How to do this Green thing

Greatnonprofits.org

2009-04-01T11:18:00.000-07:00

I just got contacted by these guys. what a great idea!

"I'm with a nonprofit organization called GreatNonprofits -- it's a (badly needed) Yelp for the nonprofit world, with the mission of adding transparency and accountability to a sector that desperately needs it. We all love the hard work nonprofits do, but we think there's a place for opinions and reviews by everyday people!

The was founded by a veteran of social innovation from the Stanford University Social Innovation group; our site launched last year and is going strong. For Earth Day we're holding our first ever Green Choice Awards -- a contest to identify the best environmental nonprofits out there, according to everyday, concerned reviewers. Nonprofits as big as the NRDC and Greenpeace will be reviewed alongside small, focused, local groups...think Alaska's Iditarod Trail Committee or the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture. Everyone and everything is game -- hundreds of reviews specifically on environmental nonprofits. Good, bad, scathing, praising -- you name it!

It's easy to follow the contest on Twitter at @GreatNonprofits -- they're using the hashtag #greenchoice"."

This idea is great because you can help by sharing your knowledge of environmental and green-focused nonprofits with the world, making both the nonprofit sector more efficient, as well as giving people an idea of where to put their time and money to good use...especially in such a resource-strapped economy.

Please check them out, and give planetfesto a little boost if you are so inclined.

Great NYT article on health-conscious parenting

2009-02-13T09:03:00.000-08:00

Thought this article just about said it all about the balancing act we play as parents as we obsess about plastics for our kids' lunches, and then find out that the air they breathe at school might be toxic. This is by an amazing writer, and fellow parent in Sebastian's preschool class, Peggy Orenstein. Well worth checking out here.

More news on High Fructose Corn Syrup

2009-01-28T16:36:00.000-08:00

John and I were just talking the other day about whether HFCS is just bad for you because it is so high in sugar, or whether it is also bad because it is concentrating toxins from the (cheapest) growing and processing methods (read, most toxic...). I get to work today and see the following email from Kathryn from the Green Fork Blog...

FDA Has Known for Years of Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup (EatWellBlog)
by Nathan Shedroff - Tuesday, 27 January 2009, 09:45 PM

Our Melamine: There's Mercury in High Fructose Corn Syrup, and the FDA Has
Known for Years
by Leslie [links at url]

Maybe Jeremy Piven didn't get mercury poisoning from fish at all — according
to the results of this new study released by the Institute for Agriculture
and Trace Policy (IATP), the actor may well have been sickened by soda or
candy or anything that contains high fructose corn syrup, which, if you eat
processed food in this country means, well, just about anything.

Foodies and nutritionists alike have been griping about high fructose corn
syrup for years, and the industry has responded with an "astroturf" campaign
and a level of secrecy generally reserved for the military officials or
secret societies (see Corn Refiners' Association president Audrae Erickson's
stonewalling performance in King Corn).

Of course, I wouldn't want to show my hand either, if the making of my
product could be described as undertaking a small "Manhattan Project" (see
eye-glazing production info here). But as it turns out, the HFCS industry
has been hiding some major skeletons in its closet — according to the IATP
study (pdf), over 30% of products containing the substance tested positive
for mercury.

What makes this news truly shocking is not just that the manufacturers of
high fructose corn syrup would put consumers' health at risk, but that the
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) knew about the mercury in the syrup
and has been sitting on this information since 2005.

Here's the connection, according to the IATP press release (pdf) announcing
the study: The IATP study comes on the heels of another study, conducted in
2005 but only recently published by the scientific journal, Environmental
Health, which revealed that nearly 50 percent of commercial HFCS samples
tested positive for the heavy metal. Renee Dufault, who was working for the
FDA at the time, was among the 2005 study's authors.

Here's how the mercury gets in there, according to Janet at the Ethicurean:

How did the heavy metal get in there? In making HFCS — that "natural"
sweetener, as the Corn Refiners Associaton likes to call it — caustic soda
is one ingredient used to separate corn starch from the corn kernel.
Apparently most caustic soda for years has been produced in industrial
chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants, where it can be contaminated with mercury
that it passes on to the HFCS, and then to consumers.

And here's more from the press release:

"While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with
mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change
industry practice or conduct additional testing."

And on why it matters:

"Mercury is toxic in all its forms," said IATP's David Wallinga, M.D., and a
co-author in both studies. "Given how much high fructose corn syrup is
consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury
never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry
and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food
supply."

In China, heads might roll over a scandal like this one, at least if the
country received global attention for its allowing corrupt health officials'
greasy palms come before, um, public health.

Of course, in this country, Dufault's neck is safe. But what about the
health of American consumers? Let's see the Corn Refiner's Association try
to spin this one.

Earth Hour

2009-01-17T06:35:00.000-08:00

In 2007, 2.2 million people took part in the world's first Earth Hour in Sydney Australia. Just one year later, 50 million people in 370 cities and towns, in more than 35 countries worldwide switched off their lights for Earth Hour.

Earth Hour 2009 aims to reach more than one billion people in 1000 cities around the world, inviting communities, business and governments to switch off lights for one hour at 8:30pm on Saturday March 28 and sending a powerful global message that we care enough about climate change to take action.

For more information, click here.

No to Coal Power Plant

2008-10-06T03:47:00.000-07:00

Source : http://vixa.com/openlettersandakan.html and please give us your support by signing the petition.

An open letter from Sandakan.

From KL to Sandakan on Air-Asia is a fast 2 plus hours and one is ready to enjoy friendly hospitality, fresh-seafood and the embrace of mother nature. On our MAS, Malaysia's National Carrier it takes a bit longer - 2 hops and almost a day. Besides seafood, Sandakan is also well known to Westerners as the sanctuary for Oran Utan, Proboscis monkeys and endangered Turtles (on Turtle Island). To Australians, Sandakan is known for her War Memorial dedicated to our Aussie heroes marched to their death in WW2. To be fair, Sandakan was also captured in a less known Japanese "B" movie of the same name. She is also home to the famous American writer Agnes Keith who once lived here with her family and was inspired to write of her experiences about the Land under the wind. Her house now stands as a tourist attraction show-casing how the whites lived in paradise as it was then (after the Government spend millions fixing the old home at the hill top). Even books were written about the non-white inhabitants - The Towkays of Sabah - better known for clan rivalry to exploiting timber trade. Setting aside its historical moments, Sandakan always stood as a refuge for us who have made it our home since grandpa's time, all stood proud when she was crowned with the Title - Nature City, a first in Malaysia.

In early 2008, Sandakan woke up to the prospect of hosting a 300 MW Coal powered plant at her door-steps, courtesy of the Government and the Sabah Electricity S/B (subsidiary of Tenaga Bhd).This Coal powered plant was earlier rejected by Lahad Datu (a nearby town) because it might endanger or damage Meliau Basin and its prehistoric flora/fauna. If the Government have their way with Sabah Electricity, they will put a 300 MW Coal powered plant in Sandakan and more specifically (though unconfirmed) in the Palm Oil Industrial Cluster (POIC) which is situated a stone throw from two housing estates (towards north) and to the forest reserves for Oran Utan (towards west). Sandakan town sits a close 14 km to the east.

A group of businessmen (from Chinese Chambers of Commerce) have been tirelessly opposing this and have gathered over 30,000 signatures from the locals. To be fair, they have even toured other Coal powered plants in Malaysia and they are firm on rejecting the Coal powered plant which speaks volume considering their street smart dealings in spotting opportunities and characters. However more importantly, the health reason is well known due to its inherent danger of micro-particles which are trappable in the lungs of the vulnerable young and old.

Interestingly this throws up TWO questions which are why COAL and WHY in Sandakan? What did Sandakan do or did not do to deserve this ? No responses from the relevant authorities to date to answer the call for Coal or Sandakan or both. In fact the only response from them (Sabah Electricity S/B) is a rhetorical reply asking the public to present other viable alternatives to their liking if this Coal powered plant is to be questioned. Great, this already tells volume of the EIA report which by the way is not even ready. For the uninitiated, Coal powered plants are well studied and well known to be the least favorable option of all the alternatives even with the soaring costs of other alternatives. For example SierrraClub provides a link to show how bad it is http://www.sierraclub.org/coal/ and that is only the surface. With information at our finger tips, our leaders must think we are slow or unassuming and we so easily cowed by their irresponsiveness, as a sign of their strength or ignorance ?

