Tag Archives: natural home

Food Waste – Why Its A Problem And Tips For Creating Change

I’m guilty and I feel it.  I just threw out food that could have been eaten by someone else that desperately needs it.

There are so many men, women and children who are hungry each day, all the while the US and Europe wastes enough food to feed them all; how is that ok?

Not to mention the issue of garbage dumps growing exponentially.

Yet, I know how easily it all happens.

With three very picky kids I end up throwing their uneaten scraps (thank goodness we at least have a dog again!) into the trash on a daily basis.

At times, I’m a poor planner too.  I let that extra sour cream go to waste.  I find rotten fruit that just didn’t get eaten sometimes.  We don’t make a meal of our leftovers, they end up sitting too long and boom, in the trash they go.

And of course the roots of this problem go a lot deeper than this too; to that of the “Throw Away Culture” in which we live…

But, what can you do?

I know I’m not the only one who has thrown food away that could have been used had they made just a bit more effort in some way.  And, I definitely know I’m not the only one who is ready for some help to change this costly habit.  So, I went on a search for more information and tips on what to do to help reduce food waste at both our own homes as well as within our communities as a whole.

Meal Planning

First and foremost for reducing food waste on a personal level is meal planning.  When you plan ahead you can be sure to only buy what you’ll actually use in the first place.  Also you can plan meals off of ingredients you’re getting that would otherwise go to waste.

For example, I get sour cream once in awhile but its sold only in a size we’d never use completely.  Its one of the things I frequently find myself throwing out. But, when I plan for at least one other dish that week that utilizes sour cream in the ingredient list – I use the whole container and don’t waste food or money!

vegetarian diet full of fresh natural veggiesAnd there’s the issue of uneaten leftovers.  If you simply plan to eat them, within your meal plan for the week/month though then that’s dinner whether its everyone’s favorite or not!

Changes in Diet

The meat industry is incredibly wasteful and, the land that it takes to raise a cow for example, could be used much more efficiently and sustainably by growing vegetables and fruits.  If we all just ate meat only one meal a week we could change a lot all the while still indulging in the great American answer to “what’s for dinner”

Composting

When you do waste food, try to compost what you can.  Not only will you get “black gold” you can use on your garden you can reduce great plies of old veggies, fruits, and other foods into much smaller piles of soil that’s much more beneficial for the earth than garbage in just a few weeks.

In fact, community wide composting operations can even be created in more urban areas and, cities and towns can institute composting programs the same way they’ve done with recycling.  Then they can use the rich compost they get in return for the town and community gardens all the while saving countless dollars on fees associated with garbage collection and dumping.

Farming

Factory farming has harmed the earth in many ways and food waste is one of them.  If more farms grew a variety of foods as opposed to one “cash crop”, and grew them organically they, along with home gardeners (see below), could partner up, work together, and localize the food supply.

This would enable each community to work together to meet the unique needs of their area and thereby reduce the waste at the farm as well as at the markets.

home veggie gardenHome Gardening & Food Preservation Techniques

When you grow your own food and plan your meals around your own harvest as well as use food preservation techniques you can reduce your food waste dramatically.

You can also plan to grow good nutritious food for local food pantries and soup kitchens as helping those who are hungry by giving away food is an important piece of reducing food waste and keeping everyone’s bellies full on a larger scale.

Politics

While each action you take to reduce food waste on an individual scale matters greatly, there simply is part of this puzzle that is solely based in politics.  Things like farm subsidies, trade issues, increasing food charity, etc are issues that require participation from humans on a global scale.

We can still work for change in the politics of food waste though too.  Make noise about food waste and let your government know its an issue for you.   Educate your community members so they too can work toward political policies, initiatives, candidates, etc that address food waste and offer catalysts for change.

While this issue is a huge one, the reality is that we can all do a little something to decrease food waste on individual, local and global levels.  This in turn will slowly begin to help make the changes necessary in order to stop wasting food and help our fellow humans who are currently going hungry to gain access to the nutrition they so desperately need.

Winning the War on Fleas Naturally-Is it impossible?

History is full of great battles and natural events of historical proportions, but it has come to my recent attention that the battle of man against flea is a long hard fight that challenges many of the great ones.  Understanding that the flea has the collective intelligence of 160 million years of survival and the ability to live on pure instinct alone for that long; you quickly see why it takes some moral, physical and emotional sacrifice to become victorious in the fight against the flea and why keeping your flea battle natural, may just not be in the cards.

I don’t know if it was a widespread epidemic this year or just here in our neck of the woods, but a crazy strain of fleas moved in that was next to impossible to control.  This was so widespread that people all over town were talking about their pets and not being able to get rid of the fleas.  We recently had a flea infestation at our home that was torture and if the fleas weren’t bad enough, making the tough decisions between going natural and breaking out the chemical warfare had out house in a tizzy.

I was never a big user of Frontline and other applicator style flea treatments for my first dog who survived 13 years with minimal flea troubles.  I remember making her garlic collars as a tiny puppy and how she always smelled like pizza.  My life partner however plays by the rule books with all the household pets and the pets we have now are “family” pets and decisions regarding their care are family decisions.  Mind you, our pets were on regular Frontline treatments until one month; a cat treatment was missed and the fleas were waiting for that exact moment to make their move.

Ugh! It’s only so bad when you see the cat being taken over.  We dipped her first (a completely unpleasant task I might add-cats really don’t like water) in a natural soapy water pool (it doesn’t take long to drown a flea) and we treated her immediately, but it was all too late.  The cycle had begun and within no time, the children and I were totally eaten alive by nasty little fleas.  Sides note here, the fleas we had never bit my husband; only the ladies of the house suffered.  This I cannot explain.  Anyway, it has been almost 2 months of non-stop battles against the fleas and I am confident that we (humans, feline and dog) are finally on the winning team.

It was a tough road fraught with tough “staying natural” decisions, so I am going to share the sequence of events that took place here in hopes that you will have equal success in winning the battle of the fleas:

1:  Give your animal a bath/dip.  Fleas are easy to drown, if you can get them underwater.
2:  Treat the animal with a spot flea treatment (this is a chemical treatment, but I tried all the natural options and nothing worked).
3:  Strip everything and bomb your house (again, this is chemical, but it HAS to be done-just once).
4:  Wash everything that can go into the wash.  Blankets, towels, wash it all!!!
5:  Boraxo your carpets.  Leave on for at least 2 hours then vacuum up (always dispose of vac bag immediate and outside of the house).
6:  Construct flea traps for multiple areas of your home.   You can make your own by taking a nightlight and placing it above a bowl of water with a drop or two of dish liquid.  Empty and fill as needed.
7:  Spray cedar oil and lemon oil anywhere you can and especially on pet bedding.
8:  Retreat animals after 10 days with another dip and spot flea treatment.
9:  Vacuum daily; Boraxo at least once a week if not every other day (always dispose of vac bag immediate and outside of the house).
10:  Reapply cedar oil and lemon oil as soon as your eyes stop watering and you think some of your nostril hairs have grown back.
11:  Be diligent with the washing.  If it was on the floor, wash it.  If it was on your bed, wash it.
12:  Repeat until the battle is won.

It is so hard to see your babies all full of itchy bites and even more frustrating on those days when you think they couldn’t possibly still be in the house only to wake and find more bites or have a flea appear directly on your person, but be confident.  Don’t be afraid to go a bit chemie on those tiny pricks and make sure your vacuum cleaner and washing machine are in working order cause they are about to get a workout.

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