Homegrown Theory - Sustainable Sandwich Shop in Seattle

Our goal at Homegrown is not only to create sandwiches out of sustainable ingredients but also to make sandwich creation sustainable itself.

This goes beyond using fresh, sustainable ingredients in our gourmet sandwiches, salads and soups. Homegrown strives for sustainability as a local business through the green materials we print and serve on, to our rejection of bottled water, to our 100% compostable and recyclable product.

We consider our environmental impact for every ingredient choice, often between two competing theories: eating organic and eating local.

Ask Umbra’s video advice on beating the heat | Grist

OK, so it’s hotter than a firefighter eating hot wings out there. If you can’t take the heat, cool hunter Umbra Fisk is on the case. She advises on how to beat the heat while being kind to your wallet and the planet — and weighs in on the eternal fan vs. AC dilemma. Fan-tastic!

Grading Senate websites reveals a lack of transparency on climate and energy | Grist

Grist got to wondering, “Can voters in all 50 states go online and easily find out what a senator thinks about climate change and energy policy.

So long, Sarah! | Grist

The U.S. Postal Service screwed up and delivered a farewell card to us that was clearly intended for Sarah Palin, the now ex-governor of Alaska. We didn’t realize the error before we had opened it, scanned it, and published it here for your reading pleasure. An honest mistake, really…

Center for Biological Diversity

The Weekly e-newsletter of the Center for Biological Diversity

No 470, July 23, 2009

Fuse | Sign the OPEN LETTER to Senators Murray and Cantwell asking them to strengthen the clean energy bill!

Powerful oil and coal interests have had a stranglehold on our energy policy, demanding loopholes, bailouts, and giveaways from taxpayers. They've won concessions in the energy bill to preserve their profits and weaken the bill's ability to deliver on the full promise of clean energy jobs.

We can strengthen and improve this bill, if progressive leaders in Congress will join our fight.

Fuse | Contribute

This morning, we heard that the Secretary of State's office has a special appointment this Saturday with the right-wing forces to submit their signatures to attempt to qualify Referendum 71.

Larry Stickney, who is spearheading the referendum to repeal the rights of committed same-sex couples (profiled in the video), said Monday he didn't have an estimate on the number of signatures gathered so far, but "we think it's going to be very, very close."

For the past two months thousands of Washingtonians have stood up against bigotry by pulling together to protect Washington's gay and lesbian families and lay the groundwork for a statewide movement to support equality for all families whether or not the referendum qualifies for the November ballot. More than 40,000 individuals, 110 groups and 75 clergy and congregations have pledged to decline to sign Referendum 71. When its this close every new supporter matters and we can't thank you enough.

We are not done yet! We have until Saturday morning to make sure the opposition to equality does not gather enough signatures. We can do this by spreading our stories of love and compassion.

Fuse and our partners at Washington Families Standing Together need your help to air online advertisements telling the story of Washington families that will be affected by Referendum 71. We need your help to get the message out that if Referendum 71 qualifies, it is an attack on families. We don't have much time but we know this could come down to just a few signatures.

No matter what happens with the opposition, we need to give it our all this week- including a fiery paid media campaign to compete with the lies and bigotry being spread by Referendum 71 supporters!

Ask Umbra%u2019s video advice on saving money (and water) in the toilet | Grist

Toilets. We all use them. But did you know you could be flushing your money away — not to mention excessive amounts of water? The average household flushes 1,500 gallons a month. You can cut that amount by a third, saving cash, water, and your dignity — all for under $3. Umbra lifts the lid and leads the way.

The 15 most sustainable U.S. cities | Grist

Seattle is the most sustainable big city in the nation, according to a list compiled by Smarter Cities, an NRDC project that looks at the progress American cities are making toward going green. Not surprisingly, San Francisco and Portland are the runners-up.

Using data from the EPA and the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as some voluntary survey responses from city governments, the project identified the top 15 large, medium, and small cities according to 10 different environmental criteria, from air quality to recycling to transportation.

Utah researchers link 'heart healthy' diet, brain function - Salt Lake Tribune

Notice that the diet they list does not include any meat. It's not surprising though that what is good for the heart is also good for the brain, since really, all our systems are really geared towards a happy brain:

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Utah researchers have found that people who follow a "heart healthy" diet also experience less cognitive decline as they age.

