Happy Thanksgiving from Visions! We hope you have a great week off! For this week’s blog post, we want you to keep in mind the sustainable practices you can maintain in your household for Thanksgiving this year.
Waste is usually rampant across the US over Thanksgiving weekend. This includes 200 million pounds of turkey, enough water to supply New York City for 100 days, with a carbon footprint created equivalent to 800,000 cars driving from Los Angeles to Florida. In turn, only 6.3% of food waste gets composted. In order to minimize this waste, try some of the following tips!
1. BUY LOCAL
Whenever possible, buy local and organic ingredients! The closer your food is grown, the lower the environmental impact of what you eat. Farmer's markets and local farm delivery services are ideal! In addition, locally grown foods are typically grown on smaller farms that use more sustainable practices. By supporting your local farm, you also are protecting local land and wildlife.
2. REDUCE FOOD WASTE
Making too much food and quite a bit of it being thrown out is one of the biggest unsustainable practices that occurs every year. One way to avoid this is to coordinate with your guests about how many people will be attending your meal and how much food everyone is bringing. This will allow you to plan accordingly and not duplicate someone else’s dish, thereby reducing food waste. Finally, keep your leftovers, and don’t be shy of using your freezer. Thanksgiving foods such as pies, sweet potato casseroles, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey can be stored in the freezer until you’re ready to eat!
3. SHOP WELL
When planning your menu, take stock of ingredients you already have, and then plan your list of groceries! This will prevent you from buying too many groceries that don’t even make it into your dinner, excess food that you don’t need and eventually goes to waste, and prevent extra trips to the store.
TURKEY: IS IT NECESSARY?
While turkey is generally acknowledged to be a Thanksgiving staple, is it really necessary? Eating less meat is one of the most simple ways to make your meals a little bit more sustainable. The amount of land, water, feed, and animal waste generated to bring meat to your table takes quite a toll on the environment. So before you buy your turkey this year, take a moment to consider whether your table needs one. However, if you do decide that a turkey is an asset, consider a local, pasture-raised turkey rather than buying blind from a grocery store. You could also buy a smaller turkey and go heavier on the plant-based sides. There are numerous ways to rethink the focus of the meal. Don’t forget that once the turkey is gone, you can save the bones to make turkey stock for any other types of meals.
We hope you take some of our suggestions into consideration when setting your table this year, and we all can do our part to take care of the environment! Happy Thanksgiving from Visions!
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