SOAPBOX

Soapbox item for today: Ignorance in the grocery store

Last week I was in the store at the self-check out line. The woman in front of me had roughly 8-10 small items. She proceeded to put these items into two plastic sacks. Normally, this would irritate me since it was clear all the item would have fit into one bag, and on occasion I have forgotten to bring in my reusable bags, and opt for the plastic. But this woman (who in all honesty had probably arrived at the store in a huge 12 MPG SVU) then did something that any eco-fan would loath. SHE DOUBLE BAGGED her purchase. 8 items in four bags that will probably not even be recycled, so will end up filling landfill space long after her productive life is over.

I know there are bigger fish to fry and I should not have been judging so. But honestly 4 bags, when she only needed one. It is just wrong. People need to pay better attention to the small details in their lives. These are where some huge gains could be made. It was all I could do not to say something to the woman, or offer to buy her a reusable bag. But it would have done me no good, she is obviously in an ecofobe who cares more about herself than the world around her.

As a side note, I had also forgotten my reusable bag that day (in the trunk of the car) so decided that I didn't need a bag at all for the four items I purchased. They easily fit in the purse I was carrying. I had made this decision before I saw resource sow in front of me, so I don't think that my decision even came close to offsetting hers.

Please, and I beg you, readers NEVER DOUBLE BAG.

Ok soapbox is done. I will stop contemplating slashing her tires (jk) and move on with my regualar eco-friendly life.

Happy Earth Day

Happy Earth day to all of you out there. I wanted to take a moment to celebrate that today is a day devoted to our great planet. I will encourage you all to do something good for the environment today, whatever will work for you.

I am planning a second annual Ravine Clean-Up. Where I live is surrounded on three sides by ravines leading to Lake Michigan. The racoons (and students) tend to spread the trash from the dumpsters down into the wooded landscape, potentially harming the bio-diversity of the area. This year we will be picking up the trash that now lines the walls of the ravines. Then having a BBQ to celebrate. Last year at the event we pulled out couches, tables, and a toilet... It will be interesting to see what we find this year.

But your effort doesn't have to be so invovled. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Turn off all your electronics and lights tonight. Instead light a candle and read a book. Chicago is hosting an all city Earth Hour this week, and encourages all its residents to participate. The facts on last years Earth Hour are astonishing (I wish I had them in front of me but they are easily found on-line).
2. Ride your bike (or walk to work). If you can't do that, try riding your bike for a few errands instead.
3. Have any weddings coming up? Look at the registry, then find an eco friendly gift similar to what they have on their wish list.
4. Ask about improving your recycling program at work. I did this two years ago (because we didn't have one to speak of) and now we have recycling in every resident hall room!
5. Create a meal of fresh food tonight. It will cut down on the packaging waste from your foods.
6. Talk to the children or young adults in your life about the importance in preserving our great Earth!!!

I could go on for hours, but I have to go back to work. I just love that my work today is working on Earth Day Events!

In Community,
Casey

How do I get the real world to listen

Here's my issue:

I know about children's nutrition after working on my paper for a semester now. But I think that ANY parent can understand that fruit loops and donuts are considered to be of poor nutritional value. It should not be a surprise.

Well apparently it is. My children have started a new daycare (we were very sad to leave our old one...) and overall it is really good. But... what are they feeding my children. We have been there for 3 weeks and these are some of the things we have seen. Jay has gotten fruit loops, donuts, canned (HFCS syrup) fruit, and some acceptable cereals. Sophie has also has fruit loops and donuts at least once. For snack Sophie gets crackers in the morning and afternoon. All kinds of crackers (graham, cheese, saltines, etc.) They have beef at least three times a week for lunch.

So I try to talk to the director about it yesterday. I play alittle dumb and say, "We are new, so we are just wondering if their diet is what is typical here" and things like "Are fruit loops an item that we can normally expect to see?" The director says that they have been in business for 20 years and had thousands of parents in and out and no one has ever complained before. (If that is true shame on those other parents....) Also they follow the strict DCFS guidelines (the same guidelines that claim that ketchup and salsa are vegetables). She ACTUALLY defended giving the kids sugar cereal and donuts for breakfast, saying that they get board of the other stuff. Well I can tell you that I haven't yet seen them make a piece of toast, or a bowl of oatmeal. I beleive that there are a number of other options available that are extremely more healthly. Her solution is that I bring in food to subistute the meals I don't agree with.

My problem with this is ten fold:
1. I pay for them to feed my children, I don't want to pay extra to feed them again.
2. If Jay has the choice between a donut and yogurt, it is a toss up on what he will pick. And that is because he is generally a fan of yogurt. But why does he get "punished" for their poor choices?
3. What about the other children that are getting sub-par nutrtition? We wonder why our kids are becoming obsese, well look at what we are feeding them.
4. How are these things allowed by children's services? This problem is systemic...

