Today’s National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, and The PB&J Campaign‘s launched! This campaign gets points for its clean simplicity. The premise: Lunch on PB&Js instead of those chicken sandwiches and hamburgers — and change the world, a little –
According to the PB&J Campaign, every time you have a PB&J lunch instead of a meaty lunch like a hamburger or chicken nuggets, you’ll save 2.5 pounds of CO2 emissions. You might actually save more — Jamais Cascio’s done some serious math to get the cheeseburger footprint, and puts the figure at “4.35-7.35 kg of CO2-equivalent per burger.”
So PB&Js offer a cute and tangible daily alternative. Although an environmentalist can’t live by PB&Js alone — Justin Droms, in the latest GOOD mag, wrote about going hard-core vegan for a month; he had to rule out an all PB&J plan because “a friend with a masters degree from Tufts School of Nutrition informs me that I’d risk deficiencies of vitamins A, C, and B12 that could eventually cause ‘permanent blindness,’ ‘bleeding gums,’ and ‘dementia,’ respectively. Dammit!”
Which perhaps is why the PB&J Campaign offers some alternate recipes for falafel, vegetarian chili, etc.
Justin, BTW, lost 16 lbs in that month, despite the fact that he consumed rather scary amounts of processed food like bacon bits (surprisingly vegan!). My friend Summer‘s gone meat-free for lent, and is psyched ’bout the money she’s saving.
On a related note — I like PB&Js, but am a bigger fan of PB& honey sandwiches. Anyone with me?
I love PB&H more as well. Actually my kids and I had peanut butter and banana today…except for my son he had to have the PB&J
Comment by WC — April 2, 2007 @ 6:59 pm
Yeah, peanut butter, honey AND banana is sublime.
Comment by Lisa — April 2, 2007 @ 8:11 pm
Hmm, I’ve got to try the honey route. My personal favorite (which I pack for lunch a couple times a week) is SB&J (soy butter!) on honey wheat bread.
Comment by Maria — April 3, 2007 @ 9:24 am
AAAaaah! I got forwarded your website today! I have started a 2x a year venture called PBJ Fight Hunger Day where I ask that 2x a year people all over the world make PB&J Sandwiches and hand them out to homeless or hungry people. It is AWESOME! This rocks. I totally love the idea- we should combine forces!! http://www.myspace.com/pbjfighthungerday
Keep up the good work-
Nicole
Comment by Nicole — April 3, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
So much activism around PB&Js! Nicole — The people behind this PB&J campaign saw your comment — end world hunger while lowering carbon emissions — and eating yummy sandwiches :)
Comment by Siel — April 3, 2007 @ 8:04 pm
Mmm. PB and J was my lunch staple in high school when I went vegetarian. I’ve learned some more sophiscated lunch recipes since then, but I still love it. Good for animals, environment, pocketbook, health and people too. How convenient. It’s a little bit more expensive, but alternative nut butters like cashew or almond are delicious and make a nice change from peanut butter sometimes. And please make sure to have whole grain bread!!! A million times better than white bread.
Comment by Andrea — April 5, 2007 @ 11:34 am
Hi everyone!!
Nice to see that the message of a vegetarian diet, as a far lower CO2 foot print way of living, is getting out there.
One alternative you could try is Tahini & Jam/Honey.
(Tahini is ground sesame seeds, Yummo)
;-)
P.S. Banana is an excellent source of Potassium, good for vegetarians, and has a lot of carbohydrates for energy, for those who like to exercise a lot.
Comment by Duncan — April 5, 2007 @ 11:34 pm