Today
Sections
More
Features
Displaying 1 - 10 of 19 |
Next »adventures in green
Put this in your pipe and smoke it
I have a couple of friends who don't buy much, shop sustainably when they do, don't drive and get their clothes exclusively from sweatshop-free companies. They're some of the most conscientious greens I know. But every so often — some more often than others — they also buy a little weed for their personal use.
It may not seem hypocritical at first blush, but buying non-medical marijuana is the most un-green, and the most inhumane, thing you could do. Your small-time dealer might be some California surfer kid, but somewhere along the line that pot most likely came from the Mexican drug cartels. Your money feeds the kidnappings, assassinations, rapes, bribery, and all-around appalling lawlessness of the cartels, and expands the market for the product at their heart.
NPR is doing a series of stories on Mexico's cartels. Here are some details: South of the border, 24,000 people have died in turf wars over drugs since the end of 2006. Millions more have had their lives destroyed in one way or another. Virtually all of Mexico's marijuana crop comes to the United States, and it is the cartels' single biggest source of cash.
So, what if we define green in terms of strictly environmental issues? Do you really think the cartels grow their pot sustainably? It's grown as quickly as possible, with plenty of pesticides and fertilizers. Last year, there were 30,000 acres in Mexico planted with cannabis instead of food. The people that do the hard labor live in fear and make next to nothing.
On this side of the border, the cartels clear-cut plots in protected national forests to grow their crop far from prying eyes. Forty percent of all national forests in the United States are home to illegal pot grows. In California, 80 percent of the growers working on federal lands are Mexican citizens, and they're almost certainly aligned with a cartel. The fertilizers and irrigation pipes do permanent damage to forest ecosystems, as do piles of trash and feces growers leave behind when they're done.
Sorry, dudes, but you just can't claim to be green if you buy illegal pot. If you want to keep toking up, you have three choices: Buy directly from a semi-legal grower in Mendocino, find a way to get a prescription or lobby for marijuana to be legalized.
| May 20 2010 at 06:40 AM
Know your farmer: Harley Goat Farms
Cameron Scott
Last weekend, I toured Harley Goat Farms in Pescadero and then was treated to a farm dinner of sustainable produce, BYO wine and lots of delicious goat cheese. (Sustainable seafood was also on the menu.)
The produce was all grown within a couple dozen miles of the farm: Pescadero is a major hub of sustainable farming, and many of the farmers — including Karen Heisler of Pie Ranch, also profiled on TGL — there work together at keeping it that way. It's funny, though, that in this case your local farmer is Dee Harley of Yorkshire, England.
Harley rebuilt a 1910 cow dairy 16 years ago. She started with six goats — but partly because she didn't know that goats' second pregnancies normally produce twins or triplets — her herd now consists of more than 250 animals. Most are female, and most, if not all, are now pregnant and will deliver in the spring.
One interesting aspect of the goat farm's sustainability mission is sheep. (Note the strange Ewok-looking thing in the photo below.) The sheep graze on the pasture, essentially weeding it of unwanted greens by eating them down to the root. Clover and other greens feed the goats; our tour guide insisted that what the goat eats is how the cheese tastes.
This chevre was amazing and has a international World Cheese Show gold medal to vouch for it.
The male goats themselves are sometimes rented out to "mow" area lawns. No fossil fuel or engine noise required. Meanwhile, llamas protect the goats from four-legged — including mountain lions and coyotes — and two-legged poachers. How? Why, by kicking and spitting.
Now, if you wonder why sustainability costs more, here's one answer: The USDA requires an all-stainless-steel milking area, disqualifying Harley, whose perfectly clean milking area has a wood platform for the ewes to stand on as they're milked, making life easier for milker and milkee.
After the tour, the dinner. The converted hayloft with an enormous table and tall wooden chairs gave it a Knights-of-the-Roundtable feel, which was certainly helped by the metal goblets from which we drank our water. (Metal isn't so good for wine, so that was served in the usual glass.)
