WASHINGTON - Though you have to bend down to read it, the fist-size green logo on the front window of Le Pain Quotidien might be the most visible sign that the bakery-restaurant is environmentally sensitive. But that little sticker’s declaration that the Georgetown business is a “certified green restaurant” describes a host of ecologically minded practices taking place on the other side of the door.

Going green, it turns out, is all in the details. And some are less obvious than others.

At Le Pain Quotidien, which opened last spring, the 39-seat communal dining table was fashioned out of reclaimed wood from vintage Belgian train cars. Cleaning products used on the floor and kitchen counters are nontoxic and non-polluting. The to-go cups are made of corn and the spoons of potato starch; they will disintegrate within 30 to 90 days in a commercial compost site rather than sit in a landfill. The exceptional croissants, like the other baked goods, are made with organic flour and butter.

Although it is so far the only restaurant here to earn certification from the Boston-based Green Restaurant Association, Le Pain Quotidien is in good company nationwide. Restaurateurs increasingly are realizing that environmentally minded customers care about more than local produce, sustainable seafood and free-range meats. In a survey by the National Restaurant Association, 62 percent of consumers said they would be likely to choose a restaurant based on its environmental friendliness.

Bergen Kenny, 29, was one of them as she stood in Le Pain Quotidien’s takeout line on a recent morning, waiting for her daily organic pumpkin muffin and fair-trade coffee. “You try to be green in your life, and when you come here they’ve taken care of all that,” says Kenny.

The restaurant association also reported that, in another survey, a quarter of restaurants said they plan to spend more on going green this year. Besides the environmental benefits, restaurant owners hope that such efforts can in the long run help them deal with increased energy and waste-management costs.

“Companies and restaurants are investing in the hard costs of ecologically friendly operations, and people are responding,” says food industry consultant Clark Wolf, president of the New York-based Clark Wolf Co. “These green restaurants are popping up all over the country, in New York like crazy.”

Although the GRA has certified all U.S. operations of Le Pain Quotidien (French for “the daily bread”), a Belgium-based chain with 28 locations in the United States, none is totally sustainable. The D.C. restaurant still needs to find a company in the area that will haul away compostable kitchen waste. It can’t find a source with adequate supplies of organic chicken. But it has satisfied the major requirements of the GRA, a nonprofit organization that has bestowed “certified green” status on more than 300 restaurants and cafes in 30 states and Canada.

“We look at everything,” says executive director Michael Oshman, who founded the GRA in 1990. His 11 environmental guidelines cover energy and water efficiency and conservation, recycling and composting, the use of sustainable food, green building design and construction, and more. The association helps clients find suppliers of locally grown foods, which helps reduce the amount of pollution from fossil fuels used in transportation. “We take a restaurant, no matter where they are in being green, and help them with the steps,” Oshman says.

The stakes are high. Among other environmental effects, the GRA says, the U.S. restaurant industry accounts for one-third of all energy used by retail businesses and is five times as energy-intensive as other retail businesses, including lodging. The group cites studies gathered for Dining Green, a book published by the GRA in 2004, showing that on average, every restaurant meal served produces 1 1/2 pounds of trash. Half of that, the GRA says, is food waste that could be composted.

This past year, the GRA has generated the most interest in its history. Oshman credits the popularity of Al Gore’s documentary on global warming, “An Inconvenient Truth.” Since the movie’s release in May 2006, Oshman says, “the phone has been ringing off the hook.” Not only restaurant owners are calling. Oshman says the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., has asked for an environmental assessment of its food service operations.

The GRA did not invent the concept of the environmentally friendly restaurant. The group has, however, raised the consciousness about Earth-friendly issues beyond a niche group of food businesses that were sometimes perceived as esoteric.

But in Washington, one chef was green long before green was cool.

“For them it’s all big news. It is a wonderful thing for awareness. But we’ve been doing these things for years,” says chef Nora Pouillon, who opened Restaurant Nora 29 years ago. Eight years ago the restaurant was the first in the United States to be certified organic.

In addition to cooking with all organic and mostly local ingredients, Pouillon has long used recycled paper and soy-based ink for the menus, which change daily. Four employees compost 75 gallons of vegetable waste in home gardens each day. She eliminated fresh flowers in the restaurant when it became too difficult to find blooms that had not been heavily sprayed with pesticides. Pouillon’s search for Earth-friendly solutions goes on.

“What I haven’t been able to find is certified organic cotton chef jackets and pants,” she says. “No one is making organic shirts for the wait staff anymore.”

Overall, she says, organic ingredients add 20 percent to her costs, and labor costs are 20 percent higher than for a restaurant of comparable size.

“Someone has to haul the compost. Everything adds up,” Pouillon says. “But my business is better than ever, because more and more people are aware and concerned about healthy eating and the environment.”

Nicolas Jammet, co-owner of Sweetgreen, a salad and yogurt bar in Georgetown, also hopes to be certified in the next month. Energy-efficient wiring was installed before the business opened in August. Walls are made of recycled hickory. The owners use salad bowls made of corn-based materials, and the forks and spoons are biodegradable.

For Jammet, there is more to accomplish on the green checklist. Every step, he says, “adds to our mission.”

“It’s not a trend or a gimmick,” says Jammet, a Georgetown University graduate who has lots of customers from his alma mater. “It’s the future to be eco-conscious.”

