There are 72 million pet dogs and 82 million pet cats in the United States. The pet population has an impact just as we do, but the difference is that we’re making the calls as to how we care for them, decisions that can also have strong impact on our health and the environment.
Here’s a few tips for greening up your pet:
1.) Adopt. The shelters are teeming with abandoned pets that are desperate for a home and the cost of adoption is minimal.
2.) Feed them right. Meat byproducts, commodity corn, and chemical fillers in pet food are as bad if not worse for them as they are for us. Nourish their little bodies with brands that are certified to have the good stuff or make your own pet food!
and 3.) Compost pet waste. Keep it out of your vegetable garden but it use it your flower beds and lawns for them to come up really strong!
For more ways to green your pet, check out some of the following sites:
Genetically modified or GM crops have been one of the most promising solutions to the rapid decline in food production. All they require is a simple spritz of chemicals; the grower never even needs to take a step in soil. But that is exactly why farmers have unwittingly waged a war against the miracle crops.
The few farmers who still grow their crops the traditional way have been under investigation by large GM corporations such as Monsanto for ’seed piracy’. GM pollen can easily travel across acres to local farms and potentially be saved by the farmers to use. It seems to be a classic case of ‘evil corporation’ bullying on the part of Monsanto. But maybe it is the action that needs to be taken in order to protect a technology as vital and important in this day and age.
Grassroots movements converge on Washington to urge the Obamas to appoint the nation’s First Farmer.
It wasn’t difficult for the first family to decide on a personal chef - Sam Kass has been preparing them local and organic meals since their Chicago days. But now that the Obama’s every morsel is up for discussion, some feel that the food eaten by the President should come from his own land.
In response, three separate organizations have sprung up, all calling for one thing: Turn the White House lawn into farmland.
The first, called the White House Organic Farm Project is touring it’s “topsy-turvy” bus around the nation teaching the code of the green thumb.
Another group called “Eat the View,” with its 1,600+ members are all buying up virtual plots of the First Lawn as donations.
Lastly, a local Illinois farm family created WhiteHouseFarmer.com and attracted over 100 nominees for the position of First Farmer. Out of 56,000 votes, three emerged and have been recommended directly to the President.
Thank you for your outpouring of support for a White House Farmer – we received nearly 56,000 votes from all across the country in just 10 days!
This amazing grassroots effort has sent a huge wave of awareness across the nation. You have spoken loud and clear — not only to encourage the new administration to make Michael Pollan’s call for a White House Farmer a reality — but also for the larger cause that we are working toward with our farms and with our forks, delicious food grown sustainably by farmers in our communities.
We offer our congratulations to all the nominees, and to farmers across the nation who steward the land and grow good food. You are all winners, and we are grateful for the work you do.
I just got off the phone with a brilliant young woman named Margaret Lloyd. She’s a grad student at UC Davis going for her Masters in International Agricultural Development and Plant Pathology.
Why is she so significant at this very moment?
Today, January 31st, is the FINAL DAY of her campaign to become the official White House Farmer! Margaret is one of over 100 nominees selected to till, sow, and harvest 5 prime south-facing acres of the White House lawn at the start of this year’s growing season.
Here’s Margaret in her own words:
Q: How’s the campaign going?
A:
Q: How did you become a nominee? What kinds of things on campus have you been doing?
A:
Q: Obviously you have farming experience but have you ever had 5 acres all to yourself? What kinds of crops do you intend to grow?
A:
Q: Do you think you’ll be able to fuel the farm with the crops you grow?
A:
Q: What other challenges are you facing going into this?
A:
Q: What do you have to say to the world in support of your campaign?
A:
Our guest has been Margaret Lloyd, grad student of International Agriculture and Plant Pathology at UC Davis and nominee for White House Farmer.
There’s only a couple hours left to vote so log onto WhiteHouseFarmer.com and vote for Margaret!
