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Fri, 02 May 2008

For Vegetarians and Vegans: Dr. Mirkin on Vitamins and Exercise

Dr. Gabe Mirkin always has interesting alternative, holistic health and nutrition info in his weekly ezine, especially about exercise, fitness, nutrition and weight loss. His comments and advice are often relevant and valuable to vegetarians.

In the May 4th 2008 issue of Dr. Mirkin's Health and Fitness Ezine, he has good advice for people who just realized how out of shape they are (seems to be a spring thing), and want to get fit immediately, if not sooner. The good news is, anybody can get fit. The bad news is, for the average unfit person, it takes WEEKS, even MONTHS, not days, to get fit.

"Start your new exercise program at very low intensity and low volume. Gradually increase your workload for several months before you try to run fast, lift heavy or exercise intensely. If you are just beginning to exercise, go at a relaxed pace until your muscles feel heavy and then stop. For the first several days or weeks you may be able to exercise only for a few minutes at a time. If your muscles feel sore the next day, take the day off. Increase the amount of time gradually until you can exercise 30 minutes a day at a relaxed pace and not feel sore. You may progress rapidly to the 30-minute goal, or it may take you two, four, six weeks or more. No matter how long it takes, don't get discouraged. Exercising too much or too hard, too soon will set you up for injuries."

In case you were thinking to skip the 'no-pain-no-gain' route to health, and just take a few vitamin supplements, Dr. Mirkin shoots that one down too. It isn't that he thinks vitamins aren't important - but that we're better off getting them holistically and synergistically - from food. I'm including his vitamin comments from the May 4, 2008 issue, because we all need to know this stuff:

"Most vitamins are parts of enzymes that start chemical reactions in your body. Each chemical reaction produces end products that are changed by further chemical reactions from other vitamins to other products that benefit your body. When you take a vitamin that has been isolated from the hundreds of other substances found in foods, that enzyme causes a chemical reaction that accumulates a disproportionate amount of its end products. If the substance that acts as an enzyme for the next chain of chemical reactions is not available, you can accumulate end products that may be harmful.

"For example, people who take niacin to lower cholesterol show a marked elevation of homocysteine, a major risk factor for heart attacks. Homocysteine levels are raised by a deficiency of B12, folic acid and pyridoxine. When you eat your niacin in whole grains, all of those components are present, along with many others whose functions we may not yet understand. Several of you asked for a link to the study I mentioned last week; it has been added to this issue."

My question is, "What about Vitamin B12? Vegans have a hard time getting this vital nutrient from food, and as people age, they tend to lose their ability to absorb it. So, if we take a B12 supplement, are we risking a heart attack? Or are the risks of B12 deficiency greater than the risk of taking an artifical and isolated vitamin?" Apparently.

I read several of Dr. Mirkin's posts about Vitamin B12 - One,   Two,   Three. I was reminded about the dire effects of Vitamin B12 deficiency. Dr. Mirkin recommends B12 supplements, especially for people over 60 and vegetarians - it's a cheap and easy way to prevent pernicious anemia, brain and nerve damage, and heart attacks.

Taking Vitamin B12:

• Supposedly, methylcobalamin B12 is absorbed more readily by the body, especially if you take it sublingually.
• BUT - the doses (1000 mcg is typical) are much higher than what our bodies need, which is a few micrograms a day, so you won't lose much by taking cobalamin and making your body convert it.
• You sure don't need 5000 mcg - go for 500 mcg if you can find that size. Most of it will still end up in the toilet.
• In my experience, once you're up to speed, you can usually take half a tablet every few days with no harm done.
• Plus, any B12 tablet can be taken sublingually - just let it dissolve under your tongue.
• Another point is that all B12 is made in labs, and is vegetarian by definition. Just watch out for non-veg gelatin capsules.

Mon, 07 Apr 2008

World Wide Food Crisis - Grains Gone Wild, by Paul Krugman

Published on Monday, April 7, 2008 by The New York Times

"These days you hear a lot about the world financial crisis. But there's another world crisis under way - and it's hurting a lot more people."

"I'm talking about the food crisis. Over the past few years the prices of wheat, corn, rice and other basic foodstuffs have doubled or tripled, with much of the increase taking place just in the last few months. High food prices dismay even relatively well-off Americans - but they're truly devastating in poor countries, where food often accounts for more than half a family's spending."

"There have already been food riots around the world. Food-supplying countries, from Ukraine to Argentina, have been limiting exports in an attempt to protect domestic consumers, leading to angry protests from farmers - and making things even worse in countries that need to import food."

How did this happen? The answer is a combination of long-term trends, bad luck - and bad policy.

SV Note: Food doesn't yet cost half my income, but it is by far the biggest expense in my budget. That's with eating simply, cooking most of my own food from scratch, buying bulk, buying local whenever possible, and keeping a garden. But we still eat far better than most people in the world, mainly because of all the cheap imported food that's available - cheap relative to the actual social, environmental, and economic costs of producing and transporting it.

Read Paul Krugman's article, Grains Gone Wild, to find out why cheap food, like cheap oil may be a thing of the past.

Thu, 14 Feb 2008

Enjoy Socially Responsible, Humanitarian, Eco-Friendly Travel - Volunteer in Latin America

Every year about this time in the dreary dog days of winter, I long for sunny beaches in tropical climes. And then I think, 'What a drag to fly to some third world country as a hated tourist!'. Then I got a timely email from Stephen Knight, webmaster at Volunteer Latin America. For those who need a real reason to travel, VLA is a UK based organization providing a customized information service for humanitarian volunteers. VLA also offers environmental projects.

Along with a link request, Stephen kindly included an article (excerpted below), meant for anyone looking to travel in a way that lessens their impact on the environment and provides genuine benefits for conservation and local people. When I read the article, I realized that most of these socially responsible, eco-friendly travel tips apply to all of us - in our daily lives, and when travelling any distance, from the local farmers market to the other side of the world.

'Being a responsible traveller means more than just offsetting your carbon emissions, it requires thought and preparation. Responsible travel is based on the principles of sustainability and it requires you to examine the environmental, social and economic dimensions of your trip. Thus, responsible travel is all about minimizing the impact of your travel and maximizing the benefits for local economies, environments and host communities. Making informed choices before and during your trip is the single most important thing you can do to become a responsible traveller.'

'If you intend to volunteer overseas, try to choose a locally run organisation so all your money goes to the cause rather than paying for the marketing and administration of a volunteer-sending agency. Some foreign run agencies offer little more than glorified holidays and are often more interested in making money than helping the environment or local people. No one benefits from these placements apart from the companies that organise them.'

SV Note: Helpful information from VLA will allow you to avoid that scenario, and fulfill your dream of becoming a humanitarian volunteer in Latin America.

Read the VLA article: Eco Friendly Socially Responsible Travel

Wed, 13 Feb 2008

Vegan Express: New Cookbook from Nava Atlas, prolific cookbook writer, and publisher of In A Vegetarian Kitchen

Excerpt: Cookbook Review by Sarah Kingsbury, for Savvy Vegetarian

This a very usable cookbook with a lot of great stuff packed into it, from basic vegan nutrition, to grocery shopping tips, to a wide variety of quick flavorful recipes accompanied by handy menu suggestions. Just pick one of Nava's suggestions and you will instantly have the complete answer to the dreaded question, 'What should we have for dinner?'

The answer is sure to be always delicious. We had Pineapple Coconut Noodles the other day and they were a big hit with the whole family, young and old. Other recipes I'm looking forward to trying very soon include: Tofu Triangles with Rich Peanut Sauce, White Bean and Escarole Soup, Creamy Pasta with Asparagus and Peas, and Black Bean, Mango, and Avocado Salad, to name just a few.

Read The Vegan Express Cookbook Review

Try Pineapple Coconut Noodles

Buy Vegan Express!

