Tag Archives: environment

World Environment Day: Eat.Think.Save to Stop Food Waste

Posted on by
0

Today is World Environment Day 2013, and this year’s theme is Eat.Think.Save, emphasizing reducing food waste and food loss. Every year 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted or lost, which seems crazy in light of the fact that more than 20,000 children die every day from hunger-related causes.

Stop Food Waste

This gives me a lot of personal anxiety. I try to avoid wasting food, but it certainly happens (especially with a 4-year-old at home). After watching the video below, connecting my own family’s food waste to the health of the environment, I feel a strong need to get a better handle on it. Watch the video below, and share your reactions to it in the comments section.

Food waste is a frequent topic on the Heifer Blog. Read these previous posts:

Have you taken any measures lately to cut down on your home’s food waste? Share what works in the comments.

From the Field: Heifer Improves the Environment

Posted on by
0

Improving the EnviornmentThis weekly post shines a light on a handful of stories from Heifer.org’s “From the Field” section.

Because the Earth sustains us, environmental responsibility is of the utmost value to Heifer International. Improving the environment, one of Heifer’s 12 Cornerstones for Just and Sustainable Development, means that our projects do not contribute to soil erosion, increase pollution, or cause or worsen environmental problems. Rather, Heifer projects have a positive impact on biodiversity, local wildlife, watershed conditions, sanitation and soil fertility.

Improving the Environment

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Heifer tailors its projects to work with the local environment, creating projects that enrich it and can thrive in that region’s conditions. In Central and South America, Heifer has organized its projects around regional conditions. In the Andes, for example, project participants raise camelids, using them as draft animals and harvesting their wool. These domesticated creatures thrive in the local conditions, and their padded feet don’t damage delicate mountainous foliage. Similarly, Heifer works with farmers in dry forest areas, teaching them to grow crops while avoiding soil erosion, increasing soil fertility and maximizing water resources. We also work with coffee, coca and cardamom farmers in our Americas-area programs. Working with a region’s environmental conditions ensures that the land will be productive for its future tenants.

Heifer Armenia and the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development’s (CARD) joint program works with farmers to breed cattle in the Syunik region. The organizations choose to work in the Syunik region because high-quality grass for animal feed is abundant, while in other communities, such as Armavir, Lori, Ararat and Shirak, securing feed is a problem.

Heifer Armenia’s YES! Youth Club Student Avet Grigoryan decided to launch a garlic business. The 16 year-old surveyed the land available to him. He consulted his uncle, also a garlic producer, who advised him to find sandy soil to plant in. After learning about Heifer’s Cornerstones, Avet knew that finding a patch of sandy soil would mean that his plants would thrive and that he wouldn’t have to use large amounts of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. He found that the soil at his home was unsuitable for growing and used his grandfather’s plot to raise his crops.

Help more families by donating now.

 

Bees: A Sweet, Sustainable Gift

Posted on by
2

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

Like many of the gifts available in the Heifer catalog, bees offer several advantages to the beneficiary, to the environment, and to neighboring farmers. Best of all, they are very sustainable. All in all, they exemplify Heifer’s mission of fighting hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth.

One of Heifer’s most important elements is that we believe development must be sustainable−that projects should be long-term investments in the future of people and the planet. Not only do bees supply honey for consumption and added income for participants, they pollinate a wide area around their hives, improving the environment. The cultivation of honey-yielding plants increases biodiversity and improves the quality of bee products. This is an enterprise that can sustain itself.

bees

Photo courtesy of Heifer International

As bees search for nectar, they pollinate plants. Placed strategically, beehives can as much as double some fruit and vegetable production. Although most Heifer partners keep bees as a supplement to family income, beekeeping can be a family’s livelihood. Your gift can help Heifer provide a family with a package of bees, the box and hive plus training in beekeeping−and of course this unique gift will be passed on to another family in need.

Much has been in the news about the danger of bees becoming extinct. If this were to happen, the agriculture systems we need to produce food to feed the world would be seriously compromised. Heifer projects work hard to prevent this in regions around the world, such as this one: Honey–Yielding Plants for Bee Breeders in the Carpathian Region of Poland.

Donate bees in someone’s honor today. You will be helping a family lift themselves out of poverty and caring for the Earth at the same time. What a sweet, sustainable gift.

bees

Rafael Morales of Honduras can’t resist the taste of honey! Photo courtesy of Heifer International

This post is part of our What to Give series, where we’re helping you choose the best Heifer gift for your loved ones. Read previous What to Give posts here, and subscribe to the What to Give series here.

Still don’t know what to give? Check out our entire online Gift Catalog.

That Drive-Thru Isn’t Just Bad for Your Waistline

Posted on by
0

A new study from the University of California at Riverside has even more bad news about the effects that swinging by your favorite fast-food chain to gobble up a delicious burger could have. And it’s not what you might think.

Photo credit mag3737

The study found that commercial char-broilers emit as much pollution cooking just one hamburger as an 18-wheel diesel engine truck driving 143-miles on the freeway. That seems like a lot. The crazy part is, it doesn’t really matter what the burger is made of—it all has to do with the device cooking them. Veggie patties on a commercial char-broiler are just as bad.

