Oh, how we love the sound of our four-legged fuzzy family members as they whip through your home at mock speeds or sniffle outside the door when you let them out to pee. Is it not true that your little furry friend is as much a part of the family as little Isabella is? So why should they have to settle for anything less than top shelf when their health is at stake? Give your doggy a break, as well as your wallet and the planet, and reduce your pets paw print with these easy and green steps!

Get your pet tagged

By getting your dog tagged; either with an aluminum ID tag that you can get from your local spay and neuter clinic, or the new age electronic chips, and you will save yourself a lot of heart ache, some trees since you won’t have to print out a bunch of lost dog flyers, and some gas emissions from driving around to look for your pet. I found the cutest tags at www.mommytags.com , and the silver they use is recycled.

Getting a Pet is a full time job!

Even though the little kitten you see at the mall is the cutest thing you have ever scene, and your five year old really wants one, this doesn’t mean you must buy her. Baby kittens grow up, just like baby bunnies and puppies, into full grown animal, that needs food, water, and most of all, lots of your love and time. Unless your entire family is up for a new addition, and understands the long term commitment, then your better off just getting little Sammy a stuffed animal, or taking him to a farm to visit and get his cute animal fix. Pets are not suppose to be impulse buys, or fashion accessories, they are an extension of your family!

Protect the native wildlife and leash your pets

Imagine if you were tweety, just hanging around, scouting for seeds and enjoying your life. Then, BAM, out of no where comes a huge furry ball that gobbles you right up! Talk about a buzz kill, or more like birdie kill. Cats are the big bad wolf to wild habitat, and they spike the bird mortality rate up by double. Unlike the wild predators they become when locked outdoors, indoor cats are always well fed, and

Always keep your dog on a leash when outside, and confine your mangy feline indoors. Topped only perhaps by habitat destruction, cats are the biggest, baddest bird killers of all time. Even wind turbines have got nothing on them. While you may poo-poo high cat-related bird-mortality rates as collateral damage in the great Circle of Life, domestic cats do have an unfair advantage. Unlike wild predators, house cats are always well fed, well rested, and in tip-top fighting shape. They’re also present in more concentrated (and rapidly increasing) numbers than say, the San Clemente Loggerhead Shrike.

Eco-Family is a website absolutely dedicated to providing mamas and papas with the tools and knowledge to live a more conscious and responsible lifestyle, and what better place to pick up that knowledge then at Solfest 2008. Hosted by the Solar Living Institute, based in Hopland, California, SolFest, called “the Greenest Show on Earth,” is a magical place packed full of green wisdom, innovation, education, nourishment, and, last but not least, real hands-on save-the-earth fun! For each and every ecologically or socially unfriendly issue, there is a sustainable green solution.

I am writing about the Solfest from a very unique point of view, as my family and I volunteered three days before the show started to be a part of the “building crew” to help build and set up the “green” booths. One of the main objectives of the Solar Living Institute is how to build houses that take less from the earth and give more to people. They take it a step further, demonstrating how to build durable, sustainable structures out of earthen materials such as sand, straw, and clay...stuff you can find on your own land or on the side of the road for free! Massey Burke, the young and talented Solfest Natural Building expert says, “When driving around, you should always keep some buckets and a shovel in your car just in case you spot some beautiful clay or dirt that you can use on your structure.” As she explained this to us, she showed us a bucket of beautiful purple clay that she had harvested off the side of the road and used to plaster on one of the booths.

The opening day of Solfest, Saturday, began with a beautiful dance by the Sho ko wa ko

Dancers. Our first pit stop through the festivities was the all-around sustainable Thanksgiving Coffee stand. We were offered free delicious Organic coffee (because we were volunteers), which we graciously accepted in our aluminum coffee mugs. We continued to cruise, coming across a living roof demonstration, which was next to Café Gratitude, the amazing raw and vegan food stand, where we ordered a faux chocolate covered raw granola bar. As we walked on we came across the famous Klean Kanteen booth, where after chatting with Dan the Klean Kanteen man, he told me the story of how the company came to be (just a couple of fireman, grossed out by hot plastic smelling and tasting water, came up with the idea after attending Solfest and made a mock up, sent it off to china, had it made, and the first ever aluminum (not stainless) canteen was born). Onward we strolled past a multitude of beautiful inviting booths featuring sustainable ideas, services, and products presented by friendly knowledgeable (and healthy looking) vendors. From new water filtration systems, eco-building ideas, to under the sink grey water catchers, there was no lack of sustainable ideas. One of the purchases we made was a purse made out of garbaged and salvaged plastic bags from an earnest young woman selling sustainably-produced clothing and accessories, handmade by women’s cooperatives in India. She had bags made out of phone books, old film rolls, and even shoes made from newspaper. The Presidio School of Management’s presence was outstanding with one of its student volunteers who wisely summarized the reason for sustainable living as such: “We’ve got to look at the triple-bottom line, equally viewing people, profit and the environment as one unit.”