Tue, 12 Feb 2008

Ronnie Cummins, Organic Consumers Association: Corporate Globalization: Standing at the End of the Road

I just read an excellent article in Common Dreams by Ronnie Cummins, director of the Organic Consumers Association.

Ronnie Cummins writes from Mexico, which has been economically devastated by NAFTA - the North American Free Trade Agreement. He was part of a demonstration against NAFTA in Mexico City: "...one hundred and fifty thousand small farmers, teachers, workers, and neighborhood activists are marching to repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and end the illegal 'dumping' by Cargill, ADM, and Monsanto of billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidized U.S. agricultural crops – beans, rice, sugar, powdered milk, soybeans, and genetically engineered corn – onto the Mexican market."

"NAFTA, pushed through in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. in 1994 over the opposition of the majority of North Americans, is literally driving Mexico's thirty million small farmers and villagers off the land and into the slums of Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana, Juarez, and other cities; or else, following the path of twelve million others before them, across the increasingly dangerous border into the United States to find work. Rural villages in Mexico have become literal economic ghost towns of women, children, and the elderly. In some municipalities, 80-90% of the men and boys are gone, increasingly joined by the young women."

After describing the effects of NAFTA and similar global agri-business deals - cheap abundant food for the U.S. and starvation for other countries - Ronnie Cummins ponders the way forward from the heartbreaking injustice he describes.

"The simple solution to all this is to scrap NAFTA, make organic and sustainable farming once more the dominant practice in agriculture (as it has been for most of the last 10,000 years), help the globe's two billion farmers stay on the land, make healthy organic foods and lifestyles the norm, and restructure global agriculture and commerce so that sustainable local and regional production for local and regional markets and Fair Trade become the norm, not just the alternative."

"Implementing these obvious alternatives," Cummins states, "will require nothing short of a global grassroots rising."

Savvy Veg sees a peaceful transformation of world consciousness making positive global change inevitable. Evidence of that transformation can be found in the phenomenal numbers of people, all over the world, adopting a vegetarian diet. It's typically spontaneous - people just wake up one day and realize that they have to be vegetarian. Will Tuttle, in his book of that name, calls vegetarianism 'The World Peace Diet', and it's part and parcel of Ronnie Cummins simple solution to corporate globalization.

Read Ronnie Cummins article, Corporate Globalization: Standing at the End of the Road

Sat, 09 Feb 2008

Using Food Crops for Biofuels Increases Carbon Emissions

Common Dreams newsletter 2.08 edition, has a most interesting article on biofuels, by Alan Zembaro of the LA Times. Here's the intro:

'Biofuel Crops Increase Carbon Emissions: The conversion of forests and grasslands into fields for the plants offsets the benefit of using the fuel, researchers find. Greenhouse-gas output overall would rise instead of fall.'

The article references two recent studies from the University of Minnesota, and Princeton University. One study found that 'clearing forests and grasslands to grow the crops releases vast amounts of carbon into the air — far more than the carbon spared from the atmosphere by burning biofuels instead of gasoline.' The second study states that 'Even converting existing farmland from food to biofuel crops increases greenhouse gas emissions as food production is shifted to other parts of the world, resulting in the destruction of more forests and grasslands to make way for farmland.'

Alan Zembaro's article makes it clear that biofuels from food crops is not the way to go. Even more interesting (as usual) were the comments posted by Common Dreams readers, e.g. the following excerpt from Hopeful Brewer's post:

'The discussion of bio fuels seems to me to have consistently omitted the most productive crop of all : HEMP. ... the truth is that hemp has many advantages over corn, soy, and even switchgrass. It is a nitrogen fixer, which means that it can be grown year after year with minimal input of nutrients, it thrives on a multitude of soil conditions, its fiber and oils have literally thousands of applications, and it makes a dynamite viscous fuel. ... The paper industry has long fought hemp in favor of further deforestation, but the truth is that hemp will produce 4 times as much raw fiber for paper as a 75 year old forest, with less energy in harvesting and considerably less impact on ecosystems.' Etc.

Of course, that brought forth many more lively and informative posts.

Read The Article

Sat, 05 Jan 2008

How To Recycle Everything That Isn't Paper, Plastic and Glass

Don't leave it on the sidewalk! A number of resources are now available to help consumers recycle everything from electronics to fluorescent light bulbs to disposable batteries.

From E-Magazines's 1.6.08 EARTH TALK column.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia

It's true that recycling items other than paper, plastic and glass is still no easy task. But if you're committed to unloading something without adding it to a landfill, a little research can go a long way. Fortunately there are some great resources out there to help.

One of the best is a May 2006 article published in E – The Environmental Magazine by Sally Deneen entitled "How to Recycle Practically Anything". Besides debunking myths about the ineffectiveness of municipal recycling programs, Deneen outlines where and how to recycle dozens of different types of household items not typically picked up by the recycling truck at your curbside.

Regarding compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs)— which shouldn't be thrown in the trash as they contain trace amounts of the toxic heavy metal mercury—Deneen recommends first checking with your local household hazardous waste disposal facility to see if they will take them for recycling. If not, many hardware stores will take back spent CFLs. If none of these options pans out, a free online listing of companies that recycle CFLs can be found at Lamp Recycle.

As for disposable batteries, Deneen says they, too, can usually be dropped off at municipal hazardous waste facilities, where they will be disassembled and their parts recycled for use in other products. If such facilities in your area won't take them, some local or national retailers (such as Walgreen's in some areas and Batteries Plus nationwide) may — just call and ask. Another option is to pay for the privilege by sending them to Battery Solutions, a mail-order company that will recycle them for 85 cents per pound.

Another common question is how to recycle (or at least responsibly dispose of) portable electronics — cell phones, video games, MP3 players, etc. — given that they usually contain heavy metals and chemicals that can pollute soils and groundwater. Deneen recommends dropping them off at your local Staples, Office Depot or Radio Shack store, which should take them back free of charge even if you didn't buy them there. Another option would be shipping the worn out items to CollectiveGood (4508 Bibb Boulevard, Tucker, GA 30084), which will recycle them and donate the proceeds to the charity of your choice.

If you're stumped about how or where to recycle an item, check out Earth911. It offers a free keyword-searchable, zip code-based database of municipal and commercial recycling and hazardous waste disposal facilities across the United States. The frequently updated database, which is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as well as state governments and several non-profits, can also direct you to the proper municipal facility or local business to off-load potentially toxic items, like old tires or unused paint, in a safe and responsible manner. If you don’t have handy Internet access, give Earth911's toll-free telephone hotline a call at 1-800-CLEANUP.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881;
Submit it at: Earth Talk This Week, or e-mail: earthtalk at emagazine.com.

Read past columns at: Earth Talk Archives

Thu, 03 Jan 2008

Cold Weather Hinders Weight Loss

Dr. Gabe Mirkin is a diabetic health and fitness enthusiast who gives out a lot of useful info in his Fitness and Health E-Zine - about diet, exercise, weight loss and other interesting health stuff which may even apply to you. For instance, if you're eating right and exercising, even though it's cold, and your weight loss program has stalled or reversed, here's a reasonable explanation.

"Many people gain weight during the cold months even if they exercise and watch what they eat. One reason may be that you burn fewer calories when you exercise in cold weather than you do when it's hot. The hotter it is, the more extra work your heart must do to prevent you from overheating. More than 70 percent of the energy produced by your muscles during exercise is lost as heat. So the harder you exercise, the hotter your muscles become. In hot weather, not only must your heart pump extra blood to bring oxygen to your muscles, it must also pump hot blood from your heated muscles to your skin where heat can be dissipated."

"On the other hand, in cold weather, your heart only has to pump blood to your muscles and very little extra blood to your skin to dissipate heat. Your muscles produce so much heat during exercise that your body does not need to produce more heat to keep you warm. So your heart works harder and you burn more calories in hot weather. This information should not discourage you from exercising when its cold, because staying in shape is a year-round proposition. However, it may help to explain why so many people find the pounds creeping on in the wintertime, even when they stay active."

