Eco Rich Connection

Secretary of Food

jeeoc — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:09:51 +0000

Spotted this editorial in the New York Times today and thought it was worth sharing here………………….

Obama’s ‘Secretary of Food’?

As Barack Obama ponders whom to pick as agriculture secretary, he should reframe the question. What he needs is actually a bold reformer in a position renamed “secretary of food.”

A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat.

Renaming the department would signal that Mr. Obama seeks to move away from a bankrupt structure of factory farming that squanders energy, exacerbates climate change and makes Americans unhealthy — all while costing taxpayers billions of dollars.

“We’re subsidizing the least healthy calories in the supermarket — high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated soy oil, and we’re doing very little for farmers trying to grow real food,” notes Michael Pollan, author of such books as “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food.”

The Agriculture Department — and the agriculture committees in Congress — have traditionally been handed over to industrial farming interests by Democrats and Republicans alike. The farm lobby uses that perch to inflict unhealthy food on American children in school-lunch programs, exacerbating our national crisis with diabetes and obesity.

But let’s be clear. The problem isn’t farmers. It’s the farm lobby — hijacked by industrial operators — and a bipartisan tradition of kowtowing to it.

I grew up on a farm in Yamhill, Ore., where my family grew cherries and timber and raised sheep and, at times, small numbers of cattle, hogs and geese. One of my regrets is that my kids don’t have the chance to grow up on a farm as well.

Yet the Agriculture Department doesn’t support rural towns like Yamhill; it bolsters industrial operations that have lobbying clout. The result is that family farms have to sell out to larger operators, undermining small towns.

One measure of the absurdity of the system: Every year you, the American taxpayer, send me a check for $588 in exchange for me not growing crops on timberland I own in Oregon (I forward the money to a charity). That’s right. The Agriculture Department pays a New York journalist not to grow crops in a forest in Oregon.

Modern confinement operations are less like farms than like meat assembly lines. They are dazzlingly efficient in some ways, but they use vast amounts of grain, as well as low-level antibiotics to reduce infections — and the result is a public health threat from antibiotic-resistant infections.

An industrial farm with 5,000 hogs produces as much waste as a town with 20,000 people. But while the town is required to have a sewage system, the industrial farm isn’t.

“They look profitable because we’re paying for their wastes,” notes Robert P. Martin, executive director of the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production. “And then there’s the cost of antibiotic resistance to the economy as a whole.”

One study suggests that these large operations receive, in effect, a $24 subsidy for each hog raised. We face an obesity crisis and a budget crisis, and we subsidize bacon?

The need for change is increasingly obvious, for health, climate and even humanitarian reasons. California voters last month passed a landmark referendum (over the farm lobby’s furious protests) that will require factory farms to give minimum amounts of space to poultry and livestock. Society is becoming concerned not only with little boys who abuse cats but also with tycoons whose business model is abusing farm animals.

An online petition that can be found at www.fooddemocracynow.org calls for a reformist pick for agriculture secretary — and names six terrific candidates, such as Chuck Hassebrook, a reformer in Nebraska. On several occasions in the campaign, Mr. Obama made comments showing a deep understanding of food issues, but the names that people in the food industry say are under consideration for agriculture secretary represent the problem more than the solution.

Change we can believe in?

The most powerful signal Mr. Obama could send would be to name a reformer to a renamed position. A former secretary of agriculture, John Block, said publicly the other day that the agency should be renamed “the Department of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.” And another, Ann Veneman, told me that she believes it should be renamed, “Department of Food and Agriculture.” I’d prefer to see simply “Department of Food,” giving primacy to America’s 300 million eaters.

As Mr. Pollan told me: “Even if you don’t think agriculture is a high priority, given all the other problems we face, we’re not going to make progress on the issues Obama campaigned on — health care, climate change and energy independence — unless we reform agriculture.”

Your move, Mr. President-elect.

Posted in Living Green, Sustainable Food Tips Tagged: Food, Sustainable Living

A Balancing Act with Nature

jeeoc — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:45:32 +0000

I enjoy feeding the birds in my yard especially during the winter months and normally I always have enough for the occasional gray and red squirrels that also stop by. This year however there has been an increase in the number of none winged visitors and some nights the feeding continues after dark with nocturnal guests: raccoons and possums.

While I do not want to trap and relocate anyone during the winter months when food is scarce, I do want to temper their aggressiveness at the feeders. So I looked on line and found some suggestions………… natural but unpleasant ……….

Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening Keep squirrels away from a bird feeder by greasing the pole to the birdfeeder with Crisco All-Vegetable Shortening. The squirrels will try to climb up the pole but will slide right back down, providing you with hours of free entertainment.

