Millions of sophisticated coffee drinkers relish a good cup of coffee. But for every $3 cup of coffee, a coffee farmer typically receives only 3 cents. Most of the money goes to the four giant conglomerates which control the coffee market.

Black Gold follows Tadesse Meskela, General Manager of the Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union in Ethiopia as he tries to secure a living wage for the 70,000 coffee farmers he represents. Tracing the tangled trail from the 2 billion cups of coffee consumed each day back to the coffee farmers who produce the beans, Black Gold exposes how international commodities markets are rigged against the nations of the global South.

After seeing Black Gold, coffee will never taste the same. A sip of cappuccino will remind viewers of the farmers who grew the beans and of their own power to pressure corporations where it hurts most—the bottom line.

Watch the trailer here.

Opening dates/locations:

Oct. 6, 2006
*New York NY - Cinema Village
(with brief discussion and Q & A with Scott Codey of the NYC Fair Trade Coalition and Rodney North of Equal Exchange)
Seattle, WA - Landmark Metro
Bellevue, WA - Lincoln Square

Oct. 13, 2006
Chicago, IL - Gene Siskel Film Center

Oct. 27, 2006
Boston, MA - Coolidge Corner

Nov. 10, 2006
San Francisco, CA - Roxie

Nov. 12, 2006
Savannah, GA - Reel Savannah

Dec. 8, 2006
Washington, D.C. - Landmark E. St.

To learn more and take action, visit www.oxfamamerica.org/blackgold.

Another update to my rundown of sustainable gardening tools, this time with SolarOasis’s energy-efficient LED-based grow lights. (As always, for your convenience, you’ll find the post under Sustainability 101 on the right-hand bar.)

Photo from Plastica

I may be becoming a tad obsessed with lunch boxes/lunch sacks/bento boxes (see Exhibit A and Exhibit B). Still, I think this Asian-inspired stacking melamine bento box from Plastica is far cuter than the much-raved-about Laptop Lunch system, with its bulky and underwhelming laptop-bag design. I wish I could tell you where either lunch kit was made, though. ($36, Plastica)

Related posts:
1. Lunch Lessons: Changing the Way We Feed Our Children
2. Invisible Danger? Parents Look Inside the Lunchbox

Photo by Frederic Larson/San Francisco Chronicle

Go, California (ye land of my husband’s birth)!

From the San Francisco Chronicle: “A global warming moment; Governor signs measure capping greenhouse gas emissions that could lead to big changes in industries and life in cities.”

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Wednesday setting California on course to reduce the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, a major political victory for the governor and a step that environmental and political leaders predict will have worldwide ramifications.

In a ceremony on San Francisco’s Treasure Island with the city’s skyline as a backdrop, Schwarzenegger declared the beginning of “a bold new era of environmental protection in California that will change the course of history” as he approved AB 32, which calls for the state to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases by 25 percent by 2020.

The new law, the first of its kind in the nation, could lead to a dizzying array of changes in industry and elsewhere that will be seen in cities, on farms and on freeways.

Now, what about ditching those Hummers of yours, Governator?

Photo by Bob Thomas/Getty Images

From Reuters: “New York trans fat ban: Life-saver or Orwellian?”

A proposal to ban most artery-clogging trans fats from New York’s restaurants could save thousands of lives at little cost to restaurateurs, supporters of the initiative said on Wednesday.

But a leading industry group called for dialogue with city authorities to modify their “Orwellian regulation,” which comes as many fast-food restaurants are already trying to reduce trans fats in response to shifting consumer demand.

The New York City Board of Health on Tuesday proposed a near total ban on artificial trans fats—those that are made synthetically when food processors harden fat to make it more like butter in a process called hydrogenization. Such oils gives french fries their crunch. They also contribute to heart disease by raising the body’s “bad cholesterol” and reducing the “good” cholesterol.

