Setting the Tone: What Ohio University is doing to lead Southeast Ohio's sustainability movement.

As the largest employer in the county and an intellectual powerhouse in the region, Ohio University must lead by example if Southeast Ohio is to have any chance at becoming a culture that holds sustainability as a value worth fighting for. As with all universities, it is the obligation of OU to not only integrate progressive ideas into its operation but to research and promote new thoughts and strategies into the region that supports it and, ultimately, into society as a whole.

When it comes to issues of sustainability, it’s no surprise that much of what happens here interacts with the Office of Sustainability in some way. The brick office building they share with the Dining Services is located within a stone’s throw of the University’s power plant, a towering symbol of the institution’s environmental impact on the area. When Sonia Marcus looks out the window of the office she holds as Sustainability Coordinator it dominates her view, concealing the wooded rolling hills that are visible from any other spot looking south across the Hocking River.

“I feel like it’s extremely appropriate,” she says, “Sometimes when people ask me, ‘You know your office is right next to the coal plant? Isn’t that just totally lame?’ I’m like, ‘No it’s exactly right.’ I mean where else would we want to be, than right next to the coal plant? I mean it’s — that’s what we’re dealing with.”

Sonia is a Manhattan-born Stanford graduate who — after spending three years in Senegal doing everything from documentary filmmaking to teaching English and fighting AIDS — came to Ohio University for grad school. With such an impressive background, I can only say that she completely knocked me on my ass when she began telling me how much more connected she feels to OU than she ever did to Stanford.

“I don’t like rooting for people and causes that are already way ahead, and sort of in my mind I guess I thought of [Stanford] as already way, way, way overdone,” she says, “I feel like OU for me is a lot scrappier… We’re in coal country where we’ve already been knocked down for like hundreds and hundreds of years and here we are trying to do the right thing by sustainability in a place where it really matters… I just feel so much more warmly about this place and about this job and just wanting OU to succeed in this area and it’s very personal for me.”

Sonia has overseen a wide array of projects in here time here. She’s the one responsible for OU’s landmark composting initiative, presenting the idea when just two other universities had in-vessel (machine) composting systems, claiming that the university’s composting system is still the largest of any university. Currently, the department is focusing on Earth Month, which occurs at the University every April, this year focusing on food issues.


View Sustainability at Ohio University in a larger map

On March 15, 2007, Ohio University President Roderick McDavis signed the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment, a pledge to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions that has been signed by 675 universities so far. Established in part to help fulfill the University’s new commitment, the President’s Advisory Council for Sustainability Planning was established in July 2009 to construct a multi-phase plan to tackle sustainability issues with input from a diverse selection of students, faculty and staff over the course of two years. The operation is headed by a Sustainability Council featuring notable members from around campus. Sonia Marcus co-chairs the council along with Ben Stuart, a civil, chemical, and environmental engineer from the Russ College of Engineering.

As Ben sits down in his office to speak about the council's progress, a line of students gathers outside his office to consult him. He's the guy responsible for innovating the process to draw petroleum from algae, which could be used to create organic plastics and bio-fuels. He knows what he's talking about when we speak sustainability, and he brings a completely different outlook to the council from Sonia.

"Universities are businesses in many respects," he explains, "Their main consideration is economic and so therefore if they can identify waste as lost money they develop plans to mitigate that loss." It's not what everyone wants to hear, and perhaps it's not the way it should be, but Ohio University is an institution in the grips of massive debt. We may pride ourselves on righteousness, but goodwill can't push the gravy train alone. Instead, the rational solution is to find a way to create progressive change within the system.

"I'm not really big on why you're doing what you're doing," Ben says, "I understand that some people come to it with a more altruistic attitude, but if action is caused by profit motive — I'm not against that."

The council time line from their website.

