From Your Castilleja Upper School Green Team

April 25, 2016

Earth Week -Monday

Todays Theme: Food
Visit Perennial
Restaurant in San
Francisco!
Perennial serves

Welcome To Earth Week!

This is out first issue of our daily Earth Week newsletter
where we will be sharing information about activities as well
as other green resources, articles, and ways to get involved.

delicious food grown in

local, environmentally
friendly farms.

Todays Activities
Food Fair
The Green Team will be handing out delicious eco-friendly food at
lunch.

From Your Castilleja Upper School Green Team

April 25, 2016

Meatless Monday
In honor of Earth Week, the Castilleja cafeteria will not be serving
meat. Raising livestock is one of the primary drivers of climate
change, taking up massive land, water, and food resources.
Succulent Planting
Also come by to help plant succulents on the circle! These
succulents will be center pieces for Founders Day.

Check out Cowspiracy

Sustainable Eating- An Eco-Friendly

Diet

A film that analyzes the

By Berkley Wellness

massive effects of modern

Looking for a diet thats good not only for you but also for the
planet? If so, go heavy on plant foods and easy on meat, two recent
studies advise.

animal agriculture on our

environment.

Vegan Recipes
Come try out some tasty
vegan recipes at lunch or
try making them on your
own at home!

Almond Cookies
1 1/2 cups blanched almond
flour
1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In one, published in the Journal of Health Services Research &

Policy, researchers computed the carbon footprints of winter and
summer menus at a hospital in Spain; the menus reflect the typical
Spanish (Mediterranean-style) diet. They compared these numbers
to carbon footprint calculations previously made by other
researchers for food consumption in the U.S. and U.K. (where diets
are more meat-based). Carbon footprints express the amount of
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as carbon dioxide equivalents.
Such gases contribute to climate change, with global agriculture
and food production accounting for 25 to 30 percent of the
emissions.
Calorie for calorie, the Spanish diet was found to have a
significantly lower carbon footprint than the diets of the U.S. and
U.K., with the dierences largely attributed to the smaller amount
of meat eaten in Spain. Thats not surprising, since beef production
is known to emit far more GHGs (notably methane, produced in
the rumen of cows as foods ferment) than the growing of
vegetables and other plant foods.

From Your Castilleja Upper School Green Team

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
2 Tablespoons melted coconut
oil
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
15 sliced almonds

Hummus
2 cups cooked chickpeas, liquid
reserved and set aside
1 tsp kosher salt, or to taste

April 25, 2016

The consumption of meat, or specifically red meat, is the greatest

contributor of GHG emissions from food consumption, and the
U.S. is among the top countries in the world in terms of red meat
consumption per capita, the researchers said. In contrast, the
Mediterranean diet is characterized by abundant plant foods and
little red meat. The diet also comes closer to the eating pattern
recommended by the World Health Organization.
In another paper, published in Nature, researchers reviewed more
than 200 articles and 50 years of data from 100 countries to
determine the global impact that recent dietary changes have had
(and are projected to have) on both human health and the
environment. As noted in the paper, not only has rising wealth and
urbanization led to worldwide increases in consumption of
processed foods, meats, and other unhealthy fare that contribute
to chronic diseases, but these factors are also accelerating climate
change. On the other hand, its not too late, the researchers said,
to reverse or at least slow the damage by returning to diets that are
more plant-based.

2 garlic cloves
1/3 Cup tahini
7-8 tbsp freshly squeezed
lemon juice
2 Tbsp reserved chickpea liquid
(or water)
4-8 drops of Tabasco sauce
(amazing), to taste
Olive oil, for drizzling (Assuming
you have this)
Paprika, for garnish

More specifically, they calculated that eating a Mediterranean,

vegetarian, or pescetarian (with fish but no meat) diet significantly
decreases the risk of diabetes and cancer, as well as deaths from
heart diseasecompared to a typical American omnivorous
(animal and plant) diet. Moreover, if more people adopted these
plant-based diets, food-related GHG emissions would be reduced
by up to 55 percent, compared to an 80 percent higher level
projected for 2050 if present global trends continue.
Particularly damaging is beef and lamb production, the researchers
noted, which emits about 250 times more GHGs per gram of
3

From Your Castilleja Upper School Green Team

April 25, 2016

protein than the growing of legumes. Poultry, pork, fish, and dairy
have lower emissions than beef and lamb. And meat that is
sustainably produced (such as on land not suited for crops) has
much less environmental impact than industrialized meat
production and can even have benefits (as when manure is recycled
back into the soil).

Raw Vegan Coconut Balls (A

classic Earth Week snack)
3 cups unsweetened shredded
coconut
cup extra unsweetened coconut
for rolling
2 cups dried unsweetened

Bottom line: The health and environmental consequences of what

we eat are complex and nuanced. While a plant-based diet is best
overall for health and the environment, moderate amounts of
animal foods can still be part of a healthy and eco-friendly diet,
depending on how they are produced.
Keep in mind that your carbon footprint is based on other
variables besides your food consumption, such as how you heat
your home, how much electricity and gasoline you use, how often
you fly, and how you handle your garbage. To see how big your
carbon footprint is, check out the online calculator from UC
Berkeley. Other good calculators are available from the EPA, the
Nature Conservancy, and Carbon Independent.Vegan Recipes

unsulphured mango (soaked in

some filtered water for about
hour)

Coming up Later This Week

cup agave nectar

Tuesday- Reducing and Recycling

8 Tbsp cold pressed coconut oil

Join us on the circle to make recycled art.

2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

Wednesday- Water
Keep your eyes out for a visual representation of how much
water it takes to make a hamburger!
Thursday- Transportation
To enter a rae and win a prize, bike, carpool, or take an
alternate mode of transportation to school.
Friday- Founders Day
Enjoy the eco-friendly succulent centerpieces.