Eco Chic

by Elyse Myrans
Pad Thai, Shrimp Rings and Shrimp Scampi, oh my! In the last decade shrimp consumption has nearly doubled, making it the most widely consumed seafood in North America. This dramatic increase in consumption is a direct result of modern technology, which has increased the volume of wild shrimp caught in the ocean, and also intensified shrimp aquaculture practices (a.k.a shrimp farming). Great, right? Now there's more shrimp available, which means you can eat it more often and pay less for it. Choosing the butterfly shrimp pasta over the chicken alfredo won't break the bank. It's quite fabulous really, except that most shrimp harvesting practices degrade and destroying both marine and land environments.

I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, but I can almost guarantee that the shrimp you are consuming weren't caught sustainably. In fact, most shrimp is harvested in one of two different, environmentally destructive ways. The first and most popular method is called shrimp trawling. This lovely practice involves a boat dragging a trawl along the ocean floor, scooping everything in its path into a conical net. Just imagine a giant rake scraping the ocean floor and collecting EVERYTHING. Typically, when the nets are pulled up onto the boat, only 10-20% of what is in them is actually shrimp. The other 80-90% is called bycatch, and is usually a mix of fish, sea turtles, dolphins, and crustaceans that were living on the ocean floor. Once all the shrimp has been collected from the nets, the dead bycatch is tossed over the side of the boat, adding to the 7 million tones of bycatch killed by all fisheries (shrimp trawling accounts for roughly 35% of this 7 million tones).

The other method of shrimp harvesting is by way of shrimp aquaculture, which is essentially shrimp farming. Most shrimp farming takes place in tropical and sub-tropical regions like South East Asia, Central America, and South America, and usually involves anti-biotics, chemicals and fertilizers being pumped into the farms and then out into water sources and environments. These are water sources that local communities rely on. Threatened mangrove habitats are usually chosen as sites for shrimp aquacultures, and are ultimately stripped of their resources and then deserted by shrimp farms, often forcing entire communities to relocate. In the mean time, local resources and food sources are destroyed by habitat conversion, disease, and pollution. Altogether, it's not a pretty picture.

So now you want to know if you can ever eat shrimp again without visions of dead sea turtles and devastated communities clouding your mind? Of course you can! In fact you have a few options. Your first is to cut down on meals that include shrimp- maybe opt for the california roll instead of the shrimp tempura roll tomorrow at lunch. By just saving shrimp for special occasions, you can make a statement, and a difference. Or, you can be an even more dedicated global citizen by opting for trap-caught shrimp instead. Eating shrimp caught in small traps means that other marine species aren't killed as a result, and that the local environment isn't devastated in the process. The only downside to trap-caught is that it is a more labour intensive process, meaning that these shrimp are a bit more expensive than the earth destroying, sea turtle killing, environment degrading variety-a few extra dollars hardly seems like a sacrifice in the big picture. Check the packaging labels, ask the seafood guy behind the counter at your grocery store, or get your waitress to find out where the shrimp on the menu came from. If the shrimp is trap-caught then the packaging will tell you so, the guy behind the counter will know, and the waitress will probably already be informed that she is working at an ocean-friendly restaurant.

The moral of the story is this: by cutting down on your shrimp consumption and choosing the trap-caught variety, you can truly make a difference. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but you really will be saving one more dolphin, one more sea turtle, and one more community if you join the movement to stop supporting destructive shrimp trawlers and farmers.

by Elyse Myrans
Steam rises from the dark, fragrant brew as the barista hands you your mandatory morning coffee. You move from your place at the front of the line towards the condiments bar to tailor your coffee to taste –a little sugar, maybe some skim or half and half- before pressing a lid onto the cup and walking out into the world with your morning prescription in hand. Unfortunately, deciding between sugar and splenda is usually the most in depth thought consumers have about their coffee each day- they rarely consider whether the beans for their coffee were acquired through fair trade or not.

When you purchase fair trade coffee at your favourite coffee shop or grocery store, you can be certain that the farmer who produced the beans for your drink was paid a fair price. Many people assume that all coffee farmers receive a fair price for their product, but unfortunately that is not the case. As a result of incredibly low coffee prices in the last decade, coffee farmers and producers around the world have felt a devastating blow. In fact, most farmers only receive about $0.54 for every pound of coffee that the consumer buys!

Globally, coffee is the 2nd most valuable commodity in the world, second only to oil. In many developing countries it accounts for a significant portion of exports, and is a primary source of financial revenue. Yet the effects of the coffee market crash have been devastating and widespread, often effecting small family run coffee crops most. In many instances, farmers have even left entire crops to rot after realizing that the cost of harvesting the beans would exceed the revenue they would receive in return.

Fair trade coffee differs though, in that its producers are often paid near double the world market price of coffee, allowing them to earn a better income and maintain the quality of their product over time. This dramatic difference in price is in large part a result of cutting out the middleman –who would usually take advantage of the coffee farmer's inability to connect directly with exporters- and connecting the farmer with buyers who will pay a fair price.