The endless supply of junk food in our society creates untold amounts of waste and causes health problems like obesity and diabetes but it’s not simply sugar and fat doing the damage. There’s a common ingredient found in almost everything sold on supermarket shelves from fatty beef to sugary soda - it’s corn.
Curt Ellis, one of the creators of the documentary film, King Corn.
Corn is the basis for fast food. When we go to McDonald’s, the hamburger is fed corn, the soda is almost completely high-fructose corn syrup, and the french fries are fried in corn oil or soybean oil.
The overproduction of low quality corn as a commodity is a huge problem but there’s a lot you can do to combat it. Buy locally produced vegetables, switch to grass fed beef, and avoid high-fructose corn syrup. These easy steps will help you right the wrongs of the American food industry and live well.
For the full interview podcast with Curt Ellis, click here.
I’m speaking today with one of the creators of the documentary film, King Corn, he’s also a Food and Society Policy fellow with the Kellog Foundation.
Q: At the very beginning of the film you talk about how our generation is at risk of having a shorter life span based on the foods we eat, specifically regarding the omnipresence of corn in our diet. Was there one thing in particular that really calcified this fear and got you off the coast and in the corn belt?
A: I think it was that announcement in a major medical journal. Around that time I was graduating from college, that my generation, I’m in my 20s, my generation is likely to have a shorter life expectancy than my parents generation and that’s something that’s really never happened before and it’s a result of this incredible explosion of obesity. The fact that obesity has doubled in the last 30 years in this country and now according to the CDC one in three kids is on a path to develop type-2 diabetes. So we’re seeing this tremendous explosion of healthcare problems that really are being caused by the way we feed ourselves.
Q: Specifically, how is corn putting us at risk of a shorter life span?
A: Corn is the basis for fast food in our country. When we go to McDonalds or Burger King and order a fast food meal, the hamburger is fed corn in confinement and as a result it’s higher in saturated fat than a grass fed cow would be; the soda is almost completely corn because of high-fructose corn syrup; and french fries are fried in corn oil or soybean oil and all those weird polysyllabic food ingredients like propylene glycol and citric acid, those are corn too. So really what we’ve done is, in the last half-century, create an industrial food system that uses these highly processed commodities like corn and soybean to fuel a conversion from eating fresh food and nutritious food to eating these empty calories like high-fructose corn syrup.
Q: You and Ian looked like you guys were having a pretty good time throughout the film, was there ever a point where farm life seemed to be getting just a little too much for you guys?
A: Definitely! We moved to Iowa with this expectation that we were gonna spend our first year out of college as farmers and I think we brought with us a lot of expectations as far as what that meant. I remember a friend of us gave us work gloves because he imagined we’d be out digging in the soil with a shovel but the reality was completely different and it’s a sign of just how disconnected from agriculture most Americans have become. For us, farming was not at all like gardening. If you’re growing 1000 acres of corn or soybeans, it’s about driving giant tractors, spraying some pretty intense herbicides, injecting gaseous ammonia fertilizer into the field. It was, to us, a totally different experience than we imagined.
Q: It’s all machines now.
A: You know, we didn’t touch the soil with our hands once in the course of growing 10,000 pounds of food and that, on a cultural level, was a real shock to us. We have this incredible bounty coming from the land but very little interaction with it.
Q: Disturbing. In your interview with former Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, seemed to be one of the most tense and poignant moments on screen. Having served for 5 years in that position, Buts is depicted as having probably the greatest effect on the US farm program in history. Has there been much change to the Farm Bill he created in 1973 that indicates that the overproduction of commodity corn is being addressed?
A: No, there’s been piece meal change over the last 40 years. But the way our farm subsidy systems work today, like in the early 70s, channels an incredible amount of tax dollars to promote the production of a handful of commodities, the commodities that become the basis for fast food and processed food. In the last 10 years, we’ve spent more than 50 billion dollars just on promoting corn production through federal subsidies. And we’re not subsidizing fruits and vegetables, the kind of things we know are healthy for us so what we’ve done is tinker with the free market and create a new system in which fast food and processed food and processed commodities are artificially cheap and abundant. And the foods we know are good for us, fresh fruits and vegetables, and the things we know are good for the land like conservation practices, those things have not received their fair share of subsidies.
