Green
Cleaning
Winter
2002/03
Mixing your own cleaners is not only cheaper, you won’t get the toxic ingredients often found in commercial products.
Window
Cleaner:
1 teaspoon liquid detergent, 3 tablespoons vinegar, 2 cups water. Mix
in a spray bottle. Use just like the commercial product.
Oven
Cleaner:
1 cup or more baking soda, water, a squirt or two of liquid detergent.
Sprinkle water generously over the bottom of the oven, then cover the
grime with enough baking soda that the surface is totally white. Sprinkle
some more water over the top. Let the mixture set overnight. Next morning
the grime will have loosened. When you have wiped up the worst of it,
dab a bit of liquid detergent or soap on a sponge and wash the remains
from the oven.
Vinegar Spray:
Straight vinegar reportedly kills 82% of mold. Pour white distilled vinegar
straight into a spray bottle, spray on the moldy area, and let set without
rinsing if you can stand the smell. it will dissipate in a few hours.
Spray straight white distilled vinegar onto your cutting board at night, let it sit overnight. Straight vinegar is also great for cleaning the toilet rim. Spray it on and wipe it off.
Viable
Green Building
Winter
2002/03
I’d like to thank ACE for sending me to the Greenprints Sustainable Communities and Green Building conference and tradeshow Feb. 13-15 in Atlanta.
While much of the conference focused on urban planning and huge project design, there were resources and principles worth incorporating into any building project, from renovations to new homes, schools or businesses.
“Green” construction is a term that is only beginning to enter our vocabularies in North Georgia. It means sustainable construction and high performance design. Green buildings are energy efficient, built with earth-friendly materials, and designed to help the occupants feel comfortable and perform tasks easily and efficiently.Green buildings and developments are also cost effective. Water and electricity demands continue to rise exponentially with population growth. Efficient use of resources is the only option as our finite resources are used up.
Green building begins with a plan which calls on everyone involved in the construction process from beginning to end. In some cases, the maintenance staff is even called in to help in the design stage so that the end project will operate efficiently. Forward planning also helps keep costs lower.
Materials come from suppliers that should be conscious of the impact that their product has on the earth, such as decking made from recycled plastic, instead of wood that is clear-cut out of forests and pressure treated with arsenic. Many products are harmful in some way, but a successful green project aims to minimize the use of harmful materials such as pressure treated wood and extruded polystyrene panels. A green project would use a rot-resistant wood such as cedar or locust harvested with sustainable forest practices, and use expanded polystyrene panels.
Methods are as important as materials. Considering the lay of the land, disturbing as few trees as possible, and controlling storm water run-off are essential. If demolition. is needed for a remodeling job, deconstruction and construction wastes are recycled. Using 2x6 studs on outside walls to allow for ample insulation, air-tight construction, water conserving plumbing, building design that allows for passive solar heating in winter, with proper awnings or other shading for minimizing heat in summer, windows allowing natural lighting, and compact fluorescent light (cfl) fixtures, are a few characteristics of green building. All of these effects can be accomplished with standard supplies.
Using cfl rather than incandescent light bulbs reduces 2.1 oz. of soot, 3.15 lbs. of sulfur dioxide, 1.71 lbs. of nitrogen oxide, and 463.5 lbs. of carbon dioxide from coal fired electric power plants for just one bulb in one year! Savings per bulb can be up to $78.00 in energy bills.
Owners can go as far as they want in choosing energy star appliances, water conserving washing machines and dishwashers. Solar hot water heaters, solar panels and roofing, on-demand hot water heaters — every little bit helps.
In rural areas sustainable products and methods are not yet in high demand, and local builder supply businesses carry what their clients ask for most often. The easiest way to convince someone to fund a green project is to inform them of the financial benefits. Lowered utility bills can pay for increases in the cost of the initial construction. Solar power and extra insulation pay for themselves rapidly and continue to provide healthy returns for the owner.
The environmental benefits of conserving energy help air quality, water quality, and quality of life for fellow humans and all life. Reducing acid rain, protecting the ozone layer, slowing global warming, protecting biodiversity and water quality are all benefits of green building. Builders and developers have a moral obligation to take these things into account.
Technology and resources exist to help us stretch out valuable water and energy resources, and provide pleasant dwellings and work environments for all of us. Using this technology is a golden opportunity for builders and developers to differentiate themselves from their competitors by being the first to offer the green option.
State and federal agencies are already beginning to foster green building concepts. For more information about green products and building methods, contact Southface Institute at 404-872-3549 or at their website, www.southface.org.
— Jesse Steele, fiveholesteele@yahoo.com
It’s
the Berries
Winter
2002/03
Are organics really better? A new study backs that up. Tests of pesticide-free strawberries, blackberries, and corn found that they contain up to 58% more polyphenolics, health-boosting compounds, than conventional crops grown on neighboring plots.
Polyphenolics have antioxidant properties and may help protect against cancer and heart disease. The organic produce also had more ascorbic acid, which the body converts to vitamin C.
The study, conducted by researchers at the University of California at Davis, was recently published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
— www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward.id=881
Safe
Organics
Fall
2002
The first detailed scientific analysis of organic fruits and vegetables, published May 8, shows that they contain a third as many pesticide residues as conventionally grown foods.