For Le Pain Quotidien, the environmental commitments extend to some of the smallest decisions that employees make.

“You must watch your trash audit,” says Patrick Jenkins, vice president of operations for the chain. “When you make a latte, you can’t throw a milk container into the trash instead of recycling.”

One model, Oshman says, is the Grille Zone in Boston, which he calls “the best example of a zero-waste business.”

Through recycling and composting, this GRA-certified burger joint has pared its total waste per day, after serving an average 150 customers in 900 square feet, to half of a standard 55-gallon trash bag. (By Oshman’s calculations, a similar-size restaurant without recycling and composting procedures produces 10 to 12 bags of garbage per day.)

Le Pain Quotidien is working toward such success. Managers in Georgetown regularly check bins for misplaced refuse and call it to the attention of employees. And they continue to look for a company to haul away scrap dough and other food waste for composting.

It’s a difficult challenge, Jenkins says. “We’re looking for a total zero” when it comes to waste, he says, “but we’re not there yet.”

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0118restaurants-ON.html

GRANVILLE, OH — The shoppers come, many on foot, for unique reasons.

For some, it’s the incomparable taste of food made the old-fashioned way, with personal care and real ingredients. For others, it’s the chance to support and get to know local entrepreneurs. Or maybe they are a values customer, seeking goods produced in an Earth-friendly way.

Whatever their motivation, patrons continue to turn out every other Saturday for the Grassroots Farmers Market, which became a year-round market in February 2007.

Between 1994 and 2006, the number of farmers markets in America more than doubled — from 1,755 to 4,385 — according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An 18 percent increase occurred between 2004 and 2006.Granville’s Pilgrim Lutheran Church, at the corner of Broadway and Cherry streets, offers the only winter market in the county. In Franklin County, Worthington started one in 2007.

Sue Renner, one of the market founders, said vendor and shopper attendance fluctuate, but generally the winter market has six to 14 vendors, peddling everything from hormone-free beef and artisan cheeses to handknit-scarves, salsa and homemade candy. The market takes place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the second and fourth Saturday of each month.

Lelia Hoiriis, of Granville, said she has been coming every weekend and specifically seeks out Renner’s baked goods.

On Jan. 12, Hoiriis picked up an apple walnut streusel coffee cake.

“It’s just so delicious,” she said. “She’s my favorite one of all the bakers. It’s all real (ingredients).”

Mary McKee, of Newark, said she also is attracted to the market because of the quality. Her favorite vendor is Long Meadows beef.

“The difference is remarkable,” she said. “It’s full of flavor, and it’s not greasy at all.”

Nancy Rose, co-owner of the Utica farm, said the key to the lean flavor is the fact her cows are grass-fed. They graze on organically grown grasses and hay, which means it takes them longer to reach maturity than grain-fed animals. However, their meat is leaner, and they don’t require antibiotics.

A repeat customer, McKee said the farmers market experience also is a nostalgic one, reminding her of going to the butcher as a child.

“It’s the personal relationship,” she said.

Vendors can rent a booth for $10 on a Saturday. They can bring their own table or borrow one for an extra $5. They must have a vendor’s license, and their wares must be homemade or homegrown in Ohio.

For some, the market business is supplemental income or a hobby — Renner is a full-time nurse. For others, it’s a chance to test-run a future business.

Tim Blake, of Newark, started selling his homemade salsa at the market a few months ago after receiving encouragement from his friends. He has developed nine varieties and is working on a raspberry flavor.

“I just tinkered and tinkered and tinkered for years until I found something I liked,” he said. “It was a joke up until now, but it’s selling pretty well.”

Blake said he grows most of the ingredients in his garden in the summer: tomatoes, onions, peppers. In the winter, he buys his ingredients at the grocery.

Produce is less abundant at the winter market, but Renner said some vendors extend their growing season with greenhouses.

“I normally stock up,” said Shari Ketron, of Granville. “Anymore, how often do you hear another recall? You just don’t know what’s going on in the plants and stuff. It’s nice to support the local people.”

By TIFFANY EDWARDS

http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080120/NEWS01/801200307/1002

By Rebecca Pattiz

If you are starting to feel guilty about your failure to recycle or your occasional failure to turn off the lights, there is an easy and surprising way to appease your conscience—pastries.

With the whole world going green, it is no surprise that we are changing our level of environmental consciousness in everyday activities, including the satisfaction of our sweet tooth. Bakeries with greener outlooks are popping up everywhere, allowing you to decrease your carbon footprint while getting your sugar fix.

Perhaps the trendiest of this new breed of bakery is Babycakes NYC, a vegan and gluten-free bakeshop on the Lower East Side. The tiny space is cute and cozy, giving the impression that your grandma very well might be cooking in the back. If you have a very chic and health-conscious grandma, that is. Owner and operator Erin McKenna, a former stylist, left the fashion world for baking and never looked back. McKenna, who has sensitivities to sugar, dairy, and wheat cites her own food restrictions as the impetus for Babycakes.

“The life of a baker never appealed to me until I realized that there were no delicious, healthy, safe alternatives on the baked-good market,” said McKenna. Thankfully, she was not alone in this realization. Her shop has become a celebrity mecca, drawing stars such as Hilary Swank and Halle Berry to sample the sweets.

