Eco 411
Eco Author | 12:53 pm | May 20, 2009 | Restaurant | Add a comment
Our Restaurant, El Raigon Argentine Asado, serves 100% grass fed, free range beef imported from Uruguay. This beef is good for people, good for the animals and good for the environment. Because grass-fed beef does not rely on fossil fuels in the form of fertilizers, pesticides, and diesel (used in the planting, harvesting, processing and transportation of grains), grass fed beef is very low impact, with a low carbon footprint. In the place of fossil fuels, grass-fed beef relies on solar power, rainfall, and photosynthesis.
While much of our beef is shipped from Uruguay, our internal audits suggest that the amount of fuel (in the form of marine diesel) used to transport chilled containers is negligible when compared to the amount of fuel required to fatten the average U.S. feedlot steer. We estimate our fossil fuel consumption per pound of beef produced at somewhere between 1% and 10% of the U.S. commodity feedlot steer equivalent. In many ways, we help with land preservation. Our cattle live in harmony with nature and the fields are full of wild animals and birds. While raising cattle is not perfect nature, it far exceeds the alternative for most ranchers. If you have ever seen pastures converted to soy or mono-crops, you know. Mono-crop agriculture turns a pastoral setting into an area devoid of life other than the crop it’s producing.
The most economic use of land on per acre income is to produce soy or corn and put the cattle into feedlots, but our efforts give the farmers incentives to keep native grasslands. We feel that by preserving a demand for grassland, we are preventing industrial agriculture and all the negatives that go with it.
Animal welfare is critical to the beef we serve because it makes for a healthier and better-tasting steak; it also is the right way to treat animals. Free-ranging, grass-eating is the tradition in Argentina and Uruguay so the practices are inherent in the culture and tradition. It’s a simpler way to raise cattle for the very same reasons it’s better for them. Free range, grass fed cattle is beef the way nature intented, not unlike wild game.
Grass-fed beef has about half the fat and cholesterol of grain-fed beef. Additionally, the fat found in grass-fed beef is 41% mono unsaturated (like olive oil), so it’s good for you.
Grass-fed beef is packed with omega 3 fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acid, which are very beneficial to our health. It’s also higher in vitamins A and E. Corn-fed beef, on the other hand, was invented in the 1950s for convenience, not because it was healthier, better tasting, or more environmentally friendly. It is cheaper to produce and allows animals to be fattened in places where natural conditions don’t otherwise allow it.
For more info go to www.elraigon.com
Eco Author | 5:49 pm | May 13, 2009 | Transportation | Add a comment
Southwest is proud do our part to support the environment—on Earth Day and everyday. Through our current Companywide Share the Spirit initiative, Project: SAVE, Employees have already made their communities cleaner, greener, and more vibrant through litter collection projects, tree planting, graffiti wipeouts, and community gardening initiatives. And with Southwest’s recycling efforts, during the last five months of 2008, we recycled 217.83 metric tons of paper, cardboard, plastic, and aluminum which equates to saving 3,377 mature trees or 779 cubic yards of landfill space. In fact, Southwest was recently recognized as a 2009 Global Green 100 Honoree by the Uptime Institute.
Eco Author | 4:36 pm | May 6, 2009 | Hotel | Add a comment
Hilton Sonoma Wine Country was selected as a recipient of the 2009 Business Environmental Alliance Best Practices Award.
The Sonoma County Tourism Bureau recognized the Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa, CA for it’s many efforts over the last year to become one of the most environmentally responsible corporations in our area. Some of our notable efforts include maintaining low water landscaping on property, utilizing E-Sales to cut down on contractual paperwork & emailing collateral, using high quality recycled toilet and tissue paper, and replacing coffee makers, washing machines and dishwashers with EnergyStar appliances.
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