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Friday’s Focus? Seven videos from the past. How past? A year maybe. Maybe more. Maybe less. In any event, it’s the day before Christmas and you probably have lots of time to devote to old videos. So go. Enjoy.
This trailer for Jonathan Safran Foer’s new book, features his dog and his grandmother.
Meatless Monday is part of the Healthy Monday initiative. Other Healthy Monday campaigns include: Paul McCartney’s Meat Free Monday, Do The Monday 2000, Quit and Stay Quit Monday, Move it Monday, Monday Mile, and others.
FRIDAY’S FOCUS: Food. The good kind (depending, of course, on your point-of-view).
A nod to the meat-eaters amongst us:
If you live in the city and can’t seem to make it down to the farmer’s market on the weekends, fear not. Fresh, organic veggies can be as close as your windowsill. A low maintenance “no dig garden” can be planted on a rooftop, a large windowsill, or even a windowbox. The garden literally composts the materials while feeding the plants. Find all the details you need to get started right here.
Green Truck serves healthy, gourmet organic food to Los Angeleans. Their mobile catering trucks run off of vegetable oil and all of their food packaging containers are made from biodegradable products rather than plastics and Styrofoam. Vrooom and yum.
We know organic farming can help reduce the impact on our environment, but we never imagined it could fight crime as well. Alemany Farm is a four-acre organic paradise amidst the urban sprawl of one of San Francisco’s worst crime areas. Executive Director Alice Carruthers says her vision with the non-profit “was to slow the crime down.” Since the farm began in 1991, families have been able to put fresh organic food on their tables and find a safe haven from the hostile environment where their children play and learn about the environment. Check out the story at Huffington Post.
According to just about everyone who covers these things, Chelsea Clinton has been meatless for more than a decade. Insiders say that her wedding will be catered vegan-style and feature vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free dishes. The same insiders say that beef will also be served but that it will be grass-fed and organic.
Read more: slashfood.com
The organic foods movement took a huge blow last year when a team of American researchers reached the conclusion that organic foods were no more nutritious than industrially grown products (of course there was no mention of the damage industrial farming can do to the environment, but that’s beside the point). Unfortunately, many people read those headlines and decided not to spend the extra money for organics. Few are aware that a 4-year, EU study on the benefits of organic foods suggests that some of them, such as fruit, vegetables and milk, are more nutritious than non-organically produced food and may contain higher concentrations of cancer fighting and heart beneficial antioxidants. Get the whole story here.
Meatless Monday Alert:
According to a new UN report (Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Production and Consumption: Priority Products and Materials ), “as the global population surges towards a predicted 9.1 billion people by 2050, western tastes for diets heavy in meat and dairy products are unsustainable.” Agriculture, in particular meat and dairy products, account for 70% of global freshwater consumption, 38% of total land use and 19% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.
HAT TIP: .greenmuze.com
Last year, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine published a study demonstrating that, because of food production and transportation factors, a population of heavier people contributes more harmful gases to the planet than a population of thin people. “The main message is staying thin. It’s good for you, and it’s good for the planet,” says Phil Edwards, senior lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “In terms of environmental impact, the lean population has a much smaller carbon footprint.”
Hat Tip: cnn.com
We’re avid proponents of locally grown foods, and it doesn’t get more local than your own backyard. But what if you don’t actually have a backyard? Get a MICROgarden. The Microgarden Aeroponic System is simplifiend hydroponic gardening for even the most urban of urbanites. Internal microjets spray your crop’s roots with a high pressure mist, allowing for aggressive growth rates due to the high levels of oxygen to the root zone. This “hydrogardening” is the smart choice for gardening year round, wherever you live.
Available at: amazon.com
Airport sleeping compartments (or micro-hotels) are nothing new, but the designers of Dream and Fly have taken the environmentally friendly concept to a whole new level of cool. According to their website: “Inspired by the nature of a womb, this space aims to transmit a feeling of protection in contrast to the movement and agitation of the outside world.” Dreamy.
For every 100 spam e-mails you forward to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com, Chipotle will give $10 to The Lunch Box. The goal is to give $10,000 to the cause which will help schools implement healthy lunch programs for kids. Chipotle will accept up to 500,000 emails, topping off their donation at $50,000.
Hat Tip: www.tonic.com
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If you’re passionate about serving an organic wedding cake and you live in Chicago, check out Bleeding Heart Bakery. Their mission is to “use local, sustainable, organic ingredients and to make you the best damn cakes and pastries you have ever had!
