Photo by Steve Bailey, under a Creative Commons license

I love this quote from Susan Rubin, co-producer of the film Two Angry Moms and founder of the advocacy group Better School Food, from an article excerpted by CalorieLab:

You get angry when your boundary has been violated, and the food industry has violated our boundaries with what they are offering out kids. I’m just trying to protect my cubs.

I think every penny is worth it. To me, food is health care. You can pay the farmer or the doctor.

(Emphasis is mine.)

I can really attest to that—since I started cutting back on processed junk for mostly local, organic food two years ago, I haven’t been sick once. (Well, other than my regular migraines, for which no earthly balm can abate.) My friend Felicia trumps me with THREE.

Cover of Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat by Kimberly Wilson

I never realized how much the practice of yoga aligned with sustainable living until I flipped through my reviewer’s copy of Hip Tranquil Chick: A Guide to Life On and Off the Yoga Mat. Yoga, according to author Kimberly Wilson, is all about balance, not abstinence. The hip tranquil chick lives passionately and mindfully, seeks to simplify rather than accumulate, and gives graciously of herself and her resources—all while spreading tranquility and exuding what Wilson calls “a chic consciousness.”

Here’s what Wilson says about contentment (samtosha), one of the five foundation yogic dos:

The hip tranquil chick views challenges as opportunities and cultivates a sense of gratitude for lessons learned. Being content does not equal complacency. It does mean, however, that you savor the present moment and accept situations and people for what they are. By being in the present moment, you will be able to let go of past regrets and future worries by focusing on the here and now. Living in a state of contentment means that you don’t lose sight of the big picture, but that you allow yourself to revel in where you are at this moment. The satisfied state ensures freedom from the struggle to keep up with the Joneses.
Modern girl scenario: When bombarded by the media’s idea of what clothes, car, or beverage you need to be happy, reflect upon all you have with a sense of gratitude and satisfaction.

And here’s the 101 on a yogic don’t, the lack of moderation (brahmacharya):

Even though the hip tranquil chick has a devout love of passion and a desire for succulence, she knows when enough is enough. Avoid overindulgence, recognize that all good things can become a crutch, and constantly seek the middle path. When practicing yoga, both on and off the mat, seek balance, simple indulgences, and surrender the “addiction” when a problem is detected.
Modern girl scenario: Seek moderation by indulging in small doses, especially in sensual cravings such as chocolate mousse, soy chai lattes, sex, shopping, and yoga.

Part yoga how-to guide, part self-help manual, Hip Tranquil Chick is a breezy read that shows us how we can take care of ourselves and our planet with style and panache. (Spiritual centering and physical toning optional.)

It doesn’t hurt that you can look cute doing it, either. I feel more relaxed already.

Image from the Oregon State Archives

Call it a case of history repeating, but it seems as if the mantras of the past have lost none of their luster (or relevance) in the face of our current environmental crisis. During World War II, homemakers were rallied to sign and uphold the U.S. government’s “Consumer Pledge for Total Defense.” Thrift and economy became synonymous with patriotism:

I will buy carefully.
I will take good care of the things I have.
I will waste nothing.

Sound familiar? The War Advertising Council, in 1943, sounded off another anti-inflation message:

Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do. Or do without.

Meanwhile, my new obsession with war-time and Depression-era cookbooks uncovered the frontispiece of Foods That Will Win the War and How to Cook Them by C. Houston and Alberta Goudiss (1918), which reads “This is what GOD gives us. What are you giving [up] so that others may live?” Words to the wise, whether you’re religious or not.

Related articles:
1. What is “Voluntary Simplicity”?
2. The Golden Rule
3. Simplicity and Consumption
4. Vonluntary Simplicity/Frugality Online Resources
5. 174-Year-Old Wisdom

Additional resources:
1. Everyday Foods in War Time by Mary Swartz Rose (1918)
2. Food Guide for War Service at Home, Prepared Under the Direction of the United States Food Administration by Blunt and Powdermaker and Swain (1918)

Photo by distinguish, under a Creative Commons license

(Part of my Green This House program.)

It was time to put my money where my mouth was: My workplace 401(K) plan didn’t leave me much room to maneuver choice-wise—although I consciously avoided any funds that paid out Exxon—plus, I wanted to put some extra coinage towards a cushy retirement. That’s where socially responsible investing (SRI) came in. Co-op America defines SRI as a way of “integrating your personal, social, and environmental concerns with your financial considerations,” so that your investments have a “positive impact on people and the planet.” In other words, stocks with scruples.

Below the fold is a list of funds I sent my financial-wiz father-in-law before we narrowed down our options and signed me up for a spanking new Roth IRA. (Remember, kids, it’s never too early to start saving for your retirement.) It’s by no means exhaustive, but it’s a start if you want to use that cash under your mattress for the common good and sock away some tidy profits. Learn more about SRI here and here.

