lupu alexandra
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Stories (114/0)
We’re Running Out of Seafood, Yet We Waste Billions of Pounds of It
A 2015 study published in Global Environmental Change estimates that every year, almost half the seafood supply in the United States is lost, amounting to nearly 500 million pounds of protein waste. Globally, we lose 110 billion pounds. Considering the US Department of Agriculture recommends that the average person consume at least 1.7 ounces of protein per day, this lost seafood is enough to feed more than 2.7 million people for an entire year. Relatedly, this particular form of food waste further contributes to overfishing, which has of course precipitated a steep decline in marine wildlife populations.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Earth
Occam’s Refrigerator
You may peer into your groaning, overstuffed, post-holiday refrigerator and see only a chaos of forgotten entrees, mystery sauces, half-completed baking projects, and well-intentioned gifts from guests, all on top of the usual flotsam and jetsam of everyday food storage. But, in fact, that caloric mountain represents a golden opportunity to use up the old and—eventually—make room for the new: a more orderly and less wasteful 2022.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Lifehack
Plan a Plant-Based Year of the Tiger
In China, South Korea, Vietnam, and other East Asian countries, February 1 marked the start of the Lunar New Year. Also known as Spring Festival, the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar marks the celebration of new beginnings. It’s a time when families typically convene—often traveling long distances—to share a delicious meal believed to bring good fortune.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Lifehack
How to Reduce Food Waste
The last time I went to the supermarket, a guy was standing by the store’s dumpster, happily eating a discarded peach. The market already does a lot to reduce food waste, like selling expiring produce dirt cheap and dehydrating excess fruit to sell in the bulk section, but the dumpster still fills up. US grocery stores throw away about 3.5 million tons of food a year—mostly dairy and produce, like that one good-enough peach.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Lifehack
7 Hacks for a Very Vegan Holiday Feast
As a longtime vegan who’s never tasted turkey, I can still say that Thanksgiving is one of my favorite days of the year. I’ve always loved experimenting with substitutes for traditional holiday fare. One of my fondest memories? Spending two hours sculpting a mound of vegan mashed potatoes into a turkey-shaped masterpiece.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Lifehack
I Decolonized My Diet for Black History Month
Last Black History Month, I searched the term decolonize on Instagram and came across accounts like @decolonizemyself, @decolonizeyourbookshelf, and the term decolonized diet, coined by author Devon Abbott Mihesuah in her 2020 book Recovering Our Ancestors’ Gardens. It means eating how Indigenous and Black people ate prior to colonialism and has become something of a social movement; the #decolonizeyourdiet hashtag appears in more than 15,000 Instagram posts. Prior to last February’s deep dive, I hadn’t realized the extent to which Western European staples—from ketchup to mustard and hamburgers to pasta—determined not only what I chose to eat but also what I chose to read and the products I used on my skin and hair. As an African American woman, it got me wondering what it would be like to return to my roots and consume food sans Western European influence.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Psyche
Five *Truly* Green Beers to Toast This St. Paddy's Day
If you plan to raise a toast this March 17, it’s your lucky day. Pioneering breweries across the United States are putting the environment first, investing in equipment and employing practices that conserve water, curb energy use, reduce waste, and support their surrounding communities. By crafting eco-minded ales and lagers, these producers give us plenty to celebrate—sustainably, of course. Here’s a menu of green beers to reach for on St. Patrick's Day and throughout the year.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Earth
What to Do With That Turkey Carcass
The last lingering relatives have returned to the land whence they came, you’ve enjoyed the last slice of apple pie with your morning coffee, and once-proud Tom—now a shambles of bone, gristle, and dangling ribbons of skin—is taking up half the refrigerator. (Vegan friends, you may wish to bow out at this point. May I recommend 7 Hacks for a Very Vegan Holiday Feast?) Good environmentalist that you are, you don’t want to let any remaining nutritiousness go to waste, do you? Especially not when 50 million of your neighbors are food-insecure. Also, your holiday-jangled nerves probably need coddling. They need turkey soup.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Psyche
How COVID Changed How We Eat
Remember those days back in the spring of 2020 when the world moved from its usual arc around the sun? When we were told to be still, to go nowhere, to “shelter in place”? I do. I folded in on myself. I simplified. I ate only fruits and vegetables, seeds, grains, and legumes. I stopped drinking alcohol—why bother? My cookie habit ended because, well, every bakery was closed. I hiked often. The scale rewarded me with downward trending numbers.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Psyche
“Meat the Future” Takes Viewers to the Meat-Growing Lab
According to the USDA, the average American consumed an estimated 144 pounds of meat in 2017. Although plant-based products have soared in popularity since hitting mainstream markets, it seems Americans are far from willing to give up meat entirely. Which is why a team of scientists at Upside Foods (formerly known as Memphis Meats) have set out to make cultivated meat the new norm.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Earth
5 Simple Steps to Birdscape Your Yard
magine 3 billion more birds flitting and flying around North American skies than there are today. The visual wouldn’t be fiction—it’d be 1970. As cities have expanded and native habitats have shrunk and degraded, bird populations have tumbled in tandem. But gardeners and homeowners have the chance to shift the stats: Instead of DIY-ing that new patio, why not DIY a new wildlife reserve?
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Earth
Keeping Fruit Time
Gardening is an exercise in stubborn, fragrant faith: that these sticks you hold in a feathery root ball will somehow turn pliant and shoot wild into the sunshine, offering fruit when you least expect it. But that's just what happened when my husband and I planted our first blackberry bush in late February on an unusually warm weekend here in Oxford, Mississippi, just before the pandemic.
By lupu alexandra7 months ago in Earth
