EARTH DAY RESOURCES
Join New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light’s Cool Harvest Campaign!
Most of the food that Americans eat travels between 1200 and 1500 miles to reach their dinner plates. Reduce your carbon footprint by choosing food that is locally grown whenever you can. You can find many foods that come from right here in New Mexico, including our state vegetables, pinto beans and chiles. Other local items include fruits (apples, apricots, blackberries, grapes, peaches, pears, plums, quinces, raspberries, rhubarb), vegetables (too many to name!), herbs, milk and cream, eggs, cheese, meats, honey, peanuts, pecans, pinons, pistachios, wheat flour, cornmeal, and even balsamic vinegar! In the summer and autumn months, you’ll find an amazing selection of produce raised without pesticides or chemical fertilizers at the growers’ markets held throughout the state. Even during the winter some grower’s markets are held once a month. For a list of grower’s markets in New Mexico, along with their dates and hours of operation, go to farmersmarketsnm.org. (These markets are not the same as the produce chain called The Farmer’s Market in Albuquerque.)
An excellent place to buy local products is La Montanita Co-op, located in Nob Hill and on Rio Grande, N.W. The Co-op carries many products mentioned above, and offers discounts to its members. Or contact local farmers through http://www.localharvest.org/. For locally raised meats and poultry, consult the website www.eatwild.com.
Or be even more local—plant a garden, raise chickens (go to urbanchickens.org for advice), or become a beekeeper with help from abqbeeks.ning.com. Eat better, support local businesses, and combat climate change!
Meatless Mondays:
Reduce your CO2 footprint by putting more locally grown products on your dinner plate, and by reducing the amount of meat you eat. Older readers may remember the meatless and wheatless restrictions that food rationing required during World War II. Now, consider going meatless one day a week for your health and the health of the planet. Click on to MeatlessMondays.com, which partners with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in providing recipes for delicious meatless meals. For Christians, Lent begins on February 22. Consider adopting a vegetarian diet as your Lenten discipline this year and as your contribution to combating climate change.
Making the Food / Faith / Climate Connection
Click here for food resources, sermons and worship materials, and Cool Harvest kits.
Place Matters: Grounding your ministry in a sense of place. Free materials. |