Sun, 09 Dec 2007

Word Of The Year 2007: Locavore!

From Union of Concerned Scientists 12/7/07 FEED newsletter.

O.K. I'll bite. What is a locavore??? At first glance, I thought the word was 'locovore' - a carnivore with mad cow disease maybe? Then in my dyslexic state I mispelled it as 'lovacore' - someone who lives on love? Finally I got it right. The New Oxford American Dictionary's 2007 Word of the Year is LOCAVORE, defined as 'a person who seeks out locally produced food'.

UCS tells us that the local foods movement is gaining momentum as people discover that the best-tasting and most sustainable choices are foods that are fresh, seasonal, and grown close to home. Amen! Some locavores draw inspiration from the 100-mile diet or from advocates of local eating like Barbara Kingsolver. Others just follow their taste buds to farmers' markets, community supported agriculture programs, and community gardens.

Savvy Veg notes that UCS doesn't mention your own back yard as a source of locally grown food. However, if your thumb is even slightly green, and there's any way that you can grow things where you live - just do it!

A few of the many reasons why growing veggies is my favorite way to eat locally:

• Grow a lot of food in a little space from just a few little seeds. You can even buy food seeds & plants with food stamps!
• Turn your kitchen scraps into compost for your plants, and send less garbage to the landfill.
• It costs almost nothing to grow food, especially if you scrounge for free local materials and inputs.
• Gardening is a great way to get fresh air and exercise, save on gym fees, and escape doing the dishes.
• It's Cheap Therapy: You can't have a problem when you're digging in the dirt.
• Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, tastes as good as a veggie you just harvested from your own garden, even if your garden is just a lone tomato plant on your apartment balcony

Check out Local Harvest to find sustainably grown food near you, and make a New Year's Resolution to become a Locavore in 2008!

Mon, 03 Dec 2007

Diet Detective

Allena Tapia from Diet Detective just wrote to tell me she linked to my 'awesome site' (that would be Savvy Veg). Curiosity led me to her awesome site.

Although Allena says that she's a 'transitional vegetarian' according to Savvy Veg, Diet Detective is an excellent resource for vegetarians or anyone in healthy lifestyle and weight loss. The section that I'm really excited about is one of the best food resources I've seen online: the Food Search Section of Diet Detective. This is a thorough nutritional analysis of thousands of foods, including most everything that vegetarians & vegans eat - exactly what I've been looking for. Even spices & herbs are listed, making it clear what nutrition powerhouses they are. For example, 1 tsp of cumin has 1% of the daily value of Vitamin A, 2% of calcium, and 7.9% of iron, plus trace amounts of Vitamins C, E & K, Thiamin, Niacin, Folate & B6. Who Knew!?

The Food Search section is a valuable tool for meal planning, weight loss, or weight gain for some lucky people! I plan to use it for developing recipes on Savvy Veg. In addition, Diet Detective offers a weight loss support group (membership is $49.95 per year), health & diet articles and advice, community forums, newsletter and more.

Mon, 19 Nov 2007

Savvy Vegetarian is proud to host the 104th Carnival of the Green

COTG is a roving digest of the green blogosphere, managed by Treehugger. Carnival of the Green roams from blog to blog each week, offering entertaining and enlightening bits and bytes - with an ecopolitical-green-sustainable focus.

Last weeks Carnival of the Green was a No-Show. Next week's carnival is happening at Great Green Goods

Since this is the season of consumerism (aka holiday spirit), to which green people are not immune - we present sustainable green shopping opportunites. Sadly, global warming is still with us, but solar power and other alternative energy sources are on the rise.

Mindful Momma tells us why our next appliance purchase should be Energy Star Rated. My question is, why would anyone do otherwise?

Thoughts On Global Warming: Simmons writes about a solar powered mp4 player, which he describes as 'pretty sick'. For the un-hip among us, I think that means it's very very good.

Preston Koerner at Jetson Green posts about a modern, green, affordable ($100 K) house in Philadelphia. That pushes all my consumer buttons, except (whine) why isn't it in Florida?

OK, Here It is! Corbett Kroehler at Keyboard Culture talks about Florida's Showcase Green Envirohome, which embraces solar energy, and will even have a solar air conditioner! I wonder if its a $100K eco-house like the one in Philly. Just a thought.

Last week, Beth Terry at Fake Plastic Fish tried to post about finding plastic in places you might not expect, as in Evert Fresh 'green' bags, which have been advertised as un-plastic. This week Beth posts about toxic PVC lurking in your house and how to deal with it, plus her quest for the 'greenest' plastic-free cutting board. I want to know about that!

Eco Books For Today's Kids: MC Milker, The Not Quite Crunchy Parent, looks beyond eco friendly subjects in kid books to truly environmentally friendly kid books.

Nick Aster at Triple Pundit announces: Yokohama to Launch Tires Made of Orange Rinds.

Gourmet Coffee Reviews reports: Specialty Coffee Retailer Introduces ?Green Cup? Tully's, a handcrafted coffee roaster in Washington state, recently became the first major coffee retailer to adopt a fully renewable and compostable paper beverage cup. Tully's also has an in-store collection program to divert the used 'green' cups and other compostable food waste from local landfills to organic composting facilities. Go Tully's!

Coinciding with the seasonal consumer feeding frenzy, the Nov. 18th edition of E-Magazine's weekly Earth Talk column answers the question,'What are the best sources out there for environmentally friendly consumer products?' According to Earth Talk, online is one of the best bets. Savvy Vegetarian also has a list of favorite online green retailers and directories.

JP Davidson at Green Deals Daily tells us the Top 5 Ways to Convince People who Don't Give a Damn about the Environment - with varying degrees of success. Plus, tips for going green without spending a dime, AND how to get environmentally friendly products FREE. Living more sustainably has never been easier (or cheaper!)

Three Posts From Adam Williams at Life Goggles:
Recycline Preserve Razors Adam's girlfriend, and friend Rob loved this recyclable razor.
The Fun Green Roundup #6 Salmon Sperm & LED's, Pandas & Bamboo, Green Faith, and Shower Shock.
The Green Wall of Shame: Naughty people, things and places which are damaging the environment or seem against improving it.

Ken Philby's Top Tip: Get Over Yourself, Buy Used: Philby's Finance encourages us to buy used products whenever possible to save money and help the environment.

Posted by Peter Jones, Indigenous Issues Today: Biofuel and It's Non-sustainable Impacts: A Case from West Papua.

The Inspired Protagonist on Concentrated Solar Power: Inkslinger wants to know: If this technology can supply 90% of the world with 100% emissions-free electricity, why are we even talking about fossil fuels anymore? Good question!

Kevin Cawley posted Cure for Cancer Powers Engines, in which a medical researcher seeking a cure for cancer accidentally found a viable alternative energy source.

Ed Yong at Not Exactly Rocket Science explains how the deep soil contains a massive stable store of carbon, and it's important that agricultural practices don't disturb the soil to avoid stirring this 'sleeping giant'.

Veggie Revolution: What kind of forests absorb more carbon than any other? Read about the special ecosystems that could become important tools for stabilizing our climate.

Lisa Baker of The Christian Environmentalist posts about a project to build a cellulosic (pine wood chips) ethanol plant in Georgia, and the problems that need to be addressed before cellulosic ethanol can be environmentally feasible.

Melanie Rimmer at Bean Sprouts tells why the International Slow Food movement is an example of "foodies" and "greenies" being on the same side. I always suspected it was so. But wait. Does this mean that the slow foodies have resolved the eco-contradictions between eating meat and being green? Not quite...

So here we are - still stuck between our consumeristic tendencies, and our desire for a greener world. May we resolve the conundrum with grace and good cheer! Thanks for visiting Carnival of the Green! See you next week at Great Green Goods.

