We live in such interesting times. It is no secret that the financial wave of fast money, is unsustainable over the long haul. With financial "bubbles" bursting all around us, it's becoming more and more clear that we need seriously sustainable investment strategies.

I read a really great, eye opening, article in the June issue of The Sun Magazine. It is titled “The Prophet of Modest Profit - Woody Tasch on How Not to Get Rich Quick.” Woody Tasch, a pioneer in the field of sustainable investing, suggests that the merging of investment and philanthropy into one cohesive entity, is the only sensible way forward.

In the interview he explains how with "fast money" it's easy to lose control of where our money is going and what it's actually doing. And that if our money and our philanthropy are working at cross purposes, we don't gain any ground. For instance, our philanthropy and lifestyle choices might lead us to support sustainable local, small scale agriculture, while our working assets support large scale industrial farming systems. The good deed or investment does not nearly expunge the negative effects of the unsustainable investment.

Embedded in the principles of Woody Tasch's Slow Money Alliance, is the desire to: "enhance food security, food safety and food access; improve nutrition and health; promote cultural, ecological and economic diversity; and accelerate the transition from an economy based on extraction and consumption to an economy based on preservation and restoration."

Slow Money's mission is to invest in small food enterprises and local food systems; connect investors to their local economies; and build on the nurture capital industry.

People reminisce a lot about the "good old days", it seems like we have the opportunity to make these the truly "good old days". A time when we invest our hard earned money with pride, where people within a community are invested in each other. Where we can see our money grow side by side with the goodwill, health and prosperity of our neighbors.

(Photo credit:mslume on flickr)

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." John Muir

"I still find the day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see." John Burroughs

The very first step in greening our lives is to green our attitude, the way we think about and embrace life.

Here are some simple tips:

1. Unplug our media mind once in awhile and get out on a walk or even a sit in nature. A study by University of Illinois scientists Frances E. Kuo and William C. Sullivan found that a canopy of trees and greenery cools more than the forest floor, it can help to cool mental anguish and unrest. Their findings clearly indicate that: "Exposure to trees and vegetation seems to reduce mental fatigue and feelings of irritability that come with it." Gardening is a great way to unplug from stress and connect with nature.
2. A green time-out is usually just the ticket for improving our kids mindset because children benefit greatly from immersion in the green world as well. Head on over to the National Wildlife Federation's Green Hour website for great info. and ideas about family green time.
3.  Unleash your inner artist/writer by starting your own naturalist journal. Starting a nature journal is a great, simple, inexpensive way to deepen our connection with the natural world. Remembering that we are a part of and not separate from nature is key.
4. Practicing compassion for ourselves and all of our fellow beings as a daily ritual is incredibly rewarding. Compassion can color our world green faster than almost any other discipline.
5. Being ethical consumers of the bounty that our green planet affords us is also essential. Ethical, organic, humanely farmed or biodynamically farmed products will help to ensure a more sustainable future and give us some peace of mind. It is important to love and nurture, not disdain, neglect and fear what feeds us.
6. Get involved by supporting and volunteering at your local farmer' market or community clean up. This level of support and interaction with the green community helps us all to sleep better at night.

HAPPY EARTH DAY 2010!

(Photo credit:ms.lume on flickr)

Still chilly in your neck of the woods? We just learned about a new company offering super-soft woolies that'll warm the cockles of your sustainable heart. Ramblers Way Farm, created by Tom's of Maine founders Kate and Tom Chappell, uses Rambouillet wool from sheep farms in Maine and ranches in Colorado, Montana, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas and Utah. The standard? Superfine softness stemming from sustainable farming practices.
 
Sustainable American farms

• organic, no-till and best management practices
• protecting wildlife habitat and preserve critical ecosystems

Sustainable sheep

• breeding and lambing naturally
• rotational grazing practices
• shearing and sorting with gentle combs and humane handling systems
• protecting and moving flocks with trained animals

Sustainable manufacturing

• partnered with Rambouillet sheep farmers only in America
• environmentally-sensitive enzyme wash—a chlorine-free, patented treatment
• minimal packaging made from reclaimed materials that are compostable and recyclable
• generate their own solar and geothermal renewable energy
• use biofuels in their trucks and tractors

Sustainable community

• donate 10% of profits and 5% of paid time back to the community
• invigorate local economies by connecting connect American farms with American manufacturing
• preserve open space, farmland, and working landscapes
• web-based, connecting with customers with a small environmental footprint

Not convinced yet? We're always glad to turn readers on to a sustainable company, so feel for yourself: request a free sample to see how soft sustainable worsted wool can feel next to your skin.

(Photo credit:Ramblers Way Farms)

In 1894 John Muir wrote: "When California was wild, it was one sweet bee-garden throughout its entire length, north and south, and all the way across from the snowy Sierra to the ocean."

