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I know, it's been a while. I've been busy. And I suppose I still don't have anything of my own to post. But I found this article that I really like. You can read it here, or I've pasted it below. Green food: it isn’t just salad anymore. You want a healthy diet for yourself, but did you realize you’re also impacting the planet with how and what you eat? Whole food, organic food and raw food can all play an important part in preventing climate change, saving fish and rainforests, reducing pollution and conserving energy for future generations. The following steps outline how you can reduce your carbon footprint with your diet: The Enviro-Diet Step One Reduce your meat consumption: Meat, and beef in particular, is the most resource-intensive food you can eat, and eating less of it can greatly reduce your individual impact on the environment. Meat production requires a lot of water, land and potentially harmful ingredients such as hormones and antibiotics, and leads to pollution of soil, air and water. For comparison, a pound of beef requires around 12,000 gallons of water to produce, while a pound of potatoes only requires 60 gallons. If you’re a meat eater, try switching from beef to chicken or, better still, a wisely-chosen fish (production of some fish varieties is harmful to the environment while others greatly improve environmental conditions). Substitute meaty servings with beans, tofu and nuts starting with one meal per week. If you must eat animal products, buy the organic varieties; they cost a little more but are much better for you, the animals and the earth.
Step Two Eat organic foods: Organic food isn’t just better for your body; it’s also healthier for the land, water, air, wildlife and the workers who produce it. Nearly everything also comes organic: vegetables, fruits, grains, beverages, dairy, eggs and meat. If you can only find or afford some organic produce, chose strategically; not all fruits and vegetables are equal. For example, strawberries, sweet bell peppers, apples, celery and spinach require and retain higher pesticide levels, whereas pineapple, corn, onions, sweet potatoes and broccoli are better.
Step Three Buy locally-produced foods: Buying local foods that are in-season is good for the environment for many reasons. Food travels on average 1,500 miles to get to your table. Buying from local sellers cuts back on emissions, fuel consumption and unnecessary traffic. Locally-produced food is generally fresher, uses less packaging and offers a wider selection. Buying anything produced locally supports your local economy and saves businesses money on packing, processing, refrigeration, marketing and shipping. The best source for locally-produced food are farmers markets or community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscription programs (where you get a box of produce every week – some deliver to your home or workplace). If you don’t have a farmers market or local food co-op in your town, you may be able to start one. Buy large quantities of locally-produced foods when they are in season and dry and can them for the rest of the year.
Step Four Buy fair-trade-certified foods: If you must buy imported food, check for fair-trade certification. It ensures proper wages and working conditions for the people who harvest and handle your food. TransFair, the only fair trade certifier in the US, also includes environmental standards in its certification process, protecting watersheds and virgin forests, helping to prevent erosion, promoting natural soil fertility and water conservation, and prohibiting GMOs and many synthetic chemicals. TransFair claims that their standards are the most rigorous in the industry, second only to USDA organic standards.
Step Five Reduce or eliminate food packaging: Try to find foods with minimal packaging (most of which is petroleum-based plastic) and try bringing your own containers and buying in bulk. Pick brands that use bio-based plastic packing. When you must buy food in a new container, reuse the packaging you take home. Recycle packaging you can’t reuse or have reused to death.
Step Six Reduce or eliminate waste: Plan your meals carefully to cut back on waste. If the dish will spoil quickly, avoid making more than your household can eat. Cook meals that will freeze, and store them in serving-size containers; you can take the frozen meals to your office and heat them up/defrost them in the microwave. If you’ve still got extra, share it with friends and neighbors. If there’s a lot left over, give it to folks who have fallen on hard times like the homeless.
Step Seven Treat trash responsibly: Feeding yourself and your family impacts the environment at every stage of the process: where your food comes from and then where the scraps go after you’ve eaten. Composting leftovers lessens the impact on the landfill, generates great soil for your garden, and keeps your kitchen wastebasket from smelling. You don’t even need a lot of space: people who live in apartments or just don’t have a yard can do it too. Once your trash has turned to rich soil, use it in your (potted) garden or take it to your nearest public park. Consider a composting toilet! Composting, along with reducing, reusing and recycling, will greatly reduce the amount of trash you produce.
