Greener Chic

The Small House Movement

2008-09-11T09:18:00.001-07:00

Having grown up in a small home, I spent most of my childhood dreaming of living in a huge, luxurious home. As I've grown older, however, I've learned to appreciate the benefits of a small home (or condo!). I live in a part of the country that is practically frozen all winter long. Heating costs are high, and you can't really enjoy your yard half of the year. Why buy a multi-million dollar home if you can't even enjoy it?

According to the New York Times, many other people are also realizing that bigger is not always better when it comes to their living space. Yesterday the New York Times interviewed Gregory Paul Johnson, founder of the Small House Society in Iowa City, who lives in a 140-square-foot-home. Johnson explains the appeal of smaller homes:

“there are so many powerful forces at work right now...like rising energy costs and the mortgage crisis. I think people want small homes because they cost less to purchase, maintain, heat.”

Not everyone is dying to move into an 100-square-foot-house, but compromising on, say, living in a house that is 1000-square-feet or smaller is starting to make more and more sense to home buyers.

To find out more about the movement, and for pictures of these lovely small homes, check out The Next Little Thing? On the NY Times website.

PETA Buys Sea World?

2008-08-28T10:22:00.001-07:00

Apparently, PETA is considering an option to purchase Sea World. It is still not clear whether Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Sea World, will take the proposal seriously, but it's an interesting offer nonetheless. PETA is not planning to shut the park down (or even to release all the animals--which seems rather hypocritical to me), but they will be setting some of the animals free and "virtualizing" portions of the park (which seems like a good idea to me--after all, how many tanks of fish do people need to look at anyway?).

One wonders how PETA's purchase of the park might affect the local economy--I'm afraid I don't see the park raking in nearly as many dollars with PETA at the helm, but maybe that's just me.

Air Drying Clothes

2008-08-27T08:50:00.001-07:00

Air drying or line drying clothes is an excellent way to save on energy costs, saving the average family at least $100 a year. Dryers are one of the most inefficient appliances in any household, and believe it or not, 10-25 percent of most family's electricity bills are due to running the dryer (dryers are also a leading source of home and apartment fires). Furthermore, the energy savings are just the tip of the iceberg, since line drying also makes your clothing last MUCH longer (ever wonder where lint comes from? That's little bits of your clothing!).

Sadly, in the US, clotheslines are seen by homeowners associations as a sign of poverty (since when did being environmentally friendly equal poverty?), as this article on line drying bans in the Boston Globe attests. Still, there are a myriad of options for line drying, even if you live in a place where air-drying is forbidden (or impossible, like in an apartment building). I live in a condo, so we use clothing lines.

For information on the various ways of air drying your clothes (and evaluation of different drying racks, etc., check out this air dry washing article on the website Tip the Planet.

The Kennedy-Obama Connection

2008-08-25T14:37:00.001-07:00

I've been watching the opening of the Democratic Convention today with some interest.

I also thought this would be an opportunity to try out my pet theory about Obama's candidacy. For some time I've been telling my husband that I felt Obama represented an opportunity for the Kennedy clan to regain control of the Democratic Party. My reasoning is primarily geographic: since JFK, we've only had Southern Democrats in the White House (LBJ, Carter, Clinton). This means Obama would be the first non-southern Democrat in the White House since JFK. I first started to suspect something along these lines when Ted Kennedy came out in support of Obama early on. Now, in spite of being extremely ill with brain cancer, Kennedy is expected to speak at the convention (along with his niece, Caroline Kennedy).

It turns out that I'm not alone in my suspicions.

Conservative commentator William Bennett commented on CNN today that "this is not your older brother's Democratic party, it's your father's Democratic party" and went on to note that the Clintons are gone and today marks a decided shift to the left in the Democratic party's platform.

I hope news agencies and bloggers will pay a bit more attention to this issue. I've been trying to find more information on the Kennedy-Obama connection, but I haven't found much yet. If anyone runs across a good article on this, pass it on, because I'd love to read it.

Power through the air?