Q: Are we gonna need some new sort of fast food chain of natural foods in order to combat this? I mean, what can we do?
A: Well, there’s certain things consumers can do if you decide you don’t wanna feed your kids high fructose corn syrup it’s probably gonna make them healthier to not have too many empty calories in their diet but the bigger thing we can do is become policy advocates in however small a way. One reason the farm subsidy program has stayed intact for the last 40 years and is working against us as consumers and against farmers, family farmers, one reason that program has stayed intact is because there has been no outcry from the public. Most of us have just assumed that farm subsidies only apply to farmers or to the “farm states” but the reality is this is also a food bill, the farm bill is a food bill, and the way we grow food and the kind of food we promote affects our health down the line and affects what we see when we walk into the supermarket which right now is a whole lot of processed corn and soybeans.
Q: Have you continued your farming practices after this whole thing?
A: I haven’t. I will admit, I’m part of a growing number of people in my generation who want to get back to the land in some way and it’s pretty important. The typical farmer now is around 55 years of age so there’s about to be a tremendous turnover in who’s farming the land and what they’re growing. So I’m off the farm for now and making films like King Corn and traveling around showing them to people. My desire in the long run is to be a farmer and to not just grow commodities on a 2000 acre scale but also grow some food for direct consumption.
Q: Any more films of this nature that we can expect from you guys?
A: Yeah, we just finished a documentary about the first big green residential building in Boston. It’s a film called the Greening of Southie and it’s basically the story of couple hundred blue collar jobs going green and I think in many ways it comes from the same place as King Corn which is this idea that we live in the most advanced country in the world but we pay almost no attention to the fundamental things - food and clothing and shelter - which at the end of the day, are still the most important things. King Corn’s a film about where our food comes from and the Greening of Southie is a film about the buildings we live in.
If becoming green is on your list of resolutions this new year, why not start with the party?
Planning a sustainable New Year’s celebration takes more than just balloons. It means working to ensure that almost everything from the lights to the decor produces little to zero lingering waste.
Here are some tips to stay green while tipsy:
1.) Buy food that’s locally and sustainable grown and put up a sign that lets your guests know it.
2.) Send web invitations for your party. With a colorful card on a computer screen, you can get more creative, invite more people, and generate no waste.
3.) Make an extra effort to recycle hard goods and compost your food waste. If you don’t have a compost container, put it aside for someone who does.
4.) Organize a carpool and encourage public transportation. This will not only keep gas guzzling down but leave extra room for food & drink guzzling at your celebration.
For more sustainable party tips, have a gander at some of these sites:
One by one, the Earth’s natural resources are disappearing. And by no means is fresh water safe from elimination. And in a world where most living things only thrive on fresh water, the search for an alternative is rising to the top of the science community’s list of priorities.
98% of the water on Earth is from the ocean. So it only makes sense that scientist have been looking to the ocean as the next frontier for survival. Plants such as kale and samphire can be cultivated in salt water, as they have been for several thousand years by our ancestors. Spinach and beetroot are also options for the salt water revolution. At this rate, soylent green is no longer something we have to look forward to.
Fast food causes some of the biggest health and environmental problems today.
Will the Slow Food movement help?
The Slow Food idea began in Rome in 1986 out of protest against a new MacDonalds restaurant slated for construction. The protest ballooned into what’s now a movement of 350,000 strong, keeping consistent with centuries of Italian culinary traditions stressing the highest in quality food, ancient organic farming methods, and regional offerings.
Today, slow food organizations, chapters, and restaurants are found in most major cities the world over. The theme of education through tastings and the preservation of heritage through food seems to be catching on… not to mention, it’s good for you!
