6 posts tagged “ecology”

Not to hijack Geology Byotch's post on fiber I am moving economic theory part of the discussion here:

MEMTONY said:

My wife and I have spent years trying to minimize the impact of our lives on the environment and we are always looking for new ways to improve. I want to share some of our findings with everyone... Maybe some of them will seem obvious and unexciting to you, but I hope that out experiences will still be useful to some people… If you have something to add – please share with us.

Today I want to share some findings in our ongoing battle against plastic bags:

1) Grocery bags. Part 1. Paper or Plastic?
Neither. There is really little excuse for pointless plastic (or paper) grocery bags, especially considering availability of reusable cloth grocery bags. It might sound silly, but the biggest challenge we ran into is remembering to take them with us. The obvious solution was to keep them in the car. Once we bring our groceries home we put the bags by the door, this way we put them back in the car the next time we go out.

2) Grocery bags. Part 2. Reuse. (aka Trash Bags. Part 1.)
The way things are done nowadays we still end up with a constant supply of plastic bags. Since our recycling center does not accept this type of plastic, we devised a way to get rid of them by using them for trash, instead of buying those giant plastic trash bags. Grocery bags might seem too small for this purpose, but if you recycle (and compost) then you probably don’t produce much trash to begin with.
Of course, unfortunately it means that those pesky grocery bags still end up in a landfill, but at least it’s a small grocery bag and not a giant super thick plastic monster that used to go into our trash bin. Especially if you consider a situation when trash needs to be taken out even when those giant bags are only quarter full, due to say foul smelling food scraps... And this way we at least try to minimize the impact.
I would love to use the bio-degradable bags, but the bio-degradable bags still need to be manufactured out of something. And that something is usually trees (and energy). So we believe that using plastic grocery bags for trash, while also minimizing the amount of trash by recycling and composting is the best solution.

3) Sandwich bags.
We started to use glass Tupperware, which comes in variety of sizes (including tiny square ones). If absolutely necessary we use Unbleached Waxed Paper Bags (like these ones). The major downfall of waxed paper bags is that they do not completely seal the food. However if you use them in combination with generic plastic sandwich bags – it allows you to reuse the plastic ones over and over again, without staining them with food and without staining your food with plastic.

If I buy a tomato it’s probably genetically modified and covered in residual pesticides. If it’s an organic tomato that is neither genetically modified nor covered in residual pesticides then it’s probably grown in Chile and a quart of jet (ship/truck) fuel had to be used in order to bring it to the US. If it’s not grown in Chile, but instead grown in the US – it’s probably grown on one of the giant super farms that belongs to an active supporter of Bush regime. If it wasn’t grown on a giant super farm that belongs to a Bush supporter, but instead it belongs to a small scale local farmer then it’s probably not organic. And if it is locally grown by a small scale organic farmer - then I probably cannot afford it (even if I can find where to buy it). If I decide to save some money and grown my own organic tomatoes on my porch, they will absorb all the fumes from the downtown traffic and will become as poisonous as if they were covered in residual pesticides. If I move to the suburbs to grow my organic tomatoes away from downtown traffic – I will be the only liberal for 100 square miles, surrounded by flag waving Southern Republicans and my children will grow up to be baseball playing, cow tipping rednecks.

So should I continue eating ecologically unsafe tomatoes or should I allow my children to become cow tipping rednecks?

See this report for healthy alternatives to Horizon Milk and other pseudo-organic dairy products: Organic Dairy Report/Ratings Arranged by Cow Star Ratings.

And here is another awesome site: Campaign for Real Milk.

No more Horizon "organic" milk for our family...

"...So-called organic dairy "industry leaders," including two of the largest organic dairy companies in the nation, Horizon Organic (a subsidiary of Dean Foods and a supplier to Wal-Mart); and Aurora Organic (a supplier of private brand name organic milk to Costco, Safeway, Giant, Wild Oats and others), are purchasing the majority of their milk from feedlot dairies where the cows have little or no access to pasture, and have routinely been imported from conventional farms, where the animals have been weaned on blood plasma, fed genetically engineered feed, slaughterhouse waste, and poultry manure, and injected or treated with antibiotics, according to research carried out by the organic watchdog group, the Cornucopia Institute. Together, these corporations control up to 65 percent of the organic dairy market..." (news from Organic Consumers Association)

UPDATE:
On the second thought I decided to boycott all products made by Dean Foods. Why descriminate against Horizon when the whole company is rotten. For the complete listing of Dean Foods Brands go here.