2008-08-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

My husband sent me this video, and I had to share it. The concept is cool, but it also freaks me out. If living next to power lines is dangerous, just think what this stuff could do!

Wireless Electricity

Source: BBC

More and more career women choosing to stay at home

2008-08-07T12:07:00.001-07:00

I ran across a couple of interesting articles this week about changing attitudes towards women who choose to stay at home.

The first was an article on the BBC website 'Support for working mums falls' about how more women are choosing to stay at home with their children as a result of the pressures in the work place. Most offices aren't particularly friendly towards working moms, so a lot more moms are choosing to quit work once their children are born.

Interestingly, although the article puts most of its emphasis on how unfriendly the office environment is to working moms, the author also confesses that it's not JUST the fact that it's hard to work once you have kids--social attitudes towards working mothers are changing. In the past, women who chose to stay at home with their kids tended to be viewed negatively, as if they were somehow less productive than women who managed to juggle career and family. Today, more and more couples believe that family life suffers when women work (62% vs. 49% in 1994). Professor Jacqueline Scott of Cambridge University, who was interviewed for the article, is quoted as saying that the notion that support is steadily growing for women to abandon their more traditional role in the home is "clearly a myth".

The other article I read deals with a similar subject matter. CNN reports on the changing attitude towards housewives in an article entitled "No kids, no jobs for growing number of wives." Whereas the BBC's focus was more on women with kids, CNN has chosen to focus on women who choose to stay at home even though they don't have kids. While the author focuses on the fact that having a wife at home is viewed as a "luxury" by some, I think they are sort of missing the point. By learning to live with less, single income families can help lighten the load we put on the planet and significantly reduce a family's carbon footprint.

And as this Second Income Calculator available from MSN money reveals, depending on the income of the second wage earner, once the the costs associated with working outside the home (such as a second car, clothing, etc.) are taken into account, it often costs MORE to have that second income!

Image: Tyranov, Young Housewife--courtesy of wikimedia commons

Colombians March for the Freedom of Those Kidnapped by FARC

2008-07-20T18:16:00.000-07:00

Independence Day in Colombia is usually characterised by military parades, so I was touched to read today that this year Colombia is celebrating its independence with a march in support of those who have been kidnapped by Colombia's armed rebel groups. Today in Bogota, more than a million protesters gathered to raise their voices against FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).

Luis Alberto Gutierrez expressed the feeling of many Colombians, stating "first we got independence from the Spanish, now we want independence from those who oppress us with violence and kidnapping" ,the BBC reports.

Although Ingrid Betancourt was freed several weeks ago, the FARC continues to hold over 700 people in captivity. The climate of fear and violence in Colombia has been a real barrier to the country's growth, and the FARC is to blame for a great deal of this. Hopefully FARC will get the message from this protest: Colombians are tired of their morally bankrupt despicable tactics. It is impossible to call your movement "revolutionary" when you are in the business of stealing and selling human beings.

Plastic Bags in Colombia

2008-06-18T09:10:00.001-07:00

Since arriving in Colombia, one of the things that has astounded me the most is the sheer quantity of pollution here. There are efforts underway to improve things, but they have a long way to go.

The worst/most visible problem here? Plastic bags! They are everywhere you look. While the city makes a considerable effort at garbage collection, there are simply too many plastic bags and they are so convenient and cheap that you get them everywhere you go. And unlike cans and bottles, which many of the locals collect in exchange for deposits (and I believe in the case of cans they are probably compensated by weight), plastic bags are worth nothing to recycle. As a result, they are omnipresent.

If one thing has convinced me to stop using plastic bags, it was this trip! I am using canvas from now on (I've always gotten by with the excuse that I use plastic bags are garbage liners, but there has got to be a better way).

Convenience plastics are certainly an eyesore in North America, but they are a tremendous environmental hazard in the developing world. The rivers have been choked by the sheer quantity of plastics that people throw in them. It is truly tragic.

