Produce · Eco-Chick

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The Kids Are Not Going to Be Alright: They're Going to Be Pissed

Several of my friends have had babies in the last few years, and some are on their second round already. Though it seems to me that there are far too many people on the planet already, it’s difficult to begrudge anyone the basic human drive to reproduce, and my friends’ kids ARE ridiculously cute. I’m pretty sure they are all genius artists who will invent the next version of rock ‘n roll and create world peace, too. But every time I play with them, surrounded as they typically are by plastic toys, educational videos and the other detritus of modern children’s lives, I look into their eyes and I know: in 20 years, they are going to hate us.

Of course all teenagers and college students hate their parents a little bit (or a lot, depending on the hormones), as it’s part of forging one’s own identity. Isn’t it the American way to hold your parents in contempt until you’re at least 25, and then become them?

But these kids are going to have good reason for their anger, and I predict a revolution when these tiny tots grow to understand the legacy their parents have left them. They will inherit a planet-wide environmental mess, and it might not be impossible to fix, but it’s going to take the best minds of their age (plus their offspring), lots of money, and a singular desperation to fix what’s wrong before it’s too late. What these kids face in the coming years will make the mistakes my generation has been left with: Rockefeller drug laws, repeated pointless wars in the Middle East, and lack of marriage rights for homosexuals, seem like quaint oopsies in comparison. They’ll be figuring out how to handle the planet-altering effects of massive droughts (hey, it’s already happening) and global warming has barely gotten underway), disintegration of ecological webs as species disappear during the current mass extinction, and human migration due to the effects of global warming, not to mention changes we can’t even foresee yet.

Well, you say, each generation has to pick up after the one prior to it in one way or another; what gives those kids in diapers more permission than anyone else to let us have it? The answer is that we know what we’re doing to the environment and we still continue to do it.

adults, atmosphere, babies, children, Energy, fall, Global Warming, health, junk, kids, mainstream, media, movies, New York Times, News, NYTimes, plastic, produce, recycle, resources, spring, style, sustainable, Target, Tea, video, Vote, waste

EVO's Big-Tent Green Shopping Revolution

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by Starre Vartan · 12/13/07

Last week, EVO, the get-everything-green-in-one-place site launched, and it’s pretty awesome. They have a ‘Green Rating System’ for each one of their products that works like this:

Simply put, how green a product is depends on what it’s made from, how it’s produced, the distance it travels to reach the consumer, and what type of energy is used to power it. EVO has created a simple rating system to help you see the “Green Attributes” of every item listed on the site. Next to each product you’ll see 1 to 5 leaves. The more green leaves a given product has, the greener it is. EVO only features products that have a minimum of one Green Attribute.

I got a chance to do an interview with Dan Siegel, one of the founders of the company, here’s the low-down:

Me: Why a Green Shopping Mall?
Dan: My partner and I put our heads together, thinking, there’s got to be a simple way for busy people to find the Earth-friendly products they are looking for online. We took the conventional wisdom from Shopzilla and Amazon but looked at it for green, and thought, what can we build that will enable green shoppers to find what they need?

Me: And how did you find all the stuff that’s on the site? It says on the homepage over 100,000 products have been rated? Did you appropriate a bunch of elves from Santa’s workshop to go through all that stuff or what?

Dan: the first piece of the site we built was a way to leverage technology to scour the web. We got it two ways: data feeds through partners, like Target and Nordstrom, with whom we’ve created relationships. The other piece is we’ve built a crawler that can go onto the pages of smaller green sellers and can pull in product data from these sites. Then we put it through our filter.

We see green attributes and match them with other attributes. We look at everything, from labels like all-natural, to biodgradable, to chemical free, Fair Trade, LEED certified, and more. It’s a massive database of attributes. And then there’s three tiers to determine the greenness. The first is the technology, which I’ve mentioned, the second is people, who work for us and check products, and the third is the community, inviting , everyone out there to look for themselves to give recommendations and experiences of products.

