Whole… and I use that word loosely… Food

I would like to direct you to THIS site and an essay on Whole Foods.

I do believe that Whole Foods is a better choice than Ralph’s or Von’s or Albertson’s or Costco. But, do not believe the hype that they are all good. The organic food industry has, in some ways, become just as wasteful and just as corporate and industrial as the traditional food industry. If Whole Foods really practiced what it seems to preach, they wouldn’t allow banana’s from Costa Rica or apple’s from New Zealand. Do you ever wonder why you cannot get banana’s at a farmer’s market in Los Angeles. When you eat sustainably and locally, yes, there are some things you will not get any longer. I think it is a very small price to pay for making a better decision for the environment and dependency on oil.

My advice is to first and foremost buy from a farmer’s market. Second, if possible, find a smaller, locally owned organic store. If you have to go to Whole Foods but stay away from the aisles… there isn’t “whole” food in those places… in case you don’t know the difference… broccoli is whole, frozen fettucini alfredo with broccoli is not.

Great website to find all things eco-food. GREENOPIA also has amazing references, but it is limited to certain cities, right now.

almost green

HERE is an interview with James Glave about his new book, “Almost Green”. The book documents the process of giving up your SUV, moving away from the city and building an eco-shed (see picture).

Here is an excerpt from the interview that I thought was important:
I say in the book that the baby steps are the answer, but since I wrote that a year ago I almost feel now that we’re missing the boat with baby steps. We need to move past them and look at transformational changes, and that means bold moves and grand gestures and big statements.

Here is his personal website: JAMES GLAVE

Oh, what a site!

We all love Wikipieda… and why wouldn’t you. An online encyclopedia about all things; easy to use, concise (albeit sometimes biased since it is user published), but a great source of material.

Well, congratulations Wiki and Jimmy Wales for creating a new version called GREEN WIKI.. Here you can find all things green; how to live sustainably, how to get the latest and greatest information on global warming, how to recycle…. oh, it’s good. Really, really good.

So check it out. Browse. Peruse.

greenwashing

Just found a new website: SUSTAIN LANE. It is a site dedicated to investigating and ranking the “green”-ness of products.

Right now, there is such a desire and demand for everything being eco friendly, that you need to be careful of “greenwashing”: being misled by a company regarding the environmental practices of the company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

This site helps solve that problem by doing the investigative work for you.

Today they also launched their rankings of the greenest cities in the United States. It saddens me that my home town is #28.

act of love

A few days ago, a friend, Stacy, asked if I still cooked for myself and when I said, but of course, she made a comment about it being an “act of love”.

The day… heck, most of the weekend, went by before that comment hit me…. truly hit me. Then yesterday as I was making homemade black bean soup, I really connected to what I was doing and got the full impact of what she had said to me.

When we make the choice to eat as healthfully as possible; choosing the ingredients, controlling the quantities and what goes into the food we eat, spending the time to watch and nurture something slowly simmering on the stove-top, creating the environment to enjoy what you have made…. you are choosing the best of possibilities for yourself.

For whatever reason, I fell in love with food and cooking many, many years ago. I am nurtured, not only by the food, but by the process of cooking the food and experimenting with new ingredients and most importantly by providing those whom I love and care deeply about, with my creations. I know that for some people it is difficult to take the time and spend it in the kitchen…. Please believe me when I say, TRY IT!! It gets so much easier over time and practice. The gift is so worth the effort.

I have written in the past about the whole impact of eating “fast food”. All I really want to say about the difference in the two ways of eating is that I believe one is an “act of love”. When you can fully connect to what you are putting in your body, when you love and honor yourself, and the people in your life, so much, and you choose to treat your body as a gift, a privilege and a temple; then you cannot choose to eat processed, fast food. This is something I believe.

I also believe that in choosing to eat healthfully, from your home, you are choosing FOR the environment. You reduce your carbon footprint, and make an impact on the negative food industry. The animal industry is a huge waste of our environment, conventional farming releases toxins into our water supply, we have depleted fish to near extinction… don’t even get me started on corn.

The next time you are thinking about what to eat, try following advice by Michael Pollan for “In Defense of Food”; Eat WHOLE food. Not too much. Mostly plants. (Included in this is don’t eat an ingredient that you don’t know what it is (i.e. ethoxylated diglycerides) and try to eat something that wasn’t flown in from Argentina (or the likes)).

What I am trying to say is this: I believe that eating well is not only an act of love for yourself, but also everyone around you… the whole entire world.

Here are some of my favorite cookbooks:
Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson and her site www.101cookbooks.com
Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero
Essentials of Cooking by James Peterson

and of course, the bible of cooking: The Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer

Happy Cooking… and most important… HAPPY EATING!!!!

it IS easy being green, kermit

I for one think shopping just got a wee bit easier and a lot bit greener!

A new online shopping site was launched yesterday!! GREENZER

From their website, this is what they are about: Greenzer is a next-generation shopping engine designed to make environmentally conscious shopping easier. At Greenzer, we’re building a unique service for consumers to browse, compare and shop thousands of greener products from dozens of our carefully chosen merchant partners. Greenzer collects product and merchant information from across the internet to filter and arrange it into a comprehensive catalogue of the web’s best and greenest products.

So, now, instead of wasting gas and going to the mall, buying products that have no sustainable value whatsoever…. you can double your impact on the environment by staying home and buying green!

no “huggie” from me

Click HERE to see evidence found by Greenpeace of Kimberly-Clarke’s terrible practice of using old growth trees, despite their promise to become more sustainable.

Then click HERE to find out what products you should boycott.

They have a track record of doing awful things to the environment. Please take a moment to take action through the Greenpeace website. And finally, I really hope you take this opportunity to let your money speak louder than any words…. STOP BUYING FROM THEM!!!!

no “huggie” from me

Click HERE to see evidence found by Greenpeace of Kimberly-Clarke’s terrible practice of using old growth trees, despite their promise to become more sustainable.

Then click HERE to find out what products you should boycott.

They have a track record of doing awful things to the environment. Please take a moment to take action through the Greenpeace website. And finally, I really hope you take this opportunity to let your money speak louder than any words…. STOP BUYING FROM THEM!!!!

Park(ing) Day LA

If you live in Los Angeles… tomorrow brings a very special event around town. Click HERE for the link.

The first annual Park[ing] Day LA, was on Friday, September 21st 2007, which brought together a diverse constituency of community groups, neighborhood councils, design & architecture firms, professional organizations, non-profits, cyclists & pedestrian advocates as they worked together and transformed numerous parking spaces & parking lots located throughout LA into ephemeral parks for the day. By occupying a parking spot, volunteers enhanced the streets with sustainably designed pocket-parks.

We’re bringing back Park[ing] Day LA on Friday, September 19th, 2008.

think outside the plot

This is cool, right? Looks like some cool, artistic landscape design. Well, guess what? It is a public sustainable garden in NYC. This is just one innovative way to eat locally… what can you come up with?

Click HERE for more detail.

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