The study by researchers with the Cache County Study on Memory, Health and Aging found that participants who closely followed a DASH diet -- proven to lower blood pressure -- also scored higher on cognitive tests and had less mental decline.

Ron Munger, director of USU's Center for Epidemiologic Studies, presented the results Wednesday at the 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease, being held in Vienna, Austria. It is sponsored by the Alzheimer's Association. More than 3,000 researchers from around the world are attending the conference, considered the premiere gathering for those who study the disease.

There are now more than 26 million people living with dementia around the world, according to the association.

The Utah study is the first to look at associations between a DASH diet and cognitive ability. The DASH diet is high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and low-fat dairy foods.

Goals: Featured Objectives - Sierra Club

For more than a century, we have depended on fossil fuels to run our factories, power our cars and trucks, and heat and cool our homes. Now we are facing the consequences. Six of the last eight years were the hottest on record. Polar ice and glaciers are disappearing, sea levels are rising, coral reefs are suffering, plant and animal species are disappearing. And the wilderness areas and wildlife the Sierra Club has worked so effectively to protect for more than a century are being threatened and lost.

But we have the means to reverse global warming and create a clean, renewable energy future. Working with some of the world's top climate scientists, engineers and energy experts, the Sierra Club has developed a Climate Recovery Agenda --a set of initiatives that will help cut carbon emissions 80% by 2050, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, create a clean energy economy and protect our natural heritage, communities and country from the consequences of global warming.

Top Chef Announces Sixth Season With Vegan Guest Natalie Portman // ecorazzi.com :: the latest in green gossip

While I’m still ril, ril angry with Padma “Sell Out” Lakshmi for doing those atrocious Hardee’s/Carl’s Jr. commercials, I still got super excited when Top Chef Season 6 was announced this morning.

True, I can’t eat a damn thing they make (and I’m pretty much morally against it all), but I still find myself glued to the tube envisioning how I will veganize each and every creation. But wait! Will they veganize it for me this year?

While scrolling through the exciting list of guests, I couldn’t help but notice the name “Natalie Portman.

Monsanto’s man Taylor returns to FDA in food-czar role | Grist

This seems like really bad news to me. Although some have pegged him as "reformed" and that he is now a food watchdog, I don't think I'd ever trust someone who worked for Monsanto. Perhaps a letter writing campaign should follow urging Obama to get rid of him. Or perhaps we should see what kind of a job he does before we judge him. Either way, our food supply may be affected by this choice.

~R
_______________________

In a Tuesday afternoon press release, the FDA announced that Michael Taylor, a former Monsanto executive, had joined the agency as “senior advisor to the commissioner.” If the title is vague, the portfolio (pasted from the press release) is substantial—a kind of food czar of the Food and Drug Administration:

Dumpster Diving | ReadyMade Magazine

Now that summer has finally arrived after a very April-like June, my thoughts have turned to water. In my book, there’s nothing like a dip in the ocean but when that’s not a possibility there’s almost always a pool somewhere nearby. But what about when that’s not the case? I was mulling this over last week when my friend, Steve Macdonald of Ramblin’ Worker, dropped me a line to tell me about some pool parties he had heard about in Brooklyn that he thought I might be interested in checking out.

Ask Attorney General Holder to Appoint a Special Prosecutor - Common Cause

Over the weekend, news surfaced that former Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to withhold information from Congress about a secret spying program. This came in the wake of a report Friday that showed the Bush Administration ran an “unprecedented” surveillance system that went far beyond warrantless wiretapping.

These are just more examples of the Bush Administration's disrespect for the checks and balances established by our Constitution and for the rule of law. We cannot and will not turn a blind eye to these transgressions.

Urge Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint a special prosecutor with a wide mandate to investigate Bush Administration abuses of power!

Fuse | Thanks for Urging Sen. Cantwell to Push Real Health Reform

Dear Senator Cantwell;

President Obama has promised America that we will see comprehensive health care reform in 2009 – a plan that reduces the exorbitant cost of insurance, guarantees a choice of options and doctors and ensures quality, affordable care for every citizen.

A central part of the President’s plan is a public health insurance option that can compete with private insurers to lower costs and keep the insurance industry honest. We urge you to support the President’s plan, including a public insurance option. As member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, we know your vote is critical on this issue. A real public insurance plan is:

• Available to everyone nationwide, with the government bearing risk.

• Big enough to compete with insurers.
  

• Powerful enough to get good rates from providers but with fair payments that attract broad participation.

