My reasons are both health- and conscience-related. On the health side of things, organic turkeys are free of antibiotics and growth hormones that are commonly found in conventional turkey. (Check out this great blog on the subject from Green Talk.) As for the whole doing-the-right-thing thing, well, I think it would probably be much smarter and easier to let one of the experts I’ve interviewed do the talking instead. Here is the interview I did with Sharanya Krishna Prasad, U.S. Programs Officer with the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) about the very topic:

KB: Why is organic turkey so expensive?

Krishna Prasad: Organic turkey is currently more expensive for various reasons. Intensive agriculture is highly subsidized by the U.S. government, and the price of products from intensively raised animals does not consider the true environmental, human health and animal welfare costs associated with producing and consuming factory farmed meat. As the demand for more humane meats increases, and when industry standards for all animal-derived products are raised, the cost of these products will become more competitive.

KB: There are so many different options out there. If I can’t afford organic, what are some of the more acceptable labels I should be looking for?

Krishna Prasad: When shopping for a turkey, look for labels such as “Pasture Raised,” “USDA Organic,” “American Humane Certified,” “Animal Welfare Approved,” or “Certified Humane.” These labels mean animals should have been raised under more humane standard where they were given access to sunlight and fresh air and had freedom of movement. They were also spared non-therapeutic antibiotics and growth-promoting hormones. Avoid misleading labels like “Natural” or “Naturally Raised.” While “Naturally Raised” ensures animals were not given antibiotics or hormones, this label does not mean the animals have freedom, fresh air or sunlight. The term “Natural” has no relevance to animal welfare and merely indicates that the product doesn’t have artificial additives.

KB: Is it worth buying organic over pasture-raised or the other non-organic labels you just mentioned?

Krishna Prasad: WSPA has developed an easy-to-use humane classification system where labeling claims have been designated as ‘Good’, ‘Better’, or ‘Best’ depending on the level of animal welfare required by the claim standard. Under this classification system, both USDA organic and pasture-raised fall under the same category — ‘Better.’

For turkeys, the best labels to look for are Animal Welfare Approved, American Humane Certified, and Certified Humane. If products with these labels are unavailable, we recommend choosing from one of the ‘Better’ or ‘Good’ category labels such as USDA organic, pasture-raised, or free range. If a turkey doesn’t have one of these labels, it was raised without the consideration of animal welfare, and buyers may be paying a premium for products that likely don’t meet their expectations in terms of the impacts on animals.

KB: How can I get my store to carry the “Better” or “Good” categories of turkey?

Krishna Prasad: Consumers should request humane food products from their retailers by speaking with the purchasing manager of the stores they frequently shop at. Studies have shown that it only takes a few customers to request a product before a store will carry it. In addition, WSPA’s website www.EatHumane.org has a postcard that consumers can print and drop off at the comments and suggestions box at their store to request more humane products.

KB: Does organic turkey taste different than the Butterball everyone might be used to?

Krishna Prasad: While some studies have been conducted on the taste of meat from organically-raised turkeys versus meat from intensively raised animals, to my knowledge they have not been conclusive. WSPA has noticed a trend among gourmet restaurants featuring more locally sourced, humanely-raised products on their menus. Chefs are probably taking in to account both the better care and fewer resources it takes to raise animals humanely. But I am sure they are considering the good taste as well. Today most food offered for sale in major U.S. supermarkets is from animals raised under intensive confinement on large factory style farms. These animals are typically denied fresh air and sunlight, and given very limited freedom to move and express their natural behaviors. Polls have shown that a large majority of Americans think the way farm animals are raised is important to them. Consumers who choose humane turkeys can be assured that the animals were given more natural living conditions and are typically given access to fresh air and sunlight, and freedom to move and express their natural behaviors.

So there you have it. Will this affect the way you shop for meat this holiday season? Was I insane for spending so much on a turkey that was gone in less than 20 minutes? I’d love to hear your feedback.

It takes a little longer, but wow, it's worth it!

Until recently, I was not a coffee drinker. I couldn’t understand what the appeal was, quite honestly. Every time I saw a Facebook update that mentioned coffee, my eyes sort of glazed over. Sometime over last summer, though, I got it.

It was really hot here. Everywhere I looked someone was drinking an iced coffee. After watching the millionth person contentedly sipping away, I decided to see if I was truly missing anything. I tried a Starbucks iced coffee, and was hooked. Once I got hooked on the cold version, I decided I was going to be brave and try a hot coffee. I wanted to brew it at home, though. I’d need a coffeemaker. However, once I actually had to think about the brewing process, my whole sustainable/natural lifestyle thing came into play and I had my work cut out for me.

