By Kelly Rondeau
Green Right Now
It’s the holiday season, and along with the many joys that are associated with this fun time of year - cooking, baking, parties with friends and family - comes a lurking environmental problem: Toxic chemicals in everyday plastics. Plastics that seem to be everywhere in our holiday midst — in [...]

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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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By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

Really, we shouldn’t think of them as gift baskets. We should think of them as stockings for adults, overflowing with fabulous presents for good girls and boys who have been green all year.

There are plenty of pre-made gift baskets, and sure, that is easier on you. But if you like being one of Santa’s elves, if you like filling the sleigh with cool green gifts that pre-made baskets can only dream of - and being sure of their content and origins - then you are in the right place. (Elves wear green, you know. It’s documented.)

A spa basket fit for Mother Earth

You know exactly who you’d give this to. The woman in your life who makes time for others (but not always for herself); who thinks of the extras (and acts like it’s nothing special); who gives and gives (yet rarely takes). She needs a reason to stop and breathe. Let’s put an assortment of those reasons into an eco-friendly gift basket that will soothe her skin, tickle her senses and tell her you’ve noticed.

The healing properties of a good long bath are nothing new - ancient peoples and modern marketers alike have rhapsodized about it. Bubble bath or bath salts make the water spa-worthy, and these products make it organic as well. Nimli’s In the Raw Bubble Bath ($38, pictured above) is infused with oils in seven scents (mango, lemongrass and sage, lavender and orange, grapefruit and tangerine, creamsicle, coco mango, and ginger and lime). The cork-stoppered bottle holds a generous 18 ounces.

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By Paula Minahan
Green Right Now

Dumpster diving as the perfect solution to a sustainable lifestyle?

It could be, according to a report from The Daily Show. Seems forest-living, oil-spurning electrical engineer Tod Kershaw has perfected the art. “My favorite dumpster is Trader Joe’s. It’s just so wonderful; it’s the nirvana of dumpsters. There’s great food, a lot of it is organic and very rarely do you find maggots in there.”

If you say so, Tod.

But kidding aside - and Kershaw isn’t - the fact he can feed his family on discarded grocery items is telling. Telling us that food waste in America is out of control.

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• Five vegetarian entrees for the T-giving table

• Don’t run afoul on Thanksgiving, buy humanely raised, veg-fed turkeys

• Thinking Turkey: Don’t panic, there’s still time to buy organic

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By Barbara Kessler
Green Right Now

The Thanksgiving feast. It evokes such fond food memories. Even vegetarians and vegans are often pleased with the variety of veggie sides that cover their plate on this commemoration. (Not to mention the pumpkin or pecan pie that precedes the well-deserved, holiday nap.)

Still, this is a meal firmly and conspicuously arranged around a meat. Vegetarians aren’t necessarily getting a well-rounded dinner. Not to carb about it. Chances are they like whipped potatoes as much as the next person. But there’s a lot more a home chef can do to accommodate non-meat diners at the holidays by simply putting a veggie dish on the table that packs more heft, and a little more protein (not that we want to resurrect any debates over protein at this time).

So to accommodate the vegetarians and/or vegans at your holiday buffet, here are five hearty, seasonal dishes that rely on locally grown veggies gathered from real chefs around the country. (The first four are vegan.)

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By Barbara Kessler
If you’re planning a traditional Thanksgiving, you’ll be needing a bird. This year, organic and pastured turkeys are more available than ever. Check your local grocery now, and get on a list if need be.

Here are some places to look for a turkey that’s been raised on organic feed, and allowed a more humane existence.

• Local Harvest — If you’re into local heirloom turkeys or other pedigree varieties you may already be too late! But don’t beat yourself up over it, local farmers in Texas have told us that many connoisseurs place their orders months ahead of time. Still, there’s a flock of healthier birds waiting.

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By Barbara Kessler

BPA or Bisphenol A, the plastic additive that has been found to leach from hard plastic water and baby bottles when they are heated, also is released when certain disposable containers labeled as “microwave safe” are heated, according to an analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The newspaper tested 10 disposable food containers, heating them and then testing the contents for BPA. It found that BPA leached from all of the containers, including some labeled as plastics numbers 1, 2 and 5, and not just those labeled as number 7, the identifier for polycarbonate plastic known to contain BPA.
The tests included frozen dinners, microwavable soups, baby and toddler foods - all packed in plastics that could presumably be heated.

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By Hosea Sanders and Sylvia Jones
WLS - Chicago

CHICAGO, Ill. — The next time you feel the urge to indulge in a chocolate treat, you can ease any guilt by telling yourself — your purchase is helping to save the planet.

It’s luxe chocolate that’s made right here in Chicago and it’s produced by a company that carries a green mission from its administration to its manufacturing.

>> Watch now

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By Barbara Kessler
Bisphenol A, the controversial component found in plastic baby bottles, took another image hit last week when the Canadian government announced it would be drafting regulations to ban the sale or importing of bottles containing the chemical.
Canadian Minister of Health Tony Clement called the step a milestone for Canada, which he said [...]

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By Shermakaye Bass
The Spanish word “salud” (meaning “to your health”) is often used by wine lovers when raising a glass. But when it comes to growing grapes and making wine, not all is in the best of health, especially where ecology is concerned. Grape growing can be just as tough on the land as any [...]

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By Michelle Chan Santos

When Jeanne Wallace’s two daughters woke up from their nap the other day - the oldest girl is 3 ½, and the younger one 23 months - they ate radishes for their afternoon snack. Each girl happily ate ten radishes - washed, raw and fresh from their mother’s garden. It was a typical of their tastes - both the children love vegetables, and their favorites are broccoli and cauliflower. They didn’t even want any salad dressing.

Wallace, who lives in Austin, Texas, credits her young daughters’ healthy eating habits to the fact that she made her own baby food for them. Wallace ate many nutritious foods during her pregnancy and while breastfeeding, and making her own baby food for the girls when they were infants seemed to be the natural next step, she said.

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