Me: So how’re you going to keep it honest? What’s going to prevent a company from ‘greenwashing’ their info about a product and putting up lots of nice comments about themselves to fool your system? Shockingly (hah, hah) stuff like that has been known to happen online.

Dan: There’s fraud detection built in. So if a product was made in China, which might give it a negative point, but then let’s say a company resubmits their data without that information, they’ll actually get a worse score for not including that data. That’s just one of several ways we’ll keep people from gaming the system.

Me: What’s your end goal with this project?

Dan: Our goal is that anytime anyone shops they would find what the green rating is on that product. The traditional way economists understand consumer behavior is that we all look at three important things: price, quality and convenience. The Internet has taken convenience out of the equation, so what we’re attempting to do is offer an another rating consideration when you buy something. We want to encourage people to buy stuff that has highest green rating. Green should be the new attribute for shopping decisions.

Me: What was it that made you personally want to get involved in starting EVO? Are you an old-school Treehugger or a latter-day, post-Inconvenient Truth Greenie?

Dan: I’ve always been interested in entrepreneurship but also interested in leveraging business for social change. There are these massive and aggregated markets, that are growing and mainstream. I had a personal frustration, as an outdoors person with two kids, I was always looking for green stuff online and it was hard to find. I figured someone with less passion and interest might just give up or not even bother looking for it.

Me: So where’s the cash coming from for this site? Is there some big-box store or mega-corp behind all this?

Dan: EVO is personally funded, and there’s no advertising. I’ve put a lot of my own money, and the last three years of my time into building this thing. And it’s all funded through friends and family. That’s why we’re really hoping to get the word out and get people to join the community. For everyone who joins, we’ll plant a tree!

Me: Sounds like a great place to do holiday shopping. I know I have barely started mine. Anything else you want Eco Chick readers to know about?

Dan: I really want people to feel comfortable on the site. And we are looking for information and submissions of new products, so send them over to us! You can email me directly with suggestions and ideas at dan (at) evo (dot) com.

Amazon, business, community, Energy, epa, Fair Trade, farm, filter, greenwashing, holiday, Home, interview, kids, mainstream, Outdoors, produce, Shopping, Target, Technology, travel, treehugger

Why Greenfest? Here's the Answer

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by Starre Vartan · 11/23/07

by Guest-blogger Katherine Cure

Katherine Cure sipping organic fair-trade coffee from one of the second-hand mugs that were available for use during Greenfest

“Greenfest? What’s that?” the tanned middle-aged East Bay native eating next to me asked, as I outlined to him my reasons for coming to San Francisco for the weekend. So I briefly cultured him on the green, before my mussels arrived. I explained what was about to happen: a three day festival that would display products, media representatives, fashion designers, energy producers and builders, all with green on their label. San Francisco, a known promoter of sustainable and environmentally safe practices (including bans to the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam takeout containers), was the chosen venue for what would be the last green fest of the year. “You should come,” I said, and indulged in my Italian dinner.

Little did I know, even after attending the same event the past month at the nation’s capital, what I was to encounter the next day. Multitudes of San Franciscan and East Bay residents invaded the premises, packed the aisles, and even had to be forced out (myself included…) from the organic beer and wine stand, at 8 o’clock, when it was time for closure. San Francisco’s Green Festival was a success. Good news for organizers Global Exchange and Co-Op America, who with this one, finished a series of four green festivals around America. Good to see the green spreading.

Zach the Poet

Be them hippies or more conservative looking types networking for their companies and local eco-initiatives, I was lucky to encounter a number of very interesting personages. One of my favourites, although I could not really see the environmental in his initiative, was Zach, a poet who sat with his blue antique typewriter and wrote poems about everything with the most beautiful smile. A poem about falling in love, he made for me. Green or not, his presence is the epitome of the immense variety that gathered at the festival.

