Last spring I spent some time riding and fueling up a vegetable oil powered vehicle, and although we weren't as fast as everyone else on the road, it felt good to run a car on renewable oil that would have been trashed otherwise, oil very unlike the petroleum we pump out of the ground to fuel most other vehicles.

Vegetable oil powered cars are a great way to kick the bad habit of gas-guzzling, but today I started looking into veggie-constructed cars.

Every year, thousands of schools and scout troops around the country build Pinewood Derby cars, miniature cars that get raced down a wooden track.  It's a great time, and I have fond memories of shaping, sanding, lubricating, and weighing wooden derby cars as a kid.  It taught me the basics of woodworking and physics as well, and the races were exciting.  Some people get pretty serious about their derby cars.

All things considered, Pinewood Derbies are light on energy consumption compared to real car races, but there are lots of folks out there having a more eco-friendly version of Pinewood Derby racing-- they're called Veggie Derbies. 

The cars are made entirely of vegetables.  If you were to grow the vegetables yourself, and then eat them after the race, you would have a totally carbon-neutral derby race, and eat a healthy meal to boot! 

If you're involved in any creative eco-friendly competitions like this, you should get a video or photo into the Beat Gasoline contest we're running here at Play City, and you could do even more good for the planet with Global Giving cards or other sick prizes. Think about it.

There's always a way to cut down the amount of natural resources we use.  Little by little, we can make a difference!