Dealing with Higher Gas Prices

2008-06-04T08:35:00.000-07:00

In case you've been living on another planet for the past few months, you've probably noticed that fuel prices have gone sky-high. Gas is as much as $5 a gallon some places in the states. Here in Canada it's been nearly $5 for a couple of years, so my husband and I have been trying to conserve fuel for quite a while now.

Believe it or not, even with higher fuel prices, we spend less than 100 dollars a month on gas (between 60 and 90 depending on how much recreational driving we do). For comparison, AAA reports that the average American family will be spending 1,100 dollars for gas between June and August this year (that's $370 a month).

How do we do it?

1. My husband and I share our car. I realize this is not possible for a lot of couples, but it works really well for us.

2. We live near the downtown core and the University, so we're both close to work (I'm within walking distance). This is obviously helps a lot! Generally I walk to work and he drives (but he's close enough that he could walk--if he left every morning an hour early!).

3. Use public transportation. If I want to go downtown I ususally take the LRT or the bus. For a while this wasn't such a big savings, but now that fuel prices are higher, it's a great deal.

4. We drive a V4. This was a little bit of a battle with my dear husband at first. We're all conditioned to think that V6 is best, but it uses so much more gas that it's just not worth it. I would NEVER go back to a V6. I think now that people are more conscious about fuel economy, V6 and V8 engines will be a hard sell.

5. What we don't do: we actually aren't obsessive about fuel economy. I don't think most of those crazy tips help that much anyway (like letting the car "coast" to avoid braking and stuff like that). We let the car idle sometimes (horrors!) and use a fair bit of AC in the summer.

My advice overall? Try to live close to work, or work from home a couple of days a week. Increasing fuel economy is more about driving less than it is about crazy ways of increasing your gas mileage. Also, don't get obsessive: we take plenty of recreational trips each month, especially in the summer. I don't feel guilty about it AT ALL. In the end, it's about doing the best you can with what you've got.

WWF Defends Biofuels

2008-05-27T12:24:00.001-07:00

According to the BBC, a recent report by the World Wildlife Fund argues that biofuel production should have a positive impact on the environment. Nevertheless, the the organization continues to urge companies producing ethanol to exercise caution, as expansion of the program into the jungles of Brazil is still a "potential" threat to biodiversity.

Personally, I was a little surprised by this news story. I didn't realize that the WWF supported biofuels.

Energy Conservation in Paris

2008-05-22T15:32:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to Paris and I thought I'd share some of my thoughts on energy conservation in Paris.

First of all, I need to say that every time I go to Europe I always have high expectations of seeing new energy conservation techniques being used. I think it's fair to say that Europeans have a history of being innovators in energy saving ideas, so I was hoping to see new and exciting energy-saving devices, etc.

Maybe it's because Paris is a big city, but I have to say, I wasn't very impressed with efforts to improve conservation in the city. Last time I visited Paris there was a marked difference in attitudes there vs. here in Canada. This was not as apparent on this trip. I guess this is a good thing in some ways--it means that Canadians have come a long way in two years, but I don't think it's very good news for Paris.

Firstly, I noticed that several of the businesses I went to had replaced the lower water consumption two-button toilets with 1 button models that use at least twice as much water (I noticed this in at two of our favourite restaurants, Starbucks and at the airport). This was just plain weird to me. Also, it seemed like nobody in Paris had heard that plastic bags were wasteful--I got plastic bags with EVERYTHING and there was no charge (which was kinda nice, because I was a tourist and didn't think to pack reuseable bags). Furthermore, there weren't very many reuseable bags available for purchase either, though my mom managed to find one at the Monoprix.

Oh, nobody seemed to be recycling ANYTHING. Our host family was quite conscientious about it, but their system is a bit of a hassle and they are required to use non-biodegradable plastic bags, rather than reusable bins, which seems like a rather wasteful practice.

One thing I did like was Velib, a programme begun in 2007 that allows people to rent bikes all over the city and drop them off with ease. It's a great idea and a healthy alternative to public transport.

So, all in all, Parisians were trying some new ways of saving energy, like "Velib" but overall, I didn't see anything that really struck me as being remarkably progressive, and some of their other habits were a bit surprising.

