More about the environmental costs of bottle water from Tucson’s KUAT 6. Follow the link to see the video.

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Bunna Coffee Tea & Market

7520 S. Rural Rd. Suite 12
Tempe, AZ. 85283
BunnaCoffee.com

Hopefully this will be the first of many reviews on AzSustainably of local restaurants that are trying to do their part to be ‘green.’ Although eating at home is probably the best way to eat ‘green’ (assuming you eat fresh and/or can get a hold of locally grown produce and you are not a tremendously wasteful person in the way you cook, etc) but eating out is fun! It is one of our main recreations (just ask our expanding waist lines and our thinning wallets). Finding a new and unique restaurant, coffee shop, or tea house just makes our day. What makes it even more exciting is when you can find all three in one shop and to top it all off they are independently owned and actually care about making a positive difference in the environment!

Besides being absolutely delicious, their wide variety of coffee and tea is organically grown and fair trade. We found Bunna on the Local First AZ website, saw what they were all about and convinced our friends Tori and Josh to meet us there. The brunch that they offer every weekend from 7am-2pm is made from as many locally grown and organic ingredients as possible and it was fantastic!! By purchasing their fresh produce locally they are avoiding the toll on the environment of transporting from across the globe as well as the energy and packaging that goes into frozen foods. Also, by going organic they are preserving the soils for future healthy agriculture along with avoiding all sorts of crazy pesticides and herbicides you would not want to be eating.

The atmosphere was relaxed and welcoming with cool artwork on the walls by local artists and a talented guitarist and singer playing. The seating was comfortable and the front counter was inviting, not at all pretentious as some cafes can be. It was not too loud to have great conversation and I can’t wait to go back again. They even have free wi-fi so if I need a place to get some work done online this is going to be the first place I head to.

I had the bowl of granola with strawberries and soy milk. They were extremely generous with the berries as most places really skimp on that and they are the best part! It was very tasty. I also had the jasmine green tea. I am a bit of a tea snob and with such a large variety of organic teas it was difficult to decide but I do adore good jasmine green tea. Tori ordered the White Peony tea and it was very tasty as well. I lucked out, again they were very generous with the tea. I loved that they had various sizes of mugs rather than paper, plastic or goodness forbid styrofoam cups. I had a large mug and there so many leaves in my bag I had four refills of hot water and it was still the perfect strength! James and Josh both expressed that the coffee was quite good, as well.

The boys, ironically, ordered the smallest portions with breakfast sandwiches that came on English muffins. They looked really yummy but for the price I would say try something else if you are coming with a big appetite. Tori had the veggie sandwich #2 and gave it two thumbs up. They have a ‘green’ outlook, amazing coffees and teas, good vegetarian options and everything was yummy. We would certainly return on a week day for some nearly guilt-free (in so far as it is organic and free-trade) teas and coffees and on the weekends for brunch. Go Bunna!

Very interesting article over at the guardian.co.uk about the global food price crisis and how one of the factors causing it is the switch from food crops to biofuel crops.

tens of thousands of farmers have switched from food to fuel production to reduce US dependence on foreign oil. Spurred by generous subsidies and an EU commitment to increase the use of biofuels to counter climate change, at least 8m hectares (20m acres) of maize, wheat, soya and other crops which once provided animal feed and food have been taken out of production in the US.

In addition, large areas of Brazil, Argentina, Canada and eastern Europe are diverting sugar cane, palm oil and soybean crops to biofuels. The result, exacerbated by energy price rises, speculation and shortages because of severe weather, has been big increases of all global food commodity prices.

Cameroon At least 24 people killed and 1,600 people arrested in February. Taxes slashed on food imports and public sector wages increased by 15%.

Indonesia 10,000 demonstrated outside the presidential palace in Jakarta after soya bean prices rose more than 50% in a month and more than 125% over the past year.

Egypt Seven people have died in fights or of exhaustion queuing for subsidised bread. Dairy products are up 20%, oil 40%.

Burkina Faso Riots in three towns after the government promised to control the price of food but failed.

Guinea Five anti-government riots over cost of living in past 18 months.

Pakistan Thousands of troops have been deployed to guard trucks carrying wheat and flour. [Read More]

Here’s some alternative biofuels to consider; these Arizona groups make biodiesel from waste vegetable oil.

AZ BioDiesel

Amereco BioFuels Corp

Desert BioFuels

Dynomite BioFuels Co-Op

Grecycle

Related Post: Biowar I: Why Battles over Food and Fuel Lead to World Hunger

If you’ve been to ASU’s main campus you’ve probably seen all the trees full of fruit and maybe assumed the school was using it in it’s cafeterias around campus. I guess not because I just ran across an article saying that some student groups have begun harvesting the fruit to be used around campus. I think it’s great that they are doing this and I hope it’s something that sticks. It makes sense that you’d use the fruit that growing right here. There is a good variety of trees there, navel, Seville and blood oranges, cumquats, limequats, lemons and pecans which are all organic. Thanks to the student group VegAware for doing all the hard work to make this happen!

Here’s the article about it at eCollege Times

Mark Edwards, PhD, Arizona State University

Burning 100 million tons of our primary food for fuel is unsustainable and wastes non-renewable resources, especially water. Growing massive amounts of corn represents ecological suicide as it drains trillions of gallons of non-replenishable groundwater, spikes food and fuel prices, decimates food exports and threatens millions with starvation from a food cascade.

Biowar I inflicts costs, casualties and catastrophe in a magnitude far greater than a conventional war. Taxpayers are forced to pay $43 B annually to subsidize erosion and pollution of our air and water for a tiny, 2.4%, replacement of foreign oil. America has insufficient disposable cropland, water or energy to waste on a policy that fails its objectives.

Compared with biofuel alternatives:

• Corn requires more water, land, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides

• Severely pollutes air, soils, rivers, lakes and well-water

• Degrades and erodes soils at the rate of 6 tons per acre

• Grows slowly and produces a low energy biomass yield, 3%

Corn ethanol is not sustainable. It consumes too much water, land, fertilizer and energy. The direct and indirect costs of the ethanol industry are neither sustainable nor sensible for farmers, consumers, taxpayers or food support recipients.

Biowar І offers sustainable alternative to corn ethanol, algae which does not compete for food cropland, uses 0.001 as much water and creates an ecologically positive footprint. Algae is over 30 times more productive than corn and can be made into higher value products such as jet fuel and green diesel. The coproducts from algae, proteins and carbohydrates, may have more value for food, medicines, animal feed and low energy input fertilizers than the oils used for making jet fuel. See more about Biowar І at www.biowar1.com .

• Biowar I Summary and FAQ