You Say it's Your Earth Day, Well it's My Earth Day Too

In reality, each and every day is Earth Day. Not counting leap years, there are 365 Earth Days a year, but 22nd of April, the day we call Earth Day is the hardest one to get through. With all the ecological awareness seemingly forced down our throats with public service announcements, overly-earnest people triangulating Al Gore-Paul Krugman-Dali Lama with an air of smug superiority and like it or not - Indigo Girl songs. Once the glow of the day passes and people go back to believing that driving their Prius 15 blocks to yoga class is actually good for the environment (instead of less bad), that is when the actual work of using our resources wisely needs to get done.

The kitchen is a great place to start; how we purchase, cook and store food has a profound ecological impact. Not to get all Harper’s Index on you but here are two stats to help give you an idea of what it takes to get food to the table:

20% of all domestic fossil fuel consumption is tied to the US food chain.
Refrigeration uses 18% of that energy. (Transportation accounts for 2.5%)

Since the fridge is a big energy user, keep those condenser coils free of dust (Biannual cleaning is recommended), make sure the fridge is pulled away from the wall so air can circulate around those coils and open and close the door quickly – opening the door and staring at the contents not only allows energy to escape - it is the culinary equivalent of a slacked-jawed yokel standing mute, mouth agape, trying to formulate a sentence. If you are in the market for a new fridge freezer – top/bottom models are more efficient than side-by-side units, and since home fridges are generally filled to 50-80% of their storage capacity you’d think that size matters, but it really doesn’t: It doesn’t take that much more energy to cool an extra couple of sq. ft, it is about efficiency and even larger high-efficiency models use less energy than smaller traditional fridges.

After the food leaves the fridge, there are simple/painless ways to save energy cooking. Lids on pans – cover pots use ½ as much energy. Once that watched pot starts boiling, turn down the temperature to a level that will keep a consistent boil – high heat doesn’t make water boil faster and hotter, it just generates more steam.

Crock-pots and electric teakettles use half the energy of their stovetop equivalents. A pressure cooker, uses 1/4 of the energy that regular pans do. Each time you open the oven, you’re letting out 25ºƒ of hot air – leaving things alone will improve the results and use less energy. Your oven doesn’t need to be preheated for an hour, 10-15 minutes will do. Using clear glass (pyrex) pans will allow you to drop the oven temp by 25 degrees. Let that stored heat work for you – you can turn off the oven before the cooking is done and let the residual heat carry you home – ovens will keep temp for 10 minutes.

I don’t drive and haven’t reproduced, so there are days when I feel entitled to a coal powered SUV, but it isn’t like that. Using resources wisely, whether to save the earth or save some money, it is an every day goal – this isn’t a lifestyle change that means you’ll soon be downloading Indigo Girls songs, this only is a change in cooking habits.