I am not asking them to go organic, nor am I asking them to dramatically change their ways. But I simply cannot understand DEFENDING FRUIT LOOPS! They are so clearly a terrible choice. I even suggested that they mix the sugar cereals with heart healthy ones and she scoffed at that.

I mentioned a few studies that I had found that says food dyes and sugars in children's diets have been directly linked to hyperactivity. And she said that she has a son with severe ADHD and that her family easts junk food all the time, so they cut it out and it didn't help so they went right back to eating junk food. I get so frustrated with the ignorant arguement "Well we eat junk and I am healthy" Are they actually so short sighted to not see the generations of damage that can build up from a poor diet? Cancer rates are rising, Obsesity, heart diease, ADHD, mental health have all been linked to a lifetime of processed foods. And all I want is for them not to half-ass their way around feeding the children at the center. But to her, "they won't eat the other stuff" OF COURSE THEY WON'T WHEN THE OTHER OPTION IS SUGAR!!!!

In the end she did (begrudgingly) offer to have me come and do an educational session to the teachers, as they are required by law, on childhood nutrition.

To make matters worse after our discussion last evening (and after she mocked me to the other teachers when I went to pick up my children down the hall), they had donuts for breakfast...

HELP, suggestions?

Easter Eggs

This year for Easter I decided to try a new egg dying technique that was a bit more eco-friendly than buying the egg dye from the store. I saw a program on TV that said you could dye eggs using various colors of onion peels. So Jay and I yesterday morning, carefully wrapped several eggs with red and yellow onion skins. I kept them in separate pots, so the dyes wouldn't mix. And the results were... so-so. John (my husband) said I made white eggs into brown eggs.

Problem number one: The rubberbands I had used to hold the skis on the eggs broke in the hot water. So the cool designs that I was expecting didn't turn out because the skins came off. Plus the red onions only made slightly darker shades of brown.

But all in all it was a fun experiment and I have attached some pictures to show the results.

Use less Ink

Here is a link to a cool website that offers a font that uses 20% less ink when printing. This will save on you money on print cartridges and lower the overall mark on the earth... www.ecofont.eu/ecofont_en.html

Beef... he's the bad guy!

Just an FYI to all out there. The more I read, the more I understand that I need to stop eating beef. It would be best if I could give up meat all together (but I know that's not for me at this stage in my life). But time and time again I am reading if you can't do anything else in reducing your environmental footprint and making healthier choices for yourself, STOP EATING BEEF is flashing in bright red lights on a marquee. Especially stop eating hormone and antibiotic injected, corn-fed feedlot beef, it really couldn't be any more gross to read on and on about how bad that food actually is for you and the world you live in (I won't go into gory details, just believe me that it is GROSS).

So for all my friends and family reading this blog. Please stop eating beef, trust me it is for your own good. In the words of my 3 year old, he's a bad guy, let's shoot him!

How to afford organics and why it costs more...

How to afford organics

1. Comparison Shop(I plan to actually price some things at Jewel, Dominicks, Trader Joes’s and Whole Foods)

2. Buy the store brand- again I plan to add some local prices to my paper)

3. Buy in season (Asparagus .99 this week vs. 5.99 in the fall)

4. Support CSAs (www.localharverst.com) for nearest CSA

5. Buy in bulk

6. Shop sales

7. Grow your own

8. Ask for it (stores will start to carry a wider variety and it will help bring cost down in long run.)

Why does organic food cost more?

1. The fed gov favors conventional crops. “The federal farm bill financially subsidizes massive industrial agricultural operations and their pesticide-intensive practices; it provides comparatively little support to organic farmers, or to farmers who want to transition to organic, a process that takes at least three years.”

2. Organic Farms are more labor intensive

3. Demand Exceeds Supply

Research: The case against Organics

Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist View of Genetically Modified Foods, Nina Fedoroff and Nancy Marie Brown, Joseph Henry Press, Washington D.C. 2004

“Suggestions that organic farming is appropriate for countries with high population pressures and limited arable land and water supplies sound suspiciously like Marie Antoinette’s ”Let them eat cake.” Or, as Peter Raven has noted, “organic agriculture is essentially what is practiced in sub-Saharan Africa today, and half of the people are starving; so it is clear that more is needed.” (p. 261)

