The Conservation Report

Andrew Sullivan believes that Ronald Bailey has exposed a food miles farce, but you can’t compare bananas to apples without considering the reality of unsustainable consumption and the unsustainability of industrial agriculture.

Bailey argues that using food miles—the distance food travels to get to your plate—as a factor for sustainability isn’t realistic. He gives several examples in an attempt to discredit the food miles argument, but these examples aren’t strong enough to discredit the argument. For example, he cited a study that found the “cold storage of British apples produced more carbon dioxide than shipping New Zealand apples by sea to London.” However in many parts of the world like Michigan, it is certainly unsustainable to purchase apples from a Michigan supermarket that came from New Zealand when locally grown organic Michigan apples can be purchased in a local Michigan farmer’s market. Furthermore, the energy or fuel used to transport New Zealand apples to Michigan is very high.

I understand what Bailey is trying to argue, but he isn’t considering all the factors. For example, he argues “It is possible to grow bananas in Iceland, but Costa Rica really has the better climate for that activity.” Certainly, bananas should be purchased and transported from the best place possible, but there are other factors in addition to climate or suitability that should be taken into consideration when determining the best place possible such as distance, infrastructure used to produce the food, fuel costs, in addition to the impact on the local environment and markets.

I don’t believe consumers shopping locally in Michigan expect to buy bananas grown in Michigan, but if the closest and best place is Costa Rica, then Costa Rica is reasonable. On the other hand, I believe that some consumers have a problem with purchasing apples from New Zealand or blueberries from Chile, when the same produce can be purchased locally.  To my knowledge, New Zealand apples don’t offer anything substantially different than apples grown in the United States, so purchasing apples grown in New Zealand seems silly or unreasonable.  Furthermore, if consumers known as locavores decide to purchase produce from within a 50- or 100-miles radius, then that’s their choice, and their choice saves a lot of energy.

Ultimately, I believe Bailey’s assessment is lacking because it seeks to discredit the food miles argument when the food miles factor is still a very important factor in determining sustainability. He says, “Food miles advocates fail to grasp the simple idea that food should be grown where it is most economically advantageous to do so,” but he fails to take into consideration rising fuel consumption and rising fuel prices. More than ever, it is important to conserve resources where possible. Furthermore, climate change policy is seeking to cut out unnecessary carbon where it exists.

Personally, I believe the consumer has a moral responsibility to purchase food packaged in materials that can be recycled or food that can be locally or organically grown in order to force industry to make more sustainable decisions. Of course, not all people have the luxury of making sustainable decisions because they may not have the knowledge or resources to do so, but many Americans are in the position to make better choices to some degree, and there are several ways to contribute to sustainability. For example, you can: (1) focus on purchasing produce grown within a 100-mile radius, (2) commit to purchasing a portion of your food from a local farmer’s market during the summer, (3) make a good faith attempt to purchase sustainable seafood, (4) commit to some type of vegetarianism, or (5) purchase food that comes in reduced and recyclable packaging. I agree with Marc at In One Ear… Out the Other:

Yet despite the versatility of such crops, we still rely on far away industrialized agriculture to provide most of our diet, and the reason is that the historically low price of fuel has allowed us to concentrate and specialize our agriculture to certain regions. Most of our cereals in this country are produced in the plains states, our vegetables in California and poultry and pork to the South, and those products are then shipped across the country from those locations because of the benefit of cheap fuel. The system reinforces itself too, cheap Plains states cereals are shipped to the South to feed chickens. Guano is collected from Southern chicken farms and used for fertilizers out West, and etc.. The system works and works well, economically speaking, to the extent that we have cheap fuels for transportation.

Cheap fuels, however, are not likely to continue to be a reality. Grains grown in South Dakota fall at the same latitude and growing season as grains to be grown in New York, yet most New Yorkers still rely on Western grains. To drive through Western New York and it becomes immediately evident that those crops can and are grown successfully there; there are fields and fields of corn, yet hardly any are intended for human consumption. The majority is “field corn” or corn grown to supplement cow feed for local dairy production. However, besides for the economics of cheap fuel, there is no real reason not to diversify.