This covers our ingredients: flour, butter, eggs, nuts, chocolate, milk, fruits, vegetables, oils and more.” We’re confident their cakes taste every bit as good as they look.
Biomass energy is another extremely promising alt-fuel. Biomass is essentially organic material obtained mainly from plants and animals, including wood, leaves of plants, agricultural wastes, organic wastes, waste paper, and wastes from food processing industries. Ultimately it is believed that biomass has the potential to supply 15 times more energy than that produced from the wind and the sun. The best thing about it – it’s everywhere and completely renewable. There are several successful biomass energy projects already up and running, like this one at Middlebury College.
This Friday’s Focus is SLOW FOOD. But before you proceed, take a long moment to think about what “slow” really means. As a point of reference, consider this prototype of the 10,000 Year Clock, which was completed in 1999 on New Year’s Eve. One bong per century! The Long Now Foundation is planning to build a large-scale version on a high desert mountaintop in eastern Nevada.
Chew on this, then follow your nose through six mouth-watering posts related to the burgeoning Slow Food Movement. Yum.
“The bottom line is that today’s food industry is controlled by a few large multinational corporations whose primary interest lies in profitability. The slow food movement encourages a return to local farms and local, seasonal ingredients. In turn, you won’t only be eating healthier, but we hope a renewed interest in learning about what you put in your body will also help you take the time to not only enjoy what you’re eating, but to spend time with those you love while you do.” from earthsfriends.com
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic, member-supported organization founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and “fast living.” The group promotes the resurgence of local food traditions and challenges people to reconsider the quality of the food they eat, where it comes from, and how America’s food choices affect the rest of the world. According to their site, “Slow Food brings together pleasure and responsibility, and makes them inseparable.”
Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh joins forces with nutritionist Lilian Cheung to paid “the latest nutritional information with the age-old Buddhist practice of mindfulness — that is, of being fully aware of all that is going on within ourselves and all that is happening around us—to draw attention to what and how we eat. Complete with a discussion of why healthy eating is also good for the environment, this is a uniquely insightful and positive program for wellness: a book of tested wisdom; practical action; and intellectual, emotional, and spiritual nutriments.” ~ Donna Seaman, Booklist
Available at Amazon and bookstores pretty much everywhere.
Organic foods are good for you and good for the planet (fewer pesticides, healthier ecosystems, etc)… and the best organic food is what’s grown closest to you. The website, localharvest.org, helps you find farmers’ markets, CSA’s,* family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area so you can stock up on organic produce, grass-fed meats, and many other goodies.
* “Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of “shares” to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a “membership” or a “subscription”) and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season. This arrangement creates several rewards for both the farmer and the consumer.”
Advantages for farmers:
• Get to spend time marketing the food early in the year, before their 16 hour days in the field begin
• Receive payment early in the season, which helps with the farm’s cash flow
• Have an opportunity to get to know the people who eat the food they grow
Advantages for consumers:
• Eat ultra-fresh food, with all the flavor and vitamin benefits
• Get exposed to new vegetables and new ways of cooking
• Usually get to visit the farm at least once a season
• Find that kids typically favor food from “their” farm – even veggies they’ve never been known to eat
• Develop a relationship with the farmer who grows their food and learn more about how food is grown
Composer and MacDowell Fellow Brian Amador’s newest multi-media, pan-Latin musical suite is about a favorite topic – food! Performed by Latin roots ensemble Sol y Canto, composer Brian Amador’s multi-media, pan-Latin musical suite, Sabor y Memoria, “stretches the boundaries of the concert experience in exciting ways: Fan-generated content – stories, recipes, and giant projected photos – will be part of each performance, and the work supports a wide variety of opportunities for community engagement through partnering with local restaurants, community organizations, and farmers markets.
Hugo’s (Studio City and West Hollywood, California) is one of our favorite restaurants because (1) the food’s amazing and (2) the owners are “committed to sustainability: a comprehensive program of sustaining the environment, natural resources, profitability, our workforce and community. The following are notes from their menu:
• We start from scratch with whole, vital ingredients, making an effort to preserve freshness and quality throughout the cooking process.
• We have eliminated gluten from our cooking, except for obvious wheat-based products (bread, tortillas, and some pancakes & pastries), by substituting rice or potato flour, Tamari Soy Sauce, and Bragg Liquid Aminos.
