Green at 50

Arsenic and kid's pee...now I'm tweaked

Poor research by journalists really tweaks me. Such was the case with an article written by Judy Fahys for the Salt Lake City Tribune Utah Study Points to Arsenic in Backyard Chickens. She reported that a Utah family had elevated arsenic levels in their children's urine. Supposedly, the Utah toxicologist, Christina McNaughton, determined that since the water and soil on the family's yard wasn't contaminated, then the culprit must be the eggs from the backyard coop. She claims that arsenic is added to chicken feed on a regular basis and that backyard chicken farmers should beware. My response is look a little deeper, sweetheart.

If arsenic in layer feed is a problem then ALL children in this country are at risk. No one is a bigger consumer of commercial chicken feed than the COMMERICAL CHICKEN FARMER. In truth, chemicals such as arsenic are included in other animal feeds (in its supposedly less toxic, "organic" form) to reduce the incidence of disease. Don't get me wrong, I'm against adding toxic chemicals to any animal feed, but arsenic is not added to layer feed of any kind. In addition, most backyard chickens are fed a varied diet of bugs, weeds and kitchen scraps reducing their need for feed and any associated unwanted chemicals. Finally, most of us backyard chicken raisers use organic chicken feed which further reduces the chances that the hens or those of us who eat their eggs will become contaminated. The article later explains it's position on arsenic laced animal feed, but at first blush it appears to be a slam on backyard coops and labels them as an "issue."

To add insult to injury, Grist published their comments on the article with the title Arsenic found in Utah kids’ pee traced to their pet chickens’ feed. Now you tell me, how credible is an article that uses the word "pee" to describe the poor Utah kids' urine? What are we, in second grade? Haven't the foodies progressed to using big people words? Fellow food advocates, let's not hang ourselves out to dry before we get a chance to implement some much needed changes to how Americans produce and consume their food. Do the research and talk like a grownup. Otherwise, you're just adding fuel to the factory farm machine and looking pretty stupid in the process.

Eating where I live

I was reading an article urbanfarmonline.com about edible landscapes and realized, geez, I have made a lot of progress integrating edibles into my landscape....and it's pretty tricky here. I have lots of wildlife, including herds of deer that like to munch on anything that will stand still long enough to let them. I have a small, privacy-fenced-in courtyard, about 30x30, with my house taking a good size chunk out of it. It's the only space I have that is protected from the bunnies and deer...in it I have my chicken coop, pond, vegetable garden and perennials. It's my annual challenge to use it as productively as possible and still make it beautiful. Lately, I've been pretty happy with the results.

I've always planted 3-4 cucumber plants in a large pot and let the vine spill over the edges of the pot and onto the ground. It's lovely but with the excessive rains we've been having in this part of the country, I've noticed that the cucumbers are more likely to rot on the ground and develop disease. This year, I tried using a tomato cage as a trellis. I bought one in a fashionable shade of sea foam blue and have been winding the cucumber vine around the sides and up toward the top as it has been growing. The vine is looking very healthy and is kept dry because of the trellis. The monarda planted next to the deck keeps plenty of bees around for pollinating so I'm getting some nice fruit coming on....and it's kind of artsy looking in an architectural sort of way :-)

In the bed in front of the new coop (the metal roof is coming this weekend) I planted some red cabbage in among the hosta. It adds a nice blue color to the bed and makes the cabbage worms handy to throw to the chickens. I've planted new grapevines this year to train up the metal arbor and we dug out the fire pit and replaced it with a circular strawberry bed planted with ever-bearing strawberries. I'll know more in a couple of years if this planting plan will be a success with the fruit. The beds are planted on a slight slope which helps with drainage. The strawberry bed is bordered by broken flagstone from the fire pit. I am adding organic acidifier to the strawberries to counteract the limestone which likes to increase the pH. This year I pinched off the strawberry blooms and runners. How painful! Next year, I'm hoping for a bountiful harvest as a reward for my patience.