So while carbon emissions from food transport may represent a small part of overall emissions, its important to the extent that its an unsustainable and soon to be economically irrelevant portion. Also, when we’re talking about reducing carbon emissions globally by a certain date by 10%, 20%, 40% - that 1% becomes all the more significant.

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Do you have a short attention span but feel like you need to learn more about ocean issues? The Short Attention Span Science Theater on Ecological Sustainability has some short microdocumentaries or microdocs regarding sustainability and ocean reefs. This microdocs are also coupled with simple but very effective reading information. Certainly, this website will be very useful for any teacher who wants their kids to learn about sustainability and oceans. Visit the website here.

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: $800 Million Prize for Alternative Energy to Power Africa’s Villages

ANIMAL WELFARE: Wheeled Tortoise Gets Around

ANTARCTIC MELTING: “New” Killer Whale Types at Risk From Antarctic Warming

ARCTIC MELTING: Shellfish May Invade North Atlantic As Ice Melts, Hungry Musk-Oxen, Caribou Could Help Warming Arctic

AUTO INDUSTRY: Shaq buys smart fortwo, wears as shoe, Saudi Arabia threatens Nissan boycott over Israeli ad

BIG OIL: ExxonMobil owns the media’s convention coverage Oil Expansion Plans In L.A. Rile Residents

BIOPLASTICS: Biodegradable Plastics Are Good for Atmosphere, Too

BIOPRODUCTS: Dandelion Rubber Could Replace Rare Sources, Silk-Based Optical Lenses Green Enough to Eat

BLOGGING: What Makes for a Good Blog?

CARBON SEQUESTERING: Cattails Shown to Be Effective CO2-Eaters

CHINA: MINI Clubman Rickshaws running around Beijing

CLIMATE CHANGE: Climate Change Caused Widespread Tree Death In California Mountain Range, Study Confirms, West Africa’s coastline redrawn by climate change: experts

COMPOSTING: Human Waste Used by 200 Million Farmers, Study Says

ENERGY MIX OF THE FUTURE: Smokestack heat: Fuel of the future?

ENVIRONMENTALISM: ARE WE ALL STILL ENVIRONMENTALISTS?, The Death of Environmentalism?, FREE & GREEN: A NEW APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION, Green but Anti-Government, Pro-Environment, Not Pro-EPA

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: Appeals Court OKs Oil Firms’ Billion-Dollar Award, Companies to end lead wheel weight use in Calif.

EXTINCTION: Extinction Threatens Half of Primate Types, Study Says

FOOD: Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

FUEL ECONOMY: Sweden Requires Fuel-Efficient Driving Lessons, Billions of gallons of gas could be saved by “Smart Intersections”

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY: Oregon Tech To Be Powered Entirely By Geothermal Energy, Google Investing Over $10 Million in Geothermal Energy

GIANT SQUID: Colossal Squid Ripped, Stitched, Hoisted and Moved

GLACIAL MELTING: Huge Greenland Glacier Disintegrating

GLOBAL WARMING: Will Grasslands Overtake U.S. Forests Due to Warming?, Dead Penguins Found Closer to Equator Than Ever Before, Birds Thrown Off by Global Warming, Arctic Tundra Holds Global Warming Time Bomb

GREEN: Colorado Creating US’s First Fossil Fuel-Free Community

GREEN CONSERVATISM: Gingrich Cites Big Oil And Right-Wing Intern To Claim That All Economists Support Drilling, Extreme anti-environment Cheney aide up for top Energy Department post, McCain: ‘I Have Not Missed Any Crucial Vote’ On Energy Legislation

GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS: Kangaroo Meat Could Help Australia Cut Gas Emissions

GREENWASHING: Shell rebuked for ‘greenwash’ over ad for polluting oil project

HUMAN-WILDLIFE CONFLICT: People vs. Monkeys in Singapore

HYBRID TECHNOLOGY: Calif. Requires Hybrid Cars To Make Some Noise

INVASIVE SPECIES: Invasive Lionfish Explode

MARINE CONSERVATION: NASA Tool Helps Track Whale Sharks, Polar Bears, Bush Seeks to Protect 3 Pacific Island Chains

MARINE MAMMALS: “Ugliest Dolphin” Finally Filmed, Mexico Invests to Save Endangered Porpoise

NANOTECHNOLOGY: Nanomaterial Cleans up Broken Fluorescent Bulbs

NEW SPECIES: Newfound Monkey Species “Rarest in Africa,” Expert Says, New, “Chubbier” River Dolphin Species Found in Bolivia

OCEAN DEAD ZONES: Ocean ‘dead zones’ expanding worldwide: study

PLASTIC: Did Big Plastic Pay Off The FDA???