Step Eight Grow a vegetable garden: You don’t need much space to grow food–just a few flower pots or window boxes. Fresh-grown herbs and greens are delicious, and anyone who’s ever tasted a home-grown tomato knows that the store-bought variety doesn’t hold a candle to its taste-sensation home-grown cousin. Important questions to look up or ask about at your local nursery are how much light and soil a plant needs (relative to what you can offer it) and what the plant’s tolerance for cold weather is (you can grow a lot of things indoors in a sunny room even during freezing winters). Various gadgets like hydroponics and aeroponics make it possible to grown more in less space. Growing your own food reduces environmental impacts of transportation and chemicals (like pesticides).
Step Nine Reduce your cooking fuel use: The raw-food movement has swept the nation, and many people swear they feel better eating raw. Regardless of the health advantages, preparing raw food consumes less energy, and, because raw food is usually fresh by definition, it is likely not to have traveled as far as processed food to get to your table. Try using a solar oven. They can cook a wide variety of dishes and require only fuel from our local stellar nuclear reactor (the sun, of course!). They are simple to design and build–if you’re handy at all you can probably make one for yourself. ----------------------------------------------- I don't know that I'm at the point to be able to do everything suggested by the article but I'm already doing some of them and am very interested in some others. Building a solar oven? It sounds wonderful but unrealistic for me right now. I'd love to grow a vegetable garden someday. It's a matter of commitment. Another thing that's in the works for the future is having a compost. I've looked in to an indoor fermenter that decomposes kitchen scraps much faster than a compost pile (no need to run outside everyday and be flipping the thing). I'll have everyone know that I'm loving being a vegetarian. Anyone who knows me knows I was hesitant. Not because I didn't believe in the value of it but because I didn't think I'd be able to get the protein and other nutrients I needed if I wasn't eating meat. So for a long time I was a meat eating vegetarian in the making. I continued to eat meat until I had taught myself how to get all the nutrition I need in my diet. These days I'm learning to cook more and more vegetarian meals. I try about one new recipe per week. Some are wonderful and some are ok. Our latest favorite is vegetarian chili that no one can tell is vegetarian. Thom loves it and he loves me for it. I've also begun doing some research on how to raise a vegetarian child. If anyone has any experience in this area or is learning about it now I'd like to hear from you. I found this article on vegetarian babies. Along the same line is the research I've been doing on preparing meals at home for baby instead of buying the canned stuff. So if anyone knows anything about that please share. I found this kit I'd love to buy (when I can afford it). It claims to help you prepare meals at home in about 30 min. per week by keeping in frozen. That sounds like what I'll need to do. There's no way I'll fix baby food every day. Labels: baby food, compost, environmentalist, vegetarian, vegetarian baby
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 Garbage. Americans produce more and more of it every year, when we need to be producing less.
Even the most waste-conscious among us can feel overwhelmed by the amount of household waste that goes beyond what municipal recyclers and compost bins can handle. That’s why our editors have spent the summer investigating the state of waste management in our country, and putting together information for you, our Co-op America members, explaining how we can get serious about the three R’s – reducing, reusing, and recycling. Supporting members of Co-op America can expect to receive this issue of the Co-op America Quarterly this fall. If you’re not already a supporting member, join us now to get this special issue mailed to you.
1. Appliances: Goodwill accepts working appliances, www.goodwill.org, or you can contact the Steel Recycling Institute to recycle them. 800/YES-1-CAN, www.recycle-steel.org.
2. Batteries: Rechargeables and single-use: Battery Solutions, 734/467-9110, www.batteryrecycling.com.
3. Cardboard boxes: Contact local nonprofits and women’s shelters to see if they  can use them. Or, offer up used cardboard boxes at your local Freecycle.org listserv or on Craigslist.org for others who may need them for moving or storage. If your workplace collects at least 100 boxes or more each month, UsedCardboardBoxes.com accepts them for resale.
