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 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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Brenton Johnson, who hosted a recent local-food gourmet dinner on his organic farm, Johnson’s Backyard Garden, just east of Austin, Texas, represents a new breed of young, organic farmer whose philosophy is to live in harmony with the land and bring back the sustainable ways. Naturally (no pun intended), he advocates buying local food.

In between tending his turnips and perusing the potatoes, Brenton penned this wise, authoritative list, which he agreed to share with us. (We couldn’t write it any better.)

This isn’t just about helping the local farmer, it’s about preserving our planet (and eatin’ better, too!).

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By John DeFore

Just witnessed on the outskirts of Austin: A multi-course gourmet meal, impeccably cooked from local produce and elegantly served, smack dab in the middle of a farm.

And it’s not just happening in Austin, or even just in the South. Outstanding in the Field is the name of a roving crew of foodies (one of whom is a dirt-digging artist) who travel the country (and sometimes the globe) organizing massive dinners for customers who want to see exactly where what they’re eating was grown.

Call it an extreme (and, at $180-$220 per person including wine, extremely fancy) take on the locavore ideal, one designed to use the group’s culinary cred to promote awareness of small-scale farmers.

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