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The Washington Post writes:

With the Chinese milk products-melamine scandal generating fresh headlines, U.S. health officials on Friday unveiled what they consider acceptable levels of contamination with the industrial chemical.

The bottom line: No amount of melamine is safe in infant formula.

For all other foods, only amounts less than 2.5 parts per million are risk free, U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials said.

I personally prefer my food to be… food.

catbird :: Oct.03.2008 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

This TIME article about Club4Climate implementing a piezoelectricity dance floor to generate electricity reminded me of my post about using power generating equipment on playgrounds. Coincidentally, just before I read it, I was talking to a friend about how great it would be if kids could generate power, not just by spinning on those spinny merry-go-round things, but also on the swings.

Maybe it’s an idea whose time has come. The question is, who can build it?

catbird :: Jul.16.2008 :: going green :: Comments Off

Sometimes I can’t even believe what I’m reading is actually real.

“For the first time, the new rule allows the government to publicly release the names of the stores that have sold recalled meat and poultry posing the most severe risks to peoples’ health.”

Note that it’s a “rule” not a law.

“..the changes announced today would not have applied to the February recall, which was categorized as a slightly lesser risk to public health.”

Not a “most severe risk” although it was the largest recall ever in the U.S.

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer stood by the new rule, pointing out that consumers are a bunch of idiots and can’t handle too much information: “‘We don’t want to unnecessarily scare the public,’ he said asserting that releasing information during recalls that have less serious health risks might confuse consumers.”

This must have left more people than just me scratching their heads in disbelief.

Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch’s executive director said (and I heartily agree), “If a problem is serious enough to spark a recall, it is serious enough to give consumers all the information they need to avoid potentially dangerous products.”

The Consumers Union suggested (wisely) that the rule should include to Class II recalls and that the lists of places receiving tainted meat and poultry should also include schools and nursing homes.

Well, duh.

My personal theory is that the USDA doesn’t want us to know how many recalls there actually are. Sign up for recall notices by email.

catbird :: Jul.11.2008 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

Just one day after reading that scientist James Hansen believes Earth is near the climate change tipping point, I read this interview with Michael Pollan in which he discusses farming, environmentalism, and ways to combat the current food and energy crises.

Pollan talks about the connections between, well, everything: what we eat and how it’s grown or raised and how those things are related to skyrocketing oil prices, food shortages, obesity and the increase in food prices. He outlines three things we need to do… I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say it has to do with fewer subsidies and more solar-based agriculture.

Here’s a taste:

You can compare conventional beef production to a grass-based system of beef production, which is how we used to produce beef. Cattle are evolved to eat grass — they have rumens so they can digest it. So when they [cows] are getting grass, you have a really exquisite and sustainable food chain — where the sun feeds the grass, and the grass feeds the ruminant, and the ruminant feeds us. They are not competing with us for food, and it doesn’t take vast amounts of fossil-fuel fertilizer to produce that food. It takes none, until you start trucking the animal off of the ranch.

The problem with that system for the marketplace was that it’s a slower way to produce beef, and it takes more skill. It’s a lot easier just to put them on a feedlot, give them lots of corn, give them antibiotics so they can survive the corn, give them hormones to speed up their growth. Suddenly you take a two-year process and get it down to 13-14 months. Time is money, so we moved that way.

Wow. I think I have a little geek-environmentalist crush on Michael Pollan.

catbird :: Jun.26.2008 :: going green :: Comments Off

President Bush wants to allow offshore oil drilling in previously protected lands off the U.S. Coast. Doing so could yield 18 billion barrels of oil.

“That would meet current U.S. consumption for about 2-1/2 years, but it would likely take a decade or more to find the oil and produce it.”

<sarcasm>Brilliant.</sarcasm>

Meanwhile, here in NJ lawmakers are considering a different question:
“The bill would allow the owners of preserved farmland to construct, operate and install solar or wind energy facilities or equipment on their farms. The generated power could be used to operate the farm or be sold to a utility company.”