Cherry picking...or not

It's cherry picking time. The little globes of iridescent red look like light is emitting from the inside out when the sun shines. Unfortunately, the sun hasn't shined much since the first glow of pink turned to brilliant red. I've been able to reach the low fruit but the ground is so soft the standing on a ladder ends up throwing me over the fence as the ladder mires itself in my sandy loam up to the the third rung. Yuck. Of course the shimmering spheres will not go to waste. They are delicacy for every robin, cardinal, blue jay, sparrow, squirrel, chipmunk and anyone else that can maneuver the branches. Maybe this afternoon I can work on getting the left overs...

Summer salads are here

Yesterday was the first pickup for Abbe Hills Farm CSA. We drove out to the farm and parked in the grass. We checked out the new chicken tractor coop, said hi to the hens and gawked at the new ducks. In the shed we loaded up on fresh lettuces, spinach, turnips and some not-so familiar vegis that will stretch my culinary skills this summer...The big pay-off was a dinner last night. Such a tasty salad we had! Can't get flavor like that when it's shipped 1,500 miles. It's gonna be a great summer.

To be or not to be....

The chicks are growing like weeds. I had no idea how quickly they grew and developed, or how independent they are. Chick seems to indistinctly know how to peck, scratch, preen and fly...they amaze and delight me every day. I'm starting to relax with them now. The first few days were nerve wracking. This is a different adventure than I've ever tried before and I was sure they were all going to die. Somehow after 3 weeks they are still alive and we are developing a daily routine. Raising chicks is a lot of fun and a lot of work. I'm glad that I did my research before I started this venture...I would highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that they might like to keep urban chickens. Like anything else, there are pros and cons to raising your own food. Here's the list my husband and I made during the "pre-chicken planning process."

PROS:

1. Fresh, healthy eggs from happy chickens. Not from chickens that are raised in a small cage with processed food and artificial light.
2. Fertilize/aerate the yard in the summer by using a chicken tractor (a chicken tractor is a portable coop/run that is moved around the yard.) The tractor confines the chickens while still allowing them to forage for some of their own food. Good for the yard and good for reducing feed costs.
3. Bug control: chickens love bugs, worms and grubs. We have plenty in our yard.
4. Garden aeration in the spring. The chickens will "fluff up" the soil in the garden before it is planted so we don't have to. We'll have to wait until next spring to see how this works out for us.
5. Kitchen scraps turned into food. When the chicks are older, they will eat a good share of our kitchen scraps, reducing what goes into the garbage and our feed costs.
6. Fertilizer for our garden. We have several beds in the yard for flowers and fresh vegetables. Chicken manure is super rich in nitrogen and excellent for the garden - after it is composted. Chicken manure is so high in nitrogen that it will burn growing plants. Composting not only transforms the nitrogen into a form that can be used by the plants, but it also destroys any bacteria, viruses or parasite eggs that might be present.

CONS:

1. Chickens require daily care. They must be locked in their coops at night to prevent predators from picking off a free meal while the chooks snooze. The chicken tractor will need to be moved to allow for new foraging ground and they'll need to be kept in feed and fresh clean water. I'm lucky that my daughter who lives in town likes the chicks and wants to help take care of them. She will be my "chicken sitter" when my husband and I need a little vacation.
2. Not all cities allow chickens. And, don't rely on your city website for good information. Cedar Rapids doesn't mention chickens at all on the animal ordinances web page, but there is a law prohibiting livestock. I hope to work with others interested in raising chickens to persuade the city to get the ordinance changed as so many cities have done across the country (even New York city allows chickens!) We are fortunate that we are pretty isolated on our acre lot. We have neighbors with several acres on either side of us so only 2 or 3 people will ever even have the opportunity to notice we have chickens. We plan to keep them very clean and have an attractive home for them to minimize the opportunity for neighbor complaints.
3. Chickens are messy. An adult hen will produce about 45 pounds of manure every year...and they don't care where they doo it. The chicks produce an amazing number of droppings and I clean their cage out every day. If you can't handle a little (or a lot) of chicken manure, then better stick to buying eggs from someone who can.
4. Raising chickens costs money. I've found that we've had to be pretty careful during our planning process so that we don't spend more on our chickens than we can ever recover. There are some pretty fancy dancy coops our there for several hundred to over one thousand dollars. We are making our own chicken tractor using new materials because we wanted it to be attractive enough to not irritate our neighbors. To save money, you could build the coop out of recycled wood or purchase something used. We figured that we will recoup our expenses, including the coop and the equipment costs in about 2 years. After that we'll just need to take into consideration the cost of replacement chicks, feed and bedding.

