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With privilege should come responsibility. And in the case of the following show-business celebrities, it has. They are using their visibility, popularity and wealth to promot...
No question about it, recycling is a great way to help the environment. But it seems to get all the press. There are other even more impactful things you can do. Many are acti...
It was a good thing I rode in the back seat on the ride from Innsbruck, Austria, to the farm. My knee-jerk braking against the collision that never happened was not noticeable...
The bobcat, timber rattlesnake, trumpeter swan, cave salamander and pirate perch. No one would blame you if you assumed these species reside only in zoos. Actually, they are s...
I think I chose the wrong career. I mean, acting can be fun and high-profile and all that, but compared to the amount of tail the flower delivery guy must get, even touring ro...
Your outdoor space, whether an urban balcony or a large-acreage tract, is a balanced ecosystem that at times can shift, resulting in an invasion of insect pests. As we have se...
No matter how well you apply planting practices that reduce pest invasion, some pests will likely still get through to your plants. Fortunately, other organisms have been batt...
It seems just yesterday that we gave Mom her eco-friendly Mother’s Day gift and now, without a moment to catch our breath, Father’s Day (June 20) is almost upon us. If Mot...
As long as humans have lived in houses and cultivated plants, they have had to deal with a variety of insect and fungal pests. Synthetic pesticides are very effective at killi...
I have a beef with soy. The Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Dow Chemical, DuPont, Cargill and Monsanto corporations don’t want me to tell you this, but soy could be hazardous ...
Mother’s Day is soon approaching and so is the search for this year’s gift. Will it be the obligatory flowers or will you go with something more creative and offbeat? Eith...
Plant material is easy to compost. (See my piece, Composting 101, for step-by-step instructions.) But what to do with protein waste like leftover bones from fish, beef, pork a...
You do your part. You buy green products, recycle religiously, conserve water, save for a hybrid car. You hope your kids will notice and become stewards of the earth as well. ...
Making compost in your backyard is not time-consuming, unsanitary or difficult. It just takes a bit of education and preparation. Backyard composting not only improves your so...
I am a self-proclaimed, and very public eco-geek gal. The part of my life I do not spend honing my performance skills, I spend building my environmental savvy. Both are exciti...
Some select the foods they eat based on taste. Some are trying to affect their body image. Others make food choices based purely on convenience. Children often don’t get to ...
In the 1970s, the alternative agriculture movement was limited to a small group of idealogues among the more affluent members of society. Over the past three decades, it has s...
Milking goats, painting sunscreen on baby trees, tanning animal skins, bottling tomato sauce, harvesting wild greens, fermenting wine, gathering acorns, coagulating cheese, ra...
The “sustainable” wine certification is vital in the larger picture of what eco-conscious winemaking is all about. Yet this certification is by far the least organized int...
Another label the green consumer can look for when choosing a wine is the vineyard’s biodynamic certification. Worldwide, there are more than 450 certified biodynamic wine p...
Rather than bow down and revere raw milk as ‘a holy nectar of the gods’ (as many of its 40,000 California consumers do), I would like to more objectively examine the proce...
Currently, there are three ecologically important certifications vintners can achieve: organic, biodynamic and sustainable. We are all familiar with the organic certification ...
I’m addicted to fermentation. It started innocently enough—my boyfriend’s mom gave me the old yogurt maker that had been sitting unused in her cupboard since the 1970s. ...
As a raw vegan I am commonly first asked, “What can you eat?” To which I reply, “Anything I want,” reminding people that this is a choice, not a disease. Quite the opp...
If you can still afford to eat out, you will probably see more eco-friendly menu options at restaurants this year. Locallygrown produce, meat and drinks rate alongside general...
In school, your children are surrounded by other kids and that means peer pressure. They want the latest clothes, music, school supplies and electronic gadgets. But there are ...
As divulged in an earlier blog entry, I am from a large family. In the tiny Montana town where I was born, my family made up 2% of the entire population of 600. That’s ten k...
Christmas can really separate the grumpy, green, Grinch-like environmentalists from the festive, red-and-green, Earth-loving elves of generosity among us. The Grinch is the on...
Is the excessive waste and pollution caused by the manufacture of extravagant gifts that people don’t want or need making you feel like foregoing the purchase of presents th...
So you wanna do what's right for your own and the planet's health, but the higher cost of organically farmed produce has you hesitating? Last week we discussed how location af...
Clearly the increase in organic and natural food advertising has made people more aware of what they are putting in their bodies. To many, labels like “organic” and “nat...
How can you marvel at the world and then feed yourself in a completely un-marvelous way? – Alice Waters
I recently took a study break for my regular late-night snack cravi...
I have a confession to make: I once was a raw foodist who didn't buy organic produce. Not exclusively at least. For that entire first year, I was still comparison shopping an...
European shoppers have been spoiled by strict rules governing the shape and size of their fruit and vegetables. Now that the European Union (EU) for environmental reasons has ...
In the last few years, words like organic, fair trade, sustainable, local and even biodynamic have been plastered all over what we read—as part of food advertisements, on th...
A wedding is one of the most important celebrations in any lifetime. Usually they are sparkling affairs filled with old friends and families, wine, dancing, dresses, cake and....
So you’ve just stained that beautiful cashmere sweater made from free-range alpacas, and the only way that you can launder it is through dry cleaning. But wait, being eco-ch...
Would you eat a plant that had a gene from a bacteria added to it? Would you favor advancements in agriculture that could help relieve world hunger and save millions of lives?...
With the growing trend of ecologically friendly everything, including clothing, hemp is making a big splash in the fashion industry. Of course, cotton is still king. But there...
If you dumped my trash onto the floor, you wouldn’t have to fear an encounter with something wet and possibly smelly. That’s because I compost all my kitchen wastes. I’...
Like overpopulation, there is a taboo against discussing obesity in polite company. We may have overweight friends or family members whose feelings we don’t want to hurt, if...
When Carol Debberman dished up her first batch of organic vegan burgers, she didn’t know she was on her way to creating a one-of-a-kind eco-business. But her five kids loved...
For those of us who live a more natural lifestyle, interacting with our relatives who do not can be challenging. We want to stick with our homemade, natural lives without look...
Most of us have been taught to live a lie. This great lie is not so much a product of the malice or ill intent of our parents and mentors as it is a pervasive belief system, p...
If you've ever tasted fresh-off-the-vine tomatoes or other home-grown vegetables, you'll likely never forget the flavor. Maybe you've thought about starting your own vegetable...
Just because it’s an ice-cold evening in January doesn’t mean you can’t have asparagus for dinner. It’s easily found at your local grocery, in the bins near the Spanis...
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