BTW, Hispanarepublicana and Mr. HR will be grilling the following:
Posted on 08/27/2004 6:32:47 PM PDT by hispanarepublicana
Are you destroying the rainforest on your BBQ this weekend? Aug 28 Summer barbecues are contributing to the destruction of the Indonesian and Amazonian rainforests, Friends of the Earth said today, in a new briefing highlighting the damage caused by illegal logging and intensive production of soy and palm oil [1]. Chicken, beef burgers, veggie burgers, bread, crisps and prawns are all contributing to rainforest destruction - and yet UK consumers remain oblivious to the trail of destruction these every day goods leave in their wake.
Friends of the Earth is calling on the Government to impose tougher social and environmental regulations on retailers and other companies which would force them to take responsibility for the damage caused by the products they sell.
Previous work by the environmental organisation showed that four out of five retailers of garden furniture in the UK were implicated in the destruction of tropical rainforests. But as the briefing demonstrates, it is not only garden furniture retailers who are implicated in this devastation.
The environmental campaign group argues that consumers cannot be expected to know the origins of every product they buy - and that companies should declare the origins and impacts of their products.
Soy production in South America has expanded rapidly in recent years, with some 90 per cent of exports used for animal feed in Europe. It is estimated that every pig and chicken in the UK will have consumed South American soy at some point. But soy farms are now spreading into Central Brazil and Amazon rainforest, contributing to the accelerating destruction of one of the world's great last wildernesses.
And in South East Asia, the spread of palm oil plantations is threatening the natural habitat of the orang-utan, Sumatran tiger and the Asian elephant as forest is sacrificed to make way for palm oil plantations. With palm oil now found in roughly one in three food products on the supermarket shelves, including bread, crisps, veggie burgers and mayonnaise, it is hard for customers to avoid even where they object to its impacts.
The briefing also highlights the damaging impacts of shrimp production on mangrove - a precious coastal habitat that is home to wildlife and protects vulnerable land areas from erosion by the sea.
Friends of the Earth's Corporates Campaigner Robin Webster said:
"The great British barbecue is sending some of the world's most precious rainforest up in smoke and British companies are profiting from the destruction. Tough regulations are needed to make companies take responsibility for the damaging impacts of products they sell. Then the British public will be able to enjoy barbecues without worrying about the wildlife that is being destroyed."
Friends of the Earth urged the public to follow its top tips for a greener barbecue:
Always use charcoal on your barbecue certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (look for the "tree and tick" FSC label)
Source vegetable and salads from local sources - try local farm shops and farmers' markets for cheap fruit and veg.
Try grilling vegetables (organic or local) - peppers and aubergines work well
Avoid barbecueing fish at risk from overfishing - find out more at www.fishonline.org
Small "coldwater" prawns from temperate sources are generally less damaging than "warmwater" prawns. Look for guarantees that the prawns come from sustainable sources and demand evidence. See http://www.ejfoundation.org/pdfs/ejf_prawn_consumer_guide.pdf for more information.
Don't use patio heaters to turn up the heat at your barbecue - they waste energy and contribute to climate change. If it's cold, wear a jumper or move inside.
Buy any wooden furniture from reclaimed or recycled sources. Make sure that any newly purchased furniture is from FSC timber. Much tropical hardwood sold in this country is illegally logged.
Look out for meat that comes from organic and free-range sources.
Write to your MP and ask for tougher environmental regulations for companies - and make the Government take responsibility for the impacts of companies overseas.
Friends of the Earth is campaigning for changes to UK company law so that financial obligations are
counterbalanced by social and environmental concerns. It wants the Government to introduce mandatory reporting, requiring all UK companies to report annually on the impact of their operations, policies, products and procurement practices on people and the environment both in the UK and abroad; new legal duties on directors to take reasonable steps to reduce any significant negative social or environmental impacts; and foreign direct liability to enable affected communities abroad to seek redress in the UK. For more information see www.corporate-responsibility.org
BTW, Hispanarepublicana and Mr. HR will be grilling the following:
Man when I come home for my mid tour in about 50 days I will be killing a lot of rainforests!!! I think I am going ot BBQ every single frikin day!!!
Libs don't know what they do to me when they talk about bar-b-q's, chickens, deer, cows, and buffalo...
I mean, how do they expect me to react? With indignation? No! They just make me hungry.
wow! I never realized we could cause so many tree huggers to hyperventilate simply by cooking out in the back yard - that alone means we all have to BBQ more often!
I sure hope so. Then I'm gonna nuke a gay whale for Jesus.
A gay whale topped with a spotted owl.
I am SO SORRY to have posted those photos!!! Stay safe, and God Bless!
I think I am going ot BBQ every single frikin day!!!...
People will be throwing BBQs for you. And they'll ply you with beer and liquor so they can get some good Iraq stories out of you.
Do you realize that the article is against soy and veggie burgers..what the hell do they expect us to eat?
I guess you could call Friends of the Earth the true conservatives since they won't be happy until everything is banned and life is relegated back to humans sitting around in caves drawing on the walls with natural mud and crapping in the woods.
> Are you destroying the rainforest on your BBQ this weekend?
Even if they have a point, this entire article is so
sensationalist that it will not be taken seriously by
either the target audience or the general public, and
generally undermines the efforts of its advocates
(which works for me).
> Do you realize that the article is against soy and
> veggie burgers..what the hell do they expect us to eat?
"... with some 90 per cent of exports used for animal
feed in Europe." I think they started out intending to
persuade people to eat less meat, and thus reduce the
demand for soy-based feed, but by throwing soyburgers
into the mix, the lost their tenuous train of thought.
> ... they won't be happy until everything is banned and
> life is relegated back ...
After the great starve-off, because their Khmer Rouge
agrarian utopia cannot feed today's population.
> ... to humans sitting around in caves ...
Waiting for the next big rogue space object to wipe us out.
One thing we know about the dinosaurs - they didn't have a
space program.
NUKE THE RAINFORESTS!
Tonight I will pay tribute to the nobel rain forest that gave its life for my specialty grilled blue-cheese-burgers!
That's fajitas--it's become a Texas staple. You can usually buy pre-packaged, marinated skirt steak (or buy skirt steak and marinate it for hours), then you cook the whole thing on a hot grill and slice it, then serve w/ cheese, guacamole, salsa, etc., in flour tortillas.
Please tell me you've had this dish before, or else I'll have to start a ribbon-on-the-lapel campaign for people not lucky enough to live in Texas!
I've had it in restaurants but never made it myself. The one in the picture looks much better than what I've had (but what do you expect from Northern Virginia!) so I wasn't sure if that was a fajita or something else related. I'll have to add flank steak to my grilling list.
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