The initiative faces what promises to be a contentious public hearing on October 30 and approval or denial before the end of the year, potentially affecting everything from the finest restaurants to doughnut carts pushed by recent immigrants. …

The proposal would give restaurants six months to switch to oils, margarines and shortening that have less than 0.5 gram of trans fat per serving. After 18 months, all other food would also need to contain less than 0.5 gram of fat per serving.

“This is a very appropriate for a city health department that is responsible for food safety in restaurants. Clearly trans fats are causing large numbers of premature deaths and disability,” said Walter Willett, a leading U.S. nutritionist at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“Restaurants are really the primary source of trans fats for most people, so we’ve calculated that this could really prevent thousands of deaths per year, just in the New York area,” he said.

(Emphases are mine.)

Dear Chekhov,

Take care!
Robyn

Click here for more »

My usually dour mien actually cracked a smile when I read that VegNews was switching over to New Leaf Paper’s 100 percent post-consumer paper, starting with the very issue (July/August 2006) I held in my hot l’ll tree- and cow-hugging hands. And it looked amazing, too. Go VegNews! Because people who care enough not to eat animals should also care about where and how they live. (71 percent of our paper is produced from timber harvested from ecologically valuable and biologically diverse forest habitats.)

How’dja like them organic apples NOW, Vanity Fair?

Photo by Carin Krasner/Getty Images

The number of ingredients in a crinkly bag of commercial potato chips is staggering. Take Lay’s Original Baked Chips, for instance: It contains dehydrated potatoes, modified food starch, sugar, corn oil, salt, soy lecithin, leavening (monosodium phosphate and sodium bicarbonate), and dextrose. (Don’t ask me why they had to use two forms of sugar.)

So last night, the hub and I made our own oven-baked (not fried!) potato chips using a recipe I found online. Just grab a bag of organic taters from your local farmer, slice each potato into thin chips, then bake them on a pan with some salt and butter for 15 to 20 minutes at 500°F, or until golden brown. Some of our chips came out a little burned because of our uneven slicing—the Food Network won’t be coming a-calling anytime soon—but most of them tasted just like they came straight out of a bag from the snacks aisle—no preservatives, no packaging, no excessive greasiness, and seriously delicious. Did we mention CHEAP, too? The hub started bellyaching when I began (loudly) craving potato chips at 10pm, but once we were through with a stack of some homemade golden goodness, he immediately asked if we could make some more tonight. (Remember kids, junk food, whether organic or not, is still junk food, so go easy on it. Your mom just called me to tell you that. You should listen to her more often.)

If you’ve been following our eco tips thus far, you’ve probably honed reducing your contributions to the waste stream to an art form. So we can’t imagine you’d have very much trash at the end of the day, after you’ve separated your recyclables and the organic material you’ll be tossing on top of the ol’ compost heap. Still, most of us are doomed with the detritus of everyday living, and so, if you work in a cubicle with your own regulation trash can, consider tossing your litter in the communal trash can in the office break room, instead. You’ll save your cleaning attendant the trouble of changing out another plastic liner—plus, those petroleum-derived, nonbiodegradable bags can really add up.

Former prez Bill Clinton being interviewed by thumbsucking nancy-boy Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” re: Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida.

My very rockin’ sister-in-law sent me a link to these biodegradable doggy-poo bags made from non-genetically-modified corn. She was looking into composting and mentioned that she might try to compost her puppies’ No. 2s.

I recalled a San Francisco Chronicle story I read about the pet-waste problem, pulling it up again from the bowels of the electronic ether:

American dogs and cats produce 10 million tons of waste a year, and no one knows where it’s going,” said Will Brinton, a scientist in Mount Vernon, Maine, and one of the world’s leading authorities on waste reduction and composting. “That’s really beginning to be looked at as a nightmare.”

Dog and cat waste usually ends up in a landfill, where it’s mummified for generations in plastic bags. If it’s not tossed out, it’s left where it falls and dissolves into the ground, where it flows untreated into the water table or the bay.

It was the article’s next line that really caught my attention this time: “Or it’s scooped up with yard waste and tossed into the compost bin—which is a no-no, because animal waste is full of pathogens.”