Be that as it may, Sabah (the State) in fact has voluminous off shore gas (if they had not already pre-sold to the Japanese by Petronas- since no one is saying) and this should be considered the better alternative requires little mental effort. In fact, a combination of gas, biodiesel, solar (being in the tropics) and biomass should be considered given Sandakan is the uncrown palm oil capital of Malaysia. Anyone with some common sense could see Coal is not the answer to problematic electricity problem. In fact, this was the first excuse the Sabah Electricity S/B gave to pacify the population. It is no secret that the main issue with blackouts in Sandakan has to do with maintenance and the lack of it, as stated by a former Minister who was also a former employee. It is often that after a heavy downpour the electricity goes out because some trees fell and tripped the lines. There are unconfirmed rumors that equipment used in the current power plant are reconditioned from other states which may partially explain its dire state. After all, Sandakan is still the record holder with the most blackouts in Malaysia but we don't really mind given the alternative. Dinner by candle lights ? Blackouts give more quality time with family watching fireflies instead of TV or playing computer games. Some tourists that I know were delighted because they had not experienced a blackout before. Fancy that.

Why Sandakan ? Most cities in Sabah are connected by a national power grid which means one can have the Coal powered plant plugged anywhere on the grid. Logically, this could be at a site of most opportune (read cheap) and logistically convenient. I assume the Coal powered plant will be located at the POIC but to be fair no official announcement on this has been made to date. The POIC is a 1000 acs development to enhance the Palm Oil Industry. The proponent has a website here http://www.sawitpoic.com/ and is offering RM 12 (US 3.64) per square feet. A typical Coal powered plant will take up at least 300 acs of land with a further 100 acs for its waste (ash). But who are the real proponents of the POIC ? In fact, the entire POIC was acquired through the infamous Land Acquisitions Ordinance of Sabah and some of the former owners are already complaining in Court. So who else have so much power in this State besides the Chief Minister ? Well, that will be the Yang Di-Pertua Negeri or Governor but the Constitution of Sabahonly allows him to act on advice (but whose advice?). With a stroke of a pen he declared over 100 landowners' land to be acquired for POIC under "public purposes". Those with financial backing will contest else will have to accept whatever compensation by the State (however distasteful) which may come only at the State's convenience (read - years from now).

Finally, the Local Council (in Malaysia local councilors are unelected and positioned by their political masters) is trying to rezone the entire area designated for POIC from preservation of hilltop to special industrial (an unknown term), a process which actually requires public participation-feedback from the displaced landowners under the Town and Country Planning Ordinance. So far no notice was published in the newspaper or gazetted for this rezoning. I was informed that this was not required as its rezoning is by an 'amendment' to a previous Sandakan Draft Plan 2003. Sounds a bit controversial to me. For some understanding of Sabah law goto www.sabahlaw.com.

So at the end of the day or night wherever you may be, I hope you will put in a word or two for us in opposing this monstrosity and be disgusted in the manner how this was forced upon us, not forgetting how this will definitely and positively add more carbon dioxide to the environment, affecting our climate (yes yours too) and probably causing us to be homeless due to rising sea-levels. Yes, we will miss our seafood or blackouts but we do not have any choices as mere citizenry. But you have choices, please write to the Prime Minister of Malaysia (if he is willing to listen) http://www.pmo.gov.my/, and complaint about the Chief Minister of Sabah and the proponent (http://www.sesb.com.my/) or vote on this http://www.PetitionOnline.com/sootcity/petition.html.

Do give a thought for our environment. It is yours too (when you come visit).

From Chris Kwan
Hope,Faith & Charity
3 Oct 2008

Trader Joe's cardboard boxes BPA-free

2008-09-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

Following up on the last post, in which I said I'd post the response from Trader Joe's when they got back to me about whether the cardboard containers for things like chicken broth and tomatoes contained BPA.

I'm pretty sure I've attained "crazy health scare lady" status in the customer service office over there, but it's worth it because I've discovered a BPA-free, reasonably priced, and domestically grown and produced alternative to canned tomatoes. Bring on the big Italian meals!

Here's the response from Nicki at Trader Joe's (response from September 26, 2008):

The Trader Joe's products that are in carton like boxes (soy
milks,broths,etc..,) do not contain BPA. These are manufactured in foil lined cardboard material containers. I hope this helps you with your concerns and we are here if you have any other questions.

BPA liners in cans at Trader Joe's

2008-09-26T08:37:00.000-07:00

I use canned beans and tomatoes regularly in cooking, but have become increasingly concerned with the BPA liners. So I was researching which, if any, brands don't have the liners, and kept coming across claims that Trader Joe's didn't use BPA liners in their cans.

I really like Trader Joe's, have been shopping there for more than a decade, and buy almost all my canned pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo beans, canned tomatoes, and white beans there. For a while I relied on the second-hand reports, drifting along on the hope that the company didn't sell BPA-lined canned products.

The other day, I finally got around to asking them first-hand. I'll paste the important parts of the response below, but summarize by saying that, though some canned products (most notably the canned meats), don't have BPA liners, products like tomatoes and beans do.

What does that mean for my habits? Well, I now feel compelled to start using more dried beans. In his book How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, Mark Bittman offers handy tips for speeding up the soaking/cooking dried beans process, so I'll probably check that out. He also recently wrote a NYT article singing the praises of reanimating your own garbanzos, which gives me more reason to make the switch.

As far as the canned tomatoes go, I've been slowly switching over to those in glass jars or those waxed cardboard packs (I've written to TJ's to see if they have any BPA in them-I'll post that response too). Right now it's a moot point because it's tomato season, but as summer fades, I'll be turning to preserved options again.

So here's the Trader Joe's response, received on September 25, 2008:

To be clear, we do have canned items with linings that contain BPA and in this way we are in the same position as all other retail grocers.
Canned items in our stores WITH BPA lining in the cans: beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce & paste, soups, chili, and stew. Canned items in our stores that DO NOT have BPA lining in the cans: seafood (tuna, salmon, herring, sardines, etc.), chicken, turkey & beef.

Bridging the gap between farm and table

2008-07-10T10:12:00.001-07:00

Just finished this quick read about Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSAs) in the New York Times. The article, titled Cutting Out the Middlemen, Shoppers Buy a Slice of Farms, takes a look at the growing trend of people finding more direct relationships with their foods and farmers.

In early spring, I joined a CSA run by a farm based in Winters, California- about an hour and a half from where I live. Before joining, I'd "borrowed" my sisters farm box when she was away on vacation, just to try out the system.

I like it, but there is something overwhelming about being confronted with a large quantity of similar foods every week. For instance, at first, I was totally pumped about receiving a pound of zucchini and a pound of summer squash each week. I made summer vegetable latkes, grilled them, made my own veggie burgers, and more. But I'm running out of recipes. This is hardly an insurmountable obstacle, but it does require a slight rethinking about how to find recipes. I'm now more interested in the spate of farmers' market cookbooks that have come out in the last few years, those that offer many ideas for each produce type.

Really, I think this is going to take a concerted effort on my part to create my own personal seasonal cookbook. Which is an idea I really like. But liking and doing...well you know how that goes.

Our God-Given Right

2008-05-02T09:07:00.000-07:00

OK, I know I am showing my elitist, blue-state bias even more than normal...but who ever said that we bloated, eco-centric, short-sighted Americans have a God-given right to drive our gas-guzzling monstrosities as much as we want...WITH THE CHEAPEST GAS POSSIBLE?? I was shocked by an internet chain letter thing I received recently with some boycott scheme to take the oil companies to task and force them to lower prices. My response was, lower gas prices are the last thing we need. Maybe through some sort of market perversion the true cost of gas is beginning to emerge. Markets don't price for externalities, but what if we did? How expensive would gas be per gallon if it took into account the beginnings of the partially climate-induced food shortages and resulting civil unrest that is already hitting parts of the emerging world? How many few cents extra would you put in to account for the disappearance of the polar bears? How about the many other species on the verge of extinction? Would that maybe dillute our desires to drive our SUVs hundreds of miles on a spur of the moment trip? Or how about the guy on NPR who was complaining that is was getting hard to fill up his Chevy Tahoe every day for his 80-mile round trip commute...

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

2008-04-16T10:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-15T18:00:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-04-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Now or later?

2008-03-11T06:37:00.000-07:00

I just saw this Dallas Morning News article about the the dilemma American Airlines (and I'm sure other airlines as well) is currently working through about whether to replace its old planes with newer more efficient models or hold out a few more years for the next generation of efficiency.

The upcoming Boeing 787 (and the Airbus competitor, the A350XWB) is "a smaller wide-body aircraft that uses improved engines and lighter-weight composite material to save fuel." However, there's not yet a production timetable, which means that airlines such as American are just kind of dragging their feet, but with the second-oldest fleet among the big U.S. domestic carriers, decisions will have to be made soon.

The get-it-now-or-wait-for-higher-efficiency-models question isn't limited to large companies. I've been struggling with the same question whenever I think about bigger-ticket items such as solar panels. I've heard that the technology will improve by leaps and bounds in the next half decade.

If I started using solar panels now, I would be supporting the industry and I would be able to turn some of that sunshine that I can see out my window right now into energy. But then in a few years I'd be stuck with a relatively inefficient system and if I upgraded, would be creating more waste, and complicated waste at that. What to do, what to do?