He continues by describing the immense biodiversity before him: "The great yellow days circled by uncounted, while I drifted toward the north, observing the countless forms of life thronging about me, lying down almost anywhere on the approach of night. And what glorious botanical beds I had! Often-times on awaking I would find several new species leaning over me and looking me full in the face, so that my studies would begin before rising."

This sounds like a beautiful dream, a beautiful impossible dream. But biodiversity because of its very nature is still within our reach. Favoring  biodiversity over monoculture, that is the crucial task at hand.

Here are some simple ways we can all foster green biodiversity:

1. Become informed about the historical biodiversity of where we live. Find out about local organizations that aid in the preservation of local endangered species, habitats and watershed. Learn what efforts are being attempted to restore these habitats and how we can help. Get the whole family involved.
2. Support worldwide conservation efforts whenever we can.
3. Research threatened and endangered plants species and provide some space in our landscape for them whenever possible.
4. Remove invasive species that may be choking out biodiversity on our small or large acre. Buy our seeds and plants from ethical organic sources. Plant heirloom varieties. Kick the pesticide/herbicide habit!
5. Support our local birds, they are great sowers of seed and plant a  butterfly/bee garden. Compost everything that you can.
6. Dedicate a "wilderness" area on our property where beneficial insects, birds and small wildlife may shelter and thrive. Plant a hedgerow habitat.
7. Buying our meats and produce from local ethical and organic farmers and markets whenever possible is so important.
8. Dialing back our fast food consumption sends an important message to companies that thrive on the devastating practices of monoculture.
9. Buy less stuff: use it up, wear it out, donate it, gift it. Reduce, reuse, recycle, upcycle, repeat!
10. If you are going to buy things, buy handmade things that support local economies, cottage industries and craftsmanship.
11. Whether we live in an urban or rural setting learning what we love about where we live is so important. Taking a walk in nearby nature, noticing that life is happening all around us, becoming connected, breathing...

Have a beautiful green day!

(Photo credit:ms.lume on flickr)

Big Beef doesn't like it when smart people tell the raw truth about the science behind their meat.

In fact, a very deep-pocketed cattle rancher in California, where “happy cows come from,” made quite a beef about an agribusiness critic almost talking about sustainable food at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Michael Pollan, author of the book In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto never got the chance to broach the controversial subject at the university. Well, not in the way he'd originally planned to.

Why not? Too much money was at steak stake. University officials promptly pulled the plug on Pollan's long-scheduled lecture on the heels of a threatening letter from alumni and Harris Ranch Beef Co. Chairman David Wood. In it, Wood threatened to yank his firm's donation “because the university was providing an 'unchallenged forum to promote his stand against conventional agricultural practices.'”

Just how much cash buys the power to manipulate Cal Poly's impressive speaker schedule? Only $150,000 in funds headed for—surprise!—a new meat processing factory for the university's prized cattle herd.

Wood also made a stink about a Cal Poly professor's beef with his company's cramped feedlot; the educator doesn't think it's sustainable. Wood does, so he wants us, potential beef-eating consumers, to be leery of university types, with their “thinking,” backed-by-laboratory-science “opinions.” Why would Wood want impressionable, young minds to know that:

1. Beef isn't an essential part of our diet.
2. Neither is cow's milk.
3. Grass-fed, free-range, sustainable beef is available right now, if you look hard enough. (It's not exactly cheap, though.)
4. Industrial-scale beef and dairy ranches gobble up insane amounts of natural resources, fan the fires of global warming with a different, shall we say more fragrant, brand of wind energy, and Big Beef's eco-unfriendly carbon hoof-print only gets bigger ... 

When did the Ivory Tower put open academic debate up on the auction block? Cal Poly and its beef magnate benefactor(s) are messing with the wrong sustainable foodie. Pollan just happens to be a respected "meat scientist," a mass-scale organic lettuce producer and a journalism professor at the University of California, Berkeley, for starters. I'd say he knows enough about Big, Bad Beef and the science of agricultural sustainability, not to mention his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, to boldly stand up to this outrage.

So, did he? As reported in The Los Angeles Times, Pollan,
"no stranger to attacks from Big Ag," responded like so, “It's an open threat to the university. The issue is really about whether the school is free to explore diverse ideas about farms and farming."

See? Pollan didn't take the news lying down. Actually, in a way he did. He agreed to nix his solo speech and instead participate in panel discussion, which was held last month.

During the panel discussion, Pollan wasted no time in bringing up Big Beef's pressure to censor him. In response to the moderator's first question ("What is sustainability?"), he said:

"I would be remiss if I didn't address a little bit the circumstances surrounding this event, which I don't think we can let pass in silence. But one of the reasons we're doing the panel and not a conventional speech is that there was a real challenge to the university posed by the government, and what is potentially a real threat to academic freedom. And as much as agriculture is what we want to talk about today, academic freedom under girds the ability to have the kind of conversation about agriculture we want to have."

