Reason: #2: Go Crazy At The Farmer’s Market

…and you’ll end up throwing less away.

How many times have you filled your bags with yummy looking stuff from the farmer’s market only to end up throwing some of it away a week later because it didn’t get eaten? We used to do this a lot and it drove lbjay nuts. There are people who actually avoid the farmers market for this very reason: “I buy too much and never use it all,” they say.

Part of the problem is a lack of menu planning. When you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to eat, how you’re going to prep it and what else to have alongside it, the result will invariably be waste: wilted heads of unused lettuce, cucumbers turning to mush, shriveled up zucchini in the crisper, and potatoes that start looking back at you.

But with Week-nights Aren’t Meat-nights its easier to eat up that farmers market bouty.  What if instead of thawing out some chicken for your main dish you turned those cucumbers into a creamy soup? Save those steak tips for the weekend and grill that zucchini instead–and throw on a hobo pack of potatoes while you’re at it.

The result is you save money, waste less food and help the environment at the same time. For Pete’s sake, make sure you’re taking full advantage of the farmer’s market. The more you buy fresh from the farm the less you’re buying from the mega market. You’ll make a positive impact on the earth by avoiding processed foods and wasting less.

And don’t forget to also eat your leftovers. Even better if you can compost your food scraps. Here at WAM HQ we’ve got a worm bin secured in the underground bunker (a.k.a., down cellar). Those little guys can process up to 1 lb of kitchen scraps per week, but meat leftovers are strictly verboten.

You can learn more about this topic at Love Food Hate Waste from the UK. They have great information about the consequences of wasting food, and also many resources to help organize your menu so that you can feed your stomach rather than the landfills.

Reason 1: Save the Polar Bears

Here at WAM HQ we love Polar Bears. They’ve become a catch-all beneficiary/victim of all things good/bad for the environment. For example, if the neighbor lets his SUV sit idling in the driveway for 20 minutes, he’s “killing the polar bears”. Conversely, switching to fluorescent bulbs or use recycled toilet paper is “saving the polar bears”.

Reducing the amount of meat that you eat is one of the best things that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. Derrick Z. Jackson points out that this simple act could help stop global warming in his OP/Ed piece, “One less burger, One safer planet.”

The WAM staff likes meat too much to “go veg” and eliminate it from our diet completely, but by decreasing the amount of meat that we eat and buying local meat and produce we are taking a small step to save the Polar Bears. Anna Lappé has some great suggestions to save the planet via better food choices through her new project, Take a Bite out of Climate Change.