Biology and Chemistry Clubs co-host cook-out

Written by Britney Appier /The University Register
Thursday, 08 May 2008

Photo courtesy of Bethany Hermanson

A solar cookout hosted by the University of Minnesota, Morris (UMM) Biology and Chemistry clubs finally took place on May 4 with good attendance from the campus community.

Due to problems with the weather, the cookout had been cancelled twice already this year, but the campus was at last able to enjoy the new technology granted to the UMM campus.

The 2007 Beautiful U Day Grant funded these solar powered cookers. The Chemistry club proposed five solar cookers in order to hold a picnic for the general public and they were granted 1,600 dollars to proceed with the planning.

Biology club had, in a previous year, requested funds to have a picnic site next to the greenhouse, which they were also granted. The picnic was hosted on this site by the two clubs and the turn out even required extra tables to sit the many attendants.
These Global Sun Ovens have many benefits to the environment as well as being a good thing to plan an event around. These solar cookers reduce the demand of forest wood.

One third of all humans depend on wood and charcoal to prepare their food, and the availability of wood is dwindling. The rapidly growing demands of population growth and the ineffective conversion from wood to charcoal has caused deforestation which means that the woods use exceeds the world forests’ capability to regenerate.

According to Sun Ovens International, these ovens can eliminate “70% of the wood that is currently being consumed for household cooking.”

These solar cookers also have health benefits to using them instead of regular methods.

The smoke from fires that are commonly used to cook with, according to Suns Oven International, subjects people to levels of smoke that are commonly 100 times above that of international safety standards. This smoke inhalation results in three deaths a minute which yearly is 1.6 million people that would not have died had solar power been used.

Such health concerns for people surrounding biomass smoke include acute respiratory infections, pneumonia, tuberculosis, lung cancer, asthma, cataracts, lower birth weight, and nervous and muscular fatigue.

Sun Ovens International claims that these cookers reduce the amount of this dangerous smoke from cooking fires by up to 70 percent.

Sun Cookers are able to cook nearly everything you can cook in a conventional oven.

The cooker’s temperature can get up to 400° F on a sunny day, wind and coldness being no factor. The food never burns inside the cooker due to the fact that the sun cookers are able to cook food evenly, to the point where even stirring is not required. The food is also moister if cooked in this in comparison to a regular oven.

The solar cook-out was just one more example of UMM clubs integrating the University’s pledge to greener living into their programming.