Living closer to the bottom of the food chain

Hello readers. As a part of trying to do my part to lead a sustainable lifestyle I am also trying to eat lower on the food chain - less meats and more plants. I am not a vegetarian however there are many healthy reasons to decrease the amount of meat that we eat including reducing the bad cholestrol in our bodies and controlling our weight. I am not an advocate of any specific diet but I do encourage my family to make healthy choices for their meals. Here is a link that I recently came across for juice recipes. I have not had a chance to try any directly from here but I have made juice from some similar recipes. Carrot and apple is very good. I want to try the watermelon and some of the others.
http://www.living-foods.com/recipes/juicerecipes.html

Time Magazine Article on BioFuels

Hello readers. I read a good article this week on bio-fuels and the effect upon the market and the environment.
The article states that when we increase the amount of corn grown for bio-fuel use we inversely affect the amount of corn that we grow for food purposes which makes sense. At the same time that we do this we are also decreasing the area that we we use for growing soy because the bio-fuel crop is more lucrative for farmers. By us decreasing soy output other nations such as Brazil increase their soy crop. Farmers in Brazil who increase their soy cause less grazing land for cattle so this causes ranchers to burn more of the Amazon Rain Forest to convert it to pasture for cattle. The effects are many. First the cost of feed corn goes up, the cost of flour goes up, the cost of soy goes up. The amount of corn that it takes to make one tank of ethanol can provide food for one person for a year. The net carbon affect on the atmosphere goes up because of the deforestation which will take possibly hundreds of years to equalize using soy new vegetable oil based bio-fuel.
Two things that we in America need to consider. One is increasing our use of waste vegetable oil to convert to bio-fuels and the other is to develop the use of sugarcane to convert to bio-fuels.
Corn and soy are food crops and should be grown primarily for those purposes. Using the waste oils from either provides an additional benefit while not impacting the use of them for the food chain. Using sugarcane for bio-fuel will increase the cost of sugar however the use of sugar in the American diet would greatly benefit from a higher cost - maybe we would not eat so much of it and many of us would be a lot healthier.
My thoughts for now.

Diesel prices

Hello readers. I am finally starting to make my biodiesel. I am setting up an appleseed biodiesel reactor this week so that I can make a set up batch next weekend. I have made a micro batch in my kitchen and made a larger batch in my garage and ran both in my VW diesel. When diesel went over 4 bucks a gallon I decided to go ahead and start making it from waste vegetable oil. I have to stop by a local Chinese restaurant tomorrow to see if I can take some of their waste oil to try my first batch.
Here is a quote from the Democratic National Convention, speaking Rep. Joe Donnelly.
"However, not everyone is feeling the squeeze. Thanks in large part to a number of tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies, the world's five largest oil companies each reported record-high profits for 2007." Our politicians realize where the profits are going to but at the same time the politicians are not doing anything to stop the war, bring our troops home, and reduce our dependancy on foreign fuel. We need to implement the technology that we have into the production of vehicles now. We know that salt water can be made to burn through the use of radio waves. How about a radio generator for an engine that is fueled by saltwater. It can be done.

JD Edwards Review of

Hello readers here is a link to an article published by JD Edwards on alternative fueled vehicles.
Surprising some of the vehicles that I thought would have made their cut did not but at the same time I did not expect to see the SUVs on the list. The article also indicates many misconceptions that consumers have towards these vehicles with regard to mileage per gallon of fuel. Some differences were as high as 19 mpg different from what was expected. Overall this is a good article if you are in the market for an alternative fueled vehicle.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=435625

Science Daily

Hello readers. Here is a website that I just came across today. Has a large amount of information in the form of print news and articles, videos, images, and RSS. The site has a good layout with tabs across the top header with multiple topics ranging from health and medicine, plants and animals, earth and climate, to fossils and ruins. Left side margin contains latest news links along with links to the the same info as the tabs. The site flows easily enough and has some good information while limiting advertising space except for in the top header and along the right margin. Good job on a nice website.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/matter_energy/alternative_fuels/

Hello readers. Here is an interesting article from Journey to Forever in regards to school projects and teaching children about sustainable living.
http://journeytoforever.org/edu_garden.htmlggest
Once again, I suggest getting the book "Square Foot Gardening." The book provides a really good insight for building small scale gardens which allow you to grow your vegetables in a small space.

Automotive X Prize Race $10mm purse for fastest green car

Here is an interesting article that I just came across today. Automotive X Prize is the brain child of Peter Diamandis and was inpired by the prize that Charles Lindberg won by travelling across the Atlantic. The AXP is not so much about experimentation but more about convincing society that green vehicles can be not only good for the environment and economical but also safe, fun to drive, and still have some speed.
http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=450035&topart=hybrids