Though there are many items on the menu, from brownies to cinnamon buns, the cupcakes are the real star here. The cake is moist and the frosting is creamy, giving absolutely no hint that these cupcakes do not contain many of the not-so-healthy things—butter, refined sugar, eggs—that we associate with cupcakes’ deliciousness. “We have a lot of customers come in who have no idea that we are a gluten-free and vegan bakery and thoroughly enjoy what we have to offer. Sometimes, they even leave without figuring it out,” said McKenna.

If you are concerned about the environment, but have no qualms about a liberal use of butter and sugar, Birdbath perfectly balances environmental consciousness with taste. Created by Maury Rubin, Birdbath is a tiny space created entirely from sustainable materials. Rubin can often be found giving tours of the bakery to intrigued customers, showing off the walls made of wheat and the floors of reclaimed wood from Pennsylvania. Items like the “save the polar bears pastry claw” exemplify the special personality that has made Birdbath a success.

Needless to say, this place is hardcore. This is very much due to Rubin’s own passion for the environment. To build a space made solely of eco-friendly materials is no small feat. Nonetheless, Rubin insists that it was not all that difficult to create Birdbath. “I do not think that it actually takes harder construction, it just takes more ingenuity,” he said.

Rubin applies the same sentiment to finding ingredients, almost all of which are local and organic. The wheat, for example, is all grown east of the Mississippi and milled in Pennsylvania—unusual, as most flour is produced in the Midwest. Birdbath takes the eco-theme as far as it will stretch, giving a discount to customers who arrive on wheels, either by bike, skateboard, or even with a stroller.

With plans of expansion to include another dozen locations, Birdbath is a bakery on a mission. “If people don’t start to do things differently we’ll have problems, we’ll really have problems. So it’s about watching the world go by, watching the physical world fall apart, thinking that it is falling apart, and deciding that a small food business is perfect as a mechanism for trying to help,” said Rubin.

If Babycakes and Birdbath are the young trendsetters in the eco-baking world, Whole Earth Bakery is their wise and traditional grandfather. A crowd of regulars can be found sitting at the bakery’s countertop, reminiscing about the old days on the Lower East Side and praising the talents of the owner, Peter Silvestri. Whole Earth was founded by Silvestri and his mother after the pair sold their homemade cookies at a local flea market to rave reviews. Silvestri researched bakery locations in a newspaper, paid $1,500 for the space, and began business from there. Though Silvestri’s mother recently passed away at age 94, she worked with him at the bakery until that point, making her somewhat of a legend.

Up until about eight years ago, the bakery still made non-vegan products. The change was a gradual one, but now, as Silvestri proudly announces to all customers who peruse his cases, everything is completely vegan. As much a philosopher as he is a baker, Silvestri is happy to share his musings with anyone willing to listen.
“One must be careful of animal product these days, with what they’re doing to animals,” he said. “That’s my take on the amount of diseases that are present in our society. How people treat each other these days… can you imagine how they would treat something that can’t speak back?” Silvestri’s own vegetarianism—he confesses that he is not completely vegan—began first as a “selfish sort of emphasis… First I was macrobiotic, but the idea of it is like for my own body, my own health, my own self,” he said.

Now, Silvestri will often explain the need for society to stop eating meat as a much broader and existentialist idea, linking people to animals and thus to their environment. As much as Silvestri can talk, he has the baking chops to back it up and is constantly inventing new recipes and doling them out the next day to the supportive comments of customers. From vegan pizza to soy cheesecake to various cookies, Whole Earth is entirely committed to providing honest, hearty, and delicious vegan food, without the trendiness that one associates with the newer bakeries.

As the green trend continues and new eco-conscious restaurants and bakeries become more and more hip, we are left wondering if this trend toward environmental conciousness is here to stay. According to the owners of the bakeries, the answer is yes. Birdbath’s Rubin said that although greenness is currently “too trendy,” once the hype dies down, we will be left with “business practices and goods and services that are for real.”

Silvestri, whose own bakery is currently involved in rent issues and is not generating the same publicity as Babycakes and Birdbath are, is surprisingly quick to defend the current green trend as well. He points to McDonald’s and other seemingly anti-vegan institutions. He believes that the fact that even these chains and fast-food joints are offering vegan and vegetarian options is a sign of progress and not something to complain about.

Regardless of the lasting power of the country’s newfound environmental concern, as McKenna points out, more greenness equals more tasty and healthy options when it comes to sweets. So greenhouse gasses and energy crises aside, the increase in green bakeries may not only make for a cleaner planet, but a tastier one as well.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/?q=node/28328

The 100-mile diet is a noble idea — eat only foods produced within 100 miles of your home. But is it really practical for urban dwellers?

That was the question asked by writer Susan Cosier, a New Yorker who tried the 100-mile diet and wrote about it in last month’s E/The Environmental Magazine. She found that buying local often is easier said than done. Diet staples like coffee and tea aren’t grown locally. She learned her grocery store buys produce from a distributor that carries goods from all over the world — pineapples from the Philippines, avocados from California and garlic, surprisingly, from China.

There’s no scientific evidence that eating locally-farmed food is better for you. But it does give you the sense that you have more control over what you put into your body. Eating local often means you can meet the people who produce your food because they are selling it themselves at the local farmers’ market. You can ask questions about pesticide use and farming methods, and sometimes you may even be able to visit the farm or dairy where your food is grown or raised.