Debbie Travis' Facelift

2008-05-05T09:46:00.000-07:00

First of all, I might as well confess that I'm an HGTV addict. My favourite programmes? Those about moving to tropical locales, and interior design shows. My favourite show is probably the flamboyant "Colin and Justin's Home Heist" (entertaining and generally great design). My favourite love-to-hate show? "Debbie Travis' Facelift" (even the show's title is tacky!).

I know I'm going to sound like a bad Canadian, but I'm afraid I strongly dislike Travis' style. She specialises in the kind of trendy, disposable decorating that is responsible for half of the junk in our landfills. It's no real surprise that she sells her "designer" paint and accessories at Canadian Tire (to non Canadians: yeah, it's as bad as it sounds). In her spare time she has created three design themes for for Tribute Communities (a housing development): "new classic," "new zen" and "new modern" (do you a see a theme here? New, new, new).

In her favor, I can say Debbie Travis' show is great at conveying home decorating basics, such as how to paint, etc. But her style choices are questionable, to say the least. A few weeks ago I saw her paint an antique mahogany coffee table white because it "looked old" (you may recall that this is a pet peeve of mine). Don't get me wrong, I completely understand painting, say, knotty pine, as Colin and Justin did in a design episode aired last Sunday, but this was totally unnecessary and just one more example of Travis' aversion to anything older than her ipod.

It's indisputable that many people have frankly bad taste. But I'm not sure Debbie is the best person to help them (by the way, the kitchen photo is an "after" from her design show). Don't get me wrong--I'm sure Ms. Travis is a lovely person, but her taste is certainly debatable. Her idea of "decorating" is bathing home interiors in lurid clearance colours and tacky, tatty accoutrements du jour (she's never seen a piece of lucite or press-in flooring she didn't like). Just because it's new doesn't mean it's necessarily good!

On the bright side, the homes Debbie takes on will be outdated so quickly that they'll be ready for a new HGTV-funded makeover in three years or so.

Pictured right: Blindingly Orange Lumigraf Kitchen Nightmare courtesy of Debbie Travis' Facelift. As good an argument as any for why free product placement is not necessarily a good idea for your design show.

Made In China

2008-05-01T18:34:00.001-07:00

Well, my little boycott of China is over, I guess! I broke down today at the Bay. My husband called me this afternoon to let me know that Ralph Lauren was 50% off. He picked me up after work and waited while I tried on tons of clothes. I turned down all of them except for this lovely little tailored khaki trench coat--that was made in China. I tried to resist, really I did. But it was so pretty! And such good quality! And I really needed a spring coat...

I feel sort of bad that I broke my boycott. But I did last 4 months, which is pretty good, I think.

I try hard to stick by my principles, but sometimes I just can't do it. At least I'm not making Ralph Lauren even richer buy buying it at full price. I wish companies would just make their clothes somewhere else--it would ease my conscience!

Are Nonstick Pans Dangerous?

2008-04-26T11:15:00.000-07:00

There are a few things my mother always told me growing up that kind of freaked me out about buying into iffy technologies, including Teflon:

1. Margarine is dangerous (And she was right! We didn't really know about trans fats in those days, but she figured anything that involved turning oil into plastic probably wasn't good for you).
2. Aluminum will give you Alzheimer's (I'm still not sure about this one--I'll do a post on it one day, and we will see!).
3. Microwaves will give you cancer (I never microwave plastic, but I've broken down and bought a microwave. I have to say that I love it. My mom also has a microwave now!).
4. Aspartame is a carcinogen (Not too sure about this one, but I avoid it).
5. Non stick pans expose you to toxic chemicals.

My parents were both pretty wary about anything new or artificial. Sometimes they were right--and I guess we'll have to wait and see about the other things.

So what about nonstick pans? I have to say, I love them. They are so convenient! There's nothing like a nice teflon pan for cooking omellettes. Or crepes. They drastically reduce the amount of oil you need for cooking and they really help with the cleaning-up process.