The debate got going last February when John Stossel, on the ABC program “20/20,” reported that levels of pesticide residues in conventional produce were similar to those in organic produce, making organic claims a fraud. Though Mr. Stossel retracted his statement — such testing had never been conducted — his report alarmed the public.
Edward Groth III, a senior scientist at Consumers Union and a co-author of the report, said, “This report shows rather convincingly and compellingly that organic foods are much less likely to have any residues, that when they have residues they have fewer and that the levels of the residues are generally lower.”
Pesticide residue data were collected on a wide variety of foods by the US Dept. of Agriculture, the California Dept. of Pesticide Regulation, and Consumers Union, and covered more than 94,000 food samples from more than 20 crops, of which 1,291 samples were organically grown, about 1.3%.
The study also looked at why organic foods contained any pesticide residues. When residues of persistent insecticides, like DDT, were excluded, the percentage of organic samples with residues dropped to 13% from 23%.
Opponents of organic agriculture, like the American Council on Science and Health, which gets 40% of its financing from industry, disagreed. “So what?” asked the council’s Dr. Gilbert Ross. “I think the amount of pesticide residues to which we are exposed on our foods pose no significant health risks to human beings.” The Environmental Protection Agency disagrees and has been working to reduce pesticide levels since 1996.
Dr. Groth said the amount of residues in conventional food was well below the level that is clearly unsafe but above the level scientists say is probably safe.
“There is a large gray area in between,” Dr. Groth said, “and we need a wide safety margin which is not wide enough with conventional produce. This is especially true when we talk about infants and children because they are still developing.”
— Marian Burros, The New York Times, “Study finds far less pesticide residue on organic produce,” 3/8/02, Food Additives and Contaminants Journal.
Enough
Electricity
Fall
2002
Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said yesterday that his state can meet electricity demands for the next decade by using renewable energy and efficiency and relying less on large fossil-fuel plants. For starters, Dean said he would probably devote $750,000 from an oil-industry settlement to solar and wind system rebates.
Christine Salembier, commissioner of the state Dept. of Public Service, said that the state saved residents $17.7 million last year on their electric bills through a statewide energy conservation program. She said the resulting reduction in greenhouse gas emissions was equivalent to taking 2,100 cars off the road.
— Rutland Herald, AP, David Gram, 9/19/01.
Flea
Season
Fall
2002
Does your pet really have fleas? Stand the pet on a clean white sheet, brush the animal all over, close to the skin. If dark little comma-shaped crumbs fall on the sheet, wet some with water and rub a little. Turn red? It’s flea dirt — dried blood excreted by fleas.
Insect Growth Regulator: Look for products containing methoprene, fenoxycarb, lufenuron, or pyriproxyfen through your veterinarian, and spray. They kill flea eggs and larvae. Foggers don’t reach under sofas or around corners. Then wash your pet (dog) on the same day.
Bedding: Wash pet’s bedding — it could be only a towel — once a week with detergent. Dry on high heat, above 95 F and at humidity below 50%.
Flea Comb: Available and cheap in pet shops. Dunk the combed-out fleas into a bowl of soapy water — quick before they jump.
Wash: Use a gentle shampoo and sponge on an insecticide dip, preferably pyrethrin or other plant-based. Many chemicals used in flea collars can be harmful to children as well as pets. Newer insecticides available through veterinarians can be put directly on the skin of the animals.
Forget the old advice. Garlic, brewer’s yeast, pennyroyal oil, cedar chips and eucalyptus nuts just don’t work. One veterinarian raised healthy flea larvae on Brewer’s yeast and garlic.
— Gainesville Times 8/6/01.
Conservation
Saves $$
Winter
2001/2
The Renewable Energy Policy Project looked at energy use in six southeastern states and saw rising pollution.
In the next two decades, traditional gas- and coal-fired power plants could generate about 650 million tons of the worst air pollutants: sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and carbon dioxide. But that pollution could be cut to 441 million tons a year by increasing efficiency at existing plants and by building new facilities that use solar, wind energy and other clean energy sources.
In Georgia that would have a dramatic effect, reducing sulfur dioxide by 17%, nitrogen oxides by 57% and carbon dioxide by 27%. And the price tag? While alternative power sources would cause a modest 0.6% spike in electric costs at first, those costs could drop by 1.7% by 2020.
One of the most cost-effective ways to improve the environment, says the report, is to lower overall energy usage. The group calls for local governments to set the standard by installing high efficiency equipment and upgrading building codes.
Who could object to saving lives and money?
— www.poweringthesouth.org, www.repp.org, 202-293-2898
Some Electric Membership Corporations (EMC’s) are already offering green power to subscribers at a small premium, $4 to $4.50 per month for 150 KWH blocks.
The first green source available will be landfill gases, to be followed by wind and solar, a big improvement over the state’s eleven dirty coal-fired power plants and two unsafe nuclear power plants. The official announcement will be made on Earth Day, April 20, when ACE and other groups will have information tables at the Sautee-Nacoochee Center.
For more information call the Habersham EMC at 754-2114, the Jackson EMC at 367-5281, or your local EMC. According to the EPA, this green source program is equivalent to taking 114,400 cars off the road or planting 156,000 acres of forest.