The story continues:

There is some debate among pet owners and environmental groups about tossing pet waste into backyard compost bins. Most scientists warn against it because the compost does not heat up enough to kill the pathogens such as E. coli—which could then be transmitted to people if the compost is used in a vegetable garden.

Other Web sites I looked up echoed that sentiment. What’s an eco-conscious dog lover to do?

If you have room in your backyard, one site suggests, you can bury an old garbage can in the ground—away from your vegetable garden, I’d imagine—for dumping Fido’s prodigious output, allowing the waste to biodegrade and “flow into the subsoil,” and eschewing using it in your garden, i.e., giving the poop a one-way ticket.

From PlanTea.com:

1. Take and old garbage can and drill a dozen or so holes in the side.
2. Cut out the bottom (A keyhole saw works great for this.)
3. Dig a hole in the ground, deep enough for the garbage can.
4. Toss some rocks or gravel in the hole for drainage and position the garbage can so it’s a little higher than the soil level.
5. Place the lid on top (you might want to paint it with something like Dog Waste Composter.)
6. When you scoop some poop, put it in the hole and sprinkle in some septic starter (available at hardware stores) and add some water.

According to the www.cityfarmer.org web site, “Within 48 hours, the septic tank starter, (which is non-caustic and promotes natural bacterial growth) will have begun its work and you can add more dog doo. You can then begin to add it daily. This waste biodegrades and flows into the subsoil.”

Another option: flushable doggy bags (yes, really!) Made of polyvinyl alcohol film, the bags dissolve in water, leaving polyvinyl and glycerol byproducts, along with the bag contents, to biodegrade in about 30 days.

Note: Pregnant women should not handle cat or dog doo because of the parasites, bacteria, and viruses they could potentially carry, including Campylobacterosis, a bacteria that causes gastrointestinal illness in us opposable-thumb folk. You can expect I’ll milk that little nugget of info for all it’s worth if I ever hold within me the Miracle of Life.

Related article:
1. Much Ado About Poo

Photo by David Woodfall/Getty Images

This sewage sludge sitch is worse than I thought, which is just another reason to eat organic. For now at least, organic standards prohibit the use of sewage-sludge-based fertilizers for crops. (In 2000, facing a huge public backlash, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) abandoned plans to allow the use of sewage sludge in organic agriculture.)

Selling sewage sludge to farmers has been touted since the early ’90s as a favorable way of disposing of the unwanted byproducts from municipal wastewater-treatment plants, which collect waste from myriad sources, including homes, businesses, chemical industries, and hospitals. After physical, chemical, and biological contaminants are removed from the wastewater, all the disposed-of material—much of which is toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative—concentrates into a thick, poisonous goop.

The sludge is heat-dried to form pellets, which are then hawked as commercial-use fertilizer by companies such as Synagro. In the mid-’90s, the waste-management industry lobbied to redub sewage sludge with the slicker moniker “biosolids,” citing the negative connotations the original term held in the hearts and minds of the public, regardless of how many times the sludge was treated and reprocessed. (Can you blame ‘em? Imagine the Gardener of Tomorrow: “Well Neighbor Bob, I’m feeding my prize genetically augmented spinach a healthy side of Class A biosolids, thanks to those hardworking scientists who are opening the doors to a better age! Wanna take a ride on my monorail?”)

From The Center for Food Safety:

The sludge being spread on our crop fields is a dangerous stew of heavy metals, industrial compounds, viruses, bacteria, drug residues, and radioactive material. In fact, hundreds of people have fallen ill after being exposed to sewage sludge fertilizer—suffering such symptoms as respiratory distress, headaches, nausea, rashes, reproductive complications, cysts, and tumors.

A common but controversial flame retardant, penta bromo diphenyl ether (pentaBDE), along with the industrial carcinogen polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), asbestos, synthetic hormones, and some 60,000 toxic chemicals have also been identified in sewage sludge spread over agricultural land. Infectious pathogens such as Salmonella and increasingly drug-resistant strains of E. coli have also been detected.