Click here for more »

Photo by Springsun, under a Creative Commons license. Lordy, I love this house.

Good to know! From the May/June 2007 issue of Sierra:

An energy-efficient mortgage saves energy and money—and increases your buying power. A household with a monthly income of $5,000 can afford a $227,300 mortgage at 6.25 percent interest, according to the Federal Citizen Information Center. With an energy-efficient mortgage, however, the same household may qualify for a loan about $16,000 larger because its utility bills will be lower.¹

Go to energystar.gov and search for “energy-efficient mortgage.”

¹The magazine quotes a real-estate agent in Madison, Wisconsin, who says, “The average monthly heating bill for an old house downtown is $250, compared with $50 for an Energy Star home. We had a young couple who wanted to live in a place where they could walk or bike to work. But they didn’t know if they could afford th energy bills for an old home. Our green mortgage enabled them to buy downtown.”

Photo by Su-Chan, under a Creative Commons license

“Fascism. Communism. Democracy. Religion. But only one has achieved total supremacy,” says Jonathon Porritt, government adviser and sustainable-development expert. “Its compulsive attractions rob its followers of reason and good sense. It has created unsustainable inequalities and threatened to tear apart the very fabric of our society. More powerful than any cause or even religion, it has reached into every corner of the globe. It is consumerism.”

We’ve become a generation of shopaholics, Porritt says—unsurprising because we’re assailed by advertising from every conceivable medium. The singular message they extol: The more we consume, the better our lives will be. But although shopping has become a stand-in for fun, fulfillment, and self-identity, Porritt warns that it is also killing our planet. Switching to “ethical” shopping won’t cut it, either—the key is to shop less.

From The Observer: “Consumerism is central to the threat facing the planet, cannibalizing its natural resources and producing the carbon dioxide emissions which result in climate change.”

In a film for Channel Five, [Porritt] points out that Britons throw away their own body weight in rubbish every seven weeks, with 100 million tonnes of waste pouring into the country’s 12,000 landfill sites every year. If all six billion people in the world were to consume at the same level, we would need two new Earths to supply all the energy, soil, water and raw materials required.

“I think capitalism is patently unable to go on growing the size of the consumer economy for any more people in the world today because levels of consumption are already undermining life support systems on which we depend—so if we do it for any more people, the planet will go pop,” Porritt told The Observer. “So in a way we don’t have a choice about this: we’ve got to rethink the basic premise behind capitalism to make it deliver the goods. In the long run, when you really look at what happens on a planet with nine billion people and really serious constraints on the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we can emit, it’s almost inevitable we will learn to have more elegant, satisfying lives, consuming less. I can’t see any way out of that in the long run.”

Read the rest of the article here.

Related articles:
1. Simplicity and Consumption
2. World Overshoot Day
3. I Shop Therefore I Am

Photo by Pottery Barn

Exhausted of working for the Man in all its soul-sucking, environment-trashing, bottom-line-famished glory? Consider parlaying your creative talents into starting up your own eco-friendly small business, much like what my pals Mark (of 3R Living) and Summer (of BTC Elements) have done.

Here are some inspirational resources to get you started:

1. Amy Peters’ Studio Blog
2. Boss Lady: Because Women Run Businesses
3. Cute Little Store
4. Hear Hear: Intelligence for Small Businesses
5. Ladies Who Launch (also has a book)
6. Make It: A Blog for Craft Entrepreneurs
7. Slate Biz Box: Small-Business Owners Dish on Small Businesses
8. The Switchboards: Your Connection to Creativity
9. A Boutique Industry: Support and Encouragement for the Entrepreneurial Woman
10. The Anti-9-to-5-Guide
11. Women Take Wing

Less-exciting but necessary reading:

1. IRS Guide to Starting a Business
2. IRS Small-Business and Self-Employed One-Stop Resource
3. U.S. Small Business Administration
4. Yahoo Small Business

New Yorkers should also check out the New York Public Library’s Small Business Resource Center.

Related article:
1. Get Organazized

Photo by Andrea Chu/Getty Images

From BBC News: “New parents who choose eco-friendly or ethical goods for their babies can pay as much as £700 a year extra, according to new research.”

John Reeve, Chief Executive of Family Investments [which commissioned the study] said: “The cost of being a parent is growing and the added pressure now of choosing ethical or organic products can overwhelm parents living on stretched budgets, especially as families learn to cope with the cost of a new baby.”

What this story doesn’t add is that it’s possible to live frugally and consciously—buying gently used, for instance, won’t wallop your wallet. You can also make your own green cleaning supplies, and even skincare products. Fresh organic produce can also be affordable if you try growing your own, or by joining a co-op or a community-supported agriculture (CSA) group. (You can also just avoid the conventional produce that have the highest pesticide loads if money is truly tight.)

Live simply, but also live richly.

