Saturday, June 14, 2008

Follow up to "The Party Is Over" and Turkey Soup

Since writing "the party is over" I cannot help but see story after story that is related to my primary thesis that we must reduce our consumption. Here are a few of the stories:

China clearly overtakes U.S. as leading emitter of climate-warming gases
Herald Tribune -China has now clearly overtaken the United States as the world's leading emitter of climate-warming gases, a new study has found. The increasing emissions from China - up 8 percent in the past year - accounted for two-thirds of the growth in global greenhouse gas emissions in 2007, the study found.The report, released Friday by the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, is an annual study. Last year, for the first time, the researchers found that China had edged ahead of the United States as the world's leading emitter.... for complete story click here

Floods could reduce corn supplies, raise prices
AP - Floods that have inundated the Midwest could reduce world corn supplies and drive food prices higher at a time when Americans are already stretching their grocery budgets and people in poor countries have rioted over rising food costs. The U.S. government will report later this month on how many acres of corn were lost to floodwaters. But farmers and agriculture experts already say the toll appears grim, with thousands of acres probably destroyed in the region that grows most of the world's corn....for complete story click here

Corn is just one of the commodities that has risen alarmingly. Just look at the chart below. Now it looks like it will be impacted further by the inclement weather in the midewest, itself just one more example of weather extremes as the globe reacts to the greemhouse gases mentioned above.Corn soared 11% this week as a result of the Midwest flooding.



G8 concerned over oil, food prices, calls for analysis
Osaka, Japan - Rising oil and commodity prices were threatening global economy growth, the finance ministers of the Group of Eight (G8) said Saturday but delayed concrete measures until further analysis of factors contributing to the price hikes.
'Elevated commodity prices, especially of oil and food, pose a serious challenge to stable growth worldwide, have serious implications for the most vulnerable, and may increase global inflationary pressure,' the G8 finance ministers said after concluding their meeting in Osaka, Japan. Foreign exchange issues and interest rates were however not discussed during the two-day talks, Japanese Finance Minster Fukushiro Nukaga said.'We did not talk about it,' he said, but added the topic was raised during bilateral meetings... for the complete story click here


Turkey Soup
On a personal note: Still thinking in terms of frugality I pulled out the Christmas turkey carcass and made 2 gallons of turkey stock that is out of this world delicious. Freezing most of it in zip lock bags, I saved enough to make perfect turkey soup for our meal tonight. It was good enough for seconds, which both Veronica and I did. We have enough stock to make a couple of more batches. My secret for the stock? Never boil...only simmer. Add generous helpings of herbs provencale, whole garlic gloves, a dollop of whole peppercorns, and a pinch of old ginger along with carrots, onions, and celery. Be sure to remove the bones after an hour of simmering to take of the met that is still clinging there. (We don't use it in the soup. Local taste doesn't care for dry meat, so I harvested the bits to mix up with sweet pickle and mayonaisse for turkey salad sandwiches.) After removing the meat from the bones I break them before they go back into the pot for three more hours of simmmering. I then strain the stock through a sieve and toss out the now thoroughly leeched vegetables and bare bones. Cooling the stock is important for one more cleaning step of skimming excess fat from the surface after cooling. Today we put carrots, celery, onions, rice, and chicken in the stock for a great soup this evening.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Gary,
You are so absolutely right about reducing our carbon footprints. If each of us could get 5 other people to commit to carbon emission reduction, and those 5 got 5 more, and on and on, we could make an impact. Little things like recycling everything paper/plastic/glass/aluminum; thinking before making unnecessary trips to the store/mall, and thinking out what we can accomplish every time we start our engines. The only way we will be able to reduce the demand for oil, and reverse the ill-effects of global warming, are through concerted pressure on legislators and governments worldwide to follow the Kyoto Accord guidelines.

Wordprefect said...

How much of the rise in corn price is due to government subsidies for bio-fuels? I have no clue, but when I see E-85 being sold for $2.79 a gallon, it really makes me wonder. Is it that much more cost effective to use petroleum based fertilizers, petroleum run farm machines and petroleum run distileries to process the corn, then putting it on petroleum run trucks to ship it? My guess is no. I am all for bio-fuels, but using cropland for feeding gas tanks instead of mouths? Bad idea.