"You could have a monoculture of a university -- one that only tolerated one kind of thinking - and when the world changes, as it inevitably does, you would find yourself in serious trouble. But when you have a lot of different ideas, and they're all nurtured, and they're all brought into contact with one another as we hope to do today, that is where you get the resources to withstand shocks to the system. And god knows those shocks are coming."

For more of Pollan's remarks, check out the full transcript.

Big Beef: "It's what's for dinner," and it's powerful, scary stuff. Just ask Pollan.

(Photo credit:Flickr, Binary Ape)

According to Time author Brian Walsh, more than simply a case of penny-wise/pound foolish, the dangerous game of cheap food production is costing us--big time--both morally and from the standpoint of the health and the well being of the planet.

The farming practices employed for growing animals and food crops for the sake of affordable crispy, salty, fatty goodness are becoming hard to reconcile. As a society of consumers we may have lost touch with the great cost of what we consume. Here are some common-sense practices that we can all employ:

1. The first step is becoming informed about what we eat, no, I don’t mean simply reading the nutritional information on the side of a package. Research the food sources that you consume and the companies that produce and package them. Becoming informed about their cruelty free, fair wage and environmental protection practices--if any--and voting with your dollars.
2. Deciding that we can and should delay gratification before we impulse buy. We should employ the courage of our convictions to supply our pantry in a thoughtful healthy-minded way. It is also a good example to set when raising a new generation of consumers that we care about our health and environment.
3. I am not preaching but I practice and suggest practicing being grateful about what and whom we consume. Realizing that some form of life is ending so that we can be nourished and paying tribute to that life is key. Some acknowledgment of this as a daily practice, can be very grounding and liberating.
4. Supporting local organic, sustainable farmers is a key factor in toppling the industrial farming machine. Keeping our eyes fixed on achieving the goals of permaculture and sustainability and not being swayed by or tempted to give in to lethargy, despair and worst of all inaction.
5. Cutting down on our consumption of meat is so important if we care about ourselves and this world, people like Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser, Mark Bittman and a growing collective of world scientists are not kidding when they say that what we are consuming is killing us and the planet.

Take two or three or even five and call me in the morning! Have a beautiful, sustainable day!

(Photo credit:ms.lume SuperEco group on flickr)

"For three million years we were hunter-gatherers, and it was through the evolutionary pressures of that way of life that a brain so adaptable and so creative eventually emerged. Today we stand with the brains of hunter-gatherers in our heads, looking out on a modern world made comfortable for some by the fruits of human inventiveness, and made miserable for others by the scandal of deprivation in the midst of plenty." Richard E Leakey

"Don't blow it, good planets are hard to find." Time Magazine

It can be real challenge to green our shiny thing loving, impulse buying, inner hunter-gatherer. Here are some basic tips that can help us be lean and green in our consumption:

1. Make lists of our consumer driven needs and desires, check them twice or three times before venturing out to shop. Personally it helps me--especially when food shopping--to check my cabinets thoroughly to make sure that I really need something before I buy it. The backs of cupboards and the drawers in my fridge often yield, upon close inspection, items that I think I need more of.
2. Delay gratification long enough on larger items to find the best price as locally as possible. This supports our local economy. The lack of local Mom and Pop stores for appliances and larger ticket items may make a trip to a nearby chain store inevitable. I usually decry the big-box shopping experience but at the very least a purchase from the greenest big-box store that you can find, supports someones livelihood. Because these establishments employ many of our neighbors and friends, buying locally--even from a larger store--may make more sense carbon footprint wise, than resorting to mail order. Always look for the Energy Star label when purchasing new appliances.
3. Buying used items or swapping goods and services whenever possible is a marvelous way to green your consumption. Vintage items and shabby-chic sensibilities are not going out of style any time soon.
4. Support local farmers, restaurants, craftsmen and women and service providers whenever humanly possible.
5. Buying fair trade, organic goods whenever possible supports eco-friendly land and workforce practices and humane cruelty free animal treatment.
6. Reducing and simplifying our needs, reusing what we already possess and recycling what we cannot upcycle or gift.
7. Walk, bike or use public transport whenever possible to shop.
8. Plan your shopping trips in the car as efficiently as possible, combining tasks and fun makes total sense for the green at heart. Asking a friend along for the ride or carpooling to the store or events is an energy efficient way to offset your carbon footprint.
9. When gift giving, we should always avoid willly nilly impulse buying. Thoughtful gift giving takes more effort but pays off with buckets and buckets of good green karma!

Happy green gathering!

(Photo credit:dno1967 on flickr)

Naturally cultured or lacto-fermented foods contain friendly bacteria and enzymes that help digest food in the intestines and help to support the immune system.