In 2003, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists David Gattie and David Lewis¹ questioned the efficacy of methods used to treat sewage sludge and determine their pathogen levels, and that chemical-pathogen interactions on land application sites could exacerbate infections and illnesses—even death. (At least 3 human deaths have been attributed to exposure to land-applied sewage sludge.) In June 2003, a Georgia Superior Court ruled that the deaths of 300 dairy cows on the Boyceland Dairy farm were caused by feeding on hay that had been grown on land where Class B sludge had been applied according to EPA directions.

According to the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, approximately 60 percent of an estimated 5.6 million tons of dry sludge is used for land application. To give you an idea of how deficient existing sewage-sludge regulations are (which is to say, very): An industrial business is permitted to discharge up to 15 kilograms (or 33 pounds) of hazardous waste into sewers without reporting it each month.

Many major players in the agriculture and food industry have taken a stand against produce grown on land treated with sewage sludge, including Heinz, Dole, Del Monte, and Nestlé. J. M. Dryer, General Manager of Heinz’s Food & Technology Systems, wrote: “[The] risk of utilizing municipal sludge, which is known to be high in heavy metals, such as cadmium and lead, is not a health risk which we need to take. This is not a publicity statement since it is rigorously enforced and we have at times dropped suppliers who have used sludge on their crop land.”

And you know when a company like Nestlé goes all ethical on us like this, it’s like the Joker saying that Ra’s Al Ghul is just too evil for him.

For further details, check out the National Sludge Alliance’s extensive material on the subject.

¹ Lewis was later fired from the EPA, allegedly after continuing to criticize the agency in the journal Nature.

Illo by TransFair USA

Find out six ways you can promote fair trade here.

Photo by Suzanne Mejean/Getty Images

In a word: YECCCHH.

If you’re one of thousands of homeowners who apply sewage sludge to your lawns and gardens, you may also be adding drugs, flame retardants, and other chemicals to your well-manicured landscape. A recent study found dozens of medicinal, industrial, and household compounds—also known as biosolids—in the treated sewage sludge that government agencies try to palm off to the unsuspecting as “lawn-and-garden enhancements.”

From AP: “Drugs, chemicals in sewage sludge.”

“No matter what biosolid we looked at, there were some of these compounds in it,” said [Chad] Kinney, [an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Eastern Washington University] whose research on the subject was published in online editions of the journal Environmental Science & Technology.

Although government regulators and health officials said there is no immediate risk to public health, the study’s authors called for more research on the long-term impact on the environment. “We’ve been using biosolids for over 30 years safety,” said Peggy Leonard, biosolids program manager for King County’s waste treatment division, which produces GroCo. “As far as I know, there is no risk.”

Thomas Burke, a professor of public health policy at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said Kinney’s research and other studies should be a wake up call for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “I don’t think people understood before this that they might be applying pharmaceuticals and disinfectants to their front lawns,” Burke said. …

Soil scientists at Cornell University’s Waste Management Institute have been asking for more regulatory scrutiny of biosolids. “I certainly would not use this material on my garden” said Ellen Harrison, director of the Waste Management Institute.

Burke of Johns Hopkins called the EPA regulations out of date, adding that some of the chemicals identified in the study have been shown to disrupt fish reproduction. “These are things that have biological implications and we have to understand them better,” Burke said.

Related stories
1. Lawn & Order
2. Chemical Wastelands

Photo by Fair Indigo

Four former Land’s End execs have launched Fair Indigo, a fair-trade apparel company with the marketing tagline “style with a conscience.” According to the company, it sources from worker-owned cooperatives and family-owned factories, which “share [its] values,” in countries such as China, Peru, Brazil, Indonesia, and Nepal; the company declines to reveal the names of the factories, however. (The mega names in apparel, such as Levi Strauss, Gap, and Nike, made the identities of their suppliers public, after facing flak from human-rights groups such as the National Labor Committee.) As far as I can tell, its only U.S.-made merchandise is its rather delectable-sounding Queen B bath products, which are handmade by women in New Orleans, many of whom are single mothers.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin, Fair Indigo also claims it uses a third-party independent auditor who conducts “scheduled and surprise visits,” reviewing payroll records, interviewing employees, and examining health and safety conditions. Also, Fair Indigo says it is working with TransFair USA , which is the only fair-trade certifier in the U.S.