— The Northeast Georgian 4/9/02
Fight
Global Warming
Fall
2001
Global warming is an individual issue as well as a national one. The choices we make can increase or decrease the carbon dioxide in the air, to a surprising degree.
Replace your incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents, reduce CO2 by 520 lbs/year for each bulb replaced.
Wash clothes in warm or cold water, not hot, reduce CO2 (for two loads a week) up to 500 lbs/year.
Ask your utility company for a home energy audit to improve insulation, reduce CO2 potentially up to thousands of lbs/year.
Plant trees next to your home, paint it a light color (for our warm climate), reduce CO2 up to 10,000 lbs/year.
When you replace home appliances, select the most energy efficient, reduce CO2 potentially up to thousands of lbs/year.
When you replace windows, install the best energy-saving models, reduce CO2 up to 10,000 lbs/year.
Run your dishwasher only with a full load, and use the energy-saving setting to dry dishes, reduce CO2 200 lbs/year.
Carpool or bicycle to work twice a week, reduce CO2 up to 1,590 lbs/year.
Turn down your water heater thermostat, 120 degrees is usually hot enough, reduce CO2 for each ten degrees by 500 lbs/year.
Green
Electricity
Fall
2001
Georgia Power could learn from Vermont.
Vermont Governor Howard Dean said in September that his state can meet electricity demands for the next decade by “using renewable energy and efficiency and relying less on large fossil fuel plants.”
For starters, Dean said he would probably devote $750,000 from an oil-industry settlement to solar and wind system rebates.
The commissioner of the Vermont Dept. of Public Service said that the state saved residents $17.7 million last year on their electric bills through a statewide energy conservation program. She said the resulting reduction in greenhouse gases was equivalent to taking 2,100 cars off the road.
— Rutland Herald, AP, David Gram, 19 Sep 2001
Recycle
Your PC
Spring
2001
Don’t junk your old PC. Now you have options: refurbish, donate, or recycle. Slowly, retailers and state governments are coming to the rescue.
What happens when you pitch your old PC into a landfill? According to the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, the environmental impact is enormous. Those 500 million computers going obsolete in the U.S. contain 1.9 million pounds of lead, 3.2 million pounds of cadmium, 635,000 pounds of mercury, and 1.9 million pounds of chromium. So look for the alternatives.
Refurbishing can upgrade your PC to be usable again. Try your local computer technician, or look up “computer service centers” in the yellow pages. The decision depends on what programs you need to run and how fast you want your connection to be.
If refurbishing isn’t for you, consider donating your outdated computer to a school or nonprofit organization (ACE?). If you have at least a 486, a Macintosh Performa, or better, chances are it can be pressed into service again. To help you figure out where and how to make a donation, try www.eiac.org, the Electronics Industries Alliance Consumer Education Initiative, which offers a state by state listing of centers that collect used electronics.
Also there are donation programs, such as the National Cristina Foundation (NCF) that matches computers with organizations or people that can use them.
If your computer is a 386 or even more ancient and refurbishing isn’t an option, recycling is possible. You may have to pay a fee, since the toxic innards have to be sent somewhere. Locally you could call your equipment supplier to inquire. Now some national manufacturers are offering recycling options. In November, IBM started their program which even takes non-IBMs, through an organization called Envirocycle. Consumers pay $29.99 per computer, including shipping fees, and IBM will send receipts for tax benefits for donations. Best Buy will soon accept computers locally at their stores.
Several agencies of Georgia state government are working to develop plans for state-wide computer recycling programs. Visit the website of Georgia’s Pollution Prevention Assistance Division, www.p2ad.org, to find a hyperlinked listing of recycling and reuse options for obsolete computers, or go to www.dca.state.ga.us/solid waste/ electronicrec.pdf for a list of recyclers of residential computers. You can also get recycling information by zip code at www.earths911.org.
P2ad offers more information on computer recycling and invites your participation. Contact Chuck_Boelkins @p2ad.org, 404-651-5585 or 800-685-2443.
Clean
Electricity
Fall
2001
Georgia Power could learn from the TVA.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public power provider, announced in October that it would invest $1.5 billion in reducing sulfur dioxide emissions from coal-fired plants. They will install five smokestack-scrubber systems at plants in three states beginning in 2005.
Stephen Smith, director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, said that was good news, because the scrubbers will help reduce acid rain and haze in the region.
TVA is also spending $1 billion to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions from its power plants.
— Knoxville News-Sentinel, AP, Duncan Mansfield, 5 Oct 2001.
Eco-Friendly
Building
Fall
2000
Northland College in Ashland, Wis., is giving 90 students the chance to live in a green dorm. The $4.1 million Environmental Living and Learning Center, opened in 1998, features waterless composting toilets and furniture and countertops made from recycled material. A 20 kilowatt wind tower and solar panels provide about 8% of the dorm’s power and cut water heating costs by nearly 30%.
Meanwhile, a new green office building for San Francisco’s Dept. of the Environment opened in September, the first city government building to be completed since the city passed an ordinance in July 1999 requiring all city buildings to be eco-friendly.
And back East, in Annapolis, Md., the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is constructing a new office that it says will be one of the greenest buildings ever built. It will use unheated rain water in bathroom sinks and include computerized red and green lights that tell employees when, in the interest of energy efficiency, they should open or close windows.
-- Victoria Colliver, San Francisco Examiner, 9/27/00.
