Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 152.
If you haven’t given a buck or 2 to the “Save The Derek” fundraiser we have going, please consider it. The power of community is strong and we can definitely help him out by combining forces. Thanks!
First the soda fountains at fast food restaurants, and now this–Consumer Reports has just published an investigation revealing that 39% of the packaged salads tested contained “bacteria that are common indicators of poor sanitation and fecal contamination.” And this despite the fact that such bagged salads often display claims of ‘prewashed’ or ‘triple-washed’ and attract customers who consider them cleaner and safer.
The key to a Green Valentine’s Day (or any holiday) is this: Make it Local, and Make it Handmade. Luckily, those same two rules are the key to turning a Hallmark-invented, mass-produced, slightly sickening (to some) holiday into something actually heartfelt and memorable and fun, and isn’t that what we all want out of Valentine’s anyway?
For me, the challenge of making things greener at the middle school where I work usually involves using technology to reduce the amount of paper we waste. Over the last five years I have campaigned for all of the faculty and staff to stop ripping through case after case of that white gold of schools: copy paper.
It looks like Los Angeles may soon require that people capture rainwater and do something responsible with it, rather than letting it run into storm drains. From the Los Angeles Times: Under the ordinance, builders would be required to use rainwater storage tanks, permeable pavement, infiltration swales or curb bump-outs to manage the water where it falls. Finally, some common sense seems to be invading big cities!
DOJ’s investigation into Monsanto looks into soybean seeds amid allegations that Monsanto is forcing farmers to buy its new genetically-engineered (GE) soybeans instead of first-generation, lower-priced GE beans. Farmers have had trouble finding the lower-priced seeds and some are speculating that Monsanto is making it hard to find them because Monsanto’s patent for that seed expires in 2014. That means that starting in 2015, farmers will be able to plant saved seed without paying Monsanto every year.
It’s the “Unhappy Hipsters” and it’s one of my favorite new websites. If you enjoy snark and the magazine Dwell, this is for you too.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
You may also like:
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 117.
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 148.
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 114.
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 155.
- Quick Green Reads For The Weekend Volume 146.
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Those ‘prewashed’ bagged salads are very dodgy. If I use one, which is not often, I wash it thoroughly with filtered water. I’ve heard they don’t wash it so much as they ’sanitize’ it with high-chlorine water.