This kind of agri-tourism would give your great grandfather a laugh, but nowadays, it's a needed boost for the sustainability movement. When you get to know your farmer, ask him or her what profit margins are like — you'll probably get a laugh there, too.
Cameron Scott
One of just a few males.
Cameron Scott
Sheep!
| January 26 2010 at 06:08 AM
Dentist: Don't use natural toothpastes
Good news and bad news at the dentist this morning. The good news is, my teeth are fine. The bad news is, the dentist told me I should give up Tom's of Maine and Nature's Gate in favor of Crest and Colgate.
I pressed him on it because I know sometimes people have knee-jerk reactions about green products, and he insisted that he's only come to the conclusion after observing many people's teeth. In fact, he went so far as to say that I'd be better off brushing my teeth with just water. He said the big C's of dental care have "lots of artificial ingredients in them that are great for your teeth."
And so it is with much dread that I will be reuniting with the tacky blue goop of my youth. The dentist did give me permission to go with the plainest, simplest version of a mainstream paste: No microbeads or built-in mouthwash needed.
| August 24 2009 at 01:46 PM
Confessions of a failed green
Last week, I came upon a line of ants on my kitchen counter and decided to use a tip an herbalist friend had given me: essential oil.
Ants, she said, follow the scent of their companions to get to the food source. Disrupt their scent trail and they'll stop marching into your kitchen from wherever they live outside. I'd rather have lavender than Raid on my kitchen counter, I decided, and gave it a whirl. It worked!
Two nights ago, my finicky dog decided not to finish her dog food, so I put her half-full bowl up on the kitchen counter. The next day, there were ants in and around it—a lot of ants. Smugly, I went for the essential oil again. A few hours later, there were fewer ants, but there were still ants. I resorted to the Raid, I'm sad to say. Had I been more patient and clever, I could have done two things: 1) Put the dog bowl in a big dish of water, thereby eventually killing all of the ants in the food, and 2) Reapplied the essential oil or one of the Bugman's natural mixes for ant control.
If you've tried any of these approaches, tell us how it went in the comments!
Shutterstock
It turns out I also made another green faux pas this week. I brought home a partially completed Garage Band recording from a music lesson last week (Garage Band files don't work over email). I uploaded it, then thought my only choice was to throw it out, which felt wasteful. And indeed it was. I discovered today that you can recycle old CDs. With SF's truly amazing recycling program, you can just drop an old CD into the blue bin. For those outside SF, you can find a drop off center using Earth911.org or mail them to the CD Recycling Center of America. Rock on, recyclers, rock on!
| July 16 2009 at 12:06 PM
Lessons learned
One of the amazing things about living in the Bay Area is that even a relatively informed green like your blogger continues to learn new things. For example:
Biodiesel markup
I was shocked to learn that some friends' 1982 Mercedes station wagon could sell for nearly $5,000. This thing is so old, the glove box has a manually operated latch. The trick is that it's a diesel that's undergone a simple conversion to run on biodiesel. My friends are looking at upgrading to a 2006 Volkswagon Jetta TDI, which they say is a good deal at $14,000. The non-diesel 2005 Jetta goes for just $9,500. Diesel vehicles also last much longer, so they're a really good investment. And driving with zero [net carbon] emissions? Priceless.
This thing sells for $5,000!
Produce packaging
I was flummoxed the other day at the moment of disposing of a plastic container that had contained mixed greens. Seeing no recycling number, I panicked: Is this compostable, or is my mixed greens habit cluttering our landfills? I called in an expert from SFEnvironment. Here's the answer I got:
If a plastic container (or cup) does not have some sort of label that says compostable, be it a green band, rasied type on the bottom, or otherwise, it is not compostable and should be thrown in the blue bin. These days, almost all plastics can be thrown in the blue bins in San Francisco, with the exception of plastic films (bags, basically), styrofoam, plastics with electronics and the aforementioned compostables.
