I will eat all of my meals without distractions, e.g., phone, computer, TV, or newspaper.
COMPLETED 7
DAILY ACTIONS
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Smaller Portions
Reduced Food Waste
I will use smaller plates and/or serve smaller portions when dishing out food.
COMPLETED 1
DAILY ACTION
Food, Agriculture, and Land Use
Reduce Animal Products
Plant-Rich Diets
I will enjoy 1 meatless or vegan meal(s) each day of the challenge.
COMPLETED 5
DAILY ACTIONS
Electricity
Invite a friend to calculate the carbon footprint of their household
Individual actions are important, but people and organizations working together can make a real impact. I will share a carbon calculator with a friend and invite them to calculate the carbon footprint of their household.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Action Track: Building Resilience
Plant Trees
Temperate Forest Restoration
I will plant 2 tree(s) in my community, public parks, or backyard.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Industry
Share Bioplastic Disposal Tips
Bioplastics
I will spend at least 60 minutes researching how to properly dispose of bioplastics in my city and share this information with 5 friends, family and/or colleagues.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Health and Education
Host a Film Screening
Health and Education
I will host a virtual film screening and discussion about women's and gender equality issues.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Industry
Encourage my company and/or organization to measure and manage their carbon footprint
Organizations have a responsibility to make sustainable business decisions. To understand how to improve sustainable practices, it’s important to start with understanding the current impact. I will share the Tradewater Business Carbon Calculator with my organization.
UNCOMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Action Track: Building Resilience
Support Indigenous Peoples' Land Management
Indigenous Peoples' Forest Tenure
I will donate to Native American Rights Fund, which protects tribal natural resources and environmental rights and promotes Native American Human Rights.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Action Track: Building Resilience
Support a Community Garden
Multiple Solutions
I will support a community garden by volunteering, donating, or advocating for a new or existing one.
COMPLETED
ONE-TIME ACTION
Participant Feed
Reflection, encouragement, and relationship building are all important aspects of getting a new habit to stick.
Share thoughts, encourage others, and reinforce positive new habits on the Feed.
To get started, share “your why.” Why did you join the challenge and choose the actions you did?
REFLECTION
QUESTION
Action Track: Building ResilienceSupport Indigenous Peoples' Land Management
Indigenous speaker and activist Winona LaDuke says that, "most indigenous ceremonies, if you look to their essence, are about the restoration of balance — they are a reaffirmation of our relationship to creation. That is our intent: to restore, and then to retain balance and honor our part in creation." Why is balance important to sustainability?
Honestly, I didn't really see the direct connection between Native American rights and environmentalism at first - I think the only thing that came to mind was the Dakota Access Pipeline, and even for that, all I knew was that there was a crude oil pipeline in North Dakota that had leaked in rural indigenous land previously, and because of this and other dangers that come with having a oil pipeline in the middle of a community, the indigenous people of the area were protesting to have it shut down.
But while participating in this ecochallenge I instead learned that indigenous people have been in the frontline for fighting against deforestation and oil extraction for a long time now. The way that Native Americans live off of the land both doesn't produce any carbon emissions from the land but also helps increase carbon sequestration.
Despite contributing the least toward climate change, indigenous people are one of the people groups that are affected most by it - demonstrating environmental injustices again in our society.
Instead of taking land from indigenous people that isn't rightfully ours, we should learn from these communities on how to live more respectfully of the land and to give back more. They protest deforestation (much of the country's forests are in indigenous land), oil and gas extraction, as well as monocrop plantations. Instead, the way they appreciate and use the land conserves biodiversity and allows for ecosystems to thrive. With practices like agroforestry systems and pastoral livestock raising, indigenous people are able to enjoy what the earth has to offer without only taking from it. One of their practices is also fire control and management, and Australian land managers have actually already started working with native people to implement these practices to reduce brush fires in Australia. Probably California could serve to implement some of these factors too, since climate change already is helping to induce so many fires in our state.
I donated to the Native American Rights Fund, after learning that donations would protect the natural resources already belonging to the Native American people, but also to support their human and environmental rights.
