Refreshing to see

A friend of mine was out the other night and this was on his table. I'm not endorsing any place but only pointing out that education does work.

I really don't beleive they were not aware of the endangered list though. It would kind of be like GM mechanics not being aware of the latest recall.

If you want to see more on the endangered fish speicies, check out this little guide, http://www.edf.org/documents/1980_pocket_seafood_selector.pdf

Green Cookies?

Bullfrog Power, Canada’s 100 per cent green electricity provider, today announced its agreement with Kraft Canada to pilot a new green natural gas solution. Through the agreement, Kraft Canada will bullfrogpower^® the energy required for Dad’s Cookies’ baking and packaging processes at its manufacturing facilities with 100 per cent green natural gas and 100 per cent green electricity.  Read here, http://www.bullfrogpower.com/11releases/pilot.cfm

Suzuki's Top 10 Sustainable Seafood Picks

It's not uncommon to hear David Suzuki say, I am fish. What he means is that humans aren't much different from the living, breathing species that come from the sea. This is a good thing to remember when choosing your food. Enjoying seafood sustainably means acknowledging the animal's unique role in nature, understanding how it got from the water to your plate, and managing how much of it we consume.
Get the list here, http://www.davidsuzuki.org/what-you-can-do/eat-for-a-healthy-planet/suzukis-top-10-sustainable-seafood-picks/

Four reasons to grow heirloom plants

Heirlooms can seem intimidating, but they absolutely should not be. According to Elana Havusha, an environmental educator and garden manager at Shemesh Organic Farm, an educational farm nestled in the hills of Malibu, CA, heirlooms have a mystique about them: "People are excited about the idea of purchasing heirlooms at farmers markets, for instance, but they sometimes hesitate to grow them themselves because they're not comfortable with the word. It sounds too fancy." And fancier means finicky, which means harder work. See tha list here, http://www.getwithgreen.com/2010/09/23/four-reasons-to-grow-heirloom-plants/

October is Non-GMO month

Celebrate Non-GMO Month!

October 2010 will be the first ever Non-GMO Month, with a special Non-GMO Day on 10.10.10. Close to 600 retailers nationwide are registered to participate!

Read more here, http://www.nongmoproject.org/

Local as it Gets

A family living in Mesa, Arizona, has decided to convert an old unused backyard swimming pool into a very productive DIY urban greenhouse, which they named Garden Pool. Within a small, mostly enclosed space, they grow all kinds of vegetables and herbs, as well as raise chickens and tilapia fish

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/garden-pool-family-of-four-grows-food-in-swimming-pool-arizona.php?campaign=th_rss

New Festival Celebrates Local, Sustainable Food & Drink

New Festival Celebrates Local, Sustainable Food & Drink - CityNews

A new food festival set to take over Fort York this weekend caters to all those who like to think long and hard about a meal before eating.If you take pride in purchasing local produce, meats and other items, the first-ever Conscious Food Festival is likely to whet your appetite.The celebration of healthy, local and sustainable food starts at 11am Saturday and runs through to 7pm Sunday at the historic site at 100 Garrison Rd.The event will give urbanites the chance to meet the people who produced the food featured at the festival. There will also be live music, workshops and chefs will be on hand for cooking demonstrations.

Where I'm At Now (Part 2)

The next post in the series of some of the transitions we've made.

Anyone that knows me, knows I'm a big coffee drinker.

Coffee is actually one of my exception items on my 100-Mile Diet (Details in future post)

A lot of coffee is produced in countries that are politically unstable. What this means in very brief terms, is that the coffee is controlled by large coffee cartels. The cartels market the coffee and make the profit passing very little along to the farmers.

The farmers are then forced to enlist their families, since they have no money to pay workers, and are denied proper meals, education and medical treatment. 

Fair Trade Coffee is usually grown in farmer owned cartels or co-ops where the farmers make more of the profits allowing them to live better lives. Most Fair Trade Coffee growers also grow the coffee organically and are excellent stewards of the earth.

 

One of the companies I've found is Just Us! Coffee Roasters Co-operative Limited , http://www.justuscoffee.com/Default.aspx

I'm not trying to promote this company, I'm just using it as an example. Their site has a lot of info about Fair Trade.

 

Just Us! also has tea, chocolate and sugar, all from the Fair Trade variety.

For me, it's only Fair Trade Organic coffee at home and I look for it in coffee shops too.

7 Companies You Can Trust to Use BPA-Free Cans

Here's a startling, almost amazing fact. Eden Organic has been canning beans since 1999 in BPA (bisphenol-A) free cans. For a decade. Concerns about BPA keep mounting - in January the FDA reversed its 2008 stance to say it was "concerned" about BPA and recommended limited exposure. So why all food manufacturers follow Eden's lead?

