When I look at the tag inside a t-shirt to find out its origin, that "Made in Bangladesh" label is only telling a tiny part of the story. Sure, the shirt may have been sewn together in Bangladesh, but where was the cotton grown? Where was it spun, woven, and dyed? How many hands touched that one t-shirt in order to be sold in a retail shop in the US?
Design for a Living World, a fairly new exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum developed by The Nature Conservancy, removes the mystery of origin, at least in part, of some of the items we might encounter day to day. It shows us that natural is beautiful and knowing the source and inspiration of design is powerful.
Take, for example, the organic sheep's wool rug designed and knit by Dutch designer Christien Meindertsma. We see the sheep of Lava Lake Ranch in Hailey, Idaho, grazing on pasture. We see the raw materials, the just shorn wool, all balled-up and dirty with brush. And then each subsequent stage of preparation, from the cleaned wool, to the spun yarn, to the giant knitting needles, to the finished product. Many sheep, some farmers, and one woman. There's no questioning the source, the process, the final product.
Several other materials and products are displayed, showing the region of origin, a peek at the people who are stewards of that land, who harvest the materials, and a profile of the designer. Alaskan salmon skin clothing from Isaac Mizrahi, FSC-certified red maple furniture from Maya Lin, and, my favorite, vegetable ivory jewelry of the Pohnpei ivory nut palm tree from Ted Muehling (manta ray earrings below).
Surrounded by these beautifully executed designs, all as sustainably created as possible, I still left wanting more information. How do these products compare to their conventional counterparts? Considering how (relatively) few steps are required, how few hands touched these products, does that make them more or less accessible to the general public? Of course, the designs on display are not meant to be sold in stores, but how could they serve as models for those that are?
I hope that I'm underestimating the impact this exhibit might have on a young designer, or a seasoned designer looking to turn over a new leaf. And I hope that designers like Isaac Mizrahi, who has churned out (not-so-sustainable) designs for Target, and now Liz Claiborne, will not just see this project as a one-off but as a guide for the goods they design in the years to come.
Design for a Living World
Now through January 4, 2010
Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
2 East 91st Street New York, NY 10128 | 212.849.8400
13 July 2009
design for a living world
no hunger
As someone who eats on a very regular basis, never in want of food, I cannot fathom what it is like to wonder where my next meal is coming from. When I am hungry, I go to the cupboard or refrigerator, where there is always food stocked from the farmers market or grocery store. I am fortunate to be able to rely on produce that comes from local farms, and have the luxury to buy fresh food that comes from other places in this country, like California.
I recently read a post on elephant journal of a woman who, after returning to the US from a long sojourn in India, visited a supermarket. She literally wept at the bounty around her. We should all be so fortunate to realize the abundance we have.
For millions of children around the world, there is no bounty. There is no corner store, no fruit stand, no supermarket. There is only hunger.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently reported that there are now over 1 billion people worldwide going hungry. Acute malnutrition affects 55 million children globally, resulting in 5 million childhood deaths every year (one child every six seconds). This is a predictable and preventable condition.
No Hunger is an international initiative, started by Action Against Hunger, asking Al Gore to make his next film about global hunger. The website AskAlGore.org features a trailer for No Hunger, and a petition addressed to the former Vice President that will be presented to him this December at the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
The hope is that, as An Inconvenient Truth did for climate change, No Hunger will help shift public perceptions of hunger, and attract the support needed to reach every acutely malnourished child.
The treatment for severe acute malnutrition is not expensive—it costs about $50 per child and doesn’t require prescription drugs. Instead, it relies on nutrient dense, ready-to-use food products. These products can take a child from the brink of death and restore him to health in as little as six weeks.
09 July 2009
100 coal plants defeated
It's quite a battle -- fighting to end the use of coal as our main source of energy in this country. But Sierra Club just marked the milestone of 100 coal plants defeated or abandoned. Congrats to Sierra Club and the USA for reaching this goal. Of course, there's still more work to be done.