• Innovative enough to change care delivery and put the right incentives in the system.

• Transparent and accountable.

• Playing on a level playing field with other plans.

• Able to remedy disparities in access to care for underserved communities.

Please, support lasting health care reform - a plan that includes a public option. Thank you.

Tell your senators: Monsanto can't feed the world

Last year's food riots in Haiti, India, Indonesia and elsewhere sounded the alarm bell for a painful level of global hunger that is only going to increase with a growing population and a changing climate. In a promising move, the G8 -- a group of the world's eight wealthiest nations -- has just announced a shift away from providing direct food aid to developing countries and towards helping farmers abroad produce and distribute their own food.

Inside PETA's Unhappy Meal | McCruelty.com

McDonald's markets its food to children by packaging it in brightly colored boxes with enclosed toys, but most kids would probably lose their lunch if they knew about the animal suffering that goes into the company's "Happy Meals." That's why PETA created Unhappy Meals to make sure that families know that the lives of the chickens who were killed for those McNuggets were anything but happy.

PETA's spoof of a McDonald's chicken sandwich box features the image of a knife-wielding "Ronald McDonald," along with pictures of birds who have been mutilated and scalded alive and information about controlled-atmosphere killing (CAK), the less cruel method of slaughter that PETA is asking McDonald's to adopt.

Take Action: Protect Yellowstone's Wild Buffalo

Urge the chief of the Forest Service to end the policy of hazing and killing buffalo.

Chief Thomas Tidwell, Forest Service

Subject:

Dear Chief Tidwell,

I urge you to provide more year-round habitat in the State of Montana for Yellowstone National Park's buffalo. I am dismayed by policies that have produced years and years of needless hazing, slaughter and unnatural confinement of buffalo to Yellowstone. The time for change is now.

As the new head of the Forest Service -- one of five agencies that manage Yellowstone's buffalo under the Interagency Bison Management Plan -- you are in a unique position to ensure a better future for Yellowstone's buffalo.

While millions of wild buffalo once roamed North America, the Yellowstone herd is now down to 3,000 animals -- the only continuously wild, free-roaming herd in America. In the spring, some of these buffalo leave snow-covered Yellowstone in search of fresh forage at lower elevations in Montana or to give birth.

But they are, with few exceptions, not welcome in Montana outside the Park. The justification for this intolerance is supposedly concern that wild buffalo may spread brucellosis to domestic cattle in Montana, but there has never been a documented case of transmission of brucellosis from buffalo to cattle in the wild.

Federal and state agencies have cruelly hazed buffalo back into Yellowstone with helicopters, ATVs, snowmobiles and horses. Just last year, more than 1,600 of Yellowstone's buffalo were killed.

This past spring, hundreds of buffalo -- including a newborn calf with a broken leg -- were hazed back into the Park. And the Montana Department of Livestock wasted time and taxpayer dollars hazing buffalo off Horse Butte even though Horse Butte is cattle-free year-round.

Enough is enough, Chief Tidwell.

Yellowstone's buffalo are an iconic symbol of America. It's time to start protecting them instead of letting them be hazed and killed on Forest Service lands.

Please designate suitable Forest Service land outside the Park -- like Horse Butte -- as year-round buffalo habitat. Let the buffalo roam free outside Yellowstone once again!

Speak Up for a Strong Endangered Species Act Today

Center for Biological Diversity

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is currently accepting comments on potential changes to regulations governing implementation of a key provision of the Endangered Species Act. The affected provision requires federal agencies to consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife or National Marine Fisheries Services to ensure their actions don't jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species or harm their critical habitat.

Please submit comments to Secretary Salazar expressing support for a strong Endangered Species Act and opposing any changes to the regulations that reduce consultation, narrow the circumstances under which federal agencies must consult, or create specific exemptions for greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants.

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Traitor Joe's | Greenpeace

Hi everyone, I'm Traitor Joe. Welcome to my one-stop-shop for ocean destruction. Join me for a quick trip through my website.

Can you see through the green haze I have used to mask the truth about my seafood purchases? You see, I have a bad habit of greenwashing. Instead of telling you how I am destroying the oceans, I bend the truth and tell you that I do everything "green" and look out for the well being of the Earth. But, if you dig a little deeper (and I hope you won't) you will see that I have a treasure chest (or freezer case) full of red list seafood. Oops. How did that get in my store?

