Thirsty? No need to!

A water-tap-point in the North of Italy providing you with (cold) sparkling or still water. Bring your own bottles!

It’s hot. Summer has not even arrived but Europe suffers/enjoys high temperatures. And these make us thirsty.

For over a decennium it is widely accepted that people walk around with small plastic bottles carrying water or any other thirst-quenching liquid. The small bottles fit in any bag and are therefore very popular. Each shop selling any kind of food ware or touristic stuff now has at least a small fridge where cold (soft) drinks are available. Sometimes for incredibly high prices.

It is important to drink a lot. It helps you to process your food and keeps your mind active. I do get a headache as I do not drink enough. It is my personal warning system telling me I need to fill up. Liquids keep your system functioning the way it should.

Although the plastic bottles seem to be very handy they are an enormous source of waste. If you throw away your bottle after you’ve finished it, you cause are one of those people causing a big belt of rubbish. Even though plastic can be recycled relatively easily it costs many energy to make it and transport the full bottles to the shop where you will buy them.

In almost all European countries tap water can be drunk without causing you to become ill. The Alps and the Pyrenees bring cool and fresh mountain water to nearby cities, the Dutch coastal areas use the water from the dunes while other countries have developed good cleaning systems. In some countries, like Italy, they do even sell the water right from the source. So actually there is no need to buy bottled water when you are in normal health circumstances.

Water and other sources might become scarce soon. We should be careful using them and create priorities to what is more important to us. It can be very easy to become more friendly for the environment. If you don’t do it yet then you should start to re-use your plastic water bottle. It can be filled by one of the water taps in your city or – when taps are not available – in the nearest (public) toilet. There now is even a bottle made for reusing which is easy to clean too.

If we all start to do this there might be lines for these public water taps soon.  And while you’re waiting why not talking to the ones around you sharing suggestions how to be good on the environment. 

Do you want mine?

Exchange has been the subject of one of my earlier posts already. About a year ago I made a series about differences in Dutch and Italian food culture. This time I will stay more close to my and your home. However, if you want to you can still go far from home.

Before monetary value was invented people used to exchange to foresee in their needs. Eggs were exchanged for cereals, some goats for a cow. Besides exchanging goods knowledge was turned over from father to son when it concerned professional intelligence and from mother to daughter when it concerned cooking, sewing and raising the children.

The Romans introduced the money as we know it now. However, only later people became more dependent on the content of their wallet. The market squares in cities were still the center of commerce but in a different way. The seller came with a product and left with money while the buyer did it the other way around. It made it easier because the seller and buyer became less dependent from each other; it wasn’t necessary to find someone who had exactly the merchandise you needed. As soon as you sold your stuff you could go somewhere else to buy what you wanted to own. Market slowly were replaced by (specialty) shops.

Now money seems to get scarcer exchange of goods becomes popular again. We share cars, bikes and homes when necessary. But also knowledge is on the market again. It is now exchanged in books, on the internet, during lectures between colleagues and so on. It seems we don’t care that anyone can read the information we send out onto the World Wide Web. Whether it is about our latest holiday, a hangover or a new home.

A more exiting exchanging  way to trade in knowledge is to go back onto the market again. Meet the people who made or produced it. Ask some questions and get back information. Try to go down on the price in a real life discussion. Or even better. Make sure that it doesn’t cost you any money at all.

This recipes market was one of the activities I recently found out about. But more is to come. Like the DAG HAP festival hosted a home-made food market and a fashion label organized a clothes swap. So step from behind your computer and go into public again!

Fastfood at your doorstep

One of the main characteristics of fast-food is that it is delivered soon after you placed your order. This minimizes the time you have to wait almost to zero. Now someone found a way to make it even more easier!

After WWII, when domestic appliances became available to everyone and televisions became the most important object of the house, producers started to think how they could make it easier for housewives and working moms to make dishes. The first ready-to-eat meals were prepared and on sale in supermarktes. It became incredible popular within a short period of time.

At that time families could also start to buy their first car. Production of these machines became more efficient and thus cheaper. Due to shorter working weeks, people also first encountered the phenomenon of leisure time. In the weekends people didn’t stay at home anymore but drove out of the city to see more of the country. All these impressions made hungry. That’s where the hamburger restaurants get in.

In the same efficiency as cars were made, the hamburger restaurants ‘assembled’ menus containing fries, shakes and of course (ham)burgers. Costumers should order their food at the counter to keep the prices low and the system as efficient as possible. Later drive-in made it faster than ever. There was no need to get out of the car anymore, so less time was ‘wasted’ on eating.

Now fast-food is available everywhere. The prices are still low. Most of the times even lower than primary products like fruit and vegetables which can be picked up in supermarkets. You know what is has caused. 

Soon the drive-in might not be necessary anymore. At most a drive-in for the fast-food delivery service. Some smart guys recently started a delivery service which brings your favorite hamburger menu at your doorstep. It takes no effort at all.

I am not sure whether to be happy on this. It is no good when fast-food is becoming available easier than it already is. On the other hand will it probably become much more expensive and so more comparable in price to other home delivery services. And than people might decide for the healthier option.

If I was the pig on the picture I wouldn’t complain at all; a relaxed place to spend my days, plenty of food and attention of happy little children and no pressure to perform at all. Unfortunately most pigs live a completely different life.

Have you ever considered where you daily/weekly piece of meat is coming from? Most of us (still) don’t eat meat from their own ‘backyard’ (read: grown within a certain distance from our homes). Which will in most cases mean that the meat you eat is bought at the supermarket. Or are you brave enough to visit the butcher regularly?

Some butchers are still in close contact with the farmers which grow the animals they later sell as steak, sausages or cutlets. This Dutch butcher even fed two pigs in his own backyard. Some female clients fell in love with them and decided to buy the pigs alive when they heard the butcher wanted to bring them to the slaughterhouse. You can discuss whether this was the best choice to do.

When you go shopping it is highly probable that you choose for the highest quality for the highest price. Most people look for a good balance between price and quality. A balance in which the quality is as high as possible and the price the lowest. This will satisfy you because you will enjoy your meal and have some money left to spend on other things which you think are more important than your food.

Pigs are animals which like to walk around, cool down in the mud and love to eat our food leftovers. The pigs owned by the butcher could enjoy all these advantages because only then the butcher was sure the meat they would produce would be from a special quality. So the pigs are happy in their live, the butcher in his shop and the clients in their kitchen.

But this butcher becomes more and more unique. Pigs and other animals we like to eat are disappearing further and further away from our lives. We don’t seem to want to know how our schnitzel has lived when it was still able to walk around. Like the woman showed when they bought the pigs from the Dutch butcher. As long as we pay a reasonable (low) price we don’t care how and where it’s grown. We just want to be sure it’s safe and tastes a certain way.

How strange if you realize that we like to grow our own fruit and vegetables in our garden. And we want to be sure that our food from the supermarket is safe and preferably organic. Then why are we so afraid to think of some cute animals - which could have a good life as a farmer takes extra care of them - being killed to be on our plate one day. Well, I’ll tell you something. All your meat was once walking around, hopefully breathing some fresh air and enjoying the environment they lived in. Only you haven’t accepted this.