Target Gives Discount for Bringing Own Bags Now

I am probably the last one to realize this, but I discovered last week that Target will take five cents off your bill for reusable bag you use at the check out line. I don't buy a whole lot of groceries there, but sometimes I will grab one or two things when we go to pick up prescriptions. I definitely plan on taking advantage of this in the future. Five cents isn't much, but considering how often I shop at Target, it'll add up for me. It's a great incentive to use the store more often.

Why is this a big deal? Aside from the environmental impact of not throwing away tons of new bags every year, bags cost stores money. When you bring your own, they save money. Which is fine, but I'm doing this for the baby sea otters, not for the grocery store's bottom line. So it's nice to see a company recognize that and pass that savings on to me.

Any other stores doing bag discounts? Let me know and I'll make a list of them on the blog.

Like my poorly lit iPhone pictures? I'm on Flickr now!  And you can like me on Facebook! 

Amazing Chipotle Ad

Have you seen this yet? It's been making the rounds on my social media for a couple days now. Here, I'll let you watch.

Stunning, right? Those poor animals... I haven't eaten at Chipotle in years (I don't need any more 1,000 calorie burritos in my life, thank you), but in general I like their commitment to good, fast, and humanely raised food. These things aren't mutually exclusive and can even be profitable on a large scale. So well done, Chipotle. Well done.  

Video of the Week: Eggs!

So eggs have been in the news quite a bit lately, what with the salmonella recall and all. Food borne illness is a serious problem in our day and age. With so much of our food now being produced in large, centralized factory farms and distributed nationwide, one farm's sloppy practices can mean serious illness for Americans all over the country.  One of the ways you can protect yourself is to never consume raw or undercooked eggs. But where's the fun in that?

Another way you can protect yourself is by purchasing your eggs from a small producer that you know and trust. This is definitely not an option for everyone. These eggs are harder to find and usually at least  twice as expensive. Small flocks are less likely to be contaminated with salmonella. I buy farm fresh eggs when I can from different sellers at the Riverside Farmer's Market in Roswell. So far, I haven't had a bad egg from any of the sellers.

And of course, if you live in a place that allows it, you can always try your hand at raising your own laying hens.  You'll have to check your local laws about it. And please, think of your neighbors. Chickens can be noisy and smelly. Your neighbors might not appreciate your feathered friends.

And this isn't even getting into the differences between cage free, humanely raised, organic, or omega-3 enhanced eggs, which is a discussion for another time.

There are other benefits to farm raised eggs, which are covered pretty well in today's video link from Simply: Home Cooking. Liza posts a great run down of fresh egg options in her city (Ann Arbor, MI) and gives us a great video that vividly illustrates the differences between conventionally produced eggs and the ones you get from a farmer. So click through to the article and enjoy the video.

I am of the opinion...

That when I bring my own bags to a grocery store, I should get a discount. Not a huge discount. No more than the cost of the bags they would have used to bag my groceries. But I'm saving them money when I bring my own bags, in addition to making less waste. And I'd like to be rewarded for my extra efforts. I'm always seeing people say that we should let market forces find us the best solution to our problems. So why not a monetary incentive to bring your own bags?

Some stores already have incentives in place. IKEA started charging for bags a few years ago. Trader Joes puts your name in a drawing for free groceries. Even more recently, Whole Foods stopped offering thin plastic bags and now only provides reusable bags you buy at the check out line. I still do the majority of my grocery shopping at Publix, but I'd like to see them shave a few cents off my grocery bill for bringing my own bags each week.

A real update coming soon, I promise...

In the mean time, one of my friends, who is a local food producer herself, forwarded this me. It also went out on the Moore's Family Farm mailing list this week as well. If you're passionate about locally produced, non-industry food, it would be a good idea to read up on this issue and make your opinion known to your representative. The representative for the 30076 ZIP code is Tom Price.

I rarely send political messages, but there’s a bill that went to the floor of the house today that will directly affect Athens Locally Grown, to the point of possibly making us stop what we do. -eric

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!
URGE THEM TO SUPPORT THE
KAPTUR-FARR FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL

There is no question: our food system needs to be safer. But Congress is currently debating food safety legislation (Food Safety Enhancement Act – H.R. 2749) that could hinder beginning, sustainable, and organic farmers’ access to markets, require expensive fees, and lead to the dismantling of important conservation practices and wildlife habitat.