The anti-plastic bag brigade

Products on display represented pretty much every possible marketable category: food, beauty products, baby diapers, accessories for pets, eco-fashion, building materials and even medicinal mushrooms! Tasty samples of organic farmed produce, fair trade coffee, tofu, multigrain crackers, chocolate, cheese and the powerful drink maca (intense stuff), guaranteed a healthy bite and a full tummy. Eatwell Farm a California-based organic lavender farm selling fresh lavender in bundles and in little cloth packages (that reminded me of my grandma’s closet) as well as oils and hydrosols, was one of my favourites. The extremely creative aisles of eco-fashion representatives clustered in the upper right level, was another one of my faves. Features included colourful displays of clothes and accessories with guaranteed sustainable materials and fair trade products whose profit will reach the communities that made them, instead of some retail store.

The Hippy Gourmet Team

Vibes were loving and energetic; people smiley, switched on and empowered. Puppet shows, reggae bands, live percussion and a couple of wanderers performing skits, culminated the green experience. Once you passed the front door, where I was stopped more than once having of course forgotten my badge somewhere, you were inevitably immersed in the environmental wave.

Jennifer Horning and Kirsten Muenster

The greatest acquaintance at the festival, (other than Coicoi and Ninka, my girlfriends from Berkeley), ends this tale. Jennifer Horning and Kirsten Muenster, the first one a lawyer and the second a jewellery designer, approached the E Magazine booth where I was volunteering, to talk to me about Ethical Metalsmiths, their initiative for delivering sustainable jewellery. A lot of issues are behind the rings we wear and that beautiful necklace we covet. We might be unaware, especially in underdeveloped countries, of the poor work the gold, emerald and silver mines that provide designers with raw material for their creations, under inhumane conditions. Not to mention the environmental impacts of mining. But rather than refuse jewellery (thank god!), supporting empowered women like Jen and Kirsten who wish to find fair and eco-friendly solutions to these issues, might be the answer. By recycling existing pieces, getting certification for the materials used, or just helping in making mining practices fair, these loving, knowledgable and fashionable ladies, to whom I give my ten, are striving to make a difference.

For more on Ethical Jewelry, see this E Magazine article.

accessories, Baby, bags, Beauty, beauty products, clothes, coffee, design, designer, designers, eating, Eco-Chick, Energy, environmentally safe, ethical, Fair Trade, fall, farm, Fashion, Food, health, Jewelry, Lavender, liver, local, magazine, media, News, oil, oils, Organic, pets, plastic, plastic bags, produce, Recycling, solutions, sustainable, sustainable materials, Tea, Wine, women

Don't Be A Turkey: Get Your Thanksgiving Feast Green

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by Olivia Zaleski · 11/18/07

Originally posted on The Huffington Post on November 14th, 2007

Photo from Channel14.com.

In 1621 the Plymouth colonists and the Wampanoag Indians stuffed their faces in an autumn harvest feast–the first Thanksgiving. Although Historians aren’t certain of the menu, it’s safe to say the pilgrims weren’t gobbling up pesticide-smothered potatoes and antibiotic-infused turkey.

Fast forward nearly four centuries, and this Thursday the majority of American’s will sit down to a copious table of factory-produced food. With few exceptions, 178 million plus turkeys will come from animal factories, while the vast majority of our fruits, vegetables; even vino will travel hundreds of miles from foreign farm factories. Such processing plants are reported to have few regulations and less regard for environmental best practice.

While raising turkeys in an industrial setting, or growing corn in a pesticide patch might make our food cheaper and available to a large number of consumers, factory farming comes with serious negative consequences for mother earth–clear cutting, dead zones, water wastage, methane-farting cattle, the list goes on. According to a 2006 study by the University of Chicago*, industrialized livestock produces more greenhouse gas emissions than global transportation.

Such studies come at a time when meat consumption, having quadrupled in the last 50 years, reaches an all-time high. The Worldwatch Institute claims global livestock population has increased 60 percent since 1961, and the number of for-food fowl has flown (try saying that ten times) from a stable 4.2 billion to blasphemous 15.7 billion.