Sun, 18 Nov 2007

Where To Find Earth Friendly Consumer Products

We're well into the seasonal consumer feeding frenzy, and green people are not immune. Just coincidentally, this week's Earth Talk column from E-Magazine answers the question, 'What are the best sources out there for environmentally friendly consumer products?' According to Earth Talk, online is one of the best bets, and Savvy Vegetarian agrees.

Earth Talk recommendations for green shopping:

Gaiam, which acquired Real Goods in 2000. They also have a print catalog, and partner with retail giants like Target for wider distribution of green goods.

Another good one-stop shop for green consumer goods is Green Home, which sells thousands of environmentally responsible home products online.

The best one-stop source for green building materials is Ecohaus (formerly the Environmental Home Center). The company has three stores in Portland and Bend, Oregon and Seattle, Washington.

For harder-to-find green goods, check out Ecoseek.net, which bills itself as 'the Internet's first green product search engine' with links and reviews for more than 6,500 different green products from over 300 merchants.

Another good online stop is EcoMall, which lists thousands of socially responsible manufacturers and distributors of just about every type of green product imaginable.

Here are just a few of Savvy Vegetarian's online eco-shopping favorites:

Aubrey Organics: Has been around longer than most, and is just what it claims to be - organic herbal body care products. Extensive online catalog, many more products than you ever see in stores. There's also a handy store locator on the site.

Abundant Earth: Catalog of goods-for-the environment made with organic and recycled materials - bedding, linens, furniture, rugs, cleaning supplies, air and & water purifiers, candles ...

Kush Tush: Healthy, eco-safe organic bedding and bath essentials, for natural protection from allergies, MCS, and SIDS. Complete Organic Baby Shop.

Nature's Crib: Natural and organic products for babies and parents, including organic baby clothing & bedding, natural baby care, cloth diapers, and cleaning products.

Green Elegance Weddings: Designed for the stylish couple who also wants to do the right thing for the planet, while at the same time bringing an atmosphere of elegance to their celebration.

Green Kits: Green-kits offers green cleaning products, reusable grocery bags, organic baby care, green product kits for kitchen, bath and baby, tips on why and how to green your home.

Organic Selections: Natural Selections website, a wonderful store in Fairfield IA, filled with beautiful, natural and organic products - clothing for the whole family, body care, gifts, furniture, bedding.

Mountain Rose Herbs has consistently delivered exceptional quality certified organic products with a strict emphasis on sustainable agriculture. Bulk organic herbs and spices, essential oils and herbal teas.

Happy Cow: Global, searchable vegetarian dining guide and directory of natural health food stores, including nutrition & health tips, vegan recipes, raw foods, travel, vegetarian issues.

Green People: Very Large Directory of eco-friendly and holistic health products: Organic food, pet supplies, baby products, beauty products, home improvement, hemp, organic cotton, health products, recycled products.

Eco Business Directory Organic food, solar energy, sustainable housing, organic cotton, vegetarian dating, organic farms, sustainable communities, eco products.

Wed, 10 Oct 2007

2007 Blog Action Day Theme: The Environment

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. The aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Blog Action Day is about MASS participation. That means you! Here are 3 ways to participate:

• Post on your blog relating to the environment on Blog Action Day
• Donate your day’s earnings to an environmental charity
• Promote Blog Action Day around the web

2007 Blog Action Day Organizers Are A Core Team of Bloggers:

Collis Ta'eed: Collis runs Sydney-based startup Eden Creative Communities as well as blogging on NorthxEast about blogging itself. He has a background in design and web development and previously art directed an interactive design agency. Collis is a Baha'i and Blog Action Day was inspired by the belief in the unity of humanity.

Leo Babauta: Leo is author of the wildly successful ZenHabits. Leo has also served as a writer on such heavyweight blogs as LifeHack.org, DumbLittleMan, FreelanceSwitch and the WebWorkerDaily. Accompanying his blog writing exploits, Leo has been a reporter, editor, speech writer and freelance writer for the last 17 years.

Cyan Ta'eed: Cyan is responsible for one of the fastest growing blogs around -FreelanceSwitch, a blog that in just four months has grown an RSS audience of some 12,000 subscribers and broken into Technorati's top 500.

Watch the BlogActionDay Video on YouTube

Wed, 19 Sep 2007

Fake Plastic Fish - How To Have Our Plastic and Be Green Too

Beth wrote to comment on my paper or plastic post, saying that she writes about alternatives to plastic, but is really all about reducing all of our waste, plastic and otherwise. I promptly visited her excellent blog, Fake Plastic Fish, and replied:

"Hi Beth. I loved your post about re-using plastic bags! (Monday Sept 17th 2007 at Fake Plastic Fish) It's true - without plastic bags, our lives would be much more difficult. As you say, the thing is to never throw them away, and re-use them over and over again. Now, if only we could get stores to give away bags that never got holes in them, and never ripped. Seriously, I think we should explore traditional ways, lost to plastic and refridgeration, of keeping food fresh."

"My sense is that when people lived down the road from the greengrocer, ate all their meals at home, had gardens, etc, then plastic bags weren't needed. Personally I have no desire to go back to being a woman in the middle ages, or even the 1950's, but there should be ecological ways to have our fridges and plastic bags (or the equally convenient green alternative.'

Beth wrote back:
"I do wonder how people kept bread from drying out before plastic. Any ideas about that? Since I started buying artisan bread in paper bags, I've had the worst time with it getting hard. At first I didn't want to resort to putting it in plastic, and then I thought, why not? The plastic is here. There's no point in living in denial about that. And as long as it's here, it would be better to use it than have it go to waste."

"I have stopped using plastic bags for most of my produce. Like I said, I carry used plastic grocery bags for little things or stuff with a lot of dirt on it. But I see no need to put my apples, bananas, oranges, avocados, stuff like that into a plastic bag. What's all this fruit and veg segregation about anyway? It's not like they're going to contaminate each other if they touch!

"So please let me know anything that you find out about alternative ways to store food, especially ways that don't involve going out and buying a bunch of new stuff. I like it when environmentalism and frugality meet."

I thought about when I was a kid long ago, and remembered metal bread boxes, big glass jars, waxed paper and waxed paper bags. I also remember bread pudding, french toast, bread crumbs stretching the hamburger, stuffing the chickens and turkeys, or crusting the mac'n'cheese. Plus we ate things besides bread, like biscuits and muffins, and the inevitable porridge and potatoes. Sometimes my mother baked bread, or went to the local bakery where they put the bread in paper bags. But it never lasted long enough to get dry and stale, with five hungry children in the house.

My question is, 'Can we be green without domestic slavery?' And Beth at Fake Plastic Fish needs your ideas, opinions, suggestions, and advice about how we can eliminate unnecessary plastic, dramatically reduce our plastic waste, and live responsibly with the kinds of plastic that do have real benefits.

Sat, 15 Sep 2007

Paper Or Plastic - Which Is Better For The Environment?

According to the 9.9.07 Earth Talk newsletter from E-Magazine, neither paper nor plastic is environmentally friendly.

As the Earth Talk article points out: "... to the non-profit Institute for Lifecycle Environmental Assessment, 'paper versus plastic?' is not the question we should be asking ourselves, since the answer is really 'neither.' After all, energy and waste issues aside, the manufacture of paper bags brings down some 14 million trees yearly to meet U.S. demand alone, while at the same time plastic bags use up some 12 million barrels of oil each year."

"The group urges consumers to 'just say no' to both options and instead bring their own re-usable canvas bags, backpacks, crates or boxes to haul away the groceries. Some supermarkets, such as the Albertson’s and Wild Oats chains, even offer a small discount (around five cents) to those who do so. Another benefit of bringing your own, of course, is setting a good example so that other shoppers might do the same."

After reading the Earth Talk article, I realize that I've been practicing environmental truth avoidance (ETA), and not stepping up to the daily paper-plastic-challenge.