We also listened to a speech by Ed Begley Jr., who told us about some of the things he had been doing to live “sustainable” since 1970, such as drive an electric car that he bought for $950 in 1975, and install a fence made out of recycled plastic. He said that in order for us to really make a change…is to make a change. “If we all just did the little things”, he said, “like replace those incandescent light bulbs, ride your bike more often, turn the water off when brushing, get a programmable thermostat, we will collectively make a true difference. But we all must do it; we all must do it for it to work.” Case and point!

On our way to the “paper countertop” workshop, we passed the bees and beekeeper. He said, “Without them (the bees), we would not have the plants, the food, the life that we have. It would be totally different. We would not be here.” As we approached the Natural Building booth, we could see it was jammed full of people, young old, from all walks of life. Compressed Paper Countertops was the topic of this workshop, and it was so amazing to see what can be made out of recycled paper. Joel Klippert, of Skyside Studios, a custom woodworking and eco-conscious furniture and cabinet Shoppe, explained the idea behind paper countertops, and the few companies making them. One of the products he highlighted is called “Eco-top”, which is composed of a Forest Stewardship Council-certified 50/50 blend of bamboo fiber, a great renewable resource, and recycled wood fiber salvaged from demolition sites. These materials are bound together by a water-based resin formula that is both petroleum-free and VOC-free.

Moved by this workshop we set off to the “Papercrete” workshop hosted by Eco-Struction a company that designs and builds structures using RASTRA ® (ICF-integrated concrete form), rammed earth, and FSC CERTIFIED conventional framing techniques. During this workshop we were able to make our own Papercrete (a mixture of cement or clay, recycled Styrofoam, and newspaper water) pour it into molds or blocks that you can then use as the structure of any home. After we made the papercrete, we plastered (earth clay plaster) right over it for a nice finish that you could either paint or leave natural. Very insulating and actually aesthetically pleasing after it was plastered. There were so many people at this workshop that it was hard to see. Some of the other workshops we saw were: Starting successful eco-villages; ECOpreneuring, putting Purpose and Planet before profits; Cooking with the Power of the Sun; and Basics of Electricity and Solar Systems.

Solfest was wrapped up on Saturday night with a “trashy fashion show” which displayed amazing fashion works made literally out of trash bags and wrappers. We left tanned, eco-inspired, and sad to go. Solfest creates a positive array of solutions to pave the way toward a sustainable future, with a multitude of creative and affordable solutions that exist for each and every facet of our lives. If you wish to volunteer or attend Solfest 2009, contact solarliving.org

A typical volunteer day at Solfest went as follows:

5 am Woken up by rooster, still dark

6 am Got out of tent to walk our dog and go to the bathroom

6:15am Take dog for a 15 minute jog through pear Orchard; get kicked out by workers that are picking.

6:45 am Yoga class by the beautiful pond (that has the most beautiful Coi fish)

8:15am Breakfast consisting of freshly picked cantaloupe, nectarines, and apples. Organic Cereals with Chocolate Soy Milk, Tofu Scramble, Organic Coffee

8:45am Volunteer Meeting to tell us volunteers where to go.

9:00am Start Working. We started by setting up Straw bales in a U shape with a bamboo roof. We then began to mix straw, mud and a little bit of clay with our bare feet (our kids too) to use as the base coat of our wall. (See picture of kids doing this).

12:15pm Break for Lunch. Tortillas, fresh hummus, Romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, onions, pasta salad, potato salad, fresh melon (all food from garden on-site).

1:00pm Resume working, applying mud/straw mixture to outside of the bales. Kids are playing in the nearby sand pit and water fountain.

2-3:00pm Break for Siesta (afternoon nap). It’s over 100 degree’s outside.

3-6:00pm Work on the Mandala sculpture being constructed on the wall out of clay. We will paint the Mandala with clay paint we made earlier when done sculpting.