Balance seems to be the keyword here, in terms of indigenous culture as well. Yes, even though they benefit from the land through the food they eat, they also give back to the land as well. And although we're too far gone in terms of climate change in the fact that even if we were to cease all carbon emissions now, our world is certain to see destruction in the matter of decades, it seems obvious that at least now, we must do our part to counter what we've done and find balance in giving and taking from the land.
You had a really insightful response to the prompt and I enjoyed reading it. Before I also took part in the ecochallenge within this sector, I too did not really see the connection between environmental concerns and indigenous land management. I was mildly aware of the problems with the Dakota Access Pipeline but did not have extensive knowledge about the problem it posed. Through some of my climate action events and the ecochallenges, I found it really surprising that indigenous people are on the front lines of climate events however, we hardly seem to hear their stories. Some of the speakers that I listened to explained that they would provide the information about what they have gone through, however the reporter would interpret in in another way and then present this information. I think it is important to have first person accounts of the information given to us by the indigenous people so that we truly know what is going on behind the curtains so to speak. I really liked how you drew the connection in saying that indigenous people hardly contribute to climate change but are very affected by it. Like you said, this is a huge environmental injustice that is present in today’s society. With this in mind, I believe there needs to be a push for plenty more policies that protects indigenous people and their lands without any constraints. After all, they were here first and took care of the land that we have seemingly taken over. I like how you also talked about the way that balance works with indigenous people and the land. It is a give and take relationship that others that have taken over the land have not adopted. I think more corporations should support agroforestry systems and pastoral livestock as well as controlled burns as they are practices that work. We know they work as indigenous people have been using these same methods and have been able to live on this land for hundreds of years without a problem. They have perfected these methods and it is something we need to adopt so that we can shift to an lifestyle where we are not destroying the environment.
I think you brought up an interesting point that Indigenous communities contribute the least towards climate change, yet face the most of the detrimental impacts. One of my climate action events I attend was a speaker series titled UCSF Climate Change and Health. The speaker told us that White Americans have "pollution advantage" which basically means that although White Americans contribute the most to air pollution, marginalized BIPOC communities face the affects more, despite contributing the least to air pollution. You mentioned the Dakota access pipeline, which is one example where pollution advantage comes into play.
I think it's important to honor Indigenous people's rights to the land. I also did this EcoChallenge, and I learned that Indigenous people live by respecting the Earth and nurturing it. I think conservationists can learn a lot from Indigenous people. For one, they have a great appreciation for nature and respect nature as life. I donated to a GoFundMe page of an Indigenous woman trying to buy back land so that she could cultivate it with trees and plants. This is a very sustainable practice because trees sequester carbon emissions, nurture the soil, and increase biodiversity in the area. Basically, trees can bring back life to the area. Indigenous people have awareness of the environment and their appreciation for nature helps prevent climate change.
My family has been really into gardening since the beginning of quarantine! As in my previous post, we've been planting a lot of vegetables, mainly for our consumption, and some flowers for the front of our house, but we honestly haven't planted any trees: probably because they take too long to bear fruit and because they seem to take up too much space.
However, knowing how our family has been tending to the community garden as well as starting our own small one at home, we've actually gotten small trees as presents from family friends! I really hope this becomes a tradition - not solely gifting already cut flowers to people so that they can enjoy the dying flowers for a few days before throwing them out, but instead gifting live plants that eventually grow beautifully, and maybe into food as well! (It seems like the gift that just keeps giving :) ).
This tree that we received is known as "plumeria" (if my parents are correct), and will hopefully grow larger with beautiful white flowers. My mom actually got this "tree" as a small branch from one of her friends, and replanted the branch to see if it would grow, and thankfully it does! (The flower behind is from a separate rose bush, not from the tree). I thought that trees typically had to grow from seeds, and thought it would take forever to actually grow trees, so I found it fascinating to learn that for some, you can replant branches that will eventually grow into trees!
This is the start of a palm tree that we're planting! Palm trees typically grow very large, but probably not within the time we'll be here. You can also see the solar powered lights that we purchased as well.
