This month features Anna Lappé writing about identifying the pillars of good food in the age of greenwashing.  Have you been to your grocery store lately and seen the faux-wood signage? The green labels proclaiming things are “natural?” These are marketing ploys to help sell specific products as premium, without necessarily engaging in responsible practices. Sometimes at the grocery I think to myself “do people fall for this?” then realize I am just as gullible, too, with the pretty brown wrappers in my basket and realize I have to get back to work on making sure my choices are the best choices.

Lappé asserts there are three “pillars” to the food revolution that we can easily think about in order to evaluate our choices.

1- ECOLOGY – Focusing on the relationship of living things, natural systems, and resource allocation, an ecological-focus reminds us that each choice we make has a consequence to the natural world. Food choices that are truly sustainable allow nature to work as it is designed, instead of squeezing every last ounce of life out of seed, soil, and water resources.

2- COMMUNITY – Food production is essentially a community endeavor when you really think about it. Communities rely on the common land to produce enough sustenance to keep the population alive. As our food system has been corporatized, we have increased the distance between seed and stomach, increasing the number of factors influencing our food security, and increasing the likelihood that something may go wrong. Oh yeah, like the OVER HALF A BILLION EGGS RECALLED THIS WEEK. Woof again, y’all.

3- FAIRNESS – this one is about making sure everyone at all levels of the food system, producers, workers, etc. get treated fairly and that all folks have access to healthy food. Currently there are urban food deserts where folks don’t have access to fresh food outside of convenience stores. And while progress is being made, like the example of NYC’s fresh food carts last summer, many still lack adequate access.

What would you add to these three?

It’s easy to get started using these criteria when evaluating food purchases. Occasionally you may need to do a little research and you won’t get it right every time (I still don’t, either), but it’s important to keep moving toward making the right choices for yourself, your health, our communities, and our earth. Knowing you’re making good choices tastes really good. Promise.

Sunshine and compost, friends!

As we quickly approach Food Independence Day, I ask what you’ve considered about your own food consumption habits?

*I spent last weekend in lovely Manchester, TN at the Bonnaroo Festival. Bonnaroo does more than most festivals in trying to lessen its footprint, which got me thinking about what a little citizen action could do at ANY event!

1-Separate bins for trash, recycling, and compost throughout the grounds.
2- A person called a “trash talker” posted at trash stations to help tell you whether you needed to recycle, compost, or trash. (I do wish they’d been dressed like scarecrows so the pointing would’ve been more theatrical…)
3- Water refilling stations throughout the venue that encourage the use of reusable bottles.

How easy would it be to incorporate these small steps into any community festival or even outdoor concert facility? How can we make this happen? Public events are monsters for trash generation, and I would argue the implementation of the “trash talkers” made a significant difference in making sure disposables got placed in the right container… just some thoughts.

**Do you eat soy? (tofu, edamame, soy milk… chances are you eat soy whether you know it or not!)

Our pals at the Cornucopia Institute have provided this guide to help navigate which companies are giving you the goods, and which ones are giving you the runaround. (Personally, I love their use of the word “charlatans.” Grrrr!)

Soy Report and Scorecard

[while you're there I also recommend checking out the "Who Owns Organic?" chart... it will make you choke on your wheatgrass to see how the food system is structured!]

***Want something to look forward to on Mondays?

Sir Paul McCartney (my third fave Beatle) has announced his MEAT FREE MONDAY campaign– just one day a week can help reduce world carbon emissions, your own carbon footprint, and with the recipes provided on his website, your waistline, too!

MEAT FREE? PASS THE TWO VEG!

**** And if you’re just looking for some healthier substitutes in your regular diet, MomCentral compiled this list of easy substitutes that improve your nutrient intake… frequently with yummier substitutions. (Admittedly, I’m biased– most days I’m convinced I could live on sweet potatoes and avocados.)

Mom says eat right!

Be delicious!
BB

Here are my quick links of the week to some information that is designed to inspire. Red states and blue states, we can all use a little jolt of love to remind us to keep moving and working forward.

One about food (eat well!), one about the movement (live well!).

1- The Ocean Beach People’s Organic Co-op has provided this AWESOME list of reasons why GM (genetically-modified, not the failed auto giant!) food is not the bees knees:

http://obpeoplesfood.blogspot.com/2009/06/10-reasons-why-we-dont-need-genetically.html

Read a label today!