Most people who follow the 100-mile diet do so because they like fresh food and because they want to help the planet. Buying locally means less fuel burned to transport food, which means less pollution. Local farmers often are organic producers who employ earth-friendly farming methods or raise free-range animals. Recently, the concept of the 100-mile diet has gained attention after the release in April of the book “Plenty: One Man, One Woman and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally.” The book chronicles the efforts of authors James MacKinnon and Alisa Smith to eat foods produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver apartment.

“Although I was inspired by these conscientious consumers, just deciding what I would eat for breakfast made me nervous,’’ wrote Ms. Cosier. “I prepared menus and talked to people who had tried the diet themselves, but since my success depended on my locale, out-of-towners’ advice wasn’t very helpful.’’

Local vegetables were easy enough to find at a farmers’ market. But the nearby organic market where she shopped no longer carried local dairy products. Surprisingly, she found local milk and butter at Whole Foods, whose Web site says the chain is “permanently committed” to buying local foods that meet its standards. At Whole Foods, signs above the food state its origin, but Ms. Cosier notes that most grocery stores don’t make it easy to find out where their products come from.

Being 100 percent loyal to the 100-mile diet meant tough choices. While cooking her bounty of vegetables purchased at the farmers’ market, Ms. Cosier had to decide whether to add brown sugar and cooking sherry that weren’t local. “I debated…and decided to use them anyway,’’ she wrote. “What good is any diet without a little wiggle room?”

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/08/a-new-yorker-tries-the-100-mile-diet/

Paper or plastic? If that’s the only issue that crosses your mind at the grocery store, you have some catching up to do. As concerns about the environment have gone mainstream, consumers are finding more and more ways to turn a typical grocery trip into an eco-friendly experience.

Getting started on your Saturday run to the store doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Experts in green living say taking small steps is a great beginning.

“It’s not about going home today and trying to change everything or opening your cupboards and saying, ‘I’ve done it all wrong,’ ” says Sara Snow, host of “Get Fresh with Sara Snow” on the Discovery Home channel, which is relaunching as Planet Green early next year. “It’s all about trying one thing. Just try one thing this week, try another thing next week and baby-step your way to a more natural way of living.”

Here are eight ideas on how to make your weekend grocery run a little friendlier to the Earth.

Try a reusable bag. Opponents of plastic bags are piling up almost as rapidly as the nonbiodegradable totes themselves. A site called Reusablebags.com estimates the average family gathers 60 bags in four trips for groceries.

“People have seen the sheer accumulation of plastic sacks in our trees, in the garbage, everywhere. The sheer ugliness of that phenomenon is really encouraging people … to bring their own bags,” says Paul McRandle, deputy editor of the Green Guide, a publication and Web site from the National Geographic Society.

Reusable bags are a hot new item and fashion trend, but they’re not commonplace yet in metro Detroit. A simple way to start is with one bag, like Linda Consiglio, 56, of Plymouth, who keeps a Lands’ End tote given to her by her sister in her coat closet. “It’s one of those spur-of-the-moment things, like with an umbrella,” says Consiglio. “You always try to remember to bring it.” Also, keep in mind that paper and plastic bags are reusable, if you save them at home and actually go to the trouble of using them again.

Think reduced packaging. In today’s rushed world, grab-and-go snack packs are sometimes a necessity. But saving time now can fill a waste dump later. “Think about how much packaging went into all those little bags of chips instead of one big bag,” says Snow. “It’s terrible, and it goes beyond food.”

One way around the packaging problem is buying in bulk, advises McRandle, who adds it also is a way to save money. If bulk isn’t your thing, try to become more aware of packaging choices in general: Couldn’t you buy a regular-size bag of cookies and divvy them up into snack sizes at home?

Then again, won’t that create another problem with sandwich bags? Not if you view those bags differently. “They’re not necessarily bad if they’re reused,” says McRandle. “If you can get the kids to bring them home instead of throwing them away, there’s no reason not to, especially for cookies or something dry that can be shaken out.”

Consider alternatives to bottled water. Americans have a love affair with bottled water. They drank more than 8 billion gallons of bottled water last year and purchased more of it than any other beverage besides soda, according to Time magazine.

Know another drink that tastes good? Tap water. “Our water that we have in this region is a Top 10 for water quality in the United States, so we really should be drinking our water out of our faucets,” says Oakland County Sierra Club conservation organizer Melissa Damaschke.

Even if you need to keep bottled water around for emergencies, think about toting tap for everyday use. Fill up a reusable bottle and refrigerate it the night before or add ice to give it that cold snap of bottled water.

Buy local, buy organic. Buying local can mean a fun trip to the farmers market and the chance to eat fresh, delicious produce. Plus, it helps the local economy and addresses issues like the energy needed to haul food over vast distances, Snow says. The challenge is to make the most of whatever is in season.

Buying organic is just as crucial, Snow argues, because it means less exposure to pesticides. “There’s this whole thing now about local versus organic, which is more important, and in my opinion, they’re both important,” she says.

Snow, who grew up outside Ann Arbor and lives in Indianapolis, also suggests growing vegetables in your backyard. “If you have kids, it’s a great way to teach them a tomato doesn’t come from a can in a store,” she says.

Read labels. Louise Berg, 36, of Northville has two daughters, Charlotte, 2, and Fiona, 6. She has noticed that her older daughter seems sensitive to preservatives in food. “My main focus is the health of my children,” she says. “I try to buy them whole foods and things without preservatives.”