Although Fair Indigo says it is currently developing a line of organic and eco-friendly apparel, its main focus is on the wages of the workers; it is also working to incorporate fair-trade cotton (dropping the caveat that it is only certified in Europe).

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Firm hangs hat on fair trade.”

The catalog has 800 styles for men and women, including apparel, shoes, handbags and jewelry, plus fair trade coffee¹, tea and beauty products. Prices range from $13 for a pack of socks to $425 for a leather handbag, but most of the apparel is priced in a similar range as Lands’ End.

The catalog itself has echoes of Lands’ End, with substantial product description and extensive narrative and photo coverage of the factories and workers who make the clothing. Styles are aimed at people between ages 30 and 55, and what they might wear to work, Bass said.

The founders spent 18 months preparing for the launch, which started with an idea from Behnke for a fair trade store in Madison. Behnke thought it would be a winner, based on the growing sales of fair trade coffee.

“Don and I said, ‘This is a much better idea than just a store in Madison,’ ” Bass said, noting the interest in buying fair trade items among socially conscious consumers.

One of the biggest challenges in making a fair trade claim for apparel, however, is the fact that unlike coffee and some other food products, there is no certification standard for clothing.² The Web site for the certification agency for food fair trade products is www.transfairusa .org.

The standard that large manufacturers and retailers use to avoid charges of sweatshop labor is to ensure that factories where their clothes are made obey local minimum wage and other labor laws, and do not use child labor. But the problem with minimum wage laws in Third World countries is that minimums are very low, said Charles Kernaghan, head of the National Labor Committee, the anti-sweatshop group that initiated protests against Kohl’s department stores in the late 1990s and against Kathie Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart before that.

(Emphasis is mine.)

¹Its supplier is Just Coffee in Madison, Wisconsin.

² Although stores that sell fair-trade apparel may be members of the Fair Trade Federation or registered as a fair-trade organization.

Graphic by the Center for Science in the Public Interest

When you order a venti Starbucks Caffè Mocha, you might as well be sipping a 500-calorie McDonald’s Quarter Pounder with Cheese through a straw, says the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). A venti Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino, will hit you up with 650 calories and nearly a day’s saturated fat. That’s not a coffee break—that’s an entire meal frothed and whipped into submission and poured into a paper cup.

Java junkies will want to pore over the watchdog org’s roadmap to Latte Land (PDF), which shows you where the hidden calories and fat lurk in the offerings of several coffee chains, both large and small.

Some tips from CSPI:

• Go nonfat. A nonfat or soy cappuccino or latte is always a calorie bargain. Ordering a grande (16 oz.) nonfat cappuccino or latte with nonfat milk instead of whole saves all the saturated fat plus 50 to 100 calories.
• Skip the whip. At Starbucks for example, whipped cream adds some 120 calories and 7 grams of saturated fat that you could do without.
• Slash the sugar. Order sweetened drinks with sugar-free syrup or get them unsweetened and add your own sugar (about 10 calories per pack) or Splenda (0 calories).
• Look for “light.” At Starbucks, grande Frappuccino Lights slash the calories to 150 to 250 by replacing half the sugar with Splenda and dropping the whipped cream. A medium (14 oz.) Dunkin’ Donuts Latte Lite keeps the calories at 100.

[via Green LA Girl]

Related articles:
1. Fast Food Planet
2. Black Gold and Inconvenient Truths

From my CSA farmer: Parsley, 1 heirloom tomato, 4 baby eggplant, 1 pound green beans, garlic

From my organic market: 1 onion (origin unknown—bad witch, no biscuit)

(To roast—and caramelize—vegetables, place all of them, except for the parsley, in a lightly oiled roasting pan, sprinkle salt, pepper, and drizzle with some olive oil. Place in a preheated oven set to 375 and cook for 1 hr.)