Green
Cleaning
Fall
2000
Glass cleaner - white vinegar in water.
Oven cleaner - baking soda and water, scrub clean.
Wood polish - lemon juice and olive oil
Metal polish - for brass use worcestershire sauce; for chrome rub with oil and a soft cloth, for copper use vinegar and salt, for silver rub with toothpaste.
Windshield wiper fluid - 3 parts vinegar to 1 part water. Will keep windows ice free in winter.
Earth
Day
Winter
2000/1
In honor of Earth Day, here are six ways to keep toxins out of your home.
1. Buy more certified organic foods (grown without pesticides, antibiotics and hormones).
2. Dispose of house & garden pesticides containing Dursban (chlorpyrifos).
3. Use least-toxic cleaning products.
4. Make your home and car tobacco-free zones.
5. Stop using air fresheners.
6. Ask your pediatrician to read the Handbook on Children’s Environmental Health (phone 1-888-227-1770 for a copy).
For more information on these topics, call Mothers and Others at 1-888-ECO-INFO.
More
tips:
Insect Control:
Roaches and Ants:
Sprinkle equal parts of confectioners sugar and borax (boric acid) in
dry areas where pests are found - but not where children or pets can get
at it.
Flies: Repel with mint plants in windowsills.
On plants: Wash leaves with soapy water (non-detergent) and rinse.
Deodorizers: Air freshener: Set out a dish filled with warm vinegar, or add cloves and cinnamon to boiling water and allow to simmer.
Bathroom odors: Light a match; this literally burns off gases.
Cleaners:
Drain cleaner:
Pour boiling water down the drain. To clean pipes and avoid clogging,
use two handfuls of salt followed by boiling water.
Sink de-clogger: One or two handfuls of baking soda, followed by 1/2 cup vinegar. Let sit for an hour before running water through.
Oven cleaner: Sprinkle salt on spills while still warm. Scrub with baking soda and water.
Window cleaner: Half and half mixture of water and distilled white vinegar; scrub with old newspapers.
Grease Cutter: Use 1/2 teaspoon of washing soda (soda ash or sal soda), 2 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon liquid soap, and 2 cups of hot water. Wear gloves when working with washing soda.
Herbal
Moth Ball Recipe
Winter
1999/2000
Regular moth balls contain naphthalene and are neurotoxic.
Clean woolen items, air in the sun for a few hours. If you see evidence of moths in the clothes, put them in a clothes dryer on high heat for 15 minutes, or if clothes can’t handle that much heat, freeze for two days to kill moths and eggs.
Sachet for drawers and closets: combine 2 oz. each dried rosemary and mint, 1 oz. each dried thyme and ginseng, 8 oz. whole cloves. Optional: lavender, lemon, hyssop, winter savory, cedar shavings.
— Our Toxic Times, Feb. 2000
Did you know that you can keep your car in pristine condition by combining some basic ingredients that may be in your kitchen cupboards? You won’t spend lots of money on specialized cleaners, and you’ll help reduce water pollution as well. Your driveway may contribute to the toxic runoff that is a major cause of water pollution. The detergents, tar removers, waxes and soaps you use flow into storm drains and often directly into rivers, streams and lakes.
If you don't have a car, you can use these recipes to keep your bike in tip-top shape.
Sudsy Soap: To wash your car, combine a half cup of liquid detergent with one gallon of warm water. Use a sponge, soft cotton rag, or chamois to scrub.
Detergents can be toxic to fish and wildlife. Look for a brand that is made with renewable materials instead of petroleum-based ingredients — such as Seventh Generation, Earth Friendly Cleaner, or Ecover. Also be sure the detergent you choose is free of dyes, synthetic fragrances, optical brighteners, and phosphates. (Liquid laundry detergents are all phosphate free.) Rinse, and then dry the car with a soft cotton rag or chamois.
Tar Remover: Combine one cup white distilled vinegar and a half teaspoon of linseed oil. Dab some of the mixture on a cloth and rub on the tar spots. Polish with a soft cloth. Store the leftover mixture in a glass jar with a screw top.
Wash your car in a grassy area, if possible, so the ground can filter the water naturally. Use a hose that is high-pressure, low-volume, and has a trigger nozzle to save water.
Wash one section of the car at a time, and rinse it quickly.
When you are done, empty your bucket of soapy water down the sink, not in the street.
OR Take your car to a professional car wash. Many car washes recycle 100% of their wash water several times before sending it to a sewage treatment plant. OR take your own non-toxic cleaning products with you to a do-it-yourself car wash - if they recycle the water.
— Real Money, Sept. 2001, Co-op America
The increase in skin cancer in humans is reaching epidemic proportions, according to Randy May, chair of the mathematics and science department at Brenau University.
The ozone layer, a favorite scapegoat for the rise, actually hasn’t changed significantly for more than 50 years except at the poles. Then why the increase? Since the 1950s marketing has convinced people across the globe that sunscreens are the remedy. But that could be a fatal mistake, says May.
What profit-driven sunscreen companies fail to tell the public is that chemical sunscreens contain at least 5% of benzophenone. “Activated by UV light, benzophenone is one of the most powerful free-radical generators known to man, and research shows that worldwide, the greatest rise in melanoma has been experienced in countries where chemical sunscreens have been most heavily promoted,” he said at a recent lecture at Brenau.