More true cost thinking

2008-02-25T07:30:00.000-08:00

In an earlier post, I lamented the difficulty of accurately assessing the true environmental cost of most things, and how tricky that made choosing between options when faced with decisions such as paper or plastic, real or fake Christmas tree, new hybrid car or existing relatively-good mileage vehicle, organic or conventional mattress, and so on.

This week's New Yorker has a very interesting article taking on the challenges of that broad view. Big Foot (a reference to the carbon footprint), by Michael Specter, is available online, and worth a read.

He starts out looking at various companies' efforts to green up, dives into the heart of food miles, points out how carbon shouldn't be the only part of an environmental calculation, offers some surprising examples in which products imported from far away are lower impact than those produced closer by (for instance, wine from California versus from Bordeaux and roses from Holland versus Kenya), and explores the world of carbon emissions exchange markets. I haven't yet finished the article, but right now he's writing about how one of the most effective things we could possibly to is to slow or stop deforestation in Brazil and Indonesia.

It's a good read, and one that, three-quarters of the way through the article, I recommend highly. Now I'm off to finish reading.

EWC Eco Panel Exhibition

2008-02-14T04:17:00.000-08:00

A former student of mine who is currently a lecturer and researcher in one of the local university in Malaysia had informed me regarding on this Earth Watching Club Eco Panel Exhibition that will be held in Japan early March. My school is thrilled to participate in the exhibition and I thought it's good to spread the news to all. We have two more weeks in sending materials to be part of it. And to those who interested, there's time! It can be anything that you had contributed towards conserving mother nature.

These are some of the photos of the exhibition that was held last year. May these photos and the details below be a great help.

***********

Earth Watching Club Eco Panel Exhibition

Earth Watching Club (EWC) is a community-based environmental learning project funded by the city of Nishinomiya, Japan. There are 29,000 Japanese schoolchildren who are participating. We carry out many kinds of "Eco-Actions" on a daily basis to make our community a better place to live not just for ourselves, but for all the people and creatures on Earth - and especially for the generations to come. We know our planet is filled with like-minded young people who care about our environment, cultures, peace and future.

This is an annual exhibition providing young people with the opportunity, both from Japan and abroad, to present their opinions, research, projects and activities on local and global environmental issues. We receive so many exciting works every year from Japan and abroad, ranging from tiny, little craftworks to wall-size presentations on various environmental projects. We treat each and every works equally and display all of them at the gallery. So, let's share our visions, and make our voices heard!

THEME:
Please introduce your thoughts, ideas, and activities related to your local environmental/ sustainable issues in this year. What happened concerning the environment in your community this year? What kinds of activities did you enjoy doing? Air Pollution, Climate Change, Human Rights, Water, Biodiversity, Nature Conservation, Food, Peace, Waste and Recycling and so on... Please send in any project, research, artwork, activity or study report YOU THINK is related to local and global environmental/sustainability issues that interested you most this year.

WHO can apply? --- All Earth Lovers!
Any group or individual who is involved in studies or activities related to ecological and environmental issues is invited to take part in this exhibition. NO AGE LIMIT, either. As long as you consider yourself to be a youth member of your community, you are all welcome!

WHAT is the project size and medium? --- Be Creative!
Participants are free to choose any medium they wish to use for their presentations. Some ideas you might try are... wall-size newspaper, photography, video, drama, handicraft, drawing, newsletter, poster, written composition...Create your presentation in any medium that suits your ideas and imagination! There is only one limitation, though; language... All works will kindly be presented in English or Japanese. If you are submitting your works in any other language, please provide us with easy English (or Japanese) translation.

WHEN to submit? --- No later than February, 2008!
Your work will be translated into Japanese by our citizen volunteer translators for presentation. In order to give us enough time for the translation job, please send in your works as early as possible. Mark the date on your calendar so you won't miss it!

WHERE to submit?
Please send your works by post, fax, or e-mail to the address below:

EWC (Earth Watching Club)
c/o LEAF office
1-8-1 Kofuen, Nishinomiya Shi, Hyogo Prefecture
662-0832 JAPAN
Telephone and fax: +81-798-69-1185
E-mail: kodomo@leaf.or.jp

The Eco-Panel Exhibition is interactive!
You will receive comments and messages from the visitors at the Exhibition! All the visitors at the Exhibition will have a chance to let you know what they thought and felt about your works. They will make comments and write messages to you at the message corner. We will translate all the messages into English and send them to you.

Your participation will be recognized with a Letter of Appreciation from the Mayor of Nishinomiya City (declared as the Environmental Learning City of Japan), together with a Small Token from EWC, as well as Messages from Visitors at the Eco-Panel Exhibition!! Please note that your works will not be returned and will remain in the organizer archive.

[For Your Information]
A brief introduction of ourselves, LEAF..Through the initiative of Nishinomiya City, Learning and Ecological Activities Foundation for Children (LEAF) was established in 1998 as an organization based on partnership among citizens, businesses and the municipal government. Earth Watching Club (EWC) is managed under this foundation. Our aim is to contribute to the development of a sustainable society by initiating community-based environmental learning activities at schools and in local communities, in liaison with various civic groups, corporations and government agencies. We hope our activities will target a wide range of citizens with a focus on youths and children, to raise the global citizens who act responsibly towards the global environment.

***
LEARNING AND ECOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES
FOUNDATION FOR CHILDREN (LEAF)
1-8-1 Kofuen, Nishinomiya City, Hyogo
662-0832 JAPAN
TEL: +81-798-69-1185
FAX: +81-798-69-1186
E-mail: kodomo@leaf.or.jp
http://leaf.or.jp/

Less meat, big impact

2008-01-28T12:08:00.000-08:00

I just read this New York Times article, which offers a global view of the impact of meat eating. Now I've known for a long time that meat has a much larger impact on the environment than plants, but this article offers some compelling statistics and offers a general sense about the actual effects of cutting back on meat consumption.

In the last year or so, I've been aiming towards eating a meatless dinner at least twice a week, though since I'm not a huge soy fan, I've found it challenging to not just substitute a meat dish for a cheese-intensive one, and I find that my skin is much nicer when I'm not eating tons of cheese.

I've been looking into getting some vegetarian cookbooks beyond the Moosewood and some old hippie cookbooks my mom had for years. My friend Erica suggested cookbooks by Debra Madison.

Makeup discoveries

2008-01-24T14:14:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I went into Elephant Pharmacy to freshen the supplies, and to try to get rid of the things I am still using that have yucky things in them like parabens.

I stumbled upon the Jane Iredale line of makeup and I loved it. It's mineral based, but seems to work much better for me than the stuff from Essentials, which STILL contains parabens and has always been pretty gloppy and obvious when it's on. I got a pressed powder of Jane's, some wonderful eye shadow, and a great lipstick. They look and feel terrific.

I also picked up a great moisturizer with mineral-based SPF and a slight tint that I really like called by Marie-Veronique. Great, great, great discovery.

Pollan strikes again

2008-01-24T14:04:00.000-08:00

Last night I finished Michael Pollan's latest: In Defense of Food. This book is exciting, brilliant, readable, and for us, life changing. His premise is: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." What sounds so simple and basic becomes a foundation for a fascinating look at how "nutricionism" has educated us that we simply can't understand how complex food is, that we should leave it to experts, and that they food that they engineer and manipulate is somehow superior. The result has been the overwhelming shift in the world's diets away from simple, readily recognizable foods to "food-like" substances created by the large food companies and marketed as healthy. All the while we are getting fatter and sicker.

This book has been so freeing and inspiring. Continues to propel me along the farmer's market path, and feeling better and better about it. It also gives me this wonderful sense that I never have to read another article on the "scientific" this or that about food. This is my pledge: to eat a wide variety of simple, unprocessed foods grown locally and sustainably when ever possible. And not to worry about anything else!

Whirley Pop

2008-01-24T13:59:00.000-08:00

So, no word from our friends at Cuisinart about the nonstick coating on the popcorn maker, so back it went to gracious and accommodating Williams-Sonoma. Clerk: "I wouldn't have anything with a nonstick coating in my kitchen either."

Ended up buying a contraption that looks like it is right out of the 1950's...and it is! Called a Whirley Pop, it's an aluminum pan with a cover and crank handle that powers an arm that circles the bottom of the pan and keeps the kernals moving. Works beautifully. Only problem is the aluminum. John pointed it out and I said that HE could return the popcorn maker this round. I think we might try to find a stainless steel pot the same size and just use the clever top with crank and rotator.

teflon troubled

2008-01-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Caught up in the throes of after-Christmas shopping I bought a great popcorn maker for the family. By Cuisinart, cool design, easy, works wonderfully. We pulled it out of the box, all excited, and realized it had a nonstick surface. We've been hearing bits and pieces of bad news about teflon--that we all have it in our blood, that at high temperatures it can cause the "teflon flu," a passing sickness with fever and coughing that is our lungs recovering from teflon exposure, that birds in or around kitchens where Teflon reaches high heat die. Yikes! It said no where on the box that the surface was in fact Teflon, nor did it say non-stick surface. I have emailed Cuisinart and asked them three questions:
1) If it's not Teflon, what is it?
2) Does it contain the chemical PFOA?
3) What testing have they done about whether it reacts with food either chemically, or at high heats?