The council is operating in three stages. The first was "goal setting", in which general long-term and potentially unachievable goals are established. Last December, while many students and council members were home for break, the council put forth four goals. They were:

1. Ohio University will be a leader in campus and community
   sustainability. (Leadership)
   
2. Ohio University will actively promote ecological literacy and
   citizenship among its students, staff and faculty. (Education)
   
3. All members of the Ohio University community will have equal access
   to and responsibility for environmental amenities and disamenities. (Justice)
   
4. Ohio University’s operations will be grounded in ecological stewardship
   and will support healthy and diverse ecosystems. (Stewardship)
   

You'll notice that the word climate is absent from the goals. A last goal, "Ohio University will achieve climate neutrality" was proposed. It would've been aimed at meeting the climate commitment the president signed in 2007 but, ultimately, it was decided by the council that the goal would instead become part of the Climate Action Plan.

The second stage is to establish objectives, which include specific dates and performance indicators. The goals are handed down to a eight work groups tasked with addressing the goals in their specialized fields. The groups are Academics & Curriculum, Low & No Cost Energy Conservation, Dining, Transportation, Procurement, Energy Infrastructure/Utilities, Fundraising & Endowment, and Buildings & Grounds. Each is chaired by an individual not part of the Sustainability Council, so that the council itself cannot have too much control over the work groups.

"We didn't want any perceived bias coming in," Ben says. "We wanted all the members to be independent and contribute."

By the end of June, those groups will submit their objectives so that specific strategies can be devised and refined throughout the 2010-2011 school year which would see implementation by the end of spring.

It seems like a drawn out and bureaucratic process, but the rational was to devise a system that allows all of the voices of the university to be heard (you can let yours be known on their comment page) and develops strategies as close to implementation as possible so as not to become outdated.

As the consequences of ignoring our environmental impact become too apparent for reasonable people to ignore, society looks to the universities for innovative leadership and solutions. To reverse the neglect that has devastated much of Southeast Ohio, the people will look to Ohio University to set the tone and avoid further damage.

“The thing about the United States is — and about American culture is — is that we’ve become very adept at kind of hiding things that we’re not interested in actually confronting," Sonia says, "We don’t necessarily always deal with them; we just become more sophisticated at hiding them… in a way sustainability and sustainable living are about deliberately exposing yourself to things you want to be sure you’re keeping in mind.”

As members of the University, we must all do our part to feed the discussion, but the impact that the Sustainability Council can have on this university's actions is undeniable.

[Staff pictures of Marcus and Stuart provided by the PACSP site.]

The "Rise Above Plastics" campaign urges us to cut down plastic dependence.

Image by Rise Above Plastics campaign

Here's an organization that understands how to get the attention of college students. Rise Above Plastics is a non-profit organization aimed at raising public awareness of the effects that plastics can have on marine environments. They've done this in part by going on a world tour with Jack Johnson and getting him to record a song about their cause. Sounds like a good nonprofit to work for.

They've also got a very dynamic website with great illustrations like the one above to catch the eye. Then there's this advertisement they made, which is very much worth watching.



I spoke briefly about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in my last post on the dangers of disposables. Accidentally discovered by Charles Moore in 1997, the 10 million square mile floating dump is the result of an estimated 3.5 million tons of plastic and other waste pulled by currents from China, the continental United States, and the Hawaiian islands. There's no clear method to effectively clean up the small plastic pieces that are already there and the plastics enter the food chain when they are eaten by small fish and birds that mistake them for food.

In recent years, the density of the trash has risen dramatically — with plastics outnumbering plankton 46:1 in some places. According to Rise Against Plastics, it's estimated that over one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals are killed every year from plastic entanglement or ingestion.

And it doesn't end there. Bisphenol A, a chemical common in plastics, breaks down into the water supply causing defects in wildlife similar to those caused by estrogen. It only takes a small amount to disrupt the endocrine system and cause severe defects to animals. In the video below, they discuss an equally disturbing problem caused by Bisphenol A. Researchers tested a variety of brand new plastic baby bottles by letting water sit in them for a period of time, after which every sample returned the chemical. After washing the bottles, the amounts detected were even higher.