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: Amtrak Gets Funding Boost To Meet Record Demand, Sweden Rolling Out 183 MPH High-Speed Green Train

RECLAIMED OR RECYCLED WATER: Recycled Sewage: Coming to a Tap Near You?

RECYCLING: Tom Szaky, CEO of TerraCycle, gets trashy, Old tires make new roads, No Economic Slowdown For Reusable Bags

RENEWABLE RESOURCES: Colorado to Ditch Two Coal Plants, Moving to Solar and Wind, 13 Magnificent Renewable Energy Successes and Failures

SOLAR: IKEA Solar Panels on the Horizon, Miami Gets 600 Solar Bus Shelters, Coal Power Plant Retrofit With Solar, Solar Efficiency Record Broken, Oregon Launching First Solar Highway in the US, Want Solar? Head to Sam’s Club, 2 Large Solar Plants Planned in California, Will Each Be 10 Times Bigger Than Largest Now in Service, Solar-Powered Plane Flies for Nearly 83 Hours, Doubles World Record, Hot Asphalt as Better Energy Collector than Solar Panels?

SUSTAINABILITY: Wal-Mart Pares Costs By Selling Local Produce

WALL-E: Wall*E + Kleenex = Iron*E

WATER POLLUTION: AP: Drugs found in drinking water

WATER WARS: McCain’s Colorado River Gaffe Might Cost Him Key Western States

WETLANDS: Australian Wetlands Threatened

WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING: 14 Tons of Frozen Scaly Anteaters Seized in Indonesia

WIND POWER: New Study Says City-Based Rooftop Wind Power Doesn’t Pay Off, Kites Could Become Major Source Of Wind Power, Wind Turbines Give Bats the “Bends,” Study Finds

ZOOLOGICAL CONSERVATION: Huge Insectarium Opens, Lonesome George a Father?

A new documentary being hailed as “an Inconvenient Truth for the U.S. Economy” exposes the ills of government spending under the Bush Administration, and our own unsustainable consumerism.

At the beginning of the Presidency of George W. Bush, I remember my dad, a conservative who grew up during the Great Depression, saying that President Bush is going to bankrupt our country. I remember naively and ignorantly thinking how can you bankrupt America? Of course, I have learned a lot about life since the Peace Corps and by being an American citizen under the Presidency of George W. Bush. Awareness is perhaps the only positive to fruition under the Presidency of George W. Bush.

The problems of unsustainable consumerism and government spending will further be exacerbated by environmental degradation. How anyone can continue to live in ignorance under the Presidency of George W. Bush is baffling. Blue or red pill?

On the Net: I.O.U.S.A.: The Movie
On the Net: U.S. National Debt Clock

AIR POLLUTION: Beijing begins massive shutdown to curb pollution before Olympics

ANTARCTIC MELTING: Ice adrift from warming scrapes Antarctic seabed bare, Ice shelf hanging by a thread, More icebergs scouring Antarctica’s seabed

ARCTIC COOLING: Distant wildfires cause Arctic cooling

ASSISTED COLONIZATION; ASSISTED MIGRATION: Should we relocate species threatened by climate change?, Move species threatened by warming, scientists advise, Moving species to save them: Pros and cons

BIODIESEL: China builds tung tree oil biodiesel plants

CARBON SEQUESTERING: EPA drafts rule for carbon sequestration, Amazon river powers Atlantic carbon sink

CLIMATE CHANGE: White House buries climate change deaths report

DESERTIFICATION: Sand swallowing Chinese city

DEVIL FACIAL TUMOUR DISEASE (DFTD): “Teen sex” rising for cancer-affected Tasmanian devils

ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: Judge orders federal wolf protections restored: Decision likely ends planned wolf hunt for this fall, Living with wolves Q&A: No hunting season for wolves, but poachers likely, Gray wolves regain endangered-species protections: A Montana judge sides with environmentalists who had challenged the species’ delisting