Lacto-fermented vegetables—pickles to you—have been around since ancient times.

Fermenting food is a practice that spans the globe and has played a major role in almost every cuisine worldwide.

Lacto-fermentation is a process which encourages healthy bacteria, or lactobacilli to break down and convert sugars, proteins and starches in foods into lactic-acid.
Allowing dairy, fruits and vegetables to sour or ferment increases drastically improves their shelf life. At the same time lacto-fermenting enhances food’s digestibility and increases nutritional value.

Well that’s the nuts and bolts--so to speak--now for the yummy part!

Who's making and where to buy, wonderful eco-friendly, lacto-fermented goodness:

1. Zukay live foods makes a yummy/delicious range of pickled relishes and dressings. They advertise themselves as “The first every day non-dairy, probiotic food company” Zukay helps to lower their carbon footprint by buying their ingredients as close to home a possible.
2. Bubbies pickles are so delicious, they are a favorite of mine. They have a wonderful peppery zing! Their sauerkraut is wonderful as well.
3. Pickled Planet says "Our vision is to help return balance to our living systems: economic system by offering profit sharing and worker buy in options that will provide a real living wage to employees, while buying produce direct from farmers when ever we can."
4. Real Pickles declares that "We aim to produce the highest quality, traditional pickled foods available, using natural fermentation. We buy our vegetables only from Northeast family farms and sell our products only within the Northeast. Our ingredients are 100% organic."
5. Hawthorne Valley is a biodynamic farm operating under the umbrella organization of the Hawthorne Valley Association, a nonprofit operation dedicated to agriculture, education, and the arts. They declare: "Our bio-dynamic farming practices reflect our commitment to protecting the health of the earth and all who live on it."

Happy "green" pickle hunting!

(Photo credit:mariko on flickr)

We'd never pass up a chance at chocolate—not to eat it, not to blog about it. While we're more inclined to keep the former strictly to ourselves (I'll eat every last square myself, thank you very much), the latter is worth the proverbial shout from the mountaintop. Most people, it seems, remain befuddled by the idea that chocolate could and should be organic, sustainable or ethical. It's just chocolate, right?

Wrong. Unless it's certified organic or fair trade, that luscious chocolate bar melting in the summer sun was most likely made with cocoa harvested by child labor. That's something sticky you don't want to lick off your fingers, eh? Because growers where the most pervasive abuses take place don't produce organic cocoa beans, the easiest way to make sure your chocolate purchases are not part of the problem is to buy only certified or organic fair trade chocolate.

Efforts toward curbing the labor abuses have not yet solved the problem, but a few projects are bearing fruit.

• Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), a Maine-based non profit promoting sustainable agriculture, is offering eco-foodies the opportunity to volunteer on cacao farms in Belize building wood conserving stoves, touring local cacao farms, and attending presentations on Fair Trade and cacao cooperatives. (Treehugger)
• Bicycles from Wheels4Life are providing African cocoa conservation trainers and farmers a viable mode of transportation in the region's notoriously muddy and hilly terrain. (Treehugger)
• Companies like Original Beans are working to help develop a truly sustainable agricultural economy based around cacao production. Visit this stunning slideshow that shows how. (Treehugger)

Here's where you come in: Don't allow spur-of-the-moment cravings to suck you into becoming part of the problem. Buy chocolate only from companies that make fair trade and organic products.

• Organic and free trade chocolate
• Fair Trade Certified chocolate

(Photo credit:Original Beans via Treehugger)

Remember when "they" said that organic food was a specialty market that would never expand past the folks with plenty of disposable income? "They" can eat their (organic) words: a new report from the USDA shows that the American appetite for organic food continues to outstrip supply. Organic sales have ballooned more than five-fold since the late 1990s, yet production has only slightly more than doubled. Organics accounted for three percent of total American food sales in 2008.

It's not just the foodie crowd that's buying, either. Organic fans come from literally every demographic group. The Center for a Livable Future offers this analysis:

The clientele fueling this demand is far more diverse—and at times surprising—than any pigeonholed assumptions about the typical organic consumer. According to recent surveys, African Americans spent the most on organic produce in 2004. The same year, lowest household income (less than $25,000 per year) was correlated with the highest per capita spending on organic produce. In general, there is little or no substantial differentiation across race, age, education, geography or income among the growing population of Americans who purchase organic products.

Makes sense to us—we all want to eat healthy food, don't we? We'll be interested in seeing how locally grown foods factor into the demand for organics. Recent surveys suggest that consumers would prefer to buy local over organic, so we're hoping that a hunger for one supports the growth of the other. Any way you slice it, those who've crowed for years about organics being the province of "elitists" can take this news as a true sign of the times. The times, they are a-greenin'!

(Photo credit:Trellina @SuperEco pool, flickr)