From a free-roaming chicken farm in Freehold, N.J.: 3 eggs

Non-local ingredients: olive oil (although it’s from California, rather than Italy), salt, pepper

Dessert: farmers’ market yellow peaches, organic raisins, organic plain whole-milk yogurt, Smucker’s caramel sauce (from before I starting caring about what I ate)

Chekhov grudgingly consented to a couple of action shots. Previously, I had grown the wheatgrass in his single-serve cat-food tins, but the setup proved too light. You might have better luck with the large cans, if you’re a multiple-cat household.

I ended up not going to the apple festival—it turns out the farm is three-quarters of the way to Coney Island and I’d have had to transfer to a bus on top of a very long train ride. On top of having a limited supply of spoons, I have a tendency to get lost because I’m directionally challenged, which is why I married an Eagle Scout. I hope we’ll be able to hit up at least one apple festival when he gets back. Do you know how long this city girl has nursed the fantasy of gathering fallen apples in a red-and-white gingham apron, rolling out the dough for a pie, and then watching as little woodland birds descend upon the crust, hopping along the circumference to make little V-shape indentations? Don’t tell me this actually won’t happen because I will be forced to hurt you for ripping my still-beating heart from my chest and smashing it to the ground.

Gaiam introduces its line of activewear made from pesticide-free soysilk. ($30-$55, Gaiam)

Instead of moping around for want of a husband—he’s been away for three weeks and counting—I went to the farmers’ market in Union Square to partake of some of fall’s bounty. From left: organic banana bread, homemade apple butter (I blame Amy), and organic spelt flour. Not shown: six luscious yellow peaches for my lonesome belly.

Here’s Chekhov’s takeout—really homegrown organic wheatgrass, but I get a kick every time he nibbles from it.

Today is the Eighth Annual Knit-Out & Crotchet, Too! Last year, I rocked out my Lorna’s Laces socks on the Union Square tarmac and spotted The Chin chain-smoking with abandon. Mothers, don’t let your daughters grow up to be short, egomaniacal, “champion” crocheters who filk about yarn.

In the news today:
1. California takes on global warming.

2. “Yes Virginia, there is a way for students to live green.”

3. 58 percent of consumers surveyed said they were “not green interested” and did not care about environmentally friendly practices, including recycling, corporate social responsibility, or natural and/or organic ingredients.

4. 40 percent of the U.S. is facing moderate-to-extreme drought, says NOAA.

5. Bottled water vs. tap water: “Paying hundreds of times more for something you’re already paying for is probably the silliest of all spending habits.” I think the word they’re looking for is “sucker”.

6. On PBS this October: Building Green features green building techniques and materials.

7. For some brevity, Lambert the Sheepish Lion! [via Hugg.com]

Photo by MEG/Acollection/Getty Images

From the American Chemical Society: “Pesticide exposure could increase risk of early onset of Parkinson’s Disease.”

Low-level exposure to a banned but lingering pesticide appears to accelerate changes in the brain that can potentially lead to the onset of Parkinson’s disease symptoms years or even decades before they might naturally develop. This finding, by researchers at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, was presented today at the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. …

“Our current study clearly shows that pesticides such as dieldrin appear to accelerate or exacerbate the already underlying disease,” said Gary Miller, Ph.D., an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at Emory University. “Pesticides aren’t necessarily the causative agents, but they do promote Parkinson’s. So it appears the more you are exposed to pesticides, the greater your risk of developing the disease earlier in life.”

In their pilot study, Miller and his co-researchers—Emory graduate student Jaime Hatcher and Georgia Tech Professor Kurt Pennell, Ph.D.—found that levels of dieldrin, an organochlorine pesticide developed in the 1940s as an alternative to DDT, were three times higher in the brains of 14 people who had Parkinson’s disease than in the brains of 12 people who didn’t.

