When you grow even a small portion of your own food, you reap manifold benefits. You get the satisfaction of reducing your dependence on others for your most basic needs. Vegetables are absolutely the best thing you can eat, and when you grow your own they are cheaper, fresher and tastier. You get to control what fertilizer is used (or not) to grow them, and no petroleum is required to truck them to your kitchen. You get to slow down a bit and maybe connect with your neighbor to swap surplus tomatoes or borrow a shovel. Best of all, you get to be out in the fresh air, using your muscles with a real purpose and not just completing sets of reps. It’s the perfect solution: get in shape while improving your diet.

Michael Pollan makes the point more completely in his essay, Why Bother?:

It is one of the absurdities of the modern division of labor that, having replaced physical labor with fossil fuel, we now have to burn even more fossil fuel to keep our unemployed bodies in shape [i.e., driving ourselves to the gym].

I say we take his advice. Let's skip the health club this summer and work out in our back yards instead.

(Photo: Flickr - Dr. Hemmert)

First up is a great article called Grains Gone Wild from the New York Times that really summarizes the current situation. It seems that the invasion of Iraq that was supposed to eventually lead to cheaper oil has instead created an oil shortage. The New York times article As Prices Rise, Farmers Spurn Conservation Program paints an even worse picture. It seems that not only are farmers plowing under other crops in favor of corn, but they're turning away the government subsidy paid to them in order to preserve some fields for conservation. It seems that the subsidies can't compete with the current price paid for crops.

For a bit of fun, try either this Crossword game where you are given no clues, only parts of words and part of the alphabet to use to fill in the blanks; or check out How Well Do You Know Your World, a fun geography game that tests how well you know the world map.

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip: We've found a number of ways to save energy around the Yanoff household:

• Compact Flourescents — these can be had for $1 to $2 if you look for specials. They last forever and we've found that while some of the older versions are not the best for reading lamps, they do just fine outside for the porch light or for those lamps we have on timers to light up dark rooms after sundown.
• Use a reel mower instead of a gas-powered mower &mdash granted, we have only a quarter of an acre lot here in Shorewood. But, if Scott's going to push a mower either way up and down that lot, why does it need to be gas-powered? Sure, the old mower didn't use much gas over the course of a summer, but it's one less machine spewing CO2 into the air.
• Use stairs instead of the elevator &mdash whenever we get the chance, we opt for the stairs. Kathy has one flight up to her office and Scott has about three, so both try to set an example for others by forgoing the electric-powered elevator in favor of the stairs. Figuring that each staircase burns about 13-14 calories, a few flights up a couple of times a day can account for any naughty snacking we do that day. Scott's even begun leading his teammates to the stairwells instead of the elevators in hopes of getting his team on the right path.

And sure, I know it's the Internet but do a Google search and you'll find quite a few sites pointing out that Hank Aaron is supposedly a vegetarian, as well as Packers Superbowl MVP Desmond Howard. Protein is protein — no matter from where is comes. Prince will have to eat his share of vegetables to get it — but he WILL get it.

A quote we like:
How we treat the creation reveals how we feel about the creator. - Pastor Rob Bell

Oh, and there are some new photos up on www.Yanoff.org from our visit to the Mitchell Park Domes.

There's a great quote in the book about how in 2002, ConAgra had to recall 19 million pounds of E.coli-contaminated beef:

If 19 million pounds of meat distributed to half of this country had been contaminated with a deadly strain of E.coli bacteria by terrorists, we'd go nuts. But when it is done by a Fortune 100 corporation, we continue to buy it and feed it to our kids.

Yanoff Family "Green" Tip: We purchased a rain barrel for $30 from the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District. Rain barrels help slow down rain runoff so it can drain naturally into the ground. That helps us keep excess water out of sewer systems and keeps rain runoff from collecting pollutants on its trip to nearby waterways. Collected rainwater is better for plants because it's not chlorinated although it is mildly acidic, which helps plants take up important minerals from the soil. They can provide water during dry weather, or you can set them to slowly release the water over a 1- 2 day period when the rains have subsided. The slower release of rain will allow the water to seep into the soil and be used by plants, such as we are planning to start doing this summer as a way to water our vegetable and flower gardens.

Our recent issue of Consumer Reports had an article entitled Authorities investigate big rise in beef contamination that mentioned some shortfalls in the food safety system. A couple of points that were made that made eating meat just frightening:

• More than 25 million pounds of tained meat went to market in 2007, up from less than 200,000 pounds in 2006.
• If meat tests positive for E. coli, companies are allowed to cook it for sale in other products such as pizza or tacos. While thorough coooking should kill E. Coli, diverting tainted meat creates an opening for cross-contamination.
• Consumer illnesses, not government or industry testing, triggered recalls for the majority of the 61.8 million pounds of beef subject to E. coli-related recalls over the past five years, according to the U.S. Food Safety Inspection Service.