This week, Earthbound, the biggest producer of packaged mixed greens, also announced that it is now making its clamshell boxes from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic. Looks like I can eat my mixed greens in peace. Phew.
Recycled, and recyclable, packaging
| July 10 2009 at 11:13 AM
Dieter's confidential
It's embarrassing to admit, but I'm on a diet.
More Americans than ever are obese. So much so that we've lost sight of what healthy weight looks like. When I started dieting, the few friends I mentioned it to thought I was nuts. But 6 pounds down, my Body Mass Index is still 25, which is overweight. BMI is iron law: It's a statistically based measure of your risk for weight-related health problems.
My own reasons tend more toward vanity than toward environmental concern, but weight is a green issue. Better health means fewer medications, for starters. And weighing less means that I use fractionally less fuel every time I travel. Being smaller also makes it possible to buy a smaller car. Most importantly, eating healthy foods is better for the planet: Processed foods are more energy-intensive and come in lots of packaging. Of course, produce is gentler on the environment than meat, and organic produce is better yet.
Not that you asked, but I'm going to share a few lessons I've learned.
• It's not easy to lose weight. I've had to boost my activity and cut calories, and I'm still losing just a pound every other week. A pound a week is within reach, but you shouldn't aspire to more than that.
• Exercise gets easier fast. I boosted my cardiovascular exercise from a half an hour a day to an hour a day. At first, I was exhausted; now it's easy.
• Fitness is fun! I've been able to go on big hikes and bike rides with friends without feeling tired. And I can sprint for the bus when I need to.
• I was reluctant to count calories—it felt too teenage girl-ish, but doing so (roughly) helped me locate some surprising calorie bombs in my diet, including salad dressing. It's also useful to measure your food so you know what you're getting. I did it once or twice, and now I eyeball it.
• Processed foods, even relatively healthy ones, can also have counterintuitive nutritional makeups. Read the packaging carefully. In general, food you make yourself is better for you.
• I like this calorie-needs calculator.
• I'm a dessert lover, and I've always thought a couple cookies a day was perfectly normal. But it's not, really. Even exercising an hour a day, there's no room in my calorie count for cookies or chocolate. The easy access we have to fatty, sweet foods didn't exist anywhere in our evolution and our bodies aren't equipped to deal with it, especially when we're not out hunting mastadons.
• Apple sauce or fresh fruit works surprisingly well to satisfy my dessert cravings. (Cinnamon is also very good for you.) British style tea (with milk and sugar) also works.
• Chocolate is addictive. At first, I suffered in its absence, but soon I found I didn't miss it at all. Until...a friend from Europe brought me some chocolates, and I found that after one, I wanted another...and another.
• TV and eating go together all too well. If I keep myself busy, there's no free hand to eat with. And I get more done.
• You might need less food than you think you do. Try to reduce portions. If you get hungry again, just have a snack. Eating smaller meals more frequently is better for you, anyway.
• Finally, in the do as I say and not as I do category, get your exercise outdoors, not on power-hungry machines at the gym.
Photo: Shutterstock
| July 09 2009 at 12:33 PM
The writing on the pizza box
When Gavin Newsom held a press conference to introduce his mandatory composting program, he used a pizza box as an exemplary compostable item. In fact, he said, the city will advertise its new program on pizza boxes—which is a bit of an odd choice since pizza boxes are, no matter how you slice it, hard to get rid of.
Err, scratch that! The genius of a new green pizza box—besides being made of 100 percent recycled materials—is that it comes perforated to break down into several serving plates and a manageably-sized storage container. The Green Box costs no more to make than a conventional pizza box, and the makers are eyeing selling ad space on the boxes as well. Perhaps they could sell to S.F. Dept. of the Environment. In any case, expect to see these boxes soon in a red zippy bag near you.
The low-hanging fruit of the clunky, wasteful pizza box, solved! Bachelor pads may even be less unsightly as a result.
