How can we make informed eating choices when dining out at restaurants? There is a mobile app called The Humane Eating Project that can help consumers know whether or not a restaurant is serving ethically raised and eco-friendly, animal products. Produced by the non-profit animal welfare charity America For Animals, the app helps you to locate humane dining options in your locality – a nearby restaurant selling humanely-raised meat dishes, for example, or an eatery where meals are made using free range eggs.
Continue reading... →With drought, economic instability, erratic weather and interruptions in transportation a very real threat, it really doesn’t take much to have the food supply disrupted. As the famous proverb says: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Taking this proverb and running with it, a team of innovators from Quebec, Canada have developed an eco-friendly and exceptionally cost-effective solution to our food woes — The Greenhouse of the Future. Combining the principles of Earthships, aquaponics and passive solar greenhouses, Gendron — along with friends, Christian Désilets and Curt Close — designed and built a radically different food growing system. Not wholly surprising, they christened it The Greenhouse of the Future.
Continue reading... →Television commercials featuring the Kool-Aid Man, the newest cereal flavor, or McDonald’s latest Happy Meal toy are common sights during Saturday-morning cartoons. But two studies published last week suggest that the barrage of junk-food advertisements on television is a driving factor behind rising childhood obesity levels. Some health experts believe the days of junk-food advertisements being shown during times children are probably watching should come to an end.
Continue reading... →Columbia will reveal a new rain jacket free of perfluorinated compounds, better known as PFCs, in spring 2017. The rain jacket will feature a technology the company calls OutDry Extreme ECO and will sell for $199. The jacket’s eco-friendly traits don’t stop at the use of the new technology. Its main fabric is 100 percent recycled polyester, which will come from approximately 21 recycled bottles. Trims and other components will also contain recycled content. The jacket’s fabric will not be dyed which will reduce water, energy and chemicals.
Continue reading... →Republicans and Democrats on the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee have struck a deal that would create the first nationwide standard for foods containing genetically modified organisms. Under the agreement, consumers may still have difficulty figuring out if the food they are buying is genetically modified because it wouldn’t mandate printing “GMO” on the exterior. Instead, the agreement would offer three options for disclosure: text on the packaging, a symbol, or an electronic link that would direct consumers to a website for more information.
Continue reading... →Environmentalists are demanding that one of the most prized fishes on the planet, Pacific bluefin tuna, be listed as an endangered species because the current global stock is down over 97 percent from pre-fishing levels.
Continue reading... →A study launched last week in the Lancet found that as many as 529,000 people may die as a result of changes in diet, weight, and health due to climate change impacts on food production. This study is a first and critical step forward in examining how those climate-induced impacts on food production will in turn affect nutrition and health.
Continue reading... →Our caffeine addiction means that more than 25 million tonnes of grounds are produced every year. Most of that is chucked in the trash bin and sent to landfill or for incineration, increasing both waste and greenhouse gas emissions. Here are some brilliant (and not-so-brilliant) ideas for reusing those gunky grounds.
Continue reading... →According to the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), a bill that will strengthen the Toxic Substances Control Act, passed the Senate and is expected to be signed into law by President Barack Obama soon. It is the first major environmental legislation in over two decades to move forward to this point.
Continue reading... →The middle class, which is “fundamental to social stability and economic growth” with real clout, will be threatened by climate change in the near future as the majority live in urban cities, many of which are located on coastlines exposed to climate risks,.
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