The Rage Diaries

Pragmatism is good for the American diet

So a few days ago, I read this post, "Localvores at Walmart?" on WMT's in-house blog, Check Out. The gist of the post is this:

[O]ver the past two years, Walmart’s partnerships with local farmers have grown by 50 percent, and fruits and vegetables grown in any given store’s state now make up over a fifth of what’s available during summer months.  Now, statistics like this are nice, but its particularly cool when you see the results…a few examples:

Until recently, all of the fresh cilantro sold in Walmart stores was sourced from California. Then, Ron’s merchants found a grower named Duda Farms, and soon we started sourcing cilantro from Belle Glade, Florida for distribution in the eastern US.  Introducing Florida-grown cilantro resulted in an estimated savings of 250,000 food miles in a single season.

I liked the post because it was a nice look at how businesses can balances practices that boost their bottom line against practices that are good for the planet.

Hay! Help any way you can

The BPP had a wrenching report on the growing issue of horse abandonment today -- apparently, some horse owners are caught in a perfect storm of rising fuel prices, rising feed prices and not-rising income, and so they're just ... letting their horses roam free, on the theory that the horses will find food. Answer to that: no, they don't. These domestic animals don't know what's safe to eat, they often can't find water, and they're at terrible risk from coyotes and wild mustangs, which are quite territorial. Assuming they're not killed by other animals, these horses often starve to death.

Anyway, it's a terrible situation all the way around for cash-strapped horse owners. (It's either abandonment or euthanasia.) Brent Glover, the gentleman on the BPP who was talking about this growing problem -- and it's only going to get worse as people get more squeezed for cash and hay prices stay high -- runs Orphan Acres, an equine sanctuary in Idaho. (At left: one of their rehab patients.) The sanctuary has a permanent herd of 25 horses, and a lot of animals cycling through rehab and foster care. They need everything from horse blankets to medicines to feed. They do take donations, and I've written to ask how one can sponsor a horse -- I'm wondering if it's something a group of people can go in on.

You all know how strongly I feel about humankind's moral obligations to our domestic animals. If you're interesting in going in on a horse sponsorship with me or can think of another way to help Orphan Acres, please let me know.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Retail

Just a collection of links that connect filthy commerce, media and eco-consciousness:

"Wal-Mart Green Push Supports Earth Month" (BrandWeek, Apr 1, 08) -- "The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer said that more than 50 products spanning various aspects of sustainability will be featured on store shelves in April and that more than 500 eco-friendly items will be available at Walmart.com."

"Mags Go Gaga for Green, with Just a Nod to Own Hypocrisy" (AdAge, Mar 31, 08) -- "[A]ny of those green glossies seem determined to test their readers' capacity for cognitive dissonance by editorializing for eco-friendly action on virgin paper that lugs big carbon emissions behind."

(On a related note: I recently picked up a copy of National Geographic Green Guide, and I recommend that anyone who's embarking on a greening of their lifestyle -- or anyone who wants to study magazines -- do likewise.)

"Crate & Barrel Keeps Pulse on Environment" (ChiTrib, Mar 24, 08) -- "As for going green, Crate has got a head start. It got rid of packing peanuts in 2006 and has been moving to eco-friendly catalog practices for years. Last year, it advertised its sustainable furniture in national magazines and just recently created a section on its Web site to tout its green strategy."

Such a deal!

You all have read alllll about how I love me some spendy soy Kobo candles. And now you can experience the wonder for yourself at a fraction of the usual cost: Garnet Hill has three different scents in stock and they're on sale for $12 apiece. I can personally vouch for the fresh currant and fig scents, but I'm sure the chocolate-orange one is great too.

Go, go, go, stock up now. The candles come in gorgeous paper cannisters that can double as wrapping, and they make great hostess gifts.

Green is not the only criteria for conscious commerce

If you'd like to reward companies that have a strong track record of supporting equality for the GLBT community, download the Human Rights Campaign's "Buying for Equality" 2008 guide. It's got an easy-to-understand scoring system for retail categories like travel, groceries, banking/finance, apparel, restaurants, etc.

