Florencia Ramirez - Eat Less Water

PRAISE FOR

EAT LESS WATER

Water is life; a fundamental human right. The movement to protect our water resources is here. We must all participate if we are to save Mother Earth. Eat Less Water is an impassioned call to action. Read, learn, and act. Florencia Ramirez shows us how.

DOLORES HUERTA

Co-Founder of the United Farm Workers, Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient, and President of the Dolores Huerta Foundation

Eat Less Water is as clever as its title. Its a thoughtful book complete with recipes that are as good for your taste buds as they are for the planet. Read it and learn. Read it and eat. Read it as a reminder that our worlds most precious resource is in jeopardyand yet we can do something about it. Read it to find out how.

THOMAS M. KOSTIGEN

New York Times bestselling author of The Green Book

Eat Less Water is an informative, loving tribute to the source from which all life springs. Through explorations of foods ranging from pasta to wine, Florencia Ramirez reveals how cultivation and consumption impact global water usage, sharing insights on how we, the eaters, can support a less-resource intensive practices in food and agriculture that is not only sustainable but delicious.

SIMRAN SETHI

author of Bread, Wine, Chocolate: The Slow Loss of Foods We Love

Eat Less Water

Copyright 2017 by Florencia Ramirez

All Rights Reserved

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner.

Book design by Selena Trager

Names: Ramirez, Florencia, author.

Title: Eat less water / Florencia Ramirez.

Description: Pasadena, CA : Red Hen Press, [2017]

Identifiers: LCCN 2017011414 | ISBN 9781597090391 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781597095143 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Cooking. | Water conservation. | Water consumption. | Water in agriculture. | Drinking water. | LCGFT: Cookbooks.

Classification: LCC TX714 .R354 2017 | DDC 641.5dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017011414

The National Endowment for the Arts, the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, the Max Factor Family Foundation, the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Foundation, the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division, the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, the Audrey & Sydney Irmas Charitable Foundation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Amazon Literary Partnership, and the Sherwood Foundation partially support Red Hen Press.

First Edition

Published by Red Hen Press

www.redhen.org

For Michael,

whats mine is yours para siempre

DROPS OF WATER saved my fathers life.

In the sweltering days following my fathers birth, he just lay there. He did not cry. He refused milk.

On the fourth day, my grandmother sent her daughter to borrow a small table from the neighbors chicken coop. They would need something to put his tiny body on, for the family viewing. My grandmother knew the signs of a dying baby. Shed given birth to eleven children. Only seven survived.

My fathers sister came back with the table, but she refused to give up on her newborn brother. There had to be a doctor who would examine a baby for free. She ran through the heat of the Mexican summer to the town center and began knocking on doors.

Someone knew a doctor, but he was busy with other patients. When he listened to her, this little girl desperate about her baby brother, the physician agreed to make a house call the next day.

That night, a strong wind blew through the open window of the bedroom where my father lay. The gust startled my grandfather awake. He threw himself over my fathers listless body to shield him against what my grandfather always described as an otherworldly chill. A cold hand pressed down on his back. He believed it was the hand of La Muerte, Death.

The cold wind retreated as suddenly as it arrived. My father was still alive, just barely.

The doctor arrived the next morning. After a quick examination, he knew what was wrong. He prescribed gotitas de agua. Drops of water on the babys lips.

Within days, my fathers condition slowly improved. He suffered from dehydration. His sister, my tia Antonia, returned the table to the neighbors, back to the chicken coop where it belonged.

When I told this story to my friends at school, I always made sure to emphasize the part about Death paying a visit only to leave empty-handed.

Did you know one drop of water holds all the fresh water in the world? a retired park ranger asked me at my booth where I sold water conservation products during an Earth Day event.

How so?

If we poured all the water on our planet, both salt water and fresh water, in a gallon bucket, the proportion of water available to shower, water our lawns, drink, and grow food is one single drop.

We live on a water planet. The Earth is two-thirds water, and 97.5 percent of that is salt water. Of the 2.5 percent fresh water, 69.5 percent of that is frozen. Another 30.1 percent hides in deep aquifers. The remaining 0.4 percenta drop in a bucketsustains all the life on this planet.

Now when I tell my fathers story to my own children, I emphasize the power of a single drop of water.

THE MOST FAR-REACHING, effective strategy to save water is to eat less of it. Realizing this is what led me to start reading labels and replacing our familys favorite brands of conventionally raised food with organic alternatives. The transition went largely unnoticed by my kids until my changes in the menu reached the cereal shelf in the kitchen pantry.

Wheres my cornflakes? my seven-year-old daughter Isabella demanded.

I got us some new cereals to try. I showed her the choices.

Whats wrong with the kind we always eat?

These are better for water, I answered, pointing to the USDA organic seal.

Water? Its not like cornflakes come soggy, she griped.

Food grown without chemicals saves fresh water more than any other water-saving strategy.

Now I had her confused, an improvement over defiant. Shed heard the story about the drops of water saving my fathers life, and shed watched my growing passion to conserve water take over the house. It had led to my starting up a small business distributing shower timers.

Isabella, as the eldest of three, had joined me at Earth Day events and trade shows. She helped me cover portable tables with blue cloth and stack star- and duck-shaped shower timers in neat displays. She had listened to me rattle off statistics. You can save 2,500 gallons of water in one year, I told people. Together we sold 80,000 shower timers.