What does all this mean for you? It means that purchasing fair trade coffee is in effect a commitment to help alleviate poverty and support a farmer who would otherwise be forced to face even more desperate financial conditions. That is a pretty big deal when you consider that all you'd need to do to make a difference and support fair trade is ask for a different brew in the morning. Yet so few people opt for this alternative on a daily basis. Fair trade coffee accounts for a tiny fraction of the coffee out there: it is usually available in limited quantities in grocery stores, and tends to only be found in specialty coffee shops with an ethical conscience. As a consumer it is your right, and your responsibility, to choose products acquired ethically, and to encourage others to do so too (yes, you can ask your coffee bar to start brewing it). So tomorrow, as you saunter up to the coffee bar counter, reconsider your options for a moment and ask the barista for the fair trade version of your daily caffeine fix.

by Elyse Myrans
On my most recent trip to the grocery store I reached for my much loved gala apples and noticed the little white stickers on them read: ‘Product of New Zealand’. The apple I was holding had traveled over 14,000 km! I put it back with it’s other foreign friends, and scanned the other kinds of apples piled high on the left and right; not one was Canadian grown, let alone local.

Those 14,000 km are called food miles. Food miles are the distance a product travels from where it’s grown to your plate, and it turns out that the typical meal consumed in North America has racked up 2,400km of them. As it is we are constantly inundated with media about the excessive green house gas emissions generated from long distance travel, so the last thing we really need to do is choose an apple –or any food for that matter- that has traveled such a distance.

You’ve probably heard about the book “The Hundred Mile Diet”, in which the authors describe their year of only eating food grown and produced within a 100-mile radius of their home in Vancouver, Canada. While you may believe this to be a tad bit extreme, it certainly got a lot of people thinking about where their food comes from. Although I am not prescribing a strict 100-mile diet (although I challenge you to do it for one meal), you can do your part by making more local choices when possible. Buying fruits and veggies that are in season where you live is one of the easiest ways to go local. Not only will they taste better because they are fresher and haven’t traveled thousands of kilometers, but they will likely be less expensive because the added cost of fuel to transport them long distances won’t be on your bill.

Late summer is one of the best seasons for local produce in Ontario, so it is undeniably the perfect time to grow a ‘food-mile conscience’.

Needless to say, in the end, I didn’t leave the grocery store with any apples that day. Instead, I chose to take home a bag of mighty tasty Canadian grown peaches. Since my eye opening gala-apple experience, my own ‘food mile conscience’ has been growing at an exponential rate. While I’ve been eating more beans, blueberries, and plums than ever before, I’m still looking forward to the local gala apples that should be in grocery stores any day.

To find out what is in season: http://www.harvestcanada.com/seasonal.php
To find out where to buy local near you: http://www.eatwellguide.org/search/results/stores
To find your nearest farmers market: http://www.torontolife.com/guide/food/markets-farmers-markets/farmers-ma...

by Elyse Myrans
You probably already got the memo about plastic grocery store bags, but just in case, here it is again: STOP using single use plastic bags and switch to reusable cloth or mesh bags. Most grocery stores sell them for about $0.99, and if you get in the habit of using them now you will avoid having to do it later, because trust me, the plastic-free wave is coming.

In 2007, over 7 million plastic bags were used daily in Ontario! Millions of barrels of oil go into producing these petroleum based bags yearly, and at a time when there is already such a high demand for oil, do we really want to keep pumping so much of it into the bags we use to get our groceries home? Even worse, these things don't biodegrade. Instead they break into tiny pieces of toxic waste, poisoning our soil and water before working their way into the food chain for us to eventually consume. Not cool, I know.

Last year the Ontario government committed to cutting plastic bag consumption in half by 2012, and if they use strategies anything like those of Ireland, Australia, China, and South Africa, then we can expect to see a tax on bags, and perhaps eventually a total ban on plastic bags in some cities. Shocked? Don't be, this isn't going away. And in case you were wondering, yes, the plastic bag tax really works. Ireland was one of the first countries to impose a plastic bag tax in 2002, and the mere $0.33 charge dropped plastic bag consumption by over 90% immediately!

In Canada, stores like Ikea have already imposed their own plastic bag tax. You may have thought it strange when the girl in the baggy yellow shirt behind the Ikea cash register asked you how many plastic bags you wanted to buy last time you were there, I certainly did. But it not only made me think twice –I shoved my new candles into my already overstuffed purse and walked out with my new wine rack in hand- but seeing as Ikea distributed 90% fewer plastic bags in Canada since adding this mere $0.05 charge, it seems other Ikea shoppers got the message too.

So the moral of the story is this: rather than be a follower later, be a trendsetter now and get into the reusable bag groove. And if you don't want to sacrifice your style by carrying a dull looking bag, you can splurge and get one with a witty phrase or trendy design.