For slow food restaurants in your area, check out some of the following links:
Greening up your holidays isn’t just a social statement anymore, it’s an economic necessity!
Thanksgiving is upon us and believe it or not, you can Green your turkey day without grossing out your guests. Here are some simple steps to gobble it up green:
1.) As with any event that requires a bit of travel, carpool with your friends and family and consider public transportation where possible. These services are generally extended during the holiday season.
2.) Serve organic spirits! Real cork in your wine or champagne in place of plastic stoppers or twistoff caps is better because cork is renewable and trees aren’t felled for it.
3.) We all know Thanksgiving is all about the sides and they are mostly vegetarian! The meat and poultry industry contributes to the biggest carbon food print in the supermarket so if you can have more fun with veggies, you’ll be doing right by the planet.
and 4.) Don’t use paper or plastic flatware and if you must, make them be biodegradable.
I’m Rich Awn wishing you a happy Thanksgiving. For more tips on a Green feast, check out some of the links below:
According to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, the world is flat… and hot and crowded.
Also a bestselling author, Thomas Friedman has traveled the road from Beirut to Jerusalem, he’s witnessed the towers of American life crumble with the World Trade Center on 9/11, and has come to the conclusion above all else that the world is hot, flat, and crowded.
In his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, he takes a look at America’s surprising loss of focus and national purpose since 9/11 and the global environmental crisis. Friedman claims that if America can lead the world in energy innovation it will save the ailing planet and restore America’s reputation.
He calls this effort Code Green stressing urgency and action to replace our wasteful, inefficient energy practices with a strategy for a clean and conscientious energy solution.
For more on the work of Thomas Friedman, click here.
By now you’ve identified your carbon footprint but what about your carbon food print?
According to Michael Pollan’s most recent open letter to the President-Elect, issues like food prices and antiquated agricultural standards are being ignored.
He says, “After cars, the food system uses more fossil fuel than any other sector of the economy - 19 percent.” Clearing land for crops, chemical fertilizers made from natural gas,pesticides made from petroleum, farm machinery emissions, modern food processing and packaging and transportation all add up to a food industry that takes 10 calories of fossil-fuel energy to produce one calorie of modern supermarket food.
The good news is that because of the two-headed crisis of food and energy in our country, Americans are more mindful of the food they’re purchasing, it’s safety, and healthfulness than ever before. Support for reform from both sides of the aisle suggests the current agricultural machine is decidedly broken and the market for organic, local, and humane practices is thriving as never before.
For more on Michal Pollan and ways to combat the food energy crisis, click here.
What’s the simplest and most enjoyable way for city dwellers to get back to nature?
The answer… eating.
If there’s one thing that makes the cramped conditions and lack of open spaces of city life worth the high cost of living, it surely must be the food. International merchants, master restauranteurs, and local producers all converge in American cities to connect, and conduct business with a cultured and diverse consumer base.
Anna Lappe, bestselling author and co-founder of the Small Planet Institute, shares her thoughts on the future of food at a recent Sustainability Roundtable Discussion at the Mini Rooftop series in New York City.
As agriculture begins to turn back it’s clock to methods more conducive to sustainability, city dwellers will have more opportunities to dig into the freshest of what urban markets can bring. So while there may not be much dirt to farm in the concrete jungle, know where your food is coming from and how it can transport you back to nature.
For more on sustainable agriculture and the full interview with Anna Lappe, click here.
Word of the day - fair trade. How is this organized social movement promoting sustainability?
Fair trade is a market based approach to empowering developing countries to produce a wide variety of goods in an environmentally friendly manner.
Notable goods include coffee, sugar, bananas, wine, and honey. Much like labels that carry with them a trusted slogan like “made in the USA,” products that are certified as “fair trade” have concrete and relevant value with exceptional quality.
Mainstream agricultural producers have formed a virtual monopoly. Their goods can be mass produced, sold, and shipped at the lowest cost possible undercutting smaller farmers that operate more sustainable practices.