I was honestly conflicted. First, I didn’t want to drink coffee that was coming out of a plastic pod or brewed by dripping through a plastic coffeemaker. If BPA was leaching into room temperature water bottles, I couldn’t imagine how much would be transferred during the traditional brewing methods available today. Try a percolator, someone suggested, but I was a little put off by the potential for waste and chemical contamination. For example, just how is a paper filter produced? (We throw away millions of them daily, by the way.) I found out that the majority of filters are bleached, and may contain dioxins, which may cause cancer and a number of other woes. No, I needed another way to make my coffee. After a little more research I decided that a French press — a glass one — would be the best option.

Also called a coffee press, I found several options online, but I wasn’t going to buy any old press. I wanted something that was made here in the States or in a European country. (Meaning I didn’t want anything made in China.) Once I narrowed down my choices — glass with minimal plastic — I emailed the companies asking them where they sourced their products. One of the brands I was leaning towards, La Cafetiere, was nixed when I received the following email from their customer relations team:

Hi Karen

Many thanks
Angela

(Overlook the typos as this is a verbatim account, and the author is probably located outside the U.S.)

Then I called the folks at Bodum, another French press maker. I was told that their stuff is mostly made in China, with some exceptions. Their Bistro Nuevo, Brazil Classic, Chambord, Eileen, and Kenya French presses are made in Europe. Whew. I had found my new French press. It was Christmas time so I put it on my list, and my wonderful father-in-law made sure it was under their Christmas tree for me.

Now, after using it almost daily for two months, I must say I am completely ruined for all coffee except coffee made in a French press. Sure, it takes me five minutes to heat up the water, put it into the press along with coffee, and wait until it seeps, but WOW, that’s some good coffee. I sort of equate it to making homemade chocolate chip cookies versus buying a package at the store. While it might take more time, the end result is worth it.

When it comes to buying coffee, I stick with Fair Trade Certified organic. I really like Trader Joe’s Organic French Roast. In case you don’t know, Fair Trade Certified means that the coffee (or any product) is manufactured or packed in a way that fairly compensates all of the workers involved in the process. The process also takes the environment into account, making sure that it is sustainable. You can read more about it here, but considering how most traditional coffee is made (the National Resources Defense Council has a good primer), it was a no-brainer for me.

Now, I won’t buy coffee out anymore unless I am at a diner or someplace else that uses washable cups. I’ve even stopped drinking the coffee brewed at Little Girl’s Mommy and Me. They are really behind the times. They still provide styrofoam cups. At last, I’ve been able to completely eliminate any waste associated with my coffee fix. No little plastic “pod” cups to recycle. No paper filters to compost. No plastic lids to agonize over. But the best part really is the taste. There is absolutely nothing like an individual pot of fresh brewed coffee. Don’t believe me? Try it yourself!

This post is how I am participating this week in Real Food Wednesdays and Fight Back Fridays — two awesome campaigns to get people eating real food again.

Take my dinner tonight. I ate a baby spinach salad dressed with chicken and artichoke hearts and sprinkled with a little balsamic vinaigrette dressing. The spinach was organic. (I should say that when it comes to the Dirty Dozen, the 12 vegetables and fruits that have the most pesticide residue — celery, peaches, strawberries, apples, blueberries, nectarines, bell peppers, spinach, kale, cherries, potatoes, and grapes — I am vigilant with my own diet.) So was the dressing — don’t want to eat non-organic grapes and all. But the chicken and the artichokes were Trader Joe’s conventional stuff.

Granted, they are probably going to be better than what you might find at a regular supermarket, but by how much? Certainly the chicken wasn’t my air-chilled organic chicken breast (it’s so important, that air-chilled part) that I typically buy for the kids. And the artichokes were the non-organic kind sitting in brine and oil. Yummy, to be sure, but probably doused in pesticides since, as I have just learned, artichokes are perfect candidates for “aphids, botrytis rot, and fungus, so most commercial artichokes are sprayed heavily with pesticides and fungicides.” Even worse there’s a list of the top 50 pesticides used on artichokes in California. Really?!? Son of a…

Okay, so now I am sitting here feeling queasy. Sure, as my mother likes to tell me, you can’t live your life in fear. However, if you’re walking around at midnight in a shady section of town and a guy who looks dangerous is walking toward you on the street, wouldn’t you cross the street to avoid any potential problems? Or would you just keep walking and see what happens? Because you can’t live your life in fear. Me, I’d cross the street. Or in this case next time I’ll spend the $3.99, and buy the organic artichoke hearts packed in oil from Whole Foods. Also, next time I won’t be lazy and buy the prepackaged balsamic chicken. I’ll make my own. I guess since the whole monkey see, monkey do comes into effect I should have been doing that all along. Sigh.