Overall, I think it is pretty obvious how physically, planting trees is good for our health. They help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that contribute to climate change, People even say when they're surrounded by trees that they feel like the air is fresher and easier to breathe in. Trees can also restore bad, infertile soil, and eventually we might find more sustainable ways to harvest and farm wood!
Mentally, I think that the act of planting trees as well as other things, have helped me develop a hobby that lets me take a step back from the business that is life. So much of my life is obsessed with grades, numbers, and immediate results, but something like planting a tree will definitely not happen during the span of a day. It's a nice change of pace from day-to-day, and it also lets me enjoy time with my parents, which I always appreciate. I think there's something both mentally and spiritually healing about knowing that at least something in my life that I'm doing is giving back to the environment more than hurting it.
Spiritually, knowing that we can support new life (the tree) in order to help our own lives on earth (even if the smallest amount) is somewhat very fulfilling to know. I think it's always a bit unsettling to know that even just your presence, as one human being, leaves earth in a less favorable situation than before you were there. But knowing that we can take small actions like these to reverse that is thankfully a little bit more of a relief.
Hopefully soon I can gift some of my own friends their own little trees so that they can enjoy some of the health benefits I have from our trees.
Hello Janice, I absolutely love the plants you have planted! I have never been really enthusiastic about gardening, but my mom absolutely loves gardening. Throughout quarantine, much like your family my mom has been planting plants and trees in our front and backyard. I have helped her plant her plants in the backyard as we mostly have cement and the dogs will tear up any plants that are on the floor. From my experience I can relate a lot to what you have said. Spiritually it is amazing to know that we can support new life in order to help life on Earth. I definitely feel this when I am in the fields collecting cherries or almonds . I am simply amazed by the fact that we can cultivate acres upon acres of trees and crops. When I am surrounded by a seemingly endless field of crops it makes me smile to know that this will help feed a family one day. Mentally I can also really relate to what you said. The past couple of months of my life has just been sitting in front of my computer to write about my personal statement for medical school. So gardening with my mom is an outlet for myself to find some relaxation from my professional life. One thing that I think you did not mention is how much of a physical workout gardening could be, If you are digging and picking up heavy pots it will definitely give you a good sweat. But, like you mentioned more importantly than that is the impact the plants will have on the earth and help alleviate some of the carbon emissions which are so damaging to the planet. Also I would love to know more about what food trees you and your family have planted as my mom has been very interested in planting a lemon tree. I definitely recommend you give your friends plants because small things like that can really make people happy. I know whenever I give my girlfriend a sapling to plant, she get immensely happy and it helps relax her during extremely stressful times.
My family and I have recently started a garden to grow our own vegetables in our backyard, but have also been starting to contribute to our community's garden as well! So far we've mostly been growing Korean fruits and vegetables, so I'm not sure if other people in our community are immediately up for trying them, but hopefully we'll be expanding our range of plants we'll be growing. Here's some of the things we've been growing!
A lot of Korean lettuce, green onions, mint, perilla leaves, aloe, Korean peppers, mugwort, persimmons, and others! We even got a solar-powered garden light so we can still see in our garden at night.
I love that communities have things like gardens to promote growing your own vegetables and fruits even if your home doesn't have a lot of space. I think we've all grown up learning about how plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis, but I think that like me, most people would relate that mainly to trees, and not as much gardenables. It seems like there really isn't a reason why you shouldn't grow your own food - it helps the environment through carbon sequestration - removing harmful carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere, you get to eat the food you've grown, and it's relatively cheap! My dad loves to brag to his friends about how a bag of about 300 lettuce seeds only cost him about 5 dollars, and we've only planted about 30 for the year.
On top of that, I get to enjoy the fruits of our labor knowing it's all organic, and didn't have to travel long distances to even get to our plates (another win for environmentalism!). Going out to the garden to pick a few foods right before I want to eat them has been so great. And just like testing out new meatless recipes with my parents and getting to talk about culture, I also learned a lot about ingredients and gardening from them through this experience as well!