(Remember also: last week I posted the ten companies that the Consumers' Union vetted as being worthy of your shopping dollars.)

Shopping your conscience

The more I see of Shop Smart, the more I like it. The Jan 08 issue's stand-out feature: "The Best Companies to Buy From." The Consumers' Union tapped KLD Research and Analytics, The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience author Richie Unterberger and Better World Shopping Guide author Ellis Jones, and it came up with ten companies that it says are doing the right thing. The best part of the article: these companies make good products that are often widely available.

The top ten, with hyperlinks to the policies that landed them there, are: Ben & Jerry's; Clif Bar; Kettle Foods; Stonyfield Farms; Burt's Bees; Seventh Generation; Tom's of Maine; Ikea; Patagonia; and Timberland.

What I find interesting about the list is that I know at least three of the companies are owned by other, larger firms (Unilever owns Ben & Jerry's, Colgate-Palmolive owns Tom's of Maine, and Clorox just announced plans to buy Burt's Bees) and both Seventh Generation and Tom's of Maine have business relationships with Wal-Mart (see more details here and here). This tells me that there's growing recognition among companies that having a socially-conscious business unit is an effective way to cultivate a fairly recession-proof audience segment -- the people who don't necessarily let price determine which product they'll select in a consumer category.

Friday link farm: the green is the new green crop

Business opportunities that capitalize on the urge to tread more lightly upon the planet are springing up like mushrooms. So take a look at how big companies will be affecting your future consumption -- and vice-versa. All links after the jump.

Is the color of your burnout green?

Thanks to drunken monkey's recommendation, I've been reading Green As A Thistle every day. For those of you who aren't familiar with the site: Vanessa has undertaken a challenge wherein she tries to adopt one new green habit, practice or lifestyle change daily. These changes can be big -- turning off the fridge -- or small, like forgoing shrink-wrap on her sandwich.

In her September summary, Vanessa writes:

I’m not going to complain because there are far worse things in life than trying to be environmentally conscious. That said, trying to remember over 200 different ways of being environmentally conscious isn’t always so much fun. It doesn’t help, either, that every media outlet is still obsessing over all things green, from the threat of global warming to the trend of “eco-chic” tote bags, not to mention the onslaught of green products, green services, green businesses and all-round greenwashing. Honestly, I’m starting to get a little sick of the whole thing. Sometimes, I just want to wake up and go about my day and not have to worry about whether or not I’ve poured too much water into the kettle for my morning coffee.

It's not hard to get a case of green blues (as she calls it). I know that there are some days (usually toward the end of the month), where I'm like, "What will I find to do next? Why did I decide to do this again? Oh, yeah -- the planet. Way to go, jerk!"

Because we all will hit a green wall at some point, I thought I'd compile a list of suggested changes that we can consider in reducing/reusing/recycling. Most of them don't require a huge commitment or time or money. I'm including your suggestions, as well as the stuff I've read elsewhere. Then maybe those of us who have been plugging along all year can finish the rest of the year strong.

The suggestions are after the jump. Feel free to add your own.

Rough and tumble-drying

The clothesline was once a ubiquitous part of the residential landscape. But as postwar Americans embraced labor-saving appliances, clotheslines came to be associated with people who couldn't afford a dryer. Now they are a rarity, purged from the suburban landscape by legally enforceable development restrictions.

Nationwide, about 60 million people now live in about 300,000 "association governed" communities, most of which restrict outdoor laundry hanging, says Frank Rathbun, spokesman for the Community Associations Institute, an Alexandria, Va., group that lobbies on behalf of homeowners associations.

But the rules are costly to the environment -- and to consumers -- clothesline advocates argue. Clothes dryers account for 6% of total electricity consumed by U.S. households, third behind refrigerators and lighting, according to the Residential Energy Consumption Survey by the federal Energy Information Administration. It costs the typical household $80 a year to run a standard electric dryer, according to a calculation by E Source Cos., in Boulder, Colo., which advises businesses on reducing energy consumption.

