Put your Kids on Drugs to Keep Them Healthy? (Eating Liberally) Kerry Trueman has some interesting thoughts on the health of kids in this country, the substitution of drugs for good food and The Baum Forum.

Climate Change, Food Miles & Meat (7Gen Blog) What is more important to climate change - how far your food has traveled to your plate, or how that food is produced?  A study from Carnegie Mellon University suggests that production might be a bigger culprit.

La Cense Beef is having a contest… and you can “Win a Grass Fed Cow!” For me, this is a really bad idea, because I live in a little apartment and it wouldn’t have much room to move around… but then I saw that they actually meant a whole cow’s worth of grass fed beef (to eat), and they will even give you the freezer to store it in. Still a bad idea in my little apartment, but OH so many other people would find this to be delicious!

To enter, just fill out this form and enter your own Grass-Fed Beef slogan (you don’t actually have to enter a slogan to win- but it looks like fun!). The best slogan from everyday is posted on La Cense’s contest website, and then people vote for their favorite.

“Powered by Grass, Not Gas”

“I Like Smokin’ Grass… Fed Beef”

“O Give Me a Home Where the Grass Fed Cows Roam”

“Feedlots? We Don’t Need No Stinking Feed Lots!”

La Cense is committed to natural and compassionate ranching. Their website is full of information about why grass fed beef is better, answering many questions about grass fed that often come up- you can check them out here. They raise 100% grass fed cattle, which isn’t always the case. Sometimes cattle will be “finished” on grain, and this isn’t good for them (or us!).

“Grass is the natural food for cattle - not grain, which is difficult for cattle to digest and can necessitate the use of antibiotics. The introduction of even a little grain into the cattle’s diet diminishes the quality of the beef, reducing both health benefits and the real beef flavor. Most beef in most supermarkets and butchers comes from gigantic industrialized meat processors, who are more concerned with their bottom line than with raising healthy cattle in humane ways. They pack cattle into feedlots where the animals are fed grain laced with antibiotics, hormones and steroids so that they grow bigger faster and can withstand the cramped, inhumane environment. Even some so-called “grass-fed” brands can be “finished” on grain to produce rapid weight gain before market.”

Our friends over at Ideal Bite were nice enough (actually they seem pretty nice!) to share these 10 tips to greening up your life. I hope you have time to check them out… my favorite, Shop Vintage!

10 Easy, Fun Changes To Get Your Green On

Wondering how small changes can make a MASSIVE difference?

Individually, they may not. But between you, your friends and your family, we can have an enormous impact on making the world a more livable, sustainable place - and enjoy ourselves while we’re at it.

1. Beat SUV-related Guilt.

Want to make less of an impact? Purchase carbon offsets for your auto through services like CarbonFund and NativeEnergy. They’ll calculate the CO2 that your car is responsible for creating and you, in turn, offset that CO2 by funding projects like wind farms that combat global warming.

MORE INFO: http://idealbite.com/tiplibrary/tip.php?tip=20051117

2. Shop Vintage.

A fact you already knew: it’s cheaper to buy used clothes and furniture at second-hand stores. But a fact you probably never thought of: buying “vintage” is just another form of reusing and recycling. It also helps to avoid support sweatshop labor, and you’ll never have to worry about your friends showing up to a night on the town in the same skirt as you.

MORE INFO: http://idealbite.com/tiplibrary/tip.php?tip=20060124

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In the NYTimes, by Dan Barber (Blue Hill Chef) about why it makes so much sense to head towards sustainable agriculture-

“In fact, small farms are the most productive on earth. A four-acre farm in the United States nets, on average, $1,400 per acre; a 1,364-acre farm nets $39 an acre. Big farms have long compensated for the disequilibrium with sheer quantity. But their economies of scale come from mass distribution, and with diesel fuel costing more than $4 per gallon in many locations, it’s no longer efficient to transport food 1,500 miles from where it’s grown.”

I know this isn’t food related, but I was so happy to see “CFL (bulbs) that will work with all your lamp shades” posted in The Daily Green, I had to share. And ultimately isn’t this is all connected… our sustainable future?

I have a few vintage lamps- all with clip-on lampshades.  The shade clips directly to the not-energy-efficient light bulb and won’t connect to one of those very-energy-efficient spiral light bulbs…  that won’t work at all!  In fact there are two lamps in my bedroom right now, sans bulbs and shades, because I have been so perplexed about what to do!

Here is the solution - major companies including GE, Sylvania, Philips and Westinghouse Lighting Company are offering different shapes!  Now to just find out where I can buy them…

Food & Water Watch is gathering 10,000 signatures to thank all of the companies who have gone rBGH-free and to encourage more to take the same action!

Please sign the thank you letter!

“Please spread the word and help us collect 10,000 petition signatures thanking companies for making the switch. A strong show of support for healthier milk and dairy products will be valuable in our future advocacy efforts with other dairy retailers who have yet to go rBGH-free.”

More on the struggle with rBGH labeling:

“While certain retailers are responding to consumers’ rBGH concerns, unfortunately some states are not. Currently, five states are considering legislation or regulations that would restrict consumers’ right to know whether their milk was produced with rBGH. These five states are Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, New York, and Utah.