Overall, this experience has become yet another hobby that I can enjoy with my family, and feel good about knowing that we're doing something for the environment as well.
Janice, this garden is so cute and abundant!! That's awesome that your family is sharing the fruits of their labor with the community. I can tell from the pictures that your family has produced a lot of food.
I've wanted to start my own garden for awhile at home for similar reasons to you. For one, it provides food for people and it's fun to grow things in your own soil and see how the quality comes out. Also, like you mentioned, these fruits and vegetables come from plants that also sequester carbon from the air. That is pretty cool. I learned from the Kiss the Ground movie that growing your own fruits and vegetables can contribute to the health of the soil, which also sequesters carbon from the air.
When the pandemic first hit last year, a hobby that I picked up was tending to house plants and growing vegetable seeds. I was a little skeptical that I could grow anything during the summer because I live in the desert and it gets extremely hot. The sand is also very dry and I originally thought that some vegetables could not possibly grow healthy roots.
I was honestly amazed when I produced some pepper plants for harvest later that fall. It's sort of crazy how the tiny seeds that I sprouted in makeshift newspaper pots became huge plants with peppers. I started the seeds inside so that they could grow into sprouts before I transferred them to the soil outside. The reason that I used newspaper is because you can transfer them straight to the soil when they are seedlings and the paper will degrade. These plants were really resilient. As for the heat problem, my dad helped me install a little tent to act as shade for the plants. They grew so much, I'm amazed at how resilient the plants were. It really shows that you can grow vegetables almost anywhere if you set up the right infrastructure and conditions for the plant.
The images that I attached show the tent that my dad built over a bed of corn and pea plants. The seedlings in the newspaper pots were different types of peppers.
This was really cool to read. I really liked how you and your family are contributing to the community garden in your own special ways. The fact that you guys are able to bring your culture to it shows that others could do the same and it will lead to a sort of melting pot which is basically when the whole of what America is. I think it would be really neat to see how others would use Korean lettuce or Korean peppers in their own recipes as they may have their own unique spin on their dishes. I enjoyed the fac that you showed what all the benefits of having your own personal garden were. I think spreading this knowledge is the first step in getting more people to garden and will help reduce some of the problems that we are facing while in the thick of the global environmental crisis. Seeing that it is cheap and healthy, I cannot think of possible reasons that one should not start gardening or contributing to a communal garden. I think it would be very beneficial for communities to start small plots of land that are designated gardening sections. As part of the Home Owner’s association fee, instead of spending hundreds of dollars watering the sidewalks (what I think of in my own community), the funding could go towards the maintenance and upkeep of the garden. Of course, individually families can keep their own personal gardens and on the side they could possible contribute the scraps of their compost to the community garden. They could also use some of the seeds that they have bought for their personal garden and plant a small section within the community garden with everybody’s approval. I think it would certainly bring about a sense of community to the neighborhood and would help lower carbon dioxide levels just like you spoke of.
I actually did this EcoChallenge with my friend Won Jung, who compared to me, I think is much more environmentally conscious. She currently studies as an environmental engineering student (a major I previously didn't know even existed), and has been vegan for environmental reasons since early high school! She actually motivated me to try going zero-waste my last year of high school, but honestly I didn't think too much of it back then. Because of this, I was really interested to see exactly what her carbon footprint would be compared to mine!
What surprised me first of all was how much of an impact just my zip code area had on my carbon footprint impact. The average American household produces about 4.00 tons of carbon dioxide emissions a month, but our zip code in Orange County makes about 0.79 tons more on average per household. Thinking back on it, this does make sense to me, because of observations like that our city mainly gets around on cars (I don't know anyone that uses public transportation).
We both filled out the carbon footprint calculator on the Tradewater website together, and despite how much more environmentally conscious I thought Won Jung was compared to me, our results came out fairly similar! I think this website only focused on a few of the largest parts of daily life that impact climate change, like transportation and meat consumption, but it didn't get into many specifics.