Fair trade organizations are responsible for getting the little guy in the big game and raising awareness to promote change in international trade.
Buy fair trade and visit the following websites for more information:
Discussed: Disconnect/Phobia of Nature, Community Supported Agriculture, Federal Trade Commission, Industry Supported Lies, Center for Global Food Issues, Chemical Farming, Monsanto, Against the Grain, Permacultureand Ancient Agriculture
There are a few voices that speak with resonant clarity through the noise of the “too much information generation.” They are the conscientious mavericks whose passion and diligence in finding the truth of things have elevated them beyond mere mortal thoughtless drones but as hyper-human change makers, or as we like to call them, superheroes.
One such individual is Anna Lappe, co-autohor of Gruband Hope’s Edge, founding principal for the Small Planet Institute and the Small Planet Fund. Her literary work brandishes a samurai blade in the face of the chemically tainted, spurious battle against the evils of the commercial agriculture and biotech industries. Her ambitious work with the Small Planet Institute prods and ignites the basic human tendency toward social mimicry by generating a broad spectrum of “entry points” through media to understand, accept, and impart democratic social change.
See below for more photos from the MINI Space Rooftop: Sustainability Roundtable Discussion:
For the full transcript of this interview, click below.
While the United States Food and Drug Administration is in bed with Big Plastic, Americans continue to suffer from obesity, heart attacks, and breast cancer.
Bisphenol A, or BPA for short, is a chemical compound that controls the hardness or softness of almost all the plastic products you can get your hands on. Since the 1930s, BPA has been known to be inherently toxic, effecting the way hormones grow, contributing to the growth of cancer cells with even the slightest contact.
Here’s the scary part: The FDA declares BPA harmless which explains why you’ll find it in things like baby bottles, flatware, and the lining of canned food.
With billions of consumer dollars behind Big Plastic, a growing concern of health advocates is that the FDA has been paid off to keep the truth of this nasty additive behind closed doors.
All things equal, buy organic plastics and ask questions when unsure.
For more on the harmful effects of BPA and where to find BPA-free products, visit the following links:
With eco-awareness having such omnipresence in our daily lives, many Green terms have entered our vocabulary. It was only a matter of time that they made the transition from eco-catchphrases to household names.
Japanese companies have decided to pursue a marketing platform, already tested in the United Kingdom, by labeling food and household products with their carbon footprints. Labeling adds an extra incentive for companies to be greener in their production processes for they act as another form of competitive edge in marketing campaigns. But will the carbon footprint labels an impact on customers? Will they eventually overtake the biggest purchasing factor: the price?
Blinded by the barrage of eco-friendly stickers on your everyday products?
Deafened by the earthy tones of green marketing verbiage?
Greenwashing is the process by which companies mislead consumers regarding environmentally friendly products. You see it everyday, stickers that read, “natural, green, earth friendly…” you know the drill.
Here are some key terms to watch out for:
1.) Organic- according to food industry standards, organic food is grown without conventional pesticides, artificial fertilizers, human waste, or sewage sludge. If you see the USDA Organic Seal, that’s a safe choice.
2.) Environmentally Preferred - There is nothing about plastic or rubber that the environment prefers, so watch out for this term alongside unnatural or inorganic products.
3.) Sustainable - there is no standardized definition of sustainable in the context of commerce. Sustainability implies permanence in nature so be especially aware of this term.
While there are many well-intentioned companies doing good things, protect yourself from greenwashing by understanding certain simple terms.
With a third of our country’s waste problem completely avoidable, it’s interesting to follow the progress of a developing market that hinges on it’s removal and recycling.
Ed Gildea, CEO of Converted Organics, shared a few moments with us to discuss the process and ethos of turning food waste into organic fertilizers. Ed’s background in law and finance coupled with the sustainable business policies formulated by his brother, Bill Gildea, set him up as one of the leading visionaries in the restructuring of American waste stream management.
