One so easily associates cook ribs with the pleasurable and generally gluttonous pastime of eating!
I for one have an unusual capacity for such culinary delight. And what is more pleasant than licking oily lips, the aroma and the much-needed toothpick afterwards?
But who would have thought that you could raise $64,000 for a charity?
The Ribfest organized by the Rotary Club of Guelph-Trillum, in Hillside, Lake Guelph in Canada, has around 50,000 rib-hungry fans in attendance.
Additionally, RibFest and the Hillside Music Festival have become popular summer events. Interestingly, a green roof over the main stage signals Hillside’s green message to the world, which is a paradox of the usual greasy connotation.
However, an event of these proportions brings its own problems, and these problems are inextricably counter-ecological in nature. However, the Ribfest organizers have overcome this by being quite innovative. Food is served on plastic plates with reusable cutlery that volunteers wash. The beer is served in reusable plastic cups. The city’s water is supplied free of charge by a 15,000-litre tanker that is drunk from a thousand stainless steel canteens.
If you drink from a can, it will be recycled and your beer will come from a keg instead of a bottle. The fat, a byproduct of a weekend of cooking ribs, is recycled into biodiesel. Power comes from a generator.
Now, doesn’t that provide a different image that is conjured up in our minds when cook ribs?
But some problems are not so easily overcome. Ribs, beans, and coleslaw are kept in Styrofoam containers, and organizers have yet to find an eco-friendly countertop product, as this is the container of choice for ribbers who attend and sell their wares.
I’m sure it must be a comforting thought to enjoy your rack of ribs at Ribfest – there’s some relief to your conscience if you tell yourself you’re doing things in an environmentally friendly way.
But hey! At the end of the day, it’s just a matter of “to rib or not to rib”…