Bags are big, but so are electronics, cars, furniture, housing, packaging - all of which use plastic-and-or-paper. Then there's all the paper used in schools and business, baby diapers, toilet paper and tissue, plastic bottles, etc - all of which end up in the trash about five minutes after we use them.

The truth which I've been avoiding is that we are a disposible society addicted to convenience. Everything is made to be thrown away, and the environment is choking on our garbage. I'd guess that a very tiny percentage of green consumers actually generate zero waste. Come to think of it -'green consumer' is probably an oxymoron.

I'm not trying to guilt anybody - Goddess Forbid! I'm not ready to live naked in a cave and forage for roots and berries.

Of course it's a good thing to bring your own containers and bags to the grocery store. And if stores charged the true environmental cost for every bag they gave out, that would cut down on bags right smart quick! It would be even better if stores didn't offer those fiendishly convenient bags at the checkout counter, and sold nothing in packages.

And wouldn't it be lovely if cars were made to last a lifetime, or two or three? Likewise clothing, electronics, houses - all made sustainably from natural non-toxic materials. Amazing, if everybody drank tap water from pottery made by the guy down the street. And we didn't have advertising to tell us what we want and need. How fantastic to be so highly evolved that you didn't need to write anything down to remember it, and knew everything without reading books, newspapers, and magazines! And we all cooked our vegetarian food from scratch. And shared and played nice with the other kids.

Living like that isn't just a nice dream. This is the world we can have, if we want it. Ditching the bags is a place to start.

Sat, 08 Sep 2007

Dirt Isn't So Cheap

Soil erosion is a global crisis - causing food and water shortages, and responsible for 30 percent of global warming.

Online alternative news source Common Dreams published an article by Stephen Leahy on soil erosion, Dirt Isn't So Cheap in the 8.31.07 issue. His article is a good follow up to a previous article on soil, aka dirt, by Tamsyn Jones.

From Scoop On Dirt by Tamsyn Jones:
'We've long taken soil for granted. It is ubiquitous but unseen; humble but essential; surprisingly strong yet profoundly fragile. It nurtures life and death in vibrant harmony; undergirds cities, forests and oceans; and feeds all terrestrial life on Earth. It is a substance few people understand and most take for granted. Yet, it is arguably one of Earth's most critical natural resources -- and humans, quite literally, owe to it their very existence.'

Andres Arnalds is the assistant director of the Icelandic Soil Conservation Service. Arnalds spoke from Selfoss, Iceland, host city of the International Forum on Soils, Society and Climate Change, convening Friday Sept. 7th 2007:

'We are overlooking soil as the foundation of all life on Earth,' said Arnalds. 'Soil and vegetation is being lost at an alarming rate around the globe, which in turn has devastating effects on food production and accelerates climate change.' Every year, some 100,000 square kilometres of land loses its vegetation and becomes degraded or turns into desert. 'Land degradation and desertification may be regarded as the silent crisis of the world, a genuine threat to the future of humankind.'

Read stephen Leahy's article Dirt Isn't So Cheap

Also read Scoop On Dirt by Tamsyn Jones.

Thu, 30 Aug 2007

Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, by Jeffrey M. Smith

Healthy Eating Means No GMOs: You may have heard that genetically modified (GM) foods are safe, properly tested, and necessary to feed a hungry world. UNTRUE!

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs), introduced into our food supply in the mid-1990s, are one of history's most dangerous and radical dietary changes. These largely unregulated GMO ingredients are in 60-70% of the foods in the US, but it's well worth making the effort to avoid them.

Health-conscious retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and growers are participating in The Campaign for Healthier Eating in America, which will eliminate GMOs from thousands of products. This will make it easier for you to feed your family a healthier 'non-GMO' diet, and may even end the genetic engineering of the entire US food supply.

This industry-wide rejection of GMOs can be achieved by a 'tipping point,' when there are enough US shoppers avoiding GM ingredients to force the major food companies to stop using them.

Europe reached the tipping point in April 1999 and within a single week, virtually all major manufacturers publicly committed to stop using GM ingredients in their European brands. This consumer-led revolt against GMOs in the EU was generated by a February 1999 media firestorm after a top GMO safety researcher, Dr. Arpad Pusztai, was 'ungagged by Parliament' and able to tell this alarming story to the press.

Jeffrey M. Smith is the international bestselling author of Seeds of Deception, as well as the newly released Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods. He produced the DVD 'Hidden Dangers in Kids Meals'. Jeffrey is the director of the Institute for Responsible Technology and the Campaign for Healthier Eating in America.

Read the rest of the article Campaign for Healthier Eating in America

Sun, 26 Aug 2007

Life Without Bees: Why The Honey Bees Are Disappearing

For the last few months, I've been hearing about the bees disappearing. A NY Times article in Feb 07 talked about 50 - 70% of bee colonies vanishing mysteriously, leaving the beekeeping industry in hard straits. Beekeepers truck their bees around the country, in search of crops to pollinate. If there aren't enough bees, many commercial crops dependent on bee pollination are in serious trouble.

According to the Xerxes Society, farmers need insect pollinators to produce many different types of marketable fruits and vegetables. Worldwide, animal pollinators are required for over 70 percent of crops, including apples, almonds, berries, melons, and sunflowers, among others. In the United States, this produce represents 15 to 30 percent of the foods and beverages we consume. Even crops that self-pollinate, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, often produce more, larger, or higher-quality fruit when cross-pollinated by insects."

The Xerxes Society's solution to the scarcity of domesticated honey bees is to encourage wild bees as pollinators - the article discusses the ways in which farmers can support wild bee habitat. All of those methods work in conjunction with sustainable organic farming, or permaculture, where the rythms of nature are respected, and there are no pesticides and less monocropping. But most farmland in the US is devoted to industrial agriculture, which could care less about wild bees. Besides, according to one beekeeper, wild bees were all killed off by parasites in the 1980's.

The Daily Grail post on Aug. 5th couldn't come up with a reason for Collapsed Colony Syndrome, or CCS. Bees have died off before, but in restricted areas, for various reasons, including mites, or pesticide use. It's normal for up to 20% of a hive to die off in a season. But it's never happened in these numbers, or on this scale. The Daily Grail Article speculated about Radio Frequency, but commenters dismissed that idea as far fetched.

Not so Dr. George Carlo, of Safe Wireless, author of Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age. In an interview with Acres USA, in the July '07 issue (not available online), Dr. Carlo tells why wireless technology is killing the bees. In the past three years, cell phone users have grown to about three billion, which means that the atmosphere is permeated by radio waves. Bees navigate based on electomagnetic fields, and radio waves have altered the bees cellular structures so that their homing instincts are lost and they are unable to navigate.

Noise field intervention technology is available for people to block radiation from wireless devices, preventing cancer and many other nasty conditions attributed to electropollution. Unfortunately, it's not available for bees. Dr. Carlo says that if we switched from wireless to fiber optic infrastructure, minimizing broadcasting used in cell phone use, the bees would come back. Or we could give up cell phones! What a great idea! Let Dr. Carlo tell you why your cell phone is dangerous, to you as well as the bees.

Fri, 17 Aug 2007

Your Money or Your Life: Government Regulations Are Killing Small Farmers - Jocelyn Engman

Savvy Vegetarian has previously published two of Jocelyn's Engman's articles on sustainable agriculture: CSA: Chemist to Farmer, and Eating in Season. Jocelyn graduated with a MS in chemistry from the University of Iowa before she turned her interest to the soil and began market gardening. She lives with her husband Tim on a 10-acre farm outside of Fairfield, IA, where they run Pickle Creek Herbal and Choice Earth CSA.

Below is an excerpt from Jocelyn Engman's latest article, Your Money Or Your Life. Jocelyn is passionately eloquent about the burdens placed on small producers by government regulations, which seem effectively designed to put an end to small farms, market gardens, herb growers, sustainable agriculture, alternative medicine - and freedom of choice.

