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It's Earth Day, so what's happening?

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In less than 24 hrs, it will be Earth Day 2011. So what's Mother Earth Brewing got going on?

Well... Earth Day is a day to reflect upon how environmentally friendly we’ve all become, and how so very far we have to go. But how did Earth Day start? I had no clue, so I did a bit of research and thought I’d pass what I discovered along to you (along with a few highlights of some very cool Green things the brewery has going on these days!)

From what I’ve learned, it all started about 40 years ago; that’s when Senator Gaylord Nelson was talking ‘green’ …when green wasn’t cool. In fact, we all owe a big thanks to Senator Nelson for creating the first ever Earth Day, way back in 1970. His purpose? To draw national attention to the need for environmental protection and put some serious pressure on the politicians of the day to make it happen. As a result of years of his hard work, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) was formed and a number of environmentally minded acts were put in place (Federal Pesticides Act, Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act just to name a few). Not to say these acts are without a few hiccups, but the point is that without Senator Nelson we’d likely not even be this far!

So here we are, over 40 years later, and Earth Day is now honored around the globe. –And really, in many areas of our country, it’s more like Earth Week. It’s unlikely that the ecologically minded Senator from Wisconsin could have imagined the hoopla associated with Earth Day as we know it today. When you raise a pint of Mother Earth beer this week, give a special cheer to Senator Gaylord Nelson.

If you’re curious how your everyday actions impact our planet, check out this high-tech quiz which estimates your ecological footprint. It’s educational and surprisingly really interesting.

Here are a few things that the Mother Earth Brewing team is proud to be doing on this 40+ day of honoring the health of planet Earth.

Here’s our latest (and one of our coolest) “Mother Earth” projects: Installing two cisterns to catch rainwater. We’ll use the captured water to irrigate our plants, wash our sporty Mother Earth Brewing brew-van and fill our toilets. By the end of this week at least one of the two will be in place. In a few days we’ll boast a 60 gallon and a 2500 gallon cistern. We can’t wait to get this project into full operation! We are excited to be working in cooperation with the Local Soil and Water Conservation Office on this project.

Mother Earth Brewing’s six pack carriers and cartons made from 100% recycled cardboard. We package roughly 9,000 bottles of beer on our bottling days, so needless to say, we use a lot of carriers and cartons. –And don’t forget to recycle those when the brew is all gone!

We take the spent grain from the brewing process and use it to feed local cattle (and make killer dog biscuits & incredible homemade soap!) You can think of the “spent grain” as the tea left over from a tea bag. In brewing, hot water seeps through the grain and extracts incredible flavors, just like hot water seeps a tea bag to create a fab cup of tea. If we didn’t give the grain to the cattle, we’d have to have it disposed of (read: more stuff added to a landfill.) –And by the way, the cattle think it’s superb!

You might not know it, but we have a small hop farm here in Lenoir County! The Mother Earth Brewing team planted the hops about two years ago, and the results have been stunning! Recently, we planted some hops near the Taproom beer garden- check them out next time you stop in for a fresh brew.

If you follow Mother Earth Brewing at all, it’s likely you know about the solar panels that dot the brewery’s roof top. Our 4.7 kilowatt system is totally state of the art, and you can even track Mother Earth Brewing’s solar Plant Profile through Sunny Portal at any time, day or night. The Taproom is entirely powered off these solar panels!

Thanks for checking in with us on Earth Day 2011. We hope you’ll take a moment to think about the year ahead and consider what small lifestyle change you can make to help our planet. –It’s definitely something I plan to work into my Earth Day.

Peace, Love and Beer....... Trent