For Lent you can give up some item that also help the earth, here are some ideas of things to give up. You may find no need to go back to them after Lent.

• Paper Towels
• Bottled Water
• Tissues
• Toilet Paper (even I haven’t done this one yet)
• Paper napkins
• Disposable Diapers
• Your Car (this of course only works in some locations and for some people)
• Processed Food
• Soda
• Smoking
• Fast Food

Those are just a few ideas, a few will even help improve your health! Another idea for having a green Lent is to not give up something but to do one thing for each day of Lent that will help you on your journey to be greener. Here are some ideas for that.

• Start composting
• Walk, ride your bike, or take public transpiration for the day
• Buy some CFLs and/or LEDs for when your bulbs burn out
• Buy a reusable water bottle and start using it
• Buy a reusable coffee mug and use it
• Switch to Fair Trade coffee and/or tea
• Switch to recycled paper products
• Switch to cloth napkins
• Cut up an old t-shirt to use as rags in place of paper towels
• Pick up litter in your neighborhood or at a local park
• Switch to natural hand soap
• Stop getting unwanted catalogs
• Opt-Out of getting the Yellow Pages
• Get a bird feeder
• Start some seedlings
• Plant a tree (if it’s warm enough where you live)
• Take your family to see The Lorax and talk about the message after the movie
• Get a rain barrel
• Build a garden for spring
• Check out your local farmer’s market

This is a small list of ideas. I would love to hear your ideas, just post in the comments below. And I would also like to know if any of you are planning to observe an eco-friendly Lent.

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by Sarah Korf

My compost bin is getting more use these days.

• Freezing produce before it goes bad. I had some bananas that were getting pretty ripe so I stuck them in the freezer and will use them for smoothies and banana bread.
• I’m keeping a container in the freezer for left over produce. When I have leftover veggies or fruit I stick them in the container to put in smoothies later.
• I’m keeping my citrus peels to make candy peels later.
• I’ve been better about composting everything I can. Even if it’s one small piece of something I make sure it goes in the compost, not the trash.
• Keeping a better eye on expiration dates.

This week I will be trying to use up a few things that will be going bad soon, like some eggs and milk.Hopefully at the end of the month when I clean out the fridge I won’t have to throw anything away. We will see if that happens but that is my hope. Hopefully this will help our food budget, it helps the planet for sure.

What are your tips for reducing food waste?

1,4-dioxane is a very dangerous chemical that is known to cause cancer. This chemical is not listed in the ingredients so consumers have no way of knowing it’s there. Procter & Gamble (makers of Tide®) already have stripped 1,4-dioxane from some of it’s products like Herbal Essences®. It’s time they do the same for Tide Free & Gentle®.

Tell Procter & Gamble to Get the 1,4-dioxane Out

Lori from Groovy Green Livin, with the help of Healthy Child Healthy World, MomsRising, and Women’s Voices for the Earth, put together a petition asking Procter & Gamble to remove 1,4-dioxane from Tide Free & Gentle®.

Please sign the petition and also be sure to stop by Groovy Green Livin and tell Lori thank you for starting this petition.

What You Can Use Instead

If you are a user of Tide Free & Gentle® and need something to use instead here are some suggestions.

Ecos Free & Clear
A product of Earth Friendly Products, Ecos Free & Clear is free of dyes and fragrances and is also a natural soap. It’s safe for front loaders and high efficiency washing machines.

Biokleen Free & Clear Laundry Powder
Biokleen Free & Clear is also free of dyes and fragrances and natural. It’s also safe for front loaders and high efficiency washing machines. If you are having mold issues with your front loader, switching to a powder soap can sometimes help so this is a good choice.

Soap Nuts
My personal choice for laundry soap is soap nuts.  I use the NaturOli brand as I can buy it in bulk and they come in a cloth bag. I have had the same 5 lb bag for well over a year and it’s not even half gone. Soap nuts are safe for HE machines and front loaders. They create few suds which makes them good for front loaders with mold issues. And if you have a nut allergy don’t worry, soap nuts are really berries not nuts.

Thanks to Lori at Groovy Green Livin for bringing this to my attention.

