Book Review: Freedom Manifesto

The Freedom Manifesto
How to free yourself from anxiety, fear, mortgages, money, guilt, debt, government, boredom, supermarkets, bills, melancholy, pain, depression, work and waste
By Tom Hodgkinson
That’s a bit of a tall order, isn’t it?  Hopefully it’s obvious to anyone who picks this book up that most of the advice within should be taken with a grain [...]

Movie review: The future of food

I knew I was going to be angry when I watched this movie.  The Future Of Food was made in 2004, so it is a bit of a pre-cursor to movies like Food, Inc and Fresh.
The main focus of this movie is genetically modified foods, and there is more than enough bad news here to [...]

Thrifty, or just plain cheap, or… DUTCH

I grew up with a very, um, thrifty Dutch dad so I got quite a few laughs out of this book review on salon.com.  Laura Miller issues a call to rediscover the joys of penny pinching.  The book is In Cheap We Trust: The Story of a Misunderstood American Virtue, by Lauren Weber.
The author apparently [...]

Is the local food movement making a difference?

I read this story in the paper yesterday. (How quaint!)  Star Tribune had one of their “let’s print two differing opinions side-by-side” opinion features.
Local foods make a difference vs. Local foods don’t really make a difference.
Greg Breining, the “anti-local foods” guy, makes all the usual arguments, including the one about how the transport of food [...]

Time to switch shampoos

Here’s a rather snarky article in today’s salon.com exposing the toxic nature of most commercial shampoos.
“Of the 22 shampoo ingredients in my hand, all except three have proved to contribute, or are suspected of contributing, to health or environmental problems. Most of these ingredients, though known toxins, are permitted for use, because the small quantities [...]

Food, Inc.

Well, I finally saw the movie Food, Inc. last night.  It was pretty much what I expected, as far as who the major players were.  Joel Salatin, Michael Pollan, & Eric Schlosser were all prominent.  I have been immersed in this kind of stuff for a long time now, so none of what I saw [...]

How green? How sustainable?

This article is several months old, but I just came across it.  I was apprehensive when I saw the headline, but I actually found myself saying “RIGHT ON” more than one time.  Here’s one quote (emphasis mine):
“But the risks of pragmatism must be weighed against the risk of perfectionism. We can’t wait for the perfect [...]

CSA Week 3

Our CSA box from Food 4 Thought arrived again today.  Suddenly my grocery shopping trips have gotten faster and cheaper.  Today’s box included:
2 heads Romaine lettuce
2 bunches collard greens
12 heads baby Bok Choi
1 bunch green kale
1 bunch purple kale
1 pint box strawberries
1 bunch dill
1 bunch French breakfast radishes
A good haul this week!  We kept both [...]

Urban farming on the rise

I direct you to the NY Times’ optimistic story about how much produce is being raised on rooftops in San Francisco, Chicago, and NYC, with some inspirational pictures.

Book review: Toolbox for Sustainable City Living

Authors: Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew
This book is full of ideas for really hardcore people who want to practice radical sustainability and preferably live in a mild climate.  The whole time I was reading it I kept picturing the people on the high bikes in the Minneapolis MayDay parade, and what they must do in [...]