HR 2749 is scheduled to go to the floor of the House TODAY under a suspension vote, which means limited debate and no amendments, but a requirement for a two-thirds majority for passage. With negotiations still underway, however, it seems reasonably likely that a vote could be pushed to Thursday.

Representatives Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Sam Farr (CA-17), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Peter Welch (VT-at large), Chellie Pingree (ME-1) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) last week submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee with specific proposed changes to HR 2749 that addresses many of the concerns raised by the sustainable and organic agriculture community.

At the same time, the House Agriculture Committee majority concluded negotiations with the sponsors of HR 2749 that secured one of the changes proposed in the Kaptur-Farr et al request – namely, a greater role for USDA in all the farm-related portions of the bill. That was helpful as far as it went, but it did not directly address other critical concerns.

It is important that you call your Representative TODAY and ask them to join the effort to protect small and mid-sized family farmers, the environment, and consumer choice by supporting the provisions in the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY!

It’s easy to call. Please call or fax your Representative’s office and ask to speak with the aide that works on agriculture. If you don’t know your Representative’s name, please click here http://www.house.gov and enter your zip code in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Representative’s office: 202-224-3121.

The message is simple. “I am a constituent of Representative___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to support the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. I am also asking him/her to vote against HR 2749 unless the proposals included in the Kaptur-Farr letter are included in the final bill.”

Why can't every day be a vacation?

In my readings today, I found this old article from the AJC on buying a second home in Serenbe. Serenbe, for those of you from out of town, is a sustainable community developed just south of Atlanta. The community is centered around an organic farm, that feeds the residents and the excess is sold off at area farmers markets. It's a model community in many ways.

So here's my question: Why is this a vacation spot?

A very good critique of the farm to table movement is that it's elitest. "Oh sure, it's easy to have an organice vegetable garden, Mrs. Obama. You have an army of gardeners to take care of it for you." That kind of thing. And sure, good fresh food and living sustainably takes a bit more thought, planning and effort than just microwaving yourself a corndog for dinner, but not so much that it should be considered an occasional effort.

There's just something about the idea of buying a second home in a sustainable community that strikes me as Just Not Getting It.

Will Obama Change Food Policy?

Not only does he seem to possess a more-sophisticated palate than some of his recent predecessors, but he will also take office in an age when organic food is mainstream, cooking competitions are among the top-rated TV shows and books calling for an overhaul in the American food system are best sellers.

Is a New Food Policy on Obama's List?

The New York Times explores what changes, if any, Obama might make to our agricultural policies, and towards food in general. I think it's safe to say, this is an area he definitely lead by example.

"Don't ask where hotdogs come from, kid"

One of the things I always find fascinating is the amount of willful ignorance that goes into our industrialized food system. It's not that we don't know what's in our food, it's that we purposefully don't ask. I have to make myself not think about what I know about the conditions farm animals are raised in to be able to eat dinner.

My husband was surprised the other day when I mentioned that fast food hamburgers don't come from beef cattle. They come from dairy cattle that's stopped producing milk. I don't know why this horrified him so, but it did. It started a conversation about practices in the meat industry that are even worse, such as feeding the cows ground up bone meal from other cows, de-beaking chickens so they don't peak each other to death in crowded cages, etc. The horrors go on, but I won't.

Going to Florida, BRB

So we're jaunting down to the Florida Panhandle for a few days tomorrow. I plan to gorge myself silly on seafood and try not to think about whether it was sustainably harvested for once in my life. It's a sickness I have.

I'm also attempting to break my bottled water addiction this week. For the past six years or so, I've been buying cases of bottled water and refusing to drink anything else. Even having a filter installed in our kitchen hasn't made me give it up. I can taste the difference.

But I need to give this stuff up, so I'm going to do it. I've got a cute little travel mug one of my students gave me as an end of year present and I'm trying to make myself fill it up when I get thirsty, instead of cracking up a bottle. I've also stocked up on Crystal Light to add to the water in Florida, since it tastes like a nasty, nasty swamp.