“Bruce Ames, developer of the Ames test for carcinogens, doesn’t mince words in… what actually does cause cancer. He says, “The major causes of cancer are: (1) smoking…; (2) dietary imbalances: lack of sufficient amounts of dietary fruits and vegetables. The quarter of the population eating the fewest fruits and vegetables has double the cancer rate for most types of cancer than the quarter eating the most; (3) chronic infections; and (4) hormonal factors.” P. 254
“99 percent of the chemicals people ear are natural. Coffee, for example, contains more than a thousand different chemicals: 28 have been tested, and 19 turned out to be carcinogens in rats and mice. Plants produce many natural pesticides: 71 have been tested, and 37 are carcinogens in rats and mice.” P. 254

“He (Ames) states emphatically that “if reducing synthetic pesticides makes fruits and vegetables more expensive, thereby decreasing consumption, then the cancer rates will increase, especially for the poor.” P.254

“In the words of Paracelsus, the sixteenth-century Swiss physician considered to be the father of modern toxicology, “The dose makes the poison.” P. 252

Pandora’s Picnic Basket: The Potential and Hazards of Genetically Modified Foods, Alan McHughen, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000

“Genetic modification (GM)… is actually a collection of many technologies… They could include transferring or inserting the DNA into the cell of a higher plant or animal, then recovering a complete new organism.. …. The application of GM techniques results in a genetically modified organism (GMO).” P. 9

“According to Dennis Avery of the Hudson Institute the highly respected US Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta noted 2471 cases, including 250 deaths, of infection by the unpleasant E. Coli strain O157:H7 in 1996 alone. These bacteria live in manure. Manure is used as a fertilizer in organic farming systems. Organic foods were implicated in about a third of the confirmed O157:H7 cases despite the fact that organic food constitutes only about 1% of food consumed in the US.” P.233

“I (McHughen) prefer to consume the small quantities of regulated and approved pesticides in conventional foods than the unknown quantities of ‘natural’ toxins, manure, bacteria, fungi, and whatever else.” P.233

“Will it be able to provide enough food to meet the demand of a burgeoning world population, estimated to increase 20% over the next twenty years in the face of rapidly diminishing farmland?” p.234

“There is no question, however, organic systems simply do not provide the same volume of food as conventional farming systems.” 234

Research: Lunch Lessons

Lunch Lessons by Ann Cooper and Lisa M. Holmes was a great place to start my research into the world of organics and children's diets. I am fairly certain that if my strength holds up to the consumer markets that we live in, my children will NOT be eating school lunch! Here is some interesting information from the book:

• “More than 35 percent of our nation’s children are overweight, 25 percent are obese, and 14 percent have type 2 diabetes, a condition previously seen primarily in adults. Processed foods…not only contribute to obesity, they also contain additives and preservatives and are tainted with herbicide and pesticide residues that are believed to cause a variety of illnesses, including cancer. In fact, current research shows that 40 percent of all cancers are attributed to diet.” P. XIV

• “Doctors learn almost nothing about nutrition during their many years of education: In 2003 a nutrition course was required at only 40 percent of medical schools.” P.2

• “More than 2.5 million children have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and an additional 15 percent of children have borderline hyperactivity or behavioral issues. During our research we discovered nearly 100 studies validating the hypothesis that food dyes and additives are a factor in attention and behavioral disorders and can increase the incidence of ADHD. In one of those studies 73 percent of children placed on a diet free from chemical additives, dyes, and artificial sweetners showed a reduction in hyperactivity and an increase in attention.” P. 7

• “U.S. agriculture uses 1.2 billion pounds of pesticides each year—roughly 5 pounds for every American.” P. 18

• “Most Americans have traces of a half dozen pesticides in their urine.” P.37

• Precautionary Principle: better safe than sorry “when an activity raises threats of harm to human health or the environment, precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.” P. 90

• “Research shows that 80 percent of all cancer can be prevented through healthful diet and exercise.” 90

• “In less that 200 years we have gone from being a nation of farmers (more than 95 percent) to a nation which less than 2 percent of the population grows our food.” P. 102

• “Strawberries are the most pesticide-laden food of all. Because they are small and not easy to wash, choose organic ones to keep your family safe.” 151

• “Harvard Medical School nutritionists report that ‘by our most conservative estimate, replacement of partially hydrogenated fat in the US diet with natural unhydrogenated vegetable oil would prevent between 30,000 and 100,000 premature deaths a year.” p. 177

• “Today Americans spend 90 percent of their budgets on processed foods.” P. 181

• “A chicken McNugget is mushed-up little bits of dozens of chickens, plus over 50 chemicals and additives.” P.186

• “The direct and indirect medical costs of obesity now consume more than 10 percent of the U.S. Health care budget.” P. 201

These are some scary facts and I am sure that they will provide good fodder for my paper! Just thought I would share some interesting info for those out there that are curious too!