It’s your first date and you’re at the pricey seafood restaurant of her choice. You want to impress and seem savvy by ordering the “right” dish. You seem to remember reading something about tuna… yeah, tuna… it’s bad right? Wait… or was it salmon… or grouper? DANGIT!!!
Before you soak your shirt with anxiety and opt for the garden salad, your aquaculture-alert-on-the-go cell phone function has arrived… introducing, Fish Phone!
Our fishing-forward friends a the Blue Ocean Institute are the master mariners behind the “first sustainable seafood text messaging service.” From geared up smart phone users to pay-as-you-gosters, anyone can tap the up-to-the-nanosecond news on species with significant environmental concerns.
The fish are ranked according to Blue Ocean’s evaluation of species’ life history, abundance, in the wild, habitat concerns, and catch method or farming system. Health advisories are also provided indicating unsafe levels of mercury, PCBs, and dioxins.
Now take a deep breath, order the halibut, and get on with the courtship you eco STUD!
Every year 25 million tons of solid waste is entering our landfills but can it be used to grow healthier crops?
With food prices choking our wallets, you may be surprised how wasteful Americans are with food. Whether it’s fresh food gone bad or throwing good food out, 27 percent of all edible food produced in the US never even makes it to our plates.
One company though sees the food waste stream as a way to benefit the community. Ed Gildea, CEO of Converted Organics.
With forward-thinkers like Ed, our country’s mounting trash may soon be a thing of the past and the promise of a Greener future.
What does it mean for the future of farming and the survival of humanity?
It’s best understood through its roots, permanent and agriculture: Something permanent exists perpetually without significant change and agriculture is the science and art of cultivating land, livestock, and crops. The combination forms the basis of permaculture, where we give back to the land as much as we take.
Permaculture provides us with a toolkit for how we can inhabit our world through integration instead of domination. By careful attention to life’s full spectrum from mammals to microbes, permaculture can sustain huge populations without disrupting nature’s delicate balance.
To find out where you can visit, volunteer, apprentice, and enjoy permaculture sites in your area, the links below should help get you started:
It’s backyard bar-b-que season and what better way to entertain than to grill Green!
Aside from cooking organic vegetables and free range meats this summer, here are some ways to prepare your grillables that’ll satisfy both mother earth and your mother-in-law.
1.) Use natural gas to power your BBQ. While it is a petroleum-based product, it burns the cleanest and can last the longest.
2.) Avoid a flavor foul with lighter fluid on wood and charcoal burning grills by replacing it with a chimney starter. Charcoal does burn dirty but look for eco brands like Kamado and Greenlink that don’t contribute to deforestation or contain harmful additives.
And 3.) Choose a grilling surface that will distribute heat evenly and last a long time. Stainless steel is still the best choice but like the more common chrome plated aluminum surfaces, they can easily oxidize and become toxic if not properly cared for.
I’ve been bestowed the Greenest graces of friend and fellow blogger, Tracy Fay, author and founder of ModernUrbanLiving.com to share her inspiration and simple tips on urban composting. We look forward to more from Tracy and if anyone is interested in guest posting, I’m all ears!
Yours,
Rich
————————————————————–
I have many fond memories of the garden my family kept at our Colorado home. One memory stands out above all others is my step father’s almost fanatical devotion to composting. Thanks to his constant drilling we became accustomed to saving all the leftover food scraps for the compost pile we kept in the corner of our garden.
Now far removed from the mountains of my home state, I still experience a strong twinge of guilt every time I toss an apple core or an orange peel in the garbage. I always thought composting wasn’t exactly conducive to living in a cramped New York City apartment. Then I read a post on Green Air that inspired me to challenge that perception and I designed a simple but effective solution to help do my part for the environment and banish my gardening guilt forever.
![[Post to Twitter]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-twitter.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Digg]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-digg.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to Reddit]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-reddit.png){kind=icon}
![[Post to StumbleUpon]](/wp-content/plugins/tweet-this/icons/tt-su.png){kind=icon}