We started talking about how our households are still probably fairly similar; even though Won Jung herself is fairly environmentally conscious, her family is less so. But despite that, her eating a vegan diet still seems to have a fairly large impact on her family's carbon emissions. Also, Won Jung has one more household member than I do, which probably impacted her household's total carbon emissions. To be more fair, we tried out a different carbon footprint calculator to see our individual impacts!
The next website we tried was on conservation.org, and after using this calculator, we could distinctly see the difference between our individual carbon emissions. This calculator took into account the types of energy we use, the size of our living spaces, and even the types of transportation we use and number of miles with each. Before this, I assumed that I was fairly environmentally conscious, at least more than the average person, but now after getting my results, even though I still make about 6 tons less emissions annually than the average American, I saw that I could take a few pointers from Won Jung on how to be more environmentally friendly. I actually found myself really embarrassed by my results.
After talking some more about these issues, we want to incorporate more environmentally friendly habits when hanging out with the rest of our friends after covid too, like going to more vegan restaurants or trying to bake cookies zero-waste! It was a really fun experience that I feel like actually helped me gain more awareness than my friend had.
I feel like what concerns me right now the most is our lack of concern for the environment. Yes, we are coming up with different ways to combat the issue like bioplastics being used instead of regular plastics, but these types of "solutions" either are only slightly delaying the problem, or don't even truly solve the problem at all. Plastics are much too accessible and readily available that it probably doesn't cross someone's mind twice to use a plastic straw or a plastic cup in their day-to-day life. I used to not even bat an eyelash when I would get a plastic boba straw wrapped in plastic packaging to drink my boba from a plastic cup, but I actually recently ended up giving up boba, after seeing just how much space this waste was taking up in my trash bins.
I think that through this research, although I had previously been so impressed by the existence of bioplastics, I've learned much of their dangers as well. Personally, I honestly felt pretty proud of myself and my school when I ate at UCLA dining halls because all of our utensils were compostable and made of bioplastic, and I thought it was an ingenious way to reduce our waste. Until I realized how little people actually cared about appropriately separately their waste. I would see regular plastics going into the compost bins, or food waste going into trash cans, and I knew things like that could ruin the whole batch. I committed to myself to only use these utensils when I needed to and helping my friends separate their trash after eating, but I honestly couldn't force that upon random strangers on the street. Whether the issue is flat out lack of concern or just merely ignorance, I wish there were more we could do at school dining halls to combat the issue.
However, I'm glad that our school still did have these compost bins, because often, it's difficult to find facilities that can adequately dispose of bioplastics and food waste, and even in Los Angeles, there's only a few large facilities that do this, one of which I found to be the Griffith Park Composting Facility. I can't even imagine having to go all the way to that kind of facility (walking for miles?? or driving and inducing more carbon emissions) just to properly dispose of a few bioplastics I choose to use day-to-day, so honestly, I feel like we're better off just using reusables instead.
Hi Janice! I feel like what you said is spot on and I have the same concern of greener alternatives being produced but instead, we should focus on first reducing and using up the products we currently own. Switching to more sustainable options doesn’t mean buying more products and especially from big corporations who are the major ones contributing to this climate crisis. The EcoChallenge actions throughout this quarter has made me realize that if we want to combat this climate crisis, it’s about doing our research, from where is the best place to source our food or to how we can reduce our carbon. Also just like you, I now feel more aware of my plastic consumption and still feel like I have a lot to do to reduce still. I’m currently living at home with my parents and don’t have the full control over what gets purchased from the market. I have tried my best to spark up conversations about caring more about this climate crisis using what we have learned at the beginning of the quarter: targeting the significance that the other person cares about. I also have a hard time bringing up this conversation with my grandparents because of a generational gap and overall different beliefs. Going back to what you said about your changes in your day to day life, I also make a conscious effort to use up the products that I have first and also order less from Amazon this quarter. If it’s a product that I can grab from my local store, I am now more inclined to take a walk or bike. As for the UCLA dining hall, it is an experience I still need to have next year on campus hopefully! But I have heard that students don’t use the trays because it wastes water in the dishwasher and I find that really cool! Before this class, I also found the different compost bins confusing and was unsure what items go in what bin. But there are usually lists or images of what goes where and I feel like it only takes a few extra seconds to do our part and separate the waste, such as separating the food wrap from the scraps. Overall, thanks for sharing Janice! I learned more from your post such as the importance of disposing the bioplastic utensils more appropriately.