ENVIRONMENTAL LEADERSHIP: Green countries: A global report card on nations doing the most, and least, to clean up the environment

EVOLUTION: Noisy fish reveal evolution of vocalizing

GREEN ADVERTISEMENT: Cooling off on dubious eco-friendly claims

GREEN CONSTRUCTION: Vast cities that float on the seas are to transform how we live, real-life Atlantises that will allow humankind to prosper once existing coastlines fall to the ravages of global warming, XERITOWN: New sustainable urban complex for Dubailand

HYDROGEN FUEL: Researchers generate hydrogen without the carbon footprint

INVASIVE SPECIES: Tiny bug threatens to take down U.S. citrus crops

MARINE CONSERVATION: Vibrant new reefs found off Brazil

NATURE: Leopard attacks and kills crocodile (PHOTOS, VIDEO), Weirdest animals and creatures in the world post, “Annoying” bird mimics sirens, Bees enlisted to attack crows in Tokyo, Nature’s own nano gold found

NEW SPECIES: Has a new species of insect appeared in the middle of London?

OFFSHORE DRILLING: The three biggest myths the Bush Administration wants you to believe about offshore drilling

REEL BIG FISH: “Monster” lake’s rare giants lure anglers, biologists

RECYCLING: Jets mined for parts, homes

RED TIDE: Red tide kills Mexico fish

SOLAR: Florida gives green light to largest solar power plant in U.S.

SUSTAINABILITY: Amazing Stat: California uses more gas than China

TIDAL POWER: East coast getting tidal energy projects , World’s first commercial-scale tidal power turbine begins feeding electricity to the grid: SeaGen more than four times the size of next largest tidal turbine

UPWARD MIGRATION: Stinging wasps moving north due to warming?

VERTICAL FARMING: Country, the city version: Farms in the sky gain new interest

WATER AVAILABILITY: The water shortage myth, Bottled water wars

WAVE POWER: Wave-powered boat makes it from Japan to Hawaii

WIND POWER: First U.S. town powered completely by wind

The debate over the effectiveness of organic farming at mitigating climate change is currently being argued. Some argue that conventional or more mechanized methods of agriculture are easier on the planet while others urge that the expansion of organic farming is needed to mitigate impacts of warming. I believe that more organic farming is needed. However, the definition of organic farming whether applied to small or large-scale organic farms needs to be heavy on methods that promote efficiency and sustainability.

Permaculture is a farming methodology (or way of living really) that promotes efficiency by maximizing the use of all available resources in a sustainable manner. The goal is to produce as much as possible without relying on input or very little input into the overall system.

Furthermore, organic farming is a skill. Organic farming methods that were once used centuries before were largely forgotten in mainstream culture once industrial farming took over. Essentially, to be efficient, Americans must relearn farming and not rely on Wal-Mart or Home Depot to purchase bagged soil, chemical fertilizers, or pesticides.

I believe the organic argument (especially how it is presented by the media) parallels the biofuel debate. Many folks believe that biofuels are bad for the planet because of the press. In the beginning the press demonized biofuels in its headlines.

However, not all biofuels are bad for the planet in terms of contributing to climate change or rise in food prices. Essentially biofuels that are made from sugars and starches or the foodstuff can be inefficient. However, cellulosic biofuels utilize the nonfood parts of the plant to produce biofuels so the starches and sugars are not used to produce ethanol. Essentially this is a much more efficient use of the land especially when methods of selective harvesting or applying elements of permaculture. Of course, this excludes cutting down rainforests for palm oil productions. Such land use is reckless because the method does not maximize carbon sequestering, destroys biodiversity and if the land becomes unproductive, it will possibly loose any ability to sequester carbon.

Certainly, large-scale organic farming must be scrutinized. For example, purchasing Michigan apples produced by mechanized agriculture is arguably superior to organic apples purchased in a Michigan supermarket that were grown in New Zealand. However, small-scale organic farming or even large-scale methods that employ elements of permaculture could actually provide more work than conventional agriculture. Furthermore organic farming should not rely on chemical fertilizers that are petroleum based, antibiotics, and hormones (or very limitedly) thereby reducing the impact these substances have on the environment and our own health.