Add more green with backyard chickens

  Keeping chickens in an urban setting isn't a new thing. When I visited the early American settlement in Plymouth a couple of summers ago they had a garden and a chicken house in every yard...OK, that was a while ago...and they didn't have a handy grocery store just around the corner. However, it does demonstrate  that Americans started keeping chickens at home a long time ago.  Fast forward to the late 1990s. The movement to keep chickens in the city was revived in London largely because of an ingenious chicken house design called the eglu that was produced and promoted by the Omlet company. The movement rapidly spread to west coast cities in the U.S. like Seattle and Portland, where keeping chickens in the city was already legal. In the last five years, keeping backyard chickens has continued to become popular across the country...including my backyard here in Iowa. Actually, it's in my garage right now...5 adorable 2-week old chicks that hopefully will grow up to keep my immediate and extended family in eggs for quite a while. We are making our own coop (I can hear my husband drilling as we speak) and plan to have them in the yard in another 4 weeks or so...provided it warms up around here (sounds like snow tomorrow...augh!)  I think that raising pet chickens appeals to me because it makes so much sense from an environmental and health perspective. The chickens will be moved around the yard in a portable coop while fertilizing the yard and eating pesky bugs and grubs. Manure that accumulates during the winter will be composted into the garden to produce as many vegetables that I can produce...ensuring a healthy food supply that is locally grown. And eggs are a superior source of protein...and I like 'em! Now that's a whole lot more than I get from my cat...sorry, Maggie. I'll give you the blow-by-blow as we go through this adventure including the costs/savings involved...happy clucking!

Putting the Green toilet paper debate behind me....

My family thinks I'm getting a little obsessive about using toilet tissue in an eco-friendly way...let's get to the down and dirty of the issue. Americans (and Canadians so I hear) are the only folks on earth that insist on having multi-ply, lotion infused, super bleached paper to wipe their buttocks with...a dirty job I realize, but do we really need next-to-cashmere to get through our day? According to the Guardian, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council in the U.K. believes that the Americans' insistence on using luxury toilet papers is causing more ecological devastation than driving Hummers.

"This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests."

In the U.S. 98% of our toilet tissue is made from trees. And to exacerbate the problem, the sale of luxury brands that are infused with lotions has increased 40% in some markets according to the New York Times. We are definitely not heading in the right direction. I'm not sure why Americans are so addicted to luxury papers, except that perhaps we believe that the only alternative is to use sandpaper. I must admit that some of the papers I've used in Europe were pretty coarse and an ugly brown, but in this country we do have recycled, soft and safely bleached alternatives (see my post on "Eco-friendly budget bargains." I use them and I assure you they are gentle, white and civilized.

In addition to buying recycled toilet tissue, there are also things we can do to reduce the amount that we use. The folks at Current Configuration have put a lot of thought into the over/under debate and have determined that over is better if you want to use less (check out the diagrams - more thought than I would have put into it, but someone has to...)

Planet Green has also put together some tips about how to make your toilet tissue use more earth-friendly. They include buying bulk toilet tissue and purchasing more sheets/per roll to decrease waste, switching to one-ply and recycling your left-over toilet paper tubes.

