the North Austin headquarters of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the two sides will present a draft compromise that carves out a way for refineries and large manufacturing facilities to voluntarily give up broad permits issued to them by the state for potentially more stringent permits acceptable to federal authorities…
At issue has been whether industrial plants that had been operating under broad, so-called flexible permits awarded years ago by the state ought to be subjected to more precise, stringent permits. The flexible permits set facility-wide emissions limits, leaving regulators in the dark about how many gases particular parts of the plant are belching into the air.
Hopefully we will know later today the results of the negotiations.
23rd August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - No Comments
A while ago I wrote about the new solar powered parking meters that the city of Austin has been installing around the city. It was exciting this weekend to see them in person on Brazos near 10th street!
11th August, 2010 - Posted by katherine - 1 Comment
KUT has this story today about efforts in Austin to build affordable net-zero developments. One such effort is a mixed-income development called SOL in East Austin. Homes in SOL are affordable, subsidized by the city to match owner’s income, and “net-zero” energy capable. There are also plans in the works for an entirely affordable, net-zero subdivision is Guadalupe-Saldana, also in East Austin. The article notes that “In 2015, the city’s goal is that all new single-family homes will be able to make net-zero.”
27th July, 2010 - Posted by carsi - No Comments
My friend Melissa sent me the link to this healthy recipe from the New York Times. I like quinoa recipes (see here and here), and I love pretty much anything with avocado, so I knew this would be a winner. This was a very easy recipe with simple, seasonal ingredients–I found the tomatoes, cucumbers, and jalapeno at the farmer’s market! I didn’t use the onion or cilantro, but the vinegar, jalapeno, and lime juice provided enough flavor to go around. This is a nice summery dish, served hot or cold.
1 cup quinoa
3 cups water
Salt to taste
2 cups diced cucumber
1 small red onion, finely minced (optional)
2 cups finely diced tomatoes
1 to 2 jalapeño or serrano peppers (to taste), seeded if desired and finely chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro, plus several sprigs for garnish
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 avocado, sliced, for garnish
1. Place the quinoa in a bowl, and cover with cold water. Let sit for five minutes. Drain through a strainer, and rinse until the water runs clear. Bring the 3 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add salt (1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) and the quinoa. Bring back to a boil, and reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or until the quinoa is tender and translucent; each grain should have a little thread. Drain off the water in the pan through a strainer, and return the quinoa to the pan. Cover the pan with a clean dishtowel, replace the lid and allow to sit for 10 minutes. If making for the freezer, uncover and allow to cool, then place in plastic bags. Flatten the bags and seal.
2. Meanwhile, place the finely diced cucumber in a colander, and sprinkle with salt. Toss and allow to sit for 15 minutes. Rinse the cucumber with cold water, and drain on paper towels. If using the onion, place in a bowl and cover with cold water. Let sit for five minutes, then drain, rinse with cold water and drain on paper towels.
3. Combine the tomatoes, chiles, cilantro, vinegar, lime juice and olive oil in a bowl. Add the cucumber and onion, season to taste with salt, and add the quinoa and cilantro. Toss together, and taste and adjust seasonings. Serve garnished with sliced avocado and cilantro sprigs.
yum
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