If you carpool to work every day with a co-worker, you could cut your gas consumption and vehicle emissions in half! Talk to your neighbors about sharing rides to common or nearby destinations. Ask the parents of your children’s friends and teammates if you can share driving duty for school and extracurricular activities. Click to learn about the Commuter Choice program, which can help you start your own carpool.
Use alternate transportation such as walking and biking at least once a week
You can eliminate your fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions related to transportation by walking or biking to work or school every day. Click for more information on biking and pedestrian transit in Frederick County.
Foods such as whole grains, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, and fresh meats and fish retain their nutritional value if eaten right away, while most processed and boxed foods contain undesired preservatives and may contain fewer nutrients. Make sure that, when you purchase fresh foods, you only purchase what you can consume in a short period of time. Also consider preserving excess food at home by freezing, drying, or canning.
Replace meat-based meals with vegetarian meals at least once a week
The benefits of eating vegetarian for just one day can be startling, especially if everyone in the U.S. does it! Collectively, the environmental benefits include saving 100 billion gallons of water, 70 million gallons of gasoline, 1.2 million tons of CO2 emissions, and much more. According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of U.S. roads! Other benefits include reductions in solid waste pollution and methane production related to industrial meat production. To learn more, check out this article on the effect of going vegetarian for one day, or read more about vegetarianism.
Buy organic, free-range, and/or grass-fed food at least 25% of the time
Buying organic food lessens the impact of pesticides, fertilizers, and other dangerous chemicals on the environment and the consumer. Different levels of organic certification include “100 percent organic,” “organic,” and “made with organic ingredients.” Foods labeled “100 percent organic” cannot contain any non-organic ingredients. “Organic” foods must contain at least 95% organic ingredients, and foods “made with organic ingredients” must contain at least 70% organic ingredients. To learn more, watch this video on the benefits of eating organic.
Certified organic meat and dairy products are slightly different than grass-fed and free-range animal products in that “organic” animals may be grain-fed but are also required to have access to pasture. To learn more, watch this video about the requirements for organic animal product certification.
Free-range and grass-fed (in comparison to grain-fed) animal products contain far more essential nutrients, such as omega-3s, which are vital to brain and heart health and have even been shown to reduce risk of cancer, heart attack, depression, attention deficit disorder, and Alzheimer’s disease. They also contain more beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin E, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), alpha-linoleic acid (ALA), and essential minerals. Learn more about the health benefits of free-range and grass-fed animal products.
Purchasing free-range and grass-fed products cuts down on CO2 emissions, pesticide use, and synthetic fertilizer use related to industrial grain production. It also reduces manure run-off, disease in animals and consumers, methane gas emissions from animals, and animal cruelty. Manure from pastured animals can help build healthy soil, improving habitat for soil organisms, insects, and other native animals. In addition, the grasses and plants allowed to grow on a pasture sequester CO2. Check out these articles to learn more about the environmental benefits of free-range and grass-fed animal products: Grassfarming Benefits the Environment, In Defense of the Cow.
Supporting local farmers markets, Community Supported Agriculture programs (CSAs), natural food stores, and wineries decreases food transportation costs, boosts the local economy, and provides healthy, fresh food that is often less harmful to the environment than industrial agriculture. For locations and operating hours of Frederick County Farmers Markets, check out Frederick Farm Fresh, the Frederick County Virtual Farmers Market, or the MD Department of Agriculture’s Market Information. You can also sign up for a Community Supported Agriculture program, which provides you with a weekly supply of fresh produce or other farm products from an individual farmer for an entire growing season. Find a CSA farm near you.
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