She’s part of the growing group of label readers who are out to avoid chemicals, additives and other ingredients they don’t recognize. Less processing leaves a lighter footprint on the environment, but it also means more actual cooking, which can be hard for time-pressed people.

Try buying enough vegetables, beans or meat to make one homemade dish a week, McRandle suggests. That way, you’ll have leftovers and avoid burnout from vowing to cook every meal from scratch.

Bike to the store. Pam Murray, 46, of Pleasant Ridge spent the summer riding to grocery stores and food markets in Ferndale and Royal Oak. Her son and daughter ride bikes, too, and her husband, an anesthesiologist at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, bikes to work. Not counting vacations, she got by on filling up the car about three times this summer.

Two people on a bike can carry home three or four bags of groceries using carriers and backpacks, according to Murray, who saves up a list for runs to Costco for items like paper goods.

The weather can be iffy in the fall, but on nice days, a bike ride to the store is an enjoyable — and health-conscious — way to give the car a rest. Murray, a former triathlete, considers it a creative way to squeeze in a workout.

Try gentler cleaning products. Choosing eco-friendly cleaners cuts down on your exposure to harsh chemicals, some of which can harm ecosystems. Green cleaning products are especially worth sampling for households with children or anyone with asthma or other breathing problems.

A green multipurpose product cuts down on the number of products you need to buy overall. Better yet, look into basic ingredients that double as cleaners, like vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, lemon juice and baking soda. They’re a cheap and old-fashioned method of tackling ordinary grime.

Talk to your grocer. Trendy chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have a selection that attracts some green shoppers, as do local markets that focus on produce. But major retailers like Meijer and Kroger are going greener, too, and paying attention to things like energy efficiency and organic foods.

Whichever stores you prefer, talk to the managers about what’s new in their policies and let them know which products and issues are important to you. The more active shoppers become, the more “it will help them feel more connected with the food they’re eating and the community they’re involved with,” McRandle says.

JULIE HINDS at hinds@freepress.com.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071006/FEATURES01/710060391

WHO would have thought turkey sex would provide such a highlight? The turkeys really come up with the goods.

If ever a tale needed a bit of a prod in its narrative structure, it’d be an account of one family’s year of eating locally and ethically.Worthy topic, but dullsville?

Not in the earth-lovin’ hands of Barbara Kingsolver.

Kingsolver’s family makes the effort to know exactly where their food comes from, avoiding the unnecessary consumption of “food miles” or the untenable cruelty of factory animal farming methods.

The bestselling writer and her family relocated from her beloved Tucson desert to become a “locavore” in southern Appalachia, and to write about it. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  is the story of their first year spent deliberately eating food grown near where they lived: if not by them, then sourced at nearby farmers’ markets.

Sailing a sea of zucchini and corniness, this journal has the potential to end up all wet.

However, Kingsolver at the helm avoids capsize. And not just because she’s invited the turkeys on board.

In the US (and this book is well rooted in the US; Australians will have to turn the calendar upside down to learn when to sow the vegies), 99 per cent of turkeys consumed are from a single breed, the Broad-Breasted White, a “quick-fattening monster bred specifically for the industrial-scale setting”, incapable of flying, foraging or mating.

Slow Food USA recently launched a campaign encouraging more people to order heritage turkeys for Thanksgiving; that is, trying to save rare breeds by eating them. Kingsolver’s family decided to try farming Bourbon Red turkeys. Their turkey breeding flock is now one of the few in the world that reproduces the old-fashioned way, rather than relying on a lot of sticky human intervention.

Global capitalistic farming practices can be pretty distasteful, not just from the point of view of a professional turkey sperm wrangler. Six companies control 98 per cent of the world’s seed sales. Seventy per cent of all midwestern US agricultural land has shifted gradually into single-crop corn or soybean farms. You can find factory farming facts many places, usually on dry websites, but Kingsolver’s gift is to wryly make them more compelling. US farmers produce 3900 calories per citizen per day – twice what’s needed, and 700 calories a day more than was grown in 1980.

“The food industry figured out how to get them into the bodies of people who didn’t really want to eat 700 more calories a day.

“That is the well-oiled machine we call Late Capitalism,” she writes.

Kingsolver also grasps a new environmental etiquette. Elsewhere, she has described her generation’s lack of action on climate change as a form of child abuse. In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, she writes of bizarrely inconsistent human manners. We are allowed to steal from future generations, as the conspicuous consumption of limited resources is not considered bad manners, let alone a spiritual error. We are allowed to decline foods presented to us socially on religious (or sometimes, health) grounds, but not because that food is the product of environmental destruction, energy waste, or the poisoning of workers.

This is not told in preachy tones; in fact, Kingsolver scores her points with self-effacing wit. As a guest at a winter’s meal in New York, she agonised over a raspberry dessert, fruit that must have travelled half the world to her plate, and chose grace over PC objections: Seven raspberries are not the end of the world.

This is where Kingsolver’s reader is meant to gaze into, and behind, their navel. When did we forget about seasonal produce? How much of that well-travelled unseasonal stuff is really necessary? Learning what grows near you and when is the wannabe locavore’s first lesson.