7:15pm Dinner, consisting of fresh Salad, Lasagna, homemade bread, melon for desert.

  My Solfest diary entry:

Working today has been tough. With temperatures soaring over 100 degrees, hands and feet are mildly cracking from working with “clay” mud, and my back is really sunburned. But, the experience has been so rewarding, who knew you could build the coolest structure out of straw, mud and clay, with beautiful colors, sensual lines and aesthetically pleasing designs made with resources that won’t cause damage or take from our environment. And best of all, we learned how to do this as a family and the kids had a great time. The kid’s job this morning looked like a cross between grape crushing with your feet and mud wrestling! They enjoyed romping around on a bunch of mud and mixing in straw as they went, singing songs and displaying huge smiles as they worked (or should I say played)! No fighting, no boredom, just sheer excitement.

As the day went on they played in the beautiful water vortex fountain (a series of small tiered ponds where water flowed from one another from the water tower salvaged from a nearby winery, that catches and swirl’s the water in a figure eight motion aerating it with oxygen and leaving it naturally crystal clear and clean.) The kids also enjoyed the solar powered Carousel that has animals like a turkey, rabbit and a deer to ride on. The day flew by, and despite the obnoxious heat and mounds of mud on my body and in my hair (oh, and the sunburn), this has been one of the most enjoyable days of our families life!

I have never thought of myself as a tea drinker.  Sure, I've had my occasional cup-a-tea, like at a track meet and am cold and in need of some warming, or when I was pregnant and a woman swore that if I drank her tea it would induce my labor, oh, and of course the token 'Chai tea latte' with my non coffee drinking friends when everyone else is ordering one.  But little did I know, there was a whole beautiful tea world out there to discover, and now that I have discovered it I can't stop drinking it!  It turns out that just like Fair Trade Coffee, Fair Trade Tea guarantees fair wages, humane work environments, health care and environmentally friendly conditions for tea workers across the World that otherwise might be working under harsh unhealthy circumstances.  And just like conventional Coffee Plantations, many conventional Tea Farms spray crops with chemicals, pesticides and synthetic fertilizers that not only exposes us,the consumers, to these harmful substances, but the farmers and workers as well.  Little does my non-coffee drinking friends know that when they are sipping on their Chai Tea Latte, they are swallowing toxins that can become destructive to them and to our environment. (Although there are many Organic Fair Trade Chai Teas out there, so if your sippin' on those just disregard what I just said!)

So what's my point?  Well, I have a vision, that every tea drinker out there to be educated on the harsh reality of what drinking a cup of tea entails.  Why is it important that everyone drink Fair Trade Certified Tea?  Because in order to create a humane world, we must motivate ourselves and others to be inspired to make conscious buying decisions in all aspects of our lives, that includes and can start with buying delicious Organic (and Biodynamic) Teas.  And I tell you what, after you read my recommendations of Tea Companies and try their teas, you will be passing out tea bags to all your coffee drinking friends trying to get them drinking more tea as well!

Here is my Review of the top 5 Tea companies I have found that taste superb and are Fair Trade Certified and Organic....(and I tasted a boat load)!

Tealandia

Eco Teas

Hampstead Tea Company

SerendipiTea

Mellow Monk

 

There has been some talk about weather or not it really is a good idea to replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) because of the mercury content in CFLs. First lets talk about the wonders of CFLs. They give off little heat, unlike incandescent bulbs that give off 90 percent of their energy in heat; they may cost more money upfront, but because of their longevity they should end up saving you $30 or more over it’s lifetime; and lastly they contain a very little amount of mercury, and even still they result in less mercury emissions than incandescents. Reason being is that for the average incandescent light bulb to run there inevitably will be a coal-fired plant that will emit around 13.6 mg of mercury, unlike a CFL which only takes around 3.4 mg to power. If you add the 3.4 mg’s to the 5 mg’s of mercury that the average CFL contains, you are still far below the 13.6 mg emitted by the incandescent. Of course, you do have to dispose of your CFL in a proper place, which might take a little time on your part, but you can call your municipal waste company to find out local options, or if you live near an IKEA you can take it there to dispose.

Another option to consider is LED lights, or light-emitting diode lights. These lights are completely mercury free and last up to 50 times longer than your old incandescent bulbs, and it doesn’t get any sweeter then that! These new lights are becoming more and more popular and you can easily find them at stores like Home Depot and Wal-mart, and you can even find LED Christmas lights (which use about 90 percent less energy than incandescents) and LED reading lamps. So, to answer the question, YES, replace those bulbs, it is much better for the environment and will save you money in the long run!

