What's Happening

March 30, 2023, Adrian, Michigan – When people think of “carbon footprints,” they often think of the amount of fossil fuel energy they consume through travel or the use of electricity. But Brad Frank, Director of the Office of Sustainability for the Adrian Dominican Sisters, explained the carbon footprint of an activity that people are connected to daily: eating.

Headshot of Brad Frank, Director of Sustainability

“One of the goals is just to promote awareness,” Brad said during a live streamed, February 28, 2023, presentation delivered at Weber Retreat and Conference Center. The food system in the United States accounts for about 30% of the greenhouse emissions that contribute to global warming, he said. Changing one’s diet to foods that produce less emission of carbon and methane gases would produce a more sustainable lifestyle – one encouraged through Pope Francis’ Laudato Sí Action Platform, he said. One of the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ 2022 General Chapter Enactments is on sustainability and becoming a Laudato Sí Action Platform Congregation.

Brad pointed to several factors that affect the carbon footprint of foods: 
• land use change, such as the deforestation of the Amazon Rainforest in Brazil to create pastures for the nation’s 195 million cattle; 
• farm practices, such as the use of diesel tractors and fertilizer; and 
• transportation of food throughout the country, which consumes gasoline and other petroleum products.

Taking these factors into account, Brad reviewed typical menus from the Dominican Life Center for breakfast, dinner, and supper, noting foods with the highest carbon footprint – beef, cheese, and other animal products. 

Finally, Brad offered suggestions on how to lower one’s carbon footprint through changes in diet: 
• eating items that are lower on the food chain by basing most meals on a plant-based diet; 
• consuming foods that are locally sourced and seasonal; 
• gardening; and 
• wasting less food.

Watch the entire presentation below (presentation starts at 5:50).

 

Feature photo at top: A graph from Brad Frank's presentation showing that corn used to feed cattle accounts for 95% of all grains grown, approximately 90 million acres.

March 30, 2023, Detroit – Adrian Dominican Sister Ellen Burkhardt, OP, and Associate Patricia Gillis were among about 50 Catholics who gathered March 21, 2023, at Gesu Catholic Church to speak out against air pollution and to advocate for stronger prevention regulations. 

The advocates attending “Detroit’s Dirty Air: A Moral Response” were asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lower the allowance of soot from 9-10 micrograms per cubic meter of air to 8 micrograms. 

Sister Ellen, a panel member, urged U.S. Representative Shri Thanedar (D-Michigan) to ask the EPA for an increase in penalties for companies who violate the pollution regulations. “What we’re asking for is greater enforcement, something that will matter to companies enough that they will change what they’re doing,” Sister Ellen said.

Patricia – co-founder with Sister Janet Stankowski, OP, of Detroit-based Voices for Earth Justice, a faith-based network of people concerned about the environment – was one of the organizers of the event. She saw the event as “a real coming together of science and religion.”

Read the entire article by Amy Ketner on Earthbeat, a project of The National Catholic Reporter. 

Feature photo at top shows Adrian Dominican participants Sister Ellen Burkhardt, OP, left, and Associate Patty Gillis, right.