From the March/April 2007 of Sierra:

A dollar spent in a locally owned business is worth three times as much to the local economy as one spent in a chain store.

The major earth-rattling revelation in Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin is that money is something we choose to trade our very finite life energy for, i.e.:

Money = Life Energy

I know it sounds like a lot of hippy-dippy, new-agey pablum, but the authors back up their thesis in the pages that follow. They also ask you to calculate your real hourly wage vs. what’s written on paper:

Most people look at this life-energy/earnings ration in an unrealistic and inadequate way: “I earn $440 a week, I work 40 hours a week, so I trade one hour of life energy for $11.”

It’s not likely to be that simple.

Think of all the ways you use your life energy that are directly related to your money-earning employment. Think of all the monetary expenses that are directly associated with the job. In other words, if you didn’t need the money-earning job, what time expenditures and monetary expenses would disappear from your life?

Subtracting the costs of commuting, “costuming” (i.e. your work clothes), meals, recreational activities for you to decompress from work, vacations and expensive playthings, job-related illness, and other job-related expenses from your usual pay, your real hourly wage is likely to be a lot lower than what you think you are getting. So you might be selling an hour of your life energy for $4, rather than the apparent $11.

The corollary figure is also interesting. In this example, every dollar you spend represents 15 minutes of your life. Think of that figure next time you’re shelling out your money for yet another gazingus pin¹. Ask: Is this item worth 120 minutes of my life energy?

And, if you’re one of the millions of people who are merely “making a dying,” as Dominguez and Robin put it, and the amount of money you’re spending is inversely proportional to how fulfilled you feel, then it’s time to reevaluate the time and expenses incurred to maintaining a lifestyle that consumer culture says matches your job. Another question to ask: Are you willing to accept a job that pays $4 per hour (or whatever you’ve calculated in that last step)? Could pursuing your real desires and goals actually SAVE you money, while improving your health, sense of well-being, and relationships with others?

Then, to evaluate your spending, the authors suggest asking three questions:

1. Did I receive fulfillment, satisfaction, and value in proportion to life energy spent?
2. Is this expenditure of life energy in alignment with my values and life purpose?
3. How might this expenditure change if I didn’t have to work for a living?

These steps, and the others listed in the book (which, if you haven’t already guessed, I heartily recommend reading), may lead you to conclude that spending money in ways that might bring superficial happiness, but don’t contribute to lasting fulfillment or support your values, is actually frittering your finite life energy. Questioning whether your actions are in line with your values will also help you clarify your life’s purpose and lead to a greater sense of satisfaction, wholeness, and integrity. Cavorting with goats and other assorted livestock on a kibbutz in Utah fit in better with your overarching purpose in life? Trade in your briefcase for a feed sack and more power to you.

Okay, so the book can get a little kumbaya-ya on you, but you’ll find very little in it that isn’t the God’s honest truth about the way we live, work, and most importantly, spend.

Goats, regretfully, are not included.

¹A “gazingus pin,” according to the authors, is anything that you can’t pass by without buying. They’re usually the little tchotchkes placed closest to the cash registers, from “pocket calculators and tiny screwdrivers to pens and chocolate kisses.”

Photo by Jonathan Kirn/Getty Images

Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, authors of Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence on frugality vs. hedonism:

While both have to do with enjoying what you have, frugality and hedonism are opposite responses to the material world. Hedonism revels in the pleasures of the senses and implies excessive consumption of the material world and a continual search for more. Frugal people, however, get value from everything—a dandelion or a bouquet of roses, a single strawberry or a gourmet meal. A hedonist might consume the juice of five oranges as a prelude to a pancake breakfast. A frugal person, on the other hand, might relish eating a single orange, enjoying the color and texture of the whole fruit, the smell and the light spray that comes as you peel it, the translucence of each section, the flood of flavor that pours out as a section bursts over the tongue … and the thrift of saving the peels for baking.

To be frugal means to have a high joy-to-stuff ratio. If you get one unit of joy from each material possession, that’s frugal. But if you need ten possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter, you’re missing the point of being alive.

(Emphasis is mine.)

Writer and commentator Stuart Chase (1888-1985) summarized the gist of Thorstein Veblen’s¹ The Theory of the Leisure Class in its foreword:

People above the line of base subsistence, in this age and all earlier ages, do not use the surplus, which society has given them, primarily for useful purposes. They do not seek to expand their own lives, to live more wisely, intelligently, understandingly, but to impress other people with the fact that they have a surplus … spending money, time, and effort quite uselessly in the pleasurable business of inflating the ego.

¹He who also coined the term “conspicuous consumption.”

Related articles:
1. What is “Voluntary Simplicity”?
2. The Golden Rule
3. Simplicity and Consumption
4. Voluntary Simplicity/Frugality Online Resources
5. 174-Year-Old Wisdom