Raising a Compassionate & Eco-conscious Generation

Today the world needs a generation filled with love, compassion and one who is concerned about the only home we have – planet Earth. How can we be aware and help make our children conscious of this is what our expert facilitators Komal Shah & Vineeta Punjabi will be sharing.

Hyderabadi Biryani

This healthy & delicious Hyderabadi Biryani won't harm your body or the environment. Do try it, it's worth it.

Ingredients

For the Rice

• ¼ kg whole brown basmati rice, soaked for 8-10 hours
   
• 1 tsp whole spices (cloves, cinnamon, green cardamom)
   
• ¼ tsp unrefined salt
   
• ½ litre water

For the Curry

• ½ cup soya chunks, soaked, drained and water squeezed out as per pack instructions
   
• ½ kg onions, finely sliced
   
• 2 tsp saffron strands, soaked in a little plant based milk of your choice

For the Marinade

• 1 cup plant based yoghurt, whisked
   
• 1 cup finely chopped mint
   
• 1 cup finely chopped fresh coriander leaves
   
• 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
   
• 1 tsp coriander (dhania) powder
   
• Red chilli powder to taste
   
• ¼ tsp cumin (jeera) powder
   
• ½ tsp unrefined salt (or to taste)

Method

Boil water, add whole spices, rice and salt. Cook the rice until almost done.

Combine ingredients for the marinade and marinate the prepped soya chunks in this for 1 hour. In a skillet, dry ‘fry’ the onions. Add the marinated mixture and sauté for 7-10 minutes. Check seasoning.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C. Layer an oven-proof dish with curry, then with rice, then sprinkle the saffron milk over the rice. Repeat the layers as required, in the same dish. Cover the dish with aluminium foil, taking care that the foil does not touch the food. Turn the oven heat down to 180 °C and place the covered dish in the oven. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Serves 4

Food For The Mind

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Food & Environment Connection                           

Is there one? Absolutely! The first obvious connection is that our food comes from the environment. So whatever happens to the environment affects the food supply and in turn impacts us.  Right now, we all know that something not so great is happening to the environment – climate change. With seasons losing their schedules and bringing in untimely rains, snow and even melting glaciers and searing summers, agriculture is the victim. This could lead to food supply shortages, soaring prices and even more unimaginable consequences.

So is Nature to be blamed for all this? Is climate change simply happening ad-hoc? Find out the real causes of climate change:

1. Animal Agriculture The number of farmed land animals that we rear for our consumption per year is more than 10 times higher than the number of people living on this planet. Currently the number is over 92 billion! All these animals need space, water and food. The result?  Animal agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation.

2. Carbon Dioxide  We rear animals that breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide and we cut trees that could have converted this carbon dioxide back to oxygen. The Amazon rainforests, which are the lungs of Mother Earth, are being depleted by the hour.

3. Methane This gas is produced in the guts of livestock. Did you know that a sheep can produce about 30 litres of methane each day and a dairy cow up to 200 litres? In fact the negative effect on the climate of methane is 23 times higher than the effect of carbon dioxide. We are literally creating greenhouse gases by raising animals for food.

4. Nitrous Oxide Livestock is responsible for 65% emissions of this oxide in the environment. This greenhouse gas has 296 times more of warming potential than carbon dioxide and stays in the atmosphere for 150 years!

5. Water Animal agriculture is a major water guzzler. Animal excreta is a major water polluter. And above all, water is needed to grow food to feed these 92 billion land animals. While both people and wild animals are dying due to drought, animal agriculture is responsible for 20-33% of the fresh water consumption in the world.

6. World Hunger Worldwide at least 50% of grain is fed to livestock. 82% of starving children live in countries where animals are fed and then sent to western countries for consumption.

7. Loss of Biodiversity With our current consumption patterns, we are driving 200 species extinct each day! If we continue at this rate, we are likely to kill off virtually 100% of all wild animals by 2026. Will we be next?