Photo credits: cogdogblog

Disclaimer: The Amazon link is an affiliate link, if you buy from this link I earn a small percent, this doesn’t effect my view on the product.

The first bit of good news comes from the 4th grade class I talked about the other day that was asking Universal Studios to green up the Lorax movie website. Universal has responded and the official Lorax movie website now asks visitors to Go Green and has tips to help them do so. There also is a link to the Lorax Project which is a joint endeavor by Dr. Seuss Enterprise, Conservation International, and Random House. It’s a project that encourages individuals of all ages to do their part to conserve our plant and animals.

Universal’s Kori Bernards told TakePart, “We’re incredibly impressed with what Mr. Wells has done with his students to raise attention to an important issue and also to teach them about the power of civic action.”

The video below is a PSA from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service which features the Lorax, this PSA has been out since December 2011.

And here is a quick thank you from Mr. Wells and his 4th grade class-
“Thank you so much for all your support.
We needed Universal to be a good sport.
We are the changers, the changers that say,
“Thank you so much on this glorious day!
You helped us a ton,” we needed to say,
“We couldn’t have done it any other way.”

The other big story of how social media can make change comes from the National Wildlife Federation. I talked about their partnership with ScottsMiracle-Gro the other day on the Green Phone Booth and it was all over the web and many people had posted how disappointed they were on NWF’s Facebook page. As of yesterday NWF announced it had ended it’s partnership with ScottsMiracle-Gro stating “Scotts announced a pending legal settlement related to events in 2008 that predate our partnership, which has made it clear that the partnership is not viable.”

Now it’s time to thank NWF and Universal Studios for listening to us and making positive changes. Here is some contact info-

Let the National Wildlife Federation know you are glad they ended their partnership with Scotts.

• Call NWF at 1-800-822-9919, they are open M-F 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST
• Post a comment on NWF’s Facebook page
• Leave a comment on their website
• Tweet a message to @NWF

Thank Universal Studios for listening to Mr. Wells’ class and the many of us that signed their petition.

• Send a comment to Universal Studios via their website.
• Leave a comment on The Lorax Facebook Page
• Tweet a message to @UniStudios

Hopefully these stories will remind us why it’s so important to speak out, you never know when people will listen.

“That means that the next time you encounter someone who claims to be allergic to a food you like, you should feel free to ask them pointedly whether their claim is medically valid. But if they maintain that it is, just defer to them.”

As someone that has both food allergies and what they seem to think is no big deal, food intolerance, this is upsetting. Let me tell you what life with food allergies is really like and why you should take someone’s word if they say they have an allergy.

What life with food allergies looks like, everything I have to carry with me.

I have a wide range of food allergies and intolerances, ranging from life threatening to annoying. I have a life threatening allergy to mushrooms, I have had three reactions and none of these times have I eaten a mushroom. The first time was after eating some pizza, I started having a severe asthma attack. I was at a friends house and had taken my inhaler the recommended amount and it wasn’t getting better. I also was starting to lose feeling in my face and my lips were swelling. My brother rushed my home, and I mean RUSHED. My mom met us at the door with more meds and hot tea (which helps open your airways). The pizza I ate had just touched mushrooms, I didn’t eat any.

The second time was again with pizza. I had told the pizza place I had a life threatening allergy and my food couldn’t come in contact with mushrooms. So I thought I was safe and was sitting there enjoying my pizza when my friend said “umm… there is a mushroom on this piece of pizza.” I had even checked before I ate, so I thought but there it was, in between the slices. I rushed to the bathroom to get Benadryl and grab my inhaler. Thankfully, because I quickly took meds, before I even started to have a reaction, it wasn’t a horrible reaction. However, I refuse to eat pizza out now.

The third time was at one restaurant I will eat at because one of the owners was a nurse and has taught the staff what an allergy really means and how to deal with them. Well we got a new waiter and he clearly didn’t understand “life threatening allergy.” My husband ordered a steak that normally has mushrooms but got it without. Well the waiter didn’t put that on the ticket and bought his steak out covered in mushroom sitting next to my plate on his tray. I wasn’t thinking and felt stupid sending my food back (because of how people treat allergies!) so we sent the steak back but I ate my food.

