Sustainability & Health
When people think about sustainability, they often focus on overconsumption of finite resources, reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that cause global warming, or the vast mountains of waste that will not biodegrade. Scientists often talk about ‘ecosystem impacts’—the ways in which pollution or global warming threaten the interdependency that characterizes the more complex web of life upon which we all depend. Unfortunately, those definitions tend to overlook the fact that unsustainable practices and environmental pollution are major causes of illness (and even death).
Organic Is the Answer for Healthy Food, Healthy People, and a Healthy Planet
by Maya Rodale — The idea that our health is connected to the food we eat isn’t really a shocking concept. It just makes sense: you are what you eat. What matters to our health just as much—if not more—is how our … more
A Day in the Life
by Chrysan Cronin — It’s 6:30 in the morning. I am scrambling an egg white in a non-stick pan from an egg that, one minute earlier, had been nesting in a plastic egg carton, surrounded by 11 other eggs stamped … more
Sustainability & Public Health
Let’s look at sustainability in terms of how our practices affect human health, both immediately and over the long term. Whether we call them health problems or environmental problems, though, the prescription for corrective actions is almost identical. The health lens is … more
Childhood asthma is a serious problem in Lehigh Valley
For years the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has listed both Lehigh and Northampton counties among the worst in the U.S. for air quality, and one of the worst pollutants comes from Diesel engines: Both counties are among the worst 2 … more
Impacts of drilling in Marcellus Shale
In this section, we focus on the environmental impacts of drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formations using the fracking or fracturing method (some background info is given on the Marcellus Shale page). Thoughts about use of the resultant … more
Help get schools to serve healthier, more nutritious food!
Schools can do more to make sure that the food they serve is nutritious and promotes good health. (Research has found that healthy, fresh food improves school performance — while some over-processed food contributes to childhood obesity and diabetes.) In … more
Protect us from the dangers of drilling & fracking!
The following is from a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection or Environmental Quality Board. If you have any questions, suggestions, or corrections please let us know. It may—theoretically—be possible to drill for shale gas reserves safely, but … more
Lehigh Dining
As part of an Alliance internship, a Lehigh University student completed a report on dining services there. Lehigh Dining, operated by Sodexo, has made many improvements in the area of waste reduction, including phasing out Styrofoam and replacing it with reusable take-out … more
Healthy Food for Healthy Communities
This section contains excerpts from ‘Healthy Food for Healthy Communities’, a report that outlines sustainability and public health implications of the industrial agriculture system and food service operations in institutions such as hospitals, colleges & universities, and schools. The report … more
The Problem with Industrialized Agriculture
According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, industrial agriculture ‘views the farm as a factory with “inputs” (such as pesticides, feed, fertilizer, and fuel) and “outputs” (corn, chickens, and so forth)…’1 Many of the ‘inputs’ used to maximize production are … more