As the video says, plastic producers dispute the claims and point to the FDA's support for backup, but increased awareness has caused the FDA to take a second look at the chemical. In January of this year, the FDA put out a statement saying:

Studies employing standardized toxicity tests have thus far supported the safety of current low levels of human exposure to BPA However, on the basis of results from recent studies using novel approaches to test for subtle effects, both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children.

As a result, they have levied support for "the industry’s actions to stop producing BPA-containing baby bottles and infant feeding cups for the U.S. market" and urged researchers to develop BPA alternatives for infant food cans and other food can linings.

How can you reduce your contribution to plastic waste problems? The Rise Above Plastics offers 20 tips for reducing your plastic intake, including:

1. Stop using plastic water bottles in favor of refillable ones.
2. Bring a reusable bag for grocery shopping.
3. Avoid single serving packaging.
4. Stop using plastic sandwich bags.
5. Bring a to-go mug to coffee shops.
6. Buy music online instead of purchasing CDs with plastic cases.
7. Avoid single serving packaging... again. (What do you expect from a bunch of surf bums?)
8. Use silverware instead of disposable forks.
9. Seek out items that aren't made out of plastic. (Okay, they're getting lazy here.)
10. If you must use plastic, try to use plastic types one (PETE) or two (HDPE) which are the most easily recycled plastics.

Just because it's disposable does not mean it's going away.

Hot tip: Cut down old disposable forks to make it appear as if they're attacking you. Great for blogs!

When I began this blog, I did so hoping to gain some valuable insight into today's pressing environmental issues — knowledge that would make me into a better individual. I've learned a lot, and I'm pleased to report that my lifestyle has become more sustainable, if only mildly. One side effect though, that I neither foresaw or have since been able to remedy is my knowledge of the adverse effects that disposable items can have on the environment.

My inherent and unshakable neuroticism comes alive anytime I try to get food. It seems that there is no such thing as a reusable straw in the world, and with fast food and take out the norm in our modern society, nearly any meal you pick up will involve something throw away — plastic silverware, wrappers, foil, tiny sauce packets. Short of bringing my own silverware around town (which now seems like a better idea than I thought as I wrote it) disposable items are nearly unavoidable.

Most of our disposable items are made from plastics which, while cheap, can take hundreds of years to biodegrade, taking up valuable space in landfills and seeping toxins into nearby groundwater and soil all the while. They require petroleum to produce, and their manufacturing contributes to global warming.

When dumped into the ocean, plastics don't ever break down completely. Instead they go through a process known as photodegradation, where plastics break down into smaller and smaller parts while still remaining a polymer, eventually reaching the molecular level. The garbage in our water supplies caused by thrown away plastics is responsible for the now infamous Great Pacific Garbage Patch, in the North Pacific. These minute plastic particles enter the food supply when they become small enough to be consumed by small fish, eventually working their way up the food chain to larger creatures, humans included.

And the health effects go beyond contaminated seafood. Plastic plates and containers are synthesized with carcinogenic chemicals that, when microwaved, can mix into our food. Phthalates, which help make plastics flexible, have been shown to affect the male reproductive system in children.

As with most environmental use problems, there are simple solutions that can you can do to cut dramatically into your impact. Tipnut's got a great list of 20 products you can use twice before tossing — from writing notes and grocery lists on old envelopes to reusing cardboard egg cartons as homemade fire starters. An article on HubPages boldly directs us to stop using disposable toilet paper, feminine products, and shampoo. People find it gross, but cloth handkerchiefs are a completely normal way to stop the spread of germs while saving trees from a terrible end.

There is an endless supply of clever ideas when it comes to reuse. Any ideas from the readers for the other readers?

First Blood

I’ve been a vegetarian for over a month now and I still spell it “vegit”. When I started, I decided that after a month I’d go back to meat so I could have a few weeks left in with project to write about local meats. That time has come.