No answer as of one week. I think I'll be returning my new toy.
More info at: http://www.ewg.org/reports/toxicteflon

How to calculate the true cost of things

2007-12-12T13:28:00.000-08:00

I just read this New York Times article about weighing the true impact of shopping and eating habits. In short, it looks at the ways in which eating locally is and isn't the best option from an environmental standpoint.

It was not only an interesting read, but was in line with a series of questions that I've been having lately. The questions all boil down to something I might call true cost. Some true cost questions are easier to find answers to than others.

For instance, I found an answer to the real or fake Christmas tree question in about two seconds flat. But other true cost questions aren't so easy. For instance, we have a very large and old gravity furnace in our house. Our family efficiency expert Nathan has told me that replacing the furnace would make more of a difference than getting insulation, and just yesterday when we were getting the attic insulated (we needed to get insulation to meet Berkeley efficiency standards), the insulation guy told me that both in terms of cost and efficiency, a new heater would make a huge difference.

But is the impact of manufacturing a whole new heater and ducts, putting the old one in a landfill, and properly disposing of the asbestos-covered ductwork really less than just leaving the old one as it is for now? With all those independent concerns, it's a hard question to answer confidently. My guess is that it's a matter of timing. Say, at year 10 of a new heater, the true cost balances out or something like that.

Is there a true cost website? Or does anyone know of a service which will help you figure it out? I have the same question about mattresses, cars, and a number of other items.

Great Green Wrapping Paper--in all colors!

2007-12-06T15:06:00.000-08:00

Check out:
http://www.papermojo.com/green_living.html

Wonderful designs and a good range of recycled and other sustainable wrapping papers.

Wrapping it up

2007-11-28T16:48:00.000-08:00

I need ideas of "green" wrapping paper for the holidays!!! I refuse to recycle bags of wrapping paper once again come December 26th.

Nathan and Kathryn recently wrapped a present in blueprints, which was fun, but most of have limited access to them. I have definitely thought about newspaper, of course, but we don't get the paper delivered anymore (just read online), and I really hate the look. What kinds of things can be used that are charming, and dare I say, pretty, as well?

Ideas...ideas?

Heritage Turkeys

2007-11-28T16:36:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving we decided to buy heritage turkeys--"old" breeds of turkeys that are being raised. The Slow Food movement has gotten behind this trend as a way to "save" these breeds of turkeys. A few different local stores offered this choice (albeit high-end food boutiques and butchers), but I was pleased to see it as prevalent as it was.
So for the real question--how did it taste? DELICIOUS. Not at all gamey, much more dark meat than usual because these turkeys aren't bred to have abnormally huge breasts, like the widespread, commercially available ones are. (Don't think that I didn't pause to make a joke here, but decided to keep to the high ground...) The meat was moist, very flavorful, and a huge success. It will be what I will be purchasing for years to come.

Locavore is the word of the year

2007-11-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

Oxford American Dictionary just announced the winner of its Word of the Year competition, and it's locavore! The word describing the act of cooking with local, fresh, and seasonal ingredients narrowly beat out contenders such as tase (to stun with a taser), colony collapse disorder, and the recently redefined "cougar."

Mangrove Tree Planting

2007-11-09T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Planting

On the 27th October 2007, 51 members and 5 teacher advisors of the Sung Siew Secondary School Nature Lovers Club, Scouts and Green or Been went to the Labuk Bay Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary for a mangrove trees replanting project. The team had planted 500 young trees successfully and this broke the Labuk Bay Proboscis Money Sanctuary’s record.

Many mangrove forests which are not protected were destroyed for development purposes. The proboscis monkeys will lose their habitat if the deforestation of mangrove trees continues without control. Thus, we hope the public will have the initiative to conserve the nature by participating in these kinds of meaningful activities.

They went to the replanting site and started with the clearing of ferns at mangrove forest followed by replanting project. All members were very co-operative when planting the 500 young mangrove trees and all had a great time and experiences.

Awareness among students should be raised so that the young generations will learn how to conserve nature in their early ages for a better tomorrow.

About Proboscis Monkey

Proboscis monkeys have large prominent noses. They have large, extended bellies, giving them the appearance of being permanently pregnant. The color of upper bodies of the monkeys are generally in pale grayish-yellow to reddish brown. The fur on their upper back tends to be darker while the lower section of their body re paler. Adult males have much larger nose than the female, the monkeys’ nose will swell and turns red when the monkey is excited or angry. Proboscis monkeys are also known as the “Dutchman Monkey”. Locals thought the monkeys and Kalimantan’s farmer colonial rulers.

a compact guide to CFL

2007-10-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

Somehow, in addition to the few other "projects" I have going in life (Planetfesto and two small kids and running a creative agency...) I have found myself helping to coordinate the distribution of 500 free compact fluorescent bulbs for my daughter's girl scout troop to give away in the community. (It's part of a sensational CFL give-away from PG&E through the Sierra Club--500K bulbs in all.)

We were talking about some top points to discuss with people when handing out bulbs, and here are some that have surfaced that I wouldn't have thought of unless I was doing this project...

replace the lights you use the most first
don't wait until your old bulbs burn out--the CFL bulbs are so much more efficient (80% savings) that it is simply not worth waiting for the old ones to die first.

make sure to recycle the CFL bulbs properly when they burn out (with batteries, paint, etc.) because they do contain tiny amounts of mercury. Don't throw them in the trash, or put them in with regular recycling.

Setting organic priorities

2007-10-23T13:58:00.001-07:00

I just finished reading this New York Times article about easy ways to go organic. For a long time, I kept a beat-up old photocopy of a chart showing which fruits and vegetables had the most pesticides, but it got lost in the move, and was from 1993 anyway. But it was really useful in considering which produce I should always buy organic (for instance, I now only buy organic or pesticide-free strawberries).

So this article offers a short and sweet summary of five foods that you should always buy organic. The list is milk, potatoes, peanut butter, ketchup, and apples. The only one of those I would have guessed is milk, so this article will certainly impact the way I shop.

Meeting your meat

2007-10-15T11:27:00.000-07:00

I used to have this feeling that the less I knew about the meat I was eating the better. Who wanted to dwell on the nastiness that I knew was inherent in the food chain? Why not just buy those little bits of meat wrapped in plastic at the grocery store and pretend that it had never really been an animal.

For a period of about a year I tried hard to be a vegetarian, but became increasingly sluggish, unable to think clearly, and heavier as a result. I seem to be one of those people who need protein, and lots of it.

Over the last year or so I have had an interesting evolution, and education, about what I'm eating. Spurred on by An Omnivore's Dilemma, I've become quite the farmers' market fan. And one of the main reasons is access to wonderful, sustainably-raised meat.

I used to walk by the meat stand and think "who would be foolish enough to buy meat at the farmers' market?", but the deeper I get into the subject, the more I now think about meat from the grocery store in those terms. It suddenly feels very odd to buy meat that I know nothing about--how it was raised, what it ate, how it lived, how it died. Somehow knowing details about all of these topics has made me so much more comfortable with my carnivore-self. And more responsible about how I walk on the planet.

Some things to look for/thoughts/observations. This is a big topic, so I am just scratching the surface here.

Cows were never meant to eat corn (or worse, to eat other cows...). Doing such unnatural things are a by-product of the mass industrialization of raising meat, and are for the profit and convenience of these ginormous corporations. It puts huge stress on the health of the animal, and leads to the need for antibiotics. Corn is pure sugar--the combination of feeding cows this much sugar and limiting their physical activity is what produces meat with the marbling of fat throughout. A lot like if we were to be confined to the couch and fed a diet of only Snickers Bars. I buy almost exclusively grass-fed meat now. The texture and taste is really different (and takes a bit of a change in cooking techniques). The bacon I'm getting is so lean that I often have to put oil in the pan to cook it!

The fats in meats that are raised that way they are meant to live is much, much healthier for you. I've been eating LOTS of red meat and my cholesterol is lower than ever before. Farmed salmon has higher levels of the "bad" fats than grass-fed meat.

Some farmers are working to increase the genetic diversity of sheep, cows, and pigs by raising "heritage" breeds (yes, like heritage tomatoes, only different...). These breeds have almost been lost because the don't have "high yield meat conversions", but do very, very well out grazing. They are hardy, strong, and lovely to have around. Gets us away from monoculture of breeds that perform best economically for the large companies.