Eco-friendly budget bargains

Well, as I continue my green journey into territory that is a bit more challenging for my budget, I am finding that there are still a few bargains to be had...who knew?? It takes a lot more digging for things like cleaning products and earth-friendly paper products but it is possible...mostly through the wonders of the Internet and shopping on line. I'm finding that in my neck of the woods I have very little selection (if I can find anything at all) when it comes to those new-fangled (sigh) eco-products...so I don't have a whole lot of choice unless I want to pay a bunch of green..here are a few places where I found some good deals:

Toilet tissue:  Toilet paper is one of those things I don't think I can do without (would be green but not clean...my husband thinks it's funny...) Anyway, the only option that I have around here for eco-friendly toilet tissue is Seventh Generation brand, which is a wonderful product, is 100% recycled paper (80% post-consumer), uses peroxide whitening rather than bleach and is pretty much like what I am using now in terms of softness and durability. The cost, however, is over a dollar a roll and way out my price range. After some searching, I found a great tissue made by Marcal Paper. It has all the qualities of Seventh Generation except that it has only 40% post-consumer paper...and the cost is considerably less. I found a deal at Restockit.com for a case of 48-500 sheet rolls (large rolls) for $34.90 and with a purchase over $45 there is free shipping. That's 72 cents for a large roll and is pretty close to what I pay for Charmin. Of course, I have to store a 6 months supply of toilet paper...we budget hunters do things...

Facial tissue:  Again, Marcal Paper seems to have the best deal on eco-friendly facial tissue. Restockit.com has the best deal again (beating out Amazon.com, Drugstore.com and Shoplet.com) with 30 boxes of 100 tissues for $28.94. That's 96 cents/box which is what I pay for Kleenex on sale. Combine your order with the toilet tissue and you'll have enough for free shipping.

Dishwasher detergent:  I have become frustrated trying to find a homemade recipe for dishwasher detergent that cleans the dishes and doesn't leave a film. I have admitted defeat and turned to Seventh Generation for help. Their product works well for me and is fairly cost effective at $4.00/45 oz. box at my local Hy-Vee. I did find a better deal at Amazon.com for $43.99/8 boxes in the much larger 75 oz. size. That's $5.49/75 oz. box and I get free Super Saver Shipping.

Household cleaners:  Probably the most economical and readily available eco-friendly cleaners are the Clorox Green Works brand cleaners (seems like an oxymoron doesn't it?) These products are made from plant derivatives and are pretty darn eco-friendly (for a more thorough analysis, read more at Treehugger.com.) They are often on sale around here for $3.00 a bottle.

UPDATE:  I found Marcal Paper products in our local Fairway grocery store today! And they are priced better than the usual brands...now I don't have to find storage for a year's worth of toilet paper...thank you Fairway!

Green paper products: navigating the maze

Personally, I have tried to eliminate as many paper products as I can from my families daily use. We now use cloth napkins and have stopped buying paper towels. It's a bit tougher for me to find an alternative for toilet tissue at this stage in my 21st century life. So how is a person to know what paper products are high in post-consumer paper products and are processed in a way that is better for the environment? Enter the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). They have put together an informative and easy-to-read guide to buying paper products like toilet tissue, tissues, napkins and paper towels. They even provide a pdf version so that the list is easily printable (on recycled/reused paper, of course) so that you can take it on your next shopping trip. In addition, the site offers some tips that you can do to help save forests that I'll reprint below.  (PS:  Please use the link below to the large paper manufacturer, Kimberly-Clark, and ask them to please start using more earth-friendly methods of making paper products.)

1. Buy paper products with recycled content -- especially post-consumer fibers.
Look for products that have a high recycled content, including high post-consumer content. Post-consumer fibers are recovered from paper that was previously used by consumers and would otherwise have been dumped into a landfill or an incinerator.

2. Buy paper products made with clean, safe processes.
Paper products are bleached to make them whiter and brighter, but chlorine used in many bleaching processes contributes to the formation of harmful chemicals that wind up in our air and water and are highly toxic to people and fish. Look for products labeled totally chlorine-free (TCF) or processed chlorine-free (PCF). In some cases, elemental chlorine-free (ECF) may be acceptable.