The more I learn, the more I wish I didn’t know and the more I wonder how big agriculture can get away with this crap. FIFTY pesticides for a single crop of artichokes? For shame, Mr. and Mrs. Conventional American Farmer. For shame.

We were hoping to include basil in the shares this week, but we noticed a black fuzz on the bottom of the leaves when we started picking it this morning. We have later plantings that we hope will look better! And eggplant would usually start appearing in the shares around this time, except we lost the crop to the potato beetle earlier in the season.

I haven’t been able to get that out of my head all week. They lost two plants due to mold and bugs. Two. And yet the newsletter was very matter-of-fact. There was no bemoaning what could have been, or complaining about what was. (And no me, losing an entire crop to bugs seems like pretty bad news.) Nope. Instead of complaining the farmer looked to the future. The next crop, they hope, will look better. What an awesome way to think. How peaceful. How smart!

When something doesn’t go as planned in my house, I tend to freak out. I get agitated. I get sad. Looking at some of my more recent disappointments (losing an hour of work because Big Girl was having an off afternoon, for example) I realize I definitely overreacted.

Was it really annoying and upsetting that Big Girl has issues transitioning sometimes? Yes, it is. Does my heart ache for her when she works herself into a tizzy? Absolutely. But in the scheme of things aren’t kids just like a crop? They grow based on the water and nutrients we give them. But sometimes, just as my CSA’s farmer found out, even with the best of tending they sometimes produce some rotten vegetables. But you don’t give up on the crop. You don’t freak out. You give them more sunshine, more love and you chalk it up to weeds that sometimes grow around our thinking. (A weird analogy, but a true one. Who among us doesn’t have weeds obscuring the strong roots of common sense in our heads?) And of course, you try and pull out those stubborn, unwanted weeds. You provide alternate ways of thinking about an experience. You let the kid cry a bit. You help them adapt so the next time those weeds can’t put down roots.

Because the alternative — losing the entire crop because it hates you for being a bad farmer — just isn’t an option.

Ahhh, the weekend. After a busy week at work it couldn’t be coming at a better time. This week I wrote seven stories, and I have one more to write tonight. Yes, all my paid work is sucking up time I would normally be blogging. That said, I’m going to try and post more frequently next week. Hope you have a great weekend filled with sunshine and very little “natural fertilizer.” (You know…the S word.)

Oh, and BTW: This post is how I am participating this week in Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday — an awesome campaign to get people eating real food again.

Not much selection -- and slim pickings -- at my church's food pantry.

As many of you know, I belong to an amazing community-supported agriculture program called the Golden Earthworm Farm. This year, in fact, I am a drop-off location, which means my house is the place where 19 people come to get their just-picked organic veggies. While the price is pretty reasonable — about $20 per week — it’s still an expense, so you’d think that everyone would come and collect their boxes of swiss chard, baby bok choi and escarole. That’s not the case, though. For whatever reason people sometimes don’t come, which means for the past two weeks I have been left with big boxes of perishable veggies sitting in my garage.

Maggie, one of the farmers, told me this might happen when I agreed to be a drop-off location. People go away, they get stuck at work, they just forget, she said. She told me she didn’t want the food to go to waste so I should donate the leftovers to a worthy charity. I was so excited. I knew my church’s food bank is always in need of donations. All food banks, actually, are in dire need of food — fresh produce especially.

According to a recent Feeding America study –Hunger in America 2010 — more than 37 million people receive emergency assistance from book banks across the U.S. These are not homeless people. They are people who work hard, pay their taxes but just can’t get by. Food banks get by on donations from corporate America and from regular folks like us, but with the recession and the swelling ranks of those who are utilizing the service, the cupboards are getting bare. My local pantry is no different.

