This week Awesome Stories brings you less beef, mothers for peace, food waste, and creativity for kids.
I’ve been all over the map on eating meat, from meat lover growing up to vegetarian for 12 years in my 30s, and then in my 40s returning to meat in small quantities. It might be time to completely ditch the beef. From an environmental perspective, growing and eating beef is a disaster, especially modern day methods of feeding them grains instead of natural grasses. Compared to other meats, beef is far worse on land use, water use and emissions from the methane gas they emit. And compared to eating the grains directly instead of feeding them to cattle, the numbers are really bad. Beef uses 160 times more land and produces 11 times more greenhouse gas. Scientists estimate that giving up beef would have a greater environmental impact than giving up cars!
Mothers for Peace
Yael Deckelbaum is an award-winning Israeli/Canadian singer-songwriter and activist. She created this beautiful video that has become the anthem of hope in the march for peace by women around the globe. Singing from an early age, she has solo albums, hit singles and various other successes, but only recently found her passion as an activist. In the spirit of singers like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, she has inspired a movement called Women Wage Peace working toward creating peace in the mid-east and inspiring more women’s peace movements around the world.
Food Waste Guidelines
I am a mother, urban farmer, graduate student, native Arkansan, world traveler, pattern thinking, community engaging, grant writing, food systems solutionary. ~ Melissa Terry
Melissa Terry inspires me in how much she impacts our local community. I first learned of her work at Feed Communities to address food security and help build resilient local food systems. After becoming aware of how much food is wasted in schools, Melissa created a program to reduce waste at a local elementary school. It was so successful it has become a model for other local schools. Currently, while working on her MPA, she created a national guideline for auditing food waste in partnership with the USDA, EPA, and other state organizations. The intention is to give students and teachers a guide for evaluating food choices and how they impact both personal and environmental health. Thank you Melissa for helping make our world a better place.
Philadelphia has started an innovative program in its libraries, offering spaces for creativity to the underserved kids of Philadelphia. The program is called Maker Jawn signifying a space to make or create. The children are given free reign to create what they want with a variety of materials including paint, glue, 3D printers, ipads, building materials and more. What I most like is how the creations are self-directed, helping them develop both creativity and confidence. Way to go Philadelphia!
May you find your creative potential and use it to bring more peace, love, and sustainability into the world.