But are they dangerous? I decided to do a little research today to find out. I found this article on Natural News and I highly recommend it. The author seems to have a pretty balanced perspective.

Teflon is definitely dangerous at high temperatures. And cheap Teflon that peels is also hazardous. But it sounds like using it at low temperatures is pretty safe. This is bad news for me--I am notorious for leaving empty pans on the oven and letting them overheat. And I have a lot of cheap teflon pans! Eek. Well, it sounds like the pans are pretty safe unless you are as forgetful as I am.

Harrison Ford Protests Deforestation by...Getting his Chest Waxed?

2008-04-25T11:02:00.000-07:00

How is this for strange environmental news? The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Indiana Jones actor Harrison Ford has decided to support environmental protection in a rather unorthodox way– by having his chest hair removed (say what?).

Ford said his reason for waxing his chest is to help bring attention to the pain caused by rapid deforestation (I guess I get the picture--trees ripped out of the ground and all that--ouch! And ick). The Airforce One actor is the vice chair of Conservation International. Former Spice Girl Mel-B was apparently on hand to film the event for Access Hollywood.

Haagen Dazs to Help Honeybees

2008-04-22T07:34:00.000-07:00

I saw a Haagen Dazs commercial on television last night that piqued my interest. I'm always fascinated by how companies attempt to improve their corporate image through creative marketing campaigns. The commercial I saw featured a honeybee in a operatic duet with a provacative red flower. The message? Help the Honeybees. The company has launched a campaign to raise awareness about the plight of honeybees and to collect $250,000 to help fund honeybee research.

Accroding to the US Department of Agriculture, last year 30 percent of the approximately 2.5 million honeybee colonies were lost to diseases, which is pretty significant.

I don't doubt that honeybees are in trouble. But it seems a little ridiculous to me that Haagen Dazs (whose parent company is Nestle) is contributing just $250,000 to the only cause it vocally supports. How? By creating a new flavor, Vanilla HoneyBee.

What's my take? I suppose if you're part of the problem it only makes sense to contribute to a solution. Most of Haagen Dazs' ice cream and sorbet flavours depend on bees. In order to keep up with the large demand for bees to polinate almonds and other plants, many growers have resorted to renting honeybees for a season in order to have enough bees to polinate their crops. Some hives owned by beekeepers travel year-round in shipping crates to help polinate. And some scientists think that honeybees are dying because they are stressed from being forced to comply with an unnatural polination schedule. For a related NYTimes story on vanishing honeybees, click here.

Canada Bans Plastic Bottles

2008-04-18T17:50:00.000-07:00

More news on BPA! This story doesn't seem to be going away. Today the Canadian Government decided to ban plastic bottles containing the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA). “We’re not waiting to take action to protect our people and our environment from the long-term effects of bisphenol-a” Canada's environment minister, John Baird, told a news conference. The Canadian health minister feels that the plastics are of greatest danger to infants, who are exposed to high levels of the chemical through their bottles, which are often boiled, a process that increases the levels of the toxin in their food.

Plans for a similar ban are also underway in the United States. Senator Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said today that he plans to introduce a bill that would ban B.P.A.-related plastics in the U.S.

To read the New York times article on the ban, click here.

Wal-Mart Bans Bisphenol A (BPA)

2008-04-17T10:03:00.000-07:00

If Walmart is banning Bisphenol A (BPA), you know it's got to be bad!

Canada Plastics just reported that Wal-mart Canada has decided to ban plastics containing Bisphenol A from its stores shelves.

"For many months, we've heard loudly and clearly from customers committed to buying BPA-free products, particularly in the baby aisles," said Andrew Pelletier, Wal-Mart Canada's vice president of corporate affairs. "Regardless of the expected scientific results, we have responded to this consumer demand with an increased variety of BPA-free products. And, although we are removing items from our shelves today, we're well stocked for the future with safe alternatives."

According to CNW, Wal-Mart will also be taking "baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, water bottles, and food containers with BPA" off their shelves. Wal-Mart is "establishing a do-not-sell order, to restrict all Wal-Mart Canada cash registers from sales transactions of these products." This means you cannot buy BPA bottles, period!

