Season 1, bonus episode - small plate: earth day

Transcript

Conner: (00:09)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen, a podcast hosted by my mom.

Rebecca: (00:18)
I wanted to be a really good sustainable mom, and I wanted to shop locally, and I wanted to do all of those things because the environment was something that I was really starting to get concerned with, especially when he was little. Then I realized what a total struggle that is.

Stephanie: (00:33)
Rebecca Kimber is a mom and writer who researches sustainability and the circular economy, more on what that is in a minute at earthyb.com. For Earth Day, I asked her to share some of what she's learned so that we can be more environmentally minded in our kitchens.

Stephanie: (00:54)
Welcome to Kiddos in the Kitchen, a podcast about helping busy adults find the inspiration and information they need to teach the kids in their lives how to cook. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner, and today we're going to talk about how our kitchen choices affect the environment.

Stephanie: (01:17)
Okay, let's start with what is a circular economy and how does it connect with the environment and sustainability?

Rebecca: (01:26)
Right now we basically have a linear economy where there's so much waste and pollution. A lot of products are created for planned obsolescence, so products are created and then we use them for a little while and then we probably throw them away. Maybe we recycle them, but a lot of things end up in the garbage, a lot of things end up as waste, a lot of things end up as pollution. When it comes to food, when it comes to the circular economy, then what we're trying to do is to keep everything within a loop so that instead of us throwing away a product or throwing away a packaging and things like that, then it would stay within the economy, stay within a loop, and it would either be recycled, refurbished, or repaired, used again in some kind of way so that it's not just where it's going away, going to a landfill where it's turning into pollution.

Stephanie: (02:25)
I'm pretty sure that I understand what that means, but is there a good example?

Rebecca: (02:30)
Yes. My kids, they love bubble water, like sparkling water, and so we were buying a bunch of sparkling water because it's healthier. It was water, it's not soda and they like the bubble. Well, they would take one sip or a couple of sips and then it would get thrown up down the drain. That's how kids are, they drink a little bit and then it's gone. So, A, you're wasting the water and you're wasting the can. Maybe you're recycling it, but what we're not really looking at is the fact aluminum probably came from a mine somewhere, then we took water from somewhere and then it was carbonated, or carbonated before and then it goes into the can, and then it gets shipped to my door or shipped to the store and then we take it home and now we drink it, drink a little bit. I would probably finish the whole thing, my kids will probably drink half of it, and then we dump it out and then we put it into recycling.

Rebecca: (03:27)
There's a big footprint there because of the shipping and because of the actual materials that go into the can, then we're throwing that down the drain and then we're recycling it. The recycling part is really good and aluminum is highly recyclable, but the solution would be something where instead you have something like the SodaStream, it's a machine that actually lets you make your own bubble water so you get your water from your own filter, from your own kitchen, and then you make your own bubble water, you drink as much as you want. And yes, maybe your kids throw a little bit down the drain, but you've stopped on the shipping. You haven't done that other than for the original product. And then once that carbonation cartridge is done, then you can send that back to SodaStream, they'll refill it and then you buy another one, which is the circular part. So it stays within the economy, if you will, rather than getting even recycled or thrown away, if that makes sense.

Rebecca: (04:26)
So it's really just a matter of designing products better to begin with so that we have less shipping and less waste. And then also to keeping those materials in use, which is the closing the loop part of the circular economy. We want to keep everything so that it's continuously being used. Does that make sense?

Stephanie: (04:46)
Yeah, that does. And I didn't know about the cartridge part because I was going to ask about the footprint of making the machine.

Rebecca: (04:52)
Exactly. There's always going to be that footprint of making the machine, which that's sort of where we go into the part about refurbishing a machine. The way that we're used to seeing a machine is eventually maybe it'll go to e-waste, maybe they'll take some parts out of it, the majority of that's probably going to get thrown away, maybe it'll get recycled, some of it, but the next step is for that machine, the actual product, there needs to be somebody who is either repairing it, refurbishing it. Those materials need to eventually be recycled. So all of that is big, difficult stuff because it's way cheaper to just throw it away. You're like, "Well, they're actually going to charge me to send it to e-waste". The e-waste people, they charge you for it so it's tricky.

Rebecca: (05:46)
So that's where it goes into a lot of policies and in government and things like that where we need to have more incentives for companies that are willing to innovate something, a product that's better designed or designed to be refurbished so that you don't end up with all that waste. Also, more advanced recycling and those kinds of things. So that goes into the policy part of it, we really just need things to be better designed and designed to not go into pollution. We're far from where this is going to be, but I'm hoping that in the next 10 years things will improve through innovation, through better policies, through incentives, and really just from people understanding and caring about this.

Stephanie: (06:29)
You've obviously been researching this a lot. What's something that you've learned throughout your research that has surprised you?

Rebecca: (06:37)
I actually think that my own thoughts about this have surprised me because I've been thinking about it for so long, and especially with kids, is that I started with this philosophy of don't do this, don't buy this, don't eat this, don't do these things. That was sort of the sustainability philosophy that I heard originally, and that I will admit that I subscribed to in the past. And then the more that I've studied it and seen how hard a lot of this is, I think that we really just have to be open-minded and look at how things can be done differently and in innovative way. And I don't really think of myself as someone who is creative, but the more that I've looked at this, the more I'm like I think that creativity is going to really be what is the root of this whole movement, just to change the way that we think about it.