After 33 days, I probably thought about what my first meaty meal would be 99 times. I thought about getting a two-pound burger or a hanger steak, but I decided whatever it was needed to be local. Both the Farmacy and Seaman’s sell local meats, and you can pick it up from the Farmer’s Market if you’re so inclined, but Seaman’s and I have become inseparable in the past month so I threw them the honor.

Local meat is definitely a luxury you pay for. Unless you were looking for a heart, there wasn’t anything that appeared to be worth its weight. For example, I picked up four Black Angus beef patties from Red Bird Ranch, 1.33lbs of meat, for $8.63. This stuff was quality though. The meat I picked up was dry aged four weeks, never treated with growth hormones or raised in confinement, given minimum antibiotics and claimed to be marbled at or above top choice standards. They even displayed the name of the family, the Lackeys, right on the fridge.

I topped the burger with American cheese from Walnut Creek Foods (out of Walnut Creek, OH), pickles from Tony Roma’s (out of Toledo), lettuce, a tomato slice, and yellow mustard. I filmed the process, and first bite below:



I was strangely hesitant to take that first bite. The thought of breaking my long and dedicated fast was difficult. I really accomplished something I never thought I would do, proving that I love journalism more than meat in the process.

Afterward, my stomach did hurt a bit from the meat. It was a sharp pang in the gut, but a good one. This meat is fantastic if you can afford it. It's absolutely savory, juice packed, top-shelf stuff.

In the future, I'm trying to only eat meat once a day. Unfortunately, I failed this goal on my first day back. I couldn't resist a hot grinder's salami at the dining hall, and when I stopped by Chipotle later, the only thought in my mind was how long it must have been since I'd tasted barbacoa.

The most difficult days are ahead. Without much of the motivation I had before, and without being a true vegetarian, it's proving difficult to avoid meat. Once I get over my animalistic cravings, I'm hoping I'll be able to cut back a bit.

The Mug Search

The Winners

Like most weeks, I had spent too much money. Like too many times before, I needed a new coffee mug. My old favorite — emblazoned with the logo of a local bar — had been missing for some time and the dinky blue tea cup I was using in its place fell off folding table this week after a collision with my rolling computer chair. So long to that Walmart brand junk. I had to find a new mug. I wanted it to be manly, but I needed it to be cheap.

One of the most difficult considerations when trying to live sustainably is cost. Local grown and organic foods are extra expenses you may just have to swallow but when it comes to material goods there is the mighty, thriving thrift store. Thrift stores are the crucial intersection of low cost and low impact living and the city of Athens is home to four thrift stores that all serve a slightly different purpose. With so much selection — with everything from New-To-You’s pyramid of stacked couches to the professional vintage stock of Athens Underground — you can easily replace most of you life's purchases with only the treasure's other people have left behind.



I set out to Goodwill on East State, which is the only normal thrift store in town that's open on Sundays. This branch of the international non-profit has a very clean feel, a pretty large variety, and outrageously low prices. I found the mugs in the back of the store, each normally priced at a dollar, and chose my favorite after heavy consideration to be a small white, ceramic mug with the imprint of a 1908 Pratt & Lambert car varnish advertisement. When I arrived at the counter, dollar bill wrapped around the mug I was told, "You know you can get three more mugs for free with that." I was floored. The Athens Goodwill is, for a limited time, selling dinnerware items at four for a dollar, which is outrageously cheap. I got four cups and I love them all.

It'll be some time before I accidentally destroy these mugs. With such fantastically low prices though, I'm starting to notice how few plates we have around here.



View The Thrift Stores of Athens in a larger map.

In the land of empty mines

A photo of the Rio Tinto river provided through Wikimedia Commons by Carol Stoker

There is only one coal mine operating in Athens county. Nevertheless, the coal mining industry has been a major part of the region's past for most of it's industrialized history.

