CT Green Scene

Eco-Crackpots and New Year’s Resolutions

by Eileen Weber

If being green is your cause, I applaud you. Whether it’s eating local, organic foods or composting for your garden or reducing your carbon footprint, it’s a solid plan that helps the environment. But while every movement needs its champions, there are some that take their interest to a level of fanaticism.

That’s when a good cause loses its steam with the rest of the general public. You, the sweat-pant-wearing, bon-bon-eating, armchair quarterback of life. Blossoming interest is lost once the passion for something—in this case, the environment—comes across as craziness. It’s just another good message gone bad.

Case in point: A friend of mine sent me a Facebook link to the Organic Consumers Association. In it, a woman called for an organic New Year’s Resolution. She is planning on taking her commitment of an organic lifestyle to the next level. She wants to eat more responsibly and hopes you will, too. Certainly a noble cause and I wasn’t alone in thinking that. A number of people responded positively to the organic challenge.

But for me, that challenge was more than a little bit tainted when one person responded by grand-standing. Where one woman tried to start a grassroots movement and offered others to join her, this crackpot wandered aimlessly from topic to topic: Everything from “It’s all the government’s fault” to a nation-wide increase in pill-popping to the evils of pesticides. Frankly, it was a bizarre and rambling romp through narcissicism.

Commentary: Copenhagen

by Michael A. Cuomo

First steps can be frustrating. The climate accord reached early last Saturday morning in Copenhagen is a first step toward achieving a comprehensive, enforceable agreement among members of the United Nations. But while the accord furthers the dialogue of influential players such as China, India, Brazil, the EU and the U.S., it fails to come through with specific targets for the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. Instead, it contains a vague promise to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. 

Feelings were mixed about the end results of the summit. Gordon Brown described the negotiations as "frustrating” and the Obama administration hailed the meeting as an “important breakthrough.” Most notable among the accord’s successes: A commitment by wealthier countries to provide an annual fund of $100 billion by 2020 to countries who do not have the financial resources to develop their industries. With little to no financial backing, these countries must simultaneously follow ever stricter environmental regulations. 

Balancing the needs of developing versus developed nations has been a sticking point at previous climate summits. Developing nations have been hesitant to sign an agreement that may cripple their economic advancement. Industrialized nations, on the other hand, have been disdainful of granting more achievable emissions restrictions to their less developed neighbors.

Squashing Some Green Job Hunting Myths

by Anneli C. Olila, Editor-in-Chief of Boston GreenScene / Principal of Olila Documents & Communication Strategies

Each week, I spend hours talking to job seekers of all levels—from those just graduating from school to highly-experienced C-level executives. Many are contemplating a green career, either out of their passion for the environment or simply because other markets are tight and the green market shows promise. Often, what I hear is a fatigued and resigned voice on the other end of the phone saying, “I’d love to join a green company, but they all want you to already have vast experience in the green industry.” 

When anyone, let alone a top-level, international, well-accomplished executive, says this to me in the midst of cataloging his or her milestone achievements—such as dramatically increasing revenue, efficiency, and organizational prestige; adeptly handling countless mergers and acquisitions; building exceptional cross-cultural and cross-functional teams; applying proven project management and Six Sigma skills; and achieving numerous patented inventions across regulatory environments—I am astonished. I am astonished as editor-in-chief of a green information portal, and I am astonished as a communications specialist who works closely with companies, schools, recruiters, and job seekers. I am also astonished just as a thinking person. There is an apparent and unfortunate mystique built around the green industry—and, frankly, around the job search industry itself—that is completely unwarranted.

No, You Do Not Like Pumpkin

by James Simpkins

Autumn is always a bit of a bugger for me. On one hand, the trees change color and “sweater weather” arrives—two of my favorite things in the world. On the other hand, everything pumpkin returns to the forefront of the gastronomic world and I have to put up with the ubiquity of “delicious pumpkin ravioli with sage brown butter” in every restaurant that I go to. People also remind me how insane they are by lining up for Pumpkin Spice lattés at Starbucks as if they are tickets to the Promised Land. The colossal success for Starbucks, whose debut in 2004 actually improved their bottom line towards the end of the fiscal year, is now annually anticipated event for their faithful and an annual cash cow for the company.