Kingsolver, an evolutionary biologist with a maternal eye on culture, writes with friendly humanity that nudges cheesy but never quite descends to plain hokey. While Animal, Vegetable, Miracle  avoids preaching, it does have smug moments, particularly when Kingsolver’s teenage daughter grabs the pen. Camille Kingsolver means well, but she writes like most 18-year-olds, which should have been reason enough for her mum to put aside the nepotism and leave her out. But this is a family’s tale, and we hear not only from precocious daughter but husband, too.

Steven L Hopp is a serious scientist who provides the industry ecofacts. (Luckily, a second daughter was “too young for a book contract”.) Now Steven seems like a good bloke, and his facts are interesting. But he writes like a geek.

A book-length farming story set in a valley in the Appalachians was never going to have the charm of Kingsolver’s fiction, stories like the rite-of-passage girlpower roadtrip The Bean Trees  or sequel Pigs in Heaven, best-selling Congo epic The Poisonwood Bible, or saucy eco-minded Prodigal Summer. Nor would it resemble her collections of essays, which in their brevity prove Kingsolver’s strength is restraint with her words.

But Kingsolver is a skilful storyteller.

And then there are the turkeys, scratching along and popping up every now and then, or shuffling off this mortal coil come harvest day, for this is no vego utopia.

Caroline Gardam

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,22529311-5003424,00.html

http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/news/weekend_extra/story.html?id=81016d91-65c4-4464-b40d-ac83f36ce09b

By Laura Robin

While acknowledging that travelers burn gas to get to their destinations, the editors of an online B&B directory are urging vacationers to choose green B&B’s to help offset the environmental costs of their carbon emissions. “Innkeepers are moving toward greener getaways by investing in earth-friendly practices,” says BedandBreakfast.com, which lists 35 “Earth-friendly” packages. Here’s a sampling:Ocean View B&B

Victoria, B.C.

“Leave the car behind and travel by ferry to Victoria, then use foot power to explore ocean front pubs and parks,” say the editors of BedandBreakfast.com. “Garbage restrictions mean recycling — non-packaged and locally grown goods are the norm here.”

Owner Yvette Craig buys her eggs from a local farm (the farmer drops them off on her way to work at a downtown bank), her bacon and sausage from a local butcher and she tries to use mostly organic coffee.

“My breakfast is a little buffet — fruit salad, granola, local yogurt, an egg dish and toast, or sometimes homemade pancakes with local blueberries or homemade scones.”

Craig says there’s less waste with a buffet “since folks eat what they want and I have very little leftovers.”

She runs her six-room B&B with just one large garbage can and blue boxes. “I try to purchase goods with the least amount of packaging.”

“We use as many non-chemical cleaners as possible, and I’m always adding new ones so that I’ll be chemical-free very soon,” says Craig. “My washing machine is a front loader which uses very little water therefore only one-eighth of a cup of soap. It has a very strong spinner and therefore it takes less time to dry the sheets and towels. We also use linen (rather than paper) napkins.”

Featured green scheme: “Fabulous savings come from the Incredible Shower Heads (that’s their official name),” says BedandBreakfast.com, which is based in Austin, Texas.”

Chez Sven B&B

Wellfleet, Massachusetts

“Committed to eco-tourism, this B&B provides a natural, chemical-free environment geared toward those with environmental sensitivities. Allergy-free suites feature 100-per-cent organic cotton bed linens and hypo-allergenic comforters and pillows for those allergic to down. Non-toxic green detergents are used in a front-loading, energy-efficient washer and whenever possible sheets are line-dried. HEPA filters in vacuums help to maintain air quality. The inn is totally smoke- and pet-free. Organic raspberries, tomatoes and potatoes, plus homemade organic yogurt, are guest favourites for breakfast.”

Featured green scheme: “During warmer weather, dry sheets and towels outside. Not only will you save energy, but they’ll smell and feel fabulous.”

Pilgrim’s Inn

Deer Isle, Maine

“Certified by the state of Maine as an environmental leader, this country inn and restaurant is sweet on recycling. They use biodegradable ‘to go’ containers made of sugar cane.

Used cooking oil is donated to those driving cars fueled by bio-diesel. Soaps and shampoos are no longer packaged but provided via dispensers in guest baths and showers. Natural kitchen waste is composted, and island-grown organic vegetables are served as often as possible. Low-flow showers and toilets help to conserve water.”

Featured green scheme:

“Swap traditional light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs, saving energy on both lighting and cooling. These new bulbs last eight to 10 times longer, use about 75 per cent less energy, and produce 90 per cent less heat while delivering more light per watt than incandescent bulbs.”

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070909/NEWS/709090334/1018/OPINION

By Pamela Marean

At a time when the global economy appears to have trumped local goods, it can be easier to find a specialty food from a foreign land than a tasty vegetable from a farm nearby.The people behind a new enterprise called How On Earth are investing in the idea of “food less-traveled” for SouthCoast in order to increase regional sustainability and reduce the fossil fuel it takes to bring goods to market.

Based on the vision

of promoting homegrown resources, How On Earth is supporting two farms, one in Rochester and one in Dartmouth, that are sprouting a variety of organic produce and supporting livestock. Food, however, is just a starting point for this enterprise.

“What’s more basic than food? People have become disconnected from their food,” investor Margie Baldwin said of her motivation, with her husband, Michael Baldwin, for launching How on Earth. The Baldwins founded the Marion Institute, which for 15 years has sought to “enhance life for the Earth and its inhabitants.”

