The <em>Betty Crocker's Cookbook</em> of low-carbon living | Gristmill: The environmental news blog

The Betty Crocker's Cookbook of low-carbon living

Posted by JMG (Guest Contributor) at 10:41 PM on 24 Apr 2008

Read more about: books | green living | food | climate | greenhouse-gas emissions

When I got to college, the best book I bought was a 3-ring notebook-style Betty Crocker's Cookbook. Not adventurous food, but for someone who knew very little about anything concerning food, it was a great first book. It assumes that you are reading a cookbook because you want to know what to do, step-by-step -- instead of just hinting, it lays it out, with pictures and plain language. Great stuff. A couple times a year my wife and I still will ask one another, "What does Betty say to do with these?"

I always think of Betty (and the old How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive) as the epitome of good technical instruction books. They are all about practical information first, with a minimum of wasted words.

Today I found a new one for that list.

A woman I work with showed me an amazingly good, inexpensive, well-illustrated and designed guide to losing 5,000 pounds of ugly carbon. I could have sworn it was discussed here, but when I searched the archives I was astonished to find no mention of the book, The Low Carbon Diet, or its author, David Gershon.

It's the new No. 1 book on my "practical responses now that you're scared crapless" list (formerly occupied by the Union of Concerned Scientists' A Consumer Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, now sitting at No. 2).

I'm especially happy to add this book to my list because I was recently told rather clearly that I needed some more upbeat info in my repertoire. I was discussing the various titles on climate change at a presentation I gave recently and someone in the audience burst out, "This is like Oprah's Suicidal Book Club!"

So, yes, wonderful to have a "here's how we stay alive" book. It's inexpensive and worth many times the price.

For story: The Betty Crocker's Cookbook of low-carbon living
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Oh piffle

Any good cookbook will have numerous recipes that can be "low carbon." Just look for recipes heavy in beens, grains or potatoes. As far as liking what you eat time tested favorites are "The Joy of Cooking," "The Silver Palate Cookbook," and "The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook."

I would say the most important things you could do to drop down the food chain would be to learn how to cook brown rice and to learn to cook beans in a pressure cooker. Beans and rice are very nice and likely to feed you long after the pantry looks bare.

I'm a confirmed carnivore but I'm not so thick as to think I can eat meat every meal forever.

Put the Carbon Back

by Pangolin at 9:53 AM on 25 Apr 2008

I don't think it is a cookbook

as much as a "recipe" for lowering your carbon footprint.

What I wonder is, how much practical advice does it really have that we don't discuss here daily at Gristmill? I mean, does it go beyond "drive less, eat less meat, change your lightbulbs, etc.?"

by kmp at 10:19 AM on 25 Apr 2008

Beans & rice

typically come from far away, and hence are somewhat carbon-intensive.

Local sources of complex carbs (wheat, corn, potatoes, or whatever is prevalent in your area) would be lower on the carbon food-chain.

by kmp at 10:22 AM on 25 Apr 2008

Beans

Pretty easy to grow in our local northern climates.

Which bring this to mind. In the documentary, "King Corn", our heroes farmed an acre of agrichem corn. The result? A lot of starch, not much nutrition. Dent number 2 is designed to produce corn sweetener and fat on CAFO meat. They lost 9 bucls, but the over 30 bucks per acre in farm subsidies put them in the black.

How would an acre of organic corn grown for human conmsumption compare? In terms of cash flow, profit, nutrition, subsidies and so forth.

This would make a fine corrorally documentary to "King Corn".

Here in wisconsin we have organic grain growers who operate subscription organic bread services. They get all the profit, from the organically (essentially free fertilizer) grown plant to the expensive loaf of organic bread. Cutting out the middlemen.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 10:57 AM on 25 Apr 2008

Reduce your food footprint?

Most of the GHG gas effect from the most GHG intensive agrichem food (meat, milk, and eggs)comes from the manure run off.

If you get your food products from a local farm that uses a biogas power plant and digestor to recycle that manure and biomass farm waste into clean energy and organic fertilizer, that huge food related carbon footprint shrinks to nearly nothing.

Better add that to this book. That's why books should be published online. Instant revision, hehey. Blog style. Blooks. Blog books.

http://amazngdrx.blogharbor.com/blog

by amazingdrx at 11:08 AM on 25 Apr 2008

Ooops

I guess I gotta be more clear -- yes, kmp, Gershon's book is not a (food) cookbook at all; it's more a cookbook of steps to lowering your carbon footprint through everyday measures.

And, no, it's probably not all that newsy for someone who comes to Grist regularly. But for the other 99.999999% of America, it's a GREAT book. Definitely does a nice job providing practical, easy to use guidance and encouragement. If every person who already has the gospel buys and shares a couple copies of this book with family and their friends at church/work/school then we can see a big effect.

Of course such a book targets the low-hanging fruit -- but that's just good sense.

The 5% Project

by JMG at 11:18 AM on 25 Apr 2008

tough competition

I might have to check it out, if it edged out the Union of Concerned Scientists book, which I love.

by mihan at 3:52 PM on 26 Apr 2008

my recollection...

...from skimming it, about a year ago, is that it didn't mention meat.

Please correct me if I remembered wrong.

by Anna Haynes at 9:39 PM on 26 Apr 2008

UCS Guide

Definitely targets meat and food in its top 10, which I always reduce to a collective set of three top things: live where you reduce your regularly required motor travel to a minimum, reduce your grain-fed meat and dairy, and insulate your house.

The 5% Project

by JMG at 10:18 PM on 26 Apr 2008

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