Check out the Energy Star website page on CFL’s at www.energystar.gov/cfls, which gives you all the information you might need on disposal of broken CFL’s, as well as statistics, energy savings calculators and the best places to purchase your new bulbs!

Check this light options out!

1. Sunwave bulb 26W:  If you are looking for a CFL that closely resembles sunlight, this is the bulb for you.  It is compatible with most household fixtures and lamps and has an equivalent strength of a 75 watts incandescent bulb.  And as a plus, this bulb is also flicker free and has a life expectancy of about 10,000 hours!  Cool!  $25 at gaiam.com

 

 

15W Dimmable CFL:  If you have overhead dimmers in your home these are the perfect compliment.  The range of light intensity this bulb gives off is appealing as well as the the fact that the size fits almost anywear, since it is a bit shorter than most bulbs! $10.38 at 1000bulbs.com

 

 

 

E27-x36-G LED bulb:Since LED bulbs are going to be the up and coming,  I looked for the most affordable 60 watt comparable light but it will run aobut 50 times longer than a regular incandescent 60 watt bulb.  This  LED will last up to 50,000 hours, yes, 50,000 this is not a typo.  And best of all, if you kept this light on for 12 hours each day for an entire year, your total cost would only be a couple of dollars.  This model is great for reading lamps and portch lights. $9.95 at Superbrightleds.com

G22 5W High Power LED Bulb, Globe White:  OK, for a step above in LED lighting, this bulb takes the cake.  It can be used with any voltage and produces they very brightest LED light I have found.  You can get it in pure white or warm white, it lasts 50,000 hours as well, and it is Unbreakable!!! $39.95 at besthomeledlighting.com

Drinking coffee isn’t just part of waking up, it is making a difference in the lives of families and children around the World.

Next time you wake up with coffee beans on your mind, or your thinking about stopping for a quick latte, think about this: Over 50% of the world’s coffee is grown by small family farms, with millions of workers employed on coffee plantations and estates, and plantation workers being treated unfairly, given low wages, and working in unhealthy toxic conditions without housing, water or even healthcare. Additionally, the owners of these farms and estates are only receiving a mere 2% to 4% of the retail price, leaving the farmers in deep poverty and horrible debt. Not only is coffee the second largest commodity behind oil, it is the third biggest user of pesticides behind cotton & tobacco.

So what if just by buying your morning cup of coffee you could be helping Third World children get healthy and educated? Or you could save parrots, toucans and other species from extinction?

If your answer is yes, then start buying fair trade coffee, today! You will be helping over 550,000 farmers from countries like Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Africa and Mexico, and you will also be tasting some of the richest, tastiest, Organic pesticide-free drinks that will blow your mind. Reason being is that Fair Trade vendors are usually Organic, encouraged to adopt sustainable practices, and using fat, ripe fruits that create amazing, robust beautiful brews. Conventional gourmet coffee companies also use rich ripe fruit, but they don’t cut out pesticides & chemicals, and the conditions in which their coffee was produced was more than likely very poor and unhealthy. Here are some more reasons to by Fair Trade coffee:

• Since coffee is grown in shaded areas, large conventional plantations have to clear-cut the native environments in order to grow in easy-to-harvest rows. This means deforestation, chemicals and the destruction of the habitats of plant and animal habitats.
• The large plantations have increased their coffee products so much that the price of coffee has plummeted. The result has been disastrous for small family farms, which in the past had traditionally grown the worlds coffee supply. This has destroyed many families in places like Mexico and Ecuador forcing them to leave their farms because they can no longer make a living.
• Fair Trade enables the cooperatives to cut out the middlemen and sell their Organic, tasty coffee directly to US importers at fair prices for everyone, enabling thousands of families to live happy, healthy lives.

As Conscious Coffee Consumers we MUST demand Organic, Fair Trade Coffee!

There are unethical companies that utilize the Fair Trade movement and its certifying agencies to market themselves even though they are not legitimetly Fair Trade. These companies use verbiage such as “fairly traded” to give the impression that they participate in the Fair Trade system when in reality they do not. They are not paying Fair Trade prices, they have not registered with a certifying agency and there is no third-party audit trail for their transactions.