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: Support Your Local Farmer

As a small farmer and a friend of many other small farmers, I'd love to see the government stop hindering small, local farming ventures. Because we eat what the farmers produce, we need the government to get out of the way of small farmers.

• Let's even the agricultural playing field and truly protect the consumer.
• Let's stand up against NAIS and demand that labeling for BSE testing of slaughtered meat be declared legal instead.
• Let's demand that labeling such as 'GMO free' or 'rBGH free' be protected as a natural right of both producer and consumer.
• Let's keep the FDA out of complementary and alternative medicine.
• Let's ask the USDA to play fair: If we must subsidize farming, let's do it in a way that builds rather than destroys consumer health. Surely we can afford to re-allocate some of the money spent to subsidize conventional grains, the cheapest, poorest food on the planet, to something a little healthier, such as fresh produce.
• Better yet, let's not subsidize corporate farming at all: Let's get rid of the farm bill.

Let's also stop relying on a government that appears to have little motivation to protect consumer health. As long as a government entity has the power to regulate, there will be a corporate entity with the money and the power to influence that government entity. Perhaps it's time for us to move beyond consumer safety and into consumer responsibility.

Read Jocelyn Engman's full article, Your Money Or Your Life

Fri, 10 Aug 2007

Think Globally About Poverty, Hunger, and Environment

Do poor people care less about environmental protection than those who are better off economically?

The 8.5.07 issue of EarthTalk Newsletter discusses recent research into the connection between economic equality and environmental protection. It makes a good a follow up to last weeks post, Organic Agriculture is the Answer to World Hunger,

The research referenced by the EarthTalk article shows that in countries with a big gap between rich and poor, environmental protection has a lower priority. In countries with more economic equality, safeguarding the environment has a higher priority.

According to the studies, the main reason is that poor people aren't interested in spending tax dollars on environmental projects. The researchers found "found plenty of evidence to suggest that 'poorer individuals tend to prefer less stringent environmental policy.'" Their conclusion is that greater income parity will give rise to better environmental protection.

It's a nice idea, and I'm all for it. But after reading the NOW Article, about organic agriculture and world hunger, I think that perspective is skewed and simplistic. The problem isn't just that the wealth is unevenly distributed, but that the global economic system is based on environmental degradation. Poverty is a side effect, both at home and abroad. It's not so simple as poor people voting against environmental initiatives.

For poverty stricken people everywhere, the main concern is keeping body and soul together. If the problem isn't right on their doorstep, affecting whether they starve or not, they don't have time or energy to worry about it. And even if that's the case, they don't usually have a lot of power to do something about it. Voting may not be an option, or count for much. Literacy levels are low, and activism is often dangerous for them and their families.

Wealthy land owners and corporations, on the other hand, have plenty of time, money, energy and power to pursue their anti-environmental agendas. Of course there are exceptions, but for the most part, trashing the environment for money is just business as usual, and who cares about the poor, except a few do-good organizations?

There may be greater income parity in wealthy democracies, and more emphasis on environmental protection. But the fact is that those countries consume a disproportionate share of the world's food and other resources, and are responsible for most of the world's environmental problems.

Most poor people (in Mexico for example) are just trying to stay alive, or sneak into the US to get a little bit of that wealth to support their families. They aren't causing big environmental problems. They're part of the environment that's being trashed.

The NOW Article describes organic agriculture as a viable answer to world hunger, and as a side benefit, reducing environmental degradation. Not by taking from the rich to give to the poor, but through empowering the poor to feed themselves, and become economically self sufficient. It's a cheap, simple, and local alternative to the current global economic system, which favors the wealthy nations over the poor.

Voting for environmental protections might sooth our consciences, but it's just a bandaid. Are we ready to drastically change our lifestyles to eliminate global poverty and hunger?

Going vegetarian, growing our own food, eating less, driving less, consuming less, using less energy - all those activities use fewer of the world's resources, and decrease our environmental impact.

Let's give the poor back their countries, and then see how they vote.

Read EarthTalk 8.5.07 about poverty and environment (second item).

Thu, 09 Aug 2007

Interview With 110 Year Old Vegetarian

This inspiring interview with a living Chinese saint is courtesy of IVU News Online, the International Vegetarian Union newsletter

Teresa Hsu was born in China 110 years ago. She has been a vegetarian from birth, because she wasn't able to digest meat. She went on to become a nurse, working in the UK, Paraguay, Malaysia and elsewhere, before settling in Singapore in the 1960s.

For many, many years, Sister Teresa, as she is affectionately known, has directed a charity, Heart-to-Heart Service, which aids poor people. She continues that work today, in addition to teaching yoga. (IVU Online News would like to thank Mr Sharana Rao for his help in facilitating this interview.)

Q: You have never eaten meat from the day you were born due to the fact that your body rejects animal flesh. At what age did not eating meat become a conscious choice, and why did you make that choice?

A: I have been allergic to non-veg food since birth. I became a conscious vegetarian one day during the 1950s, when I was sitting by a river and saw the fish playing happily with each other. I thought to myself that we humans have no right to end their fun, put a knife in their throats, and cause them great pain for our pleasure.

Q: You distribute food to poor people. Do you distribute only vegetarian food?

A: Yes, I distribute only vegetarian food. Some volunteers who help with the food distribution question me about why I do not give the recipients what they enjoy eating. My answer is to ask them the following: If your child was playing in the forest and wild animals who lived in the forest wanted to eat your child, would you say that it was okay because your child was born for these other animals to enjoy eating?

Q: Is the world today a better place than it was 100 years ago?

A: In some ways, today's world is more modern and offers certain facilities that didn't exist 100 years ago, but these facilities are available only to those who can afford them. Basically, the world is still the same, with poor people everywhere, then and now.

Q: What are your three main sources of joy?

A: Sun shining, birds singing, leaves dancing, in other words, the beauty of nature.

Q: Do you know any vegetarian jokes?

A: Why did the tomato blush? Because it saw the salad dressing.

Thank you, Mr. Rao, and IVU News Online!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007

Organic Agriculture Is The Answer to World Hunger

I seem to be attracted to Canada more than usual this week - especially Toronto. Maybe it means I'm supposed to go to the Annual Vegetarian Food Fair in TO next month. Wouldn't it be lovely!

Anyway ... always on the look-out for good news about food, I just read Utne's Web Watch newsletter, and found a bit about an article in Toronto's NOW Magazine, about organic agriculture feeding the hungry in third world countries.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has changed it's tune, and now says that "Organic agriculture is essentially a civil society enterprise which has developed outside, often against, the domain of the public sector" - that's how the FAO paper discreetly refers to this grassroots success after 50 years of scorn from Big Ag corps, government departments and universities. "Since the 1950s, it's been an article of faith that only the fierce foursome of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, altered seeds and gargantuan irrigation projects could ever fill global bellies."

Not so, says NOW. Most of the food produced in third world countries like Vietnam and Bangledesh isn't available or affordable for the poor, and is exported to wealthy countries.

A study by Cornell University's David Pimental shows that "Organic shines in the remote corners of the developing world where three-quarters of the world's poorest and hungriest people live, because it's low-cost and low-risk. Failure to get that fundamental point until 2007 is testimony to the holding power of big-yield thinkers over access thinkers."

"The strongest feature of organic agriculture, FAO's Nadia El-Hage Scialabba says, is its ability to use local and natural assets – compost and animal manure, or traditional and well-adapted crops. Acting locally, it turns out, is not so different from thinking organically." A recent study by Ivette Perfecto, University of Michigan, concludes that in developing countries, organic systems produce over 80 per cent more than traditional or conventional farms.

Read the NOW article about organic food in developing countries

Wed, 01 Aug 2007

Take the Veggie Challenge!