Stephanie: (07:36)
I think about the future of our planet quite often, it's overwhelming. And sometimes it feels like as just one person, I can't do anything, but every little bit helps. And Rebecca offered a few thoughts. First, we can buy food from local farms, the fewer miles that food has to travel to get to the store and ultimately your kitchen, the better for our planet. Plus, you'll have fresher food that lasts longer. Another thing we can do is eat more seasonally. That reduces the distance food has to travel to get to you too. We also talked about food waste, and Rebecca reminded me that there's a lot of food that's wasted for an aesthetic reason.

Rebecca: (08:19)
The other thing, too, that I think is really important is the whole ugly produce. There's a movement where there's companies that are selling "ugly food" because so much food gets thrown away because it doesn't look pretty enough.

Stephanie: (08:29)
It gets thrown away at the farm?

Rebecca: (08:31)
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of food that gets wasted. And so there are companies that are out there that are looking at what can we do with "ugly food"? So much gets wasted because we have a certain idea of what it's supposed to look like, and that's not necessarily a sustainable thing of only having fruits and vegetables that look a certain way. The economy part of it is, how can we use these things? Can the "ugly fruits and vegetables" go into making ingredients? Maybe we don't actually see it when it's that funky looking carrot, but maybe that's something that goes and gets chopped instead, or how can we use these things rather than it rotting on a farm?

Stephanie: (09:12)
We are certainly not farmers, but Rebecca and I both believe in gardening as an educational tool for kids. And I loved her description of her garden.

Rebecca: (09:21)
We do have a little, I call it a symbolic garden in the yard, and it's symbolic in the sense of definitely there's carrots and kale and lettuce and cilantro. It's not a significant amount of food, it's not enough to have a real footprint, but I think it has enough of an impact on them so that they know, "Oh, this is where food grows. Food grows in soil and real food comes from the dirt.”

Stephanie: (09:46)
I often feel overwhelmed when I think about the future of the planet and what we can do, but Rebecca offered a message of hope.

Rebecca: (09:55)
Don't let environmentalism stress you out. Don't let environmentalism be something that completely overwhelms you because if you do, then it's just almost like you're going to have a backlash where you just go, "I just can't deal with this.” Instead, just look at it as an interesting challenge that you want to learn more about. I feel like that's the thing that keeps me inspired every day because I just keep seeing more interesting companies where I'll sort of feel like, "Oh, this is all hopeless. It's so sad, causing me all this anxiety", and I'm like, "Wow, look what this company's doing, it's so cool. This is amazing and that's what I want to write about," and then I'll write about it and I'm like, "Oh, I feel hope. I feel inspired. I feel like everything's going to be all right".

Stephanie: (10:39)
Now it's time for Kitchen Questions where I ask my guests a few quick questions to understand her kitchen a little better.

Conner: (10:46)
It's time for Kitchen Questions. I have a question, what would happen if you put a little bit of the wrong ingredient inside a cookie? Why are cupcakes squishy? How often do you burn things on ... Do you like cake? What is the difference between baking and roasting? What is your favorite recipe?

Stephanie: (11:10)
What is one ingredient you always have on hand in your kitchen?

Rebecca: (11:15)
Black beans.

Stephanie: (11:16)
What is your favorite way to involve your kids in the kitchen?

Rebecca: (11:19)
Baking, baking cakes.

Stephanie: (11:24)
What is your kid's favorite meal that you make?

Rebecca: (11:27)
Good question. Anything with pasta. We have a little kid's cookbook, actually, and it has the very best brownies and they really have sort of mastered making it themselves. I supervise, but they really follow the recipe, and it's a kid's cookbook and they can bake brownies and they're delicious.

Stephanie: (11:46)
Thank you again to Rebecca Kimber for joining me for this Earth Day bonus episode. You can read her work on earthyb.com and her podcast is called EarthyB. She also suggests checking out the Ellen MacArthur foundation for information and resources.

Stephanie: (12:07)
On this Earth Day, I'm personally pausing to think about how my choices in the kitchen and beyond affect our planet. What can I do to make a difference? How can we waste less food? Can we eat out less or choose to eat at more places that have sustainable practices in place? Can I make more foods so that I'm buying fewer things that come in packaging? Again, I'm not sure how much difference one small family can make, but it feels good to try to do the right thing for this planet that I hope is healthy and verdant when my grandkids come along.

Stephanie: (12:56)
And the side benefit is that generally speaking, the environmentally friendly choices I'm making likely also mean my family is eating healthier. On this Earth Day, I encourage you to ask yourself how you can make small adjustments that might benefit the planet and your family's health at the same time. I also encourage you to study up on sustainability and the circular economy. Rebecca reminds us to keep an open mind and that environmentalism may actually not look the way we've been thinking about it. Regardless, I'm convinced there are ways to be environmentally conscious and healthy, and I'm pretty sure it's starts with, you guessed it, cooking. Happy Earth Day.

Stephanie: (13:47)
Thanks for joining me for this Kiddos in the Kitchen Small Plate. I'm your host, Stephanie Conner, with a reminder from my son.

Conner: (13:58)
If you like my mom's podcast as much as I do, you can subscribe on Apple podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Stephanie: (14:17)
That's right, Conner. You can also view the show notes, subscribe to our newsletter and check out all of our other content at kiddosinthekitchen.com where kiddos cook on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And I'll be back next month with another fresh episode. Until then, I encourage you to get your kiddos in the kitchen.