The Loma Prietan
May/June 2001
Letters To The Editor
Dear Loma Prietan,
I have moved from the area but just wanted to thank the chapter and especially the hiking section for being such a great group of people this past year. This past year was probably the most difficult of my life but knowing that on any Saturday, I could go on a long hike with the Day Hiking section kept my spirits up. The group was always great and I enjoyed every minute of every hike. Particular thanks go to Fran Allen and Gisela Pierson.
Fran always made the effort to chat with everyone hiking at least sometime during the hike. And it was not just superficial. You could tell she cared about each and everyone of us. And Gisela’s lemon bars were to die for. When I did the Big Basin to the Sea hike this past year, the thought of those lemon bars waiting at the end of the hike helped me to walk the last three miles as easily as the first three.
I just wanted to say thanks to the club for being so organized and having wonderful events. I know
if I am ever in the Bay Area on a Saturday, I will always have a long hike available to do anytime of
the year.
Scott Bowmer
Dear Editor,
Eric Reiter’s compendium of Energy Saving Ideas (March 2001 Loma Prietan) was a well-researched and useful article. I’d like to add my favorite energy conservation solutions to his list.
• Replace your electromechanical thermostat with a digital electronic device. You can program it to automatically set up a home heating profile that matches your lifestyle. My thermostat, for instance, is programmed to keep the house cool at night, warm when we wake up, cool during the day on weekdays but not on weekends, and warm in the evening. I found it easy to replace the thermostat myself using just ordinary household tools.
• Install a ceiling fan at the top
of your staircase to bring heat downstairs. Without the fan, you may need to overheat your upper story to make the ground floor bearable. When we put in our fan, we expected to use it mostly in summer, but discovered later that
it was even more useful in winter.
Installation turned out to be tricky; I hired a handyman to help.
Aaron Schuman
Mountain View
Dear Loma Prietan,
I’ve noticed that in every issue you have a column heralding the benefits
of vegetarianism. It’s no secret that “factory farming” is detrimental to the environment; however, if this were the only basis for your vegetarian argument, there would be more mention of the importance of eating free range chicken, and other meats that are raised outside of the current “livestock industry.” Why don’t you discuss more of the alternatives, such as these? I suspect it’s because the authors believe consumption of other animals is immoral. I’m tired of the sermon in every issue, and I don’t think the Loma Prietan is the place for it.
Lauraine Gibbons
Belmont
Response from Cooking Green editor Kay Bushnell:
Thank you for bringing up the subject of free range meat. Free range animals are less crowded than factory farmed animals; their manure is less concentrated in one area, and they may be given fewer hormones and antibiotics. People who switch to meats produced outside the factory system usually do so thoughtfully and for positive reasons. However, meat, both free range and factory farmed, takes a heavier toll on the environment than plant-based foods, and free range meat is not free from causing environmental consequences. For example, grazing livestock damages riparian areas and intrudes on the habitat of native wildlife. Conversion of forested land into acres of fodder for free range animals causes deforestation worldwide, and free range meat production requires far more water than the growing of plant foods. Lynn Jacobs’ Waste of the West: Public Lands Ranching ($28, Lynn Jacobs, P.O. Box 5783, Tucson, Arizona 85703) details the environmental effects of free range livestock ranching in the American west.
The purpose of the food featured
in the Loma Prietan is to highlight plant-based food choices because they are least harmful to the environment. There is no intention to cast food in a moral context. All efforts to make sustainable food choices can benefit the earth.