Furthermore, soil associated with organic farming is also healthier and can produce more than conventional agriculture that weakens the soil structure therefore making conventional farming susceptible to droughts and erosion. The press can sometimes lack a holistic analysis of situations involving environmental degradation.

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On the Net: Rodale’s LaSalle urges expansion of organic farming to mitigate impacts of warming
On the Net: Surprise! Conventional Agriculture Can Be Easier on the Planet

IMAGE by Lisa Bauso for The New York Times

From churches to strip clubs, all businesses have the ability to practice sustainability and reduce their carbon footprint. One strip club reduced their carbon footprint by banning meat products in their food and dancing in leather but dancers were allowed to to wear artificial leather or pleather. However, according to Kara Jesella for the New York Times the owner “may have underestimated the appeal of stripping to vegans, or of vegan cuisine to striptease fans” since he “put the club up for sale.”

Veganism and vegetarianism are often linked with the movement to fight animal cruelty and the meat industry, which is often seen as a clumsy, cumbersome and inefficient giant sucking up resources and spewing too much carbon pollution as a result. More from the New York Times:

TWO things that you can find a lot of in Portland, Ore., are vegans and strip clubs. Johnny Diablo decided to open a business to combine both. At his Casa Diablo Gentlemen’s Club, soy protein replaces beef in the tacos and chimichangas; the dancers wear pleather, not leather. Many are vegans or vegetarians themselves….

People adopt a diet free of animal products for a variety of reasons. They may believe it is healthier or more environmentally friendly. They may support animal rights. In addition, veganism is often part of a larger progressive agenda, which makes many particularly sensitive to sexism charges.

Carol J. Adams, the author of “The Sexual Politics of Meat,” a bible of the vegan community, said that women’s rights and the rights of animals have often been aligned. She traces the relationship to the 1890s. “A lot of feminist suffragists also became vegetarian,” said Ms. Adams, who gave up meat in 1974 while living in a feminist community in Cambridge, Mass. She noted that Susan B. Anthony attended a dinner at which the toast was for “Total Abstinence, Women’s Rights and Vegetarianism.” (An unrepentant omnivore, Ms. Anthony had a predilection for porterhouse steak.)

Ms. Adams added that feminists were early adopters of vegetarianism. “Back in the ’70s, lots of women were saying, ‘I don’t want to be a piece of meat. I’m not going to eat a piece of meat,’ ” she said.

Vegans who use sexuality to promote the cause say it is a good way to convert carnivores — in particular, men.

Image Found Here

American consumption and our everyday living have become chronically unsustainable. We cannot deny entropy and the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Regular Conservation Report readers know I preach the Second Law of Thermodynamics ad nauseum. However, the Law is relevant to conservation, our energy needs and the stability of America.

The Law is starting to eat visibly into the suburbs. The suburbs are perhaps America’s biggest mistake because suburbs are essentially useless. Good lands that could have been used for agricultural purposes, growing lumber or even forest carbon sequestration are paved over with concrete. Wetlands that provide ecosystem services such as filtration, which promotes clean drinking water, are drained. As nature is further fragmented entropy increases. Wildlife and plants disappear. Generalists and commensal animals like cockroaches and rats thrive.

Another unsustainable event in America was the Great American Streetcar Scandal or the General Motors streetcar conspiracy. The Scandal forced Americans to drive automobiles. Cities all over America like Norfolk, Virginia used streetcar systems but these systems were dismantled by National City Lines – a company formed by “General Motors, Firestone Tire, Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum.” National City Lines was a defendant in U.S. vs. National City Lines for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act but the action was too little too late. The Sherman Antitrust Act states “every person who shall monopolize, or attempt to monopolize, or combine or conspire with any other person or persons, to monopolize any part of the trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, shall be deemed guilty of a felony…”

We can live better, happier lives but we take for granted the fragility of modern civilization. From the Atlantic Online:

Arthur C. Nelson, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech, has looked carefully at trends in American demographics, construction, house prices, and consumer preferences. In 2006, using recent consumer research, housing supply data, and population growth rates, he modeled future demand for various types of housing. The results were bracing: Nelson forecasts a likely surplus of 22 million large-lot homes (houses built on a sixth of an acre or more) by 2025—that’s roughly 40 percent of the large-lot homes in existence today.