• We continue to add to the variety of organic products we use.
We exclusively use:
• Organic coffee, tea, herbal infusions, grains, beans, ketchup, mustard, sugar, soy milk, rice milk and tofu.
• Vegan pasta made here with organic semolina and flax seed.
• Organic free-range eggs grown locally.
• Hormone and antibiotic-free steaks and hamburgers, from pasture-grazed cattle.
• California fresh chicken.
• Zero trans-fats for deep frying.
• Seafood from sustainable sources, harvested in a manner that does not harm the environment. We proudly follow the guidelines of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.
• Filtered water for drinking, all beverages, ice and cooking. We have bottled water available; however we encourage you to take advantage of our free filtered and sparkling water. Recent reports on bottled water have indicated that transporting bottles and bottle waste negatively affect the environment.
The following “Hugo’s Pasta Mama” clip is from one of our favorite television shows — Food Channel’s, “The Best Thing I Ever Ate.”
Spanish ornithologist Miguel Ferrer estimages that 20 billion birds have changed their migrating habits in the last few decades. The shift involves 70% of the world’s migrating birds and is due, in large part, to climate change. “Long-distance migrators are travelling shorter distances, shorter-distance migrators are becoming sedentary,” says Mr Ferrer. This has “an effect on almost everything they do, from breeding habits to feeding habits to their genetic diversity, which in turn affects other organisms in their food chain. It’s a huge behavioral change, forced on them by rising temperatures.”
HAT TIP: independent.co.uk
Friday’s Focus is The Green Workplace but due to some very understandable circumstances (9 to 9 jobs, freeway jams, techno-glitches, and mega multi-tasking) we’re going to miss our traditional 9am posting. Hmmm, maybe there’s something to be learned in all this. IE: Can we afford to take a breath now and then, even if it means missing a deadline? Is part of being green taking the time to do things right, to think things through? : Should we take a hint from the slow food folks and create a slow business movement? Maybe yes, maybe no.
If you have any thoughts on the subject, please comment. Meanwhile, have patience. We’ll be adding posts during the day and hopefully they’ll be entertaining, informative, useful, timely, and relevant. And late, but who cares.
The PB&J Campaign is working to combat environmental destruction by reducing the amount of animal products people eat. The PB&J Campaign approaches positive change one meal at a time by illuminating the differences one single dining decision can make. For example, the water it takes to produce the beef on one burger could produce peanuts for about 17 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and the land that it takes to produce that beef could produce peanuts for 19 PB&Js. It’s also why the livestock sector is responsible for 18 percent of global climate change, and why you can fight global warming by having a PB&J for lunch. Peanut butter & jelly addicts unite: visit http://www.pbjcampaign.org for more info.
ECOBIOBALL is the first ever eco-friendly biodegradable golf ball to contain fish food in its core, making it perfect for playing golf close to marine environments.
HAT TIP: huffingtonpost.com
The post continues: …if you hold the idea that the solution to the plastic pollution problem is to go to any of the 5 gyres and get it, you’re wasting your time and money. The plastic out here will likely photodegrade and break apart into smaller and smaller fragments. After cycling through untold numbers of marine organisms through filter-feeding or food mimicry, the particles will likely sink to the seafloor, either as fish poop or become encrusted by colonizing critters. They will take their polymer chains and absorbed pollutants to the sequestering grave of deep sea mud. Solutions to plastic pollution begin on land. And at 5gyres.org.
A study published by three French scientists and published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences has found that genetically-modified corn sold by Monsanto causes organ damage in rats. The researchers discovered that “[I]n the three GM maize varieties that formed the basis of this investigation, new side effects linked to the consumption of these cereals were revealed, which were sex- and often dose-dependent. Effects were mostly concentrated in kidney and liver function, the two major diet detoxification organs, but in detail differed with each GM type. In addition, some effects on heart, adrenal, spleen and blood cells were also frequently noted.”
Monsanto has a different opinion of the study, stating that “these claims are based on faulty analytical methods and reasoning and do not call into question the safety findings for these products.”
Hat Tip: blogs.barrons.com
Sun Princess, originally uploaded by kevinrushforthFrom the Baltic Sea to the Bay of Bengal, cruise ships ply some of the world’s most dramatic marine environments. Some of these places are the world’s last wild coasts — where fish and wildlife teem — and where the local economy depends on the local ecology.