Two doctors at the University of California point out that although sunscreens do protect against sunburn, there is no scientific proof that they protect against melanoma or basal cell carcinoma in humans.
What to do? Not everyone will put on thick white “war-paint”, zinc or titanium oxide screens, which reflect the UV radiation. But safe exposure to the sun comes from gradual exposure over a period of about 3 to 6 weeks. Sunburn is very bad for your skin, May says. It is a delicate organ and needs time to adjust to sun exposure.
And read the labels: avoid benzophenone, diethanolamine (DEA), triethanolamine (TEA), propylene glycol (PG), polyethylene glycol (PEG), sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS), mineral oil, petrolatum or lanolin.
The only thing he left out was a big sunhat.
— “Sunscreen, cancer link is studied,” Gainesville Times, 3/27/05
Natural ways to repel insects and other pests:
Southernwood: strong scented, often mixed with lavender Artemisia, in herbal sachets to protect your woolens: 1 part southernwood or tansy, 1 part wormwood, 1 part lavender, 1 part rosemary or thyme. Plant wormwood to repel rabbits.
Aphids: Make a spray of old cigarettes, toxic to both bugs and humans (keep away from children). Crush one pack of cigarettes, let steep in a gallon of water for 24 hours. Kills most crawling bugs on contact. Do not use on tomatoes, as the tobacco leaves may carry a fungus which infects tomatoes.
White flies on house plants: Combine 1 cup rhubarb leaves, 1 cup marigold leaves, 1 cup yarrow leaves. Add to one gallon of water, let sit overnight, then spray. Add 2-3 tablespoons of dishwashing liquid and clearly label the spray bottle.
Tansy: A few sprigs tied together will repel ants. For a large area, take a handful of tansy, boil it in a quart of water, and spray on floor areas. Tansy is almost invasive, but it is a pleasant addition to the perennial border.
Pennyroyal: great flea repellent. Add a handful to a quart of boiling water for 20 minutes. When cool you can add it to your pet’s bath. Mix with tansy in an old pair of nylons to repel moths in the closet. Pennyroyal grows about 6 inches high.
Marigolds: Get rid of nematodes (tiny little worms that eat plant roots) - plant the entire surface in marigolds. For a minor infestation scatter marigolds in and around the plants.
Beer: Get rid of slugs - open a can of beer until half the top is open. Bury it so opening is level with soil. The slugs are attracted, fall in the can and drown.
— Living on Earth, 1-800-218-9988 http://www.livingonearth.org
Slow
Food Movement
Spring
2005
Seven years ago, I quit the city, the career, the fast track - just stopped the world and got off. I landed in rural Banks Co., in a small house in the woods, and began a very slow, simple, quiet life. Of course, this includes slow food - simply and slow-ly chosen, prepared, and eaten, with an amazing difference in taste and oh-so-enjoyable and truly healthy. This is not a diet. It is a conscious choice - no prepared foods; nothing packaged or precooked; no quick, convenient, microwaveable junk. The huge bonus: big weight loss and great health and energy.
While eating simply, I have found out so many gross things about the foods that are available through big agribusiness! The North American diet of meat, potatoes, fast and pre-packaged foods is totally toxic and creates an acidity in the body that is a perfect host for illness and disease. Just look around!
So let us create a slow food nation. As with peace, so with slow food. It starts with me and you. My heroes in this are, first, Jose Bove, a French farmer who openly disobeys the law. He has a book, “The World is Not for Sale: Farmers Against Junk Food.” He has been jailed for destroying a MacDonald’s in France and for ruining genetically modified crops. He has been labeled Un-American.
My other hero is Todd Murphy from Vermont. He has created a neat restaurant called Farmers Diner, and he uses only local meats, dairy and produce. He personally knows the folks from whom he buys. He is also much against big agribusiness. He says there is something fundamentally wrong with the centralization of food, with ten companies nationwide supplying more than half of all the food and drink sold, and when your average head of lettuce or chicken breast or apple has to travel more than 1500 miles from grower to consumer. And he says it is gross “when hydrogenated oils have become the national drink.” (I love this quote!)
Join me, call or write (only snail mail).
— Iris Arias, 706-776-6527, 149 Fawn Run, Alto GA 30510
Ideas
From Elsewhere
Winter
2004/05
An overnight visit with my cousins, Diantha and Steve Hodges, resulted in much stimulating conversation. Living “off the grid,” they are home missionaries for the Methodist Church, living and servicing in Sneedville, Tenn.
The focus of their work is sustainable economic development for their rural area through Jubilee Project, Inc., “an inclusive, community-based organization initiated and guided by Christian values and relationships.” Two of the programs that have sprung from Jubilee Project are a community kitchen, providing equipment and skilled staff to help develop recipes and produce value-added farm and food products for legal commercial sale, and Appalachian Spring Cooperative, a member-owned association of 40 growers and processors using a community kitchen. http://jubileeproject.holston.org.
The following organizations could assist in developing locally produced food or serve as an example of how these systems work.
Community Food Security Coalition is dedicated to building strong, sustainable, local & regional food systems that ensure access to affordable, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food for all people at all times. It seeks to develop self-reliance among communities in obtaining their food & to create a system, grounded in the principles of justice, democracy, & sustainability, of growing, manufacturing, processing, and selling regionally based food.
