Chef it up, yo!

This post is to show my support in the environmental initative called Blog Action Day. I found out about this a couple of months ago and I was pretty intriqued. There are three ways one can participate in the initiative: (1) put up a banner on your blog to build awareness of Blog Action Day, (2) make a donation to one of the four officially supported charities, or (3) publish a post on your blog which relates to an issue of your choice pertaining to the environment. I wanted to do as much as I possibly could (without going to the extreme, of course) so I chose to (1) add one of the banners to my blog, (2) make a ten dollar donation to Greenpeace (click here to see proof), and (3) publish a post. The last one was the most difficult for me. I had a pretty hard time deciding on what to post because I wanted to make sure that it would stay true to the Chef It Up Yo style (you gotta stick to what your representin’). Everything I was coming up with for a blog post made me feel a bit like a hypocrite - like there was some aspect of the recipe that I couldn’t say was completely environmentally-friendly. So before I pulled out my ENTIRE weave, I decided to post about a pretty neat concept that I came across online. I found it very interesting and thought I would share it with my CIUY readers in honor of Blog Action Day.

You didn’t really think I was going to post a recipe for PB & J, didja? Ah, hells no! I think that would be rather insulting to you and I ain’t like dat. Instead, I will share some interesting facts that I found online about the Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich and how it relates to the environment. According to the PB & J Campaign website:

• Eating a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich instead of a grilled cheese or chicken sandwich saves 2.5 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s almost half of what you’d save if you switched to a Hybrid car.
• The same sandwich will save 280 gallons of water since growing peanuts takes less water than livestock. Growing peanuts also takes less land than animals — so your PB & J could help preserve 12-50 square feet of land from being used for cultivation.
• Eating three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches could have the same environmental impact as switching your showers to a low-flow shower head.
• It takes about 16 PB & J sandwiches to save a chicken’s life (I am not jumping on the animal rights/vegan bandwagon or anything because I am without a doubt a carnivore, but I thought it was only fair to include all facts I came across relating to the PB & J sandwich).
• The water it takes to produce the beef on one hamburger could produce peanuts for about 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the land that it takes to produce that beef could produce peanuts for 19 PB & Js.

So just a little environmental awareness for you today, my little chefs. Maybe you picked up something you didn’t know before - gained a chunk of knowledge to share with your homies while you’re chillin’. If it benefits the environment then it’s got to be a’ight! Do whatcha can - help the environment in any way YOU can.

Check out the Blog Action Day website to learn more about what I did to help out the environment today and visit the PB & J Campaign website for more information on how PB & J sandwiches can help save the environment.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 7:20 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.