Want to help shift the country from coal? Switch to renewable energy!
In New York
Elsewhere in the States
08 July 2009
celebrate the sun with solar one
Daily events:
Friday -- 6:00PM - Dance Party
Saturday -- 12:00PM - Live Music Day
Sunday -- 11:00AM - Workshops and the Wide Open Eco-Pet Fashion Show!
Full details:
Since 2004, Solar One has held an annual festival celebrating sustainability and encouraging NYers to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle through fun and informative performances and exhibitions.
The schedule so far for Citysol 2009:
Friday July 10 at 6pm DANCE PARTY
"Mr. Lower East Side" Moonshine Shorey, Poet Extraordinaire
The Alien Comic- Legendary downtown performance artist confronts climate change
Party for a Solar-Powered NY- Join the I Heart PV campaign to increase solar energy generation in NYC! Find out what you can do: talk to a solar installer, write a letter to your legislators in exchange for a free drink, design a solar racecar and enter it in our competition and dance till you drop!
Solar-powered DJs from HomeBase Collective
Saturday July 11 at 12pm LIVE MUSIC DAY
Schwervon!
Love Like Deloreans
Outasight
Shilpa Ray & Her Happy Hookers
The So So Glos
Hi Red Center
Fiasco
DJ Green Lantern
Dead Prez
Sunday July 12 at 11am
The Rachel Show
BioBus Mobile Laboratory
Make Your Own Generator with the Magdagascar Institute
PLUS Workshops, panels and exhibits from a variety of local sustainability organizations- check www.citysol.org for details, coming soon!
AND... Beer!
Bring your own cup, Get a discount on beer! Reuse the cup you get, Get a discount on beer! Write a letter for The I HEART PV CAMPAIGN, Get a beer on the house!
Event sponsored by Brooklyn Brewery
Here's how you get there:
Map/Directions
06 July 2009
kripalu center for yoga & health
The beautiful grounds of Kripalu
Want to improve your health, get centered, cultivate peace in your life, and enjoy the company of the friendliest strangers you'll ever meet? Sounds like a tall order, but that's exactly what's offered at Kripalu center for yoga and health in the Berkshires of Massachusetts.
I got back from there last Wednesday and I'm still totally blissed out.
Before I planned my trip, I perused the catalog for all of their program offerings. I think I circled a workshop on every page, from meditation intensives to yoga for my aching wrists and shoulders. So many programs appealed to me. In the end, I chose to do a simple Retreat and Renewal (R&R) package, a go-at-your-own-pace set up.
My friend Jane and I drove up on Sunday and jumped right in with a massage (not included in the R&R package). After that, we had a delicious dinner - all the food at Kripalu is organic and local whenever possible. The rest of the time was filled with yoga classes, hikes, leisurely walks on the grounds, and more amazing meals - all part of R&R (as were the accommodations).
Monk's pond, a popular stop on morning hikes
It's a trip I won't soon forget. Mindful meditation and slow-paced days will do that to you.
But one of the most memorable happenings had more to do with the local fauna than the local positive vibrations. After dinner one night, Jane and I wandered the grounds and settled on some old steps on a hill, remnants of the old estate which used to preside there. Out of the corner of my eye, a big fuzzy black thing ambled down the hill less than 50 feet away. I grabbed Jane's arm. She took one look at the shock on my face and turned to face the animal. We both sat stiller than trees on a windless day. The black bear stopped, feeling our fear. She sniffed at the air in our direction. No muscle twitched, no eyelash batted. She turned to face the wooded area at the base of the hill. We waited a couple of beats before rising to go while "Mama Bear" crunched and crackled the branches in the woods.
Everyone in our path on the return to the building was subjected to our story. The security guard on duty told us he's seen Mama Bear a bunch of times (he's the one who calls her that), noting that she was a pretty big lady. We heartily agreed.