Feed lots are nasty, nasty places. You don't want anything alive to have to live like that, nor frankly, do you want to eat anything that lived like that. If we are going to be carnivores we need to take responsibility that the animals we eat lived well, and lived in harmony with the environment.

A lot of what is passing for well-raised food, isn't. For instance, those Rosie "free-range" chickens are actually raised crammed in a giant barn with tiny door to the outside only opened in the last weeks of their lives--too late for them to have any interest in going out. Chickens have traditionally run around outdoors, eating a wide variety of grain and bugs, helping the soil as they go. I have been searching out eggs from such chickens (hard to find...) and the difference between these eggs and the "free-range" ones from the grocery store is dramatic. The yokes are bright orange and are much stronger--they stand up in the bowl and perfect spheres. If differences can be this dramatic at first glance, how many differences are there on nutritional and toxic levels? I reckon it's pretty dramatic.

I don't feel nearly as guilty eating meat.
I buy a lot of meat from Highland Hills Farm, for whom I have the greatest respect. http://www.highlandhillsfarm.com/. One of many small farms nationwide trying very hard to do absolutely the right thing.

(Photo Credit: Courtesy Dave Van Antwerp, www.WildRoseMeadows.com, borrowed from the www.highlandcattleUSA.org site)

Blog Action Day

2007-10-08T21:53:00.001-07:00

I saw this and thought its a good cause :-)

BLOG ACTION DAY

Simply click the link above.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.
Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. Simply click on the icon above for further information on it. :-)

Why I actually like to line dry clothes

2007-10-05T17:20:00.000-07:00

I got back on the laundry line drying bandwagon a couple of months ago. Since then, I've had a couple of startled friends declare "That's a line I won't cross! No way." So I had to come up with a reasoned rebuttal.

Here are my top 10 reasons for loving line drying:
1) I get to get out of the house and into the backyard when the kids are screaming, leaving john to cope, and I don't feel the least bit guilty because I am doing it FOR THE GOOD OF THE FAMILY AND THE ENVIRONMENT." I love the couple of moments of sanity.
2) I figure that it must be good for stretching, and for the upper arms.
3) The sun bleaches out all sorts of nasty stains. Need I say more?
4) Our electricity use in August went from 26 Kwh/day to 12.8. (Only changes were CF bulbs and much more line drying.)
5) My nice t-shirts last much longer and the vast majority of things can squeak through without being ironed.
6) Sheets turn out divinely. They are less wrinkly and smell wonderful. A real, natural clean.
7) Laundry goes a lot faster because you don't have the hold up of waiting for the dryer to finish.
8) Clothes that I've forgotten in the washer for a bit too long smell great by the time they are dry on the line.
9) I actually think it is pretty to see cotton blowing in the wind.
10) My mom loved it and there are precious few things that she did that I do now.

Some hints I've found:
-- Dry all clothes that you don't want to fade on a small rack inside. Some things that are a close call I'll hang outside inside out.
-- Some things still need the dryer. I draw the line (hardy har har) at stiff towels. I save up all my towels and do one load with them, which goes in the dryer.
-- Make it easy on yourself...make sure the line is convenient, the right height for you, and that you have a container to easily take things back and forth to the line.
-- I do it when I can...especially weekends. I'm not a purist that "all must be line dried." I figure if I can get to it for most loads, that is good.

Recycle Day

2007-10-03T03:44:00.000-07:00

Recently, my school organized a recycle day where every clubs members in the school had to bring their old newspapers from home. It was a competition among the clubs. It was an amazing activity, seeing how everyone was involved and contributed. The Chinese Literary Society won, followed by Christian Fellowship and third place by the English Literary Society. An interesting start for the young generation. :) These photos said it all.

Our Mangrove Planting at the Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary at Labuk Bay Sandakan Sabah, will be held on this coming 27 Oct, which involved 50 students and 5 teachers, working together with the wildlife officers. Will update on it. :)

Zero Waste Class Parties

2007-09-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Our daughter's stunningly-excellent third grade teacher recently sent out a request to parents to help him become zero waste for class parties. I, like an idiot, said yes. An idiot because I knew the trail would lead me right to Target and Ikea, places I tend to avoid at all costs.

Target had some great little melamine plates, fairly cheap metal forks and spoons, and acrylic juice glasses that should do nicely. I hated to go with plastic, but didn't see any way around it, and at least it will be used for years. (We did a similar thing with our picnic gear for our weekly neighborhood picnic, and now we are waste-free, which is a great feeling.) I am hard on the trail of some cheap cloth napkins to complete the set.

The teacher and I worked out that whatever parents volunteer to host the party now also pop the dishes in the washer and return. (I bought a basket to put it all in to make it easier.) I volunteered to handle the napkins. Hopefully it will inspire other classrooms to do the same.

The Missing Sock

2007-09-10T09:43:00.001-07:00

I've been thinking a lot recently about my motivations for living a more sustainable life. I started out not really in this camp--drove me nuts then I married John at my advanced age of 33 and he would frown with a superior look that we should get rid of all our Teflon, or that we shouldn't ScotchGuard our new furniture. Not to mention the fact that he washed out and reused plastic bags. Yuck. It was startling how often he was right, however, as verdicts about things like Teflon and ScotchGuard just keep piling up.

When we reached a boiling point over the constant stream of negative news about the environment and we started Planetfesto.org, and all the research that we amassed behind it, something subtly began to shift. I started making changes not from guilt, but because it's, underneath it all, kinda fun. (And we hope that that spirit gets to people through Planetfesto.) The best way to describe it is that it's similar to that part of my brain that gets lit up after I find the sock that has been missing for months and put the pair finally back together. I wake up excited to go to the farmers' market not because I know that I should, but that it feeds my soul in a way that I find unexpectedly delightful. There is something so connected, and deeply friendly, about looking down at your plate and knowing about almost everything on it--the farmer that grew the corn, the stories about the lamb that you heard from the rancher, that you've picked berries in the field from which the blackberries came from. There's an equal delight that we now have a hard time finding a plastic bag in the house, or that I usually get better mileage in my Prius than John does in his (although that seems to be changing, damn him...). I also love that the kids know where food comes from, get great delight in feeding our worms and hearing the latest news from the eccentric worm guy at the farmers' market, and want to know where something comes from before they eat it.

OK, enough. But I did want to let you know that this is actually getting fun...

Nirvana on an Organic Farm

2007-09-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

We just spent the weekend at Emandal, a family camp started in 1908 on an organic farm near Willits, 130 miles north of San Francisco. It's a collection of rustic cabins (read outhouses--but they flush) on the banks of the Eel River. The swimming in the river is fantastic, but best of all, the food is out of this world and all comes from right outside the kitchen door. We had lots of tomotoes, corn, freshly baked bread, pizza from the stone oven in the garden with fresh basil, and lots of ice cream and milk donated by Delilah the cow (who you can help milk twice a day). Chickens, pigs, goats, and even an ostrich complete the farm casting. Wonderful staff, very relaxing, great for kids. They even run weeklong camps for schools for kids to come and work on the farm and learn more about sustainable food and living.

Count us in for next year!

http://www.emandal.com/

Three Stone Hearth

2007-09-06T14:59:00.001-07:00

For those of us who live in the East Bay, I've found a really nice resource, Three Stone Hearth (or as our droll nanny likes to call it "Three Stoner Hearth"). It's completely crunchy (in a charming sort of way) organic, prepared food co-op located in Berkeley. It's hidden away nearly under the University Avenue overpass...right at the foot of the pedastrian footbridge over 80.

The way it works is that a couple of the owners of the nonprofit, along with a set of volunteers, cook an interesting array of foods weekly from very local, organic farmers and then sell it to the public. It's not cheap, but it is the highest quality and delicious. You can also buy unpasturized milk, eggs from chickens who live running around in pastures, and a few other essentials. You can order from them in advance, or can drop in on Wednesday at 5 to see what extras they have available for sale.

They also make a killer fermented Lavender drink that is quite yummy.

http://threestonehearth.com/

The Ball Jar

2007-09-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

So now we are trotting home from the Farmers' Market laden with our reusable shopping bags filled with produce in little cotton sacks...now, how the hell do you store it all?

John has always been a big fan of mason jars--those ubiquitious, one, two, and four cup glass jars with metal sealing tops and rings usually used for canning. We have started to use them more widely than ever. We pop produce that needs to be in the fridge into them. Easy to clean, no plastic yuck-factor transfer. Not very big, however. On the bigger, but not totally perfect scale, are the pyrex glass containers with plastic lids we got at the grocery store. They hold a lot and are airtight, but I do try to hand wash the plastic lid. We are searching for the right containers for the bread we buy at Acme without bags, and for lettuce other large-format veggies.

I recently saw Julia who mentioned some cool little containers she had tracked down at Crate & Barrell that are 100% glass. They are 2 cups in volume and and flatter to fit stuff that won't go into a jar. I just got some...not totally convinced that they are air tight enough to prevent food from taking on other fridge odors, but we'll see.

