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"stem+leaf" - 5 new articles
- green 1 thing: in-flight impact
- rooftop farm returns for one day only!
- product placement - seasons for iphone
- green graffiti
- bar soap versus shower gel
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Thanksgiving is less than a week away, a lot of you have one thing on your mind: home. Roughly 38 million Americans travel for the holidays, with many of them taking to the rails and skies. When people consider how rough travel is on our environment, the littler things - like the millions of snacks and beverages distributed in-flight - are often overlooked. Those little bottles of water and bags of peanuts really ad up, both in physical waste and production energy. You can help cut down on this waste by trying the following easy alternatives:
- Bringing your own snacks not only allows you to refuse the individually-sized bags offered on planes, but provides you with the freedom to choose whatever you like. You'll also save big bucks if you happen to be taking a method of transit that doesn't offer free goodies (like Amtrak).
- If you're in for the long haul, the vegan/vegetarian option has the lowest environmental impact of all the in-flight meals. This handy list from CheapFlights tells you which airlines offer what meals - from gluten-free to whole food - and how to get them.
- Airlines use about 1 million disposable cups every 6 hours, something easily avoided by bringing your own bottle. Most airlines, however, will simply refill your eco-friendly bottle with bottled water, thwarting your good intentions. Try bringing your empty bottle, filling up in the fountain after security (liquids will not be allowed through), and then turn down the cups on the plane.
If we all choose these more environmentally sound options, we can thwart nearly 500,000 tons of waste per year - a figure that is predicted to increase 45% by the year 2015. Try it out, and feel good about doing good! And of course, no matter where you go or how you get there, I hope you get there safe, sound, healthy, and happy!
Image via AirlineMeals.net
Though the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm has officially closed for the season, they'll be temporarily re-opening their doors to the public for their Thanksgiving Market this Sunday, November 22nd. With 100% of all proceeds going towards next season's seed stock and LOADS of beautiful fall produce grown right here in Brooklyn, there is no reason not to support your local farmers and make this Thanksgiving out of this world.
The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is a locally owned and operated farm run in collaboration with Growing Chefs, Broadway Stages, and Goode Green Rooftop Designs. For Brooklynites, it is as local as it gets. Check them out this Sunday from 10am-4pm on Eagle Street, between Franklin and West. Look for the sign.
The trees bare, Thanksgiving just around the corner, and at your local grocer, "fresh" the asparagus is heaped just as high as it ever was, waiting for you to take it home. Wait, what? Asparagus? In November? Thanks to the now-standard "have it all" methods of American supermarkets, asparagus is indeed available all year round - as is pretty much anything else that grows - which has totally derailed our notions of what grows when, and how we eat when we eat from the earth.
I know. This is not news to you. You've heard this from Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingslover and the guys who made Food, Inc. You've even heard it from me. But a helpful little reminder is just that - helpful. And with that in mind, I encourage you to check out the Seasons app for iPhone. A handy little interface for the device that's always with you, Seasons gives you the info on "“fruits, vegetables, lettuces, herbs, fungi and nuts,” illustrated with details on each food and a graph detailing when and how in season it is. It's just one more great way to keep your mind, money, and body a little closer to home.
Image via Terrapass
Love it or hate it, graffiti is a huge part of our country's independent art culture. But the aerosol sprays preferred by so many bombers is not only harmful to the artists (causing brain damage, respiratory depression, and liver and kidney disease), but to the environment as well, as their volatile organic compounds (otherwise known as VOCs), react with nitrogen oxides to form ground-level ozone, significantly altering and damaging our atmosphere.
One artist, however, is looking to make an environmentally positive impact with both his message and his medium: Jesse Graves, a street artist based out of Milwaukee, posts his socially-conscious messages around town using mud - yes, mud - as his paint. Says Graves (who tags his work "MSR", or "Mud Stencils Rule"):
I use mud or earth because it is a fundamental life-giving substance, logical for my messages. Mud stencils are an evolving medium, intended for art and social justice, not corporate advertisement.
Graves' images are clever and eye-catching, and he encourages others to follow suit - the recipe for his bio-paint is presently
available on his site.
Eco message, eco method. I highly approve.
"bar soap versus shower gel": That's the line I've been entering into my Google searches lately. As the last of my various gifted bar soaps are running out, I'm forced to decide what direction to go in next.
Growing up we always had soft, peachy bars of Caress in our bathtub, but as Bath + Body works took over in the adolescent years, as did every flavor of shower gel imaginable-- so much so that I had enough gifted shower gel to last me into my second year of college. I've continued with the shower gel trend ever since (though stepping away from the overly frangranced stuff and into more subtle scents and natural ingredients).
I've always been attracted to the homemade bar soaps I've seen at craft fairs and the organic bar soaps you see at the stores (helloooo, Pangea Organics!), but it was first, a gift of a Austin Natural Soap 9-bar sample pack from my brother a couple of Christmasses ago and the a few gifted Pangea bars from a relative that got me going. It was such a fun, nostalgic activity, washing with bar soap. Mostly I rubbed it on my loofah so it already had the foamy thing going, it seems less wasteful and I thought, "This is it! I'm switching to bar soap!"
From a sustainability point of view, I still feel pretty committed to bar soap. Less packaging (and what packaging there is is generally paper and easily recyclable-- I love avoid plastic as much as possible) and you're also not paying to ship water (as gel products are primarily water).
Economically, I struggle. A nice 5-6 oz. bar of organic soap costs about $7-8. A 12 oz. bottle of my favorite shower gel, Avalon Organics Rosemary, runs around $11. A bar of soap lasts me 5-6 weeks and the gel 3 months or more. So, I suppose in the end, I get approximately the same mileage per ounce, but at a slightly higher cost.
Hmm, but that's what it's all about isn't it? We pay more for organic products because they are healthier for our bodies, the farmers, and the land. We pay more (and sometimes less) for locally grown produce to bolster our area economies, support farmer friends, and keep excess CO2's out of the air. It all comes full circle! (Even for yours truly.)
Well, seeing as I just solved my own argument... it's now time to order from Meow Meow Tweet Tweet-- a Brooklyn-based organic soapmaker that I spotted at the Renegade Craftfair this summer. I've had my mind on their yummy, creatively scented soaps for awhile, and soon their Cinnammon Coffee will have a spot on my soapdish.
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