We're home to the Millfield Mine Disaster, the worst mine disaster in Ohio history which attracted international attention at the time. On November 5, 1930, an explosion killed 82 people, including the owners who were somewhat ironically inspecting the new safety equipment. Only nineteen people survived long enough to be found in the shaft nine hours after the explosion by a rescue team, the last of which just died last year.

More recently though, the after effects these long-closed operations have had on the regional environment are becoming known. Many coal mines involved underground mining that would go far below the water table. When the mines were operational, this meant constantly pumping water out of the mines to keep them from flooding. This notably terrifying necessity came to an end with the shutting of the mines when the coal ran dry and the shafts flooded. This flooding can slowly contaminate entire watersheds and ruin them. Acid mine drainage has become more known to those who inhabit Appalachia in recent years.

"Mitch Farley of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources discusses the efforts to clean up acid mine drainage along Pierce Run in the Raccoon Creek Watershed." (The Raccoon Creek watershed runs through the west end of Athens County.)

Appalachia is still full of active mining operations and a coal belt stretches along the southeast part of our state. Below is a map I made of all the active coal producers in our state, their addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers and the names of their presidents so you know who to ask for. Most of the information I used to compile the map came from the Ohio Department of Natural Resource's 2008 Mining Activities report available here. Check in as I continue to add individual mines and production information to the map.

In actuality, you might be better to contact your local officials and pray they listen. The most important (and simple) thing you can do though is spread the word.



View Ohio Coal Mines and Operation Headquarters in a larger map

The Farmacy: The Orignal Whole Foods Market of Athens

You can contact the Farmacy at 740-593-7007. Their website is farmacynaturalfoods.com, but it doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

There's Something In the Water...

This whole project started with the water.

Environmental concerns and sustainable living never really worried me until I heard how bad the water quality was in Athens. It's a major problem here, and one that goes widely unaddressed. People trust that the water that comes out of the tap is pure and regulated, but this is often not the case. The Environmental Working Group compiles data from 47,667 drinking water utilities and 20 million test results into a massive database where you can search the water quality test results from just about any provider in the nation.

According to them, the City of Athens had 12 unsafe pollutant categories in the water system, seven above safe levels in their last test. I took the data from EWG and compiled it into an infographic showing the pollutant levels relative to their safe amount.



All of these chemicals are disinfection byproducts which means they most likely come from the City trying to clean the water. Ironic. They also found nitrates, which come from fertilizer runoff and leaking septic tanks, and barium, which comes from drilling and mining runoff. Both were below health limits though.

New superefficient nanofiber bulbs light it up without chemicals.

Just when you thought it was cutting-edge and savvy to switch your incandescent bulbs to the more environmentally-friendly compact flourescent (CFL) bulbs, RTI International, a research group out of North Carolina funded in part by the Deparment of Energy's Solid-State have created a revolutionary new concept for energy efficient lighting.

It's the nanofiber bulb, a design utilizing a combination of nanofibers designed for the reflection with photoluminescent nanofibers. The individual fibers are smaller than a human hair, but when they're knit together, the result is a bulb that produces 55 lumens of light output per watt, five times more efficient than your standard lightbulb. And the light quality is primo. Researchers have been able to create high quality warm, neutral, and cool white light.

What really makes these lights special though is how the reduce environmental impact, both by saving energy and by using safer materials.

CFL's still use toxic chemicals to create their light, which creates a disposal problem. Nanofiber bulbs manage to produce light effectively without using chemicals, gases or even glass. It'll be another three to five years before we see these bulbs on the market though, and the questions of cost and lifetime are still unanswered. Keep an eye on these.

Want to learn more? Check out this video below that explains how the lights were made.

Seven lessons learned after 14 days as a vegetarian.

Tomorrow marks the two week anniversary of my decision to quit eating meat for this blog. I've learned a lot of things and had to make some changes to my routine to stay afloat. I never thought I'd eat cream of broccoli soup, for example, but somehow I learned to like it. Here are seven lessons I've picked up along the way to pass on to any aspiring vegetarians out there.