I bought a craaaazy amount of books for the trip too, more than I'll be able to read most likely. Two Jim Butcher novels, since I got hooked on The Dresden Files recently. The Curios Case of the Dog in the Nightime. Some historical trivia book about why the US states have such weird borders. And Micheal Pollan's two books, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food.

For snacks on the trip down, I've made a chocolate chip banana bread. It's very, very good. I had to substitute Splenda for real sugar though since I ran out the other day. I only keep Splenda in the house for those rare occasions I need to bake some my dad (who is diabetic) will eat. But it still turned out pretty good. That may be because I didn't have any chocolate chips, so I was forced- Forced, I tell you! to chop up some high quality dark chocolate that I happened to have lying around and use that for chips.

I will survive this somehow.

There are starving people in Africa, you know

New Scientist Magazine reports today:

"The corn required to fill an SUV tank with bioethanol just once could feed someone in Africa for a year."

A subscription is required to read the complete article.

Pyrex

Last week, we ordered a set of Pyrex containers from amazon. I don't know how it is in your house, but I assume it's like ours. We're constantly buying resealable plastic containers, and losing them. We got a set of Rubbermaid containers for a wedding present five years ago, and have lost everything but one container and two lids. Most of our containers now are of the Gladware variety.

Reusable containers, especially small ones are a big deal for me. I always try to pack a waste free lunch to take to school with me. So if I can't find enough containers to pack my lunch in, I get rather cranky. This is widely considered to be a bad thing.

The Pyrex containers are very pretty. Once I had them out of the box, I realized that they have a slight blue tint to the glass. None of my other Pyrex has this, so I assume it's something new. Even the small ones seem too heavy and bulky to fit in my Vera Bradley lunchbox (Designer lunchboxes? Where did I wrong in life?) I plan to use them mainly at home, to free up the lighter plastic containers for me to tote back and forth. I also like them, because I think my husband will be less likely to look at the dirt containers and say "Screw it." and throw them out rather than clean them out for me.

There's been considerable recently about plastic containers leaching chemicals into food. I'm not one hundred percent sold on that one yet. However, if I can reduce a possible health risk and use a pretty, reusable container, why not?

Garden Pictures

I came home from work a little early today, so I did some work in my extremely modest kitchen garden that I'd been putting off. I had the idea of gardening this summer a few months ago. It'll be good exercise for me in the summers and it'll make my yard more attractive than the overgrown weedy hell we've been living with for several years. It's a small start, but I'm new at this. I'm sure it will get bigger and better as I learn how to maintain it.



My first tomatoes! This plant was the first to show fruit, but now all three have tiny green buds dangling from their vines.



My Thai basil. I only learned that I needed to pull the blossoms off AFTER a good portion of the stems had gone woody. I saved most of it from going to seed though and I can still harvest from it.



The full view of my tiny garden. Three tomato plants, a basil ans a parsley. The marigolds are for pest control. I'm shooting for as organic a garden as possible. Which means I'll have to learn decent composting techniques soon.



And my poor parsley plant, which has never done well. I've only harvested from it once, because it just seems cruel to rip it's leaves off. I think it's getting too much sun.

Isn't it pretty?

I'm not the only one...

The Slow Cook blogged today about ethanol and it's contribution to rising food prices. Again, much more eloquent and better researched than anything I could write on this topic.

"Mounting food crises around the globe destabilized governments and began to look more and more like a cruel joke perpetrated by the rich northern hemisphere against its poorer brethren in the south..."

Biofuel

You know, I had a gut reaction to biofuel a few years ago. Everyone was jumping on the ethanol bandwagon, claiming that corn based fuel will save us all. But it seemed so wrong. We EAT corn. Millions of people don't have enough to eat. Why would we put FOOD in our cars? Wouldn't it be easier to, you know, drive a little less?

According to a recent article in TIME, I'm right. "...biofuels pit the 800 million people with cars against the 800 million people with hunger problems."

We've all experienced the rising costs of fuel the last few years. And now we're seeing a rise in the cost of food. These things are not unrelated.