If a coffee company is suggesting they are ‘Fair trade’ without displaying the Fair Trade logo (See logo pictures below), if it is based in the USA yet not listed as a licensee by TransFair USA , then you should think twice before buying that product!

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Coffee plays a crucial role in the livelihoods of millions of rural households in the developing world. Small-scale family farmers produce over 75% of the world’s coffee. Market volatility and declining terms of trade, along with inadequate access to infrastructure, financial resources, and market information, put sustainable livelihoods out of reach for millions of rural families. The coffee market continues to be a showcase of the need to address the commodity crisis on a global scale, a crisis that is hampering the development of many countries. This is directly linked to the global interest in wider peace and stability.”

--Oxfam America

"Sustainable coffee is produced on a farm with high biological diversity and low chemical inputs. It conserves resources, protects the environment, produces efficiently, competes commercially and enhances the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole."
-- Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center, First Sustainable Coffee Congress overview paper

According to 2005 data from the National Coffee Association (NCA), 80 percent of Americans drink coffee occasionally, while 53 percent drink it daily. America’s 236 million coffee consumers spent an estimated $19 billion on the beverage in 2004, or $80.50 per person. Coffee accounts for 91 percent of the U.S. hot drink market by volume and 76 percent by value, according to the market research firm Euromonitor International. Think of the difference we could make if everyone started buying Fair Trade Coffee!

Check out this Crop to Cup Brochure that shows the Fair Trade Coffee Route vs. the Conventional Coffee Route, it really puts it all into perspective.

Here is a list of all the Conscious Coffee Companys I recommend because I have tried them and support what they stand for.

As I browsed through the produce aisle at my local super market I noticed that the plastic bags I was supposed to be putting my veggies in were supposedly made out of biodegradable plastic.  From this stemmed my article on EcoPlastics, which basically says that EcoPlastics are great, just as long as they are placed in the compost bin to be composted, because if they are just placed in the regular trash bin, it will still clog up the landfill and take a while to decompose.  So rather than using the 'biodegradable' plastic bags, I had been choosing to just stick them in my canvas bag and go about my way.  Then I came across baggreen.com.  This company has invented a nice re-usable canvas produce bag to collect your fruits and veggies in rather than regular plastic or eco plastic bags.  Plastic bags are destroying our waterways, as they are one of the most common pollutants along our coastlines, yuck.

You can pick up some of these fabulous bags on www.baggreen.com.    I was very impressed when I received mine they had eco packed it in a recycled newspaper sheet folded into a large envelope, and they donate a portion of their sales to organizations that work to preserve our environment!

$14.00 for a set of 4 bags

 

If you haven 't heard about Skype yet, you gotta check it out!  Log on to Skype, sign up for free, and you can talk on the phone to people all over the world and see thier face through your webcam, all for FREE!  I started a Public Chats for Eco mamas, please join in on the fun, and maybe we can talk soon!

If your like me and usually pass on the 'parenting' style magazines, then your going to love this alternative.  Kiwi magazine is a wonderful, modern, and eco friendly magazine that covers all sorts of cool topics like Eco-crafts, great kids recipes, and wonderful non-mainstream parenting articles. In their recent issue (May/June)  they feature topics such as natural cleaners, eco-friendly lawn and pool care, and natural mattresses. I have teamed up with Kiwi to offer two free subscriptions to two of my lucky readers, Yeah!

Just email me your name and address and send me your favorite healthy kids recipe and you could win a year subscription!  Log on to Kiwi here for cool printables you can download for your kids, and you can even watch an episode of Mama Mirablelles Home Movies, a great new show on PBS.

Stop the PVC Madness and use your power as a consumer to help shift the market away from making and selling PVC (polyvinyl chloride) products.  You can do this by educating yourself on how to identify what products have PVC in them and not purchasing them!  Not only is PVC obscenely toxic by itself but it can also release dangerous phthalates when chewed on by our littles (think bath and teething toys) and has also been found to frequently contain lead, yes, LEAD! But, Thank Goodness, there are cost effective alternatives to PVC products. The best way to tell weather or not a product has PVC in it, is to look for the number 3 inside or the letter V underneath the universal recycling symbol. Or you can just do the sniff test, since PVC has a very chemical odor that is very unique, so if you have smelled it before you will know. 

Remember to ask questions before buying a plastic product if your not sure it is Free of PVC, or just don't buy it, odds are you probably can go without it!