Jane re-enacting the bear's path
Aside from the excitement provided by the bear, I enjoyed the beauty of smaller fauna (birds, bees, dragonflies, butterflies) and flora (sweet-smeling wildflowers, the fresh aroma of pine) on nature hikes or while doing walking meditation in the labyrinth.
I definitely see a return trip in my future.
blueberries are in!
I don't usually think of summer as a time to bake. In fact, if you can't take the heat of the oven and end up offsetting it with air conditioning, summer baking can be a pretty wasteful endeavor. But blueberries are in season and I had the craving for a good, healthful blueberry muffin. It doesn't hurt our energy bill that we don't have an air conditioner in this part of the apartment -- and I don't mind sweating a bit.
I like to experiment in the kitchen, especially when it comes to baking. I'm often not satisfied with a recipe as is, and like to doctor it up or combine two or three recipes. When I was a bit younger, I was apprehensive about messing with a baking recipe. I was always told it was like chemistry, one misstep and it blows up in your face -- or at the very least it won't taste like it should. Somewhere along the way I dropped this notion and decided to take a risk. I've found that, for the most part, a little adaptation isn't a bad thing, and it often turns out in your favor.
Case in point: the spelt almond blueberry/cranberry muffins I made this afternoon. Here's my recipe, adapted from Healthy Green Lifestyle and Bob's Red Mill:
Dry stuff:
2 1/4 cups organic spelt flour
1 tablespoon aluminum-free baking powder
1 teaspoon Himalayan sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups almond pulp (leftover from making almond milk - sans sweeteners or vanilla)
Wet stuff:
3 organic, free-range eggs
1/4 cup local buckwheat honey
1 1/4 cup almond milk (see above)
2 teaspoons organic vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (4 ounces) local pastured butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 3/4 cups local blueberries
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. [NB - I usually do this about 3/4 of the way into prepping the ingredients so as not to waste too much gas (or electricity, depending on your oven)].
Combine dry ingredients, stirring in almond pulp last.
In a separate mixing bowl, whip eggs. Whip in honey, almond milk, and vanilla. Then add the slightly cooled melted butter, being careful not to cook the eggs.
Gently mix dry and wet ingredients. Do not over stir. The mix should be lumpy.
Fold in blueberries and cranberries. Blueberries and cranberries can be dusted with flour prior to folding into the mix.
Spoon mix into a greased or lined 12-cup muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Cool and enjoy!
A couple of notes:
- If you like a sweeter muffin, use 1 1/4 cups sugar plus honey, or substitute with 3/4 organic brown sugar
- This recipe can also be made with 1 tablespoon oil instead of butter
follow this man: will allen
If you didn't catch this weekend's New York Times Magazine, you missed out on an article about one of the best role models for young Americans, and heck, old ones too. Will Allen -- urban farmer, master composter, down-to-earth guy -- is creating a community of people who care more about the food they put in their bodies, especially city dwellers who don't have access to healthful food.
An excerpt:
Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories. Like others, he advocates eating locally grown food. But to Allen, local doesn’t mean a rolling pasture or even a suburban garden: it means 14 greenhouses crammed onto two acres in a working-class neighborhood on Milwaukee’s northwest side, less than half a mile from the city’s largest public-housing project.
And this is why Allen is so fond of his worms. When you’re producing a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of food in such a small space, soil fertility is everything. Without microbe- and nutrient-rich worm castings (poop, that is), Allen’s Growing Power farm couldn’t provide healthful food to 10,000 urbanites — through his on-farm retail store, in schools and restaurants, at farmers’ markets and in low-cost market baskets delivered to neighborhood pickup points. He couldn’t employ scores of people, some from the nearby housing project; continually train farmers in intensive polyculture; or convert millions of pounds of food waste into a version of black gold.
Read the rest
26 June 2009
r and r
Even when life is seemingly sailing along smoothly, it helps to take a break to quiet the mind and relax the body.