Toronto Vegetarian Association - veg.ca - now offers a year round vegetarian challenge, to help people go veg. This is a fun thing to do, and it's inspiring to read stories from people who have taken the veggie challenge. For instance:

"Once the meal was over, I informed them of my elaborate ruse: My goal with the challenge was not only to eat vegetarian for the week, but to secretly prepare and have my crew eat a healthy meal with me at the firehall and be none-the-wiser to the fact that it was veggie."

It's free to enter The Challenge, and you may unsubscribe at any time. You'll get an email every day for seven days, with meal suggestions, recipe links, nutrition information and tips. You'll be invited to fill out a quick survey before you begin and after the week is over. Every two months there's a random draw for some great prizes. There is also the option of telling veg.ca a story about your experience. Selected stories are posted on a regular basis and you'll have a chance to win another prize. Current prizes include a weekend retreat, an automatic soymilk maker, meals at restaurants, a fully catered feast, gift basket, books, and more! Some prizes are in TO, but many aren't.

Going to Toronto isn't required for the veggie challenge. But if you feel inspired to go there, visit TVA's 23rd annual vegetarian food fair, Sept. 7,8,9 2007, in Toronto, Canada. TO is a great city, especially in September, when the weather's perfect.

Here's the blurb: "...three colourful days of exciting and educational exhibits and events at Toronto's Harbourfront Centre. Admission is free. The largest event of its kind in North America, the Annual Vegetarian Food Fair gives you an unparalleled opportunity to enjoy a diverse cross-section of vegetarian cuisine. Discover new products and ideas from more than 100 exhibitors and enjoy a wide variety of presentations and cooking demos.

Tue, 24 Jul 2007

Is It Safe To Drink Tap Water in the U.S.A?

From the E-Magazine newsletter, Earthtalk:

Despite alarming statistics from the EWG and the EPA, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), which has also conducted extensive municipal as well as bottled water tests, says: 'In the short term, if you are an adult with no special health conditions, and you are not pregnant, then you can drink most cities' tap water without having to worry.' This is because most of the contaminants in public water supplies exist at such small concentrations that very large quantities would need to be ingested for health problems to occur.

Read the article: Is Our Tap Water Safe to Drink?

Sun, 08 Jul 2007

Al Gore, Global Warming and Vegetarian Diet

Friend Francie responded to a MySpace blog post about global warming - and included a shout-out for Savvy Veg. Thanks Francie!

From Roland Vincent, MySpace, Bite Global Warming

"Gore's leadership on climate change has brought this issue to the attention of millions, for which we are indebted to him. His deafening silence on the effects of animal agriculture, however, suggest that he is either unaware of its contribution to global warming or chooses to ignore the problem, for whatever reason."

"I think it a fair question to ask: Al, what about reducing consumption of animal products as a way to stop climate change?
Or: Al, why haven't you mentioned that cattle produce more greenhouse gas emissions than cars?
Or: Al, why don't you include switching to a vegetarian diet as a way to reduce greenhouse gasses?

If enough of us ask him, perhaps he'll answer."

Savvy Veg: I immediately emailed Al Gore, but the message bounced - mailbox unavailable. I guess he heard from too many of us tree-hugging vegetarians.

Francie's comment on Roland's post:

"Al Gore is trying to get the attention of a global audience. Having grown up vegetarian I know first hand that vegetarianism actually really freaks some people out. Food is an emotional subject for most."

"I completely agree that this issue needs to be addressed on a wide scale. I would also like to see Al Gore take it on but I do not fault him for leaving it on the back burner while he wins the hearts and minds of those who are only now finally opening to the idea of global change."

"He is not soley responsible for the movement to stop global warming. Many voices need to be heard."

"Vegetarianism is actually a much less invasive life change but willingness to change needs to come first. Check out Savvy Vegetarian for some great ways to get started and stay healthy."

Savvy Veg reply to Francie's post:

Francie, thanks for your thoughtful comments on Al Gore, climate change and vegetarianism. I agree.

Environment and vegetarian diet - it would seem to be a match made in heaven. The reality is that many environmentalists are deeply attached to eating meat, and manage to rationalize it somehow - they only eat pasture fed locally raised organic beef, pork or chickens, etc. But few can actually do that - and pastured animals still do a lot of damage to the environment.

Most beef, milk cows, chickens and pigs live their short, miserable lives in CAFO's, which do incredible environmental damage, as well as making a major contribution to global warming. The Amazon rain forest is rapidly disappearing - to raise beef, or to grow crops for beef.

A few months ago, I attended a public meeting to fight pork CAFO's in our fair county. When I got up to say my bit about vegetarian diet as an answer to CAFO's, there was an uncomfortable silence from all but one of about 100 environmental activists. I'm sure they all eat bacon for breakfast.

Treehuggers! It's Time To Eat Your Ideals.

Al Gore never got my message about the Earth Save report by Noam Mohr, on vegetarianism and global warming. But you can read the Earth Save Report!.

Roland Vincent is an attorney and envronmental and animal rights activist - he says: "One of the most effective things you can do to reduce your carbon footprint is to reduce your intake of meat! Eliminating meat one day a week is the equivalent of cutting your gasoline consumption by 14%!". Yes! And why stop at one day?

For more information, visit Roland's website, Stop Global Warming. Help get the message out on Bite Global Warming Day. On August 18th, 2007, Francie will be out in front of her local Whole Foods Store. Join her - but get your own store!

Mon, 02 Jul 2007

Britain’s Environment Agency: Go Vegetarian to Stop Climate Change

An anonymous friend emailed me about the above article, which appeared in Common Dreams on June 20th. It's only two weeks later, and I'm already blogging about it! What can I say - I'm Canadian, we're slow.

Author Bruce Friedrich is vice president in charge of international grassroots campaigns for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). He has been a progressive and animal activist for more than 20 years.

Bruce says that he's tempted to move to Britain, because "an official with the UK's Environment Agency has acknowledged that humans can significantly help stop global warming by adopting a vegetarian diet."

"Of course," he goes on to say, "the science could not be more clear. When U.N. scientists looked at all the evidence, they declared in a 408-page report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow that raising animals for food is responsible for more greenhouse gases than all vehicles in the world combined. And scientists at the University of Chicago showed that a typical American meat-eater is responsible for nearly 1.5 tons more carbon dioxide a year than a vegan."

Bruce Friedrich elaborates on the global warming threat from animal agriculture, and urges us all to go vegetarian for the sake of the planet.

There are 69 comments on Go Vegetarian to Stop Climate Change, most of them from vegans and vegetarians, overjoyed that somebody was standing on a soapbox shouting about veg diet and climate change. One commentator linked to an article by Dr. McDougall, on the topic of global warming and veg diet.

Said article has some interesting bits about Al Gore, plus a cute picture of Al as a boy, with one of his family's black angus cattle. It also gives contact info for Al, so you can write and tell him what you think about his silence on this issue. Could it be that Al Gore's money comes from cattle ranching? Is the veg/global warming connection his personal 'inconvenient truth'?

You decide. Read Bruce Friedrich's article: Britain’s Environment Agency: Go Vegetarian to Stop Climate Change,

Mon, 25 Jun 2007

Genetic Roulette Blows The Whistle On Genetic Engineering

The new book from international best selling author Jeffrey Smith, Genetic Roulette: The Documented Health Risks of Genetically Engineered Foods, is a food safety siren for legislators and consumers.

Genetic Roulette traces the deadly shortcomings of FDA oversight in meticulous detail; and according to dozens of experts, Genetic Roulette is full of enough data, studies and evidence to finally push through a ban on genetically engineered (GE) food by Congress. Nearly 65 health risks from the foods that Americans eat every day are presented in easy to follow two-page spreads.

Perhaps the most alarming fact presented is the evidence which shows lab-manipulated GE genes may exist for years in human gut bacteria DNA.

Genetic Roulette was prepared in collaboration with a team of international scientists. Many of these scientists helped consumers fight back against genetic engineering in Europe. This book is for anyone wanting to understand GE technology, and learn how to shop to protect themselves.