1. Never forget why you're doing it. There are significant moral, environmental and health reasons for giving up meat. My major motivation was minimizing my environmental impact, but it didn't stop me from keeping all of the benefits in mind. Perhaps more helpful than anything though, I've made my oath of vegetarianism symbolic of my total commitment to journalism. It's might sound childish, perhaps even pretentious, to think of it that way but it's about doing what it takes to stay the course.
   
2. Create consequences for failure. Every time I wanted to slip, I told myself that it would mean resetting the counter on this blog's sidebar. That helped. Set goals, even if they're artificial, and use them to safeguard yourself.
3. After you wrap your choice to go vegetarian in a sense of purpose, try actively not to be pretentious about it. Self-righteous maniacs give vegetarians a bad name. Nobody likes a self-promoter to begin with, but people hate meddlers even more. Early on, I caught myself looking down on some carnivorous strangers in the dining hall. Remember that eating meat is natural and that vegetarianism is just another way to live. Don't detract from your quest for personal improvement by forcing your beliefs on anyone who will listen.
   
4. Find a specially formatted multivitamin with lots of B-vitamins in it to make up for the nutrients your body normally gets from meat. I asked Rick Eddy, a pharmacist at the Court Street CVS, what he recommended for a new vegetarian and he told me to start out with a bottle of CVS Weight Sharp, which are formulated for people making dramatic changes to their diet. The multivitamin is especially high in B-complexes and trace elements that people usually get from meat. "Your body should adjust to changes", he says, so after you run through a bottle of Weight Sharp, it's fine to switch to any normal multivitamin.
5. Always double check. Animal products can pop up where you least expect them. An article appearing in Wednesday's issue of The Post spoke with Jackie O's Brad Clark who revealed that Isinglass, a popular coagulate used to make beer clearer, is made from fish bladders. It's often difficult to check for these things, but Clark assured readers that Jackie O's specifically doesn't use the product because it doesn't want to alienate vegetarians.
6. When the deli is no longer an option, PB&J becomes one of the only sandwiches you can get. This has been one of the most frustrating things I've had to deal with. I've long relied on sandwiches for their quick preparation time, portability, low cost and easy customization as a dependable on-the-go meal. Now I can't make anything but PB&J. In addition, the nearest dining hall to me is Shively and their "Grab and Go" makes nothing but sandwiches. I'm open to vegetarian sandwich ideas if anyone has some to share.
7. The dining halls really are not too bad for vegetarians. I've heard vegetarians complain about how insensitive the dining halls are to them. Compared to other places though, the dining hall really does go out of its way to accommodate the relatively large population of animal-conscious diners they serve here. There is always at least one vegetarian soup rotated through large variety of different recipes. The veggie burgers they offer taste better than the normal ones and are offered every day.

Despite my complaints, I've enjoyed the experience. If I make it through the night, I'll be halfway to my ultimate goal of staving off meat for an entire month. Wish me luck.

Recyclemania!

Image from the OU Recycling and Refuse Department site.

Anyone who has been to the dining halls in the last few weeks might have seen the Recyclemania signs reporting how we’re doing compared to nearby universities. In 2001, Recyclemania began as a friendly competition between Miami University and Ohio University (Miami won) but since then it’s grown rapidly, more than doubling every year until 2009. This year, 607 schools are participating from every state.

Since the competition started at our school nearly a decade ago, we’ve continued to be one of the most active participants in promoting Recyclemania. In addition to the scoreboards, which are displayed at Ping and Baker as well, Recyclemania promoters have created a trashcan mascot to appear at sports competitions and the college gate. According to their site, they also send letters with “friendly taunts” to the newspapers at other schools, and work with the University News Service to help promote the event on campus.