Alexander Lee, founder of clothesline advocacy group Project Laundry List in Concord, N.H., says the clothesline movement is "an outgrowth of interest in what-can-I-do environmentalism." Mr. Lee says he gets more and more email seeking advice on how to hang a clothesline despite neighborhood covenants restricting them.

-- "The Right to Dry: A Green Movement is Roiling America," WSJ, Sep 18, 07

The clothesline revolt has begun. The harsh reality of global warming is setting in and motivating people to forsake their energy-consuming dryers.

Laura Shafer was an early convert. She lost her dryer in a divorce and started to use a clothesline and photographed laundry while still living in Santa Cruz. About 10 years ago, she was living in a trailer park in Encinitas with a new husband and was told she couldn't have a clothesline.

"It was illegal to hang out my clothes, so I built a guerrilla line," she said. "We told the management it was a hammock stand."

-- "Green Laundry," SF Chron, Sep 19, 07

Personally speaking: I am ambivalent about things like line-drying laundry. On the one hand, it may be lower-impact than tumble-drying laundry. On the other: I see a lot of emphasis on resurrecting time-intensive domestic tasks like line-drying clothing and canning locally-procured produce. Where is the corresponding fervor for slowing down the pace of public and corporate life?

I get that doing something domestically may feel more rewarding and manageable than writing a company or lobbying your legislator does. But I don't think green living and progress are necessarily in opposition. Maybe instead of exhorting people to line-dry clothing, we could work on finding a more efficient dryer? Or making sure our electricity comes from renewable energy resources?

Or perhaps putting the electricity use into perspective: according to the U.S. Energy Dept, 3.5% of the nation's electricity goes to powering secondary freezers. That is not that much less than the 5.8% slice of the pie that dryers take up. Once again, it seems to come down to deciding which is a smarter use of resources for you and your household.

From a $64 tomato to an $11,000 potato farm

Early last spring, all my swiss chard and spinach went bonkers and grew like mad. I spent a very tedious evening washing greens, chopping them up, flash-steaming them, then freezing them. I look forward to the warm-n-fuzzy feeling I will get in a few weeks when I eat an egg pie made with spinach I harvested in March or a bowl of radiatore with swiss chard and pine nuts. But that will last as long as the meal and thus -- alas -- I have an estimated eight dishes' worth of warm-n-fuzzy banked.

The disconnect between the effort needed to cultivate and put up food versus how much is left to consume has fueled work like Betty MacDonald's The Egg and I, William Alexander's The $64 Tomato and now, New York magazine's take on going locavore in Brooklyn. The Sep 17, 07, piece, "My Empire of Dirt" outlines the months of effort, $11,000 of supplies needed and occasionally nasty results of attempting to grow a man-month's worth of food in 800 square feet.

It is worth reading as an antidote to the rhetoric about the joys of getting in tune with the cycles of nature, etc. But it is also worth reading for this insight:

Few, if any, serious locavores would see my experience as having much to do with what they advocate: eating regionally and seasonally in order to save the planet. But I now better understand what will be needed to back up the slogans. Eating local is expensive and time-consuming, which is why this consumerist movement will not easily trickle down into mass society. It requires a willful abstinence from convenience and plenty, a core promise of the modern world. Our bountiful era is predicated on the division of labor: We don’t sew our own clothes, we don’t build our own houses—and we certainly don’t farm—because we’re too busy doing whatever it is we do for everyone else.

I see the problem as being one of scale. It's the same problem the organic farmers are dealing with: how do you maintain the qualities that you think give you that competitive edge in the marketplace while also engineering an operation that lets you compete in terms of supply and price? These questions began to get asked around the time Wal-Mart started its campaign for more organics. The answers will have to become more readily apparent if we expect organic or local eating to move beyond the confines of some lifestyle niches.