But that’s no reason to stop grilling up your favorite patty—of any variety—in your backyard. The study also said that grilling releases fewer particulates into the air than charbroiling.

What do you think? Can you give up the drive-thru for the sake of our air quality?

Better Living Through Improved Cookstoves

Posted on by
0

Improved cookstoves improve life in a variety of ways. More spacious stoves can accommodate multiple pots at one time, significantly reducing the time it takes to make dinner. With improved ventilation methods, families don’t have to inhale dangerous smoke. A decreased reliance on firewood means healthier soil. The list goes on and on.

These photos were taken in Lower Gweru, Mdubiwa Ward, Matshina Village, Zimbabwe, where the community was recently outfitted with improved cookstoves.

Before: outdoor open-fire cookstove

Open-fire stoves are typically surrounded by smoke and the smell of burning wood. They require large amounts of firewood to cook for the entire family. Each dish must wait its turn because these stoves only hold two pots at a time. Soot builds up on the bottom of the pots and it takes a lot of time to start a fresh fire for more cooking.

After: improved indoor cookstove

In the photo above, a woman proudly displays her new improved cookstove. She is able to cook three pots at once and use residual heat on the corner of the stove to warm an additional pot of water to use later for bathing. The new stove is conveniently located indoors, where it is safe from the weather, and features a vent that funnels the exhaust outside.

 

You Can Help Clean up the World

Posted on by
0

Every Saturday we feature a fun and/or educational activity you can try at home or in the classroom. This weekend is Clean up the World Weekend, and have we got the perfect activity for you.

Clean up in Govierno Municipal de Play, Cuba

Clean up in Govierno Municipal de Play, Cuba Photo courtesy of Clean Up the World

Clean Up the World, a community-based environmental campaign held in conjunction with the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), is one of the largest community-based environmental campaigns in the world.  It inspires people from around the globe to clean up, fix up and conserve their environment. And, it can begin with one or two people or a family like yours.

The Beckers are a great example of a family that is making a huge difference by starting a small project. They adopted a section of a shoreline of an area lake, and began cleaning up. Soon they invited friends, neighbors, and colleagues to join in an annual effort to clean up the entire lake. Truly a success story.

You can plan your own activity and make a difference in the world. The first step is to decide which issue you want to focus on and what your goal will be. Issues could include (among others):

  • Water
  • Education
  • Tree Planting
  • Climate Change
  • Waste

cleanuptheworld.org

For ideas, look at activities that have been done in the past. It can be as small as picking up the trash on your street or starting a compost movement in your own family, to as big as you can imagine. Once you plan your activity, you can put it on the Global Environmental Map along with others around the world. And, of course, please share it with us in the comments section below.

To learn more about the weekend and cleaning up the world, go to www.cleanuptheworld.org.

For lesson plans and ideas for fun activities related to this and other topics, go to the Learning Resources at the bottom of our Read to Feed Resources page.

Heifer Around the Web: A Little Girl Determined to Change the World

Posted on by
0

Every Sunday we will highlight some of the people who are funding our work creatively or helping us spread the word of our mission online. If you spot Heifer International while you’re surfing the web or know of a fun or creative fundraising effort, please share it with us here in the comments!

It’s so inspiring to read blogs about those who give of their time and hard-earned money to help us in our mission to end hunger and poverty. These caught my eye this week:

With the huge jackpot looming, there had been talk everywhere about what people would do once they won the lottery. We were lucky enough to be mentioned in one would-be winner’s plans.

This mom blogs about how “some bedtime tears and $7.00 turned into two flocks of chicks and two strongly worded letters to President Obama and Secretary Clinton. And a little girl determined to change the world.” A great read on Redefine Girly, Pigtail Pals blog.

Mary Steenburgen talks home decor, entertaining, and her candle company, which donates $2 from each candle purchase to Heifer International.

These people made the news last week for their creative fund-raising efforts on behalf of Heifer International:

Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church in Connecticut hosted an annual Bunny Breakfast last weekend with proceeds going to Heifer International. Check out the cute pics!

Jana Bass mixes her business (all-natural goat milk skin care line) and generous spirit by bringing one of her goats to talk to third-graders about Beatrice’s Goat, a true story about a Ugandan girl who received a goat through Heifer International, allowing her to sell milk and afford an education, hoping to inspire them in their own fundraising efforts to buy a goat to help a family in need become self-sufficient.

Students in the Davies World Language Department in Fargo Schools competed to raise the most loose change for Heifer International’s matching project in Vietnam, so their hard work’s results will be doubled. Team Pig won, Team Sheep came in second, and Team Rabbit came in third, with a total donation of $2,185.00. (I love those team names, don’t you?)

Mike Ainsworth of Illinois is gearing up for a 420-mile cycling tour to raise awareness on world hunger and Heifer International. Read the whole story here.

And last but not least, here’s an interesting little snippet about a Heifer project in Cameroon, found on a climate action website:

Julian Mengue, a government program participant set up with the help of Heifer International, turns her animals’ manure into fuel, saving money AND helping the environment at the same time.