3. Tell tissue manufacturers to stop using virgin wood for throwaway products.
If a brand you buy for your home doesn't have any recycled content, contact the manufacturer (click here to send a message to paper giant Kimberly-Clark). Tell the company to use more recycled fibers, to avoid sourcing from ecologically valuable forests such as those in the Cumberland Plateau and Canadian boreal, and to ensure any virgin fibers used are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Saving forests also helps reduce global warming pollution.

Eco-resolutions for a New Year

2008 is finally over (some of us here in the flood zone rightfully feel that way) and alas, a new year with all of the hopes and potential of our baby cardinal friend here is upon us. Ready for each of us to write a new chapter by building on what we have learned and continuing to stretch outside our usual sphere of complacency and make a difference in the world around us.

I think that it helps to take a little time at the first of each year to look back on our accomplishments before we beat ourselves up over the resolutions that we didn't keep in the previous year. Last year, I recorded my resolutions for the year in my calendar and I found that I actually reached many of my goals and made good headway on the rest. Way cool. I also discovered after reviewing the contents of my blog that I've also made some real changes in my lifestyle that have moved me further toward a more healthy and earth-friendly existence. I didn't expect to make as much progress this quickly when I started my journey... The more that I research and learn about the condition of our planet and how my everyday life contributes to the pollution that is causing climate change and species extinction, the more urgency I have to continue to make changes and educate others to do the same. So, I'm making my green resolutions for 2009 and you'll read about them in the coming months as I work to reduce my impact on this neck of the woods. Happiest of New Years to you!

Bleach, dioxins and your morning cup of joe...

As a follow-up to my bleach episode, I thought I'd pass along some information that I learned while I was investigating bleach...and I can't believe that I didn't know this before. I learned that not only is wasting paper bad because it uses trees and destroys the rain forest (which is what we hear about, right?) it also is bad for the environment because the bleaching process produces a family of 75 dangerous chemicals collectively referred to as dioxin. It is a carcinogen and hormone disruptor, and is among the "dirty dozen" chemicals targeted for elimination in the 2001 Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Dioxin is formed when chlorine reacts with carbon-containing organic matter. Some studies suggest that chemicals like dioxin may cause miscarriages, birth defects, and bladder and rectal cancers.  What makes it doubly awful is that the body stores dioxin so that it accumulates making even small exposures add up in a lifetime to dangerous levels... Take for example the lowly bleached coffee filter (yes, if your filter is white, then it's bleached.) Anywhere from 40 to 70 percent of the residual dioxin in bleached coffee filters can end up in brewed coffee and WE DRINK IT. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that the exposure to dioxin from bleached coffee filters alone is enough to exceed the lifetime “acceptable” limit of dioxin (there really is no “safe” level).

Ways to Healthier Coffee

Yes, there are ways to stop your exposure to dioxin in your coffee without crunching on grounds in your cup...

1. Unbleached coffee filters are available at my local Hy-Vee here in the Midwest and are probably available in your location or can be purchased on line. I found a package of 100 filters for $1.45 which I thought was reasonable...and certainly meets my most stringent cost/benefit analysis and can be composted into your garden with the grounds after use.
2. My coffee maker also comes with a wire basket that can be used as a filter rather than the disposable kind. It's not as convenient and is a bit messy to clean up, but it works fine and contains no dioxin.
3. Several years ago I was introduced to coffee in a French Press carafe in a Minneapolis restaurant and fell in love with the taste. It is a labor of love to boil the water, mix the grounds with the water and then wait for 10 minutes before pressing out the grounds, but it can be worth the wait.

Warning:  If you are opting for the last two options, you should be aware that studies have shown that excessive consumption of this coffee type can lead to higher levels of "bad" cholesterol, low-density-lipoprotein, a risk factor for heart disease. Paper filters, while not tree-friendly, do absorb two cholesterol-boosting chemicals, cafestol and kahweol, that pass through the mesh coffee filters of French Press carafes.