2- If you haven’t heard about Paul Hawken’s inspirational commencement speech at the University of Portland, you should check it out. The title is, “You are Brilliant, and the Earth is Hiring”

http://yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=3559

(my favorite parts:

“When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world. The poet Adrienne Rich wrote, “So much has been destroyed I have cast my lot with those who, age after age, perversely, with no extraordinary power, reconstitute the world.” There could be no better description. Humanity is coalescing. It is reconstituting the world, and the action is taking place in schoolrooms, farms, jungles, villages, campuses, companies, refuge camps, deserts, fisheries, and slums.”

-and-

“Ralph Waldo Emerson once asked what we would do if the stars only came out once every thousand years. No one would sleep that night, of course. The world would create new religions overnight. We would be ecstatic, delirious, made rapturous by the glory of God. Instead, the stars come out every night and we watch television.”)

Be delicious!

BB

Happy Tuesday that feels like a Monday until you realize that Friday is closer than you think. I hope you are filled up from a holiday of delicious eating with delicious people.

This week I’m going to try and focus a little bit on the cost of food– both directly in the store and market as well as the big picture costs affiliated. We’ll see how this goes.

A couple links to help you consider your body’s fuel with as much mindfulness as you do the fuel in your home or your car:

1- The Environmental Working Group has issued a guide to pesticides for shoppers to help make it easier to determine what produce needs to be an organic purchase and where you may be able to buy conventional. It can even be downloaded to your iphone.

Check it out here:

http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

2- Tom Philpott (who has the best name for someone writing about food issues– i could make “Philpott” jokes all day in regards to food in the recession!) wrote a great article for Grist.com that deserves a read. . He illuminates the similarities between the financial collapse and vulnerabilities in the world’s food system. All the more reason to think about how our investments in our sustenance need to have as much thoughtful consideration as the type of socks we invest in to put under our mattresses.  (I prefer a sensible organic wool.)

http://www.grist.org/article/2009-05-22-financial-collapse-food

Happy eating!

The Eat the View campaign is mobilizing to get governors’ mansions across the U.S. to plant gardens instead of using the entire lawn for grass/landscape. Why not dedicate these spaces to food production for your family and neighbors? Even planting veggies and herbs in place of flowers can increase the environmental value of your property while reducing your carbon footprint. The Eat the View Campaign’s parent organization, Kitchen Gardeners International, has declared this July 4th “Food Independence Day,” encouraging folks to consume meals made from local and sustainably grown food. And they don’t forget to tell you how delicious it is.

Vermont was the first state to follow the lead of the White House and USDA, and this morning, Pennsylvania becomes the second state to plant its garden.

More research is emerging that organic agriculture stands to make a significant impact in efficient carbon sequestration– effectively aiding in management and mitigation of greenhouse gas production.

Here are stories:
Pennsylvania

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/prnewswire/2009/05/21/prnewswire200905211404PR_NEWS_USPR_____DC21214.html

Vermont :
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20090515/NEWS03/90515013/At+Vt.+Statehouse++even+the+thumbs+go+green+

If you haven’t yet declared your food independence, please do here:

http://foodindependenceday.org/

For the latest in research regarding organic agriculture and carbon sequestration visit:

http://www.rodaleinstitute.org/global_warming

Happy eating, friends!

BizzyBoots

BizzyBoots here, the newest member of the environmentastic! team.  My area of specialization will be all things food and agriculture related, and I hope to get y’all thinkin and brewin about the stuff goin in your bodies every day.

I wanted to get started by seeing if there were any burning issues you’d like me to explore and report back.

-and/or-

I know sometimes navigating the sustainable/local/organic issue with food is not only fraught with confusion, but economically dicey as well.  So, if you have questions about these topics I’d be happy to be a resource.

My personal interests include Farmers’ Markets; Community-Supported Agriculture; Organic, Biodynamic and Shumei Natural Agriculture; all things compost; Environmental effects of agriculture; Locavore-ing; and international agriculture development initiatives.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to your questions/comments!

Sunshine & compost,

-BB

Let’s discuss that old Valentine’s Day fallback – chocolate.

Chocolate falls into the same area of concerns as coffee (which I pointed out in yesterday’s post), meaning you should be on the lookout for organic and fair trade chocolate.  I have not heard that “shade grown” or otherwise is an issue for chocolate production, so in that way, it differs from coffee production.