Epsom Salt To repel raccoons, sprinkle a few tablespoons of Epsom Salt around your garden and garbage cans. Raccoons dislike the taste of salt. Repeat after rain. Epsom Salt is good for your plants and will not harm rodents.

McCormick Black Pepper To keep squirrels and raccoons away from flowerbeds and vegetable gardens, sprinkle McCormick Black Pepper in your garden. These animals have a keen sense of smell and are repelled by the scent of pepper. After it rains, be sure to re-pepper the garden.

McCormick Ground (Cayenne) Red Pepper Keep squirrels out of your bird feeder by sprinkling the birdseed with McCormick Ground Red Pepper. The birds cannot taste the pepper, but squirrels can–and want nothing to do with it.

Pam Original Cooking Spray Coat the pole of a bird feeder with Pam Cooking Spray, which works in the same way that Crisco does.

Peppermint Oil, Cotton Balls, and L’eggs Sheer Energy Panty Hose Saturate a few cotton balls with McCormick Peppermint Oil, place inside the foot of a pair of clean, used L’eggs Sheer Energy Panty Hose, and hang from a fence post, tree branch, or bush. The smell of mint repels squirrels and raccoons.

Slinky To prevent squirrels from climbing up the pole to a bird feeder, secure a Slinky to the bottom of the feeder and let it hang down the pole. The bouncing springs will frighten away animal intruders.

Vaseline Petroleum Jelly Coat the pole of a bird feeder with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to prevent squirrels from being able to climb up the pole.

I also read about squirrels and raccoons not liking citrus rinds so I have those hung in old onion bags at the feeder posts.

Two days in and I have seen a bit of a change. Nighttime guests have not gone near the feeders that have the citrus peels hanging and the epson salts on the ground. I know that they have been around because another pole (unprotected) with two feeders was downed over night and practically drug to the woods………….OH MY!!!!!!

I know it will be an ongoing battle…. but really all that I am looking for is a little more respect and control. We will see?!

Posted in Living Green, Wildlife Balance Tagged: Nature, Photography, Wildlife

Food Waste Buckets

jeeoc — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:02:58 +0000

This is a fabulous idea. What would change in your home when you became more aware of what went into your food waste bin?

From The Times

August 19, 2008

Food waste buckets in the kitchen pricked town’s conscience

Lewis Smith, Environment Reporter

The quantity of waste food being thrown out by each household started to fall once weekly collections were introduced in Ludlow, Britain’s self-styled capital of food.

With the town’s reputation for gourmet eating, bi-monthly farmers’ markets, an annual food festival and formerly featuring more Michelin stars than any town outside London, its people might have been expected to appreciate the value of food. Preparatory research had shown, however, that each household was throwing away 4.2kg (9lb) of food leftovers each week.

Within a few months of starting house-to-house food waste collections to fuel the anaerobic digester, the amount wasted by each family had fallen to 3.6kg. Officials are convinced that the introduction of collections made clear to householders just how much of their weekly shopping was being wasted.

Until collections started in the Shropshire town last year, unwanted food was thrown away with the rest of the household rubbish and ended up in landfill. The new service meant that residents had to put all their food waste into a small separate bucket in the kitchen before transferring it, in a degradable corn starch bag, into a blue collection bin outside.

The process of putting the food into a separate bin appears to have shocked those responsible for the waste. “It pricks our conscience that we are wasting all that food,” Bill Jones, of South Shropshire District Council, said.

Other factors likely to have encouraged the residents of Ludlow to reduce the levels of wasted food are the credit crunch, which has driven them to be more careful with their money, the rising cost of food, and a greater awareness of the problems caused by their waste and the shortage of landfill space in which to deposit it.

Mr Jones said: “The credit crunch is having an effect and people are moving away from pre-made meals and they are making it themselves. At the same time, the cost of food is rising.”

During the trial period the plant was the subject of a handful of complaints about the smell, but further work to ensure that the units were sealed was thought to have solved the problem.

Most people in and around the town are said to be happy with the unit and feel a sense of ownership and personal involvement. Mr Jones said: “We are very proud of what we have achieved. One of the surprises is the public perception. People look at this plant as their own.”

Stop and Shop to stop selling some fish

jeeoc — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:16:54 +0000

Great News to see the regional grocers making a difference.

August 12, 2008

QUINCY, Mass. –The Stop & Shop supermarket chain says it will stop selling some species of fish that are threatened by overfishing.

Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. announced last month that it would stop buying fresh shark. Tracy Taylor, a senior buyer for the largest supermarket chain in New England, says stores also won’t restock frozen Chilean sea bass and orange roughy.

Senior manager Ken Pentheny says it’s the first time the company has removed fish from its inventory for conservation reasons.

