Photo via belgianchocolate
Are they going to have to make a Madagascar 3 movie where a lion, zebra, giraffe and hippo work to rescue some crazy lepilemurs (and pygmy tarsiers) not from foosas, but from human destruction?
South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics has signed a 99-year lease entitling them to half of all Madagascar’s arable land. And, they will pay nothing to farm corn and palm oil there.
On this week’s episode: Greenland wants to bottle glacier H2O. Corn Refiners Association says, “You can have your HFCS and eat it, too.” Big corporations are swallowing up small organic food companies.
Scanned from the Oct 13, 2008 issue of Newsweek
The October 13, 2008 issue of Newsweek features a confounding face-off between Lucky Charms and low-fat granola. "If your first instinct is to reach for the granola, think again," writes reporter Tina Peng. "Compared with Kellogg's Low-Fat Granola cereal with raisins, one cup of General Mills' Lucky Charms is actually healthier, with less fat and sugar and fewer calories and carbs."
No genetically modified crops are grown commercially in Japan, perhaps one of the countries in the world with the strongest consumer opposition to "unnatural" GM foods. Yet, Monsanto and the US government continue their shameless push for the stuff. Again and again, imported foods have been found to be contaminated with illegal GM varieties, including the infamous Starlink corn, that had not been approved in the US either (it was recalled and never heard from again).
Photo credit: Timbuk2
Timbuk2 and Howie's are longstanding TreeHugger faves, so we nearly wet ourselves when we heard that the iconic bag maker and the U.K.-based clothing company joined forces to create a limited-edition messenger bag.
Image source: Planet Tea
Actually that's their name, Art of Tea, and they create hand-crafted, organic, fair trade teas. I sampled the "Tropical Pineapple" blend tea and was surprised from the first taste with all of the flavor. You could actually taste the pineapple and mango in the tea as there were chunks of it floating among the loose tea leaves. Some sweet teas make you feel like you've just drunk a mouth full of potpourri, but this tea was just nice and refreshing.
Image source: Getty Images
Yep, thats right. 8 Billion. Each. Year. According to Green Progress, over 8-10 billion plastic and wire hangers are sold each year, with only 15% ever being recycled. While clothes hangers, both metal and plastic are pretty small, 8 billion each year begins to add up. Fortunately, there are alternatives to hangers and plenty of ways to reuse them and keep them out of landfills.
O'burger, the first organic fast food joint in Los Angeles, where the burgers and everything else are all organic. What does that mean exactly? Well, "the buns, the sauce, the vegetables, meat, ketchup, mustard, fries and salad dressing" - it's all organic. Yum!
What about the burgers? Well the beef comes from grass-fed cows, the turkey burgers all come from free-range, grass fed turkeys and the veggie patties are vegan-friendly and made in-house from corn, oats and vegetables. According to O'burger, "if its edible, its organic."...
Image source: KnitGrrl
For the crafty out there in the audience, Shannon Okey, author of more than 10 knitting books, now launches a new book for "alternative" fibers - Alt Fiber: 25 Projects For Knitting Green With Bamboo, Soy, Hemp and More. Not sure when the next time will be that we're lost in the woods and desperately needing to fashion together some semblance of a loincloth together with only a pair of knitting needles and banana fiber, but one can never tell these days.
Image: Notcot.com
Straight from Minnesota comes Prairie Organic Vodka, made from a coop of over 900 farmers “who share ownership of the brand.” Prairie describes their vodka as “beautifully smooth. With hints of melon and pear on the nose, creaminess on the palette, and a bright smooth finish…” ...
Except for a few US states (in blue) that seem intent on saluting the officially sanctioned corn blossom, it's over for a strong majority (states in red). Ethanol's flash in the cylinder is essentially silenced. Not much more for energy security is offered by ethanol, except indirectly, through it's fuel oxygenation functionality. (EtOH always was superior to MTBE for fuel oxygenation, a fact generally overlooked by US print media and blog-xperts. )
Blame Earl Butz. That is how we started our post on Peak Corn, noting that Richard Nixon's Secretary of Agriculture told farmers to "get big or get out," and to plant crops like corn "from fence row to fence row." Almost forty years later, Director Aaron Woolf interviews an unrepentant Butz (just prior to his death), but unlike a Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, does it with grace, dignity and humor.
jcoffman:
Ok... So I am at the grocery store the other day in the veggie isle. I am waiting for a lady in front of me to finish so I decide to watch her.
She is looking at fresh corn on the cob. They are on sale. 10 ears for $2.00! I thought it was a decent price, and wanted to get some too. She is picking up this corn, turning it, peering cautiously into the top like something is going to jump out at her etc... She looks over and sees the prepackaged corn on the cob, looks back at the fresh one in her hand, and tosses it down, grabs the styrofoam/cellophane wrapped corn and walks off.
Source: TreeHuggerBookmark/Search this post with:
photo by Rachel via flickr
More from the business side of renewable energy in the US today: first wind industry manufacturing expands, now ethanol production receives further investment...even if the corn won’t be knee-high by July and corn prices skyrocket....
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