How I choose eco-friendly food...

If you want to be green and ethical, there are so many factors to consider when you’re buying food. I used to struggle a bit to juggle all the different eco-friendly choices, but last weekend I noticed that I’d settled into a bit of a pattern. I figured I’d share it with you to see what you think: When shopping for food, I choose based on these priorities: Produced in my state. If I can’t find...

Better eating on busy days...

I recently did the Tiny Choices reader survey, and they posted mine last Friday. If you’re not a regular reader of Tiny Choices, or haven’t heard of them before, I highly recommend subscribing to their posts either by RSS or email. They’re one of the first eco-blogs I started reading and are always full of useful information with an upbeat attitude. And the readers there are lovely too. As an example,...

Mmm, I’d love a cuppa right now...

I’ve been trying to drink less soft-drink lately. Partly for the sake of the environment, because of all the plastic and waste that each bottle or can of sugar water involves. And partly for the sake of my waistline - I just don’t burn off the kilojoules the way I used to So I’ve been drinking more tea and coffee as well as plain water. Not that tea and coffee don’t have an impact of their own,...

Vegetarian week...

Grilled chili mushrooms with squash, beans and potatoes It’s Vegetarian Week again! If you’ve been meaning to help the environment out a bit more, why not Pledge to Try Veg? Every person who signs the pledge means that a dollar will be donated to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation to help protect it from climate change. I’m giving it a go this week, with the “eat vegetarian for the week” option....

Kev’s Patch...

A couple of weeks back I posted about the Kev’s Patch campaign started by Darren at Green Change, which I heard about through Gavin. I thought it was a great idea and wrote an email to the Prime Minister about it, asking him to organise an organic vegie patch at his Canberra residence, The Lodge. Well, Darren and Gavin and I decided that if we wanted this campaign to take off, we’d need an official website....

Could you be more food-wise?...

Did you know that the average Australian throws out 20% of the food they buy? That’s like buying five bags of groceries, then throwing one away. Our affluence (compared to a lot of other places in the world), and our busy lives, make it so that we end up wasting food without realising it. You’d think it’d just be a problem for our wallets, but it’s a problem for the environment too. Just think...

Fair Trade Fortnight...

It’s Fair Trade Fortnight! From the 2nd to the 17th of May, it’s Australia and New Zealand’s celebration of everything that’s fair trade. You might have seen the Fair Trade logo around and wondered what it meant. It’s an international certification that the product you’ve bought has better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability and fair terms of trade for farmers and...

Fishing method, not just location...

When doing my grocery shopping on the weekend, I noticed that Coles has started putting more info on their fresh seafood. This is a great move, and will be really useful to me and others who are concerned about the environmental impact of fisheries. Coles, like anyone who sells fresh food, is required by law to state where the product comes from, e.g. “Product of Australia”, “Product of Thailand”,...

National Vegetarian Week...

Starting next Monday, 29th September, it’s National Vegetarian Week. This is an event put on by the Australian Vegetarian Society to promote the benefits of plant-based diets and encourage Australians to lower their meat intake. NewsPoll shows that 7 out of 10 Australians already eat vegetarian meals sometimes, so this is a good chance to try a few new recipes and find out how eating less meat can help the environment. Eating...

Seems a bit fishy?...

Recently I bought a copy of Australia’s Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Australian Marine Conservation Society. Julian Lee mentioned it in his book How Good Are You (reviewed by me in March), going into details about the problems with fisheries in Australia and around the world. Over 75% of the world’s fisheries are overfished - that is, when there aren’t enough fish left to support a viable population,...