How to have a "Green" Thanksgiving
- EQR EQR
- Nov 17, 2017
- 3 min read
It might seem hard to stay environmentally friendly during the holidays, but if you take these small steps, it can be easy!
1) Buy local for your Thanksgiving dishes. According to the Worldwatch Institute, potatoes, cranberries, and turkeys often travel 1,500 to 2,500 miles from the farm to the Thanksgiving table. These food items rack up a lot of “food miles” which refer to the distance food travels from production to consumer. Scholars use food miles as a factor for assessing global warming. Consider taking your Thanksgiving shopping list to the local farmers market this weekend.
2) Avoid foods with unnecessary food packaging. Now, this is one that most people don’t really think about when going to the grocery store to shop for Thanksgiving dinner. The following ideas are just a start:
Buy loose leaf lettuce, not the lettuce in a plastic container.
Don’t buy tomatoes covered in saran wrap or in a plastic bag.
use reusable bags to bag your produce and groceries.
Get rice and nuts from bulk bin. Reduce the amount of packaging you consume by understanding what you are buying and if it would be better to buy in bulk.
3) Don’t over water your guests. On average, Americans use 88 gallons of water a day at home. We can reduce this water waste during Thanksgiving dinner by:
No need to fills their glasses after one sip
Leave out pitchers and have them serve their self. That way your guests can only pour what they need.
Restaurants are notorious about this and I put my glass on the other side of the table so that they can’t sneak up on me and fill it
4) Prepare less food. Everybody feels compelled to cook a big turkey and prepare numerous courses. A lot of times that can cause food waste. What you can do instead is choose a smaller turkey and skip some of the less-popular dishes to reduce food waste. Also encourage your guests to bring Tupper wear so they can take home left overs if there is extra food!
5) Coordinate recipes with your friend and family. To make sure you don’t have repeat dishes that cause food waste, set up a Google Doc or Excel spreadsheet to simultaneously plan your Thanksgiving meal with whoever you are sharing the day with.
6) Reduce Food Waste – Turn your scraps into soup. The US is a leader in food waste and new research suggests we throw away almost as much food as we consume. Campaigns such as SavetheFood.com list creative ways to minimize food waste. During Thanksgiving you probably generate enough scraps to make a full pot of vegetable broth. Carrot and potato peels, onion tops, celery scraps and garlic skins are perfect for soup. Rinse everything, place in a pot, cover with one to two inches of water, add some salt and boil for a couple of hours to make vegetable broth that you can freeze for future use!
7) Conserve energy use. If you have several dishes that need to be in the oven at the same temperature, put them in at the same time to reduce energy use. Ingredients like butter that need to be melted in the microwave and stove, can be started at room temperature to conserve energy as well.
These simple steps to have a more Earth-friendly meal can be used year round. Let us know what steps you used this Thanksgiving. Have a happy and relaxing holiday!