Thanks to How on Earth, an array of greenhouses was built this year in Rochester at the farm Lucky Field Organics to expand on the New England growing season. Produce includes salad greens, squash, peppers, radishes, cucumbers, kale, bok choy, leeks, culinary herbs, roots, edible flowers, pea greens and all sorts of other “heirloom” vegetables.

Heirloom vegetables tend to be tastier, and more resistant to regional pests and diseases, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They come from seeds with lineages that trace back at least 50 years, before long-distance distribution inspired industrial agriculturalists to engineer produce that could withstand the rigors of traveling to supermarkets.

At the How on Earth-supported farm in Dartmouth, it is primarily an animal kingdom. “Pigs are grubbing about, cows are chewing, sheep are pooping, chickens are laying eggs,” Mrs. Baldwin said.

She also described a nursery venture starting up there in “edible landscaping” — native species of nuts, berries, herbs and fruit trees that How on Earth will offer for sale in the future. Co-investor Leslie Barclay keeps a close eye on progress by living on the property.

The produce, meat, eggs and dairy products from How on Earth are available through a storefront location on Route 6 in Mattapoisett across from Turk’s Seafood. That is where people who decide to buy shares of the bounty pick up their weekly allotment. It also is where anyone can stop in to find tasty heirloom tomatoes, vegetables in season, artisan cheese, free-range eggs, grass-fed free-range beef, or goat’s milk.

How on Earth shareholders receive fresh produce weekly from June through October. Although this year has been sold out, new contracts will be offered for the 2008 season toward the end of winter. A small share, which contains enough vegetables to satisfy two people, costs $350. A large share, which feeds four adults, costs $550.

Unlike most community-sponsored agriculture systems in which bags are pre-filled with the farmer’s choice, How on Earth shareholders have almost complete freedom to pick and choose what they want to take home.

This is more than a glorified roadside farmstand, however. “We’re not going to make it on lettuce leaves alone,” Mrs. Baldwin said.

How on Earth offers local jams and dessert sauces, chutney, pesto and salsa. There are daily deliveries of pastries, pies and cakes from two bakeries, Flour Girls in Marion and The Artisan Kitchen in Rochester. Soon to come are casseroles, homemade soups and other foods prepared by graduates from the Culinary Institute of America who have signed on to cook for How on Earth.

Meredith Ciaburri of The Artisan Kitchen said that its breads, muffins, scones and brownies use the herbs and fruits from local farms. Jill Houck of Flour Girls said they bake organically whenever possible for their cookies, cakes and pies.

For How on Earth visitors who want to have a bite and drink in the eco-friendly atmosphere, there are cafe tables. Beverages include Fair-Trade coffee, tea and filtered water (not sold in plastic containers).Unique gifts from New England artists are on display, including pressed-seaweed stationery and painted tablecloths. Cookbooks and magazines encourage people to try new recipes and understand the philosophies behind buying locally and eating seasonally.

Further beyond the usual fruit and vegetable fare, How on Earth is carrying an array of environmentally friendly cleaning products made by Rochester-based company Olde Maids Inc.

A pivotal member of the How on Earth working team is UMass Amherst graduate Ben Hunsdorfer, who recently earned a degree in agro-ecology. He knows about practices that once were common sense for pre-industrial farmers — integrated pest control, no pesticides, no chemical fertilizers and crop rotation to keep soil fertile.

“We can’t have a healthy society without a healthy environment, food security, self-sustainability,” he said.

Mr. Hunsdorfer splits his time between working in the store and working the farms. He is glad to talk to visitors about How on Earth, its philosophies and the challenges of running the farms.

Instead of using his degree as a highly paid consultant, Mr. Hunsdorfer chose to be hands-on, with farm dirt under his fingernails because “I can really make a difference and would rather do that then be an armchair revolutionary,” he said.

More than making fresh foods convenient to SouthCoast residents, How on Earth aims to do its part in reducing the dependence on oil that is inherent in buying goods that are transported around the globe.

Store manager Yvonne Sabourin, whose background is in medical herbalism, said she there are health benefits in a locally-grown diet.

“Food is our medicine. It’s very true that we are what we eat. In the 1970s it was ‘Better living through chemistry.’ For many years we’ve been exposed to a lot of chemicals without realizing it. It’s important to eat as clean as possible.”

Weston Lant, who runs Lucky Field Organics with his wife, Eileen, took the plunge to lease much more land than he was accustomed to farming when he was inspired by the discussions with Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin and Mrs. Barclay that led to How On Earth.

The Lants previously farmed a few acres part time in Mattapoisett after Mr. Lant retired from 25 years as a special effects expert in the motion picture industry.

“I’m acutely aware of the absurdity of an oil-driven economy, and I wanted to see local food production for local people,” Mr. Lant said.

How on Earth is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, and until 5 p.m. Wednesdays, Thusdays and Saturdays. For more information, call (508) 758-1341.

By: Sharon McMillan

Do you know how far the apple in your kitchen traveled before you picked it up at the grocery store? According to the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture, apples in American grocery stores typically travel 1,726 miles before reaching your kitchen!

Just think about the fuel needed to transport produce like this across the country or across borders. Also think about the pollution generated by the vehicles carrying this produce. An apple a day may keep the doctor away but the fumes accompanying it will definitely hurt us!

The impact on the environment is one issue, but we also have to worry about preservatives that are used to keep this apple nice and crispy during its very long journey to your grocery store. To keep produce fresh during the long haul across continents and oceans, produce companies have to use chemical preservatives. It is well documented that preservatives are hazardous to human health.