When I walked into the church this morning I was stunned to see how many people were filling up bags. It looked like the supermarket on a Saturday morning. Mostly elderly people, but there was one woman who was about my age. When she saw me dropping off food she hung her head down and turned around so I couldn’t see her face. I could tell she was embarrassed to be there. I felt terrible. I wanted to walk over, put my arms around her, give her a hug and tell her that I understood. That I know that anyone at any time can go from living well to living day-to-day. An illness. A job loss. A divorce. Any of the above can hobble anyone. She certainly has nothing to be ashamed of. I walked out thinking good thoughts for her and for everyone else who will have something to eat thanks to that food bank and others like it.

I also felt happy that I — through the Golden Earthworm Farm — was able to help. I am thrilled that at least some of those folks will have a salad or turnips or escarole with their cans of soup and tuna and boxes of pasta and stuffing. (OMG — think of all the BPA these folks must be taking in!). I hated the fact that, before I got there, there was no meat or fruit or leafy greens. No sweets, either, which is why I ran home and shopped in my own pantry. (I brought over some organic muffin mixes, sunflower seed butter, bread mix and other items I wouldn’t miss.)

And so, since I know so many of my readers are blessed, I ask you this: Do you know where your local food pantry is? Do you have food in your home that you know you won’t miss? Did you buy a big bag of apples, for example? Or is your garden already overflowing? If you answered yes, how about making someone’s day and giving back? You will be all the richer for your service. I guarantee it.

This post links me into Real Food Wednesdays, a real food movement taking place across the Web. Check out some of my fellow bloggers by clicking through.

I lived in Bath, England, just over thirty years ago, from June 1979 to the following summer. I had arrived in England in 1976 as a member of the U.S. Air Force and then stayed on after my time was up. I was attending college in Bath, hoping to get accepted to an English university. Money was tight, and I didn’t eat very well, not to mention suffering a variety of the angsty stresses idealistic young men are wont to suffer. As a result, I lost twenty pounds that winter. And at that time, unlike now, I did not have a spare twenty pounds to lose.

After leaving Bath in the summer of 1980, I lived with friends in Falmouth, Cornwall, for a few months, and that is when I discovered whole, natural foods. I learned that for the kind of money I had spent to eat badly the previous winter, I could eat well and healthily — I could eat nutritious, affordable food that tasted good. It took me a while to get the hang of cooking whole foods from scratch, but when I realized that good, filling food was available to me even if a good wage wasn’t, my life was changed forever.

It was later that I learned about organics and gained a larger perspective of what “natural” meant, both personally and politically. At first, I was excited to learn about cooking in this way; I didn’t care about the meta of it all. My first natural foods store, the one in Falmouth, was a typical hole-in-the-wall place like those familiar to many who tried shopping and eating that way all the way through the 80s. The produce selection was limited, pricey and frequently not of the best quality. There were few producers making the kinds of products we now take for granted at our local whole/natural food stores and mainstream supermarkets. To get your entire diet from such stores back then meant a hard-core commitment, not to your diet but to The Cause: organics, fighting the system, personal lifestyle-based advocacy for change. Not many people opted for that level of commitment, and I was not one of them.

I was, however, committed to moving my life in that direction. Soon after I moved to Portland in June 1982 (I had been accepted to university in England but could not afford the outrageous tuition the Thatcher government instituted to drive away non-wealthy non-white oversea students: $5,000 a year tuition — in 1982), I joined Food Front in NW Portland. I took advantage of the opportunity to be a working member and lucked out: I was assigned to do orientation. I only had to work once every few weeks, and I learned the history of the co-op movement. The gig only lasted a few weeks before work and a new living situation made it problematic (i.e., I was 25 and had better things to do with the evening).

I continued to learn about natural and organic foods — I am a knowledge pig — and I tried making that a part of my life, but it wasn’t until my first son was born that my reasons for doing so became more important than just my own health. Becoming a father turned my tepid commitment into a desire to do the best I could for my child. This is a human norm, I believe: life taking on greater meaning upon becoming a parent. With Alex’s birth, things that I was committed to in a superficial way took on new meaning. That included my commitment to eating healthy and to being a consumer who actively supported sustainable market practices.

That was over half-a-lifetime ago. My two sons are now in their twenties, I’m a grandfather, and while my commitment has grown stronger, my ability to live out that commitment has been made easier because millions of other Americans have joined me, in varying degrees, in seeking a healthier, more natural diet. We are now a large enough market that products and manufacturers are now commonplace. Organic is defined by the government (whether or not they have done that correctly is still being debated) and mainstream grocery stores, from Safeway to Kroger’s, feature organic products as prominently as the stuff made from chemistry kits.