But consider that a single cruise ship may have 5,000 people on it. The food and waste management alone is mind-boggling. Then think about the fuel needed to push that mass of a ship — and the pollution and hydrocarbons those huge engines must emit.
So eco-responsible travelers must ask: Are cruise ship operators, who profit from these pristine environments, doing their part to keep these special places special?
The answer is “sometimes.” What most people don’t realize is that it’s less about the particular cruise line, and more about where the cruise ship cruises. Many countries and states have begun to seriously monitor the regulation of air and water pollution created by these floating cities. One state in particular, Alaska, has an especially strong and thorough program of cruise ship regulation.
Karma Repair Kit, Items 1-4
1.
Get enough food to eat,
and eat it.
2.
Find a place to sleep where it is quiet,
and sleep there.
3.
Reduce intellectual and emotional noise
until you arrive at the silence of yourself,
and listen to it.
- Richard Brautigan
The following Easter egg advice is from supereco.com:
Dyeing eggs naturally is all about foods and juices from your kitchen, plants and flowers from your garden, and a healthy dose of experimentation. The basic principle is simple: boil whatever dye material you’re trying along with a little bit of vinegar, then start dipping those eggs. Natural dyes will become deeper and richer the longer you let them sit, so plan ahead for a nice, long stretch of time to play around with. Try some of our color palette inspirations.
- Purple/blue Grape juice, red wine, violet blossoms, red onion skin, blueberries, red cabbage leaves
- Green Spinach leaves, yellow Delicious apples
- Yellow/orange Lemon peel, orange peel, carrot tops, celery seed, ground cumin, ground turmeric, paprika, yellow onion skins
- Brown Coffee, black walnut shells
- Red/pink Beets, cranberries, cranberry juice, raspberries, pickled beet juice, red onion skin
Target has announced that it will no longer sell farmed salmon products. This move towards greater ocean conservation is a first by a major seafood retailer.
HAT TIP and more info: www.greenpeace.org.
Ecologic Brands, a Northern California-based company has developed a sustainable and transformative bottle for liquid products. The first-of-its-kind bottle is biodegradable, compostable and recyclable and will be on shelves starting today at select Whole Foods stores in Northern California.
According to worldcentric.org, 73 billion styrofoam and plastic cups and plates were put in the trash in 2003 in the USA alone. World Centric provides high quality compostable food service disposables and food packaging products for use in schools, corporate cafeterias, restaurants, hospitals, and homes. They use renewable resources like corn and discarded sugar cane and wheat straw fiber to make sustainable alternatives to plastics and styrofoam.
You can order a “generic sample pack for $7.50 plus shipping and handling at
worldcentric.org.
FOOD INC: As the saying goes, you are what you eat… and this film is an alarming journey of self-discovery. Food, Inc. reveals surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat and the mega-corporations that produce it.
From a slideshow about plastic bags: www.poconorecord.com.
By the year 2050, give or take, there’ll be about nine billion people sharing the planet and they’ll need to eat. But right now, a billion people go hungry every day. So what do we feed an additional 2 billion? The Potsdam Institute in Germany suggests that it would be possible to feed 9 billion if everyone – particularly those of us in the so-called developed world – reduced meat consumption to, say, three times a week. And certainly we could begin doing something about the 30 to 40 percent of the world’s food that’s thrown out each year. You can read more about how to plan dinner for 9 billion here.
The 5 Gyres Project is involved in studying huge areas of our oceans that collect single-use plastics and other garbage — much of which is thought to be endangering the food chain. Right now, researchers are in the North Atlantic Gyre. You can follow them daily or help with donations by visiting 5gyres.org/.
BELOW: Made to last forever but designed to be thrown away, milk jug rings are just part of the problem.
originally uploaded by Michael_Lehet
Thus begins this Friday’s Focus: LIGHT GREEN – because it’s good to start the day with a laugh. Make that eight laughs. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
John Hantz, of the financial services firm Hantz Group, hopes to rejuvenate the city of Detroit by creating the world’s largest urban farm. Hantz Farms – owned, operated and staffed by residents of Detroit – could provide the city with “hundreds of “green” jobs and a generous supply of fresh, local, safe produce for local families and the region in general.” You can read about the project in more detail at hantzfarmsdetroit.