Read more and see the list here,
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/03/7-bpa-free-canned-foods.php?campaign=th_rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+treehuggersite+%28Treehugger%29&utm_content=FaceBook

Turkey wars

If you're eating organic turkey this weekend, savour it, because by next Thanksgiving it may be easier to buy crack cocaine in Ontario than a drug-free bird.
Here's why: While the turkey industry marketing board tells growers to confine their turkeys indoors to reduce the chance of transmission of viruses from wild birds, new organics standards administered by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency mandate raising organic birds outdoors.
Read here, http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/708416--turkey-wars

Sea change in store for supermarkets?

Environmental groups that have been sounding urgent alarms about dramatic declines in fish and seafood stocks are taking Canadian supermarkets to task for the role they play in the emptying of the oceans.
A global study entitled History of Marine Animal Populations, presented in May at the Oceans Past conference in Vancouver, has intensified concern about the looming crisis. Marine researchers combing through historical records covering the past 2,000 years have determined there are 85 to 90 per cent fewer fish and marine mammals today than there once were. Read more here, http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2009/08/07/f-seafood.html

Buy-local push prompts Ontario grocers to go independent

Dale Kropf calls it Independence Day: On July 3, his five grocery stores in southwestern Ontario ceased to be Sobeys franchises.
Corporate policies prevented him from buying local products, he says, so he joined forces with four other former Sobeys franchisees and formed the independent Hometown Grocers Co-Op.
"We feel that local food, local presence is huge in our market and we wanted to take advantage of that," Kropf says.
Read more here, http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/07/14/f-grocery-stores-independent-buy-local-meat-produce.html?ref=rss

FoodCycles

This is related to my previous post.
I should point out that there is a local program here in Toronto as well that one of our members is a part of.
Check out FoodCycles, http://foodcycles.org/

Urban farming movement 'like a revolution'

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- On a plot of soil, nestled against the backdrop of skyscrapers in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, a group of residents are turning a lack of access to fresh produce into a revival of old traditions and self-empowerment. More here, http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/06/29/bia.urban.farming/index.html

Loblaw Makes Commitment to Source 100 Per Cent Sustainable Seafood by 2013

BRAMPTON, ON – May 20, 2009 – Today, Loblaw Companies Limited (Loblaw) makes a commitment to source all seafood sold in its retail locations from sustainable sources by the end of 2013. The commitment covers all canned, frozen, fresh, wild and farmed seafood products, in all categories. The Loblaw Sustainable Seafood Policy Initiative represents Loblaw’s commitment to conservation of marine resources and a healthy ocean environment.

More here, http://wwf.ca/newsroom/?3680 or here, www.loblaw.ca/seafood.

Local Cheese for Eastern Ontario

Hey all, I was just recommended to a local cheese company in Eastern Ontario.

Their milk is produced in a 100 mile radius, non GMO feed, antibiotic free and humanly raised.

Check them out, http://www.fifthtown.ca/

World Oceans Day 2009

World Oceans Day 2009 is on June 8, 2009. A lot of communities are organizing events to celebrate the day. In Canada, you can check out the David Suzuki Foundation at http://www.davidsuzuki.org/oceansday
You can do a lot by choosing fish that was caught wild as opposed to farmed fish.
Farmed fish are usually fed an unnatural diet, and are subject to overcrowding, disease, such as sea lice, and are fed antibiotics. Farmed fish also have higher levels of cancer-causing toxins like PCBs and dioxin.

Ask your fish monger to buy wild fish and remember not all wild fish are good for the environment either. There are some regions over fish or use destructive methods to catch fish resulting in habitat destruction.
You can download a pocket guide to help you decide at the Environmental Defence Fund’s website here, http://www.edf.org/documents/1980_pocket_seafood_selector.pdf

Cadbury Pledge Major Boost to Fair Trade

WASHINGTON, Mar 9 (OneWorld.net) - Cadbury, an iconic candy company in the UK, plans to achieve Fair Trade certification for its famous chocolate bars, a move that will triple sales for Fair Trade cocoa farmers in Ghana.
Read more, http://news.yahoo.com/s/oneworld/20090309/wl_oneworld/world3608371236627046

Get Local

This year, I’m going to work a bit harder to eat more meals made with local ingredients.
The majority of my home meals already conform to the criteria I’ve established for myself.
There are a few exceptions (condiments) that are not local. In these cases, the product has to be organic.
The problem I have is with my daily lunch. I often take a lunch, but choices are limited when you eliminate processed and imported foods. I only have a few choices.
There’s also days I don’t take a lunch. Most of the available lunch spots are food court restaurants or street vendors and the majority of those buy from a central wholesaler. The street vendor does have local potatoes fairly often but not the oil.
It looks like I’ll have to eliminate the food court and get used to my brown bag lunch.