Ix-nay the each-blay

I nearly killed myself last week...or at least I made myself super sick by not listening to my own green instincts. Believe me, there is still at lot to learn after you turn fifty. I have a problem with molds growing on the window sills in my house. We live in the woods so we have a lot of shade and moisture tends to build up on the window sills in the winter...a perfect place for the fuzzy critters to grow and thrive. Wanting to kill the buggers DEAD, I decided to use a bleach solution. I opened all the windows in the room and sprayed away. I killed the mold alright, and I burned every mucous membrane in my sinuses and lungs. I've been coughing for a week and my sinuses and face swelled like a balloon. I've always known I was particularly sensitive to bleach...so now I'm on a mission to remove as much of it from my world as possible. I had no idea that chlorine was hiding in so many places in my home. I've bought a water filter for my drinking water and am looking for a shower filter. Chlorine is easily absorbed through the skin. I also found out that many dishwasher detergents release chlorine into the air of your home during the wash cycle...ya know that hot air that comes out of the dishwasher...well it could be pumping chlorine gas into your kitchen, too! Add to that bleached paper products (like coffee filters...augh!) and toilet paper. It's everywhere!

Well, I've stopped coughing but I'm sure not going to forget this lesson anytime soon. Hopefully, I'll remember that being green is as much about taking care of my health and the health of my family as it is about being kind to the planet. Oh, and the mold? Spray on a solution of Tea Tree Oil and water, wait a few minutes and then wipe clean...no mold and breathing easy.

For more information about removing bleach from your home, check out this article by Annie B Bond.

Green clothing...can I really get into this?

I'm not sure that I can really get into the "green clothing" thing. I just feel like there are too many unknowns. How can I know from where I sit in Cedar Rapids, Iowa how the fibers are grown and harvested (that is if they are natural fibers) and then how the fabric is treated in order to give it the color and character that I am looking for? How can I know if the manufacturer's claims of organically grown fibers and environmentally friendly dyes are true? So, I've taken my pragmatic, mid-western stab at this topic that I believe will help make a difference until I can get more information to make better choices. Below is my "Green Clothing Clause":

• The clothes that I already own are the greenest clothes around. They already exist, they don't require harvesting, chemicals, dyes or manufacturing. So I've committed to keeping (and wearing!) clothing that is still in good shape and fit me...

• I will keep my creative juices flowing and try to stay in fashion by re-purposing clothing that is out of style for other uses. This can include other household cloth items as well. I've made shopping bags out of pillow shams, purses out of old coats and reused buttons and other accessories. If you are stumped for ideas, try inviting friends over and have them bring the clothes they want to recycle (this works best if your friends are also strapped for cash and a little crafty.) Then you'll have a lot of heads for brainstorming and more fabrics and accessories to work with.

• When it is time to get rid of clothing, I will recycle it...either to a consignment store (if I think I can make a couple of bucks) or a store like Goodwill or Salvation Army. If the clothing is beyond wearing, then I'll recycle it into rags for cleaning in the garage and washing up after gardening.

• I've stopped buying items that need to be dry cleaned. The chemicals are bad for the people at the cleaners, the environment and me...there is simply no upside. The good thing is that many items that require dry cleaning can be hand-washed and laid flat to dry...which leads me to one of my favorite topics, laundry (ugh...not really!)

• The way that we launder has a huge impact on the environment...I try to use only maximum loads and earth-friendly soaps (see my post on green laundry.) The soap that I made to wash my clothes works great, by the way, and the vinegar used in the rinse not only makes the clothes fluffy and soft, but also keeps the inside of my washer a whole lot cleaner than store-purchased fabric softeners.

For more information about greening up your closet, Planet Green has put together a list of website references to help you. Enjoy!

Something to sneeze at

The more I learn about global warming, the more I don't like it. In addition to extreme temperatures, nasty storms, floods and hurricanes, I now get to sneeze through it all. According to the Associated Press, the Department of Agriculture has just released a study that says that due to increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, ragweed pollen production per plant has doubled over the last 100 years and is expected to double its pollen production again in the next 100 years....geez. Hand me a hanky, will ya?