Children are the most at risk from genetic engineering, and support for immediate food safety action has come from all directions.

"Unlabeled GMOs in our food works against what I have learned in my 30 years as a family farmer. Agriculture should be sustainable, food should be healthy and safe, and people deserve to know what they're eating." says United States Senator, Jon Tester.

Claire Robinson from GM Watch states, "Smith has to be the best science communicator alive today, and this book (Genetic Roulette) stands as the final word on GM health risks. It's the definitive answer to those who don't know, those who don't want to know, and those who know but don't want anyone else to know.".

Author Jeffrey Smith is the founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology. His mission is to promote the responsible use of technology and stop GE foods and crops through grassroots and national strategies. For more information on his work, go to:

Institute for Responsible Technology
Genetic Roulette
Seeds of Deception

Fri, 18 May 2007

Vegan Baby Death, Vegan Diet, Poverty, Ignorance and Punishment

Checking SV traffic, I noticed that vegan breastfeeding was suddenly a hot topic. I tracked this trend back to the recent vegan baby death story. The following is the text of my comment on a Gristmill post about the story.

It's all so tragic! The death of an innocent baby, the parent's poverty and ignorance, the extreme punishment given to them, the backlash against vegan diet. It's all mixed up and blamed on veganism, and vegan breastfeeding, which is almost beside the point.

I'm familiar with vegan diets, and hear from a lot of vegans or would be vegans (or their concerned parents), who are having trouble with their diets. I don't hear from the successful vegans, but I still have to conclude that nutritional ignorance is the main drawback to veganism, and is epidemic in the US regardless of dietary inclination. If most people who go vegan just drop all animal products, and start drinking soymilk, chances are good that they're malnourished by default.

However, in the case of this unfortunate vegan couple and their baby, a few facts seem to have gotten lost. The main one is that the baby doesn't appear to have been breastfed - the lack of support for breastfeeding in the US is a whole 'nother issue. If the mother was undernourished, breastfeeding may not have nourished the baby properly either, although it may have lived.

Another fact is that the baby was starved to death, a practice which isn't restricted to vegans. I don't know why they didn't give the baby formula - whether it was deliberate child neglect, or they couldn't afford it, or it didn't seem vegan to them, or they simply weren't competent to care for a baby. That's my suspicion.

The third fact is that the baby was born prematurely, at home, and didn't recieve the medical care that it needed.

The last fact is that our national dietary ignorance, poverty, and lack of social and medical support contributed to this infant death as much as anything the parents did or didn't do. Punishing them for being ignorant, stupid, vegan, and starving their baby doesn't fix anything.

Sat, 12 May 2007

Good Neighbors Eat Local: The Human Side of Agriculture

This week I happened to come across two excellent articles in the same day, on the subject of locally grown food, from two different sources, with the same theme of human community.

Barbara Kingsolver is a well known fiction writer (The Bean Trees), committed to bringing about social change through literature. In her article, Seeing Red, in the May/June 2007 issue of Mother Jones magazine, she talks about why we seldom find locally grown tomatoes (or anything else local) in our supermarkets. Using an example from her local community, she shows how that affects our local farmers, that forgotten and forlorn American tribe, all but obliterated by corporate agriculture.

According to Ms. Kingsolver, our weird, inhuman agricultural system is based on the original political divide between town and country. As she says:

"The country tradition of mistrusting outsiders may be sometimes unfairly appllied, but it's not hard to understand. For much of U.S. history, rural regions have been treated essentially as colonial property of the cities. The carpetbaggers of the reconstruction era were not the first or the last opportunists to capitalize on an extractive economy. When urban companies come to the country with a big plan - whether their game is coal, timber or industrial agriculture - the plan is to take out the good stuff, ship the profit to the population centers, and leave behind a mess."

Most of us live in the cities, buy our food from supermarkets, and never question where it comes from, who grew it, and how it gets there. The only loyalty is to price. How many of us shop at chain stores such as Super Walmart because they have the best prices, ignoring or ignorant of their crimes against humanity in both far and near places? Most of us. How many of us buy local as much as possible regardless of price? Or even have access to locally grown food? A tiny percentage.

It's only human to seek the best price - the trouble is that we either don't know or don't count all the costs of the food we eat. Barbara Kingsolver, quoting Wendall Berry: "Eaters must understand that eating takes place inescapably in the world, that it is inescapably an agricultural act, and that how we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used."

Our world has been used badly and thrown away by our present agricultural system. It's disturbing to realize that 200 years ago, a blink of an eye in human history, local organic agriculture was the economic basis of most societies, and now the entire planet is in danger of extinction through global warming, with industrial agriculture as a major contributor.

John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus, University of Missorui, is an agro-ecologist with a long career studying and teaching sustainable agriculture. He writes and speaks clearly, passionately, and vigorously about the impact of industrial agriculture on social systems, and how sustainable agriculture restores natural balance and community wherever it is introduced. His message is set in the context of human history.

Ikerd publishes a monthly article in Small Farm Today, an agriculture journal targeted to homesteaders, and one of my favorite magazines. His article in the March/April issue is Agroecology: The Science of Sustainable Agriculture. Ikerd explains that the basis of industrial agriculture is scientific materialism, which has three beliefs. 1) Replicable, material cause and effect rule our existence. 2) Human life is nothing more than an interaction of motion and matter. 3) Anything which lacks tangible, material characteristics and qualities doesn't exist. That would include spirituality, intellect, will, and feelings. Which explains why industrial agriculture has no soul.

Professor Ikerd says, "Purpose in life may be rejected by science, but it is expressed in the social norms and customs of every civilized society and in the constitutions and laws of of every credible government in the world. If human life has purpose, then agriculture too has purpose." My guess is that Ikerd wouldn't consider most governments in the world to be credible.

In conclusion, he states: "My opposition to industrial agriculture is rooted in the fact that it diminishes life - life in the soil, life in communities, and life of consumers who eat industrial foods. My advocacy is based on the first principles of agroecology, the science of sustainablility: life has purpose, all life is connected, and life is good."

After studying up on this, I know that you can't get a cheaper tomato at Super Walmart - even though it may appear to be cheaper. For one thing, it's almost certainly inferior in taste or nutrition to the one that was raised with love, and picked ripe this morning by your neighbor - even if it's organically grown, which is questionable. In fact, your cheap tomato is far more expensive than the one that costs a few cents more at the farmer's market.

You'll pay for your cheap tomato ten times over in government subsidies of industrial agriculture, transportation, and fossil fuels, all of which come out of your taxes. You'll pay for increased health costs. You'll pay in the loss of agricultural diversity - over 90% of seed varieties have been lost in less than 100 years. You'll pay in the poisoning of land, water and air. Every dollar you spend on industrial agricultural brings your local grower that much closer to going out of business - another loss for you and your local community.

Besides the articles, what brought on this rant? Well, it's on my mind, because it's spring, the time of year when farmers markets and CSA's start up. Local growers, from love, long habit, and sheer persistence, once more take up the struggle against all odds, to earn a living by growing and selling good food. Last week we got our first CSA box, I've been working in my garden, and this morning I bought some seedlings at the farmers market.

If you've read this far, I may be preaching to the choir. But I beg you! Shop at your local farmers market, join a CSA, demand that your local food stores provide locally grown produce, preferably organic, but local above all. Convert your lawn to food, or make a container garden on your balcony. Eat Local! Go Veg while you're at it, and double the effect.

Mon, 30 Apr 2007

Register Now For May Live Food Prep Classes at Cafe Gratitude in San Francisco

Thanks to Eddie in SF, for this tip about May live food prep classes in the Bay Area, from Cafe Gratitude, which does far more than serve lunch. Classes will be given by Orchid, co-author "I Am Grateful, Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude". Note that Live Food Dessert Recipes are also happening in May.

So what if you can't drop everything and go to San Francisco in May! It would be worth it, but go when you can. There's always more happening in the Bay Area than