Why not? Solar panels are unobtrusive and don’t take up extra space. Even windmills are soothing to look at (at least I think so.) Seems like a win-win.

catbird :: Jun.18.2008 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

I finally figured out that we can compost our shredded bills and such. Cool.

We still don’t have usable compost. Sometimes I give the dog compostable food scraps instead since he is a much more efficient source. The poop composter generated soil for flowers and shrubs but the pyramid composter is still working on things (no doubt due to our lack of attention to mixture and such.)

catbird :: Jun.13.2008 :: going green :: Comments Off

The End of Food by Thomas F. Pawlick. Another book to feed my obsession with food issues (no pun intended).

catbird :: Jun.13.2008 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

As wildly ecstatic as I was about Whole Foods last week because of the local grass-fed beef, I am just as wildly disappointed this week. I just read a news story about how much of the 365 brand organics aren’t USDA certified, as we are led to believe by the packaging, and, in fact, many come from China.

Not only am I upset about being misled (although my frozen spinach clearly says “Product of China”), but I’m also upset that my 365 vegetables have a much larger carbon footprint than I believed, and that, now, my grocery bill will go up once again as I switch to more expensive brands.

I guess I should have been more skeptical. They had to get the better prices somehow.

catbird :: May.22.2008 :: cat rants, going green, socio-pop :: Comments Off

The strangest things make me celebrate these days. I’ve been looking around for a while to find local (i.e. w/in 50 miles) grass-fed beef. We haven’t eaten beef since I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma and I had all but given up hope of succeeding in my search. Several months back Edible Jersey mentioned two grass farms in Central Jersey that I had been wanting to check out this summer.

But now I don’t have to.

Our Whole Foods now sells 100% organic grass fed beef from the farm in Skillman, NJ. I almost started dancing in the aisle and surely the butcher thought I was a bit loony. He said they had tried before and not enough people bought it so they stopped carrying it. I’m telling everyone I know to go buy it. Why should you? Ask Michael Pollan; you don’t want to get me started.

Did it taste better? Yes, yes it did. We made hamburgers last weekend and they were really scrumptious. I have to admit I didn’t think I’d notice a difference, but I did. Next we’ll try a couple steaks.

You know what else tastes a million, zillion, godzillion* times better too? Sky Top Farms (NY) yogurt from grass-fed cows. And Natural by Nature butter from grass-fed cows… yum I could eat it with a spoon straight from the container.

I guess I shouldn’t be amazed that food tastes better from cows that eat what nature intended.

(*The next biggest number, according to Michael. I think it will be Mothratrillion, personally.)

catbird :: May.22.2008 :: going green :: Comments Off

Steve is on a Quest for the Perfect Cup of Coffee. It’s been going on for about 6 years now, and I’m just here for the ride. Believe me, if it was my quest it would be more like the Quest for the Perfect Porter or the Quest for Eight Hours of Uninterrupted Sleep.

But no, it’s Steve’s quest for a home-brewed cuppa joe that’s consistent and hot from first sip to last and from first cup to last, as well as convenient to make and environmentally friendly.

It started when we switched from a regular old Mr. Coffee machine to a Krups machine with a built in carafe in order to keep the coffee hot from first cup to last. This stage also dictated the end of spoons to stir since the metal spoon created a “heat sink” that cooled the coffee to an undrinkable temperature.

After four years, this system was deemed unsatisfactory. Our second (and third) cups were too cold and we were wasting a lot of coffee and water on full pots that got thrown away. (Let it be noted that during this stage we had kids, so I only get one hot sip of coffee followed by room temperature dregs an hour later anyway.)

So now we have a Keurig single cup brewer. This meets most of the criteria — each cup starts off hot and fresh. But the k-cups are anything but environmentally friendly. When we first got the machine I had visions of a growing pile of k-cups in a landfill somewhere resulting from my caffeine addiction. So we used a filter with our own coffee. For each cup of coffee, we had to clean and fill the single use filter. Talk about inconvenient. We could use fair trade coffee and compost the grounds, but making coffee became a tedious chore and if the coffee wasn’t ground just right or filled to the optimal amount, the result was, well, less than consistent in taste from cup to cup.