If you’ve ever seen a cat scarf down a can a tuna, you have to wonder if the idea of a Vegan feline simply goes against nature. Well, if you consider how suspect the meat industry is in producing food for human consumption, you really have to wonder about the quality of the meat that’s put into pet food. Get the vegan kitty primer from PETA.
Designed by Dutch design wizards, Group N55, The Walking House is a nomad’s dream and features solar panels and micro-windmills to generate energy as it walks the green walk. Oh yeah, and it’s also amphibious. Here are a few words from the designers: “The Walking House requires no permanent use of land and thereby challenges ownership of land and suggests that all land should be accessible for all persons. Society could administrate rights to use land for various forms of production of food for example, but ownership of land should be abolished.” Tell that to the tea-baggers.
Namaste: keetsa.com
All of us at greenlandoceanblue are advocates of buying and eating as locally as possible, and we’re not alone. The good people at Sustainable Table celebrate local sustainable food, educate consumers on food-related issues, and works to build community through food. Check them out at sustainabletable.org.
originally uploaded by estherase
If you despise one-use plastic bags as much as we do, here’s some news that’s totally, like, nano-tubular. A chemist has created an “upcycling” method of turning the disposable bags into carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes technology is pretty new, but Stanford University researchers recently coated copier paper in ink made of carbon nanotubes and silver nanowires to create bendable, highly conductive storage devices. Nanotubes could also become self-repair tools for electronic circuits in our smart phones and laptops. Here’s the scoop.
Friday’s Focus is Food. 9 posts ahead, chew carefully.
If you’ve seen the film Food, Inc. or read any of author Michael Pollan’s books, you have an idea just how harmful the mass production of food can be. Fortunately, organizations like The Center for Food Safety are working hard to protect human health and the environment by curbing the proliferation of harmful food production technologies, and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS has offices in Washington, DC and San Francisco, CA, and its online home is: truefoodnow.org.
The designers at Brave Space produce beautiful, high-end furniture featuring built-in environmental sensibility. The small, Brooklyn-based company takes a hands-on approach to the design and construction of furniture – which led them to a fuller appreciation of the importance of using raw materials that are both durable and environmentally sustainable.
Reserve your table here.
Maybe it’s the recession or maybe (hopefully) it’s the growing resistance to processed foods. Whatever it is, there’s no denying that organic gardening is back in vogue. From city terraces to community gardens to suburban backyards, more and more people are rolling up their sleeves and growing it for themselves. Go to the guru for a great primer on getting started yourself.
Food & Water Watch is a non-profit organization working with grassroots organizations around the world to create an economically and environmentally viable future. Among other things, they’ve created the Global Grocer, which tells the odds an item was imported and how many inspectors are overseeing it. If you’re determined to shop local, or if you’re simply interested in ensuring the safety of the food you buy, Global Grocer will help.
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and “fast living.” The group works to rebuild local food traditions and to spur people’s interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, and how their food choices affect the rest of the world. Chew on that.
The Ark is an international catalog of 200 rare, regional foods that are threatened by industrial standardization, the regulations of large-scale distribution and environmental damage. By promoting and eating Ark products we help ensure they remain in production and on our plates.
NOTE: Bronx Grapes (see photo) are on the endangered list.
It cleans windows. Kills anthrax spores. Wipes out salmonella on chicken carcasses. Makes lettuce last longer. Replaces dishwasher detergent. And kills athlete’s foot. It only costs about a penny a gallon and, according to a professor of food science at the University of Georgia, ” it’s “ten times more effective than bleach in killing bacteria.” What is it? It s a simple mixture of table salt and tap water scrambled with electric current. Want to know more? Click here and behold.
Mention the word Japan and most westerners conjure up images of flashing neon signs and people being stuffed into subway cars. But if you’re interested in discovering more than bright lights and big cities, One Life Japan offers active and educational journeys designed to give participants an intimate look into Japanese country life. This innovative tour company helps visitors focuses on slow food and slow living, and provides a better understanding of how this complex society has learned to balance human needs and natural eco-systems.
Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) promotes awareness of ecological farming practices by “providing volunteers (WWOOFers) with the opportunity to live and learn on organic properties” around the world.
WWOOFers live with families and get first-hand experience with “organic and sustainable practices including earth building, cooking and preserving, wine, cheese and bread making, crafts, companion planting, worm farming, composting and a whole lot more.”
photo: Vince Alongi
If you were walking down the street and you saw a plastic bag lightly tumbling in the breeze, would you stop to pick it up?
photo: Bobbytee.