Some benefits of R&R are obvious: increased sense of calm, reduced muscle tension, overall sense of well-being. But there are other forces at work when we take time to chill out. So step away from the email, facebook, Twitter, and cell phone. Truly disconnect to reconnect with yourself and experience bliss from one of these activities:
massage
Some may think of massage as a luxury, but massage has several health benefits that warrant making it a regular part of your health regimen.
- Pain relief - not just in the area that's worked on, but throughout the body
- Immunity boost - through decreases in stress hormones responsible for illness
- Blood pressure drop - a boon for people with hypertension
[via Newsweek]Learn about 10 of the most popular types of massage
Find an eco spa near you:
Tip: Save money by visiting a massage therapy school where sessions with students are offered at a discount
meditation
There are many great benefits of regular meditation practice, including:
- Increased concentration
- Reduced stress, anxiety, and depression
- Improved memory and mental clarity
- Greater awareness
yoga
Hatha yoga, the physical branch of yoga, has many physical and mental benefits. Try yoga for:
- Greater flexibility
- Increased strength and muscle tone
- Improved posture
- Greater sense of calm
- Improved concentration and mood
- Beneficial effects on health condition like asthma, hypertension, pain
- Increased energy
There are several types of hatha yoga, from energetic vinyasa flow to hot and sweaty Bikram. Find your style of yoga and a studio near you:
I'm going to follow my own advice, take some time off from the computer and head on a yoga retreat myself. See you all next Wednesday!
25 June 2009
eat it up, yum!
I'm on a food post kick lately. Maybe it's the thrill of summer produce getting me all excited about eating again... berries, asparagus, various peas, basil (though these days we grow our own), heirloom tomatoes! (coming soon).
If you're in the same boat, head on up to the New York Botanical Garden for The Edible Garden, an all-season-long celebration of food. The program kicks off this weekend with a local food festival. A shiny list of culinary celebs had their hand in the garden's program, including Martha Steward, Dan Barber, and Peter Hoffman.
While you're there, be sure to check out the Seed Savers Exchange edible landscape, proof that heirloom seeds make edible gardens both bountiful and beautiful.
Get the full scoop here.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
24 June 2009
standing up for bees
[Image: Green Brooklyn]
There's a movement happening in this city right now to develop a strong localized food system. Urban farms, community gardens, backyards, and rooftops are the sites for productive vegetable gardens, chicken coops, and even rabbit raising. People who care about food and where it comes from are going to great lengths to find space to grow. And some are even breaking the law to ensure greater success of these urban crops. They're illegally keeping bees.
A matter of sustainability
In places like Chicago, San Francisco, and Atlanta, beekeeping is considered part of the city's long-term sustainability plan. Bees are even kept in the White House garden. But in this city, according to sustainable food advocacy group Just Food,
The New York City Health Code under Section 161.01 prohibits the possession, keeping, harboring and selling of 'wild animals.' This ban's listing of 'all venomous insects' includes bees and in doing so outlaws beekeeping.
The perceived risk (allergies, swarming) by few is limiting opportunities for many.
Without bees, we'd all have less food. Einstein didn't say this, but it's still rings true to an extent,
If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.
In a post on The Daily Green (2007),
Of about 240,000 flowering plants in North America, three quarters require the pollination of a bee, bird, bat or other animal or insect in order to bear fruit. Since many of our food crops – with the exception of grains – are imports, the imported honey bee is key to our food supply. Beyond that, no other pollinator can be collected, moved and unleashed to pollinate fields of crops like commercial beekeepers can do with honey bee colonies.
So losing bees would have repercussions throughout the food supply chain.
Legalize the bees!
In February, Councilman David Yassky (D–Brooklyn Heights) introduced legislation to lift the ban on beekeeping. And yesterday he spoke at a press conference in front of city hall backed by Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (not "Stinger" as he joked), Executive Director of Just Food Jackie Berger, other Just Food members, beekeepers, urban farmers, and concerned citizens (that would be me).