Thirty years ago, I was an oddity, a freak. Today I’m a target demographic.

I don’t buy 100% organic, natural or whole foods; I never have. A lot of the foods I eat a lot are OG: flour, beans, rice, raisins, most fruits and veg, coffee and tea, oils, and the few canned items I buy: tomatoes, refried beans, and such (I buy these OG about half the time, depending on prices and my checking account). Dairy is almost all non-OG, and that’s both a matter of cost — OG dairy is very expensive — and the fact that fairly clean (non-bht) milk, half-and-half, and cheeses are readily available in Oregon. I am guilty of buying standard meats, and again, that’s a matter of cost. If my income allowed, I would buy naturally raised pork, beef and chicken more, but it’s a level of commitment I have yet to make.

For now, I’m cool with that. I am in the middle of making a batch of sweet rolls, and most of the ingredients are organic, including the sugars. To me, the essence of eating “natural” is to live the whole life. I bicycle everywhere; I make almost all my meals from scratch; I purchase natural and organic foods from my local co-op and local semi-supermarket. I am moderately frugal, trying to reduce my impact on the planet without living a hermit’s life. What has enable me to maintain and grow my commitment to this kind of life is not the bare idea that “this is better.” Humans cannot function on the rational level alone. I can maintain this commitment because I have learned how to make the foods I like. My black bean chili may be 80% organic, but it’s also damn good chili.

I’ll never go through a period like I did 30 years ago in Bath because of all I have learned. Not only will I keep myself healthy and well-fed, I’ll do so with foods I enjoy. That’s the big secret: make the ideal a pleasure to fulfill. Thankfully these days the variety and cost of the products necessary to do that are so much greater than when my kids were little. I wish I had had this plenitude when my boys were little. I did my best, but the opportunity to raise healthy kids in this century is wonderful. My new job will be to keep an eye on my granddaughter and make sure her folks are getting that right.

Thanks again, T.A. Beautiful story!

Earth Day meets 45th Street

I spent Friday in the city at the ASJA Writer’s Conference, which took place at the Roosevelt Hotel. Great conference, I was excited to see all the people I talk to on Facebook and on our online forum. Once I left the hotel, though, and made my way down 45th Street I was really excited. Right outside the hotel was EarthFair Outdoors, a celebration with music, booths and characters. As I walked through the crowd enjoying the beautiful weather and relaxed vibe I found a few things that have the possibility of becoming my favorites. I thought I’d pass them along…

Wicked, the play. Okay, I lied. This is already on my list of all time favorites. Still, what does Wicked have to do with Earth Day? I’ll let them explain. (From the tag on the cute baby evergreen they gave me to take home and plant: “Green. For Good. This tree has been planted in tribute to Elphaba and all the green things on earth.” So basically my favorite play of all time was giving out free evergreens for Earth Day. Outstanding!

Seed Body Care. I am a sucker for a sweet-smelling cream. And if that cream happens to have shea butter and be scented like my two favorite herbs, lavender and sage? Swoon. Seriously. And if it’s paraben-, phthalate-, presevative-, petrochemical-, and artificial color-free? I may be tempted to shell out the cash. They were showing three products — a body bar, a lotion, and a shampoo bar. I’m thinking I need to buy the body bar. (I kept sniffing my hands, scented from the tester, all the way home on the train.)

Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary. What happens to livestock that isn’t well enough or hearty enough to be slaughtered? Some of the chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs, and goats end up at this place, a home for the animals that don’t make it to your table. The sanctuary gives tours daily from April 1 through October 31 where children and adults can learn about how and why the animals arrived there and what we as human beings can do to reduce our meat consumption. Sounds like a nice day trip…

The New York City Compost project. Okay, so you live in a small house or — in this case — an apartment. Still, you cook. You eat. You have non-meat food scraps. What can you do to recycle them? This project, funded by the New York City Sanitation Department, teaches apartment-dwellers how to create an indoor compost bin with worms. You can learn, too, by clicking through on this link. (Yes, there were worms at the event, but no, I didn’t get a photo!) Okay, if folks in apartments are composting I will finally make it my business to create a compost bin at my house. And I plan on doing it this weekend.

The components that go into the Sprout watch.

