How to Have a Green Barbeque
Here in the US, there’s, family fun and maybe a little backyard barbeque. For regular readers of this blog, it will come as no surprise that there are a plethora of ways to heat up the grill and have a good time while keeping the environmental impact to a minimum.
So we’l start with the fuel for the fire. In the US, 63% of backyard BBQ’s are fired with briquettes; the vast majority of these are manufactured by cooking waste timber, sawdust and whatever else happens to be around in near-airless conditions for a week, then mixing cornstarch to bind it and lighter fluid to help it start easily, pressing it into molds and then back into the oven to bake some more. The result: 105 times more carbon monoxide than burning propane and lots of harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs), according to this article [www.guardian.co.uk]. On the flip side is propane; though a “clean burning” gas, it’s still a fossil fuel and a net contributor to atmospheric CO2 levels. Hmm. “Real” charcoal — the stuff not made in the method described above — is said to be “carbon neutral” [www.sundancechannel.com] but much is shipped from abroad, so the Guardian suggests locally made charcoal culled from thinnings and fallen trees, made traditionally in the “Olde English” art of “coppicing,” or harvesting fuel from trees without destroying them. The good folks at Make: Magazine [www.makezine.com] even have some recipes to create your own. If that’s too much work, check out Cowboy Charcoal [www.cowboycharcoal.com] or Wicked Good Charcoal[url], which comes from Forest Stewardship Council-certified woods. We’ve also caught wind that [url=http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/05/charcoal_the_next_green_alternative.php]charcoal is the next big thing in the fight against global warming [www.wickedgoodcharcoal.com], but that’s another post. To eschew the lighter fluid and go for something a bit greener, give the folks at 251 degrees [www.251.ch] a look; the bundles of 100% wood wool (also FSC-certified), with no chemicals added, are guaranteed to light up a barbeque or anywhere else you desire fire.
When it comes to what to put on the barbeque, many of the TreeHugger rules of food apply. Sourcing sustainably [www.sundancechannel.com] is at the top of the list, including antibiotic and hormone-free, Certified Humanely Raised & Handled meats and local produce [www.sundancechannel.com] (and if you can get local meat, all the better!). Add a cool summer drink or two [www.treehugger.com] (or three [www.sundancechannel.com]) and you’ll have it made in the shade.
