Books & Music...

While the No Impact Man knows how to shrink your green ego in a hurry, his ideas regarding refrigeration of food intrigued me. Using some primitive "technology" from Nigeria, he cools his food with giant pots, sand, and water. I know, it sounds crazy, but apparently it works.

After hearing about his adventures in green living in Manhattan, I stumbled upon Lester R. Brown's book, Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. My thoughts on just what an energy consumer my refrigerator is were confirmed--along with many other suspicions I've had about the way my lifestyle was impacting the earth.

Check out this green nugget from Brown's "substantially revised" book:

Although attention commonly focuses on energy use on the farm, agriculture accounts for only one fifth of the energy used in the U.S. food system. Transport, processing, packaging, marketing, and kitchen preparation of food are responsible for the rest. The U.S. food economy uses as much energy as the entire economy of the United Kingdom.

The 14 percent of energy used in the food system to move goods from the farmer to consumer is equal to two thirds of the energy used to produce the food. And an estimated 16 percent of food system energy use is devoted to canning, freezing, and drying food—everything from frozen orange juice concentrate to canned peas. ...

The most energy-intensive segment of the food chain is the kitchen. Much more energy is used to refrigerate and prepare food in the home than is used to produce it in the first place. The big energy user in the food system is the kitchen refrigerator, not the farm tractor. While oil dominates the production end of the food system, electricity dominates the consumption end. With higher energy prices, the modern food system that evolved when oil was cheap will not survive as it is now structured.