Based on this finding, the researchers estimated the lifetime exposure levels of these people and extrapolated these levels to mice. They then exposed laboratory mice to low, but “environmentally relevant” dosages of dieldrin—about 1 to 3 milligrams per kilogram. After one month, although none of the mice showed symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, the researchers did detect increased levels of oxidative stress in the brain and significantly reduced uptake of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that plays a key role in the development of Parkinson’s.

This latest work adds more evidence establishing a link between pesticides and Parkinson’s. Earlier this year, a Harvard School of Public Health study of more than 140,000 adults found that those exposed to long-term, low levels of pesticides had a 70 percent higher incidence of Parkinson’s disease. Another recent study, by the same Emory/Georgia Tech team, found that fetal rodents exposed to dieldrin had brain alterations that made them more susceptible to Parkinson’s-inducing toxins.

“All of the evidence that has been accumulating suggests that exposure to pesticides increases the risk of Parkinson’s disease,” Miller said. “We believe that a person who is destined to get Parkinson’s because of genetics or other factors at age 80 might develop symptoms when they’re 65 or 70 if they have been exposed to pesticides.”

(Emphases are mine.)

Related articles:
1. Under the Nile Headed for Target
2. Grass! On! The! Loose! (Chekhov’s Eco Tip)
3. Lawn & Order
4. Vinegar: Disinfectant of Champions
5. Eco-Me Home: Green Cleaning Solutions
6. Pollution in People
7. Eulogy for Swiffer
8. Maybe Baby: Chemicals & Kids
9. Why Pesticides Suck Reason #785

Photo by Ian O’Leary/Getty Images

I was always the last to get picked at school (explains so much, doesn’t it?) but does anybody WANT TO BE MY CANNING BUDDY?

Wycoff Farmhouse Garden Workshop: Canning & Food Preservation
September 17, 2006
Free

Discover the lost art of canning fruits and vegetables from all-star canner Classie Parker of Just Food! Part of the Museum’s annual APPLE FESTIVAL, which will also include cider-pressing, live music, and a variety of activities for kids. In collaboration with Just Food City Farms.

Wyckoff Farmhouse Museum
5816 Clarendon Road, Brooklyn NY 11203
718-629-5400
www.wyckoffassociation.org
2 p.m.

Photo by Little Something

Days-of-the-week barrettes! Heavens to Betsy Ross’ sewing bee, the cuteness has devoured my brain. Remember that scene in When Harry Met Sally, where Sally is talking about her days-of-the-week underwear and how they were responsible for the disintegration of a prior relationship?

Sally: Yes. They had the days of the week on them, and I thought they were sort of funny. And then one day Sheldon says to me, “You never wear Sunday.” It was all suspicious. Where was Sunday? Where had I left Sunday? And I told him, and he didn’t believe me.
Harry: What?
Sally: They don’t make Sunday.
Harry: Why not?
Sally: Because of God.

Oh Nora Ephron, how far from grace you have slipped, where once you brushed against the hand of divinity.

[Via Modish]

Graphic by Eco-Labels.org

We now know that not all organics are created equal, and so it’s important to get to know your local farmer, as well as to read the labels of products you pick up at the store. The USDA certifies products as:

100 percent organic: All ingredients are completely organic

Organic: 95 percent or more organic ingredients

Made with organic (specified ingredients or food group/s): 70-95 percent organic ingredients

If your product is made with less than 70 percent organic content, then it can only use the word “organic” to identify individual ingredients.

Of course, the USDA Organic label isn’t the only eco label we are inundated with. To decipher what a particular label means, visit Eco-Labels.org, which sorts a myriad labels by categories such as Organic, Pest Management, Social Responsibility, Sustainable Agriculture, Sustainable Fishing, Sustainable Wood, and Animal Welfare. Simply type in the name of your label into the Web site’s search engine, or search by logo or product area. You can also click on “view label index” for a complete listing by category.