If you’d been with us aboard the Baylis, you would without question.
Welcome to the Derick M Baylis, a 65-foot auxiliary-powered sailing research vessel, a Prius at sea.
Chartered by Sealife Conservation, its mission is to inspire conservation of the Oceans by fostering awareness of the marine environment through research and education. On board, a mixture of open minds: a fifth grader and an ocean activist, college students and college grads, dads and daughters. The most obvious commonality is the desire to experience and learn.
Would you step out of your way to pick up that Styrofoam cup in the park?
A day aboard the Baylis would provide you with more than one reason to do it.
The Baylis has just left its slip and nets are manned on both the port and starboard sides. A candy wrapper is the first catch of the day, small, but certainly there’s not a thought of throwing it back. A simple standard has been set: if you see it, call it out, and it will get hauled in. During the trip to the sea, other debris is collected. The experience is underscored by living sea lions basking on a buoy, pelicans flying overhead, and twenty or so dolphin close enough that you can
hear them breathing and slapping the water. A drifting patch of kelp is hoisted on board and the passengers comb through the leaves looking for life’s beginning stages taking refuge in the safe haven. Tiny crabs and other little creatures are placed in beakers so they can be studied.
A torrent of plastic and other trash is impacting their lives, so while the ocean is where most of earth’s life begins, it seems to be our least-respected resource.
If you were strolling on the beach, would you salvage that plastic cup half buried in the sand?
photo: Alan.Slmak
If you knew the crew of the Baylis, absolutely, you would.
The Billabong seaplane rendezvous with the Baylis off the SoCal coast.
On board are three incredible, big-wave riders. Mike Parsons, Grant “Twiggy” Baker and Greg Long don’t look like the hell men they really are as they board the sailboat from a dinghy, calm and clearly intrigued. Each of them has surfed the largest waves in the world with that same studied character.
They understand the ocean and it’s contents. Around the globe, they have seen pristine beaches turn into dumps and witnessed a bounty of plastic bags and bottles mixed with syringes. They watch as the Baylis nets its own collection of discarded objects, using GPS to note the location.
Would you stop a boat to pick up a floating water bottle?
At this point you know the answer is yes. A manned net on the starboard side misses a plastic bottle and suddenly the boat is turning around to gather it – a 65-foot boat on a turnabout for a single water bottle. There are no complaints, only interest in the brand and where it is from. The 180-degree turn for the bobbing plastic makes a point – for if we can stop trash like this from ever leaving the land, it will never find its way to the ocean’s garbage dumps.
That plastic bag, tumbling in the breeze?
Are you going to pick it up?
There was a point in my life when I would have answered, “no.” Or perhaps I wouldn’t have answered the question at all. Today I find myself stuffing plastic bags in my wetsuit sleeve while surfing. There are funny looks from the others in the line -up until I explain that, to a turtle, a plastic bag looks just like a jellyfish. Suddenly, they understand.
Back aboard the Baylis: A chunk of Styrofoam is netted (the little foam balls that break-off are easily mistaken for food by fish and sea birds). A silver Mylar happy birthday balloon is scooped off the surface to a chorus of hilarious, helium-inspired cheers. Things change. I’ve changed. Anything is possible.
Aloha,
Steve Lawrence, greenlandoceanblue
**All unattributed photos by Steve & Madison
If you’re looking for a truly original and locally produced gift, skip the mall and hit the farmer’s market. Thousands of farmers markets across the U.S. continue to operate through the holiday season (even in cold country). Not only will you find all kinds of great foods for your holiday meals, you’ll likely find all kinds of great locally-produced gifts like soy candles and fresh seasonal wreathes. To find a farmers market near you, check here.
For gifts almost anyone on your list will love, you can’t go wrong with dessert – and Ghalia organic desserts has some of the most earth friendly we’ve found.
This imaginative dessert company proves that organic food can be a delicious, indulgent, and gourmet experience. Their scrumptious creations are free of toxins and environmentally sustainable – and the company strives to provide eco-friendly gift packaging such as seeded paper favor boxes, biodegradable cellophane bags and wrappers, natural craft or reusable gift boxes, and recycled tissue paper. You can visit Ghalia here.
Last year, What if: Projects – a art and architecture group in the U.K. – provided inner-city residents with a half-ton bag of soil each on a vacant lot in Hoxton, east London. The “plots of land” were used to grow cucumbers, onions, carrots, herbs, and wild flowers. One resident grew 200 lettuces after paying about $12. Read the rest of the story at metro.co.uk.
