By Sommer Saadi
Green Right Now

New Yorkers have gotten pretty good at finding new places to grow plants: rooftops in Brooklyn, abandoned rail lines in Manhattan, and now they’re conquering the tops of old shipping containers.

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By Harriet Blake
Green Right Now

PFOA, aka Perfluorooctanoic acid, is everywhere. It’s in the wrappers of frozen pizza and microwave popcorn; it’s in Teflon pots and pans; it’s in the stain resistant coating that protects new carpets.

PFOA is a stable man-made chemical used in industrial and consumer goods because it is good at repelling heat, water, grease and stains.

However, it is also a known pollutant that gets absorbed into the food product it is wrapped around or absorbed by humans who come into contact with it.

PFOA is found in the blood of 98 percent of Americans and in 100 percent of all newborns, according to Bill Walker, vice president of the Environmental Working Group.

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By Shermakaye Bass
Green Right Now

When Nidhi Lal founded Los Angeles’s tres-green, tres-chic Recess Organic Nail Spa two years ago, she knew she wanted to target an upscale, conscientious clientele (read = Hollywood’s A-list); she never expected that followers like actress Jeanne Tripplehorn would tout her services while walking the Golden Globe Awards red carpet.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The soybean is a versatile crop. It helps add nitrogen back to the soil. It’s a cheap source of animal feed. In various forms, it eventually becomes suitable for human consumption, albeit it mostly indirectly, in the form of chicken (or eggs) we consume or beef on the table.

So what’s wrong with a hard-working legume gaining a little popularity? As is often the case, too much of a good thing is, indeed, too much.

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From Green Right Now Reports

If you didn’t realize that January is National Hot Tea Month, tea maker Celestial Seasonings gives you a new reason to take notice: The company has announced plans to help preserve the Earth’s tropical forests by inviting one and all to participate in a new Facebook quiz called PossibiliTEAS.

Celestial will donate one dollar for each participant, up to a maximum of $50,000, to Conservation International ’s “Protect an Acre” program, which aims to help slow climate change and preserve tropical forests throughout the world. According to the organization, just $15 helps protect an acre of forest.

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By John DeFore

New Year’s Eve is upon us, an occasion when even teetotalers may be tempted to toss back a couple of stiff drinks. Celebrants concerned with the origins of their booze are in better shape than ever this year, with enough organically produced spirits available to intoxicate the whole of Times Square.

The most popular variety of liquor for organic producers appears to be vodka: You could stock a nice little bar choosing only from green-friendly vodkas with numbers in their names: Vodka 360 and Vodka 14, for instance, alongside Square One, whose promotional materials (after scrupulously detailing a tightly-controlled production process) offer plenty of unusual imbibing ideas, from “culinary style” to tea-infused cocktails.

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From Green Right Now Reports

Pennsylvania officials today released updated fish consumption advisories that include two new fish species and a water body that had not previously been on the list, but also eases or lifts advisories on fish from seven water bodies.

Walleye (Photo: Duane Raver/USFWS)

The advisories were developed through an interagency partnership between the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the state departments of Environmental Protection, Health and Agriculture.

“Consumption advisories are not intended to discourage anyone from fishing or eating fresh fish in moderation,” Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger said in a statement. “However, at-risk groups and people who regularly eat sport fish are most susceptible to contaminants that can build up in fish over time and should space out fish meals according to these advisories, and in consultation with their physician.”

The advisories do not apply to fish raised for commercial purposes or bought in stores or restaurants.

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Food, it’s the perfect practical holiday gift — and you can support the causes you care about with a gift of food that’s either Fair Trade, organic or comes from a shop designed to help workers gain job experience.

Here are some of our picks for the season.

1 - Urban Raw Honey from Beeline

Beeline Honey

Made locally by Beeline, a social enterprise in Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, this is nature’s nectar at it’s best. The project employs formerly incarcerated people, training them in beekeeping, marketing, and other job placement skills. Our cities need bees and bee gardens to pollinate flowers and veggies. People can benefit from eating honey, over refined sugar, and the workers learn a serious trade that is likely to help them toward higher employment. Looks like, win, win, win. Oh yeah, your gift recipient will surely find this a sweet treat. Beeline honey is sold at the Green Heart Shop, in downtown Chicago or online.

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LOS ANGELES (KABC):

POMME BÉBÉ

Pomme Bébé is an organic baby food store located in Newport Beach. With a team of professional chefs, Pomme Bébé peels, steams and purées wholesome fruits and vegetables making nutritious baby and toddler baby meals. For the busiest of parents, Pomme Bébé delivers nationally. By placing your order online, freshly made organic baby food will be delivered to your front door in environmentally friendly packaging.

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Hosea Sanders
More: Bio, News Team

Hosea Sanders and Sylvia Jones

December 11, 2009 (WLS) — If you’re looking for an excuse to drink more beer, you could now say you’re doing it to help the environment.

When you think of the Morton Arboretum, your next thought probably isn’t beer. But a visit to the grounds just might change that.

Here’s something you don’t see everyday: water being sprayed onto the ground with no pooling or puddling. It’s soaking right in instead rolling off and going into the sewers. That’s because this isn’t ordinary concrete. It’s a new, porous pavement made from crushed, recycled beer bottles.

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From Green Right Now Reports

The Ecology Center, a Michigan-based nonprofit organization, today released a report showing that one in three of all toys tested this holiday season still contained one or more harmful chemical including lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury.

The Center, working with partners across the country, released its findings in the 3rd Annual Consumer Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys at www.HealthyStuff.org. Researchers tested nearly 700 popular 2009 children’s products for lead, cadmium, arsenic, PVC, and other harmful chemicals.

According to researchers, who have tested more than 4,000 children’s products over the past three years, lead has been steadily decreasing in toys. The number of products with lead exceeding current federal standards for lead in toys (300 ppm) has decreased 67 percent since 2007. However, 32 percent of the toys tested for this holiday season still contained one or more harmful chemical including lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury.

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From Green Right Now Reports

An emerging body of evidence suggests that the changing global climate is already affecting infectious disease transmission patterns. At a symposium today at the 58th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in Washington D.C., experts reported that such changes are expected to have a profound impact on global public health.

“There is concrete evidence that the global climate is changing, and these changes are expected to greatly impact human health as surface temperatures rise, agricultural belts shift, and extreme weather events become more commonplace,” Mary H. Hayden, Ph.D. of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said in a statement. “Although most scientists agree that climate change is underway, the role it plays in infectious disease transmission is still in contention. The evidence presented today suggests that climate change will exacerbate the challenges of controlling infectious diseases in the developing world.”

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