For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay.

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On the Net: The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Walking to school today I passed several local businesses – proudly owned and operated. Local businesses are very important in terms of community sustainability.

Non-local corporate businesses such as Applebee’s, McDonald’s or Wal-Mart are convenient but your money goes out of the community when you shop at these places.
True, these places often give to local charities and provide employment but so do locally owned businesses. Locally owned businesses are more intimately connected to the community too. In addition, locally owned businesses are often more personal, will use locally owned banks, have character since they do not have to follow the strict big business formula and are more likely to purchase local goods to sell in their shops – especially when it comes to food.

Local is cool. For example, everything locavores consume from meat to vegetables to salt must come from a 100 mile radius. However, allowances are allowed. Some locavores only get a large percentage of their drink, food and spices locally since some items like baking soda, bananas, chocolate, coffee, salt or tea can be challenging if impossible to find being grown or made locally. However, locavores are creating a demand for these hard to find items. Therefore, local micro-businesses have an opportunity to bank on these special needs.

So the next time you can choose try biking or walking to a locally owned business. The exercise and knowing you contributed to your community will make you feel good afterwards.

On the Net: American Independent Business Alliance AMIBA
On the Net: What does and doesn’t grow within 100 miles of San Francisco?

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1. HOMO SAPIENS: City dwellers evolving into new species, scientist says @ canada.com




2. GREEN: America’s 50 Greenest Cities @ Popular Science




3. SALMON: Farmed Salmon Decimating Wild Salmon Worldwide @ National Geographic News




4. HYBRID TECHNOLOGY: ‘Misinformed Craze’ For Hybrids Delays Greener Technology @ the WIRED Blog Network




5. WIND POWER: And the wind waits … and waits … @ the Star Tribune
6. CLIMATE CHANGE: King Penguins Declining Due to Global Warming @ National Geographic News
7. TAILPIPE EMISSIONS: Texas’ voucher program to retire older cars off to strong start @ dallasnews.com
8. GREEN CONSTRUCTION: Work starts on Gulf ‘green city’ @ the BBC
9. ENERGY MIX OF THE FUTURE: It’s Raining Energy. Hallelujah! @ Discovery News
10. SUSTAINABILITY: The Unsustainable Church of Scientology @ ecoble
11. ENDANGERED SPECIES: Habitat for Mexican spotted owl to stand @ MercuryNews.com
12. CITES: Conservation laws threaten rare orchids @ NewScientist
13. ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT: Feds change course on Idaho trout listing @ the Times-News: Magicvalley.com
14. DELISTING: Pesticide Campaign Takes Pelicans Off Endangered List @ AHN

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From the Dodge City Daily Globe, KS:

The Greensburg City Council voted Monday to build all city buildings to LEED Platinum standards, which is the top level of certification available from the U.S. Green Building Council.

LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, is a point-based building rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council in 2000. The projects use such features as using recycled building materials, alternative energy sources and water-conserving fixtures.

The small western Kansas town, which was mostly destroyed by a tornado on May 4, is believed to be the first town in the country to set that goal.

On the Net: USGBC: LEED

Not to take the fun out of the holidays but I do agree with this opinion from Deb Roelofs who wrote into The Grand Rapids Press. I believe being tactful reflects sustainability because plastic inflatable decorations are just too much:

Here is one small way our community members can sabotage efforts to save the planet. Purchase thousands of colored lights and plastic inflatable toys for your yard to seek attention and stress the power grid. Leave them on 18 hours a day. Hope that your house is highlighted in the annual parade of lights story in The Press.

That will encourage hundreds of people to tour the city in their cars and SUVs and use more precious resources viewing the spectacular electronic display. Then we can all be assured we are doing our part to keep the American consumerist spirit of Christmas alive.

Examples of how folks are having a “greener” Christmas include:

On the Net: SUSTAINABILITY: How green is your Christmas tree? And other tips.