The list of companies in Canada that have decided to ban BPA now includes Canadian Tire, The Forzani Group Ltd., and Hudson's Bay Company. This actually surprises me a little. You remember the cell phone scare a few years ago? Reports had everyone wondering if their cell phones would give them brain cancer. The scare led to a lot of sales for products that would supposedly block cell phone waves, but no companies actually made the move to ban cell phones from their store shelves. The evidence has to be absolutely monumental in order for this to happen.

At first I took the Bisphenol A scare with a grain of salt. Now I'm pretty much convinced. There's no way that companies like Walmart would choose to go through the financial hardship of removing these products from their stores unless it was a serious danger. It's definitely time to consider whether or not we should continue using these products in our homes.

This just in: Home Depot will also be halting sales of products containing BPA.

Health Canada Decides Today if Bisphenol A or BPA is Dangerous

2008-04-16T11:06:00.001-07:00

Health Canada is currently debating whether or not to mandate warnings concerning the chemical Bisphenol A. Bisphenol A is a chemical found in nearly all water bottles and many plastics. The chemical has actuallly been studied since the 1930s as a possible estrogen agonist--meaning it raises the levels of the female hormone estrogen in the body.

Candian Zellers stores have already started pulling bottles containing BPA off the shelves, as have Sport Chek and Mountain Equipment Co-op. Nalgene bottles are probably the most popular bottles containing BPA. The most common use of BPA? In baby bottles.

So how great is the danger of using BPA containing plastics? Professor Jack Bend, who teaches pathology at the University of Western Ontario, was quoted in a New York Times article today, saying that the "impact of B.P.A. on the development of human fetuses" is "worrisome." He went on to confess that "it may prove to cause damage in much the same way as early exposure to mercury."

Pretty scary stuff. But not too surprising that nobody has raised much of a fuss about it until now.

Rising Food Prices

2008-04-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

It seems like there's no good news in the economy! What concerns me most is rising food prices. I blame a lot of it on the biofuel scam, but knowing what the problem is doesn't really help much when you're trying to feed your family.

The International Herald Tribune Food reports that food prices are at record highs. The cost of rice alone has gone up 75 percent in the last two months! Wheat prices have increased 120 percent over the last year. This is no joke, and it's going to cause a lot of problems for the world's population. The World Bank reports that 100 million have already been pushed into extreme poverty by rising food prices.

What can you do?

1. Demand that politicians address these problems. Write your congressman, MP, etc. and let them know that this an issue that matters to you. Tell them that you are sick of subsidies for biofuel! Read this article by Elizabeth Rosenthal for the New York Times if you have any doubts on the subject.

2. Plant a garden if you can. If you can't, grow sprouts in your apartment!

3. Buy whole chickens--you can save as much as $2 a pound on chicken this way! And you can use it a number of ways. Or don't eat meat!

4. Bake your own bread (and buy your flour in bulk!). Why let bread manufacturers earn a profit off the high cost of wheat?

What goes around...

2008-04-09T08:00:00.000-07:00

For years the United States has been importing cheap goods from Asia like there's no tomorrow. Well, the rubber has hit the road, and asian inflation is set to hit American consumers hard.

Inflation is a major issue for asian markets, because, let's face it, asian goods are cheap, and that's a large part of their appeal. And when asian goods become more expensive, it makes it extremely difficult for companies like Wal-mart to offer their ever-increasing "lower prices."

The developing world currently provides at least half of American imports. Over the years, goods from these areas have remained relatively cheap, because their markets have passed along the costs of production to the workers. But they are facing increasing pressures to raise wages. When that happens, prices will go up.

What does that mean for American consumers? Rising prices. It will be interesting to see what happens when the price of foreign goods increases substantially. Perhaps our consumer society is in for some major changes...

Blogging Kills?