4. CDs/DVDs/Game Disks: Send scratched music or computer CDs, DVDs, and PlayStation or Nintendo video game disks to AuralTech for refinishing, and they’ll work like new: 888/454-3223, www.auraltech.com. 5. Clothes: Wearable clothes can go to your local Goodwill outlet or shelter.  Donate wearable women’s business clothing to Dress for Success, which gives them to low-income women as they search for jobs, 212/532-1922, www.dressforsuccess.org. Offer unwearable clothes and towels to local animal boarding and shelter facilities, which often use them as pet bedding. Consider holding a clothes swap at your office, school, faith congregation or community center. Swap clothes with friends and colleagues, and save money on a new fall wardrobe and back-to-school clothes. 6. Compact fluorescent bulbs: Take them to your local IKEA store for recycling: www.ikea.com. 7. Compostable bio-plastics: You probably won’t be able to compost these in your home compost bin or pile. Find a municipal composter to take them to at www.findacomposter.com. 8. Computers and electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers, local and national, at www.ban.org/pledge/Locations.html. 9. Exercise videos: Swap them with others at www.videofitness.com. 10. Eyeglasses: Your local Lion’s Club or eye care chain may collect these. Lenses  are reground and given to people in need. 11. Foam packing: Your local pack-and-ship store will likely accept foam peanuts for reuse. Or, call the Plastic Loose Fill Producers Council to find a drop-off site: 800/828-2214. For places to drop off foam blocks for recycling, contact the Alliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers, 410/451-8340, www.epspackaging.org/info.html 12. Ink/toner cartridges: Recycleplace.com pays $1/each. 13. Miscellaneous: Get your unwanted items into the hands of people who can use them. Offer them up on your local Freecycle.org or Craigslist.org listserv, or try giving them away at Throwplace.com or giving or selling them at iReuse.com. iReuse.com will also help you find a recycler, if possible, when your items have reached the end of their useful lifecycle. 14. Oil: Find Used Motor Oil Hotlines for each state: 202/682-8000, www.recycleoil.org. 15. Phones: Donate cell phones: Collective Good will refurbish your phone and sell  it to someone in a developing country: 770/856-9021, www.collectivegood.com. Call to Protect reprograms cell phones to dial 911 and gives them to domestic violence victims: www.donateaphone.com. Recycle single-line phones: Reclamere, 814/386-2927, www.reclamere.com. 16. Sports equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, 800/476-9249, www.playitagainsports.com. 17. “Technotrash”: Easily recycle all of your CDs, jewel cases, DVDs, audio and video tapes, cell phones, pagers, rechargeable and single-use batteries, PDAs, and ink/toner cartridges with GreenDisk’s Technotrash program. For $30, GreenDisk will send you a cardboard box in which you can ship them up to 70 pounds of any of the above. Your fee covers the box as well as shipping and recycling fees. 800/305-GREENDISK, www.greendisk.com. 18. Tennis shoes: Nike’s Reuse-a-Shoe program turns old shoes into playground and athletic flooring. www.nikereuseashoe.com. One World Running will send still-wearable shoes to athletes in need in Africa, Latin America, and Haiti. www.oneworldrunning.com. 19. Toothbrushes and razors: Buy a recycled plastic toothbrush or razor from  Recycline, and the company will take it back to be recycled again into plastic lumber. Recycline products are made from used Stonyfield Farms’ yogurt cups. 888/354-7296, www.recycline.com. 20. Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: Send to Shirley Cimburke, Tyvek Recycling Specialist, 5401 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Spot 197, Room 231, Richmond, VA 23234. Quantities larger than 25, call 866/33-TYVEK. 21. Stuff you just can’t recycle: When practical, send such items back to the manufacturer and tell them they need to manufacture products that close the waste loop responsibly. From: http://www.coopamerica.org/
Labels: compost, garbage, recycling
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My friend Ceri gave me a good pointer. She informed me that using vinegar and hydrogen peroxide disinfects just as well as any other disinfectant but without the harmful chemicals. You simply put the white vinegar in a spray bottle, put a spray bottle top on the hydrogen peroxide bottle (it needs to remain in the dark container), spray one, spray the other, wipe down, voila. Another thing that Thom and I want to invest in is a compost bin. We can't do it right now but we eventually hope to invest in an indoor kitchen composter. This little container takes care of almost any kitchen scrap. Our reasoning for buying an indoor one is that we aren't very likely to keep up an outdoor one and just end up with a mess. But who knows, maybe someday we'll have an outdoor compost. One thing we're really excited about is Thom's new scooter. He has to go pick it up from Springfield tomorrow. It's a Sicilian 150. It gets 80+ miles p/gallon so not only is it less harmful to the environment, it will also save us a lot of money in fuel (plus we won't be giving as much money to the big mean oil companies). Thom calculated that the scooter would pay for itself in about 8 months just in fuel savings. It makes sense for us since he goes more places than me (school, work). We eventually hope to buy a good diesel car and convert it to vegetable oil. This idea comes from James and Lacey Bell. Kudos to them for being ahead of the game (at least my game). Thanks to Ceri, James and Lace for inspiration and ideas. Labels: Ceri Otero, compost, environmentalist, James Bell, Lacey Bell, scooter
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