Heather Tausig, director of conservation at New England Aquarium, says Stop & Shop’s example could encourage other grocers to pull certain fish from their shelves.

Stop & Shop is owned by Ahold USA, a unit of Dutch company Royal Ahold NV. Royal Ahold’s Giant Food chain in the U.S. will also stop selling the threatened fish.

——

Information from: The Patriot Ledger, http://www.patriotledger.com

Where Do Electronics Go When We Don’t Want Them Anymore?

jeeoc — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 14:13:08 +0000

Thought this information found would really be of help to all. Please share.

Some Web Sites Offer
Cash for Your Items,
Might Also Recycle
August 13, 2008

It’s a fact of life and one of the reasons I have a job: digital electronics will eventually break or get replaced. But it’s hard to know just what to do with the gadgets that get left behind. Some people stuff them in junk drawers. Others want to donate or recycle their old electronics, but worry about compromising private data. And plenty of people want some monetary compensation.

Stephen Munday

This week I took a look at some options for people who want to get rid of old electronics, one way or another. The good news is that there are a handful of Web sites that make it easy to do this — and some of them may even pay you for your old products. The bad news is that you’ll likely receive only a fraction of what you originally paid, especially if you waited a while to get rid of it.

Some sites, like Gazelle.com and VenJuvo.com, offer cash for your items and/or will recycle products. Another site, TechForward.com, lets people pay a fee to “lock in” a value for how much the site promises to pay for the product in the future. MyBoneYard.com accepts only laptops, desktop PCs, cellphones and flat-panel monitors, and gives Visa gift cards rather than cash.

I was surprised to receive significantly different value offers from Gazelle and VenJuvo when trying to sell the exact same products on each site. In one instance, VenJuvo offered me $30 more than Gazelle for a digital camera; another time, I got $15 more from Gazelle for an old Apple iPod. It’s worth the extra step to shop around at more than one of these sites before getting rid of something.

Both ask a few questions about the item, including its condition and whether or not it still has the accessories that originally came with it. Gazelle determines a product’s value using retail (think Amazon and eBay) and wholesale channels; VenJuvo uses similar criteria and also looks at competitors’ prices.

If you worry about someone stealing your digital data, you’ll likely not feel comfortable dropping something in the mail that’s chock full of personal information, especially if it no longer powers on to allow the owner to wipe this information.

Both Gazelle and VenJuvo accept at least some types of digital cameras, laptops, MP3 players, GPS devices, camcorders and gaming consoles. Gazelle also accepts cellphones. But they don’t take everything. Gazelle doesn’t take LCD TVs and VenJuvo doesn’t accept satellite radios and portable hard drives or any smartphones or cellphones other than the iPhone; neither accepts desktop PCs.

I took the closest look at newly released Gazelle, owned by Second Rotation Inc., and walked through the simple start-to-finish process of selling a gadget and receiving money from the site. After pulling up the site, people can find their product and its value by choosing from a list of nine categories or by typing some part of the product’s name into a search box.

I sold Gazelle a first-generation iPod Mini with four gigabytes of memory for which my boss paid $249 in 2004. I answered a few questions about the product: Yes, it still powered on; no, I didn’t have the original AC adapter, manuals or software installation CD, and it was in “excellent” condition, according to my assessment. Gazelle placed its value at $25.

At this step, I opted to add the iPod to my box and check out, but users can also add other items to a box, including electronics for recycling. Gazelle’s policy is that it pays 100% of shipping costs for any box shipped to the company, so long as there’s at least one item in the box worth $1. Eighty percent of transactions qualify for a free box; the rest can be sent with printed-out prepaid shipping labels, but you must find packaging.

Gazelle lets users receive payments via a mailed, paper check or using PayPal; money is received either way within five business days. People can also donate their money to one of 23 causes, including the American Red Cross and World Vision. I opted for PayPal, and the $25 amount was deposited shortly after Gazelle received the iPod.

I sent the old iPod to Gazelle in a brightly colored, empty box that arrives at a customer’s door a few days after he or she sells the device to Gazelle. I secured the old iPod in the box using balled up paper, and sealed it with packing tape. A prepaid shipping label was already stuck to it, and I needed only drop it off at UPS.

If Gazelle receives a product and decides that it isn’t worth what you said it was — either more or less — and you’d rather not sell, the company will ship the product back, free of charge. But while Gazelle’s site guarantees users that they’ll receive their money, and that personal data are safe with the company, no money-back guarantee is offered.

Gazelle hopes to calm nerves by posting detailed instructions on the site about how to wipe a device of all private information. But the company hasn’t yet done this, and numerous users will remain skeptical even with such instructions.

