Organic Produce Code
If you’re trying to be earth-friendly in your choice of fresh fruits and vegetables, then you know how frustrating it can be at times. Here is a great little tip (and “little-known” I suspect) about reading those tiny stickers affixed to the produce. There are numbers on there which are referred to as “Price Look Up” Codes or PLU codes. Here is the tip: If there are four digits in this number the produce was “conventionally” grown (i.e. the usual herbicides, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, etc. were used.) If the PLU code contains five digits it will mean one of two things: If the first digit is 8 that means the item has been genetically modified. If the first digit is a 9, the produce has been organically grown. Just remember, “nine is fine.”
Here is a list of energy-saving tips you can employ, showing the percentage of energy saved. Some you are already doing, others you can strive for. This is only half of the complete list. For more details and for the rest of the tips, go to www.coopamerica.org and click on “23 Steps Toward Energy Efficiency.”
There are so many ways you can help the earth with your
food choices. Here’s one: buying
locally-grown products keeps tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere
because so much of
what you find in supermarkets is shipped in from all over the world. Here’s
another: it takes ten
times more fossil fuel to produce a calorie of meat than a calorie of plant
food. Solutions: 1) Buy
fresh local produce in season and freeze or preserve for later use. 2) Eat
plant-based meals
two or three times a week.
Find Connecticut farmers’ markets, farms, farm stands, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture,) as well as restaurants and retailers that source from local farms at: www.buyctgrown.com. To find Connecticut’s organic food and farms go to www.ctnofa.org.
We all use toilet paper. Many of us use paper towels, tissues, and/or paper napkins (please consider switching to cloth napkins if you do ! ) Did you know that very few manufacturers make these throwaway products from recycled paper? Here is an interesting statistic from the Natural Resources Defense Council: If every household in the United States replaced just one roll of virgin fiber toilet paper (500 sheets) with 100% recycled ones, we could save 423,900 trees. Wow!
Please consider buying only products made from recycled paper; we do it here at UUS:E as part of our Green Sanctuary status. Also consider sending a message to paper giant Kimberly-Clark, maker of Scott, Cottonelle, Kleenex and Viva, telling them to stop using virgin wood for throwaway paper products. It saves forests and helps reduce global warming pollution.
Are you sending flowers for Easter and Mothers Day? Did you know that you can purchase “fair trade” bouquets? Similar to Fair Trade Coffee, you can purchase “fair trade” flowers, or VeriFlora certified flowers. VeriFlora growers don’t use pesticides that sicken flower workers, and they agree to respect local labor rights and environmental regulations. We’ll spare you the horror stories, but the production of most of those lovely bouquets we buy are grown and processed offshore and require painful, low-paid labor by a largely female workforce. It may not be easy to find Veriflora certified flowers, but their website www.veriflora.com encourages consumers to ask for them and to request local florists to offer them. (This would at least raise awareness of the problem and perhaps even result in local availability.)
Is bottled water better? According the the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), tap water is held to more stringent quality standards than bottled water, and some brands of bottled water are just tap water in disguise. Our increasing consumption of bottled water fuels an unsustainable industry that takes a heavy toll on the environment. Approximately 1.5 million gallons of oil annually are used to make plastic water bottles, while transporting these bottles burns thousands more gallons of oil. In addition, the burning of fossil fuels used to generate the energy that powers the manufacturing process emits global warming pollution into the atmosphere. More bad news: Only about 10 percent of water bottles are recycled, leaving the rest in landfills where it takes thousands of years for the plastic to decompose.
The next time you feel thirsty, forgo the bottle and turn to the tap. You’ll lower your environmental impact, save money, and if you wish you can buy a pitcher or faucet filter to remove trace chemicals and bacteria. . Finally, limit your bottled water purchases for those times when you’re traveling in countries where water quality is questionable.
Home electronics with digital displays, remote controls or wall-cube plugs suck enough electricity 24/7 to power your entire house for a month if you unplugged them all. This "phantom load" is the energy consumed by home electronics 24 hours a day, seven days a week-even when they're turned completely off. These devices continuously draw electricity. The list includes (but is not limited to) TiVos, coffee pots, cordless and mobile phones, toaster ovens, modems-even nightlights and baby monitors. Some appliances, such as VCRs, can actually use more energy when in standby mode than when actively playing! Fight back: unplug appliance or turn off surge protector when device not in use!
More info at www.thedailygreen.com.
Buy organic cotton!
Conventionally grown cotton requires about 1/3 lb. of pesticides to produce a cotton T-shir; also between 200-300 lbs. of chemical fertilizer is used on one acre of cotton in the U.S. About 90 percent of that fertilizer washes off the plant, ending up in water supplies and habitat. Since growing organic also requires crop rotation, a field that is used for cotton this year could be used for the food the next. So, if we get a large amount of cotton production moved to organic we may help expand the world's access to organic food supply. And for added bonus, organic cotton is getting trendy! Are your ready to be part of the trend! Send your green tip idea to Kat Dargan.
Did you know that a car left running for more than ten seconds burns more gas than shutting it off and restarting it? It’s true. And, in Connecticut, there are state laws that prohibit vehicles from idling for more than three minutes when not at a traffic signal. In fact, if left running for the same amount of time, an idling car causes more pollution than a car traveling at standard speed. This applies to all vehicles, not just diesel buses and trucks. (I think those big rigs at truck stops haven't got the message!) Anti-idling regulations were developed as a way to improve air quality and immediately reduce our exposure to the health impacts of exhaust because 1) Idling vehicles create emissions that contribute toward smog and ground-level ozone, and produce carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas;) and 2) Engine exhaust contains toxic air pollutants which can cause lung damage and aggravate respiratory conditions including asthma and bronchitis. So, remember, idling gets you nowhere (except deeper into environmental and respiratory trouble.) Learn more at www.ct.gov/dep.
