Wow--Canada likely to ban bisphenol-a as a toxin

Don't miss this article in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/16/business/worldbusiness/16plastic.html

Bisphenol-a, which has been shown to disrupt the hormonal systems of animals, is present in most hard baby bottles, Nalgene bottles, the inside lining of almost all canned goods, and many other hard plastics. Go Canada! I wonder how long it will take for the U.S. to catch up?

Pending Nuptials

After working in the flower industry for many years I saw a lot of weddings, and after awhile they all started to look the same. After becoming engaged last year my finance and I decided that it was more important to have a wedding that reflected us and our values, and that we did not need to do what all the magazines were telling us. Part of not leaving our values in the wedding magazine was trying to have a low impact wedding. While we are not perfect we are doing several thing:

1. Organic and sustainable caterer.
2. Edible Favors: We made jam at the end of last summer from the fruit on the trees at Nathan's family's house.
3. No plastic bottles: Placerville has naturally clean and delicious water, so no need for bottle water.
4. No extra crap: We don't want to throw away a lot of stuff at the end of the night. We choose our location because it is meaningful to us and it is beautiful. We are not going to add very many embellishments to the decor. The embellishments we are adding can, for the most part, be resold or reused after the wedding.
5. I bought a sample dress: A brand new dress is not being manufactured for me.
6. Something old: I bought old bottles off of Ebay to use as vases. The table number frames also came from Ebay and were used in developing film.
7. Reuse: The bar and the road signs are being made out of wood that Nathan reclaimed from an old chicken coop.


The unexpected gift of trying to have less of an impact is that we are spending more time thinking about what is important to us and how should that come across at our wedding. Doing this has really made the wedding a process and not just a party.

Every act is a political act...

I was at the farmer's market on Tuesday and happened to read the sign that stated that buying directly from farmers increases their revenue by 40%. It really struck me how much impact we have collectively from so many decisions we make every day...whether we buy something in plastic or cardboard, whether the food is local or not, buying recycled toilet paper and office paper, whether something is made from the mega-corn business products, or not. These decisions go to the heart of not only our environment, but also to politics and big business. These small acts of defiance are a way to "just say no" to all the forces that are thinking of the world in the old terms--that resources and people are limitless, there for the taking, and that only the efficient exploitation of those resources count. It is kind of fun to think through the chain of events that we trigger when we open our wallets, and realize that there is power there. And if we know it, and can afford to, we must make those choices that make the most sense for our world because we aren't innocent bystanders in the give and take of the market. We are giving valuable input to the machine of business of where money is going, and what choices drive those spending decisions.