Daily Score Blog

Eat Here, a new book by Worldwatch Institute's Brian Halweil, takes a close look at a topic that is close to many northwesterners' hearts and taste buds: the burgeoning local food movement. The book is a bit too data-packed-not quite accessible enough for a general audience-but it does have some gems in it, including a series of case studies of communities, businesses, and consumers around the world who are working together to make their food less traveled and more sustainable.

Among these is a fast-food chain based in Vancouver, Washington, called Burgerville. Burgerville a 40-year-old, 1600-employee business whose menu is reminiscent of McDonald's, except for one thing: it buys the bulk of its ingredients from farmers in Oregon and Washington--Oregon beef, Tillamook cheddar, Pacific Northwest halibut, and so on-and works with local distributors and wholesalers. Even more unusual: Burgerville's menu changes with the season.

In yesterday's post on car choices, I mentioned something that at least one reader found counterintuitive:  that increasing automobile efficiency has diminishing returns.  All else being equal, switching from a 15-mpg SUV to a 30-mpg car is twice as beneficial as switching from a 30 mpg car to a gas-sipping, 60-mpg hybrid.

Here's why.  Let's say you're taking a trip that's 60 miles long.  The SUV burns 4 gallons of gas  (60/15=4).  The car burns 2 gallons -- saving 2 gallons vs. the SUV.  The hybrid burns one gallon -- saving 1 gallon vs. the car. Clearly, if you have the option of upgrading an SUV to an ordinary car, or upgrading a car to a hybrid, the former is the better choice:  it saves twice as much gas. 

In fact, if you do the math -- and from an emissions standpoint alone -- it's just as important to switch someone from a 15-mpg car to a 30-mpg car as it is to convince someone with a 30-mpg car to stop driving altogether.  For a 60 mile trip taken (or avoided) it's still 2 gallons of gas saved.

This, I hope, is clear enough. But all sorts of depressing things follow as consequences of the math.

Today, the Eureka Times-Standard reports the lifting of another barrier to the return of Cascadia's Trinity River to its rightful course.

Opponents of the plan do not intend to pursue legal appeals.

(I summarized the issue last summer here.)

UPDATE: Broken link fixed 1/24. (Thanks to Dano in comments for noting the rupture.)