Steve still hasn’t found what he’s looking for. So now we have this thing called a pod holster (yes, I’m still talking about coffee) in which we can load a coffee pod. Pods are fully compostable. So it would seem we have met all the criteria. Each cup is consistent, hot, convenient, and green.

Except, I said to Steve, we can’t get Fair Trade pods. In fact, it’s hard to even get organic pods.

So what’s next you ask? Why, a Perfect Pod of course! So now we’ll buy our own Fair Trade coffee (from Grounds for Change, by the way), make it into pods, use the pods in our pod holster, and conveniently create the perfect cup of hot coffee every time.

Hopefully.

catbird :: Mar.30.2008 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

So our kitchen waste/yard waste composting is going okay, but not great. We can’t seem to keep a good balance. Plus, squirrels chewed a hole in our composter. (Note to self: don’t compost pumpkins until squirrels are completely finished snacking on them.)

But our dog poop composting is going great. We read about it on this gardening site. We’ve been doing it all winter and have some good soil for growing some plants in the back — non-food, of course. Pet waste composting (along with the gDiapers) has really cut back on our garbage output, too. Our yard is pretty small, though, so our neighbors might appreciate us taking a break from poop composting during the hot summer months. Wow, that could be stinky.

catbird :: Mar.11.2008 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

Maia shared this news story from the NYT about how the government thwarts small farmers who provide local produce to people who really want to buy local produce. What it says isn’t surprising, but it is super disappointing.

The author of the article is Jack Hedin, a small organic farmer in Minnesota. He explains how the government penalizes corn farmers for growing anything else, including renting land to other farmers. It seems that an empty field is more desirable to the government (and various lobbyists) than growing other vegetables and fruits.

“Farmers need the choice of what to plant on their farms, and consumers need more farms like mine producing high-quality fresh fruits and vegetables to meet increasing demand from local markets — without the federal government actively discouraging them.”

I just want to prepare and eat real food. Local (and preferably organic) fruits and veggies and pasture fed meats. Why is the government subsidizing corn and soybeans anyway? The last thing we need is more high fructose corn syrup, soy isoflavins, and processed crap food-like substances.

catbird :: Mar.03.2008 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

While our house isn’t super old, our plumbing certainly isn’t new. When flushing gDiapers, we noticed that the recommended “swish once” method left our poor toilet struggling, leading to frequent multiple flushes.

One day, just by accident, I realized that if I keep swishing in the opposite direction of the water flow for most of the flush, everything goes down without a problem. Now I do that every time and multiple flushes have become a rarity. (As an added bonus for our poor old plumbing, now that we have a composter, we can compost the pee diapers when they start to pile up.)

catbird :: Nov.13.2007 :: going green, mommyhood :: Comments Off

Just picked up our new composter today. Although I’ve done some research about how to compost successfully, this will really be a big experiment and a lot of learning by doing. I’ll be interested to see if we have some good soil to use for planting next spring.

Hopefully composting will become a habit just like g-Diapers did. This page about what can be composted will come in handy.

catbird :: Oct.20.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

This guy can’t possibly be as much of an idiot as he sounds, right? Encouraging people to bike and walk seems like a superb idea in a nation where obesity is called an epidemic, global warming is just being acknowledged by the general public, and alternative energy sources are being pursued.
If McHenry was really smart, he would have pointed out, however, that now we need to build the infrastructure to make it safe to bike and walk to work, the store, school, etc. Bike lanes (or at least wide shoulders!), walking and biking paths, and more communities with pedestrian-friendly shopping areas would make it a lot easier for people to leave the car at home when commuting or doing errands. Those things will require more money than the tax incentive will cost, that’s for sure.

But are they worth it? Absolutely.

catbird :: Sep.05.2007 :: cat rants, going green :: Comments Off

I found these degradable dog poop bags while doing research into a pet waste composter. about $100 for 2000 bags. That’s $.05/bag and 200 bags will last almost three years.

Even better are BioBags. Made from corn starch polymer, they are 100% biodegradable and 100% compostable. And a little more expensive: 600 bags cost $70.00. That’s $.12/bag — more than double the Dogipots. The other option is 3000 bags for $300 ($.10/bag). Is it worth it for a biodegradable bag vs. a degradable bag?