Photo by the USDA Agricultural Research Service

It may not be long before you can shake your tail-feathers. Literally. Scientists at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln plan to transform agricultural waste, such as chicken feathers and rice straw, into viable textiles that could oust petroleum-based synthetic fabrics from the market. You won’t be strutting around in some flightless fowl’s fancy plumage, however, as researchers say the feather-based fabric will simulate wool, while the rice-straw fabric will approximate linen or cotton, offering potential eco-friendly options for carpets, automobiles, buildings, and more. (The study describing rice straw fabric was presented Sept. 11 at the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society; the study about chicken feather fabric was presented today.) I bet they’ve been fielding calls from Björk ALL DAY, except she keeps asking for Michael Bolton, bursting into giggles, and then hanging up after screaming about the clowns in her garbage disposal.

From the American Chemical Society: “In the future, it might be perfectly normal to wear suits and dresses made of chicken feathers or rice straw.”

“We hope that the research reported here will stimulate interest in using agricultural byproducts as textile fibers, which would add value to agricultural crops and also make the fiber industry more sustainable,” says Yiqi Yang, Ph.D., a professor of textile science at the university. His collaborator for both studies is research scientist Narendra Reddy, a doctoral candidate at the school.

With millions of tons of chicken feathers and rice straw available worldwide each year, these agricultural wastes represent an abundant, cheap and renewable alternative to petroleum-based synthetic fibers, Yang says. And unlike petroleum-based fibers, these agro-fibers are biodegradable. The development could be a boon to the nation’s rice and chicken farmers, Yang says.

Rice fabrics are the most developed of the two fabric concepts to date. Rice straw consists of the stems of the rice plant that are left over after rice grains are harvested. Like cotton and linen, rice straw is composed mostly of cellulose.

Using a special combination of chemicals and enzymes, a process that is now under patent review, Yang and Reddy developed fibers from the straw. The properties of the fibers indicate that the fibers are capable of being spun into fabrics using common textile machinery. The resulting fabric will have an appearance similar to cotton or linen, Yang says.

Chicken feathers are composed mostly of keratin, the same type of protein that is found in wool. The researchers are particularly interested in the barbs and barbules, the thin, filamentous network that forms the fluffy parts of the feather. These structures have a sturdy honeycomb architecture containing tiny air pockets that make the filaments extremely lightweight and resilient. Those properties offer the potential for developing fabrics that have lighter weight, better shock absorption and superior insulation—properties that may represent an improvement over wool, Yang says.

(Emphasis is mine.)

I’ll be at Inside Beauty 2006 all of tomorrow to bring you the scoop on the latest in natural skin care and beauty. Stay tuned, cadets!

This installment of the Carnival of the Green, organized by City Hippy and Triple Pundit, is dedicated to the memory of the victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The sublime LA Green Living hosted last week and I will be passing on the flaming torch in slow motion, to the resonant drumming of “Chariots of Fire,” to Karavans on September 18.

ROLL UP, ROLL UP, ladies and gentlemen, boy and girls, for the stupendous, the magnificent, the peerless, the ONE and ONLY Carnival of the Green. What’s that, sir? How much does it cost? HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Why, it will cost you, dear sir, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! That’s right, you heard it right here, ladies and gentlemen, keep your shirts on because you will spend exactly ZERO clams … nada buckaroos … zilch … ZIP … Schrodinger opened the box and the BOX WAS EMPTY! What’s the catch? There’s no catch! You wound me with your cynicism, suh! Right down to the belly of my soul. ‘CEPT I DON’T HAVE ONE! Nearly had you there, didn’t I? What did you say, madam? Yes, you in the very fetching blue silk hat. How long will we be here? Just one night, my friends. You will never see the likes of this carnival, this luminous line-up, this GALAXY OF STARS in its current incarnation ever again in this town! This is a ONCE IN A LIFETIME OPPORTUNITY, ladies and gentlemen, so WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? Step up, step up, hey no pushing, son, there’s plenty of room for everyone inside the tent, gather in, folks, gather on in …

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