Southern Sustainable Agriculture Working Group strives to empower and inspire farmers, individuals, and communities in the South to create an agricultural system that is ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, and humane.
FromTheFarm.Net hopes to provide communities of East TN a connection between farmers producing locally and buyers. Website allows search for producers by name, location or product. Interested regional farmers may sign on to present their wares. Links allow search by foods available; buy directly from a farmer; provide information for farmers; locate farmers markets. Recommended reading — Civic Agriculture by Tyson. http://www.fromthefarm.net
— Jennie Inglis, ACE Board Member
Are we ready for a 10 cent tax on each plastic bag we get at the supermarket? Ireland does it, and has reduced the use of bags tremendously, while using the millions of dollars of tax revenue for recycling programs.
Could we manage without plastic shopping bags? A growing international movement would like to ban them because of their environmental effects. Countries from Ireland to Australia are cracking down on the bags, and some places in the US are considering joining them.
Critics say they use up natural resources, consume energy to manufacture, create litter, choke marine life and add to landfill waste. In China, plastic bags blowing around the streets are called “white pollution.” In South Africa, the bags are so prominent in the countryside they have won the derisive title of “national flower.”
The plastics industry says the solution to bag litter is to change people, not the product. Consumers seem agreeable to giving up the bags, says Claire Wilton, senior waste campaigner at Greenpeace-UK.
One of the most dramatic impacts is on marine life. About 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals are killed by plastic bags each year worldwide, according to Planet Ark, an international environmental group.
— Seattle Post-Intelligencer 7/21/04, www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0721-04.htm
Celebrate
Victories!
Summer
2004
Public pressure can be a wonderful tool, and often it works. Activists (those who ask their representatives to take certain actions) are encouraged when the process works. Such as getting the US House of Representatives to prohibit the Forest Service from subsidizing the timber industry’s construction of new logging roads in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest. This was the first time the House approved an outright ban on federal spending on logging roads in national forests.
Success for the Rainforest Action Network after a four-year campaign! Citigroup, the world’s largest bank, has signed up to an environmental policy that will see it examining its role in climate change, investing in sustainable forestry and renewable energy, and restricting investments that would damage endangered ecosystems.
Let’s hope we get the same results on the new proposal to remove restrictions on roads in all our national forests. If you would like to participate in the next victory (we hope), call Forest Service Chief Bosworth at 801-517-1023 and tell him to preserve the roadless rule. For more info try http://www.forestcoalition.org. Deadline for comments is Sept. 14. Congress passed and the President signed into law the Marine Turtle Conservation Act. This will provide financial assistance in foreign countries to protect nesting marine turtles and their habitats; prevent illegal trade in marine turtle parts and products; and support community outreach and education. All species of marine turtles are endangered.
Now we must urge Congress to appropriate $1 million to implement the Act.
Once again Congress held out against a ploy to start drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge which would have linked revenues from oil and gas leases in the refuge to the cleanup of abandoned coal mines and health benefits for coalminers. But the benefits would still have required separate appropriations. This issue comes up periodically, so be on guard.
If you would like to add your bit of pressure, all it takes is a phone call or postcard. The congressional switchboard is 202-224-3121; or write to the Hon. Saxby Chambliss or Zell Miller, US Senate, Washington DC 20510 or US House of Representatives, Washington DC 20515. Email addresses can be useful but the personal approach works best. Some open issues are restoring funds for conservation, limiting emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and preserving the Endangered Species Act.
No
Carcinogens
Winter/Spring
2004
Dr. Edward Fujimoto, manager of the Wellness Program at Castle Hospital, warns us that dioxin, a carcinogen, can cause cancer. He says not to freeze water in plastic water bottles because this releases the dioxin in the plastic. We should also not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.
The combination of fat, high heat and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead he recommends using glass, Corning Ware, or ceramic containers for heating food.
TV dinners, instant ramen and soups should be removed from their plastic containers and heated in glass or Corning Ware. Paper isn’t bad but you don't know what’s in the paper. Fast food restaurants moved away from foam containers because of the dioxin problem.
Saran wrap placed over foods as they are nuked, with high heat, actually drips poisonous toxins into the food.
Please pass this on to your family and friends.
— Lakeeta Chambers, lchambers@habersham.k12.ga.us; school nurse, Habersham County Schools.
Homemade
Cleansers
Winter/Spring
2004
This is more like cooking soup than baking a cake — no exact recipe needed. White vinegar is an acid with mild germicidal properties. It can be used to get rid of mold and mildew, cut grease and clean glass. Put 1/4 cup in a spray bottle and fill with water. The smell dissipates quickly. Lemon works much like vinegar but you have to squeeze it!
Use the water-vinegar mixture with old newspaper to clean your windows and mirrors. It doesn’t leave streaks.
Baking soda is a mild abrasive. It doesn’t scratch surfaces (which creates more places for dirt to get stuck in) as rougher scouring powders do. Baking soda also deodorizes. You can use vinegar in place of water, as the combination cleans more effectively.
Olive oil can add shine to wood furniture. Use a half teaspoon in a quarter cup of vinegar or lemon juice. But if you only want to dust, just use a damp cloth.