According to Vincenze’s Pit,  biodegradable materials “are broken down by microorganisms that use the plastic as a food/energy source.” Degradable materials “are broken down by the elements, heat, moisture, sunlight etc and don’t require life as such to help the process.” He also points out that while biodegradable materials are better for composting, most landfills are designed to suppress the kind of microorganisms needed to break biodegradables down. Since we aren’t currently composting, it seems like the Dogipots might be the better option for us (and our bank account).

catbird :: Aug.23.2007 :: going green, woof :: Comments Off

By next spring, I would like to have a rain barrel system set up to collect water for the yard and garden.

Rain Barrel Guide: Why collect rainwater, estimating how much will be collected, how to get started (this site also has a link to compost guide).

Clean Air Gardening: large selection of rain barrels for purchase including a cool 60 gallon one made of a recycled food-grade barrel.

Gardeners.com: More rain barrels.

Composters.com: rain barrels, and also pet waste composters and other composting supplies

catbird :: Aug.23.2007 :: going green, house stuff :: Comments Off

A friend told me she saw pasture fed beef at Whole Foods. So I asked the butcher when I was there this week. As usual, he was very helpful and took me right to the display that had three cuts of beef labeled, quite obviously to my chagrin, pasture-fed. I asked him where the farm was that provided the beef and he replied without missing a beat “New Zealand.”

So much for an easy solution. Back to my list of local farms.

catbird :: Jul.10.2007 :: going green :: Comments Off

I’ve been so focused on buying local with my groceries that I hadn’t been thinking about other things we could buy locally until the other day when we were buying beer. We like to buy beer from smaller breweries and there are several good ones in our area: Flying Fish is in Cherry Hill, NJ; Riverhorse in Lambertville, NJ; Saranac in PA, Yeungling in PA. I wonder if Sam Adams in still really made in PA? I think even my current addiction, Pete’s, is brewed in MA — not too far away. I guess buying local beer would mean no more Guinness or Red Stripe, though, at least until our next trips to Ireland and Jamaica.

And what about clothes? I don’t buy a lot of stuff for myself, and Steve gets a lot from Banana Republic. (Yikes!) but for the kids I buy most stuff consignment. Not only am I reusing, but I guess that is buying local, as well.

I wonder what else we can buy locally…

catbird :: Jul.05.2007 :: going green, socio-pop :: Comments Off

“Project Grass is a group of Sussex and Warren county farmers who rely on pasture, along with hay and grass silage, for much of their livestock’s dietary needs. These animals spend the majority of their lives roaming the pasture, eating the grass at will, and enjoying the great outdoors.”

Several of the farms listed in this article are also biodynamic — that is, “using everything on the farm to complement and benefit everything else.” No (or at least minimal) pesticides, compost generated from waste, using the natural behaviors of animals to grow meat and produce (for example, chickens following the cows to eat the bugs in their waste and spread the natural fertilizer). Want more information on that concept? Read the Grass section of The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Of the farms listed in the Project Grass article, only one had a web site: DanaRay Farm in Branchville NJ. They also have a CSA, but they are over 90 minutes from our house so I’m not sure I would make a weekly pick up. However, they also have a booth at the Lafayette Farmer’s Market on Sundays from late spring to early fall. That is under an hour away and might be more feasible on a semi-monthly basis. None of the other farms were any closer, anyway.

A friend gave me information about Clearview Farm, which has a CSA, too. I’m not sure if their animals are pastured fed or if the farm is biodynamic because the web site hasn’t been working. Also, they deliver, which is convenient, but I’m not sure how I feel about it from an environmental standpoint. Is it better than people driving to them or worse? My sleep-deprived brain can’t figure it out right now. Hopefully I’ll be able to get more information about them soon.

My last lead is going to the West Orange Farmer’s Market opening day tomorrow. Maybe there is a good farm there to use. Unlikely, but you never know!

catbird :: Jul.05.2007 :: going green, socio-pop :: Comments Off