Sunday, July 06, 2008

Locavore Grabbed Me When I Wasn't Looking

The universe has been hitting me over the head with information about the history and current state of the food we eat and all roads are leading to locavor-ism. For example, a friend who knows I love the TV show "LOST" sent me a link to a video of a TED talk by J.J. Abrams. The next talk cued up under "other talks" was Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat, http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat.html.
I highly recommend checking it out. Another example was the book I decided to listen to by Barbara Kingsolver. I ordered the book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" on CD from my monthly subscription service for my 30 min commute to work because I just finished "Poisonwood Bible" and felt like another Kingsolver. If you haven't read the book, it's a one year memoir/journalistic investigation of her families attempt to be locavores plus nutritional information, meal plans, and a few sidebars on food-production science and industry--not the fictional escape I hoped for but obveously just what I needed.  And then there was the link my mom sent me of her friend's endeavor in Canada, http://www.stowellakefarm.com, an organic, multi-family farm. I know that going green is hot in marketing and advertising but these are odd avenues into a topic I wasn't looking for. We eat organic food and I'm very aware of biodynamic gardening, fair trade, and sustainability. Locavor-ism is not only new to me but tracked me down and jumped in my face. I hope you look into it since it's the only logical way to reduce the amount of fuel required to product you next meal. Just think of it, you too can be a superhero and save the planet!




Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Go Green! Embrace an Earth Friendly Lifestyle and Save an Environment Worth Sharing With the Next Generation.

I’m so excited to report that our family finally took the plunge into 100% ecological, non-toxic, biodegradable, natural cleaning products. We donated all of our toxic, environmentally unfriendly cleaning supplies to friends who wanted to use them as I couldn’t bear to just recycle them (maybe I should have—oh well). I’m afraid it was a long transition; we started with laundry and dish soap and had a hard time finding something we really liked. We’re still cycling through ‘green’ options for dish soap. Our cleaning bucket is now stocked with notions and potions from Earth Friendly Products (http://www.ecos.com/), Seventh Generation, (http://www.seventhgeneration.com/), biokleen (http://biokleenhome.com/), and ECOVER (http://www.ecover.com/us/en/).

Living in Santa Cruz, California, we’re a bit behind the curve; most of our friends switched years ago or grew up with granola baking; make your own cleaning solvent moms. I didn’t find the earth friendly products to cost more than the toxic options but I haven’t seen them in bulk at CostCo yet (come on Jim Sinegal, go GREEN!!). It’s scary to think that earth friendly isn’t yet the norm. Back in the 70’s while I was in elementary school my science teachers were talking about limited resources and the necessity of finding alternative sources of power like solar or wind, and electric cars (My nifty solar hotdog roaster was a hit at lunch time). What happened in the last 28 years? Why haven’t we made more progress? Why do things have to start to fail before we get off our butts and make some changes?

My friend, Tammy Pittenger, launched an online business selling ‘green’ products for the home at http://www.organicabode.com/ (not bad for a part-time stay-at-home mom gig). She’s not alone; a quick Google search will serve up a plethora of options. We’re lucky enough to have two stores in town that focus on providing green solutions for everything from lunch boxes to house paint, greenspace (http://www.greenspacecompany.com/) and Eco Goods (http://www.ecogoods.com/) … and they have websites if you’re stuck out in Oklahoma in an ice storm.

It is NOT easy to change a lifetime of habits and it’s the ONLY way the next generation will have a lifetime to enjoy this planet.

Kiss your babies and count your blessing. Peace to you.