I never actually realized how educating women, specifically women of lower income families, or even just spreading more awareness of the issues that women face, could curb our impact on climate change. It’s almost as though reducing climate change would help us become better people, and becoming better people will help stop climate change too!
I actually host Watch Parties with my church group every other month since last year, when the Black Lives Matter movement was in high-gear again, and so this month, I offered to host a Netflix Watch Party instead focusing on women and women’s struggles (previously, we had watched movies and documentaries about race and social class). One of the films we watched was Period. End of Sentence. Which was a film about how Indian women deal with menstruation. I feel like this was rather befitting, because one of the reasons why educating women and being educated on women’s health and rights is so that less educated women can learn about other options for menstruation and contraception that will hopefully lead to a smaller carbon footprint in the future.
It seems as though even though women have had periods literally since the beginning of time, the fact that we still don’t know enough about them to the point we have to make documentaries about them to educate ourselves shows how little we’ve come despite being in the 21st century. In order for us to start to offer alternative choices to women in third world countries, us that are in a more advantaged position, men and women, need to be more informed about the physical issues that other women struggle with because of their biological sex. I think only after that can we try to educate them with other choices, because we still have to start to understand the culture behind what they do before trying to bring our science to them.
Overall, I think that the movie night about women was really informative and fun, and probably next time I’ll host a movie night with a climate change documentary as well!
To be honest, I picked this eco-challenge because it seemed like one of the easiest ones to do - I don’t need to go out of my way to do anything; all I need to do is sit and eat like I do everyday anyway, just without technology. Easy enough, right?
Little did I realize HOW HARD it is to just sit and eat by yourself. Especially during quarantine, when I’ve been eating most of my meals by myself, I honestly didn’t know what to do if I wasn’t going to pull up a new Netflix show or scroll through social media on my phone. In the beginning, I found myself doing what every other person without their phone would be doing - reading nutrition facts on their cereal box. A lot of fiddling with my fingers and utensils, a lot of eating as quickly as I can to just get to my work more quickly. Lunch went from a 20 minute episode of my favorite TV show to maybe 8-10 minutes of just chewing and heading back out. :( It almost felt as though the joy of eating was sucked out of the experience - I was eating for sustenance at that point.
But over the weeks, I think I took more time out of my day to arrange meals with my roommates and family at home, so this challenge has truly helped me have more intentional and intimate time with my loved ones (woo!) At home with family, if family is home, we always eat together, no phones on the table. Sadly not the same with my roommates, but we do try to enjoy each other's presence together if we're all in the same place. Not sure if this is cheating by being a distraction, but I’ve had zoom call meals where my friends and I try to cook the same food and eat them together at the end!
I also actually found how much more slowly and how much less I eat when I’m more mindful about my eating. It almost feels like I spend more time enjoying my food too instead of just shoveling it down mindlessly! Taking the time to enjoy and savor my food definitely takes away from the “food is sustenance” aspect and more. I stay fuller for longer too! Hopefully in the long run this might help my health by keeping me from overeating (definitely a bad habit during quarantine).
I’m not going to lie, I do miss kicking back and watch an episode of my favorite show or movie at the end of the day while enjoying a big meal after a stressful day. It’s probably still going to be part of my day, but I think incorporating more of these mindful eating habits into my everyday life will help more for a healthy body and healthy soul!
Wow! I love to see the personal growth that you just described! This has also been something that I have been challenging myself to do as well. Unfortunately, I dont think it has been going as well. Typically, when I eat, I am still doing school work, even if its just watching a lecture. In addition, my roommates and I all eat at a different time, so I feel like I can't propose family style dinners. There have been a few times that I have eaten without distractions and loved it because I was eating with loved ones, but its not as feasible right now. In my future, I hope to incorporate this eating technique more.
