The Green Mom Review™

Weekly Green Round-Up

2009-07-04T04:53:52Z

Is there an Environmentally Friendly Form of Birth Control? by Dirty Diaper Laundry — Kim examines some popular methods of birth control to see if any of them can be called green.

What’s on My Food? — Holy poison potatoes, Batman! This site makes me 1) glad that we eat a lot of organic food and 2) upset that it can’t all be organic. I hope every person who has ever tried to argue with me about organic foods would look up their fave foods on this site.

Remembering My Mom’s Lessons About Waste from No-Impact Man — We could learn a thing or two from the Japanese.

Pushing Your Way to Greener Grass : Environmentally-Friendly Reel Mowers from Crunchy Domestic Goddess — A closer look at the benefits of lawn mowers that run on people-power. My husband totally wants one.

The Revolution Will Not Be (Petrochemically) Fertilized by The Green Fork — Kerry sounds off about kitchen illiteracy and general ignorance about the food we eat and the possibility of an alternative food system.

Also… It’s That Time Again!

No, it’s not time to change your oil, or get your teeth cleaned or visit your in-laws. It’s something way better—the July Great Green Post Awards! The deadline is July 8th so shake a tailfeather and submit your info here!

And if you don’t know what the Great Green Post awards are, please read this so you can participate, too :)

One lucky submitter will win their choice of a reusable shopping bag OR three coupons for free HAPPYBABY Fresh Frozen Organic Baby Meals!

The Green Mom Review™.

Little Soles For Little Feet

2009-07-03T05:53:47Z

As soon as my daughter and son–now six and soon to be four, respectively–started crawling, it became very apparent to me that they were the kinds of kids who were keen on putting everything in their mouths. From soothers and bottles to their fingers, pocket change and whatever happened to be lying on the floor next to them, if it was within arm’s reach, they were going to eat it. I fished more buttons and balls of lint out of their mouths than I care to remember and caught them with their shoes shoved halfway down their throats so many times that I began to wonder if they preferred the taste of their footwear over my homemade baby food.

And when it came to them gnawing on their shoes, I wasn’t so much worried about choking hazards as I was about what they were ingesting. Just what were those shoes made of, and was it safe for my kids to be, well, eating them?

If only I had known about Little Soles, a Calgary-based line of footwear created by Mompreneur Jessica Jacobs in 2005. Not only are Little Soles’ designs durable and totally adorable, they’re 100% non-toxic because, yes, shoes ARE typically toxic. Since subjecting their latest collection, Baby Soles, to thorough testing in order to ensure each shoe was toxin and dye-free, Little Soles has adopted the same method with all of their products, resulting in footwear that’s safe for the Earth—and for children to use as teethers.

Find It Here: Little Soles

The Green Mom Review™.

Kid Guides

2009-07-02T21:46:55Z

If your kids are anything like mine, they like TV. Me? Not so much. I have a couple things I watch each season and that’s about it (my sick semi-addiction to CNN notwithstanding). Since I tend to be critical of most television programming, particularly for kids, I generally only let mine watch certain things; things with some kind of educational value mostly. So yes, I’m a bit of a control freak when it comes to my kids’ media consumption. Whatever. Well, in case you didn’t know, that doesn’t leave much, but I’m always keeping my eyes open for new and interesting things that I can DVR and save for them to watch when they’re in the mood for some boob tubing. I recently became aware of Kid Guides, a show where two kids travel around to museums, zoos, aquariums and the like and share their adventures in nature and science with viewers. I let my kids watch some clips and they really liked it (they totally dug the “kid” hosts) and I liked it, too, because it was remarkably devoid of spastic, screaming, anthropomorphic cartoon animals (or sponges) and it’s not dumbed down to the point of tedium. And? Kid Guides has received the Parents Television Council Seal of Approval and scored an Emmy Award, to boot. You can check the Kid Guides site (under ‘Show Times’) to see if it airs in your area OR you can get Kid Guides on DVD from Amazon.com

Find It Here: Kid Guides

Win It: We’re giving away 2 Kid Guides DVD’s. Click here to fill out our simple entry form. Just enter KG7 as the giveaway name and provide the answer to this question: Name three of the four available Kid Guide DVD’s. Enter by 7/13/09. $30 value. Open to US residents. Winner will be notified by email.

The Green Mom Review™.

Get the Hormones Out of School Milk!

2009-06-28T01:01:10Z

Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) is used to force cows to make more milk. It is, in essence, a genetically-engineered synthetic hormone. Most of the industrialized countries in the world have banned rBGH but here in the United States, we’re giving it to our most vulnerable citizens—our children! It is estimated that at least 84 million gallons of milk from artificial hormone-treated cows were distributed through the school nutrition programs in fiscal year 2005-2006. That’s about 20% of the milk offered in school cafeterias nationwide. I don’t give my kids rBGH-derived milk at home—why would I be okay with them having it at school??? The good news is that we have a great chance to bring milk free from artificial, genetically engineered hormones into our schools as Congress takes up legislation on the National School Lunch Program. Make your voice heard on this important issue by signing the True Food Network’s petition to ask Congress to state that schools can specifically seek out and purchase artificial hormone-free milk and organic milk.

The Green Mom Review™.

Local, Organic and Conventional

2009-06-28T00:22:13Z

My husband just sent me this link to a short article on Current about how there is no “local vs. organic.” I was glad to read it because when I hear people say that buying local is better than organic and vice versa, it made no sense to me. They’re two completely separate things. Buy organic AND local, if you can, or choose the one that’s most important to you but don’t feel like you’re choosing between two equal options. One is specifically better for

The Green Mom Review™.