During dinner I started having some trouble breathing and feeling like I was going to pass out, my husband looked at me and said “um.. you are really pale” and it finally hit me, I was having an allergic reaction. I took Benadryl and my inhaler and we rushed home. When I got home I had to take more Benadryl and more of my asthma meds and my husband had to rush to the store to get other allergy meds. Turns out the waiter hadn’t put my allergy on the ticket or told the kitchen, the owners took care of this problem and now I know to ask for waitstaff that I know.

Now I also have allergies that aren’t as severe such as my peanut allergy, I seem to have reacted once to peanuts but another time I didn’t when I had some. However, my mom and uncle are both allergic so I avoid them. Same thing with tree nuts, it’s safer. With food allergies the reaction often gets more severe each time so it’s not something to risk. I also have some sensitives, like I can’t have much milk or I have digestive issues, nitrates and MSG give me cluster headaches (VERY painful), large amounts of eggs make me very very ill, chocolate gives me a rash and makes my lips swell if I’m already having allergy issues, and some other things like that. Those aren’t fun reactions even if they won’t kill me.

Eating out is often scary for me. I have to wonder “did they take my food allergy seriously”, “am I going to have a reaction”, etc.. When traveling we have to know where all the nearest hospitals are in case I have a reaction. I have gotten to the point where I rarely eat out and only some places. I try and go to places where the staff is very well trained or that just don’t have any mushrooms. And yes I do get asked “are you really allergic or do you just not like mushrooms.”This is rude and hurtful. And this is why I’m very disappointed in the Huffington Post for encouraging people to question food allergies. So some people may be lying or have lesser reactions than death, all allergic reactions should be taken seriously and it’s better to be safe than have someone die because you didn’t believe them.

McDonald’s Drops Pink Slime

This week McDonald’s said that it is no longer using the ground beef additive known as “pink slime.”  ”Pink slime” consists of spare beef trimmings that have been treated with ammonium hydroxide to make the meat safe, in theory.  Jamie Oliver helped bring this nasty secret of the food industry to light on an episode of Food Revolution. If you want to see how this is made check out the video below.

Now if we can just get this stuff banned or at the very least labeled.

New Healthier School Lunch Rules

The Obama administration announced earlier this week that government-subsidized school lunches are getting some new rules. These are the first changes to in 15 years to the school lunch program. The rules will double the amount of fruits and vegetables served in school and will require that all grains served are whole grains. Also all milk most be low fat and for the first time there are limits on salt and trans fats.

Sadly months ago the food industry was able to get Congress to block any limits on starchy foods like potatoes and from prohibiting tomato paste from being counted as a vegetable.  However, this is still a good step forward.

Chemicals in Some Food Packaging Reduce the Effectiveness of Some Childhood Vaccines

A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association has found that PFCs, perfluorocarbons, may reduce the effectiveness of some childhood vaccines. The study showed children with higher levels of PFCs in their bodies did not get optimal protection from their vaccines.

PFCs are used in non-stick cookware, fast-food packaging, stain-restistant carpets and fabrics, microwave popcorn bags, and many other products people use daily.  This is just another reason to get these nasty chemicals out of your home.

McDonald’s Twitter Fail

McDonald’s launched a Twitter campaign with the hashtag #McDStories in an attempt to show off their new “healthy” ingredients. However, they didn’t consider all of the people who dislike them and ended up with tweets like these.

@XoMelissaEmily #mcdstories it’s made of 100% beef, but they use stuff like cow eyes & cow tongues in their hamburgers. Learned this today.. /:

@Cate_Storm #McDStories Take a McDonalds fry, let it sit for 6 months. It will not deteriorate or spoil like a normal potato. It will remain how it was

And my own tweet- @retrohousewife5 I hear 1996 is a good year for Mcdonald’s burgers http://bestofmotherearth.com/the-burger #McDStories

I personally found it quite entertaining but not sure McDonald’s was quite as amused. If two stories about McDonald’s isn’t enough for you be sure to read about the 17 year old that eats very little other than Chicken McNuggets and was put in the hospital because of her poor diet.