What other easy, obvious green innovations have you seen? Which problems are you desperate to see resolved?
| July 06 2009 at 11:17 AM
Snapshot of success
The battle over the dirty Mirant power plant in eastern San Francisco has been epic. Environmentalists lobbied for its closure, city officials fought among themselves and pressured state officials, and state officials said that without the plant, the city would risk blackouts. Recently, the city tried suing Mirant directly.
The plant burns dirty coal natural gas, pollutes the bay and kills fish, which it has been allowed to do because its permits are expired and state officials refused to take action.
What a mess! But the city says it will almost certainly succeed in shutting the plant down this year, with no interference from the state. What made the resolution possible? Energy-efficiency programs and improvements to the city's grid. These methods may sound unglamorous, but they can have major effects.
Among available programs are PG&E;'s Energy Partners program (it took some doing, but I just got my apartment weatherized for free, and even got a brand new refrigerator). PG&E; also offers rebates on energy-efficient appliances.
| May 12 2009 at 11:26 AM
Lightening air travel's load
A friend recently returned from a vacation with a page torn from United's in-flight magazine (p. 130, to be exact), detailing the airline's efforts to reduce its environmental impacts. The article documents a new descent procedure (the standard steep descent requires pilots to alternately accelerate and decelerate), adding aerodynamic "winglets," towing planes from gate to gate, and other fuel savers.
It does not mention a controversial fuel-saving policy United publicized yesterday: Charging overweight passengers for two seats, or forcing them to upgrade to business class, where seats are larger.
United is packaging the policy as an effort to make other passengers more comfortable by freeing them of the spillover of flesh from the adjacent seat. But it's almost certainly also an attempt to recoup fuel costs, as the average passenger's weight continues to climb.
The airline makes all kinds of accommodations to those potentially affected by the policy: It's a delicate thing to tell someone they're fat enough to count as two passengers. But can it ever be fair? My friend who recently flew United made the point that children under three two fly for free, and they take up as much space as someone's unwanted body fat—and they certainly make more noise. Emissions-wise, having a child is also more profligate than being overweight.
What do you think? Is the policy fair? Is it "green"?
| April 16 2009 at 12:08 PM
Trader Joe's Gets It Easy?
In a concession to the weak economy, Whole Foods has launched a new PR campaign, in which employees give customers lessons on how to get out of the store without spending their Whole Paycheck.
The grocery chain has long faced criticism for its prices, but, up till now, CEO John Mackey has stood with Michael Pollan in the controversial "higher prices are good" (because Americans should learn what "real" food costs) camp.
To a large extent, however, all of the other criticisms it has faced—lack of local foods, favoring big producers; controversial decision to sell live lobster; etc.—have stemmed from its high prices. Admittedly, if Mackey is right, high prices should hold the company to a higher standard.
But should chains with lower prices escape scrutiny altogether? So it seems to be for Trader Joe's. The chain ranked low on Greenpeace's sustainable seafood report card. The packaging is excessive, with even the produce sealed in plastic. The business model forces consumers to buy in quantities large enough to encourage waste. And most of Trader Joe's products are made on equipment shared with everything you might be allergic to (dairy, nuts) or philosophically opposed to eating (dairy, meat).
But these criticisms seem to slip right off the company like they would off the teflon that's also bad for you. Not only that, but a survey of influential Gen Y thought leaders, if that's not an oxymoron, ranked TJ's among the companies perceived to be greenest. Apparently low prices buy a lot of good will.
It's true, I was happy to find 80 percent post-consumer waste toilet paper there last week, and there are many non-processed foods and relatively natural cleaning items on Trader Joe's shelves, albeit wrapped in copious amounts of plastic. But the company—which, unlike Whole Foods, is privately owned—doesn't even have a sustainability statement on its website. Whole Foods', on the other hand, is immense and evolving.
Does TJ's get it too easy? How would you compare it to Whole Foods, in terms of sustainability? Or is that an unfair comparison?
| March 26 2009 at 02:42 PM
more