Local Harvest

Most produce in the United States is picked 4 to 7 days before being placed on supermarket shelves, and is shipped for an average of 1500 miles before being sold. That distance is even longer for foods imported internationally.

Local Harvest is a great website for anyone looking to find farms, farmers markets, co-ops and CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture) in their area in an effort to support local growers, and vendors and reduce the amount of fossil fuel it takes to bring our food to our plates.

Slow Corporate Changes

Walmart announced yesterday that it will measure their energy use and emissions of the entire supply chain of seven product categories, and find ways to increase their energy efficiency. Wal-Mart will examine the supply chains for seven categories of products: beer, DVDs, milk, soap, soda, toothpaste and vacuum cleaners. The company said these categories were good choices to begin with because many customers regularly purchase products in these lines. In addition, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, one of Wal-Mart's biggest DVD suppliers, announced that it has already begun its own supply chain analysis.

I don't shop at WalMart (for many reasons including racial and gender discrimination, low wages, poor environmental record, running local/small business owners out of the towns where they open their big box stores, etc etc etc) and still wont but I think this is a very small step in the right direction and it is nice to hear about.

Grow Organics Proposal

Over the summer, the House passed a version of the Farm Bill that's almost identical to the current unfair Farm Bill -- the one that's been paying subsidies to millionaires instead of investing to help organic agriculture grow. Now its up to the Senate to give organic farming support and affirmation. It is important for us to call our Senators and ask them to support the Grow Organics Proposal.

If you do have the chance to call, write or email your Senator to support the Grow Organics Proposal, which will invest an additional $1 billion in organics over the next 5 years, here are a few points you can make about the Grow Organics Proposal. The Proposal will support local farmers markets and community supported agriculture, assist farmers converting to organic, increase research on organic, chemical-free pest control, boost conservation aid to help organic farmers take good care of our land and environment and put more healthy, U.S.-grown organic food on families tables.

Dining Out for Life

On Thursday November 29, 2007, Food For Thought - Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank,
will have their 6th Annual Dining Out For Life night of dining.
You can dine out at a participating restaurant and either 25% or 50% of your food bill will be donated to Food For Thought. Some restaurants will be donating the same percentage of alcohol sales as well.
I noticed on their list of participating restaurants that there are several restaurants in Sonoma County who are participating in the "Dining out for Life" that use local / organic ingredients, i.e. Farm House, French Garden, etc.
It might be fun to support one of those restaurants and support the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank at the same time. I know that the Food Bank also supports AIDS work in parts of Africa as well.

Recycled Toilet Paper

If every household in the U.S. replaced just one roll of virgin toilet paper with one roll of recycled toilet paper, 424,000 trees would be saved.

Virgin paper tissue paper = clear cut logging of our forests.

The cheapest recycled TP I have found is at Trader Joes. Does anyone else use a different brand? Is it any cheaper?

Community Farmer's Market

Community Market
1899 Mendocino Ave in Santa Rosa

Tuesday, September 18
4-7 pm

Meet your local Sonoma County farmers.

There will be biodiesel workshop, recycling workshop, gardening and composting workshops

Blog Brag

Well I have to do a little bragging about my honey...

Calvin met his goal of using one tank of gas for the summer, because of using his bike to commute to work. He reduced carbon emissions and is in great shape. I am very proud of him. :)

Armstrong woods

I am guessing that many of you have already been here, especially those of you native to the North Bay, but our family only recently discovered Armstrong Redwoods just outside Guerneville. Its a gorgeous redwood forest and its unbelievable that such beauty is almost in our backyards. It has very easy hiking trails for families to take walks and I think it a great place to bring kids and let them explore nature.

Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV)

The recent issue of Consumer Reports had an interesting overview of what's currently going on with FCV's. www.consumerreports.org

Honda's FCV You can also check out what Honda's working on.

Wash before wear

I am learning of more and more people (my husband included) who do not wash their new clothes before wearing them. My dad had told me long ago to always wash them because of the chemicals they use to preserve the fabric (formaldehyde for one!) and because I never knew how many people (and what type of personal hygiene they had) had tried it on before I bought it. I try to get my family to do it, but am not always successful - except with Avery's and mine since there I have more control. Of course, ALL pre-owned clothes are washed before they are worn!

Anyway, I included some links for reading on the subject.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/233417/should_you_wash_new_clothes_they_could.html

http://www.minti.com/parenting-advice/1066/New-Clothes/

http://organicclothing.blogs.com/my_weblog/2007/02/removing_odors_.html

Fabric softeners

I heard on the radio the other day (Green 960AM) where people have pin-pointed certain health problems with using fabric softeners and dryer sheets. Once these people stopped using the products, they noticed (within about a month) a change in how they felt. The chemicals used (in non-natural ones like Bounce) have been known to cause: Central nervous system disorders, Headaches, Nausea, Vomiting, Dizziness, Blood pressure reduction, Irritation to skin, mucus membranes and respiratory tract and (most frightening) Pancreatic cancer.

My oldest sister has suffered sever headaches for years and no doctor has been able to figure out why. I know she uses a powerful smelling (however nice) laundry product. I told her about it and after some research she is tossing all her products and opting for essential oils. I had switched a while back to Method's dryer sheets and don't use a fabric softener in the wash. Method uses a plant derivative. I can't say whether or not things have changed for us, basically because I hadn't been watching for anything to happen, I guess. I will keep you posted on whether she notices a reduction in headaches. I have recently started using Ecover and love it. I will probably give up dryer sheets all together once I am out of my stash. (save on waste)

Below are some sites talking about this problem and the bottom two are "green" sites that offer alternatives. Just another reason (in a world of many!) to go green and natural!!

http://www.ghchealth.com/forum/post-325.html

http://www.aeha.ca/help-with.htm

http://www.naturalnewswire.com/2004/12/is_your_natural.html

http://www.care2.com/greenliving/fabric-softeners.html

Groove Your Green Thing!

I saw in the Bohemian that the Think Green World Music Festival is happening Saturday, Sept 8th in the Skyline Wilderness Park in Napa from 11am until 7pm. Tickets are $25 for adults, $12 kids 6-12 and kids 5 and under are free. The music styles they advertise are Calypso, Reggae, African and Cuban. There will be green related exhibitors, workshops, a fun and interactive kid area, organic and multicultural cuisine, and "thirst-quenching" beverages!

Not sure if we will go yet... a scheduling thing!

http://www.thinkgreen-worldmusicfestival.com/

Fair Trade Gifts

One of the ways I'm trying to change my shopping habits is to buy fair trade whenever possible. I've already mentioned my favorite local shop, Kindred. But here is an online shop I really like, www.tenthousandvillages.com. I feel good buying fair trade and in many cases, it's not more expensive and you get something handcrafted by a true artisan.

Ants and pest control

We have had MAJOR ant problems at our house for the last month or so. We tried baking soda, vinegar, vacuuming and sweeping constantly and nothing had worked so we finally resorted to calling a professional exterminator.
Luckily, there was a organic option (rosemary oil) that they were able to use and so far so good. The ants have virtually disappeared.
We used Sonoma Valley Pest Control (a local business) which had the organic rosemary option for spraying. It was 75.00 more than the "not so eco friendly" treatment cost but it seemed worth it. Especially if it works. We will see......
Another company that we looked into but wasn't able to come out as fast as we needed them to is bio-pest (bio-pest.com) which also uses the least toxic methods for pest extermination and also claims to use only cars in their fleet that get 35 mph or better. There website is interesting if you want to take a look.
I will keep you posted on our success with the rosemary treatment.

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