$redis global variable with ruby on rails

I am using redis as a read cache. I have created an initializer

config/initializer/redis.rb

$redis = Redis.new(:host => ENV["REDIS_HOST"], :port => ENV["REDIS_PORT"])

I am using this global in my unicorn.rb to create a new connection whenever a new worker is created.

before_fork do |server, worker|  # clear redis connection  $redis.quit unless $redis.blank?end# Give each child process its own Redis connectionafter_fork do |server, worker|  $redis = Redis.new(:host => ENV["REDIS_HOST"], :port => ENV["REDIS_PORT"])end

I am also using this global variable whenever I need to access my redis servers. But I am not comfortable using this global variable. Are there any better options than using global variable?