Join A Local CSA
Community Supported Agriculture or CSA are becoming more popular than ever with more and more people beginning to support their local community farms. A CSA is like a produce subscription where you can receive fresh fruits and vegetables from a local farm or farms. You usually arrange a weekly pickup location to receive your produce. All that is required is that you make an initial contribution to cover the expenses of the farm(s) throughout the growing season.
The idea of community supported agriculture was not started in America, but in Europe and Asia. Just as we are concerned about our food quality today, many communities began teaming up with their local farms to form partnerships in the mid 1960’s. It did not make its way to America until 1984. Since then, it has spread throughout our country, but more highly concentrated in the Northeast, upper Mid-West and Pacific regions. It is estimated that as many as 3,000 farms throughout North America now participate in some form of CSA program.
Types of CSAs
There are a variety of types of CSAs that are implemented including:
- Whole season budget for providing produce for a set number of weeks.
- Consumers help in the production of whatever harvest they are to receive.
- A risk and reward system where consumers get what the farm is able to grow.
I would say the most common type that I have heard of is the first in which you pay an upfront cost and receive produce for a set number of weeks throughout the growing season. It allows you to receive a steady stream of produce throughout the season and choose what types you receive. The other two options are slightly hard, but can reap higher reward and may be slightly less expensive.
Kind of Produce
Just as with Farmer’s Markets, you will get produce that is in season for you local area. Depending on your area, you can get anything from broccoli to arugula and even strawberries. This can be a drawback if you are expecting to receive tomatoes the entire season, but the farm only grows them for a few weeks during the growing season. You can always preserve the produce during their peak time and save them for the winter.
Advantages
There are tons of advantages to a CSA program, probably too many to list. Here are some of the best reasons to join one this season:
- Produce is fresh, locally grown and sometimes organic.
- Save money by paying a lump sum at the beginning of the season.
- Choose different produce each week.
- Save trips to the grocery store or farmer’s markets.
- Support your community farms.
I am going to be joining a local farm’s community supported agriculture program here in Maryland that delivers to several farmer’s markets and locations throughout the area. I am only paying $10 a week to get several different types of produce every week starting in June and lasts for 24 weeks. Check out Local Harvest to find a CSA in your area. Please share any experiences you may have with a CSA in your area or if you plan on joining one this season.
Wild Salmon Vs. Farmed Raised: Which is Better?
Salmon is one of the healthiest fish available today and is for good reason. It is rich in various nutrients that are hard to find in most foods. On the other end, there have been many reports as to the dangers of consuming salmon due to its high levels of mercury and PCBs. Much of the confusion comes with the differences between wild and farm-raised salmon. As you will see, wild salmon are superior nutritionally and environmentally.
What’s the Difference
If you were to hold a wild salmon next to a farmed-raised one, it would be extremely difficult to find any differences among the two. Just because the two may look exactly the same, there are huge differences between both between the two. You would have no clue just by looking at them.
Nutrition
Salmon is low in saturated fats and calories, contains high levels of protein and healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids are consider essential because our body cannot naturally produce them, but can be founds in foods like salmon. It also an extremely good source in other nutrients including selenium, niacin and vitamin B12 along with being a good source in many other vitamins and minerals. Wild salmon is far more nutritious in terms of fat and protein content. Wild fish contain 20% more protein, 20% less fat and are in general much smaller. Even being fattier, farmed raised contain much less usable omega-3 fatty acids and and contain higher levels of omega-6 fatty acids. The lower the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. Wild fish in general contain a much more favorable ratio of omega-3’s to omega-6. The ratio for salmon is 15:1 for wild as compared to 3:1 for farmed raised.
PCBs
Polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs are a class of organic compounds that are highly toxic. Even back in the 1930’s they discovered just how dangerous it was and several papers were published on it. I can’t believe it took our country all the way until the 1970’s to ban it. PCBs were used as coolants and insulating fluids for transformers and capacitors, plasticizers in paints and cements and a stabilizing additives in flexible PVC coatings. Consuming PCBs has even been linked with causing cancer. Even though they have been outlawed, they are still present in our environment, especially in our waters. Salmon are carnivorous and eat many small fish that contain high levels of PCBs. The levels of PCBs in farmed-raised were 8 times higher than found in wild caught salmon. That is huge considering how dangerous it is to our health.
Coloration
Salmon are generally colored either in either orange, red and occasionally white. They are actually naturally white and only get their coloration from the food they eat that includes krill and small shellfish. Because white salmon would not be as popular, farmed salmon are actually given chemicals to turn their flesh these colors. On top of not being healthy for the fish and humans, it also makes it harder to shop for them.
