Hello Ursinus Community,
We all know that Upper Wismer isn’t the only place to get
food on campus, so to switch things up for this week we are giving you three
sustainable food options from Lower Wismer. Our focus for sustainability this
week is going to be water and how much water it takes to grow the food you are
eating. Clean water is a valuable commodity and is getting more and more scarce
in the U.S. Therefore it is becoming more and more important for us to conserve
this finite resource. Here are three filling food options that are also being
relatively water conscious.
Veggie Rice Bowl from
Sandella’s
Order a Make Your Own Rice Bowl from Sandella’s including brown rice, black
beans, any veggies you want, salsa and/or guacamole. For vegetables we suggest broccoli,
tomatoes, carrots, and onions. Here are the amounts of water used to produce
each vegetable:
|
Broccoli
|
19.5 gallons of water
|
|
Carrots
|
7.4 gallons of water
|
|
Onions
|
9.5 gallons of water
|
|
Tomatoes
|
7.6 gallons of water
|
|
Rice
|
299 gallons of water
|
|
Wheat Bowl
|
154 gallons of water
|
|
Beans
|
5 gallons of water
|
|
Beef
|
29.6 gallons of water
|
All four of these vegetable have a relatively
small environmental impact, so feel free to load up on those. Now as you can
also see in the chart both rice and wheat bowl are water intensive resources. This
is why we suggest only getting the rice and skip the wheat bowl, as an easy way
to save water. Likewise, per gram of protein, beans are less water intensive
than beef and other meats. You can check out this video to see what other
benefits beans have as compared to beef - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE_FpSSK94k.
Lastly, make sure to put on salsa and/or guacamole. This will not only add
extra flavor to your rice bowl but are made out of actual foods like avocados,
tomatoes, onions and chile peppers.
Using these ingredients you will be
able to make a more environmentally conscious rice bowl and one simple decision
can save a lot of water!
Sources:
Salad from Jazzman’s
Making a salad at Jazzman’s is another great
option that Lower Wismer has to offer. For the base of your salad you could use
either lettuce or spinach. Both lettuce and spinach are healthy greens that don’t
use a lot of water. Then you can add the same veggies listed above: broccoli,
tomatoes, and carrots. You can also add apples and cucumbers to switch things
up. As you can see in the chart even though their water usage is more then the
other vegetables they are still good sustainable options.
|
Lettuce
|
6.8 gallons of water
|
|
Spinach
|
11.1 gallons of water
|
|
Apples
|
33.8 gallons of water
|
|
Cucumbers
|
25.4 gallons of water
|
Now, for dressing, we suggest just get plain
olive oil or vinegar because they are the least processed dressings.
Sources:
Hummus Wrap from Sub
Connection
We all know that there is the
Mediterranean Bar in Upper Wismer, but did you know you can get hummus added to
your sub from Sub Connection? Hummus is a great source of protein that does not
use a lot of water. Beef uses 1,847 gallons of water per pound, while chickpeas
use 1,217.2 gallons of water per pound. That is a 630 gallons difference!! So
next time you want to get a sub from Lower order a Vegetarian Sub and load it up with all great vegetables we talked
about earlier. Then when your number is called simply ask the server to add
hummus on your sub; easy!
Sources:
Make sure to order these three (more) sustainable food options
in Lower this week!! Also make sure to check out this virtual water calculator
to find out the amount of water that is used to make one of you favorite meals:
http://graphics.latimes.com/food-water-footprint/.
Happy Eating!
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