Summer is here--a great time to GROW

From the Oxfam International Blog: 

The ‘GROW Method’

Here are five easy ways to change the way you shop, cook and eat to make the food system work better for everyone:

Support small-scale farmers

We need to protect the 1.5 billion people living on small farms around the world growing food to feed themselves, their families and their communities. Looking out for Fair Trade products and brands when we shop is a great way of doing this and it gives us a connection to producers that we have lost.

Save food

In rich countries, we throw away almost as much food every year as consumers as Sub-Saharan Africa produces in a year (222 million tonnes), creating harmful greenhouse gases when it ends up at a landfill. We can create less waste by storing our fruit and veg better and using up leftovers in inventive ways.

Cook smart

Turning your stove down to simmer after the water in your pan has boiled may seem like a small thing but if all urban households in Brazil, India, the Philippines, Spain, UK and US did it every time they cooked for a year, over 30 million megawatt hours of energy could be saved. The benefit for the environment would be greater than if these same households each planted a tree seedling and let it grow for ten years. And what about if sometimes you used no heat at all?

Buy seasonal

A lot of energy is wasted creating the conditions to grow out of season. By discovering what’s growing near us, we’ll find fruit and veg that not only tastes sweeter because it's in season, but is also using a lot less energy to get to our plates.

Less meat and dairy

Think you know what you’re putting in your chilli con carne? You might be shocked to read that a 500g packet of beef contains 6,810 litres of water. OK not literally, but that is how much water is needed to produce just enough meat for one meal. If just one family swapped beef for beans in their chilli, they could save nearly 6000 litres of water in just one meal, creating less harmful greenhouse gas emissions from food production and cattle, in the process.