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There are many ways to have a greener Christmas. First, buy a tree that is not necessarily organically produced (unless locally produced) but meets certain conservation, environmental thus sustainability requirements. Organic does not necessarily reflect sustainable. For example, why purchase sustainable produce from New Zealand when the same produce can be purchased here from a farmer who uses petroleum based fertilizers but practice conservation minded agriculture? From The Dalles Chronicle Local News:

To pass muster, a farm must be inspected to ensure that it meets certain standards for managing wetlands, nutrients and pests. Water and soil conservation measures are reviewed, and biodiversity and worker safety are also considered.

The trees are not organically grown, but the coalition says the measures help mitigate some of the environmental dangers of Christmas tree farming, such as excessive use of pesticides and contribution to erosion.

Another way to be as sustainable as possible is to use LED Christmas lights. The Rockefeller Christmas tree will use LEDs this year to not only conserve energy but promote energy conservation. From TIME:

Choose LEDs (light-emitting diodes) instead of incandescent bulbs to decorate your tree and home. They’re more expensive, but last much longer and use 80% to 90% less power than conventional mini bulbs. LEDs, which cast a bright white light, also stay cool to the touch so they won’t singe the tree—or your child’s fingers. Brookstone.com’s oversized multicolored LEDs—$10 per 12-ft. strand—look just like the lights Dad used to put up.

You can even rent a rooted Christmas Tree that can be replanted. From LivingChristmasTrees.org:

[The Original Living Christmas Tree Company] makes it convenient for you to have a live tree. You don’t have to haul it around or buy a pot or have a place to plant it. TOLCTC takes care of all that for you. Some of the money you pay to rent your Christmas tree goes toward lowering the price of your tree to the group that buys and plants your Christmas tree, so by renting a tree from us you’d be subsidizing the price of trees to planting groups like; watershed councils, parks departments, churches and schools. This is our Sixteenth year. Over two thousand trees have been planted. Living Christmas Trees are planted where they grow old and improve the environment.

Some folks left practical advice on Olivia Zaleski’s How To Green Your Christmas Tree story via the Huffington Post on how to have a greener Christmas. Although fake Christmas trees are petroleum based and not biodegradable, this person offers some practical advice:

We have an artificial tree. The same one we’ve had for 10+ years (before that we had a used artificial tree). We do have to replace it next year as its finally falling apart. I think that’s not too bad as far as sustainability. We will also go all LED next year. This year we’re about 50/50, but we’re going all LED as soon as they go on sale.

and more food for thought from this comment:

Beware of Christmas Trees,,,,they are cancer causing. Loaded with herbicides pesticides and other chemicals. They are not safe for kids or adults. But you won’t find this out from the National Tree Growers Association,,,,its big business. And after the trees are cut down the ground is polluted with the chemicals for many years to come and it wouldn’t be safe to grow food for decades. Try artificial or some other sensible plant,,,,forget these mass produced evergreens.

Also consider buying reusable gift bags made from recycled fabric from Patagonia ($2 each, 800-638-6464). They look groovy too.

Other ways people are having a green Christmas include:

On the Net: Olivia Zaleski’s How To Green Your Christmas Tree
On the Net: Green Wrap and Gift Bags
On the Net: Real vs. Artificial Christmas Tree

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People often confuse commercially organic produce with sustainability but locavores worship sustainability. From Chicago Tribune’s The Stew:

What’s in a word? In this case of “locavore,” it’s a social, environmental movement of gastric proportions. And it moved the folks at Oxford University Press. They named the newly-minted term its 2007 Word of the Year this week.

The noun, which means “a person who endeavors to eat only locally-produced food,” originated about two years ago when four San Francisco women abandoned South American cherries and other products made beyond a 100-mile radius.

On the Net: SUSTAINABILITY: How sustainable is the corporate organic market

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Frito-Lay’s factory is trying to reach as close to net zero as possibly by recycling water and using renewable resources. From the New York Times:

Its goal is to take the Casa Grande plant off the power grid, or nearly so, and run it almost entirely on renewable fuels and recycled water. Net zero, as the concept is called, has the backing of the highest levels of corporate executives at PepsiCo, the parent company of Frito-Lay.

There are benefits besides the potential energy savings. Like many other large corporations, PepsiCo is striving to establish its green credentials as consumers become more focused on climate change. There are marketing opportunities, too. The company, for example, intends to advertise that its popular SunChips snacks are made using solar energy.