Disease and Contaminants
All salmon contain slight amounts of parasites and some even contain disease, but not at the same levels compared to farmed-raised. Seeing that they are held in giants nets in the ocean, it’s no surprise that aquaculture of salmon contain more disease. They are also given tons of antibiotics to fight off the diseases that they could be carrying in these closed spaces. It’s scary to think that we have no idea what kind of antibiotics or pesticides are in these farmed fish.
Environmental
I previously discussed the aquaculture farming of fish and it’s various environmental impacts. With so many fish packed together in a net in the ocean, there are bound to be negative impacts to the environment. Excess waste from these fish reduce the amount of oxygen in the water and hurt the nearby ecosystem. Also, whenever farmed fish escape from their nets, they can spread disease and lice that are normally not seen in wild fish. This can really hurt the wild populations by making it harder for young salmon to survive to adulthood.
Taste
If you were to try both farmed and wild salmon, you would notice the difference immediately. I have had both and I can say that there is no comparison. If you are currently eating farmed salmon or are not sure what type you buy, try wild and you will not be disappointed.
Below is a summary of the differences between both types of salmon:
Wild Vs. Farmed Salmon Comparison
| Wild | Farm-Raised | |
|---|---|---|
| Nutrition | Higher Ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 Fatty Acides | Lower levels of protein and much fattier |
| PCBs | Low levels | 8 times as many PCBs |
| Coloration | Naturally orange or red because of diet | Given pigments to turn color of salmon from natural white |
| Disease | Contain low amounts of lice, disease and contaminations | High levels of disease, lice pesticides and given large amounts of antibiotics |
| Environmental | Populations killed off by escaped farmed fish | Excess waste and disease harm natural eco-system |
| Price | Slightly higher price | Cheaper because already in nets |
Varieties
There are several varieties of salmon whether it be from the Atlantic or Pacific. I could list all them here, but this articles does a great job in describing all of the main types of Salmon that we eat.
Where to Buy
The best way to get wild salmon any time of the year is to check out your local natural store. I sometimes get frozen salmon at Trader Joe’s or other local natural stores that is always wild. They taste just as good as if you were to buy it from a fish market. Always be sure to be vigilant in asking where the fish comes from and whether it is wild or farmed. If they do not know the answer or the price looks a little too low, assume that it is not wild. There have been instances of several fish markets selling farmed fish as wild. You might also be surprised that canned salmon is usually wild. It’s an affordable way to get wild salmon anytime of the year. Once again, check the labels to make sure that it is in fact wild.
Choose Wild Over Farmed
Next time you go to buy salmon, make sure to check that you are buying wild salmon. It is overall just a healthier fish for you and far superior in terms of taste. There are just too many negatives against farmed salmon to make it not worth the slightly lower price. If more people demand wild salmon when buying it, it could start to eliminate many of these harmful salmon aquaculture farms.
Stop Buying Bottled Water
Consuming water in plastic bottles has gotten out of hand. Everywhere you go, you see somebody carrying a non-reusable plastic water bottle. It just doesn’t make any sense and this trend seems to mainly be happening in America more than any other country.
Not Smart Financially?
Buying water in plastic bottles just does not make sense in terms financially. It can cost you as much as 2,400 times as much to get your water in a one-time use bottle as opposed to getting it from the tap. The average bottle of water will cost you on average of $.79 compared to just 1/3 of a cent from your faucet. Even if you are to use buy a faucet filtration system, it will cost you around $.02 per pint. That is still far more expensive just to have your water in a plastic bottle that you will end up throwing away after you use it. In our tough economic times, this is just one of those expenses that we need to give up, even if it is just in terms of saving money.
Environmental Impacts
With this rapid growth in people buying water in plastic bottles, landfills are filling up with more and more plastic. Americans consumed around 60 million pints of bottled water. In order to produce them, 2.5 million tons of greenhouse gases were emitted.
Unhealthy?
Many people buy bottled water because they feel that the quality is far superior to what you could get in your home. Is it really safer for you than that tap water? There really isn’t any definitive answer to this question. The FDA regulates this product and has ensured us that we are not at risk by drinking it. Seeing that some bottlers use tap water, what is the difference to what these products as compared to what you can get at your home? Even if spring water is used, it’s still just water.
Alternatives
One big reason behind buying expensive bottled water is convenience. I understand that it’s nice to be able to take your water on the run, but you don’t have to buy a plastic bottle to accomplish this. You can buy a reusable bottle whether it be plastic or stainless steel. I prefer stainless steel because it doesn’t leach like many plastic bottles and is much more durable. Some of the better brands of stainless steel water bottles include Klean Kanteen and Otterbottle. When you are at home, just use a cup. There is no need to open a plastic bottle when you are sitting at home.