The Sprout. I got sucked in by the tubs of bamboo, cotton, and corn pellets, which reminded me of the tactile boxes at my big girl’s Gymboree classes. Once I got closer I saw that the bin contents represented what the company makes its watches out of. The watch body is corn resin instead of plastic. Straps are made of organic cotton instead of leather, while the watch face is made of mineral crystal — a type of glass — rather than plastic. The dial is natural bamboo. The result is a watch that is either 80 or 86 percent eco-friendly. Not bad. And they’re cute, too. At $30, it was a steal, but I didn’t have any cash on me. Sigh.

Matthew Modine wants people to ride bikes -- not drive cars.

Bicycle for a Day. Hey! I know that guy! He was the guy in Married to the Mob! (I’m talking about Matthew Modine.) A celebrity hanging out in the middle of the city? Yup, and for a good cause, too. Modine started a non-profit called Bicycle for a Day to help people get out of cars and on to bikes. A noble cause, and one I should be doing myself. I love spinning so much I should be jumping on my bike when I need milk rather than jumping in my car.

CommuterLink. How do people living in the Tristate area get involved in a carpool? This is a good place to start. The site helps you find people to carpool with. Then, once you’re signed up, guarantees that if you miss your ride because the driver has to leave early, they will help you get home free-of-charge. Nice.

How was your Earth Day? Hope you have a fun, relaxing weekend!

Belonging to a CSA is sort of like going on a treasure hunt. You never know what you’re going to find. CSAs work like this: You pay a set amount at the beginning of the growing season. Our season on Long Island is 26 weeks long; the annual cost of the CSA is $550. (I’ll do the math for you. It’s about $21 per week.) Then, once crops start coming in you go to a local pickup spot with your own reusable bags and get your veggies and fruit — whatever is ripening that particular week.

You get a lot for your $21. Boxes, even in the spring, are overflowing. Lettuce is usually plentiful. Potatoes and kale are, too. My CSA plants about 45 varieties of vegetables along with an assortment of herbs. Some of the veggies are common — cucumbers, broccoli, spinach (yum, nothing like baby spinach fresh from the fields), tomatoes, and carrots. Some are, to be honest, not something I would ever think of buying. Celeriac, Chinese broccoli, fennel, the aforementioned kale, kohlrabi, and swiss chard. But these veggies old and new really help us eat better. I feel bad wasting anything, so I am always looking for new ways to cook up these items. Big Girl, who usually comes with me to pick them up, loves seeing vegetables in their natural state, and she, like her mommy, loves the way real, fresh produce tastes.

A lot of my friends tell me their kids won’t eat veggies. They ask me how I get my kids to chow down on salad and spinach and — their favorite — broccoli. I always tell them that I exposed the kids at a very early age to many tastes and textures. So now when Big Girl says she doesn’t like summer squash, I can accept that because I know it’s not because it’s a vegetable. It’s because she truly doesn’t like the taste. A CSA, I think, gives kids more of a chance because they are constantly seeing new vegetables appear on the table in plentiful portions.

If you’re interested in joining your own CSA, check out Local Harvest, a directory of U.S.-based farms. Can’t afford $21 per week? Do what I did: split a CSA share with a friend. I shared my share last year and still found myself giving away food towards the end of the week. After all, there are only so many kale chips (baked in the oven with a touch of oil and salt) that you can eat!

I’m writing this post as part of Real Food Wednesdays. Check out the other 50-plus bloggers who are supporting the real food movement by reading some of their posts.

I read another article this week. This one was from the New York Times. Appearing as the Off The Shelf column, ‘Green Gone Wrong’: Can Capitalism Save the Planet?, the article examines a new book from Heather Rogers: Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution. Ms. Rogers has a different take on voting with your wallet. She thinks, and rightfully so, that the environmental movement — when Big Business takes over — can actually do more to harm than good where the environment is concerned. I’ve reported on this, too. Right here on this blog. A lot of organic farmers, for example, aren’t acting so organically. They are nothing more than Big Agra companies wearing a green hat while hurting our environment. Many are simply clearing rain forests away to create organic farms and in the process hurting the true organic farmers out there. And don’t get me started on their carbon footprint created by producing goods a continent a way and shipping them here to the States. (You might as well just read my other blog post — Supermarket Confusion: Or Why Wal-Mart is Bad for the Organic Movement — here.)

