Quoted from the Telegraph: > than their conventional counterparts. While the 200-page study by the > Manchester Business School found that many organic products do have > lower impacts than their pesticide-laden brethren, it points out that > the act of producing others can actually have a bigger impact. Organic I'm not sure how this originally got all mixed up in the public consciousness. Of course organic food production is less energy efficient -- that's because it doesn't use many of the chemicals created specifically to increase food production. Organic food production may have that "hippy" feel of loving the earth, but it's primarily about the quality of food you put into your body, not the amount of land it took to make or the energy it took to get to your plate. See my earlier link posted to this list about local food being greener than organic food that has to be shipped from further away. If you're concerned about the environmental side of food production, "organic food" is the wrong place to look. It's not too far off, but it's not quite right. Try Permaculture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture The key word is "sustainability". See my previous comments on this list about how monocrop horticulture tends to destroy the land. "Permaculture is both a lifestyle ethic as well as a design system which utilizes a systems thinking approach to create sustainable human habitats by analyzing and duplicating nature's patterns." It may or may not use organic farming -- depending on what's sustainable. Meanwhile, I try to make organic food as high a percentage of what I eat as possible because; A) It tastes better and 2) I'm fairly sure I've become allergic to artificial additives, particularly preservatives. Not because I believe it's better for the environment. In fact, I *know* that the Green & Black's organic hot chocolate consumed more fossil fuels just being sent from the UK than the Australian Dick Smith hot chocolate consumed in its entire production, but I don't turn into a sneezing eyes-watering mess for half an hour after consuming it. This one time, at band camp, Luisa <Luisa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > This is a great idea! Do you have one of these chest > fridges? If so, how do you like it? What do you keep in it? > Is it practical? I don't have one. I've gotten a bit energy-lazy since I switched to 100% renewable power through a scheme available from my local power utility. > As you know, I am looking to replace my fridge for > something environmentally friendly. So, I wonder how one > would arrange stuff inside so that you can easily get things > as you are cooking. I am sure something like a jewel-box > system could be constructed... I would first consider using suspended baskets of some sort like the ice cream-on-a-stick freezers most small supermarkets and corner store use for their Streets or Peters products. If not suspended, maybe stacked. http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Business/2007/02/21/3650161-sun.html > SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA -- The Australian government yesterday announced > plans to phase out incandescent light bulbs and replace them with more > energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs across the country. The reason why I paste this in now is to make some commentary about the fridge stuff above, and to explain my position on energy saving. I used to be one of the people at the head of the environmental line, but when there's no one behind you the line is a little pointless. I got tired of making life so much harder for myself and now I wait a little for others to catch up. 10-15 years ago, knocking yourself out to be all energy efficient gained very little. Sure, your electricity bill was a little lower, but there aren't a lot of bragging rights in that. Instead it costs time or money or both and just means you can't be doing something else more productive. Recently I came close to buying a Swatch Smart car. It's the equal-highest fuel efficient car available in Australia, tying with the Prius. It's also about half the length of a "normal" car. It's very responsible, but society doesn't give a crap. There may be a few places near me where there are parking problems (the top state university, for example) but where I work there are plenty of spots. So I'm not going to see much of a benefit from the sacrifices of a two seater car. No extra-convenient "micro cars only" spots. I decided instead to stick with my well maintained '85 Gemini and be environmental by not throwing it away. Onto lights, fridges and home power. I've been aware for years of energy efficient options for most household things, but society didn't care. Power production was adequate, the environmental impact of the power stations feeding the grid were minimal (depending on what you thought of the Kwinana Cancer Cluster) and knocking yourself out trying to go energy efficient just made you look awkward and petty. Now that no new power plant has been built in longer than I can remember, the threat of brownouts (not helped in Western Australia by a recent daylight savings trial that's encouraged a lot of people to get air conditioners so they can get to sleep), energy efficiency actually matters. I've been seeing an increasing number of LED traffic lights (which work particularly well because rather than generating white light that gets filtered to green, orange or red LEDs directly produce that colour) and now the UK is sniffing around "standby" power consumption: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4620350.stm Just as the Australia's bulb efforts are echoing in the UK: http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Australias-bulb-action-lightens-up-UK/2007/02/22/1171733956451.html ...I'm sure the UK's efforts with standby power will echo in Australia. California too seems to come up with some interesting ideas and everything cross-pollinates. Now, my household has been keeping its power consumption steady for years through the gradual replacement of incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescents and even CRT monitors with LCD screens. Oo, which reminds me, quick link: Black costs less energy to display on a CRT than white: http://www.risingphoenixdesign.com/blackback.html Anyway, my point was that it's nice to see society catching up more than it's nice to be there first. Next stop is hopefully phasing out of non-rechargeable batteries. BTW, I got some nice rechargeable AAs recently from http://www.usbcell.com/ Yours, Chris J.