NOAA Launches N-Prime Environmental Satellite
A new environmental satellite called the N-Prime was launched from Vandberg Air Force Base in California on February 6th. As we speak, the N-Prime satellite is orbiting the earth as we speak at a rate of 102 minutes. This new satellite will support 9 programs under NOAA that include traditional weather forecasting to fire detection, global vegetation analysis and even air methane levels. What is unique to this new satellite is that it will be able to track animal migratory patterns to help better understand our earth’s environment. This is a great video that goes into further details about this satelite:
JumpGauge Search Engine: Green Made Visual
Searching for green products can be a daunting task along with learning all the aspects involved into making them green. With many companies out there claiming that their products are “environmentally friendly” or “green”, it makes it hard to determine if a product is actually as it says. It can also be extremely difficult to find products that meets specific green requirements. I stumbled upon a cool searching technology called JumpGauge that can make searching for green products a whole lot easier and save you tons of time.
JumpGauge
Jump to Green is the mastermind behind this unique technology that was started in 2008. The goal of this company was to make a technology that could make learning about all aspects surrounding a green product much easier. To accomplish this, they developed a visualization technology called JumpGauge to make it easy to search for eco-friendly products. They believe that visualizations are far more effective that complicated search parameters that could leave you confused.
Jump to Green are one of the first companies to develop a search engines to be using visualization did a great job with it. Let’s go a little further into how this search engine works.
Just as with any other search engine, you can type a normal search query in it and does a great job at returning green products that match that query. The real unique part about this tool is that it uses small visualizations to add parameters to your search. Let’s say for example you want to buy a green toy. In terms of green, we want to make sure that the the toy is made in America and sustainable materials are used to make the toys.
As you can see from the picture, it’s simple to do that search with JumpGauge. All you have to do is click the two icons corresponding made in America and sustainable and type in toys. Each icon does a good job in describing the green concept it corresponds to. If the pictures are not clear enough for you, you can just hover over them to find out exactly what term that are related to.
Each result is returned with the picture of the product along with why the product as green. As I said above, it does a good job in returning results corresponding to what you searched for and showing the ones that match the green terms you selected at the top.
JumpGauge has done a great job and has become one of the top search engines for green products in just a year. Check out this great search engine and see if you can quickly and easily find a green product you are looking for.
When is Local Not So Green?
Local Produce Not Green? This is a interesting topic that was researched by the University of Exeter out of England. The study that was published in Food Policy that the carbon emissions from a delivery truck are on average lower than making trips to your local farm. The researchers compared the amount of carbon emissions emitted between driving yourself and having organic produce delivered to you. They made sure to take into account CO2 emitted by all items involved in storing, packaging and transporting the items. In order for the trip to your local farm to make sense, it would have to be less than 4.16 miles ( 6.7km ). This is even under the condition that the farm selling the produce is not using any heating/cooling or lighting in their shop.
Is This Study Really Relevant?
After reading about this study a few times, I came to realize that the conditions mentioned are not really at all relevant to Americans. The average produce in American travels 1,500 miles and is not usually organically grown. Our food travels to far here for the trip to the farm or local market not make more sense. Also, I am not sure how the produce is in the UK, but the stuff you buy at your grocery store here is not anywhere as close to the quality at a local farm. Granted, organic produce from natural stores are often better than you normally would find at a normal grocery store. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) seems to me to be the optimum choice in terms of limiting the amount of carbon emissions, supporting your local community and buying fresh tasty produce. It allows you to buy local produce and have it delivered from the farm to a location closer to your house. If the study mentioned above is talking about CSA’s, then I am in total agree with the study.
February Pays to Live Green Giveaway – CLOSED
Throughout the month of February, I will be hosting a giveaway to reward my regular readers and those who are active on my site. The winner of this giveaway will a $25 gift certificate to your favorite green store. You can also choose $25 in the form of cash if you want to spend the money at a local store or just save it.
How to Win
There are many opportunities to win this contest. Here’s how you can increase your chances to win:
- Comment ( 1 entry ): Simply leave a comment on this article.
- Subscribe to my email subscription ( 5 entries ): Follow my daily articles by simply subscribing to my email subscription service. This will give you a great chance to win and give you all the latest updates to my blog. A win-win situation. If you already are subscribed, you are already entered.
- Spread the Word ( 25 entries ): You can get a huge advantage by publicizing this contest on your blog. All you have to do is give a brief description of this contest and a link to it. Just be sure to Contact Me to make sure you get credit for this.
When is it over?
This giveaway will end March 3, 2009. I will randomly select an entry from the list of all entries.
Good Luck!!!!