So what’s the answer? Do you skip organic food? Do you use your own reusable bags? Do you buy natural products? Of course, but with some thought. I know that’s hard to hear and swallow. Aren’t we already thinking too much about all of this? Every time the TV comes on we’re hearing about more terrible environmental news. Every time we go to a Web site we see more disturbing images. The answer is yes. We need to be a little more uncomfortable. And, like the New York Times reporter says, we have to make good choices while simply consuming less.

And this will be my task between now and Earth Day. Every day I am going to track my buying. I’m going to share with you what I’ve purchased. I’m going to have to justify to you and to myself if my purchase was actually necessary or worth it. Essentially, I’d like to try and be spend-free for the next few weeks. (Aside from food, of course.) Can I do it? Will it be worth it? At the very least it will give us more insight into why we are in this mess to begin with.

What do you think your biggest green faux pas is? I’d like to hear about it.

Boom Boom Cards: Cards that help you pay it forward.

It’s been a while since I’ve written a true cool things-focused Favorite Things Friday, so I figured I’d go back to my roots. For all my new readers — and there are a bunch of you these days — Favorite Things Friday is my opportunity to write about things I have seen and liked recently. Sometimes I profile Web sites. Sometimes I profile food. Sometimes I profile stuff. Enjoy!

Boom Boom! Cards: I got an e-mail about this and loved it. We’re a week away from Valentine’s Day so I had to include. The premise is simple: You get a pack of cards that ask the recipient to do a random act of kindness. The cards all have tracking numbers so the people who get them can post about their kindness online for everyone to see. Great concept. Love the whole random acts of kindness thing. And if you’re going to buy paper valentines anyway, why not buy some that make the world a better place. (Just remember to recycle them!)

Sliquid Organics: Whether you’re young or old, sometimes the nether regions need a little help. (Something a wise friend once told me — of course, she said it a lot differently!) However, the whole mucus membrane thing makes it very scary to me. It’s not a place you want to put chemicals or carcinogens. These personal lubricants are made from organic, all natural ingredients, and come in a 100% recyclable packaging. The labels are even printed on 75% recycled paper stock. Sliquid Organics Natural, a water-based lubricant would be my choice, because of the company’s claim that it will “never cause UTI’s or yeast infections.” Good to know.

Organic sheets. We spend 1/3 of our life in bed, and yet most of us have traditional cotton bedding. When a place like Target is selling 250-thread count king-size organic cotton sheet sets for $89.99, you know it’s time to make a move. Don’t understand why you’d want to buy organic cotton? There’s a great primer about it from the Organic Trade Association here. The most important reason: 25 percent of the world’s pesticides are used in cotton production. Like food, residue remains. Then we sweat and those residues are transferred to our bodies. Not convinced? California Pesticide Use Reporting data shows that traditional cotton growers use 2.13 pounds of chemicals per acre when growing cotton. Scary.

Organic lipstick. Here’s the thing: Study after study keeps finding lead in traditional lipsticks. In September the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — a pretty good source — came out with a study that found lead in all 20 of the lipsticks it tested. According the the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics: “The FDA noted that three manufacturers had the highest levels of lead, but they did not name those brands. In 2007, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics report also found that a few brands had consistently higher lead levels, including L’Oreal, Maybelline and Cover Girl.” The scariest part: The FDA study found an average level of lead in lipsticks of 1.07 ppm – more than 10 times higher than its own standard for lead in candy. FDA’s standard for candy is based on the lowest lead level that can be achieved. A similar standard should be applied to lipstick. So my suggestion? Get out that candy red lipstick. Just make sure it’s organic. You can even buy organic lipstick at a place such as Sephora.

Soy-based candles. I love burning candles. Love it. But when I saw the multiple studies about the dangers associated with this fun escape, I had a pause. At the September National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) — again, a pretty solid source of information — scientists explained burning traditional paraffin candles “is an unrecognized source of exposure to indoor air pollution, including the known human carcinogens…In the study, R. Massoudi Ph.D., and Amid Hamidi said that that candles made from bee’s wax or soy, although more expensive, apparently are healthier. They do not release potentially harmful amounts of indoor air pollutants while retaining all of the warmth, ambiance and fragrance of paraffin candles (which are made from petroleum).” I can’t really suggest a specific candle, but if you Google “soy candles” or “bee’s wax candles” there are a ton of options.

I am writing this post today instead of next week so you can get ready for the most made-up holiday in the world — next to Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, of course. There’s no reason that you can’t have a phenomenal, romantic heart day as long as you make it a healthy one. Have you ever considered the above tips? Have any more healthy romantic options? I’d love to hear about them!