Get your gobble gobble locally if you can.

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Corporations are getting it then why can’t the American government?

READ “Brown Goes Green”

Photo gallery of the ZAP vehicles in operation on Flickr

A great show on renewable energy from the History Channel:

In the young 21st Century, two realizations are dawning on the world’s population: we are hopelessly dependent on petroleum, which is only going to get more expensive; and global warming, caused mainly by our burning of fossil fuels, will impact civilization in ways that we’re only beginning to grasp. Stepping in to fight both of these massive problems are the rapidly evolving technologies that harness renewable energy. We will see how air, water, earth, and fire are transformed into clean, reliable sources of heat, electricity, and even automobile fuel. We’ll take an in-depth look at the most proven and reliable sources: solar, wind, geothermal, biofuels, and tidal power. From the experimental to the tried-and-true, renewable energy sources are overflowing with potential… just waiting to be exploited on a massive scale. And unlike fossil fuels, they’ll always be there.

Purchase the Modern Marvels: Renewable Energy DVD here.

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by Buck Denton

Are organic foods better or worse than those produced via the mechanization process, which use petroleum based fertilizers? There are two issues I would like to discuss. First, in terms of sustainability small organic farms as a single unit provide a much more sustainable product to the organic market than larger corporate entities because small organic farmers are typically more intimately connected to the soil they work by methods such as composting and even aesthetic design. In addition small organic markets are typically local but very seasonal. However small organic markets represent a more sustainable source of produce than larger corporate entities.

The second reason why large-scale organic farming remains unsustainable is due to the large amounts of organic material needed to replace what petroleum based fertilizers provide. One form of a replacement is taken unsustainably from oceans via pair trawling (fishing vessels with large nets that run on diesel or gasoline). Pair trawlers target various small and large pelagic fish. Smaller pelagics such as herrings and mackerel can be made into fishmeal thus fertilizer. Therefore, there exists a readily supply of organic fertilizer for organic farms.

Industrialized fishing in the form of pair trawling can result in the harvest of herrings and mackerels in the hundreds of thousands of pounds in a single tow. These small schooling fish play a key role. Socio-economically, they provide food and bait for coastal communities and recreational fishers. Ecologically, these fish form a critical link between plankton and the animals that prey on herring.

Most importantly, uncontrolled harvesting can result in collapsed fisheries, thus creating conflicts between different fisheries. For example, some argue that the decline of high quality sushi grade giant bluefin tuna that are targeted in the Gulf of Maine results from a decreasing availability of prey species, which are arguably being overfished, disturbed thus displaced. Therefore, the theory goes tuna a very active species (they can regulate their body temperature) are chasing fewer large schools but more further in between smaller schools of their preferred oily prey. The preferred diet of mackerel and herring results in a high-energy yield thus fat content. To counter act anthropogenic activities, bluefin tuna may be relying more on “junk-food” in the form of less desirable prey species such as haddock or sand lance. As a result, it has been found by analyzing the logbooks of commercial tuna graders that tuna are becoming leaner. Fat makes tuna tasty and it is an important indicator of health. Although commercial fishing vessels do not typically target a species to supply the organic market, the organic market certainly receives byproducts from commercial fishing practices. Certainly, any future strict organic labeling must consider how sustainable the agriculture product really is thus considering how the crops or livestock are fed.

Fishmeal is also used to supplement livestock feed. The fish are not necessarily targeted specifically for agricultural means but are more commonly targeted for bait or to make products such as omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplements. Therefore, the carcasses as a byproduct from making another product are made into fishmeal for agricultural purposes. Waste not? Sure. Sustainable? No. Because there exists the link between organic farming, a practice that is perceived as sustainable to an unsustainable practice, which can have far reaching consequences in ecological processes such as the food web.

I believe the best organic foods are always locally produced under small scale farming conditions. Small-scale organic farming communities found throughout the United States as a single unit can supply a more sustainable product to the consumer. Anything else is hogwash. The most important principle to take away is because food was organically produced that does not mean it was sustainably produced. For further reading see Slate Magazine’s “Is Whole Foods Wholesome? The dark secrets of the organic-food movement” and COSMOS magazine’s article entitled “Organic food exposed.”