How green is that salad in a bag?

We eat salad almost every night at dinner, but I am going to stop buying those already prepared bags of lettuce.  I like to go grocery shopping, and I do it frequently, and I admit I have been often tempted to buy those bags of pre-cut and washed lettuce, lined up in the grocery case, beckoning me by their ease at the end of a long day.  Once I get home, I could just open the bag, toss on an organic dressing and maybe some nuts and cheese and a few dried cranberries...but at what environmental cost?  I have been reading Michael Pollan's acclaimed book, "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals," and I just finished reading about how large organic farms produce all those bags of prepared lettuce on display at Whole Foods.  The energy expanded to pick the variety of lettuce leaves, wash and bag the lettuce, and then while keeping every single bag refrigerated it at 36 degrees, storing it and then shipping it from a farm in California all the way to the Whole Foods here in the mid-West where I shop is enormous!  Starting tonight, I will prepare my own salads from intact heads that I buy in the store, at the farmers' market or grow in my own garden.

I want to eat truly green lettuce. 

How I scooped the NYTimes on global warming and health

Global warming can threaten more than just our ecology. It can threaten our health, as climate change allows infectious disease to emerge in different parts of the world.

On December 23, 2007, The New York Times published a story on the emergence of the Chikungunya virus in Italy:
As Earth Warms Up, Tropical Virus Moves to Italy

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/world/europe/23virus.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=chikungunya+virus&oref=slogin

But back in November, 2007, I published a similar story for Internal Medicine World Report:
Climate Change Culprit in Emerging Infections

http://www.imwr.com/issues/articles/2007-11_02.asp

For the latest on health and global warming, always read mygreenerlife.blogspot.com first.

Great friends, good bubbly, and a tiny bit of recycling

Last week, on a cold December evening, I got together with a few friends for some holiday cheer. They are among my most environmentally-conscious friends (Beverly rides her bike or takes the elevated train to work every day and she and her husband do not eat animals, and Joy and her boyfriend don't own a car, and just returned from trekking in Bhutan), and we had a great time drinking champagne and catching up at Pops for Champagne here in Chicago. After we had emptied the bottle of champagne, and we were getting ready to leave the restaurant/jazz bar, I asked our waiter if the establishment would be recycling our bottle. Sadly, he reported that they don't recycle, because Chicago's recycling program has really never worked well.
I tried hard not to think about all the bottles they must toss into the trash every night, and I offered to bring home our bottle, and put it outside in my weekly recycling. Our waiter promptly returned with our bottle in a little take-out paper bag, grateful to see one less bottle tossed into the trash.
Beverly, Joy and I bundled up and headed out into the winter night. I brought along my little bag, and it is now sitting in a recycling bin somewhere rather than in a landfill.

Even the House is doing it

Some news from www.grist.org:

House of Representatives' food service goes sustainable Cafeterias in the House of Representatives are getting a makeover today: out with the high-fructose corn syrup, in with the free-roaming hens. (Well, there won't actually be hens roaming in the cafeterias -- you get what we mean.) Under Speaker Nancy Pelosi's ambitious Greening the Capitol initiative, the privately owned House food service -- which provides more than 2.5 million meals a year -- will start dishing out local, organic, seasonal chow, which can be taken out in compostable containers and eaten with biodegradeable utensils. Unfortunately for hungry senators, the Senate-owned food service will continue to provide iceberg lettuce, processed chicken tenders, and is-it-OK-to-call-them-French-now? fries.

Bipartisan biodegradable utensils? Now that's green democracy!

turning blue and white green

We are getting ready to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah tomorrow night, and I have done a few things to make our holidays a little more environmentally-friendly this year. Using the same theme of reuse, reduce, recycle, here are some things I have done so far: I saved Hanukkah wrapping paper from last year, and rewrapped presents for my husband and daughter in it. (I even reused some of the gift tags from last year.) I did not make any major trips to the mall in my car, about 5 miles from my home. Instead, I shopped in my local downtown, where I could park my car and walk to different stores, cutting back on the gas I would need to drive to the mall. I also ordered a few things online. One of my husband's gifts includes a completely biodegradable, reusable water bottle. One of my daughter's gifts includes a previously owned outfit from an upscale kids' resale shop. Finally, I will recycle any wrapping paper we can't use next year, and all the potato peals from the 5-6 lbs of potatoes I grated for out latkes are busy biodegrading in our composter.