2008-04-08T08:29:00.000-07:00

According to Matt Richtel, blogs are fast becoming 21st century sweatshops. Except that bloggers enjoy blogging. Two leading bloggers have recently died from stress- related causes, and it's hardly surprising. Blogging is pretty exhausting work!

How do you keep blogging from overtaking your life?

I'm definitely one of those people that spends just a little too much time on the web. I tend to excuse it by telling myself that I enjoy blogging and I write about issues that interest me. Nevertheless, every once and a while my husband gently reminds me that I need to close the laptop and return to the real world.

Is there such a thing as becoming too involved in what you do? I think the answer is definitely yes. Blogging is especially easy to get addicted to because news comes at all hours of the day--so you can tell yourself that it is necessary for you to write about an up and coming story at any time of the day in order to maintain your competitive edge (however if you read this blog very often, you'll be able to tell that this is not my problem--I'm pretty lazy and it's not likely that I'll be up at 3 in the morning waiting to write about the latest news story). At any rate, Blogging, like other passions, can quickly lead to obsession. For instance, some bloggers, intent on earning an elusive six-figure blogging income, will work late into the night on their blogs.

So where do you draw the line? When does a career become an obsessions? Perhaps this is a real question for some--I'm not that dedicated yet, and I'm afraid I have better things to do. What do you think? Does blogging run your life?

Coffee and Exploitation in Latin America and Around the World

2008-04-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the dire sounding post, but this is something that has been getting to me lately. I decided to do a little more research into the issue and this is what I found. We through the words "fair" and "free" around a lot these days. Maybe you think it's too expensive to buy fair trade coffee. Well, I'm about to show you that WHATEVER you pay for coffee is too much, especially when the profits go into the hand of international coffee merchants.

Critics of fair trade will say that it creates an artificial price floor, which causes prices to go up. But what if there's no fair trade set price and merchants can charge whatever they want for a product? Won't the price be lower if there's a greater supply? Well, in a moment you will see that this is simply not the case, at least in terms of coffee. The free market has not solved the problems of the coffee industry. Instead, it has led to an artificial depression in the wages of coffee workers, while merchants have enjoyed profitibility.

Consider this:

In 1977 the average price paid to coffee growers per pound of Colombian coffee was 89 cents. That's right, 89 cents.

In 2007, it was an average of 99 cents. Yep, 99 cents. source: International Coffee Organization

That means that over the past 31 years, the price of coffee has gone up just 10 cents.

Now, what about the retail price of the same coffee? Again, it has remained steady, at about 3.50 a pound.

This doesn't seem to make much sense when you consider how much the cost of living has gone up in 31 years. Hasn't the cost of living increased for farmers as well? What about farm workers?

And besides, how much did you pay for a pound of Starbucks? For a cup of coffee? Quite a bit--and the prices keep on going up. You are certainly paying more than your parents did for a cup of coffee in 1977. Why? Because the people who work at Starbucks demand to be paid. You pay 6 dollars for a latte because we in North America are blessed with labour laws that don't permit employers to force you tow work for pennies a day. That's nice for us, but what about the people who pick the coffee? Well, they aren't so lucky. The average coffee picker in Latin America makes about $2 US per day.

If free trade is not tempered with fair trade, prices will be driven lower and lower, in a race to the bottom that can be devastating for people producing and growing coffee. Buying free trade is a start. But if you think it will solve the problem, you're being a little too optimistic. Things can't get much better until workers in Latin America and the rest of the world's coffee growing regions can demand fair wages. Interestingly, in Colombia, one of the world's leading coffee producing countries, more union leaders are assasinated each year are assasinated each year than anywhere else in the world. 470 trade unionists have been murdered over the last 6 years alone.

Freeganism

2008-03-31T10:32:00.000-07:00

Have you heard of Freeganism yet? One of the latest in a long line of -isms, freeganism is an alternative lifestyle that involves, well, getting things for free. According to the Freegan info website, "Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources."

Sounds interesting. So what are these "alternative strategies"? Well, some of them aren't for the faint of heart. Today I'll be discussing the primary tenets of freeganism, their pros and cons, and which ones I think are worth adapting.