So what can we do? Well, you can try your best to buy local produce whenever possible. Even though America has lost more than 5 million farms (USDA figures) since 1935, there are still many farmers who have generated markets for themselves in the cut throat world of global competition.

Since produce from your local farms are traveling very short distances there is less pollution created in their transport. There is also less packaging and processing involved which also helps to lessen the amount of garbage we put into the environment and ourselves!

There is hope. Many small farms surrounding suburban communities or urban city centers have weekly or daily farmers’ markets. These markets connect regional small farmers with suburban and urban dwellers. Check to see if there is a market like this in your community. Often times the cooperative sponsoring the market can’t afford to spend a lot on advertising so you’ve got to search out their location. Try your local business improvement association or municipal office to see if they might be able to help.

It really is enjoyable to mix up your food shopping routine by purchasing your fresh produce and meats at your local farmers’ market. In many cases you can negotiate prices (which is fun). I also find your fellow shoppers are generally in a happier frame of mind when they’re perusing farmer’s booths than when they’re steering a shopping cart through crowded aisles at the grocery store.

If you’re like me and treasure the rural areas surrounding your urban region, then you also likely feel the sense of sadness each time a farm is sold for yet another residential or commercial development. Here’s your chance to do your bit to save the “family farm” (and help curb urban sprawl).

Find out the location of your nearest farmers’ market, note the dates that they are open and plan to be there bright and early to get the freshest, tastiest food choices of the day! Your family will thank you, you’ll be supporting your local economy and helping to save the environment.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-shop_green_22aug22,1,7489648.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

By Monica Kass Rogers | Special to the Tribune

August 22, 2007

It’s not easy shopping green. Searching for food products that are good for the body and good for the earth takes effort, especially in mainstream markets. Yes, organics are now easier to find and do help the cause. And yes, choosing locally grown products cuts food miles.

But experts now say figuring out which products are most eco-friendly requires a new sort of yardstick — one that measures more than growing practices and food miles.

“You have to measure the entire life-cycle of a product, to determine how environmentally friendly it is, to come up with its ecological footprint,” said Dan Heiges, director of research and development, standards and quality assurance for Boulder, Colo.,-based Wild Oats. That means, he said, figuring out how much energy is used to take a product from growth to harvest to processing to packaging to shipping, with recyclability factored in. It’s not something the average shopper could calculate. But it is information experts are starting to gather, first for industrial/institutional use, then for public knowledge.

New way to measure

“These measurements are starting to drive commodities purchase decisions across many industries, and institutions, not just the food industry” said Julie Newman, director of Yale University’s Office of Sustainability in New Haven, Conn. “We’re all trying to figure this out.”

“This is a new frontier for us,” agreed Joe Dickson, quality standards coordinator for Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market. Dickson is scrutinizing product life-cycle measures, as well as testing alternative materials for packaging — such as takeout boxes made with sugar-cane pulp.

National grocery store leader Wal-Mart is on track to reduce its food packaging 25 percent by year-end 2008 as part of the comprehensive sustainability plan it launched in February.

At Wild Oats, Heiges is using life-cycle measurements of the chain’s private-label products to create a “Vendors’ Guide to Sustainable Packaging,” which will be completed and applied this year. Once that’s done, Wild Oats also will let shoppers know which foods and food packages are best from a sustainability viewpoint.

Measurements can be surprising, said Heiges. General wisdom suggests that organic, minimally packaged, locally grown products are best. But depending on practices used, he explained, a product shipped from Idaho could have a smaller carbon footprint than a product shipped from northern Illinois.

“It’s extremely complicated, because there are so very many variables,” said Heiges. His simplest example is the comparison of liquids packaged in PET (polyethylene terephthalate plastic) vs. liquids packaged in glass. While both glass and PET are recyclable, “it takes more energy to [transport] glass than PET, because of the weight,” Heiges said.

The move toward better measures of sustainability in grocery stores is laudable, said James E. McWilliams, author of “A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America.” “In my perfect world, mainstream grocery stores would have ’sustainable sections’ where shoppers could go pick up a product and view something like a life-cycle measurement right on the package,” McWilliams said.

Smart shopping choices

In the meantime, said Tom Kelly, chief sustainability officer at the University of New Hampshire, “there is more than enough room for common sense in making food choices that not only have a small carbon footprint but also sustain local communities.”

To do this, shoppers can make purchasing decisions based on a “sustainability tier,” said Dennis Fiser, program assistant at Sustain, an environmental communications firm in Oak Park.

First, he said, head to the produce section for items that are organic, locally grown and not bundled in plastic. Do the same, where possible, in meat, dairy and other perishable goods sections. When shopping for proteins, look for labels that indicate that sustainable practices were used in raising and feeding the animals.

When shopping in the packaged-food aisles, choose biodegradable packages (paperboard not coated with glossy finishes, barriers or coatings) or recyclable packages (glass, PET, aluminum) when you can, Fiser suggested.

Single-ingredient items are more eco-friendly than packages containing many ingredients, he added.

“Multiple ingredients means multiple sourcing and a whole lot of energy goes into getting it all there, and into processing it into one packaged item,” Fiser said. That’s why he puts prepared meals from the packaged foods aisles or frozen foods section, far down the sustainability tier.