Unlike the wild birds the Pilgrims ate, factory turkeys need antibiotics to stay alive, let alone healthy. Excuse me for being graphic, but the majority of factory-raised animals are reported to live so closely packed together that they have to defecate on each other. Such close-quarters create a cesspool of nasty, even deadly bacteria. I could go on and on.

Now, I’m not saying you should serve tofurkey this Thanksgiving. Although conventional meat production causes deforestation, polluted waterways and greenhouse gas blabidy-blah, I won’t insist you replace the traditional Turkey with a slab of coagulated soybean cake–that would be gross and grossly hypocritical.

Perhaps hypocritical is an understatement considering I can barely go three weeks, perhaps even three days, without vivid fantasies of red meat bbq. Many lonely nights I have resembled the McDonald’s Hamburgler, tip-toeing to the kitchen to gobble a few helpings of red-meat leftovers–ones I had so earnestly tried to refuse at dinner.

Confessions aside, there are a several environmental consequences to consider before we stuff-our-gobs this Thanksgiving day. And although I am not ready to hit up the tofurkey just yet, I sincerely hope to find a way/ask my mom to replace this years Franken-food feast with local and organic produce. In addition to spiking the apple cider, join me this Thanksgiving by following these three simple green food tips:

For the tips, keep reading……

agriculture, Animals, Australia, autumn, birds, Bush, business, car, cleaning, community, consumption, corn, CSA, deforestation, eating, Eco-Chick, emissions, Energy, farm, farming, farms, Food, fruit, fur, gas, giving, health, India, local, meat, mom, News, north carolina, oil, Organic, paper, Personalized, Plants, plastic, plates, produce, reduce, restaurant, soy, sport, sustainable, transportation, travel, waste, water

Green Guru: Environmental Costs of Dried Fruit, Battery-Powered Mowers, and Red #40 on Hummers

1 Comment

by Starre Vartan · 11/15/07

Since I write this column for Audubon Magazine, I thought I would share my (laboriously researched) advice with Eco Chick readers.

In considering the hidden costs that come with shipping fruit—trucking it around the globe in refrigerated containers—I’m wondering whether it’s more energy efficient to eat dried fruit?
—Justin Van Kleeck, Charlottesville, VA

This is indeed a vexing question. The heavy Hawaiian pineapple wins the prize for most fuel used getting it to our plates; in terms of emissions, that translates to about 40 pounds of carbon dioxide for every pound of fruit, or the equivalent of driving a car 80 miles—nearly the distance from New York to Philadelphia. Your logic makes sense; the dehydration process uses little energy and a larger volume of dried fruit can be transported. But here’s the hitch: Even if trucking the fruit is more energy efficient, the jury’s still out on whether switching from whole fruits to dried would be better for the environment—or your health.

For the rest of the answer, go to Audubon Magazine’s Green Guru page!

After years of hand mowing, I recently switched to a new battery-powered, cordless electric mower. Am I correct in assuming it produces next to no greenhouse gases?
—Tom Sernka, Auburn, WA

Kudos, Tom, for your years of push mowing. Not only does manual labor help keep us couch potatoes fit, but since people-propelled mowers are powered by nary more than a pile of pancakes, it’s the most eco-friendly way to mow. If you can’t be convinced to eschew your verdant carpet for a self-maintaining habitat of native wildflowers, trees, and shrubs, then an electric mower is the next-best choice.

For the rest of the answer, go to Audubon Magazine’s Green Guru page!

Is it true that red dye No. 40, often used in hummingbird feeders, is hazardous to hummingbirds?
—Jane O’Malley, Austin, TX

Even if the last thing kids need is to be hopped up on sugary snacks, hummingbirds actually do survive on the sweet stuff, which gives them the quick energy they require to perform their acrobatic high-speed flying maneuvers. Unlike natural flower nectar (the majority of which is clear), commercial hummingbird syrups often contain red food coloring. While no studies have been done on whether red dye No. 40 causes cancer or other diseases in hummingbirds, research shows that the artificial coloring is harmful to other animals, and it is certainly unnecessary to use it.

For the rest of the answer, go to Audubon Magazine’s Green Guru page!