[David Yassky, Scott Stringer, Deborah Romano, and a swarm of press]
We were all there not just in support of lifting the ban on beekeeping, but to support Park Slope resident Deborah Romano who received a fine for beekeeping and was ordered to remove her hive. Talking about the complaint brought against her, Deborah told the AP yesterday,
"I don't know why (that neighbor) did it," she said at the rally. "But my guess is that it probably was a combination of ignorance and fear. They didn't understand how vital bees are to our very existence on the planet, and a more livable existence in NYC. They probably didn't realize that honeybees and other pollinating insects are more endangered than dangerous."
Bees work for me
As someone who uses honey on a daily basis, I'd prefer if the sweet nectar came from right here in Brooklyn than be shipped in from upstate or beyond. I also prefer beeswax candles to paraffin, a petroleum byproduct, or even soy, which is most likely a genetically modified crop.
If we could produce these items locally, it would boost our economy, improve the local food production system, provide the community with products to be proud of, and offer beekeepers the peace of mind that performing their craft brings.
NYC beekeeping in the news and blogosphere
- NYC beekeepers swarm City Hall to protest ban (Forbes via AP)
- Urban Beekeepers Keep Cities Abuzz with Pollinators (SciAm)
- Bill to legalize beekeeping would be a sweet deal for New York's honey-making crowd (Daily News)
- The First Annual Beekeepers Ball: A Buzzing Night in Support of New York Urban Beekeeping (Serious Eats)
- Bee Sweet (Brooklyn Based)
- New York City Beekeepers Association
- Gotham City Honey Co-op
- BQE Beekeeper
- NYC Beekeeping Meetup Group
- The Brooklyn Bee
It's Pollinator Week!
And there are still some fun events to partake in:
Hidden Hives Tour & Mead Tasting
@ Jimmy's No. 43
Thu 6/25
Honey Fest
@ Union Square Greenmarket
Fri 6/26
Honey Tasting
@ The Unfancy Food Show
Sun 6/28
...And more!
For more info visit: www.justfood.org/bees
23 June 2009
this just in from just food
If you care about food issues in NYC, here's your chance to get involved!
Join us at two important City Council Hearings on food justice issues...today and tomorrow!
June 23rd Hearing on Food Access Disparities, 1pm
Today at 1pm the NYC Council's Committee on Community Development will be holding an oversight hearing on the topic "Access to Fresh Food in NYC Neighborhoods and Associated Health, Economic, and Community Impacts". The hearing will be held on the 16th Floor Hearing Room at 250 Broadway.
Local groups have prepared testimonies to present at the hearing, and written testimony is also being accepted. Come, listen, engage!
Buzzzzzzz: Come a little early and attend the Pollinator Week press conference, 12:30pm at City Halls steps and hear Council Member David Yassky, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, and representatives from Just Food, East New York Farms and local beekeepers give support to legislation that will legalize beekeeping in NYC!
June 24th Hearing on Community Gardens, 10am
Action Alert from the NYC Community Gardens Coalition:
JOIN US AT CITY HALL WEDNESDAY JUNE 24 @ 10AM
FOR AN IMPORTANT CITY COUNCIL HEARING ON THE FUTURE OF OUR GARDENS!
We urgently need all gardeners and garden supporters to bring your voices and letters of concern to a public hearing sponsored by City Council's Committee on Parks and Recreation at City Hall and speak up for the preservation of all community gardens! We need as many people as possible to attend to prove our political (voting) power - so bring friends and forward this message far and wide!
If you are a Parks or a city-operated GreenThumb community garden and think you are safe, THINK AGAIN! Your garden is not safe, as the Attorney General's agreement that saved us in 2002 is set to expire in 2010 with NO OTHER legislation in place to protect us!