Seattle sets new city record for recycling

This is great news. Now if we could set equally aggressive goals for reducing and reuse. You know the whole recycling thing becomes less important if we reduce and reuse more often. One way is to limit the amount of packaging we consume. Shop at grocery stores that offer bulk goods and bring your own bags and containers. Whole Foods has this as well as PCC here in the PNW. I imagine that country-wide there are at least some options.

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SEATTLE -- The city of Seattle hit a new record for recycling in 2008, with half of its residential and commercial waste being recycled or composted rather than going to a landfill.

The city has a goal to recycle or compost 60 percent of its waste by 2012.

Seattle's 50-percent recycling rate is higher than the national average of about 32 percent.

In 2008, the city reduced the amount of garbage it ships to a landfill in Arlington, Ore. by 40,000 tons.

The city has made it easier for residents to recycle and compost by expanding the items it picks up and collecting food and yard waste on a weekly basis.

Nuclear weapons: Global Zero is coming

A nuclear weapons proliferation crisis is rapidly building in North Korea, Iran and beyond.

But out of the spotlight, Global Zero, a new alliance of prominent diplomats, military and civic leaders, is beginning to persuade the nuclear powers that there is only one answer to solve this crisis: the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

Presidents Obama and Medvedev are meeting next week. Let's call on them to put their historic pledge into action and lead global efforts to achieve a nuclear free world. Sign the declaration below and help build a massive citizen call to action. Global Zero leaders will deliver it directly to the Presidents of the US and Russia.

YouTube - Bare essentials of safety from Air New Zealand

Excite News - Mississippi's still fattest but Alabama closing in

Ugh....

WASHINGTON (AP) - Mississippi's still king of cellulite, but an ominous tide is rolling toward the Medicare doctors in neighboring Alabama: obese baby boomers.

It's time for the nation's annual obesity rankings and, outside of fairly lean Colorado, there's little good news. Obesity rates among adults rose in 23 states over the past year and didn't decline anywhere, says a new report from the Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

And while the nation has long been bracing for a surge in Medicare as the boomers start turning 65, the new report makes clear that fat, not just age, will fuel much of those bills. In every state, the rate of obesity is higher among 55- to 64-year-olds - the oldest boomers - than among today's 65-and-beyond.

That translates into a coming jump of obese Medicare patients that ranges from 5.2 percent in New York to a high of 16.3 percent in Alabama, the report concluded. In Alabama, nearly 39 percent of the oldest boomers are obese.

Warren Buffett repeats GOP talking points on energy plan | Grist

Omaha zillionaire Warren Buffett repeated his criticism of cap-and-trade emissions regulation on Wednesday, telling CNBC the plan being pushed by Democrats amounts to “a huge tax” and a “fairly regressive tax” that’s going to burden poor consumers in particular.

“If we buy permits, essentially, at our utilities, that goes right into the bills of the utility customers and an awful lot of people in Iowa, in Oregon, and Utah, and places where we are, very poor people are going to pay a lot more money for electricity,” said Buffett, who runs the holding company Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (Transcript.)

“Regressive” is the opposite of the conclusion reached by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

The CBO’s study found Waxman-Markey would cost the average household $175 a year by 2020, while the lowest-earning fifth of households would see average savings of $40 a year. That’s the opposite of regressive.

EPA’s analysis found household electricity and natural gas spending would be reduced by 7 percent in 2020 because of the energy efficiency and consumer protection provisions of the legislation. (Buffett, like so many others, seems interested only in the cap-and-trade portion of Waxman-Markey, not its other three titles.)

IBM places big bet on lithium-air batteries | Grist

Back in the day when I had to convince East Coast editors that green tech wasn’t some crunchy California fad but Big Business, I often cited IBM as Exhibit A that Fortune 500 companies saw a lot of green to be made in green.

Over the past several years, Big Blue has been recycling and repurposing a panoply of technologies to create a portfolio of environmental services—everything from a traffic congestion pricing system in Stockholm to a smart water and electricity grid for Malta.

I recently ran into C. Spike Narayan, manager of science and technology at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, at one of those green business dinner gatherings held with some frequency at various upscale San Francisco restaurants. He mentioned that his Silicon Valley lab was working on a new battery technology with the potential to extend the range of electric cars to more than 400 miles per charge and make it possible to use the batteries to store electricity generated by solar power plants and wind farms.