We had the amazing problem the other night of trying to find a plastic bag for something and not having ONE in the house. A "problem" we've never confronted before...

N.

2007-08-28T14:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some alternatives to plastics. I will share more tips as I find them, as it can be pretty overwhelming to try to quit plastic cold turkey.

Garbage bag alternatives: Bio Bags, decomposable and compostable. I buy mine at the local hardware store. They are a little thinner than normal garbage bags so I make sure not to load them up too much.

Laundry detergent: I have switched to powdered detergent that is packaged in cardboard. You can also buy some discs that you stick in you washer that work by changing the particles in the water. I had some at one point, but lost them in a move.

Cleaning supplies: I have stopped buying any supplies that come in plastic bottles. Meyer's has a nice powder scrubber, and the oxygen bleach is a natural alternative to bleach and is not harmful to the environment. You can also buy Bon Ami, which also is a good cleaner and it is much cheaper (the oxygen bleach is apparently what raises the price). Also, I have been experimenting with some homemade cleaners.

Kitchen Soap: The natural living store near my house has dish washing soap you can buy in bulk. They also sell reusable plastic or glass bottles to fill up. I have also switched to bar soap in the shower and at the sinks for hand washing.

Lotion: Like my kitchen soap, I was able to find body lotion that I can buy in bulk and I bought a reusable glass jar. Unfortunately I have not been able to find an alternative for my face lotion.

More on Plastic

2007-08-28T14:26:00.001-07:00

Once again Nancy and I are struggling with the same issue...

I am just finished reading the book Garbageland by Elizabeth Roythe, and no, it is not a bleak as it sounds. It is a fascinating look at what happens to our garbage after it is put in the truck. The book has changed my perspective and has given me an understanding of what happens to garbage and recyclables. It has also answered some lingering questions that I have, for example, is it okay to leave the plastic windows on envelopes when you recycle them? Yes.

One of the biggest takeaways of the book so far is about plastics. How could I not when the chapter about plastics is titled "Satan's Resin"? I already know that plastics are bad, I don't heat my food in plastic containers, I bring my own bags to the store and I am still trying to figure out an alternative to my Nalgene bottle. What I didn't know was how bad plastic actually are and how they are not really recyclable, they can only be down-cycled. After learning about this Nathan and I decided to cut down on our plastic consumption, how hard could it be, right? We already brought our bags to the store, we don't drink bottled water, and most drinks you can buy in a can. Right.

Once you start focusing on it plastic is used in almost all packaging, and my first trip to the grocery store after the decision was eye opening. My intention was not to go completely plastic free, but just to cut down, so one Monday night a few weeks ago I meet Nathan at Trader Joe's conscious of plastic. A few things I knew I would not be able to avoid buying in plastic, for example bread and cheese, but for the other items I didn't always want to choose the plastic free alternative. The fresh pico de gallo salsa looked way better than the stuff in the jar, but what about the plastic container? The mochi ice cream balls have the plastic tray on the inside. I left feeling fairly discouraged, for it to be so hard for someone who is committed to reducing plastic usage there was no way this was ever going to take hold in mainstream America. Moreover, would I be able to stick it out?

It had only been 4 days and I already had plastic avoidance fatigue. That Friday, however, I had a glimmer of hope at the Mexican restaurant by my work. I went into the restaurant really wanting a toastada, but I was getting my meal to go, so I settled on a burrito that would be wrapped in foil instead of the plastic clam shell container. While I was waiting in line to pay I noticed all of these people holding what looked like a cardboard to go container. I was intrigued. I normally don't like to look like the crazed green fanatic, but I ended up asking the guy at the counter about the containers. Under a new San Francisco law restaurants must reduce the amount of plastic they use, hence the biodegradable soy based take out containers. While I ate a burrito that day, next time I am getting what I want.

Plastic: Satan's child?

2007-08-28T14:02:00.000-07:00

The more I read about plastics the more concerned I am about them, from the environmental perspective, our health, and the energy and fossil fuels it takes to create them.

A couple of helpful things we've stumbled about plastic. John found a great site: http://www.reusablebags.com, rich with information about the true evil nature of those little clear bags and drinking bottles, as well as lots of resources about how to avoid them. We've started to use reusable bags for both produce, as well as shopping bags. They work for most things...I still go for plastic for drippy meat packages. We also just bought all-stainless drinking containers for the kids for water for school. I've been really upset by a lot of the disposible drinking water bottle coverage lately...terrific that the issue is being talked about in the popular press, but disturbing that often the suggestion for a work-around is a plastic reusable bottle, such as Nalgene, as those release toxins into our bodies, particularly as they are washed repeatedly. Go metal! And it lasts forever. Now I need to search out metal containers for lunches.

Also, I wanted to remind everybody about the little story that appear in the news a year or so ago about the prevalence of lunch boxes with lead in the plastic sold widely in the U.S. This story was never widely covered but prompted us to test our lunch boxes. Probably a good thing to do this year as well as so many kids head back to school.

More on the search for the perfect suncreen

2007-08-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post an update after I finally tracked down and ordered the UV Natural suncreen so highly recommended by the Environmental Working Group's site. Loads on controvery about it on the net...whether it works well, is too greasy, etc. I bought a large tube (and might have known I was doomed by choosing that size...) and was able to use it for two days before I started to have odd burning, itching sensations all over my face. So much for my skin's appreciation of low-impact ingredients! I want to pass it along to friends to see how they like it. UV Natural's site claims that you need to use VERY LITTLE for it to be highly effective, which is the only way to go unless you want to appear in public as a victim of a hit and run facial lube job.

Just bought JASON's Sunbrella Family 36, and so far so good. A bit on the beach-y side with the smell, but doesn't seem overly greasy, and no allergic reaction so far. It is not as well-rated on the EWG.org site, but was easy to find! I also like the Obagi Nu-Derm Physical UV Block SPF 32, although it is expensive, fussy to find, and does contains nano-particles. (Interesting discussion of the pros and cons of this at http://www.ewg.org/node/22411.

Insulation decisions

2007-08-21T16:00:00.001-07:00

Joel and I are preparing to put insulation in our attic for the first time. After some initial research, I know more but am no closer to being able to make a decision, as there's no clear winner.

The good news is that there are some useful resources and a number of "greener" options. The bad news is that at least some of that information seems tainted by bias and that makes it really hard to get a real sense of what the true pros and cons of each insulation type are. The GreenHomeGuide is the most useful site about insulation I've found. It has a handy insulation comparison chart, an article that delves into the health and environmental issues with insulation and how each type fares, and a product directory.

And yet, even with all this information, I'm still not sure which will be the best for us and the house. Here's a distilled version of what I've learned so far:

Fiberglass: Most fiberglass has formaldehyde in it, which is bad; but there are formaldehyde-free versions as well. I don't know what else is in fiberglass that might be bad though. Is produced through an energy-intensive and somewhat polluting process. May, and this is where the confusion starts because there's a lot of back-and-forth on this one, stand up to moisture and pests better than other options. And it won't burn.
Cotton: This is by far the most novel option, since one brand (and maybe more than one?) uses recycled blue jeans. Treated with chemicals to make it fire-resistant and to discourage pests and moisture, but it sounds like moisture may still be a problem.
Cellulose: Recycled newspaper is treated with chemicals to make it fire-resistant and to discourage pests and moisture. But there seem to be at least a loud minority that say it's not as fire resistant as it should be.

A cleaner clean

2007-07-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Interesting enough, I have been going down the same track as Kathryn about safer cleaning supplies. Been testing lots of different types...I really like some of the Method products, especially the liquid dish soap. I like Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day dishwashing powder and laundry soap (but I have to find something else as it comes in a plastic bottle...). I did not have good results at all with either Seventh Generation or Wave dishwashing powder. The stuff at Trader Joe's is also pretty good. Mrs. Meyer's also has a good all surface cleaner and a stainless cleaner. The only problem is that they are EXPENSIVE!
I am glad I'm looking into this. A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle confirmed my worst fears. "Hazard Warning on Home Cleaners: Study says many use chemicals linked to fertility problems." No wonder kids are going into puberty at such young ages.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/07/24/MNG0QR5P191.D

Safer Cleaning Products

2007-07-24T14:45:00.000-07:00

This is a useful website about safer cleaning products http://www.womenandenvironment.org/. Their findings were reported on today on sfgate.com.

Also, for Christmas one year I gave Christy the book, "Green Clean: The Environmentally Sound Guide to Cleaning your Home" by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin. It has a lot of useful tips as well as recipes to make your own cleaning solutions.

The suncreen debate

2007-07-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

On my list of things to do this summer was more research into sunscreens. It's one of those topics that drives me nuts: increasing reports of how much radiation we are exposed to and the increasing rates of skin cancer, more awareness on my part of highly toxic ingrediants in skin care products, reading about all these highly-effective chemicals allowed in sunscreens in Europe, but not here (but not knowing if there are BOTH effective and safe), etc., etc., etc...all the while slathering the entire surface area of myself and my kids every day.