1. Waste Reclamation. Sounds okay! I'm all about finding great ways to reuse items (and in college I even looked behind dumpsters for furniture and got some great items! However, hard-core freegans take this an extra step and actually get their FOOD from dumpsters, which is, well--too much for me.

2. Waste Minimization. Just like it sounds! This seems pretty reasonable.

3. Eco-Friendly Transport. I'm all for walking, skating, biking and taking public transport, but trainhopping and hitchhiking are a bit extreme for me.

4. Rent-Free Housing. Freegans believe housing should be free and they won't take no for an answer. This is great if you manage to find a chic abandoned loft in Vancouver and transform it into a hip-hangout for all your hipster friends. Unfortunatley, most of the cool lofts spaces are already taken, so this usually means squatting in a dingy hell-hole. According to the freegan website, "squatters often convert abandoned buildings into community centers with programs including art activities for children, environmental education, meetings of community organizations, and more", but I'm a bit dubious.

5. Going Green through Guerrilla Gardening. I'm not so sure I want to eat vegetables grown on the side of highways or in abandoned city lots. I think the level of pollution would just be dangerous. On the other hand, I am all for growing as many of your own vegetables as possible.

6. Working Less, Voluntary Joblessness. I'm actually a big supporter of this one, though not just for the reasons that the freegans cite. It's easy to get entirely too caught up in the rat race of this life. A lot of us are convinced that we need to earn more and more money, and sometimes it doesn't even really get our families further ahead! Your time is actually worth something and I hope you don't have to spend your life chained to a desk.

Unlike the Freegan's I don't think that money itself is evil, but I would have to agree with the bible that the love of money is pretty much at the root of all that's wrong with our world. However, don't get me wrong--money is necessary and I'm totally unashamed that both my blogs are monetized. Nevertheless, learning to live with less is also a great way to show the world that you value relationships more than financial gain. I've seen far too many families that never get to see each other because the couple is slaving away to keep up with the Jones's. I don't want to wake up one day and realize the only thing I have to show for this life is a pile of stuff!

Michael Pollan In Defense of Food

2008-03-25T08:20:00.001-07:00

I saw an interesting interview last night with journalist Michael Pollan on CBC's The Hour that I thought I'd like to share! I really enjoyed Pollan's book The Botany of Desire, but I haven't had a chance to read The Omnivore's Dilemma or In Defense of Food yet. I can't wait to read this one. Pollan is a great science writer who can turn almost any piece into a detective story that has you sitting on the edge of your seat. Like fellow New York Times contributor Malcolm Gladwell (author of The Tipping Point and Blink!), he has a real gift for transporting readers on journey of discovery, though he can get a bit carried away at times.

Pollan's newest book tackles the food industry in general and North American diets in particular. He begins by pointing out that the food industry likes us to focus on nutrients, rather than food because they can change the nutrients in the food fairly easily. Have you ever noticed that practically every time we go to the grocery store there's some special new ingredient in your food (or one that's been taken away)that's supposed to help you reduce the risk of heart disease, lose weight or avoid cancer?

Pollan calls our preoccupation with the nutrients in our food "nutritionism" and encourages us to eat real food and avoid "edible food-like substances, masquerading as food." Highly processed foods are the perfect example of this (think "enriched" white bread). In the interview, Pollan shared an anecdote about a twinkie he had bought while doing research for The Omnivore's Dilemma. Two years later, the twinkie was still soft and free of decay. His question for the audience: if bateria doesn't want it, why should you?

Other practical advice (which has been kicking around for some time and is certainly not unique to Pollan) is to focus on the perimeter of the supermarket, rather than the foods in the centre.

So what does the future hold for the North American diet? The outlook isn't very good. In the interview, Pollan confessed that, like with cigarette companies, the government will probably wait until we're all dying of diabetes and heart disease before it begins to encourage multinationals to stop selling us poison (my husband is not so optimistic--he thinks they'll just invent some new pill to sell to us). His advice overall? "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Good advice for everyone!