Through the school’s “Adopt-A-Game” program, students organizations ranging from the Green Network to the Women’s Rugby club have volunteered to collect trash for recycling at OU basketball games, a move the Recyclemania site claims allows them to recover as much as 80 percent of the waste generated by the games.

This figure falls in line with the goals of the university’s Recycle and Refuse Department, also known as Campus Recycling, which aims to recover 80% of waste generated at the university. To do this, they’ve deployed 16,000 recycling bins in halls (the small trashcan set that every dorm room receives).

According to scoreboards, Ohio University is sitting first in the state in waste reduction, the category we’re competing in this year. You can track our school's waste reduction statistics at the school's Recyclemania profile. So recycle, if not for the environment, then because it's time we take the title that we've been fighting for since Miami put us to shame all those years ago.

Eco-friendly Valentine's Day Gifts on a Budget

Valentine's Day is next Sunday — bring on the gifts.

Anyone can buy a box of chocolates, but if you're looking to wow your conservationist cutie it's just about last call to procure that green gift that'll let her know you care about her as much as she cares about the environment. There are already a few great lists of eco-friendly V-Day gifts such as this one from Inhabitat or this one from Green Daily.

There's one thing every list out there fails to take into consideration: the college budget. Trust me, if I could shell out $215 for a handmade silk garter belt I would, but I'll do no such thing this week. I've scoured the web to bring to you, my readers, this slideshow of environmentally (and financially) sustainable gifts.



Links to the products:
Eco-Friendly Pink Willow Dishware Earrings - $34.00
California Baby Bubble Bath - $12.60
Lumia Organic Candles - $6.99 and up
Heart Shaped Shell Necklace - $46.00
Organic Chocolate Vegan Truffles - $9.00
Bonterra Wines - $12.95 and up (Can't ship to Ohio)
Eco-Friendly Crimson Recycled Glass Pendant - $22.95
Handmade Vegan Artisan Soaps - $5.10
Handmade Journals - $23.80 (Medium) or $29.50 (large)

If you refuse to buy into the consumerist nature of Valentine's Day (or if you're really broke), there's always the option of taking sexy photos for your lover or just giving the gift of some good old-fashioned and certifiably organic smooching.

Seaman's Cardinal Supermarket

It’s impossible to eat sustainably if you haven’t got the right food.

In Athens, the Farmer’s Market is definitely the best option for honest, fat-of-the-land, local ingredients. Unfortunately, they only operate from 10 am – 1pm on Saturdays during the cold months, and as a college student without a car it’s always a challenge to make it there on time. This week, we arrived just a few minutes late.Time for Plan B. I'd heard of Seaman's Cardinal Super Market through a Google Maps search of grocery stores in Athens, and all of the reviews ranged from three to five stars. I wasn't sure how the selection would hold up, but I knew that Seamans's was locally owned, which was enough. As we cruised down Union, a cardinal shot by our windshield. My roommate exclaimed that this happened to him often, but I took it as an omen that this trip was meant to be. The sign in front of Seaman's, which sits across from the cemetery, looks like it was assembled in two different eras. The giant cardinal looks lends a nice old-school air to the brick storefront, and a banner that reads "Welcome to Seaman's!" hangs over the checkout as you enter the store.

The produce was decent. The selection was adequate, but we used what we gathered to make an incredible wedge salad for lunch with iceberg lettuce, roma tomatoes, sugar snap peas, and bocconcini mozzarella balls which we crumbled Wasa "hearty" crispbread over. We ate the whole thing raw. It was a great meal that left us with plenty of lettuce to pack into Ziploc bags for healthy snacking.

The cheese selection was the highlight. We ended picking up a few bars of Heini's Amish milk cheese from Millersburg, the heart of Ohio's Amish Country just three hours north of here. Just a few minutes ago, I cut a long slice of the Amish Milk Can Cheddar over a slice of the Wasa crispbread. That snack comes from me highly recommended.

Their meat selection was primo as well, though I clearly didn't have a chance to sample any of it. I've heard you can get local and grass-fed meat here, and that the butcher will custom cut it if you call in ahead of time.