I was delighted by a recent posting by the Environmental Working Group (my heroes!) with in-depth research on hundreds of sunscreens, rated by both effectiveness and saftey. Some of the things I thought I was doing well, like buying Alba's organics lavendar suncreen for kids, didn't test well at all. Many surprises. I am going to buy their top-rated choice, UV Natural Sport SPF 30+ , as soon as I find it and will report on how it fares on the wearability quotient...greasy and obnoxious vs. well-absorbed.

Complete list at: http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens/summary.php

Chipping Nail Polish

2007-07-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

I had a mani/pedi last Friday so I my hands and feet would look nice for a wedding I attended last weekend. I go to a place that offers a range of nail polish brands from traditional chemical laden brands toformaldehyde free. They also don't use those gross massage chairs and don't do acrylics. I went for one of the brands that had fewer chemicals than the traditional brands. I was a little disappointed, however, when on Sunday my fingernails had chipped and this morning when I noticed that one of my toenails had chipped, because normally when I get a manicure at this place it lasts five to seven days and a pedicure even longer. Next time I will still resist the urge to use a chemical ladenOpi color and try yet another brand, and hopefully it will just last a little longer.

Little Things and Side Benefits

2007-06-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

My wife and I try to minimize our impact on the earth wherever we can, though there's always room for improvement. We've done some big things, such as buying a Prius. It's some of the little things, however, that may have a greater ripple effect and might provide cause for some amusement as well.

Among our pet peeves are the wasteful styrofoam and plastic containers many restaurants use for takeout or leftovers. A while back we decided we would simply bring our own reusable containers with us whenever we went out to eat. We knew this would eliminate our use of throwaway containers. It may be having some other positive benefits as well. Other customers see us doing this and say something like, "Oh, what a good idea!" or "I never thought of that. I'll have to start doing that, too!" The restaurant owners see us doing this and realize their customers are very concerned about the environment; hopefully they'll become more serious about seeking out the most environmentally sensitive products. At our local Indian takeout place, which uses organic ingredients, they laugh when they see us coming. Sometimes they even give us bigger portions!

When it comes to food shopping, we've been buying almost entirely organic for a long time. Lately we've added an emphasis on LOCAL. Knowing it's taking a smaller amount of fossil fuels for the food to reach us is only part of the advantage. There is a wonderful, satisfying (dare I say warm and fuzzy?) feeling when you get to know the person who grew the food you are going to eat. We get this feeling at our local Fairfax farmers market, where we buy strawberries from Russ, greens from Dennis, pies and gallettes from Maria, etc.; at Clark Summit Farm in West Marin, where I buy my incredibly delicious Thanksgiving turkey from Liz; and at the awesome Phoenix Pastificio in Berkeley, where Eric makes the most amazing fresh organic pasta, cut to order, and reciprocates our appreciation of his artistry by practically making us part of his family.

Our local natural food store, The Good Earth, has made shopping local much easier. For years they've posted where each item of fresh produce was grown; recently they've added the mileage from here to there. If your favorite store doesn't yet do this, I suggest you encourage them to do so. Also, I think we can have the greatest impact on people who know us. So we talk to owners of restaurants we frequent, making sure they know we prefer and would be willing to pay more for organic, local ingredients, grass-fed beef, etc.

Green or Been

2007-06-11T03:06:00.000-07:00

I am a secondary school teacher, teaching in Sung Siew Secondary School Sandakan, one of the best school in the state of Sabah, Malaysia.
When I was introduced to Maxis CyberlinQ Competition 2006, I had to come up with a project to serve the community. By then I was already introduced to SIMCA [Sugud Islands Conservation Area]. Realizing how noble this private organization trying to do their part for the environment, I wanted to do my part as a teacher. So I grabbed the chances through this competition, taking the theme of environment. With it, I was inspired to build a team called 'Green or Been' with many helps from parents and teachers. With the GOB team, consisted of 10 students and two teachers, we started off with many successful projects that overwhelmed me to see how these young generation do care. To name a few of the projects - Most Adorning Class, Recycle Reduce Reuse, Mini Botanical Garden, WWF Day, Green Week, charity to clean the beach and charity at our famous Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre. Thats not all, we were the first local school to adopt two babies orangutan named Naru and Sogo-Sogo, and also adopted coral reef named 'Sung Siew Reef'. That didn't stop there, we also joined WWF in their tree planting project. With all these, I'm proud to announce, we won the competition nationally. This is a proof to many that conservation surely can make a difference!
This year, I'm very pleased to get invited to go to Lankayan Island Dive Resort again. The GOB team did a mural painting of Sea Turtle's Life Cycle. The team learnt a lot about conservation of coral reef and sea turtle, besides had great amazing time. It is a very beautiful island indeed.
Our upcoming project is Mangrove Planting at Proboscis Monkey Sanctuary, soon in September. I will update that here then :)
Conservation is the way!

The Vegetable Box

2007-06-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

I have had a hard time buying vegetables since I moved to San Francisco. Trader Joe's uses too much packaging and I often discover part of the vegetables are already bad when I get them home. Whole Foods is too expensive, and Safeway's vegetables look too waxy, and are often just as expensive as Whole Foods. Also, since I live in San Francisco I do not have the traditional warm summer that inspires one to eat summer's bounty. At the end of last summer I realized that I had almost missed out on the entire fruit season. So this spring I signed up for a CSA (community supported agriculture) box. When I signed up for the box I thought my fruit and vegetable problems would be over and I would be a vision of vegetable mastery, but alas, like usual my vision was a bit off.

The CSA I chose does not offer a lot of options for how often and how many vegetables you get, but the online reviews rated the quality and variety of this CSA as high. I am on my 11th week of getting the box and it is the first time I have used all of the vegetables. This is no small feat. For two people the amount of vegetables can be a bit overwhelming. Especially since I do not pick-up the box until Wednesday and I have standing activities on Wednesday and Thursday nights. On Friday nights I tend to be a bit lazy, and it seems like recently every weekend has been an endless crush of weddings, wedding and baby showers, birthdays and graduations. Suddenly, my compost transporter was overflowing and my kitchen smelled of rotting vegetables (I compost at my mom's house, so I only get rid of my compost as often as I see her).

Another problem that I only recently worked through was prolonging the life of the vegetables. While I have always trimmed the extra greens off of the vegetables I still was not getting a very long shelf life. I have recently been trying to cut down on my plastic consumption, I'll talk about this in my next post, and so I was excited that most of the vegetables come without plastic bags. Plastic bags, however, are helpful in keeping things from spoiling the the fridge, and I was unsure of what to do until I discovered the crisper. My greens do not wilt as quickly and my carrots now are not limp after 2 days, in fact, I have a few from two weeks ago.

By prolonging the life of my vegetables I have been able to start using the vegetables when I am at home. I also do not feel as overwhelmed by the sheer amount of product that can go bad. I have started making lists , using the recipes that come with the vegetable box and just adding a few extra vegetables to things that I might normally not. The process is getting easier, and less is headed to the compost heap.

Aside from the obvious benefits of eating locally grown, family farmed foods there are many other benefits I am discovering. The box has made me do a better job at planning what I am going to eat. I no longer wander the aisles of the store after work wondering what I should make for dinner. Instead I get to go directly home from work, and that means I get home earlier and eat earlier. This leaves me with much more time for myself later in the evening. I am also cooking more. I have always enjoyed cooking as a way to wind down from the day, but I tend to get a little lazy when take-out is so close. Having a ton of wonderful vegetables in my fridge inspires me to cook. Another great thing is the money I save. When I cook more I eat out less not only for dinner, but also for lunch, and I am now finding that I have extra money at the end of the week. The final benefit is the few pounds I have dropped, maybe it is because I am eating more vegetable or maybe it is because I am eating out less, but the scale has not been creeping up like it used to.

Finding good lipstick ... a continuing saga

2007-06-06T14:26:00.000-07:00

My approach to updating my products has been slow and steady, to swap in new products as I finish the old. This of course goes faster with items like shampoo and conditioner, so it took me a while to get around to checking out new lipstick options.

My old lipsticks (that I still have and wear sometimes, just not on a daily basis anymore) were NARS semi-matte lipstick (here's the listing for the color Catfight) and MAC Satin Lipstick. Both earned a moderate concern ranking, with ingredients linked to cancer, and developmental and reproductive toxicity.

So I hit my local natural pharmacies with makeup sections to see what my options were. There are some brands that Skin Deep lists that I've never seen in a store (for instance, Canary Cosmetics, Alchemy of Color, and Cargo), and I don't like buying lipstick online because finding the right color is already tricky enough in person.