Hey Janice, this is awesome! Props to you for continuing to practice this habit even though in the beginning you felt like you weren't getting many benefits. I really would like to echo your point about eating mindfully and how it helps to avoid overeating. In my psych lab, this is actually one of the skills we teach! We teach the participants to eat mindfully without any distractions, all while savoring the food and being mindful of their surroundings. Whenever I have tried the technique myself, I definitely find that I eat just the right amount that I need, which is usually always less than when I just shovel down food without regard to WHAT I'm eating. I also tend to enjoy the food more since I am able to savor it and get all of the flavors out of it before it disappears.
Props to you, and I hope you continue this habit long after this class!
My ecochallenge so far is going pretty well! Surprisingly, my efforts to reduce how much meat and animal products I eat has influenced my family and friends' eating habits much more than I expected! Most of the foods I cook are Korean because that's what I've grown up eating, and knowing that most Korean foods turn out to have animal products where you least expect it (fish sauce and shrimp paste in kimchi, anchovies and soup broths for almost all soups, meat almost every meal!!), I had anticipated this challenge to be a big struggle. But I remembered how my mom would always tell me that growing up poor in the countryside, she was never even to see meat or fish, let alone cook with it, which made me realize that there had to be a way to cook without animal products, since my mom had done it her whole life!
Reducing the amount of animal products I eat actually led to me having meaningful conversation with my parents about cooking and how they ate growing up! I’ve loved all the opportunities I’ve had to cook with my mom finding meat alternatives for food in our heritage. Here’s some of my favorites:
Using Asian mushrooms and kelp to make light broth instead of fish!
For stews, there’s a technique using something known as “ssal-ddeu-mul”, which is using the water you’ve used to wash your rice (not the first wash because it’s dirty) as part of your broth! Apparently it helps bring out flavors of other ingredients, but also incorporates starch from the rice (to thicken the stew) as well as nutrients that otherwise might have been washed away!
I’ve been eating tofu in SO many ways that I’ve never realized before - plain, stewed, fried, baked; and Asian sauces and dressings that go with tofu are so endless that it makes you not miss meat.
We’ve been making kimchi at home recently instead of buying it at the stores because of convenience, so we’ve been finding other alternatives to fish and shrimp pastes - like using amino acids for saltiness or using fruits like ground apple or pear for sweetness! And you can’t only make one person’s serving of kimchi at once, so I’m happy to report that my parents are also enjoying some vegan kimchi now :) They’re starting to realize that there really isn’t a reason to keep using animal products when cooking foods like these, which I think is an accomplishment (especially for my parents that don’t do much to reduce their carbon footprint)!
This isn’t to say that I’ve been completely vegan these past few weeks, but I think so far it’s been a great learning journey to see how I can make small changes in my cooking and eating habits to influence not only myself but others around me.
Hi Janice! You have no idea on how much your response was helpful for me. I'm also Korean and I have been wanting to try some alternate ways to cook Korean foods without using any animals products, but I was too scared on initiating it. I'm so glad that you got to connect with your parents on a personal level while doing this challenge.
When I tried to go meatless for two days, the only thing I really ate was salad or fruits. Maybe I was just too lazy to cook my own food or maybe I was scared that it wouldn't taste to good and I would just throw it away. You've motivated me to try cooking some good korean food without meat but by adding mushroom or tofu instead! I think tofu is a great source of alternative; especially because it's so high in protein and it's known to have a lot of health benefits!
Keep up with the good work! Thank you so much for all these brilliant ideas for me to try!
Hi Janice! I think this is so awesome that you have positively influenced your family and friends around you to change their diets and eating lifestyles. It seems like you have found great, satisfying alternatives that are a lot better for the environment. I love cooking, so I really enjoyed reading your post and learning about your making of vegan kimchi and other ideas to decrease your meat consumption. I never knew to rinse your rice a second time and use that water to create a starchy and flavorful broth. Like you, I am limiting my meat consumption so I have been transitioning to getting my protein from beans, lentils, or tofu. I feel better about the decisions I am making and it is crazy how just these small changes of cutting out most meat dramatically decreases methane gas and carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. Thank you so much for sharing your ideas!