Thanksgiving wrap up; Hanukkah ideas needed!

My organic turkey was fantastic! Brined for 24 hours, it was the tastiest bird to ever come out of my oven. Despite minimal use of fresh flowers, my table was beautiful (see photo). Local apples were a knock-out in the apple pie my mother-in-law and husband created.
Now if I could just figure out a way to have a green Hanukkah, I would be pleased with my transition to greener holidays. Any suggestions?

The First (greener) Thanksgiving Report Card

Though my ancestors hardly came over on the Mayflower (my grandparents and great-grandparents were Eastern European Jews who came through Ellis Island), I enjoy getting ready for Thanksgiving and hosting my friends and family every year. This year, I am trying really hard to reuse, reduce and recycle. Check out what I am doing below, and then tell me if I get an A or not.

Reuse
I set my table with items that I use every year: my grandmother's delicate china, my mother's beautiful silver, and my very favorite festive tablecloth. I also make use of antique serving bowls on my table, and except for paper napkins, I do not use any disposable items. Before I serve dinner, I mix and match my appetizer plates along with serving pieces I have picked up at garage sales to create a homey setting for hors d'ouerves in the living room.
I reuse the food I serve, too. We eat leftovers, of course, and I plan to use the picked-over turkey carcass and the giblets to make a classic turkey stock. Extra whipped cream (homemade from organic whipping cream) is great as a post-Thanksgiving treat in coffee. Cranberry sauce tastes delicious on turkey sandwiches. And my dog loves table scraps!

Reduce
Kudos to my in-laws who win the prize for reducing fossil fuel the most of any of our guests. Rather than fly in from the lovely city in South Carolina where they retired after way too many freezing Midwest winters, they travel the 900+ miles to our home in their Toyota Prius. My father-in-law, famous for his frugality (driving costs less than flying), is really an environmental hero in my book.
I will reduce the environmental impact of raising a turkey this year by buying an organic turkey from Whole Foods. In the past, I have bought a natural turkey from them, but I am looking forward to the authentic flavor and lower environmental impact of the bird I will cook.
On the Saturday before Thanksgiving, I will head to the final farmers' market of the year here in Evanston. It takes place indoors, and though local farmers cannot offer up the delicious tomatoes and peaches of summer, I will stock up on locally-grown apples for a pie my husband has promised to make, sweet potatoes for the annual sweet potato and marshmallow fluff side I must make or my friend Grace will never speak to me again, and Brussels sprouts, for a healthy addition to our laden table. I hope to pick up leaks, radishes, carrots, and some locally-made organic goat's milk soap. By buying as much local produce for my feast as I can, I will help reduce the use of fossil fuels needed to bring in produce that might travel much longer distances.
I will also substitute local pumpkins, gourds, and dried flowers on my table and throughout my home for an abundance of fresh flowers. I love flowers, but buying a big bouquet of flowers flown in from a tropical place does not do much to reduce my carbon footprint. Plus my daughter and I plan to use mini-pumpkins to hold the place cards at our table. They look great, and writing out 15 names on cards certainly keeps an 8-year-old busy.
And though we all love left-overs, I plan to cook slightly smaller amounts of food this year. I do not want to toss out any food left in my fridge that I discover, say in late December.

Recycle
Feel free to check out the recycling bin in my alley on the Sunday night following T-giving. Not only will it contain many empty wine bottles (Grace's husband, Bill, became an oenophile when their now teen-age triplets were babies--he spent a lot of time at home then, understandably--and he always brings wonderful wine to our table), but you will also find clean sparkling organic cider bottles from the kids' table, all the clean paper goods we did not need to toss into the garbage.