And two states — Pennsylvania and Ohio– both recently passed regulations that restrict ‘rBGH-free’ labels and require an FDA disclaimer stating there’s no difference between milk produced with or without the artificial hormone. Research, however, disagrees with this disclaimer– that’s why rBGH’s use is prohibited in over 30 other countries.”

Wynne Everett, Southtown Star city editor and mango enthusiast, is going to give local a try.  Wynne interviewed our very own Diane Hatz for some advice in this article about her introduction to local eating and her willingness to head down to the farmers market.  She has heard from locavore proponents that she will be a “healthier, happier and a more environmentally friendly food consumer” and if it goes well, she’s even willing to extend it into the fall and winter.  Follow Wynne’s adventures in locavorism on her blog.

A few good reasons for eating local:

• Local produce is fresher, and fresher food tastes better.
• It takes less fuel to get local food to my plate, thereby helping the environment.
• Buying locally produced food helps our local economy.

As a mango enthusiast, Wynne was a bit worried, but Diane assured her, “You’ll find foods you never knew about before.”

I found Jack Johnson in my yogurt this morning.  He was all green and shiny- as he always is!  It was a promotion from Stonyfield Farm - giving away tickets to one of his concerts.  And the reason that Stonyfield had Jack on the foil part of my yogurt is because he is a wonderfully active environmentalist, though I’ve read in interviews with him, that he doesn’t feel that way.  He is just a guy connected to the earth - who goes way out of his way to make sure that he is not imposing himself on it.

On his website, you find will find a whole greening section about his tours:

“Every effort has been taken to reduce the environmental impact of Jack Johnson’s 2008 Global Tour-including powering buses, coaches and generators with bio diesel. Bio fuels burn cleaner than petroleum and generate dramatically less CO2 emissions. Because CO2 emissions are a direct cause of climate change, the tour is offsetting all of its remaining emissions and is striving to be 100% carbon neutral.”

He does everything GREEN!  His album is recorded using 100% solar energy and is even printed on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper!  He offers eco-friendly tour merchandise - organic tees, reusable water bottle, and reusable totes.

And more importantly, he encourages his concert goers to get involved and even plans on showing us the impact that we can make together: “Impact will be tracked throughout Johnson’s 2008 world tour to demonstrate how collective action can result in significant change.”  You will be able to track these efforts on his website.

AND - we will be at Bonnaroo with Jack… hopefully he will stop by Sustainable Table and The Meatrix to say HI!

This post is by Stacey, one of our guest bloggers. Self-proclaimed NYC Milkmaid, you can see more of her writing on her own blog, Just Braise, www.justbraise.com.

Did you know that food scraps, junk mail and paper products make up about 30% of our garbage? Would you love an easy and fun (no joke) way to reduce this garbage, plus recycle natural fibers, paper towels, and more?

Composting is a simple, non-stinky way to reduce household garbage, viable in tiny apartment living or large households. Composting provides a practical and useful solution to waste, converting it into feed for plants while reducing our reliance on the landfills that are quickly filling up– The byproduct is moist, nutrient-rich soil, full of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus.

The best part is that you will take out your garbage less often and reduce the smelly component (food scraps) of your refuse in general. If you’re a regular green thumb, your houseplants and your garden will love you. If you have a bit of a black thumb, your green-fingered friends will love receiving gifts of rich compost. For children, it is great exposure to saving the planet in another way, while introducing life cycles and science!

I have heard people object to composting indoors because it will attract fruit flies, roaches or mice, or that it simply smells. All this is simply not true. If maintained properly you can have a healthy compost bin that will satisfy your plants a lifetime without infestations or smells.

I will talk here about indoor worm composting, or vermicompost, as it is what I am most familiar with, and practice. It’s really not as disgusting as it sounds (I once had my doubts), it doesn’t produce any noticeable smells (seriously) and can easily be concealed, even in a tiny living situation. In no time, your compost bin will be the center of attention at parties, amazing your friends with questions, wonderment, and asking for worms of their own (I speak from experience).

If there is anyone that does backyard bin, non-worm composting, or anyone that also practices indoor, vermicomposting, please join in the discussion and post a comment about tips, tricks, and what you think about it.

How it works:
All worms are not created equal. For composting you need Red Wiggler or Red Earthworms, familiar to the fishing population. Your worms have one mission in life: to eat your garbage and cast (i.e. poop) it into super rich soil. Gross right? But not a bad life’s purpose. There are other organisms in there too that help break down your garbage, but the worms, and their health, are number one priority.

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This looks interesting…

On Saturday, May 10, Campbell Soup Company will join forces with the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) to Stamp Out Hunger! across America . Now in its 16 th year, the Stamp Out Hunger! effort is the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than 836 million pounds of food since its inception in 1993.

To help Stamp Out Hunger! this year, simply leave a sturdy bag containing non-perishable foods, such as canned soup, canned vegetables, pasta, rice or cereal next to your mailbox prior to the time of regular mail delivery on May 10. Food items should be in non-breakable containers, such as boxes and cans. The nation’s 230,000 letter carriers will then collect donations from homes across the country and deliver them to food bank members of America ’s Second Harvest - The Nation’s Food Bank Network and other hunger relief organizations in more than 10,000 local communities.

To find out more about the annual Stamp Out Hunger! effort in your community, ask your letter carrier, contact your local post office or visit www.helpstampouthunger.com.