Blogger Rescues More Than 1,000 Dogs From Being Eaten

A blogger in China helped authorities intercept dogs that were on their way to the slaughterhouse. The dogs were being shipped from Southewest China’s Chonguing province to a slaughter house in Guandong province. If they hadn’t been rescued the dogs would have been crammed into cages without food or water for 22 hours and then slaughter for human consumption. You can read more on this story on the Huffington Post.

Have you seen any other interesting food news stories this month? If so share in the comments below, I would also love to hear everyone’s thoughts on the news stories I shared.

Photo Credits: Calgary Reviews
Ben+Sam

The class decided to tell Universal to “green up their website” and they need your help. They started a petition and are trying to get 75,000 signatures, as of right now (1-25-12 at 11:25 a.m./CST) they have 52,307. Go sign the petition and pass it on so we can help these 4th grades “speak for the trees,” because as Dr. Seuss said “unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it’s not.”

The President did say he is requiring all companies drilling for gas on public lands to disclose the chemicals they use. He also said “America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.” But many argue fracking can never be done without risking our health and safety.

He also talked about American having nearly one hundred years of natural gas but is this number true? This number comes from a report done by the Potential Gas Committee, an organization of petroleum engineers and geoscientist. The report was far from impartial, as contributors came from the industry-supported Colorado School of Mines.

“Its website consists of a single press release announcing the April report, with a link to a brief summary slide deck. A more detailed slide deck issued by the committee presents some optimistic estimates of potential resources, including a “future gas supply” estimate of 2,170 trillion cubic feet (tcf). At the 2010 rate of American consumption—about 24 tcf per year—that would be a 95-year supply of gas, which apparently has been rounded up to 100 years,” says Chris Nelder at Slate.com

Understanding how they got to this 95-year supply estimate is a post in of itself. Go to Nelder’s article on Slate.com for all the info. But once you get all the numbers and facts it boils down to really only an 11-year supply of natural gas is certain. The other 89 years’ worth, well it’s not been shown to even exist or to be recoverable. Some say even the 11-year supply is optimistic.

Okay so back to the State of the Union. There were great promises of real clean energy.

“I will not cede the wind or solar or battery industry to China or Germany because we refuse to make the same commitment here.”

The President also called for an end on oil subsidies saying,

“We have subsidized oil companies for a century. That’s long enough. It’s time to end the taxpayer giveaways to an industry that’s rarely been more profitable, and double-down on a clean energy industry that’s never been more promising.”

There was some other promising news,

“I’m directing my Administration to allow the development of clean energy on enough public land to power three million homes. And I’m proud to announce that the Department of Defense, the world’s largest consumer of energy, will make one of the largest commitments to clean energy in history – with the Navy purchasing enough capacity to power a quarter of a million homes a year.”

The President also called on businesses to reduce their consumption of energy, saying he will give “businesses incentives to upgrade their buildings.” He also called for the power grid to be updated as it wastes to much energy. And here is my favorite quote of the night.

“…I will not back down from protecting our kids from mercury pollution, or making sure that our food is safe and our water is clean.”

That quote should help us all breath a little easier. I have mixed feelings about the address as far as it concerns energy and the environment. I hope the President will push harder for clean energy and less for the dirty ones, but there were  a lot of good things as well. If you missed the address you can read the transcript on Politico.

I would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on this part of the address. Did you like it?  Do you feel he is relying to much on dirty energy? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

People started flooding their Facebook page with complaints. Within the last day or so California Baby has deleted the comments, made it where only they can post comments (you can still comment on their posts but you can’t make new topics) and deleted the statement they made regarding the changes and complaints. Interestingly enough their “house rules” states “As a company policy we do not edit or remove any of these postings reflecting your opinions including those which are critical of us or depict us in a negative way.” Yet I’m unable to find any of the postings I saw before.

There is a statement about the issues on their website but as I hadn’t read the statement on Facebook yet I’m not sure if it’s the same statement. Below are some points made in the statement from California Baby, you can read the full statement on their website.