Not to be outdone (though they already had been), in 2007 Dunkin Donuts unveiled four new menu items to ring in the fall with, and three of them had pumpkin in the title: The Pumpkin Muffin, Pumpkin Donut, Pumpkin Spice Latte and Vanilla Spice Coffee. Their executive chef said this about it:

"Americans feel such a strong emotional and sensory connection to the foods of fall, and our new fall-flavored menu items will help customers celebrate the season and the warm feelings it evokes." -Dunkin' Brands' Executive Chef Stan Frankenthaler

Honestly, I was nauseous after reading it. When chefs talk like that about haute cuisine that has taken many hours to prepare, I can tolerate it. I still don’t love it, but I get it—the artist is talking about their art. When a “chef” is talking about MAKING DONUTS AND MUFFINS that is where I draw the line. I digress…

The point is I don’t think most people like pumpkin at all.

On Cooking

by James Simpkins

The term cooking—when I say it, anyway—means taking raw food items, preparing them and applying heat or culinary technique to affect change—not throwing a frozen pizza in the oven. In the ever-augmenting rush of our daily lives, cooking is taking a back seat. Without putting too fine a point on it, I think we’re just lazy.

James, what are you talking about? What about The Food Network? “Julie and Julia”? Rachel Ray? I mean, food is so “yum-o”, how could the practice of cooking go second fiddle?

Well, to use those examples: 1) The Food Network is a TV channel---you really shouldn’t be cooking yourself when the next episode of “Look How Much Better I Cook Than You Do” is on. 2) “Julie & Julia” is a decent movie about a young woman with a cool blog idea piggy-backing on a cultural icon. At least she’s in a kitchen. 3) Rachel Ray has a talk show. I know that after I get done listening to all that high discourse, I’m too tired to cook. Michael Pollan just wrote a great (and slightly less catty) piece on this very topic of not cooking in the New York Times Magazine that I’d recommend reading. The upshot is that cooking as entertainment necessarily wants—no, needs—you out of the kitchen. I’d like to convey a couple of my own reasons to get back into it.

Is Whole Foods Green?

by James Simpkins

James Simpkins will be a contributor on this site every Wednesday. A former chef and Le Cordon Bleu culinary instructor, he is a PhD student at UCONN putting his culinary know-how to work studying American food culture. He will be writing about anything and everything related to food in the Farmington River Valley. Having grown up in Ohio, he has been living for the past two years in the Canton area.

I have a new studio apartment in West Hartford that my wife and I affectionately call “The Cave”. It’s a television-free, renovated attic dedicated to reading books, writing, and eating meals—mostly from Whole Foods in West Hartford Center, a five minute walk down the road. This got me thinking: Would Whole Foods Market be considered green?

There are seven Whole Foods in Connecticut, impacting a large number of folks here in The Nutmeg State. So I thought it would be worth a look-see. But first, I must confess: I worked for Whole Foods for fifteen months, leaving last summer, and didn’t like it very much. They told me in that special, pallid, human resources style they didn’t like me either. I think shopping there is a completely separate experience than being an employee. But, I can’t say my insider’s perspective doesn’t come into play. You’ll see why.

Reality Check

by Heather Burns-DeMelo

I started this blog two years ago when I was gripped by fear--the paralyzing sort that came as a result of being shaken awake by numbers spiking off charts in Al Gore's documentary.

It was as if a bucket of ice cold water was splashed in my face, and I felt in my bones that every day I was selling my children a lie.  A lie that our society can be run on fossil fuel indefinitely and without negative impact. A lie that they will always have clean water to drink and enough to spray on their children on hot summer days. A lie that the mattress and pillow they sleep on at night is safe to breathe. A lie that the food on the super market shelves is healthy and safe to eat.

All lies.