I do love good meat, and one of the things I really wanted to locate was the vegetarian meat so that I could try and judge it accordingly. It was difficult to find, and as I circled the store aimlessly, I realized that I was entirely too embarrassed to ask anyone for vegetarian meat or hummus. There is a certain stigma attached to vegetarian meat, something emasculating and snooty. I'll admit that it wasn't located until I sent my roommate's girlfriend to ask for me.

The selection was standard by every definition. Three burger patties from Boca and veggie beef or sausage patties from Morningstar. I picked up the sausage patties, but I've yet to try them.

The prices are slightly higher than what you'd get at a corporate grocer, but only in a few cases were they too high to grab what we wanted. For a few cents on every item, you get to feel drastically better about what you're putting into your stomach though. That was worth it to me.

The service was good all around, but what really surprised me came at check out when the cashier asked me, "Paper or plastic?". It's been so long since I've shopped at a local, wholesome grocer that I forgot that classic question. Wal-Mart doesn't offer paper, and I was glad to have the opportunity to carry my groceries away in a biodegradable, paper bag for the first time in years.

All things considered, Seaman's is gunning to become my new favorite grocery spot.

The Plan

In my introductory post I said that I'd attempt to learn through experience what it takes to live sustainably in Athens, and if there is one bad habit that's threatening the well-being of our planet, it's my nearly insatiable thirst for blood.

I'm talking about meat. According to a 2006 report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations's Agriculture and Consumer Protection Department, "livestock are responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, a bigger share than that of transport."

On the same topic, GoVeg.com, a site operated by PETA, claims that eating one pound of meat is releases as many greenhouse gasses as driving an SUV 40 miles. It should be noted, though, that I'm not far enough into my sustainability quest to have any trust for PETA yet.

That said, no one can deny how bad meat consumption is for the environment. I never thought I'd say it, but I'm going to give vegetarianism a try. There are a few things I'll need to do if I am to prepare properly.

The first hurdle in my quest are the two pounds of meat I purchased from Wal-Mart shortly before turning against everything that implied.

Sure, $8.97 for a huge bag of multiple meats piled on one another indiscriminately is a great deal, but I'll have to find a way to get rid of the goods before my quest can begin. This makes me feel like a junkie, vowing to quit after this dose is gone. In spite of this, I'm not flushing my ham down a toilet.

I'll also have to set some ground rules. Green Daily put up a great post on becoming a vegetarian this week, and they broke down the options for aspiring vegetarians into three categories. From their post:

• A lacto-vegetarian does not eat any meat products or eggs, but does eat dairy products.
• An ovo-vegetarian does not eat meat products, but does eat eggs and dairy products.
• A vegan does not eat any meat, eggs or dairy products at all.

I'm not planning on going full vegan, so the real decision is whether or not I will give up eggs. It's something I'll need to decide soon, before I go to buy groceries this week.

I love eggs. As a food, they are both cheap and incredibly versatile. However, I recently watched Baraka, a great film from 1992 without dialogue that juxtaposes nature and society. Here's a clip from it that shows, among other things, a chick factory.



So what do you think, America? Can I give up Eggs Benedict?

Welcome to the Gaiathenian!

My name is Niklos Salontay, and this is my fresh new blog.

It’s about sustainability, green culture, and the environmentally conscious shakers of Athens, Ohio. It’s a topic that interests me, but one that I’ve never been thoroughly invested in. I fall into perhaps the largest classification of people in today’s environmentally challenged society — those who believe sustainability is a worthwhile pursuit but do little to pursue it.

With this blog, I will attempt to change my ways. I’ll explore what it takes to live an environmentally friendly lifestyle in Athens. I’ll meet the people who lead sustainability movements in our city and research what’s at stake in the ecosystem that we call Athens.

I hope you’ll enjoy this undertaking. Maybe you’ll learn something too!