This is about the right time to note that I still haven't found an ideal lipstick. I just can't seem to find a nice red with brown undertones that suits people like me who are a little pale, but also a little olivey, and have dark hair. It seems like most of what I find is either way too pink or so brown that I look like a corpse.

But I have dedicated hours and the backs of both hands to testing healthier lipstick colors. Here's what I've found so far:

Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer: For a long time I avoided Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer because it seemed more like lip balm than lipstick, and I assumed it was for the shampoo-once-a-week/no-makeup types. But I tried it and it's a pretty convincing lipstick, plus it tingles (in a good way). The only problem is the color. I had to buy three of them before finding one that I really liked, though at about $5 a pop, it wasn't such a big deal. The Merlot, which I tried first, was much more pink than the top indicated. The color Raisin is pretty good, though perhaps still a little too pink for me. And Coffee, though I originally avoided it (see corpse issue, above), ended up being a lovely shade of brownish red.

Bare Escentuals Quick Stick: I tried Nancy's Fig color Quick Stick and really liked it. The color is great and the application is smooth and even. But, even though Bare Escentuals promotes itself as a company that uses natural ingredients, I know that some of its powders (specifically the Mineral Veil, which keeps oily skin from being too shiny) contain parabens, so I thought I should just take a quick look at the ingredient list before charging down there and buying my own. And what I found was a really long ingredient list that included parabens and a few other unsavory ingredients. So sad. I really do hope they ditch the parabens though, because I really like the colors.

Sante: This one is a mystery brand. It's available at the Elephant Pharm near my house, the colors are promising, and the price is right, but the store doesn't have an ingredients list and I can't find anything substantial online.

Ingredients of concern

In checking out some of the higher-risk lipsticks in the SkinDeep database, it looks like ingredients of concern in lipsticks include BHA, parabens, and various coloring agents.

What can dog food and apple juice have in common?

2007-06-04T16:21:00.001-07:00

Just as my 3 year old was telling me with glee how he has learned to pour apple juice at pre-school, we read this in the WSJ that the US is the largest market for apple juice imported from China...where the regulations about what pesticides and how much are even more lax than here. One of the most heavily-polluted, pesticide-using country in the world is providing the juice our kids are drinking in a concentrated form!

I'm working with the school to serve organic-only juice. "Who's Monitoring Chinese Food Exports" WSJ, (4/9/2007) "China has one of the world's highest rates of chemical fertilizer use per hectare, and Chinese farmers use many highly toxic pesticides, including some that are banned in the United States," according to a report published last November by the economic-research service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

The Complex World of Tomato Sauce

2007-06-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

I was stunned to read the following in Oprah magazine's Feb. 2006 issue:

"Is Plastic Affecting our Fertility?"
"The findings: Bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical in plastics that mimics estrogen, causes health problems in animals at far lower doses than most people are exposed to every day.

What you need to know: Polycarbonate, the hard plastic that contains BPA, is found in many products, including baby bottles and the inside coating of food cans. Heating and repeated washing can cause leaching, and significant levels of the chemicals have been measured in humans. Of the 115 animal studies reviewed in a recent Environmental Health Perspectives article, 94 showed that even small amounts of BPA can cause fertility problems, hyperactivity, altered immune function, and early sexual maturation. Plastics makers maintain their products are sage (of the 11 industry-sponsored studies, none found evidence of harm), but there are efforts to ban BPA from children's goods. Frederick vom Saal, PdD, the paper's lead author, called BPA "a poster chemical for ADHD" and recommends avoiding foods sterilized in the can, such as tomatoes ("massive amounts of BPA," he says). Also be cautious using clear plastic baby bottles--find out more at www.environmentcalifornia.org."

I've found some interesting organic tomato sauces in glass jars that I've been using in our cooking at home, and we've been ordering much less pizza and spaghetti when out.

My friend Julia has also tracked down how much BPA is in the bottled water we are getting from Alhambra water due to the sterilization process which super heats the bottles, which leech BPA into the drinking water we were buying because we thought it was safer. More on that in further posts.

A pretty problem: Avoiding dangerous ingredients and finding healthy beauty products

2007-06-01T11:04:00.000-07:00

Recently I calculated about how much money I'd spent on face, hair, and body products over my lifetime. The number was so shocking that I'm not going to repeat it here, but I will say it was enough to buy a new compact car or a pretty nice extended vacation, one complete with high-thread-count sheets and beachside spa treatments (see there I am, already back to products).

And I didn't get to that number by purchasing excessively expensive products, either. No $100 jars of wrinkle cream made from the tears of ducklings or $60 deep conditioners from top-secret beauty labs in France. Most of my products fall in the $7 to $30 range. Over time though, it really adds up.

So it was already an issue with a lot of personal financial weight when someone recommended the Environmental Working Group's (EWG) Skin Deep database, which reviews ingredients in beauty products for general health and safety. According to the Why This Matters article on the website, we apply an average of 126 ingredients to our bodies every day. That seemed high only until I took a look at the back of the bottles I had in the bathroom.

I'd heard the vague rumblings about how product companies put all sorts of unhealthy things in products, how the industry wasn't properly regulated, and so on, but because it seemed like it would open a whole can of worms (it did), I stalled on researching it. Finally I decided that if I was going to continue to spend as much as I do on products, it was worth the effort to get ones that didn't do more harm than good. And once I started looking, I realized that a ton of products, even the supposedly natural ones, had all sorts of stuff that various agencies around the world had deemed unsafe or questionable.

Some of the ingredients I'm now watching out for are clearly not the sort of thing you want in or on your body. Stuff like mercury, lead, and phthalates. But there are also ingredients which studies have suggested lead to health problems, though nothing totally definitive has been published yet.

But my take on it is that I'd rather be safe than sorry. I don't want my vanity to be my undoing. Maybe it's because I had two aunts who died of cancer (breast and ovarian), and it's unclear why. Perhaps it was genetic, but I also wonder if it was something environmental, something that they were exposed or some product they both used.

The database uses a scoring system, with low scores indicating healthier products. You can also look at the risks associated with particular ingredients, and though I started out just seeking the lowest products on the scale, I've since tempered my approach to reflect the health issues I'm most concerned with.

The primary shortcoming of the database is that it's limited. When I go down to one of the natural pharmacies close to me (I'm close to Elephant Pharm, Pharmaca, and Whole Foods), half the products aren't represented in the database. Then it becomes a matter of reading ingredient lists, cross-checking them against my little printed-out list of the worst-of-the-worst.

This whole process takes time and has turned me into that crazy person standing in the cosmetics section staring alternately at my little notebook and the back of a bottle, but if this is something that I'm going to continue to spend the equivalent of cars and vacations on—and it is, because I like smooth, moisturized skin; shiny, pretty hair; and makeup—then I'm definitely going to make sure that the stuff my skin is absorbing daily isn't likely to give me cancer, going to make me have flipper babies, and isn't doing weird things to my hormones.

I thought this would be a good space to share some of the things I've found over the course of my ongoing quest for healthier products. I'll tackle both general issues (Are bad ingredients the key to good products?) and detail what I've found by trying out some of the healthier options I've been able to find. First up? Hmmm, maybe "Lipstick: the continuing saga."

What to have for dinner?

2007-05-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

As if this topic wasn't hard enough to answer already! Recently I've been delving into the world of what we should, and shouldn't, be putting into our bodies. A few rather shocking discoveries that have changed the way I feed the family...as well as some tricks I've figured out in how to avoid them.

I'll start with fish...the good, the bad, the ugly. After having my vegetarian-fish-eating Pilates trainer out for 18 months with mercury poisoning from eating fish, I started to pay much more attention to this area. Basically, you don't want to eat anything big...because they eat everything else in the sea and the mercury from the whole food chain gets concentrated in the fatty tissue. (This problem will only get worse and more and more mercury-spewing coal-fired power plants come into existence.)

And then there is salmon. Wild salmon is fine, health-wise, as they are relatively small. The problem comes in when they are farmed...they are fed pelleted fish from scraps of much larger fish that contain mercury and residual PCBs. Which are then concentrated in the salmon. So you'd think the answer would be to eat only wild salmon.

I thought so too until I read the enlightening New York Times (4/10/2005) article that tested "wild" salmon purchased from a range of stores in New York, including Dean and Deluca. 8 of the 10 samples obtained were in fact farmed, being sold as wild. Digging deeper, it seems that the only safe salmon is from Alaska. Now I am only buying salmon from a boat directly, or smoked salmon from Alaska...as I'm betting that they can't lie about that provenance as easily.

I think this is a good option, but I am looking at it more closely and will report back. I recently was talking with the seafood buyer for The Pasta Shop in Berkeley and she recently found out that much "wild" salmon is actually from farms...in the ocean. Still being fed the same problematic feed. Now I need to find out whether there are any ocean fish farms in Alaska...

Great resource: The Seafood Watch list from the Monterey Bay Aquarium http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/seafoodwatch.asp