Salt cleans copper pots and pans. Use with an equal amount of vinegar, then rinse. It’s also great for silver. Put a teaspoon in a pot with around 3 inches of water and a sheet of aluminum foil. Boil silverware in it for a couple of minutes; wipe off the tarnish with a clean cloth.
Remember to buy new containers for leftover cleaners. There could be residues in the old containers that wouldn’t mix well with the new ingredients.
The use of antibacterial agents in cleaning products may contribute to antibacterial resistance, which could render antibiotics ineffective. Wash your sponges often in the dishwasher to keep the germs out.
Hot soapy water kills food-borne germs! Use it to wash your hands, cutting boards, knives and any surfaces that come in contact with raw meat or eggs. Wash for at least 20 seconds.
For tougher jobs use washing soda in place of baking soda but be sure to wear gloves. You can also use pure castile soap, non-chlorine scouring powders, and a variety of ready-made non-toxic cleaners made by ecologically minded companies.
— Sheryl Eisenberg, NRDC, www.nrdcaction.org Subscribe to her This Green Life through www.nrdcaction.org/join/subscribetgl.asp
Clean
Enough
Winter/Spring
2004
Most unnatural things can come to seem natural and even necessary if you live with them long enough. Take household cleaners. In the 19th century, people cleaned with a few everyday materials, such as foods, like vinegar.
Then the cleaner industry developed, so now there are separate products for virtually everything in the house — floors, ovens, toilets, windows, clothes, silver, and furniture. Now we feel we can’t clean without them.
It gets stranger, almost all these cleaners (except the ones made specifically for the green consumer) are made of dangerous chemicals. The more innocuous ones can irritate your skin, make you dizzy, or cause temporary breathing problems. The really scary ones can burn you, blind you, damage your organs or combust, if used improperly. Some may expose you to a greater risk of cancer and reproductive problems.
I first realized the danger some years ago, when I tried out a tub and shower cleanser and was nearly asphyxiated by the fumes. The label's warning was to use only in “well-ventilated places.” (Could it have escaped the manufacture’s notice that tubs and showers are among the least well-ventilated places in the home?) As for other cleaners, every one, without exception, bore a warning, ranging from mild to dire.
Oddly, many also boasted that the product contained no phosphates, as if that were the green seal of approval, making everything else OK. Still, I continued in my old ways for quite a while — mainly because I was scared the germs would hurt my kids.
Eventually, though, I came to see that I was substituting one danger for another. The cleanser that killed the salmonella on our counter left a chemical residue that could harm our health in a different way, maybe not by itself, but in combination with the other chemicals in our environment and, increasingly, in our bloodstream.
Synthetic chemicals — of which there are more than 75,000 in use today — have infiltrated every corner of our lives. They are in our carpets, clothes, cosmetics, baby bottles, toys, food packaging and vegetables. Some are endocrine disruptors, like DDT and PCBs. What the rest may be, nobody knows. Less than 10 percent have been tested for safety. I can’t control my exposure to these chemicals in most areas of life, but I can when it comes to cleansers. So I steer clear of them, except for special needs. Instead, I use mainly baking soda and vinegar. The baking soda acts as the abrasive, and the vinegar as the antimicrobial agent. Vinegar may not be as good a killer as the chemical stuff, but isn’t that the point?
There is a danger posed by germs in homes where people have weakened immune systems. But for a normally healthy family in 21st century America, household chemicals pose just as great a threat as bacteria. When it comes to policy, we should use the “precautionary principle.” In common language, it’s known as better safe than sorry.
— Sheryl Eisenberg, NRDC
Healthy
Produce
Winter/Spring
2004
If you are looking for produce without pesticides, a handy Shopper’s Guide lists the 12 popular fresh fruits and vegetables that are consistently the most contaminated with pesticides, and the 12 least contaminated.
If organic is not an option, this guide can help. Small doses of pesticides can affect people, especially during critical periods of fetal development and childhood While washing and peeling may help, pesticide residues can remain, and valuable nutrients can go down the drain with the peel. Organic is recommended.
Here is the list of produce most contaminated with pesticides: apples, bell peppers, peaches, pears, celery, potatoes, cherries, red raspberries, grapes (imported), spinach, nectarines, strawberries.
For a copy of the one-page notice send $1 and a self-addressed envelope to ACE.
— Shoppers Guide to Pesticides in Produce, Environmental Working Group, www.ewg.org, and stonyfield.com.
Teen
Wins Award
Winter/Spring
2004
Rebecca Steele of Nacoochee Valley was one of 75 high school students from 31 states chosen to participate in a field research expedition, thanks to the annual Student Challenge Awards Program of Earthwatch Institute. The expeditions range in discipline from astrophysics to microbiology and span North America and the Caribbean.
This summer, teams of 6 to 8 award winners will spend up to three weeks on one of ten research projects, which will expose students to scientific questions and methodologies. Rebecca will travel to St. John in the US Virgin Islands to study the behavior and ecology of Caribbean termites and coral reef fish. The expedition will extend from June 26 through July 13.
The program is intended to help students heighten self-confidence and interpersonal skills, to enhance scientific knowledge and to increase interest in new career paths. Most importantly, the program demystifies science and reflects the role of creativity and imagination in research.