• The statement states they recently “tweaked” some of their ingredients. They state this makes the products safer, more eco-friendly and better.
• They state this move is bringing them closer to being a fully certified organic product.
• The change many are worried about is the adding of sodium benzoate. They say that the ingredient is certified as allowed in organic skin care products by Ecocert.

So are these statements true? It’s hard to say for sure, at least for me. The sodium benzoate seems to be what a lot of people are worried about and I couldn’t find anything about it on Ecocert but Skin Deep only gives it a 1 (with 0 being the safest), it does however say limited meaning research is limited.

As for the Ecocert certification here is what it says must take place for a product to be labeled as Ecocert organic.

“A minimum of 95% of all plant-based ingredients in the formula and a minimum of 10% of all ingredients by weight must come from organic farming.”

Overall many are upset with how this was dealt with. Some felt comments made by California Baby on their Facebook were cold and that they didn’t take these reactions seriously. Many also said their comments were deleted and now it seems all have been. In the world of social media this is not the best way to deal with your customers. I hope California Baby will right this part of the issue.

It seems the reactions to the products may be due to allergies. If your child has a reaction you should stop using the product and look for a product free of essential oils as some children are sensitive to some or all essential oils. If you are concerned about the products and want to use something else below are some choices to look into, of course with allergies not all products are safe for all children.

Motherlove has some great baby products like diaper rash cream, baby oil and my favorite Green Salve. The Green Salve is used on everything in our house, it’s great for bites, dry skin, etc…

Another wonderful line comes from Earth Mama Angel Baby. They have a wide range of products and are very trusted.

How do you feel about the drama and changes from California Baby? If you use the products are you going to switch? If so why?

*Disclaimer: I’m an affiliate for Earth Mama Angel Baby and earn a small percent if you buy from the link on my page. This doesn’t effect my view on the products.

Photo Credit: D Sharon Pruit

While I’m sure they really do offer all of these vitamins and minerals, they also contain some pretty un-healthy ingredients.

Here are the ingredients for the WhoNu chocolate cream filled cookies:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, Vegetable Oils (Canola, Palm, Palm Kernel Oil, Soybean Oil And Partially Hydrogenated Cottonseed And Coconut Oil), Cocoa, Dextrose, Polydextrose, Yellow Corn Flour, Corn Syrup, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Salt, Natural & Artificial Flavor, Monoglycerides, Vanilla Extract.

Vitamins & Minerals: Calcium Carbonate, Vitamin C (Asorbic Acid), Iron Orthophosphate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Oxide, Manganese Gluconate, Iodine, Chromium Chloride, Vitamin E (Tocopherol Acetate), Vitamin A (Palmitate), Biotin, Vitamin B3 (Niacin), Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid), Vitamin D3, Vitamin K (Phytonadione), Vitamin B1 (Thiamine Mononitrate), Vitamin B6, Vitamin B2, Vitamin B12, Folic Acid.

And here are the ingredients from a leading chocolate cream filled cookie:

Sugar, Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate {Vitamin B1}, Riboflavin {Vitamin B2}, Folic Acid), High Oleic Canola Oil And/or Palm Oil And/or Canola Oil, And/or Soybean Oil, Cocoa (Processed With Alkali), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cornstarch, Leavening (Baking Soda And/or Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Soy Lecithin (Emulsifier), Vanillin – An Artificial Flavor, Chocolate.

So at least the WhoNu cookies don’t have HFCS but sugar is the first ingredient and third is vegetable oils including partially hydrogenated oils! And I believe a good multivitamin is a good idea because it’s hard to get all the vitamins we need in a day, but it’s best to try and get vitamins from natural, food based sources. Foods that naturally contain those items, not ones where they are added and the sources are unknown.

So how can we get these vitamins and things that these new cookies offer? One great way that even kids will enjoy is a green smoothie. Continue with healthy meals throughout the day and you can easily get all the things these cookies offer without all the sugar and unhealthy fats. And if you want a cookie, make a good homemade cookie and eat them in moderation.

Do you fall for this kind of marketing or are you always skeptical?