I also poked around on VenJuvo Inc.’s Web site of the same name, www.VenJuvo.com, which is derived from two Greek words meaning “support, assist and delight sellers,” according to the company. This site, too, buys products back from people, though it pays via check, PayPal or Kmart gift card. Users fill out similarly simple questionnaires on each product to help assess value. Unlike Gazelle’s style of mailing boxes to users, VenJuvo gives users only prepaid shipping labels to print out and stick on a box that the customer must supply.

One notable difference between the sites is Gazelle’s broader range of products. In the case of digital cameras, for example, Gazelle accepts 80 brands while VenJuvo takes only Canon, Sony, Olympus and Kodak. Unlike with Gazelle, if you send VenJuvo a product that isn’t worth what you said it was, the company won’t return the product free-of-charge; instead, it will charge you for shipping.

If users choose to receive a gift card, they get a 10% added value. While VenJuvo doesn’t let people donate a product’s value to a cause, it will add this feature next week and will include different causes (like Ronald McDonald House and Big Brothers Big Sisters) than those found on Gazelle.

Unlike Gazelle, VenJuvo will always take items for recycling and will pay for the shipping, regardless of whether you traded something in for a value.

A useful resource for general electronics recycling is the Consumer Electronics Association Web site, www.MyGreenElectronics.org, which locates nearby electronics-recycling centers according to ZIP Code. And almost every computer manufacturer has a recycling program in place; some will even recycle computers that aren’t their own brand.

One way or another, it’s time to clean out the old junk drawer. Just be sure to do some comparison shopping if you want money for your old products.

THE MOSSBERG SOLUTION

By KATHERINE BOEHRET

–Edited by Walter S. Mossberg

When to Buy Organic

jeeoc — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:53:53 +0000

Americans, in 2006, spent $16.7 billion on organic foods, most often fruits and vegetables. Frequently, the organic produce costs a bit more that the conventionally produced produce, so you may want to start making the switch with those fruits and vegetables that are most likely to harbor pesticide residues when grown by conventional methods.

The Organic Center has called out and ranked 8 fruits and 8 vegetables that carry the highest risk- index scores , which take into account the level of pesticides detected on domestic produce and the pesticides’ toxicity.

The list of fruits included:
Cranberries
Nectarines….

There is less of a need to buy organic versions of other produce, especially…………… ( read more)

Living Green- Quick Start

jeeoc — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:37:52 +0000

Sustainable Green Living- Quick Start
Did you know that the average U.S. citizen produces about 4.5 pounds of garbage every day!!! According to some statistics, 90 percent of materials which make up durable goods in the U.S. become waste almost immediately…. the wrapper from your candy bar, the package that came with your new cell phone, CD, tool, and even the plastic bag that it all came home in. All trash immediately! In the United States, two thirds of all oil consumed goes towards powering vehicles, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The average American uses more than 80 gallons of water a day, while the rest of the world uses just 2.5 gallons per person according to the Rocky Mountain Institute.

We as individuals are directly responsible for our contribution to these statistics, so here is the first place we can start to make a difference. Many of these call outs are things that we should already be doing. In addition to that, there is not one thing here that will cost you any extra money, in most cases with these steps you will be paying less!

Reducing-

1. Food- Buy only what you and your family really uses. In the United States we throw away a great deal of food…. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency we trash about 28 million tons of food each year, which is about 17% of all municipal garbage!!! and that does not included what we put down the garbage disposal! With that savings we could actually be buying better food.

2. Car Trips- Organize your errands, make lists before you go, so you don’t forget things, and plan your trip to reduce the number of miles traveled. This will help your pocketbook, save time, and be better for the environment.

3. Water- Encourage the family to take showers instead of baths, turn the water off while brushing your teeth, or doing the dishes, and if you must water your lawn, do so in the cooler hours of the day to reduce evaporation (early morning is best)……. (read more)

Living Green…………..

jeeoc — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 15:28:12 +0000

Living green is not about sacrifice, it is about making conscientious choices. It is about our daily actions that effect the care we give to ourselves, our families, our community and our surroundings. We, as individuals, can effect every part of everyday.

Sustainable green living is about enjoying that which the earth gives us, while ensuring through our actions and choices, that those who come after us are able to do the same.

It sounds really simple and it is. Unfortunately, we as a society, have lost the focus on this simple way of life. Whether or not you think global warming is occurring, or that we are running out of natural resources, be it water, oil, food….or if you believe what you read about the chemicals in our food, cleaning supplies, and lawn care is all a bunch of hogwash, really is not the bottom line.

The simple truth is, we as individuals should not take more than we can use. We should not be wasteful in how we use what we do take and we should leave some for others…… (finish article here)