Tracking sustainability news and events in Savannah, Georgia (and beyond)
Category
Food
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06.08.08Where’s the Beef?WorldChanging columnist, Clark Williams-Derry reports here on a recent study from a couple of Carnegie Mellon profs that compares life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with food production against food miles. Summary of the findings: A dietary shift can be a more effective means of lowering an average household’s food-related environmental footprint than “buying local.” Shifting less than one day per week’s worth of calories from red meat and dairy products to chicken, fish, eggs, or a vegetable-based diet achieves more GHG reduction than buying 100% locally sourced food. Small sacrifice, big impact . . . gotta love that. Still, all else being ...
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05.20.08Restaurants Latest to “Go Green”The slogan of Ted Turner's chain of 50+ casual dining restaurants, Ted's Montana Grill, is "Eat Great. Do Good." Ted’s Montana Grill is now a 99% plastic-free establishment (what about that remaining 1%?) that recycles and features water and energy efficient fixtures. I know, I know, this is nothing new. Many restaurants across the country have long been green -promoters of local foodways and farmers, organics, slow food, etc. What makes this newsworthy is that Ted is a celebrity empire-maker and his inexpensive, All-American restaurants have mass appeal. Plus, Turner’s foundation has deep pockets. Pockets that are helping to fund the ...
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05.12.08Middle of May means many green eventsThere's something sustainable happening every day for the rest of the week. Doubt me? Submitted for your consideration: Tuesday: The May installment of Green Drinks Savannah happens at Cha Bella, located near the corner of Broughton and East Broad streets. The events starts at 5:30 p.m. More information is available here. Wednesday: SCAD's chapters of the The American Society of Interior Designers and the International Interior Design Association present a lecture called "Off the Grid," by Mariyn Whitne and Cindy Faulhaber. The event begins at 7:45 p.m. in Room 104 of Eichberg Hall, located at 229 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. ...
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04.14.08Savannah Food Co-op Active, AlmostSome of us in Savannah have been poking around for a local/regional produce box program (that delivers) and/or a CSA ready to sprout. In the meantime, we are following the tenets of Square Foot Gardening, reading classics like One Acre and Security: How to Live Off the Earth Without Ruining It or The New Self-Sufficient Gardener, and doing what we can at home. Some of us have taken over a plot at a county park West of the city, and others are harvesting produce in exchange for free labor at friends’ places. Clearly what we’ve needed is a community ...
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03.21.08Something FishyA special dinner seems appropriate for Easter weekend, or at least to mark the beginning of spring (first day of spring was March 20). I don’t eat ham but I am thinking of other pink foods … there sure is a lot of salmon out there. But is it OK to eat? In a recent issue of Eating Well, David Dobbs addresses this question, explaining how and why the answer has shifted dramatically over the past decade or so. The long and short of it seems to be that many commercial fisheries (such as catfish farms) are beneficial for the species ...
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02.20.08From little seeds …Just got off the phone with the local parks service and tomorrow I go to check out the garden plots available for planting—free of charge—by Chatham County residents. The director of recreation told me these plots just west of the city used to fill up every year but that over time the number of active planters (from the "older generation") has declined. He hopes some new ones will crop up. Perhaps my desire to grow my own food, and to do so organically, is just a romantic pipe dream. But I am sure it's best to find out ASAP with the assistance ...
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02.11.08Why drip when you can gurgle?On his blog “Notes from the Food World,” writer/journalist Michael Ruhlman espouses the virtues of the humble coffee percolator, declaring “Percolator Love.” He wants to “rid the world of the ridiculous automatic drip coffee maker, a sham perpetrated on an unthinking, convenience-minded public.” I’d like to help him. I currently own electric and stovetop percolators, and a French press. Never again will I willingly subject myself to the thin and toxic tinkle from an automatic drip coffee maker. But I do acknowledge why I once went there. At the home of an out-of-town friend years ago, I found it charming to wake ...
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12.28.07Buzzword, Locavore. Ironic Fallacy?The words of the year for 2007 have been determined. The Oxford American Dictionary picks “locavore” (noun) • one who eats food grown or produced locally or within a certain radius such as 50, 100, or 150 miles. The term “locavore” was coined two years ago in San Francisco by a group whose official membership has since grown to include participants all over the world, including several in Georgia. The group exchanges tips and celebrates their respective foodsheds (path from supplier to table and everything in between). While trying to zero in on my foodshed, I learned that the modern U.S. foodshed ...
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12.16.07It’s about more than produce…The map at localharvest.org still doesn't show much happening in community gardening or Community Sustained Agriculture in Savannah or Chatham County. Nonetheless, there are people around here who are and who have been bringing organic farm products to their families and this community all the while. They are working on the community garden thing and even residential communities too. Meet Michael Maddox, an organic farmer/gardener in the Bloomingdale area who sits on a 25-acre organic homestead. Maddox has presided over this land and tended it, organically, for some 15 years. Using learned tricks of the trade and tending a passion for gardening, ...
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12.05.07Community supported agriculture in our area?On my regular trips to see family in Allegany, New York, one of the highlights is harvesting my sister-in -law's weekly "share" from Canticle Garden, a community garden sponsored by the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and guided by a dedicated core group of local residents. Each week shareholders go to the farm and pick (or pick up from a small staffed tent) whatever is in at the time--a pound of this, two heads of that, a quart of these and three bunches of those... Taking home and using whatever is in season at the moment-- eating beets or cabbage or romaine ...
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Transportation, land use, local farming and green building are all potential topics for Sustainable Savannah. The goal is to aggregate content about local events and projects, so there will be a central place to review everything that’s happening. The site is aimed at encouraging collaboration and information sharing between groups and individuals currently engaged in sustainability efforts. The site can also provide a snapshot of Savannah for green-minded people who are considering visiting or moving to the area.