Rebecca would like to thank Jim Bradley, Caroline Crittenden and Roberta Crittenden, without whom she would never have been able to have this enlightening experience.
— Rebecca Steele
What’s
for Lunch?
Winter/Spring
2004
We’ve all heard of education initiatives that seek to reorder curricula around, say, reading or around the arts. But most of us will probably pause at news of efforts to configure the school curriculum around the lunchroom. The lunchroom? How can the most mundane, ordinary part of a school day — the rushed 20 minutes in the cafeteria — be a center around which student learning takes place? Well, a growing number of educators and activists are seeking to do just that and are poised to launch a Delicious Revolution in education.
On a typical school day, children are exposed to several minutes of commercials through piped-in television news programs, many of them advertising junk food and soda. Add this to hallways lined with junk-filled vending machines and fast-food restaurants taking residence on school grounds, and we’ve got a real sorry situation on our hands. Childhood obesity and diabetes are rampant, and kids have no idea where their food comes from. That’s the bad news. The good news is that a wonderful opportunity exists to join efforts not only to improve the nutritional quality of the food school children are given but also to help kids make a connection between the food they nourish themselves with and the nourishment of the land.
Some schools in California are well on their way to accomplishing these goals. Martin Luther King, Jr., Middle School, a public school in Berkeley with a diverse student body of about 1000 kids, has turned an abandoned asphalt parking lot into a one-acre organic garden called the “edible schoolyard.” In the garden, students participate in all aspects of planning and cultivating, and in an adjacent kitchen-classroom, they prepare and eat the food they have grown. Alice Waters, slow food advocate and co-creator of the edible schoolyard, believes the lunchroom is an extension of the classroom and that by centering a school curriculum around the school lunch program, we an teach children how to grow and cook food and how to nourish themselves sustainably, all while taking care of the land.
Other schools are participating in farm-to-school programs in which produce for school meals is taken both from on-site gardens and from local farms.
Waters maintains that a food program can be readily integrated into the curriculum at every level of education — from kindergarten to the university — because of its interconnectedness with ecology, anthropology, history, physiology, and art.
Imagine the difference that such programs could have on not only students’ understanding of the way food is grown (a process that unfortunately almost all of them are totally alienated from) but on agriculture as a whole. Schools surely outnumber any other public institution. If school systems (and the parents and teachers who have the greatest stake in them) supported local food consumption, agriculture would be completely revolutionized. And wouldn’t that be Delicious?
— Kristin Costley
Treescaping
Winter
2002/03
The White County Chamber of Commerce received a new grant to help preserve and restore tree cover in White County. The aim of the grant is to let people know that they can have development without destroying trees, and to provide workshops on tree-friendly building techniques. That’s the job of the “Good Treescaping” Committee, a group of local volunteers. Joanne Steele is a member of the committee.
This is a long-term project that should make the county a more attractive place for tourism and business. Other impacts could be enhancing water quality and increasing water supply. Tree cover cools the environment on hot, humid summer days and improves air quality.
Trees are essential for a clean environment — and there are figures to prove it.
One 25-foot tree reduces annual energy cost for a typical residence by 8 to 12%, producing an average $10 gain per month.
Proper tree plantings around buildings can slow winter winds and reduce annual heating cost by 4 to 22%.
One
tree saves annually:
Air conditioning $75
Wildlife shelter $75
Air pollution reduction $50
Total: $200 times 50 years of tree life = $10,000.
Trees help maintain watersheds. One 32-foot tree is estimated to intercept rainfall, reducing runoff by 327 gallons. Without trees, heavy rains can wash soil into streams and rivers, killing fish and aquatic life.
Two healthy 32 foot trees produce enough oxygen to supply one person’s oxygen needs each year. And they absorb carbon dioxide.
Committee members attended a seminar, “Building with Trees,” conducted by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Others attending were the past president of the regional Homebuilders’ Association, the White County Planner, and a member of the Planning Commission, who learned methods of landscape architecture, pruning and protecting tree roots, and development design.
The Committee relies heavily on research by the University of Georgia’s School of Forestry and the Georgia Forestry Commission’s Urban and Community Forestry Program. The local representative of the Georgia Forestry Commission, Gary White, shares his specialized knowledge, as will Michael Harris, UGA Cooperative Extension Service representative.
The Committee will work with developer Barry Blalock, managing partner of Blue Creek Partners, to create model lots in the upcoming Laceola development near Yonah Mountain. An urban forester has been hired to work with the Committee and the developer to map existing tree cover and create a plan to show how the area can be developed to conserve forest cover. The plan will include provisions for maintaining newly planted trees as well as scientific techniques for protecting existing trees. So far the 300 site plan on 1000 acres leaves 150 foot or more buffers on mountain creeks. Building a lake on Blue Creek is also in the development plan.
The Committee works with the cities of Cleveland and Helen to help them become recognized “Tree Cities” by the National Arbor Day Foundation. Tree city status requires the cities to develop and maintain tree boards and tree ordinances. Helen has been established as a “Tree City.”
Check out the new website which has practical ways to protect trees during construction, how to select construction-tolerant trees, and how to plant and care for trees: www.snca.org/ecc/trees/index.html.
To learn more about the Good Tree-Scaping Committee, call Ted Doll at 878-2526 or Sam Barton at 865-0988.