The hearing will focus on the future of community gardens in NYC and specifically Resolution #1890, which calls upon the City to map all GreenThumb community gardens in NYC as parkland, thereby giving them stronger protection for the future!
NYC City Council Hearing on Community Gardens
Wednesday June 24th @ 10:00am
Committee Room @ City Hall
City Hall is located in City Hall Park. You can enter the plaza from either the west side of the park at Broadway and Murray Street or the east side at Park Row.By Subway: #4, #5, #6 trains to City Hall/Brooklyn Bridge; #2, #3 trains to Park Place; W, R trains to City Hall; C, A trains to Chambers Street By Bus: M15 to City Hall/Park Row
Please bring: ID to enter City Hall and 20 copies (double-sided) of your prepared testimony as to why your garden - and all gardens - should be made permanent (if you need help to make copies, please call us - the most important thing is for you to BE THERE!).
Also bring: Youth from your garden (now that school is out - their stories are very powerful), your garden's scrapbook, pictures, and banners. Our representatives need to understand the deep importance of the community gardens.
If you cannot make the meeting, but want to submit testimony, you can mail or fax it by June 24th to:
Gary Altman, Legislative Council
Council of the City of New York
250 Broadway 15th Floor, New York NY 10007
Att: Community Gardens Hearing - June 24, 2009
Fax: (212) 442-6420 (Attn: Gary Altman)
For more information: See our website for our recommendations to protect our gardens, links to Resolution 1890, the Attorney General's agreement, and more. If you have any questions, call us at 888-311-3993.
New York City Community Gardens Coalition - United We Grow! The mission of the New York City Community Gardens Coalition is to promote the preservation, creation and empowerment of community gardens through education, advocacy and grass-roots organizing.
Thank you for all you do in advocating for healthier food, farms and communities in New York!
Warm wishes,
Nadia Johnson
Just Food
22 June 2009
clean up indoor air pollution
The air inside our homes and businesses is often more toxic than the air outside, even in big air-polluted cities like LA and NYC. This is due to several factors, including off-gassing chemicals in furniture, toxins in cleaning products, and artificial fragrances and other chemicals in our beauty care regimens.
In spite of this barrage of airborne toxins, there is an amazingly simple way to clean up the air while increasing the amount of oxygen we breathe. Learn about three common house plants that work wonders on air quality from Kamal Meattle in the video below:
Grow your own fresh air with one (or all) of these plants:
- Areca Palm Tree (aka, Butterfly Palm, Golden Cane Palm, Dypsis lutescens)
- Money Tree Plant
(Pachira glabra)
- Mother-in-law's Tongue
18 June 2009
wink eco beauty bar
I'm a pretty low-maintenance lady. I only wear makeup maybe twice a year, have very few products in my daily beauty regimen, and keep my nails au naturale. So these days, because it's sort of a special occasion for me to get a manicure and pedicure, I'm particular about where I have this service performed.
Luckily for me, I live right near a new eco-friendly beauty salon - Wink. I noticed their sign a few months ago, and had been waiting for an opportunity to check them out. Enter this weekend's wedding.
My friend and I got there for our appointments right when they opened at 11 am, despite the pouring rain (blech!). We picked from the selection of DBP-, touluene-, and formaldehyde-free nail colors on the wall and headed over to the cushy chairs for the pedicure. All of the products used at Wink Beauty Bar are sans parabens, phthalates and other nasty chems.
After the pedicure we enjoyed a manicure at the bar that's covered in AFM Safecoat
I highly recommend Wink for their friendly and professional service, comfortable environs, and of course, green products and practices.
W!NK eco beauty bar
602 Vanderbilt Avenue
(St. Mark's Ave & Prospect Pl)
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn 11238
718.230.3443
Don't live near Wink? Check out this post about less toxic (no nail polish is really non-toxic) options for painting those toe- and finger-tips, plus a few additions:
- Zoya
- Peacekeeper
- OPI (look for the green label!)
- Dr. Remedy