That “Darn” Sock

The other day I had to throw out a pair of socks for extreme wear. Then I realized that many of my socks were in disrepair, so I added them to a long growing list of clothing items I needed to replace. As a mother of two I often dream I could indulge a bit more into fashion and shopping, rather it usually goes on a list until things get really unsightly. Well as it so happens (a small tangent here) my wonderful husband and generous friends had all conspired to gift me a shopping spree for my 30th birthday. Their overwhelming generosity allowed me to pick up all the things on my growing list and then some.

When I returned home from shopping I quickly went to work putting the new clothes away and creating a pile of clothes to donate. When I came across my favorite pair of sock, overall they were in decent shape, but they had a very annoying hole in the toe (the kind of hole that when worn surrounds your big toe and then proceeds to strangle it all day, annoying). As I went to toss them in the trash a light bulb went off… If you like the socks so much FIX THEM YOU IDIOT. What…fix a pair of socks…who does that…

Well this thought threw me into a spiral of thoughts. But the end result is this… When did we stop fixing things? I hear tell of women darning socks, patching pants, fixing hems. When did our society stop doing this? I know the answer, when women started working. But seriously it took me less than two minutes to sew up the hole in my sock, are we really that busy? It took me all of ten minutes after that to fix a hem in a pair of pants, Grey’s Anatomy is much longer than that.

Expanding on our throw away culture. There are other things that break in our lives and we just toss them out for the next best thing. There are even things that aren’t broken that we replace (cell phones, anyone). Our culture has gotten complacent in replacing things that don’t need replace, and I am a part of that. So here is my pledge. I will attempt to fix the things that break in my life. If I break it worse (which is quite possible, no harm done). Who knows it could be a new skill, but I know my carbon footprint will be smaller because of it!

For When I have a house: Part 1

I currently live in a unique situation. My housing is provided with my job. I have been in this situation for almost a decade and live for the day that I can buy my first house. Making that house as green as possible is something that I am dedicated to do. This is the first (hopefully among many) entries that I will write to help me categorize the green home emprovement tips.

Strangely the article that sparked this entry came from the November, 2008 issue of Cooking Light (the only magazine that we subscribe to). The article was on Flooring Fundamentals. I have been interested in how to floor my house for a few years now. I have read many articles about the high amounts of toxins found in traditional carpeting. I have also been turned off from carpets made of carpet (because any environmentalist worth their weight tries to eliminate as much plastic from our lives as possible). For the same reasons vinyl (made of PVC's) is out of the question. That leaves my with tile and hardwood.

Tile has a few drawbacks. One it is expensive. Two it is relatively breakable. The natural stone tiles are beautiful and non-toxic, but they are not a renewable resource. The ceramic tiles are cheaper and more renewable but who knows what the glazes are made of. Recently on the market are glass tiles, often made from found/recycled glass. These are very pretty and durable but can be costly and should be used more for walls and backsplashes (you need less material and so the cost isn't as prohibitive).

Wood floors are popular, renewable, durable, pretty... and expensive. But some of the hardwood is made from virgin wood (whether from the rain-forest or deciduous forests). I don't want to cut down a forest just so my house can be trendy... The easiest and best solution that I have found is Bamboo. It is the safe-haven of home flooring. It is cheap, beautiful, and renewable. Bamboo grows fast and rejuvenates itself. Easy on the environment and non-toxic for indoor air quality. Also good are cork and Eucalptus (though they are both a bit more costly. On the extreme high end of cost is the reclaimed wood movement. This is an increbily interesting idea. When wood structures are condemned, people will come in and remove the wood from siding to floors and old beams. The resulting product is wood flooring with extreme amounts of character, but the cost is prohibitive for most.

But wait there is last minute entry for best flooring option. It is one that has been used in the states since the 50's. It has received a bad rap for the crazy patterns and dated looks that it can give homes. But linoleum is not a bad choice. I found out that it is made from a renewalbe natural product (linseed oil). It is CHEAP, VERY CHEAP. I would caution for more research into what the glue and sealers used in production are made of. In addition, it can be fairly unsightly and look fairly cheap. But in the end it isn't to be ruled out for a flooring option in my house.

1st post

Today I start an adventure. I have been thinking about creating a blog for a long time now and finally have enough to say that I think someone might like to read.

I am starting this for several purposes:
1. I have a stack of magazine articles that I find interesting and want to remember. But I don't want to have them cluttering my kitchen counter any longer.
2. I want to remember all the useful tips I find for when I have a house of my own.
3. I wanted a way to organize my research for my Master's thesis. For those that are interested the question is: Does feeding children organically reduce their risk of potential health hazards.
4. Give me a space that I can proudly jump on my soap box of environmental radicalism without the scorn of the "non-believers".

I will probably think of other uses for this site, but for now that seems good enough.