This Friday’s Focus is FOOD. Nine delectable posts. And not coincidentally, you can purchase a copy of Food Inc. at your favorite purveyor of DVDs. If that happens to be Amazon, click: www.amazon.com.
The Institute of Medicine recently released a study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that found children are not eating enough dark green vegetables, fruits, or whole grains. Reauthorization of The Child Nutrition Act in early 2010 is important if federal school nutrition programs are to provide healthier, safer, and more nutritional food for students.
Lunch Encounters, a spoof of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, was created for the One Tray organization by three IATP Food & Society Fellows — Shalini Kantayya, Nicole Betancourt, and Debra Eschmeyer — in hopes of raising awareness for the upcoming reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act.To read more about One Tray, visit http://onetray.org/.
According to Ulf Sonnesson of the Swedish Institute for Food & Biotechnology, if we were to swap half of the protein now supplied by meat with soy by the year 2050, we’d see [projected] carbon emissions decrease on the order of 70 percent.
Okay, let’s start with Morning Star Farms Soy Sausage Links, available just about everywhere.
Hat Tip: www.sciencenews.org and tofuttibreak.tumblr.com for Sausage Boy
This is Joel’s second appearance on greenlandoceanblue (some of you may have missed his debut in July). In any case, take a minute or so and watch it.
If you don’t have the time, take a half a minute or so and read Polyface Farms’ Guiding Principles:
TRANSPARENCY: Anyone is welcome to visit the farm anytime. No trade secrets, no locked doors, every corner is camera-accessible.
GRASS-BASED: Pastured livestock and poultry, moved frequently to new “salad bars,” offer landscape healing and nutritional superiority.
INDIVIDUALITY: Plants and animals should be provided a habitat that allows them to express their physiological distinctiveness. Respecting and honoring the pigness of the pig is a foundation for societal health.
COMMUNITY: We do not ship food. We should all seek food closer to home, in our foodshed, our own bioregion. This means enjoying seasonality and reacquainting ourselves with our home kitchens.
NATURE’S TEMPLATE: Mimicking natural patterns on a commercial domestic scale insures moral and ethical boundaries to human cleverness. Cows are herbivores, not omnivores; that is why we’ve never fed them dead cows like the United States Department of Agriculture encouraged (the alleged cause of mad cows).
EARTHWORMS: We’re really in the earthworm enhancement business. Stimulating soil biota is our first priority. Soil health creates healthy food.
Please pay a visit to polyfacefarms.com.
Häagen-Dazs, which relies on honey bees for many of the natural ingredients that go into it’s ice cream, has donated more than $500,000 over the past two years to scientific research that will help save them. Last week, the company collaborated with TwitCause in a “sponsored tweets” campaign in support of the bees. Here’s how a “sponsored tweet” works: every time you send out a qualifying tweet in support of a cause, the sponsor (in this case Häagen-Dazs) makes a donation to that cause (up to a maximum, of course). In this case, the bees collected $7000 (a grand a day).
Check out helpthehoneybees.com (also sponsored by Häagen-Dazs) – a beautiful and informative website.
Food waste is one of the main sources of greenhouse gases, particularly methane, which is more dangerous to the environment and traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Canadian author, chef, and food blogger, Dana McCauley, points out that one-quarter to one-third of the food we waste is unopened or whole or untouched and suggests that we too often buy more than we need. In an attempt to be “a better earthling,” she now separates loaves of sliced bread and freezes what she won’t be using within a day or two. “By doing this I should be able to divide my sliced bread expenditures by at least half, saving about $75 a year…I’ve sent the $75 I plan to save to the World Food Programme’s Silent Tsunami Fund which hopes to ‘reach the millions of people who, six months ago, were not even considered ‘hungry’ but, today, are fast becoming the new face of hunger.’
More Dana McCauley at danamccauley.wordpress.com.
Note to sushi fans: be sure to consult your Environmental Defense Fund Sushi Selector before ordering. Available at www.edf.org.
If you’re wondering about how to replace the plastic containers you use for food storage, here’s a tip: recycle and use glass bottles or jars (a single one can save enough energy to light a 100 watt light bulb for about 4 hours). Or buy a SLOM JAR with lid for just $2.99 at Ikea (see photo).
Hat Tip: www.brighthub.com