So, I've kept my nose so close to the grind stone that many days I'm afraid to look up. For when I do, what I see around me threatens the sense of hope I've worked so hard to instill and foster and grow in myself and those around me. Why hope? Because hope fuels courage and fights despair. It creates a space for creativity, innovation and compassion to blossom. And those, we need in spades.

In Thoreau's Legacy: American Stories about Global Warming, Barbara Kingsolver writes, "We abolished slavery, we granted universal suffrage. We have done hard things before. Each time it took a terrible fight between people who could not imagine changing the rules.  If we run out of hope at the end of the day, we'll rise in the morning and put it on again with our shoes. Hope is the only reason we won't burn what's left of the ship and go down with it. If somebody says, "Your money or your life," you can say, "Life." And mean it."

Now that's perspective.

The Earth Day Rush--and a Personal Wish

As happy as I am to see the "green" wave swell beyond what I could have imagined, I'm equally disappointed by the mad rush to throw together "Earth Day" events because it's THE thing to do. Department stores, shopping malls, furniture outlets and companies who go against Mother Nature all year long--have targeted April 25th as the day to wash away their eco-sins and start anew.

It's as if a light bulb goes off in a late March staff meeting when someone realizes Earth Day is in April and one valiant soul takes it upon him or herself to lead the effort.

If I can be so bold as to make a wish: I hope that Earth Day 2009 brings with it a complete understanding of the depth of our planet's ailments and how they relate to our physical well being, the renewed determination necessary to deeply change our habits, and an unwavering commitment to put Planet first.

When we consider all that our Planet bestows upon us every day--namely, LIFE SUPPORT--the least we can do is to make decisions based on what was disturbed or killed or made extinct to bring it to bear, as well as what will fester and leech in the water, the air and the soil when we no longer need it.

And if that's too big, too deep or too inconvenient, perhaps the most honorable way to say 'thank you' to Mother Earth is to stay home and sit on the porch.

Hopping Down the Green Bunny Trail

by Eileen Weber

This morning at some ungodly hour, my three daughters burst into our bedroom with lots of chatter and more energy than anyone should legally possess. The Easter Bunny had arrived. They were sure of it.

Flopping down the stairs in my flannel jammies, fuzzy slippers, and a sleep mask perched above my weary eyebrows, I followed my progeny into the living room where the infamous rabbit had left baskets of goodies.

Upon opening said baskets, it occurred to me the amount of waste and plastic involved. The Easter Bunny needs to hop on the eco-friendly bandwagon. The baskets were covered in plastic wrapping. There was enough excess cardboard and tape inside you could gift-wrap a Lexus with it. There was only slightly less garbage than Christmas, for Pete’s sake.

There are plenty of people who agree with that statement. “Easter is yet another plastic crap-filled holiday,” said Lisa Sharp on April 1st in her Retro Housewife Goes Green blog. “Plastic baskets, plastic eggs, plastic grass, candy wrapped in plastic, the list goes on and on.”

No Lunch Left Behind

Published by The New York Times
February 20, 2009
Op-Ed Contributors
By ALICE WATERS and KATRINA HERON
Berkeley, Calif.

This new era of government bailouts and widespread concern over wasteful spending offers an opportunity to take a hard look at the National School Lunch Program. Launched in 1946 as a public safety net, it has turned out to be a poor investment. It should be redesigned to make our children healthier.

Under the program, the United States Department of Agriculture gives public schools cash for every meal they serve — $2.57 for a free lunch, $2.17 for a reduced-price lunch and 24 cents for a paid lunch. In 2007, the program cost around $9 billion, a figure widely acknowledged as inadequate to cover food costs. But what most people don’t realize is that very little of this money even goes toward food. Schools have to use it to pay for everything from custodial services to heating in the cafeteria.

On top of these reimbursements, schools are entitled to receive commodity foods that are valued at a little over 20 cents per meal. The long list of options includes high-fat, low-grade meats and cheeses and processed foods like chicken nuggets and pizza. Many of the items selected are ready to be thawed, heated or just unwrapped — a necessity for schools without kitchens. Schools also get periodic, additional “bonus” commodities from the U.S.D.A., which pays good money for what are essentially leftovers from big American food producers.