Read up on chocolate production, especially as it related to Fair Trade, and you’ll soon see why it is so important to pay attention to the chocolate you buy – according to Global Exchange, as of the year 2000, about 15,000 children between the ages of 9 and 12 had been forced into slave labor on plantations where cotton, coffee and cocoa are grown on the west coast of Africa, where most of the world’s chocolate comes from.

Fair Trade chocolate allows higher income for the producers of cocoa, which means that slave, child labor should become unnecessary.  As yesterday, following is a list of Fair Trade, organic chocolate suppliers:

• Ithaca Fine Chocolates
• Shaman Chocolates
• Sjaak’s Organic Chocolates
• Dagoba Organic Chocolate
• Equal Exchange
• Sweet Earth Organic Chocolates
• Theo Chocolate

Help mothers in Africa celebrate Valentine’s Day by getting their children back from slave labor – buy chocolate from one of the above suppliers for your Valentine this year!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

Breakfast in bed for your Valentine, of course!

Did you know that coffee is one of the most intensively farmed, potentially damaging products on Earth?  Not only can it be terrible for the environment, but socially, it has been keeping the poor poor while “Big Coffee” reaps the profits.

So when you are choosing the coffee to bring to your Valentine in a little over a week when you bring him/her breakfast in bed, think “organic,” “fair trade,” and “shade grown.”

Conventional coffee is raised in a complete monoculture – it’s called “full sun” coffee, and it doesn’t allow for any biodiversity (meaning animals and other critters are eradicated for the sake of the highest yield of coffee possible).  It also is often grown in clearcut areas that used to be forest.

“Shade Grown” coffee, on the other hand, is grown <wait for it> in the shade.  Meaning that forests are not clear-cut to make room for the coffee plants, and that biodiversity is allowed to flourish.  Many species of birds call shade grown coffee plantations home.

Organic means what it says – essentially that no pesticides or chemicals are used to grow the coffee beans.  If you want to know requirements to be called organic, click here.

Fair trade also means what it says, but begs further explanation, I think.  Fair Trade is essentially an agreement between producers of a product and the retailers or buyers of a product to pay a “fair” price for the product.  The goal is for the producers to earn a living wage for growing or producing the product, while still allowing the retailers a fair profit for it as well.  It’s a way, especially for third world countries (where most of our coffee comes from), to help themselves out of poverty, and an example of what corporations are really in existence for – which is to help people (not just stockholders).

But I digress.

Some coffees are organic but not fair trade or shade grown.  Some are fair trade but not organic.  Et cetera, et cetera.  The goal is to find coffee that is all three – so here are a few options that fit the bill:

• Cafe Campesino
• Cafe Humana
• Caffe Ibis
• Cafe Fair
• Grounds for Change
• Higher Ground Roasters

There are more where these came from, and there are plenty of options between “triple certified” (fair trade, organic, shade grown) and “conventional” coffees to choose from.  The important thing is that, as with everything we do, we choose consciously and know what we are buying.

Especially for those whom we love.

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley

With 10 days until V-Day (and counting), environmentastic! wants to help you men out there impress your Valentine green-ly (yes, GREENLY).  So without further ado – here’s step 1 of how to have a green Valentine’s Day this year:

Buy environmentally-conscious wine

The E. & J. Gallo Winery was featured in the October, 2007 issue of Pink Magazine.  Yes, fellas, Pink Magazine is a Women’s Magazine. 

<GASP>

I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is yes – I have been known to read women’s magazines.  I’ll read anything if it has to do with sustainability.  And it just so happens that in October of 2007, Pink Magazine’s issue was its “Saving the Planet” issue.  Additionally, Pink Magazine is about business and careers for women.  The advice in this magazine can apply to business-men as well as business-women.  But I digress.

The E. & J. Gallo Winery is committed to sustainability in its operations, as stated in the Pink article and on the company’s “Proper Stewardship of the Environment” page.  The company’s commitment includes their “50/50 Give Back program” – for each planted acre, the company preserves another acre of land.  They use owls and hawks to keep away rodents and animals that would oterwise ruin crops, as well as beneficial insects to keep pests at bay instead of using poisonous insecticides.

Other wineries that you should consider as you begin to plan your green Valentine’s Day are:

• Frog’s Leap Winery
• Water’s Winery
• Sunstone Winery

There are too many sustainable, organic wines for me to list here, but About.com has a good list of organic wines that you can also choose from for what is arguably the most important Valentine’s Day choice you’ll make (other the person with whom you will share it, of course)!

Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley