Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 3: Weekly Update

My SMART goal: I will read/watch 2 environmentally related articles/videos each week. They will be from a variety of reliable sources.


I think I was successful in my goal this week. This time I had two topics in mind that I wanted to look up, instead of just looking around until something caught my interest.
Something that helped me be successful for my first topic was that it is currently happening, so there is a lot of information out there for it.
My feelings fluctuated depending on what I was reading, but my feelings about my change are positive. I'm excited to be more "in-the-loop" on current, past and future topics that could be effecting me or people I know.

What I learned #1:


I've been hearing a lot about "Occupy Wallstreet" in the past few days - a few high school friends are there protesting for the week, and a couple others are participating in OccupyMN. So I started a Google search for Occupy Wallstreet first, since that seemed to be the main event.

First, just so I knew what it was, I went here.
Then, I read a couple articles about what has been happening, from different sources and different views.

This started on September 17th, and is currently in day 26.
The basic jist is that people are occupying Manhattan's Zuccotti Park in peaceful protest, pushing for a separation of money and government. What started as an idea by an activist group spread across the country, and is happening all over (including Minneapolis, MN).
The continuous message I saw was "We are the 99%" - this is saying that we are the majority, and in this case, we don't have the money or the power. One author, Demetria Irwin, wonders in her Huff Post article (here) if this is America's revolution - following Egypt and other countries this year. She mentions a poll taken, who's results revealed that the majority of the protesters are twenty-somethings:  "they aren't anti-capitalism, but they are anti-getting run over by policies that favor the wealthiest one percent" -Demetria Irwin.

There is a ton more information and topics - from police brutality to Millionaire March - and I plan to keep up-to-date on the subject. It is current, ongoing and constantly changing, and more importantly, it is effecting us right now. Personally, I think it's a great movement, and I hope some peaceful and intelligent changes can sprout from it. Here is the movement's official website if you want to read more and continue to know what is happening. Also this site is good.


What I learned #2:


So after watching the video "The Future of Food" in class on Monday, I was very disgusted and freaked out by genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This page from the World Health Organization gives a short definition of GM foods, along with some frequently asked questions about them.
I had heard of GM foods before, but didn't know much about them, how they were created, or what awful things their "owners" are doing to small farmers. In brief, genetically changing a plant to that it doesn't die as easily, or produces more food sounds great! But what most people don't know (including me until Monday) is how they make that happen. As I found out in the video, a common practice is to use viruses and bacteria as hosts to insert a new gene into a cell. I don't know about you, but I typically try to keep viruses and bacteria out of my body. They also mention that these new species are often tagged with "antibiotic resistance genes" so they can be followed later. This raises the question of the possibility of those genes transferring to the people who eat them, thus making them more resistant to some antibiotics.
To make matters worse, GM foods do more require labeling. So when you go to the grocery store and buy a tomato or corn flakes, you have no way of knowing if it was grown from something genetically modified.
I personally plan on starting a new, non-class related lifestyle change by trying my best to reduce my GM food intake (shopping at co-ops, looking for foods labeled as "not GM", buying local).

Eye Opener: CSPI

I chose to do the Eating Green Calculator for this assignment. I was interested first of all to find out my estimated impact, but also about how I could improve my diet. It was a little difficult to enter my weekly servings of each food (beef, chicken, eggs, milk...) since it usually varies from week-to-week. So I tried to kind of enter servings on average (I put zero servings for eggs since I rarely use them - it doesn't mean I never do).
I think I'm happy with my impact, however it is hard to tell what is "good". I also liked that they provided the nutritional information!
Then I clicked on the tab to learn how to improve my diet AND protect the environment: I didn't change much. Since I had already entered such small amounts of servings, it was hard to reduce them by much without totally replacing them - and I don't want to go vegetarian. I think, for me personally at least, getting some meat and dairy during the week is important. It helps me feel healthier, gives me protein, and aids me in making other healthy food options (milk in my oatmeal).
I did not take the pledge, because I think that I am already doing good on my animal product levels.

In summary, I do think it is important to be conscious of the amount of animal products you eat, but I think it is even more important to consider where you get them/how they are raised. A large majority of the beef I make at home comes from my boyfriend's uncle who raises cows in Michigan. And when I buy chicken I try my best to buy local if available, and free-range. This calculator doesn't take any of that into account when giving you your results.